Chapter LXXIX

Jazz sat on a folding chair that had been brought to the roof of Fenton Works. She had wrapped herself in a heavy winter jacket, although Spring had already sprung. The early morning air was only slightly chilly, but if there was one thing Jazz hated, it was the cold. Floating in front of her was Danny, or Phantom, or whatever he was calling himself these days. Off to the side was Skulker. His armor had repaired itself as he told Jazz the story of how Danny became Phantom. The repairs were only temporary and would eventually require a more permanent solution, but it would hold for now.

"This is a lot to take in," Jazz said finally. She had just been told the identity of the ghost that Phantom had met up with in the Ghost Zone, including his unique parentage. On top of a novel's worth of information regarding Danny's exploits as a ghost, the information was almost overwhelming. "I'm going to need some time to get used to this."

Phantom nodded. "I understand."

"So when did mom and dad find out?"

Phantom glared at Skulker. "You didn't tell her?"

"Was I supposed to?"

Phantom smacked his forehead.

"What?" Jazz asked in a concerned tone. After seeing the exasperated look on her brother's face, realization set in. "Oh Danny, you didn't tell them?"

"No," Phantom whined. "And I'm not going to."

"But why? Danny, you're their son!" Jazz exclaimed, standing from her chair. "They love you no matter what you are!"

"Yeah, that's easy for you to say," Phantom floated over to the edge of the roof. "Mom and dad hate ghosts. They think we're – they're all evil. I thought they were starting to warm up to my ghost half, but then the Shadow Ghost thing happened and they blamed me for it." Phantom looked down at his body. "Well, ghost-me. Not human-me."

"But if you just told them-"

"It isn't that simple," Phantom interrupted, turning back to face his sister. "They've known me as their son; as human and normal as can be. If I dropped this bombshell on them, do you think they'd react as calmly as you did?"

"I'd hardly call it calm," Jazz mumbled. "What if I told them for you?"

"No!" Phantom flew closer to Jazz, terror glowed in his eyes. "Please, I'm begging you, don't tell them! I have enough to deal with right now and I-" the ghost boy took a deep breath. "I just want some things to stay the same. Knowing that I have a family that loves at least part of me is what helps me get through some of the harder days. If I lost that . . ."

Jazz bit her lower lip as Phantom trailed off. "Alright Danny, I won't tell them. Just promise me one thing." Phantom nodded his head. "Promise me that you'll tell them yourself some day. You can't keep this from them forever, and you'll only end up hurting them if you keep it bottled up."

Phantom nodded again, a weak smile grew on his face. "Thanks Jazz. You're the best."

The girl hugged her brother from where he floated. "I know. Now get to school. I'll be there later. And if you ever need to talk about something, you know where my office is."

Phantom rolled his eyes. "Yes doctor."

The ghost boy turned to Skulker. "Well I guess this is goodbye for now. You heading back?"

Skulker had decided it was best not to tell Jazz that his boss was Vanessa Masters; the billionaire who was also a half ghost who wanted to kill her mother, marry her father and have her brother become something akin to a protégé. Phantom was unsure what Skulker had told his sister, but felt that Plasmius' true identity could be left out of the picture for a while.

"Yes, I am," the mercenary responded. "I'll leave you to explain things to Sam. If she sees too much of me, she's going to believe that I'm some sort of commodity."

Jazz quirked an eyebrow. "Uh, what do you have to do with Sam?"

Skulker looked at the girl with a similar expression. His processor clicked and his expression softened as much as a mechanical one could. "I must have left that part out. Samantha is my niece."

Jazz gawked at the massive robot. "You're joking!"

"'Fraid not," Phantom sighed. "A shame, too, he's a real stitch. You should see his stand up routine!"

Skulker fired a tiny ecto-beam from his pinky that hit Phantom in the forehead. "Get to school. You're going to be late."

Phantom's eyes widened. "Oh crap! I gotta go!"

Jazz was almost lifted off her feet as her brother sped away as fast as he could. She looked at Skulker, whose flaming green Mohawk was flickering around in Phantom's wake.

"Daniel may have thought his life was complicated before," Skulker shook his head. "He has no idea what's in store for him." The robot watched as Phantom disappeared from view. "He can't possibly survive on his own. Even with Samantha and Tucker by his side, there is just too much for him to handle. You may need to be forceful in getting him to talk to you about his problems. I fear his unwillingness to speak to others may be one of many things that lead to his future and the birth of his son."

Jazz wrapped her arms around herself as a cold wind swept across the roof of her home. "I'll do my best," she said quietly. "I just hope I'm not already too late."

Skulker turned to look at the young woman. "What do you mean?"

"If his son came from the future, then whatever will lead to that future has already happened. Either that, or Danny has done something that will make it an inevitability."

Skulker rubbed his flaming goatee. "An interesting analysis. However, my intelligence shows that Walker arrived in our tangent as far back as twenty years ago. So whatever leads to his birth and Daniel's horrible future may have transpired as far back as then, possibly even further."

"Could it be that the future Walker came from is the actual future of our own tangent?"

Skulker sighed. "I hope not. If Walker is as powerful as Daniel described, then I'd hate to see what Daniel himself would be like."

Jazz shuddered. Her brother becoming evil and making a child like Walker was unthinkable. And yet, at some point in the future, it had happened. When had she failed her brother? Or worse still, when had her brother failed himself?

Sam and Tucker had been eagerly awaiting Danny's story through all their morning classes. At lunch, all they could do was stare at their best friend.

"Your son came back from the future to kill you?" Tucker asked slowly.

"You have a son?" Sam echoed.

"That doesn't seem logical," Tucker continued. "If he killed you then that would kill him as well."

"You have a son?" Sam repeated.

"I know," Danny replied, ignoring Sam. "But he was so determined, saying stuff like I'm a tyrant and I killed people. Maybe he thought it would be worth it?"

"I guess," Tucker said thoughtfully. "That still leaves us with one big question."

"You have a son?" Sam asked for a third time.

"Yes, Sam, yes, I have a son!" Danny threw up his arms. "How many times do I need to say it?"

"That wasn't it," Tucker said. He inhaled, preparing to propose it to his friends.

"Who is his mother?" Sam interrupted.

Tucker let the breath out. His eyes widened in sudden curiosity. "Well that's a good one too."

Danny cast a furtive glance over at the A-List table. Paulina looked as perky as always, talking and laughing and having a good time with all her friends.

"I'd, uh," he looked back down at the table. "I'd rather not say."

"Come on, dude, you have to tell us now!" Tucker said with a grin. "Its Sam, isn't it?"

"If it was Sam, I wouldn't have a problem telling you guys," he caught Sam's blush and his own face reddened. "And I don't think our son would try to kill me."

"Well then who was it, if not your girlfriend?"

Sam and Danny glared daggers at Tucker, who held up his hands in surrender. "Alright! I'm done! But seriously, who was it?"

Danny sighed and dropped his head into his folded arms. There was no way he was going to get the two to leave this one alone. They'd pester him about it until the day Walker was born. "Plina" he grumbled into his sleeve.

"I'm sorry?" Tucker asked. "Who?"

"Aulna," he grumbled again.

"One more time?" Sam poked Danny in the elbow.

"Paulina!" He growled in a whisper. "She's the one I . . . uh, well, you know."

Tucker's grin faded away. Sam's eyes widened.

"Dude," Tucker said in a hushed voice. "Are you kidding me? You and Paulina?"

"You guys wanted to know so badly!" Danny hissed before burying his head in his arms again. His ears were red with embarrassment.

Sam grinned. "It figures you'd make a homicidal baby with her."

"Knock it off, Sam," Danny mumbled.

"She probably comes from a long line of maniacs. It all makes sense now!"

"Sam, cut it out," Danny peered over his arm, revealing his glowing green eyes.

"And for all the ways for karma to come back and bite you, she gives you a deranged psychopath for a son and sets him lose on you."

"Shut up, Sam, I'm not even kidding," Danny growled.

Sam crossed her arms. "I don't know why you're getting mad at me; Paulina's the one who-" Danny turned the part of her table where her salad was intangible. The lunch fell though to the floor beneath. "What the hell, Danny?" she exclaimed.

"Do not talk about my family like that."

The two teenagers opposite him looked at their friend in bewilderment. "Your family?"

"Walker may have tried to kill me, but he's still my son. Or will be. I messed up – will mess, uh, hmm." Danny rubbed his chin. "Ok, somewhere along the way, something goes wrong; big time. He probably is justified to the bone for wanting me dead. And if I, uh, end up failing him and Paulina as badly as he says I did, er, will, maybe I'm better off dead."

"Don't say that!" Tucker gasped. "There's no way you screwed up because of a one night stand with Paulina Sanchez, no matter how badly this Walker guy thinks you did."

Danny moaned in frustration. "Tuck, I don't think my son would hunt me through time to kill me for knocking up his mom and leaving them. It happens all the time."

"Yeah, but all those other kids don't have ghost powers and they can't travel through time," Sam offered. "You son can, apparently."

"That is not what happened," Danny said tiredly. "Guys, Paulina is my wife in the future."

Sam and Tucker were speechless.

"Your wha-?"

Well, almost speechless.

"He said he was my son, Sam; mine and Paulina Fenton's. I don't know how much clearer he could have been."

Tucker placed a comforting hand on Sam's trembling shoulder. "Maybe it was another Paulina?"

"Come on, Tuck," Danny said as he readjusted his arms. "How many Paulinas do we know?"

"There could be lots of them! Maybe Walker was born in Mexico! Or Spain! Or-"

"Tucker, you know as well as I do that he wasn't." Danny looked over at Paulina. "Somewhere or somewhen in the future, I marry Paulina; or its some ghostly equivalent of marriage. Whatever I do whenever I do it, we have a son. And he hates me." Danny sighed and gathered his things. "I'm a horrible father and a horrible husband, and I'm a single, childless fourteen year-old. Plasmius should've just let him kill me."

Danny stood up and ambled away. The despair was practically dripping off him.

"Sam," Tucker started. "I know this isn't the best time, but you should really consider what I've been telling you for the past week."

Sam looked at her friend with a hopeless look to match Danny's. "What would that be?"

"You need to ask him out."

Sam felt like punching Tucker right in the face. "You better be joking," she fumed.

"I'm not. Don't you get it? Do you see what happened when another girl even took interest in him? You're probably right about Paulina coming from a long line of homicidal maniacs, but are you going to stand by and let that happen?"

"What if that future happens because I tell him? What if I chase him right to Paulina? What if I'm responsible for that future?"

"Listen to yourself!" Tucker exclaimed. "That's absurd! Danny is the one who has to shape that future. We have to support him! We have to be there for him! Whatever it takes, we have to make sure that future doesn't happen."

"Why so scared?"

Tucker lifted his beret and scratched his head. "In a future where Danny is some evil monster, married to Paulina with a son like Walker, do you honestly think he would care about us or anyone else for that matter? I hate to think about what he could do in even ten years if he stopped playing super-hero."

Sam considered Tucker's words. "I guess so."

"Sam, we need to keep him away from Paulina. You're not the one who causes that future, but you might be the only one who can stop it."

Sam grabbed her book bag. "I can't, Tucker," she replied. Her tone was as sad as Tucker had ever heard it. "Not right now. I have to go."

Tucker watched as his second friend rushed out of the cafeteria and sighed as the doors closed. The boy stood up and made his way to the exit. If things kept going at this rate, he was bound to have one lonely future.

Danny entered the library and took a seat at the back of the room. He should have been using the free day his teachers had given him to catch up on school work, but even if he was a normal boy, he probably wouldn't have done so anyway.

Instead, he thought about all the horrible things that would happen if he continued to associate with Paulina, his mind raced with terrible thoughts, each one more gruesome and unsavory as the last.

Stop that, you idiot!

Yes, please stop. You're making me nauseous, and I'm supposed to like violence.

Regardless of what Walker told you, merely holding a conversation with that girl will not ensure his creation. It does, however, increase the probability that you two will mate, resulting in Walker's birth.

Quiet, you fool! Danny doesn't need reminding of that.

Guys, was he really my son?

Yes, he was.

You should be proud to have spawned such a powerful being! Just imagine how strong you are in that future!

Silence! I could detect our influence in him. You may have passed us on to him when he was conceived. Whatever the case may be, he was your offspring.

Wait, at conception? Does that mean-

No, you're not going to get rid of us by, uh, you know, THAT.

Through mating you pass on your more powerful characteristics to your offspring. Walker inherited some of your more advanced powers, but he was holding back to a great extent. We detected ourselves within him as well.

Maybe we influenced him to go easy on you.

Or, more likely, we wanted Walker to measure your strength to ascertain just how powerful you were.

What good would that do? He obviously doesn't need to figure out how strong I am to beat me to death!

Walker might not know exactly at what point in time he is. If he can determine the strength of your power, then we would be able to tell him exactly how far back in time he is.

Thanks a lot, Danny thought with sarcasm.

Think of it this way. You got to have sex with Paulina Sanchez! How awesome is that?

While the brute is often borderline retarded, I must agree with his assessment. Bravo, Daniel. Who knows, maybe you managed to accomplish that without my assistance.

Your assistance? Do not take credit for what is obviously my doing!

YOUR DOING?

YES, MY DOING!

Can we at least wait until my self pity has died down? I feel a headache coming on.

Suddenly, twin jets of green mist streamed from his nose. Danny turned around in time to see some ghost monster fly past the window. Valerie streaked past the glass seconds later. Danny slid under the table, thankful he was alone in the library, and turned invisible.

"Going ghost!" he whispered. The silver-green rings formed at his waist and unlocked Phantom from within his molecular structure.

The ghost boy turned intangible and flew out the window. The wind whipped at his snowy white hair and flowed around his lean body. Phantom closed his eyes and grinned. It was good to be back.

Deep in the Ghost Zone, the still body of Walker floated in stasis. The wound in his head had healed up some time ago. When he mentally reviewed how much time had passed since the mysterious ghost had stopped him from destroying Danny Phantom. It had been over two weeks.

ArE yOu AwAkE?

Yes, Walker replied mentally. What happened?

DaNnY PhAnToM eScApEd. PlAsMiUs SaVeD hIm.

Walker's empty black eyes snapped open. His face contorted in rage. "Plasmius?"

YeS. ThE gHoSt WoMaN. ThE oNe WhO-

"I do not need reminding of what she did," Walker said through clenched teeth. "Where is she?"

YoU CaNnOt Go To HeR! ShE iS tOo PoWeRfUl

"Even for someone of my strength?"

YeS!

"Curious. My father killed her without even breaking a sweat."

YoU dO nOt KnOw ThAt

"My father is not a liar. One does not command the universe by lying about brute force."

YoU rEsPeCt HiM?

"Never," Walker growled. "I shall kill him with my bare hands; even if it means slaughtering every living thing in my way."

WhAt PuRpOsE dOeS tHaT sErVe? ArE yOu NoT tRyInG tO sAvE lIvEs?

Walker pondered the voice's statement. "These humans are of no consequence to me. Even if all of Amity Park should perish to save two dimensions, I think it is acceptable."

AcCePtAbLe tO yOu PeRhApS. yOuR fAtHeR hAd A vErY dIfFeReNt DeFiNiTiOn Of ThE wOrD.

"My father is not your host any longer. You did nothing to save him when you had the chance and you helped in cementing his power. I have half a mind to purge you right now."

YoU'vE hAd HaLf A mInD tO dO sO fOr ThIrTy YeArS aNd YeT hErE wE aRe, StIlL iNtAcT.

Walker remained silent.

MaYbE YoU wOuLd SuRvIvE tHe PrOcEsS. bUt YoU wOuLd LoSe A mAjOr TaCtIcAl AdVaNtAgE oVeR yOuR fAtHeR.

Walker sighed in resignation. He needed the voice to succeed as much as the voice needed him to survive.

YoU mUsT gO iNtO hIdInG fOr nOw. An OpPoRtUnItY tO fInAlLy DeStRoY dAnNy PhAnToM wIlL sOoN pReSeNt ItSeLf To YoU.

"One will come to me?"

YeS. bE pAtIeNt, WaLkEr. AlL iS PrOcEeDiNg AcCoRdInG tO BuLlEt'S pRoPhEcY. dAnNy PhAnToM wIlL dIe.

Walker nodded and closed his eyes. His body continued to float through the Ghost Zone uninterrupted, traveling further and further away from the known regions. His sleeping form finally came to a rest on a massive island, easily the size of a continent. The mysterious land mass was dominated by a massive mountain that rose up at the edge. A large castle sat at the peak, watching over the Ghost Zone. Walker wouldn't find out where he was after he awoke. Even the voice wouldn't know.

It was an excusable ignorance, however. Lord Phantom never had any stories to pass on to his son about Pariah Dark.

To Be Continued

A/N: I wanted to tie things up from every perspective I thought was important. Jazz finally knows Danny's secret, and Danny knows that Jazz knows. I didn't like how that whole "I know your secret, but I wont tell you I know" went from season one all the way to half way through season two. And who better to fill in the gaps than Skulker?

Hope you all liked this segment. Its one of the more thought-provoking in the story so far, at least I think it is. Not sure what the next segment is going to be. I'll think about it and get back to you.

Thanks to all my reviewers (Egads! Almost 900!), especially Goldamon X, Musicallity, Bloxham, Writin' Dude, Sapphire Wolf Master, dpphan333, darkbunny92, MissMeliss4251, The Golden Hat, StoneSeraphim, and AvatarKatara38.

Also, while there is already a clear-cut winner in my poll, I still urge everyone to participate. You can cast your e-ballot by viewing my profile page then by using the link in the Poll bar at the top of the page. If you can't find it, well, I don't know how much clearer I can be.

LAUNCH THE COUNTER-OFFENSIVE!