Just Another Phantom Zoner

Prologue

Disclaimer: I own neither Danny Phantom nor Smallville

Sequel to Just Another Meteor Freak. If you haven't read that... I'll try to break this story in gently but you may like to peruse it anyway.

Danny Fenton frowned, eyes creasing in confusion as his bare feet met cold stone floor, plodding hesitatingly across the darkened room. He paused, standing in front of a full length mirror that consumed the space in front of him. Bewildered eyes stared blankly, trying to make sense of the misted shapes that flitted across the glass before him. He cocked his head to the side in uncertainty as the dark shadows lighting the centre of the mirror began to take shape.

Before him was a young man, and it took far too long for Danny to place the familiar bone structure as his own. But the man in the mirror didn't look like him, not any version of himself that he'd ever known. He was strong and confident, shoulders set back regally beneath a rolling white cloak. Black tipped white hair was drawn back into a loose ponytail, the dark tips flickering in an ethereal wind. Atop the man's head was a silver crown, dancing with ghostly light and bright blue flames. But the most striking thing was the eyes, his eyes. Bright silver light flickered with specks of blue and green that looked haunted beneath the underlying façade of strength.

The figure in the mirror smiled at him, a soft and encouraging show of white teeth as the man seemed to nod in acknowledgement. Danny creased his eyebrows in puzzlement as the figure continued to smile, looking at him wordlessly from the world beyond the looking glass. Danny licked his lips, opening his mouth as though to ask a question when he stilled, breathlessly watching as a second figure stepped forwards out of the misty depths of the mirror world to resolve itself in the glass.

A smiling Chloe Sullivan grinned at him from the glass surface, coming to stand just behind the Phantom in the mirror. A strange shine lit her bright green eyes, and her blonde hair seemed to shift gently in a nonexistent wind. She was beautiful, and Danny felt something deep in his chest flutter at the sight of her sunlit smile. She was carrying a couple of books; her arms wrapped firmly around archaic looking leather bound pages. Chloe bit her lip, a cheeky smile flitting into her eyes as she shifted the books to one arm and placed her right hand on Phantom's shoulder.

Danny blinked, his eyes moving from the mirror at the strangely solid feeling of fingers on his own shoulder. He turned his hand to see a black gloved hand, gently laying delicate fingers on his shoulder. Dazedly he turned, catching the hand between his own fingers as he looked up into shimmering green eyes. But these eyes glowed a ghostly green as Ember McLain grinned back at him. He turned his eyes briefly back to the mirror, seeing the Phantom move one arm around Chloe's waist simultaneous to his own movements.

Shaking his head confusedly he looked down into Ember's eyes, somehow not disconcerted by the fact that Chloe stood in her place within the reflected world. Instead Danny smiled, catching Ember's left hand in his right as he drifted away from the mirror. He stared into the ghost's green eyes, dumbfounded by the strange longing pooling in those sparkling green depths. He whirled Ember around, guiding the two of them through shifting mist as they slow danced across the cool stone floor.

Danny eventually noticed the music, eerily lilting and yet somehow familiar; the bell like chiming of a glockenspiel thrilling with the fuzzy recognition of some long forgotten lullaby. It was hauntingly beautiful, twirling around the two of them with the eddying grace of moonlight on the waves of a wandering river. The music moved through him, moving him powerlessly with the overwhelming currents of the spectral dance.

Around him the room came into clearer resolution, tall darkened windows stretching forever upwards towards a high arched ceiling. Thick support beams of heavy black wood contrasted against the almost angelic white of the ceiling. Two chandeliers hung suspended in the air, held aloft by spider web thin strands of glittering silver that seemed to glow with delicate intricacy. Each monumental chandelier was lit by the bright light of hundreds of blue glowing candles, sending flickering shadows around the room.

Figures made of mist danced around them, rolling shadows that whirled and vanished as they pressed closer towards Danny and his spectral partner. He smiled, leaning forward as Ember dipped back, moving fluidly with the tinkling melody. Around them the shadows moved, figures half remembered gaining momentary clarity before fading back into the misted gloom. All Danny knew was the strange lilting melody and the comforting solidity of green eyes before him.

The beat changed, speeding up as the ethereal music seemed to gather a counter melody, the two parts twining around each other as wraithlike whispers echoed through the chiming bells. But even the melody seemed surreal, foreign in its familiarity and comforting in its haunting cadence. A soft smile crept onto Danny's lips as he continued to waltz slowly through the crowd of misted shades, letting the music sink deep into his soul. Ember's arms were soft and warm in his, her body moving harmoniously with his in time with the airy music.

Around him the shadows danced, twirling in misted synchronization as the blue candlelight flickered. The room felt lush, filled with life and energy as the dancers shifted in the room, yet somehow still Danny felt alone, separated by a thin veil that he couldn't quite fathom. The wraith like shadows pressed in, closer and closer as Danny and Ember moved in time with the lilting melody, close enough that Danny could make out vague features.

A flash of blue eyes, a red jacket; the familiar facial features of a man he should know. But he couldn't place the man properly before the shadows shifted once more, the tall dark haired man swallowed up in the eerie grace of the otherworldly dance. Danny's eyes creased confusedly as he once more spun Ember away, watching the elegant way she twirled before spinning back into his waiting arms. Danny closed his eyes, pressing his nose into the soft strands of her hair and breathing for a moment as the lilting melody bubbled through his blood.

He opened them a moment later, smiling down into loving amethyst as Sam Manson beamed back at him. The pale faced young woman looked angelic, a soft pink blush dusting her cheeks as she moved alongside him, her gothic purple ball gown shifting ethereally around her. Danny relished in the moment, his heart feeling completely settled as he danced with the girl he had always loved. The music pounded, warm and rich as he guided Sam easily across the room, the shadows welcoming them as the two were lost in the spectral dance.

Sam grinned at him, smirking slightly as she leaned forward to catch something off the top of his head. He felt his hair move, an unfamiliar weight suddenly being taken away as Sam lifted a silver crown away and placed it mirthfully atop her own raven hair. The crown sat lightly atop her head, blue flames highlighting the glittering sparkle in her amethyst eyes. Sam shifted, taking the lead as they waltzed through the shadowed mists.

Danny let her lead, feeling relaxed and docile in the warmth of her arms and the movement of the mysterious melody. Together they spun, twirling easily through the crowd and towards the shadowed corners, where the light of the flickering candles didn't quite reach. Sam was warm against him, milky skin seeming to glow in the haunted ball room. She smiled at him, a soft loving smile that promised the world and made his heart leap in his chest.

He grinned, waltzing around her in time with the beat, drawing her closer into his chest as the lilting melody continued its slow movement. His eyes flickered upwards briefly, catching his own reflection in the darkened glass of the tall window. He frowned, pulling away slightly as he tried to figure out what was wrong with the image. The Sam in his arms moved, twirling away in time with the music and Danny gasped when he saw her reflection.

The Sam in the glass was nothing more than a shadow, harrowed skin stretched over her skeleton, amethyst eyes dulled with the coldness of death. And even as the dance moved on Danny felt tears prickling in his eyes as the girl in his arms suddenly felt less real. Danny caught the eyes of his reflection, flinching at the sparkling crimson that smirked back at him.

Danny froze, staring in muted horror as the Phantom in the glass leaned forward, two sharp fangs protruded from his smirking lips. Phantom flicked his eyes once more to Danny, sinister glee gazing back at him as steely fangs bit into the crook of Sam's pallid neck. Danny gasped, his eyes stinging as Sam's reflection faded away, vanishing slowly into the black mists as she was consumed by the dark Phantom of the reflected world.

Danny suddenly felt bereft, feeling the absence of his own Sam as her gentle weight was consumed by gloomy shadows. He looked tearfully back to the place she had stood, trying to understand what had just occurred. But all that remained was the silver crown, blue flames flickering lowly as Danny bent down to touch the cool metal. A half familiar sensation swept through him, the strange tingling of intangibility on his fingers as the silvery metal slipped through his fingers before vanishing in a pool of eddying black mist.

Frowning he stood up, pushing through the last few shadows forcefully as he walked across to the window. Opposite him the red eyed Phantom mimicked the movement, a cruel smirk lighting his red eyes. A thousand questions fluttered to the tip of his lips as he gazed at the red eyed figure, but none gained any voice. Instead Danny found himself staring at the dancing shadows behind his sinister other half, still caught up in the ominously encroaching melody.

Gaunt reflections of people he knew danced, eternally trapped in the shadowed world as the cruel red eyed Phantom smirked back at him. The dancers moved unawares, seemingly caught up in the ethereal dance, blue candlelight flickering above them, accentuating the harrowed shading of their death darkened eyes.

He saw his aunt and uncle together, Jonathan and Martha Kent pressed against each other despite the divide of death. Near them his parents moved, twirling elegantly through the crowded ball room for all that Danny knew they were long dead. Two sets of parental figures, three of which Danny knew to be dead, but all moved gracefully in time with the tinkling melody.

Lana Lang smiled happily, moving gracefully against Lex Luthor's strong chest. Near them Clark Kent smiled easily, gazing warmly down into the eyes of Lois Lane. And Danny caught sight of a strange triad as Chloe Sullivan and Ember McLain traded partners with an enshrouded figure, changing rapidly as the three moved around each other.

He watched on as dead and living danced alongside each other, forever caught in the lilting melody that eddied menacingly around them. Never noticing what was being stolen from with Phantom's presence. The skeletal reflections all waltzed gracefully; hauntingly gaunt in the dark light of flickering blue candlelight.

Danny took a pained step forward, feeling isolated in the room of shadows, his dark counterpart seemingly draining the life out of everyone that danced in that crowded hall. Even as Danny watched the figures seemed paler, what little life remained being stolen away as Phantom took everything they had. Ice pooled in the depths of Danny's soul as he helplessly watched on, feeling the dancing shadows behind him fade slowly away into nothingness as the music reached a resounding crescendo.

He watched, startled as the crowd in the reflection abruptly broke apart, losing the rhythm completely as one figure stepped forward with a hand clutched closely to his chest. Danny stepped forward fearfully, unable to do anything despite the pounding in his heart. A head of raven hair staggered out of the crowd, coughing blood as deep crimson pooled over his hands. Briefly the figure looked up, blue eyes glaring directly into his, and for a breathless moment Danny couldn't tell whether he was meeting his own disgusted glare or his cousin's beseeching one.

The figure stopped, collapsing forward in a boneless heap as the blood continued to pour to the cold stone beneath him. Danny gasped, glaring fearfully at the dark red eyed Phantom opposing him, doing nothing to help despite the horror playing out just behind him. He stepped forward, closing the final gap between himself and the window, reaching a cautious hand to touch the reflective pane. Smirking sickeningly, the white haired figure did nothing, standing defiantly still with his jaw cocked in confident challenge.

Danny's fingers contacted the glass just as the music stopped, a crisp bell thrilling out into silence as the haunting ballroom seemed to still. Danny stood frozen, watching cracks lace out from the glass beneath his figures, like ice on a frozen pond. For a moment the room fell silent, drawing in a deep breath as the stillness stretched. Danny's eyes traced the cracks, watching as they spread in jagged edges through the reflected world.

The Phantom in the looking glass smirked at him, even as a dark splinter sliced through his face. The window held for a tense moment, a web of serrated edges clouding the vision of the reflected world and then, like the tremendous roar of an avalanche, the window fell. A cascade of splintered shards collapsed, shrilling against each other, tumbling through the air like a waterfall of steely silver. Danny flinched, the monumental shrill tumbling terrifyingly towards him as he stood paralysed.

Lances of glass crystal lashed out at him, and Danny bit back a scream as the first desiccating shards ripped into his flesh. He gasped, the tinkling of shattering glass clamouring around him, ringing to the depths of his soul as he was consumed by the gnashing jaws of unending glass splinters. They fell and kept falling, shredding him to ribbons as he felt cascades of blood ooze from beneath broken skin. The pain was sharp, tearing into him with merciless accuracy as the cascade of glass continued to fall.

Danny caught a reflection of red, a large broken shard catching his own bloodstained eyes as it fell. It was as though the world slowed down, reality shifting until all that mattered was that single glittering shard of glass, tumbling endlessly through the air. Paralysed eyes watched as the glass fell, the sharpened edge rotating eerily in the flickering blue candlelight. The dagger like tip angled towards him, and Danny found that he couldn't move, couldn't breathe as the glass cut deep into his chest, tearing through ribs and plunging deep into his heart.

Danny gasped, the world staggering around him as his heart froze, the muscle fading with every muted heartbeat as lifeblood pooled around the murderous shard. All he knew was agony, his chest screaming at him as his heart struggled to stay beating. But he was cold, so cold. It felt as though his heart had turned to ice, turned to liquid nitrogen that poured deep into the dimming recesses of his soul. His eyes flickered closed, unable to focus on anything but the glacial chill that was slowly consuming him.

Black shadows pooled over him, consuming all that was left and desecrating the remains. Light turned to dark, the promise of monumental change held in the breathless silence between broken heartbeats. But in the stillness there was nothing, and Danny Fenton knew no more.

-/-

Clark Kent lurched awake as the sound of muffled panting echoed through the moonlit house. The blaring red light of his alarm clock read just past three in the morning, but the moonlight that pooled through a crack in his curtain made it seem later. His sensitive ears searched through the darkness, quickly placing the source of the noise. A bedroom over his cousin was breathing rapidly, his heartbeat racing as fast as it ever went. If it was the first time this had happened Clark would have gotten up, he would have gone out of his way to make sure his younger cousin was alright.

But it wasn't the first time.

In fact this was the tenth night in a row that Clark had woken to the sound of his cousin breathlessly recovering from a nightmare. Danny never spoke of them, the images that plagued him during the night. But every morning Clark saw his cousin becoming more haggard, more worn. And he was at a loss for what to do.

A year ago he'd been happy, completely at peace with himself and the world; sitting on the cusp of going to college, with Lana Lang confidently by his side. A year ago everything had seemed so simple, even when his young orphaned cousin had come to live with them. Even when his young cousin had turned out to be far more complicated than the human boy they'd been expecting. He certainly hadn't anticipated finding out that Danny was a half-ghost hero with far more in common with him than just the similarity in their powers.

That wasn't to say that nothing good had happened in the year since Danny had first arrived on the farm. The feeling of camaraderie he'd built with the boy was worth it in itself, and the two of them had spent countless hours together to the point where Danny was his brother in all but blood. Danny had brought a lot of joy to their lives since first arriving in Smallville. In fact it was really amazing how strong he'd been given that his arrival marked the death of his own family. Clark regretted that he'd never had the chance to know his maternal aunt and uncle, but he felt like he knew them by virtue of who Danny was. And Clark knew that Danny had done a lot of good for his family; he couldn't imagine surviving through his dad's death without the younger boy's support. It had made the difference during one of the hardest parts of his life and Clark held nothing but deep respect for the younger boy.

The problem was... the problem was his own conscience. Danny's nightmares were due to Clark's mistake. And Clark hated that more than anything else. Twenty days ago he'd been tricked by the Brain Interactive Construct, a super-advanced form of Kryptonian artificial intelligence, into releasing Krypton's greatest enemy from the confines of the Phantom Zone. The spirit of Zod had proceeded to possess Lex Luthor, and in his attempt to eliminate the threat Clark himself had been sent to the Phantom Zone.

Twenty days ago he'd been rendered helpless, lost in the barren wasteland that was the landscape of the harshest prison in the known universe. A place so fierce that even ghosts feared its name. Even now he couldn't begin to describe the emotion he'd felt when Danny came to rescue him. The boy's single minded determination to set the world to right had been Clark's one redeeming grace. Danny had led him through the wind-torn sand dunes of the Phantom Zone. Despite everything, Danny had gotten him out so that Clark could stop Zod and save the world.

But that was where it all went wrong. Danny had been forced to stay behind, sacrificing himself to ensure Clark's safe passage out of the Phantom Zone. He'd watched, helplessly, as a dagger was plunged into the younger boy's chest, unable to do anything as the portal opened and sent him back to Earth. He'd stopped Zod, and sent his spirit back to the wasteland prison, but had believed it was at the expense of his cousin's life. For nearly four days he'd believed, he'd known that Danny was dead and had sacrificed himself to save both Clark and the whole world.

His mom had been distraught, Chloe completely devastated. Ember and Wulf, two of Danny's ghostly friends had been absolutely overwhelmed. It had been with disbelieving relief that Danny had returned to them. Lionel Luthor had scoured the globe until the boy was found, rescued from a crater in rural Australia. Lionel had brought Danny back to them, and if nothing else that earned the man a great deal of respect in Clark's eyes. The image of Danny, stepping out of Lionel's black car as the sun parted overhead was still burned into his memory. He had never imagined his life to pick up the surreal cliché quality of comic books or fairy tales, but at that moment he hadn't cared. Danny, his cousin, his brother had by some miracle been returned to them and that was all that mattered.

It wasn't until much later that Danny revealed the cost of his salvation. Apparently, after the devastation of what the reporters were now calling 'Dark Thursday', and the twin journeys into and out of the Phantom Zone, Danny's ghost core, the ghost equivalent of a human heart, had been practically decimated. Danny no longer had his ghost powers, the one thing that had been constant for the younger boy for as long as Clark had known him. Sure, there had been a time when he himself had lived without his powers, but those were drastically different circumstances. And Clark couldn't help but feel guilty because all of it, everything that led to Danny losing his powers, was his entire fault.

But there was nothing he could do, not when Danny wasn't talking. So Clark just rolled over, pushing the image of his cousin out of his mind as much as he could. Danny hadn't spoken about the nightmares, no matter how bad they got. It was with heavy conscience that Clark calmed his breathing, trying to settle himself back to sleep. There was nothing he could do to help, and, for now, Clark felt justified in stewing in his own guilt. Long after the muffled cries from his cousin's room had ceased he felt his eyes flutter closed, the calming embrace of dreamless sleep finally taking him into comforting darkness.

-/-

Deep in the depths of the Ghost Zone a shadow moved, drifting through the eternal planes of green with familiar ease. It chose, for now, to bide its time; watching and waiting for the perfect time to strike. It was here, in the most ancient and forgotten parts of the Ghost Zone that it could regain its strength. It could have been a day or a millennium since it was placed in its prison. In that damnable confinement time meant nothing, could mean nothing. But now it was free, and was more than willing to wait the small time it took to regain enough strength to deliver retribution upon its jailer.

For time being it was nothing, reduced to less than a mean shadow of the great creature it had once been. Once, people had trembled in its name, proclaiming it demon, devil, retribution, damned deliverance, master. But like all great beings it had become too assured of its own power, allowing a lesser creature to topple the shadow from its great peak. It would not claim a name, not for now. The name it had once possessed was owned by the great being it once was, the being it would be again given time. It would not allow its own name to be besmirched by the foul creature it was in between greatnesses. The shadow would rise again; its defeat only motivated it to further heights. It would rise once more, and reclaim the title it had earned. Repossess the name that belonged only to the shadow's ascended self.

But for now it chose to wait, simply observing the movement of the denizens of the Ghost Zone as they moved about their existences. It was meaningless to the shadow, knowing as it did that the hourglass was running out on this world just as it was for the Real World beyond it. Its attention was caught briefly on a feminine form, garbed in a medieval blue robe and wearing a glimmering green necklace. The green skinned woman paused briefly in front of a portal, seemingly steeling her resolve before slipping through the swirling gateway and into the Real World.

The shadow dismissed it, shrugging the thought away from its mind as it rested. Slowly it continued its undetermined drifting, ignored by the other denizens who passed it off as nothing. As it drifted the ambient energy of the Ghost Zone filled it, sustained it. It could feel the energy swirling around inside it, gradually replacing all that had been lost in its fall.

Time was meaningless, never more so than in the ageless realms of the Ghost Zone.

But vengeance and retribution were emotions that all beings knew only too well.

So the shadowy creature drifted onwards, slinking through the darkest recesses of the Ghost Zone, waiting and rebuilding itself. For even to the ageless time passes, and with every continued minute it regained its lost strength. Time was meaningless, but for the shadowed creature its vengeance was only a matter of time.

All it needed to do now was watch, and wait.