Warning for referenced bullying and suicide.

Many thanks to faedemon for being my beta on this!

Sidney hadn't been sure about this whole 'going to the city' thing at first. Because, leaving Casper High? His haunt? Unthinkable!

But Danielle had insisted on him Trick-or-Treating with them, and Phantom had sworn to protect him for as long as his Mirror was outside locker 724, being carried around in Phantom's Lair. Knowing the boy's obsession, Sidney finally conceded.

"Hey, tone down your aura!" Phantom, dressed up as a cheap Master of Time, told him as they all walked down a poorly-lit street.

(And wasn't it curious how Phantom knew about such a figure in the Zone's myths when he preferred to spend his time in the living world?)

Sidney grumbled but focused on toning down the greyish glow emanating from him, while he walked with both feet touching the sidewalk.

"These modern candies better be boss." He said, earning a snicker (as in laughter) from Danielle.

"Cheer up, Poindexter, don't be a boomer!" She said, shoving some more cookies in her mouth. "Ou' can'ny 'r' 'mazin'!"

Sidney raised his eyebrows and looked at Phantom, but the halfa only shrugged while his friends (Sam dressed as a werewolf and Tucker as Batman) just chuckled.

"We will see…"

They arrived at a house, and a man opened the door for them.

"Trick or treat!" They chanted as one.

"Well, what do we have here? I know Batman and the werewolf, but what are you meant to be?"

"A street urchin." Dani said shamelessly, holding out her plastic pumpkin with a toothy smile. "A cool one, though."

The man blinked. "Alright then." He gave her, Sam and Tucker their goods, and stopped with an inquisitive eyebrow at Phantom's costume.

"I'm a ghost." He said simply.

"Huh, can't remember seeing one like that."

"Don't worry, he has seen you."

"That's cryptic. I don't want to anger your god. Here." And he poured a good part of his candy bowl on Phantom's bag.

At last, he turned to Sidney.

"I'm a guy from the fifties." Sidney said.

"Hm, I can't be the judge of that. Dad! Come check this out!" The man yelled into his house.

"What!" Came back the yell from an elderly man, and the teens awkwardly looked at each other.

"Come check if this kid's costume is legit! Says he's a fifties kid."

"The fifties? Well, I will be the one to judge that!"

"Yes, that's why I called you." The first man mumbled before his father appeared. "He's painted in grey and all!"

"Grey painting doesn't make a man, you know?" The older man said, finally reaching the entryway. "Well, where is he?" His gaze fell on Sidney, and the floor seemed to disappear from under him. He paled, and his mouth opened like a fish, unable to form a word.

"Dad?" His son asked.

Phantom moved smoothly to put Sidney behind him, not quite hiding him but giving the old boy a chance to do so himself, and to put a powerful barrier between him and the potential threat.

"Poindexter…" The old man breathed at last.

Not that he was much of a threat anymore. So much time had gone by, and yet Sidney would know this boy no matter what (like the fact that he wasn't a boy anymore), even if he wasn't smiling, sneering down at him whilst shoving him into his dark, cold locker.

"Hey there, Reggie." He finally said, barely above a whisper, and looked him in the eye.

No matter how painful, how unfair, how cruel it had been, there was no denying that this man had been part of Sidney's life, had left a deep, permanent mark that had set him on a path with no exit and no turn-back, the one in which Sidney reached his dead end.

Sidney had already accepted this. He was dead, that wouldn't change, and, after having relived his tumultuous life on his own Lair in the Ghost Zone, when his mirror had been touched and he had been freed… he didn't want to seek vengeance. He just wanted… to help kids like him, weak, awkward, dorky nerds that couldn't count on the teachers to protect them.

(He had gotten it wrong the first time, but things had gotten better after.)

But now, seeing him once again after all this time… he didn't know what he felt.

"You are… here…" Reggie choked out.

"Dad, are you okay? Do you need your pills?"

"I think we should leave…" Someone in Sidney's group said, but for the life he of him he no longer had, he couldn't tell who.

Because victim and abuser were not paying attention anymore, both immersed in memories of laughter and hollering and pain, the two sides of their violent coin.

Reggie gave a shaky step forward, using his son's arm for support, and Sidney's companions parted like the red sea, as if they could sense what he wanted.

A wrinkled hand tried to take hold of his arm, but it closed into a fist as it phased right through him, and Reggie broke down in sobs.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I did this to you. I pushed you so much over and over…" Danny moved as if to take him away, but he slowly held up a hand, unable to tear his gaze away from the man before him. "You didn't deserve it… you didn't deserve any of it… I'm so sorry…"

Sidney looked at his life's bully with an unreadable expression.

"I know, Reggie. I know…"