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So this chapter here is actually a revised version of the Aftermath/Exchange threads. As many of you might recall, I had to stop working on the story Aftermath for various reasons—and I had also deleted my rated-E story, The Exchange, from AO3 for a related reason. It's taken me a long time, but I've been wanting to revisit some of the concepts from these two stories and remix them in a way that I (hopefully) could feel good about writing again. So here we are! This new "Exchange" will feature some aspects that may seem familiar, especially in regards to children and deals and castles, but it's going to have a lot of differences as well, the most extensive difference being the revised relationship between Dan and Val.
Summary: The new King of the Ghost Zone, Dan Phantom, makes a deal with the Red Huntress, Valerie Gray, to secure his reign. If she bears him an heir, then he will never attack a human city again. But the deal is far more than a simple exchange. And both of them know it.
Chapter Warnings: Implied sexual encounters and some adult-type touching but nothing explicit in this chapter. Some brief language.
Deliverance
Shot 76: The Exchange Part 1
It began as an off-hand comment, with the infamous Phantom pinning Valerie to the ground in the middle of battle. His red eyes had stared into hers for time, and she'd stared back up at him, no longer fighting. Their chests had heaved together from physical exertion, his long legs straddling her own.
Tendrils of his flickering white hair slipped between them to tickle her dark cheek.
"I've a proposition for you," he breathed, his deep voice a vibration throughout the full of her body.
The armored woman beneath him searched his eyes. "Yeah?"
Lips stretched to reveal sharp, slender fangs. "Ah, perhaps you should not agree before you hear it."
Her face faulted, and she lightly struggled beneath him in displeasure. But her struggles were not of fear—they had tumbled about many times before. "It's not an agreement; this is me telling you to explain yourself."
Long, gloved fingers lightened upon her wrists, where he had pinned her arms over her head. Her vulnerability to him in that moment was—as he knew—little more than a sham. Valerie Gray, the Red Huntress, the Beloved Protector of Amity Park, was so heavily weaponized that she could conjure great power and electrocute him through touch alone. Such attacks had often left him with twitching nerves and pain for several days.
He suspected she tolerated their wrestling because she was quite bored. Like him. Lonely, like him.
There was a dance to such things.
His red-wine eyes searched her own. "I now hold the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage in my possession," he declared to her. "Perhaps you have heard of my exploits."
Valerie looked up at him, eyes narrowed in curiosity. "Yeah, I've heard of them. It's weird you don't use your new power upgrades on the human plane." She pouted. "I upgraded my suit for nothing."
The wind of the Wastelands blew between them. Flickers of his white hair danced between her stiff curls, which trailed in a halo across the dirt.
He leaned in, his aristocratic nose only inches from her own, his lips caught in the gravity well that was Valerie Gray's presence. "I do not wish to hurt you."
Her own lips stretched then. "What makes you think you can?"
The ghost's head tilted. He, in a somewhat dark, fond delight, knocked on the armor of her forearm, which clanked against his hard knuckles. "Your tin shell can handle only so much." His voice lightened in a sultry way. "I doubt it can withstand the force of ancient generations, whose power first scattered the constellations as we now know them."
Valerie huffed. Her strong legs suddenly moved up, and she clenched her muscles, twisting. In the blur of the moment, she rolled them. Her sharp, armored fingers slammed down into the dirt, clenching upon his wrists. Her dark curls streamed down her shoulders, her legs straddling him. "I'm pretty sure," she retorted lightly, raising a brow, "a dinky flaming crown and a king's ring aren't gonna ruin my day."
Beneath her, the powerful being smiled. For all the darkness in him, there was a genuine crinkle of amusement. He liked her on top. "Oh, Valerie. You have no idea what abilities I have. This is why I offer my proposition."
His cape was a twist of fabric on the ground, its flickering edges lifting up to kiss along her armored leg. The material was little more than an extension of Dan's own consciousness, and it flickered with his will. The kisses of the fabric hissed against her armor.
The commander swallowed hard, her dark cheeks heating. She could feel his intention riddle through her armor. "…Look, if this has to do with the other day—" She hesitated. "And last Tuesday, and ah—the one before that—" She cleared her throat, her face screwing up in a mix of awkward frustration. "It's just, in-the-heat-of-battle crap. But I'm not interested in a fuck on the side. You give me enough problems…I don't need to be dealing with that noise."
"Oh, Valerie," he murmured. He shook loose her hand from his strong wrist. He gently grabbed for her chin, holding her gaze. A seriousness overcame him. "My proposition for you is more than a casual fuck. As you may know, I will represent the first king in millennia to hold the throne. There are older ghosts—ancient ones—who feel a line is not secured unless an heir is produced to continue it."
Valerie blinked, her brows knitting together.
He huffed, his face in a light twist. "And the fact is, Valerie, I'm not fond of anyone like I am fond of you."
Her limbs tightened. She stiffened upon him, her flush stretching up to the tips of her eyes. She failed to speak, her tongue tying.
His black-gloved fingers slid to her neck, trailing from her chin to her vulnerable neck. "I want you to bear my child."
Valerie made a strangled noise in the back of her throat. Her armored fingers dug into the dirt. She closed her eyes, damning the way she found herself leaning into his touch. Despite their battles, nothing had wiped away their history—that he had once desired her, and she him. And that now, with his handsome face and deep voice and generally pleasing-looking body, Phantom was a hard man to resist.
And he was not unaffected by her either.
"What?" she asked dumbly.
"I need an heir, Valerie," he murmured to her, voice straining, breaking her thoughts. "I'm willing to offer you anything you desire in return. For I will not mix myself with a lesser being."
That inspired her to reclaim her tongue. But her voice was halted in a mix of emotions, a flush still stretching everywhere beneath her suit. "I thought you hated humans."
He retorted in a light deadpan, "For all of your particularly human weaknesses that remain, I find you…very attractive."
"Why?" she demanded. "Why me?"
His gloved fingers trailed to the collar of her armor, then lower, tracing her collar bones. His eyes did not leave hers. She did not stop his lazy explorations. "You know why." A dark mischief stretched his wide mouth. "Though I admit, I am in part enamored by the prospect of what our children would be like. My great power—your enduring spirit—"
Valerie's face twisted. "Oh, please." She grabbed onto his hand and pulled it away. "You ghosts and all of your stupid lineage crap. It's dumb."
"You're blushing," he declared. "I can hear the pounding of your heart and the increased hitch of your breath."
"It's dumb," she said again.
His eyes were focused upon hers. "Then why did your pupils dilate at the prospect?" he demanded, his sharp fangs glimmering from his smile. "Admit it, Valerie, dear. In ten years, we've come quite a long way. Our empires are great. We rule our worlds. But you tire of your own isolation. The benefits of spreading your legs for me would not be one-sided."
She froze on top of him.
Fingers, which had razed entire cities, rose up to stroke her heated cheek. "You desire intimacy. But no one could understand you as well as I do. And you know it."
Valerie's breath hitched. "You don't know that."
Red eyes narrowed. "No?" he challenged lightly. "Tell me, Valerie—when was the last time you felt truly at home in your own little bubble? With your bubble people, in their own little safe and happy cities, hmm?" His voice softened, dark. "You like danger. And I am danger, which is why you crave me, especially when you are alone. It is why you seek the Wastelands, even when I am tired of war."
Her heart began to race harder. Her splayed thighs over his hips trembled. Suddenly, the position felt even more intimate than before.
"What other man," he murmured, gently grabbing onto one of her curls, inspecting its texture, "can inspire your heart to beat as it does for me? And what man has no fear of a woman as powerful as you?" His finger twisted around the curl. "I've seen and heard them. You are untouchable to your own kind. You have transcended them as if you were a god. They fear intimacy with a woman like you. They fear your anger, and your passions."
Valerie swallowed down hard emotion, her face cracking in a vulnerable way. Phantom had an awful habit of knowing weaknesses of hers—weaknesses she often didn't know she had. "You're just blowing smoke."
"And you, Red Huntress, are caught between two worlds." His eyes were steady, his own alien pupils dilated in desire for her. "I can give you what you want. A position of power. Intimacy." His fingers slipped from her curl. "But I need an heir to complete my reign and establish an empire."
The day was warm and sunny, but Valerie chilled beneath her armor, her skin goose-bumping hard in…in desire? Was she actually considering this? Her voice strained in a mix of hilarity. She pulled away from him entirely, her body tense. "You know I don't care about empires. I don't want any part in that kind of shit." Her face twisted. "I don't even like kids. I don't like marriage." Her armored hands began to spark with power in warning. "I don't like any of it."
"Hn." The being turned on his side, propping up his head with a hand, quirking a brow. He fell silent for a time, his sharp face shadowed by a simple, merry frustration. "Do not lie to me."
Her eyes narrowed.
He leaned closer. "I see through you," he murmured. "You like your little pedestal. You do not fear hunger or poverty as you once did, and it is because you accept resources and worship from those beneath you. You say you hate empires, but you already have one. And you are its queen."
Valerie's lips downturned. "I didn't kill anybody to get respect," she whispered. "I earned every last damn salute, and you know it. But your lands? You took those, and you think it's okay to shove in and just tell people what to do."
"You don't understand," he argued, his deep voice raising in impassioned frustration. "You ignore the power I would give you to control such things, if you were to give me an heir."
She narrowed her eyes. "It sounds to me like you just want a baby farm to secure your crown."
"On the contrary. I would co-rule with you. You could challenge my edicts in a rite of combat, as you always do." His eyes crinkled in dark fondness. "At least, on edicts with which we do not already agree."
"I don't agree with you on anything," she deadpanned.
"I'm not so sure." His free fingers tapped on the ground. "You're actively considering my proposition, at least. I see it in your eyes." He hesitated. "And I would…no longer attempt to raze Amity Park or any other human settlement, in exchange for your agreement."
It fell silent again between them at that.
It was a significant compromise and limitation on Phantom's part, to give up his primary hatred in want for a child with her.
"I don't trust your word on that," she said, voice halted. "And say I agreed to this shitshow—you'd turn around the instant I couldn't fight you, and destroy everything."
His lips stretched in delight. "I would never turn against you again, if you were to bear my child."
"Yeah?" she challenged in disbelief. "The existence of pregnant mothers and children sure didn't stop you from ruining the world before."
The ghost's face twitched. He pulled away, gracefully leaning back on the grass, rolling his eyes. He raised up a knee, folding his hands behind his head. Everything in his posture was vulnerable—open to attack. "Must you always crucify me for what I did in the midst of a blackout."
She huffed in disbelief. "We still have pregnant mothers and children in Amity Park, and I have to spend every Tuesday and Thursday fighting you off from tearing down the shield. You can't just call what you've done 'a fit of insanity' when you're still actively trying to hurt my people."
His broad shoulders tightened. "That is the thing, Valerie dear." His red eyes slid to her. "I am a ghost. I cannot undo the forces which drive me for revenge. But I can—" his face twisted—"I can alter them."
She raised up on her elbows, her face hard. "How."
"If you become one with me," he confessed, "my own power core would recognize our child's mixed blood. You disparage ghost lineages and alliances, but there is a reason why a child is so effective in defusing territorial disputes in the Ghost Zone."
Valerie searched his eyes.
For a brief moment, a weakness flickered across the ghost's face. "I would not be able to attack the people of my child's mother." He moved, daring to move his hand over his power core, which was his ultimate seat of power within him. "My core would identify with the child, who would be half-human. Therefore, its own core would cause an evolution in my own." He swallowed hard, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "If you bear me an heir, I will inevitably lose my desire to attack humans at all. I will not be able to feel as I do now, for my own power would perceive it as an attack of the self."
"And—and you're willing to give that up?" Her voice broke oddly in consternation. "You don't wanna knock up some ghost girl who thinks you're hot, and feel all cuddly about her people? Why the hell would you willingly give up hating humans?"
The wind swayed between them. His white, flickering hair brushed against his sharp cheeks. "Did I not already explain? I desire you more than I desire anyone else." His voice grew halted. He reached out to touch her cheek. "For ten years, I have raged in want to matter to this rotten world. With you, I do. I always have. I see this now." His long, lithe fingers slid down her shoulder, in admiration of the lines of her body. His fingertips moved to trail along the armored curve of her breast, his eyes flickering up to watch her, waiting for a reaction. "And a child of your blood and mine would be…magnificent."
Valerie's breath hitched. Her dark brows knitted together, and she raised her hand to his wrist. Her armored fingers tightened upon him, but she did not pull him away. Instead, her eyes met his, her face flushing.
This was not the first time that the line between love and hate had blurred between them.
In her darkest fantasies, she'd seen Phantom—had dared to imagine him as the one touching her. His body was the one she felt most at ease with. She knew his hands almost as well as she knew her own, for he was not strange to her anymore. But this was entirely new level of intention. He not only longed to touch her—he longed to make life with her.
That meant…even more than sex—her body swelling with a child—
"I'm," she said shakily, voice straining, "I need to think about this."
His gloved thumb caressed the curved of her breastplate. "What is there to think? Bear me an heir, and I will raise your throne as high as my own. I will ensure you are very well compensated for any sacrifice or trouble. Even if you can stand me for only nine months, though I suspect you would desire to remain my queen for much longer."
She bit her lip. Suddenly, she opened her eyes, which burned with great emotion. "I'm supposed to destroy you. We're supposed to be enemies. And you can't be capable of love—not real love."
"Oh, Valerie." His hand slipped from the armored plates of her body. He pulled her hand over to his chest, where his power core hummed within him. His lips stretched in a dark way, and he demanded airily, "Destroy me, then. If I am your enemy."
Her gauntleted fingers twitched over the hair-raising power that buzzed along her armor.
In that moment, he—arguably the most powerful being between two dimensions—lay vulnerable before her, his ghost-heart bare to her own power. His red eyes stared up at her as he lightly arched his back, offering himself to her with a knowing quirk of his brow.
Her hand hesitated.
And then she recalled her armor up to her wrist, her breath hitching as the nanoparticles sunk beneath her skin. It left her scarred, bare fingers resting against the smooth material of his jumpsuit, the power of his core all the more intimately intertwining within her own energy field.
Valerie hesitated, daring to slide her fingers down, then pulling away from him, the burn of his cool body emblazoned with in her own flesh. "You know it's complicated."
Dan's lips stretched, his fangs glimmering. "Ah, but that's what makes it so fun." He raised up on his elbows, his face but inches from her own. "There are many ways to subdue an enemy. How about one where we both benefit, hm?"
Her warm breath mixed with the snow of his own—in which for Dan, breathing was a terribly odd habit left over from life. Or perhaps he simulated it purposely, to appear as less different. Less unsettling. Less…unnatural.
Capable of life.
"Think about it tonight while you lay alone in your bed," he murmured. "I do not know love, but I do know the ways of pleasure. I could give you everything you have ever wanted."
And then suddenly, he dematerialized, leaving one bewildered and half-aroused Valerie Gray sitting by herself in the Wastelands, in awe that she was actively considering his deal. She breathed out air she didn't know she was holding, looking increasingly flustered.
For a time, she remained stiff, as if in fear that it was all somehow a fever dream, and that Phantom would return to strike her when she wasn't looking. But no darkness befell her. The sun did not slip behind clouds in any threatening way, and the ghost did not return in dark laughter. She grumped, her voice strangling once more in her throat. "That bastard—going on about kids? Ruling? The hell's gotten into him?"
But she lowered her bare hand to her armored abdomen, for one brief moment, daring to imagine the strange future that Phantom offered. She conjured an image of herself pregnant with his child, arching in passion in his bed—commanding great forces—leading armies—the ultimate opportunity to live in both worlds, the intimate and the wild…
She damned the way her own body began to burn in delight at even the thought, to be both queen and general—mother and warrior—the singular tamer of the Ravager of Worlds, demanding pleasure from him—
It left her unsettled, to admit even to herself how badly she wanted to say yes.
A/N: Hey, all! I really hope everyone is doing okay in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Since I nuked my DP presence on AO3 previously, I realized I needed to alert you all somehow as to this story's second life. So I've uploaded this story both here on this website and on Archive of Our Own. Going forward, this story will be updated only on AO3 because past this first chapter, it will be going to pretty explicit territory, haha. Deliverance will continue with M-rated or lower-rated fics.
If you're interested in reading more of this story, please search for Bijali_Lightning on Archive Of Our Own. There, you can also find where I've tentatively started to break out the Deliverance collection's main threads into separate stories. The collection on this site will always be messy by virtue of how it outgrew itself, but I'd like to think I can rein it back in under AO3's more impressive collection structures!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this update! Please let me know your thoughts, questions, constructive criticisms, or ideas in a review! Thank you!
