Bringing in another power chapter this time around. I snuck in some hints and allusions to a few different things, so have fun picking this chapter apart lmao


Danny left Casper High more than an hour after the last class had ended, covered in paper cuts. The Box Ghost had attacked between fourth and fifth period, armed with several boxes of notebooks and printer paper. The fight had been short-lived— and Wes had stayed out of it, as promised— but Danny got caught shortly after changing back in a teacher's office. He got accused of tampering with paperwork, and was subsequently stuck with after-school detention. Not that Danny had a better explanation to offer as to why the office was littered with torn and smoldering paper. But it was still unfair, if you asked him.

He was just wondering what excuse he would come up with for all of his scratches when he got home, or if he needed to at all, when Wes jogged up behind him. Danny furrowed his brows, but then remembered that Wes usually had practice after school. It would make sense that he would be leaving at around the same time. But why would he be following him instead of heading home?

Wes quickly caught up to him, slowing down once they were shoulder to shoulder. "You end up in detention again?"

Danny sighed. "Yeah. Lancer found me in his office after I beat the Box Ghost. The place was trashed, so of course he saw me there and thought I did it."

Wes chuckled, but his smile was a little tight. "You gotta be more careful. One of these days you might actually get caught." Danny rolled his eyes, well aware of the risks transforming in a public space entailed. But this didn't feel like Wes teasing, so he stayed quiet. There was more to his words than that.

Sure enough, Wes's smile faltered, then fell. He kept his eyes on the sidewalk at their feet, his hands tightening their grip on his backpack straps. "...Look. I never apologized for... for before."

"Before?" Danny parroted, shooting him a curious look.

"Before I became a ghost," Wes clarified. "All those times I tried to tell everyone what you really were. I could have put you in real danger. There would have been nowhere safe for you if I'd succeeded, and I was doing it over something so petty. I did promise not to do it anymore, but... I never said sorry. So I'm saying it now. I'm sorry."

"Wes..." Danny breathed. He gave the teen a lopsided smile. "You really don't have to apologize for that. You couldn't have known."

"But I want to," Wes argued. "Whether I knew or not, that could have been really bad. I shouldn't have done it."

"It's okay," said Danny. "I understand."

"...Okay. Thanks."

The two walked towards Danny's house in peaceful silence. The autumn sun was already beginning to set, washing everything in a sepia glow. Wes hummed quietly, thoughtful. "...There's still something I don't quite get."

"Hm?" Danny glanced at him.

"You told me today you had a hero obsession," said Wes. Danny remained silent, nodding in perplexed acknowledgement. "So what was the deal with the mayor? And the robberies?"

"Oh." Danny slowed as he recalled the events in question. "Remember when Circus Gothica came into town? Freakshow's staff could brainwash ghosts. He caught me, and made me steal things for him so it couldn't be traced back to him. Everything did get returned, though, thanks to Sam.

"That time with the mayor? That was Walker trying to set me up. You know, the guy in all white with the fedora? He overshadowed the mayor, and framed me for kidnapping him. He grabbed me, not the other way around."

"Overshadowing?" asked Wes.

"Possession," Danny rephrased. "Ghosts can take over a person's body and mind, if their willpower is strong enough." He grimaced. "I don't really like doing it. It feels kinda... personal."

"So you've overshadowed people before?" Wes asked.

"Again with the rude questions. A little tact wouldn't kill you," Danny grumped, shoving his shoulder to indicate he wasn't actually angry. "...But yeah. I've had to overshadow people a few times." He paused, rubbing his chin. "...Actually, I should probably teach you how to do it. It could come in handy."

"...You want to teach me how to control people?" Wes questioned, frowning.

"I'm not saying you should run around taking people over," Danny huffed. "But you can have more than one ghost overshadowing someone. And if your hold on a person is stronger than the other ghost's, you can use that to force them out. It's like, exorcizing evil spirits or something. Same idea."

"Oh... And you're gonna show me how to do it? I thought saving people was more your thing."

"You've already made it pretty clear you're going to keep taking on enemies you can't handle," Danny said dryly. "The least I can do is give you a better shot at it."

Wes pouted and crossed his arms. "...Okay. Are we going to the usual spot?"

"Yep." Danny changed course, and Wes followed him. When they reached the woods, Danny turned to face his student, clapping his hands with finality.

"Okay. So this is something that can be done in either form, so whichever you're most comfortable doing this in will be fine." Wes considered that for a moment, then transformed; it made more sense to practice a ghost power in ghost form. "Overshadowing itself isn't hard. The tricky part is maintaining it once you're there, but I won't be trying to kick you out, so you can figure things out at your own pace."

"Woah, woah, wait a minute," Wes cut him off. "You aren't going to walk me through it first? Like, demonstrating or something?"

Danny's eyebrows shot up. "You want me to overshadow you?"

Wes's shoulders hunched. "W-Well, that wasn't what I meant, but..."

"Being overshadowed is different from doing the actual overshadowing," Danny told him. "I'll show you what that feels like after this if you want me to, but it won't help you actually overshadow someone. So for now I'll tell you how to do it, and let you puzzle things out from there."

Wes gulped, turning an anxious orange. Had he been given such an opportunity a month ago, he would have jumped at the chance. He could only imagine what intimate secrets he could learn about Danny, secrets he could very easily exploit. Heck, he could pose as the guy and announce his spectral status to the world, if he wanted. But now, the idea of possessing Danny felt intrusive in a way he couldn't even begin to describe.

And yet here he was, literally handing Wes the potential to do just that. A potential he had no intention of utilizing, sure. But that level of trust wasn't lost on him. If Danny believed in him, trusted him with whatever he could end up learning, then he wasn't going to squander it.

"...Okay. Tell me what to do."

Danny nodded. He looked about as nervous as Wes felt. "This'll be simple enough for you, I think. All you have to do is go intangible, fly into me, and become tangible again."

"...Really?" Wes wrung his hands. "You won't explode or something?"

Danny snorted. "No, I won't explode. It's like, you'll sort of just fill out where there's room, or something. It's really hard to explain, but it'll make sense when you try it."

Wes chewed on his lip, brows furrowing with worry. "...Okay, if you're sure. But if something's wrong you'll tell me, right?"

"Promise."

Swallowing nervously, Wes floated upwards, his form blurring at the edges. Without giving himself time to think, he flew towards Danny, passing straight through him and letting himself solidify within.

Only, he never really became solid. Instead, he felt himself waver and spread thin, like a fast-moving fog. There was a long moment where his whole body felt like it was doused in ice water, and he nearly fled from Danny at the biting sensation. But Danny had said that possession was a battle of wills. So instead of recoiling, he pushed back, form spreading once more. The cold feeling faded, leaving behind nothing but a faint chill in his bones. If he really had bones at the moment.

Wes opened his eyes, very much aware that he had never closed them. The first thing he became aware of was that colors seemed wrong. Reds were brighter, greens were duller. The differences were slight, being just barely apparent enough for Wes to notice.

The next thing he realized was that things were quiet. Much quieter than he was used to. The various woodland sounds played in the background of his awareness, his attention only briefly being drawn to one thing before moving to the next, until even that had been exhausted. Even his own body was quiet. He didn't realize how prominent his heartbeat was until he could no longer hear it.

Wes raised his right hand to measure his pulse, distinctly aware of how muscles shifted under the skin, familiar and yet ever so slightly different. It didn't take long for him to find his pulse, and measure it at a mellow, steady forty beats. His Adam's apple bobbed in his throat as he breathed and swallowed, so much smaller than his own.

Right. This wasn't his body. This was Danny's.

The moment he remembered that, he became aware of several little discrepancies where he didn't expect to find them. A small chip in a molar. The absence of an ache in his shoulder from an old injury. A slight delay when he tried to move the fingers on his left hand. Clothes clinging to him differently. His weight settling in strange ways. So many little things that Wes would have thought easy to miss, and yet somehow they all felt so obvious.

How does it feel? asked a small voice in the back of his head. Danny.

"...It's weird," Wes said aloud, startled to find that he still sounded like himself. He was using Danny's vocal cords, wasn't he? "It's really different from what I expected. I mean, I didn't expect to still be able to talk to you."

Normally you can't, Danny told him. Ghosts generally try to suppress as much of the host as possible. But you aren't doing that, so I'm still aware of everything you're doing. You can sort of pick and choose what you and I can perceive, if you concentrate.

Wes hummed, rubbing his— Danny's— fingers together. Fingers that were rougher than his own, tips scraping against a callused palm. He breathed deeply, smelling soil and rainwater around him. The cool autumn air nipped at his lungs, and he fought back a shiver. He had never done well with cold weather. And yet, when he rubbed at his arms, he couldn't find a single trace of goosebumps. Though his own body would have been covered in them, Danny's didn't seem bothered in the slightest. Wes supposed that made sense, considering he had ice powers.

Deciding he had stood there long enough, he stepped forwards, then stumbled and nearly collapsed when his foot hit the ground sooner than he expected it to. "Holy crap, your legs are short!"

I'll have you know my legs are perfectly average, Danny huffed. You're just freakishly tall.

"My height is not freakish," Wes huffed. "And why in the world do I still sound like me?! I'm in your body, shouldn't I sound like you?!" He felt a sudden wave of indifference, which he chose to interpret as a mental shrug. He cleared his throat, letting his voice drop in pitch as he did so. When he opened his mouth again, he sounded less like himself and more like the teen he was possessing. "There, that's a little better... but now it's weird because I'm using your voice!"

No matter what you do it's going to feel pretty weird, Danny told him, and frankly it feels weird hearing you sound like me. But hey, at least you're figuring things out.

"...Huh. I guess I am." And Wes was sure he had barely scratched the surface. Did he have access to Danny's powers like this? Did he still have access to his own? Were the more basic powers available to him? What did he look like right now? He knew that overshadowing usually affected the voice and eyes. What did his eyes look like? If they were his own pinpricks of light, could he turn them blue like Danny's, just like he changed his voice? How about his senses? Sound and color was definitely a bit different for Danny than it was for himself. Could he align his sense of equilibrium with Danny's to make moving around easier? Did Danny's body have its usual limitations with speed and flexibility, or did they line up with Wes's?

Woah, that was a lot of thoughts all at once, Danny groaned.

Wes paused. "...Are you reading my mind?"

No, but I'm getting sort of an impression of it, Danny replied. Enough to know that it's brainstorming a mile a minute. You aren't exactly hiding it.

"Oh... Er, sorry about that. I'm just trying to figure out what I can and can't do like this. How much of this overshadowing thing is me, and how much is you."

It's mostly you, but you can kind of give and take with this sort of thing. It's pretty versatile. I just ask that you don't try and tap into any of my ghost powers. You might accidentally make me transform, and trust me, a ghost overshadowing another ghost doesn't work out how anybody wants it to.

"Yikes, noted." So Danny's powers were off the table, not that Wes intended to try using them anyway. But he himself was already in ghost form. Were his own powers safe to use? Were his more passive abilities still in effect, namely whatever allowed him to build core energy? Until he got moving, there was no way to know for sure.

So he began walking. Once he got a proper feel for Danny's gait, he sped into a jog, and then an easy run. Confusion that wasn't his swirled in his stomach. Wait, what are you doing? Where are we going?

"I just want to see something," Wes replied, keeping his eyes straight ahead. He grew more confident with each step, and soon his legs were pumping full force. But he wasn't fast enough. Danny's body, while athletic, wasn't built to run. But his was. He knew he could go faster. And he did, his strides growing longer and longer.

Another confused vocalization rang at the back of his mind, barely audible over the sound of Wes's footsteps. Ice began creeping into his very being, pulsing from the center of his chest. He forced the chill back, heeding Danny's warning, and in its place he felt a familiar, heated thrum. Even without a tangible heart to beat, Wes became intimately aware of the presence of his own core, cascading and swelling like it had a heart of its own. A wave of anxiety washed over him, but it was quickly drowned out by his own exhilaration. He had no reason to feel scared. He'd forgotten how good this power felt, wanted to bask in it.

Wes let out a loud whoop, unaware that his own voice was starting to seep through. A fear that he couldn't explain crept up his throat, and once again he pushed it back. Unbidden, his already light skin paled, losing its reddish warmth as it took on a light green hue. Chartreuse freckles beaded on its surface, splashing across his face and arms and dotting the backs of his hands. Caught up in the excitement of his core energy building, Wes was completely unaware of the changes. But Danny was not.

"...Stop..." they wheezed, skidding to a halt. "No... Get out!" Hands clutched at their hair, and then their chest. An overwhelming chill wormed its way to the surface, writhing beneath their ribs. Their skin squirmed and rippled painfully as Danny fought for control with a tenacity Wes didn't expect. Pressure built up in his insides, and though his instincts screamed at him to fight it back and suppress it, he instead let it consume him, until with a sensation like a snapping rubber band, he was forcibly ejected from Danny's body, the pair left sprawling on the ground and gasping for breath.

Wes groaned, sitting up and rubbing at his head as he attempted to relieve the fog that had taken up residence in his brain. He shook himself, focusing his attention on his prior host. "...Danny?"

Danny was upright, his legs tucked close to his chest. He was breathing quickly, clutching at his hand and examining it almost frantically. It had returned from its ghostly pallor to something more natural, and was no longer blemished with Wraith's luminous speckles. Seeing that he was looking at his own hand, one not overlaid with another's features, he sighed in relief, resting his forehead against his knees.

Wes swallowed thickly, scooting closer. "...Danny? Are you okay?" When he didn't get a response, he worried his lip, getting close enough that he could almost see the sweat beading on Danny's hairline. "...What happened back there? What's wrong?"

This time, Danny moved, shifting so that his chin was resting on his knees. He wouldn't look at Wes, although whatever had come over him seemed to have passed, leaving him visibly drained. "...It wasn't anything, really. I overreacted."

Wes frowned, nudging his elbow. "You promised to tell me if something was wrong."

"...You're right, I did," Danny conceded with a sigh. "It really was just an overreaction. It's normal for someone who's overshadowed to start looking like the ghost possessing them if they're exerting enough control. But..."

"Oh..." Wes stared at his feet. "...I'm sorry, I didn't realize. I knew one of us was nervous, but I didn't know it was you, so I kept pushing and pushing... I didn't think I had that much control over you at the time. I didn't know."

"It's okay, I know you didn't," Danny reassured him. "It was your first time, so I didn't expect you to know what to look for. Overshadowing is a confusing thing, and it takes time to figure it out."

"...Well," Wes decided, "if I ever have to possess you again for whatever reason, I'll pay more attention. The second something feels wrong, I'll stop, and I'll ask you what you need me to do different."

Danny managed a weak chuckle at that. "I don't think it'll ever come to that, but I appreciate it." He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. There was more to his fear than merely being unwittingly silenced by someone who he knew would have done him no harm. Wes would have asked him about it, but Danny got to his feet, offering Wes a hand up. "Why don't we pick this back up another time? It's been a long day."

Wes hummed in agreement. Between his fight with Skulker and possessing Danny, he felt like he could sleep for days. "Alright. I'll see you at school tomorrow, then."

Danny nodded, transforming and floating above the treeline. Wes joined him, then jetted towards home, glimmering brightly once he was a safe distance away. Danny turned and flew towards FentonWorks, fighting an involuntary shudder. He rubbed his hands down his face, more to assure himself that it was his than to actually try to wipe away his exhaustion.

Although, after the day he'd had, he could definitely stand to get a good night's rest.


Only a couple more chapters to go, and then I'll be writing one of the chapters I've been looking forward to practically since conceptualizing Wraith. Until then, let's see if I can squeeze in another development/bonding chapter or two!