Hello readers! Glad you're still with me. The reviews I've been getting are super flattering.

I've noticed that a lot of you are really looking forward to the trial part of the fic. I'm actually having some trouble thinking of all the different opinions that I'll need to make it interesting. I mean, some of them, like Vlad's, Danny's, and Jack and Maddie's, are obvious, but considering all the ghosts likely to be involved, and the buildup I've given this, I feel like I need more. Do any of you guys have opinions about what should happen to Jack and Maddie? Or Danny? Or opinions that you'd like to see, but don't necessarily hold yourself? Outcomes you'd like to see argued for? Thank you for your help.

In other news: Tuesday is the first day of school, so I most likely won't be posting this Tuesday. Look for me on Friday the 7th!

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Chapter 64: Small Steps

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"We need to talk," said Jazz. She had just watched Danny crawl, emotionally and physically exhausted, into a hammock and cocoon himself in butterfly-patterned blankets. Echo had yet to reappear, but Jazz had the feeling that the shadow was just waiting for Jazz and Maddie (but mostly Maddie) to leave the room. "Because," she said, giving her mother a direct look, "I can tell that you aren't going to go to sleep."

Maddie ran her hand through her hair, grimacing when it ran into tangles. "What do you want me to do, Jazz? We're lost in the Ghost Zone, at the mercy of ghosts."

Jazz's mouth thinned into a line. She grabbed her mother by her sleeve, and walked her to a small, out-of-the-way alcove. "This is Danny's lair," said Jazz. "We aren't at anyone's mercy except his, and he has a lot of it."

"Jasmine-"

"You aren't being fair to him, Mom. He didn't ask for this."

"I know, Jazz," said Maddie, exasperated. "Try to see this from my perspective! Try to look at it logically. This isn't natural." She looked away, agitated. "Now you'll say that I sound like a bigot."

"You do," said Jazz.

Maddie shook her head. "Jazz, this isn't about race, or identity, this is like trying to defend radiation poisoning."

"No it isn't. Danny is perfectly healthy- or he was, before this disaster."

"According to whom? Ghosts?"

Jazz was about to riposte with 'And what's wrong with that?' when she registered what the comment revealed. "Danny didn't tell you about Vlad?"

"What about Vlad?" asked Maddie, taken aback.

"Argh, of course he didn't. They have that truce thing. I guess that means that I have to. God help me."

"Jazz, what are you talking about?"

Jazz took a deep breath. "Danny told you how he-" Jazz broke off and licked her lips. "About how he died, right?" she continued bluntly.

"Jasmine, your brother isn't dead."

"I had the same reaction at first," said Jazz, "but that's how he thinks of it, and-" Jazz was about to say, 'and your stupid Mortifier thing worked on him,' but accusations like that wouldn't be productive. She was getting worked up. This was bad form. She had to stay calm. "You could at least pretend to accept it," she said instead. "Look, either way, this happened because Danny was in the portal when it turned on. Who else has been injured by activating portals?"

"Oh my god," breathed Maddie. "This... Vlad has it, too?"

"Yes," said Jazz, shortly. "He and Danny have an agreement. It keeps their fights from getting out of hand." Jazz laughed. "You'd be surprised how many ghost rivalries are hemmed in with rules and agreements like that, formalized until they're practically games... Anyway, Danny has a thing with promises. He couldn't tell you about Vlad. Don't be mad at him."

"I'm not," said Maddie, hollowly.

"So, Vlad has been half-ghost for over twenty years. He's studied this. If it was hurting Danny, he would have said something."

"... It explains so much," said Maddie. "How Vlad changed. Why he acts so strangely..." She looked up at Jazz. "Who is he, Jazz? Who is he as a ghost?"

"His ghost name is Plasmius," said Jazz, cautiously.

"My god," said Maddie. She sat down, heavily, covering her mouth with one hand. "Jazz. Earlier, last night, Danny told us, your father and I, about, about the end of the world."

Jazz blinked. That was unexpected. "Oh."

"He said that Vlad helped him but- That Plasmius did something to Phantom. Ate him."

"Oh. Well. Yes. You see, if Fenton and Phantom can be temporarily separated, then so can Masters and Plasmius. I'm not sure why Vlad didn't die, after being separated. Danny said he didn't ask. He said he didn't think to, but I don't think he wanted to know. Either that, or he didn't want to catch Vlad in a lie. I don't know. It hardly matters." Jazz paused. "He probably told you to ask me about what happened over here, during the time he missed while he was in the future. It wasn't much. Dan disguised himself as Danny, came back, trapped us all when I realized that he wasn't Danny, and then we listened to him gloat until Danny got back. I'd give you more details, but..." she sighed. "You should really go to sleep."

"Vlad... Vlad survived..."

"No. Nope. Stop right there. You aren't going down this path. You aren't putting Danny through that nonsense."

"But-"

"No. Try to see this from Danny's perspective, Mom," said Jazz. "I've been thinking about how to put this into strictly human terms, but all of got is a surrealist nightmare of an analogy. But hey, if life gives you a surrealist nightmare, lemonade makes you. Jeez, Danny's sense of humor is rubbing off on me..." Jazz rubbed her eyes. She was tired herself. "Okay, so imagine you're driving a car full of all your classmates, and your teacher, and your parents. No one knows that you're driving, but it's something you have to do. You're just getting people from point A to point B. That's all you want to do. But then your parents stab you with a needle full of stuff, which, you know, you really shouldn't do to someone who's driving, because they think that you're a kidnapper. You have a bad reaction to it, and crash the car. Luckily, you crash the car into your own house, which your parents don't know about, because your grandfather gave it to you, and they inexplicably hate your grandfather. Everyone is fine, but the crash took out the phone lines, so, because you feel guilty, even though the crash wasn't your fault, you give everyone breakfast and patch them up. But, in the meantime, the police have also decided that you're a kidnapper, so they send in, I don't know, Officer Felix Brutality- I can't believe I made that pun- and a swat team into your house, but they don't bother to identify themselves, so you don't know if they really are the police, and you wouldn't trust Officer Brutality anyway, because he tries to beat you up on a regular basis. While that's happening, your parents have been harassing the live-in staff and are giving you grief because you've been talking to your grandfather, which is really beside the point, and kind of a minor issue." Jazz stopped to breathe. "What I'm trying to say, is that, from Danny's perspective, this is home invasion on steroids. He's not feeling well to begin with, then he feels threatened by the GIW, anxious for our safety, confused, because Harmony is clearly as much a of surprise to him as it is to us, guilty, because he always blames himself when something bad happens, scared, stressed, because of how many different things are happening at once, and that's only scratching the surface, and you aren't helping any of that by picking fights with the shadows and acting like Phantom is some kind of disease."

Maddie looked like she was about to argue, but clearly thought better of it. "What do you mean, threatened?"

"Wouldn't you feel threatened, if a guy with a gun walked into our house?" said Jazz, shrugging. "That's compounded by this being more than just a house. This is his lair. An extension of his mind." Jazz brushed back her hair. "That's my understanding, anyway. I think that he's only okay with us being here, because he likes us."

"What about the other people, from Harmony? He doesn't even know them."

"I don't know anything about them," said Jazz, "but I'm going to bet that they were asking for help when they came in. He probably likes them, too, just not consciously. I'm not trying to say that there aren't ghostly components to this, and to how Danny's acting, but at least look at the human parts of this. Just, try to start your understanding from there."

"The 'ghostly components' are the problem," said Maddie. "What are they, Jazz? Do you know?"

Jazz licked her lips. "I think that I should talk to Danny about that, first."

"You aren't his psychiatrist," said Maddie.

"Actually, I kind of am," said Jazz. "I shouldn't have even told you this much."

"It's fine, Jazz," said Echo, calmly. Jazz turned, to stare at the shadow who was leaning against the wall. "It's fine if you tell her. I'm curious myself."

Jazz raised her eyebrows. Echo was acting much more mellow than he had been. "You're okay with this? And so is Danny? Really?"

Echo shrugged. "Danny doesn't want to have any more secrets from them. As for me, well, the sooner they show their true colors, the better."

"What do you mean 'true colors?'" snapped Maddie.

"What do you think I mean?" asked Echo. "Sooner or later, you're going to turn against him."

"I will never-"

"Don't make promises you don't intend to keep, human. You made those weapons, and you used them. You don't do that kind of thing to people you any empathy for. It's your fault that we're in this situation. I won't let you hurt him like that again. So, Jazz, tell us about the ghostly components to his behavior."

"You realize that you aren't helping, either."

Echo's eyes narrowed. "I didn't ask to be made, much less in that way."

"I'm not saying you did annnnnd now I'm contributing to the problem." Jazz pinched the bridge of her nose. "Aarrgh. Fine. Mom, you know that ghosts are territorial and possessive. Echo, you, well, you don't quite exemplify that, I know that there are ghosts way more possessive than you, but you're more possessive than Danny."

"I know," said Echo, amused.

"Right," said Jazz. "Of course you do. But, even ghosts that are, relatively speaking, laid back, still have these tendencies, and they don't always manifest in the way that they would in humans. Like the wisps, they always share territory with other types of ghosts, and their own family groups, their clans, tend to be large, but they have difficulty sharing with other clans, and they tend to be protective of the ghosts who are 'in charge' of the territory. You've noticed how the wisps are around Danny? They want him to like them, so he doesn't kick them out, and they want him to stay healthy, so that they don't loose their territory to his death."

"Way to be cynical, Jazz," commented Echo.

"I am, of course, going at this from an entirely selfish, 'logical,' perspective," said Jazz. "Now, with Danny, he's less possessive of places, and more possessive of people. But, in light of his personality, his obsession, and probably a hundred other things that I'm not thinking of, that isn't manifesting as him wanting to lock us away or control us. He wants us to be safe and happy, but you're running into what he perceives as a very dangerous situation. But trying to stop you, trying to trap you, physically or otherwise, goes against his beliefs, and would make you very unhappy. So he can't do that. It's probably driving him crazy, how illogical you're being from his perspective. That's one thing."

"That's just one thing?" said Maddie.

Jazz shrugged. "Psychology is complicated," she said. "I don't know what to tell you. Now, for why he thinks that we're running into danger, and I agree with him on that, by the way, beyond just that they have guns, and they're uninvited, I suspect that the lair is putting some effort into kicking them out, right?"

"Yeah," said Echo. "We don't want them here."

"Okay, so, for ghosts, being scary is kind of a threat display. A warning signal. Like a rattlesnakes' rattle, or bright colors on a poisonous frog."

"It's not that simple," objected Echo.

"I know, I'm just using analogies. Anyway, the lair, which, I'm going to reiterate here, is Danny's private space, Danny's territory, is trying to be scary, trying to warn off the GIW, but they're ignoring it. That's a threat. That's picking a fight. Normally, ghosts feel safe inside their lairs," Jazz was grasping at straws here, drawing conclusions from very little evidence; she didn't know very much about lairs, "but he's already been successfully attacked once in here. So he doesn't. More than that, he's going to be worried about the threat in terms of the people already here. Something that's a threat to him, is also a threat to us, if only because if he gets hurt, then he can't protect us." Jazz paused. "Yes, before you ask, that's his thought process, especially when he's depressed. Which he probably is, right now, considering how little trust you're showing him."

"Jazz, he's been lying to us for years."

"He knows that," said Jazz. "But he's been protecting Amity Park for the same amount of time. He's saved my life, and yours, and Dad's, and probably everyone in town's at some point or another. I think that it earns him, and, yes, the shadows, a modicum of trust. But, honestly," she said, her eyes narrowing a bit, "I think that you're just covering up your fear that he doesn't trust you anymore. That Echo here is actually representative of what's going on his his head right now. You're in denial. And Echo has borderline personality disorder, or something."

"I feel like I should be offended by that," said Echo.

"If it helps," said Jazz, "Danny once told me that everyone he's close to has tried to kill or seriously injure him, at one point or another, or has convincingly pretended to do so. That includes me, Sam, Tucker, Clockwork, Danielle, Dora, Frostbite... The list is frighteningly long, and explanations typically include mind control and unavoidable circumstances, but the point is, that you're in good company there, and that Danny is ridiculously forgiving. The only person that he's going to blame for this is himself." Jazz stopped. Thought over what she had said. "I'm sorry," she said, finally, "I shouldn't have told you how you felt. That's something that you're specifically not supposed to do in psychology. I should- I just- Danny has enough to deal with. If you two can get along, or at least not fight, I think that will help. So, please, try. Try to get through tomorrow without acting like the other one is some kind of monster. Make some kind of deal, I don't care, just stop. Please. For Danny's sake."

"Alright," said Echo. "If you think that that will be best for him, then I will do it, but," and now he turned his attention to Maddie. "let me make myself clear. No matter what he does, I will not forgive you. I do not trust you. If you think that you can escape me by leaving the lair, if you think that once you are out, you can betray him, that you can hurt him again, then you're wrong. If you harm him, then mark me, I will know, I will stand at the door and scream your crimes to every soul that passes, and then they will come for you." He blinked once, slowly. "Do you understand?"

"Then let me make myself clear," said Maddie, at long last pulling herself to her feet. "If my research shows that you've been lying, that you are an infection, that you're the cause of Danny's pain, then I will not hesitate to eradicate you, no matter what the consequences to myself."

Jazz felt like pulling out her hair. What, in the name of all the Infinite Realms, was wrong with her family? Other than the obvious.

Then Echo smiled, bitterly. "At least you're willing to do the research now, rather than just blindly following prejudice." He glanced at Jazz, and tilted his head, haughtily. "It's a start I suppose."

The shadow chose that moment to disappear.