Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. I would never dream of making money off his work, this is but one fanatic's homage. So please don't sic the rabid lawyer hordes upon me, there's not much for them to sue out of me.
Author's Note: Oh wow, I feel mildly sick having finished this scene. Blame One, my sister and Devil Muse- her ideas set things "better left unsaid" in motion, though the finishing touch was my own addition to the idea.
By the way, TUE was on today. It was weird in a kinda cool way to watch it again, beginning to end through the lens of my other fic Jeremiad. I imagine it'll be really cool to watch it through the combined lens of Jeremiad AND Anathema eventually!
If slightly descriptive violence makes you ill, I would suggest you skip this chapter. I managed to keep it within the T rating, but it's still not pleasant. As always, reviews are appreciated. One shares responsibility for anything I get flamed for in this chapter.
Chapter 3- Murder
It was settled. The operation would take place the very next day, and I would be free of my pain. Amusingly, that was the end result, though I rather think not in the way either my useless human self nor the cheesehead had anticipated. My younger half slept soundly that night, a deep dreamless sleep of exhaustion. My older half in contrast slept fitfully, concerned over the operation he would be performing.
Much of my recollection of the morning of the operation comes from Plasmius. My younger half was so groggy that day that his recollection is not nearly as clear for me now. With great care I led Daniel to the lab and got him belted down to the operating table. He offered no resistance as the anesthesia took hold, rendering him unconscious. So vulnerable, it would have been so simple to end him then and there... but no. My older half did have some honor left to him, and simply prepared the Ghost Gauntlets, tugging a surgeon's mask into place as he prepared to rip me free of my human half.
My younger half was unconscious, at least his useless humanity was. I was immediately aware of the intrusion when those talons dug into me, a flash of white-hot pain in the black emptiness of unconsciousness. How shall I describe the pain? Twin rows of needles digging into me, a sensation I can only describe as being ripped in half. This was far beyond the mere momentary discomfort of passing through my parents' Ghost Catcher. Then all at once I was aware of my surroundings, though I was horribly disoriented. All I was aware of was the pain, intense and crippling in my chest, and that my archenemy Vlad was the one responsible for my agony. My enemy.
Of course, most people when in danger choose to flee, as weak humans are not made for fighting, certainly not when injured. But I was stupid then, so conditioned to fighting when attacked from my months of fighting ghosts and wasting my efforts protecting people. I did not realize in that instant, as I was rather preoccupied with the claws buried in my body, but I did not feel the grief and guilt anymore. I was angry, and focused all my strength on the source of my pain. With a growl, I grabbed Vlad's wrists and flung him away, biting back a cry as the claws tore out of me, leaving terrible brilliant green gouges cut into my chest. My archrival was so surprised that he bodily slammed into the wall, clearly stunned, the breath knocked out of him from the impact.
My older half was indeed quite surprised by the unexpected violence from Daniel's ghost half. I slammed into the wall, the impact knocking the breath from my lungs and leaving me momentarily helpless, the gauntlets flying from my hands and falling to the floor with a metallic clatter. Too dazed still to think of turning into my ghost form and defending myself, all I could do was stare up at Daniel's ghost half, at the intense expression of anger on his face.
My younger half floated there, weakened from the operation, but direly ready to fight, to lash out. I had to stop Vlad, my rival and mortal enemy. And there he sat, stunned and momentarily helpless, an opportunity I would be a fool to waste. I was angry indeed. Angry at Vlad for this newest cruelty against me, and angry at myself, for having caused the deaths of those I had cared about. With the grief gone, it left a void that I quickly replaced with anger, with hate, a torrent for which Vlad made himself the prime target. My human self had been so weak, so useless. I knew I was weak myself as I grabbed the fallen gauntlets. Well, I would soon even the odds as I roughly grabbed the stunned billionaire, grinning with a sort of eager delight at finally having the upper hand against my nemesis.
My older half offered no resistance when my younger half took hold of me, hefting me limply into the air with disconcerting ease, the claws on the Ghost Gauntlets digging painfully into me. Like a sheet of paper, I was torn in half, his right hand releasing me with impressive momentum. I slammed into the wall a second time, barely feeling my cloak settle about my shoulders, nearly unconscious from the sheer torture of being so violently torn from my human self. I'm positive that my human half was likely in worse condition than I was, I heard him slam into the wall with a yelp across the room from where I had fallen.
Ah, and then! My younger half knew that my older half would likely recover quickly, and that momentary weakness, that narrow window of opportunity would soon pass. I certainly cannot be accused of thinking too much about anything then, and I had the crazy notion that perhaps I could overshadow Plasmius and stop the older ghost from being able to fight. Well, I never was terribly good at math, and certainly did not consider what would happen when two halves were forced together.
Words fail me to describe that instant, the moment I came into my current existence. Neither the sharp wit of my younger half nor the vast intellect of my older half have the words to do that instant justice. Power, a hot searing burst of pure energy tore through my combining form, a rush of heat that at that moment I thought would consume me whole and leave nothing but ash. It was painful of course, every fiber of my joining being bursting with agony that made the injuries I'd sustained from the gauntlets just prior seem as nothing in comparison. I know I screamed out my pain, the long cry lost amid the pounding in my ears. At some point I sprang into the air, desperately trying to find some relief from the heat and pain.
Above and beyond the physical sensation was the incredible mental sensation, a dizzying rush of information. Alien thoughts and feelings clashing, a million miniature battles in my tattered mind. The physical joining was completed long before the mental one. I fell dazed and half-stupid to the ground, thrashing as I tried so desperately to make a coherent sense of two radically different sets of memory. I was dimly aware of a clatter, likely Vlad Masters scrambling to tend to my useless human half.
Even when I finally came to myself, I was still stunned and horribly dazed and I lay still where I had fallen, staring blankly up at the ceiling overhead. Beyond my field of vision, I heard my human self groan as he awoke, and soon heard the beginning of an argument.
"Wh-what did you do!"
"I did nothing beyond what I promised I would, boy!"
"That's not right, that's not what my ghost half looks-"
"Yes, I am well aware of that Daniel, would you care to explain why it would attack me?"
"What?"
I growled, finding myself becoming quite annoyed at the bickering, but my body refused to respond to my commands just yet. The sound brought the two humans to silence however, both staring at me with mixed expressions of fear and confusion. What were they staring at? Oh, that's right, me. My anger rising, I finally was able to stagger upright, glowering at the both of them. Vlad Masters was gawking at me, I could tell the man was quivering, whether from fear or simple exhaustion I'm not sure, nor do I particularly care. Danny stared, the boy's expression largely unreadable, confusion, fear, panic, a dozen other emotions flying across his face.
I stared down the two humans, realizing to myself after a long internal dialogue that I disliked them both. Vlad had constantly made my life miserable, his schemes making things difficult, the billionaire always looking for how he could benefit from any given situation. Danny... well, he was weak. Pathetic even, unable to give Vlad a decent fight, and useless on top of it all. He was the reason my friends and family were dead, the reason I had just gone through such horrible pain. I hated them both to be certain, but Danny had a special place of loathing. Always getting in my way, always holding me back.
"Stay back, Daniel." Vlad stepped protectively between me and the boy. Ha, what could he do, powerless as he now was?
I stared Vlad down, obviously the man was weighing his options, uncertain what I would do. I considered my options, still fighting off the lingering daze from the fusion. With the power I knew I had come to possess, I could likely do things that my rival could only dream of. I could destroy him. I found the thought immensely pleasing. I had no control over the fate of my family and friends, but now, I could control the fates of dozens of people. The lives of the two people before me were in my hands, to do with as I wished. I smirked, feeling my new fangs brush past my lower lip as I smiled slightly.
"Out of the way, old man." I raised one hand toward Vlad, watching with smug satisfaction as the cheesehead was sent flying across the room by the blast with a cry. I found the clatter of equipment falling over quite pleasing. Danny yelped as he was struck by the splash damage from my attack, marring his jeans and t-shirt.
"Get back-!" Danny yelped, backing away from me.
"Or else what?" I sneered. "What can you do? You're useless, a waste of time. You can't do anything."
"I can too-!" Danny protested, sliding uncertainly into a fighting stance, the same stance I had assumed a hundred times before. "I'm-"
I laughed as the realization hit him, along with my fist. He had clearly been thinking he could just "go ghost" and take me on, forgetting momentarily that I was his ghost half and he was powerless. Useless and stupid child that he was, he thought he could fight me, fight himself, his better half. Danny hit the wall with a pained yelp, his body splayed flat against the wall for a moment before he slid to the floor.
"You're what? Going ghost?" I laughed once, the sound harsh even to me. "What could you possibly do? You can't save anyone. You couldn't save Tucker, you couldn't save Jazz, you couldn't save Dad, and you couldn't save Sam OR Maddie." I hissed, taking a step toward Danny, feeling my hate for the boy rising.
Perhaps out of terror, or maybe guilt, Danny huddled where I had punched him, quaking at my approach. I stared down at him, momentarily torn as I lowered my fists. Did I really want to go through with this? I had never once murdered someone, tempting though the idea was at times. Surely this had to be some horribly twisted form of self-loathing? There he was, so helpless, so scared. He was a weakness, he was what held me back from realizing my potential. I snarled at him, lunging forward to grab the front of his shirt and heft him so we were eye-to-eye.
"You know, I think I'm going to enjoy this. You want to join them?" I smiled then at his abject terror, releasing his shirt and instead gripping Danny by the elbows. "Yes... you're in my way, but not for long."
How shall I describe it? My grip on Danny's arms was tight enough to crush bone. I delighted in the sound as Danny cried out his pain as I pulled the limbs, testing my newfound strength. Vlad struggled to his feet and tried to protect the boy, but he was just as weak as my human self. I smacked the billionaire aside again, smiling when I saw him hit the wall and slide to the floor unconscious.
"Oh, don't make such a fuss." I sneered, finally tearing the offending arms away entirely and throwing Danny against the wall, the boy screaming in agony and thrashing in a way not entirely unlike my own tantrum only a short while ago. But my pain was a beginning, a new life and freedom. Danny's pain would be an ending, a death well-earned for his shortcomings, his failures. "It's not as though you need your hands, the useless things. Those hands couldn't save anyone, least of all our family."
Unsurprisingly, my maimed human self didn't seem to notice my taunt as I tossed the severed limbs at his feet. It was a work of art, really. The contrast of brilliant red splashed against the brushed silver of the wall like some sort of abstract painting, with my mangled and bleeding human half thrashing, the artist's paintbrush. A shame I didn't have a video camera, really.
I stood there and watched with a smile as Danny's thrashing made a rather large mess before I grabbed him by the throat and hefted him again. He was rapidly going pale from blood loss, his white and red shirt now more of the latter color, blood-red. Smiling coldly, I tightened my grip, feeling him thrashing and gasping desperately for air.
"Stop... please-" Danny gasped in a tiny voice, his struggles slowing. I stared him in the face, watching with no small amount of delight as his blue eyes glazed over. With my free hand, I charged a small blast of ectoplasmic energy, quietly delighting to myself at how easily I could form such a blast. Still smiling, I placed my glowing palm just inches from Danny's stomach, releasing the blast and putting the finishing touches on my "painting" on the wall behind him. He managed to convulse once or twice, one final scream dying quickly as I threw the remains to the floor, a spent and useless hull.
I looked around the underground lab, chuckling. I could destroy it... and Vlad Masters with it. My archenemy and my old weakness, both destroyed in a single blast. I raised both hands over my head, still laughing as I charged a blast, just to see how big an explosion I could generate. The glowing green sphere flashed into being quickly, swelling to a foot in diameter, then two feet, then three... until it loomed over my head, shining like a miniature green sun in that enclosed space. My laughter increased in volume as I slammed the ecto-sphere upward, the blast detonating with nuclear force against the ceiling.
Words fail me when I describe the freedom I felt as I leapt into the air, laughing as I rode the shockwave of the massive explosion. In seconds I was several hundred feet in the air, looking down at the destroyed castle receding into the distance. I didn't want to stay in the wilderness, no. I wanted to go home, back to Amity Park, free now to share my real feelings with the people there. I tore across the countryside, firing massive green blasts below me for little reason beyond the fact that I could.
Within two days I was flying over the outskirts of Amity Park, my blasts withheld for the moment. This was my home town, I wasn't sure yet if I truly wished to see it burn. I touched down easily, staring up at the familiar sight of home, of FentonWorks. The building was quiet, largely as I had left it when I first departed for Wisconsin. I stood there, contemplating my options. It would be so easy to destroy it, but did I really want to? Part of me ached to put my newfound power to good use. The ghosts that plagued the city would stand little chance against me as I now was- all of Vlad's power and all of Danny's ingenuity in one neat package.
"DANNY!" I spun around, and there she was, running at me a look of relief all over her dark face. Valerie threw herself at me, and I caught her out of sheer reflex, her arms around me in an enthusiastic hug. "You came back!"