Mossmask: Hmm. I guess this could be considered AU, or canon. It could still fit in with the canon story line, I suppose. Guess it's up to you.

Anyway, apologies in advance, just because I'm not really sure of the quality of this. Wrote it while I was sick and half-sleeping, and didn't bother editing. Though, I don't actually think it's that bad. *kinda proud about that*

This is set after Jazz learns Danny's secret, but before he knows that she knows. Got it?

~Cya on the other side


True Form
Danny Phantom fanfiction
by The Cinderninja

Danny and Jazz Fenton both sighed tiredly as they were once again called down to the lab to check out 'the new invention'. And although both children noted that more and more of the Fentons strange creations seemed to be working as of late, that didn't mean that either child was any more interested. Though, they had taken to keeping track of which ones were dangrous, for reasons they tended to keep to themselves.

Tonight, however, Danny was less attentive then usual. Not by much, because he's never really too attentive to begin with, but still. He hadn't been getting enough sleep lately and he was falling behind in most of his classes. The icing on the cake, however, was the fact that he had just gotten in from a ghost fight when he'd been called in from the lab. He was tired, cranky, and injured.

He walked with a limp that no one but his sister took notice of. Jasmine, however, chose to say nothing of it. So now they stood, side by side, as their father showed off the newest Fenton invention. "Fenton Specs, we call 'em!" He explained enthsiastically. "When you're wearing these babies, they reveal a ghost's true nature. Even if it's invisible or intangable, or overshadowing someone!"

The 'babies' in question were a large but only mildly tacky looking (at least, compared to most other Fenton inventions) pair of glasses. Or maybe goggles. Not quite either, they looked a little like some strange cross between the two, with random bits of circuitry tacked onto the frames. Jack prepared to put them on to demonstrate – despite the fact that to his knowledge, there were no ghosts present to demonstrate on – when he suddenly found the redheaded Fenton child snatching them from his hands.

"Oh, really?" She asked sounding interested as she pulled them on over her face. She tried to pull off 'nonchalant' as she turned full circle, getting a good look at the entire lab. And a look at her now glowing brother staring unconcerned off into space gave her full indication that he hadn't been paying any attention. "Wow, dad!" She said, emphasizing her words with far too much to be genuine. Luckily, though, her brother wasn't paying attention, and her father was slightly daft, so she got away with it.

"These are really cool!" The elder Fenton child continued, taking the glasses off but keeping them gripped firmly in her own hands. "Say, are these the only pair?" She asked casually.

"Yep!" Her father began. She cut him off before he could continue, however.

"Oh, you know what?" She asked. "I just had a thought. Ghost hunting is actually kinda cool!" That got her brother's attention. He suddenly blinked awake where he was standing and threw her a bemused and disbelieving look that clearly asked, What on Earth are you playing at? Jack, however, was far too pleased to wonder about her intentions.

"Of course it is, Jazzy-pants! I knew you'd come 'round eventually!" He slapped her on the back, causing her to stumble forward and nearly lose her grip on the goggles. "Now all we need to convince is Danny and we can be a ghost-hunting family together!" He missed the moment when both of his children rolled their eyes, thinking simultaneously, You don't know the half of it.

"Yeah! Sure..." Jazz's smile twitched slightly on her face – she knew she'd regret this later. But it had to be done. "So, uh, do you think I can keep these? I mean -" She continued quickly to explain herself. "You and mom are so experienced! You'll probably be able to know a ghost much better than I would. So, I should keep these, just in case!" The longer she went on, the less enthused her voice sounded and the more it cracked, as she strained to keep up the charade.

But of course, her dad didn't notice. Danny, now knowing something was up, but not knowing what – he was totally zoned out for the first half of the conversation. And then, even if he hadn't been, he would never have been able to guess his sister's motivation for acting so interested. So he agreed, and let Jazz keep the goggles.

As soon as she got to her room later that same night, Jazz shattered the lenses with a paperweight from her desk – one Danny had made in grade 3. He'd thrown it out years later, but Jazz had dug it out and kept it. He didn't know that though, he'd probably have just been embarrassed and tossed it out again. Once she was absoluterly sure that there were no shards big enough to look through, and all the glass was gone from the frames, she snapped them in half. She shoved one half underneath her matress, and tucked the other away in a small shoebox buried deep in the back of her closet.

There. She hoped that was good enough. Those were far too dangerous to keep around. Mind you, she never realized that her brother had been watching her invisibly the whole time. He'd been curious about what the goggles did that had made Jazz want them. Watching her immediately destroy them only confused him even more.

Later that, when the parents were asleep, the two had another halfway-encounted. Danny had just released his Thermos back into the Ghost Zone, but was still standing in the middle of the lab when he heard the door crack open. Flickering out of sight, Danny decided not to leave immediately when he realized it was his sister coming down the basement stairs. Instead, he floated off to the side and watched as she rummaged around through the papers on the desk before finally finding what she had been looking for.

He followed her all the way up to her room where she sat on the floor and sprawled the paper out in front of herself. "I really hate to do this dad..." She whispered quietly, before gripping the paper and ripping it to shreds. But not before Danny caught sight of blueprints, which he could only assume belonged to the same glasses from before. It only served to confuse the halfa even more. Now he really wanted to know what was so important that his sister was apparently determined to destroy it.

But then again, even if destroyed the glasses, and the blueprints, it's not like she could just erase the idea from Jack's mind. But he was forgetful. She could distract him, surely.

Figuring the quickest way to get an answer was to be direct and blunt, Danny asked her the next morning over breakfast. "Uh, so what where those weird goggle things dad gave you last night again supposed to do, again?" He asked, trying to feign dissinterest.

"They reveal a ghost's true form." Jazz answered absently.

"...Huh?"

"If it's like, overshadowing someone, or invisible, or something. I don't really know." She acted like she hadn't really been paying attention either, but Danny knew otherwise. The fact that Jazz had bothered to remember that much at all proved she'd been listening – for some reason. And how Danny had seen her destroying them was proof enough that Jazz thought they were important. And now he knew why. But he still didn't get it.

He thought it over slowly – so he wasn't the sharpest cookie in the lightbulb box, but he wasn't stupid either. Reveals a ghost's true form.That set alarm bells ringing in Danny's head. That was when he first realized that he could remember Jazz had put them on. She'd been looking around the whole lab. She'd been staring at him. Danny dropped his spoon into his cereal bowl, jolting back from the table.

The sudden action caused Jazz to look up from the book she was reading and glance over at him. "Are you alright?" She asked, giving him an odd look.

But. She was acting so totally normal. She would have done something, wouldn't she? But she had. She'd basically torn them to pieces. Not the something he would have expected, but still... "Um, yeah. Sorry. Fine." He coughed, picking his spoon back up. He glanced over at her again to see that she was already looking back at her book. "So, uh. Did they work?" He asked, still watching his sister.

She shrugged casually. "How should I know?" She asked him smoothly. "It's not like there were any ghosts in the lab to test them out on." But... come on, Jazz was a terrible actor. No way could she have just done that so smoothly. They didn't work then, right? They couldn't have. But why else would she take them? Then again, why would she have taken them, even if they had worked?

If only he had some way of figuring out what had actually happened. Why had his sister done what she had? What did she see through those glasses? And why wouldn't she say anything about it? Danny groaned. Great. He would be wondering about it all day now.


Mossmask: Huh, now, here's a question. I have the first half of a oneshot written - I'd always wondered what would have happened if Vlad didn't lose his temper with Dani. Thing is, that whole story sort of confused me terribly. So I wrote the first half, then stopped when I realized 'Whoa. Hold on. Vladdy, you're confusing me. What on Earth are you supposed to do now?'

So I guess, I'm asking your opinion. What do you think would have happened if the overshadowing thing with Dani actually worked? Depending on any ideas I get from you, or myself, I may or may not finish it. Just a thought there.

~Dash