Chapter Twenty-Eight
CW: Death, Depression, References to suicide and child neglect
Locating Pariah Dark was the easy part.
The ecto-skeleton provided him with an easy burst of speed and strength. He tried not to push it, not yet, knowing how fast his power could deplete if he wasn't careful from having watched his Dad use the suit once long ago, but he still made it to the football field twice as fast as usual, and as he landed it only took him a minute before he spotted the Fright Knight, standing over his sword.
"I have the ring," he said, holding it up from within the ecto-skeleton so the Fright Knight could see it through the dome. "Where's Pariah Dark?"
"Does Amity Park surrender to His Majesty's Dark's rule?" asked the knight coolly.
"I can't speak for the town," said Danny. "I just want him to leave us and the Ghost Zone in peace."
"Liminal child." The voice seemed to echo through his bones, and Danny blinked as a massive ghost appeared beside the Fright Knight. Dressed in black armor with a black and red cape, the ghost had long green hair and massive horns, one of which appeared to be broken. A crown of fire hovered over his head as he drew a massive green sword and planted the tip gently in the field. "You dare presume to make demands of me?"
"Why not?" said Danny, desperately trying not to get spooked by the fact that apparently this ghost knew what he was despite Danny never meeting him before. Again. Ancient ghosts were the absolute worst. "You're the King of Ghosts and you're harassing and harming humans, which feels a bit like you're overstepping, if you ask me."
"The Earth and the Infinite Realms both require the guidance of a strong hand," he said. "Only I can wield the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire and set them on their noble path."
"Oh, you mean like you did before until the ghosts got pissed off and shoved you in a sarcophagus for a thousand years or whatever?" grumbled Danny. "Nobody likes it and nobody wants you here, whether human or ghost. So either you can go back to the Ghost Zone and let us live in peace, or I'll stop you."
Pariah Dark laughed. "You are quite brave, liminal child, for one whose heart is so weak." Danny froze, wondering if somehow Pariah Dark knew about his injury or if he merely meant it in the metaphorical sense. "But though you possess great power, you lack the strength to defeat me."
"Even if I use this?" He wiggled the ring between his fingers.
"You do not have the will to make the Ring submit," said Pariah.
"I think I might, actually. Haven't you ever heard how stubborn teenagers are?" he said. It wasn't the same thing and he knew it, but it didn't matter. He wasn't exactly in a rush to die and probably destabilize, if his Dad was right, though he couldn't see a way out of this mess. He didn't want to win the fight but lose himself by consuming dreams again or putting on the ring. He had no idea what it could do to him, but he doubted an artifact called 'The Ring of Rage' could lead to anything good.
"Are you formally challenging His Majesty Pariah Dark in accordance with the rules set by the Ancients?" said the Fright Knight suddenly, and he saw the old ghost glare at him, although Danny had no clue why. He didn't know what the Fright Knight meant, but he could tell Pariah Dark didn't like it, and that was enough.
"I am."
"Very well, then," said Fright Knight, and a pulse went out from the sword, casting another green dome around the two of them and the football field and isolating him from everyone. Great. Hopefully this meant they couldn't get hurt, at the very least, since Danny suspected this was going to be an ugly fight. "No one may interfere. Now begin!"
Danny blinked, and then suddenly Pariah Dark was on him, pulling his sword from the ground and swinging it hard, and Danny barely managed to get a shield up in time to block it. He didn't think he put a lot of power behind it, but as he glanced at the screen he saw it dip by nearly 8% instantly. Between that and his trip over, he was already down to 89%.
"Crud," he mumbled, and as Pariah drew a second sword he jumped back, dodging the swings while charging an ectoblast. He fired it at the Ghost King, who grinned as he crossed his swords in front of him and retargeted the blast, sending it spiraling outside of the field of combat and past the shield, making Danny swear under his breath. Danny had hoped the odd shield erected by the Fright Knight would stop their attacks from leaving the arena, but clearly that wasn't the case. "Isn't that against the rules?!"
"Hardly, child," he said, and Danny gritted his teeth as Pariah swung his sword again, blocking it with the arm of his suit. "You are unskilled. Raw potential with no focus."
"Yeah, well, in my defense I've spent most of my time fighting with a handicap," said Danny as he watched the power in the ecto-skeleton dip below 65%. Aside from the moment he broke his Hazmat suit with Nocturn, Danny felt stronger than he ever had before, but it still wasn't enough, and the power in the suit was draining rapidly. He was almost halfway down and he hadn't so much as landed a single hit on Pariah Dark, and while that was true of the Ghost King, too, his power didn't seem to have the same limits.
He swallowed as he glanced at the ring in his palm, as he felt the tiniest urge to pull on the dreams of those slumbering in Amity Park, but he couldn't, and he barely looked back up in time to teleport to avoid Pariah's ectoblast that he fired from one of his swords. His insides twisted and pulled until he blinked back into existence to Pariah's left, and he shot an ectoblast at him as he tried to ignore the horror at the massive trench now carved into the field from Pariah's strike.
At least this blow finally connected.
He watched as Pariah stumbled to the side, caught off guard. No doubt the king expected him to appear behind him, but Danny knew it was an old, overly predictable strategy. "Ha!" he shouted, but his triumph was short-lived as he saw the indicator on the control panel blinking at 48% while Pariah Dark staggered to his feet.
He shot off another blast, but Pariah avoided it easily as he swung his sword, and as Danny dodged it he felt the other blade catch the ectoskeleton in the back of the leg. He screamed as the suit toppled, and then barely managed to roll as the other sword came back down. He didn't quite make it, the glass shield around his head shattering, and he teleported to the sky, trying to catch his breath as he avoided the falling glass.
15%.
At that moment, Danny knew the battle was over. At his full strength, he stood a chance, but he wasn't recovered enough for this fight, not really. But he couldn't let Pariah Dark win, and as he tried to get his bearings he barely dodged another massive ectoblast that seemed to cleave the sky in two.
14%.
"You are powerful, but power such as this is a burden, and it is time you laid yours to rest," said Pariah Dark as he suddenly appeared in front of him, and Danny scrambled, throwing up a shield to block the sword that came at his gut. "It is unfortunate, child. With training and guidance, you could have been a brilliant fighter, perhaps even a king."
The words were a dagger in his chest, the scar from the injury that almost killed him aching powerfully as it reminded him of Vlad's final words to him before the man tried to murder him. "Shut up!" he snapped, a red 8% blinking as the suit issued a warning, and a blast exploded out from him, draining the power to 2% as Pariah Dark went flying across the field and slammed into the barrier setup by Fright Knight. Below 5%. His Dad stated that was the limit, that his odds of survival were slim to none at this point. But the fight wasn't over. He had to do something, and he swallowed, considering his limited options. He needed more power. More energy. But there were only two ways to get it, and he didn't know which was worse. Danny didn't want to become the monster his parents feared, but if he put that ring on or let himself eat dreams again, then that's exactly what he would be.
"Don't you get it?" Danny shouted as Pariah smashed heavily into the ground and then staggered to his feet "I don't want to be a brilliant fighter. I don't want to be a powerful ghost. I don't want to be a King! All I want is for all of you to leave me and the people I care about in peace!"
And then Pariah vanished, teleporting away before reappearing a mere two feet in front of him, barely a dent to be seen in his armor. "We don't always get a choice, child."
Danny could not survive another blow, not at this rate, but he desperately didn't want to die, didn't want to be struck down this way. The voice from the ring that whispered to him, gently encouraging and seductive. This wasn't fair. It wasn't right that he should die or be forced to sacrifice his family and friends. And while Danny didn't become a monster, he would rather be one than let them die, then give up and be killed again. With a sharp inhale, he opened his palm and slipped the ring on, not sure he had time to gather enough energy from dreams instead.
And then time stopped as the ring shrank to perfectly fit his finger.
The battlefield disappeared as he blinked, and instead of Amity Park he found himself in a spot uncannily like Nocturn's lair within the ghost zone. The sky was endlessly black but full of brilliantly glowing stars and planets and moons, and although he could feel something solid beneath his feet, there was no real earth to speak of when he looked down, the surface beneath his feet more like glass or ice as it reflected the night sky above.
"Do you accept the terms?" Turning around, Danny saw himself, or at least something that looked an awful lot like his regular, human self.
"What?"
"The ring is a burden and most cannot bear it," his doppelganger said. "Do you accept the terms?"
"That depends on what they are."
His clone smiled. "We are a symbol. We provide you with power, with focus, with brilliance, in return for your service to the Infinite Realms." Danny shivered as the strange echo of Pariah Dark's own words. This . . . it was the ring, wasn't it? It certainly wasn't Danny. "We mold you as you mold us. We create and shatter the stars, liminal child."
"I don't understand."
"We cannot grant you what you desire unless you accept the terms," it said. "Do you accept?"
"Am I going to die?"
"All things end. Life, death, dreams. Kings." Great. A non-answer if he ever heard one. But he was prepared for that reality. Dying here, in this moment, as he tried to save his family. His friends.
"Can I save them, if I accept?"
"Potentially. I will make no promises about your future, only that agreeing will create a path towards the possibility you desire."
"A dream, then," he laughed even as he wanted to cry. Of course. "I don't really have much of a choice, do I?"
"There is always a choice," it disagreed. "No matter what tyrants may claim."
It still didn't feel like one, even if it was technically true in this case, but he still hesitated. "Pariah Dark said I wasn't strong enough to control you."
"Pariah Dark, like so many others, fails to realize that not everything requires force. Most of those that seek to possess me fear me and what I represent," it said. "They believe that there is no other option than dominance, and so frequently fail to find harmony and ultimately destroy themselves in the process. Mutual respect and understanding can be sufficient, as you have learned repeatedly."
"Right." It sounded like nonsense, to him, even if there was a little truth to it.
"Does refusing to give your rage a voice make it cease to be?"
"Well, no, but–"
"-then why not give it one?" It said simply. "Rage can be a powerful tool. It can motivate, help to push back against injustice, and provide you with focus. You do not always need to act on it. But you should not suppress it. You are not wrong to rage at a world that sees you and other ghosts as monsters, that would put a child into a battle suit to face a tyrant even knowing it would destroy him. You are not wrong to feel anger at your parents and friends and family. You are not wrong to feel anger at Pariah Dark and Vladimir Masters."
"But I don't want to hurt them," said Danny softly. "Well, not most of them." Maybe not any of them. He hadn't really thought about what he wanted to do about Vlad or Pariah Dark beyond stopping them from hurting anyone else.
"So you would endlessly hurt yourself instead?" Danny flinched. "We can see everything that you are, that you were, and that you could be. We can see how much you have harmed yourself. You are full of anger at a world that has constantly hurt you, that broke you and nearly unmade you, and you have rarely communicated that pain. Your family is strong enough to hear it. Your friends are, too. They have proven it more than once, and you will not keep them safe or protect them by continuing to hurt yourself by lying to them and letting the rage and pain fester within yourself. And you do not need to continually extend grace and sympathy to those that continue to do you harm."
The Ring of Rage paused, looking upwards. "We cannot continue this forever. You must make a choice. Do you agree to the terms?"
He stared at the stars around him, wishing he could have more time, but knowing he had none, he dearly hoped he would not regret this. But as Danny opened his mouth to accept, he paused, a question lingering there. "Do you want me to?"
The ring blinked at him, and then smiled. "How odd to ask such a thing. But you would not be here now, hearing my voice, if I did not want you to accept."
Danny held out his hand in offering. "Okay, then. I accept."
"Then scream, liminal, and give voice to your rage."
Danny's eyes snapped open, the stars and darkness gone, as he felt the power from the ring flood into him. The power from the suit had been impossible, an incredible boon, but it was not enough. But this? He felt the pure, intense anger flood through him, making his core nearly shatter as he thought about everything he pushed down to the darkest parts of himself for almost two years.
And he screamed.
It cascaded out of him, little more than a wail at first, and then Pariah Dark was pushed back from him and little by little his armor and swords began to break. The scream built, stronger and stronger, and the force field around them cracked as he continued to release it, the ring fueling his rage.
He thought of stumbling into that portal and the nightmarish pain he felt as he was electrocuted, disassembled, and reassembled into a creature his parents and sister and friends saw as a monster.
He remembered the constant frustration as he failed to turn in assignments as he fled from class, running towards danger and trying to save everyone from yet another ghost attack, and as he came back to endless piles of detention slips, none of his teachers ever doing more than writing him off as a troubled teenager.
He thought of missing movies and dates and stargazing and playing video games with his friends.
He remembered the frustration and anger as those same friends scolded him, lectured him for being careless and a bad friend, even as he saved their lives over and over again and refused to burden them with the weight of his secrets.
He thought of Dash and Kwan and the other A-listers, mocking him relentlessly and calling him a freak, shoving him into lockers and nearly drowning him in a toilet, and oh how much he wished he could make them feel the pain they caused him, Dash's injuries he inflicted barely a dent by comparison.
He remembered the disappointment in his sister's eyes, the lack of understanding and compassion, the endless question of why he struggled when everything just came so much easier to her and always had.
He thought of his parents, whose first instinct in the hospital after he awoke from his coma was to lecture him about lab safety, who only grudgingly accepted the blame for their carelessness, who caused two liminals to be created through their experiments. Who hunted him and joked so easily about how much they couldn't wait to dissect him and tear him apart, molecule by molecule, for months before they were even willing to consider that the ghosts weren't quite what they believed, that dissecting them might be immoral and wrong.
He thought of Vlad, who tried to kill his father and marry his mother, who thought Danny too much of a dullard to be worth his time until he learned his secret, and who almost did succeed in killing him.
He remembered the ghosts. The endless fights, the pure hatred they had for Phantom, and how they endlessly pursued and tormented him. Yet they were the ones that were also so stubborn and afraid that they refused to save even themselves or their world without him there to prod them.
He pictured his parents and friends, his ex, all gently encouraging him to sacrifice himself yet again so they wouldn't have to die as they believed his lies that should have been obvious, that they should have so easily seen through, to let him destroy himself and his body and maybe even what little hope he had for an afterlife for their sake.
And he poured all of it into the scream, every ounce of anger and frustration and rage and bitterness and disappointment and sadness that he had shoved down for so long, and it continued to build until it shattered the force field around them first and then the dome in the sky, until Pariah's armor fell about him in shards and Danny could sense Pariah Dark's core breaking and cracking and–
He stopped, staring at the body of the Ghost King as it crashed to the ground, his core ruptured by Danny's scream, and unthinkingly he followed it, feeling hollow and raw as he stumbled over and gently picked up the crown.
And the world disappeared again, absorbed by the void and the stars in his mind, but this time his doppelganger appeared in a Hazmat suit. As Phantom as he once appeared, but no longer was.
"Do I have to make some kind of agreement with you, too?" he sighed.
"No. You don't get a choice with this one, I'm afraid," he said, static crackling as he spoke. "Well, unless you'd rather die, but you've fought so hard to live now that I can't imagine you would."
"So what, then? Just wanted to chat so I could feel bad?"
"I didn't want to make you feel bad. But I did want to say hello." Danny stared at him. The Crown of Fire just wanted to say hello. Right. Of course. As if that were the most natural thing in the world.
"Seriously?"
"And to tell you that if you want to live, to be human and ghost, then you should change back. Your core and your heart are still healing. The power from both of us will be too much for you to handle now and will burn away what traces of humanity remain within you if we are not restrained."
"Shouldn't being human make that worse?" asked Danny.
"We've bonded with liminals before. Your ability to draw on our power will be greatly reduced while you are human. It will allow the transition to happen slowly, give your body the time it needs to finish recovering and adjust to the change," it said.
He had a dozen questions he wanted to ask, that he wanted to know, but he suspected there wasn't any time, not really, so he forced himself to ask the one that seemed to be the most important just then. "Am I–does this whole thing mean I'm–um–"
"-king?" finished the Crown. "Yeah, sorry. You don't have to do much, if you don't want to, but you defeated the previous ruler in direct combat, shattering his core and taking his vestments. Most of your role is to help maintain balance in the Infinite Realms. To ignite potential and change. Something you ought to be well-suited to as a liminal."
Danny sighed. "Great. More responsibility. That's not really what I wanted.""Maybe not, but you seem to find it regardless." It gazed outward, then. "You need to go. And remember, if you wish to retain your humanity, then you need to change back before my fires and the rage consume your human heart for good."
A/N: Thanks for the reviews, faves, follows, etc! No promises on when I'll publish the next chapter, but hopefully it'll be soon. We're just about at the end here.