Danny's breath heaved as they floated further out into the ghost zone. He looked around and, as far as he could tell, it looked like the same ghost zone that he was familiar with. The green swirls floated past them but there weren't many of the purple doors littered around here.
"Hey, uh, Danny?"
He looked down at Dash, whose face was only a couple inches away from his own, their chests still flushed together from when Danny pushed Dash through the portal and grabbed him.
Danny cleared his throat as his cheeks heated up and tried leaning further away.
"Yeah Dash?"
"Does the ghost zone have, you know, ground? A floor? Or anything like that?"
Dash's arms were hanging awkwardly from his body, like he wasn't sure where to put them. Danny looked around below them, scanning for any islands.
"Not right here, but we might find something later-"
Danny got cut off when his shoulders were suddenly engulfed by Dash's big arms.
"Dash?"
"At least if you dropped me when we were in the sky I knew I'd splat when I hit the ground! Who knows what's down there or if it even ever ends!" Dash wailed.
Danny rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to drop you Dash!"
"But what if you did!"
Danny sighed and started looking around again. Off in the distance he could see a small island and started flying towards it. They needed to figure out which direction to head in and they could both use a breather from the events of the past couple hours.
They arrived at the island and Danny gently sat Dash down on the ground, who gripped the bright grass between his fingers. Danny sat down beside him and rested his head in his hands and groaned.
"You okay?" Dash asked him.
"Yeah. Just… Seeing Mo-Maddie like that freaked me out."
Danny felt Dash shiver beside him. "Yeah that was pretty freaky. At least we're okay now though, right?"
Sighing, Danny nodded. "We still have to figure out how to get home. I don't think this is a part of the ghost zone I've been in before which means we're pretty far out. It's a lot darker here too. It's brighter than that place we were just in, but the ghost zone closer to Amity Park has way more green swirls than this."
"What do we do now?"
Danny paused before giving his reply. After a few seconds he leaned into Dash and felt the other boy jump at the contact.
"I just want to take a few minutes to breathe."
"Oh. Okay."
They sat like that for a while. Danny leaning into Dash with his eyes closed and Dash taking in the way the ghost zone swirled around them. Danny was almost dozing off when he heard a clacking sound echo around them.
His eyes shot open and he looked behind them. He didn't see anything but he could still hear the noise. Turning back to Dash he started pulling him up.
"Do you hear that?" Danny asked.
Dash nodded. "Do you think it's another ghost?"
"I hope so."
They started walking towards the sound and were about to turn around a big rock when Dash stopped.
"Wait why are we walking towards another weird sound? The last one tried to eat us."
"If it's a ghost we can ask where we are. If it's not a ghost then we can fly away."
"What if it's something in between?"
The echoing voice that came from around the rock sent chills up Danny's spine. That shouldn't be possible.
"Danny?" Dash said quietly.
He crept forward and peaked around the rock and saw himself.
He took a sharp breath and could feel Dash peering over his head at the Phantom standing over there.
"What?" Dash whispered, horrified.
Danny's doppelganger just stood there. He didn't look like he was in good condition. His skin was peeling off, flesh was missing. Danny could see bright white bone peaking through. This Phantom looked like a reanimated corpse.
"What does he mean by something in between?" Dash asked.
Danny ignored Dash's question while the Phantom's black eyes with little green pupils flashed towards him. It let out a chuckle.
"Why are you hanging around with him?"
"That doesn't matter." Danny said, stepping more in front of Dash, blocking his doppelganer's view. "Why are you like that?"
The Phantom started moving, gangling towards them. Danny could hear the clicking of bones and the creaking of joints as it made its way towards them.
"She found out our little secret."
A heavy weight dropped into Danny's chest, filling him with dread.
"What did she do to you?"
"The same thing she'll do to you."
His doppelganger reached for his shoulder and Danny pushed him away, sending the decaying boy to the ground. It chuckled again.
"You should get out of here before she sends them to find you. She's persistent, she's not going to give up on another specimen like us."
Danny watched as the light slowly faded out of the Phantom's pupils, the energy draining out of him. Once the figure was no longer moving, Danny scooped Dash into his shaking arms and jumped into the air.
As he flew them as fast as he could, Danny could barely feel Dash's arms as they wrapped around his neck. He could only feel the ghost of Dash's fingers as they brushed hair out of his face, Dash whispering words of comfort and concern. His wide eyes took in the ghost zone around him and he didn't slow until he began to recognize the doors floating past him.
There in the distance, Danny finally saw the Fenton Portal. This one was in pristine condition and he let out a sigh of relief.
Flying through, Danny shot through the lab and out of the house as fast as he could. He drifted towards the part of town Dash lived in and once they got to his house, Danny dropped them on Dash's bed.
"Danny, are you okay?" Dash asked, concern still etched into his face.
Danny shook his head and crumpled into Dash's chest, clinging onto his shirt with tight fists. His breaths were coming out fast and tears pricked the corners of his eyes.
Dash wrapped his arms around him. "Sh, it's okay. We're okay. We're home now."
Nodding against Dash's chest, Danny tried taking deeper breaths. He let go of his shirt and wrapped his arms around Dash's middle.
"We're okay." Dash whispered, leaning his head against Danny's. Danny nodded, but he had the sinking feeling that something would be back for them.