Danny dreamed of becoming a spatial mage ever since he was little.
Others may have called his dream futile and ridiculous, while pointing out his not so stellar grades at the school run by the church, but how would they know better? They did not have the right to know about how much he could and will achieve.
Other than his family and two of his best friends no one knew...
The thing is, he always had a knack for anything that had to do with space: astronomy, charts, spells. His mana affinity was the highest with one of the rarest elements, space. They tested it while he was little along with Jazz's, who, to no one's surprise, had a talent for mental magic.
Alright, his grades were not the best, he was also kinda bullied by one of those airhead, buff, warrior-to-bes, but he was happy. He had his dreams, his friends, his family, even if they weren't perfect.
So he was fine! Everything was fine!
Untill.. it wasn't.
Of course his peaceful days had to be ruined by what wrecked their family apart long since before that: his parents' crazy portal mocked abomination.
It all started with a jokingly made bet between Danny, Tucker and Sam. They dared him to enter the faulty portal his parents spent all their time on in the past 10 years - instead of spending time with their own children and letting them basically fend for themselves - that of course did not work when they tried to turn it on after investing blood and tears into the accursed thing.
It felt like being burnt alive.
His cell was destroyed and reorganized by the imploding mana coming out of the mana stones powering the machine as it turned on.
Of course the frigging 'On' switch had to be installed on the inside of the machine instead of the outside - like any sane person would - , but at this point, what did he expect from his nut job mechanic parents?
One missed step, a protruding cable, was all that needed for his stellar luck to turn for the worse.
Danny's screams echoed trough the basement, like a banshee from hell, or like someone going trough inhuman torture which, let's be frank, he was, so give him some slack. Sam and Tucker were scared out of their minds. Who would have thought an innocent little bet would end up in a deadly situation, but with the Fenton luck, they should have excepted it.
If Danny thought the pain was the worst during the incident he did not prepare for what to come after.
The realization that he could no longer wield mana, like he used to, hit him like an asteroid, pulverizing all that was left of his meager hope.
Danny wondered if death would be preferable over this. Now, demonic miasma cursing through his veins, instead of the warm embrace of mana, that he would be never able to feel again in this life.
The despair that came after that realization could not be described in words.
All the space seemed to close off on him, not even the joyous tears of his friends at his survival could bring him back to the present, when all that he ever dreamt to be now just a flying speck of dust, never again to be grasped..
With no goal, no purpose, what is there to live for? Just trudging through the days with a blank, empty mind.
Is it.. really worth it?
He found his new purpose in beating back the demons that slipped through the portal that Danny's parents oh, so graciously created for 'them'.
They waltzed through and wreaked havoc in their fief to their heart's content. Wenting all his bitter resentment on them, with his new found strength that the transformation brought to him, could only fill the void his scattered dreams left for so long..
With time, he came to find that he could take on a more..demonic look.
Sharp fangs, grayish earthy skin, glowing animalistic eyes, sharp black wings on his back meant to maul, razor sharp nails, and a majestic horn porturning out of the left side of his head. His hair turned snow white and moved with the miasma that always lingered around him like a cloud of poison that threatened anything that dared to approach his vicinity.
As Danny interacted with the demons he met - fought, mostly - he realized, they weren't the mindless beings of destruction that his parents' heated rants painted them out to all had their own purpose, dreams and beliefs, even, if some mildly inconvenient.
Danny sometimes even ended up hanging out with a few of the less chaotic ones. Just chilling and occasionally visiting the demon realm.
Getting sent into the past by the sadistic Demon God of Time was never a pleasant experience, but he learned with experience, it was better to go along with his whims. For the greater good, peace of the world and all bullshit but most of all, so he would finally let Danny go back to his own timeline.
Because, Danny was sure, if he did not do his so called 'mission' Clockwork, the absolute sadist, would sit back while smirking at him from behind the screen, watching Danny from the inside of his tower like some kind of stage play, and let him suffer there till he relented and did just as he was told.
If there was no point in resisting, Danny at least spared himself the time he would have spent sulking by getting it over with as fast as possible and begin done with it.
The good days were brief.
The church and his parents started hunting him down like he was some kind of mindless beast, completely disregarding his efforts to keep their town safe. Using blessings and magical weapons that burnt away at his miasma coated flesh, forcing him to abandon his fights against the troublemakers.
As even his house was turned into a death trap for any dark magician or demonic begin Danny could not find a moment of rest. The church and the demon hunters focusing all their energy on him instead of the demons -like he was the real threat - and wasn't that hilarious?
These days, Danny felt more at home in the demon realm than at his own supposed home. The meager consolations made by his friends and Jazz felt bleak beside all the pain and hurt he was forced to endure.
The burning of the holy attribute spells, the shots of the anti-demon guns aimed at him by his own parents, tore not only his body but also his heart to shreds.
The Danny-hunt continued on day-by-day making him realize many things. Like how his relationship with his parents was fastly becoming unmendable.
No matter how hard Jazz tried to convince him "It will be alright, you just have to confess to our parents, and they will understand! It was indirectly caused by them, after all." he could see in her eyes, she didn't really believe a single word coming out of her own mouth.
Danny stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago.
He was realistic. There was nothing to save in this relationship. His parents didn't even notice him slowly drifting away from them, like how would they? They did not really interact with their own son since he was six. They basically knew nothing about him.
And did that not hurt like hell?
These days...these awful days.
He wondered...
Wouldn't it be better to just get up, pack his luggage and leave for the demon realm?
At least.. that would be a place where he was welcomed.
And maybe..loved.