Hello all.

To those of you expecting this sooner (most of you) I must extend a heartfelt apology. I was away from my computer all weekend, and returned to find myself stumped on how to fix this chapter. It came out with angst up the...well, there was a lot of it. Still is, but I've managed to tone it down. To be honest, this has to be a reasonably heavy chapter since some of Danny's issues come to light. I'm not trying to make him out to be some neurotic freak. Just bare in mind that his evil future self did destroy a lot of stuff and indirectly cause Dani's...er...conidtion. So this is something I'm sure you can understand him going through. I intend to get him through it as quickly as is logically possible (I don't want this to be a really angst-heavy story, it would be stale and depressing if I wrote it that way.) but he'll need some time.

Eternal love and glory to my reviewers: The Fluff Ghost, hermie-the-frog, Horselvr4evr123, Meagainsttheworld, Sasia93, Diamond Raider, Epona Harper, Ghost-Girl1591, xheartkreuzx, Pieling, SevenStar, Fanfictionist, Tornada Silverwind, BarnOwl93, ShiroAndFubuki, DP fan, Queen S of Randomness 016, zizzy333, and Chaos Dragon.

That said, here is chapter 3, wherein the plot thickens a bit and Danny learns more about why he can't sleep.

Ta!

HiddenAuthor

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Chapter 3 – Appearances

Johnny Thirteen was screaming, crying, begging for mercy. Over in the corner, Kitty was sitting in a fetal position, rocking back and forth with dead eyes. A dark, laughing figure reached out his arms and snapped the young man's arm with a quick, vicious jerk. A shriek split the air, and Kitty whimpered quietly to herself, tears falling into her lap. His other arm soon followed. Then both legs. By this time Kitty had stopped crying. It was almost as if she couldn't even hear the cries of pain anymore. A hidden grin bringing a manic light to his eyes, the shadowy figure grabbed Johnny with both arms and brought him down over one knee. A loud crack filled the void around them, but no scream followed. Johnny was out cold, twitching his broken arms feebly in pain. His legs did not move. Laughing, the cold tormentor flew up and prepared to dive down and shatter what was left of the poor boy's spine. The shifting light of the strange realm finally cast light on his cruel face.

It was Danny.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The alarm sounded in the quiet, still bedroom, its shrill call created to wake even the most stubborn sleeper. But Danny was not asleep. He'd woken in a cold sweat an hour ago, too afraid to sleep but unable to remember why. Rubbing his red, baggy eyes, he had caught his image in his dressing mirror and hadn't looked away until the alarm sounded. Something about the shadowed reflection in that glass bothered him a great deal, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what it was.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Groaning as his exhausted body protested the sudden motion; the ghost boy rolled to his side off the bed and hit the alarm button. On the bright side, he was too tired to be mad at the clock, so it wasn't in danger of melting today. Too exhausted to stand in the hall waiting for the shower, he trudged back and fell onto the bed, his head in his hands.

"What's wrong with me?" He asked himself miserably. What could be so horrible that he'd wake up in the morning scared to death, but couldn't remember why? And why did he hate his mirror so much?

Some time later, there was a quiet knock on his door. After a few seconds, Jazz eased the door open and looked at her brother on his bed.

"Danny? I thought you might be sleeping. Just wanted you to know that the shower's free." Danny didn't look up. Frowning, the older girl came over and sat down. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." He groaned tiredly into his hands. "I woke up an hour ago, too freaked out to go back to sleep, but I have no idea what I was dreaming about." Gently patting his back, Jazz settled into the bed to try and sort this out.

"Does this have to do with our talk yesterday?" She asked nervously. She'd felt the time had come to clue Danny in on his nightmares, but what if that had made them worse? To the girl's intense relief, her brother shook his head slowly.

"I don't think so. After I woke up, I couldn't do anything. I just stared at the mirror for an hour." He shrugged. "Maybe I'm having nightmares about a giant mirror monster or something. With all the ghosts I fight, it could be anything." Jazz frowned more deeply at this, other memories and suspicions resurfacing in her mind. "I just want to sleep."

"Danny," she asked, curious, "what about the mirror did you stare at? I mean, did you stare at the frame, or the whole thing, or…" Her brother quirked an eyebrow.

"The reflection. Why else do you look at a mirror? Not that I could see much in there, since it was still dark. Why?" Trying to keep her voice steady, his sister calmly gripped his shoulders and pressured him to turn.

"Why not look now. Maybe you'll figure it out if you can see."

Shooting his sister an odd look, the ghost boy turned and gazed half-interested at the mirror. A second later he seemed to flinch away, almost unintentionally. Praying she was doing the right thing, Jazz grabbed her brother's head by the sides and forcibly turned it to lock gazes with his reflection. Caught by surprise, the half ghost froze, staring into his dressing mirror, eyes going wide.

Green lines of energy branched out from the mirror's center, and the entire thing shattered. Danny just sat there in motionless silence, shaking. Gripping his head again and ignoring a slight burn from some wild ghost energy, Jazz turned his head once again to lock eyes with him, eyebrows pointed down in confusion and worry.

"What? What did you see?" Looking a big shocked at what happened to the glass; he looked back at his sister, equally confused.

"Me."

Jazz paused, a glimmer of understanding in her eyes as her worst suspicions were realized. "Danny…" But Danny had vanished.

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"Beware! For I am the Box Ghost!" Screamed the fleeing bibbed creature. Spying a pile of heavy crates, he hastily used his power to shove them out of the loading docks of a downtown warehouse and into the road. A large silver RV with green lettering swerved quickly to avoid the blockade and returned fire, roof mounted ecto-guns sending blinding green shafts of light at the annoying ghost.

Annoying and destructive, if the sounds of squealing tires and crashes behind the hunting couple could be believed. Jack grumbled as he fired off a second volley.

"I know Danny doesn't usually fight ghosts during school hours anymore, but sometimes I almost wish he would, there are just so many of them!" Maddie frowned at her husband's statement from the front passenger's seat, pulling out a radio phone.

"Don't think like that Jack." She berated gently, and then frowned deeply. "Especially not today. Jazz told me he just vanished from right in front of her, and that I needed to call in a sick day. From what she said, he's having 'identity issues' or something. I wish she hadn't gotten so good at talking in code." She sighed. "I can't tell if she meant he was having trouble keeping his secret or if he's going through a regular teen thing…if he ever goes through a regular teen thing." She mumbled. Trying to turn her frustration into something constructive, she sent a particularly vicious blast towards the Box Ghost, smiling with dark pleasure as he yelled out in pain and quickened pace.

"That 'I went through the same thing' excuse doesn't really work with him, huh?" Jack asked, only half joking. Truth be told, he was really worried about Danny. He remembered the look on his son's face when the crowd reacted to his power rating yesterday. They'd been afraid. He couldn't begin to imagine what it felt like to be feared even by the people who cared about you. Heck, even he was occasionally scared by what Danny could do. But somehow, he didn't think that was what his current mood was about.

Never able to brood long, Jack inevitably popped out of his brief funk and grinned as his wife scored another good hit. Smiling back with a dangerous flash in her eyes, Maddie flipped the phone open and hit speed dial.

"Damon. Yeah, it's Maddie. Look, did you manage to get any of the anti-ghost weaponry installed on tower seven? Yes, I know you're behind schedule and under funded. Yes, I know you only got them in last week. Really?" She grinned. "Make sure you thank Tucker for me. I had no idea he and Valerie considered setting up an anti-ghost death machine dating. Anyway, Jack and I have the box ghost on the run, but you know how hard it is to get him into the thermos. Could you activate the tower for just a second? We're approaching it now, and it would probably catch him off-guard." Eventually she nodded. "Thanks Damon." Quickly hanging up, she returned her attention to their fleeing foe with a feral smile.

"Gray's going to give us a demo of his nice new tower." Jack's grin broadened.

"You shall not catch me! Tremble puny humans for I am the Bo-Ahhhhh!" Several dozen blue beams converged from the skeletal tower precisely onto the poor ghost. Lights abruptly snapping off, the spook fell limply from the sky and lay still on the ground. Whistling, Jack stepped out and pulled the unconscious spirit into a fresh thermos as the tower whirred back into inactivity. The couple smiled at it appreciatively.

"Just think Jack." Maddie said wonderingly. "Someday the entire city will be surrounded by a ring of finished towers, a near-indestructible shield at our beck and call. And those weapons! Did you see them all focus to converge precisely where they would do the most damage? It was amazing!" Jack nodded, frowning slightly.

"Of course, pretty soon Danny will be trapped inside the city. He'd be turned into a smoking crater if he tried to leave." Visibly paling, his wife nodded, going over to wrap an arm around him.

"Don't worry, Jack. We'll think of something. I'm sure Damon and Valerie would keep Danny's secret, and find some way to keep him safe. I just wish Danny thought so too. Let's hope he tells them before the towers are finished."

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Danny floated aimlessly through the swirling green of the Ghost Zone, invisible. He wasn't entirely sure how he'd gotten here; he'd been sitting in his room, wanting to just fall right out of the world for a while, and suddenly everything went green. He had felt fatigued right afterwards, so he supposed he must have done it somehow. Since he didn't plan on showing himself and could float through things better this way, he'd remained human. As such it was slightly harder to float, but he'd come to decide it was worth it. He didn't want to be a ghost right now. Looking around, his guilt returned tenfold as he caught the occasional glimpse of the devastation his evil self had unleashed upon the unsuspecting ghosts. Eventually, his aimless course directed him towards a garish pink and blue door. Light guitar music floated out through it, making the ghost boy pause. He was almost sure this was Ember's place, but that didn't sound much like Ember's music. Curious, he allowed himself to fall through the door and found himself in a large auditorium. The former singing ghost was sitting on a simple black stool on stage, blowing green bubblegum and idly picking the slow, calm tune out on her guitar. Coming to rest nearby, Danny let his invisibility go.

"Danny." He paused for a moment at that, surprised that she'd used his first name. Another green bubble popped loudly.

"They may say that dead men tell no tales, kid, but you shouldn't encourage the lie." She said idly, setting down guitar and pick and picking a small notepad up off of her lap. Danny still said nothing.

"A recent friend of mine once said that expression is good for the soul." She pressed conversationally, floating up in an Indian position in front of the dejected intruder. "Come on, spill it. It's not like I can charm it out of you." Danny winced a bit at that. Ember frowned.

"Do you hate me?" He asked finally. The blue-haired girl cocked her head to one side, studying him. He didn't seem depressed or angry, merely curious and maybe a bit confused. With a half-smile, she shrugged.

"Well I think your spandex suit is tacky, I think your witty banter is cheesy, and I think your plan on visiting the Ghost Zone as a human is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. But hate you?" She chuckled. "Baby pop, you saved me. That evil monster destroyed my voice, and you-"

"I am that evil monster." He said, eyes flashing green slightly as he fell back onto the stage. "Don't you remember everything? He was telling the truth, Ember. He was me from the future, and he did all of those horrible things. I did all of those things. Your voice, your powers, all of those other ghosts." He gulped. "You'll never sing again. How can you not hate me?"

The blue-haired ghost remained silent for several minutes, studying him. Finally, she came back down into a standing position, quirking an eyebrow in amusement as she looked up to see his face. Apparently she should visit more often, but ghosts usually don't change so fast. Humans were different.

"You told me about that once before, and I didn't forget. But you're right about one thing." She said softly. "I'll never sing again. I tried every day for months after it happened, thinking if I just gave it more time…" She sighed. "But I've made my peace with that. Sure, I was mad. Furious even. For a long time. But ghosts have a long time to brood, kid, so it's a bad habit to get into. After a while I just got bored with the whole 'anger' thing, and decided to just get over myself. I miss singing a lot, but there's more to me than that. I still have my music, or at least my guitar. And I've learned to do other things with my voice." Blushing slightly, she pushed her notebook into his hand. Startled, he looked down in surprise and opened it, reading quietly.

"Poetry?" She nodded shyly.

"Ghost Writer's been teaching me. He says there's not much difference between a good poem and a song. If the words are beautiful enough, they don't need music. It's a lot like writing lyrics, but I'm still not nearly as good as he is." She said a touch wistfully as her mind turned towards the aloof artist. As Danny read, she absently blew some more green bubbles.

"These are amazing." He said at last, with a ghost of a smile. "But it doesn't change the fact that that evil creature was me. Or at least formerly would have eventually become me." He scratched his head. "Never let Clockwork tell you about time." Ember chuckled, and the ghost boy's smile flashed up again briefly, before dying. "I can't even look in a mirror anymore without seeing more and more of him in me. Every day there's a little more there. I didn't really think about it before today."

Ember looked back up from her work and eyed him critically, briefly going up on tiptoes for an extreme close-up. He backed up a step, blinking, surprised at the scrutiny. Finally, she opened her mouth.

And blew another bubble. "I don't see it." She said finally. Danny opened his mouth to object. "Well duh, kid, you look more like him." She said in exasperation. "If he's you from the future, you're going to keep looking more like him every day until you can't tell the difference. That's just how these things work. Although," she said, with a light laugh, "you should do yourself a favor and avoid the freakishly huge look. You might have to be that tall eventually, but the ape-arms routine was just a little over-the-top." She chuckled briefly in victory at coaxing a small blush out of her human friend, then resumed the serious talk.

"What I mean is, I don't see it on the inside. You're gonna look like him kid, maybe even sound like him a bit, and you should make your peace with that. But that doesn't mean you're gonna be him." She shook her head. "You keep trying not to judge a book by the cover, forgiving that Valerie girl for trying to kill you, letting Dani back into your life." He raised an eyebrow. "We talked. You don't judge people, kid." She grimaced, blowing another large bubble. "Shouldn't you give yourself the same chance? I mean, it's not like you want to turn into an evil super-destructive monster, right?" Danny shook his head quickly.

"Good." She grinned. "Then that shouldn't be a problem. So no, I don't hate you, Danny. You annoy the heck out of me, but I don't hate you." Danny smiled over at her.

"You know, you sounded a lot like Jazz for a second there." He said absently. "You into all that psycho-babble too?" The girl grimaced.

"Ick. No way, kid. That stuff is boring. I just tell it like I see it." She shrugged. "Comes with being a 'rock star' I guess. We don't say sorry. But hey, if you want advice, I'll tell you what helps me." She looked down. "My guitar. Playing it helps me cope. Even when I'm not using it to take over the earth." She laughed lightly and looked up toward her friend. "Maybe you should find a hobby, kid. Something you can do as a ghost besides blasting stuff. It's been good for me. Maybe it would be good for you, too."

A thoughtful look flashing across his face, Danny nodded and vanished. Sad, slow guitar music filled the room.

Ember picked absently at the strings, smiling at her notebook. He'd liked her poetry. She wasn't about to let a damaged voice ruin her afterlife. Standing, the former singer grabbed her poems and took off for Ghost-Writer's. She might be improving, but the talented artist still had a lot to teach her. Besides, he was kinda cute…

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Deep in the depths of a completely bland and uninteresting generic government building, down an evenly lighted hallway painted that incredibly annoying nondescript off-white color, two high ranking Guys in White officers sat in a small cubicle, viewing and reviewing a piece of footage.

"I'm a 7.5. Or almost anyway."

The gentleman on the right turned towards his coworker with a dark look on his face.

"Has this claim been verified?" Eyes not leaving the screen, his partner nodded slowly.

"Labs is still confused about how that could be possible. As soon as the subject made the statement, we sent in a discreet ops group to obtain independent verification. We used five individually calibrated meters. 'Phantom' has a reading of 7.48. According to our own data, he should have only about half that much power." Hearing this, the first officer paled visibly.

"And this is the ghost that compromised the old officers on his case?" Inarticulate screaming echoed from another wing of the complex. The man winced. "And I hear that they're still trying to 'fix' them." The second nodded.

"When that 'Freakshow' guy was returned to custody. The cameras all got knocked out, but the backup files on the computer logged a massive spike in ecto-energy. We must infer that 'Phantom' has access to some incredible form of power boosting. The original reading almost melted the meters, but that's obviously impossible. Whatever he did to those officers, they were rendered completely unable to pursue Phantom's case. Almost all records involving Mr. Showenhower, his research, and Phantom were irreparably corrupted. We don't even know what we were doing with Freakshow before he escaped, or how Phantom got a hold of him." The man shuddered. "I've been tracking ghosts half my life, but this kid…there's something, I don't know, 'spooky' about him." The first officer sat up from his seat, shutting off the video as Phantom's face began to heal from a class five ectoblast almost instantly.

"Well he's our problem now. Those two compromised officers cost us almost a year of hunting following false trails. Whatever that kid did to them, it messed them up good. I was hoping to sneak up on this one, but if he's that dangerous, we'll need to step up and really get to work." Nodding again in agreement, the second man got up. With long-practiced movements, the two hunters drew their hands across their chests and reached into their left jacket pockets and whipped out…sunglasses. Flicking them open, they flipped the frames up over their eyes and headed out. They had work to do.

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"Hello?" Danny asked groggily as the hall phone jerked him from a very welcome afternoon nap. "Fenton Works. Friendly call or impending doom?"

"Danny?" His eyes widened slightly.

"Val! Er, hi. What's up?" There was a slight pause.

"Um, nothing! Just, uh, calling to remind you guys it's Phantom's turn to do the night patrol. Let him know for me?" Danny grimaced slightly.

"Sure thing." He said, pouring on the cheer. "Was that it?" Longer pause.

"No." She said finally. "I'd like to talk with Phantom a bit. Alone." Danny gulped slightly.

"Uh, could I ask why?" He said, trying to sound unconcerned.

"I just need to talk to him about some stuff. Could he come to my apartment at six?" Danny looked over at the clock. It was 3:30.

"I don't know, I'll ask. If he can, he'll probably be early."

"Thanks. See you later." Danny's eyes bugged slightly.

"Huh?" He practically yelped into the phone. Valerie paused on the other end.

"See you later." She repeated slowly. "You do plan on being at school tomorrow right? Jazz told me you were sick." The ghost boy desperately tried to calm his breathing. Jazz must have covered for him when he pulled that Houdini trick that morning.

"Uh, yeah. I was. But I'm feeling much better now."

"Good. Bye, Danny."

"Bye."

Face pale, Danny hung up, trying to calm the shaking in his hands. Spending the next few hours doing make-up homework and fending off a seriously freaked-out Jazz, he left invisibly at 5:30 and was at Valerie's in ten minutes. The huntress was already there, out of uniform. Phantom raised an eyebrow.

"I take it this isn't a business call." Valerie just looked at him for a moment, then sat down.

"No. How tall are you?" She asked suddenly. Danny paused, taken aback by the odd question.

"Uhh…I don't know. My body's pretty flexible." He said, scratching his neck nervously. Valerie watched his hand with an unreadable expression.

"That's not an answer." The ghost boy winced slightly, sitting down opposite the huntress, who hadn't taken her eyes off of him.

"Maybe…five eleven?" He half asked. Valerie just nodded, as though that was the answer she expected.

"I think I've got you figured out." She said calmly. Danny paled slightly, looking at her. "It's obvious. You and Danny look the same, act the same, sound the same, age the same way, you appeared for the first time only a few weeks after that accident he got into, and you're lair opens in Danny's bedroom." The ghost boy was shaking slightly now.

"You're a ghost copy the portal made of Danny when he had his accident!"

"I can expl – what?"