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Going Ghost! (Young Justice) Chapter 93: Love and Sacrifice (3)
🕑 Added 2025-07-28 17:38:06 +0000 UTC[Third person POV]
Danny returned home with his mother late in the afternoon, his arms overflowing with bags of groceries that dangled precariously from his fingers. Each step he took was careful and strained, his face contorted with effort as he tried to keep everything from toppling over.
“Danny, you really didn’t have to take all of them at once…” Maddie said, watching him with a mixture of amusement and concern. A teasing smile tugged at her lips as she reached to help, though she didn’t quite interfere.
“I didn’t feel like making two trips. It's more efficient this way,” Danny grunted, his voice slightly strained as he shuffled toward the kitchen, grocery bags bumping against his legs with every step.
Maddie chuckled softly, shaking her head as she followed behind him. “So, what do you want for dinner tonight? Any cravings?”
“You can make whatever you want,” Danny said with a tired but sincere smile. “If you’re the one cooking it, I know it’ll be good.”
Her expression softened, momentarily caught off guard by his genuine appreciation. It was still new to her, this warmth he had started to show more often. “Alright then. I guess I better get started,” she replied with a light laugh.
“Thanks, Mom. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got something kind of important to take care of,” Danny said quickly, attempting to make a beeline for the hallway that led to his room.
As Maddie watched her son’s retreating back, her eyes grew distant and wistful. Her hands stilled on the counter as she thought, ‘I wish there was something more I could do for him… something to make up for everything he’s going through, to make it easier.’
But before her thoughts could spiral further, Danny suddenly peeked his head around the corner, his voice hesitant and a little awkward.
“Oh, right! Mom?” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “Uh, can I ask you for a favor?”
Maddie blinked, blinking away her thoughts as she focused on him. “Hm? What is it, sweetie?” she asked gently, noticing the slightly shy look in his eyes.
“Well… I know this is kind of random. And it’s totally fine if you don’t want to, but… when you have time, do you think maybe you could teach me some karate?” he asked sheepishly, shifting his weight from foot to foot. It was one of Danny’s previous regrets that he hadn't learned much from her when she was still around, he was hoping to fix that soon.
Maddie’s eyes widened in surprise before a bright smile slowly bloomed on her face. Internally, her heart soared. ‘Yes! This is it! The chance I’ve been hoping for! I can teach him how to defend himself properly—no more holding back!’ Her thoughts raced with excitement and pride. ‘I’ll turn him into the strongest ghost-hunter the world has ever seen!’
Outwardly, she simply nodded, her tone calm and warm. “I’d be glad to, honey. Perhaps after dinner, if you’re not too tired.”
“That would be great! Thanks, Mom!” Danny grinned and gave her a quick thumbs up before dashing upstairs.
The moment he closed his bedroom door behind him, Danny’s cheerful expression dropped into something far more serious. His eyes narrowed with determination, and in a swift burst of light, his form shifted—his clothes replaced by the iconic black and white jumpsuit of his ghost form. Without hesitation, he phased through the wall and into the evening sky, streaking toward the city like a silent wraith.
…
Meanwhile, across town, Sam had just finished her shower. Her skin still glistened with warmth as she wrapped a towel around her damp hair and began dressing. She slid into her underwear and dark skirt, humming to herself, before reaching for her cropped shirt.
She had barely slipped her arms through the sleeves when suddenly Danny phased straight through the curtained window.
“We need to talk—WOAH! SORRY!!” Danny shouted, eyes bulging in panic.
“DANNY!” Sam screamed, face turning crimson as she hugged her shirt across her chest in sheer mortification.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t know you were changing!” Danny yelped, instantly spinning around and covering his eyes, floating backward in mid-air.
Sam’s heart was racing, a mix of embarrassment and anger flaring up. “What were you thinking, barging in like that?! You couldn’t have knocked?!” she shouted, grabbing one of her pillows and hurling it with all her strength.
The pillow passed through him harmlessly. Danny caught it and hugged it like a shield, hovering nervously. “I’m really, really sorry,” he said, eyes still tightly shut. “But I needed to see you. It’s important.”
Sam’s anger wavered for a moment, giving way to confusion and apprehension. ‘Does it have to do with what I did? The ritual? Did he find out?!’ Her thoughts raced as she stared at his turned back.
“Are you, uh… done yet?” Danny asked awkwardly, still floating with his eyes squeezed shut.
Sam sighed, trying to calm her racing heart. “Just… give me a few seconds,” she said, pulling her shirt over her head and smoothing it down. “Don’t turn around yet. I still need to do my makeup.”
Danny tilted his head, genuinely confused. “For what?”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dare turn around, Danny. I don’t want you seeing me without makeup!”
He raised a brow but didn’t argue. “Seriously, what’s the point…? I think you look fine even without it,” he mumbled under his breath.
Her heart skipped a beat, and her cheeks flushed again from embarrassment, especially since she was much more aware of her feelings since the ritual. “Just… stay put,” she said softly. “I would’ve warned you I was changing if you had sent a text or a call, but noooo...”
“Sorry,” Danny muttered. “It was just… really important.”
Sam closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she finished fixing herself up. She applied a fresh layer of her signature purple lipstick, carefully rubbing her lips together to even it out. Once satisfied, she let out a soft exhale and said, “Alright. You can turn around now.”
As she walked over to her bed and sat down, she casually pushed some of her dark hair to the side, gathering it into a small ponytail behind her ear.
Danny, still floating in midair and hugging the pillow she'd thrown at him earlier, slowly turned around. He hesitated for a moment before drifting toward her. Sam had her legs crossed on the bed, looking composed, but he could tell she was just as anxious as he was.
“Do you mind if I…?” Danny gestured to the bed, glancing down as if asking permission to join her.
“Oh, now you ask for permission?” Sam said, raising an eyebrow. “Where was that energy when you decided to phase into my room while I was half-naked?”
Her voice had a teasing edge, but it lacked any real heat. She gave him a small nod, signaling that it was okay. Danny flushed with embarrassment and sat down beside her, careful not to sit too close. He took a deep breath, clearly trying to collect his thoughts before speaking.
Sam glanced at him, noticing the tension in his posture. “What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice soft with concern.
Danny hesitated, then looked at her with narrowed eyes, his expression growing serious—grave, even. “Sam… be honest with me. You did something recently, didn’t you?”
Sam froze. She could feel the weight of his words land on her like a stone. Her breath caught in her throat as she instinctively averted her gaze. “No. What are you talking about?” she deflected, her voice a bit too light to be convincing.
“Sam,” Danny said firmly, his tone low but sincere. “We’ve known each other long enough to tell when one of us is lying. Please… don’t make me ask twice.”
Her bottom lip quivered slightly as she bit down on it. After a long pause, she gave him a slow, reluctant nod—an unspoken admission. She couldn’t bring herself to say the words aloud, but the guilt was plain in her eyes.
Danny’s brow furrowed in concern. “What is it? What did you do?”
“I…” Sam looked away, clutching her hands in her lap. “Don’t worry about it, okay? It’s not important. It doesn’t concern you.”
“Sam,” Danny said sharply, leaning in closer. “Of course it concerns me! You’re my best friend—and more than that, I felt something. Something wrong. I’m worried that you did something dangerous… something you weren’t supposed to.”
Sam groaned in frustration and leaned back, staring at the ceiling as if asking the universe why she had to deal with this right now. Danny opened his mouth to press further, but then stopped when Sam lifted her hand.
She extended her fingers and wiggled them slightly, like she was playing an invisible harp.
Danny blinked, confused—until he saw the pillow in his lap begin to tremble. Slowly, it lifted into the air and gently floated across the space between them, settling onto Sam’s lap.
His mouth fell open slightly in disbelief.
Sam blushed furiously, hugging the pillow close to her chest. “I’m still new to it,” she muttered, her voice small. “The most I can do right now is lift light objects and float them around.”
Danny stared at her like he was seeing her for the first time. “How…?” he breathed, eyes wide.
Sam gave him a nervous, half-hearted smile and held out her arms theatrically. “Ta-da~ I guess I’m technically a witch now.”
She looked at him hopefully, searching his face for something—approval, pride, even mild amusement. Just something to show that he was happy she could finally be more helpful. That she wasn’t just standing on the sidelines anymore.
But instead of smiling, Danny’s expression darkened.
He reached out and grabbed her arms, his hands trembling slightly. His glowing green eyes locked onto hers, and his voice came out rough, panicked. “Sam… what the hell did you do?”
“W-what?” Sam stammered, startled by the sudden shift in his tone and the intensity of his grip.
“I know you did something to get that power. I felt it when it happened. It was like… like something inside me was torn out. You remember what I told you about Desiree? About how magic always comes with a price?”
His grip tightened involuntarily in his fear, and Sam winced.
“Danny… you’re hurting me,” she whispered.
He blinked, immediately loosening his hold. “Sorry,” he said quickly, withdrawing his hands. “I didn’t mean to—I just… please, Sam. I need to know what you did. This isn’t just about you. It affected me too. I have the right to know.”
Sam rubbed her arms gently, a subtle gesture betraying the storm of emotions swirling within her. Her eyes remained locked on Danny, filled with hesitation and guilt as she finally spoke in a trembling voice, “Don’t get mad at me, alright? But I… I gave up my bond… with you…”
Danny blinked, completely frozen for a moment before the words fully registered. “You did what?!” he burst out, shooting up from the bed as though the very foundation of his world had been shaken. He looked at her like she had just lost her mind.
“I said don’t get mad,” Sam mumbled, a small pout forming on her lips as she glanced away.
“Like hell I won’t be mad!” Danny shouted, his voice full of raw disbelief. “What the hell do you mean you gave up our bond?! What bond?! Like… our bond of friendship or something?! How could you do something like that without even telling me?!”
“Not exactly friendship…” Sam replied under her breath, her cheeks flaring up a deep crimson as was too ashamed to admit it. It would be no different than a confession.
Danny faltered, his anger shifting into confusion. “…Then what?”
Sam’s lips moved, but her voice was too soft to be understood. It was like she couldn’t bring herself to speak it aloud.
“What was that?” Danny asked, his eyebrows furrowing. He leaned in slightly, desperate to hear her properly.
“I said… mmm…m”
“Sam, speak up. I can’t hear a single word—”
“I said my love for you!!!” Sam suddenly shouted, her voice breaking from the intensity of her emotions. Her eyes brimmed with tears of embarrassment, and her face looked like it was about to burst from how red it had become.
Now standing fully upright, Sam clenched her fists and closed her eyes tightly, her whole body trembling. “There! I said it! Are you happy now?!”
For a few agonizing seconds, silence filled the room. When she dared to open her eyes again, she braced herself for rejection—disgust, mockery, or worst of all, pity.
But what she saw instead made her heart drop.
Danny wasn’t shocked or confused. He wasn’t angry anymore either. No, the expression on his face was far worse. It was sad. Devastated. His eyes were filled with heartbreak.
Sam’s own widened in panic. “Danny—”
But he drifted slightly back, his feet barely hovering above the ground now as he cut her off with a voice choked with emotion. “How could you possibly expect me to be happy… when you decided to sacrifice something like that?”
“I—” Sam tried to explain, her voice catching in her throat, but Danny didn’t stop.
“Did you even think, Sam? Did you even consider how I might feel? A bond isn’t something you give up on your own! It’s not one-sided! You don’t just get to decide it’s okay to throw it away! That’s selfish, Sam—really selfish!”
Sam’s eyes snapped open at that. “Selfish?! I did it for you!!” she screamed back, her voice cracking with frustration and pain.
“And I never asked you to!” Danny yelled, just as fiercely.
“You didn’t have to!!” she shouted. “You’re my best friend, Danny! You’re dealing with something big all on your own! I just wanted to help—I wanted to carry some of that weight for you! And if giving up my feelings for you meant I could be there for you better, then yes, I would do it again! A thousand times!”
Danny stepped forward now, his voice breaking as he replied, “And what about my feelings, Sam?! Did you ever think about those?! About what it would do to me—to know that the girl I love had sacrificed her feelings for me?! That we couldn't be together?!”
Sam froze. Her breath caught in her throat. “W-What… what did you just say?”
“I… I…” Danny stammered, realizing what had slipped from his mouth. His face turned crimson and he spun in place, running both hands through his hair in frustration before shouting up at the ceiling, “ARGHH! God, you’re driving me crazy, Sam!!”
He whirled back around and marched up to her again. “Did you really do it because you thought your feelings were one-sided?! Because you thought I didn’t feel the same?!”
Sam blinked rapidly, completely stunned. “T-They aren’t…?”
“Of course they aren’t!” Danny exclaimed, his voice full of anguish. “I felt it, Sam! When you let go of our bond, it was like something inside of me was ripped out! Like someone had reached into my chest and torn out a part of my soul—a part that only you completed—!”
Danny’s words stopped suddenly as Sam took a small step forward and, without hesitation, reached up and kissed him.
It was soft, brief, but full of unspoken emotion.
When she pulled away, their foreheads were nearly touching. Her eyes fluttered open and gazed into his.
“I’m sorry…” she whispered.
Danny brushed a hand gently through her hair, tucking a few strands behind her ear.
Their eyes closed slowly, leaning in again.
Sam rested her hands on his chest while he wrapped his arms around her waist. For the first time in what felt like forever, there were no words—just the sound of their breaths and the rhythm of two hearts finally beating as one.
In that moment, everything else fell away. No ghosts. No fear. No misunderstandings.
Just them.
Comments
KingSpy25i .
Damn! Was that a ending 😳 Thank you for the lovely chapter 🙏
Bryan Vargas
50/50 It was destroyed in order to recreate their bond but it allowed her to create constructs made purely from magic energy
Vrati
Does Sam also have power of the pink ring? Or is it completely destroyed to fix the bond and make Danny a harem protagonist? And is it pink or violet? I can’t remember all the colors of the lantern rings.
