Chapter Eight
CW: Emetephobia
Valerie stood by in silence, arms crossed over her chest as she leaned against a lab bench covered in dozens of research notes. Nearby, the portal was shut tight, a pair of massive, metal doors that were coated in some kind of ectoplasmic resistant material preventing any ghosts from coming through. More than a dozen people on the city council, school board, and other committees had asked the Fentons to shut down the portal so the ghost attacks would stop, but the Fentons proved more than once that it was pointless. The damage from the unnatural gateway was already done, permanently weakening the barrier between their worlds, and natural portals popped up regularly throughout Amity Park whether the portal was activated or not.
Danny's parents were sweet, but they were often careless, putting others at risk despite their good intentions. It was a trait they shared in common with their son, or so she thought.
"So why didn't you try to summon Desiree?" she asked as she watched Jazz get the containment field ready. This was their only shot to talk to Desiree in a controlled setting, since Danny and his parents were meeting with some folks at school about a possible IEP for him for the next hour or so.
Sam glanced at Tucker and Jazz uneasily. "We, uh, actually did, but it didn't work. My best guess is that it's probably because Desiree isn't her real name."
"Or you don't know what you're doing," muttered Val, tossing some of her curls over her shoulder.
"Oh, like you do?" snapped Sam. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear a better idea from you about how to fix this. I'd love to hear it now, if you've got it."
"If I had a better idea, I wouldn't be here." She hated admitting it, but since Phantom handed over Desiree two days ago, Valerie had no luck finding a different solution. Even her benefactor couldn't help. Val hadn't given Mr. Masters a lot of details about it since she knew he was an old friend of the Fentons and would tell Danny's parents immediately if he knew the truth. She only told him she stumbled across a case of possession, and his response was that they would be unlikely to save the host but that she should still try, anyway, since granting the host relief from the ghost possessing it would be a mercy. She knew he was right, but she hadn't shared the information with the others, worried they would stop her if they knew.
Plus, Sam and Tucker and Jazz were right that Danny's parents were overzealous and would probably cause more harm than good here and that any chance of saving Danny would be out the window if they became involved, but at this point as Valerie watched the others prepare, she wasn't fully convinced that they would do any better on their own.
Yet for Valerie, that wasn't the hardest part of all of this. No, it was realizing that someone she cared about, who she might've even seriously liked at a level beyond any other boy she ever dated, wasn't actually Danny. If he was possessed back when his accident happened, then she never met the real Danny, only the ghost pretending to be him. And the thought that she might have loved a ghost controlling some poor teenager's body against his will . . . She threw up a few times that night and sobbed hard enough that her Dad almost brought her to the hospital thinking she was seriously ill. It wasn't her fault. She knew it wasn't. But being with someone without their consent, even if there was no way for her to know what was happening? She knew it wasn't her fault, not really, but it still made her feel like a monster. It never went beyond making out, but did it need to for it to hurt him? Would Danny, the real Danny, even be willing to hear an apology from her or want to be near her if they managed to save him?
"Great. Since you don't have a better idea, then please shut up and stay out of the way unless you can figure out a way to help," snapped Sam.
"Sam . . . that's a little–" began Tucker, but Sam turned on him, fists balled at her side.
"-hey, I didn't even want her to know about all of this, remember?! But then you had to literally spill everything to her after she fed you some sob story about Danny being depressed and abandoned or whatever, and–"
"-and now we have someone who is a better shot with an ecto blaster than my Mom watching our backs in case this containment field fails," interrupted Jazz, giving Valerie a half-smile. Valerie always liked Danny's older sister. Jazz could be a bit nosy, but she always had her brother's best interest at heart, and unlike his parents Jazz could be careful when needed. "Seriously, we can't be arguing amongst ourselves or the ghost will find a way to use that against us. So let's stop rehashing the past and focus on what we can do now together. For Danny. Please?"
Valerie watched as Sam deflated. "Fine. For Danny."
"For Danny," Valerie and Tucker muttered together, nodding in unison at their pact, and then the containment field sprang to life. It wasn't much - just a small cell with a ghost shield hovering around it along with a place to insert the thermos, and Jazz carefully input the device into the slot.
"Ready, everyone?" she asked, and they gave an affirmative as she gently pushed the button to expel the ghosts from within. There was a puff of greenish smoke as Skulker and Desiree materialized within the chamber, looking disoriented only for a moment before they noticed the field and the four of them standing outside of it.
"Oh, great. Have the Fentons resorted to using children to conduct their experiments?" grumbled Desiree as she floated, her bracelets jangling slightly.
"If you're expecting us to mate, I have a girlfriend," added Skulker..
"Oh, did you finally ask out Ember?"
"Yes, a few months ago now, but–"
"-hey, we're not here to listen to you chat about your love life or whatever," interrupted Tucker as he gave a small signal to Jazz. They had all agreed ahead of time that Jazz would be the one to do the talking, but so far Danny's sister seemed frozen on the spot.
"Um . . . Desiree, right?" said Jazz uneasily. Crap. Valerie could see her shaking slightly from here, nerves clearly getting to her. She wouldn't step in at this point–she still felt like Jazz could probably handle it–but she realized that of the people in this room, Valerie was the only one with extensive experience with ghosts. She couldn't tell the others that without revealing her secret, but a tiny part of her wished she had so that she could conduct this interrogation instead.
"Oh, good grief," grumbled Desiree as she crossed her arms. "Yes, and?"
"Listen . . . Um . . . Do you know my brother? Danny Fenton?" Tucker, Sam, and Valerie shared a puzzled look. This definitely wasn't how this was supposed to go. The point was to make the wish and get it over with so they couldn't be manipulated by her, but Jazz was approaching this like she was trying to connect with a troubled teen she met through tutoring.
"Yes, and if he were here he'd let us out," said Skulker. "So perhaps you should consider doing the same, child."
"He's right, you know. The boy brought me a gift on my death day. I didn't even think humans knew about such traditions," added Desiree, and Valerie felt her stomach twist into a knot. A tiny, tiny part of her continued to remain unconvinced that Danny was possessed, and yet she'd seen nothing but more signs since Tucker told her. And this, knowing about some ghost culture thing or whatever, just added more evidence to the rapidly growing pile.
And from the looks in the room, she clearly wasn't the only one who realized it, but at least Jazz seemed to recover quickly. "He is very thoughtful," she said slowly. "But that's why we need your help. I . . . well, we want to make a wish that will help him."
"Since you're Danny's sister, let me be very honest with you," said Desiree, approaching the edge of the cage and leaning forward as if she were speaking to a very small child. "That's not how my wishes work."
"But it must be up to you, right? It's your power," argued Jazz. "And–"
"-you truly don't understand us at all," sighed Desiree, and Valerie flinched. The statement was a painful reminder of Phantom's own warning to them, one that Valerie fought to brush aside but that continued to nag at her.
'She'll twist your wish, you know. You'll just hurt Danny.'
Valerie began to walk towards Jazz so she could pull her and the others aside to talk, when suddenly Sam spoke up. "We wish to know the true name of the ghost possessing Daniel Fenton." Valerie, Jazz, and Tucker glanced over at her and she shrugged. "What? Since Jazz deviated from the plan, so can I."
Desiree and Skulker gave each other a look and laughed, which was not the reaction Valerie was expecting or hoping for. "You think there's a ghost possessing him, whelp?" chuckled Skulker. "Unbelievable. A single human shows us a modicum of decency and his kind think he must be under the control of another ghost."
"It's not that, Mister Skulker. He had a death echo," said Jazz calmly, and the two ghosts stopped, staring at her. Valerie had to resist the urge to smack herself at the title, but maybe if Jazz at least pretended to be sympathetic, too, the ghosts would stop mocking them. "Um, maybe you have a different word for it, but . . . he talked about his accident and it was like it was happening. That's not something that happens with humans. Only ghosts."
"You know that if I grant your wish - and you're wrong about this - I will have to find a way to make it true," she said, and Valerie frowned. From her previous interactions with Desiree, she knew the ghost had to grant every wish she heard, regardless of whether she wanted to or not. Both she and Phantom used that weakness to trap her within the thermos or send her back to the Ghost Zone a few times. Desiree wasn't supposed to have a choice in the matter, yet here she was, refusing to grant it.
And for the second time that day, Phantom's words echoed through her mind. 'Ghosts aren't as beholden to their obsessions as you might think. It's more complicated than that. We're more complicated than that.'
Desiree was obsessed with fulfilling the desires of others, even if it hurt her or she ended up worse for it. So why go against her obsession for Danny? Was it just because they were right about him being possessed and she didn't want to lose that advantage? That didn't seem quite right. Not exactly. She bit her lip, silently wishing to herself that she spent more time talking to the ghosts (or at least Phantom) if only to be in a better position to help Danny now. The two ghosts were being way less talkative since Jazz mentioned the death echo, and she suspected they knew something that the rest of them didn't.
"Um, guys? Maybe we should talk for a minute?" suggested Tucker, waving them over, and Sam rolled her eyes as they gathered in the furthest corner of the lab away from the ghosts.
"C'mon, Tucker, they're just manipulating us," said Sam immediately. "Isn't that obvious? Danny being possessed is a good deal for them. It means that they have someone that'll keep letting them out of traps, sabotaging the Fenton's tech, and doing who knows what other kind of damage."
"I don't know, Sam. They seemed genuinely surprised by the idea that Danny was possessed," said Jazz, glancing over her shoulder as the two ghosts spoke to each other quietly behind them. "Isn't it at least possible that something else might be going on here?"
"Desiree is resisting granting the wish - there's definitely something going on here, since her obsession pushes her to grant every wish she hears," sighed Valerie. "I agree with Sam that it does kind of make sense that they wouldn't want Danny to stop being possessed because of all the advantages it gives them, but something just seems . . . off."
"But there's no other explanation for the death echo, is there?" said Tucker, looking at Jazz, and she shook her head.
"Not that I could find. It doesn't mean one doesn't exist, though. Maybe we should rethink this. There might be something we missed."
"Guys, if we stand here all day discussing hypotheticals, then we'll lose our chance to learn the truth. The whole point of not getting into a conversation with those ghosts was so that we wouldn't be manipulated, remember?" Sam pointed a thumb at the ghosts behind them. "And now they're colluding and doing who-knows-what to keep that manipulation going and to keep us from helping Danny."
Valerie's instincts were screaming at her that not everything was as clear cut as Sam made it out to be. Her gut kept her safe dozens of times in the past. What she really wanted, more than anything, was more time, since she was sure they were missing something and that she could figure out what that was if she had more than a few minutes to work through it. Danny's situation probably wouldn't get worse if it took another day or two to puzzle things out, but that explanation wouldn't sit well with Sam. Even if everyone else decided not to make the wish, Valerie knew Sam would. She felt the same guilt Valerie did for not figuring out just how wrong things were with Danny sooner, and sometimes, Sam could be infinitely more reckless than any of them.
And so, against her better instinct, she sighed, "I think we might be missing something here, but we should still go through with it. Even if Danny's not possessed and she makes him possessed or whatever as part of the wish, we'll still have the name. Practically, it doesn't really change much, right?"
"Right," agreed Jazz.
"But it does. It'll mean we deliberately hurt our friend, then, if we're wrong," said Tucker. "I don't think that makes it okay."
"But can we take the risk that we're wrong?" Tucker and Sam locked eyes for a moment, a silent communication going between them, and as Tucker lowered his head Valerie knew Sam won the argument.
"Okay. Let's do it."
Turning back, Valerie watched as Jazz approached the ghosts and took a deep breath. "I appreciate your warning, but we're still doing this," she said. "I wish to know the name of the ghost inside my brother, Daniel Fenton."
"So you have wished it, so shall it be." A puff of smoke appeared around her and a piece of paper materialized in the cell. Without waiting, Tucker walked over and stuck the thermos back in, sucking the two ghosts inside so they could open the door to the containment field safely. As soon as the ghosts were gone, Valerie went in and picked up the paper. Emblazoned across it was a single word: Phantom.
And her mind felt as if it split, rapidly processing what it meant.
It made sense, she realized. She always wondered how Phantom could appear and disappear from her tracker so easily when she never saw him create a portal to the Ghost Zone, but if he was hiding inside of Danny Fenton, then he wouldn't have to. Her tracker wasn't sensitive enough to pick up on ghostly possessions - no tech of that sort was. Only a longer, high-level scan could.
And the scar on Danny's palm from his portal accident. The one that lined up perfectly with the tear in Phantom's glove, that was the singular outlet for Phantom's powers as long as his suit was intact. Phantom mentioned how a ghost would need a perfect host, one that had qualities that matched it, and while she hadn't assumed he meant physical ones it was clearly part of it.
"Valerie? Who is it?" She wordlessly handed the paper over, shaking her head.
This was why he dated her, wasn't it? Phantom knew she was the Red Huntress. Knew she loathed ghosts, despised them. So he pretended to be sweet, caring Danny Fenton. Hopeless idealist who argued with her about how the ghosts weren't so bad, actually. That they deserved to be treated with dignity. Respect.
Who had been Phantom, in reality, hoping to disarm his most powerful foe.
"I don't understand," said Tucker, the first to break the silence after the others read the name. "Why would he give us the thermos if he knew this would happen?"
Her mind slammed to a stop at Tucker's question. "What?"
"He knows, right? That we're going to try to end the possession?" said Tucker. "And it's not like he thought we wanted it for someone else. Phantom knew we wanted it for Danny. So why give it to us?"
"He might just know it's game over at this point and figures we're a better option than a ghost hunter," suggested Sam, which sounded perfectly reasonable to Valerie, except that Phantom knew she was a ghost hunter. One that spent most of the last year and a half or so since he first appeared hating Phantom. He knew how Valerie would react if she found out. How she itched to don her suit, find the creep and–and–
And what then? She didn't know if attacking Phantom would harm Danny. There were a lot of things they didn't understand about how this all worked. Did he leave Danny's body somewhere, unoccupied, while he fought? Or was Danny trapped underneath that suit, hidden beneath some bizarre, ectoplasmic construct? Had she hurt him before, when she shot at Phantom?
"That's not it," mumbled Valerie as she sat down on the ground, and although she didn't intend to, she found herself confessing, too shell-shocked to stop the words from tumbling out."I'm a ghost hunter. He knows that."
The three of them were staring at her, but she ignored it as she held out her arm and donned just the sleeve of her suit. There was a gasp and a couple of quick exclamations, but she barely registered it as she withdrew it a moment later and slumped forward, letting her head rest on her knees, and after a moment she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Valerie?" Jazz, of course. She was worried about her, she could tell, but Valerie felt sick. Why did it have to be him? Why Phantom and not some other ghost? "We don't know that Phantom's been possessing Danny this entire time, right? Desiree said she would make it happen no matter what."
"We do, though," she said. "Phantom has an uncanny ability to disappear from trackers and reappear almost like magic. I thought he might've figured out a way to make portals to the ghost zone, but no one's ever seen him do it and it's an incredibly rare talent amongst ghosts. I just . . . I don't understand, I thought . . . he . . ."
"You thought what?"
She thought she was starting to trust him. But of course that was the point, wasn't it? She spent all this time wondering what his plan was, what scheme he was getting up to, and this was it. He convinced her to give him a chance, to make a permanent truce, so he could do . . . what?
"He's been trying to get me to trust him for a long time, and he clearly used your brother as part of that plan," said Valerie as she wiped away a few tears. She didn't even know when she started crying. "You want to know what I want? I want to destroy that creep for making me think I could trust him. But I don't want to hurt the real Danny if there's still any chance to save him.""So you'll help us with the summoning?" asked Sam, and Valerie nodded, knowing that if it failed, she was probably the only one that would be willing to take down Phantom even if it meant Danny wouldn't survive.
A/N: Thanks, as always, for the reviews/follows/etc!
