Warning: lots.
Core
A Danny Phantom Fanfiction by Cori
Danny's arms felt like hundred pound weights. He shifted, exhausted, barely able to crack open his eyes. Eventually working up some energy, he wiggled his arm just enough to hear the rattle of chains.
His head lolled to the side, blearily staring at the arm that was stretched next to him. There was a cuff around his wrist and some sort of silver metal table under him. Cold metal, now that the thought had processed through his dazed mind. With no shirt on, the chill was eating into his shoulders and back.
"No! Not again!" came a shout.
Delirious, Danny's gazed at the strange room he'd woken up in. There was something moving in the shadows. A smear of red and a swirl of green.
"Another failure."
Something sharp was poking him in the chest. He blurrily focused on it, taking in the huge spike that was driven into his ribs with a groan of pain. Green ectoplasm, dripping and glowing in time to his heartbeat, oozed from his pale skin around the needle-like thing.
His brain finally woke up enough to realize how much pain he was in. The onslaught of agony was more than his broken mind could handle. Darkness clawed at the edges of his vision, his eyes closed, and the world went black.
.
Sharp pain in his leg drove him from his sleep. "Ow," he moaned, trying to move away from the source. His body moved only a hair before he came to an abrupt stop, his chest bursting into a firework of agony.
"Wake up."
"Mmmm." Danny's eyes flickered open, blinking at the brilliant light shining overhead. Tears made his eyes water as he struggled to make out anything beyond the bright pain.
"Daniel." The voice was sharp and hurt his ears. More pain - distant compared to the agony was growing in his chest - spiked in his leg.
The shadowy figure leaning over him slowly came into focus. "Vlad," he slurred. The blink of his eyes seemed to take an eternity. "Whas…" He stopped partway through the word, unable to remember what he'd been trying to say. Instead, he closed his eyes, intending to drift back into that painless blackness.
Claws dug into his face, jerking his head around. Danny winced at the pricks on his skin, but couldn't get his brain to do anything other than groan in disappointment at not being allowed to fall back asleep. "Apparently you need to be awake for this. Your core isn't active enough when you're asleep."
"Core?" That got Danny's attention for a few moments. "What're you…?" He jerked an arm, the chains rattling distantly.
"Hush." Vlad let go of his face, wiping specks of ectoplasm off his hand onto a rag, and started to dig through the implements on a table nearby. "I may need your help, but I certainly don't need to listen to your prattle."
"Pra-" Danny started to mindlessly copy the word, too drugged to be able to understand what Vlad was saying. When Vlad turned around with a huge needle in his hand, Danny froze. "Vlad?" he asked, fear creeping into his voice.
"I will gag you if you speak again." Vlad stepped forwards, lined up the point of needle with the end of the spike still lodged in Danny's chest, and then pushed the needle into the spike. In, and in, and in. Danny waited a breathless few seconds before he felt the needle deep inside his chest. "But if you must know, I require a piece of your core."
Danny's mouth moved soundlessly, brain swamped with how agonizingly wrong this felt. Something was digging around inside his chest, pushing past important internal organs. However, it wasn't anywhere near as painful as he'd been expecting. Just a strange sort of pressure.
Then Vlad found his core. The needle pushed in and Danny screamed, jerking violently against the restraints for the few seconds he managed to stay conscious. It was wrongand it hurt and oh my God did it hurt like nothing he'd ever felt before…
His mind staggered back to consciousness a disappointingly short period of time later. It could've been just seconds. Danny felt his head rolling, felt the pain in his throat from the scream that had been torn from him, felt a strange hollow echoing agony deep inside his chest. His eyes slowly flickered open.
"That wasn't so bad," Vlad muttered, holding up a small beaker in his hand. Inside, glowing like a miniature star, was a sample of Danny's core. His very soul. Vlad had stolen a piece of Danny's soul and was holding it in his hands.
"Give it back," Danny tried to say, but the words were slurred and impossible to make out.
Vlad waved a dismissive hand. "It'll regrow." His voice shimmered with excitement. "Look how healthy it is. This will work. This has to work."
"Work?" Danny mumbled, having to blink far too often to keep the world in focus. His body was determined to drift back into unconsciousness. "Wha-"
"Watch." Vlad grinned at Danny, mouth full of fangs, and then reached a hand into his own chest. Vlad closed his eyes and made a disgusting groaning noise. "It's really not so bad, if you'd stop fighting every step of the way," Vlad murmured.
Danny closed his eyes, turning his head away, not sure what Vlad was doing but positive it wasn't something he wanted to watch. A tch-ing noise drew his cautious gaze back. Vlad was eyeing him. One of his hands held the beaker with the bit of Danny's core. In his other hand, glowing and bright and shimmering like a red sunset, was something Danny assumed was a piece of Vlad's core.
Through the pain and the confusion crashing around in his drugged brain, Danny felt a horrible sense of unease. "Don't-" he tried, not sure what Vlad was about to do, but definitely sure he didn't want it to happen.
Vlad slowly brought his hands together, gently letting the bit of his core drip into the beaker with Danny's. They both watched - one entranced and the other horrified - as the swirling red and greens mingled and sparked with pure white.
Danny couldn't drag his eyes away from what was happening. He still didn't understand… What was going on? What was Vlad doing? His mind wasn't helping him fill in any blanks. It seemed content to just inform him how much pain he was in and how much better the world would be if he were unconscious.
"It'll take awhile to settle," Vlad said, brushing his fingers gently over the edges of the beaker. "Needs an incubator." Red eyes caught on Danny's. "Don't you think?"
"Vlad?" he whispered, his breath catching in his throat as the man stepped forwards, looming over him, holding the beaker of white light over Danny's face. "Wh… Don…." His brain wasn't working well enough to allow him to form full words anymore.
Clawed fingers wrapped around the spike driven into Danny's chest. Danny had just enough time for his eyes to widen before it was jerked unceremoniously out of his chest. He howled in pain, writhing on the metal table as ectoplasm spurted from his body.
"Oh, don't be such a child," Vlad chuckled. Then something sharp glittered overhead in Vlad's hand. "If you thought that hurt-"
Danny's brain stopped being able to hear when the knife descended, dug into his chest, and carved open a huge slice from his heart to the bottom of his ribs. Cold ectoplasm rushed over his skin, making the table slick and sticky. Danny thought he was screaming, but he couldn't be sure.
The abyss of unconsciousness rushed in to claim his mind. But just before he blacked out, Danny saw Vlad pick up the ball of white light and stuff it deep into Danny's chest.
"It's not like you'll remember this anyways."
Vlad's words followed Danny into the darkness.
.
Danny woke up in his bedroom. He flailed around, staring wildly at his wrists for any signs of the cuffs, then pulled his shirt off to look for a cut. Nothing. Pressing a hand against his chest, Danny tried to feel for that strange, painful emptiness. Again, nothing.
"A dream?" he whispered, rolling to his feet and stalking around his room. Nothing was out of place. The ghost alarm clock Danny had appropriated from his parents told him it was early Saturday morning - and that no ectoplasmic signatures had been recorded in the past twelve hours other than his own. No ghosts had bothered him all night.
It couldn't have been a dream. It had been so vivid. And painful.
"Mom?" he called, not bothering to change out of his pajamas before tromping down the stairs. The house was quiet and still, too early on Saturday for his father to be up and making noise. Danny found her sitting in the kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee and looking startled to see him up so soon. "Do I look different to you?" He held out his arms and spun around in a little circle.
His mother blinked at him. "Different from… last night?" She cocked an eyebrow. "Were you expecting something to happen to you overnight?"
"No." Danny took her confusion as the answer to her question. He didn't look horribly sick, or weak, or experimented on. Slumping into a chair, Danny crossed his arms over his chest. "I just had a weird dream, I guess."
"Ah." His mother sipped at her coffee. "That explains you being up so early."
Danny was quiet, gazing out the window at the spring morning. He had a rule about not speaking to his parents about ghost things. Even though they were brilliant inventors and knew more about ghosts than any other living human… asking them a question about ghost things was a lot like asking a medieval physician about an infectious disease.
"Something on your mind?"
Danny shrugged and slunk deeper into his chair. "Do you know anything about ghost cores?" he asked.
His mother was silent for a long second before answering. "A little." She sipped her coffee. "It's the… heart of a ghost, I suppose. Or perhaps the word 'brain' would be more appropriate. It has the densest and more purified ectoplasm. It's where the source of a ghost's ectosignature is located."
His hand pressed against his chest unconsciously, rubbing at the slight bit of cold trapped beside his heart.
"Are you okay?"
Danny jerked upright at the concerned tone to her voice. He sent her a smile, forcing his hand down by his side. "Yeah. Just a strange dream." Then he stumbled out of his chair. "I'm going to go get dressed."
Her gaze followed him towards the door, her face saying that she was unconvinced by his answer. But she wouldn't pick and press at the issue unless he asked her to. She understood better than anyone why running to his rescue at every random problem that popped up wasn't a good idea. The last time, it hadn't ended well.
He stopped just before leaving the kitchen, turning to glance back at her. "Mom?"
She hummed and sipped at her coffee.
"What… what do you think would happen…" He trailed off, tripping over his own tongue as he tried to figure out what to say. "What… if two ghosts took pieces of their cores and mixed them together… what do you think would happen?"
Her coffee cup clinked loudly as she set it down. There was a few beats of quiet as she processed the question. "I'm not sure, sweetheart," she said. "I would guess," she stressed the word, "that it might create a new ghost. A… child."
"Oh," Danny said, backing through the door. "Thanks." Swallowing heavily, he raced up the stairs, slammed into the bathroom, and made sure the door was locked behind him. He tore his shirt off, staring at his chest in the mirror, running hands over his skin. "It was a dream," he whispered, taking a few steps backwards to sit on the edge of the bathtub. "It was just a dream."
He pressed a hand against his chest, and he could have sworn - just for a second - that something pressed back.
.
Danny didn't bother with bugging Sam or Tucker about his dream. Since the attack several months ago, Danny didn't dare go near them. Not after what had happened.
Instead, three years of being a half-ghost had taught Danny to go right to the source of his problems: Vlad Masters. He blazed across town, startling a few birds into flight, and landed roughly at the edge of Vlad's property. Rather than just stalking onto the grounds, Danny paced back and forth along the fence, glaring at the pristine bushes and yard.
Vlad and him had settled into an uneasy truce lately that Danny was loathe to break. Part of that truce kept them off the other's land - Danny stayed out of Vlad's house, Vlad stayed out of Danny's house. If his dream last night had been just that - a dream - then Danny would be storming Vlad's house for no reason. The truce would be off. Vlad would be swooning over his mother in Danny's living room before the sun set.
Danny's stalking eventually took him to the front gate. He hesitated for a final few seconds before pushing the button on the monitor. It took a long while before he got a response. "What do-" The voice cut off. "Daniel." Vlad sounded surprised.
"I want to talk to you." Danny looked around for the camera, catching sight of it up and to the left. "Please."
"It's very early, little badger. Can we reschedule for this afternoon?"
Danny licked his lips, glanced around, then said, "No. Now."
The silence stretched on for so long that Danny wondered if Vlad had forgotten he was there. Danny was just about to pressed the button again when Vlad's voice came back. "Very well. I shall meet you at Cafe La'range in twenty minutes. Is that soon enough to appease your teenage sense of urgency?"
Danny narrowed his eyes and the tormenting tone to Vlad's voice, fighting to keep from curling his fingers into fists and breaking Vlad's security system to pieces. "Yes," he ground out. "Twenty minutes." Without waiting for an answer, Danny vanished and took to the sky.
Vlad was three minutes late. He sauntered into the crowded cafe and waited in line to order some expensive tea before walking over to Danny and slipping into the other chair at the small table. The tea steamed in the cool morning air and smelled strongly of lemons. "And what is the emergency this morning," Vlad murmured.
Danny scowled at Vlad. "You know you don't have to be evil 24-7, right?"
Vlad flicked a calm gaze at him. "This is me being particularly civil, Daniel. Do realize it is extremely early on a Saturday morning, the only day in the past two weeks where I have been able to sleep in. Now speak, or I am going back to bed."
"I…" Danny trailed off, unsure what to say now that he had Vlad in front of him. When Vlad's gaze turned annoyed, Danny settled on simply asking the same question he'd stumbled through this morning with his mother. Vlad's reaction to the question would get him some information, without giving away anything on Danny's side. "What happens when two ghost cores get… mixed together?"
An eyebrow raised slowly. There was a flicker of unease in the man's face. "You'll need to be a bit more specific. For instance…?"
Danny frowned. "Like, one ghost takes a piece of his core and a second ghost takes a piece of her core and… mixes the pieces together." He shifted uneasily at the empty look on Vlad's face.
"What are you…?" Vlad asked, the blank expression giving way to a grin. The man glanced around and leaned forwards. His eyes sparkled with delight. "You would have witnessed two ghosts procreating."
"Procreating?" Danny whispered faintly. He felt the blood drain from his face.
"What two ghosts were you watching?" Vlad asked, snorting out a laugh. "Let me guess: that stupid Box Ghost and what's her name… the cafeteria ghost."
Danny stared at the man. Either Vlad was an excellent actor, or the whole episode had simply been a dream. Even though Danny gave Vlad a lot of credit when it came to evil plots and hidden motivations, it was hard to believe that Vlad could have done… that… to him last night and sit here this morning, drinking tea, talking about the Box Ghost. "Nevermind," Danny said, pushing his way out of his chair.
Vlad snagged his wrist as Danny walked past. "Badger," he said. Red sparkled in his eyes. "Talk to me. What are you asking about this for?"
It was a dream. It was just a dream. Regardless, Danny jerked his arm out of Vlad's grip and hissed a dark, "I will never forgive you," and enjoyed the look on Vlad's face as he stalked out the door.
.
For two weeks, Danny did his best to forget the crazy dream he'd had. Between school and sleep, he trailed invisibly after Tucker, watching the boy learn to do wheelies in the wheelchair he'd ended up in. He sat in the tree outside Sam's bedroom window, watching her sit in her bed and stare blankly at nothing. Now and then, he ended up in his parents' lab, pretending to help them with their latest experiment, but generally just being bored and exasperated that they couldn't explain anything without going into PhD territory.
Every few hours, he'd feel a strange sensation in his chest. The world would come to a stop around him as he stood still, pressing a hand against his sternum, wondering what it was. Always fleeting, Danny was never quite sure if he'd actually experienced anything. Eventually someone would jostle him back into movement, pushing the moment from his mind.
Vlad stayed away. Danny had been tense for the first few days, keeping close tabs on the devious mayor, but the man seemed content to let the truce remain in effect. And, with zero proof that Danny's dream was anything other than just a dream, Danny had to be content to just sit back and watch.
It was a bright and clear Wednesday when Skulker attacked. It took Danny by surprise as he was walking through the park, the blast throwing him into the bushes. "Ghost child!" the hunter cheered.
Danny picked himself up, scowled, and transformed. "Finally, something to take my mind off this stupid dream." He shoved himself into the air, blasting at Skulker with more than two weeks worth of pent-up frustration.
The ghost dodged and fired back. Danny landed a few blows before taking off into the sky, determined to pull the fight up and away from the humans. "Slow as a turtle today, Skulk-breath!" Danny yelled.
Skulker followed with a roar of rockets and a few choice curses.
Clouds billowed around him before Danny slowed down and glanced back at the ghost. Skulker was still blazing towards him, several weapons on display and glowing with power. "Aw, all that for little ol' me?" Danny teased.
Skulker's eyes flared with light as a rocket was launched from one of the weapons on his back. "I won't need half of these to take you out," Skulker shouted.
Danny - seeing the rocket coming from what felt like a half-mile away - dodged it lazily. "That was sad," he said, meaning it, but not slowing down. Several other weapons were still trained on him. The rocket may have been pathetic, but Skulker was not a ghost to turn his back on.
"Uh-huh," Skulker agreed, blasting at Danny a few times with weapons that were too weak to do any real damage. "I'll have your head for a footrest yet!"
Danny caught on a second too late. The pathetic rocket. The weak blasts. He gasped and spun around, but the net the rocket had released was already wrapping around him and binding him into a tight ball. Danny cursed as the glowing strands held him tight and zapped him nearly into oblivion. He fell.
Skulker caught him just above the level of the trees, holding the net out like a trophy. "I - Skulker! The Ghost Zone's Great Predator! - have captured you! I have won!" His voice was loud enough to carry into the next town.
"Momentarily captured, yes," Danny muttered. "Won? I don't think so."
A sharp metal finger poked his side. Danny yelped and squirmed away from the protrusion. Skulker stared at him, his tone moking. "We'll see who's laughing when I'm finished with-" The ghost stopped.
Danny scowled and crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look put-out. "Just finish your stupid victory rant so I can escape and beat you up."
"Are you… alright, ghost child?"
Danny's head whipped around at the concern in Skulker's voice. He'd heard many words from the obsessive hunter, but concern was something he hadn't been sure the ghost could experience. "I'm fine."
Despite Danny's words, the ghost just continued to stare at him, seeming to dither over something. Then, to Danny's complete astonishment, Skulker retracted the net and dumped Danny onto the ground.
"What are you doing?" Danny asked, getting to his feet and staring at the ghost.
"It would be improper," Skulker said, standing straight-backed as he stuffed the net into his arm. "If I would have known, I would have left you alone."
Danny was utterly lost. "Oh," he said, unable to come up with anything else to say. Danny felt himself getting slightly worried about the strange ghost. This was very much not like Skulker.
"You will not be so lucky next time," Skulker said, the pure threat ringing in his voice making Danny relax. "For I am Skulker! The Ghost Zone's Greatest Predator!" With one last glare, the ghost disappeared.
Danny stood there, looking around. "That was… weird. Maybe I should-"
His voice cut off as that odd feeling slammed into his chest again. He gasped in a breath, pressing a hand against his breastbone, feeling something determinedly push back. "Ow," he groaned, sinking to his knees. Why did it hurt this time? What was wrong with him? Was it getting worse?
It passed almost as quickly as it had started, leaving Danny kneading his chest with his palm and glancing around worriedly. The park was empty; people had vacated the area when Skulker showed up. With a scowl, Danny vanished as well.
He didn't bother to turn human again when he appeared in his parent's kitchen. His father was nowhere to be seen - probably in the lab - but his mother was cleaning dishes at the sink. "Mom."
She turned around and blinked at him. "What?"
"Can you… scan me, or something, with one of your gadgets?" Danny flushed at the childlike wording of his question. He'd always depended in Sam, Tucker, or Jazz to remember what the inventions were called and specifically what they did.
His mother set down the plate in her hand and wiped her hands with the towel. "You're going to have to be a little more specific, sweetheart."
He shifted his weight from foot to foot. "I think there's something wrong with me," he said. He pushed a hand against his chest. "Like, here. There's this really weird feeling sometimes, and it's getting worse."
Her lips pressed tightly together for a second, like they always did when Danny brought up something about his ghost half. Then she nodded and set the towel on the counter. "Come on, then."
Following her down into the lab as a ghost never failed to make Danny tense up. He'd spent too many long months fearing the lab for the reaction to have died away yet. It took a few breaths for him to shake away the worry of being dissected. He waited by the steps as his mother grabbed a few bits of technology, his father spotting her efforts and abandoning the device he was working on to wander over and help.
"What's up, Danno?" the man asked.
"Nothing," Danny answered automatically. His mother made a noise at that, which made Danny wince and shift uncomfortably. "Or, you know, maybe there's something wrong with me and Mom's going to scan me and see if she can see anything."
His father grinned. "Those are two very different options. What'cha looking for, Mads?"
"The spectra-scope," she answered, head half-buried in a pile of tools. She waved something over her head. "The HD-version, not this one."
"I think I know where that is," the man said, bounding off to help search. Technology crashed and groaned as the piles were shifted. "This place is a mess, we should think of selling some of this."
It took several minutes for them to locate several camera-like devices and get them hooked up to computers and the software loaded. Then Danny was carefully maneouvered in front of the cameras. He closed his eyes and waited.
"It's not going to hurt," his mother said.
"Uh-huh," Danny agreed, not opening his eyes.
"It's just taking a picture-" When his mother's voice cut off, Danny's eyes jerked open. She was staring at the computer screen, looking confused and bewildered.
"What is that?" his father asked softly.
"What is what?" Danny asked.
After a few seconds of silence, his mother clicked several buttons on the computer screen and gestured for Danny to come over. He left his spot in front of the cameras gratefully. Sure it hadn't hurt - nothing his parents had done to him had hurt since they'd found out about him - but he still didn't like being on the receiving side of their inventions. He walked over to the computer and stared at the picture on the screen. "What is it?" he asked. It looked like a blob, sort of in a human shape, with tree-like roots running here and there and two bright eyes glowing from the center.
"It's a spectral picture," his father said. "It's your aura." As his fingers traced over the screen, Danny could kind of see how it could be a picture of him. Arms and legs and such. "Baseline, lines of power, and," the finger tapped the glowing eyes, "a core."
"But there's two of them," Danny said. When his parents didn't respond, Danny looked from one to the other. "Ghosts don't have two cores," he pressed. "Just one."
"I know," his mother said, her voice faint.
"Then how come-" Danny froze, half-pointing to the picture, feeling like someone had just dumped a bucket of ice water over his head. He knew. He knew.
It's not like you'll remember this anyways…
But it was just a dream…
Danny suddenly woke up on the cot in the lab. The old blankets smelled of ectoplasm and fudge. He jerked upright, groaning as his head spun. A cold hand pressed against his forehead. "It's okay, sweetie." His mother's voice was soothing.
"What happened?"
"You fainted," she said. The teasing tone wasn't present. She didn't bother to ask if he was okay.
Because he wasn't. He wasn't okay. How could he possibly be okay?
It hadn't been a dream. It had been real. Vlad had stolen a piece of him and… what? Made a new ghost? Made a child?
Danny hesitantly pressed a hand against his chest, feeling the soothing thrum of his ghost core under his skin. And that strange, alien feeling of something pushing back. That other ghost core.
What had Vlad done to him?
The cot bowed under the weight of his mother settling down next to him. Her body pressed into his, warm and solid and calming. He leaned into her. She wrapped an arm securely around his shoulder.
"Talk to me," she said softly.
Danny stared forward blankly. Then he started to shake his head. He couldn't think of anything to say or do other than just shake his head.
"Danny…"
He jerked out of her grasp, blindly reached for the cold aether of the ghost world, and vanished from the lab. As the darkening sky lapped at his heels, Danny felt his confused, horrified mind solidify around hatred.
Vlad did this. Vlad hurt him. Vlad used him to create some new sort of life. And this wasn't just some strange clone-like thing made from some lost DNA and ectoplasm that never really solidified… this was from his core. This was him in a way the clones never were.
Danny didn't bother to even slow down when he came up to Vlad's property. He was burning with pain and anger, his aura flickering bright as a star as he chased through Vlad's stodgy mansion in search of the man. All the lights were off. All the computers were off. The place had the cold chill of being vacant for several days.
Two hours later, Danny sat on a bench a few blocks away, watching emerald flames light up the sky as Vlad's palace burned to the ground. The firefighters had made a half-hearted attempt to put the fire out at one point, but the flames had refused to die. Now they just stood by their trucks and watched as the supernatural flames purposefully ate everything that Vlad had ever owned - and not even a blade of grass more.
A warm arm curled around his shoulders and Danny flinched, glancing up to find his parents standing just behind him. His mother looked like she'd been crying. "Come on," she said, her voice gentle. "Let's get you home."
Danny resisted for a moment, but then gave in and let his parents steer him to the car. They didn't ask him anything - although the silence was heavy with questions - and quietly got him into his pajamas and tucked him into bed. There was a kiss on his forehead, and they left him to sleep.
At some point, he drifted off.
.
"Hi," Danny said, several days later, standing on the front step of the Manson household. "Can I see Sam?"
Mr. Manson stared at him. "You're the Fenton boy."
Danny gritted his teeth. "Yes, yes I am. Can I see Sam?"
The man's fingers were white-knuckled on the doorknob. Danny knew the Manson family blamed the Fentons a lot for what happened months ago when their only daughter had been hurt. Nobody had ever apologized to Sam's parents; he didn't think he'd blame the man for not letting him in.
Not that a door would stop him from seeing Sam. It was just the thought that counted.
After an eternity of silence, the man slowly stepped to the side. "She's in her room. I'm sure you remember the way."
Danny felt surprised to be let in. "Thanks," he breathed as he snuck past the man.
"And I'm sure you won't stay very long."
Danny could feel the man's eyes bore into his back. He nodded feverishly and took the steps as quickly as he felt he could without getting yelled at. One door, two doors, three doors, and Danny stopped, pushing open the fourth and stepping into the warm, dark-colored bedroom. "Hi," he said.
Dull purple eyes swiveled in his direction. Sam looked confused to see him for a long second, her fingers brushing at her shorn hair. In the three months since getting her head shaved, the hair hadn't grown long enough to do anything with. It wasn't even long enough to hide the scars tracing around her scalp. One section of the hair was much shorter, from the most recent surgery. "Danny," she said. Her voice slurred the 'n's into 'r'-like sounds.
He took a small step forwards. "How are you feeling?"
She picked at her bedspread. Her hands didn't move in sync. "Good. You?"
"I've been better," he said. "Missed you at school."
"Soon," she said, the word apparently an answer to a question he hadn't asked. A smile crept onto her face and she gestured him closer. "Here." Her fingers plucked at something on her bed.
Danny stepped up to her and took the offered thing. It was a piece of paper with a crude drawing on it. Scribbles of greens and blues in a vague human shape. He glanced at her, trying to make heads-or-tails of the drawing, and smiled. "It's nice."
"You," she said, slowly picking up her bits of paper and sorting through them.
"Sorry I haven't come to see you," Danny said. He couldn't look up at her, instead choosing to run his fingers over the lines on the paper. "I know I should have. I just…" He moved his mouth soundlessly a few seconds, looking for the right words to say.
He searched her face. The way the left side of her face drooped a bit. The dull look in her eyes. The missing spark that had always made the girl Sam Manson.
"I burned Vlad's house down," he said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "I should tell you what he did to me. You'd be all up in arms over it." A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth.
"You don't have to talk to her like she's a gravestone," came Tucker's voice from behind him.
Danny flinched and spun around. "Tucker," he said, swallowing heavily. "I didn't know you were here."
"I was in the bathroom." The boy wheeled into the room. The mess several months ago had left him paralyzed from the waist down, confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. His head jerked to the girl. "She understands more than you think. Don't you?"
"Yup," Sam said. The right side of her mouth twitched up into a grin. She held up two fingers in a 'victory' symbol.
"Which you would know if you ever came over to see her," Tucker continued blandly.
Danny shifted his weight self-consciously. "I…"
"Yeah, yeah," Tucker interrupted. "We know. Guilt-ridden, confused, it's all your fault, we know. You're forgiven." Tucker moved his hand in a rough cross shape. "We hereby wash all your sins of the last few months away. Right, Sam?"
She rolled her eyes and said, "Yes."
Danny glanced from one to the other, not knowing what to say.
"Now, with that over," Tucker leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his knees and steepling his fingers. The light from overhead cast odd shadows on his face. "What was with the supernatural inferno a few days ago?"
"You look kind of evil sitting like that," Danny had to say, still stunned that his friends had accepted him back so quickly.
"I was kind of going for evil," Tucker said with a grin. "You look through your superheros and there are a distinct lack of good guys in wheelchairs, minus the obvious one. And since I don't have telepathic powers and a team of good-looking men and women to do my bidding, I decided to go with evil."
Sam made a noise in the back of her throat and shook her head.
"Eh," Tucker said, holding up a finger. "I told you. Ironic evil. I'm still up for the whole 'save the world' crap when necessary." He grinned. "Besides, I've already got this chair tricked out nine ways to Sunday. I even got a grant from Google last week, can you believe that? If my parents let me have my way, I'll be wielding the world's first flying chair in a few months. And flying chairs? That's totally evil villain tech. But. That's off topic. Fire. You. Speak."
"I…" Danny hadn't actually come over here to tell his friends his problems. They had enough things to deal with on their own. That was even more obvious when he was in the room with them. He'd been just hoping to vent a little to Sam. "It's not a big deal."
Sam snorted in disbelief.
"I agree. Not a big deal?" Tucker stared at him. "You burned down Vlad's house. If you believe the news reports, that place burned for a day and a half and nothing they tried would make the fire go out."
Danny shrugged. "Really. It's okay. I can deal with it."
"Clone?" came Sam's sluggish voice.
"No." Danny shook his head. "Vlad wouldn't do that again. They never worked anyways." There was that pressure on the inside of his chest again. Danny shifted, pressing a hand to his chest. "It's not a big deal." The force was growing, pushing harder and harder against his ribs. "I… I gotta go…"
Tucker's wheelchair was in the way. Danny stumbled a step to the side before the sensation in his chest burst into a white flare of agony. He stifled a scream, dropping to his knees. He could hear Tucker call his name and yells for the Mansons.
Danny was beyond it all, lost in pain, almost completely oblivious to the warm, anxious hands patting his shoulders and telling him it would be okay and to just hang on.
What he wasn't oblivious to was the spear of cold heat that appeared next to him. It was familiar, tinged with red, and soothing against the star burning inside his chest.
"Get away from him!" someone called, the voice faint and tinny.
"Come along," said the cold heat, gathering Danny's unresponsive body close.
.
Danny's arms felt like hundred pound weights. He shifted, exhausted from the pain, barely able to crack open his eyes. Finally he wiggled an arm, getting the faint rattle of chains as a result.
He groaned, trying to focus on the world around him. Cold metal table. Chaffing bands around his arms, legs, and body. No stabbing pain in his chest this time.
It wasn't a dream. It wasn't a dream.
"Daniel."
"Been here, done this," Danny murmured, his voice slurred. "Got the T-shirt."
A cold hand grasped his chin, forcing Danny's head up and to the left. The blurred lights resolved into Vlad's face. White hair framed cold blue eyes. "Funny," the man said. "Do you know what's happening to you?"
"You kidnapped me, drugged me," Danny said, focusing on each word to get it out correctly. With each passing second, he was feeling more like himself. Likely, Vlad hadn't drugged him this time. "Stole a piece of me to make a new ghost, then put it inside of me to grow." He jerked his chin out of Vlad's fingers. "Wasn't supposed to remember it, but I did. So take the thing out of me and let me go."
"I was wondering if you'd remembered," Vlad mussed, "with those questions you were asking. The drug should have kept those memories from sticking." He stepped back a few feet and shook his head. "Despite that little flub in my plan, you've drawn several incorrect assumptions. Would you like to know where you got it wrong?"
"No." Danny jerked on an arm, feeling the hard metal bite at his wrist. "But you're going to do the evil thing and monologue anyways. So go ahead."
Vlad leaned closer. "I'm not going to take the thing out and let you go." He smirked and walked over to a computer station, which was showing an image a lot like the one that had graced Danny's parents spectra-scope days ago. "Although it is powerful enough to create its own identity, I figured I would give it yours."
"What?" Danny stared at the man in confusion.
"It's mostly you already. And once I take out your core, it'll just slip right into place. A new soul, a new personality, that is mostly you and a little bit of me, in complete control of your body." Fangs glittered in Vlad's mouth, even though he was looking human at the moment.
Danny swallowed heavily. "What?" he said again, this time his voice barely a whisper.
Vlad laughed. He held a glowing, red hand over Danny's chest. Deep inside, nestled near Danny's heart, he felt the second ghost core react. It pulsed and pushed, reaching upwards and outwards and making Danny scream and thrash around in pain.
His body shaking and convulsing outside his control, he missed whatever Vlad said next. His watering eyes were clamped shut. His fingernails were digging into his palms hard enough to draw blood.
And then came a sharp, dagger-like ache of electricity racing through him. His eyes jerked open as whatever Vlad was doing triggered his ghost half, pulling him out of the human world. The room around him tinged green. The pain lessened.
"I would say it was nice knowing you, Little Badger… but it wasn't."
Danny twisted his head so that he could see Vlad. The man was cutting away at Danny's shirt, revealing pale, untouched skin. Danny's mouth moved, but he couldn't find words to say. His mind was still numb from the pain and the electric shock.
"I will enjoy your new personality so much more." Setting the scissors down, Vlad grabbed a scalpel. It glittered silver and bright in the fluorescent lights overhead. He brought it to Danny's chest, moving it slightly this way and that, before seeming to settle on a position. "This will hurt." He looked up at Danny. "Goodbye."
Danny managed to groan out a, "Don't-," before the scalpel bit into his skin. It burned as Vlad quickly drew a line down his chest. Green ectoplasm bubbled and spurted from the wound as the man pulled the skin apart. Danny screamed, jerking his head backwards, his arms and legs tight and shaking against the restraints, the bindings around his shoulders and stomach barely holding him down to the table.
He felt Vlad's hand in his chest, digging around.
He felt Vlad curl his fingers tight around his core.
He felt the second core burst into light - a blazing agony that set Danny's brain on fire.
He didn't feel anything after that.
.
Danny woke up. He didn't know how much time had passed. He was still strapped down to the table, still in ghost form, and still sluggishly bleeding from the slice down the front of his chest. The wound had mostly closed, leaving a thin line on his skin.
Confused and lost, he rolled his head from side to side, trying to figure out what had happened. Slowly, his brain pieced together what had happened over the last few days. The kidnapping. The second ghost core. Vlad.
The lab was trashed. Everything was smashed. Several objects were smeared with red.
"Wha…?" Danny tried to speak, but his throat was raw and dry. The effort got him nothing but a coughing fit that made his brain spin. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the table. What had happened? Was he still himself… or was he the other ghost core and somehow had Danny's memories?
There was a noise.
It took a few seconds, but Danny managed to get his eyes open and look in the direction of the noise. Something floated in the air beside his table - a small ghost, perhaps only two feet tall. Skin so pale it looked almost blue, white hair that drifted around its head like mist, and innocent green eyes. It noticed his gaze and drifted a bit closer, making that noise again. A sort of meep-purr.
"Hey," Danny whispered. "Can you get me out of this thing?" His voice cracked and broke so badly and he wasn't sure the ghost could understand what he was trying to say.
The tiny ghost tipped its head. Its tiny claws touched Danny's arm, running gentle tickles over the skin. Apparently emboldened when Danny didn't say anything to discourage the behavior, the ghost crept closer and closer, eventually tucking itself under Danny's chin and curling up on his aching chest. It started up a steady, soothing purring noise. The cool of the ghost seemed to ease the worst pain of the healing wound, so Danny didn't try to chase it away.
"Great," Danny said, letting his head fall back against the table. "Where'd you come from?"
The ghost didn't bother to answer. Danny was mostly convinced it couldn't speak. Too weak, too feral, or… perhaps too young.
Danny groaned, closing his eyes. The second ghost core. The ghost curled up on his chest must be the second ghost core. Whatever Vlad had been trying to do must have gone wrong - Danny was still in control of his body, and the second ghost core had been removed and formed into its own personality. Vlad must be pissed about his experiment not working.
"Vlad?" He tried to call for the man, hopeful about getting released from this table, but his voice broke and he ended up coughing harshly instead. The tiny ghost raised its head from Danny's chest and looked at him, running tiny claws over Danny's face when the coughing fit passed. Then it curled up again, pressing its soft, cold hair against the underside of Danny's chin.
The next period of time passed in a slow, painful blur. Hours gradually slipped past. Danny drifted in and out of sleep as the wound on his chest finished healing. The small ghost was content to sleep tucked under his chin most of the time, but every now and then woke up and wandered around the table, examining every inch of Danny's body and refusing to understand any of Danny's requests for it to do something helpful and release him.
Vlad didn't return. The smell of the lab - caustic and charged with ectoplasm - was replaced by a musty, clingy odor that made Danny cough and choke if he breathed too deeply. The few overhead lights that were still working flickered and fizzled and - one by one - went out, sending the lab into darkness lit only by a few computer monitors and the glow of Danny's aura. Eventually that went out too, when Danny slipped back to his human form.
Still too weak to do anything other than rattle the cuffs holding him in place and cough, Danny could do nothing but wait. Wait for Vlad to return. Wait for rescue. Wait for the batteries in the table to run down, releasing the slight electromagnetic pulse in the bindings holding him in place, and allow him to finally slip free using his ghost powers.
He woke to the sound of someone moving around in the destroyed lab. There was a flashlight. Two flashlights. Their beams of light dancing and flickering around the wreckage, accompanied by quiet sounds of cursing and gasps of horror.
His lips were chapped and dry. His throat was raw. So the sound he made, trying to call for help, was pathetic and almost inaudible. With no better plan, he yanked on his arms, rattling the short chains holding the cuffs to the table.
The flashlights paused, and passed quickly over the lab until one of the beams landed on him. There was a call of "Danny!" and the sounds of someone scrambling over broken metal and electronics. "Oh my God, Danny," the voice said again, and this time Danny recognized it. His mother.
"Mom," he croaked.
She made it through the last of the junk and reached for him. "I'm here, Danny."
The tiny ghost curled up on Danny's chest looked up, its green eyes flickering to a deep red, the slow purr turning into a dark growl. Claws dug into Danny's skin. Danny flinched - he hadn't seen the ghost be anything but cute and kitten-like since he'd woken up.
His mother froze. He could see her, in the reflected light of the flashlight. She stared at the ghost. "What is that?" she whispered.
"It's okay," Danny breathed, trying to get the ghost to understand. "She's here to help. It's okay."
The ghost looked at him. It let out that soft meep-purr noise again. The red faded from its eyes, returning them to acidic green.
"It's okay," Danny repeated. He smiled, feeling his chapped lips pull painfully.
It took a few seconds, but the ghost slowly relaxed, slipping off Danny's chest to hover in the air nearby. Danny's mother took that as a sign and edged closer, quickly releasing the straps holding Danny in place on the table. Danny tried to sit up, but ended up nearly tipping over and falling off the table as the world spun around him.
"I got you," came the voice of his father, strangely quiet, and thick, warm arms wrapped around him and lifted him off the cold metal. Danny groaned in pain at the movement, but relaxed into his father's bulk, allowing the man to carry him. Danny's eyes closed. "Let's get out of here."
"No complaints there," his mother whispered.
They picked their way back out of the lab, his father having to move slowly and carefully with Danny in his arms. At one point, he stopped and said, "Over there."
Danny wedged his eyes open to look where his father's flashlight was pointed. In a corner surrounded by red and green smears, lay a ravaged corpse. Danny had to assume it was Vlad Masters - it was so destroyed and bloody that identifying it was impossible.
"Come on," his mother said. She pulled on Jack's arm, moving the flashlight beam away from the scene. Danny closed his eyes again and lay his head against his father's shoulder. It smelled of fudge.
.
The next thing he knew, he was lying in his bed. He levered himself to a sitting position, looking around in bland confusion. His body ached. His head was still throbbing.
His room looked normal. The shades were closed, but the bright glow from between them signified that it was day. Next to his bed sat a plate with crackers and a glass of water. Danny grabbed for the glass, happily downing nearly the entire thing before reaching for some of the crackers. It wasn't until his third cracker that he realized there was a ghost lying on his bed. Danny froze, cracker halfway to his mouth.
It was the little ghost from the lab - the second ghost core Vlad had made. It looked up at him with wide, green eyes. Its hair was wild, floating around randomly like it was underwater.
"Hi," Danny said cautiously.
The ghost grinned and crawled over to him, leaning its old body against his side. It made that meep-purr sound, looking happy and content.
"Umm…" Danny looked around, uncertain as to what to do.
"You're awake," came his mother's voice.
Danny looked up at her, finally letting the hand holding the forgotten cracker settle into his lap. "Yeah," he said. His voice was still raspy. There was a tug at his hand, making Danny look down. The ghost was pulling on the half-eaten cracker. Danny let go, watching curiously as the ghost gnawed at the cracker.
There was a scraping sound as a chair was moved over. Danny glanced up see his mother settle into the chair by his bedside. "How are you feeling?" she asked, reaching to feel his forehead. "Fever's broken."
"Not bad," Danny said. "Sore. Headache."
She hummed. "I'll get you a few aspirins." She pointed at the ghost. "Does that have a name?"
"No." Danny followed her gaze, somewhat amazed that half the remaining cracker was already gone. He'd never met a ghost that could eat human food before. Then, realizing it was probably a bad idea to give a baby ghost human food - since it probably didn't know better than to eat the thing - Danny took the rest of the cracker away. It blinked up at him.
"Don't feel like letting it eat?" his mother asked.
"Ghosts don't eat," Danny said.
"It's eaten almost an entire box of crackers since we got you home," his mother said. Danny looked at her, startled by that. She shrugged. "I honestly don't know how or why, Danny. All I can tell you is that it's been eating."
"Oh." Danny handed the cracker back, to the apparently delight of the ghost. It purred and rolled onto its back, chewing on the cracker. "I… I think it's that second ghost core," he said uncertainly.
"I figured that out." He felt her warm hand on his arm. "It's very… protective of you. But it seems to have gotten used to your father and me."
The silence that fell over the room was full of confused and unasked questions. Danny listened to the strange purring noise of the ghost and the rush of air in and out of his own lungs, not able to look away from where the tiny ghost was nestled against his hip. "How'd you find me?"
"Tucker," his mother said. "He's apparently got ways of tracking you." She fell into an uneasy silence for a few seconds. "We traced you to Axion Labs in less than an hour. Finding that secret lab… that look a long time."
"Oh."
"What are…" his mother's voice was uncertain. "What are you going to do with that ghost?"
"Put it in the ghost zone," Danny said. His voice was bland. "It's a ghost. That's where they belong." There really wasn't any other option.
"It's…" She trailed off again. She sounded like she wasn't sure what to say. "It's kind of your… child, you know. It's ectosignature is almost a carbon-copy of yours."
Danny glanced at her. "So?" He waited a beat, watching the uncomfortable expression on her face until he thought he understood what she was getting at. "Do you think I should keep it?"
"I-" she hesitated. "It's just that I've never met a ghost that could eat or sleep. Other than you."
So it would make for a good way to learn more about you, were her unspoken words. The thought made Danny hesitate and look back down at the ghost. It had finished the cracker and its eyes were closing sleepily.
"And Jack thinks it might have saved your life. He's been working with the police in the lab. That ghost's ectosignature was everywhere, but especially on… Vlad's body."
Danny moved a hand slowly, running a finger through the ghost's incredibly soft, cold hair.
"I don't want to push you into telling us what happened before you're ready," his mother said, "but… Danny… Vlad-"
"I don't want to talk about it yet," Danny interrupted, glancing at her. Vlad Masters was a bag of problems he needed a clear head to delve into. "Give me a couple days."
She nodded. Her gaze flicked down to the ghost and then back up to Danny. "Just don't do anything until we have all the information, alright?" She waited until Danny nodded. "We'll figure this out, just like we did last time."
Last time. Three months ago. When nothing had really been figured out, and everything had just been swept under a rug and unspoken rules put in place to not talk about it. But Danny sent her a half-smile anyways. "Sure."
"I'll get you those aspirin," she said, getting up and heading into the hallway.
Danny let out a slow breath and stared down at the ghost sleeping next to him. He traced a finger over its face, then down its body. When he reached the small hand, the claws clasped around his finger and held on tight. It didn't let go when his mother returned, so Danny had to use his other hand to clumsily take the aspirin his mother handed him. It didn't let go when Danny reorganized himself on the bed to lay down.
A baby ghost - or potentially something more than that, if it could eat and sleep. The spawn of Plasmius and Phantom; the stuff of Danny's half-forgotten nightmares of a future that no longer existed. Yet another stake to drive between Danny and what little he had left of a normal life.
Even in its sleep, the ghost didn't let go of his hand. Instead it curled closer, cold breath puffing against Danny's side, hair tickling the sensitive skin, and let out that soft little meep-purr.
Uncertain as to what the future days would bring and the lengthy secrets that were about to be unraveled, Danny closed his eyes and slept.
