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by Ithic Ascendant

It's one thing after another. A cosmic freak, caught halfway between life and death. Lies at the worst time, hidden truths long buried surfacing. Everything he thinks he knows comes into question. As Danny Fenton dies, but not all the way, a series of events is set in motion. The young man faces hardships not faced by any on the planet, slowly shaping him into something more. DP AU

29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29: The King Before Christmas

"So, this Christmas Party thing, is it actually real? Like, seriously?"

Vlad rolled his eyes, but nodded his head. "Yes, Little Badger. It is. It started a dozen or so millennia ago. The date it falls on just so happens to be the same day as Christmas."

"Uh huh." Danny scratched his head in contemplation. "So they decided to call it the annual Xmas party? Does it have anything to do with newer ghosts?"

"For the most part, yes." He sighed. "It's more of a recent fad kind of thing -last two hundred years or so- the holidays lineup and since ghosts are people too, they get to dress up and decorate and party and have fun. The more recent ones made the name more 'hip', if you will." While they had mentioned it in passing over the months, Vlad had finally decided to sit down and explain to him one of the most important holidays to Ghost-kind.

It was surprisingly more annoying than he thought it'd be. Daniel was particularly incredulous of the whole idea.

"It's like a truce thing though? For a couple weeks. Across the whole Ghost Zone?" If his face was anything to go by, the younger Halfa in the lab didn't buy a word of it.

The billionaire shook his hand in a roll, "No, of course not. It's a whole dimension that's parallel to our own. Obviously, there's going to be parts that don't do the same thing as others." Vlad shrugged. "Out quadrant and a few of the neighboring ones celebrate Christmas, and others further out have their own thing too. It's a whole universe out there, just without the need for space suits."

Okay. That's more believable, even if a tad strange. "That's why there hasn't been anything going on the last few days, besides the ferals?"

"Basically," he nodded with a smirk, "ferals are animals for all intents and purposes, they're instinct driven. That's why there's no point in feeling guilt over eating their cores."

Yeah, he got that. He'd been over that for a while now anyways; sure, it freaked out other ghosts, but it's not like he was eating anyone with actual intelligence. Plus it gave him an amazing rush. "And other ghosts can't eat feral cores?"

"Well…" Vlad twirled his finger around in thought, "not necessarily. They can eat cores, even sentient ones. But it's not good for them. I'm not sure why, but it causes extreme mental instability." He sighed and swiped through a few images on his tablet. "My running theory is that their bodies, which are entirely made of ectoplasm, cannot completely assimilate the foreign ghosts' ectoplasm to their bodies. A fragment of the consumed remains and rebels against its predator."

"And we can eat it because…"

The mentor turned to his charge so the boy could see his face, then rolled his eyes with as much exaggeration as he could manage. Then he did it again just to get the point across. "We've gone over this Daniel; since we are still alive, it acts as a filter. We can absorb the ectoplasm completely and benefit from it the most."

Deciding to get back on track, Vlad moved the conversation along. "Enough of that though. Just remember that I want you to be free on Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and the day after if possible."

Danny thought over his schedule.

School was out in less than a week, Tucker was going to go out of town to visit family, and Sam was being forced by her parents to stay home with their own visiting family. Business as usual as far as Christmas went, they've done the same thing for the last ten years so this wasn't anything new. Still, that left his own family to deal with. "You're gonna have to talk to my parents then. They're the only real obstacle since I'm already done with my homework and extra-credit."

Christmas with the Fentons, as far as the younger Halfa could remember, was awful and will remain that way. It sucked, putting it bluntly. No child likes to hear their parents argue, nor do they like getting attacked by food or presents. And despite what most people would think, getting a laser for a present isn't that great when it blows up and gives you a concussion. Jazz hadn't even opened any gifts in years! It took three years in a row to figure that lesson out, and a nice little scar going up his wrist from his palm.

Thanks dad, it was an amazing gift!

At least his mom only got him components for his own tech, which he never bothered with until recently. Danny didn't have the heart to just toss it out, so they've been piling up. But ever since he got into the whole superhero thing, that stockpile he has buried deep in his closet has been seeing some action. Vlad may supply most of his gear, but the experiments have been pretty fun!

Not that he'd ever tell his parents that.

The nightmare that would follow that…

"Don't worry about that, Little Badger." A fanged grin reached the older man's face. "Jack and Maddie owe me a favor and I see no reason they wouldn't allow this when I strongarm them."

"Strongarm…" Danny looked at him strangely with a faint grin, "is that something that a businessman should be saying?"

Vlad let out a loud laugh, "Perhaps! But really, that's just being blunt about it. If you ever go into business Daniel, trust me, it's something you'll get used to." Charisma and reputation alone could only carry someone so far, sometimes a more heavy-handed approach was best, depending on the situation.

Ugh. This wasn't the kind of discussion Danny was interested in. Business and stuff was all fine and dandy, and he thought it was cool that Vlad had gotten to where he is in such a short amount of time. But, that didn't mean he cared all that much. He's fourteen. It just wasn't on his priorities or current interests. Girls, ghosts, powers, video games, horror movies and hanging out with his friends were all up there.

Business speak wasn't.

"Moving on," Danny said quickly, "is it safe to explore the Ghost Zone then? I won't just get jumped?"

His mentor snorted at the obvious deflection. The boy would have to try harder than that to make it seem less obvious. "While it is safer now, that doesn't mean you won't get attacked. It's completely possible that a ghost from outside of our Zone will come by."

"And it's not guaranteed that he'll be friendly." Danny finished for him.

"Yes," Vlad snapped his fingers with a smirk, "it's not. But, now's better than ever, I suppose."

A quick glance at the smart watch on his wrist gave Vlad whatever information he needed, "I won't be able to escort you around, but this will be a good time for you to do some exploring on your own. I won't always be around to guide you, so it's important for you to get used to exploring by yourself."

Danny pumped his fist in excitement. He had been in the Ghost Zone quite a few times, alone too on a couple occasions. However, the most he's ever gone off by himself included his stunt with Fright Knight and that little escapade with Walker. Going around with what amounted to a superpowered chaperon wasn't a teenagers ideal definition of fun. Besides, everyone his age liked their independence.

He rubbed his chest where Vlad had redirected his most powerful attack, it still stung. The phantom pains were concerning, but his mentor explained that it was not out of the ordinary when it comes to unstable ectoplasm. He'd feel it for another week or two before it went away.

Still, while the recent training put things into a clearer… perspective, this learning experience sounded like something Danny could get behind. "Is there anything I should bring?"

"The usual gear should suffice," his mentor said in contemplation, "but, it wouldn't hurt to bring something more. Just in case, you never know when you run into something more than you can handle."

The younger Halfa snarled, "I can handle myself just fine. Even more so if there's a truce going on!"

Since rolling his eyes was getting old, Vlad settled on sending a low-level burst of electricity at his nephew. The pink burst of energy did as intended, and his charge yelped while jumping up. "Must we repeat this again? I thought those lessons actually taught you something."

He flinched at both the words and the memories. "I get it Uncle, I get it, you didn't have to shock me."

Vlad sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yes, you say that Daniel, and yet I have to keep popping your ego when it inflates too much." A red eye glanced at him through his fingers, "Where is this arrogance coming from? A little is fine, welcome even, but I figured your little… remedial lessons I gave you would have curbed this a bit more."

Blue eyes searched through the lab to look for an escape from the conversation. Danny had had enough of getting throttled, thank you very much. "It's not arrogance Vlad, it's confidence. There's a difference." He crossed his arms and kept his eyes glued to the door on the opposite end of the room.

Was that always there?

"Whatever you say, Little Badger." Vlad said tiredly. He was too tired to deal with this right now, not with his most recent projects starting up. "Still, whenever you decide to go into the Zone, use mine if your parents are busy in the lab."

Danny scoffed at that. When weren't they in the lab? "Then I'll be coming over in a couple days to start exploring." The boy took one last look around the lab, his eyes lingering on that new door, before he finally got up and stretched. "We done here? I wanna go flying and see if Jazz wants to watch a movie after."

The older man turned around in his chair and waved at his protégé. "Have fun Daniel! Let me know if Jazz wants to come over for Christmas dinner."

"Sure thing, see ya Uncle!"

---

Jazz didn't like to think she was smart, she knew she was. Top of her grade, and the one after that, and the one after that. By the time freshman year was over, she was already a quarter of the way through with her bachelors.

She took her studies seriously. She knew what she wanted, which was a higher education of the highest quality. She knew how to get it too, through hard work and determination… and a few connections with a family friend. She didn't need that last one, but it was a good fallback, and anyone who's smart has a fallback plan.

She also knew that her brother has been weird lately. Oh, he was a complete spaz before high school started. Jazz could remember how nervous Danny was on his first day of middle school, it was genuinely funny how much of a wreck he was. It was less funny when their parents showed up to hunt the ghosts there. As if that little reputation from grade school wasn't bad enough, they basically nuked his social life on day one.

Luckily, they didn't do that again.

Instead, they took their RV-tank around town to hunt down all the undead invading town. Jazz could appreciate that, it certainly wouldn't be her going after ghosts… but did they have to go after the local superhero too? And blow up everything else along the way? They're lucky the city hasn't sued them for the damages yet!

Danny acting strange and their parents going on the local prowl around the same time is no coincidence. That they also got that creepy portal up and running around the same time, well, it rings a few alarm bells as well. Something strange is going on, and it's entirely obvious to someone in the know. And to someone studying human behavior and as smart as her?

Her brother may as well have written it on his face.

He's getting angry, withdrawing from their family, showing open resentment that only seems to increase when their thick-headed parents don't notice. Jazz didn't blame him, he's not the one at fault. Danny's fourteen and going through puberty all while dealing with their parents strange… quirks.

Yeah, that's the nice way of saying it.

The crude way would be calling them borderline neglectful and unintentionally harmful. They didn't do it on purpose, no, there was no spite or malice with Maddie and Jack Fenton. They're just ridiculously blind and oblivious to matters pertaining to their family. It's not almost embarrassing, it is embarrassing. Jazz hoped to one day educate them on how bad of a job they're doing as parents…

But that day might not come. Dannys' glare gets darker and darker as the days go by, and Thanksgiving was almost a tipping point. She's worried that he may do something stupid, especially with his recent distancing with his friends, but he's smart. He's always been smart, determined too.

Of course, being stubborn came with that package as well, doubly so since he's a teenager. Jazz wasn't so high up on her horse that she wouldn't she's the same, but Danny took it to a new level.

And that's where the problem was. If this wasn't nipped in the bud sometime soon, this would continue until adulthood, and when they all had their own lives to live, it'd never get resolved. Despite being at odds with her freak-ball parents, Jazz didn't want a divided family. Even if they'll never have a normal family, she still wanted one.

Those therapy sessions… she couldn't tell if they're helping. It's an ongoing project, a long-term mission that would take years. She knew that, and Ms. Spectra knew that too, given her experience in the field of Psychology. But the aspiring student didn't feel like they had that kind of time. It was just a gut feeling, a silly thing really…

But there's a reason that people are told to follow their gut-instinct, and if this wasn't resolved soon, Jazz feared it never would be. As irrational and incomprehensive as it all was, if she didn't get to the bottom of this, it'd only get worse.

So, that's how she found herself in front of her brother's room. Days of debating on whether she should confront him about it, undecided if it would be a good idea or not… and her impatience won out in the end. She was curious too, she wanted to pick his mind, to find out what was going on in that head of his. What was making him so angry? It's not a gradual build up -well, not entirely at least. His resentment just spiked out of nowhere, and Jazz wanted to know why.

Still.

For some reason, she found herself nervous. But if anything, Jasmine Fenton was confident and headstrong, and getting nervous about an upcoming conversation? That was beneath her.

Knock Knock

Her fist banged against the door loudly, and anyone on the floor would have heard it. She winced at the volume, 'calm down girl'.

Jazz waited for an entire minute before knocking again, this time with a subdued amount of force. "Danny, are you in there?"

Another minute later and she still had no answer. Sighing to herself, Jazz tried the door handle, and of course, it was locked. Lo and behold, like always, she ran into the other problem that kept cropping up when she wanted to talk to Danny.

He was out of the house so often, their schedules almost never aligned. And when she finally tried to meet up?

Danny's not there.

"Damn it little brother."

---

Flying is fun. Going through the sky, bursting through clouds even faster than a sports car, breaching through the stratosphere -it was easily in his top five pastimes. At least, as of recent, considering he had only had his powers for half a year or so now. Most teenagers couldn't say they had the same hobbies as him, who else could fly around the sky unless they were a meta?

But, coming in at an even tie with flying, might just be exploring.

Ever since he was six, Danny liked to explore. The few mountains around them, the forests that surrounded his small-ish town, going diving in Florida or in the great lakes with his uncle -those were things he relished. It got him out of the house and away from his parents and their creepy science projects. The outdoors didn't scream and roar, they were quiet and peaceful, calming in a storm of unease. Getting away and adventuring became an escape to a… not quite shitty home life, but one that left him and his sister uncomfortable.

Where Jazz found relief in books and knowledge, Danny took to the wilds of Illinois and blundering his way through the woods. He took up drawing, made maps of the surrounding forests, sketched the local flora and fauna.

It was all so… liberating.

And when he was introduced to space? When he found out about astronauts and cosmonauts, and the vast universe just outside of reach? Going where no man or woman has gone before?

He became positively obsessed. Galaxies far and wide, black holes, nebulas, quasars!

Being an astronaut's been his lifelong dream since he's been seven. Becoming a Halfa initially deterred him from that. Supernatural energy -and a lot of it- would undoubtedly show up on tests. Like radiation, they'd flag him and he'd be carted off to some hospital for tests and cures.

Almost flying into space made that dream obsolete. Who needs to be an astronaut when you can just go into space on your own? Sure, he couldn't do it now, but Danny wanted to, and fully planned to explore space when he was older. If six months could almost let him breach through every layer, what would a year do for him? Five? Ten?

Then came the Ghost Zone.

Danny acknowledged the danger it presented. His uncle and mentor had told him in no small detail how dangerous the place is. Ignoring the hordes of possibly unfriendly ghosts that could and would tear him limb from limb, there were natural portals popping up all over the place. Sometimes they led to Earth, other times to another time period or dimension. They lasted anywhere from five seconds, to five days.

Natural portals, roaming feral hordes, Ghost Kings and Queens, the abyssal End, supernatural creatures that end up there through portals -the dangers came in no small numbers.

But the whole Zone was basically another dimension and/or universe. It was both the afterlife and not, perhaps it was a passing point where souls left to their next step in life or death. Danny didn't know. He did know, however, one thing.

Like space, he was going to explore the shit out of it.

Sure, Vlad did get a head start, and no doubt some other ghosts had the same time. But did that matter? No! Armed with high-tech gear, superpowers that can rend metal and stone, and an adventurer's curiosity, this was his dream. No, more than just his dream, but an improvement! Going where no man has ever gone before and exploring it!

For the last hour, it had been amazing.

He started at Vlad's portal and went north. Or rather, as north as north could get in a separate dimension. Cardinal directions were a bit wonky here since everything just moved around, but some things didn't change. Like going right from the portal will lead to the Far Frozen, whatever that was. A frozen landscape with a bunch of ghost yetis? It sounded cool.

Heh.

But, that wasn't his destination. Going left from Vlads portal leads to the Scorched Sands, a giant desert landscape that, according to his uncle, was about the size of Australia and had an average temperature upwards of one-hundred and twenty fahrenheit on a good day. Desiree had mentioned it in passing before, apparently her Lair was there, in its own pocket area, but she hadn't been there since she was locked up in that lamp. She had visited once or twice since being freed, but with no one around, it was 'pretty boring'.

Giant deserts never did sound very fun, and he had spent more than enough time in the scorching heat, thank you very much.

So, he went backwards. Out the portal he came, flew above it, then turned around and just kept going.

Along the way, he came across the usual. Floating chunks of rocks and debris, the occasional small island, a couple doors to Lairs. None of it was out of the ordinary, at least as far as the Ghost Zone was concerned. It wasn't until the thirty minute mark came along that he came across something different.

A big island. Okay, not that much of a change on paper, but this was different! There were trees here! Danny hadn't seen any on this expedition yet. And they looked nothing like anything he'd ever seen.

The main mast was a glowing purple that twisted and turned in a corkscrew going up. The branches splintering off from it reminded him of barbed wire, and the leaves were more like… jell-o? Green and red, they seemed to bounce around off each other and in the ghostly wind of the Zone. Or is it more like a current?

Semantics aside, the thing looked wild, and it made for a good first sketch. He had even gone out to buy a new book for this trip. It was split down the middle, one side for flora, the other for fauna. For good measure, Danny also took some pictures of them as well with his phone.

First entry aside, the island was full of them. About the size of a pro-football stadium, there certainly was a lot of distance to cover… if you had to walk. He could fly around with leisure, so it really didn't take that long to figure that there really wasn't much else on the island. There were a few creepy looking shrubs -it kind of reminded him of a tangela- but other than that, he left after about thirty minutes.

Luckily, that was just the start. Soon enough after leaving the first island, he kept finding more and more. Not all of them had plants or trees, most of them were bare actually, but the few and far in-betweens were amazing!

This was a whole mountain range of floating islands and landmasses that, after flying really high up, spanned as far as the eye could see! And his eyes could see pretty damn far. There weren't many doors this far out, one every dozen or so miles, but that was honestly better.

Connected by interlocking vines of giant magnitudes, they acted as both bridges and chains to keep the main mass together. There was such a large amount of rock and mass, Danny honestly thought that perhaps the free floating mountains might be caught in an orbit around the supermass.

The next set of ghostly plants were like balls of thorns, yellow and red in color and shaped like a palm tree. It didn't make much sense to look at, but he sketched it nonetheless. Arbors tall as a skyscraper that were actually colored normally, at least until he looked up to the top. The leaves glowed blue and reminded the Halfa of a dolphin's tail.

Strange moss covered the tall trees, a dull lime color that stretched on for miles. Getting up close to it was a mistake.

Turns out, it wasn't moss. Giant undead spiders, easily the size of a tank, nearly nabbed him when he was testing its tensile strength. If banana spiders had an unholy baby with a tailless whip scorpion, then kept growing till they could eat a man, this is it's monstrous love child.

Danny definitely did not scream like a girl when he saw it. Nor did he blast it with fire when it nearly bit his arms off.

On the bright side, he didn't start a forest fire. Just vaporized the unholy abomination that never should have spawned.

After calming down his pulsing core, he went back to task. In order to get a better look at the things, he used telekinesis to hoist one of the smaller ones out of their hiding place. Honestly, it's such an underrated power. Vlad had finesse for days with it, but even his imagination didn't compare to that of a teenager. Once his power output increased, he could do so many things with it…

Back on topic, the eight legged freaks presence alone did provide information. Based on their hunting strategy, other ferals and ghost animals must live around here as well. Once he was done with sketching the leagues of web-covered trees and the spider, he killed it and ate its core. It tasted like a lemon energy drink.

He liked it, so he hunted down a few more for a snack on the road. There really were a lot of them, and after cutting down the thirteenth one, it raised some questions. Were these things breeding? Could ghosts even conceive a spawn? Technically, they were energy constructs given feeling, sentience, and more… but were they biologically capable of doing that?

It raised a lot of questions that Danny would be bringing up to his mentor.

Further exploration led to more discoveries. Flying four-winged birds with a long serpentine tail, strange bunny-bug things that had pincers on their backs, a pack of slimy frogs with multiple mouths. They used their many tongues to swing around like Spiderman, and their pack-mentality was genuinely creepy. When he plucked one of them out of the air with his telekinesis, they just stared at him and croaked over and over again.

Eugh. It was an effective sound attack considering there were at least twenty of them, but overall, at least they were non-aggressive. At least until he released his hold on the model frog. Then all hands on deck, they tried to storm him with a sea of ectoplasmic frog-tongues.

He wasted them with a wave of electricity. Their cores were… kind of bitter? Like dark chocolate, except a little spicy. Not a good combo, honestly.

As Danny got deeper and deeper into this forested continent floating through the Ghost Zone, it became clear that the wildlife only kept increasing. Nature had seemingly taken hold and just kept ramping it up. For someone who had been born and raised in a city, his concrete jungle couldn't compare to this massive ecto-forest. That it all stood on floating islands the size of states or cities -it was all amazing.

Sam would like it here, at least the aesthetic of it. She loved nature and this place may as well be her eco dream. This would be Tucker's nightmare, no doubt. He never went out exploring much with them, always preferring to stay inside and play games. As much as Danny enjoyed a good game, he loved doing this just as much.

But the further he got, the more the vegetation seemed to rule. It got to the point where instead of ghost animals and monsters roaming around hunting each other and eating plants, it was the other way around. Carnivorous plants began to dominate after a certain point. Venus fly traps the size of a small building snatching odd deer-bird things out the air, or vines tearing apart random ferals at large -it all became a bit too much he saw an mammoth, easily the size of a small kaiju, get sucked into the side of a mountain by a wall of green teeth.

Whatever was further in, he didn't want to explore that place yet. Or at least, by himself. Danny backtracked up until a certain point and turned west, the opposite direction of where the heart of the wilderness seemed to converge. Even from all the way where he was before he ran, the teen could see the absolutely titanic tree piercing far into the heavens.

That was probably someone's Lair, and if this was his lawn? He'd pass on meeting them. Nature at such extremes was a bit too much for him at the moment.

Still, he had been at this for hours, almost six or seven, and he didn't even feel the least bit tired. Physically, that is. Emotionally, dealing with the monsters of mother nature left some lasting nightmares, but he'd get over it eventually. Horrors are to be expected when dealing with a dimension of undead energy beings.

And the best part? His notebook was filling up fast. In a twisted parallel universe where the dead came back to 'life', the sheer number of unique animals and monsters was basically never ending. For an explorer, this was a wet dream, and Danny was having a fucking blast.

So, of course, it only stood to reason that something had to ruin it.

And then go even further down the drain after that.

---

"Vladdy! My man! Good to see you!"

Even despite the truths that had been revealed about what they did to his nephew, Jack's exuberance put a smile on his face. For all the anger that had bubbled up over that discovery, at the bottom of it all, was still love and friendship that's lasted over two decades. The nostalgia made him feel younger, like he was in a different time where it was all easier and harder at the same time.

"Jack. It's good to see you."

The robust man slapped his giant hands across Vlads back jovially. The billionaire stumbled forward, not out of pain, but more caught off guard by the sudden force. The older Halfa should have seen it coming, but as of late, he's been busy. He could be forgiven for forgetting a few things here and there, even more so when new projects were beginning and years of planning were coming to fruition after so long.

Though, success does feel oh so good.

"It's been a while since you visited, even though you have a house nearby now." There was no malice in his tone, jovial as ever it seems.

Vlad nodded, "Yes, I've been busy. I haven't actually been here that much since I travel around so often." He shrugged and looked around at the interior of the house. Christmas decorations galore decorated the walls and ceiling, from lights and wreaths of the usual seasonal colorings, to tinsel and mistletoes lining the ceiling like stalactites.

Ugh. Too much! Too much! Who can stand this much… holiday cheer? His family, when they were alive and still ruining his childhood, did not do this. They hadn't even really celebrated anything of the sort, barely even birthdays. American holidays were always so strange, and when they moved here, the cultural difference from the motherland was startling.

Decades later and while he's used to it, stopping by the Fentons always left him momentarily floored. And after years of being a business tycoon and building up a conglomerate mega-corp, Christmas especially just felt hollow.

Jack was a simple man, however, even if he's brilliant. Maddie loved the theme and spirit of it, or at least she seemed to. It's hard to tell with a woman that smart, though as of late, Vlad's been suspecting that she's a lot more oblivious than he ever thought.

How else could two ghost hunters not figure out their own son has become a half-ghost? Workaholics! They've always been like that though, the three of them. But at least he was more aware.

"I see you're up to the usual holiday nonsense." He sneered around the house, but there wasn't any true vitriol behind it. More amusement than anything else.

Jack barked out a laugh and closed the door behind him. "Ha! And you're still a grinch!"

He was led to the kitchen, where like the foyer and living room, there was a ridiculous amount of decorations. Who puts decorations on their ovens? "Jack, you buffoon, you don't put decorations on the stove! That's a fire hazard waiting to happen."

"Bah!" The large man waved it aside, "It's an ecto-oven, it can't catch fire. I designed it that way."

Ah… so he was telling the truth. Oh my. "Is that why Daniel says the food comes to life? You're actually cooking with ectoplasm?"

For a ghost, it would be fine. They're made of ectoplasm, and everything in the Ghost Zone they consume is basically made from it. But for a human? Long term exposure was up in the air about its effects, Jack and Maddie seem fine. And while he himself never bothered to learn the true effects, and his own situation was rather specific, some of those reports he got from the G.I.W. databases are concerning…

Jack took a seat at the table and pulled it out for his friend. He moved over to the fridge and pressed some buttons on the side, then grabbed the drinks from it. "It's fine! From the tests we've done, it's a far more efficient and environmentally friendly option. And it does add a special taste to it too!"

"Uh-huh." Vlad said blandly, still incredulous. "And that matters how, when the turkey comes back to life and tries to eat you? That can't be a good sign, Jack."

He winced slightly, but the grin never left. "Ooh. Dann-o told ya about that, did he?"

"And you blew it up?" Blue eyes drifted down to where his hands were resting, "The table?" Jack winced again, "I can't help but notice that this is a different one than when I last visited."

Rubbing his head sheepishly, at least Jack had the decency to look ashamed. But not much. Vlad sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. An every year thing huh… "No wonder he's so frustrated."

"What was that?"

Both men looked away and towards the door that led to the lab. Maddie, covered in grease and ectoplasm, walked through with a small frown. She had her goggles off and was cleaning them.

Vlad looked into her purple eyes and decided to bite the bullet. This was either going to be an uncomfortable conversation, or a possible argument. He knew he would win this no matter what, but it decided entirely on how they wanted to hold onto this.

"Before I get into that, let me ask:" Vlad straightened his back and tie, "what do you plan to do for Christmas? I see you're still working, I thought you'd be taking a break for the holidays."

Maddie walked over to the sink and grabbed a new rag. She kept cleaning even as she sat down. "Well, we're at a pivotal point in our research right now. Once we get this done, it'll really take off. The Specter Speeder is so close, when it's done we can finally start exploring the Ghost Zone."

Her husband looked both excited and slightly miffed. "I wanna continue working on it as well, but we've cut down on the time for now with Christmas. It's always been a time of the year for families to come together, so we're putting in extra effort to show it!"

"Uh huh." The billionaire said flatly. "And the arguments? I thought you two said you didn't do that anymore on holidays?" Not that he bought that. Jack and Maddie Fenton are creatures of habit, they're stuck in their ways and despite their profession, don't welcome change all that much.

A funny thing, considering they're scientists, and their career is viable to change often.

"We don't do it that much anymore." She pouted. Vlad almost wanted to scoff, how can someone so brilliant be so childish? "And Thanksgiving wasn't that bad this year, I'll have you know. The green bean casserole came out wonderfully!"

Ah yes, the casserole. All hail it's amazing ability to mend family incursions.

With a roll of his eyes that was entirely visible, Vlad leaned back and stared at her pointedly. "And the kids? Have you asked how they feel about it? Daniel has been rather vocal about how… disgruntled it made him. What of Jasmine?"

"What?" Jack frowned, the first time in the entire conversation. "Well, Jazzypants is still pretty mad about the whole thing. Something about it 'not being healthy for a growing young boy'." He waved his hands as if to dismiss the thought, "Bah. Nothing harmful about it."

And that answered the question.

"The turkey came back to life, Jack."

Jack grinned and stood up. "It always does! Family tradition!"

"And that's not normal." Then he sat back down.

Maddie eyed the two and placed the goggles back on her head, letting them rest on top, rather than put them back on. "We don't really need a lecture on this at the moment, Vlad. Not to say we're not happy to see you, because we are, but what's the sudden visit for? Normally you call in advance."

"Ah, yes." He smiled ruefully, "I wanted to tell you that Daniel will be spending Christmas with me this year."

Now it was the mothers turn to stand up. "What?! Where is this coming from?"

Jack joined her almost immediately. "Yeah! This time of the year is for families to come together and celebrate! Dann-o's never left during X-mas."

"I understand that," Vlad said placatingly, "but it was my nephew who asked me about this. I told him I'd talk to you two, but he was rather deadset in his decision."

Disheartened, Jack sat back down once again. "What did he say exactly?"

Any other circumstance, and Vlad could throw down any bad news without flinching. He's done it with several employees before, notifying them of a loved one's death, or some other emergency, all without emotion. This is a different situation entirely. These were some of the very few people that the older Halfa could genuinely say he cared about.

True friends, almost family.

So it came as no surprise when he started feeling slightly awkward. He looked down and rubbed the cuffs of his suit before answering. "Did you two know that Daniel hates Christmas?"

"He does?" Jack sounded surprised, though Maddie looked a little guilty. Ah, yes, Jazz had to inherit those people-reading skills from somewhere.

"Yes," he answered, then continued, "to be exact though, he dislikes most family holidays. The entire end of the year, mostly."

As if struck, both parents flinched. Just a little, but it was there. They looked at each other, then back at him. Vlad sighed and continued, "I don't mean to be the bad guy here, but you two have effectively ruined many holidays for him. Thanksgiving and Christmas especially."

"Is that so…" Oh, fiddlesticks. He didn't want to beat them down, but this needed to be said now, rather than later. Vlad always knew it was… bad, but not so much that his nephew despised an entire chunk of the year on principle alone. His mood had been rather somber and cranky since November came around; that just wouldn't do.

"Putting it bluntly, Daniel said he wanted to 'take a break' from his family."

Better to do this sooner, rather than later. Nip the problem in the butt before it becomes an even bigger issue. With ectoplasm enhancing his emotions, who knows what kind of reaction he'll have after being fed up for years already? It could be catastrophic, inter-familial wise. Or, it could end up with the boy outing himself on a high of anger and resentment.

Either way, there are different solutions that don't involve letting this roll to the finish line as is.

"Take a break?" Maddie whispered to herself, borderline aghast. It sounded so strange, that her son needed to take a break from them. "What, for the holiday? Christmas? New Years?"

Vlad dragged a hand down his face in frustration. This is, possibly, the most uncomfortable thing he's ever had to do, easily trumping that time he had to give 'the talk' to one of his ex's children. That was uncomfortable in a different way, but he wasn't as close to them as he is to these two and their family. This was him essentially telling them their child was fed up with them for the moment and didn't want to interact with them on a day where families come together.

Which he was. A spot on speculation, honestly. Daniel's very sick of them at the moment.

"Look, I'm not sure how you've done it," that was a lie, Daniel explained it in detail multiple times, "but," quite thoroughly, "he doesn't enjoy Thanksgiving or Christmas anymore, and he just wants to… not do it this year. So, I've come to ask you two if he could stay over for the holiday."

Now that he's said it outloud, it's embarrassingly like asking if a friend could stay over for the night. Which it wasn't, this is his nephew and apprentice. This was his chance to properly introduce him to the undead holidays and make this time of year an enjoyable experience. It was as much as a lesson of culture and experience, as it was a way for the kid to blow off some steam and have a good time.

But it still sounded a tad strange.

Seeing their silence as an opportunity, Vlad pressed on. "I have an event planned out of state, a Christmas party held between business colleagues and friends. While not the best place for a teenager to spend that time of year at, it's a change of pace that he will probably find refreshing and help calm him down."

The silence continued for a moment longer, becoming almost oppressive, before Maddie sighed loudly. She slumped down in her seat and shared a look with her husband. While sad, Jack wasn't about to push his son into doing something that would push him away even further. The couple nodded and turned back to their long-time friend. "That… is fine, if he's truly that frustrated with us." And doesn't that just hurt to say?

"Is it really that bad though?" Maddie asked, almost pleading. "Is he that angry at us?"

The older Halfa winced, but nodded. "While angry for sure, it's more along the lines of built-up frustration. I feel he may think you put the job before him."

"That's ridiculous!" Jack stood up once again, "Everything we do is for the kids! We don't…" His words faltered and his eyes darted down, as if trying to remember something. When that seemed to fail, any wind left in those sails left it and he turned to his wife. "We don't… right?"

Maddie hesitated, and upon doing so, quickly found the answer. The face that she even did hesitate was an answer all on its own. "I think… we may have."

Jack sat down for the final time. He glanced at the device he had been working so enthusiastically before, but found any exuberance over the project gone. He pushed it away with guilt-heavy hands.

"What about Jazz?" If Danny was feeling this way, what about their daughter? She was far more in-tune with herself, a brilliant young woman who was sharp as a sword.

Oh. Well, he certainly wasn't expecting that question, but Vlad was still happy they asked. It meant they weren't just focusing on one whenever their attention wasn't on ghost hunting or research.

"I'm not sure," he answered honestly, "but perhaps she does hold some resentment, but not as much as Daniel. He's younger and far more emotional, Jasmine is… more mature and rational. I would hope you make an effort with both of them, however."

His answer didn't exactly make them happy, but it at least didn't devastate them. The awkwardness was back in full, and the billionaire just wanted to get his answer and get out. Vlad may not have wanted to hurt them or ruin their relationship with their son even more, but they certainly dug their own hole with this. Treating their second go at parenthood as an experiment definitely did them no favors, in both his eyes, and the eyes of their son.

"Okay." Maddie bit out, sounding far more tired than she did before. "If Danny agrees to it, he can spend time with you on Christmas."

For maybe the third or fourth time in his life, Vlad saw that Jack looked visibly bitter. For such a happy-go-lucky airhead, it's a rare sight. Very rarely does Jack do something that he honestly regrets. The large man didn't like the idea of his family being apart for Christmas, but you reap what you sow.

And they've been sowing this field for a long time now.

"Okay, that's great." Vlad said calmly, making sure to keep the usual mocking out of his voice. "I'll try and get him to calm down, but it can't just be on my end. You two need to tone down the ghost hunting and spend more time with your family."

They both nodded, but he had a hard time believing it. This felt vaguely familiar to something that happened a few years ago, where Jasmine stormed off with her brother in tow on a Memorial day they were visiting. But while they don't celebrate some other holidays that much, family gatherings like Thanksgiving and Christmas are two they're damn near adamant about.

Perhaps this is the wake up call they need to fix the relationship with their son. Because for all its worth, with the way Daniel's emotions are growing with him, as a Halfa, it's going to create some… annoying problems later on.

Ghosts are creatures of emotion and energy after all.

This problem needs to be nipped in the bud before it gets more out of hand than they've already propagated it into.

"If that's everything," Vlad said as he started to stand, "I will take my leave. I'm a rather busy man and time waits for no one."

Maddie and Jack both stood up with him, following over to the door. "Even under the circumstances, it was nice to see you, V-man." Jack came over and hugged the man, which the older Halfa awkwardly returned. Maddie did the same a second later, smiling weakly at him.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling like a heel and at the same time slightly justified. "Hopefully next time, I can just come over to visit. I don't like bringing up such morose topics."

Jack patted him on the shoulder, "Eh, can't say we're too happy about it… but better from you, then when Dann-o finally blows up."

Yes. Definitely. Considering the boy could blow up a building with a wave of his hand, that's definitely for the best. "Still, maybe next time we can have dinner instead of a depressing chat instead."

The couple smiled a little more than before and said their goodbyes. Vlad followed suit and waved them off as he walked back towards the limousine that brought him here.

Before he got in the car, Vlad looked over his shoulder one last time. He almost smirked when he saw the pair of legs retreating back up the stairs behind his friends.

Jasmine always was a snooper.

"Take me home, if you would, Charles. I'm rather tired."

That's one thing down. Now, time to go home and get Daniel out of whatever situation he's gotten himself into.

---

It started off as a dull pulsing, one he had come to recognize almost instantly. While flying over a cropping of mountains that eerily resembled a hand, the sudden jolt nearly caused him to crash. Almost immediately, Danny sat down and held a hand to his chest, as if to truly ascertain if this was happening.

He had never had an attack in the Zone, Vlad had warned against it. They were far more intense and powerful, multiplying the violent pain by multiple magnitudes due to the ambient energy in the atmosphere of the Ghost Zone. Some of the times it happened had come close while training, but he had been able to avoid it for the most part.

No such luck today.

Not even two minutes after the first pulse of pain, he felt it again. But it was worse, as it always was. A shock traveled from his chest -his core- and went down his spine in a low-intensity burn. Panic started creeping in, and Dannys' green eyes blurred around in a panic looking for a possible escape, but by the third pulse, he accepted that this was going to happen here.

Hours out from his portal or either of Vlads, there's no way he could get out of the Zone in time, at least not safely. The rock Danny had landed on was large, about as big as a tennis court, and all around he couldn't see any stray ghosts. That was comforting at least. Down below, there was some odd dark green water pooling in the giant hand island, a few trees here or there, but nothing living… or dead, technically speaking, that he could see.

For all intents and purposes, this was as well as it would get.

Number four came around as soon as he decided that. The burn was worse, scorching his veins with rampant ectoplasm. It traveled up and into his eyes and down his limbs, making them numb with pain. "Ahrr…"

Danny dropped to his knees while groaning weakly, but he held back a scream. Even as his veins bulged with green power, shining through the skin, he kept his voice restrained. Bile rose to the surface, and before he could stop it, the younger Halfa was throwing up globs of ectoplasm at a time. It scorched his throat, made him hack and cough all the while, and his mind grew hazy.

Soon enough, they stopped coming in waves and the Afterlife Attack was in full swing. In constant pain, Danny finally was unable to contain his screams. Ectoplasm bled from his eyes and ears, and his senses dulled under the onslaught of rampant energy. It refused to settle, throttling his body as he writhed on the ground futilely.

Electricity sparked around his core violently, spreading from his back like wings of energy. From his fingers that were digging into the floating bedrock, ice and frost crept out slowly, covering more distance with each passing, agonizing seconds. Nevermind that he couldn't even control or conjure ice yet, it's just another symbol for something that's currently out of his control.

Like so many of his powers.

Like his life.

Like all the ghosts that he has to fight tooth and nail to subdue so no one gets hurt.

And most definitely, like these damn Afterlife Attacks!

"ARRRRGH?!" He flopped on his back and slammed his hands into the ground, cracking it and breaking off chunks on the underside. Fire and electricity spewed from his mouth like a spout of water, then it cut off as abruptly as it started.

The ground began glowing brighter as more and more energy funneled into it. The ambient energy of the Ghost Zone was absorbed into the Halfas' core at a rapid pace, adding more fuel for the rampant energy in the boy's body. The surrounding rocks began to float in orbit of Danny, his telekinesis beginning to show itself on the surroundings. Each of his powers began going out of control, whether he actively uses them or isn't able to yet, it didn't matter.

Five minutes turned to ten, ten to fifteen. His vision was going in and out, but whether that's from his photokinesis blinding him, or just from blacking out, he didn't know. Eventually, around the thirty minute mark, large chunks of the island he landed on broke off, each one twice the size of a car, some as large as a bus. They immediately took orbit around the large chunk of rock they were once a part of.

This is why Vlad had always told him to not be in the Ghost Zone if he hadn't had one for a while. This was easily, hands down, the worst experience of his half-life. Well, outside of dying. That was infinitely worse than this. Every other episode wasn't nearly as long or as painful or destructive. It's like a never-ending cycle, burning and breaking his body and the Zone just wouldn't stop flooding his core with more fuel to the fire.

But, even as his ears bled green and red, and his vision was hazy at best, he heard something. It took supreme effort to hoist himself up with his arms and even then, his bleary eyes could barely make anything out. He hacked and coughed at the movement, spilling more bi-colored ichor onto the breaking landmass.

Then something bit down on his leg.

"RAAGH?!"

Danny screamed in surprise and pain and anger, all before glaring down at the mistake in nature that had even attempted to do something like this while he was in so much pain. A familiar feeling bit down on his shoulder and left arm as well, and fury rose to new heights.

Whatever was on his shoulder, trying to take a bite, was promptly disintegrated when his electricity ran out of his control and burst out of his back. It screeched horrendously right into his ear, further escalating his pounding headache. Not a pleasant sound, truly, akin to a tire peeling out mixed with an emu and nails on a chalkboard.

His eyes cleared up just enough to catch a glimpse at the abomination chewing on his leg. Then he blasted it with an ocular blast at maximum output -not that he could control it at the moment.

Small and purple, around the size of a medium sized dog at least, and covered in fins and spikes, they weren't pleasing to look at. They reminded Danny of a Zergling, but uglier, somehow. Their mouth was like a leeches, circular and a spinning hole of teeth. Six legs that arched around their body on multiple joints and ended in pointy tri-segmented spikes, and they seemed to have five eyes? One large one in the middle, and four smaller ones on the side, surrounded by weird fleshy pink hoods. There was no tail, which was surprising, but they did have several tentacles sprouting from their backs…

All in all, they're fucking disgusting, and it infuriated the agonized Halfa.

He ripped his hand out and took hold of the thing that was latched onto his arms by its face. It screeched and writhed under his grasp and by sheer anger alone, he ignored his pain and forced power through his arm and into his hand. His fingers glowed brightly for a moment, before a green explosion erupted from his hand and destroyed the little leech that was munching on him.

With supreme will alone, Danny forced himself to stand now that he was aware of the possible danger. His legs and limb protested under the strain, even though gravity was minimal in the Ghost Zone. Fire burst from his feet, making him stumble, and ectoplasm dripped down his injured limbs.

A force slamming into his back made him trip forward, then a second and third impacted his chest and arm respectively. For a brief moment, his eyes caught sight of his surroundings, and his cold core chilled. He was surrounded, there must have been dozens of the little shits trying to take a bite out of him.

Then they started biting him again, and the audacity of it all pushed his anger out tenfold. Ignoring the pain and with zero output control over his powers, Danny pulsed out a wave of power from his body. Those clinging to him were blown back, and the one that was on his chest had half of its body destroyed since it was so close to his core.

Before more could dogpile him, Danny brought forth both hands and screamed. It was bloody and guttural, and personified his rage righteously. Less like a blast and more like a veritable wave of energy, his ectoplasmic attack bullied forward like a tsunami. It slammed into at least five of them, pushing them back and away, though he didn't know how much damage it did.

Pain erupted from his core, and Danny dropped to a knee. He grabbed his head as a migraine reminded him of its existence, and blood and ectoplasm dripped from his nose. How long was the Afterlife Attack going to escalate? This was the worst possible time and place for it to happen? And where the fuck are these things coming from?!

A veritable dozen jumped at him this time, forcing the aching Halfa into action. He flung out his hands, attempting to conjure and ecto-shield. It came into being around him, stopping the charge, but another lance of pain made him scream out. His concentration lapsed, and in an attempt to make the shield hold, he pushed more ectoplasm into it.

It exploded out, pushing them away and obliterating the little monsters that were trying to gnaw on the ecto-construct. Even though he didn't need to, Danny found himself breathing heavily. His eyes felt ready to close and he just wanted to rest. They continued their charge, so the Halfa redoubled his efforts to stay alive.

"What the-" He coughed out blood as another wave of energy surged through his body, "hell are you things?!"

The ground beneath his feet broke and he was forced to jump up. Flight was difficult to even attempt, much less maintain, so he just let the low gravity of the Zone take him as he focused onto the cretin that was biting him. Electricity sparked along his fingers for half a second, before it exploded out in violent torrents of power. He seared his own leg on a glance, but cut down the leech-thing and four more that were in pursuit.

Danny spread his fingers wide and pushed the power out through them, but it faltered and cut out. Panicked and left without a weapon, half a dozen slammed into him and sent him careening into a nearby rock. "Damn it!"

They bit into his body, chewing and trying to get through the juicy meat underneath. His suit was strong, enhanced enough to withstand their bites for the most part, but the few areas they got through were agonizing enough. On top of his already blistering condition, and their constant attacks, Danny was finding it difficult to keep up and stay cognizant.

Left arm, both legs, stomach, thigh, and shoulder -they all latched on and attempted to get through. He grit his teeth as his skin was split and broken, as teeth punctured into his body, and in a pain-fueled high of emotions, Danny felt what was probably the strongest one he's ever felt.

Pure, unadulterated fury.

Of all the times in his life he's been angry, hurt, enraged, humiliated or betrayed, never once had he felt anything so strong. It bubbled in his core, somewhere deep down and left its mark. For a moment, his toxic eyes flashed red.

Then, the world was bathed in green hellfire. "GET OFF!"

---

It heard.

From far away.

Lightyears?

It heard. It sensed. It smelled.

It saw.

Among the endless abyss of the Zone, after all these centuries, It found him.

The One.

The Usurper.

The Unifier.

Regicide.

But young. Weak. Immature. Without all his power.

And in pain.

So, It acted.

The green of the Zone paused and shifted, reality warped, a boney claw stretched out, and a black portal erupted into existence from that lone digit.

It moved forward, ignoring the desolated undead that had faced his wrath.

It left, through the void it had created, determined and excited.

It was coming, to meet the One.

---

No matter how many he killed, more took their place. Five could be sliced in twain, but ten more took their place. He could fry ten, and twenty would charge him as if he hadn't just slaughtered the lot of them.

Comparing them to Zerglings was far more accurate of guess than he had originally thought. They clambered over the disintegrating bodies of their own kind and charged forward without fear.

This was perhaps the first time Danny had fought an enemy truly like this, absolutely ruthless and bloodthirsty. Even some ferals grew fear, especially pack animals. It could go both ways, running in fear or lashing out in anger, and it had happened before on multiple occasions. That's saying nothing of the ghosts with actual intelligence.

And yet, they didn't stop coming.

On the bright side, he was coming down from the Afterlife Attack. The stabilization left Danny with almost no control of his powers, and that led to no small amount of wounds.

That was just the start of the darker side. Ignoring the numerous bite and scratch wounds, some of them had managed to stab into him with their pointy little legs. They were wiped out for that, naturally, but even with the energy of the Zone fueling his recovery and pain, his stamina was waning. Danny's getting tired, putting it bluntly, and for good reason.

Too much is happening at once.

He's too far out to get help. The tools in his belt weren't even that useful in the long run, he had nothing for dealing with massive amounts of enemies at once without his powers. Perhaps the Fenton Thermos would do the job… if he wasn't in the fucking Ghost Zone. All it did was suck in ectoplasm from the surrounding atmosphere. It was entirely useless in the fight, and had only gotten him hurt.

Exhausted and in no small amount of pain, Danny felt his eyes grow heavy. Even as a group of six skittered along the rock in front of him, he still didn't fall. Ecto-blasts took care of them, they weren't really physically strong after all. But, they were so numerous.

At least he saw where they were coming from, the little fuckers were practically jumping out of the water down below. And he still didn't have the energy and control to fly away. Jump? A little, but he'd done it a few times, and it left him stumbling afterwards. And if he stumbled, that left him open to an attack.

Just because he was coming down from the stabilization, didn't mean it was completely over. His body still jerked and twitched, a prime migraine didn't leave his head, and waves of pain still made themselves known throughout his core and limbs. Hell, his right arm was practically useless at this point. It had taken one too many bites and stabs, and Danny was pretty sure the radius or the ulna was broken. He was still too delirious to tell which at this point.

Five more fell to a fan of electricity, the burst being far more controlled than before, but still not quite the level he was used to. The energy fizzled out shortly after, leaving him open once again. Most ecto-constructs were out, they took far too much control to operate in a useful capacity; even his ecto-claws, which had gotten so easy before it was almost instinctual. But, he could extend his nails into makeshift blades of ectoplasm.

Considering their size, he had to be precise, which is easier said than done.

Two jumped from his left, Danny ducked and swiped up, almost bisecting the two with his swing. Another group came from above, and Danny kicked off with a burst of reinforcement that he could barely keep up. In his backpedal, he blasted the attackers for their offence, and swung around to stab another lone ambusher in the head with his extended nails.

Before he could land, one of the little cretins grabbed his leg from below. Danny yelped in pain and from being startled as it brought him down lower. The Halfa retaliated almost immediately by caving its head in with a mean stomp. As expected, the inferior abomination crumbled under his strength, which hadn't diminished in the slightest throughout the entire stabilization. At least that stayed constant, but everything else had suffered.

Danny crashed down onto a lower floating rock, barren and dusty, and slightly smaller than Casper Highs' football field. This one wasn't flat, was inclined haphazardly, and visibility plummeted immediately when a plume of settled silt erupted around him on impact.

"Ahh! Fuck!" He landed on his right arm, still just as broken as before, and rolled to a stop seconds later. Without the need to breathe, luckily Danny didn't choke, but his sight was limited now. He could see shadows as dozens more skittered and flew around him, and he responded in kind by lobbing out ecto-blasts. They didn't take much effort to form, and using an ecto-ray was liable to burn his fingers again once it got out of control.

The creatures -he still wasn't sure what to call them, Zergling was copyrighted after all- screeched and howled as the attacks impacted. The dust in the air flustered about, but stayed in a big clump around him. Hearing was difficult, ignoring the migraine and the blood and ectoplasm that was still in there, the dust was making it worse.

But that didn't make him completely deaf.

So when a larger ghost, of obviously the same origins, came from behind him to take a bite for itself, Danny wasn't caught flatfooted. He bolted out of the way just before it came rushing past, a pair of horns pointed down and looking to maul. Attempting to channel fire had proven effective, but inefficient in terms of concentration and power consumption.

Electricity is the effective fallback in this scenario, just like it seems it be in most cases.

Buzzing currents lashed out to take revenge, slamming into the ghost in a brutal bolt of power. It pierced through its side and pushed it out of the dust cloud, giving Danny just a little more time to think. Good thing he didn't need it though. Even though he had rolled quite a bit and been sent off course, the Halfa knew what direction to go in.

Probably.

With as much power as he could muster, Danny launched himself up and out of the cloud. His core pulsed in protest, not desiring to be under the strain, but he pushed onwards. Soaring past a baker's dozen, Danny close lined one and kept moving towards another floating landmass. He landed with a harsh impact and jumped off almost immediately.

The hive-ghosts followed after him, determined to get the meal they tried so hard for. In between jumps, Danny blasted them in his retreat. Each shot took out at least two, and in the lucky few cases, four or more. Some were taken out of the fight, others brushed it off and trudged forward.

This continued for five, maybe ten minutes. It was difficult for Danny to tell, being so out of it, but he knew he wasn't making great progress. There's a noticeable difference between flying through the Ghost Zone, and hopping from rock to rock. His flight speed was infinitely faster than this, and his already tired body was further exhausting itself by jumping from platform to platform.

Around the fifteen minute mark, Danny finally stumbled. This area was more forested -well, as much as a place in the Infinite Realm could be. The whole place looked just as weird as the rest of the dimension so far, what with pink bark and cyan leaves. At least it wasn't depressing to be in, but it reminded Danny of cotton candy.

He hadn't put that much distance between him and the creatures, but it gave him enough to at least get out of sight. A good thing too, some of the things following him now are much bigger than the dog-sized ones he'd been dealing with. They were starting to approach elephant levels, and Danny really didn't want to see any that were bigger than that.

Just in case they followed by smell, he lathered his ectoplasm all over the trees he was running through. They stuck out horribly, but all he had to do was fool mindless beasts. Hopefully it would serve as a good enough distraction.

It bought him precious few minutes, just enough time for him to realize how absolutely fucked he was. Recovering from a normal Afterlife Attack took the majority of a day, hours at the minimum. But one in the Zone? Who knew how long Phantom would be put out of commission. Add on the practically endless attack by these little shits, and Danny was looking right screwed.

Broken bones, countless cuts and punctures, a pained core, splitting headache -the list went on and on. At this point he just wanted to rest.

Those thoughts flew out the window when some of the bigger ones burst through the canopy of trees across the field from him. While still hidden, Danny knew that time was running out. Several more burst from the ground, splitting rock and dirt from their tunneling, and many others crashed into the strange red grass from above. Now, in a moment of reprieve, the teenager can take a moment to truly appreciate his newest adversaries.

They're loud. Even with his currently damaged hearing, their buzzing, and howling, and screeches all converge into a cacophony of sounds. The swarm is practically deafening, and the sky above, once a green expanse of endless space, is clouded by the hundreds of monsters.

Despite being a ghost, Danny grows visibly paler, and not from blood loss. 'How big of a nest did I stir?' Their numbers only seem to grow, and with each passing second, he's sure that he's fucked six ways from Sunday.

It's all too soon. All too much. This was supposed to be a relaxing and fun excursion out into what amounted to different dimension space. He had talked to his uncle before leaving, texted Sam and Tucker, barely said a word to his parents the last few months, and had been avoiding Jazz recently. Even if she's nosy as all hell and almost clingy sometimes, he'd much rather be spending time anywhere else than get eaten here.

"Fuck." He whispered harshly, "Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, damn it…" How the hell is he supposed to get out of this? It looked like there were thousands of them out there! Even on a good day, this would be far too much of a challenge for him, Danny hadn't even had his powers for a year yet!

And now, he's dead. 'Rather, I'm about to be deader.' That's probably not a word, but he figured it fit well enough considering his condition.

A premonition in his core brings his eyes down, and they widen almost immediately. With more energy than he felt his waning stamina could provide, Danny dived to the side. The ground beneath cracked and expanded, the sound of shifting rocks filled the immediate air around him, and debris exploded out when one of the big fuckers tunneled to the surface.

Realization dawned on his sluggish mind once again, they're tearing apart the island to look for him! Running isn't an option, hiding isn't on the table, and how the hell is he supposed to fight so many when he's like this now?!

The creature, some Zergling-ripoff, easily the size of a bus, stalked out for a brief moment before digging back down immediately. It's almost impressive, they don't look like they'd be good for digging, but the front mandibles and legs seem to work rather well at shifting earth and rock out of the way.

The ground shifted again, and he didn't even need to look down to know what was about to happen. Danny jumped back, into a large set of bushes… and right into one of the things that had been pestering him for so long. "Fuck!"

With supreme panic and will alone, Danny summoned a blade of ectoplasm and swung it with prejudice. It petered out almost immediately, but it did its job. About the size of a van, it was split in half down the middle, separating the thorax from its abdomen.

Of course, because his luck isn't shit enough as is, it screeched out loud, presumably to alert the surrounding swarm to his position. The response is immediate, the volume raises a few levels on que, and his panic is mounting.

Despite the injuries, Danny sprints through the wooded areas in haste, ducking under odd-colored plants and fallen trees. Even now, as exhausted as he was, he could feel power coming back. A little bit more, and he could probably handle flight for short bursts… but he doesn't have time.

It's all run out.

They're on his heels. There's no direct line of sight, but they have his scent. And they're gaining fast.

Several more popped up in front of him, but he was ready. With his full strength behind the attack, Danny brought his fist down in a hammer strike. The insectoid ghost buckled and crashed down to the ground dead, with its head indented in with a noticeable likeness to his hand.

The second and third were blasted back by ocular blasts, but the power output proved to be too out of control to go for a third. Already his eyes were stinging, so he brought his foot up with a jump and speared it through the last one's body.

Danny didn't even stop to inspect them for longer than a second. They were about the size of a bull now, but their chitinous armor still seemed to be on the brittle size. Bigger obviously meant stronger, but the increase in power isn't as massive as he had expected.

Maybe he got five more minutes of a frantic escape, maybe it was only a minute. But the same thing happened six more times, with a group ambushing him and then getting beat down and crushed.

Somewhere along the line, inevitably, Danny found himself surrounded in a small clearing. Above, on all sides, and undoubtedly below as well, they had cornered him. A lot is not a set of words to truly describe the scene all around the young Halfa. Danny's fought a lot before, he's fought a veritable horde for days and Vlad has literally thrown him into a crowd of roaming ferals.

These didn't count as ferals as far as he was concerned, they were too smart, too organized.

And this was definitely a whole different level of a lot. This was a genuine fuckton. There's strength in numbers, a certain quality to quantity, and Danny can say for sure that even if he was at 100%, he wouldn't be able to deal with this. Maybe if he was older, more powerful, more experienced; Vlad would certainly be fine, but dealing with this level of hivemind was out of his ballpark.

Dread was setting in, regret reared its ugly head, and anger was pulsing below it all, simmering quietly. How the hell did the day turn to shit so quickly?

Danny could feel the beginning of tears start to form, but he shook it off. Crying wouldn't help now, it would only make things worse. He was sure there was a way to get out of this, he could feel it in his gut… he just didn't know how.

They attacked all at once, and any train of thought was moved towards immediate survival and retaliation. Still weakened, but not as much as he had been before, Danny summoned every vestige of power at his current disposal. The green glow surrounding him brightened just a bit, his hands became alight with energy, electricity sparked up and down his body involuntarily. It hurt and strained him, he was exhausted and his body was tired, but he didn't want to die.

Not again.

He fired everything he had. Nothing was spared for survival. Ecto-blasts flew with barely a thought, accuracy not needed in the face of such a horde. Months of fighting had instilled enough experience to help him pick out the least-guarded area. He flew/jumped in that direction with as much force as possible, firing off attacks left, right and center.

The first group of half a dozen to get close were electrocuted. Fire was quickly becoming a favorite as it got easier and easier to use, and the second wave that closed in on him was burned to a crisp. Least guarded, however, didn't mean that it would be easy. Over thirty of the snarling beasts, their size ranging from small dog to bus levels, were rushing towards him to ensure a meal and his inability to escape.

Gravity is a tricky thing in the Ghost Zone. It's almost got a mind of its own. The End below ensured that things were pulled down, yet not as much as one would think for an impossibly infinite spanning black hole. Gravity, if anything, was reduced, though things did flow down naturally. Slowly. Those who are powerful are able to balance themselves in their own gravitational forces of ectoplasm. Those who aren't, well, it doesn't really matter since every ghost can fly naturally, and that applies in the Infinite Realms as well.

Each leap that Danny took, propelled him far and high. Sending blasts ahead of him halted his momentum with each attack, but the ones he sent backwards helped to right and continue forward.

His jumps came with a limp, neither of his legs had gotten off scot free, but they were still operable and able. Danny crashed fist first into the closest beast, ectoplasm extended at the end like an arrowhead. It began to disperse almost immediately, but by then he was already moving forward and changing targets. Several tried to gang up on him at once, but even with his waning stamina, he wasn't having it. More ectoplasm exploded from different parts of his body, disrupting the Halfa cloak in a green haze. This was the best he could do at the moment, in terms of ectoplasmic constructs, anything longer was too stressful under his current conditions.

And if it left him looking like some odd kind of paranormal man-porcupine, well, it didn't really matter that much.

Anything to live.

He wouldn't die, not again.

Even then, Danny had stubbornly held onto life the first time around. Neither he nor Vlad were sure what would happen if a Halfa died again, and neither were they too interested in finding out anytime soon.

The portal couldn't do it. A machine on the precipice of a new era, one so advanced it branched into another dimension. And if that couldn't finish him off, then there's no fucking way a bunch of bug-reptile zerg ripoffs would do it!

Danny threw everything he had at them to get away. His eyes bled green and red, and he still continued. His core ached horribly, but was more alive with power than ever before. It was still absorbing ectoplasm, both to heal his body and to fuel his consumption of power. His limbs burned, he was covered from head to toe in wounds, migraine was putting it nicely, and he didn't even want to know how many bones were currently broken.

And yet, he still didn't give up.

"NO!" He yelled furiously, "I won't die!" The Halfa swiped his hands, pushing away and outright obliterating another group of ten, "Not! AGAIN!"

Even with the sounds of the swarm around him, his voice was enough to cut through it all. Angry and hurt, yet prideful and full of vengeance and hate.

More wounds were put upon his breaking body. He fought on, ripping them in half at times to make them stop. Their innards and ectoplasm splashed him for such barbaric methods, but he paid it no mind.

They died by the dozens, and hundreds took their place. Swarming and chittering, roaring and howling, they were endless. It looked bleak. It looked like the end, felt like it too. There's no way anyone could survive something like this, not without being strong, truly and above the rest, powerful.

Danny hasn't even had his powers for a year. And for each one he put down, he slowly realized it all. He wasn't getting any closer to breaking free. They just kept coming.

And then-

-everything changed.

"Well. Said."

Two words.

Not even in english, but he can somehow understand it.

For a moment, the young Halfa wondered how he heard it. Then he listened in, and found his hearing no longer plagued by the mind-numbing shrill of the swarm. No roars. No shrieks. No hissing or clicking or anything. They were quiet.

They were still. Frozen and unmoving.

Afraid.

And Danny knew why.

A black portal was right next to him, ten feet tall easily. The voice had come from there, deep and unearthly, like nothing he'd ever heard before. Clipped? Truly alien and ethereal down to it's very baritone.

It scared the shit out of him.

A pressure settled on the area, heavy and overbearing. It almost felt like gravity increased, Danny found himself struggling to stand. A foot stepped through the portal, boney and grey and clawed, and the pressure skyrocketed. He stood his ground, barely holding out despite his already exhausted body.

The upper body came next, a tattered grey cloak dangled as a hunched figure, too tall even for the portal and absolutely terrifying to look at, took another step out. Bandages were wrapped around the obviously inhuman fingers, all the way up to the elbow and past where the sleeves were rolled up. A long executioner sword, twice Dannys' height in length and full black with red cracks was in one of its hands.

Its head.

Holy shit, its fucking head.

A red halo, split in threes, adorned the very top of its hood-covered skull. And skull is the best way to describe it, there were no eyes where they should be, nor sockets, just a smooth surface crowned with four horns. The teeth seemed to be melded together with the skull, seamless and not at all looking like they had grown in. Its second hand was full of some black energy, wafting off like smoke and dust.

The coat was open, however, Danny couldn't see anything inside it. Like the void of space, without light, it was impossible to see anything inside it. Gravity almost tripled, and the young Halfa found himself forced to his knees. He gulped, terrified and struggling to stay awake. Some of the horde in the immediate surrounds were literally dead, ghost dead-dead, and disintegrating now that their connection to the afterlife had been severed.

They literally were ended because they were too close to… whatever the fuck this thing is. Powerful and damn scary, that's what it is.

It turned towards him, and Danny felt his core go crazy. His very soul was terrified.

"Usurper. You are. Young." It turned, and looked out towards the endless swarm. They were slowly ebbing away, looking to flee.

"And still. Weak." The being raised a hand, its free one. The long and boney fingers curled in what seemed like slow motion. The index finger, so very long and inhuman looking, gathered the same black energy that almost seemed to radiate off of the being. It coalesced into a tiny black ball, no bigger than Dannys' own eye.

And then they all died.

Just like that.

Thousands of tiny strands, so thin they were only visible because there were so many, exploded from the small sphere and pierced every single ghost that surrounded them. In the air, around them, in the ground. They froze, and just. Died. No fanfare, no explosions or gorey bisecting or wanton slaughter.

Just, their death.

It was all so unbelievable that it didn't sink in for almost ten seconds. Then his mind traveled to what only could be the correct conclusion. This was a King of the Dead. A being so powerful, so threatening, so out of his world, that they could crush him like a bug.

Well, he certainly felt like one right now.

"What… are you?" Danny croaked out, barely staying conscious under its aura.

The being tilted its head, and smiled. Fucking smiled, and it was absolutely horrifying to look at. "I am. Reaver. King of. Sight. Slaughter. Severance."

Oh fuck. 'Why me?'

"Injured." It was kneeling now, and Danny was close enough to see inside its fucking ratty coat. Eyes. Millions of them, eyes upon eyes upon eyes, inside each other, next to them, all around -this thing's body was made of an uncountable number of eyes of all shapes and sizes. And every single one was looking at him.

A force unseen, telekinesis most likely, brought his broken arm up to view. It looked worse than before, and the limb itself was actually missing a chunk out of it -one of the bigger assholes had bit it off. Whatever else had happened, it hurt thrice as much now, just along the whole fucking thing instead of the one area.

"Hm." That very same free hand that was used to butcher thousands of ghosts moments before, was raised right in front of his broken limb. Danny flinched back, but found himself completely restrained, not just his arm.

Unlike last time, it brought its full hand open towards its chest. Every single one of them looked at the same spot, and pulsed with energy. The red organs focused and glared at the one spot, and fired a small black laser. They combined into a small star, nine pointed and completely black. Light seemed void of the thing, the green of the Ghost Zone wasn't even reflecting off it.

"What is that?" Danny asked hurriedly, both curious and afraid.

"Investment." Reaver answered him, and Danny gulped. "You will. Be powerful." It raised the new object in its hand, "This is. Accelerant."

Then the object moved towards his finger, and the King of the Dead pointed it down. Down, towards Danny's arm. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to say something, but it shot down suddenly. The little object burrowed into his broken arm, incredible pain racked his arm and body, and he screamed in agony. The hold was released and Danny dropped to the ground, or at least what was left of it after being burrowed through by hundreds of ghosts.

The being stood up and stared at the young boy. "Now. You are. Weak. Pathetic. Young." It looked down at the sword in its hand, then turned around back towards the portal it had created. "But. One day. You will be strong. Stronger. Than me. Than others. Grow. Age. Mature."

One foot stepped through, before it paused. Despite the pain, Danny looked up at the thing with a glare. The pain had changed now, he could feel the bones realigning and conjoining back together. But it fucking hurt, and whatever the hell that thing is, Danny wanted to know.

Reaver met the glare with a monstrous smirk. "Yes. Good. Become strong, Devourer. Be More."

Then it left, leaving a suffering Halfa alone in the Infinite Realms.

Danny rolled onto his back, clutching his slowly healing limb. The other wounds were closing now, slowly, but faster than before. His eyes felt heavy, and with everything that's happened in the last few hours?

He was out like a light in minutes.

---

A/N: It's been a while. Busy, busy, busy. I've got a lot going on, been playing Destiny again after I stopped for a while. Gotta admit, I'm a bit addicted again. Raids are both really fun and super frustrating. Got stuck in one for almost ten hours the other day, teaching new people how to do it and trying to finish a quest. Fucking Div quest...

That aside, I haven't been writing or reading as much, unfortunately. Somehow got time to write this out, and well, it somehow got to 15k words. Oof. After I wanted to shorten them, somehow it's gotten so long.

Next chapter is the X-mas chapter. There's going to be more character building coming for Danny and the ghosts, and after that, I'm hoping to flesh out his family and friends a bit more. Still gotta get Valerie up in the air, probably not for a while, but eventually.

That aside, that Battlefield trailer though. Holy shit, come October, I'm gonna be a ghost. Just giving you all a heads up. Battlefield is my jam, I'm a fucking beast at it, and 128 player chaos war sounds fucking awesome. Cross-play too? Hot damn!

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Drake771: I don't like throw away characters, if they're in my story, I'll try and put some effort into making them seem real.

TTGG03: Thank you! Have another!

the-lonely-night: Yeah, he's been through a lot. And he's going to go through so much more. The canon Danny went through so much shit, it's not even funny. How the fuck does a fourteen year old manage to stay sane after all the shit he's done? From time jumping and fighting possessed friends and family, to fighting his own future self who murdered billions of people and is a veritable walking apocalypse. PTSD is a definite possibility.

Tom2011: Walker has an important part later, but nothing anytime soon outside of the X-mas party.

OechsnerC: Thank you!

InternetTroll 13: Glad you enjoy it!

Sasquatchae: Here's some more.

Dp-Marvel94: Glad you enjoyed it! I don't see how a Lair couldn't be sacred, it's formed upon death. But, like most of DP, it was left as unused potential. Not here! When Death Day comes around for Danny, it'll be super improtant!

LunaStarTheCat: I'm looking forward to the Jazz reveal as well, it's gonna be super emotional and heavy as shit. I'm glad you find the story enjoyable, action scenes are my strong suit, so I really struggle to write and flesh out characters. I'm purposely focusing on Danny and Vlad mostly for now, since the character development for them is more important currently, but the rest will come later. Mainly, Sam and Tucker. Jazz is still in need of work, but better than the rest. Expect more of Jack and Maddie coming soon as well, maybe 3-4 chapters out.

Guest: Here it is.

3PhoenixFeathers: Wondering what you're opinion is of the newer chapters? Let me know!

Kingyama5000: Mooooooore

: Never watched or read Spawn, unfortunately, and I don't really have time. Glad you're enjoying it so far.

See you all next time!