Slowly, Danny woke up, prying his eyes open, he tried to remember what happened the day before. As the memories of yesterday flooded back to him, he groaned. He moved to get up, but found that Elle was still curled up against his chest. He tried moving as slowly as possible to keep from waking the small thirteen year old, but eventually just decided to phase through her grip.
As he walked back towards the class, he saw that all the humans were still asleep. He grinned, knowing he had probably another hour before they started to wake up. He walked back to where Elle was sleeping and noticed her starting to stir.
"Morning, Elle." He greeted as the small girl sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"Hey, Danny." She groaned back, still groggy from sleep.
"The humans are still asleep, I'd say we've got another hour 'til they wake up, wanna come for a fly?" Danny asked.
Elle's eyes lit up. "Sure!" She quickly jumped up and changed to ghost form, the two blue-white rings of energy sweeping over her body, and floated eagerly in front of Danny as he transformed as well. Raven black became stark white, a white shirt and blue jeans became a black and white hazmat suit, and red Converses became white boots.
The two monochrome ghosts launched into the air, legs forming spectral tails as they gained speed.
"Race you to that island!" Danny said to the smaller Phantom, pointing to a large mass of rock.
"Oh, you're on!" Elle yelled.
"On three then. One. Two. Three!" The two shot off at top speed, neck and neck the whole way.
The two phantoms reached the island at the exact same time. "I win!" Yelled Elle.
"Oh, no way, I won." Danny said.
"You are way wrong on that, buddy. I won." Elle said snarkily.
"Fine, you win." Danny held his hands up in a placating gesture.
"You know it."
The pair started to fly back to the island that the class was on. Once they returned, Danny landed and reverted back to human form.
Valerie gasped. She got up when her sensors started beeping, a familiar ecto-signature showing on her watch. Phantoms ecto-signature. She had started sneaking around her sleeping classmates when she saw Danielle and Phantom flying around. She had decided to wait until Phantom and Danielle got closer before attacking him. Then he and Danielle landed and rings just like Danielle's and Vlad's transformation rings appeared around his waist, leaving sweet, innocent Danny Fenton where evil, manipulating Danny Phantom had been. Danny's a halfa? Like Dani and Vlad?
Danny's head whipped around when he heard a gasp. His eyes locked with Valerie's and his stomach twisted. She saw. She saw and she knows.
"Val." Danny called out to her. She didn't react. "Val, please. Let me explain."
Valerie nodded slowly, releasing a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. Slowly, she walked towards Danny and Elle, ready to activate her suit at a moment's notice. She stopped five feet away from him.
"You're a halfa." She all but whispered it, though Danny heard it loud and clear.
He rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah."
"And you're Danny Phantom."
"Yeah."
It was then that the information hit her. "You! You destroyed my life! You and your stupid ghost dog!" She pulled an ecto-gun out and aimed it at him. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't shoot you!"
Danny held his hands up in surrender, backing away a few steps. "Just let me explain, Val, please." At her silence he continued. "When that thing at Axion Labs happened, I had only been a halfa for a few months. When Cujo came through the portal, I didn't know how to get him to stay in the Ghost Zone. Every time I sent him here he'd go back to the real world. I tried everything I could have at the time. I only managed to get him to leave once I figured out his obsession."
"What the hell does that have to do with you getting my dad fired?" Valerie asked.
"He wanted his squeaky toy." Danny stated matter-of-factly.
"Wha'?" Valerie's anger was dulled slightly by her confusion.
"Before they installed your dad's security system, the defences were much simpler. They had guard dogs. When they installed your dad's system, the dogs became obsolete." Valerie didn't like where Danny was going. "Cujo was just a puppy when they put him down, he only wanted his squeaky toy."
Valeries eyes widened slightly. "That's horrible… But it still doesn't explain why you kidnapped the Mayor or committed all those robberies." She accused.
Danny groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. "The Mayor was overshadowed by Walker, the warden of the Ghost Zone. I broke a few rules that he made up, and escaped his prison, so he wanted to turn Amity Park into my prison. He trapped me, not the other way around."
"And the robberies?" Valerie tempted.
Danny dropped his gaze. "There was this circus in town. Circus Gothica. The ringmaster, Freakshow, had this scepter that could control ghosts. I wasn't in control of my actions when that was happening. I'm just happy he didn't make me kill anyone." Danny thought back to Sam falling off the train and shivered.
The silence from Valerie made Danny nervous, and for a second he thought that maybe she left, but when he pulled his eyes away from his shoes to look at her, she was still there. With tears in her eyes.
"Valerie, are you okay?" He jumped forward slightly, before stopping a few feet closer than he was before.
The huntress eventually managed to choke out. "Oh, god, I shot you!" Her words were jumbled together. "Y-you never meant harm! You were innocent! Oh, oh my god, Danny, I was- I was going to torture you! I- I could have killed you!" Her voice broke at the end. "I'm so s- sorry Danny!"
Danny couldn't stand to see Valerie so broken up. He ran forward and enveloped her into a hug. "I forgive you Val, I just hope you can forgive me."
She pulled away to look into his eyes. "Why would I have to forgive you? I've been shooting at you for years. I broke up with you so that I could hunt you!"
"I lied to you, Val. For so long." Danny expressed his guilt.
"I was trying to kill you, of course you lied." Valerie stated.
"I guess we'll just agree to disagree." Danny said.
Valerie smirked, then wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Ugh, I'm a mess."
"Even stuck in the Ghost Zone, you girls are still pretty vain, huh?" Danny joked.
"Shut it, Fenton." Valerie playfully elbowed him in the side. It was at this moment that Elle realized it was safe for her to return to her cousin's side without being shot, and landed once again on Danny's shoulders, as she had most of the day before.
"Come on." Danny said, beginning to walk back to the rest of the class. Valerie followed quickly, and the two matched pace. They walked in a comfortable silence until they reached their sleeping classmates.
Tucker slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes. He stretched his arms over his head until he heard a satisfying *pop*. "Man, my everything hurts." He groaned as he put his glasses on.
"Good morning, sleeping beauty." Danny teased as he approached his friend.
"Hey, man, I got up before anyone else did. I am therefore exempt from sleeping beauty jokes." Tucker joked as he dug through his bag for a Pop-tart.
"We need to make those last for five days, Tuck. Don't eat more than one." Danny said. "Also, Valerie was up before you. Therefore you were not, in fact, up before anyone else."
"Wait, what?" Tucker looked up at Valerie. "I did not see you there."
"I could tell." Valerie said, a hint of a teasing tone in her voice.
"Tuck, I got some important news to drop on you." Danny said sternly, then his tone lightened. "But first, I dare you to wake up Sam." He smirked.
"Oh, no way man. There is no way in hell I'm waking her up again." Tucker was only half joking. "Last time I did that she hit me so hard I couldn't talk right for weeks. You wake her up."
"Now, why would I do that? Especially when she messed you up so bad." Danny said in mock surprise.
"How about a deal." Tucker was not messing around now. He noticed Danny perk up slightly at the word deal, and he knew he had this. "You wake up Sam, and I'll do your homework for a month."
Tucker could see bits of toxic green swirling in Danny's eyes. The african american knew that it was a cheap tactic, especially with Val here, but he couldn't help it. "Nope, not falling for it this time, Tuck." Danny crossed his arms and shook his head.
Tucker smirked. He stuck out his hand. "Two months."
"Tucker, stop being a beygxav. (I'm gonna leave you to figure that out.)" Elle glared from her perch on Danny's shoulders. "I'll wake her up." She floated over to the sleeping goth before either boy could warn her. Sam was not a morning person, and typically, anything or anyone that wakes her up meets death himself.
Elle shook Sam awake, and was rewarded with a half-hearted slap in the face. She smirked knowing what to do. She continued to shake Sam's shoulders, keeping everything but her hands intangible. Swatting the air around her, Sam realized that whoever was shaking her was intangible.
She grumpily sat up. She rubbed her fists over her eyes. "Alright Dann- Oh." She opened her eyes and realized that Elle woke her, not Danny. "What, gettin' tiny to do your dirty work, eh, Danny?" She jabbed, before plopping herself back onto the ground.
"So, uh, what did you want to tell us, dude?" Tucker asked, slightly unnerved by Valerie's presence.
"Yeah, this better be important. If you woke me up for some stupid reason, i swear I'm gonna-" Sam's threat was cut off by Danny.
"Valerie knows."
"What?!" Tucker and Sam yelled in unison.
So, I'm back! Finals are over, and Summer has begun, which is good news for the both of us. I get free time, and you get more frequent updates. Win win!
You guys weren't expecting that plot twist, were you? I hope not. I wrote the majority of this chapter at like 1 am, so forgive me if it's extremely horrible.
Who else ships grey ghost? Tell me in the reviews!
By the way, when Elle spoke in ghost, she was calling Tucker a fuckboy.
Y̷e̵̵͡s̴.̢
