Chapter Text
An eerie ringing reverberated throughout his head. His movements were sloppy and unfocused as if trudging through knee-deep mud. His vision blurred in and out. He squinted, hoping that it would help him focus. Make him able to see what was in front of him.
Nothing changed.
The little boy took a deep breath, ignoring the aching in his chest as he turned his attention to his toes.
Something was wrong.
He couldn't feel his toes. That wasn’t normal
He was supposed to be able to feel his toes.
His breath picked up as the panic set in. He couldn't feel his toes!
He squinted, trying to focus.
Danny squeezed his eyes shut, willing the nightmare to go away. Everything would return to normal if he thought happy thoughts and clicked his heels together. Biting back a cry as he realized.
He couldn’t feel anything except his left hand. A painful numbness ran throughout his body.
Everything else was gone, stuck underneath something, a barrier in his mind. Danny knew he had to focus.
He had to move
He had to get out of there. If he didn’t, he would be crushed
Danny took a deep breath, willing his toes to move, to do anything. Something shifted, and Danny cried out. Acute pain was on his body, holding the small boy down. Suffocating him.
A burst of feeling coursed through his body, pain.
His chest, legs, feet, and right arm were all crushed. Something heavy, trying to bury him. Danny tried to shift out from under it,
His movement only caused the weight to grow, pressing down on him more and more. Breathing felt impossible, as even that movement brought him pain.
What was on him? Danny was pulled out of his shock by something warm trickling down his forward, ears, and nose. His eyes glanced to the side, his breath shallow, and his eyes widened as he spotted a small red puddle.
Blood.
His blood.
He was bleeding
The Panic came back stronger. Heart pounding, so loud Danny was sure Africa could hear it. The beat echoed throughout his ears, temporarily deafening the sound of the blood rushing through his skull.
He had to get out of here.
With a deep breath, Danny attempted to lift his head. It wouldn’t move; he couldn’t move. The thought came to him again, painful. Why couldn’t he move?!
Danny strained, eyes bulging, his breath stopping, as he put his every ounce of strength into lifting his head. After an eternity, his head inched ever so slightly forward. His eyes darted downwards in surprise at the fact he could move before panic filled them, and tears blurred his vision. The effort was becoming too much, but Danny still couldn't spot what was pinning him. He continued to try to push forward. His body started to shake from the exertion.
He could do this.
He had to do this.
His tongue darted out between his chapped lips as a small way to help him focus. His eyes squint, trying to focus on what was on top of him.
His head fell back down with a thump, the crushing weight on his body ever more evident after he discovered the crumbled wall on top of him. The bricks pressed down against his tiny body. Closing in and crushing his chest, it was getting hard to breathe. The shaking has dulled, but the thrumming in his skull intensified. Danny couldn't help but whimper. He just knew that the building had crushed his legs. His chest felt like it would cave in under this pressure any longer. Was this how he was going to die? Danny never thought about death. He was too young to focus on that stuff. Instead, spending most of his time staring at the stars. He fantasized about flying up there. His voice cracked as he barely managed to speak. "I want-" Danny's throat screamed at him in pain. "-wanted to see the stars." His throat ached at the words, but they seemed to make everything real.
The silence was gone, left with the sounds of something crackling, crumbling, and his heartbeat. Danny couldn't help the tears. The dust in the air, combined with his tears, made it seemingly impossible to see outside the blurs. He knew the tears were leaving a clear path as they ran down his dirt-stained cheeks. When his body was found, would the tear stains be visible? Would they know he cried, that he didn't want to die? No, Danny couldn't die. He didn't want to. He wasn't just going to lay here and wait for his body to collapse.
Danny took a deep breath; he was stuck. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get out on his own. Heck, he couldn't remember how he got here. Squeezing his eyes shut, Danny will figure out what happened. He just needed to remember.
Come on
Focus!
A blinding flash of light, a boom, and then the ringing, quickly followed by the pain. Oh, the pain. It seemed to echo forever, his body broken and trapped underneath the rubble of the building. He could not scream as the debris crushed him, a piece of shrapnel hitting his head and knocking him out cold. Danny instantly knew that was what caused the bleeding. He was lucky it didn't kill him. If you considered slowly getting crushed, lucky.
Danny didn’t even know what building he was in, only that it was made of bricks and currently on fire. He could tell from the crackling sounds and the dark smoke filling his lungs. It was getting hard to breath. Everything was becoming problematic as smoke filled his lungs. He tried to take deeper breaths; he had to breathe. Danny knew if he didn't breathe, he would die. Suffocate. That had to be painful. The closest he got to suffocating was when someone tried to smother him with a pillow... who did that? Danny blinked. He knew they weren't trying to kill him, just messing around. They didn’t mean to cut off his oxygen. He couldn't even remember who that was. Danny cried out as the bricks pushed down on him. His attempt to get more oxygen was futile, only resulting in pain.
He knew it. Danny was going to die here, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Death was coming for him. He could tell. He could feel his life ready to slip away as the darkness danced within the corner of his vision. Danny would let it take him; as he slowly closed his eyes, all he could do was hope that it would come quickly, knowing well enough that it wouldn’t.
He jolted as a hand gripped his shoulder, eyes flying open panic-filled. Who?! Relief flooded over him as he spotted the man leaning somewhat over him. Through the dark smoke, Danny could make him out. The man seemed to be an angel, the blinding white staring down at him as both hands snaked into his armpits and pulled.
Danny couldn’t tell whether he screamed as hot-white burning pain filled his body. His vision went black before slowly focusing once again. He was out of the rubble! Danny tried to move, but his legs were useless as the man gripped him painfully and dragged Danny through the wreckage, not caring about the sharp pipe that stabbed into Danny’s leg or the way Danny flailed. He didn't show any signs of caring as Danny let out a scream of pain. The ringing was softer now. It was somewhat calming as Danny's legs scraped against the rubble. For now, he could ignore the pain, trying to take in as much oxygen as he could. Despite the pain screamed in protest as he took a breath.
“-ny!” A voice was muffled, startling Danny from gulping in the precious oxygen. Someone was calling for him! A woman. His eyes widened as aqua eyes flashed through his vision. Shock shot through the body at the fact he could hear again. Crackling fire. The man steps. The woman who called for him. He knew her.
He opened his mouth, ready to call back, when something pricked his neck. His head jolted to the side, startled as he stared into the dark sunglasses. Dizziness washed over the boy as his vision became foggy Before the world went dark.
Three Years Later
Phantom sat stiffly on the cold metal bench, neatly painted white to cover the natural silver color. He sat as stiff as an eight-year-old with ADHD could manage. Phantom was nervous, trying his best not to fidget, yet his legs swung ever so slightly as his feet could not touch the ground. His fingers picked at the white hazmat suit he wore as his eyes scanned over the white walls, ceiling, and floor.
He couldn’t seem to remember anything that had happened before the explosion. The agents told him not to bother trying to remember, that he wouldn't like what he remembered. He didn’t mind tho, getting a head-splitting headache every time he tried to think back. He gave up on remembering the first year here. He had a good life now and should be grateful for being saved from his past one. The one he couldn't remember
Phantom believed what he was told. Why wouldn’t he trust them? Like when they told him his name was Phantom, not Danny. He believed them, though he liked the name Danny, and called himself that privately.
After struggling to understand why he couldn't remember, Danny threw himself into his studies, and the Guys In White made sure to teach Danny many beneficial things that would help him throughout his life.
Like how to kill a man with a fork, saying it was essential to protect yourself at any cost.
How to hide his emotions and lie. That was very important since emotions could ruin one's attack, making one weak and vulnerable.
As well as multiple ways of torture. That class made Phantom squeamish at first, with so much blood, as the teacher showed him examples. Danny was used to it by now. The other day, Phantom had to skin a rat for his final torture training.
A few basic things, like math, engineering, and science. Danny enjoyed science, though he did his best to hide it. Space intrigued him, and he wondered if a man could go up there or if it was just there to look at, like paintings and a lab.
And then there was the class about ghosts. Danny found that one almost as fascinating as science, as everyone here had seemingly dedicated their lives to studying spirits, still unable to capture one. Yet using the research of two scientists, Danny doesn’t remember the name of, they were able to build a ghost portal.
Phantom was waiting; they wanted him to turn on the portal. His hazmat suit was to protect him from the radiation, as the others stood by, waiting to take down any ghosts who threatened to come through. Danny felt honored to be chosen to go inside the portal and flip the switch, though he didn’t understand why the button was inside the portal. But he wouldn't question the grownups as they knew more than him. If he did ask them, it would lead to pain, proving to Danny that they knew more.
Questioning them was never allowed. Phantom had many scars to prove that
Danny stepped forward as the door slid open, greeting the room with familiar faces. The GIW and their scientists stood back, leaving a pathway for the eight-year-old to walk through. His bright blue eyes stayed on his target. The portal, which gaped open, looked like it was about to devour Danny.
Danny stopped outside the portal, his heart pounding in his chest. He was almost sure everyone could hear it in the room. His eyes glanced to the side, to the agent standing next to the portal. Even though he was wearing sunglasses, Danny knew he was looking at him. With a swift nod from the man, Danny continued forward, gripping the opening as he struggled to step over the threshold. It was too tall for him to do it quickly, but he managed.
Stumbling inside the portal, Danny reached the wall, steadying himself. He looked for the switch. It wasn’t that far from his hand. Reaching forward, Danny pressed his shaking finger against it. He turned back and grinned triumphantly at the GIW as he switched it on.
White filled his vision as something shot through his body.
It was burning him. All he could feel was the fire coursing throughout his body.
The smell of burning flesh.
And the scream that tore through his throat before it became too painful to scream. Too hard to cry.
Time slowed, leaving Danny there for an eternity, feeling his cells ripped apart, his body burning.
And then it all went dark.
It took Danny a week to fully wake up, remaining unaware of the strange green liquid flowing into his body. The silent room around him, despite him being attached to a heart monitor. No beeping came from the machine as it remained on a steady flat line.
Danny blinked as the white lights blinded him, his entire body aching. The smell of burning flesh still seemed to linger in the air. But it was quickly replaced by the smell of cleaner. “Oh good.” A voice boomed, causing him to wince. His head throbbed as he turned ever so slightly, the movement causing his world to turn.
“Wha-?” Danny started, eyes widening at the pain bursting through his throat at the simple sound.
“Careful there, Phantom.” Another voice came, amplifying the throbbing in his head. Danny turned his head sideways, watching as the world swam before returning to focus. Phantom wasn’t a new name for him, not really. It’s what they called him since he got here, having no memory of his past, drifting through the halls like a ghost. “You took quite the hit, but now we have access to the ghost realm and a ghost."
“Wha-.” Danny winced, rubbing his throat as the woman handed him a cup of water. Danny shakily grabbed it, gulping down the cold liquid. Once it was gone, the woman took it back. Danny’s attention once returned to the man. “What ghost?" Danny asked, his voice barely a whisper.
The man, Agent K, grinned, sending a cold chill down Danny’s spine. “Why child, you are.”
Danny stared at the man, not understanding as the fog started to come over his mind again. Unaware of the drug in the water, he just gulped down. His head thumped back down on the pillow as his vision slowly darkened.
-_-
Phantom sat on the edge of a building, his cloak billowing behind him. It was breezy, yet Phantom didn’t mind the cold. It seemed to strengthen him. He hated it in the lab, the temperature was always too hot for him, yet no one else seemed to mind. His eyes scanned the busy streets pillow, it was late at night, yet the city didn’t seem to sleep. He could see cars flying past each other as a few people walked down the streets, talking about a date they just went on or grocery shopping. He could hear a mother hushing her crying baby.
His eyes moved upward as he heard a door open; a tired young man had just entered the apartment in the building across from Phantom, a floor below where Phantom sat. The man set his keys on the small table next to the door, locking the door behind him as he made his way to his kitchen. The dark bags under his eyes were visible to Phantom, even from a distance.
Phantom had a sad smile creeping onto his face that no one could see from underneath the half mask. His bright green eyes scanned over the man. A slight pang of guilt hit him as he watched the man searching for food in his primarily empty fridge, so he wouldn’t have to worry about sleepless nights anymore or grocery shopping.
Phantom sighed, standing up. After he recovered from the accident and had gotten the basics of flying, The GIW sent Phantom to kill this man. His first kill, and Phantom intended on doing it right.
He took a couple of steps before charging forward, jumping off the building and gliding, somewhat gracefully, as he still didn’t have a complete handle on the flying thing. He tumbled through the man's window. The glass shattered upon impact, littering the ground, and bit into Phantom’s skin, but nothing serious. He heard the man cry out in alarm, fumbling around in the kitchen for a weapon. Phantom charged into the kitchen, seeing the man shakily holding the kitchen knife out to defend himself.
“Get out!” The man cried, the eerie green eyes seemingly piercing his soul. The man's hands were shaking so severely that he could barely grasp the knife. Phantom lunged forward, and the man dropped the knife, hands placed out to defend himself.
Phantom froze as his hand went through the man’s chest. Yet not exited the other side. Both of them froze, their shock and silence filling the room as they stared at the hand. Phantom awkwardly chuckled, looking back up at the man. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.” He said, watching as the man’s eyes widened.
“You're just a kid.”
Phantom’s mouth pressed into a thin line as his attention turned back to his hand. ‘Uh, what am I supposed to do?’ Phantom stared at the man’s chest as if willing his hand to come back to give him an answer. It was strange to feel a man’s heartbeat. It was loud, beating against his hand. His eyes widened as his fingers touched the still-beating heart.
“Please.” The man started, his eyes filled with tears, before choking. Blood spewed out of his mouth as Phantom’s fist enclosed his heart. The man stared at him in fear, unable to breathe, his eyes nearly bulging from his face.
Something ached within Phantom, wanting him to stop. The man was in so much pain, and Phantom caused it, but he couldn’t. He had to please the GIW. Ever since the accident, he could tell something had changed. They rarely fed him anymore, treating him as if he wasn’t human. If he failed, who knew what they would do?
Without thinking, Phantom pulled his arm out, eyes widening at the heart in his hand, no longer beating. His eyes shot upward, back at the man’s chest and the gaping hole. Blood dripped from the space where the man’s heart should have been. Phantom scrambled backward as the man fell forward, landing with a thump where Phantom had been standing. Blood pooling around the man, growing.
Phantom took a step back, dropping the heart. He gripped his hands together, trying to stop the shaking. Wincing at the squelching sound the heart made as it made contact with the floor. The owner’s blood slowly inches towards Phantom, sliding underneath the bloodied seat. He couldn’t breathe. Phantom stepped away again, a knock causing him to jump.
“David? I heard a scream. Are you alright?” Phantom didn’t wait as he heard the door handle rattle. Turning, he ran, scrambling out of the window he entered and shooting off into the sky. His flying was unsafe. He could barely breathe. Much less fly in a straight line.
He hated the feeling of taking a life, that man’s heart in his hand. It was horrible, very different from killing a rat. This man could have had a family, a future. Yet Phantom took it away from him. Instead of him whining at the thought of killing someone, Phantom gritted his teeth and pushed that feeling down, down, down, as emotions were considered a weakness.
And beings like him weren't supposed to have them.
He would have to kill again. He knew it
One kill was just the start, and Phantom had to kill again.
His chest ached at the thought, yet he kept on flying.
Back to the lab.
The only place he could remember.
The only home he had.