Here we go! Chapter 47! Thank you everyone for following, favoriting, and reviewing. I really appreciate the feedback.

Esparia: I'm glad you liked it. I was a little worried that it would be too much, but I really wanted to put it in.

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Chapter 47: Behind the Curtain

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Danny was wrong. The shadows did not teleport. At least, they didn't use the same kind of teleportation that Danny had managed once or twice before, or the kind Vlad forced on him now and again. What the shadows did was less like teleportation, and more like merging with the lair, and flowing through it. It was weirdly comforting, a lot like slipping into a tub of warm water had felt before the Accident. Except he was made of water and ice, and he was clinging to yet more water. Being pulled out was a shock. It left him gasping and shivering behind a bookshelf.

"Who's there?" called Maddie, harshly. "We can hear you," she said, when Danny didn't respond.

With an effort, Danny pulled himself up off the floor, taking Fractal's offered hand. He walked out from between the bookcases, hands raised. "Just me," said Danny.

"Danny?!" exclaimed Jack and Maddie.

"No," said Maddie, her eyebrows pinching together. "Phantom."

"Would you believe me if I told you that you were right both times?" asked Danny, laughing nervously. He had forgotten to hide his eyes, to pull back the glow.

"Why are you here?" asked Jack.

"Um. To talk to you. Why are you here?"

"Why do you want to talk to us?" demanded Maddie.

"Because you're my parents," said Danny.

"So you're going with that, then," said Maddie. "You expect us to believe that you're some kind of copy of Danny?"

(It would be so easy to say yes.)

"No," said Danny, "because that would be a lie."

"I knew it!" exclaimed Jack.

Danny winced, hard, at the sudden exclamation, half-retreating behind a bookshelf.

"Do you really expect us to believe anything you say now?" asked Maddie.

"I hope you will," said Danny, quietly. "I- I'm-" he swallowed. "I don't know where to start," he admitted finally.

"Start with why you're possessing Danny, and whether or not we've spoken with him at all since we first got here," said Maddie. Her voice was softer now, but still stern.

"I- Oh, gosh. Begin with that. Okay. Um. I'm not possessing anyone. I'm- I'm not overshadowing anyone, either. And you've been talking to Danny, to me, the entire time."

"What-"

"The overshadowing thing was a cover. I- I had to explain why my eyes were green, why that- that thing you guys made affected me, and that was the easiest way, and then it snowballed and- I don't know. I didn't want to tell you like this. I wanted- I wanted to tell you right away, two years ago, but things kept happening, and then I got scared. I didn't want to hurt you. Please don't hate me." This was going poorly. Danny was crying, his tears faintly luminous.

Maddie took two steps forward. "What are you talking about? What happened two years ago?" She took another step forwards, bringing herself within arm's reach of Danny. "Who are you?"

"I'm Danny," he said. "I've always been Danny. The whole time I-" he broke off, sobbing, backing away. "I'm Danny. Do- Do you remember, when you tried to turn on the portal for the first time? And it didn't work? You were so sad. You were going to stop, give everything up. You- You spent a whole week just depressed. More than I've ever seen. You didn't even open the mail. And then- And then Jazz convinced you to go out, to cheer yourselves up, but while you were out-" He shuddered, his core vibrating in protest. He didn't want to relive this.

"How- Danny?"

Danny nodded convulsively, squeezing his eyes shut. "Sam and Tucker wanted to see the inside of the portal, but I told them to wait while I checked it out."

"What do you mean, while you checked it out?" asked Maddie, horrified. "You told us you were outside the portal when it shocked you!"

"We lied. Sam and Tucker and I. We lied. I went in. There was an 'on' switch on the inside."

"Oh, no," whispered Jack.

"It- It hurt a lot. I- I died."

"What- Danny, what do you mean you died?" Maddie took hold of one of Danny's wrists. "You have a pulse. You breathe. You eat. You're alive, Danny."

"Yes," said Danny. "But I'm also dead. They call it being liminal. Or liminality." He opened his eyes. He phased his wrist out of his mother's grasp. "It's just me in here. It's always been me. The whole time."

"But Jazz's picture!" said Jack.

"You know some ghosts can duplicate themselves," said Danny. "I'm not very good at it, but..." Danny shrugged.

"No," said Maddie. "No. That can't be-" She cut herself off with a gesture. "Prove it," she demanded. "If you- If you and Danny- If you and Phantom- You look different. It's more than just- Phantom is ectoplasmic. He bleeds ectoplasm. He has an ectosignature."

"You know your weapons and trackers always locked onto me," said Danny. "Even the Ghost Gabber worked on me. I-" He stopped, and pulled off his shirt. "Look," he said, pointing at the florescent discoloration of his scars. "This is ectoplasm, right?"

Maddie laughed once, suddenly, sharply, without humor. Danny flinched back. "So, what? You're trying to tell me that Danny has been, what, running around in a wig? Stashing a black and white HAZMAT suit away, like- like-" Maddie sobbed, then almost screamed, "Do you expect us to believe that?! With the way you- Phantom shows up everywhere?!"

Danny jerked back, hands going up to his chest. He could feel his core fluttering under his fingers. He was still sick, but the energized ectoplasm was working on him. Had it done enough? "It isn't like that," he said, finally. "It's more like, I can switch, from one side to the other. Right now, I'm mostly human. But I can switch. I can- I can become a ghost. Become Phantom."

"Show us," said Jack.

"Okay," said Danny, taking a few steps back. "Okay. I'll try. Just- Please. Please."

Danny squeezed his eyes shut and mentally tapped on his core. It hurt, ached beyond pain. Beyond words. But it was a different kind of pain than what had stopped him from changing before, and he wanted this. He wanted to know, finally.

(He could feel the shadows waiting, watching, ready to intervene if something went wrong.)

He tapped his core again, this time calling up his rings.

The world went gray.

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When Danny came back to himself, he was half-curled on the floor. He felt weak, but light. Sounds came back next, rising above the blood rushing through his veins, and the slow drumbeat of his heart. An argument?

Danny blinked, chasing away the gray fuzz that had obscured his vision. Echo was standing half over him, a sword made of ice in his right hand, a fistful of fire in his left, hurling invective at Danny's parents, who stood some distance away, shocked.

It was hard for Danny to pull himself up, but Fractal was there helping him. He grabbed a handful of Echo's sweater, and tugged on it. His hand was gloved, now, and clearly glowing. "Stoppit," said Danny, voice slurred. "Don't fight."

Echo moaned. Typical ghost distress signal. "But-"

"Izokay," said Danny, overbalancing into Echo. The shadow bit his lip, but the sword and fire vanished. Danny nodded. "It's okay," he repeated, making an effort to speak clearly. He looked up at his parents. "Do you hate me?" he asked, voice breaking.

"Oh, Danny, no," said Maddie, sinking to her knees. "We could never- This is our fault isn't it? We did this."

"No," protested Danny.

At the same time, Echo hissed, "Yes."

"These shadows-" started Maddie.

"But the records!" said Jack. "The Nightingale journals, you- Phantom-" He cut off, mouth still moving, no sound coming out.

"Time's weird in here," said Danny. "In th' Zone. If y'know what you're doin' you can go anywhere, anywhen. Clockwork's been teaching my how to keep time." Danny brought his hand up to his face. "Don' feel s'good."

"Danny?" said Maddie, frightened.

Danny blinked. Maddie was suddenly right next to him. When had she managed that? Did she learn how to teleport, too? And why was Danny laying down again?

"Mom?" he asked, confused. His eyelids fluttered. "What..?"

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It was fairly obvious that the shadow- Echo- didn't want Maddie or Jack anywhere near Danny. Still, when Danny's eyes rolled back the second time, he grudgingly let them approach.

"What's wrong?" demanded Maddie.

"He's over-strained himself," said the second shadow, Fractal, as the first cradled Danny's head in his lap, and made gentle noises. "You shouldn't have made him change."

Maddie took one of Danny's hands, and searched for a pulse in his wrist. She found it but- "It's so slow," she said.

"No, it isn't," said Echo. He was testing Danny's pulse, too, but at the neck

"It is slow compared to a normal human heart rate," said Fractal, "but Danny isn't a normal human." The shadow leaned over Danny, a ball of light floating over his shoulder. He carefully prised back Danny's eyelids. "It isn't a concussion. At least, not a bad one."

"Of course it isn't a concussion," snapped Echo. "He hasn't had a chance to hit his head on anything."

"It feels like a concussion, though, doesn't it?" murmured Fractal. His hands ghosted down to Danny's chest. "Oh," he said softly. "That's why."

"That's not good," said Echo.

"What?" demanded Maddie.

"Mom?" groaned Danny, struggling to open his eyes. "What..?"

"Oh, good. Danny, you need to change back," said Fractal.

"Change..?"

"Yes. You need to be human right now."

"Why?"

"Your core is damaged. It can't run your body right now."

Danny frowned, seeming to focus on something. Why hadn't Maddie noticed before now, that Danny and Phantom were practically identical, except in coloration? How had she not seen that Phantom's suit was so much like her own? Why hadn't she seen through Danny's increasingly transparent lies? It didn't matter that Danny was trying to keep this a secret. Maddie was his mother. She should have known.

"Not workin,'" mumbled Danny plaintively.

"What does that mean?" asked Jack.

Echo hissed. "You're probably overcharged," said Fractal. "The things we do to ourselves," he muttered under his breath."

"Fr'm the..." Danny trailed off, hand making a lazy figure eight through the air.

"Yes."

"Hm," said Danny. "Wanna try something, gimme a sec."

He closed his eyes.