Author's Note 1: Sorry this chapter is so late. A lot of things happened in the past month. I was hoping to finish this chapter before the end of July! Look how that turned out.
This cryptid turned author also managed to have a third surgery in the span of a year and a second surgery in 2024, so that's been great. I love spending a week in the hospital. Could I have used that time in the hospital to write? Not so my freinds because I had surgery on my hand! Will the excitment never stop?
Danny smiled as Kitty approached the altar set up at one end of the bar, her eyes sparkled as she looked at Johnny. Dora floated behind Johnny as she waited for Kitty to finish the procession toward them. Danny floated between El and Ember watching as Kitty finally stepped up next to Johnny and the two of them smiled at each other. It was finally happening wasn't it? They were finally going to be married.
They'd been trying to tie the knot since they were alive, long before Danny had become a ghost, in fact, at least a decade before he'd been born. He was happy that this was finally going to happen for them. He wondered if they would go to the next place, to the elsewhereness after they married. Was that what was tethering them to existence? He wasn't sure, but whatever happened next he hoped that they would be happy.
Dora began a speech about love, life, and death and Danny shifted a little restlessly in the air. Luckily the speech wasn't too long, even if Danny zoned out during most of it, soon rings were exchanged, kisses were had, and the bouquet of flowers was thrown. Box Ghost caught it, surprising everyone with his tenacity as he presented the bouquet to Pat. Danny laughed before Johnny took Kitty's hand and yelled to the assembled ghosts.
"Let's get this party truly started!" Johnny shouted, cheers rose up and music began to blare over the speakers. Danny laughed and nudged El as they made their way to the dance floor.
Drinks flowed like water, loud music pumped through the ghost bar, and there were no less than 3 fights, though after his fourth drink things got a bit fuzzy.
Danny woke the next evening on the roof of the bar with a pounding headache, he wasn't even aware he could pass out in his ghost form and not turn human. He glared at the sky, which was still too bright for him at this time of evening. He closed his eyes again, debated getting up and going home, before deciding that staying still was the safe option. At least until his head stopped spinning.
"You look like shit baby king." Ember's voice sounded to his right, it was gravely and Danny cracked an eye open to look at her.
"You too Emb." Danny glared. "Less than me though." He grumbled as he closed his eyes again.
"To be fair, you drank more than me." Ember laughed.
"Ugh… don't remind me." He mumbled. "Though I did beat Skulker… guess I should have expected he was a light-weight given how small he is under the armor." Ember laughed at him and Danny groaned at the sound.
"You did indeed do that." She said and he felt her lay down near him. "Not sure it's much of a victory though." She teased him and glanced over.
Danny sighed and took a deep breath and focused on not changing back into a human, he wasn't sure he'd survive if he turned back into a human now.
"Danny." Ember said as she ran a hand through his hair. Danny frowned and opened his eyes a crack to look at her.
"What are you doing?" he mumbled.
"Thinking." she said as she looked him over. "Do you think you'll continue to age or just… stop at some point?"
"That… that's too existential a question to deal with when I have a hangover… but the answer is I don't know." He mumbled and closed his eyes again. "You guys could age in a way if you'd wanted, just look more mature, but it's all about self perception I guess… I guess if I think I'll stop maybe I'll stop, but who knows… my human half and my ghost half are so intrinsically connected whos to say my ghost half won't stop me from aging once I get to a certain point, nor to say that my human would affect my ghost half and make me age until past the point I should die… maybe one day I'll basically be a ghost possessing my own walking bones." Danny frowned at the image.
"It's just… you're what… 20 something? I'm only 19… you're older than me now… well… physically." She said as she continued to run her hands through his hair and massage his scalp. "It's just… it's weird that the kid I used to beat up is older than me now."
"I gave as good as I got, if you recall I won most of those fights." Danny pouted as he glared at her.
"I won a few too… at least until you got too freakishly strong to keep up with." Ember teased him.
"Lies." He stuck out his tongue.
"I could still kick your ass now that you're so hungover." Ember said, her nails scratching soothing circles in his scalp.
"You want to defy your king that badly." Danny laughed. "Good luck with that. I may not care but the Observants are shit heads when it comes to following royal etiquette. I think it's because they've been without a king for so long, they want to get their spidery little hands all over everything and make it significant. The royal meals, the royal anniversaries, the royal shit." Danny made a face and stuck out his tongue. "I think half of the things they are so anal about are just fucking made up."
Ember laughed and smiled down at him. "Seems like you're feeling a bit better if you're talking so much there."
"Slowly getting there." He admitted with a sigh. "What time is it?" He wondered as he groaned and slowly sat up.
"It's like 5 or something." Ember shrugged.
"Shit." Danny pushed himself to his feet, then grumbled and floated above the roof for a second. "I've got to meet Sam and Tucker for Movie Night. I didn't think I'd be out of commission all day. I still need to get home and shower."
"Well… life goes on… your life anyway." She laughed with a shrug. "See you around, Dipstick."
"See you around Emb." He laughed before flying toward Fenton Works to get cleaned up.
It took longer than expected to wash up and change back into his human form, he ended up needing to take a shot of ecto-dejecto in order to boost himself after changing back. His head spun as he wobbled in his room and reached into his emergency supply. It would help with the ghostly hangover, and hopefully keep him sharp enough to actually pay attention to the movie. It wasn't like there would be much in the way of ghostly activity at least, not with most of his regular antagonists still nursing their own hangovers.
Danny dressed and met his friends at the theater, ready to have a nice normal night as Danny Fenton and forget any worries he had about being Danny Phantom, Heir Apparent to the Ghost King, and while he'd accepted the Crown of Fire, he still could not accept the ring of rage until his dying day, or until his 100th birthday, whichever came first. There was clearly some debate on if he was pseudo immortal or not, or how long he would age for, Vlad seemed to stop aging around 40 years old after all.
Danny shook his thoughts free as they headed into the theater, now wasn't the time to dwell on such things, now was the time for the thirteenth Dead Teacher movie.
Danny woke up with a gasp, his heart pounding as he felt as if doom were on the horizon, whatever was approaching in his dreams he could sense it was nothing good. He pulled his knees to his chest and buried his face in them, hugging around his ankles as he focused on slowing down his breathing and stopping his heart from trying to jump from his chest.
"Danny?" His mom's voice came from the hall, followed by a soft knock and the sound of his door opening. Danny sobbed into his knees and then slowly looked up at her, the hall light streaming into the room and illuminating a stripe across his bed and his pale, wet face.
Maddie moved quickly, she was at his side in moments, cupping his face as worry rolled off her in waves. It tasted a bit sour and a bit sweet all at once and Danny let go of his pride as a young man and threw his arms around her.
"They're coming back… the memories… from just before I died… they were just bittersweet at first… friends and allies I miss… nothing bad happened in the last one… but I could… It's getting close… the memory when I die… when I let everyone down… I can feel it like a hand clentched around my heart… it's coming. I'm scared mom. I don't want to die. I didn't ever want to die. I never wanted to hurt anyone… I wanted to protect them all. It's my fault the portal opened after all. All my fault. All the ghost attacks my fault. The Nasty Burger… The fact He got out… it's all my fault." Danny rambled as he buried his face into her shoulder. She held him close rubbing his back and gently rocking side to side with him as he cried and rambled.
"It's coming… He's coming… he'll always be there haunting me." Danny shivered and fought the urge to hold tighter to his mom. He didn't want to hurt her, she was only human after all. Human an so fragile, so very, very, fragile.
Flashes of fire, cackling laughter, a hand in his chest… they all swirled through his head as he closed his eyes and tried to shut it all out, but it was no use. He began to hyperventilate. He knew his mom was talking to him, knew she was saying something or asking something maybe even calling for someone, but he couldn't hear her anymore. His ears were ringing and between the ringing of his ears he heard a scream, felt his own heart beating out of his chest. He shivered and shuddered, changing into Phantom in a second as if that would protect him but the visions grew more insistent, screaming in his brain intensifying before he passed out once more.
Danny coughed, a glob of ectoplasm coming up his throat as he coughed, the last hit had done quite a bit of damage to him. He winced as he floated out of the pile of rubble and looked up. He was barely holding on. He thought after having his powers for seven almost eight years he would have managed to grow enough to overcome this particular enemy but apparently he hadn't.
"Why was this easier when I was fourteen?" he groaned and held his side looking at the damage around him. His brow furrowed with anger as he turned his focus back to his foe who was floating slowly towards him with an evil grin on his face.
"Danny, Danny, Danny… still childishly holding on to your humanity I see. It's made you weak… but not for long. As I've said before; I am inevitable." He smirked before creating clones of himself. Danny glared at his evil doppelganger and copied the move, the two sets of clones immediately starting to battle. The original pair fought, exchanging ecto-blasts for a while before Danny closed the distance, managing a good kick to the chest and knocking his future self back, maybe he'd get out of this yet, just maybe.
The last thing he had expected to ruin his evening with Sam and Tucker was this. Box Ghost, yes, even Walker seemed more likely, but not this, not his evil self, Dan as they had taken to calling him over the years as a way to distinguish him from Danny, not that they talked much about his evil self in the first place. His ghost sense had alerted him to a powerful foe, but the last thing he expected upon going to meet the threat was to be knocked halfway across town with his own ghostly wail.
Yet it had happened, Dan had been quick and ruthless, it had taken less than an hour for him to decimate half the town. Even with the rapid emergency response and ghost proof bunkers, the town had suffered mass casualties among the destruction. Each death weighed on Danny's soul, but drove him to try and end this as quickly as possible. As quickly as possible was not going quick enough.
While Dan was discombobulated Danny punched him in the jaw causing Dan to stumble. Dan hissed in anger before catching Danny's next punch and countering with a punch to the gut. Danny doubled over in pain, coughing up more ectoplasm as he flew across the ground and into the side of a car, there was wailing nearby, not of the ghostly variety, but of the scared human child sort. Danny gritted his teeth against the pain and pushed himself up, flying toward Dan only to be caught by the throat, at least it took Dan two hands now instead of one.
"You may have defeated me with the help of Clockwork last time, but this time you won't be so lucky." Dan snarled before throwing him toward another one of Danny's clones. Danny collided with the clone, causing the two to merge back together and tumble across the pavement before coming to yet another painful stop.
Danny coughed and pushed himself up, but wasn't able to get to his feet before Dan grabbed him and smirked.
"You may have aged while I've been locked in the Fenton thermos, but I still have three years of experience on you, seven years to plan my revenge, I know secrets you couldn't imagine, and just like you I hold claim to the throne." Dan sneered. He pulled Danny up to his face, smirking and then tossing him over his shoulder and into a tree this time. Danny did his best to recover, scrambling back into the air and throwing up a shield just in time to block the incoming ecto-ray from dan.
"Not to mention, unlike you…" Dan smirked as he glanced over as a small army of clones brought in hostages, "I have no qualms about ending human life… particularly any life you cherish." Dan cackled, using the moment Danny was distracted by the hostages to put him in a rear naked choke.
Danny's eyes narrowed as he saw his family and friends and even Dash Baxter among the hostages.
"Dash!?" he balked. "I thought he was in Florida for college." he said to himself before frowning in confusion instead. "Why… why did you think Dash was an appropriate hostage?" Danny asked, his attempting to throw Dan off with the question.
"He was nearby and a human… well... soon-to-be corpse actually." Dan chuckled before snapping his fingers, the clones moved to attack the hostage. Danny growled and focused in effort on freeing himself. He kicked Dan away from him before flying toward the hostages. He had to stop the clones first, free the hostages, and then get back to fighting off Dan.
He was so close, just a few feet more… and then a sharp pain shot through his chest, causing his core to flutter.
"Wha-what?" he gasped as he looked down. There was a hole in his chest. A giant hole, oozing ectoplasm from the edges slowly, trickling down the arm of some invisible thing. He coughed up more ectoplasm as he gripped around the invisible arm, his core shining in his chest, slowly being pulled free.
"No… no…." Danny whimpered.
Like a mirage, Dan faded into view, his hand stuck in Danny's chest, a smug grin on his face as he studied his younger self.
"So predictable hero. It's why heroes are so easy to defeat." He laughed, his red eyes aflame with venom. His hand tightened around Danny's core.
"Checkmate." He laughed before leaning in to look closer at Danny. "I exist outside of time, I exist outside of this reality, I need something to tether me to the here and now… and I think you are the perfect choice." He purred into Danny's ear as Danny choked on his own ectoplasm, shuddering as he lost his transformation, changing back to human form and coughing up blood as his eyes started to drift shut.
"No… not… not like this…" Danny murmured through bloody lips.
"Yes... like this." Dan snarled as he pulled Danny's heart and core from his chest in one swift motion.
Danny coughed up more blood, his brain starving of oxygen as the world blurred into darkness, the last thing he could remember was the sound of Dan's laughter and the sight of his heart headed toward his other self's lips.
Author's Note 2: Hope you have enjoyed this chapter. Sorry it took so long to get out and it's not as long as the others.
Who saw that reveal coming? Be honest, who was expecting Dark Danny?
Enjoy and be well my friends.