Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You want me to what?!”

“Come on, Ember, please?” Danny begged. “You want out of the Ghost Zone, right?”

“Um, not sure if you remember, Babypop, but last time I did a concert in your town, well, I got shoved into that thermos of yours. Why the hell would I want a repeat of that?” Ember asked skeptically.

“Well, if you don’t use your ghost powers, I won’t have to do that,” Danny reasoned. He wasn’t worried about her answer, knowing eventually she’d agree; in the month since the Time Glitch Incident, where things had been reset to just after the Disasteroid problem was solved (in this timeline, without the ghosts, thus Danny was back to his secret identity being unknown), he’d been working on his relationships with ghosts, and there was little antagonism with Ember now. Honestly, even before that their fights and banter had been more playful than anything; Danny deciding to work on connecting more with ghosts, to be the ‘bridge’ that would connect the realms, had simply solidified that relationship.

“Right…” Ember trailed, crossing her arms. “And what makes you think the school would allow it?”

“You’ll be part of a band. School doesn’t need to know,” Danny said. “Honestly, all you need is a change of outfit, and they won’t suspect anything.” After all, Phantom was simply a pallet swap of Fenton yet no one had ever caught on, at least based on looks.

“Yeah, you got me there,” Ember conceded, then frowned as she considered that. “I dunno… I do want to play, but in the background?”

Danny shrugged. “I mean, being the main singer might actually make people notice, since you do still have lots of fans in Amity Park… Although, I guess maybe by the time we’re up there they can’t really stop us… Still, though…”

“Eh, whatever. Background’s better than nothing I guess; I’m pretty bored right now, so I’ll bite.”

Danny grinned. “Awesome!”

“Wait, hold up,” Ember said, seeming to realize something. “Who else is in it? Because if that Tucker kid—”

Danny cut her off. “No, no, Ancients no,” he assured her. “He doesn’t even know about this yet. So far, we have you, Sam, and this emo kid Jazz knows from her school called Lurker—dunno if that’s their real name.” Danny also suspected the college student was some sort of non-ghost cryptid, but if so they were silent on that and Danny wasn’t about to ask them directly—all of Amity Park had quickly learned not to question the human status of people from the town’s newly-erected (well, more specifically, it mysteriously appeared in the middle of a row of townhouses near the center of town, in an alley that shouldn’t have been nearly large enough for an entire building triple the width of Fentonworks; curious townspeople had tried to measure the distances of the street, but for some reason no data could ever be collected as people would forget the numbers almost immediately and trying to write them down first, even digitally, yielded nonsensical symbols) branch of Miskatonic University, collectively deciding that ghosts were the only supernatural thing the town needed and ignoring everything else. Danny continued, “They have a keyboard that also does synth sounds, Sam’s a beast on the electric violin and can do background singing, you could do guitar and background singing, but we still need a drummer and lead singer.”

“Tch. Just a singer? Lame. Guitar and singing is so much cooler. Also, dipstick, there’s different types of guitars—I play a six-string, so you’ll want a bass guitarist, too. Find someone who can do both bass and vocals.”

“Okay, well, do you know of anyone who can do both?” Danny retorted.

Ember grinned. “As a matter of fact, I do—you.”

Danny blinked in surprise. A flat “What?” was all he managed.

“Yeah, you! I’ll teach you some basic guitar skills, and get you into something fashionable!”

“Okay, first, I can’t sing. Second, my fashion is fine. Third, Public Enemy #1, remember?”

Ember rolled her eyes. “Not as Phantom, as Fenton, duh. We’ll discuss the fashion thing more later, but come on, two years of the same look has gotta be boring. And you can definitely sing, nimrod. I’ve heard it.”

“What? When?” Danny asked, confused.

“You sing in the shower.”

Danny paused, processing that for a moment before saying with incredulity, “You’ve watched me shower?!”

“Tch. No, that’d be, like, an invasion of privacy. But you’re loud, and I’ve been through the portal while you were in there. Like, pretty sure every ghost who regularly sneaks through has heard it at least once. Some even stop to listen.”

Danny felt his face redden (he wasn’t quite sure how that worked, given technically he bled green) as he realized that apparently all the regular ghosts had heard his awful shower singing. It hadn’t occurred to him that ghosts’ enhanced hearing would allow for that.

“It’s not awful,” Ember said, predicting his thoughts. “Far from it—like, first of all, all ghosts have perfect pitch, music being the language of emotion and all that, so it’d literally be impossible for you to be horrible unless you tried. But even by ghost standards your voice is, like, super harmonious. You’ll be an awesome lead singer.”

Danny frowned. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, referring to both perfect pitch being a ghost ability and that he could sing well.

“Nope, not at all!” Ember assured him. “Confidence and showmanship could use some tweaking, but we’ll work on that… How much time we got?”

“Huh? Oh, the concert’s on October 7th,” Danny said, realizing he forgot to tell her.

Ember gave Danny an incredulous look. “A month? Seriously? That’s not a lot of time… But, doable,” she decided. “You gotta promise to practice every single day though, seriously!”

Danny nodded. “Of course,” he said, though was still a bit skeptical that he could learn enough to play a concert in that time frame, or even wanted to be in the band, but he felt like he had no choice as to either.

“Then come on, let’s go find that drummer!”

Ember turned and flew off further into the Ghost Zone, and Danny was quick to follow, realizing she probably meant ghost musicians. Having one ghost in the band was risky, but two? Or, two and a half, technically, as Danny sincerely doubted Ember would let him off the hook. She’d likely make it part of the deal. Well, he’d come this far, and he hadn’t seen Ember this excited in… well, since the pirate ship thing. Why not?

To Lancer’s total surprise, Daniel Fenton arrived at school early the next day, so much so that he entered Lancer’s classroom before any other students.

“The Time Machine! Mister Fenton, you’re actually here on time—early even!” Lancer declared.

Daniel ignored the exclamation and happily announced, “I found a band for the school festival!” He grinned, showing off what appeared to be fangs.

Lancer’s jaw dropped at the cataclysmic news. “You did?!” he proclaimed, ignoring the fangs—probably just some new fashion trend. This must be a prank; there was simply no way that Daniel Fenton had found a band in less than a day when Lancer had been searching for weeks. Honestly, when Fenton had said he’d find someone at the end of detention the previous day, after seeing Lancer embarrassingly fretting over his failure, Lancer had thought the boy to have only been strangely attempting to comfort him, not seriously willing to help, even though earlier in the day Lancer had offered extra credit for any student who managed to find one—if anything, he’d expected the money-wasting ‘A-list’ kids to, via bribing.

“Yeah, that’s what I just said,” Daniel replied, a little testily. “I told you I would.”

“Yes, yes, you did,” Lancer said as he gathered his composure, ignoring the attitude. He shouldn’t have assumed the worst; it was something Lancer had vowed to work on for this year’s New Year’s resolution, yet had once again forgotten. “Apologies; it’s just, unexpected, considering every single band I’ve contacted has said no—apparently the school is either too haunted or too cheap for them. What’s the band?”

“Uh. We don’t have a name yet,” Daniel said with realization, as though he’d forgotten one was needed.

“It’s your band?” Lancer asked, now skeptical.

“Well, kinda? I only just got the people together, but they’re all great musicians, I swear!”

“Hmm. I don’t know…” Lancer said, now unsure—true, he couldn’t find anyone else, especially on the meager budget the school offered, but a student band? He wasn’t even aware Daniel played an instrument!

“Would you rather have no band?” Daniel challenged.

“Ah, well…” Lancer debated that. It would look worse to have nothing, that was true. They’d really hyped up the school’s first ever Fall Festival, which was an attempt to help bridge the ever-widening gap between the community and Casper High, which had increased significantly after recently being nicknamed ‘the most haunted school in America’ by Time Magazine. “Well, perhaps if no one else steps up…” he trailed; maybe he could keep trying, though honestly he was running out of time. It was September 8, and the festival was to take place on the first Saturday of October, which was the 7th. Most bands wanted longer than a month’s notice, so even if he did manage to find a band actually willing to play in Amity Park there would be a good chance they’d now say it was too little notice.

“Please? I need the extra credit,” Daniel entreated. “We’ll do it for free!”

Well, that cinched the deal, Lancer decided. Looks like the festival could have that balloon arch after all; it being out of the budget had been a disappointment to many. “Well, I suppose we can’t get better than that,” he said, then something occurred to him. “Just, promise me, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, that Mister Foley isn’t in it? Or at least, won’t have a vocal role?”

“Oh, definitely not,” Daniel said, looking properly horrified at the very idea. “He doesn’t even know yet about the band existing.”

“Good, good,” Lancer said, sighing in relief at the disaster averted. “Oh, I suppose I should ask, though: what kind of music is it?” He couldn’t be picky, he knew, but parents might be angry if it were something more controversial, like death metal or the new ‘gangsta rap’.

“It’s just going to be covers of popular songs, that’s okay, right?” Daniel asked. “Like, probably a mix of rock and pop? It’ll be a mix of decades, too, maybe sixties through now, so the parents will be happy too? I mean, it just formed, so not really time to write anything new…”

Lancer nodded, especially liking the mix of decades, then noticed students were starting to trickle in, the first two being Lester and his twin brother Nathan, as usual, Mikey right behind them. “Understandable, of course,” Lancer told Daniel. “You’ve got the job. Now, get to your seat; looks like your classmates are arriving.”

“You what?” Sam hissed at lunch—she and Danny were sitting at a picnic table outside, eating packed lunches while Tucker braved the cafeteria, not yet back with the questionable food served there.

Danny could practically taste Sam’s anger—or, actually could? Danny was still unclear if he could actually sense emotions like other ghosts could, or if he’d just always been that attuned to emotions. Ever since learning how ghosts were connected to emotions, Danny had been musing over that, as well as sometimes vaguely wondering if he could feed on emotions too before quickly pushing that thought away. He wasn’t that much of a ghost! …Or was he?

“I found more band members,” Danny told Sam as calmly as he could, his tongue fiddling with his tiny fangs (they had grown in the other day, after both his canines had somehow gotten knocked out in a fight, and were still incredibly sore), knowing well what Sam was really questioning.

“Yeah, I heard that—I meant the other part! You’re joking, right? You gotta be joking; Jazz found more of that kid’s friends to do it, or something, right?”

“Ah, no, I’m serious,” Danny said sheepishly, feeling slightly guilty. He hadn’t told her about where he planned to get the other band members. If this was just her reaction to Ember…

“Danny, and I say this with incredulity and affection, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Well, quite a bit, actually,” Danny quipped back, trying to ease the tension. “I mean, I’m half-dead, to start with! But, come on, it’s a good idea, right? She’s a great musician.”

“Yeah, as well as a ghost who tried taking over the world!”

“Well, she promised not to do that this time,” Danny pointed out.

“Oh, and you trust her on that? Well, whatever; your funeral if she betrays you. Or if ghost hunters get wind of it, which they will, considering it’s her.”

“Nah, she promised to wear a disguise.”

“Oh, well, that’s totally foolproof,” Same said sarcastically, complete with an eye roll. Then paused. “Actually, no, in this town, maybe it could work. Just, please tell me the other ones you found are more human…”

“Well, er, one of them is?” Danny said. “At least, a little bit…”

“Just one? You said you found four members!” Sam sighed in exasperation. “Okay, fine, who are the others?”

“Kitty, Johnny, and me,” Danny quickly revealed. “First two were excited, third is reluctant but Ember made it part of the deal. Kitty’s doing bass, and Johnny’s doing drums.” Kitty had been there when they asked Johnny, and apparently she had a bass guitar when she was alive and still remembered how to play (Ember tested that, and to the surprise of everyone there Kitty was good).

Sam sighed again, clearly frustrated. “Okay, I guess those two aren’t so bad, as long as they don’t fight on stage, and they can pass as human,” she conceded.

“Great!” Danny said.

“But!” Sam continued, “You can’t be the last one! There’s no way no one will recognize Phantom, even with a disguise. And what are you even playing?”

“Well, yeah, that’s why I’ll be in human form,” Danny said. “It’s not like I want to, but all three of them decided that if I’m not in the band, they’re not. I’ll be doing guitar and vocals.” Since Kitty could do bass, Ember had decided Danny would be using a six-string too, as it would be easier for her to teach him using her preferred style of guitar.

“And you don’t think that’ll get you bullied more? The A-listers won’t let you live that down,” Sam pointed out. “You don’t even know how to play guitar, and when the class did karaoke, well, that didn’t exactly end well.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “That was in, like, seventh grade. Ember says my singing isn’t actually that bad now, given that apparently all ghosts have perfect pitch—yeah, music is a ghost power, who knew? So she’s going to help me fine-tune that. And she’s going to teach me how to play guitar and be more of a stage presence or something. And Kitty says with the right fashion it might actually boost my popularity, at least enough to stop being Dash’s target…” He was skeptical of that, but the small hope had been part of what convinced him to agree. “I mean, it’s worth a shot, right?” Danny asked upon seeing Sam’s look of disbelief.

“Okay, you’ve officially gone off the rails,” Sam concluded. “Seriously? You seriously plan to get singing and guitar lessons from a ghost?!”

“And showmanship and fashion,” Danny reminded her, before realizing that saying that would only add to Sam’s ire. He was excited about that though! Showmanship was important for being a hero, too, so maybe it would help with Phantom’s public image. He was also excited about new clothes—Ember was right, Danny needed an updated look, considering he hadn’t been clothes shopping in two years. Which, come to think of it, at his age was kinda odd… Nope, not the time to think about that possible clusterfuck. He was just a late bloomer, that was all.

“You’re doing what now?” Tucker asked as he sat down beside Danny, lunch tray filled with something that vaguely resembled meatloaf and somehow smelled like pea soup.

“Nothing!” Danny said quickly.

Sam simply glared at Danny.

“I feel like I missed something big,” Tucker said with a frown. He looked at Danny. “I heard you say something about lessons from a ghost? Please tell me you’re joking.”

“He’s not,” Sam said flatly, pulling out her phone. “I’m telling Jazz about this, maybe she can talk some sense into you.”

“No, wait!” Danny said, lunging for the phone, ending up halfway through the table before Tucker pulled him back to his seat. Ugh, he hadn’t had an accident like that in a while; why were his powers acting up so much in human form lately? Was it backlash for almost letting his ghost half fade?

“Okay, spill,” Tucker said firmly.

“There’s nothing to spill,” Danny said, blushing and looking at the table.

“Uh-huh. And I’m a purple-back gorilla,” Tucker said flatly, then sighed. “Look, if Sam’s telling Jazz about whatever this is, maybe it isn’t a good idea?”

“No, it’s fine,” Danny insisted. “They all agreed to behave.”

“Tch. And what about Ember’s boyfriend? Skulker’s going to hunt you even worse when he finds out!” Sam said.

“Oh, no, they broke up,” Danny informed her. “Skulker’s been, well, sulking for the past few days, and Ember says it’ll be at least another week before he recovers mentally, then another week or two to get his suit functional again, since she burned it.”

“Okay, fine, but after that, even if they’re exes, if he catches you with her…”

“Wait, what?” Tucker said, sitting up straighter and looking at Danny with incredulity. “You’re dating Ember?!”

“What? NO!” Danny shouted, drawing some stares. Then he told them more quietly, “Of course not. She’s just going to teach me to sing and play guitar.” Plus Sam would probably kill him fully if he ever dated a ghost. There was also the fact that Ember was a girl, and Danny was starting to suspect that—no, no, he told himself he wouldn’t think about that. That was practically a death sentence, with the amount the bullying would surely increase. Plus he had no clue how his friends or family would react to that.

“Like that’s any better,” Sam hissed.

“Why?” Tucker asked warily. “Like, no offense, but you don’t really have the best voice.”

“Ember disagrees,” Danny said petulantly, offended. “And you’re one to judge!”

“Hey! I’m a rockstar,” Tucker defended. “Besides, who says she’s not messing with you?”

“She’s not—it’s actually a ghost thing. All ghosts have perfect pitch,” Danny explained.

Tucker raised a skeptical eyebrow. “My dude. Are you seriously saying singing is a ghost power?”

Danny shrugged. “Ghosts are emotional beings, and music is often called the language of emotion, so why not?”

“Yo! Fenturd!” came Dash’s voice, and Danny turned to see the bully stalking towards him. The air practically felt charged with Dash’s constant determination to cause Danny misery just for existing.

Danny winced. “Oh, great.” Then, he gasped as his ghost sense went off. “Double great.” He should have expected a ghost that day, honestly; the shields were down for maintenance, and his parents being in the building doing said maintenance would definitely not deter many ghosts.

“I heard you got some newbie band for the festival!” Dash said, grabbing Danny by the collar. “It better be a good one, or you’re in for a beating!” There was what Danny could only describe as a ‘violent charge’ in the air around the bully.

Danny rolled his eyes. “Like I wasn’t already?”

“Yo! Get away from Babypop!” came a shout, followed by a guitar strum and a wave of (fairly weak) energy slamming into Dash.

Dash dropped Danny and stumbled back as the ghost sirens blared. “What the fuck?” he said, swerving around.

Ember floated down to the ground, ignoring the screams (some in fear, some in joy because it was Ember) and Dash, who appeared stunned by being so close to her—whether that was due to her being a ghost or due to her being a popstar was undetermined.

“Ember?! What the hell are you doing here?!” Danny asked incredulously.

Ember shrugged, indifferent to the chaos around them. “Apparently, saving you from a kid who I’m pretty sure is gonna murder someone someday.”

Danny scoffed. “Please, Dash isn’t that bad.”

“Dude, his vibe was, like, definitely a future-serial-killer one.”

Danny rolled his eyes; surely Ember was exaggerating. “Whatever. Why are you really here?”

Ember raised an eyebrow at him. “Seriously? I’m here to pick you up for your music lessons, dipstick.”

“I have school!” Danny protested, as Dash regained his senses and fled.

“So?”

“I can’t just skip school!”

“Tch. It’s for music lessons, just consider it part of your education. We gotta do it now so you’re ready for band practice later, got it?”

“But…” Danny trailed off, biting his lip a little. It did sound much more appealing than school.

“Danny, be responsible,” Sam said.

Ember replied, “Pfft. Come on, you can do school later. It’s music time now!”

Danny considered that. It was awfully tempting. “You know what, sure,” he decided.

“What! No!” Sam protested.

“Yeah, man, haven’t you missed enough school already?” Tucker pointed out.

Danny shrugged and stood up. “Like Ember said, music lessons are technically education, right?”

“You two wanna join?” Ember offered.

“Again, we have school,” Sam said flatly.

“Depends; where are you doing them?” Tucker asked.

Ember looked at him like he had two heads. “Um. My lair, duh.”

Tucker winced. “In that case, hard pass. I hate being in the Zone.”

“Yeah, same,” Sam said.

Ember shrugged. “Your loss. I’ll see you at practice later, I guess; now, let’s go, Babypop.”

“But I didn’t agree yet,” Danny pointed out, still on the fence. It sounded fun, but school existed. Although, technically the lessons were school-related though, as they were to make sure he could play during the school festival…

At that moment, Danny’s parents rushed out of the school building, his dad yelling, “Get your hands off of Danny you rotten ghost!”

Ember just rolled her eyes and grabbed Danny by the hand, pulling him into the sky and off towards the portal, his parents yelling after them in panic as his dad shot weapons their way, stopped quickly by his mom who reminded him that Danny was there (not that it mattered from how wide the shots went). Valerie showed up too, yelling in rage, though seemed to realize they were already too far away to follow as Danny activated his invisibility, which Ember apparently had forgotten to do.

This was going to be a disaster.

Sam stared at the spot where Ember had vanished with Danny, trying to convince herself that she wasn’t feeling jealous. Of what, she wasn’t sure—it wasn’t like Ember was a threat to their friendship… Was she? Not for the first time, Sam wondered if she had interpreted things incorrectly when she and Danny had amicably broken up after only a month of dating—Sam had thought their love was more platonic and family-like rather than romantic, and Danny had easily agreed with what seemed like relief, but then why was she so jealous when she thought of him and Ember hanging out? …Alone, in the ghost’s private lair…

Did Sam still have romantic feelings? She was certain Danny did not. In fact, she was starting to suspect he might not be attracted to girls at all, regardless of past relationships—not that he would have realized it, though, being the oblivious goof that he was. And if he did, well, coming out was a bitch. Maybe if Sam came out to him as bi he’d confide in her? But even if so, she hadn’t come out to anyone yet, and the task was daunting. She could never let her parents find out, that was for sure, not until she was 18 and out of the house—they would immediately send her to one of those camps. She wondered if this was how Danny felt about revealing his secret ghost identity to his parents.

Danny would also probably be hanging out with Kitty and Johnny too, come to think of it… Sam didn’t like that either. She knew Danny didn’t see every ghost as a threat anymore, including ones that were former enemies, even was getting friendly with some of them, but the idea of him actually making friends with ghosts… Especially ones he still regularly fought, however playful those battles seemed to be lately. Or, was it actually play? Hadn’t Danny told her something about ghost culture and friendly fighting? Sam didn’t like the idea of that.

“Dude, I really missed something, didn’t I?” Tucker said, blinking a few times. “Wait, did she say something about a band?”

“Wait a second,” Sam realized, frowning. “I’m in the band too! Are they seriously going to practice without me?!”

Tucker swerved to face her. “Wait, what?”

Sam slammed her hand onto her face. “Dammit, I wasn’t supposed to let you find out about that.”

“Hold up, you’re in a ghost band?!”

Sam winced. “Ah, well…”

Surprisingly, Jack and Maddie saved Sam as they ran over.

“What happened to Danny!?” Maddie demanded. “Why did that ghastly ghost grab him?”

“And why aren’t you more worried?!” Jack fiercely questioned.

“Jack, obviously they’re in shock,” Maddie told him.

“Uh… Yeah, totally,” Tucker muttered. “Definitely in shock…” Maybe he even was, but less from Danny being ‘kidnapped’ and more from the ghost-band bombshell Sam had dropped.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Maddie asked more gently. “Do you know where that ghost took Danny?”

Tucker regained his senses. “Uh. She went—Ow!” he yelled as Sam kicked Tucker in the shin with her combat boot. Catching himself, he then said, “I mean, uh, she went… That way!”, pointing in the opposite direction as they had gone.

Maddie frowned. “But we saw it fly the other direction,” she said.

“Uh, yeah, a misdirection! Didn’t you see her turn around just before going invisible?”

Jack gasped. “Of course! Just the kind of sly trickery one would expect from a ghost! Maddie, to the GAV—if she’s still close, we can track her!” he raced off along with his wife.

As they left, with Maddie scolding Jack about using correct pronouns for ghosts, Jazz joined them. “So, what’s really going on?” she asked casually. She was at the school under the guise of ‘helping’ her parents with the school’s security system upgrades, which in reality meant adding in a few modifications so it wouldn’t trigger a lockdown every time Danny used his powers.

“Ember took Danny to the Ghost Zone for music lessons,” Sam said flatly.

Jazz blinked in surprise. “Should we rescue him…?” she wondered.

Sam sighed. “No need. I gotta get over there too, for band practice, apparently. Or rather, to convince them to hold it in the human realm.”

“Wait, what?” Jazz asked, seeming to need a moment to process that.

“Yup. The rest of the band is ghosts, surprise.”

Jazz sighed. “Of course it is…” she muttered. “I’ll go notify Lurker.”

“Oh, right, they probably don't want to be in the Ghost Zone,” Sam realized. Sam didn’t really want to be either, but she was used to it at least.

Jazz waved a dismissive hand. “No, they’ll be fine with that, they’ve lived in worse dimensions,” she said vaguely, and Sam had a feeling she didn’t want to know. Jazz continued, “But, I can see if I can get a non-Ghost-Zone studio space reserved last minute.”

“Oh, no need,” Sam said. “My house has a music studio already.”

“Is there anything your house doesn’t have?” Tucker asked in awe.

Jazz then frowned. “Wait, the Specter Speeder currently isn’t working; Sam, you can’t get there unless Danny returns for you.”

Sam closed her eyes and sighed. “Of course it is. Well, I guess you and I are hanging out today, Tucker,” she said.

“You don’t think he’ll return for you?” Tucker asked, clearly surprised.

“Nope,” Sam said flatly. “He’s going to lose track of time; it’s all wonky in there and he never remembers to recalibrate his watch.” This would not be the first time this happened.

Tucker winced. “Yeah, I hate how right you are…”

Suddenly, the school bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. Ugh, right; it rang 5 minutes earlier than it used to, a quirk of the post-Time-Glitch world.

“Oh, I forgot about that,” Tucker said, blinking.

“Well, see you later,” Jazz said, heading off.

Sam sighed. “I really don’t feel like going back to class,” she told Tucker.

“Eh, same,” Tucker agreed. “Hey, wanna skip and go to Nasty Burger? I couldn’t take more than two bites of today’s school slop.” He shook the lunch try, and Sam winced as the greyish blob jiggled.

Sam shrugged. “Why not,” she decided, feeling a need to eat her feelings of frustration despite having just eaten lunch. Oddly enough, Nasty Burger had some pretty great ultra-recyclo vegetarian stuff.

As the two began to leave the school campus too, someone grabbed their backpacks, halting them. “Oh no you don’t,” Mister Lancer told them, pulling them around and then leading them back to the building by their backpacks. “You two will be going to class, and after your classes, because you’ve attempted to skip, you will be going to detention where you’ll help grade papers for the freshman english class.”

The first thing Ember did upon bringing Danny to her lair was to push him onto the couch and hand him a guitar. The guitar was a familiar one, a dark lavender base with spiked… wings? and a flame-like shape to the end above the… frets? (Danny wasn’t well versed in what the parts of guitars were). Cyan flame accents decorated the body of the guitar.

“This is now your guitar,” Ember told him. “I recently got a new one, so you can keep it; call it a gift to new friendship.” She hopped next to Danny on the couch and summoned her new guitar, which was similar albeit with a few more spikes to make the body more flame-like and instead of purple and cyan it was bubblegum pink with a more chaotic crimson and black fire design decorating it.

“You sure?” Danny confirmed.

“That’s what I said, isn’t it, dipstick? If you don’t accept it, band ain’t happening.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks, then,” Danny said, knowing she was serious, then realized something. “Wait. Isn’t this the one you used to try to take over the world? Twice?”

“Yup!” Ember told him, seeming rather proud of it. “It can also do some cool stuff like amplify attacks or shoot enchantments!” She told him happily, then noticing his expression quickly amended, “But we’ll just be using it for the sound of course, the attack setting will be off.”

“Right… So, I don’t know much about guitars; this is a six-string you said? Is that typical, or do they usually have less? Is six harder to play?” Danny asked, choosing to ignore the part about it also being weaponized. He recalled Kitty’s only had four strings.

“Nah, six-string is pretty standard,” Ember explained. “It’s a higher pitch so has thinner strings, which actually makes it a little easier in my opinion. Just can take longer to figure out the chords and remember the notes. Bass is lower so has thicker strings; with only four there’s less notes to remember but you really gotta hold down the strings and strum hard. I really think you’d do better with a six-string.”

“Oh, okay,” Danny said. “I’ll trust you on that; you know music best.”

“Damn right I do!” Ember said proudly. “Also, I was thinking, maybe that Lurker kid would be game to play keytar instead? Dunno if he’s used one before but it’s not that different from a keyboard, just more mobile, which would be better for choreography. Think he could?”

“I’m honestly not sure; Jazz found him. Honestly, I haven’t even met him yet!”

Ember laughed. “Wow, you’re really unprepared for this, aren’t you, Babypop? Well, let’s get to it then—first thing, get that guitar attuned to you.”

“Attuned?” Danny asked, confused.

“Yeah, I told you, it’s yours now. I don’t need my old one.”

“Oh. Thank you,” Danny said, surprised. “You sure?”

Ember rolled her eyes. “Again, yes. Stop asking that. I wouldn’t have told you to attune to it if I weren’t, would I?”

Danny scrunched his brow in confusion. “I still don’t know what that means?”

Ember looked at Danny with incredulity. “Seriously? You don’t—oh, I guess you might not know terminology, since you’re so new. I mean, connect it to you, so you can manifest it at will.”

“Manifest it?”

“Uh, yeah? Like this,” Ember said, then summoned her own guitar out of thin air.

Danny took a moment to process that. “I can’t do that,” he said.

“Well, duh, you haven’t attuned to it.”

“No, I mean I can’t summon objects at all.”

“It’s not summoning,” Ember corrected. “It’s manifesting… Oh, are you already at max capacity?”

Danny scrunched his brow in confusion. “No…? I seriously can’t do that.”

Ember gave Danny a skeptical look. “Then how do you think your suit happens?”

“My… suit?”

“Yeah? Your suit is bound to you, that’s why it reforms when damaged, and why you’re not naked when you switch forms… Wait, did you not know that?”

“No, I didn’t,” Danny said.

“No way… Wait, then you didn’t choose that outfit? It’s just what you died in?”

“Yeah…? Wait, ghost outfits can be changed?!” Danny asked, then realized he’d seen Ember herself in different outfits, and Vlad definitely didn’t die in a cape.

“Dude. Do you really think I wore a leather crop top and leggings in the 70s? And, what, did you think I just put the pirate outfit on top of my usual one or something? Yeah they can be changed! It just needs to be ectoplasm-infused. Then you unattune from the current outfit and attune to the new one,” Ember explained.

“But, then why don’t I see ghosts change much?” Danny wondered.

Ember shrugged. “What’s the point? Ecto-based clothes are self-cleaning, and repair themselves, so if you like the style, why waste the cash and bother taking the time to change, unless you’re bored with the style or need a specific costume for something?”

“Oh. I didn’t think of it that way,” Danny realized. He had noticed the self-repair, but hadn’t given much thought before to the fact that his ghost suit never needed cleaning. If it was infused with ectoplasm though, that made sense—the stuff repelled dirt and disease like it had a vengeance against it. Honestly Danny wasn’t sure why his parents hadn’t yet attempted to make any first aid or cleaning products from it.

“Dude. Okay, we need to get you into something better than that suit, then,” she decided.

“Uh, no, it’s okay!” Danny quickly said, then explained, “It’s recognizable. If I want to be the Town Hero, I need people to be able to easily identify me.”

Ember considered that. “Okay, fine. Then attune to a second one, I’ll show you how to switch between them,” she said, her usual outfit suddenly shifting into her pirate one.

“Why?”

“Oh, hey, you already have a ghost attitude towards it, nice!” Ember cheered, and Danny wasn’t sure if he wanted a ‘ghost attitude’ towards anything. “But, it’ll help for stealth to have a second ghost outfit, right? If you need a disguise but don’t want to go human.”

“I guess that’s true,” Danny said, a little uncomfortable with the ‘go human’ line, as it implied his human half wasn’t the default—did the ghosts see Danny as a ghost with human powers or something? He was even in human form at the moment. “I’ll think about it,” he decided.

“Cool. Oh wait, where were we? Right, attuning the guitar.”

Danny frowned. “I still don’t think I can do that? Like, I can with my clothes I guess, but not other objects. I have to carry objects the old-fashioned way.”

Ember then had a look of realization. “Oh! You’re thinking of human objects. This guitar was made in the Ghost Zone, by a ghost instrument maker. Ghost objects like this can be absorbed into a ghost and then manifested at will, just like clothing. You didn’t know that?”

“Uh, no. Still don’t think I can though.”

Ember gave Danny a flat look. “Dude, your core is uber powerful. You can definitely attune to ghost objects.”

“Oh,” Danny said. “I… hadn’t realized that. So how…?”

Ember reached forward and put her hand on Danny’s chest. “I’ll try to guide you. Feel your core in your chest? Focus on—wait, whoa. What the fuck?” She looked worried. “Babypop, what did you do?”

“What do you mean?” Danny asked in confusion.

“Your core. It’s, like, drained.”

“Drained?” Danny focused on his core. “It feels the same as it always does,” he said. “Maybe a little more charged than usual, actually. It does that in the Ghost Zone for some reason.”

Ember gave Danny an incredulous look. “You... Wait. You are aware that ghosts need ectoplasm, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Danny said. “That’s why you guys need to recharge in the Ghost Zone sometimes.”

“Then, why are you intentionally starving yourself?” Ember asked, looking worried and nervous.

“I’m not,” Danny said. “I eat plenty.”

“Clearly not, if your core is like this. I’ve got some food you—”

“No need,” Danny interjected. “Like I said, I eat plenty.”

“Yeah, human food, maybe. But you need ghost food.”

“No, I don’t,” Danny argued. “I’m not a full ghost. I’m part human. So I don’t need ghost food,” he told her, though found himself not fully believing his own words. Still, he insisted, “I’m different.”

Ember shook her head. “Hate to break this to you, but part human or not, you’re still part ghost, too. You gotta feed it, and the ambient ectoplasm in your house sure as hell ain’t enough if your core is like that… it’s gotta be affecting your powers, I bet.”

Danny frowned. “My powers are fine,” he said, really not liking the implication that he needed ectoplasm to survive. He wasn’t that much of a ghost… was he?

Ember didn’t reply. Instead, she de-manifested her guitar and stood up, moving to the fridge, out of which she took what appeared to be a plastic drink bottle that looked a bit like gatorade except for the fact that it was glowing green and the label was in ghost runes. She returned to the couch, took the top off, and handed it to Danny. “Humor me,” she said.

Danny accepted the bottle, but only looked at it. “I can’t drink this,” he told her.

“You can and you will,” Ember said.

“No, I’ll get sick.”

“Do you actually know that?”

“Well, no…”

“Then, try it. Trust me; you just said you feel a slight charge just by being here, right?” Ember reasoned. “I’m telling you, it’s the ectoplasm. Drink it.”

Danny frowned. Ember seemed extremely confident in this, and she did have a point about the Ghost Zone making his core happy. It felt kinda like the peer pressure to do drugs that the DARE program talked about—well, Danny never had been good at listening to authority. He took a deep breath. “Bottoms up, I guess,” he muttered.

Danny took a sip, and his eyes widened. It was good! The drink’s flavor itself was orange, but the ectoplasm infusion added a pleasant zing to it. His core positively purred with just that single sip. He felt like he imagined someone severely dehydrated would feel when encountering water, and before he knew it, Danny had downed the whole bottle. His core vibrated, feeling more charged than it ever had.

Ember laughed. “Wow! Guess you really did need that!”

Danny nodded. “That was… wow.”

Ember put her hand on Danny’s chest again, over his core. “Hmm. Needs more,” she concluded, then hurried to grab another from the fridge.

Danny quickly devoured that one, too. His core positively buzzed, almost in relief.

Ember again put her hand on Danny’s chest, then nodded. “Oh, yeah, that’s fully charged now. You’ve seriously been relying only on the ambient ectoplasm in Amity Park? Like, I know your house has a lot, and I bet your human food is contaminated, but I’m honestly surprised you lasted a whole two years like that! Your powers were probably suffering for it.”

“You think?”

“I know. I’ve had my core that drained before; it sucks. Like, everything feels muted, and your senses go all wonky. I could barely sense peoples’ emotions, and couldn’t really tell the difference between ghost presences, it was so weird! Literally every ghost set off my ghost sense, known friendly or not. And manifesting things was so difficult. Felt super tired, too, and my stamina sucked.”

“Wait, that’s just not my sucky sleep schedule?” Danny said, surprised. He did feel less tired than earlier though, despite having gotten a whopping 3 hours of sleep the previous night. The comment about 'ghost sense’ was interesting too; did all ghosts have a ghost sense, not just halfas?

Ember shrugged. “Dunno, since most ghosts don’t sleep, but I’d say it’s a good bet.”

Danny struggled to process this. Had he effectively been starving his ghost half? Did he really need ectoplasm to survive?

“So, Babypop, now that you’re all charged, I’ll show you how to attune to your new guitar, and we can get to learning!”

“Sounds good,” Danny said, though was still conflicted about the ectoplasm requirement. It charged his ghost half, true, but because of that… somehow, he felt like he was less human, even though it apparently had been something he needed all along.

Danny also belatedly realized that he had never switched into his ghost form the entire time he’d been in Ember’s lair—not even when drinking the ectoplasm, which was in an amount that would kill a human. It reminded him of another existential crisis he’d been having off and on: ever since the Time Glitch incident, at the end of which Danny had accepted that he belonged to both the human and ghost worlds, vowing to be the bridge between the two, Danny had been noticing less and less of a difference between his Fenton and Phantom forms, with the conclusion that at this point it was essentially only his look that changed.

Not for the first time, Danny wondered just how much human was left in him, because he was seriously starting to suspect that he was no longer an even split between human and ghost, if he ever truly had been.

Jack rested his hand on his chin, elbow on the desk, as he rewound the school’s security feed and watched the interaction between Danny and the ghost once again.

After going in the direction Tucker pointed seemed fruitless, Maddie had suggested—well, ‘suggested’ implied Jack had a choice, so it was really more like ‘demanded’—that they split up to search, her continuing in that direction while Jack went to go search in the opposite direction just in case the ghost had doubled back. Jack had suggested checking the security feed to see if there were any other clues that could be found, although Maddie had vetoed that, saying they’d seen the ghost run off with Danny and ghosts could only have ill intentions so there was no information to gain.

Jack decided to check the security feed anyway, and was frankly glad that he had, because the interaction the ghost had with the humans there appeared to be very different than had been assumed. Maddie of course would say she was tricking them, but Jack didn’t see a reason for the ghost to do that when she could have easily swooped in and taken Danny immediately if she wanted to.

Yet she didn’t. The video unfortunately was silent, and from a fair distance, but when zoomed in, although blurry, you could still tell what had happened was vastly different than expected of a ghost, leaving Jack to wonder not for the first time if what he’d believed for so long about ghosts was true, and certain that he had jumped to conclusions earlier; not that he could tell Maddie that, of course, but perhaps he could talk to Danny to get his thoughts on the matter and explain this further.

After all, Danny had very clearly gone with the ghost willingly, after a brief argument that Jack assumed was related to whether to cut class or not, given Danny had glanced at the school a few times while looking contemplative and then appeared to be happily agreeable. Then, she took him by the hand to fly him away—not by the arm, not roughly, by the hand in a fairly loose grip that surely Danny could have easily broken out of if he really wanted to.

Jack rewound the video back to when the ghost first appeared, rewatching the most damning piece of evidence that this was not as it appeared: the ghost had not just defended Danny from a bully, but used a non-damaging attack to do it. Jack had seen footage of that very ghost destroy cars with energy blasts from that guitar, yet she had used just a small one. For some reason, she cared about avoiding damage to humans… And for some reason, she seemed to care particularly for Danny. After all, she had no reason to scare off the bully, other than to make sure Danny was okay—and the angry look that crossed her face before had the same protectiveness Jack had seen in Danny’s other friends and Jazz towards the boy.

Clearly Danny was with the ghost by choice. This ghost clearly cared about Danny, to the point she was willing to protect him, meaning this may have happened before and Danny was likely safe. Perhaps they were even friends. Therefore, there wasn’t a need to look for Danny yet; he’d return on his own, as usual—maybe even before dinner, although Jack doubted that.

Jack was at a loss of what to do now that he was armed with this information. Should he tell Maddie his conclusion? No, Maddie would just yell at Jack again about how he shouldn’t humanize ghosts—she always did that, insisting ghosts were evil, thoughtless, and emotionless, no matter how much evidence there now seemed to be to the contrary. She constantly berated Jazz and Danny for trying to say there were good ghosts, too, insisting they could only be malevolent. But this interaction alone seemed to prove otherwise.

Well, Ember had tried to take over the world before, and later used the adults to power a pirate ship. That was pretty bad. But despite that she never seemed to have truly cruel intentions, from what Jack observed, and maybe was even over her world-domination phase—she popped up sometimes to get into fights with Phantom, which nowadays seemed more playful than anything, but otherwise didn’t bother anyone with more than some property damage. The fact that Phantom seemed to be playing too more or less cemented that fact—the Ghost Boy often got extremely angry at any ghosts with clearly bad intentions.

But, what did this all mean? Was Danny friends with Ember? Was that possible? Should he ask Danny? No, Danny would just immediately deny it whether it were true or not, given Jack’s previous position on ghosts, and it’s not like Jack could really explicitly announce a change of views, not without destroying his relationship given Maddie still was so rigid about her views on ghosts. Perhaps he could shift her perspective?

Jack’s reverie was interrupted by his cell phone ringing. “Speak of the devil,” he muttered upon seeing the caller ID, then he flipped it open and answered.

“What’s up, Mads?” Jack asked.

“Hi sweetie!” Maddie’s voice chimed. “How’s the search going? I’ve had no luck yet.”

“Ah, yeah, same,” Jack lied.

“Well of course you wouldn’t,” Maddie said, “Given you’re at the school for some reason. Didn’t I tell you that would be fruitless?”

Jack winced. “Ah, yeah, you—wait,” Jack cut himself off, narrowing his eyes. “How do you know where I am?”

“Lucky guess.”

“Right,” Jack said, making a note to check for tracking devices again; she’d said she’d stopped that but evidently she hadn’t. Jack didn’t feel like arguing about that at the moment though. “Well, I just wanted to be thorough,” he said.

“There’s thorough, and then there’s foolish,” Maddie snapped. “Do you want to find Danny or not?”

“Of course I do!” Jack said, though actually was unsure if it was a lie or not. If Danny went willingly, wouldn’t violently snatching him back do more harm? Because Maddie would be violent towards the ghost, of that Jack was sure. Given that, it might be better to let Danny return on his own—suggesting that to Maddie though would only end in another fight, and Jack was incredibly tired of fighting.

“As I thought. Now, come outside; we’ll search the other direction together, as you should have been doing in the first place.”

“Sure thing, Mads,” Jack said, trying not to feel too bad about her chastisement. It was easier to just outwardly agree with her, even if internally he felt differently. She always said he was in the wrong, so he was—that’s how it had to appear.

Jack really hoped something would change, that somehow she’d start accepting that ghosts weren’t inherently evil and might even be worth talking to; he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep hiding his evolving beliefs from his wife.

Danny returned home after dinner time, making a show of entering the house from the front door even though he’d actually returned through the portal—unbeknownst to his parents, Tucker had created a lock on the Ghost Zone side, so Danny didn’t need to wait for someone to open it.

Danny then made the embarrassing mistake of walking through the front door without opening it. He winced and glanced towards the living room, where he expected his parents to be waiting for him, desperately hoping they didn’t see. Thankfully, his parents weren’t actually there; instead, Jazz was seated on the couch. As he moved from the entryway into the living room, she finally saw him, crossed her arms, and sighed before telling him flatly, “Mom and Dad saw Ember ‘kidnap’ you.”

Danny winced. He had forgotten they were at the school, and it had not occurred to him that what happened could be interpreted as kidnapping. Or, maybe it was kidnapping, technically? Either way, that wasn’t good; he didn’t need more reasons for his parents to hate ghosts. He was supposed to bridge the gap between worlds, yet everything he did seemed to only enlarge the gap further.

Although, maybe the kidnapping excuse would work in his favor, since he would otherwise be in trouble for coming home past dinner time without calling. Absence of phone notwithstanding, he’d been having so much fun with Ember, then eventually Kitty and Johnny too, learning guitar, and then just hanging out together in general, that he had barely even noticed the time passing—all four of them had so much fun, in fact, that they had forgotten entirely about general band practice. Danny hadn’t realized it could be so much fun hanging out with ghosts! They’d been on friendlier terms for a while, but the concept of actually spending time with them was new. Danny found himself wanting to do so more often; hopefully it continued beyond just the band stuff and festival.

Hopefully Danny’s human friends would be okay with the situation… Oh, crap. Speaking of, Sam was going to be pissed! Danny had assumed that Sam would show up to let them know it was time for the whole-band practice, which is why he hadn’t been monitoring the time too closely, but he had forgotten that the Specter Speeder was down for maintenance.

“Danny? You with me?” Jazz said, now looking worried.

“Huh? Sorry,” Danny said, snapping out of his reverie. “Just realized that my parents aren’t going to be the only ones angry.”

“Actually, I doubt they will be, considering they thought you were kidnapped,” Jazz said as she stood up. “I, however, am.”

“You are?” Danny asked, confused. Her demeanor read angry, but for some reason Danny was catching a vibe of disappointed resignation.

Wait, vibe? Danny thought back to what Ember had said about her being unable to sense emotions as well as usual when her core was weak. Danny assumed that ability was unique to her… But if ghosts were connected to emotions, maybe that was just a normal ghost power. One that Danny had been inadvertently suppressing…? He’d thought he could kinda feel them sometimes, but never so strong as now.

“Of course I am! You invited three ghosts to join your band!”

This confused Danny. “But the other day you were telling me that I should make some actual ghost friends, being the bridge and all,” he pointed out. “And because they could teach me more about ghost culture. Why are you upset that I’m doing that?”

Jazz sighed in frustration, actual anger now charging the air. “Look, I am glad that you’re making ghost friends, don’t get me wrong. But you’re going to be playing at a school festival in a human town full of ghost hunters! It’s a total recipe for disaster. Sure, plenty of people here are supportive of Phantom, and there’s still plenty of Ember fans too, and Miskatonic University’s positive stance on ghosts has helped, but even regardless of peoples’ perceptions on ghosts both you and her are on the top ten most wanted ghost list! In fact, you’re number one! That needs to be solved first before you start making public appearances in a band.”

“Oh, you think I’m going to be Phantom for the band stuff,” Danny realized. “No, I’m going to be in my human form. And the other three ghosts will be in disguises, with pseudonyms. No one will know!”

Jazz frowned. “Danny…”

“Seriously, Jazz, no one’s noticed me for years, as long as they’re in disguises it’ll be fine, promise.”

“For some reason, that doesn’t console me…”

“Yes it does,” Danny said without thinking.

Jazz frowned and crossed her arms. “Do I look consoled?”

Danny considered that. “No? But it feels like you are?”

Curiosity wafted around Jazz before she asked, “Danny, are you… sensing emotions?”

Danny blinked. “Oh,” he said. “Um. Yes?”

“How long could you do that?”

Danny shrugged. “Honestly? Not sure. I’ve been thinking about it since we learned ghosts feed on emotion; I wasn’t sure at first that it was any different from what humans sense, since it’s usually not this strong...”

“Do you think your ghost powers are growing again?”

Danny shook his head. “They’re not growing, just… more charged than usual,” he told her, then sighed and explained, “I had an ectoplasm-infused sports drink at Ember’s. I’ve never had one of those before. It felt good, like how you might feel after eating a good meal when you’re really hungry, and my ghost core felt… happy, I guess you could say? Like it had been wanting that for a while.”

Jazz took a moment to consider those words, then asked slowly, “Danny, do ghosts happen to regularly consume ectoplasm?”

“Uh, yeah. Ember said they need to either absorb it from the atmosphere, which really only has enough in the Ghost Zone, or eat it, not as frequently as humans eat but she had foods made with it.” When Johnny and Kitty got there she’d taken out chips, dip, and pretzels made with ectoplasm. The human food components of those wouldn’t charge the core, but the ghosts could still eat them, somehow, just not get energy.

“So, they feed on both ectoplasm and emotions?”

“Kinda. I also asked Ember about that, and she said technically they don’t need to feed on human emotions, plenty of ghosts live in the Ghost Zone without ever having them, but it can make them stronger and apparently feels really good, like caffeine to humans or something like that. Not needed but gives an additional charge.”

“Interesting,” Jazz said, seeming thoughtful. “Back to the ectoplasm… You said it made you feel full, like eating food would?”

“Yeah, it was weird. Like I was hungry for it, and it satisfied a part of me. It was different from human food, pretty sure I’m still hungry for that, but it still felt filling, just for my core instead of stomach…”

Jazz considered Danny’s words for a moment, then concluded, “Danny. I think maybe you’ve been starving your ghost half.”

Danny winced. “Yeah, Ember kinda said that too,” he revealed. “And since I felt better after the drink, I guess that’s true.”

Jazz nodded. “So, you’ve been starving your ghost half, or at least underfeeding it considering you do get some in your diet from the contaminated foods in this house—don’t think I haven’t noticed you willingly eating those now.”

“Well they taste really good,” Danny muttered, slightly embarrassed that Jazz had noticed that, then realized that maybe that was because his ghost part wanted it given that ectoplasm definitely had not tasted good prior to the accident.

Jazz continued, “So I’m thinking that maybe that diminished some of your ghost abilities. Now that you’ve had some ectoplasm to feed your ghost half, they’re strong again, including abilities like sensing emotion.”

Danny considered that. Ember had said it too, and it made a lot of sense, but he had really been hoping that wasn’t true. “Well, shit,” he concluded. If Jazz thought so too, it must be the case, he couldn’t deny it.

Jazz seemed to sense that Danny needed more time to think about this new revelation, so didn’t pursue it more and instead said, “Anyway, I bet you’re hungry for human food too, right? I made pasta, figured we can eat when mom and dad get home, I’ll call them…”

“No need; I hear the GAV pulling in,” Danny told her, easily recognizing the telltale rumble outside. “I’m fine, though; I had that ecto-drink while at Ember’s lair, and then ecto-chips, ecto-dip, and ecto-pretzels!”

“Ecto… you know what, don’t need to know the details, all I need to know is that it made you feel better,” Jazz decided. “But, you still probably need human food, too,” she pointed out, as keys jiggled in the lock. “Real food, not snack foods.”

Danny’s parents entered the house, both freezing as they saw Danny.

Jack broke the silence. “Danny-boy, you’re back!” he declared loudly.

“Did that mean ghost do something to you?” Maddie asked, rushing over to Danny, fretting as she looked him over. Her worry was definitely palpable; yup, he could undoubtedly sense emotions, Danny concluded. Just like full ghosts could.

Danny rolled his eyes. “I’m fine, Mom. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“You can’t be serious, Danny!” Jack said, though something felt off. Despite his words, he wasn’t angry? But why would he be faking that? “Of course it’s a big deal when a ghost kidnaps you; come on, let’s go to the lab so we can scan you for ecto-contamination.” It felt almost like the man didn’t actually believe Danny was kidnapped, but was okay with whatever he thought it was instead. So why was he pretending? Was it related to his mom having a clearly different opinion?

“Yeah, no thank you,” Danny said, trying not to shiver at the idea of tests being done on him in their lab, even though he knew it would just be a few scans with machinery that Tucker had already reprogrammed to avoid exposing Danny’s ghostly aspects. He stepped away from his mom, who was poking him in various places.

“But Danny, we need to be sure you’re okay,” Maddie said.

“Then, just take my word for it: I’m perfectly fine,” Danny told her.

“Can you at least let us check you over for injuries? You must have sustained some when you escaped!” She insisted, worry now quickly shifting to frustration, even though she hid that. That had been happening a concerning amount lately, although he hadn’t been certain before—now he could sense the emotions clearly enough to be certain. His mom had a temper she hid; it came out when ghosts were involved of course, but Danny never expected it to be directed at him too—and Jack. Danny had noticed tension between them lately, that both tried to hide around their kids. He knew they argued when they thought he and Jazz couldn’t hear them, at a frequency higher than before the portal had been opened and only increasing more since the Time Glitch Incident.

“I’m not injured,” Danny said tersely. “Ember was just playing; she let me go.”

Maddie scoffed, now letting her frustration show. “Danny, for the hundredth time, ghosts don’t have emotions like that. They don’t ‘play’. If it let you go, there must have been some ulterior motive; did it follow you home?”

Jack chimed in, “If she did, the ghost security system would go off!” he said confidently. Danny tried not to smile; that security system had actually been down for a while.

“She didn’t follow me home, Mom,” Danny said, rolling his eyes. “Like I said, she wasn’t being malicious.”

“It is a ghost. How many times do I have to tell you BOTH not to humanize ghosts?” Maddie asked, frustration evident. “Now, Danny—”

“Look, can you just drop it?” Danny interrupted, his own anger flaring now. “I’m fine, I really am. So get off my back!”

“You will NOT speak to me that way, young man!” Maddie shouted, taking a step towards Danny, who got a sudden feeling that she wanted to hit him, which freaked him out a little—how often did that happen? It was fleeting, but clearly there. Had he noticed any before? Had it previously been too weak and fast to sense with his power diminished, or was this brand new?

“I’m going to my room,” Danny stated, then turned and hurried up the nearby stairs before his parents could reply—and before it developed into yet another shouting match, or, apparently, physical fight. Maybe he’d read the emotion wrong?

“Danny, wait!” he heard his dad shout just before he slammed the door to his bedroom.

Why were his parents still so hateful towards ghosts? He’d thought they’d been improving on that front before the Time Glitch Incident. Not for the first time, Danny wondered if the Disasteroid event had been the only thing changed in this timeline. Clockwork had said he’d done his best to otherwise arrange it exactly as it had been, but “as close as possible” didn’t mean it was perfect. There might be very slight differences in how previous events had played out, even though they technically all still happened, differences that changed how other people perceived them, differences that caused his parents’ hate for ghosts to grow instead of shrink…

At least, Danny hoped that was the case; there was always the possibility that they’d always felt this way, but Danny hadn’t been aware.

Well, maybe that was a little unfair. His mom was mostly the one acting so hateful. His dad actually did seem to be coming around; at least he was actually calling Ember ‘she’ instead of ‘it’. So maybe there was some hope, at least on his dad’s front—which, come to think of it, was possibly one of the things causing some of the tension between his parents, given that his mom had chided his dad too when he did that, her frustration directed at both of them.

Danny also was somewhat disturbed that his mom, apparently, had an urge to hit him—unless he misread it, but he was pretty sure he hadn’t. He’d definitely felt flares of anger before, but a desire like that? How often had she felt that way? Was it only in this new timeline, or had the one from the original timeline felt that way too? How was ‘desire to hit someone’ even a distinct emotion? Humans needed better words for emotions, because evidently there were more than they had singular words for—that, or Danny had to pay more attention to those vocabulary lists in English class.

Danny debated calling Sam or Tucker, then thought better of it. He could talk to them at school. He probably should do homework, come to think of it… But Danny was feeling too restless for that. Normally he’d go flying to calm down, but he felt that escaping was likely a bad idea at the moment.

Danny clutched at his hair and growled, frustrated at the world.

Chapter Text

When Lancer took attendance Monday morning, he was pleased to discover that everyone was present, including Daniel Fenton. Again he hoped that meant the boy was making an effort to not be late so frequently… Although the abrupt fashion shift from his usual lighter-color NASA and space-themed clothes to a black t-shirt with a mildly disturbing album cover printed on it and dark grey skinny jeans with holes in the knees and chains was rather concerning.

Outside the window, the flag was at half-mast, as all schools and government buildings had been instructed to do on that day.

The loudspeaker beeped, and Principal Ishiyama’s voice came over it. “Good morning, students. As you know, today is September 11, which marks the day…”

“Tch. Come on, this again? It’s been five years!” Dash complained as the speech continued.

“Hey, some of us had relatives working there that day,” Mikey said quietly.

“Sucks for you, then, but for us it’s—”

“Quiet,” Lancer hissed, then glared at Dash and said, “Detention.” He knew the boy could be a bit of a brute, but to complain about a memorial speech for such a tragic recent event, and then insult someone after they mentioned a relative being there?

Many of the students looked surprised at the star quarterback receiving detention, but before they could whisper anything Ishiyama announced that a minute of silence for the victims would be held. Thankfully, the students knew to respect this.

About twenty seconds in, Daniel gasped and what looked like a puff of icy air came out of his mouth before he began to look around nervously. Puzzling, Lancer thought, although thankfully it didn’t result in him rushing out the door as he often did after similar gasps.

“BEWARE!” came a shout a few seconds later as, of all things, the Box Ghost entered through the window.

To the students’ credit, they didn’t react much, remaining silent. It was just the Box Ghost, after all. Some did glare at the ghost, though.

The Box Ghost looked around, clearly confused. “Why do you all remain quiet? I am the Box Ghost! You should fear me!”

Ishiyama’s voice came over the loudspeaker again, ending the moment of silence and finishing up the speech.

To Lancer’s surprise, Daniel, of all students, fiercely glared at the ghost and scolded him. “Do you have any tact?!” he hissed. “You do know what day it is, right?”

The Box Ghost looked to the date written on the top of the white board, then froze as he floated in place, apparently stunned. Impossibly, he seemed to pale even more. “Oh. It’s that day,” he said. “Huh. I remember that day.”

“You do?” Nathan asked, sounding surprised.

“Of course!” The Box Ghost said, looking almost offended. “It is the one day ghosts can never forget.”

“Huh? Ghosts can’t forget 9/11?” Star asked. Lancer was confused too.

Daniel, looking sad now rather than angry, answered that in a near-whisper. “No; ghosts can’t ever forget their death day.” Lancer wondered how Daniel knew that; according to his parents, ghosts didn’t have concrete memories at all, although Lancer, like many others in town, no longer believed such. For some reason, the boy looked haunted when he said that—er, not literally, metaphorically; despite it being two years, Lancer still hadn’t adjusted to the clarification being needed in this town.

“I was there,” the Box Ghost said quietly, staring at the wall, apparently lost in the memory. “I was down the street, moving packages from the mailroom to my truck. There was a deafening noise, and then I heard screaming. I looked up… There was so much dust and fire, but I saw a plane hit the tower. Rubble was falling everywhere. We tried to get inside, but then a huge plume of fire came down the street… I dodged behind the truck, but then all the smoke and dust… I couldn’t breathe, and my inhaler wasn’t with me…” he trailed off, apparently having nothing more to say on the matter; Lancer assumed that meant he had died there, presumably due to an asthma attack induced by the toxic air given the mention of an inhaler. The Box Ghost then said, “I had no idea they did a memorial day for that…”

“Every year,” Lancer told him gently. “All school and government flags go half-mast to acknowledge all the people who died at the three locations. The acts of terrorism led to a war.” He wasn’t sure how much the ghost knew.

“Oh,” the Box Ghost said, then realized what Lancer had said. “Wait. You mean it wasn’t just the Twin Towers…? And… wasn’t an accident?”

“Sadly, no,” Lancer said; the ghost must have not done research into the day of his death. “It was a planned attack by anti-US insurgents from Afghanistan. The Pentagon was also hit. The third location targeted remains a mystery; the passengers of that plane were able to fight the hijackers, and the plane went down in a field in Pennsylvania. Shortly after, the US declared a War on Terrorism in the Middle East, which continues to this day.”

The Box Ghost quieted for a moment. “I did not know that,” he said. “I… need to be alone…” he decided, then turned and floated out the window.

Lancer wasn’t sure how to follow that up, and the students were quiet too, looking somber. Valerie looked particularly conflicted, and Lancer believed he understood her concerns; it was one thing to learn about the event, another thing to hear people talk about friends and family being there, yet another to hear stories from survivors, but this… None of that compared to hearing from someone who actually died during the event.

Lancer hoped the local ghost hunters didn’t go after the Box Ghost that day, even if he ended up causing some chaos; surely a ghost deserved some compassion on his deathday.

The bell rang, signalling the end of homeroom, and for once the students left without racing to the door.

“Daniel, one moment,” Lancer then said, realizing something that needed addressing.

“Yeah?” Daniel said, heading over to the desk.

“Your… sudden change in attire is a little concerning,” Lancer began, unsure how to approach this. Was it a cry for help? “Is everything okay?”

Daniel laughed. “Sorry, sorry, don’t mean to laugh,” he said. “Yeah, everything’s fine. Some friends of mine took me shopping, said I needed some trendier clothes. Cool, huh?”

“Uh. Sure, yes, ‘cool’,” Lancer told him, still unsure if the bold change was truly just a style choice rather than a subconscious cry for help. “However, I’m afraid I will have to confiscate those chains attached to your belt loops.”

Danny scrunched his nose in an annoyed scowl, slightly showing those darn fangs. “Why?” he asked.

“School policy,” Lancer said, ignoring the fangs. “The one around your neck is fine, but chains of a certain length are not permitted due to the ability to use them as weapons—don’t look at me like that, I didn’t write the policy—and the ones on your pants certainly are well past that length. Unless you want detention for violating dress code policy?”

Danny sighed, but complied. “Anything else?” he asked sullenly, handing the chains to Lancer.

“Actually, yes,” Lancer said, noticing Daniel’s wrist. “That spiked bracelet—”

“Let me guess, it’s sharp enough to be a weapon too,” Daniel interrupted, then rolled his eyes and pulled it off, handing it to Lancer too. One of the spikes prickled Lancer’s hand; yes, definitely sharp enough to be a weapon. “Now, is that all?” Daniel practically growled, showing fangs again.

Lancer pursed his lips, wondering if he should give detention for the attitude, or inquire about those fangs, but decided against both; technically the dress code didn’t say anything about fangs, fake or not (Lancer was not sure why the thought occurred to him that they might be real). “That is all,” he said, and watched Daniel practically storm off.

Lancer decided to keep a closer eye on Daniel Fenton.

Valerie took a deep breath as they exited the history classroom, calming herself. She couldn’t cry, not in public. The class had discussed 9/11, as expected; Valerie had almost stayed home, like she had in past years, but it had been 5 years after all; she had to start moving on eventually.

Her dad already had, Valerie recalled bitterly, recently finding a new woman to date. Logically she knew 5 years was more than plenty of time to grieve a lost wife and begin to move on, and knew it was healthy for him to start dating again, but another part of Valerie couldn’t help but feel like he was betraying her mom, no matter how long it had been. Most days she was fine with it, but today of all days…

Well, it made sense that her emotions around that would be heighted on the anniversary of her mom’s death, she supposed. Her mom had been working on the 96th floor of the first tower hit, her desk on the very same side of the impact, and the only relief was that she likely had died instantly, completely unaware of what had hit her. It was a small mercy; so many peoples’ deaths had been worse that day, including, apparently, the Box Ghost’s.

Speaking of that ghost… Well, Valerie wasn’t sure what to think. Ghosts could recall the days of their deaths? She thought they had no memories from before they died, but she supposed a death memory would make sense. But the way he looked so emotional during it, and then flew off all dejected, simply didn’t make sense to her. It must be a trick, but why? To make the human ghost hunters gain sympathy and attack less? That must be it.

Valerie needed a distraction, and as she walked outside to find a place to eat her lunch she noticed a group of 3 people at one of the further off tables. Usually she ate alone, but today she needed friends, or sorta-friends; sure, Sam still didn’t seem to like her much, but Tucker and Danny, though her exes, were both still very friendly with her. Plus, she wanted to ask Danny about his outfit; it was so different from his usual, and such a drastic change was a little concerning.

“Hey,” Valerie said as she approached the table, the three looking at her. Danny had a guitar that he seemed to be showing off to the two, a very familiar one. So Valerie asked, “Why do you have a replica of Ember’s guitar?”

Danny blinked at her, then looked back at the guitar. “Replica? Right. Yes, it’s a replica. Uh, I saw the music store had this replica, so figured it’d be cool to play the same guitar as her.”

Valerie frowned as she sat down next to him; Sam and Tucker were on the opposite side. She hadn’t known Danny played guitar, but more importantly, “You’re a fan of Ember? I thought you were terrified of ghosts!”

“Uh, well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate them from a distance, right?” Danny defended. “She’s cool.”

Valerie blinked, baffled by that. “Isn’t she the one who kidnapped you Friday?” Valerie hated herself for missing that; she had been across town dealing with Johnny and Kitty, who were taking a joyride. For some reason Phantom had stopped fighting those two lately.

Danny winced. “She… didn’t exactly kidnap me? Um… She learned I was a fan and got a little over-excited about that? Yeah, since I used to not like her much, so she was happy about that. But it was fine; when I asked to return she took me back home!”

“She still kidnapped you!” Valerie pointed out. Was this some strange kind of rapid-onset Stockholm syndrome?

Danny shrugged. “It’s not like I haven’t been ki—er, interacted with friendly ghosts before. Some are a little aggressive in their friendliness, but not all ghosts are bad.”

“Oh, don’t you start on this too,” Valerie grumbled. “Aren’t you afraid of them anymore? Did something happen over the summer?”

“Uh, no—well, kinda, I guess, but I’ve thought that for a while. I’m still afraid of the bad ones.”

“All ghosts are bad!” Valerie insisted, worried for the boy that she still kinda-maybe liked. Was he going to tell her that Phantom was a hero or something next? “Ugh, whatever,” she said, pulling her bagged lunch out of her bag, seeing Danny’s sour expression. She wasn’t going to convince him like this.

“Really? Are you really gonna sit here?” Sam asked with a scowl.

Valerie shrugged. “Sure. We’re friends, right?” She took a bite of her peanut butter sandwich.

“Yes, we are,” Danny said, leveling a soft warning glare at Sam, who grumbled something under her breath.

“We definitely are,” Tucker agreed, though the look he was giving her indicated that maybe he wanted to date her again; Valerie resisted rolling her eyes at that.

The group worked on eating their lunch in somewhat amicable silence. Danny’s lunch was accompanied by a can of soda that was marked with strange looking letters that looked vaguely familiar, the drink which seemed to be tinged bright green; it must be something from a foreign country, and Valerie didn’t care enough about it to ask.

No, Valerie was more curious about something else. “So, what’s with the dramatic clothing change?” she asked Danny.

“Why does everyone keep asking me about that?” Danny groaned.

“Well, it is pretty abrupt,” Tucker chimed in. “Come on, you typically wear light-colored shirts and blue jeans, now you’re sporting a heavy punk-emo look, complete with accessories and a shirt that is borderline school-inappropriate? People are going to notice.”

Danny looked down at his shirt and frowned. “It’s just an MCR album cover?”

“Featuring two bloody people.”

“Well, I guess, yeah, maybe it is a bit disturbing,” Danny admitted. “But, Lancer didn’t say it was against dress code when he took away some of my accessories earlier, so I’m sure it’s fine.”

“He took away your accessories?” Valerie asked, mildly confused.

Danny shrugged. “My jeans had chains on them. Apparently they were long enough for the school to count them as weapons. Same for a spiked leather bracelet that was apparently a bit too pointy. Which is kinda silly, considering they’re teaching us how to use guns in class and letting us carry them around.”

Valerie scoffed at that. “The anti-ghost guns don’t hurt humans.”

“Neither do accessories!”

Sam was the one who then scoffed. “Danny, I have seen people get stabbed with those bracelets at goth events; that school rule is why I stick with studded ones,” she said, raising her wrist to show off one, black faux leather with silver studs. She had one on each wrist and a matching collar.

“Yeah, guess I’ll have to get some of those,” Danny said. “But the chains—”

“Can strangle people,” Sam said a little too calmly.

“So can this one!” Danny said, grabbing the one around his neck and shaking it a little. “So can literally any necklace or belt!”

“Eh, school rules can be bullshit,” Valerie said with a shrug. “At least you don’t have to measure your skirt and short length, especially whenever miniskirts and short-shorts are back in fashion.”

“I thought you didn’t care about fashion anymore?” Sam asked curiously.

“Well, I prefer more comfortable clothes, but I still care about how I look,” Valerie said defensively. Some of the more restrictive fashions she didn’t bother with, as she needed to be able to move to ghost hunt, but by habit she still measured her skirts and shorts when she put them on before school, even though she knew they all complied to the dress code.

“Still can’t believe Lancer didn’t confiscate that shirt, too,” Tucker mused.

“Well, the only other one I have is my gym shirt, and pretty sure being shirtless is completely against school rules, so I’m glad he didn’t,” Danny said flatly.

“Huh. Well, even if it’s a bit rebellious, I guess it’s a good thing you’ve started branching out your fashion some,” Valerie said, drawing the discussion away from images of Danny without a shirt. “I mean you’ve been wearing the same five or so shirts since eighth grade! Was starting to think you just bought like a bunch of different sizes of them, since there’s no way the same designs stay on sale for that many years.”

Danny winced, then mumbled, “Actually, I just haven’t had a growth spurt yet…” Then he said louder, “Yeah, that’s what some new friends of mine said, they kinda forced me into finding a ‘more trendy’ style,” using finger quotes, then added with a chuckle, “I have so many band shirts now it’s ridiculous.”

“New friends?” Valerie asked curiously. She hadn’t seen him hanging around with anyone new.

Danny waved a hand. “Ah, yeah, just some people I met, they don’t go to this school.”

“Really?” Valerie asked, surprised. She wondered where he would have met them; maybe they were in college? His sister could have introduced them.

“Yeah, Jazz thinks I should expand my social circle, and obviously I’m not gonna find anyone at this school,” Danny explained, cementing Valerie’s conclusion that his sister must have introduced them. That school she went to did seem to have an abnormally high amount of alt-style people, whether goth, punk, emo, or otherwise.

As Danny took another sip of that brightly colored drink, nearly ectoplasm-colored, Valerie decided to ask, “What are you drinking, anyway?”

Danny looked slightly nervous for some reason. “Oh, um… It’s a drink from… Thailand! Yeah, my cousin’s there right now, and sent some snacks and drinks over. It’s like, a… mint soda.”

Valerie scrunched her nose at that. “Ugh, mint? Seriously? In soda?”

Danny shrugged. “I like it,” he said, taking another sip. Valerie couldn’t shake the feeling Danny was lying about the drink’s origins, though; she didn’t think the lettering looked Thai, but maybe it was just a weird font? And the color… Valerie briefly had the thought it was actually ectoplasm in there, but no, that was impossible; ectoplasm made humans sick. It must just use an obnoxious amount of dye. Regardless, Valerie had no intent to try it.

“You like pickles and anchovies on pizza,” Valerie pointed out.

“Hey, don’t knock it ‘til ya try it!” Danny defended.

“Nah, she’s got a point,” Tucker said. “Your food tastes are, like, a pregnant woman’s, seriously.”

“Oh, eww, gross comparison, Tuck,” Danny said, scrunching his nose.

Sam rolled her eyes. “Like you have any right to talk about food tastes, Mr. ‘All-meat diet’.”

“Oh like your grass-on-bread diet is any better,” Tucker quipped back.

“It’s not grass on bread!” Sam protested, holding up her sandwich.

“Peppers and onions on top of a giant mushroom isn’t much better.”

“There’s hummus and spicy sauce too!”

“Guys, can you please not fight about this again?” Danny said with a tired sigh.

Valerie couldn’t help but smile at the typical banter between the two. It was refreshing, to have something so normal, to just sit with friends eating lunch and talking and joking around. Much better than wallowing in lonely grief sitting on her own.

Valerie couldn’t help but hope that this shaky friendship with the group continued to grow; they had plenty of secrets they kept from Valerie still, that was obvious, but perhaps someday they’d trust her enough to share in those, the revelations of such which would mark the day that Valerie would finally be a definite part of their friend group.

Thursday night, Jack sat in the living room with Maddie, once again waiting for their son to come home; his curfew was ten, but it was already nearly eleven. Maddie was reading a science journal while Jack was knitting. Their daughter, Jazz, wasn’t home either, but she had called to say she was spending the night at a classmate’s house to work on a school project.

The front door slowly creaked open, revealing a black-haired teenager. The scene was very familiar to Jack; it could have been the same as any of the countless times in the past two years that Danny had tried to sneak in without being noticed. He even looked the same, except for that punk outfit—Jack wondered if he should be concerned about the fact that Danny hadn’t seemed to grow at all in the past two years. Come to think of it, had he even needed a hair cut? Should he take Danny to a doctor, see if maybe he wasn’t getting proper nutrition? And, although the outfit was pretty cool and apparently trendy, should Jack be concerned about the drastic change of fashion, from light colors to dark colors with so many chains and spiked accessories? He’d read that drastic fashion changes like that could be a cry for help, but then again, Sam had done similar with her goth fashion at the start of their freshmen year, and seemed relatively fine.

Maddie was already off the couch and practically stomping to the door, hands on her hips. “And just where have you been, Mister?” she demanded as Danny closed the door.

Danny winced. “I, er, didn’t notice the time?” he tried, as Jack joined them.

“You didn’t notice that it was an hour past curfew?” Maddie said, voice full of anger. “Don’t lie to me, Daniel James Fenton. Where. Were. You?”

Danny crossed his arms and said defiantly. “I don’t want to tell you.”

Jack then noticed a bruise on Danny’s arm—he was wearing short sleeves, even though it was a bit chilly to go without a jacket or sweatshirt. Poor planning, Jack supposed; it had been warm enough earlier in the day, but this time of year the temperature tended to be high during the day and then drop low in the evenings. Oh wait, the bruise. “How’d you get hurt?” Jack asked, gesturing to it with concern.

Danny shifted his arms so the other now covered it. “It’s nothing.”

Maddie, to Jack’s surprise, grabbed Danny’s arm, pulling it to show the bruise. Danny gave a shout of surprise. “What the fuck, mom?!”

“Language!” Maddie chided. “Where did you get this?”

“I told you, it’s nothing,” Danny insisted as he pulled his arm away. “Lay off.”

Maddie’s lips thinned and her eyes narrowed, a tell that she was much angrier than she was outwardly showing. Holding back. During Jack’s arguments with her, it usually followed with something being thrown or threats of violence, with an occasional slap or punch, but Maddie never did that with the kids.

Danny’s eyes widened and he took a step back. “Mom?”

Warning bells sounded in Jack’s mind. Danny was afraid of Maddie? Had Jack been wrong about her holding back with the kids? Had she only been holding back when Jack was there to see?

“Maddie,” Jack said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe it’d be best to let this go.”

Maddie refocused her glare onto Jack, shook him off, and crossed her arms. “Let this go? Are you serious right now?” she asked, voice cold and dangerous.

“Just, take a breath and calm down, okay?”

“I am calm,” Maddie said tersely, then noticed Danny trying to slip away. “Oh no, Danny. You are staying right here,” she said, voice hard.

Danny winced. “I—sorry, it’s late, can we just do this tomorrow?” he pleaded.

“No. You WILL tell us where you got that bruise,” Maddie demanded.

“Look, Maddie, if he doesn’t want to say—” Jack began.

Maddie cut him off. “No, Jack. I’m sick of all the excuses!”

“Look, I fell, okay?” Danny said in a rush. “I fell. That’s all. I didn’t say because I was embarrassed.”

“Uh-huh,” Maddie said. “You ‘fell’.” She clearly didn’t believe him.

“Yeah!”

“Tell the truth, Danny,” Maddie ordered again, a dangerous edge to her voice.

“I-I am,” Danny stuttered with wide eyes as he took another step back, and Maddie took a step forward… Jack prepared himself to intervene; she really did look like she was about to hit Danny!

“I have half a mind to give you a matching bruise for being so defiant,” Maddie hissed.

“Maddie, no!” Jack said. “We agreed on no corporal punishment!”

Maddie again turned her glare to Jack. “Don’t tell him that! Now he knows it’s an empty threat!”

“You shouldn’t be threatening that at all!” Jack said, anger flaring. “Look at him—he’s scared of you!”

“Good!” Maddie said. “Maybe fear will work better than grounding!”

“No, it won’t,” Jack insisted. He knew it wouldn’t; he and Maddie had both read plenty of articles about parenting when Maddie first found out she was pregnant, and none claimed that fear of bodily harm was a good discipline strategy.

Maddie raised a fist at Jack, and he couldn’t help but flinch too. “Maddie, come on, be reasonable,” he said, taking a step back too. He didn’t think she'd hit him, not in front of Danny, but to his horror Jack realized he wasn’t actually sure of it this time.

“Danny, go to your room,” Jack told his son; Danny hesitated, clearly looking worried about Jack now, so Jack added sharply, “Now!”

Danny hurried off, barely making a sound as he fled up the stairs to his room.

“You had no right to send him away,” Maddie hissed. “Honestly, Jack, do you want him becoming a delinquent!”

“Maddie, we’ve ruled out gangs, drugs, underground fighting, and criminal activity. He’s not a delinquent, and won’t become one—honestly I’m starting to think Jazz is right, and he needs to see—”

“Don’t you dare suggest he see a shrink,” Maddie hissed. “He’s a Fenton. Fentons don’t have problems like that.”

“I’m just saying, could an evaluation really hurt?” Jack asked. “It started after his accident just before high school, and PTSD really seems to fit, from the literature Jazz—”

“Oh, that’s BS and you know it,” Maddie said. “He said he only got a small shock from that thing. And he’s in the lab all the time. No, there’s clearly something else going on… Ghosts, maybe? If he’s been getting kidnapped like that frequently…”

“No, I doubt it’s ghosts,” Jack said, knowing that agreeing would not end well for his gradually diminishing hope that eventually Maddie could come around on her views of ghosts. Honestly, the only thing he could think of at this point in regards to Danny’s behavior was that Jazz’s suggestion of therapy might be warranted after all; Danny really did fit the profile of a teenager with an undiagnosed mental illness, if not PTSD then maybe depression. Jack didn’t like the idea of one of his kids having such, but if he did, wasn’t it their responsibility as parents to get him help, especially as bad enough depression could lead to self-harm or worse? Jack didn’t want to end up being one of those parents crying at their kid’s funeral about how they missed the signs. There was also the nagging feeling that maybe it was an issue with them, so he suggested, “Maybe it’s the way we’ve been dealing with things that’s driving him further away, making him not trust us?”

Maddie’s voice turned cold and hard again as she demanded, “And just what do you mean by that?”

“Well, he was clearly scared of you before,” Jack pointed out, trying to remain calm; anger would only enrage Maddie further. “Wouldn’t it be difficult to talk to someone you’re afraid of?”

Maddie scoffed. “Children should respect their parents. There would be no reason for him to be afraid if he just told us the truth!”

“Yeah, but—”

“Jack, stop being so soft,” Maddie ordered.

Jack couldn’t help but angrily shout, “I’m not being soft! I’m trying to be a good parent!”

“Oh, so you’re saying I’m a bad parent?” Maddie raised her fist, and Jack subconsciously stepped back again.

“I’m saying that maybe you shouldn’t threaten our son with bodily harm just for breaking curfew! Or, for any reason! If you’re planning on doing that, then, yes—that’ll make you a bad parent, because good parents don’t hurt their kids!”

“You’re really asking for it now,” Maddie growled.

“Yeah? Fine, then, hit me!” Jack replied. “Better me than Danny!”

Maddie’s fist flew forward, then stopped. She looked surprised.

A familiar ghost appeared in-between Maddie and Jack, holding her fist.

“Phantom!” Maddie hissed with venomousity. “What are you doing here, you ectoplasmic scum?” She tried pulling her fist away, but the ghost held fast.

Danny Phantom looked angrier than Jack had ever seen him, at least up close—maybe he’d been this angry at some of the stronger evil ghosts like the Ghost King thing, but never directed at a human, not even hunters. It almost felt like his anger created a pressure—or maybe that was just the way the temperature dropped ten degrees; he had ice powers, right? So unintentionally causing temperature changes when angry wasn’t outside the realm of possibilities. “I was flying by and I heard shouting, so decided to investigate,” Phantom said through clenched teeth.

Jack’s question was more along the lines of why the house’s security system hadn’t activated, but he was immensely relieved that it hadn’t—Maddie’s punch wouldn’t have done much more than bruise, given Jack’s size, but it still would hurt. However, Jack felt saying ‘thank you’ to the ghost right now would only make things worse.

“Jack, do something!” Maddie hissed, finally pulling away from the young ghost, who looked like he was holding back on attacking her.

Jack stood there frozen as Maddie grabbed an ecto-gun from a nearby drawer and shot at Phantom, who simply put a shield up. He then flew towards Jack, grabbing him from under the arms and flew upwards, phasing through the ceiling and other obstacles in the way until ending up in the ops center.

Phantom set Jack down and then floated in front of him, now looking a little nervous. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I hope I didn’t make things worse—I just couldn’t ignore someone in need of help.”

“No, it’s fine,” Jack said, slightly stunned as he collected his bearings (flying and phasing was so strange!). “It, er, did help. She’ll calm down; this, er, isn’t exactly new,” he muttered, slightly embarrassed to admit that aloud.

Phantom’s eyes widened in surprise. “She often hits you?” he asked in a near-whisper.

Jack shrugged. “Well, she, er, doesn’t usually actually throw the punch,” he said. Usually it was just throwing things, which typically missed, and sometimes slaps. “And it’s not like I can’t take it if she does…”

“Still, a wife shouldn’t hit her husband, or vice-versa,” Phantom firmly told him. “And a mother shouldn’t hit her children—I heard what she wanted to do to her son.”

Jack wilted slightly. “I know,” he said miserably. “Better me than him… I’ve been trying to turn her around, but it just keeps getting worse. Breaking curfew isn’t even that bad, yet she…” Jack sighed. “I’m sorry, you probably don’t want to hear me ranting about this.”

Phantom shook his head. “No, it’s fine,” he said. “I—” he gasped, and a puff of icy air escaped his lips. He glanced towards the window, where Jack saw an abnormally large ectopus fly by. Was the air some sort of ghost sense? “Dammit. I, er, gotta go now,” Phantom said, looking anxious, probably getting an urge to catch it. But instead of heading off right away, curiously Phantom took the time to ask, “Will you be okay if I leave?”

Jack nodded. “Don’t worry, like I said, this isn’t new! I’ll be fine. You go catch that ghost now.”

Phantom grinned. “You got it!” he said, then zoomed right through the window and into the night, though Jack couldn’t help but think that the ghost boy looked a mix of worried and angry behind the smile.

Danny flew after the large ectopus, mind spinning at what just happened. His mom had tried to hit his dad—would have, if he hadn’t stepped in. Her vibes indicated that she wanted to hit someone almost the whole time—first towards Danny, then towards them both.

And his dad was definitely not telling the whole truth about the frequency of it. There was a sense of embarrassment and denial, so he likely didn’t believe it was that bad, but… Well, it was. Like Danny had told his dad, spouses shouldn’t hit each other or their kids. How long had this been going on?

A fear grew in Danny’s gut: was it only a matter of time before his mom actually struck him too? She definitely had the vibes of intent, and that wasn’t the first time Danny had felt that. Should he be careful to not be alone with her?

Danny slowed, for the first time not feeling up to fighting the ghost. He knew he shouldn’t just let it roam free, especially due to the size, but he just lacked the motivation. It wasn’t even a physical tiredness, more like a mental one. He kinda wished a portal would open up right there and yeet him into the edges of the Ghost Zone where he could hide from his problems forever.

Not for the first time, Danny wondered if Jazz was right in that Danny should see a professional, but what would he even say? ‘Hi, I’m half dead thanks to an accident with a portal in my parents’ dangerous lab! Only three humans know though, six if you count my half-ghost arch enemy, clone, and future self from an alternate timeline. Now I fight the ghosts that come out of it because I feel like it’s my responsibility. Sometimes the stress of it makes me wish I never walked out of that portal, or makes me just want to run away forever, but I keep going because if I don’t protect Amity Park who will?’

Yeah, that would definitely go over well; either the GIW would be called, or Danny would be shoved into an institution.

Danny paused in mid-air, wrapping his arms around his chest as he willed himself not to cry. He couldn’t cry here, in the middle of the city; he was the Town Hero. He had an image to maintain. And knowing his luck, crying in Phantom form would produce a Wail or something.

“Yo, Ghost Boy!” came a shout, and Danny winced. Great, it was the Red Huntress, aka his ex-girlfriend Valerie. Well, human-form’s ex-girlfriend, as she still didn’t know he was also Phantom.

“Perfect timing, as always,” Danny muttered. Maybe he should just let her shoot him, or capture him, or whatever she wanted to do today. Although, knowing his luck he’d just become a full ghost if he died a second time, if he wasn’t already—if it weren’t for the slow heartbeat, he might be convinced that he was.

However, a small shot from Valerie’s wrist ray hitting his shoulder was enough to get Danny to instinctually start flying away as fast as he could, Valerie immediately following.

“Can’t you just leave me alone for once?” Danny shouted.

“Like I could ever just leave an evil ghost alone!” Valerie shouted back.

“But I’m not evil! Seriously!”

“Sure you aren’t, ghost!”

Danny winced as a more powerful ecto-blast grazed his upper arm. Great, she’d brought out the big weapons.

Danny turned a corner and immediately swerved to phased into a random window; Valerie zoomed by, screaming something.

Danny sighed and floated to sit cross-legged on the floor, collecting his wits. “Can’t I just have one day where I don’t have to fight anyone?” he grumbled to himself, hands on his forehead as he looked at the ground.

“Phantom?” someone asked incredulously.

Danny snapped his head up to look at the person who spoke while noting his surroundings. Apparently, he’d phased into one of his classmate’s rooms; Mikey was sitting on a twin bed with a game controller, and the twins Lester and Nathan were seated in beanbags, also with controllers; a glance at the TV showed they were playing Super Smash Brothers Melee, though the game was paused.

“Shit, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt,” Danny hurriedly said.

“Aren’t you supposed to be a family-friendly hero?” Lester asked, seeming confused.

Danny scoffed. “I’m a teenager. No clue why people seem to think that means ‘family-friendly’.” He did try to watch his language around actual kids though, so maybe that was why. He moved to stand. “I’ll get out of your hair now, sorry for crashing in.”

“No!” Mikey said, lunging forward and pushing Danny back down as Nathan somehow got a beanbag under him.

“What the fuck,” Danny muttered, unsure how else to react.

“We have an extra controller, and you look like you need to relax,” Mikey said matter-of-factly.

“You want me to… play Smash with you?” Danny asked.

“You play?” Nathan asked, eyes lighting up as he heard Danny use the nickname for the game.

“What’s your main?” Lester demanded.

“Uh. Mewtwo I guess? But, it’s 11:30 on a school night…?” Danny questioned as a purple GameCube controller was shoved into his hands.

“Eh, let us worry about that,” Mikey said with a wave of his hand. “So, you any good?”

Danny shrugged, deciding fuck it, sure, he needed a distraction anyway. “It’s been a few years since I played, so I might be a little rusty.”

“Seriously? Why’d you stop playing?” Nathan wondered.

Danny gave the boy a deadpan look. “I died,” he said flatly. Which technically was the reason—after the accident there was much less time for games thanks to all the ghost fighting, so he, Sam, and Tucker had to be a little more selective of which games they played together. Doomed had earned the role of their favorite game, and thus pretty much the only one they found time to play, and Smash Bros had fallen to the wayside.

All three full-humans in the room winced.

“Sorry!” Nathan quickly said. “I didn’t mean to be offensive or anything!”

Danny chuckled. “Nah, it’s cool. I meant that more jokingly than anything—gotta work on my delivery I guess. But, uh, yeah, just haven’t really found much time for games since that—and no, I’m not giving you any more details about my death,” Danny said preemptively, well aware that all three were members of the Phantom Phan Club, albeit less active ones, and the club had been trying on-and-off to uncover his ‘origin story’.

“Well, then, let’s see if you’re still any good at Smash!” Mikey said excitedly, exiting the current 3-player match (to Lester’s protests—he’d been about to win) and starting a new 4-player one. Nathan threw a snack-sized bag of chips at Danny, from a bucket of them.

Danny found himself having a surprising amount of fun, snacking and playing video games with the three geeks (after Smash Bros they did a few rounds of Mario Kart Double Dash). His core vibrated with happiness, picking up the happy emotions from the three humans who he barely knew, but you didn’t really need to know someone well to play video games with them. Danny wondered if Sam and Tucker would be up to playing more chaotic games like those sometimes instead of only Doomed; Doomed was fun, but there was just something unique about the chaos of fighting or driving with unpredictable items flying around.

Danny didn’t return home until nearly 3am—which meant he fell asleep in class the next morning and received detention, but, hey, it was worth it.

It was also amusing to hear how much Mikey, Lester, and Nathan’s story of how they played video games with Phantom became increasingly exaggerated as word of mouth passed it on; by the time the school day was over and Danny was heading towards detention, Phantom had apparently crashed through the window of Mikey’s room (or rather, the twin’s family’s spare room; he was apparently staying there while his own parents were out of the country—which confused Danny, as Mikey was 16, and Danny’s parents had regularly left him and Jazz home along for weeks at a time since Jazz began middle school; perhaps Mikey just had overprotective parents), then fallen momentarily unconscious before waking up, seeing the game on the TV, and demanding to play with them.

He’d also allegedly agreed to pop in on the gaming club’s meeting next week, which, no he absolutely did not, but it didn’t sound like a bad idea—he needed to work on getting rid of his ‘public enemy’ reputation, after all, and casually hanging out with humans and showing them he could relate to them was definitely one way to help with that.

“Danny, careful!” Sam hissed, pulling Danny away before he walked though the classroom door. Literally through; it was closed, and Sam had felt the slight chill of when Danny activated his abilities; it was very subtle, but after two years Sam could easily tell.

“What?” Danny asked, looking confused.

“Humans can’t just walk through closed doors,” Sam said incredulously.

“Oops. Sorry, I forgot,” was all Danny said, looking slightly nervous as he fiddled a little with his checkered wristband (faded green and black, matching the black t-shirt featuring a Green Day logo; Kitty and Ember had decided Danny needed a ‘more distinct style’, and upon determining punk-emo fit best introduced him to skinny jeans, black band t-shirts, punk-emo accessories (now including ear piercings, which he was rapidly stretching thanks to his enhanced healing), and skate shoes, and Danny seemed to really be embracing the style—this past weekend, he had gone to the mall again to add more items from Hot Topic and Spencer’s to his wardrobe) then opened the door like a proper human.

Sam just shook her head in mild exasperation; leave it to Danny to nearly accidentally reveal his secret just because he somehow forgot doors needed to be opened.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only majorly close call that day.

“Danny, come on,” Sam sighed, as he walked through a tree branch blocking the path on their way to one of the furthest-away outdoor picnic tables for lunch, she and Tucker ducking under the branch. “At least try to control your powers!”

“I am?” Danny said, looking confused. “What did I do?”

“You walked through a tree branch,” Tucker told him. “Are you losing control of your powers again or something?”

“Uh, no? I don’t think so?” Danny said, brow scrunched.

“Then why did you just walk through a tree branch? We’re lucky no one saw!”

Danny blinked. “Oh. I, er forgot humans don’t do that?” He told them, tone sounding like a question.

“You… Forgot… that humans don’t phase through stuff,” Tucker said with incredulity. “Dude, how do you forget something like that?!”

Danny shrugged. “I dunno. It just happened, like instinct or whatever.”

Sam frowned, a worrying thought then occurring to her. “Instinct? Don’t you have to consciously activate your powers when not in ghost form?”

“Oh. Um. Yeah, it’s kinda weird, but not anymore? Or, not all of them. Maybe I just got more used to using them over time?” Danny hypothesized, seeming unsure himself.

Sam considered that. Was Danny becoming more ghostly, or just more comfortable with his abilities? “Well, you have been hanging out around ghosts nearly every day for the past, what, two weeks? When you’re with them you don’t have to worry as much about hiding your powers, even in human form, so maybe that’s why?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good theory,” he concluded, though seemed a bit disturbed.

“Well, in that case, you gotta be more careful, dude,” Tucker warned.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Danny said, waving it off.

Sam frowned. “What’s wrong?” she asked. She could tell he was hiding something.

“Nothing,” Danny quickly said.

Sam crossed her arms. “Danny, I know you. Spill.”

Danny shifted nervously, then sighed and admitted, “I dunno. It’s… I guess I’m having a little trouble with identity? Like, when I first got the powers, it seemed so distinct. There was my human half, and my ghost half. But over time it’s blended much more, and that… I just don’t know how to feel about that. I… I kind of like that it’s easier to use my powers in human form, but… It scares me, too.”

“You think you’re becoming more ghost?” Sam asked worriedly.

Danny shook his head. “No, I’m pretty sure that isn’t the case. It just… feels that way because it’s blending. I’ll get used to it, don’t worry.”

“In the meantime then, we’ll keep you in check,” Sam decided.

“Yeah! Just like when you first got your powers,” Tucker said confidently.

“Thanks, guys,” Danny said with a soft smile… as he leaned back and began floating slightly with knees bent, a casual pose common for Phantom—and another power that used to not even be usable in human form, as whether or not gravity mattered had been a distinct divide.

Sam sighed and pulled Danny back down to the ground. Well, at least they no longer had to be worried about Danny falling if he accidentally changed back in the air.

The next incident was in that afternoon’s mandatory anti-ghost training, which took place once a week instead of gym class—Well, less of an incident and more of an intentional mishap.

The first two weeks had been lecture-style, which had Danny grumbling about all the errors, though thankfully nothing bad occurred because of it. However, this week was their first practical class; Sam had been dreading this, just knowing something would go wrong. She thought it would be related to Danny getting hit with something, but the incident turned out to be not something Sam expected.

Danny’s newfound appreciation of ghosts seemed to extend to more than just the members of their band and other friendly humanoid ghosts. No, it had to extend to the small blob ghosts that had been brought in to be used as practice for using the Fenton Thermoses that would be in the ‘Ghost Protection Kits’ that had been installed next to the fire extinguishers. Whereas Sam was all for the protection of all creatures, including the harmless little blob ghosts, she also knew that one had to think strategically. The thermoses were harmless, so it would be best to wait until after the class and rescue the ghosts in secret.

Danny, apparently, disagreed. His eyes flashed green in anger upon seeing the cage with the colorful little balls of ectoplasm floating around in it. They were making cute little chirps, whistles, chitters, and whines, which to Sam seemed nonsensical, but Danny seemed to be able to understand them to some extent as the more he listened to them the madder he got.

“We need to save them,” Danny told Sam and Tucker, after they’d managed to calm him down enough to get his eyes back to blue. “They’re torturing them!”

“Okay, as much as I love saving every creature and enjoy that you’re actually caring about animal cruelty,” Sam said, “Is this really the time? We’re practicing with thermoses, not wrist rays. We can save them later.”

“No, it needs to be now,” Danny said. “They’re terrified!”

“Dude, I’m not sure if they even know what’s going on; they’re blobs,” Tucker pointed out.

“Seriously, Tucker? Of course they know what’s going on!” Danny told him. “They’re pleading to be let go! They think we’re going to kill them! Can’t you hear them!?”

“Uh, no? All I hear is chirps and stuff. Why, can you?”

“Of course! It’s obnoxiously high pitched but when they’re not chirping they’re definitely talking,” Danny said.

“High pitched…” Sam mused, then remembered something. “Hey, weren’t you able to hear that dog whistle your neighbor’s kid had one day?” she recalled.

“Yeah, why?”

“Oh! I get it!” Tucker said. “They must be talking above the human hearing range… Wait, those little things are conscious enough to talk!?”

Danny nodded. ”It’s simple, like a toddler might talk, but they’re definitely saying words. Mostly pleading to be let go.”

“Okay,” Sam said. “We’ll let them go after class, okay?”

Danny glared at Sam with glowing eyes and the temperature in the room noticeably dropped. This… definitely wasn’t good.

“Hey, who turned the air up?” Dash wondered.

“The gym doesn’t have air conditioning,” Ms. Tetslaff said. “Now, everyone, go grab a thermos!”

“Hey, the gym has a basement, right?” Danny whispered to Sam and Tucker.

Sam was about to say no, aware that the school did have a basement used for storage and mechanical things, but it didn’t extend as far as the gym, but Tucker apparently knew otherwise. “Yeah, it’s separate from the other one but it’s where they store all the sports equipment.”

“Huh, Junior year yet I still learn something new about the school every week,” Sam commented.

“To be fair, I’m not sure it existed before,” Tucker whispered, meaning it was another potential timeline difference.

“Kay, I’m doing it,” Danny muttered, and after making sure everyone had turned their back on the cage of ghosts to grab thermoses, he tapped his foot on the ground and part of the floor became intangible, dropping the table to the basement below.

The cage atop it simply loudly crashed to the ground, and Sam could have facepalmed; right, intangibility-proof cage, as it held ghosts.

Everyone spun around to see what had happened. “Hey, where’d the table go?” Kwan asked, voicing what everyone was likely thinking.

Ms. Tetslaff looked at Danny, Sam, and Tucker. “You three! Did you see what happened to the table?”

“Why would we have seen that?” Danny asked sharply.

“Because your group was the only one to not be at the thermos table! Now go grab one!”

“We have our own,” Danny said, pulling his out, as did Sam and Tucker. “Parents make me carry it as a precaution, and thought my friends should have them too.”

“I see. Well, let’s get to the exercise, then,” the teacher said, moving to the cage and turning to the class, apparently opting to ignore the vanishing table. “First, let’s turn the gym’s new ghost shield on,” she said, pulling out a square device with some buttons. She pressed one, and the shield covered the gym walls and ceiling; presumably it was under the floor as well. From the slightly more bluish tint to the shield, it was presumably the Fenton’s ‘new and improved’ model they’d recently installed.

Sam quickly grabbed Danny’s hand, already sensing him getting nervous even though he technically could get through it, plus he was clearly distressed about not being able to save the ghosts.

“Now, using the thermoses are easy; just point at the ghost, press the top button, and if the ghost is in the beam of light that comes out, they’ll be trapped. The button below it is the release button; do not press that. The beams are completely harmless to humans, so we’re going to make a game out of this,” Ms. Tetslaff told them. “We’ve got forty of these ghosts, and there’s 18 of you. Your grade will be based on how many you catch, and the effort you put into catching them.”

“Oh no,” Danny muttered, and Sam definitely understood why; for some reason, the thermoses worked on him even in human form, and now he’d have to be dodging 15 beams. “Cover me; I’m gonna go invisible and sneak out, maybe destroy this shield so they can escape.”

As the ghosts were released and chaos began, Sam and Tucker stepped in front of Danny so he could turn invisible without anyone noticing.

Moments later, there was a soft thud, and Sam and Tucker turned to see Danny on the ground.

No one else had seemed to notice, and the two hurried over.

Ms Tetslaff saw them moving and Danny getting up from the floor, so ran over too. “What happened?” she asked.

“Just tripped!” Danny assured her, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment, though looked really frazzled. “You know how clumsy I am,” he added with a strained chuckle.

Ms. Tetslaff laughed. “Oh, yeah, sure do!” she said, then said more seriously, “Did you get hurt? Do you need to see the nurse?”

“Nope! All good!” Danny said hurriedly, looking slightly panicked; he sighed in relief when Ms. Tetslaff nodded in acknowledgement and walked away.

“So, what really happened?” Tucker asked, crossing his arms.

Danny winced. “Ghost shield happened.” He reached towards it and there was a little zap of static electricity, upon which he pulled his hand back. “I’m apparently not immune to the newest model, even in human form.”

“Well, shit,” Sam said. That was going to complicate things. She didn’t think Danny could avoid the wild thermos beams of their classmates for so long, though, even if she and Tucker stood in front to block him, even though they did mostly cover him considering they were both taller than Danny now (Sam pointedly ignored the fact that Danny hadn’t seemed to grow at all since his accident).

“Thermos me,” Danny suddenly said.

“What?” Sam asked, wondering if she misheard.

“Thermos me. Then, bring me outside the shield and release me.”

“Danny, I’m not—”

“No, Sam, he’s right,” Tucker cut her off. “It should work, and it’s the best option right now.”

Sam sighed in slight frustration. “Fine,” she said, realizing the two boys would just do it anyway regardless, as she moved to block Danny and Tucker did the same. “But you’re doing it, Tucker.” When it appeared no one was looking, Sam gave a signal, and there was a soft whooshing sound; when Sam turned back, Danny was gone.

“Cool, it did work,” Tucker said. “We’ll be back shortly.” He rushed through the shield with the captured Danny.

Sam wanted to follow, but knew someone had to be there to explain if Ms. Tetslaff noticed the disappearance. So she readied her own thermos and jumped into the fray, although instead of capturing the ghosts she ‘carelessly’ bumped into people to shift their aim, trying to save as many blob ghosts as possible.

It didn’t take long for the ghost shield to fizzle out, after which the remaining blob ghosts high-tailed it out of there; shortly after, Sam felt a slight coldness in the air, and Danny and Tucker quietly appeared behind her while everyone else watched the ghosts escaping, some trying to catch them in thermoses first—and failing, given those little ghosts were actually pretty fast when they wanted to be. More than half of the ghosts the class had started with had escaped.

Tucker shivered. “Dude, so do not want to be invisible for that long ever again. How do you manage it?”

Danny scrunched his brow in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I dunno, it just feels so unnatural. Cold and creepy,” Tucker explained.

“Oh. It feels natural to me…” Danny trailed, looking a little worried.

“Doesn’t mean you’re more ghost,” Sam assured him, recalling their conversation from earlier. “You just do it a lot more than us.”

“Right,” Danny said. “Right. I’m still human, too,” he said, sounding like he was actually uncertain and trying to reassure himself. “I’m still human, too.”

“Got that right!” Tucker said, giving Danny a friendly slap on the back.

Sam took Danny’s wrist in her hand. “You have a pulse,” she told him, putting her fingers on the pulse point. “I can feel it. That’s a sure sign you’re still human.”

“Is it, though?” Danny asked quietly, the air chilling slightly.

“Of course,” Tucker said. “It’s pumping blood through your veins, isn’t it?”

Danny took a moment to respond. “Blood isn’t green,” he eventually said quietly, then turned invisible and presumably walked away, giving that the chill in the air vanished too.

Sam sighed and stared at where Danny had stood. How were they supposed to handle this? She suspected the new ghost shield had been what affected Danny’s mood the most that day; previously, ghost shields hadn’t worked in human form.

“We are not equipped to handle ghost-related angst,” Tucker concluded.

“Maybe it’s just something he needs to work out on his own, or talk to another ghost with,” Sam suggested, though internally winced that she’d used the word ‘another’, which implied full ghost, whereas Danny was only half. Or, at least part of him was still human; Sam honestly wasn’t sure how much human was left either, but she had to assure Danny that he was still substantially human, for the sake of his mental health, she decided.

“Yeah, I vote let it sit a week or two and see what happens,” Tucker said.

“Agreed,” Sam said, though secretly vowed to keep an even closer eye on Danny.

The days passed, and Danny spent more and more time in the Ghost Zone, each day after school learning guitar and singing with Ember and then the two returning to Amity Park with Johnny and Kitty for band practice at Sam’s place.

There had also been a few times where Danny stopped by the gaming club as Phantom, confirming Mikey, Lester, and Nathan’s story about him playing with them and their assertion that he ‘wasn’t bad, but definitely not pro level’ at Smash. Unfortunately that had to stop after Danny’s parents and the Red Huntress got wind of it and decided to skate out the club in hopes of catching him.

Sam, despite some initial anger at the fact that Danny had forgotten she needed a ride to the first practice, seemed very enthusiastic about the band. Her happiness was so palpable that it was contagious—or maybe Danny was feeding on it, he didn’t really know anymore. Now that he could sense emotions, he’d been trying to figure out if any made him feel ‘charged’, as Ember described it. Sam got along great with Kitty in particular, to Danny’s surprise, and together they designed a cohesive punk-goth fashion scheme for the concert.

Tucker had clearly felt left out at first, but the band quickly realized that they would need someone to manage the tech portions of the show, which Tucker jumped at the chance to do, with the clause that he was not to attempt to sing. He seemed satisfied with that, even after realizing that half of it would be for show as the ghosts’ instruments were all self-powered, not even a need for amps (although some would be on stage as to not seem suspicious).

Lurker would always already be there when they got to practice, and Danny had a sneaking suspicion that they and Sam were getting along much better than anyone imagined the two would—Danny wasn’t quite sure yet if there was romance involved or not, and wasn’t sure if he wanted there to be or not. On one hand, he wanted Sam to be happy, which she clearly was around Lurker, and it would help her finally fully get over Danny, but on the other hand, he was pretty sure Lurker was some sort of cryptid from another dimension; they were definitely not a ghost, yet Danny couldn’t sense their emotions, and out of the corner of his eye sometimes he could have sworn Lurker had tentacles. They did seem like a pretty cool person(?) otherwise though, and if Danny was fine being friends with ghosts then Sam probably would be fine being friends with some otherworldly enigma.

Johnny and Kitty seemed to be enjoying being in a band too, and having something to do kept them in line as well. Ember of course loved it, even despite not being the lead singer. All three had been really growing on Danny, to the point that he felt he could probably consider them friends now.

Danny himself was absolutely loving things too. He hadn’t realized how much fun being in a band and playing music could be! And, although he loved Sam and Tucker, it was nice having friends who actually understood his ghostlier aspects. His wardrobe had also gotten revamped, now consisting of mostly ripped skinny jeans with chains, black band t-shirts, skate shoes, and punk accessories—including plugs and tunnels for his now-stretched lobes. He felt… cool. Not like an A-list-cool-kids type of cool, but an I’m-comfortable-with-myself-and-fuck-off-if-you-don’t-like-it type of cool. Empowered, perhaps the word was. Like he’d found where he belonged, and unbelievably that place was a ghost band—the him from just a year ago would have definitely called anyone who claimed that that would be his future a massive fruitloop, but here he was.

Playing the guitar was actually easier than Danny had expected, in part because ghost instruments apparently also reacted to feeling. ‘Attuning’ to a ghost instrument caused the musician to become more in sync with it, allowing the ability to feel what the right notes were for songs he wanted to play, even if he’d only played them a few times, as though the guitar itself had muscle memory that it could share with him—Danny still had to initially learn the songs but once he did he could play the song just by remembering the feeling of it, imagining the notes, the guitar guiding him. Unfortunately this didn’t apply outside of using that specific ghost guitar, but he’d take what he could get.

A few days before the concert, Danny and Ember were working on some final tweaks of the choreography for the show, just the two of them since everyone else was currently busy, when Ember came up with a suggestion that made Danny freeze.

“We should kiss,” the rockstar ghost said casually.

“What?” Danny, again in his human form despite being in Ember’s Ghost Zone lair, managed to eke out when Ember looked at him expectantly.

“Yeah, for the show,” Ember clarified. “Like, one of those dramatic ones where the other person is dipped down. How epic would that be?”

“Er…” Danny trailed, unsure. From a showmanship perspective, yeah, ending the finale with a kiss like that would be good, but…

Ember frowned. “What’s wrong, Babypop? You’ve kissed girls before, right?”

“Well, yeah, of course I have,” Danny quickly said.

“Hmm… It’s the ghost thing throwing you off, isn’t it?” she guessed. “You’ve only kissed humans before?”

Danny shook his head. “No, it’s not—well, I guess it’s true I’ve only kissed humans, but that’s not it.”

“Then, what is it? Do you just not like me?” She asked with a disappointed frown. Danny wasn’t sure if it was actual disappointment or if she was being dramatic—unlike with humans, Danny couldn’t taste ghost emotions. Er, sense, not taste; Danny didn’t like using the word taste even though some of the other ghosts did.

“No, that’s not it either,” Danny assured her, just in case. “I like you plenty! I mean, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t stand for all that playful banter…” he felt himself blush.

Ember narrowed her eyes as though trying to read Danny’s mind. “Hmm…”

“Look, I really don’t know why,” Danny said anxiously. “It was like that with Paulina, Valerie, and Sam too—those are the girls I dated,” he clarified. “Like, flirting and stuff is fun, cheek kisses are fine, hell even cuddling is nice as long as clothes stay on, but when it comes to anything more intimate, my brain just checks out, wants nothing to do with it… I feel super uneasy, and it’s not just from nerves…”

“Ah, got it. Well, that’s perfectly fine!” Ember told him. “Not everyone likes intimacy like that.”

Danny frowned. “It didn’t seem okay with them.”

Ember shrugged. “Well, that’s their loss. Is that why you broke up?”

Danny shook his head. “No. Well, not really, maybe it was part of it for Sam. For her we just both realized we work best as friends—I do love her, but it’s platonic, no different than how I feel about Tucker or my sister. I only thought it was more because people kept telling me it was. But the others weren’t like that. Paulina was actually overshadowed by Kitty the entire time and it ended once I realized… Which I guess means Kitty was technically my girlfriend, come to think of it? Does it count if I didn’t know it was her?”

Ember considered that for a moment. “Hmm. Maybe ask Kitty that one,” she decided.

“Thanks, I won’t,” Danny said with a small laugh. “Johnny would murder me!” Even though the ghost knew that his girlfriend had only done it to make him jealous, Danny had a feeling that bringing it up again wasn’t a good idea.

“Good point,” Ember said with a smile. “So, what about this Valerie chick?”

Danny laughed. “Oh, man, you’ll love this. So, Valerie is actually the Red Huntress. At the time, I knew this, but she didn’t, and still doesn’t, know I know. She claimed her life was just too busy to date someone, but I’m pretty sure she actually broke it off because she didn’t want to put me in danger.”

Ember laughed heartily. “Oh, that’s rich! Didn’t want to put you in danger? Wow. I’m guessing she doesn’t know about your alter-ego, huh?”

“Nope, and I’m not going to tell her if I don’t have to,” Danny said. “She’s a shoot first, ask-questions-never type of girl, and absolutely hates Phantom.”

“Ooh, yeah, I can see that ending badly,” Ember said. “Why’d you date her, though? Just curious.”

Danny shrugged. “I thought I liked her. Still do, maybe? We’d definitely make great friends I think, if she ever gets over the hatred for Phantom. But I also don’t think I’d want to be intimate… I dunno, it’s a bit confusing.” He did like flirting, but his body didn’t even react when he thought of kissing girls or going further—he hadn’t even realized there should be a reaction until recently, when he overheard some of the jocks discussing strategies to get rid of unexpected hard-ons around pretty girls.

“Well, that’s perfectly okay,” Ember said. “Intimacy isn’t for everyone—and back to the earlier subject, if you don’t want to kiss for the show, I won’t force you to.”

Danny shifted, considering that. “Maybe for the show it’ll be okay,” he said with a blush. “I dunno though… Like, what if it’s obvious I’m not into it?”

“Well, we can practice if you want,” Ember suggested.

Danny considered that. “Maybe. I’ll think about it. Let’s take a break and do something else for now.”

“Sure thing!” Ember agreed. “I’ve got a bunch of VHS tapes, we can watch one of those?”

“Sounds good to me,” Danny said.

The two sorted through an unorganized pile of tapes under the TV, and eventually decided upon a 1987 film called ‘The Princess Bride’; Danny had never seen it, and the title didn’t sound like the kind of films he usually watched, but Ember insisted that it was actually a comedy and was sure Danny would love it. It didn’t take long for Danny to realize that Ember had been correct; the movie was hilarious!

Partway through, Ember sighed, cuddling into Danny’s side more; Danny wasn’t sure when they’d ended up tangled together on the couch, but it was nice. Then she dramatically lamented, “Man, why’s the heroine have to be so hot?”

“What?” Danny asked in confusion.

“Oh come on. Look at her! Totally smoking, right?”

Danny looked at the heroine. “I dunno. She’s pretty I guess,” he concluded.

“You guess? Wow… Oh! Well, what about the hero, then?” she asked with a sly grin, pausing the screen when it showed him. “I mean, I know I’d totally bang him!”

Danny looked at the actor on screen, blushing as he did so. “Y-yeah, I guess he’s pretty hot,” Danny stammered, unsure why his hormones seemed to be reacting to the actor rather than the actress. Maybe he was just reacting to how Ember mentioned she’d ‘bang him’? Danny wasn’t used to talking about sex much.

Ember sat up, looking at Danny with a widening grin. “Babypop, I think I know what your issue with women is,” she told him.

Danny blinked. “What?”

“You just don’t like them.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you just don’t like the entire female gender. You like dudes.”

Danny froze. That… wasn’t possible, was it? It wasn’t like the thought had never occurred to him in passing, but he always swiftly shoved that away; it was just an intrusive thought… right?

“Okay, clearly you’re in denial,” Ember concluded. “Here, I have an idea to test it.”

Danny looked at Ember with trepidation. “What idea?”

Ember said with a grin, “Kiss me.”

“What?” Danny was plain confused now. Didn’t she just claim that he didn’t like women?

“Come on, just trust me,” Ember insisted. “Kiss me, and see if you react or not.”

Danny considered that for a moment, then said, “Fine.”

Ember pulled Danny to her and locked her lips to Danny’s; Danny leaned into it, tried to relax and feel something from it, that magic all the other boys referenced when kissing a girl, but there was nothing. He just didn’t feel anything from it.

Ember withdrew, then told Danny, “Now close your eyes, relax, and imagine I’m that actor from the movie.”

“Wait, wha—” Danny began to say, but was cut off by Ember’s lips on his again. Unsure what else to do, Danny took Ember’s suggestion. He closed his eyes and relaxed, thinking of the hot actor, imagining he was kissing him…

For some reason, the kiss was more pleasant this time. Ember even began to deepen it, and Danny found that he actually was into it quite a bit… Then, there was a jolt in his lower regions.

Danny pulled away with a gasp, eyes opening wide and a deep blush definitely forming.

Ember grinned. “I take it that worked?” she said knowingly, glancing down.

Danny nodded, speechless, as he grabbed a pillow to cover himself. That had never happened when he kissed a girl, yet now, with him imagining a hot man… Danny couldn’t deny that the evidence was clear: Danny didn’t like girls sexually. Past attempts at dating them had merely been attempts to fit in, thinking that’s what he should do and mistaking more platonic or aesthetic attraction (even if he didn’t want to bang women, he could still tell who was pretty to look at!) for sexual attraction, not actual feelings of sexual attraction.

This was definitely not something Danny wanted to realize on top of the cascade of other things he was learning about himself lately. He’d seen how people treated gay people, but it wasn’t like it was something he could change! Well, he supposed he was already hiding the fact that he was half-ghost; what was one more thing to hide?

Danny’s mood significantly dropped, and tears began to form in his eyes.

“Oh, whoa, no need to cry!” Ember said with worry. “It’s not that embarrassing, is it? I mean, I guess I don’t know human social stuff much anymore, but come on, body reactions like that are perfectly normal, you shouldn’t be—”

“The physical reaction isn’t this issue,” Danny cut her off, managing to hold back the tears. “It’s that it happened at all… I can’t be… I just, on top of everything else, now this? I already have enough to hide!”

Ember frowned. “Why would you need to hide it?”

Danny looked at Ember incredulously. “Are you kidding? I’m dead—well, deader—if Dash or any of his crew finds out. I’d be a social pariah! I don’t even know how my parents would react, but the stats are not good. Sam and Tucker I’m pretty sure would be fine with it, maybe? Or maybe not… I dunno. Sam might be okay with it, but I have no clue about Tucker, even though he’s my best friend.”

“Well, shit,” Ember said, looking surprised. “Didn’t think it would still be so bad… isn’t it, like, somewhere in the 2000s out there? Well, if it’s any comfort, if the humans reject you, you could always just come back to the Ghost Zone, because ghosts don’t give a shit about things like sexuality.”

“Really?” Danny asked skeptically.

“Well, mostly,” Ember amended. “Any that have issues with it keep it to themselves, since there’s a pretty high percentage of LGBT human-based ghosts—if you know the stats, and know how human-based ghosts form, it’s easy to see why. And most of the zone-born ghosts have zero interest in human affairs so you won’t find any homophobes there.”

“Huh,” Danny said, taking a moment to think about that. “Well, hopefully it won’t come to that, but I guess it’s good to know I have a safe place to go,” he concluded.

“‘Slammin,” Ember said. “Now, let’s get back to that movie, okay?”

“Sounds good to me,” Danny agreed, definitely needing a distraction after that discussion.

Chapter Text

“Everything ready?” Danny asked Tucker as the two stood behind the stage, which was set up in front of the school’s baseball field, providing them with some necessary privacy between the stage, which had a large backdrop hanging in back blocking the view behind it, and the solid wall of the dugout. Danny was clutching a thermos tightly in his hand.

“I think so,” Tucker said, checking a final box on the checklist on his PDA. He radiated a mix of excitement and nervousness.

They had just finished setting up the stage for the band; earlier that day, it had been used for various club acts, and now it was time for them to shine.

“Mics are good to go,” Sam said as she returned with Lurker. She was much calmer than Tucker, more confident, though still excited; Danny couldn’t get a read on Lurker, as always.

Behind the stage, they were almost completely hidden, thanks to the setup. The plan was to use ghost abilities for the majority of the special effects, but unfortunately without actual effects equipment that would be too suspicious, so instead it was surrounded on three sides by large white projector screens, which Tucker would use to project various effects and backgrounds to go along with the alleged ‘experimental holographic projectors’.

The stage itself was three tiers, each about two feet higher than the other with a step halfway up. The third tier in back was the entire length, in the middle of which was the drum setup, which Johnny would be at, and to the sides were large speakers. The middle tier would have Lurker on keytar and Sam on electric violin. On the frontmost and lowest tier, in the center would be Danny on guitar and to each of his sides would be Ember and Kitty on guitar and bass. This way, each band member could be seen by the audience; with the exception of Johnny, during the show they would occasionally be swapping positions to add some movement to the show and occasionally swap out the lead singer (most the time it would be Danny, but Sam and Ember would be singing a few). Tucker would be in a small booth at the bottom side of the stage controlling the effects and sound.

Danny glanced around just to be sure, then pressed the release button on the thermos, out of which emerged Ember, Johnny, and Kitty—that had been the best way to transport them there without the ghost hunters running into them before the show. Danny’s ghost sense didn’t go off, as his core now recognized their cores as ghosts friendly to him, verus unknown or malicious—apparently, that was a thing when Danny’s core wasn’t starving.

“Oof! That was so cramped in there!” Ember said, stretching her back. “You’re lucky we love you!”

“Hey, you agreed to it!” Danny quipped back, though smiled. He was a mix of nerves, this being his first ever show, but took comfort in that he was not doing this alone.

“You got my drums set up?” Johnny confirmed.

Danny nodded. “Yup. They transported just fine in the other thermos.” It had been a neat discovery that Ghost Zone objects were compatible with thermoses.

“Still don’t see why you couldn’t just attune to it, Johnny,” Kitty grumbled.

Johnny glared at her. “Hey! You know my bike takes like 90% of my capacity! I can’t attune to a whole ass drum set on top of it!”

“Well, it wouldn’t kill you to leave the bike in the lair sometimes,” Kitty pointed out.

“No way would I ever do that!”

“Hey, dipsticks!” Ember shouted. “No fighting! We’ve got a show to do!”

“Sorry,” Kitty and Johnny said simultaneously, both looking apologetic.

“Okay, one final check,” Tucker said. “Everyone’s got the power for their instruments, and got them synced to the speakers if needed?” Everyone nodded; the ghosts’ instruments were powered by their own energy, and would project the sound on their own too, whereas Sam’s violin and Lurker’s keytar had ecto-batteries to power them and were wirelessly connected to the speaker system using some sort of new transmission device called Bluetooth, which Tucker had rigged up for them. Each spot also had a mic stand, as sometimes everyone (except Tucker of course) would need to do some singing; Danny was the lead while Kitty and Ember were the main background singers, but some songs required the entire band to pitch in. A lot more went into setting up and planning such an event than Danny had realized!

“Perfect,” Tucker said. “Microphone check went well?”

“Yup!” Sam said.

“Instruments ready?”

Sam and Lurker held theirs up, and the ghosts all simply nodded.

“Invisibility ready?”

All the ghosts immediately shifted, whereas Sam and Lurker tapped the bracelets that Lurker had snuck from one of the MU labs, then the similar devices on their instruments. Then they switched back; they still had to wait for their introduction, after all.

“Okay, then let’s go!” Tucker said. “I’ll let Ishiyama know we’re ready.”

Tucker hurried to his tech booth on the side of the stage and signaled to the principal, now waiting on stage, that they were ready. The band members waited for Principal Ishiyama to finish up announcing the band.

“Once again, thank you for coming to Casper High’s first ever Fall Festival on this fine first weekend of October!” Ishiyama said. “We’re excited to have you all here at this family-friendly community event! As a reminder, please keep any food from the food trucks to the parking lot and picnic table areas. This afternoon the football field will be having various games and competitions, most notably an egg toss and three-legged race; a full schedule and sign ups is posted on the large board nearby it. If you haven’t signed up for something yet, consider doing so, as winners will be awarded gift cards to the various Amity Park locales that helped sponsor this event! Also, please be sure to stop by the club and community booths if you haven’t already, as you’ll find they have plenty of free merchandise for you. The paid carnival rides and games are run by an outside company, but they will be donating a portion of their profits today to our fine high school, so don’t hesitate to have fun there too!

“Now that the club events are over, I introduce you to the musical entertainment for the rest of the day, the premier performance of a band founded right here in Amity Park! They’ll be doing covers of all your favorite songs from the past few decades! Now, without hesitation, here’s…” she hesitated at the name on her note card, and Danny tried not to snicker. Ishiyama sighed and said, “Please excuse their name,” before continuing, “Now, without hesitation, here’s ‘The Amity Park Ghosts’! On drums, we have Jason; on keytar, Lurker; on electric violin, Sam; on bass and background vocals, Kat; on guitar and background vocals, Amber; on guitar and lead vocals, Danny; and for tech and special effects, Tucker.

“With that, let the festival continue!”

The stage lights went out as Ishiyama left the stage, and the crowd buzzed with chatter as the band invisibly filed onto the stage via the back corner, which had some steps and a break in the projector curtain, and got into their positions, still remaining invisible.

Danny shouted, “HELLOOOOOO AMITY PARK!” into the microphone, drawing the crowd's attention, who seemed confused upon seeing no one.

Tucker activated a strobe light effect, during which there was a puff of smoke while everyone removed the invisibility, revealing the band minus instruments (or in Johnny’s case, minus drumsticks); as the lights returned to normal; the crowd cheered at the effect, assuming it was just a magic trick.

“Are you ready to ROCK?” Danny shouted, and the lights flickered again, during which the members’ instruments appeared, whether via removing a cloaking device or manifesting; as he pulled out his guitar, Danny loudly strummed it.

The crowd cheered again, and Danny grinned, sensing the buzz of emotion in the air. This was going to be good!

🎵Death comes sweeping through the hallway, like a lady's dress / Death comes driving down the highway, in its Sunday best🎵

“The Music of Erich Zann,” Lancer muttered from his position guarding the balloon arch, which some hooligans already tried to pop, as he stared at the band on stage, unsure what to think. The song was a classic, Fire of Unknown Origin by Blue Oyster Cult, but this was the fifth song in a row related to death! The band name may be related to ghosts, but did they really have to stick with such a morbid theme?

Speaking of ghosts, though: Clearly that was Ember McLain on stage, singing backup while Daniel Fenton was singing lead, yet no one seemed to be registering that fact. Had a mere pseudonym, slightly less prominent role, and costume change been enough to blind them? Or were they well aware yet playing along? She even had the fire hair! And, seriously, the name Amber? It was just one letter different!

Those outfits were concerning, too. Even Daniel was in a punk-goth look, including black jeans with chains, black combat boots with spikes on them, a spiked leather collar and bracelets, a black t-shirt (although Lancer did appreciate the Pink Floyd prism on it), and black eyeliner. He even was still wearing those fake fangs! At least, Lancer hoped they were fake; technically at 16 one could get implants with parental permission, but he doubted the boy’s parents would sign off on it. The multiple earrings likely were real though, as at 16 parental permission was not required for that… although the two large ones looked like they were large tunnels one could see through; a trick of the light? The other band members were all dressed similarly.

Lancer really hoped the PTO and school board didn’t get angry at him for this.

Lancer had to admit that the sound was quite good, though. The addition of an electric violin and keytar added a refreshing sound to the otherwise typical rock band arrangement of drums and guitars. Plus, he hadn’t realized Daniel had such a talent for singing! Perhaps Lancer could convince him to join the school musical. That boy did need some extracurriculars, after all, if he wanted to get into a good college, providing he could bring up his grades, which Lancer was sure were possible if he put the effort in, which he seemed to be this semester.

The song selection wasn’t that bad, either. True, there were some modern songs that were rather grating, and everything they sung seemed to be related to death in some way, but there were also some songs Lancer remembered from his own teenage years, such as “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and, the one they just switched to by CCR, “Bad Moon Rising”...

🎵Don’t go round tonight; it’s sure to take your life; there’s a bad moon on the rise!🎵

Lancer did a double take. Had the lyrics always been that dark? Perhaps so. Lancer hadn’t paid that much attention to it before; the song had been on the radio quite a bit, but Lancer hadn’t been enough of a fan to purchase the album.

“Whoa, Danny-boy sure has quite the voice!” someone said, and Lancer jumped slightly in surprise as he turned to see Jack Fenton standing next to him. “When he told us he was singing for the festival, we hadn’t thought he was serious!”

“Those outfits, though…” Maddie, on Jack’s other side so Lancer hadn’t seen her at first, said with slight disapproval, stepping forwards so she was actually in Lancer’s vision slightly. “I don’t know how I feel about Danny wearing something so dark looking…”

“Ah, Mads, that’s just the look!” Jack declared. “It’s all for the show. It’s cool!”

“Yes, I believe ‘edgy’ is the term the youth use for it,” Lancer said, happy to have recalled that bit of slang.

“Hold up, is that a ghost?!” Maddie suddenly said, narrowing her eyes. Oh, good; someone else had finally noticed Ember was a part of the band.

“Ghost?! Where?!” Jack asked, looking frantically around.

Maddie had an electronic device out, though Lancer had no idea where she grabbed it from. She pointed it at the stage and it showed a series of dots. “This shows there’s five ghosts in the band! Wait, no, three—the one on keytar is that strange MU friend of Jazz’s, I swear nearly every other student from there registers on this, and the last one’s just Danny.”

“It’s still reading him as a ghost? Darn it, I thought we fixed that!” Jack whined, ignoring the MU kid, which Lancer felt was understandable considering he was pretty sure the kid had tentacles for arms, even though for some reason his eyes could never focus on them. Not that Lancer wanted to; ghosts were more than enough of the supernatural for Amity Park.

“Well, this scanner’s new, Jack; we gave the old one to the Red Huntress, since she thought the Wisconsin Ghost might have tampered with hers, remember?”

“Oh, right,” Jack said. “Well, I’m sure it’s fine. Like the others it’ll probably stop showing him as one after a while for no discernable reason.”

🎵I’m not growing up, I’m just burning out / and I’ve stepped in line to walk amongst the dead!🎵

Lancer frowned, and not just at the lyrics that once again mentioned death; no, his new concern was that the Fentons’ devices were apparently targeting Daniel. Surely that couldn’t be safe. If this scanner read him as a ghost, did the ghost-targeting weapons do so as well? Not for the first time Lancer worried about Daniel’s home life.

Jack then realized, “Wait. Are you saying Danno’s band has THREE ghosts in it!?”

“Surely if so, he is not aware of such,” Lancer said, although he had his doubts—after all, Daniel must know about Ember at the very least; plus, it explained the band’s name. “Maybe they’re overshadowed?”

Maddie shook her head. “No, that would look different on this,” she said. “They’re definitely full ghosts…”

“Wait one second,” Jack said, squinting at the stage. “Isn’t that the punk that dated Jazz?!”

“The one that Danny decked?” Maddie said in surprise. “Why would Danny be in a band with him?”

“I don’t know, but this needs to stop!” Jack declared, taking a step forward.

“Jack, wait,” Maddie said, putting a hand on his arm to stop him. “Let’s not cause a scene in the middle of the festival if we don’t have to.”

“But—”

“I must agree,” Lancer chimed in. “That would only cause unnecessary panic. Besides, even if the band members truly are ghosts, they do seem to be serious about playing music.” Lancer, like many people in Amity Park, now believed that not all ghosts bore ill will, but he wasn’t going to say that much in front of two ghost hunters.

“Now that you mention it, it does seem so,” Jack mused, calming so quickly that Lancer bizarrely wondered if he’d been acting.

“Jack, honey, it’s just a trick, as usual,” Maddie told her husband with a terse sigh.

“Oh, right,” Jack said. “Then, we need to go get those ghosts before they hurt Danny!”

“We still need to be careful about causing a panic,” Maddie reminded him. “We can confront Danny after the show, while they clean up.”

“And grab the ghosts?” Jack asked hopefully, though again Lancer couldn’t shake the feeling that Jack was acting.

“And grab the ghosts,” Maddie agreed.

🎵Well, I think I'm gonna burn in Hell / Everybody burn the house right down!🎵

WHOOSH! With that line, green fire lined the stage, though in what seemed like a controlled manner.

“Ghost fire!!” Jack declared, waving around an ecto-gun, though it looked like he was more excited than anything, almost childlike in his demeanor.

Maddie gently laid a hand on Jack’s arms. “It’s just pyrotechnics, Jack,” she said, then frowned and added, “Probably.”

“The band did get approval for such,” Lancer informed them. “From both the school and the town.”

“You sure?” asked Jack, though there was an unexpected flash of what seemed to be disappointment. Had he wanted there to be a reason to fight? Or, maybe not fight… Hmm. Something was off about this.

“Yes, I filed the paperwork myself,” Lancer said. “It was quite tedious.”

Maddie sighed. “Yes, paperwork always is…”

It took a couple minutes to calm Jack down about the fire, but eventually he (pretended that he?) conceded that even if it were ghostly fire, it was still best to wait until later to address it.

🎵 Saaaaaay goodniiiiight to the hearts you break and all the cyanide you drank! 🎵

“The Case of Charles Dexter Ward!” Lancer swore. “Okay, that’s it; I’m telling them to sing about something else,” he decided, noting the lyrics—it seemed the topic of songs had shifted from death in general, with the occasional supernatural element, to straight up murder. The PTO was going to have a field day with this if he didn’t stop them. “Watch the balloon arch for me.”

“Ooh, tell them to sing about love!” Jack said excitedly.

“Oh, yes, I’d love to hear our boy sing a love song,” Maddie agreed.

Lancer made his way to the edge of the stage, catching Daniel’s attention, then waited until the disturbing song about the serial killer was finished.

Thankfully Daniel acknowledged Lancer’s presence. “Looks like we have a brief interruption!” He announced into the microphone, which he then disconnected from the stand. Both he and Amber (who was allegedly not Ember yet definitely was) moved over to him and bent down.

“So, what’s the issue, pops?” Ember said with a mischievous grin; Lancer had a sudden feeling she knew why he was there as Daniel held the microphone up to him with an identical grin that revealed his fangs. An oddly familiar grin, especially when combined with the black attire…

Lancer shook the uncanny feeling away, cleared his throat, and said nervously, “Well, I was wondering if perhaps you could sing about something other than death?”

Daniel laughed. “We were wondering when you’d notice! That was what, eight songs in a row about it?”

“Nine,” Ember corrected, clearly amused by their apparent prank, which seemed to have specifically been directed at Lancer. “So, you want us to sing about something else?”

“Please,” Lancer said calmly; he was too used to teenage antics to visibly react.

“And what’ll you do if we don’t? Give us detention?” Daniel said cheekily, and Lancer could have sworn his eyes flashed radioactive green for a moment as he again flashed his fangs.

Lancer considered that as he tried not to show that he was mildly unnerved. “You know what, why not. If you do not change topics, I will give you all detention, whether you’re students or not.” He wasn’t serious, and by the looks of it the two teens knew it.

“Okay, then—in that case, got any requests for the next topic?” Ember asked Lancer as she clearly held back laughter.

“Well, perhaps… love?” Lancer suggested, recalling what Jack and Maddie had asked.

“Love?” Daniel repeated with a sly grin. “Sure, we can sing about love! Right, Amber?”

“Hell yeah we can!” Ember cheered as the band started up, apparently needing no other cues to decide the song. Clearly this was planned, perhaps a few choices based on whatever was suggested. The two bounced back to center stage, their grins more mischievous than comforting.

Well, regardless of the outcome, his job was done, so Lancer made his way back to the adult Fentons.

🎵But, girl, you make it hard to be faithful / With the lips of an angel…🎵

Lancer put his hand on his forehead as he rejoined the two by the arch. “Scarlet Letter! Well, I tried,” he said in resignation. He should have expected that instead of a proper love song they’d sing about something technically related, like adultery… Well, at least it wasn’t about death.

Lancer looked back at the boy singing on stage, looking more relaxed and happier than Lancer had seen him in a long time… Yet, the expression seemed familiar, too. A smirk that was commonly found on a certain town hero, one that was conveniently never in the same place as the boy on stage… One that also had recently displayed new fangs and new piercings… Daniel’s eyes briefly flashed green again, and something clicked in Lancer’s mind.

“The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde,” Lancer swore under his breath. Could it be? Was Daniel Fenton… Danny Phantom?

No, no, impossible, Lancer concluded. It was all a coincidence, that’s all. If that were the case, that meant young Daniel had… No, that was too heartbreaking. Besides, if that were the case, Daniel surely wouldn’t still be living with Jack and Maddie, right? Not when they attacked Phantom so ferociously. Surely his parents would notice their own son had died; and surely Lancer would have noticed if his student was a ghost. No, it was all just a coincidence; Lancer was being silly for even entertaining the thought.

‘Amber’, who again was most definitely Ember, along with Sam, had now both taken center stage to sing together, and to Lancer’s relief were singing something a little more… not quite upbeat per se, but less harsh in regards to its overall sound compared to many of the other songs they’d played; it was a little more operatic, though still somewhat dark, and Lancer found himself… what was the term kids these days used? ‘Vibing’? Yes, he was ‘vibing’ to it. With any luck, the lyrics of this one would be—

🎵Death before my eyes / Lying next to me, I fear / She beckons me, shall I give in?🎵

Nevermind, it was about death again. Lancer closed his eyes, trying not to react... Oh, yes, the PTO was definitely going to have a field day with this. Lancer was extremely glad that he had tenure—although even if he didn’t, Lancer frankly wouldn’t be worried, as the haunted school was so short-staffed and had such a struggle finding teachers that pretty much the only way someone would possibly be fired was if they committed a felony, and even then exceptions might be made.

“Lancer,” came a terse, carefully controlled voice beside him.

Lancer turned to see the school principal standing next to him. “Hello, Ishiyama,” he greeted warily. That tone was never a good sign.

She didn’t bother with any small talk. “Did you, by any chance, review and approve the set list before the concert?”

“Unfortunately, it failed to occur to me that that was needed,” Lancer reluctantly admitted.

“I see. And were you aware that half the band members would be ghosts?”

Lancer sighed. “I mistakenly assumed that, being human,”—or at least, Lancer desperately hoped Daniel was still human, as the alternative was too tragic—“and the child of ghost hunters, that the rest of Daniel’s band would be human, too.”

After a moment, Ishiyama said, “I suppose that would be a logical assumption. However, did the band’s name not raise suspicion?”

Lancer winced. “I was not made aware of the name until the beginning of the concert.”

“Hm. So let me get this straight. You hired a student’s band, got all the paperwork together for the stage construction and setup, acquired a pyrotechnics license for the show, and did all the scheduling and other planning, yet failed to ask the name of the band, the members of the band, or the songs the band planned to play?”

“Ah, well, when you put it that way…”

Ishiyama gave him a withering stare. “You are so lucky you have tenure,” she said before she walked off, not even waiting for Lancer’s response.

Yes, Lancer had to agree: he was certainly lucky he had tenure.

🎵Hey, dad, look at me / Think back and talk to me / Did I grow up according to plan?🎵

Jack’s ears perked up hearing his son sing the word ‘dad’. He knew it was just a popular song, and Danny wasn’t actually singing to him, of course. And yet. The way Danny was singing, it was just so heartfelt…

🎵I’m never gonna be good enough for you / Can't pretend that I'm alright / And you can't change me…🎵

Jack’s heart sank. Danny didn’t really believe that, right? No, of course not, it was just the song… Still… Danny wasn’t alright, was he? Even Jack, who knew he tended to be oblivious to too many things, could see that. Whatever he was going through, Jack decided that he would have to make sure Danny knew that he was perfectly good enough for him!

🎵I try not to think / About the pain I feel inside / Did you know you used to be my hero?🎵

Used to be. Danny would call him his hero when he was a child, his ghost-hunting hero. But he hadn’t in a long time. This reminder made Jack’s heart wrench; it was just the song, just the song, not Danny’s true emotions…

But the way Danny was singing sure felt like his heart was in it; were those tears glistening in his eyes? Which flashed green; Danny’s eyes did that when he was emotional, though he thought Jack didn’t notice. Maddie thought it was just tricks of the light, but Jack suspected maybe it was because Danny never wore his hazmat suit in the lab; there had to eventually be some side-effects of all that ectoplasm exposure, after all.

🎵I can’t stand another fight / And nothing’s all right🎵

Danny—er, the song—was right. Jack, too, was sick of fighting. Things were not all right. Something had to change, or Jack would lose Danny forever, if he hadn’t already.

🎵Nothing's gonna change the things that you said / And nothing's gonna make this right again / Please don't turn your back / I can't believe it's hard just to talk to you / But you don't understand🎵

He wanted to understand. Jack desperately wished Danny would talk to him. Jack didn’t know what things he said, but whatever they were, he’d apologize. Even if nothing could make whatever rift had come between them right again, Jack would try. He just wanted his little boy back again.

🎵Now it's just too late / And we can't go back / I'm sorry / I can't be perfect🎵

“But you are perfect, Danny,” Jack whispered.

“What’d you say, dear?” Maddie asked from next to him.

Jack shook his head slowly. “It’s nothing, Mads. Just talking to myself.”

Maddie gave Jack a curious look. “You’re crying,” she commented.

Jack quickly wiped his eyes with his gloved hands, unaware that he’d started silently crying.

Maddie, not unexpectedly, misinterpreted it. She put a hand on his arm and said, “Don’t worry, dear. We’ll get those ghosts away from Danny as soon as the show is over.”

“...Right,” Jack said. “Yeah, totally. That’s exactly what I’m upset about; what’s Danny thinking, being in a ghost band?”

But Danny being with ghosts was not the thing at the forefront of Jack’s mind. The rift that kept growing between him and Danny was. The rift that had opened around the same time the darn portal had… No, before that. Jack knew that he often spent more time on his research than paying attention to the kids. Always had. Jazz told him as much quite frequently. Maybe that was the biggest cause of the rift? Maybe they could fix things with a family trip?

Somehow Jack knew that that wasn’t the biggest reason for the rift, but he honestly had absolutely no idea what else it could be.

Jack’s eyes flicked back to the stage as he gasped. What looked like ice crystals were now floating in the air around the stage, reflecting light like glitter! “These special effects are absolutely amazing!” he declared. Although, there were three ghosts there, so it could just be ghost powers at work… But, none of them had ice powers that Jack was aware of. The only ghosts Jack even knew of that had ice powers were Klemper and Phantom, neither of who was on stage with them. Plus, Danny seemed to be signaling to get them to move; maybe Tucker had some sort of hologram generator that could read his movements, which Jack didn’t realize was possible, but technology moved so fast and special effects wasn’t Jack’s area of expertise. He wondered if that was also the cause of Danny’s eyes glimmering the same vibrant blue as the crystals.

🎵You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill / I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose Freewill🎵

Jack smiled at hearing the song from his college days. It was so considerate that they were playing music from so many decades! He vaguely wondered if those were the eras the ghosts came from; the one on the bass definitely did usually seem to dress in a style he’d seen people wear in the 80s, so maybe the song was from her youth, too… Wait, no, he was humanizing the ghosts again, Maddie always told him not to do that. Then again, why would a ghost go this far to fake humanness?

Jack looked at Danny again. He seemed so happy up there on stage! Jack wondered if he should have enrolled Danny in music lessons when he was a kid. When did Danny even take an interest in music? When did he learn guitar? Jack hadn’t even known Danny was in a band or planned to play here until he yelled such as he headed out the door that morning, and Jack had thought it was an odd joke until he and Maddie arrived to find him on stage. How was there so much Jack didn’t know about his son?

Jack decided that this was something he needed to fix. As soon as he and Maddie rescued Danny from those ghostly influences, he would reconnect with his son and repair their fraying relationship.

Although… did he have to rescue Danny from them after all? Seeing them here like this, they didn’t seem so bad. They were clearly having fun; Maddie always said ghosts mimicked people to trick them, but would they really go this far to do so? The band didn’t get together just that day, evidenced by how they were so in-sync; they’d have to have been practicing almost daily for weeks to get to that point. If these ghosts really were after Danny, wouldn’t they have attacked long before now?

🎵Live right now / Yeah, just be yourself / It doesn't matter if it's good enough / For someone else…🎵

Plus, Danny was just so happy up there on stage. In fact, he’d been noticeably happier the past month, presumably since he started practicing with the band. If that were because of these ghosts, wouldn’t it be more detrimental to take them away, even if they were ghosts? Jack never would have thought ghosts could have such a large positive influence on someone, but wasn’t the evidence right in front of him proving otherwise?

“Hey, Maddie,” Jack said, and when she hummed in acknowledgement he suggested, “Maybe we can hold off on attacking the ghosts today.”

Maddie tensed, then slowly turned to look at Jack with narrowed eyes. “And just why would we do that?” she asked tersely. She glanced at the ghost tracker, likely to make sure Jack wasn’t overshadowed.

“Because Danny seems happy,” Jack said simply, which was reason enough for him: if the ghosts were making Danny happy, they weren’t a threat, so there was no need to fight.

“Danny cannot be happy if he’s with ghosts,” Maddie said, firmly.

Jack frowned. “But… just look at him.” Danny was practically glowing. Actually glowing? Nah, that was probably from the stage lighting. He was clearly happy, though.

“He may appear to be happy, but that’s only because they’re tricking him. You know how ghosts like to trick people,” Maddie said, in a tone one might use with a child. She spoke to Jack like that a lot, and frankly it came off as very condescending, but as usual Jack didn’t say anything, not wanting to get into a public fight.

🎵Just do your best / Do everything you can / And don't you worry what their bitter hearts / Are gonna say🎵

“Yeah, you’re right, Maddie,” Jack said, although his heart definitely wasn’t in it, not for the first time doubting Maddie’s words. Danny and Jazz were always so insistent that ghosts had thoughts and feelings, just like humans; Maddie always shut that down, but what if the kids were onto something? Looking at them now, it seemed obvious that they did. The air practically felt charged with emotional energy coming from the band.

Jack felt conflicted. He wasn’t so sure if he should join Maddie in the hunt later that day, but if he didn’t, Maddie would get angry, and she could be scary when she was angry. Maybe he could fudge it? Yes, he could pretend to fight, but not actually hit the ghosts, as he typically did with Phantom (and, frankly, all child ghosts, ever since he started doubting what Maddie claimed about them); Maddie would probably kill him if he ever told her, but Jack had secretly started to see Phantom as a bit of a Hero, like many in town did. He had a better track record of catching ghosts than any hunter in town, after all!

Jack wondered if he should tell the kids that he secretly supported Phantom, as he knew they were huge fans of the ghost, or keep hiding it, for fear of Maddie finding out. Right now Jack was leaning towards telling his kids, as that might help patch up the growing divide in his relationship with them.

“Hey, Mads?” Jack asked after a while.

“What now?” she snapped, and Jack winced. She was mad, then.

Jack decided to just talk regardless of her being on edge. “I just… can’t help but wonder where we went wrong,” he said to Maddie. “Danny’s drifted so far away… How do we fix it?”

“Well, the first step would be getting him away from those ghosts,” Maddie said, and Jack resisted sighing in frustration.

“Back to that, huh?” Jack muttered. He glanced at his watch. There was plenty of time until the end; he could let Maddie watch alone for a while, to cool down. “I’m gonna go get a drink,” he told her, then turned and walked away without waiting for a response.

🎵We never wanted to be abused / We'll never give up, it's no use / If we're fucked up, you're to blame🎵

🎵Information age of hysteria / the subliminal mindfuck America!🎵

As the sun began to set, Valerie shook her head fondly, slightly amused as she heard the band singing the brand new hit song that definitely would get the PTO to riot just by itself, even if they’d been playing a censored radio version, which they definitely weren’t. She had a feeling that the band’s setlist had not been approved by the school at all, and if any actually had been, the band was surely not adhering to it.

To be fair, though, they weren’t exclusively selecting songs that warranted an ‘explicit’ warning on their album covers; they simply were choosing to use the uncensored versions of popular songs. Otherwise there was a good mix of music popular with all different ages, after that little prank played with the death songs.

Valerie, in her full Red Huntress regalia, hid on the rooftop of Caper High, cautiously watching the festival’s concert. When she arrived that afternoon she had planned to actually participate in the festival, as there were many community booths, club booths, games, food trucks, and even some carnival rides, but then she noticed that Danny’s band, for some inexplicable reason, contained ghosts. She had no choice but to monitor the situation, so she could keep Danny (and the town) safe from those awful ghosts.

If there weren’t so many people there, Valerie would be barging in and shooting those ghosts—hell, she’d probably have done that a year ago—but she had slowly learned the value of maintaining public order and biding time and waiting for an opening. Attacking now would simply cause chaos, which would increase the chance of the ghosts escaping; undoubtedly the Fentons knew as well while they watched from the ground. They would have much better luck catching the ghosts once the concert ended and the ghosts tried to escape.

Although, one ‘ghost hunter’ (if one used a very loose definition of the term) known to attack without considering such things was Phantom, who was conspicuously absent. Was he not planning to attack, instead hiding somewhere and watching the concert? He did seem to be friendlier towards these particular ghosts nowadays. Valerie had caught him casually flying around with Ember, and even hitching a ride on Johnny’s motorcycle’s handlebars one day. She wondered if she should start going after him more seriously again; despite still being angry at him, she’d laid off a little, only attacking if she found him alone and focusing on other ghosts if he wasn’t, recognizing that he usually helped catch the other ghosts, but if he were getting friendly with destructive ghosts, no longer stopping them…

Something that also puzzled her was Danny and Sam. They were on stage, happily playing their instruments and singing with the ghosts! Were they overshadowed? She’d sworn Danny’s eyes had glowed a radioactive green a couple times. Her ghost scanner, however, claimed neither were; perhaps Danny’s ecto-contamination had just gotten worse, which was a distinct possibility because of where he lived.

Maybe the ghosts had tricked them. Ghosts often did that. They were always trying to get you to let your guard down. But, Danny was the son of ghost hunters; he ought to know that! Which made it even stranger for him to be in a band with ghosts, honestly; he was well-known to be terrified of them.

🎵Drop a heart / And break a name / We're always sleeping in, and sleeping / For the wrong team…🎵

Danny’s voice, Valerie had to admit, was amazing, almost echoey and surreal in the microphone, giving it a ghostly feel; Valerie assumed that was simply due to the audio equipment. She hadn’t known that he could sing, nor that he could play the guitar! Well, at least he could play simple chords; ‘Amber’ (who were they trying to fool with that pseudonym?) was definitely on a much higher level, playing complex progressions at a rapid pace. Sam was similarly a beast on her electric violin, which added a surprisingly refreshing sound to all the songs, which had been slightly rearranged to accommodate the non-traditional rock band instrument. She reluctantly had to admit that ‘Kat’ and ‘Jason’, a.k.a. Kitty and Johnny, were pretty great at playing the drums and bass respectively. Valerie didn’t know who that last member was, but she had a sneaking feeling he was one of those strange cryptids that she’d seen hanging around MU, and Valerie was smart enough to leave anything related to that place alone; regardless, he seemed to know what he was doing on that keytar, too, even though Valerie could have sworn he had tentacles instead of arms at one point, which she decided not to think about.

The music selection itself, with the exception of that prank on Lancer, was very tastefully selected; there was a good mix of various decades, and so far every song had a good portion of the crowd excited about it, including the prank ones. Valerie assumed Danny and Sam selected them, because no way the ghosts would know so well what humans liked. They even, surprisingly, did a number of requests—including a few Disney songs at the request of a group of young children (Valerie was nervous about such small kids getting so close to ghosts). For some of those song requests, Danny only sang, or on some occasions played simple chords while other members sang, revealing how new he was to this, but Valerie was impressed at the large amount he did know given that as far as Valerie knew he showed no interest in music until a month ago, when he suddenly got that guitar that he’d sometimes practice during lunch, if no ghost fights occurred (if they did, he’d run and hide like usual).

Valerie glanced at her watch; 5:24PM. The festival technically was open until 6, but the music would be ending around 5:30 to give the band time to break things down. Valerie tensed herself in preparation to race down there and take out the ghosts as soon as they were distracted by doing such. She glanced into the crowd, noticing the Fentons preparing to do the same, slowly sneaking closer. Valerie couldn’t get closer, not unless she wanted to reveal herself, but her hoverboard was fast enough that it didn’t matter.

🎵Oh, kiss me, beneath the milky twilight / Lead me out on the moonlit floor / Lift your open hand / Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance🎵

Ghostly balls of light shimmered on stage and danced around like the fireflies mentioned in the song, which Ember and Danny were singing as a duet. Valerie honestly couldn’t help but be amazed, even knowing the true nature of the ‘special effects’ and composition of the band. If Valerie didn’t know Ember were a ghost, she’d even say there was some chemistry there between her and Danny as they sang! The two simply worked well together, impossibly so. Perhaps there was some sort of ghostly magic at play? She was certain Danny wasn’t possessed, but maybe Ember had some sort of influence that made her band members more in-sync with her. Yeah, that must be it.

🎵So kiss me / So kiss me / So kiss me…🎵

The crowd cheered as fireworks burst from the stage, and Valerie watched in surprise as Ember grabbed Danny and dipped him as she pulled him into a deep kiss. Danny didn’t seem surprised and didn’t protest at all, instead smiling into it, meaning it was likely rehearsed, but still. Valerie subconsciously recoiled at the fact that Danny was kissing a ghost—yeah, she knew she had been the one to break up with him, and despite the lingering feelings Valerie had she wasn’t about to risk Danny’s safety by rekindling their relationship, but a ghost? Seriously? Besides, it wasn’t as if ghosts had feelings—if they were impossibly actually a couple, clearly Ember was tricking him.

Valerie suddenly realized she had been lost in thought and missed what had immediately followed; Danny was now waving to the crowd after finishing up a few closing remarks about how they enjoyed playing for them and appreciated the audience while the others began to pack up as the audience started to disperse.

When enough of the audience was gone, most of them now swarming the food truck area, Valerie sprung into action, as did the Fentons below her.

“Surprise!” Valerie called as she zoomed in. “You ghosts won’t get away!”

Ember had the gall to grin at her. “You really think we didn’t expect this, Red?”

Valerie’s hoverboard wavered as a blast of something hit it from the side, at an angle that didn’t make sense since the three ghosts were directly in front of her.

Valerie swerved, expecting more ghosts to have joined as reinforcements, but instead only saw Danny there, holding in one hand an ecto-weapon, currently shooting at his parents with surprising accuracy despite staring at her in determination, and in the other hand, pointed at her, some sort of launcher. For a moment, Valerie could have sworn his eyes flashed green.

Before Valerie could properly react, too thrown off by the twist, a net was launched at her, knocking her to the ground; thankfully she was high enough up that the fall didn’t bruise too much. Valerie squirmed, caught in the net; she noticed that not far away from her was Jack Fenton in a similar predicament, though he seemed strangely subdued compared to his usual spunkiness towards ghost hunting. He wasn’t even struggling to break free. Perhaps he was in shock over his son shooting at him?

The ghosts were now flying away while Lurker, Sam, Tucker, and oddly enough Jazz too, continued working on dismantling the equipment with no regard to the fact that Danny was shooting at his mother. The ecto-weapon, to a human, would be no more damaging than a paintball, and maybe give a very minor burn if shot at close enough range, but the thought that Danny would fire not just at her but also at his parents was a little more than Valerie could process at the moment. What had gotten into him?! Being in a band with ghosts was bad enough, but now he was helping them escape?

As Maddie managed to capture her son in a net shot from what seemed to be the same model of weapon Danny was using, Valerie finally managed to untangle herself and took off after the ghosts. Unfortunately, the three vanished, and Valerie was still too far away to think there’d be any luck if she fired ecto-blasts blindly into the sky.

The ghosts had gotten away, and impossibly it was all Danny Fenton’s fault.

As they drove home in silence in the GAV, with him on the floor still in the net, Danny knew he was in trouble. Big trouble. He had not only been in a band with ghosts, but he had helped them escape his parents when the show ended, via shooting at his parents with their own ecto-weapons.

Tucker was in the GAV with him, warily looking at Danny on occasion but he didn’t dare take the net off for fear of Maddie Fenton’s seething rage, strong enough that you didn’t need to be a ghost to feel it. Unfortunately Sam had been dragged home by her own parents, who were also not happy with her (particularly because when her mom came up and requested they sing a song about God, they played ‘God Must Hate Me’ by Simple Plan, and when she protested Sam pointed out that technically it was still about God and Danny then winked and told her, “You should know to be careful what you ask for in Amity Park”; Sam’s parents would surely hate Danny once again after that). The final band member, Lurker, had simply vanished, as he tended to do. Jazz was driving back separately, her car housing the equipment.

Danny knew he would be in particularly huge trouble for the finale of the duet at the end, where Ember had pulled Danny down into a kiss—it had been planned, all part of the show (otherwise Sam would have killed Ember; just because they were exes now didn’t mean she wasn’t still going to be overprotective of Danny in a best-friend type of way), but Ember had definitely dragged it out longer than it needed to be; Danny had a feeling the ghost had been enjoying it a whole lot more than he had—although to his confusion, he had actually enjoyed it some too. Not enough to trigger an urge for anything further, but it was fun. Were friendship kisses a thing? Thankfully she knew to not take it too far at the concert, keeping it fairly chaste despite the length, in consideration that it was supposed to be a family-friendly event (honestly though it was a miracle the show hadn’t been cut short with the songs they were singing).

From Ember’s playful wink at the end as she flew off, Danny had a feeling that things were going to be very different between them henceforth, and he was not sure how he felt about that. Or, maybe not so different; at first it had been about just working together for the band, but it had very quickly become more, possibly closer than even regular friends now, especially after that heart-to-heart where Ember helped him sort out those feelings that he had been having, which still felt strange to admit. Part of the reason for that kiss at the end, in addition to the audience always going wild for such, was actually to give Danny a way to keep his sexuality hidden; Danny would not survive high school if his bullies found out he was… yeah. Danny shoved thoughts about that out of the way for now; he had enough to deal with at the moment…

…Like the scolding he was about to get from his parents.

Danny gave a shout of protest as his mom grabbed him, still in the net, and dragged him through the door to the house before unceremoniously tossing him onto the floor of the living room. Danny, heart racing at the unusual roughness his mother was exhibiting, winced as his mom locked the door behind her once Jack and Tucker entered. Danny had a lot of explaining to do, he knew it.

Jazz, who had already arrived home and was waiting in the living room, could hopefully mitigate things a little, although at the moment she seemed to be in some sort of shock after seeing Danny being thrown around in a net by their mother.

Danny’s parents stood in front of him. “Care to explain?” his mom, arms crossed, asked coldly. Her quiet rage left an actual bitter taste in Danny’s mouth. Jack seemed more worried than angry, glancing at his wife with something akin to slight fear, and stepped forwards, looking like he planned to remove the net, but Maddie put a hand on his arm to stop him, and he froze.

“Explain what?” Danny asked sheepishly.

“You know what.”

“No, I really don’t…” Danny squirmed slightly, the closed net causing some discomfort due to the ecto-proof coating, which stung slightly, and cramped size. “Can you please get me out of this?” he begged, really disliking the trapped feeling. His core vibrated with anxiety; he took some unneeded deep breaths to calm down, as the last thing he needed to do was panic and release a blast of ice or something.

Jazz snapped out of her stunned state and hurried to help, sending a glare at her mom, who had stopped Jack again as he tried to help. Danny felt Jazz’s own cold rage, directed at their mother; never had he imagined his sister could feel that way towards either of their parents.

Finally, Danny was able to stand up; he stood facing his parents, Jazz and Tucker on either side of him.

“Okay, now you can explain,” Maddie said curtly, rage still flaring beneath her outwardly calm demeanor.

“Um. Again, explain what?” Danny asked, cockiness flaring to hide his true feelings or fear, worry, and mild panic. This felt different than usual—or, maybe it was just the new attunement to emotion making it feel different. His mom was clearly pretending that she was calmer than she actually was—how often had she done that?

“You’re in a band with ghosts!” Jack declared, throwing his hands up. “Ghosts! And you even kissed one of them!” Unlike Danny’s mom, the man did not seem to actually be angry, despite his outward appearance; it was more of a mix of… Confusion? Concern? …Confliction? And was that curiosity and excitement mixed in? Danny’s father confused him; surprisingly the man usually had a strong mix of emotions, often at odds with each other and rarely having a single one surface at a time, unlike with most humans, and Danny had trouble sorting them. The show of anger was a mask, probably to avoid him becoming the target of Maddie’s rage next, which Danny had started to notice often happened when he questioned her.

Tucker answered that. “To be fair, it was Ember McLain, pretty sure any teen would kiss her if given the opportunity.”

“Tucker, not helping,” Danny muttered, seeing his mom’s eyes only narrow more, although his dad seemed to actually consider those words. Then Danny more loudly insisted, “Look, it’s not as bad as it seems, I swear! The kiss was just for the show. It didn’t mean anything.”

His mom frowned, though apparently accepting the fact that it had been for the show, moving onto the next topic. “Danny, can you remove those vampire fangs? They’re a little unnerving.”

“Uh… They’re glued on prosthetics?” Danny tried, even though they were actually a permanent part of him. How his parents apparently hadn’t noticed them until today was a mystery, as he’d had them for weeks at this point. “They, er, will fall off on their own in a few days?” Hopefully he figured out how to explain their permanence by then, or maybe his parents would simply forget.

“I think they’re cool!” Jack said, and Danny couldn’t help but smile slightly despite the situation, his dad giving off a clear vibe that he honestly did think so. His dad thought his fangs were cool!

Maddie sent Jack a glare before turning back to Danny and saying, disapproval evident in the air, “And what about all those earrings? Those bottom ones look like your ears have large holes in them!”

“Ah. Yeah, that’s because they do,” Danny said with a wince. In addition to a row of five small rings spread along the outer ridge of each ear, applied earlier that day, he was wearing light blue anodized titanium tunnels, so at the right angle you could see right through. “I’m, er, surprised you didn’t notice by now? Like, it’s taken months to get the holes stretched to this point,” he lied. In actuality, his ghost healing abilities had allowed, over the past few weeks, for him to not only get them pierced but also to stretch them at a much more rapid pace than usual—what might usually take a human more than a year had taken just weeks. He’d stopped at a half inch, even though Sam had really encouraged him to go further. Danny liked it where it was though. He retained them in his ghost form, inverted color of course, giving them an aged rusty color; he wondered if switching the jewelry would do the same or if, like his hazmat suit, it’d alway be those by default.

“What! They’re cool too but there’s no way we wouldn’t notice that,” Jack said, a mix of confusion, appreciation, and perhaps disappointment towards himself.

“Tch. Seriously? You wouldn’t notice a ghost living in your own home,” Danny said bitterly, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. He was not in the mood for this!

“Danny,” Jazz warned quietly, the nervous feeling around her belying her calm demeanor, and Danny took a deep breath, realizing the temperature in the room had already dropped a few degrees thanks to him; if this continued, his eyes would start glowing too, and the last thing he needed was to have his anger cause an impulsive identity reveal.

“Danny!” his mom declared, anger flaring once again. “How dare you!”

“Yeah! “ Jack added. “Maybe we didn’t notice the ears, but we’d definitely notice something like a ghost living here!” His emotions were confusing again; there was a little anger, but also hurt, and maybe a little worry, perhaps second-guessing himself, wondering if that were true. Jack seemed to have a surprising amount of self-doubt, for all the confidence he usually projected.

Danny grabbed his hair in frustration, pulling at it slightly. “Oh, Ancients, this is all such bullshit!”

There was a brief moment of silence.

“Was that ghost slang?” Jack asked quietly, both expression and vibe reflecting concern now. Danny felt a little guilty; clearly he was hurting his father.

His mother, however, was again just full of that cold rage, though seemed too stunned to immediately answer.

Jazz stepped over and gently removed Danny’s hands from his hair. “I’m sure Danny was simply trying to get under your skin,” she said calmly, though internally she was panicking. “Right?” she asked Danny, a Look in her eyes.

“Right,” Danny grumbled in agreement. He’d have to be more careful about that; to ghosts, the ‘Ancients’ were god-like ghosts that had been around since near the beginning of time, such as Clockwork, and ghosts used the term to swear as humans would use the term ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’. Danny hadn’t realized he’d picked up doing it too.

Danny’s mom sighed in frustration. “Danny, please. What’s going on with you lately? We understand that teenagers go through rebellious stages, but this is ridiculous!”

“It is a little extreme,” Jazz pointed out, her vibe now including some frustration.

Danny pulled away from his sister and glared at her. “Oh, thanks, Jazz. Great support you’re being!”

“You dug yourself into this hole,” Jazz said simply. “I could’ve easily found you some human band members, but you just had to go for the ghosts.” She radiated disappointment.

“Well, sorry I’d prefer to have friends in the band rather than strangers!” Danny retorted, ignoring the fact that the one member Jazz did find was definitely not a human, then winced as he realized what he said; though, he also realized that he did mean it—all three of those ghosts had actually become his friends, somehow.

His parents both gasped. “You’re friends with ghosts!?” they both said simultaneously with clear disbelief, in his mom’s case mixed with more anger and horror and in his dad’s case mixed with… was that excitement? What? Danny found himself wondering if his dad’s views on ghosts had somehow shifted; but if they had, why was he hiding that, pretending to still dislike them?

“Since when are they your friends?!” Tucker, previously having only been watching the argument awkwardly, said, sounding appalled. A bitter-tasting emotion Danny hadn’t felt yet wafted from the boy, though Danny was pretty sure it was jealousy, which Tucker had major issues with. Danny resisted rolling his eyes at that; as if Tucker hadn’t been hanging out with the group too. He even played Doom with Kitty now.

Danny sensed the flare of emotion, the one he’d been calling ‘desire to hit’, but didn’t register it until Maddie’s hand already made contact with his face.

Danny immediately put a hand over his cheek. “What the fuck, Mom?!” he declared, struggling to process the fact that his mother would actually hit him—the emotion had been popping up with surprising frequency lately, but never had she actually acted on it! At least, not towards him… It didn’t really hurt, given it was only a slap and Danny was accustomed to worse from all his battles, but the fact that it was his mother who had hit him, in human form, was painful in a different way. He wondered if this is how his dad felt that time when she’d tried to punch him.

Everyone else there seemed stunned at the development as well.

“Who are you and what have you done with my son?” Maddie coldly demanded.

Danny frowned, feeling stung by those words. It was a phrase he dreaded hearing, imagining it said to him as he revealed his true identity. It wasn’t the same situation of course, but if his mom was reacting this poorly just to him being friends with ghosts, how would she react to learning that he was half one? Once again Danny wondered just how close to his original timeline this cobbled-together one actually was.

“This is Danny!” Jazz hissed at their mother, breaking out of her shock and outraged on Danny’s behalf; good to know she was on his side for this at least. Not that it helped much.

“Well then he should act like it!” his mom vehemently spat at his sister.

“He is, though!”

“Fentons don’t fraternize with ghosts!”

“You know what, I’m done,” Danny impulsively decided, stomping away. He couldn’t stand being in the room anymore—no, couldn’t stand being in this entire house.

“We’re not done talking, young man!” his mom said sternly, trying to grab his arm but Danny managed to dodge away.

Danny easily dodged around Jack, who for some reason was still standing there frozen, possibly in shock from his vibe, but Danny wasn’t going to stay to analyze it; he wasn’t going to be the one to look the gift horse in the mouth.

Danny burst into a run, remembering to actually open the front door before running through it, his mom’s footsteps following. Danny was faster than her though, and had a head start; he leapt over the steps onto the sidewalk, then quickly darted into the nearby alley, turning invisible as he did so, just barely a second before his mom turned the corner too, looking confused upon not seeing him.

Danny briefly debated if he should go to Sam’s or Tucker’s, then decided against it. He was annoyed at Tucker, and Sam’s parents were probably on her case so much he’d have to stay invisible the whole night. He could always hide out in an alley or abandoned building… No, wait, there was somewhere else he could go, others who would welcome him! He grinned, then dove towards the house using his intangibility, entering the lab below and racing to the portal, which he quickly hit the button for and then propelled himself into.

Chapter Text

“Ugh, they’re so frustrating!” Danny whined, flopping back onto Johnny’s couch; the ghost had let Danny know that he and Kitty would be going right back to their lair after the concert, possibly anticipating something like this.

If someone had told Danny just a year prior that he’d be taking refuge at the ghost’s lair and complaining to him about angsty teen issues, Danny would have thought them insane, but here he was—in human form, no less, not feeling like changing. Not like it mattered anyway; he seemed to have all his ghost powers at full strength in either form now, to the point that even in human form he couldn’t phase through the ecto-objects in the Ghost Zone, though Danny didn’t want to dwell on what that meant, especially since he also couldn’t go through ghost shields in human form now—at first he’d assumed it was just that new model, but now he was starting to wonder if it was all of them.

Danny noted that he was much calmer now, being in a place where he wasn’t feeling supercharged less-than-happy emotions from four different people. He suspected doing the concert had fed his ghost part some, with all the excitement buzzing in the air, which made him more sensitive to the negative ones afterwards. The Ghost Zone feeling comforting with all the ambient ectoplasm helped too—yet another ghost-exclusive trait Danny had that he was pretty sure Vlad didn’t, given that the other halfa was adamant about only going in there in Plasmius form and had mentioned before that the place was unsettling, something Danny had never felt. Danny shoved that realization out of his mind too.

“Fight with your folks, huh?” Johnny inferred with a chuckle as he entered the room from the kitchen. He carried some cans of ecto-cola, handing one each to Danny and Kitty before cracking open his own.

Kitty, who had answered the door when Danny arrived, sat next to him. “Typical argument, or did they find out?” she asked, the emphasis indicating she meant about him being Phantom.

Danny sighed. “Typical argument, no, but they didn’t find out, thank the Ancients,” he muttered. If they had… yeah, that wouldn’t have ended well. Danny was aware that in previous timelines his parents had taken it fairly well, but those had been in vastly different circumstances, with him being seen as a world-saving hero rather than once again ‘Public Enemy #1’, and where they had started to learn that not all ghosts were bad, or at least had seemed to.

In this timeline, if anything, his parents’, or at least his mom’s, hate for Danny Phantom had only grown lately, as well as that for ghosts in general after learning about Vlad during the Disasteroid event (because when Clockwork had said Danny’s participation in that would be forgotten, what he really had meant was that Miskatonic University had managed to come up with something that worked, after Vlad failed at his plan and before Danny proposed his own plan, thus neither Danny nor the other ghosts had any involvement whatsoever—and since Vlad, a ‘ghost’ (funnily enough, people didn’t realize he was actually a halfa, rather assumed he was a full ghost, as he’d never explicitly explained that), had held the world hostage… well, it was no wonder all ghosts were blamed).

So in this timeline, Danny wasn’t a hero. Danny Phantom was still just another ‘no-good ectoplasmic manifestation of post-human consciousness’ that had to be ‘ripped apart molecule by molecule’, and Danny Fenton was just their angsty teenage son who had gotten mixed up in the wrong crowd, that crowd being ghosts.

“Then, what was it about?” Kitty prodded.

Danny explained, “They’re upset about the band having three ghosts. During the argument I called you my friends, which made it worse, especially because Tucker was there and he got angry at that too—pretty sure he’s jealous, which is a whole ‘nother can of worms.

“Jazz was angry too, in her mind this all wouldn’t have happened if I’d let her help find humans for the band; she does want me to befriend ghosts, but as Phantom, not Fenton. She’s terrified that Fenton being the one seen with ghosts might lead to people figuring out I’m Phantom.

“Anyway, Jazz and Tucker aren’t really the issue, it’s my parents. Or, my mom, it’s pretty much all my mom I guess. In addition to being angry that I’m friends with ghosts, she was also on my case about the stretched ears, and the fangs, which my parents think are those temporary caps but still were mad about. My mom even had the gall to ask who I was and what I’d done with her son! I’ve literally had nightmares about that, although usually it follows the identity reveal.”

He decided not to mention the fact that his mom had hit him; he barely wanted to believe it himself, and felt like voicing it would make it more real.

Johnny whistled. “Oof. I see why you ran.”

“Wait, you called us friends?” Kitty caught.

Danny winced. “Sorry, it kinda slipped out, if you don’t—”

“Oh, no worries,” Johnny said with a grin. “We don’t mind.”

“Yeah, we were actually waiting for you to finally say that! Besides, it’s about time you made some ghost friends, seeing as you’re a ghost,” Kitty said.

“Half-ghost,” Danny automatically corrected, before taking a sip of the soda that was radioactive enough to kill a normal human—Danny had already investigated the effects of radiation on his cells, while he, Sam, and Tucker were testing the extent of immunity to human poisons, so knew it was safe for him. The radiation gave it a pleasant zing similar to carbonation, but stronger.

“Pfft. Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” Kitty said with a chuckle.

Danny frowned. “Well, it’s true,” he claimed, despite the fact that he’d started to heavily question that. “Halfa. Half human, half ghost.”

“Dude. The term may be ‘halfa’, but that doesn’t necessarily mean half-and-half,” Johnny said, to Danny’s surprise. “Yeah, your DNA is mixed, but with you it for sure isn’t half. Even in that human form of yours, you can do ghostly things. And don’t get me started on your vitals! Honestly not sure how none of the humans have noticed your heartbeat is hella slow and you’re ice cold.”

“Not to mention not needing to breathe,” Kitty pointed out. “Pretty sure Plasmius still needs to when in human form.”

Danny winced, and drew in a breath as he suddenly realized he hadn’t done so in a while; it felt like nothing. With a slight dawning horror he realized that not-breathing had somehow become his default, and it took actually concentration to keep it up.

If Danny ever went to a hospital, he’d likely be diagnosed as hypothermic, followed by being called a miracle for being functional with all his atypical vitals—and then when they drew blood… well, the ectoplasm didn’t lie. At this point he no longer even bled red anymore; honestly he suspected that the initial large amount of red blood he had when he had the accident was just leftovers, slowly replenished with ectoplasm whenever he lost any. He periodically analysed it and after a gradual decrease the most recent results said he now had, in both human and ghost form, only about 10% human blood—it had stayed steadily around that for a few months now, so hopefully it didn’t decrease anymore, but still, that was very different from the initial 100% of either blood or ectoplasm that shifted depending on form.

Yes, Danny honestly couldn’t deny the evidence; everything pointed to him being maybe three-quarters ghost, at the very least, if not closer to 90% if the blood were any indication. And given it was mixed in both… was there any actual difference between his forms now other than appearance? He wasn’t a human with ghost powers, he wasn’t half of each, no, he was a ghost with human powers. Didn’t mean he had to accept that. He was pretty sure Vlad didn’t have anywhere near the same issues; maybe it was because Danny’s accident had been so much worse, objectively? Vlad still bled red when in human form, more than twenty years later.

“And someday they’re going to notice you haven’t aged,” Kitty added.

Danny froze, feeling his eyes widen. Kitty had given voice to the one thing he didn’t want to admit most of all, something he’d recently noticed when he pinned a photo of him, Sam, and Tucker on his bulletin board. It had been placed next to one from two years prior, and showed the two humans obviously older whereas he was static. He’d gained some muscle, albeit not a dramatic amount, but that was it.

Was Vlad in the same boat? If so, he had been older when the accident happened, the portal being made during graduate school, so he could hide his lack of aging, for the most part; plenty of obscenely rich people managed to look like they were still in their twenties for decades longer than regular people… but Danny was going to have much more difficulty hiding that. But, wait, that couldn’t be the case—Danny had been in the past, seen Vlad’s younger self. He had definitely aged, albeit more slowly than expected, although he was also obscenely rich so that wasn’t much proof. For all he knew Vlad had gotten plastic surgery to make himself look a little older.

Johnny looked sympathetic, correctly reading Danny’s expression. “Yeah, it’s not a pretty thing to realize, and I’d imagine you have it even worse since you still live among humans.”

“Hey, don’t worry,” Kitty chimed in. “We’ll still be around for you, when they eventually leave.”

Danny glared at her, suddenly angry. “They won’t leave!” he forcefully claimed. Sam and Tucker wouldn’t do that, nor would Jazz. His parents might though.

“Uh, newsflash: they’re human,” Johnny said flatly, unphased by the anger directed at his girlfriend. “All humans leave eventually, whether you want them to or not. Whether they want to or not.”

“No; they wouldn’t…” Danny trailed, voice quieting as he realized what Johnny was actually implying.

Danny was a ghost, or at least enough of one that he wasn’t aging. So like all ghosts, he’d potentially be around for centuries, millennia even; as long as no one killed him, he’d remain. Regular humans though? The average human age was less than a single century.

“You mean, they’ll die,” Danny whispered to confirm.

“Yup; that’s why most of us don’t make human friends,” Kitty said somberly. “We’re not saying ditch your humans; just, don’t rely on them exclusively, because that’ll only be a recipe for a mental health disaster.”

Danny was well aware of that, thanks to his future self, who had gone full evil villain after losing everyone—the Observants still impossibly thought it was solely cheating on a test that would cause it, but Danny (and Clockwork, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, Vlad, and future-Phantom) knew that it was actually the pain of losing everyone he loved, perceived failure to protect them, and the subsequent mental breakdown that followed which led to it; true, his ghost part merging with Vlad’s played a part in the eventual outcome of that timeline’s breakdown, but the breakdown happened first. Who’s to say another breakdown wouldn’t lead to something else that was equally as horrible? Yeah, for the sake of the world itself, Danny probably should have some ghostly connections as well as human ones, to avoid losing every single person he could rely on to keep him sane.

Danny groaned and put his face in his hands. “This is a disaster,” he whined. “How do I even begin to explain this to them?” Suddenly, revealing his ghostly identity to his parents became the least of his worries—he’d revealed himself as Phantom in other timelines, so knew there was at least a chance of acceptance for that (even though he was skeptical that the current timeline would yield the same result), but immortality was a whole different ballpark. How would they react to learning their son would eternally be a teenager smack in the middle of puberty?

“Don’t?” Johnny suggested. “I mean, they’ll figure it out eventually, right?”

Danny removed his hands and looked at Johnny with incredulity. “You want me to hide it? Seriously?”

“Sure. When they notice and say something, just pretend you didn’t realize either.”

Danny scoffed at that. “Dude, I can’t act for shit.”

Johnny gave Danny a flat look. “Seriously? You’ve hidden that you’re a ghost for what, nearly three years now, yet you somehow think you’re bad at acting? Get real.”

“Only two, and a few months,” Danny corrected. His accident had been the summer before his freshmen year, and now it was October of his junior year.

“Still, pretty impressive.”

“Nah, people in Amity Park are just oblivious.”

“You could also just not go back, and stay with us instead,” Kitty offered suddenly. “Like, we wouldn’t mind.”

“Hey, don’t offer my lair up without asking me first!” Johnny bristled.

“Tch. It’s our lair, dummy,” Kitty said with an eye roll.

“I can’t just stay in the Ghost Zone forever,” Danny said. “I gotta protect Amity Park.”

“Oh, right, that hero complex thing,” Kitty said dryly.

“It’s not a hero complex!” Danny protested. “I just, well, I’m the one who opened the portal, so I’m responsible for anyone who comes through.”

“Uh, no, you are not responsible,” Johnny told him. “It was an accident. If you’re responsible for that, we’re responsible for our deaths, too—after all, the patch of ice in the road could have been avoided.”

“What? That’s not the same at all!” Danny protested.

“Isn’t it? You tripped, and there was a switch where it shouldn’t have been. Hell, if anything, it’s your folks who are responsible for designing things that way and not unplugging it.”

“Don’t blame them for my mistake,” Danny bristled. He decided not to mention that the switch had only been one part of the equation; it activated the portal, true, but the portal staying open for more than a second was because of something Danny really didn’t want to think about, which he’d learned later on and hadn’t even told Sam and Tucker about.

“Hey, just saying, no need to get prissy.”

“Look, Danny,” Kitty interjected. “I’m not saying you have to stay forever, but you really need to de-stress, seriously; just, chill here for a few days, okay?”

“But—” Danny began to protest, but Kitty cut him off, predicting his argument.

“The town will be fine, there’s other hunters.”

“Yeah, I know, but what if there’s something big they can’t handle? I left my phone at home; not that it matters since there’s no signal here.”

“We’ve got a TV, you know,” Johnny pointed out. “It’ll connect to your local news. You can watch the evening one to check things out, okay? Does that work?”

Danny sighed. “I guess, sure. But just for the night—I have school on Monday.”

“No, you have a vacation on Monday,” Johnny corrected.

"A mental health day, so to say,” Kitty added.

“Those don’t exist,” Danny argued.

“They do now.”

Danny considered that. It would be nice to have a vacation, even though he really should go to school if he didn’t want to fail. Then again, if he was going to be a teenager forever… well, what was one more missed day of school going to hurt? Or even two or three? “Okay, sure, what the hell, why not,” Danny decided.

“Cool!” Kitty said, then summoned her bass. “Come on, let’s start with a jam session, that always makes you feel better!”

Danny smiled, summoning his six-string. “Got that right,” he told her, instinctually playing a chord to start them off, already feeling a little better.

“Got you, ectoplasmic scum!” Valerie shouted as she shot down some new ghost that seemed obsessed with flowers, which had destroyed a local flower shop to make bouquets of them fly around town, causing as much chaos as flowers could do. Still, a ghost was a ghost, whether the weapons were dangerous or not. Valerie quickly used her thermos to contain the ghost.

Valerie looked at the sky; the sun was low, meaning she had to be home for dinner soon. No other ghosts seemed to be around, so Valerie flew off, heading to the Fentons’ place. Since Vlad was now out of the picture, having betrayed everyone, Valerie now got her equipment maintained by them, as well as emptied any thermoused ghosts into their portal. They’d even registered her DNA into their lock system, so she could enter the house and use the portal even if they weren’t there.

As Valerie made her way to the eccentric house (or whatever it could be called), she reflected on something she’d noticed: Phantom hadn’t shown up. In fact, he hadn’t been around all weekend! Valerie couldn’t figure out why that was; it wasn’t like ghosts went on weekend getaways or anything like that. Had he finally been caught by the Fentons or GIW? No, surely the message boards would be alight with witnesses to such, considering how much commotion both groups always made.

But if he wasn’t captured, where was he? As much as Valerie liked hunting without the distraction, it was uncanny that he wasn’t around, especially since Technus had attacked earlier that day, and Valerie knew those two were definitely still major enemies. Phantom had been showing up less and less in general over the past month, even obviously choosing to ignore smaller less-destructive ghosts, but he’d still been around to help with larger incidents.

At least, until yesterday. The concert had been a huge issue, three known major ghosts congregated at once, yet from Phantom there had been crickets. Had Phantom finally shown his true colors as an evil ghost, now siding with the ectoplasmic scum instead of fighting them?

Valerie shivered at the idea, pushing it away; no, the mere idea of Phantom turning on the town struck fear in her. He was well known to be one of the most powerful ghosts around, and as much as Valerie hated him she could admit that he’d been helpful at times, even if he also sometimes caused the destruction and chaos characteristic of ghosts. For him to stop his attempts at being a hero and embrace villainy instead would lead to the fall of Amity Park, of that Valerie was sure.

Valerie then arrived at Fentonworks, double-checking that her hood was up; they only knew her as the Red Huntress, as far as she knew, and she wanted it to stay that way, just in case they objected to a 16-year-old engaging in the type of intense ghost hunting that she did (even though they did pretty freely give ecto-guns to kids). Valerie used the newly-installed handprint pad to open the front door and entered the house; they’d told her a while ago that she didn’t need to bother knocking.

Jack Fenton quickly hurried over from the kitchen, looking excited, then his face fell. “Oh. You’re not Danny,” he said.

“Your son is missing?” Valerie asked as she walked with him to the kitchen, barely managing not to tack on ‘again’ (it was no secret that Danny had a penchant for disappearing; she still didn’t know where he went during ghost attacks), as well as trying to keep the fact that she knew him secret as that had the potential to reveal her identity.

“He’s not missing,” Maddie said, seated at the kitchen table as she fiddled with what appeared to be a disassembled ecto-gun. “He’s just with his friends.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t tell us again,” Jack pointed out, looking slightly frustrated. “Sure we shouldn’t call them to make sure? I mean, he did run away, after a pretty bad argument.” Valerie assumed the argument had been about the ghost-band and Danny helping the ghosts escape. She was entirely unsurprised that Danny had run off after that fiasco.

Maddie sighed. “He just needs space, Jack. It’s how he is. He’ll be back tonight, I’m sure; probably after curfew as usual, but he does have school tomorrow, and didn’t take anything with him, so he needs to return.”

“He is going to be so grounded after this!” Jack growled, though Valerie could tell there was immense worry underneath; for some reason, she had an inkling that not everything was as it appeared.

“Right,” Valerie said, ignoring the odd feeling. “Well, if you don’t mind, I actually have somewhere to be, so I’m just going to go empty this and leave,” she said, holding up the thermos.

“Oh, sure thing!” said Jack. “Don’t mind us; just do what you have to do.”

Valerie nodded, then headed into the lab, mulling over the Fentons’ words as she emptied her thermos. Something simply didn’t sit right with her; had they seriously not even tried to contact Danny after running away, when earlier that same day he’d been collaborating with ghosts? Sure, Sam and Tucker were the ones he’d usually go to, but what if those ghosts had convinced Danny to go with them instead? Ghosts could be tricky like that, luring you in with nice promises and then stabbing you in the back. Surely the Fentons had thought about that.

Well, hopefully Danny would be in school the next day, easing Valerie’s fears.

Later that night found Jack wandering around the streets of Amity Park, allegedly ‘patrolling’ but in reality he just needed some time away from his wife to clear his head.

Imagine that? Jack Fenton, needing time away from his wife. A couple years prior, Jack would have thrown whoever suggested such into a sanatorium! Yet, since the portal had happened… Well, that growing rift hadn’t been just between Jack and his son. They tried to hold the illusion together in public and around their kids, but when alone, there were more fights than not lately! Before then they’d fought sometimes, sure, but it had never been this bad… had it?

Something in the back of Jack’s mind told him that this had started long before the portal incident and had been gradually growing, that their relationship hadn’t been a healthy one for a long while, but as usual Jack pushed that down—surely it wasn’t that bad.

Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, most of their fights revolved around either how to raise their children or their ghost research, and the one just a short time ago was a combination thereof.

Jack’s mentality towards disciplining his children was that it was best to let them do what they want and learn their lessons on their own, as experience is the best teacher. Stay up until 4am and fall asleep in class? That embarrassment was enough to avoid doing that in the future, no need to be punished more. Obviously stepping in sometimes was necessary, like if there was a significant danger, but everyday life lessons Danny could learn on his own; if punishment was needed, grounding or removal of privileges like non-homework computer use should suffice.

Maddie, however, was much stricter, which combined with her overprotectiveness turned into her wanting to take a heavier approach to Danny, one that Jack did not agree with. At this point, Maddie wanted to put secret tracking devices on Danny, and even suggested removing the door from his room, which Jack had immediately vetoed. It was a huge privacy violation! Jack could never do that to his children. He hadn’t even been able to bring himself to spank them when they were little; in fact, he stopped Maddie after the first few times seeing his kids cry from such. Common punishment or not, he still saw it as cruel.

Jack was still partially in denial that his wife had struck Danny during that argument; honestly, Jack didn’t blame Danny for running off like he did. Jack would have done the same if his mother ever hit him when he was a boy.

Tonight’s argument started as Jack and Maddie discussed how Danny should be punished for being in a band with ghosts, once he returned from whichever friend’s house he was hiding at, and morphed into a general argument about the nature of ghosts. Maddie wanted to inflict harsher punishments, having a zero-tolerance policy for their kids interacting with ghosts, still insisting they were unfeeling mindless beings, but Jack wasn’t sure anymore.

Maybe Jazz had a point, with her theories that ghosts could feel complex emotions; seeing those ghosts in that band, how could there not be emotion involved? But Maddie refused to hear it. Told him he was going soft, that he shouldn’t give in, that he should remember they were always trying to trick them. But was it going soft? Was it being tricked? Or was it actually just as it appeared, where the ghosts were simply truly happy to have an opportunity to play music in the human realm?

After Maddie kept interrupting Jack to berate him for his views, with much name-calling mixed in, never letting Jack explain anything, Jack had said he was going ghost-hunting to cool off and stormed out, ignoring whatever hit the door as he closed it; hopefully whatever she’d thrown wasn’t breakable. He carried a Fenton Bazooka just in case, but he honestly wasn’t in the mood for any fighting, hoping to actually not find a ghost—out of character for him, maybe, but he was just so tired of everything. Tired of his wife treating him like a child to be scolded rather than a genuine partner.

A fleeting thought wondered at what point Alicia had come to the conclusion that divorce had been better than staying with her ex-husband, then he immediately dismissed the thought; Jack still loved Maddie very much, despite the conflict. In a few days this would all blow over. They’d be fine… Right?

Unless Maddie hit Danny again… But no, surely that was a one-time thing? Afterwards, when Danny had fled and Jazz stormed up to her room and Tucker had awkwardly left, Maddie had told Jack that she regretted it, that it wouldn’t happen again… She’d been sincere in that, right? Of course she’d been. True, she said that often to Jack, but this wasn’t Jack, this was Danny… she wouldn’t, would she? No. Jack tossed those thoughts away; it was a fluke, everyone makes mistakes…

Jack’s mind fell back to the ghosts in the band, and how in-sync Danny had been with them. He even claimed the ghosts were his friends! That couldn’t be true, right? And yet… Maybe, if ghosts could have emotions, they could be friends with humans. Jack imagined the research opportunities that could open up; if ghosts could be friendly, if they could be trustworthy, could interviews be in the running? They’d probably avoid speaking to Jack, but Danny and Jazz might be willing to help with that.

Now Jack hoped that he’d run into one of the more humanoid ghosts that night. Maybe even that Phantom kid, if he was lucky; the Ghost Boy was the only regularly-seen one that actively avoided attacking him and Maddie, usually, and had actually saved Jack that one time, so maybe he’d be willing to talk. Plus, there was something almost familiar about the kid that Jack couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was because the boy looked like he had died at about the same age as his own son, or because the boy’s eye color was the same color that Danny’s sometimes glowed. Or maybe it was the hazmat suit. If it weren’t for the difference in hair color and the fact that Danny’s hazmat suit was white, they could almost be mistaken for the same person! Come to think of it, where was Danny’s suit? The boy never wore it anymore; perhaps he’d grown out of it. Jack would put it on his to-do list to make Danny a new one.

Jack wondered where Danny was at the moment. Maddie had assumed he was at Sam or Tucker’s, but for some reason Jack didn’t fully believe that. Where else would he be, though? Hopefully not on the streets; it was a little chilly that evening. Danny seemed to not care much about the cold, though… Wait. Was he really entertaining the idea that Danny could be on the streets? No, Maddie must be right; Danny was just at Sam or Tucker’s.

Jack wondered if he should try to talk to Danny on his own. Typically, he and Maddie would do so together, or Maddie would do so alone; when was the last time Jack and Danny had spent any significant amount of time together, just the two of them? Time enough to have a genuine conversation? There had been that fishing trip nearly a year prior…

Jack recalled a part of that song Danny had been singing at the concert: All the days you spent with me / Now seem so far away / And it feels like you don’t care anymore.

Jack felt that way too, towards Danny. He didn’t want Danny to be feeling that way about him, either. So, Jack had to get out of the lab and spend some more time with his son, if the boy would let him. Maybe go on a father-son bonding trip? But, somewhere Danny wanted to go this time, so Jack could show that he cared about his son’s interests.

But Jack, to his horror, realized he didn’t know what places fit his son’s interests anymore; when he was younger he loved space, and going to museums involving such, but would a teenager still like that? Jack just didn’t know… Well, then, he would just have to try to pay more attention!

Yes, Jack was going to fix things. It would all work out!

The next morning (at least Danny assumed it was morning; the Ghozt Zone didn’t exactly have day-night cycles, but he’d fallen asleep on Johnny’s couch and woken up a short while ago feeling actually rested for the second ‘day’ in a row), Danny headed off to visit Clockwork, wanting more definitive answers for things.

Clockwork gave Danny a flat look as he let him into his lair. “And what, pray tell, are you doing here on a school day, Danny?”

“Uh. Skipping,” Danny sheepishly admitted, knowing that if he tried to lie and say there wasn’t school that day or something then Clockwork would call him out on it. “I, er, wanted to talk to you…”

Clockwork considered that for a moment, then sighed. “Will it be short? I really need to work on the timestream repairs…”

“It should be quick; I just have a question,” Danny assured the Time Ghost (or, more like Time God, pretty much).

“Yes,” Clockwork told Danny. “Your answer is yes.”

“I didn’t even ask it!” Danny protested, though that was par for the course for Clockwork.

“I know,” Clockwork said with a mischievous grin.

“Yeah, yeah, you know everything,” Danny grumbled. “So, I really am… immortal?” he said, the word feeling uncomfortable in his mouth.

“Correct.”

“Vlad isn’t though. I’ve seen him age.”

“True; Vlad, however, received a comparatively small blast of ecto-radiation. He is a true half-ghost, or ‘halfa’ as you say. He will age slowly, and live longer than a human, but he will age.”

“Wait, ‘true halfa’?” Danny noted. “So I’m not a halfa?” he concluded, heart thumping—heart thumping, meaning he still had some human in him, he wasn’t a full ghost.

“You are a liminal being, of the type colloquially known as a halfa, in the aspect that on some level you have a combined form of both human and ghost DNA,” Clockwork assured Danny, then elaborated, “But, it is not half and half, like Vlad is. As I know you already know, you received a much larger blast of ecto-radiation, combined with a strong electrical current. This significantly affected the proportion of human to ghost.”

“And I’m closer to… to 90% ghost, right?” Danny said, heart thumping as he finally voiced the suspicion. “Last I tested my blood, it was a 1-9 blood-to-ectoplasm ratio. Is that the final amount, or will it keep going until…”

“Do not fear; you will not become a full ghost in such a manner,” Clockwork said gently. “Your system is stable now. Any excess blood has finally been expunged, and your body is now producing just the proportion it needs to have.”

“Not a full ghost, but still mostly ghost,” Danny said. 90%. That was… a whole lot higher than Danny wanted to believe, but he’d seen the blood samples. “It’s enough that at this point, I can relate more to ghosts than humans.” He surprised himself with this admission, then realized that to his horror it was true. He felt more comfortable here in the Ghost Zone, among his ghost friends, than he’d been feeling lately in Amity Park. Danny wasn’t sure what he thought of that realization.

Clockwork nodded. “You may exhibit some human traits, but for all intents and purposes, you are a ghost—proven by the timeline you avoided.”

“What do you mean?” There were technically three that had been erased. “The one with Dan?” he guessed.

“Correct,” Clockwork confirmed, then elaborated, “In that timeline, when your human part was ripped from your ghost part—truly was, unlike the ghost catcher, which merely split your personality—it did not survive.”

Danny winced at the mention of that timeline. “But I thought he murdered me after merging with Vlad’s ghost? And Vlad was split, too…”

“Vlad is truly half, as I said before. His human part can survive on its own, though with some health issues. Yours cannot. Vlad, unaware, may have been slightly wrong about that particular story when he told it to you, as he assumed you were like him. However, whereas it’s true that the being you call Dan technically killed your human portion, it was for all intents and purposes a mercy killing, as the alternative would have been a rapid and painful deterioration.”

“Oh,” Danny said, unsure how to reconcile that new information with what he had thought he’d known. “But, couldn’t merging again have fixed that?”

Clockwork was quiet for a moment, then revealed, “Perhaps. However, your human portion did not wish this—despite merging with Vlad, the split-off Phantom still was connected on some level to the human portion, the feelings evident. So he did what he felt your human portion wanted him to do.”

It was assisted suicide, is what Clockwork was basically saying, Danny realized, and he decided he didn’t want to talk or even think about that anymore. Then, he frowned. “Wait a second—back to the human portion being unable to survive—are you really sure about that? I’ve lost my powers before, and survived.”

“No; with the exception of Desiree’s doing, those other times your ghostly core was only suppressed,” Clockwork revealed. “Unsure what to do, your body reverted to a human form, but it was only a form.”

Honestly, Danny had suspected that, on some level; during the Disasteroid, even though he had ‘purged’ his powers, he still faintly felt his core, and the other ghosts hitting him with ecto-blasts had essentially recharged it, not created it again. He’d actually started to feel it very slowly powering back up the moment he entered the Ghost Zone—the ghosts had just significantly sped thing up.

That point, actually, had been where the timeline split occurred; after Danny recharged his core, and Danny, his sister, and his friends returned, that’s when Miskatonic University announced their own plan to save the world, before Danny’s group could reveal their plan (if they had even gotten around to planning that; Danny wasn’t sure of the specifics, only that instead of their plan being announced, MU’s was). The plan? Summon a race of eldritch insects that ate ecto-ranium, although they told the humans it was nanobots. The ghosts knew, though; the creatures had a collective hive mind, of which the feelings had been so strong that the ghosts could sense it even while in the Ghost Zone. Kitty had described it as the most terrifying thing she had ever felt, a feeling that she was glimpsing a species no being, living or dead, should dare to interfere with, and claimed that every ghost had been relieved when the things finally were returned to whatever hellish dimension they had been summoned from.

The power malfunction during the recent time-glitch incident had been due to his purpose having been lost, which again only suppressed his core until he found a new one, given that ghost energy was powered by emotion and drive; he’d only thought his ghost part had been vanishing in that case. Or, maybe it had been—although now Danny knew that if his ghost part had faded, he himself would have perished, not just lost his powers.

“Why are you actually telling me stuff instead of being all cryptic like usual?” Danny wondered.

“Do you want me to be cryptic?”

“No, no! I like this better,” Danny assured the ghost, hoping he hadn’t just screwed things up.

“I am telling you this because you need to know it. You need to accept it. You cannot be the bridge between the two realms if you reject who you are.”

“I don’t reject it,” Danny said automatically.

“On some level, you do,” Clockwork said patiently. “You are particularly in denial about the immortality aspect.”

Danny winced at the bluntness. “It’s just… difficult to imagine,” he said, trying to explain.

Clockwork nodded. “Yes. Time is vast. Contemplating eternity can be a difficult task, even for those whose lives are endless. For one who formerly had limited time, the absence of such can be daunting. Many ghosts struggle with accepting such.”

“That’s an understatement,” Danny said with a small chuckle, then sighed and wondered aloud, “How do I even begin to tell my friends and family something like this?”

To Danny’s surprise, Clockwork gave Danny a knowing smile and said, “It may be easier than you expect, or at least by the time you return to them it will be.”

Danny frowned. “Back to the cryptic stuff, huh?”

Clockwork raised his staff, and some mirrors floated towards them. Upon them were what appeared to be video clips, but Danny knew they were really live streams from different times and potential timelines. All featured Jazz, Sam, Tucker, or a combination thereof, all looking around the age they currently were. They were all comparing photographs, and closer inspection revealed that they were all of him, ones from two years prior and current ones.

“So, what, this means in every potential timeline they figure it out before I go home?”

“Ah, you’ve improved your critical thinking ability,” Clockwork said, sounding proud. “Of course, these are merely the most likely ones; as always, there is the potential for other timelines—for example, you could go back immediately and tell them right now.”

“Definitely not happening,” Danny said with a scoff.

“As one would expect,” Clockwork said with a fond smile. “Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to return to my vital task.”

As Clockwork escorted him out, Danny remembered something else. “Wait! I need to know—”

Clockwork cut him off with a loud sigh. “I did my best with the timeline repair. Every major event leading up to the Disasteroid happened largely as you remember, every person and their points in life are the same. However, despite common belief, I have no actual power to read minds; all I know is events that happen.”

Danny blushed; he actually had thought that Clockwork was more or less all-knowing, including thoughts. Now that Clockwork mentioned it, the knowledge of what questions would be asked probably came from predicting the future of just a few seconds ahead, or maybe just an ability to skillfully read people honed over millennia. “So that means…?” Danny trailed, wanting more clarification.

“It means that I cannot guarantee that the thoughts, feelings, and motivations people had during those times were exactly the same, even though the end results were. Different thought processes still can result in the same outcome, after all. Because of this some things may take a different path in the future than as they would have most likely taken in your original timeline.”

“Oh. Well, they wouldn’t be that different, would they?” Danny hoped, or maybe wished for Clockwork to deny; he wasn’t sure which would be worse between his mom always having these feelings below the surface or if that was brand new to this timeline.

Clockwork sighed. “Even if the differences are miniscule, unfortunately, one cannot tell whether the ripples caused by these differences will be small or vast.”

Danny wilted slightly. “So, my parents—”

“May or may not react as they did in other timelines when they learn your secret; it all depends on you, and how you shape things from here.”

“Being cryptic again, huh?” Danny muttered.

Clockwork continued, “Even if at the moment they would not be accepting, which once again we cannot know, a stray comment here and there, a seemingly insignificant action… you know how even tiny differences can snowball. The butterfly effect, as the humans call it. You have far more power to shape your own future than you might think.”

Danny nodded; his experience with the timeline that had the hybrid of his and Vlad’s ghosts, triggered simply by cheating on a test that honestly wasn’t nearly as big a deal as the teachers made them believe, was an attestment to that. “Any way you can give me a hint? A clue about what I need to do for them to accept me?”

Clockwork gave Danny a look that seemed almost like pity, or maybe sympathy. “Unfortunately, the timestream is still too damaged; it was all I could do to show you that brief glimpse earlier. I cannot even give you the probability of whether they will accept your secret or not once you tell them; I sincerely hope they will, but I simply do not know.”

A thought then occurred to Danny. “But, they still accepted me during the Freakshow and Disasteroid things, right?”

“Those incidents were erased,” Clockwork reminded Danny. “It is impossible to know if the current circumstances of this timeline would yield the same result, and I cannot investigate with the timestream still being so deeply damaged.”

“Oh. Well… What if I were home right now and revealed it at this moment?” Danny asked, knowing he was pushing things, but he was desperate to know—he had a gut feeling that this time it would be bad. “That’s related to the close present, not the far future, so you can see it, right?”

“That is a waste of my power, and will do you no favor to know, considering you have no intention of doing so,” Clockwork said sternly.

“Then what—”

“What I will tell you is that, regardless of outcome, you have enough of a support network to ensure that even a negative outcome will be bearable. Now—” Clockwork stopped mid sentence, looking at Danny with worry. “Danny? What’s wrong?”

Danny wiped at his eyes, realizing he’d gotten so worked up that tears were beginning to fall. “S-sorry, sorry, I don’t mean to, I don’t know why I’m, just, I’m sorry, it’s nothing.”

Clockwork was quiet for a moment. “It is not nothing, if you are crying about it,” he eventually said. “Did I… Did I say something that particularly upset you?” he asked awkwardly.

“N-no, everything you said made sense, I just… I guess I was hoping… Well, I’ve been able to sense emotions better lately, and I noticed… some people are different than I thought they were, and I don’t know if they were always like that or if it’s new to this timeline, and I just have this really bad feeling that things won’t go well this time…” The tears were coming faster as Danny trailed off.

“Ah,” Clockwork said, then drifted over and cautiously put his arm around Danny’s shoulders; Danny leaned into him as the ghost said, “I know this is not what you want to hear, but the emotional profiles of the people in this timeline are more likely than not to be the same or extremely close to those of your original timeline. If they were too far changed, the events would have almost certainly been different.”

Danny had suspected it, but actually hearing that things could only have changed so much left a bitter feeling in him. He sniffled. “I was really hoping it was new in this timeline, but I’m pretty sure my mom resents me, not in my Phantom form but human form too, and I don’t know what to do because I’m terrified that when I get home she’s going to, to, I don’t even know, but I keep sensing that she wants to hurt me! And I think she’s already been hurting my dad. Please tell me that’s new, that there was somehow a really big mix up.”

Clockwork squeezed Danny's shoulder. “My apologies, but as it stands, the majority of differences are only benign ones, like which cereal was chosen for breakfast. Anything larger, even things like spousal fights—which, I might add, tend to start small before escalating, often over years, not a mere two months—happened in both the original timeline and this one. If the fighting is that bad, it is surely not new. I would much prefer it to be a new thing, too, to save you the pain of realizing the emotions behind the mask have been there for much longer than the six weeks since what you are calling the Time Glitch Incident. However, I do not wish to lie to you.”

Danny then thought of something. “But the way she acted during the two erased reveals… It seemed nice. But, then again, she does seem nice often, even with the negativity below it…”

“Yes, that is one of the downfalls of sensing emotions,” Clockwork said somberly. “People often do not act in accordance with the emotions brewing in them, causing conflict.”

Danny then had a horrible realization. “Does this mean she was faking during those, only acting accepting because so many other people were around so she’d have eyes on her if something happened? Like, in the Freakshow one, what we saw was only the public persona, maybe the aftermath would have been different… But the Disasteroid one… well, maybe seeing the ghosts save the day shifted her view enough? And she couldn’t attack a world-known Hero without horrible social repercussions… So was she only nice to me out of self-preservation?”

“I cannot say,” Clockwork said. “It is true that the decisions people made in the past very well may not have been for the reasons you imagined. However, even if the emotions beneath were negative ones, it is possible over time they would have shifted. Remember, the mind is not immutable—emotions may not change overnight, but with time and the right nudges they can and do change.”

Danny shook his head, tears coming back. “Maybe, but I just, it feels like it’s come too far to even try to change at this point, and it hurts so much, and I… I just don’t know how much more I can take! S-sometimes I think it would have been better if I never came back out of the portal.” Danny frowned at the ground, internally wincing at letting that last part come out. He didn’t mean to let that slip.

Clockwork’s arm tightened around Danny’s shoulder. “Danny,” he said, turning slightly. “Danny, look at me.” Danny forced himself to look up and lock eyes with Clockwork, who continued, looking more serious than Danny had ever seen him, “I searched through many timelines in order to cobble this one together. Every single one where you died that day was worse off for it, often by leagues. You are the protector of Amity Park, the bridge between worlds. Humanity needs you. The ghosts need you. The universe needs you. Your friends and family need you; we’d all be devastated if you were gone. Do not throw your existence away.”

Danny stared at Clockwork for a moment, then looked back to the ground, unsure what to say. Talk about pressure!

“Danny?” Clockwork prodded with urgency. “Do you understand?”

“Yeah, I understand,” Danny said quietly. He slipped out of Clockwork’s grip and said. “I guess I should be going now, I’ve taken too much of your time, I know you said you have to work. Sorry about doing, er, that.” He made a vague gesture with his arm, then turned towards the door.

“No, you will not be leaving at this moment,” Clockwork stated, and when Danny paused to look at him in confusion gestured to the side of the room and continued, “You will sit on the couch over there while I work, until I am certain you have sufficiently calmed down. You can play your music, or the cabinet and shelves beside it have various activities such as puzzles, prose, and coloring books if you prefer.”

Danny looked at Clockwork in slight confusion, not expecting the unusual… request? Demand? Offer? “But I am calmer now,” Danny said.

“‘Calmer’ is not calm,” Clockwork noted, as he opened a large number of time windows and began rapidly sorting through them. “Just, ‘humor me’, as you humans say.”

“But—”

“Danny. I know what happened earlier in the summer that the portal opened.”

Danny paled. That… yeah, that would explain Clockwork’s concern. “Okay,” he agreed, sensing he had no real choice in the matter.

He sat on the couch, stepping around the coffee table in front of it on his way, summoned his guitar, and began to play some quieter, calming music. The term ‘suicide watch’ came to mind, although Danny had no actual plans to do that. He just vaguely wished he didn’t need to exist anymore, which, sure, was concerning, but he knew he had to be around to protect the town and be the bridge and all that.

Danny ended up staying for a few hours, opting to do some coloring and then a 3D puzzle after his guitar session, although the 3D puzzle was left unfinished because Danny was pretty sure the pieces followed some strange non-euclidean geometry that his brain simply couldn’t comprehend.

He also read a cute easy reader book about a space-traveling cat that he remembered from his childhood—it had been one of his favorites, actually, making him wonder if Clockwork intentionally included it in the pile of random-seeming books. Only afterwards did he realize that it had been written in Latin, to his confusion. Before he could ask, Clockwork had briefly explained that most ghosts could instinctually read dead languages before returning to his work—apparently, like the emotion-reading, that had been suppressed until Danny had began consuming ectoplasm (and would have been immensely useful to have during the Time Glitch Incident). Danny suspected the book had intentionally been written in such so he could discover that.

As Danny, who had moved to sitting in front of the couch to use the coffee table to color and do the puzzle, began doing some more coloring—the books were very intricate, with detailed patterns, unlike any coloring books Danny recalled from childhood—Clockwork sat down on the couch beside him.

“Are you feeling any better?” The Time God/Ghost asked gently.

Danny considered that. He was feeling slightly better but still not great, so simply shrugged in response, looking at the ground. Sensing Clockwork would prefer an actual answer, and the truth, Danny told him, “I’ve been better. Honestly, it’s a lot of information to process.”

Clockwork nodded in understanding. “That it is. I must apologize; perhaps I, as I believe you kids say, ‘info dumped’ more than could be handled at one time.”

Danny shook his head. “No, not at all,” he assured Clockwork. “I needed to hear all that. I just need some time to process it, that’s all… Being here did help, though.”

“That is good to hear,” Clockwork said earnestly.

Danny was quiet for a long moment, and Clockwork didn’t say anything more, letting him think. Eventually Danny said, voice quiet as he said something else he’d been thinking for a while but never wanted to say aloud. “I’m really not human, am I?”

“You still have some humanity in you,” Clockwork said gently.

“Yeah, but I’m not human,” Danny said, realizing what Clockwork had meant earlier about him not accepting himself yet. A part of him still didn’t want to admit it, but he had to say it. “Not really. I haven’t truly been human since the accident. I… I can’t keep pretending that I’m still human. I thought I’d accepted my ghost half after the Time Glitch Incident, but in my heart—in my core—I still was seeing it as half and half, two sides of the same coin, but that’s not true. It’s not two separate parts. It’s all me. I’m not a human with ghost powers, or an even split, I’m a ghost with just enough humanity left to stay connected to the human realm, to be the bridge between worlds, and to somewhat pass as human, but still mostly in essence a ghost.”

Clockwork didn’t refute that. Instead, he put a comforting hand on Danny’s shoulder, and Danny realized he had tears beginning in his eyes again, which he wiped away with his hand before Clockwork could see, although he likely had already. The Time God/Ghost told him, “You are just as you are supposed to be, Danny.”

Danny and Clockwork sat just like that for a while, until Danny had calmed fully—well, not fully, but as calm as he could get at the moment, with all the new information. Danny’s core hummed in contentment at Danny’s greater acceptance of his identity.

It wasn’t until Danny returned to Johnny’s that he realized Clockwork, although he said Danny himself was as he was supposed to be, never once said his signature ‘everything is as it’s supposed to be’ line; Danny had heard Clockwork utter those words so often that he could hear them in the ghost’s voice, yet this time, it wasn’t there… Because Clockwork didn’t know. Although he had done his best to make things as close as possible to how they were, the Time God/Ghost had no idea if things were as they should be or not, no idea if the future was progressing in the best possible way. The timestream was still in severe disrepair, the far future wholly unknown.

Yes, this timeline was truly uncharted territory, and whatever happened now, there would be no more do-overs, of that Danny was certain.

Chapter Text

Curiously, Daniel was not in school the Monday after the concert, nor Tuesday. By Wednesday, when the boy still hadn’t appeared, Lancer began to become extremely worried. The boy did skip often, but rarely so many full days in a row, and he hadn’t called in sick. His parents had been quite angry after the concert; did something happen? Hopefully his suspicions about the boy’s home life were unfounded; his parents seemed like nice people on the surface, albeit a bit absentminded, but people could be different behind closed doors, and Daniel did often have bruises and injuries…

As the school day ended, Lancer noticed Jasmine in the hallway, and called her into his classroom. Despite having graduated, her presence was no surprise; she was often at the school, sometimes helping maintain the anti-ghost security systems and other times allegedly to talk to Poindexter, who apparently helped her with one of her ghost-related classes at the recently-opened branch of Miskatonic University nearby Amity Park, but Lancer suspected it was also to keep an eye on her brother.

“Mister Lancer?” Jasmine asked, standing just inside.

“Jasmine. I noticed Daniel has been absent from school for three days thus far; I was wondering if you know the reason.”

Jazz winced. “Ah, well…”

Lancer frowned when she didn’t continue. “Jasmine?” he prodded. “Is everything okay at home?”

“What? Why wouldn’t it be?” Jazz asked in a high-pitched voice, a little too quickly.

“Well, I can’t help but to have noticed that Daniel often has injuries. His parents seemed very angry on Saturday, and now he isn’t in school, so—”

“It’s not that,” Jasmine interjected, quickly catching on. “Our parents don’t hurt either of us, not intentionally.”

Lancer raised an eyebrow at that. “Intentionally?”

Jasmine winced. “Ah, well, there’s been some lab accidents and stuff… But it’s fine, everyone’s more or less physically fine!”

“‘More or less’? ‘Physically’?” Lancer questioned, wondering why the qualifiers were needed.

Jasmine winced. “I mean, everyone’s stressed sometimes, right? Yeah, we’re all stressed, I mean we live in a ghost town after all… but otherwise, hopefully fine!”

“‘Hopefully’? Jasmine, you’re not arguing your case very well,” Lancer said, feeling even more worried. “Where is your brother? Is he okay or does he need help?”

Jasmine sighed in resignation. “I honestly don’t know,” she admitted.

Lancer couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows in surprise. “You don’t know?” he asked quietly.

Tears now formed at the corners of Jasmine’s eyes. “I don’t know. He ran away.”

“Ran away?” Lancer asked, alarm bells ringing. Did that mean Daniel was on the streets somewhere? Or did he at least have friends to stay with? Should a missing persons case be launched?

Jasmine nodded. “Yeah. I mean, it’s not the first time, but it still worries me, especially as it was after a pretty bad fight with our parents—they weren’t happy about him being in a band with ghosts. During the weekend I was hoping he was just laying low at Tucker’s or Sam’s or something, and would be in school Monday, but… As you know, that didn’t happen. I asked them about it a little while ago and they haven’t heard from him either. He’s not even answering their texts. I thought maybe he just needed space, since this isn’t the first time he’s left home for days, but I’m getting worried now.”

“I see,” Lancer said, processing that, and finding the fact that this was apparently not the first time Daniel had vanished awfully concerning. “Do you know anywhere else he could be?”

“Not really,” Jasmine said. “He doesn’t really know anyone else well enough to be comfortable crashing at their places, except… Oh,” she said, seeming to realize something. “Oh no.”

“What is it?” Lancer asked, worried about her expression of dread.

“The Ghost Zone,” she said. “Dammit!” Jasmine uncharacteristically cursed. “I bet that’s where he went, the one place none of us can easily go, especially with the Specter Speeder currently in the middle of being upgraded!”

Lancer scrunched his brow in confusion. “The Ghost Zone? I thought Daniel was terrified of ghosts; he runs out of the classroom immediately when there’s any hit of an attack!” Although, considering he seemed to be close enough to some ghosts to be in a band with them, perhaps that was not entirely accurate anymore… But, if the vehicle was out of commission, how would he travel through it?

“Ah, well, that’s…” Jasmine trailed, seeming unsure how to answer. “It’s, ah…”

Suddenly, the ghost attack alarm began ringing, preventing the conversation from continuing as the two followed protocol and made their way out of the building.

As everyone stood outside the school after evacuating, while yet another giant hornet ghost—or rather, two—rampaged through the school, the Red Huntress fighting them quickly joined by Jack and Maddie Fenton—Lancer realized someone else was missing: Danny Phantom had not shown up. In fact, there had been no reports of him for a few days now, not since…

The suspicion—or rather, realization—that Lancer had during the concert creeped up again, this time stronger than ever before. The clues fell into place fully, and Lancer was confident of his conclusion, however tragic it was. He simply could not deny it as he tried to the other day; the absence of both the schoolboy and the hero was too damning, when combined with everything else.

“Jasmine?” Lancer shakily said to the girl standing next to him. He was certain she knew.

“Yes, Mister Lancer?”

Lancer took a deep breath. “Daniel… isn’t human, is he?” he asked, still unsure if he wanted to know for certain.

Jasmine froze, then said carefully, “What do you mean?”

“He’s… He’s a ghost. Specifically, Phantom.”

Jasmine looked at Lancer with wide eyes. After a few moments, she whispered, “How do you know?”

“I put the clues together,” Lancer said sadly. “His parents don’t know, do they?” They surely had all the clues too, plus some, yet were apparently oblivious to everything, from what little Lancer had observed of them.

Jasmine winced. “No, they don’t,” she confirmed. “And you can’t tell them!”

Lancer frowned. “Do you truly think they won’t accept him?” he asked, because that’s the only reason it could be. It was a heartbreaking thought, but he’d be by far the first child to have unaccepting parents. Lancer’s own parents had kicked him out when he was a teenager for something entirely outside of his control.

Jasmine nibbled on her lip, then replied, “I don’t know. I’d like to think they both would, usually I’m pretty certain of it, but then something always happens to make me doubt that, like the fight the other day—my mom said some pretty insensitive things, even though I don’t think she really meant it. I do think it would probably be better to say something either way, since then he’d have some closure rather than be constantly on edge dancing around them, but Danny’s convinced himself that the second he tells them they’ll shoot him down or experiment on him—which, for the record, I highly doubt would ever happen!” she hurriedly said. “They’re not bad people. Even if they reject him at first, I’m sure they’d come around eventually.”

“That’s still no way for him to live—his parents told me the other day that their things still lock onto him, you know. And we all know how they react when they see Phantom. It’s no wonder he’s always under so much stress… But to think, a ghost… Oh, The Island of Dr. Moreau, please tell me they weren’t the cause of it,” he said, a dreadful suspicion dawning.

Jasmine winced again. “It’s, ah, I mean, it was technically one of their experiments I guess, but it was an accident! They weren’t even home at the time! And, to be fair, he’s technically only half-ghost.”

Lancer scrunched his brow in confusion. “Half-ghost? How can someone be half-ghost?”

“He was inside the portal when it turned on,” Jazz revealed, to Lancer’s horror. “He got blasted with highly charged ectoplasm, best we can tell is it did something to his DNA, infused him with so much ghost energy that he somehow became a hybrid of ghost and human. At least, that was our original theory…”

“Original theory?”

“Yeah… I, er, haven’t really talked to him about this yet, but I’m starting to wonder if maybe it’s not a fifty-fifty split like we thought?” Jasmine said, speaking quickly, as though all the information had been rushing to escape, and Lancer got the feeling she’d never had anyone to talk to about this before. “I mean, he has the two forms that he can switch between, but at first it had blood or ectoplasm depending on which form he was in but gradually more and more ectoplasm got mixed in with the blood in human form that now it’s definitely more ectoplasm than blood—it’s a darker green than most ghosts, so likely there’s still some blood in there, but definitely green.

“Also he can still use some of his ghost powers in his human form and other markers in his human form are off, like his heartbeat is super slow and body temperature super low and stuff. He still eats and sleeps, but he definitely doesn’t need to breathe, he’ll just stop doing that when he wants to be extra stealthy, not even sure if he realizes honestly.

“Plus…” she shifted nervously, as though she'd rather not say, but proceeded anyway. “He’s 16 now, but looks no different than when he was 14. Like, literally zero difference, if you compare photos from then and now you’d think they were from the same time. I know it might be too soon to tell for sure if he isn’t aging, since it’s only been two years, but he’s a teenager, there should be at least some growth. Even his hair is the same; it hasn’t grown or needed cutting in two years.”

“Picture of Dorian Gray,” Lancer whispered as he processed all that. “And you haven’t told him this yet?” he confirmed.

Jasmine shook her head. “No, I haven’t. I’m worried what’ll happen. I think he’s been holding onto the ‘half’ aspect very tightly, somewhat in denial that it’s not. Obviously there’s still some things about him that are more human, but, well… It’s definitely not half, at least not anymore if it ever was, of that I’m certain.”

Lancer couldn’t help but think that both Daniel and Jasmine needed heavy therapy to help process all this, especially since this had all flooded out in the way it did, but he wasn’t sure if any counselor was equipped for dealing with the trauma of a human-ghost hybrid. Perhaps the Ghost Zone had one—or rather, one that was an actual therapist, not one like the ghostly counselor the school had once accidentally hired.

The ghost alarm chirped with the signal that the school was safe to return to as the Red Huntress chased the hornets off into the distance.

Lancer began walking back to the building with Jasmine, and asked her, “Do you plan to tell your parents that Daniel may be in the Ghost Zone right now?”

Jasmine shook her head with vehemence. “No. There’s too great a chance they’ll storm in, which I don’t think is good for Danny right now. I think it’s best if I go without them; he needs a gentle touch right now.”

“You’re going alone?” Lancer asked, worried.

Jasmine nodded, then paused, and shook her head. “No, I’ll take Sam and Tucker. They both can navigate it better than me, and Sam knows for sure where the band members’ lairs are; those ghosts are some of the only ones he regularly interacts with in there, apart from the Yeti in the Far Frozen, but if he’s all the way over there those two might not make it to class tomorrow given the distance.”

“But what about the Speeder not working?” Lancer asked.

Jasmine sighed. “Tucker and I can probably fix it, at least enough to get us to him,” she said, though added in a mutter, “I hope.”

“I’ll leave it to you, then,” Lancer decided; in other circumstances he might insist on going too due to the danger as they were teens, but even though she was a teenager Lancer felt Jasmine was more than capable of doing this. “If it takes overnight to find him, Miss Manson and Mister Foley will be excused… Also, when Daniel returns, tell him to schedule a meeting with me, okay? Perhaps we can work out a plan for his homework and absences, now that I know the reason for them.”

Jasmine smiled at Lancer. “Sure thing!” she said, and then took a different path down the hallway.

To Sam’s surprise, Jazz showed up at Tucker’s house shortly after Sam and Tucker arrived there after school. Or perhaps, not so much a surprise—Danny hadn’t been in class for three days, after all, and it seemed not even Jazz knew his location. Until Jazz had asked them about it earlier, Sam and Tucker had both initially suspected that Danny was simply brooding at home, as he occasionally did, especially when angry at his friends. Or, more specifically, Tucker—Sam had assumed ignoring her too had been a by-association thing.

“Is Danny with you?” Jazz asked immediately, as expected.

Sam shook her head. “No, sorry. Like I said earlier, I haven’t seen him since the concert—I was grounded until today because of the music we played.”

“They only grounded you for three days?” Jazz asked in surprise; understandable, as the girl knew Sam’s parents liked grounding in weeklong increments.

Sam nodded. “We made a deal: a reduction in days in exchange for attending some formal business gala with them Sunday night.” Sam suspected even having a punishment to begin with had just been an excuse to get her to the gala, considering her parents had bought her excuse of the ghosts tricking her into it, and been very worried about that. She scrunched her nose in disgust at the memory as she told them, “They made me wear a bubblegum-pink dress.” It had been the most awful one yet, puffy sleeves studded with pink rubies and the look completed with long magenta gloves and stockings, but people had still infuriatingly complimented her on it. The only thing she’d managed to avoid was the bright pink stilettos after ‘accidentally’ breaking a heel, after which they let her ‘downgrade’ to kitten heels.

“So, do you know what’s going on with Danny?” Tucker asked warily. “I just thought he was avoiding me because he was angry…”

“Danny hasn’t come home or contacted anyone since he ran away Saturday night,” Jazz told them in a no-nonsense manner, ignoring Sam’s comment about the dress, which only served to emphasize how serious she was. “I think he’s been living in the Ghost Zone.”

“What?!” Sam yelled at the same time Tucker shouted, “No way!”

Jazz nodded. “I can’t think of anyplace else. His parents and I assumed he was at one of your places, but obviously he wasn’t, and he wasn’t in school… I know he’s run after arguments before, but usually it’s just for a few hours, or he goes to one of you. I can’t help but to think that this time it’s worse than I’d thought.”

“But why the Zone?” Tucker wondered. “It’s full of enemies!”

“And some friends,” Jazz corrected.

“They’re not his friends,” Tucker said stubbornly. “That was just a heat-of-the-moment declaration.”

Sam sighed and crossed her arms. “No, Tuck. Sorry, but Jazz is right—he’s definitely friends with those three.”

“No. Stop joking about that,” Tucker said, sounding desperate. “We were only associating with them because of the band…”

“I’m not joking. You saw him at the band practices.” As much as Sam hated it, since even before the band there had been a bond there that Sam honestly wasn’t sure she and Tucker could replicate. The dynamic was strange, not quite how friends would act if they were human, especially given the violence, but Sam had a feeling that’s what ghost friendships were like—the banter during Danny’s fights with Ember had honestly been verging on flirting for the better part of the year.

“But they’re ghosts!”

“And Danny’s part ghost,” Sam pointed out. Possibly mostly, given he bled green now, but Sam didn’t want to think about that too closely, especially given that—despite Danny saying otherwise—Sam was the one at fault for the accident, since her peer pressure convinced him to take the risk, even more so after the incident with Desiree.

“Honestly, I think it’ll be good for Danny to have ghost friends his age,” Jazz said. “Until now, they’ve all been older, more like mentors than friends.”

Tucker scoffed. “Not sure how I feel about that, either. Frostbite, sure, he’s cool, and even Pandora, but Clockwork?” Sam could understand that reluctance; Danny’s attitude towards Clockwork seemed to have shifted lately, to become something almost like a father-son bond if Sam didn’t know any better—surely Danny hadn’t forgotten that the ghost had once tried to kill him, even though he’d later saved him? Tucker continued, “Besides, aren’t Johnny, Kitty, and Ember much older too? Like, pretty sure Ember died in the sixties or seventies, and Johnny and Kitty both died in the eighties.”

“That doesn’t matter for ghosts,” Jazz explained patiently. “Their psyche stays around where they were when they died. For all intents and purposes, Ember is sixteen, and Kitty and Johnny are eighteen and nineteen respectively.”

“And they definitely act like it,” Sam backed her up. Back when they were practicing, she’d even forgotten a few times that they were ghosts. If she were honest, she and Kitty had become… not quite friends yet, but she could see the potential for it. Or, maybe they were friends already; Sam would have to think on that some more.

Tucker frowned. “That’s… actually kinda sad. They never got to legally drink…”

Sam scoffed. “That’s what your first thought is?”

Tucker shrugged. “Well, yeah? Or, I guess more like, they never got to grow up, is what I mean. They were teens when they died. Can you imagine that? Never growing up, stuck as we are right now? Which, I might add, is something Danny probably isn’t thinking about.”

“Which is something he needs to think about,” Jazz said quietly, to Sam’s slight confusion.

“Seriously! He’ll basically end up as a creepy middle-aged dude that hangs around with teens!”

Jazz shook her head. “No. It’ll be the opposite,” she corrected, voice sounding almost as though she were afraid to say it. “He’ll be the teen with the adults.”

Tucker looked confused now. “Okay, you’ve lost me.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure what you mean, either,” Sam said, though a sneaking suspicion crawled through her mind as she noticed some stubble on Tucker’s chin, recalling how excited he’d been to finally see some hair there. Danny, as far as she knew, hadn’t had that happen yet… Plus, Tucker and Sam were both a few inches taller than Danny now, who had yet to have any growth spurt since the accident. Hell, he’d only recently bought the first batch of new clothes since then, and it wasn’t even due to need.

“I know it’s not definitive proof,” Jazz said slowly, “But I compared some photographs of Danny. He’s gained a little muscle, but… well, otherwise they’re the same. He hasn’t changed since the accident.”

“Maybe he’s just a late bloomer,” Tucker argued, but in her heart Sam knew Jazz was right. She’d started to notice that too, but didn’t want to think about it. “I mean, Vlad seems to be aging, right?”

“Vlad’s accident was also significantly smaller,” Jazz reminded them. “It’s possible the effects were different in some ways. Maybe certain effects showed up more intensely for Danny. Or, maybe different halfas simply get different ghost traits; we only know two after all.”

“True, but immortality? That kinda seems a little too ghostly, even for a halfa.”

Sam walked over to Tucker’s corkboard, which hosted many photos, mostly of her, Tucker, and Danny. She found one of the three of them from their middle-school graduation party, shortly before the accident, then the most recent one they’d taken just a few days prior, right before the concert. It was an easy comparison, as they were similar poses. She handed them to Tucker.

Tucker looked back and forth between the two photos for a couple minutes, face paling as he did so. “Oh, damn,” he said quietly by the end. “Okay, wow. That’s… yeah, that’s pretty obvious. We haven’t changed that much, other than clothing style,”—Sam winced at that; by the end of middle school, she’d managed to get her parents to let her wear blue jeans and darker (not black) blouses, but hadn’t quite yet gotten to full-goth—“but it’s still noticeable, particularly in height. Danny, on the other hand… Oh god, do you think he knows?”

“No, he doesn’t,” Jazz said confidently. “I heard him complaining the other day about his apparent lack of growth spurt—if he knew, he wouldn’t be hopeful that it’ll happen.”

“Unless he’s in denial,” Sam pointed out.

Jazz nibbled her lip in contemplation. “I suppose that’s possible… Wait, this isn’t what we need to focus on right now—we need to go find him, before this gets worse.”

“Worse? How do you think it’ll get worse?” Tucker asked.

“Well, first, Ember absolutely hates adults and authority, so she sure isn’t going to encourage Danny to go back after a fight like that. But more concerning is Kitty and Johnny, who were runaways,” Jazz said, to Sam’s surprise. Despite hanging out with them over the past few weeks, she hadn’t known that. “They both had bad home lives, and as soon as Kitty turned 18 they hopped on Johnny’s motorcycle and fled together—and died while doing it.”

“How do you know that?” Sam couldn’t help but interject.

“I study ghost psychology; of course I looked into all the ghosts we know. Death records are pretty easy to find, at least for more recent ones like them; they only died in ‘89, you know,” Jazz answered, to Sam’s surprise—that was the year she’d been born, so those two had been potentially still been alive at the same time as her, however briefly. Jazz continued, “Anyway, because of that history, they are going to have very strong opinions on cruel parental figures and runaway teens, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to convince Danny that it’s best to stay away.”

“Dammit, I knew they were a bad influence,” Tucker growled.

Jazz shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t say that. They’re just not trusting of authority figures, especially parents. With Danny being so paranoid about his parents reacting negatively to his secrets, and now fleeing after a fight, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re reminded of their own abuse and interpret it as Danny going through… something… similar…” she trailed off, a thoughtful yet worried look crossing her face.

“Jazz? You okay?” Sam prodded.

“Oh god, it is something similar, isn’t it?” Jazz asked, horrified. “Objectively, it is. They don’t know Danny’s actually Phantom, true, but—”

“Jazz, hey,” Sam interjected, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Before freaking out, let’s go find Danny, okay? We can get his perspective on things, and then think about all these implications, okay? Like you said, they don’t know he’s Phantom, and it’s not like they’ve intentionally hit him in human form, right?”

Tucker and Jazz glanced at each other, and Sam got the feeling that there was something she’d missed. “Guys? They haven’t hit him, right?” she asked, hoping she was wrong but a sinking feeling in her stomach claimed otherwise.

“His mom did, Saturday night,” Tucker said quietly, looking at the floor. “Right before he ran.”

Jazz nodded and said in a strained voice, “As far as I know, it’s the first time that happened, but Danny sometimes hides when he’s hurting, so it could be more. Mom says she regrets it. But… I don’t know if I believe her.”

“Though honestly, her dragging him into the house while still in the ghost net and throwing him on the ground is kinda objectively worse, come to think of it,” Tucker said with a frown.

“She did what?!” Sam hissed, then took a deep breath, and trying to keep a level head continued, “Right. Okay, so maybe it’s a little worse than we thought. Still, we need to go find him.”

Jazz took a deep breath. “Yes, yes, you’re right. Let’s—oh. Crap. I forgot.”

“Forgot what?” Sam prodded.

Jazz sighed. “The Specter Speeder is currently out of commission. I was thinking we could fix it ourselves, but I just remembered Mom saying they’re waiting on a part they had to special order, that hasn’t arrived yet as far as I know…”

“Oh, right,” Sam recalled. Danny had been flying her to any band practices that happened in there because of it; whatever the part was, it had to be imported from Japan, and seemed to be taking forever to be delivered.

“Wait, aren’t there jetpacks?” Tucker reminded them.

Jazz winced. “Yes but my parents recently tried to upgrade them to make them safer and now for some reason they give the user LSD-like side-effects.”

“Ooh, yeah, bad idea then… Damn, what should we do? No one else can navigate through the Zone, can they? Well, except Dani-with-an-I, but she was in Taiwan last I heard… Oh, and Vlad, but he’s been hiding in the Zone as well and knowing him he’d just try to convince Danny to go with him instead… That’s it, right? Oh wait, we can summon him!”

“We are not doing that, Tucker. Ghost summoning rituals require blood sacrifice,” Sam pointed out. Unless Danny’s half-life was in immediate danger with no other way to save him, she was NOT going to end her vegan lifestyle via slicing up a poor chicken or whatever and using its blood to draw sigils, nor was she going to let Tucker or Jazz do that.

“It wouldn’t work anyway,” Jazz told them. “After that cult tried to use him to assassinate the Pope, I’ve been drawing an anti-summoning charm on him. He does not need more of that trauma.” Right; Sam had forgotten about that, as Danny always wore a shirt. The tattoo was done in black henna, on his chest over his core, and being a magic sigil showed up regardless of form. She reapplied it whenever it started to wear down, and Danny planned to get it permanently tattooed on him once he turned 18—or rather, once his ID said he was 18, since apparently he was eternally 14.

Tucker winced. “Oof, I forgot about that one… Really glad summoning rituals don’t force the ghost to obey or anything. Oh! There’s also Valerie!”

“Valerie is just as likely to shoot Danny than rescue him,” Sam said flatly.

“You sure? I mean, she’s loosened up a bit lately, since finding out about girl Dani being friendly with Phantom.”

“Yeah but barely. Besides, she still doesn’t know Phantom is Danny,” Sam pointed out. “And pretty sure Danny doesn’t want her to know.”

“Well, you got any better ideas?”

Sam sighed. “Guess not. But we don’t tell her anything about Danny being Phantom! He’s just as likely to be in human form anyway, and if he isn’t we can pull him aside and ask him to ‘help’ locate Danny.”

“Another option is to borrow something from the artifact vault at MU,” Jazz offered. “They’ve got things that can fly us through there, I’m sure.”

“No offense, Jazz, but something tells me that messing with anything at that school of yours is a bad idea,” Tucker pointed out.

“Yeah, guess you’ve got a point,” Jazz said. “It’s somehow been ten whole days without any mysterious disappearances, so we probably shouldn’t push it,” she told them, disturbingly calm despite the implications of the words, giving no info beyond that.

“Oh, that reminds me, I should text Lurker,” Sam realized, pulling out her phone, then explained to them, “We have a date later. Or, had a date. Hope they don’t get upset about that.”

“Oh, I’m sure Lurker understands,” Jazz said as Sam drafted the text, her tone implying that Lurker already knew, which, yeah, Sam wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. Lurker was pretty cool, but there was definitely something supernatural going on there. Sam preferred not to dwell on that—besides, she’d dated a half-ghost before; it wasn’t like a possible lovecraftian horror was much different.

“Right, that’s taken care of,” Sam said, pressing send and then flipping her phone closed before pocketing it. “Let’s go find Danny.”

Jazz and Tucker agreed, and they all headed off.

Lancer sighed as he arrived at the stoop of the Fenton townhouse (or, whatever the lab-house-thing could be called). He trusted Jasmine to find her brother, but he still had to notify the boy’s parents of the three-day absence from school that he suspected they were somehow unaware of—this wasn’t the first time Lancer had to make a house call, as their place was on his way home and they notoriously very often did not answer their regular house phone, usually due to being busy in the lab, according to Jasmine. The ghost hotline he could get an immediate answer on, of course, but they had not been happy the last time he used it for something other than a ghost attack.

That wasn’t the only reason Lancer wanted to stop by the home, though. After learning about everything from Jasmine, Lancer felt he had to see firsthand if the place was safe for the boy. He also had growing concerns about Danny’s mental health, which he did not want to discuss over the phone—although he had to approach that gently, and be sure not to indicate that he was aware of what may be causing some of the stress on the boy. Lancer highly suspected that the way the Fenton parents tended to speak about ghosts played a part in their son’s deteriorating mental state as well. Words could be just as potent as fists, especially to an impressionable teenager.

Lancer knocked on the door.

Maddie answered fairly quickly, in her trademark hazmat suit, hood off. “Mr. Lancer!” she greeted cheerfully. “How unexpected! What brings you here?”

“I’m here to talk about Daniel,” Lancer told her. “May I come in? Or should we schedule another time?”

“Oh, now is fine,” Maddie said, opening the door, allowing Lancer to enter as she directed him to the kitchen. “I’ll put some tea on. I’m afraid Danny isn’t home from school yet; do you need him here too?”

“No, that is unnecessary,” Lancer said, eyeing what appeared to be a bazooka on the kitchen table, partially disassembled with tools beside it.

Maddie noticed him looking. “Ah, that’s the Fenton Bazooka! We’ve been trying a modification to home onto ghosts, but for some reason it keeps trying to target Danny… thankfully, he’s good at dodging! Not that he needs to be, of course,” she amended after noticing Lancer’s look of horror. “The energy blast only affects ghosts, after all; the worst it’ll do to a human is stain their clothes, or maybe knock them over if close enough to it.”

Suddenly, Jack Fenton burst out from the door in the kitchen that Lancer knew led to the lab. “L-Man!” he greeted, hurrying to the table, carrying what appeared to be more ecto-weapons, which he dumped onto the table before taking a seat. “Didn’t expect you! Hey, do you happen to know how Danny and Tucker did on the English project that was due last week? They really worked hard on that! Danny even slept at Tucker’s a few nights to get it finished on time.”

“Oh, I, er, didn’t grade it yet,” Lancer said, slightly baffled at the strange nickname as he also took a seat at the table, as far away from the weapons as he could get. There had been no English project due the previous week, but Lancer suspected telling the parents such wouldn’t end well. If Daniel needed to lie to get a break from a home where weapons were regularly shot at him, Lancer wouldn’t take that away from him.

“Oh, I see. Well, why are you here?” Jack asked, entirely oblivious to the fact that he’d bumped one of the weapons and it went off, singing the wall. It truly was a miracle his children had survived so long… Well, mostly survived, Lancer supposed, heart tugging at the reminder that one of the children was at least half, if not more so, dead.

“Well, it’s about Daniel,” Lancer began as Maddie sat a cup of tea in front of him and a glass of what looked like chocolate milk in front of Jack. She herself had tea as well, pushing the Bazooka away to make room for it as she sat too.

“What’s wrong with Danny?!” Jack declared in a too-loud-for-the-room voice.

Lancer sighed, expecting the reaction. “Well, there are a few things I would like to discuss. Firstly, I’m not sure if you are aware, but he wasn’t in school today—nor was he in school yesterday or Monday. We have not received any notice from you of an extended absence, and although he is known to regularly skip class, it is rare for him to skip an entire day. Frankly, I’m worried.”

Maddie sighed. “He hasn’t been home in a few days. We assumed he was at Sam or Tucker’s, but the absence from school is a little concerning, I suppose.” She sounded resigned.

“I see,” Lancer said. “Well, the past three days notwithstanding, he’s also skipped class an impressive amount. In the past month and a half since the school year began, my English class alone he has missed 11 times, and that’s not including all the times he was late or left class early. Are you aware of anything going on that would explain this?” Lancer, of course, knew the reason now, but he wanted to know just how much these two knew, if anything.

Maddie sighed again, as though she wasn’t surprised—considering how often they had had the same discussion over the previous two school years, it would have been more surprising if she was surprised. “I wish I knew. At first we thought it was innocent teenage rebellion, then we thought maybe drugs, but now—”

“Now we think ghosts are involved!” Jack declared. “He claims he’s friends with some, can you believe it?” Oddly enough, Lancer couldn’t tell if Jack was worried or excited about the prospect.

Maddie nodded, her demeanor definitely more of a cold anger, if not vehemence. “Yes, it is the only thing that makes sense. They must be influencing him! His behavior is all the fault of ghosts.”

The conclusion was sadly predictable, but Lancer pressed on. “Are you certain? I’ve noticed that he often exhibits signs of stress and anxiety—that could potentially be the cause for his behavior, so perhaps a therapist may be in order?” Of course, the stress and anxiety wasn’t the behavior’s cause, Lancer knew, rather the boy’s displays of stress and anxiety were likely a result of his home situation and the fact that he was constantly battling ghosts, but Lancer was not going to tell the parents either of those things.

“Oh, don’t be silly, Danny doesn’t need therapy,” Maddie said, sounding amused.

“Yeah!” Jack corroborated, although there seemed to be an underlying uncertainty amidst the outwardly confident assertion. “Once we convince him to stop listening to those ghosts, he’ll be fine!”

“Jack, honey, are you forgetting?” Maddie said in an almost sickly-sweet voice. “We’re going to break those ghosts apart molecule by molecule, remember? Only when they’re fully gone will he be fine.”

“Sure thing, Mads,” Jack said, trying to continue to sound confident but there was definitely some growing uneasiness underneath; Lancer got the distinct impression that the two were at significant odds in regards to the way ghosts were to be handled, despite putting up a unified front in public.

“And if he isn’t fine after that?” Lancer pressed, putting his teacup down and trying not to vomit as he realized what appeared to be ectoplasm was splashed on the rim; yet another telling sign that living here was a hazard to children. It was also concerning that the two apparently wished to destroy their son’s friends, ghosts or not. That would surely scar Daniel permanently if it were to occur.

“Impossible. Danny’s a Fenton!” Maddie declared, as though that made metal health issues an impossibility. Daniel was very lucky that Jasmine did not have that same belief.

Neither did his father, it seemed, as Jack said, “Well, Maddie, if nothing else is solving—”

“No, Jack, don’t be ridiculous,” Maddie said with a scowl, crossing her arms and sending Jack a fierce warning glare. “Danny is perfectly mentally stable. He doesn’t need to see some shrink.”

“Yes, of course, you’re right, Maddie,” Jack said, looking apologetic, yet also slightly fearful; when Maddie looked away from him, Jack looked at Lancer and mouthed ‘sorry’.

“I see,” Lancer said, internally noting that maybe it wasn’t just the kids who weren’t in the best home situation. He decided to drop the mental health angle for now and said, “Then, back to our earlier topic: do you know where he might have been instead of school for the past three days?”

“Of course; with Sam and Tucker,” Jack said instantly. “Right, Mads? You said he’s been with them since Saturday night!”

“Yes, dear, that’s usually where he’s at,” Maddie replied.

“Has he really been with them?” Lancer asked. “Do you know for certain? Those two were in school, and claim to have not heard from him.”

“Oh,” Jack said, face falling. “Well, I’m sure he’s fine,” he said, perking up some. “Danny just runs off sometimes, but he always comes back!”

Lancer gave pause to that. “He does? What is the longest he was away for?”

“Hm? Oh, maybe a week? Or, no, maybe two? But that was in the summer, we just assumed he went on vacation with his friends and forgot to tell us.”

Maddie sighed. “He’s so bad at communication. We tried to call him, but he didn’t answer—I’m almost thinking that he was ignoring the calls!”

“Don’t worry, though; he was grounded after,” Jack said.

Lancer didn’t comment, neither about the irony of the comment on bad communication or the likelihood that Daniel actually was ignoring them. The comment about the week or two that Danny had vanished and neither parent actually looked was concerning, too. It seemed that it only mattered to them when a ghost was involved—when Ember had flown off with him a few weeks prior, they had been driving all over town with megaphones inquiring where Danny was. Yet without a ghost explicitly involved, he could vanish for weeks and they would barely question it. Honestly, Lancer had half a mind to call CPS, if he thought they’d do anything—given that Daniel was already 16, at least on paper, they likely wouldn’t. Plus that could be dangerous, if it ended up revealing Daniel’s secret and the GIW got involved.

Actually… maybe the threat alone would be enough; they didn’t have to know that he wasn’t actually going to call them. “Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, I am going to be blunt. What I have seen and heard is more than enough to warrant a call to CPS. I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for now. However, if things do not improve, I will be calling them.”

Maddie frowned and gave Lancer a frankly frightening glare. “And just what do you mean, ‘what you’ve seen and heard’?” she demanded.

“Well, for starters, your son had been missing for days, yet it appears you didn’t even think to check if he was actually at his friends’. Your kitchen table is full of weapons, some with the safety off, which you didn’t notice went off when you bumped it.” He gestured to the scorch mark on the wall, then pointed to his cup. “Your dishware is contaminated with ectoplasm, which from my understanding is toxic, and you didn’t even notice before using it to serve someone.”

Jack looked a bit guilty. “When you put it like that…”

Maddie, however, waved it off. “Like I said, Danny’s done this before, and it’s always fine. The mug and weapon safety issues were just flukes, that doesn’t happen much.” Lancer got the impression that ‘not much’ was a lot more often than she was implying.

Jack gasped in realization, shifting the subject slightly as he did so. “Wait a second. Mads, what if Danny is staying with those ghosts? Ghosts don’t go to school, so maybe that’s why he hasn’t been in school!”

Maddie then gasped too. “You’re right, Jack! They must have kidnapped him! Oh, no, our baby is out there alone, trapped and held hostage by ghosts—we must find him!”

Lancer got the distinct impression that the parents had completely different interpretations on what might have happened, with Jack entertaining the (very likely) idea that Daniel was willingly skipping school to spend time with his ghost friends whereas Maddie was refusing to believe anything other than the ghosts having malicious intent and in denial that Daniel would ever willingly be with ghosts. Regardless, both parents leaped out of their seats and grabbed the functional weapons off of the table. Jack then grabbed a square scanning device.

“Wait, Jack, that one’s only programmed to track Phantom,” Maddie told him, then said under her breath, “Or at least it would if I could get it working for more than five minutes.” Lancer resisted smiling at that; he was sure the machinery failure was more likely the result of sabotage than simple malfunction.

Jack gasped. “Mads! What if Phantom knows where Danny is?!”

Maddie frowned. “Why would Phantom know where Danny is? They probably don’t even know each other, seeing as we’ve never seen them in the same place together.”

“Well we didn’t know he was associating with those other three ghosts until the concert,” Jack pointed out, then frowned.

“But… Doesn’t Phantom have some sort of vendetta against those three? We’ve seen them fighting,” Maddie pointed out.

“Yeah but those fights always seemed more playful than with other ghosts.”

“Pfft, ghosts don’t play,” Maddie said, waving a hand in dismissal. “You know that, Jack,” she said, then her eyes widened. “Wait—if Phantom’s against them, and Danny’s with them, Phantom may be after Danny too!”

Jack frowned. “Are you sure, Mads?”

“Of course, Jack! It’s the only logical conclusion! What’s with you lately? Do you want to save Danny or not?!”

“R-right, sorry! You’re right, of course,” Jack stammered, then said more resolutely, “Come on, we can’t waste another second.” He hurried towards the door and as he ran out yelled, “Danny, we’re coming for you! Phantom’s going down, molecule by molecule!” It was an obvious act, at least to Lancer—and his parents tried to say that being a thespian in school would never be useful in the long run!

The two dashed out the door, Lancer left sitting in the kitchen in mild shock. Well, no wonder the boy didn’t want to tell his parents his secret! Lancer couldn’t help but think that something felt heavily off, though; Jack seemed to perhaps be hiding his actual views, unless Lancer was reading into it too much. His thoughts on ghosts had clearly started to shift over the past two years. Maybe he’d even take Daniel’s secret well. Maddie, however, definitely seemed like a real danger, and Lancer wouldn’t put it past her to be unaccepting of her son having any ghostly abilities.

Moments later, voices sounded at the door, and a group of teenagers walked in, heading right to the kitchen as they talked about how they were lucky the parents had left just then: Jasmine, Tucker, Sam, and to Lancer’s surprise, Valerie—the last one wearing a suit with the hood down, one well known to belong to the Red Huntress.

Tucker noticed Lancer first as they entered the room. “Lancer?!”

“That’s Mister Lancer to you,” Lancer instinctually corrected. Before they could ask, he told them, “I was having a meeting with Daniel’s parents when they ran out the door.”

“What did you tell them?” Jasmine asked with suspicion.

“Only about his school attendance problems,” Lancer assured her. “They did not seem nearly worried enough about where he was, until they—well, Maddie—suddenly decided that ghosts must have kidnapped him, and then concluded that for some reason Phantom is targeting him too, upon which they rushed out.”

Jasmine sighed in resignation. “Yeah, that sounds on brand for them, unfortunately.”

Lancer stood up. “Apologies if I’m overstepping, but do you mind if I see the lab? After being in the kitchen, I have worries about their lab safety, and want to be sure they’re unfounded.” He gestured to the mug and weapons.

Jasmine scoffed at that. “Oh, they’re not unfounded. Whole thing is a big OSHA violation; honestly not surprised that Danny and I aren’t both dead by now.”

Lancer frowned, not having missed the emphasis on the word ‘both’. “That… is highly concerning, Jasmine.”

Jasmine winced. “Sorry, not sure where that came from; I seem to be on edge today,” she said apologetically. “Anyway, you can come down if you want, we’re headed there anyway, that’s where the portal is.”

“Ah, yes, you believe young Daniel is in the Ghost Zone,” he recalled. He supposed it was lucky the two parents had fled.

“What! You told Lancer?!” Sam said, looking at Jasmine in disbelief.

Jasmine shrugged. “He figured things out, and I kinda trauma dumped a bit. Pretty sure everything’s good, though,” she said, looking towards Lancer in a way that indicated she wanted confirmation.

“Yes, it’s all good; I won’t tell your secrets, especially to your parents,” Lancer assured her. “Or yours, Miss Gray,” he added, looking towards the girl.

Valerie, hood now on, winced. “Damn, I was really hoping you wouldn’t notice that,” the girl grumbled.

“Well, then!” Jasmine said, clapping her hands together. “To the lab!”

Once they made their way down into the basement lab, and Lancer saw all the biohazards and weaponry around, the kids paying no heed to it, he pulled Jasmine aside.

“What’s wrong, Mister Lancer?” Jasmine asked.

“This entire house isn’t safe, for either you or your brother,” he told her quietly. “Is it?”

Jasmine shifted nervously, then said a quiet, “No, it’s really not. My parents mean well, but… It’s not a good home for children at all. And… they’re not great parents, either… Neglect, I believe, is the term that fits. I more or less raised Danny, truthfully. I don’t doubt they love us, but their ghost obsession often takes precedence over our wellbeing, until there’s an emergency like now,” she explained, then added in a somewhat bitter mumble, “which apparently still gets ignored until ghosts are involved.”

“Have you considered moving out? You’re 18,” he pointed out. “You could take Daniel with you.”

Jasmine sighed. “I’ve considered it, yes. But with how often we need to use the portal and borrow equipment… it’s just not tenable. I know you’re worried, Mister Lancer, but we’ve got it handled, trust me.”

“I do trust you,” Lancer said. “It’s just… learning you two grew up in a place like this… I’m sorry. Someone should have noticed sooner. If they had, perhaps Daniel wouldn’t be… well, you understand.”

Jasmine sighed. “Unfortunately, I do understand. It’s heart wrenching… Ah, sorry, looks like they’re calling me over. Hopefully, Danny will be back in school tomorrow, don’t you worry! Or, well, maybe the next day? Time can be weird in the Ghost Zone. If they’re all not back in school by Friday, then you can worry!” she told him.

Lancer let out a slow breath. “Okay. Best of luck,” he told her, and she hurried over to hop onto the Red Huntress’s hoverboard, which had expanded in size to fit all four teenagers.

Lancer watched the group fly through the portal, desperately hoping that things would work out—as well as more than a little concerned that apparently Amity Park’s safety had largely rested in the hands of his own teenage students for the past two years.

Chapter Text

Valerie contemplated her situation as she flew her enlarged hoverboard through the Ghost Zone, with Sam, seated cross-legged in front, occasionally directing her. Jazz and Tucker sat behind Valerie on either side, legs dangling. The three seemed much more comfortable there than Valerie had expected; she herself still wasn’t quite used to the eerie atmosphere despite having been there before. Tucker had explained that they’d been mapping it using the Specter Speeder, but still, it was uncanny to see humans being so familiar with this place.

“So, let me get this straight,” Valerie said. “Danny, for some reason, is lost in here?” They hadn’t given her much information at all, only that Danny was likely here and they needed help finding him. The fact that they knew she was the Red Huntress was extremely surprising, and a little suspicious, but Danny was her friend so Valerie hadn’t hesitated to help.

That didn’t mean she didn’t want answers though. Why would Danny possibly be in this godforsaken place? He was terrified of ghosts! …Wasn’t he? Actually, no, he wasn’t anymore, if the band was any indication. When had that changed?

“Well, not exactly lost,” Tucker said cagily.

“Then why are we looking for him?” Valerie asked, then realized, “He was kidnapped, wasn’t he? After the band thing? The ghosts tricked him into helping them and then took him! Why didn’t you say so earlier!? It’s been days!”

“He wasn’t kidnapped!” Tucker hurriedly denied. “I swear he wasn’t! It’s more like… ran away?”

“Ran away?” Valerie asked, now even more confused. “Why would he run away into the Ghost Zone?”

Sam sighed. “He got in a fight with his parents. They’d never think to look here.”

“Seriously?! He runs away and his first thought of where to hide is the freaking Ghost Zone?! You’ve gotta be pulling my leg.”

“Unfortunately no,” Tucker said dryly. “He’s got ghost friends here, apparently.”

“The band,” Valerie realized. “I was wondering why Danny would be in a band that had ghosts in it…” Of course, they were ghosts, so couldn’t truly be his friends, but if he thought they were then him being in a band with them and then hiding with them would make sense.

“Yeah,” Sam confirmed. “That’s why Danny fought with his parents.”

“But—wait, you were in the band too! Don’t tell me you’re allegedly friends with them too?!”

Sam sighed. “Not really. It’s more of a working relationship. We needed more band members, and he recruited them without consulting with me,” Sam revealed.

“And you let them in the band?!”

Sam shrugged. “Like I said, we needed members. Honestly though, they're actually pretty cool once you get to know them. Anyway, he’ll probably be at one of their places; take a right here, that’s Ember’s lair, we’ll check that first.”

They headed to the lair in silence, Valerie still floored at how Danny, known to the school for being terrified of ghosts, had not only invited ghosts into his band, but had apparently fled to them. Clearly they were tricking him; but, as a Fenton, shouldn’t he be well aware ghosts did that, and knew enough not to fall for their tricks? In that case, something else must be going on; maybe he was overshadowed?

Once at their destination, the others jumped onto the slab of earth, right in front of a door covered in band stickers. Valerie disengaged her hoverboard and landed as Sam knocked.

Ember McLain answered the door; Valerie had to resist shooting on instinct. This was the ghost’s home, after all, not Amity Park. Valerie had to be civil, even if she didn’t like this particular ghost at all, having not forgotten how she tried to take over the world with music; it was a miracle nothing happened at that Fall Festival concert.

“Babypop ain’t here,” Ember told them bluntly. Valerie bristled at the gall of a ghost having a nickname for her friend.

“Could you tell us where he is?” Sam asked, a strange tension between the two.

“Nope,” Ember said, popping the ‘pe’.

“And why not?”

“‘Cuz we’ve got a hot date later today.”

Sam scoffed at that, though Valerie could sense a little concern too as the girl said, “No, you don’t.”

“Okay, fine, I don’t. But I totally would if he actually liked girls—he’s so much hotter than Skulker! Great kisser, too.”

The group stared at Ember; Tucker and Sam looked very confused, as Valerie was, although Jazz looked more surprised that the three of them were surprised. Valerie considered the info; it was true that when she dated Danny, it seemed hardly different than friendship, and any kiss or affectionate touch, even hand-holding, had seemed to make Danny slightly uncomfortable even when he said it was fine, but Valerie had chalked it up to inexperience. Was that not the reason after all? Could he actually be gay? Did he know it back then? No, he couldn’t have.

“What?” Ember asked, seeing their expressions.

“What do you mean, Danny doesn’t like girls?” Valerie asked.

Ember scrunched her brow in slight confusion, then her eyes widened in realization. “Oh, crap. You didn’t know that, did you?” she said, seeming worried. Could ghosts even get worried? Valerie surprisingly found herself unsure; it was pretty realistic if the ghost were faking.

Tucker scoffed. “Come on, Danny’s totally into girls! He dated some! And, wait a second, you two kissed at the end of the concert!”

“Yeah, well, comphet’s a bitch,” Ember said with a shrug. “And the concert was just for kicks; no rule that friends can’t kiss, right?”

“Danny isn’t gay,” Tucker insisted. “I’m his best friend; I would know that.”

Ember shrugged. “Well, if you say so. Forget I said anything, okay? Anyway, he’s not here, so you can go away now.”

“No; you know where Danny is,” Sam said, apparently not wanting to dwell on Ember’s suggestion of Danny’s sexuality—Valerie wondered if a similar thing had happened when she briefly tried dating Danny, where the friendship aspect was stronger than any romantic aspects. Was that why they’d broken up after such a short time together? And what did Ember mean by that other word, ‘comphet’?

Ember crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Come on. He’s clearly hiding from you mortals. I’m not going to break his trust like that.”

“He’s with Kitty and Johnny, isn’t he?” Sam concluded.

“Again, ain’t gonna confirm nor deny; now scram!” Ember closed the door in their faces.

“Well that was productive,” Tucker said flatly.

Valerie opened her hoverboard again and decided, “Let’s go try Kitty and Johnny’s, then.”

Danny had not been kidnapped by ghosts, of that Jack was certain. If he was with ghosts, it was likely his band mates, and he would be with them willingly, just like he had been visiting them for weeks prior—after all, the band had to practice to get that good.

Jack didn’t dare mention that to Maddie, though; honestly, he wondered how she hadn’t realized that. Maybe she’d chalked it up to ghost magic. That, or she was in denial.

The current plan was driving around in the GAV, Maddie in charge so as to drive slowly and carefully enough to run the scans. So far the only ghost they’d found was the Box Ghost, which they’d taken care of using the portal gun, twice; not for the first time Jack wondered if that ghost had some sort of way to create portals or had a sixth sense for natural portal locations. That, or what they thought was one ghost was actually quintuplets or something.

Jack stared out the window and thought about the current situation, which wasn’t looking good. Lancer had mentioned the possibility of CPS. It wasn’t that bad though… was it? Jack thought back to the reasons Lancer listed.

Firstly, they hadn’t noticed Danny had run away—which wasn’t fair. Maddie had told him that he was with his friends! …Although, Jack had just assumed she had followed through on that. Perhaps he should have asked her if she had. Of course, her reply probably would be venomous because she didn’t like it when he questioned her, meaning it would likely lead to another fight…

Then there was the matter of the weapons on the table, which was… well, that actually was fair. The ecto-weapons didn’t damage humans too badly, but that one had actually singed the wall permanently due to incorrect calibration, which might damage humans—it had been on the table to fix that issue. So that was definitely objectively bad. But that didn’t happen often… did it? Maybe it did. Well, that was an easy fix—in the future, weapons work would be restricted to the lab in a designated area with protective shields.

Then there was the ecto-contamination, which was… also fair. The evil weiners were still haunting the fridge, and there were definitely issues with contaminated dishware. Storing toxic ectoplasm samples in the same place as food meant for human consumption probably wasn’t the best idea; they should invest in a fridge for the basement. Maddie would probably say it was a waste of money and electricity to get a second fridge, but it was a matter of health and safety. Perhaps Jack should just buy it himself; he had a substantial amount of inherited family money (most of which he rarely touched as their joint account that contained the money from their patents and ecto-science book sales, along with research grants, usually covered most things, especially as they didn’t have a mortgage due to the property also being inherited). He’d been saving the inherited money for emergencies and to use for the kids when needed (such as to pay for Jazz’s psychology summer camp a few years back, which was surprisingly expensive), but didn’t this count as both?

Maddie pulled to the side of the road and sighed. “Jack, this isn’t working,” she said.

“What’s not working?” Jack asked, snapping out of his thoughts.

Maddie ambiguously waved a hand. “This! We keep driving around and getting nowhere! No ghosts are even around, other than—oh for fuck’s sake!” she yelled, and Jack winced; Maddie almost never cursed like that.

Jack glanced out the window, seeing the Box Ghost flying past. Maddie was already leaning out the window with the portal gun; she got the ghost in one shot.

Maddie took a deep breath and she drew the weapon back into the GAV. “Okay, we need a new plan. Danny obviously has to be with the ghosts, and they’re obviously not in Amity. Where else might they be?”

“Well, those ghosts he’s friends with have lairs in the Ghost Zone, right? Maybe he’s there?” Jack suggested. The Specter Speeder was down, but they could fix it—the part they’d been waiting on had arrived earlier that day.

Maddie scoffed at that. “Jack, the portal is in our basement. We would have noticed if he snuck back inside the house and then went into it.”

Jack absolutely was not sure of that at all, but decided not to argue. “So where should we look?”

Maddie considered that for a moment. “The local news channel might be willing to send out a message for us. Let’s try that.”

Jack nodded. “Sounds good, Mads,” he said, although he doubted that would do much, especially if Danny didn’t actually want to come back.

Danny sat with his legs curled up on the couch in Johnny and Kitty’s lair, wearing black jeans and a green t-shirt with a black cat silhouette across the front that he’d gotten at a local ghost tailor, watching the local Amity Park evening news on the TV—despite the ‘vacation’, he couldn’t simply ignore the town! Watching the evening news each night had been a compromise. He clutched a strawberry ecto-smoothie in his hands, which Johnny had brought back for him from a ghost smoothie shop a few lairs over, where he and Kitty had finished their afternoon date. The two were currently seated at a small table doing a puzzle.

There was a knock on the door, and Kitty called, “come in!”, likely assuming it was Ember, as she’d told them she’d stop by sometime that evening.

Danny had assumed that too, until he caught the scent of human emotion in the air which caused him to turn to the door. He froze when instead of Ember a group of humans entered the lair, looking around with wide eyes. Thank the Ancients that he was currently in his human form! Well, human-ish form, given the ever-present fangs.

“Yo, the hell are you all doing here?” Johnny asked testily, though didn’t bother to move either.

“Yeah, we didn’t invite you!” Kitty chimed in.

“Hey, you’re the one who said we could come in,” Tucker pointed out, vibe giving off nervousness despite the casual joking demeanor that he expressed on the surface.

“Well, we thought you were Ember,” Kitty replied.

As the group of humans proceeded further in, Shadow sprung up from Johnny, blocking them and snarling; they all took a step back, surprise and fear palpable.

Johnny sighed and said tiredly, “Shadow, retreat.”

Shadow shot Johnny a questioning look, then after a brief pause returned to the ghost, and the humans calmed slightly.

Danny smiled in amusement and went back to watching the news, wanting to catch at least some before Sam, Tucker, and Jazz confronted him. For some reason, he wasn’t that nervous about the situation—if anything, he was a little irritated that they were interrupting his much-needed vacation.

“So, does that mean we can come in?” Sam asked tepidly, frustration building under the wariness.

“Sure, whatever,” Johnny said with a shrug. “After all, three more smokin’ hot chicks are—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Johnny!” Kitty chided. “You promised not to flirt with other girls!”

Wait. Danny scrunched his brow in slight confusion. Did Johnny say three girls?

Johnny rolled his eyes at his girlfriend. “Yeah, yeah. Anyway,” he said to the humans, “There’s some leftover pizza from yesterday in the fridge, help yourself I guess.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Tucker said, nervousness being replaced with eager anticipation as he made a beeline for the kitchen; was Tucker seriously that food-driven?

Danny turned back to look at the remainder of the group and blinked, finally processing who exactly was there with the group. “Wait. Valerie!?” he asked, still not moving from his seat; he knew none of the humans would attack, and he was comfortable. He was surprised he hadn’t sensed her though; the other humans were easy to recognize from the emotions wafting off them, but Valerie’s felt subdued. Maybe her suit was protecting her.

“What? You know who I am too?!” Valerie asked in a slight panic; right, her Red Huntress costume was fully on, hood included, and she thought her identity was a secret. Oops. She hid her demeanor quickly, but despite the emotion being subdued clearly exuded worry about her identity no longer being as hidden as she’d thought, which Danny understood.

“Well, duh. It’s kinda obvious,” Danny replied snarkily, not really caring about much at the moment and slightly ticked off that they’d appeared just as he had sat down to relax with his dinner and interrupted news time. Plus they undoubtedly were here to get him to go home even though he would prefer to be here; the ghosts had been right, Danny had desperately needed a few days away from everything, especially because he now had to process the fact that he was immortal and far more ghost than human. He’d planned to stay the rest of the week, at least, providing Amity Park wasn’t falling to ruins—honestly, learning that the town could hold up okay even with him gone for a few days was therapeutic in and of itself; he hadn’t realized how little trust he previously had in the other hunters, even Valerie.

“Excuse me?!” Valerie bristled. “What the—whoa, wait, Danny, what the hell are you drinking?” she asked, frustration rapidly shifting into worry so palpable that even the humans probably could feel it as she hurried over to him.

Danny moved the drink away as she tried to grab it. “Relax, it’s just a smoothie,” he told her, aware that the pink glow was a bit damning.

“It’s glowing!”

“Um…” Danny did not have a good explanation for that; glowing to this degree meant radioactive or ectoplasmic, everyone knew that, and everyone knew humans could not drink either in such high quantities without some very unpleasant side effects. If only the smoothie cup and straw hadn’t been clear plastic! “I didn’t notice?”

“How do you not notice something like that?! …Wait.” She sniffed the air. “Is that strawberry?”

“Well, yeah, it’s a strawberry smoothie,” Danny said, moving to take a sip; he was surprised she could tell; humans usually didn’t have such strong noses. “Hey, that’s my dinner!” he then protested as Valerie anxiously grabbed it away.

Jazz’s voice chimed in, “A smoothie isn’t dinner!”, though neither Danny nor Valerie replied to that.

“Are you trying to die?!” Valerie asked Danny, her frustration, hurt, worry, nervousness, concern, and… grief?... almost suffocating. Her emotions were strong, even when lessened by the suit, which Danny wasn’t quite sure how he knew but he found himself glad about because otherwise they’d be completely overwhelming. It was almost like she was projecting them, like ghosts could sometimes do…

Danny decided to set that puzzle aside for later. “Uh. Little late for that,” he joked, then winced upon seeing her expression. “I’m joking, sheesh!”

“Well it’s not funny,” Valerie said sternly. Danny suspected Valerie used anger to hide other emotions.

“Okay, okay, fine,” Danny said in a bored voice. “Can I have my smoothie back now? I’m kinda hungry. I swear it isn’t going to kill me.” In fact, the ecto-foods Danny had been consuming recently had been energizing him better than human food ever had.

Danny took some comfort in the fact that he did still definitely need some human food too, as he’d discovered by the third day of eating only ecto-things, although possibly less than a pure human would need as long as he had ectoplasm; he suspected without the ectoplasm though, he’d need the same amount as usual. That’s why there was leftover pizza; Johnny and Kitty had taken a joyride yesterday to go retrieve it, and as they weren’t sure how much Danny needed ended up getting way too much. Of course, those two and Ember had some slices as well, but they didn’t actually need it, just enjoyed the taste.

“Seriously, Danny?” Valerie continued pleading. “Even if it won’t, you’re already going to be super ecto-contaminated from being in the freaking Ghost Zone for four whole days without protection; do you really plan to add more to that by drinking this thing? Come on, we’re here to take you home.”

“Well, maybe I don’t want to go home,” Danny told her, feeling defiant as he grabbed the smoothie back and immediately took a large sip, to Valerie’s clear horror. He frowned, noting the smoothie had warmed a little too much for his liking, so slightly cooled it using his ice powers.

“So, what, you’d rather stay here, drinking crap like that?” Valerie asked incredulously.

“Sure. I like it here. It’s nice,” Danny told her, taking another sip of the now-perfect-temperature smoothie.

“Danny, no. You belong in Amity Park, not the Ghost Zone,” Valerie insisted, emotions shrinking again, protected by the suit. Danny concentrated, and got the sense she was… afraid? Danny was scaring her now. Well that was just great.

“Debatable,” Danny grumbled under his breath, even though he knew what she said was true. Though he was having a nice break here, and it was fun being with his ghost friends, he wouldn’t want to live in the Ghost Zone forever. Amity Park was his home.

But for now, Danny would much rather stay here; just four days away from his parents was not enough.

“Hey, kid, your folks are on the TV,” Johnny interjected. While Valerie and Danny were arguing, he and Kitty had returned to doing the puzzle, Jazz and Sam having joined them while Tucker watched Danny and Valerie interact while munching on a slice of pizza, looking mildly concerned, confirmed by that same vibe mixed with contentment from the pizza—because of course ‘food happiness’ was somehow a distinct emotion.

Danny halted his argument with Valerie and swerved his head towards the TV. Sure enough, his parents were on screen.

“Oh, this can’t be good,” Jazz said with a sigh, her and everyone else now watching too.

“We have a missing person’s case,” the reporter on screen said. “Danny Fenton, son of local ghost hunters, has reportedly been kidnapped by ghosts. Here are his parents to speak more about it.”

“Thank you,” Maddie said, speaking first. “Yes, our son has been missing since Saturday evening; at first we assumed he was with his friends, as this isn’t the first time he’s left without telling us, but when he didn’t show up at school it became evident that something was wrong. After some investigating, we have now come to the conclusion that ghosts may have kidnapped him. If you have any information, we implore you to come forward.”

Jack then added, “We also suspect Phantom may have information as to where they might take him! If anyone has news on him, please let us know too, as he may be able to help lead us to our boy!”

Danny, finding himself frustrated that he couldn’t remotely read their true emotions from the screen, scoffed at that and muttered, “Sure, but he won’t,” before taking another large sip of his radioactive smoothie.

Valerie, hood now off, narrowed her eyes at that. “Are you connected to Phantom in some way? Is the Ghost Boy one of your so-called ‘ghost friends’, too?”

“Tch. Wouldn’t you like to know,” Danny muttered, while the humans other than Valerie tried not to laugh and the ghosts actually laughed. Honestly, Danny was somewhat amazed that Valerie hadn’t drawn the connection yet.

Before Valerie, mildly confused at everyone’s reactions, could answer, Sam sighed loudly as the news broadcast moved onto some nature segment and said tiredly, “Danny, you really need to go home; continuing to avoid your parents will only make it worse.”

“Not if I avoid them forever,” Danny pointed out snarkily.

“No, Sam’s right,” Jazz said gently, radiating care for her brother. “If you need a vacation, I’m sure we can figure something out, but running away and going no-contact isn’t the way to do it.”

“But they’re going to be so angry,” Danny whined. “Like, I’ll be grounded for life! You know what they said on the news broadcast was a lie; they don’t think I was kidnapped by ghosts, not really. They know I made friends with ghosts, the fight was about that—it’s not a far stretch for them to conclude that I’m currently willingly with ghosts. If they seriously do think I’ve been kidnapped, they’re deep in denial.”

“Well, they don’t need to know the true story,” Jazz pointed out. “They don’t even know we’re here looking. You could always claim you were just wandering around in the human realm, maybe went a few cities over.”

“Which I’ll still be in trouble for. I ran away from home and skipped three days of school, Jazz. I’m in big trouble either way.”

“Yes, but the blow would be lessened.” Despite Jazz’s calm demeanor, she was definitely nervous below it.

“You could always just say we were influencing you,” Kitty pointed out. “Like, they probably get it wasn’t overshadowing, but like, Ember can affect emotions with her guitar, right? Then you won’t be in trouble!”

Danny shook his head. “No, that would only make them hate ghosts more. I want to lessen the divide between the realms, not increase it,” he reminded them, then he sighed in frustration and muttered, “At this rate it’ll take centuries though.”

Johnny casually shrugged and said, “Hey, you’ve got the centuries, so no need to rush, right?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Danny muttered, sinking into the seat some.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Valerie asked, clearly confused. None of the others seemed unaware, though—Tucker winced, Sam projected clear sadness, and Jazz had that look and vibe of pride that she got when she was right about something. So, they’d figured it out, just as Clockwork said they would. Great.

“Don’t worry about it,” Danny told Valerie. He threw the empty smoothie cup into a trashcan across the room, surprisingly making it in even though he thought the trajectory was way off, and stood up, stretching out his back. “Okay, you all win, I’ll go home,” he told them, hoping to distract the group from that accidental reveal and well aware that they would keep fighting until he complied—he could feel it, after all. He headed towards the door. “See ya, Johnny, Kitty. If you see Ember, tell her I’ll swing by her place this weekend, okay? If she doesn’t decide to meet up sooner, that is.”

“You got it, champ,” Johnny said, giving him a thumbs up.

“See ya, Danny,” Kitty said with an air kiss goodbye.

Danny hopped out the door and into the air, zooming off as the humans followed behind him.

“Hey, whoa!” Valerie called, and Danny looked back to see her hopping on an enlarged hoverboard, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz joining her. “Since when can you fly so fast through here?!” she asked as she caught up to him, a subtle scent of both surprise and suspicion wafting off her.

Danny winced. He’d totally messed up. Whereas it was true that humans could float in the Ghost Zone, they had no real way to actually fly through it or accelerate, having to rely on inertia from pushing against things which usually led to moving relatively slowly. That used to be the case for Danny when in human form too, but ever since starting to consume ecto things he’d found he could fly in human form here too; or perhaps he always could, but as a lot of ghost things were powered by emotions the mere belief that one couldn’t do something could cause a block.

“Uh. I pushed off of the ground really hard?” Danny tried, though it was obvious that she didn’t believe him. If there had been any chance Valerie wouldn’t figure things out, Danny had just blown it.

Valerie sped up slightly, then swerved around to stop facing Danny, her passengers complaining at the sudden change of movement as they gripped the board tightly to stay on. Danny stopped short before hitting her. “B.S.,” Valerie growled as she crossed her arms, quiet anger surrounding her along with more suspicion. Fuck.

“How so?” Danny challenged.

“For one, at that speed, you’d have had to push off with a force humans just don’t have. Second, you clearly shifted direction, not to mention stopping suddenly. You’re flying, not floating.”

“Okay, fine,” Danny said. “The ghosts taught me how to properly fly in here, okay?”

“B.S.,” Valerie said again. “Tell the truth, Danny.”

“What truth?” Danny asked, trying to delay the inevitable; Valerie knew, or at least had a very strong inkling, that he was a ghost, maybe even Phantom.

“The real reason you can fly here, the real reason you could safely drink that ecto-contaminated drink, the real reason you’re perfectly comfortable being in the Ghost Zone for days without protection. The reason you have fangs. The reason that ghost said you had centuries. The reason that, when you threw the smoothie cup in the trash, it changed direction, as though moving telekinetically while your eyes glowed green.”

“Wait, I actually used telekinesis?” Danny said, momentarily happy at the realization that he’d managed to do so, even if it was accidentally, as it was a ghost ability he’d suspected he had but practicing had only ever caused slight floating of light objects like paper. Then he remembered the situation and quickly said in a nervous stutter, “I-I don’t know what you mean,” though he knew Valerie wouldn’t believe that.

Tucker sighed. “Danny, I think the jig is up, dude.”

“Yeah, I have to agree with that,” Sam said with resignation.

“Do you want one of us to say it?” Jazz gently offered.

Danny nibbled his lip slightly as he debated that. Valerie was waiting on a response… Maybe Danny could get away with a half-truth? He knew the ecto-contamination one wouldn’t work; he could use that for some things, like occasional glowing eyes, but flying, drinking ecto-smoothies, and immortality could not be explained away by such. But, he currently was not in his Phantom form, so she didn’t have to know that part.

“Danny,” Valerie sharply prodded, hands now on her hips, eyes narrowing dangerously—she hadn’t bothered putting her hood back on. For a second her eyes seemed to have a golden ghostly glow—a side effect of her suit?

“Fine, you got me. I’m… not exactly human anymore,” Danny told her, looking away.

“You’re a ghost,” she flatly stated.

Danny sighed and confirmed, “Yeah. I’m a ghost. And no, my parents don’t know.”

“Half-ghost, technically,” Tucker clarified, and Danny resisted wincing at that. He really needed to discuss his recent revelations with his friends.

Valerie was quiet, and Danny risked peeking at her face, concentrating on reading her emotions through whatever the block was. She didn’t look angry; she looked, as well as felt, incredibly sad, yet accepting of it, as though she hadn’t wanted to be right, had been hoping he wouldn’t confirm it. “Not just any ghost, though, right?” She asked quietly. “You’re Phantom, aren’t you?”

Danny looked at her in surprise, not expecting her to have figured that out, too. “How did you—”

“You’ve both been absent,” Valerie told him before he could finish the question. “You’re both friends with these ghosts, but you two have never been seen together. You’re the same age, with the same hairstyles, and have the same expressions. You both even got new ear jewelry and fangs at the same time. It’s too uncanny to be a coincidence. Oh, and I noticed you used ice powers to chill that smoothie—Phantom is the only teenage ghost I know of whose eyes glow ice blue when using those, which yours did.”

“Damn,” Danny muttered; he’d used that power without thinking. “Yeah, you’re right,” he reluctantly confirmed, wondering if he should find a way to shift jewelry between his forms, considering having identical, albeit inverted-color, ones was apparently suspicious. “I’m Phantom.” He thought about switching forms, then decided that wasn’t the best idea at the moment.

Valerie’s vibes, though muted, projected a clear sense of betrayal and devastation at the confirmation; Danny had a feeling that the friendship they had been rekindling when Danny was in human form was shattered now. Maybe eventually it could recover, but it would likely be a long while until then.

Danny then realized Valerie just might summon a weapon, though she hadn’t yet; he put his hands up and said, “Before you shoot me, I do want to say that Cujo really wasn’t my dog, not back then. He was an untrained puppy, and only kept returning to the lab because he wanted his chew toy that was left there. That’s all it was—I wasn’t out to get you, or anything like that.”

Valerie seemed plain confused at that. “Why would his chew toy be there?”

Danny couldn’t meet her eyes as he said quietly, “What do you think happened to the guard dogs, even the in-training ones, once the technology system replaced them?”

Valerie was quiet for a moment, then gasped in realization, putting her hands over her mouth as a feeling of sadness overcame her. “No…” she whispered.

“...Yeah,” Danny confirmed. “I really am sorry, though, for that entire situation. If I figured out what he wanted sooner, maybe—”

“No, don’t blame yourself,” Valerie said with determination. “Blame Axiom for doing something so cruel… Um, back to earlier, though… How did this happen? How did you—Oh wait, that’s kinda rude to ask, isn’t it?” She felt slightly ashamed at having almost voiced the question.

“Most ghosts consider it rude to ask how they died, yes, but I don’t mind,” Danny told her, even though he somewhat did, then took a deep breath and revealed, “I was inside the portal when it turned on. It changed me. Technically I’m not a full ghost, I’ve got human traits too.”

“Like Danielle,” Valerie said with a nod, as though she expected that. “I should have drawn that conclusion sooner; if she’s half-ghost, and she’s your clone, it stands to reason that you would be half-ghost too.”

Danny shrugged, glad that Valerie’s frustration at him had, as much as he could tell with her, already shifted to resigned acceptance, and a softer emotion, maybe pity? At least, for now; maybe it’d change when she processed it more, and he couldn’t sense as deep an emotional profile as he should be able to so maybe anger was still underneath those. He told her, “Well, it’s understandable why you wouldn’t think of it. I mean, it’s not like half-ghosts are all that common,” he pointed out. “My parents are ecto-scientists yet don’t even know it’s possible.”

Valerie was clearly confused at that. “But, Vlad—”

Danny interjected, “They currently think Vlad is a full ghost with transformation powers.” Which Danny was honestly thankful for, as that meant they likely wouldn’t as quickly consider it a possibility when it came to Danny.

“Oh. I thought they only told the world that to hide the existence of half-ghosts for public safety,” Valerie said. “Bet he hates that; he revealed his secret to the world just for it to spit back in his face.” She was spitefully amused at that.

“Well, technically he only revealed he was a ghost; he never actually explained he was still half human,” Danny pointed out, then grinned. “So they think Plasmius either kidnapped or murdered the ‘real’ Vlad, so that ‘missing person case’ is actually real too, not a decoy. His assets have even been frozen. Not that that’ll do much though since he’s got lots of money elsewhere and can easily create a false identity, but still.” Despite Vlad having helped, and redeemed himself somewhat, during the Time Glitch incident, Danny still enjoyed seeing him suffer a little. Call it payback for all the horrors he inflicted before his change of heart, which Danny had definitely not forgiven him for and still had nightmares about. Of course, Danny was also immensely appreciative of what Vlad had done, and was still doing, but it was still nice having him out of the picture.

“Ugh. That bastard… if I knew where he was…” Valerie growled, a furious desire for vengeance palpable. Okay, yeah, she was definitely projecting that; from the looks of it, even the other humans could feel it. Valerie really should look into anger management, Danny decided, though he wasn’t about to suggest that to her—and he definitely wasn’t going to tell her his theory that her ghost-created suit was giving her subtle ghost traits.

“Er. I dunno if that’s a good idea,” Danny cautiously said.

“What, you think I can’t take him?!” Valerie retorted with yet another flare of pure rage.

Danny put his hands up. “I didn’t say that! Just, uh, no need to poke the tiger? Plus, you know, vengeance kinda never ends well.”

Valerie drew her wrist gun, probably an automatic response but that didn’t stop a jolt of fear shooting through Danny at the display as she said, “Well I need someone to take my anger out on and blame for my misery! Unless you want to take the fall again!?”

“Uh, no, no, I’m good,” Danny said nervously, worried she might actually shoot him with how tense she was. “Um. Could we put the weapon away now, please? Those things do actually still affect me in human form.”

“Oh, sorry,” Valerie said sheepishly, only just seeming to realize it was out and retracting it, rage suddenly falling.

“Girl, you need therapy,” Tucker commented.

“I’m already in anger management,” Valerie muttered, to Danny’s relief, then turned the board back around and as she began moving said, “Come on, let’s get back to the human world.”

The group proceeded towards the portal, Danny flying beside them. He had half a mind to just take off in a random direction, further avoiding returning home, but resisted.

Eventually Danny decided to dare to ask Valerie something he needed to know, though wasn’t sure how she’d react: “So, I know you’re kinda probably still processing everything, and if you need more time fine, but do you think you could ever forgive me for ruining your life?”

Valerie sighed. “Honestly? I don’t know,” she said, and Danny couldn’t sense any emotion from her, not even enough to tell if she were sincere when she said, “I want to. Knowing the truth, I know I should. I know you weren’t at fault for the dog thing, and I’m assuming the other bad things you did all have stories behind them too, especially since Vlad was around for some. You already knew my identity so I guess you knew I wasn’t in my suit that time you destroyed it, too.”

“But…?” Danny prompted. He had a suspicion she still definitely was not pleased with the situation.

Valerie sighed. “But you’re right, I do need time to process things. There’s a lot of anger and resentment I need to unpack, a lot of reevaluation to do. So I can’t say I forgive you yet, but I do understand.”

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Danny accepted; it was a little disappointing, but he did understand.

“For now, though, how about a truce between the Red Huntress and Danny Phantom?” Valerie offered.

Danny smiled, able to tell she was sincere in that, just by knowing her as a friend. She wouldn’t propose a truce just to break it; her moral code was too rigid for that. Danny told her, “Yeah, that sounds good. Publicly, or no?”

“Well, you’re still ‘Public Enemy #1’,” Valerie pointed out. “But, I won’t shoot you just for existing; you do your thing, I’ll do mine, sound good?”

“Sounds good,” Danny agreed, relieved that there was one less ghost hunter he’d have to watch out for, even if she did still maybe hate him.

Danny’s sister and best friends were quiet during the conversation, but looked and felt approving of the situation.

For the rest of the journey, Danny contemplated what he should do upon getting out of the Ghost Zone (even though he really didn’t want to; he knew his friends wouldn’t let him stay though). What should he tell his parents? First thing he’d obviously have to do was phase their group out of the house. Then, they could enter from the front door, and if his parents weren’t there Jazz could call their parents to say he was home. Or, he could ‘turn up’ at either Sam or Tucker’s. Alternatively he could let his parents ‘find’ him. Maybe that was best? But should he be casually walking around, should he appear injured, should he arrange it so they see him going into a building where he’d been ‘hiding’? Should he tell them ghosts were involved?

As it turned out, none of those options would happen.

As the group returned to the lab, jumping off the hoverboard or simply touching down, Danny noticed the Specter Speeder had been moved closer to the portal, with the sounds of metal clanking as Danny’s parents worked on it, his dad on his back underneath and his mom doing something to the rear.

As soon as the two heard the sounds of the kids returning, Jack scrambled out from under the speeder and Maddie grabbed a weapon from the nearby table, aiming it at them for a brief moment until she processed who it was, upon which she tossed it back onto the table and rushed forwards, her and Jack in sync as they yelled “Danny!” in clear relief.

Danny, without thinking, sidestepped them. “Hi Mom, Dad,” he said sheepishly.

Danny’s mom reached over and grabbed him by the upper arm, harder than expected, as she pulled him back to her and Jack so they could hug him, not noticing how uncomfortable Danny was with it, as usual. Danny winced in slight pain; why did it hurt? Oh. Crap. She had a Specter Deflector on. Danny didn’t react to those as much as he used to, a combination of increased power and simply getting used to it, thus he didn’t instinctually leap back, but it still wasn’t pleasant to endure, like a barrage of static shocks.

Unsurprisingly, neither of Danny’s parents noticed his discomfort, and, miraculously, once again didn’t notice that his body temperature was impossibly low for a human.

Surprisingly though, both parents radiated love; Danny had been half-convinced his mom’s love had already been lost.

“We were so worried, Danno!” Jack said, and Danny didn’t need to feel his emotions to tell he was sincere about that. “We looked all around town for you! We were just finishing up the speeder maintenance to look for you in there; guess we should’ve done that from the start.”

Maddie finally stepped back and put her hands on her hips, anger now far eclipsing the worry and love, as unfortunately Danny had expected. “Just why were you in the Ghost Zone, young man!?”

“Obviously the ghosts kidnapped him,” Jack said, though it didn’t quite sound like he believed it, then noticed the others. “Jazzikins! Sam, Tucker! …Red Huntress?”

Valerie, hood up again, told them truthfully, “These three told me their friend might be trapped in the Ghost Zone, and I couldn’t just ignore it.”

Maddie looked at the other three disapprovingly. “And you all had to go?”

“Of course; we had to find Danny,” Tucker said, as Danny began slowly moving away, wondering if he could escape to his bedroom. If he got out of sight, he could use his invisibility...

Maddie frowned. “Well, I can’t fault you for that, but you should have told us first.”

“I sent a text,” Jazz said, feeling disappointed beneath the casualness, which Danny understood too well; it was unfortunately an expected occurrence.

Jack frowned, moving to the nearby table and grabbing his phone. He did a double-take, then said sheepishly, guilt radiating off him, “Ah, so you did. Guess I, er, left it on silent after watching a movie again.”

“Jack!” Maddie chided, her angry vibe now directed at him. “How many times do I need to tell you to remember to turn the sound back on?” she sighed in frustration, an urge to hit now directed at Jack, though she didn’t act on it. “What’s the point of paying for a cell phone plan if you never use it? Honestly!” Then, she noticed Danny sneaking away and her rage flared, now directed at him. “Oh, no, young man. Don’t you dare run off!” She grabbed his wrist, hard, pulling him back to the group as he let out a surprised squeak. She didn’t let go.

Danny twisted his arm, trying to break the painful grip without using his intangibility, which he was really tempted to do. Sure, it was tight enough of a grip that it would hurt a human, but he had his ghost durability, so it shouldn’t hurt. Why did it hurt so much?!

“Mom, let him go! You’re hurting him!” Jazz yelled, a panicked worry both in her voice and emanating from her.

Danny then realized why it hurt: right, duh, his mom was wearing a Specter Deflector. So even if he tried he couldn’t use intangibility. Danny tried not to panic. “Yeah, mom, come on! Let me go!”

Maddie glared at Danny, squeezing his wrist harder, now enough to actually hurt him, something strange in her vibe. Did she want to cause him pain? Was that a conscious tightening? “Will you stay put for once?” she asked coldly.

“Yes, yes, I’ll stay put!” Danny told her, himself now panicking, frightened even, as he continued trying to twist away. He’d never felt so afraid of his mom before, at least not when in human form!

Finally, Maddie released his wrist, and Danny rubbed it slightly, realizing that thanks to the device there was a slight burn, in addition to a blooming bruise; hopefully if he kept his hand on it his parents wouldn’t notice. His heart raced from the small adrenaline rush; well, raced for him. It was probably closer to a regular human heartbeat.

Jack, to Danny’s surprise, was glaring at Maddie. ”Mads! Isn’t that going too far?” he said angrily, in a rare display of opposition to his wife. He was outraged inside, more so than his demeanor revealed, outraged that someone would hurt Danny, even if that someone was his wife. Well, at least Danny knew his dad was in his corner.

“I didn’t grab him that hard,” Maddie defended, crossing her arms, and Danny sensed only irritation from her. She turned to the others. “Sam, Tucker, Red Huntress; you may go now. We need to have a family discussion.”

“I’ll be fine,” Danny mouthed to Sam and Tucker when they looked at him, their eyes asking if they should stay, both clearly unnerved and worried by the scene. Despite his words, Danny wasn’t actually sure he’d be fine, especially as his mom’s emotions again seemed worryingly different than Danny had expected. She was scary. Danny was scared of her. He had ghost powers, regularly fought powerful enemies, yet was scared of his own mother. How pathetic was that?

The three left, leaving Jack, Maddie, Danny, and Jazz alone in the lab.

“Let’s talk about this upstairs,” Jazz suggested. “That way we can all sit on the couches.”

Thankfully the parents agreed, and Danny sent Jazz a look of thanks as they headed upstairs.

“Out of curiosity, Danny, where did you get those clothes?” his mother asked as they found seats on the couches, Danny sitting as far away as he could. She didn’t seem curious, though, only disappointed. Where did she think he got them? When Danny didn’t immediately answer, she continued, “When you left, you were still in your band outfit, and I don’t remember you having a shirt like that.”

Danny shrugged. “Ember got them for me.”

Maddie’s lips thinned as she said tersely, “That ghost, huh. And where would a ghost get spare clothes?”

“From the tailor?” Danny said, ending in a question as he wasn’t sure where his mother’s line of thought was headed. He could sense emotion, not read minds, and all he got from her at the moment was disappointment.

“Stolen, then,” Maddie concluded.

“Uh, no, she bought them,” Danny corrected.

“Honey, ghosts don’t have money,” his mom said in a condescending sickly sweet voice, as though she were talking to a small child.

“Okay, firstly, yes they do. Secondly, the tailor was in the Ghost Zone. Thirdly, the Ghost Zone, surprisingly, has its own currency. Ember bought them for me.”

“I see,” Maddie said tersely, disappointment swirling with irritation. “And even if the ghost were telling the truth, just why would a ghost buy you clothes?”

“Because she’s my friend, and I didn’t have any ghost money. And it is the truth; I literally picked this out and watched her pay for it.”

“I see,” Maddie said curtly, still not believing that.

Jack, on the other hand, had excitement radiating from him as he declared, “Wow! That’s amazing; to think, the Ghost Zone has an economy! And a tailor? Why would a tailor be there? Is it just the manifestation of a ghost’s obsession, perhaps the job when they were alive? Do ghosts actually need clothing? Is their clothing not actually part of them?”

“Uh. Yes and no?” Danny said, unsure how to explain, mood lifting slightly at Jack’s exuberance. “Their default outfits kinda are, they even self-repair, but they can also switch them if they feel like it, like they did during the concert. But to switch back they don’t really need to change, they just re-manifest it.” Danny was grateful for that, as otherwise the suit he wore in Phantom form would be shredded to bits. He also decided it best not to mention that multiple outfits could be attuned, upon which they acquired the same self-healing effect and could be switched between at will; Danny had actually done that with this outfit, taking Ember’s suggestion that he have something if Phantom needed to go stealth. He also had a ghost baseball cap and sunglasses attuned for that reason.

“That’s amazing! How do you know all that?”

“Uh. I asked,” Danny said truthfully. Ember, Johnny, and Kitty had answered a lot of his questions about ghosts, even ones he didn’t even know he had; he really should have befriended some ghosts sooner instead of trying to figure so much out on his own.

Jack was visibly excited at that; Danny wasn’t sure if the thought of communicating with ghosts had occurred to him before, or if it were new, but it was definitely something Jack was eager to do too. “Oooh, then could you ask—”

“Jack,” Maddie sharply interjected, vibe heavy with disapproval and frustration. “These are ghosts we’re talking about. They lie and manipulate. For all we know, that information is false—and if it is true, it could simply be part of a ruse to gain trust.”

Jack wilted slightly. “Yes, you’re right. Sorry.” He seemed more resigned than actually in agreement, simply not wanting to fight more than anything.

Danny felt a flash of anger at that, and sensed that his eyes had flashed briefly; thankfully Jack was looking at the floor and Maddie was glaring at Jack, so neither saw, but Jazz looked at Danny with worry emanating off her. Danny was pissed, though; his dad seemed to be receptive and open minded, yet his mom was still so rigid, and was squashing that! Where was the mom who had willingly accepted him? Oh wait, this time he wasn’t a world-saving hero, right, he was just a moody rebellious teenager. Guess that had influenced things more than he’d realized, Danny bitterly thought. Or she’d been faking due to the fear of negative publicity.

Danny started to bite his lip to halt an incoming growl, then remembered that, wait, he had fangs; thankfully he didn’t bite down hard enough to draw ectoplasm—that would be a surefire way to reveal his biggest secret. Well, one of them. The growl and anger dissipated with the flash of fear at the realization that he’d been so close to such a mistake.

“Ugh, those fangs again,” Maddie muttered, noticing Danny moving them against his lip. “They haven’t fallen out by now?”

“Um. About that…” Danny trailed, scrambling for some explanation. Telling them that they would not fall out due to being real would not go over well. Unless… “I was mistaken the other day; they’re actually permanent,” he admitted, then lied, “I got them attached at a ghost body modification shop, and on ghosts they would be temporary but apparently they work differently on human teeth. So, my bad, now I’ve got permanent fangs. But it’s okay, I actually kinda like them!”

Maddie put her palm over her face, looking exasperated but the rage and disappointment still simmered underneath it. “Oh, Danny. How could you be so naïve… Did we teach you nothing?”

Jack chimed in, “Ghost safety 101, son: never trust a ghost to make any changes to your body!” He was outwardly confident about the assertion, but there was a vibe of unsureness to it.

“Well, lesson learned,” Danny said dryly, relieved that somehow the excuse had worked for his parents, even if Jazz looked a little incredulous at it. “So, how long am I grounded for?”

“For the teeth? I think just having them be permanent is punishment enough,” Jack said. “Although, they’re pretty cool, so maybe that’s not so much a punishment?” he asked contemplatively. Danny resisted laughing at his father’s unexpectedly sincere admiration of his fangs, of all things.

“Jack, I think he means for everything else, not just the fangs,” Maddie said tersely, clearly angry at her husband now, maybe just as much as she was at Danny, which was highly concerning and made Danny once again wonder if his own relationship with his mother wasn’t the only one strained. “You know, the ghost friends, the ghost band, the running away from home and hiding out in the Ghost Zone…”

“Oh, right. That all happened too.” Jack frowned, and Danny couldn’t place the emotion beneath the words. “Well, running away usually has a reason, so we should have a conversation about that,” he suggested. “So, Danny, why’d you do it, and how can we make it better?”

Danny looked at his father with wide eyes, not expecting that though happily surprised. His dad actually wanted to listen? To him? He wanted to understand his side of things? Maybe Danny should actually try to explain, at least as much as he could without revealing his secret.

“Jack!” Maddie hissed. “No! That’s not a punishment!”

“Well, maybe this time—”

“No! He needs discipline, and talking is not discipline! It’s not like talking will get anywhere anyway—he never properly explains anything, you know that. He’s more likely to lie if you try to talk,” Maddie said, and wow, ouch. Danny’s core pulsed uncomfortably at the lack of faith—er, wait, no, his heart dropped, that was the feeling, why did he think of his core first?

Danny chimed in, “That’s not true,” but neither parent heard him.

“Maddie, nothing’s going to change if we don’t try to understand him,” Jack argued.

“Of course it will, with proper punishment! A deterrent works best.”

Jack sighed, a vibe of resignation coming over him. “Fine. Danny, you’re grounded the rest of the week.”

Maddie sighed in frustration. “Seriously, Jack? Grounding for two days won’t help if he thinks he’s friends with ghosts,” Maddie pointed out. “They could just snatch him away.”

“But, Danny knows now that he shouldn’t have ghost friends,” Jack said. “Right, son?” For some reason, his dad winked at him when his mom wasn’t looking. Did his dad… want him to have ghost friends?

“Uh, yeah, I definitely know that now!” Danny chimed in, jumping off of what Jack had said, even though it was definitely not true. “They were tricking me, I can see that now. I’ll be more careful, promise!”

Maddie clearly didn’t buy it, going by both her expression and vibe as well as her words confirming it. “Somehow, I don’t fully believe that. What specifically did those ghosts do to you while you were there? Did they hurt you!?” Oh, good, there was some actual worry in that, though anger and frustration still dominated it.

“No, of course not,” Danny said as calmly as he could. “We pretty much just hung out. They said I needed a mental health break, so we played board games and ate pizza and played music and read books and did puzzles and went shopping and whatnot. You know, normal relaxing things. We even went to some hot springs one day, one of the permanent natural portals led to them.”

“Wait, there are permanent natural portals!?” Jack asked in obvious awe. His vibe felt like… Danny wasn’t sure what the emotion could be called, but it was like when a child first discovers there is a whole world outside their front door.

Danny nodded; maybe learning more about the Ghost Zone and its culture would get his parents, or at least Jack, to be less wary around ghosts; not for the first time, Danny had a feeling that a lot of Jack’s prejudices were a result of Maddie. “Yup! There’s the typical known locations, like the Bermuda Triangle, which have really big ones, but there’s also a bunch of smaller ones around; the hot springs were in some secluded mountains in Japan!”

“Fascinating! Hey, if we use those portals, we can go anywhere in the world, no need to take long trips or go through customs!” Jack said excitedly, joy radiating off of him; Danny’s core buzzed in contentment as he unconsciously absorbed some of the emotion. “No more enduring searches every time we go through the airport! Danny, you have to show me!”

“Jack!” Maddie said loudly, a warning in her voice. “We are not using the Ghost Zone to illegally travel! And that includes you, Danny,” she said sternly, and his mood dropped again as he sensed her emotions. She was seething, her vibe of rage almost visible in the air along with… fear? Fear of… losing control, maybe?

Jack crossed his arms and pretty much pouted, though his excitement still wasn’t squashed. “Oh, fine. But Danny, you think you could lead a trip into there? Since the Zone’s atmosphere is clearly safe for humans, we—”

“You are NOT going on a trip to the Ghost Zone with our son!” Maddie shouted, hands on her hips and glaring at Jack. The urge to hurt him was there again.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

Jack perked up. “Oh! That’s the pizza!” he happily cheered, rushing over to the door. Apparently, like Tucker, Danny’s dad was very food-motivated. He seemed relieved, too, at the interruption.

“Oh, right, we did order that,” Maddie recalled, seeming more irritated at the interruption, then suggested, “Let’s move this discussion to the kitchen; Danny, you’re probably really hungry after all those days there.” It was said in a kind voice, but the comment entirely lacking any true concern, and Danny felt his heart sink at that realization. He wondered if maybe it wasn’t a good thing to be able to taste emotion after all.

“Not really,” Danny said, the mood boost from his dad’s unexpected happiness fading away. “The ghosts got me food.”

Maddie frowned, seeming thrown off by that. “Ghosts eat human food?”

“They got it for me!” Danny told her, opting to avoid the fact that he also ate ghost-specific food that might kill a human. “Yesterday we had pizza—and yes, they paid for it.” Well, probably; Danny hadn’t actually asked.

Maddie put her hands on her hips and gave Danny a stern look. “Don’t lie to me. Yesterday a pizza shop had a large number of pizzas stolen by ghosts.”

“Actually, Maddie, they left money on the counter,” Jack clarified, returning with an armful of pizza boxes. “Substantially more than was needed. Employees seemed pretty happy once they realized.”

“See? Told you,” Danny said.

Maddie scoffed at that. “Allegedly; we don’t know for sure if that money was from the ghosts. And if it was, they likely stole the money!”

Yup, Jack would definitely be the easier one to turn around when it came to his parents’ views on ghosts, Danny determined (if he hadn’t already, and was hiding it from Maddie?). Hopefully he could do it before they noticed that he wasn’t aging.

Danny sighed; instead of going to the kitchen, as the others were now moving towards, he moved to climb the stairs to head to his room, not really in the mood for a family dinner.

“Oh, no, you’re not running away from us again!” Maddie said, grabbing Danny’s upper arm, and he couldn’t help but let out a surprise yelp as he stumbled back down the two steps he’d climbed.

“I’m not running, I just want to be alone!” Danny told her, a small whine escaping as he again squirmed to escape the hold—the specter deflector was still around his mom’s waist, and it hurt!

“No, you just got back; you WILL eat dinner with the family,” Maddie insisted.

“Okay, okay, just, please let go, it hurts!” Danny said, suddenly very conscious of the fact that his dad and Jazz both were in the kitchen and he was alone with his mom.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Danny’s mom said, rolling her eyes as she pulled to get him to move.

“It does,” Danny told her quietly. Not just because of the deflector, either; that grip was tight!

Maddie pulled Danny towards her and glared at him. “If you don’t stop whining, I’ll show you something that really hurts,” she hissed. “Understand?”

Danny stared at his mom with wide eyes, heart racing in fear. She was serious. His mom seriously wanted to hurt him. Human him. That was a distinct desire to cause pain.

“Understand?” his mom repeated.

Danny nodded, finding himself terrified as his mom’s anger and desire to cause pain tried to suffocate him. “Y-yeah, I understand,” he squeaked out.

“Good. Now, let’s go,” Maddie said, clutching his arm tighter and roughly leading him to the kitchen.

Maddie unceremoniously deposited Danny in his usual chair. Jazz gave him a worried look upon seeing him rub his arm afterwards; he wondered if she had overheard them talking, too. The weapons on the kitchen table had been shoved aside to make room for the pizza boxes; as everyone helped themselves to pizza, the continued tension in the room was palpable, with the exception of Jack’s quiet internal contemplation of something that he found exciting, but thankfully it gradually eased up.

Ten minutes into dinner, Jazz said cautiously yet confidently, “So, one of my professors at Miskatonic University has a doctoral degree in paranormal psychology, and is a licensed therapist. He specializes in ghost-related matters, and has helped lots of people who were affected by ghosts and ghost-related objects. I think maybe it would do Danny good to talk to him about his own ghost troubles,” she said, giving Danny a Look implying she actually meant about Phantom before continuing, “You know, because he was ‘tricked’.” Danny could practically see the quotation marks on the word.

“That’s a brilliant idea!” Jack boomed.

“Really?” Jazz asked, clearly thrown off by that. Danny hadn’t expected his dad to agree so easily either.

Maddie scoffed at Jack, a wave of disbelief coming over her. “You can’t be serious. Danny’s a Fenton. He doesn’t need to see some shrink.”

In the past, Danny might have agreed with that. Now, he wondered if he actually would benefit from it, after his interaction with Clockwork, who seemed very concerned with Danny’s mental health—with good reason, given what had happened in that timeline he’d rather not think about.

“Yes, he does,” Jazz said. “Probably more than he lets us see.”

“I’m right here you know,” Danny quietly muttered, though her statement was definitely true.

“Mister Lancer suggested therapy too,” Jack revealed. “I know in the past I’ve always been opposed to it, but I thought about it some more as we worked on the speeder earlier, and Danno, I think maybe it actually could be good for you!” He seemed somewhat ashamed about admitting that, but resolute as well, and hopeful.

Maddie sighed. “I suppose it’s worth a try, seeing as nothing else has helped with the behavioral problems,” she conceded with clear trepidation and held-back frustration, serving to emphasize that she always had a ‘no kid of mine needs a shrink!’ mentality, so her even reluctantly considering it was a big deal. “But, at MU? That place is just so strange, and their views on ghosts are rather out there. I’d be concerned they’d encourage the ghost friendships.”

“Mom, that’s my school,” Jazz said flatly, hurt wafting off her, as well as tiredness—their parents didn’t approve of MU, or at least their Mom didn’t; Danny found himself unsure now if his dad agreed or just repeated what his mom said about the school.

“Yes; and you know my thoughts on you going there.”

Jazz sighed with clear frustration. “Mom, views on ghosts or not, MU is literally the top school for paranormal research in the world. I would have eventually gone anyway—the plan was to start at community college, and then transfer there, remember? We’re incredibly lucky that they suddenly opened a branch here, otherwise I’d have to move all the way to Massachusetts!”

“I was hoping we’d have two more years to convince you not to go,” Maddie grumbled. “That place is simply too radical. Ghosts need to be fought and dissected, not asked about their nonexistent feelings!”

“Oh, so now you’re dissing my major again?” Jazz bristled, her own anger simmering now, to Danny’s surprise. She was studying paranormal psychology with a focus on ghost psyche. She stood up. “You know what, I’ll be staying with a friend tonight,” she told them, stomping out the door, grabbing her coat and school bag on the way out.

“Jazz!” Danny tried calling as she left, but his sister didn’t hear him. Didn’t she realize that he needed her support? Jazz usually acted as a buffer during arguments. Danny’s nervousness rose substantially.

Maddie now glared at Danny, rage fully focused on him once again. “See what you do to this family?” she said, with more vitriol than Danny expected; a slight fear that she would hit him again bubbled up. Maddie continued, “If it weren’t for you, Jazz wouldn’t be heading down the wrong path!”

Danny decided to focus on his pizza to distract himself from the lump that had gradually been growing in his chest, well aware that tears were beginning to form, too. He couldn’t cry here, though; knowing his luck his tears would glow. Typically he’d react with anger to accusations like that, but Danny found he just didn’t have that in him, instead feeling numb and empty, except for that lump.

“Now, Maddie,” Jack said with a firmness to his voice that Danny hadn’t heard his dad direct at his mom before, “Don’t be so hard on him. You know Jazz has had radical views on ghosts for long before Danny befriended some! If anything, Jazz influenced Danny.”

Danny shook his head. “No, it’s true. I’m the one at fault,” he muttered. After all, if he hadn’t activated the portal, if he hadn’t turned himself into a ghost, none of this would have happened. Neither parent seemed to hear him though.

Jack continued, “Besides, what’s so wrong about exploring other views? Maybe they’re even right!” Surprisingly, his vibe gave off a sense of… justice? Or something similar, along with frustration.

Maddie spat at Jack, “They think ghosts can be good! Of course they aren’t right!”

“But they’re not the only ones saying that. If so many people—”

“No, Jack! If everyone told you to leap off a bridge with them, would you?”

“I mean, if everyone were jumping off a bridge, I’d assume there's a good reason?”

“Ugh! Not the point! When did you start sympathizing with these evil ectoplasmic manifestations of the impressions of dead souls?”

“I’m not—I’m just saying—Maddie, please just listen, be reasonable about this for once!”

“I am being reasonable! You’re the one being a fucking moron!”

Danny stood up, unable to handle the loudness of the voices combined with the emotionally-charged atmosphere. “I’m going to my room,” he said, leaving his pizza unfinished as he walked away. He wasn’t even sure if his parents noticed.

As Danny climbed the stairs and headed to his room, he could hear his parents continuing to argue with each other; when he finally got to his room, he locked the door and collapsed face-down on his bed, unable to stop himself from loudly sobbing as tears soaked the pillow, softly glowing in the unlit room.

Danny couldn’t help but think that he shouldn’t have returned after all.

Chapter Text

Sam decided she needed to watch Danny especially closely at school the following day. She could tell he was hiding things—well, other than the immortality, which she was sure that he knew that they knew but they should still probably formally talk about. Sam was also concerned about peoples’ reactions to the concert, which they all knew by now had ghosts involved. The school now largely thought Danny had been kidnapped by them, the rumor being the ghosts in the band had betrayed him, so Sam and Tucker both had to watch him today in case people tried to ask him about it and he accidentally let something incriminating slip, or even worse, his emotions caused him to slip up and use a ghost ability, something which seemed to definitely be happening more frequently since the Time Glitch Incident, and even more so after befriending Ember and the other ghosts.

As Danny stopped by his lockers, not unexpectedly Dash appeared, shouting his typical greeting of “Yo, Fen-turd!”

Sam bristled as Dash violently pushed Danny up against the locker. She had half a mind to punch the bully, but would rather not get detention, and she knew Danny could handle him, even if only because he was half ghost.

“What do you want, Dash?” Danny asked tiredly.

“Is it true?” Dash demanded. “Were you really kidnapped by ghosts for a whole five days!?”

Danny scoffed. “Four days, and I was with them willingly,” he said.

“No, five days,” Dash sneered. “There’s no way your singing is that good. I bet there was one possessing you to be in the band, and then they took you.”

“No, they’re actually my friends,” Danny said calmly. “Ember taught me to sing and play guitar, and then I skipped school to hang out with the ghosts for a few days. Kinda wi—wanted to have stayed longer, actually.”

“Tch. You can’t be serious,” Dash said. “No way scaredy-cat Fenton was willingly with ghosts. Stop trying to put up a front.”

“Oh, no, I’m dead serious,” Danny said with a feral grin, showing off his fangs and growling slightly; Sam didn’t see his eyes, but she really hoped they hadn’t glowed, as they often did when his emotions were high—not such a great thing for an angsty teen half-ghost trying to hide amongst humans.

Dash dropped him, blinked, then narrowed his eyes. “Oh, what, you think pretending to be a… a cat or something is gonna throw me off?!” Sam tried not to laugh; a cat? That’s what Dash interpreted it as, in a town of ghosts?

“Well it did, didn’t it?” Danny said, grinning even wider.

Dash glared at Danny, drawing up to his full height. “You’re so gonna pay for that snark!” he said—and was that a flash of genuine panic on Danny’s face?

Danny looked resolute again. “Yeah? Whatcha gonna do?”

“Okay, enough of that, drama king,” Sam said, tugging Danny away before he could do something more incriminating. When they were a sufficient enough distance away, she turned to face Danny and said, “Since when are you so cocky towards Dash?!” She opted to ignore the semi-joke about being dead; Danny already knew she didn’t like him joking that much about it.

Danny shrugged. “Maybe I’m just fed up with being the punching bag. And I really would prefer that rumor about me being kidnapped to die.”

“And the truth getting out would be so much better?” Sam countered. “Good thing Dash didn’t take that more seriously!”

Danny winced at that. “Okay, maybe you have a point there.”

“Did I miss something?” Tucker asked as he joined them.

“Dash thinks I’m part-cat,” Danny said with no inflection.

“Wait what?”

Danny grinned, fangs peeking out. “I growled at him. While showing my fangs.”

“And that means… cat?”

“Yup, Danny’s a cat now,” Sam said, trying to contain her laughter as they entered class, surprisingly on time.

Unsurprising was the rush of questions.

Sam could tell that Danny was holding back another growl. He stood up and addressed the class despite Sam and Tucker’s protests, took a deep breath, and said calmly yet firmly, “Let’s get this straight. I was not kidnapped; I was willingly staying with the ghosts. Ember, Johnny, and Kitty are my friends. Yes, I am actually in a band with them, along with Sam and a cryptid from MU named Lurker. I know it’s surprising, given that you’ve convinced yourselves that I’m afraid of ghosts, but that is the truth. That’s all.”

He sat back down, and the students began whispering to each other.

“Order, order!” Lancer said from the front. “Now, if you’re done gossiping, let’s get to the morning announcements.”

“Uh, no, we’ve got questions!” Star interrupted.

“Yeah! Like, have you been lying about the ghost fear all this time?” Lester asked.

“Where do you go, then?” Mikey wondered.

“Wait wait wait,” Paulina said, clearly excited, “More importantly, if you know those ghosts, do you know Phantom too? Do you think he’d go out with me?”

Sam put a hand on Danny’s arm, aware that he likely had an incredibly strong urge to go invisible at that moment—the last thing they needed was a ghostly slip-up now.

“Ugh, I can’t believe you’d really want to go out with a ghost,” Valerie said, rolling her eyes at Paulina. “Especially Phantom.” She glared at Danny. Sam winced; yeah, the girl was definitely still angry at Danny. The previous day she’d said she wanted to do better on that front, but it seemed some processing time may have changed that—if Valerie ever forgave Danny, it would be a while until then, Sam concluded.

Danny shrugged. “Who knows? You’d have to ask him,” he said, and Sam frowned. Hadn’t he gotten over Paulina? And from what Ember said… Well, maybe Ember had been wrong. Then again, Danny might have just said that to not arouse suspicion—knowing Phantom’s thoughts on things would potentially lead to connections he didn’t want being made.

“So you do know him!” Paulina said happily. “I knew it.”

“I didn’t say that!” Danny protested.

“Interview with a Vampire, students!” Lancer loudly said. “Leave the poor boy alone! We have class now!”

Thankfully, the class actually quieted this time, along with the questions. Sam internally sighed in relief; Danny’s secret was safe for now.

Later the same day, Danny entered the locker room for gym class only to find himself immediately slammed against the wall, a frighteningly sadistic vibe coming from the person holding him there.

“Dash,” Danny said, recognizing the boy, though mildly confused at the vitriol coming from him. This wasn’t the first time Danny had felt such since properly charging his core; had Dash always given off vibes like this? It seemed a little too intense for just a bully. Regardless, Danny still asked, “What do you want?”

Dash sneered. “Well, Fentina, your little girlfriend pulled you away earlier before I could make you pay!”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Danny told him, for what felt like the hundredth time, then grunted as Dash’s fist barrelled into his stomach.

“Hey! Let him go!” Tucker said, hurrying over as soon as he entered the locker room. Other students simply walked by, not wanting to get involved—or rather, too afraid of Dash to get involved.

Dash looked at Tucker with what Danny could only describe as a malicious expression with a vibe to match. “Yeah? What are you gonna do about it, Techno-loser?” he challenged.

Danny wanted to tell Tucker to run, but if he did that it would only instigate Dash; Danny could handle whatever ill intent Dash had, but Tucker was just a regular human. Danny didn’t want to believe that one of his classmates would intentionally severely harm anyone, at least when not possessed, but he didn’t think he was misinterpreting the vibe.

“Dash, leave him alone,” Danny said instead, maintaining a calm, blasé demeanor despite his internal confusion and worry.

Dash turned his attention back to Danny. Within seconds, Danny found himself in a headlock. As Danny tried to wriggle out of it, he realized that Dash’s arm was right in front of his mouth.

It was too tempting; Danny bit Dash.

“Yo! What the fuck, Fenton!” Dash yelled, waving his arm; Danny held on with his hands while he drove his fangs in—unfortunately though, the letterman jacket was thick, and Danny’s fangs were pretty small, so it wouldn’t break skin, but it would maybe bruise…

Wait. Wait, no. Danny did not do things like this to humans. Especially not while literally snarling. He was not a cat, even if Dash probably thought he was more than ever now with this display.

Danny abruptly let go with a gasp and was immediately flung into the wall.

“Oh, you’re gonna get it now!” Dash growled, shaking out his arm and glaring at the wet spot on the jacket. Thankfully it looked to be only drool, no blood. He grabbed Danny again and called some of his buddies over.

Not unexpectedly, Dash’s choice of punishment was tossing Danny into a locker, although this time he went a little beyond the usual, having his football buddies add duct-tape to hold his wrists together and gag him before that. The locker was taped closed too; Danny suspected they’d used a full roll.

Danny easily phased out of the tape, then waited for Tucker to signal that the coast was clear so he could phase out of the locker too.

“Dude. I think maybe Dash has escalated to dangerous levels,” Tucker said, radiating concern and some fear.

“What do you mean?” Danny asked, ignoring his racing heart and rubbing his wrist slightly; that tape had been tight!

“Oh, I dunno, maybe the fact that he took away your ability to scream for help? While you were trapped in a locker that was taped closed?”

“But I didn’t need help. I could phase through.”

“Okay, yeah. But if he did that to Mikey, or Lester, or me? What if no one else saw? You see how that’s bad, right?”

“Yeah but he did it to me. Besides, I bit him, so…”

Tucker seemed slightly frustrated. “Okay, biting aside—which was pretty badass, honestly—you’re still not getting what I’m saying… If it wasn’t you, and it easily could have been, that would’ve been much worse. The tape looked like it went over your nose too, did it block your air?”

Danny considered that. Had it? Maybe. He put a hand over his still chest, thinking back, then concluded, “Not sure. I think I stopped breathing before he did that.”

“...And you still aren’t,” Tucker said with some fond exasperation.

“Oh. Oops,” Danny said, blushing and rubbing the back of his head as he began imitating breathing again.

Tucker laughed. “You seriously gotta work on that.” He then looked contemplative for a moment before saying, “You know, that actually has potential for a good prank…”

Danny scrunched his brow in confusion. “Prank?”

“Yeah! Next time he bullies you, close your eyes and stop breathing! Like, give him a scare. Who knows, maybe it’ll make him realize that he’s gotta ease up.”

“Eh, I’ll consider it,” Danny said, although he was definitely not sure even that would make Dash ease up. Those vibes had been, well… Maybe Ember’s comment that Dash would murder someone someday wasn’t so far off.

Lancer had just finished returning some Spirit Supplies to their storage space near the gym, long after school and sports practices had finished, when he heard soft sniffling coming from the locker room. Strange; why would someone be there so late? Curious, and somewhat worried, Lancer made his way into the locker room.

Sitting on a bench, feet tucked under and arms around his legs, sat the local ghostly Town Hero, Danny Phantom, crying into his knees. He seemed unaware that someone else had entered the room, despite his usual hyper-awareness of such.

Lancer sat down next to the boy, who jumped slightly once he noticed and stared at Lancer, teary eyes wide. “Mister Lancer?” he asked nervously. “Uh, I mean… Hello, citizen that I definitely don’t know!” He looked slightly panicked, yet stayed curled up.

“Relax, Daniel,” Lancer said, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder; he flinched slightly but allowed it. “I know.”

“Y-you know? Know what?” Daniel asked quietly, looking like he was trying to hide dread.

“That you’re Daniel Fenton,” Lancer revealed, feeling no need to hide it. He’d thought Jasmine would tell her brother so, but he supposed it slipped her mind in all the chaos of the past 24 hours.

Daniel froze and stared at him with glowing green eyes for a moment, before his expression softened as he apparently concluded that Lancer meant no harm. Two translucent slightly glowing white rings appeared around him, moving up and down until tearful blue eyes stared at Lancer instead.

Then, Daniel winced, hands moving from around his knees to around his stomach, breath heavy as though he were in pain.

“Daniel?” Lancer asked, alarmed.

“Sorry, forgot it hurts more in human form,” Daniel said. “I’ll be fine, though, I swear.”

“May I see the injury?” Lancer asked, “Maybe I can help.”

Daniel first shook his head, then paused a moment before he sighed and removed his hands, showing green ectoplasm rapidly staining the white portions of his black-and-white checkered v-neck shirt. “It looks worse than it is,” Daniel told him. “Seriously. I heal fast. It’ll close on its own soon, and then I’ll probably be sore tomorrow, but by Thursday it’ll be gone.”

“Are you certain?” Lancer asked, worried. “I’m not very familiar with ghost physiology, but that seems to still be bleeding rather heavily.”

“Y-yeah,” Daniel stuttered out; the dim flash of light returned, Phantom replacing Fenton. “Sorry if it’s weird talking to me in this form, but it’s less painful, and Jazz won’t let me have my own bottle of painkillers anymore, apparently I was using them so often that she was worried I’d get addicted.”

That was mildly concerning, but Lancer chose not to pursue that at the moment, sure Jasmine was on top of that. “What happened?” he wondered, gesturing to the wound. “Was it the GIW?” They hadn’t been around lately for some reason but the Red Huntress surely now knew of the situation thus wouldn’t shoot, and the Fentons tended to use the burning gun weapons with exception of the Creep Stick and a close-combat staff with knives on the ends.

“No; they’re actually out of the picture for now, according to Jazz,” Daniel revealed. “MU apparently sicced lawyers on them after they tried to raid the school, and their operations were temporarily suspended while that gets resolved. That’s why they weren’t at the concert either—I’m sure they’ll be back in a week or two though.”

“I see; that’s good to know,” Lancer said. The GIW were a nuisance, and the town needed a reprieve from them, however brief. “So then who…?”

“My mom shot me,” Daniel revealed, too casually for such a statement. “There was a ghost fight earlier; I got the ghost but then my parents showed up. Mom fired the weapon before I could flee, and it was a new one that instead of the usual balls of ecto-energy she found a way to make it hard and sharp. But I was able to turn invisible and fly here, it was the closest place I thought would be empty. They seem to somehow have gotten the idea that I want to kill myself—which, though sometimes tempting, I’m pretty sure is impossible.”

Yet another concerning statement. “Daniel—”

“I mean, they’re thinking that Danny Phantom wants to kill Danny Fenton,” Daniel hurriedly clarified. “Not that I’m gonna do that as me. Sorry, should have worded that better. And the second part was a joke!”

“Was it?” Lancer asked gently. He had noticed Daniel often made self-depreciating death-related jokes, likely as a way to cope with being partly so, but sometimes there was truth hidden within jokes.

Danny quieted for a moment and looked towards the floor, arms once again moving to wrap around his legs; Lancer didn’t speak, giving the boy time to consider his answer.

“No, not really,” Daniel said after a while, barely audible. “If I did though, I’d probably just be stuck as Phantom permanently…” he trailed, then sighed. “Oh, who am I kidding. My forms aren’t really two separate species anymore, probably never were. You saw it—I bleed ectoplasm regardless! There’s a little blood mixed in, and some other irregularities, sure, like having a heartbeat, and gravity working by default when human, and a few more things like that, but otherwise for all intents and purposes, I’m a ghost,” he said the last phrase with a slight bitterness to it, likely self-hate fostered by his parents’ constant rhetoric, if Lancer had to guess. The boy continued, “Don’t get me wrong, I do actually like some parts of being a ghost—flying’s really great, and can’t fault the rapid healing—but sometimes I just want to be normal.”

“No one is truly ‘normal’,” Lancer said gently. “That’s purely a social construct, and no one fits society’s mold of such perfectly. True, some people are more unique than others, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, you’re a Hero, Daniel—you do so much good. If you were so-called ‘normal’, well… most of Amity Park likely would have been destroyed by now.”

Daniel scoffed bitterly at that. “No, it wouldn’t be. I’m the one who opened my parents’ portal; ghosts can get in through natural portals, sure, but most of the dangerous ones come through theirs. If I hadn’t opened it, Amity Park would be so much safer! Especially since half the crap that happens is my mistake, like the stupid Fright Night thing… Although, I guess they’d probably have gotten the portal working eventually anyway… Which would just make my life suck that much more since I wouldn’t have powers… Maybe it would’ve been better if all it did was electrocute me, killed me and spat me out of the portal before the ectoplasm had a chance to change me.”

“You were electrocuted?” Lancer said with a gasp, then realized it was probably 1) rude to ask about a ghost’s death; and 2) addressing the worrying last part of the sentence would have been the better choice regardless.

“Oh, right; you know my identity, but probably don’t realize how I died,” Daniel said with a sigh. “Sorry if that was a bit much.”

“No, I did know the gist of it, that you were in the portal when it turned on,” Lancer said, pushing aside his surprise at how casually Daniel had used the word ‘died’; he was a ghost, true, Lancer knew that, so of course that meant he’d technically died, whether it fully took or not, but it was still a little jarring to hear the word be used. “Your sister told me—she was there when I put the puzzle pieces together and realized who you were, so I asked her about it, and she… what did she call it? Trauma-dumped? When she said it hit you with highly-charged ectoplasm, I didn’t realize that meant electricity was involved.” He should have though, based on the word ‘charged’, given that he was an English teacher!

“Oh. Yeah, I got hit with a shock ten times more powerful than lightning,” Daniel explained, shivering slightly. “My ghost form has some pretty intense Lichtenberg scars under the jumpsuit; ghosts carry over their death-scars,” he explained. “I don’t really like thinking about that… Wait, you said Jazz trauma-dumped? Seriously? Ugh, she must be more stressed out than I realized… She’s probably worried I’ll be mad at her for talking about it, I’ll have to make sure she knows I’m not. Um. You’re not going to tell anyone about all of this, are you?” Daniel then asked nervously.

“Jasmine already made me promise that,” Lancer told the boy, who visibly relaxed. “And I fully plan to honor that.” Technically he was a mandatory reporter, but Lancer had a feeling that it was best to let that slide in this situation. “But, I would highly recommend both you and your sister try therapy—from an actual licensed therapist this time.”

Daniel sighed. “Yeah, I know,” he said, to Lancer’s surprise. “Especially since I just said maybe I should have just plain died, right? I know you caught that and are worried.”

“Yes, that is rather worrisome,” Lancer said, unsure how Daniel could be so confident in knowing that; could ghosts sense emotions, or had that just been a confident guess? Either way, “Honestly, I don’t know if I can leave you alone, after hearing that.”

“I’ll be fine,” Daniel assured Lancer. “I’m not actually going to do anything, I swear. Also, I am getting help; Jazz actually knows someone who does ‘ghost therapy’. One of her professors at the University has a license on paranormal psychology, which is a thing apparently? He’s a licensed therapist, and specializes in things related to ghosts and ghost-related artifacts. She’s going to ask him if he’ll do it for an actual ghost, too. She seems pretty confident that he will.”

“Oh, good,” Lance said with a sigh of relief. Leave it to Jasmine to have things handled. “I’m glad you’re getting the help you deserve.”

Daniel gave Lancer a small smile, fangs peeking out slightly. “Thanks, I guess,” he said, then his eyes drifted to the wall clock. “Crap, is that the time!?” He jumped up, clutching his stomach slightly, although the bleeding seemed to have halted. “Argh, I’ve really missed curfew—my parents are going to kill me! I actually somehow managed to escape being fully grounded, since they mostly blamed the other ghosts, but I still have to be home before dinner every night…”

Daniel seemed almost terrified, a haunted look in his eyes that made Lancer think that maybe it wasn’t just Phantom, but Fenton as well, that had to fear one or both of his parents.

Lancer stood up too. “I can write you a note saying you were helping me clean up the Spirit Supplies,” he offered, which Daniel looked relieved at. “But, first, tell me: will you be safe at home?”

Daniel sighed. “As safe as I ever am,” he said with a wry smile.

“That’s hardly reassuring,” Lancer pointed out. When Daniel simply shrugged, he decided then and there, “Well, if you ever need a place to hide, I have a spare room.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I have other places I can go where my parents won’t know to find me,” Daniel told him. Lancer had a feeling he meant the Ghost Zone.

“Well, if you ever find yourself unable to go to those places, just know you have somewhere in the human realm you can take refuge at too,” Lancer said.

Daniel looked momentarily surprised that Lancer knew the place which Daniel was thinking of, but then smiled gently and said, “Thanks.”

“Of course; it’s the least I can do,” Lancer said. “Now, let’s get you that note.”

Dinner was ready as soon as Danny arrived home, and his parents and Jazz were already eating. Or, his parents were, Jazz was sitting at the table with a plate but not touching it. A fourth place setting was already prepared and served.

“I told them to wait, but they didn’t,” Jazz said flatly, radiating irritated quiet anger and shooting a glare towards her parents, who stopped eating and put down their silverware.

“Hey, no need to let the food grow cold when we don’t even know if he’ll be home,” Jack pointed out, oblivious to how much those words hurt even if his vibe was more neutral than anything—to him it was just pointing out a fact. They hadn’t even tried to call, and Danny actually had had his phone on him this time. They didn’t care enough to even be worried, Danny couldn’t help but conclude, even though he could sense that there was still some worry underneath it all, or at least in regards to his dad.

“Where were you, young man?” Maddie asked sternly, with the expected mix of disappointment and anger. “You know you’re supposed to be home by 6:30 now!”

Danny, wearing a black AC/DC hoodie he’d had in his locker to hide the ectoplasm stains and trying not to show how much pain he was in, sat at the table. Clenching his teeth so as not to cry out or whimper at the movement of sitting down, he wordlessly handed her the note from Lancer, which she read through.

“Oh! You were helping your teacher,” Maddie said, anger dissipating and replaced with a relieved contentment, maybe a little pride as well. “Why didn’t you say so? You could have called, then we would have waited.”

“You could have called too,” Danny muttered under his breath, then grabbed his fork and took a big bite of mashed potatoes that were tinged green; Danny tasted ectoplasm, no doubt from his dad forgetting to wash out a pot from an experiment before putting the potatoes in. Jazz, who hadn’t touched hers, scrunched her nose in disgust, but to Danny it tasted delicious.

Ignoring Danny’s comment, if she’d even heard it, Maddie said, “Now, Jack, why don’t you tell the story about the fight earlier? You were excited about what happened…. right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jack said, obviously a lie, and it seemed Maddie knew it. Nevertheless, Jack began telling the story about their earlier fight against Phantom, although oddly enough even though he acted like he was clearly excited about it the underlying emotions entirely lacked that excitement. In fact, there was a strong undertone of something like worry—Danny was too tired to analyze the emotions too deeply. That had been a very underhanded fight, in Danny’s opinion, as they’d hidden behind a bush and waited until after he had captured Skulker before starting to shoot. Danny tuned it out, focusing on eating and ignoring Jazz’s worried look when Jack got to the part about Maddie landing a solid hit with a new ecto-kunai launcher before he flew off.

When he was finished, Danny excused himself from the table, dinner only partially eaten, and headed straight to his room, feeling slightly dizzy. His hoodie felt sticky in front, where he knew the wound was; it must have opened up again. Thankfully the color hid such.

Jazz followed Danny. “How bad is it?” she immediately asked as soon as the door was locked behind her, worry, panic, and concern swirling off her in waves.

Danny took deep breaths, attempting to endure the pain without screaming. It was so much worse in human form! “A, uh, painkiller would be nice?”

Jazz sighed. “Danny…” she trailed.

“Please? Honestly, it’s a surprise I made it through dinner without fainting,” Danny admitted, voice strained. “It was healing before, I swear, but I think it reopened when I was flying home or something.”

“Let me see the wound first,” Jazz said with a frown. “That ecto-kunai-launcher thing uses sharp blades, meant to slice into ghosts.”

Jazz helped Danny move to the bed to sit down and then helped lift his sweatshirt off, gasping at the large patch of green staining his t-shirt. She quickly removed that too, and when she saw the wound, immediately concluded, “Yup, that definitely needs stitches.”

“I know,” Danny said. Technically it didn’t need them, but having them would make it heal much faster, reduce the chance of it scarring, plus would help calm his sister’s worry. He added, “Props for not visibly panicking.”

“Well, you didn’t actually faint, so I know it’s not the worst it’s been,” Jazz admitted, as she opened the bottom drawer of Danny’s dresser, which contained towels, washcloths, a few bottles of water, and an extensive first-aid kit. “I know you can sense I’m panicking inside, but I can use that logic to help ease it.” She handed Danny a towel, which he placed on the bed before lying down on it, familiar with the routine.

“Hey, um, about that painkiller…” Danny said as he pressed his shirt over the wound to hold it closed, wincing in pain; being in Phantom form would make this easier, but Danny did not want to risk being in Phantom form when home if he could help it, even with the door locked, although how he’d explain this if his parents did happen to walk in was beyond him.

Jazz sighed, then momentarily left and returned with a bottle of prescription painkillers left over from when she’d gotten her wisdom teeth out over the summer.

“Where’s the stuff Sam got?” Danny wondered.

“You used that up,” Jazz said flatly. “And I already told her not to get you more. I’m serious when I say you need to lay off them. This is a bad wound so I’ll let you have some this time, but for anything less you’ll have to stick with ibuprofen or acetaminophen.”

“Fine,” Danny reluctantly said, then dry-swallowed the pill Jazz handed him, which she rolled her eyes at. Danny didn’t understand why Jazz was making such a big deal about this; he’d already only been taking the painkillers for the worst wounds anyway.

Jazz used one of the water bottles and a washcloth to clean the wound. Danny winced, realizing it had cut clear through the skin, to the point he could see the very start of a green-tinged fat layer. Even knowing it would heal it was still gross. Due to the ectoplasm, which was a natural disinfectant of human disease, Jazz forewent disinfectant, though spread some hospital-grade numbing cream around it, which worked almost immediately—it didn’t erase all the pain from the needles, but did enough. Sam had managed to acquire it despite it being a restricted substance; Danny assumed excessive amounts of money had been involved. Jazz then got straight to stitching it up with practiced skill, using ecto-line so Danny didn’t accidentally phase out of it.

“So, I talked to my professor about you today,” Jazz said while she worked. When Danny tensed, she chided, “Don’t move, it’s not bad news, just what we talked about yesterday. Just listen until I’m done, okay? Anyway,” she continued in a more pleasant tone, “I asked Professor Warren if, hypothetically, he’d be willing to give an actual ghost therapy, and he said yes. If you’re still open to that, I set up a tentative appointment for Monday after school; I didn’t tell him who you are yet, but I'm positive he’ll keep your confidence. I can even go to the first meeting with you if you want.”

“Don’t you have classes?” Danny asked. Though appreciative of the gesture, he didn’t want her to miss school for him!

“I made sure it’s during a time I’m free, too,” Jazz replied with a knowing look, an air of sisterly affection and protectiveness surrounding her.

“In that case, guess I got nothing to lose,” he said, not liking it but honestly he couldn’t deny that he’d probably needed help for a long time. “Besides, mom and dad want me in therapy anyway to teach me ‘how to cope with ghosts tricking me’.” He rolled his eyes.

Jazz sighed. “Danny, you—”

“I know, I know, I need to tell them,” Danny said, predicting her line of thought. They’d gone through this routine before. “Like I always say, I’m not ready. I’ll probably be ready soon, just… not now.” His mom definitely wasn’t ready either, though Danny hadn’t yet told his sister just how strong his mom’s emotions were. His dad, though, probably would be accepting. Maybe. He did seem excited about learning more about ghost stuff, and Danny had a feeling that the shots going extremely wide when shooting at Phantom wasn’t unintentional.

“Okay, little brother,” Jazz said gently as she tied off the last stitch. The room was quiet as she washed off the wound again before wrapping it. When she finished she said, “There, that should last the night. We’ll reevaluate it in the morning.”

“By then I probably won’t need the bandages,” Danny pointed out.

“True. Just, let me help you,” she said gently, the care and love she felt for Danny still radiating off her.

“Fine,” Danny grumbled, then moved to help clean up the towels and medical supplies.

Instead, Danny got a pair of pajamas thrown at him, and Jazz ordering, “Put these on, and go brush your teeth and whatnot. I’ll clean up here, and you’re going to get some sleep.

“Huh? Wait, but—”

“Nope, no need to patrol tonight,” Jazz said, predicting what Danny had planned. “You’re resting that injury! Remember, you’re not the only protector this city has,” Jazz pointed out. “It’s fine to rest when you need it.”

Danny sighed in resignation, as it was evident that Jazz wasn’t going to change her mind on that. “Okay, yeah, you’re right,” he told her. He’d realized that during his time in the Ghost Zone, but sometimes he had to remind himself of it. Come to think of it, there was another thing he’d recently realized, but not yet told Jazz…

“I feel like there’s something else you’re thinking about,” Jazz said, catching on it that way she could always do with Danny. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Danny blushed, feeling called out. “Well, kinda? I…” he wasn’t sure how to say it. He sat back down on the bed and looked at the floor, clutching the edge of the bed with his hands as he slowly admitted, “There’s… another big secret… something I recently figured out about myself… It’s, er, not even ghost-related… Well, some ghosts know, Ember actually helped me come to terms with it… But no humans know… Um. I don’t know how to say it,” he said, aware he was now blushing vigorously in his embarrassment. “I know you won’t hate me for it, I know that, but it’s still hard to say.” He knew she’d be okay because Jazz had two college friends who were boys and dating each other, she’d told him that for some—oh. “You might have realized already though,” he realized, “Maybe even before me…”

Jazz smiled gently. “Is it the fact that the kiss with Ember was a way to hide your sexuality?”

Danny chuckled, unsurprised. “Yeah. Yeah, it was.” He sighed. “I really don’t want to be… to be gay,” he said the word in a whisper. “Not on top of all the other shit I have to deal with, but…”

“But it’s not a choice,” Jazz said gently, surprisingly not calling Danny out on his language. “Not something you can control.”

Danny nodded, throat dry. “Yeah… There’s really no way to fix it, is there?”

“There’s nothing to fix,” Jazz said firmly.

“But—”

“But nothing. It’s a perfectly normal thing. It’s human society that insists otherwise, spurned by religious BS. Homosexuality is found in every species, and is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.”

The way Jazz said it, and with the emotion of certainty she projected, Danny could almost believe it. He wanted to. “I know it shouldn’t be. But I still am. You hear what everyone says!”

“No, I don’t, because it isn’t everyone saying it,” Jazz pointed out. “There are plenty of people around who are gay; the issue is that you all hide it. But eventually, you’ll encounter other people who are, and realize you’re not alone. In fact, I’m sure there’s other people at your school who are! And some of them may surprise you.”

“Really? …Wait, do you know of any?” Danny asked hopefully.

“I have some suspicions,” Jazz revealed. “But, it’s not my place to say. I don’t want to out anyone, even though I know you have the sense to not tell.”

Danny nodded, a bit disappointed, but, “I understand. I wouldn’t want you talking about this to anyone either, even if you think they wouldn’t tell… You won’t, right?”

“I promise,” Jazz said with clear conviction.

Danny felt relieved. “Thank you,” he said. Then, he paused, tensing again as he realized something. “Um. Off of that… How do you think mom and dad will react? Not to kiss, I know what they think of that, I mean to the fact that I’m… that I don’t like girls.” It was still difficult to say the word ‘gay’, even though he had before.

Jazz frowned, considering that for a moment. “I… I’m honestly not sure,” she concluded. “I can look into it though. Maybe mention my friends and see what they say. I have a feeling that Dad might be more accepting than Mom on this, too—just, don’t do anything until I’m sure it’s safe, okay?”

Danny nodded. “Okay,” he said, heart thumping. If Jazz had to investigate first… Did she suspect it wouldn’t go well? Well, Danny knew the stats weren’t good, so maybe she was just being extra cautious.

Suddenly, Danny was very aware that him being Phantom might no longer be the biggest secret he had to hide, including from his parents.

Chapter Text

“Dude, you okay?” Tucker asked Danny as he sat down in the Health Sciences classroom Friday afternoon. “You look dead on your feet,” he joked.

“Only mostly,” Danny said with a chuckle, belatedly realizing that he should have said ‘only half’ as he hadn’t told them his more-than suspicion that he was much more than half ghost.

“Ha, ha, very funny,” Sam said dryly, thankfully not catching Danny's slip—or if she had, chose not to mention it.

“I’m fine, guys, seriously,” Danny told them. “Just didn’t sleep well, like usual.” It wasn’t even a lie; Danny was a side sleeper, and the wound had not been happy with that.

Danny had a feeling that an ecto-drink would probably help immensely, especially because he’d gotten used to having something with ectoplasm daily yet now couldn’t thanks to extra security around the portal and his parents’ extra-watchful eye in the lab—why they suddenly cared so much about lab safety, including securing ecto-waste and counting every sample, was weird when for Danny’s entire life until then they’d just had everything scattered around. There wasn’t even anything in the upstairs fridge anymore! No, yesterday while Danny had been at school his dad had bought and installed a locked lab-specific one.

Thus, that day Danny found himself struggling; he was having trouble focusing not just due to the lack of sleep, but also because his injury was still sore, especially as Dash had managed to unknowingly punch him in it that morning, apparently still angry about the cat thing from the previous day.

Danny put his arms on his desk, chin resting on them with his eyes closed. Why was sleep of all things one of the human things he frustratingly still needed?

Along with the lack of sleep and sore wound, Danny also had a slight headache from when Dash had pushed him into his locker after lunch—all things combined, Danny was not just struggling to focus, but also having a little more trouble than usual with his powers.

Something Danny had noticed was that, since coming to the realization that he was more ghost than human, the difference between his forms had become even less distinct. He’d starting to much more liberally use his ghostly abilities while in human form, and had more than once nearly jumped into action without remembering to change first. He’d gotten so used to flying in human form while in the Ghost Zone that he had almost done so in this world too, the first time surprised as he hadn’t realized it wasn’t exclusive to that place and only saved by Sam grabbing his leg to pull him back down.

So now his powers were glitching like they had when he first gained them… No, that wasn’t right. They weren’t glitching, they were just coming more naturally. There was no longer a separation between forms in his mind, so the powers didn’t differentiate either. He didn’t have to consciously draw on his ghost core to use them in human form, he simply used them. He wasn’t two beings in one, he was a singular being. Whereas Danny didn’t mind this new ease of power usage overall, it was definitely starting to look like a potential threat to his secret! Especially when his focus was shot, during which he often forgot basic human functions.

“Hey, I think Fenton’s not breathing,” came a whisper from Kwan, worry palpable.

Basic functions like breathing.

“No way,” Dash replied, also in a whisper, vibe confirming that he was slightly worried too, to Danny’s surprise. “I didn’t hit him that hard earlier, did I?” Ah, so that was the real reason for the worry—he didn’t want to get in trouble. Dash hadn’t really done anything intentionally though; Danny had tried squirming away, causing him to bang his head on the side of the locker. He would be fine though, thanks to his ghostly healing.

“Should we say something?” Kwan whispered back, fear slipping in too. “Like, he might need CPR—you recently took a workshop on that, right?”

Oh yeah, Danny needed to breathe.

Danny took a deep exaggerated breath, which he could tell surprised the two boys as well as filled them with relief, then focused on keeping that up—the last thing he needed was for his secret to be discovered via someone misinterpreting his lack of breathing for an emergency and Dash attempting CPR.

“Fenton, pay attention, this is important info!” Mrs. Tetslaff’s voice sounded from the front of the room. On Fridays, the gym teachers taught Health class (or driver’s ed one semester for the sophomores) instead of regular gym; this semester, the unfortunate topic was sex ed.

“Not important for me,” Danny muttered under his breath as he sat up; maybe in ten or twenty years schools would start covering non-straight stuff, but unfortunately it was 2006. Besides, he wasn’t susceptible to human diseases, so all the STD stuff was irrelevant. Pregnancy risks and whatnot were of course a non-issue as well.

But, Danny still had to pay attention; the last thing he wanted was to give the bullies yet another thing to bully him about, so he had to at least pretend to be interested in the mechanics of things, if only to keep his cover. Plus it was school so he needed to know the info for the tests because he couldn’t afford more bad grades.

Part of him wished he’d never had that realization at all, wished there was some way to make it so he did like girls… He’d tried telling himself for years that he’d liked girls like Paulina and Valerie and eventually even Sam, but it had always been forced and awkward. He did like getting platonic affection from them, holding hands and even cheek kisses, but the thought of doing anything more? He’d feel disgust, which he was pretty sure was the opposite of what someone should feel when their significant other brought up going any further than lip kisses.

Ironically, ghosts were a lot more accepting than humans on that front. Maybe that was another reason that Danny felt more comfortable among them. Ember had even been the one to comfort Danny after he finally fully realized things, when the suspicion had turned to fact, which happened while they were watching a movie of all things; Danny still thought that was pretty wild, to have a ghost be the one to help him through that, even if they were friends now (imagine what the Danny from a year ago would think about that!). Later on she’d also encouraged him to tell his close human friends too, but even though he’d told her he would so far he’d only told his sister.

Jazz also told Danny that morning that he should tell Sam and Tucker too, which he had planned to ever since Ember suggested he do so after she helped Danny realize it, he really did, but he kept chickening out. He’d vowed to do it after the concert, but then he had the fight with his parents and ran away. Doing so immediately after that had seemed like a bad idea. He really did need to tell them soon though.

Star, vibe nervous but outwardly confident, raised her hand and asked, to Danny’s surprise, “Why’s this all about girl-guy stuff? Are we gonna cover girl-girl stuff or guy-guy stuff too? I mean, I don’t need it, but some people—”

Paulina elbowed Star in the side, hard, and shot her a warning glare, vibe slightly panicked, upon which Star glanced at her with a look of apology and slight blush, a small wave of affection flying off her. That was… interesting. Was something going on between the two? Danny might have expected that of Star, but Paulina had always seemed aggressively into guys—then again, Danny had done the same thing, acting like he was interested in girls, hadn’t he? Although, bisexuality was a thing, of course, so maybe that was it… Danny shook the thoughts away; he shouldn’t try to speculate.

Mrs. Tetslaff sighed, ignoring the handful of students chuckling at the question, and told them, “Though I agree that all sexualities should be discussed, the school board has explicitly excluded anything but heterosexuality from the curriculum, and I would prefer to keep my job. However, I can tell you that the local library does have books on all sexual orientations in their general collection; the Dewey Decimal number it starts at is 306.76. Now, back to the lesson…”

After school, Lancer called Daniel into his Vice Principal office as he walked by. Lancer didn’t really like being Vice Principal in addition to his preferred role of teacher, but unfortunately the school had so much trouble hiring anyone that most teachers at Casper High had to fulfil multiple roles and the other teachers had thrown him under the bus when he was absent for the meeting that decided who got that role.

Sam and Tucker gave their friend questioning looks, but Daniel waved them off and said they could go, telling them that his parents wanted him home after that anyway. The two looked worried, but left anyway—understandably so, Lancer had to admit, as they probably expected him to be getting detention or some other form of discipline, as most people expected when called into the Vice Principal’s office.

Daniel, however, did not look nervous, likely accurately having guessed what this was about, although when Lancer closed the door and had him sit down in one of the plush chairs the office held he winced, briefly placing a hand on his stomach—after which he did look nervous when he realized Lancer had clearly seen such, then placed the hand there again upon realizing there was no reason to hide the injury from someone who knew about it.

Lancer sat in another plush chair, perpendicular to Danny’s, and turned slightly to face the boy. “Daniel,” he said, “I’ll be blunt: I’m worried about you. I couldn’t help but notice you holding your stomach a few times earlier today, as though in pain. A few other teachers mentioned it to me, as well. Plus, you fell asleep in class, which you haven’t done in a while.”

Daniel winced. “Ah, well, the sleeping thing is because apparently I can consume ectoplasm to get energy. How much I eat affects how much I need to sleep, and I got used to not needing a normal human amount of sleep after I started eating it like a month ago. But after my stay in the Ghost Zone my parents restricted the lab more, actually are locking stuff up now, so it’s been difficult to access it. So I just gotta remember to get a normal amount of sleep again and it’ll be fine! Probably.”

Lancer had a feeling that that wasn’t the only reason as he watched Daniel shift nervously. “Though I don’t doubt that may be part of the reason, that is not the only reason for your tiredness, is it? Please, be honest with me, Daniel; are you injured worse than you told me last night?” Lancer sincerely hoped that was not so, but the evidence was compelling.

Daniel winced, and Lancer could tell that a downplaying was coming. “Um. Not really? It is healing, I swear! Though putting energy towards that might make me a little more tired I guess. But I did say I would be sore, remember? It’s basically just a thin line with a big bruise now, I can probably even take the stitches out.”

“Altered Carbon, Daniel!” Lancer exclaimed, not expecting that. “You needed stitches?! You told me you were fine!” Perhaps Lancer should have pushed Daniel to immediately get medical help after all. If the boy was adamant about no hospitals, Lancer could have even stitched him up himself; all the teachers had had emergency first aid training due to the frequent ghost attacks, as people sometimes got injured from such.

“I was fine,” Danny argued testily. “Seriously. I probably didn’t even need them, it was only ten this time, Jazz just insisted when she saw.”

“Ten stitches?!” Lancer gasped, then frowned, considering that for a moment. His parents had been the ones to unknowingly do this to the boy. What if next time the hit wasn’t a blow to the side, rather a direct hit? Enough for him to accidentally transform, even? That wouldn’t end well at all! Lancer told him, “Daniel. I know you’re scared, but I truly believe you need to tell your parents. They’re the ones who did this to you; surely they would stop if they knew?”

“No, I can’t!” Daniel said loudly, sounding panicked at the suggestion. “They wouldn’t react well!” he said insistently.

“Are you certain of that?” Lancer asked gently, knowing that teenagers could often get worried about parent reactions to things, working themselves up when in reality there was little to no danger. Of course, not every situation was like that, which is why investigation was needed.

“Yes! I’m a ghost. They hunt ghosts,” Daniel said in an anxious rush. “Yeah I still got some humanity, but probably not enough to be worth it in their eyes—well, for my mom, at least. Dad might be okay with it. Actually, he probably would at first, might even be excited about it honestly, but he’d then insist I tell Mom, and Mom would definitely interpret it as her son being dead, which I guess I basically am, and an allegedly malevolent ghost having replaced him, even though I definitely am still myself, and then would try to convince my dad of that, and he’d probably agree because he just listens to whatever she says. Mom wouldn’t hesitate to shoot me down, then dissect me.” Daniel took in rapid gasps of air that, from Lancer’s understanding, he didn’t actually need, and shook slightly. “She’ll kill me permanently.”

Lancer put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder, recognizing the signs of the onset of a panic attack. “Come on, breathe with me,” he said, guiding the boy, hoping calming the breathing would help like it did with full humans. “In, two, three, four; out, two, three, four…”

Daniel closed his eyes, then began to follow Lancer’s instructions. It did manage to calm him down, after a few minutes of that. The boy’s eyes were watery afterwards.

Daniel chuckled slightly, “Bet you didn’t expect a ghost to have panic attacks,” he said, trying to joke. “I mean, I don’t even need to breathe!”

The plural worried Lancer; had the teenager been handling this all on his own, or did he have a support network? He asked, “Does that happen often?”

Daniel sighed. “Guess three’s no way around admitting this to you,” he concluded, but didn’t protest. Just like the prior night, he opened up much more than Lancer expected—likely, if Lancer’s suspicions proved correct, because he hadn’t actually had an adult in his life that he could truly talk to about these things. Lancer wondered if the boy had any adult at all in his life that he felt supported him. Daniel told him, “They started after the accident. At first they happened a lot, then they got better, but lately they’ve increased again. I know it’s because I’ve been under a lot more stress lately; just as I was getting used to things, the—well, some big ghost-related incidents happened back to back, and I had a few realizations about myself, and I swear my mom’s ghost hatred has only gotten worse, especially because she—nevermind. But, don’t worry,” he assured Lancer. “Like I told you yesterday, Jazz is sending me to therapy, I’m sure they’ll help me with them.”

Lancer nodded. “I’m sure they will,” he agreed, then decided to again address the boy’s home life, which clearly was one major factor in the stress. “But Daniel, I must say again, from an outside perspective, I am convinced that you should not be living in that home, not while your parents are still actively hunting Phantom, not when you’re constantly on edge that their weapons may decide to target you at home. It is surely in part leading to your stress, causing anxiety. That stress and anxiety undoubtedly affects other things, like your schoolwork and sleep, and may even cause loss of concentration in… in battle, leading to injuries like yesterday’s.” Lancer still struggled with the fact that his student was in so much danger, actively fighting the ghosts—a stark contrast to what he, like most of the school, had thought before, which was that Daniel was afraid of ghosts. That was likely a cover story, Lancer realized, a way to throw people off his trail, evidenced further by the previous day’s outburst in class.

“I know that,” Daniel snapped. “I already…” He took a deep breath, speaking more calmly. “Last night’s injury was actually caused by a failure to pay attention to my surroundings; as I finished catching a ghost, they snuck up behind me and shot me; well, Mom did, Dad’s shot went ridiculously wide as usual. But, I still love my parents! And I need to be there because of the portal. And seeing what weapons they’re working on helps me know how to avoid them, and having access to the new trackers and stuff is important too so Tucker can reprogram them to not react to me. I can’t just leave.”

“Whereas that all makes logical sense, it’s extremely detrimental to your mental health. Is that sacrifice truly worth it?” Lancer asked the boy.

Daniel looked at the ground as he considered how to answer, then said in a semi-reluctant tone, “I want to say yes, that’s a necessary sacrifice, but honestly, it’s kinda getting hard to deny that I’m… that I’m suffering because of it. I really felt so much better when I was able to relax in the Ghost Zone, away from my home and all the stressors. A part of me even wi—wants that I hadn’t been forced to return. So, honestly… I don’t know if it’s worth it,” he concluded in a small voice. “I just don’t know anymore.”

Lancer nodded solemnly. “Well, as I said yesterday, if you ever find yourself needing somewhere to stay, or even just need to talk, my door is open,” he offered once again. He wished to do all he could to help this child, this child that had died much too young, even if only partly so. The fact that he found the Ghost Zone more welcoming than the human world was simply tragic.

“Thanks,” Daniel said with a small smile. “I really do appreciate it… But, I will have an actual therapist! Jazz’s professor’s actually willing to do it, she apparently asked him while I was at school yesterday. The consultation appointment is Monday after school. My parents think I’ll be going there to, quote, ‘learn how to cope with ghosts having tricked me’.” He added air quotes to that last bit.

Lancer smiled gently at him, very glad that Daniel would be finally getting some professional help. “That is very good to know. Well, if you ever need to talk outside of that, again, I am here for you.”

“Thanks,” Daniel said again, then he frowned and trailed off. “...Maybe there is something else I need to say, that I recently realized, and have kinda been struggling to cope with…” he trailed off, looking down and nibbling his lip as he thought; Lancer internally winced at that, noticing how sharp the fangs were, hoping the boy didn’t hurt himself. Daniel continued, “Some ghosts know, and I think my friends and sister know too, but before I actually talk to them about it I guess I need to see how a human would react. I mean, you’ll probably notice eventually anyway, everyone will, my parents included, and I’m kinda struggling with it…”

Lancer had a sneaking suspicion he knew what it was, as Jasmine had mentioned her suspicions of such, but Lancer would let the boy tell him himself. When Daniel was quiet for too long, his fangs biting even deeper into his lip, drawing green blood, Lancer spoke up. “Daniel, you’re bleeding,” he said gently, grabbing a tissue from a small side table adjacent to the chairs, and Danny looked up to see Lancer holding it out to him.

Daniel opened his mouth and touched his lip. “Oh. Sorry; I keep forgetting I have these,” he said sheepishly, then accepted the tissue to wipe the ectoplasm away. “They’re, er, kinda new. My teeth can regrow when they’re knocked out, and apparently my body decided it wanted fangs this time around,” he explained.

“I see,” Lancer said, mildly surprised at that info, though considering Daniel’s ghostly nature probably shouldn’t have been. He then asked, before they drifted too far away from the subject, “So, what is it you wanted to say?”

Daniel took a deep breath and loudly spat out in a rush, “I’mgonnabefourteenforever.”

Lancer didn’t catch all of that, so scrunched his brow and said, “Apologies, but perhaps you could speak slower? I couldn’t catch that.”

“S-sorry,” Daniel stuttered out, then took another deep breath and repeated at a slower pace, “I’m gonna be fourteen forever.”

Lancer raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t particularly surprised, having suspected this was what the boy had wanted to say. He thought of what he should say; he had to approach this delicately so as not to upset the boy. Lancer had plenty of experience with upset teenagers and various issues, but this was the first—and hopefully only—time ghostly immortality was the topic. “Well, you are a ghost, right?” he said, deciding reason would be the best choice. “Unless they’re shapeshifters, ghosts don’t change appearance significantly without a big catalyst, from my understanding.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Daniel said, shaking his head, looking more upset; perhaps that was the wrong approach. “It’s not just appearance,” the boy told him. “I’m literally stuck at 14. Stuck as a teenager.” His voice rose as he spoke, emotion taking over, and Lancer felt a pang in his heart, realizing the implications of that before the boy voiced them. “My brain will never mature beyond this. I’m 16 in calendar years, but still 14 in all other ways. Brain chemistry, hormones, thought processes, reasoning ability, emotional response, et. cetera. I can still gain knowledge of course, and apparently develop trauma and whatever other things teens can get, but otherwise physically and cognitively I’m still at the exact point I was when I… when I died.

“What’s going to happen in a few years? When people notice that someone who looks like a freshman is graduating, when they realize I never had that growth spurt, that I still act fourteen? Can I even go to college looking like this? What about when outsiders start to think I’m my friends’ younger brother, then kid, then grandkid? What about when I try to have a relationship? Unless it’s with another ghost, things are gonna be creepy! And I’m never going to get rid of the teenage angst, never going to grow out of my ‘emotional regulation problems’ as Jazz calls it.

“I’m 14, and always will be. Forever!” Silent slightly-glowing tears had begun to fall as Daniel spoke, so Lancer handed him another tissue, which Daniel wiped away the tears with after giving Lancer a look of appreciation.

Lancer took a moment to process everything Daniel had said. There had been a lot, and Lancer likely wouldn’t be able to remember every point, but, “Perhaps we could address those questions one by one,” he suggested. “First of all, graduation and college. There are plenty of people in college who look much younger than the calendar says. When I was in college, I was even friends with a girl that people often thought was my little sister, despite her being a year older than me! So I don’t think you’ll have much of an issue with that.”

“You sure?” Daniel asked, clearly skeptical.

“I’m sure. Some people simply don’t have that growth spurt. Trust me, unlike high school, in college people tend not to care so much about that—they all have better things to think about than the size of their peers,” Lancer told him gently, keeping his smile small even though he wanted to cheer that Daniel actually did plan on going to college. Despite his grades, which there was still time to pull up, Daniel had options: he could always find a college that accepted alternate application methods, find a college with a provisional program for those with poor high school grades, or possibly do community college for a couple years before transferring to a 4-year school.

“Eh, guess that’s true,” Daniel said. “Plus, since I can’t just leave Amity to all the ghosts, I’ll probably end up going to MU—that place is so weird that an unaging teenager is probably seen as normal. In fact, it’ll probably boost my chances of getting in,” Danny joked, and Lancer found that he truly did not doubt that. If he revealed his ghostly status to the admissions counselor, he would probably even be automatically accepted without question.

Daniel then tilted his head, giving Lancer an odd look. “Why do you feel proud?” he asked.

“What?” Lancer asked, mildly confused.

Daniel blushed and looked a little guilty as he said, “Sorry! I, er, ghosts can kinda sense emotions, I don’t mean to, it just happens, and I didn’t expect… Ah, that.”

“Ah, I see,” Lancer said. He hadn’t known that about ghosts, nor that Daniel had that ability. Lancer told the boy, “No worries; as you said, you can’t help it. Yes, I am proud of you, Daniel,” he said honestly. “You are planning for the future. You want to go to college. That’s a good thing. I was worried, for a while, that you might try to drop out… Before I knew you were Phantom and realized how hard you actually are trying, that is. You’ve done so well despite your struggles. So yes, I’m proud of you.”

Danny grinned broadly, fangs showing and eyes glowing. “Thanks, Mister Lancer,” he said wholeheartedly, and Lancer got the feeling that he’d rarely, if ever, heard an adult tell him that, other than likely his sister.

Then, Daniel frowned and looked down at the ground, clenching his fists as they rested on his knees. “Actually, I guess while I’m admitting so much, might as well say that I actually have occasionally thought of dropping out,” he said quietly. “Especially since the start of this year. It’s not because I don’t want to be in school or go to college or whatnot, it’s just that everything’s been so difficult. I just… Some days it feels like I just can’t do it anymore. Some days I just want to run away. Even before my, er, brief vacation there, it crossed my mind to maybe go to the Ghost Zone and stay there. For more than just a few days, that is. Maybe use the natural portals there to explore some of the world, who knows. Just, be anywhere but here, really.”

Lancer was both surprised and unsurprised at the same time.

Daniel continued, “I know I have a duty to Amity Park. I know I can’t just leave forever. I do care about the town. I feel responsible for protecting it. But sometimes it’s difficult to not want to just give up and abandon everything.”

Lancer nodded. “I know, trust me I know,” he said, then shifted slightly, wondering if it would be appropriate to share a story of his own.

“Whatever it is, you can tell me,” Daniel said, then blushed. “I could, er, tell you were conflicted about saying something—yeah, that’s a distinct emotion, somehow. Sorry, I didn’t mean to!”

Lancer smiled gently at Danny. “No worries,” he said, then took a deep breath. “It’s… difficult to talk about, but I actually do understand, more than you know. I was… I was a teenage runaway,” he revealed, something no one beyond his parents, former schoolmates, and those who helped him afterwards knew. “A high school dropout because of it, in fact. It wasn’t wholly by my own choice, as my parents kicked me out, but instead of trying to stay in town I decided to simply vanish, go to the city—Chicago, as it was near my hometown—and try to make it on my own. I was 17.”

Daniel looked at Lancer with wide eyes. “This isn’t another story like your nonexistent sister, is it?”

“It is not,” Lancer confirmed, though from the way Daniel asked he surely knew that already. “When I got to the city, I lived on the streets for a while, then at a group shelter for teenagers like me. I eventually found a job, and then while working I managed to get a GED and then go to community college before proceeding to get my dual Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education and English; by that time, I was nearly 30, after which I moved and got my job here. I’m one of the lucky ones; most teenage runaways do not get that far. It is not a path that I would recommend, however tempting running away may seem at the moment.”

“Yeah, that… wow,” Daniel said with astonishment. “That was not what I expected… Um. Might I ask why you were kicked out? If you don’t want to say it’s fine, I’m just curious.”

Lancer considered that. He knew Daniel had some very real fears about having to leave his own home if his parents ever found out about his ghost half—the secret was, honestly, very similar psychologically, involving hiding an identity. However, Lancer hadn’t come out to anyone at the school, not even other staff let alone students. Very few people knew. He also wasn’t sure how much he could reveal without potentially getting in trouble with the school. Lancer settled upon, “My parents discovered something about me that they did not approve of. Something that cannot be changed.”

Danny took a moment to process that, then his eyes lit up with an expression Lancer could only interpret as understanding. Oddly hopeful understanding. “You mean, you’re gay?” he asked bluntly.

A panicked jolt ran through Lancer. “Not so loud,” he said in a whisper. “No one else here knows, but yes. Please keep it a secret.” How had Daniel concluded that so quickly? Well, at least he hadn’t reacted negatively.

Daniel quickly nodded. “Don’t worry. You’re keeping my secret, so I’ll keep yours,” he said resolutely, then grinned. “Besides, I’m the same!” Daniel then looked surprised at himself. “Wow, I think you’re the first human other than my sister who I’ve admitted that to—it’s, er, only a recent realization…” he then frowned, looking worried. “Oh no. I’ve been so worried about my parents kicking me out or worse if they find out I’m a ghost that it didn’t even occur to me that they could kick me out for that too!” he exclaimed in distress.

“Daniel, deep breaths,” Lancer said, in retrospect not as surprised at the admission as he might have been—knowing the stats, the possibility had been something that crossed his mind a few times after Daniel’s grades, attendance, and mood began to sharply drop, before learning he was Phantom. Knowing how delicate a situation this was, Lancer calmly explained, “I left home in 1980, which was more than two decades ago. It was a very very different time compared to today. I am sure that your parents are not like my parents were.”

“No you’re not,” Daniel said.

Lancer was the one embarrassed now, being caught in the lie that was meant to be comforting. “You’re right, I am not sure. I don’t know if anyone can know for sure. But I do have high hopes; not once have I heard them use any sort of homophobic language, for one,” he said, though at Daniel’s slight wince maybe that wasn’t true behind closed doors. Lancer continued, “It is also, as I said, a very different time. Queer teenagers are much less likely to find themselves homeless today than they were in my time.”

Despite this, the statistics were still quite scary though; Lancer had recently seen a joint report by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute and the National Coalition for the Homeless that reported that approximately 1 in 4 LGBT youth whose parents learned of it ended up being kicked out. 1 in 2 experienced a negative reaction, and more than half of those negative reactions involved physical violence. Lancer only had anecdotal evidence as to his own youth, as not many such studies had been done back then, but he was certain it was higher back then in regards to the ones left homeless—at least, he sincerely hoped so, because if not, that meant progress was not as strong as he thought.

“Guess that’s true,” Daniel said. “It’s still scary though. I’ve already got one big secret that could get me killed further, having another on top of it is… a lot.”

“Understandable,” Lancer said. “Again, if you ever need a place to go, or simply need to talk, my door is open.”

“Thank you,” Daniel said with clear relief as he stood up and slung his backpack over his shoulder. “It’s… nice to know there’s an adult in my corner,” he admitted with some embarrassment. “I should probably go now, but it was good to talk. I might take you up on it again.”

Lancer nodded and smiled gently at Daniel. “Anytime, Daniel.”

Daniel smiled, then stepped towards the door, hesitated, and turned towards the window instead, shooting Lancer a more mischievous grin as he leapt into the air, shifted to Phantom, and flew straight through the closed window.

Lancer shook his head in fond amusement as he watched his ghostly student fly away.

Instead of heading home after his talk with Lancer like he told his friends he would, Danny flew to the local library. He briefly debated whether or not he should go in as Fenton or Phantom, then decided if someone saw him as Phantom it might tarnish his already poor reputation, so changed to his human form in the alley beside it and then headed in. Thanks to Jazz, who had dragged him there many times when he was younger, Danny easily navigated the library, quickly finding section 306.76. He scanned the shelves, skipping over heterosexuality—the largest group of books by far—and bisexuality, finding homosexuality was classified as 306.766, male homosexuality more specifically being 306.7662. There was barely half of a single row, with most of them being denser academic-oriented books, but there were a few thinner ones, which upon inspection actually seemed to be meant for teens—Danny suspected parental protest had moved them there instead of the YA section of the library.

As Danny flicked through a book, debating if he should check it out or find a corner of the library to try to read it in, two people navigated the row he was in, though he didn’t pay much attention to who it was at first.

He did when they stopped at the same section he was in; turning, Danny saw Star and Paulina there, vibes of content amusement drifting off them, the former who glanced at the book he was holding and said, “Somehow, I’m not surprised to find you here, of all our classmates.”

Danny froze slightly; he was half tempted to turn invisible and high-tail it out of there, but resisted. “What do you want?” he asked in resignation. This was going to be all over the school by the next day, wasn’t it? Maybe leaving town was his best option after all.

“Relax, kitten,” Paulina said. “We’re not gonna tell anyone.”

“You won’t?” Danny asked skeptically, though vaguely registered that they seemed amicable, no malicious vibes from them at all. “And, wait, ‘kitten’?”

Paulina shrugged. “What can I say, the cat thing’s catching on. Anyway, we’re here for the same reason,” she revealed. “Loser or not, we’re not going to out you.”

“Uh. Thanks?” Danny said, finding himself believing her; perhaps it was the same kind of respect that the ghosts gave when it came to his identity: like protecting like, even if they didn’t usually particularly get along. “I won’t tell anyone about you, either. Um. The lesbian section is here,” he said, gesturing to the other end of the row he was looking at, “and the bi section is here,” he said, gesturing to the end of the row above. He hoped he had guessed right.

“That’s all there is?” Star asked, surprised.

“Damn,” Paulina said, disappointed vibes in the air. “I knew there wouldn’t be much, but this is pathetic.”

“I have a feeling we’re lucky the library has anything about it,” Danny said wryly. “So, are you two…?”

“Dating? Yup!” Star said, excitedly enough that her joyful vibes seemed to charge Danny’s ghost core slightly.

Paulina winced. “Star! Not so loud,” she whispered, her vibes being a slight giddiness combined with the fear of someone finding out.

“Oh, right. Secret,” Star recalled with some guilt, which shifted to curiosity as she asked, “So, Danny, are you secretly dating anyone?”

Danny shook his head. “No. Honestly, I only recently realized I’m… er, gay,” he said, still struggling with voicing the word in reference to himself. “You’re kinda the first humans I’ve told, other than my sister.” And Lancer, but then they’d probably ask why he had told him, and Danny didn’t want to accidentally out his favorite teacher.

“Humans? So the rumor you’re friends with ghosts is true!” Paulina perked up, excitement palpable. “Ooh, do you know Phantom? Can you introduce me to him?”

“Sorry, I can’t,” Danny told her. “But, I thought you’re dating Star?”

“Well, yeah, but I can date him too,” Paulina said in a confident purr, an emotion coming off her that Danny couldn’t recognize and wasn’t sure he wanted to. For some reason, Star didn’t look jealous, seeming perfectly fine with the concept of her girlfriend dating someone at the same time as her. Danny hadn’t heard of consensually dating multiple people before, but maybe it was a thing? If so, it must also be something people didn’t talk about, like being non-straight.

“Well, you’re not going to have much luck with that,” Danny said. “He, er, kinda plays for the same team as me—don’t, er, tell anyone about that though,” he added. “He said it’s fine to tell other queer people but he doesn’t want it otherwise getting out,” he added, so they didn’t think he was going around outing people.

Paulina sighed, vibes a mix of disappointment and acceptance. “Dammit. Well, good for him, I suppose.” Danny was surprised she didn’t question how he knew that. “But, hey, if he ever needs to fake-date a girl, we’re both available,” she added chipperly.

Star explained further, “Sometimes we gotta date guys to keep people off our trail. So if he ever needs to date a girl to save his reputation, we got him!”

Paulina added, “And don’t worry, we’re not going to out anyone, especially not the Town Hero.” Her vibes were resolute; this was something she sincerely stood by.

“Oh!” Star gasped, eyes lighting up. “If you know that, does that mean you’re dating Phantom?” she asked with contagious excitement.

Danny laughed, unable to help feeling his mood boosted. “No, no, of course not. I know him, yeah, but I’m not dating Phantom; he’s rather out of my league,” he told them. Technically not untrue, as he couldn’t exactly date himself.

“So? I’m out of your league too, and we dated, even if I don’t remember it,” Paulina pointed out. “Same for Valerie, even if she hangs around losers now.”

“And you literally kissed Ember on stage,” Star pointed out. “Like, I would kill for that chance,” she said, and Danny found he couldn’t tell if she was serious or not about that, which worried him a little. Then she looked contemplative. “Oh, but I guess that was probably just so people don’t suspect… Anyway, what we’re saying is, don’t sell yourself short!”

“Yeah! Go for Phantom if you want him!” Paulina encouraged. “Honestly, you two would look cute together.” Adoration swirled around her.

“...Right. Well, I’m going to check these books out now, see you at school I guess,” Danny hurriedly said, before the girls could start seriously trying to convince him to date himself and Paulina’s emotions took a turn into even more awkward territory. He grabbed a couple other books that caught his attention and headed out, both the girls waving goodbye to him before they moved to where he’d been standing and began looking at the books.

Danny checked the two books out, thankful that the library assistant at the desk didn’t react to the titles, and slipped them into his backpack.

To Danny’s total surprise, waiting outside of the library, leaning on the railing, was none other than Sam, although Tucker was nowhere in sight.

“Thought I’d find you here,” Sam said with a gentle smile, exuding amusement, then casually asked, “Section 306, right?”

“How did you—” Danny began, but cut himself off. “I mean, w-what? Why would I be there?”

Sam sighed and shifted to a standing position. “Danny, you’re my best friend, and we dated. Did you honestly think I wouldn’t at least suspect it?”

Danny nibbled his lip and looked away, panic rising even though he could tell that the only vibes Sam gave off were accepting and caring ones, no negative ones in sight.

“Relax,” Sam said gently, putting a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “I’m not mad or anything.”

Danny looked up at her and, feeling he needed verbal confirmation despite her kind expression and vibes, warily asked, “You don’t find me disgusting, or a freak, or—”

“No,” Sam cut him off. “If I did, I would be a hypocrite.”

Danny scrunched his brow in confusion. Was she implying what he thought she was? “Wait, you’re gay too?” He could have sworn she was still attracted to him. Although, she was kinda dating Lurker, who wasn’t a guy or girl, or at least was interested in them—although Danny had a feeling that sexuality was entirely irrelevant when it came to anyone falling for that particular cryptid.

“I’m bi,” Sam revealed. “I know it’s not quite the same, since I can hide it a lot better, but I do know how scary it can be to realize you’re not straight, and the urge to suppress it and try to be a so-called ‘normal’ person. You’re not alone.”

“Thanks,” Danny said as the two began to walk, heading towards Tucker’s place without having to discuss it. Now that Sam knew, it was only fair that Tucker did, too. Hopefully he wouldn’t reject Danny.

“Out of curiosity, when did you finally realize it?” Sam asked.

“Um. The thought started occurring to me a while ago, but I was kinda in denial until a couple weeks ago, after a discussion with Ember. We were watching a movie and she noticed I found the actor hotter than the actress, and then talked to me about it.” Danny was not going to mention the ‘test’. “I told Jazz last night, and earlier today I told Lancer—don’t look at me like that, it just slipped out during an impromptu therapy session, don’t worry he’s definitely LGBT-friendly—and I’ve been trying to work up the courage to tell you and Tucker—what about you? When did you realize it?”

“Middle school,” Sam said easily. “But, I hid it. Tried to pretend I only like boys. My parents are… Well, let’s just say if they found out I also like girls, it wouldn’t end well. Like, send-me-to-a-camp kind of shit at best, outright kick me out at worst. They’re already pretty unhappy that I’ve been hanging out with Lurker, although they somehow assume Lurker’s a human male and we’re not going to correct them.”

Danny winced. “I know the feeling,” he said. “I mean, I guess I don’t actually know if my parents would or wouldn’t be supportive of me being gay—honestly, I think my dad had a thing for Vlad at some point, as disturbing as that is given it’s Vlad—but…”

“The ghost stuff is pretty much the same thing, right?” Sam said with an understanding smile, feelings of empathy evident. “You already are sure they won’t accept it, despite the other timelines.”

“Yeah,” Danny admitted. “Now more than ever—I’m serious when I say that this time around, I don’t think they’ll be as easily accepting as they were the last couple times, or at least my mom won’t be. Honestly I’m starting to think maybe she wasn’t as okay with it those times as she said she was, since she really often hides her real emotions to save face, like more than most people. Dad actually might still be okay with it, but mom’s perception of ghosts, especially Phantom, seems to be getting progressively worse. I’ll have to somehow turn that around first.”

The two then arrived at Tucker’s house.

Danny froze, unsure if he wanted to go in. Should he really tell Tucker about this? What if Tucker reacted badly? He honestly had no idea what Tucker thought about gay people. He’d never said anything bad, but never anything good either. Then again, neither had Danny; it was just something that didn’t get talked about. The only time Tucker uttered the word was in the standard slang way to mean something was uncool, which literally everyone their age did, even Danny until he’d started to realize that he himself was gay and understood how it hurt to hear people use the word that way. Sam hadn’t used the word that way though, as far as Danny could recall; she was always more self-conscious about that.

“Hey, Danny, relax,” Sam said. “It’ll go fine, I’m sure of it.”

“You don’t know that,” Danny said.

“Do you want me to come out first?”

“You’d do that?” Danny asked, though could sense she was serious.

“Of course.”

Danny considered her offer, then sighed. “No, I’ll do it first. It’s not like it matters; if he doesn’t support you he won’t support me, and even if I don’t tell him I’ll still know he won’t… Okay, here goes.”

Danny knocked on the door, and Tucker’s parents let them in and directed them up to Tucker’s room.

“Danny?” Tucker, who had been at his computer playing Doom, asked in surprise, only noticing the two when the door banged closed. “Thought you had to go home.”

Danny winced. “I, er, kinda lied about that,” he admitted, looking at the floor. “I was at the library. Section 306.”

Tucker looked slightly confused. “Section… Oh,” he realized. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Danny questioned warily, unsure of the reaction. It seemed very anticlimactic somehow. The vibes seemed neutral; had he already known?

“Yeah, okay,” Tucker said, then shrugged. “Dunno why you never said something sooner, but hey, glad you told me eventually.” That made sense; Tucker never did like when Danny kept secrets.

“Well, I only just figured it out a couple weeks ago,” Danny pointed out, then frowned. Tucker’s attitude still seemed a bit subdued, and Danny was having trouble interpreting the vibes. “So… you’re cool with it?” he ventured.

Tucker then seemed to realize how he sounded, guilt and worry swirling around him as he said, “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to come across as unsupportive! You’re my best friend, of course I’m cool with it!”

“Really?” Danny asked with relief; he could definitely identify the vibes as supportive now.

“Really,” Tucker confirmed. “Being the token straight guy just means more girls for me!” he joked.

Danny blinked and looked at Sam. “Wait, you told him before me?” he complained, slightly hurt.

Sam put her hand over her face, slightly exasperated. “Ugh. No, I didn’t… Tucker, I’m bisexual, okay? Now everyone here knows.”

“Oh, I already kinda figured that,” Tucker said, completely unsurprised.

“You did?” Sam asked, looking slightly confused. Danny was too; Tucker usually didn’t catch onto things like that as quickly as others. Danny certainly hadn’t, even for himself.

Tucker shrugged. “I mean, you’re pretty much dating someone who I’m pretty sure has non-human biology, which is pretty not-straight,” he pointed out. “Anyway, Danny, I didn’t react so much because, it’s just, as far as bombshells go, this doesn’t really compare to, like, the immortality, or being half-ghost or whatnot.”

Danny winced. “Um, about the half-ghost thing… It may, er, be a little more than half now?” He looked nervously between Sam and Tucker.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked warily, intense vibes of worry and dread now surrounding her. “Did something happen?”

“Wait, you didn’t like, fully die or something, did you?!” Tucker asked with wide panicked eyes, the same emotions coming over him, and Danny realized his mistake.

“What? No, no, nothing like that!” Danny assured them, and their relief was palpable. “Or, not really? Probably not. I’ve just been doing a lot of thinking lately, and talking with the ghosts, including Clockwork, and it all leads to the conclusion that although I am still technically a ‘halfa’, it’s not an even split. It probably never was. And as my power grows, that just becomes more and more evident. And before you ask, no, Vlad isn’t like this—he really is truly half and half. It’s probably because my portal accident was so much larger than his. He got blasted in the face with a small one, but I got the full-body experience with the large one, which was ten times more powerful and had all that electricity. I’m not a human with ghost powers, I’m not half human half ghost, I’m basically a ghost with human powers.”

The two took a moment to process that, then Tucker laughed, amusement evident. “Sorry, sorry, I know this isn’t supposed to be funny, but ‘human powers’? What’s that even mean?”

Danny shrugged, smiling slightly at Tucker’s reaction, glad their dynamic hadn’t changed any due to the earlier revelation. “Well, I still do have a heartbeat, even if it’s slow, and I do need to sleep for some reason. I still need to eat human food too. And when in human form, gravity is the default, and things are more painful, though Jazz thinks that might be psychological. But otherwise, for all intents I’m a ghost. Since accepting that, the divide between my ‘human’ form and ‘ghost’ form has been pretty much nonexistent, except for looks. Apparently needing to focus to use my powers while in human form was more of a mental block? It feels more natural now.”

Tucker chuckled slightly. “Yeah, we noticed that.”

“And that’s different from Vlad?” Sam asked curiously.

Danny nodded. “As far as I know, he still needs to transform to use his ghost powers to their full extent. There’s more differences too, like in human form he bleeds red, but I bleed green; it’s not 100% ectoplasm, if you put it under a microscope you can see there’s still some blood cells mixed in too, but still. And…” Danny shifted nervously, aware they knew this but not having actually voiced it himself to them, and said, “Clockwork told me that Vlad is aging slower than a normal human, but I’m actually legit immortal.”

“Damn,” Tucker said quietly, a vibe of unsureness solidifying into acceptance. “I know you know we’d already figured it out, but to hear you actually say the word…”

“I’m honestly still processing it too,” Danny admitted. He didn’t want to think about the fact that he’d live far beyond his friends, watch all the humans he knew die… And definitely didn’t want to think about the fact that unaging was also a part of it, eternally 14, meaning soon people would start mistaking him for the younger brother of Sam and Tucker, and then eventually their child, then grandchild. His talk with Lancer had helped a little, but it was still harrowing to contemplate.

“Well, you’ll still have Dani-with-an-i, right?” Tucker said, realizing what Danny was thinking. “Like, if she’s based on your DNA, she’ll be the same, right?”

Danny paused at that. “Huh. I didn’t think about that.” Honestly, if so, that was a little worse—her appearance was younger than his. Being a middle school kid for eternity was definitely worse than being forever a high school kid. But, they’d have each other… Wait, did Dani even know? “Oh, man, how do I break the news of that to her?” Danny wondered with a groan.

Sam chuckled. “Knowing her, she’ll just say ‘awesome, now I really can see the whole world!’ or something like that.”

“Besides,” Tucker said, “There’s always the chance that Vlad’s cloning process ended up making her closer to him, truly half and half, if he didn’t know you’re more.”

“True,” Danny conceded.

Tucker then had a sad feeling to him. “Oh, man. I just realized, if you look 14 forever, you won’t be able to ever do, like, any adult things… Like drive…”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “My calendar age says otherwise. I pass as 16; just because I haven’t bothered to get a license yet doesn’t mean I can’t.” Flying was so much easier.

“Okay, point. But what about voting?” Tucker said unhelpfully.

Danny shrugged. “Plenty of people look younger than they are, I’m sure the poll workers are used to that.”

“Okay, fine, I’ll give you that. But what about stuff where it’s even more obvious you don’t look the age on the ID? You know, like smoking? Drinking? Getting married?”

“No interest; I’ll just have you guys buy it; illegal regardless of my age.”

“Not in Massachusetts!” Sam added. “Besides, I’m sure within the next ten years the US will legalize it nationally, just you watch.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “You really think it’ll go from one state to national in just a decade?”

“I mean… peoples’ thoughts on that do seem to be changing,” Sam said, although Danny wasn’t so sure of that. “Well, kinda… Okay, maybe twenty years,” Sam amended. “But eventually it’ll be legal!”

“Oh, on that note, one thing before I forget,” Tucker said with an urgent realization and slight… fear? He told them firmly, “This is directed at both of you. Do not, under any circumstance, tell my parents that you are anything other than 100% straight. I’m serious about this. They’ll ban me from ever seeing you again.”

“Seriously?” Danny asked, completely shocked by how sure Tucker was of that. Tucker’s parents were two of the kindest people Danny knew; growing up they’d practically been a second set of parents to him.

“Seriously,” Tucker said grimly. “One of my second cousins came out when we were in middle school, and her parents kicked her out. My parents told me about it, and said in no uncertain terms that if they even suspected I was the same, I’d be dead to them, and that I wasn’t to associate with… well, I’m not going to quote the words they used, but yeah, make sure they don’t find out.”

Suddenly, it made a lot more sense as to why when they got to high school, Tucker had suddenly started expressing an aggressive desire to be seen as a ‘ladies man’.

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Danny told him. “It’s not like I’m even crushing on anyone or anything anyway. Plus, I could always ask—well, I’m sure there’s girls who also need to keep stealth,” he said; he wasn’t going to out anyone. “So if I ever need to throw people off I’ll just fake-date one of them.”

Sam narrowed her eyes at Danny. “It sounds like you know people. Are they ghosts?”

Danny chuckled. “You sound like my parents. No, they’re not ghosts; they were also visiting that section of the library, and already offered to if needed. But I’m not outing anyone, so don’t ask for names, okay?”

Sam and Tucker both agreed.

Danny then noticed the clock on the wall. “Aw, crap. I’m gonna be late for the before-dinner curfew if I don’t leave now,” he realized, so bid farewell to his friends, grabbed his backpack, and flew out the window.

Or, started to, until Sam grabbed his foot, halting him in mid-air. “Change first,” she reminded him.

“Right,” Danny said, embarrassed over yet another slip-up, then changed to his Phantom form before leaving.

Chapter Text

Late Sunday morning, Sam was lounging on her bed reading a book when Danny flew into her room. Used to such, she barely reacted as her friend intentionally crashed onto the bed and shifted from ghost form to human form.

“Thought you were spending the day with your parents,” Sam commented. “Something happen?”

Danny sat up on the bed, legs folded sideways beneath him and one hand on the bed partially supporting his weight. The other hand ran through his disheveled hair, and Sam realized that Danny looked near-panicked. Alarm bells rang in her mind; clearly something had happened, something bad, and whatever it was Danny was still processing it.

“Was it a ghost attack?” Sam wondered as she placed her book on the nightstand, although she wasn’t used to seeing Danny quite this rattled after those; maybe it was a new ghost? “Are you injured?” There was some obvious bruising on Danny’s arms indicating he’d been fighting.

Danny lowered his other hand to the bed instead of his hair, shook his head, took a deep breath, and said shakily while looking down at the bed, “Not a ghost. Just… family troubles, I guess,” he mumbled the last bit.

“‘Family troubles’?” Sam quoted, narrowing her eyes. “What exactly does that mean?”

Danny shrugged, and Sam realized his eyes were puffy, like he’d been crying. Was the bruising not ghost-related?

“Were your parents fighting again?” Sam prodded. She was well aware that in private Danny’s parents were not as pleasant towards each other as they were publicly, and the increasing number of fights had been bothering Danny.

“Um. Kinda, I guess,” Danny said, then shifted into a more comfortable cross-legged position, which Sam then mimicked.

“Want to talk about it?” Sam asked, noticing that Danny’s cheek was slightly bruised too, now that he wasn’t staring down at the bed. It looked about a day old so he must have only gotten it a very short while ago; it would likely be gone entirely within a couple hours, or at most by the next morning—honestly, it was a mystery what determined the speed of Danny’s healing, given the same wounds could take very different amounts of times to heal, although they had a number of theories.

“Not really,” Danny said, then sighed. “I dunno. It’s… I don’t know. I’m still processing it I guess? Like, Jazz has some event at school today, so my dad decided that me, mom, and him should do something together.” Danny started speaking faster, it all coming out at once. “Which, okay, fine, I can sense that he feels guilty for the past and he’s been trying to do better, which to him means more family time, so I agreed. But then at breakfast, he and my mom ended up fighting about ghosts again. She’s still super insistent that they’re nothing but monsters to be destroyed, and this time he just flat out told her that he’s sure she’s wrong. I agreed with Dad. Somehow my ghost friends got brought up. Dad says he thinks they’d be good to talk to, Mom just flat out says he’s delusional, they just kept arguing like that. Then she threw something, so then Dad stormed off, said he was taking a walk to clear his head. Only, that left just me and my mom, and she was really angry…” Danny trailed off, looking unsure about continuing.

“Danny,” Sam said firmly, staring at the bruise on Danny’s cheek and recalling how his mom had grabbed him the day they’d returned from the Ghost Zone, as well as what Jazz and Tucker had told her about her hitting him just before he ran off after the concert. She glanced at the bruises on Danny’s arms (he was wearing a black band t-shirt as usual), and recalled that one of their theories was that the speed of healing was affected by emotional impact… Sam looked Danny in the eyes and asked, “Did your mom hurt you again? While in human form?” She hated how that clarification was needed.

Danny’s stricken expression was answer enough, and Sam saw tears beginning to pool in his eyes before he surged forward and wrapped his arms around her.

Sam returned the hug and let Danny cry into her shoulder, unsure what else to do. Danny almost never cried in front of people, not like this. Sam wasn’t good at comforting people; she truly had no idea what to say… Evidently, she didn’t need to say anything.

Danny seemed calmer when he finally withdrew, stuttering “Sorry about that” as he wiped the remaining tears from his eyes with his palms. He looked at his palms, then at Sam’s shirt, and winced as he added, “and that.”

Sam looked down at her black blouse in confusion. To her surprise, there were faintly glowing tear stains on it. She looked back at Danny, noting that his open palms were glowing slightly too, as were the dried tear tracks on his cheeks. “Your tears glow,” Sam said in mild disbelief.

“Uh, yeah,” Danny said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Guess it’s a good thing I don’t usually cry around people? Um. Thanks, though, really. I think I needed that.”

“Yeah, of course,” Sam said, still trying to process things. “Hey, so, is it just the face and arm bruises, or…?”

Danny winced, then his hands moved to the hem of his shirt, which he fiddled with for a moment before taking a deep breath and in one motion lifting the shirt off.

Sam gasped; Danny looked worse than he did after many ghost fights. He was bruised all over, particularly on his sides, as though someone had kicked him over and over. “What happened?” Sam asked quietly.

Danny took another deep breath, closed his eyes, then said slowly with his eyes closed, fairly subdued as though he were mildly dissociating as he reviewed the incident, “Once Dad left, and it was just me and Mom, I could sense her intent to hurt me, and tried to leave before she could. I got to the stairs but she grabbed my arm to pull me down. I twisted as I fell and hit my cheek on the railing.

“She got angry that I shouted in pain, like anyone would when getting hurt, and next thing I know I’m on the floor and she’s grabbed both my arms and her knee is in my back as she’s yelling who-knows-what at me. Something about it being my fault Dad has been going against her lately. She also called me some slurs, so there’s that—I don’t know if she figured out I’m gay or if she just used them out of anger, but I’ve never heard her say that before.

“And I just took it because doing anything could reveal my secret, and if that happened in that state of mind she wouldn’t have hesitated to shoot, I’m certain of it. Anyway, so then I thought she let me go, but as I moved to stand up she started kicking me, hard, and I guess I made some sort of noise because then she got mad at me for whining, but it really hurt, especially because she had that damn specter deflector thing on the entire time! I think she might have even cracked a rib.

“Then she grabbed me by the hair and dragged me to my room, and at this point I’m getting really bad vibes from her, like she wants to cause significantly more pain. But she left after she tossed me in my room. I dunno if she planned to come back but I immediately flew away, I just couldn’t be there in case she did come back. So I came here.”

Sam took a moment to process that. “That… Danny, that sounds really bad.” She knew the situation with his mom wasn’t the best, but to that degree? It sounded like Danny was in significant danger living with her!

Danny shrugged, then began to deflect as expected. “I mean, it was scary, yeah, but I heal fast. The bruises will mostly be gone by the end of the day, maybe a few lasting until tomorrow. So it’s not that bad.” He seemed like he was trying to justify it to himself, rationalize it as a way to cope.

“Your mom beat you up, pretty much unprompted,” Sam pointed out. “Literally all you said was you agreed with your dad. Her doing that is definitely bad, enhanced healing or not.”

Danny looked down at the bed, hands clutching the blanket that covered it. “I guess,” he said, voice small. Sam had never seen him look so lost before. Danny shook slightly as he said, “I… I just don’t know what to do… I shouldn’t… Why am I so afraid of her? I shouldn’t be, especially when in human form. Human form is supposed to be the safe one. She should only be trying to hurt my ghost form. I just don’t understand.”

“She’s a shitty parent, what more is there to understand?”

“I guess,” Danny said despondently. “I just wi—sincerely want that I wasn’t able to feel emotions so strongly in the first place. It sucks. If I couldn’t, maybe then at least I’d have hope that her apologies were sincere, that she really didn’t mean to hit that hard, could pretend that these were one-offs that she was sorry about… Could believe that it would someday stop. Pretend that she doesn’t want to hurt me most of the time.

“Instead, I know for sure that she doesn’t regret it. She really means to cause pain. She… she doesn’t love me anymore.” Danny’s voice cracked slightly at those words. “Wait, no, that’s not true,” he corrected. “Sometimes I do catch a vibe of love from her, but then pretty much as soon as I open my mouth that shifts again. Sometimes it even shifts to hate. How can she both love and hate me at the same time?

“And it’s all my fault too, I know it. I opened that damn portal, it all starts there… Sometimes I think it would’ve been better if the portal killed me fully.”

“Okay, whoa, no, stop that,” Sam said firmly. She had to nip that line of thinking in the bud asap. “None of this is your fault. None of it. She’s a shitty person, end of story. It is not your fault that she hurts you. And in absolutely no way would it have been better if you never walked out of that portal. Understand? Your parents would’ve opened it eventually, and then there would be no hero to save the town. Me and Tucker would be devastated, scarred for life. Your family, including Jazz, would be heartbroken. You dying would have only made things worse.”

“But I did die,” Danny pointed out, probably an instinct at this point; Sam decided to let that slide.

“I mean, all the way, without returning as a half-ghost. Things would have only been worse.”

“What if it was all the way but I returned as a full ghost though?” Danny asked. “Maybe that would—”

“Do NOT finish that sentence, Daniel James Fenton!” Sam said firmly. “And please, for the love of all things, talk to your therapist about this, seriously,” she said more gently. “All of this, abuse included.”

“It’s not abuse,” Danny muttered as he grabbed his shirt and slipped it on again.

“Fine, then about the hitting,” Sam amended, knowing it wasn’t worth fighting over terminology at the moment, even though by all definitions it was abuse—severe abuse at this point, given that if he were human he’d likely need a hospital, if a rib truly were cracked. “Your first session is tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, it’s just the consultation one though,” Danny said, sounding tired.

“Then it’s even more vital you tell him, so that he knows exactly what help you need.”

Danny sighed. “Fine, whatever, I’ll say something to him.”

“Okay, great,” Sam said, clapping her hands together, although she had a strong feeling Danny wouldn’t be mentioning it despite saying he would. “Now, I think a distraction is needed—want to grab Tucker and go to the Nasty Burger for lunch?” That place not only always cheered Danny up, but it also usually had cheerful people, and Sam was pretty sure Danny got energized by happy emotions now that he could better sense them. “Then we can go to that little amusement park a couple towns over, I just got a new car now so we can use that!”

“Another one?” Danny asked with slight amusement, though his demeanor was still fairly dispirited.

“Shut up,” Sam said with a blush. So she had a thing for fancy (fuel-efficient environmentally-conscious) cars now that she could drive. “This one’s a convertible, you and Tucker have been talking about how fun that would be for months.”

“Aww, you bought us a car?” Danny teasingly cooed.

Sam rolled her eyes. “I said shut up. Now, go get your glowing tears off of you while I change my shirt,” she instructed.

Danny compliantly scurried to the bathroom, and while he was there Sam quickly changed to a near-identical black blouse and pulled out her phone to brief Tucker on the situation.

Honestly, Sam wasn’t sure what she or Tucker could do, if anything. Obviously CPS was out, but Danny’s home life was getting too dangerous for him. Maybe his therapist would know what to do; as long as Danny tells him about it, that is. If any place knew about how to handle CPS cases involving non-humans, it would be MU. Otherwise the alternatives would either be Danny running away, or him enduring it for the next two years and likely ending up with much more trauma than he already had.

Things might get better if Danny said something to his dad. But, Sam wasn’t confident enough that his dad wouldn’t try to deny it or side with Maddie; Jack could be a bit of a doormat towards his wife, although given the described fight maybe that was changing. Sam was confident, however, that if Jack ever found out about Danny’s ghost powers, he would be accepting; however, Maddie, not so much. Whereas Jack’s opinions on ghosts seemed to have shifted towards more positive over time, Maddie’s simply went further negative. If Danny told Jack, the man was likely to simply tell Maddie about it thinking she’d be accepting too—after all, Danny was their kid. But Sam wasn’t sure that Danny’s mom’s hatred for ghosts wouldn’t take precedent over the life of her own child… So, telling Jack anything was out.

Sam supposed for now all she could really do was continue to support Danny whenever he needed a place to crash or needed someone whose shoulder he could cry into. And probably get him some more painkillers—Jazz had said no, but Danny seriously looked like he needed some at the moment, especially if he had a cracked rib; why Jazz was so adamant about reducing their use was a mystery to Sam. After all, Sam’s mom used them so often that she hadn’t even noticed when Sam occasionally swiped a bottle for Danny, and her mom was still perfectly fine.

Valerie frowned as she watched Danny Fenton-slash-Phantom in Lancer’s class on Monday morning. Something felt off about him. He seemed tired, as evidenced by the fact that he was trying to sleep at his desk once again, but somehow it felt heavier than his usual didn’t-sleep-last-night tiredness—and he should have slept considering there was, surprisingly, no ghost attack the previous night.

Danny also seemed to be in somewhat more wrinkled and dirty clothes than expected, as though he had slept in them and not bothered to change upon waking up; his open sea-green zipper-hoodie, stained and two sizes too large, looked suspiciously like one that had been lingering in the school’s lost-and-found since the previous year.

Plus there was that faint bruise on his face; how had he gotten that if there was no ghost fight the previous night, or this morning? And why was it still there? He hadn’t confronted Dash yet that day either, so obviously it was from the weekend. So why wasn’t it healed? Valerie had seen Phantom heal from severe bruises in minutes… A recent report from MU had claimed emotions affected healing abilities; was that way? Was Danny too depressed to heal or something?

Danny suddenly jolted awake as a puff of icy breath escaped his lips, something that Valerie had noticed typically happened just before ghost attacks—something that made more sense now given Valerie’s extra context; from what she could tell, it was one of Phantom’s powers (she still was having trouble seeing them as the same person) manifested in his human form, possibly uncontrollable, that indicated a(n unfriendly?) ghost was near.

Valerie’s ghost tracker buzzed in her ear and she got ready to make a quick exit.

However, neither Danny nor Valerie needed to leave to find the ghost, as he had floated down into the classroom.

“I have found you, child!” the ghost boomed.

“Skulker, ugh, what do you want?” Danny said tiredly, looking up at the robotic hunter ghost in front of him. “And since when do you come into the classroom?”

“Mister Fenton,” Lancer called. “Please keep your ghost friends out of my classroom!”

“This one’s not my friend!” Danny clarified.

“I most certainly am not!” Skulker angrily growled. “You, boy, are in big trouble!”

Danny crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “When am I not? Let me guess: you’re pissed because Ember still won’t get back together with you?”

“Because of you!” Skulker raged. “How dare you steal her away from me!”

Danny scoffed at that. “I didn’t ‘steal’ anyone from you, dude. Ember’s my friend. We’re in a band together. That’s the extent of it. If she doesn’t want to get back together with you, that’s not my problem.”

Valerie subtly aimed a wrist ray at the ghost.

“But it is! She told me that—ow!!” Skulker shouted as the ecto-shot hit him, turning to glare at the other students, some which seemed slightly scared of the ghost, some which seemed mildly worried for Danny, and others that just seemed bored; no one was bothering to actually escape, apparently too used to ghosts like Skulker appearing or expecting Phantom to appear, unaware that he couldn’t. Skulker demanded, “Which one of you whelps did that?” He glared at each in turn, stopping at Valerie and giving her a longer look before moving on. “If that happens again, someone is going to be in pain,” he told them, then turned back to Danny.

Unfortunately for Skulker, Danny wasn’t there.

“Dammit! Where the hell did you go?!” the ghost shouted angrily. “Ugh, no matter. Run all you want, but I WILL find you!” he shouted as he flew out through the window.

Valerie quickly excused herself to the ‘bathroom’ as the tired Mr. Lancer told the class to settle down and continued his lesson on the joys of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, apparently unconcerned as to Danny’s whereabouts. No wonder no one other than herself and Jazz had actually figured out his secret yet; Danny could turn invisible right in the middle of the classroom and even the teachers were oblivious.

Soon Valerie was outside in her Red Huntress suit. She found Skulker on the roof; it appeared either he had just found Danny, now in Phantom form, or maybe Phantom found him given the boy’s confrontive body language.

“Again, she’s just my friend, Skulker. Any ‘girlfriend’ talk you’ve heard is just rumors,”
Phantom told him.

“I know that! Friend, lover, whatever, that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that she said that if I ever want her to talk to me again, I need to stop hunting you! How is that fair!?”

“How is attacking me IN CLASS, when I’m in HUMAN FORM, any fairer?!” Phantom yelled back. “It’s, like, an unspoken rule that you don’t do that! If my secret gets out because of some stupid relationship trouble, I’m going to lock you in a thermos and have Clockwork throw you back into prehistoric times!”

Skulker, to Valerie’s surprise, seemed mildly stunned by that declaration. After a beat he decided, “Surely, you jest.”

“Nope. Not jesting,” Phantom said, crossing his arms with a smug grin.

“There is no way you know an Ancient well enough to ask asinine favors such as that.”

“Do you really want to risk it?” Phantom taunted.

Skulker frowned, considering that. “Fine. I will refrain from encountering you in class,” the ghost decided, apparently deciding the risk wasn’t worth it, then raised an arm. “But here is fair game!” He shot a small missile from a wrist gun.

Phantom easily dodged it, then got a sly grin on his face. To Valerie’s surprise, and apparently Skulker’s too, he manifested a guitar out of thin air, the same one he’d used during the concert, albeit with colors inverted, the base cyan instead of purple and accents purple instead of cyan—so it had been a ghostly trick that made the instruments appear!

“Is that… is that Ember’s old guitar?” Skulker asked, clearly confused.

“Yup,” Phantom said, popping the ‘p’, grinning mischievously—purposely antagonizing the other ghost, Valerie realized. Had Danny always been that malicious, or had ghostly malevolence been influencing his personality? He claimed it didn’t, but maybe he was unaware...

Skulker’s expression became outraged. “How dare you steal from her, welp!”

“Actually, she gave it to me,” Phantom said with a shit-eating grin. “And, she taught me how to use it!”

Phantom strummed a chord on the guitar, and a wave of sonic energy emitted from it, distorting the air in the same way heavy heat might, visible by how it warped the background. Skulker dodged easily, but the chimney behind him did not.

“Dammit, I’m supposed to be trying to do less damage,” Phantom muttered, staring at the shattered chimney, and apparently no longer paying attention to the ghost.

Valerie zoomed forward, twisting in the air and flipping her board to block a small barrage of missiles aimed at Phantom. “Pay attention, Phantom!” she scolded.

“Right, sorry!” Phantom said, dismissing the guitar and zipping around and zooming at the hunter ghost with a raised glowing fist.

The move was incredibly predictable, and Skulker responded by shooting a net at Phantom, ensnaring him in it before the punch could land. Valerie resisted facepalming; how had he survived until now?

“Fucking shit,” Phantom grumbled from the destroyed chimney where he’d landed, as he tried to untangle himself from the net.

Valerie raised her eyebrows, not expecting such language. “Aren’t you supposed to be a family-friendly superhero?” she wondered, as she shot at and destroyed a second net coming for her.

“Ghosts aren’t known for being family-friendly,” Phantom quipped back, as he glowed blue and then quickly spread his limbs out, shattering the now-frozen net and completely destroying the rest of the chimney. Well, at least he acknowledged that aspect of his ghostliness.

Phantom flew up and summoned his guitar again. Which apparently wasn’t a replica, rather had been gifted to him by Ember herself and seemed to have similar attack capabilities… Well, that was just great. Valerie really didn’t like the idea of there being two musician ghosts with such a large variety of unpredictable wide-sweeping attacks! Even if one was kinda an ally, at least until he got bored of the hero stuff and showed his true colors, as Valerie was sure would happen someday.

Phantom played with a little dial on the guitar and then strummed it again, creating a wave of yellow that slammed into Skulker. “Cool! It really does have an electric attack!” Phantom cheered.

“No!” Skulker shouted. “My suit!” The ghost shook, paralyzed by the blast as various parts of the suit clearly malfunctioned. “I’ll get you for this!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Phantom said, dismissing the guitar and pulling out a thermos. “Kinda gotta be able to move for that,” he said as he easily sucked Skulker into it. Valerie glided over to him and he grinned and told her, “That attack is definitely going to make fighting both Skulker and Technus much easier.”

“How the hell did you even get one of Ember’s guitars?” Valerie asked. “She didn’t seriously just give it to you, did she? And how can you just summon it and put it away?”

“It really is mine now,” Phantom said smugly. “She really did give it to me—we’re friends, she taught me to play. I can summon it because ghosts can do that sort of thing, when it comes to ghost-zone objects—or, I guess ecto-influenced objects in general, since I can do it with the thermos too, but only if it’s empty. Haven’t tested the extent of that though.”

“Huh. And you can do this with anything?” Valerie asked, thinking about the horrible implications of ghosts secretly carrying around whatever they wanted. She didn’t like the idea of hanging around talking with a ghost, especially Phantom, even though he was technically Danny, but if he was willing to give her important info like this, she would play nice.

Danny shook his head. “There’s a limit. Dunno the specifics as to how that limit is determined, I think it’s something about general mass combined with how spiritually connected you are to the things, but apparently if you try to carry too much you start to feel it, like get super tired and stuff, and at some point you just can’t acquire anything more unless you drop something. For example, Johnny can’t really be connected to much else while he stays connected to his bike. Think of it like, spiritually carrying things instead of physically carrying things—it’s actually the same mechanic as your suit, come to think of it.”

“My suit?”

“Yeah, like how it blends into you, weapons included. It uses ghost tech, you know.”

“I know that,” Valerie said, scowling. She had made peace with it, but still didn’t like thinking about that. Then she realized something else. “You know, you can’t really use that guitar as Phantom in public; you used it in human form at the concert. People will notice they’re the same.” Maybe that would get him to not use it anymore in fights.

“Nah; the colors get inverted when I switch forms,” Phantom explained. “Technically I can change the colors more, Clockwork showed me how, but it’s a bit of a nuisance, so I figured I’d just do what it defaulted to.”

“And you think just inverting the colors will work?” Valerie asked skeptically, as well as little concerned at how Phantom seemed to be friends with a ghost that, from Valerie’s understanding, was akin to a god. How deep was he in all this? If Valerie didn’t know better, she’d say he was closer to full ghost than whatever human bit he had left—maybe he even was for all she knew. Danielle was clearly half human and half ghost, but was it always such an even divide?

Phantom shrugged. “It works for the rest of me.”

Valerie frowned. “Guess that’s true,” she muttered, still annoyed at how long it had taken her to figure out that Phantom was Fenton when in retrospect it was so obvious. “Anyway, better get back to class,” Valerie said, turning to leave, then when Phantom made no move to asked, “You coming?”

Phantom shrugged. “Kinda not feeling school right now, honestly.”

Valerie frowned. It was only first period! “Well, you’re going,” she told him. “Not going to have your friends thinking I destroyed you or something when I return without you.”

“Oh, yeah, they might think that,” Phantom—no, Fenton now, as he’d shifted back while still floating—said sullenly. “Fine, I’ll go back.” He turned, and his hoodie slipped off his shoulder; Valerie caught a glimpse of bruises on Danny’s arm before he pulled it back up in a panic, and before Valerie could question that he vanished into thin air—or rather, went invisible, more likely.

Valerie didn’t know if Danny was intentionally taunting her by changing back into Fenton while floating and then doing ghost things like turning invisible, or just didn’t care, but either way, it angered her immensely.

Valerie sighed in frustration, though it came out as more of a growl, and headed back to class, hoping that Danny had the sense to return as well.

Valerie was not liking this new, more self-assured brazen Fenton-Phantom, having preferred it when Fenton was just an innocent cinnamon roll for her to protect and Phantom was a menace she could just shoot without all the complicated moral implications that came with learning he was half-human getting in the way. There was also the matter of the slight crush that was obnoxiously still there—why did she have to fall for the one guy at school who happened to secretly be half ghost, of all things?

Danny did, in fact, choose to skip class. He did remember to send a quick text to Sam and Tucker letting them know he was okay, and that he just didn’t want to go to class. They’d probably chew him out for it later, but he was just so tired…

There hadn’t even been any ghost attacks the previous night; maybe if he’d snuck back to his room and fallen asleep on his own bed, things would have been fine, but he hadn’t, even though that’s what he’d told Sam he was doing. He just couldn’t bring himself to go back. He wondered if his parents had even noticed his absence.

Danny wondered which he would prefer: his parents to have not noticed at all, or his parents noticing and then punishing him for it. Would his mom try to finish what she started? If she did, would his dad try to stop her? Or would he simply let her do it? Or would she wait until he wasn’t there? Danny didn’t think the first option would happen, and wasn’t sure which of the other two would be preferable.

Danny took note of the fact that the spot where a small piece of chimney shrapnel had hit him had already healed fully, despite being a cut. Yet the bruises from his mom still remained, healing much slower. What was with that? With the ecto-weapons it made sense, because they were designed to inhibit ghost healing. But bruises should heal much faster. Did it depend on what form he got them in? No, that can’t be it; he’d gotten cuts in human form before, yet they still healed faster than these bruises were. It can’t be cuts versus bruises either, because Danny had gotten bruises from ghost fights before that healed more rapidly too. Did it depend on if a human or ghost gave him the wound? Danny decided this was too much to think about at the moment and shoved the thoughts aside to analyze later.

Danny returned to the sleeping place he’d found the previous night—a small dilapidated abandoned shack on the highway leading out of town. It likely had been some sort of storage building, one room with a concrete floor, but at one point someone, likely homeless, had put some blankets in the corner, now decaying and clearly abandoned too. He’d found it after wandering around for a while, but it had been sufficient enough to get him at least two hours of sleep.

It wasn’t the best place to stay, but Danny knew no one would find him there, and it wasn’t exposed; he curled up on top of the blankets and immediately fell back asleep.

Jack was wandering around town just after lunch, searching around for ghosts while Maddie did some shopping. He wanted to see if he could find one of the friendlier-seeming human-based ones, in the hopes of talking amicably with them, see if he could see just how Danny could so casually be friends with them and maybe get the word out that he was interested in talking over fighting. If he got lucky, maybe he’d even find one of those ghost friends!

So far, all Jack had found was a strange tentacled creature in an alley that had an extremely dissettling aura (and which he couldn’t focus on for more than a second without getting the sense he’d go mad). Since it didn’t register on the ghost tracker, Jack decided best to ignore it; strange things like that had been appearing ever since MU appeared in town, and Jack would rather deal only with ghosts. It was likely fine; Danny had a similarly tentacled cryptid in his band after all, although this one looked less human than Lurker did, possibly more of a canine, if canines had potentially dozens of tentacles and existed in something beyond 3D that the human brain couldn’t properly process.

Finally, a blip appeared on the EMF meter, at the very edge of the range. Jack frowned. That spot was on the edge of town, along a wooded highway, at what Jack recognized was the eyesore of a large abandoned concrete shed the town previously used to store road maintenance supplies but had exchanged for a fancy new one ten years back. The roof was caving in, the windows were all broken, and it was graffitied to hell—really, the sort of building one would expect to encounter a ghost in, although usually not a human-based ghost… which, come to think of it, further proved that they weren’t mindless emotionless beings, right?

Well, might as well check it out anyway, Jack decided—it wasn’t like there were any other signals to investigate, at least not in the vicinity of this handheld device.

The walk took a little longer than Jack would have liked; perhaps he should have taken the GAV—no, a scooter or smaller car, if he showed up in the GAV he’d scare away the ghost. Well, he supposed adding an extra twenty-minute detour to his route wasn’t too bad, and Maddie was always pressing him to get more exercise anyway. Besides, this highway wasn’t used very much, and it was actually somewhat relaxing to walk next to the woods like this.

Soon, Jack approached the decaying shack. He narrowed the range on the ghost radar so it encompassed just the building in front of him, getting a better view of where the ghost was inside. Oddly enough, the blip was completely still, not moving at all.

Jack cautiously opened the heavy metal door, which barely held onto its rusty hinges, and slipped inside, trying to cause as little noise as possible. He resisted jumping in joy when he somehow actually managed it.

Jack looked around the small room; it was a simple ten foot by twenty foot rectangle, dimly lit by some small windows lining the upper walls, mostly cleared out except for some broken rakes and similarly unusable maintenance equipment. In one corner was a pile of moth-ridden blankets.

Curled up in a ball on his side and floating a few inches above the blankets was none other than Danny Phantom. He wasn’t moving.

Jack crept closer, wondering what the ghost was doing. “Phantom?” he asked quietly, not wanting to startle the ghost.

Phantom didn’t move. As Jack got closer, he realized that the ghost boy’s eyes were closed and he was completely still, almost like he was sleeping. Actually asleep? Ghosts could sleep? Since when could ghosts sleep? Did they usually sleep during the day, or was this a nap?

Jack wanted to wake the boy to ask him, but felt that would be rude; upon closer look the boy had dark bags under his eyes, as well as a bruise on his cheek indicating he’d likely been in a fight recently, meaning he probably really needed the sleep. Plus, the boy looked so peaceful, a softness to him that Jack had never seen before. It honestly reminded him a little of his own Danny.

Jack decided to leave the boy alone; true, he had been looking for a human-based ghost to talk to, but he could wait until a time where he didn’t need to disturb someone’s sleep to do that.

Jack slowly crept back out of the building, thankfully not disturbing the sleeping ghost, and returned to his preplanned circuit.

Jack briefly thought that he should tell Maddie about this, then realized that she wouldn’t find it as fascinating as he did. She’d claim Phantom was trying to trick him, even though logically it made no sense given that the ghost boy didn’t react at all when Jack got close enough to see his eye bags; if it were a trick, he would have attacked at that point. Then Maddie would scream at Jack about messing up a perfectly good opportunity to shoot Phantom down.

So, for now, Jack had to keep this new knowledge of sleeping ghosts a secret.

Unless… maybe he could talk to Jazz and Danny about it! They would be interested. Oh, but then they’d question why he wanted it kept a secret from Maddie… Then again, discussing ghosts with them—specifically, talking about understanding ghosts rather than killing ghosts—might be a good way to bond with the kids.

Jack sighed, mood dropping as he thought about how his relationship with his kids had become so deteriorated, Danny especially. He hadn’t even seen the boy since breakfast the previous day; after the planned family day had been a bust, Danny had run off to a friend’s place and stayed there, or so Maddie told him—not that she would have reason to lie about that. Jack should probably apologize to Danny tonight about that fight; he’d looked pretty upset when Jack had run off. Jack hated that Danny had to see that.

Maybe explaining to the kids that he and Maddie had different views on ghosts now would help? But again, that would bring up why Jack hid his views, and he didn’t want his kids knowing that…

Jack sighed again. Why did everything need to be so complicated?

“Daniel, please stay after class,” Lancer said as Danny was about to leave.

Danny held back a groan, not liking the prospect of being late to lunch again; Tucker and Sam gave Danny sympathetic looks but left after he waved them away. What now? He managed not to fall asleep in class this time despite some close calls. His homework? Yeah, probably his homework; he’d slept during study hall earlier instead of doing it, and the things due the previous day were done but still at home since he hadn’t returned there. “Sorry I didn’t get my homework done again,” Danny told his teacher as he approached the desk after the students finished filing out.

“This isn’t about your homework,” Lancer said in a gentle voice. He seemed cautious and very worried. “I can’t help but notice that you look rather disheveled. You wore the same outfit yesterday, which is clearly dirty, and look like you possibly slept in it. Your hair is clearly dirty and disheveled, as if you didn’t shower nor comb it, and the bags under your eyes are more noticeable than usual.”

“Oh, yeah, don’t hold back,” Danny muttered, taking a moment to readjust the hoodie from the lost-and-found so it didn’t slip off (the black one he usually kept in his locker was still at home, and he needed something to hide the bruises), not liking that Lancer had noticed all that.

Lancer ignored the comment and continued, “You also don’t have your backpack, nor did you yesterday, you were sharing a textbook with Sam, and that sweatshirt is clearly the one that’s lived in the lost-and-found for a year. Plus, your father called earlier to ask if you were in school; he said you messaged him claiming to be at a friend’s for the night and would be at school, but after last week he wanted to double check since you did the same Sunday night too.”

“Oh. I didn’t realize he’d actually check in…” Danny said in a small voice. He felt a little bad that his dad was getting hurt by Danny’s absence; it was his mom he needed to hide from, not his dad, but unfortunately he couldn’t hide from just one. He hadn’t messaged anyone the first night though; had Jack assumed, or had Maddie lied to cover up that he’d run because of her?

“He did,” Lancer said, voice still gentle. “Daniel, frankly, I’m worried about you; have you been sleeping in the streets?”

Danny winced. “Uh, no, not the streets,” he unconvincingly muttered. He was hoping no one would find out that he hadn’t been home, especially where he’d been sleeping. Was it really that obvious?

“But not at home, nor at a friend’s?”

Danny looked at the floor, not wanting to answer.

“Daniel?” Lancer prodded, worried vibes only increasing.

“It… it was an abandoned storage shed on a highway,” Danny admitted to the floor, wanting to be honest with Lancer. “I’ll go home today, don’t worry,” he said, and at Lancer’s skeptical vibes added, “Really, I promise. It’s just, me and my folks were fighting again and I didn’t want to be at home… But, I know I should go back. You’re right, I do, uh, need to shower and stuff,” he muttered the last bit. “And do my homework.”

“Don’t worry about the homework,” Lancer said, clearly resisting the urge to correct Danny’s grammatical error (yet another strange thing to be a distinct emotion, but Danny wasn’t surprised anymore at what counted as such). Lancer continued, “I’ll sort it out with your other teachers.”

“Really?” Danny asked, finally looking up at Lancer, eyes wide.

“Really. And I’ll excuse your absence yesterday afternoon, too—just please, Daniel, promise me that next time, you won’t sleep on the streets, or in an abandoned building, or anything like that? If you have nowhere else, I do have a guest room.”

“Oh, you don’t have to—”

Lancer cut Danny off. “I know, but I want to. Please. I can’t stand the thought of one of my students being on the streets. Let me help you.”

Danny considered that. It would be nicer to sleep in a guest room instead of that abandoned shack, and Lancer seemed very insistent upon it. Danny then recalled Lancer’s own story about being a teenage runaway who lived on the streets for some time—no wonder he wanted to do all he could to prevent another teenager from having to do that, and why his vibes proved he wouldn’t back down on that matter! “Okay,” Danny decided, completely truthfully. “Next time, I’ll come to you, if there’s no one else. Promise.”

“Thank you,” Lancer said, vibes of relief coming off him.

“Is that all…?” Danny asked quietly, though seemed to know and dread that it wasn’t.

Lancer contemplated asking, then decided that he should. “You mentioned you and your parents were fighting again. Do you want to talk about it?”

Danny shook his head. “No, that’s okay. I’ve got a therapy session after school today, so I’ll bring it up then,” he said, though wasn’t actually sure if he would. His first one, the consultation, had been the previous afternoon (during which he learned his mom had lied to the family, claiming he went to Tucker’s for the night; Jazz seemed to suspect that wasn’t true, but didn’t say anything), and they now had regular sessions scheduled for twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, since apparently Danny’s psyche was so worrisome with so much needing addressing that it required more than one session a week.

Lancer nodded kindly, but thankfully didn’t press. “Well, then, I won’t delay you from lunch anymore. Just remember: I’m here if you need me.”

Danny nodded. “Thanks. I really am grateful for that,” he said truthfully. “Really. There’s just some things I’m not ready to talk about yet. But…” he shifted awkwardly, realizing he was blushing a bit as he looked at the ground. “It’s really nice to know that there’s someone there for me. An adult, I mean. One that knows I’m also… well, you know. So, thanks.”

“Of course,” Lancer said with a gentle smile as Danny looked back up. Danny couldn’t help but think that the caring and comforting vibes Lancer gave off really should be something his mom should have too. His teacher shouldn’t feel like more of a parent than his own parent.

“Right. Off to lunch, then,” Danny said as he hopped over to the window, peeked his head out while it was still closed, and then phased through. He couldn’t help but grin as he felt a vibe of surprise followed by a fond resignation from Lancer.

Chapter Text

“Oh, look who finally came home,” Maddie sneered, turning towards Danny as he entered the kitchen. It looked like she was starting dinner, currently cutting vegetables. The efforts of her and Jack to actually have family dinners now was honestly rather bizarre to Danny; they hadn’t cared for most of the first 16 years of his life, so why were they suddenly now?

“Where’s dad and Jazz?” Danny asked, heart immediately speeding up and core pulsing, not liking that it was apparently only him and his mother home—and not liking the fact that she was holding a knife while her emotions were clearly somewhat volatile. She’d obviously been angry about something else, and Danny had come home just in time to become the target for that anger.

Danny had promised both Lancer and his therapist that he’d come home tonight, but was already starting to regret it, fear pooling in his core. He hadn’t told either the true reason for leaving after the fight, only saying that his parents had a nasty verbal fight while leaving out the beating he took afterwards—if they’d known, would they still have suggested he return home?

Maddie scoffed as she continued the dinner prep. “Your sister is doing a presentation on ghost psychology for one of her classes. She invited us to observe; I have no idea why your father decided to go, since it’s a ridiculous premise, something about why child ghosts are more likely to feed on positive emotions. She’s probably going to fail, given ghosts do not feed on emotions. Some get power from them, sure, if it’s part of their obsession, like that music ghost that loves attention, but it’s not some universal ghost thing!”

Danny resisted saying something to counter that very wrong conclusion, instead asking, “When will they be back?”

“The class is from 5 to 7, so probably not until around 8,” Maddie said, and Danny glanced at the clock; it was now only 5, as he’d come right home after his therapy appointment. “It’s just you and me for dinner; they’re going to get something at the cafeteria at the school.”

“Oh. Okay,” Danny said, really not liking the idea of that. “I’m just going to go up to my room, then.” He turned to do just that.

“No, you’re not,” Maddie said calmly, setting the knife down and moving towards him; Danny couldn’t help but flinch.

“W-what do you mean?” Danny asked shakily. Was she going to continue where she left off two days prior?

“You’re going to tell me where you were for the past two nights,” Maddie said in a saccharine voice that Danny knew cloaked quiet rage. “And don’t say Tucker’s; I told your dad that, but you and I both know that isn’t true.”

“Then why’d you tell him that?” Danny couldn’t help but wonder.

“Because it would upset him too much to learn you were with those ghosts again.”

“What? How would I be with them without portal access?” he pointed out, opting not to mention that he was pretty sure his dad would be the opposite of unhappy, rather probably would want to ask more questions about them.

“Not in the Ghost Zone, in Amity Park,” Maddie explained, now standing in front of Danny. “The one on the bike and his girlfriend were spotted around town.”

“Oh. Well, I didn’t see them,” Danny told her truthfully. They must have been on the other side of town, and Tucker had filtered out certain ghosts, including them, from his PDA ghost alert app (connected to the full-town scanner in the ops center). Danny wondered if they’d used a natural portal or if Johnny acquired a portal gun that he’d incorporated into his bike again.

“Liar!” Maddie accused, then reached out and slapped Danny on the cheek. “Tell the truth.”

“I am!” Danny said, automatically putting a hand on the spot where she’d slapped him (he knew better than to back up or try to run).

“Then where were you?” Maddie demanded.

Danny winced. “Um. I’d rather not tell you.” She’d probably be upset that he’d been sleeping in a shed for the past two nights.

“Then it was with the ghosts,” Maddie concluded. “It seems the punishment wasn’t enough, then. Come with me,” she demanded, grabbing Danny’s wrist—which stung, as once again she wore the Specter Deflector.

“Wait, what? Where are we going?!” Danny asked in mild panic—she was dragging him to the lab! Had she figured things out? Did she know he was a ghost? Was she going to experiment on him?

“Stop struggling!” Maddie ordered, gripping Danny’s wrist harder.

Danny shook his head, still trying to pull away. Logically he knew cooperating would be better, at least until he knew what her plan truly was, but he was scared! He had to remember not to go intangible no matter how much his core wanted him to—it wouldn’t work with the Specter Deflector, rather would just cause a larger shock.

“Fine, then,” Maddie hissed, and pulled Danny towards her. She grabbed him around the chest and Danny bit back a scream at the additional contact causing the Specter Deflector to succeed in weakening him enough to not fight back as hard as he should be able to; he let out a whimper, letting his body go limp as he realized fighting was useless.

Maddie carried Danny to the lab and mercilessly tossed him onto the floor, ignoring his shaking.

“Shirt off,” Maddie told Danny as she searched for something in a drawer.

“What?” Danny asked in confusion as he weakly scrambled to his feet. She didn’t know his secret, then? But then what…?

“Shirt off,” Maddie said again, as she appeared with what looked like a bullwhip.

Danny’s eyes widened and his heart rate increased. “You’re going to whip me!?” he concluded, horrified.

“Well, clearly grounding doesn’t work; maybe this will teach you,” Maddie said coldly. “Now, shirt off, hands on the desk.”

Danny subconsciously began to slightly shake again, eyes widening in fear, only increased by the angry, violent vibes his mother gave off. It wasn’t like he’d get too damaged by it, at least not so badly it would take long to heal. Probably. But, still. Danny fell to his knees, too nervous to stand, trying not to whimper—he didn’t want her to get angrier again because of a pathetic sound.

“Danny,” his mom said, warning in her voice.

Danny slowly removed his shirt, but didn’t move otherwise. His mom didn’t comment on all the bruises; after all, she probably assumed she had caused them rather than the ghost fights from earlier that day and Dash, since the ones from just a few days prior wouldn’t have yet healed as much as they had if he were truly human. “Please, don’t,” he muttered, closing his eyes. “Please don’t.”

Maddie paused. “Okay, I won’t.”

Danny opened his eyes and looked up at his mom. “You won’t?” he asked. “Seriously?”

“Not this time. Let the fear be enough of a lesson. Next time, however, I won’t show mercy, understand?”

Danny nodded. “Y-yes, I understand,” he stammered out, sensing she was being serious about that.

“Good. Now—Danny, what’s that on your chest?” Maddie asked, eyes narrowing.

Danny glanced down, then realized what she meant. “Oh. Um, Jazz put it on, it’s just black henna, not a real tattoo. It’s a symbol to protect from ghosts,” Danny hurriedly lied.

Maddie looked at it, as though she were trying to recall something, then seemed amused. “To prevent overshadowing, right? Yes, I do remember one of the more outlandish books having that in it… Unfortunately, honey, ghosts don’t care what tattoos you have. It’s pseudo-ecto-science.”

“Oh,” Danny said, trying to look a little disappointed. In reality, it definitely did work, but prevented summoning—so, technically Maddie was right, Danny supposed, as it was an anti-human ward, not an anti-ghost one (ghosts summoning other ghosts was considered a major social taboo that would get one not just shunned by all other ghosts but also arrested by the Observants).

“Now, for your actual punishment,” Maddie said, and Danny looked up in slight fear again. There was more? Danny squeaked as Maddie grabbed him by the hair, dragged him over to a small containment chamber, and tossed him in despite his protests, locking it after.

“Hey, what the hell?!” Danny shouted, banging on the side of the kennel-sized tank of ecto-proof glass.

“If you want to fraternize with ghosts, you’ll be treated like a ghost,” Maddie said curtly. “Don’t make me use chains, too. Now, I am going to finish making dinner; you’ll be released when it’s ready.”

Danny, on his knees, watched hopelessly as his mom disappeared up the stairs. He didn’t even have a shirt on! Flashbacks to nightmares he’d had of getting caught by his parents came to mind, but in those he’d been Phantom—now his mom thought he was fully human, yet had still locked him up. Being in the glass chamber also made him think of that time Vlad tortured him to get his DNA, even though it was a different shape.

A rush of panic engulfed Danny at the memory of being in Vlad’s torture chamber, and Danny did his best to bite it down, but couldn’t help the same emotions from that time engulfing him no matter how much he told himself it was not the same situation.

Danny twisted so he wasn’t on his knees, rather could curl up with his knees in front of him and arms wrapped around him. He stared into the distance as he felt the tears silently start to fall, doing his best to stay quiet instead of loudly sobbing like he wanted to do. He’d say any glowing residue they created was due to the tank not being fully cleaned, or maybe ecto-contamination—he had been in the Ghost Zone a few days, which theoretically could make that bad enough to have glowing tears, right?

Thankfully, Danny’s mom did remember to release him at dinner time, during which they ate in relative silence, until his mom spoke up near the end.

“Just so you know, we’ll be implementing a new punishment,” she said, voice irritatingly pleasant and vibes neutral, clearly feeling no qualms about what she’d done to Danny. “Perhaps it will encourage you to come home on time, as grounding clearly doesn’t work. So, here’s how it will be: from now on, if you’re not back by curfew to eat dinner with the family, you won’t be getting any dinner. We won’t save you anything, and you won’t be allowed to get any snacks or anything, either. Understood?”

Danny simply nodded in response, not having the mental energy to verbally respond.

Lancer was sitting in his armchair near the warm fireplace, reading a book with one of his cats, a calico named Princess, lounging on his lap, when a black and white blur flew intangibly through his doorway and then crashed into the side of the couch.

“War of the Worlds!!” Lancer proclaimed, leaping out of his seat, book flopping onto the ground and his cat angrily yowling as she ran down the hall, no doubt to hide under the bed. He moved to see if he still had an ecto-weapon in the drawer of the cabinet near him, then realized that he recognized the figure. “Daniel?”

Daniel, in Phantom form, groaned as he stood up, using the couch arm as an assist. “S-sorry about that, Mr. L,” he said, rubbing a hand on his back, likely the spot that collided with the couch arm.

“What are you doing here?” Lancer wondered. “It’s…” he glanced at the clock, “Quarter to eleven, shouldn’t you be in bed?” If the boy was out this late at night, presumably ghost fighting, it was no wonder he constantly fell asleep in class.

Daniel shook his head. “Couldn’t sleep, then my ghost sense went off. Turned out it was just Boxy, but then my mom showed up… Don’t worry, I’m not bleeding heavily this time,” he joked, voice sounding concerningly weak despite that. “Um. S-sorry for barging in though. I was fleeing from them, and I saw your name on the mailbox and remembered that you told me I could stop by if needed…” he shifted awkwardly. “Um, that is still okay, right?”

“Of course,” Lancer said gently. “Sit down, I’ll put on some tea.”

“Y-yeah, sitting, probably good to do,” Daniel muttered, stumbling slightly as he moved to the couch, a hand flying to his head. There was a flash of light, and Daniel changed into his human form before essentially falling onto the couch, breathing rather heavily, hand remaining pressed to his head.

Lancer paused on his way to the kitchen. “Daniel? Are you okay?” he asked, worried. He hoped Daniel didn’t need stitches again; it hadn’t even been a week since he found Daniel in that locker room.

“Y-yeah, just a little dizzy, it’s fine,” the boy claimed, closing his eyes.

“Dizzy is rarely ‘fine’,” Lancer pointed out. “Did you hit your head?”

Daniel shook his head, then winced. He put his other hand on his stomach, which growled loudly.

Lancer scrunched his brow, a sneaking suspicion coming over him. “Daniel, when was the last time you ate something?” he wondered, suspecting the stomach pains and dizziness may be linked. He knew the boy sometimes skipped lunch, particularly if there were ghost fights during it.

Daniel looked like he actually had to think about that. “Uh. This morning, I guess? I was running late though, so I only grabbed a banana… then I missed lunch due to a ghost fight… Kitty showed me how to make some ectoplasm drinks that I could keep on hand for situations like that, but my parents have had the lab more locked down than usual since I ran into the Ghost Zone so I wasn’t able to get any ectoplasm to make them.”

“And why didn’t you have dinner?” Lancer asked, when the boy didn’t continue. Had Daniel continued living on the streets instead of going home, and was perhaps not eating because of it?

Daniel winced. “Ah, well…” his shoulders drooped slightly and his hands fell to his lap. “I just, um…” Daniel trailed off, looking like he was trying to come up with a story. Lancer knew that look on him well thanks to all the excuses for being late and not doing homework.

“Daniel,” Lancer said, going for stern but gentle, hoping the boy would tell the truth, the fact he was potentially trying to hide the reason increasing his concern. Another horrible thought came across Lancer, so he asked, “Have you been intentionally not eating?” He knew Daniel had issues with depression (the boy never explicitly stated such, but Lancer had been teaching long enough to recognize the signs in teens; thankfully Daniel now had a therapist who could properly address such), which could lead to issues with eating…

Daniel shook his head. “No, it’s not that—well, not on my part, at least…” He looked at a random point on the floor, but sighed and nervously said truthfully, “Y-you know how I’m supposed to be home by 6:30 most days now, unless I get permission? Well, apparently being late, even by just a few minutes, means I don’t get dinner. Same thing happened yesterday too, though it was by like an hour so I guess that’s more understandable,” he said hurriedly, glancing at Lancer at the end, who was desperately trying to suppress a horrified expression.

“Daniel, that’s… They can’t do that,” Lancer told him. That kind of punishment… it was abuse, plain and simple. Lancer needed to get Daniel to understand that, although first he had to figure out just how bad this was and get the kid some food.

“Well, they did,” Daniel said dejectedly. “Or at least my mom did, my dad looked like he didn’t agree but as usual he didn’t say anything.” His stomach growled again.

“Please tell me that you at least ate lunch yesterday?”

Daniel looked sheepish at that. “Um. Not exactly… But, I had cereal in the morning! And technically, I don’t need to eat as much human food as regular humans, so I’m sure I’ll be fine…”

“Daniel,” Lancer said sternly. “Your stomach is growling, and you’re feeling dizzy. Even if you need to eat less, those are clear signs that currently your body is demanding food. Consuming only a bowl of cereal and a banana over the course of 48 hours is surely much too little, even for a ghost-human hybrid.”

“I guess when you put it that way, it does sound bad…”

“Come to the kitchen; I have leftovers from dinner, I’ll reheat them for you,” Lancer decided. “No objections,” he told Daniel as the boy opened his mouth, and then he headed to the kitchen.

As he left, Lancer heard a quiet “Thank you,” from the boy, who didn’t immediately move to get off the couch. Lancer had a feeling Daniel had more to say, so he turned to listen. The boy said, “Um. So I actually do have some bad bruises… From ghost fights! Just from ghost fights,” he added the last part quickly, as though he didn’t want Lancer to get the wrong—or perhaps in this case, right—idea.

Lancer’s idea was not a happy one. He had seen too many abused kids during his long tenure at Casper High, and Daniel was exhibiting enough signs that in any other situation Lancer would be calling CPS—unfortunately, CPS was a government organization, and the moment they realized Danny wasn’t human they’d almost definitely be contacting the GIW; the organization had stopped getting so involved with their town since MU appeared, particularly after MU sicced their lawyers at the GIW, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t respond if directly contacted.

Daniel continued, “So, um, do you have any painkillers?”

Lancer gave pause to that, recalling something the boy had said the previous week. “Didn’t your sister want you to reduce their use?”

“I mean like aspirin or tylenol, not the stronger stuff!” Daniel clarified. Lancer decided it best not to ask where Daniel had gotten ‘stronger stuff’, given he didn’t go to the hospital or have a human physician.

“Ah, then yes; I’ll go retrieve some,” Lancer said, and made his way to the bathroom to find some.

By the time Lancer returned, Daniel had fallen asleep on the couch. Another one of Lancer’s cats, a black one named Shadow (Lancer knew he was not the most creative with cat names; the third one, who was definitely hiding, was a white longhair named Snowball), sat curled up next to the boy, purring.

Lancer sighed gently. He knew the boy needed sleep, but right now he also needed food, and the latter was currently the more urgent matter—plus, Lancer wasn’t certain if it was just sleep, or if he had fallen unconscious, and seeing the cat there Lancer feared the latter given cats often purred as a way to heal and lend comfort to people.

So Lancer gently shook Daniel’s shoulder to wake the boy, who was concerningly slow to respond; eventually Daniel slowly blinked his eyes open and sat up, placing his hand on his head as though he had a headache. “Sorry, didn’t mean to blackout like that.”

So he had unintentionally fallen unconscious, Lancer concluded, as he handed the boy, who was now gently scratching behind Shadow’s ears, the pills and a glass of water. He had to get food in the boy asap.

Shadow purred more and bumped his head on Daniel’s chin, demanding more pets; Daniel complied and, curiously, began to emit a similar vibration sound from his chest, in-sync with the cat, looking very content. Lancer decided it must be a ghost thing and left it alone as he went to prepare food for the boy.

A short while later a plate of mashed potatoes, broccoli, and meatloaf was sat in front of Daniel, who was now seated at the kitchen table (which he’d needed assistance getting to, as he was shaking as he moved); the boy was wolfing the food down faster than what was probably safe. Lancer let the boy know that he was going to call his sister, then moved back to the living room to do so. Thankfully he already had her cell phone number as the girl often did tutoring sessions.

“Mister Lancer?” Jasmine asked when she answered the phone, no doubt confused at the hour.

“Hello, Jasmine,” Lancer greeted. “I have your brother here—”

“Danny?! Is he okay? What happened? Why’s he at your place? Is he safe? Is he hurt?!”

“Relax, Jasmine,” Lancer told her gently. “Daniel is safe here. He is not badly injured, as far as I know. He was out as Phantom, and flew in here to escape a fight with ghost hunters. I gave him ibuprofen for some bruises and a headache, but nothing is bleeding.”

“Okay. So, why are you calling me?” Jasmine understandably wondered.

“He briefly fainted from hunger,” Lancer told her, knowing she preferred to get right to the point. “He reluctantly admitted that all he ate today was a banana, and all he had yesterday was some cereal in the morning. Were you aware of this?”

Lancer could almost hear Jasmine’s face pale. After a brief silence she said quietly, “No, I wasn’t. Yesterday I was at the college studying with friends until late, and tonight I had a long evening class that overlapped with the usual dinner time… Did he say why he hasn’t eaten? Is it… Is it intentional?”

“No, not in the way you’re thinking,” Lancer said, realizing how she had potentially interpreted it. “He said that the lunches were because of ghost fights, and he couldn’t get to the lab to make the ectoplasm drinks he uses in case that happens. The dinners… Well, it seems your parents are now using missed meals as a punishment when he returns late.”

“What?!” Jasmine hissed. “That… What are they thinking?!” She sounded outraged despite a relatively quiet voice. “Okay, give me the address, I’ll come pick him up and take him to the diner.”

“No need; I had some leftovers he’s eating now,” Lancer told her. “I just wanted you to be aware; I know how much you care about him, and that if you’d known you wouldn’t have allowed it.”

“Damn right I wouldn’t have!” Jasmine exclaimed, and Lancer resisted the instinctual urge to call her out on the language. “I’m still coming over though, the lab portion of my class actually only just got out so I can be there relatively soon,” she said, and Lancer briefly wondered what class she could possibly have that went until past 11pm until he realized that there was a non-zero chance that he really wouldn’t want to know, considering it was an MU class. “Make sure he stays put,” Jasmine ordered before abruptly hanging up.

Lancer returned to the kitchen to find Daniel at the sink, washing his plate and silverware, and told the boy, “Your sister just got out of class; she’s on her way. Would you like some ice cream while you wait? I have Rocky Road and Strawberry Cheesecake flavors.” Not only would that help ensure he stayed, but also would help ensure his blood sugar rose to an appropriate level, whatever that was for a ghost-human hybrid; Lancer was unfortunately well acquainted with the fact that Daniel mostly had ectoplasm running through his veins, but allegedly there was still a small amount of human blood mixed in, which presumably needed to have the right balance of nutrients. Lancer did have a test kit, due to Shadow being diabetic, but he wasn’t sure how accurate it would be in this case.

Daniel’s eyes widened. “Ice cream?” He asked, eyes momentarily flashing green, which Lancer interpreted as an indication of excitement. Then, Daniel shifted nervously and said, “Um, if that’s okay, I don’t want to inconvenience you more…”

“It’s not an inconvenience,” Lancer said gently as he went to get the ice cream out of the freezer. “Do you have a flavor preference?”

“Strawberry Cheesecake,” Daniel said without even needing to consider it.

Lancer prepared a bowl of that for Daniel and a bowl of Rocky Road for himself, then sat at the table with the boy to eat it.

Daniel laughed as Shadow jumped on the table and tried to steal some ice cream; Lancer shooed Shadow away and firmly told the cat, “You know better than to steal ice cream. Sneaking human desserts is exactly how you became diabetic.” He hoped saying that would also warn Daniel about the danger of trying to sneak the cat a lick of ice cream, because Shadow liked to beg.

Daniel giggled again. “I didn’t know cats could have such personality,” he said. “I never was allowed to have a pet growing up; my parents said the house was too dangerous.”

“Ah, that’s a shame,” Lancer said, noting the fact that Daniel’s parents apparently had deemed the house too unsafe for animals but apparently not too unsafe for their own children. “Cats are quite wonderful creatures. You have a dog now though, correct? The ghost one?”

Daniel moved his hand in a so-so gesture. “Cujo kinda bonded with me I guess, but I wouldn’t exactly call him mine. He’s a ghost, so doesn’t really need much care, and comes and goes as he pleases. Basically he just visits me when he’s bored and wants to play. Or, well, he used to; I guess nowadays he’s been stopping by more lately, sometimes just hanging out with me and my friends, happy to just cuddle and take naps.” He chuckled. “Jazz says he’s like a therapy dog. She tried to get me one of those back in middle school, actually…” he trailed off, looking lost in thought as he took another bite of ice cream.

“Oh?” Lancer prodded gently, curious as to why Jasmine would think he needed one, and slightly worried too.

Daniel nodded. “I… wasn’t really doing well back then,” he admitted. “Honestly, I’m still not, but back then… It’s the reason Jazz got so invested in psychology, I think. At that point even I realized that I probably should get help, but my parents were just so adamant that it was just regular teenage angst, even though I… Well, with the thoughts I was having, let’s just say it was lucky I made it to high school alive—well, partly alive.”

“I see,” Lancer said somberly. “Well, I for one am certainly glad you made it so far. These thoughts though—you’re still having them, aren’t you?” Lancer knew for a fact the boy was, given some of his comments when talking about his portal accident.

Daniel sighed, then nodded slowly. “I won’t act on anything though, promise,” he told Lancer. “My therapist says it’s one of the first things he wants to work on; he’s having me keep a feelings journal, and wants me to note how often I have thoughts like that.”

“Oh, good,” Lancer said, relieved that Daniel would finally be getting help after what had apparently been years of needing it. Lancer regretted not intervening sooner.

The atmosphere melted into a comfortable silence where the two were simply eating the ice cream, before Daniel spoke up again. “Why are you being so nice to me?” he asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Lancer countered, somewhat expecting the question to eventually rear its head. Most students he tried to help had similar reactions; it could be jarring to suddenly find an adult being caring when a child has only ever experienced ones who weren’t.

Daniel shrugged. “I dunno. I mean, you’ve always been nicer than my other teachers, I guess, even with the detentions, but it’s kinda weird, like Jazz was the closest I had to an adult I could trust. But now you know my secret, and have been so nice about it, and are even giving me food… I just, I don’t understand. Not even my parents pay this much attention. And you listen! I think you’re the first adult who has actually listened to me.”

“That is something I find very concerning,” Lancer told the boy. “Parents should be there for you; they should listen to you, and make you feel welcome in your home. They should provide food for you if you’re hungry, not punish you with lack of it.”

“The food punishment’s new,” Daniel quickly said. “Usually they just yell at me and ground me, but the grounding doesn’t really matter since I can just lock the door and phase out of my room.”

“Do they yell at you often?” Lancer asked, aware that verbal abuse could be just as damaging as other forms of abuse.

Daniel shrugged. “I mean, yeah, I guess? But I deserve it. Like, I constantly get home past curfew, my grades suck, I always forget to do chores, my friends are a ‘bad influence’, you know, the typical things. I should be better, Jazz never had trouble with any of that.”

“Do your parents compare you to your sister often?”

Danny gave off an amused scoff. “When do they not? I mean, Jazz is awesome at everything, I get that, I’ll never live up to her example. It’s just annoying that they keep reminding me of that. And the way they say it too, like they’re so disappointed with me… But if they’re so disappointed, if they want me to be better, why don’t they do anything to try to help? They’re in the lab most of the time, occasionally they seem to suddenly realize they’ve been ignoring me and Jazz and go on a random weekend vacation but then it’s back to forgetting we exist. I guess their insistence on family dinners is maybe an attempt to fix that, but it doesn’t feel like it, not when it inevitably ends up with them talking to Jazz about everything going on in her life or them rambling about their inventions designed to eliminate me—well, Phantom—while I sit there quietly. They don’t even bother to ask me how my day was anymore, it’s like they’ve assumed I’m a lost cause and gave up on me or something.”

“Daniel, you are not a lost cause,” Lancer said firmly. “You’re a teenager. You need guidance, not scolding.”

“Yeah, well, tell that to them,” Daniel said, though there was no heat to his words, as though he simply accepted that this was the way things were.

The doorbell rang. Lancer answered it, and before he could process who it was or say a word a redheaded blur rushed by shouting “Danny!”

Lancer smiled in amusement and closed the door before returning to the kitchen to find Jasmine fretting over her brother, who was blushing in embarrassment with the ice-cream spoon still in his mouth.

“Oh thank goodness! Danny, I was so worried—did they really not feed you?”

Danny shrugged. He put the spoon back in the bowl and told her, “It’s okay. It was my fault.”

“No, Danny,” Jasmine said sternly. “We talked about this, remember? People causing you pain is not your fault.”

“They didn’t cause—”

“Yes, they did,” Jasmine asserted, cutting Danny off. “Lancer said you fainted. With the small amount you ate I’m sure your stomach must have been cramping something fierce too.”

“Well, yeah, but I’m the one that missed lunch, if I hadn’t—”

“We’re not talking about lunch, that’ll come later,” Jasmine said firmly. “We’re talking about the fact that our parents punished you by restricting food! The fact that they even thought that was okay to do in the first place! If they can do this, what else can they do? Wait, there haven’t been other punishments I don’t know about, have there?” she asked worriedly. “Other than, of course, Mom hitting you in human form, I mean.”

Daniel quickly shook his head. “No, no, everything’s fine! And Mom doesn’t hit me, that was like, a one time thing, and it was just a slap, anyway.” It did not sound sincere at all, Lancer determined—there were definitely other incidents, and Lancer would guarantee that the physical abuse was more frequent and worse than Daniel wished for his sister and Lancer to know. Daniel quickly continued before anyone could call him out on the obvious lies, “Hey, can we go home now, before they get home? Soon mom’ll realize that Phantom escaped again and stop looking, if she hasn't already. I don’t want her finding me gone.”

“No,” Jasmine said.

“No?” Daniel questioned.

“No. It’s not safe for you there right now.”

“But then, where…” Daniel trailed, seeming confused.

“You are welcome to use my guest room,” Lancer offered.

Jasmine smiled. “Thanks, but that won’t be necessary,” she told Lancer, then turned back to Daniel. “MU has a small wing of temporary dorm-style rooms for visiting researchers; I managed to secure you one. Until I’ve sorted things out with our parents, get them to understand that this type of discipline is wrong, you’ll be staying there.”

“What?” Daniel asked, looking like he was having trouble processing that.

“Home is less safe than usual for you right now,” Jasmine explained, “Don’t think I didn’t notice you lying about being hit; I’ve seen you with bruises that I know aren’t from ghost fights or school, and I see the way you’ve been flinching everytime Mom gets near you! Things are much worse than you’re willing to admit to me—I know you think you’re protecting me by hiding it, so I won’t make you admit it, but regardless, you can’t stay there.”

Daniel visibly paled. “Th-that… Um… Look, it’s not that bad, really, I can handle it! I get hurt worse ghost fighting.”

“It’s not a matter of degree of injury, Danny,” Jasmine pointed out. “A parent should not hit their child out of anger!”

“Apologies for interjecting, but I must agree with your sister,” Lancer said gently. “You need to get out of that house, Daniel. It isn’t safe.”

“But…” Daniel looked like he was scrambling for an excuse not to go. “Um, okay, what about Sam or Tucker’s? Or, I could go to the Ghost Zone again?”

Jasmine replied, “Our parents will look for you at Sam and Tucker’s, and the lab is currently locked down so you can’t go to the Ghost Zone. This is the best option. Is it being MU the issue?”

Daniel shook his head. “Not really. Or, kinda? Not MU specifically, it’s just… I don’t want things to change,” Daniel said, the last part in a quiet mumble.

Jasmine gave her brother a sympathetic look. “I know. Change is difficult. But you’re not alone; I’ll be there with you.”

Daniel considered that for a moment. “You’re not going to let this drop, are you,” he concluded, not as a question.

“Nope,” Jasmine said.

Daniel sighed. “Okay, fine… How’d you even manage to get the dorm, anyway?”

“Professor Warren was still in his office when I was leaving, so I asked him, and he took care of it,” Jasmine said, as though it were perfectly normal for a professor to be in his office at that hour and arrange something so quickly. Maybe it was for that place. “I’ll be in the room next to you,” the girl added.

Daniel scrunched his brow slightly as he took a moment to process that. “Do mom and dad know?”

“Not yet,” Jasmine told him. “I’ll call them once we’re there; they won’t be able to storm the university, but I don’t want them trying to intercept us on the way or something,” she said, and that broke Lancer’s heart a little more—to think, his students were in such a situation where that was something they had to worry about!”

“What about school tomorrow?” Daniel asked, and Lancer wasn’t sure if it was due to worry or if he was still trying to convince Jasmine to let it go. “They can grab me on the way. And my homework—which I did manage to complete for once—and phone and stuff is all in my room.”

Lancer answered the latter. “I believe this counts as extenuating circumstances, thus as Vice Principal I am allowing you an extension on any work that is due…” he glanced at the clock, “Today. There are spare textbooks the school can lend you, considering it’s a matter of not having access to your own rather than forgetting to bring them in.

Jazz, to Lancer’s surprise, giggled. “Sorry, sorry,” she said. “Danny, aren’t you forgetting something?”

Daniel scrunched his brow in confusion. “Huh? What?”

“You can easily phase into your room and get your things, invisibly.”

“Oh, right, duh,” Daniel said as he slapped his palm to his forehead. “So my work isn’t an issue at all, then—but, they still might show up at school!” he reminded them.

“Easily solvable,” Lancer said gently. “I can issue a no-admittance order for them, unless there’s urgent ghost-related business.”

“Okay, but what about getting to school?” Daniel countered.

Jasmine jumped in, “Okay, firstly, that’s a non-issue as you could always just fly there like you do half the time; but if you really don’t want to do that, I’ll drive you.”

“No, I can fly,” Daniel muttered.

Jasmine smiled knowingly. “As I thought. Offer’s still open if you do want a ride, though. Don’t worry, little brother; you can let the adults handle it from here.”

Daniel opened his mouth, then frowned.

“Something wrong?” Jasmine asked.

Daniel blushed and scratched the back of his neck as he told his sister, “I, er, was about to say the usual, ‘you’re not an adult yet’ line, but then realized that you actually are now.”

Jasmine laughed and ruffled Daniel’s hair; Lancer smiled at the display of easy sibling affection. Lancer still had half a mind to call CPS, but again knew it likely wouldn’t be the right call here, given that an investigation would very likely lead to Daniel’s ghostly status being revealed. Thankfully, Daniel’s sister seemed to have it handled; Lancer had a feeling that as long as Jasmine was in the picture, Daniel would persevere, no matter what happened with his parents.

Jack sat alone at the kitchen table munching on some fudge, immensely worried. It was well past midnight, and Jazz had not come home yet, which was unlike her—yes, her class went until 11:20, but usually she came straight home, and if the class went longer or something else would cause her to come back late or not come home for the night she would call right away with her plans. Danny, too, wasn’t there, having snuck out—Jack had checked immediately after Maddie left to blow off steam via ghost fighting (to Jack’s immense relief, as otherwise he’d surely have been the target). Maddie had gone to sleep as soon as she arrived home, unaware that Jack was waiting for the kids, who he’d tried messaging and calling a few times to no avail.

So, Jack sat at the table, too worried to sleep—not that he’d be able to well anyway, given he’d be using the couch tonight (they technically had a guest room, but Maddie would get mad if he tried using it) after the fight he and his wife had gotten into earlier about her new punishment for Danny returning home late. Who does that to their kid? Two nights in a row it had happened!

The first night Jack had slightly protested, then awkwardly went along with it, against his better judgement—it had been a cowardly move driven by fear of retaliation, but he should have fought for Danny. He’d tried to sneak some food to him after, but Maddie unfortunately caught him.

The second night Danny had run off right away, apparently anticipating the punishment, as though he’d already been aware that Maddie intended to do it every single time he was late. So, Jack fought with his wife about it. He vaguely wondered if Danny had overheard the fight before sneaking out, or if he instead simply had left immediately.

After heavy arguing, as Jack became near certain that Maddie would escalate to violence, the woman got a signal on a ghost tracking device and took off. Jack hoped it hadn’t been Phantom she was chasing, but he was too tired to follow, and he instead used the opportunity to try bringing Danny some dinner—only to discover his son had already left.

Suddenly, the home phone rang.

Jack scrambled up, heart racing. He desperately hoped it was Jazz belatedly letting him know where she was, as the other options Jack could think of for a call this late at night would be the police or hospital.

Before Jack could imagine too many scenarios of Danny or Jazz being arrested or hospitalized, he was at the phone, grabbing it and asking, “Hello?”

“Dad,” came Jazz’s voice, to Jack’s relief.

“Jazzikins,” Jack said breathlessly. “Thank god. I was getting worried! Where are you? Are you okay? Do you know where Danny is? He ran off after—”

“Whoa, Dad, one thing at a time,” Jazz interrupted. “First, Danny is fine. He ended up at our teacher’s house, who called me and gave him food.”

“Oh, good, he did get food,” Jack said, relieved. “Well, if he’s still hungry, I saved him some dinner, he can eat that when he gets home, just don’t tell Maddie.”

“Dad. We won’t be coming home,” Jazz stated, tone carefully devoid of emotion.

Jack took a moment to comprehend what she said, then whispered, “What?”

“We’re not coming home tonight,” Jazz repeated, and Jack was relieved at the addition of ‘tonight’, then dread formed again as Jazz continued, “Danny literally passed out from lack of food. We’re lucky he found his teacher’s house just before that; it very well could have been in the street.” Jack frowned, wondering how that had happened. Passing out didn’t happen just because of one missed meal—had Danny not had lunch, either? Jack recalled he’d only had a banana at breakfast… Oh no. Did Jack miss Danny having an eating disorder? Did he often skip lunch? He was concerningly underweight, even though he didn’t look like it…

“I’m glad he was able to get help,” Jack said quietly, feeling like if that were the case then Jazz would be on top of it quickly thanks to her psychology obsession. “I’m guessing you won’t be convinced to return tonight, huh? Where are you staying? Someplace safe, I hope?” He trusted Jazz to take care of her brother.

“We got permission to stay in MU’s dorms temporarily, and we’re not coming home until you and mom agree to stop inflicting such extreme punishments on Danny,” Jazz informed him.

“I’ll try talking to her again,” Jack said, though wasn’t sure what more could be done to try to convince her to stop. Maybe the kids leaving by itself would give her a reality check?

“Again?” Jazz asked, sounding surprised.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve had disagreements about punishments,” Jack admitted.

“I see. Well—what?” she asked, and it sounded like Danny was there saying something to her. “Seriously? How didn’t I—Danny, that’s got to be an exaggeration—what do you mean, murderous intent?!”

“Jazzie? What’s going on?” Jack asked, very confused at what he was hearing from one side of the conversation.

“Danny, apparently, thinks Mom has been physically abusing you too,” Jazz informed Jack.

Jack’s blood ran cold. “Too?” he repeated. “What do you mean, too? Has she been—shit, has she been hurting Danny too?!” Maddie sometimes hitting Jack was one thing, he could take it, but for her to do that to their teenage son, especially as Danny was fairly scrawny for his age? No wonder Danny had been pulling away from them!

“Jack, who’s that on the phone?” a sickly-sweet voice asked, and Jack turned to see Maddie at the kitchen entrance.

Jack froze. “H-hold on,” he stuttered into the phone, over which it sounded like Jazz and Danny were chatting again, this time muffled. “Can we, er talk about this a different time?”

“Dad? What’s wrong?” Jazz asked worriedly.

“Sorry. Just, thank you for letting me know you two are safe. I’ll let your mother know. Love you both.” He slammed the phone back on its wall mount, hanging it up.

Maddie narrowed her eyes at Jack. “Was that the kids?”

Jack gulped. “Um. Yeah. Jazz says they’re staying at the University dorms tonight. She said Danny fainting from hunger was the last straw and that we need to shape up or neither will come home.”

Maddie’s eyes darkened at that. “‘Shape up’ how?”

Jack frowned. Wasn’t it obvious? “I assume she means more appropriate punishments.”

“That was appropriate,” Maddie immediately replied, tone indicative that she wouldn’t even consider otherwise.

But, Jack had to at least try to get her to understand. “It put Danny at risk. Punishments should be things like grounding or taking away video games, not things that cause fainting!”

“It was just one meal, Jack,” Maddie said with a huff. “Hardly a punishment, honestly—we skip meals all the time when we lose track of time while working on a project.”

“Okay, you seem to be glossing over the fact that Danny fainited.”

“Hmph. Obviously that was an exaggeration. You don’t faint after missing just one meal.”

“Okay, but what if it was more?” Jack stressed. “It was two nights in a row. I’m pretty sure the only thing he grabbed this morning was a banana because he was running late. What if he didn’t eat lunch?”

“If he didn’t eat lunch, that’s on him. We don’t control his lunch.”

“Exactly! But we can control what he eats for dinner!” Jack said. “It’s our responsibility as parents to make sure our children are fed. We failed at that for years, forcing Jazz to take care of herself and Danny because we were so engrossed in our work. We have a chance now to fix that, to be better parents. And that means not withholding food!”

“Whatever, fine,” Maddie grumbled. “If it gets the kids to come home, I’ll agree to stop that. I’ll just have to try something else.”

Jack was concerned that the reason she was going to stop was just because she wanted the kids home, not because it was an objectively bad punishment and had caused her kid to faint. “What kind of something else?” he asked, suspicious.

“Oh, you know,” Maddie said with a wave.

“No, I don’t know; tell me,” Jack said insistently. “Do you have any ideas that won’t cause pain?”

Maddie, to Jack’s horror, didn’t immediately answer.

“You know what, nevermind,” Jack said, making a decision. He put on some shoes, grabbed one of his pre-packed go-bags from a cabinet under the stairs (they all had some there; Jack noted that Danny’s and Jazz’s were missing) and tossed on a coat.

Maddie, fists on her hips, glared at Jack. “And just where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m staying at a hotel tonight,” Jack told his wife, who looked stunned at those words. “We’ll talk tomorrow.” With that, Jack was out the door.

Chapter Text

The last thing Danny needed after the night he’d had was for a rumor about him to pop up, but luck was not on his side. Immediately upon arriving to school, slightly early thanks to Jazz driving him, he heard it whispered between classmates in the hallways. Of course, people weren’t careful to avoid talking about it around him, for one reason: they didn’t know the rumor was about him.

The rumor? Danny Phantom is gay.

Danny could only think of one place this rumor could have come from.

“Hey, what gives, Fenton?!” Paulina complained, irritation thick in the air, when Danny pulled her and Star into the janitor’s closet.

“You said you wouldn’t tell,” Danny accused, voice sharp.

The two simply looked, and felt, confused. “Tell what?” Star asked.

“There’s a rumor going around that Phantom’s gay!”

“Oh, that,” Paulina said in realization.

“Yeah, that! So what gives? I thought you said you didn’t out people!”

“We didn’t!” Star claimed. “Seriously!”

“Yeah? Sure about that? Because last I checked, you Gossip Queens are the only ones I told about that!” Danny pointed out, only vaguely noting that their emotions didn’t match up with what they should be if they had spread the rumor intentionally.

“Maybe someone just made it up or something,” Star said.

“Or maybe he told someone and they spread it,” Paulina suggested.

Danny frowned. Right, he had told Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, and his ghost friends… but no, Danny was sure they were all trustworthy. Biting down his own emotions, he could now tell that the two girls were just as harrowed as him about how the rumor got out.

“No one knows that who I—he isn’t certain wouldn’t tell,” Danny said, his brain still accusing these two even though he knew in his core that they hadn’t done it.

Paulina narrowed her eyes. “You told us, and he trusted you you.”

“That’s different!” Danny argued, feeling rage flare up, only vaguely catching the vibes that felt like suspicion, or rather confirmation of suspicion.

“Is it?”

“Yes!” Danny practically hissed, bearing his fangs in a snarl.

“Why?” Star asked much too calmly, almost teasingly. “Got some insider information?” She had a smirk on her face, a knowing look in her eye, vibes that Danny could best describe as pleased about uncovering something, face slightly shining… green?

“Oh, he definitely does,” Paulina purred with a shrewd look, the same vibes coming off her. “More than that, I’d say.” Her face also had a green reflection…

Oh, crap.

The anger immediately dissipated, and Danny stepped back, eyes widening. Crap, crap, crap. He quickly willed his eyes to stop glowing, then the green reflection subsided, leaving them largely in the dark again, the closet only lit by a single dim bulb.

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Danny asked nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You’re Phantom,” Star stated. It wasn’t a question. She definitely seemed pleased at having figured it out.

“What? That’s crazy,” Danny protested, though knew it was futile.

Paulina crossed her arms. “Danny, the jig is up. I know my Ghost Boy’s eyes, and that green glow is definitely his.”

Danny wilted at that. “Okay, fine, you got me,” he admitted, choosing to ignore Paulina’s clarifier of ‘my’, seeing no way out. “Was it just the eyes and fangs, or…?”

“We’ve suspected since the library,” Star said. “You just knew too much.”

“After that we reviewed, like, everything we knew about you, and the clues just fit,” Paulina said. “This was just confirmation.”

Danny took a deep breath. Then, he looked at them with determination. “So, now that you know, you can’t tell anyone else,” he emphasized. “My mom would literally kill me—or, well, kill me more—if she found out. That isn’t an exaggeration.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep your secret,” Paulina promised.

“So you’re, like, actually dead?” Star asked bluntly.

Paulina gasped and gently slapped her friend in the arm. “Star, that’s rude! You can’t just ask someone if they’re dead.”

Danny winced. “It’s okay,” he told them, then explained. “I’m, er, only kinda dead? Like, I definitely died, but then I came back to life, but only partly, with the rest of me ghost? It’s complicated. I can shift between a human and ghost form.”

“Wait, that’s possible?” Star asked, surprised yet intrigued.

“How can you only be part-dead?” Paulina wondered, then Danny could practically feel a lightbulb appear above her head as she concluded, “Oh, wait, it’s like those comic books, isn’t it? A normal kid has some sort of funky accident and it makes them a hybrid, like Spider Man.”

“Or it was intentional, like his parents are mad scientists, right? They could have wanted a super-soldier, like Captain America,” Star suggested with more excitement than was probably warranted given she’d just suggested that Danny’s parents experimented on him, then she frowned as she realized, “Wait, that would mean your parents would know.”

Danny winced. “Uh, yeah, Paulina’s is definitely closer,” he said. “Actually, I guess that’s a really good way to describe it,” he realized, then decided that at this point he might as well explain fully, if only to avoid any more speculation about his parents intentionally making him like this. “Pretty much exactly that, actually. I was screwing around with my parents’ ghost portal while they weren’t home, before it was working, and it ended up turning on with me inside.”

Both girls’ eyes widened as they processed that; Danny could taste their horror.

“Yeah, it’s, er, kinda horrifying to think about, I guess,” Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“So it, like, what, killed you, then revived you, or something?” Paulina asked, now more curious again.

Danny sighed. “Yeah, I guess you could say that… I was hit with a huge blast of combined electricity and ectoplasm, basically. The ectoplasm bonded with my DNA, preventing the electricity from killing me fully, but I still died enough to get the ghost abilities.” ‘Enough’, in his case, likely being closer to 90%, but he’d let them assume it was less.

Star nodded. “Definitely dead then.”

Danny glared at her. “Hey! Rude!” he told her. “Like I said, I’m still partially alive. I still have human stuff. I have a heartbeat, and I eat and sleep.” Then, he sighed, figuring he might as well say a little more, as the girls seemed uncannily unphased by the ghost stuff and genuinely curious. “But yeah, honestly, I guess I am more ghost than human at this point,” he admitted. “The ghost parts have steadily been increasing over the years; there’s not much of a divide anymore between my human and ghost sides, if there ever truly was.”

“Wait wait wait,” Paulina said, seeming to realize something that gave off some vibes of concern. “If you’re, like, mostly ghost now, does that mean you’re immortal?”

“That’s so sad,” Star said, pity wafting off of her.

Danny winced, hating how Paulina came to the conclusion that quickly and the pity it had evoked. “I, er, don’t really like to think about that part,” he muttered. “Anyway, we probably should come out of the closet now—I mean, literally, not figuratively!” He clarified. “Class will—”

Danny was cut off by the bell; the three scrambled out of the closet, and raced down the hall, arriving to class together to the stares and clear confusion of their classmates and friends; Lancer only sighed, vibes something between a mix of exasperation and, oddly, relief, and shook his head before beginning class.

Danny’s mind raced; he had to get ahead of this rumor somehow… Maybe Star was right, and someone just made it up without any proof, to harm his reputation. What should he do in that case? Take Paulina up on her offer from the library? He thought kissing Ember would have—wait no, he’d been Fenton for that. Actually… Ember might be down for fake-dating. She did enjoy flirting with him—and honestly, he kinda enjoyed flirting back, even though he knew he’d never want to go beyond kissing her.

Danny needed a way to the Ghost Zone though; with his parents’ lab on extra-lockdown and him and Jazz both not being at home for, most likely, at least a few days, if Jazz had been serious, that would be difficult…

Or would it? Maybe MU had a portal; he wouldn’t put it past them. He’d ask Jazz about it when he got back that evening.

Miskatonic University did, in fact, have a portal to the Ghost Zone.

The issue was that the portal was not at their Amity Park, Ohio location, rather at their Arkham, Massachusetts location.

This turned out to actually be a non-issue as apparently Miskatonic University had a portal that could transport people between any of their locations, which explained how approximately a hundred students whose concentrations involved ghosts could suddenly move into the dorm without the town seeing any signs of that many people moving in at once—they saw some, of course, mostly freshmen and transfers who lived closer to the Amity Park location than another branch, but anyone who started at or nearby a different location simply had used the portal. The portal was perfectly safe, used daily for students who had classes at other locations. Jazz herself had apparently used it many times, although its existence was one of the many things about MU that students there had to swear secrecy to.

It had been easy to get access; all Danny had to do was mention it to Dr. Warren, who of course knew both his identities, and the professor got him a pass to both use the school transport portal and Ghost Zone portal, although to use the second Danny also had to explain the situation to the college’s dean, who was extremely excited to meet a halfa (because of course MU would already know that people could be human-ghost hybrids) and offered him a full scholarship simply for existing, which Danny was fine with as he hadn’t been sure how he’d get into something other than community college in the first place. It also explained why at least half the students were undoubtedly non-human or part-human entities.

It had also been easy to find Ember and convince her to fake-date him.

The next step had been Danny, in Phantom form, and Ember making out semi-publicly in an alley in the middle of the afternoon, in view of a reporter who thought they were being sneaky as they filmed it, along with a small crowd at the start of the alley getting progressively larger—in reality, Danny and Ember had made sure the reporter and other passerby had noticed them ‘sneaking’ into the alley.

They’d quickly flown off once Danny heard shouts from his parents (who, interestingly, seemed to have arrived separately) at the edge of the crowd, the two hunters excited about the prospect of catching two high-profile ghosts—well, one hunter excited about that, but the other’s emotional profile clearly indicated he was simply excited to learn something new about ghosts (that is, that ghosts could feel attraction; at the start he’d expressed that much, to Maddie’s clear chagrin, as she ‘reminded’ him that ghosts ‘only pretended to emote as a trick’).

Then they had a date at the cafe just outside of MU, which was filmed by a reporter as well, from the outside because non-MU-student humans tended to avoid the place, after which they parted ways, agreeing to meet again in a few days.

Which brought Danny to standing in Tucker’s room with Sam and Tucker glaring at him.

Sam held a newspaper in her hand, the front-page top headline reading: PUBLIC ENEMY #1 DATING GHOSTLY POP STAR!, complete with a large photo of the two making out and two smaller ones, one flying off while holding hands and the other of their coffee date.

“Wow, the press really moves fast,” Danny joked, though a little miffed that they were still calling him ‘Public Enemy #1’.

“Seriously? That’s what you comment on?” Tucker asked dryly.

“Look, I was actually going to tell you tonight,” Danny said with a sigh.

“Were you?” Sam asked flatly.

“Yes! I didn’t realize the evening paper would have it. I thought they’d wait until morning.”

“Wait wait wait,” Tucker said. “Are you saying it’s true?! I thought you were gay!”

“I am gay!”

“Then why are you dating her?” Tucker asked, now just plain confused.

“I’m not,” Danny said. “Or, I guess technically I am? Kinda. We’re fake-dating, so we can squash the rumor about Phantom being gay.”

“And you didn’t tell us because why…?” Sam asked, clearly peeved.

“I told you, I was going to tell you tonight. The idea was kinda spur-of-the-moment, Jazz picked me up right after school so we could go MU to get permission to use their portal since my parents have the lab extra-locked-down and then I went immediately to find Ember, and since I was so nervous about the rumor spreading we decided to act on the plan immediately.”

“Wait, MU has a ghost portal?”

“In Massachusetts, which they have a portal to as well. No, you two can’t use it, I needed to get special permission. Which meant revealing my secret to the college dean, but that was actually a good thing because now I have a spot at the school after I graduate.”

“Just like that?” Tucker asked, surprised.

Danny shrugged, then grinned. “Just like that. Seems they like the idea of having a halfa student.”

“Oh, that’s awesome!” Sam declared, mood changing. “I actually think I’m gonna apply there, too. All this paranormal stuff keeps getting more and more interesting—do you know they study occult rituals there?”

“Spoken like a true goth!” Tucker laughed. “But actually, I was thinking of going there, too; I heard they have a really great paranormal engineering program. I think I have a good shot at getting in, if they see what I’ve been doing to modify your parents’ ecto-tech.”

Danny winced. “That reminds me of something else I need to tell you,” he realized. “We, er, might not have much access to Fenton equipment for a while. Last night Jazz decided I can’t stay at home, and got emergency permission to use one of the dorm rooms they use for in-residence researchers. Which is where I’m staying now, for a few days at least, until Jazz can get my parents in line.”

“Dude!” Tucker declared. “MU’s dorms? Really? Wow! Oooh, what’s it like living there? Is it true that half the students are cryptids, and they have weird experiments set up everywhere and rituals every night?”

“Er. I’ve only been there one night, Tucker,” Danny pointed out. “Not much time to see anything,” he told them, although he was pretty sure he saw what looked like a werewolf entering the dorm room a few doors down from his as he left that morning. “But even if I did, I actually signed a preemptive nondisclosure agreement, so even if I saw something supernatural in the dorms, I legally can’t talk about it… And I’m pretty sure the contract was on cursed paper so I don’t want to risk it.”

The other weird thing Danny saw was the breakfast spread; he’d only been in the cafeteria briefly to grab something quick before rushing to school, but they had some non-standard things (some which were a little creepy; one of the drink dispensers was simply labelled ‘blood’) in addition to the standard American breakfast fare—including ecto-coffee, of which Danny happily took a cup to-go.

“Dude,” Tucker said, eyes wide. “Okay, now I really want to get into that school!”

“Tucker,” Sam said scoldingly. “Did you miss the part about emergency housing? What happened, Danny? Did your parents find out and react badly this time?”

Danny shook his head. “No, no, Ancients no,” he assured them. “They still don’t know I’m Phantom. Honestly, I think Jazz is kinda overreacting? I don’t know what she told my parents, or if they noticed I was gone. Anyway…”

Danny explained everything to his friends.

“Okay, barring the fact that you forgot to tell us that Mr. Lancer knows you’re Phantom and has offered you asylum,” Tucker began, and Danny winced, having not realized he never told them, “What the fuck, dude. Just, that whole situation is so messed up! Who withholds food as punishment? You need that to live! Or, you know.”

“Yeah… I’m not sure if my parents would’ve done that if it were the original timeline…” Danny trailed.

“Wait, what? Why would it be different?” Sam asked sharply.

Danny winced. “Oh, um, so I talked with Clockwork about that…”

Danny explained his conversation with Clockwork.

“So in short, although they’re probably close, don’t assume peoples’ thoughts are exactly the same as they were, even though the events up to the Disasteroid were the same,” Tucker summarized. “Well, we didn’t really know peoples’ thoughts before anyway, not really—except, I guess, for the reveals?”

“Yeah, and I’m becoming increasingly sure that revealing things with my parents won’t go well this time,” Danny told them. “Clockwork seems to think if I ease them into it, get them to not think so badly of ghosts first, there’s a chance, but I just don’t know if that’s possible… Actually, no, I’m sure it’ll work with my dad, honestly he seems agreeable already, but my mom’s a different story, and he tends to side with her on everything even if he has different opinions.”

Sam looked contemplative. “Back to the punishment—are you really sure they wouldn’t have done that if this were the original timeline and not a cobbled-together one?”

Danny considered that; it was true that if the thoughts had deviated too far, things wouldn’t have happened the way they did. So he concluded, “No, I guess I’m not. Previously it was just missing curfew and failing tests and stuff. They thought I was a slacker, not a delinquent. This time it’s being friends with ghosts, which in their minds is a whole lot worse. Or at least, in my mom’s,” he amended. His dad seemed to, oddly enough, like the idea, even if he pretended otherwise.

“Either way, just being friends with someone isn’t a reason for a parent to starve their kid,” Sam asked. “I mean, my parents get mad at me for my friends all the time, but they’ve never starved me because of it.”

“They didn’t starve me,” Danny said, rolling his eyes. “It was just dinner, not like I haven’t skipped a meal before. They couldn’t have known that I’d also skipped lunch and barely ate breakfast.”

“Okay, but it’s still denying their kid food, you get that that’s bad, right?” Sam pressed.

“Yeah I get it,” Danny said tiredly.

“No, I don’t think you do. If you heard someone was refusing to feed a child, you wouldn’t just say ‘eh, it’s fine’, right?”

“Of course not.”

“Then, why’s it different because it’s you?”

“Because—”

“If you say any form of ‘I deserve it’ or ‘I can take it’, I’m going to suck you into the thermos,” Tucker threatened, though Danny knew it wasn’t a serious threat. Probably.

Danny closed his mouth. He folded his legs criss-cross under him and put his elbow on his knee to rest his cheek on his fist. “I guess it’s not,” he mumbled. To Danny’s confusion, both Sam and Tucker began giggling. “What?” he asked.

“Dude, you’re pouting while sitting in the air,” Tucker said, amused.

“It’s actually kinda adorable,” Sam added. “But, uh, maybe don’t do that in public? At least not in human form.”

Danny blushed, only then realizing that, yup, he was floating. “I’m in Tucker’s bedroom, not public.”

“Still probably a bad habit to get into, dude,” Tucker pointed out, and Danny shrugged in response.

“So, back to the topic of Jazz forcing you to move out,” Sam said. “Maybe you could stay moved out?”

Danny frowned. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“You know why not; I need access to the ghost portal, and the equipment.”

“Which you don’t need to get from them,” Sam pointed out, to Danny’s confusion.

“Um, Sam, that’s the only one in town—Vlad is gone, remember?”

Tucker laughed. “Come on, Danny, you’re not that dense! If you can’t access your parents’ portal right now, how’d you find Ember?”

“Oh!” Danny realized, and smacked himself on the face. “Duh! I can use the one at MU. If they’ll let me, I mean.” For all he knew that was a one-time thing.

“From what you’ve said about the dean, I have a feeling it’ll be easy to arrange something with them,” Sam said, seeming amused. Yeah, that was probably true.

“Okay, but the tech is still an issue,” Danny pointed out. “I need to check up on it.”

“I can hack into the security feeds,” Tucker offered. “And we can always sneak in to check anything extra-suspicious out.”

“...I guess,” Danny muttered, seeing that they wouldn’t give up. He didn’t want to leave home forever though; he still loved his parents. His mom might still come around eventually, there was a slim hope there… Maybe he could talk to his dad, get him to help convince his mom? Or, Danny could try to better hide his ghost friends, then she’d be happy, and things would be back to how they were. This was just a temporary displacement.

Annoyingly, Danny felt tears prickling at his eyes, once again. He blinked a few times, trying to stave them off; he’d been crying way too much in front of people lately for his liking, his liking being ‘never’.

“I’m going to head back to the dorm before Jazz gets worried,” Danny told them, quickly flying away before either could say anything more or notice his shift in mood.

Valerie was in luck; almost right in front of her, a natural portal appeared and spat out an entire pod of ectopi. Valerie had been itching for a fight, and though they were weak there were plenty of them to help scratch that itch. It probably wasn’t the healthiest thing for Valerie to use fighting to deal with her emotions, but it worked for her.

An even better opponent would be Phantom, but she’d agreed to a stupid truce. That was actually the issue Valerie was currently trying to work out via violence. It had been nine days since finding out that Danny was both Fenton and Phantom, and she still had mixed feelings about it. She simultaneously wanted to kiss him (only in Fenton form!) and shoot him (regardless of form), to her complete annoyance. At times he seemed just like the sweet innocent Danny Fenton she knew before, and a part of her still loved, and other times even in human form she could clearly see the Phantom persona slipping through, which a part of her still insisted on hating. Which was the real Danny? Could they possibly both be? Some things were clearly an act, like the fear of Dash—why he let Dash do all that to him Valerie had no idea, if she were in that situation she’d have blasted the bully by now—but other things seemed genuine.

Valerie was outraged at the entire situation, and the more she thought about it the angrier she got. How dare he do this to her! Danny should have just let her keep believing that Fenton and Phantom were separate entities. Then again, if that happened, and she ever had injured Phantom enough to change him back to Fenton—she wasn’t sure how that worked—then she would have been devastated.

Ugh! It was all such a damn mess. Valerie blasted an ectopus so badly that it exploded into so many pieces that her thermos refused to pick it up; it would reform, but probably not for an hour or so, meaning she’d just given herself more work. Ugh.

Out of the corner of her eye, Valerie glimpsed a black-and-white streak flying through the sky; ugh, speak of the devil. Couldn’t he just let her blow off some steam in peace? She braced for the confrontation. Well, verbal one at least. Why did she agree to a truce again? Maybe the ghost of her (former?) friend would be up to a ‘friendly’ spar.

But to Valerie’s surprise, Phantom merely glanced at the scene and made no change of course. It didn’t look like he was in much of a hurry, so why wouldn’t he come over and bother her like usual? Was he on his way to a more urgent fight? No, he was flying too slowly for that. Headed home? Curfew? But no, that never stopped him before, and he wasn’t going towards his house. So again, why ignore her?

Well, the ectopi were high in the sky, not damaging anything yet, so she could afford to step away to investigate.

“Yo! Phantom!” Valerie called, flying towards him.

He glanced her way, then ignored her.

A flash of anger caused Valerie to growl. “Don’t you ignore me!” she shouted.

Phantom slowed down and stopped mid-air. “What do you want, Valerie?” he asked tiredly, though didn’t face her.

“I want to know why you’re ignoring a ghost fight,” Valerie said in a demanding tone as she swerved to stop in front of him so she could see his face, though he refused to look at her, rather kept his head bowed.

Phantom sighed. “They’re ectopi. Figured you had it handled.”

“Yeah but that’s never made you ignore a fight before!”

Phantom shrugged. “Maybe I’ve changed.”

Valerie narrowed her eyes. “Changed how?” she asked, suspicious. Had he succumbed to malicious ghost aspects? “What, are you not doing the hero thing anymore?”

“I am. Just, like I said, you have it handled, right? I trust you with it. Unless you want me to help?”

“No! I don’t need your help, ghost,” Valerie spat. “But you’re acting strange; I had to investigate!”

“Well, I’m fine, so just leave me alone, okay?”

Valerie frowned. “That sounds the opposite of fine,” she said accusingly. It wasn’t like him to be so despondent.

Phantom simply shrugged again.

Valerie felt another flash of anger at his attitude. He was the same as always! Such a cocky uncaring bastard! Knowing that he also was Fenton just made it that much worse. She definitely still hated Phantom. Yet a part of her still loved Fenton; they just couldn’t be the same person. Maybe it was one of those multiple-personality things? Or maybe he was doing what all ghosts instinctually do, and that was tricking her for his own gain. After all, he dated her while knowing who she was yet failed to tell her who he was. What could be more shady?

“Hey, don’t you fly away!” Valerie said, realizing that Phantom had started moving again. With a burst of speed she pulled in front of him again, causing him to stop short.

“Valerie, come on. Clearly you don’t want me here,” Phantom said tiredly, finally looking at her. Were those tears in the corners of his eyes? “Why won’t you let me go?”

To him, it was clearly meant to be more literal, but to Valerie, it felt more metaphorical. Honestly, she was unsure exactly why she’d stopped him, but, “I may not like the Phantom part, but I still like Fenton. Clearly something’s bothering you. So, spill.”

“No,” Phantom said.

“Tch. Fine, be like that,” Valerie bristled, then asked, “But before you go—why are you dating Ember?”, suddenly realizing that she needed to know. What did a ghost have that Valerie didn’t?

Danny sighed deeply. “Because I like her. Can I go now?”

“No! She’s a ghost, Danny,” Valerie said; maybe using his first name would help.

“Yeah, well, newsflash: so am I.”

“Yeah, but you’re human too,” Valerie pointed out. “Why would you date a ghost when there’s plenty of humans who would happily date you?”

Phantom scoffed at that. “Seriously? Who, you? Yeah, it’s dead obvious you have lingering feelings, at least for Fenton. Unfortunately, that ship has way sailed. Besides, you hate Phantom as much as you like Fenton, if not more—you seriously think that would work?”

“I don’t hate you,” Valerie defended.

Phantom gave Valerie a deadpan look. “Yeah, you do,” he said, then turned and flew off.

Valerie growled in frustration, then turned back to the ectopi. She hoped a stronger ghost showed up so she could use it to really vent her anger; Phantom was Just. So. Frustrating! She didn’t hate him though… did she? She was angry at him, sure. But hate? She couldn’t hate him, not with him also being Fenton… could she?

Instead of flying to the dorm as he’d initially intended, after the encounter with Valerie Danny flew to a secluded grassy hill a short distance into the woods on the outskirts of town, one where he used to go stargazing with his dad on the rare occasions Jack paid attention to Danny. That hadn’t happened in years, but Danny still found the hill comforting.

The sun was already setting; Jazz was probably worried. Danny vaguely registered that he should text her, then realized that his phone had been in his backpack, which he left at Tucker’s. He really should see if there were ghostly phone options he could attune, although he doubted it, given the Ghost Zone definitely did not have cell service, or even landline—or whatever the equivalent would be given all the land there floats.

Danny was still trying to hold back his tears as he tried not to think about his entire situation, sitting with his knees up and head buried in his arms which were resting crossed on top of them.

Whether she was working through her thoughts on the matter or not, Valerie still hated Phantom. He could feel it—not just with his usual ability to sense feelings, which was still muted, but from her projecting them (he really should investigate how she was doing that). Danny couldn’t help but think that Valerie always would hate him, at least in Phantom form—he was the same person, but clearly she still considered them largely separate.

His mom surely would always hate Phantom too. His dad might not though; honestly, Danny had a feeling that Jack probably already liked Phantom.

Plus, there were other things on top of that bothering him. Two more people now knew his secret—or rather, all of his secrets, impossibly. Paulina and Star were much nicer this year than they had been in prior years, but historically they’d been sorta-enemies, so Danny wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Sam and Tucker both seemed mildly jealous of his friendship with Ember, which was also frustrating. He was now living at a dorm because his home wasn’t safe with his mom there. Plus, Dash’s bullying had been getting worse again. It was all too much.

Once again, Danny wondered if it would have been better if the portal had just straight-up killed him rather than made him into this freak hybrid… Ugh, he’d have to remember to write that down later, as the notebook was in his backpack; it had only been 4 days, yet there were already pages filled with negative thoughts. Dr. Warren had a lot of work to do.

As his thoughts continued to spiral, Danny gave up on holding back, and began to cry loudly; in ghost form this apparently translated to near-wailing, eerie and clearly ghostly. Great, just what he needed, more proof that he wasn’t human. He’d told Clockwork he’d accepted that, thought he had, but every new reminder of his inhumanity still felt like it struck a blow. Now that Danny was crying though, he couldn’t stop—thankfully it was just harmless sound, not the actual attack version of his wail.

Danny didn’t register the footsteps until the visitor had sat down next to him; Danny didn’t look up, though, sensing that whoever it was didn’t have malicious intentions. After a few minutes, the person put their large hand on Danny’s back, and began to rub it.

Once Danny had calmed down, the hand stopped, though stayed there as Danny took deep breaths to try to calm himself; he knew this hand, and the presence of the person, without having to look. He wondered why his dad was comforting him when he was in Phantom form, but the vibes showed nothing but worry for him and kindness.

“You know, I didn’t know that ghosts could breathe,” Jack casually commented.

Danny gave a wet chuckle. “It’s more habitual, not really needed,” he explained. “It’s calming, especially after crying… Sorry you had to see that.”

“Why would you be sorry? Crying’s good! It helps you take care of icky feelings,” Jack said confidently.

“I guess,” Danny replied despondently. He didn’t feel much better.

“Talking helps, too,” Jack said. “So, what’s a ghost got to cry about?” His vibes gave off the feeling that he truly did just want to help however he could.

Danny sighed. “Just… a lot’s been going on,” he told his dad. “I don’t really want to talk about it though.” Especially since part of it was about his dad.

“Well, that’s okay too,” Jack said.

After a few beats of silence, Danny asked, “How’d you find me here? A tracker?” The unspoken question: were you out hunting me?

“No. I needed a break, so I was taking a walk,” Jack explained, with a few said vibes. “My feet led me to the edge of the woods, and I heard the wailing.”

Danny couldn’t help but to lift his head and raise an eyebrow at his dad. “You walked all the way here? From Fentonworks?”

Jack’s vibes only got sadder, heartbroken even. “No. I’m staying at a hotel tonight,” he revealed, to Danny’s complete surprise.

“What? Why?” Danny couldn’t help but ask, then winced and looked towards the grass. “Sorry. I shouldn’t pry.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Jack said, slightly amused. “This isn’t really anything new—I know we make an effort to look like a united front in public, and even around our kids, but…” Jack sighed deeply. “Behind closed doors, it’s a bit of a different story. Guess I just needed a break, after yesterday’s fight. Dunno if I’ll stay just these two nights, or the weekend too—it’ll depend how mad she still is.”

“Oh,” Danny said, unsure how he felt about that particular confirmation, as well as the phrasing of ‘how’ instead of ‘if’. He’d suspected his parents were more at odds than they showed, being able to read their emotions, especially after that time he’d intervened, but hearing it confirmed aloud was a different story, as was learning that it had driven Jack to take a hotel. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Do… do you want to talk about it?” he offered.

Jack slowly shook his head. “Not much to really say; it’s the same as usual… or, maybe it’s gotten a bit worse lately, I don’t know, but still, arguing isn’t anything new.” He seemed like he was trying to convince himself of that, and Danny tried to identify the whiff of emotion mixed in with the sadness—denial, maybe? Jack then laughed slightly, a hint of amusement popping in. “Actually, one of the things we argue about is you.”

“Me?” Danny asked, scrunching his brow in confusion.

Jack nodded, a contemplating vibe around him. “Yeah. She still really wants to hunt you. She thinks all ghosts are evil, and that your hero thing is just some long con towards an unknown goal. She says that’s what all the research has always said. Thing is, the point of science is that it’s supposed to adapt when new data is presented—and there’s plenty of new data now that ghosts have become common around here! All that new data, to me, shows that that original hypothesis was wrong. Ghosts clearly have emotions, and there are clearly good ones too—especially you, as you’ve been catching the bad ghosts. She doesn’t see it that way though, focusing on how you sometimes let ghosts go, but I think it’s fairly obvious that you’ve only been letting them go if they don’t mean harm, right?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah. Not all ghosts are bad, and even some that do bad things sometimes aren’t bad all the time, or can be reformed—like Ember, for example. She got over the whole world-domination thing; really, even then she just wanted to have fun and get people to pay attention to her. I mean, she’s 16, basically, who could blame her? Took me a bit to figure that out, though; at first, I thought all ghosts were evil, too. Really hated myself for becoming one.”

“Is that what drove you to being a hero?” Jack wondered, genuinely interested.

“Yeah, one of the reasons,” Danny told him. “But after two years, I know better now. I’ve accepted what I am, more or less. I’m trying to be friendlier with the nicer ones, and someday I hope humans can see that ghosts aren’t all evil, too.”

“Well, you do have some humans that already believe that!” Jack said. “Me, for one—even if I don’t really show it since Maddie might turn me into a ghost if I ever suggest that again. But, my kids do openly believe it! Danny’s even got some ghost friends! Ember is one of them, actually. They’re in a band together! A really good band!”

Danny couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “I heard them play at the festival.” Technically true, considering he was one of the ones playing.

“You were there?” Jack asked, surprised. “Huh. I was wondering about that, since we didn’t see you fighting them. I guess you realized they weren’t doing any harm?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah. Those three are cool now. They might still cause mischief accidentally sometimes, but they’re really trying to stay more in-line.” He had had a talk with them about that; they’d even agreed to keep any playful fights to areas with little likelihood of property damage.

Jack nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind… Huh, the ghost tracker didn’t show you around the concert, you know…”

Danny chuckled. “Fishing for how I seem to ‘disappear’ from your trackers, huh?”

“Huh? No, not at all!” Jack said hurriedly, and Danny could tell it was truthful. “I was just, you know, thinking aloud.”

Danny smiled. “Yeah, I know. You’re not the type to pretend to be nice just to gather information.” He then figured he could throw his dad a bone and reveal one of the ways he ‘hid’, as it really was a conclusion both his parents should have drawn long ago. “But, for reference, I was just flying kinda high up,” Danny lied. The short-range trackers’ range extended in all directions, including up, after all. His dad didn’t need to know that it actually did pick him up, just as Danny.

Jack took a moment to process that, then declared, “Well, that’s embarrassingly obvious in retrospect.”

Danny shrugged. “Well, to be fair, most ghosts don’t like flying that high, unless they were a bird or something. Or just really love outer space, like me; stargazing up there is amazing.”

“Huh. My son likes stargazing, you know; I think you two would make good friends,” Jack said wholeheartedly.

“Maybe,” Danny hummed. “He was pretty cool at the concert… Oh, speaking of, thank you for letting the ghosts escape.”

Jack looked surprised, then sheepish. “Was it that obvious?”

Danny laughed. “Your shots were so wide they would’ve missed the broad side of a barn, and you didn’t even bother to try to escape that net! Yes, it was obvious—at least, to someone watching closely.”

“Closely, huh? Did you plan to step in if any of the ghosts got caught?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah; I wouldn’t have let any of them get captured. I’ve heard Maddie describe what she wants to do with any humanoid ghosts she catches, and just can’t let that happen to anyone.”

Jack nodded in understanding. “Honestly? Neither can I.”

Then the two were silent for a while, until Jack’s vibes began to give off huge amounts of curiosity, a question brewing.

“I can tell you want to ask something,” Danny said, slightly amused. “No need to hold back.” Well, hopefully; it could end up being about Danny, which might not be good.

Jack’s question practically burst from him. “Earlier you said Ember is 16. Is that how long she’s been a ghost? Or just because she chooses to look that way?”

“Neither,” Danny told him, deciding that the question was harmless—and the more information he could give Jack, the more likely the man would be to finally speak publicly against Maddie’s views, which would be beneficial for all ghosts. “Ember’s one of the ghosts who was once human. That’s how old she was when she died, which I think was sometime in the sixties or seventies. I say she’s 16 because that’s essentially where she’s at development-wise. She looks and acts like she’s 16 because she, for all intents and purposes, is 16; she can’t change that. She’ll be as though she’s that age forever, stuck at the same point of maturity as when she died.”

“Oh. I see,” Jack said, contemplative. He was quiet for a moment before following up with, “You said you started out thinking ghosts were evil, and it took you two years to get to this point from there. You’re a really recent ghost, aren’t you?”

Danny felt a bit uncomfortable with that line of questioning, realizing he had to be careful, lest this lead Jack to realizing certain things. This should be fine, but caution was needed. “Yes,” he admitted, “You’re right, I’ve only been a ghost for 2 years. Development-wise, I’m 14, for the record,” he said before his dad could ask.

“14…” Jack trailed sadly. “14, forever. I can’t imagine…” He sighed. “Your parents must have been devastated to lose you. I’m assuming they’re not from Amity Park, given there've been no reports of kids dying recently, so they probably didn’t see you flying around town… Do they know you’re a ghost?”

Danny shook his head. “No, they don’t know.” They didn’t even know he’d died.

“I see… If either of my kids… I just couldn’t imagine them being gone forever. Do you plan to tell them? I’m sure they’d want to see you again.”

Danny shook his head again. “I can’t. They’re not very fond of ghosts,” —a partial lie, given Jack definitely seemed to like ghosts now, or at least didn’t dislike them— “and I’m pretty sure telling them wouldn’t end well—I mean, how would you feel if you discovered one of your kids became a ghost?”

Jack looked contemplative before concluding. “I’m not sure. I suppose I would be conflicted. Part of me would be happy that I don’t have to say goodbye so soon, but to stick around as a ghost, there needs to be significant trauma, so knowing they had to go through something horrible to stay around would be painful… Although I suppose they already have gone through trauma,” he said, shoulders hunching in more, looking lost.

“You mean, all the ghost attacks?” Danny asked, although he knew that was only part of it (and Jack didn’t know that Danny had been more directly involved). One of the things his therapist/psychiatrist was looking at was the very likely possibility that Danny had C-PTSD, something common in those who had suffered long-time abuse (of any sort) throughout childhood; combine that with the bullying, portal accident, and all the ghost issues, and you had the perfect recipe for that sort of thing.

Jack shook his head and sighed. “No, but I wi—would prefer if that was all it was. They’re both staying at MU right now. My daughter says the home isn’t safe for my son right now. Maddie… Maddie did some things. She… I should have done more to stop her…” he trailed off, emotions a complete mix of confusion and pain, clearly not having processed that yet. It was good knowing his dad hadn’t approved of his mom’s punishments though. “It’s another reason why we were fighting…”

“If it’s too painful, you don’t have to talk about it,” Danny said, and sensed Jack’s relief. “Back to the previous subject then… if one of your kids became a ghost, would you accept them?”

“Of course!” Jack said immediately, almost affronted.

“You wouldn’t attack or anything?”

“Never,” Jack said adamantly. “I could never attack Jazz or Danny. Even if there were some sort of zombie apocalypse and they were turned, I’d rather let them turn me than harm them,” he said, completely serious.

Danny grinned. “Good to know.”

“Where’s this coming from?” Jack asked curiously.

Danny shifted slightly, contemplating what to say as he stared at the ground. “Just, been thinking about if I should tell my parents,” he said honestly. “My dad is similar to you; I’m pretty sure he’d accept me. But my mom… she’s a little less accepting. Thinks all ghosts are bad and need to die fully.”

Jack sighed. “Sounds like Maddie. If Jazz or Danny became a ghost… she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot, I’m sure of it. I hate how sure of that I am,” Jack said with a vibe of great sadness and some bitterness, and Danny’s heart sank. He’d pretty much known that already, but his dad confirming it snuffed any remaining hope lingering from the other timelines. Jack continued, “Is that why you were crying earlier?”

“Yeah,” Danny admitted. “One of the reasons… I just want things to be how they used to be. Even before I… even before I died, we weren’t much of a proper family. I just want things to be how I remember them from childhood, when we were all happy… You know, my… family,” he said, even though it had usually been just him and his dad, “used to stargaze on—on a hill like this one,” he reminisced, feeling like saying this specific hill would be too suspicious; he was already toeing the line. “That’s why I like it here. It’s a good place to think about things.”

Jack chuckled. “That it is. You know, my son and I used to do that, too, on this very hill in fact. This actually feels a little nostalgic, although I don’t think we’ve been here in a few years…” Jack trailed off, seeming concerned. “Why did we stop?” he asked quietly, more to himself than anything.

Danny took a moment to consider how to address that. “Well, my dad often got caught up in his work,” he eventually said. “He kept saying we’d do things together, then get caught up in a project and just forget about me. Eventually, we stopped coming to our hill, too. He said he’d go, but he had this really huge project, and it just never happened. By the time the project had finished, I’d… Well, it was too late.”

“That’s so sad,” Jack said, then with an air of guilt admitted, “I think the same thing happened to us, I just kept getting caught up in work…” Then he gained a slight air of resolution. “You know what? When Danny returns home, I’m taking him to this hill again. I won’t let him continue slipping away until it’s too late.”

Danny felt his heart warm at that sentiment. “I think he’d probably like that,” he said with a soft smile. “I know I would.”

Jack smiled too, then looked contemplative as he rested a hand on his chin. “You know, this conversation makes me realize I probably should make sure Danny knows that I’ll love and support him no matter what.”

“Oh. I’m sure he’d like to know that too,” Danny said, trying not to blush. “Why, though? Is there something he doesn’t think you’d support him in?” he asked, fishing for info. Did his Dad, impossibly, suspect he was Phantom?

“Well, I’m actually not sure,” Jack said looking slightly embarrassed too now. “You see, he’s dated girls in the past, but I found some books in his room from the library”—Danny froze as he realized what books his dad meant, the only ones he had checked out recently—“and they were about… Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t say, in case he doesn’t want people to know or I have the wrong idea. But he needs to know that it doesn’t matter to me!” He declared with great confidence, causing Danny to relax, then muttered more to himself, “Just gotta find a way to let him know that without him panicking…”

“Maybe just tell him exactly that?” Danny suggested, trying to keep his voice level despite his mind racing about what his dad had discovered. “I would have liked to know that my dad supported me that unconditionally before…” Before what? Before he fled to the dorms? Before he ran away into the Ghost Zone? Before he realized his sexuality? Before he died?

Jack didn’t ask Danny to elaborate; instead he said gently, “I’m sure he did.”

Before Danny could reply, tears already budding in his eyes again, Jack’s phone rang, and he scrambled to get it out of his pocket. He glanced at the caller ID and immediately answered with, “Jazzipants! Is everything okay? What’s going on? How’s Danny?”

…

“No, I’m not at home right now.”

…

“Jazz, Danny comes home late most of the time. I’m sure he’ll meet you at the dorms soon.”

…

Jack winced at whatever Jazz said. “I guess that’s fair…”

…

“I’m actually, er… well, I’m not at home tonight. I can go back though if you need me to check. Could you call me if he’s not back in an hour?”

Danny suddenly felt guilty, realizing Jazz was so worried about him coming back late that she’d called her dad, who was now just as worried as her, if not more so judging by his vibes. Danny turned invisible, not wanting to interrupt the phone call, and silently flew back to the dorms.

“Danny? May we talk to you?” Paulina asked as she approached their outside lunch table with Star. She glanced at Sam and Tucker. “In private?”

Sam resisted groaning, and instead said politely, “Whatever you have to say to Danny, you can say to us. What can we help you with?”

The two girls looked at each other, silently communicating something, before sitting down on either side of Danny; Sam regretted letting him sit alone on the side of the table opposite her and Tucker—he’d insisted upon it because it was a little chilly out and he tended to give off an additional chill, but Sam could’ve handled it.

Paulina put a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “So, there’s something we want to ask you, but it may be a little sensitive.”

Danny frowned. “Sensitive how?” he asked.

“Sensitive as in, like… related to your… big secret,” Paulina said.

Sam narrowed her eyes at the girl. She knew! How did she know? Did she guess? Had Danny told her? No, he wouldn’t do that. Then how? Did he know she knew? He had to, he didn’t seem surprised. If so, why didn’t he tell Sam she knew?!

Danny grinned. “You’re going to have to be more specific,” he said teasingly, to Sam’s incredulity.

“You know, your… other persona,” Paulina clarified.

Danny raised an eyebrow at her. “‘Other persona’?” he quoted back as a question.

“Oh, you know what we mean,” Star said casually.

“Do I?” Danny smiled at her, eyes flashing green and showing fangs.

Star simply giggled. Sam frowned; Danny showed her his eyes? Did Star know his secret too? How? When?

“Okay, what the hell,” Sam said, glaring at Danny.

“What?” Danny asked, looking surprised at Sam’s outburst.

“What do you mean, ‘what’?!” Sam hissed. “Unless I am wildly misinterpreting things, Paulina and Star know your biggest secret. How did this happen and why didn’t I know about it?” They were in the category of ‘people Danny would never willingly tell his secret to’, so obviously they figured it out somehow—and Sam would bet a substantial amount that Danny had been too embarrassed to let his two best friends know. That, or he simply forgot to say anything, honestly either was valid.

“Yeah, I’d actually like to know that too,” Tucker interjected.

“Oh,” Danny said. “Uh. That’s… um.”

Star answered for him. “He was threatening us in the janitor’s closet and his eyes glowed.”

Paulina nodded. “I’d recognize my Ghost Boy’s eyes anywhere!” she asserted, and Sam bristled slightly at the usage of ‘my’.

“I wasn’t threatening you!” Danny argued.

“Uh, yeah, you kinda were,” Star said, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms. “Unless baring your fangs and literally hissing like a cat with glowing eyes was somehow not meant as a threat.”

“I wasn’t hissing!” Danny protested.

“It was actually kinda cute,” Paulina said with a contemplative look. “Especially with those eyes… if you were a vampire, I’d totally let you bite me.”

Danny laughed slightly. “Watch out, or I just might,” he joked with a flirtatious wink. The fuck was going on here? Did Sam enter the Twilight Zone? Did Nocturne trap her in some strange dream?

“Okay, so this opens up a whole new pile of questions,” Tucker said, looking lost, “and I’m not sure I want all of them answered…”

“Danny,” Sam said in a no-nonsense tone. “Full story. Now.”

“Fine, fine. Basically, they figured it out,” Danny said with a sigh. “But they know to keep it a secret, and, surprisingly, I actually trust that they will.”

“Hey, what do you mean, surprisingly?!” Star protested.

“When did this even happen??” Sam wondered, trying to continue following the conversation despite her mind still reeling at Paulina’s vampire comment and Danny’s response.

“Last Friday, before class,” Danny told her. “I know I should have let you know they know, but it kinda slipped my mind… Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “Anyway—Paulina, Star, what is it you want?”

“Oh, right,” Paulina said, suddenly looking more somber for some reason. “How familiar are you with el Día de Los Muertos?”

“El what?” Tucker said blankly.

“The Day of the Dead,” Star supplied.

“I don’t know much about it,” Danny replied. “All I know is it takes place the day after Halloween and involves decorated skulls.”

“Oh! We made those in art class in elementary school,” Tucker recalled.

Sam rolled her eyes. Did those two ever pay attention? “Yeah, and we learned about the holiday in class then, too—it’s a day meant to honor one’s ancestors. Some cultures believe that if they give proper offerings, their ancestors will visit. They build shrines with candles, photos, favorite foods, favorite objects, religious objects, and decorations like sugar skulls and flowers, meant to make them feel welcome if they visit.”

“Wow, you know a surprising amount!” Paulina said, but Sam wasn’t sure if she was actually impressed or just mocking her. Paulina continued, “Yes, the shrines are called ofrendas. The flowers are specifically marigolds. The holiday actually crosses two days, the first, called Dia de los Angelitos honors departed children, and the second day, Dia de los Difuntos, honors the adults. Where my family is from in Mexico they have town-wide celebrations that go all through the night, with everyone off from school and work, and the graveyards and churches are all decorated and everything; I don’t remember it that much since I was young when I lived there, but I’ve seen pictures, and it’s really impressive. Unfortunately around here all we do is a small celebration at the church with family and a graveyard visit, since it’s not a national holiday and most of us can’t get out of school or work for it.”

“Huh. Interesting,” Danny said, looking uncertain. “But, er, why are you telling me about it?”

“Right, well…” Paulina looked a little uncomfortable. “So, the Phantom Phan Club had the idea that they should make an ofrenda for Phantom this year, since, well, all they know is he’s a teenage ghost…” she trailed off, seeming unsure.

Star chimed in, “We figured maybe we should ask you if that’s okay first, since you’re still partly alive. If you don’t want it, we can make an excuse as to why they shouldn’t.”

“Yeah, we don’t want to, like, offend you or anything,” Paulina said.

“Oh,” Danny said, looking pale—or, slightly translucent, actually. “Um. I guess it’s okay? I mean, I’m not offended or anything. It’s meant to honor people, so… yeah, I guess it’s okay.” He seemed to be struggling with something, although thankfully noticed his invisibility was acting up and became fully visible again.

“You okay, man?” Tucker asked, noticing too.

“If you’re not okay with it, you can say that,” Sam told Danny. “You don’t have to say yes to be nice.”

Danny shook his head. “No, it really is okay. I just… the seriousness of it all just kinda hit me. Like, I may have a human form too, but… I’m also a ghost. I died, even if it didn’t fully take. Part ghost means part dead. With the amount I joke about it, I guess I tend to forget the gravity of that sometimes…”

Sam tried not to react at how Paulina was now rubbing Danny’s shoulder in a comforting gesture, which became more difficult when Star joined in too on the other shoulder. But, the heaviness in the air reminded Sam that now was not the time to say anything, especially as Danny seemed almost on the edge of tears.

Tucker, however, apparently was less sensitive. “Dude, if you cry, we are not going to help you explain to people why your tears are glowing.”

This actually got a chuckle out of Danny. “I’m not going to cry, don’t worry,” he said, wiping his eyes with his hands. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to bring the mood down so much…”

“It’s okay,” Paulina said, gentler than Sam would have expected. “Death is a somber topic.”

“Yeah,” Danny quietly agreed. “Yeah, it is.”

Sam couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed; she’d been trying to get Danny to take the impact of the portal accident more seriously for years, and yet Paulina of all people manages to finally imprint the gravity of what happened on him?

“So,” Danny continued slightly awkwardly. “What, er, what kind of things do they plan to put on the… ofrenda?”

“Well, that’s something we want to ask, too!” Star said, returning to her usual much-too-happy demeanor. “The ones for kids usually include some favorite snacks, candies, and toys. But we don’t know what those are for you.”

“Oh. Um. That’s… a good question,” Danny said.

Paulina raised an eyebrow. “Really? You don’t know what your favorite candies are?”

“Not when you put me on the spot about it!” Danny defended. “And technically my favorite candy can only be found in the Ghost Zone, but you probably can’t easily get ghost stuff, right?” he confirmed, and Sam wondered what candy Danny was talking about.

“Yeah, probably not,” Star said. “Well, then, what was your favorite candy before you… before you were able to get Ghost Zone candy?”

“You can say the word ‘died’, you know,” Danny said with a small eye roll.

“You’re a big fan of peanut butter cups, right?” Tucker said. “And caramel?”

“Sure, those work,” Danny decided. “I like mint, too.” Ectoplasm was minty.

“Great! Now, favorite snack?” Paulina asked.

Danny shrugged. “Potato chips?”

“Any specific flavor?” Star asked, and Sam realized she had a notebook out.

“Ectoplasm,” Danny said with a fanged grin.

Star started to write that, then paused. “Wait a second. That’s not a chip flavor!”

“Sure it is, and it’s delicious. But if you want a flavor that won’t kill humans, then, I dunno, maybe ranch or cheese?”

“Got it,” Star said, diligently writing it down. “Anything else? Do you want a cake, bread, cookies?”

“Uh. Cookies are nice,” Danny said. “Flavors don’t really matter.”

“Great,” Star said, again writing it. “What about toys?”

“I’m 16, I don’t really play with toys anymore.”

“Collectibles and books and videogames and whatnot count too. It’s just gotta be things you like.”

“Um. My favorite video game is Doomed? And I guess my favorite comic is Spider-man.”

Tucker chimed in, “He’s always liked space stuff too! He used to build model rocket ships, and his entire room used to be space themed!” Danny blushed at that; it wasn’t to the same extent as it used to be, as he’d grown up (and might have had a small bout of frustration where he tore down and shoved into a box anything NASA-themed, not wanting the reminder he’d never get there), but he was still a pretty big space nerd and did still have those glow stars on his ceiling.

“That works!” Star said happily.

“That’s probably enough,” Paulina said. “Next, where should we set it up?”

“What do you mean?” Danny asked, and Sam did not like where this was going—ofrendas were usually set up at the house, at the gravesite, or sometimes where the person died.

“Well, we know we obviously can’t put it at your house, and you don’t have a grave, so is there like a special place or something? They were just going to put it at the school but pretty sure you don’t like it here much.”

“Oh,” Danny said. “Let me think…” After a pause of contemplation, Danny concluded, “There’s this hill my dad and I used to stargaze at, and sometimes I go there to clear my mind. Maybe there? It’s a little out of the way though.”

Sam frowned at that; Danny never told her about a secret retreat. Was that yet another secret he was willing to tell Paulina but not her?

“That’s fine!” Star said. “Just, send us the GPS coordinates, m’kay?”

“Oh wait; you can do it at the edge of the park instead,” Danny suggested. “I play with Cujo there a lot—that’s the ghost dog that Valerie hates,” he said with a small chuckle. “People have seen Phantom there plenty so it makes more sense for you to suggest that than an obscure hill.”

Paulina grinned. “Perfect! We’ll hold you to that. For now though, we have to get back to the A-list, but thanks so much for your approval and help!” she said, giving Danny a kiss on the cheek before standing up. Star mirrored her actions.

“Yeah, no problem,” Danny told them as the two walked away.

“Finally,” Sam muttered under her breath.

To Sam’s surprise, Danny rounded on her, green eyes glowing and looking pissed. “What the hell is your problem?” he hissed.

“What?” Sam asked, too stunned to react. She thought she’d handled the situation pretty well.

“The moment they got here you were seething at them, that’s what!” Danny said. “You were the same way at first with the ghosts. Is it that bad that maybe I’m making some new friends? I expected Tucker to be the more jealous one, not you!”

“Hey!” Tucker protested; Danny ignored him.

Sam opened her mouth to reply, then closed it, unsure what to say to that. Had she been that obvious about her dislike of the girls? But, “I’m not jealous,” she insisted, as calmly as she could despite anger at the accusation. “I just don’t like those two. They gave us hell for years, and now you expect to just be friends? They’ve clearly got different motives.”

“No, Sam, they don’t! The other stuff’s in the past.”

“Oh, come on, you can’t be that naïve. Or do you think it’s a coincidence that they’ve suddenly started liking you only after knowing you’re also Phantom? That’s who they want to be friends with, not you!”

“Okay, for one, we actually started being friendlier before they found out, believe it or not,” Danny told her, an edge to his voice that seemed to echo slightly. “Secondly, I am Phantom. It’s not ‘also’. They know that; I thought you did too!”

“I do know that!” Sam argued back, hurt that Danny could possibly think that she didn’t think of his two sides as the same person. “I was literally there when you were changed!”

“‘Died’, Sam. The term is ‘died’. How many times do I have to tell you that? Sure, I came back partly, but I still died! Painfully! I still have nightmares about it, more than two years later!”

Sam wasn’t sure how to respond to that, at a total loss for words. She knew all that. She knew that the portal had… done that. She knew he still had nightmares…

“Dude, calm down,” Tucker awkwardly interjected. “You’re, er, making our lunch float…”

Sure enough, their lunches were slightly glowing, hovering a few inches off the table, and moving around slightly.

Danny looked at the objects, taking a moment to process it, paled, then the lunches abruptly dropped. “Sorry,” he said, anger falling too, looking ashamed now.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Tucker said with a gentle smile. “Just figured you’d want to avoid a Carrie situation, you know?”

“Carrie situation?” Danny asked in confusion.

“Yeah, the movie about the girl with telekinesis, she makes things float when she’s angry, and eventually—”

“Tucker, stop,” Sam said forcefully. They did not need Danny worried that he’d end up murdering someone, especially because he already sometimes had nightmares about exactly that, thanks to that alternative future self of his.

“Eventually, her bullies discover it,” Tucker finished instead.

“Yeah, you don’t want Dash learning about you,” Sam pointed out.

Danny paled. “Yeah, good point. I’ll be more careful,” he said, seeming genuinely frightened for a moment, then looked contemplative and grinned. “But you know what this means? I can use telekinesis after all!”

“Still by accident though,” Tucker said.

Danny frowned, then stared hard at Tucker’s sandwich in concentration. It lifted very slightly, then fell, and Danny sighed. “Dammit. Why?”

“Maybe try using your hand,” Tucker suggested. “Usually in comic books superheroes that have it need to hold their hand out and move it with the object.” He waved his own hand a bit.

“Worth a shot I guess,” Danny muttered, holding his hand out towards the sandwich as he concentrated again.

Instead of telekinesis, an ectoblast shot out of the hand, destroying the sandwich.

“Aww, man. That was my lunch, dude!” Tucker complained.

Danny winced. “Sorry. Um… I’m not that hungry, you can have the rest of mine,” he decided, handing his partially-eaten sandwich to Tucker. “It’s egg salad though, hope that’s enough meat for you.”

Tucker looked at it skeptically as he accepted it from Danny. “It’s not contaminated, right?”

Danny shook his head. “No, not today. I got it from MU, not home.”

“Wait,” Sam said. “You have to eat something, Danny.” She knew he was at MU now so missing dinner wouldn’t be an issue, but she was still a bit shaken by the previous week’s incident.

Danny sighed and reached into his backpack, not bothering to open it, and pulled out some sort of bottled drink with the label written in strange symbols. “This will be fine.”

“What’s that?” Tucker asked.

“It’s a fruit drink with ectoplasm and radium,” Danny said.

Sam gave Danny a flat look. “You brought a drink spiked with a radioactive element to school?”

“It adds a nice zing, like carbonation…” Danny trailed, then paused, eyes widening. “Shit, I forgot humans can’t be around it.” He shoved it back in his backpack. “Should be fine as long as I don’t open it,” he said, though looked unsure. “I’ll just eat something later.”

Sam frowned. A glance at Tucker showed the sandwich was now mostly gone. “Well, guess it’s too late,” she concluded, glancing at her watch. “Just, be sure to eat, okay?”

“Of course,” Danny said. “I’ll get something from the vending machine later.”

“Do you have money for that?” Sam asked, narrowing her eyes. “Or will you intangibly snatch something?” She’d seen him do that before, although she thought he didn’t know.

Danny looked guilty. “I’ll pay it back later,” he said, and Sam could only sigh in response.

Chapter Text

A week after his encounter with Phantom in the park, Jack found himself pacing back and forth in the Ops Center, fresh from yet another fight with Maddie, unsure what to do. His cheek stung where Maddie had punched him… She never used to target the face; Jack wondered what changed.

The fight had been similar to the previous week’s, after which Jack had opted to stay at a hotel, the first time he’s ever done that—he just couldn’t stay in the house with Maddie that night, though.

Their kids had left eight days prior, and it was all Jack’s fault, of that he was certain. He knew that withholding food wasn’t a good punishment. When they first decided to have kids, Maddie swore she would never inflict the same kind of hurt on her kids as her mother had to her, including such extreme punishments. She’d made Jack promise not to let her if she ever tried. Yet when it happened, when Maddie told Danny to go up to his room without dinner for the first time… Jack had said nothing. He just let it happen. The second night he did have the courage to fight with Maddie about it, but it had been too late by then—now, both his kids were gone.

At least he knew they were safe; Jazz had sent him a few text messages that assured him of such, although they were all very short and to the point. Still, that initial phone call had ended with a promise to talk once Danny was ready… Jack had expected that to be a few days’ time, not a week.

Jack itched to call the kids right now, but he knew they needed time, Jazz had made that clear. Jack needed time, too. He just couldn’t understand what had happened to Maddie. She was so different now than he remembered. Harsher. She’d always been headstrong, adamant about getting her way, driven… But now there was a cold edge to it that Jack didn’t understand. Her words to Danny had been so cruel the evening he ran away to the Ghost Zone that Jack had simply frozen. Yet still when his wife was yelling at Danny after he returned, Jack had simply let her control the conversation.

Jack had never been very good about defending himself when it came to his wife; most of their arguments simply ended with Jack conceding she was right, even if he didn’t believe it. But he knew that it had reached a breaking point the moment Maddie had hit Danny. Any hope that things could go back to how they had been had then been shattered the moment Jazz had taken Danny away for his safety. Jack simply couldn’t sit idly by anymore.

Jack personally thought what Danny talked about was fascinating; he didn’t understand why Maddie was so opposed. True, Danny getting involved with ghosts to the point of being friends with them had initially been concerning, but the more Jack thought about it the more he began to consider that maybe Danny was onto something, with not all ghosts being bad—he’d been in the Ghost Zone for five days, after all, and come back unhurt… Actually, even after all the yelling he seemed much more relaxed, like the time with them had healed rather than hurt. So maybe they didn’t need to dissect ghosts to learn more about them; maybe some would simply be willing to talk. First, though, Jack would have to somehow convince Maddie that they weren’t all liars.

Jazz’s theories about ghost emotions were fascinating as well. Hell, she was even planning to further her research on such at college! Miskatonic University tended to have fairly far-out opinions compared to other paranormal research institutions, pushing some wild theories, but they were one of the top paranormal research institutions for a reason. If they were allowing her to research it, there must be some validity.

Maybe the issue was that a lot of what their children said seemed to counteract a lot of Jack and Maddie’s research? Perhaps Maddie was feeling like all those years of research and all those papers published went to waste if it all ended up wrong. Yet, wasn’t that the very nature of science? Old theories were replaced by new ones all the time. Science changed as new information came to light, and the Ghost Portal had opened a huge wealth of new data opportunities. They could be revolutionizing the field of ectoölogy! All it took was an open mind.

Speaking of…

Jack picked up the folder that had been left on the Ops Center table. It contained a copy of a graded paper Jazz had written for class. Jack felt that perhaps it was meant for him specifically to read, considering Maddie rarely came up here yet Jazz was well aware that Jack often came here to think. The assignment had been on human-hybrid paranormal creatures, and instead of writing about something more typical, such as a werewolf, centaur, or mermaid, Jazz had chosen to write about something she called a ‘liminal’.

Jack was a little concerned that Jazz’s class apparently was learning about such cryptids as though they were real, as the assignment definitely appeared to be serious rather than a creative writing assignment, but hey, ghosts were definitely real, despite what so many people told Jack before the portal worked, so maybe the other things were real too. Jack didn’t really want to think of the implications of that though, content to stick with ghosts and only ghosts.

Like the ‘liminal’ that Jazz wrote about, also known colloquially as a ‘halfa’, though that was originally a slur that had been reclaimed by these ‘liminals’. A ghost-human hybrid, allegedly created when a dying human is infused with enough ectoplasm to bond with their very DNA and keep them partially alive, something Jack had never considered the possibility of—after all, life and death were diametrically opposed, or so current philosophical reasoning said… Then again, that was just it, wasn’t it? Philosophy wasn’t fact; it was constantly changing, and just like scientific theories philosophical theories could be disproven (Plato’s chicken came to mind). Just because the idea had been around for centuries didn’t mean it was correct.

According to Jazz, there were different levels of these ‘liminals’, depending on the circumstance and amount of ectoplasm initially infused. The levels of ectoplasm, though, had to be exceedingly high, and raw—basically, the only way that could happen is if a portal was involved. Minor exposure would create one that was more or less human overall, ghost powers largely only easily usable when they switch from a human-form to a ghost-form, but more extreme circumstances could create one that was as high as 90% ghost and only 10% human. However, in all circumstances the mind is retained, complete with all memories.

Jack could understand why liminals would be so rare—after all, a natural portal opening on someone as they’re dying would be rarer than lightning striking them! Of course, the other method would be intentional creation, but it would take an especially cruel scientist to either open a portal on someone or blast them with an equivalently high level of ectoplasm while dying. Besides, there was no guarantee that it would create a liminal every time—even Jazz’s paper admitted that the odds and even the exact conditions were unknown. There simply wasn’t enough evidence.

Of course, that was assuming they existed. How did Jazz even know about them? She got an A on the paper, so clearly at least the professor believed in their existence. Did she have a book on the creature? Jack decided that he needed to question Jazz more on this matter, though considering she wasn’t talking to him…

Jack then got a brilliant, or possibly idiotic, idea: he could test it. In fact, he could test it right now! A box of lab mice had been delivered that very day—the plan for them had been to test exactly how much ecto-contamination it took to be detected on ghost scanners, like Danny sometimes was, but this was close enough to that, right?

Jack had made a mistake, he decided, as he looked down at the tiny hellions he had created.

When he rushed downstairs, excited to talk about his plan, Maddie had simply ignored him and left with a packed bag, saying she was going to go to her sister’s for a week. Though slightly disappointed, Jack knew that Maddie tended to do that when she was especially stressed, and the whole situation with the kids certainly was stressful! Plus, Jack was well aware that she likely would dismiss his idea outright anyway, so it was probably best that he work on his experiment alone for now.

The experiment was simple enough: spawn ghost portals on the mice as they died and see what happened. He used some of the prototype portal guns to create a smaller version of their large portal, just the size of a shoebox.

The experiment worked better than Jack had expected. Out of a total of 30 mice, 7 had become what Jack was calling ‘true’ liminals, proven by them switching between their ghost halves, in which their white fur inverted to black, and mice halves, the ghost detectors only registering them as ghosts when they either used powers or went into full ghost form, but as non-ghosts or slightly-contaminated if they were in regular mouse form doing regular mouse things. Another 8 of them, which Jack was calling ‘partial liminals’, had survived with ghost powers but no ghost form, all registering as non-ghost on the basic trackers (which they gave out or used in the field) or partly-contaminated on the more specific scanners (which, although they used this type at first, at this point they only used in the GAV and OP-Center due to cost as the simpler ones, created later, were much cheaper to produce). The three mice that had become full ghosts hadn’t been contained quickly enough and were now roaming Amity Park.

From Jack’s observations, the moment of death and the blast had to happen almost simultaneously: too early, and the ectoplasm would kill the mouse; too late, and the mouse would stay dead (or become a full ghost). Electrocution had been the easiest to achieve this with, as the portal itself could be rigged to shoot it off while activating; for someone to be hit by lightning at the exact same time a portal opened on them would be astronomically rare though!

What was most interesting was the percent of the DNA. Jack had observed anywhere from 10% to 90% depending on the power output; however, only ones that were 50% or more became the ‘true liminals’ with a ghost form, with the one 83% and two 90% ones seeming to have unrestricted ghost powers even in their regular mouse form that would be used instinctually. The ‘partial liminals’ appeared to have a smaller selection of ghost powers that they had to activate, or at least Jack assumed they had to; these mice, and the 50%-80% ones while in regular mouse form, would sometimes go intangible when knocking into objects Jack put in their path but more often would bump into them, or first bump them and then think to phase through, whereas the three with the highest percent didn’t even think twice, just as it was when any of the mice were in ghost form. Those three, if it weren’t for the DNA and vitals saying otherwise, along with the two forms, were almost indistinguishable from actual ghosts.

What Jack didn’t test, however, was if infusions over time worked. If a mouse was dying of a long-term illness, and they got regular infusions of ectoplasm just under the lethal threshold, would that create a liminal too? And what percentage would it be? Jack would need to order more mice to test it.

Wait, no, probably a bad idea. Jack looked at the liminal-mice again, in the cage that was surrounded by a small ghost shield. Now that he created them, he had no idea what to do with them. Maddie wouldn’t hesitate to vivisect (well, she called it dissect) some of them of course, but Jack had always been a softie on that front. These weren’t unfeeling ghosts—if ghosts even were unfeeling, which Jack honestly didn’t believe anymore. Regardless though, these were a blend of living and ghost. So how could—

Oh. Oh no. Not good. A 61% liminal-mouse had figured out that it could get through the cage bars in ghost form, change back to mouse form, and then go through the ghost shield. The 83% liminal-mouse noticed and did the same thing, though without first shifting into ghost form to go through the cage bars.

Jack lunged for the mice, thankfully managing to catch them both and toss them back into the cage before either remembered to go intangible. Before any of the other mice could get the same idea, Jack hurriedly wrapped a ghost net around the cage, which would prevent both ghostly and material mice from getting through.

As he did this, a thought crossed Jack’s mind. Wasn’t there a certain ghost that somehow always seemed to slip past ghost shields, too? A ghost that had been puzzling them by how they would be tracking him in the field, then the signal would suddenly vanish entirely? A ghost that exhibited more traits of humanity than others, such as being able to, apparently, sleep? Was it possible…?

By happenstance, Jack’s eyes fell on a small photograph on his work desk, one taken of their family from a few years ago. The four of them were all in their spandex hazmat suits, a particular black-haired boy’s being white with black accents. Jack scrunched his brow as he stared at the boy in the photo. If the colors of the suit and hair were inverted, like the liminal-mice’s white fur had changed to black when they entered ghost form…

Jack’s eyes widened in realization. No. No way. Impossible. Just, no.

It didn’t make sense and yet made too much sense at the same time.

But if so, when did…

Last week, the ghost with white hair and a black jumpsuit had told Jack that he’d died just over two years ago. When asked about age, he said he died at 14.

Jack’s eyes fell onto the full-sized portal, which had been opened just over two years ago, when Danny was 14. Now they knew of less dangerous methods to activate portals, discovered by studying the nature of the full portal, which is what the weapons and mini-portals used. That first portal, however, required a tremendous burst of electricity colliding with massive amounts of ectoplasm in order to open.

Enough of an electricity-ectoplasm infusion to create a 90% human-based liminal, based on the data collected from the mice.

Neither Jack nor Maddie knew exactly how the portal had first turned on. Danny and his friends had said they had been messing around nearby it, and it turning on had given Danny a small shock. But if Danny were actually inside, and received the full force of it…

Jack’s heart fell. He was at fault for that, wasn’t he? He’d left the lab unattended. He’d left the portal plugged in. And now Danny… Danny was…

Danny was a liminal.

Phrases from the song Danny had sung filtered through Jack’s brain again: it hurts when you disapprove all along… never gonna be good enough for you… you can’t change me… just want to make you proud… you don’t understand…

Jack thought back to the conversation he had with Phantom—no, Danny—the week before. The family he had described, who didn’t know who he was and he didn’t know would accept him. The family—no, father and son—who used to stargaze on a hill like that—no, that hill specifically. The story had been slightly changed but was close enough for Jack to now recognize that he had been talking about their family specifically.

Jack took a deep breath. Danny was his son, first and foremost, liminal or not. Jack had to somehow let his son know that he accepted him for who he was, that Danny was good enough for him, that Jack didn’t disapprove or want to change him. He had to make it known that he wanted to listen, wanted to understand… That he was proud of him, proud that Danny was using his powers to do all he could to protect everyone despite all the hate he got—because Jack was certain now that that was what Phantom, what Danny, was doing. He was a Hero protecting the town. Honestly, Jack had more or less known for months now, despite Maddie constantly telling him otherwise and making him doubt it. Jack would never doubt such again.

No wonder Danny and Jazz—who he was certain knew, given the report she’d done—had been so adamant that ghosts had feelings, and were such advocates for Phantom’s safety!

Jack wondered if the reason Danny was crying alone on that familiar hill the previous night had anything to do with him and Maddie, then concluded that it likely did. He had said as much, hadn’t he? Danny wanted his family back. He wanted to be at home with parents who accepted him for him. Wanted to tell them who he was, wanted to know they’d still love him. When he asked about what Jack would do if his kid were a ghost, it had not been hypothetical.

Then Jack thought back to Monday, when he’d found Phantom sleeping in an abandoned roadside shack. How often did he do that? Why had he skipped school to sleep there? Had Danny slept there before? He hadn’t been in his bed that morning; Jack assumed he’d left for school early, as Maddie had claimed Danny stormed to his room the previous night after another argument… Oh. If he were Phantom, he could have simply flown out the window, couldn’t he? And then… slept in a shack? No, he must have stayed with a friend, it was likely Sam or Tucker knew… Jack made a mental note to talk to Danny about that. His son shouldn’t feel so unsafe in his home that he felt he couldn’t sleep there.

But, those discussions were for the future; what should Jack do right now?

He could call Jazz; he probably should call anyway, to let her know that Maddie had left. So, Jack pulled out his phone, and called her.

“Why are you calling at 11pm?” Jazz asked blearily.

“Is it really that late already?” Jack asked, glancing at the wall clock. “Ah. It is. I was, er, distracted by an experiment… Ah, anyway, I saw your school report, the one on liminals.”

“Okay…” Jazz trailed, now sounding slightly wary. “And again, you’re calling at 11pm why?”

“I… Okay, so your mother doesn’t know about this, she left for her sister’s earlier today. So it’s safe if you and Danny want to stop by tomorrow to talk,” he told her.

“Oh, so you’re finally ready to listen?” Jazz said rather aggressively.

“I’ve been ready to listen!” Jack protested, then took a deep breath. “Sorry. That came out wrong. Um. Your mother and I actually disagree on a lot more ghost-related things than you think,” he told her. “Including yours and Danny’s thoughts on ghosts. She refuses to believe any of it, but I’m open to it, promise. Especially after something I realized tonight…”

“And that would be?”

“Er, well, not sure I should say it over the phone? But, well, it relates to the report you wrote? I read it this afternoon and got some ideas. And we had some mice on hand.”

Jack could almost see Jazz’s eyes widen and then narrow before she said sternly, “This better not be going where I think it’s going.”

Jack winced. “Er. Well. If liminal-mice is where you think it’s going, then… Yes.”

“You made halfa-mice,” Jazz said flatly.

“Yup! There are 7 of them that are what I’m calling ‘true liminals’, with separate human and ghost forms, and 8 that I’m calling ‘partial liminals’, which have some weaker powers but no ghost form,” Jack told her, then in a rush blurted out, “And they’re really rather cute and I don’t want Maddie to come home to find the ‘true liminal’ mice and have the same realization I did before she stops being so rigid in her views, since I can practically hear her trying to claim they’re just shapeshifting ghosts or something, but I know they’re not, so, maybe you and Danny want some pets while you’re at MU? Just the 7 true ones, the 8 partial ones I can pass off as experimenting with giving living mice ghost powers, like what happened at that hospital, I think she—”

“Hold up,” Jazz interjected, which Jack was actually thankful for as he’d begun to ramble, then stated in a neutral tone, “You made halfa-mice, and you want me and Danny to keep them as pets at MU.”

“Yes! Thanks, Jazzikins!”

“I didn’t say—okay, fine, whatever.”

“Great! And you’ll be here tomorrow? To talk?”

“Only if Danny’s okay with it,” Jazz warned. “And just to clarify, the realization you had is just that halfas are possible, or…?”

“I know what really happened when the portal opened,” Jack told her, and from Jazz’s sharp inhale she understood what he meant. “Tell Danny that he is my son no matter what. I love him no matter what. I understand if he still wants to stay away, but I want to be a better father, one who listens and makes him feel safe, regardless of form, if he’ll let me.”

Jazz took a moment to respond. “Okay, I’ll let him know,” she said. “He’s asleep at the moment, for once, but we’ll discuss it in the morning and I’ll call you with what we decide.”

“Okay. Thanks, Jazzerincess!”

“Uh-huh. Now if you excuse me, I need to sleep too,” she said. “Goodnight, Dad.”

“Goodnight. Love you, and Danny too,” Jack said, but the phone had already disconnected.

Jack hung up the phone too and took a deep breath. He should probably sleep too, but he wasn’t sure if he could. Not with his whole world being flipped on its head…

Wait.

If Danny was a liminal, caused by the portal, then… could Vlad be a liminal too? He had the smaller portal accident, which had given him the ecto-acne, which theoretically should have been fatal but maybe instead infused him with ectoplasm over time… Jack wasn’t sure what to think about that, frankly. If Plasmius had not killed Vlad and taken over his life, rather the two were indeed the same being, that meant Vlad was still alive, just in hiding—but it also meant he was definitely a villain. Jack would much rather believe his friend was dead than that he was a ghost as horrible as Plasmius… Well, maybe the kids would know more about that, so he would put off thinking about that until tomorrow.

Then there was the issue of Maddie. She absolutely could not find out about this, Jack was certain. Not now. Jack had said to Jazz that he wanted to wait to tell Maddie until she was less rigid in her views about ghosts, implying that he’d be trying to change her mind about ghosts, but… Well, he already had been trying to do that, and truthfully, Jack wasn’t sure if her mind could be changed. She was stubborn to a fault, and ghosts were a major thing they argued about. Jack, Danny, and Jazz had all been trying to tell her for a while that not all ghosts were bad, but she only doubled-down.

But what could be done? If the kids moved back, Danny was in danger as long as Maddie was in the house. Assuming she returned…

A question suddenly crossed Jack’s mind: Did he even want Maddie to return?

Jack, concerningly, found himself conflicted.

“Dad made halfa-mice.”

Danny blinked sleepily at Jazz, who had greeted him with that as he exited his dorm room. “What?” was all he could muster, not yet processing the words.

“Dad called me last night. He saw a school assignment I wrote about halfas, and decided to try to make some,” Jazz explained.

Danny took a moment to contemplate that as they began to head to the cafeteria for breakfast, as they’d done every day together for the past week; Jazz was adamant about Danny eating three solid meals a day. “You’re not pulling my leg, are you?” he finally asked skeptically.

“Nope. He’s been using the more formal term ‘liminal’,” Jazz explained. “There’s 7 of what he’s calling ‘true liminals’ that have ghost forms, and 8 ‘partial liminals’ that are just mice with weak ghost powers, like what happened during Spectra’s hospital incident.”

“Holy shit,” Danny said. That… Danny wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing, honestly. His dad was definitely more open-minded, and since he knew about halfas now, maybe he’d be more receptive of Danny being one, or at least would believe him? He had a feeling his mom wouldn’t believe it, unless… “Does mom know?”

Jazz shook her head. “Not yet. Dad wants to talk to us today—without Mom, who apparently went to her sister’s,” Jazz revealed, which Danny didn’t find surprising, if they’d fought again like they had the previous week, which had been bad enough for Jack to stay at a hotel. “He prefaced it with assurances that he loves you and you’re his son no matter what, that you’re safe with him, and said he wants to be a better father if you’ll let him.”

Danny took a moment to process those words, then realized what it likely meant and asked in a strangled voice, “Dad knows about me, doesn’t he?” He wondered if the conversation in the park a week prior had anything to do with it, or if the halfa-mice had been all it took.

“He said he didn’t want to say over the phone, probably worried that the GIW were tapping it again, which we know they aren’t due to Tucker’s alerts he set up, but he said enough that yeah, almost certain he knows that you’re a halfa, maybe even Phantom.”

“Oh,” Danny said, in mild shock. He had been hoping that this time around, he’d have a choice of when to tell his parents, but the universe seemed to be conspiring against him. “Well, at least it wasn’t broadcast on international TV this time,” he tried joking. “Um. Does mom know?” he asked, then realized that, duh, if she didn’t know about the mice she certainly didn’t know about his father’s suspicions about him.

“No,” Jazz said without judgement. “He said he isn’t even telling her about the halfa-mice yet, not until she’s relaxed her views on ghosts. He wants us to keep the ‘true’ ones here, as pets.”

“Pet halfa-mice,” Danny said flatly. “Why do I have a feeling that won’t end well?”

“Yeah, same, honestly,” Jazz said, then sighed. “So, do you want to talk to him? Honestly, I think it may be for the best. He sounds like he really is already accepting of things. He’s always been much more open-minded than Mom, even if he outwardly appears rather one-track-minded.”

“Yeah, pretty sure when I got back from the Ghost Zone he was more interested in learning about the place rather than scolding me,” Danny recalled, slightly amused at that. “And I swear when I mentioned being friends with ghosts he was faking the disappointment—honestly it felt like below the surface he was excited at the idea. He believed your paper, too—I think the only reason he isn’t trying to befriend ghosts himself is because Mom is so insistent on them being evil.” Of course, Danny knew this for certain, but he didn’t want to tell Jazz about that encounter on the hill for some reason. It felt too personal.

“Yeah, it does seem like he just parrots her a lot rather than believing it,” Jazz said with a thoughtful look. “I wonder if that’s why he always misses with the more dangerous weapons?”

“You think that’s intentional?” Danny asked, surprised. Or, maybe not so surprised, given what he now knew thanks to being able to sense feelings.

“We’ve seen him hit the practice targets in the lab when testing the weapons,” Jazz pointed out. “There’s no reason he’d be that much worse out in the field, and getting worse over time. His shots just go too wide to be his best efforts.”

“Huh. I never thought about it like that,” Danny said. “You know, I’ve seen him hit the more feral animal ghosts before, especially when protecting us—so yeah, I think you’re right. The more human ones like Phantom he’s been intentionally avoiding for a long time now.”

“Exactly.” Jazz smiled. “You know, little brother, I think this is going to go really well!”

“I hope so too,” Danny said as the two reached the cafeteria, which was attached to the main foyer, which looked more like the entrance to a haunted manor than a school. The cafeteria itself, despite being a little eerie thanks to being painted the school colors of deep violet and black and lit with rows of imitation gas lamps on the walls, the light of which had a faint green tinge due to being ecto-powered, was more typical of a school, smaller than his high-school one and a little more well-maintained but still recognizably a cafeteria.

Breakfast—well, more like brunch, given Jazz had let him sleep in until 1030—for Danny consisted of eggs, bacon, and peanut butter on toast with ectoplasm jelly, which Jazz made a face at but didn’t say anything about as she added a glass of ecto-milk to his tray. She herself opted for a vegetable omelette (though whether or not the vegetables involved came from Earth or some other planet/dimension was debatable) and home fries seasoned with something bright blue (thankfully all foods here had signs specifying if a food wasn’t safe for a particular species, so whatever it was Jazz was probably fine eating it as the sign only had the symbol indicating a danger to fish-based lifeforms).

Danny reflected on the past week. It had been… more stable than Danny imagined a week could be: he knew there would be food ready for him when needed, even the ecto kind; he slept better than usual—he had never realized how much banging from the basement had affected his sleep along with the late nights from ghost fighting; the less distracting environment meant it was easier to focus on actually getting homework done; and most importantly, there was no need to hide what he was or worry about weapons targeting him. He could go to the Ghost Zone whenever he wanted, no sneaking required. His ghost friends could even visit him! Ember was plenty happy to meet in the common areas of the dorm to practice (getting attention to her delight), and no one batted an eye. There was no curfew to worry about. Danny felt so much less stressed than he had in years.

School itself was still a mess, though. Dash’s bullying had been getting concerningly worse, emotions laced with a darkness that Danny had not expected to find, particularly as Dash caught onto Paulina and Star being friendlier with Danny than they used to be. The wounds were more painful, too, it seemed; Danny wasn’t quite sure why, as Dash didn’t seem to be hitting that much harder overall. Maybe the theory Sam had about ghosts’ wounds being affected by emotions was true. Thankfully the painkillers Sam got for him worked really well—he just had to keep them a secret from Jazz.

There had also been another incident in that stupid Ghost Defense class, or whatever they called it; Tucker and Sam had convinced the teacher that Danny collapsing had been due to stress, not due to the weird sonic weapon that had been brought in by GIW agents as an example of ways to subdue large groups of ghosts; the downside was humans got headaches from it so thankfully it wasn’t used much (it wasn’t even supposed to be activated, but apparently it was glitchy).

Danny was glad that he would finally learn what was going on with his parents today; he’d noticed during the past week of patrols that they’d been going out separately. Usually Maddie responded to everything, even reports of him, but Jack had been conspicuously absent or, to Danny’s surprise, would observe some ghosts before walking away. He still fought any causing mischief, but he’d even left alone Johnny and Kitty one day upon seeing they were only having ice cream, despite them being on the Most Wanted Ghosts list. He’d waved at Phantom every time they crossed paths, too, and Danny had awkwardly waved back; his nerves subsided some, recalling that. Things would go well.

Danny finished his food before Jazz, so he excused himself to the foyer to start a group call with Sam and Tucker.

“Hey, Danny!” Sam greeted.

“Let me guess: wanna hang out?” Tucker asked.

“No, not today,” Danny told them. “Actually, I’m going home.”

Danny could practically feel their surprise.

“Uh, come again?” Tucker asked.

“Didn’t we establish that it’s probably better for you to stay away from there?” Sam asked, sounding far from amused.

“Well, I dunno if I’m gonna stay there, but my dad called Jazz last night while I was asleep. He said he wants to talk today—without my mom, who apparently left for her sister’s, which is a whole ‘nother can of worms but works out for this. Anyway, Jazz and I are pretty sure he knows; he didn’t explicitly say it, pretty sure he’s still concerned about the GIW listening in, but I dunno what else it can be about. Jazz thinks he’ll be accepting of it given the amount he told her to assure me that I’m safe there and that he loves me no matter what and stuff, and how he specifically told her that mom does not know anything about all this and that he won’t tell her.”

“Wow,” Tucker said, seeming at a loss for words.

“How did your dad figure it out before your mom did?” Sam asked with incredulity.

“Well, for one, he’s a lot more open-minded than Mom,” Danny pointed out. “She’s more likely to dismiss things that go against her beliefs, but he isn’t. But the main thing that clued him in, apparently, was that he did some experiments yesterday that led him to creating halfa-mice. I guess once he learned that was possible, he was able to connect some things he couldn’t before.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold up, dude,” Tucker said. “Halfa-mice? Did you say Halfa-MICE?!”

“Uh, yeah. I’m still kinda processing it too,” Danny told them.

“Excuse me,” Sam said, sounding angry. “I thought your folks only experimented on ghosts, not living animals!?”

Danny winced; that had been something he had been keeping from Sam, letting her assume it was ghosts only. He couldn’t lie to her though, so he said, “Well, they are scientists…”

“How long has this been going on?” Sam demanded. “How many lives have they killed? There must be other ways to do these things, computer simulations and stuff!”

Danny grimaced. “This is why I didn’t tell you…” he mumbled.

“Sam,” Tucker interjected. “I think you’re skipping over the point that apparently there are HALFA-MICE in existence! What’s next, halfa-spiders? Halfa-cats? Halfa-elephants?!”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Tucker, my parents do not experiment on any living things larger than mice, not since the mutant warthog incident. And spiders are always out, my dad’s afraid of them.”

“The what incident?” Tucker asked, sounding concerned.

“Nevermind. Anyway, I just wanted to let you two know that I’m talking to my dad today—before you ask, no, I don’t think I need backup, Jazz and I can handle it.”

“Okay, but we’ll be on standby, just in case,” Sam told him, thankfully dropping the topic of animal experimentation.

“Thanks,” Danny said, then saw who was exiting the cafeteria. “Jazz just finished eating, so I gotta hang up, but I’ll talk to you later!”

Both said their goodbyes too and Danny snapped his phone closed, wordlessly joining his sister so the two could head back home to meet their father.

As Danny and Jazz entered Fentonworks, Danny heard a shout and was practically crushed in what turned out to be a hug from his father—surprised, and slightly panicked, Danny immediately phased out of it.

Once Danny processed what had happened, he looked at his father, who was looking back and forth between his still-closed arms and Danny, clearly surprised. Well, if he hadn’t known before, he sure did now. Interestingly, Jack was not dressed in his usual hazmat suit, rather had on khaki pants and a Hawaiian shirt, his go-to non-hazmat outfit.

“S-sorry, didn’t mean to do that,” Danny stuttered out, blushing and looking down as he rubbed the back of his neck with a hand. “You, er, surprised me.”

Jack looked embarrassed too, rubbing the back of his neck in the same nervous gesture. “No, no, it’s my mistake,” he said. “I shouldn’t have rushed at you like that.”

Danny took a deep breath, then smiled gently at his dad. “Guess this, er, confirms some things for you, huh?” he asked nervously.

Jack relaxed a little. “That it does, Danno, that it does… Come on, why don’t we all sit down in the kitchen, I’ll make you lunch.”

“No need; we just came from a late breakfast,” Danny told him.

Jack nodded. “Got it. I’ll get out some fudge then.”

Danny and Jazz followed Jack to the kitchen. As Jack was raiding the cabinets looking for fudge, Danny noticed an open container of delicious-smelling green-colored cookies on the counter, and helped himself to one. It tasted of mint and lime, but in a way that blended very pleasantly.

Jack finally found the box of fudge, and as he placed it on the table noticed Danny munching on the cookie. His eyes widened. “Danny, no!” He called in a slight panic, snatching it away.

“Hey! What gives?” Danny complained.

“They’re not safe,” Jack said, worry radiating off him. “They’re made with ect—oh,” he said, calming. “Nevermind, they’re safe for you,” he said sheepishly, handing the cookie back.

Danny looked back and forth between Jack and the cookie, confused.

“They’re made with a large amount of ectoplasm,” Jack explained. “More than a human can consume without causing indigestion. Maddie made them just before she left yesterday, she wants to use them to try to lure ghosts into traps…”

“Oh,” Danny said. “I, er, guess they work, then,” he said awkwardly, moving to sit at the table next to Jazz, and his dad sat down across from them. He continued to nibble at the cookie. “So… halfa-mice, huh?” Danny prodded, when all Jack did was stare at him. Clearly Jack was having trouble initiating the discussion about Danny’s ghostliness; talking about his exciting experiment would likely ease the tension.

“Hm? Oh, yeah,” Jack said, eyes lighting up. “Jazz, that paper of yours was super informative! It basically laid out the groundwork. I’ll show you them later; 7 of them became true liminals, with 50% or more ghost DNA, giving them separate mice and ghost forms, and another 8 became what I’m calling partial-liminals, which have enough to give them some powers but not enough to give them the form.”

“And that led you to some other conclusions?” Jazz guided, apparently wanting to get right to the core of why they were here.

Jack nodded. He opened his mouth, then closed it, apparently again unsure what to say so he instead grabbed a piece of fudge and tossed it in his mouth.

“How much do you know?” Danny asked. “About me, I mean. And how’d you figure it out?”

Jack swallowed his fudge, took a deep breath, and finally slowly explained. “When making the liminal-mice—or, halfa-mice? Is ‘halfa’ the word you prefer?” When Danny nodded, Jack continued, “So when making the halfa-mice, I noticed different levels of electricity plus ectoplasm was the most consistent method of creating them, the stronger the electricity the larger the ghost portion. Then I saw a mouse cross through the bars in ghost form, which is inverted in color, and shield in mouse form; it occurred to me that if there were actual human-based halfas around, they could do that too, and we do know of one ghost that’s always been able to somehow get through our shields but we could never figure out how. I realized that the only way that such a being could be created, other than a freak accident with a lightning strike and natural portal, the odds of which would be ridiculously small, would be to use a manmade portal, and we’re the only ones who have that around here. Then I noticed a picture on my desk of the family in our hazmat suits, and I realized that if yours were inverted like the mice…” he trailed off.

“For the record, the newest model of ghost shield, the one installed at the school, annoyingly does work on me, regardless of form,” Danny informed him.

“So it’s true, then?” Jack asked, seeming largely sad but with an underlying hint of excited anticipation. “You’re…” he trailed off again, apparently too nervous to voice it.

“Yeah, it’s true,” Danny confirmed softly. “I’m not just a halfa; I’m Danny Phantom.”

Jack nodded, heavy guilt blending with the sadness. “I’m sorry, son; if I hadn’t left the portal plugged in that day—”

“Stop, dad,” Danny interjected, realizing what his dad was thinking. “It’s not your fault. If anything, it’s mine, for being stupid enough to go inside of an unstable invention without checking if it was fully shut down first.”

“But, still,” Jack said. “If I weren’t so negligent… You… the amount of electricity and ectoplasm that it blasted you with… that’s enough to make a 90% halfa. 90%... dead… And if the blasts didn’t happen to be fully synchronous, it would’ve been fully…”

Something flipped in Danny’s stomach at the confirmation that he was 90% ghost, even if he’d figured as much given the blood-ectoplasm percentage. “But, it didn’t fully kill me,” Danny reminded his father. “Even if… even if it’s as high as 90% ghost... that’s still 10% human.”

“Of course, Danny!” Jack said immediately. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply you aren’t human! You’re still my son, Danny. Always! Human parts and ghost parts. This doesn’t change that. It doesn’t change that I love you. I’ll support you in this. I’ll even help you sabotage the weapons and trackers!”

Danny winced. “You, er, realized that was me, too, huh?”

Jack nodded. “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. It only makes sense; you had to protect yourself.”

“You’re not mad?” Danny asked, even though he could sense his dad wasn’t. Verbal confirmation still helped sometimes though.

“Nah. I’m surprised you’re not mad at me, actually.”

Danny quickly shook his head. “No, I’m not mad at you. Never was. I was mad at myself a lot at first for being stupid enough to get into an accident like that, I mean who wouldn’t be upset about becoming part ghost after being told their whole life ghosts were evil, but eventually I made peace with it. I don’t regret what happened anymore,” he assured his dad. “In fact, I really like all the ghost stuff now! I wouldn’t give up my powers for anything. I can’t imagine not being able to fly, and the more I learn about ghost culture the more I love it, I used to feel like such an outsider among the ghosts but now I really feel like I belong, like the Ghost Zone is such a fascinating place to explore and I’d never have discovered that without these powers! And, hey, I get to be a real-life superhero! Even if I’m kinda a wanted criminal for it.”

“And I’m so proud of you for that,” Jack said resolutely, then corrected, “The superhero part, I mean. Not the being-a-criminal thing. Which I do have some questions about, actually.”

Danny was ready for this. “All those have legit explanations, I promise! Let’s see, what were the big ones again… The mayor was overshadowed by a ghost that wanted to make my life hell by framing me—that’s why I shot at you, I thought you were overshadowed too, half the town was overshadowed by his goons. The burglary spree was because I was hypnotized by that Freakshow guy, he had some staff that could control ghosts, took a while for me to break through it. The Christmas thing was a spell the Ghost Writer put me under. The thing where it seemed like Phantom was chasing after Fenton was actually me chasing after a shapeshifter ghost called Amorpho that pretended to be me, he knows not to mess with me anymore. Disasteroid was only caused by Vlad, not all ghosts, it was a plot of his that backfired.”

“Oh, right. Vladdie…” Jack frowned. “So, he wasn’t killed by the Wisconsin Ghost—the ghost actually is him? He’s a halfa too? It was him all along?” The vibes gave Danny the feeling that Jack had already realized that but was struggling to accept it.

Danny sighed. He’d hoped talking about Vlad would come later. “Yeah, he is. The proto-portal accident caused it, although it wasn’t as immediate as with me.”

Jack nodded. “I thought as much; the ecto-acne likely infused him with ectoplasm while slowly killing him. I guess the theory about that being possible is right, so I won’t have to test that on more mice… Wait, getting off track, sorry. So is he the same as you, the 90%, or…?”

“Oh. No, I think he’s probably closer to an even 50%,” Danny explained. “I dunno how much, but he still bleeds red in human form; I did at first, but now it’s dark green, in both forms. Figure if he still bleeds red and his forms are that distinct after more than two decades, it’s safe to say he’s closer to an even split.”

“Fascinating,” Jack said. “Makes sense, if the body’s creating blood and ectoplasm at the same halfa percentage; that initial amount was probably whatever you had left…”

“Yeah, that’s my theory too,” Danny said. “And as to why mine’s now identical in both forms and his shifts, I suspect that has to do with me embracing my ghost part more than he has, since ghosts’ perceptions of themselves can affect things, and he really tries hard to keep the two separate.”

“So, er, do you know what happened to Vlad?” Jack asked. “I mean, judging by how much Phantom fights the Wisconsin Ghost—”

“Plasmius,” Danny corrected.

“Right, given how much Phantom fights Plasmius, clearly you two don’t get along, and based on what he did…” Jack sighed. “As much as I don’t want to believe Vladdie did all that, I can’t deny the evidence. Is he plotting somewhere? Should we worry?”

Danny shook his head. “No, you don’t need to worry about him anymore,” he assured his dad, surprised at how calmly Jack was reacting; it’d probably hit him harder later. “He did some self-reflection after the whole Disasteroid disaster. I’m pretty sure he’s done with the evil plots now—we, er, got into a time-travel incident together and he helped save the day. I mean, he kinda started it too, but for once it was actually an accident. Well, kinda. It did start as some evil plot, but he didn’t mean for the plot to trigger something worse. Anyway, he had some sort of revelation along the way and changed. I can tell you all about that some other time, it involves a lot of other background information to understand. It definitely doesn’t make up for everything he did, I’ll probably never forgive him for all of it, but I do believe he’s serious about being finished with the evil plotting, at least for the time being.”

“Okay, then, I’ll take your word for it,” Jack said. Then, he looked like he remembered something as his eyes fell on a newspaper on the table, which he grabbed. “Oh, right! Almost forgot. There’s something else I want to ask—is this true?”

Danny looked at the headline of the local paper’s morning edition from the week prior, October 21. It was the same headline as the one Sam had shown him from the evening paper the day prior to that one. “Ah, that,” he said awkwardly, not expecting that to be addressed so soon.

“So it’s true? You’re dating a ghost? No judgement if you are!” Jack added hurriedly. “Remember, I love you, no matter what. Who you date doesn’t change that.”

Danny considered that. Should he go with the paper’s story, or tell the truth? Would his dad actually be accepting, like he said he would be during their conversation on the hill? His dad did seem honest during that, and Danny hadn’t ever heard him say anything homophobic that he could remember. It should be fine.

Jazz put a hand on Danny’s arm. “It’s okay, Danny; you can tell him the truth about this too, I’m positive of it.”

Danny nodded; he trusted Jazz’s opinion on this, especially as it coincided with his own. He took a deep breath and looked at his dad, who was simply waiting expectantly. “No, I’m not dating Ember. She’s just my friend. I made out with her publicly, with her permission, to intentionally create that rumor before the press got wind of a different rumor, which was actually true. We kissed at the concert for a similar reason, not just for the show.”

“Different rumor?” Jack asked, looking contemplative. “I don’t remember any other recent rumors…”

“Well, we quashed it really fast,” Danny said with a chuckle, though his heart was fluttering around with his nerves. “Maybe it was still just spreading around school at that point, first I heard it was that morning. Anyway, basically, I’m fake-dating Ember to hide the fact that… I, er… that I don’t like girls in general,” he said, the last part in a mumble.

“Come again?” Jack asked, seeming slightly puzzled amidst mild concern, then clarified. “It was too quiet to hear.”

Danny took a deep breath and said more calmly, “I don’t like girls in general. I’m…” his heart raced, feeling more pressure now than he had earlier, this secret feeling even more difficult to tell. “I’m gay,” Danny managed to voice.

Jack appeared to relax, and laughed slightly. “That’s it? Phew! I thought you were going to say something bad! Son, like I said before, nothing will change the fact that you’re my son, and I will always love and support you.”

Danny relaxed too. “Thanks, dad,” was all he could think to say.

Jack nodded, then frowned, slight worry coming over him. “Er. Just maybe don’t tell your mother that,” he warned.

Danny wilted slightly. “Yeah, kinda suspected that,” he revealed. She’d yelled some not-very-nice slurs at him a few times, during her angry attacks.

“Yeah…” Jack trailed, lost in thought for a moment, then shook his head and said with a conspiratorial smile, “So, is there anyone you have your eye on?”

“Dad!” Danny said, blushing in embarrassment. “No, there isn’t, I swear… Dad? Why are you looking at me like that?” he wondered.

Jack turned away, apparently embarrassed about the fascination he was looking at Danny with. “Sorry. It’s just, you’re blushing,” he said, gesturing to Danny. “I, er, I don’t want it to come across as insensitive or something, um, it’s just… it’s red?”

“Oh,” Danny said, realizing what Jack was talking about. “Yeah, it’s weird; I dunno why I blush red or my skin is pinker than it should be for my blood color.”

Jazz looked thoughtful. “You know, I’ve been wondering that too,” she said. “Maybe ectoplasm doesn’t show through your skin? You still have 10% human blood, so maybe it’s only that showing. It would also explain why your skin itself is still pink and not greenish like other ghosts.”

Danny shrugged. “Makes as much sense as anything,” he said, then turned to his dad. “So, anything else you want to ask about halfas?” he wondered. “I don’t mind, ask what you want.” He wanted to distract Jack from any discussions about sexuality, before the man decided to give him ‘the talk’ or something.

Jack abruptly stood up. “First, let me show you the halfa-mice!” he declared.

As he and Jazz stood too, Danny realized something. “Wait. Don’t you want to see me transform?”

Jack’s eyes practically lit up. “Oh! Right! Let’s see it, Danny-boy!”

Danny grinned. “I haven’t said it in a while, but when I first started, I kinda had a catchphrase when I changed. Really cheesy, I know, but—Going Ghost!” he called, pumping his fist in the air and giving his core a slight tug before feeling the change come over him.

Jack gasped, and was smiling like a kid on Christmas.

Danny frowned. He looked down at himself. Yes, there was the jumpsuit. White hair flittered at the edge of his vision.

“Why wasn’t there light?” Jazz asked.

Danny looked at her, baffled. “I don’t know,” he said, then shifted back to his human form. Again, no light.

“What’s going on? Is something wrong?” Jack asked.

Danny looked at his father. “Oh. Um, not really anything wrong, I guess? Just, weird. There’s usually a ring of light that appears around my waist, and it splits and goes up and down, triggering the change. It isn’t really a bad thing to not have it, if anything it’s good since it’s pretty flashy so this is better for stealth, it’s just weird.”

“Hmm. Come to think of it, the halfa-mice did have rings around them when they changed. Different colors, though.”

“Yeah, Vlad’s was black,” Danny said. “I dunno what determines color, or lack of it I guess.”

Jazz looked contemplative. “If ghosts’ appearances and abilities can be affected by their psyche, maybe it’s never actually been necessary for the transformation to occur, and it was more of a psychosomatic thing—like, your mind wanted a representation of transforming. But now that you’ve finally fully accepted yourself you don’t need that,” Jazz suggested.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I know you used to struggle with your halfa status. Tried to keep the ghost and human parts as separate as possible,” Jazz further explained. “But lately, you’ve been trying to be more accepting of your ghost parts, and befriending those ghosts and spending time with them really helped with that, right? You’ve been using your powers a lot more in human form, too. So, maybe because you’ve accepted that the separation was mostly in your mind, that all of it is 100% you rather than a separate human you and separate ghost you, the transformation is reflecting that. Ghosts are highly influenced by their own perceptions of themselves, after all.”

“Maybe,” Danny acknowledged, unsure what he thought of that analysis. “I wonder if I focus on it…” He concentrated on creating the rings as he transformed, and this time they appeared.

“Whoa, neat!” Jack said, eyes practically sparkling, to Danny’s amusement.

Danny shifted back, and the rings were there again. “I’ll play around with the transformation later, see if I can figure out exactly what’s going on,” he decided. “Anyway, dad, you were going to show us the mice?” he asked, wanting to change the subject.

“Yes! To the lab!” Jack declared, and was down the lab stairs before Danny could blink.

“So,” Danny said, stopping Jazz to talk before the two of them followed. He shifted nervously. “I know that went well, and dad probably wants us to come back here, but…” he trailed off, considering his thoughts.

“But you don’t want to?” Jazz guessed.

“Well, I do want to, kinda,” Danny told her. “But…” he grimaced. “But Mom’s going to come back eventually. I… I don’t want to be here when she’s here,” he said, feeling sad as he admitted that. She was his mom; he should want to be with her, right? He felt so guilty that he didn’t. She was so supportive in that other timeline, or at least he thought she was; now he wasn’t so sure that she wasn’t just pretending to support him as a way to bide time…

Jazz was quiet for a moment before saying, “I know. I think, though, we should talk to Dad about this, decide what to do—I have a feeling he and mom are at odds a lot more than we realized… And have been for a while, not just in the current timeline, but in our original one, too.”

“Well, yeah, probably,” Danny said. “But what’s that have to do with—oh,” he said, realizing. Their mom had gone to her sister’s. They’d been getting into more fights lately. “You think… you think they might… you think Mom might not come back?”

Jazz pursed her lips. “I don’t want to speculate yet. Let’s… let’s just see the mice first, okay?”

“Okay,” Danny agreed, heading down to the lab with Jazz.

Jack excitedly explained to them all about the halfa-mice, every detail he could think of and how he managed to create them. It took hours, but Danny found himself actually enjoying it; it had been a while since he could excitedly discuss ghost-related experiments with his dad without being worried that a weapon would hurt him.

Once Jack finished discussing the mice, he shifted slightly, a nervous scent to him.

“So, er, kids… I don’t want to assume anything, but you’re going to come back home, right?” Jack asked, slightly strained.

Danny opened his mouth to reply, though paused, not quite sure what to say; he wanted to, but how could he say that he only wanted to be there when his mom wasn’t? So Jazz spoke up instead. “That depends on you and mom,” she said sternly.

“What about us?”

Jazz took a deep breath. “We’ve been skirting around this, but this isn’t a good home environment. Frankly, you’re incredibly lucky no one called CPS on you years ago; I’m certain people have considered it.”

“CPS?” Jack asked blankly.

“Child Protective Services,” Jazz clarified.

“Yeah, I know what it means. But, why? Maddie’s only gotten forceful recently… right?”

“This isn’t about the physical abuse, it’s about the neglect.”

“Oh,” Jack said meekly, guilt wafting off of him. “Yeah, the teacher used that word too…”

Jazz, apparently not hearing Jack, continued ranting as she made a sweeping gesture at the lab in general, which was a total mess. “See this lab? Danny and I have had near unrestrained access since we were in diapers, whether you’re home or not. That alone would get you charges. Half the food you feed us is contaminated with ectoplasm and you don’t even notice! I learned to cook when I was in kindergarten because I knew that Danny and I wouldn’t get food otherwise, since you and mom were holed up in the lab working on some project. Sometimes, we wouldn’t see you for days, you were so focused on your work. Children should not know how to be self-sufficient before they’re even in school! Honestly, you’re lucky that neither of us were killed—or rather, fully killed. Danny may not blame you for it, but it was your invention being carelessly left unattended and in a dangerous state that allowed your son to walk into it as human and walk out of it as a halfa. And you didn’t even notice. For two years you didn’t notice that your own son had died.”

“Jazz, you’re being a bit harsh,” Danny said, feeling the immense pressure of Jack’s guilt, shame, and regret. Their father was on the verge of tears. “Besides, I came back.”

“Am I truly being too harsh?” Jazz asked, ignoring the second part. “Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me that if they had been better with lab safety, you still would have walked into that portal and been electrocuted.”

Danny opened his mouth, then closed it, knowing Jazz’s words were true.

“Danny, Jazz is right,” Jack said quietly. “Jazz is right. I haven’t been a good father, and because of that… you died. You partly came back, true, but you still died. My negligence—”

“And mom’s,” Jazz interjected.

“Fine, my and Maddie’s negligence killed you. We killed our son. That’s something I’ll never forgive myself for. And you’re right, Jazz. When all those facts are laid out like that, it’s hard to deny the evidence. If CPS had ever been called, you two would have been removed from here. But! I do want to do better,” Jack said resolutely. “If you’ll let me—and I fully understand if you’d rather just leave and be done with me—I would like to try to be an actual father to you. I know you’re both teenagers now, and I can never make up for your childhood years, but please, let me try for the few years you’re still at home.”

“I’d like that,” Danny said immediately. He wondered if he should tell his dad yet that Jack had a lot longer to make up for such than he realized, given Danny would effectively be 14 forever. That might be a bit too much at once though; he could tell him that later.

Jazz sighed. “I would too, but… Well, forgive me if I’m a bit skeptical.”

“Jazzikins, if I ever start to do anything neglectful again, call me out on it, and I will do my best to immediately correct it, I swear.”

“I believe him,” Danny supplied. “His resolve is so strong I can literally taste it. He’s definitely serious about this.”

Jack rapidly nodded in agreement. “I even started working on it, after the teacher said something! I’ve been making an effort to keep things cleaner, and no weapons on the kitchen table. Look, there’s even a dedicated lab fridge now, which gets locked up!” Jack said proudly, gesturing to it. Danny would have to talk to him about that; though admirable that he was trying to be safer, Danny actually needed access to the ectoplasm in there… Well, maybe not, if he got portal access to go buy those energy drinks.

Jazz sighed. “Okay, fine.”

“So, you’ll come back?” Jack asked hopefully.

“Yes,” Danny said immediately.

“For now,” Jazz said, a warning tone in her voice, clearly less sure this was a good idea, as vibes of protectiveness and wariness surrounded her. “We’re going to have to have a conversation with Mom, first, whenever she gets back, but for now, yes.”

“But we can’t tell her about me,” Danny reminded them.

“No one’s saying you have to,” Jazz said gently.

“Right,” Jack agreed. “You only have to tell her what you’re comfortable with.”

Danny smiled, relieved to hear that. Maybe… Well, maybe he could dare to hope that things would work out, after all.

Chapter Text

Sunday morning, Lancer sat at his kitchen table grading papers when his doorbell rang; he glanced at the clock to find that those he’d expected were right on time. He went to the door to let in Jasmine and her brother Daniel, each holding a large cage covered in a blanket, the latter also having a large tote bag dangling off his arm.

“Just put them on the dining table,” Lancer instructed. Living alone, he usually ate at the small kitchen table, so had cleared off the dining one to hold their new friends.

The two teenagers followed Lancer’s instructions, then removed the blankets, revealing cages of unusual mice.

“Thank you so much for taking them in,” Jasmine said with clear relief. “Dad doesn’t want mom learning about them, and we can’t really trust many people with them.”

“Yes, it’s my pleasure; I was considering getting a class pet anyway. But, can you tell me now why these mice are special? You never specified,” Lancer reminded them. They had been very vague on the phone, saying the mice were experiments that needed a home; one set were okay to use as class pets, but the others would have to be kept entirely secret, for some reason.

“Watch them and see,” Daniel said with a mischievous grin, somehow already with a purring Shadow in his arms (the other two cats were, as expected, hiding). “This cage first,” he said as he gestured to the one on the right, labelled ‘TOP SECRET’. Daniel’s eyes glowed as well, and combined with the smile Lancer took it as a sign that he was incredibly amused; Lancer now felt a little worried. Just what had he agreed to?

Lancer cautiously observed the mice, whose cages seemed to be made of panels of a slightly glowing glass, presumably ghost-proof. Some of the mice were white, while others were black with a slight glow to them and glowing ectoplasmic-green eyes… A few of the black ones were floating. Ghost mice? But the white ones were definitely regular mice; why would they be mixed together? A ring appeared around one of the white ones, changing it.

“Atlas Shrugged,” Lancer whispered. “These mice… are halfas?!”

Daniel nodded. “Yup. Dad created them. You, er, see why we can’t just leave them in anyone’s care.”

Lancer nodded. “Yes, if people found out about this… Well, it could easily lead to your secret being uncovered.”

“Yup. It already led to my dad figuring me out—which went well, actually! I told him everything, and he accepts me—actually, he was a little too enthusiastic, if you ask me,” Danny said with a chuckle, then sighed and said. “But Mom still doesn’t know, which is why we can’t keep them.”

Jasmine added, “Dad thinks it’s not safe for Mom to learn Danny’s secret just yet, and I agree.”

“I see… So you two are back at home now, I take it?” Lancer surmised, very glad to hear that at least one parent Daniel didn’t have to be afraid of anymore.

“For now,” Jasmine replied. “Mom’s currently at her sister’s place, so it’s safe there for now, but when she comes back we’ll probably leave again.”

“If she comes back,” Daniel muttered.

Jasmine winced. “Right. If.”

Lancer raised an eyebrow at that. He figured it would be best not to pry at the moment, so asked, “So, what about the classroom mice? They’ll all still white, so I guess they’re extras or something, normal mice?” As soon as he asked that, though, one mouse began to float, belying that assumption.

“Oh, no, they’re experiments too,” Daniel revealed, now trying to prevent Shadow from wriggling out of his arms as the cat had noticed the contents of the cage. “My dad’s calling them ‘partial-halfas’. They don’t have a high enough percent of ghost DNA to give them transformations or anything advanced like ectoplasmic manipulation, but they have the three most basic ghost powers—flight, invisibility, and intangibility. It’s a similar situation to the ghost illness epidemic at the school two years ago.”

“Ah, yes, how can I forget that,” Lancer said as he watched a mouse disappear. “I suppose that ‘the experiment gave them ghost powers like that illness did’ is going to be the cover story?”

“That’s what we were thinking,” Daniel confirmed. “Anyway, the classroom ones can just eat regular mouse food we’re pretty sure, but some of the halfa ones might need ectoplasm to supplement it, just put some in a dish and leave it in there—some seem to like it, others don’t, we think it scales by what percent ghost they are. There’s some bottles of it in the bag, just let us know when you run out and we’ll get you some more. There’s some ecto-netting in the bag too, the cages are made of special ghost-proof glass but if you plan to get them bigger cages or expand them with the tunnels and stuff you’ll need to make sure they’re wrapped in it so they don’t phase through. There’s also a butterfly net using similar netting so you can catch them if they escape.”

“But you need to be extra sure they don’t escape if possible!” Jasmine asserted. “We don’t know what would happen if the halfa-mice breed with wild mice; we don’t want the town ending up with a ghost-mice or halfa-mice problem.”

“Understood,” Lancer said. He didn’t plan to get bigger cages—these things were each two and a half feet cubed, which seemed to be more than plenty of room for the mice, well over the size of the typical tanks found at pet stores—but perhaps some internal tunnels and climbing items would be good. He’d have to take a shopping trip later.

“Good. I think that’s all,” Jasmine said. “Again, thank you so much for taking them in!”

“Of course,” Lancer said, although he was aware he was essentially the only one who could, with so few people knowing about halfas existing and the kids who knew all having parents who didn’t. “Now, just to be certain, your father knows everything now, Daniel?”

Daniel nodded as he lost the battle with Shadow, who leapt from his arms to the table, inspecting the cages. “Yup, every—wait.” He frowned. “I think I forgot to mention the immortality… But that’s part of the ghost stuff, he’ll be fine with that,” Daniel said with confidence. “Otherwise there’s no more secrets.”

“Not even…?” Lancer trailed as he shooed Shadow off the table.

Daniel smiled. “He knows I’m gay, too,” he said, catching on. “And is perfectly accepting of it!” Then, he frowned and shifted nervously, looking at the ground. “But he warned me not to tell my mom. Apparently, she’s very homophobic; I’ve heard her make comments before, but I guess it’s worse than I thought… I actually, ah, kinda hope my mom doesn’t come back. Is that bad?” he asked, seeming slightly distressed.

Lancer shook his head. “Not at all, Daniel. She hurts you; it is perfectly understandable to want to get away from someone who hurts you, even a parent.”

Daniel looked relieved to hear that, then he gasped, a chilly puff of air slipping between his lips.

“A ghost attack? Now?” Jasmine said with a sigh.

Daniel tilted his head and squinted his eyes, looking somewhere in the distance. “I think it’s just Boxy,” he determined.

“You’re getting better at telling who it is!” Jasmine said encouragingly.

Daniel shrugged, blushing slightly. “Only because he appears too often… I better go see what he’s doing, though, just in case—last week he captured a shipping truck that contained boxes of cooking knives, really lucky no humans were hurt from that… Oh, I wasn’t either, don’t worry!” he assured, glancing at Lancer, who had in fact been worried but didn’t think he showed it.

Jasmine chuckled upon seeing Lancer’s surprised expression. “Yeah, ghosts sensing emotions can be a little awkward at first, but you get used to it.”

“Anyway, I’m just gonna go now, thanks for taking care of the mice!” Daniel hopped into the air as though gravity didn’t matter and turned to fly off.

Jasmine grabbed Daniel’s foot, causing him to shout in surprise. “Ghost form,” she reminded him.

“Right,” Daniel said, blushing harder, then intangibly broke from her hold while shifting forms—strangely, there was no bright light this time. He then flew off through the wall.

“Yeah, he learned how to shift without the light,” Jasmine told Lancer, anticipating the question. “He’s been working on defaulting to that, since it’s stealthier. I doubt the mice ever will figure it out because it defaults to the rings and they have no reason to try to change that.”

“You’re proud of him,” Lancer commented, the emotion in her voice clear even to a human.

“Of course,” Jasmine said with a soft smile. “He’s my brother, and he’s doing his best to be a good person. What he does is dangerous, sure, and I worry a lot, but yes, I am proud of him.”

Lancer nodded in agreement. “Yes. I am too. He’s the reason our town is still standing, and he’s just 16.” Well, on paper, at least—Lancer was still getting used to the concept of an immortal 14-year-old.

With that, Jasmine bid Lancer farewell, and he prepared to head to the pet store—these mice were going to have the best cage accessories that his meager teacher’s salary (and bonus ghost-attack hazard pay) could afford!

Sunday evening, Jack knocked on Jazz’s door slightly after Danny went out on an evening patrol—his son had actually asked Jack if he wanted to go too, but Jack needed to talk to his daughter. He had a feeling that Danny had been able to sense that Jack had some heavy thoughts on his mind.

When Jazz opened the door, her brow was scrunched. “Dad? Everything okay?” she queried.

“Do you have some time to talk now?” Jack asked, fiddling with his fingers, well aware of how nervous he was.

Jazz opened the door further, inviting him into her room. Jack took the bed while Jazz sat at her desk, where it appeared she’d been doing homework—interesting homework involving ritual diagrams that Jack wanted to ask about, but he knew he was here for something else.

“What’s on your mind?” Jazz wondered.

“It’s about Danny, and his… ghostliness,” Jack told her.

Jazz frowned. “Did we not answer all your questions? Or are you second-guessing things?” she asked with suspicion, then more to herself muttered, “Danny said you definitely were radiating positive vibes though…”

“Oh! Yes, you two were very thorough,” Jack assured her. “And I still am serious that I love and support him! It’s all rather exciting, actually! Well, barring the dying part.”

“Then, what is it about him you want to talk about?” Jazz asked, clearly confused.

Jack took a deep breath. “I don’t think Maddie is going to see things the same way as me,” he said bluntly. “She has a one-track mind when it comes to her beliefs about ghosts. I… I don’t think we can change it, not as fast as needed,” he told her.

“What do you mean?” Jazz asked cautiously. “I mean, I know she tends to have tunnel vision, and Danny has definitely picked up how rigid she is, but even if it does take time to change her mind, it can still be changed, right?”

Jack sighed. “Not soon enough, I fear. I took a lot of data on those halfa mice, and today I ran the calculations on projected lifespan, since ghosts don’t age whereas living creatures do. It appears that each percentage of ghost DNA increases it exponentially. At 50%, aging happens at about a quarter of the usual rate, meaning a lifespan four times what’s usual for the species. By 90%, it’s… it’s essentially halted entirely. Danny’s 90%.” They’d done some tests confirming such. Danny, in Phantom form in that meadow, telling Jack he was essentially 14 had been the truth.

Jazz sighed. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “Both Danny and I recently realized that he hadn’t been aging; guess with everything we forgot to mention it.”

“That’s okay; there was a lot to go over,” Jack said with understanding, then, curious, asked, “How’d you two know?”

“I compared photographs; he hasn’t changed, not even his hair, since the accident. Danny’s had his suspicions for a while, and when he took his little ‘vacation’ in the Ghost Zone he confirmed it with that time ghost we told you about.”

Jack nodded. “So he’ll look 14 forever,” he said grimly. He couldn’t imagine a worse fate, trapped in a 14 year old body for eternity, no matter how much he matured.

Jazz immediately proved him wrong. “It’s not just that; maturity is halted too. He’s literally frozen at 14; his brain won’t even mature beyond that.”

“Oh,” Jack said. Right, Phantom had actually said that too that night in the meadow. Forever trapped in puberty was much worse. “Oh, no,” he realized. “I’m going to be raising a teenager until I die?”

Jazz winced. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary; he’s pretty capable of living on his own, honestly,” she said, and Jack realized that was his fault, that his… neglect… had made his 16-year-old son so self-sufficient by 14. Jazz continued, “Eventually he’ll be 18 on paper, so legally he can move out at that point. You won’t have to have him as a dependent forever.”

“I will as long as he needs me,” Jack said resolutely. “I’m serious when I say I want to make up for all my past mistakes regarding you two! But, that does bring me back to my original point: Maddie is going to notice eventually that he still looks and acts 14, and will surely investigate. Maybe it’ll be soon—you noticed, after all—or maybe it’ll be a year or two, but she will notice.”

“Yeah, she will,” Jazz said quietly. “You really think we can’t change her mind by then?”

Jack shook his head. “It’ll take nothing short of a miracle. I’ve actually been trying to get her to take some different approaches to studying ghosts, but she just won’t budge, especially on Phantom. We’ve had a lot of arguments about where to focus our research lately, with her wanting to build mainly offensive things that can kill ghosts, or capture for dissection, and me wanting to build more defensive things that don’t hurt ghosts and study their behavior. Your psychology stuff about ghosts is actually really fascinating! But whenever I try to talk to her about it, she just shuts me down. She refuses to listen to anything against her view that ghosts are evil.”

“Confirmation bias,” Jazz noted.

“Yup. Last week I tried suggesting Phantom might actually be helpful, and her reaction, whew, she was so mad she threw a book at me!” Jack told his daughter.

“Holy shit,” Jazz said, eyes wide. “I didn’t know it was quite that bad…”

“Yup; she’s really stubborn about her view on ghosts!”

Jazz sighed in slight frustration. “I meant the fact that mom threw a fucking book at you.”

“Oh, no, it was a paperback book, no harm done,” Jack assured his daughter, choosing not to reprimand her for her language.

“Right,” Jazz said, though seemed skeptical of that. “Okay, setting that aside for now, if we know Mom won’t accept Danny anytime soon, what should we do? Should I take him back to the dorm?”

Jack shook his head. “No need. That’s… actually something else I want to talk to you about,” he said, even more nervous now. “The direction of our ghost research isn’t only what your mother and I have been fighting about. Our child-raising strategies are also at odds. In the past I’ve always let her take the lead on that front, but lately… Well, sending Danny to bed without dinner was one of her tamer ideas. I should have done more to stop her, I tried to bring him some food later but she caught me. She’s obsessed with control; she wanted to remove his doors and put cameras in his room! I put a stop to that immediately of course, along with any suggestion of corporal punishment, but the fact that she even suggested those things… It makes me sick.”

Jazz looked horrified. “It makes me sick too! Mom really suggested that? How is it so much worse than I’d thought?” she said the last sentence more to herself.

“She did,” Jack confirmed. “Look, Jazz, we try to hide the fights from you kids, but they just keep getting worse and worse. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this until you were both 18, but…” Jack trailed off, unable to say it. Though he’d come to the decision, he had yet to say the word out loud.

“You want a divorce,” Jazz said, coming to the correct conclusion.

Jack bit his bottom lip and nodded, feeling tears form in his eyes. “Y-yeah,” he stuttered out. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while now.”

“You’re sure?” Jazz asked pointedly, eyes narrowed as she examined Jack. “This will change things.” Jack knew his daughter’s words weren’t meant to convince Jack to change his mind; they were meant to confirm his resolve.

“Yes,” Jack said resolutely, pushing through the aching of his heart. “I still love your mother, I don’t think that will go away, but we just aren’t compatible anymore, and now she’s an active danger to Danny—in both human and ghost form. I can’t just stand by and let her hurt him anymore.”

Jazz took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said. “Okay. I’ll go with you to see a lawyer tomorrow,” Jazz told him. “We’ll need one to handle custody, too. I can confirm her abuse towards both you and Danny, to hopefully get you full custody of Danny.”

Abuse? Why did she use that word? Towards Danny, yes, but him? “But she wasn’t—” Jack began to protest, but his daughter cut him off.

“I’ve heard the things she’s been saying, to both you and Danny lately. Verbal abuse is still abuse,” Jazz pointed out. “And her rage is bad enough that both you and Danny flinch as though she might hit you, even before she started actually hitting Danny. You just admitted that she threw a book at you the other day, and I’ve seen you both with unexplained bruises. She intentionally grabbed Danny hard enough to bruise, on multiple occasions, not to mention slapping him in front of everyone after the concert,” Jazz said. “Pretty sure she’s been doing more, too, but Danny refuses to give any detail about that.”

Jack felt his eyes widen. “She has?” he asked quietly. “I didn’t realize that… I thought it was just the slaps, and those didn’t bruise…” Then again, she did punch Jack; it wasn’t a far stretch that she’d do that to Danny, too… Plus, the ghost healing factor would make it easier to hide, or pass it off as less severe…

“Just because they didn’t bruise doesn’t mean they didn’t hurt,” Jazz pointed out. “But yes, she has left bruises after grabbing his wrist and arm. Danny said he could sense an actual desire to cause pain; in my opinion, it’s only a matter of time before she snaps and goes further than just slaps and wrist grabs, if she hasn’t already—and I seriously suspect that it already has gone further.”

“I see,” Jack said quietly. “I didn’t realize it was that bad…” Or, maybe he subconsciously had started to realize that; the way Danny flinched away from her lately definitely hinted at something worse than slaps…

“Well, it is,” Jazz said bluntly. “Which is why, as I said, I’ll testify to it to get you full custody—providing you really are serious about your promise to do better by him. I haven’t forgotten that you were often as neglectful as mom when it came to choosing your work over your kids!”

Jack winced at the accusation, although it was true. “That’s fair,” he said. “I’ll do better, I promise.”

Jazz nodded in acknowledgement. “That’s all I ask,” she said. “Now, our custody isn’t the only thing that will need discussing—this place will, as well.”

“Oh, that’s not an issue,” Jack told her. “The title’s fully in my name. It’s actually an old family property!”

“And the company? Fentonworks?” Jazz reminded him. “All the things in the lab? The portal?”

Jack frowned. “That… might be a bit more complicated,” he said. “Especially the portal.” They likely would split the company, and the corresponding finances, but the portal was not moveable and necessary for both their research. “Well, guess that’ll be what the lawyer’s for,” Jack concluded.

Danny came home from patrol through the front door rather than his bedroom window, a refreshing change of pace, and casually headed towards the lab to deposit the Box Ghost and a wooly mammoth ghost back into the Ghost Zone; now that his dad knew, he’d dismantled the extra security around the portal and made sure Danny’s ecto-signature was programmed in as an exception in all devices that could target ghosts, so they would avoid him.

In the lab Danny discovered his dad on the phone, in the middle of a loud argument with someone; he paused, not sure if he should interrupt.

“Maddie, be reasonable!” Jack yelled into the phone.

The reply came in the form of a loud screech that barely sounded like words, which Danny would’ve been able to hear even if he didn’t have enhanced hearing: “There is no way in Hell I am giving up custody of my children! IF we go the divorce route, YOU will be the one leaving, and I will be filing for full custody!”

Divorce? Danny’s parents were actually getting divorced? He knew it was bad, possibly on the edge of it, but he didn’t think it’d actually ever happen. Danny had mixed feelings about that; on one hand, thanks to Jazz and Dr. Warren Danny was aware that the situation was not ideal, for either himself or his dad, so escaping Maddie ought to be good; however, a part of him still hoped things could eventually be resolved peacefully, that Maddie would come around and treat them nicely again. But if divorce was actually on the table…

“Maddie,” Jack said, voice now deathly calm despite the complex swirl of emotions emanating off him, staring into the portal, still unaware that Danny had silently flown into the lab. “This house was passed onto me by my great-uncle Elihu Whipple. It is fully in my name. You will be the one leaving. The kids are old enough to choose which parent to live with, and even if they weren’t, the instant the courts hear about what you’ve done, what you’ve threatened to do, they will side with me. It’s best to settle outside of court.”

“Tch. You just want to do that because the courts always side with the mother! You know you won’t get them if it comes to that.”

Jack practically growled. “Maddie, that is not the case anymore and you know it. Honestly, we are both damn lucky that CPS never showed up at our door to take them away; we’ve been neglectful their whole lives, and you know it. Physical abuse charges on top of that are not something you want—which is what it will come down to if it goes to court.”

“It’s not abuse!” Maddie hissed back.

“Yeah? Then what do you call hitting and starving your child?”

“That's discipline, not—”

“It is abuse!” Jack cut off the protest. “By all definitions it is! And that wasn’t even the worst punishment you wanted to give!”

Danny frowned. His mom had something worse in mind? Or was he referring to things Maddie actually had done, but hid, like the cage?

“Oh, please, it’s nothing I didn’t go through when I was a kid, you’re acting like it’s a big deal when it’s not!”

“It IS a big deal! Danny is visibly afraid of you,” Jack told her. “He flinches every time you enter the room! Surely you’ve noticed that. Didn’t you say when we decided to have kids that you never wanted to turn out like your parents? Well, guess what: you have. And just like you did with your parents, your kids will end up largely cutting you out of their life, seeing you only on holidays, too—or not seeing you at all—if you don’t improve.”

Danny blinked, not having expected that; his maternal grandparents had been abusive? That was the reason they only ever showed up on Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and sometimes July 4th, despite only living a couple hours’ drive away (until they passed, that is)?

“It’s not the same!” Maddie still insisted.

“Argue all you want; that doesn’t change things. Now, do you want to take the custody battle to family court, or would you rather just let the kids decide?”

“Fine,” Maddie hissed. “Fine. We’ll let the kids decide, then—and they’ll choose their mother, you’ll see.”

“Oh yeah?” Jack said, voice raising again. “You really think they’d choose to go back to an abuser? Then why did Jazz flee with Danny after YOUR punishment, and only came back once they knew you were gone?”

“They’re back?” Maddie asked, seeming surprised.

“For now,” Jack said, tone heavy.

“Okay, then ask them right now, I dare you!” Maddie said. “They’ll choose me, you’ll see!”

“It’s 11 at night! I’m not going to—Danny!” Jack shouted, as Danny flew forward and grabbed the phone, shifting to human form as he did so; the echo of ghost voices didn’t work well through regular phones.

“Hi, mom,” Danny said, flying high enough that Jack couldn’t grab the phone back.

“Danny!” Maddie said with relief; Danny wished he could sense through the phone if it was genuine. “Did you hear all that?” she asked in her fake-sounding sickly-sweet voice.

“I heard enough,” Danny said, voice cold. “You’re wrong, Mom—I would never choose you over Dad,” he said, now fully confident about that. “Not in this timeline. You are a cold-hearted, abusive, self-centered, narcissistic, hateful bitch who is stuck in her ways. All you care about is murdering ghosts, don’t try to pretend otherwise. You never listen to me or Jazz, only ever interrupting us to tell us we’re wrong. You hurt me! Multiple times! You wanted to cause me pain! Last week, you beat me up so badly that I had to escape for the night once you shoved me into my room because I thought you were going to come back and kill me! I had a fractured rib after that, you know. Do you know how often I’ve broken down in tears because of you?” Danny knew he was being extremely harsh and laying it on too thick, but he honestly didn’t care at this point; he wanted his words to hurt her just as she had hurt him.

“Danny, how can you say those things?” his mom replied, sounding hurt. “I love—”

“No, you don’t love me,” Danny interjected. “You haven’t for a while, not really. I’m certain of it. And you probably never will at this point, not if you keep acting so bullheaded and stubborn—what you love is the idea of who I was, not who I am now. Now, goodbye.” He hung up the phone, belatedly realizing that maybe his dad wanted to say something more, then realizing it was probably best that the argument be resumed a different day anyway.

He also felt slightly guilty for saying that out of anger, as she… no, actually. The more he thought about it the more true it seemed—he had felt flashes of love for him, true, but it wasn’t for him. It was for the little boy she remembered, and as soon as she remembered he wasn’t, that love was gone. And even if it were still for him, it wouldn’t be the instant she learned about his true self.

Danny flew back down and handed his dad the phone. “Sorry about that,” he said sheepishly, noting his dad seemed rather confused, still processing what had happened. “I came to empty the thermos, and heard you arguing…”

Jack shook himself out of the stupor and accepted the phone back. “Sorry you had to hear that, Danny-boy,” he said apologetically. “And sorry you had to find out about things that way… I was going to talk to you with Jazz when you got back, then your mother called about planning to come home, and I told her not to, and the fight just escalated…”

“You really plan to get a divorce?” Danny asked, still uncertain how he felt about that.

Jack nodded, vibes of devastation, guilt, pain, and even some relief and resolution poignant in the air. “It’s the best thing for the family. I still love your mother, I don’t think that will ever change, but it’s not the same as it used to be. We just can’t keep living like this; the fights are only escalating, and it’s not safe for you here while she’s here.”

“I didn’t realize you two fought that much,” Danny said, wondering how new it was, or if it was only in this timeline… No, Clockwork said all previous interactions, except for small things, were the same. Years of fighting would be in both timelines, original and new cobbled-together one.

“Well, we hid it from you two as best we could,” Jack pointed out.

Danny thought back to his childhood; there were a lot of times when there was heavy tension in the air between the two, so maybe it had always been going on under his nose; he’d ask Jazz later, as she was more perceptive of that.

“Danny, what you said on the phone… Did she… she’s really been beating you up like that?” His vibe was a resigned pain, like he didn’t want to believe it but already knew in his heart it was true. “She really fractured a rib?”

“That was the worst injury I got,” Danny assured him. “Really. Besides, I heal fast, and was able to get away!”

“And if you didn’t have ghost abilities?” Jack asked quietly. “If you didn’t heal fast, if you couldn’t leave through the wall?”

Danny looked at the floor. “I don’t know,” he admitted quietly. “I don’t know. It… hospital, maybe. Well, probably. It was bad.”

“I see… was that Sunday night, after I left?” Jack asked, guilty vibes swirling around him.

“It’s not your fault!” Danny assured him. “If you hadn’t left, bet she’d have attacked you instead.”

“Maybe… she told me you had closed yourself in your room, nothing about a fight. I didn’t even know you’d left that night… and you ended up sleeping in that shack, didn’t you?”

Danny froze, not expecting that. “What? How do you…?”

“So it’s true?”

“Y-yeah,” Danny stuttered out, completely floored by the fact that his dad somehow knew that. He thought he kept that a secret from everyone! “I didn’t want to be at home, and didn’t want to risk staying with friends. But how’d you even guess? I don’t understand…”

“I saw Phantom sleeping in there while I was patrolling on Monday. Skipping class, come to think of it… Looked like you needed the sleep, though, so I didn’t wake you.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Danny mumbled, then decided to change the subject slightly to avoid discussing skipping class just to sleep. “Does Jazz know?” he wondered, “About the divorce.”

Jack tiredly nodded again, thankfully not pursuing the sleeping-in-a-shack line of questioning. “I talked to her while you were on patrol, she actually helped me work through some of it and finalize the decision… She’s going with me to see a lawyer tomorrow.”

“So she agrees it’s for the best,” Danny muttered, wilting slightly. If Jazz thought it was best for them to divorce instead of trying to talk through things, things must be really serious. He wondered if his parents had been this close to divorce in the original timeline, too… Then again, Clockwork had said interactions were the same, even if the thoughts weren’t necessarily so, and his dad had said they’d be fighting for a while, meaning the fights surely had happened in both timelines. Retrospectively, Danny had had to tune out many arguments the past few years, even though he wasn’t home much.

Jack sighed. “Yeah, it is. It’s going to be messy, but it’s for the best. I can’t stand by and watch her hurt you, Danny, not again.”

“I understand,” Danny said quietly. “It’s, um, really not as bad as it seems, though. I heal fast,” he reminded his dad, trying to ease the guilt he felt coming from him.

Somehow, that just made Jack feel worse, to Danny’s confusion. “Danno,” Jack said sadly. “How fast you heal doesn’t matter. What matters is that she’s been hurting you.”

“I guess,” Danny muttered.

After an awkward pause, Jack asked nervously. “Just how bad is it? You said she broke a rib, and if you were human, it might have needed the hospital… What exactly did she…?”

Danny shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said, looking at the floor, unable to meet his dad’s eyes. “Just, please, not now.” He’d start crying again.

Jack sighed, though radiated sympathy, understanding, and acceptance. “Okay. I understand,” he said. “We don’t have to talk about it now. So, what are you doing down here so late, anyway?”

Danny, appreciative of the subject change, sheepishly held up the thermos. “A wooly mammoth ghost was causing a rampage…”

Jack’s eyes practically lit up. “A mammoth ghost? That’s amazing! Oooh, can I see it before you send it back?”

Danny eyed the ‘large’ containment chamber, which was constructed of ecto-proof glass and stood at ten feet tall, twelve feet wide, and eight feet deep. “Uh, sorry, but I actually don’t think the chamber is big enough,” he decided. “I think there was a news chopper around though, there will probably be pictures in the paper.” He walked over to the thermos deposit device attached to the portal.

“Aww,” Jack said in disappointment. “Was that the only ghost, or are there others? Any we can talk to?”

“Just the Box Ghost, as usual,” Danny said as he inserted the thermos into the device. “Unless you want to ask him about boxes, there’s no point talking to him.” There was a sucking noise followed by a pop, and with that the two ghosts were back in the Ghost Zone. He turned back to his dad. “You know, it’s really weird not being chewed out for sneaking out and getting home so late,” he commented.

“Why would you be in trouble for doing a Hero’s work?” Jack asked, grinning. “I’m proud of you, son,” he said, and Danny couldn’t help but grin back, sensing it was genuine.

“Thank you,” Danny said, embarrassed that his eyes were actually watering at the praise.

“I’m always proud of you, son,” Jack said as he noticed Danny’s reaction. “I’m sorry I’ve never said that to you enough, and I understand if you don’t believe me—”

“I do believe you, Dad,” Danny told him, now wiping tears from his eyes. “I do believe you. I can, er, sense it’s sincere. It’s just… That’s just the first time I’ve heard you say it since… since the portal. Since the accident. Since I… changed. I thought… I thought you would hate me after learning that I was… well, you know, so you saying that…”

Jack put an arm around Danny’s shoulder. “You know, it’s not just that I’m proud of you for,” Jack said. “I’ve noticed you’ve been improving on your schoolwork, too.”

Danny scrunched his brow, now mildly confused. “But I still get C’s.”

“Your last report card had some B’s, too,” Jack pointed out. “And those C’s all had pluses next to them; they used to be minuses.”

“But Jazz—”

“Isn’t you,” Jack completed. “I know Mom compares you to her a lot, but she’s not you. I see how hard you try, and you’ve improved! That does mean something. And now knowing what you go through outside of school, it’s impressive you managed that! Don’t be so hard on yourself, Danno!”

Danny smiled at Jack. “I’ll try.”

“Good,” Jack said. “Oh, and also…” He grinned. “I should have said so that day, but great job on the concert, really! You should keep that up.”

Danny looked incredulously at his father. “Even with the ghosts in the band?”

“Well, they behaved themselves, right? And they’re your friends, so I’ll try to trust them… Seriously, Danny, your sound was amazing! I never knew you could sing like that!”

Danny couldn’t help but chuckle slightly. “I didn’t either,” he admitted. “Ember insisted, though, when I asked her to be in a band for the show. Did you know ghost hearing is better than human hearing? Well, apparently it was good enough for some of the ghosts to hear me singing in the shower on their way out of the portal! Ember gave me some lessons to fine-tune it; ghosts being musically inclined in general helped too, music being the language of emotion and all. Honestly I was a bit skeptical at first, but I suppose it worked out.”

“It more than worked out! Danno, you could be a star, seriously! Music could be a great career path for you! The show felt professional. Not just the voice, but the entire vibe—I haven’t seen you so happy since before the accident, and the air of confidence you were singing with made it almost contagious! Plus all those special effects too…”

“Oh, those were actually all ghost abilities,” Danny said a little sheepishly.

Jack grinned. “Really? I knew it! Ugh, wis—really want it to be that I could rub that in Maddie’s face, she was so insistent they weren’t…”

Danny chuckled. “I have a feeling she was in denial.”

Jack considered that a moment, then concluded, “Yeah, that makes sense… You know, that one song you sang really got to me, it felt like your heart was really in it and it resonated with me. It was part of what made me realize how much I wanted to change and do better by you.”

“What song?” Danny asked. There were a few songs that Danny had really felt the lyrics resonate with him as he sang along.

“The one that talked to a father about a strained relationship,” Jack explained. “It just really vibed with me. Uh, let’s see, the lyrics included things like, “‘sorry I can’t be perfect’, and ‘nothing’s all right’, and ‘I just want you to understand’... Is that enough to go on?”

Danny thought about the song lineup and realized which song Jack meant. “Oh, yeah. The song is ‘Perfect’ by the band Simple Plan. Those lyrics get to me too; I actually almost cried while singing them,” he quietly admitted. Which thankfully he didn’t, given his tears literally glowed now.

Jack suddenly pulled Danny into a tight hug. Danny, for the first time in a long while, hugged him back, then when it started to become a bit too uncomfortably tight, phased out of the hug, to Jack’s clear surprise.

“Sorry, just got a bit overwhelming,” Danny said, then joked, “You know, you are really lucky I don’t need to breathe.”

Jack looked confused for a moment, then realization dawned. “Er, sorry. Don’t know my own strength, I guess,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment, just like Danny often did.

Danny laughed. “It’s fine. Hey, want me to play the song?”

Jack scrunched his brow in confusion. “Now? But you don’t have your guitar.”

Danny grinned. “Sure I do,” he said, then pulled a guitar pick from his pocket as he stepped back, moved his hands into position, and summoned the guitar right as he strummed a note, wincing slightly as he realized he’d technically used a small attack, though it was just one meant to push things away and the guitar wasn’t facing anything. He’d have to make sure to keep the attack setting to ‘off’ before dismissing it if he wanted to play as he summoned it.

Jack gasped, excited again. “It’s a ghost guitar!”

“Yup,” Danny said, twisting the knob to just regular music instead of attacks. “Ember gave me her old one. I’ll explain how it works later… But for now…” He strummed the first chord for the song, then paused. “Actually, I have a better song to play.” Danny said. “I only just started learning it, so I might get some notes wrong, but…” He began to sing as he played a much more positive song about a dad:

🎵What's a dad for, Dad? / Tell me why I'm here, Dad / Whisper in my ear that I’m growing up to be a better man, Dad / Everything is fine, Dad / Proud that you are my dad / 'Cause I know I'm growing up to be a better man…🎵

When Danny finished singing ‘Life of a Salesman’ by the band Yellowcard, Jack was actually in tears. He rushed forwards to tackle Danny in another hug, Danny recalling the guitar at the last second; he didn’t need his dad getting injured because of it!

“Hey, come on, dad, you’re crushing me again,” Danny said, pushing away with a laugh, though not phasing through.

Jack eased up on the tightness of the hug, but didn’t release Danny. He laughed wetly. “Sorry, Danno. I just… I’m just so happy right now,” he said.

“I can tell,” Danny told his dad. The emotion was definitely giving his core a charge.

Jack released Danny and evidently decided to slightly change the topic. “So, er, back to the band—which ghost was doing the ice thing? That was really cool!”

Danny blushed and stepped away from his dad. “That, er, was actually me,” he admitted, then held out his palm and created a few ice crystals above it. “It’s rare, but some ghosts have elemental cores; mine’s ice. Ember has one too, hers is fire. I don’t use it super often since I only recently learned about it and am still figuring out everything I can do with the ice powers, but a Yeti in the Far Frozen—that’s part of the Ghost Zone—has been helping me learn.”

“There’s Yeti in the Ghozt Zone?” Jack asked, eyes practically sparkling.

“A whole tribe of them!” Danny replied, grinning. “They call me the ‘Great One’ because I defeated Pariah Dark—that’s the self-proclaimed ‘Ghost King’ that brought Amity Park into the Ghost Zone that one time.”

“Neat! Ooh, wait, does that mean the Ghost Zone has politics? Who’s the King now?”

Danny shook his head. “There isn’t one. I mean, not for the whole place. There’s some regions and kingdoms with their own governments, like the Yeti one and one based on medieval times, but no one rules the whole thing. Pariah Dark tried a long time ago, and he almost succeeded because he was so powerful, but then a bunch of ancient ghosts sealed him away in basically a coma. Then Vlad un-sealed him thinking somehow he could take his power, which completely failed. So that’s why he tried to take over Amity Park, and why I had to borrow the suit thing. It was the only way to get enough power to put him back in his coffin and seal him again—I’m sorry about that, by the way.”

“Sorry? For what?” Jack asked. “You toppled an evil king-wannabe!”

“Yeah but I stole your suit and it got destroyed in the process.”

“Better than you getting destroyed,” Jack pointed out. “Plus, like you said, without it you would have been toast! I saw the condition you were in afterwards—if that was with the suit, well…”

Danny winced. “Yeah, that was a close call. I really don’t want to find out what happens if a halfa dies.” Most likely, he’d reform as a full ghost, as long as his core wasn’t destroyed, but he preferred having at least some human in him, even if it was as little as 10%.

“Well, mice have short lifespans, so I’m sure we’ll find out in a few years!” Jack said. “For the 50% ones, that is,” he clarified. “Which if they’re four times longer, I guess that’s more than a decade… Well, still, a decade isn’t that long, especially for you!”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Danny said with a wince. “Really am not looking forward to being a teenager for eternity…” He then sensed a small flare of ghostly energy from the portal’s direction, indicating someone was coming through it, but his ghost sense didn’t go off, meaning it was someone he knew… someone he was close enough to to immediately recognize their presence. “Speaking of immortal teens,” he muttered as he turned to the portal.

“Babypop!” Ember shouted happily as she emerged from the portal and immediately tackled Danny in a hug. “You got it open again! Rockin’!” she withdrew from him and floated back a little. “Oh, and fair warning: Youngblood saw the mammoth ghost and I’m pretty sure his new fixation is being a caveman so he’s probably gonna try to tame it, so—Oh, crap,” she said, noticing Danny’s dad there. “Your dad is here—sorry, I shouldn’t—Crap.”

Danny grinned and shook his head. “No, you’re fine. He knows. About everything. Found out yesterday. And, as you can probably tell, responded extremely well! He’s actually been wanting to meet you.”

Ember squinted at Jack, who was practically vibrating with excitement, then her eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, whoa, sweet!” She turned to Danny. “Didn’t expect to be meeting the ‘rents so soon. So, gonna formally introduce us?”

Danny laughed. “Sure. Ember, this is my dad, Jack Fenton. Dad, this is Ember McLain, famous rockstar and my pretend girlfriend.”

“Ooh, so he knows about that too?” Ember asked with curiosity.

Danny nodded. “Yup. Well, the entire town knows about the girlfriend part, they put it in the paper; only he and our friends know it’s fake though.”

“Your mom doesn’t?”

“My mom doesn’t know I’m Phantom, and I’m definitely not planning on telling her,” Danny explained. “Dad only knows because he figured it out after creating halfa-mice—yeah, you heard me right,” he said at Ember’s incredulous gaze. “The number of halfas in existence is now in the double-digits, most of them rodents.”

Jack rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment again. “Ah, yeah, I only realized how bad an idea that was afterwards,” he admitted. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on making more.”

Ember looked around the lab with a slight frown.

“Mister Lancer adopted them,” Danny explained, realizing what she was wondering. “He’s the teacher I told you about who knows about me. The true halfa-mice, with ghost forms and stuff, are staying at his house; he’ll keep them secret. The was also a group that got weak ghost powers but are still regular mice otherwise, which apparently will be class pets.” Danny was looking forward to what his classmates thought of that.

“Seems like a lot happened in the past few days,” Ember commented, then frowned. “It has only been a few days, right? I didn’t end up flying through some wormhole or something?”

“Don’t worry; a lot really did happen in just a few days.”

Ember seemed relieved at that. “Good—now, why is Mister Hawaiian Vacation so full of excitement and anticipation?” Ember wondered, and Dany was momentarily confused until he realized she meant his dad, who was again wearing a Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts, a stark contrast to Danny’s all-black assemblage. It seemed that Jack’s attempt at being a better father included less hazmat-suit wearing.

“Well, this is the first time I’m talking to a friendly ghost, other than Danny!” Jack announced.

“‘Friendly’?” Ember quoted with a playful sneer.

“Well, one who isn’t trying to flee or attack me,” Jack amended. “I want to learn more about ghosts! Properly, this time!”

“He means he wants to do interviews and other less invasive and entirely consensual ways of studying ghosts,” Danny clarified, amused at Jack’s childlike enthusiasm. The emotion had a nice taste to it too, made his core happy.

“Well color me surprised,” Ember muttered. “Your wife gonna do the same, or should we still watch out for her?”

Jack visibly wilted at that, mood clearly dropping.

Ember winced. “Oh, sorry, didn’t realize it was a sensitive subject,” she apologized.

Jack shook his head. “No, no, you asked an honest question, not your fault you didn’t know…”

“Did something happen to her?” Ember asked nervously, eyes wide, probably sensing the grief in Jack—Ember didn’t realize it was towards the loss of the relationship, not the death of someone.

“Uh, no, not really, not like you’re thinking,” Danny said. “Dad and her got into a big fight about how they should approach ghost research, and now she, er, probably won’t be living here anymore.”

“It wasn’t just about the research,” Jack reminded Danny, and a wave of guilt wafted off the man.

“Dad, stop blaming yourself,” Danny said, and at Jack’s surprised reaction reminded him, “We can sense emotion, remember? What mom did is not your fault.”

“But I should have protected you better,” Jack said quietly.

“Whoa, whoa, hold up,” Ember interjected, frowning. She glared at Danny. “Protected from what? What did your mom do to you?!”

Danny winced. He had hid the abuse to his human form from Ember because he didn’t want her trying to get revenge or something, which she was likely to do, which would lead to her getting hurt. “Nothing I couldn’t handle,” he muttered. “Besides, it’s done now. And you are protecting me, Dad; it’s literally one of the reasons you’re divorcing her… Oh, hey, Ember, while you’re here, I was thinking it’d be cool to make the band more of an official thing? Like, do shows and stuff, maybe an album, apparently people really liked us!”

“Whereas that’s awesome, Babypop, and I’m totally game for it, I know when you’re trying to change the subject,” Ember said, tone both casual yet challenging.

Danny winced. “Just, promise you won’t try to attack her for it?” he asked, and at Ember’s nod, told her a brief overview of what had happened, omitting some of the worst incidents.

“That bitch,” Ember hissed, rage evident. “I have half a mind to find her and—”

“Ember, you said you won’t try to attack her,” Danny reminded her.

Ember crossed her arms. “Fine, but if she ever hurts you again, all bets are off.”

Jack chuckled, though with more of a wry amusement if anything. “If she does, you’ll have to get in line.”

There was sudden barking, and before Danny knew it he had been knocked to the ground by a glowing green puppy.

“Danny!” Jack shouted, moving to help, then stopping as he noticed there was no threat.

Danny laughed as the little dog licked his face, standing up with the dog in his arms. “Dad, this is Cujo,” he introduced. “He’s kinda my dog now, I guess? I don’t really need to do anything to care for him, but he seeks me out and comes here to play sometimes. You probably remember him causing trouble in the past since he can shift to get really big, but I think I’ve managed to teach him to behave while in our world, unless he thinks I’m under attack.”

“Oooh, yeah, I’ve seen him with Phantom—I mean, you, before!” Jack said. “If Cujo wants to stay in the house he can.”

Danny grinned, then looked at the dog in his arms. “You hear that, Cujo? You don’t have to hide when here anymore!”

The dog barked in what Danny hoped was understanding; he suspected the Axiom dogs had been genetically modified in some way to be more intelligent or something, or maybe it was just a ghost dog thing.

Jack then began asking more questions about both Cujo and Ember, and the group continued chatting until it was well past 2am and Jazz came down to remind them that Danny did actually have to attend school the next day and needed sleep.

Chapter Text

Danny was not at his locker before class on Monday, which worried Sam immensely. She hadn’t heard from her best friend since Saturday morning; partly her fault, as she’d been hanging out with Lurker all day Saturday and on Sunday she had to go to a stupid baby shower for one of her snooty second cousins on her mom’s side that Sam would prefer to never associate with, but Danny hadn’t even sent one message to her, nor replied to anything in their group chat with Tucker—of which there was a lot, given Sam had plenty of complaints about that baby shower.

Normally a weekend being busy with other things wasn’t concerning, and Danny wasn’t the best with replying to messages to begin with, but given that the last thing Sam had heard was that he was going to talk with his dad about his secret identity… Well, it was easy to tell why Sam was worried.

“You think he’s okay?” Sam asked as she eyed Danny’s empty desk as she sat down in their first-period class, English with Mr. Lancer.

Tucker, beside her, shrugged. “Probably got distracted. Pretty sure he’s okay, given that he was out as Phantom last night.”

“He was?” Sam asked. “Were you there?” She felt hurt that Danny hadn’t contacted her about it; she’d told him many times that she was always ready to help him fight ghosts regardless of what time of day it was.

Tucker shook his head. “It was pretty late; he probably was concerned about waking us, you know how he is. But I was awake anyway, and got a phone alert, someone had a live feed. It was a huge wooly mammoth ghost, pretty cool! He seemed fine after he got it in the thermos and flew off, no injuries that I could see… Oh, speaking of…” he nodded to the window as a familiar black-and-white ghost flew past just as the bell rang.

A couple minutes later, Danny Fenton came racing into the classroom, apologizing about being late before taking his seat, backpack clanking as it was tossed to the floor beside the desk. Sam hoped that wasn’t the thermos, or if it was that it didn’t release any ghosts accidentally; they’d been there before. Sam vaguely wondered where the backpack had been when he passed by them as Phantom; could he do the storage thing with it like he did with the guitar?

“Smooth,” Paulina snickered, and winked at Danny, who just rolled his eyes at her. Sam narrowed her eyes in suspicion of the atypical interaction. Was Paulina trying to make a move on Danny now that she knew he was Phantom?

Lancer just sighed and said, “Well, now that everyone’s here, let’s begin the lesson—yes, Star, what is it?”

Star, who had raised her hand as high as possible, pointed at a large glass cage near the window by Lancer’s desk and asked, “What's with the floating mice?”

The inner portion of the cage, which Sam recognized as being made of ecto-glass, was extremely elaborate, complete with tunnels and a wheel and plenty of climbing places for the mice inhabiting the cage, but instead of climbing most of the mice were indeed floating.

“Ah, yes, I ought to have mentioned that first,” Lancer said calmly. “These are the new class pets. Do you remember the ghost virus that went around a couple years ago? These mice have something similar, albeit more permanent.”

“What! It’s not, like, contagious, is it?” Kwan asked, looking at them warily; other students seemed concerned as well.

“Heavens no!” Lancer immediately corrected. “If they were, they wouldn’t be here.”

“Are you sure?” Mikey asked skeptically.

“Yes, I am sure.”

“My dad was experimenting,” Danny added. “They’re the leftovers.”

“Okay, that’s actually less reassuring,” Valerie claimed with apprehension.

Sam gave Danny a questioning look; were these the halfa-mice? If so, wasn’t that dangerous to have around? If someone saw them transform…

Danny scribbled something in his notebook and tilted it so Sam and Tucker could see: partials, only invis./intan./flight

Sam relaxed, now knowing these were not the incriminating mice.

“So are they living mice or ghost mice?” Star wondered.

“Still living mice,” Danny said. “Just with a few powers—pretty much exactly like that weird ghost illness, like Lancer said.”

“Please don’t tell me that your parents are experimenting with that virus,” Kwan begged.

“Oh God, they’re going to trigger a pandemic!” Dale exclaimed, and the class began whispering worriedly.

“Students!” Lancer shouted, and they quieted. “They are not experimenting with any viruses… Right, Mister Fenton?” he asked Danny, not looking as confident as he sounded.

Danny nodded. “Right. The experiment didn’t involve any viruses. It was meant to create a spray that gives immunity to ghostly abilities, not cause them,” he lied. “Like a ghost version of bug spray.”

“Obviously, that means it was a failure,” Tucker unnecessarily pointed out, subtly putting a hand on Danny’s arm to push him back to his chair; Sam really hoped no one else noticed he’d been very slightly floating.

The class calmed, and Lancer started on the English lesson while Sam and Tucker made sure Danny didn’t fall asleep in class again.

Somehow, they made it to lunch.

When they sat down at their usual slightly remote picnic table outside, Sam noticed that, surprisingly, Danny had packed a lunch, though it was in a paper bag with the MU logo. Had he been living there again? Did things not go well with his dad?

Danny noticed the question in Sam’s eyes and told her, “I’m back home, don’t worry. Dad took it really well. Jazz has a meal plan that lets her either swipe into the cafeteria or use the to-go option three times a day, but she doesn’t use it that much since she lives at home so she said I can get my lunches from there. That’s why I was late today, I misjudged the time it would take.”

“Ooh, nice,” Tucker said. “Bet it’s loads better than the food here! What did—uh.” Tucker’s expression rapidly shifted from excited curiosity to disgust. “What the hell is that, dude?”

“A ham and cheese sandwich,” Danny said defensively, and took a bite out of it.

“The bread is green!”

“Well, yeah, it’s got ectoplasm in it,” Danny said, as though that should be obvious.

“Won’t people notice that?” Sam wondered.

“If someone asks, I’ll just say it has spinach in it, that’s a thing, right?”

“It is now, I guess,” Sam muttered. Even though spinach was definitely not that bright.

“It’s also gross,” Tucker said.

Danny glared at Tucker, green eyes flashing. “Is not,” he said through a mouthful of sandwich.

Sam sighed. “Whatever you say…” She reached into her backpack to grab her own lunch bag, her hand brushing against something else as she did. “Oh, right, before I forget, you said you needed some more, right? Here,” Sam said, handing Danny the bottle of pills.

Danny grinned as he took the bottle and quickly shoved it in his own backpack. “Thanks, Sam; I was almost out.”

“Didn’t you just get a new bottle like two weeks ago?” Tucker asked warily. “Should you really be taking that much?”

“I only take it when I get injured, which just happens to be a lot,” Danny argued. “It’s fine.”

“Yeah, Tuck; it’s not like he takes it when he doesn’t need it,” Sam agreed. Not like her mom.

“Alright, just… be careful, dude,” Tucker enjoined. “I don’t want to have to explain to your sister that you’re addicted.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna get addicted. Like I said, I only use them when I need them.”

“Yeah, Tuck, I think Jazz’s worries are rubbing off on you,” Sam said, then frowned and narrowed her eyes at the girl approaching them. “What do you want, Paulina?”

Paulina had the gall to sit down next to Danny and put her arm around his shoulder, and Danny shockingly let her. Sam just didn’t understand it; Paulina had given them all hell for years, been such a bitch to them, and now suddenly Danny was acting like she was a good friend!

“Relax, I’m not gonna hurt him,” Paulina said, giving Sam an eye roll.

“Babypop!” came a shout, and suddenly Ember was hugging Danny from behind.

“Uh. Hi, Ember,” Danny said, blushing; he still wasn’t used to heavy physical contact, after over two years of avoiding such, whereas Ember loved affection. “What are you doing here?”

“What, can’t I visit you on lunch break?” Ember asked with a laugh, then noticed the sandwich. “Ooh, is that ecto-bread? Slammin!” She reached forward to grab Danny’s sandwich.

“Hey, that’s my lunch!” Danny complained, snatching it back after Ember took a bite.

“Relax, I’ll buy you an ecto-smoothie later,” Ember chuckled, then looked at Paulina as though evaluating her for a moment before saying, “Hmm. Did you get a human beard? She’s pretty hot.”

Sam resisted facepalming; real subtle, Ember, just go reveal in front of Paulina that she’s his beard, that’s not suspicious at all. The last thing Danny needed was for an A-lister to learn that he was gay.

Paulina was the one who blushed now as she withdrew her arm. “N-no!” she stuttered, then amended, “No to the beard part, I’m not denying I’m hot.”

Sam blinked in surprise. Why wasn’t Paulina surprised at Ember’s words? Did Paulina… Did Paulina actually know about Danny’s sexuality?

“Hey! Isn’t that the chick who’s dating Phantom?” came a loud voice, and Sam, Tucker, and Danny all groaned as Dash approached. “Dude! Wait until I tell him you’re trying to snatch his girlfriend! Bet he’ll do something reaaaaaal bad to you,” he grinned.

“Oh, like what, turn me into a ghost?” Danny said, facing away from Dash as he couldn’t turn too well with Ember still glommed onto him, hiding his fanged grin.

“Watch it, Dash,” Paulina told him, grinning too, looking as though she actually was in on the joke—which she was, of course. Sam was still not used to Paulina, of all people, knowing that Danny was half-ghost. Paulina continued, “Remember, we’re not here to cause trouble.”

“Then why are you here?” Sam asked, aware of the tension in her voice; she was getting more and more frustrated by the minute, not just at the A-listers but at Danny and Ember too.

“It’s about the band!” Paulina said. “So it’s good that four of you are here!”

“Oooh, do you have a gig for us?” Ember asked excitedly, still wrapped around Danny.

“Yup!” Paulina said happily. “We’re planning a big outdoor barbeque for the Saturday of Thanksgiving Break—that’s November 25—and want live music.” Fall break was three days, five if you counted the weekend after, encompassing the day before Thanksgiving, the holiday itself, and the day after. Paulina continued, “We’re also having one at the end of December for the Winter Holiday, though the date is undecided. You were so amazing at the Fall Festival that we want you to play for both! I know it’s short notice for that first one so the same set list is perfectly okay, trimmed to just the songs that fit teenage tastes of course—it’ll be shorter, since you’d be opening for the main act, Dumpty Humpty, both times. We’ll pay you for your efforts, of course.”

“You’ve got it!” Ember said.

“Whoa, hey, don’t you have to ask us first?” Sam said, glaring at the ghost girl. Although, if Dumpty Humpty were there it was really the only option, even though Sam had heard them play a whole lot (as the members were native to Amity Park, they tended to play concerts there whenever they came back to visit family, well aware that most other nationally-famous bands avoided the small city at all costs).

“Opening for Dumpty Humpty? I’m game,” Danny said easily, as expected. “Tucker, you in?”

“Um, duh!” Tucker said. “Access to two A-list parties and free Dumpty Humpty concerts? No brainer, even if it is as staff.”

Sam sighed tiredly and decided, “Fine, guess I’m in too. We’ll confirm with the other members, but pretty sure they’ll be in, too.”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Ember said. “You know, we should go on tour or something!”

“Can I graduate school first?” Danny asked, laughing. “Though seriously, I think I might like to do music as a career, or at least a side thing.” Sam raised her eyebrows and looked at Tucker, who seemed surprised as well. This must be a really new thing, then, if even Tucker didn’t know, since Sam doubted Danny would hide that from them. Although it did make sense, as Danny seemed to be taking an interest in music that rivaled his interest in space, and he needed an alternative potential career as he couldn’t do NASA. If he was serious about it, then opening twice for a major band was an opportunity that couldn’t be missed.

“You totally should,” Paulina practically purred, ruffling Danny’s hair.

Sam felt a small wave of jealousy come over her. Dammit; she was over him! He was gay, and she was dating Lurker! She bit her lip in an effort to calm the feeling.

“Yo, Paulina!” Dash shouted. “What the hell are you doing?! He already agreed to the show, no need to butter him up more.”

Paulina raised an eyebrow at Dash. “Didn’t you have another request?”

“Oh, right.”

Danny sighed with exasperation. “Okay, fine, what’s your other request?”

Dash scoffed. “We want Phantom at our Halloween party tomorrow night. Paulina seems to think you have some sort of an in with him and could ask him for us. I told her that’s whack, no way a twink like you would know a hero like Phantom, but she wanted to ask anyway.”

Sam narrowed her eyes in suspicion at Dash’s use of the word ‘twink’, then concluded that he was likely using it simply as a generic insult; if he’d actually been aware of Danny’s sexuality, it’d be all over the school.

“Please?” Paulina asked.

“He’ll be there!” Ember announced.

“What! Ember, no!” Danny protested.

“Why not? Don’t you like parties?”

“I don’t mind them, but we’re talking about Phantom, not me. And Phantom doesn’t really do parties.”

“Oooh, got it.”

“Come on,” Paulina said, nearly whining.

“He has other plans,” Danny said, to Sam’s relief; so he hadn’t forgotten that he, Sam, and Tucker had a Halloween movie marathon planned.

“Come on,” Ember said, finally backing off of Danny. “Parties are fun!” She turned to Paulina. “Don’t worry, I’ll drag him there.”

“No, you won’t, because he has other plans,” Danny said again through gritted teeth.

“Party starts at 6, and goes to 11,” Paulina said. “Surely y—Phantom isn’t going to be busy for all of that!”

“Maybe if you invite us, too, Phantom will consider going,” Tucker suggested, gesturing to him, Sam, and Danny. “Since his plans are with us.”

“Psh. Like Phantom would have plans with you losers,” Dash scoffed.

“Dash, we’ve talked about this,” Paulina warned. “If you antagonize them, they’ll be less willing to help us.”

“Dude, she’s right,” came a new voice, and Sam turned to see Kwan had joined them, along with Star. Kwan continued, “You gotta be nice if you want people to help you!”

Dash practically growled. “Or, I can just threaten them, how about that?”

Star laughed at that. “Dash, hon, hate to break this to you, but pretty sure these nerds could, like, make you disappear and never find the body, if they wanted to,” she said with a casual wave of her hand. “Fenton especially.”

“What!” Dash declared. “No way would they ever. You’re whack, Star. How could a shrimp like Fenton do anything to me?”

“I dunno, have you seen the fangs? Like, what’s with them?”

“Star,” Danny growled, flashing his green eyes and fangs at her very intentionally, out of view of Dash and Kwan.

“Yeah, he’s got fangs, so what?” Dash said. “Probably fake or something.”

“Oh, no, they’re totally real,” Paulina said, a mischievous look in her eye. “Totally saw him bite someone the other day!”

“What? I don’t bite people!” Danny protested.

Ember then joined in, laughing. “Oh yeah, Babypop, sure you don’t!”

“See? Total vampire,” Star said with a nod, expression serious. “If you don’t want him draining you dry, I’d lay off him, Dash.”

Dash looked genuinely worried. “Y-you’re lying!” he stuttered out.

“I dunno; his expression right now is kinda scary,” Kwan said, looking nervously at Danny, who was now literally snarling at Star, who was still holding back laughter. Sam wasn’t sure if Danny was serious or not, though she was leaning towards ‘not’ considering his eyes weren’t glowing this time.

“Plus he’s always, like, ice cold,” Paulina pointed out. “Surely you’ve grabbed him enough times to notice that?”

“W-well, yeah, but he was like that even before the fangs!” Dash argued. “There’s no—why are you licking your lips?!” he practically squeaked out, and sure enough, Danny had apparently decided to join in the fun, and was now running his tongue around his lips in between showing off the fangs as he gazed at Dash.

“Probably because your blood smells good,” Star said. “Right, Danny?”

“Mhmm,” Danny contently hummed, and if Sam didn’t know any better she’d think he was actually thinking that.

“Dude, let’s get out of here,” Kwan suggested.

“R-right,” Dash said. “I, er, got some other stuff to do, see you losers later!” he told them before abruptly turning and speed-walking away with Kwan.

The whole table started laughing once the two boys were far enough away, though Danny still looked a little off.

“Danny? Something wrong?” Tucker asked.

“Nope, nothing wrong at all,” Danny said, sounding very content—was he purring?

“He’s just getting a bit of a charge,” Ember said with amusement, to everyone’s confusion except Danny, who was still a little spaced out.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked.

“Well, you’re all laughing and happy; that’s what he feeds on.”

“What do you mean, ’feeds on’?” Tucker demanded.

“Oh, thought you knew,” Ember said with slight surprise, then casually explained, “Ghosts feed on whatever emotion they lacked most in life—like a magnet, drawing in whatever’s needed to balance their spirit or whatever. They can also get a smaller charge from adjacent emotions, too. Like, I felt abandoned and ignored most of my life, so I feed mainly on receiving attention, and to a lesser extent things like worship and admiration. Totally expected he’d be something similar to me, given his home life, but apparently Babypop feeds on joy, which… Well, guess that’s actually more tragic, come to think of it.”

“Wait, what?” Danny asked, swerving to look at her.

“What, didn’t you know?”

“Uh. No? Yes. Kinda? I dunno, I just know I feel good when others feel good!”

“Yeah, like your core vibrates and feels charged, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s called feeding, dipstick.”

“Oh,” Danny said meekly. “I, er, knew ghosts usually can get extra energy via ambient emotions, but I didn’t realize they were specifically based on… something like that.”

“But, wait, don’t most younger ghosts feed on positive emotions?” Tucker pointed out. “Maybe it’s just a kid or teen ghost thing. Doesn’t mean Danny was depressed or something.”

Ember gave Tucker a look of disbelief. “Dude. You DO realize that kids who are well cared for, adjusted, and happy typically don’t end up dying tragically with enough emotional turmoil that they become ghosts, right?”

“Uh… Now that I think about it…”

“Ugh. Way to bring the mood down, Tuck,” Danny moaned, stretching across the table in an obvious fake display of despair. “Are you trying to starve me or something?”

Tucker laughed and patted Danny on the head. “Don’t worry, dude, there’s plenty of happiness to go around,” he said; Danny closed his eyes as Tucker shifted to scratching behind Danny’s ear and… yup, that was basically purring.

“He’s like a cat!” Star commented with a giggle, as she started rubbing Danny’s back. Paulina and Ember took the opportunity too, each rubbing one of Danny’s shoulders.

“Okay, that’s enough of that!” Sam said, shooing the three girls and Tucker off of Danny and pulling Danny back up to sitting; the boy had the gall to fake-pout.

“What gives?” Paulina complained.

“Yeah, can’t we feed him?” Star asked innocently.

“Okay, first, pretty sure massages aren’t ‘feeding’ him,” Sam pointed out. “Ghosts feed on ambient emotion, meaning what other people give off. So unless you’re weirdly getting ridiculously happy by rubbing his back, it’s not going to do anything.”

“It’ll make me happy,” Danny pointed out. “But, er, she’s right, Star. It’s other peoples’ emotions that matter when it comes to energizing my ghost core, not my own.”

“Ooooh, okay,” Star said, then looked contemplative. “But wait, Danny, if ghosts are driven by emotions, why does the Anti-Ghost Training Guidebook say they’re driven by obsessions?”

“Ugh,” Danny moaned. “Just, don’t listen to anything that stupid guide says. Some ghosts have deep obsessions, sure, but so do lots of humans. Most ghost ‘obsessions’ are just things they like, or are ways to get whatever emotion they feed on, not something they’re magically forced into.”

“Yeah!” Ember said. “Like, I love music, but, like, it’s not some weird instinctual drive thing. I just loved it when I was human, and it’s a good way to get attention!”

“But, don’t ghosts need, like, a reason to be here?” Star asked.

“Well, yeah, there’s always something that anchors us,” Ember explained. “Like, you don’t become a ghost after death if you went peacefully, you know? There has to be something that made enough of an impression to keep you around, and then some sort of purpose or drive to keep you from fading—but it’s not an obsession, not like your crappy literature says. Not for most ghosts, at least.”

“Yeah, ghosts aren’t just remnants with a one-track mind towards an obsession or whatever BS my parents and the GIW spew,” Danny added.

“So it’s, like, a raison d'être?” Star asked.

“Exactly!” Ember said.

“Ember, do you even know what that means?” Danny said with amusement.

Ember shrugged. “Not a clue.”

“So, then, what about the Box Ghost or Lunch Lady?” Paulina asked. “Are they just extra weird ghosts?”

“Yeah, and what emotions do they eat?” Star wondered.

“Uh. I’m actually not sure,” Danny said. Sam didn’t know either.

Ember answered, “Yeah those two are a bit out there, even as far as ghosts go. Guess maybe they were super obsessed with their jobs in real life? Although Lunch Lady feeds on stability, which is really why she reacted so badly to a menu change, especially since she designed that menu.”

“Hold up,” Tucker interjected. “SHE designed it? You’re saying the Lunch Lady ghost literally was Casper High’s lunch lady?”

“Duh,” Sam said. It was totally obvious, she thought. “If she weren’t, why would she care so much about the menu?”

“Oh. So what about the Box Ghost?” Tucker asked, looking at Ember. “Do you know his deal?”

“Don’t you already?” Star asked, confused. “He told us, right?”

“He told us about his death,” Danny amended. “Not the other stuff. Although we do know he delivered packages; maybe that’s related.”

Ember shrugged. “Like I said, work-obsessed, then it somehow became distorted, sometimes that happens. But as to feeding, shouldn’t it be dead obvious what he feeds on?” she asked, raising her eyebrow. “Or did him yelling ‘fear me!’ every ten seconds somehow not clue you in?”

“Fair point,” Tucker said sheepishly. “So he was, what, fearless in life or something then?”

“He did steal from Pandora,” Sam pointed out. That definitely took guts.

“So, fearless in life, feeds on fear in death?” Star confirmed.

Ember nodded. “Now you get it! Skulker’s the same, although unlike Boxy he actually manages to be fearsome.”

“That weird ghost therapist fed on misery or insecurity or something, right?” Paulina said. “Does that mean she was happy in life?”

“Dude, did you see how peppy she was?” Tucker pointed out.

“Right on the money,” Ember said with a nod.

Star then asked, “So, what about that electronics ghost? Techbro? Techguy? What was it again?”

“Technus,” Tucker corrected. “Um. Maybe fear as well? He wants people to fear him too, right?”

Ember scoffed at that. “No, dipstick. He feeds on…” the ghost seemed to struggle with finding the words. “People mutually finding things impressive and cool?”

“Like, admiration?” Sam asked.

“No, no. Like, I guess he was just really lonely in life or something? But like, specifically because he didn’t really know anyone who shared his interests? He was better friends with technology than humans. So, like, the emotion is like the feeling of bonding with someone specifically because of a shared interest?”

“So, connection?” Tucker tried. “Companionship?”

“Eh, close enough,” Ember said. “But gotta include a shared interest.”

Sam wondered if they could use that; if all Technus wanted was for people to bond with him over his love of electronics, well, one of her best friends was a tech nerd. Friendship between them could be the solution to preventing future attacks by the technology-loving ghost, just like Danny befriending Ember had shifted her direction.

“Wait, all that counts as an emotion?” Star asked in confusion. “It’s so specific.”

Surprisingly, Danny was the one who answered. “Yeah, emotions are weird sometimes,” he said. “Like, there’s so many that humans just don’t have names for? It’s annoying, because it’s like you sense them, know they’re there, know it’s an emotion, but then there’s just no word to actually describe it even though your core knows what it means.”

“Wait, wait, wait, hold up,” Sam interjected. “Danny, are you seriously saying you can sense emotions? Since when!?” Frustration flared at the fact that yet again Danny had hidden something from her.

“More of a taste, really,” Ember commented.

“I didn’t ask you,” Sam growled. “Danny. Is it true? How long?”

Danny winced. “Oh, um, yeah… Please don’t be angry! It’s been going on for a while now but I didn’t actually realize until recently that’s what I was doing? Sorry I forgot to tell you… again. It’s just so much was happening, you know? Especially after Dad found out my secret, which was kinda a much bigger deal than everything.”

“Your dad found out?” Paulina asked, looking worried.

Danny nodded. “Yeah, he figured it out himself; It actually went well,” he told her. “He’s a lot more open-minded than my mom, who still doesn’t know, and my dad thinks it’s best she doesn’t know.”

“Won’t that, like, be hard, though?” Star asked. “Like, hiding it from them both was probably easier, now it’ll be everyone there hiding it from just her.”

Danny winced. “It’s, ah, that’s not going to be relevant; Mom won’t be around anymore.”

The whole group, except for Danny and Ember, tensed. What did Danny mean by that? Did something happen to her, a ghost hunt gone wrong?

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it like that!” Danny hurriedly said, and Sam realized he must have sensed their emotions just then. He continued, “Ancients, no. She isn’t dead. My parents are getting divorced, she’s moving out, Dad’s gonna have custody. No, I will not be explaining the details of why right now.”

Everyone visibly relaxed, and Tucker said with a nervous chuckle, “Hey, can you blame us for jumping to that conclusion, when it comes to your family?”

“Yeah, there’s, like, so many explosions at your house,” Star pointed out. “Kinda a wonder there hasn’t already been—oh, wait. Sorry.”

Danny laughed. “It’s fine, I’ve already made peace with it. I mean, have you heard how many death jokes I make?”

Sam growled with slight frustration and muttered, “You could stand to make a few less. And we will be discussing all of what you just said later.” Sam was honestly relieved that Maddie wouldn’t be anywhere near Danny anymore, regardless of reason.

“Yo! Fenton!” came a shout, and everyone at the table turned to see Valerie stomping towards them. When she got to the table, she demanded, “What in God’s name is going on here?! Why is Dash claiming you’re a freakin vampire, of all things?!”

Danny grinned at her, flashing his fangs.

Star giggled. “Oh my god, he’s really actually telling people that?”

Sam, ignoring that Valerie’s mere presence was definitely killing the overall vibe, couldn’t help but laugh. “Wow. Just, wow. First he concludes you’re a cat, now a vampire? Yeah, totally both the most logical conclusions, living in a ghost town.”

“Better than the truth,” Valerie said with a shrug, eyeing Ember, who was now seated on Danny’s lap, with suspicion.

Paulina gasped. “You know too?”

Valerie looked at Paulina incredulously. “You know!?”

“Yes, we all know!” Tucker said just loudly enough for them all to hear. “Now, Danny, ready for the best idea ever? You’re going to school tomorrow dressed as a vampire and scaring the shit out of Dash. Oh! You can do the same at the party, too—maybe that’ll get Dash to stop his hero-worship thing.”

Danny scrunched his nose at that. “Eww, reminds me too much of Vlad,” he said, and Sam had to agree. Danny then asked a question that Sam also had: “Besides, what about our movie night?”

Tucker shrugged. “We can reschedule for the weekend, do a full day instead of just the evening.”

Sam got flashbacks to the previous time when the two boys tried to blow her off after they made movie plans in order to attend one of Paulina’s parties. Why was this happening again? Well, at least Sam knew better this time than to wish she’d never met either of them.

“I dunno…” Danny trailed, looking towards Sam, then at Ember, and she got the sense that he really did want to go to the party with the ghost, but unlike Tucker actually was considering her feelings on the matter.

So, Sam considered that. True, she was looking forward to the movie night. However, that could be rescheduled, and Lurker actually had told her about a Halloween poetry slam at the cafe next to MU the same night, which he was attending, and unlike the movie night could not be rescheduled. “Okay, fine,” she agreed. “There’s something else I kinda wanted to do tomorrow night anyway, so we can change the movie night to Saturday.”

“Whoo hoo!” Tucker declared, pumping his first in the air. “A-list party, here I come!”

“It’s just a regular cool people party, not A-list exclusive,” Paulina said with an eye roll.

“And don’t forget, you’re only invited because Phantom requested it!” Star added.

Paulina turned to Valerie. “Oh, by the way, the Red Huntress is invited too,” she said to her with a wink.

“And you’re telling me this why?” Valerie asked nervously.

“Because you’re her, obviously,” Star said casually.

“What? No I’m not!” Valerie feverishly denied.

“Oh, please,” Paulina said in a bored voice. “You wear a skin tight suit, and expect no one to recognize your figure?”

Valerie looked at the girl with clear incredulity. “Yes, yes I do. Who the hell can identify people on figure alone?!”

“Paulina, apparently,” Sam muttered, still in disbelief as well. Maybe these girls were smarter than people gave them credit for.

“Can you do that with everyone?” Tucker wondered.

“If she could, she would have identified me long before my eyes glowed,” Danny pointed out.

“So it’s specifically my figure you can recognize?” Valerie asked, sounding understandably confused.

“Well, yours is very distinct,” Paulia claimed.

“Yeah, like, you’ve got perfect proportions,” Star said with awe. “Super impressive. You could, like, totally make tons of money from selling Red Huntress pinup posters or something.”

“Oh! School fundraising idea!” Paulina said, perking up. “Hear me out: ‘Sexy Ghost and Ghost Hunters’ themed calendars. Huh? Am I brilliant or what? We’ll get just the hottest ones—we can do Red Huntress, and Phantom, and you too, Ember!”

“Can I wear a bikini?” Ember asked. The ghost girl, still seated on Danny’s lap, was now petting Danny’s hair as though he were a cat; Sam desperately tried to ignore it, suspecting that the ghost was simply trying to get a rise out of her. Negative attention was still attention, after all, right? …Or, did only positive attention count? She did always try to get positive attention, rarely negative, so maybe not all kinds of attention counted.

“Sure! Summer can be a swimsuit theme!” Paulina declared. “Danny, you can wear—”

“No,” Danny said in a no-nonsense tone. “Phantom is not taking off his shirt, especially not for a swimsuit photo.”

“Aww, but why not?” Paulina whined.

Danny winced, and Ember paused, eyes wide. She whispered something in Danny’s ear, and he nodded, expression somewhat grim.

“Okay, what’s going on now?” Tucker asked.

“What’s a death scar?” Valerie asked; apparently she had been close enough to hear what Ember said to Danny.

“Oh, shit,” Sam said, putting her hand over her face. “I forgot that’s a thing.”

“Do we want to know…?” Star wondered.

Danny sighed. “Might as well. Ghosts that died violently sometimes keep any scars acquired from it. I was electrocuted, so my ghost form, under the suit, has some pretty nasty Lichtenberg scars, going from my left palm up my arm and onto my chest—and no, no one is going to see them.”

“You know…” Paulina began after a brief bout of silence, “Scars can be kinda—”

“Do not finish that sentence, Paulina,” Sam growled, knowing how sensitive Danny was about that scar. She, Tucker, and Jazz had all seen it when patching him up, and it was honestly pretty terrifying by the severity of it, anyone who saw it would realize that wasn’t something that could have been survived. “If Danny doesn’t want to show off his death scar for the sake of some calendar, he doesn’t have to. Put him in the December photo or something, so he can cover it.”

“Or, how about no calendar at all,” Danny said with a frown.

Paulina pouted.

“I’ll still do it,” Ember offered. “Hell, I’ll do the whole thing!”

“Really?” asked Paulina, eyes practically lighting up.

“Oh, I know!” Star chimed in. “We can just do a cheerleader one—and Ember, you can be in it too!”

“No, better idea,” Paulina said with an excited gasp. “Ember joins the squad! I bet we can do some sick ass aerial moves with her!”

Star gasped too. “A literally flying flyer? Ohmygosh, yes!! Come on Ember, let’s get you enrolled.”

“Wait, what?” Ember said as Star grabbed her hand and pulled her off of Danny before leading her back towards the school. Surprisingly, Ember didn’t protest; instead, once she realized what was happening, she grinned.

“Hey, wait for me!” Paulina shouted, hurrying after them.

Sam, Danny, Tucker, and Valerie all stared after the three girls in slight shock.

“So… that just happened,” Sam said, blinking.

“Dude, so jealous that you get to date a cheerleader now!” Tucker joked.

Danny just rolled his eyes. “Like the school will seriously let Ember join the team—she doesn’t even go here!”

“Speaking of school, I’m going to start heading back, lunch is nearly over,” Valerie pointed out, then walked off too. Sam glanced at her watch, noting there was still fifteen minutes left of the hour lunch period; they still had ten more minutes before they had to pack up and head back inside. Valerie likely just didn’t want to stay with the three of them alone.

“She’s still mad at me, isn’t she?” Danny asked with a sigh.

“You tell us, feelings-reader,” Sam said.

Danny sighed. “I was being rhetorical; I know for sure that she’s still mad at me—and I’m honestly not sure if she’ll ever not be.”

“Seriously?” Tucker asked. “I thought she took it pretty well in the G-Z.”

“Don’t call it that. And that was before she had time to process things—which I’m pretty sure she still hasn’t done fully, but in the meantime, she’s definitely bitter about it.”

“Stages of grief,” Sam said. “Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. She was still in denial then. Now she’s on anger. Next she’ll probably try to separate you and Phantom in her mind.”

“Um, Sam, Danny’s not—ah, well, he’s still here, there’s no reason to mourn,” Tucker pointed out.

“It’s not only death that gets mourned, doofus,” Sam said, unable to resist rolling her eyes. “Valerie’s entire life has been upended. Everything she thought she knew about ghosts is being called into question. It’s common for people to mourn their past when things are suddenly changed. A lot was—”

The bell signalling the end of the period cut Sam off.

Sam looked at her watch. “Dammit!” she swore, jumping up along with Tucker and Danny. “Sorry, my watch must be slow.” She thought they had 5 more minutes left.

Tucker frowned. “My PDA has the same time yours—”

Danny cut him off with a chuckle and a wry smile. “You two are forgetting that in this timeline, homeroom is 5 minutes shorter.”

Sam nearly facepalmed. It was already the end of October; she should be used to that change already, but evidently not.

“Let’s just go,” Sam muttered, slightly embarrassed as they hurried off to class.

After school, Danny went to a specialty shop in the Ghost Zone with Ember to get a costume for the Halloween party. The shop sold costumes, accessories, and other such things, and Ember insisted on going there instead of a general one in Amity Park as the shop here could make costumes and accessories that were more compatible with ghostly abilities and traits (for example, hair accessories for Ember that wouldn’t be lit by her flaming ponytail).

After some discussion, Danny had decided against Tucker’s idea of a vampire, and had left only with a few accessories to add to his usual hazmat suit, as he still wanted them to recognize him as Phantom—he was hopeful that going to the party might cause any peers that still agreed with the media’s view of him being a ‘menace’ to decide to support him instead once they saw he was cool with the A-list. Said accessories were cat paw gloves and boots, and an attachable tail and ears (Danny wasn’t quite sure how they attached; they just magically did) that could somehow move by tapping into his natural ghost powers—which proved he had telekinesis, even though Danny still couldn’t ever get it to willingly work right. It could easily control the ears and tail somehow though, so maybe he just had to practice to get it to move things that weren’t attached to him.

Ember, who went for a matching outfit, complete with the hazmat suit, then reminded Danny that, being ghost objects, the accessories could be attuned to him. Once that was done she showed him how to manifest the accessories directly where they should be. Danny marveled at the convenience of it.

Now, the two were casually floating through the commercial district of the Ghost Zone sipping on ecto-smoothies. They were heading in the general direction of the portal, as Danny had promised his dad he’d be back for dinner, but there was no rush.

The two came across a small floating park, and sat beside each other on a large tree branch; Ember set her drink to the side and manifested her guitar, twisting a small dial on it to change it to an acoustic model. “Let’s figure out some stuff to play at that Thanksgiving concert,” she said. “Like, I know they said we can just do the other stuff, but we can surprise them! Come on, give me something we didn’t play last time that works well with this thing!”

“Um… Maybe something by Green Day?” Danny suggested, scrambling to think of a band that used less instruments than others, meaning a single tune could be more easily isolated.

“Word. You know this one, right?” She played the opening notes and a few chords before Danny caught on; she knew he knew it, as it had been one of the first songs Ember taught him. Noticing Danny’s expression of recognition, Ember grinned and said, “Okay, get your guitar out then, dipstick!”

“Right,” Danny said, putting his drink aside and manifesting his own guitar, twisting the dial on it to shift it to an acoustic model as well.

“Ready?” Ember prodded, and Danny nodded. “Okay, let’s go then—One, two, a-one two three four!”

She and Danny began playing and singing from the beginning.

🎵I want to be the minority / I don’t need your authority / Down with the moral majority / ‘cause I wanna be the minority!🎵

“Well, if it isn’t young Daniel Fenton,” a familiar voice said partway through, one that Danny hadn’t heard in a while.

Ember and Danny both continued strumming and singing, ignoring Vlad, who was in his ghost form and, to his credit, actually was waiting for them to finish, until they got to one specific part.

🎵A free-for-all, fuck ‘em all—🎵

“Language, Daniel!” Vlad interjected, looking scandalized.

Danny couldn’t help but stop the music and start laughing instead; Ember stopped too, doing the same.

“Seriously, Vlad?” Danny said as he tried to stop the laughter. “It’s just a song!”

“Well, still, it’s uncouth. Not just the lyrics, but to sing about actually wanting to be a minority is highly inappropriate.”

“Dude, I literally am a minority, in multiple ways,” Danny said flatly. “So it’s, like, actually self-acceptance or whatever. Anyway, what are you doing here?”

“Why, I live here, you know,” Vlad said.

“I know that,” Danny said. Vlad had erected a castle of his own in the Ghost Zone, given the human world wasn’t very amicable to him at the moment. This was the first time Danny had seen Vlad here though. “I meant, in the commercial district.”

“Again, young Daniel, I live here. I cannot simply go buy things in the Human Realm so easily, thus I get them here when possible. I think the better question is what are you doing here, in human form no less—and before you say something asinine like a date with your girlfriend, I know she’s just a cover for your Hero ghost persona.”

“You do?” Danny asked, surprised. He de-manifested his guitar, which got him an odd look from Vlad (did he not know halfas could do that?), and grabbed his drink.

“Yes,” Vlad replied. “James started laughing when he saw the newspaper article; he is part you, after all, albeit from another timeline.”

“James?” Danny knew Vlad was talking about his reformed future self, now residing with Vlad in a clone body, but hadn’t expected him to go by his middle name.

“Yes, that is what he has opted to use now, to avoid confusion,” Vlad explained. “In full, James Daniel Masters. Anyway, I ask again, just what are you doing here?”

“Are you actually curious, or are you just plotting?” Danny wondered. Despite Vlad being in ghost form, Danny could still slightly sense his emotions, but not very strongly, closer to how it was before he learned he needed ectoplasm to charge his core. Maybe it was a halfa thing? It was similar to Valerie, with her suit… protecting… her. Oh. Oh no. Her suit was made by Technus, partially out of ectoplasm, wasn’t it? …Danny decided to reflect on that later.

“Oh, I’m just—wait a minute,” Vlad said, eyes widening as he noticed Danny’s drink. “Daniel, is that drink laced?”

“Is it what?”

“He means, does it have the fun stuff in it, dipstick,” Ember said. “Which I mean, is kinda obvious, given it glows.”

Vlad looked pale for some reason. “Daniel. Why are you drinking a radioactive smoothie?”

“Because it’s nice?” Danny said, turning the phrase into a question, unsure why Vlad was so against it. “The uranium gives it a little tingle, kinda like carbonation? Which sounds weird to put in a smoothie I guess but it’s actually really great!”

“No, it isn’t ‘great’! You’re in human form! It can kill you!” Vlad said in horror. “The rest of the way, I mean!”

“No, it can’t,” Danny told him. “I drink these all the time. Radiation doesn’t affect me, Sam and Tucker and I even did tests on my blood, there’s more than enough ectoplasm to counteract it.”

“I’ve done the tests too; in ghost form, yes, the ectoplasm gives an immunity, but in human form we’re just as susceptible to the effects of radiation poisoning as any human!”

Danny looked at Vlad blankly. “They’re the same though?” he said, then remembered that Vlad actually did have his blood and ectoplasm separate, being only 50% ghost, a true halfa in that he still actually was a full half human with a more distinct human and ghost form, hence the confusion.

Now Vlad was the one who looked confused. “What do you mean, ‘they’re the same’?”

“I mean, form doesn’t matter. I’m immune regardless.”

“But… That can’t be,” Vlad said.

“Well, it’s really just a change in looks, isn’t it?” Danny explained, deciding to have some fun as he suspected Vlad, having only studied himself, didn’t know about the existence of different degrees of halfas; time to give Vlad a mild heart attack. “I bleed green in both, don’t you?”

Vlad looked stunned. “No, I don’t,” he said quietly.

“Really?” Danny said, trying to sound surprised. “Weird.”

“It’s not… Daniel, if you’re bleeding green… Wait. Do you have all your powers in human form, too? At full strength?” He looked… panicked? Good, it was working.

“Yeah, of course,” Danny said casually. “Wait, you don’t?”

“Not to the same degree, and it took years of practice to get them to blend over,” Vlad explained, clearly having some sort of internal crisis. “Did you… Did you have them from the start?”

“Yup,” Danny said. “It was a real bitch having to avoid accidentally using them in class, let me tell you! Still is sometimes; they react way too much to my emotions.”

Vlad opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again, before finally saying, “So you’re claiming, essentially, that you’re identical in human and ghost form in all but looks?”

“Yup.”

“No… No, wait, I saw you bleed red, at the reunion,” Vlad said, narrowing his eyes.

“Oh, at first I did, yeah, but whenever I lost any it only got replaced with ectoplasm,” Danny told him. “I can prove it to you, if you want. Got a knife?”

“No, no, no need, I believe you,” Vlad said, looking a little disturbed at the suggestion. “Ancients, next you’ll tell me you need to eat ectoplasm and can feed on emotions…”

“But I do,” Danny said. “If I don’t eat ectoplasm, I feel weak.”

“I see… And you feed on emotions, too?” Vlad asked weakly, sounding like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer. Danny was pretty sure Vlad actually did have an emotional craving, something along the lines of belonging, companionship, or connection, given how he kept trying so desperately to create a family, but he didn’t want to start an actual argument.

Danny nodded. “Yup. Specifically, joy… Don’t you have one you feed on?”

“No, no, that’s only… Wait, are you also not breathing? While in human form?”

“Never needed to.”

“Daniel,” Vlad said, looking lost and deeply worried; Danny found it a little frustrating how he could only get vague scents of the man’s emotions. “All that means… By gods, Daniel… y-you’re not a halfa, you’re a full ghost… And, feeding on joy, no less!” For some reason, Vlad seemed especially stressed about that.

“Babypop, at this rate I think you’re gonna give him an aneurism,” Ember said with a snicker. “Throw him a bone.”

Danny sighed and took another sip of his drink before saying to Vlad, “Sorry, I didn’t realize you’d get this upset. To clarify, I’m still not actually a full ghost, even though I know it seems that way and I’ve kinda started to identify more as one. I’m still part human; it’s just not 50%. In both forms my blood is 90% ectoplasm, 10% human, which is why it shows as green. I’ve got a heartbeat and still need to eat human food and sleep. But otherwise everything else is ghost.”

Vlad took a moment to process that. “But… that’s so different from me… How is that possible?”

Danny shrugged. “Different accidents, different types of halfas. Maybe that’s why all those clones failed—you were going for 50/50 human/ghost, but I’m 10/90.”

“I see… And you are certain of this, Little Badger?”

“Yeah, Dad created a bunch of halfa mice the other day,” Danny explained. “Got all different percentages based on how extreme the death was.”

“How extreme… I know your portal accident didn’t result in the ecto-acne, but I assumed it was a similar type of explosive blast. Was it because of the size difference?”

Danny stared at Vlad blankly, surprised he really didn’t know. “Okay, first, you should know by now that it’s seriously rude to ask about a ghost’s death. Second, yeah, way different. There was no explosion. I was literally inside of the portal chamber when it opened. The amount of power it used caused a citywide blackout. I got zapped with all of that, plus the ectoplasm. Any higher a voltage and I probably would’ve ended up a full ghost, if I came back at all.”

“By gods,” Vlad whispered, eyes wide. “Daniel, I… I had no idea… Wait,” He said, suddenly snapping out of his daze. “Did you say Jack made halfa-mice?”

Danny sighed. “Yup. He also figured out I’m Phantom and is divorcing my mom, who still doesn’t know about me or the mice.”

Vlad frowned. “You must be pulling my leg.”

“Nope,” Danny said. “Guess we’ve got some catching up to do…”

“I’mma gonna head out now, Babypop,” Ember told Danny. “I’ll meet you after school tomorrow so we can head to that party!”

“I have therapy after school,” Danny reminded her. “Dad and Jazz are both going with me this time.”

“Seriously? Isn’t he a ghost therapist? What’s he gonna do for humans?”

“Professor Warren does human therapy too!” Danny reminded her. “If it’s ghost related. He wants them there to address the situation with Mom.”

“Word. Then I’ll walk you there and just hang at MU while I wait,” Ember said. “Their cafeteria has some ballin’ ecto-cuisine! Jazz can get me in, right?”

Danny nodded. “Yup! See you there!” He said, and Ember gave a small salute before flying off.

“Excuse me?” Vlad said. “Ecto-cuisine? Ghost therapy? What is this MU and why does it have ecto-cuisine and ghost therapy?”

“Miskatonic University,” Danny explained. “They opened a branch in Amity Park; Jazz is going there, and they’ve already offered me a spot, too. Professor Warren is actually a paranormal psychologist, we just call it ghost therapy as a joke since he specializes in ghost-related things. The ecto-cuisine is one of the many non-human cuisines offered in their cafeteria.”

“Miskatonic… University…” Vlad said slowly, with a look of incredulity.

Danny looked at Vlad blankly. Did he really not know? “Yeah, you know, Miskatonic University? Main campus is in Arkham, Massachusetts, but has campuses across the country? The lead research institute for the paranormal, even though its positive stance on ghosts and willingness to accept non-human students is uber controversial?”

“The only place I have ever heard of a ‘Miskatonic University’ is in the fictional works of H.P. Lovecraft and literature inspired by such,” Vlad revealed. “Same for Arkham, Massachusetts.”

Danny took a moment to process this news. “You really… have no idea…” he trailed off, then realized what must have happened. Vlad studied the paranormal, and if he didn’t know about MU, then… “There was no Miskatonic University in our original timeline, was there?”

Vlad slowly shook his head.

“Dammit, Clockwork!” Danny swore. “So much for ‘minimal changes’. Well, whatever; it existing is a good thing, I think.” At least it allowed him to safely… get… therapy… Hm. Would Clockwork…? Yes, yes he would; Clockwork would totally insert a whole formerly-fictional university into the cobbled-together timeline just so that Danny could get therapy.

Then again, wasn’t MU the reason the Disasteroid was diverted? So maybe it had been a necessary addition regardless—or, maybe it was in the original, but kept itself fully secret? Either way, Danny was surprised they hadn’t gotten involved in anything before that, but MU did like to keep to itself for the most part, despite—or maybe because of—their research.

“Huh. How come I’ve never seen it in the paper?” Vlad wondered. “I still get the Amity Park Packet daily, even though half the news seems to be about you and your shenanigans lately.”

“Oh, the Packet never reports on MU stuff, except I guess for them being the ones who destroyed the Disasteroid in this timeline. Most humans stay away from the place unless they’re studying there or associated with non-humans.”

“They defeated the Disasteroid?” Vlad asked curiously.

“Uh, yeah,” Danny said. “Did you never bother to look up how it was beaten if it wasn’t you or ghosts?”

“I assumed NASA or some other country’s equivalent managed something,” Vlad revealed.

“Nah; it was MU. They sicced some weird bugs from another dimension on it—or, sorry, ‘nanobots’, as the media was told.”

“I see… Now, beg your pardon, but I couldn’t help but notice that earlier you used the word non-human on multiple occasions,” Vlad said. “What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what it sounds like?”

“So, ghosts and halfas?”

“Among other things.”

“...What other things?” Vlad looked incredibly disturbed.

Danny shrugged. “No one’s really sure. If you see them, you don’t ask. Like, one of our band members, Lurker, we think is some sort of tentacled cryptid but you can never really look at them long enough to tell, and if we think about asking, the thought immediately goes away. It’s weird.”

“...Right. Well, I suppose, then, it is a relief I am no longer Mayor of that town…” Vlad said faintly. “Speaking of, how is the dear mayor handling such a place as MU being in Amity Park?”

Danny shrugged. “No clue. Like I said, humans generally tend to just ignore it. It’s like they’re intrinsically afraid of it or something.”

“I see… Wait, once again we’re forgetting about the halfa-mice and Maddie divorcing Jack,” Vlad said.

“Other way around; my dad is divorcing my mom,” Danny clarified, figuring there was no harm in Vlad knowing this. “He decided it, not her.” Maybe it was the still-raw emotions from the whole situation affecting his thoughts, but at this point, Danny didn’t really care what happened to his mom; if Vlad wanted her, he could have her.

Vlad looked plain confused. “Jack did? What? But I thought… Huh…” Vlad then frowned. “This time, you’re definitely joking. This isn’t funny, Daniel.”

“No, it’s not funny. It’s actually true.”

“Then why do you seem so okay with it?” Vlad demanded. “You’ll spend the rest of your teenage years being shuffled between them; surely you don’t want that.”

“That’s not a problem; my dad will get full custody,” Danny said confidently. “They’re probably not even gonna go to court for it.”

“Hmph. Now I know you’re joking; there is no way Maddie would simply give up her children without a fight.”

“Well the alternative needs to involve the courts, which could result in her going to jail at the worst, becoming a social pariah at best, so yes, she would.”

Vlad stared at Danny for a while, then concluded, “You’re actually serious. What could she have possibly done…?”

“She’s a violent sociopath,” Danny said, then sighed. “Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but I’ve gotten better at sensing emotions since I learned that my ghost parts actually need me to eat ectoplasm, and just the general ambient stuff wasn’t enough—anyway, yeah. She started getting physically violent with me, and now I can tell that despite what she claims afterwards she is completely unrepentant about it, as well as what Jazz and my therapist claim is verbal abuse. Combined with the neglect—which is on both my parents, we’re really lucky CPS was never called—it definitely wouldn’t be good to go to court.”

“So it’s a cover-up; maybe I have taught you something, after all,” Vlad said, the arrogance he used to hide other emotions popping up.

“It was my dad’s idea, maybe Jazz’s too. Not mine. Honestly I’d really prefer it if this doesn’t happen, but realistically, if she’s in the house, I’m just not safe. Took me a while to accept it, but that’s the situation.”

Vlad looked disturbed. “I see… James never mentioned…”

Danny shrugged. “I mean, I was only recently able to accept what was happening, wouldn’t be surprised if it hadn’t even occurred to him that our home life was really messed up, and it actually didn’t fully set in until earlier today, when I learned what the implications of feeding on joy are—which he might not even do since his ghost is half yours. And the escalation to physical violence is more recent so he wouldn’t know.”

“I see,” Vlad said curtly.

“Hey, out of curiosity,” Danny said, remembering something else he’d learned, “Do you know if James has the same lifespan as you, since he’s in a clone body now, or is he still immortal? Or did it average?”

Vlad frowned. “Immortal? Well, I suppose as a full ghost he was… But now he’s a halfa again… Hmm. I shall look into that. Off of that, though, while we’re sharing information, you are aware that you won’t age at the same rate as a human, yes? From my calculations, we will live four times as long.”

“No, you will,” Danny corrected. “Unfortunately I’m stuck as a teen forever.”

“What?” Vlad said, paling in shock. Danny tried not to show his amusement; it was probably cruel to be dropping so many bombshells on Vlad all at once, but it was kinda fun too. The man deserved it though; call it revenge for the hell he’d put Danny through.

“Yup. Lifespan scales exponentially with percentage ghost. By 90%, it’s at the upper limit. So, you get to have a 14-year-old nemesis for your entire life!”

Vlad took a moment to process that, then said, “Oh, butter biscuits… Wait, I thought you were 16?”

“Calendar year, sure. But my time stopped at 14. So, no growing or maturing beyond that, like any teenage ghost.”

“I see,” Vlad said, then paused. “I believe I will need some time to process that… Now, don’t think I haven’t noticed you’ve once again derailed the conversation from the halfa-mice.”

Danny sighed. “Okay, fine. I’ll tell you about the halfa-mice…”