Dinner that night had been somewhat awkward and stilted, but that was mostly Jim's fault. Both of the Fenton children had more than enough practice acting like everything was normal and nothing had changed thanks to Vlad stopping by for meals unannounced. Danny had also figured out how to talk over his parents' heads if he needed to for the exact same reason, but that relied on shared history and understanding that they weren't saying what anyone else heard. He didn't even bother trying to hold a conversation about what happened in the forest with Jim. Not until they were alone as Danny prepared for bed and Jim prepared to pretend to go to bed.

Even then Danny didn't think there was really anything worth talking about. Jim on the other hand…

"You didn't say anything."

Danny looked up and frowned at Jim as the older boy moved around the room in his nightly routine. "No. We didn't."

"Why?"

Danny shook his head slightly, laughing under his breath. "I'm not about to say anything about things that aren't my business. I can strongly advise and recommend that you tell your mom, but neither of us are ever going to tell her for you unless you explicitly tell us to."

Jim stared at him, hands frozen in place as he processed the new information. He had expected… something, although now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure why. No one else that found out had told anyone. Not even Eli and Steve. Eli in particular had been a bit of a surprise to find out how good he was at keeping the secret. Then again, everyone else was actively invested and fighting. Danny and Jazz would be leaving in a few weeks and really had nothing to do with all of this. For them there would be no real consequences either way. Or, at least, as far as they should be able to tell there wouldn't be any consequences.

Jim shook his head and once more opened the window as Danny lay down in his sleeping bag. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said quietly. Danny grunted and waved him off. Jim left without another word, leaving his doubts behind. Maybe they just weren't all that worried about his secrets and really did see it as none of their business. Maybe they actually understood.

"You're babysitting us, aren't you?"

Jim stifled a yawn and took another sip of his coffee while he watched the siblings across the table from him. It had been understandably tense and awkward at the start and Jim was glad that Danny had finally broken the silence, even if it was to accuse him. "What makes you say that?"

Jazz raised an eyebrow at him. She wasn't nearly as hostile as her younger brother but was still a little annoyed with him. "The first day you decided to tag along with us is the day after we wander into your little problem, and you're clearly rather busy. How are you not keeping any eye on us to make sure we don't say anything? It's rather obvious, especially if the Clueless One can notice it."

"Hey," Danny halfheartedly grumbled, "I'm not that clueless."

Jazz shrugged. "You're certainly getting better. Even more so when it involves… this kind of stuff."

What was "this kind of stuff"? And why would Danny be less clueless with it than with other things? The second question was fairly obvious, he was more aware and had more practice or maybe it was because he considered it more important. But the first… she seemed to be referring to the war and Jim's secret keeping. But why would that be something Danny was good with?

Jim decided to ignore it for now. "So, I can't just spend time with my cousins?"

Both of the Fenton sibling gave him a look that was both disbelieving and disappointed. "Don't insult our intelligence," Danny said. "It's just rude."

Jazz snorted but said nothing.

"Fine, what are you guys planning on doing today?"

The pair shrugged. "We were going to go explore the town, see what we could find," Danny said. "Once we get a better feel for the area and what's available to us, say, in a few days or so, we might go do our own thing."

Jazz nodded. "Until then we were planning on exploring the area together."

Jim nodded slightly. "Well, this is the coffee shop, obviously. We've also got a museum, an arcade, a theater, and some other fun things, but most of them are small shops, so I don't know how much you'll be interested. There's also the library."

Danny and Jazz exchanged a silent conversation. Jim was beginning to wonder if that was a sibling thing or a Fenton thing. Seeing as he and all of his friends were only children (Enrique, being a literal baby, didn't really count for this), he couldn't actually be sure. Suddenly, Danny rolled his eyes and slumped slightly in his seat, even as the corners of his lips tugged upwards, and Jazz turned back to Jim with a triumphant smile on her lips. "We'll go to the museum first," she said.

"Hope you like the place," Danny said as he took a sip from his own drink that had been largely ignored until now. "We'll probably be there all day."

Jazz rolled her eyes this time, elbowing her brother. "Please, I can't imagine it'll be big enough to take up an entire day."

Danny grinned playfully at her. "With you it doesn't need to be that big," he teased.

Jazz blushed and shoved him playfully but didn't deny it. Jim bit back a groan, of course they'd pick the museum. Hopefully today would be a good day.

It wasn't. Jim found himself simultaneously bored out of his mind and hyper aware as he tried to corral them away from certain areas that reminded him far too much of some very bad experiences. At least they won those fights. Or escaped them at the very least.

Regardless of Jim's current mental state, he spent the day wrangling and corralling the Fenton siblings through the Museum while Jazz insisted she read everything. Oh, and Danny had disappeared at some point during their little trip, and Jim had no idea where he'd gone, how long he'd been gone, or what he thought he was doing. Jazz insisted he not worry and that Danny was just in the bathroom and would catch up with them, but- a loud crash echoed through the halls followed by… yelling? That sounded a bit like-

"C'mon," Jazz said, "let's go find a quieter area until the staff can get that settled."

Jim followed her dumbly as she rattled on and on about whatever exhibit she'd just been looking at. He had no doubt they'd have to do a lot of backtracking later, so she could look at all the exhibits they were passing that she had barely even glanced at. Finally, at the far end of the museum, she found a nice quiet spot and began looking at the artifacts and displays.

"Wasn't that-"

"Ooo, renaissance era pottery," Jazz muttered, pointedly ignoring what Jim had been about to say. "Don't see that as much as you might think."

Jim bit back his comments and questions and found a bench to sit on while Jazz examined her latest find. It was going to be a long day.

Danny was regretting following his ghost sense. It going off this far from home was never a good sign (not that it going off at home was a good sign either), so he felt obligated to check it out given the lack of ghost hunters in the area. He had hoped to get things cleaned up nice and quick and return to Jim and Jazz before anyone actually noticed anything.

"Fear my corrugated cardboard boxes of doom!"

Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.

"None of these boxes are cardboard, Boxy," Danny said. He dodged another flying box. "And they probably have a lot of very breakable and valuable items in them, so if you could please stop throwing them, that would be greatly appreciated."

Another crate flew past Danny's head. This wasn't working. "That's it!" Danny lit up his fist in bright blue light, encasing the flying boxes in ice to both get them away from Boxy and back on the ground and hopefully help protect the items inside. Now, if those items were sensitive to temperature… That wasn't his problem. He switched to green. The ball of energy missed Boxy, but still startled him, and burst against the wall, leaving a burn mark.

"Hey!" Boxy yelled at him. "That wasn't very nice!"

"Wasn't trying to be nice!" Danny shouted back. "Now, there's the easy way and the hard way! Like always," he grumbled the last part under his breath. He really needed to think of some new lines, so he would stop using those clichés.

"Your cylinder cannot contain me, the Box Ghost!" Danny suppressed a groan as Boxy launched right back into his trademarked ranty monologue thing.

"Clearly my cylinder can contain you, seeing as it's worked so many times before!" Danny launched another ectoblast, then another, and another. The first missed as Boxy lurched sideways. The second hit him in the gut and the third struck his shoulder. Boxy dived. Danny dived after him. He really needed to get this fight away from all the dusty, old, and useless artefacts that filled the half put together exhibit on… Danny pushed the thought away, that didn't matter. He grabbed Boxy by the back of his overalls and pulled, shifting out of tangibility and taking them outside, away from any boxes that could be turned into property damage projectiles.

"No!" Boxy yelled at him, thrashing in his grip. "You won't take me! I won't let you! I will not be trapped in that cylinder!"

Danny glared at the annoyance. "If you had just stayed in Amity Park or, better yet, the Ghost Zone, we wouldn't be having this problem right now! So, just sit still, stop struggling, and we can get this over with quickly and I promise I'll let you go as soon as we get home!"

"No!" Boxy tore free.

"Goddamnit, Boxy!" They were off, zigging and zagging, chasing through the air and never stopping for anything. "Get back here!" Danny yelled as they dipped into another dive.

They pulled up again. Left. Right. Up. Right. Down. Left. Up. Danny shot an ectoblast into Boxy's back. A lucky shot. Boxy cried in pain and tumbled down, stunned for the time being. Danny didn't wait to go through their usual routine involving him taunting a bit as Boxy recovered and they started the chase again and Danny tried to make it clear to the older ghost that this was never going to end in his favor. No, this time Danny wanted to get back to where he needed to be quickly and efficiently without anyone seeing anything and telling his parents. He opened the Thermos and trapped the annoying, box obsessed pain in his rear until he returned to Amity and could release him to the Ghost Zone, where he would hopefully (but not likely) stay for at least a good couple of days before making Danny's life a mess again.

Danny spun around, reorienting himself to the massive dome he recognized from the Museum. He flew quickly and turned himself both intangible and invisible. Once back inside he landed, found a nice abandoned corner, and switched back to plain old Danny Fenton. All he had to do now was find Jazz. A piece of cake with a museum this small. It should only take him a few minutes and he could easily rule out the places they'd already been to.

The next few days were strange and confusing for Jim as the Fentons got weird. Sure, he'd noticed that they weren't exactly normal when they first arrived, but he had quickly adapted and simply chose to accept their little quirks of dress, discussion topics, and occupation. But that was just the elder Fentons. The parents. The kids were mostly normal. Now, Danny and Jazz were just plain suspicious. Danny was disappearing more and more often with Jazz always immediately monopolizing the time and attention of everyone she could. Danny would even disappear late into the night and was sluggish, tired, and irritable most days. Then there were the injuries he managed to hide from his parents, but Jim- and most likely Dr. Lake- noticed the stiffness in the way he moved or how he flinched when he bumped something wrong or the limp when he walked. Hell, there was one day when he suddenly went from being right handed to being left handed, and Danny's parents still didn't notice.

So, yeah, Jim didn't know what to think any more. Everything was just too weird. Especially on the days when he chose to actually spend time with them rather than trying to scout Trollmarket, which was going rather well.

They were fairly certain they had a good time and place to get at Gunmar, they just had to finalize and train everyone that was going and figure out how to actually get in contact with Phantom. As easy as the ghost had made it sound when he told Jim he was hanging out around the Fentons, Jim had no idea how to actually tell Phantom anything without anyone else noticing.

That isn't to say things hadn't quieted down since the mess in the museum, or even since the forest. Jazz and Danny showed pretty much no interest in trolls and Gunmar, even if Jazz did seem to have a frightening level of insight into Jim's mind. Outside of Danny's odd injuries and sleep schedule, everything went back to normal. Until the man in the suit with long grey hair showed up.

About a week after they'd first met Phantom, Jim, Toby, and Claire were spending some time relaxing and hanging out around town. Jim had been hoping to run into his cousins (because they actually were fun to hang around), so he could introduce everyone. That, of course, is when they first saw him. The older man seemed to be having a somewhat heated conversation with Danny. Well, Danny was getting heated, the man was just smirking down his nose at the youngest Fenton.

"Who's that?" Toby asked, noticing what had gotten Jim's attention.

"I don't know about the old guy, but the guy in the white and red shirt is my cousin, Danny," Jim answered with a small shrug. He didn't stop watching the… odd interaction. Last he'd heard Danny hadn't made any real connections in town, and that guy definitely wasn't local.

"How about we go say hi?" Claire suggested. She pulled Jim along, startling him out of his thoughts. Toby laughed at the pair and followed half a step behind.

Jim rolled his eyes as he got his footing back and began to lead his friends across the road into the park. As they approached, the older man's face went from the cool smirk to a cold glare, and the trio pulled to a stop a good distance away.

"You have made a mistake, Little Badger," the man growled.

"Yeah, you always say that," Danny said, rolling his eyes, "and, yet, we're still here. I picked my side."

Jim pulled his friends behind some trees and out of sight of the pair.

"You cannot go making decisions like that when you know nothing about the situation!"

"I know more than you think, Vlad."

"Do you really think a bunch of inexperienced children and their ragtag team will be able to defeat an entire army lead by a millennia old warlord? Really, Daniel?"

"I didn't think I needed to remind you of a certain inexperienced teen and his ragtag bunch of allies that didn't even qualify as a team that took down Pariah Dark. And I still seem to be doing pretty well against you." It was Danny's turn to smirk.

Vlad's face contorted for only a second before he managed to compose himself. "I go easy on you, Daniel. He will not. Just walk away. This is both foolish and unnecessary."

Danny shook his head. "You know I can't do that."

"Daniel-"

"Do you even know what will happen if we leave this alone? Best case scenario: they win. Worst case: they lose, and we lose everything. He wants to take over the world. You think he won't wipe out humanity if he isn't stopped. That means Mom, too. I know you don't care about Sam or Tucker or anyone else, but you won't be able to save her. If not for your own good, do it for her."

Jim decided it was as good a time as any. He stepped through the trees and plastered the most convincing surprised look he could onto his face. "Oh, hey, Danny!" he said cheerily. Both men twitched and turned in synch to face Jim and the other two teens following him out of the trees. "I wasn't expecting to see you until dinner tonight. Who's this?"

The two traded a glance. "I will think about it," Vlad said. He turned to leave. "Perhaps I should stop by for a meal?"

"Fuck off, Vlad!" Danny yelled at his retreating back. He scowled and sighed as he turned back to face the trio.

"Seriously," Jim said, "who was that?"

Danny grunted and waved them off. "Someone from back home. We don't exactly get along and I wasn't expecting to see him here."

"Not getting along is an understatement," Claire muttered as she watched Vlad disappear around a corner.

"Yeah," Toby laughed, "you two were really going at it."

Danny shot them a confused look. Then, a look of understanding crossed his face. "You guys were watching, weren't you?"

Jim shrugged. "Guilty."

"Jim, remind me to work with you on your legal defense," Toby said. "We can't have you just admitting you're guilt whenever someone asks a question."

"No harm in this one, Tobes."

"And yet, the last time there was harm in admitting it, you still plead guilty."

"I'm just going to pretend I know nothing and heard nothing," Danny interrupted. The three gave him sheepish smiles. "What did you hear?"

"Nothing that made any sense," Toby answered for the group. "Does he have a thing for your mom or something?"

Danny winced. "Yeah. Let's just say that's one of the many reasons I don't like him. He also tends to think I take after my dad, which he really doesn't like."

"Ouch," Toby hissed in sympathy.

Jim laughed a little awkwardly. "I know the feeling. Maybe not quite the same way you do, but there was a guy I didn't like hitting on my mom a few months back. Real creep."

Danny smiled. "At least you managed to get rid of him from the sound of things. I always tell Vlad to just get a cat and leave my family alone. He wound up getting the cat but ignored the second part. Oh, and he named it after my mom, too."

Jim winced. "I'll keep that in mind if I ever need that line. But the name thing is extra creepy."

Danny nodded. "Anyway, what have you guys been up to?"

Jim shrugged. "We've been hanging out around town," Claire answered. "Saw you guys arguing from across the street and decided to come say hi."

Danny body shook as a shiver wracked his frame. His mouth opened with a barely audible gasp and Jim could almost swear he saw a puff of condensation escape Danny's mouth. Danny's back straightened. "Well, uh, I'll see you around. Bye!" Danny dashed off, head turning to scan the surroundings as he left.

"Um, yeah…" Jim trailed off. "That was odd."

"Uh-huh," Toby grunted. "Hey, let's go check out the theater. That movie you wanted to see came out a couple of weeks ago."

"The one about the family with the weird kid?" Claire asked.

Jim rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Yeah. It's called The Storm's Prince," he said. "It's supposed to be pretty good."

"Whatever you say, Jimbo. At least it's not about cooking this time," Toby teased. He turned to Claire. "I still remember when he dragged me off to see… what was it? Julie and Julia? Yeah, that's it."

Jim laughed. "Hey, I like what I like."

Claire laughed with him. "That's fair. C'mon, we still have the rest of the day, we should go see that movie while we still can."

The three young warriors set off, carefully not thinking about the different ways that sentence could be interpreted.