"Just stop running!" Jazz growled, underlining the statement with a shot of golden ectoplasm. The ghost they were chasing, deer-like but with dangerously curled antlers, bounded over the blast. It didn't slow.

"We just need to pin it!" Danny focused on the cold of his core, freezing the asphalt in front of the ghost.

It unfurled a pair of feathered wings and leapt over the ice altogether. How had he missed those before?

"Urgh!" Jazz put on a bit more speed, and Danny matched her. They'd been chasing this one ghost for forever. It wasn't particularly dangerous, but that didn't mean it could run free in Amity!

Something hit him in the back of the head, and hard. He swore, immediately coming to a dead stop, and grabbed the offending object.

Silver and green, sleek, the shape undeniably like a boomerang. Well, not just a boomerang. The Booo-merang.

But the Fentons hadn't invented it in this dimension, had they? So then where had this one come from…?

"Danny!"

A pair of arms—warm and heavy—wrapped around his neck, dragging him down to the street the rest of the way. He spluttered as another pair joined the first, the Booo-merang clattering on the floor.

"Sam?" he asked, blinking at his friends. "Tucker?"

"Who else?" Tucker asked, laughing. There were tears in his eyes. "We're not alone, anyway."

Danny barely got a moment to consider that before a third pair of arms joined the embrace. A head pressed down on his shoulder, long hair itchy in his neck. "Hey little brother. We missed you."

"I… I missed you too." He twisted his head just far enough to see Jazz. His Jazz. His core hummed loud in his chest, so powerful he was sure everyone else could feel it rumbling. His eyes felt wet. "I missed all of you so much. I was—" His breath caught in his throat, but he pushed through. "I was so afraid that I would never see you guys again."

"Like we'd ever give up on you," Sam muttered into his collarbone. "Come on, Fenton, you know better than that."

"It's just… It's been so long." He sniffled, surreptitiously. "I was just… scared. That you couldn't find me."

"Sooner or later, we would've found you." Jazz ruffled his hair, and Danny couldn't even be annoyed about it. Not really. "We're your family, Danny. We wouldn't give up on you like that."

He knew that. He'd known that all along. But not giving up on him and actually being able to find him were two very different things. "How'd you guys get here, anyway?" he asked, caught somewhere between laughter and tears. "I didn't think you'd be able to come here."

The sound of a throat clearing. Danny looked up, and saw… white fur, an arm of ice and bones, the cool glow of the ice ghosts that had trained him. In the unfrozen arm, the ghost held a rather familiar map.

"Frostbite," he greeted, and now he fell over the edge into laughter, even if his tears didn't quite stop. "Of course. That makes sense!"

He flapped his mostly-free arm, and when Frostbite hesitated, gestured even more impatiently. "This wouldn't have been possible without you, Frostbite. Come on!"

"Well, if you insist, Great One." The ghost landed, soundlessly, and shuffled closer. When he seemed uncertain how to approach the group hug, Sam and Tucker reached out and dragged him the rest of the way.

Frostbite was big enough to wrap his arms around all four of them, one arm soft and the other hard, but neither of them as freezing cold as one might've expected.

"Thank you," Danny said, and he wasn't sure which of them he was talking to. All of them, maybe. "I don't know what I would've done without all of you."

"You wouldn't have had to," Jazz assured him, quietly. "We would've found you, no matter what."

His core rumbled louder. Danny was sure they could all hear it, could all feel it, now. "I was—" Scared. "I was worried," he settled for instead. "That you'd never find me. It's been a while."

"Yeah." Tucker clapped him on the back without unwrapping his arms. "Your parents were worried, dude."

Oh god, his parents. How was he going to explain this to them?

"Danny?" Jazz asked, except— it didn't come from next to him.

He jerked, remembering— Whoops. Looked up, right at Specter's frowning golden eyes.

"Jazz." He grinned, sheepishly, ignoring the way everyone's arms tightened around him. "Uh. My family dropped by?"

"I noticed. But maybe you guys should continue this conversation somewhere out of everyone's sight?" She shook the Thermos in her hand. "I got the ghost, by the way, no thanks to you."

"I helped tire it out, that counts." He patted Frostbite's furry arm. "Can you carry Sam and Tucker for me?"

The ghost nodded, uncurling his arms from around them. "It would be my pleasure. Lady Sam, Sir Tucker?"

"I don't know how I feel about those titles," Tucker grumbled, lightheartedly, as he pulled away from the hug pile as well. "I think I finally understand your dislike of Sir Phantom."

"Same." Sam stepped away as well, wrapping her hand around Frostbite's offered arm instead.

Jazz sighed, stepping up next to him. "I can't believe I've been replaced by a little half-ghost version of myself."

"If it helps, she's taught me about the pains of being the oldest sibling." He wrapped an arm around her waist, lifting her up carefully. "Jazz—Specter—lead the way?"

"Just a rooftop?" She nodded, rising up higher, and pointed at a nearby building. "We'll be out of sight right up there."

All of them flew up, Specter in the lead, with Frostbite and Danny right behind her. The moment they touched down, Sam and Tucker let go of Frostbite, and Danny put Jazz down again.

"So… they found you?" Specter guessed, eyes wandering over the gathered crowd.

"They found me," Danny confirmed, grinning once again. "Jazz, you already know Sam and Tucker, and this is my Jazz." He gestured at them as he spoke. "And that is Frostbite, he helped them get here."

He turned to face the rest of them, waving at the little Jazz he'd been staying with. "And this is Jazz Specter, this universe's half-ghost. I've been helping her figure stuff out."

"He's been helping me train and stuff," she affirmed, nodding. "Figure out all the half-ghost stuff."

"Must've been a busy two weeks." Tucker nodded at Jazz—Specter. "You look well-trained, anyhow. How long did you have your powers before you met Danny?"

"Uh…" She blinked at him, clearly caught off-guard. Trying to process the same thing that Danny was. "Little over a month, close to two months, I guess. He's been training me for the past four months."

"Time between the worlds is uneven," Frostbite realized.

"It's barely been two weeks for us," Sam tagged on, eyes wide. "But you've been here for four months, Danny?"

"Close to it, I think." He shrugged. "The timelines don't match exactly, I think. I feel like I had my powers for more than a year before I fought Pariah, right?"

Specter hummed thoughtfully. "But the events and the order is the same, right? That's how you were helping me change stuff."

"Well, not everything played out the same, obviously." He reached over to ruffle her purple hair. "And it'll be a lot better for you from here on out, without Vlad on your heels."

"You should just do the same to your Vlad." She nudged him. "He can't possibly be that much worse than mine."

"Yeah, I never told you about Danielle, did I?" He shook his head. "Trust me, Jazz, I know what I'm about."

"Like how you never told your parents about being half-ghost?" She shot him an unimpressed stare.

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I make bad life decisions. This, I will definitely not miss."

"I can't believe you've been here for four months," his own Jazz commented. "No wonder that you were worried we wouldn't get to you."

"At least you weren't alone." Tucker gestured over at Specter by Danny's side. "And it sounds like you've been able to rely on your parents, too."

"Not… for that long," Jazz admitted, slowly. "I only told them recently. But Danny—mine—he knew for a while longer, so he and his own Sam and Tucker have been helping too. You have taken up their offers of a bed and food, right?"

Danny made a face.

"Danny."

Thankfully, he was saved from having to explain himself by the roar of engines.

Valerie slowed to hover over the roof, her posture stiff. "Phantom, Specter… assorted other people."

"Hey Val," he said, before turning to his friends and sister. "Frostbite, this is Valerie, ghost hunter. The rest of you already know her, obviously."

She grumbled, her hoverboard disengaging. "Phantom, you can't just throw out my name like that."

"Why not? These guys are from my universe, not yours." He shrugged. "And they already knew, anyway. Besides Frostbite, but that's just because he didn't know you at all."

"Who is he, anyway?" Specter squinted at the massive ghost that lingered behind Danny's human friends. "You didn't bring him to the fight with Pariah."

"Frostbite is a friend who I didn't meet until way later." Danny floated closer to his friends, gesturing at the ghost. "He's the leader of a group of yeti-like ghosts. They like me because I fought Pariah Dark."

"Like you?" Tucker repeated with a snort. "Danny, buddy, they practically worship you."

"It is true," Frostbite chimed in, like a traitor. "The Great One is much beloved among my people for defeating the Ghost King."

Specter shot him a look he couldn't quite decipher, eyes narrowed and mouth thin. "Is that so?"

"That explains the strong ecto-signature that suddenly appeared on my radars, at least." Valerie shook her head, disengaging her weaponry entirely. "I was worried that you guys had gotten ambushed somehow, but I guess that that's not the case."

"An ambush of love, maybe." His Jazz reached out to ruffle his hair. "Right, Danny?"

"Ugh." He turned himself intangible so Jazz could no longer touch him. "Anyway, to get back to the original point. I'm gonna go home, so you guys will have to take up the slack again. Jack and Maddie will help, of course, but you two are the only ones who can chase ghosts down in the sky."

"We'll take care of it," Valerie assured him, voice sturdy and determined. "Don't worry about it, Danny."

"Do all these guys know your secret?" Sam asked, suddenly leaning on his shoulder. "Did you fall out of the habit of secret-keeping, Danny?"

He huffed, rolling his eyes. "No. Well, a bunch of them know, yeah, but it's a long story."

Tucker suddenly appeared on his other shoulder. "Are you sure you can trust Tiny to keep the city safe?"

"Hey!" Valerie snapped back. "Are you really underestimating me because I'm two years younger than you?"

"She has a point, Tuck." Sam flicked him in the nose. "Valerie could destroy you, age difference or not." She paused, narrowing her eyes at Valerie. "Even if she is smaller than I remember."

"Alright, alright, that's enough." Danny shoved both of his friends off of his shoulders. "Yes, I'm sure that Valerie, Jazz, and the Fentons can take care of Amity. The three of us managed alright, too, and Jazz has even less enemies to worry about."

"Yeah, have some trust in us!" Specter puffed herself up, her glow brightening in response. "You guys could take care of it when you were fourteen, so why can't we?"

"It's not about whether you can, it's about whether you should," Jazz said, crossing her arms. "But I suppose there isn't much we can do about it. Do we need to drop by FentonWorks as well?"

Danny hummed. "I have kind of been living there, these last two weeks or so, so… Yeah, I think that that's a good idea."

"Well, have fun with all that." Valerie summoned her hoverboard again, floating up a little. "I'll finish up patrol for you guys, then."

"Thanks, Val." Jazz smiled at her. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Mh. Bye, Phantom, Phantom's friends and sister." Valerie waved, a short motion similar to a salute. "Nice meeting you folks, I guess."

"Bye, Valerie." He watched her go, then sighed. "Alright, FentonWorks. How are we getting there?"

"I can carry your friends, Great One," Frostbite offered. "As we did just now."

He made a face. "But that's not exactly comfortable, with them having off of your arms."

"I can carry someone, too," Specter protested. "I'm strong enough in my ghost form!"

"I can go with Specter," Jazz offered, stepping forward. "Danny can take Sam, and Frostbite can carry Tucker."

Specter nodded, closing the rest of the distance between her and Danny's own Jazz. "I just need to… uh, figure out how to lift you."

"Here, just like this." Danny gestured at Sam, who rolled her eyes but let him pick her up. "See, Jazz?"

She nodded, replicating it with Jazz. It wasn't quite as easy—Specter wasn't nearly as strong as him, and Jazz a little too tall for her—but it worked well enough. "Got it. We ready?"

Danny turned to look at Frostbite, who had easily picked up Tucker. "Yeah, looks like it. I'll go up front. We'll have to stay high so no one sees us, though."

Everyone made various noises of assent, the two half-ghosts and one full ghost taking off, their human passengers clinging on. They didn't speak much during the flight to FentonWorks, high enough that the clouds prevented people from seeing them—if they looked up at all.

Before long they arrived, all flickering invisible for the dive downwards. In the living room, Phantom became visible, soon followed by Specter and finally Frostbite.

"Um." Human Danny blinked at the sudden crowd. "What's going on here?"

"My entourage has arrived." Danny dropped Sam, carefully. "Aka my friends and sister have arrived from my own universe to come bring me home."

"Oh, that's good news!" Maddie appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, suddenly. "We haven't been having much luck with finding ways to make portals into another dimension. How did you kids manage it?"

"We didn't." Tucker patted Frostbite on the arm, the ghost looking a little unsure. "Frostbite has a ghost artifact which can track down portals in the Ghost Zone to wherever you want. We used the Booo-merang to track down Danny, and then asked the artifact to bring us wherever that was."

Danny felt his core stutter. "Oh, shit. The Booo-merang— Did someone remember to grab it?"

"Yeah." Tucker held up the Booo-merang, which he… apparently had had all the time? Man, all these emotions made it easy to miss stuff, huh? "Come on, man, do you really think that I would abandon a piece of technology just like that?"

Maddie stepped out of the doorway to enter the room properly, Jack right behind her. "Well, I'm glad you managed it, at least. I assume you've come to say goodbye, Phantom?"

"Yeah, I… yeah." He shrugged, a little uneasy. What were you supposed to say to alternate universe versions of your parents who you would never see again? "Um. Thanks for letting me stay here, and stuff."

"Of course, kiddo." Jack managed to make his way over to Danny, wrapping a heavy arm around him. "We've said it before, but you're our son, even if you're not from this universe. Of course we'd take care of you."

"And your own parents must miss you terribly." Maddie joined the two of them, ruffling Danny's hair. "It has been so long… I can't imagine it happening to us."

"Apparently it's barely been two weeks for them." Danny looked at Sam and Tucker, who nodded in confirmation. "But, yeah. I missed them a lot too… No offense to you guys, of course!"

Maddie hummed, stepping away again—and taking Jack with her. "Well, no matter how unfortunate the circumstances… I'm glad that you were here to help Jazz, at least. Thank you for that."

"Yeah, of course." He shrugged, trying for casual and probably missing by a mile. "Family, right?"

"You'd better tell your own parents when you get back, though." Maddie's expression grew stern. "I don't know how you planned on explaining your two week absence, but I want you to tell them. Okay, Danny?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I… Yeah." He swallowed, his eyes feeling watery all of a sudden. "I learned my lesson. I should've told them ages ago."

"Good." Jack looked around, his eyes settling on Danny's own Jazz—she was standing near this universe's Danny, for some reason. "Jazz, sweetie, can you make sure that Danno keeps his promise?"

"Of course. I've been hoping for him to tell our parents, but no pressure, right? Speaking of promises, however…" She nudged other Danny. "I promise you that you'd better treat your little sister right, or I'll come for you, you hear me?"

The other Danny rolled his eyes, grumbling wordlessly.

"Don't underestimate her, dude," Tucker piped up, quirking an eyebrow. "She's been doing martial arts training for years. Seasoned ghost hunter, right there."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." He huffed, shaking his head. "Just trying to get over the fact that my little sister gets to be older than me."

"Welcome to my life!" Danny laughed, quickly wiping a hand past his eyes to make sure no tears had formed. "I've been living the reverse for the past four months, remember?"

"Can't imagine." Human Danny shook his head, then stepped past Jazz to offer his hand to Danny. "Either way, thank you for taking care of my little sister. And, y'know. For the wake-up call, back then."

"And for not kicking your ass in the process?" Danny grinned, taking the offered hand. "Of course, dude, you would've done the same for me."

Human Danny let go, sticking a thumb up at Frostbite. "Maybe, but I don't have allies like that guy hanging around."

"Who is he, anyway?" Maddie cocked her head, staring at the massive ghost. "I don't remember you mentioning him before?"

"Yes, because I talk about my ghostly allies so much." Danny rolled his eyes. "That's Frostbite, he's the leader of the Far Frozen."

"And he had an artifact that allowed you to travel here, right?" Jack narrowed his eyes, crossed his arms. "How does that work? Is it limited use, or…"

"It can be used as much as desired." Frostbite unrolled the Infimap to show it off. "You simply ask it to bring you somewhere, and it will, tracking down natural portals if it must."

"So could he use that more often?" Specter asked, leaning in closer to look at the map. "To come visit?"

Frostbite blinked at her, seemingly surprised. "Yes… I suppose he could. But it is a valuable artifact… I'm not too sure about letting him borrow it so often."

"It doesn't have to be often," Specter insisted, turning big golden eyes on Frostbite. "Please?"

"Come on, Frostbite, they've been taking care of him for four months." Sam crossed her arms, staring down the ghost. "Let them have this."

"I'll be careful," Danny promised. "I learned my lesson from last time."

Frostbite's mouth thinned, the ghost's eyes wandering over to Tucker.

"We already lost him to the Zone once. I would honestly feel safer if he had a magical map which can always bring him home." Tucker shrugged, ignoring Danny's glare.

"And he's always welcome here," Jack pitched in. "He has done so much for us, and we've barely had a chance to pay him back for it."

"It would be pretty cruel to separate him from Jazz after they've gotten so close," the other Danny added on, a flat expression on his face. "And now that we know it exists, we might just go looking for it in this dimension, and I can't imagine that our Frostbite would like that very much."

Maddie nodded along. "At the very least, let us have a look at the Infimap. Maybe we can put together an invention that works similarly, and then you won't have to worry about it anymore."

"Well… I suppose that I cannot argue with such sound logic." Frostbite shook his head, but he didn't sound all that disgruntled. "But, Great One, you must promise you will be careful with it."

"Yeah, of course." He took the map when Frostbite handed it to him, then promptly handed it back. "Which is why I want you to hold onto it. I'll drop by the Far Frozen when I want to visit this place."

"Very well." Frostbite grinned down at him, then looked around the room. "Were these all the goodbyes you had to make?"

"One last thing…" Specter tackled Danny in a hug, dragging him close enough to Jack and Maddie for them to hug him as well.

The three released him, other Danny nodding at him as well.

"I think that that was all." Danny nodded at Frostbite, floating closer to put his hand on the map. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz grabbed it as well. "Thank you all so much. Goodbye!"

"Bye!" they all shouted back, as Frostbite told the map to take them back home.

The world around them disappeared into a blur of motion, alternating blue and green skies, until they suddenly stood in snow to their ankles.

"Here we are." Frostbite shook their hands off, rolling up the map. "Great One, you are welcome to visit whenever you want, yes?"

"Yeah, I know." Danny patted Frostbite's arm. "Thanks. For everything."

"It was my pleasure." Frostbite reached out, almost hesitantly, then ruffled Danny's hair. "You four had better return home."

Danny looked around them, spotting the Specter Speeder resting nearby. "Yeah, I guess so. Let's go, guys."

They entered the Speeder, Sam settling in behind the wheel. "Oh my god, please tell me these instruments are wrong."

"Nope, looks like we spent the better part of the evening on this." Tucker groaned as he dropped down in the co-pilot seat. "Hope you guys are ready to crash into bed when we get home."

"I sure am." Danny sat down in one of the extra seats, Jazz taking the one next to him. "I know I promised to tell my parents, but that wait until the morning, right?"

"Right." Jazz sighed, a soft smile on her face. "I'm proud of you, little brother."

"Don't rub it in," he grumbled back, without heat. "I just spent four months as the older sibling, remember?"

"Oh, I know." She grinned down at him.

It was strange, but in the past four months, he'd almost forgotten how much taller than him she was.

They spent the flight back through the Ghost Zone mostly silent, after that. Occasional small talk, but nothing major.

Finally, the Speeder touched down in the lab, Jazz stumbling out first. She stopped so abruptly that Danny walked into her back, peering around her.

"Uh, hey," he said, sheepishly, to the stunned faces of his parents. "So, um. It's a very long story, and I promise I'll tell you guys everything, but in the morning, okay? I really need some sleep."

He stepped past Jazz, allowing Sam and Tucker to climb out of the Speeder as well. Danny paused, turning back to his parents. "And prepare yourselves, because it's complicated."

And so it all ends. The stopping point (mid season 2) might seem a little random, but I wanted to find a good point for Danny to leave where he hadn't just... redone all of canon, but where he still got to make a significant impact. Cutting it off after Reign Storm was a good moment, I thought!
I also had to find a good balance between time spent in this universe, and how much time passed in Danny's own universe. Personally I usually go with "1 season = 1 school year", which is why Danny is 16 after season 3, but that would've amounted to him being present in Jazz' universe for 1.5 year and that was just... too much. So! 4 months, compared to 2 weeks in his own universe. These numbers might seem random, and that's because they are. :'D

Anyway, in the end Phantom gets to go home, having learned a little from the experience. Specter has learned a lot, and will now have to work really hard to make up for Phantom's absence. And their human siblings get to have their (one-sided) sibling rivalry, too!

This was about it for me, writing-wise! I'm gonna take a little fanfic break, at least for DP stuff, and work on other projects. If you want to keep up with me beyond AO3, you can find me on Tumblr as darknymfa (main) or darks-ink (writing blog), as well as a plethora of other vaguely-related accounts that are linked on those two.