Author's Note: This chapter is a little shorter, kinda explaining why Danny is there. It may be a while before I post another chapter. I'll be focused on Time and Time Again for the next few months. Once I finished the first part of TTA I'll be going into a semi hiatus and may decide to post a few chapters of this fic and some others during that time.
Hope you enjoy!
Danny had never had a normal childhood, ghost hunting parents aside, he'd been adopted after somehow being evicted from his parent's ghost portal at the age of seven. How he'd come to be in the ghost zone or how he'd escaped and found his way through the portal in his parent's basement was lost to his memory. Many things were lost in his mine, such as the first seven years of his life. He wasn't sure who he'd been, where he'd come from, or even what he'd been doing in the Ghost Zone. He only remembered two things… one his name was Danny, and two, his birthday, at least the date, but not the year. A general idea of the year was discovered once his parents had taken x-rays, estimating from the growth plates of his bones that he was about seven years old after all. Seven years that he simply couldn't remember.
His parents found him wearing strange clothing after he was ejected from the portal, one of many failed attempts to start it. The clothes he'd been wearing were strange and old, timeless in some respects. It was hypothesized quickly that he may have been transported to them from another time. Maddie had theories that old stories of Fae and aliens kidnapping people. That the time skips people experienced and other such legends may be somewhat attributed to ghosts. That theory was applied to Danny's strange appearance from the portal, attributed to his ecto-contamination, and explained away his strange fashion choices. Though Danny himself wasn't sure he'd chosen what he'd worn. After all, they'd found a lot of weapons on him as well as various poisons.
Danny admitted that he was something of a feral child at first, this was attributed to his stay in the Ghost Zone and needing to fight to survive. The Fentons took this in stride, he doubted any other foster family would have accepted him as he was. No other family would have been so patient with him in teaching him how to be a "real" person, or dodging the various knives he'd thrown at them when he felt threatened. Looking back, it was quite embarrassing how feral he was in the beginning.
He had adapted quickly enough, able to fall into patterns, mimic behavior and become someone new in order to best blend in now that he was Danny Fenton. He began to leave behind the person he'd been before he'd come through the portal, though he still held habits from his time before. Scanning room to ensure there was an easy route of escape, checking for threats, making sure his back was never to the door in case a threat came though were habits that never died. Some of his other habits died slow deaths, he stopped checking his room for interference when he was ten, stopped hiding knives on his person when he was twelve, and by fourteen he was all but a "normal" kid, albeit a "normal" kid with ghost hunting parents.
Until suddenly he wasn't anymore.
"Normal" that is.
The portal accident took much from him. Burning through his body and replacing him with something new, something different, something dead. Like an invader seeping into him, rewriting his DNA and rearranging his very being. Perhaps due to what happened before he came to the Fentons, it was almost as if his body was primed and ready to accept such a change, the burning of ectoplasm and electricity tearing through him almost felt familiar. The sound of his heart being silenced was almost nostalgic.
He remembered screaming until he felt like his lungs would burst. Electricity continued to tear through him, keeping him tensed and upright, though he wished only to fall to the ground into the sweet release of death. His body was unmade and then remade in the span of seconds, over and over again. He died and he lived and he lived as he died, a perfect paradox, the ultimate contradiction, a singularity unto himself.
Danny burned brighter than the stars he so loved, burned right to his core and lit it with the cold of death itself, and still he burned.
And still he screamed.
Oh Gods how he screamed.
The screams haunted his friends Sam and Tucker, even a year later.
The screams of his death eventually becoming his most powerful weapon, his ghostly wail.
Danny collapsed to the ground in the portal, barely conscious, his mind a blur, surrounded by green energy and fog, somehow so familiar and so foreign in equal measure.
He rose from the ashes of his body as a ghost, cold and powerful stumbling slowly to his feet and staring down at his hands. The wavered and flickered as if they weren't real, his gloves vanishing then his skin and muscle, leaving bone before vanishing entirely. He whimpered and slumped against the side of the portal, the energy vortex of the portal no longer burning through him, instead powering him, with a renewed sense of purpose, though he didn't know it at the time.
He had to protect the humans from the ghosts he'd unleashed, and protect the ghosts from the humans that would take them apart.
His parents wouldn't understand, wouldn't realize that ghosts were sentient nor how they truly worked. Perhaps on a scientific level they did understand, understood them better than even Danny himself… but on the metaphysical level? On a spiritual level? The Fentons could never really know what ghosts were like, who they were, or how they worked. Though, it could be said they became more open minded with time.
It was yet another thing to keep from his parents. Danny kept many secrets after all, even more after the accident. He kept his ghost half a secret from his family and the town. He kept his status as alive a secret from the ghosts. As much as he hated that the ghost attacks interrupted his normal life, the feral 7 year old that came out of the portal rejoiced at the chance to fight, to hone his skills, to win. He kept that part a secret from his friends.
He felt he was finally getting his feet underneath him as a hero. He wasn't just Danny Fenton anymore, he felt he was something bigger, not just bigger, but better. As Phantom he could do so much, he had so much power at his disposal, he finally thought he could handle everything life threw at him.
Until he couldn't.
The future was terrifying.
His future was terrifying.
The burnt out shell of the world, countless dead, a sun blotted out by destruction… all because of him.
Seeing his future and the evil he had succumbed to was nearly too much to bear. He'd had nightmares for months afterward. Each time he woke and reassured himself that he wouldn't succumb to evil, no matter the source. He vowed to protect it all until his final end. It didn't stop the nightmares though.
With time the nightmares slowed.
They passed.
As do all things.
Danny regained his confidence. He fought the ghosts, he saved the town, he even did mundane things such as retrieving cats from trees and helping the elderly cross the street. Sam thought it was because he was a good person, Tucker thought that it was because he liked the fame, neither of them knew the truth. Danny could only hope to outdo the evil his future self had wrought.
He could never do enough to make up for it.
So he fought the ghosts, he saved the town. He made alliances with the Fentons as Phantom, he even allied with Valerie, the Red Huntress.
He was a hero… At least he tried to be.
Then everything changed.
The GIW was getting bolder. Not just bolder, but better! Their gadgets improved, their machinations became more elaborate. He wouldn't have minded if they had done more to help… but they didn't. They only caused more destruction and more pain. They had caused too many accidents, too many injuries… and in time… they'd caused too many deaths. Even one death was too many, but there had been more than one. In their quest to capture a ghost, they made far too many restless spirits along the way.
Danny thought he could help, thought he could fix things, thought that despite everything that he'd be able to keep the balance… but then he'd been the one to be captured.
The walls were white… of course they were… but they didn't remain white for long.
Glowing green stains splattered the walls, dripped eerily down and pooling on the white tiles, seeping into the groves between each tile and illuminating the grout.
It took everything in him to remain a ghost, not to let them know that there was a human underneath… It didn't make a difference in the end. They would have taken him apart regardless. The GIW had no true care for human life, especially not someone who was only half human.
Day after day, night after night, he was examined, chunks of him torn off and dissected. He was opened up, his insides pulled out for display as they tried futility to find his core. And when he was close to ceasing to exist, they sewed him up, and propped him up, pumping him full of ectoplasm to heal. They couldn't stand to lose such an important resource, it would be a shame if the subject died before they could learn everything there was to learn from it.
Subject.
Danny was just a subject of an experiment. He hated it. It was like all his nightmares came to life but he couldn't wake up. He couldn't even hope to be rescued, because if he hoped, that meant putting others in danger over him.
He dreamed of escape, in whatever form it came, whether by scrapping enough power together to break free or by his death, he wasn't sure he cared which. It would be nice to pass on at long last wouldn't it, to gently rest his soul among the stars. He missed the stars, he hated the color white.
Danny wasn't sure how long they had him, wasn't sure when he'd escaped, days, weeks, months? It had felt like years. Someone had gotten the ectoplasm mixture wrong, and it gave him just enough of a boost to use his ghostly wail. His dying screams tore through the building and fled into the night. He flew fast and far before he'd collapsed bleeding into a safe house Sam had set up. They had set up two safe houses where Danny could rest and recover from his injuries when he couldn't go home. It also served as a meet up location in case something happened. He would have died again if Tucker hadn't been there to check the house and find him.
Tucker had quickly gotten in touch with Sam while he tended to Danny's wounds and pulled out the emergency Ecto-Dejecto. Sam had been close by and arrived quickly, stitching him up and bandaging him until all his insides were back where they were supposed to be. Together and with the help of a few ghostly allies they managed to save Danny… but that was only the beginning of their worries.
The GIW decided that the whole town was too ecto-contaminated to be allowed to leave. They'd locked it down, they had plans, and experiments… lots of experiments. Likely painful experiments. Tucker had long since discovered the media blackout that seemed to take place in Amity Park, they'd been cut off from the outside world, no news left, no one knew about the ghosts nor their troubles. The GIW were of course behind this, but keeping an entire town under quarantine was too much. Ecto-contamination was a poor excuse for the cruelty that was sure to come.
Danny hated it. He hated that anyone would be subject to such horrors. He had been fine if it was just going to be him, he could handle it, even if it had nearly killed him. But for them to target humans… that was unthinkable… unacceptable. They'd already done enough damage to the few ghosts they had gotten their hands on. It wasn't more acceptable that they had done such things to ghosts, but humans were infinitely more fragile. Danny couldn't tolerate it, he had to do something… but he couldn't do it alone. He couldn't even do it with the help of his friends or parents… he needed more…
The Justice League had never helped before… plus Danny didn't want to see what could happen should the heroes become possessed. He'd managed the town's problems fine in the past all by himself… but that was no longer the case. He could no longer protect anymore, and wasn't able to do anything against humans who proved more evil than ghosts. His core raged at the idea of not being able to help, as much as he wanted to punish the GIW he knew he wouldn't allow himself to slip into that darkness. He wouldn't kill anyone… so he needed to leave to get help.
He'd said goodbye to Sam, to Tucker, to his sister who had found out his secret, and to his parents who had raised him so well since he'd been tossed out of the portal and into their basement. He had almost told them he was Phantom, instead he had said a subtle goodbye, before slipping out of town. Perhaps if he was successful he'd tell them everything in the end.
It had been easy enough to get out of Amity, even with the border patrol and the GIW around every corner. They weren't in his house after all… they weren't at the portal.
He traveled through the portal, checking rift after rift to find a place where he could contact help, which is when he'd discovered Gotham.
Gotham was dark and gloomy, but surprisingly rich in ectoplasm. It wasn't the same as Amity Park, but it was steeped with death, and death meant ectoplasm. Not to mention Gotham was home to Batman, and while the other heroes were more likely to side with the law, Danny knew Batman made his own decisions. Batman played by his own set of rules, he would be the best person to contact in regards to getting help.
He'd spent days trying to track down the Bats, trying to figure out how to make his case, and then… he got lucky, perhaps it was a little birthday luck, no that he really had much time to celebrate.
Robin stared at him from a rooftop, Danny locked eyes with the whites of the domino mask obscuring the boy's face and he stared at him for a moment debating how best to attract the vigilante's attention before he faded back into the shadows, traveling away from the ground and too a rooftop in order to better face him. He needed just some time to present his case. If Robin saw him, he'd summon one of the others, hopefully Batman himself, and they could get help.
Danny sat on the edge of the roof looking over the city and steeling himself for the encounter as he heard Robin alight on the roof behind him, his voice low and wary as he spoke through some sort of com system.
"I'm uncertain, but I may have a magic user or something on my hands." Robin's voice was surprisingly familiar, it itched at the back of his brain, but he shoved the sensation away, he had other things to worry about.
"Not a magic user." Danny corrected as he sighed and looked down at his shoes, he glanced over at Robin. "I know Batman has that thing about meta's in his city… but I'm not really a meta either… I just… I need help." He said, his voice cracking with pain and emotion near the end. His city was in danger, his people left at the mercy of a shady government entity.
"Help?" Robin asked. Danny could tell he was ready for a fight and he couldn't help but feel upset. Things could never be easy could they? He sighed and looked back over the city, trembling slightly unsure how to best explain himself despite having gone over the event over and over in his mind.
"I… I just…" He ran his hand through his hair and sighed, words wouldn't come and he let the silence stretch before he finally turned to look at Robin as he felt a shift in his emotions. The vigilante had drawn a sword and his brow furrowed. Why was he attacking?
"Why…" Danny started to ask, before trailing off and looking back at the sword. "Of course." He sighed heavily, they would be suspicious of him, they may even consider him a threat, and even if they listened to him and helped the citizens of Amity Park, there would be no guarantee of safety or protection from him.
"Why are you here? Why choose that form?" Robin demanded, the sword pointed at him.
"Fuck… this was not how I wanted this to go. And on my birthday too." He grumbled. He thought he'd finally caught a lucky break in finding a vigilante, but now he had a sword pointed at him. It would be just his luck to ask for help, only to end up with a sword rammed through his chest. His hand gently touched the scars left over from his time at the GIW as he considered the boy in front of him.
"I don't want to fight! I came for help!" He tried to say as his hands raised in the universal sign of surrender. He was still ready to fight if it came to that, flee if necessary, there were other heroes to request help from, perhaps Flash, or even Green Arrow… maybe Captain Marvel would be helpful or one of the other magic users
"Then why are you wearing my dead twin's face?" Robin snarled at him. This question caught Danny off guard. Of all the questions he was expecting, that certainly wasn't one of them. It took him a moment to formulate a response.
"Twin?" He asked, confused. "I… this is just my face." He protested as he gestured to himself. "This isn't a magic disguise or trick, this is just me!" He scoffed at the boy, what use would he have in disguising himself as Robin's twin, he didn't even know Robin's civilian identity to make such a thing. He was offended that anyone would think he was someone other than himself. Thankfully Batman arrived, though it didn't relieve any tension, at least he could be sure that Robin wouldn't kill him with Batman around.
"Robin, stand down." Batman said. Danny looked him over. The Dark Knight was as intimidating a sight as he was a welcome one. Danny glanced back at Robin who seemed conflicted about the order.
"This has to be some manner of trickery." Robin protested, clearly the boy didn't trust Danny. Danny bit his lip as he waited to see if this encounter would turn into a fight.
"Stand down." Batman said firmly and Robin sheathed the katana. Danny relaxed slightly now that there was no longer a blade pointed at him. He didn't relax fully though, that would be a mistake especially when he had no idea how this meeting would go. He looked between the two heroes as he tried to figure out what to say.
"Hi… uh… My name is Danny… Danny Fenton and… I… we really need your help." He said, he nervously rubbed his hand over his neck while Batman scrutinized him. That look seemed like it could pierce through steel, he was surprised that Batman didn't have any powers when his eyes seemed like they could see his every secret, even when they were covered by the white out lenses of his cowl.
"What do you need help with?" Batman asked.
Danny hesitated, here it was, the time to get help. He took a deep breath and looked at Batman with determination.
Here goes everything, he thought before speaking.
"What do you know about ghosts?"