#dp shadow

Danny had his accident way earlier –at 9– and so (to compel to his childish fanboyness) his suit is even more astronaut-themed to give him a (what should have been) foolproof full Hazmat suit;

due to the complicate attachment of the helmet, tho, kid Danny never had the time/chance to take it off to ask the rogues to stop attacking the town (and the glass visor is too thick and stuck (thanks Jack) for anyone to understand him);

my usual headcanon (which I use to justify why Danny's power level is so high from the beginning) is that since the energy of a whole dimension flooded inside him, he could be "on par" to the reading of an Ancient to the more experienced ghosts (thus leading them to the misunderstanding that Danny IS a small-sized Ancient that's hoarding Amity Park and its permanent Portal);

the misunderstanding could have been cleared in an instant if the Rogues had seen Danny's face, because he's scarred from the accident and you can't fake the freshness of a Death Scar to date how long a person has died (but, alas, the helmet takes too long and humans are in danger);

I'm shaking things up with the Truce to make it more star-aligned than religion-related, and so the Solstices (both) are established as one day without fighting AND one of the Ancients (following a rotation) can organize an event to which few elected can participate through invitation (it's a great honor);

this year is conveniently ((⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)) Clockwork's turn, so they invite most of the Rogues (mainly the ones who can be redeemed), some just as spectators and other as participants:

The Lunch Lady and Ember are part of the show-and-snack Hot Chocolate song;

Desiree is just a passenger, but her meeting with Danny is very much a stab to the Core;

Sidney Poindexter is also a guest, but he's also accompanying his kid cousin Robert on the Polar Express for the pre-teen's journey;

Skulker and Technus pair up in the broken toys wagon to try and invent a new weapon;

Johnny Kitty and Shadow decide to try and race the locomotive to see who's the fastest;

And last but not least the "villains" of the story, the Box Ghost, who wants to steal all the presents in Santa's sack since they're in boxes, while Walker had been pursuing the troublemaker trio on their motorcycle, but seeing so many "magical violations" he decides to imprison everyone.

Now back to Danny:

The accident happened 6 months or so before THE Christmas when the crossover takes place;

He's 9, so while he may be wary thanks to some "stranger-danger" conditioning, due to some previous positive interactions with Youngblood (kid-to-kid communication -> he already knew Danny was a kid and told no one) he's also brutally honest if a ghost asks him something, even if he's in human form;

(this leads to several Identity Reveals, Moral Crises and Epiphanies during the ride on the Polar Express for the Rogues);

Danny joined the ride to the North Pole (along with Sam and Tucker because they were at the Foley's for a sleepover) because he's this close (🤏) to give up on Christmas already and when the Conductor tells him that he could see Santa, he jumps at the opportunity to get proof that he exist and so his parents would stop arguing and ruining the holiday;

...upon learning this and that Danny is Baby™, they decide that just "not fighting" the kid isn't enough, they have to adopt him!

But where's Clockwork in all of this, you may ask?

They're watching from the sidelines, masquerading as the rooftop hobo with cryptid messages and suggestions, while the Rogues and Team Phantom scramble to stop Walker's and the Box Ghost's separate attempts from destroying Christmas.

Obviously they succeed, but... neither Santa nor Desiree (who had been asked) are powerful enough/able of such a feat (making Jack and Maddie stop arguing and/or hunting ghosts), so... there's the next best thing!!

✨Baby Acquisition!✨

On Christmas Day, when the Mansons and the Fentons come to retrieve their offsprings, Sam and Tucker can only offer two sealed envelopes (but no Danny).

One from Santa's (who offers the proof that he's real and not exactly a ghost, but also points out all the ways they killed their children's Wonder for the holiday so it's no surprise that Danny came to him to seek help) and the other from Clockwork.

The Ancient's letter reveals that since they're unfit to be Danny's parents in this timeline independently of any manipulation/choice/explanation/plea, once they'll get out Tucker's house, they'll forget about Danny and any trace of him would be erased from the town. This is just a polite/formal communication.

The duo stalls, trying to find a loophole or a way out of this, but all comes unfortunately to an end when the parent that was having Jazz for her own sleepover calls them for an emergency due to a ghost, so they have to go. There's almost no hesitation as they run out of the door, they just falter when this sensation of overwhelming loss hits them, but they charge on to get to Jazz and the ghost. (Because Danny had always been their last choice.)

From then on, Jack and Maddie go on their life as aggressive ghost hunters with this constant sensation of something off/missing, always out of reach, but with sometimes slivers of glimpses immediately forgotten afterward. (Jazz, Sam and Tucker still remember Danny and get to talk and meet with him sometimes in secret, but they are forbidden to speak about him to anyone beside among themselves.)

As their "crimes" against ghosts pile up despite Team Phantom still trying to convince them to stop during the years, they age until their time comes and due to the ecto-contamination they become ghosts.

It's only at this point that they meet Danny again, now grown up and with a life of his own and they immediately get it. That's what- who they were missing.

But it's too late, they have done too much and kept NOT choosing him (CW had put in the fine prints that they could have remembered everything and get Danny back if only they had sincerely –and without external input, like an identity reveal– rejected their biased researches).

So they get a(n after)life sentence for crimes against the Infinity Realms and this is the last time they'll see Danny.

Danny is... disappointed, but not surprised. He grew up with the ghosts and became a well-adjusted adult, so he had realized way back that the Fentons had been a danger to him. So he just tells his parents to spend the rest of eternity regretting their life-choices and flies away from their prison.

Sometimes... the only good choice for yourself is to cut away what hurts you and choose your Family, your Persons, on your own.

꒰(@｀꒳´)꒱

Uh. I ended writing a piece of this anyway. (・–・;)ゞ I guess sleep-deprivation after not going to sleep after new year's party is useful for something! (≧∇≦)

Anyway, here, as a thanks for enduring my rambling (and your patience for waiting for the almost late gift), you get an alt. version of the art piece without the Polar Express in the foreground!

(Was this angsty enough? >:3c)

(A thanks to @phantommoon-art @halfalix for their support and enabling through Discord. Sooner or later I'll be able to write this phic, I promise you! ( ◡̀_◡́)ᕤ)

Happy New Year and hope 2026 will bring good things to ya!

...

Things most definitely do not get harder after Sam rejects Vlad’s offer.

She’s not thinking about the potential help she could have had, and how much easier it would make things.  She’s not mourning the loss of a confidante who knows exactly what she’s going through.  She’s not thinking about how the person who offered to help her demanded she ditch her friend, and that Danny is the only thing standing in between her and actual assistance with her powers.  It was an easy decision to make.

She’s also not thinking about the existence of other half ghosts, and what that means.  Or the fact that the other half ghost was also created by the Fentons.  Or the fact that the Fentons talked about wanting to dissect ghosts at the dinner table and she is a ghost.

She’s especially not thinking about that last one.

Danny only sounded mildly irritated at the idea—

Nope, none of that is bothering her.  In fact, she’s far more focused on her mother, who’s clearly run out of ideas for protest if “motorcycle users” is the best she can do.  Sam would normally tune her out the second she started going on about the noise complaints and the potential to spread dangerous messages to children, but she’d prefer not to have… other things on her mind this week.  Not that there’s anything else to think about.

The point is, it’s very important that she spends the time before Vlad leaves town focusing on these absolutely ridiculous motorcycle protests her mother is planning and not second guessing any big decisions she’s made in her life.

So, at breakfast the next morning, she puts on her reasonable negotiation voice and asks her mother if she might be taking this a bit far.

“Of course not!” her mother exclaims.  “Samantha, people your age are far too innocent to understand the dangers that come with shady figures!  You need to be protected from anyone who might lead you astray!”

“Not everyone who uses a motorcycle is shady, Mom,” Sam says.  “It’s a perfectly normal method of transportation.”

“Nothing is ‘normal’ about the leather jackets those bikers wear, sweetie,” her mom replies.

Sam rolls her eyes.

“Oh, don’t count out leather jackets,” says Sam’s grandma from her chair on the other side of the table.  “I found them very stylish for a period.  You might like them more than you think you will.”

“Mother,” Sam’s dad says from his spot next to her mom.

“Oh, alright,” her grandma says.  “But motorcycles are hardly the most dangerous thing in this town right now.”  She winks at Sam, and Sam blinks in confusion, not sure what she’s getting at.

“Well, in any case, I won’t have one near this house, and we’re going to get as many out of Amity Park as we can.  Now Sam, you will be driven to school this morning by a chauffeur with a sign on the outside protesting motorcycles.”

“Absolutely not,” Sam snaps, crossing her arms.  “I’m walking.  It’s better for the environment.”  Well, in actuality she’s flying, because after that time absolutely nothing happened, she wants to get better at practicing with them.  On her own.  Because it’s no big deal and she doesn’t need anyone’s help.

The point being, she’s not telling her mother that.  And flying is more natural and better for the environment than gasoline, she’s pretty sure.

“Well if you’re walking, you need to get moving,” her dad says, glancing at the clock.  “Walking to school isn’t very fast.  If you’re out the door by ten minutes from now, we’ll let you walk.”

Sam groans and shovels her breakfast into her mouth.  She doesn’t need to leave in ten minutes, she’ll get there with plenty of time.  But it’s not like she can tell her parents that, either.  As a result, she ends up flying to school at a rate that will get there far too quickly, but she can always stay in the library until the warning bell rings.

To her surprise, however, when she gets to the library, someone else is already there.

“Hey, Danny,” Sam calls as she starts up towards him.

Danny’s sitting at the one in the back, with the most cover in regards to the screen.  In fact, as soon as Sam speaks, he yelps and clicks off of the page to something else.  Sam knows that move.  She did it too many times when she didn’t want her mother to see what she’s looking up, before she figured out how to look more natural.

By the time Sam makes it around to see the computer, Danny’s typing in something about NASA’s candidate program, and whatever else he was looking at is long gone.

“Hey Sam,” he calls, turning to her with a nervous smile.  “You’re here early!”

“Wanted to get away from my mom,” Sam says.  She narrows her eyes.

“Oh yeah, that makes sense,” Danny says, looking away.  “Anyway just uh, doing some research.  Mom and Dad are working on a new ghost weapon, it was too loud to focus.”

Sam looks at Danny for a second longer, trying to decide if she can call Danny out.  But really, it’s not like she has any ground to stand on in regard to keeping secrets.  Or lying, for that matter.

So eventually, she just nods and sits down next to him.  “Yeah?  You freaking out about not making it into NASA again like you’re not gonna be the most obvious choice ever?”

“They only choose a hundred people a year, Sam,” Danny says.

“And you’re the straight-A son of parents who have pioneered a scientific field,” Sam says.  “What’s your point?  You think NASA looks at how popular you were in high school?”

“Ha ha,” Danny says, rolling his eyes.  “I’m just saying.  I’m sure there’s plenty of standout applicants.”

“Yeah.  And they’re gonna pick you, Danny.  Or they’re fools who don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Danny smiles at her.  “Thanks, Sam.”  He turns back to the computer and goes back to typing about NASA like it’s what he’d been doing from the start.

Sam settles in next to him like nothing about this situation is different.  She’s about to help Danny out by commenting on something on the screen when Danny suddenly stops and turns to her again.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” he says.  “We— my parents are going to make more progress on figuring out ghost stuff now.”

“Uh, what does that mean?” Sam asks, trying not to let her nerves show.

And then Danny says, “Vlad’s going to stay in town to help them out,” and Sam feels the world tilt sideways under her feet.

Vlad’s staying in town.  He’s staying.  Sam doesn’t have an end date for when she gets to stop thinking about the offer he made her, or thinking about the help she can have.  That’s… he’s…

…She’s such an idiot.  Of course Vlad isn’t going to leave.  Not after he’s already spent so long watching her—

“He’s going to go out and do field work while my parents handle the practical side of things down in the lab,” Danny says.  Sam forces her gaze back to him.  “So we can have someone learning the better way to fight the ghosts and we won’t have to be so reactive to them anymore.”  He smiles at her.

Sam gives him a shaky smile back.  “Wow, that’s— that’s great, Danny.  Maybe people will stop asking you questions all the time!”

Danny laughs a little.  “We can only hope.”

“Yeah,” Sam says.  “Anyway, I’m gonna take stuff to my locker.”

“Oh, I’ll join you,” Danny says, and before Sam can protest, he closes the entire browser he was looking at and reaches down to grab his backpack from the ground.

Sam spends a second trying to come up with a reason she can turn him down, but she can’t think of anything.

Okay.  She’ll work out the Vlad stuff later, then.  It’s not like it’s important anyway.  Instead, she lets Danny ramble on about the space program stuff he was lying about looking at, and puts her stuff in her locker like that was her intention all along.  She manages to say just enough while they’re walking to appear normal, but she’s not really focusing on what Danny says.  She has a sneaking suspicion she’s only getting by this well because Danny is also not really focusing on her, and instead talking to make things seem more normal than they are.

Sam finds herself wondering how long they can both keep this up.

…

Vlad is staying with the Fentons.

Sam doesn’t even remember what excuse Danny gave for the reason, but it hardly matters.  It can’t be true.

Vlad is staying with the Fentons because of her.  Because he wants to convince her that he’s right, or taunt her with the decision she’s made, or call more of those ghosts to create more problems she’ll need his help with.  She doesn’t know exactly, but whatever it is, it’s bound to be unpleasant.  And she’s going to have to figure out what to do about it.  Just another thing that’s going to make her relationship with Danny more complicated.

The worst part is that Sam can’t exactly plan for it, because she doesn’t know what Vlad’s going to do next.  She knows nothing about him, and he’s apparently been watching her for… she doesn’t even know how long.

She’s lucky she doesn’t have a test in any of her classes that day, because she is completely stuck in her head for most of the morning.  She has no idea if her friends have noticed, but when she joins them at lunch they don’t seem to treat her any differently.

They’re outside that day.  The weather is nice, and the teachers are either in a generous mood or pity them all for all the ghost attacks that have befallen the school lately.  Sam finds Danny and Tucker at their usual table, both already talking about something.

“I’m just saying, do you think I have a chance with her now?” Tucker is saying as Sam sits down.  “Like, popularity by proxy and all that.”

“I don’t know if I’m really popular now,” Danny says.  “I think most people just see me as useful.”

“Is there really a difference?” Tucker asks, which is a decent point.  Sam’s willing to bet that if her classmates learned about how rich she is, her popularity would shoot up pretty fast.

“Probably.  At least, there is if you introduce yourself as ‘Danny’s friend’ and everyone says ‘who’s that,’” Danny says.  Which is also a decent point.

“Ah, but Paulina definitely knows your name,” Tucker says.  “So if I introduce myself to her that way, she won’t just shoot me down without even acknowledging me!”

“And that’s all you want?” Danny asks, giving him a look.

“At this point, I’ll take anything,” Tucker sighs, dropping his chin into his hands.  Then he glances over at Sam.  “What about you?  You want to use Danny’s newfound popularity to get with any cute boys?”

“Cute boys are the last thing on my mind right now,” Sam mutters.

“Sure, but are they ever on your mind?” Tucker asks.  “Maybe it’s time you try something new.”

Sam rolls her eyes and starts digging into her bag for her lunch, a fruit salad along with some of her mom’s homemade bread.  On her way to her lunchbox, however, she’s interrupted by a strong scent of dandelions.  She switches her route midway and grabs her thermos instead, then drags up her backpack with it and raises a much more suspicious gaze to look around for whatever ghost set her sense off.  She doesn’t see anything, which is probably a bigger issue, considering the last time that happened.

Or maybe Vlad is just spying on her again.

“Uh, Sam?” Danny asks, and Sam jerks back around to face him.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Sam says, “why?”

Her thermos is still technically inside her backpack, so that can’t be what he’s commenting on.  Is she really that bad at hiding her facial expressions?

“You just look kind of—” Danny starts, but he doesn’t get to finish.

Instead, his sentence is cut off by a scream from over by the road.  Sam whirls around, expecting a ghost, but instead sees a car barreling out of control from the road— heading straight for Jazz.

Sam leaps to her feet, looking around for a place to hide and transform, but there’s not enough time and the car is too close and Jazz is going to—

A shape quickly darts across and snatches Jazz up, getting her out of the way of the car.  The car crashes into a tree right behind where Jazz was standing, and for a second, everyone stares, shell-shocked.

Well, almost everyone.

“Jazz!” Danny yells, and sprints over from their table.  Sam’s brain kicks back into gear too, and she runs over after him.  Just as she makes it over to Jazz, however, she gets another strong whiff of dandelions, and she pulls up short.  Strangely enough, Danny does the same thing next to her.

Jazz is clutched in the arms of what looks like an older teenager with greasy blond hair and a leather jacket.  They’re both on a motorcycle, and the teenager— ghost teenager, he has to be the source of the dandelions— is smiling down at Jazz in a way that shows he isn’t very worried.

“You okay, there, kitten?” he asks.

“You— I— woah,” Jazz says.

That seems to snap Danny out of it, at least, and he runs forward.  “Jazz!  Are you okay?”

Jazz looks back at Danny, and Sam steps forward too, stopping next to him.

“Oh, I’m fine,” Jazz says, giving a shaky smile.  “Thanks to—” she smiles up at the ghost.

The ghost smiles back at her.  “Johnny,” he says.  He climbs off his motorcycle, then sets Jazz down.  Almost immediately, however, Jazz’s legs start shaking, and Johnny reaches out and steadies her by the shoulders.

“Hey, back off,” Danny snaps, taking a step towards them again.

“I think the phrase you’re actually looking for is ‘thank you,’” Johnny says, smiling right at Danny.  For some reason, that just gets a scowl.

Sam looks at him.  Sure, she knows this Johnny guy is a ghost.  But what’s Danny’s deal?

Plus, this one just saved Jazz’s life.  Sam hasn’t met too many ghosts that are willing to do that.

“Danny, don’t be rude,” Jazz says, elbowing him in the side.  She turns back to Johnny.  “Hi, I’m Jasmine.  Thanks for saving me.”

“Just glad I got there in time,” Johnny says.  He smiles sympathetically.  “You’re still shaking, Kitten.  Here, I’ve got something that might help.”  He reaches down into a side compartment on his motorcycle and pulls out a red jacket, which he passes to Jazz.

Sam takes another hesitant step forward, and Johnny’s gaze snaps right to her.  He smiles, and Sam shivers.

“And who might you be?” Johnny asks.

Sam opens her mouth, about to say something about being Jazz’s friend.  But before she can get anything out, Danny steps right in front of her.

“No one,” he snaps.  “Maybe it’s time for you to go.”

“Danny,” Jazz snaps.

“Oh, it’s alright,” Johnny says, smiling back at Jazz.  “I’ll check on you later, Kitten.”

“Her name’s not ‘Kitten,’” Danny snaps.

Jazz steps in front of Danny and Sam both.  “But you can call me that if you want,” she says sweetly.  “I’ll see you later.”  Johnny smiles, and waves as he drives off.  Danny scowls after him.  Sam looks after him too, but she’s not scowling.

He didn’t try to hurt anyone.  In fact, he saved a human.  Maybe she’s found another ghost like Youngblood, one who isn’t actively malicious.

She casts a glance at the car that smashed into the tree, and walks over closer to it.  There’s no one inside.

“Sam?”

Sam turns back around, and sees Danny walking over towards her, as well as the rest of the students getting over their shock and starting to congregate around Jazz.

“Are you okay?” Danny asks, walking up to her.

Sam blinks.  “Me?  Why are you asking me?”

“‘Cause that guy was…” Danny looks behind him, in the direction Johnny drove off in.  “…you know what, it doesn’t matter.”  He turns back around and steps up next to her, and also sees the driver’s seat is empty.  “That’s… weird.”

“Yeah,” Sam agrees, looking back down at the car.  “Weird.”

They’re both silent for a moment.

“You sure you’re okay?” Danny asks.

Sam nods.

“Okay.  I’m gonna go check on Jazz.”

“Me too,” Sam agrees, and they both walk away from the car together.

Jazz is now surrounded by other students, though at least this time they’re asking if she’s okay, instead of irritating questions about ghosts.  She’s also not paying too much attention to them, and instead smiling down at the jacket Johnny gave her.

Maybe the car was affected by some ghostly energy too?  Maybe that’s how Johnny knew to swoop in and save her?  But why would he do that?  Even Youngblood, who didn’t actually want to hurt anyone, didn’t go out of his way to save people.  Just what kind of ghost was Johnny?  Did he come from the ghost zone?  Were there other ghosts from the ghost zone who might want to save humans instead of hurting them?  Could… could she maybe talk to them instead of Vlad?

Well, one thing is for sure.

She needs to find out.

…

Sam doesn’t really make a habit of searching out the ghosts.  She usually doesn’t need to.  They’ve been very willing to find her in the past.  But that night, she heads out after dinner and takes a flight around town, looking for Johnny.

She starts over by the Fentons, but doesn’t linger too long.  There’s more people there than just Jazz, after all, and pretty much all of them are pretty hostile towards her.  Johnny doesn’t seem to be there anyway.

She doesn’t know anything about the kind of ghost Johnny is, which means she doesn’t have an idea of where to start looking.  The Lunch Lady, Skulker, and Sidney Poindexter all had locations they frequented.  Youngblood didn’t, but Youngblood was playing a game all over Amity Park.  Her best guess would involve wherever bikers hang out, but she doesn’t know about biker culture in Amity Park— too far away from her goth counterculture for her to pay attention before now.  As a result, she ends up sort of flying around aimlessly at first.  It’s admittedly not the worst thing.

She hasn’t had a ton of time to just… enjoy her powers.  When she first got them, before the Lunch Lady showed up, she’d been struggling with getting control of them too much to really use them for fun.  The idea of using them for fun things was a far-off possibility, put off until after she’d gotten a better handle on them, and after she’d told Danny and Tucker what had happened.  She barely feels like she has the first one down even now, and she’s already decided she’s never doing the second.

But that means this is kind of her first time just flying for the sake of it.  Well, almost.  She’s looking for Johnny.  But still… it’s nice.  There’s evening birds around her, and the sunset on the horizon.  The first stars are peeking out of the air above her.  The view of Amity Park from above isn’t exactly a bad one.

At least, not until she arrives over the park, and spots her parents in the fading light, taking down the remains of their motorcycle protest.  Sam groans and crosses her arms from her place in the air above them, invisible.  Leave it to her parents to be worried about the least important thing at any given time.

The next second, dandelions hit her nose, and Sam has just enough time to perk up before she hears, “What’s their problem, right?”

She spins around, and there’s Johnny, leaning over the handlebars of his motorcycle from a hundred feet in the air.

“I—” Sam raises her hands on instinct, but then forces them to lower again.  “It’s you.”

“Sure is,” Johnny says.  He grins at her.  “How’re you doin’, then?  You’re the new kid on the block, from what I hear.  Though maybe not the newest kid anymore, if I count.”

“You’ve heard about me?” Sam asks in surprise.

“The half-ghost half-human girl who’s been kidnappin’ ghosts left and right?  Not a ghost in the zone who hasn’t heard about you by now.  Gaia’s Shadow, is it?”

Sam swallows.  “You’re not… mad?” she asks.  “About the kidnapping stuff?”

Johnny shrugs.  “You let ‘em go in the end, didn’t’cha?  No skin off my bones.”

“Isn’t it ‘skin off my nose?’” Sam asks.

Johnny grins wider.  “Not for a ghost, Shadowling.”

Sam pauses, and spends a moment taking him in.  Relaxed, leaning over his handlebars.  Smiling, cracking jokes.  He doesn’t look like he’s particularly interested in a fight.

Slowly, she allows herself to smile.  “Is that a ghost saying or a you saying?”

Johnny laughs.  “You’re catching on.”

Sam smiles a little more.  “I haven’t met too many ghosts who start with talking,” she says.

“That’s ‘cause most of the ghosts you’ve met need to learn how to chill,” Johnny says.  “I’m Johnny 13.  And this,” he waves a hand, and something flies off of him.  “Is Shadow.”

The ‘something’ flies more over towards Sam.  When it stops, she sees a dark shape hiding in the, well, shadow of Johnny’s motorcycle.  It gives Sam a fanged smile, and two green eyes spark into existance.

Sam nods at Shadow.  Shadow grins wider, fangs and all, and flies back over to join Johnny.

“So, why’s it you’re flying around here, Shadowling?” Johnny asks, glancing down.  “You want to cause some trouble just like I do?”

“Well—” Sam glances down at the wrapping up motorcycle protest for only a second.  “No, no.  I mean, tempting, but no.  I was actually… looking for you.”

“Oh yeah?” Johnny asks, raising an eyebrow.  “Am I about to join your list of kidnapping victims?”

“No!” Sam calls, holding up her hands, before she pauses and clears her throat.  “I mean, not necessarily.  I just… wanted to talk to you.  I’ve never seen another ghost save a human before.”

“Oh, that,” Johnny says.  He looks away and rubs the back of his neck.  “We ah, might have been responsible for that car’s brakes failing earlier.  Me and Shadow, I mean.  We have a tendency to bring some pretty bad luck.”  He looks back over at Sam.  “But that doesn’t mean I can’t try and fix the damage my mistakes cause sometimes, you know?”

“I… no,” Sam says.  “I’ve never made mistakes I regret.”

Johnny chuckles.  “Sure, Shadowling.  Whatever you say.”

Sam looks away and crosses her arms.  “Look,” she says.

She’s cut off by a ‘zap’ sound, and a sudden burning pain in her shoulder.

She cries out and spins around, and coming up behind her is— what is that?

It doesn’t look like a ghost, at least not one she’s seen so far.  It looks more like a weird blue techno-suit that Tucker would go nuts over.  But it’s clearly person-shaped, and there’s what looks like a hoverboard solidly underneath the person’s feet.  There’s a helmet that completely obscures their face.  Their arm is pointed at Sam, and attached to that arm is a gun.

Whoever that is, they just shot her.

“Uh, hey,” Sam snaps, turning to face them.  “What the hell?”

“What are you doing here?” the person snaps.  He sounds male, but Sam can’t quite place his voice.

“We’re having a friendly icebreaking chat,” Johnny says.  He’s sitting up now, hands braced against the handlebars of his motorcycle.  “Care to join?”

“I think I’ll pass,” the person snaps.  “Never been one for the cold.”

Then he raises his gun again and fires at Johnny.  Instead of a normal bullet, however, some kind of glowing energy blast flies out.  Thankfully, Johnny manages to dodge before it connects.

“Shadow,” he snaps, and Shadow flies off of him and towards the newcomer.  Newcomer dodges, but newcomer is also clearly just that, and sails farther to the side than he seems to mean to.

“Hey, we’re not hurting anyone,” Sam says, flying into the space between Johnny and Suit Guy.  Shadow flies back towards Johnny while she does.  “We’re just talking.  Leave us alone.”

“You’re not hurting anyone?” Suit Guy asks.  “That’s rich.”

“Uh, rude?” Sam says.  “You don’t even know me.”

“I know enough,” Suit Guy says.  “I’ve never seen a ghost who wasn’t trying to hurt someone.”

“Look,” Sam says, holding up her hands.  “I know it can seem that way, but—”

Instead of letting her finish, Suit Guy lifts his arm and blasts at her again.  This time, Sam goes phase-through and the blast sails right through her.

She remembers Johnny only a second later, and glances back.  Thankfully he’s gotten out of the way.

But then, a second later, he revs up his motorcycle and drives right for Suit Guy.

“Woah, hang on!” Sam calls, but thankfully Suit Guy dodges.  Overshoots again, but dodges.

Sam darts over to hover in between them again, though keeping an eye on both of them isn’t exactly easy.

“Hey, can we talk this out?” she says.  “Let’s not hurt someone and regret it later?”

“Sorry Shadowling, but when someone shoots first I tend to shoot back,” Johnny says.

“I— okay, yeah,” Sam says.  “But he’s—”

A not-so-friendly zap and hard hit to her side reminds her that she’s been looking at Johnny too long.

Okay, new plan.  Focus on the person who is trying to hurt her.

Sam shoots a single vine towards him, a warning shot.  It scrapes his side, but nothing more than that.

Except Suit Guy clearly needs more practice with flying, because that’s enough to fling him back the other direction.  Whoops.

“Shadowling!” Johnny calls.

Sam spares half a glance back in his direction.  He’s gesturing for her to follow him.

Sam looks back towards Suit Guy, who’s still trying to get his legs— well, hoverboard— back under him.

“You ain’t gettin’ anywhere with him tonight, Shadowling!” Johnny calls.

He’s probably right.  Sam swears under her breath and flies off after Johnny.  She hears a couple of attempted blasts behind her, but nowhere close enough to hit.  Her and Johnny easily slip away into the night.

…

Well.  That’s another new thing she’s gotta worry about, then.  Okay.

At least she’s met another ghost who doesn’t immediately want to kill her.  Johnny and her parted on actual friendly terms last night, and she got to thank him for saving Jazz.  Jazz certainly seems grateful.  She’s still wearing the jacket that Johnny gave her at school the next day, and seems totally recovered from her close call.

One person who definitely isn’t grateful is Danny.

“I just don’t trust him,” he says at lunch, poking at his chicken nuggets and looking irritable.  “Look, he came to the house last night and was acting off.”

“Off how?” Tucker asks from his spot next to him.

“I don’t know!  Just off!  Jazz was acting off too!  And how does he know where we live anyway?”

“Danny you have a giant sign with your name on it outside your house,” Sam points out, “remember?”  She takes a bite of her own lunch, leftover bhatural and chick pea curry from the night before.  “Besides, what exactly is it that you find so suspicious?  The fact that he saved your sister’s life?”

Danny opens his mouth, then shuts it again.  He glances around to make sure no one’s coming over with a question.  For once, no one is.

He turns back to Sam and Tucker and gestures them closer.  They lean in.

“I think he’s a ghost,” he whispers.

Both Sam and Tucker lean back out in surprise.

How on earth does Danny know that?

“Why?” Tucker asks.  “He looks normal to me.  Well, Biker Normal.”

“Why was Jazz acting so weird last night, then?”

“Maybe because she had a near death experience?” Sam says.  “Those can shake people up— uh, so I’ve heard, at least.  Is she still acting weird?”

“I— well, I don’t know,” Danny admits.  “She left early, and since I got here, I haven’t really been able to see her much.”

“Danny,” Sam says slowly, keeping an eye on his face.  “If Johnny is a ghost… why would that be so horrible?”

Danny gapes at her.  “Because I can’t let a ghost date my sister, Sam.”

“He saved her life,” Sam says.  “Does that not earn him a little bit of goodwill?”

“I can’t believe you’re the one saying this,” Danny says.  “Sam, your only experience with ghosts has been as dangerous monsters only there to cause you harm!”

“I— that’s not— regardless,” Sam says.  “Can we really say that all ghosts are like that?”

“When every single data point we have reinforces that belief, yeah, we can,” Danny says.  “At least all the ones who make it over to this side of the portal.  I certainly haven’t seen enough to make me feel comfortable with one of them dating Jazz.”

Sam scowls down at her curry.  She’d seen enough to make her at least consider the potential that Johnny isn’t dangerous.  Maybe Danny hadn’t been there last night, but he’d been there when Johnny saved Jazz’s life.  Would nothing get through to him?

“How are you even sure he’s a ghost?” Tucker asks.  “Have you seen him doing anything, you know, ghostly?”

“Well I saw— uh, I mean, well— no,” Danny admits.

“Then maybe you’re jumping the gun a little bit?” Tucker says.  “Like, sure, if he’s a ghost then dating Jazz is probably an issue.  But you should probably confirm that stuff before you go around hunting people like they’re ghosts?”

Danny doesn’t seem to like that answer, but he doesn’t say anything else.  Sam doesn’t feel particularly inclined to either, so after a couple of seconds they’re all still sitting at the table in silence.

“Uh, okay,” Tucker says after a second.  “Did I miss something?  You two didn’t have another fight, did you?”

“No!” Sam and Danny both snap at the same time.

Tucker holds up his hands, but after another couple seconds it’s still silent at the table.  Eventually, Tucker speaks again.

“So, I tried asking out Paulina.”

Sam snorts.  “Yeah?  How’d that go?”

“I don’t like that tone, Samantha.”

“Oh, I know you did not just call me Samantha.”

“And I know you didn’t just mock my skills with women.  I’ll have you know that my skills are known throughout the land!”

“Yeah?  And how fast did Paulina reject you?” Sam asks.

“I don’t have to sit here and listen to this kind of talk,” Tucker says.  “There are many more fish in the sea.”

Sam rolls her eyes.  “Tucker, you’re never going to get a date if that’s your attitude.”

“Well, then maybe I’ll save a girl from an out-of-control car, and see how that changes things.”

Danny shoots Tucker a glare, and Sam jumps in before he can say anything with a, “Yeah, good luck with that.”

“Hey, it’s totally doable!  I just have to learn how to drive a motorcycle, and then how to tell when car brakes are about to fail, and then how to not be terrified that a car is gonna hit me when this happens, and then wait for all this to happen to a pretty girl!  Easy!”

“Yeah, I wonder why everyone’s not doing it,” Sam says.

“Uh, guys,” Danny says, sounding a little irritated.  “I’m worried about my sister?”

“Oh, uh, sorry,” Tucker says with a wince.

“What are you going to do about it, then?” Sam asks.  She can’t quite stop herself from sounding bitter.  “‘Cause it sounds like someone else has got the ‘save her from deadly accidents’ aspect handled.”

Danny glares at her, and for once, Sam glares back.  Danny’s assuming that Johnny’s a ghost just because he doesn’t like him.  He may be right, but he doesn’t know that, and that doesn’t excuse his reasoning.  Besides, Johnny hasn’t done anything wrong.

After a second, Danny pushes himself to his feet.  “Fine,” he snaps.  “I’ll show you.”  Then he stalks off.

…

Johnny shows up at the end of the school day to take Jazz on a date.  Sam only knows because she’s walking outside at the time and sees Jazz climbing on the back of his motorcycle.  But Johnny sees her, and when he does, he smiles and gives her a little wave.  Sam does the same back.

Jazz readjusts a scarf that she didn’t have earlier (something else Johnny gave her, maybe?) so it sits better, and then nods at Johnny.  Johnny starts his motor, and gives Sam one last smile before he turns to drive away.

Sam hears the door open behind her as she does, and turns to see Danny walking out of school.  He sees Johnny and Jazz driving off and immediately scowls.

“Would you lighten up?” Sam asks, crossing her arms at him.  “You don’t even know he’s a ghost.”

“What if he is?” Danny asks, glaring back at her.

“What if he is?” Sam repeats.  “Why are you just automatically assuming that makes him a monster?”

“That’s what ghosts are, Sam,” Danny says.  He frowns, and takes a step forward, putting his hands on Sam’s shoulders.  “Ever since they’ve started showing up, they’ve only caused trouble, and usually for you.  I don’t know why, but I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

Sam takes a step backwards.  “Danny, I’m fine.  I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can normally, but we’re not talking about organizing a protest or standing up to your mom.  These are dangerous, potentially life-threatening creatures, and I can’t expect you to be able to handle them on your own.  It wouldn’t be fair to you, Sam.  And now they’re— they could be going after my sister.  I can’t just let them do that.”

Sam narrows her eyes.  “You’re jumping to a lot of conclusions, Danny.  And you know what, they’re really mean.”

Danny takes a surprised step back.  He holds her gaze for a second, and then sets his jaw.  “Well,” he says.  “As long as people are safe, you can think whatever you want about me, Sam.”

Then he marches down the steps, and off in the direction that Johnny and Jazz went, like he’s going to catch up to them.

Sam rolls her eyes.  He can try and catch up with a motorcycle if he wants to.  She’s leaving Johnny and Jazz alone to enjoy their date.

That ends up not being the case, however, when halfway through her walk home she sees something blue flash overhead, and looks up to see the Suit Guy from the previous night.

She groans.  She doesn’t care that much about Jazz’s date, but if whoever this guy is tries to shoot at Johnny and misses (and he seemed new enough at this last night that he could) Sam would never forgive herself for not being there to make sure Jazz is safe.

So, she ducks down an alleyway, transforms, and flies off after Suit Guy.

It doesn’t take her too long to find him, and takes even less time to confirm that her suspicions are correct— Johnny and Jazz are just ahead, and Suit Guy is clearly tailing them.  Sam stays phase-through in hopes that Suit Guy won’t see that he now has a tail of his own, but after a couple seconds of following him, something goes off on his suit, and he immediately spins around.  Sam ducks instinctively, though he still can’t see her.

The Suit Guy looks back and forth between the direction Sam is in and Johnny and Jazz below, and after a second, shakes his head and keeps tailing them.  Sam does the same.

She has a feeling that Johnny knows they’re both there, or at least that Suit Guy is, because he keeps looking up at them, but he’s also pretty fast on the motorcycle, and eventually he makes his way out to a park on the edge of town.  Then, in a move that’s pretty smart in Sam’s eyes, he takes her up to the top of a small hill with much fewer trees to hide behind.  Suit Guy is forced to stay further back.

Sam stays phase-through and floats up behind Suit Guy, wondering for a second what her next move should be.  She could fly in between him and Johnny and Jazz, making sure they’re not right in the path of a newbie with a gun.  She could be direct and warn Johnny and Jazz that he’s there.  Or she could try to talk to him.

She takes a deep breath, and drops her phase-through.  “Hi.”

Suit Guy startles and spins around.  His eyes narrow.  “You,” he snaps.  “I should have known you’d be here!”

“Yeah, hi,” Sam says, waving.  “Look, I don’t know what you’re planning on doing here, but Johnny isn’t doing anything wrong.”

“You don’t get to decide that,” Suit Guy snaps, raising an arm to point a blaster at Sam.

Sam goes phase-through just in time, and the blast hits a tree just behind them.  “What is that supposed to mean?” she snaps, reappearing.  “And watch where you point that thing.  The trees haven’t done anything to you.”

Suit Guy doesn’t say anything to that, just raises his blaster again.

Sam dives out of the way, and ends up between Suit Guy and Johnny and Jazz.  She flies higher a second later, in order to not make Jazz a target.  She still doesn’t trust Suit Guy’s aim.

There’s a startled cry from down below, and Sam looks down to see not only Jazz and Johnny looking at them, but other people in the park pointing up at them too.

Unfortunately, that distracts her just enough that she misses a blaster going off apart from the sound, and a shot slams right into her chest.

She doesn’t have time to adjust to the burning pain brought on by that before she slams into the lone tree that Johnny and Jazz are sitting under.  She cries out and grabs onto a branch next to her head to keep herself from landing on top of the people below.

She glances down for only a second to make sure they’re okay.  Johnny tucks a ring he’s holding back into his pocket and then pulls her to his side, sheltering her from any potential blasts from Suit Guy.

“Hey, get away from her!” Suit Guy snaps.

Sam looks back up at him, and has just enough time to land in front of Johnny and Jazz before Suit Guy aims his gun.

Sam’s not sure what exactly she can do (she doesn’t really want to take a blast to the chest again), but before she can try and figure something out Shadow darts past her, and makes it to the underside of Suit Guy’s hoverboard.  Something there glitches and sparks, and throws off Suit Guy’s aim just enough that the blast sails over the tree above them all.

Suit Guy cries out in surprise and flies away from Shadow, causing him to dissipate.

Sam looks behind her at Johnny.  “Get out of here,” she snaps.  “Go!  I got this guy!”

Johnny nods.  He grabs Jazz, who seems a little dazed, but follows him to his motorcycle.

“Hey, get back here!” Suit Guy yells.  He moves to follow them.

“Sorry about this, but it’s really on you,” Sam says, before she shoots a vine covered in foxgloves at Suit Guy.  Just one (she doesn’t want to hurt him), but it does its job.  It forces him to fly out of the way to avoid it, and distracts him just long enough to give Johnny and Jazz time to get far away.

“Look,” Sam says as Suit Guy reorients himself.  “I think we got off on the wrong foot here.”

“Wrong tail is more like it,” Suit Guy snaps, gesturing at Sam’s current lack of feet.  “And I don’t see how you can get off on the right anything with a ghost.”

Sam rolls her eyes.  “You could start by talking to us,” she says.  “Instead of immediately assuming we’re here to cause harm.”

“Assuming— you tried to kill a Casper High student!”

“I didn’t try to kill anyone,” Sam snaps.  “I was just trying to scare her!”

“As if that makes it so much better!”

Sam groans, and the only thing keeping her from burying her head in her hands is the fact that she doesn’t want to get shot again.  “Look,” she says.  “You’re… new here.  I get it.  I made mistakes when I was new too, but I—”

“Paulina has nightmares about you,” Suit Guy snaps.

Sam swallows, caught off guard.  “I— oh, how do you know that?  Don’t lie to me!”

Suit Guy just fires another shot in response.  Sam darts upward, and uses the time Suit Guy needs to readjust his hoverboard to glance around for Johnny and Jazz.

They’re nowhere to be seen.  And Sam isn’t going to stick around with someone who’s going to say something like that to her just to try and win a fight.

Like this guy knows what Paulina’s feeling.  She is so out of here.

She turns phase-through for the flight home, and doesn’t stop being irritated before dinner.

…

Sam sees Johnny next the following morning on the way to school.  She’d kind of expected to hear from him, but she wasn’t really in a good place to do so last night, so she hadn’t looked for him.

This morning, she’s much calmer.  So when she finds him on her flight to school, clearly waiting for her, she directs them both over towards a nearby roof.

“Sorry I got in the way of your date,” Sam says first, before Johnny can.  “I promise he was there first.”

Johnny laughs.  “I figured,” he says.  “He’s a real pain, huh?”

Sam hesitates.  “I don’t know,” she says.  “I mean, he’s… frustrating, but…”

“But what?” Johnny asks, raising an eyebrow.  “He’s showing up and cramping our style when we aren’t doing anything wrong.”

Sam doesn’t say anything.  Johnny’s right, and she was really fed up with it last night, but… but that was also what she was doing when she started all this ghost fighting stuff.  Shoot first, ask questions never.  All ghosts are automatically evil and only there to get in her way, or stop her from doing right.  She… well, she understands this guy.  Just like she does Johnny, really.  Maybe there’s a way to bring both of them to an understanding too.

“I think if we can find a way to talk, all three of us, we might be able to stop causing each other problems,” Sam says.  “Ghosts can be scary for people.  He might think he’s doing the right thing.”

Johnny scoffs, leaning over his motorcycle’s handlebars.  “Because we’ve had tremendous luck with that so far.”

Sam sighs.  She can’t exactly argue that.  But there has to be some way to get through to this guy.  “What if we try to make it clear we’re nonthreatening?” she asks.  “Like, set up a peace talk on a rooftop, away from other people we could hurt.  Don’t bring any weapons.  Stuff like that.”

Johnny looks unconvinced.  “We were pretty far away from people we could hurt the first time we met him.”

“It’s worth a try, though,” Sam says.  “If it doesn’t work…” she trails off, because she actually doesn’t know.  She doesn’t want to hurt this guy, not when she sees so much of herself in him.  But she’s not going to stand by and let herself or Johnny get hurt without fighting back, either.

Johnny looks at her for another second, and then he sighs.  “Alright.”

Sam beams.  “Really?”

“Yeah, I’ll give it a shot.  But can I ask you a favor too, Shadowling?”

“Sure,” Sam says.  “What’s up?”

Johnny reaches into his pocket and pulls out the ring Sam remembers from yesterday.  “Can you give this to Jazz?  If this talk goes bad, I doubt Suit Guy will let me anywhere near her.  And it’s important.”

“Why is it so important?” Sam asks curiously, taking the ring.

“It’s a gesture,” Johnny says, waving his hand.  “For my girlfriend.  I really… well, she matters to me.”

Sam smiles.  “Okay,” she says.  “I’ll make sure Jazz gets it.”

Johnny smiles back at her.  “Thanks, Shadowling.  You’re better than they said you’d be, you know that?”

Sam laughs a little.  “Well, considering my reputation, I’d imagine,” she says.  “But I’m glad.  See you tonight?”

Johnny nods.  Shadow pops off his side for a moment, staying behind the motorcycle and away from the sun.  He waves at Sam.  Sam waves back.  Then they both split off, Sam to school and Johnny to… somewhere else.

Sam keeps the ring tucked in her pocket, but she doesn’t see Jazz when she gets to school.  Instead, she only finds Danny, who already seems to be in a terrible mood.

“Geez, who messed with you today?” Sam asks.  It’s only when she gets a glare in response that she remembers when she last saw Danny, they were technically fighting.

Sam clears her throat awkwardly.  “Where’s Jazz?  Is she still worrying you?”

“She stayed home today,” Danny says.  “She’s not feeling well.”  Despite the grouchiness, Sam can tell he’s definitely still worried.

“Is she sick?” Sam asks.

Danny scowls at the ground.  “Something like that.”

“What does that mean?”

Danny looks at her for a second.  “Nothing,” he says finally.  “Just… would you let me know if you see Johnny?”

Sam sighs.  “Whatever, Danny,” she says.  She starts to walk away.

Danny catches her arm.  “Sam, please.  It’s important.  I really need the ring he has.”

That makes Sam stop.

The ring?  How does Danny know about that?  Does that mean he really does know Johnny is a ghost, not just suspect?  Is she going to have to warn Johnny about Danny too?  Well, she’s less worried about Danny than she is about Suit Guy, but still.

“Sam?”

Shit.  She needs to say something.  “What ring?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Danny says.  Sam holds back a relieved breath.  “Just let me know if you see him, okay?  Please.”

“Fine,” Sam lies.  She pulls her arm out of Danny’s grasp.  “Can I go to homeroom now?”

“Thanks,” Danny says.  Sam takes it as a yes and walks away.

…

It turns out her lie is pretty harmless, because Sam doesn’t see Danny for the rest of the day.  It’s definitely strange, because she has a couple of classes with him, but she has other things to worry about.

First of all, she has to figure out how to get Suit Guy’s attention, if she’s going to talk to him and Johnny that night.  Second, she needs to come up with some kind of way to get him to listen to them both long enough to actually talk.  She may have gotten Johnny on board, but he’s not wrong— they haven’t exactly been successful with that in the past.  Third, she needs to figure out how to get this ring to Jazz without Danny freaking out about it for reasons unknown.  Probably the same reasons he freaks out about all ghosts.

And none of that is even mentioning the larger problems she now has to navigate, from Vlad staying with the Fentons, to how she’s going to regularly sneak in to let out whatever ghosts do end up captured in her thermos, to the fact that all of the ghosts around whatever the ghost zone is now know her and most are presumably a little ticked at her, to how much easier all this would be if she had help and the fact that the only thing standing in the way of that is Danny—

“Uh, Sam?”

Sam jerks upwards so fast that Tucker leaps back a step.  “Woah!”

“Sorry,” Sam says.  She looks around, and realizes she’s outside of the school at this point, and Tucker is walking up to her from the steps.  She shakes herself slightly in an attempt to get all of the frantic thoughts to fall out of her head.  “Sorry.  Did you need something?”

“Um.  Not really.  You just look kind of… stressed.  Is everything okay?”

Sam opens her mouth to reply, only to be cut off by loud yelling coming from off to the left.  Sam and Tucker both spin around just in time to see Johnny driving through the air on his bike, followed quickly by Suit Guy, who is already blasting at him.

“Shit,” Sam mutters, at the same time Tucker screams “Shit!”

Unfortunately, he then grabs Sam’s arm and starts pulling her into the crowd of people running away from the ghost fight.

Okay.  Okay, Sam’s done this trick before.  Sorry, Tucker.

She pulls her grip away from Tucker’s, and when he turns back towards her in a panic, steps just far enough to the side that someone obscures his view.  The loud and chaotic nature of the crowd gives her enough of a cover to go phase-through and slip through them, then run her way back towards the school.

It’s empty enough when she makes it inside that she just transforms and dives right back through the wall.  She makes sure to hide her backpack even as she hangs onto it.

It doesn’t take her long to catch up with Suit Guy and Johnny, though neither of them seem to pay much attention to her at first.  Suit Guy is yelling something about Johnny’s ring.  Geez, is everyone obsessed with that thing?  At least it gives her an opening.

“Hey!” she calls.  Both Suit Guy and Johnny spin around in midair.

Sam reaches into her pocket, and— yep, still there.  She pulls out the ring and holds it up.  “Looking for this?”

“You— I should have known!” Suit Guy yells, and then powers up his hoverboard.

Sam turns and zips back the other way, ignoring for now the screaming people below.  Instead, she stays phase-through and keeps going until they reach the woods outside of town, away from people.

Finally, she turns back around, and when she still sees both Suit Guy and Johnny, drops her phase-through state.

“Look,” she says.  She holds up the ring.  “You can have this, but only if we talk.”

“What?  No, he can’t have it!” Johnny yells.

“Johnny, you said you’d talk to him,” Sam calls back.  “Trust me, okay?”

“Why would I want to talk to anyone who’s trying to take over my— Jazz Fenton’s life?” Suit Guy snaps.

“Oh, for pete’s sake,” Sam says, rolling her eyes.  “Just because Johnny likes her—”

“Nope, sorry, that excuse won’t work anymore,” Suit Guy snaps.  “I have someone on my side too, and he figured out what you’re really doing.”

“That is what—”

“Johnny’s girlfriend, Kitty,” Suit Guy snaps.  “Ringing any bells?”

Sam blinks.  She looks at Johnny, who looks… nervous.

Why does he look nervous?

“If you think that I’m just going to stand by and let my si— let that poor girl get possessed by wearing all that stuff, you’re out of your mind,” Suit Guy says.  “So no, I will not talk.  Hand the ring over!”

…Johnny looks even more nervous.  Sam’s stomach is churning.

“Johnny, what’s he talking about?” Sam asks.  “Who’s Kitty?”

“Look,” Johnny says, holding up his hands.  “It’s not like she’d be gone.  Kitty got… stuck, on the way over here.  It wasn’t her fault, wasn’t Shadow’s fault, wasn’t anyone’s fault.  You know how it is.  We’ve gotta try and fix our mistakes, yeah?”

“You—” Sam looks down at the ring.  He’s… oh god.

“Shadowling, come on.  I thought you got that we ghosts gotta have each other’s backs with stuff like this, yeah?” Johnny says.  “Kitty won’t take her over completely.  It’s like… a timeshare.”

Sam clenches her hand tight around the ring.  “A what.”

“A timeshare.  Like, she gets her body during the school week, and then just on the weekends—”

Sam throws the ring up in the air and shoots a vine covered in orange lilies right through it.

“No!” Johnny screams.

Suit Guy looks at her, but Sam ignores him in favor of shooting another vine at Johnny.

Johnny swears, then raises his arm.  Shadow flies off of it and right towards Sam.

Sam shoots another vine, only for it to fly right through Shadow.  Then Shadow slams into her and sends her flying backwards.  Sam manages to turn phase-through just before she slams into a tree.

She’s up again quickly and back in front of the trees in mere seconds, but it’s still too slow.  Shadow is already flying towards Suit Guy, knocking him back away from the fight.  Sam’s vines didn’t seem to do much against Shadow last time, so she tries a different means of distraction— she shot an armful of vines right at Johnny.

They hit, and Johnny turns to glare at her.

“You little traitor,” he snaps.  “I thought we were in this together!”

“You thought?” Sam snaps, shooting vines at Johnny.  “I thought you were someone who actually cared—” vines— “about making sure—” more vines— “that you were doing the right thing!”

This group of vines hit Johnny’s motorcycle right through the wheel, throwing him off balance enough to send him toppling over the front handlebars.

Johnny glares up at her, then lets out a growl that sounds very distinctly inhuman— the first time he’s really sounded like a ghost.

Sam grits her teeth.  He’s not the only ghost here.

She raises her hands.

“Shadow, defend!” Johnny yells.

They both strike at once, Sam throwing out vines and Shadow aiming at her from the side.  Both hits find their mark, and Sam gets launched further to the right while Johnny sails backwards.

Sam’s hit is just slightly more effective, however, and pushes Johnny hard into the ground.  Shadow turns in concern for Johnny, and flies towards him with a concerned noise.

Before he reaches him, however, something more confusing happens.

A bright, scorching light suddenly appears from off to Sam’s left.  She throws a hand up in front of her eyes and peers over to see Suit Guy aiming something right at Shadow.  It’s bright, almost flood-light levels, and it does the job— Shadow screeches in pain and dissipates in front of their eyes.

Johnny lets out a pained yell of his own that would have made Sam feel bad two minutes ago.  For a moment, he completely ignores Sam, and flies hard and fast for Suit Guy.

Before Sam can even think about protecting him somehow, Johnny slams into him, and sends Suit Guy flying backwards into a tree with a painful sounding crack.

Sam doesn’t waste time.

“If you ever try to get me to help you possess someone again,” she growls, yanking her backpack out.  “You will rot in this thing just like the ghosts that came before you.”

Johnny turns to face her, but not before she grabs her thermos, points it at him, and sucks him into it with a fading scream.  The slam of the lid back on top feels especially satisfying.

How dare he.  How dare he.  How dare he try to make her help him overshadow Jazz!  She’s going to kill him!  Well, again!

Sam shoves the thermos in her backpack, tilts her head back, and screams.  She’s alone in the woods, anyway.  Who’s going to hear?

She cuts herself off only a second after she has the thought, a second after she remembers she’s not alone in the woods.

But when she looks down at Suit Guy, he’s still slumped against the bottom of the tree.

Oh, shit.

“Shit,” Sam says.  She flies quickly down to him.  “Shit, shit, shit, please don’t be dead.  Oh god, please don’t be dead.”

She puts two fingers to his arm before she remembers that she won’t be able to feel anything through Suit Guy’s suit.  She picks up his hand, but there doesn’t seem to be anything separate about the glove from the rest of the suit, meaning she can’t get it off that way.

Sam feels her own pulse quickening.  “Wake up,” she says, shaking the guy by his shoulders.  No response.

She shakes him again.  “Wake up!”

Still no response.

Sam runs her hands through her hair and takes a shaky breath.  She looks over the suit for any kind of off switch, retractor, something that can get the suit to go away so she can check the guy’s pulse.  She doesn’t find anything obvious, but she does notice that the helmet is not connected to the suit the way the rest of it is.

“Okay, uh, sorry about this,” Sam says.  She reaches up and pulls the helmet off.

…

Well.

Suit Guy is alive.

Suit Guy is also Danny.

Sam’s best friend, Danny.

Sam’s ears are ringing.

Danny still hasn’t woken up, but he’s breathing steadily.  There’s a sizeable bump already forming on the back of his head, but other than that he’s fine.

Other than that.

As if that’s not a big deal.

As if—

He shot her.

This doesn’t make sense.  Danny wouldn’t… he wouldn’t.  He’s her best friend.

He’s not Gaia’s Shadow’s best friend.

He hates her.

What is she supposed to—

Danny stirs, shifts, groans in pain.

Sam turns, grabs her backpack, and flies off as fast as she can.

…

She goes straight to the Fenton’s house, which, all things considered, is a terrible idea.  But she has to get Johnny out of that thermos and she has to do it right the fuck now.

She doesn’t run into Vlad, which is good, because if she did he would also end up in her thermos.  She does, however, run into someone else.  Because right after she sends Johnny through the portal, someone else pops out of it.

“Gaia!” Youngblood yells, ignoring Sam stumbling back as he does.  “What the heck?”

“I— Youngblood?” Sam stammers.  The lab is soundproof.  It’s fine.  The lab is soundproof.  “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been waiting for you,” Youngblood says.  Gerald flies out of the portal a second later and heads over to perch on the counter.

“I— oh,” Sam says.  “Okay, I’m sorry Youngblood, but I really don’t have time to play right now—”

“You lied to me!” Youngblood cuts her off.

Sam blinks.  “Huh?”

“You told me you’d keep looking for the ghosts who went missing, but you’re the reason all those ghosts went missing!”

Shit.

“I— look, Youngblood—”

“How are we supposed to play a game if you won’t tell me all the rules?” Youngblood snaps, crossing his arms.  Over on the counter, Gerald seems equally upset, but it looks like for more adult reasons (like, say, the fact that Sam kidnapped a bunch of their ghost friends and held them hostage).

“Look, I didn’t know—” Sam starts, but stops.  Because she had known the ghosts would be trapped in the thermos.

She just hadn’t known they could get out.

“Don’t lie to me again,” Youngblood says, eyes darkening.

“I… I’m sorry,” Sam manages.

“Liar,” Youngblood snaps.

“I’m not lying—”

“Yes you are!  You’d do it again!  You just did!”  Youngblood waves behind them both at the portal.

“I— that’s not— I can’t—”

Sam can’t breathe.  She can’t breathe and she can’t fix this right now, she cannot have this conversation right now, she can’t do it.

So instead, she goes phase-through and dives through the ceiling.  Hopefully Youngblood won’t be in a particularly revenge-seeking mood.

Sam heads straight for home, and doesn’t have anywhere near the energy to fake her way past her parents, so she flies straight for her room and locks the door.  She ends up just sitting slumped against it, unable to muster the energy to go somewhere more comfortable.  Instead she buries her face in her knees and fails to breathe for a good couple minutes.  It’s fine.  It’s not like she needs to breathe anymore anyway.

She does need to eat, though.  And sleep.  And she might still need her chest to be in one piece so it’s probably a pretty big problem that Mr. Fenton and Mrs. Fenton and Danny want to cut it open now.

Man, another half ghost who knows what she’s going through would sure make this easier right now—

“I have someone on my side too,” Suit Guy had said.

Oh.

That’s… she can’t do this.

She cannot do this.

A knock sounds on her door.  “Sam?  Are you in there?” comes her Grandma’s voice.  “Your mother hasn’t seen you.”

Sam swallows down a panicked gasp.  “I’m here, Grandma,” she forces out, somehow.

There’s a pause.  “Are you alright, Sam?”

“I— I—”

I can’t trust anyone.

There’s another pause.

“Can I come in?”

“No,” Sam snaps, far harsher than her Grandma deserves.

One last pause.

“Okay, bubbala.  But I’m going to stay here for a minute, okay?  I think my chair is out of batteries and I need someone to come here and help me recharge it before I can go anywhere.”

It did not have a name. In order to get a name, someone needed to give you a name. No one had ever cared enough to give it a name, so it didn't have one. It had been called many things of course; Stray, mangy beast, bad luck, disgusting. But those didn't feel like names to it. Maybe they were, and it just didn't understand what names were. It decided that it didn't matter. It didn't have a name in any way that mattered.

It didn't have a home. It didn't even have a place to stay. Wherever it was warm, it was chased away with brooms and hoses and rakes. Wherever it was soft, the chill of the ground forced it to keep moving, permeating through its tangled black fur. It was tired. It was hungry. It was cold. It had to keep moving.

The cold, squishy ground became firm and hard underneath its paws. It was warm. That was nice. It hadn't felt warm in so long. There was meat a few paces away. It wasn't good meat; it had been dead for a day, at least, and it was squished weird, and smelled of gasoline. But it was food. That was the important thing.

It made its way to the dead animal. It used to be a possum. Its teeth tore through the soft, rotting flesh of its outside. It tasted bad. It smelled bad. It was warm, not from life, but from the sun beating down on it. It was disgusting. But it was food. It hadn't eaten in so long. It couldn't let the food just rot.

The ground rumbled beneath it. Something loud, and fast, and much, much larger than it was coming. It should run. But it was so tired, and so hungry, and so cold. It couldn't let this meal, however terrible, go without a fight. 

"Oh shit! Babe, turn!" It was a woman's voice, shouted above the roaring of a motorcycle engine. It was closer than it should've been. It had been moving faster than anything it had ever seen. The motorcycle was heading right for it. It tried to swerve, tried to stop. It failed.

It hurt. A lot. Everything hurt. it couldn't move, couldn't turn its head, could barely hear. It was too hot. The ground was too hard. It was dying. It knew it like it knew that its life had been meaningless, suffering to survive in a world where it was meant to die. 

The ground fell away as it was lifted into shaking hands. It was warm. It was soft, not like the ground.

"Oh, poor thing..." This one was a man. His voice was shaky, weak, and gravely. "I'm so sorry."

"You should've turned faster," the woman from before said, her voice just as rough, though her tone was more firm.

"I tried, Kitty," he said. 

"I know. Does it have a collar?"

It felt the movement of the man's shaking head. "It's pretty mangled too. I think its a stray."

"Poor guy didn't even have a name," she said, and it felt her hand on its head, just behind its ear. The contact stung. It didn't want her to stop. 

"We'll call you Shadow," the man said. "It's not much, but that's all we can do for you now." Shadow. It liked the name Shadow. It was fitting. Shadow liked these people. They were nice. Warm.

"We're sorry," she said. "We tried to stop."

The world was fuzzy. Black. It felt like everything was underwater. It hurt, but its hurt was...distant. Unimportant. It was dying. That was ok. It had gotten a name. That's all it ever wanted. Shadow let its eyes drift close for the last time.

Shadow started as if woken, the sound of an explosion rousing them from a sleep they should never have woken up from. What happened? Its eyes traced over their surroundings, trying to piece everything together through the crackling flames. Where were the kind people that had held it? That had named it? What happened to them?

There. They were covered in soot, and their clothes were smoldering, and they were lying on the asphalt, unconscious. That wasn't good. There was a fire. They needed to get away, or they would die. Shadow didn't want them to die. They were nice. Nice people shouldn't die.

It ran over to them on its 4 legs, moving faster than it had ever moved during life. It batted at the man's face with its paw, trying to wake him up. He did not react, not even the fluttering of the eyelids. Shadow tried to woman. Tried scratching at her face, pulling at her hair, biting her. She did not move.

No, no, no, this wasn't ok. Shadow needed to help them. Needed to get them to safety, needed to help them because they helped it. But it couldn't do anything. It was too small, too weak, to drag them away. Its paws couldn't grip anything, could only bat at their skin, only able to hurt them more. It couldn't move fast enough, even with its new found energy and speed. It needed to be different. But it wasn't. Shadow was a cat. 

Or was it? It grabbed at the man's shoulders with clawed hands, careful to not pierce the skin. It lifted him up into its arms, like he had done before, and now he was smaller, and hurt, and dying. It flew over the asphalt, its back paws disappearing into a tail very different than the one it had before. It carried him to the side of the road, where the ground was cold and soft and squishy.

Shadow got the woman next, laying her down next to the man. They weren't waking up. They weren't moving. They weren't breathing. Shadow hadn't been fast enough. Hadn't done enough. It tried to meow, tried to cry in the only way it knew how, but it couldn't. It wasn't a cat any more. It didn't have a throat to meow with. It couldn't quite cry in the way that humans could either, but it was close enough. Shadow floated above the bodies and cried.

"Hey, what are you crying about?" It was the man's voice, not from below Shadow, where the bodies lay, but from the street. 

Shadow turned. He looked different now. Not as different as Shadow did, but different. The woman was besides him, her arm threaded through his. She looked different too. They walked towards him, but stopped when they saw what was beneath him.

"Damn," he said. "I guess your old man was right. The bike was the death of us, huh?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I guess he was. I don't regret it." She turned towards Shadow. "How'd we get over here? Did you see?"

Shadow could not speak to answer, but they seemed to understand anyway. "That's some kind of karma I think," he said. "Kinda shit that Ms. Polinshki would talk about."

"Oh, please don't bring her up," she said. "If we're dead the least we can do is leave English class behind."

"We were going to do that anyway, remember?" he said. "Dropouts and all that."

"Whatever," she said. "Now what?"

"That's a great question. Good ol reliable?"

She nodded. "How bout..." she spun around in a circle, before pointing in a random direction. "...that way?" 

"Sounds good Kitty," he said. They started walking away. 

Shadow settled down. The two weren't ok. They were dead. But so was Shadow, and Shadow felt ok, so maybe they felt ok too. That was good. That was all it wanted. It could exist happily knowing that they were ok, even if it neve saw them again. Even if it went back to what it had been during life; bad luck, mangy beast, stray. It would be ok with that.

"Hey, Shadow!" the man called out. The two had stopped only a few steps away, both turned back to look at it. "Are you coming?"