Chapter One: Half

"Danny…what's been going on with you?" Maddie asked, looking at her fourteen-year-old son from across the kitchen table. "You've been randomly disappearing – literally – for the past few days. Is this a side-effect of the accident?"

Danny didn't reply, his arms wrapped around his chest. What could he tell her, the truth? It was clear she wanted that, but he was afraid of what she would do if she knew. "I…" He was cut off by a blue mist escaping his lips and he gasped, getting up and running downstairs.

"Danny, wait!" Maddie ran after him, gasping when she saw him change form and battle an intruding ghost. "Danny…you're a…"

Danny turned to her, the ghost escaping into the portal. "…Yeah. I'm a ghost. Half of one, at least." He glanced at the portal. "This thing…took half my humanity away."

That night, he covered his ears and hid in his room while his mother told his father what she'd found out. Jazz was out at a friend's, sleeping over (she took any chance to, apparently the banging around in the lab kept her up) so he was alone in the house with them. His mother had said to stay, though, so he stayed and waited.

He heard his father's steps approach the door and cringed, curling up into an even tighter ball under the desk.

"Danny, come down to the lab." His father said through the door. Then he was walking away. An order? That was it? No…no words of shame or disappointment? He slowly uncurled and got up, going to the door and following his father downstairs.

"Let me see it." Jack said once Danny was in the lab.

"…Okay." He nodded, changing form in front of him, the white rings moving over his body.

"Interesting…" Jack moved closer, reaching out to him. Danny flinched, but no pain came. His father brushed a hand through Danny's snow-white hair and tugged on his glove to remove it and take it to a microscope, but otherwise he didn't do anything to Danny. "Fascinating. This glove seems to have strains of human and ghost DNA in it, like it's a part of you." He glanced at Danny. "I'm going to have to do a few tests. Would you lie on that table, Danny?"

Danny walked over and climbed up onto the raised table, lying down. Jack came over and raised it even higher, so it was at his chest level. Then he reached up and turned on the bright lights above the table, Danny flinching when the bright light hit his sensitive eyes. "You can close your eyes if you want to." Jack said, unzipping Danny's bodysuit. "Maddie, please get me the Fenton Needle." He grabbed a bottle of something Danny couldn't read.

His mother joined them, handing Jack a needle that made Danny wish he'd closed his eyes sooner. He squeezed them shut, shivering as he heard the needle be prepared to, what else, stab into his flesh.

Then he let out a sharp gasp as the needle entered his skin, the agony only there briefly before he couldn't…he couldn't feel anything. He was completely numb, to the needle, their hands, everything. And he felt so dizzy…

"Stay awake, Danny. We want to watch your reactions." Maddie said, walking over and trapping his head down so he couldn't lift his head and see what they were doing, slipping a blindfold around his eyes to further ensure he couldn't see.

His body jerked and he let out soft pained gasps and even a short cry in response to whatever they were doing, but he couldn't feel what was happening until he felt his heart being prodded, his core being poked at, his bones being messed with…oh god, they'd cut him open… He let out a terrified scream as the realization hit him and he heard more straps tying down his arms and legs, keeping him from thrashing.

"Don't worry, Danny, you won't die from this." His mother coaxed. "We're not taking anything out, just examining you. Like at the doctor's, right?"

"T-The doctor…never cut me open!" Danny gasped sharply as he felt more of his body being messed with. "P-Please…mom!"

He felt a hand squeeze his shoulder. "Just a little longer, Danny. By the way, do you have a name for this form?"

"P-Phantom." He tried to focus on the conversation and not the fact that they were cutting him up while he was awake.

"Phantom." She repeated, and he heard the sound of her writing something on a clipboard. "Alright, and does anyone else know about this?"

"N-No…I was alone when…the accident happened." The pain had stopped, and he heard his father rifling through something, walking back and forth from somewhere to the table he was on. "H-Home alone…cleaning."

He winced as he felt tugging on his skin and realized his father must be sewing him back up with a different kind of needle. His mother squeezed his shoulder gently the entire time, continuing to talk to him. "Alright, then we better take steps to make sure no one finds out. What powers do you have so far?"

"Uhm…Invisibility…intangibility…and flight. That's it, aside from the whole change to begin with."

"And can you use them in your human form?" She asked.

"Y-Yeah…" He swallowed nervously. He wasn't going to be shoved in a lab? They were letting him wander freely?

"Alright." More writing, and heard his suit zipping up before the straps and blindfold were removed. Danny blinked up at the light he hadn't noticed were turned off and looked up at her. "W-Where's dad?"

"He's cleaning up, wait a little bit." She nodded.

"Cleaning up"…oh god, he was cleaning Danny blood and ectoplasm off himself, hiding the evidence of what they'd done to their own son. Tears formed in his eyes and he let out a soft sob, his hands going to his eyes. How could they do that to him? Their own son?!"

"M-Mom…" He whimpered, looking up at her. "W-Why did you…do that to me?"

"I'll tell the school you've come down with pneumonia until we can figure out a way to block your powers." She said, walking over to a computer and inputting information. Danny looked around, saw the tools used to poke and prod at him that were still covered in his blood and ectoplasm and flew off the table, rushing up to the bathroom attached to the lab.

"Danny?" Jack looked at him as he entered, Danny emptying the contents of his last meal into the toilet next to him. Sighing, Jack held Danny's hair back, soothingly rubbing his back. "This is why we put the blindfold on, you know."

Danny whimpered a bit as he finally pulled away, Jack handing him some toilet paper to wipe his mouth with. "No ectoplasm or blood, that's good." Jack commented. "I was worried I did something wrong to you."

Yeah! You did! You cut me open like a fish and then sewed me back up! Danny wanted to scream, but he just threw the soiled toilet paper into the toilet and flushed it down, shakily getting up. He wobbled a bit and Jack caught him, lifting him into his arms like a child. "Careful, Danny." He carried him out to the lab again, laying him on the table. "It's probably best you stay in this form for a little while."

"I automatically change when I go to sleep…" Danny said, sniffling a bit.

"Hm…" Jack walked over to talk to Maddie, most likely discussing that new information. Danny sighed and stared at the ceiling, wondering what his fate would be. He gasped when his father lifted him off the table again and his mother slipped something around his waist, locking it on. "There, this should do the trick." She smiled at Jack.

"It's just a theory. It's supposed to repel ghosts, but why don't you try changing back, Danny?"

Danny blinked and did as they did, crying out in pain as the belt shocked him when he tried.

"Ah, it works!" Maddie said, looking pleased with herself. "Now you can sleep without it changing you. We'll keep you down here and say you've gone camping with a friend if Jazz asks."

"What 'friend'…" Danny said weakly, resting his head against Jack's chest.

"Jazzy-pants doesn't know your social life, so we don't need to go into details." Jack carried him over to a cot in the corner of the room and laid him down. "Now sleep. Sleeping will help you heal faster." He smiled and stroked Danny's cheek before leaving his side.

"W-Wait…" Danny winced as he sat up. "Why…how could you do that to me? Your own son?"

Maddie and Jack looked over at him. "Well, sweetie, you're only half our son now."

"And we won't do anything to the human side that we do to the ghost half." Jack assured him.

Danny paled, slumping back against his pillow. He heard his parents approach and his father knelt next to him with some kind of liquid that Danny thought was water. As soon as he drank it, though, he felt himself drift away into unconsciousness, his head slumping against Jack's hand.

Poor Danny. D8

What's gonna happen to him next? Review and find out? XD ~ Zone