Chapter Text
The air was thick with grief, breached by the smallest of hopes in the form of a cold, green marble. Sam cradled what was left of her friend and held back tears. Tucker was at her side, an arm around her shoulder and his gaze firmly on that precious treasure. The remaining Fentons stood loosely around them, peering over at the core of their youngest. In his time ghost fighting Danny had regularly been thrown to the ground from a height no human could reach. He’d been buried under buildings. He’d been cut, burned and bruised. Somehow he’d always managed to finish the fight and make it through. Not this time.
The GIW got him. They pulled a cheap trick with a fake hostage and then hit him with some new weapon. Somehow they were aware they could use his good nature to trap him, and yet proclaimed Phantom inherently evil as a justification. The town rallied against them when the news spread, and what they thought would be their crowning achievement turned into their downfall. Just because their organisation lost government support and funding, didn’t mean they were going to give Danny back however. The law said they had every right to keep him, and they were spiteful like that. His friends and family launched a rescue mission of course. They found him, just in time to watch him fall apart. Sam could never describe how she felt when he melted into green goo in front of her. But the way she screamed; wailed, in denial could have rivaled one of Danny’s own. Jazz, the most observant and level-headed of them, spotted his core without knowing to look for it or even what it was. She stuck her hand into the mess and pulled out his core on a hunch. When she scooped it up with shaky hands, tears spilled from her eyes. She said it ‘felt like Danny’.
It was with little optimism that they brought it back to the Far Frozen for help. The doctors immediately reassured them that Danny wasn’t gone, and the relief was even more overwhelming than the initial despair. Danny’s core was put through various tests after that while his loved ones were briefed on what was common knowledge to any ghost. He’d ‘retreated into his core’ as the doctor explained. It happened when a ghost became too damaged and low on energy to maintain their form. He would be vulnerable for a long while, the core not able to withstand so much as a metre drop. In time he would reform, but they had no idea how long that would take. Most ghosts could maintain a baser, more defensive form after a day but so much of caring for a halfa was guesswork.
After the tests were over, the technicalities of ghost medicine going over everyone’s heads, they were clear to take Danny’s core back home. Sam had insisted on carrying it, needing at least the illusion of control. Somehow, his family let her. She did feel Danny, just like Jazz said. The core let out little pulses, not quite like a heartbeat, but still with a kind of rhythm. It was soothing. Intentional or not, Sam wasn’t surprised Danny was still trying to give comfort to others. After some time of unproductive, almost trance-like staring, it was Tucker’s stomach that brought everyone back to the present moment. Dinner had passed hours ago. Maddie offered to let them stay over, but that was really just a courtesy for Sam’s part. Her parents didn’t let her stay over at other people’s houses, let alone at the Fentons’. The only reason her phone wasn’t blowing up with messages from them was because she’d pulled the battery out, which might have been a bit excessive. They had tracked her down using her phone before, but she doubted that technology would’ve worked across dimensions. So she politely declined and said her goodbyes. She also said goodbye to Danny, just in case he could hear like that. When she attempted to gently hand him off to Tucker he smiled but moved her hands toward Jazz. Jazz looked like she might cry as she took him, but her hands were steady.
Tucker and the family moved out of the basement lap and into the living room while he answered all his parents’ frantic missed calls and texts. The Fenton parents, experts at keeping themselves busy, started up their own projects. Maddie baked in the kitchen while Jack knitted as he sat with the kids on the couch. Said kids debated about how much Danny knew what was going on, and then about what they could do for him. Tucker insisted that Danny would love to hear him kicking butt at video games, while Jazz said reading to him would be better.
“Reading to him? He may be a marble right now, but he’s a teenage marble, not a baby.” Said Tucker.
“We don’t know how much he can even think right now. Something easy to understand would be good. Even plants like to be read to. Also, who knows how long this will last? How much homework he’ll miss? Maybe I can get the knowledge to him subliminally.”
“Uh-no. That’s torture. You are not reading educational texts at him when he can’t get away.”
Jazz smirked.
“Worst case scenario, he reforms quicker to get me to stop.”
Tucker matches her smirk.
“Alright, that’s a solid plan. I know I’d spout legs as soon as possible in that situation.”
“And in the mean-time we can keep him safe and tucked away with this.” Jack interjected.
He held up the black pouch with a white cord necklace he’d just finished making. An emblazoned green F was patched on the front, proudly proclaiming it a Fenton invention.
“That’s beautiful honey.” Maddie said as she came into the room with a large plate of brownies.
“Does it have some kind of defensive system build in? Laser repellent fabric?” Tucker Said while squashing brownies into his mouth.
“Nope, just a regular ol’ pouch. But it’s got the Fenton F on it.”
“It’ll be us that do the protecting.” Said Maddie.
She held her hand out for the pouch, which Jack happily handed over. Then she gestured for Danny’s core. Jazz relinquished it with the utmost care. Maddie’s breath hitched when it slid into her hand.
“It’s been too long since I’ve held my baby.” She said. Maddie tied the cord around her neck. “I’ll be the one to hold on to him, alright?”.
She looked to Jack then, and he gave her a soft smile.
“There’s no one better, sweet cheeks.”
Minutes later, Tucker got a call from his folks. They demanded he come home since he’d already stayed out passed dinner and didn’t see fit to tell them his plans earlier. He appreciated the concern but this was one of those times he was envious of how laid back his best friend’s parents were. Tucker dragged his feet with his goodbyes and chowed down on more brownies, leading to his dad personally coming to collect him. The man didn’t even wait until they got to the car before he started lecturing his son.
The Fenton family, now left to themselves, began reminiscing about when Danny was little. Funny little stories Jazz was too young to remember right. It put them all in a better mood, at first. Jazz found herself getting misty-eyed at some point, when she realised they were talking about Danny the way people did at funerals. She asked if she could hang onto her little brother for the night. If their parents were going to be with him during the day when she was at school then she’d look after him when she was home. It wasn’t terribly dissimilar to how they grew up. But hopefully he would reform by the following morning and Jazz wouldn’t spend the day worrying about him any more than usual. That night she placed his core onto the softer, plain side of one of her decorative pillows. Then she put on a playlist of classical music on low volume and drifted off to sleep.
The next day Danny was still a marble. Jazz handed him over to her mother with no small amount of disappointment. Maddie kept her son secured around her neck while she and Jack worked in the lab. Sam and Tucker came by for news, but ended up leaving soon after when they found nothing had changed. More days passed the same way and the Fenton couple scarcely left the lab, but that was entirely typical for them. They were taking the Danny issue in stride and continuing as normal. They handled it too well as far as Jazz was concerned. She decided so when checking on them for dinner one night nearly resulted in her toppling down the basement steps. Some piece of discarded junk, among many strewn about along the stairs, got underfoot. She was sent flying forwards. Luckily Fentons had amazing reflexes. Or unluckily, if one considered that such occurrences was a large reason why. Jazz leaned toward the railing and grabbed on, then used her momentum to swing to a clear spot at the bottom of the stairs.
“Hi sweetie.” Maddie called absently from the workbench.
Jazz fixed her hair and tucked her top back in before responding.
“Mum, dad, this place is a death trap. I mean more so than usual. Can’t you clean up?”
Maddie looked up from her work to see the state of the lab. There was their usual organised mess; parts grouped together by project or function. There was also a number of tangled, ruined wires, burnt plastic and dented metal. As well as a slippery pool of ectoplasm from a knocked beaker, though Maddie found the extra light radiating from the puddle helped her work better.
“I suppose it’s a bit messy.” She acknowledged.
“Cleaning the lab is one of Danny’s chores.” Said Jack.
“You realise he’s not going to be doing chores right now?” Said Jazz with an eyebrow raised.
Jazz then caught sight of the ecto-filter attached to the portal. The cylinder was full, to the point that pressure had forced a steady drip out the top where it connected to the portal. The gauge beside it showed the needle passed the point of the skull.
“Oh my gosh, the ecto-filter!” She exclaimed, as she ran and kicked through the maze of hazards.
Her father caught her by the arm.
“Not to worry, Jazzirencess! I’ve fixed that little ‘boom’ problem. Now that nasty ectoplasm will get flushed out with the rest of the usual stinky business.”
They looked to the filter, over-burdened and leaking more every moment. The glass cracked, causing them all to tense. Then a loud suction sound emanated from the machinery and the cylinder was swiftly emptied into the pipes.
“See, it works fine. Well, I might need to tweak the capacity it flushes at. I’ve got the same filter-flush system for the extra ectoplasm stores we moved up to the OPs centre for as they degrade over time.”
“I don’t know whether to be more concerned over the fact that we now have what is essentially a bomb underneath and on top of our house or the fact that you’re illegally dumping hazardous waste into the water supply.” Said Jazz with horror.
“Despite the anti-ecto acts, ectoplasm isn’t legally classified as a hazardous substance.” Said Maddie.
Jazz thought that sounded an awful lot like dodging responsibility. This was the same problem-solving style that led to food and appliances coming to life and attacking people. She wondered if she should be more worried about their home and the blimp/fighter jet atop it coming to life or every faucet in Amity.
“Aw, relax Jazz. I’m absolutely sure there won’t be any repercussions from this.” Said Jack.
If Jazz knew anything about how the world worked, her dad just sealed their fate. But that wasn’t her concern until something grew teeth. So, she put her energy toward beating through the clutter for a safe path upstairs, getting her parents fed, and then keeping her brother close and protected another night.
Maddie and Jack missed their son, of course. Once she’d gotten it in her hands, Maddie guarded that little marble zealously, reluctant to give it up every night. She did it anyway, for her daughter’s peace of mind. Danny was so fragile at the moment and that thought wouldn’t leave her mind. But she and her husband had always been optimists. It was easy to go back to business as usual. Though not quite, as Danny was down in the lab with them now. They had no idea how much he could hear or understand, but between her and Jack’s conversations and her own self-talk, she found herself speaking to him. Little asides about what they were up to and anything that might be tangentially related to rocket science. A sudden realisation came upon her, making her giggle.
“Uh, what’s funny Mads?” Said Jack.
“I was just thinking. It’s a little like being pregnant again, y’know? Carrying this fragile little life with me.”
“Huh. S’ppose so.”
Her mirth petered out after a moment.
“I wonder…when he pops out, will he be the same?”
“How do you mean?” Jack asked with a furrowed brow.
“I don’t know really. I mean, we don’t really know everything that happened to him.”
Jack put a hand on her shoulder.
“I think what I told you the first time we had him still stands. However he turns out, he’ll be a Fenton.”
She smiled at that, and put her hand over his.
“You’re still right.”
When the week passed and Danny still hadn’t reformed, they carried on caring for Danny’s core without difficulty. Well, Jazz grew more neurotic, and Sam and Tucker more depressed. Maddie and Jack however, were content to let Danny take his time. They had every confidence in him. While Maddie wasn’t impatient to see her boy again, she was beginning to find the pouch hanging by her neck every day to be an irritant. It often got in the way when she was leaning over something, and she always anxious about sparks catching on it. She was too worried about crushing it to put it on the inside of her jumpsuit. When she got deep into soldering and rewiring Jack’s ectoplasm dampener with ham storage, Danny’s core was moved to the workbench. There it stayed, until the evenings where Jazz would come to collect it. It was easy to get absorbed in their kind of work and easy to ignore the piling mess around them. It was less than a day before heavy tools were piled up around the little pouch. Jazz gave out to them about the splashes of ectoplasm that soaked it through, but that was unavoidable with their work.
Lately it seemed like tools were never in their right place. Sure, Danny wasn’t there to clean up for a little while and Jack was naturally forgetful, but he could’ve sworn he just put a socket wrench to his right only for it to not be there when reached for it. It had happened countless times in only the last few days. Jack might’ve suspected a ghost, but they had been oddly quiet. It was just possible hearing about Danny would keep them away out of some kind of respect, instead of using the opportunity to trash the town. He tried to be more optimistic in his view of ghosts since finding out about his son. It wasn’t too hard, since he already applied that positive attitude to most things and people. Maddie was having the same mischievous tool problem, which is what really made it suspicious. He conceded, with great reluctance, that he ought to try clearing some mess first before he brought out the ecto-weaponry. Of course, if a ghost wanted to pop out and claim responsibility, and if he could find his favourite blaster, that would be lot more convenient.
Tidying was an annoying process and it made him remember why he made it one of his son’s chores. When the work benches and some of the floor was clear, he didn’t even feel accomplished. He just wanted fudge. He wasn’t careful, didn’t look for and didn’t notice his son’s exceptionally fragile core of his being sitting on the edge of the worktable. A small knock with an elbow was enough to send it rolling out of the loose pouch and over the side. It would’ve dropped, shattered, and Danny would’ve been lost. Instead, another one of Jack’s actions meant a tile with a mind of its own. One of the wide tiles of the basement floor jutted up, catching Danny’s core only an inch after it dropped and creating a ramp for it to roll down. The little marble was directed away from hazards on the floor with gentle bumps of the tiles. It rolled into a darkened corner, where it was cradled in the shallow slope between the wall and floor.
Jazz was staying over at a friends’ that day. It was a hard thing for her to relax and enjoy when there was always studying to be done or a little brother to take care of. So when she got a frantic call from one of said brother’s friends that had come to ask after him, only for him to be missing…She was packed and out the door like she’d ran drills for it. She came home to a house turned inside out, with everyone stepping around like they were sneaking by a dangerous ghost; Careful steps and eyes checking all directions. Couch cushions were removed, even though they were originally sown in, cupboards were opened and Jack was rummaging through the garbage.
Another hour or so after Jazz had joined the search, it was like someone had taken pity on them. A clattering from the basement lab, which turned out to be a tool falling from the work bench, captured Sam’s attention. She rushed downstairs but kept her steps uncharacteristically dainty. There, right under the lights in clear space on the floor where she couldn’t believe they would’ve missed it, was Danny’s core. Sam called the rest of them down and within moments they had all rushed into the basement. Then she noticed something was odd with the core. It was greener than before. Brighter too. As they got closer, the light emanating from it became blinding. They covered their eyes, though the sound of Danny’s transformation rings rang clear.
His friends were the most familiar with that sound, and it made their hopes rise. Once the light had dimmed and their eyes had adjusted they looked for that cocky smirk he got whenever they worried for him. Those soft eyes that spoke to just how much they meant to him. The emblem Sam made that he wore proudly. Instead, there was nothing. Or it seemed that way, until a soft glow brought everyone’s gaze lower.
“What…what is that?”