Thank you for waiting. I now have a bit of a buffer again, so hopefully I'll be able to post on consecutive days for a little longer.
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Chapter 45:
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"Uh," said Jack. "We wanted to talk to Jazz and Danny."
"Danny's asleep," said Jazz, defensively, glancing at the lump that was Danny. She saw Sam and Tucker moving inwards slightly out of the corners of her eyes, subtly protecting their friend. "He's been tired. Is it something that just I can help you with?"
Maddie and Jack exchanged a glance.
"I think..." said Maddie. "Yes. I think that you can. Sam, Tucker, I'm sorry if we interrupted your getting ready for bed." She gave Danny a lingering glance before turning around and walking out.
Jazz followed her parents out, shooting a glance at Danny herself. He was doing a good job of faking sleep.
Maddie and Jack lead her off to the side of the cabin. It was quiet out, but not silent. The hiss of rushing water, the rustle of leaves, and the faint strains of wisp's conversations filled the air.
"So, what's up?" asked Jazz, leaning against the wall.
"We wanted to apologize," said Maddie, "to you and Danny. We haven't been handling this situation very well."
Jazz blinked. "Okay," she said. "Apology accepted. What else?"
"Does there have to be something else?"
"If that was it, you would have said it back inside."
"We... Just, why, Jazz? Why do you and Danny really trust Phantom?"
"We told you," said Jazz. "We explained it. It was gradual. He earned our trust over time."
Jack and Maddie gave Jazz a sad look. "Jazzy, we know that's what you said, but there has to be more than that. We raised you better than that."
Jazz raised an eyebrow. "Yes. You raised me better than to hate people for no reason, despite your hatred of ghosts." Jazz sighed. "You are scientists, right? Try to think about this objectively. What has Phantom actually done? Really? We've explained everything, all of the bad things, already. Sam and Tucker saw most of it, directly. I've seen a lot of it. What more do you want?"
"We want you to be safe," said Maddie.
"Then, believe it or not, you and Phantom want the same thing."
"Jazz, your whole... Danny's whole... relationship with Phantom is built on a lie."
"What do you mean?"
"Phantom said that he was a young ghost- a new ghost- when he came out of the portal. That's impossible."
"That ghost was way too powerful, Jazzy! A new ghost would have fallen apart outside of the Ghost Zone! Melted!"
"Without the stabilizing influence of the Ghost Zone, he couldn't have formed such a complex form," said Maddie, "and that's not even taking into account all the stories."
"Your great-great- uh- great-great- um. Your ancestor John Fenton-Nightingale has a picture of Phantom from over three-hundred years ago!"
"I know you research everything, Jazz. You had to have known. There are records, clear pictures, of Phantom going back to Babylon. He's old, and powerful. So why do you trust him?"
Jazz bit her lip. She hadn't expected them to know that. What could she say? How should she say it? She couldn't tell them the truth. "I think," she said, very cautiously, "that you should wait for Danny."
"We can't, Jazz. We've signed a contract with this thing. It's inside Danny. We-"
"Don't call him a thing," snapped Jazz.
"If we're going to trust... him," said Maddie, "we need to know what you know."
At that moment, Echo flicked into vision behind Jack and Maddie. He was holding a wallet in his hand, pointing at it, and nodding encouragingly. He looked better than he had back in the room. Still drained, drawn, and flushed slightly green, but upright.
Why was he-?
Oh.
Okay.
She could do that.
Echo could, apparently, see the comprehension blooming in her eyes, because he promptly vanished.
Jazz quickly returned her attention to her parents. "You're right," she said, "there is something else." She pulled her wallet from her back pocket, and opened it. There was a wad of pictures in one of the credit card pouches, and she thumbed through them, looking for one in particular. She found it, and pulled it free.
It was a small photo. Sam had taken it. It was of Danny. Danny and Danny. Jazz had been keeping as a sort of 'get out of jail free' card for Danny. 'Proof' that he couldn't be Phantom. It was from the time with the Ghost Catcher, before things had gotten weird. Weirder.
Danny-as-Fenton and Danny-as-Phantom were standing side by side, leaning slightly in towards each other. They had identical, slightly surprised looks on their faces. Mirror images. Jazz frowned at it. This was a risk. She hoped that she was doing the right thing here.
"Here," she said, offering the photo to her parents. "Notice anything?"
Maddie and Jack peered at the picture, each holding a corner.
"Time is strange in the Ghost Zone," said Jazz. "You can fall through a portal and wind up in Ancient Egypt, or a hundred years in the future. Paradoxes are common."
"This is... Oh, no. No," said Maddie. The fingers of her free hand hovered, trembling, over the surface of the picture. "There are shapeshifting ghosts. This is just another one of Phantom's lies. We shouldn't have signed that-"
"Mom. Really."
"That's the only explanation. He can't- He just looks like Danny."
"How did we not see this before?" asked Jack. "They look so much alike."
"They take pains to make sure they aren't seen together," said Jazz. "It isn't like it's an easy connection to make, especially if you don't know about the time travel issue."
"You're saying," said Maddie, looking ill, "that he's- that Phantom's... Danny. From the future."
"Honestly, we don't know how it works. If he's from the future, or an alternate time line, or what. He doesn't either. The portal or whatever did a number on him. And Danny didn't accept it right away. Not like you think he did."
"Phantom's scar," said Maddie, still looking at the picture, "it's the same as Danny's."
"Yeah. We think that's what killed him."
"He could be a copy," said Jack.
"What?" said Jazz. This was going off the rails.
"An ectoplasmic copy of Danny," said Jack. "It- He could have been formed in the portal, when it turned on, and Danny got shocked... Danny would have acted as a mold... And then Phantom would have formed on this side, and then... He would have gone back into the portal, into the Ghost Zone. Until a month later and then..."
"Then everything is consistent," finished Maddie.
Jazz blinked. Sometimes she forgot how smart her father could be. But this explanation was really way too close to the truth. She hoped that it wouldn't cause any problems when Danny finally did decide to tell them.
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Once Jack, Maddie, and Jazz left, Sam dropped down by Danny, and touched his hand, which was clenched tight around the blankets. "Danny, are you okay?"
"That was weird," muttered Danny. His eyes opened slowly. They were still green. His skin appeared to be glowing slightly.
"Yeah, no kidding. What happened?"
"Dunno. Everything just seemed so much heavier. I guess. I'm sorry I give you guys all this trouble. Always causing trouble."
"Hey, Danny, don't go down that way," said Tucker.
"I'm so sorry," said Fractal. They turned around. Fractal had reappeared. His face was still streaked with blue, and he was holding his glasses in his hand. This was the first time they had actually, directly seen Fractal's eyes. Fractal seemed to realize this, and pushed the glasses back onto his face. "We didn't expect that."
Danny pushed himself into a sitting position. "So you know what happened?"
"Sort of? I have a theory. Or some theories. The ectoplasm didn't reach your core all at once, I think. Or it didn't affect it all at once. Or it upset the balance between your core and your brain. Remember when you were separated? And you went to extremes on both halves? I think it might be like that. Maybe. But now you've adjusted, and we've adjusted, so we're all good. I think."
"So you actually have no idea?" asked Danny, amused.
"Not really, no."
"Danny," said Jazz, walking back into the room. "Uh, Fractal. You guys look better?"
"I feel a bit better, anyway," said Danny, rubbing green eye. He looked down at his hand. "Do my veins look like they're glowing to you?"
"A bit," said Jazz.
"So what did Mom and Dad want?"
"Well..."
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"Do you think that Jazz told us the truth this time, Mads?"
"I think," said Maddie, "that she was telling more of the truth than she has been."
"But not the whole thing."
"No." Maddie put her head in her hands. "Jack, when did we go wrong? What did we do? Why don't our children trust us anymore?"
"I don't know," said Jack, morosely.
"What are we going to do?"
"We'll just have to keep going," said Jack. He sighed heavily. "What do you think the truth is?"
"Something bad," said Maddie. "Something to do with Phantom, and how he's connected to Danny. We shouldn't have signed that contract. What if he's hurting Danny?"
"Jazz wouldn't let that happen. She wouldn't work with Phantom if he was hurting Danny. There's- There's something else going on. And we'll find out what it is."
