Danny lifted his hands slowly into the air and said, "I didn't do it."

The Ghost Bazooka lowered ever so slightly so that he could see his father's face beyond it. Considering the speed with which he had been set upon, he would have expected his mother; this put him off balance. Then he noticed that Jack looked different. There was more grey in his hair, and the goofy, good-natured look in his eyes was replaced by harsh surliness. The most glaring disparity, however, was an old scar situated just above his left eye. Danny had been gone for a few hours, maybe. It might have been enough time to acquire the wound, but certainly not enough for it to have healed.

"Geeze," breathed Jazz's astonished voice. "He could be your twin, Danny."

"All right, ghost!" Jack growled before the boy could ask what she meant. He jerked his weapon ever so slightly to the right, a clear indication that Danny should head that way.

Things did not add up at all. As Danny turned to float in the appropriate direction, he saw a large, clear, rectangular box; a prison, he realized as he was forced into it. It had not been there earlier, and there was no chance that his parents could have built it while he was gone. It was far too sophisticated. He couldn't even touch the walls, let alone faze through them. Then, of course, there were his captors.

Without the Ghost Bazooka filling most of his vision, he was able to see that his father was too thin, almost gaunt for Jack Fenton. Jazz wore a blue hazmat, something she normally wouldn't be caught dead in, and her hair was cut short. And Danny…

He shared his father's grim expression, and held a plasma rifle tightly in both hands. There was fear in his eyes, but anger as well. He wore a white hazmat; the same one Danny Phantom had been wearing when he went into the Ghost Portal the first time.

The Guardians of Space had sent him to an alternate reality.

"What are you going to do to me?" the ghost boy asked. The humans glanced at him suspiciously and quietly went back to their conversation. They seemed to be waiting for something; after a long time, Jack sighed and closed the Ghost Portal, and the three of them went upstairs. The lights went out. Worried, sad, and somewhat afraid, Danny hovered in his prison in the dark.

It was like being in solitary confinement. The only light came from his ghostly glow; there was no sound whatsoever. Even the usual noises of human habitation were non-existent. He sighed miserably and wondered if his parents had missed him yet. He wondered if Jazz would tell them what happened. He wondered if he'd ever get free.

He didn't want to wonder if he'd ever get home.

Time didn't even seem to exist anymore. It could have been a few hours or a few years, but eventually the quiet sound of a door opening cut through the silence, quickly followed by a crack of light that cut through the dark. All senses alert again, the boy hovered as close to the wall as he could get to watch himself creep down the stairs.

They stared at each other for a long time before human Danny demanded, "Who are you?" Doubtless he was as unnerved as the rest of his family by their resemblance.

"Call me Phantom," the ghost boy answered.

"Phantom," Danny sneered. "Fine. What do you want?"

Phantom shrugged and tried to act as innocuous as possible. "I got lost trying to get home."

"So, what? You just wander into random portals when you're lost?"

"Yeah," he answered with a bright smile. "Pretty much." They resumed staring: one hostile, the other making every effort to be friendly. What happened in this world, Phantom couldn't help but wonder. Would it be wise to ask?

Eventually, Danny spoke again. "You're not like the other ghosts." His tone was skepticism mixed with…was that hope?

Phantom shrugged again. "I wouldn't know. I'm kind of new around here." He paused for the barest fraction of a second and decided to barrel ahead anyway. "What happened?"

Danny's expression became very dark, and he walked a few steps away. Without looking at his audience, he began, "Pariah Dark happened." Phantom was just about to press for details when the human boy continued. "An old friend of my dad…well, he's not such a friend anymore. He's a ghost, or something. I don't even know what he was trying to do. He just…he released Pariah and…and Mom…" He broke off with a barely repressed sob. After a few minutes, he seemed to get himself under control and turned back around. "She said she'd come back and help. We were waiting for her when you showed up."

"Was it Plasmius or Pariah?" Phantom demanded. Maybe this wasn't exactly his mother, but he certainly wasn't going to let the culprit get away with it.

Danny narrowed his eyes. "I never said his name was Plasmius."

"Oh! Um…Well, he's kind of…famous. In the Ghost Zone, I mean."

The boy didn't appear to be any less suspicious, but he did answer. "Pariah. He…and…and Mom…" He swallowed and looked at the ground. "It was my fault," he whispered.

"Don't say that!" Phantom exclaimed, perhaps a bit too forcefully because his double flinched. "Whatever happened, it was Pariah's fault. Not yours. Mo-Maddie wouldn't want you to think that way!"

"You've seen her?" Danny asked breathlessly. He threw himself against the reinforced plastic, desperate for confirmation.

Phantom mentally cursed himself for an idiot and stammered out a response. "Uh…not…not exactly." The look of pure despair on the boy's face nearly sent the ghost into tears. If he were able to cry as a ghost, he probably would have been.

Danny didn't bother to ask how Phantom knew his mother's name. He crumpled to the floor and leaned against the plastic wall. "Why did you really come here?" he asked, barely audible.

Phantom closed his eyes. "I think…I came to help." And whether or not that was actually true no longer mattered. Pariah was loose in this world, just as he had been in Phantom's world once. Only here, the humans didn't have a champion willing to sacrifice half-life and limb for them. Maybe this wasn't his world, but it was his responsibility, now.

"You're…really not like the other ghosts, are you?"

"I try not to be."

The long silence this time was almost companionable. Danny clearly did not trust the ghost boy, but he seemed to want to be convinced that he could. Certainly, that was more than could be said for the other two members of his family. He stood and brushed off some imaginary dirt particles. He seemed to be on the verge of saying something, but changed his mind and went back upstairs without so much as a goodbye. Phantom sighed; it was going to be a long night.

A slam sent the bleary-eyed boy to his feet; he had fallen asleep. He had changed back into a human in his sleep. Phantom jumped into the air and reverted to his ghost form before the stomping footsteps could prove to belong to Jack. The ghost hunter didn't even look in his prisoner's direction; he dashed across the room, looking around for something. Apparently, he found it because he dashed back upstairs. The whole process took just over thirty seconds.

Phantom sighed and twisted around to hover on his back. This was going to be a long day, too, wasn't it? He heard a crash from upstairs and hoped everything was all right. There was nothing he could do to help from in here. Surely, this alternate version of his father was more competent that the one he was used to. He had managed to get the Ghost Portal working without his son having his molecules scrambled, after all.

A second crash was followed by a short scream that sounded like Jazz. Phantom threw himself into the ghost-proofed wall by instinct and growled angrily when he was repelled. A third crash caused the lights to go out, and the basement door suddenly slammed into the floor and slid a few feet. It was quickly followed by Danny, who pulled himself unsteadily to his feet before collapsing again.

Phantom fazed through his prison and rushed to the boy's side. "Are you okay?" he exclaimed, despite glaring evidence to the contrary.

"Not for long," answered the leisurely drawl of Walker as he descended the steps.

"Leave him alone!"

The sheriff scoffed and gave Phantom a dubious look. "Heh, if I didn't know any better, I might think you actually cared about this brat or something."

"So what if I do?" the ghost boy demanded.

Walker raised an eyebrow at that. "What are you going to do, punk? Fight me?" He laughed loud and long at the thought.

Phantom smirked. If there was one thing he learned about fighting ghosts, it was to never play fair. While Walker's attention was focused on the apparent hilarity, the ghost boy swung a fist that connected solidly with his enemy's face. The astonished ghost was thrown backward, going intangible just in time to avoid hitting the stairs. He lunged back out a moment later, and the two grappled for the upper hand until a shot from a plasma rifle knocked Walker away. Right on the heels of this event, he was pulled into a Ghost Weasel that was then aimed at Phantom before he could think to react.

"No!" Danny exclaimed, or tried to. "He saved me."

"He's a ghost!" Jazz argued.

"Let him go," Jack said from somewhere near the stairs. "We've got bigger problems." He helped Danny to his feet and made sure he was okay before continuing. "Vlad's vultures took out the ghost shield around the school. We got to get there. Get rid of him and let's go."

Phantom didn't wait around to see what happened next. He shot straight up through the house and angled for the school. If Jack was worried enough to let a ghost go, it must mean a lot people were in danger. He tried not to let his first glimpse of this reality overwhelm him.

The sun shown brightly on a ruined world. Buildings that once stood tall and majestic over the beautiful city now crumbled and fell in on themselves in a wrecked wasteland. There were a few green domes of light here and there to represent the last bastions of civilization. As for the rest…

Phantom planted his eyes firmly on his destination and refused to look at anything else. It was too painful.