... I may have been too excited to write this chapter. It took me two days. Two. I would have waited until next month, but honestly, I am already a few hundred words into the next one and thought I would post it anyway. Still hoping for an April update and keeping my monthly streak going.

Thank you again to all the reviewers who have dropped a line, put me in favs/follows and have taken the time to read this story. I am constantly floored by the supportive comments/reviews/pms I've received and hope you are still enjoying it! If you are - leave a review! I am God-awful at replying but know that they make my day and remind me that someone does want to read what goes on in my brain.

Onward into the Chapter!

-MATW

"Go!" Dani Phantom yelled, charging an ecto-blast at the ghost in front of her. Plasmius mimicked her, the pink energy engulfing his hands. The two ghosts lunged at each other, Danielle going on defence but still managing to attack Plasmius every so often.

Danny felt himself being pulled through the parlour as he watched helplessly as his cousin went toe to toe with Vlad. "Let me go!" he yelled, trying to get free of Sam's grip.

"Not a chance," Sam replied, pulling him faster. They all made it through the door before Jack and Maddie shut it forcefully. As they barricaded the door as a way to escape, Danny managed to get free from his friend. Wasting no time, he ducked under Tucker's attempt to restrain him and tried to get back towards to the door.

"Oh no you don't," Jack said forcefully, putting himself between the door and his son. "Danny, we need to keep moving."

"Dad, let me go!" Danny demanded, trying to get past his father. "She needs my help!" He was shaking from head to toe and looked slightly pale.

Jack frowned thoughtfully, before sighing. "Danny," Jack said softly, putting his hands on his son's shoulders. "I know you want to help, but you're still injured kiddo and she just gave us a way to escape. Danielle did this to protect us."

"You don't understand!" Danny countered. "We can't just leave her in there! She's in more danger the more she uses her powers! I can't…" Danny trailed off, looking distraught. Jack sighed again, glancing quickly at his wife's worried face before back to the boy in front of him. Neither one of them fully understood what they just witnessed, but they had other priorities to attend to. There was no time to question, no time to reflect- just act. Blasts, thuds and a few screams echoed behind them. Danny looked toward the parlour door in concern.

"We won't leave her behind," Jack assured him. Danny turned to his father. "We'll come back for her as soon as we can, but right now, we need to keep moving. Okay?"

Danny swallowed thickly, frowning, before nodding. "Okay," he said quietly, guilt laced in the one word. Jack let out a breath of relief. Taking that as acceptance, he signalled to Maddie to keep going.

"Follow me," Maddie said, leading the way across the large lobby. Sam grabbed Danny's arm, making him follow her and Tucker, with Jack bringing up the rear.

Danny felt numb; his anger, frustration and guilt clouded his thoughts as he followed his mother to safety. This wasn't Danielle's fight – it was his and he couldn't do anything to help her.

"Are you okay?" Tucker asked him. Both of his friends were looking at him closely, trying to gage what he was thinking or feeling in the moment.

Danny shook his head. "This is my fault," he said as they made it out of the mansion. Fresh air greeted Danny's face for the first time in hours. The clear night sky held no chill, just a pleasant warm breeze with the stars shining down on them. It was almost cruel how perfect the night was after what they faced.

"Kids, let's keep moving!" Maddie ordered, running ahead of them. Jack nudged them forward as the trio of teens started to run across the grounds.

Sam looked at him quizzically. "What's your fault?" she asked him quickly, keeping her voice low to avoid scrutiny from the Fentons.

"All of this!" Danny said angrily, gesturing to the air around them. "We wouldn't be in this mess if I didn't drain myself with the Ecto-Storm!"

Sam made a frustrated noise. "Danny, we wouldn't be in this mess if Vlad wasn't such a crazy creep! This isn't your fault!"

"Oh yeah? Well-"

"Danny, look!" Tucker called, cutting the boy off.

Danny looked up and saw something small spinning in their direction from above. Danny looked at it confused, before breaking out in a smile. He skidded to a stop, causing both Sam and Tucker to do the same.

"What are you doing!?" Jack exclaimed, trying to keep them moving. Maddie ran back toward them, concerned.

Danny ignored them, finally seeing the booo-merang in close range. He jumped up into the air and grabbed it, smiling down at the small appliance before showing his parents. "I never thought I'd be happy to see this thing again," he said, in relief. A car horn honked at them and the group looked up to see the spectre speeder zooming towards them, Jazz waving frantically in the driver's seat.

"Jazz," Maddie exhaled, relief washing over her like a ton of bricks.

"Come on!" Danny called out, running over to the edge of Vlad's long driveway, the Fenton parents and Sam and Tucker following.

Jazz parked the speeder hastily as she watched her family run towards her. Grabbing a few things from back, Jazz grabbed a Fenton Thermos, one of Tucker's back up PDA's, the remote for the speeder and the Fenton Bazooka before running out to meet them.

"Mom! Dad! Danny!" She called out worriedly. Danny was the first to reach her.

"Man, am I glad to see you!" he exclaimed in relief, giving his sister a large hug.

Releasing the hug, Jazz looked her brother over. "You okay?"

Danny shrugged. "More or less," he said, noncommittally.

Jazz sighed. "This is the second time today I came to your rescue little brother," she chided, playfully messing up his hair. "Don't make a habit of it." Danny made a face at her as their parents ran up behind them.

"Jazz!" their father yelled, embracing her in a large hug. Maddie joined in as Sam and Tucker came up beside them. Seeing the beret wearing teen, Jazz broke away and threw the PDA at the boy.

Tucker caught it eagerly. "Yes! Jazz you're the best!" he exclaimed, hugging the electronic device earnestly. Sam rolled her eyes at his reaction.

"So what's the plan," Jazz asked, turning towards her brother before realizing she might give something away. She awkwardly shuffled herself to talk directly to her parents. "I mean, why are we here of all places?" she asked.

"Long story," Danny, Sam and Tucker said drily.

Jazz sighed. "Of course it is," she replied sarcastically. "Can you give me the basics?"

"Plasmius kidnapped us, tried to force Danny to give him a mid-morph DNA sample to create a perfect half ghost clone, Phantom saved us, and now their unstable clone is distracting Plasmius while we try to escape," Tucker explained quickly.

Jazz blinked. "What?!" she said, blinking again trying to understand. She glanced at her parents nervously. "Do you-"

"Know that Danny hunts ghosts?" Jack supplied.

Jazz let out a soft "Oh," and gave her brother a sympathetic but annoyed look. "Danny…"

"I know," he agreed softly, shaking his head at the unasked question. "Right now, we need to focus on getting Danielle out of there." He frowned, looking at his parents. "I know you didn't have time to process her going ghost, but she isn't evil!"

Maddie and Jack looked at each other, confused. "Going ghost?" Jack asked.

Danny took a deep breath, trying to hide his frustration of the situation and the fact that he let part of the truth slip. They didn't have time for this. "We need to save her."

"I agree with you there," Maddie told him. "But you kids wait here. Your father and I will go back. It's too dangerous."

All four teens looked at each other apprehensively. Maddie watched in fascination as they appeared to have a silent conversation and decide on a verdict in a matter of seconds.

"I'm coming with you," Danny said confidently. He stood a little straighter and seemed to show a bit of strength that was familiar to Maddie but couldn't place. "I know how Plasmius fights; it's me he wants!"

"Exactly!" Maddie argued. "Danny, this isn't a game! We're not going to just bring you into a ghost fight injured – especially when that ghost has been torturing you for hours!"

"Torturing?!" Jazz exclaimed.

Danny opened his mouth to retort to both his mother and sister, when the ground started to shake underneath them. He gasped as a large mass of ecto-energy shot up though the ground, separating the spectre speeder with the humans beside it. The energy continued upward, encasing them in a dome around the mansion.

"Oh no," Danny said. His parents looked around quickly before he saw his father running towards the speeder. "Dad wait!" he called out in warning, but it was too late. Jack hit the shield and with a shout was rebounded backwards, hitting the ground hard.

"Jack! Are you alright!?" Maddie ran to him, concerned, as he started to stand.

"Yeah," Jack replied, shaking his head slightly. "Remind me not to do that again."

Jazz frowned, looking at the blue dome around them. "Human-ghost shield?" she asked.

"Probably," Danny agreed, also frowning. The shield covered a large area and had no obvious weak spots. He inwardly cursed at the new threat.

"Well," Jazz continued, pulling out a small remote. "At least we have this." She pressed the button, making the speeder light up and the top of it open up, revealing a large antenna. Green energy shot up, encasing the speeder and the area where they stood in a ghost shield. Plasmius' shield still cut off their access to the spectre speeder, but they were somewhat safe.

"We're trapped!" Sam exclaimed. Danny looked around – Sam was right. The space they had between Plasmius' shield and the ghost shield wasn't more than 20 feet across. He closed his eyes in thought. There was no way to get to the speeder without getting through the shield. Danielle was still fighting Vlad – he hoped- and there were only a small number of possible solutions left that didn't involve destroying his entire family to do it left.

"Now what?" Tucker asked frantically.

Danny opened his eyes. Focus he told himself. Think Fenton. How do we get out of this one?

Suddenly, there was an explosion from the mansion, sending huge billows of smoke coming out of the broken roof. The Fentons, Sam and Tucker looked back alarmed, as a small figure flew directly at them.

It was Danielle; her jumpsuit was torn in multiple places, showing large burns and some gashes that were bleeding ectoplasm. Her feet were almost completely gone; oozing puddles of ectoplasm as she flew towards them. Her face was full of intense concentration as she lost altitude slowly, trying to keep herself upright. When she was a few feet away, she dropped out of the air and transformed back into her human self, rolling a few times on the ground.

"Danielle!" Danny yelled out to her. She stood up slowly, wincing, before she limped the rest of the way into the ghost shield and fell to the ground. Danny was at her side in an instant. "Hey, stay with me," he said, slightly panicked. He knelt beside her, helping her sit up as he looked her over. While she seemed to stop melting readily, her skin was too warm and almost goo like. She closed her eyes in concentration, making noises of exertion as she tried control her abilities. Eventually, she managed to make herself stable again, but the amount of effort it took made her breathing heavy and fatigue start to set in. Danny frowned at her, concerned.

"I'm okay," she said weakly. "Better now that I'm not using any of my powers." She opened her eyes to look at Danny apologetically. "I'm sorry - I thought I could buy you more time."

"Hey, you got us this far didn't you?" Danny said soothingly. "If it wasn't for you, I don't know how we would have made it."

"Probably more of your half-brained ideas," Danielle joked, smiling. She winced as she moved slightly in Danny's grip, the smile falling from her lips. "Plasmius," she said seriously. "He's coming."

Danny stiffened as he felt his friends and sister come closer. For the second time today, he felt conflicted of what the right thing to do was. Was having this secret identity really worth risking their lives? He could stop this – or at least give them a fairer fight. Plasmius was his arch-enemy. The only thing stopping him was his own fear. He was afraid of change; afraid of acceptance. Danny felt his powers surge through him, taking away all sense of injury or exhaustion from the night so far.

"Danny?" Sam asked tentatively. It wasn't until she put her hand on his shoulder that he realized he was shaking. "You okay?"

He didn't answer and continued to be lost in his thoughts. It didn't matter how his parents found out his secret– there would never be a good way to tell them, never a good time. Their reactions could be anything, but if he has a chance to save them, shouldn't he take that risk? If that battle with Freakshow showed him anything, his parents were willing to try to accept him. Maybe it would be the same. Shouldn't he at least consider that this was a possibility?

"If Plasmius is coming, then we have to be ready," Maddie said, cutting through Danny's thoughts and taking the Fenton Bazooka from Jazz. "Jack and I will be the front line; you all stay here and attack when you have an opening. Our best shot is working together as one to defeat him. The shield will protect you from the most of Plasmius' attacks."

"No."

Everyone turned their head to Danny, who still had his back against them holding Danielle. His voice was authoritative but soft, cutting through Maddie's voice and silencing the group behind him. "No," he repeated firmly. "That's not our best shot." He gently signalled Sam to take the injured half-ghost from him. Once Danielle was transferred, Danny stood, face serious and back straight. He still didn't turn around. There was a change in the air around them; a protective yet commanding presence that engulfed Danny's whole figure. He took a deep breath in and out before turning around to his friends and family. He had made his decision.

"Tuck," Danny started. "Use whatever hacking skills you can to get that shield down. I doubt Plasmius will have the remote on him after last time he tried this and I doubt I'll be strong enough to get us out."

Tucker looked at him for a second before he smiled in understanding. "You got it," he said reassuringly.

"Sam," Danny continued, "Stay with Danielle. If I need cover, well, I'm sure you'll shoot Plasmius readily. Be ready to help Tucker and Jazz if they need it."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "I'm back-up?"

Danny grimaced slightly at the Goth's tone. "You're able to keep a level head in what will probably be a colossal disaster. Trust me; I'm going to need all the help I can get down here."

"What about me?" Danielle asked, attempting to stand up.

"You've done so much," Danny said to the girl, frowning with worry. "Try not to melt while I'm gone?"

Danielle grimaced. "I'll do my best," she said, gritting her teeth slightly as she tried to regain more of herself. Sam looked down at her before locking eyes with Danny, his unasked question being conveyed through his expression.

Sam nodded and smiled. "We'll be here," she said softly.

Danny smiled at his friends appreciatively before turning to his sister. "Jazz…"

"I've got them," she replied gently, a sad smile on her face. "We're going to be here to help in any way we can. You're not alone Danny."

Danny returned her smile with one of his own. They were his rock in all this. "I know," he agreed. He turned to his friends and sister. "There isn't a do over like there was last time – this is going to change everything. I'm glad you're here."

"You ready?" Tucker asked him apprehensively.

"No," Danny answered truthfully, disbelief of this actually happening all over his face. He finally turned to his parents, who stood frozen a few feet away. He saw the look of confusion and fear on Maddie's face, trying to understand what their son was talking about. Jack's face betrayed no emotion, choosing to observe and listen. He watched Danny searchingly, trying to see if there was anything at all that would show what Danny had planned. Danny sighed. "I'm never going to be. But if we want to get out of here, I need to."

Danny walked over to his parents, his legs suddenly feeling very heavy, and stood in front of his Mother. "Mom…" he started.

"Danny, no," she cut him off. She knelt in front of him, putting her hands on his shoulders. Danny could feel the worry and fear coming from her in waves. "It's too dangerous."

"I'm going to distract him," Danny told her, his voice was confident and left no room for argument. "Plasmius messed with me a bit, so I don't know how long I'll last but I'm not going to let him hurt you guys. Not anymore."

"You can't! Sweetie, you're injured – you were barely able to stand a little while ago," Maddie argued fiercely. She shook her head slightly as she looked into his determined eyes. "I know you've been doing this on your own for so long now but we can handle this. Let us help you!"

Danny smiled sadly, shaking his head. "I heal fast," he said simply. "And I know you guys are able to handle this, but so can I. I stand a better chance of being out there than you do right now. Even if you did come out there with me, I wouldn't be able to do what I do because I'd be worried about you. I need to do this with you guys safe in here." He looked at her optimistically. "Promise me, whatever happens out there, you'll stay here."

"Danny-"

"Okay."

Both Maddie and Danny turned to Jack in shock, who finally spoke. His voice was soft but his expression was the same as it was before they started talking – curious yet serious.

"Jack!?" Maddie cried out incredulously. She stood up suddenly as her husband slowly walked towards them. "You can't be serious!"

Jack came over and put one of his hands on his wife's shoulder. "Mads," he said softly, "Look at him – really look at him."

Maddie gave Jack a quizzical look but turned back to their son. Danny stood at his full height, confident and looking almost powerful. There were no reservations in his eyes, which almost burned with the same confidence as he projected. Maddie noticed too that some of the bruises seemed to have vanished, not looking tired or exhausted as she knew he was earlier. His face was serious but almost authoritative, almost like he was about to command an army. This wasn't the Danny she knew, and yet it was him - all of him. She had wanted to know what he was hiding; somehow she felt like she was finally about to. She sighed softly, but nodded, not trusting her own voice.

Jack turned to Danny, concerned for his safety but understanding in what he was planning to do. "You sure about this, son?" he asked gently.

Danny smiled and nodded. "I can do this," he reassured.

Jack smiled back, bittersweet. "Alright," he relented, Maddie still speechless at his side. "How can we help?"

"Stay here," he repeated firmly. "Follow Jazz and Sam's lead; they'll know when to intervene." Suddenly nervous and self-conscious, Danny's arm moved to the back of his head and looked away from his parents slightly. "I promised that I would tell you everything after all of this was over – what I'm about to do… it'll change everything. I plan to keep that promise… if you'll be willing to listen."

Both Fenton parents smiled down at their teenage son. "Of course sweetie," Maddie said quickly in an attempt to reassure him.

Danny frowned, shaking his head. His parents frowned in confusion. "You don't understand," he said quietly. Small traces of doubt crept through him. "I have been lying to you both for months. Even today, I've been lying to you about everything. This is more complicated than you think it is. Everything is about to change."

"Danny," his father said, getting the boy's attention. "We love you. We always will."

Danny swallowed a lump of emotion in his throat. "I love you too," he said sadly. Both parents frowned at his tone. "I-"

Another large explosion shot through the night sky from the mansion, pink energy sending debris across the grounds. Vlad Plasmius appeared halfway between the mansion and the shield of humans, grinning ear to ear.

"At last!" he yelled triumphantly, floating in the air menacingly. He glared down at the humans trapped between his shield and their own. "There's nowhere else to run!"

Danny closed his eyes, letting out a breath. Turning back to his parents, his apprehension and sadness still shining through the protective persona he was trying to project. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "Whatever happens, know that I'm still me." He turned to the half-ghost in the air and glared at him, feeling his ghost powers come to the surface and resolve coming back to him. "I hope you can trust me."

Before either Fenton had a chance to react, Danny walked out of the ghost shield. His face held no bravado or anger, just a mask of reservation as he watched the ghost above him with a calculating expression.

"What's this?" Vlad said in mock surprise. He floated down a little lower to Danny, still holding the glare at the younger half-ghost. "Are you actually going to give yourself up Daniel? Finally realize that you can't win?"

Danny continued to say nothing, worried that his resolve would break if he said anything in response. It had been hours of taunts and manipulations that had brought him here. His anger was drowned out only by the adrenaline and anxiety of what he was about to do. Danny stopped a few feet away from the ghost shield.

"You got this son!" Jack yelled out to him. "Show him what a Fenton can do!"

Danny looked back towards the sympathetic and accepting faces of his loved ones and closed his eyes. He couldn't look at them anymore. I'm sorry he thought to them again. I'm sorry you're finding out like this.

"Nothing to say for yourself boy?" Vlad's smug voice cut through his thoughts like a knife. Danny moved his face toward Vlad, opening his eyes in an icy glare. Plasmius was chuckling, thinking he had won. Danny steeled himself, finally feeling the time approaching. His heart started to pound in his chest, nervous about what happened if he failed. His messy black hair only slightly shielded his face, a moment of internal conflict crossing it, before saying the two words that would change his life forever.

"Goin' Ghost."