Chapter Text
During the evening of the school year’s final day, Danny casually flew around in Phantom form after catching the Box Ghost for what felt like the billionth time, thinking about what to do in regards to his parents. He knew that he really should tell them about his alternate identity, especially since his parents had calmed down as much as they could about him having, well, died, but he still was nervous to tell them about this aspect of it…
Obviously they’d accept him, given they had been vigorously trying to contact Phantom for the past week and didn’t seem to think he was a menace any more, but, well… They’d been shooting at him for many months before realizing he wasn’t a threat. They’d called him so many horrible names. Danny didn’t hold it against them (at least, that’s what he told himself; there might be a little resentment buried deep down), but he knew they’d surely be upset with themselves…
Danny sighed and sat down on a tree branch at the edge of the park’s woods, a few trees back but still with enough of a view to observe the park. It was late, but there were still a few people mulling about, including some kids on the (frankly, old and decayed enough to be hazardous) playground. He turned horizontally, leaning on the trunk with one leg dangling and the other bent upwards with his boot on the branch and hands laying on his lap, sighing as he nostalgically watched the kids play. He missed the days when he could be that carefree, the days when he hadn’t had to worry about being attacked or solving world-ending problems…
Danny had started to drift asleep when a familiar beeping noise put him on high alert. He instinctively turned invisible and shifted to sit more typically on the branch, both legs dangling and hands gripping it on either side, as he looked around for whoever was connected to the ghost tracker.
There was no one left in the park, so it must have gotten really late; maybe he actually had fallen asleep, somehow still in ghost form? Well, that was possible in theory, Danny supposed; usually ‘falling asleep’ in ghost form happened after tiring himself out due to overuse of powers, upon which he’d also change back to human form, but this time he’d been relaxing and at relatively full strength.
“How strange. The tracker definitely says he’s here,” Maddie’s voice sounded, and Danny looked down to see that below and slightly behind him stood his mom, scratching her head as she stared down at it.
“Residual signal?” Jack, beside her, suggested.
Maddie sighed, then smacked her hand on her forehead. “No, Jack, he’s probably just invisible. Danny, we know you’re here. It’s past curfew, you need to come home now…”
Danny blinked. His parents… were using a ghost tracker to track him? Because of curfew? Oh, well, that was just grand… Well, he supposed it was time to tell them, because it was only a matter of time until they tracked him to a post-curfew ghost fight.
Danny turned visible, then flipped backwards so he was hanging by his knees, looking down at the two with his arms crossed. “Dunno about curfew, but can I help you with anything else?”
“Er. Wrong Danny?” Jack said, looking up at him with wide eyes.
Maddie looked down at the tracker. “Well, the signature was just labelled ‘Danny’, and their names are both Danny… I suppose we could have selected the wrong one… Not sure why we’d have Phantom’s recorded as that though…”
“Well, we’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while anyway, Phantom, so this works too!” Jack said cheerfully. “First though, you wouldn’t happen to know where our son is, would you?”
“I might,” Danny said with a grin, deciding to be a little mischievous.
“Really?” Maddie asked with surprise.
“Yup.”
“Could you tell us?” Jack asked.
“I could.”
The two adults looked at Danny expectantly.
Danny chuckled. “So, interesting fact about halfas: we have two forms—one human, one ghost.”
“‘We’?” Jack asked, then his eyes lit up. “Oh! You’re a halfa too! That’s why you’re so different from other ghosts!”
“Human and ghost…” Maddie muttered, then looked at the tracker; Danny could tell when the realization dawned. “Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom… Then… the tracker isn’t wrong?”
Jack blinked. “It isn’t?” He looked around. “So Danny is here…”
“Oh he’s here all right,” Danny said, trying not to laugh.
“But… where?”
“Two forms, Jack,” Maddie told him tiredly, looking up at Danny.
“Two forms…? Oh.” Jack looked up too.
Danny grinned. “Hi Dad. Hi Mom.” He activated his transformation, the flash lighting up the area momentarily before human form replaced ghost form.
Jack and Maddie both gasped and simultaneously said, “Danny!”
Danny flipped off the branch and twisted in the air so he landed facing his parents, or rather stopped a couple inches above the ground and then dropped to it.
“I, er, guess this kinda explains some things, doesn’t it?” Danny said, rubbing the back of his head and grinning sheepishly.
“I’ll say,” Maddie said, looking in mild shock, emphasized by her holding a hand to her heart.
Jack gasped. “Wait wait wait. Does this mean you’ve been fighting ghosts in your spare time? You’ve been following in your old man’s footsteps?!” Overjoyed tears formed at the corner of his eyes as a proud smile lit up his face.
“Not just spare time, Jack,” Maddie said, crossing her arms and giving Danny a stern look.
Danny grimaced. He had been hoping the inevitable scolding would come later.
“This is why you’ve been skipping classes and your grades have dropped, isn’t it?” Maddie asked, though it wasn’t a true question. “And why you’re falling asleep half the time!”
“And staying out past curfew so much!” Jack added. Then, he tilted his head in thought. “But, there weren’t any ghost attacks tonight…? Well, except for the Box Ghost earlier, but he vanished from the scans really quickly. But nothing after him.”
“Ah, yeah, I, er, kinda fell asleep,” Danny admitted, looking away with a blush. “I woke up when I heard the tracker beeping. Sorry.”
“You fell asleep in the tree?” Jack asked with surprise.
“Yeah, guess I must have been really tired.”
Maddie sighed. “Well, I suppose we can overlook curfew tonight then, since the point of curfew is so you can get to sleep at a reasonable hour and you were sleeping… Even if it was in a tree… As Phantom…” she trailed off with dawning horror. “Phantom. You’re Phantom.”
“Yeah, I’m Phantom,” Danny said, having expected this delayed realization… again.
“We’ve been… All those months, we were… all those awful things we said, all those times we shot at you…”
“Suffering spooks, you’re right!” Jack said. “Danny, we’ve been shooting at you!”
“It’s fine, I don’t blame you, really!” Danny hurriedly told the two. “I understand; I probably should have told you earlier, and I wanted to, that probably would have prevented all of that, but…”
“But we were saying all those awful things about ghosts, including you,” Maddie said sadly. “Honey, anyone would be scared.”
“Although, that does beg a whole lot of questions,” Jack said with a frown.
Danny sighed. “They all actually do have reasonable explanations, I swear… Wait, didn’t Ember tell you about them?”
“About the public incidents, sure. But there was that time you were acting super strange, like you had two personalities or something, and we definitely saw both—”
“Ghost catcher,” Danny cut his dad off, realizing the issue. “It works weirdly for halfas. Instead of separating the ghost from human, it splits the personality and powers, both still halfas. I think that’s actually what really made me realize that it’s more of a hybrid situation than separate forms. I was sick of balancing two lives and thought that would solve it, but instead all the ‘heroic’ qualities like ambition and bravery and selflessness and stuff went to the Phantom half and the other stuff went to the Fenton half. It was a big disaster.”
“Fascinating,” Jack said. “Wonder if it works that way if a full ghost went through it too? Can you go into more detail about how specifically it was a ‘disaster’?”
“Though I’m curious too, why don’t we discuss this at home, instead of in the woods?” Maddie suggested, remaining calm although Danny could tell she was a little stressed underneath. Both his parents were pretty good at compartmentalizing—you had to be, with a career such as theirs which involved fighting.
“Yeah, it is a bit spooky out here,” Jack noted, glancing around. “Dark, too; probably should have brought a flashlight.”
Danny blinked. “Flashlig—oh, right. Humans need those. Does this work?” He held out his hand and formed a glowing ball of ectoplasm in it. “It’s a bit eerie since it’s green and kinda dim, but it should be enough to walk, I use it for Sam and Tucker and Jazz when we’re out late.”
“That’s so useful!” Jack declared.
As they began walking, first through leaves and then through grass, rustling footsteps seeming loud in the quiet park, Jack suddenly asked, “Hey, Danno? Do you realize that you’re phasing through things as you walk?”
Danny stopped. “I’m what?” He assumed his dad meant sticks and small obstacles, but…
“The grass and leaves aren’t moving when you walk through them.”
Danny looked down. The grass below him, which was fairly long in this area, was indeed phased through his feet. “Oh. Huh.” Danny wasn’t sure what to think about that; it was just yet another thing that felt too ghostly, making Spectra’s words come to mind again. He honestly should have expected that though, given a lack of noise while walking likely wouldn’t be simply from putting no weight on the ground itself when going over rough or vegetative terrain.
“I suppose that explains the lack of footprints,” Maddie mused. “Can you not do that? Not saying you need to stop,” she hurriedly clarified, “Just, curious if you’re actually able to or not.”
Danny considered that. “Maybe?” he said. He lifted his foot and then leaned forward with it, trying to give it weight and push the grass down, like he’d tried with the scale. It worked for a moment, but by the time his foot hit the ground he’d phased through again. “Yes but it’s hard,” he determined.
“Probably because you got used to doing it,” Jack hypothesized. “Maybe with practice you can stop? I mean, it’s not bad, I don’t mind or anything, but if we noticed others might.”
“Yeah, that’s a good point,” Danny conceded, wilting slightly. “I’ll practice… walking.” Great, he had to relearn to walk; he knew full ghosts could struggle with walking, as they were so used to floating everywhere, but he never thought he would! At least it was just phasing and not floating… well, not obviously floating, as in he still technically floated but never accidentally rose more than a paper’s thickness above the ground when ‘walking’.
“Danny? You okay?” Jack asked, sounding concerned.
“Yeah, why?” Danny automatically replied.
“Well, it suddenly got a lot colder…”
“Oh,” Danny said, slowing to a stop. “Sorry.” He did his best to stop emitting a chill. In the process, the glowing ectoplasmic orb dissolved too.
“What’s wrong, son?” Jack asked, putting a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “Did we say something wrong?”
Danny shook his head and wrapped his arms around himself. “No, you didn’t do anything. It’s just… I keep discovering more and more ghostly things about myself, and… and it scares me,” he admitted, putting voice to a feeling he’d barely realized he had, the real reason all these ghostly traits made him uncomfortable. “I just, can’t help but think, am I really just a ghost? Are halfas just a weird ghost that happen to have a human-looking form, and just weirdly need to eat and sleep? Is the eating and sleeping even needed? Is it just needed because I think I need it, since ghosts are influenced so much by their psyche? Is that what I’ll discover next? Is the heartbeat a residual habit? Am I really just… just a ghost pretending to be a human?”
“Well, the scans we did and the cell tests show that you are definitely a blend of ghost and human,” Jack reminded Danny. “Remember? Your human cells are still there, just infused with ectoplasm. Even the blood is still there, just also surrounded by an ectoplasm shell.”
“And even if you were a full ghost, sweetie,” Maddie told Danny, “We would still love you. We love you no matter what—human, ghost, or something in-between.”
“Yeah! You’re our son,” Jack told him, semi-violently clapping Danny on the shoulder in what seemed to be an attempt at a comforting gesture. “You could murder someone and we’d hide the body for you!”
“I, uh, really don’t think you need to worry about that, Dad,” Danny told him. Not after his encounter with the evil alt-future-timeline Phantom-Plasmius fusion.
“Well, the offer’s there.”
“Thanks, I guess,” Danny said with a weak chuckle. He used his hand to wipe away the budding tears in his eyes, then stared down at it and sighed forlornly. “Oh great, my tears glow too.” It was faint, but there was definitely some light to them, visible in the darkness. “What’s next? Glowing pee?”
Jack slid his hand from Danny’s shoulder to his other side’s upper arm, then pulled him into a side hug, rubbing his arm in a comforting gesture. “It’ll be okay, son. Like your mom said, we love you no matter what. So does your sister.”
“I know,” Danny muttered, unable to resist a blush. And, he did know—he just wished he could love himself as much as they loved him, all parts of him. Then, he yawned.
“Looks like you need to get to bed, mister,” Maddie said.
Jack chuckled. “Yeah, it’s nearly midnight! Come on.” Danny made an involuntary squeak as his dad scooped him into his arms and began walking.
“Dad, you don’t need to carry me!” Danny said, embarrassed, though he instinctively put his arms around his dad’s neck just as he used to when he was a little kid.
“Nonsense!”
“I’m 14.” Possibly forever; the cell tests had surprisingly been inconclusive on that front, but although that had inspired some hope for Jazz it hadn’t for Danny.
“So? It’s no problem—You’re not heavy at all.”
Danny snorted at that. “Duh. Even Kwan’s brother could probably lift me, my weak relationship with gravity makes me like a tenth of what someone my size would normally weigh.”
“Well, even if that weren’t the case, I’m still gonna carry you, kid.”
“Ugh, fine,” Danny conceded, yawning again.
Danny woke up to Jazz panicking as they arrived home, apparently thinking that Danny being carried meant something bad had happened—which was fair, Danny could admit, especially as he apparently didn’t breathe when asleep (he’d had Jazz check after realizing he forgot to so much).
“I’m fine, Jazz,” Danny told his sister after squirming out of his dad’s arms. “I was just tired, so Dad insisted on carrying me.”
“Hey, you wouldn’t even let us get close enough to hug you for like ten months, can you blame me for getting enthusiastic when you finally let us touch you again?” Jack said.
Maddie ruffled Danny’s hair. “Yes, we were getting awfully worried about that,” she told Danny. “Thankfully the reluctance was only because of the skin temperature.”
“Sorry,” Danny told them. “I didn’t realize I was worrying you so much… But for the record, it was actually mostly because of the Specter Deflector and other protective gear. Oh, and Jazz, they know I’m Phantom now.”
Jazz inhaled sharply. “Really?” she excitedly squealed, then hopped forward and gave Danny a tight hug. “Finally! I was starting to think you never would tell them!”
“Yeah, well, their tracker kinda led them to me while I was in Phantom form, so didn’t really have a choice,” Danny told her, then phased out of the hug.
“Let me hug you,” Jazz said, grabbing Danny again.
“So I take it you already knew he’s Phantom?” Jack asked Jazz with some amusement.
“She caught me transforming,” Danny revealed as he endured Jazz’s hug. “Can you let me go now, Jazz?”
“Sorry,” Jazz said, backing up, but leaving her hands on his shoulder. “I was just worried about you—usually when you’re out this late it means you’re fighting ghosts, and then Dad comes in carrying you, with you unconscious? You can see how that looks, right?”
Danny rolled his eyes. “Asleep, not unconscious. It was just Boxy tonight, at a flower shop that forgot to ask for their delivery to be in bags. Worst that happened was I got covered in flower petals. I fell asleep when I took a break after, that’s all. I was sleeping in a tree when they found me.”
“You fell asleep in a tree? Danny! You shouldn’t be so tired you’re falling asleep in trees. You have to take better care of yourself,” Jazz chided.
“Come on, Jazz, for the hundredth time, you’re not my mom…”
“No, but I am,” Maddie interjected. “Your sister is right, Danny. We have to set some ground rules about this ghost fighting!”
Danny stepped back from Jazz and sighed. “Alright, I’ll bite; what are you thinking?”
“Start with, if it’s just the Box Ghost, or another low-level ghost, let us handle it, instead of skipping classes or missing sleep?” Maddie suggested.
Danny frowned and crossed his arms. “It’s not like my ghost sense is that specific! When it goes off, all it tells me is there’s a ghost nearby that’s either unknown or one I see as a threat. It doesn’t tell me if it’s gonna just be an ectopus or if it’s Skulker! And by the time I know which, I’m already there, so why not catch it if it’s causing trouble?”
“Our scanners can tell,” Jack said. “Or at least, it shows the level of the ghost. So you can use that to tell! And the ops center scans can be even more specific, telling the name if we have the ecto-signature.”
“Let us help you, Danny,” Maddie gently requested.
“You’re not gonna try to make me stop fighting entirely?” Danny asked uncertainly.
“Are you kidding?” Jack said with clear disbelief. “Why would I stop you from following your family’s legacy? I’ve been hoping we could fight ghosts as a family!”
“Well, it does make me a bit nervous,” Maddie admitted, “Especially you fighting the more powerful ones, but I have a feeling we can’t stop you. Plus, though I’m reluctant to admit it, you are one of the only ones around who’s able to defeat those more powerful ghosts, with resources and abilities we simply don’t have. The only one who really compares is the Red Huntress, but she seems to have a vendetta against every single ghost, including you.”
“Maybe she’ll change her tune once we announce the change in our beliefs,” Jack suggested. “You know, that ghosts aren’t necessarily bad by default, and even ones that do cause mischief often don’t realize what they’re doing is bad at first but get better once things are explained to them. We have an interview with the news about that tomorrow!”
“Actually, she and I recently worked out a truce,” Danny told his parents. “She, er, blamed ghosts, especially me, for ‘ruining her life’, but finally actually let me explain that it was a big misunderstanding.”
“What misunderstanding?” Jack asked curiously.
Danny sighed, then explained about Cujo and that whole mess. Afterwards, he yawned again and said, “I know you have questions about more incidents, but can I sleep first? It’s summer now so there’s no school tomorrow.”
“Yes, I think we all need sleep,” Jazz told them.
On a whim, Danny pulled his family into a group hug. “I love you all,” he told them, and once they echoed the same he turned to head upstairs.
“Wait,” Jack said with sudden realization. “Since you’re Phantom, does that mean you really are dating Ember?”
Danny blushed. “Uh. Kinda sorta, we’ll talk about that in the morning too!” he hurriedly said, then scurried up to his room before his Dad tried to give him ‘the talk’ then and there.
As Danny flopped into his bed after quickly donning his pajamas, he realized that he felt better than he had in a long while. He was calmer, happier, and less stressed overall. It seemed his parents knowing he was a ghost—knowing he was Phantom—hadn’t been nearly as bad of a thing as he feared, after all.
Danny had a feeling that this summer was going to be a good one.