A/N: OverlordChocolate - Thank you, I appreciate the praise! As I was writing the two of them they felt pretty complimentary. I'm trying to write Star as someone who's developed a kind of petty and shallow persona, but knows that and wants to kick it. I took that and decorated it with a little narcissism, curiosity, seriousness and sympathy, and we have Star! Having Danny to lighten her spirit and quell those negative traits works really well. It's actually strange to me since I typically ride the Danny/Sam ship, but it kind of just… happened! We'll see where it goes, as I said before, I really don't want to force anything romantic, or else it'll feel cheesy.
Dang it, there were still more questions I wanted to ask him. That's… fine. He told me way more than I expected or needed of him. I still feel bad, though, I basically forced him to tell me...
Star walks home from her interrogation feeling pretty accomplished. She finally found the big secret behind Danny Fenton! She really did tell him the truth, there was no intention of telling anyone ever, but there were still a few things that nagged at her mind, and she of course had to list them off one by one.
If he fights ghosts… then why was he not present for the fight today? And why is he never present for any ghost fights ever? There was that one time with our parents being kidnapped, and he did show a decent amount of prowess, but… ugh. It still doesn't make sense.
Why would he not ask his parents to just get rid of the ectoplasm? Why leave them in the dark? It feels like it'd be helpful to at least try to do something about it.
On top of that, why would he keep his ghost fighting a secret from his parents? He never answered that question… he just redirected it with a question of his own. Dang it, I have to pay more attention.
What are his friends' (and his) relationship to Phantom? Thinking of it now, that might be the reason why he doesn't tell them, they fight Phantom on a regular basis. Telling them that he teams up with their ultimate ghost enemy might not be a good idea.
What's Jazz's involvement? Ghost psychiatrist? Ghost hunter therapist? I bet the job does get stressful at times.
What kind of side effects does he have? She only knows a few… although that might be a bit too personal, like asking what kind of side effects come with an illness.
It almost seemed like finding out more about Danny just lead to more questions about Danny- go figure.
Star takes her gloves off and pulls out the keys to her home. She's on the nice side of town, as to be expected, but nowadays she's commonly home alone due to her parents' careers and her brother heading off to college. (Maybe she could ask him about Jazz, he was in the same grade and was on good terms with her. She'll send him a message later.) They gave her a fair allowance and someone comes over once a week to clean the house while she's gone, so she doesn't mind particularly much.
Star unlocks the door and enters, shedding off layers of clothing and sighing in the warm air of the house. She relocks the door and enables the security system before going up to shower.
Weekend, weekend. Maybe Pauly or Kwan would be interested in going out to eat tomorrow? I should probably eat something after my shower too, that shake is not sitting well.
She idly ponders her options for dinner and shoots Paulina a text while grabbing a clean set of pajamas and heading to her personal bathroom. She smiles as she plays music from her phone and sings along, happy to be kicking the bite from the fall chill with a nice, hot shower.
TTTTTTTTTTTTT
Well, it seems that our girl has refused to listen. The question is, are we going to bluff, or no?
I… we could speak to her again, reinforce the fact that we know. I-
Oh no, don't you want punishment? She doesn't believe you, she doesn't think your words hold any meaning. We'll show her and Phantom that we aren't to be played with, right?
No- I mean… wouldn't that show Phantom where we are? Reveal you to him? It would be best to lay low… for a bit. She didn't even find out anything-
No, no, no, that matters not! We're going to show them that our words have power! That we are a force to be feared! And don't fret about being found out- I have ways around that.
But… please!
Shhh shh shh… quiet now. We're going. Didn't I tell you to trust me?
A gasp echoes through the almost empty home of the DeLisle household as a humanoid shape phases through the walls. The creature looks down at themselves before smiling and touching down on the tiled floor of a perfectly modern kitchen. Their form begins to stabilize as soon as they halt their flight, taking the appearance of a small young girl with dark hair. They look around for a bit, marveling at the chrome appliances and marble tabletop before gingerly peering into various drawers and cupboards until they find what they need.
The girl takes hold of a large chef's knife, turning it about in their hand and contemplating something, before returning it to the knife block and pulling out a different, smaller blade. She smiles and sighs, pausing and staring at the knife with a nostalgic gaze. A few moments pass, and she spins around in a circle, taking one last look at the shining clean kitchen before heading up a wooden staircase. The girl debates whether to take flight up the stairs or not, but listens to the music and shower echoing through the stairwell and shrugs, bouncing up each step almost like a child heading to their first day of school.
She reaches the top of the stairs and breathes deeply, closing her eyes. Turning to the side, she runs her hand along the wall while walking calmly to her target, humming along with the music and the other girl's voice that's steadily growing in volume.
She walks through an open door, glancing at the big, glow-in-the-dark star fixed to it and chuckles. She looks again in wonder at the room she's entered, it's large enough to be a master, with all decor complimenting each other in various salmons, pinks, and blues. The ceiling is vaulted, and a skylight reveals the faint smattering of stars as the sun takes its last breath for the day. The girl has to hold back her revelry to keep silent, but does take some time to observe the various photos, clothing, and other trinkets strewn about the room.
The mood takes a gentle turn as she comes across a family photo hanging on the wall above the bed. The girl pauses, and then slowly climbs upon the bed to carefully remove the photo on the wall and look at it more closely. She sits down cross-legged on the plush pillows and runs her thumb along the dusted glass surface before taking a corner of a blanket and cleaning it off thoroughly. Her face appears forlorn, sullen, reminiscent for a time, and tears prick at the corners of her eyes before she knows it.
The sound of rushing water stops, and the girl remembers her purpose here. She rubs her eyes and places the photo down on a pillow, then takes a deep breath and smiles.
It's time, are you ready to see the fruits of your labor?
Silence.
Oh, don't be so apprehensive. The first is always the scariest, but it gets easier as time goes on. It starts to feel better as time goes on. I'll even help you, but only this once. You have to learn.
The girl puts her ear up to the bathroom door, listening as the sink runs and the singing stops for a moment. She places her hand on the doorknob before shaking her head and silently giggling at herself and holding her breath.
Her hand, as well as the rest of her body, fades into the same destabilized form they used to enter the home. Their body becomes a mist and presses against the door, slowly melting through the structure before reaching the other side. Their target is revealed mere feet from them, in only a towel, washing her face. Completely defenseless.
The creature again touches down and reforms into the dark-haired girl, faster this time, purposeful this time, and reaches for the hair of the blonde. She grabs a fistful and yanks, pulling her entire head back and looking straight down into her eyes.
Star yelps in pain, curling backwards by some unknown force and looks up to see deep red irises peering back at her along with a wide and toothy grin. She gasps and reaches up to push them away, but slips and slams right onto the ground, the world spinning and her ears ringing from the impact.
"I warned you, remember?" The voice echoes. She's afraid.
Star screams as loud as she can, but is immediately cut off by hands and nails digging into her throat. The girl definitely looks small, but she feels as strong as someone like Dash. There's no doubt there's some sort of ghost behind this, now.
"Sure, what you did might have ultimately been harmless, but I've been wanting a reason to really let loose anyways. And we can't have you going out and finding the real truth, now can we? You were so close, too!"
Star's vision starts to fade, she can't make a noise, not even wheeze, Autumn's grip is so strong. She feels her long nails cut into the side of her throat.
"I could crush your entire windpipe right now, but that's so boring. Here, here, we have options!"
She lets go of Star's throat, which is followed by a series of long gasps and thick coughing. She tries to push the girl off, but the haze that is her vision combined with the otherworldly strength of… whatever's sitting on top of her proves that to be an impossible task. Autumn reaches into her hoodie to pull out a small paring knife, looking it over and brushing it off like a girl would a new makeup brush before turning her oddly red eyes over to Star.
"Now listen, I'm giving you a lesson right now, so I want you to pay attention. Like I said, this is the only time I'm helping you!" She pauses, and then shrugs.
"Well if you'd like to remain silent, I'll let you take the back seat, but…"
She clutches the knife with both hands,
"we're sending a message."
and brings it down over Star's stomach.
TTTTTTTTTTTTT
"Loser! Loser, loser, loser! Ha!"
Danny raises his controller over his head and cheers for himself. Tucker grumbles and crosses his arms.
"It's all because of these dumb nerfs, they're pointless, they just ruined the class."
"Tuck, I- what? You're below my level, you shouldn't be beating me. It's balanced!"
"Balanced?! I clearly outplayed you!"
Sam snorts in the background while looking at her own laptop, and Tucker squints his eyes at her.
"Hehhe, I couldn't resist, heh."
Tucker starts to argue back, but Danny's phone rings his emergency tone, and everyone instantly goes silent. Sam and Tucker both stand up and hover over Danny, who pulls the phone out of his pocket and checks the contact.
"Star."
Sam looks at him. "Are you-"
Danny immediately answers. "Hello? Star?"
Sam and Tucker look at each other and then at Danny. They lean close to try to hear what's coming through the phone, but Danny pushes them away and stands up.
"Star? You there?" He waits for another few seconds, covers one ear with his hand, and then looks at the screen and frowns. Tucker peeks over his shoulder.
"It's connected…"
"Maybe she accidentally called?"
"Tuck, track the number. Now." Danny hands him the phone and walks over to the computer. "Do either of you know her address?"
Sam shakes her head. "No, I don't. I'll look it up through the school directory."
Danny checks the time.
7:13 PM. I talked to her at 4:30, she left at 5. She walked home, so her house is probably at most 15 minutes away…
"Found it, coordinates are-" Tucker rattles off a series of numbers that Danny searches through Google Maps. It leads to a house on the north side of town. He takes note of the house number and streets and transforms in a flash of light.
"I'm going, I'll be on the Fenton Phones."
"We're coming too-"
"No, stay here but be prepared to move, I'll keep in contact if I need you to cut someone off."
Danny phases the entire contents of his bag onto the floor and picks up a thermos and an earpiece, and then bolts through the ceiling. He holds his phone to his ear the entire time, still hearing absolutely nothing through the speaker.
"Star, can you hear me, Star? I'm sending Phantom to your location, can you respond?"
Still nothing. He flies faster.
"Danny?"
Danny's breath catches before he realizes that it's Sam calling through the Fenton phones.
"Ah, yeah. Sam. Anything?"
"Yeah, the coordinates that you're heading to are her house."
He spots the building on the next block and starts to decrease his elevation.
"Good to know, I'm coming up on the place now. My ghost sense hasn't gone off once during the flight, I don't know if that's good or a bad, though."
He spots Paulina's house out of the corner of his eye, and takes note of Star's home's location in relation to it.
"Okay, we'll keep quiet. Give us as info when you can."
"Got it."
Danny descends down through the front door of the house and hovers in the entryway. He notices the jacket and hat that Star was wearing up on a hook next to the entrance. He checks the door and spots the security system. Both are locked. He flies around the entire first floor, finding nothing out of the ordinary, and then zips up the stairway into the second floor. He stops at the top of the stairs and peeks around the corner, stopping to stare at a pale glowing star at one end of the hallway.
Danny instantly gets a foreboding feeling in his gut and swallows thickly. His hands tremble, and he really doesn't want to open- no, even approach that door.
Then, he hears a faint metallic whisper and swings around in a circle to find the source of the noise, only to look down at the phone in his hands. He jerks the phone up to his ear.
"Star?!" he frantically whispers. Faint, pained breathing is heard on the other side.
"Dan-ny…?"
Danny flies through the door before he even realizes he did, stopping to look wildly around the room. No Star.
"Star?" He asks, and freezes, not even touching the ground in the fear of making a noise.
More shuffling- there. A closed door.
He throws it open, disregarding any and all use of his powers.
And all he can see is red.