Becoming what you hate
Rating: T
Pairings: None
Ages: Season One of Young Justice
Summary: He didn't have any idea what Clockwork was scheming this time, but he was free of the thermos and that's mostly all that mattered, minus a few details.
Something inside him burned as he watched the hero known as the Flash and his sidekick, Kid Flash, get praised for helping out during a fire. The reporters and fans alike clamored for their attention, showing gratitude. It was not only aggravating but it also made him confused. Not wanting to think more on it, he vanished from sight and flew away.
zz
He landed lightly in front of a large grave and stared at it for a while. The moon's light crossed his figure and revealed him to be a young man with tan skin and dark hair pulled into a ponytail. His eyes were a sharp cobalt blue and he had coiled strength hidden beneath a lean form.
Dark Phantom let out a breath of air in contemplation. He just wasn't sure what to do. Clockwork had one day dumped him out of the thermos, done something crazy to him that had both giving him human characteristics again and made him appear younger, and caused him to crash onto this new world with no instructions.
Ultimately, he'd spent most of his time, trying to get used to his human needs again as well as getting as much info as he could on all of these… heroes.
Once again, he glanced at the monument before him. Bruce Wayne, also known as Batman, came to visit his parents' graves every great now and then. He'd watched this supposed sacred time spent from within the safety of invisibility.
The phantom stared blankly at the statue and started to imagine it taking the shape of another gravesite monument he knew too well. He let out a sigh and pulled out an orange he stolen several hours ago. He frowned slightly before he bit it like an apple. The newly made halfa grimaced at the bitter taste the skin held. How did one eat an orange again? Such things simply weren't important to his memory anymore after ten years of being a full ghost. After eventually eating all of the parts of the fruit he deemed edible, Dark Phantom launched himself into the air and disappeared into the night.
zz
It was a few weeks later when something changed. Large plants started to pop up in various places all over the world and in various major cities. Dark Phantom was sure it had to be Undergrowth somehow. A wicked grin over took his face as he transformed into his ghost half. His hair flared into a white inferno, his suit and cape traveled over his younger form, his face turned blue, his eyes red, his ears and teeth pointed, and he laughed.
"Finally, something familiar."
He vanished in a puff of green ectoplasmic gas.
zz
He was beyond angry to find out that these plants did not have an ecto-signature at all. Saying he didn't let it get to his head would be inaccurate. In a fit of rage, he tore through the plants and vines covering the first city he'd visited, using ecto-fire, ecto-blasts, and his bare hands.
The only problem with that was, he finally was spotted by the so-called Justice League. Within a few minutes, he had a small amount of them surrounding him, in order to figure out who he was. When they did this, he merely grinned.
"Who are you?" Superman asked, trying to show a bit of diplomacy with his tone.
Dark Phantom laughed. "What an interesting question. I'm not sure I could answer that anymore. But I know who you are, Clark Kent."
Silence.
"Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince, Barry Allen, etcetera." Dark Phantom swirled a hand lazily and gave them a side-long glance. His red-eyes bored into theirs. "I've been bored and decided to do some snooping." He vanished from sight and laughed when he saw the heroes all tense or conjure magic, in Zatara's case. "Its wasn't difficult for me…"
He appeared again closer to them, causing them to re-adjust.
"What are you?" Batman questioned, keeping his voice level. Dark Phantom looked over at Batman and stared for a long moment before speaking.
"I'm like you." Dark Phantom answered instinctually, before frowning slightly as if irritated at his own answer.
"What do you mean?" Wonder Woman pushed. Dark Phantom laid back in the air and stared up at the sky.
"I'm curious, what did you want to be when you grew up, Bruce? I wanted to be an astronaut if I remember correctly. I loved the stars. My dad used to take me camping to get away from light pollution."
The heroes waited, not sure how to continue. They listened when he continued to speak.
"Then again, destroying all the cities and lights in the world… that makes it easier to see the stars too. I suppose it all depends on scope."
Batman narrowed his eyes, feeling like he'd gotten a few clues, but didn't feel as if he could figure out the whole story without hearing it.
"Stop talking in riddles," Zatara both seemed to demand and request. Dark Phantom merely grinned, showing off his fangs.
"Or what?" Then he vanished.
zz
It wasn't until another couple days did the next interesting thing happen. He'd watched both the adult heroes and young ones go through those strange teleportation machines. Eventually Dark Phantom possessed it and flowed through its circuitry before being kicked out in the middle of a training room.
The halfa hissed in annoyance at his ejection before floating into the air and glancing down at the other people there. The Flash was there, Batman, Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, and all of the little superheroes as well.
"Well, so this is where you hide the kiddos. Training child soldiers… and you call yourselves heroes?" Dark Phantom smirked as everyone tensed up.
"Who the heck are you?!" Kid Flash barked. Dark Phantom merely chuckled darkly.
"None of your concern, really, West." The young superhero seemed to tense at that before Batman walked in front of the younger ones.
"What are you doing here?" The ghost hummed before he shrugged.
"Don't know, I was curious." Dark Phantom suddenly glanced over at Manhunter. "It won't work… I'm not-" The specter didn't get to finish his thought before pain lanced through his head and he cried out. Manhunter did the same.
"What did you do!?" M'gann cried out, knelling near her uncle.
"Stooooooopppp…" Dark Phantom whined clutching his head. He growled and then his aura brightened before Manhunter was completely locked out. "Filthy telepaths, they think's all the world's thoughts are theirs too." Manhunter rose and looked blankly at the ghost.
"So, you are organic to some degree."
"Not like I want to be," Dark Phantom replied with a hint of anger. The young heroes glanced at each other in confusion, though Superboy was just scowling at the intruder.
"May I ask your name?" Canary suddenly spoke up and Dark Phantom's eyes snapped to her.
"My name?" Phantom frowned before he let out a laugh. "You'd think that would be easy to answer."
Canary nodded before she asked another question. "Is there something you want?"
Phantom stared long at the blonde, before he huffed. "Sure, I guess. Do you know anyone that can send people to other dimensions, someone that can do it accurately too?"
"Are you saying you're from another dimension?" Robin asked, raising his brow in surprise. The boy wonder knew it was possible, but to run into someone like that in this instance was interesting.
"Yes, I am."
"How did you get here?" Canary questioned. Phantom frowned before he let out a brief laugh once more, making his red eyes light up.
"Let's get one thing, straight. I'm not your friend. I just want to get back to my dimension and destroy it. So, I can either be your problem or not your problem. It's your choice. I've been getting bored, honestly. You're all mortal. Nothing here is a challenge.
"You were trying to destroy a dimension?" Batman asked, after everyone had sunk into battle ready stances.
Phantom scoffed. "That is not your concern. You might as well stand-down. You won't live if you fight me."
"We will not stand by while you destroy innocent lives," Manhunter expressed. Phantom snarled at that.
"Innocent isn't entirely accurate. Tell me, do all of you heroes get praise from the public for your service? Do you all have some type of support system with each other?" Phantom asked, his fiery hair starting to wave in an agitated way.
Batman paused and stood straight. "You were a hero where you came from. You lost something or someone precious to you and you fell to your own demons."
Phantom glared at Batman for a moment before he snarled. "I gave them everything and I was left with nothing. A ghost that fails its obsession fades, but a human still lives."
"How old were you?" Batman replied.
"I was fourteen when I made the childish decision to use my powers to help people. I was fourteen when I lost them. I was fourteen when I ripped my human half to pieces. I aged my form as if I was still alive though. My ectoplasm still wanted to follow the instructions of my DNA it seemed. I was twenty-four when the world fell at my feet and all those that had wronged me but one had perished. I was twenty-four when I met my younger self who had stumbled into his future. I was twenty-four when I took his place and went back in time to assure my future. Mortal emotions are cumbersome and cause nothing but suffering and weakness-"
Before Phantom could continue, a portal opened up with two clock-hands and a familiar ghost floated out. "Still not very good at making friends, Daniel?" Clockwork was answered by Phantom launching himself towards the other ghost.
"YOU!"
Everyone then suddenly noticed that Clockwork was on a different side of the room now and Phantom had to spin to find him after halting his attack.
"That wasn't very bright of you." Phantom growled deeply and his sclera started to turn black.
"Why did you drop me here?"
"I was hoping you could make yourself useful. Your other self has."
"Well my other self is childish and believes that promises have more power than they do. After all I still exist. He can still turn into me."
"Turn into something similar to you? Yes. Everyone has the potential to become a monster. But turn into you? No. You are stranded outside of your time, a time that no longer exists." Phantom froze.
"You can control time then." Batman stated, reminding Phantom that he had an audience.
"Yes. You could say, I am time itself. This one here is one of two people I am now responsible for. I was thinking that his potential was being wasted in captivity for eternity." Phantom laughed sarcastically.
"That's one way to put it."
Clockwork glanced back at Phantom. "I brought you here for a reason, Daniel. Your counterpart is already doing his task, you need to do the same." Phantom scoffed.
"If you think I'm going to be anything than what I've become than you've gone crazy, old man. You might as well give me a challenge and end me instead."
"Hmm…" Clockwork disappeared and was suddenly behind Phantom with a scythe at the young ghost's throat. "I suppose I could." Phantom flinched slightly and then stood still and snarled over his shoulder at his attacker. "But that wouldn't be the best outcome." Clockwork floated a distance away before Phantom and the others turned to watched him. "I sent you here for a reason, gave you your human half back for a reason-"
"WHY!?" Phantom yelled suddenly. "Everything is gone. I leveled it all, I killed those that scorned me as a human and a ghost. I imagine they wished they'd treated me with more dignity after the fact, hm?"
Clockwork nodded solemnly. "It is a shame, however; That lesson has been learned and those events never came to pass. Stop focusing on what will never be and what is now in the past." Phantom froze, looking somewhat startled. Clockwork continued. "I believe your other self came to an interesting conclusion after his trial of facing his ultimate enemy. He theorized that perhaps everyone deserved a second chance." Clockwork glanced up and looked Phantom in the eyes. "So… does that include a self-declared monster, too? To be fair, you're an anomaly now. You are no longer truly Daniel James Fenton anymore, as you've noticed you don't really look like your old self."
Phantom and everyone else was silent for a moment. Before Phantom finally replied. "Doesn't do much good if I look different when I can still remember what they looked like right before they died, huh?"
"They are no longer your family." Phantom merely stared blankly ahead.
"I don't want to help people anymore. I couldn't even help myself. I protected everyone I could, but there was no one there to protect me." The others watched as Phantom transformed into the human form they'd never seen. The sixteen-year-old looked at his hands for a long time. "I had nothing to lose and I decided to finally use my power to take control of my future."
"Indeed, it seems you took in a few of Vlad qualities when you absorbed his ghost-half." Phantom glanced up at that and frowned.
"I'm nothing like that Cheese-head." Clockwork chuckled.
"That sounds a bit like the boy I used to know." Phantom only glared back at the ghost. "So, what now?"
Clockwork hummed and glanced at the others in the room before looking back at Phantom. "Now that, I can't help you with. Telling people how to live their lives… isn't in my job description. Nobody learns anything that way." Before Phantom could ask for clarification, Clockwork vanished into one of his portals, leaving behind startled and confused heroes and one angry halfa.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Phantom raged clinched his fist so hard that his nails started to tear into his palms. He flinched and opened one up to stare at the blood collecting in his hand. "Hmm… that hurt. I forgot how that felt…"
Canary and Batman shared a look before Canary made the brave decision to walk over to where Phantom was standing alone. "So, you were called Daniel?" She heard the young man let out a breath of nonchalance.
"Yes, but my friends all called me Danny. I was scrawny, a NASA freak, and an easy target for bullies at school. I was friends with a Techno-geek and a Gothic Ultra-recyclo-vegetarian. My parents were Ghost Hunters and my sister wanted to be a psychologist. Vlad was a Russian immigrant who couldn't easily find friends at first and suffered from Narcissism because his parents were unsupportive growing up-" Phantom frowned slightly and still stared at his bleeding hand. "I was having trouble watching over the city and studying for tests for school without anyone but my friends knowing my secret. I decided to cheat just once, on one test, to give myself a little breathing room and to not have to come home to my parent's disappointed faces when I bombed another test. My teacher found out, we all met at a popular location in town, an explosion occurred, and I lost everything." Phantom flinched slightly when Canary's warm hand cradled his cooler one before she spoke.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Phantom turned his head and looked into Batman's eyes.
"You know what it's like… but you don't know what an obsession feels like. No one understood." Batman remained silent. Phantom suddenly drooped his eyes. "I kept hoping I would fade away after I killed my human-half, but I didn't." After a moment, he spoke again. "I'm tired now I guess. I forgot humans need to sleep." Phantom's head drooped forward and he started to sleep while standing and floating an inch above where he'd been. His aura surrounded his body and kept him stable as he slept.
Robin blinked and laughed a bit nervously. "I'm officially overwhelmed."
zz
Phantom woke up where he'd been left, the room was silent, except for the movement of pen across paper. The halfa glanced over to see Canary writing something down. From what he could tell, it was still dark out and the sun was only just starting to rise.
"You're awake." Phantom blinked and then refocused his gaze to meet Canary's who was smiling at him.
"You didn't destroy me."
"Why would we?"
"Because, I'm dangerous."
"Just because people or beings are dangerous doesn't give us the right to destroy them."
"No wonder this world is still in chaos." Dan replied, causing Canary to frown a bit.
"You believe we should destroy evil people?"
"Yes."
"Who would decide what evil is?"
"Does that matter? There are some potential candidates that are obvious."
"Hmm…" Canary hummed before she stood and came closer to Phantom. "Would you think it right if someone went back in time and tried to kill you when you were younger, innocent?"
Phantom immediately thought of the Observants and scowled angrily. "No."
"How about others?"
"No." Phantom answered, gritting his teeth.
"When is the point of no return for a person? At what point can they no longer be redeemed?" Canary finally asked and the two went silent for a long moment. Phantom huffed but didn't respond.
zz
"Bruce?" Bruce Wayne tore his eyes from the graves of his parents and looked over to Dick. They had already visited Dick's family's graves and they had come to have a moment of time at Bruce's.
"Yes?" Bruce responded attentively.
"Is that what you mean when you talk about not becoming the thing you fight against? Is that why you didn't want me getting revenge on Zucco for my parents' deaths?" Dick asked, growing solemn as he thought more about his own question.
"Is what?"
"Phantom or well you know." Bruce turned his head to look back at the graves as he thought about his answer.
"Yes, I suppose. Phantom suffered a great loss and he had no one to pull him from that dark place his mind became."
"It doesn't seem fair. It sounded like he was just like any other kid. He was even a hero!" Dick expressed and then grew quiet again. Only the sound of the two's breaths echoed in the still and cloudy afternoon.
"No, it doesn't seem fair at all, does it?"
zz
"I don't think you guys get it or something. I destroyed most life on Earth. I don't take pleasure from guarding life anymore." Phantom grunted as Batman, Canary, and Red Tornado stood before him, with the younger heroes gathered. Apparently, somebody had had the stupid idea to ask him if he could join the black ops team of superhero teenagers. In short, Phantom would much rather die again, several times, before he did that.
"I think this will be good for you. I can't say I know much about what makes your ghost half work, but I know this will help your human half," Canary expressed.
Phantom frowned. "You sound like my dead sister."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Canary returned with a smile. Phantom only rolled his eyes.
"It's either that or a containment unit in the Watchtower." The mood dropped slightly at Batman's mention and everyone watched Phantom growl deeply at the Dark Knight.
"I've spent enough time in tight spaces, thank you. Besides, you have no way to contain me unless you were willing to watch me die slowly." Batman and Phantom continued a staring contest in silence before Robin broke it up.
"You said something about no one being there to protect you, well that's what being a team is about. While we're working together to help everyone else, we're watching each other's backs. That way, everyone is covered." Robin explained and then grinned and planted his fists on his hips. The other teens weren't being nearly as open or friendly with the Dark Phantom in comparison, mostly being silent even if they weren't being aggressive. Phantom finally scoffed.
"That's such childish thinking. Let me guess, you promis-"
"I promise." Robin finished before Phantom could finish. After all, Robin already knew he didn't want to be exactly like Batman, that he didn't want to put the mission before everything else. Unlike Batman, he believed that some sacrifices just weren't worth the hollow victory. Robin stared unblinkingly in the red eyes that bore into his. In his peripheral, he could see the movement of the halfa's fiery hair.
The halfa transformed back into his human-half, dropping an inch back to the ground since he'd been floating slightly. "Fine! Whatever! It's not like I have anything better to do. I already destroyed the world once and so long as there isn't a government group that decides to hunt me like an animal again, I don't really care to go through the trouble of destroying another world."
Robin grinned, even if the causal mention of such violence did bother him. He wasn't sure why he suddenly felt it was his responsibility, but Robin was determined to understand Phantom and bring back whatever was still left of his old self. M'gann seemed to be on the same wavelength as him even if she didn't know it, because she then floated forwarded and greeted their new teammate. After everyone else introduced themselves, M'gann asked an important question.
"Should we just call you Phantom all the time or…" Phantom paused for a moment and rose a dark brow. He didn't really care as much as most people would, but he supposed he could humor them just a bit. He didn't want to be called Danny or Daniel, too many painful memories would rise from his mind from those spoken monikers, after all one's name is a powerful thing.
"Dan, just Dan."
This was inspired both from the idea of Dan getting tossed into the Young Justice world instead of Danny and the idea that I've wanted to have an interaction from Batman/Bruce, Robin/Dick, and Dan about how loss each affected them differently.
