For DP's phic phight 2022.

Prompt: The Ghost King declares war on humanity. Why, and what happens next? (PR075)


I want you to hurt like you hurt me today

I am the monster you created / You ripped out all my parts / And worst of all, for me to live, I gotta kill the part of me that saw / That I needed you more


The last one to go was, of course, Valerie.

The old bat fought with everything she had until the very last moment, where she died peacefully at her home in her sleep. Val would have loved dying in a blaze of glory, but after he convinced her that he could fight his own wars, and that another head injury could be fatal, she retired her improved ecto-suit and proverbially hung the cape.

Her funeral was quiet. He liked that.

It was the quiet before the storm.

Because now everyone that mattered, all the people whose opinion he had let influence him thus far, was dead. Pesky human morality was a mere echo of a past he wished to forget, and the reminders were all buried six feet under. None of them became ghosts.

He would always miss his sister, though. She didn't deserve to die like she did.

It all started with Maddie's death - she had died when the blast of an explosion meant to disrupt his powers hit a nearby building and the wall fell on her. One could argue it was an accident, and everyone who was there could confirm there wasn't any ghost close to the Commander's position. But that didn't stop the GIW from accusing the ghosts of murdering a human.

(They said a ghost had tampered with the machine, that Madeline Fenton didn't make mistakes, that they set it off close to a building they knew would collapse.)

It didn't matter who was right, not that ghosts really had a lot of support outside of the general public; because in the end, the murder of Commander Fenton was used as an excuse to a full on attack on the Infinite Realms.

The conflict up until that point had been 'contained' and mostly ignored by local and international governments. Secretly they would supply the GIW and all the other anti-ghost organizations, of course, but public opinion was more important. Maddie was very public and made many speeches about her cause, so when she died, it became a media frenzy and people asked for retaliation.

It was Jazz who talked him into revealing his human side. Danny hated it, but he could see her point - appeal to the public's heart about his tragic accident and make everyone feel bad about going against a fourteen year old child.

The Ghost King gave one sole speech, televised to all in the world, and did his transformation live. He even cleaned up his human form and everything! He wore a suit and everything.

The plan backfired.

Everything was revealed - how Danny had been the Commander's lost son, how the Fentons experimented on ghosts and built the portal that brought ghosts to their world in the first place. Some people said the ghosts did kidnap Danny and experimented on him to create their king; some said it was a lie to appeal to the humans and then stab them in the back when they left their guard down; some said everything had been the Fenton's fault and they had roped the whole world into a family feud.

They killed Jazz. It was an act of hate, in broad daylight, on the street. A guy shouted "traitor to the human race" and shot her in the back. She drowned in her own blood on her way to the hospital.

The Ghost King led his people in every main assault, watching the humans burn.

He was tired of so much biased hate, so much suffering, so much pain. He lost everything once because of that hate and then lost the last sliver of conscience he had left when his sister was murdered. He couldn't say goodbye. She didn't become a ghost, as he expected.

He officially declared war at Jazz's funeral. As her body was finally left to rest forever next to his father's and mother's - and an empty tomb left for the brother that couldn't die -, he looked at the cameras and the paparazzis trying to get a clear picture of the elusive King.

Danny didn't cry as he said the words, he didn't smile either. There was no delight in declaring war with humanity, and it didn't bring him joy to promise to unleash his people on this realm. For the human life he once had, he also promised mercy for those that surrendered.

Killing wasn't his goal. He wasn't genocidal. He just wanted everyone to stop.

Just. Stop.

Humans couldn't be trusted - they betrayed their own family and were capable of killing without remorse. Humans killed his sister, even after all the work she put in trying to make peace, trying to be Danny's conscience when his own abandoned him.

Humans, living people, had been left on their own for too long, he concluded. It was time for things to change.

"My Liege."

Danny opened his eyes, finding his second in command standing at a safe distance from him. That was another thing people do around him these days. They also speak quieter if he enters a room. Huh.

He nodded, allowing the other to speak.

"The troops are ready, sir. Waiting for further instructions. Should we commence?"

Danny tilted his head. "I'll join you."

The other ghost jumped, his armor making noise. It irritated the King, but he was not going to kill his second in command.

"Sir?"

Danny stood up from where he was watching the city they were supposed to attack now. People that surrendered or couldn't fight had already abandoned the place a long time ago, and only the obnoxious humans that thought they could stand a chance remained.

Silly. With that much determination it was more likely they became ghosts upon death - making them his to command.

"I'm bored." The King said, and didn't explain himself.

In truth he was tired of the monotony of conquest. With too much time and nothing to do his mind drifted back to the possibilities, to worthless thoughts of what his life could have looked like if things didn't turn out to be this bad.

Would he have taken the throne if his parents accepted who he was? Would they be a happy family today? With no war against humanity?

Sometimes he was tempted to find Clockwork and ask him to show him in his mirrors this alternative world where he didn't become this… horrible version of himself, this monster created by the sins of his mother, the sins of the world, and his own broken heart.

He thought that because the whole Dan situation was averted, things would be okay. He didn't age, Vlad was neutralized, his family and friends were safe and alive. Things should have turned out okay.

Was he destined to become this unhinged? He was afraid to ask for this very reason. What if he asked Clockwork to show him what could have been in a happier version of the story and he couldn't show him anything? What if there wasn't a happier version? It would crush whatever was left of him.

So he didn't and he might never will. What was the point anymore? Everyone was dead - Val's funeral had been a few months ago - and with her had died the last part of human morality he still clinged onto. Now, the only thing that was left was a void he tried to fill with war.

As he picked up his sword to signal the beginning of the attack, he wondered what he would do after they overtook the whole world. Sure, it would take a while to crush all the resistance; but ghosts were eternal and patient, he could occupy his mind for maybe a decade or two with their silly games.

He tried not to think about what happened for the rest of eternity after the last city was conquered.

So he didn't.

He lifted his sword and the ghost army followed him.