By the time the final bell rang, Danny almost didn't have enough energy to deal with Vlad. Between various people bombarding him about his "relationship" with Phantom and trying to comprehend what had happened in the locker room, he felt more mentally drained than he'd felt in a long time. Questioning how he'd missed not being considered a loser for so long was a nice distraction for a short while, but it didn't take long for his brain to force him to think about what happened with Phantom. He knew it was just a scheme to get back at Dash for talking shit, seeing as his own mind went to a similar tactic in his dream last night, but he couldn't help but feel embarrassed by how much he enjoyed it. Quite vocally, too. He only hoped that Phantom assumed that he was in on the bit and was acting. Danny didn't think he could take a pity filled apology from Phantom for accidentally leading him on.
"I'm so sorry, Danny. I never meant to let you think I could want you like that."
All the other students going on about how they make such a good couple certainly didn't help. They didn't know that Danny was just Phantom's boring, regular old human self. They'd never understand why the ghost would never be attracted to him. Not that Danny wanted Phantom to want him or anything. But it seemed that the idea of being unappealing hurt even if it came from someone who is just your other-worldly, weirdly hot ghost self. The sooner they could be one person again, the sooner he wouldn't have to worry about the chance of being politely turned down by himself. Not that he was interested! It was just going to be awkward, that was all.
Phantom shifted his weight on Danny's shoulders as he removed his bag and opened his locker to take out everything he didn't need over the weekend. Danny wondered if Phantom was still feeling low and needed the support, or if he had remained out of comfort, but he refrained from asking in case Phantom took it as a subtle "get off" clue. The poor ghost had enough to deal with without adding the anxiety that he was bothering Danny.
"Hey Tucker, is it still fine for me to swing by tonight to pick up your LED sound system?" Danny turned to see Mikey flagging down Tucker, who had nearly made it to Danny's locker. Tucker gave a double click and finger guns to the other nerd in response, which won a quick eye roll and a fond smile from him. Seeming to catch Danny in the corner of his eye, he turned fully towards him and approached.
"Are you sure you can't make it tomorrow? It's going to be a pretty big party, so everyone's going to be there." Mikey checked, looking carefully hopeful. Danny paused to think. Over the years he'd basically had to turn down every party invitation he'd received because he had a responsibility to patrol. He also knew that if there was underage drinking at any of the parties he probably would cave to peer pressure and join in, which would have horrible consequences if a ghost attacked and he was drunk. It had been better to just avoid the temptation all together. However, with being separated from Phantom, suddenly it all felt like a viable option for him now. He'd have to talk it through with Phantom first, though. If Phantom wanted to go but couldn't because of their responsibilities, Danny would never agree to such an unfair arrangement. But, if Phantom didn't care…
"I'll try to make it." Danny replied, hoping it was vague enough so that if he didn't end up going nobody's feelings would get hurt. Mikey grinned at the answer, giving a cheerful nod before pivoting away, stumbling to avoid bumping into Sam as she made her way to Danny.
"Hey Danny, you up for some Nasty Burger?" She asked with a strange nervousness he wasn't used to seeing from her. It was also weird that she went straight for where he'd want to go, instead of trying to convince him to go to a more vegan friendly location.
"Sorry, already made plans with Phantom to go hound Vlad for answers about what's going on with us." He apologised, offering a sincere smile and ignoring her facial twitches on the words "plans" and "us". A snort from Tucker pulled Danny's attention to his other best friend.
"That's a weird idea for date night, but you do you." He teased, laughing at his own joke. Danny felt his cheeks heat up with embarrassment.
"Shut up, dude! You're enjoying this way too much!" Danny reprimanded, which only made Tucker laugh more. Sam growled and crossed her arms.
"I'm so sick of everyone talking about it. They all need to get a life, seriously." She grumbled, scowling as her eyes darted off to the side. Danny shifted on his feet uncomfortably, feeling Phantom squirm on his back presumably with a similar feeling. The gossip was annoying, but it wasn't as bad as Sam was making it out to be. It wasn't even about her, so why in the world was she this mad?
"Anyway, I better head off. The sooner I get interacting with Vlad out of the way, the better." He farewelled with an awkward wave, before turning and making his way to the front of the school.
"Okay Phantom, before we head in there we need some sort of game plan. If Vlad is really behind this, then he'll have some sort of mind game in plan, so we need to be ready to counter it. But, if he's not behind this, him finding out about it could give him an edge on us, so we shouldn't put all our cards on the table unless it's absolutely necessary." Danny explained as he walked briskly up the path that led to the front door of Vlad's front door.
"Got it." Phantom responded invisibly from the space beside Danny. With a deep breath, Danny centred himself before entering the manor. As long as they kept cool heads, nothing Vlad could do or say would get to them. He made a beeline for Vlad's study, figuring that's where Vlad would go if he wanted to look busy. Not that he ever was. It had been years since he was mayor, and he left most of the hard work for his company to other people. Sure enough, there he was, sitting at his desk with random papers spread over it and putting on a face that made it look like he was reading what was on them. Danny let the door to the study close loudly behind him, giving Vlad the opportunity to pretend he hadn't noticed Danny come in and look up with a "pleasantly surprised" expression and rise to his feet.
"Daniel? Why, isn't this a pleasant surprise!" Vlad greeted predictably. Danny rolled his eyes.
"I don't know why you bother with the façade when we're alone. I'm not dumb enough to think I can sneak up on you without you noticing and you know it." He said dryly, winning a creepy grin from the elder Halfa.
"That's fair. But I must admit, I was truly surprised when I sensed you arriving on my property. To what do I owe this unexpected visit?" Vlad replied with an all too innocent tone.
"Cut the crap, Fruit Loop. Tell us what you did to us and why." Phantom growled, suddenly making himself visible beside Danny.
"What the fuck, Phantom? We were supposed to play it cool!" Danny complained, frowning at his ghost half with disappointment. Phantom winced, before grimacing at Danny.
"Sorry, Danny. I underestimated how annoying he would be." He apologised, blushing green with shame. Danny rolled his eyes before turning back to Vlad. He could work on Phantom's impulse control later. When he refocused on Vlad, he was immediately thrown off by how bad the older Halfa suddenly looked. He's dropped his "friendly" expression for a more horrified one, face having paled several shades and making it look like the man was about to be sick.
"Vlad? Are you okay?" Danny asked with more concern than he thought he had for the man.
"No…it can't…I can't be too late." Vlad mumbled in distress.
That can't be good.
"Too late for what?" Phantom pushed, wearing an expression of similar worry to what Danny felt. Seeming to not hear the question, Vlad collapsed backwards into his chair.
"I thought I had more time. You'd stayed together for so long, I got too comfortable. It was stupid of me! I wasted so much time! I should have listened to him." Vlad continued to ramble in a daze.
"What do you mean? Who is "him"?" Danny asked.
"Me." The familiar, ghastly voice that spoke from behind them caused both human and ghost to whip around to see Plasimus floating in front of the door with a frighteningly agitated expression. Before either of them could ask what was going on, Plasimus hovered past them towards Vlad with a scowl.
"I warned you that you were getting complacent, but you ignored me. Now look, it's too late now and it's all your fault." The ghost growled at his human counterpart, who grew more distressed by the second.
"Can one of you explain what the fuck is going on?" Phantom exclaimed, his voice sounding half angry and half scared. Vlad's eyes snapped into focus and glared at Phantom.
"What happened is that you've finally separated from your host and we never found out how you managed to stay one person!" The emotional man shouted back.
The words felt like a psychic attack, hitting him like a brick wall. What was that supposed to mean? Phantom knew what it sounded like it meant, but that couldn't have been it. Vlad knew that he and Danny were the same person, so why did he call Danny his host? Why was he acting like he was expecting them to split one day?
"What are you talking about? You of all people know that Phantom and I are the same person!" Danny snapped from beside him. Both Vlad and Plasimus groaned in annoyance.
"No, I only let you think that in the hope that not knowing the truth would allow you to remain of one body and mind for longer, to give me more time to discover the secret to it. I knew if I told you the truth, it would force you apart and I'd lose my chance to learn from you." Vlad explained, looking very irritated that he had to take time out of freaking out to go over this.
"There's no such thing as a Halfa in the way you believe it to be. The real definition of a Halfa is when a ghost connects their soul to a living host, allowing a symbiotic relationship between the two that gives the human access to power and the ghost a foothold in the living world." Plasimus added, equally bothered that he had to explain this to them.
Phantom felt like he was going to be sick. This had to be some sort of trick. Some sort of manipulation to drive a wedge between his human and ghost halves. He'd seen Vlad use doubles all the time to appear as Vlad and Plasimus at the same time. This can't be any different.
"No. You can't trick me like this. I know who I am. I'm Danny. I'm just our ghost half, not some random ghost that has attached itself to him." Phantom argued, voice shaking as he attempted to push down the sinking feeling in his chest. His statement seemed to amuse Plasimus, who broke into a sinister, bellowing laugh.
"You poor, stupid child. Did you really think you were him? A human boy with family and friends that love him?" The older ghost jeered. Phantom felt his breathing become shallow and panicked. He wanted to tell him to shut up, but he couldn't form the words through the terror in his mind.
"I suppose the stupidity and the delusion was what gave you success. If either of you were smart enough to realise the truth, Daniel's mind would have automatically ejected the foreign presence. By thinking you belonged, he never noticed that you didn't." Plasimus continued in a malicious tone, edging closer to Phantom. He felt colder than he'd ever felt before, like he could set off a spontaneous ice age. Suddenly, a fiery hot hand pulled him back and he was behind a very angry looking Danny.
"Shut the fuck up and stay back, asshole." Danny warned, looking ready to throw down with the looming ghost ahead. Phantom wanted to grab Danny and run. He wanted to fly back home and burrow into his warm neck and wipe this entire conversation from his mind. But he couldn't move. He couldn't even reach forward and hold Danny. Plasimus huffed at the display, rolling his eyes.
"I am only speaking the truth." He scoffed.
"So we're just supposed to believe that we some how tricked ourselves into thinking we were one person?" Danny questioned with disbelief.
"In a way, you really were one person. We experienced the same thing, only for a far shorter amount of time. Unfortunately we were both too intelligent and aware for it to last. You have no idea how lucky you have been to experience that unity for so long!" Vlad piped up, pushing out of his seat and making his way to Plasimus' side.
"We've been trying to find a way to recreate your success without needing full ignorance for the fusion to be stable. We worked so hard at first because we had no idea how much time we'd have before you figured it out." Vlad monologued as though they'd give a shit about his plight.
"But you grew complacent, assuming that because they hadn't split after a year that they'd never split. You thought we had all the time in the world and you wasted what time we did have!" Plasimus berated, turning to Vlad with a spiteful expression. If Phantom wasn't busy freaking the fuck out, he'd be surprised to see Vlad bursting into tears.
"I know! I ruined everything, and now we'll never…ugh!" Vlad lamented, collapsing into Plasimus' arms. The ghost cradled his human for a few moments, before his face snapped up to Phantom and Danny.
"GET OUT!" He commanded with a howl. Not wanting to stick around, Phantom let Danny grab his hand and be dragged out of the manor. It wasn't until they'd made it to the street that Phantom found himself capable of moving. His first point of action was to curl in on himself and stare at the pavement as he tried to process what had just happened.
I'm not really Danny, am I?
The more he thought about it, the more he knew it was true. Their mind had always felt too crowded. It never made sense that someone could have their DNA rewritten in such a neat way just from being hit with energy. Danny had been fused with something, but not just ectoplasm, a ghost. Him. He was what the accident combined Danny with. He must have been so desperate to stay that he was willing to become completely absorbed into who Danny was. When he felt attracted to Danny, it wasn't an attraction to himself, it was a pull towards the person he wished he was. The person he deluded himself into thinking he was.
"Phantom?" The ghost's eyes snapped up to find the object of his delusions watching him with caring, concerned eyes. This was who he spent years believing he was. This beautiful, heroic, living boy. An icy hand squeezed at his core as he stared into this human's face as it completely hit him that this was not who he was. He was…
"I… I have no idea who I am." Phantom whispered shakily. Danny's face twisted into a sympathetic grimace, looking as though he was trying to find the right thing to say that would help. The tightness in his chest increased. Even now, after finding out that he'd been hosting a parasite that was basically stealing his identity, Danny still wanted to help. Was that inherent goodness ever a part of who Phantom was? Or was it just another stolen aspect?
"Everything that I remember, everything I think, everything I feel… I have no idea how much of it came from me and how much I took from you. Did I even contribute to anything we were?" Phantom continued, feeling the tears roll down his face for the second time that day. At that last part, Danny's face blew out into a horrified expression. Was the human beginning to see what a leech he was?
"Phantom, I…" Danny started to say, but before he could get very far, his eyes began to water and his lower lip began to tremble. If Phantom had a heart, it would have broken at the sight.
"I-I'm so s-sorry! I… I n-never –" Danny stammered through tears, before Phantom cut him off by pulling him into a tight hug and let out a soft hush. He had no fucking clue what Danny would have to be sorry for, but it was clearly hard for him to get out, so whatever it was would have to wait. Danny's arms wound around him firmly and the two of them remained there clinging to each other for what felt like ten seconds and ten hours at the same time. Phantom felt Danny's breathing calm down and realised that his own had too. Gently, he pulled away from the human to get a look at his face. He'd stopped crying, but now he looked incredibly tired.
"Come on. Let's get you home." Phantom directed, pulling away completely and tilting his head in the direction of Danny's home. He held back a wince at thinking of Fenton Works as Danny's home and not his own. He supposed it was fair enough. It was the home of Danny's family, with Danny's parents and sister, not his own. Did Phantom even have his own family? Would they be alive still, or would they have died long ago? Or was he born in the Ghost Zone and didn't have any tie to humanity? Phantom didn't even have any idea of what type of ghost he was. Were these memories about who and what he really was supposed to come back to him over time, or were they all lost forever?
A blazing warmth spread over his hand, and looking down at it led Phantom to see Danny's hand intertwined with it. Past their hands, he saw that the ground beneath their feet was slick with ice, and a quick investigation led him to notice that the ice had been trailing and spreading during the entire time they'd been walking. He shot Danny a grateful smile, but it felt weak. The smile Danny returned looked how his own felt. He wanted nothing more than to make Danny smile for real.
As they approached Fenton Works, Phantom slipped into invisibility and hoped that Danny's parents hadn't switched on the ghost shield while they were at school. Entering the threshold, he let out a sigh of relief that he was able to get it. The feeling only lasted a moment before he realised that it was only a matter of time before one of them noticed it was off, and then he wouldn't be able to enter the home he had lived in for the past four years. Sure, Danny could always just turn it off again, but how long would it take before Danny suggested that he live somewhere else? He'd mean it in the best way, but the idea of staying so far away from Danny made him anxious. Seeing Danny's parents working on an invention at the dinner table did nothing to soothe that anxiety, and a new sense of dread filled his stomach.
Being their son won't protect me anymore.