Reputation

The force of Phantom snapping back into Danny's body sent a shockwave through the cavern, the structure rumbling once more. Dan tried to tighten his grip, only for Phantom to send a quick tendril of ice at his head. The elder ghost dodged, letting his grip slip from Phantom for just a second. Just long enough.

Phantom twisted himself from Dan's grasp, hissing furiously as he felt his skin peel away from him. That was gonna leave a scar. Pushing the pain aside, he twisted midair, finding a fighting stance across from Dan.

"Phantom, you're back," the monster licked his lips, snakelike tongue flicking between pointed teeth. "Here to save your boy?"

"You're outnumbered. You lost your only bargaining chip. What could you possibly be smiling about?!" Phantom yelled, throwing a beam of ice and electricity at the ghost. He dodged expertly, grinning from ear to ear.

"Can't you see? I didn't come to kill him. That comes later. Why don't you take a look down at your little team."

Phantom stilled, eyes fluttering down to the crowd below him. A few of the floodlights had fallen from the walls, and some of the teens had been struck. A few were bleeding, the others scrambling to help. Meg was staring up at Phantom, fear permeating her entire form. She wasn't the only one, joined by the likes of Wes and Nat and Kwan, amongst others.

"Oh shit," Phantom hissed, mind swimming dangerously. The pain was catching up with him, and Danny was still under the influence of Dan's panic attack, which was quickly sapping both of their energy. He needed to help — Danny needed to help — but Dan was right there and everything was spinning, faster and faster and—

"My work here is done," Dan snapped his fingers, dissipating into a swirl of dense green mist.

Phantom looked back down at the crowd before his senses strobed in and out of awareness. He plummeted towards his peers, grunting as he fell against something solid. No, someone solid.

"Phantom," Dash's voice sounded far away, concern coloring his inflection. "Was that...is that true?"

Phantom looked right into Dash's eyes, watching as he gasped. That's right, silver eyes, not green. "Don't believe a word that monster says. I- I'll explain everything, but—"

Dash watched with concerned eyes as Phantom squeezed in on himself in pain. He coughed up a bit of silver liquid, which only pulled Dash's brows closer together. "What's going on? Danny?"

"I'm not him," Phantom was gargling on the fluid now, coughing and spitting it on himself. "I can't- he's here, but I'm also—"

Phantom cut himself off with a volley of hacking coughs, liquid now dripping to the floor. He knew he had to retreat into his cores again to heal, but first he needed to know he could trust Dash.

"I don't understand—" Dash began.

"I'm Danny's ghost," Phantom forced the words through clenched teeth, the fluid draining from between them as he spoke. "I was made the first time he died, and I'm able to take over like this because he died again."

Dash's expression was a strange mix of pity, rage, confusion, and something Phantom couldn't quite figure out. "I- what—?"

"I'm telling you because you need to know that—" Phantom choked on the fluid, spitting it down onto himself with another pained shudder. "You need to know that there's still a human in here. Danny's still alive, so that monster — Dan — is wrong. Keep him safe, because I—" another volley of coughs, "I can't. Not right now."

Dash's eyes swam, processing the influx of information. "I- of course I'll protect him. I promise."

Phantom nodded, eyes snapping closed too hard as he was sucked forcefully back into his cores.

Danny was having a dream. Correction, Danny was having a nightmare, a horrible looping series of events.

First, it was the first time he'd seen Dan. His power had made Danny so excited, the prospect of what he could do filling him with adrenaline. Of course, that shattered when it truly sunk in what his evil alternate self was doing.

Then, it was their first meeting. He was writhing in pain even in his dream, the fusion of Clockwork's time medallion to his core burning furiously. He felt it over and over, cascading across his entire form with ever shallow breath.

That wasn't the worst of it, though. Far worse, permeating every cell of his being, was the sensation of Vlad ripping the medallion out of him. He'd nicked his core — just one, at the time — and it had sent him spiraling. He forced the recovery, though. He needed to get to Dan.

Of course, Danny's fight with his future evil self was the absolute worst of it all. Dan's threats against his parents seared into his being over and over. The prospect of becoming anything like that monster was enough to keep Danny in a haze of fear and rage, pain stuffing itself into his being.

And then, the dream restarted. It was relentless, never letting him rescue his friends and family. He couldn't stop it, couldn't change the events, and it hurt. Everything hurt for too long, over and over. It wouldn't end, and Danny didn't know how much more he'd be able to take.

"Dash—"

"No."

"But you saw- you heard—"

"No. I told you, I know what I know, and I know that Danny's telling the truth," Dash cut Meg off, still holding Danny close to his chest. The younger teen was so light. Suspiciously light. He was still covered in that weird silver stuff. Dash hadn't set him down yet, afraid of what the others might do to the half-ghost if he did.

The board was supposed to be helping the injured, but Dash couldn't. People were hurt, and those who weren't were out for blood. Some of them were out for Danny's blood. He was still trying to figure out if Meg was one of those people, talking quietly with her in one of the long corridors that branches off from the main cavern.

"But he's the reason this is all happening," Meg countered. "That ghost — Dan — he looks just like Danny. Can't you see he was telling the truth? He didn't even try to deny it!"

"He was being tortured," Dash hissed the response, eyes traveling down to the horrifyingly gory wound on Danny's forearm. "You think you'd be able to argue your own humanity while being literally tortured?"

Meg froze at that, pursing her lips. "They're angry, Dash. Danny lied to us. They don't trust him anymore."

"And you?"

Again, she took a moment to answer. "I don't know. None of us ever really got to know him. I don't know him...as a person."

"Well I do," Dash tightened his grip, gut twisting as Danny let out a low, painful sounding groan. "He's the...he..." Dash swallowed hard, looking back up to Meg. "He's the one who made me realize I'm gay. We talked about it. I don't know how he did it, but he forgave me for everything. I was...horrible to him, and he still helped me..."

Meg's stunned silence was deafening. Dash knew she wasn't straight — she'd dated Valerie, after all. She probably just wasn't expecting the jock to come out, but he was hoping the information would build at least a little trust in Danny.

"That ghost said he can feign—"

"And you're going to believe it over Danny?" Dash's eyes snapped up to her, angry and red from holding back tears. "I trust him with my life. Paulina, Star, you saw how he talked to them. Valerie—" he didn't miss the wince that triggered in Meg. "She trusts him, obviously. She was protecting him from his parents, right?"

"Valerie and I—"

"Broke up, yeah, I know," Dash breathed out sharply. "I'm sorry, but you know her. And she trusts Danny. I trust Danny. Star, Paulina, Foley, Manson, they all trust him. Don't you think that means something?"

Meg stared at Dash for a few long seconds before looking down at Danny. She let out a strangled sound at the sight of his arm, stumbling back a bit. "Oh my god that looks horrible. That- that needs to be looked at now."

"I know, but who's going to do it?" Dash asked quickly. "The Fentons...that's a bad idea. Can you—"

"Tucker, on it," Meg grabbed her phone quickly, looking down at it before her attention snapped back up to Dash. "Get him in a room. Block it off. They're going to want to see him. They have questions, but..." she considered her words carefully, eyes scanning the end of the corridor. "His friends...his sister, they need to be here. I don't know if he's ready to talk about it on his own yet."

Dash cocked his head, confusion painting his face. "What do you mean?"

"Physical attacks seems to hurt him mentally and emotionally," Meg explained quickly, dialing Tucker's number on her phone. "Stay with him until he wakes up. Try and bandage his arm if you can. It's not bleeding because it was cauterized while being hurt, but...I don't know, just try something."

Dash nodded, adjusting Danny in his arms. The smaller teen groaned again, gasping and panting quietly. He whined gently with each breath now, as if shifting had awakened a new nightmare. Or maybe it was the pain. "Danny..." Dash brushed the hair away from his face, pulling away and looking down at the slightly green sweat that clung to his fingertips. "Oh...Fenton..."

Meg walked away, on the phone with Tucker now. "Yes, he's here. No, he's not hurt...too badly. Just...hurry," she explained into the phone, rounding the corner out of the corridor and into a different, smaller cavern. Dash looked down at Danny once more, nodding with certainty and heading out to find an unoccupied room. He'd make sure Danny was alright, no matter what it took.

"Danny's where?" Valerie gasped, face flushing pale as she stiffened in her spot next to Jazz. She had been sitting in one of the many living rooms with her, letting her company calm the older teen.

"He's with Team Phantom, and it's bad," Tucker was pacing, Sam standing quietly in the doorway behind him. They had been sitting together in a different room, processing and waiting. "We need to leave now."

Jazz nodded, starting to get up before Valerie pulled her back. "Wait, are you ok to drive?"

"Do I have a choice?" Jazz's voice sounded so empty. She cleared her throat, offering a feigned laugh. "I'll be fine. Danny's in trouble. Tucker, explain on the way."

Tucker gave a quick explanation as the teens loaded into the Specter Speeder, Jazz turning on the camouflage once more. The drive would be a few hours, even going as fast as possible. Valerie joined Jazz up front again, he'd hand resting on Jazz's forearm. Somehow they had established a human contact agreement, where when one of them were struggling, the other would ground them with a hand hold or arm squeeze.

"So he's injured, unconscious, and with Dash, of all people," Tucker concluded from the back of the Speeder, tone heavy as he spoke. "A lot of Team Phantom is...they're afraid. And Dan told them the truth so now...they're afraid of Danny. Meg and Dash are keeping him safe, but..."

"I'm going as fast as I can," Jazz took a deep breath, stepping harder in the gas. "Nobody's laying a finger on my little brother. We'll make it there in a few hours."

"They wouldn't really..." Sam's voice was spitting and angry, rage filling the vehicle. "They wouldn't really hurt him, would they?" Nobody answered, which only caused Sam to let loose a volley of curses. "They named their entire fucking organization after him! How could they- they can't just—"

"But they don't really know him," Tucker reminded her, voice low and comforting. "Not like we do. They idolized him, and that can shift way too easy."

Sam stayed quiet at that, leaving the four teens in stunned, scared silence. "I'm hurrying," Jazz finally rasped, voice shaking. "I'm going as fast as I can."

Hey all! What do you think?

Sorry for the late update - I usually try to post earlier in the day than this. Speaking of update schedules, I'm going to have to cut back to posting twice a week - Mondays and Thursdays. The next time I'll be posting is on Monday. I'm sorry cutting back, but I'm starting a new job here and really want to make sure I'm proud of my work before posting it :)

That being said, thank you to everyone who's stuck with me through all this craziness! I'm so excited for what I have planned :)

Until next time,

~Ash