Disclaimer: I wish I owned Danny Phantom! Desiree: -turns me into Butch Hartman- AHHHHHHHHH! CHANGE ME BACK CHANGE ME BACK! -is changed back-
Summary: AU: During the events of Memory Blank, Danny refuses to risk his life going into the portal because what a complete stranger says. But the world needs a half ghost hero, and thus, Sam steps up to the plate
Rating: T for Sam fucking dying
Inspiration: Phic Phight for Anthrop: "Memory Blank" AU where Sam can't convince Danny to go into the Portal, so she goes in instead.
Pairings: implied Danny/Sam
Warnings: Some mild sad
Other Notes: N/A
His eyes scanned the photos that she had laid out before him, and Sam swallowed nervously at he tried to process what she was showing him. The book was full to the brim of photos of all the years they spent together, the three of them.
Danny's eyes honed in on a particular photo.
"Wait a minute," his voice hitched a breath, and Sam felt her heart race in hope. "That's my parents' lab…"
It was the three of them, Tucker, him and her. They stood in front of the Fenton portal. It was closed, but it was unmistakably the portal. Clearly no longer under construction, with wires poking out and parts not fully attached. Sam tried to read his face, but it had gone oddly blank. He flipped the page.
Danny holding the jumpsuit that would soon become his trademark look, in front of the open portal. Him and Tucker cuddled up on the floor, sleeping peacefully. The famous hero Danny Phantom, the secret identity Danny would have no longer known, flying in the peaceful night air, without a care.
The boy sitting across from her at the table looked up at her, eyes wide, and she could see now that they were full of fear and confusion. She couldn't say she blamed him.
"Who…" He paused, and she could see him swallow nervously. "Who are you?"
"I'm Sam Manson," Sam introduced herself. She reached forward to turn the page once more, and her finger pointing out a particular photograph. Danny Phantom floated before it, his arms crossed lazily as he floated in front of the open portal. If her train of thought was right, then Danny would have never seen the portal's glowing green swirls. The portal would have never been turned on. "This is you." She put her finger specifically on Danny before moving to the portal. "A few months ago, I convinced you to go into this. You went in there, there was an accident, and-" Sam couldn't help but fall silent. Danny stared back at her.
"I got super powers?" he finished for her. Sam exhaled deeply.
"Actually, ghost powers," she clarified. Danny shook his head slowly.
"Sorry, but you're not really selling me on this," he apologized.
"You have to believe me. I-I fucked up, okay? We had a fight, and I wished we'd never met, and th-that ghost in the school made it happen," she rambled slightly, and she lifted up the bright pink sweater slightly, shifting so that he could see the anti-ghost belt. "But I was wearing this, which is why I don't think the ghost affected me, and now you don't have your powers anymore."
Danny shook his head more, exhaling as he leaned back in his chair, rubbing his face with the palms of his hand. Sam's heart sank as she sat back down in her chair, scooting closer. Her hands grasped the edges of the book.
"This is crazy," he mumbled. She gripped the book tightly.
"I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. I swear on it." Her voice took a desperate tone, but she didn't know what else to say. It sounded absolutely insane, and it's because it was absolutely insane. All things considered, it was the most wild, flat out bullshit-sounding thing one could ever hear. A human having ghost powers.
"What do you even want from me?" Danny asked. He rested his hands on his knee, one of them bouncing anxiously as he observed her.
"We need to get you your ghost powers back," she said firmly. Danny's eyes widened. "Which means we have to re-create the accident."
"What the fuck? No, that's suicidal, that'd involve literally like, if it's ghost powers then you're literally asking me to kill myse-No!"
Her stomach flipped. She had never thought of it like that; this was just about putting things back as they should.
"No, it's not like that!" Sam tried to protest, but she only cut herself off. That's...that's basically what happened. She nearly killed her best friend. And now she sat here, trying to convince him to do it again. And...there was no guarantee that he'd become half ghost again. The past two days had already been horrible over losing him, emotionally. Post the first accident, she could barely live with herself and knowing the pain she put him through, but still was asking him go through it all again.
But Desiree was only growing more and more powerful, they couldn't just defeat her with Fenton gadgets. Especially when the only ones that were, assumingly, still around was the Spectre Deflector that Sam wore, and her only Fenton thermos and Jack-o-Nine tails. They'd be killed. They needed a half ghost. They needed Danny Phantom.
And almost as if on cue, the first cry of fear rang out.
Panicked screaming filled the store, and she could feel the ground rumble as people began to run. Her head shot up to see a ghost with sharp claws, the trademark sweater and fedora, pale skin. Sam could recognize the legendary movie monster.
Nightmerica.
"Danny, you have to-" Sam cut herself off as one look reminded her of everything. Danny's pale, pale, frightened expression as he was frozen to the spot. He didn't have his ghost powers anymore. He wasn't his powerful and confident self.
Fuck. It was...truly on her.
Sam reached into her backpack, digging around for the Jack-o-nine tails. Her hands found the Fenton thermos first, and she immediately attacked it to a loop on the anti-ghost belt before digging back in for her weapon. She grasped it, and she pulled it out, dropping her backpack and letting her newly freed hand turn on the Spectre Deflector.
"What the hell are you doing?" Danny's voice called out to her, completely baffled, but Sam ignored him.
Pressing the side button to let the invention activate, she began to charge. A net came out, and she spun it around above her head like a lasso.
Nightmerica had occupied herself with chasing after Paulina, the teen barely managing to dodge. Sam nearly skidded to a halt, throwing the net forward. The net wrapped itself around the ghost in a cacoon of webbing and ropes. A hard jerk of the pole, but Nightmerica stayed in place, jerking wildly in hopes of freeing herself. Sam gritted her teeth. This was a lot physically harder than she expected.
"Come on," she mostly muttered to herself, and she moved her left foot back, pulling harder. She could feel some sweat collecting on her forehead.
Finally, Nightmerica came to her, being jerked forward, and Sam grinned. She unhooked the thermos from the belt, and using a thumb, popped off the top. It rolled onto the floor, and she sucked the ghost in. The bright blue beam ensnared her, and she screamed in protest. The jack-o-nine tails dropped as it's ghost was captured, and Sam pressed the side button to retract the netting. She scanned the floor for the cap, and she put it back on, stopping the steam of the Fenton thermos as it powered down.
"...You've done this before." Danny wasn't asking, almost lightly accusing her. Sam could only shrug.
"...More than you could ever remember," she said, and she glanced down at the thermos in her hands. That wasn't too hard...maybe she could take on Desiree solo, and without ghost powers. The Fentons kicked butt without having to resort to ghost powers. Same with the Guys in White.
...That was what she tried to convince herself as her mind tried to ignore the countless times that this simply didn't work out. The amount of times the ghost got away because the human hunters couldn't keep up with the speed of a flying ghost, or how hard you went down because there was very few ways to match the strength and raw, internal power of a ghost. You were fucked if your weapons all were taken out of commission.
Danny studied her carefully, his eyes stealing a quick, nervous look at Tucker for some kind of help. Tucker did nothing but watch their exchange. Nobody spoke as Sam quietly relocated her bag, putting the thermos and the Jack-o-nine tails into it, before finding her book, letting it slip inside as well. Danny hesitantly cleared his throat.
"...L-look, you have my attention now," he said slowly. Sam glanced at him curiously. "Let's talk more."
Her heart thumped wildly. She zipped her backpack shut, slinging it quickly onto her back and reaching out to grab his wrist. Her other hand grabbed Tucker's.
"Finally!" she exclaimed. "Let's go!" Danny paled once more.
"Right now?" he squeaked.
"Yes, we have to stop Desiree!" Sam insisted, tugging on both of their wrists. Danny refused to budge, swallowing nervously, despite Tucker taking a half-step forward. Tucker was, very uncharacteristically, silent, though Sam knew that this was because he was also very unsure and apprehensive about this. The geek was simply glancing back and forth between the two as they had their exchange.
"I'm not ready to die," Danny's voice barely came out, and Sam stopped pulling.
"Please, you have to trust me," Sam found herself begging.
"...Okay?" Danny hesitantly spoke. "I...trust you."
She knew he didn't.
"It's all clear."
Sam glanced up from the photos in her hand to see Tucker coming back down the stairs. Her eyes drifted to Danny. He was standing in front of the portal, the eerily familiar metallic inside being exposed. There was no familiar green opening, just the dark, cave-like insides. The cables were still all over the floor, having not been tied off yet and out of the way.
When Tucker spoke, Danny had turned to look at him. The youngest Fenton had his arms crossed over his chest, and he was bouncing in place, though he stopped at the words. He still looked pale, and Sam bowed her head at the console before him. She flipped to reference another photo, and she began to rearrange the dials so that it was the exact same.
"C-cool," Danny spoke shakily. "Hey uh...Sam, right? How's it going there?"
How was she supposed to ask him to do this? To go through with this? He was terrified and putting his trust in who he only knew right now as a total stranger. Could she really ask him to go through all that pain again? Sam was now beginning to doubt that she could even go through with witnessing that again. Tucker, in a strange way, was going to have the blessing that this was his "first" time experiencing this.
But Danny's screams after that portal blast...those noises still haunted her.
"Uh, pretty good," she lied. She had to keep some semblance of composure. "I'm guessing if we just, ya know, set everything to exactly the way it was before, when it happened, that it'll happen again."
Her hands messed with the dials and buttons, pushing them to mirror the photo exactly.
"So, are you really sure about this?" Tucker finally spoke. She wasn't sure who he was speaking to, or if he was just talking aloud, but...No. She wasn't. Well, Sam had no doubt that it'd happen again. But everything else...
"No," Danny replied. "But...we all saw those things…"
"Somebody's gotta stop them," Tucker finished for him, giving a nod of understanding. Danny exhaled deeply, his shoulders drooping as he looked back at the portal.
"And apparently that somebody's gotta be me," he said. His gaze fixed on the inside of the portal. It was hauntingly dark in there, despite the bright lights of the lab. "...I know I always wanted to go in there." He stopped, his eyes roaming the outside structure before staring straight into the seemingly endless tunnel. "...I mean, who knows what kinds of awesome, super cool things exist on the other side of that portal once you get it working? But just…" His hand reached out to touch the outlining of the doors, letting his palm slide down the smooth surface slowly. "I'm…I'm not ready to die."
"You're not going to die," Sam told him. The boys looked to her, and she was clutching a white jumpsuit with touches of black. She held it up before tossing it to Danny. His hand reached up, and he caught it with ease before bringing it down to stare at it. "You just get ghost powers. It's super cool, I promise."
Danny stared down at the jumpsuit in his hands, running his thumbs over the material. He slowly began to shake his head no. He dropped the jumpsuit, putting his hands up.
"No," he whispered. "No. I-I can't. I can't, I'm, this, this is absolutely crazy. I can't do it. I won't do it." Sam's heart fell. She rushed forward to scoop the jumpsuit up.
"The world needs Danny Phantom!" she protested. Blue eyes stared coldly at her.
"Well, there's gonna have to be a new Danny Phantom, which, sorry, is a fucking dumb name anyway. Fenton, Phantom? That's so obvious," he scoffed. "I'm not doing this. I'm-I can't! It's crazy! A human with ghost powers is crazy!"
"It does sound kinda wack, Sam," Tucker agreed. Danny gestured wildly to Tucker while shooting Sam a dirty look. "It's so risky. I'm with Danny. I don't think he should go in."
Her hands clutched the suit tightly.
"But-"
"But you're asking me to risk my life," Danny cut her off. Her body turned cold and numb at the harsh reminder. "To get some kind of ghost powers, so I can do, well, what? Go and fight monsters, continue risking my life? Turn into this-this, if you're even right and I don't die, this mutated human freak with ghost powers?" His hands were going crazy as he talked, becoming more and more agitated. "Can I remind you that my parents are ghost hunters? And you want me, me, to do that? What good do I even get out of this deal? It, it, it fucking sucks. I'm not doing this. No dice, no deal."
"...You're right," she finally agreed. They shot her a skeptical look. Both expressions turned into looks of horror as she began to unzip the jumpsuit, putting her right foot into the suit.
"W-what are you doing?" Danny asked, narrowing his eyes at her. Sam stared up at him as she slipped the other foot in, pulling the suit up over her arms.
"Amity Park needs a half ghost hero," she told him. Her stomach turned into knots as the reality began to sink in, just as she pulled the zipper up to her mid-chest. She began to pull her hair up, making sure that it wasn't stuck under the suit before she finally zipped the rest up. "And you're right. It's not fair of me to ask you to make such a sacrifice, to trust somebody you barely know. But the world needs Danny Phantom. Whether it's the actual Danny Phantom, or just another half ghost hero...the humans need somebody to protect them. So I guess it's gonna be me."
Danny went from annoyed to horrified. Tucker paled.
"Y-you sure? It's crazy, it's so dangerous!" Tucker said. Sam shrugged, putting her hand on the side of the portal.
She took her first step in, taking a deep breath. She forced a smile to show to the others as she looked over her shoulder.
"Well...Somebody's gotta do it," she replied, and she began to walk in.
In her memories, Danny always kept his hand to the wall. And so she did the same. Letting her palm lightly brush against the wall as she walked slowly down, her eyes flickering around briefly but always kept on the empty void before her. How deep did it go? It couldn't be that deep. This was still a residential home. But it looked, and it certainly felt, endless. Before her, she could see what she thought was the end, but nothing was hap-
Her hand slid over something small, something that lightly pressed inwards with the faintest click that immediately sparked a loud, rumbling reaction. The darkness was instantly flooded away in bright, blinding white and green light.
She began to scream, and it slowly turned into pained wailing. It hurt. It hurt so bad. Danny had never mentioned just how much it hurt. Electricity shocked her, and the tingling felt like it'd never end. Sam had to get out. She had to get out, abort mission, abort mission. It hurt worse than anything else she had ever experienced. Her heart thudded like crazy as her head spun, and she reached out. For what, she didn't know, she just had to get out, and she felt something. She grabbed it, and she pulled herself forward.
Almost immediately she stumbled to her knees, bending over as one arm wrapped around her stomach and another clenched at her chest.
"O-o-oh my f-f-f-f-fucking g-go-od," Danny's trembling voice only barely registered to her. It hurt, it hurt.
Sam forced her eyes to open, and despite being blurred by tears, she could tell that she was kneeling on the familiar tiles of the FentonWorks lab. She could see Danny kneel next to her, putting a hand on her back, and hear Tucker rushing towards her.
"S-Sam?" Tucker's voice was shaky too. "Holy shit, are you okay?"
No, she wasn't okay, but she couldn't form any words. She just kept breathing heavily, feeling tears escape. Even those were painful, feeling like harsh shocks on her cheeks.
"Wait, s-so a-are you d-d-dead?" Danny asked. Sam finally focused on herself.
The jumpsuit she had put on had inverted colors, leaving her with white gloves. The jumpsuit was black. She took her hand off her stomach to grasp at her hair, pulling it into view. To her surprise, it was a light blue-purplish color. The portal must have inverted her natural hair color, a blonde-orange, instead of the dyed black she had.
"H-half," she clarified.
"What's going on down there?" Jack's voice boomed.
The three teens froze, and they looked at each other.
"Oh fuck, it's your dad. I gotta change back," Sam gasped. She reached out, grasping the front of Danny's shirt in her first. "I gotta change back to normal. Danny, how do I change back?" His eyes widened.
"Change back?" he repeated, absolutely baffled. "You can change ba-what? How? Uh, I dunno how!" His hands gestured frantically. "Ju-just? Uh, t-think about it? Or something!? I dunno!" Her eyes welled up with more tears, this time of frustration. Everything still was tingling.
"You were the half-ghost before," she half-cried.
"Sam, just relax," Danny tried to soothe her. He reached out to lightly stroke her hair, doing his best to comfort her. "Ju-just try thinking about it? Or at least calming down, what would calm you down? You know more than us."
"Guys?" Tucker interrupted them, his tone hitching up a few notches as the trio all heard Jack open the door, and begin to come down the stairs. Sam's breathing picked up rapidly. She had to change back, how was she supposed to change back? Why did she never ask Danny how he did the things he did? Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Sam felt Danny wrap an arm around her back, pulling her to him. She allowed herself to be pulled into his chest in a tight hug. He kissed her forehead, and Sam finally felt her muscles relax as the electrical tingling died down.
"Chill, it's okay." Surprisingly, he didn't sound so scared or anxious. Whether he had pulled it together for her or the relief of not having to take on the ghost powers finally hitting him, it was what she needed. "Just take a deep breath." Sam did just that. "Think about changing back."
Jack stepped down into the lab to the odd sight. His son's best friend looking like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, staring straight at him with wide eyes and visible sweat. His son was cradling a girl he didn't recognize, in a skirt and tank top with purple leggings and boots. Jack frowned.
"What the hell is going on here?" he demanded to know. "Danny, have you been messing with the portal? You could have been killed. You and I are going to have a talk. Tucker!" The geek made a frightened "eep!" sound. "Get on home, I won't tell your parents." The pale-faced geek needed nothing else, and he quickly began to rush up the stairs. "And you!" His attention directed to a fully human-looking Sam. "Who the hell are you?"
Sam pulled away from Danny, feeling her cheeks flush hard as she struggled to think. Her muscles ached, and her head was willing her.
"Um, I'm...Paulina?" she said slowly.
"Danny's not allowed to see you anymore, Paulina. You need to go home," Jack told her with a deep frown.
Sam felt too tired to be proud of her own move, or even smile. She nodded slowly, and she tried to get up. Her legs felt too weak.
Danny, thankfully, seemed to notice, as he scrambled to his feet and offered a hand out to her. She accepted it, allowing him to pull her to her feet.
"Uh, lemme walk...Paulina out," Danny said. Jack motioned for them to shoo, his eyes focused on the operating portal as he walked past them to fully examine it. His eyes followed his dad, and he leaned in to whisper in Sam's ear, "Can you walk?"
Sam hesitantly took a step forward. She was immediately shaky.
"...I dunno," she admitted.
"Here, lemme-" Danny cut himself off as he wrapped an arm around her waist. They began to walk together up the stairs, slowly. "Do you want me to walk you home?" She shook her head.
"I'll call my mom and have her come get me," she replied. The idea of walking the several blocks home right now made her want to die. Even with assistance. Danny nodded.
"We can wait in the living room," he told her, and he took her to exactly there, carefully helping her to sink comfortably into the couch. Sam sighed deeply in relief at the comfortable cushioning, and she pulled her cellphone out.
Danny took a seat next to her on the couch. He said nothing as Sam had to not only quietly request her mom to pick her up, but explain where she was and lie about why she was there. The only bright side, it seemed, to all of this was that her parents had no reason (yet) to hate the Fentons.
She hung up, putting her phone back into her skirt's pocket, and she leaned into the cushions with a deep sigh as she closed her eyes.
"...Um...Sam?" Danny squeaked. She lazily opened her eyes, glancing down to see that her legs were invisible. She sighed, reaching for a throw blanket to toss over them for now. Figuring that out was not on her list of priorities right now. "...Is that going to uh...happen a lot?" She gave a disheartened hum.
"Probably," she slurred out.
"...So you really...everything you said was true."
Sam glanced at him before nodding.
"...Yeah."
"...I still don't remember it."
"We'll fix it," Sam promised. She held her hand out for him to take, and he accepted it. She squeezed his hand. "Before you know it, or well, remember it, it'll be back to the way things were."
"Will you still be half ghost? Like instead of me?" Danny asked. She shrugged. He looked down at their hands. "...We were dating, weren't we?" Her face flushed darkly, and she shook her head. He frowned. "But, what? We had to be."
"No, we were only best friends," Sam clarified, feeling her heart tingle once more. His hand squeezed hers.
"But just...," He shifted in his seat a bit to better face her, letting go of her hand in the process. His elbow rested on the back of the couch. "There was almost this...like, connection, and I dunno, it just really kind of felt like I knew you my whole life, and stuff, and...I dunno."
"We'll figure it out," she assured him with a light smile. "I gotta say, I don't really know like...what the game plan is after this. So I'm just gonna have to make it up as I go. But we can do it. We've done it like, hundreds of times before. We totally got this."
Sam felt her phone beginning to vibrate, and she immediately pulled it out. It was her mom, and she answered.
"Hey, Mom...Yeah it's the big FentonWorks signs...Yeah, yeah, it's super hard to miss...I'll tell you specifically on the way home, I'm headed outside now so you can see me...Alright, love you too. Later."
She hung the phone up, and she pulled the blanket off her legs. Thankfully, they were visible, and she pulled herself to her feet. Sam still felt a bit wobbly, but it wasn't nearly as bad as earlier.
"Here." Danny sprung up from the couch to link his arm with hers, helping her walk to the front door. As they reached the front door, she slowly pulled away from him, motioning for him to stay.
"Uh, I got it from here. I really don't want my mom to think that I was here for you, she'd never let me live it down," Sam said. He nodded in understanding.
"Yeah, my dad will probably hassle me about having a girl over," he sighed. Sam flinched.
"Are you really gonna be in trouble for this?" she asked. Danny shook his head.
"Nah, once my dad can see that the portal's open, he'll likely forget all about it," he grinned, but it dropped. "Just uh, stay safe, okay."
"I will," she promised. She opened the front door, seeing her mom's familiar car parked across the street. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."
She gave him a final smile, and she slipped out of the Fenton home. The new half-ghost closed the door behind her, and with a slightly pained sigh, made her way to her mom's car to head on home.