Chapter Text
Danny was ten years old when he first noticed the patterns on his right wrist, they were iridescent and flowed around his arm and up his shoulder, almost matching his already pale skin tone. Before he never noticed because they were aways there, they never did anything, and he just learned to ignore them, believing that they were nothing more than odd birth marks. That changed when he felt pain coming from them, and for the marks to flare a bright red and grow even further. Into his back, he cried to his parent about the pain, and they didn't know how to help him, they couldn't even see the marks that coated his wrist, and took him to a hospital, that was where he learned what they were, and that no one but him and the other that held the same marks would be able to see them, that they were two halves of the same soul. That their pain was shared, and that eventually after they meet each other, the marks would pulse in time with the others heart.
Rumi was fifteen when the marks on her arm flared black and darkened, the shear shock form her marks darkening in such a manner distracted her so much that she didn't pay attention to her two friends, Mira and Zoey asking her what was wrong. Then the marks flared a bright neon green, only to darken again, and flared repeatedly, black to green and back again. Then the pain hit, it was nothing like what she felt before. She fell to the ground, unable to hold herself up as electricity arced around her, burning the ground near her. She screamed, and for a moment she heard another voice mixed with hers, that of a boy, one whose pain was echoed through her. For five minutes the pain and electricity flowed freely through her, the soul marks on her arm flashed repeatedly before settling on the neon green, as she kneeled on the ground tiring to catch her breath, she could feel the other two hunters trying to get her up only for the residue electricity to jump from her to them, thankfully only mild shocks that would wear off in a few hours. For the first time in five years since she discovered her soul marks, an emotion that wasn't hers echoed in her mind.
Danny Fantom, age fourteen, had just died, and was then brought back, then he died again, and came back again, for five minutes this cycle of dying and coming back to life repeated in an endless loop. One that he had to break as he could almost feel the pain of his other half, that he had inadvertently caused. With a strength he never knew he had, he dragged himself out of his parent's portal, clawing his way out of the death trap, freeing himself, and more importantly his bond mate, from the pain, his friends SAm and tucker tried to help him as best they could, but there was little they could do when their hands passed through his body as if he were just the wind. He could grip them, and other things in his basement, but anything that touched him, just went through. Fear griped him as he realized what he had become, a ghost, the very thing his parents hunted to the point of obsession.
Rumi couldn't breathe, her bond mate had died, and then came back, repeatedly. Horror and shock were at the front of her mind, and her friends worrying was not helping at all. It was all she could do to not let instinct take over to hunt down her mate and hold them never letting go, while ripping apart whatever it was that caused that much pain. She had to get away from her friends before they saw her for what she was. She needed to be alone. So, she ran, forcing her way pass Mira who tried to stop her from running, and Celine who showed up, as she was leaving, and tried to grab her. Rumi’s right eye glowed an ominous gold, and her right flared a bright green, both very different form her normally warm brown. And growled lowly, in her chest, a warning for any that heard it, and Celine froze, staring her straight in the eyes, eyes that were too different to be human, but much more controlled then when she would normally loose herself to her instincts. Rumi was in pain, both emotionally and physically, she was scared, and worried. She instincts were running high, and she was close to clawing her way out.
Celine stepped back, and away from the door, and Rumi rushed through, and vanished into the dark. Fading away into the shadows.
She stared out after her, before turning to the other two that were standing there in shock.
“What happened? Why did she scream, was she hurt?” her eyes narrowed at the last question, and the two girls looked unsure of what to say.
“We don't know, one minute were singing like normal, practicing our harmonies, when she froze, and fell to the ground, she culched her arm as if she had been stabbed with hot iron. She screamed before collapsing fully, we tried to help but couldn't get close.” Mira said, as quickly and as clearly as she could, pointing to the arc burns in the middle of the room, on the same spot that Rumi was incoherent with pain.
“She culched her arm, tight enough for her nails to pierce through.” Zoey added, shaken. Fear and concern clear in her voice. “Is, will she be alright?” Zoey asked lowly, not wanting one of her friends to be in pain.
Celine had frozen, when Zoeya and Mira said that Rumi had culched an arm, she knew Rumi had a soul mate mark on her right arm, but her demon marks rested on her left. “Which arm? Which arm did she grab?” Celine asked, worry was evident in her voice, either arm being in pain to the point of grabbing it with her nails hard enough to draw blood was bad.
“Her right, she was crying, as though she had lost someone, someone important.” Mira, who was the closest to Rumi when she fell, said. “Dose, does she have a soul mate mark?” Mira asked quietly. Soul mate marks were well known to transfer emotions, from one to the other, even before meeting and finalizing the bond, echos of emotions bleed through no matter what. The more intense the easier it was to make out the emotions. Pain was both the easiest and the hardest emotion to feel though an incomplete bond, both parties subconsciously suppress the pain to both protect their mate, and themselves from a feedback loop, if the pain was too great. For Rumi to feel the pain through an incomplete bond, and that to the point of collapsing, either meant the pain was too great or too sudden for the other to suppress, Rumi was a huntress, and had a worryingly high pain tolerance, for her to feel that great of a pain, meant her bond mate had been tortured. And from the arc burns in the stone tile floor, burns that resisted being rubbed away, when Zoey tried to touch one, meant Rumi’s mate had been electrocuted, for five minutes, with a high voltage.
Celine was quiet, Soul mate marks were rare, and personal, often, once they were found, they were hidden, even if the only ones that could see them, were the mated pair themselves. When Rumi had found them the first time, and after realizing what they were, she had worn long sleaved cloths, even in the summer heat, refusing to change into something more appropriate. And whenever she had tried to touch her right arm, Rumi would growl, her more demonic side taking over in defense of the one thing that couldn't be taken away from her. For Rumi to act in such a manner in front of the two people closest to her, to the point of being sisters, meant something bad had happened to her mate. No wonder she had run off, she was likely trying to reassure herself. “She dose, from what I can remember she became aware of them when she was five, asking me why she had a spiraling mark on her wrist. You've probably seen her tracing them unconsciously.” Celine stared out the window, praying that the only good thing that had happened to Rumi wasn't taken away before she had the chance to even met them.
Rumi had run, she didn't know where she was running to, or from, she just knew that she had to run, so she ran west, in the direction she could feel her mate was, it wasn't long before she was stopped by the sea, preventing her from continuing, whoever her mate was, they were not close to her, she could feel them across the sea, the pain form before had faded, but now there was fear, and confusion, then even those became muted as they began to suppress their emotions in effort to shield her, and she wined lowly, she didn't want them to mute their emotions, she wanted to help, but she couldn't go any further, as an ocean was quite literally in the way. So, she did the only thing she could, she began to sing, to hum to a Meledy that only she and her mate could ever hear, and the Honmoon hummed back, and echoed her hums, allowing her voice to be heard from any distance, and as she Hummed, she cried, as much as she wanted to aid her mate in their suffering, she could do nothing.
Danny was afraid, and confused, and scared and so many emotions he couldn't even name that he was panicking, he died, then came bac as a ghost, he hadn't even met his soul mate, and he knew that the pain he felt they could as well, it made him sick, the one person that meant the world to him was in pain because of him. He could feel their panic, their fear for him, their anger that he was hurt, that he had died, he could feel it through is soul mark, could feel the dull burning spread and could see the normally iridescent marks glow a muted angry red, so he calmed himself, taking breaths that he no longer needed, and got his emotions under check, he could still feel their panic, and could feel them getting closer before they suddenly stopped. Could feel their worry for him, their anger at the fact that they couldn't get closer, then he heard a hum, one so beautiful and tranquil that he could feel himself calming even further, it had him in a trance, one that he wasn't sure he wanted to get out of, he could feel their emotions even clearer, they loved him, and they hadn't even met, they cared for him, much more then he had ever felt even from his sister, who he was closest to. Then the world shimmered, and a blue glow flowed into the room, it was beautiful. And it hummed in time with the humming he could hear, then it faded away, and the emotions form his mate faded and dulled. He could feel them calming down, and due to that he calmed down further, only to be startled as a ring of light appeared on his stomach and split, leaving him as a human. His friends were startled at his suddenly human self. He breathed a sigh of relief he wouldn't be subject to his parent's whims due to their obsession.
Rumi stayed at the water's edge staring out into the sea and was startled when the now neon green glow of her marks faded and paled, back to the iridescence they were just a few hours ago and sighed in relief when they stayed that way. Her eyes went back to the water in the direction she just knew where her mate was, and smiled, whatever just happened, happened, and now, she knew roughly where her mate was, she was at the very edge of her county, where land met the sea, and straight ahead, was the United states, her mate was American, that was more then she had ever knew about them.
Hours later she returned to her home, where her friends, sisters really, were waiting for her, fear and worry were apparent on their faces, but they kept quiet, and she was thankful for that, Celine was also there, her face was blank, but her eyes held worry in them. Rumi just smiled and went to her room to sleep.
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Months later
Danny was still the school punching bag, but the incident with the portal made him much stronger, and subsequently much harder to burse, he also gained powers that mimicked the known powers of ghost. The ability to move through solid objects, he could fly freely when in his Ghost form and could kind of hover with direction in his human form, made falling from heights much easier to manage when he could slow himself mid fall. And the few times he tried to sing, he managed to put his friends and random passersby into a type of trance, nothing dangerous, but it was sometimes funny to see his friend's arguments fade into nothing when he started to hum. They simply stared at either each other or him with a dopey look, like they were high or content with something. He kept getting more powers, and he honestly couldn't keep track of them most of the time, two months after his accident with the portal, his friends gave up trying to catalogue all his abilities. About halfway through the year a new group of singers came out and took the world by storm, and boy was Ember mad about that, they called themselves Huntr/x, all three of them were beautiful, the youngest whose name was Zoey was Danies age at fourteen, the next oldest was Mira, who both Danny and Tucker teased Sam with her ‘not’ crush, and the last, and oldest at fifteen was Rumi, the ,in his option, most beautiful of the group. Something about her called to him in a way no one else had ever done before, and yes, he’s had crushes before, his infatuation with Paulina and Star were proof of that, but there was something about Rumi that called to is inner predator, and wasn't that a shock to figure out with everything else, his particular type of ghost, the one that was most common in the infinite realms, was predatory type, which explained why he suddenly was very angry and rather territorial of amity park whenever another ghost showed up, and why he stalked the blob ghost that showed up randomly. He couldn't help it; his own body was guiding him to fight with his all to ‘defend’ what was his. He didn't really like that aspect of his new body, but he can't do anything about it.
Rumi, who was a few months away from turning sixteen, felt that everything was going well, the honmoon was strong, her bond with her teammates was growing stronger, and her soul mate wasn't in pain for too often, she could tell they were fighting, something, whatever they were fighting made them angry, and made her think of a tiger or wolf, when they would get defensive over something. She had since explained what had happed a few months ago to her teammates, and they were supportive of her, they helped her get through the terror that had claimed her heart whenever she sensed her mate fighting something. Helped her deal with her anger at not being able to help them whenever they were in pain and helped ground her when she went into a trance, chasing a phantom voice that accompanied humor and contentment from her bond mate. She could almost hear them in her sleep sometimes, shouting at another, singing, or just being there, content with small hums that echoed in her head.
That changed when a chill settled in her chest, near her heart, it made her cold, to the point of needing sweaters and blankets in the middle of August, which was arguably the warmest moth for their current country. Her friends were worried about her and often glomped her in effort to help her get warm. Nothing worked, from coffee and hot tea, to turning up the heat in her room, the cold stayed where it was. And her markings, the ones on her right wrist slowly transitioned to a pale blue, and now a cold sensation, like sticking her arm into an ice bath, took hold of her arm. The cold feeling persisted for a month before any real change; the freezing grew and grew. And her core temp dropped at an alarming rate, and she grew sick, she couldn't get over it, no matter how warm she made the bath to soak in, how hot the food she ate was, nor how often she would end up in a cuddle pile with Mira and Zoey.
“How are you doing Ru?” Zoey asked concern evident, even as she herself shivered as the cold emanated from Rumi, while lying next to her.
“Like I'm stuck in the artic.” Rumi, as sick as she was, held onto her sarcastic barbs. She didn't mean to, but she always got irritable when she got sick, which was thankfully not often, due to her half human statis.
“Maybe this has to do with your mate? Have you sensed anything form him?” Mira was holding onto Rumi from behind. “They could be the reason behind this.”
“They're worried about something, and there also sick, there a general weariness that I can feel, that there not suppressing. Ther tired, exhausted. Probably haven't got much sleep in a while.” Rumi answered between coughs, and sniffles. She was worried, she always was when her mate wasn't happy or content. Rumi stilled suddenly and gasped as a flaring pain and numbness came from her stomach as she jerked as if she was punched in the gut by a car.
“Rumi!!!” both Mira and Zory shouted as they helped her settle back down as whimpers of pain broke out from her lips, as she cradled her stomach.
“I felt like I got hit by a car” as she turned onto her side to ease the phantom pain. A few minute later the phantom pain and the cold eased up a little as she was suddenly cut off from her mate's emotions. She shivered but not form the and stared in shock as a giant plant monster was standing in the middle of the street, he had to get it away from the city, thankfully it wasn't mindless and was focused on hunting him down for whatever reason. His ecto bolts did little more than piss it off, and the father away from the city he got, the stronger the thing became, as he got close to let lose some punches with his enhanced strength he was shot from behind from one of his friends, Sam, who was possessed, evident from her glowing green eyes, had raised the weapon he had given her to aim at him. He couldn't fight both the ghost and Sam at the same time, and the cold feeling inside him was growing stronger. Sapping his strength and stamina. So, he fled to his house, which he knew would at least keep the plant ghost away, and transformed back into his human self, before falling to his knees as his stomach flared with pain when the damage transferred to his human half.
“Damn, I think I broke a rib” Danny muttered as he made his way into his house and down into the basement where the portal was. A crash upstairs alerted him that the shield his dad had put up failed and that either a ghost or one of the possessed people had broken in. “common Fenton, gotta move” he muttered to himself as he made his way into the portal and began to fall, shock flashed across his face as his mate bond suddenly went silent. And he stumbled, it was still active, but he couldn't feel anything. He knew how worried his mate was when he had died, and whenever he ends up fighting one of his rouges. To suddenly not feel a thing, was off putting. He transformed and made his way to the far frozen, where he had made something of a friend when one of the saner Ghost showed up, curious about the stable portal. He managed to get the general directions form the ghost before they grew board and went back to their haunt. As he made his way to the far frozen, his vision grew dark, and the cold became too much for him to handle. As he fell, he could just make out the edge of the far frozen. And before he collapsed unconscious, he felt the cold snow began to cover him, blanketing him in its icy confines. His vison faded away as he made out a large figure covered in fur making its way to him. His last thought was on his mate, Theye'd never know what happened, where he we cold. “That, that feels wrong.” she whispered groaning at the sudden lack of feeling from her other half.
“what's wrong? Did something happen?” Zoey was in her face the second Rumi was able to sit up.
“I feel cut off, empty, like the bond...” Rumi trailed off as she suddenly looked at her arm, sighing in relief when the markings didn't show any sign of change. “Like the bond vanished, it didn't but it feels like it was cut or blocked. Their still there, same icy blue that they changed too, a few weeks ago.”
“there's very little that cut the bond and still leave both partners alive? Even less that can block the bond completely.” Mira said worked, even as Rumi assured them that her mate was still alive, just cut off from her.
Danny was cold, very cold, and he couldn’t do anything about it, and he knew that it was affecting his mate, he could feel their discomfort at the ever present cold, then his ghost sense activated making him even colder, and transformed, but before he could do more than hover, he was blindsided by a large plant like tentacle punted him through a building. He was going to bruise later, groaning he raised his head nt, just the sudden cutting of the bond, and he felt terrible about it.