Halfas are usually able to control their obsessions. Their human brains keep their core, the ghostly brain, in check. But what if it didn’t?
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Danny walked in the front door after a day of school. He fully intended to go up to his room and take a nap. His plans were quickly changed when he was met with a pair of ectoguns shoved in his face. All words died in his throat as he looked into the eyes of vengeful ghost hunters, not his loving parents. Toxic words of hate were flung into the air, dying as they met Danny’s ears. It was only the whine of a charging ecto-gun that had him spurring into action.
On instinct, Danny turned tail and ran. His sneakers clapped against the pavement as he set off in a dead sprint down the street. His bookbag slammed against his back repeatedly as he made his way down the road. His heart pounded against his ribs and his lungs burned. The rumbling of an engine behind him had Danny turning, the sight of the GAV following him making his breath catch in his throat.
The sight of it barreling towards him ignited something in Danny, and before he knew it his ghost form was flashing across his skin, tracing over his limbs like an electric current. The shouts behind him grew louder but Danny didn’t waste the energy to comprehend their meanings as he launched off his left foot, taking to the sky in a giant leap.
The wind rushed by Danny as he rocketed into the atmosphere. He soon passed the first layers of clouds as he rose. The air only got colder and colder as he went, further spurring Danny on. The attack could only mean one thing: his parents had figured him out. They knew he wasn’t human, that he wasn’t really their son. That he was a freak. He wasn’t worthy of their love, the only thing he ever was going to become was an experiment. What was he thinking? He simply put off the inevitable with every step he took. He was nothing but a mockery, and they had finally seen through his guise.
Tears formed in the corners of his eyes, crystalizing into flakes of ice and snow as soon as they met open air. Still, Danny went. His speed slowed but he persisted. There was no hope for him below. Any chance of a normal life had evaporated the moment he stepped through that front door. He didn’t stop when the ground disappeared from view, didn’t pause as the air grew thinner and thinner. He didn’t need to breathe, after all. Only humans breathed. A cloud of despair followed in his wake.
Eventually, the atmosphere was gone entirely, just empty space in every direction but down. Suddenly all of Danny’s problems seemed so small, in the face of the entire planet beneath him. He was so minuscule compared to its magnificence. He didn’t matter. It could have been an eternity as he stared down at the planet he left behind. Yet somehow, the sight was marred.
Imaginings of a forbidden lifetime passed Danny’s eyes. He could never grow up and have a family, never even have his first girlfriend, or boyfriend. Heck, he didn’t even know yet. He didn’t have the option, and that was what hurt the most. Going back was out of the question. It wasn’t safe. As he realized that Danny’s gaze rose to the great expanse of space stretched out before him. He needed time to think, and what harm would it be to just… check out the moon? He could see it now, just a little while farther. Why not? He could do it. There was nothing stopping him.
The ‘freedom’ wasn’t entirely welcome.
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The moon was even better than he had imagined. Clouds of dust billowed out from the impact of Danny’s landing. It was a soft, soundless arrival. The landscape was a dim gray, but it made Danny’s mood improve, however slightly. He managed to put his problems behind him, for a moment. He soared over the landscape, kicking up dust. He found the highest mound in sight and jumped off of it, marveling when he landed, uninjured, what must have been 100 feet down. The gravity was so different from what he knew and just plain fascinating. Danny stripped off one of his gloves and threw it, surprised when it sailed on for what seemed like it would be forever before arching down and landing softly in the dust. Danny turned intangible and dove through the mound of rock, just in awe of what he was doing. He was the only human who- no.
Danny froze in his tracks, hundreds of feet below the surface of the moon. He wasn’t human. He would never be human, again. He lost the right to call himself that when he stepped into that portal. Even the word halfa didn’t feel right. It was an empty word for an empty being. It was an attempt to label something that existed outside of life and death, it was an excuse. Danny’s head hurt, he realized. He didn’t want to think, he didn’t want to contemplate. It did nothing but harm.
Something called to Danny. On a whim he darted upwards, breaking the surface of the moon. The stars spread out before him. They were what called to him, in the same way that they had since he was a small child, since he was human. They were always there for him, always smiling down at him from the cosmos. They were reliable. They were home. A large grin spread across Phantom’s face, and his core buzzed. Protection? That had never been his obsession. It was simply meant to keep him occupied until he could escape. Constellations of glowing green freckles lit up on Phantom’s cheeks. He’d found his calling.
Phantom floated past the moon, content in his exploration. Next up on his agenda, Pluto. He had decided to explore each of the planets in this solar system before moving onto the next. Then the next. Maybe he’d even find aliens! That would be amazing! This solar system might be devoid of life, save one planet, but who knew what he would find elsewhere! He had an infinity to explore, well, infinity, and he was going to make the best of it.
The trip between planets was long, of course. But Phantom could wait. This was his purposed, and he was determined to follow it through. Obsessed, even.
Phantom arrived at the next planet, freckles glowing even more brightly. The moon had been explored before, but this was a new frontier. The red planet was truly right for its name. The ground was a ruddy orange-red in every direction, not too unlike tomato soup. Rocks littered the surface in every direction. Phantom messed up his footing as he walked and almost tripped over one, managing to catch himself in time due to the low gravity. He stomped a boot on the ground, flew up, and dropped himself. The gravity was slightly more than the moon, it seemed. That made sense. The moon was only 2,158 miles in diameter and mars was about 4,200 miles in diameter. More mass meant more gravity, and Mars sure had that covered. The numbers were supplied to Phantom’s mind easily. He didn’t spare a second thought as to where they came.
Familiar-looking craters could be seen in the distance, as well as large mountains. The sky above was a faded red. There were even clouds in the distance, which Phantom had noticed first when he was descending. The ground was solid under Phantom’s feet, and he decided to change that. As he had done before, he turned intangible and dove right into the surface of the planet.
The mantle, the piece between the core and the surface, was liquid. It was startlingly hot compared to the surface, and it spurred Phantom on. He didn’t entirely understand why, but he knew that hot meant bad, and cold was good. He was hit with a sense of relief when he flew deeper and suddenly everything around him was solid. He was at the core. Phantom zoomed around inside the core for a little while, taking interests in the different minerals it seemed to be composed of, dreams he didn’t even know he had being fulfilled. With a rush of speed spurred on by his euphoria he darted upwards, blasting through the layers of molten magma and condensed dirt.
Phantom burst through the surface as he had done once before, smile widening as he saw the planet around him. He was determined to find out everything he could about it. He would have to move on, eventually, but he was going to find out as much as he could before he did. Wind blew past Phantom as he surveyed the surface, making his shoulder-length air whip around his face. His eyes narrowed as they locked onto something different. It was grey, almost bluish in its tint. Nothing like the red which surrounded it. Phantom neared and his eyes lit up with recognition.
‘Opportunity’ was the name he was supplied with. The rover was half-buried in the red dust, including its solar panels. That was what Phantom locked onto first. One of the first theories was that the bot’s solar panels were covered during a storm and it ran out of power. Phanom hoped that was true, seeing as he didn’t exactly have any tools. Phantom phased it out of the ground and set Opportunity back on its wheels. Dang, it must’ve been like three years since it was lost. He rotated the bot so its solar panel was facing the sun and sat on the ground, waiting for it to move at all.
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Phantom explored every planet on his way out of the solar system, even paying visits to their moons. He left no stone unturned, burning every stop into his mind. He phased through Jupiter, studying the different clouds and gases, examined Saturn’s rings up close and personal, laughed at the name of Uranus as he examined its icy exterior, and insepcted the surface of Neptune while getting pushed around by its high winds.
But suddenly it was all done. He’d paid an honorary planetary visit to Pluto, but now he was done. Somewhere he knew that there were more planets, so from before, but any thought about going in that direction made his core buzz, vibrations warning him that nothing good could be found in that direction. And he listened. Usually.
An ache in Phantom’s chest had him doubting his journey. What was doubt, even? He’d always just done what he wanted… right? But something called to Phantom. He found himself turning away from infinity and back to where he’d come. He could see the last place he went to -Pluto- and the planets before it. Neptune, Uranus, Saturn… weren’t there more? A certain little ball of rock called to Phantom. From this distance, he couldn’t see much. It seemed to be blue, and white swirls covered the surface. Had he been there before? Something was saying that he had, but he didn’t know what. His core pulled in the opposite direction, telling him that was what he was meant to do. But the other voice was stronger, and before he knew it Phantom was taking off in the other direction. He rocketed past every place he’d been before, eyes locked onto his target.
Flames licked at Phantom’s feet as he descended, relative to the surface below. But he paid it no mind. He’d dealt with worse entries. Phantom had decided to come down near some land. It turned out the planet wasn’t entirely made of oceans as it had appeared from a distance. But as he passed the clouds more doubt drifted across Phantom’s consciousness. Structures unlike any he could recall came into view. The stretched high up into the sky, hundreds of times larger than Phantom’s being. Suddenly creatures appeared as well. They looked familiar, but there was something off about them. Not quite what he remembered, but familiar. Why did it feel as though Phantom had seen all of this before? It was making him conflicted.
Their eyes fell to him as Phantom landed. There was no cloud of smoke at his feet, this time. The stares weren’t welcome in the slightest. What was so weird about his appearance? To him, they were the freaks-
The stars in Phantom’s eyes vanished. Words invaded his brain. Brain, not core. How long had he acted on only its guidance? How long had it been since he was human? He stared down at his hands, and the tufts of white drifting around his face. His hair. It was down to his knees, now. How hadn’t he noticed? He’d aged, and didn’t even bat an eye. He was too focused on his adventures.
He was rash and blind. He could’ve at least made an attempt to fix things, but instead, he fled. Like a coward. He realized now how much of a fool he had been. Heh. Options. What did he have now? Rings crackled into existence, sweeping over him. They took with them Phantom and left instead the ghost of a teenager. He might’ve stopped aging when he hit his twenties, it appeared, but that didn’t made it any better.
Danny choked as he breathed in the atmosphere of the planet from which he came. His lungs didn’t want to work at first, so long since they’d last been used.
Gone.
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Little did Phantom know, he had started an uproar at Nasa. Scientists crowded around screens at suddenly Opportunity blinked back to life. Its cameras came online and when they did everyone was met with the sight of a long, white-haired teenager staring into the camera. He pulled back, freckles on his faces starting to glow as he beamed at the rover. His voice was faint due to the sounds not traveling well in Mars’ thin atmosphere, but he could still be heard.
‘Hi Oppy!’ He greeted. A white-gloved hand reached out to pet the bot as its systems came online.
‘I cleaned off the dust from your solar panels, so you should be good now! And hey, I glow so it’s not dark anymore!’ The boy was referring to Opportunity’s last message, the one it sent out before going online. ‘My battery is low and it's getting dark.’ Who was this kid? How the hell was he on Mars without a helmet or any kind of gear? And why was he glowing?
A sudden gasp rang out from an intern that had been drawn to the scene. He was from a small town, somewhere in the midwest. He was pretty nerdy, a ginger boy with coke-bottle glasses pressed against his face. Barely a year out of school. Mikey, was that his name?
“Danny Phantom!?” He shouted. He drew the disbelieving eyes of everyone present in the room. The blood drained from his face as he was suddenly the center of attention, but he managed to stutter out more of an explanation.
“That- He’s Danny Phantom! He’s a ghost from Amity Park! He disappeared almost two years ago.” Anything further was cut off by Danny Phantom’s next words.
‘As much as I would love to stick around, I’ve got galaxies to explore. Good luck!’ He disappeared with a wave, floating unsupported into the air and off zooming off in another direction.
“I wish he could explore those for us. He’d be hired in a moment.” Chuckled a director that had been listening in. Laughter spread across the room, both at the joke and in euphoria. They had their rover back!
Summary: After being revealed as a half ghost, Danny must wear government issued ecto-inhibitors in order to attend Casper High.
Warning: I’m super mean to Danny. Oops.
“This is stupid.” Danny glared at the metal device in Maddie’s hand. He folded his arms across his chest, his body tense. “This is so stupid.”
Maddie exhaled, silently categorizing the human behaviors from the ghost ones. She knew this day wouldn’t be easy. It would have been downright impossible for a full ghost, but since Danny was only a halfa…
She forced a warm smile onto her face. “You know you need to do this, sweetie. It may not be ideal, but we have to follow the rules!”
He studied her face with calculating eyes and a tight jaw. His gaze flickered from Maddie to the devices in her hands. Back and forth again. This was Phantom, no doubt. She’d never seen this cold expression on her innocent boy before the accident.
“It’s stupid,” was his only response.
“Oh well. We can’t always get things to swing our way.” Maddie took a step forward. “Now will you let me put these things on? You’re going to be late for school.”
He stepped back. “Wait! Can’t we...uh...why don’t we talk about this? For a second?”
Damn, she’d been so close…
“You won’t feel a thing, Danny!” Liar. Even the Fenton versions of these devices came with minor side effects. “It’ll be okay!”
“I know, I just…” He backed into the wall and stopped, his eyebrows scrunched together and gaze downcast. A pang of pity hit Maddie. She could tell that his two halves were in conflict. His human half wanted to be a normal teenager who went to school while his ghost half was simply unable to let go of its power.
To ghosts, power was everything. Ghosts didn’t measure their status through monetary wealth or social prowess like humans did; they did it through power. Ghosts who protected their haunt with incredible fortitude were given titles of respect within the ghost community. And the better a ghost protected its haunt, the more social status it had. It was a rather simple social hierarchy that didn’t surprise Maddie in the slightest if she was honest with herself. Ghosts were more...well, calling them simple-minded would be an insult to her son (who she loved very much, thank you), but were they as intelligent, as complex as humans?
Play dumb. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
“I just...I don’t know.” Pink tinged Danny’s cheeks. He glanced away. Was it shame? Embarrassment?
Maddie pursed her lips, unsurprised he couldn’t admit his deepest ghostly feelings to her. Although, they had been trying hard to reconcile their relationship after Danny was revealed to the world. These things took time.
Time she couldn’t afford to spend right now.
Sympathize with the ghost half, Maddie decided. Pretend you understand what it’s going through.
“I know, it’s very difficult to be vulnerable. Especially at school,” Maddie said. “It can be very frightening, huh?”
“Yeah,” Danny breathed out, his facial muscles relaxing with relief that Maddie understood . “It is. Because what if a ghost attacks? How am I supposed to protect everyone if my powers are gone?”
Maddie stared at the metal devices in her hands. Sure, they were big and clunky. But they had a metal buckle on the back. “There are sensors all over the school, honey, so if an alarm goes off, then the buckles will automatically unlock. Then when the rogue ghost is taken care of, Mr. Lancer or Principal Ishiyama will lock the devices back on, as their DNA is keyed into the system. So, in reality, you’ll be able to protect everyone just as well as before. Okay?”
“But…” Danny was still floundering, as if his ghost half was digging for every reason as to why he should protect himself from these devices. “How will my ghost sense work if I don’t have my powers?”
“The alarms will go off if a ghost enters the property,” she reiterated, glancing at the clock. She had to wrap this up quickly. After all, school waited for no one.
She watched, waiting for his shoulders to deflate and his fists to unclench, telltale signs of his resignation. But they didn’t happen. His rigid posture remained unmoving as his eyes continued to flicker between Maddie and the devices.
Okay, she needed a new tactic. She shouldn’t have tried reasoning with him to begin with. Ghosts didn’t respond to logic and reason like humans did. They needed...emotions. Human emotions. To be keyed in on, drawn to, like a moth looking at the light.
Shifting her posture, she allowed a hint of desperation to bleed into her eyes. His reaction was immediate. He flinched, bringing a hand up in front of him in a moment of surrender, comfort, as if he needed to calm Maddie down.
No doubt she was setting all sorts of alarms off with his ghost half’s obsession to protect.
“Danny, please,” she said. “Do this for me? Please?”
He lowered his hand and opened his mouth before his jaw tightened again, snapping his mouth shut. Maddie watched in fascination as he closed his eyes, conflicting expressions appearing on his face. She held her breath, unwilling to let herself celebrate the early victory even though she was almost positive she had tugged at his obsession just enough to get him to submit to her command.
She should have felt disgusted with herself. And deep down, her motherly side was admonishing her for daring to play with Danny’s obsession like that. But no matter how much she could argue back that she had to for Danny’s safety, the scientist in her didn’t play by those rules. Those morals. The scientist in her was always hungry to learn, even if the subject was her own son.
Of course, she would never do anything past this. Because, regardless of his DNA, he was still her son. Still Danny. And she would never hurt him.
Right?
After what seemed like forever, he let out one final sigh and looked up at Maddie. “Okay. Do what you have to do.”
“Thanks, honey.” She stepped forward slowly, testing the waters. Watching her son closely, she searched for anything to suggest that no, he wasn’t ready for her to snap the inhibitors over his wrists, ankles, and neck. But he didn’t flinch. She took that as an invitation to close the space between them.
“I’m not sure how this will feel, sweetie,” Maddie said. “But it’s government-issued, so I...don’t think it’ll be the most comfortable thing. But it shouldn’t hurt. You might feel a slight weight around your core, or a numbness in your chest. These are designed to basically cut off the connection between your core and the rest of your body. The question of how you will feel is dependent on where in your body the inhibitors target. They could simply shield the connection around your core, acting almost like our ecto-shield that we use around our house during ghost emergencies. Or it could target the ectoplasm cells specifically, acting like a weighted blanket that dampens the ghostly aura from them. Unfortunately, I can’t tell how this is designed to function without the specs, which they did not give us. So...the only way we’ll know is if we put these on.
“The good news is, the inhibitors are perfectly safe. They’ve been in use by the Guys in White many times in the past, according to Operative K. So we know they don’t harm ghosts and they’re perfectly functional! Operative K did say they’ve been tweaked a little for you, but he ensured it was only to account for your unique physiology. The inhibitors still function the same.”
She looked up from her rambling to see a shadow across Danny’s face. She tried to counteract this with a sunny smile. “Everything will be alright, okay?”
He crossed his arms, glaring to the side. “When it comes to the Guys in White, I doubt it. But thanks for trying.”
“Well, we agreed to the terms already. And besides, you do want to attend a normal school, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice bitter.
“Then this is a necessary evil.” No, play to his emotions. Logic wouldn’t work here. Emotions were better. “And it will make your father and me really happy. We were so worried about you, Danny. We love you so much. We just want to help you thrive now that we know what’s going on in your life. I know it’s not perfect, but...we’re trying our best. And I know it will take a while before we’re totally caught up in your life, but this is a good start. I’m so...proud of you, sweetie. I love you so much.”
“Okay, okay,” he said, waving her off. “I’m ready. Just put the stupid things on so I can go to school.”
Maddie fought off the satisfied smirk at the success of her plan, as well as a secondary impulse to smile at how adorable her son was, with face red in embarrassment at his mother’s praise. Forcing herself to focus, she brought up one of the inhibitors and pressed the tiny side button, opening it up with a quiet hiss.
“Hold out an arm for me, Danny,” Maddie said.
Slowly, a hand was raised.
She brought the metal ring over to his wrist, steeled the opening around his thin arm, and clasped the metal back together.
That was it. The first one was on.
She held her breath and watched as her son’s eyes stilled, his eyebrows raising ever so slightly. He felt...something. She couldn’t know what. But...there was something there. She needed to know what.
“Okay, next one.”
He opened his mouth and froze, his face reminiscent of a fish out of water. Something was wrong, she could tell.
Or it could be his ghost half finally catching up to the situation. Ghosts were brilliant actors when they wanted to be.
“Danny, hold out your other hand for me, please,” she said, her tone patient.
He brought his other hand up. It trembled. Something was wrong. Maddie should have stopped. She should have brought him over to the couch, sat him down, and talked it out. Asked him if he was okay.
But…she hesitated. Curiosity gnawed at her mind, and she needed to know what these inhibitors were blocking. She had to see what would happen next. How Danny would react once all of them were on.
And there was something else, something that she refused to acknowledge, that was budding inside her chest. It wanted to bloom. But she refused to allow it to. It was sick, after all. This was her son. Of course she didn’t want to hurt him.
And her son was clearly uncomfortable.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Uh, I think. Yeah. I’m fine,” Danny said, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Alright…I’m going to put the next inhibitor on, okay?”
“Yeah. Sounds great.”
She was his mother, true. But she was also under direct orders from the government and the PTA stating that Danny absolutely had to wear the inhibitors if he wanted to attend Casper High. So if she had to push him a little to comply with the government orders...well, so be it.
“Okay, let’s do this together. I’m going to put it on now, okay?”
“Just do it.”
There was the Danny she knew, always ready to face whatever challenge life threw at him. And always so, so eager to please the adults in his life.
She carefully wrapped the next bracelet around his outstretched arm and clicked the buckle in place.
The color immediately drained out of Danny’s face. His eyes widened, his breathing hitched, and his hand flew up to his chest. He staggered, and his free hand shot towards the wall in a vain attempt to steady himself. His hand had hardly brushed up against the wood before his vestibular sense failed altogether and he collapsed on the floor.
Maddie peered down at her son, who was beginning to tuck his legs into his chest. “Sweetie?”
Danny gasped. “I...I can’t…” He cut himself off, wheezing, his fingers clawing at his shirt as if he could dig inside and grab his core.
His core…
Oh.
“Danny? What’s going on?” she asked. Play the oblivious parent. Play pretend, if only for more information. Show concern, and his obsession might override his own pain to comfort her. She’d perhaps get to keep the science experiment going for a little longer.
But of course, she only wanted what was best for her son. That was all. Nothing more...
“Mom...I…”
He tilted his head towards her, his eyes searching the air to meet hers. But his gaze was too unfocused to have any success. Giving up, he allowed himself to relax back onto the floor, groaning.
Something was wrong. Something was so very wrong with her son. It was obvious that—if the Guys in White were doing what she thought they were doing—this would be absolute hell to experience for a ghost. Or she could be wrong. And Phantom could just be overreacting in a counter effort to gain his powers back. It could be a ploy to make her stop putting on the inhibitors.
Her fingers traced the bracelet. It was now or never. Either she could listen to her motherly side, which was yelling at her to put the bracelet down and comfort her son, or she could follow her scientist side, which was begging for more.
Which Maddie was she going to be today? The angel or the devil? The mother who doted on her son’s feelings or the scientist who demanded answers?
No, that was all silly. Of course she was a mother first. Ghost or not, Danny was her son. She watched him take his first step when he was ten months old and say his first word when he was eleven months old. She drove him to his first day of preschool, supervised his first play date, taught him how to read his first picture book, bandaged his first knee scrape against the pavement, directed him as he shot an ecto-gun for the first time.
Maddie was Danny’s mother, through and through. Nothing would come in the way of that.
She knelt down on the floor and opened her arms. “Come here, Danny. It’s okay. I know it hurts.”
His gaze shifted over to her face. He stared at her, his face apprehensive. No, that was the wrong word. His face reflected fear.
Of her?
“Oh, my poor baby.” Maddie leaned in, wrapping her strong arms around him. He trembled in response. “I’m so sorry, Danny.”
“It’s...okay…” he whispered. “I’m...I’m fine…I...I just—”
“Good.”
She jolted forward, wrapping an inhibitor around his ankle…
His body went rigid. “Wait! Mom, no—”
...and snapped it shut.
“Please!”
Click.
He moaned, his body turning limp against hers. She laid him back down on the floor and watched, fascinated, as his body started reacting to the new inhibitor. A thin coat of sweat appeared on his forehead, and he screwed his eyes shut. Both of his hands shot to his gasping chest. “Please, Mom...this...this...isn’t right...nng...”
“What’s hurting, Danny?” she asked, her voice light and innocent. Play pretend, if only to hide this growing fascination. A lock of red hair fell from behind her ear, but she didn’t stop to push it back. Her eyes soaked in the display on the floor, Danny fighting inside his body, his mind, to tell her what was so very wrong .
“It’s...ugh...it’s my...c-core…”
Ah, she was right. The Fenton Inhibitors were programmed to hover outside of the ghost’s core in a magnetic dome, allowing just enough electrical impulses through the force field to keep the specimen functional. The end result was—minor lethargy aside—the ghost retaining its necessary motor functions while losing all of its powers.
But the government seemed to have gone down a rather different path. Instead of building their inhibitors to allow for a small area of space around the core, it attacked the core directly, filling it with an electrical dampener. It was cruel and reeked of every bit of arrogance Maddie had come to expect of the Guys in White. But a small part of her, one she refused to admit existed, was almost enjoying the ghost’s act at its core being so thoroughly violated by this electrical dampener.
No, not the ghost. Her son. Her son was hurt. She needed to comfort him.
Pulling herself out of her musings, she glanced down at Danny. Tears slowly dripped from his eyes. His mouth was wide open, begging for more air. His body, curled up on the floor, squirmed against the discomfort of the inhibitors.
But that feeling inside of her was too strong. An itch for answers. A hunger for more of this show. There was something deeply satisfying about watching this ghost fall to its primal instincts in front of her. Because of her.
And besides, what harm could one more inhibitor bring? All inhibitor effects were temporary. All she had to do was take them off and Danny would be back to normal in an instant. So really, this was an inconsequential opportunity that she needed to take advantage of.
Her lips moved automatically. “I’m going to put the next one on now.”
“No...please...no more...no more…”
“Danny, you know I have no choice,” she said. Liar. “I don’t want to do this.” Liar!
“Please...make it stop…”
“I have no choice,” she whispered. Her eyes were glued on the squirming body of her son. The halfa. The half ghost . She couldn’t help but wonder...would his reaction be stronger if he was a full ghost? Or was it stronger now because he was a level seven ghost? Did his human half even play a role in his reaction? Did it matter?
Focus, Maddie. Your son’s in pain. You should stop this. Homeschool him. This isn’t worth it.
She bent down and clicked the other anklet on.
A sob tore its way out of Danny’s throat. “Mom…”
“I know it hurts,” Maddie said. She stood up, allowing her body to cast a shadow over the writhing halfa below her.
His body twisted and turned, legs flexing and unflexing, arms twitching and hands clawing at his chest and hair, all in desperation for any sort of release from this torture. And as she watched, the budding flower inside of her began to grow. Petals creeped out from their pod, arching back and exposing themselves to the sunlight. As the one flower bloomed, more followed, spreading to the darkest corners of her mind.
“Make it...s...stop…m-make...it…” His words slurred together, drunk and undefined.
“I’m sorry sweetie. I know this hurts. Here, let me—”
“No! Don’t!” His hands rushed up to form a protective barrier between him and his mother. “Please...no…”
This wasn’t Maddie’s fault. She was only doing what was ordered of her, right? Danny had to go to Casper High, didn’t he? That’s what he said he wanted. Couldn’t he see the sacrifices she was making to ensure he got a good education? Didn’t he understand how hard it was for her to see him like this? She was doing this for him.
“No more...no more...” he begged, hardly able to speak through his laborious breaths.
“This isn’t my fault,” she said.
Danny eyes cracked open, regarding her with utter betrayal that normally would have torn her maternal instincts to pieces.
She should stop now. This had gone too far. There were plenty of homeschooling programs online he could do. Wouldn’t learning at his own pace be better for him anyway? He had always struggled so much in school. Hadn’t she promised Danny she wouldn’t use Phantom as an experiment? Hadn’t she sworn up and down that she loved him all the same as before and that nothing was different with this revelation?
“Please…take...them off...I can’t...I can’t...”
But the hunger inside her, it had morphed into something much stronger. Uncontrollable. Uncontainable. She stepped forward, allowing her shadow to grow across his body until it completely blanketed his figure. She leaned down, leering over her son in wonder.
Delight.
Fascination.
“Please…”
“No.”
With one final swoop, Maddie clasped the remaining inhibitor around his neck.
Click!
Thanks for reading! 😊
HUGE thanks to @imekitty for editing this oneshot! She’s amazing go read her stuff!
This should be mid season 5, after they came back from Colombia for the first time (we still hates the barrel, preciousss, but we are using it for evil purposes this time). It’s pretty vague and dramatic, so bear with me...
The sound of the Marquis’ engine was suddenly dwarfed by the deafening noise of crunching metal. The old car was pushed against the curve, but by some miracle the engine kept running after the crash.
Steve shook his head and lifted it to watch as a dazed Danny stumbled out of the wreckage of the Camaro. Oh, that’s what had crashed against his car.
Danny walked towards the driver’s side of Steve’s car and to Steve’s shock, drew his weapon. “Get out of the car!”
Steve just stared at him, shaking his head. “What the hell Danny?!”
Danny didn’t back off, looking furious. “Get the fuck out of the car, Steven or I swear to God I’ll shoot the tires!”
Steve got out of the car, lifting his hands. “Danny, you’re being ridiculous,” he said gently.
Danny shook his head jerkily. “No, shut up. You’re not going anywhere,” he said in a no-nonsense tone.
Steve shook his head as well. “Danny, I have to go. They specifically asked for me,” he explained in a gentle tone.
Danny shook his head again. “No, you don’t know what they want, so there’s no way you’re going alone!”
“This is not your fight, Danno,” was Steve’s tired reply.
“No! You can’t go, ok? I can’t do it again. I just lost him, I c-can’t, ok? I just can’t! So we either do this together or you- you’re not going!” Danny pleaded desperately.
Steve pulled Danny into a bone crushing hug. “I’m sorry Danno,” he said gently as he felt Danny shaking against him. “Alright, I’m not going anywhere. We’re doing it your way.”
It took them a good couple of minutes before they pulled apart. The Camaro wouldn’t start back up again, so they called a tow truck and drove in the Marquis back to HQ, they had plans to make.
Summary: It's just a wish that's been granted with the wrong twist, but for Danny, it's a nightmare that's become reality. He's stuck as Phantom, his family's hunting him, and everyone who can help him is gone...
