A/N: AU where each season took a separate year of high school, so D-Stabilized happened in junior year, and this takes place a little less than a year later.

Dear Daniel,

The admissions committee has reviewed your application for admission for the fall of 2008. I regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you admission to Elmerton Community College and that we will not be holding reapplications this term. Please be assured that we gave your application a very careful review before making this difficult decision.

I regret to inform you… We are unable to offer you admission...

We will not be holding reapplications…

A drop of water stained the already-crumpled rejection letter. That didn't stop him from crumpling it again, with all the force of his Phantom form. He could have incinerated it with a weak ectoblast - or a strong one - but he shouldn't draw attention to himself. He wasn't expecting any ghosts after catching Skulker in a thermos this afternoon, but there could always be some dumb humans out. Stupid "paranormal investigators," making stupid documentaries no one outside the city would even believe. He didn't want anyone like that finding his hiding place at the top of the park's tallest aspen. Especially now.

We are unable…

He grit his teeth and smeared the back of his gloved hand across his eyes. What had he expected? His grades hadn't exactly been stellar all of high school. And it wasn't like he could include "classified as a spectral entity level seven," "saved Amity Park from being sucked into another dimension," or "can walk through walls, disappear, and fly" on his college application.

His future had been shot from the moment he stepped out of that portal. Why had he wasted four years pretending otherwise?

His shoulders shook as he wrapped his arms around his knees. A cut on his right calf - Skulker always left at least one mark on his pelt - brought more stinging saltwater to his eyes. That's what he blamed it on, anyway.

Pathetic, he thought, as darkly as if Spectra had sapped the light from him. Amity's 'hero,' crying over some stupid school. If anyone did see him... He briefly considered going invisible, but decided it would take more energy than it was worth. Anyone outside at this hour shouldn't be able to pick his black suit out against the night sky, and his white hair would blend seamlessly with the aspen's skeletal branches. His aura was too dim to give him more than a faint outline.

Besides, at this point, he didn't really care what anyone else thought about him. It was too late for that.

He should have known after the first three rejection letters. Those had stung - as had the loaded silences from the other three colleges he'd applied to. But Elmerton - everyone got in to Elmerton. The community college was his last ditch effort, a place he could've scraped together some generals before transferring somewhere else, somewhere with a space program. But he hadn't even managed that.

He chuckled, but it came out mixed with a sob.

"I really am a failure, aren't it."

No matter how many ghosts he defeated - no matter how many times he crammed Technus back into a thermos, or blasted Skulker out of the sky - none of it mattered. What was he going to do, fight ghosts forever? He'd thought about that, back in freshman, sophomore year. But ghost hunting didn't pay the bills - not the way he did it, anyway. Not even the way his parents did; their funding came exclusively from selling their inventions, not wielding them. His only shot at a career in ghost fighting would be with the Guys in White, and he'd rather drop dead - fully dead - than even consider that.

More water dripped down onto his knees. Stupid. His ghost form shouldn't even have the physiology to make tears. Not that his body seemed to care what should be possible.

"What am I going to tell Mom?" He muttered to himself, running his hands through his hair. She was so proud of Jazz, who was off at Yale. Dad would take it better, probably. Would they even be surprised? He barked out a laugh. For all he knew, they might have given up on him already. He hadn't been able to hide how pathetic his grades were. Last semester's last-ditch effort to save them couldn't make up for the three previous years of near-constant ghost fighting. Not that the ghosts had given him a break recently, either. Even if they had, he simply didn't have the foundational knowledge he needed to complete Senior Year. Algebra, Chemistry, English - he barely had a passing knowledge of the subjects he should've been learning the last four years. He was lucky he would graduate at all. Even that was probably just because his teachers were tired of braving conferences with his parents.

No, he'd never had a chance.

He hugged his knees tighter and stared up through the leafless branches. The waning crescent moon cast a sliver of light; constellations twinkled between silhouetted clouds. He didn't feel like tracing them out tonight.

With a final sigh, he relaxed his fist. The crumbled rejection fell through the branches below, bouncing off with a series of hollow rustles.

His future was just as dead as he was.

XXX

It was a quiet night - too quiet for Valerie. Normally she wouldn't mind. Normally she'd be thankful to fly home and roll into bed, finally get a solid eight hours, for once. But tonight she itched for something to hit, or better yet, something to blast into a million ectoplasmic pieces. Her deflated punching back back home wouldn't cut it.

Not a single ghost, she thought bitterly. She'd heard the news reports on the radio at the Nasty Burger; Phantom had taken out a big one today - Skulker, the description had sounded like. After a fight like that, the weaker ghosts knew better than to try their luck. For a day, at least. Still, she'd hoped at least one would be stupid enough. They must know the kind of mood she was in. They must know that this time she'd blow them apart before they could so much as shout "beware."

She let out a hissing sigh and wove through the trees, letting the wind rush around her. That was almost as satisfying as blowing something apart. Almost, but not quite.

Dear Valerie,

The admissions committee has reviewed your application…

She mentally mocked the words of her rejection letter. Rejected! Her! Sure, she was still working overtime at Nasty Burger - and hunting ghosts all night - and she was no longer receiving aid from that creep Vlad Masters - but she was smart. She'd always been smart. She'd always been… until she couldn't even keep her eyes open in class.

And here she was, out at who-knew-what-hour of the night, not even hunting ghosts this time. But it didn't matter. It wasn't like she had to keep her grades up anymore.

Her dad was going to be furious when he found out. That thought scared her as much as her lost dreams. So she shoved it into the back of her mind and poured on the speed. Faster and faster until -

She braked so hard the g-force smeared spots across her eyes. Better than her being smeared against the tree she'd almost crashed into. She reflexively retracted her board; her knees barely absorbed the shock of her landing. She leaned against the stupid tree and took a few deep breaths.

"That would be my luck. 'Red Huntress: survives hundreds of ghost fights; dies by tree.'" She snorted. Then punched said tree. It didn't hurt through her suit, but it didn't really make her feel better, either.

She slid down to sit on the leaf-littered ground with a sigh as it all hit her. The fatigue, the hopelessness, the loss. It flooded into the space left by her draining adrenaline.

She couldn't live like this. Not forever. She couldn't.

While she tried to piece together some alternatives to working at Nasty Burger forever, something caught her attention. A sound. A - sob?

Her first instinct was to power up her board and jet towards it, hoping it was a ghost she could destroy. But ghosts didn't sob.

And humans don't sit in treetops thirty feet in the air. Because that was where the sound was definitely coming from - her suit pinpointed the source more accurately than she could on her own. If that wasn't enough, she also saw something fall from said treetop.

She crept closer, noting that whatever was falling was taking its time, but following the general laws of physics - not anything ectoplasmic. It bounced off a low-hanging branch before landing among the dead leaves. Her eyes flickered upward; whoever - or whatever - had dropped it had made no other moves. She could still hear the faint sound of sobs.

Curiosity winning over, she stealthily avoided crunching the leaves and plucked out the fallen object, a tightly-crumpled wad of paper.

Dear Daniel,

The admissions committee has reviewed your application for admission…

Her eyes widened as she skimmed the rejection. The very same rejection she'd received earlier today. And from the clear teardrops staining it, it had been received about the same way. But how - and why -

Daniel. That couldn't be - but Amity Park was a small town, and in its one high school, she only knew one senior with the first name Daniel.

"Danny?" She whispered impulsively, looking up again. Her maybe-ex-boyfriend - if you could count a sophomore relationship as that - was way too scrawny to have made it up a tree like this. Even if he had put on a bit of muscle in the last couple of years - not that she was paying attention to something like that -

The sobs abruptly cut off. All was silent; even with her enhanced suit, she couldn't pick out the person's breathing. She cursed mentally. She hadn't meant to make herself heard, especially in her ghost-hunting gear. Especially if it somehow was Danny. Maybe she should power down her suit - no, that would be too loud; better to not draw any more attention to herself.

The soft sound of crying slowly drifted down to her again. Either they hadn't heard her, or they didn't care.

She glanced down at the crumpled rejection letter. Back up at the bleached tree. Sighed.

This is a bad idea, she thought. And then, utilizing the skill of several years of martial arts and ghost hunting, began to climb the tall aspen.

After all, what did she have to lose?

XXX

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," a familiar voice cut through his downward spiral of thoughts.

Great. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse.

"Leave me alone," he muttered. It was too late to preserve his dignity, and he really didn't want to fight her tonight. Not that she ever gave him a choice. "Don't you have anything better to do than pick on me?"

She didn't offer a snappy comeback. Through reddened eyes, he saw her heave herself up onto a branch perpendicular to his.

"Not anymore, no," was all the explanation she offered. He turned away, keeping his back to the trunk so she wouldn't see his pathetic, tear-streaked face.

That meant he couldn't keep as good an eye on her, though. She could easily shoot him at this range. He tried to bring himself to care.

"How does everything always come back to you?" She shot with words instead of weapons. Maybe he should've been grateful, but instead hot anger flashed behind his eyes.

"Me?" He spat back. "What are you going to blame me for this time, huh? I just want one night where I don't have to-"

"It's your fault all of this started!" She shouted, standing up on the limb and jabbing a finger towards him. "If you hadn't attacked Axiom-!"

"That was four years ago!" He levitated to a less compromising position, suddenly realizing that he did care about getting shot. Especially knowing what kind of canons she carried on the gauntlets of her suit. "When are you going to-! Oh, crap."

His eyes widened as he saw what she held crumpled in her other hand. She hadn't - what had she heard? He hadn't muttered anything that connected him with Danny Fenton, right? Mostly he'd just been crying, and… and had dropped that rejection letter.

"What?" She seemed momentarily startled out of her anger, then glanced at the paper in her hand. Her eyes hardened. "Don't tell me you're the reason Danny got rejected from Elmerton too."

You could say that, he thought as he hid a wince. Then something clicked.

"You got rejected from Elmerton?" He stared. Her dark look confirmed it. "But- but you're freaking smart! They'd have to be stupid to reject you!" Or else Elmerton was harder to get into than he'd thought. That idea brightened his mood slightly.

"What do you care, ghost scum? It's your fault anyway."

In the moment that he opened his mouth to protest, she fired. A purple beam took him straight in the chest, right over his logo. He flew back, crashing through clawlike branches before reaching open air.

He made the only smart decision he could: he kept flying. If Valerie had been rejected from college, she'd be in an even worse mood than him. Better not stick around and become collateral damage to her misplaced aggression.

The remnants of tears dried in his eyes as he sped over the park. He risked a glance over his shoulder; Valerie was only a few yards back, her board ready to fire.

Crap. He rolled in midair, dodging the worst of it, but a few violet bolts clipped his arm. Hissing, he pulled it in to his chest.

Wrong move. The brief flinch gave her opening for another shot. This time it came in the form of a net that engulfed him. An electric pulse paralyzed his muscles; the tight wire mesh pinned his limbs and sent him crashing towards the ground. He clenched his teeth to hold in a pained scream.

Getting rejected from college suddenly didn't seem like such a big deal.

XXX

She'd done it this time. No Danielle to worry about; none of Vlad's plans tying her hands. She'd caught Phantom fair and square.

Or was it? He'd been crying…

She shook her head, scooping up the net holding him while he shouted.

"You don't know what you're doing! Seriously, four years! When are you going to get over your stupid grudge?!"

"When you put my life back together," she growled. He squirmed in the net, but wouldn't get free. This was the last of the equipment she'd saved from Vlad, and she'd done a bit of extra tinkering on her own. The wires would shock him at any use of his ghostly tricks - something it had already done, if the scorch marks crossing his suit and cheeks were any indication.

"It's not my fault you're obsessed with hunting ghosts! You didn't have to throw your grades away hunting me!"

"Shut up!" She jabbed her elbow into his ribs before adjusting her grip and reactivating her board.

It was his fault, his fault her father had lost his job, his fault she'd spent the last four years working fast food, his fault she had to - she had to -

But did she? Did she really have to hunt ghosts more nights than not? Yeah, she did. She couldn't trust the town's defense to this ghost scum, who caused as much damage as he prevented as far as she was concerned. Even the Fentons agreed that he couldn't be trusted, that he was probably just acting on some unfathomable obsession. Even the tears he'd cried - the tears -

But ghosts couldn't cry.

But she'd seen his wet face, before her anger had taken over.

But ghosts couldn't - they physically couldn't -

She heard sniffling. Her board slowed.

"What?" He finally snapped, though his voice was hoarse. "You already know what a pathetic loser I am. Why hide it." His voice died off at the end, more like he was talking to himself than her.

She slowed her board to a stop, then swung his net off of her shoulder to look at him. Light as he was, it was still a bit awkward to hold him at arm's length. It didn't help that he was upside down, his face smushed into his shoulder.

"You're crying."

"Yeah, and you're being a heartless pain in my neck," he grumbled.

"Why?" She asked, surprising herself. Not how, not what kind of trick is this. Why.

"I don't know, you tell me," he snapped back. It took her a moment to realize he was referring to the heartless pain in my neck comment, and she scowled.

"Why are you crying." Though she wasn't sure she cared now, if he was going to be such a - such a -

"...I don't want to talk about it."

His voice was low but stubborn, and it reignited the stubborn streak in herself. Getting answers out of him wouldn't be that easy; she knew that. She forced herself to shrug, as if he wasn't getting under her skin already.

"Alright. Guess I'll just figure it out while you're chained to a lab table."

He flinched at that, as much as he could while still in the net, anyway.

"Does that mean you'll let me go if I tell you?"

She snorted.

"Right. In that case I'll keep my last shred of dignity to myself, thanks."

The snark was back in his voice, but his green eyes didn't show it. Their glow was dimmer than she'd ever seen it. And they were still rimmed with red. How badly did she want to know? It wasn't like it would be easy to capture Phantom again. It had been a stroke of luck this time - he'd been out of it, she could tell. Maybe because Skulker had already done a number on him today. Or maybe because he'd been crying.

As much as she hated it, this would haunt her if she didn't find the answer. And if it was something sensitive enough to make a ghost cry - impossibly - she wasn't sure she could just torture it out of him.

"Fine. I'll let you go if you tell me."

"Promise?" He asked skeptically.

"I-" she suddenly remembered the last time they'd made a promise. He'd made a promise. When they were rescuing Danielle. And he'd kept it.

"I promise," the words rolled off her tongue, like a noose around her neck. Maybe it was guilt, maybe it was the way he really did look pathetic, but she would keep it. A promise for a promise. This time.

"Let me go first," he tried. Maybe because he just wanted to escape; maybe because he didn't trust her word. She had to admit that either reason was valid.

"Nice try."

He forced a small grin. It quickly faded though.

"I had a rough day," he mumbled. "From the sound of it, you did too. You ever let yourself cry, Red?"

The question stunned her. Some kind of ghost trick, it sounded like. Getting the attention off himself.

"No," she lied. "But you'll be doing more of it if you don't give me a real answer."

"Fine, fine." He sighed. But he didn't offer an answer. His eyes closed.

"Well?" She gave the net a little shake. He was obviously buying time, but why? What lie could he come up with that would be better than the truth? Unless crying was somehow related to his weakness -

He laughed. It was hollow, echoing, dead as the trees around them.

"What's it matter, anyway? I can't keep this up forever. Not when we're both stuck in this town for the rest of our lives."

Her brow creased. What was he rambling about now? She had half a mind to shoot him again.

"You're not stuck here. You can go back to the Ghost Zone and rot there for the rest of your afterlife."

"You're wrong about that. But you didn't stay you're not stuck here. Because you are. If you didn't get into Elmerton, I'm guessing you didn't get in anywhere else. Again, stupid of them, but true, right?" He didn't pause for her to answer, or to ask how he knew she wanted to go to college in the first place. "You're not going to stop hunting ghosts. It's all you have left now. I get that, but that also means you're going to keep hunting me forever, and… I'm tired."

She saw it in his eyes. The faint glow of ectoplasm, fading in and out with each breath. Breaths he didn't need to take, but insisted upon faking anyway. She looked away, adjusting her grip on his net as she rubbed her shoulder. Holding up a ghost shouldn't make her this sore.

"I'm so tired, Val."

Her eyes snapped back up when he said her name. Her real name. And not just that but - he had no right to call her by her nickname!

"How do you know my name?!"

He cracked another empty grin.

"How hard do you think it would be to find out? I have ghost powers; I could've followed you anywhere - but I didn't." He sighed, moved his arm as if to rub his neck, but the net didn't allow that much movement. "I'm too used to lying," he muttered before finishing, "We've known each other for a long time. Longer than you know."

Now he was clearly trying to trick her. She grit her teeth and pointed her gauntlet at his head, the other arm trembling as she held him up.

"Shut up, Phantom!"

He winced. "You're right. That did sound bad. Look, I might be able to think better if all the blood wasn't rushing to my head-"

"You don't have blood."

He laughed. It felt a bit more real - more alive? - than his last one.

"Tell that to my migraine. But seriously. If you won't let me out of the net, at least flip me over."

"Fine." Only because she was sick of talking in circles with him. Besides, if she set him down, that gave her two hands to shoot him with. She powered down her board and set him upright against a thick maple.

"Much better." He smiled, but the sadness had crept back into his eyes. "Alright. Where were we?"

She had a hundred more questions now, and a hundred percent less patience. So she fell back on her original one. Her fists clenched and unclenched with each word.

"Why were you crying?"

"Right." He tried to rub his neck again; even at his new upright position, the netting had shrunk to pin his spectral form. "Fine. No more games. But… you're going to have to ask yourself a question, too. You're going to learn something tonight if you push this. And you're not going to like it."

She frowned. Something about this had to do with her? Or was it just more stalling? He looked serious, more serious than he usually did. No cocky smirk graced his face. A face that looked older than she remembered. It had been a long time since she'd caught him up this close. But ghosts didn't age, either.

"Just tell me, Phantom." If there was one thing they could agree on, it was that they were tired - and not just because of the late hour.

"That's what I thought." He sighed. "You still have my rejection letter?"

"Your-?" She did still have the letter; she'd stuffed it into her left gauntlet, just in case. "But it's addressed to-"

"Daniel. I know. Trust me, I've read it enough times," he said bitterly. She barely heard.

"You're telling me a ghost wanted to go to college."

He shut his eyes, smacking his head back against the tree. "You really don't get it, do you! Sheesh, maybe Elmerton was right to reject you after all."

Sick of his words - especially those words - she blasted him. Point-blank. It would've been a solid hit, if it weren't for the fact that the netting absorbed the majority of her blast. Stupid; if a ghost couldn't blast its way through, then neither could she.

Phantom still looked fazed, though. He curled up tighter, only allowing the net to constrict him further.

"This isn't easy, you know! I've never told anyone - I've never had to - I hate this!" He finally yelled - not just yelled, but wailed. It was a small one - nothing like the massive destruction he could've caused - but the net wasn't built to withstand a ghostly wail, especially not after the blast she'd given it. The net barely sent out an electric shock before the wires shredded around him. She threw up her hands to block the spectral sound waves, but still skidded back several feet, her ears ringing.

"Phantom-!" Her own voice sounded faint in her ears, like they were stuffed with cotton. His groan came back even fainter.

"Nngh…"

She'd expected him to use that opportunity to flee, but he didn't. As if that attack had taken the remainder of his fading energy, he collapsed onto his hands and knees.

"Nngh… no… I don't want to… like this…!"

What was he doing? His teeth grit from effort, but he didn't seem to be preparing another attack. His arms trembled; she stepped back, just in case. Just because he looked like he was in pain didn't mean he was. This whole encounter was even more confusing than his usual antics.

White rings formed around his middle, and she was glad she'd taken the precaution. She crossed her forearms and formed a magenta shield from her gauntlets.

"Gah-!" He let out a final gasp, and - nothing. The rings of light snapped back, pulling into his core. Phantom was left breathing raggedly in the leaves.

She had half a mind to shoot her last net, but… he was right about something else. He did look pathetic. Tears were pricking his eyes again, only visible with the enhanced vision of her helmet. Something uncomfortable squirmed in her chest. Guilt? Pity? Nothing she should have to feel towards the ghost boy.

But she did only have one net left. It might be worth saving.

"What was that?" She demanded, trying not to let her conflicting emotions enter her voice.

He let out a soft moan. Guilt pricked at her again. Why? Why did he have to sound so… human this time? She'd never seen him so vulnerable before, even during the brief time she'd captured him. He'd been too determined to save Danielle that time. This time, it felt like he'd just… given up. Like he didn't even care.

She should be happy, shouldn't she? At least if he was finished, then her four years of ghost hunting meant something. Not getting into college meant something. Right?

"...Phantom?"

He pulled his arms around himself as she crept closer.

"I've got to tell her," she heard him murmur. "I should've just changed, I'm just making it harder… I can't even get this right…"

"I can hear you, you know." It wasn't the most sensitive reply. She wasn't sure why she cared. Maybe at this point she was just embarrassed for him. Her greatest enemy had become a muttering mess, and she still didn't know why. She'd rather have his ridiculous cocky banter than watch this.

He laughed a little. "'Course. Gah, this is so embarrassing…"

He hissed in pain, but shoved himself back so he was sitting on his heels. He wiped the back of his hand across his eyes, which were so dull by now, they almost looked human. The squirming in her chest intensified as she crouched in front of him. What could she say? She didn't feel right making more demands of him, as much as she wanted to. She half expected him to just break down in tears again if she did.

Instead she pulled the Elmerton letter out of her gauntlet and smoothed out the majority of the wrinkles.

"So… does this belong to you or not?"

He barked out a laugh. "I wish it didn't. Wouldn't have ended up in this mess. You keep it."

"Thanks, but no. One's enough for me." She crumpled it again and flicked it at him. He laughed for real at the childish action as it bounced off his forehead.

"I still can't believe it. You and me, stuck here in this heckhole."

"Heckhole?" She raised an eyebrow. He shrugged with a grin. His sudden mood swings were dizzying to follow.

"Mom doesn't like swearing."

She wouldn't exactly count hell as a swear, but that was the least of her questions. Why would he go through so much effort to hide any scrap of information, then suddenly let out details about his mom of all things?

"You're making that face again. Trying to figure it all out, aren't you?" He shifted to a more comfortable position, sitting cross-legged. Not the best position for a quick escape, unless he just morphed his legs into a ghostly tail. No matter how he tried to put her at ease, she couldn't let down her guard.

"You're not making it easy," she said, and he sighed.

"Telling the truth doesn't come easy to me anymore. Not after four years of… this." He waved a hand vaguely.

Four years. Four years ago, he'd first appeared in Amity. Not long after that he'd trashed Axion and put her on the path to becoming the Red Huntress. Changing her future forever.

"...Is that when you died?" She got up the nerve to ask. It might have been the first question she hadn't worded as an accusation. Maybe that's why he smirked and shook his head.

"You could say that." He frowned. "There I go again. This would be so much easier if you'd figured it out yourself. I really thought you would, after Danielle."

Danielle? What did the half-ghost have to do with anything? Sure, Phantom might have helped the girl, but that didn't make him innocent of everything else.

"Just get to your point, Phantom." Her guilt was wearing off, now that he looked fine again. She had no way of knowing his emotions hadn't been faked to begin with.

One last sigh, and then finally - finally - he met her eyes. His were glowing again, with both ectoplasm and determination.

"I'm sorry, Val."

She flinched back from the name and from the white rings engulfing him. This time they didn't snap back - they spread apart, sweeping over the upper and lower halves of his body. When she blinked the spots out of her eyes, she saw the last thing she expected.

Staring back at her with nervous eyes was Danny Fenton.