NOTES: Hey! So this will be (hopefully) only three chapters long. Thanks to TourettesDog for helping with ideas for the title! (Inspired by the song "Only Human Again"). This is for Phic Phight 2023, so the prompts used are the following:
- Ghostanimal: After being revealed and arrested by the Guys in White, they surprisingly didn't torture or experiment on him. Instead, they completely removed his ghost half, "cured" him of being a halfa, and that, somehow, was a hundred times worse.
- Kiera: Danny loses his powers and his friends take up the mantle of ghost hunters in his place. he needs to get his powers back-but how?
(These two are more developed in the next chapters)
- ImDeadTiredTM: The greeks claimed that you could trade blood for information with ghosts - as Odysseus did. Danny, Tucker, and Sam learn that though misguided, this belief is not incorrect. Or in which Danny, Tucker, and Sam learn magic - *real* magic. Not the parlor tricks and magics magicians claim to weld, but the kind without words. The laws of hospitality. Blood magic. The magic of transformation. The oldest game. *Old*, powerful magic. Stuff of gods and Pharoahs and of the dead. Its making them into something else. Something more. Or maybe, just maybe, less than human.
- Pricklenettle: Danny tries to deal with Freakshow as a human.
Chapter 1: Early Retirement
Sometimes Sam forgot how much strength she had gained in the two years she had been fighting ghosts. It surprised her when she had to run long distances carrying her heavy steel-toed combat boots, despite not having any more energy left to go. Or when she had to drag Tucker away from an attack, using her iron will to get them both out of harm's way.
But maybe her best reminder was when she realized she could keep on fighting without breaking down in front of her teammates as they took Danny's place.
No, no one could take his place. That was the whole point. A few untrained teens using ecto-based gadgets were not enough.
Sam took a deep breath as she launched another net towards the sixth random animal ghost of the day. The bunny-like creature snarled as it dodged the attack, thumping against the ground to make the area shake under her feet.
Her ecto-net gun clattered against the pavement, her whole body following suit as she lost her balance and fell with a thud. She needed to focus. The gigantic creature was just one of Skulker's latest distractions for whatever endgame he was aiming for. She lost sight of him until she caught sight of his apparent target. FentonWorks?
"Tucker, he's getting away!" Sam growled into her Fenton Phones to get her friend's attention back to their priority, aiming her wrist-ray at the creature's stomach and stopping the small quake in the process.
How did Danny manage to pull all of this off in one night?
A crackle of sound came from her communicator as Tucker replied. "I'm trying, Sam! But he added a new firewall. Purple-back Gorilla Protocol is a no-go."
Sam rolled out of the way of another swipe from the ghost bunny she had yet to catch— there! The net finally caught the creature that would soon be sucked into a thermos. Now to focus on Skulker and his attempt to do whatever he was trying to do at the Ops Center. Of course he would conveniently pick the one night the family wasn't home.
"How much longer do you need?" Sam yelled into the communicator as she looked into her bag for something to shoot Skulker with at this distance. Wasn't there a grapple hook somewhere?
"Four—no, make that five minutes," Tucker replied.
The goth girl scoffed and wanted to yell a few choice words about how five minutes were not going to work when she couldn't even get to Skulker, when a humming sound went past her and directed her attention to a very familiar hoverboard.
"Geez, do I always have to come save your asses?" Valerie yelled from her position near their target. Maybe she would have a better view of what the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter was up to.
Valerie's technique was much more polished than Danny's during fights and Sam had to admit her form on the flying contraption was pretty impressive. Of course, Sam would refuse to stroke the former A-lister's ego like that. In a few swift attacks Sam could barely see from the street, Valerie had apparently taken apart most of Skulker's weapons and armor with her blasters, if the shouts from the ghost were anything to go by.
After a couple of minutes, the vigilante flew towards Sam's location, a familiar green blob held like a feral kitten between two fingers. "Honestly, that wasn't worth five minutes," the armored huntress grumbled.
"This is humiliating," Skulker's high-pitched voice protested, crossing his tiny arms helplessly.
"Sorry, Huntress," Sam sneered, ignoring the ghost's rant. "Some of us didn't get a suit upgraded by two ghost rogues."
Val scoffed. "Whatever…" Her suit opened a compartment on her forearm, a small gun appearing out of it and shooting a beam that sucked Skulker as he yelled for revenge.
The scene felt reminiscent of the same routine from the last three weeks since Sam and Tucker decided to take Danny's place protecting Amity Park, however clandestine it was. They had been careful, sneaking out, staying in darkened places and alleys to move across different parts of the town, sometimes with Jazz tagging along. Valerie would often join their activity if her patrol took her closer to them.
This felt like the new normal, but Sam was not willing to accept it just yet. She longed to fight next to her two best friends like they did before. She had even proposed these patrols to start convincing Tucker to be prepared to take on the GIW and get Danny out.
But deep down, she knew they wouldn't be able to help him. There were so many variables changing the stakes. It all boiled down to handling public opinion and getting enough support to dismantle the GIW through sheer lack of credibility.
But how does one face the government when they've become stronger by the power paranoid citizens gave them? How can they stop a corrupt organization from feeding Amity Park's citizens the exact kind of lies that make themselves look like their saviors?
The GIW had started to deploy their strategy with simple and innocuous messages, explaining how ecto-contamination could damage everyone's health and it was a good idea to avoid ghost attacks at all costs. It didn't sound that bad. Danny even welcomed the warning and the diminishing number of innocent bystanders when they were all out fighting ghosts.
If only she had trusted her instincts, if only she had said something about how sketchy the whole thing was.
The Ward, as they settled in calling them later on, had used every resource at their disposal to gain the favorable opinion of Amity Park's citizens: from asking the Fentons to give conferences about the dangers of ectoplasm, to bringing past attacks and concerns to debate tables, and even getting Mayor Vlad Masters on their side, who, in an attempt to corner Danny to convince him to join his side, had welcomed the GIW to install measures throughout the city to protect the youngest from the "evil influence of spectral entities".
Sam's anger built in her gut like a coil, waiting for the wrong word or look to spring on someone's neck. Valerie's presence never helped.
Before she could go deeper into her fury, the spell was slightly broken when Tucker reached the two girls, panting with his hands on his knees. He was the guy in a chair for a reason, but Sam hoped that would change if they kept working on patrols like this.
"Thanks for the save, Val," he managed to say between breaths.
The Red Huntress gave an audible sigh inside her helmet. "Man, you guys are terrible at the whole secret identity thing. How did you even manage to keep Danny's secret for so long?"
"You'd be surprised how much people are willing to look to the other side," Sam replied darkly, the venomous tone being one she had used countless times on the Huntress.
It still stung whenever Valerie dared to talk about Danny or his secret life as Phantom as if she hadn't been one of the most notable examples of why he needed to keep things a secret. Sam hadn't forgotten how Valerie turned Dani over to Vlad despite knowing she was part human, even if both half-ghosts were more forgiving.
Tucker seemed to notice the tension as he looked between the two with a frown. "It doesn't matter anyway, right? I mean, now there's no way anyone would believe he was Phantom." He turned to look at Valerie for a moment with his head tilted slightly to the side. "I'm surprised you did."
Valerie sat on her board, keeping it hovering a few feet above their heads, keeping her distance but close enough to talk to them. "It just…made sense. That's all."
Sam recalled the way it all went down. The Ward installed their first filters at Casper High one morning without a warning. They had everyone panicking about what the Ward would do if they found someone with enough ectoplasm to be suspicious. And would they know about the kids who got powers during the ghost bug incident? What if the lingering ectoplasm put the students at risk?
That was when the team began to realize shit was really hitting the fan.
As soon as Danny understood what would happen and the risks this new measure would mean, he panicked. He wanted to escape from school (why didn't she help him sooner?), he wanted to call his parents (what would Jazz have done if she had still been a Casper High student?), but most of all he was worried about everyone else. About his friends, who had been near the portal's activation. About Valerie, who had a ghostly suit infused into her bloodstream, even if she didn't know it.
And he had sacrificed everything for them. Getting them out, taking their place in the line instead of following them outside… It was as if a sick twist of fate had finally allowed the organization to capture Phantom.
Only it wasn't the ghost kid. It was one Danny Fenton who was marked as an outlier who needed to be checked for excessive ecto-contamination.
Stupid, Danny… giving himself up like that to make a risky stand and keep others safe.
Sam felt the tears begin to rise and sting at the corners of her eyes, but she pushed them down as she always did: with a biting remark and the confidence of having a killer waterproof mascara. "Well, I'm sure he'll appreciate your help while he's away," Sam told Valerie with the same cold tone, her chest heavy with pain and regret.
The silence was uncomfortable between the three of them, but Valerie decided to take the lead with the same question that was on everyone's lips at Casper High. "Have you heard when he's being released?"
Tucker nodded. "Friday, next week. The Ward's going for the quiet that comes with the weekend news."
Sam crossed her arms and huffed. "Yeah, it's not like anyone will get an answer out of their 9 to 5."
Their streak of uncomfortable moments continued. They definitely sucked at having post-patrol rapport with the Huntress. Which got worse when Valerie got pensive, remorseful even, and the gap between their knowledge of ghosts and the ghost-hunting world in general became more evident.
"Do you think they hurt him in there?" Valerie asked softly.
Sam's eyes blazed with fury. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" she ground out. "How can you even ask that?"
They didn't talk about that. Because that would make it real. A possibility. Despite everyone bringing up the very public discussion of how Danny's health was in serious danger due to the ecto-contamination and how he needed to be cured, none of the members of Team Phantom were participative. It got too tiring too fast. They only jumped in if it was to defend Danny's right to return home. Or at the very least to be recommended non-invasive procedures as a living, breathing, human kid. They always forgot they were just a bunch of kids…
The huntress shook her head. "I heard their threats before. When… when they—"
Sam interrupted the girl with a huff. "Oh, when they what? Threatened to do lots and lots of painful experiments?"
Valerie turned to look at the ground. "Yeah… It's hard knowing that's what he saved me from," the huntress whispered softly, her chin resting on her knee as she continued floating on her hoverboard.
Violet eyes blinked away tears and stared at the gun in her hands. "Yeah, well, he's stubborn like that. Always full of bad ideas too," she said in a quieter tone.
Tucker cleared his throat, the gesture filled with nervousness Sam knew all too well. "I found from their files they're doing something called… a cleansing treatment. No sight of experiments even in their group chats."
Sam had already heard about it. This had been a very public case, with the GIW trying to show how reliable and protective of their own citizens they could be, by using an "innocent boy" for this ordeal. It made sense to try less invasive or violent methods, but it didn't necessarily bring any peace to her mind unless Danny was free.
"Do I wanna know how you managed to get that info?" Val asked with half a shudder.
Tucker typed on his PDA a few commands, probably to resume the information hunt in Skulker's suit. They should probably go to the Ops Center to retrieve it. "Nah, you're already in trouble with the higher traces of ectoplasm bit. Don't want to burden you with illegal knowledge."
Sam walked towards Tucker and retrieved from his backpack the spare key Jazz had given him to FentonWorks. She placed it in his hand and gestured with her head to the roof.
"We should continue our patrol. Maybe split up?" Sam said while she got out the thermos from the same backpack to capture the bunny she had caught earlier.
Val stood tall on her board, crossing her arms at the other girl. "Oh, so now you think you can go solo?"
Sam exchanged the net-gun for a Fenton Finder to look for their next target, knowing it wasn't as accurate as Danny's ghost sense. She remembered how they used to joke that his powers had at least given him some sense.
What would everything be like now? Would he be glad to be human again? Would he be able to get back what he lost in the process? Would he hate his friends for not getting him out sooner?
Sam mentally stomped on those questions as she took a decisive step to the opposite end of the street. "No, but I'd rather not keep this conversation going."
The hoverboard flew away. Sam also had to admit having that gear might be nice. If only to fly away from everything and everyone just for five minutes until the noise in her head stopped.
The crawling under his skin hadn't stopped since the incident. It always appeared like a nagging itch at the back of his mind, traveling through every nerve, filling his chest with no way out, making his hairs stand on end, and numbing his fingertips, the pins and needles on them reminding him of the static just before he had touched the cursed 'On' button that changed his life forever. It was taunting, reminding him of what was no longer there. Just like a phantom limb.
Heh… he could still see the irony in words. There was always this joy that a good banter brought to his soul. Or maybe he would appreciate it more if he didn't feel like he was going out of his mind.
Danny got out of bed, walking to his window to stare at what the night sky had to offer. It was cloudless, perfect for stargazing if it weren't for the bright full moon that took center stage and overshadowed the rest of the celestial bodies. It reminded him of the night everything changed and yet… the sky seemed almost the same, as if his world hadn't been turned upside down. Everyone in Amity Park probably slept as if they hadn't played their part in all of this too.
He still couldn't believe how helpless his own city made him feel. How they had allowed the fear-mongering to fester, fueled by their incendiary lies about what ghosts were doing to the people in the town. But why did he have to pay the price? Did he deserve it for opening the portal in the first place?
It had been only a day since he came back home and a month since he was taken by the Ward. His whole body was still getting used to being—no, not normal. Normal-adjacent, maybe. That loss of not being a ghost but also not feeling like he used to be before all of this started.
Danny wasn't sure what happened during his time in the Ward, while he was being monitored and slowly, so slowly decontaminated. Fortunately, he was not being subjected to any experiments, like they had claimed at the start of their presence in the small town. No, they were careful to not leave any trace.
Jazz had told him how part of the fallout outside of the white walls of the Ward had gone. She mentioned an investigation that had pitted the public against the Fentons for contaminating their own son. The protests by his friends to release him. The way some ghosts were angered by what was happening (but kept attacking the town anyway). It was only Vlad's involvement that got the family free from scrutiny, citing the constant attacks on Casper High being as dangerous as FentonWorks, which left everyone at a stalemate.
It didn't matter anyway. They still took away his ghost half without even realizing they took down Phantom too.
The memory of his alter ego still stung. He would never be able to explain to his parents what and who he was before the ordeal with the GIW. Even his most fervent admirers believed Phantom decided to hide to avoid being captured by the Guys in White. He didn't want to think what school would be like when his peers blamed him for their hero's disappearance for whatever wrong reason they could think of.
Danny took a deep breath and sat back on his bed, looking at the bright red numbers that shone on his nightstand, contrasting against the darkened room. Three-forty, the clock read. Great. Another sleepless night was well underway.
Insomnia usually struck like an old friend expecting to catch up after drifting apart. He'd been in the same sleep-deprived state on countless occasions while fighting ghosts or simply going out on patrol when things got too quiet. But after those long weeks away, even if he tried going out as Danny Fenton, he knew he was rusty, weak, and ineffective. He didn't have the benefits of a cool super suit like Valerie. He didn't have a way to leave his house inconspicuously with his folks watching his every move, not wanting to lose him again.
Did he even want to go back to fighting ghosts?
That was such a stupid question.
The absence in his chest ached just thinking about leaving all that behind.
He didn't even have a previous life to return to anyway. What were his nights like before the portal? Before the horror induced by the idea of ghosts that weren't proven to be real yet? Whatever it was, it was long gone. Just like his nightly routines had been shattered by the treatment.
His return home had been so awkward...
A late night release, some reporters waiting outside to bombard him with questions, his parents' warm hugs promising to never let anyone take him away, his friends asking millions of silent questions just through their concerned looks, his sister staying the night consoling him as he cried himself to sleep. And how had he missed the stupidest of things: his pillow, the comfort of the posters on his wall, the sound of his alarm clock the next morning, the time being left alone without surveillance…
The crawling under his chest returned full force at the reminder of the treatment he went through. Howling at the loss of something that had nested close to his heart, missing the hum that sang in sync with each beat. Maybe he should try going back to sleep, trying to find some way to dream something comforting again and not just fall into the endless loop of chilling nightmares. He had gotten sick and tired so quickly of those.
Because whatever the Ward had done, they didn't do it right. If anything, they had made things worse.
Danny remembered sneaking to the basement and feeling his chest flare in pain with each step he took downstairs. He couldn't make it all the way down. The tiniest traces of ectoplasm burned him inside out, making every fiber of his being long for the power that had meshed with him after the accident. Maybe the Infinite Realms were messing with him for destroying the gifts he had received through the portal. Ghosts could get testy like that.
"Danny, are you still awake?" Jazz's voice called from the other side of the door and broke him from his spiraling thoughts.
How did Jazz know he was awake?
Oh, right, he turned on the lamp on his nightstand. The benefits of a vision well-adjusted to the dark were no longer a possibility.
He licked his dry lips. The aftertaste of rotten ectoplasm, or what he had mentally named as rancid battery jello, had remained after the removal and struck him with its full force, making everything taste terrible, stale, rotten.
"Yeah," his raspy voice replied.
"May I come in?" she asked with some hesitation.
A part of Danny didn't want his sister to worry about him, as she had done every moment since he came back home, when the Ward had finally been satisfied that he no longer was contaminated and he couldn't be considered a threat to society anymore. But he knew that letting her out of all of this would only be worse for everyone. Even if he couldn't explain how all his senses had changed so drastically, how the pain of his core lingered, and he couldn't feel like himself anymore, she understood silently as she sat by his side. Always by his side.
"Sure," he answered at last.
Jazz opened the door to his room, wearing teal pajamas and her trademark sibling concern clear on her face. It reminded Danny of the times she would go into his room to help stitch him up after a ghost fight, trying and failing hard at staying calm for his sake. But now there was no injury, no visible wound to treat (they made sure of that). The only scars he left with were deep where his soul should be. It wouldn't be wrong to say it was in the most literal sense, right?
"Trouble sleeping again?" Jazz asked as she sat next to Danny, her hand reaching his shoulder to give a supportive squeeze.
Danny sighed. "Yeah. It's the, you know… the ghosts that go through the portal don't help at all. I get nauseous."
It stung that his parents hadn't been able to close the portal long enough to keep the city safe. Something about no longer being able to keep the two worlds apart now that they were deeply linked, they had explained.
Jazz gave him a small smile combined with a sad look in her eyes. "Give it time, little brother. You'll feel better soon. That's what Mom said, right?"
Right. Mom. His parents. The two people who could probably help him but wouldn't dare do a thing to willingly "ecto-contaminate" their son, again. And he was stuck without any way of explaining to his parents why it was so important to try to recover his ghost half. And no matter how much he tried to defend Phantom, they wouldn't understand.
"I know… I'm trying," he settled on replying. "I just wish it got better sooner."
They all knew the risks of wishing for something when Desiree could be around, but maybe he didn't care. Maybe a wish turned wrong was much better than this slow torture.
His sister seemed to notice the wording and gave him a warm hug. "We'll find another way, Danny. Please trust us."
And he did. Despite all the hope he lost, he still trusted her and his friends to find a way out when his mind was too clouded with pain and unease to even think straight.
"I do," he whispered and allowed himself to be comforted. He had missed that warmth during those weeks away.
"Are you sure you want to do this, man?" Tucker asked, brow furrowed in deep concern.
Two weeks had already passed since Danny's return and the former half-ghost was finally allowed to go out with his friends, his parents had agreed on the benefits of spending time together, even if they didn't know what they were doing.
Despite his mom's reassurances about things eventually getting better, Danny was still struggling with the leftover symptoms. He had tried everything, even going for special concoctions his parents had prepared to recalibrate his senses. He tried therapy, taking up yoga and meditation, exercising, teas, energy drinks, special meals, and supplements… if anyone suggested a way out of this internal hell, he accepted it all without hesitation, desperate to get better.
Nothing worked.
But maybe he was going about things the wrong way. He tried solving everything as if he was curing his human half. But maybe he needed to think of it as fixing Phantom, the hero everyone missed.
Danny sighed as he took another look at the gear in his backpack before they went around the corner to face the ghost nearby. How ironic that the discomfort under his skin was now working as a substitute for his lost ghost sense to track a ghost's proximity.
"I don't know, how sure I am," he admitted. "But if you're going out on patrol when you're just human, why can't I do it too?"
The looks he got from his friends were screaming plenty of reasons in total silence.
Because you're hurting, said the look of Sam's suspicion.
Because you're still recovering, said the wary concern in Tucker's teal eyes.
Because… he knew they wanted to say so many things. Both stares silently pleading: I don't want you to get caught again.
Danny gave them his best bullshit smile: the kind of smirk meant to show confidence that was completely opposite to the turmoil inside. "I know that look. But please, I need to try this." His fingers fiddled with the blaster in his hands as his eyes darted away from theirs. "I can't just sit on the sidelines like some kicked puppy. I need to feel like myself again."
Tucker's hand squeezed his shoulder in comfort, a worried smile on his lips. "I'll have your back, man."
Sam hesitated and sighed. "We've probably done stupider things before." She turned a violet glare in his direction. "But if you die on us or anything, I'll hunt down your ghost, got it?"
Danny smiled fondly and hugged his two best friends. "For old times' sake," he whispered.
The trio held tightly their weapons of choice: a larger blaster for Danny, the thermos and wrist ray for Sam, and the now ghost-proof PDA for Tucker. The area was vacant, with no innocent bystanders nearby thanks to the fear of being contaminated like Danny had been. It was kind of ironic he had become the poster child of ectoplasm safety measures. If they had known about the accident that created his Phantom alter ego, maybe the others would also find the humor in the situation.
The GIW was avoiding the ghost-hunting part to lay low after the backlash they got for taking a kid away from his home, so no one was on the scene to help. Except for them.
Technus cackled madly once they approached the giant electronics warehouse, building a giant robot to probably cause chaos across the town. The ghost noticed the incoming trio and snapped his newly-created robotic head in their direction. "Ah, ghost child," he said in a mocking tone. "I was wondering where you were hiding all this time. No matter, you can watch the show from the comfort of your grave."
The ghost took over some large TV screens and computer monitors nearby and launched them in quick succession in their direction. Danny felt the adrenaline push him to move, but he had forgotten what it was like to dodge without powers.
"You won't get away with this, Technus," the black-haired boy yelled as he took cover behind a car. His friends had gone in a different direction as previously agreed in their plan, so he was stuck as a distractor in the meantime. "Powers or not, you'll get soup time."
Danny took a look out of his hiding place and used the pause in Technus' attack to fire his blaster at the ghost, who due to his size couldn't dodge. His shots dislodged a few devices and appliances, but the large robot was still standing.
Technus decided to go with smaller attacks as he used hundreds of small storage cards to shoot out of the robot's fingers.
"Let me save you the trouble, child," the ghost bantered.
The boy couldn't dodge in time all of the small ammunition and felt his arms sting at the sensation of plastic grazing his skin. Only it wasn't just the pain from getting small cuts. This felt like the burning sensation he usually got when he got closer to ectoplasm. A pain that lingered in a way that reminded him of the unescapable harm done by blood blossoms.
He rolled out of the way and began to hiss in pain. The ground around him was littered with the remains of screens and cards, all of them glowing from the energy Technus left behind in each. Danny began to hyperventilate and touched the side of his communicator. "Sam, are you closer to his power source now? Tuck, are you ready for shutdown?"
His friends were replying to his questions but he couldn't make out the words as a new blinding pain made him scream. Technus had used two drones to get closer to him, the flying devices too close to his face now. Technus cackled through the small screens in both drones, the sound filling Danny's ears with more static than before.
"Taking a breather?" Technus taunted once the huge robot got closer and made Danny's pain a thousand times worse. "What a scandalous thing for a ghost to do. Unless you're no longer playing with us," the nasal voice said with sadistic amusement.
"Danny, what's wrong?" Sam's voice called into the Fenton Phones. She had to be close. She was supposed to be climbing the robot now looming over Danny as he curled into himself from the hurt, the wave of nausea, the flames burning from within.
The boy clenched his teeth and tried to crawl farther away from the source of his suffering. "It just…hurts," he managed to say. "Sam, I need to get out of here."
So much for going out on patrol.
Danny couldn't recall how the fight had continued. He knew he was dragged by Sam from the scene, ending up in a lonely alley. Valerie had been called to help at some point, while Jazz drove to his location to help him escape in her car.
His friends must have taken care of the problem because all sounds of chaos died down before his vision went black.
Amity Park was a safe place to live, or so the sign said. And maybe it was, back in the day, but no one probably remembered what life was like before ghosts became part of the scenery. Sam certainly couldn't remember how she even spent her afternoons before ghost hunting took over once the portal became active.
But maybe she was wrong. This town was safe if you knew how to take care of yourself; if you were well-prepared against ghosts, or the Mayor's schemes, or the totally sketchy government organizations, or even Jack Fenton behind the wheel… No one dared to commit any other kind of crime out of fear of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, something that held true despite Phantom's absence in the last month.
That's how Sam knew the only trouble she would find after sneaking out tonight was some serious grounding.
If her parents found out, of course.
She saw the familiar FentonWorks sign and shifted her backpack to take out the small grapple hook Jazz had given her some weeks ago for some plan or another. Their adventures as Team Phantom tended to blur and get mixed up as time went on.
Danny's window was slightly open. She knew it had been for weeks before he came back. In fact, Sam had been the one to leave it open when they went to fix his room after the GIW went through all his belongings. It was probably a good thing Danny kept the most damning things hidden inside the walls, even if it didn't make a difference to ultimately being captured.
Once she reached the large building, she stood below his window and aimed the grapple gun, lifting her smoothly to the unorthodox entrance to Danny's room.
The place was as she last saw it weeks ago, except for the bed now occupied by her best friend, who was holding his head in his hands. She held on to the ledge with one arm and opened the window with the other, dropping inside the room with grace.
Danny lifted his head, his haunted eyes staring at her for a moment before they stared back at the floor. "Hey," he greeted with a hoarse voice.
"Hey," she replied softly.
She kneeled down next to him, trying to meet his face while her thumb rubbed the back of his hand. He took a deep breath before dropping on Sam's shoulder, which she met with a warm hug.
"I came as soon as I got your message," Sam whispered in his ear. "Why didn't you tell Jazz?"
She felt Danny shaking his head and giving her a humorless chuckle. "And tell her what? I can't just ask her to help with this. She's already worried enough as it is."
This was a very delicate territory and she knew she had to tread lightly. After Danny had returned from the claws of the GIW, they found their relief immediately destroyed by the millions of questions that came from the aftermath.
Would Danny ever be able to get his powers back? Would he have any adverse effects from whatever those bastards did? How could they help? What would they tell everyone about Phantom's disappearance?
Danny had been probably preoccupied with these and even more questions during his time away, but the events with Technus days ago only made those concerns grow more serious. What had they really done to him?
Sam didn't know what to say. She needed to reign back the tears. I'm worried too, she wanted to say. But that wouldn't be fair. She needed to be strong for Danny. He had already been through too much and the nightmares didn't stop.
"I can't do this, Sam," he whispered into her shoulder.
"It's okay," she lied. "Give it time." She knew that wasn't the answer, but she lacked any other solution to offer her broken friend.
"No, it's… it's killing me all over again, in a way," Danny said in a low and terrified tone.
Sam held his shoulders and looked him in the eye. "What do you mean?" No answer. "Danny, what's going on?"
The boy stared at the floor, away from her look. "Every time I'm close to a ghost, it hurts so much. It's like feeling a fire trying to return to my chest, but it never finds what it needs to light up again."
Sam and Tucker had heard Danny was feeling a sense of wrongness that his parents claimed would go away. But they didn't know the extent of it. Maybe two weeks still wasn't enough. His "cleansing" treatment had been long, after all.
"We will find a way, Danny, you heard your parents," she reassured again, even when none of her trust had ever been deposited in the Fentons. "Whatever you're feeling should be only temporary."
Danny stood up and walked towards his desk, his back facing his companion. "No, Sam, it's not. I know it." He turned around with the same haunted look he wore on his first day back. "I… don't know how to explain it but I just know it, alright?"
Sam stared at him expectantly, prompting him to continue. Sometimes being heard was the first layer of comfort someone needed, and Danny was no exception.
He was hesitating, fiddling with his fingers. His deep exhale was both nervous and exasperated in a way. "I'm going out of my mind, okay? I can't bear going like this for so long. Do you know what living above a portal is like? Even when it's closed, the energy is there, almost taunting me. And I can't even get close to go look for someone to help me because I apparently don't vibe with ectoplasm anymore."
Sam tried to stay serene through the outburst. She needed to be strong. She definitely didn't know it was this bad. She should ask Jazz about it. How was Danny handling this even now?
"Weren't your parents looking to give you some time off and go out of Amity Park? You could go to your aunt or something, right?" she tried to reason.
If Danny still had his powers, she had no doubt his eyes would be flaring green at the suggestion. "Sam, I didn't call you to give me sympathy or make me go away again, okay? I don't want to leave Amity Park. What I need is your help."
This took her aback. Why not Tucker? Why not Jazz? Heck, even Valerie? What did she have to offer to get him the peace he so desperately seemed to need?
"What do you mean?" she asked. "You already said you're not planning on running away. Why would you need my help if it's not to pay for a bus to nowhere?"
Danny's intense blue eyes wouldn't leave hers. "You know people. And you've been… studying things? I've seen you even messing with occult books here and there."
Her breath hitched. "You noticed that?" she whispered.
She stared in stunned silence expecting her friend to condemn her, to treat her like an outcast, like a freak, just like she felt before she found her place with Danny and Tucker. But she knew she had to give him more credit than that.
The boy crossed his arms and stared with the same deadpan look he reserved for challenging ghosts as Phantom. "Sam, you always find an answer in something you bought from Skulk n' Lurk. You've been planting all these strange flowers and gone into the deep web to find occult forums you've asked Tucker about…" He shrugged. "It looks like you're going down a dark and spooky rabbit hole. And of course I've noticed."
Something in those words made her heart start racing, the beat threatening to break her chest. He had noticed. Maybe he wasn't as clueless. Maybe she could just keep being herself and not worry anyone about becoming the evil apprentice of a ghost, like she was with Undergrowth. Maybe they wouldn't worry about that happening either.
She licked her lips and recovered her breath. "What kind of help are you looking for."
Danny's smile was warm, determined, like the same kid who would come up with the craziest plans out of the blue that somehow worked out in the end by sheer dumb luck. "I need to undo this," he said.
"Oh, Danny," Sam sighed. "I don't have anywhere near that power or even the knowledge to—"
"No," he interrupted her. "I'm not asking you to undo this. But I need to know where the person who does know how is hiding."
Sam arched an eyebrow. What had the point been in all of this revelation? "Tucker can help with that. Hack into a few video feeds. Find any additional signs of that person's whereabouts. You don't need me," she spat bitterly.
Danny sat next to her and held her hands, a pleading look returning to his eyes. "Sam, you're good at finding obscure things in obscure circles. I don't need hacking, I need someone who would know where to look, who to ask." His eyes lingered on hers for a moment before looking away with a scowl. "Plus, I need someone who can verify that whatever this guy proposes is legit and won't mess me up again."
None of the conclusions that came to her head made her feel comfortable about the whole situation. Was he looking for some dangerous witch or occultist? Was this something she would need to bribe someone about? What kind of mess was he trying to get them into?
"Danny… who are you talking about?" she finally asked.
The boy held her gaze, a grim look on his face as an improbable word came out of his lips. "Freakshow."