Chapter Text
Look, Ellie wasn’t exactly the smartest of sibling—soon to be siblings—daughter/cousin/child/person/clone/thing, not even compared to the rest of the weirdos that made up their dysfunctional “little” family.
For starters, despite the DNA making up her physical existence, Ellie was vastly different from any of her living body’s biological relatives.
She could not make seemingly impossible—if not remarkably unnecessary and utterly needless—tech out of literal garbage scrap like Jack Fenton. There was no terrifying combat prowess—outside her halfa build and ghost powers—and knowledge of biology that allowed her to take apart anything remotely humanoid like Madison Fenton. No intense love and determined maturity that allowed—for as much as it was forced upon—her to raise a child despite being one herself like Jasmine—preferred name, Jazz—Fenton. Nor an obsessive adoration of the stars that somehow allowed Daniel—preferred name, Danny—Fenton to push through the dullness of modern education to easily skate through his classes with minimal effort. (She’s not entirely convinced about that last one having anything to do with stars, but it was admittedly impressive how well Danny had perfected the art and craft of excelling through the bare minimum.)
And—depending on which theory of her existence one was supporting—she certainly didn’t have the confidence (or love-brained foolishness) to bail out of a pristinely assured future to join in some mocked pseudoscience in hopes of getting laid like Vladmir Masters. She also certainly couldn’t effectively run a multimillion dollar company like said forty-or-something year old virgin after his questionable college history—though he absolutely would’ve been fucked running a criminal empire without his abilities as a Halfa and connections with ghosts.
Ellie’s entire existence was up in airs as a whole Nature versus Nurture shebang if you will. And that was just pertaining to the past human counterparts of her biology, the Fenton family of four—plus the uninvited interloper that was Vlad— the ones that existed before the “Accident”. Well the “Portal Accident”—Danny’s Portal Accident, to be specific—that is. Ancients knew how little “Accident” helped anyone narrow down the timeline to a particular event when it’s associated with the Fentons.
Not that it mattered much—but the distinction between these periods and parts of their lives was and is important—especially when there was still plenty Ellie couldn’t do in comparison to the Nightingale family of six, nor the Phantom family of three—technically not including Cujo, and certainly not Plasmius.
(There was also some Auntie Lice—it was something along the lines of Alice or Laycie—that Ellie had only ever heard passing comments about which she took to mean the woman, despite her biological relations, was of no importance even compared to an interloper like Vlad.)
In terms of the Family of Nightgales’ Ellie certainly could not utterly discard and rework a lifetime of obsessive research without so much of an argument like Jack Nightingale out of love. Nor could she fight so utterly against her own—decade long—obsession to protect his kind like Vlad Nightgale-Masters did. There was no “jigsawing someone’s life” with only a few words the way Jazz—officially Jasmine—Nightingale could, especially considering Ellie’s own floundering tongue. No strength to hold on and fight for a place in the world after everything you thought you knew ended up false like Dante Nightingale-Masters did. And certainly not an intense empathy and desire to protect a world that had brought nothing but pain to her like Danny—officially Daniel—Nightingale.
As for the Phantoms’, Ellie absolutely could—and would—never be able to run an infinite expanse of universes—and a just as infinite amount of paperwork and bureaucracy—at only fifteen years old like Danny Phantom could (not that he actually wanted to). Nor could she act as a General and Advisor in War who could flip the tides of battle not only with a witty viciousness but with brute strength like Dan Phantom-Plasmius. And if she absolutely had to include him, nor did she dare to scheme against the natural order of her very species like Vlad Plasmius—though he certainly regrets it.
Outside of DNA though, excluding direct ghostly relatives and relations, Ellie still was not the smartest—read also as useful or remarkable—of the bunch of human-turned-liminal weirdos that made up their Found Family.
Tucker Foley was the most obvious example, with his steadfast loyalty and willingness to support Danny even if it meant giving up his own dreams and desires, not to mention his ability to both code and will a life-form into existence with a simple PDA—not that Ellie understood much about electronics—despite being a mere mortal and later fledgling liminal. There was no dogged-determination for vengeance, or ability to beat ghosts into submission—even without powers—like Valerie Gray. And it was with utmost grief that she admits she wasn’t half the storyteller or conspiracy theorist that was Wesley—affectionately known as Wes—Weston, who Danny and Tucker swore could solve the most implausible mysteries of the Realms with his imagination if given enough time and support.
(And it’s important to remember these were all things that they could do whilst still human, Ellie hadn’t even started on the utter bullshit they were now capable of with access to the Infinite Realms and Liminal Powers—or in Tucker’s case being a bloody reincarnated ancient Pharaoh.)
Even against those on the fringes of their “little” family like the A-listers and Cheerleaders were arguably more useful than her. Paulina Sanchez was at the center of the charge in the Casper Students’ Ride or Die Movement of adapting Amity Parkers’ to Liminal Life, with Star and Kwan right there with her. While bloody Dash Baxter had even become a prominent member of the Realms’ Sports Council somehow. And of course, one couldn’t forget an honorable mention of Mr. Lancer, who was now a close associate of Ghost Writer and shockingly Amity Park’s Ambassador.
For Ancients Sake, the same could even be said for those they had less than stellar relations with at the moment like Samantha—formerly known as “Sam” before they lost all reason to even care about referring to her in the manner she preferred—Mason, who somehow perfectly cared for Overgrowth’s Garden of Extinction when Ellie couldn’t even keep a cactus alive for a week.
And Ancients, she hadn’t even gotten to Danny’s Gallery of Rouges turned Family and Friends yet but she was sure you could get the picture of where she was going with all of this.
The point was that Danielle—preferred name Ellie, with the official calling card Wraith—be she a Nightingale, Phantom, or moonlighting as a Fenton Cousin, couldn’t do a lot of things when compared to her family, friends, and even enemies.
She wasn’t the smartest, the most remarkable, or all that useful in the grand scheme of things, but none of that mattered. Ancients even the Ghost Investigation Ward (GIW), those bastards in white had their moments of unexpected competence so obviously Ellie would too. But even if she didn’t it was okay because her family was there to pick up the slack where she struggled.
Sure, there were certainly moments when she’d question her worth—and no Jazz, she didn’t need anymore talks about “how it was okay that she hadn’t found her thing yet”—but Ellie understood better than anyone else, besides maybe Danny who was hyper aware of her existence, that for all she technically had the awareness and physical maturity of a fifteen year old that she was only 3 years old.
(Though logistically speaking even that wasn’t quite true, after all she’d only truly existed as Danielle Phantom for a year. The two years before that, they hadn’t even been aware that she hadn’t been a truly separate individual to Danny, her core never fully forming which was one of the reasons behind the constant threat of destabilization.)
As much as she hated to admit to it, for all she could rapidly age her body, emotionally and often mentally Ellie went through the world much like any other toddler—though one that was dangerously overpowered for how little it knew or understood about the world—and as a half-ghost her rate of maturity would always be far slower than any human toddler (though unlike some ghosts she at least wouldn’t be stuck as a 3-year-old forever, still able to mentally mature thankfully). But again that was okay because she had plenty of time to grow and learn, not to mention plenty of loved ones to support her through it.
Needless to say—no offense to Jazz—those moments when Ellie questioned her worth had less to do with teen angst and more to do with how a toddler might fret over how to get their parents’ attention—not that she needed to try in order to get Danny’s attention.
(Not to say that in the midst of such fretting there weren’t moments where she’d wonder if she was being too much, too annoying and demanding, too insensitive and ungrateful for all Danny did for her. Wondering if Danny had ever even allowed himself one passing thought of resentment towards her, for the fact that she was free to do as she wished while he was chained down to a throne he never wanted with the inescapable weight of responsibility. Unlike her, Danny never got to live out his dreams, not with his remaining half-life, nor his present afterlife. And sure, he had time too but it wouldn’t be the same when all his innocence was lost.)
It went without saying that Danny, as her favorite parent/sibling/cousin/person, definitely lived up to the title.
He was always willing to set aside his own matters for her, and he never hesitated to make her cringe in embarrassment when telling her how much he adored and loved her for simply existing be it around him or as a concept.
In Danny’s eyes she could do no wrong—which was an absolute lie, Danny would always notice, giving her a chance to learn on her own and if she didn’t strictly but gently correct her—but even if she did there was nothing she could ever do that would make him love her any less. Ellie was pretty sure she could’ve turned him into the GIW herself, or killed Jazz and Danny would still love her fiercely and find it in himself to forgive her, even back when they hadn’t officially met yet.
Danny had told her so those three years ago, tucking her into bed—his bed that he was giving up after a rough week so she could sleep comfortably—the night before she left to explore the world. Back when she hadn’t even been comfortable calling him more than a cousin or template. His words echoing in her head as she wandered their world for two years.
“When I first found out about you I was terrified ,” he’d started with, “I had only just figured out I had an Ice Core but suddenly I had a temperature and I thought I was going to melt into a pile of goo with how warm and fuzzy my insides got at just the thought of you existing.”
Ellie had burst into a fit of silent giggles at that, remembering an earlier interaction with Frostbite—the Yeti-Ghost-Doctor that Danny introduced her to earlier—who had regaled her of an utterly panicked Danny bursting into his village clinic just a few days prior thinking he was dying.
“Here I am confessing my heart and soul to you and your laughing at me.” Danny had snorted good-naturedly, before ever so gently flickering her forehead to quiet her. All of it done with such a soft and undeniably fond look in his ever expressive eyes, whose pulling pinched corners screamed exhaustion, leaving her insides pleasantly warm as it chased away the lingering chill from their visit to the Far Frozen. His next words whispered like he was confessing to an unpardonable sin, ”I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much love for something in my life. Not for my parents, not for any siblings or friends, not even for the Stars and Space that pull at my very core.”
Ellie remembers not understanding the importance of that confession, only that it had made her feel all fuzzy and warm inside—it had been a suffocating feeling that she had no outlet for, the trademark purr of a satisfied ghost meaning so much more, whose absence would have directed any experienced ghost to seek aid, but Danny had been new to it all and didn’t realize anything was wrong.
(And despite just meeting Frostbite, Ellie hadn’t been comfortable with being examined so soon after her time with Vlad.)
Even later—both still unaware of what they’d missed—Ellie would often feel incredulous and inadequate over the ridiculousness of his confession especially after learning about Ghost Obsessions. The mere idea that she could ever love anything more than her Obsession, the very thing that kept her anchored to existence, more than having self-autonomy and the freedom brought with it, sounding utterly absurd. For all her strength, for all her unique anatomy and budding title gave her wiggle worm, for all her love for Danny, not even she could possibly ignore, resist, fight, and actively defy her Obsession without it threatening to End her for good. For all the loopholes she could find in her own, she couldn’t ever truly give up her Obsession.
Such was the defining characteristic that made her so different as a Halfa compared to Danny and Vlad. Unlike Danny, whose living and ghost halves complimented each other perfectly with the ability to function independently to each other; Unlike Vlad, whose halves despite supporting each other were still mostly reliant on his living form; Ellie’s living half was entirely dependent on her ghost half.
Where they had more say in how and when to follow their Obsessions—Vlad, surprisingly, having the most freedom at of all of them—Ellie was as bond to her Obsession as any other ghost in the Living Realm.
That was the price of maintaining the cloned physical body of an already inherently unstable heretical existence. What this actually meant for her would have to be explained more in depth later. Suffice to say Ellie was more a ghost possessing a corpse—if the soulless husk could be called that—than a Halfa, just as Vlad was more a dying human with a foot in the grave than a Halfa.
“You simply existing gives me hope, brings me comfort, and fills me with so much love I don’t know what to do with.” Danny had continued after shushing her disbelieving scoff that he loved her more than Jazz and Tucker. “I know you’re not comfortable with my part in your origins, but I want you to know there will always be a place for you at my side and in my heart. And I’ll be delighted to have you in my half-life and afterlife however you’ll allow me.”
Ellie, in her discomfort over such a heartfelt statement, had been quick to distract herself by making a joke about Alabama. Delighting in the way Danny had cringed, before rolling his eyes and ruffling her hair with a final amused snort, “You little shit, never change.”
And who was Ellie to deny the words of her beloved template and father. There was also the fact that Danny would tell her that she already found her thing, that her larger than life or death curiosity and desire to explore all the infinite universes had to offer without growing weary, was something that was unquestionably unique to herself amongst their many families.
But that’s besides the point, in a way at least. After all, Ellie is basically a toddler! One that couldn’t just be handed off to just anyone—especially the liminal humans—to babysit. Sure, it’d been attempted in the beginning but it certainly could not be considered a success.
After all, baby-sitting toddlers was hard enough as it is, except this one is amongst the top 15 Strongest Beings of the Infinite Realms, and whose characteristic Ghostly Obsession revolves around Exploration—though supposedly it could one day evolve to encompass Freedom in general, Ellie didn’t know how she felt about that possibility, it felt like a possibly Ending contradiction that if she was obsessed with freedom than she wasn’t actually free given she had to follow said Obsession to maintain her existence.
With most experienced ghosts unable to emotionally keep up with her energy, and those capable of handling her tantrums too busy to oversee her, babysitting had become a bust. As such, Ellie was mostly left to her own devices these days, just as she’d been in her first year of existence.
And while she certainly hadn’t been a fan of being babysat, it could not be denied that Ellie lived—err died—for the chaos her very existence wrought upon the minds of mortals (and occasionally the rare muleheaded or bigot-obsessed ghost.)
Which brought us back to the many ways her Halfa existence differed from Danny’s perfect balance, and Vlad’s precarious “lean” toward the living. By ghost terms, she was considered a Neverborn, but even then she didn’t quite fit said category.
Most Neverborns came into existence with at least a barebones foundation in terms of their Core Identity, even those that didn’t at least had whispers of emotions and desires instilled in their foundational ectoplasm.
Ellie technically didn’t have either when she first formed, starting out as little more than another of Danny’s Ectoplasmic Duplicates, though one throughly brainwashed by Vlad, basically possessing—because it couldn’t be called overshadowing if there was no soul to shadow—a horrendously unstable liminal human body. It was a whole thing. Suffice to say, it was only by the technicality that Ellie is considered a Halfa.
That didn’t mean that Danny didn’t like to joke that of the Halfas, Ellie was the most fit representation of the concept behind Schrödinger's cat—though it’s more fitting for Danny to be the actual cat, given the cat had been alive when it was first placed in the box. And look Ellie doesn’t actually understand what the concept behind Schrödinger’s Cat actually is, as far as she’s aware it has to do with the fact she’s never been fully alive, nor fully dead, and that her very existence is in a way based around an observer’s perspective.
She’d been absolutely fine with leaving her understanding of the joke there (because all she really cared about was that Danny thought Schrödinger's cat was cool, which meant he thought she was cool. Plus cats were supposedly little shits which matched her being a little shit). As intrigued as she is by the world around her, that curiosity certainly didn’t extend to her actively pursuing knowledge independently on how her existence and species worked.
That was/is Danny’s thing, and for all he cared about it in terms of knowing for himself, he didn’t actually care where Ellie came from (nor even how) as long as she continued to exist where he could reach her (which was quite the impossible distance now that he was King), not withstanding that the knowledge would help him protect her.
So whenever Ellie had questions about the why’s and how’s of her existence, she just went to Danny because it was more likely than not that he’d already asked and answered the questions.
Like why Ellie was a biological female when Danny was—supposedly, according to Valerie and Vlad—a biological male?
After all, she was a literal clone. The genetic make up of her living half was exactly the same as Danny’s, and the very ectoplasm that formed her ghost half was Danny’s. Yet when Vlad had aged her up she’d somehow ended up a biological female—for all she knew, as one of Danny’s Dupilcates, she’d originally referred to herself a he/him or they/them but she was too disoriented at the time to recall and by the time she could she’d already been with Valerie for a while, who’d referred to them exclusively as she/her—organs and all.
As you’d probably guessed, Ellie had first made the mistake of asking Vlad and later Valerie—as she’d yet to actually meet Danny then—why. Which left her with a hysterical Vlad mourning that his supposedly perfect son/heir/apprentice was Trans, and Valerie’s sexuality crisis over the exact same thing.
(Jazz later informed her, that no Valerie wasn’t against Trans people, but that biology could be extremely important to people, especially teenagers, when it came to what they found attractive. While Valerie had certainly been interested in Danny for his personality, and respected whatever “Trans identity” she believed he had, she’d found she was no longer sexually attracted to him. It may sound shallow to lose interest just because of the sex one is born as but it’s really not. After all, the Valerie back then had absolutely zero interest in the female body, and a preference for male bits—despite the girl having zero actual experience—nor was she comfortable with engaging or experimenting with it all.)
Ellie still didn’t really understand why any aspect of it was a big deal, but she did understand that gender and sex were two very different and important things at least for the living. Needless to say though, Danny is not Trans.
(Unfortunately for him, Ellie’s existence would continue to bring people to the conclusion that he was. Not even stripping in front of his entire school would—nor had it—successfully convinced those doubting him.)
The next theory (that shouldn’t have even been proposed given it’d already been disproved) was that maybe Valerie’s DNA got caught up in the process. But Frostbite and Danny theorized that Ellie’s body would’ve been far more stable—less half dead and more liminal living—if that had been the case.
Along a similar vein, was the argued possibility that maybe the ectoplasm of one of Danny's female Rouges got mixed in. Which was also disproved given the clones that Vlad had experimented with mixing ectoplasm with all destabilized as fetuses. The only clone bodies that lasted long enough for Vlad to age-up were those grown with only Danny's DNA and nourished with his ectoplasm—but not even they lasted long without a soul or core with a strong enough identity to maintain equilibrium with such unstable DNA. The only reason Ellie had lasted so long was because she started as an Ectoplasmic Duplicate of Danny's, thus having the ability to connect with echoes of his Core to maintain her form.
(Not to say, having Princess Dorathra or Valerie as a mother would be a bad thing. The Ellie of the past would've been thrilled with either given her relation to Valerie meant she was more like Vlad in terms of Halfa, while with Dorathea she'd be like any other Neverborn not having to worry about destabilizing with the bonus of being able to become a big ass dragon. Now though, Ellie took a lot of pride in the fact that she was solely Danny's. That it also meant Vlad, the Original Fruitloop, couldn't contest with Danny over guardianship certainly helped. )
And finally there was Danny’s simple answer of; she was female simply because it was easier. Well it was actually more complicated than that, he’d mentioned how all human embryos initially develop with female-like structures and in the period where she wasn’t entirely lucid given her lacking identity, the echo of his core probably instinctively dictated that she maintain the most cost effective form. And like a good majority the world, Ellie had been content in her lot and felt comfortable the way she was thus maintaining said form.
So, yeah, Ellie went to Danny with her questions. But just because she wasn’t really interested in the how’s and why’s of her existence, didn’t mean that she wasn’t interested in how mortals attempted to comprehend her—namely in the form of conspiracy theories. And Ancients did she love to stir the pot with wild theories of her own—all without care for spreading any falsehoods. Conspiracy theories that nearly took up all the boards in Wesley’s room in the three months following her first official appearance as Wraith—a fact that Ellie took great pride in.
Over those short two years, Amity Parkers had spawned quite the variety of fun theories regarding Ellie’s—or in this case, Wraith’s—sudden appearance in both forms, namely regarding her relation to Phantom. Like Wraith actually being an alternate version of Phantom (debunked, but a reasonable assumption considering Dan’s debut). Wraith being Phantom’s twin (debunked, for starters they’d have to be the same age for that ), though in a similar vein, that she was Phantom’s long lost sibling (also debunked, though Danny had gotten suspiciously clammy about it). That she was an escaped GIW experiment of an attempt to clone Phantom (technically true, just not by the GIW). Another was that she was just an experimental duplicate of Phantom when he was feeling “girly” (technically true, not in the way one might think though).
The theories could get pretty wild given how little everyone knew about Ghost and Liminal Biology back then.
And then there was Ellie’s personal favorite variety being that Wraith—and sometimes even Ellie, as in her living half—was the love-child of Phantom and Danny (which could not only get frighteningly accurate but was hilariously close to the truth at the same time).
There were actually a few Love Child Theories out there, from Wraith being the child of Phantom and Princess Dorathea (which there was technically “evidence” for later), with Kitty and Ember mentioned here and there as possible mothers given their constant relationship drama but time proved again and again those two were more likely to end up together than with Phantom, who also had no interest in them.
Of course, there were some less generic couples, like Johnny (+Shadow) and Phantom, or the abomination that is Plasmius and Phantom (which unfortunately also had “evidence” supporting it), given nobody really knew how ghost reproduction worked just that it was possible after Lunch Lady and Boxy had a kid. (There was also the self-pushed theory of Dash’s claiming that Wraith was Phantom and his kid.)
The most popular theory—before well everything—was that Wraith was the child of Phantom and Red Huntress. Most of the “evidence” for this theory being that even in her early steadfast Ghost-hating ways, Red Huntress had a clear soft spot for Wraith. It didn’t help that in the month following Wraith’s debut as Phantom’s stand-in, Red and Phantom were often heard arguing over what basically amounted to “parenting rights”.
Ancients though, did this specific pairing have theories—and bloody fanfics. Ranging from fluffy-romance of Enemies to Lovers, more angsty-tragedy Lovers to Enemies, and a horrific amount of god-awful Dead-Dove-Don’t-Eat type shit. Some portrayed Red as a necrophiliac who wouldn’t let Phantom rest in piece, or had even been the one to off him, others had Phantom acting like some sort of parasitic alien that forced Red to bear his young.
Needless to say, Ellie couldn’t stomach those specific theories—utterly hypocritical given she’d been enthusiastically spreading a similar alien pregnancy theory for the pairing of Phantom and Danny before the whole reveal.
Of course, the fact that in most theories and fanfics following said favorite pairing happened to include her—be it as Wraith or Ellie—as their children, or the hilariously true premise that Ellie, as their child, was a half-ghost with Wraith as her alter ego, obviously would leave her feeling partial for it.
And maybe, even after everything, it was still a guilty pleasure of hers to spread Pitch Pearl—the ship-name for Danny and Phantom—contraband across the Realms desperately wanting to share her OTP (One-True Pairing) with others. Paulina and her even held bimonthly club meetings to discuss how to spread the Pitch Pearl Agenda across the Realms with Ellie’s exploration.
Was it weird that Ellie shipped her father with himself—obviously, but she’d rather that than witnessing his periodic heartache over each of his failed romances that devolved into Friends-with-Benefits or just plain old fuck-buddies. From Valerie, Tucker, Wes, to brief stints with Samantha, Paulina, Dash, and even coupling with Johnny and Kitty once, Danny had basically “dated” every one in their little circle or in the very least had “relations” with them.
(Ellie certainly hadn’t wanted to know about Danny’s sex life but apparently the combination of a living teen’s hormonal changes paired with the inherently emotionally-driven state of ghosts could lead to a rather intense need for physical intimacy—be that meaning sex or an utterly brutal fight—as an outlet. Ellie wasn’t looking forward to potentially going through it, but hopefully her more inherent lean towards death would mean it’d be far less intense than what Danny was going through.)
On another but still related note, Ellie hadn’t been pleased when Dan’s continued existence put a damper on said Pitch Pearl agenda.
Because as it would turn out, Dan is actually Ellie’s half-sibling. And not in the way that Jazz and Danny accepted him as their sibling, but in a Dan is Danny’s child in the same way that Ellie is…
(As if having to differentiate between the Fenton, Nightingale, and Phantom Family’s wasn’t difficult enough, the various adventures through the timeline did not make figuring out the sibling hierarchy any easier. After all, in a linear timeline Ellie as Danny’s first child—depending on if you included the time she was still but a Duplicate—was older, but because of the whole time-travel aspect Dan was also technically ten in ghost years compared to Danny’s four and Ellie’s three. The whole thing was a convoluted mess. And this was also based solely on them ignoring their biological appearance age. All of this and they weren’t even taking into account that they all were still considered “baby ghosts”.)
How did they uncover such a revelation? As with many things, it was Danny’s fault. For one, that he’d even deigned to release Dan from his Time-out at Clockwork’s in the first place. Two, Danny was too thorough in his work, especially regarding potential future conflicts, leading him to discover that Dan was actually a Neverborn, meaning he’d been a full-fledged ghost at his birth. Which Danny was decidedly not—even taking into consideration that Danny might have completely died after consuming Vlad’s core and becoming Dan, he still wouldn’t be considered a Neverborn given he’d been alive at one point. And three, Danny had foolishly hauled all their involved asses—meaning Danny, Ellie, Dan, and Vlad—to corner Clockwork for the truth.
Apparently, Clockwork—being the little shit Ellie aspired to be like—had kept the fact that Dan was actually Danny and Vlad’s child from Danny.
(Wes was owed an unfair amount of cash for somehow predicting it all. According to him it’d been obvious, given the unique nature of Ghosts, it shouldn’t have even been possible for Dan—as a future version of Danny—to travel back in time to a period where Danny existed and was present in the Living Realm as a Halfa or Full-fledged Ghost, without destabilizing or simply becoming one with said Past-Danny. Even arguing that with how big of an Obsession change Dan experienced there was no way the supposed Core Cannibalism was actually successful, which meant Dan was more an amalgamation of Vlad and Danny into a whole new Ghost, than a future version of Danny.
Needless to say, Danny hadn’t been happy that of all the conspiracies Wes had kept his silence on it had been this one. So he also had to help Danny with paperwork—though Ellie was certain that wasn’t all he helped with given the spring in the redhead’s step paired with Danny’s occasional limp—for two weeks to make up for keeping quiet about the whole matter.)
A misunderstanding that led to Danny’s whole frantic existential crisis on how cheating on some stupid test resulted in him becoming a blood-thirsty Fruitloop.
Because for some reason, Clockwork thought it’d be a good lesson for Danny to learn to control himself (read: the bastard was content with Danny’s misinterpretation and was too lazy to explain if it got the job done). Let it never be said that Clockwork was the most reliable of guardians a fledging ghost—let alone a halfa—could have, especially if one wanted to be raised with little trauma.
And hadn’t that been a disturbing discovery for all parties involved. Ellie still got a bit green in the face at the very thought of such a cursed pairing—it didn’t matter that ghosts didn’t need physical intimacy to procreate, it was still an intimate and involved process—but at least she hadn’t had a mental breakdown like Dan did, nor did she actually throw up like Danny and Vlad did every time they saw each other for months afterwards when they weren’t both fighting over custody of Dan—fights eerily reminiscent to the ones between Red Huntress and Phantom over Wraith which set off a whole new wave of conspiracies within Amity even during the aftermath of everything.
Ancients, Dan’s “mental breakdown” had lasted two straight “weeks” with him curled up in a dark corner of the Keep library questioning his existence and very purpose in life. Which—yeah, reasonable reaction after finding out that he was not who he thought he was. But it was also absolutely hilariously overdramatic and something Ellie would hold over his head for eternity especially since she’d managed to build a ceiling high wall of books around the dissociating ghost without his notice.
She will admit that back than she’d already disliked—more bordering hate toward—Dan, not only for the trust Danny placed in him by giving him an actual Title, but also for taking up so much of Danny’s time. So the sudden realization that she now had a legitimate rival for Danny’s fatherly attention had not been welcome.
Admittedly—after Dan had gotten a little too close to Fading—she’d felt a bit ashamed with her behavior, especially after Danny had scolded her over her insensitivity reminding her that’d she’d once been in the same position as Dan. But she couldn’t say for certain if she’d been ashamed because of her actions or because she’d gotten caught — back than it was likely more the latter.
(It certainly didn’t help that for as stern as Danny was in his scolding about plotting fratricide, he’d also seemed fondly amused if not resigned to it all.)
As of now, Dan had definitely grown on her especially since he helps cover up any of her mischief that gets out of had. She does find it unfortunate to announce that Dan has to spend every other “month” with Vlad and has technically been adopted by the Fruitloop.
How was all of this possible in the first place? Basically, the unconscious will of a dying Danny, who’d forcefully “devoured” Vlad’s core—Ellie could still hear Jazz yelling about at the two about consent as if it hadn’t, much like the first time with Ellie, been entirely Vlad’s fault.
(For all Jazz was the therapist, that didn’t mean she was without her faults. And her propensity to treat others as toddlers in need of lecturing was just one such fault.)
Now, normally a successful traditional Core Cannibalism—as long as one was stronger than the devoured individual—wouldn’t have such a drastic impact on a ghost that the theory of Dan being Danny implied besides a power boost. Which obviously means that Danny didn’t perform a traditional Cannibalism—makes since given it turned out Danny hadn’t even initiated the whole thing, rather it was a Fading Vlad foolishly hoping to save himself by devouring Danny’s Core.
Instead, the dying Danny, who’d already lost everyone he cared about, even with nothing to remain for could not be overpowered by Vlad but he also didn’t want to be the last one left—Ellie tried not to think about what happened to her in such a timeline—so he used the last of their combined existence to create someone who’d remember their loved ones. Thus Dan was born! Yada yada yada, boring.
Anyways, she’d gotten way off topic, but she swears this will all be relevant later.
What is important is the fact that the three Halfas—though one was more alive than dead and another was more dead than alive—suddenly became extremely conscious about the fact they had the potential to accidentally will a child into existence.
Now, Ellie hadn’t been particularly taken off guard by this revelation. For starters, by the time they’d found out about it, Ellie had already long been subjected to “The Talk” by Jazz—much to Danny absolute irritation for not only having such an important parenting milestone being stolen from him, but also Jazz’s utter insensitivity back than to consider Ellie’s unique biology—so Ellie wasn’t a stranger to the idea that the typical female body could grow another life in it.
Like any three-year-old though, she had no interest in the whole process and she certainly didn’t want or plan to have any kids of her own—if she even could, while Neverborns were always an option with another ghost or by herself, if she’d be able to have living liminal children was up in airs for now.
Needless to say, the revelation didn’t change much for Ellie, at least in terms of her own identity in her mind. The same could NOT be said for Danny and Vlad, but especially Danny. After all, it’d been his will and desires that brought both Dan and her into existence.
As hilariously horrid and nauseating the idea of a pregnant Vlad was, for as powerful as Vlad was it actually wasn’t of much concern. Until he became a full ghost—which won’t happen for another few decades or so—Vlad wouldn’t have to worry about it much besides the possibility of accidentally starting the process in his Ghost Half, but he’d still have to put conscious effort and power to finish it like any other ghost. After all, Vlad was closer to Liminal than Halfa, just as Ellie was more Neverborn than Halfa.
Still the old former virgin—information she absolutely didn’t need to know—hadn’t taken it well in the beginning. On the other hand, Danny had taken it all too well—likely on account of the fact that he’d already experienced a “pregnancy” even before learning all this.
Which was worrying, because Danny—the mini-godling that he is—is far more powerful than Vlad, Ellie, and Dan will ever be. As the High King of the Infinite Realms, Danny’s enormous surplus of ectoplasm was already used to assist and guide the creation and growth of not only the Neverborns but all Denizens in the Realms, and as a Protector/Guardian Spirit his ectoplasm already had the disposition to “raise” others—all of which meant it was all the easier and entirely plausible for a wildly careless thought of his packed with desire to spontaneously bring a Neverborn child of his into existence.
But it’d also been proven that due to his nature and power as a true Halfa, depending on his desires at the time any Ghost Pregnancy he typically experienced could be extended to his Living-Half. Ellie was the best example of this.
She’d mentioned it a few times before, but Ellie started as one of Danny’s Ectoplasmic Duplicates possessing an unstable clone body. It was only Danny’s acknowledgment of her as an individual that separated her from the rest of his duplicates, and the echoes of his Core that sustained her long enough to promote the beginnings of a core of her own.
But the beginnings of a fledgling core are not enough to support the energy consumption of a Halfa, let alone an artificial one that’d never been alive to know how to maintain a living-form. So unless she remained in the Realms, she constantly faced the risk of destabilizing whenever Danny couldn’t spare his own ectoplasm to her through their link as his Duplicate.
(Not that they’d been aware of this. What with Danny still being new to his new dead status and powers, and Ellie too excited to explore the living world for a purpose of her own. A purpose of her own, which was not to be confused with her purpose. She knew why she’d been created, the meaning behind her existence for others, especially for Danny. But Danny, her dad brother, had been very clear that Ellie needed to find a purpose of her own, to explore why she wanted to continue to exist for herself, and not for anybody else.)
Of course, once they learned the reason behind her periodic destabilization was her incomplete core and the disconnect between it and her clone body, it was an easy fix to have Danny “host” her in himself. There his Core and Will were present to help direct and support Ellie’s own core to develop properly, while also redesigning her living body to help teach her how to maintain it.
She preferred to think of it as a purposeful fix, and not a severely panicked Danny risking his own existence by stuffing her core into the exposed cavity of his chest guarded by his own fractured core praying that it would save her.
And seeing as Danny spent the entire pregnancy in the Realms, she was essentially the child of Danny and the Infinite Realms, that meant she was basically double royalty—not that bloodline meant anything when it came to inheriting the High King’s Throne. Such was a story for another time though.
Which again brought up why Ellie was a bit worried she might end up with more siblings—besides Dan—popping up here and there (she mourned the genetic deaths of her clone siblings, but again they were all basically soulless husks and she enjoyed having Danny’s attention focused solely on her to much).
Because basically speaking, Danny had already experienced something worse than a ghostly pregnancy—in terms of physically invasive dysmorphic intimacy—being a living pregnancy in an incompatible body. Not to mention, he’d experienced it during one of the most difficult recovery periods of his afterlife. So after experiencing the stress of a pregnancy during a time like that, she wouldn’t put it past Danny to underestimate the stress of pregnancy in a time of lesser difficulties.
Thankfully, Jazz giving ALL of them—yes, even Vlad “I’ll just clone myself a kid then” Masters, as well as Tucker “Bro! Imagine the brains of a kid with our combined brains” Foley—the birds and the bees talk, together with an in-depth five hour long lecture on responsible parenting (followed by a two hour lecture on the difficulties of teen parenting), seemed to put Danny off of the idea for now.
(Valerie had laughed herself silly over it for months after she’d walked in on it. It was not so funny later when said teased group left her to the wolves of Jazz’s ten hour lecture and presentation on consent, with a well timed comment of Val’s part in Ellie’s creation.)
But the point was that Danny could NEVER be trusted to make smart decisions when he was lonely, which brought us closer to her current opsie. Which again, was at least partly—if not entirely—Danny’s fault!
<Everything after this is Subject to Editing>
Ellie was Danny’s pride and joy! Literally, Danny liked to brag to anyone who could listen, that Ellie was born to be a contrary little shit and he was here for it. Listening to him gush about Ellie was almost as annoying as listening to Vlad brag about Danny, though Danny was significantly less creepy about it. (She is pointedly ignoring the fact that Danny does much the same with Dan).
And Ellie was never one to disappoint Danny. Even back when they hadn’t settled into their roles as father and daughter.
As such, Ellie was perfectly willing to use her status as Danny’s favorite child—no matter what Dan said—to trick her dad template/father/brother into signing a document that Clockwork said was some kind of contract to hire a secretary.
(She wouldn’t have to trick him if he’d just give them Titles beyond being members of his council. But her template was as stubborn as ever about everything being his responsibility, like it wasn’t humanity’s idiocy that caused everything. Honestly, Danny held this incomprehensible belief that they would all desire to create a life in the mortal realm again, even after everything, and thus didn’t want to tie them down to the Realms. No matter the mental gymnastics she performed to try and understand his thought process, Ellie couldn’t comprehend his bullshit logic.)
Of course, it’d been a while back (as in shortly after she’d even been created) when Danny was just starting to take over his duties as King, and Ellie had asked when she knew he’d been reading paperwork long enough that the words would start blending together or move about the page.
(It had been a mistake on Danny’s part to trust that Ellie wouldn’t ask him to sign something that would drown him in more bullshit.)
Though, even if she hadn’t asked in that specific moment, there was so much going on back then that she was sure Danny wouldn’t have minded having a secretary during it all (especially since back then he still didn’t completely understand what it meant to have a specific title in the afterlife).
Once the paper had been signed, she’d tried to give it back to Clockwork. But the ghost had simply stated that he’d be leaving the choice of Danny’s secretary up to her. There had been rules though:
1. That it couldn’t be any one that Danny already considered to be of the family.
2. They could not be a ghost, and most preferably they weren’t any kind of denizen of the Infinite Realms (ie. they didn’t live in the cracks between universes and dimensions). It’d be best if they were a mortal citizen of the living.
3. That the contract and selection was a matter of utmost secrecy, so until it was signed no one was to know about it.
And finally,
4. The choice was to be based solely of Ellie’s opinion.
Back then, Ellie had thought the rules had been reasonable. Sure, it would’ve made more sense for Jazz to pick a secretary for Danny, especially given she had more life experience and would have Danny’s best interests in mind. Ancients, while Vlad wasn’t exactly on friendly terms with all of them yet even he probably would’ve been a better choice given his experience (that is if he could’ve been trusted to not actively attempt to sabotage Danny).
But Ellie was definitely a better option than Sam (Ellie hadn’t known the girl well, but even she knew better than to expect Sam to put her personal opinions aside for Danny) or Valerie would’ve been. Compared to them, even Wesley would’ve made a better choice. Though Ellie would say the only reason she beat out Tucker was because Ellie personally knew what it was like to be a Halfa.
Still, Ellie had been extremely pleased that Clockwork decided to trust her to choose someone to fill what sounded like such an important position. (Even if she systematically forgot about the contract’s existence.)
When she did remember its existence, she took the job very seriously, even mulling over the rules with severe consideration to ensure she didn’t miss any potential hints from Clockwork about the best timeline.
Back then the second rule wasn’t so suspicious given, as smart as it would’ve been to have a secretary that knew all the information Danny was lacking regarding Ghost Culture, most ghosts that Danny trusted weren’t suited for such a position. Now, three living years later when Danny desperately needed a secretary, it was basically impossible to find one given the Realms had closed themselves off after Danny’s last year amongst the living.
(She says “living year” because time doesn’t pass in a calculable manner within the Realms as it held no meaning. Ancients, even big events were held at random when their hosts felt like it was time. While events like Christmas were only organized when the Realms had an open stable connection to a living universe. Originally they had believed they could calculate it based on how the liminal mortals now living in the Realms aged, but no one had aged since Amity Park was taken into the Realms.)
That reasoning went hand in hand with the first rule, about it not being someone Danny considered family. Back when she’d gotten the contract signed, everybody had been busy with their own lives and planning for the future.
Jazz was on track to entering her dream college, but she suddenly had to rework all her previous plans surrounding Danny and their parents. It suddenly wasn’t enough to just make up a lie when she was 18 and drag Danny with her, now she was desperately researching law in order to build a case against her parents (and even against Vlad) in hopes she could get official custody of Danny. But she was also constantly in an internal conflict of logic and emotions with herself for doubting their parents love for them (Jazz had confided in them all later how exhausting it was to know the logic and reasoning behind her emotions and the effects of their parents neglect, yet still having to battle with her subconscious denial in it all).
(Jazz and Danny had gotten into a huge fight over Jazz’s plans. Ellie had understood both of their sides. Jazz reasonably wanted to get Danny away from their parents, and that desire only got more intense when she learned Danny had died and the Fentons suddenly weren’t just a proximity threat in theory. Meanwhile, Danny as mad as he was that Jazz had planned to uproot him from his life without consent, he was more mad at himself for being what he perceived as a burden on Jazz.)
Besides Jazz, Tucker was an absolute mess himself. The PDA-lover had already been struggling in his classes (not as much as Danny though) due to the grief of Danny, his best friend, pulling away from him, not to mention the subsequent strain it brought in his relationship with Sam as they no longer had Danny to meditate. That strain only worsened when he learned Danny had died, as did his grades (this time enough that his desired career path was at risk, but compared to staying with Danny that meant nothing). The sudden appearance of the Ghost Investigation Ward (GIW) and the passing of the Anti-Ecto Acts, only lit a fire under Tucker as he put all his free time between school and helping Danny with patrols into improving his coding and hacking skills. Not to mention, the extra classes that he took on first aid.
(Tucker absolutely mourned the future he could’ve had if the portal never opened, but he didn’t regret his decisions or the path he’d taken since it did. He’d never regret choosing Danny.)
The less said about Sam the better, but Ellie knew Danny was still hurt by her rejection of his Halfa status. While they all respected her decision in the beginning, her random bouts of hypocrisy and attacks on Danny after learning his status as King were not welcome.
At that point in time, Valerie was still rather dead set in her belief that Phantom needed to be put down to stop the ghosts. While Wesley was struggling with his social and academic life at school due to no one believing him about Phantom’s identity, and as smart as he was he was still oblivious to the potential consequences of exposing Danny.
Compared to all of them, Ellie was the only one with no personal obligations tying her down, and her Halfa status meant Danny wasn’t allowed to act like he was destroying her future (he’d never regret her creation but he would mourn the fact she’d never get to have a normal childhood either alive or dead). But Ellie was also aware, that not only was she unfit to be Danny’s secretary, but that it wasn’t a job she wanted to have so early in her afterlife.
With everyone so busy with their lives, trying to cope with the changes brought by Danny’s death and having to decide what they valued more for their future, it wasn’t plausible for any member of Danny’s family to be his secretary.
Not to mention, Danny would never be able to live with the nonsensical guilt for having “robbed them of their lives and humanity”.
Ancients, Ellie had long decided to exclude Amity Parkers in her selection, even before the town ended up semi-permanently residing in the Infinite Realms and they’d become aware of the consequences of prolonged ecto-contamination, as none of the town’s citizens—now, liminal denizens of the Realms—had the capabilities nor desire to help run the Realms.
Yet even now Danny was drowning himself in that bullshit belief of his. It wasn’t like Danny had been aware there were consequences to long term exposure to pure ectoplasm, nor could he have predicted human idiocy and bigotry when he’d never lived to adulthood.
(It wasn’t like Danny had known that merely four years after the portal opened, everyone who had resided in Amity Park for a minimum of three months, would be forced flee into the Realms, due to even the slightest levels of liminality. Ancients, a good majority of those refugees ought to be grateful Danny even let them in after the way they had treated him.
Ellie had eagerly joined the group of volunteer ghosts that taught the new liminal mortals about the Realms, happy to show them that the Infinite Realms was WAY cooler than the living world. And sure there were a few that bitched and moaned like toddlers about it, but the benefits of living in the Realms silenced most of them, and those it didn’t were dealt with so as to ensure they wouldn’t endanger Danny or the Realms with any stupid plots.)
It wouldn’t be until a long while after she got the contract, that Ellie would realize how little sense it made for Danny’s secretary to be mortal. Beyond the fact that basically any ghost would eagerly volunteer to assist Danny, but only especially strong willed ones would be able to resist giving way to Danny’s every whim both due to Danny’s likability as well as the pressure of the crown. It made even less sense now that that the Infinite Realms had completely cut off contact with the living realm beyond what was required for the dead to pass on and keep universes stable. The only mortals Ellie had contact with now were liminals, and while all the living would eventually fall under Danny’s authority with their death, liminals were basically destined to become permanent residents of the Realms upon the death of their mortal flesh, and thus were especially conscious of their status as Danny’s subjects.
And sure, Ellie could see the appeal of a mortal secretary likely forcing Danny to pay attention to the matters of living mortals again. But as much as Ellie wished she could explore amongst the living again, like the majority of the Infinite Realms she no longer looked fondly at the matters of the living world, let alone trusted living mortals.
Not that many ever had, the living made even the simplest of things so complicated. Which was only proven by the number of the liminals seeking therapy due to internal conflicts brought about by trying to apply living logic to the dead and unliving.
Ancients, most of the conflict brought by Amity’s change in residence was due to liminals trying to adapt to the more flexible yet simple thinking of the dead. While most native Amity Parkers were able to compromise with the their values in order to adopt ones more in line with the dead, there were still a few who’d been in accepting of the change even despite fleeing into the Realms. It was actually a sad sight to witness, the way these people were so unaccepting of their new reality that they ended up isolating themselves entirely, or growing so desperate to return to the living that they became a threat to others.
As merciful as Danny was, the Infinite Realms themselves were not, especially to those who threatened her Champion. And in light of recent events, the very Realms had grown a steady (and reasonable in Ellie’s not so humble opinion) hatred for the living. In agreement with that wrath, Danny’s Council (ie his Team) pushed for Danny to tighten the reigns while in such a period of danger.
In the end, it was Clockwork and the High King’s Court who forced Danny to give those people a cold ultimatum; one, could get their shit together and patiently wait until the Realms could safely open back up to the living and Danny found a universe to relocate Amity that wouldn’t threaten them; two, leave their mortal flesh behind and move on to their next life before they were too liminal to do so, or move on to their life as a full ghost, which would result in an easier mental transition; or three, be Ended as Danny wasn’t willing to risk the safety of his citizens for the happiness of a few he didn’t even consider family.
Sam had been one of those few, not that it had been a surprise. Months before the Realms closed she’d already hammered in the final nail to the coffin that was her relationship with Danny and the Team. When during an argument over how Danny used his powers as King, she demanded Danny go against his very being to simply force the world into submission. Despite the nasty end to their friendship, Danny had been grateful Sam chose the first option and left Amity to stay with Overgrowth deeper in the zone.
(Ellie could still remember wanting to tear the goth apart for some of the things she said to Danny after the Infinite Realms’ Declaration of War against their home universe. Ellie couldn’t believe the gull of the girl to suggest they were all being unreasonable.
Sam hadn’t been the one to find Danny chained to a surgical table, nor had it been Sam’s melting fingers being the sole barrier keeping Danny’s—her dad brother—organs from spilling out of the cavity of his chest. Sam wasn’t the one who had to exist with the fact that she’d gone on a war path without regard for her afterlife or idiotic human morals and ethics to rescue Danny only to be forced to watch as said torturously injured brother ended up having to rescue her.
For a liminal mortal like herself to have the guts to say it was unreasonable to go to war over the mindless torture of a loved one. To say that as if the world didn’t deserve to suffer because it had been Danny, who had power over all of them, that had been caught and cut open again and again, when the Ancients know the world had been lucky it had been Danny, who was merciful to those who harmed him but held nothing back for those who harmed the ones he considered his.
Sam who hadn’t even bothered to tell anyone in the know about witnessing Maddie Fenton turn Danny over to the GIW. Sam, whose ass had been saved a dozen times over by Danny, yet had dared try and hinder Wesley in his urgency to let the Team know about Jack’s message.
Sam had been lucky Ellie, Fright Knight, and the High Court hadn’t demanded her End for such blatant treason.)
No matter Danny’s feelings regarding her choice however, the Court (with the support of Danny’s Council) had unanimously agreed that the goth would be monitored. Meanwhile, Ellie was patiently waiting for the day Sam became a full ghost so she could show the goth her place in the Realms.
(As someone once said, “None held a grudge quite like the Dead” and Ellie wasn’t afraid to live up to it. It was only reasonable that they held grudges when their very being was made up of emotions. And when one’s very obsession fueled said grudge there was no such thing as pettiness.)
Anyways—she’d gotten severely off topic—of the rules regarding the selection of Danny’s secretary, Ellie had originally the least questions about the last two. She was the family’s little shit after all! Chaos was her craft! And she’d been worried if anyone knew about the contract, they’d try to take it from her due to her inexperience.
Now however, she realized those last two questions should have made her question the whole thing. Danny, as much faith as he held in Clockwork, had constantly warned Ellie against taking Clockwork’s words at face value. He had always reminded Ellie and the team that while Clockwork cared for Danny, the Ghost’s perceived “best timeline” could lead much to be desired.
It hadn’t been until Danny had been captured, when Ellie met Jack Fenton for the first time as the man burst into the Keep hysterically shouting for help to rescue Danny from Maddie, that Ellie saw the first glimpse of what Danny meant.
It was there in the way Clockwork had superficially decided that Danny needed to be tortured, and torn apart at the hands of his own mother for three living months and who knows how long in the depths of the Infinite Realms before Danny’s will weakened enough that the Realms were finally able to notify its subjects something was wrong. Yet, she’d had only a glimpse of understanding it after their siege on the GIW fortress in the the Realms was proving futile, as it only led the bastards to move Danny back to the living world where Danny was too weak for the Realms to track.
Ellie had threatened to release Dan, to release Pariah Dark, and do everything in her power to destroy the very Realms, if Clockwork refused to give her Danny’s location.
(Not that it was very helpful, given all he’d told her was the portal in the Realms GIW base would take her to Danny, and without thought nor hesitation she led a solo suicide mission into the base and through that stupid third portal to get to Danny, nearly Ending herself in the process.)
Yet it was only as Danny held her melting form in his trembling bloodied arms, stumbling towards the blasted GIW Portal, Ellie knowing that her End was drawing near but praying that Fright Knight, Dorothea and the others had managed to breach the facility on the other side so that Danny would be safe, that Ellie finally realized why Danny had warned them about Clockwork.
Ellie (or anyone else that Danny loved) may no longer exist in Clockwork’s supposed “best timeline”. Danny could have complete faith that Clockwork would never allow him to stray from the best timeline, but Danny didn’t trust that would mean that those he cared about would make it there with him.
It had made her laugh hysterically in that moment. She probably looked like she’d utterly lost it, melting there in Danny’s arms, laughing to the point of tears, but Danny hadn’t cared only tightening his hold to give her forehead a heartbreakingly fond and understanding kiss. One would think with how much Ellie was willing to sacrifice in order for Danny to live and be happy, she’d be okay with dying for such a timeline. But Ellie was selfish, she’d always been selfish.
And she refused to believe that the Ending of her or any of their family would be necessary for the best—and wasn’t that hilarious, it was the best, not the happiest, or safest for Danny, simply the best—timeline.
After having such a realization, one would think Ellie would be more suspicious of Clockwork’s intentions. But while Ellie was selfish, and she sure as hell didn’t trust the bastard with her or anyone else’s afterlife, she trusted the ghost with Danny’s.
She trusted that the embodiment of Time wouldn’t let her make a decision that would result in Danny’s End.
Not that that was really an excuse for her to have never read the contract, but Ellie was sure even if she’d tried she wouldn’t have understood a word of the ancient legal jargon. And again, Ellie prided herself on being Danny’s daughter/sister/cousin, and Danny hadn’t read it either, so again everything that happened is technically Danny’s fault!
(Well actually Danny had tried to read it just to make sure it wasn’t anything that would hurt Ellie, but the fucking document changed languages every few words in such a manner that it would’ve taken Danny hours to understand it even with the help of Ghost Speak and while he would’ve been willing to suffer through the headache Ellie had said she needed to turn it in within the hour.
He had still tried to get the gist of it, and it seemed harmless enough, it was about Ellie trying to apply as the secretary of something, or that she was trying to hire a secretary. Either option left him curious but he was sure it wouldn’t be long before he found the reason for it, and if something went wrong he could always use his status as King to null it. Ellie had just been happy to let him assume.)
Back to the matter at hand—because Ellie could never stay on topic—it all began (technically three years prior but she already covered that) because she might have gotten a bit—just a bit—carried away in the universe she’d been visiting.
The specific universe was UN#387JL1, one of the rare numbered universes that had its own sector in Clockwork’s Time Pocket, where the ghost occasionally experimented with different timelines.
(The timelines in this Pocket were what mortals referred to often as the Multiverse, though unless Clockwork and the other Ancients allowed these timelines to come about they only held to title of universe in name and are simply shadows of ectoplasm molded to mimic life. It was this that Ellie was referring to when she said that Danny was the only True Danny, the multiverse didn’t exist as anything more than an ectoplasmic shadow of Time super imposed on reality. It was a whole mess that absolutely broke Tucker and Danny’s brains let alone Ellie’s, but suffice to say every soul is unique and that the multiverse doesn’t exist yet, and Ellie will strangle Danny if he dares to make it real.)
Anyway, it was a special occasion, as not only was it her first time universe hopping, it would be the first time a citizen of the Infinite Realms entered the living world after who knows how long (cause again Time, as mortals view it, is irrelevant in the Realms). So it was only right that Ellie chose somewhere special!
And what could be more special than a universe where there was a clone like herself!
Unsurprisingly, though still unfortunate, the cursed luck of her very own template would follow her (she knew it was Clockwork’s fault as he’d been the one to direct her to this specific portal but she needed to keep her story straight to direct the blame to Danny), and she arrived just as the clone died!
It was so unfair! Ellie honestly had wanted to fly back to the Keep and demand cuddles from Danny while she cried, but she didn’t because if she did Danny probably wouldn’t let her go universe hopping alone in the future.
So instead, she’d decided to stalk the clone’s—Kon’s, his name is was Kon—best friend. A boy by the name Timothy Drake-Wayne, though his hero name was Robin.
If Tim just so happened to remind her a bit too much of Danny—it wasn’t like that was the only reason she chose to stalk him—then it was nobody’s business.
Ancients were they similar, Ellie wouldn’t have been surprised if Clockwork suddenly appeared and informed her that this Tim Drake fellow was her template’s counterpart in this universe if she hadn’t already known that her Danny was the only true Danny in all existence.
There was certainly a resemblance though, and it wasn’t just because Ellie was looking for Danny in the mortal.
Tim Drake resembled her doting template’s original human form to a scary yet hilarious degree (especially after she saw the boy’s “family”). Raven black hair though Tim’s was actually styled compared to Danny’s own roguish locks. They both had pretty blue eyes—even though the shades were different—that were brought out by frighteningly prominent eye-bags. Tim’s body was lean like Danny’s but not so much as to be a twink as Tucker called her template. Tim’s muscles were more prominent as well but not unnaturally so. She was pretty sure Danny was an inch or so taller than Tim though. And beyond their physical similarities, Tim was a vigilante—not a hero, because Danny was the only one worthy of that title in her eyes—similar to how Danny had been a hero once upon a time.
The guy even shared her template’s idiotic belief that everything was his responsibility.
(Not to mention it seemed he shared her Template’s horrendous luck. Like Ancients did it seem like the universe had it out for this kid. His life was just one tragedy after another.)
Anyway, she was getting off-topic.
So she might have gotten a bit carried away with her stalking, and maybe she’d started to panic when the vigilante—who was bleeding out—focused on rescuing his teammate and getting them to safety.
How was she supposed to know the scene would trigger her memories of a period of nightmares.
(She could still vividly remember how she’d left that portal covered in wounds but with an unstoppable determination to rescue Danny, only for it to end with Danny stumbling over to it having rescued her. She can still remember his rage-filled roar when Maddie had so much as dared to turn her scalpels toward her, the way Danny had not hesitated for a second to eliminate any threat in their path the moment Ellie freed him from his cuffs and he’d noticed her destabilizing. It was an absolute nightmare. And the way her false core purred brokenly at his willingness to throw away his morals for her would haunt her, because she knew it had nearly Ended him back then in that time where he hadn’t yet learned how focus his obsessions and he was being torn apart by them. It had nearly Ended them both.)
And maybe in her panic, she accidentally kidnapped the slowly dying duo and tied them up in an abandoned warehouse.
And maybe, she had also dumped the bodies of their dead companions into the Realms to speed up the process of their rebirth as ghosts. She may have also threatened to hold those baby ghosts captive to get the Pru girl to cooperate and finish her recovery in the Realms.
(Sue her, Ellie had gotten attached to the assassin trio and she absolutely was going to steal them to form her own Adventure Squad!)
Obviously, Ellie could get away with using her ectoplasm to heal Pru, because Pru was already liminal to such a degree where she’d certainly become a ghost. Which meant, Pru’s body wouldn’t protest to the early construction of what basically amounted to a ghostly reconstruction of her throat and voice box.
The vigilante was the problem though. He wasn’t even the slightest bit liminal, which meant that his body would view her ectoplasm as an invading force it needed to eliminate and the guy wasn’t exactly in a position where he’d survive such an internal conflict. Which meant the best she could do was take him to Frostbite.
(And even if he had been liminal, Ellie didn’t have precise enough control of her ectoplasm to repair an entire organ. The only reason she could repair Pru’s throat and voice box was because Ember had forced Danny and her to learn its anatomy incase their Wail damaged their human body.)
But as much as the Realms loved her, they wouldn’t allow such a high-level risk like the vigilante to enter them, especially when the Realms appeared to hold little regard for this universe.
(Like Ellie honestly wanted to know what this universe did to the Realms, that the very glue of reality held a grudge.)
Even if she could manage to convince them, this guy was too smart. He’d immediately realize something had changed in him, and with no explanation he’d search until he found the truth whether it should be known or not.
Not to mention, if the rest of the Batfamily caught wind of it. They were the exact type of nosey assholes the Realms hated the most. It could also cause Danny trouble if the so-called Justice League caught wind of the Infinite Realms existence.
(And boy, if Ellie thought the Infinite Realms grudge on this universe was oddly strong it had nothing on the grudge Danny had against the Justice League. But Ellie trusted Danny’s judgment.
It didn’t help that Ellie wouldn’t but it past Batman to try and find a way to eliminate Danny, which even if it was just to create one of those contingency plans, was absolutely unacceptable. After every thing living mortals had put Danny through trying to control what they had no right too, the Realms—whether that referred to the citizens or to its literal consciousness—wouldn’t hesitate to obliterate them. And unfortunately if that happened Danny would probably blame himself.)
Despite knowing all of this, Ellie’s core was demanding she save the vigilante in front of her. And she trusted that Clockwork would interfere if her actions would lead to Danny getting hurt irreparably.
Which of course brought us to the cause of all of this, her singular solution. The “secretary” contract, she’d forgotten about until that Clockwork had reminded her of it before she entered this particular universe.
The embodiment of Time reminding her that while she was exploring and meeting new people she should take the opportunity to find Danny a “secretary of sorts”, who could help Danny with his duties as King and keep him company while everyone else was busy.
Which yeah that was pretty vague, so she probably should’ve actually read the contract before using it, but it wasn’t exactly her best moment especially when all she could think about when she looked at the vigilante teen was Danny slowly dying in her arms.
And besides, this hadn’t been the first time she’d thought Tim would be a perfect secretary companion (read : mortal pet) for Danny. Tim would’ve made a great secretary for Danny!
The guy was 16 or 17 and basically ran a multimillion dollar company, he was easily the Greatest Detective in the World (because Batman sucked in Ellie’s not so quiet opinion), but most importantly he was willing to do basically ANYTHING for his family.
Plus despite how similar Tim was to Batman, unlike the furry bat, Tim cared more for his family than he did the world. So once Tim got to know Danny, Ellie was sure Tim would completely agree with her that any kind of contingency plan to lock Danny up or End him wasn’t allowed to exist in the hands of any mortal (or undead) universe.
(Ancients, Danny had created enough of his own for the family to use against him if he started to become a tyrant like Pariah, and some of them were so cruel, that Jazz actually had to sit him down and discuss Danny’s self-hatred and suicidal tendencies. For Ancients sake, there was a number of them that Danny would absolutely End a universe for with zero regret if it was done to one of his subjects, yet he’d been more than willing to consider as a plausible solution for dealing with himself.)
She was sure Tim would thank her for introducing him to Danny too! There was no doubt in her mind that Tim would be easily and eagerly adopted into their little family. And unlike Tim’s present family, they actually knew how to appreciate each other and communicate (ignoring the fact that ghosts were basically made of emotions thus making it severely impractical and uncomfortable to hide your feelings from others).
With all of that in mind, she subtly threatened convinced the boy to sign the contract and then eagerly dragged his bleeding ass through a portal to the Far Frozen.
Which brought us to now, where she sat on a visitor bench in the medical center thinking about how to get Danny to lessen her inevitable punishment. Because Frostbite had just referred to an unconscious Tim, who was deposited on a cosy medical cot receiving treatment, as the Great One’s Betrothed.
Danny was sooooo going to ground her.