A/N: Here's prompt fill #4! A lore dump of head cannons for Halfas mostly, still I hope you enjoy and please R&R!

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Phantomroyalty

AO3: PhantomKick

Natural born halfas (EX a child with one ghost parent and one human parent) used to be commonplace. Now they are all gone. What happened to them?

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Half A Recapitulation

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It was something of a mystery, something unique that he'd never expected to find where he'd found it.

An old and odd book tucked away in the corner of his grandmother's attic, bound in leather with an imprinted skull that almost seemed to glow in the dark and under certain light if it had a pearlesque green tint to it. There was no title on the cover and was held firmly shut by a brass clasp and chain.

Danny had assumed it was a journal of some kind stored away through the years and forgotten, and he would have passed it off if not for the post-it note with a golden CW. That alone told him this was something more. Something significant, and moreover something that needed to be coming with him.

They had been helping to clean out his grandparents' place after his grandmother, his mom's mom, passed away at a decent age of 86. He never got to meet his grandfather on Maddie's side but he'd heard enough stories throughout the years he didn't feel it mattered much.

But after the funeral had gone and passed and assets were divided and given to whom they were willed to, it had fallen to the next of kin, and by extension him and Jazz getting roped along too, to clean out the leftover stuff that hadn't been officially willed.

Wanting to get away from his mother and his Aunt, along with the handful of other relatives that only ever seemed to come around for funerals or family reunions, he volunteered for the attic. Thus bringing him back to the present where he stood running his hands over the etching on the leather of the old book he'd found.

He resolved to take it with him invisibly out to the RV, stuffing it under his mattress before heading back in to finish his cleaning of the attic.

The sun was well gone by the time they were done their share of the cleanout. Danny was tired and more than happy to have the beds in the RV to lay down on. Pulling the curtain closed he fished out the book from where he'd stashed it and pulled the covers up over him for added protection.

Carefully as if the clasp were made of fine glass or china, he unlatched it. It clicked open harmlessly and Danny poured power into his eyes to allow him to see the text outlined within the book. Latin? It was written in Latin?

Okay no big deal, he'd been studying it in both English class and the Zone with Frostbite. Why he needed to know that language he couldn't guess, and Frostbite never seemed too keen to tell him either. The yeti would wave off the query, or dodge it.

Pushing that matter down and putting it away until later Danny began to read. The first bit of the book seemed to be a timeline of sorts, with a bunch of names before branching off into others, before stopping abruptly.

He frowned down at the book before noticing a small fold in the corner of the page. Gently he tugged at the fold and freed a piece of rolled and folded yellowed paper. Huh…. this was in English…

As his eyes scanned the new paper he realized almost instantly that he was looking at; a family tree of sorts. He scanned the names a bit before seeing a few he actually recognized. "Huh… Walker?" he muttered aloud. That was his grandmother's last name and his mother's maiden name… was this his family tree then? Was this book detailing his family history?

If that was the case it was no wonder Clockwork had wanted him to read it... Still, it didn't make sense, this family tree was clearly new, it wasn't even attached to the book just hanging in the pages, the writing was vastly different as well.

He flipped a few pages and felt his blood run cold in the next few words.

'Demi-ghosts are powerful beings brought about the fusion from ectoplasm and an organic, living creature.'

This was a book on half ghosts in his grandparent's attic? He bit his lip and scanned through the pages, reading on and skimming past and skipping over the details of what made a halfa, Demi Ghost or whatever, different, and landed on the history.

The images gave him chills.

They were bloodied and so lifelike Danny could almost hear the screams from the slaughter. The area was titled 'the great divide and the battle of the Gods.'

'This area of the grimoire shall be dedicated to the retelling of our history, our understanding of the cycle, and how this all came about. There was a time when Demi Ghosts were seen as balancers. Gatekeepers of sorts. We were in charge of helping the full dead to carry out their purposes and allow them to transcend into the great pooled collective. Doing so allowed that spirit to rejoin the cycle of life, death and rebirth.

Ghosts would break the set cycle and strain the delicate balance the two main realms held. For as much as ghosts needed the purely living to fuel the ectoplasm with their energies, emotional or otherwise, they needed the ghosts to give back the purified life energy, or spirits collected there. This soul energy is the purest form of ectoplasm and exists within a ghost's core.

If a ghost can not draw an ectoplasmic base around its soul, then it is absorbed by the zone itself to intermingle. If a soul with strong desires enters the zone it can collect and condense the ectoplasm, a core will be formed and thus a ghost.

Demi Ghosts break that rule, break that cycle and permeate the realms by straddling the line. Under natural causes, we can not pass on, fueled by the energy of both life and death in this delicate and overwrought equipoise. We are not invincible however, as even one as powerful as the Great Idol can be taken down. As we can never properly pass on we do not rejoin the collective if we are killed as demi-ghosts.

Oftentimes, because of our nature, we will be reformed as full ghosts where we can then rejoin the cycle if we are able to transcend. Thus we help our brethren to move on and complete their path within the great circle. We are balance, and we are the keepers of the laws, our sheer power allows us to rule as a governing body of few to serve many.

That all changed when the Kharlan attacked. Seeking power they struck firm against us, with weapons and powers the likes of which we were unprepared to defend against. Our place in the cycle was interrupted that day.

With burning wings like seraphim, they struck, changing some of our members into grotesque mockeries of what our ghostly forms were. Those of our numbers who could fight valiantly while those who couldn't or had underdeveloped cores, fled to the human realm to escape the persecution that was being brought upon us. We still had our human guises after all, and blending among the packs of full humans was easy.

Though the attack was brutal and those who fled survived the ones who allowed us this luxury were trapped, as our once noble leader, The Great Idol, now one we call The Dark Perah after his horrid crimes, destroyed our connection, our doorway to the realms.'

Danny startled at those words. "Dark Peraih? …. Pariah Dark then?" Danny muttered out under his breath. He was the halfa's leader at one point? He was a halfa? He skipped forward a bit taking in the words here and there,

Pariah Dark had wanted more power, not contented in being the ruler of the Demi Ghost's tribe, and instead, wanting to rule the Ghost Zone's collective. He had a few halfa supporters that backed him, but the rest of the tribe had turned away from him and thrown him out of their ranks, only for him to flee, gain more followers and artifacts of power before taking out the very tribe he had once been in charge of.

The family tree that was at the beginning of the book is the groups of the undeveloped and more human half of the group that fled. Which meant… With the Walker namesake on that list, his grandparents, his mother and to extension himself were descendants of that tribe...

For the group that stayed behind and fought however, the book held no information on what happened to them, not really anyway. The person who wrote this theorized the mutations their cores suffered turned them into Full Ghosts and perhaps were still within the realms of the Ghost Zone living as best they can.

He read on enamoured now, and his eyes glowed brighter in response. Some part in the back of his mind was glad that he'd pulled the curtain if for no other reason than the fact his sister would endlessly pester and tease him about being so interested in a book for once in his life.

It was filled with information about him, his family, and his species even! He couldn't believe it! There was so much helpful information hidden within the pages of this book, from potential powers, biology, life cycles, all the way over to medicine.

It wasn't until he felt a smack on his head through the blanket did he reemerge from the little world he was lost in. Danny blinked up at his sister in confusion, she was silhouetted by the Fentonworks illuminated sign.

"We're home," she said simply raising a brow at him.

Danny blinked and craned his neck to look around his sister. "Yeah, right..." He slid off the bed, book stuffed under his shirt, his new coveted item, covered from any family members' prying eyes. He booked it into the house and up the stairs into his room eager to continue his reading.

Jazz watched him go with a concerned look, though it was quickly pushed aside when she saw her father coming up behind with an eager smile. Figuring that's why her brother fled she hightailed it away as well.

Danny shut the door to his bedroom with a soft click, making sure it was locked before he moved across to his bed and hunkered down with the book.

The details in this thing were astounding! Depictions and diagrams of the different types of ghosts, some of the location names within the name, lives detailed with a meticulous effort that Danny couldn't help but appreciate. How the uncored Halfa's hid from the dark king as he ravaged the Zone looking for a way through after the original doorway collapsed.

It wasn't until he got into the rituals of how to create a halfa did he feel his blood run cold from worry and dread at the words detailed within. Suddenly this book and guide took on a much more sinister feel. He knew upon seeing this, why Clockwork had marked the book more than anything. If this fell into the wrong hands…

He didn't want to think about that now…

And so he continued to read.

' While we all share the genes to allow ourselves to bond with the ectoplasm, some who would carry, born of two human parents, or two Demi Ghost parents, will not develop a core as they should when they age as one who has one ghostly and one human parent would. Thus upon reaching the designated age, the right of passage is performed to force the core into existence.

Within the teen years of the potential fledgeling, we will prepare them for this harsh undertaking that their body will endure. The sacrificial ritual that is used to jumpstart a fledge's core to enable them to become a balance or law keeper. The fledge can opt out of the ritual and instead they will become a knowledge keeper, I am one who chose to be a knowledge keeper. I have always been one to value a sharp mind over a sharp sword after all.

My love of the written word and books aside, once a young fledge is ready they will approach the altar and lay upon the dias. They and the stone slab are raised into the air by the elders' power, and the prayers and chanting begin. The high elder will then attach the conduit for which the power will be concentrated.

If the Realms keeper is pleased, the realm's own energies will gather, and with a burst of energy, the conduit will be struck travelling down into the chest of the fledge. This then comes down to a battle of wills with the fledge. If they have the resolve to force then energies to their will, a core will form and thus a Demi Ghost is born.

If the fledge fails their life is forfeit.

Because of the high cost of the failure, we try to push young fledges to at least wait until sixteen before they attempt this.'

Following the words, there was a sketch of some kind of altar, in the shape of a pyramid with a pole in a vague shape of a lightning bolt pointing towards the top of the pyramid. A few details surrounding the area along with a set of coordinates, Ghost zone coordinates.

Was this right? Was this real? Danny stared at the page for a long time worrying his lip. He makes a face at the numbers before pulling out his phone and snapping a photo of the page. He had to look for this place. He just had to know if it was real!

He was far too excited to sleep anyway.

The transformation was quick and silent and once complete, Daniel Fenton was replaced with Danny Phantom in the middle of the bedroom. With a curt nod to himself, Danny phased invisibility downward into the basement.

A quick check around confirmed his parents were nowhere to be seen. Satisfied he moves to open the portal before slipping through into the green abyss. He focused on the coordinates on his phone and found a vague push of where to go when he read through the names of the quadrants in the image.

He recognized where the one location was and swiftly sped off towards it, knowing he would probably be here most of the night exploring now.

Two hours… It took two hours of searching and a few times asking for directions through the quadrants, but he finally did it. He was here, and before him, stood er, floated the pyramid he had seen in the book.

If he didn't know the significance of this place, even if he'd stumbled upon it on his own he never would have gone to examine it without prompting.

Quickly he flew to the small island that held the building, this temple aloft. Zipping around it to examine it.

It was a simple step pyramid, a door in the one side and pillars that looked of Greek or Roman influence out front. Carefully the teen floated into the temple marvelling at the stone etchings on the wall.

The area was rather vacant, all things considered, with many branching hallways leading down and through the pyramid, the front of the room had a slab of smooth stone that looked like it fell from the ceiling, but on further inspection, Danny wondered if that was the dias that the so-called fledges would lay on.

Looking at the images on the walls that assumption seemed to be the correct one. The large hall was decorated with human like statues and figures, as well as six pillars spaced evenly around the room to support the ceiling. The images on the walls depicted snippets of what Danny had read in the book, along with a few gathering people who were holding a heart with a circle and a very simple etching of smoke within that.

Danny was amazed, to put it simply. Looking around the main hall he decided to explore a bit more and flew up towards the skyline opening. From up here, he could almost feel the electrified ectoplasm. Tall poles folded into the top of the pyramid, making the proper point of the shape, the four posts holding up a large post that Danny swore looked like the ray gun his mother uses as a weapon.

He shivered. This place felt eerie… it reminded him too much of the portal actually…

"Great one? What are you doing in this sacred place?" A deep voice sounded from behind him.

"Frostbite? I could ask you the same." Danny responded in kind taking flight to zip up to the yeti ghost who was riding some sort of segway looking device.

"I maintain the security in this place, you must have been what triggered the alarm." The large ghost mused. "Though I am curious, do you know this place's significance?"

"I mean, sort of? I found a book on this place and wanted to check it out. It had details of some halfa thing in the book so I just… I was curious." Danny explained. Though now that he thought on it more it really was stupid to rush off here in blind excitement.

Frostbite seemed to take this in stride however as a large grin blossomed on his furry face. "Then you know more than you need to." The yeti boomed. "And have you had any revelations?"

"What? No? Should I have?" Danny asked eyeing Frostbite suspiciously,

The Yeti shrugged though his grin never drops. "It is of little consequence. But please. This is no place you should be playing explorer in. If you are unprepared you could set off a trap that was set a millennia ago to prevent unwanted or curious creatures from entering these grounds."

Danny nodded and took the invite to stand behind Frostbite on the flying device. "Wait how do you know about this place? And why are you protecting it?"

"Ah! That Great one is the question you should discover for yourself." Frostbite chuckled out.

"Another non-answer great, you're getting as bad as Clockwork you know?" Danny groused to his mentor. "So did they really… turn people into halfas here?"

Frostbite nodded and looked down at the dias through the skylight with a far off frown. "There is much you must learn Great One. Perhaps, though these are all stories for another day." With that cryptic message, Frostbite activated the Infinimap to bring them back to the entrance of the Far Frozen.

"Do you wish to stay a while? Or perhaps, require an escort back to your gateway?" Frostbite asked once the world around them had settled. The map always had that disorienting effect on people it seemed, not just humans and part humans…

"No…I should probably head home, and I'm fine doing that by myself." Danny said jumping off the segway with a lopsided smile. "Though before I go I have one question for you."

Frostbite nodded and tilted his head inquisitively to the side, his fuzzy brow knitting together as he did.

"When I first came here, you'd said something about us having something in common, I had thought it was the ice core… but now?" Danny trailed off examining the yeti with deep scrutiny.

"I think you know the answer," Frostbite said simply, smiling bright and showing off his impressive fangs.

The book said monstrous forms… "Holy- Really?" Danny's eyes went wide.

"Indeed. We are part of the tribe that stayed to fight, it took many thousands of years for us to regain any semblance in our sense of self. Twisting one's core is not something to be taken lightly." The yeti said simply

Danny was simply in awe he had so many questions! The buzzing of his phone snapped him out of his dizzying thoughts, though the time on the phone made him groan. Jazz had noticed he wasn't in bed and messaged him making sure he was okay, but the time was almost 5 AM. so much for sleep…

With the promise to return soon (with the book) Danny sped off for home. His head spinning and thoughts reeling from everything he'd learned.

The best part of it all though was knowing that he wasn't alone, well not entirely anyway.

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Complete

Total word count: 3392