Thank you once again to all those who reviewed the last chapter: Shimegami-chan (wow, I've been reading your work for years), Catadmin (your thoughtful responses are appreciated), JDPhoenix, look for the girl with the broken smile, GlowingGreenEyes, The Adversary (despite what you think you sound very intelligent), emotigone crazy (your enthusiasm is catching), Mystitat (You make me think), Nobody Famous (luff, infiite luff), GhostBoy814, Karen Kano, wierdIT, and Funkatron.

And now, the big reveal.

Confessions

"Now, start from the beginning," Sam suggested. "If you're not just a ghost and not just a human, what are you?"

Danny sighed, his gaze darting away. "Well … I'm a hybrid. Spectra called me a 'halfa' once, so I guess that's the ghost term for it."

"Okay … that doesn't explain anything," Sam complained.

"I know," Danny said wryly. "It's hard to explain. I guess I should just show you." He closed his eyes, and a ring of light jetted out from his waist, separating and traveling up and down his body. When the rings dissipated, Sam was sitting next to Phantom.

"Woah," Sam whispered. "That's kind of cool. Really weird, but kind of cool."

"If you say so," Phantom answered, rolling his eyes.

"So are you a different person? Like a split personality?" Sam asked.

"No. At least, I don't think so," Phantom answered awkwardly. "Jazz is always psychoanalyzing me, though, watching for disassociate disorders or multiple personalities or something." The rings reappeared at his waist, and he turned back into Danny. "She's really into psychology."

"So what was all that about not remembering your name, 'Phantom'?" Sam asked, arching an eyebrow.

Danny grimaced. "What was I going to do, blurt 'Danny Fenton' at you? Geez. I never really thought about a name for when I look like a ghost. It's still me.

"Anyway, er … Jazz thinks I just turn part of my body into energy when I become ghostly. But most of the time I still have most of my powers—"

"And those are?" Sam asked.

Danny made a face at her. "You've seen them! Flying, turning intangible, turning invisible …" he ticked them off on his fingers. "I've been trying to split myself when I'm not in my ghost form, but it doesn't work. But I can still shoot ecto-blasts –"

"Ecto-blasts?"

"You know, those green bolts Walker can shoot from his hands. I can do that too." Danny scratched his head. "Uh, there's other stuff … oh yeah, making shields out of ectoplasm, but I can barely get that to work in my ghost form, never mind my human one."

Sam listened to him talk about all this casually, feeling flabbergasted. Danny had that much power at his fingertips, all the time? He wasn't boasting about it; he sounded like he was discussing the weather. "How long have you been like this?" Sam asked. "Were you born like this?"

Danny shrugged slightly. "Adopted, remember? I don't know … it's possible, I guess. I could already go through stuff when I was eight, and I was the best hider playing hide and seek." He got a fond smile on his face at the memory. "But I couldn't, er, turn into a ghost. That started after the accident."

"The accident?"

"Uh, remember how my parents said they finally managed to make a 'stable' Ghost Portal? They weren't stable before that. They kind of, uh, self-destructed." Danny gulped. "I got caught in one when I was ten. So did my sister, actually, but she was in the hospital for six days with ectoplasm poisoning. I just … got white hair and green eyes."

Sam wasn't used this sort of heart-to-heart talk. What did you say to something like that? "What happened after that?" she asked softly, trying to be gentle.

"Well, it wasn't exactly like I could hide it from my parents," Danny admitted. "I … I hadn't told them about being able to walk through walls and stuff before. I mean, that's a ghost thing, and my parents hated ghosts! Mom was always talking about dissecting them. But when the accident happened, there was definitely no hiding it, especially since Jazz was so sick and I wasn't sick at all." He laughed half-heartedly. "They hugged me and told me they loved me anyway, then did tests for months."

"That seems kind of cruel," Sam said, frowning.

"What, the testing? No, it was fine. Kind of fun, actually. Dad invented all these weird video games for me to 'play' with that made me use my new powers. I, uh, got really good with them, really fast."

"With the games?" Sam asked, perplexed.

"No, my powers," Danny corrected. "It was like before, but a hundred times more … I mean, I could fly. Sam, you have no idea how cool that is." He grinned.

"I think I have an idea," Sam answered dryly. "You did fly me all over town the other day, you know." He's always been like this? Or at least for as long as he can remember … that's a little spooky, I'll admit. "So you guys came to Amity four years later because …?"

"Well, to fight Pariah Dark." Danny propped his chin on his hand, and his elbow on his knee. "My parents finally built a stable Ghost Portal so they could get into the Ghost Zone, like I told you before … and we came here. They're trying to built a reverse Portal now, in the basement – one that'll let people out of the Ghost Zone and back into the real world. If it works, everyone will be able to escape Amity after my parents get the Ghost Shield over the whole town and kick out Walker's forces."

"But why did you come?" Sam asked. "You said to me that one night that this town was yours. Were you just trying to sound like a ghost or something?"

Danny looked uncomfortable. "Uh … yeah … what you said."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Danny, you're a terrible liar," she accused with a smirk.

Danny dropped his face into his hand. "Yeah … I know." He took a deep breath and let it out. "Jazz is having a fit about it already, but my parents don't know. And if you breathe a word about what I say next in front of them, I'll …"

"Danny, I've hardly seen your parents," Sam pointed out. "I'm not going to go divulging your life secrets to them."

Danny gave her a suspicious look. "You're going to ditch me."

Sam gave an exasperated sigh. "No, I'm not."

"Yes you are! You already think it's weird I've been like this all my life!"

Sam drew back slightly. "How did you know that?"

Danny groaned aloud. "I was right?"

"You were guessing?"

They had an awkward standoff, Danny eying Sam from the corner of his eye and Sam glaring back. Danny broke the silence, squeezing his eyes shut and throwing up his hands. "Just promise me that even if you ditch me, you'll keep this a secret."

"Who would I tell?" Sam asked. Danny glared at her, and she put up her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I swear I won't say a word."

Danny narrowed his eyes at her for a moment longer, then got up from the bed, pacing several steps forward. "I … I was born here in Amity. In a hospital. And I grew up here until I was four years old." He turned to look at Sam. "And when I turned into a ghost for the first time … I felt like I had to come here." He took a deep breath and let it out. "And when I flew over it for the first time, I felt like it belonged to me. Like it's always belonged to me." He scowled, and Sam could have sworn his eyes glittered green. "I don't like other ghosts being in Amity. And I'll do what it takes to kick them back out!"

Sam couldn't help but notice how Danny said "other ghosts", as if he was counting himself among their number. She swallowed, leaning back. "Okay, Danny? You were right, that's a little weird."

Danny seemed to come back to himself when she spoke, and he recoiled slightly, visibly deflating. "I know. That's why I haven't told my parents." He pressed his hands to his face. "My sister is right! It's ghostly obsession. I'm not supposed to have that! I'm not actually a ghost! I'm just … partially one."

That's a little bit of a split personality, there, Sam thought. He doesn't want 'other' ghosts in Amity, but he's not a ghost? "Look, that's spooky, but it's no more spooky than you having ghost powers," Sam lied. "I'm not going to ditch you over that."

Danny had no right to look so relieved to hear that. If he ever tried the lost puppy dog look, he'd be irresistible, Sam grumbled mentally. "And okay, I can understand wanting to keep this whole thing a big secret; not everyone is going to accept this. But having ghost powers on our side could be a huge asset. That's the whole point to getting the ghosts to ally with us, right?"

"They are a huge asset," Danny answered slowly, edging back towards the bed. "And yeah, I think working with the ghosts is a good idea. Although you do know that means we have to promise them some of the stuff they want … so we don't want to work with all of them." He grimaced. "Some, like Spectra, just feed on humans like parasites – we don't exactly want her on our side."

"Was she captured by Walker? Did she get free?" Sam asked. She paused. "Wait. You went to ghost jail! How did you get free?"

Danny sat heavily next to Sam, making the bed bounce a bit. "It's kind of a long story," he confessed. "Long story short, I got most of the ghosts to agree to attempt a breakout at the same time as me. Enemy of my enemy stuff. I'd rather have most of the ghosts out of ghost jail anyway, and it's a start to getting them to work with us. Me," he corrected. "They'll listen to me now. At least, they'll sort of listen to me."

"Not us?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Er, they don't know I'm half human. Except for Spectra, she, uh, kind of sucked it out of me."

"She's the ghost that gets her power from feeding on misery, right?" Sam asked, trying to remember what she'd seen on Tucker's computer.

Danny nodded. "We had a run-in years ago. It … wasn't cool." He didn't look like he wanted to talk about it.

"So you've fought these ghosts before." Sam remembered what Technus had said about the 'ghost boy' who caused 'no end of trouble'.

"Most of them, yeah."

"Where?" Sam asked. "I mean, you just came to Amity. Again, I guess."

"In Wisconsin." Danny rubbed the back of his head. "Mom and Dad have this theory that even the unstable ghost portals leave behind these weak spots in our dimension or something, like a rip or a slit things like ghosts can get through." He brought his palms within an inch of each other in demonstration. "There was this destroyed portal in a castle in Wisconsin, and people said it was haunted, so my parents went there to go check it out. I met a lot of ghosts there … Lunch Lady, the Box Ghost, Skulker … Spectra … Technus a couple of times. Mom made a Fenton Bazooka – it's really cool! It sucks ghosts straight into the Ghost Zone. So when Mom couldn't use that, I used the Fenton Thermos – uh, the thing I had last night – to suck the ghosts up until Mom could shoot them with the Bazooka and send them back."

"Uh … when was this, exactly?" Sam asked.

"We were in Wisconsin until two weeks ago," Danny answered. He offered a thin smile. "My parents used the weak spot to build a stable Ghost Portal, right inside the castle. That's how we got in."

"When did you go to Wisconsin, I mean?"

"Uh, about four years ago. Why?"

Sam made a face. "The ghosts you fought were all jailed around the same time Amity got sucked into the Ghost Zone," she explained. "But they all had jailbreaks in the last four years … and all of them got put back in jail almost immediately afterwards. I just think it's weird. You said you had the accident about four years ago, right?"

Danny nodded. "Two weeks before we moved," he said slowly. "… okay, yeah, uh. Weird coincidence."

"Danny, if you've taught me anything, it's that nothing is a coincidence," Sam sighed. "What do you wanna bet someone sent those ghosts to you?"

"But we went to them," Danny protested.

"Your parents are ghost hunters! How could they resist the news of a weak point that could possibly get them into the Ghost Zone and to Pariah Dark? If they didn't find that weak spot, would they ever have managed to build a working Portal?" Sam asked.

Danny looked thoughtful. "I don't know. I never really thought about it," he admitted.

"Someone sent those ghosts, knowing your parents would go to them, and bring you along," Sam said firmly. Then she paused. "Wow, that really sounds paranoid, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, a bit," Danny answered. "No one knew about my being half-ghost, so why would they send ghosts as soon as I got my, er … power boost?"

Sam sighed. "I don't know. The pieces don't add up, though. The coincidence is just too weird," Sam pointed out.

"I'll agree with you there," Danny said. He hesitated. "You're really smart."

"You think so?" Sam couldn't help a slight blush. "Thanks."

Danny smiled, blushing slightly as well.

"Sammykins? Daniel? Are you hungry, honey?" called Sam's mother.

Sam sighed heavily. "Want some … brunch, Danny?" she asked, checking her watch and finding it was nearly eleven.

"Sure!" Danny sounded surprisingly enthused about food. "That'd be great. Thanks."

Sam gave him a knowing look. "You didn't eat breakfast, did you."

Danny wouldn't meet her eyes. "I kind of had really bad butterflies."

"Right." Sam refrained from laughing by sheer willpower. "I'll get our food sent up."

"You can do that?"

"Always," Sam smirked. She pressed her intercom. "Frank? Ask Mother to send lunch right up. Tell her Danny's eating too."

"You could just tell her yourself, you know," Frank answered. "But as I know how you feel about speaking to your mother unnecessarily, I'll do it."

"Thanks, Frank, you're the best," Sam said, laying the smarm on thick.

"Miss Manson, I live for your praise," Frank said dryly. Sam snickered.

"You have a butler?" Danny's eyes were wide.

"Yeah, kind of," Sam grinned. "He's cool."

"Weird! Cool, though," Danny concurred. He clasped his hands together, resting his elbows on his knees.

Sam saw the bandages peeking out from under his shirt. "What happened to your arm?" she asked.

"Oh." Danny looked down. "Uh …" With a resigned sigh, he pushed his sleeve up to reveal the bandaging underneath, laced heavily over his wrist. "Nothing important. It'll heal up by tomorrow."

"Did you slit your wrist?" Sam asked. Although if the answer is yes, I'm seriously going to kill him.

"No! No, of course not!" Danny looked offended by the idea. "It's just some burns! See?" He jerked up his pants leg to show more bandages around his ankles. "Would I slit my ankles, too?"

"Only if you never wanted to walk again," Sam snorted. "How did you get burned?"

Danny glared at her.

"Okay, you don't have to tell me." Sam rolled her eyes. "Geez. Just curious."

"Well, some things you don't wanna know," Danny answered flatly, tugging his sleeve back up his wrist.

Sam sobered immediately, looking at Danny and feeling like she was really seeing him for the first time. He was tired, his shoulders slumped and dark rings under his eyes He'd led a jailbreak with a bunch of his sometime-enemies, gotten hurt doing it, and he spent his nights getting chased around by idiot Walker goons. Some life, Sam found herself thinking. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "So, now that I'm in on this big secret of yours … how can I help?"

Danny looked up at her in surprise. "Er, you don't have to do anything," he said, waving his hands in front of him.

"No one can make me do anything," Sam answered. "I'm asking because I want to help."

Danny licked his lips. "Well … for starters, just keep this a secret." He hesitated. "But as far as help goes … you said Plasmius shows up at those parties you have to go to."

"Yeah … and by the way, what was that, overshadowing me?"

"For the fourth time, I'm sorry!" Danny cried.

"Okay, okay, I'll let it die," Sam sighed. "Anyway, Plasmius?"

"Skulker's free again. He's a bounty hunter, and, uh, he'll do anything for a price," Danny said slowly. "Or for recreation. Like try to hang my pelt on the end of his bed."

"That's gross." Sam made a face.

"Just a little," Danny grumbled. "Anyway, Skulker's worked for Plasmius in the past, or so he told me. Apparently he's a little peeved his former employer left him to rot in jail. So … just … I dunno. Keep an eye out for information on Plasmius. I'm going looking for Skulker later – if he doesn't find me first."

"Have you ever met Plasmius before?" Sam wondered.

Danny wouldn't meet her eyes. "Once. He pretty much decimated me," Danny admitted. "For a while I was afraid he'd found out I wasn't really just … you know … a ghost. But I guess if he knew I'd already be really dead. Or jailed someplace I couldn't get out of, or something. I know I would have been jumped by Walker as Danny Fenton, at lea—" he broke off, his gaze shooting to the window. "Oh no …"

Sam halfway stood up off her bed. "What is it?"

Danny was already going to the window, pressing his face against the panes. "Walker." And indeed, the ghost was flying right for her room.

"Darn it!" Sam made her hands into fists. "That stupid--!"

"He's not stupid, that's the problem," Danny complained fiercely. "He's coming for you. And he knows it'll—" His gaze went to Sam. "—uh, get you in a lot of trouble!"

"He's coming right here," Sam gasped. "Danny—"

But Danny was gone.

Sam looked around her room in automatic confusion before her wall said, "I'm right here. Don't worry, Sam."

Sam made an exasperated sound – and then Walker was flying into her room, knocking over her desk in his haste to turn tangible again. "All right, Samantha," he said, looming over her, "I think you know why I'm here."

Sam startled back instinctively. Was he bigger than he'd been last time? "Walker! What a … pleasant … surprise," she said, her mouth twitching.

"I've been lenient with you until now, but I know you know something about the ghost kid that you're not telling us," Walker snarled. "Where is he? Tell me now!"

"Right next to you!"

Sam took a step back as an ectoplasmic blast originating out of thin air slammed into Walker's side, sending the rule-happy ghost smashing into the drywall. Danny reappeared, now in his ghost form, blowing imaginary smoke off his finger. "That was for yesterday!"

"D—Phantom—" Sam started.

"Grab my hand!" Danny ordered. Sam obeyed without thinking. Walker started to extract himself from the wall, and Danny thrust his hand out, throwing another blast of energy at Walker and smashing him deeper into the wall. Then he tightened his grip on Sam's hand and flew out the window, yanking Sam after him.

Sam was startled to find herself as light as a feather, floating alongside Danny as if she could fly herself, his hand firmly enveloping hers. "Wha …?"

"Cool, it totally worked!" Danny grinned, pulling Sam after him. "I can make you fly too!"

"Is this really the time to experiment?" Sam demanded, looking behind them. Walker was hot on their heels, and so were his goons. "Phantom!"

"Don't worry," Danny instructed again, suddenly changing direction and jerking Sam along.

"No one flaunts my rules!" Walker roared. He shot blasts of ecto-energy at Danny and Sam; Danny veered out of the way expertly, pulling Sam closer to himself.

"Hold on tight," he instructed, pulling Sam under himself and wrapping his arms around her. "Don't let go--!"

He shot forward like a bullet, making their speed before seem lazy. Sam gasped, her breath stolen from her, the world blurring around her – and suddenly, they were in an abandoned building, kicking up dust as Danny settled them on the floor.

Sam coughed. "Wha—what happened--?"

"I did a short-range teleport," Danny answered, stepping away from Sam and looking up through the broken windows at the sky. "Walker won't be fooled by that for long. So … just to be safe …" he grit his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut, and two more Phantoms appeared on either side of him. "I'll just have to split up. Er, no pun intended," all three Phantoms said together. Then the two copies both went intangible, one shooting out the side of the room and the other dropping through the floor.

Danny sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, starting to pant. "And now, we wait for five minutes before I take you to my place."

Sam stared at him. "Did you … have this planned?" she asked slowly.

Danny colored slightly. "I talked to my Mom about how to get you away from Walker for a while," he admitted. "At least until he's too busy capturing rogue ghosts to deal with you. After all, it is my fault he's stalking you," he admitted.

"That's … oddly sweet of you," Sam said awkwardly. "In a totally weird way, of course."

Danny snorted, a smile flickering on his face as he took her hand. "Come on," he suggested. "We should get over to my place before Walker … oh, geez, please no …"

"Ghost child!"

The ghost that suddenly materialized in front of Danny and Sam was hugely muscled with small legs, with green eyes and flaming green hair. He had enough weapons equipped on him to destroy a small army. "You're Skulker," Sam exclaimed.

"Correct, human child." The ghost focused on Sam for all of a moment before turning back to Danny. "And while I am thankful for the aid last night, I have decided that I cannot leave Amity and return to my lair until I have hung your pelt at the foot of my bed, ghost child!"

"For the record?" Danny said in a low, hurt voice, "I hate my life. I really, really do."

"I hate it more," Sam sighed.

Tbc

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