Hey! I once again survived leaving people with a cliffhanger! YAY! :P

Chapter 14: Wisps of the Truth

"Danny? Danny?" I heard my name and felt someone trying to shake me back into consciousness. I desperately tried to remember what happened. It all came to me in a flash, the fight, Sam, and fighting to stay awake while we walked to Mrs. Stuth's apartment.

"Come on, wake up Danny." The shaking increased, I wanted to smack Tucker upside the head right now. Did he have to be so damn rough?

"If you don't stop shaking me, I'm gonna rip your arm off." I opened my eyes, and let them turn green from frustration for a second. Tucker pulled his arm away from my shoulder, obviously relieved I had come around when I did. Why the hell would he be so insistent? It's not like I was dying. I slowly started to sit up, only to feel strong hands push me back down. My eyes looked around the apartment, I had to find Sam. I found her, still out cold on the couch across from me. It then occurred to me I never saw her black out. If I had gone down before her, she probably saw me change back. I looked down, hoping beyond hope that I'd somehow miraculously managed to stay in my ghost form after I blacked out. No such luck came my way though.

"Shit." I muttered to myself. "She saw me transform, didn't she?" I saw an amused look cross Mrs. Stuth's face.

"And here I thought she'd figure out your little secret before you found out hers."

Tucker and I were both shocked. "You knew?" came our unanimous reply.

"You brought her to me for medical treatment and you honestly didn't think I knew? You really are clueless." Oh, duh. Well, now I know what her little smile was about back then. "I don't know how you managed to carry her back here without feeling the bandages around her chest; you'd think that'd be a dead giveaway."

"Okay, okay, I get it. I'm a clueless idiot sometimes. Anything else you'd like to add?" She didn't say anything, she just let another amused look cross her face. There were times I both loved and hated the teacher at the same time.

"Back to the more important question at hand, she did see you transform. But, she went down only a few seconds after you did, if you change back before she wakes up, she might not remember it." I seriously hoped Tucker's idea would work, I didn't feel like explaining that whole thing after I nearly got her killed. I looked back at the teacher and had to wonder what the hell she was finding so funny about this.

I was about to ask, but I heard Sam groan from across the room. She was apparently waking up in a lot of pain. I sighed, and let my blue rings cross my body, taking me from human to ghost before she saw me.

My head was pounding and I felt a sharp pain in my side as I began to wake up. I let out a groan without meaning to. Someone sighed in response. There was a flash of light that caused me to sit up suddenly, ignoring the pain moving had caused me.

"What the hell was that?!" I turned slightly to see Tucker, Mrs. Stuth, and Phantom all staring at me, apparently my outburst wasn't expected.

Phantom finally came to his senses long enough to answer. "What are you talking about?" He sounded so sure in his voice, but his eyes wouldn't stay in one place. He was lying, he knew damn well what I was talking about. Then I remembered something else. I had seen that flash of light before. Last time it was when Phantom became Fenton, was it possible this time was simply Fenton becoming Phantom?

I spoke without meaning to. "Where did Danny go?" That wasn't really want I had meant to say, but I guess it would let me know whether he was willing to tell me or not.

Phantom and Tucker hesitated while Mrs. Stuth just sat in the background with a knowing smile on her face. It wasn't Phantom (Danny?) who answered my question, it was Tucker.

"What are you talking about Sam? Danny was never here." Tucker was as bad at lying as Danny was. I looked over to the ghost standing beside him, he just nodded his agreement. I thought back to the memory I thought I had, but it was so fuzzy in the back of my head. Was it possible I had just been seeing things? Phantom did look a lot like Danny, so it was possible. But then again, that fact could easily go to prove either point.

I decided it'd be easier to stop thinking about it for now and focus on something else. I glanced over at the time. 10:30 in the dot. I missed curfew and there was no way I'd be able to make myself invisible long enough to make it back home without being seen. I looked to Phantom, hoping he'd help me out, surely Tucker would have the same idea?

"Uh…I gotta go." I swear I could have strangled him at that point. Lancer was going to kill me if he caught me out this late.

"Of course you do." The irritation was easily heard in my voice with the heavy coating of sarcasm I gave the phrase. He didn't bother to respond, he just left.

I had nearly forgotten Mrs. Stuth was in the room until she finally spoke up again. "I'll walk you back and keep you out of trouble. Lancer should let you go if I explain there was a ghost attack." I guessed it made sense, even Lancer couldn't punish a student for being out late due to a ghost attack.

I got up shaking a little, I had to lean on Tucker just to stay standing. We left the apartment with me and Tucker in front and Mrs. Stuth walking a little behind us. I chuckled silently to myself as I quickly recognized what she was doing probably out of habit. She was walking just far enough behind us to easily pass as just going in the same direction while staying close enough to hear what was going on, the same way I had been taught to follow people.

We were most of the way back to the apartment when we ran into Lancer. We'd just rounded the last turn and literally ran into him. His arms were crossed, a slightly evil look on his face at the prospect of catching us out after curfew. Tucker and I tried to maneuver around him, but he quickly put a stop to that.

"Mason! Foley! Do you mind explaining to me why you're out after curfew?"

It was at this point that Mrs. Stuth caught up to us to bail us out of trouble. "They got caught in a ghost attack, sir. I was walking them back after getting them patched up."

"The last attack was hours ago, why did it take them this long to get back?" He was clearly suspicious even though we really were telling the truth.

"Sam was out cold for a few hours and Tucker didn't want to leave him alone long enough for me to walk him home. I thought it'd be safer to keep Tucker with us than to let him go home alone so soon after an attack he was caught in." I didn't know how much of that was the truth, and her years of experience kept me from seeing any telltale signs even if she was lying through her teeth.

"Alright, I'll let it slide this time, but send me a warning next time you intend on keeping students out late." He turned to me and Tucker "And don't you two dare think you can get away with this every time you want to sneak out." And with that, he turned and left, probably hoping to catch some other rouge student.

The rest of the walk home was silent. We got back to my apartment and upon entering I saw Danny sitting on the couch acting as if nothing had happened. I saw his keys on the counter and was suddenly reminded that he hadn't taken them with him when he ran off earlier.

"How the hell did you get back in? And don't you fucking dare say you got Tucker to open the door for you, I was just with him." My vice came out clear and strong, demanding an answer from him, and the truth at that.

Even with this, he found a way to ignore it and give another offhanded lie. "You left the door unlocked." There was no way that was possible, even in my hurry I would have locked it having found out the hard way what could happen if it was left open.

I figured it would be pointless to try to push him for a better answer and instead turned to my room, looking to get the answer myself in a slightly sneakier way. I had weeks' worth of video footage to go over in my search for answers, he wasn't going to get off that easily. Seeing as he'd pulled this stunt before several times, I had bugged the door first so regardless of what else I saw I'd be able to figure out how the hell he'd gotten in without his key.

I sat at the screen for hours, finding he did nothing out of the ordinary for the first two or three weeks as the footage raced by on my highest fast forward setting. I was about to call it a night and continue looking through the other half of the footage tomorrow morning when I first saw something.

I saw him doing to boring task of unloading the dish washer, but he seemed to be taking a short cut with putting things up. Rather than open the cabinet doors, he simply reached through them to put up the dishes. That wasn't the only thing I saw either. Several times I caught him refreezing items that had melted on the trip home and I even caught him using an energy beam to heat up a meal once (by the look on his face I'd have to say that trick didn't go according to plan). A few minutes later, I saw him walking through to door on one of the many occasions he'd gotten in without his keys.

He did the same tricks over and over again and I was once again about to call it a night after seeing him walk through to door for the fifth time when I realized I had finally caught up to tonight's footage. This time it wasn't him that walked through that door.

I saw Phantom walk in, looking only mildly better than he had been when he left me earlier. He plopped down on the couch, obviously exhausted, then I saw the twin rings form around his waist once again. Just as I had thought I'd seen earlier, Phantom became Fenton. I wasn't simply imagining things. Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were the same person.

My hand subconsciously made the segment of video play back over and over again as I took it in. Finally, I stopped and got up. I wasn't going to let Danny lie to me anymore, either he was going to tell me himself, or I was going to flat out tell him what I knew.

I went back to the living room and saw that he was still sitting on the couch. He saw me standing there and spoke up.

"What's up Sam?" He asked innocently. He didn't have a clue what was coming to him.

"Are you going to tell me the truth, or are you gonna keep lying to me?"

He managed to stick a genuinely confused look on his face before he spoke again. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, are you going to tell me how the hell you got in earlier, or are you going to sit here and lie again?" He stiffened just a little at that, apparently I wasn't supposed to call him out on his lie.

"I already told you how I got in. You left the door unlocked." I briefly noticed it was a little harder to tell he was lying when he already knew what he was going to say, but it was still clear as daylight that he wasn't telling me the truth.

"Yes, you did. And now, I'm calling bullshit on that. The truth, now."

He fidgeted a little before speaking again, though I'm not entirely sure if I was meant to hear it or not. "You wouldn't believe me even if I did tell you."

"I somehow doubt that." Even if I hadn't seen his transformation, I still would have been able to believe it, I could do some of the same things after all.

"I'm gonna go to bed." Well, at least he didn't lie this time. He started to walk off, but I wasn't going to take his little bullshitted excuses anymore.

"Get your little ass back here Danny Phantom!" He stopped and cringed.

I heard him mumble something under his breath "And Tucker swore she wouldn't find out."

He turned and addressed me directly this time. "I don't know what you're talking about Sam." Could he be any more obvious?

"That's a damned lie and you know it. I saw you change forms, now I highly suggest you tell me the truth before I beat it out of you." He looked scared for a second before taking a deep breath and finally telling me the truth.

"Alright fine, you caught me. I'm Danny Phantom, just don't tell anyone." He didn't even bother waiting for a response before walking off and slamming his bedroom door behind him.

It was only then that I realized I had completed the mission I was sent here to do. Surely that information alone was enough to satisfy the GIW? There was another question though.

Could I turn him in? Could I really find it in my heart to do turn him over for some rather painful tests when I knew he wasn't really doing anything bad?

And the truth finally comes out. :D

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Invisible One