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The most important thing Danny got out of dying was remembering.
Remembering that they didn’t love him.
He told his friends he didn’t tell them immediately -or at all, in the end- because he was scared of their reactions.
But that wasn’t it.
It never was really.
Instead, he didn’t speak up, didn’t spill his truth, because you don’t spill your deepest guts and traumas to a stranger. And that’s what they were, they were strangers.
Landlords, perhaps.
Calling them parents or even friends wouldn’t even make sense. Parents and friends care, look after you, support you, comfort you, provide for you, have fun with you.
It was easy enough to not notice that his ‘parents’ didn’t do that over such a long period of time. Over a lifetime of time. But when everything flashes by you in rapid succession? When you see, feel, hear, everything that’s ever happened to you in seconds instead of in years.
Then suddenly the missed birthdays, ignored injuries, destroyed possessions, non-consensual experiments, and abandonment; stopped feeling like just occasional silly lapses in judgment that all parents surely must have. Suddenly they seemed more like a conscious pattern of behaviour.
Like that was just… how they were. How they felt about him.
How little they cared about him.
And then everything else in his life he remembered seemed so minor, so insignificant. For every little happy thing, for every telescope for his birthday or rollercoaster ride, there was something else to drag it down.
That telescope got blown up. His ‘parents’ replaced everything except the telescope. Plates, the pan, even Jack’s gloves; they replaced all that because it ‘needed to be’. They had to replace the spare stool; his telescope didn’t matter though… it wasn’t useful to them.
So his… Death, that flash of his whole life before his eyes, that kept him quiet. Maybe he would have told them immediately if that hadn’t happened.
If he hadn’t acutely realised that children were just free maids, test subjects, excuses, and future FentonWorks company owners; to them.
He’s thankful his friends gave him an excuse not to tell them. If they had encouraged him to tell his ‘parents’ he’s not sure what he would have done.
Then he met Vlad. He found out what they did to him. As much as he… dislikes the man most of the time, Vlad made it even clearer how little Jack and Maddie cared about anyone.
Meaning it wasn’t just Danny.
There was nothing wrong with him and they didn’t just dislike children.
Jack and Maddie.
His parents.
Were just terrible people.
Danny wonders how the heck Vlad could still be infatuated with Maddie. Does the man know what love is? What it isn’t? Danny knows the answers simply, ‘yes, of course I do, Daniel’, and denial though.
Danny, however, wasn’t in denial. Not anymore. Not about them.
He remembered, and that was enough.
Jazz knew too. She had for so long. His stupid younger self should have realised that ‘notebook’ of hers for what it was. Evidence.
Evidence and reminders. Reminders to be careful. They don’t love you. They’ll hurt you. They’ll hurt your little brother too.
She hated that she hadn’t been able to protect him, but he was… thankful for it.
He saw reality now. And he was free too.
He could fly, fight, explore. He could leave if he wanted. Go to space or roam an entirely different realm.
Physically he was more than he could have ever hoped or dreamed to be.
And mentally? He was free in the truer sense.
What reason did he have to be tied to people that didn’t love him, didn’t care for him, didn’t even know him.
He would stay until he didn’t need the landlords anymore. And after that, he was going to destroy them and everything they stood for.
The sacrifice of children and friends in the name of science.
The ectophobia and every piece of research tied to it.
The blatant disregard of everything around that wasn’t ‘for the cause’.
His ‘parents’ were a threat to him, yes. But more than that, they were a threat to an entire realm, an entire species, the world.
He would not be blind to that.
He would not ignore that.
He would not aid that.
Danny was a protector. He would protect. He would protect everyone and himself, from those that had and would hurt them.
His death had seen too that.
Thank everything it had.
End