Chapter Text
“You should have gone back through the portal hours ago.”
Daniel looked over in surprise as Valerie coasted to a stop beside the ledge he was perched on.
“I know,” he said.
“Then why are you still here?”
He didn’t seem bothered by her confrontational tone or the blaster she had trained on him. It wouldn’t be as effective on a human as a ghost, but Valerie knew from experience that it would get the job done.
“I just needed to get some air,” Daniel said evasively, and Valerie scoffed.
“There’s plenty of air in that kooky ghost place you love so much,” she countered. “Tell the truth, are you trying to instigate an invasion of our world?”
That did the trick. “No,” he scowled, “How many times do I have to say it, Valerie? I only want to help.”
“That’s exactly the type of thing you’d expect to hear from someone trying to justify an invasion.”
“Look, I just wanted a moment to myself, alright?” Daniel snapped, “Is that really so hard to believe?”
Valerie gave him a long hard look. He held her glare for a few seconds before visibly giving up and deciding to ignore her.
His leg was splinted, and the Fenton Thermos rested innocuously on the ledge beside him. Where his clothes weren’t covered in dust, they were matted with dried blood; he wore no crown on his head, or ring on his finger. The Fright Knight was nowhere in sight, nor were any of the other ectoplasmic monstrosities that he had given his allegiance to over what remained of his own species.
He looked nothing like royalty. He just looked tired.
Could Valerie really believe that he had just wanted a moment to himself, a chance to just sit and breathe, even though that reprieve might come at the cost of their tentative truce?
She thought of the hungry, unsettled people of Amity Park, and the way that their faces lit up whenever she spoke, as if they mistakenly thought that she had the answers to their problems - as if she had even the first idea what she was doing half the time, really. They were probably waiting for her right now, unsure what to do with this strange new reality where both she and the ghost shield were obsolete. They needed someone who could assuage their fears and guide their hands as they made this new settlement into a home.
They needed a leader, not a ghost hunter, and yet it was her who they had chosen to hang their hopes on.
“No,” she sighed, stowing her blaster and drifting lower, “I guess I can understand that.”
“How did you know I would be here?” he asked, shifting to make room for her as she dismounted from her board and sat down on the ledge beside him.
“This old ruin has the best view for miles,” she said, glancing meaningfully up at the slowly clearing sky, and the fading stars that were still visible scattered across it.
Daniel smiled ruefully.
“This was one of the things I missed the most,” he said. “There’s no night or day in the Ghost Zone, only the occasional ecto-storm. I feel like I’ve forgotten the names of some of the constellations.”
“I’m afraid I won’t be much help to you there,” Valerie said apologetically, “All I know is the big dipper, right up there.”
“That’s not nothing,” he said, and let the silence fall back over them as the eastern horizon slowly began to lighten.
After a while, Valerie slanted a look at him. His head was tilted back as his eyes roamed restlessly, almost desperately, over the sky, as if this was the last time he was ever going to see it. Depending on how long it took for the humans to rebuild, she guessed that it might very well be.
She swung her feet, staring down at the sheer drop that awaited them if the ledge started to collapse. Her traitorous brain, unable to allow her even a moment’s peace after ten years on edge, immediately began supplying images of what it would look like to hit the ground after a fall from this height.
“I wonder what it takes to come back as a ghost,” she mused, and Daniel dropped his head into his hands. “I mean, you of all people should be the expert on that, right?”
“Can we please not talk about this?” he asked, voice muffled.
“I have a right to be curious, Fenton! Since you’re still here anyways instead of in the Ghost Zone like you should be, why not explain all that ‘the-evil-ghost-was-me-all-along’ nonsense?”
“Valerie, please,” he pleaded, “Let’s just watch the sunrise.”
She rolled her eyes and let it drop. She still had so many questions, not only about her old classmate, but also about this whole situation. Why had any of this happened? What did it all mean for her, and the rest of the surviving humans? How would they even begin to pick up the pieces of their lives? What would they do, now that they weren’t living under the thumb of a cruel and powerful ghost? And how could they ever begin to rebuild when even the Earth itself seemed to be completely exhausted?
She voiced none of these thoughts - there would be no point. They were questions that she and the people of Amity Park were going to have to find the answers to on their own. The past was behind them and the future, while still uncertain, seemed a little bit brighter as it lay spread across the brightening wastes beyond the border of the ruined city.
Similar things seemed to be running through Daniel’s mind as they sat there, side by side in silence as the sun crested the dust-choked horizon, painting the slowly gathering storm clouds with broad, jagged strokes of fiery crimson, bruised purple, and bright, spectral green. A gentle breeze blew in from the north, carrying the scent of cold water and disturbed soil.
It looked like they could expect to get a little rain after all.