Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A foggy haze clouded Danny’s mind. It seemed to spill past his thoughts, pressing in on his body, settling uncomfortably over face. Groaning, Danny turned his head, trying to escape the fog. His head pounded painfully and his skin burned .

A chair scraped across the floor and someone started speaking. Danny couldn’t make out most of the words. They came jumbled to his ears, trickling like droplets through a crack in a dam. Danny waited for that crack to widen– for enough of the words to drip through his ears and make sense of the muddled, empty river of his mind. 

Opening his eyes, Danny stared up at the ceiling. He couldn’t see any stars, just a bleary white expanse– though nothing clean enough to be a hospital.

That haze persisted in his vision. He felt strangely lopsided, like something heavy hung in his periphery. When Danny tried to look, there was nothing there to see. 

Furrowing his brow, confused, Danny winced when the burning in his face worsened. His skin felt hot and feverish from his brow to his cheek, the burning encompassing the left side. It lingered particularly around his eye, radiating outwards like solar flares.

Slowly, Danny realized that the fog pressing in on him was physical. Something covered half of his face, though he couldn’t remember what or why.

Someone leant over Danny, messy black hair framing their face. He blinked his eyes– eye? His left eyelid felt strange, and the muscles there didn’t cooperate properly. Blinking the eye he could manage, Danny was relieved when Sam’s familiar face swam into view.

“S–Sam?” Danny coughed out. His throat was dry and ragged, as though he’d spent the night screaming.

Screaming…

Everything rushed back to Danny in a crashing wave. 

Unsteady stitches and the tang of ectoplasm. The fear of being caught and backing into a corner. The whirr of an ectogun and the glint of metal claws. Burning pain and–

Wailing.

A scream that went on too long, and the crash of rubble that surrounded it.

The word ‘ Monster ’ rang in Danny’s ears, echoing with the rumble of thunder.

Danny tried to sit upright but a hand held him down. His breaths came quick and shallow, and he squirmed, desperate to get up and… and…

He didn’t know what.

With a shaking hand, Danny felt for the left side of his face. Soft gauze met his fingertips and he winced at the ache that lingered beneath the wrappings.

A hand fell into his, pulling it away from his face.

“...Danny,” Sam said, her voice a nervous warble.

He stared at her, trembling as he fought to speak.There were no words to express how he felt. Only the nervous flicker of his eye and the shaking grip of his hand as he clutched onto Sam’s tightly.

Another person sat down beside Sam, wearing baggy clothes that didn’t fit her usual style. Danny had never seen Jazz look so sullen and despondent. A small smile curled her lips, but it did not reach her eyes.

“Danny, do you remember what happened?” Jazz asked. Her voice was soft and quiet, as though speaking to someone on their deathbed.

Emotion gripped his chest. Danny’s core thrummed unpleasantly and he struggled to swallow a lump in his parched throat. He tried to speak, but only managed to produce a strangled whine.

“Here– let’s sit you up so you can drink,” Sam said quickly.

She gently braced her hands around Danny and lifted his torso while Jazz folded a couple of pillows and blankets under him. Danny winced at a painful tug in his shoulder as Sam lowered him back down onto the pillows. Danny noticed that he wasn’t wearing anything on his upper body, but Sam noticed just as quickly and adjusted the blanket to cover him.

Jazz reached for something on the ground that crinkled. She held up a bottle of water and gently guided it into his hands, making sure that they held firm before letting go. 

Danny drank from the bottle as though it were life-giving waters. He held it to his mouth with both hands, painfully aware of how badly they shook. 

A sob bubbled up in Danny’s throat and he coughed out some of the water. Tears slipped down the right side of his face, though he couldn’t remember starting to cry. 

Warm arms wrapped carefully around Danny, avoiding his injuries. He leaned into the touch, burying the uninjured side of his face into Jazz's shoulder. She smelled of antiseptic and unfamiliar shampoo. He gripped her shoulders tightly, balling his hands into the large t-shirt she wore. 

Jazz carded one hand through Danny’s hair while her other rubbed his back. She tried to mumble soft reassurances to him, but the words were muffled by her own tears. He gripped her more tightly, wishing he could stay there and never have to face their shattered home and the life left within it.

They stayed like that for a long while, lost in each other's embrace, until Jazz gently lowered him back onto the pillows. Danny settled there, uncomfortably aware of eyes boring into him and the questions they carried.

Glancing around, Danny took in his surroundings for the first time. They were in a room with faded floral wallpaper and scuffed wooden flooring. An uncovered lightbulb dangled from the ceiling, surrounded by water stains. He lay on a mattress on the floor with three chairs crowded around it, Sam sitting in one while Jazz knelt at the side of the bed. Craning to look at the wall behind him, Danny could see a single window with a blanket thrown over it in place of a curtain.

“Where are we?” Danny asked, the words raspy and clinging to his throat.

Sam looked at the covered window too as she said, “It’s… our safehouse.” 

His eyes snapped back to her, watching as she quickly averted her gaze. She fiddled with her hands in her lap.

“Safehouse?” he slowly asked.

It was Danny’s first time hearing of any safehouse.

Sam shifted her weight, leaning on her hip. She exchanged a nervous glance with Jazz and Danny sat up straighter, waiting for them to explain.

It was Jazz who answered. 

“Danny, we… I was worried something like this might happen. I– I wanted us to be prepared, so we…” 

She trailed off, glancing at Sam, who quickly picked up her explanation.

“We needed to know there was somewhere to go if anything went wrong. It’s– we’re still in Amity, just… tucked away.”

Danny’s breath quickened and his eyes once more swept over the room, clawing for any details that might tell him where they were or how long they’d been there. He noticed several cans on a small, foldable table by the third chair. A few empty bottles of water littered the floor and there was a trash bag slumped by the door. Behind the chairs, Danny could see piles of blankets and a couple of pillows that looked like makeshift beds.

“H–how long have we been here? Where’s Tucker?” Danny asked, putting the pieces together.

Jazz sighed, the sound carrying far more exhaustion than it should.

“It’s been a couple of days,” she said quietly. “Tucker’s keeping watch in–”

“A couple of days ?” Danny demanded, feeling the temperature drop with his panic. “I–why didn’t… you’ve all been here this whole time? Wh–what about school, and–and–”

He gripped the edge of the mattress tightly, reigning his core in when he saw frost creeping over the blanket.

“Danny, none of that matters right now.” Sam said, cutting him off. She slid down onto the floor next to Jazz, glaring fiercely at him with wet eyes. “Do you… do you remember what happened?”

Her hand cupped his in a gesture that should have been comforting, but Danny pulled his hand back, holding it close to his body. Panic blossomed in his chest, his core thrumming.

“It does matter. You guys can’t just– you got a safehouse. You didn’t even tell me, and you’ve been here… what about your parents? What about Tuck–”

“ Do you remember what happened ?” Sam demanded.

The question rattled in Danny’s mind, accompanied by a furious buzzing in his core. He remembered it all too well. How could he forget when he wore the evidence?

“I can still feel it,” Danny hissed, jabbing a finger pointedly at his face.

Sam flinched, but recovered quickly.

“Then you should understand why we’re here,” she said, her eyes glistening as more tears welled into her lashes. “We couldn’t just leave you after– after…”

Sam trailed off, glancing once more at Jazz. Danny looked between the pair of them, feeling a tightness squeeze his core when he remembered who he had left behind. 

“What about Mom and Dad?” Danny asked, turning to Jazz. “We’ve been hiding here and th–they were…”

Injured and left in that broken house.

Jazz’s brows drew together in an uncharacteristically dark expression. She picked herself up slightly and scooted onto the edge of the mattress, pressing her side into Danny’s uninjured shoulder.

“You need to worry about yourself, not them,” she said without looking at Danny.

“But they–”

“But nothing,” Sam said, once more cutting him off. “Danny, I don’t know what exactly they did to you, but… I know they hurt you. There’s no reason you should feel sorry for them .”

Danny shook his head, hardly able to take in the words she said. His mind latched onto her last sentence, his panic reaching new heights.

“What happened to them? Are they…”

Danny remembered Maddie crawling from beneath the broken table, and Jack’s hulking form lying nearby. Both had been breathing, and his mom had enough strength left in her to shout at him, but that didn’t mean they were safe.

They had to be okay. Danny wasn’t sure what he would do if they weren’t okay.

Sam groaned, clearly frustrated. Jazz, ever more patient, gave him an answer.

“Th–they’re both in the hospital, from what we can tell. Da– Jack was in worse shape, but the news said he’s… stable.”

Danny froze when Jazz swapped names for their father. She’d only ever called their dad by his name in jest, but there was no humor in her voice now. She snaked an arm around his middle and Danny didn’t try to wiggle out of her grip when she pulled him close.

His shock weighed with some relief. The thought that he had injured his parents– hospitalized them, in fact– weighed heavily on Danny’s mind, but… 

At least they were alive. 

Danny grabbed at the blanket covering him, staring at his scarred knuckles. He absently wondered if his wail echoed in his parents’ ears like it did in his.

There was a knock on the door and Danny snapped to attention, teeth bared as he looked towards the source of the noise. Tucker stood in the doorway to the room, holding several steaming mugs. 

“I knew you were awake,” he said, offering Danny a small smile.

Tucker set the mugs down on the foldable table and passed one to Jazz and Sam each. He then grabbed the last two and sat down on the mattress near Danny’s legs.

“I’m not sure it’s the best idea to give you coffee right now, but… well, I think you could use it,” he said, holding out one of the mugs to him.

Danny paused, taking in his friend’s appearance. The clothes Tucker wore fit his usual style better than Jazz’s, but they were still unfamiliar. There were dark bags under his eyes that could rival Danny's own, and his smile was tense and stiff.

He took the mug from him with a quiet 'thanks'.

The heavenly aroma of coffee hung in his nose, but Danny couldn't bring himself to drink it. He stared into the cup, noting that he had some difficulty focusing on it. Everything felt a little flatter, and Danny realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach that his depth perception was shot. 

"It's how you like it," Tucker said encouragingly. "Black– like your overdramatic soul."

Danny snorted, a smile quirking his lips for the first time since, well…

Shutting his eye so he wouldn't have to see how the cup moved through his compromised vision, Danny took a long sip. The coffee was hot– probably too hot for someone who was entirely human– but he welcomed the pleasant burn.

(Certainly more pleasant than the burn of…)

They fell into a not exactly comfortable silence, but a respectable one. Jazz still had an arm wrapped around Danny; she rubbed small circles into his back, humming softly as she drank her coffee. 

Danny watched the three of them, noticing it wasn't just Tucker with deep eyebags. Sam and Jazz looked similarly exhausted, with tiredness etched in their sagging shoulders as much as those telltale eyebags.

Danny held his cup in his hands, close to his chest so he could keep it covered with the blanket. His eyes were drawn to the bandages wrapping his shoulder. He could still feel the sting of Maddie's shot…

"How do you feel?" Jazz asked, squeezing him more tightly.

Danny hummed in response, not really sure how to answer. He was no stranger to pain, but not to this severity. Not to the point of this loss.

His mind felt just as tattered as the flayed skin across his face.

"Danny, what…" Sam began before her words trailed off.

Danny grit his teeth together and shut his eye tight. He knew what she wanted to ask, and he wasn't sure he was prepared to give an answer.

The silence stretched on until it was uncomfortable. Danny shivered, though it had nothing to do with the temperature.

“I don't want to talk about it," Danny said.

"Danny…"

"I know you want to know, but… fuck it was so stupid."

Danny gripped his mug tighter– too tight. The cup handle cracked and Jazz quickly took it from his hands before the rest of it followed suit.

Danny put his head in his hands– flinching back as he felt the heavy bandages on the left side. He wasn't sure if he wanted to cry or scream– perhaps both.

"H–how bad is it?" Danny asked quietly without looking at them.

The mattress shifted as Jazz pulled him closer, guiding his head once more onto her shoulder.

"There's a lot of scarring," she said quietly.

The glint of claws flashed in his memory and the skin on his face seared with it.

Danny's throat tightened. He swallowed down a lump, nodding slightly to let her know he was listening.

"I didn't want to tell them," he said. "I–I didn't want to."

He couldn't take it back. They knew and there was no going back. 

Jazz's hold on him tightened. It felt as if she were trying to pull Danny into her very soul. He worried she might never let go.

The air crackled with tension. It pressed down upon him, as weighty and strong as Jazz's sure grip. Danny knew they were waiting for him to say more. It might've been easier to grant them an answer, but his mouth felt dry and the words wouldn't come.

Danny just shook his head, repeating, "I didn't want to tell them,” as tears welled in his singular eye.

~*~

Danny slept for most of the day. It was difficult focusing and the more they danced around their current situation, the more Danny felt something inside him breaking down. 

Sam and Tucker didn’t want to tell him about their home situations and what it meant that they were now missing for two days.

Jazz didn’t want to tell him the severity of the damage to their home and their parents’ injuries.

Danny didn’t want to tell them what happened in the lab and led up to his wail.

They were at a stalemate, all skirting around topics that needed to be said, but with no nerve to say them.

Unspoken words aside, exhaustion still lingered in every inch of Danny’s body. He hurt, in more ways than one, and it was with relief that he let that sore weariness drag him down to the mattress and into sleep.

Nightmares plagued Danny’s rest. A jumble of flashing images, broken by booming cracks of lightning that lit up the earth. He dreamt of falling buildings and screams. His own wail echoed in his ears, and the flash of claws tore across his vision, carrying a burning pain with no end. 

Danny woke with a start when one of the claws landed on his arm, digging in. Wrenching his arm away, Danny scrambled back into the wall, breathing heavily. He took in his surroundings, feeling the panic slip away and ebb into weariness when he recognized the bedroom of the safehouse.

It wasn’t the most comfortable place to be, but it was at least safe, as the name implied.

Jazz sat next to the mattress, her arm still held out towards him, her expression unreadable.

“Sorry,” she said, lowering her hand into her lap, clenching her fist. “It looked like you were having a pretty bad nightmare.”

Danny just nodded his head. Looking beside Jazz, he could see that Sam and Tucker were both still sleeping. They lay beside one another in a makeshift nest of blankets. The chairs from earlier had been swept back so their beds could be dragged closer to the mattress. 

Jazz worried her bottom lip, shifting uncomfortably where she sat. 

Of course she wouldn’t just go back to sleep now. Danny was never so lucky.

“I want to change your bandages,” she said carefully, wringing her hands in her lap. “We should’ve changed them earlier, but with everything going on…”

She trailed off, leaving the room quiet but for the soft sounds of Tucker and Sam sleeping.

Worry gripped at Danny’s chest. They hadn’t changed his bandages since he woke up. Danny knew that eventually he would have to face the wounds his parents left on him, but that didn’t make it any easier. 

“Can I?” Jazz asked when he didn’t say anything. Her voice was soft and pleading, and he felt sure she dreaded an argument.

Danny found himself nodding, even as every instinct in his body screamed for him to say no. As though if he put it off long enough the wounds would heal enough that he could pretend they weren’t so severe.

Wishful, unrealistic thinking.

Jazz nodded, smiling slightly, and Danny could see some of the tension leave her shoulders. She got up and grabbed a couple of things lying against the wall, stepping carefully around Sam and Tucker. She came back holding a bottle of water and a massive first aid kit like the one hidden under his bed back at home.

(A home he couldn’t go back to, with so many memories trapped inside.)

Danny sat up to give Jazz easier access to his wounds, holding the blanket to his chest. She noticed his discomfort and gave him a sympathetic smile.

“Sorry. Once I change the bandages on your shoulder I’ll grab you a shirt,” she said.

Jazz started with his shoulder, carefully undoing the old wrappings. The gauze had serosanguinous fluid on it and the center of the wound was still open. Dark bruising mottled his skin surrounding the cauterized edges. Considering it had already been a couple of days, the wound was not healing very quickly. 

Though, considering how close Maddie was when she took the shot, Danny supposed he shouldn’t be surprised.

The sharp scent of antiseptic hit Danny’s nose. He tensed, waiting for the sting, and gasped as Jazz carefully applied it to the wound. 

True to her word, Jazz went and grabbed a T-shirt for Danny as soon as she covered his shoulder with fresh gauze and bandages. It was a large blue T-shirt with stars on it, one that he knew had been picked out specifically for him. Jazz helped Danny wiggle into the shirt, making sure that it didn’t press on either of his injuries. 

She gave him the bottle of water and they sat in silence as he slowly drank. All the while Danny prepared himself for the bandages on his face. He wouldn’t have to look at the wounds just yet, but the thought of feeling the bandages move against the seared skin, knowing that Jazz had to stare those scars down…

  Stare at an eye that could no longer stare back. 

That wasn’t even there, he was sure.

All too soon, Jazz started unwrapping the bandages. Danny sat stockstill, watching her progress. He wanted to shut his eye and ignore whatever expressions she might make, but his curiosity won out.

Jazz kept her eyes locked on the bandages, determinedly ignoring his gaze. Her expression remained neutral until the last layer of bandages peeled away. 

Even then, as she pulled those bandages aside, Danny could tell Jazz was doing her best to keep a straight face. Still, her feelings broke through the stony facade. Her lip quivered and her brows furrowed ever so slightly.

Danny closed his eye, no longer wanting to watch.

He could still feel it. The burn of his skin as she applied antiseptic and gauze, and the way Jazz's hands trembled throughout it all.

They carried on in silence until she tied off the last stretch of bandage, wrapping it around Danny's forehead. He wasn’t even surprised when she finally spoke, a question on her tongue.

"Who did it?" she asked.

Danny's breath hitched, despite anticipating the question. He opened his eye to find Jazz staring fixedly at him, her mouth drawn into a thin line. She looked so tired. Tired beyond a physical sense.

She deserved to know, he realized. They were every bit her parents, and she had done so much to care for him since that fateful day.

His hands shaking, Danny pointed to his shoulder.

"Mom," he said.

Taking a deep breath, his throat growing tight, tears welling in his eye, Danny then pointed to his face.

"Dad."

Danny didn't even have time to see her reaction. Jazz simply pulled him into a tight hug, holding him close, sniffling. She pressed uncomfortably against his shoulder, but in that moment Danny didn't care. He hugged her back just as fiercely.

~*~

The house was restless the next day. Danny had slept into the evening, blissfully unaware of the nervous tension until Sam dropped a cup and it shattered loudly. He found them flitting about the room, gathering up supplies and stuffing them into bags. At first Danny assumed they were cleaning up after themselves, but he quickly realized that something was amiss.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Tucker had been gathering up the blankets on the floor nearby. He paused when Danny spoke, wide eyes leveling him with a stare.

He opened his mouth, closed it, and looked helplessly at the blankets in his hands.

"We’re getting everything together so we can go soon," Sam said, receiving a grateful look from Tucker. She had a bag full of clothes and several bottles of water balanced on top of it.

Her words had Danny's heart dropping into his stomach.

"G–go?" he asked, dreading the answer.

"Go," Sam echoed. "We've been here for three days now and they're still searching the town for us. We can’t stay here any longer.”

Danny’s heart began to race. “Wait, but– just like that? Where would we even go?”

He struggled up off of the mattress and into a standing position, swaying slightly. Danny still felt incredibly weak, and his tired mind was trying and failing to understand Sam’s words. He’d only ever known Amity– he only wanted to know Amity, after the accident. The mere thought of leaving seemed blasphemous now.

Sam set the bag down on the foldable table, knocking a couple of cans to the floor. She went to place her hand on Danny’s injured shoulder, realized what she was doing, and swapped to his right. 

“It doesn’t matter where we go, as long as we stick together,” she said. “We just can’t stay in Amity. It’s not safe anymore.”

Her voice was soft, her words carefully chosen, but his core still thrummed uncomfortably. Danny’s breaths became quick and shallow. He took a step back, yanking his shoulder from Sam’s grip, and nearly stumbled over the edge of the mattress.

“Danny we–”

“No. Stop .”

Danny couldn’t think. His mind went in spirals, resolutely stuck on the idea of leaving Amity and how wrong that felt. Amity Park meant safety, home–

Purpose.

Who was he without Phantom? Without protecting Amity Park,  giving it his all even when half the town still thought he was nothing more than a monster?

( Monster . That word still echoed in his head.)

He sank back down onto the mattress, putting his head in his hands, not caring when his fingers dug into the bandages wrapped around his face. 

It wasn’t just about him, he realized with sinking dread as Sam and Tucker said something to each other, their words unheard beneath his own rapid breathing. Sam had said it herself, after all: “as long as we stick together.”

They were prepared to pack up their lives and go with him on a journey he didn’t even want to make.

The mattress sank down slightly as Sam and Tucker sat on either side of him. He felt Tucker’s warm, broad fingers grab his hand and stroke his knuckles. He started encouraging Danny to breathe in a pattern Jazz taught them, counting the breaths in and out. Danny couldn’t focus at first, but he slowly started to listen to Tucker’s voice and fell into the count with him.

“Better?” Tucker asked, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

Danny nodded, but felt hardly any better. He shook, panic still gripping his chest, and worries running through every corner of his mind.

“You know we can’t stay,” Sam said. “I know how you feel about… protecting this place, but Danny– we can’t stay here. You have to know that.”

Danny turned to look at her, needing to turn his head further to see her past the new blindspot. Her words were blunt and honest, but not devoid of sympathy. Sam’s thick brows were furrowed, her face pinched with worry.

“We could figure something out. I–I can’t just let you guys throw away your lives for–” 

Sam grabbed Danny’s other hand; he winced as her nails dug into his skin. 

“We’re not throwing anything away, and this is figuring something out, Danny,” she said.

He tried to wrench his hand free from Sam’s but she wouldn’t let go. He didn’t have enough heart in it to turn intangible.

“If we stayed I could still be Phantom, and you two could still g–go to school,” Danny said, looking down at the floor, not wanting to meet her gaze.

He noticed there were droplets of blood on the floor that they’d failed to clean up.

“It’s not that simple,” Tucker said.

“Why isn’t it?”

It seemed simple enough to Danny. He didn’t care if he had to hide away as a human and sleep in their safehouse, as long as it meant that they could stay. 

Tucker let out a world-weary sigh before he said, “Danny… you and Jazz don’t have anywhere to live, and we’re not going to let you hide away by yourself. Even if you could, you…”

He trailed off and dread crept into Danny’s core in those quiet moments.

“You can’t be Phantom anymore– not here.”

It was Jazz that spoke. She stood in the doorway, though Danny couldn’t be sure when she’d gotten there. She leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed, nervously stroking her upper arms.

“Wh–why?” was all Danny could say, and even that word struggled to pass his lips.

Jazz shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She pushed off of the doorframe and walked over to the mattress, kneeling down in front of Danny. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, as though she’d only just stopped crying.

“Mo– Maddie has blamed you for all of this,” she said very quietly, her voice starting to shake as fresh tears welled in her eyes. “For everything.”

A shiver ran down Danny’s spine. He sat bolt upright, hardly noticing when he phased out of Sam and Tucker’s hands to grip instead at the mattress, needing something to ground him.

“Does the town know that I’m–”

“No,” Jazz said very quickly, shaking her head. “No, they… Danny, they don’t think you’re Phantom, they think– they think he…”

“Killed you,” Sam supplied when Jazz couldn’t finish her sentence.

The world spun out from under Danny. Something inside him broke– some last sliver of composure that he had held onto in the hope that he could simply pick up the pieces of his life in Amity.

In the eyes of the town Danny Fenton was dead.

In their eyes, Phantom had killed him. 

There was some irony there, though Danny wasn’t laughing.

“I–I could prove them wrong if I just–”

“Danny, there’s no secret identity anymore,” Sam said, frustration bleeding into her tone as she rounded on him. “We either leave now and let them think you’re dead, or we wait until someone sees you and puts two and two together.”

“But if they saw I was alive–”

Sam pounded her fists on the mattress, near-shouting as she said, “Damn it, Danny, your face! Your eye – Phantom is going to look the same! Your parents won’t have to say anything– they’ll know .”

Cold realization settled over Danny. Frost began to spread around him and Sam, Tucker, and Jazz all shivered, their breaths fogging in the air.

He couldn’t go back. Not just to his house, but to any part of the life he’d cultivated in Amity. Danny Fenton was dead and Phantom was a murderer– both marked with a scar that he hadn’t even seen.

Danny stood up suddenly, pushing past Jazz, storming out of the room on shaking legs. He ignored their calls, listening only to the blood pounding in his ears as he glanced down the unfamiliar hallway of the safehouse. 

He found what he was looking for at the end of the hall.

The bathroom was larger than the one he was used to, but lacked any of the trappings of a home. There was a toilet, an old cracked tub, and a gutted sink with a dirty old mirror hanging over it.

Danny slammed the door behind him and turned the lock. He shook, turning back to the mirror, staring his reflection down. His eye had begun to blaze green.

Leaning over the counter, Danny took in his appearance. The bandages covered over half of his face and wrapped into his disheveled hair. His skin was even paler than usual, and he’d never seen his eyebags so deep and dark.

Danny grabbed the knotted edge of the bandage and turned it intangible.

The bandages fell away as easily as water sliding through his fingers. What they left behind shook him to the core.

Danny had imagined distinct claw marks running across his face, but the wound was much larger than that. The center of it had fused together into a large expanse of raw flesh. 

At the center of it lay a dark, empty socket with what was left of his eyelids squinted around it.

Even a chunk of Danny’s ear was missing, though he wasn’t sure how he didn’t notice it until now.

A keening sound rose from Danny’s throat as someone knocked on the bathroom door. He ignored the knocking– his own name, called by Jazz.

Danny kept staring, transfixed by the horrible scar.

Sam’s words rang in his ears, and a morbid curiosity clutched Danny’s heart. He gripped the edge of the counter, his breathing unsteady as he reached for the cold spot of his core and let it sweep over him.

Bile rose in Danny’s throat. He took one look at his reflection and bowed his head over the sink, retching up what little food Jazz had managed to make him eat before he fell asleep the night before.

Seeing the scar on his human face had been bad enough, but it didn’t compare to what he saw on Phantom. Bright, lurid green flesh marred his face, almost the same color as his remaining eye. It reminded him of his death scar, only so much worse. The thin branches of the lichtenberg figure glowed with the same toxic intensity, but they hid snuggly beneath his suit, hidden from prying eyes.

There was no hiding this wound. It took up half of his face, spreading out from his missing eye like an infection.

And the man who did it had thought he was fixing Danny. That he could simply rip the ghost from him and– what? Purify him? Make him whole again by tearing half of him away?
A hollow laugh escaped Danny’s lips, carried with a sob. 

He sank down onto the bathroom floor and clutched his knees, rocking slightly. Ice blossomed around him, frosting over the tiles.

Danny didn’t know how long he sat on the bathroom floor, crying into his knees, shaking. It could’ve been minutes, or it could’ve been hours. All he knew was that it wasn’t long enough before the doorknob began to jiggle and Tucker opened it, a metal pick clasped in his hand.

Tucker took in a sharp breath, his eyes blowing wide as he looked at him. Danny supposed this was his first time seeing the scar on Phantom’s face as well. 

His friend said nothing. He let the lockpick drop to the floor and slowly settled onto the tile beside him. Tucker held his arms out, pausing to give Danny time to refuse the gesture, before he scooped him up into a hug, pulling him into his lap.

Jazz and Sam joined them, both squeezing into the bathroom and wrapping their arms around the pair until they came together in a firm huddle. Tucker rocked slowly, holding Danny close against him. Jazz once more stroked his hair, giving soft reassurances. Sam hugged the tightest, encompassing them all in her wiry arms. 

If Danny’s chill bothered any of them, they didn’t let it show.

~*~

When it came down to it, there was nothing Danny could say to convince Sam and Tucker to stay in Amity Park. They were the only ones with a life left to go back to, but both of them disagreed with that sentiment.

“It wouldn’t be the same,” Sam had said.

“You can’t get rid of us that easily,” Tucker insisted. 

Their homes, their parents, their schooling– they were prepared to give up everything to run away with him.

And they still had no idea where they were even going.

Their only plan was to drive East; everything else they'd figure out along the road. 

Tucker was confident he could make them false IDs, and Sam was confident they could live off of the land if civilization didn’t work out.

Danny wasn’t confident of much other than the fact that he would do everything in his power to keep them safe. If he couldn’t protect Amity, he would protect the people that meant the most to him. 

They scrubbed the safehouse clean, making sure to hide any traces of their presence. All of the supplies they could use were loaded into Jazz’s car. All essentials, no trinkets or comfort items from home. Only things that Sam, Tucker, and Jazz had purchased for the house without Danny ever knowing– and a couple of incriminating flash drives Tucker had had the good sense not to leave behind.

The only thing they left in the safehouse was a message to Dani carved in ghostspeak on the floor. She knew about the safehouse too, it seemed. With any luck, she’d find her way to them someday.

They were almost prepared to leave. The sun had sunk low on the horizon and a chilly breeze blew through the air. They were going to head out under the cover of darkness and hope that no one noticed Jazz’s car. They planned to procure another vehicle as soon as they could, but right now all that mattered was getting out of town.

Danny watched as Tucker loaded the last bag into the car and Sam and Jazz did a last sweep of the house, checking for anything they might’ve missed. He hadn’t helped much, too stunned by what was happening to move his feet. 

Danny felt he owed them one last favor before they hit the road.

“I’ll be right back, I swear,” he said to Tucker.

Transforming on the spot, he flew off before his friend could get more than a word out.

Flying soothed Danny’s soul in a way few things did. He soared invisibly over town, taking note of where the safehouse was before losing himself to the air. 

With the wind whipping through his hair and the glowing lights of Amity Park beneath him, Danny could pretend for a moment that everything was the same. That he could simply wake up each day with the sure knowledge that no matter what happened he’d be there to protect the town. 

He’d resented his work as Phantom at times, but it was a life– an afterlife– that Danny had carved out for himself and worn with pride. 

To lose it now left an ache in his core that he was sure wouldn’t heal any time soon, if at all.

Danny did one slow lap of the town, marveling at how… normal everything seemed. Though his life had ground to a halt, the world kept turning without him. Perhaps even for the better, Danny thought with a pang. It had been three days since any ghost attack, and Danny secretly knew, from the time he saw the shattered remains of the portal, that he wouldn’t ever be needed in the same way again.

Amity Park lived on, in spite of how surely death clung to it.

Danny’s first stop was at Tucker’s house. He floated invisibly through his bedroom window and stared at the familiar space. Sleepovers, video games, movies– they’d done so much together in this bedroom over the years. Tucker’s house was like a second home to Danny, and the thought that the Foley parents assumed Danny Fenton was dead left a sour taste in his mouth.

He wondered what they thought of their son. If they somehow blamed Phantom for his disappearance.

Shaking away the thought, Danny grabbed a bag from Tucker’s closet and dumped out the contents. He then quickly searched the room, looking for–

He found Tucker’s red beanie lying on his bed and scooped it up. The fabric was old and worn, and every bit more special for it. Danny tucked it safely into the bag.

He searched over the rest of the room and grabbed a few other things he could carry: a few pictures from when they were all in middle school, a couple of Tucker’s favorite old action figures lovingly displayed above his desk, and an old PDA he refused to stop using.

With one last look at Tucker’s room, knowing he would never again step food in it, Danny flew back out into the night.

He stopped at Sam’s house next. Her room had been ransacked by someone– probably her parents– but Danny quickly set to work looking for things to stuff in the bag. 

He found a few of Sam’s favorite necklaces given to her by her grandma, an old bat stuffed animal from when she was little, and the denim jacket she’d spent the entire last summer customizing with patches and paint. Danny didn’t linger in her room for as long. He had plenty of memories of Sam’s house, but it had never been as warm and inviting as Tucker’s.

Taking a deep breath, Danny left Sam’s house behind for his last destination. 

FentonWorks loomed before him, cold and menacing in a way he never thought it would be. Danny’s heart sank as he drew near and saw the scope of damage for the first time.

A gaping hole had been carved out of the side of the house and there was police tape sectioned around the entire structure. A couple of people meandered around the front of the house, while debris still littered the pavement on the side. Parts of the house appeared ready to collapse at any moment. Danny could see a sliver of the lab as he drew close, bits of metal glinting in the moonlight through the holes in the basement ceiling.

Approaching cautiously, wary of any lasting ghost defenses, Danny made his way to Jazz’s room. He wasn’t surprised to find that her room had been picked apart just like Sam’s, though in a much less haphazard manner. He was at least relieved to find her journal in its hiding place in her desk, beneath a panel Danny helped her install. After that, he grabbed Jazz’s teal hair band from her desk and Bearbert from her bed. 

Looking closely at the stuffed bear, Danny remembered all of the times he wandered into Jazz’s room after a nightmare. She would always let him crawl into her bed, and she’d often shove Bearbert into his arms, insisting he always made her feel better. 

Danny hugged the bear tightly before putting him safely in the bag.

One last bedroom remained. Part of him didn’t even want to go in, though Danny knew he would always regret it he didn’t. He would never see FentonWorks again after this. Never again see the place he called home for so long.

Steeling his resolve with a steadying breath, Danny walked through the door and into his room for the last time.

He ignored the signs of a search in his room, focusing instead on what remained the same. His eyes trailed over the posters on the walls, the starry quilt on his bed, and at last traveled up to the ceiling with its glow-in-the-dark stars.

Danny remembered the day his dad helped him put up those plastic stars. They worked together, making sure to align them to match real constellations. Danny had insisted on sticking most of them himself, but Jack held him up high to do so. 

Danny had kept it together through Tucker, Sam, and Jazz’s rooms, but it was those tiny stars that broke him. Tiny glowing reminders of a safety and happiness he would never know again. The warmth of his father’s arms and the sure way they held him. 

Oh, how many times Danny stared up at those stars at night, feeling comforted by that memory.

They looked different now; he could no longer see them all at once with the blindspot on his left side.

The more Danny looked, the hazier they became as tears filled his vision. He sniffed and wiped at his eye.

Danny had thought carefully about what to grab from the other rooms, but he went purely on his emotions now. He grabbed one of the rockets from his bookshelf, and a little blob ghost that Sam had sewn for him, carefully putting both in the bag with everything else.

Lastly, staring back up at the ceiling, Danny floated up to grab the star that hung over the center of his bed. It peeled away easily, the glue worn from years of hanging on the ceiling. Clutching it carefully in his hand, he held it close to his chest.

Danny took one last look at his bedroom, burning the memory of it into his mind, before he flew away from FentonWorks and didn’t look back.

~*~

The drive out of Amity Park was quiet. Jazz sat at the wheel with Bearbert placed in her lap. Sam sat in the passenger seat beside her, wearing her denim jacket and one of her grandma’s necklaces.

Danny lay in the backseat, his head pillowed on Tucker’s lap, the glow-in-the-dark star still clutched in his hand. Tucker stared out the window, absently running his hand through Danny’s hair as he watched the city go by. He wore his hat, as he always did. 

Lights from the streetlights flashed overhead, the only things Danny could see from where he lay. They were his last glimpse of Amity, save for the starry sky overhead. 

When the streetlights faded away and Tucker heaved a teary sigh, drawing his eyes from the window, Danny knew they had gone.

The car felt a little colder, though Danny did his best to reign his icy core in. The edges of the plastic star dug into his palm and he shut his eye tight.

Danny couldn’t say where they were going. He had so many doubts, all jumbled together with fear and regret. So many memories that lingered in Amity Park, the place he’d been born in and the place he had died.

Jazz leaned back to gently squeeze Danny’s knee, a comforting presence in the dark. No matter what, he was thankful to have her with him– all of them. They would weather the storm together, no matter what.

There was no going back now.