Danny Phantom 1. Mirrors

He's not _just_ anything; he's tattered, lifeless, and rundown, and never before have such, fitting words, ever been uttered. Four years ago he would never have thought that those exact words would ever describe him. He would have just stared at them and accuse them of being drunk. But now after three years of fighting off merciless ghosts while he gave up everything from his grades to his sanity for a town that half hated him, he looks him-self in the eyes, I mean really looks, and for the first time in years, he sees what he's become. A ghost, dead to everything but his obsession, A useless stain to the world, with a black soul, a cold lifeless thing, what would it change, if he completed his ghost half. He wanted to laugh, but it turns into a half strangled sob when he remembers something Sam had once said to him "The eyes are the windows to the soul, you know." She had also once told him his eyes were like open books… and now he really _does_ want to cry, because he knows one of those statements is a lie, and that's too much of a revelation for him right now and his world starts raining glass. He is violently shaken from his thoughts as "Accidentally in Love" starts to play on his phone, followed by "Ego"…it's Sam and Tucker… the spell is broken…and he looks at the caller ID he as starts to wonder if those words actually describe him at all. Maybe in the future he'll contemplate his life a little more in depth, but for now he's _just_ Danny, and "for know" is all he needs.


	2. If you ask

If you were to ask almost any one in Amity Park, they would tell you Danny phantom was a hero, and if you were to ask almost anyone at Casper High, they would give you the same answer. But if you were to ask Danny Phantom himself, he would say that a hero was a person who always did the right thing for the right reason, a hero would always be there to save everyone and be loved because he did, with out damage, a hero would never lie. He wouldn't say he was a hero, because sometimes he did the wrong thing for the right reason, because sometimes he _did_ destroy stuff, and he was hated for it, because sometimes he _has_ to lie. If you were to ask, he would never call himself a hero… because he would call himself a protector, and if you were to ask Danny Fenton…you would see that he'd be the only person other than phantom to say the same exact thing…but nobody would know that, because nobody has asked, and nobody will ever ask. Because from were almost every ones point of view, Danny Phantom WAS the hero, and there was no need to ask other wise.


	3. Prey

He usually stays away from his parents now-a-days. Its not because he hates them (he could never hate anybody.) and it wasn't that he was afraid of their weapons (he learned how to disarmed and reprogram them a long time ago.) No, it was because he couldn't look at them any more with out seeing his biggest threat, the only two people left who saw him as a mistake and not a miracle, the only people who constantly shoot him down and deliberately try to (and succeed in) hurting him. He can't be around them any more because even though they don't know who he really is, he's lost all patience and love for them. He's seen their true colors, and no amount of lies will ever change the fact that they are no longer his parents… they are the hunters and he…their own son, the prey.


	4. Three Things

After three years of fighting off ghosts, lying to virtually everyone and becoming a living bruise, Danny's learned three, if not a thousand, things. 1) Anybody can be a ghost hunter with a high-teck ecto gun and a grudge, but only those who can see past their own wants and reasons can truly become a hero. 2) The amount of energy it takes to produce a believable lie and spin it in a moments notice, decreases over time, but the guilt is only subdued by the knowledge that the lies keep them all alive. And 3) life isn't going to wait for you to catch up, if any thing it'll hit the acceleration while your in last place." Danny knows these things for sure, but their are more important things out there than his oun burdens, and that is one thing he will never do... he will never let anyone beleive he had more problems then he ever should, because Danny knows three, if not a thousand, things...


	5. Heros?

"Your not heroes, your _kids_."

I remember Madie screaming to the departing figures, pleading with them almost. All three children stopped and Danny turned his head to us, his face slowly lifting. When his eyes finally meet ours, we were all frozen stiff when in stead of the icy blue eyes that had always seemed to inspire a feeling of hope to those how looked, were gone, and a raging and violent storm with the signs of great wisdom and maturity were left in its place. His parting words still ring in my ears, calm and cold, like the voice of a dead man- not an ounce of hope at all- , and OH how I wish for all the world to never have heard them. But I do remember them; I remember them with great clarity.

"We haven't been children for three years."

And the children- who weren't really children- walked away, and I watched as the fearless heroes- who weren't really fearless- run into battle.


End file.

Danny Phantom