Keeping Promises

Chapter Nine: Rage

"All of it was Phantoms fault."

Valerie couldn't look away from the angry blue eyes that were staring her down. Danny's declaration struck her hard. It single-handedly verified her worst fears. Phantom was evil and he'd finally committed an unspeakable crime. One that no one could take back.

Her fist started to tighten as death threats toward the ghost boy circled in her mind. She was snapped out of it sharply as her dad spoke a worried trimmer shaking his voice. "Danny..."

Valerie looked up to see Danny's shoulder's shaking as his head fell. She was a little take back when it wasn't sobbing but laughter that left the trembling boy. The two Gray's sat and waited for him to stop, one too stunned to say anything, the other patiently waiting for the moment to pass. Slowly the laughter shifted into sharp breaths as Danny looked up with tear stained eyes. Valerie felt a sharp pang in her chest seeing how shattered he looked. "It was all my fault!" He nearly screamed, as his face contorted showing a wealth of unspoken pain. With that he stood quickly rushing up the stairs. Valerie was stunned silent, flinching slightly as she heard a door slam upstairs.

Damion Gray let out a lengthy sigh as he stood. Walking up to the sink he pulled a role of saran-wrap from a drawer and proceeded to rap Danny's plate. After placing it in the fridge he turned to his daughter. Stiffly he crossed his arms. Valerie looked to him feeling guilty. "Daddy I was just-"

"I thought you had more sense." Mr. Gray said sharply cutting off his daughter. "Of all the insensitive-" He took a breath running a hand through his hair trying to calm himself. "Do you understand what just happened?"

Valerie stared at the stern look her father was giving her and trembled. "Danny… he said it was the ghost boy-

"He said it was the ghost boy." Damion agreed, a sharp stillness in his voice as he continued. "Then he said it was all his fault."

"Well, yeah, but-

"Valerie. Danny is not in the state of mind to answer questions about the accident. He'd probably blame the weather if he found a good enough reason to. He's suffering right now. Blaming others- blaming himself."

Valerie flinched, knowing he was right. Then she flipped on that thought suddenly defensive. "So you're saying he's lying?" Just because he was blaming himself it didn't mean he wasn't sure about the ghost boy.

"No." Damion sighed pulling the chair up so he could sit next to his daughter. He put an arm around her and pulled her into a hug. "I know you want to help him, but he has to get through this himself, and even if that ghost kid did have something to do with it. Capturing him won't solve Danny's problems. You know what it feels like to lose someone… please just try to set your vendetta aside long enough to consider Danny's feelings."

Valerie frowned, feeling guilty about her actions. Then she remembered those blue eyes boring into hers. All that pain and anger, it wasn't something he could make up. The thought that Phantom could get away with it... She trembled, more motivated than ever before to hunt him down. "That is what I'm doing!" Valerie said pulling back sharply. "You saw the look in his eyes! When he said Phantom was responsible! Didn't you? When a person is murdered the police capture the one responsible! Danny deserves at least that much!" She dropped her glare and instead focused on the front door. Her body seethed with repressed rage a slight irritation permeating her features. "Don't worry though." She spat bitterly. "I can't do anything about it. I don't have my suit. Remember?"

"Valerie…" Damion sighed as his daughter stood and made her way up stairs.

"If you need me, I'll be in my room. Studying!"

Damion sat silently for a moment before grabbing the mostly eaten dinners from the table and setting them in the sink to deal with later. Placing his head in his hands he let out a sigh. "She's too much like you Judith…"

Danny rushed, face planting into his pillow, as he let out a scream. If he was in his ghost form it would have undoubtedly turned into a ghostly wail. His whole body was tense and his veins felt like they were on fire. Everything that had happened over dinner hit him at once and his body sagged into the mattress limply. He held his breath as he stared blankly at the pillowcase just centimeters from his eyes. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd done it. He wasn't sure why he told Valerie, the Red Hunter, that the explosion was his fault. A strange sense of relief flooded through him and he took in a sharp gasp of air, just as his lungs were about to give out. Setting up slowly he chuckled.

It was an insane sound that melted into a crazed laugh. One that should have clued him into how crazy his current thoughts were. Oblivious to that, he took in a calming breath, pulling his legs up as he moved to a sitting position. "It's so simple!" He said, a smile starting to spread on his face fighting for dominance over his panicked eyes. "If Valerie thinks it's my fault she'll hunt me down. She might even really kill me!" He laughed manically. "That's right!" He gasped. "There's no way I could possibly become evil if she did that." His fingers were tightly woven in his hair, betraying his fear.

He frowned as his ghost sense went off, and all the emotion in his features left with his breath. "I can't." He mumbled standing and limply taking a few steps forward.

The puff of foggy breath escaped his lips once more and he gripped his hair curling into a ball. "I have to fight!" He hissed. "I have to! I promised!" The puff came again and he took in a sharp breath."I only promised not to become like Him."

His eyes flew wearily to the window as he noticed an eerie glow. 'So you're not going to tell them?' Danny closed his eyes as the memory scraped at the back of his mind. "I think I finally figured out what these powers are for." Danny repeated numbly with the memory as he stood.

Stiffly he walked over to his bead and pulled a fresh Fenton Thermos from under his pillow. Returning to the window he looked out to see a pack of 15 to 20 ghost flying high across the night sky. "I can't just let her kill me." The rings of light enveloped his body as he became Phantom. Slowly he clipped the new thermos to his back. "I'd be leaving Amity Park. Leaving all this mess for them to deal with!" He growled as he jumped through the closed window and out into the evening sky. With a snarl he tackled the first ghost, a bare that let out an enraged roar at his intrusion. "Would that really be so bad?" He wondered as he dodged the bears claws. "I mean, really Valerie could take care of most these ghost." He reasoned to himself distractedly sucking the giant fur ball into his thermos.

Suddenly a snake attacked him from behind sending him sprawling as it tried to wrap around him. He let out a scuffed breath as he imagined what Sam and Tucker would have to say about it.

Pulling the snake from him and sending it flying with a flick of his wrist he thought about it. "Tucker would probably say I'm just moping and to get over it. Sam." He kneed a vampire looking duck in the face. "Would tell me that no one could do this job better." He let out a bitter chuckle as he sucked in the duck creature.

"Besides!" He dodged as a scorpion ghost jumped for him and spun taking a hold of its tail, throwing it hard into the side of what looked to be a sloth ghost. "Valerie doesn't have her suit! She couldn't catch the Box Ghost right now even if she tried!" He panted taking in sharp breaths.

The animalistic ghost surrounded him. "You wanna go!?" He snarled loudly suddenly talking to his foes rather than ranting at himself. "Come and get me you spooks." The beast jumped him at once, and Danny was buried in the confusion. Screaming in rage he let loose a large blast of energy. The lack of control, the chaos was getting to him. More than anything he was starting to feel angry. The ghost flew back, some of them shook it off quicker then others and jumped for him right away. Danny took advantage of their drop in numbers and took hold of one of the ghost, a large bird of some kind, using it as a bat he swung it around knocking away a few advancing beast. Screaming he threw the ghost sending it spinning off into the sky. An angry kangaroo jumped on his side and he yelled in surprise as it scratched at him and then it kicked sending him crashing into the asphalt below. Shaking his head he glared up at the ghost.

Jumping up he sucker punched the kangaroo in the jaw then spun kicking another animal in the gut. Squawking and hissing was all around him as he fought. The next thing he knew he was on the ground pounding his fist into the face of a badger. His rage froze in his chest and he looked around, realizing he'd blacked out, the animal ghost lay defeated around him, some little more than puddles of ectoplasmic goo.

Trembling, Danny stood, fear hitting him hard like a tone of bricks. "What have I done?" He asked no one. He reached up to his chest to grip his shirt, trying to slow his racing heart. His hand brushed something cold and metallic. Gasping he looked down to see his mother's goggles. His breath hitched.

Images flashed through his mind. His body froze as he recalled the burnt remains of his mothers goggles. How they were just laying in the ruble of the Nasty Burger. He fell to his knees his body stunned for a moment.

He hadn't expected the shock. He'd lost the goggles, he'd thought, after fighting Skulker. He couldn't find them anywhere. The loss had hit him hard. He never thought to think that they'd be with his ghost form. Now their presence sent his mind reeling.

"How…?" His question trailed off. He couldn't even fathom what could cause them to sink with his ghostly transformation. He took in a ragged breath. Looking again at the downed ghost around him. Reaching behind his back he pulled out the thermos once more and grimly took to the task of sucking up the spectral animals and their gooey remains.

Danny stumbled into the room falling onto the bed still in Phantom form. His face hit the pillow and his mothers goggles pressed harshly against his cheek.

Taking in a large breath he let the rings of light fall over him turning him back into Fenton and he felt the goggles vanish in the transformation. He let out a sob as their presence went away. Knowing where they were lifted a weight off of his shoulders and he felt better knowing they would always be with him but he'd lost his temper. He wasn't even sure of what all had happened toward the end of that fight.

The fact that so much of it was lost in that dark rage scared him and he cried openly, feeling both a deep shame and a sense of uncertainty. "You really are a monster." He mumbled to himself as he curled into a tight ball.

His mind spun as he tried to remember the fight, but the harder he tried the less he understood of it. All he could recall was his anger. He was angry.

Angry at the fact that nothing had really changed, despite the fact that his whole world had fallen apart. Ghost still attacked, people still went on with their daily lives. The fact that the world seemed to hold no empathy for him; that it did nothing to show that it even felt a fraction of the loss he was feeling. The fact that he felt like everything was careening out of control all the time moving ether too fast or too slow. It all was starting to really grate on him. He didn't really ponder on the source of his anger though. His mind was too shocked by its presence. Fearful of his own potential to cause harm. "Maybe it's a good thing I told her…" He mumbled finally giving into the pressing wariness and falling into a fitful sleep.

Authors Notes:

Confusion, frustration...anger...
Can you blame him? Danny, don't call your self a monster. Monsters don't feel.I can't tell you how hard this chapter was to piece together... there were a lot of emotions flying all over the place and they wanted to go this way and that way and I think I finally reeled them into a manageable state. Hopefully not too tight of a state though...

I wanted to thank those of you who have for offering to help beta my work. I haven't given any of you a straight answer yet... I'm a stubborn person who's hard to work with, supper indecisive, and honestly really impatient. Yet, I'm taking forever in getting my head straitened out... I have a lot on my mind and not a lot to detract me from it. I wanted to get this chapter out though... since I've edited it to the best of my ability's and still haven't made up my mind... but I decided I shouldn't keep what I've written from those of you waiting to read... maybe I'm going about this all wrong... but making decisions is one of the hardest things for me to do... and I've spent so much time with this chapter I don't want to look at it anymore.

...

Anyway...

Thank you all for reading. :)