"Don't you think it's strange?" Sam asked him and sat cross-legged on Tucker's bed. "I mean, he just suddenly decided to ditch his ghost powers? Just like that?"
Tucker shrugged, "I guess it became too much for him. He was constantly ghost hunting and had no time for school at all anymore. To some extent I understand why he did it."
She didn't. Danny had always fought ghosts without needing to be asked, it had become his responsibility. Why did he do this?
Two weeks had passed since he had told them what he had done. Sam still remembered his exact words, the shrug and almost uninterested tone of his voice.
"I got rid of my ghost powers. I decided that I didn't want them anymore."
Even now she still couldn't believe it. She had always thought that even though his parents were making him worry, Danny liked helping others, fighting for the city. Hell, he even liked to play the occasional prank on them by going invisible. He used to like it, Sam reminded herself. Danny no longer possessed ghost powers.
"You said to some extent you understand it." She saw him nod.
"I had a conversation with him about him wanting to be normal again actually," he said, surprising Sam. "You did?"
"Yeah. It was after a ghost hunt and you had already gone home. All of a sudden he began talking about his grades and his parents and that he was still struggling leading a double life. I always thought he was fine with it, but he told me something different. He was really worried about his future. I told him that if he stopped ghost hunting no one would defend the city. Danny suggested that his parents could handle the ghosts and while so far they've been doing alright, what happens when a more dangerous ghost attacks, like Spectra or Desiree? We'd be screwed," Tucker sighed and sat up.
"I never thought he'd actually do it. But, there's something else on my mind," he told her.
Sam wondered if Tucker had noticed it too, the odd behaviour. "He's different," she said and he looked at her surprised and then nodded. "I wasn't sure if you had noticed."
"I did. He…I don't even know why, but talking to him feels different. And whenever a ghost appears he does nothing. Absolutely nothing. I thought maybe he'd keep his Fenton Thermos around in case something happened, but no. He completely ignores the fact that he used to hunt ghosts!" Sam groaned as she wasn't able to suppress her anger any longer.
"It's selfish! What he has done is nothing but selfish! I get that it must be hard and I fully sympathise with him, but wasn't it also good that the accident happened? He got his powers and he keeps the city safe. It's his responsibility now. And what did he do? He threw that all away like it was nothing. He no longer cares about protecting others. Tucker, what is going on with him?"
She looked at him, desperate for an answer. She couldn't accept that Danny had done this for his own selfish reasons. Or was it selfish of her to expect him to do this? Had the accident affected him this much?
"I don't know." Tucker seemed to be at a loss. "I've known Danny for nearly my entire life, but these past few weeks it felt like I was talking to someone else. He's always wanted to help others whenever he could. Hell, he got his ghost powers because he wanted to help his parents. And now I get this weird feeling when I'm talking to him. I can't explain it. Maybe I'm talking nonsense."
"No, I know what you mean, Tucker," Sam replied and looked down at her legs. "He has changed since he got rid of his ghost half. I can't believe that he just sucked the ghost into the Thermos. Just like it had never been a part of him."
"Yeah. And now it's buried in the park. It must suck, being in there for eternity," Tucker muttered. "What do you think it was like, his ghost half?"
Sam shrugged. "I don't know. It was a part of Danny. I don't think it was purely evil. But I also don't want to think it was like him."
"Neither do I. I also can't imagine Danny imprisoning him if he was good. Can you?"
"No."
Danny hadn't talked about what it had been like, or what he had been like. Come to think of it, Danny had not mentioned the day he had gotten rid of his ghost powers at all.
Sam wondered again if maybe she was being unfair. Her friend had had to lead a double life and hide what he was from his parents. It couldn't have been easy. Part of her understood why he had done it, but still. It might have been selfish and yet she hadn't known exactly what Danny went through. Maybe that was why she was so angry at him. She felt as though she had somehow failed as his friend.
"We should stop talking about this before I start missing going ghost hunting," Tucker said. "How about we play a quick game?" he suggested and Sam nodded. "Okay." At least now she knew that she wasn't alone with her worries.
She was starting to lose her patience.
Maddie looked at results of the latest test and tried to ignore the ghost's attempt to make her change her mind. For the past two weeks it had spouted nothing but lies, ridiculous ones. Did it honestly think she would believe that this being was her son?
"So, what did you find out this time?" it asked her even though she had told it to shut up. She was beginning to think her son had captured the most annoying ghost in existence. And yet it was also fascinating. Last week Jack and she had gotten the ghost to demonstrate its ability to turn parts of itself intangible. Their dream of studying a living ghost had finally become a reality. Some day they would publish all of their research and change the entire world's perspective on ghosts.
"Nothing?"
Maddie turned to look at the ghost. "Will you be quiet for one minute?" she said exasperatedly. "I don't understand your need for conversation."
The ghost shrugged, at least she thought it was a shrug. The shackles prevented it from moving too much and from using its powers. "You're the only person who talks to me besides dad."
"He's not your father!" she told the ghost firmly. "Stop acting like he is."
A moment of silence followed and Maddie turned her attention back to her computer. The ghost got under her skin like nothing else. It acted like a human, she couldn't deny it. Even its body language felt…familiar in some way. And while its emotions and the way it held itself reminded her of a human, nothing else did. Its voice was like an echo and sounded otherworldly. At Casper High Jack and she had encountered a variety of different ghosts and they had all appeared to glow green like ectoplasm did. But this ghost glowed white, for reasons unbeknownst to her.
Then there was its strikingly white hair and while it could simply be dyed she seriously doubted that. Furthermore, it was no albino as its slightly tan skin proved. The feature which undoubtedly proved it was a ghost was its neon green eyes. If she looked at them for too long she had spots in her vision afterwards, as if she had stared into a light. One time Jack had turned off the light in the basement and the ghost's eyes had glowed in the dark. If she hadn't known it couldn't move she would have truly been frightened.
"He is my father," the ghost told her quietly. "I told you what happened. I'm telling the truth."
"No you aren't. You're a manipulative ghost. I'm not buying your lies, so you can stop lying," Maddie replied angrily.
She heard it sigh, wondering why it did that. It had no need to breathe, was it a habit? But how had the ghost acquired it? It was truly a mystery.
"I'm not lying. Don't you get it? I'm your son! I split myself apart to get rid of my powers, but something went wrong!"
Lies. All it ever told her were lies.
She stood up and walked over to the ghost. "My son never had these so called powers. He's human just like I am. What you've been telling me is nothing but ridiculous. Yes, Danny was in an accident, but it didn't change him into some sort of hybrid. It's impossible to be half-ghost. Either you're dead or you aren't!"
Maddie saw the ghost flinch, but she had had enough. She wasn't going to stop now. "You have to accept the fact that you're dead. You're a ghost, not human. I'm not your mother. Our son is alive and currently at school. He never led a double life. I know my son," she said. "So stop trying to tell me that you're him. You're nothing like him. You're just a ghost who tried to kill my son."
It looked away and she thought that had been that. She sat back down and saved the results, finished for the day when she heard a sob. What?
"I'm not- I'm not dead." She stared at the ghost who was looking at her, its eyes shining with…tears?
"I'm telling the truth. I-I'm not lying! Mum, you've got to believe me! I'm your son! I'm Danny Fenton!" it sobbed and now she saw the tears escaping its eyes. Ghosts could cry?
"I remember when we used to bake cookies when I was younger and Dad would always try to steal one when we weren't looking. I remember when you wanted to teach me survival techniques because you were a girl scout, but I was so horrible that you gave up on that. I-I remember when we went on a trip to a gala of some kind, but ended up at Vlad's and went back home with his helicopter. How would I know that if I wasn't your son?" it said and Maddie didn't know what to say.
How did it know all of that? How could a ghost know these things which had happened over the span of several years? Maddie had a bad feeling about all of this. However, the ghost had to be lying. None of the things it had told her before had made any sense. It was simply trying to confuse her.
"How long have you been waiting for the opportunity to kill my son? Mocking us with your appearance?" she glared at the ghost boy. There wasn't another explanation for all of this. He had been observing them for years.
"Mocking-"
"Yes, mocking us! You look similar to him, because you were taunting us!" she accused him.
He shook his head, "no! I never wanted to kill him! I'm telling the truth, mum!"
"Stop calling me that!" she shouted. "I don't want to hear it anymore. You're not my son!" She walked to the table, not wanting to hear him utter another word.
The ghost boy struggled against his bonds. "Please, just listen to me!" he begged her.
"I'm sick and tired of your lies, ghost." She forced his jaws apart and put the mouth gag on him. He was saying something, but she could no longer understand him, his voice muffled and she sighed in relief.
The ghost was now silently staring at the ceiling, the tear tracks still visible on his face. He acted so human, so unlike any other ghost. It freaked her out and Maddie didn't want to start thinking of him as anything other than human. Him? When had she started referring to the ghost as a person?
"I'll take it off when you learn to shut up when you're told to," she said and left the basement, not wanting to be in the same room with the ghost boy any longer. She couldn't listen to his lies anymore and his human behaviour irritated her. He was a ghost, not a human. No matter how much he insisted that he was his son, Danny. His story didn't make any sense to her. It was impossible for a human to gain such powers, wasn't it? And if that had honestly happened Danny would've told them. Their son wouldn't keep such a thing from them.
She entered the kitchen and saw Danny sitting there with one of his textbooks. "Do you have a test soon?" she asked him and he nodded. "Yeah, but I don't think it will be too hard. It's not like it's Math," he said, making Maddie smile. She was relieved that he was taking school more seriously again.
Even though she didn't trust him she kept thinking about what the ghost had said. According to him this wasn't her son, just a part of him. Could the Fenton Dream Catcher achieve that? Maddie scolded herself for even thinking about this. The ghost was trying to get under her skin.
Everything was fine.