Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Danny thinks he’s been doing well for himself!

It’s been a year since the fight with Pariah Dark and his subsequent finding out that he’s now king, things had been a mess.

But with time, planning, and a whole lot of help. Things have calmed down.

He's finally doing well in school after two years of struggling the balance of it all. 

His secret of being Phantom is an open secret in the town, only being kept from his parents and the GIW.

Jazz was finally off to college like she dreamed of! It took some convincing, with her worries about their parents. But it's fine, he can handle it!

Danny is always afraid to be home with the security system always targeting him, more and more dangerous weapons appearing. Having to crash into his friends or classmates's houses to get patched up. Having to hear molecule by molecule every fight and at home.

But he's doing just fine.

Danny was on his way to meet Sam and Tucker at Nasty Burger before he noticed a leaf that was falling slowed to a stop just before hitting the ground. 

The child running froze mid stride. 

The elderly man froze mid lick of ice cream.

Danny sighs, flopping his head forward with a groan. He didn't want to deal with king stuff right now! He just wanted to be a normal sixteen year old for once!

That ended the night with metal, swirling green, and electricity coursing through him-

Because, he swears, if Clockwork is behind him. He's punching the next wall no matter who sees.

He runs his hands down his face and turns around letting out a breath. Opening his eyes.

Just to see Clocky in all his glory. The man glitching from a man to boy to old man.

“Daniel.” The old ghost said with his normal cadence, maybe with a hint of humor. He was hard to read sometimes.

“Clockwork.” He said with a sigh. Danny looked at the ghost with eyes much too old for his body. “What do you want? I was just on the way to have some fun with Sam and Tucker.” Danny huffed, crossing his arms.

“Well, I do hope you can postpone that date. Do meet me in my tower, it's of great importance to your role as King.” Clockwork said simply then disappeared. Movement around Danny returned to normal. 

Danny places his head in his hands and groans. He let out a breath and started walking back to his house, slipping his phone out of his pocket. He opened the group chat with Sam and Tucker.

AmityRangers:

GhostyBoy: Sorry guys, can't make it. Clockwork interrupted my walk over and came to ask me to come to his tower for something to do with King duties. 

GhostyBoy: I'll try my best to make it quick!

TFTuck: Aw man dude! I was hoping to show you the new update I made to my baby!

GreenGoddess: Damn, do they even let you rest? Keep us updated and if we need to break into the Ghost Zone to bail you out.

GhostyBoy: Lmao, it'll be fine. It's probably just a fetch quest. Going into the portal now. Ttyl.

Then Danny closed the chat. He looked around the basement. The cold metal made him shiver a bit inward. After his accident, he never felt comfortable down here again.

Luckily his parents were out of the house, so he didn't have to worry about them finding him down here.

Danny lets out a breath and lets his transformation wash over him with a flash. Over the years, his ghost form has changed to match him as he grew. Matching his human height yet being just a bit broader. His classic hazmat suit now decked out in a little bit of armor and a sword joining his hip.

His white hair is the same, so is his toxic green eyes. But his skin had a more ghostly parlor instead of the tan he had three years ago. His hands now clawed. The ring of rage glowing softly on his finger.

He could feel the weight of the crown floating above his head even though it's currently not visible.

He sighs again and stretches, going in to the portal.

The Ghost Zone was lively as usual, the ectoplasm buzzing as he flew through. Eventually he found Clockwork's tower.

He lands inside, just a small tap from his boots hitting the floor. Clockwork had his back to Danny, watching the screens housing different time streams and places.

Danny crosses his arms and looks away, he would rather be somewhere else. He needs to get this over with so he can catch up with Sam and Tucker.

Don't get him wrong, he likes being king. But Danny also wants to be a teen..

“Alright, I'm here Clocky. What did you wanna talk about?” Danny hummed and walked towards the older ghost a bit.

Clockwork then shifted forms to a young boy as he turned around. A barely there smile on his face.

“Ah, Daniel. Good for you to make it on time. We need to discuss one of the duties of the Ghost King.” Clockwork floated closer, looking over Danny. “One of them is going on collecting missions.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. Collecting? Like fetching something? This should be easy! Probably take him at least a couple minutes to find the thing.

“Alright cool, easy peasy. What am I fetching?” Danny said with a smile, hopping on one foot.

Clockwork just shakes his head softly. “It's not a thing, you'll be searching for lost ghosts in another world and returning them to the Infinity Realms.”

Danny stopped and furrowed his brows. “Another world? I'm all for helping my people but I have responsibilities here-” he tried to say but a portal opened up under him.

“Relax my child, everything will go as planned. Things will be alright here, relax and bit.” Clockwork said with finality.

Danny tried to say more but he fell through without getting a word out.

Shit

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Danny awoke with a groan and grass in his mouth.

He spits out the grass as he pushes himself up, sitting up in the grass. He rubbed the side of his head.

Goddamn it, Clockwork. Didn't even give him time to retort or even explain to his friends that he'll be gone for a while and to make up excuses!

Ugh.

He sighs and looks around. He was in some sort of forest clearing. Looking down at himself, he found that he was back in his human form. Still wearing his jeans, NASA tee with a red long-sleeve under. Mostly to hide his scars.

Something caught his eye. He stood up, his red sneakers smoothing the grass under him. The object was in a bush. Danny rustled in the bush, finding a brown leather satchel. It felt sort of heavy.

Lifting the flap, he searched through the items. Two water bottles, a handful of protein bars, and a hunting knife was inside. Nothing else.

Danny just sighs. At least he had something to last him while he tried to find his way out.

Slinging to satchel over his head, shortening the strap a little for it to fit well. He reached in, taking out a bottle of water, cracking it open to take a small sip.

He then started off in what he presumed to be the correct way, to try and find a path of civilization.

He just wants to get this done quickly and get back to Amity.

Chapter Text

Danny groans and leans against a tree, laying his head back against it. It's been three days since he was sent here and yet he had not found a path nor a town.

He needed to find one soon, he's running low on his protein bars so he'll need food soon. There was still plenty of water.

He's even tried flying! But the woods are so thick that it was difficult to see via aerial view. 

He reaches into his bag, fishing out an almost gone bottle of water. Opening it and taking a sip. 

Danny froze as he heard the whistle of a flute. Swallowing the water in his mouth he tilted his head, trying to figure out where it's coming from. It was stilted a bit, like through a tunnel.

Then he heard it. ‘Help…’ 

The music turned into words in his mind, snaking a way into his core. He felt a burst of power course through him. His eyes flash and glow green. 

‘Protect them…’ Danny heard again,  those words seemed to sting his obsession in a way he couldn't control.

Before the teen could even think of a rational thought, his body moved. Trying to follow the way the flute was leading.

He didn't know how long he walked but he made it to the edge of the forest, looking out in a clearing near a mountain.

Danny sees a group of people. Talking in a language he didn’t quite understand, was it Chinese? It didn’t sound like the Chinese he was familiar with. He hid behind a tree, observing. 

He noticed the outfits and hair accessories. He's seen these types of things in his history textbook. He blinked before his eyes widened, was he in Ancient China???

Damn it Clockwork!

He then heard another shrill whistle of the flute as a shiver ran up his spine, ‘Protect them!’ He heard as he watched a Goddamn statue  attack!

He felt a cold mist escape his throat as the statue swung and attacked. A ghost was here and in that statue.

It wasn’t like anything he's ever fought before. He then spotted teens around his age fighting as another whistle from the flute player played.

Before Danny knew it, he had hid his bag in a bush and changed forms. Sticking to a more basic Phantom outfit, he turns invisible flying over.

That flute player kept pricking at his protection obsession somehow, it was making it hard to control. Being half human makes controlling his obsessions easier. 

He was just confused, it was like the flute player was controlling him but also not?

He floats over to the flute player. A man wearing red and black, long black hair tied with a red band, and a gray mask over his eyes.

Danny lets his invisibility drop just a bit as he floats aside the man in black. He leans close whispering. “What’s going on? How can I help?” Danny said. 

Danny would've jumped in right away but they seemed to have it handled for now, better get information while he could.

The man jumped a little, his gray eyes shifting over to Danny's barely there form. But the man seemed to calm himself quickly. 

“A spirit possessed the statue of the mountain goddess, mainly being in the left arm. It's violent and slippery.” The man said softly back.

Danny nodded and looked back at the fight. He heard yelling but he couldn't understand what was said. 

Which, weird. He understood the flute man but not anyone else?

Danny then saw what the other men were yelling at, a man in torn black clothes and chains appeared. A ghostly parlor on the man with deep black eyes and dark veins on his face. 

He hiccuped another cool mist. It wasn’t a full ghost sense, just what is the man with chains. 

Danny didn’t have time to think before the statue attacked the group of his similar age. The boy in the yellow robes seems to not move fast enough.

He bolted from the flute man’s side, pulling the boy in the yellow robes out of danger. Turning him intangible to avoid debris. 

He lifted the intangibility and floated up to face the statue. He looked to his side as he heard more music but it wasn’t directed at him, more towards the man with chains as the flute man seemed to be having trouble controlling him.

And the other men were also attacking the maybe ghost? But no one noticed him. Maybe that has to do with his invisibility, that would make sense.

Danny hums and charges a blast, aiming it right at the arm said to be possessed. The ecto blast fired with great speed and landed, causing the statue to let out a very unstatue like screech. 

The statue then locked onto him as Danny smirked. Good, attack me not the others. The statue swung but Danny dodged, landing his own strike. 

Parts of the statue crumbled under his touch. He felt bad for destroying something so ancient but it had to be done.

The chains of the maybe ghost man helped quite a bit whenever he was able to land a hit. 

But soon, the statue fell and the spirit tried to evade capture but someone did capture it. In a pouch of some sort. It kinda acted like a Fenton Thermos.

Interesting.

Danny watches as the maybe ghost man flees as some of the men with swords give chase.

He sighs and floats down to the ground, feet not making a sound as he landed. He was lucky to have invisibility, or else he might be also chased-

He instinctively dodged an arrow aimed right at his torso. He whipped around to see just who fired.

It was the teen in yellow, scowling. Yet Danny saw the slightest flinch when he looked at the teen.

The half ghost then looked down at himself. Shit. His invisibility dropped at some point.

He stepped back when the swords were finally turned on him, words were being said but he couldn’t understand what they were.

Danny didn’t care at this moment, nor did he want to get stabbed. So he chose the best option. 

He let his invisiblilty wash over himself again an he flew back to his bush. 

The looks on those people’s faces made him laugh a little as he landed in the bush he kept his bag in.

Hiding behind a tree, he changed back to his human form, sliding the bag over his shoulder. He looked back at the group, maybe he should follow to get to civilization?

It’s a bit risky, but he is in need of food.

Well, here goes nothing.