Two Sided Apprehension (But Still I Do Nothing)

Maddie couldn't even begin to comprehend the situation in front of her. They'd know there was something unconventional about Danny's recent behaviour — which she'd skewered up to the fault of the portal accident.

Her and Jack were in the kitchen, considering ways to question Danny, when there had been an almighty thump upstairs, midday of all times, and they were the only two in the house.

And now, well Maddie didn't know what to think. Words caught in her throat, nothing intelligible but a choke of shock, leaving her utterly tongue tied.

Danny's hand was stuck in the wall. And by the looks of it, he knew it too, from the awkward stumble he took back to the wall as his arm refused to budge.

She was too focused on his arm to even notice the ruddy green that soused down his ratty t-shirt, and the hand that pressed limply towards it, fingers also dabbled with blood.

Quaking, Maddie turned to her husband, who was hauntingly quiet, his navy eyes caught on Danny, in particular to the wall.

It was the portal accident. It had to be. The same vibrant colour of the green and red that decorated his shirt. Something had happened, and it was much more than just an ecto contamination — that feeble excuse had been used by Danny many times.

That "minor" electrocution, probably wasn't so minor, she concluded with unspoken horror.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Maddie managed to speak, although the words gritted out, mostly of shock and disbelief.

"W-what? How did this happen?"

Shaking, Danny met his blue eyes with Maddie's. Terror struck upon his face.

"The injuries?" Danny questioned, then looked down towards his hip where his hand rested. He paled. How had his parents not shrieked in worry yet?

"I- uh, I.. I don't know." Danny mumbled, his voice trailing off coarsely. There was no lie that would fix this, but he wasn't going to leap to the truth either.

"Danno, you don't just get injuries out of nowhere and not know where they came from. Not that bad." His dad finally spoke, jolted out of shock. He gestured a large hand to the blotch of blood.

The teen sighed. He had been hoping, by narrow margins that his parents would remain oblivious to the injuries and just continued living their life as if everything was fine.

"We can't just continue living our life as if nothing is wrong. We can't ignore this!" His mom spoke, a bitter tone to her voice.

But, what? Danny gawked up at his parents, jaw dropping in confusion. He'd said the last part out loud...oh Infinite Realms. His parents' faces were downcast now, and his Mom's face was angry, but more of a heartbroken anger.

"There've been enough times of us being out of sync with everything, son. And because of that, we didn't even notice what you were going through." Jack mumbled as Danny shifted uncomfortably on the floor.

"It's not your fault." The halfa shook his head, taking to glancing at the blue shag carpet instead of making eye contact.

"But how can it not be?! We've done something — you want us to go living back to normal — there's something going on."

"It's fine. Just leave it." He muttered back. Time to go back to the deflection tactics.

"We're not leaving until you tell us what is wrong." Maddie commanded, her voice stern. She wasn't falling for this, not again. Her son already thought they were oblivious enough. And now they would start paying attention.

"I don't want to talk about it. Nothing is wrong with me."

"And you're not bleeding on the carpet right now." Jack remarked, kneeling down on the carpet as he examined the droplets on the floor, "That looks painful. Do you need help?"

"It's fine. I can manage." Quick as a flash, he turned his hand intangible, passing it through the wall with the gauze packet as his parents watched, jaws dropped.

"Intangibility, it, it was worse than what you said." Maddie stuttered as she gasped at his arm.

"What was?" Danny braced himself, wrapping the gauze on his wound. She'd identified his ghost powers in almost an instant, and now one of his past excuses was catching up.

"It was the portal accident. Wasn't it?" Maddie's voice went quiet, and Jack rubbed his hand through Danny's hair reassuringly. Danny froze underneath the touch.

No. Not the portal accident. No. He was not being questioned about his death for a second time; and this was not something he wanted to talk about his parents. The guilt would kill them. They shouldn't feel guilty for something that was his stupid fault. Anxiety crept up in his heart, they were close to finding his secret.

"What about the portal accident?" He tried to play it off casually, to no avail.

"We know the portal did something to you." Maddie said plainly. Danny felt his heart tighten in his chest, he was treading on thin ice. His life depended on it.

Because they could react either way. And he didn't want to risk the rejection, or the likely experimentation that would come after. Danny found himself blubbering incoherently as he shook his head, trying to scrape up the remaining tatters of his secret.

"-No, no it didn't. What are you talking about? You'll not get me. You can't capture me. I won't let you experiment on me. I won't let you-"

"Daniel James Fenton! I could give less of a damn about what that portal did to you because you should know by now that no matter what I will always love you, no matter what or who you are. We'd never ever even think of experimenting or capturing you." Maddie erupted, practically leaping across the room to sweep her son into an embrace.

God, her son had been plagued by so much — and to think he thought they would experiment on him? No wonder he was trying to deny everything.

"You- you really mean that?" Her son asked in a small voice. Maddie swore his eyes were leaking tears. He turned and blinked at her owlishly, and looked up to Jack.

Both gave a confirming nod.

"We love you Danno, whether you're...whatever you are."

They really meant it? Danny wiped an eye with his (non bloody) hand, breathing heavily. They'd accept him no matter what he was.. but that didn't include Phantom. Probably not.

There was a weight lifted off his chest at his parents reassurance..maybe telling the truth wouldn't be bad? Not all of it, he didn't want to overwhelm them (nor was he ready to say everything), but it would be an improvement to constantly deflecting everything.

"I- there's some stuff I'm not ready to tell yet." Danny uttered, thinking about his Phantom identity. At least he could tell them how much truth he was going to say.

"Of course sweetie. One step at a time." Maddie smiled reassuringly, threading her hands through his hair, to which he responded positively. Jack also pulled gently at some of the tufts.

"So, the portal accident. Which I'm guessing from before, you already know." Both his parents nodded, "And I said it was just a little shock, it wasn't. I was inside the portal when it happened. It opened on me or something, I don't know. It.. it made me half ghost." Danny explained, bracing at the last sentence.

"Like half-ghost, half-human?" His mom asked, and he nodded.

"Exactly that." Danny nodded, a small smile on his features, "My DNA got merged with ectoplasm, from which I got one of the best things that happened to me. Even if it does have some consequences to it."

"I'm guessing said consequences have something to do with why you have all this." Maddie lifted a finger and gestured to the burn, "Although I'm surprised that you're not in more pain, considering that it does look quite bad."

"Quick healing factor. Ectoplasm means I heal really fast. Definitely useful." He took a look at the wound, now wrapped with the gauze. No red or green was seeping through, which was good, "And it makes my blood red and green. It looks kinda cool."

"I was wondering why it looked like jello." Jack remarked, rubbing his fingers against the wool.

"So? What's this mysterious best thing that happened to you?" Maddie egged on, nudging his shoulder encouragingly. She looked, happy, and actually curious. So did his dad.

"Well I, uh don't know if it's cool to you considering you're ghost hunters, and I was terrified at first." Danny shrugged, then held a hand out, palm facing the ceiling.

"Your - palm?" Jack questioned, looking at Danny as if he were ridiculous, "Is this some sort of palm reading shindig? Do you have a wacky future or something?"

Danny laughed lightheartedly, shaking his head. Focusing his powers, Danny felt the ecto energy flood through him as his hand lit up a burst of neon green.

"Suffering spooks!" Jack recoiled in shock.

"Ghost powers!" Maddie exclaimed, awe clear in her voice. At her curiosity, Danny wavered, would she want to experiment to find out how his powers worked? He needn't have worried though, as his mom settled back down.

"Danny, that's incredible. What else can you do?"

"I can fly, you already know about the intangibility, invisibility and I can shoot ectoblasts. The first month or so I used to accidentally turn everything intangible. School was awful. There was once where I accidentally turned a sink intangible."

"I can't imagine what that was like. And speaking of school, why aren't you there young man? It's 14:30!"

"I needed to come here for first aid supplies. I couldn't exactly go to the nurse. I'm sorry I skipped again." Danny frowned. He'd genuinely forgotten about school during the conversation with his parents. And now the school would probably be preparing millions of detentions with his name on. Oh crud.

"Oh sweetie. It's not your fault. How did you even get these injuries?" Maddie gestured to the gauze pad.

Hesitantly, Danny pulled himself up so he was leaning against the wall instead of awkwardly sprawled onto the floor.

"Well the shoulder and neck are from a ghost who fought with me. The burn is from the security systems."

"What — a ghost fought you?" Jack looked bemused, although pride shone in his eyes. "So you've been fighting ghosts?"

"Yup. You know that vampire ghost, the ones with the horns and the red eyes?"

"The Wisconsin ghost?" Maddie titled her head and shivered in disgust, that ghost was obsessed with her.

Danny could hardly hold back a snicker at the ridiculous name, "He's called Plasmius, but it's pretty hilarious when you call him The Wisconsin Ghost. We were fighting this morning, he wanted the typical 'adopt me to become his son and evil apprentice' type thing."

"That ghost is a level six, Danny! Do you know how dangerous that is?!" His mom looked terrified. A ghost wanted to adopt him to become evil — what? Her fourteen year old son was fighting ghosts himself, some of which even her and Jack couldn't defeat.

"And I'm a level 7.2, it's fine." Danny shrugged casually.

Jack whistled, impressed. "A level 7.2! You've got some power on you son! AndI bet you're showing them ghosts who's boss, right?"

"Sure am dad." Danny smiled lopsidedly as Jack ruffled his hair affectionately. Jack stretched upwards, balancing a hand against the wall, offering a hand to Danny to help him up in his injured state.

"We shouldn't be sitting on the carpet in your state. Maybe we should find somewhere more comfy to talk about this more." The large man announced, eyes grazing around the room trying to find something suitable for his injured son to sit on.

"Here." His eyes caught the bed as he gently picked up Danny and dropped him on the soft mattress. "That better?"

Danny, in the middle of examining his burnt hip, looked up and nodded. "Yup. Although I could've just flown or gone intangible."

His dad's eyes sparked, engrossed in every word that came out of Danny's mouth. Probably still astounded by the power that his son held, or that Danny was fighting ghosts. Either one.

"Danny—" He froze. His mom trailed across the room, approaching him, now stood up from the wall. Her eyes were misty with guilt and regret, arms wrapped tightly around her chest. "I'm so sorry, honey." Her arms slunk around his thin frame as she embraced him for the second time that night, but Danny was utterly confused.

"What— for?" He asks tentatively. His mom pulled back. Her eyes were damp with tears.

"We're bad parents, aren't we? We failed you for so long, didn't see you getting injured or even notice how bad the portal accident was. I should've pushed further but I thought it was just normal teenager stuff, so I didn't do anything. I figured you'd come to us in your own time, but you never did." Maddie sniffled as Danny's heart sunk with realisation.

This was the one reason he didn't tell them — he didn't want them to feel guilty, and now his mom was a mess. What could he do?

"Mom, it's not your fault." Plainly he spoke, pushing his knees to his chest and blowing a bang of hair out of his field of vision." You gave me space to come forward in my own time, and I appreciate that. Even if I didn't come forward, you still gave me the chance to talk. Mom, don't feel guilty. Please?"

Maddie didn't respond, only looked sullen at him. He hadn't convinced her one bit.

"Maybe, we should have some space." Danny rubbed the back of his neck, looking at his mom and dad hesitantly, "It's been a busy day, and you two have a lot to process. I also need to get used to the fact that you now know my secret."

"Okay sweetie." A small smile pressed on Maddie's lips, "And come down for dinner tonight, right?"

Danny smiled back. "Sure."

"We love you, son."

He watched as his parents trundled out the room, but giving each other stares of exasperation. Sharp blue eyes focused on them and a smile remained on his face until they shut the door.

Relief painted on his features, Danny let himself sink into the blue abyss of his bed. His eyes wandered to the unfinished papers and assignments scattered on his desk, all incomplete and overdue. A bell rang in his head.

The assignment!

He winced. None of this was good. Firstly, Valerie of all people was in their group. It had been fine with him, Tucker and Sam — too good to be true, he thought back now. An easy assignment brushed over with basic knowledge of ghosts and Phantom. Maybe less knowledge than of what was expected from the son of ghost hunters, but with the type of student Danny was, they'd just put it down to laziness.

Not him trying to hide a secret that could put his life at risk — nope, not at all.

Valerie, to put it simply, hated Phantom. Would find pleasure in obliterating his ghost form's existence, eradicate the evil ghost that ruined her life. And if she knew, then what?

She was smart, and sharp. She'd figure them out almost instantly — especially since him, Sam and Tucker were supporters of Phantom. Ashamedly, Sam and Tucker had also been caught by the press around his ghost form, so Valerie knew they were associated — even if she didn't expect him to know much (who was he convincing, of course Valerie would expect him to know things), she'd know Tucker and Sam would know things, have knowledge that others wouldn't. Maybe that's why Valerie had chosen to be in their group? To find out more about his ghost form?

Maybe this assignment had benefitted Valerie. Because in every way it was destroying him. There were what — thirty odd students and a teacher on his tail, along with his parents and Valerie. Too many people at once. Way too many.

"Find out knowledge about Phantom" — what sort of assignment was that even anyway? Lancer never assigned anything just for fun. The teacher had been lying, the way he glazed over with smooth excuses, yet there still was a jitter in his voice, a quick coverup of an obvious lie. Danny knew a liar when he saw one, the last year of his life was living a lie. Call him a specified genius in the lying department, if you will.

He couldn't just flunk the assignment, that was stupid. Especially when it was such easy marks, and they'd be expecting at least something from the youngest Fenton. But being too informative could really lead to trouble — Rosie on his trail of knowledge that his parents didn't have, the kid who was allegedly terrified of ghosts being so informative.

Grumbling, the teen let his legs swing over the side of the bed, swinging haplessly. What Lancer had said was a blatant lie — and there was a reason behind it — not just the lame excuse for fun — but someone wanted knowledge about him. And he didn't know who, or why, or how much they even knew.

"This whole thing is just a mess. Why would Lancer make excuses up? And he was acting so weird, assigning that specific group of people who would just never work together. You could say it was for them to get along, but there was something — the way they looked at each other." Resting his chin on his hand, cheek squished, Danny sighed heavily.

Confusion tangled heavily within him, thick and coiled and dark, twinged with edges of peppery anxiety that flaked every few seconds he considered the situation more. His head thrummed in a dull pain as he squeezed his hand further into his cheek. None of this made sense. But really, had anything ever since the portal accident?

What was it with people and weak excuses? He couldn't figure their motives, of why they'd want this knowledge. Valerie's was clear enough — she was a ghost hunter — she'd scour through information for dirt on her arch enemy. Rosie, also an enigma. Waltzing through their door, claiming that she wanted to interview her parents because she wanted to "learn about ghosts but especially Phantom."

But there had been no reason as to why she wanted to learn about Phantom — the excuse she'd given his parents was that she wanted to learn about ghosts. But why did she want to learn about ghosts? Why now? And more specifically, why him ?

Same went for Lancer, the English teacher had never even shown remote interest in ghosts, and now here he was, setting assignments with lame excuses and putting people in specific groups. Even if the group assigned had been in that weird mystery club together—

His heart froze.

It was just an inkling, a little urge of a feeling, he could be jumping to conclusions, but something made him certain. The weird mystery club, the second oddest thing to come out of Caspar High after the enigma that was himself — no one knew anything about it, how it had started or what it was about.

It was about him. It had to be. Rosie coming looking for information from his parents one day (specifically about his ghost form), then Lancer assigning a project to find information about him the next? It couldn't just be a coincidence that he'd assigned the same people in the weird club in a group together.

He didn't know why (still), and didn't know what, but there was a strange concrete certainty that told Danny the group was about him. Why they wanted the information he'd never know (hopefully he'd find out), but that put him at a risk, and a great danger of his secret being revealed.

His eyes blazed green. He needed to put a stop to this.

He only prayed he wouldn't be too late, that they hadn't found anything of major significance.

Caspar High Library, Thursday, 4pm

"So, the point we were up to at lunch, right?" James questioned across the library as he scrambled to a computer, typing login details faster than Adam could blink.

"I'm pretty sure, yeah." Adam shrugged, turning to observe the library. It was almost unoccupied, except for a few students revising hurriedly for assignments and rapidly completing homework. Him and James were early — so early that even Mr Lancer hadn't shown up yet.

"We're so early." Adam remarked under his breath. James had practically dragged him out last period to rush to the library.

Coincidentally so to speak, Mr Lancer stormed through the door, Rosie and Dash following him, their eyes wide and startled. The English teacher looked furious, and understandably so. Danny Fenton had done a runner in fourth lesson, and never showed back up. Even if the boy usually did run, he didn't just completely disappear.

"This better be worth something." Dash Baxter slipped next to Adam, towering over him by at least a foot. Adam tried not to tremble. Even if Lancer had told Dash not to bully anyone, it didn't stop the jock from seething glares at him when the teacher wasn't looking. One of those times was now.

"All this work can't just go to waste." Rosie murmured as she dropped her notepad on the desk, "There were three, wasn't there? I forgot their last names."

"Yup. Daniel Jay, Waters and Trotter." James nodded in response, turning to Rosie then back to his screen. Adam blinked. How had he gotten on the computer so quickly?

"This is kinda depressing. I mean — he was just a normal kid at one point, y'know? Like us." Rosie stated, then quieted.

The room was filled with the same solemn silence earlier that day, and Adam felt his chest clench in grief. They were feeling anguish for someone they didn't know — yet at the same time, it felt like they did. These records were just the tip of the iceberg, just the small barely dented surface of the past life of Phantom.

He noted that Mr Lancer looked especially grievous.

And then there was Dash. Arms folded, looking ahead, refusing to meet eye contact with anyone, strangely quiet, with a peeved look on his face.

"I don't see why you're all getting depressed over it. Of course he's dead, he's a ghost. He's strong and he's tough — nothing can affect him." Dash partially sneered, his shoulders shrugged in what Adam identified as anger.

No one responded to Dash's remark — no one could. Adam felt his own anger bubble, in grief for Phantom's lost life, for his own guilt at what felt like such a breach of the ghost's privacy; this way the way Phantom had died, the end of his life. Fourteen, only his age. Bile rose in his throat.

And there was Dash — who did he think he was? Maybe no one responded because they were in disbelief. Adam knew he certainly was.

The blind disregard and unscrupulous dismissal that Dash had towards Phantom's death was far outshone by the blatant idolisation of the hero he had for him. Yes, Adam could agree that Phantom was a hero — but he wasn't invincible. Dash was so indifferent and so insistent to put Phantom on a pedestal that he didn't even see the reality of the situation. Fourteen year old, their age had died? It didn't matter, Phantom surely wasn't affected by that, because he was strong and invincible.

The dark blue eyed boy prevented himself from spitting a remark as the rest of his classmates collected themselves, Lancer placing a hand on his head.

"I spoke to Phantom this afternoon." The teacher spoke, briskly and monotone, and Adam swore his eyes were damp in a certain light. He'd spoken to Phantom? How? What did they talk about? He couldn't help but think something important was about to be spoken, alas depressing.

"What did he say?" Rosie tilted her head curiously, and James peered over his shoulder, eyes hovering over the three possible records on the screen.

"And will it help us identify which one of these is Phantom? If any of them are Phantom, that is." James questioned.

"Yeah! I wanna know what you talked about. It must be super awesome being able to talk face to face to Phantom." Dash remarked, his face sunnily contrasting to the rest of the room.

"It was at lunch that I saw him, I asked about his death and he got very agitated, although I couldn't blame him. He admitted that all his family except his sister didn't know he's dead. How they don't know — I don't know. He didn't like talking about it."

"Phantom had a sister?" Adam spoke aloud in his surprise, well he was probably still in contact with her. "And his family didn't know? How does he even have a death record then?"

"That's even if one of these is actually his death record." James gestured to the screen, then went wide eyed. "He might not even have a death record if his family didn't know."

"But his sister knew — so surely there's some validation there?" Beside James, Rosie splayed her hands wildly, her eyes frantic with worry. They hadn't come this far just to get to a dead end, had they?

"What? As if she submitted the record or something?" James tilted an eyebrow, then looked back at the screen, "Mr Lancer, did you manage to get Phantom's cause of death, or did he not say?"

Adam could feel his heart clench again. If before had been bad just even seeing the three records (with no validation that it was even Phantom), a cause of death spoken from the ghost himself was sure to send them reeling.

"He said it was electrocution." The bald teacher looked down at the floor, refusing to make eye contact, "It must've been painful, if it had been enough electricity to kill him."

"Yeah, but he got right back up, didn't he?" Dash piped up beside Adam.

He clenched his fists into his sides. This was beginning to get infuriating.

"How would you even know that? I'm pretty sure if I died and woke up a ghost after being a human for fourteen years I'd be pretty terrified." Adam counteracted, kneading his fists together, trying to calm himself.

"You're a wimp, you're always terrified." Dash rolled his eyes.

"And what does that even have to do with anything? We're talking about Phantom's death here, the least you could have is some common decency."

Threateningly, Dash brought a clenched fist up to Adam's face as soon as he finished speaking. Almost flinching, Adam pressed himself against the wall. Maybe it hadn't been the best idea to talk back to one of the strongest jocks in the school, all his past anger at Dash instantly dissipating like steam.

"You think you can talk back to me?" Dash tilted his head, almost mocking, as he stood over at least a foot taller than Adam, back arched, holding a fist threateningly to his face.

'Uh.." Adam trailed backwards, sidling nearer James and Rosie.

"Boys! Behave yourselves! Mr Baxter, you know that your attitude has to remain positive to stay in this club — if not you will be dismissed." Lancer spoke commandingly, and Rosie and James turned to see what was going on. "Adam, please do not provoke Mr Baxter, it'll do good for neither of you."

"Fine." To Lancer, Dash slumped down the walls, seemingly in defeat. Satisfied, the teacher nodded, turning away to look at the computer screen.

"Fenturd did a runner for the fifteenth time in a week, so I guess you're the one left to beat up. But thanks to you and this stupid deal with Lancer, I can't get my hands on you otherwise I'll be gone outta this club!" Dash briskly turned to Adam, hissing, glaring sharply.

Adam hadn't said anything — he would never find the courage to do that because he'd be hunted for weeks — rather Lancer had seen Dash stuffing him into a locker and actually taken action for once, to his delight and dismay.

"You're a nobody who helps nobody. Why're you even here? I don't see you contributing anything."

As much as he hated to admit it, Dash was right. He'd only really been looped into it because James had insisted, James was his only friend, and he didn't fancy sitting by himself at lunch every afternoon, or having to walk home by himself, either. Flushing, Adam looked to the floor, examining his shoes. Why was he here? He'd contributed nothing, at least Dash had provided some optimism and eternal support to Phantom (as annoying as he found it). He himself just sat and loitered because he didn't want to be lonely.

Ghosts weren't even a topic he was really knowledgeable on, anyway. He knew they floated around and caused damage, that Phantom was their protector, but that was it. Heck, he didn't even know the ghost's first name was Danny until the first club meeting.

Surely there was something he could do? Rather than sit and be useless. Dash was still glaring fires into him as he thought. There had to be something that he'd gain recognition for, instead of called a useless nobody. Heck, it didn't even have to be in the club, just something that would stop Dash from announcing the lack of contribution, that he was already very aware of. Something that would surely pitch Dash's interest and at least get him off his back for a while.

If Danny Fenton had just shown up, then none of this would be happening.

And he's the walking mystery of Caspar High, no one knows where he goes or how he ends up injured! Maybe if I found out what, then Dash would stop pestering me and focus on Fenton instead.

There was a tiny smidgen that told him to go ahead, but no. He internally shook his head. He couldn't just throw Danny Fenton under the bus like that, especially when he got worse torment off Dash than Adam did.

Although I genuinely do wonder where he goes, I mean he was missing for the last two lessons, that's not exactly a bathroom break.

His thoughts were shattered by a startled yell off Lancer, who was rambling incoherently and pointing at the screen. James was wide eyed, eyes plastered to the screen, as if he looked away the information would be gone forever, and Rosie was leant behind him, a hand clenched in her mousy hair.

"That's — that's him!" Lancer spluttered, jaw dropped, as Adam quickly paced over. What had they found? Dash strode behind.

"We were just beginning to lose hope, and it's the last record of the three." James peered forward, taking a further look at the screen, "Daniel Jay. Born July 1990 and died August 2004. Died of electrocution in a lab accident."

"It all fits in." Rosie mumbled, strangely quiet.

It did all fit in, 1990 and 2004, and the cause of death being electrocution. The lab accident part was new, but Phantom wore a HAZMAT suit, did he not?

"Awesome! We found him, now the memorial can all be finished and Paulina can add her flowers and decorations." To his right, Dash whooped, throwing his hands in the air.

"Where's Paulina?" He mumbled aloud at the mention of the other club member. She wasn't here, which he'd only just noticed.

"She went off to the Nasty Burger with Star and Kwan and the rest. Needed a break from spending all school afternoons here. Since we were already pretty close — and we've found the records now — she went down to the florists to check out what flowers we'll put around the memorial." Dash shrugged, then realised he was talking to Adam, and scowled."Why would you want to know, anyway?"

"I dunno. You mentioned her and I realised she wasn't here." Adam shrugged.

"That's it. All of the information is here, even specific dates.' Rosie glanced at the records, "It's done. We've got it. Maybe you should give Paulina a call, Dash and tell her to book some flowers."

"Already on it." Dash took his phone and trailed to the other end of the room, texting the fellow A-Lister.

"I'm glad we've found it. It feels good, y'know, to have confirmation?" James pushed back in his chair, arms folded as he gave a small smile to the screen, "We've made it. And Phantom can get the respect he deserves, cuz if his family doesn't know, I doubt he got a grave."

"I'm glad Mr Phantom can have a send off now. Although it is, awfully distressing to think of a life so young, ending like that." Lancer rubbed his chin, "I'll have another talk with the council. Hopefully we can get the plaque carved and up as early as Saturday, and if we get a confirmed date then I'll inform Phantom about it on the day that it goes on."

Adam's brows furrowed. He couldn't help but think there was more. This couldn't just be it, could it? Or was he overthinking things? He wasn't the most knowledgeable on ghosts, so he couldn't exactly say much, but surely something was weird. A death record but no grave?

"This is weird. A death record but no grave?" Adam pried.

"He might've gotten cremated." James shrugged.

"His family doesn't know. I'm pretty sure they'd know if their own child was cremated. Especially considering it has a birth and death date with a name, someone must've known." Adam attempted again. Even if he did get cremated, there was no way that his parents wouldn't know about that, plus it had all his personal information, so someone had to know about who Phantom was previously, and be willing to hide that secret from his parents.

"He had a sister, didn't he? She could've signed the records off and been sworn to secrecy by her brother." Rosie butted in, her head tilting to the side, "People do crazy things when they're grieving. And she's already kept his secret from his parents, so who's to say she didn't keep his death a secret too?"

"All I wonder is how negligent some people have to be to not notice their own son's death." Lancer frowned, "And for the sister to keep it a secret too. Awfully tragic, all of it."

(After so long, Maddie and Jack Fenton were becoming aware of their obliviousness and figuring ways to help their son. Meanwhile, Danny was flying, eyes virulent with determination, he knew exactly where he was headed).

"It was nearly a year ago. There's gotta be a reason why he kept it from his parents." Dash pointed out, then looked towards the screen, "Jay, huh? I don't recognise that surname. Says he died in Amity Park, too."

"Would've just started high school because he was 14. Maybe he would've come to Caspar." Rosie blinked, then her eyes went wide. Phantom could've been in their year!

"Phantom would have joined our school? That's pretty awesome! He'd be an A Lister for sure."

(Danny continued to fly, spotting the outline of the high school in his field of vision. He would've gotten there earlier if it wasn't for the gaggle of fans or a fight with Skulker. There had to be a reason why they were doing this. Why would Dash, his bully, join with losers like himself? There was no other reason but to find out information about him).

But for some reason, that didn't sit right with the dark blue eyed boy. It was a perfectly good explanation, Adam figured, but something just still didn't make sense. What happened to Phantom's body? Did he bury it himself? If it had been sent to a morgue his parents would've found out, but they didn't, and maybe the body had been unidentifiable, but it clearly wasn't as they had the names and dates. He had a sneaking suspicion about something.

"James, how easy would it be for someone to say.. make a fake death record?" Adam waved his hands, avoiding the accusing looks that set onto him instantly. They obviously thought he didn't believe it was Phantom.

"Why do you want to know that? It is Phantom's record, the information matches up. But if you're interested it would take someone with pretty neat hacking skills, like that Tucker Foley dude in computer class."

"Uh, no reason." Adam shook his head and coughed, "Just wondering."

"Are you thinking Phantom faked his death record? The one contribution you make, dweeb, and it's trying to deny the information that we have." Dash said.

"Not at all." Adam shook his head and gulped, he didn't need another run in with Dash, "Just genuinely curious about all these records, it's really interesting stuff."

"You're such a dweeb. Interested in stupid records." Dash rolled his eyes, then began to stroll towards the door, "We've found our information, I'm leaving."

While the records were cool, in his head Adam was wildly plotting a theory that Phantom had died, was too scared to tell his parents, got his sister on the secret, knew as a ghost people would question his past life and death (like they were doing), so enlisted the help of Tucker Foley to make a fake death record to throw people off the scent of what truly happened — that Adam didn't know yet. Yes, it was ridiculous, much more ridiculous to what the rest had come up with, but it was only a theory, it wasn't as if Phantom had really enlisted the help of Tucker Foley to make him a fake death record.

('Tucker should've never made those fake death records. They were made to throw people off the scent, but it's just dragged them further.' Danny thought to himself angrily as he approached Caspar High, floating near the library windows. Now, how would he even approach this?)

In fact, now that Adam thought about it, it did sound very stupid. He flushed, and was about to head out the classroom after Dash, when a loud tapping on the window echoed in the mostly empty library.

"What was that?" Rosie questioned, turning around from the group to look in fear at the windows. There were other murmurs of confusion and worry as they all continued to sharply stare at the windows with intense razor stares.

Phantom's green eyes stared back.

The room remained in utter silence as Phantom phased through the wall, landing gently on the floor in front of them. His green eyes were blazing furiously, with a determined glint to them.

They didn't know what to say. Why was he here?

Amongst them the group gave each other knowing stares. Phantom would not find out about the memorial until the time was right.

The white haired ghost tilted his head, as if figuring out what to say.

"Why'd you do it?" He questioned, hand gesturing to each of them. Dash looked as if he was about to faint, bouncing up and down with a hidden smile as the ghost glanced at each of them.

Rosie looked down, her glance astray. Her hands dug deeply into a chair that she leant on. "I'm guessing you're talking about our club."

"Yes." Phantom nodded, direct and firmly as he folded his arms. "Why did you go digging through my past life? I understand fans wanting to find more, but looking through the death records is.. extreme."

"In all honesty, Mr Phantom, we can't tell you." Edward Lancer shrugged his shoulders, biting his lip deeply and praying no one would spill the secret.

Danny kicked the carpet with his foot, trying not to let his anger show through. Here they were, digging through information, and there was no reason?

"I believe there's a reason, but you don't want to tell me." Danny spoke, and Lancer nodded.

"There's things in my past life, I'll admit, that don't add up. I've got secrets. All I ask is if you do come across these secrets, please, please keep them to yourselves. If there was a risk of them coming out, it'd ruin everything." Danny could feel his voice on the edge of desperation, they weren't going to tell him why. The only thing he could do was pray that they didn't tell anyone if they did find out things.

"Nothing leaves this room." Rosie nodded, and gave a small smile back to them. "Right guys?"

There was a chorus of "yes" from the rest of the group as Danny let himself relax, despite the worry that crawled up his spine. It was the best he could do. It couldn't stay hidden forever, but there was a part of him that wished it could.

"So, Daniel Jay, huh?" James wavered, then smirked. "The name suits you."

"Heh, yeah." Danny laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. Using his first name and part of his middle name for a fake death record maybe hadn't been the best idea.

"Is it true that if you hadn't become a ghost that you'd have gone to Caspar? Do you have a sister like Lancer said?"

Lancer had mentioned his sister? Danny gave a small sideways glare to the teacher as he faced back towards the overenthusiastic Dash.

"Yup, would've gone to Caspar if I hadn't died. Lab accident in the middle of the summer holidays made sure of that. Yup, I have a sister, she was there when it happened." (It had actually been Tucker and Sam with him at the portal accident, but best substitute Jazz in instead).

So, it did match with the record. And his sister had been there when he died, that must've been.. traumatic to say the least.

It was weird to think that if anything had gone different, Phantom would've gone to Caspar High and been a normal student.

"I bet you would've been an A-Lister, one of the most popular in the class!" Dash smirked. Phantom definitely would've been an A-Lister with how strong he was, maybe even on the football team.

Phantom snickered lightly. "That popularity would've been nice, for like two seconds. I doubt anyone would've wanted to be around the loser that was me."

"Nah, you could've totally been with the A-Listers, everyone would love you!"

"Maybe we shouldn't be talking about what could've been." Phantom quickly interrupted Dash, his green eyes filled with a little bit of anger. Talking about what a ghost's life could've been wasn't the way to go.

"I better be leaving now, anyway." Phantom went to turn,

"Daniel!" Lancer's shout made the white haired ghost freeze, as he turned around, green eyes frozen wide, with a fearful look on his face. He probably hadn't been called that in months, Lancer realised with a slight sadness.

"I- just call me Phantom, please." The ghost settled down, face flushing green in shame.

"All this will make sense eventually. We can't tell you, but keep an eye out for the town centre on Saturday." Still inwardly scolding himself for calling the ghost Daniel, Lancer sighed. Best let Phantom know now.

"Okay?" Danny jumped and caught himself in the air, confused. Keep an eye out for the town centre? What was happening? He stored it internally as he began to fly out the building. "Bye!"

There was a collective sigh of relief as the ghost left, Dash still awestruck, Mr Lancer still ashamed, Rosie wondering silently about his own sister apparently seeing his death.

One thing was agreed, they wouldn't spill secrets. It was obvious that Phantom's secret was that his parents didn't know he was dead, and that he didn't want them finding out he was a ghost. They'd keep that secret for him, it was the least they could do.

And Adam couldn't help but think that the secret Phantom meant was completely different to what they thought.