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Home Again	By : SmilingandStabbing Category: +1 through F > Danny Phantom > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 7274 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Return of the Phantom
- 2-Hero's Welcome
- 1
- 2
Author's Note: I hate the need for this chapter to exist.

Danny was frozen for several minutes in the position Sam had left him in…his head turned to one side and a dumbfounded look on his face. This wasn’t exactly what he had expected from his homecoming.

He turned his head to face forward again. Dani was standing in the infirmary doorway, a shocked look on her own face. “Danny, I…”

Danny shook his head. “What…was that?”

Dani approached the bed. “Danny, things are, well, they’re not the same anymore. And when Sam talked to me I didn’t think this was the reaction she’d have. But a lot of things have changed. You’ve been gone for seven years.”

Danny furrowed his brow. “Dani?” he asked.

“Yeah?”

“Why didn’t you melt?”

Dani looked surprised. “What?”

Danny fixed her with a serious look. “Why didn’t you melt? Last time I saw you, you weren’t even looking good in human form. And now, seven years later, you’re just fine. Why didn’t you melt?”

Dani hung her head. “That’s a long story, Danny. You need to get some sleep.”

“Fuck no,” Danny replied, shocking Dani with his language. “I’ve been sleeping since Val found me. I’m done.” He threw off his sheets. “I want to see the rest of the compound.”

Dani ran to his side. “Danny, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. You should probably rest some more.”

Danny shook his head. “No. I don’t want to rest anymore. I want to see the rest of the compound. I want to see the rest of my friends.”

Danielle tried to stop him from climbing out of bed. “Danny, listen. It’s not…”

But Danny was already on his feet. “Look, Dani, you’ve got two choices. You can try and stop me, and trust me, you can’t stop me, or you can come with me and give me the tour.”

Dani looked defeated. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Danny shrugged. “It probably isn’t. But sitting here in bed isn’t doing me any good.”

“Fine,” Dani acquiesced. “Since I can’t stop you, I’ll show you around. But, on one condition.”

“Yes?”

“Would you please change out of that hospital gown and into some pants?”

“We had to expand. A lot,” Dani explained as she walked Danny around. “First off, we needed to ad new defensive systems. Then a new research lab. Then extra space for all the recruits to sleep…”

“Recruits?” Danny asked. “What do you mean by recruits?”

“People that, since the Ground Zero event, have offered their services to help us. They all have sleeping areas down this way,” Dani gestured. “And then…”

“Wait,” Danny said, heading for the door Dani had gestured to. “I want to see…”

“No you don’t,” Dani told him.

Danny shot her the authority look again. “Yes. I do.”

Dani stood aside and allowed him to open the door.

The other room fell silent when Danny entered it.

Then, there was a squealing female voice and a cry of “Oh my God, you’re back!”

Danny made an “oomph”-ing noise as he was tackled and embraced by a sweet smelling, dark haired woman. “I didn’t think you were ever coming back!”

“Paulina?” Danny exclaimed as the girl held him tighter.

Paulina giggled. “Yes, silly. It’s me. I haven’t seen you in so long.”

“Not that this is an unwelcome situation,” Danny said, “but last time we saw each other you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“Probably because I was a silly, stuck up teenage girl who didn’t realize that you were the one that kept saving her life,” Paulina explained. “Trust me, I’ve got a little more perspective on things these days.”

“Well, you’ve had so much time to work on that perspective,” another familiar voice announced. “Since you’ve had seven years since he abandoned us.”

Danny glanced past Paulina to see the source of the insult. A muscular blonde man fixed him with a hard stare. “Dash?” he asked, in surprise.

“In the flesh,” Dash sauntered over to where Paulina was finally letting Danny up off the floor. “Been here in the flesh for seven years, fighting off Phantom. The seven years you’ve been completely gone.”

Danny brushed off his jeans and then extended a hand to Dash. “Thank you,” he said.

Dash glanced at the hand and sneered. “Don’t thank me. Somebody had to pick up your slack.”

“Yes,” Paulina threw out, as she reached down and helped Danny up, “SOMEBODY did. And Valerie has done a fantastic job of it. And, back in the day, so did…”

Dani cut her off. “Have you guys talked to Valerie recently?”

Dash took his attention off of Danny and shook his head. “Nope. I think she’s been busy lately. I’ve been meaning to ask when she wants to run the next training session.”

“Well, I’ll tell her to let you know,” Dani assured. “As for now, I have to finish giving Danny the tour of the compound, if you two don’t mind?” She grabbed Danny by the arm and led him out of the room.

“Dash I can understand being here, but Paulina?” Danny was shaking his head. “I didn’t see her as the sort to just take up ghost fighting.”

“Nobody did when she first came here,” Dani explained. “But she’s gotten okay at it. So has Star, actually. And some of the others. It’s not like they really had a choice.”

Danny blinked. “Wait, so when you say ‘recruits’ you mean…”

“Survivors,” Dani finished for him. “They’re the ones who aren’t dead and who actually want to survive. They came here. Some wanted to fight, others just wanted to help in anyway they could. Some just wanted a safe place to be, and this was safer than anywhere else.”

“So, you guys have been doing what? Building an army? That’s how you’ve held him off this long?” Danny asked.

“No, not entirely,” Dani said. “Valerie’s been doing a lot of the fighting, and we’ve really moved forward with our technology and weaponry. There have been a few other projects that held up fairly well for awhile, but those…in the end…didn’t work either.” Dani hung her head. “Danny, the battle’s not even a stalemate anymore. We’re losing. And there’s no one to blame for it. So a lot of people have started trying to find someone to blame for it, to make it easier.”

“And that’s me?” Danny asked.

Dani bit her lip. “In some cases, yeah, it is. In other cases, select cases, they’ve found someone or something else to blame and focused themselves on it.”

Danny was silent for a moment. “So, what have you focused yourself on?”

Dani walked on like she hadn’t heard him.

“Dani?”

But she was already halfway down the hall.

Dani finally stopped in front of a door, pushed a few buttons and said, “And this is the center of our technical operations. The tech crew should be in here.”

The room was dark except for the illumination of screens and blinking lights. Danny could see items reminiscent of his parents work, but even from here he could tell how many modifications and upgrades had been used.

“Try it at 45%,” a familiar voice suggested.

There was a beeping sound from somewhere, and then a grinding noise.

“Okay, not 45%,” the voice replied. “Lemme check my math…”

Danny looked around, still trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. Suddenly, he noticed a pair of legs sticking out from underneath one of the panels. He watched as the figure did a sort of shuffling motion to get out.

“Tucker,” he whispered.

Tucker glanced up from his position on the floor. “Danny!” he yelled. He jumped up and ran to his friend and wrapped his arms around him. “I can’t believe it. I saw you when Val brought you in, but still…I can’t…”

“It’s okay Tuck,” Danny hugged back, tears in his eyes. “I’ve missed you.”

Tucker held on to the hug for only a few more moments. Then he let go, took a step back, and adjusted his glasses. “Sorry I didn’t come see you in the infirmary. I just still have a bit of a thing…”

“It’s okay,” Danny said again. “I can understand.”

“Are we going to try this again?” Danny’s head whipped around when he heard the voice.

“Who is that?” A muscular boy with a pair of glasses perched on his nose came around the corner. He stopped dead when he saw Danny. “Danny!”

“Kwan?” Danny shook his head. “I…you wear glasses?”

Kwan’s face lit up. “So you’re really back.”

Danny was still staring. “You’re helping Tucker?”

Kwan continued. “We stand a chance! If this thing doesn’t work we are not fucked!” He turned to Tucker. “I TOLD you!”

Danny looked as if his brain had broken. “I am extremely confused.”

“Turns out, Kwan’s a tech genius,” Tucker explained. “He was a closet geek all through high school. He’s been helping with the ghost shields for a while now.”

Danny looked perplexed by this. “I…that’s great.” He turned to Dani. “We…we should probably go, huh?”

After a few uncomfortable seconds in the hallway, Dani finally began to speak. “Danny, a lot…”

“I know. A lot of things have changed,” Danny finished for her. “I get it.” He slumped up against the wall. Then, looking at the opposite wall, he asked “Where’s that door go? And why is it dented?”

Dani whipped her head around. “It’s nothing. Just a holding pen we were working on. Doesn’t entirely work.”

“Oh,” Danny said. “What were you trying to hold in there?”

“Something dangerous,” Dani replied, shortly. She had her arms wrapped around her midsection, hugging herself tightly. “Something we don’t need to talk about.”

Danny stepped towards the girl. “Dani, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she barked. “Come on, I’ve gotta show you…”

“Wait,” Danny said, a streak of blue coming from his mouth. “We’ve got company…”

“Danny, it’s probably just…”

But Danny had already seen what had set off his ghost sense. “Skulker,” he growled.

He took a step forward and yelled “I’M GOING GHOST!”

A tangible change in the air, sparking. Two rings surrounded the boy and then, an instant later, Danny Phantom was really back.

Skulker did a double take. “Whelp?” he asked in astonishment.

Danny zoomed towards him. “Not anymore,” he pulled his fist back and was about to strike.

“DANNY!”

He heard Dani Phantom’s voice before he actually saw her dart in front of him. He swerved to avoid hitting her, just barely missing. Instead, he rammed himself into the wall.

“Danny!” She yelled again, landing beside him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. But you’d think after all that time I would have remembered to phase, huh?” he asked.

“Heh, same whelp I remember,” Skulker scoffed.

Danny quickly stood back up. “Skulker, what the hell…”

“He’s on our side, Danny,” Dani quickly interrupted. “He and a couple others. They’re doing what they can to help.”

“Wha?” Danny asked, not sure how hard he’d hit his head. “Wait…wait…don’t bother. And please, whatever you do, don’t say ‘a lot of things have changed.’”

Dani opened her mouth and then bit her lip. “Fine.” There was a pause as she transformed back. “Maybe I should just let you find your own way around.” She turned to leave.

“Dani?” Danny yelled after her. She turned to look back at him.

He changed back and then said, “There’s one place I need you to show me how to get to, first.”

The house had seen better days.

The living room had been torn apart at some point. Danny could only assume it had been some sort of fight. Holes, burn marks, a mess he could see someone had tried to clean up at some point. He wondered who would have cared enough.

“Here you go,” Dani said as she turned to head back down the stairs to the lower levels. “I think you know the way.”

Danny stood alone in the room for a few moments. Then, his breath shaking, he headed up the stairs.

The door was still there. It was untouched. He turned the knob slowly, afraid of what waited for him inside.

The room was unchanged. The same way he’d left it graduation day. Before it all went to hell.

And she was sitting on his bed. Crying.

“Sam?” He said, softly.

She raised her head and glared at him. “What are you doing here?”

He sat down on the bed beside her. “It’s my room,” he reminded her.

“No, I mean here. What are you doing back here now? You had all that time, all those years to come back, and you only now decide to show?” Tears streamed down her face. “You promised me you’d always be there. Where were you?”

He took a deep breath. “I was getting ready to fight, Sam. I couldn’t let anyone know where I was.”

“Why?”

“Because, Sam, think. He would have found me. Nobody could know. Not you, not Jazz, not my parents, not anyone.” He sighed. “I wanted someone to know. I wanted someone WITH me. But I couldn’t have done that to any of you. I nearly went insane, Sam. You wouldn’t have wanted to see me through some parts of it.”

Sam shook her head. “I wouldn’t have cared, Danny.”

“Yes, you would have, Sam,” Danny insisted. “You’re not thinking straight. I’m sorry I had to be gone so long, I didn’t think it would work like this. But it did and…” he caught his breath. “Sam, I come back to find this. Tomorrow I have to start getting ready for a fight I shouldn’t have to fight. A fight I’m totally to blame for in the end.”

His shoulders shook, he could feel it all boiling over.

“So I need one last night, Sam. One night to be Danny Fenton again, before I have to focus. So whatever issues you have with me, whatever problems you have with me, I need them to wait until then.

“Right now, I just need my friend here.”

Sam gasped again, tears falling from her eyes. “Well, I hope you can find a friend, then,” she snapped, storming out of the room.

Danny Fenton buried his head in his hands and cried. Seven years worth of tears, and only one night to get them out.
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