Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Phantom was a constant, frustrating presence. Sam could feel the demon when it chose to lurk closer to her instead of keeping after Tucker, a low whining sound that settled at the back of her jaw and refused to leave.
It made it hard to focus on schoolwork, let alone figuring out how to deal with the monster that literally stole half of her soul. She might have enjoyed strange tomes and tales of demons, but she never really thought they actually existed. Half remembered facts and possibilities could make things worse, and the awful hum had her doubting a large portion of what she remembered.

It might be less annoying if Tucker had to suffer this toothache in her brain too, but apparently he didn’t hear the creature that had wrapped itself around them- to them, really. Not unless it spoke.
Well, it was more her fault than his. Maybe it was just punishing her for trying a silly prank on her friend that ended up being more real than it should have.

“Hey. You really don’t like that blonde guy in the jacket, huh.”

Great. Think of the devil and it pipes up. “I thought I told you not to talk to me”

“You might have. You don’t like em though, right? How he shoves the smaller kids around and no one cares. Or is it the girl you don’t like, since he’s showing off for her? While she doesn’t even tell him off for picking on weaklings?” The demon’s words invaded her skull, effectively drowning out anything her teacher was saying, barely able to keep a grip on her own train of thought.

Just ignore the thing talking right in your head. Was the class over yet? Tucker being around felt like it helped, a little. Distracted the presence that she couldn’t completely ignore. Her notebook remains completely blank, unable to even distractedly doodle in the margins with the combined forces of the headache and demonic chattering.

“I could give him that telling off, you know. Just a little thing. They’ll never know it was you. It wouldn’t even hurt him.”

The only upside was no matter how quietly she muttered, she had a feeling Phantom could hear just fine. “I’m not setting a demon on Dash. Just give up already.”

“So letting him keep hurting others is better? It could just be an illusion, a temporary little chastising! It’s what I’m good at.”

Sam did not appreciate the fact Phantom apparently was getting better at the whole goading thing, even if it had not even been a full day. She had seen how her and Tucker’s shadow would sometimes linger, but she hadn’t really considered why the demon had been doing that. To watch people? To learn about targets it wanted to attack? She might not be a huge fan of Paulina and her clique, but she didn’t want some monster devouring them. Or whatever Phantom wanted to do to them, it was frustratingly vague about what it even did. All she knew is it could look like a shadow, make things cold, and mimic a human before pulling out too long claws.
She just needed time to actually look at the book they used, learn what a demon actually was, seeing as Phantom would keep existing no matter how much she used to believe they didn’t. Was messing with her head something it could do to other people too? Or was that just a special ‘gift’ for herself and Tucker?

“Or maybe you do like watching the others suffer, at least you aren’t the target anymore, right?”

Clutching at her hair did nothing but wrinkle her brow at the slight pain, the voice as loud and insidious as ever. “I don’t care, just be quiet.”

“I can do quiet.” It was snickering again as the pain in her jaw eased, her shadow looking less ominous when caught out of the corner of her eye.

Shit. A demon would be all over word semantics, wouldn’t it. Was that close enough to a ‘yes’ for it to go after Dash? Lousy cheating demon-cat-thing. She didn’t care that it looked strange to sprint out of class the moment the bell rang, she had to find Tucker and track down the demon before it did something.

Phantom moved quickly. Too quickly. Intentionally getting clear before she could call him off. Stupid of her to say anything, she warned Tucker and then just did it herself.

“Sam? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Tucker stopped looking at his PDA as his friend ran up, adjusting his glasses to look over her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“Opposite problem, I don’t know where it’s gotten off to.”

“Isn’t that a good thing? He’s decided to just go back where he came from for a bit?”

“Not if I might have accidentally set it on Dash.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Still not seeing the problem here.”

“Tucker!”

“What? He’s a jerk! Phantom was entertained by erasers, I don’t think he’s gonna do much to Dash.”

“Or it’s just been playing you and might kill him? It’s a demon Tucker!”

“Still kinda think he’s a cat.”

The goth groaned, grabbing her friend by the wrist as she set off down the fall. “Well then we’re herding cats.”

“Okay, okay um. If he’s after Dash I think they have practice today” he struggled to navigate his PDA with only his thumb, eyes darting to the clock and back. “They’re probably on the field by now?”

Sam picked up speed, ignoring Tucker’s cry to slow down. He could have time to collapse after there wasn’t a demon problem.

The football team was scattered on the grassy field, loud discussions just a reminder of how much the sports teams could get away with thanks to earning awards for the school. She wouldn’t dream of going near such a cringe worthy testosterone zone, certainly not without gagging, but gleaming green eyes lurking under bleachers forced her to ignore her preferences.

“See. A cat.” Tucker commented with a wheeze, pointing out the same eyes Sam had noticed. “Just get him a box or something. Probably...behave…”

Maybe they’d been fast enough? Dash didn’t look too bothered, running down the pitch. The buzzing wasn’t back, and much as she hated it, the fact it wasn’t gave her the unpleasant suspicion the demon was still busy imposing on someone else. “Try calling it back or something if you think that’ll work.”

“Don’t have to bite my head off.” Tucker rolled his eyes, trying to edge closer without attracting too much attention, apparently more wary of jocks than actual hellspawn.

Then Dash failed a catch, earning jeers and other comments. Normal, everyday macho bull. The stumbling after a heavy shoulder check was not.

“Woah! I get you too hard there Dash?” Kwan had his head half down in apology, reaching out to steady their star quarterback.

“Just tripped over a stupid rock or something, forget it.” Dash seemed to shrug it off, unaware of how his shadow twisted, ankles at a horrid misshapen angle. He went down hard after taking a step, yelping from apparently nothing but his own careless step.

“He didn’t actually break his ankles, did he?” Tucker said with a dry swallow, caution thrown to the wind.

“He looks okay?” Not that it meant much. “Phantom’s just a shadow right now, isn’t he?”

“W-What’s going on?” Dash sounded wrong, sputtering and afraid instead of the cocky confidence he normally had.

Kwan was already bending down to help him out, but jerked back. “Dash, what happened to your hand?”

“I don’t know!”

He took another step back, half covering his face. “It looks contagious man- hey coach!”

Sam couldn’t blame him- Dash’s hand looked twisted and grey even from this distance, and it only seemed to get worse, more withered and ashen every time he moved, a foul pallor crawling up his skin in a grotesque creeping advance.
He was just wasting away while his friends watched, as he teared up in panic but seemed unable to get back to his feet- not that he would be able to get away from his own body weakening and fading.

“Phantom, get over here and stop that, now.” The words felt heavy in her mouth, admitting that any of this was her fault triggered an awful pain in her heart. “Stop tormenting him.”

“Holy shit.” Tucker moved closer to Sam, looking away from the mess of terror unfolding. Not that it could keep the terrified cries from reaching his ears.

“He’s not even bone yet, such a baby.” His voice came from behind them, the teenager-looking monster taking half a step back as Sam tried to slug him. “Hey, I just did what you wanted!” His green eyes were almost as mocking as the hint of fangs showing in his grin. “Thanks for letting me have my own body though.”

“Nuh uh, Sam wouldn’t want you to kill someone! Not even Dash.” Tucker tried to come to her defense. “You did that on your own.”

“I didn’t kill him. It’s illusion. A fake. Just an hour feeling like his helpless victims.” Phantom snorted, pushing some of his white hair clear of his face. “It’s like that ‘karma’ stuff you guys like so much, but actually effective. Mutate his worldview a little.”

It took a moment to realize the demon was speaking out loud, and not in her head now that he was masquerading as an incredibly weird looking human again. “I don’t care, stop it now.”

“Okay, okay. You’re such a killjoy Sam.” He cracked his knuckles. “One boring big guy back to seeing reality. Happy?”

The panicked chatter had fewer screams, but still plenty of confusion. She only lingered a moment to make sure Dash wasn’t a mockery of a slowly decaying corpse before dragging Tucker and the monster away before there could be any new trouble.

Chapter Text

“Just stay here, watch him, and I’ll get my books.” Sam had done her best impression of a drill sergeant before ditching him and the now-corporal demon in the park. She’d been going on about making some sort of binding or ward to better leash the demon- but Phantom hadn’t reacted much. He seemed far more interested in the town during the walk over.

Okay. Maybe Phantom was a little scary after all. Sam was making it seem way worse than it first seemed, ignoring the fact the obnoxious bully was perfectly fine after they’d stumbled away. Dash deserved to get a little scared out of his mind, he did way worse all the time and didn’t even have the ‘I’m a mythical creature that eats souls’ excuse Phantom did.

Maybe they just had to give the demon something to do? The eraser kept him pretty occupied before, didn’t it? It couldn’t hurt to try, right?

“Hey, not sure if you noticed but you kinda stand out.”

The white haired boy looked up from his kneeling position on the grass, eerie green eyes dispelling any notion that he was just some kid playing in the dirt. “Hm? I don’t have too many eyes, do I?”

Did he normally have too many? “Nah, it’s more the whole hair and eyes thing. And your outfit is more ‘I’m going to rob a bank or do ballet’ than ‘teenager’, dude.”

“Doesn’t Sam like black?” Phantom pulled at the strange black clothing that seemed more attached to him than it should be. It was like someone figured out how to make black leggings have cuffs at the bottom, or someone who didn’t quite get that pants didn’t need to be skin tight. “Figured you’d be fine with it.”

“Well I can’t show you stuff if you look so inhuman, you know?”

That perked the demon up, no longer picking at his sleeves. “Wait, you actually want to do something now? Like what?”

Sam would absolutely murder him if he tried taking Phantom somewhere with more people to torment. But he was their demon, right? So their houses were basically demon infested already? “I could show you a whole world in a computer.”

“You have worlds in those tiny boxes?” Phantom was wide eyed, a hint of a smokey tail wagging at the concept. “Okay, so if I can look a bit less like me, we can see that?”

Maybe Phantom was more of a dog than a cat? He sounded pretty excited for something so...normal. “Yup.”

“Well you guys have black hair so…” the demon shook his head, black dripping down his white hair until not a strand of it remained. “What’s wrong with my eyes? I thought green was a human colour.”

“Not when it’s glowing, dude.”

Phantom frowned,  blinking away the glow to leave a more boring blue. “That good enough?”

“As long as you don’t do those freaky grins with all the fangs, yeah.” It was a little unnerving how normal Phantom looked with just a few changes, “Your outfit is still kinda weird.”

“What, you want me to throw some glitter and change that too? Sheesh.” The boy grumbled, but his black attire rippled and changed, leaving a far more ‘normal’ ensemble of t-shirt and jeans behind. “Lots of people wore stuff like this, right?”

Tucker nodded, wondering if he should fire off a text to tell Sam where they were. He had a feeling Phantom wouldn’t go back to chasing crickets and worms in the grass now that he’d brought up something more exciting. It wasn’t like they’d hurt anyone, and it would keep him busy, right?

Chapter Text

Tucker wasn’t so bad, for a human. Maybe a little too prone to worrying about people who totally deserved a bit of demonic payback, but he’d get over that eventually. After all, apparently he just had other worlds in a box that only existed to be toys? Wasn’t that just what his parents thought of humans, really? Maybe they weren’t that different. Even if they were, his talent for blending in was quite helpful for a change, instead of a ‘pointless ability’ for a ‘unthreatening demon’ .

“You don’t gotta walk so close.”

“Really? Sam kept going on about keeping close.”

“Close doesn’t mean being my shadow, dude.”

Phantom blinked, double checking his hands were still much paler than they normally were. No problems there. “I’m...not being your shadow right now though.”

Tucker snorted “Not literally, I mean you’re walking close enough that you’ll bump into me if I stop or something.”

Humans and their personal space. He was small enough to hitch a ride most of the time, but he wasn’t going to tell his humans that. No reason to make them think he’s some puny creature. “If you say so.” He turned his attention back to the grass, checking for any new animals he might have missed. He couldn’t help it, it was just hilarious how most of the creatures with many limbs were so tiny over here! Maybe ‘more’ wasn’t better on this side. See? Four was totally a fine amount of limbs. Or well. Two, most of the time.

“Have you never seen grass before? You’re more into it than Sam, and I swear she’d eat it.”

“I’ve seen grass. Just not a lot of it.” Or, to be more honest, he saw the burned remains of grass before. Or never really had the time to realize little creatures lived in it. “Doesn’t look more gross than anything else you eat.”

Tucker put a hand over his chest, gasping in outrage. “Now I see how you’re a demon, scorning the most beautiful of foods. I know you were totally watching at lunch!”

“Food is gross. Though yours didn’t try to eat you, I guess.”

“Dude, you are doing something seriously wrong if your food is trying to eat you.”

“How do you get anything out of something that doesn’t fight back?” That just sounded weird. You couldn’t get stronger without taking it from something else. Heard that chestnut enough it was practically imprinted on his brain.

“Well someone made the food, so maybe that’s close enough?” The geek shrugged, adjusting his glasses. “Do you have another name? I can’t really call you Phantom around my parents, it sounds weird.”

“My name isn’t weird!” It wasn’t any weirder than Sam or Tucker or Dash.

“It’s weird for humans, and you’re pretending to be one, remember?”

“I don’t really have another one that you could pronounce.” Human throats didn’t work that way, he tried.

Tucker rubbed his chin, turning to take another look at him and choosing to walk backwards. “Well how about-”

Phantom cut him off with a low hiss, fixated on the mushrooms he’d spotted. If human ears weren’t so small and rounded, he’d be lowering them right now. “You could have stepped in that!”

The teen jumped a little at the rebuke, but frowned on spotting the ring of fungus. “They’re just mushrooms.”

“How do you not know a fairy ring when you see it?”

“By not thinking fairies exist?” Tucker paused again. “Wait, so they do?”

Honestly. His humans were very uninformed about very important topics. Which should make his life easier, if he just wanted them gone and to be free to do whatever he wanted again...but he’d have no way back to this side either. “Unfortunately.”

“What’s so scary about tiny bug people? You allergic?”

“Fae are just demons with better PR.” Phantom wrinkled his nose, half gagging at the thought of having to deal with one. “At least we’re honest about how we want to screw you over.”

Tucker didn’t look all that impressed, instead typing something into that PDA box of this. “Sam will think this is hilarious.”

He bristled, still edging away from the ring. “Won’t be so funny when they dance you to death, or take you to a fancy banquet as the meal.”

“Like a demon totally wouldn’t do that?”

“Well I wouldn’t. They don’t even make a contract, they just go ‘oh that’s good enough’ and wham, now you’re caged up and being treated like a pet.” he got more heated as he spoke, practically spitting by the end,

Tucker peered into his eyes at that, an odd look crossing his face. “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience, Phantom.”

“Not personal experience!” He lied, crossing his arms to hide how his claws had sprung out at the accusation. “It’s just my job to protect you, so I’m warning you. Don’t go making stuff up.”

“So this is the half of the time you’re being helpful.” Tucker prodded, but Phantom only grit his teeth in response. 

“Yes. So stay clear or whatever.” Since he probably couldn’t do much if a strong enough one stole his humans. Not yet, anyway. If he hadn’t been lucky enough to have a sibling who gave a damn...nope. Didn’t matter. Not dwelling on that while he had way better stuff going on.

“Sure thing! But seriously, we need another name for you.” Tucker resumed walking, making sure to keep far away from the mushrooms, easing some of Phantom’s worries. Too bad he had no idea what to say about that name thing.

Chapter Text

“Seriously Tucker? You just brought him to your house?” Sam could feel a migraine forming behind her eyes, and her friend’s uneasy laugh over the phone was only making it worse.

“He’s been fine. Mom just thinks he’s some shy kid from school.”

Why did Tucker need to give a demon so much credit? Did he just forget that first night? How it felt when something inside them was damaged and stolen? “Well you better hope he doesn’t start trying to hurt your parents like he did to Dash.”

“He’s pretty distracted by a rubix cube.” his voice grew fainter, saying something about ‘you don’t need to take off the stickers’, presumably to the demon in question.

“Sure it is.” Sam rolled her eyes. He was hopeless. More work for her, fantastic “I think I found some spells that might help. How good are you at waking up at 3am?”

“Help with what? We already said ‘don’t go after people’, isn’t that enough?”

“I’m sure he’ll decide that was when he didn’t need to listen. We need to make sure it can’t hurt anyone else, Tuck.”

Tucker made an uncomfortable mumbling sound, too muffled to actually convey anything. She waited, flipping through the tome she’d located. He’d see sense, and she could be plenty stubborn. Eventually he broke his silence. “Apparently fairies exist?”

“We got ourselves chained to a demon, and now fairies surprise you?”

“That’s basically what Phantom said!”

Again, he sounded way too comfortable talking about their soul stealing pest. “Whatever. Just be ready at 3 in the morning.”

“For what? I don’t know any magic stuff.”

“I don’t either! I just don’t think any of these will work without you since we’re ‘sharing’ a contract or whatever.” Okay, the book didn’t put it like that exactly, but it was a risk. That, and she didn’t want to be around that demon all alone in the middle of the night.

“I’m not exactly great at sneaking out.”

“Tucker. You have a demon.”

“Oh, right! Hey, Phantom,” his voice grew muffled, making Sam wish the microphone on Tucker’s PDA was a little better. “He says he’s good at getting in places. Wants to talk to you though?”

“Why? Shouldn’t he want an excuse to help you sneak out and be ‘rebellious’ or something?”

“Because I wasn’t created yesterday.” Phantom’s voice slipped into a growl at ‘yesterday’, leaving the goth to try and ignore the shudder that ran down her spine.

She just had to keep in control here. The demon didn’t have all the power here, not really. “It shouldn’t matter. We want you here then, so you’ll be here then.”

Phantom growled again, but apparently couldn’t think of a real retort. “Whatever.” There was a thud.

“Geeze Sam, what’d you say to get him all cranky? My poor baby hit the ground!” Tucker’s tone was accusatory, but he seemed more upset about his PDA getting dropped.

“Just reminded him that he isn’t the boss of us Tucker. Remember? The whole not letting ourselves get twisted by some demon thing?”

“Are you sure that’s what it was? He’s pretty agitated about ‘the witching hour’ or something.”

“That’s 3am.”

“He thinks you’re gonna hurt him. We’re not gonna hurt him, right?”

Part of her really wanted to right now, for turning her friend against her like this. Acting all friendly and then pretending to be a victim to win Tucker over and set them against one another. “I don’t even hurt animals. They're just spells to make sure he can’t slip off or show up whenever he wants.”

“Do we really have to? We could just ask him to go home for awhile instead of like, forcing him.”

“Of course we have to! Remember how he just showed right back up today? What if he does that during something important? Then he can take advantage of you being distracted to attack someone else.”

“Well...I guess we’ll be there?” Tucker sounded far more uncertain than he should, but at least he’d agreed to get the demon over there.

Maybe she should look into the book more. If the witching hour could let her use powers that the demon feared, they might be handy to know about.

Chapter Text

Sleeping had not been part of the plan. He’d done late nights before, more often than his parents would ever know or approve of. He knew how to stay awake past three am without being noticed if he really had to. Normally, he didn’t have a demon hanging around. Which he thought might keep him awake, but quite the opposite.

Phantom just wasn’t very scary after claiming the bottom half of his bed and conking out. Really, he probably should have kicked him off and made him sleep on something else. For all his insisting that he ‘wouldn’t get caught’, he didn’t stay looking human for all that long. Good thing his parents didn’t feel the need to check in on him when he went to bed anymore. It would be pretty hard to explain the humanoid looking shadow thing curled up and snoring.
On the upside, once he went back to having a tail instead of legs he tucked it close and stopped taking up so much room.

On the downside, Phantom kept insisting on leaning against his legs no matter how he moved them. Maybe he just felt the warmth thought the blankets and was cold? The only thing he knew for certain was that the demon was an expert in adjusting without waking up. Honestly in the darkness, it just looked like he had a very insistent white cat headbutting him, the shifting shadows that made up most of him impossible to make out in the dark. It was kind of weird for something that wanted to hide to have such bright hair and eyes, wasn’t it?

So of course he’d eventually given up on adjusting and got comfortable. He didn’t mean to fall asleep. He shouldn’t have felt safe with a shadowy creature huddled against his legs with whistling snores. He just...did anyway. The dull ache in his chest that’d startled him awake a few times in the night was absent. Maybe because his soul was closer? Or he knew Phantom would do something if there was any real danger around?

Not that he should trust a demon. Not really. Sam would chew him out so...he’d just not mention that. “Hey, wake up. It’s almost three.” He kept his voice low, waiting. Phantom’s ear twitched, but that was it. Okay. Now what? What if the shadows grabbed at him if he poked the sleeping demon? “Phantom, come on.” He tried again, a bit louder. His only reward was another small twitch. Who knew demons were good sleepers? Surely his hair couldn’t be too dangerous? It seemed like any other person’s hair if you ignored it was completely white.

He wasn’t risking more than one finger on the poke. Didn’t feel any weirder than poking Sam in the head, really. “Seriously, wake up.”

“I’m awake!” Blank green eyes snapped open, giving Tucker the shudders again. Creepy. The long yawn did a lot to dispel the fear, thankfully. “...Really I am.”

The obvious lie was enough to get Tucker to force down a laugh before actually getting to the point. “Great. So you have a plan to get to Sam’s place? Without us getting caught.”

“Unseen and invisible is my thing, sheesh. Give a guy some credit here.” Phantom flicked his ears before darting to the window and staring out it. “What’d you humans do to block out so many of the lights up there? I know you used to have more.”

“Huh? Dude, it’s just the streetlamps and stuff. The stars are still there.”

“Drowning them out…” he let out a sigh before looking back at Tucker. “How afraid of the dark are you?”

“Uhh. Not really?” That sounded like a mildly ominous question. “Why?”

“‘Cus shadows are dark? Duh.”

That answered approximately nothing, but didn’t keep the demon from darting behind him, surprisingly strong  arms locking under Tucker’s arms. “Phantom, can you warn me before you do that, next time?” he managed to squeak out, unable to silence the part of his mind telling him this monster was going to dig those too long teeth into his spine.

“Sure? Oh and don’t try screaming? It doesn’t work and it’s super annoying once we get out.”

“Wait what-” Phantom didn’t give Tucker the chance to finish asking what the hell he meant by that before the world simply fell away.

Well, he got why the demon had asked if he was afraid of the dark. He couldn’t see a thing, not a hint, a faded glimpse, nothing. Perfect darkness in every direction. At least he thought it was. He was moving his head to look, wasn’t he?

Wasn’t he? No. He couldn’t actually tell, or feel it moving. He couldn’t hear his pulse, or the blood that had to be pumping through his veins. There was only darkness. An abyss so deep that it was entirely empty, a silence so total that he couldn’t even make out his panicked yelp.

Had Phantom duped him? Dragged him to this silent hell to die? Left him alone here to cackle at Sam about it? Tucker couldn’t feel the demon’s presence. Tucker couldn’t feel his own body, let alone another’s.

He’s falling. Down from nothing to even deeper nothing. Squirming and reaching out did nothing to stop the sensation, to stop his endless, pointless drop. As he has nothing to reach out with. Or anything to prove he exists at all beyond his fevered panic.

Where does the abyss end and he begin? Is there a difference? How long will he know? He is Tucker, isn’t he? Tucker Foley. Of course he is. He needs to know, to feel something, hear something, be something.

He doesn’t even know if he’s screaming. Mostly he’s trying because the demon told him not to before doing this. Yet there’s nothing. He’s nothing. He’s nothing. He’s nothing.

The abyss shatters into a familiar space, two hands clamped over his mouth to muffle the scream he’d worked so hard for.

“I told you not to scream! Why does nobody listen? Ow!” The demon complains, hands drawing away with a hiss. “Did you bite me? You bit me!”

“Tucker! Are you okay?” Sam, thank goodness Sam was right at his side, hugging him close as he shook, revelling in just existing for a moment.

He doesn’t trust his voice to work, only getting the question out in spurts to keep his chattering teeth from ripping into his tongue. “What. The. Hell. Was. That.”

“Moving unseen?” The demon’s head tilts, as if confused, even though he obviously knows it makes people scream. It’s not a good lie.

“There was. Nothing at all.”

Phantom backs off a bit when Sam throws a pillow at him, but his eyes remain blank. “Well yeah? You can’t really be something if you don’t want people to know you’re there…”

“Just rest Tuck, I’ll deal with it. I’m so sorry, I should have known it would have tried something like this.”

The demon pulls himself up a little bit, yelping an objection. “I didn’t try anything!”

“Don’t talk!” Sam barks, and the demon shuts his mouth with a scowl. “Tuck, you need anything? Damn it, I’m so sorry. You got hurt again-” she cuts herself off, swallowing hard. Her hands curl into fists as she stands, making sure to block Tucker from the demon’s line of sight. “You’ll pay for this. Do you hear me?”

The demon remains silent, but keeps closer to the ground than before, eyes averted.

That doesn’t get the goth to back down, Tucker’s panic throwing all her cares about the hour away. “You think that was funny? Or okay? You’re just some demon who got lucky Phantom. You’re NOTHING.”

He hisses, sharp teeth bared. “I know that! I always have been!”

There’s hurt in there that burrows through the thick shell of panic Tucker had thrown up after that awful abyss. A small pang of pity. Was that awful void...all that demon had?

No. He didn’t care right now.

Chapter Text

Melting into the floor felt like the best idea at the moment. Sam’s purple eyes were sharper than knives with that glare, and for all his bravado, he seriously did not like his odds with a human with Witching Hour power behind her and the contract he was already bound to.

How was he meant to know Tucker wouldn’t take travelling well? Sure, other demons would yell sometimes but they never complained. Never acted like he’d done something terrible by just doing what he was made to do. Okay, fine, he knew other demons didn’t think much of him. That a demon made to not be seen, to not stand out was pointless. Counterproductive, even. A too subtle hand gets no souls, as the saying went.

This disgusted reaction to the simple fact he was just a shade away from nothing at all made his insides squirm in a way the other insults didn’t. He didn’t mean to upset Tucker. Not like that. Sam already didn’t like him, giving her an excuse and justification to get revenge out of him was just asking for pain.

He wasn’t a big fan of pain. Or being more bound than he already was. He should just run back to the shadows until things calmed down. Maybe go back home for a bit. Cowardly and unnoticed was his thing.

But Tucker...he didn’t want to slip away if he was still hurting. A dumb feeling, a stupid feeling. Sam and Tucker were just humans he’d taken from. Nothing more. He owed them loyalty, not emotions. Not this...concern that seemed to squeeze his chest. Why should he care? They got all moody when he did them a favour with that bully. He’d moved Tucker here as requested even though he knew Sam might try something. He hadn’t even tried to trick them into doing something dangerous!

Tucker let him sleep peacefully and answered his questions. Tucker didn’t seem to mind him being around, listened and didn’t press about the fairies. Sam clearly got angry, but hadn’t actually done anything beyond tell him off. So far.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! His parents would shred him down to a wisp if they knew how he was behaving! No one would ever, ever have that sort of consideration towards him. That’s why you had to take it yourself. No one would look out for you, or care what happened unless you took and took and took. He knew that. Power was everything. Pity was for idiots. An idiot demon was a dead demon, or worse. So much worse.

Yet he’s still here. Watching cautiously, keeping quiet. He might as well have been chugging a poison concocted to melt him, that’s how stupid he was being. At least the order to keep silent stopped him from being even more of an absolute idiot. Neither of them would want him to ask if Tucker was okay. Didn’t stop him from wanting to ask. Wouldn’t keep him from trying to catch a glimpse past Sam, who was busy with blankets and pillows.

It was hard to describe how Tucker looked. He’d always felt like the warmer one, the kinder one, as if the blinding sun of this world had a fragment tucked next to his heart. Something nice, instead of cold and frigid and empty like his clawed hands. Maybe he’d accidentally rubbed some of that cold, colourless nothing of himself on Tucker, with how his normally warm face seemed to have faded, a sickly grey tone that didn’t belong there. Worse, he couldn’t even think how to fix it. Really, he’s lucky the contract didn’t slash out at him for causing harm. Or if it had, it just tried to do the same back to him- which did nothing, obviously. He’d been there already. How could nothing poison someone? The whole point was it was a lack, an absence...he probably shouldn’t think about it too hard. Down that way lay madness, or completely losing his grasp of what he fundamentally was. Not a good idea. Maybe a big, powerful demon could get away with it, having so many influences and ties to other sources of stability, but he didn’t have anything to fall back on.

Really clever Phantom, poison yourself worrying about your humans. It’s just a ‘humans are different’ thing. That’s it. The fact Sam seems more concerned with her friend than dishing out punishment...just sort of makes him feel worse. It’s a good thing, something he should celebrate. He’s maintaining control, getting away with something he probably shouldn’t. Even though he didn’t mean to do anything.

It doesn’t feel like a victory. More like being a smear on their boots. The hour is nearly past, and he’s still curled up on the ground, watching. Practically daring, asking to get in trouble the moment she’s no longer distracted in caring for Tucker. Sam’s clearly still furious, his own fangs still keeping his jaw shut. He’s going to be mute for quite awhile if she doesn’t rescind that order. Sure, he could probably think of a reasonable timeframe, subvert it, but he’s just not in the mood to try. It wasn’t like he was meant to talk much. He just liked doing it.

Tucker doesn’t look as bad. He doesn’t look good either.

“Sam, your mom’s going to freak if she finds me here”

“I don’t care. You aren’t going anywhere until you’re feeling better. She can only ground me till I’m eighteen anyway.”

Their voices are lowered, and he’s not sure if it’s to not wake the other humans, or to exclude him. Both, probably. Maybe these rude feelings are just carryover from them. They care about each other a lot, obviously. It’s just splashing over to him and his halves.

It sounds like a lie, even in his own head.

“Why are you still here?” Sam’s snappish question is difficult not to wince at.

So he shrugs. Why IS he still here? Because he’s stupid.

The girl reaches for an old tome, one that carries an uncomfortable hum of power. Yet instead of taking it, she takes another look at Tucker. “Just go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and stay there.”

Too busy to force the issue, apparently. She isn’t even specific enough, if he wanted to be difficult. Instead, he melts back into the shadows he came from, thinking of home. He’ll feel more like himself, more like a demon once he’s cleared his head.

Chapter Text

Home is familiar, if not comfortable. He belongs there, technically. Not because of anything he’s done or accomplished, either through combat or trickery. It’s not ‘his’ home in that sense.  It’s his parent’s domain, one of them anyway. The one he was spawned in, the one he’s welcome to return to, no matter how much of a disappointment he turns out to be.

The human world was closer to his size. Here, he’s puny, a shade that slips between doorframes and ducks away from other demons going about their business if he happens to come across one. He won’t be harmed, he can’t be by those below his family- but he knows the dismissive snorts and eye rolls when he sees them. They both know anywhere else, they’d easily rip him to shreds. If they could find him. 

He can’t let them know that it digs under his shadows to make his whole being itch with frustration. So he has his mask of indifference. His sibling had suggested adapting the blank, eerie green eyes to help him with that. They couldn’t betray him as often without pupils, nor could others guess where exactly his focus was. As long as he keeps pretending he doesn’t care, the lesser demons have no reason to keep harassing him to provoke him. It would be so much easier to be invisible, just not be seen at all- but that was part of the act too. Hiding would prove his mask was just that, a fake to huddle behind for safety.

The idle chatter wasn’t worth wandering for, mentions of places he’d never see, battles he would never take part in, other large families he wouldn’t need to negotiate with. The place was huge, and the amount of demons permitted to be there was not abundant. Maybe he cared once, when he was younger. Phantom just wanted to find his room and just sleep yet another screwup off. A place he could find with his eyes shut, a darkened corner of a lavish display of power. Orange and blue were nice and all, but he never really matched the family colours. Another mark against him, but expected. It was still his space, his den, so the low lights and deep dark tones were tolerated so long as they didn’t stain the walls his door connected to. He used his tail to close the dark wooden door behind him, letting out a long hissing breath. Utterly silent beyond his own breathing, how he liked it. He was meant to outgrow this room.

He never did.

Phantom stared at the hanging maps and charts, wondering if he’d seen any of the stars listed on them. Probably not. These might be made up, or from a dimension that isn’t even the human’s world. He sort of hoped he could make one, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen now. Not from one look. He could be looking, if he hadn’t just stupidly obeyed like that. What’s done is done. Just get over it, like you always do.

His messy nest of thick, black blankets wasn’t as comfortable as Tucker’s bed, but he would dig up more fabric if he really wanted to. This was fine, even if his claws itched to rip and tear and just shout about how frustrating it was. To actually make some progress and screw it up that badly. He hadn’t even lost anything! It was just these stupid, un-demon feelings of worry and guilt that found him somehow! He had enough blankets to get away with shredding one.

The wispy feathers and the give of fabric under his claws and teeth helped, thinking of those feelings and destroying them. Childish, but this was a child’s room. Besides, the fluff glowed faintly and made his sleeping space like a little sky of his own to mess with. It wasn’t like anyone else would see it. Pounding after them, leaping from shadow to shadow was fun. Kept his mind distracted from...that.

Flopping in an exhausted heap after his impromptu exercise had him hold back a chuckle at how some of the more tenacious feathers clung to him even after a good shake. He’d clean up when he was awake and not already in a comfortable snoozing position. It wasn’t a bad place to belong. Just small. Limited. At least he had it.

He dozed. It didn’t feel like it had been long before his shield against the rest of his home shook with a knock. An insistent, irritating knock. Why was she here? He buried his face in his arms and flattened his ears, hoping she might go away, let him stew alone for a while.

Maybe he could hope to become powerful while he was at it! It was just as likely. He still waited another ten minutes, eventually needing to give in as the constant thud made his head ache. Phantom flicked the door open, ears still flat with a scowl on his face.

His scowl didn’t put his visitor off, her brilliant orange mane instead making the smaller demon squint at the added light. “Where’d you get off to? You vanished and didn’t say anything. Wait a second.” Her rapid fire question paused as her legion of eyes scanned his feather strewn room. “You seem different.”

His tail twitched. Obviously.

“Wait, wait wait wait. How did you get those?” She ducked a little to get properly through the door before pulling it shut behind her, all eyes on him now. “Someone would have said something if they found a damaged soul for you to try and claim- you didn’t. Phantom, Please tell me you didn’t.”

Of course the only one who would care what he got up to was breathing down his neck. Urgh. He shrugged, darting to the side so she couldn’t grab him with a spindly limb.

“Ugh. Just let me help you if you can’t talk. You’re not brave for leaving your jaws sealed shut you know.” She scolded, voice still warm after repeated misses. “At least you’re still quick, little bro.”

He snorted at the praise, finding it more mockery considering she only said it after she’d caught him and dumped him back in his bed. Worse, she huddled up beside him like they were both little spawnlings again. His jaw clicked, aching for a moment before he found he could open it properly again, running a tongue over his teeth to make sure none had gone to the wrong side of his mouth. “If I don’t say I did, will you believe me?”

“No. You know you shouldn’t try to go over there! You could have been destroyed, you know that? Humans hate demons, even little ones like you.”

“What, so I should just stay like this forever? You know I won’t grow without doing something by now,” he snapped back, doing his best not to look directly at her. “It was an open invitation! I had to try something.”

Instead of backing off, she tucked his grumpy, sulking form into a feathery hug. “I know. I worry about you, okay?”

“No one else does.”

“Well they’re just unappreciative. You can do things none of them ever could, you don’t need to be like them.”

He couldn’t help it, tucked up against his sibling and warm, talking about what happened didn’t feel as bad. She wouldn’t tell their parents, not for anything that might get him seriously punished. “Yeah, yeah. You always say that.”

“Well, I am always right.” She preened a little as they both laughed with the boast. She wasn’t wrong, really. She was a bit more conventional, made of intellect, empathy and subterfuge, and had the drive to match. Yet no matter how much she succeeded, how well she did and how much she left him behind in power, she kept coming back to check on him.

It bothered him. To be pitied and babied by someone who he should be roughly on equal ground with, but he also appreciated having someone who still wanted to be around, someone who thought he might be more than a little spy one day. It would be worse when they couldn’t huddle together or play like this anymore. That wasn’t now. Not yet.

He kept straightening some of her mussed feathers, trying to psyche himself up enough to ask an ‘obvious’ question. “Do souls always make you feel funny?”

“A little. Humans put a lot of themselves in them, you know. That’s why they’re powerful. How did you find two broken ones?”

“Well they aren’t broken exactly?” Phantom licked his fangs again, bracing a little for the lecture. “They’re halved.”

She tensed, all eyes focused on him. “Please tell me you didn’t make a contract with multiple humans at once.”

He sneezed.

“That’s how your jaw got sealed shut, wasn’t it?”

“Maybe?”

She groaned, running a hand through her mane. “Do you know how dangerous that is? It’s one thing when it’s all yours, but if you have two living humans running around still...you need to get them dead, as fast as you can.”

“What? No! They’re my only ticket up there, I’m not killing them.” His hackles raised at the idea, half tempted to give her a nip.

“You aren’t even properly named yet! If they give you something, you’re stuck with it.”

“I told them Phantom, it’s fine.”

“No it isn’t! You won’t have any control over it, and it can twist you when you’re so...undefined.”

“Well I already took it, that’s the end of it!” His tail flicked at the softened insult. Nothing, she could just say nothing. Even the humans knew that. “They don’t seem so bad.”

“Okay, I don’t like saying this, but you know what happened the last time you said something didn’t seem too bad.” She batted at his wispy white hair. “I don’t want you to get hurt, or worse. I can probably kill them.”

“I don’t want you to.”

“I know you have to say that, but really, think about it. You know we can corrupt their souls, right?” She pushed on, even as he curled up tighter against himself. “There’s two of them, and one of you. If you aren’t careful, they’ll change you. Even if you don’t want to.”

The uncomfortable feeling in his chest came back, making him shudder. Maybe they were already doing that? Degrading him into some mindless familiar? A willing human servant with no will of his own? Is that what the feelings were? “I’ll be careful. I don’t think they want me around anyway.”

“Good, keep your distance. If you change your mind on me paying a visit…” she trailed off as he tensed again, letting out a worried sigh. “I’ll have your back.”

“I know you will.” Saying made it feel like he’d put something foul in his mouth. She probably had a point about being in over his head.

“Humans won’t use a mask that I can just tear off your face. Ask for help before it gets that bad.”

He hissed at the reminder. He knew that! He didn’t want to think of that thing, white as death and etched with the moon. How much it hurt when she ripped the six spikes affixing it to his skull free. It was worth it, it’d always be worth it, but he didn’t want to THINK about it.

“Shh, you’re safe.” she nudged him out of his daze. “Sorry, shouldn’t have been so direct.”

“‘Sokay,” he mumbled, deciding it was easier to just curl up to sleep instead of talking any further.

Chapter Text

The demon did not return. Both of them had doubted the creature would stay away for long, considering how it crawled back into their shadows within a day last time. She kept expecting a shadow to suddenly stare at her, a clawed hand to reach out from below her bed. It was easier to ignore it when she wasn’t home- so they’d been spending most of their free time anywhere else.

Tucker had managed his great escape undetected by her parents, even if he insisted on joking about being ‘thrown out of the window’. It was absurd, lighthearted and downplayed why he had to risk climbing down the lattice in the first place.

It was foolish, to pretend there was no demon and to try and get back to normal. To grin and pretend they didn’t feel the clawing emptiness inside that seemed to worsen if they weren’t together. Acting like their poor sleep was simply school related stress instead of a cold crushing weight around their hearts and lungs. A weight that worsened in the dark. Outwardly, they were perfectly fine. She was a bit jealous of her friend, he’d always been the better actor. If she didn’t know better, she would totally believe Tucker was perfectly fine.

Even if they weren’t. Phantom had said something about ‘the door already being open’, and she was starting to suspect it was a more literal one. Some awful gateway inside them that would let monsters out and suck their humanity away. Could they close it, or block it somehow, lock the demon away and throw away the key? Or were there more doors, countless ones the beast could bound through?

“Hey Sam? You should probably take a break” Tucker nudged her, looking between her and the dusty book she’d been spending every free moment pouring over. “Like I know I make glasses look good, but that book isn’t worth it.”

“Of course it is. We need to be ready for when that monster comes back.” She resisted the temptation to rub her temples, not wanting to admit it was starting to wear her down. “Or find out what it meant by ’the door’.”

“Sam, it’s been a week. Maybe he can’t come back since you ordered him to leave?” Tucker put emphasis on ‘him’, an odd reminder considering why she’d managed to get him to leave.

“Even if it can’t, you can feel something’s wrong. Can’t you?”

“Well yeah but” he bit at his lip, hesitating to continue. “I don’t think being nasty back is going to help? Isn’t that just doing what a demon wants?”

The rebuke was ridiculous at first, her gut already wanting to tell Tucker off for being so worried about the monster that almost killed him. Except. He might have a point. She’d been telling the truth a week ago, about not wanting to hurt the demon. So why did she keep wanting to think of Phantom as an ‘it’? Maybe because that’s how the book referred to demons. Or something uglier. Something foul and wrong that had given her the excuse to ignore her morals. Her stomach churned, even if she was thankful Tucker was a good enough friend to call her on that.

“Yeah. Right. We still need to deal with Phantom safely though. That’s not just being cruel when we know what he can get up to.”

“So what were you thinking of doing? You never had the chance to actually give me the details,” he left the reason why unsaid, fiddling with his glasses instead.

“Nothing painful. Just a way to contain him if he’s doing something. Like at first I was thinking a whistle to call him back or make him pay attention but that seems too risky now.”

“Like what? Enchant a soup thermos and stick him in there?” Tucker snorted “A real sinful soup?”

She rolled her eyes. Though she hadn’t actually decided what would be good for holding a cranky demon. “Well. One might be big enough for it? And keep him from seeing out…”

“Naughty shadow demons get made into soup. Oh man, that sounds terrible.” He kept laughing, but eventually managed to settle down. “I don’t think he’d be a fan.”

“He isn’t meant to like it, it’s to keep him from hurting people.”

“I guess. The whistle idea sounded better to me? Like a dog whistle so no one else hears it?”

“Only if it works. Which it might not since Phantom might not be his real name.” That was a problem with the container idea too. They could probably make one, but instead of being able to key into the specific demon and drag it back from anywhere...they’d have to aim it. On the upside it could catch demons that weren’t Phantom too. If there were other ones. It might just be paranoia, but ever since Phantom had gotten tangled up in her life, she’d always felt a bit uneasy in the lunchroom. Like something was watching.

“It suits him? It didn’t really sound like a lie.”

“Demons aren’t going to give you their true name unless you make them say it. I’m pretty sure he just gave us his cover name.” Sam sighed, wondering if she should have insisted that Tucker had done some more reading. “He shouldn’t be able to lie to us, but since he’s only listening half the time, he’s probably lying the other half.”

“Soooo if we both ask something at the same time, he’ll tell the truth?”

“Maybe? It’s worth a shot.” It would be helpful if it worked that way, but the constant warnings in the book reminded one that a human’s idea of sense and a demon’s rarely coincided.  “Anyway, can you use your PDA to make sure the angles on these are exact?” Sam pulled out a sketched circle, handing it over to her friend.

“Y’know, if exact shapes are a problem I could probably make them and print em. A printer isn’t going to have a shaky hand.”

“The book kinda predates computers, Tuck.”

“So I’ll try it. If it doesn’t work I’ve got a nice compass too.” He shrugged, already plugging away at something.

“Thanks. I think I have most of this right, but I’ll feel better when he can’t just show up out of nowhere anymore.”

“I’m kinda starting to think demons don’t do apologies. He seemed fine just looking at things and sleeping after the Dash thing.” Tucker didn’t look up from his work, more musing out loud than anything.

There was being nice, and there was...whatever Tucker was. Absurdly forgiving? “I have no idea how you’re so comfortable about him.”

“I like cats? He’s a lot like a cat.” Tucker gave a helpless shrug, earning another eye roll. “I bet if I told him humans apologize if they don’t mean to do something, he would.”

“Oh really? What do I get if he doesn’t?” She didn’t buy the little theory that traumatizing Tucker had been an ‘accident’.

“You get to say I told you so?”

“Deal.”

Chapter Text

“Oh, you like the occult too? Interesting design! Did you make it yourself?”

That wasn’t Sam. Since when did anyone talk to him at his locker? Tucker hurriedly adjusted his books so his first printed circles didn’t show so prominently, turned and froze. White hair, inhuman eyes.

The other boy raised an eyebrow. “Am I startling you? Sorry! I was, as you say, curious?”

Not Phantom. Some guy in sunglasses. Who wore sunglasses inside? “It’s cool, just didn’t notice you there.” He said, trying to get his heart to calm back down. He’s just a guy, that kinda looks like a demon you know. Doesn’t make him a demon or anything.

“Oh I see, is secret hobby. Not to worry. I will not tell.” It was difficult to read his face, with so much of it hidden behind the glasses. “Allow me to…make it up, to you?”

“Seriously dude, it’s fine.” Tucker tried to wave the white haired boy off, not exactly interested in whatever ‘occult' stuff this guy was fishing out of his jacket. “You’re that new student?” He tried to push the conversation in a more normal direction as he tried to get a grip, stop feeling so uneasy. Why did he have to only wear white and black?

“Exchange student, yes!” He corrected with a grin, fishing out an odd deck of cards. “Gregor, you can call me.”

Man, he was feeling really rude. What did it matter how Gregor introduced himself? Dude probably knew like three languages and was doing his best. “I’m Tucker, nice to meet ya.” It was just really bad timing for the new kid to want to make friends. If he’d shown up with those weird cards and hair two weeks ago, Sam would be the one trying to make him part of their friend group. Before the whole ‘oh, some of that stuff is real and demons are painfully so’ thing. 

“I could do reading for you? To make up for the startle.” Gregor was shuffling without looking at the deck, the intricate design on the backs making Tucker feel slightly dizzy as he watched.

He really didn’t want to play around with that sort of stuff right now. Yet the guy seemed so eager to find a friend who liked this stuff. “Uhhh, sure?” Maybe Sam would rescue him from the friendly exchange student soon.

“Wonderful! Just one card, as you look busy.”

Ouch. Was he making it that obvious? Tucker grinned weakly, ignoring the desire to fiddle with his PDA. He’d made a bad enough first impression already. “So what do we do?”

Gregor offered him the deck. “You tell me the question you want to ask. You pick one, from anywhere you like.”

“I don’t really have a question?” It would be easy enough to pick a card, but he wasn’t keen on holding the deck. They looked like they were probably expensive, and some of the decorative spirals reminded him of eyes. Okay, maybe after Phantom he was getting a bit paranoid about stuff that looked ‘magic’ related.

“How about simple one? How is my future, say?”

“Sure, let’s go with that” it wasn’t like it would mean anything, it was just using a card to make a guess. He picked one blindly, watching as the exchange student flipped it and placed it on top of the deck.

Some sort of beautiful tower being attacked by horrible monsters, causing it to crumble. Blank eyes that seemed to revel in simply being a force of disaster. That, and it was upside down. Was he meant to turn it around.

Gregor studied the card, making a low humming sound. “It is not a nice one. Your plans for the future are only delaying an inevitable change. The disaster will come.” The boy paused. “Not that disaster is disaster, of course. It might just be change you do not like. Like losing friend because they move away. I would not worry over much.”

He laughed in spite of himself. Even silly cards were saying disaster and this guy is trying to make sure he doesn’t take it badly. The cards should know he already had his world pretty shaken up! “The picture is kinda neat, at least.”

“Isn’t it?” Gregor beamed before putting them away. “I do have suggestion though. With circle you had. Maybe it can bring you luck?”

Well, he had multiple copies. He fished the poorly hidden one out again. “Like what?”

“Well you see this line?” Gregor traced a line running through the centre “is weak. Fewer lines, fewer binds. The entity could betray you.”

Tucker couldn’t quite keep the skeptical look off of his face, the boy’s serious tone rather unexpected. “Okay, so you’d make it stronger?”

“Yes, but also no. Is easier to add so something like this if not making whole new circle.” He sketched in a curved line that bisected the one in question. “Turns that freedom against them if acting out of line.” 

Maybe Gregor was just a real big believer and just wanted to look impressive and try and make friends? Just the serious tone was creeping him out. There was no way this guy knew you could actually summon demons, right? “How does it do that?”

“The entity can’t do what it tried again without being directed. Much less free willed after they figure that out, much more manageable. At least, is what the books say.” He shrugged a little, pushing the pen back to Tucker.

“You agreed to help me, remember?” The voice is as gentle as the hand cupping his cheek, a familiar gesture that makes his stomach drop. The purr isn’t him, the comfort is a poison he can’t move hecantmovehecantmovehecantmove

Their hands barely brushed one another as he took the pen back. The breath he lets out is agonizing, eyes wide.

“Are you alright, Tucker? You looked distant.”

“Y-yeah! Uh thanks, I gotta get going.” He couldn’t help but sputter, just feeling the need to get away and process whatever the hell that had been. Some sort of vision?

Chapter Text

The thrumming under his skin is not unpleasant, but it is unexpected. His humans know how to call him back without a proper summoning, so why are they being so formal now? Maybe they didn’t think he’d respond? Sam had been pretty furious when he left...right. He just had to focus. No fawning and fussing over two fleshy soul bags. Be a demon. Do his job, do it well, but don’t go giving them favours.

Jazz made it sound a lot easier in her pep talk. Part of him was still worried about Tucker, when there was no reason to be. He’d know if one of his humans had died, so obviously it wasn’t that big of a deal. He shouldn’t be glad to feel a summoning tug, dragging him away from home when he should be trying to avoid this kind of feeling.

The candles made his nose itch, but he resolved to keep his face blank as he reformed inside the circle. He even chose to have legs, to stand on a more equal eye level. Be confident. Humans are just. Just food. His tail doesn’t flick when he spots Tucker, looking more like he did before the mistake. Mostly because he grabbed it before it could finish doing so. “So, what’s the fancy occasion, boss?” Phantom asked, making sure to show his teeth. “Y’know, the whole point of giving up your soul is so you can skip this kinda thing.”

Sam sighed, looking at Tucker in a way that probably meant something. “I wasn’t in the mood to keep calling if you decided today wasn’t a listen to the humans day.”

“Cool. So if you want me to do something or what?” The candlelight should put him at an advantage, but neither of them seemed particularly anxious about him.

“Something like that.” The smirk on her face instead was making him the anxious one. That was the face of a human with a nasty plan. Generally not a good sign when you’re the one in a circle.

“Sooo, Phantom. Sam says that might not actually be your name? That true?” Tucker asked, distracting him from watching Sam like a hawk.

“It’s what my parents called me. So I’d say it’s true.” True enough. It wasn’t like they could understand it said properly, or his entire name…

“Not a name, he’s asking about your true name.”

“True name? What do you mean by that, like say it in demon or what? Or is it just some name you humans decided?” That was a bit trickier to weasel out of. Well it would be, if he had one. ‘True’ name, bah. Just because it’s what humans had named you didn’t make it your ‘real’ name…except when nasty spells and bindings were concerned.

“So what would you call that name if not a true name?” Tucker had apparently lost any worry, sitting comfortably on the ground. “Cause I kinda get it if it isn’t the one your parents gave you or whatever.”

“I dono. What you’ve been named, I guess.” His ears flicked as he considered the question. “A title? Terrestrial name? I don’t really worry about it.” There was no reason for him to, not back home.

Sam wasn’t nearly as relaxed, a hint of frustration in her wrinkled brow. “Well whatever you call it, we need to know yours. Since I checked, it wasn’t in that first summoning.”

“Well you did say Phantom the first time. Just not a specific one and I took it.” He clarified with a cough, hoping that was enough to get them off the topic entirely.

“Dude, you know that we can just keep asking, right?” Tucker looked amused when Phantom flicked his tail in irritation. “It’s not like it’s a big deal? You already got our souls here.”

Not good. “I am aware.”

“So out with it.” Sam was smirking again, reaching for a container of some sort. “Or we can see if this works instead.”

Threat! Jazz was right, of course she was. Humans didn’t like demons. Just like how demons didn’t like humans. He growled, but didn’t really have any other move here. “I don’t know it.”

“You’re going to go with a lie that obvious?”

“Wait, how could you not know it?” Tucker’s confused question was much less pointed.

“The same way you don’t know most things! I just don’t.” He crossed his arms as he scowled, refusing to explain further. It was the truth. How could he possibly know something he didn’t have yet?

“And that means you’re the one paying for ice cream next time, Tuck.”

“I really need to stop making bets with you.”

Phantom was more concerned that  the container Sam was holding seemed to glow faintly when she said that. He couldn’t make out the symbols on it exactly, but he doubted they promised nice things. Especially when they got pointed at you. “You’re seriously going to turn my own power against me?”

That got the girl to pause. “No? We made this.”

“Yeah, with whose magic? Last I checked, humans don’t have any. That’s why you deal with us.” It was a bit of a gamble but these two obviously didn’t know much about demons, or anything magical. “If you didn’t have me, that thing would just be a paperweight with doodles on it.”

“All the more reason to test it, I guess.”

So much for that plan. Raising his arms to shield himself probably wouldn’t do much, but it was mostly reflex. Whatever hit him…didn’t hurt? Maybe they messed up.

Or not. The little hooks under his skin pulled hard, rougher than a summoning, determined to take him apart as it dragged him towards the container. He did not want to be sealed up in some human thing, thank you! He hit the ground and dug his claws in, gritting his teeth. Maybe he could outlast it?

“You sure it’s not hurting him?” Tucker asked, and he could hear the boy getting up.

It made his ears twitch. That wasn’t a serious question, right? Tucker didn’t actually care if this hurt him.

“Not unless summoning hurts him, and it’s not like he’s complained about that.”

He certainly didn’t like being taken apart to get crammed somewhere else. Not that it mattered, he was rapidly running out of body to resist being dragged back. Maybe he should have whimpered or something, tried to get some more of that fake pity out of Tucker. No, he didn’t want that, it just confused him more. He tried to scrabble away as his vision started to go, but the pull never let up.

He sort of expected the worst of it to be over once he got dragged inside the container. The dark and small places were things he liked, most of the time. He was nothing, a void. He fit in with other sad empty places perfectly.

This void was wrong . He didn’t fit in it. It was like spiders had gotten inside him and entangled him in foul restrictive strings. They’d webbed chunks of him together while also shredding him apart as he tried to reorient himself. The sides didn’t accept him, wouldn’t let him comfortably meld with the darkness or even form from it. He was never too big for something. He was always too small. He didn’t like this, being a separate nothing, helpless in its grasp. He couldn’t form claws, or teeth or eyes, just stuck as a tangle of shadows that wanted to join the rest. It didn’t hurt him. He almost wanted it to, because he’d have a target, something to overcome instead of just being…held like this. Fighting against it, trying to be bigger, or more solid just had the sides firmly smush him back down into splattered bits of darkness. It smashed him startlingly hard after one attempt, but even that didn’t actually damage him. Of course, it was pretty hard to hurt nothing…but he never expected his own flexibility to be used against him like this. While not even letting him get comfortable by keeping him forcibly separated from the rest of the container.

Was this what humans felt like when he travelled? Maybe that’s why they screamed. Not that it was scream worthy, he just really, really didn’t like it. Being just slightly too solid to do anything sucked . At least nothing happened if he stayed still. If whatever this was just started playing with him like clay, he’d probably freak out a little. Just a bit. Maybe a lot. Wouldn’t put it past humans to make a freaky torture like that. (Even if dad totally did that once when he’d misbehaved…it didn’t have to hurt to be scary.)

Figuring out how to get out would be something to do, but it was pretty hard to find weak points when you were basically a smoky goo. Realistically he was stuck in here until the humans let him back out. Which could be never. That would be…uncomfortable. Even if the strength of the spell keeping him here would weaken over time. Would Tucker leave him here forever?

Of course he would. Same with Sam. He’d only get out because they wanted to make use of him. He should hate them.

Except he didn’t really think they would do that. Stupid feelings wouldn’t go away even while stuck in a void they shoved him into! Maybe they would when time started to stretch with how bored he got.

He didn’t have that long, finding himself tumbling along the floor as an unseemly demon mush before he had the sense to put his body back together properly.

“Okay, I was worried for a second that it literally made him soup. Gross.”

“He’s fine, Tucker.”

“Warn a guy next time!” Phantom grumbled as he shook the lingering unneeded shadows off of himself and got his limbs back in place. “That was unpleasant.”

“So you’re going to say your actual name now?” Sam’s question jerked him completely back to reality.

“I can’t.” He kept his ears flat, already trying to think of a better way to hold off getting dragged in there again. Since obviously this was their punishment of choice now.

“Because you don’t know?” Tucker prompted, sitting down, surprisingly close.

“That’s what I said.” Phantom kept his guard up, wondering if this was some new trick.

Sam looked at him, like she was trying to see through him. He was tempted to turn invisible for a moment, as a joke. But she was the one with that dumb container, so he held off on that idea. “Wait. You do know why you don’t know, don’t you?”

For humans who didn’t know much about demons, they were obnoxiously good guessers. “I might.”

“You don’t have one. That’s why you were saying you’re nothing.”

Right idea, completely wrong method of getting to that answer. Not that it helped him! You shouldn’t ever admit that. Well, you should never get yourself summoned like this before you had one, but he’d given up on that. “I’m just Phantom.”

She nodded a little, seeming curious and going back to that book of hers. “You are okay after that, right? It’s not much good if it tortures you when we’re just giving you a time out.”

“I’m fine.” The demon grumbled, freezing up when Tucker put an arm over his shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“You looked nervous. Feeling better yet?”

He did feel a bit better in the sort of half hug, but that was dumb. He should only feel like that with family, like with Jazz. Not some humans. Even if they were his humans. “No.”

“Sorry. It seemed like the best thing? Sam wanted to make sure it worked.” Tucker let go and tossed a blanket at him instead, which wasn’t as warm but wasn’t as weird as being hugged by a human.

He had a stupid question to ask, but it felt less dumb under the blanket so he couldn’t actually see the person he was asking this. “Uh. Is feeling disconnected from everything how you felt last time I saw you?”

“Yeeeeah I guess you could put it like that?” Tucker gave a sort of anxious chuckle, still sounding close.

“Oh. I didn’t know it was like that. It’s not for me.”

Sam snorted. “You could just apologize to him.”

Admitting you were wrong? You didn’t do that. You weren’t meant to leave someone who thinks they’re owed such a thing alive anyway. Besides, he wasn’t wrong...even if he felt bad. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Really.” He just wanted this stupid guilty feeling inside him to go away. “I-I-I’m sorry. For that.”

“I kinda figured that out after. Thanks. Friends?”

Friends?

“Urrgh okay Tucker. You were right, I was wrong. The demon actually didn’t mean it.” She sat nearby, closer to Tucker than his blanket covered self. “He’s just an idiot.”

“What do you mean, friends? We’re just putting up with one another because of the contract.” He's pretty sure the humans can see his eyes through the blanket, it isn't very thick and his eyes are very bright right now.

“Well, you could do it that way. But I think I’d rather have a friend than a servant, you know?”

They had to be mocking him. That isn’t what he wanted. Even if inside he’s thrilled, excited. It’s just a trick. They just want to tame him. But just leaning against him isn’t wrong, right? There’s a blanket between them still. It isn’t like he’s rubbing against some human like a desperate dog.

“...Tucker is he purring.”

“Shh.”

Chapter Text

“So you’re like, a baby demon.”

“I am not a baby demon! Just small.”

“Could you two try to not be totally obvious in public?” Sam elbowed the two of them.

Tucker wasn’t dissuaded. He wasn’t speaking that loudly, and the mall was pretty crowded. No one was going to notice two teenagers muttering about demons while they walked. “Well, Sam’s book says only mindless demons don’t have names, but clearly you aren’t mindless. So you’re a baby.”

“Why are my options mindless and baby?!” Phantom groused, hands in his pockets as he slouched. “Your book is wrong. Duh.”

“Keep it up and I’ll figure out a way to put you both in the thermos.” Sam didn’t stop her browsing, but the eye roll was audible.

“Well I could probably make that happen, but Tucker’d be pretty dead afterwards.”

Phantom’s casual threat put a chill down his spine, another reminder that no matter how human he could look, he definitely wasn’t one. “Dude! Not cool.”

“I didn’t say I would do it.” The disguised demon smirked, a hint of his fangs showing through. “Just that I could.”

“And we’re all very impressed.”

That stopped the grinning. “I know what sarcasm is.”

“Good for you.” Sam still hadn’t even glanced back. She hadn’t exactly wanted to let the demon tag along, but was willing to test out Tucker’s idea. Didn’t mean she quite trusted Phantom though.

He was pretty sure Phantom was just bored, or lonely. For all his bluster about being a demon, he certainly got clingy and eager to see new things at the drop of a hat. It could be a trick- they were all wary of that, but he didn’t feel like some crafty monster ‘apologizing’ to trick them. Just like some wary kid who wouldn’t believe anyone would want to be friends.

“Why do you guys need entire places for clothes? Can’t you make your own?” Phantom’s question would have sounded absurd if he couldn’t see how his blue eyes kept darting around.

“Not as fast as a huge machine can.”

“Or as fast as hundreds of people being exploited by rich bastards.”

The demon just looked even more confused, but didn’t ask them to explain it more. Instead he kept close and just watched what they wanted to look at. Didn’t even try stealing something, which he was kind of worried Phantom might try.

No trip to the mall was complete without swinging by the food court. “You gonna try something?”

“Ew, no. Why would I?” Phantom wrinkled his nose at the offer. So he wasn’t just saying food was gross before to be ‘strange’. “Just because you like having stuff stuck inside you for days doesn’t mean I do.”

“More for me. You can guard the table.”

“You can both guard the table, because I’m not going to deal with a demon loose in the mall.” Sam corrected him. “There’s a line between benefit of the doubt and asking  for trouble.”

Phantom was too busy investigating the napkin holder to look up. “But there already is one. Not counting myself.”

“Seriously? Where?”

He shrugged, still not paying much attention.

“We kinda should know that.” Tucker tried again, briefly wishing there was some sort of equivalent to cat treats to get the demon’s full attention.

The black haired boy grumbled, putting the napkins down to glance around. “The tall guy with the samples. Not human. So I probably wouldn’t eat one of those but it’s not like it’s worth noticing.”

 Tucker tried to catch a look at the so-called demon, but he couldn’t really see anything strange. “How do you know?”

“Because his face is an exact copy of another guy’s and he sucks at blending in. Idiot keeps switching it.” None of this surprising information kept the demon from trying to fold a paper airplane. “Why do you care? It’s just some nobody demon.”

“Oh, because you’re a somebody now?” Sam asked, the barb making the demon stiffen.

“Well you aren’t worrying about me now, so…”

So much for food. At least they might learn something. “Any idea what they’re doing?”

“Why would I know that? Making some humans sick or something? Not my humans, so I don’t care.” He blew a strand of hair out of his face, still looking completely disinterested.

“Well we can’t just let it do that.”

“Yes we can? We should?” Phantom slouched in his seat. “It’s got nothing to do with us.”

“Demons might be selfish, but we’re not going to let people get poisoned when we can do something about it. Come on.” Sam said, waiting for Phantom to move.

“What do you expect to happen? They’re just going to ignore you if you do something stupid like say they’re a demon.”

“Even if another demon says it?”

“Well I’m not gonna say it.”

Sam considered that, pausing at a vacated table still littered with trash.

“Uhhh Sam? What are you doing?” He had a terrible feeling he knew.

“Motivating a demon.” She didn’t give either of them time to react before flinging the trash at the sample holder.

“Protection doesn’t make me a babysitter!” Phantom grabbed Tucker’s arm and pulled down, hiding him from the stranger Sam just assaulted out of nowhere before moving to catch up with her.

There was a bit of a kerfuffle, but it was only normal surprise until it started getting darker in the building, even though the lights appeared to be the same as always. He couldn’t just hide here and leave Sam alone with at least one pissed off demon. At least he seemed to be better able to dodge around people as it grew darker. Everyone with half a brain was running away from the out of nowhere darkness, not into it like he was.

“What do you think this is kid? That you can just attack me while I’m doing my job and scare me with some familiar you got?”

Well, at least Sam wasn’t dead! Yet. Was Phantom the one making it dark, or the other demon? The mimic?

“Why should I ignore a demon trying to harm people? Get out of here.”

“Hey, kid. Small fry. I get called up to make that shop look bad. I do my job, and then I blow this snoresville of a city. So take your little pet and scram before I get nasty.” The being wasn’t bothering to look human anymore, a faceless being with strange red glasses.

“I am nobody’s pet!” Phantom snarled, leaping out of a shadow to hover between both Sam and the creature, eyes narrowed to slits.

“Well, well! Fancy pet you got there girl.”

“Keep calling me that and I’ll shred you.”

“How about you leave. If you just had to make it ‘look’ bad, you’ve probably done enough.” Sam didn’t back down, even as both demons were practically glaring daggers at one another.

“Ha! No you won’t. You’re just Leviathan's little mistake, aren’t ya?”

“And you’re just a shapeshifter who can’t make up their own face!” Phantom spat back.

Okay, so Sam and Phantom had this weird new demon pretty distracted. And he had a thermos that could hold demons in it. Oh man. He was really gonna try doing this, wasn’t he?

“Oh really? Well no one’s using this one anymore, are they?” The demon shifted, becoming an odd copy of Phantom. The red eyes were clearly wrong, but more confusing was the hair. It was black, and seemed to be littered in scatterings of stars instead of the stark white Tucker was used to.

Whatever that difference meant, it made the demon shriek before flinging himself into the mimic, both snarling and clawing as they rolled across the tiled floors.

Phantom wasn’t winning. He sounded as furious as ever, and didn’t stop trying to fight against the red eyed copy, but it was easy to see the other demon recovered faster with each blow, while Phantom was shoved back with deep gouges in his face that seemed to leak shadows.

He couldn’t help but wince as the little demon slammed into a pillar and crumpled to the ground instead of remaining in the air.

“Forgot you don’t have back up here, didn’t you? They’ll probably thank me if I finish you.” The demon chuckled, approaching slowly. “Maybe I can take your place? At least I can hold my own.”

Tucker just hoped this thermos would work, that the slight glow wouldn’t make the monster turn around. That Phantom would stay down and not get caught instead. The fact they looked so similar…basically made it impossible to aim while he was still actively fighting.

Okay so he closed his eyes and didn’t want to look. Only when the warmth from the thermos stop did he crack his eyes open, letting out a sigh of relief. Phantom was still clutching at his side on the ground, with Sam moving over to check on him. “Guess he didn’t see this backup coming!”

The demon didn’t grin, instead sulking and pressing further into the ground.

“Do you need something to heal up? Should we send you home?” Sam asked, frowning at the wounds. “I didn’t think you’d actually fight like that.”

“It’s never worth messing with other demons.” Phantom grumbled, rubbing at his damaged face. “I just need to stay in the shadows for awhile.”

“Okay uh, Sam. What do we do with a demon we don’t want to let out?”

“I think we can dismiss it? While they’re in there. Just not here.” Sam looked pointedly as how the darkness was lifting with both demons down for the count.

“I vote for leaving him there forever .” It was the last thing the demon felt fit to add on before melting into their shadows, green eyes only watching for a moment before flicking out.

“Soooo. What’s a leviathan?”

Their shadow didn’t answer.

“I think he’s asleep.”

Chapter Text

Sam was so tired of feeling guilty. Getting Tucker and herself stuck with Phantom was bad enough, but it felt like she couldn’t do anything right lately. The twinge in her chest only grew deeper as she tried to manage the fact a monster had parts of their souls.

Phantom was a problem, a dangerous one. Yet Tucker somehow got attached to a creature that attacked Dash, then traumatized Tucker too. It was easier to see that he was somehow being manipulated by the shadowy presence. Then he actually apologized. After she’d shoved him in a soup container. After a week of staying away, like she’d told the demon to.

Now the demon was silent after fighting another demon for her, without any direct prompting. It was as if the world decided two and two equaled horseradish. She only wanted the mimic to blow their cover and leave the mall. Phantom had been pretty clear he wasn’t interested in doing anything, but he’d made that awful shriek and flung himself at the imposter, into a fight he obviously couldn’t win. Why did he fight? The demon had stopped responding to anything she said after Phantom showed himself, her messing up of his day apparently forgotten.

Just another half baked plan gone totally sideways. The other demon was handled thanks to Tucker, but now the constant looming threat in her life was hurt. He really was a weak demon, who sulked and went quiet instead of taking advantage of the surge of pity she felt when he was curled up in pain. All the warnings and concerns felt wrong when the ‘terrible demon’ kept trying and failing to make napkin paper planes work. Phantom was just…a kid. Like them. Only demon flavoured and prone to purring.

Which just made the guilt worse. She hadn’t meant for him to get involved beyond a way to run. Like how he hadn’t meant to hurt Tucker. Could she really hold that against the demon when she kept doing the same thing?

Not really. He’d been behaving fine at the mall too. Glaring at the thermos wasn’t getting her frustration out.

“Oh, Tucker! I hope you were not taking reading as reason to be dangerous.” A boy she didn’t recognize approached, waving to them. “You are both okay?”

“Oh yeah, we’re fine! Weird power outage, huh?” Tucker stood a little straighter, eyes flicking between Sam and the stranger.

Huh. So some new kid decided to be Tucker’s friend? A new kid that reminded her of the demon lurking below. She didn’t like that timing, even if he was a snappy dresser. “Who’s that?”

“That’s Gregor. Apparently he’s a transfer student?”

“Yes! Just happened to notice Tucker’s work, quite impressive. Did you teach him?”

Sam raised an eyebrow, seriously questioning the interaction. Teach Tucker what? “Computers are more his thing.”

“Oh, he saw one of my printouts. For the project you wanted my help with.” The tech geek did his best to explain without actually saying anything that might confirm they knew about demons. Good, so Tucker was a bit on edge too.

“Ah, sorry. Being nosy again. I had concern, the so called black out was not one.” Gregor paused, head turning as if checking if they would be overheard. The tinny, overplayed music drowned out chatter most of the time, but the echo from the lack of bodies made it more disturbing than comforting. “You are aware of the...entity problem your town has, yes?”

Should she be more or less suspicious? Who said things like that, to mostly strangers? “You mean the tourists?”

“I suppose you can call them tourists.” He adjusted his glasses, a hint of green that she almost swore she imagined. “Very rude tourists.”

So it was a game of demon chicken. Clearly he was implying that he knew something, and thought they did. That didn’t mean it was good to share. After all, maybe he’s some exorcist that would try to finish Phantom off on the spot.

Which. She didn’t want to happen. Even if he was a little dork of a demon that they got stuck with.

“Nothing more than usual. Good seeing you though?’ Tucker shrugged, easily catching on to Sam’s shared desire to not be there.

“Your containment charm was good. I just worry if you face something more, how do you say? Aggressive?”

Tucker laughed weakly, half hiding the thermos behind his back. “No idea what you’re talking about dude.”

“Ah, we are being secret, right.” Gregor only nodded, pulling out a small slip of paper. “I do not like seeing people harmed by such creatures.” He scrawled something on the paper, something that glowed for a moment before going back to simple ink and page. “Now you know, I know.”

“Wait, how did you do that?” Tucker asked, and Sam had to try not to wince.

“Ah, my pen. Did your family pass one down to you, too?” He tore the paper, a glowing orb of green light hovering in place. “Actually magic artifacts are rare. Dangerous, if not careful.”

“Something like that.” She wasn’t admitting anything to this guy. No matter how friendly he was being. “So why are you asking us?”

“Worry, mostly. Your town seems to have many entities, and none aware of them. You were first I noticed.”

So people who had demons could just tell? No, she couldn’t get a read on this guy at all. He made her uneasy, and reminded her uncomfortably of Phantom, but it wasn’t as if he stood out otherwise. “Well, as you can see, we’re fine. Thanks.”

“Yeah it was mostly coincidence we were here. We don’t usually go looking for trouble.” Tucker did his best to back her up.

“Good! Is safer, that way. Just, you seem to have a curse clinging to you both.”

Tucker edged behind Sam slightly. “Cursed? I’m so not cursed.”

“Is a crafty one. Taints your mind.” Gregor frowned, looking uncomfortable. “Dealt with similar one once. Is why my hair is...how you say. Flashy.”

Cursed to early white hair didn’t seem that pressing. Even if part of her was already wondering if that’s why Phantom felt more harmless lately. By some sort of mental control they couldn’t detect. “And you’re saying you know how to deal with it? If there’s a curse at all.”

“Yes! It is simple, banishes demons from your mind.” He offered them another slip of paper, already covered in lines. “You do not need to use it, if you do not trust me. It will not go bad, if you need it later.”

Well now they were basically obligated to take his little ‘blessing’ paper or whatever. It hummed strangely in her hand, a shudder running down her spine. “Well we’ll think about it.”

“Is all I hope for! Do be safe.” He turned to leave them in peace. “If you change your minds, I be happy to help.”

She felt tempted to burn the thing the second he was far enough away. They weren’t cursed. This thing might do it.

Yet. Should she really be thinking a demon was more trustworthy than another human? They didn’t really know Phantom all that well. That fight...might have been staged. The other one seemed to know who Phantom was.

RUN. FAR. RUN.

She winced. “Don’t scream in my head!”

Phantom didn’t respond. It had sounded like him screaming? The hollow feeling inside seemed to deepen, sharply, even though Tucker was here. Yet their shadows didn’t even twitch.

“Sam? You okay?” Tucker shook her shoulder, helping ground her again.

“Yeah. I just...guess I was hearing things.”

Chapter Text

He was so, so tired. He’d been stupid, hoping he was stronger now. He had been, in a way, being able to actually strike back when he focused on being solid, being something like the souls he stole. It mostly just made it so when the other demon tore into him, the pain clung to him like a sticky burning acid. He liked it better when it was a sharp but passing sensation.

Going back to what he actually was helped. Hidden away in the dark, making no impact or impression. An echo in something as temporary as a shadow. Pathetic.

His thoughts didn’t keep him from sleeping. It wasn’t safe, he should have returned to the darkness of home, instead of staying tied to his humans. He was just too tired to bother. So what if it wasn’t as safe? You couldn’t hurt a shadow. He barely counted as existing like this. That’s why they named him Phantom, after all. Sometimes he wondered if his parents were not planning to name him at all…that his eager question when he was small, with bright green eyes in a twisted reflection of a night sky, so new... upset them.

Not like he could change anything. Just hope he didn’t dream as he slept off more mistakes. Not that his normal train of thought was much better at the moment.

The mirror unnerved him. Humans had them in certain places, but Sam’s home had them in places he thought did not hold the reflective things. Hallways, near windows, places without water. He must have been more in her shadow than Tucker’s, to get here. Except, he didn’t feel her presence. Maybe he wasn’t actually awake yet. Not that acknowledging the possibility would help him wake up. Dreams were the worst, like that. He kept low, trying to avoid catching sight of himself. Reflections were bad enough when he was awake, he didn’t need some twisted dream-logic one.

Besides, weak demons had to be wary. Those reflective surfaces could keep you there, a curiosity that might be caught in bad lighting. A half recalled memory that a human might spy. He didn’t know exactly what humans did with such things. His humans probably knew. To see the future? To scare one another? All he knew was the demon bound to it was hardly a thinking being anymore. Just the confused remains of one. Just keep moving, you’ll wake up soon. He knew humans used the word ‘phantoms’ for such beings, that Jazz always insisted to stay clear because of it. A caring way to say ‘that might be you, weakling.’ He was already halfway there.

This hall should not have a mirror in it. It should not face in his direction. He tried to cover his face, to not see his own blank eyes looking back at him. It was only a glimpse, fanged mouth dripping, his posture more like a feral animal. Ignore it. It’s just a stupid dream, with a stupider mirror.

The warm hand that clamped on his shoulder made him yelp, instinctively trying to pull away. He was too solid to do so, unable to slip back into shadows, the grip only tightening as he squirmed. A blind struggle, since he didn’t want to open his eyes. Nor could get his legs back, stuck with his tail that could do little to give him leverage.

He pretty much expected the stabbing, forcing his eyes to open, to see again. To see the trapped pathetic creature and attacker. A shadow too solid to fly, but too weak to fight. His rune adorned attacker had no face, and he could only manage a pitiful whine. Wake up, wake up, wake up. Before they carve your eyes out, like they got your tongue.

His claws break flesh, but he doesn’t wake up. The mirror just lets him watch the pain longer than he needs to. Wake up...he can wake up...right?
He’s pathetic, hoping humans might save him from a nightmare, using his only free hand to clutch at his chest and cry out that there’s danger.

They wouldn’t care even if it was real. He does it anyway.

“Hey, it’s just me. What’s wrong?” Tucker’s voice makes him tremble, unsure if the dream is just finding a new way to upset him or not.

He’s got a body again. His eyes aren’t missing. It is Sam’s house. Too soon to tell. Tucker reaches out as if to touch him, but stops when he growls.

“You sounded really upset and fell out of the wall. You’re okay?” Tucker kept back, just talking instead.

It sounded like Tucker. Yet something was wrong. A stench that was hanging around. Familiar in a way that made every fiber of his being tremble.

“Did something happen to him on the way back?” Sam’s question didn’t sound as sharp as usual. Almost concerned. Odd.

Worse on her. He backed away, tucking himself under the bed so it would be harder for the humans to follow.

“Can you uh. Say something buddy? You wanted to run, right?”

Yes, he did. So...they’d heard him? He wasn’t coming out from the darkness below the bed, his own eyes more than enough light.

“Phantom, Tucker’s trying to help. It’s hard if you pretend to be a dust bunny.”

Was that a joke? Maybe. He was slightly less tense, enough to open his mouth. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t sound super fine. Seriously, did something happen?”

“No.” As nothing had. It was all in his stupid head.

A small stuffed creature slid under the bed, round and winged. It looked soft. He didn’t touch it. It could be a trap.

“Well uh, if you want company down there...Sam doesn’t mind.”

“I mind a little.” She corrected him. “Not anyone gets to borrow my bats, but you sounded pretty shaken.”

He wasn’t going to cry around humans. The bat was softer than it looked, and fit comfortably when he held it close for a moment. It didn’t get rid of the unease, not completely. “I’ll be careful.”

Neither of them sat on the bed, choosing to keep off of his chosen hiding place. Like they were intentionally staying where he could spot them, even if it was only their feet. He half expected to wake up now, this being some other wild nonsense dream. At least he felt more awake.

Chapter Text

There’s a demon hiding under the bed. Yet for some reason, that isn’t the scary thing. If you had told him a month ago that he’d be worried about a magic monster from another dimension, he’d laugh. Yet here he was, wondering what had gotten Phantom so worked up to the point that he barely even said anything. Heck, the demon had said more after getting thrashed in a fight than he had now.

After half scaring them to death, tearing out of the wall like it was an enemy, eyes shut and limbs flailing. Could demons get night terrors?

“You think he does that a lot?” Sam murmured after it became clear Phantom wasn’t going to be budging from his hiding place any time soon.

“Hope not. Might be pretty hard to explain why we aren’t freaking out about some shadow monster appearing out of nowhere in school.” Tucker tried to laugh, but the joke fell flat. It wasn’t like they knew Phantom long enough to know for sure. He’d slept fine last time?

“He’s not going to tell us if we ask, I bet. Since hiding under my bed like a startled chipmunk is how someone shows they’re fine, apparently.”

The fact the demon didn’t grumpily restate he was fine had both of them sharing a look. Maybe he couldn’t hear them? Or he still needed more time to calm down. “So I guess we can try and get rid of this guy?” He said, fishing out the thermos, half expecting it to shake because of the monster trapped inside.

“Yeah. I kinda wanted to know how he knows Phantom, but I haven’t really found anything.” Sam admitted with a sigh, flipping to some of her bookmarked pages. “I think we can break the contract keeping him here? Without letting him out of thermos.”

“Wait, that’s something you can do? Didn’t you say we’re kinda stuck with Phantom?” The whole selling your soul to a demon thing felt pretty final. Being able to break something like that, without even knowing who’d brought the demon here felt wrong. Too easy.

“Well yeah. You can’t go back on your own contract. It has to be someone else.” Sam frowned, squinting at the pages. “And you have to have the demon trapped long enough to do it.”

The half closed eyes under the bed were wide again, even as he remained silent.

“It’s not gonna kill anyone, right?”

“It shouldn’t? Like the demon gets a pretty good deal, they don’t have to give anything back and their job is done.” She hesitated, glancing under the bed. “I don’t know if the people who wrote this cared about what happened to the demon afterwards.“

“What do you think?” Tucker asked, a little louder to try and catch the lurking demon’s attention.

“Depends on what it was for. Small time stuff and the jerk will be fine.” Phantom remained under the bed, but finally chose to speak up. “Deserves a little backlash away, he failed.”

“I’m guessing our contract is more ‘big time’?”

Phantom’s eyes only narrowed at the question. So much for hoping he might open up a little more about himself.

“I guess we just have to try it, then.” Sam handed the book over, pointing to the directions. “You think you can make this?”

“Totally! I can probably use some of the other ones as a base.” Tucker was already looking through his PDA. Maybe if he could figure out commonly used shapes he could just keep a library of them to drag and drop as needed...maybe he needed an external hard drive for all this stuff, “Really I should just borrow the book and scan it, just in case.”

“Hey, if it keeps us safe from new demon disasters, you can borrow it as long as you need to.”

It was probably faster than Sam trying to draw it out, but it still took time. Time that he could use to think about what to do. It didn’t seem like Gregor was going to just leave them alone, since he apparently knew about demons. He didn’t know about Phantom, right? Part of him wanted to be grateful there might be someone else around that knew something about all this. Yet his gut felt something was terribly off. Because he’d apparently been cursed once? Did it make people distrust you?

Phantom finally chose to come out as he worked, back in his blue eyed human disguise as he watched the printer, as if trying to figure out how the ink worked. Neither of them mentioned how he’d chosen to put the bat plush on his shoulder.

“Sooo, does any of that mean anything to you?” Sam tried to include the demon again as she set up the printed sheets, placing the thermos in the middle.

“No. I don’t need extra stuff to use my own power. All this is human stuff…” he mumbled, only giving it the shortest of glances.

“All this is powered by a demon though, right?”

Phantom watched both of them for a moment, as if debating if he should go back under the bed. “Or something like one. Yeah. What’s mine is yours because of the contract. It doesn’t mean I have to know what it does.”

Sam frowned. “So if we saw someone use magic, and they said there wasn’t a demon, you’d call them a liar.”

“If a human was saying it, yeah. Or they think a demon trapped in something doesn’t ‘count’ as a demon. Which is stupid.”

Well Gregor did say it was the pen that let him do it. So there was something like Phantom trapped in there? That could think? No wonder he got creepy vibes. “Good to know. Someone’s been around that seems to know about you guys.”

“Yeah, you keep saying you don’t know about this stuff, but we kinda wanted to check if you knew what something was anyway.” Sam added, tapping at the once again faintly glowing thermos. “I think he’s gone.”

The fact the paper now looked scorched, even though the thermos was the same as ever sure made it look like something had happened, at least. “Guess he wasn’t a fan of being cool.”

“Humans who get caught messing with demons get killed. So they don’t bother us again. It’s a win win to leave a mess.” Phantom’s statement was strangely deadpan, like he was repeating something.

So why didn’t he try to leave more traces of his existence? It was a lifetime agreement, so the sooner they died, the happier the demon should be. If he actually thought that way. Was he just trying to appear more menacing than he was after the little freak out?

“Well, don’t scorch anything.” Sam only shrugged, fishing out the strange paper they’d gotten and slid it near the demon. “They told us this removes a demon’s influence on your mind. That sound right?”

Phantom looked down for only a second before scrabbling backwards, human skin ripping off like a kitten fluffing it’s fur trying to look bigger by returning to demon form. “Burn it!” He ordered with a snarl, a second layer of what sounded like wailing added to his voice.

Phantom could be scary. When he tried. Tucker tried to ignore how his heartbeat quickened as the demon growled and dug his claws into the ground, leaving obvious gouges to mark his presence, shadowy hands starting to form.

Sam stood her ground more easily, but he could hear the hint of surprise buried there. “Why should we?”

The room darkened, making his dead empty eyes seem even more bright and piercing. “I won’t tell you until it’s gone.”

Illusion was Phantom’s thing, right? Nothing he was doing...was real. It didn’t stop the fear of the darkness, of how suddenly he’d shifted from a boy to a snarling terror. A monster that was nothing like them, no matter how well he pretended. Over something they’d only asked about.

“Don’t threaten us.” Sam clenched her fingers, staring the demon down. “You’re lucky my parents love soundproofing with the racket you’re making.”

“ MAKE ME STOP THEN ” His growl echoed painfully in their heads. “ WEAKLINGS. ”

“Oookay, everyone chill for a second?” Tucker couldn’t quite make himself move forward to separate them, the shadows looking likely to try and rip at his ankles. “We asked so we wouldn’t hurt you, okay?”

“ LIAR. I KNOW THAT STENCH. ”

“Well we don’t!”

They could use the thermos. Phantom couldn’t do anything about that. This reaction, this daring them to force him to behave...was he still scared? Yes. He was.
He still had the bat curled in his tail, even while being all darkness and snarling. Something had  tipped him back into whatever fear woke him up in the first place, and ‘winning’ by hiding the demon away wouldn’t fix anything.

“We’ll burn it, okay? Just calm down.”

“Tucker, we can’t just do what he wants if he starts acting like this…” Sam looked at him, eyes darting to the thermos.

Phantom kept glaring, but the shadows did not advance. Waiting.

“I think he’s just scared that we’re trying to trick him.”

“He’s the demon!” Sam groaned, but didn’t open the thermos. “Being afraid of being tricked is our job.”

At least paper burned quickly, even if the humming sensation that went up his arm as he moved it was deeply uncomfortable. Yet nothing special happened as it burned, no lights or humming. Just paper and ink reduced to cinders and dust.

Phantom remained tense even as the fire was stamped out, not once taking his eyes off of it. Slowly the room brightened, the demon looking much smaller without the shadows distorting his shape.

“See? We cool?”

“Mhm.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “So what had you freak out? What does it actually do?”

His ears twitched, glancing at the ground for a moment. “I...only sort of know.”

“Go on then, we waited long enough.”

“I think...it stops demonic thoughts.” He was speaking more to the ground, looking liable to sink into the floor.

“Well that’s what we were sort of told, I guess.” Tucker frowned, unsure why that would upset the demon so much if he wasn’t messing with their minds.

“All of them. I have part of both of you, remember? I like being able to think .”

Oh.

“We’re not part of you though, so it shouldn’t affect you?” Sam pushed a little further, even though the demon looked edgy and uncomfortable already.

“You are. The living parts of your soul...I only took half of each. They’re still connected. Just separated.” He didn’t look happy to be admitting this, showing too many fangs. “That sort of thing might hurt you too.”

“Wait, so that hollow feeling isn’t the soul part you stole, it’s just you?”

“How else could you use my powers? Of course it’s me.”

It was pretty weird to think that no, they weren’t just missing parts of themselves, but part of a demon had moved in instead. How much of Phantom was always there?

Sam crouched, mostly as the demon seemed determined to not look either of them in the eye. “Does that mean we get your memories, sometimes? I thought I heard you in my head once.”

“How would I know? I’ve never had humans before. Maybe?” He was edging back towards the bed. “Hope not. Don’t need you two in my head.”

“Trust me, we aren’t trying to get in there.” Sam shrugged, glancing at Tucker.

“Seriously though, if you just said what was wrong it’d have been gone faster.”

“Unless you decided you liked me better as a mindless puppet.” Phantom’s scowl sharpened as his sentence continued, tail lashing by the end.

“Sam and I wouldn’t do that. We're not that kind of people.” He elbowed his friend, but she was already nodding.

“Why do you think we have a soup thermos?”

The demon went quiet, apparently considering that. His tail flicked, putting the plush closer to the two of them. “Sorry.”

Sam let out a sigh. “You don’t have to give it back yet if you don’t want to.”

The demon’s head tilted, as if he’d never heard of such a thing. “But you let me borrow it before I made you angry?”

“Yeah, so?”

“You don’t get to keep things if you anger the one who gave them to you. That’s why you need to take things.” He slid back under the bed, not taking the plush even after Sam’s reassurance. 

“Hey Tuck?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m starting to think demon parents might be kinda shitty.”

Chapter Text

Another day, another set of worries, mostly in how they should deal with Gregor. Tucker wanted to just ignore him and hoped he just stayed away if they didn’t get seen near any other demon business. He was only one guy, it couldn’t be that hard to avoid him.

To Sam, that would just make sure he always had the upper hand if they came across one another. Maybe he wasn’t trying to hurt them, but she didn’t want anything to do with someone who thought basically lobotomizing a sapient person was okay . Even if Phantom was a complete unholy terror (and recently, even she couldn’t put him above an over-energetic kitten), that would be reprehensible. She would rather deal with the exchange student on her terms, figure out what his angle was.

“We’ll just talk, but Phantom should stick around you. I don’t want Gregor spotting him and ‘trying to help’.”

“Tucker shifted uncomfortably, but nodded. “Well I can’t stop you, but I’ll feel better about it if he’s not around that guy.”

“I’m not afraid of some human.” Tucker’s shadow moved without him, crossing his arms.

“Yes you are.”

“If you aren’t going to be careful, you could always just go back home. Or stay in the thermos while we’re at school.” Sam crossed her own arms in response, even if it felt absurd to be arguing with her friend’s shadow.

“No, I want to go with you guys. Do I really have to stay in your shadow all day? It’s not like anyone can tell I’m a demon.” Phantom asked, eyes appearing and looking at Tucker. It was good that the demon had...mostly recovered from his fear freak out, but the fact he wanted to be around more often was a bit of a problem when trying to keep him a secret.

“It’s kinda hard to explain you being around at school, dude.”

“How can it? There’s so many of you crammed in that place! They probably lose five of you every day and don’t care.”

“Yeahhhh, no. That’s what attendance is for.”

“What, is it normal to lose a bunch of demons without noticing?” Sam asked, unsure if this was a Phantom being weird thing or a ‘demons are weird’ thing.

The shadow shrugged. “Weak and mindless demons don’t last long.”

Further evidence for the ‘demons make terrible parents’ theory. “Just don’t give Tucker trouble”

“Or you‘ll put me in the stupid thermos.” He made a terrible impression of her voice before grumbling, “I got it the first seven times you said it.”

“We’ll be fine. I’m more worried about you.” Tucker adjusted his backpack “He kinda just gives me the creeps and knows more than we do.”

“Dealing with creeps is my specialty.” She sounded more confident than she felt, but she wasn’t going to let Tucker down by chickening out. She can face down a literal demon, she can handle someone who knows some magic tricks.

One of his magic tricks turned out to be that he was incredibly difficult to track down. You’d think someone who stuck out so much would be easy to spot in a crowd, but she completely failed to spot him in the crowded hallways. Some people had seen him, but she wasn’t going to ask for an exact schedule. It was bad enough that some people gave a ‘knowing’ look when she asked about him. Great. Now everyone would think she was dating two people, instead of zero.

It actually took all day, which was incredibly frustrating. School was even more boring when she couldn’t gripe about it to her friend in the time between classes. That, and she could only hope Phantom wasn’t being a complete disaster with Tucker. There were whispers of people tripping a lot...which might not be demon related, but she had a bad feeling it was.

He was still wearing those sunglasses inside, loitering near the gym when she caught him. “Hey, you have a minute?”

“Ah, were you looking for me? I have time, but not much.” Gregor seemed unsurprised, pushing a phone in his pocket. “Unless you might want to help?”

Dang it. She wanted to be the one catching him off guard, but now he was already going on about things he might want ‘help’ with. The point was to get him to lower his guard, then get to the more incriminating questions when he’d said too much to back away. Like a flytrap eventually closing over it’s meal. “I probably wouldn’t be much help. I was just wondering about what you said the other day, about there being ‘a lot’ of entities around?”

He nodded, still frustratingly unruffled. The fact the school was emptying probably helped, fewer people to overhear them talking about absolute nonsense. “Actually, that has to do with what I am doing. There is something that is poisoning the lunch room, I was going to deal with it, if you want to see?”

“Wait, something here? Seriously?” Not that she’d admit something had felt off ever since Phantom ‘joined’ their group.

“Yes. Nothing too dangerous. Just something gluttonous, I  should think.” He didn’t wait for her to answer, walking off towards the lunchroom.

So the plan wasn’t working at all. It felt more like she was the fly in this scenario instead of the predatory plant. She couldn’t just...not check it out if there was another demon though.

It didn’t look any different, beyond being disturbingly empty. “So why do you think there’s something here?”

“Oh, I guess I do not know. My familiar told me.” he chuckled, removing the pen from before. “You are not easily startled, yes? He is quite tame.”

“Try me.” She kept her face neutral, but the mention of the word familiar made her curious. The demon at the mall thought Phantom was one of those at first, right? 

He turned the pen lid, a flicker of light on the cap the only warning before a massive black wolf was sitting in the room, sniffing the air. If it wasn’t so large, maybe you could think it was a regular wolf, but the weird green claws were far too long, and the flat green eyes clearly didn’t belong to a normal animal. Half hidden under the thick black fur was a bright silver collar, covered in lines she couldn’t quite make out.

“He can help locate the monster. Then, we simply get rid of it.” He gave the wolf a scratch behind the ear, who whined and nudged the boy before padding off towards the kitchen, tail half wagging.

“You’ve got a whole wolf in your pen.”

Gregor grinned. “I like having him close for emergencies. He is not exactly easy to hide!”

So familiars were more like animal demons? The wolf didn’t seem inclined to talk, at any rate. “I can see that.” Good thing Phantom wasn’t so difficult to disguise. “So you just have your pen-wolf bark when it smells a demon or something?”

“Basically. He’s a good tracker. Sometimes gets fixated on food, but nothing is perfect.”

A low growl rumbled through the room, getting their attention as the wolf started pawing at one of the ovens. The oven almost sounded like it was...growling back?

“See? He’s good.” he paused to whistle, the wolf going silent at once and trotting back to Gregor’s side. “I usually let him deal with small things, but you do not have a familiar. So is best if I show you how to do it.”

It was difficult not to scowl. She hadn’t asked for demon vanquishing help, just how he apparently knew about where they were. And the answer was the collared wolf sitting beside him. Which didn’t help at all, really.

“Something bothering you?”

“Not really.” A lie, since she doubted asking ‘well if there’s a demon here they don’t seem to be causing problems, why do anything to it’. “So what are you going to do?”

“Not much. Make a menace useful for a change.”

The wolf snorted, still watching the oven. Or more accurately, the paper Gregor was putting on it.

The oven screamed. There was no other word for it. There was only a hint of an outline, a whisper something was there before it flickered out, sound gone as well.

The wolf’s ears flattened, and Sam felt a terrible urge to pat the beast and reassure it, but those claws managed to put some sense back into her. Yet something about those paws bothered her. Like it had too many fingers. Paw pads? No, it was almost like a twisted thumb.

“Don’t worry about him, he is too kind for own good.”

“So you just killed it?” Sam asked, no longer caring if she sounded rude. “It sure sounded like that.”

“Kill? No. Demons are simply dramatic.” He held up a ring. “Just put it in here, for now. So it cannot hurt anyone. Unless you wanted something to test spells with?”

Could she let it go if she took the ring? Or it was a trap, the demon long dead? The wolf sure didn’t seem thrilled about it. Right now? She trusted it more than the one who summoned it. “No, I’m good. I’m not really planning on going too into this stuff.”

“Probably for the best, they are dangerous. However, you are close with Tucker, yes?” Gregor paused, looking uneasy. “I have concern.”

Oh she so didn’t care what this guy thought about Tucker. Unless he planned to ‘help’. “What about?”

“There is something...on him as of late. Something dangerous. I am worried it plans to replace him.”

“Something? I think I’d notice if someone replaced my friend.”

“You would think. Yet some demons are much, much more dangerous than this one here.” He pocketed the riing and went back to patting the wolf. “Some can mimic humans near perfectly, and learn quickly. Tucker is a good person. But a demon would easily know how to take advantage of that. Most people who call these things...are not nearly so nice, you understand.”

“Well I can keep an eye on Tuck. He’s not easily tricked.”

“That is what everyone thinks. They are insidious monsters, may even try to be your ‘friend’. Then they devour you from the inside to use as a human skin.” His glasses slipped down, a strange look of fear in his eyes. “They always have excuse. Please, keep him safe.”

“Any idea what it is?” The description seemed...very specific. 

“I am hoping I am wrong. Yet the demons have been hissing about one of Leviathan's children lurking around. Arch-demons, murderers all. If Tucker has a ‘new friend’, it might already have him.”

Okay, yeah, that sounded like their shadowy little friend. If you made him out to be some master manipulator. “Doesn’t sound like anything he would mess with.”

“Good. Yet, if he does, and starts acting strange, I would help you. I would not want you to lose your friend in such a way.” He gave the wolf a final pat before it faded away, presumably back in the pen. “He did not use the charm I offered you, did he?”

“No idea.”

“If it has him, it would not let him use it. If you see the monster, try to make him see reason, yes?”

It felt so much like a trap. Yet now she couldn't tell if it was Gregor’s evil plot, or Phantom’s. They could both have evil plots, surely? No...Phantom had backed off in the end. Yet that Leviathan name again. Urgh. She’d have a lot to think about on the walk back home.

Chapter Text

Humans ate too much, and it still weirded him out to watch Tucker willingly weigh himself down with stuff. He had a bag to carry things, but chose to ingest the stuff anyway. How could he stand it?

“You want some?” Tucker noticed his attention, but misunderstood it.

“Absolutely not. Way too solid.”

“You’ve got weird hangups, dude. It’s just food.”

He could only scoff back in response, turning his attention back to the lunchroom at large. That other demon was still around here, making his claws itch. Was it why the humans around here ate so much? Would Tucker even notice if he slipped off to check? It wasn’t like he was leaving the room, exactly. Just pushing what counted as his shadow a bit.

Nah, he wouldn’t notice. He was way too wrapped up in eating. It wasn’t like he was going to fight. Just making sure whoever it was didn’t mess with his two humans. There were plenty of shadows to make his trip impossible to track, slipping to the closed off area with ease. Sam and Tucker never came back here, and the reek of cooking would usually keep him out too. Now where was that feeling coming from? One of those burning boxes.

“You best not be here to cause trouble, dearie.”

He kept still in the shadows, unsure where the voice was coming from.

“Oh, maybe you don’t understand me. Shoo along now.” The voice was warm, strangely so, considering they were telling him to go away. “These hardworking people don’t need you dropping pans on their feet.”

The pressure on his presence wasn’t much, more uncomfortable than anything. Should he be more offended that she thought he was some sort of barely sapient creature? “They welcome you here?” The question wasn’t the smartest, but he couldn’t figure out why else something so…patient with intruders would survive.

“Oh, you do have a tongue! Of course I am, been here for ages. Now how did you end up here?”

“Felt like it.” He tried to get a better look at the box, curious if it was marked.

“Well you best not feel like disturbing lunch, or I will be quite cross with you.”

Lunch was creepy. Yet the humans clearly didn’t mind the soft spoken demon lurking around, tempting them to indulge in the foul smelling foods. “Why? Do you have to protect them?”

She actually laughed at him. “Of course not dearie! The humans can hardly enjoy their meals if you start making a mess now, so you should go cause trouble elsewhere.”

Well if she benefited from the humans eating, that made a bit of sense. She had to be lying though. Some of the people working back here made him uncomfortable to look at, warning him away, as if she’d claimed them as under her. Yet all of them still had their souls. Why would she bother? Did they even know she existed? “I’m not going to cause trouble. Just curious.”

“Good, so run along little one. No need for you here.”

The dismissal was obvious, and he chose to take the hint to crawl back to Tucker. Who was still eating. Blek. “You do know there’s a demon making all of you want to eat more, right?”

“Nope?” He was still chewing, holding up a finger while he swallowed. “Like it’s pretty normal to be hungry halfway through the day.”

“I’m being very literal.”

“Huh. So you just noticed it?”

“No. They’ve been here even the first day I came along.” He frowned a little, displeased that Tucker did not seem disturbed by this information.

“Well if they aren’t hurting anyone I guess it’s none of our business. People eat at lunch, Phantom, it’s probably fine.”

“Not if you overeat. Which you do.”

“No I don’t.”

“You’re all solid and weird.” He muttered before going back to match the natural shadow. Maybe Sam would care more? He’d have to ask.

At least Tucker was up for tripping people who approached to give him a bad time. Besides it was protecting him, those people in jackets liked throwing punches at smaller people. He was just making sure they punched more acceptable targets, like the floor. Or themselves.

“Sam’s going to chew me out for letting you do that.”

“Do what?” He smirked from his hiding spot in Tucker’s bag. “They fell over all on their own.”

“You’re terrible.”

“Demon. Duh.” The fact Tucker was laughing too felt good, that it was something done as a team. Even if he’d just given him permission to do it. Just relaxing and watching was…nicer when he wasn’t worried about Tucker secretly planning to hurt him later. Even if he should worry about that.

Yet it was hard to do so. They’d gone back to the park so he could stretch his legs, even if he had to look human to do it.

“Is there a reason you hate food so much?”

The question threw him, eyebrow raising. “Why wouldn’t I? I’m not all solid like you.” It was an excuse, but not wrong.

“You look pretty solid right now.”

He rolled his eyes. No wonder his disguises worked so well if they just assumed based on what he looked like. “Well yeah,  but it’s an illusion. I’m not actually some weird skeleton with meat slapped on it.”

“Oh, gross. Human, not meat skeleton. What are you then?”

“Shadows, mostly.” He hesitated before offering his hand to Tucker. “You can tell, probably. That’s why I don’t touch people.”

Tucker’s grip was warm, and stronger than expected. It was difficult to resist the urge to pull away when his false skin squished inward. Humans grabbed too hard with those bony hands of theirs.

“Oh weird. That didn’t hurt, did it? Didn’t really expect that.” He let go fairly quickly, watching as the demon quickly fixed his squished hand.

“I’m flexible.”

“More like slime in a plastic bag.”

“I’m not like slime at all!” Phantom frowned, double checking that he looked ‘normal’. “Slime is thick and heavy. I’m neither.”

“Okay, you totally have a thing about solids. What’s up with that?”

He chose to keep his mouth shut and watch a toad springing through the grass. Maybe he’d leave it alone if he just played dumb for long enough.

“Phantom, I don’t want to know to use it against you. It’s so we don’t have another ‘that charm will seriously screw me up’ moment.” Tucker kept managing to find his eyes, which made it harder to ignore him.

“It’s nothing. I just don’t like blood magic.” He settled for a half truth. “The spells are stronger and make it harder to think.”

“I think I’m missing the connection from blood magic to solid here.”

He walked right into that one. “Blood’s still thicker than I am half the time. I’m nothing, remember? It feels gross to have that dumped in you.”

“You seem more like a someone than nothing.” Tucker nudged him, rather gently.

There wasn’t a good response to that, so he chose to look away. The awful compulsion that just took over everything you were was the worst part, completely bound to the ‘gift’ even if you didn’t want it in the first place. “My illusions are just that good.”

The boy considered that, leaning back. “I thought you said you never had humans before?”

Shit. He had. “You think humans are the only thing with blood?” No, that retort wasn’t going to help! He shouldn’t have said that.

“Soooo does that mean fairies have blood?”

He didn’t care that humans should not have a mouth full of pointed teeth at the moment, growling.

“I’m going to take that as a yes.” Tucker said, grinning in spite of the threat.

He was very tempted to shed his disguise to try and startle Tucker, but settled for just growling again. He was never going to admit that sort of thing to a human. He was having enough trouble getting their respect without…that history.

“You’re just cementing yourself as a cat, dude.”

He let out a breath, double checking that he’d fixed his disguise properly. Obviously the slip ups weren’t working on his human anymore. “I am not a meowing quadruped.”

“Unless you’re in a cat’s shadow.”

“That doesn’t count!”

Tucker leaned back on the grass, still grinning. “Totally does.”

No it didn’t, but he was starting to figure out pointless arguments always seemed to go in the human’s favour. It’s like they went deaf sometimes just to keep insisting something completely ridiculous. It could be fun, if he didn’t keep getting reminded of past things. Long over things. He could go ages without thinking about it, but now it just kept coming up. Stupid. It shouldn’t affect him anymore.

“Anything we should watch out for? Like those mushrooms you pointed out?” His question was low, but still casual enough that you could probably brush it off.

Why did he care? Just to get free information, right? To learn his weaknesses. The demon felt uncomfortable in his skin again, tempted to hide in the dark. Even though they were only here so he didn’t have to do that. “Not really? Don’t trust anyone really into the moon, I guess.”

“You seemed kinda into that, looking at the sky all the time.”

He felt his breath hitch, screwing his eyes shut to stop thinking about it. “No. I’m looking at stars, not that stupid thing.”

Tucker was bolt upright again, uncomfortably close. “Cool. You have a favourite constellation or something?”

Now he was changing the subject? What? “I haven’t seen enough to have one of those.” Or forgot most of them.

“We could look some up? If you get bored.”

Phantom couldn’t help stiffening again, eyeing the human with clear suspicion. There was no reason to ‘be nice’ to him. Respect, sure. Play to his interests? No. That was playing to those human emotions. Things that could snare you, tie you more tightly than any written contract. “No.” He pulled his knees close to his chest and looked away.

“Oooookay then, I guess.” Tucker rubbed at the back of his neck, and took to looking at anything but the demon in some odd attempt to give him space.

Good. He didn’t want to be close with some humans like that. Absolutely not. The pain in his chest was only proof of that. It wasn’t too strong. Ignorable. He could deal with soul stuff fine. Not like blood magic at all. Not like the choking, oppressive heat he’d been tricked into taking. Invading every part of himself, an outsider he couldn’t shake off. A thrum that dulled his mind and delighted in his panic, so he could feel but not properly react.

The pressure on his shoulder that was enough to make him struggle, as that poison was fed to him, every wisp and strand thickened and tangled, a void that suddenly had a bottom, one that was rapidly filling. An impossibility that ruined him, too present to work any of his abilities. He couldn’t even remove his mouth to stave them off, being too defined and static to defy them that way. Being able to be grabbed, able to be pulled at and moved and he could do nothing against it, not even turn invisible to the eye to gain respite.

More of a slug than a shadow, but it’s only until you learn to behave.

His shoulder stung, claws buried in yellow fabric. The pain of his own claws...because…

Because Tucker was wincing in front of him, trying to push his hand away. Yet the words he was saying didn’t make any sense. “Come on, snap out of it! It’s still broad daylight out, nothing’s happening.”

He retreated instantly, retreating to the shadows now that he could. No blood.

“I have never been more happy for high quality shirts. There’s no way I’d be able to explain if you got me there.” Tucker seemed to deflate, picking at the pinprick holes. “You need some serious therapy, man. You were just gone .”

“Or I meant to do that.”

“Say that to Sam and she’ll totally leave you in the thermos.”

He wasn’t in the mood to respond. Why did he keep...reliving it? Why now? Why wouldn’t it stop?

Chapter Text

Okay, things he’d learned about Phantom. He hated food, and the moon. Which didn’t seem connected, but it sure didn’t stop the demon from trying to rip into his shoulder when he noticed Phantom spacing out again.

He should probably add that to his personal rules, don’t nudge the demon when he’s in the weird spaced out look. Apparently it was fine if he was sleeping, but awake it just made him into a jumpy doom shadow. Or maybe something was making those spacing out times worse? Any attempts at asking had been met with complete silence, to the point Tucker actually thought the demon went back to his world. Until he noticed his shadow lingering when he walked past a bus stop covered in graffiti. Phantom might be good at hiding, but he sure got distracted by new things.

Which left him with less direct options for learning about demons. He’d gotten most of Sam’s weird book that actually worked scanned, but it didn’t exactly talk about demons having emotions? Or panic attacks. Really, it just talked about how to use them as tools. Not exactly helpful. So he had to turn to his preferred method: trying every single search engine to pull up relevant pages about the moon. Just in case some legend or history might give him a hint to why Phantom seemed so agitated about it.

Turns out there’s a lot of information about the giant rock in space that’s apparently actually a super important giant rock in space. Like literally, it actually influences the tides level important. Which was neat, but didn’t exactly help in figuring out what got Phantom all tied up in knots. Unless he was super into how the ocean worked. No, probably not. He didn’t seem to care that they weren’t near any large bodies of water in Amity Park, at any rate. Okay, how about things that were recent? There was a full moon coming up? Maybe that made fairies or demons more powerful?

This would be so much easier if Phantom would just talk about it. He just had a bunch of maybes. That and werewolves! Lots and lots of werewolves. Maybe demons were werewolves, and that’s why he was moody? Phantom the shadowy werecat? Nah, that didn’t really fit. Still, there was a lot of fairy related stuff showing up related to the moon. If he had a fear of ‘fae’ things, the moon might make it worse? The full moon this month was called a ‘Hunter’s Moon’, apparently. Neat, but didn’t help. Not unless the demon was scared of getting hunted down or something.

“Hey. You feeling any better?”

He got more silence in response.

“We really do need to think of a better name to call you in public though. Phantom stands out too much, and we’re trying to keep you a secret, you know?” Tucker was many things, but a quitter wasn’t one of them.

Green eyes snapped open, a chill seeming to emanate from his shadow. “Don’t talk about me then.”

“That’s not really possible.”

“You’ve been doing it so far just fine.”

Okay, so he hated food, the moon, and talking about names. It would be nice if he could stumble onto something the demon actually liked. Maybe Sam would have some ideas? She must be done with Operation: Figure Out What The Heck Gregor’s Deal Is by now? Wasn’t she going to come to his house when she was done?

“Uh. Sam’s okay, right? If you can tell with that weird talking in our heads thing you do sometimes?”

“Hm? Yeah. Why?”

“Just making sure. I’m still not sure how to feel about that guy.” Tucker tried to relax, but his shoulders still felt stiff. It shouldn’t be a big deal but he creeped him out. “For all I know he’s got a demon or something too.”

“Doubt it. Usually you humans are older.”

Which reminded him that Phantom had never actually been conscious or present whenever Gregor was around. He half thought he was Phantom, for a bit. Letting out a sigh, he settled back down to scroll through mountains of data to pass the time. Homework could wait. Probably.

“Tucker! Sam’s here.” His mom called, distracting him from yet another page of moon phases.

“Coming!”

“Is your other friend coming later, or just Sam?”

Well, he was already here, technically. He slipped down the stairs, shrugging as he passed. “I don’t think so, he usually goes home.”

“What was his name again? I can’t believe I managed to forget it.”

Sam looked just as uncomfortable as he felt at the question. She closed the door behind her before meeting up with him. “Don’t worry about it Mrs. Foley, he probably didn’t actually say it. He’s a bit shy like that.”

They tried to escape upstairs without continuing the topic.

“All the more reason I should get it right, it’s so rare for you to bring new friends over Tucker.” his mother was not going to let the subject drop so easily.

He just scrambled for something, anything. “Oh, right! Uh he’s. Danny.”

“Well make sure to tell Danny he’s free to visit as often as Sam is, alright?”

“Y-Yeah. Sure will!” He couldn’t be more thankful to have a door, pulling it shut the second they were both in the room.

“Seriously? Danny the demon? Could you be any more obvious?”

“It was the first thing that came to mind, okay! I didn't hear you make something better.”

Sam rolled her eyes. "At least it wasn't Damien."

He expected the gentle mockery from Sam. The fact Phantom was curled up against the wall in his human disguise, shuddering was very much not.

"You didn't tell me he wasn't doing well." Sam hissed.

"He wasn't even pretending to be human when I went downstairs!"

Their voice's caught the demon's attention. blue eyes flaring green. "What did you DO to me?"

Chapter Text

Sam left Tucker alone for one day , and he’d managed to make the demon into a half feral wreck in record time. The way Phantom wheezed as if struggling to breathe while glaring at the two of them was unsettling enough. The fact the demon seemed to be shivering couldn’t cover how angry the boy looked, the eye colour mistake seeming more accidental than any toothy threat he’d made previously.

“We haven’t done anything, do you need something? What happened?” She tried asking, with Tucker still looking baffled at her side.

“You tell me!” Phantom’s sputtering was high pitched and sharp. Panicked, really.

Tucker seemed to brace himself before trying to get the demon to make some sense. “Tell you what? You don’t look that different?”

The boy buried his head in his knees, apparently trying to cover his ears. “It’s so loud .”

“I’m so lost.” Sam could only see the confusion on Tucker’s face as confirmation that they were flying completely blind, again. Just great. Gregor’s a bust, and also creepy with the whole familiar thing and taking out another demon like it’s nothing. Then instead of relaxing, Phantom’s suddenly really sensitive to noise? “What’s loud?”

“Inside. What did you do ?”

“We didn’t do anything, really. We need you to say what you think we did.”

Phantom only made a frustrated sound, still shuddering with his eyes screwed shut.

“I didn’t know you could get cold.” Tucker muttered as he went to fetch a blanket, taking another stab at what could be bothering him.

He didn’t seem to register the comment, voice muffled as he babbled into his legs. “Put me back to normal, please. I’ll do anything . Just stop it!”

Why was him pleading one of the scariest things the demon had done? He just sounded...terrified. “You look normal?”

“No I don’t! This isn’t ME ”

The demon hadn’t shown his claws, or even tried vanishing like he usually did when he was upset. Sam hesitated, crouching next to the shaking boy to get a better look at him. He just looked like himself, in that disguise of his. So what about it was wrong?

He barely even twitched at the blanket put over his feet, whatever muttering too low and frantic to be understandable.

Tucker sat about as close as he could, freezing while adjusting his glasses. “Oh. Did...you always have a heartbeat?”

“NO”

“I’ve never read anything that would do that? Why would you want to give a demon a heart?” Sam was trying to fit this theoretical mess of puzzle pieces together, but she didn’t exactly have any edge pieces, and the image was blank. “Tucker, you’re sure he wasn’t like this before?”

“He was fine!”

“Maybe he really didn’t like the excuse you gave your mom?” It was a dumb suggestion.

Tucker rolled his eyes. “I don’t think getting called Danny would do this, come on.”

“You named me?” It was a squeak. “Nonononono…I don’t want to be this .”

“No! I just needed to make something up, it was just my mom. Relax, Phantom, it’s not a big deal.”

“Yes it is! You named me! Now I’m a freak!”

Okay, names were a big deal. Apparently, Tucker just saying something to his mom totally counted as giving him one? Maybe she could use that to help calm him down for a bit? If it was his ‘true’ name now… “Danny, listen to me.”

The demon looked at her, still shuddering but silent.

“You aren’t a freak. Just calm down so we know what’s scaring you.”

“Everything! I’m solid and it’s loud and I don’t want any of it!”

The explanation meant nothing to her, but it hit something for Tucker. “He kind of has a thing against solids. Like trauma level things.”

Okay. She could work with that? Maybe? “Listen, you’re still a demon, okay? You had to listen to me saying your name. So just...think shadowy thoughts? Or whatever it is you do?”

Phantom’s breathing slowed, ever so slightly. “Still a demon. Right. But I’m meant to be nothing…”

“Hey, you still flared your eyes green real good back there, so maybe ‘nothing’ works on more than you think?” Her friend tagged in, latching on to the first obviously demonic thing Phantom had done.

He whined, but only for a moment or two before shadows seemed to crawl up from the ground and engulf him, leaving the bright eyed pest of a demon they’d grown used to in his place.

“See? You’re fine.”

Phantom kept staring at his hands, shaking his head no at her words. “They’ll kill me. I’m so dead. A dead freak.”

“Stop that. We aren’t letting anyone kill you.” She said, a bit more strongly than she first meant to. Maybe because she didn’t want to see him stay in this weird state of self loathing.

“You couldn’t stop-” he cut himself off, ears flattening. Instead of finishing, he vanished back into the shadows he’d come from.

“So. Any idea what we accidentally did?”

“Made the demon into a zombie? I have no idea.” Sam could only shrug. How could a name do something that absurd anyway?

Phantom didn’t speak up. Even as she and Tucker threw around ideas to what on Earth they’d done. He didn’t even rise to being called a kitten, so he might have run off entirely.

At least Tucker knew to keep an eye out for giant wolves that apparently obeyed Gregor. Not that any of her information helped. Phantom seemed really, really against the idea of stealing a human’s body like the transfer student had suggested. So that was more reason to trust her gut, right?

Her reassurances didn’t make the walk home feel any better. It was a nice night, but an uneasy pressure had settled on her shoulders after she got a block away from Tucker’s house. Was it Phantom stalking around, angry about ‘being named’? No. It felt more like Phantom might be the one warning her about unseen eyes.

When it said to watch out, she turned to spot someone half hunched over in the nearly full moon’s glow, uncomfortably close. Someone who’d gotten so close without making a footstep. She was already lifting a foot to have them meet the business end of her combat boot when it spoke.

“Not going to hurt you. Just listen, please.” The voice was scratchy and harsh, as if the owner had not used it in a long time.

“Not interested, stalker.” The unease was more a constant tingle now, and she wanted nothing more to kick them and beat feet far away from here.

“He wants your demon. Don’t fight him.” they shuffled forward with a cough. “You’ll lose. Get rid of it, kill it, anything. Please.”

Weird stalker that knew she had a demon? No thanks. She balled her hands into fists, trying to back away slowly.

They only took a halting step forward, enough to not be mostly cloaked in shadow. “Don’t want anyone else like me. Get rid of it.”

“Gregor? What are you going on about?” He was easy enough to make out, with the help of the light, even though everything was wrong. He didn’t even sound right.

“Elliot. My name’s Elliot.” He stopped, coughing harshly again. “Other guy...isn’t in my body right now. Trust me, get rid of that demon. It’s all he wants.” The wild look in his green eyes was almost as startling as the words he was barely forcing out.

“We don’t know how?” Better to just go along until she could sprint the rest of the way to safety.

“Then kill it! Nothing’s worth this. Or hand it over when he asks. Trust me.” His hands shook, taking a step back. “Isn’t me. Just being used...as a host. Get rid of it.”

He didn’t follow when she turned the corner and broke into a run. He almost seemed to intentionally back off with the messy message delivered, but Sam wasn’t going to stick around to confirm that.

Chapter Text

He’d sworn he wasn’t going to go running to Jazz like some newly made spawn, not after she already helped him so much. Too much really, even if he was family. Fixing his mistakes wasn’t her job, no matter how much she insisted that she didn’t mind.

This was something he couldn’t handle. The way he’d shifted from a mere illusion to having an oppressive shell of meat, blood and bone, completely unprompted, terrified him. Trapped in it, to the point he couldn’t tell if his shadows had been merely tangled in the awful sinew or had somehow become the thing encasing him. He couldn’t get out, and the awful thudding thing that had nested in his chest only got louder as his failed attempts drove him further into panic.

Phantom didn’t fit him, like that. Too solid, too present, too everything. Yet he wasn’t really just Phantom now, was he? Now he was Danny too. Some awful breathing and powerless thing. Not some sort of terror or incomprehensible monster like he should be. Just a human. A child . Even when Sam told him how to be himself again, he could still feel that pulse, that disgusting weakness nestled deep down in the void he was made of. A something that shouldn’t be, that went against everything he knew. He had to get rid of it, do something before his grip on his abilities loosened, before the lack abandoned him for daring to exist as more than an absence. Jazz would know something about this, how to fix it. Or might offer to off him before their parents found out. How fast would they find out?

Trying to locate her shouldn’t be that difficult, but every move felt dangerous. What if someone saw? Would they know? Could they just feel he was different and wrong? He knew he was, even while looking like he should. Maybe it would show through his eyes, or the awful thing that lurked in his chest. He couldn’t call out, but it didn’t feel safe to look. Would he be truly invisible like he should be, or would there be a flaw, a mistake, a trace that he’d been present? He wanted to scream, just to get the frustration out, but he couldn’t do that either.

He was a demon without a choice. Either risk it and beg for help, or just hide and hope the humans didn’t make it worse. Zipping through the halls felt wrong, being invisible but separate instead of part of the environment where he was aware of every nook and cranny of the massive pillars and unending walls. She spent so much time in the library, and he hoped she was doing that now.

He didn’t slip through a crack in the door, or follow in the footsteps of another. He just slammed into the door and forced it to yield. His shoulder ached. Too present, instead of his body giving way. No time to keep thinking about it. Phantom didn’t care if it seemed weird, he could tell Jazz was here, the sometimes oppressive aura somewhat calming in his too-wound up state. The second his eye caught sight of her brilliant mane he was barreling into her side, feathers not enough to make him bounce off.

“Ow! You know I can’t see you coming, you jerk.” Jazz scolded, but there was laughter there. “That’s cheating.”

It was so normal and he wanted everything to be normal. Yet it wasn’t. “Jazz. I need help.”

Her amusement hardened into a serious expression, already starting to get up. “Just say the word.”

What? No- damn it she thought he meant killing the humans. Bit too late for that. “No! I need different help, something’s wrong with me.” He kept a tight grip, half afraid she might knock him away. “Just don’t tell our parents. I don’t know what to do- and I can’t fix and- and and they’ll kill me. They’re already mad after last time!”

“Phantom. Too many words, okay? Back up and tell me what happened.” Instead of shoving him away she adjusted to help hold him closer with a wing and huddled next to the wall. More private, even if not exactly ‘secure’.

“I don’t know! I was me and then I wasn’t and they named me-” he couldn’t keep the words in once he started, a habit he’d never managed to break. He spent so long silent that he just...had to say everything, and quickly before he couldn’t. “A-and now something’s inside me and it won’t go away and nothing works the same and-”

Jazz shushed him, a low purr in her throat. “One step at at time. I won’t stop listening, remember? You can hear that I’m right here with you.”

He struggled to force back a sniff, trying to lean into the noise and her presence, wishing he could just be it right now. “Y-yeah. You are.’”

“So the humans gave you a name? It’s normal to change a bit once you’re known, you know that.”

“Not like this!”

“Well, you’ve always been pretty flexible. It’s okay.” Her confidence was warm and inviting, but he felt like it was misplaced. This wasn’t okay. There was no way whatever happened to him was okay. “Being known always makes you a little more defined, and you’re used to constantly changing. You were still completely invisible when you hit me there, I promise.”

“No, you don’t understand! I have like- like some other body! It isn’t one of my guises or an illusion I just have it and I can’t get RID of it!”

Jazz blinked a few eyes, head tilting curiously. “Can you show me? Or do you need more time to calm down first?”

He really, really didn’t want to show anyone that. Even Jazz. Yet he was the one begging for a favour, for her help, so he couldn’t really say no. He just had to find that solid thing and let his shadows melt away. The thing that stole his claws and fangs even as his grip grew stronger with more weight and mass behind it. The thudding that was just louder and unescapable.

“You’re- well I guess you always manage to outdo yourself, little brother.” She couldn’t hide the shock in her voice, even as she turned it into a laugh. “So they gave you a human name?”

It’s that obvious, huh,” he mumbled, already casting the flesh off to return to his real shape, the one that didn’t stiffen against his sibling as if she was a danger. “They didn’t even do it on purpose and I’m stuck with it!”

“So what do you want me to do to help? Other than not telling mom and dad.”

“Fix me? You’re all strong and stuff, you can just get rid of it or something right?” He did not like how she asked that question at all, tail already twitching from the no he expected to hear.

“I can’t fix something that isn’t broken.” The gentle way she rubbed his back did not make the boulders her words were made of feel any less heavy as they sat in his head. “You know I can’t get rid of it without getting rid of the rest of you.”

“I can’t be a human, I’m a demon! We don’t mix like this!”

“Well you’re an expert of all those little in between places. You can make it work.”

Phantom scoffed. “Until our parents find out. They won’t bother with just punishing me this time.”

Jazz couldn’t meet his gaze with all her eyes, a few looking away from his accusation. “You’ll just be careful as you adjust. There have to be advantages to it.”

“Other than being a freak? Doubt it.” Even having her close couldn’t shake the certainty that had joined his ever shifting shadows, the knowledge that this screw up couldn’t be fixed by being confined for a decade or two.

“You might be able to ignore spells and wards with that body of yours. Plenty of demons steal one. What’s so different about yours?”

“The fact that it’s mine?! Or ‘Danny’s’, who I didn’t ask to be!”

“Shh, don’t go saying your name like that.”

“I know you wouldn’t tell.”

“I still want you to be safe. Even when you’re angry.”

“Because that’s worked so well so far.” he rolled his eyes, still unsure if he should just go hide forever or not.

“I just think...it’s not the worst fit for you.”

“Yeah I know, I’m just so bad at being what I am that I should stop being one.”

“Phantom, not like that. Come on.” she mussed his hair, but gave him a serious look. “You can feel it though, right?”

“Feel what? That body’s heart? Yeah, and I hate it.”

“No, not that. Your soul.”

He scanned her face, looking for a joke in it. “You mean the halves I took?”

“No, I mean your soul. Can’t you tell? You’ve never taken a whole soul.”

Demons didn’t have souls of their own. That’s why you took them. Jazz wasn’t one to joke about something like that, either. So he had to check, the two halves he’s stolen.

The halves that were missing. Did their naming of him break the contract? As he wasn’t demon enough to be held to it? No, he’d felt compelled to listen to Sam when she used that name...and he could still sort of feel where they were a world away..

Oh. The halves weren’t missing. Just different. Not where he left them. They’d fused, somehow, a third unknown aura in between that had gripped both and dragged them together. Just sitting inside him, near where that awful heart liked to rest. It was obvious if you looked at it closely, the fact it was some weird amalgamation- but with only a glance it looked complete. A new soul.

His.

Chapter Text

He really wasn’t just a demon anymore. Not like this. Even if he lost this soul, had someone take it away, it would be obvious it didn’t belong to a human. He’d be missing something, instead of just existing like he used to be. 

There was nothing he could do about it. Hiding would be the smartest thing. The fewer that knew he was some disturbing mash up instead of just being that weak little demon, the better. Jazz probably would have told him not to even tell her, if they weren’t so close. Hide where? He knew his home well, incredibly so, but he wasn’t the only one. That, and trying to avoid his parents by being where he should be was...a pretty risky plan. He could do it, sure. Almost nothing could find him if he was really trying to be undetectable, and they shouldn’t have any reason to be paying much attention to what he was up to anyway. No matter what the paranoia hissing in his head that they’d just know said.

He’d always wanted an excuse to be in the other world more. Figuring out what the heck to do with this...human half that had been stapled onto him was a pretty good reason? Make sure Sam and Tucker didn’t manage to make him ALL human or something? Try and just forget about how he’d basically been condemned to death and just...do what he wanted?

Jazz would totally chew him out for ‘giving up’ and just accepting he’s doomed, but it was kind of a relief. Just yup, the screwup demon has managed to top himself that badly, it can’t get any worse! What are they going to do, kill him twice? Why not be human? Maybe he’ll suck less at it. Even if he hates how wrong it feels to just take up space.

Leaving might not be so bad. It wasn’t as bad for him to...befriend humans if he was one? If Jazz was right, maybe the body could protect him from any nastier spells, or attempt to brainwash him. Really, missing Jazz would be the worst part. “You’ll cover for me? If they ask.”

“As far as I know, you’re just skulking off in the shadows again. That’s a promise.”

She’s eventually the one who nudges him to get going so they don’t stay in a tangled hug of darkness and feathers for too long, nodding encouragingly when he glances back.

He can always sneak back. Yet being comfortable with this, trying to not hate it..well it went against everything. He’d be blatantly defying them, when already only holding on by a whisper, The guilt wasn’t comfortable, but he valued his sibling’s opinion more. If she seriously thought he could make it work, he had to try. Power won out, after all. If he could make something work, if he could make it an advantage, it wouldn’t matter how they felt about it. Clashing and defying your parents was normal, really. Just not for him. Not when he never succeeded, and had no offensive ways to fight back. Hiding wasn’t ‘winning’.

At least slipping between the worlds was still as easy as it should be now that he had a target to travel to. He didn’t exactly recognize where Tucker’s shadow was right now, but he could ask about that later. It was pretty loud, and all the lights weren't nice on the eyes. A bit more staring reminded him of Tucker’s ‘computer’ thing, the worlds in boxes. These were just louder, bigger versions of those? What was the point?

“It’s fun. We were wondering where you got off to.” Tucker said, seemingly unprompted as he turned the oversized wheel.

Did he ask that out loud? Or at least in his head?  Whoops. “ Just sorting some things out .”

“Nice. Just gimme a sec.”

Humans didn’t ever mean a second when they said ‘a sec’. That was a pretty important thing to figure out, since it had been driving him nuts. A second wasn’t a second when you didn’t bother to say the whole word, for some reason.

“ You have that thing you put the other demon in? ”

“Uh, yeah? Why?”

“ I want to test something.”

Tucker didn’t speak up again until they left the too-noisy place, pulling out his PDA to send off a message to Sam as he went. Strangely, he decided to keep it near his face even though he wasn’t talking to anyone on it. “You’re okay? I’m really sorry for whatever that was, we didn’t mean to freak you out.”

“I told you what you did. ”

“It didn’t really make sense?”

Becoming human still felt gross as he stepped out of the wall. Even if he was a bit stronger, he felt so much more vulnerable like this. Especially when it felt like he wouldn’t be able to become invisible. Maybe he could, but it didn’t make sense for it to. He can’t be an absence if he’s present. “Congratulations. Your demon isn’t all demon anymore.” He paused, reaching into his backpack to find the thermos over the little ‘hey!’ of protest.

“Is this like a word game you’re playing or something?”

“Nope.” He tossed the odd metal cylinder, squinting at the slightly glowing runes. “You’re never getting your soul back by the way, since apparently it’s mine now?”

“Well I was pretty sure you weren’t going to give it back anyway?” Tucker just looked even more confused.

Okay, so Tucker and Sam seriously needed Demonology 101, because this was incredibly basic. “How do you work this thing?”

“Uh. You just sort of point and hold on that squiggle there. Why?”

So he tried it, while it faced him. There was a bit of a tingle, not overly noticeable. No getting captured, or pulled, or shoved in the tiny thing. Now that was handy.

“Wait, you’re immune to that now?”

“Well yeah? It doesn’t work on humans. Which I am, right now.”

“Oooooh. You were being really literal.”

Chapter Text

The good thing about having a tiny friend group, calling emergency demon meetings was pretty easy. Even though Sam had gotten extremely paranoid that the two of them were being watched.

Which okay, if she’d actually seen someone moving like a puppet with half its strings cut talking about demons, he’d be pretty jumpy too. Thankfully, Gregor hadn’t done anything since. Beyond being at school, anyway.

“So you’re telling me the one thing we had to stop Phantom if he decided to run wild doesn’t work on him anymore?” She sounded exhausted, a hint of hope that her friend was just telling a bad joke.

“He says he’s human now?”

“Danny was such a bad name for a demon that he stopped being one? Seriously?”

“Technically yes, but no.” Phantom butt in, to the surprise of both of them.

“Am I on speakerphone?”

Tucker looked at his PDA, wondering if it had betrayed him. It seemed normal. “Nooooo?”

“What, you don’t think I can listen in on my humans? The ones I can literally find across dimensions?” The demon raised an eyebrow. “You guys are terrible at this.”

Sam gave a long sigh. “Well, at least we know he’s feeling better. We’ll talk more when I get there.”

He couldn’t really blame her for hanging up right after that. “You gonna fill me in on how that’s technically right?”

“I guess? If you guys are seriously being stalked by some other demon I guess I need you to know the basics. So you don’t die or whatever.” The black haired boy paused to look out the window. “I haven’t felt one around here…”

“You’ve never seen the guy, but Sam said he had some giant wolf. That he called a familiar or something? Isn’t that kind of like a demon?” Tucker asked, wondering if Danny was finally going to be a bit more open about this sort of thing. He definitely seemed to be in a better mood, which was kind of weird with how upset he’d been. Kind of a weird trick, if it was one.

He scowled. “Hardly. Sure you can use their power like a demon’s, but there’s barely any personality there. It’s like if I found a skeleton and said ‘that’s kind of like a human’.”

Snarky, but actually somewhat informative. That was kind of progress? “So the fact he has one might be bad news?”

“Would definitely be someone worth biting.”

“I don’t really bite people. Sam might be down.” Tucker grinned when the demon snorted. See Sam, he’s totally funny when he wants to be.

“Either way, I don’t like people killing my stuff. Only I get to do that. So I’ll just fill all the giant knowledge gaps you’ve got.”

“I feel so loved.” That made him a bit uncomfortable, with it being rather difficult to tell if the demon was joking or not. “We’re not stuff though.”

“Yeah, you’re worse. You talk and have emotions and make me feel weird.” The demon paused. “I only meant to say the first part of that? So just...forget that other half. I’ll deny it.”

It was really hard to not make a joke about a cat having his tongue. Sam saved him by showing up to the weird encounters with Gregor, or apparently ‘Elliot’. After Danny had gotten flustered by his mom saying hello to ‘his new friend’ by name, or course.

“I can’t believe that’s the reason I have a name that did this.”

“Parents, am I right?” Sam added, getting an eye roll from Tucker.

“You have no idea.” From Phantom’s low tone, he had the feeling the demon was more on Sam’s side of the parent argument. “Anyway, worst nightmare time. Going over the basics for way too long.”

“Class, outside of school? Your most evil plan yet.”

“I know. Cower in fear and you might learn something.” He stretched for a moment before muttering and shifting back into the shadowy creature that had become familiar. “So you don’t get how magic stalker guy uses those paper things, right?”

So he was totally serious? Just going to tell them, up front? Like it was nice, that he actually seemed more okay with them and giving a bit of trust back, but it felt a bit sudden. “Well we kind of do, but then the whole Elliot thing threw us off.”

“The first time I thought he got the magic from his familiar, but if he’s a demon possessing someone, he shouldn’t be able to do that right? Or are you just crap at it?”

“That’s weird but kind of works. I’ll get to it.” The blank green eyes watched them as he thought. “Oh duh.” With a snap shadows twisted into the air beside him, reforming into some very basic shapes.

“Oh no, he even has a slideshow. With shadow puppets.”

“I never get to do this stuff, gimme a break,” the demon stuck out his tongue, hovering near the silhouettes. “So basically our powers, stuff you call magic, everyone kinda got it. Demons like me, we’re made of the stuff.” His gesture to the pointier of the two ‘diagrams’ at least cleared up what it was meant to be. “However, we can’t do everything. Everyone’s got a sort of...concept or identity they know how to work with. That’s why we don’t need all that dumb paperwork you play with. I am this, so I know what to do. It’s easy.”

“So Tucker calling you Danny messed with your concept or whatever?” Sam’s question was great at making a simple thing he said make him feel pretty guilty! Maybe the lesson was almost as scary as a nightmare?

“Sure did. I had a nice box of nothing and you two just dumped ‘human’ in it. And it worked? It shouldn’t have? Really I have no idea how it worked. Usually they get new powers or get scarier. While you got me a fleshy bone bag and some abomination soul that shouldn’t exist!” The demon’s ears twitched, the cheery tone clearly at odds with how he really felt about it. “Anyway a demon can do lots of things if it’s part of them, but they won’t be as good at any of them. They’re just smarter at using everything effectively. That’s where all your ‘all powerful’ legendary big boys with lots of abilities come from.”

Sam had actually fished out a notebook. “While you only do illusions.”

“Yeah. I’m one thing. I do one thing, really, really well. Absurdly well. It’s why I see through other illusions really easily, everyone sucks at it in comparison.” His prideful grin slipped. “Too bad it’s only good for hiding or frightening. Nothing substantial and lasting. And I can’t internalize anything else. Even after spending a decade as a glorified card catalogue.”

“You did what now?”

“It’s like being grounded only you’re embedded in the library in a stupid sphere.” He shrugged, apparently completely unbothered. “It should have been two, but I kept telling people the wrong places on purpose so they ‘fired’ me.” The fact the demon  snickered didn’t exactly make it sound any less disturbing.

“Okay, so you can’t do anything else, but you’re the reason the thermos works?” Sam helpfully changed the topic before the demon felt the need to give more depressing details.

“Yup. The power’s there, I just don’t know how to use it that way. You guys can, since you can use that paper stuff to direct it, or something. I think...there are some limits? Like if you had a weak enough demon there’s some stuff you wouldn’t be able to pull off even with the right spells. I wouldn’t worry about it, you’re not trying to get a familiar to let you cast a fireball or something.”

“You just said you’re a weak demon?”

“I’m weak because I have access to lots of power that I can’t use. So it’s actually kind of ideal for humans like you? You can do way more crap with my power than I ever could.”

Sam frowned. “How does that even make sense?”

Phantom’s tail flicked. “It just does. Just trust me when I say you’re probably not going to have a spell not work.”

Ah, there we go. So he wasn’t going to be completely open, it seemed. “Well we’re not exactly wanting to use many anyway.”

Sam was less thrilled by the lack of explanation. “None of this explained the Gregor thing.”

“I’m getting there!” He darted closer to his other silhouette, the more normal human looking one. “So humans decided to be weird and compressed any power they could have into their souls. So you’re naturally good at jack shit. Apparently there’s upsides but really it’s just like you’re meaty present boxes with a tasty treat inside. That most of you don’t even know how to make use of.”

“Charming.”

“Well we don’t have to worry about changing as much as you seem to?”

“Yeah, you’re immune to a lot of stuff, I guess. It’s why your runes and whatever work though. Your soul doesn’t need to naturally understand power to make use of it. So you can learn and add on to it, or share that stuff. But you need a demon to actually power the stuff, since you’re so...stable. Can’t really cast a spell when all your power won’t stop being a sphere inside you.” he scratched at his head. “So if there’s a demon using a human to cast your kind of spells? They still need their soul intact. Which is pretty hard to pull off.”

“So you’re basically saying this guy is probably a big deal.”

“I think it’s more likely he’s faking the spells and just doing what comes natural to em. Corrupting a human or crushing their mind to use em as a puppet isn’t exactly hard.”

“No, he seemed pretty different.” Sam looked uncomfortable, chewing the end of her pen. “Elliot was really bad at talking. Moving, too.”

“So? If I had access to a body like that, even I could do it. Humans suck at seeing through illusions. Or just make you see something that looks like a real body.”

“So what if you’re wrong and it is some demon who can do this thing you say is ‘really hard’.”

“Then we hope they don't play with their food and kill you quick.”

“That’s not really a plan? I’d like to avoid dying.” Tucker swallowed, glancing at Sam. Gregor had written that charm, and it obviously had power based on how Phantom freaked out. So there had to be a human involved, right?

“I don’t think they’d kill us. Elliot said this guy wants you.”

The shadows winked out, the demon stiffening. “Me? By name? My other name, not the new one.”

“No, they just said ‘your demon’.”

He relaxed. “Oh, okay. We’re probably fine and they don’t know what they’re messing with then. Or just trying to freak you out since you’re obviously really new to this stuff and they want a free contract. Since even if you passed a contract on, they’re not the one paying the soul cost.”

“I don’t know. Some of the things he’s said match up with you.”

“I’m dark and scary and already got half your souls. They made an educated guess, at best. That’s like every demon.”

“Would we need to worry about a demon that knows you, specifically?” Sam didn’t care for his avoidance, staring him down.

“No demon I could think of. I’m a nobody. I didn’t even have a name yet. Don’t worry about it. I’ll see the guy and know what’s up.” His ears stayed down, tail flicking. 

“You’re afraid of somebody.”

“Not a demon. It’s unrelated to whatever the creep following you is about.”

“So what if it is, Danny? We’re tired of surprises.”

“Then I’ll tell you what I have nightmares about,” the demon growled, curling up on the ground. “Lesson’s over.”

Chapter Text

It was a bit much to take in. She was barely getting used to the fact there was a demon in their lives that wasn’t going to go away, and now apparently he’s human? From something they did?

It felt gross. Phantom was…difficult but she wouldn’t want to just make him different to make their lives easier. That was her parent’s crap, she was better than that. There was a pretty big difference between just teaching the demon and forcibly making him something else. Something he clearly didn’t like all that much, and was just stuck accepting it. What did it even mean by giving him an ‘abomination soul’? That Phantom’s humanity was somehow part of them?

She had so many questions, but the issue of the ‘guy who wants your demon’ had been more important. Which still wasn’t answered all that well before the demon slid back into his more unhelpful mood. So now there was absolutely someone their hybrid demon was worried about, but he wasn’t going to warn them of what to look out for. Great! That totally wasn’t going to be a massive problem.

Even if the demon didn’t see it, she did. Phantom had said it himself, he was apparently powerful, but could only dish out a small amount of harm in retaliation. If demons were just magic batteries, he’d be the equivalent of an extremely good one. That wouldn’t explode in your face as easily as all the other ones you could get. No wonder Gregor wanted him- especially if he didn’t lose anything to take the demon. Could he seriously not see that? Or was he busy trying to just ignore the problem to hope it went away?

Tucker spent more time chattering about human stuff they could try out, probably trying to cheer the demon up again, earning most of his attention. That, and body weight, considering the shadowy presence kept leaning against him, or kept his tail curled around his back. Phantom didn’t really do personal space when at ease, apparently. For someone that insisted he ‘wasn’t there’, he sure made an effort so Tucker knew he was.

Part of her wanted to bring it up, but her friend didn’t seem to mind it. Tucker could stand up for himself if the demon was getting too comfortable. Even if she’d rather sit closer, but didn’t feel comfortable doing so with those dead green eyes staring at her. It was just nervous energy, probably. She moved back to the window, mostly to see the sky and the setting sun. The sun was indeed starting to slip behind the buildings, but that wasn’t what made her freeze.

The wolf was standing outside, head cocked towards the house. Had it followed them? How long had it been standing there? “Tucker? You know that wolf I was talking about?”

“Yeah? Why? Don’t say-”

“It’s outside.”

“-It’s outsideeee darn it. Her friend let out a groan, but got to his feet to look. “That’s a big bad wolf. Uhhh. Danny, are you good at scaring wolves?”

“Animals are easy to trick. Or you could just throw a dog toy at it or something. Probably do the same thing.” Instead of getting up, the demon yawned. “It’s too scared to come in here, obviously. Forget it.”

“I’m kind of getting a bad vibe from it? Does that make sense?” Tucker asked, eyes flicking from the wolf and back.

“You’re human. You couldn’t detect a malignant presence if it punched you in the face.”

“No, I’m definitely getting that too. Same as when I’m around Gregor.” Sam said, ignoring the demon to focus on her friend.

“It’s a familiar, so the thermos should work? Maybe?”

“Unless he wants us to do that, to have an excuse to talk to us again. Say he sent the wolf to make sure you’re okay and thinks Phantom attacked it.” Which was another problem. It wasn’t like there was anything to see, but she didn’t like the feeling of it just standing and staring. Waiting.

“Okay fine, I’ll deal with it. Sheesh. What did it do, stand on its paws and go ‘boo!’?” Phantom finally got up, and joined them in staring out the window. “Wait a second.” He no longer sounded bored, instead confused. “Wulf?”

Tucker didn’t seem to catch what the demon was saying. “Yeah, it’s a wolf. Kinda big for a wolf.”

“No, not wolf, Wulf. What’s he doing here?”

She liked this even less now. “You know the wolf? He has a name?”

“Of course he does, why wouldn’t he? I haven’t seen him in...I don’t remember how long.” The demon looked as if he might slip between the space between wooden frame and glass if Tucker hadn’t grabbed his shoulder.

“Danny. That’s Gregor’s familiar.”

He glared at her, showing too many teeth. “Wulf isn’t a familiar.”

“If that’s Wulf, yes he is. I saw him order that wolf around and keep it in some pen.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“Sam wouldn’t lie about something like this.” Tucker quickly backed her up. “He looks exactly the same way she described the first time, green in the ears and those claws…”

Phantom clung to the window ledge, ears flat as he stared out the window, strangely still.

“Didn’t you say he had a collar?”

“Yeah, he did.” Sam did a double take, surprised she hadn’t noticed the shiny metal thing was absent from the watching creature. He did have a lot of fur, but not enough to cover something that large. So where was it?

With those words, she had Phantom’s full attention. “So maybe you didn’t see Wulf.” 

“He’s identical otherwise, I don’t like this.” Was this wolf meant to bait out Phantom specifically? The demon clearly was on the edge of going out there, claws digging into the wood as Tucker made him wait.

“Yeah, man. This is pretty convenient, you know? A wolf that looks like someone you know just happens to show up?”

“He got away, he promised -” the shadows around the demon twisted, spiked and angry before he slid outside before Tucker could try and stop him.

“We’re gonna need to make more thermoses, aren’t we.” His shoulders sagged, giving Sam a helpless shrug.

“Come on, before he walks right in the obvious trap.” Sprinting and taking stairs two at a time was about as exciting as she wanted things to get, even though explaining to Tucker’s parents why they’re dashed off in such a hurry was going to be interesting.

Phantom was already near the wolf, one hand reaching out, though not quite in biting range. “Wulf? You okay buddy?”

The wolf whined, but kept still.

“You can stand up, right? Come on. You’re still you, right?” 

The demon was pleading. So maybe he wasn’t as hopeful as he’d acted inside. The two kept staring at one another, neither making another move as both of them became harder to see as the sun dipped beyond the horizon.

“Phantom, maybe it isn’t your friend?”

“Keep out of this,” he spat the words, even though he didn’t even look back. “Say something! I know you can!”

The wolf didn’t respond, though he crouched a little. Flicked an ear.

“You have to. Come on.”

“I don’t think he can.” Tucker tried to get through to him, but it was hard to give a reassuring hand when it went through like the demon wasn’t even there.

“He has to! He can’t be gone!” He turned, a green liquid pooling near the demon’s eyes, face drawn back in a snarl. “He was fine! That was the deal! ” Sam only realized the demon was crying when his voice hitched.

“Maybe we can help him?” She had no idea how, or even what it meant to have a demon become a familiar, but the sheer upset made her own heart hurt.

The wolf whined again and sat down, but it was hard to tell if he was just tired or could understand them somewhat.

“It’s just a small thing, in and out. I keep trying to tell the guy he doesn’t need a familiar for it, that I know a few decent demons. I hate asking, but I feel bad for Wulf, you know? He looks so upset and confused.”

“So I do it, and you’ll get him to back off? Let Wulf go?”

“Would you? Even if it’s a bit...below your standing?”

“No one will even know I was there.”

Sam’s brow wrinkled in pain, shaking her head to clear the strange conversation from her head. Okay, if Phantom had been yelling in her head before, that was absolutely something he’d sent. A memory? It was pretty muddled, but it had to do with Wulf...who Phantom was clearly upset about.

“Come on, you have to be in there.” The demon had given up on staying away, a hand  on the side of that massive jaw, apparently no longer caring if he got bit in half. “I went right away, it shouldn’t have been too late. You remember?”

He only got a half hearted tail wag in response.

Would it be better to put the wolf in the thermos? Just to keep the demon from pleading with a wolf that wasn’t listening?

“What was the point?” Phantom kept muttering, still giving the wolf gentle pats. “Why are you like this?”

Before Sam could try to convince Tucker that it might be best to catch the eerie wolf, it got back to its feet and gave the shadowy demon a headbutt to the chest and padded away.

“Where are you going?”

The wolf didn’t answer that either.

“I’m sorry if that was your friend, that’s rough.” Tucker tried again, managing to get the demon to look at him this time.

“You said they were Gregor’s familiar?” His question was raspy, face still stained with whatever mess demons used for tears.

“That’s what it looked like, at least.”

His eyes flared with a fury she hadn’t seen the demon show before. “I’m going to kill him .”

Crap. This was the actual trap, wasn’t it.

Chapter Text

“No, we’re not doing killing! That’s murder!”

He scowled at Tucker, very irritated to hear he had objections to some demon-using stalker person getting killed. They clearly didn’t like the guy. “You kill whoever’s bound the familiar, the familiar goes free. I don’t care if it’s ‘murder’.”

“We care, and you’re not going around killing someone who’s obviously trying to bait you out, you idiot.” Sam didn’t have the high note of panic in her voice like Tucker did, crossing her arms as she spoke. “Weren’t you listening? Gregor’s body might not be his, so you’d just kill somebody who’s suffering like Wulf is.”

He didn’t want to hear things like that, not while he was this angry. He wanted to act, to do anything and make the burning heat of his fury stop prickling throughout his body. “Maybe they’ll be happier dead anyway.”

“You don’t get to decide that. Now cut it out so we can think of a real plan.”

He doesn’t care about that. Wulf didn’t care that he was weak, or what family he came from. He didn’t deserve this, whoever did it had to die. A thousand deaths preferably, but he’d settle for one. What can he do? Make this guy see things so he gets into a fatal accident? Make every bit of food taste like sand so they waste away and finish them off? Use that new human body of his to fling objects at their head to snap their neck? He had plenty of options. Yet he couldn’t do any of them, not with two orders banning him from harming a human. All he could do was let out a low, frustrated snarl and lash out at the air, trying to let some of the furious buzzing energy loose. How can they not get it?

“It sounds pretty messed up, so we want to help him too. We just gotta be careful and help both of them, okay?” Tucker’s voice was often calming, but right now  it just made his ears twitch.

They didn’t even know the human. There was no reason for them to insist on keeping a ‘claws off’ policy. They should celebrate in getting rid of a rival, really. That’s how humans were meant to be, petty and begging for their power to mess up other humans. Yet his weren’t like that. Too trusting and gentle when they should rip apart the one tracking them. Which he usually didn’t mind but this was different.

Unfortunately for Sam, it was pretty hard to sneak up on him. Being human was even more uncomfortable when he was angry, with how his heart thudded and the blood rushing through him made his skin warm uncomfortably. It was worth it to grin as she sighed and put the thermos down.

“Oh whatever. At least you won’t fly off like that.”

That was true too. Downsides to go with the upsides. “You guys keep saying you can ‘help’ but you don’t have any idea if you can.”

“Well if you said what would help that wasn’t murder, that’d help.” Tucker had relaxed after Sam got him to switch shapes, something that bothered him. Just a little. 

He shouldn’t care if a human was less comfortable around him after an argument. Preferred him to be in this shape that they’d forced on him. Okay. Maybe he was just easily irritated when he was already angry. “They have to let the familiar go. So really, the only option is murder. Happy?”

“Well you can trick someone into doing that, right?”

“Why would I know that? Demons don’t do this to other demons ! This is human garbage.” Much like how he had to rub away the wetness near his eyes in this garbage body. It didn’t know how to reabsorb things and liked just making a mess. Humans couldn’t stop leaving signs of themselves everywhere, apparently.

“Tucker might be onto something. Elliot was talking about giving up a demon, so you need to be able to do that. If we traded for Wulf, could we let him go?”

“We don’t have anything to trade though?” Tucker looked confused for a moment. “Oh.”

“If you’re suggesting that so I don’t kill him, I’ll just kill him faster.”

“We don’t actually trade. We cheat. You’ve always been able to look pretty human on your own, right?”

“Obviously.” He wasn’t keen on this idea, but the idea of knowing Wulf might be safe without possibly needing to fight with him directly was...tempting. “I don’t know why this disguise became more real than I like.”

“So if this guy knows you, he’s not going to think anything weird is going on. Until trying to rebind you doesn’t work. Because you aren’t a demon.”

“I’m still a bit demon. I think.” he studied his hands, wondering if he could at least get the stubby nails to sharpen into claws so he didn’t feel so defenceless like this. “I think I like the murder plan better.”

Sam scowled at him again. “There is no murder plan.”

“You guys are putting those orange squashes everywhere, if I keep throwing I’ll eventually hit something fatal.

Her voice managed to get louder. “You are not pelting someone to death with pumpkins.”

Tucker elbowed his friend. “Didn’t think a demon would be into Smashing Pumpkins.”

“Tucker. That was a terrible joke.”

“There was a joke?” The fact both of them snickered at his question didn’t answer anything. It didn’t help Wulf get free, either. Not that it mattered, it had been so long… “Listen. I don’t care what you do. I told you what I’m going to do.”

“You don’t even know what the guy looks like. I know you don’t think we can do much, but if you go now, you won’t be able to catch him off guard again if you fail.”

Why did Tucker have to have a point? He finally just wanted to do something ,and he couldn’t. “Fine. I guess I can wait a day or so.” Even saying it made him feel guilty again, he’d sworn he’d been fast enough. For nothing! Just pain and parental disdain.

“Are you sure demons don’t do that familiar thing? Since we’re pretty sure Gregor’s a demon, or something.”

“I’m certain.” He hadn’t noticed that contradiction earlier, frowning. Why would a demon be using Wulf like that?

Tucker looked decidedly anxious. “Cannnn fairies possess humans too? Just a shot in the dark here.”

“Potentially.” He couldn’t stop the chill that ran down his spine. Tucker was just...wrong. Or there was a really messed up demon running around. It couldn’t be that. He was just going to take that possibility and throw it in a box and ignore it.

“Wait, why are you asking that?” Sam’s question made it hard to ignore the box.

“Since he’s pretty jumpy every time they come up? Did something happen to you? Like it was fine before, but the fact this guy is after you specifically might make that important.”

“None of your business.” The hollow feeling inside was awful in this stupid body.

“Yes it is. If you have history with this guy, you need to tell us.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Danny, we don’t want you to get hurt.”

His shoulders tensed. “Then don’t ASK about it! It's a coincidence. I would know if that guy was around. They aren’t, so drop i t.”

Yet Tucker didn’t take the hint and back down this time. “Could you tell if they were possessing someone? Wouldn’t that throw off your ability to detect them?”

“You think I wouldn’t be able to notice that creep? I know exactly what to look out for.”

“That’s not what Tucker asked. So? Does it make it harder?”

He couldn’t look at either of them right now. “It might.” There was no way. He’d know, he’d have to know. Once was enough for one lifetime.

The hand made him panic, pulling away. “DON’T TOUCH ME”

Tucker’s hands were up. “I’m not.”

Imagining things again. Damn it. Stupid solid body. Stupid thermos keeping him from being himself. “...Right.”

“So the guy who gives you panic attacks might be around, and you want to pretend that’s not a problem.” Sam’s droll tone just made his face go red, and he wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment or anger.

“He isn’t. That’s it. It’s demon stuff you wouldn’t get anyway, so just forget it.” He was long past those days, it didn’t matter. He never fell for the same trick twice. Except he was. Trusting these two at all. He knew better, knew that was a mistake. No one likes a demon. Especially not one like him. Never some accident like he was. The pulling and fondness was just...a trick. He didn’t feel that way for real. They'd just trying to open him up so they can rip into him and take everything of value.

“We’re involved whether we like it or not, you know. Just-”

“I don’t care.”

“I think you do, man.”

“Well I shouldn’t.”

“How about this. After you see the guy, if it is him, you tell us what happened.” Sam’s tone didn’t leave much room for disagreement. “Since you’re so sure he isn’t, that’s not a problem, right?”

“Whatever.” He couldn’t exactly decline. He wanted to be right. He had to be right. This wasn’t, this had nothing to do with anything back then. It just couldn’t.

Chapter Text

Did he like intentionally looking for trouble? No. Did he really have a choice in the matter? Nope. They barely managed to keep Phantom from bolting after an unknown foe, and he was pretty sure the demon was still angry about it. At least he agreed to be patient and lurk in the shadows for now. He had zero idea what they were going to do once the demon knew what Gregor looked like, he’d been hoping to just avoid conflict. That wasn’t going to be possible now, no matter how bad their odds were.

Like, he gets it. If that big wolf was a friend, he knows why Phantom needs to try and help. Leaving him stuck under someone’s thumb, unable to speak would be too cruel. He just wishes they had a plan that didn’t totally suck. Trying to maybe trick a demon, or a fae creature with a deal? That didn’t sound great.  As long as they stayed in public, that should limit the amount of demon stuff their foe could do- but that went for Phantom too.

Really, the worst thing was this restless energy he couldn’t quite pinpoint. It was sort of like when he was dreading a test, only more constant. He wasn’t even sure it was his own fear, or Phantom’s bleeding over to him somehow. Both? The fact his shadow kept jittering made both seem pretty likely. The papers he and Sam worked together to make as ‘backup plans’ didn’t reassure him much. They tested the shields and warding glyphs, but the more offensive options were…untested. He wasn’t down for launching electricity in his house, or fire, or the weird tree one Sam insisted was the best idea. Phantom picked out one that should let them have a temporary portal to get the hell away if they had to, but he really worried if that might send them into that nothing place again. It wasn’t fun the first time!

You’d think, amped up as he was, as cautious and worried as he was, Gregor would be unable to startle him.

“Ah. I see the demon is being protective today? Told you countless lies, no doubt.”

Gregor totally startled him. He barely managed to bite down an ‘eep’, flattening against his locker the best he could. “D-Demon? What are you talking about?” He said, choosing to play dumb. It’s not like either Sam or himself had actually confirmed anything personally.

“Oh, the little beast that won’t let go of you. I was hoping your friend might make you see reason.” Gregor leaned against the lockers as well, as if mimicking him. “That creature does not aim to help you. Tucker.”

Well. Clearly playing dumb wasn’t working. Sending off a ‘help’ message one handed was easy enough, he just had to play it cool and make sure Phantom didn’t do something stupid, “Hey, I know you’re just being helpful, but I think I can handle this on my own, okay?”

“Which you think because the demon is telling you I am an enemy, yes?”

“Maybe I don’t like your style? Like you had some wolf follow me?” Tucker tried to seem confident, switching tactics. Phantom hadn’t said much about Gregor at all, really. In fact, he was pretty surprised the demon hadn’t said anything yet.

“For safety. I could see the demonic influence getting stronger on you. Now it is bold enough to cling to you like an insect.” The white haired boy adjusted his sunglasses. “Souls are fairly bright, but I can hardly see yours, lately. I worry.”

So he’s saying he can just see souls? Is that a demon thing? Phantom hadn’t mentioned such a skill. “You don’t have to. Seriously, I’m fine.”

“You think you are. That is why they are insidious.” Gregor refused to take the hint. “Why do you think it is so quiet now? It fears those that know it’s tricks.”

How did he know Phantom wasn’t taking? Was he okay? His backpack felt a little heavier...but why? Too many questions! “Or you’re just trying to freak me out.”

“Tucker, hey! Was wondering where you were.” Sam walked up, doing a fairly good job of masking the fact she likely had sprinted over after getting the text. “You better not be harassing my friend.”

“Of course not. I only harass, as you put it, demons.”

“Well I’m not a huge fan of people who harass living things. We’re going.” Sam grabbed Tucker by the arm in an attempt to help ferry him away.

He seemed unbothered by their retreat, still relaxing against the lockers. “You pity them, but they are far below animals.”

“Don’t move. Webs in the way. Go the other way.”

Oh, now the demon speaks up. What kind of webs? Cobwebs? Those wouldn’t be a big deal?

“Entanglement.”

Would it kill him to explain a bit? At least Sam apparently also got the message, turning on her heel instead of continuing. 

“To you maybe. We don’t need to agree with your opinion.”

“Even as it tries to take your friend away from you?” He seemed amused that they’d stopped, a lopsided grin on his face.  “Has that little demon told you about it’s family? How many they kill?”

“I’m not talking to his family.” Tucker frowned. ”I don’t think he’s as bad as you say either.” It’s a pretty dumb hope, but maybe Gregor will just...go away once it’s clear they want nothing to do with him or his help, and won’t hand their friend over. Except the whole Elliot thing...and Wulf...

“Clearly. It is understandable. They are known for their cunning, after all.” The chatter of the halls felt distant, even though people were wandering by like always. As if they’d been cut off, but still present. “I will be frank. That creature leeching onto you is a menace, and I wish to dispose of it.”

“I’d rather if you didn’t, thanks.” Tucker felt the need to clutch his backpack closer, a shudder running down his arms. A busy hallway shouldn’t feel so enclosed, so empty, especially when he could see people from the corner of his eye.

“I am aware of this. I would prefer to not make a mess.”

“If you think you can threaten us with some magic tricks, you have another thing coming.” Sam stiffened, half stepping in front of Tucker.

“No threats. Just knowledge about the creature you shelter.” Gregor ran a hand through his hair, too much at ease with how Sam glared at him. “An old history, plenty of corpses coated in cobwebs. Go ahead, if you do not believe me. Ask the little beast.”

“We’re not interested.”

“You should, considering how those corpses were made. Betraying those who trusted it, of course.”

“ Liar. ” Phantom’s hiss crackled in his head, making Tucker wince with the sheer vehemence. 

“Though I expect it would word it differently. That it didn’t know what it was stealing was so important. How many children perished for a prank?”

Sam bit her lip, eyes flicking to Tucker and back. “You know about this because? It doesn’t sound like something you just ‘learn’.”

“I expect you have an idea, Sam. Elliot is...difficult, at times.”

“Wait you’re just admitting-” Tucker sputtered, backing half a step away.

“It is only temporary. Once I have dealt with that demon, he is free to go. If you feel so passionately for these creatures, you may take the others I have in my care as well.”

“ Don’t agree to anything.”

How was nobody reacting to this? Gregor just...admitted to being some sort of bodysnatcher and nothing!

“ They don’t perceive us right now. Easy to do. ”

Sam filled the silence, trying to hide the waver in her voice with more volume. “I don’t see any reason to do what you want when you’re just using somebody like this.”

“Like I said, I do not like to make mess. You are merely being influenced by the demon and know no better. That creature is not a harmless speck, and owes you nothing. I am willing to reward you, if that is what you wish.” Gregor picked at his nails while he spoke, not even bothering to watch their reactions.

“You want to bribe us to hand over our friend? Dude, that’s fucked up.” He adjusted his grip on the bag, noticing the odd lump inside. Was Phantom cowering in there?

“I doubt it is a friend. Or, it would not call you one.”

“We’re not interested.” Sam crossed her arms.

“Ah, you speak rashly. I be more clear. We do this the clean way, and everyone is happy.” Gregor stopped leaning, standing up straight and brushing off his jacket. “We do not do this cleanly?”

His hand twisted with a sickening snap, leaving Tucker fumbling with his bag- something silvery wrapped around both. Another click and a shadowy mess hit the ground with a shriek, green eyes wide and white claws scrabbling at a silvery collar around his neck.

Sam immediately moved to try and get it off, but getting a grip on the demon while he was scrabbling and insubstantial accomplished nothing.

Tucker reached for the first thing he could find, slapping the rune down and hoping it might snap the strands, but the flicker of flame died before it got close to the silvery abomination strangling the demon.

“I take him back hard way. Up to you.”

The hallway grew close again as he turned and gave a sarcastic wave. Only after he turned the corner did the strands release Phantom, who instantly darted back into the bag, a low whine echoing in their skulls.

Chapter Text

He wanted to be nothing right now. Less than nothing. Smaller than any insect. Even the backpack felt too large right now, while he was barely even a sliver of shade. That collar had found him when he barely even had a semblance of a neck, forcing one on him to drag him into the open.

Again .

“Are you feeling a little better?” Tucker’s voice rumbled through the bag, much like the sound of his heart did as he kept it clutched close to his chest. The volume was actually appreciated for a change, something keeping him away from the rest of the world.

“How did he even do that? This doesn’t make sense.” Sam was muttering to herself, keeping close. “There’s no point in threatening us if he can just grab him like that.”

He had a few guesses, but wasn’t really feeling up to talking at the moment. How? He swore Jazz had killed whoever was behind it. It should be an angry relative at most, but that chain was too familiar. Too practised. Identical to the one in his nightmares. It had to be the same person. Which was a fact that did not sit well with him. What if Sam and Tucker decided he wasn’t worth the trouble? He wasn’t. That was obvious.

“Would incense or something calm him down? He’s just trembling…”

“You can tell? I can’t even see him.”

“Barely. I can feel it more than I can see it, really.”

They didn’t sound angry with him, yet. That would come after he had to explain things. That had been Sam’s condition for letting him keep quiet before, made completely impossible to deny now. Now he was screwed no matter what world he was in. What would be worse? Hiding back at home until they dragged him back to hand over? Trying to fight back here? Everything felt pretty terrible.

“Danny? Maybe you’ll feel safer as a human for a bit?”

Why? So they could trap him more easily? Wait no. That didn’t make sense. They couldn’t do much to him as a human, really. Oh. That was the paranoia talking again. Except his paranoia had been right about the worst thing in the world not being dead so maybe he should listen to it? 

“Just let him hide for now Tuck, he’s out of it.” Sam’s sigh poked through his thoughts a bit, enough to notice the pair had started moving again.

What was he even going to say? He screwed up and got tricked? Like they’d buy it. Would they even care what happened? There wasn’t a reason for them to. It feels like he has beetles in his brain, and none of them would settle down for a moment so he can just think. Yet they did give him time. Neither human asked much of anything as the hours passed, even though his dread failed to diminish at all. Maybe he should fess up to his parents? At least they’d be quick about it if he acted like he planned to escape. Well no, he couldn’t be certain of that. 

“So? Inside or outside better for you right now?”

That was...the third time they’d asked that. Oops. “ Inside .”

“Thought so. Tucker says you don’t do snacks?”

“ I don’t. ”

“Suit yourself.”

It was too easy. Why did they seem so unbothered? He half expected to have been yanked out of the shadows and questioned already, but they were still just asking things instead of demanding. Instead they were just talking to one another, planning something. Or trying to plan something, he wasn’t paying a ton of attention. The weird sketches of glyphs didn’t mean much to him as he slipped out of the bag and shook his shadows away to sit cross legged on the rug.

“So, you know that complete jackass?” Sam glanced up from her messy sketch, apparently no longer shocked about demons crawling out of book bags.

“Sort of.” he cursed his body again for making his mouth feel so dry, for making each word more of an effort than it already was.

“You don’t have to explain right away, you know.” Tucker pushed some notes towards him “We’ve been brainstorming.”

“I don’t want to, but I owe you.”

“So long as you do before we have to deal with ubercreep.” Sam shrugged, chewing at the edge of her pen. “He threatened us for a reason. If it was that easy to just drag you off, why not just do it?”

“I’m your demon. You can always call me back.” Danny rubbed at his neck, trying not to think about what happened too much. Just focus on now. “Pretty hard to lock me up if you can just summon me away again.”

Tucker perked up. “So he needs us.”

“Wait, you aren’t our demon if we die though. Can’t he just call you up if we’re dead?”

“I wouldn’t answer those summons. So, no.” Being upfront might save his hide, or damn him further. Yet he could hardly get any more damned at this point. “That whole power thing earlier, I can ignore a lot of summons by being stronger than they are.”

“Why’d ours work then?”

He let out a long breath, rubbing his forehead. Great. “Why do you think it worked?”

“You figured it was easy souls.” Sam rolled her eyes, but didn’t sound too surprised.

“Got it in one. It was a pretty bad deal on the demon’s side too but you didn’t seem to know what you were doing so...I answered it.” Big mistake, apparently. Like every other choice he made. Live and learn. Maybe. Probably more like die and don’t learn.

“Either way, we know it isn’t as easy as just snatching you up, or killing us. That helps, we can work with this.” Sam went back to her sketches, still confusingly unbothered.

“We’re thinking letting him think he’s won is the smart thing, but obviously we aren’t going to just let him take you. You know that, right?” Tucker’s hand felt heavy on his back, but not in a restricting, crushing way. More like how Jazz was.

“Unless you change your mind. Humans do that.” The edge of his pants had a nice texture to fiddle with, and he tried to focus on that. Not on the terror that wanted to pour out of his throat in a stream.

“Listen. Gregor is clearly garbage, Maybe your family is too. You don’t seem that bad, and that’s all we care about.” Sam managed to catch his eye as she spoke, the purple hue following him even if he tried to glance away.

“We just need to know what to look out for. Since we need to help Wulf and Elliot too.”

The too thin limbs and gossamer wings flickered in his mind’s eye, and he clamped down on his tongue so the pain washed it out. “I got tricked into taking something I shouldn’t have.”

The goth snorted. “Kinda figured that part out on our own, chief.”

“It was a set up- I didn’t know it was nourishing spawnlings- but it was an enemy family so of course they thought my parents sent me- and-” he sputtered, fingers twisted in his hair. He shouldn’t have picked black, it was too similar to what he used to have. “Of course they started warring again and it was my fault-” The monster too pathetic to kill by his own claw, so it slaughters thousands in times of peace which only makes sense because why else would you make such a useless creature? “Someone tipped them off- I can’t be tracked but they knew -” Which meant he just screwed up the only thing he was good at. Unlikely. So of course everyone thought being ‘caught’ was intentional, to provoke it. A mess that still wasn’t completely fixed. Probably wouldn’t be, as his parents refused to allow them to kill him in repayment. Which was just more proof that they sent him in the first place…

“It’s okay, you don’t need to rush.” Tucker’s presence was oddly comforting, even as he shook. More strange was the fact Sam was so close too.

“It’s a pretty big mistake, but you’re not gloating about it or anything. Not really evil for a demon, are you?”

“Didn’t know until after anyway.” He didn’t feel the need to pull away, instead trying to fight off the clogging sensation in his nose. Shadows were way less gross… “Since when I delivered the item I got ambushed.”

“Fairies?” Tucker guessed, possibly knowing from how his shoulders tensed at the memory.

“According to them, being there counted as accepting an invitation...you don’t accept those from fae. Especially if you’re a demon. It wasn’t their land, they shouldn’t have been there...”

You might as well accept it, none of your kind will want you back anyway.

“I-I couldn’t defend myself. They have things like that collar. You fight and they just keep ensnaring you until you break.”

“Torture, you mean. They tortured you.” Sam’s gruff correction startled him. She was angry, furious even, but it wasn’t directed at him.

He couldn’t so much as lift his head, too weighed down by delicate chains and his warped body that didn’t know how to handle the fae foods forced into his system, feeling more like an overfed leech than a shadow while the creatures only laughed at any whimper for help.

The one with the wings that fluttered in his face and gentle fingers always tisked when he tried to struggle against the chains. He’d given up trying to bite them ages ago, as it only seemed to make them laugh harder, a high pitched ringing of his failure.

“If you purr when I scratch behind your ears, I’ll loosen some of the chains. Sound fair, little one?”

It didn’t and it wasn’t, but he leaned into it and purred and purred to please just let him move…

He couldn’t stop shaking, couldn’t stop remembering it but the smells and sounds of now...helped. A little. Enough to squeak out. “T-Torture works.”

“You didn’t deserve that, Danny. Okay?” Tucker said it so easily, when he barely knew what he’d done meant . He was human, and didn’t have any idea how awful he’d been. He shouldn’t be glad to sob into a human’s shoulder.

“I’m against killing, but I might make an exception for this guy.” Sam’s words were short and clipped, sharp enough to be daggers. “That’s how they get familiars?”

“Taming a demon usually means...breaking a demon. When you’re happier not thinking, so you stop doing it...” he was mumbling into his knees, but didn’t think it mattered. His weird twisted soul was likely screaming it to both of them anyway. Being too open, too foolish, basically taming himself this time. “I was pretty far gone at one point.”

Just watching the sky, huddled against the hard insectoid leg, subtly trying to jostle the mask on his face, the nails itching again no matter how hard he scratched.

“Now you know you shouldn’t do that, Starlight. Hush now.”

He whined, but stopped, focusing instead on how the stars twisted and changed when watched through the massive wings. They should have names, but most of them slipped away. Didn’t need them, not with gentle fingers carding through his hair as dark as the skies above.

“Really far…” Shaking off the daze of that time was difficult. How easily he could just go back to being little more than a pet scared him. How did Jazz not kill him?

“That’s just twisted. Why would anyone do that?”

“Power.” At least that was an easy question. 

“Well, you’re stuck with us now. So we’ll keep them away.” Sam’s reassurance still confused him on some level.

“I think I like Danny as a name...even if this body sucks.” He just felt the need to say it, to push away from the not-his-name. 

“Heh, sorry about that…” Tucker looked sheepish. “At least it can help in the plans?”

“Just remember fae can charm humans too...they just usually eat you.”

“Delightful. Thanks for that charming warning Danny.”

“You’re welcome.” He shut his eyes and leaned into the hug, just wanting to rest for a moment. While he felt a little bit safe.

Chapter Text

Danny’s memories were awful. The way his voice shook, but the echo of his words rang clearly in her head only made it worse. The fragmented hints of feeling small and helpless that found an opening to crowd around her heart hurt.

This wasn’t someone trying to trick them. It was too fleeting, accidental and open to be. The demon struggled not to show too much hurt, but either was unaware of the weak whimpering that invaded the back of her mind, or wasn’t able to stop it.  Tucker seemed to feel something too- but differently. He sort of twitched sometimes, or rubbed at his neck as if it might push a sensation away. She seemed to be getting words, mostly...maybe Tucker was feeling the echo of how the demon had physically felt in those moments. If he was, she pitied him. The words hurt enough.

It had been getting difficult to try and keep suspicious of Phantom, trying to rationalize he was a demon and prone to wanting to trick them. This just smashed any pretense of keeping that wall up. Even if he was a demon, his actions didn’t come close to what had been done to him, he never acted anywhere near as cruel. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest to just add him to their little friend group, especially considering how they met in the first place. How couldn’t they though? They couldn’t just leave a fellow sort of outcast out to rot, not when he was just lonely and frightened. If he ended up being some sort of monster after all? Then she and Tucker would pull him out of it, because in the end, he wasn’t a monster by nature. No matter where he’d come from.

So they needed a plan to get the real monster out of their lives. It was just a little difficult to try and ask someone who was hurting for more details. Even if it was to help them figure out how to get rid of the problem. What would Gregor or other fae be weak to? Iron? Was using Elliot’s body protecting him? So many questions.

It was Tucker who decided to brave it first, though he had insisted on making a messy blanket and pillow fort like they were all eight again first. The green light that sometimes crept in behind Danny’s eyes cast odd shadows- but it seemed to calm him down better than anything they could actually say out loud. Apparently he was a bit of a pillow hog, wanting to be half on theirs too, when he already had three.  Tucker hesitated a little, but pushed through to ask. “Hey. How’d you get away? The first time.”

Danny sunk a little into the blankets, face down instead of speaking clearly again. “I didn’t, really. Not on my own.”

“Was it Wulf?” Sam hazarded a guess, unsure if his guilt was because of that or not. The fact he never spoke about any friends made it pretty hard to know if he had any.

“No. He should have been free but I thought he was angry with me too, since he never came...but he wasn’t free at all,” he groaned “Stupid. Of course he wouldn’t have abandoned me to that fate.”

“It’s not like you could know, right?”

The demon grunted, clearly still stewing about Wulf. “My sister found out and got me.”

Not his parents. Did they know he’d been trapped and just left him? Or they’d told his sister to go help instead of doing so themselves? She didn’t like either option. They couldn’t seriously have left him to suffer because of an accident? Of course they could have, human parents could be almost as terrible.

“You have a sister?”

“I have lots of siblings. Not much of a legion if there’s only four of us…I don’t know most of them personally.”

“Do you know what she did to get you out of there? We don’t want you trapped with no idea how to get you out again.” Tucker asked, gently nudging the demon back on topic.

“Uhhh. Mostly showed up and started ripping anyone in her way to shreds? There was a lot of getting permission to get there without stepping on any toes first but it was pretty simple once she was actually present.”

“So your sister is seriously scary.”

“She’s a proper sort of demon, yeah. Probably make you drop dead on the spot if you looked at her,” he managed to sit back up, a hint of a smile back on his face. “Nothing like me.”

“Well I like not being dead, so we’ll just cross that off as a plan.”

“Ha. It’s not like she’d answer a summoning from you guys anyway. She sees too much to bother with most humans. Maybe if she sees an easy mistake and wants a meal.”

The fondness in his voice made something click in her head. Okay, she might not like humans, but the two demons clearly cared enough to be somewhat close? To boast about her like this? “Wait. Wait wait wait. She’d ignore us, but she wouldn’t ignore you.”

“Uhhh. I’m a demon. I’m the one who gets summoned, not the other way around?” Danny’s confusion was enough to make him tilt on his side to get a better look at her. “Humans summon.”

“If you’re human enough to not get put in a thermos, maybe you’re human enough to use a summoning circle?”

“I don’t know anything about those? Well, I know how to spot broken ones and mistakes to escape, but not use one.”

“Dude, you think we have any idea how this stuff works? We’re just copying out of a book basically.” Tucker was already up, going to grab his laptop and the ‘Flash Drive Of Most Organized Magic’ as he insisted on calling it. “That and some problem solving, I guess.”

“If we need a circle to hand over a demon, couldn’t we just use it to summon one instead? You’d be safe calling her, right?”

“Uh. Maybe? She can only come over so fast,” the boy sounded unsure, but was leaning over to look closely where Tucker indicated. “It’s a bit of a strain on reality for something like her to force her way through.”

“So we’d need more time, but we wouldn’t have to worry too much on what Gregor would do if we could pull that off.” Sam muttered, adding it to the list. Unleashing some apparently horrific demon on the town just to squash Gregor might be a bit much...but it could make a decent emergency plan.

“Don’t you want to try out other kinds of magic? Just to see what it’s like?” Tucker gave him a little nudge.

“It just seems weird. I shouldn’t be able to do those things…human stuff.”

“All the more reason he’s in for a nasty surprise to think he can just drag you off to be tormented again.” It was difficult to get him to look at her, but he eventually did.

“I guess...it’s worth trying to figure out.”

Chapter Text

One downside to pillow forts: it was easy to drop off when you were meant to be planning. He didn’t really think it would be possible when he’d gotten the laptop, but he had. All of them did, possibly just so emotionally exhausted that their brains shut off.

Well, he’d been a bit physically exhausted too. The faint, fleeting memories of something he couldn’t get away from touching him gave him goosebumps every time, even as Danny did his best to hide his own discomfort with a bitten lip and wrinkled brow. Really, he just wanted to give the guy a hug, but wasn’t sure if that would make him feel safe, or just worse. He definitely wasn’t going to ask the demon if he felt the need to lean or snuggle with others before the fae incident happened…but he had the uncomfortable feeling his friend picked up that habit in that terrible, helpless time and never shook it off. Some ingrained behaviour to try and make whoever he was with happy, instead of for his own comfort.

What a way to start a weekend. That they were going to spend trying to get rid of some fae creature? He’s had less absurd dreams than this. They should be safe until tonight though, if this guy was so big on the moon he probably wouldn’t do anything while the sun was up.

“This is so weird.”

“Says the demon.” Sam didn’t even look up this time, as Danny had been something to that effect for the past hour they’d been practicing near the abandoned docks and warehouses.

“It is! I slap this on my hand and it makes ice come out? I know cold fine but not like enough to do anything with it.” The demon gestured to a frosted crate as if shocked it existed.

“Not any weirder than you just melting into shadows dude.”

“I’m meant to do that!”

The whole ‘meant to do’ thing was a bit of a roadblock, as the demon didn’t even want to consider some spells for being ‘too weird’ or ‘unnatural’. He barely agreed to trying the ice out after he’d managed to rationalize cold was an absence of heat. “And humans can’t do any of these without a demon, your point?”

“That humans are weird and I don’t get you.” Danny threw up his hands before flopping back on the ground. “And it’s tiring. Why is it tiring, you don’t even do anything!”

“You can just make energy out of nothing, it has to come from somewhere.” Sam was still sketching away at her ‘backup’ plan. “You sure you aren’t hungry Danny? You’ve been human for awhile today.”

“Never will be.”

The fact Danny chose right then to melt back into shadows gave Tucker the distinct impression he was lying about that. Hopefully he didn’t tire himself out too much with the practice, trying to convince the demon to try something to eat just sounded like a bad idea. “Ddo we really have to put up a fight before going to the tricking part? It sounds like it could go badly.”

“He’s not gonna ditch the skinsuit if we’re going along with what he wants.”

“Elliot, Danny. His name’s Elliot.”

“No if he’s too dead to complain about it.”

“So we shouldn’t bother not hurting Wulf either?” Sam’s clipped tone had the demon shrinking back, the glow of his eyes dimming.

“Okay okay. If he wants to do any of the more painful fae things, he needs to let go of Elliot. If he doesn’t need them, he won’t bother letting go. Especially if he can use all these rune things no trouble.”

“What sort of things?”

“Oh the usual. Compulsions and moonlight chains. Forcing things to change. Nothing pleasant. I don’t think he can use those hiding in a human...I might be wrong.”

Tucker had to rub at his throat as Danny spoke, a disquieting tightness forming there. He was not nearly as unworried as he was trying to sound. “Well there’s a reason he’s hiding, right?”

“It better not only be cold iron that works or we’ll be in trouble.”

“They’re delicate. Big wings, thin limbs that you can break easily. That’s why they play all sweet and nice to humans, you’ve got strong arms. And salt. Lots of that around.” Phantom decided to adjust his resting position to lean against Sam, watching her work. “It’s why they don’t like us much, most demons can fight for themselves if they have to. A fae that messes up enchanting a human probably has to let them go while a demon can still just kill em.”

More notes for the USB drive of magic. “Which is why they’re better at tricking and rules lawyering than you are?”

“No they aren’t, they just cheat more.” Phantom’s flicking tail gave his annoyance away. “He’s probably able to use that collar because I ‘owe’ him for ‘taking care’ of me for all those years…”

Sam’s eye twitched, pausing to double check that the demon was comfortable. “Well that’s just bullshit.”

“That’s fae for you. They’re just good at twisting people into what they want. Any offer is going to have a secret drawback.”

“I’m offering a special on two for one kicks in the gut.”

Tucker sighed. At least they were getting along better? “I’d rather stay out of grabbing range.”

“Wulf is pretty fast, so I wouldn’t plan on being able to.”

Great! Getting chased by a giant demon wolf was totally his idea of a good time. That wasn’t even counting any other demons he might have. At least they all were on the same page on wanting to fight Gregor. His ‘allies’ wouldn’t push on without orders, most likely. “Uh, Danny? Will your illusion still work if you’re human?”

The whole ‘trick the bad guy with a fake circle’ plot wouldn’t exactly work if he could see what it was actually for. He’d been trying to find one similar enough to overlook, but even the closest one was still clearly incorrect. Summons needed way more binding lines than a transfer. Gregor would probably catch that, considering he actually seemed to know how they worked while Phantom didn’t. 

“I didn’t actually think about that” the shadow blinked and vanished, a small weight dropping on his shoulder, snickering as Tucker jumped at the green eyed thing using him as a perch. “It might vanish, I don’t really think about maintaining them?” A lazy sort of circle sketched itself on the ground before his eyes. “So you see that, even though nothing’s there.”

“Mhm.” If only the demon could explain how he made them see things that weren’t really there beyond ‘it’s what I’m good at’.

“So if I stop being me, but keep thinking about it…” the weight on his shoulder vanished as a boy stumbled out of the ground, shaking his hands. “You still see it?”

Well, it was still there, but less…convincing. He could almost see issues if he looked from different directions. “Kind of?”

Danny frowned, green overtaking blue as he scowled at the illusion. “I don’t think I can make it as convincing as I usually do.”

“At least it’s going to be dark. It might be good enough.” He hoped it was. If they acted scared of the creepy fae man, maybe that would make up for the oddness.

That only made the demon look more irritated. “I don't do good enough. I do perfect mimics.” 

“Well today you’re doing good enough. Chill.” Sam chucked a package of jerky at his head, not blinking at the disgruntled ‘ow’.

“What was that for?” Danny looked at the package like it was a knife and not something Tucker bought at a drug store snack aisle.

“You look like you’re going to pass out. Try eating.”

“I don’t eat.”

“Demon you doesn’t. Human you has a growling stomach and you suck at hiding it.”

He repeated himself, kicking the bag off in Tucker’s direction. “I don’t eat.”

“I promise you that is the least magical food in the entire world. Some innocent pig was slaughtered, ground into paste and drowned in flavouring and salt to dry it out so people like Tucker can munch on flesh without needing to cook it.”

“It is delicious no matter how gross you try to make it sound.” He retrieved the poor kicked bag of snacks, brushing the dirt clear of the bright packaging.

Sam only rolled her eyes. “Figured a demon might be more of a meat eater if you’re into the whole taking souls thing. No way some magic trickster did anything to that bag. That’s 100% human cruelty, baby.”

“Oh so you’ll offer the demon meat but tell me it’s wrong,” he said in mock offence, figuring playing along might help.

“The demon has a trauma based excuse. You’re just not bothered enough to eat less of it.”

“I think I get to be a bit evil if we have a demon, and my evil of choice is tasty.”

Danny went back to his demon form instead of answering, but his eyes did seem to linger on the bag before he zipped out of sight again. Did he even know what it was like to feel hungry? That was probably a weird thing to feel for the first time after so long without. Wasn’t much he could do to convince him to try, not with how the fae used food against him. No matter how much it worried him that the demon might be feeling weak.

At least they figured out if they wanted to fire something, it was easier to just tape the rune to their palms and trigger it with a finger or thumb. Barriers worked better on the ground, but made it harder to keep the spell to reuse. Which was going to make the plan of possibly ‘boxing in’ Wulf so he couldn’t attack them difficult. Those claws looked sharp enough to rip through if they took too long. Good thing he had lots of paper to go with the printer!

“I think this is the best we’re going to get.” Sam eyed the mess all their practicing had created, half scorched paper and crates cracking with frost making the place look far worse than it had in the morning.

“I think I’ve got good spots for most of the barriers, but if it starts raining we’re in trouble.” The sky didn’t look cloudy, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t rain. Or that their attacker might not just use water himself.

“You’re really not going to double cross me, right?” Phantom wasn’t visible still, not showing himself even as they both looked for him.

“If we were going to do that, we’d just put you in a thermos and hand you over. It’s not going to happen.” Sam gave up looking with a shrug and went back to adjusting her bag to keep everything in easy reach.

“Even when he threatens you? He’s going to. You and your families.” Green eyes blinked up from the shadows, oddly timid instead of eerie. “That’s how they get you, when they start getting the upper hand.”

“Hey, our backup plan is your sister. You think it’s a good idea to betray you when she’s going to show up and rip our faces off?”

“...If I can. I don’t know if it will work.”

“The ice stuff worked okay.”

“Not when I’m myself though.” Slowly he finished creeping out of the shadows, tapping one of the prepped runes with a clawed hand. “They don’t even react unless I’m human.”

“It’s a secret weapon. You don’t need them if you’re hiding out for a bit or being a distraction.” Tucker crouched next to him as his demonic friend seemed to shrink back.

“Do you need something else?” Sam prompted, but kept her distance.

“One of the circles you had looked familiar. Dangerous.”

Considering how often the demon insisted he didn’t know much about how written magic worked, it struck him as odd. “One of the ones for the plan?”

The pressure made it hard to keep his eyes open. He just wanted to lie down, to rest, but it hurt more if he didn’t have permission first. A curve of pain that just wouldn’t let up.

“A different one. Mixed in.”

He had to stop and rub at his temples to dispel the pain, catching a glimpse of Sam wincing in sympathy. “Uh. There’s a lot, but if you want to look through and point it out?”

Danny nodded once, lurking until Tucker had the files open again, scanning it with wide eyes, completely silent. As if afraid to be overheard if he said anything. “It’s not here.”

“Uh, all of them should have been scanned?”

“Then you’re missing one. Or gave it away...”

“Is that bad? If someone stole one? They’re all basically the same.” Sam couldn’t see a problem, sighing at yet another complication.

He went silent again, ears flatter than usual. “Not really.”

“Danny. If it worries you, we want to figure it out before we’re fighting for our lives.”

“It’s nothing. I can tell who’s using a circle even if it looks the same. Usually. Even if you touched it once.” He took a moment for the shadows to fall away and stretched, double checking the papers set aside to be his, and the pockets in Tucker’s bag they’d be held in, as he couldn’t bring them while being a very successful shadowy creature. “I wish the moon wasn’t going to be so full.”

“Don’t we all. At least it’ll be easy to see.”

Tucker waited, wondering why the demon was hesitating at the last moment, but not wanting to rush him. Until he caught how he kept looking back at the stash of snacks. “You want to try one?”

“Not really.” Danny grimaced, but his eyes didn’t move. “Why do you guys have things that just hurt you in your guts?”

“So we remember to eat so we don’t die.”

He kept frowning, but edged closer to Tucker. “Is it really as salty as Sam said?”

“That’s how they dry it out, yup. Tons of salt, it’s delicious.” He offered the hesitant demon the open bag, who continued to waffle before taking the smallest bit he could, eyeing both it and both humans suspiciously the entire time he chewed on it.

The fact he didn’t feel worse was enough to make him come back for seconds at least, before he went back to double checking the emergency plan. A too-big circle that he insisted was necessary. “If something happens- if I can’t call her…”

“You’ll be able to. If it gets dicey, you fall back. That’s the plan.”

Danny bit at his knuckle, looking down and back up again. “Her name’s Jazz. If you tell her...if you tell her Phantom needs help, she might listen.”

So they knew a name that would work. That was...pretty big for him to tell them, wasn’t it?

“You got it. Let’s not need the back up plan though, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay.” Another deep breath and he was the green eyed terror again, nudging both of them with his tail. “I’ll find him. J-Just make sure to summon me back quick when I call for help.”

He didn't like this part of the plan at all, but they didn't have a better way to lure Gregor out. He nodded, one foot already standing on the 'get our friend back from the evil fae monster' circle as the demon flickered out of sight. They set the battleground, they set the rules, but he couldn't push away all the fear of the unknown. So much could go wrong, but there was no other option but to try.

Chapter Text

The dark should be comforting, feel safer than the day for a creature like him. Yet the day had been fun, even if it was spent fooling around with weird magic he didn’t quite understand and two humans he was clearly unhealthily attached to. Literally, considering the soul thing. He actually trusted them to keep their word, to actually fight with him. A mistake, a foolish one. Trusting is what made him a smear on his family to begin with, and he was doing it again. Though he knew more about these two. Felt more about them, spent more time with. If they wanted to hurt him, they already knew enough to do so.

There’d be no sleeping today, not with the full moon at his back, the sickly light making every corner feel dangerous. All he had to do was find...him, and lure him back to his friends so they could fight back. The fae likely wanted to be found, expecting them to meekly hand over a ‘terrible monster’. He could tell Wulf was around. Bait for him. A way to wander into whatever trap he had planned.

Walking into traps...sucked. At least this time he had an out. Or should, before he got too messed up. It was still going to hurt, and it took effort to make himself look bigger when he wanted to be nothing at all. It would be so much easier to just keep hiding.

Spotting Wulf, hunched over with the gleaming sliver tight enough to send his fur askew was a fairly strong motivator. The wolf was stuck under Gregor’s control no matter how tight the collar was. There was no need to have it tight around the wolf’s neck, to have it burn and stab at his skin. It just hurt him for the sake of it, because they could. If only he could just rip it off! Yet his friend would be obligated to stop him, to make sure his own pain continued.

A fight he couldn’t win. Not as himself, and not on his own. At least getting spotted was part of the plan, so he could snarl against the unfairness of it all and try to catch a hint of his friend somewhere in the wolf’s dull stare.

The ear flick it prompted didn’t fill him with hope, not with the lack of other reaction. Wulf didn’t remember. Or he couldn’t show it, if he did. No time to worry about which would be worse. “And you call me a coward. Stop hiding behind Wulf.”

“Have I? I don’t think I’ve said anything to you.”

He wanted to bolt so, so badly in that second. White hair and green eyes- did he steal this kid’s body just to mock him specifically? Or do something to the human? He had to settle for knocking out the nearby lamppost, keeping the street darker with more places to run to.

“So, is this your little rebellion before they see sense, or a pathetic attempt to reject my kind offer?” Gregor said, pausing to yawn. “You don’t have a chance, you know that.”

“Take your offer and choke on it.”

The bodysnatcher slid the sunglasses back up at his retort. “Well, well, you’ve gotten rude. Such a shame.”

“You’re as shitty as ever.” Anger made it easier to talk, easier to hide his fear. Why hadn’t he done anything yet? He couldn’t run without having a reason to do it, he couldn’t be too obvious about the trap. “Or worse, since you’re hiding in a human. Too ugly for all your parties now?”

“That’s not what you used to think, was it Phantom? Not that you did much of that, even before I did you that favour.”

“Favour? Favour?!” He stepped clear of the safe shade of the wall, more fangs than face as his sheer fury let him look larger, more dangerous and sharp as the darkness twisted to aid him. “That’s what you call a favour?!”

Wulf’s low growl stopped his approach, even though he snapped back with one of his own. Attacking first would just...be doing what he wanted. Get him pretty beaten up by an old friend, too.

“Considering the original plan was simply to kill you, yes.” Gregor actually laughed at the shadowy monster glaring down at him, hands still in his pockets. “You seemed like a decent little monster, so I pulled some strings.”

More nonsense. More words that didn’t matter, and with so little he could do in retaliation. Even if he did reach that smirking face, slicing a human’s throat wouldn’t do much for him. That, and Wulf was watching and half crouched to spring. Talking was harder with so many fangs. “Get lost. No deal, so stay out of their lives.”

“You didn’t tell them why you’re a little scrap of nothing, did you?”

Why he was? Because he was made that way? What? How should he know why his parents did anything? Wait no, he didn’t care about anything this guy said. Ever. “Stay out of their lives. 

That’s it.”

“Oh come on little one. I know you can carry on a conversation even when under orders.”

“Not interested.”

“Sure you are. You’re horribly curious about everything. It’s why you’re so charming, how you light up looking at new things.”

“Shut UP!” Phantom flung himself forward, unable to keep a clear head. Claws met fur as Wulf lept in the way, carrying both of them into the wall. He pulled back to try and disengage, but the wolf pushed forward to follow him to the ground to turn his retreat into a fall. Phantom twisted and let some longer shadows go to slide clear, eyes scanning for somewhere to flee.

He’d warned Tucker that Wulf was fast. He’d forgotten quite how fast he could be as the long green claws sunk into his shoulder. The demon yelped and twisted, trying to reform himself away from the claws, but they snagged the wispy strands and kept him from changing too much. Pinned him enough for the other set of claws to slam into his chest and keep him flat on his back. His kicks didn’t make the wolf flinch or react, and biting just got fur in his fangs. Bad, this was bad!

“I complement you, and you attack. Honestly. It’s like you enjoy getting pinned like that.”

Spitting on Gregor’s shoe didn’t help him any, but it did make him feel slightly better as he squirmed. Until he got kicked for it. Of course it had to be Wulf, someone that could snag anything.

“Listen before you go crawling back to those humans, will you?”

“I don’t listen to you.”

“The big guys, the rulemakers? Not thrilled that you got away. Not happy the little accident is running free again. Would you rather be dead?” He reached out, only withdrawing as the wide eyed demon tried to chomp on the hand with a hiss. “Was it really so bad? You got to see the world with me.”

Making it sound like he could remember much of it beyond a haze of simply being and reacting. “As your plaything!”

“You don’t think the humans see you as their weird little pet too? They’ve changed you to suit them better by now, I’m sure. Made you a nice little cage? At least you got to wander loose once you were properly behaved.”

It was hard to ignore him with one arm pinned, and moving his ears could only do so much. The voice wasn’t exactly the same, but close enough. Enough that it kept grabbing his focus even when all he felt was hate. Lying about his friends. Even if they had changed him...could trap him. “I’d rather die.”

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t. It wasn’t your fault that your parents were so irresponsible. It was true what I said back then, you’re a decent demon.”

“Bite me.” Phantom pulled harder, mostly to feel pain. He shouldn’t feel confused, or pleased, or anything but furious. There shouldn’t be a purr in the back of this throat for someone he can’t stand, who he’s terrified of.

“I held off for a while, you know. Found out what you liked, befriended you. Even though your kind is remarkably unfriendly to us.”

“Betrayed me. The whole time you just wanted to use me!” Why wasn’t he calling for help yet? He doesn’t need to listen, he shouldn’t. “Everyone said not to trust you, and they were right.” To get the hatred off his chest? The awful confusion he’d drowned in for years?

“So you’d rather do it again with the humans? You can’t think they actually care for you.”

He couldn’t really answer that. He wanted to say yes, he did. Yet he didn’t. Not completely. How could he? There wasn’t any reason for them to want him around.

“You’re too dangerous, just as a demon for them. When they find out why you’re nothing, they’ll lock you away or worse.”

Would they? It didn’t matter! Stupid, stop listening. It’s just so hard to...not. “She should have killed you.”

“Oh she tried. Good thing you got in the way.” The grin cracked, ever so slightly. “You could hide anything, even from a demon spewing hellfire.”

That would explain how she didn’t finish him off. His fault, again. Of course. Why would it be anything else? The moonlight just made it hard to keep his eyes open, even with Wulf blocking some of it out.

“I won’t even make you share. I’ll let your little wolf friend go, and those humans can go do whatever they like. No other familiars to vy with for attention.”

The silver collar snapped around his throat as it fell free from Wulf, a gentle ringing in his ears as the gleaming chain lay on the ground. No, no, he’d never- not even for Wulf. He couldn’t. So why wasn't he scrabbling with it or struggling?

“Last chance to accept peacefully, little one.”

No. “ Sam! Tucker! Help!” he yelled in his head, ignoring that it didn’t feel too tight, that he felt oddly calm. He never wanted this, feared this, and they had plans to fight. His neck ached as the collar strained and snapped as he vanished, letting the summons dump him rather unelegantly in the circle.

“You okay? Oh geez, our demon is holy now Sam.” The boy winced at the clawmarks, but relaxed as the demon shook them out. He really should know by now it was hard to hurt him.

“Yes, very funny Tucker. So you pissed him off?”

“Yeah. He’ll be hunting for us now.” Even if it wasn’t exactly true. The fae creature mostly pissed him off, not the other way around.

The distant howl answered better than he did, really.

“Sooo, that’ll be Wulf?”

“Yeah. He’ll know where to find me.” Had plenty of time to sniff, unfortunately. Plenty of time to watch him just backslide into being an obedient mess, too. Stupid, lying there like an idiot.

“Well we got everything set up. Now we wait. Any luck in having him let Elliot go?”

“Uhh. No, not really. Wulf got me quick.” He scratched at his neck, wondering if he could find the shame lurking in his shadows and pluck it out somehow.

“That’s fine, you couldn’t show off your new skills too early. Don’t beat yourself up about it.” The lack of surprise in Sam’s voice was both confusing and comforting. She hadn’t expected it to be that easy...but that was because he was weak. Shouldn’t she berate him anyway?

To the left came a yelp and a crackling sound.

“That’s got to be the third, electric barrier!” Tucker was alert, flicking through the map on his PDA. “If we get the third fire and ice ones, he'll be stuck in the alleys.” He already held a hand out, waiting for the demon to quickly cross the distance.

Right, he had each mapped out in his mind, trying not to scratch his friend as he grabbed hold and pulled hard, dragging him through the darkness to leap out where the scrawled out runes waited to be triggered.

Tucker did need a breath before slapping the paper and backing away from the resulting green blaze of light, but didn’t shake too much. “Okay, that’s where he came from, last one!”

Another leap, another blinding flare of blue to seal off another path. Without commands, he shouldn’t think to use the buildings to climb, and just keep running in circles if he couldn’t catch sight of them. At least, that was the hope.

“Should we fire up the one and two ones, try and catch Gregor off guard?”

“I-I don’t know!” Danny winced at the question, the anxiety difficult to dislodge now that there was no turning back, that the threat had been made. “Maybe? Can you handle that many jumps?”

“Good point. Last one was kinda long there.”

“It was less than three seconds.” Danny couldn’t help but blink.

“Doesn’t feel like it!”

“Let’s not. I can always turn them on later myself once the cat’s out of the bag.”

“The shadowy cat is a human bag, right.”

Dragging Tucker back to Sam instead of responding to that felt like the best sort of reply, coiling around his shoulders as he panted.

“Still creepy! I’m okay.”

“Good, because the ice wall on the right just went off too.”

“Already?” Was Gregor going to be here that fast? Was he ready for that? Honestly, not really. At least Tucker didn’t seem to mind him staying on his shoulder, even though he didn’t really need to be touching him right now.

“Just relax and remember we outnumber him, okay?” Sam double checked the prepared spells a final time, facing the only path that should be open.

“Easy. Just gotta ignore this who knows how ancient fairy and kick him back to wherever he came from.” Tucker’s uneasy chuckle didn’t help with Danny’s own faltering confidence.

“He shouldn’t be able to see us right now, so we get a sneak attack.”

“You should just look like the rest of the wall right now. No promises once you fire something, I can’t make him forget seeing where a spell comes from.”

Tucker did a fairly good job not wincing as their target walked into view, considering Danny couldn’t quite keep his hands from tensing. He shouldn’t be this afraid of some human walking out of an alley, especially one walking so nonchalantly.

His two human friends waited, breaths shallow as he moved forward. A nod before both fired off their magic of choice. A blinding bolt of electricity from Tucker, and three tangling vines of thorns ripping out from the ground for Sam.

He startled at the blows, the first hint of an emotion that wasn’t insufferably smug. The vine dug deep into his leg while the jolt got him to drop to that knee.

“Not bad. Better than expected, really.”

Oh he did not like how he said that, not one bit. “He’s planning something.”

“Kinda got that when he didn’t seem to mind being electrocuted!”

“Less worrying, more moving!” Sam shoved Tucker forward as Gregor removed a hand from his pocket and threw something- something somewhat shiny towards them.

The roar of flames had him irrationally try and throw up shadows to shield them, which did little but absorb some of the heat before being ripped through. The two had the sense to keep running, firing off return shots of their own. Shots that crackled off a thrown up barrier, but kept him from freeing his tangled leg.

The fire didn’t stop burning either, only spreading and reducing the amount of room they had to navigate. With it and the moon shining down from above- he had almost nothing to work with. Just their shadows as the roar of the fire seemed to paint the moon red.

“Just leave our friend alone and get out of here! We told you no!” Sam shouted, covering how her arms shook.

“Either he’s mine, or he’s dead. Those are the options kids. No need to go down with him.” Gregor tucked the sunglasses away as he kept attempting to get his leg free, but not nearly as frantically as one would expect.

“Big talk from someone with his leg stuck.”

Danny caught the flash in his eye, body tensing in fear. “Shield, now!”

Tucker thankfully didn’t ask, just did as the fireball shrieked into the crackling wall. The heat made them clamp their eyes shut, but kept them safe.

“Humans can die incredibly slowly if you’re careful. Besides, I only need one still breathing, don’t I?”

Sam continued to ignore him, multiple patches of pavement ruined by the strangling vines as Tucker set himself to keep the two of them safe. The main issue was the fire creeping up from behind, forcing them forward when distance was their main advantage.

They were fighting for him, and he was stuck doing nothing. He couldn’t switch now, couldn’t use his new skills now because he was the backup plan. The guilt crawling through him was almost worse than the flames. Wulf gave another howl, but still seemed distracted enough. If only the fire didn’t seem so aware. He could swear it was following them.

“Listen dude. No one wants you around here. Does saying we don’t believe in fairies make you weak?” Tucker was just blathering, maybe to keep his mind off the fact this wasn’t exactly safe.

Yet it seemed to work as Gregor’s shield cracked and he slumped to the ground.

“Oh. Guess it worked. We should have tried that sooner.”

His ears flattened at the change, hazarding a look at Sam. “You should probably let go of Elliot’s leg, he’s not going to have Gregor’s magic protecting it anymore.”

“So he’s ditched him? Shouldn’t we see him?”

“You’re really too scared of me to look up, aren’t you?” The voice behind him made him jump, abandoning Tucker’s shoulders as he scrabbled backwards. The voice, that voice was too much, and the glimpse of the moon through his massive wings was enough to make him want to disappear. As he liked it. The view, how it shone, the blacks and dark blues that only seemed to be enhanced by his presence. He shouldn’t like it, he should hate it, and everything about the slim jagged creature attached to those wings, the thing with eyes that reflected the stars.

“Man, I thought he’d be smaller.”

“Move!” Sam shoved hard as the two rolled away from the silver chain, bits of concrete flicking through him as he dashed to catch up.

“Ow. It’s okay, I got this!” Tucker scrambled in his pocket, slapping down another page. It flickered and died, a groan coming from the flames. “That’s...not good.”

“Phantom was good enough to warn me about your little salt catapults.” The fae kept above the ground and flame, eyes locked on both humans. “Of course, he can’t quite resist getting his favourite person a meal.”

“I didn’t! I swear!” He hadn’t said anything! He even tried to not think about the plans, he’d been careful! “I-I don’t-”

“We know you didn’t. He’s just trying to mess with our heads, right?”

“Y-Yeah.” It felt so weird. For Tucker to just believe him, not question it, or assume the bad luck had been something intentional on his part. Especially when part of him felt like a traitor, being so easily manipulated.

“Besides, caving his head in with a lead pipe might be more fun anyway.” Sam wasted no time lunging forward, forcing Gregor back and giving them space again.

Danny couldn’t stop feeling tense, couldn’t stop wanting to hide or just just watch in a dull stupor. Too many feelings, he didn’t want any of them while they had to dodge away from snaking chains. He’d seen Gregor fight humans before, knew some tricks, but only in a vague sense. He recognized this attempt to just tire them out before trying to weasel into their minds, but had no way to protect them from it.

“Hey, if I throw this, can you fetch it?”

“Probably?” He was willing to try? The pipe would cast a shadow he could just...ride along with, right?

Sam took that as a yes, knocking a chain away before flinging it right at the fae’s wings, earning an ear splitting shriek as it tore through- as if they were as delicate as the butterfly wings they resembled. Phantom darted out of the shadow to catch it and threw it back.

Yet he failed to get back into the shadow in time, a chain snapping around his arm to throw him down. Pulling his splattered shadows together was hard enough without the chain shocking him.

Tucker came too close, trying to help him get free before being engulfed in flame, Sam forced to abandon her assault to keep Tucker from burning alive. Danny wanted to help, tried to spring forward but only got hit again and dragged to the ground to snarl and wiggle without any impact.

“Was that close enough to death to come to your senses?”

“Want another hole in your face, you creep?” Sam spat, but without the pipe she was forced to back away, Tucker wide eyed, but not too singed. Some of his protection on them being useful, at least.

“This demon can ruin your world. Is that what you want?” Gregor’s voice was layered, forcing all of them to give their full attention, no matter how little they wanted to hear it.

“Well you’re doing a bang up job ruining our town, so I don’t think you get to judge.” Some strength returned to Tucker’s voice, electricity crackling around his palm.

They were still fighting? After they’d been hurt? Why? They couldn’t care that much. They shouldn’t. “Leave them alone.”

“Hush, demon. The masters are talking.”

He shrunk in his bonds, glancing at the ground. Like anything he said could matter when he was tangled up.

“He can say anything he wants. How about you shut up? We don’t care about whatever nonsense you’re going to tell us.”

“You should. Do you two know what happens when you try to make something, or do something beyond your power?”

“Next time we’re bringing a boom box to drown out the monologing asshole.” Tucker muttered, moving something carefully with his foot.

“What should happen is nothing. A spell fizzles out, you can’t cast it. Except for him.”

He really wanted to be invisible right now. Nothing happens, and he’s a nothing. It’s never a fun comparison.

“Your point?” Sam’s eye roll was audible, even from his lousy vantage point.

“My point, is he shouldn’t exist. If you try and make a demon with a concept you can’t power, it shouldn’t work. Yet instead of a creature embodying the universe, they made that little mistake.”

“Tucker, throw some jerky at him, he deserves it.”

Tucker actually did. Unfortunately, a stray stick of jerky is fairly easy to dodge, even with a hole in your wing. “So what? None of that has anything to do with who he is!”

“You can’t understand how a creature who embodies the emptiness and vastness of the universe is incredibly dangerous? A creature that likes nothingness, longs for it, and will gladly drown everything in it, if it gets the power to do so?”

“I wouldn’t do that!” Would he?

“I told you to be silent .” Gregor snapped, flicking the chain so he hit the ground again with a groan. Too much light and being thrown around...he felt pretty dizzy.

“He wouldn’t though, and it’s none of your business.”

“Phantom will. It’s what he was born to do. Unless he’s properly restrained, or dealt with. Do you know how much nothing there is? How easily what little something we exist in could be eaten up?”

Gregor was lying, right? About all of that? He was just nothing because...that’s what he was made from. There was nothing ‘universe’ about him. Yet his love of the stars and his old look made something in him lurch, an uncomfortable echo of truth.

“Says you, and full offence? You’re kind of a dick, and a liar.”

So why did they keep defending him?

They clashed again, but Gregor’s ‘advice’ for “Don’t move” had both humans take a direct hit and tumble backwards, coughing from the impact.

“Just see sense and hand him over. You have no idea what sort of creature you’re dealing with.”

“That ‘creature’ is our friend, and you have no idea what you’re dealing with either.” Tucker insisted on striking back, earning another grunt of pain from the fae, his wings seeming to sag.

Maybe they could win? He finally managed to wriggle free, with Gregor so distracted by the two humans, but froze as a swipe sent both of them backwards, a chain flinging their bags into the fire.

“Enough of this. You’re defenceless. Cooperate, and I won’t kill you.”

“Defenceless this!” Another shock, but it was deflected off a damaged wing as the fae jabbed at Tucker’s throat.

Danny just reacted, leaping onto Gregor’s face and trying to claw at his eyes to throw off his aim, shuddering at the blood droplets  that flicked through his body. Tucker’s blood?

He’d missed anything vital, but it had to have hurt. He was too distracted to keep from getting thrown clear, but he scrambled back to his feet in an instant.

“Stop! I’ll go! Just leave them alone!”

“Hey, it’s just a little scratch, I’m okay!” Tucker said, but his posture said otherwise.

“I already gave you the chance to give up. You don’t get any favours now.” The glare made him shake, but he set his jaw and tried to keep steady.

“They’ll hurt you a lot before you win. So just let them live.”

“Uh no? You’re not giving yourself up to this guy. Not after what they did to you.” Sam stared at him, baffled.

“I can’t let him kill you!” It was a stupid fear, something he shouldn’t care about. So of course he was worried sick.

Sam and Tucker would just think this was using the backup plan. He’d keep the illusion up, do everything right and just...not call her. As Jazz would totally kill them. He’d be in his worst nightmare again, sure, but he got out once, right? If he was some reality devouring monster, maybe it was better if he couldn’t think about that anyway. Still, he took his human form like he was expected to, glancing at both of them.

“...Fine. What do we do, beetleface.” Sam muttered.

“Finally, you found your brain cells.”

Tucker was looking at him strangely, clutching at the wound. “Y’know, I think I’ve got a better plan.” The boy stumbled a few steps towards where the circle lay hidden, near where Elliot still lay in a crumpled heap.

“No, we are not doing any new plans.” Gregor moved, but Tucker was faster.

The words of a summoning never really made sense outside the one saying them, but he knew that name. He’d seen how Tucker spread blood and damaged the circle, making it faulty and unable to contain anything of real power.

He knew the three massive eyes that snapped open above the circle, calling a burning mane of flame. “ YOU DARE TO CALL THE ALL SEEING WHEN YOU CANNOT DO DILIGENCE MOST BASIC? ” The sky seemed to waver and crack as more of her eyes flickered open, face and feathers slowly taking shape even though most of her body was too insubstantial to make out.

“Phantom’s going to do something stupid, can you stop him please?” Tucker was shaking, but the grin practically plastered on to his face “Like give himself up to this guy stupid.”

The eyes fixed on him, and  he felt smaller than ever. “Hi?”

“You were not kidding about your sister being scary.” Sam hissed, ducking closer to Tucker to support him.

“We’re going to talk about this later.” Jazz gave him a proper eighteen eyed glare before slamming her freshly formed paw down, fur, feather and claw radiating a scorching heat that knocked Gregor back. “ AS FOR YOU, FAE. I OWE YOU A DEATH. ”

He felt Tucker and Sam drag him back a little, but it didn’t do much to block out the screams and sound of ripping and tearing. He wasn’t going to survive that. Jazz was...very thorough about those kinds of things.

“How did-”

“Dude, you’d been feeling guilty all day. I’m not stupid, I saw what you were gonna do.”

Sam smacked him upside the head. “You’re a demon. Quit it with the self sacrificing stuff.”

“Ow, geez. Okay! It’s just- the stuff he was saying…”

“Works well on you because he’s a dick, and you aren’t. We don’t care, okay?”

“This would be a lot sweeter if the soundtrack wasn’t your giant flaming lion-chicken-sphinx-griffin-sister chewing on a butterfly dude.”

“Probably shouldn’t say that too loud, she can kill you too, you know.” Though he would try to hide them, if it came to that. If it could work for Gregor, it should work for them.

“She’ll leave Elliot alone, right?”

“Maybe? Like Tuck made that circle useless, she could go eat half the town if she was in the mood.”

Tucker coughed, adjusting his shirt. “Maaaybe ask her not to do that?”

They all froze when she turned back to face them, wings fanned out as if to look as intimidating as possible. “Thank you. For realizing my brother is an idiot .”

“Hey!”

“Oh phew she’s not that angry.” Sam murmured, still clutching Tucker.

“He kinda said you didn’t get to finish the job last time, and we needed the help. Hope that’s okay?”

She chuckled, relaxing enough to not look quite as menacing. “Risky, and stupid. I see why he doesn’t want me to crush you.”

“Jazz...”

“Relax, they’ve done me a favour in keeping you safe. They’ll be spared my wrath for now.”

Tucker and Sam’s knees sagged, barely keeping upright. So much for being sure they’d survive.

“We’re still going to talk later.” She jabbed at him with a claw, easily knocking him down. “This is going to be so hard to explain, you know that?”

“Yeahhh, sorry Jazz.”

“I don’t come back empty handed, but today I’ll make a little exception. So don’t count on this to work again, understand?”

“Loud and clear!” Tucker sputtered.

“Good. Have fun, but visit sometime.” The demon flickered for a moment, eyes lingering before she vanished to leave them alone in the mess of their battleground.

“We still need to deal with Elliot and Wulf...and everything else.” Sam groaned, looking to the sun starting to peek over the horizon. “On no sleep at all.”

“You two can rest, I should be okay to do those parts.” He could manage that. If he couldn’t, he could trust these two to help. Actual friends.

He was pretty sure he liked that more than souls.