"How long have you been there?" Danny asked slowly, fidgeting and looking trapped.
"Only a minute. It's okay Danny. You've been through hell. We want to help you," Robin soothed the teen. Danny shook his head.
"Don't. Just don't give me that look," Danny retorted, averting his eyes. Robin blinked in surprise.
"What look?" Robin inquired with confusion.
"I don't want your pity. I hate it. Just… just don't okay. I want to forget everything and when you guys give me those looks I can't," Danny answered. Robin glanced back at his team mates. He hadn't even realised that he'd been giving those kinds of expressions.
Danny knew what was going to come. They'd watched him training. They'd want answers and he knew them well enough from the last few weeks to know they wouldn't take no for an answer. So he tried to prepare himself for the coming questions and to keep his emotions in check.
"Danny, you shouldn't just ignore what happened," Kaldur pointed out. Danny sighed loudly.
"I know! I have Jazz constantly writing to tell me that. But you guys don't understand. I'm not ready to talk about it. I want to focus on getting over it first before confronting it. I want to… I want to be myself again," Danny admitted, deflating as he spoke. It was the most he'd spoken to them about his ordeal.
"What's stopping you?" Garfield asked, understanding the feeling of wanting to escape his sorrows and being unable to do so with everyone around feeling sorry for him. Danny looked up at the green furred boy.
"Memories and fear," Danny whispered and shook his head. He didn't want anyone to know how much his ordeal had affected him but he knew they would get their answers one way or another.
"Fear?" Wally repeated, having only seen Danny's fear when he was trapped in Skulker's net. Danny nodded.
"I'm good at hiding my feelings, especially fear. My parents are ghost hunters, or at least they were, I don't know if they still are. But they didn't know that I'm half-ghost and they hate or used to hate my ghost half. To protect my secret I had to hide how scared I was," Danny explained.
"Is that why you're training by yourself?" Raquel wondered, glancing at the scorched trees. Danny nodded.
"I… I can't trust myself anymore. I need to get my powers back under my control but… but every time I try I flash back to getting caught," Danny revealed.
"What happened?" Zatanna prompted.
"I got shot by a gun that messed with my powers. I-I-I lost complete control. I couldn't… I couldn't protect myself," Danny answered for the first time knowing he had no choice.
"My powers turned against me. I couldn't control my ghost ray or my flight. I phased my foot into the ground and it got crushed," Danny muttered. Robin glanced at the others as they winced in sympathy. He was right. Danny had lost confidence in his powers. And an experience like that… it was perfectly understandable. Even though Robin didn't have powers, he could liken it to losing control of his equipment and that was a frightening thought. But at least equipment could be replaced or thrown away. Powers weren't so easy to fix.
"We'll help you," Kaldur offered. Danny shook his head.
"No. It's not safe," Danny declined immediately.
"Doesn't look it from here. I mean density shifting or whatever that was and firing a bolt of energy. We can handle that," Wally retorted. Danny turned to Wally with a stern expression.
"I have other powers. I could flash freeze you. I've frozen ghosts solid by accident," Danny replied with complete seriousness. The teens blinked in shock. Danny shook his head.
"I didn't tell anyone because I need to do this alone. I need to get over this," Danny mumbled.
"Is this because of what Skulker said?" Artemis asked.
Danny sighed.
"Not exactly. Seeing Skulker… it showed me how bad I've gotten. But now that I'm back on the ghostly radar, I need to be ready. And if I can't even turn intangible how I want. Then I can't be trusted in a ghost fight. If I can't get the basics right, I won't stand a chance," Danny explained.
"Well, why not start with the basics?" Zatanna suggested. Danny turned to her.
"Flight, invisibility and intangibility are the basics," Danny answered.
"Okay, they don't seem dangerous. Let us help you with those," Kaldur replied. Danny bit his lip and shook his head.
"You can't. Invisibility I can do. But flight and intangibility are different. I'm scared of turning myself intangible now after what happened. And flight, I can't do it as Fenton," Danny admitted.
"So turn into Phantom," Wally suggested. Danny shut his eyes hopelessly.
"I can't. Every time I think about it… I can't help but think about… what happened," Danny replied, frustration and desperation clear in his tone. It was then that the team understood how deeply Danny had been affected by what happened. He couldn't even bring himself to use his powers from the memories. But they pushed down their pity for the halfa. They didn't want to make things harder for Danny.
"Have you told Black Canary about this?" Raquel inquired. Danny shook his head.
"This isn't something anyone can help me with. I need to get over this by myself. Talking about it isn't going to help," Danny answered.
"How did you learn to control your powers in the first place?" Garfield asked. Danny snorted.
"Trial and error mostly. Unlike you guys, I don't have a teacher. Well, I had help with my ice powers but that was it," Danny told them. He knew who the teens were. The team had felt it was only fair seeing how they knew Danny's secret.
"Well, how did you figure out your ice powers?" Conner inquired. Danny shrugged.
"They weren't hard to learn to control once I knew what was going on. Frostbite was a great teacher. My ice powers aren't a big problem right now. I had to get that under control first. I just ran a few drills Frostbite taught me. But a lot of my other powers… I can only access them as Phantom. My ghost half is stronger and it's much easier to channel my powers like that," Danny answered.
"How did you figure out your green energy thing then?" M'gann prompted, wondering if Danny just needed to be reminded of how it worked originally. She understood more than most of the teens how losing control of your powers and losing confidence in them was like. After the simulation where she took over by accident and nearly put everyone that died in comas, it had taken time for her to feel confident enough to use her powers again too. But her uncle J'onn had helped immensely. But Danny was refusing any help. How could he regain that confidence without someone to support him?
"Trial and error. And lots of target practice," Danny replied and motioned to the charred trees, telling them that he was already trying that.
"We saw you. You looked like you were in control. Frustration can mess with your aim, but most of your hits looked good," Artemis pointed out. Danny frowned and turned to a nearby tree.
"Aim isn't my only problem now. Intensity is too. Either I hit dead on but with a weak shot, or my shot goes wide and is strong. I can't get it right. Not like I did when I faced Skulker. I don't understand it myself," Danny explained with a shake of his head.
"Let us help you Danny. We're not weak. We can take a hit if it comes to it. Maybe the reason you could do it with Skulker is because you weren't thinking about it," Kaldur requested. Danny sighed.
"It's not a good idea. I guess Black Canary is getting worried and we have training right?" Danny retorted, effectively changing the subject and began to lead the way back to the cave. The team watched Danny go before following him with sighs of defeat. Danny was stubborn.
A little opening up for Danny to the team. If a little reluctant.
But hopefully now that Danny has opened up this much, he'll continue to open up to the team and Black Canary.
Let me know if you guys have any theories on how they might help or try to help Danny.
Until the next chapter.
