Chapter 1: Lost in the Woods
"I'm telling you, Jazz; I can talk them into it!"
"Danny, you cannot talk NASA into letting you build a pirate ship in space."
"It's not a pirate ship! Solar sails are a viable method of space travel, but you have to build them in space for them to work. And would NASA really turn down the offer from someone who can just lift everything they need up there, and build it for them?"
"And you would build it to resemble…?"
"… That's not the point!"
"I rest my case"
Danny let out a groan of mock exasperation, grinning at his sister's smug tone as he turned at the town's borders and flew back. In all honesty, she was quickly becoming his favourite person to have on the other end of his comm. His parents were somehow both far too regimented and far too… parent-y (There's got to be a word for that), going from "why have you deviated from patrol route Alpha Nine" to fretting about how cold it must be up there in seconds. Tucker was pretty good, but they both tended to lose focus talking to each other about pop culture trivia. And, Sam, well…
It was getting better, but they were still awkward.
No, Jazz managed to balance actually getting the work done and keeping a boring night interesting pretty well when he was patrolling alone. Plus, she let him ramble about space stuff. Nobody lets him ramble about space stuff.
"OK, fine, but pirate ship aside, it's not a bad idea, right? I can get stuff into orbit easier than anything else they've got"
"Sure! I mean, the way things have gone the past month or so, you might need a new job anyway. We've not had any ghost activity beyond a few blips the last week, and even that might just be, well, you."
"Tell me about it. Even Skulker's keeping his head down, and I don't think he has a neck."
Danny halted in midair, just above the centre of town. Amity Park softly glowed with the street lights, the last few stragglers hurrying home from work, bars and restaurants starting to close up. Everything was quiet, everything still.
It was all just peaceful.
Danny smiled. I could get used to things being like this for once. Maybe I can take a break for a while.
"Danny? Still there?"
"Mm hm. Look, I'm gonna make one more pass of the outskirts and then head home. We've had nothing show up on the scanners for ages. Plus, it's a school night. The school may have made some accommodations because they know I'm Danny Phantom now, but I don't think anything will save me if I fall asleep in Lancer's class." He said, propelling himself towards the forest to the west of him.
"This wouldn't be a problem if you'd just try the dymaxion sleep cycle with me"
"Besides not having the month and half of time I'd need to adjust to that madness, doesn't that also cause hallucinations until you do get used to it?"
"So that's why a hoard of pink elephants have been helping me all night" Jazz deadpanned, her voice dripping sarcasm.
"Ha, ha… Wait, I've seen weirder, there aren't actu-"Danny started to say, before his breath hitched in an involuntary gasp, and ghostly blue vapour appeared from his mouth.
Ghost sense. Something was here.
He looked around warily, arms tensed for a fight. He was floating above Amity forest on the far reaches of town. Nothing in the skies, at least that he could see. Not many buildings here, abandoned or otherwise, just a few houses and the old movie theatre. So he probably wasn't picking up a haunting. Something in the forest itself, then? They weren't making themselves known, whoever they were.
"Jazz, trouble. Ghost sense just went off near the forest. Are you picking up anything on that side?"
"No, nothing… wait… ectoplasmic background levels in there are slightly higher than they were last night. The levels would be consistent with a spectral presence, but… one that isn't doing anything? Is that normal?"
"Not really. Even the nicer ones tend to be at least active in avoiding people, if nothing else. I'll check it out"
"Want me to get mom and dad on standby?"
"Would you like the forest burned down?"
"Good point. Be careful, Danny"
"Will do" he said, as he began descending to the forests entrance, landing silently on the earth. The moon was bright enough for him to see his surroundings – a winding dirt path, flanked by thick, gnarled tree trunks that seemed to curve around to form a natural corridor. Autumn foliage rustled quietly, seeming to whisper. By day, it was probably a cool effect.
By night, it was just creepy. You'd think dealing with ghosts and, in fact, being one would at least reduce the chills, but nope.
Oh, no, wait, that was why – unlike other people, he knew there was something supernatural in there.
Sighing, Danny started to trek the uphill path, the soft shifting of the soil the only sound accompanying him. He resisted the urge to call out if anyone was there. He'd seen enough movies to know it was worse than useless. Besides, what would he do if someone actually replied? Beyond need a new jumpsuit.
Still… the urge to say something, anything just to break the near-silence was strong. The further into the forest he got, and the tighter the trees closed in on him, the less noise the forest produced, not even the usual insect chittering. His mom had explained it to him once, something along the lines of ectoplasm causing a flight reaction in wildlife. Understanding and experiencing, however, were two very different things. He'd never quite realised how much background noise he let himself get used to. Without it, things were… tense.
Danny was on the verge of contacting Jazz, giving himself away be damned, just to calm his nerves when he heard a sound, carried on the wind.
Music. From further ahead.
He picked up the pace, relieved for a hint of what was here. The song was slow, melancholic, but it had a grace to it, flowing from chord to chord with practised ease. Whoever was playing was good. It was a guitar; he thinks? Whatever.
… oh.
In Amity Park, ghost activity and music usually only meant one thing.
The dirt path turned to the right, leading into a large clearing. The ground there rose and fell unevenly, creating odd depressions in the thick grass, some several meters wide. The moonlight cascaded downwards with no plant life to impede it, throwing the clearing into stark light and dark.
All of this was lost on Danny, however, because he was focused entirely on the figure sat at the edge of one of the depressions, her back to him, strumming at her guitar.
Pale blue skin. Flaming hair. Black punk leather. Purple guitar with flames.
"Jazz?" He whispered, tapping his comm. and ducking behind a tree as quietly as he could. No sense in letting her know he was here. "It's Ember. She hasn't seen me yet"
"Wow, really? I don't think we've seen her since the Disasteroid."
"Yeah, we're about due a visit, I guess…"
"… So? What's she doing?"
"Uh… She's just… playing her guitar"
"Ah, trying to raise the trees against us? Control animals to attack the town? Lure out and kill the forest spirit to cause it to become a rampaging corrupting god?"
"No, none of that, just - wait, what was that last one?"
"Never mind. That's seriously it?"
"Seriously."
Whatever song Ember was playing picked up energy, getting louder and faster. The notes seemed to weave all around the clearing, filling the entire space with their wistful rhythm. Danny was impressed. Ember was packing a lot of raw emotion into her playing, and, well...
"It's actually really, really good" he muttered.
"Well, duh. Ghost powers, that's how she gets you, remember. Just thermos her and come home"
With one last flourish, the final chord reverberated around the clearing. Danny watched as Ember seemed to breathe out heavily; put her guitar down and…
"I think she's crying" Danny breathed. Her head was in her hands, her shoulders jerked at random, and if Danny listened hard, he could hear the sobs. He went cold. In spite of their history, or maybe because of it, Danny found he couldn't bear seeing her like this.
"… I'm gonna go talk to her"
"What?! Danny, no, what if it's a trap?"
"What if it's not?"
Silence, punctuated only by the wind and Ember's faint whimpers.
"You and your hero complex. Ugh, fine, but when it all goes wrong, I'm sending mom and dad in. Val too, if she's still around"
"Tough but fair. Wish me luck"
He took a deep breath, and stepped out from behind the tree, walking slowly towards the oblivious ghost rocker, his arms held out at his sides. Trying to look as harmless as possible to the definitely-crying Ember.
Here goes nothing, he thinks.
"OK, I know I'm probably the last person you want to see, but are you- "
"You!" Ember's head whipped around, tear-streaked face contorted in fury. Before Danny could say anything more, she snatched up her guitar, hurling a pink streak of energy directly at him. Danny barely brought his arms up in time to form his dome shield, the blast crashing against it.
Yeah, should have seen that coming.
"I am not in the mood for this right now, dipstick! Get lost!"Ember roared, sending more and more blasts at his shield, her tears evaporating as her hair blazed. The green barrier held, but it wouldn't forever, Danny knew.
"I just want to talk! I don't want to fight you, Ember!"
"What, is that supposed to be funny?! That's what you do! That's all you ever do!" she shouted, her voice cracking.
"I mean it!"
"Prove it!"
Danny groaned. There might be one way to convince her, but depending on how she reacted, it could be painful.
Well, nobody said this would be easy.
The dome shield vanished into the ether. Ember rose her hand to strike her guitar again, but paused when a ring of light materialised around Danny and split, sweeping across him. Before long, white hair and green eyes were gone, replaced by black and blue, which looked at her without malice, only concern.
"Ember… I just want to help" he said softly.
Ember's arm was frozen, held high above her guitar and her own, livid expression. Slowly, as it seemed to dawn on her that he was being serious, the anger melted away from her face, and her arm dropped to her side. The guitar slid from her grip with a muffled thud on the earth, as Ember turned on her heel and sat down again, drawing her knees to her chest.
"Go away…" she murmured listlessly, not bothering to face him.
Danny hesitated. His years of experience were screaming at him this was an enemy, to attack or run away, but he pushed them down. He wasn't leaving, he knew that, but he wasn't sure how far he could push his luck here. She didn't seem particularly hostile for once…
In for a penny, Fenton.
He walked slowly towards the depression Ember was curled up beside and stood next to her. When she didn't react, he folded his legs up underneath himself and sat near to her. Close enough that he was with her, far enough away to not be threatening or invasive.
Thank you Sam and Jazz, for teaching me how to act in situations like this.
She didn't turn away or, y'know, attempt to cave his head in, which Danny took as a win. Up close, he could see her face much more clearly. The patterns beneath her eyes were smudged and streaked. There wasn't a trace of a mocking smirk, no arrogant pride written all over her face, her eyes didn't have the usual malicious glee whenever they'd fought before.
She just looked so… lost.
OK, Danny, you've gotten this far. Now try to open her up a little, get a dialogue going, find out what's wrong and if you can help. You got this.
"So… how're you doing?"
You are a nitwit; he mentally berated himself as Ember shot him a glare. If I could phase myself out of your skull I would.
"Sorry," he hastily added, "stupid question".
"Oh, ya think?" Ember retorted acidly.
He breathed in slowly, pondering his next action. OK, I can do better than this. Enemy or not, she's in pain. I have to do better.
"… Ember, I understand if you don't want to talk to me. I won't force you to, not that I really could. I'll even understand if you genuinely just want me to leave right now. We've spent every other time together at each other's throats, so, I get it.
But I can tell you from experience that keeping problems and feelings bottled up never does you any good. It just traps you in your own head until everything is way worse than before. I can't promise I'll be able to help if you decide to tell me, but I can promise I'll try. And I can promise that whatever you tell me stays between us." He said gently, matching word with action by turning his comm. off.
Ember turned her face back to the ground whilst Danny spoke, her incensed expression vanishing, replaced by the empty one of before.
"Why am I not surprised you give me this goody-goody garbage…" she muttered, more to herself than anyone else, venom entirely missing from her tone. "What's it to you anyway? Why do you care?"
"… Why shouldn't I?"
Ember didn't reply. The silence stretched out, reigning over the clearing.
Nuts. I thought that worked for a second there. OK, what now? She's not asked me to go, so progress there. What're my options? Crack a joke to ease the tension? Likely to get me set on fire. Talk about my own experiences? I'm not even sure what the problem is yet. Start a fight for catharsis? Brain, stop giving me terrible ideas.
"I used to come here a lot" Ember said quietly, breaking the silence. "Back… before, y'know…"
"You mean, before you-" Danny hesitated.
"Before," Ember said firmly.
Or I could shut up, that's a good option.
"If things ever got too much at school, or at home, or just in my whole… existence, I'd come here and practice. Just me and the trees. I could think and talk and deal with things. Nobody else ever came up here. My own private venue, away from the world."
"That sounds nice" Danny commented wistfully, only to flinch when Ember stared at him disdainfully.
"Sure it does, baby pop, until you use your brain and wonder why I had a place like this."
"… Ah."
"Right. 'Ah'. S'not like it's a unique story. Everywhere's got one like me, the one little freak who didn't fit in. The girl who liked weird music, came from that family out on the outskirts of everything, you know what they're like. Had this pathetic dream of being a rock star and changing the way things were. Who'd have just been a loner if she didn't cheese off the big popular girls and get turned into a punching bag. Teachers wouldn't do anything, parents didn't care. Heard it a thousand times. Maybe that's why nobody ever remembered…" she trailed off, before shaking her head.
"There was this guy" she continued, "on the fringes of the popular crowd. Most of them were airheads, or jerks, or airheaded jerks, but he seemed… different. Like he had something to him the others didn't. I dunno. He followed me up here one time, heard me playing. Told me I was amazing, asked me if I wanted to see a movie with him, to meet him here tomorrow and we'd go down to the theatre together."
"… He never showed, did he?" Danny murmured. Ember gave a mirthless chuckle.
"Told you it wasn't original. No, he didn't. After the first hour that should've been it, but no, the lonely freak kept making excuses for him until the early morning. By the time I'd let myself realise I was a punch line and went home, I was exhausted. Didn't even notice when the… when the house went up in flames."
"Ember, that's… I'm sorry"
She shrugged. "It happened. Nothing else to say" she whispered, her voice straining to stay casual. Ember closed her eyes and drew a deep breath, visibly trying to keep going.
"When you got your better half, you never faded, did you?"
"I'd answer that if I had the first idea what you meant. Faded?"
"Yeah. When most of us go, we stick around for a few days afterwards before we get dragged to the Ghost Zone. Can't do anything, you just wander around invisible and intangible. Let's you see how people react to you not being there or whatever. Pretty sure it's a cosmic joke on us. It was on me, anyway."
Ember's voice started to get more animated, fiery, more like herself.
"You know what I saw? You know how people reacted to me being gone?
With nothing. Not even the guy who stood me up knew who I was when they announced it at school. Just gloated with his new friends about how easy it was to trick the freak. And the less said about mom, the better." Ember spat venomously.
Danny tried his absolute hardest to not let the overwhelming pity show on his face. He's not sure he succeeded, but Ember wasn't looking at him anyway. Her gaze was fixed on the ground in front of her, eyes blazing along with her hair as her temper flared and her voice got louder.
"When I got to the Zone, I swore I'd make my way back and I'd make people remember who I was. I'd have them chanting the name of the girl they couldn't be bothered to treat as a human being. I'd be the star none of them believed I could be. I practiced for years, getting my ghost powers honed and ready for my big debut."
Ember's head turned to face Danny, the fierce expression marred by the building tears he could see.
"Then you and your portal happened. And suddenly I didn't have to dream about finding a way through. Now I actually could stand in front of a crowd and hear them call my name and burn myself into their memories. And do you know how it felt? Do you, Phantom?!" Ember shouted, her eyes piercing Danny's.
"Hollow. It felt hollow. Like it changed nothing, meant nothing" she practically screamed, her face a snarl and her body shaking as she tried to keep herself contained. "I spent I don't know how many years haunting over this, as my grand revenge over the world. They were shouting my name, singing my songs, and I couldn't force myself to forget it was because I was making them. Years and years of ambition and planning and practice and obsession and when I finally get there it's like a kid playing pretend!"
Danny nearly leapt to his feet as Ember became more and more agitated, staying down only by mentally wrestling both his ghost hunting instincts and empathy into submission. Slowly, Ember calmed down, wiping the edge of her eyes with her gloved hand before hugging her legs again.
"… Because it was just pretend. Even when I tried other ways, other plans, it felt the same. I spent so long on something meaningless and now I…
I don't know what to do anymore."
The words were barely a whisper above the wind.
"… Oh" breathed Danny after a few seconds past.
"What's that supposed to mean, dipstick?! Is that all you can say?!" Ember fumed, her hair flickering again. He raised his hands swiftly in surrender.
"Sorry, sorry! Not what I meant. It just… it explains a few things. You not showing up all that often, never doing the same thing twice or even the same thing differently and…" Danny sighed, cutting off his stream of consciousness. Do better.
"… Can I let you in on a secret, Ember?"
"If it's some kind of saccharine trash like "follow your heart and it will guide you", then forget-"
"I don't know what to do either."
Ember raised an eyebrow at him, incredulity written all over her face. "You? You expect me to believe that? You're the big shot superhero with fans all over the world, you've gotta be raking in cash, and you've got all the benefits of ghost powers with none of the… the… you know!"
"Yeah, and I never wanted any of it!" Danny snapped, startling her.
"All of – this" he said, as the rings reappeared and transformed him "was a complete accident. I only ever fought you guys because I was the only one who could, at first. My parents were still stuck on weird theories with no experience and it's not like anyone else thought ghost's existed. If people got hurt when I could help, that was on me, you know?"
Danny tilted his head back to look at the sky. "When Walker trashed my reputation and let everyone know ghosts were real, a part of me was glad. People knew now! Something would get done; someone more qualified than the teenager who had a semi-fatal lab accident could take over! And then no one did.
So I thought maybe if I stuck it out and kept who I was a secret, eventually something would come up that meant I could quit, or at least scale it back to emergencies. Get back to having a normal life; maybe actually get my grades back up enough to get into a decent college. After the Disasteroid, though? Everyone knows. Everyone's got expectations, and nobody's asking if this is what I want. I won't say there aren't perks, or that I'm not glad to be helping people and stopping bad guys. But being trapped in the public eye isn't what I want for all my life. Half-life. Whatever."
"… and what do you want?" Ember asked. She had a curious expression on her face that Danny didn't recognise. On anyone else he might have called it sympathy.
"Honestly?"
Ember nodded.
"I want to go up there" he said, gesturing to the stars. "There's a lot we haven't explored yet. I want to be at the front of that. Maybe find out if we're alone or not."
Ember smirked at him suddenly. "Pretty tall order, short stuff."
"Ah, bite me, Ms. Platform boots, I'm average height" Danny grinned back, glad for some levity. This was more like the Ember he knew, quick and sarcastic. The banter was usually fun, if nothing else was. For either of us, apparently.
They sat in silence together, looking at the night sky.
After a while, Danny sighed, and stood up, turning to face Ember properly.
I'm probably going to regret this, but the heck with it. It'll probably help.
"You've not got anyone to talk to about this, do you?"
"… No. Kitty, she tries, but I can't get her to understand. I'm not even gonna get into Skulker. Pompous jerk. Wish I'd never dated him…" Ember muttered under her breath.
"I wasn't gonna mention that, but yeesh, you can do better than him."
"Thanks, I didn't know hindsight was one of your powers" she drawled back at him sarcastically.
"I'm pretty sure that just required regular sight."
"Shuddup, dipstick!" she shouted, flinging a clump of earth at him.
"Alright, alright, sorry!" Danny chuckled, whilst Ember tried her best to hide the quirk of a smile. "What I was getting at was, I know how much it sucks trying to work out what you want to do and your place and all that by yourself, and I know because I'm in the same boat. "
"Yeah, I guess. Getting to the point, baby pop?" Ember asked quizzically.
Insults thick and fast, and some of the walls coming up again. Must be feeling better, Danny thought, as he held out his hand to her.
"Easy. Truce. We confide in each other about this kinda stuff; we distract each other from it all if we need it, just generally help each other until we get it figured out."
Ember looked at his hand sceptically.
"What, just like that? If I'd known it was this easy, I'd have faked it way back. I spill my guts in the most pathetic way and you're just willing to trust me?"
"Oh, I don't trust you. Don't get me wrong, you come through that portal for any other reason, you're getting in the thermos" Danny gave a cocky grin while Ember stuck her tongue out at him, before turning serious again. "But let's be honest – I know we can't really talk to anyone else about this. Mom and dad would just get confused about why I'd want to maybe give up ghost hunting; Jazz would probably diagnose me with half a dozen different psychiatric disorders. Tucker would complain that I don't know how good I've got it and Sam… Well, I know how she'd react, because I've tried to bring this up before."
"Wow, there's a domestic I do not want to see." Ember quipped. She raised an eyebrow when Danny didn't fire back, but instead looked down and frowned.
"Yeah, that's… that's one way of putting it." He shook himself and raised his head again. "But yeah, we both get something out of this, even if it's just a break and someone to vent to. What do you say, Ember?"
Ember's eyes flicked between his hand and his face, which was giving her a small, sincere smile. Eventually she huffed. Hauling herself to her feet, she looked Danny in the eye as she took his gloved hand in hers and shook.
"Say a word of this to anyone else, and I'm setting your face on fire. I've got a rep to maintain" she said, deadly serious. Danny just smiled wider and shook back.
"Deal."
Their hands fell to their sides, and neither moved.
"So, uh… what now? I'm not used to this not ending with either you on the ground or me in that high tech camping gear of yours."
"No idea. I didn't plan beyond sitting down. I figured you'd smack me for even getting close, so I've been winging it from there… You feeling any better?" Danny asked hesitantly.
"… Yeah." Ember's voice was quiet, as if she only just noticed that herself. "I think I might head back now. No offence, but I'm not sure how much longer I can look at your face without punching it" she teased, smirking.
"You'd punch a national treasure like this face?" Danny proclaimed melodramatically, his hand over his heart. "Ember, truly you are a villain!"
"And don't you forget it! … Wanna race to the portal?"
"You're on!" he shouted, getting into position to take off.
"And… Danny?" Ember said from beside him, before throwing her arms around his shoulders, wrapping him in a hug. "Thanks."
Before Danny could properly process what was happening, Ember released his shoulders and rocketed upwards, her flaming hair streaking behind her.
"Thanks for being a sucker!" she cackled, making a beeline straight for Fenton Works.
"Cheater!" Danny rebuked, launching himself after her as fast as he could.
She won, in the end.
