Danny Phantom: Into The Unknown

Chapter 7: What's The Point Of Being A Hero If They Only Get Hurt?

At first, no one said anything. Truthfully, they were all shocked he was already walking around, given the injuries he had. Most of them thought he would be in a coma. Although, Lancer looked relieved which Danny had noticed.

"Who's the little girl?" A random student asked.

"I'm not little, I'm a big girl! I'm 4 years old," Dani said while holding up four fingers.

Danny chuckled at Dani, "This is my daughter."

Everyone looked at him wide-eyed. Lancer just looked mildly shocked, mostly because he just about saw everything during this Field Trip and was just over it.

"How?" Someone asked.

Danny motioned for Dani to cover her ears and once she did he explained, "Dani is my clone. I didn't want her to grow up alone so I took her in. She doesn't like to hear about it which is why she is covering her ears."

Everyone nodded at Danny's answer. Although they looked scared to ask something and Danny had noticed. It made him confused, what were they afraid to ask? Eventually, he couldn't take the silence and spoke up.

"I am here to answer your questions, don't be afraid to ask them," Danny said.

"What are you?" Someone said after a while.

Danny's eyes widened at the question. Valerie, Jazz, Ember, and Dash looked shocked. And Ember was partially impressed, the idiots finally figured it out.

"What?" Danny asked.

"Back at the jail, your blood looked green and you created a force field. No normal human can do that," Paulina said.

Danny sighed, he looked at his family and they gave him looks of encouragement.

"I am half-ghost," Danny said, after a while.

There were mixed emotions, most people looked shocked, some looked understanding, and a very few didn't have a reaction, mostly the Fenton's.

"It was an accident in my parent's lab, the Fenton Portal wasn't working and I tried to help. I went inside, and there was a button that I accidentally pressed. The portal started turning on, and I got electrocuted. At the same time ghost DNA fused with my own DNA, turning me half-ghost."

Danny looked up and everyone looked surprised but they accepted him. And it made him slightly smile. Until he saw the Fenton's. They looked furious and disgusted. He turned towards him and his smile fell.

"Just say what you want to say," Danny said while putting Dani down.

Dani ran towards Ember before Maddie spoke. Ember picked her up and put her head on her chest.

"You are an abomination," Maddie yelled.

"Of your creation," he said.

"You are a freak, who doesn't deserve anything," Maddie added.

Danny had enough of his parent's treatment towards him. Behind all the lies, behind all the fake promises, he truly saw what he meant to them. Which is nothing. To them, he was just some kid that his parents had the burden of taking care of. What really hurt was that a small fraction of him believed they cared about him. But now he was done. He was done with all the fake promises that he would be loved by his parents because that will never happen. Because in their eyes he was a monster.

He stared into his mother's eyes and looked for any kind of sign that the person who he thought he knew was there yet he saw nothing. And then he looked at his father and did the same but found nothing. He then looked at both of them.

"Why do you hate me?" Danny whispered.

"What?" Jack said.

"Why do you hate me?" Danny repeated, louder.

"Danny-" Jack said only to be interrupted by Maddie.

"Because you are a monster, and monsters don't deserve love," Maddie spat.

"But I'm also human and your son."

"Danny boy-" Jack said.

"All you had to do was be my parents, all you had to do was love me as your son, all you had to do was accept me for who I am and what I became as I grew older," Danny said with tears falling from his eyes.

"You are not my son, you are just a monster," Maddie said.

"But you created me! You made me this monster! I didn't do that. I stepped into that portal because I wanted you to see that I was worth loving. I wanted to prove you wrong and show you that I was as smart as Jazz. All you had to do was love me. And even that was too hard for you."

"Danny you don't mean that," Jack said.

"I do. I thought about it for nights on end. I would stare at the ceiling and think about what I did wrong and every time I would pick myself apart until all I saw were flaws. Because I was never good enough for you. I would never live up to your expectations as your son. I wasn't the son you wanted. I was the perfect example of how you failed as parents."

"Don't try and guilt trip us, ghosts don't feel anything!" Maddie yelled.

"But we do! And if I could I would turn my feelings off so I would never feel what I feel now. Because I am broken! I am still human, I have blood running through my veins, I have a beating heart, and I have oxygen flowing in and out of my lungs because I am human. If I am a freak then that also makes you a freak because we are the same. Only in my case, my heart beats slower. But that will never be enough for you. You may be my parents in blood but you'll never be the people I actually call my parents. Because parents love their children and you obviously don't love me."

Danny looked toward Tucker and Sam, "Don't you have anything else to add? Do you want to call me a freak and explain why you hate me?"

Tucker and Sam stayed quiet.

"What? This is the perfect opportunity! You love to kick me when I'm down. Call me a freak, call me a menace to society like you did that day. Tell me how much you hate me and never wish you met me. Tell me how I didn't deserve you guys as friends."

"We were never your friends in the first place," Sam said.

"That's where you are wrong. We have been friends since Kindergarten. I met Tucker in the sandbox while we met you when you were sitting under a tree, alone. Never would I have thought that you would ever hate me for being a ghost. I thought you guys cared about me. But I guess that's another thing I was wrong about."

Danny started to walk away but Sam stopped him.

"What happened to you!? You used to be the hero!" Sam yelled.

Danny turned his head slightly to glance at Sam and said, "I used to be the hero but then I realized heroes only get hurt."

And with that Danny walked away with unshed tears in his eyes. Because the truth is. He was as broken as people thought he was. Ember knew that he needed time alone but seeing him that hurt made her want to hug him and kiss him and never let go. Valerie and Dash just wanted to tell him that they would always be there for him no matter what. And Jazz, she just wanted to take his pain away and make it hers.