#28k

He wishes that he could have said goodbye to Sam, Tucker, and Jazz. He wishes he would have been able to grow up with them. But that was something that was no longer possible. 

He was so angry. He was so angry that his parents believed these terrible, terrible people over him. That they hadn’t believed they were hurting him. All they cared about was whether or not they could get rid of Phantom. They didn’t even listen to him when he said that he and Phantom were one in the same. 

The GIW agents knew that. They knew there was no difference between him and his ghost half, that there was nothing that had corrupted Danny. That all that had happened was that he died but didn’t. 

He could hear the GIW talking to his parents outside of his original room one day. That Phantom had escaped, had taken their son. They hadn’t been able to separate them. His mom had been crying, his dad had been silent. 

The GIW couldn’t tell them that they had killed their son. That he hadn’t just run away. All they cared about was killing ghosts and they did that in whatever way possible. 

It had been a month since Danny died. He was weak at first but he could feel his power growing, going back to what it was and getting even stronger than before. He wondered if that was because he was a full ghost now. Maybe. 

He sat in his cell, staring at the door, waiting. He wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. Anything. Nothing. Something. 

Then he could hear the door in the outer room opening. He looked up through the viewing glass to see the agent walking in and shutting the door behind him. He holds up a clipboard, taking notes as he studies Danny’s body as it floats in the tube. 

“Physical generation is still progressing nicely, even without a ghost present inside the body. Almost all the scars inflicted on the subject have healed. Some are even disappearing.”

Danny’s brows furrowed. He thought they killed him. That his body was dead. He thought they were keeping his there to study his insides or something but if it was still regenerating then it must be some sort of alive.

Right?

Danny watched as the agent took more notes on his clipboard, scratching his pencil across the paper. He looked up from his notes and met Danny’s eyes. 

“You’ll be proud to know your body is doing much in the way of progressing science.” The agent walked up to the window. “Even for sciences outside of ectology.” 

“Fuck you.”

“And our studies on how to make the perfect hybrid soldiers are progressing even better. With the regeneration your body utilizes, it would be perfect for those looking to enlist. The government would love to know we could make soldiers that could never die.” 

The agent pauses. 

“Well. It’d be very hard to kill them.” He said. “You put up quite the fight.”

“How is my body still alive?” Danny asked, ignoring him. “I thought you killed me?”

“We’ve been storing it in this ectoplasm filled vat. Because of exactly what you are, it’s utilizing the ectoplasm to keep itself alive. Even without you in it.”

“Does that mean you’ll eventually let me go?”

The agent barks out a laugh. “Of course not! You’re too valuable of a specimen. Why would we ever let go of the first halfa we’ve ever gotten our hands on? That’d be ludicrous.”

“Because you’ll never get out. Our security is top notch and everything is powered by an anti-ghost generator. You can’t get through anything.”

“And if the generator goes out?” 

The agent scoffs. “The generator will never go-”

The lights shut off, and the electric humming of the lights and machinery around them stop. 

Danny stands up. This is his chance. He flies through the door. He tenses for a moment, expecting to hit it, but he passes straight through. He turns towards the tube that his body is floating in and takes a deep breath. 

He phases through the tube and into his body. It feels sort of like he’s overshadowing someone, but instead of simply laying on top of their mind, everything clicks back into place and he blinks open his eyes. 

He’s turning intangible and falling through the tube onto the floor. Everything is so heavy, he hasn’t felt the pull of gravity in over a month. He’s struggling to get up, get to his feet. A hand grabs his shoulder and before he can even think he shoots an ectoblast in the direction the hand is coming from. He hears a shout and before he’s grabbed again Danny is transforming and flying through the ceiling. 

Soon he’s flying through the ceiling and he’s looking at the night sky. At the stars. Tears start to well in his eyes and he flies in the direction that he thinks Amity Park is in. 

He didn’t know how he got out. He didn’t know who was pulling the strings there. Tucker maybe? But he couldn’t help but think he got unbelievably lucky today. He thought he would have been stuck there forever. He thought he was dead, that his body was just being kept for study. Not that he’d ever get out with a living breathing body again.

He didn’t know where he’d go. He’d probably crash at Tucker’s house. Hide out in his attic. He didn’t think he could face his parents again. Not for a long time.