A/N: Hi, guys! *wave* So I know I don't normally write for Danny Phantom, but I got a request so I made a special exception. *grin* It was a request for a sad Danny Phantom oneshot, which isn't easy, but hey. Challenges are good.

Title: Veritas

Author: liketolaugh

Rating: T

Pairings: None

Genre: Tragedy/Angst

Warnings: Character death

Summary: In the end, it's ghost hunters who end Danny Phantom. (Danny's death, and then the things that come after.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, nor do I want to. If I owned it, I'd have to take responsibility for the monstrosity that is Phantom Planet.

Danny was panting.

He wasn't often out of breath when he was in ghost form - he didn't need nearly as much then - but this time, he was being pushed to his limits. Rain pounded against his back, soaking his jumpsuit and hair and rendering the world dark and murky, and sweat trickled into his eyes, making him blink and squint. Blood and ectoplasm dripped out from under his hand, where it was plastered to his side, and was washed away by the rain.

It hurt.

"You can't run forever, Phantom!"

Danny gritted his teeth and banked to one side, and Valerie's shot just missed him, leaving a scorch mark on the pavement far below.

"Watch me!" he shot back, and swerved to try and lose her in a maze of buildings.

No luck, of course - she could swerve very nearly as well as he could, but at least it had put his parents some ways behind, even if it didn't delay the Guys in White any - they were everywhere. He closed his eyes briefly, gritting his teeth.

Why was this happening?

Another shot sent him crashing to the ground, and he felt a fresh splash of water soak his jumpsuit further, sopping wet. He rolled over, pushed himself up, and set off on a staggering flight path back into the air.

"Not this time, ghost boy!"

When did Mom and Dad catch up? Danny wondered frantically, trying to make himself go faster, fly faster, but he was too tired, he ached. He let go of his wound and blindly shot a weak ectoblast backwards, hoping to blow out a tire. No luck.

It was never this hard to get away. Fear burned in his chest, and he wondered, half-panicked, if he could stop his parents, if they decided to take his ghost form out for good. If he'd be fast enough.

"Stop!" he screamed, or he thought he did, but it was hard to think. He was so tired.

"Freeze, Danny Phantom."

Normally, Danny found the droning, interchangeable voices of the Guys in White to be funny, but normally, there weren't so many of them, and normally, they weren't working with his parents and Valerie.

Normally, they didn't come this close to catching him. It wasn't funny anymore.

He forced a smirk. I'm fine, he reminded himself. I'm fine. They haven't caught me yet. This is just a bad day. Just another really bad day, and later, I can laugh about it with Sam and Tucker and Jazz can scold me for being reckless…

Please, let us laugh about this later.

"Ca…" Danny coughed and his flight path stuttered again. He felt a sharp pain in his neck, but ignored it. He tried again. "Can't catch what you can't see!"

He tried not to resort to this, because he knew that they had ways around it and they would make them better if he made it a go-to, but he turned invisible and intangible and tried to phase through a building he was passing by.

He failed - banged off the wall like he was still solid, because he was.

That was bad. That was really, really, really-

"What the-"

"Nice try, ghost!" Jack's voice was unnervingly triumphant. "But now that serum's in you, you aren't going anywhere!"

Serum?

Dazedly, Danny reached up, and his fingers brushed against a dart in his neck. His eyes widened and he pulled it out, but it was too late.

It's fine, he insisted to himself, breathing too fast. I can get out of this. I can still get out of this. I always do.

"You're going down this time, Phantom!"

That was Valerie again, and he was too slow to avoid another shot that bounced him painfully off the wall, and he fell to the ground.

Danny's eyes were wide and darting, and he felt frozen. Rain pounded down from above, and he could hear the Guys in White closing in from their various locations. But it was his parents and Valerie who really worried him. To the Guys in White, this was just a job, but those three really hated ghosts.

He was so tired, but he had to get up. He had to get away.

"Y-you don't know what you're doing," he snapped weakly, pushing himself up and- ow. He almost fell back down as pain shot through his back and side. He'd pay for this later.

He couldn't see his mother's expression, not through the haz-mat suit, but he could imagine it well enough. He knew how she felt about his ghost form. "We know exactly what we're doing, ghost."

"Surrender!" The Guys in White again, cordoning off the area. Mentally, he cursed them; if there weren't so damned many of them here, he'd have been able to get away.

No. No, he could still get away. He took off, dizzy and shaking, but it didn't matter.

A gun fired; Danny thought it was from one of the Guys in White. He fell and didn't get up again.

It was at about that moment that Danny realized that he wasn't going to get away this time.

Panic got him to open his eyes, but that was all it got him, and he stared around him - the vans of the Guys in White, his parents pulling up and scrambling out of the RV, Valerie cautiously drawing closer far above - with dazed, dimming green eyes.

This was it. This was it, this was it, this was-

"We've got him," the Guys in White reported unnecessarily.

Danny was lying on his stomach, head tipped back and eyes shining with fear. He looked from Valerie, changing the settings on her gun, to his parents, just a few feet away. He opened his mouth and tried to speak. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't mean- Please-

Valerie pointed her gun at him, calm and deliberate. There was a whine as it charged. Cold flooded Danny's system and he froze, eyes widening, like a deer in the headlights.

No!

She fired.

He was thrown, again, against the wall, and suddenly it didn't hurt anymore, it just felt cold, and wet, and his eyes were wide and he looked down and-

There was a hole in him. There was a large, ragged, burned hole in him, and it didn't hurt, it just felt cold, and it was hard to think and he knew this was bad but he couldn't think of why.

"We did it!" Jack cheered, and Maddie chuckled a little at his enthusiasm, and Danny stared in confusion at the ragged hole in his stomach.

"Let's see you terrorize the town now, ghost," Valerie said smugly.

His vision fogged. His head dropped down. His eyes closed, and his chest rose and fell raggedly.

Danny felt tired. Was it okay to go to sleep?

Wait, no, he wasn't home. He had to get home first. He opened his eyes and tried to push himself up, but his arms felt like lead, and he couldn't even lift his head. That didn't seem right.

"...He's taking an awful long time to dissipate," Maddie murmured.

Warmth rushed over him for a split second before the cold returned, and he felt cold rainwater under his cheek. Black hair fell in front of his eyes and stuck to his face. He couldn't hear anything except the pounding of the rain, and even that was distant.

I'm sorry, Mom, Dad. I don't think I'll make it home tonight.

Sorry, Jazz. I know I promised I'd check in with you once I was done with my patrol.

Sorry, Sam, Tucker. It's Friday. We were going to have a movie night tonight.

"...Danny?"

Footsteps.

"Oh my God, Danny!"

Clatter. Hands under his back and head, lifting him off the wet ground.

"Mads, we need to stop the bleeding!"

"Jack-"

"We need to stop the bleeding!"

He opened his eyes - when had he closed them? His mother was staring at him with wide, horrified eyes, guilty and tortured. That wasn't right. She looked so upset.

"Mom?" he managed, voice thin and soft.

"I'm right here, Danny, stay with us," she said quickly, almost too quickly for his mind to process. He forced a smirk.

"'M not going anywhere," he mumbled. He couldn't move, so that would be kind of hard. And then, returning to his previous train of thought, "Sorry."

His father was there, too, hands doing something out of Danny's sight - his range of vision was strangely limited right now. He frowned and tried to look down again, but Maddie stopped him.

"Don't look, Danny. We'll fix this. Oh, God, Danny, why didn't you say anything?"

He blinked at her. His mind was moving too slowly. What didn't he tell her?

Well, a lot of things. But what was she upset about? What had he done this time?

There was Valerie, in her Red Huntress suit, standing behind Maddie with her hand over her mouth. As he watched, she crumpled to the ground, and he tried to get up, worried.

Maddie pressed him down and he frowned.

"Don't move," Maddie told him, voice cracking. She sounded like she was going to cry. He felt guilty, but he also felt really, really tired… His eyes slid shut.

He'd only be asleep for a bit. Then he could get to all of those things he'd promised he'd do.

He'd only sleep for a bit.

"Danny! Danny, wake up!"

Sorry, Mom.

So this part is a bit short, but the next two should be longer. I'm planning to update next Saturday, and then the one after, in keeping with my normal update habits and because I have a busy weekend ahead. *apologetic smile* Thanks for reading, and please review!