Chapter 5
I made a deal with Dan. I would help him destroy the Nasty Burger if he did not expose my secret identity to Amity Park. Short and simple. But one tiny detail was missing. The fact that my friends and family would die. You have to believe me, I do not want that to happen. But I can't tell Dan that. I'll have to figure out a way of my own to rescue the people I love. Everyone trusts me. Well, maybe with the exception of Jazz now.
Dan has been speaking, but I haven't heard a word he's said.
"Get that?" he asks me.
I nod my head yes, a blatant lie. A hot wind blows through my body, and I look down at my hand. It seems that the blueness of it is intensifying. I think I've figured out how the change works. Every time I do something that reflects Dan's character, I grow to be more like him. The change will be complete when I look exactly like him on both the outside, and inside. Well, I think so anyway.
For now, I'm in my right, non-evil mind but I'm gonna have to be performing a lot of treachery while I'm temporarily on Dan's 'team'. I just hope that by the time it all ends, I'll have at least a shred of my old self left - or that I'll even want to save everyone from the explosion.
I channel the darkness again, putting on a small, evil smirk. I'm hoping that my theory is right, and that I'll only be affected by it if I do something villain-y.
Dan turns toward me again, looking at me. He doesn't say another word, and I start to think that he's expecting an answer to something I missed.
My smirk doesn't falter and I hold his gaze.
"Come on", he says softly, as he flies off in the direction of the Nasty Burger.
The cruel expression on my face falters, and falls away. He sounded almost - sad. I rest my head against the wall I'd been leaning against. I can't allow sympathy to creep in now, not when I'm so close. As this thought slithers through my mind, I take off into the air, following Dan, and not noticing that my skin has now become the exact hue of the ghost-man ahead of me.
We had reached the Nasty Burger just in time for Dan to have captured everyone, with me watching pathetically from the side lines. As much as I hate it, they can't see me yet. I'm Dan's - no - my own secret weapon. Dan makes his speech about his revenge, and ruining Danny's future – blah, blah, blah. I lose interest. I'm sitting on a dumpster in the alleyway I'm hiding in, waiting for my cue to make my big entrance. I look at each of the faces of the people tied down with ectoplasmic strands. I oddly feel – nothing. It's weird, I know I cared almost too much for every one of these people at one point, even back to ten minutes ago, but now – I feel nothing but detachment from them. And I must admit, that I kinda like it. No ties, no distractions, no obstructions. No humanity.
Hm. I thought that losing it would have been a bit more painful. I carry on scanning the faces of the victims. One person's missing though. Jazz should be here.
Jazz.
I start as if waking from a horrible nightmare, the full front of my thoughts knocking the breath out of me. I slump against the dumpster, unable to breathe. So it wasn't losing humanity that was painful, it was the regaining of it. Go figure.
I'm surprisingly unperturbed by the events of the last ten minutes. Although I do have my humanity back, I feel tougher, hardened somehow. Maybe I am doomed to become Dan Phantom no matter what I do. This thought doesn't bother me either, convincing me of its truth. But why did Jazz snap me out of the darkness I was unconsciously sinking into?
And, back to the original question, where is she?
"She better have the sense to stay away", I growl under my breath. I feel my shoulders shift and broaden, and become more muscular than my teenage mind could ever have hoped for.
"What?!" I snap, "That wasn't a diabolical thought in any way!"
As if scorning my rage against it, my body changes again. This time I feel my spine slowly lengthen. It carries on for a while, and I realise that I must now be the same height as Dan.
Guess I should watch my tone of voice. The ridiculousness of the idea makes me laugh and the deepness of my chuckle surprises me.
"Oh right. Dark Dan voice, great."
I probably look more like the dark me than the real me too.
Just then Dan gestures to me. I hesitate for a second, and then turn into my human form before walking timidly into view of the prisoners trapped against a wall of the Nasty Burger. I hear a collective gasp as they see me, and I wonder if my human appearance has changed in any way. Then they cheer, and I realise that it obviously hasn't.
Wait. What am I doing? The whole point of coming back in time was to stop Dan from exposing my identity. Now I'm walking across the parking lot of the Nasty Burger in my human form, getting ready to go ghost in front of each and every one of them. I look up at Dan and see that he is also looking confusedly down at me.
I curse myself for my own stupidity and feel every negative feeling I have ever felt building up inside of me. I can't take this anymore! The anger, the hatred, the darkness. They're eating me up inside, reducing me to a shell of the hero I formerly was. I know I can never go back to being Danny Phantom again, but I will never let my emotions control me like Danny's did.
There's only one thing I can do to combat that. Remove them.
"Danny! Danny! What's going on?" Everyone is screaming at me. I fall to my knees, all of my senses overpowering me. They won't stop. I curl into the foetal position. I just want them to stop.
"QUUIIEEET! All of you, be quiet!" I didn't say that. But a sudden silence descends upon the scene. The only sound is the eerie ectoplasmic storm Dan has created.
The ghost-man lands on the ground beside me. He lays his hands tentatively on my trembling back.
"Get away from my son!" I hear my mother yell furiously.
Dan ignores her. He looks at me, with genuine concern in his eyes.
"Are you okay, Danny?" he asked gently.
"I just want them to stop", I sob back.
He gets a steely look in his eyes and gazes in the direction of the trapped people, "and so they shall."
He rises up again and I stagger to my feet, still dazed.
"Dan, no!" I shout weakly, but he hears me. "Don't kill them… I – I'll show them who I really am."
"Are you sure, Dan?"
"His name's not Dan, it's Danny," this comes from Sam, from right in the middle of the group.
"S-Sam?" I barely manage to get out. It's devastating how wrong you are, I think.
"Well, this is an interesting turn of events", Dan says, actually letting them go. As the group of people surrounds me and forgets totally about him, Dan flies off to the boiler and freezes the sauce inside, ensuring permanently that the explosion would never happen.
He then proceeds to perch on top of the large metal vat, watching the action that is about to unfold. He, he actually trusts me.
"L-look everyone," I can still feel the darkness bubbling inside of me, but it is nowhere near as dangerously close to brimming over as it had been before Dan had laid his hands on me.
"I – I have something to tell you. All of you," I add, looking pointedly at my mother and father.
"I – I'm Dan – Danny Phantom", I get everything out in a rush of almost unintelligible words. But they are definitely heard. My mother and father gasp, but then I think the maternal instinct kicks in and mom leans in and clutches her distressed son to her chest.
"You – You're okay with that?" I ask incredulously, although I knew how it would play out, having lived through this all before. My father would take a while to come around, but he would also be okay with this fact. Eventually.
My voice, I realise is back to normal. Well, I'm not so sure what normal is anymore, but it sounds like teenage me, and not Dan.
Well, all the more to shock you with my dear, when I go ghost. (That last part isn't usually found in the traditional fairy tale).
I look up at Dan, who was still sitting on top of the vat of now frozen sauce. He grins at me, but not evilly. It was more encouraging than anything else. I hear his voice in my head, If they accept you as Danny Phantom, they should accept you as the new you, too.
New power? I think.
Yep.
Cool.
Yep.
I smile to myself, only invoking more concern from the onlookers.
"Danny, are you sure you're alright?" my mother asks again.
"Mom", I say drawing up to my full height, "there's something else. And you guys don't know this either," I add looking at Sam and Tucker.
"But no matter what, you all need to know that this is me. And nothing, well I hope so, has changed. But the Danny Phantom you know is gone."
"What?" Sam asks, a little scared. I can hear it in her voice.
"Don't be afraid of me Sam," I plead sadly.
There's nothing more I can say to prepare them for what they're about to see.
So, with a deep breath, I go ghost.