Chapter 14: Truth Revealed

Titans Tower

1 hour later

Danny groaned and cracked open her eyes.

"Guys...?" He asked weakly. He gasped as his eyes finally adjusted to the surroundings. Instead of the grey building where they usually resided, Danny was in a white room with a mirror on the far wall, parallel to him.

He tried to stand, but found that his hands were tied down. They were clamped down to a metal table that lay in front of him. The cuffs rubbed against his wrists as he tried to get out of them. He tried to phase out of the cuffs, but found that he couldn't. In fact, the cuffs started glowing an eerie green as he tried to, and reverted back to normal when he became tangible again. The same went for his legs, which were clamped down to the ground by the ankles. He was trapped

He glanced down at himself and found that he was Fenton. His chest and arms were wrapped in bandages, much to his surprise. He frantically glanced around. "Sam? Tucker? Jazz?" He twisted around, only to find he was the only one in the room.

He glared at the mirror.

"Where are they?!"

Robin watched the boy wake up in the room through the one-way mirror. He sighed as the boy tried to understand where he was.

Cyborg walked up next to him.

"How are the others?" He asked the robot. He responded with a sigh. "Still pissed. Maybe we should go in now. Find out what they know. I mean, they've been in those rooms for about an hour now."

Robin groaned, trying to figure out what to do.

Should he go in with the boy or send someone else in?

And what about the other teens?

He glanced behind him at the other doors that lined the wall. Each held a member of The Spectral Suspects. The one in front of him that held Daniel was encased in an Anti-Ghost Shield. Even if the boy managed to escape the cuffs, he couldn't escape the room.

He turned to the other doors, and glanced at Cyborg as the other titans appeared behind him.

"I'm going to talk to his sister." He glanced towards each titan as he gave them their orders.

"Raven, go with Starfire and talk to Samantha."

"Beastboy and Cyborg, go to Tucker."

"And what about Daniel?" Raven asked as the team stared through the window at the boy, who was glaring at the mirror.

Robin sighed. "Once we're done with the others, I'll go in and talk to him, make sure their stories match." He turned back to the team. "You all know what to ask?" He said. They all nodded as they gripped the papers in their hands, each loaded with specific questions to ask each kid. Robin nodded.

"Good luck."

Jazz jumped as the door opened and Robin entered. She glared at him and snarled. She hadn't been this angry with someone since Vlad had tried to get her to hurt Danny. She shifted and the cuffs on her wrists clanked together.

"What do you want?" She growled at him.

He said nothing and grabbed the chair that sat on the other side of the table. "I have some questions I want you to answer." He said, finally

Jazz smirked. "I'm sure you do. But what makes you so sure I'll answer." Robin narrowed his eyes. "Do what you want, but I have three other teens that have the same answers, that is, if they're true." He said quietly.

Jazz sighed, knowing it was pointless. "Fine, what do you want to know?"

Robin glanced at the paper, even though he knew most of the questions by heart.

"You are Jasmine Fenton, correct?" He asked, even though it was a tedious question.

She growled at him. "It's Jazz."

"Okay, Jazz. Let's talk about your brother." Robin said, only to have her glower at him. "Why can't you just leave him alone?" She asked. Robin sighed and continued.

"How did he get his ghost powers?"

Jazz bit her lip, debating whether to tell him anything, only to have him speak up for her. "Please, you might be able to help him if you cooperate with us."

That made her angry. "Oh, like how you helped him by knocking him out?!" Robin lowered his gaze. "Would he have come with us peacefully?" He asked. Jazz shut her mouth and glared down at the cold steel of the metal table. "Our parents are ghost hunters. They were always making crazy contraptions. Well...they finally made something that seemed extra crazy. A ghost portal."

"Something tells me you didn't believe." Robin smirked. "Would you have? I mean, ghosts!" Jazz yelled, then continued. "Well, it didn't work at first, so while Danny was hanging out with his friends in the basement, I guess they dared him to go in. He messed with something and it turned on...with him in it."

Robin wrote down everything he was hearing so that they could compare it with what the others said.

"He then came out as Danny Phantom. After that, everything started getting crazy."

Sam glared at the two girls that continued asking her questions left and right about her time with Danny.

"So after he got his powers, you started fighting ghosts, right?" Raven asked. Sam sighed. "Yes, once again, you have correctly answered one of your own questions. Is this going anywhere?" Sam sneered. Starfire and Raven shared a look, that didn't go unnoticed by Sam. "What didn't expect me to be snappy? Well better get used to it." She growled at them.

Starfire sighed. "I apologize for what we had to do to you, but it was necessary." She pleaded, only to have Sam clench her hands. "You think saying your sorry will fix this?! How stupid are you?!" Starfire shrunk back at the girl's harsh words as she continued.

"You hunted us,

you hurt us,

you hurt me,

and worse, you hurt DANNY!" She pulled against the restraints, only to have Raven push her back down with her magic.

"Calm down, Samanth..."

"It's SAM" She snarled darkly.

Raven sighed. "Sam, we did what we had to do, but we weren't lying about wanting to help you guys. So let us."

Sam stopped moving and lowered her head. "What's the next question?" She sighed.

"Why did you help Danny when he got his power?" She asked. Sam rolled her eyes.

"Danny was my best friend, even before the accident. And I'm basically the one who gave him his powers when I made his step into that portal, so I thought it as my responsibility to help him use his powers for good. He wasn't evil. He was never evil, no matter what anyone might claim. He only ever used them for good." She stopped and sighed, chuckling at a memory.

"Although, when we first started, it wasn't easy."

"How so?" Raven asked.

"Well for one thing, he could barely control his powers. They were so weird to him. He barely had any control, so that made it even harder to hide from his parents, which would have torn him apart if they ever found out, which is what he claimed."

"You do not think they would have hurt him?" Starfire asked.

Sam only sighed and closed her eyes tightly. "Well, before all of this started, I thought he shouldn't when he first got his powers. I knew from first-hand experience that parents don't understand when kids are only being who they really are. But as time went on, I urged him to tell them, to stop all of the hiding around, all the secrets, because I saw how it ate at him. He wanted to tell them, but he was afraid of what they would think." She narrowed her eyes and spat out the rest with anger and distrust.

"But then, we saw the weapons the Justice League had. His parents gave them the weapons to hunt us down, to hunt him down. They betrayed him! I couldn't believe it. Danny was so distraught. None of us could believe that his own parents..." She paused. "None of us could believe it. Danny took it hard. This has all been hard on him, on all of us, and people like you don't make it any easier." She snarled at them.

Raven furrowed her brow in thought.

"So what's the next question?" Sam sighed as she played with the cuffs.

Raven glanced down at the list.

"Okay, all of these questions aside!" Cyborg said as he pushed the paper away and got up in the boy's face.

"How the heck did you hack into my systems?!" He yelled.

Tucker merely smirked at him. "Please, I've hacked into systems like that ever since I was ten." cyborg's human eye twitched as he sat back down into the chair and crossed his arms, grumbling to himself.

"Uh, okay then." Beastboy said as he grabbed the paper and read off of it once more. "What's your relationship with Danny?"

Tucker sighed. "I've known Danny for years. We've been best friends forever. When he got his powers, it had to have been the coolest thing ever to happen to us. I mean, do I wish it had happened to me? Maybe..." Tucker admitted. "But nevertheless, I've always been there for him, through everything. Now that we're on the run, I need to be here even more. I mean, he's like a brother to me." He said.

He lowered is gaze as he remembered when he had last seen him, broken and bruised on the road.

"Is he okay?" He asked. Cyborg nodded. "Yeah, dude. He's fine." Beastboy said. Tucker sat back in the chair, letting out a breath he hadn't known he was holding.

"You're risking a lot for this kid. Aren't you worried about yourself?" Cyborg asked, earning a harsh glare from Tucker.

"Do you guys really think we're evil criminals?! I'm not going to abandon my best friends. He needs all of us. We've been through everything, TOGETHER. Sure, we've had stupid arguments, but, come on! I'm not going to leave him to tackle this all by himself.

We aren't the evil criminals you think we are."

"Okay, let's talk about the Pariah Dark incident." Robin said to the girl.

"Amity Park ended up in a parallel dimension. How did that all happen?"

She sighed once more at another question.

"Well, Danny could probably answer this better than I can, but Pariah Dark came to Amity, looking for a weapon f his that had been stolen. He ended up dragging all of Amity into the Ghost Zone, that parallel dimension you were talking about. Danny went to his lair to fight him. And he eventually defeated him, freeing the town, bringing us back to reality.

Most of the town thought of him as a hero after that, but you know, there were still people who were skeptical." Jazz explained as Robin continued to write.

"What about when he stole all of that jewelry and money?" Raven asked.

"That wasn't him. He was being controlled by a ringmaster for a circus that was in town. The guy was arrested when he was found with all of the stolen property and it was all returned." Sam explained.

"Danny had no control over what he was doing." She said as Starfire wrote down what she was saying.

"In fact, he barely remembers any of it, but me and Tucker do. Jazz wasn't there when it all happened. In fact, we didn't even know she knew about Danny's secret at the time." Sam explained to the girls, hoping they would believe it.

"In his list of crimes, it said he kidnapped and assaulted the mayor. Anything to say about that?" Cyborg asked.

"Plenty." Tucker sneered at him.

"During that time, there was a huge ghost invasion going on because of a ghost named Walker.

Anyway, he wanted Danny to seem like an enemy in the eyes of the people, so he overshadowed the mayor. Basically, he inhabited the body and pretended to be him.

"Well, he made it look like Danny was attacking him, when really, he was just trying to stop him, and his goons. Besides, you can probably find a picture of the incident and the mayor's eyes should be red, showing possession. Also, I bet if you asked him, the mayor wouldn't have any recollection of the incident at all." Tucker said, crossing his arms.

Cyborg and Beastboy glanced at each other.

"You know, he has caused a lot of property damage when he's battling ghosts." Robin stated, only to have Jazz cross her arms.

"Yeah, like you guys don't cause any damage when you're fighting. It's the same thing. You just don't want to admit it." She growled.

Robin stopped and paused.

Well, everything she's said so far seems to add up.

but I still want to talk to the boy, make sure this all ads up.

"I know what you're thinking." Jazz said, breaking Robin out of his thoughts.

"You still don't think we're telling the truth. Wondering if and when to turn Danny in. But I'm begging you. You can't turn him over to the Guys in White. You don't know what they'll do to him!" She pleaded.

Robin stopped and gazed at her face. It was the first sign of emotion other than anger. She seemed...terrified, but not for herself, for her brother.

I'll have to ask Danny about who the Guys in White are and what they want.

Robin stood, glanced once more at Jazz, then left the room. He watched as the others exited their rooms as well and met up with him.

"Well...?" He asked as they stood in front of him. "Their stories all add up." Cyborg said, the others nodding to agree.

Robin furrowed his brow. "Did they ask you guys not to turn the boy over to something called The Guys In White?" He asked.

They nodded once again. "They seemed really scared when they talked about it." Raven said.

"So, you going in to talk to the boy?" Cyborg asked.

Robin nodded. "I think we should all go in to see what he says." He said, as the others followed him into the room.

Danny slowly raised his head as they entered the room. His eyes were dull and tired as he sighed.

"What do you want?" He asked quietly. Robin glanced to the other titans who lined up behind Robin as he took a seat.

"Look, we just want to help you..."

"Yeah, I got that last night." Danny smirked as he gazed at his bandages. "Look, none of us wanted to hurt you, but...would you have come any other way?" Robin asked. Danny lowered his gaze, knowing the boy was right.

"Okay, we talked to your friends..." Robin started, only to be cut off by Danny as he jumped and stood up as quickly as he could.

"Are they okay?" He asked frantically. The Titans gave each other quick glances at how worried the boy was about his friends. Robin placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, which caused him to jerk back. "They're okay. But listen, they explained a lot of things. Like about all of those alleged 'crimes' you've committed." He said.

Danny raised a brow at him. "Yeah, right? How do I know you aren't lying to me?" He asked.

"Well considering I know that you got those powers by accident, and those robberies were because of a ringmaster named Freakshow, and that assault on the mayor was because of a ghost named Walker."

Danny sighed and faced the group.

"So? You know about the past? That doesn't mean I have to trust you guys!" He growled. Robin gripped the table.

"Fine! We just want to know about a couple things. Like if you know this ghost?" He placed a picture down in front of Danny that made his eyes widen.

"So you do know him." Robin said as he observed the boy's change in demeanor. Danny sighed. "That's Plasmius. I've known him almost ever since I've had my powers. He wants me to join him, like an apprentice, but I know he's just another crazy fruitloop." Danny growled.

Robin gazed back towards the titans, each of them thinking the same thing.

Apprentice.

Just like my relationship with Slade.

And if this guy really is like Slade, then we can't let him get near Danny. Especially if he's working with Slade.

"Okay, but can you explain why it felt like he was dead and alive like you? If he's half ghost like you are, then that means he has a human persona and that's something we need to know, especially if he's as powerful and dangerous as you say he is." Raven said, walking closer to the table.

Danny lowered his gaze and shifted in his seat. Robin gazed at him. "Please, this is something we need to know."

"I can't tell you. He always promised he would expose my secret if I exposed his, but considering that's out of the question, I would give his name to you in a heartbeat, especially if it means THIS for him." He said, gesturing to the cuffs.

"But...I'm worried. If I expose him and you go after him, he might hurt my friends, or my family, just to get even." Danny explained. Robin nodded his head. "I understand. But if you tell us, we can take the precautions we need to protect you guys and your family." Danny tightly shut his eyes.

"Vlad Masters." Robin's eyes widened.

"Wait! Vlad Masters. THE Vlad Masters? Billionaire of the year, mayor of Amity Park? THAT Vlad Masters?" Cyborg asked.

Danny only nodded his head.

Robin growled. It had been said on the news that Vlad Masters had taken a leave of absence, probably to cause trouble here." Danny gazed at him. "Vlad's here? In Jump?!" He groaned and sat back down into the chair, resting his head in his hands. "Way to go, Fenton. You've put your friends in even more damage than you realized." Robin glanced at the team, who gave him confused looks in return.

Danny gazed back at the Titans with tired eyes. "Have to say, I'm surprised you guys didn't turn me in to the Guys In White or the Justice League, wanted to have more fun with us before you send us to our doom?" He sneered. Robin gazed at him confused. "Uh, well...we wanted to know who the Guys In White are."

Danny rubbed his eyes." You guys really don't know about them, huh? Well, you would have found out eventually. The GIW is a government organization dedicated to finding, hunting and exterminating ghosts...and half-ghosts. They'll stop at nothing to get to me. I've faced them tons of times and each time, they've gotten better. But they don't care who gets in their way. Collateral damage isn't a thing to them. They've put way more people in danger than I ever have. But people don't care because they're the government, bent on'protecting' then from 'filthy ghosts' like me." Danny spat as he described the organization.

Robin nodded along as Danny described the group, which was getting worse and worse in Robin's eyes. Each teen they had asked had described the group the same.

"So, what would they do if they got you?" Robin asked, afraid of the answer. Danny tensed and rubbed his hands, keeping his head down. "Probably have a field day.

Revenge on all the times I've humiliated them.

See how I'm half human and ghost in the most painful way possible,

Hurt my friends or send them to jail,

And probably cut me open and see what makes me tick." Danny said. Robin's eyes widened at the sound of the last thing Danny mentioned. He heard his team gasping behind him.

"Dude, they can't do that!" Beastboy exclaimed in horror.

"They can, and they will." Danny sighed. "The GIW don't see me as a human. They only see a ghost, an entity, something they can play and experiment on. They don't thing natural rights apply to me, becasue I'm not natural. I'm just a guinea pig to them, a freak that should be away in a lab with needles and saws and knives." He gripped the cuffs tightly as he described it, finally realizing what would soon happen. He shook as he realized he would be turned in to them soon.

"Please, I don't care what happens to me...okay, I care a little...but don't let my friends suffer with me. They aren't the freaks, it's not their problem, no matter what they say. They don't deserve to be lab rats. They deserve to live normal lives, or as normal as they can be in a ghost-infested town. Please, let them go. They haven't done anything wrong. They don't deserve it, they don't deserve it..." He trailed of as his fears got the best of him. Robin could only stare in pity at the scared kid.

Danny sighed and decided to accept it, seeing there was no way out of it. "I know there's no way out of it. You'll either turn me into the GIW or the Justice League, who'll in turn, give me over. So, might as well accept it. But can you do me a favor?" He asked as a small whimper escaped his lips. His voice faltered as he spoke.

"Can you go ahead and kill me before handing me over? It'll be more humane that way."