#aeri posts

(How it will probably go (written poorly written cause it's almost 7AM and I haven't slept yet) . Also I have no idea what I'm doing. This will be rewritten better in a fic maybe.)

Jason sighed as he made his way into Gotham University's gym. It was the middle of the day and Jason was there at a Startup Event posing as a guy who was interested in what people had to offer. He had only had maybe a total of four hours of sleep since he had patrol the night before. Granted, this wouldn't have affected him as much if he was more mentally prepared to be awake. The only reason why he's out here was because Bruce had woken him up an hour ago to tell him a little last minute about what he needed to do today. Originally, the plan was to do absolutely nothing. But now he has to investigate a guy that Bruce had his eye on as of lately.

The person he's looking for is a man named Danny Nightingale. Apparently he's been in Gotham for a couple years and only recently started making a mess of things. How it went under Bruce's nose is beyond him considering how freaked out Bruce was once he did find out.

Apparently, the guy has been making life changing machines. Little mechanical bees have been flying around Gotham really just sucking up all the pollution in the air and just depositing it somewhere. According to the media, they go back to some headquarters and into a bee hive looking structure to deposit all the pollution and sludge. From the photos shown, it's actually pretty impressive. Some guy actually making a change around here.

For Bruce- no. For Batman, this is just highly suspicious. Why would some guy make these positive life changing machines? For the better? No. No genius with the power to change the world would do it for the better. There's got to be some ulterior motive behind it.

At least, that's what Batman thinks.

Jason thinks it's all interesting. Maybe there is an ulterior motive but even then, at a scale so large that it's literally affecting the city in a positive way? You've got to be literally more insane than the Joker if you wanted to plaster your face everywhere at an event like this. Everyone else at this event seemed to show promise but compared to Danny Nightingale's company? They're literally all small fry.

Surprisingly enough, however, no one else seems to be at Danny's booth. Not even Danny. Jason frowned as he approached the booth and just looked at the machines on them. The Bees are kind of just flying in place and the moment that Jason even looked at them, the Bees immediately got to work. They flew around him like a puppy with wings, nuzzling against him and bumping into him so dumbly. And honestly?

It was actually kind of cute. You would think that being on such little hours of sleep and being grumpy the whole morning would really affect the pits inside him but no. He's surprisingly calm.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! They don't usually act like this," a voice stuttered out. A man hastily walked towards Jason as he gently plucked the Bees out of the air and brought it close to him.

"Uh, don't worry about it. I thought it was kind of..." Jason trailed out before locking eyes with the man who spoke.

This was Danny Nightingale. He was much shorter than Jason, only standing tall at 5' 5". His hair was fully black with only a white money piece right on his bangs. And his eyes? An alluring blue with only a hint of green at the center of his eyes. Honestly, the sight of Danny just about took Jason's breath away.

There was a subtle glow to him, almost making Jason think of there being some sort of meta activity going on but looking around the people in the area, no one but him seems to notice. Danny was concerned about Jason, that much is obvious. The way his eyes burrowed in concern then into confusion. It's strange why just looking at him made Jason's heart skip a beat, even though in hindsight, Danny looks much worse off than Jason.

That man looks like he hasn't slept in 3 weeks. But even then he was...

"Cute..." Jason finally finished his sentence a little too late.

Danny blinked in confusion, tilting his head to the side. His bangs fall freely over his eyes. Just the sight of that almost made Jason blush. "My bees were cute?" Danny spoke, the tone of his voice (very tired) sounded like a sweet harmony in Jason's ears. "Oh! You're interested in Nightech? No one else seems to be interested in my stuff yet. I can tell you all about this company and how it works? I put in a lot of work and love into these little guys and I'm sure you would love them too!"

Blah blah blah. Proper name. Place name. Backstory stuff.

Nothing of what Danny is saying is registering in Jason's brain right now. Maybe some. ("I... Love... You...")

"I love you too!!" Jason blurted out.

Danny blinked before widening his eyes. "Wh-What...?" There was that look of concern again but now there's another look. Recognition...

Whatever. None of that right now. This is embarrassing!

"I-I said I love your company. Uh. Do you have a business card? I can let Bruce Wayne know about this."

Wordlessly, Danny gave an information card to Jason before that poor brick of a man just ran out of there, not once even looking back. Honestly, from the way it's playing out in Jason's head right now, he feels like a princess running away from her prince at the stroke of midnight. The earpiece crackled before a voice started to speak.

"Jason? What the hell was that?" Bruce's voice questioned.

It was only when Jason left the gymnasium that he answered, "Me digging my own grave for the second time, old man. Let me go die in peace."

"No, no," Dick's voice chimed in, "Only after we replay that very short conversation about 50,000 times. Thank you very much."

Jason only groaned in response.

Danny, back in the gymnasium, only stared at the door that Jason left from in horror. The only way for people to react that way to him like that is for them to be dead or liminal. Now he has to figure out a way to tell Bruce Wayne that this person that he seems to know is a little bit dead!

A whole city had been decimated off the face of the planet. Bruce as Batman is in the Watchtower just trying to understand why he hasn't heard of Amity Park before. It seems to be a small town in Illinois but there seems to be no new information for three years until the city was destroyed.

The latest article that Bruce was able to find was three years ago. Apparently, there was a major power outage taking out the whole city. It centered around one particular (and ugly) building called Fentonworks where the Fenton family lived. According to the sources, it would seem that they had initially intended to make a portal to further their research in ecto-biology but it failed.

Currently 3 years since the Accident, 4 years from the present day.

To be honest, Danny thought that the big reveal with his parents would have turned out badly. Especially since they keep on proclaiming how they plan on ripping every ghost apart “molecule by molecule”. Of course, there were a lot of uncertainties at first, but that's kind of what he gets for literally keeping his parents in the dark for 3 whole years. But, again, it's not exactly Danny's fault. There were plenty of talks and definitely multiple hours of reeducation and, who can't forget to mention, an ungodly amount of conversations on what or what not to say to a ghost.

Overall, this turned out to be the Best Case Scenario. By the end of it all, Danny's parents greeted him with open arms. Life was amazing knowing that all his fears were mostly for nothing. Key word is “mostly”.

In the three years that Danny hadn't told them about his ghost half, his parents, without any better judgement, agreed to have a strategic partnership with the Ghost Investigation Ward. Fentonworks would supply the GIW with weapons and research while the GIW actually goes out and enacts “the law”. What a stupid fucking law. Within a year of partnering with each other, Fentonworks easily became the GIW's top suppliers in anything EctoBiology. So when the meeting came to suddenly withdraw from supply raised some major red flags in the GIW.

To be honest, it took the entire Fenton Family by surprise. After spending weeks just struggling to break free from the GIW's hold, it wasn't long until they also find out about Danny's Halfa status. He knows it wasn't his parent's fault in this case. The GIW literally came in while Danny was out on patrol with weapons that no Fenton was able to identify and literally shot Danny down to the point of detransforming. They should've expected it, but they still weren't fast enough as they watched Danny being taken away. Although not officially, the GIW had declared war with the Fentons (and by extension, the entirety of the Infinite Realms).

Many ghosts from Danny's council (“You mean to tell me that my little boy is the King of the Dead?!”) stood by the Fenton's side as they fought tooth and nail for Danny's safe return. Sam, Tucker, Ellie, and hell- Even Vlad fought hard for Danny to come home safe. And he did… for the most part.

Although (half) alive, Danny was found battered and beaten with an ugly Y scarring his chest. Some were horrified and some were sad but even Danny knew that everyone was pissed.

Everyone who was there on the rescue mission and even some additional people that Danny didn't expect to join were on a warpath to make things right. And by that, they mean destroy everything that the GIW has ever had. Databases were cleared and/or destroyed. People were killed (a mother's rage is just a whole different breed) and many bones were broken. Not anyone important, mind you, but it’s still an uncomfortable amount.

Despite everyone Danny ever loves running on just pure adrenaline and rage, they almost lost. After almost burning all of the GIW to the ground, everyone beloved to Danny had collectively decided that in order for the GIW to never get a hold of ghost kind, they will need to destroy everything. Everything that the adult Fentons had worked hard for and everything they had built and rebuilt. They all had to go.

His family and friends gave Danny everything he would need to survive. Photos of them. Flash drives of everything the Fenton's have ever created. Food. Clothes. Everything.

Danny continues screaming why but their only responses were that they just couldn't join him. They said that they don't know how much longer they can continue to hold back. He wasn't safe, they said to him. Be happy, they said. They’re sorry, they said. They love him, they said.

Danny continued to thrash around in his parent's hold as they forced him through the portal, ghosts from Danny's council waiting on the other side. As soon as he fully made it through the portal, it closed with a horrifying boom. An explosion.

The Young King screamed in terror, trying to force himself away from the hold of his council. He had to revert back to his human form in order to break free from the ghost's hold. There wasn't a lot that his council could do at this point anyway since they couldn't touch him. All they could do was watch their distraught king cry and scream as he watched his family abandon him in sacrifice.

Danny knew that he wasn't thinking clearly. Once he was able to calm down from his breakdown, only then did he remember that he's the Fucking King. Ever since he took up the throne, he's been training to get stronger. Although not currently at his best, he can still do what he needs to do. With hands burning bright with green, almost greener than the Realms surrounding everyone, Danny clawed at the air around him, tearing a temporary portal in front of him. Thanks to Wulf, Danny's been able to create portals on his own. There's a lot of work to be done, but for now, it works.

He knows that making portals can vary. You will need to know the exact coordinates in the Human Realm and with math and dividing stuff, you will be able to teleport to the exact location you want from the Infinite Realms to the Human Realm. The best thing in this current scenario, Danny didn't stray far from where he was thrown in, so he can easily make it back home whenever he wants to.

The thing is…

There just wasn't anything here.

Maybe Danny got it wrong? Maybe he actually did move. He looked back through the portal where his council stayed, all of them giving him sad looks. No… This isn't right! He's got to be at the wrong place, he's sure of it! After all, Amity Park had buildings and trees and- and people.

This place had a fucking crater.

“Why…?” Danny then said, floating down in disbelief. When he opened the temporary portal, it was supposed to be ground level. He should have been able to literally step out of the portal and touch ground. Instead, he floated down at least a good few meters (that’s a few meters too many) before he found solid footing in the center.

From what he can see, this crater goes on for miles. At first, he thinks that maybe he's just in the wrong universe? Or maybe the wrong timeline??? But no, the more he looks, the more he can recognize from whatever's left. The sky still looks the same and there's a very specific smell in the air because of the Nasty Burger that once stood. He can continue looking down the crater for maybe miles- It's not really, but it sure feels like it- and he can, unfortunately, recognize the god awful “Welcome to Amity Park!” sign. Although literally hanging by a thread, that seems to be the only thing that survived the blow. Whatever blew up here wiped out the whole town.

Wait.

No.

No no no.

Danny widened his eyes, bolting into the sky. For at least a mile up from the ground is the temporary portal. That shouldn't be right. Whenever he made the temporary portal, he made sure that it would open back up in his basement. That way, he can be able to help out his family if he needs to. By at least a 10 mile radius, there is just nothing surrounding the area.

Danny shook his head, now floating in front of the temporary portal. He is in pure disbelief as his thoughts started to form in his head, connecting the dots together. The Portal was the catalyst for this event. Most likely what happened was that when the Fenton's threw Danny through the original portal, they had set it to self-destruct taking everything and everyone with it. The Portal killed everyone who ever lived in this horrible town. His horrible town. His haunt.

Once the Poor King came to the realization, the air around him started to chill. The ghosts watching him can see the portal waver before it started to freeze over. They can see Danny curl in on himself as the ice begins to form on his person. It was only then that a few ghosts have started to make an effort to keep Danny from hurting himself. Unfortunately, it was all for naught as they were blown back through the portal once Danny let out the horrible wait he dreads so much. There was something odd about the way he wailed but he didn't dwell on it much further. It shook everyone to the core as he wailed his heart out, mourning the loss of everyone he ever cared for.

From after that point was a blur. Using the Ghostly Wail drains Danny to the point of detransforming. Danny fell from the sky before strong arms decided to catch him lest he break his head open on the ground. There was a bit of an argument that had happened before Danny regained his strength to retransform unconsciously and he  could reawaken if he wanted to but he can feel Nocturn's powers soothe him back to sleep, dreaming of people now gone from his life.

Many ghosts from afar came to Danny’s  need, also mourning the loss of his haunt. Pandora  probably had helped carry him back through the portal that he made. Someone else- Ember and Skulker maybe- held on to Danny's floating items for fear that some ghost would take it. Nocturn- most likely- led the poor soul towards The King's Castle where Clockwork awaited with a sad smile. Danny will know that although Clockwork knew all that was to happen, he couldn't do anything about it as it was meant to happen. He knows that Clockwork wants to say more, but he decided not to press on further knowing that he will never get that Ancient to talk. He'll realize much later that he will just need to trust Clockwork’s judgement since he knows that he would never do anything that will hurt Danny and therefore the timeline.

Not all timelines ended up the way it did, but this was the timeline that will lead to Danny's eternal happiness. For now, it will feel like he drew the short straw.

For the next few weeks, Danny mourned. Mourned the loss of his parents. He mourned the loss of his precious sister Jazz and his beloved friends Sam and Tucker. He even mourned the loss of Vlad, hilarious enough, because after so many weeks of being the Realms, that awful man still has yet to show up. He could only assume that he died too. He mourned the loss of his mirror twin. He doesn’t know where she is, but there was no way he could get in contact with her. Not without a home to return to. Not when the GIW are still out there, probably, hunting them down like animals. It would be safer for Ellie to not come in contact.

Eventually, that miserable feeling numbed down. Although having been dealt the worst card, he still had his Kingly duties to do. Duties to focus on instead of being infected with fear and grief.

For years, Danny decided to pour out his half life and soul to the beings of this infinite land. Making sure that everyone here stay loved and seen. They will all receive the care they all deserve so that they may live their afterlife in peace. Of course, there are those who are against him that anyone as kind as him is sure to fall. But they were easily proven wrong. For those who oppose him will understand why he is the King. They all fear him as they all love him. Because of that, it’s changed him. No longer was he the scared and scrawny Danny Fenton. No longer was he the baby ghost of Danny Phantom. He is now just The Phantom. The Phantom, Ruler of the Dead.

Prince of the Sky and Stars.

King of the Infinite Realms.

U-Uh who wants to hear me talk about what kind of Ghost Cores the Fenton Family would have and the really fucked up reasoning behind it?

Hello, I've decided to try my best to keeping a decent schedule with writing. I really wanted to write this but the perfectionist in me is wanting to make sure everything is as accurate as possible! But I'm forcing myself to not gaf too much about it??? So, for now, I plan on posting the VERY HORRIBLE ROUGH DRAFT of the fic I've been trying to write! This has yet to be posted on AO3 which should be the main way to read it, but fuck it! I'm desperate for attention and I want people to tell me that it's at least a little bit okay! I don't know what to name the actual fic yet. I want to name it something to a lyric from Epic The Musical but idk! Maybe it can be called I Can't Help But Wonder but not further explain why it would fit cause it might not. Once I post the really horrible rough draft, I'll link it here!