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Danny did it. He reached the stars, achieved his dreams. Sure, he wasn’t an astronaut, but that antiquated job title doesn’t exist anymore. With the rise of superheroes and space cops and aliens and teleportation tech, there just isn’t a need anymore to strap into a rocket ship to explore the solar system and beyond. 

But the crux of Danny’s childhood dream was the same; he gets to work in space!

Danny loves his job! He handles and maintains top of the line tech! He helps heroes by keeping their base functional and running at tip-top shape! He’s even become sorta work buddies with some of them.

Well. Ok, most are polite but distant and Batman always looks like he only barely tolerates Danny’s water cooler talk, but that’s just how the man looks. Wonder Woman and Superman are polite, they at least wave and smile when they pass. Martian Mahunter dips his head in greeting (so cool!) and Danny has to very consciously not radiate just how star struck he is. Flash and Green Lantern are cool, they can talk for hours with Danny about science and flight and mechanisms. And that’s just the core group!

There’s so many people, so many incredible heroes. Green Arrow, Hawkgirl, Shazam, Aquaman, Black Canary, and Power Girl, just to list a few more of the big names that Danny can run into around the tower. And then there is the Young Justice and the Teen Titans that stroll through occasionally. 

Every year, there are more members added to the hero teams. Every year, there are more villains and threats. Every year, there are more leaps and bounds in technology, upgrades that need to be made in addition to the mechanisms that keep trying to break. It’s becoming increasingly apparent just how far behind humanity is when it comes to the developments of the greater universe, but damn, if Danny isn’t going to do his part (and if he gets to sit in a lounge and look at the stars at the same time? Well that’s a bonus that’s nicer than his paycheck). 

“Heya, Danny!” 

Danny pulls his head out the access panel and looks up as Shazam’s feet settle on the hall floor. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Not much! A few demons here, some evil wizards there. You know how it is.” Shazam makes some fighting gestures against invisible enemies, his smile bright. Then his attention zeros in on Danny. “Say… I thought you said you were heading home for the New Year?” 

“I am,” Danny says, making sure the new fuse is secure before he closes the panel and wipes his hands on his overalls. “But my time zone still has a good amount of time left until midnight. I just got a few more things on my to-do list and then-”

“No, no, no, no, no, the staff rotation was an hour ago! You should’ve zeta-ed out by now. Or do I need to go tell Mr. Esposito that you’re still hanging around?” Shazam turns those big watery eyes into a weapon against Danny. 

“Nope! No need to tell my boss! I’ll grab my bag and go.” 

“Sick! Then you totally wouldn’t mind if I escorted you to the zeta tube, right?” Shazam straightens his posture, puffing out his chest. “Part of my job is to make sure that all our valuable Justice League members are taken care of.” 

Danny chuckles and starts walking, heading to the crew floors. “Thanks, but I’m just a little guy here to support all of you.” 

Shazam floats alongside Danny, looking a little put off. “But we wouldn’t be able to operate without all of you little guys…”

“Hey now… Zammy…” 

He shakes his head and brightens up again. “Anyways! Want to hear about the video game I got for Christmas? It’s really cool. There’s these ninjas and they're totally wicked.”

Danny smiles, listening and nodding along all the way up from his room and just until he’s punching in the zeta coordinates to teleport back down to Earth. As sad as it is to leave the stars behind for a few days, it’ll be good to see his family. 

~~~

Despite rapid technological advances over the last two decades, Amity Park is much the same. Danny actually has to zeta to the closest large city and then take no less than three buses in order to reach his home town. 

He crunches up the snowy sidewalk, smiling as the Fenton Works sign greets him with its glowing lights. There’s a heap of snow at the top of the sign and icicles hanging off the bottom, the ops center on top of the brownstone house isn’t faring much better. He’ll have to check out what inventions his parents are working on now, see if there are any parts or concepts he could salvage away from the focus on ghosts. 

It’s not that he doesn’t like ghosts, but that kind of is it. He loves his parents, but their single minded focus over the years was definitely an interesting environment to be brought up in. Ectoplasm in the fridge, blueprints on the kitchen table, half-built inventions on the coffee table, and ghost lectures during dinner, if he had to mention a few details. 

Time and time again, he’s had to remind them about lab safety. 

Jazz refuses to bring the kids over for Christmas, so Jack and Maddie would’ve had to make the drive out to visit her again. Danny saw his sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew just recently for Thanksgiving. 

He quite likes this arrangement, it allows him to completely skip over the height of the Christmas Fever and he also gets the nice holiday pay. Now, if his parents could maybe clue-in to the fact that Danny has been the one funding their bank accounts, that would maybe be nice.

After he graduated with his bachelors, his parents quit their day jobs so they could focus more on their passion. Danny should have bought a house by now, started settling down, but he likes being able to provide for his parents, and in his opinion, spending more time in space is not a bad thing! 

Shaking his head, Danny hops up the front steps and puts his key in the lock. 

“I’m home!” he shouts, stepping into the living room and shaking the cold off. Gosh, his fingers, ears, and nose nearly turned into chips of ice.

“Dan-O!” Jack shouts. There’s a clatter on the second floor and then he’s bounding down the stairs to wrap Danny in a hug. Jack’s hair is more gray and white than black now, smile-lines around his eyes and the corners of his mouth, and he’s softer in the middle. 

Even with Maddie’s slight frame in his genetics, Danny had that second growth spurt after high school, so he’s nearly as tall as his dad and almost as broad-shouldered. The lifting of heavy parts and wiggling into tight spaces between machinery that Danny’s job requires has left him muscular, but limber. Though, still not heavy enough to give his dad any trouble in lifting him. 

“Aw, come on, Jack, give me a turn with our boy,” Maddie says, smiling fondly as she pulls her goggles up onto her forehead. Age clearly shows on her too; gray hairs and creases on her brow with a hunch in her shoulders and neck from years of concentration. She wouldn’t admit it, but Danny is pretty sure that she’s starting to develop either arthritis or carpal tunnel in her hands. 

Danny laughs as he’s put on the floor so he can hug his mom, bending over a bit so she can wrap her arms around his neck. 

“It’s so good to see you, sweetie. Your summer visit wasn’t long enough.”

“I know, I know, but the JL doesn’t have that many employees, and I hate to think of my coworkers sharing the work load when I’m relaxing.” 

Jack claps him on the back (not nearly as strongly as Shazam!). “That’s our boy! Got that strong Fenton work ethic in you.” 

“Speaking of which, I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to in the lab.” 

“Oh, there’s some parts on the coffee table if you want to take a peak, but the lab can hold off until after dinner. We can go down while we wait for the New Year’s fireworks at midnight. I have a roast in the oven, should be just a few more minutes.” Maddie gives Danny one more peck on the cheek and then slips back into the kitchen. 

Danny sets his bag by the stairs, sighing as he looks at the nuts, bolts, wires, and metal plating littered over the coffee table. Jack is already sitting down to start the show-and-tell. 

“I see you still haven't taken the lab safety protocols to heart. I thought we agreed that you’d at least stop wearing your hazmat suits outside of the lab.” 

“Aw, Dan-O, you can’t teach an old-dog new tricks. You and Jazz did great growing up! Science invigorates the mind, excites the senses!, inspires creativity!”

He could give the devastating response by explaining that the conditions they grew up in is the exact reason Jazz refuses to bring her family over. Or, he could do the scolding response and point at the not one, not two, but three posters on lab safety that he tacked to the walls. Or, he could do the friendly response. He always does the friendly response.

Danny joins his father on the couch. “Oh yeah, because beakers on the kitchen counter are totally safe for kids to wash while they do the dishes.” 

“Exactly! How else are you supposed to learn which chemicals can or can't be mixed with water?” Jack picks up a contraption that is a heap of parts, wires going every which way. “Now let me tell you about the Fenton Ghost Filter! Or maybe a Purifier? I haven’t quite decided which one yet. Either way, the concept really is quite simple! It’s going to separate oxygen from ectoplasm.” 

Shaking his head, Danny leans over and listens to his dad explain the new invention until Maddie tells Danny to set the table and they call Jack into the dining room for dinner. 

They take their chairs and dish up, passing the serving plates and bowls between them. Danny wonders just how ecto-free the food is, (at least it’s not moving), but it didn’t kill him as a kid and space radiation doesn’t kill him now, so down the hatch it goes. 

“Alright, Dan-O!” Jack smiles, cutting the beef roast on his plate. “Tell us what the fourth Fenton doctor has been up to recently.”

“Still the same thing.” Danny pours the gravy over his mashed potatoes. “Just maintenance, repair, code correction, and upgrades. Popping down planet-side occasionally to attend this lecture or that convention, assess which tech should be replaced and which inventions should be integrated.” 

Maddie smooths her napkin over her lap after wiping her mouth. “Our clever boy. It’s still just so incredible to me how Batman and Green Arrow scouted you specifically for the Justice League.” 

Danny rolls his eyes, digging into his food. “Mom, I’m just their mechanic, I’m not a JL member. It’s an honor and a privilege to help him.” 

“Straight A bachelor degree, Magna Cum Laude, Outstanding Graduating Senior in Engineering, National Honor Society, multiple awards for science and engineering competitions.”Jack counts off on his fingers, beaming with pride. “And that doesn’t even cover your doctorate where you-” 

“Okay! Okay!” Danny waves his hands in the air. “I get it, they are lucky to have me and you’re proud of what I do. I’m proud of myself too. I’m so incredible that Batman and Green Arrow scouted me and put me on their list and cultivated me specifically for being a JL mechanic and one day I’m going to work my way up the ladder and take over as the Head Mechanic. Are you happy now?” he asks dramatically, but he can’t help the way that his heart soars and his eyes sparkle, his future stretching out before him. 

Maddie pats his arm, leaning over her plate as she smiles at him. “Absolutley elated.” 

“They’re positively lucky to have you, my boy. Both you and Sam! How is she doing? How are you two doing?” Jack wiggles his eye brows. “A ring anytime soon?” 

Danny blows out a breath. Here is that dreaded conversation again; his off-again on-again relationship with Sam Manson, his high school sweetheart. He lets the pause in conversation stretch as they eat, his parents giving him the space to think through the words. 

Finally, he swallows his bite and speaks up, “We’re good. Her job is really stressful, you know. Being a medical doctor for the JL is a lot. I love her, I love her so, so much. And we really tried this time, but I think we still need some more space after our last shouting match. We’re just being friends again at the moment.”

“Sweetie, it’s not right that she takes that stress out by blowing up at you.” 

“Yeah, well, I also shouldn’t have been so busy in the engine room that I missed our anniversary dinner reservation. Again.” He slumps in his chair a bit, stirring the remaining bits of his mashed potatoes. “Also, I yelled at her too, so…”

“A relationship takes effort and commitment, and that has to come from both sides, Dan-O.” 

“I know, I know. I need to work on it, it’s my fault as much as hers.”

“Have you considered trying to see–”

“I don't want to see other people… It’s always been Sam…”

Maddie purses her lips for a moment, stabbing a roasted carrot with her fork. “Actually, I was going to say that you should see a relationship therapist, see if that would help with your conflict resolution. Someone that can remind you two that you’re not against each other, it’s the two of you as a team against your problems.”

“Yeah, Jazz gave me some recommendations,” Danny chuckles halfheartedly, a bit of hope warming up his heavy heart as he swipes a bread roll through the gravy remains on his plate. “I was going to bring it up to Sam eventually…” 

“Okay good, now why don’t we finish eating, clean up the dishes, and then go down to the lab.”

“Yes! Just you wait, my boy, we’ve been working on something extra special.”

Danny nods, forcing his shoulders to relax. With how they’ve been blowing through the money recently, (he’s seen how low the bank account gets each time he deposits part of his paycheck for them), he certainly knows that they’ve been working on something big. 

~~~

Trading his sweater and jeans for his heavy overalls and kicking off his slippers to pull on the steel-toed boots, Danny skips down the stairs to the lab with his parents.

The space is how he remembers it, for the most part. The blue tile floor, tiles going halfway up the white concrete wall, cabinets and counters and work tables. All the surfaces cluttered with beakers, vials, tools, and inventions that are anywhere between blueprint phase to halfway done to fully complete. The sour tang in the air that means that they recently had the ectoplasm out. Except…

Except that there is a hole in one of the walls. 

A hole that is big enough that Jack could stand up straight in it and stretch his arms out and his head wouldn’t hit the top and his hands wouldn’t touch the sides. 

“What the…” Danny gasps, awe and surprise punching out of him in one breath, a worm of worry wriggling at the back of his mind. 

“Surprise!” Jack and Maddie chorus, standing on either side of the hole with jazz-hands. 

“Sweet Mary and Joeseph… How in the what?” Danny mutters, approaching the contraption. 

And it is a contraption. 

The hole, going somewhere between two and three meters past the basement wall, has a thick metal frame and the inside is also lined with metal plating, giving Danny the impression that the hole is even wider than it seems given that the metal plates hide further machine parts. Some plates are open, revealing wires and parts. There are thick cables snaking over the floor of the hole, plugged into various parts of the machine and leading out to a control center of sorts in the middle of the basement lab.

“The most difficult part was getting the drill down here!” Jack exclaims.

“You got… you got a drill down here?” If Danny’s eyes weren't flitting over every surface of the machine-hole with the various devices and screens at the control center, then he would be pinching the bridge of his nose. “How big a drill are we talkin’?”

“Well,” Maddie huffs, fixing her hair under the hood of her hazmat suit. “How else were we supposed to create a hole with the right diameter?” 

Danny looks at the basement door and then back to the machine. “That’s… uh… That’s a pretty big drill.” 

“Yep! We had to take it apart and put it back together down here. It was quite the process!” Jack laughs. “The parts are in the garden shed from after we finished moving the drill out of the basement. You can have them if you want!” 

“Oh, Jack, I doubt that Danny has anything that big to drill in the Justice League’s headquarters.” 

“Hang on a minute.” Danny casts his mind back, mentally sorting through a catalogue of blue prints as he pulls up the schematic for the zeta tubes. It’s like a bucket of ice water dumping down his spine even as curiosity sparks a fire in him. “The zeta tubes!”

Crap. He’d be in so much trouble if they knew that he showed his parents the blueprints. Now he’s gonna be in even more trouble if they find out that his parents were basically able to recreate the tech. 

That is… if anyone ever finds out. 

“See? I told you our boy would get it!” 

Maddie nods. “We were inspired by the charts you showed us. Quite a remarkable machine.”

“I was only telling you about the repairs I had to do! I didn’t leave a blueprint behind, did I?”

“Nope! We just remembered it.” Jack puts his fits on his hips, trying to suck in his gut as he stands straight and smiles wide.

“And we made a few alterations for our own purposes.” Maddie goes over to a rolling white board, flipping it around to show Danny the drawing as she wheels it closer to where he stopped at the central control table. 

Danny’s eyes skim over the expo marker drawing. He can see the parts that correlate to the zeta tubes and the parts that differ. The realization hits him like a punch in the gut. “You’re going to zeta yourselves into the Ghost Zone that you theorize about.” 

“Well, not zeta. If we teleported ourselves there, we wouldn’t be able to teleport back because there would be no sister machine in the Ghost Zone. So,” Maddie pauses for dramatic effect, her face lighting up like a kid in a candy store. Or, more accurately, a scientist on the edge of a break-through discovery. “We’re making a portal to the Ghost Zone!” 

Oh shit…

Oh shit!

That breaks so many JL rules and safety protocols that Danny doesn’t even know where to begin. 

But at the same time, damn him, curiosity is a hot spark and his mind is alight with what it would take to get that kind of tech to work. 

“Do… uh… do you have a permit for that?”

His parents break out laughing. 

“No, of course not, silly.” Maddie ruffles Danny’s hair. 

Wiping the mirth from his eyes, Jack's expression goes somber as he studies the gaping maw of the portal. “Hopefully you can help, Dan-O. We need your intelligent mind to make it work!”

Oh…

OH.

He shouldn’t. Danny knows that he shouldn’t. He knows that his parents are officially tipping over into Mad Scientist Villain territory, or even Supervillain territory. Heck, he had to triple check himself for those little bat-trackers and button-cameras before he got here. He’s definitely said one too many things about “His Parents The Ghost Hunters” to Batman at the watercooler. Maybe Batman’s narrowed eyes and grunts of suspicion had a point. But…

But the voice at the back of his mind…

That sparking curiosity that makes his fingers itch…

Maybe he can just take a look. A little peak. Just briefly pass over the machine to see if it is even possible. 

Plus, once he knows how it works, he’ll know how to make sure that his parents are never able to fully activate it. He may just be a mechanic of the JL, but he can do this little bit to help keep humanity safe. (If ghosts even exist). 

“Then I guess we better get to work.” Danny smiles, patting the toolbelt at his waist. 

Jack and Maddie beam, rushing to crush their son in hugs. 

“Oh, thank you, Dan-O!” 

“Honey, this’ll be just like old times!”

Chuckling and extricating himself from the tangle of limbs, Danny heads over to the portal, stopping to admire the frame close up. “So you really want to see a ghost that badly, huh?”

“Well, more than just see a ghost, sweetie. We want to study them, you know that.” 

“I know that ghosts are just a fragment of the post-human consciousness, clinging to this realm of existence by their obsessive tendencies which lead them to terrorize and haunt people as they try to reclaim and/or mimic some sense of humanity,” Danny says, repeating the lectures that happened over so many dinners in his childhood. It’s probably a lot of bogus, but one day it probably would be good to have an understanding of ecto-entities. 

Danny leans back, eyes tracking the various cables before he finds the power source. Okay, good, it is unplugged.

Interesting choice to plug it into the wall. Danny would have elected to use a generator. Preferably, he might’ve even customized a generator so that he could control the electrical output. 

“Right you are, Dan-O! Or at least, that is the gist of it.” Jack comes up beside his son, putting a large hand on his shoulder. “We want to see just how much a ghost remembers of its past life and body. Does it remember who it was? Does it remember having bones? Well, there’s only one way to find out and that’s to peel it apart molecule by molecule!” Jack shouts.

“–Molecule by molecule,” Danny says at the same time, if a bit exasperated and more than familiar with his dad’s favorite gruesome expression. 

“Right, then it’s time to figure out what makes this thing tick.” Putting on his safety goggles, Danny steps into the portal. 

He’s careful to step on the floor, avoiding the snaking cables. 

“You know,” he calls over his shoulder, “lab safety also includes having clear places to walk in case of an emergency.” 

“This is our home, there’s no emergency here,” Maddie responds from where she is checking readings from the screens at the control table. 

“I’d think that makes it extra important for not having an emergency,” he retorts. 

“Ah, you worry too much! Here, let me show you where we are having trouble.” Jack follows Danny into the portal. With a grunt of effort and a pop from his knees, he kneels down to one of the open panels where wads of wires are pulled out. “The energy seems to be getting backed up here and then the whole system shorts out.”

First, Jack leads Danny through how the portal is wired. Danny asks about the fail-safes and the backups. Then, Jack is showing Danny how this bundle of wires is diagramed on the schematic to be connected. Right now, the wires are cut and pulled out a bit more to test different connections. 

“Well,” Danny starts, arms crossed and one hand rubbing the back of his neck as he thinks. “Are you sure that each of the wires is properly conducting electricity?” 

“Huh, I suppose we could check. Sometimes the simplest solution is the right answer!” Jack braces a hand on the wall as he gets up. “Mads, we have electrical testers, don’t we?”

“The multimeter should be in the cupboard with the batteries and extra wires,” Maddie replies, walking over to them. “Jack, go and grab it for Danny, I’ll plug in the portal for him.” 

“Sure thing!” Jack leaves Danny in the portal, rushing over to the cupboard as quickly as his aching knees will let him. 

“Mhm, yep, sounds good,” Danny hums, eyebrows scrunched in concentration as he tries to untangle the mess of wires. 

Something prickles in the back of his mind. 

Or maybe it’s the prickling of the wires in his fingers. 

It could even be the metallic, ozone tang that starts to build at the back of his throat. 

Danny’s head whips up as he spins to the portal opening. “Wait! Mom! Don’t! Not while I’m–”

There’s a pop as Maddie plugs the portal into the electrical socket. He doesn’t have enough time to let go of the wires, much less try to run to safety. He doesn’t even have enough time to draw a breath before he’s screaming.

Before all that he can see is arches of electricity and green, green, green. 

This isn’t how he thought he’d go. 

It’s electricity shooting him in the chest, lighting his nerves on fire and boiling his blood. It’s ectoplasm bursting in his head, his eyes swimming and swirling in the never ending, all consuming green. So many shades of green. The lightning squeezes his heart and carves through his bones, anchoring one foot to the ground. His blood roiling and turning to electric mist as his soul is pulled from his body only to slam right back. The left side of his vision bursts with red, electricity popping in his ear before skittering over his brain. He’s screaming and screaming and screaming and can’t even draw an agonized breath before he’s shrieking more, the sound clawing its way out of his shredding throat. 

It’s over in an instant. 

It takes forever.

It’s death and it’s rebirth all at once.

Jack and Maddie Fenton watch in complete lock-still horror as they kill their son. As the charred corpse of their baby boy hits the floor in a smear of red and green.

He walks up with little fanfare, but sure does give the kid a good scare. Despite the cold permanently clinging to his body, he can sneak up on people quite easily. He was naturally quiet when he was alive, and now that he's dead, his ghost instincts take over.

He places a hand on the kid's shoulder with a raised eyebrow. The kid he's beating up takes the opportunity to run away, clutching his bag to his chest as he does so. The kid tries to weasel his way out of Danny's grip, but the ghost king holds firm.

"For all that talk about wanting to be a hero you sure don't act like it, kid," he says.

"What the fuck are you talking about, you geezer?" The kid huffs. And, man, the mouth on him. He couldn't be more then twelve maybe. Danny gives him an icy smile to show that he's not playing around.

"Kid. You want to be a hero. Right?"

"Duh! What else would I be?"

"Heroes don't hurt innocent people, kid. Somewhere in that big brain of yours you surely already understand that."

The kid stays silent, but he doesn't let his fierce red eyes waver from Danny's calm, green ones. Danny sighs and gives the kid a level look. Despite his hero work and Ghost King duties, he does have free time. Maybe he could use it to tutor the kid into not being such a jackass.

"What's your name?" He asks.

"Why the hell should I tell you?" The kid barks back.

"It's only polite. My name is Danny."

"Tch," the kid says, turning his head away as if Danny isn't worth his time.

"Look," Danny says. "You wanna be a hero. I can help you with that. But if you really think you're gonna make it in the world of heroics with a shit attitude like that then you've got one rude awakening coming up."

"Well it's his fault for looking down on me!" The kid finally snaps, looking at Danny once more and not backing down. The kid's got spunk, he'll give him that.

"Did he actually say that, or is it in your head?" Danny asks. He's been on this planet for over three hundred years. At this point he can confidently smell an inferiority complex a mile away. And judging from the kid's sudden silence, he knows what the answer to his question is.

"Look," Danny pulls out his card and hands it over. It doesn't have a number on it. Just his name, and on the other side a place for him to scratch with a coin. "Take this. You ever decide you finally want some help learning how to be a good hero, just scratch that and I'll be there. Time knows we don't need another Endeavour on our hands."

"Endeavour sucks," the kid spits out. "All Might is way better."

"I suppose it's a good thing he's number one then," he replied. He takes his hand off of the kid's shoulder and stands back up to his full height.

"Why should I trust a dirty old hobo like you?" The kid asks. And, okay, he's not wrong but he could have been nicer about it. The white hair and the green eyes were easier to keep, but they weren't uncommon enough for him to be pegged as Phantom. And to downplay it even more, he wears clothes that don't fit properly so he can hide his figure. It only makes sense when you're a pretty popular hero.

"I think they call that a leap of faith. When you're ready you should try it sometime."

----------

It's three weeks later when Katsuki is saved by the mysterious man with white hair. Who just so happens to be another cool hero. The number 13 hero, to be exact. And Katsuki had all but told him to fuck off.

God, he was kind of an idiot sometimes.

He had been thinking about what Phantom had said. About De-Izuku looking down on him being in his head. He doesn't remember why he started thinking these things. He just remembers the burning anger associated with it. Maybe it was because Izuku was the only one dumb enough to stand up to him. Or maybe it's because, even when Katsuki pushes and pushes and pushes Izuku still resists, and wants to be his friend. He doesn't understand it, and that makes him frustrated, which just makes him angry all over again.

And it's exhausting, being angry all the time. It's like he's got this knot in his chest and every time he tries to untangle it, to unravel it and let himself relax for once, it just gets more and more tangled. And holy hell does it fucking ache. He's tired of being angry and he's tired of being followed around by idiots who don't know how to think for themselves and he's-he's just tired, he thinks.

He looks over at the card on his nightstand. A constant reminder that has Katsuki's thought's going in circles.

Because Phantom was right. Izuku hadn't necessarily done anything wrong. He wasn't a villain. And heroes were only supposed to fight villains. So why did he bother staining his own knuckles with Izuku's blood?

He finds a coin at the bottom of the drawer and scratches at the back of the card.

-----------

"Katsuki Bakugou."

"What?" Phantom asks him.

"My name. It's Katsuki Bakugou. You asked me last time we talked."

"That I did," Phantom says, and there's a small, ghost of a smile on his lips. He holds out his hand for Katsuki to shake. "It's nice to finally meet you, Katsuki Bakugou. Are you ready to get started?"

Katsuki grips the hand like his life depends on it. He does not shiver from the cold seeping through Phantom's gloved hand.

"I was born ready."

------

Training with Phantom isn't like anything Katsuki thought it was going to be. Sure, sometimes they worked with his quirk and his fighting and the process of building muscle. But most of the time, they just talked.

They talked about why Katsuki wanted to be a hero. All his life, the reason was always so simple until now. He wanted to be the best. He wanted to be like-no, better-than All Might. And to do that he needed to be at the top.

But Phantom had just shook his head with an almost sad smile and asked him again. A clear order to think on it some more. To go down deeper than that.

It had taken nearly a year for Katsuki to come back with an answer.

In that year, he's had more conversations. Some about his mom being annoying. Some about how he and Izuku have sort of fixed their relationship. Izuku has always been quick to forgive, but it doesn't stop the burning guilt Katsuki feels every time he looks at the boy without his shirt off.

Overtime they work through his inferiority complex and when Katsuki feels frustrated at someone or something he takes it out on Phantom during their training, because he can take the hits. But that's also not healthy all the time, so he also writes in a journal occasionally. Usually when Phantom isn't available.

And overtime, the knot in his chest lessens. It becomes manageable. It's still there, and probably always will be. Katsuki doesn't know how to not be angry. It's one of the only emotions he knows how to express really well. But his chest doesn't ache anymore with the anger. And usually, when he is feeling that way, it's not because someone is looking down at him. It's because someone else is being a bully. It's because someone else has knocked Izuku to the ground and Katsuki in all his righteous anger will not be stopped. It's sometimes at himself, when he remembers what he put his best friend through for the better part of a decade.

Because Izuku is his best friend. Probably his only real friend. And Katsuki had treated him like shit.

Phantom was right. That hadn't been super heroic of him.

Because Izuku was still strong in his own ways. With his unwavering determination and his expert analysis Katsuki is sure he'll be a good hero some day.

He doesn't know how to say these words out loud, though, so instead he invites Izuku to jog with him in the mornings and do homework together after school, and that's okay for now.

----------

"Where are we?" Bakugou asks. Phantom looks down at him. He's grown so much over the past couple years, it's hard to imagine that he had once been a snot nosed brat with an attitude problem.

And he still was. But it was more manageable than it was before. It didn't consume Bakugou's every waking moment like it used to, and Phantom couldn't be more proud of his student.

"We're in my home," Phantom answered, gesturing to the swirling green abyss. "This is the Ghost Zone. Come one, I'll show you my Keep."

It didn't take them far to get there. The castle has aged with him through the years. It's no longer dark and dreary like how Pariah had had it. Instead, it's bricks are well kept and the gardens tamed by his groundskeeper who's obsession is gardening. The inside is not particularly bright, but anybody could still see just fine. It's got a homey, lived in kind of feel to it. Even when he keeps it cold for his core, it feels warm. It feels like home.

In the throne room there is his big fancy chair with his crown and his cape sitting perfectly folded. As he puts them on, marveling for the millionth time as the constellations on the inside of his cape move around, he directs Bakugou's attention to the portraits on his walls.

They are of his family. His friends. Long, long since passed but not a day goes by where Danny doesn't think about them.

"These were my friends and family," he says. He hasn't quite explained to Bakugou that he's three hundred years old and actually dead, but he's sure that with all of this cold, hard proof surrounding him the conversation will be easier. "These are my parents," he gestures to their portraits. His father takes up nearly all of his frame with his broad shoulders and barrel chest. His mother is smiling serenely towards the viewer, her eyes sharp with knowledge. "This was my sister, Jazz," he gestures. Jazz is sitting ramrod straight just like always. There are crows feet around her eyes, and her favorite blue headband keeping her bangs out of her face. She looks as kind and intelligent as she did the day she died. He moves over to Sam and Tucker, and introduces them to Bakugou. Tucker had filled out as he got older. Ghost hunting will do that to a person, he supposes. But he's also the most intelligent person Danny's ever met, and it shows, with his easy smile and his relaxed shoulders. He had done very well in life, Danny remembers. Sam had long hair when the portrait was made, but it had been buzzed down when she died. The portrait sometimes can't decide which one it wants to show, so it slowly flickers between the two hairstyles. She's got tattoos covering all of her exposed skin that isn't her face. She's got obvious muscle from her time as a ghost hunter as well, but even more so as he time as an activist. She is the kindest person Danny has ever known. Her heart holds enough for every living thing. Especially the things people would cast aside without a second glance.

It's the final portrait that makes Phantom hesitate, just for a moment. Not because he doesn't enjoy seeing her, but because she is hard to talk about. It's been hundreds of years, but one doesn't forget the pain of losing their partner so easily.

"This was my wife, Valerie," he tells Bakugou, who has been oddly silent this whole time. "She was a ghost hunter, too. But she was also...My queen. Words cannot describe the pain I felt when I finally lost her." Phantom hold the ring that sits around his neck as he follows the grey streak in Valerie's hair. Her eyes are big and brown and absolutely stunning. Sometimes when Phantom isn't feeling his best, he'll sit beside her portrait and just talk to her. It's not quite the same as it was when she was alive, but it still brings some comfort. And that's not nothing.

"Why are you showing them to me?" Bakugou asks. There is no bite or bark to his words. Just a solemn curiosity that Phantom understands a bit to well.

"These were the people I fought for. The people I protected for. I leaned on them when I couldn't stand on my own. I trusted them with my greatest secrets, and was better for it. I had their help, their support, and their unwavering loyalty, so long as I gave the same to them. I'm showing you this part of my history because it is important for you to understand this lesson and ask yourself.