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The self-dubbed Phantom soon found himself flying away from Amity Park. He...he just needed to get away from everything. Buildings and roads blurred around him until buildings became sparse as more trees popped up. At this speed, the increasing distance was exhilarating...until it wasn't. The ghost paused, floating over a road. A sign in front of him read- Amity Park 20 miles. The name of his home sent an ache through his chest. But...it wasn't his home.
Phantom kept flying, the wind stinging his tear-stained face. The ache in his chest flared again, increasing with every mile. Finally a sob burst from the ghost's lips as he hovered to a stop. His head turned side to side and let out a laugh, realizing where he was. Lake Eerie, about an hour and a half from Amity Park. He and Dad went fishing here last summer. Both of them had fallen out of the boat and got covered in mud. They hadn't caught many fish but it had been a fun day.
Then Phantom frowned. That hadn't happened to him though. That was Danny's, the real Danny's memory. The experience belonged to the human boy who was sleeping in his bed now. No, not his bed. It wasn't his bed, his house, his family, or his life. The thought of the family, friends, and home that wasn't his sent another pang through the ghost's chest. A shaking hand went to the throbbing pulsing organ in his chest, the feeling that had replaced the comforting, ever present heartbeat. An almost physical ache rested there, an ache that had just grown since he left Amity Park.
He shook his head, trying to push the pain away as he continued floating around the lake. His eyes fell on the shack where Danny and his dad had rented the little row boat they fished in. They'd eaten a picnic lunch and gotten milkshakes on the way home. Phantom smiled again at the memory, though he soon clenched his fists. Why was this happening? And how, how did he remember any of that? It felt...so real. All of it, a thousand memories of growing up at Fentonwork, of being Jack and Maddie Fenton's son, Jazz's brother, and Sam and Tucker's friend, all of it felt undeniably real. But it couldn't be, it wasn't.
The ghost stayed at the lake for what must have been hours until the ache in his chest and the accompanying homesickness overwhelmed him. Part of him wanted to fly farther way, to never go back to Amity Park but the emptiness, the pain in his chest seemed to draw him back. At some level, Phantom knew that he couldn't stay away,
So he turned around, flying back to the small town. The ghost paused in front of the large Welcome to Amity Park sign, observing the smiling family proclaiming how it was a nice place to live. He turned his eyes to the town in the below- the park, the mall, Casper High, the Nasty Burger. And to his left, along the horizon, he could just make out the Ops Center on top of Fentonworks. All of it sparked familiarity in Phantom's mind. As the sun rose, he debated where to go and what to do. But there was nowhere and nothing. He didn't have any friends and family and as a clearly inhuman creature, the ghost couldn't just hang around town like a human teenager.
Phantom bit his lip. Maybe he could go through the Fenton portal to the Ghost Zone? That's where ghosts belong, right? But what was the ghost zone even like? With a start, the ghost realized he didn't know. He didn't remember the ghost zone at all. Shouldn't he remember it if he was there before he was…..what exactly had he been doing before this? He remembered everything of Danny Fenton's life both before and after the accident. But nothing else... Why? And how? What did all this mean? No answers came so Phantom found himself wandering back to the park. He glimpsed a familiar teen on his way to school and instantly turned invisible.
Danny blinked awake, sunlight flitting over his eye lids. With a sleepy groan, the boy squinted his crusty-feeling eyes. Had he been...crying? Yeah, he had. But why? Why had he been sad? Rolling onto his back, Danny stared up at the ceiling with half-lidded eyes, racking his brain but he couldn't remember why he had been sad. And now his stomach churned with unease, a lost feeling he couldn't place.
His brow furrowed. And there was...something else his sluggish brain was trying to remember. Last night, he'd seen a glowing figure floating over him, though the being had disappeared in the blink of an eye. He'd sat up and called but received no reply. At the memory, Danny shook his head. No, that couldn't have happened; it was definitely a dream.
With that thought, the boy sat up with a groan. He yawned, huffing. As much as he really wanted to go back to sleep, he needed to get up and get ready for school. After a quick trip to the bathroom and getting dressed, Danny headed downstairs to find his parents in the kitchen.
"But it got away Madds!" His dad was yelling. "We need to go after that monster!"
"Our containment devices aren't even ready yet! What are we supposed to do when we catch it?"
Dad clenched his fists. "I don't want to catch it."
For some reason, the sinisterness of the statement made Danny shiver.
"What good will destroying the ghost do Jack?" Mom spread her arms, pointing. "We need to capture and study it, find out its weakness so we can exploit it with any other ghosts that came through the portal."
"And then we can make that scum pay." Dad smiled.
Danny's unease just increased, making his stomach flop; there's no way he'd be able to force any food down this morning. Not bothering to grab breakfast, the boy sneaked out the door. He hoped his parents wouldn't notice for a while; the teen definitely didn't want them hovering over him.
Once out the door, Danny started walking towards the park which he would cut through to get to school. His body moving thoughtlessly as his mind wandered, dreamlike. The boy sighed, studying his surroundings. It was really pretty today- the mild temperature, cloudless sky, the plentiful sunshine. And the sunrise had been gorgeous this morning.
Danny stopped in his tracks at that thought, eyes blinking more awake. He hadn't been awake to see the sunrise? Heck, he was barely awake now. The air shifted around him and he shivered. Had it gotten cooler?
"Danny. Danny." Someone was calling his name. "Danny!"
At the sound of Sam and Tucker's voices, Danny jerked up, suddenly feeling more awake. Sam frowned, noticing the strange look on his face. "What's up with you?"
"Oh." Finally noticing his friends, the boy shook his head, trying to get out of his funk. "I was just...thinking."
Sam looked at him questioningly but didn't comment. At the same time, Tucker looked up from his phone. "Hey Danny! How are you doing, man?"
Danny furrowed his brow; how was he doing? The boy shrugged. "I'm good, I think."
Sam studied his face. "So did you go through with it?"
Danny nodded, staring down at his hand as if waiting for it to turn invisible. "Yeah, I haven't turned invisible or intangible since last night. No symptoms."
"So your parents' invention actually worked?" Tucker asked. "What did they do anyway? Spray you with some goo."
Danny cringed at the mental image but laughed. "No, they made this thing called the Ghost Catcher."
While Tucker chuckled, Sam asked with a grin. "Do you think they're going to use it to catch ghosts?"
Danny's laughter quieted as he apprehensively half-grinned, remembering his parents' conversation this morning. "They just might."
Sam and Tucker also quieted as they turned to look at him questioningly, clearly thrown by his change in tone. "What do you mean?" Tucker asked.
The black-haired boy bit his lip. "Something weird happened when we used the ghost catcher."
"Weird? Weird how?" Sam ventured with a little wariness.
"Well… Dad passed the Ghost Catcher over me. And I passed out at some point. It hurt, it hurt a lot. And when I came too, Mom and Dad were freaking out about some ghost that showed up after I passed out."
"Wait, are you serious? They saw a ghost, like an actual ghost." Tucker waved his hand that wasn't holding his phone.
Danny nodded. "Yeah. I didn't see it though; I was still unconscious. Mom and Dad said the ghost flew off before they could get a good look at it."
"Wow." "That's…" Was all the two friends managed to mutter with wide eyes.
"And that's not the weirdest part." Danny then wrung his hands, suddenly feeling nervous about how his friends would react to the last part. "Mom and Dad...they said that the ghost had been ...possessing me since the accident."
"Possessing you...like...like there was a ghost controlling your body for the last month!" Tucker seemed to pale while Sam's brow furrowed.
The girl shook her head. "But...you weren't acting weird...other than the powers. You acted like yourself."
Danny shrugged, eyes flitting nervously between his two friends. At the same time, Tucker waved his arms. "Come on Sam. Really though? What if the ghost was a really good actor?!"
"Why would a ghost want to act like an angsty teenager?"
"Hey!" Danny protested.
But Sam ignored his offended look. "Danny's parents were probably confused...or seeing things. There's no way you were possessed, right Danny?"
"I mean… I didn't feel like I was possessed." He rubbed the back of his neck. "And Mom and Dad said if I was overshadowed, I shouldn't remember anything that happened. But I do….I think."
"See." Sam put one hand on her hip, pointing towards Tucker with the other. "So there wasn't a ghost."
Tucker's shoulders feel and he sighed in an odd mix of disappointment and relief. "I guess not."
Silently, Danny nodded in agreement, though he wasn't completely sure his friends were right. He shivered, remembering his weird dream last night ...or was it a dream? Doubt balled in his gut but the boy did not dwell on it, distracted by friends who were quickly walking away and chatting about school. He ran to catch up and barely thought about the cold, yet familiar presence he sensed watching him.
As Danny and his friends walk away towards the school, Phantom remained invisibly floating in the park. Part of him wanted to follow Danny, half hoping that being near the human would help him figure things out, even if he didn't want to make himself known. The rest of him felt guilty. He'd been possessing someone, for a month and hadn't even realized until the words came out of Danny's mouth. How could he hurt, violate someone like that and not even bat an eye? Maybe he was a monster like Mom and...the Fentons said.
Before he could think of anything else, the ghost was distracted by a rustling behind him. He turned and with a gasp, came face to face with a little girl, around 4 years old. The child's eyes widened with shock, mirroring the ghost's expression.
Phantom put his now very visible hands in front of him in a placating motion. In the most calming voice he could muster, he whispered. "Hey, it's okay."
The girl instantly let out a high pitched scream. She turned and ran away, yelling. "Mommy!"
The ghost cursed and then went rigid as he heard a panicked female voice answer. "Sophie!"
If Phantom had a heart, it would be pounding out of his chest. He stared at his hands, trying to will them invisible. Why wasn't it working?! Abandoning that, he twisted around, looking for a place to hide. No! No No! The trees and bushes weren't thick enough. And why did he glow like a freaking firefly? His hands gripped his hair as the sounds of voices drifted closer. His eyes flickered around the surrounding. There! Those were the bathrooms! The information drifted through his mind.
Phantom fled, panic flaring at being out in the open for a few seconds, before he slammed the door to the single-person stall. He took an unnecessary but still very satisfying breath and locked the door. He was safe from being discovered… for now.
The ghost then clenched his fist, the fear giving way to frustration. "Damnit, I didn't even do anything!" He gritted his teeth, berating himself. "I somehow managed to terrify a little girl without even trying! Way to go, Fenton!"
Phantom froze, cringing at the thoughtless, automatic phrase. No, he wasn't Danny Fenton. He wasn't any Fenton at all, or even human. He was a ghost and it was normal for humans to be afraid of ghosts. And they should be; ghosts were dangerous, destructive creatures. At least that's what his...Danny's parents said. Phantom frowned. But...he didn't feel dangerous and destructive. And he didn't want to be. He didn't want people to be afraid of him. He wanted to be a good ghost, if that was even possible.
Pushing those thoughts away, Phantom finally turned away from the door. His eyes surveyed the dirty room, finally falling on the mirror. The neon green eyes meet those of his reflection. The ghost silently floated forward, finding marginally familiar ectoplasmic green eyes, snow white hair, and black and white jumpsuit. A memory of seeing that reflection, those green eyes wide with fear, in the dirty mirror in the Fenton's basement, passed through the ghost's mind. He turned his attention back to his reflection and his frown deepened. The reflection was the same as then, as after the accident. Meaning….the layout of freckles, the nose inherited from Maddie Fenton, the checks and jawline with hints of baby fat but showing signs of hardening. Though the coloring was different, all his facial features were identical to Danny Fenton's.
His glowing gloved hand reached forward to meet his reflection. Yes, that was in fact his face. And it felt like his face, not like a foreign mask or an illusion, but like this was what he was supposed to look like. But why? Why did Phantom look like he could be Danny's twin, if he was human? At that thought, the ghost removed his hand and made a confused face in the mirror. Was that the answer? Had he been Danny's twin in life? Or maybe another relative that happened to closely resemble the boy? Phantom shook his head. No, he just knew that wasn't it. Plus, it wouldn't explain why he'd thought he was Danny Fenton just hours ago.
Turning away for that cursed reflection, Phantom balled his fist, frustration flaring again. "I still have no idea what's going on!"
The ghost then gritted his teeth; even his voice sounded like Danny's! What was Phantom supposed to do when he had no idea who he really was?
With a huff, Phantom shook his head. There was no point in driving himself crazy trying to figure this out when answers seemed unreachable. With some effort, he flickered invisible and floated up through the roof. He briefly surveyed the town below him; maybe he could find something to do to distract himself, from his questions and his guilt.