Chapter Sixty Eight

::

Perched on the edge of the Fenton Ops Center, Randy watched as the humans of Amity Park gathered in front of Fenton Works and were given a crash course on how to use the technology being passed around. The students who had been through this before or attended the workshops were already suited up with goggles and weapons, all of them looking deadly serious.

The Fenton family were the only ones to match their intensity, Jazz utterly deadly as she instructed the students on how to use the weapons to their full potential, Maddie and Jack doing the same for the others gathered around. Randy couldn't find himself to be surprised by their ferality when their son and brother had been kidnapped, but he was surprised by just how many people were there - over a hundred and growing.

The ghosts had touched so many lives… Randy remembered what it had been like before the portal had opened. The world had been small and tight and they had fought like wild dogs over scraps. Then the portal had opened and suddenly they had a whole new world to explore- Or, rather, they had an old world to explore. There was no need to fight like wild dogs among each other when there was more to take, but then they realized there was no need to fight at all. Danny had changed so much by offering the ghosts peace if they could return it.

Now here they were. There were college students there to rescue their favorite mad scientist lecturer, there were parents of the children who played with Youngblood, rock and roll teens who were obviously their to save their pop star idol. Randy saw friends of Kitty and Johnny, hunting lodge members that adored Skulker, gardening clubs that had become taken with Undergrowth's visits, and so, so many more.

The ghosts had managed to become a part of the town because of Danny acting as a bridge between the worlds. Amity Park had become their home and now Amity Park wanted them back. Randy could feel his own feelings echoed in the air by the dozens upon dozens around them.

There was that need to fight. That need to protect and fight and rescue their family was thrumming under the skin of every human and there… A sharp void of sorrow with a little pinprick of hope that settled beside him.

"We'll get him back, Andy." Randy leaned against Andrew as the man laid his head on his shoulder, quiet and fearful. "I promise you for every mark on Danny we will pay it back to Walker and his a hundred fold." Andrew pressed more against him and the anger rushed out of him on a sigh. The anger, but not the fight.

That was okay, though. That was fine. He would fight, he would always fight, but this time he did it for protection and not anger. He couldn't fight in anger… Not anymore.

"We'll get him back." Andrew's fingers laced with his, Randy gripping the other's hand tightly back as he tried not to get lost in the feelings of the humans below them. "No matter what we'll get our mate back, Randy."

"I know. I just…" Jazz was silent and deadly, Maddie felt as if there was a hole cut out of her, and Jack had no smile in sight. Randy couldn't say he and Andrew were much better, or worse, off. "I…"

"I know." Andrew's grip tightened, Randy nodding to himself. It seemed Andrew was afraid, too. They weren't afraid of whether they would get Danny back. Oh, no, that had never been the worry. No.

They were afraid of how they would find Danny.

::

"I told you." Unable to bring himself to flinch at the voice, Danny glanced up from where he was curled up against the far wall of his cage, clutching at the sluggishly bleeding wounds in his side. He was really getting sick of the ghost-proof cuffs they kept putting on him. "I told you to stay out of it."

"Come on, Val." Danny laughed, wincing as he pressed harder down on whatever wound was bleeding. The vines they had waved all around him and his cage kept his thoughts tampered down beyond thinking on how much pain he was in. "Staying out of it was never really my style."

"I warned you about what would happen." Valerie was in her Red Huntress costume, but she was shaking and looking vaguely sick- Oh.

"What's the matter? You can handle seeing a ghost hurt, but not a human?" The flinch she gave showed his words were as good as a punch.

"You're not human." That got a laugh out of him, ragged and broken as it was.

"You're still denying it? You've seen me, you've heard Walker, you've seen Danielle. I'm half-ghost, Val. I'm the same kid you've gone to school with since fourth grade."

"No- No, you're not. That Danny died and now it's you who's here." For god's sake did no one ever listen to him?

"Surprise, but I'm not dead! Val, you know me. You remember who I really am, right?" Danny couldn't stop bitterness from creeping into his words. "You know, back when we were friends and dated before you broke my heart-"

"Shut up!" Touchy, wasn't she? "Shut up right this second, Phantom, or I swear to god I-"

"You'll what." Danny snapped, the words like ash in his mouth. "Dissect me? Tear me apart? Pluck out my eyes and look inside me to see how I work? Go on, I know you have to be dying to find out just what I am."

Silence. There was no response to that and it only gave Danny the motivation to keep going. "How did you even get here, Val?" She had been terrifying, but she had protected Amity Park as best she could. Here she was now, though, helping to tear it apart. "How did you fall so far?"

"Oh, please." Even her anger sounded scared. "This isn't one of those feel good movies where everything works out alright in the end. This is war and it's us against them-"

"Us and them? Valerie, they're ghosts. Most of them were as human as you or me! They had lives and families and a home and then they got screwed over and then they spent years being lost and scared of what was about to happen next and these are the people you want to kill? People who have already gone through death once?"

"That's just it! They're ghosts! They are dead, Danny. You're dead. You died and whoever you were is gone and now you're just- Just an impression-"

"You honestly believe that? That they're all just- Just what? Memories? Val, you became a ghost hunter to keep Amity Park safe when they were still confused and scared. Now that they're a part of Amity Park-"

"They will never be a part of my town." At this point Valerie had stomped forward, hands wrapped tightly around the bars as she glared at him. "They. Are. Dead."

"They still feel things. Are you that fucking blind?!" Danny dragged himself to his feet and walked forward, startling Valerie into stepping back. "They still feel. Yeah, they're dead, but they still know what it is to feel sorrow. They feel loss and anger and joy and sadness and they still fucking love. They were still fucking human and look what you're doing to us!"

Walker, after his little introduction speech, had let him know that every ghost had been captured. Considering what Danny was going through, he didn't doubt all the others were suffering just as badly. "Look at what you're doing to us. You're putting humans in cages and experimenting on them. Why? Why are you doing this to us!

"Are you just trying to find a better way of killing us? Huh? Guess what, Val, you're gonna regret that more than you will ever know." Danny swallowed, trying not to shake from exerstian. He should sit back down, but he couldn't. He couldn't back away from this. "I've seen what murder does to people-"

"I am not a murderer." Valerie looked as she always did. She looked strong and proud and fierce and determined, but her eyes… She was just like Danny. "I am not." Afraid.

"Not yet." She took another step back. "I've seen it, Valerie. Murder changes people." Andrew, Randy, Spectra… Andrew and Randy had managed to be brought back from that tipping point, but Spectra, on the other hand? It had been too late for her. "It changes you into something you can never recover from. Do you really want that? Because you'll be the one that's no longer human."

Valerie gave him a look full of fear and loathing before she was turning away, Danny stumbling closer and just barely reminding himself to not touch the bars. "Wait- Val, wait, please." She didn't turn back around, but she did pause. "Elle- Danielle. Danielle and Youngblood. What… What did you guys do with them?"

"That freaky child ghost is locked up in a group cage with some of the others. He's been whining and acting annoying as usual." Not hurt, then. "And Dani escaped when we started capturing everyone. We don't know where she-"

"You let her go." There wasn't a response, but, really, that was all the response that Danny needed. "Val-"

"Oh, don't bother with her, boy. She's already proven her loyalties." Stepping back at the voice, Danny glared as Walker came into view. Creep kept the entire lab Danny was in dimmed and empty - probably to set him on edge even further. "What? You don't like having a whole floor to yourself, hero?"

"Funny thing, I was never a fan of being left on my own, but I'm pretty good at it when I need to be." Danny didn't care if he tore himself apart, but he was not going to let the ghosts be hurt for much longer. Not if he had anything to say about it. "Why are you here?"

"I thought you might want to know that you'll be out of that cage, soon." What? "We're almost finished with our experiments and when that happens, well. You're the brat of a couple of scientists, right? What happens when the specimens are no longer needed?"

"How many ghosts are here." There had to be more than just the regulars. Even caged and locked away Danny could feel the energy that was soaking into the very air and something like that… The last time he felt a feeling like that was when Pariah had taken over Amity Park.

"I've been doin' my job for a long time," Walker grinned. The smile had Danny fighting to not step back again. "I asked you a question, boy."

"You're going to murder them-"

"I'm disposing of them." Behind him, Valerie looked away. Good. He hoped that guilt hurt. "Ain't nothing you can do about it either."

"You want to bet?" Danny was angry- No, angry wasn't the right word. He was pissed. "You really think you're going to win this."

"I already have." Walker spread his hands out wide, grin wild and sick. "Look around you, ghost boy! You're trapped alone in the cage and every other ghost you know is facing execution in a few hours!"

"You are nothing." Danny stalked forward, throwing himself at the bars and clutching onto them, paying no mind to the burn in his palms. "You are fucking nothing. You're a miserable person who died from causing harm and if you don't stop you're going to die the same-"

A blast of energy caught Danny square in the chest and knocked him back down to the floor, gasp escaping him at the pain that swallowed his body. "Boy, you had better learn how to speak to your betters."

"I would if I saw any in front of me." Stumbling to his knees, Danny stared down at the cuffs, forcing a laugh out of himself. "I defeated a king. I defeated Pariah and you think you can stop me?" He was stronger than he was then, too. "I travelled through time and destroyed a monster that had killed millions." Stronger than even then. "I've beaten people stronger than you will ever be."

Danny stared down as blue energy wrapped around his hands, fizzling in and out and straining against the cuffs that suppressed his powers. "I promised to protect them." The truce was some half-formed thought Andrew had come up with. Ghosts don't fight humans, Danny won't fight the ghosts, but it had become more.

The truce was about living together with everyone. Help the humans and they'll help you. Keep each other safe and you'll be safe. Show kindness to them and kindness will be shown to you. The truce was a vow of protection and Danny knew himself. He knew what he was. He knew his obsession.

"I promised." A crack appeared in the edge of one of the cuffs, Danny looking into Walker's eyes that were wide in surprise. "I will protect them."

"You ain't gonna be doin' shit." Walker grabbed a gun from Valerie's belt, shooting Danny once, twice, three- Fuck. It hurt. "Keep an eye on him, girl. If he moves than I want you to shoot him until he stops, you understand that?"

"Yes, sir." In a haze of pain that felt too much to be real, Danny blinked down at the metal floors, and oh. He must have collapsed. "Please don't move."

"Valerie." Danny winced at how ragged his voice sounded, forcing himself to at least look up at Valerie and into her eyes. Heh. What do you know, these glasses hadn't even broken yet. "Get out of here."

"Don't move." Valerie's hands shook as she aimed a gun at him, breathing loud and strained and tears in her eyes. "Please don't move."

"I don't want you getting hurt, Valerie, please-" At least this shot knocked him out instead of causing him more pain.