Author: loosedefense
Title: Weak
Pairing: Danny/Dash
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is the property of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. This story implies nothing about the characters nor does the plot of the story have any effect on the show itself. This story is pure fiction and fantasy.
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Danny could hardly be called surprised when later in the day the street directly in front of his house was mobbed by a whole flank of cars surrounding a particularly expensive-looking one bearing a particularly expensive-looking man. Danny simply rolled his eyes. It was just like Vlad to make an appearance with an entire entourage.
"Why didn't you just bring the limo?" he asked dryly when Vlad reached him.
"The driver has the day off, and I'm not going to trust parking that monster to anyone else," Vlad said shortly in response. "Now, are you going to let me in?"
Danny obliged, and within a minute found his living room filled with sullen looking men in suits that looked highly uncomfortable. Vlad paid them no attention and set his eyes on Danny's. "So tell me, Daniel, exactly how did you manage to get yourself involved in such an event as this?"
Danny eyed the men – Vlad's lawyers, he guessed, a whole team of them – warily, not feeling free to discuss the entire situation at length. Vlad seemed to understand his distress, and prompted, "The boy who you rushed to the hospital after that ghastly attack?"
"Uh, yeah," Danny caught on. He still wasn't comfortable with this arrangement – how on earth were these men supposed to help him if he couldn't even give them the full picture? – but trusted that Vlad had been able to get out of sticky legal situations with his ghost half before without giving away his secret.
"Well, I heard all about the boy getting blasted to Kingdom Come on the TV, of course," Vlad said, and Danny imagined he heard a hint of vindictive pleasure behind the man's voice at the chance to rub it in, "but what I don't understand is how you got tangled up in the whole affair."
Stealing a last glance at the circle of lawyers around them, Danny tried to phrase his sentence as carefully as possible. "I was walking down the street and there was this explosion – Vlad, can I speak to you? In private?"
Vlad rolled his eyes, but allowed Danny to drag him away from his team of lawyers and upstairs into his bedroom. "Oh, Daniel, you could have put in a little more effort."
"Shut up," Danny growled. "This is all your fault."
Vlad raised his eyebrows. "My fault? Exactly how is this my fault? I'm here to bail you out of this problem."
"Yeah, and your ghost half was what started it in the first place," Danny told him heatedly. "I've been fighting ghosts off for months now trying to keep them away from it."
"You can hardly blame me for that," Vlad shrugged, taking a seat on the edge of Danny's bed and eyeing the sheets distastefully. "I'm sure you knew what to expect when I gave it to you."
"It's still your fault I'm in this position now," Danny said defiantly. "And I can't talk to you about it with those guys down there—"
"You're going to have to," Vlad said. "They're the ones who'll have to get you out of this. All you have to do is tell them what happened while omitting a few details that may seem too … incriminating."
There was a soft knock on the door, which subsequently opened before Danny could invite the person behind inside. Sam strolled in with Tucker following her. Danny had told them to wait in Jazz's room until he was done with Vlad. "We got bored," Sam said by way of explanation.
"Yeah, and you might want to keep your voices down," Tucker said casually. "We could hear you from outside."
"Ah, Miss Manson; Mister Foley," Vlad got to his feet and stuck his hand out for them to shake. Sam stared at him coldly, their last encounter still fresh in her memory. Vlad retracted his hand and turned back to Danny. "Shall we return downstairs then?"
"No," Danny said, "you still haven't given me an answer."
"An answer to what, how to give the lawyers your side of the story? Daniel, I already told you—"
"How is Danny supposed to give the lawyers his side of the story without implicating himself – or blaming Danny Phantom?" Sam demanded.
"It doesn't matter if he blames Danny Phantom," Vlad scoffed. "He's a ghost! What are they going to do, throw him in jail?"
"You've obviously never had a whole town against you," Danny muttered bitterly.
"Why do you even need lawyers?" Tucker inquired. "It's not like this is going to trial. I thought the police just wanted you to give a statement?"
"And answer questions," Vlad declared. "My lawyers can provide Daniel with a proper alibi to explain his involvement."
"How can the lawyers provide an alibi for his whereabouts when Danny is trying to provide them an alibi for his whereabouts in the first place?" Sam challenged.
"They will refine his excuses for him, silly girl," Vlad fixed her with a hard expression.
"I thought lawyers were supposed to find the truth," Tucker said mildly.
"I'm sure Vlad's got them well-trained in 'refining his excuses' for him by now," Sam sneered.
"I certainly have," Vlad sounded proud of this accomplishment, "and young Daniel here is going to reap the benefits of my doings; honestly, I don't understand why you continue your association with this bunch," he turned back to Danny, waving a hand towards Sam and Tucker dismissively. Sam flushed, but Tucker placed a hand on her shoulder in warning.
"Now, should we return?" he offered again.
"Vlad, I still don't know what to say to them," Danny whined, stealing a glance at his friends to make sure they weren't expecting him to stick up for them. He had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. Sam rolled her eyes, but otherwise didn't show any sign of her resentment.
"I'm sure you'll be able to think of something," Vlad told him confidently, opening the door and sauntering out. Sparing one last glance, silently ordering the other two to stay in the room, Danny left as well.
The lawyers hadn't moved, nor had the bored expressions on their faces left them. Danny seated himself back down on the couch self-consciously. Vlad wrapped his arm around his shoulder, and though Danny tried to shrug it off, it remained, and strangely enough, brought him a little bit of comfort. "Why don't you start from the beginning, young man," one of the dark-suited men advised.
Danny let out a breath of air loudly, trying to think of what to say. He nodded slowly as a way to buy himself some time. Would it be best to tell them Kwan and he had been out together? It seemed odd that Danny had just so been the person to catch him by mere coincidence.
"Mister Fenton?" the dark-suited man prompted.
"Yes – okay. Just give me a minute," Danny tried to appear composed to hide the fact that he was quickly trying to think up a story, but one sneak peek at Vlad's warning eyes told him that he had better hurry up and not appear so transparent.
"Kwan and I were walking down the street," he internally winced. He hadn't been sure whether or not it was best to attest that he and Kwan were together at the time of the incident but it was too late to back out now.
"And what were the two of you doing, Mister Fenton?" another one of Vlad's lawyers asked him.
"Getting ice cream," Danny said dumbly after a moment's pause. Vlad's eyes crinkled, but the men around them remained stony-faced. Danny gave an apologetic shrug. They were kids. They liked getting ice cream.
"And what happened then?" the first man asked.
"They … attacked," Danny said lamely.
"Who are 'they'?"
Danny waved his hands about wordlessly. "Ghosts," he finally managed to get out. "I don't know how many of them there were. They were all in this ship."
"I'm sorry – a ship?" another one piped up. "Do you mean that contraption that crashed into the streets in the evening?"
Danny stared at him blankly, then his brain caught up. "Oh – oh, you mean the Specter Speeder!"
"No name has been verified for it," the first man Danny had been speaking to informed. "As of now, it has been tagged by the authorities simply as an unidentified flying object."
"It's my dad's," Danny stated. "He built it."
"Jack Fenton," Vlad clarified beside him. "My old college mate. You'll have to take it up with him I'm afraid."
"Is there any way we could contact your father, Mister Fenton?"
Danny turned to Vlad, who once again took the lead. "Both Daniel's parents are currently under my employ – well, I shouldn't say mine because they work in Axion Labs managed by the CEOs, and I only own it," he gave a self-satisfied grin. Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
Several of the men had taken out notepads and were currently jotting down details very quickly. The first lawyer, however, fixed Danny with a level stare.
"Tell me about the Specter Speeder, Mister Fenton," he said plainly.
"Uh, what do you want to know?"
"You say it was created by your father – do you have any idea how it may have crashed in the middle of Amity Park?"
"No," Danny lied. At least his alibi of walking with Kwan protected him from that. His parents would kill him if they found out he had taken the Specter Speeder, much less let someone else take the controls.
"It seems very strange," the lawyer mused, "that your friend who you were with was targeted the same day that your father's invention was stolen. Mister Fenton, I feel that it is in your best interest that I advise you to be perfectly honest with me and my colleagues if we are to help you."
"Am I going to go to jail?" Danny asked fearfully.
"Doubtful," the other man told him. "At the most I would expect there to be an inquiry. All accounts seem to agree that ghosts were responsible for the attack on the young man you were with, and there would be no way to prosecute under such circumstances. But that does not mean you should give the police any reason to suspect that you had a bigger part to play in all of this."
"How could anybody possibly understand the motives of ghosts?" Vlad questioned dismissively. "There is no doubt that they were the cause of this tragedy. Whether this had all been planned beforehand by them or whether it was simply the result of unfortunate circumstance is beyond the point."
The lawyer nodded curtly then turned to Danny. "Just for clarity's sake, Mister Fenton; this ship you mentioned – were you or were you not referring to the Specter Speeder your father invented?"
Danny chewed his lip. What would the consequences of his answer be? If he said yes, would it implicate his father? If he said no, would it make him out to be delusional? He just wanted this to be over. His eyes trailed up to catch Vlad's gaze, but his face was unreadable. He weighed his options, but knew he had to say something fast.
"Mister Fenton?" the lawyer repeated. "Were you referring to the Specter Speeder your father invented?"
Parting his lips, Danny said in a barely audible whisper, "Yes."
The lawyers nodded and continued writing. "Very well; so now all that remains is confirming that Danny Phantom was responsible for the events that occurred, and we shall have your name cleared of any and all charges."
"What? No." Danny shook his head vehemently. "Danny Phantom wasn't responsible for this."
Vlad's grip on his shoulder tightened, but Danny didn't care. The lawyer furrowed his brow. "I don't understand," he said slowly. "You don't blame Danny Phantom for the current condition of your friend?"
"He didn't do anything," Danny insisted. "He tried to save Kwan. Danny Phantom is a hero!"
"Daniel, what are you doing?" Vlad muttered under his breath. "Just let it go."
But Danny wouldn't let it go. If he allowed Vlad's cronies to place the blame on his alter-ego, he would be hated throughout the town, and that was most definitely not something he wanted to live through again.
"Mister Fenton, all reports have agreed that Danny Phantom was the aggressor of these attacks—" the lawyer tried to say, but Danny cut him off.
"I don't care what the reports say. I was the one who was there, and I am telling you, Danny Phantom didn't do this," he said. "He tried to help us. He tried to save us from the other ghosts. They were the ones who started this, and he was trying to help us."
Vlad's lawyer pulled off his glasses and rubbed the lenses with a piece of cloth tiredly. "Well, this certainly complicates things a bit," he said quietly. "You see, no one else has witnessed any other ghosts on the scene."
"Ghosts can turn invisible," Danny argued.
"Mister Fenton," the tone was sharp, "I'm afraid you do not fully comprehend the enormity of this situation. The police are attempting to pin the blame on someone, and right now Danny Phantom is the best lead they've got. If you were to insinuate that there were others behind this, you would—"
"I would what?" Danny challenged. "Drag this out longer than I should by making them do their jobs?"
"Daniel…" Vlad warned.
"No," Danny shook his head resolutely. "I'm not going to let people blame him for this when he was just trying to protect anyone."
"The police can't do anything to him," Vlad snapped. "I told you already, they can't put him in jail."
"They could try to blast him out of the sky," Danny said stubbornly. "They could turn the whole town against him. He doesn't deserve that."
"That's all very fine and good, Mister Fenton," the lawyer said tersely, "but unless there were any witnesses that could confess to seeing these other ghosts—"
"I'm a witness, don't I count?"
"Of course you do, but the fact remains—"
"He's telling the truth," declared a firm voice behind them. Danny turned to see Sam and Tucker clutching on the banister peering at the group surrounding the couch. "We saw them too."
"You mean to say that you were at the scene of the crime?" the lawyer asked skeptically. Sam raised her eyebrow in response. "Very well, then I don't suppose you would mind detailing the ghosts who were involved in this, would you?"
"Excuse me," Vlad rose to his feet, still clutching Danny painfully by the arm, "I'm going to need a moment with the children. We'll be right back." He dragged Danny along with him and ushered the other two teenagers back up the stairs.
"What are you doing?" he demanded with a hiss when they reached the second floor.
"Danny said there were other ghosts and we believe him," Sam crossed her hands over her chest and tapped her leg impatiently. "Obviously."
"Daniel, you are bringing unnecessary grief upon yourself," Vlad turned to the dark-haired boy.
"I'd be causing myself even more grief if I let them run around saying that I was the one who was responsible for all this," Danny said waspishly. "Do you know what the people are going to do if they think that? I'd never be able to show my face in public again."
"Exactly how do you plan to corroborate with his story?" Vlad wheeled around to glare at the offending two.
Danny took this opportunity to quickly refresh their memory of exactly what happened, remembering to keep his voice low so that the group of lawyers waiting downstairs would not be able to overhear them. When they returned, Vlad not having managed to convince them to drop their efforts, they had been asked how they could identify all the ghosts they insisted they'd seen, to which, after a moment's consideration, Sam had dashed upstairs and leaped back down triumphantly brandishing the sketchbook Jazz had started years ago detailing all of the ghosts they'd encountered since she'd learned her brother's secret. The artwork was crude, but they'd been told it would be enough to satisfy the police who had more likely than not encountered the same beings themselves on numerous occasions.
"Well, Daniel," Vlad said hours later as he prepared to depart, "my people seem to have covered all bases, but I must say you've complicated the story far beyond you would have needed to. However it should be enough to satisfy the police."
"It's a complicated story to begin with," Danny commented. "You haven't even heard the full thing yet. Are you going to take back your ghost half?"
"Would you really want me to? No – you're still the safest guard I have for it. You've managed to keep the ghosts at bay so far, I'm sure you'll manage."
"I can't promise I won't destroy the thing myself one day," Danny warned. Vlad chuckled.
"With your ghost powers? I don't think so. Haven't you noticed that you've never actually managed to kill any other ghost in all your years of fighting – nor have I?"
"What are you saying?" Danny's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Vlad pulled his fine coat tighter along himself as he made to follow his team who were already milling about their cars. "It is nearly impossible for one ghost to kill another, Danny. Their inherent powers, our inherent powers, all but prevent outright destruction to another of our kind. You would have to be a significantly powerful ghost to pose any sort of immediate severe threat to another, and even then I doubt you would be able to finish the job with just one blast. As it stands, you could try all you want and I don't think you would even be able to dent the container."
Danny blinked. He hadn't thought of that; now that he considered it, he wondered if Vlad could possibly be right. His mind flew to his past encounters with Aragon, Pariah Dark, and the destruction wrought by his evil self on other ghosts; he had fought well enough, it seemed, to cripple Johnny 13 and for the most part destroy the powers his enemies cherished the most, but they still survived; and despite all the taunts from his older self, he had still failed to kill his 14-year-old half, instead resorting to run their time together out. Even Danny's ghostly wail, one of his strongest attributes, was not enough to completely incapacitate another ghost.
Vlad shut the door quietly behind him, and Danny slumped on to the couch. Tucker placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and Sam chewed on her lip thoughtfully.
"The police are going to be here soon," Danny said in a muffled voice as he scrubbed his hands over his face. "You guys should leave before they bring you in for questioning too."
"Hey, we have to be there to back you up, don't we?" Tucker said. Danny nodded gratefully, although he wasn't sure he wanted to risk Sam and Tucker being there. If the police took his word for it with significantly less skepticism than Vlad's lawyers, he might not even need them to come with him.
It was nearly six o'clock when two irate members of the police force came to the Fenton household. "Save your breath," they told Sam and Tucker when they asked to come to verify Danny's story, "we just need to get a statement from him down at the station."
So they ushered him into the squad car, Danny feeling a little bit like a criminal although he wasn't bound in handcuffs. The two officers wasted no time grating him on how they'd had to field questions from the media all day and hadn't been allowed to collect him for a statement until then due to a word from "the former mayor."
He was led into an isolated room and seated by the two officers, who promptly asked him to recount the events. Danny did as best he could to stick with the story he had told the lawyers, making sure to omit the few details he had kept from them as well.
Once they had written everything down on paper, they turned their eyes back on him. "Any reason why Danny Phantom may have targeted you or your friend?"
Danny clenched his jaw. "I told you, it wasn't him. It was this whole other group of ghosts."
"Fine," one of them, a short squat man with graying hair said dismissively. "Any reason why these ghosts may have targeted you or your friend?"
"I don't know," Danny said curtly. "They're ghosts, who knows why they do anything?"
The two officers shared dark looks with each other, then the other one, younger but not much thinner said, "Your parents are ghost hunters aren't they?"
"Yeah," Danny shrugged uncaringly. "Maybe that's why. I don't know."
They nodded, and the first one wrote something else on the report sheet he was currently filling out.
"How's Kwan?" Danny couldn't stop himself from asking. "Has he woken up yet?"
"No changes," the officer grunted. He passed the sheets of paper to his partner. "Take this to Johnson to get written up." He gestured to Danny with two fingers. "Come with me."
Danny rose up and followed the two officers out quietly. The younger one turned right to enter a back room while the older, shorter one led him to a small desk and pulled out a pad of ink and another sheet of paper. "Press your right thumb against the ink, then against this box right here."
Danny's eyes darted up. "I thought there weren't going to be any charges?"
"There're not," the officer said. "You're being booked." At Danny's suspicious gaze, he sighed and said gruffly, "We gotta get down your details. Now press."
Reluctantly, Danny pushed his thumb against the pad of ink and then against the designated area on the report. "Fill in your name and other details here," the officer waved a pen around the approximate areas Danny was meant to fill. Once he was done, the officer snatched the paper away and said in a low significant tone, "Wait here."
The teenager slouched against the desk, taking in the dismal surroundings until he was joined again by both officers. "Alright, you're free to go," the first one told him, his eyes focused on more paperwork.
Danny glanced out the double doors into the empty streets and back to the two officers. He bit his lip. "I don't have a ride."
The second officer nodded to a phone resting on the desk Danny had been leaning against in response. He sighed, not particularly eager to see his parents right now, and Sam and Tucker would no doubt be filled with questions he was too tired to answer right now. "I'll walk."
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The air was nice and cool against his face, though as he walked, Danny couldn't help but wish he had a coat to cover him. He was also starting to wish he'd sucked it up and asked his friends to bring his car over, but it was too late for that.
His legs were only just beginning to sting when he heard a beep behind him. A familiar car reached him and slowed to a crawl.
"Fenton!"
Oh, fantastic. "What do you want, Dash?"
Dash pressed his horn again. "Get in."
Danny paused, considering. "No thanks."
"For God's sake, Danny, just get in the car."
Not in the mood to argue, especially against an already irritated Dash Baxter, Danny just threw up his hands and opened the door to slide in next to him. "What are you doing here?"
"I saw you walking. Need a ride?"
"I'm in the car, aren't I?"
Dash tightened his grip around the steering wheel but pulled away from the sidewalk and back on to the road. Just when Danny thought they would spend the entire way in silence, Dash asked him, "Have you been to see Kwan?"
"No. Not since they admitted him yesterday." Danny turned and eyed the blonde boy. "Have you?"
Dash nodded. "Visiting hours ended at six."
"I should go see him," Danny sighed. "How are his parents?"
"Good – as good as they can be, I mean. They don't really talk much to anyone else," Dash told him. He took his eyes off the road long enough to glance at Danny, who quickly turned away. "So what happened, Fenton?"
Danny sighed. He just got through talking with Vlad's lawyers and the police; he really didn't want to get into this again. Dash was waiting. "Can I tell you tomorrow?"
"Can I sleep at your place?"
That took Danny with surprise. He gazed appraisingly with Dash, who had his eyes steadfastly on the road. His mind raced. Was Dash asking for them to make up again? Did he want to go back to whatever they were? Danny still didn't know what had come between them, what had caused Dash to leave his bedroom that day so suddenly.
They arrived back at his house, and Dash cuts the engine and turns to him expectantly. Danny waits for one moment, and then nodded almost imperceptibly. He opened the door, and was almost instantly greeted by Sam and Tucker who were apparently waiting for him the whole time. Sam opened her mouth to ask him what happened but both their jaws hung open when they caught sight of the beefy quarterback standing behind him.
Dash paid hardly any notice to the other two as he entered the house. Danny couldn't meet their eyes, and simply said, "Dash is going to staying the night," before following the other boy into the kitchen.
Before they could rejoin his friends in the living room, Danny heard the faint rumble of a car pull into the driveway. The door burst open as Maddie and Jack Fenton entered, both wearing heavy frowns on their faces. Danny curiously stepped out to meet them. "What's wrong?"
Jack pulled a beer out of the fridge, a rare occurrence as Danny ever did see. Even stranger, he tossed a can to Maddie, who accepted it without word. "They're watching us," he growled.
Danny frowned. "What? Who's watching us?"
"The government," his mother replied. Sam and Tucker enter the kitchen to listen to the conversation.
"Wait – what happened at the town meeting?" Danny questioned them.
"They were discussing security measures," Jack scoffed. "We went in to show them all the equipment we'd come up with to protect the town, but that's not what they were interested in. They've turned the whole matter over to the government. And they've placed us under their new 'procedures'."
"The Guys in White?" Sam guessed.
"This is outrageous!" Maddie burst out. "Jack, they can't do this!"
Danny dazedly walked over to the windows, drawing back the curtain to stare into the lit street. His heart sank when he caught sight of a plain white truck situated across them. Sam, Tucker, Dash, and his parents joined him.
"They're here for our 'protection'," Jack scoffed, taking a large sip of his drink. "On our house, at work, at your school – you probably won't even be able to go out without them tailing you."
Danny let the curtain drop back, cold fear taking his heart as he shared deeply uneasy looks with Sam and Tucker.
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Author's Note: Yes, I am back. I took a long break – probably longer than I should have – just to refresh myself, got the chance to just pull away from writing for a while, explored a couple of new fandoms, and such, but I have not abandoned this story because it's just gotten too far to cut off, and I do adore this story very much. You'll notice one significant change though; this story is no longer going to be a trilogy. I'm very sorry about that, and I probably should not have gotten so carried away with the concept, but it just seems like it would be better for me to set a reasonable end date for this story rather than trying to reach such a grand scale and risk losing interest in this completely in the middle, especially with no new episodes to fuel interest in me or the readers for very much longer. I'm trying to aim for 30 chapters in this fic, but I may go over it if I think a further 6 chapters will rush it out too much, and I do so hate rushing stories out. Please read and review, I would love to know I haven't lost you guys, and I require your love. Thanks for taking the time to review, I really do appreciate every single one of you.