Part XIII

Sunday 18th November

Jazz gave her Bible another glance before putting it on her bookshelf where it belonged. She dropped down on her bed and let herself fall back into her plushies, taking comfort in Tenderheart's gentle gaze as church replayed itself in her mind. She knew they all meant well, but after a while she wished they'd stop asking. If he had been found, they would know. Giving one last snuggle into the brown Care Bear, careful of his healing neck where Danny had used him in his haunted house last year, she pushed herself up and stepped over to her computer. She was pulling up information about Vlad in preparation to what Dani would be explaining hopefully soon. She hadn't seen the little half ghost since they returned to Earth, the girl disappearing before they landed back in Fenton Work's back yard, so she hoped she still planned on revealing herself.

Jazz found herself with more questions the longer she thought about her so called cousin. She didn't even know Dani's last name, but the fact that she was also half ghost and somehow Vlad was involved all equaled up to something fishy.

Jazz opened the file she had created on Vlad the time she had run away to him, glad she had thought enough to take notes while she was in his mansion. Vlad had, inadvertently, shown to her how clever he could be with what she was able to see. The Maddie hologram that, sadly, could only work either behind a screen or in rooms with hologram projectors already in place was a piece of brilliant technological feat. She added to herself that he could've just stolen the tech and changed it to look like her mother but even changing it like that would have required enough technological know-how.

Books she had taken note of while in his library covered subjects ranging from more holographic studies, ghost studies, cloning, and cryptozoology. She was sure there had been more but at the time she had other things to look for so her options were limited.

"Jazz."

The girl turned around in her chair to see Dani standing in the center of her room as her human self. She was holding herself together but her head was held high and her face showed determination. "I'm ready."

Jazz rose to her feet and asked, "Are you sure about this?"

Dani gave a curt nod of her head, her lips tight. "I can save Danny and his friends," she said. "But I need your parents help."

"Alright," Jazz said, nodding her head back in response. She let Dani lead the way out of her room, following the girl to the living room only to find it empty. "Stay here, I'll go find them."

Dani let out a sound of affirmation, taking a seat on the far end of the sofa.

Jazz gave her a glance, a part of her worried the girl would change her mind again and disappear. She stepped into the kitchen, listening for where her parents might be. She was sure they hadn't followed her up the stairs when they got home and sure enough heard movement down in the lab. Walking down the second set of stairs, Jazz stopped half way down and quickly laid eyes on them working on what looked like a modified version of the ecto-skeleton. After finding out Danny was being held in space, they quickly went to work redesigning the failed suit that had vanished on them. This was the fastest she had seen her parents go from blueprint to proto-type in any of their inventions, but knew why without asking. Instead she cleared her throat, hoping to get their attentions before saying, "Mom, Dad, I've…er, we've got something we need to tell you."

Maddie looked up from what looked like a chest plate sitting on a work bench, pulling up her goggles to look at Jazz without the lenses in her way, and asked, "We?"

"Can you come to the living room?" Jazz asked.

"What is this about, Jazzy-pants?" Jack asked, sitting down the pen he had in hand as he turned to look up at the girl still standing on the stairs.

Jazz found herself unsure how to answer, playing with her pointer fingernail as she looked pleadingly at her mother.

"Come on, Jack," Maddie said, "Let's see what this is about."

Jazz swallowed the solid emotions in her throat as she turned around and headed back up the stairs. Hearing them follow behind her, she led the way into the living room to see Dani jump to her feet so she stood just beside the end of the couch.

"Who's this?" Maddie asked, stepping into the living room to stand beside her daughter.

Dani held her hands, one holding the other, to her chest as she said, "I'm sorry Mr. Fenton, Mrs. Fenton. My name's…" She took a moment before trying again. "My name's Dani Masters."

Jazz almost repeated the girl's last name, surprised Vlad had gone that far with whatever he done involving this girl's life.

"As in Vlad?" Maddie asked, looking the girl over.

"Maybe you should sit down," Dani said, taking a hand to motion towards the chairs.

Maddie and Jack took the sofa, Jazz taking the end of it and patting her chair for Dani to take a seat as well. Once they were all seated, Dani leaned forward in her seat and said, "I'm not really his daughter, but for a while he liked to pretend I was. I was…" Dani paused and looked at Jazz. Jazz held out her hand to rest on the chair's armrest for Dani to grab. Looking back at Jack and Maddie, Dani resumed. "I was a failed experiment of Vlad's. How much of him do you know?"

"Everything," Jack boasted, eyeing the girl. "We go way back to our college days. He never mentioned-"

"Jack, you don't know everything about that man," Maddie interrupted, looking at her husband. She sighed as she rested a hand on Jack's knee. "I'll explain later."

"What, about Vlad always hitting on you and trying to murder Dad?" Jazz asked, eyeing her mother. She smiled at seeing the surprise on Maddie's face, knowing now was the time to come clean. "His master plan was for Danny to call him Daddy."

"Murder me?" Jack asked, caught on that part of what Jazz had said.

"You remember the reunion?" Jazz said, hoping she could convince them of the truth. "The Wisconsin Ghost made his appearance and overshadowed you? You never did find out how you stopped him, did you?"

"I just assumed with all the blackouts…" Jack said, his voice fading away. "I didn't, did I?"

Jazz shook her head. "Danny saved you. He overshadowed you after you had forced the Wisconsin Ghost out and threatened him that he would expose both of them. Danny knew even then that you two loved him and even though he was scared, he believed you would be accepting and used the idea that you wouldn't be as accepting of Vlad."

"And the Wisconsin Ghost?" Maddie asked, fear in her eyes.

"Is Vlad. He calls himself Vlad Plasmius," Dani offered. "Because of himself and Danny both being the same-"

"And blaming Dad for both," Jazz interjected.

"He believed he could train Danny properly," Dani continued. "I had all of it ingrained into me while I grew. All of us, any of us that survived the beginning phases, Vlad wanted us to know he was the better parent. Originally we were supposed to replace Danny, whichever of us turned out perfect, and runaway to him. We were supposed to bring you with us, Mrs. Fenton. But I turned out wrong." She looked down at her hands in her lap and bunched them up in fists. "Once I was old enough he could see I was a failure, he unplugged me but I was stronger than the others. I didn't instantly melt into goop."

"Dani," Jazz said, stopping the girl. Dani looked up at her as a tear fell from an eye. "Dani, what are you?"

"Vlad called us clones," Dani admitted. "He used Danny's DNA and injected it into proto-plasma, using these tube-like incubators to grow us and to accelerate our aging. He wanted us to be just like Danny but every experiment had something wrong. The eighth one was the first to start and look like Danny, but it was just a soul, just a spark of energy that tried to form into him but really couldn't. The ninth was a monster, but it listened to Vlad. The tenth was just a skeleton. Number twelve probably could've been what Vlad was looking for but he melted still in his chamber."

"And his problem with you?" Maddie asked.

"I was a girl," Dani stated, looking the woman in the eyes. "He got me up to twelve years old and realized he had made a mistake with my chromosomes."

"But you're like our Danny?" Jack asked.

Dani nodded her head, creating lights around her waist as she stayed in the chair. The twin lights split around her, changing her into her Phantom self. She looked at Jack with a smile. "I'm just a girl."

Jazz turned to look at her parents, a small laugh bubbling out of her as she took in their surprised features at the first time seeing anyone change from humans to ghost.