A/N: Wow I'm being productive today... Anyway, I seem to be getting somewhere with this story, I estimate the number of chapters will be about 25 or 26 (I have them sort of typed out). And no more Valerie in this story, sorry.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

Revelations

Maddie sat at the desk in the lab, looking idly at the mess on it. She had started to clean it up earlier, but then she had come across Ghost Gabber and she had just stood there, staring at it. It had been one of the first of their inventions that malfunctioned around Danny, together with the Ghost Finder. Behind her Jack was happily humming to himself as he was putting together an improved version of the Fenton Bazooka. It now had a warning light that the thing needed to be recharged.

She glanced around the basement, it's steel paneled walls, the shelves with books, the closet with abandoned inventions, thrown in haphazardly so that opening the door would probably cause a small avalanche. Boxes with old toasters, radio's, mixers and other junk they used to create something new. Two old vacuum cleaners stood in one corner, partially dismantled because Jack had needed something off it. But nothing really dangerous. Except for the portal of course, but that was tightly shut.

It hadn't always been shut, but once they had discovered ghosts could come through they had installed those tight fitting doors, with a genetic lock on it so only a Fenton could open it. She smiled when she thought of her son's clever use of that lock to prove who he was. Jack might be dense and stubborn at times, but above all he was a scientist and he had accepted the proof of Danny's DNA without further question.

But Maddie needed more than that, she needed to prove to the authorities that Danny was their son, that there had been a huge cover up going on and that he needed to be reinstated. Two stacks of letters were on the desk, letters she had received in reply to letters she had sent. The bureaucracy was slow, but at least it was moving. On top was a copy of the letter she had received from the lab they did the DNA test with and she reached out to grab it and look at it again.

There had been something off with Danny's sample. It hadn't prevented them from doing the test, but they had added an extensive commentary, detailing what they had found, even though they didn't know what it was. She looked at the data again. The lab couldn't know what it was, but she knew it all to well. It was ectoplasm. Her son was contaminated with ectoplasm. It could of course come from living in this house, so close to the portal. But she was way more in the basement than he was, so if that was the case then she should be contaminated too, they all should be contaminated.

The questions were tumbling over each other in her head and she felt a slight headache coming up. From Danny's reaction from her suggestion they do a DNA test she gathered he knew something was up with him, his enthusiasm had been forced and there had been a slight flash of panic in his eyes. Later, when she had shown him the letter from the lab his face had been so pale she had thought he was going to faint. And now every time she asked for that blood sample he practically ran away. She had stopped asking after two days, afraid he would take off permanently.

She knew he thought she hadn't noticed all of this and in fact six months ago he would have been right. She guiltily remembered how she had always been working, distracted by her inventions and ideas, oblivious of what was going on with her children. But ever since she found him again after he had been gone for so long she had been watching him closely, looking for clues of what happened to him and how to help him. She would not make that mistake again.

Then, unbidden, came back that thought she had the night she had watched Phantom fight. But that was impossible.

She heard a noise on top of the stairs and looked at the clock on the wall. It must be Jazz coming home from school. Moments later her daughter walked in, still carrying her bag and tilting over a bit from the weight of it.

"Hi mom, hi dad," she said.

Maddie was just about to answer her when the phone rang.

They were heading towards the Nasty Burger when Danny's ghost sense went off. He looked around, but there were just too many people there and there was no convenient alley nearby. "Cover me," he said and just like they used to they stood in front of him while he transformed into his alter ego and if anyone had looked at the two teenagers standing on the sidewalk, whistling, they would only have seen a strange bright flash behind them. He flew away, invisible so he wouldn't betray his position.

Sam and Tucker started walking slowly to the Nasty Burger again, waiting for the sounds of battle so they could rush to his assistance and they didn't have to wait long. Screams were coming from around the corner and when they rounded it they saw people running out of the Nasty Burger, several of them wounded with cuts and bruises, staggering on the sidewalk and onto the street, causing cars to honk and swerve to avoid collisions. Sam and Tucker quickly ran up there, swerving between the running men, women and children and started looking for Danny, but he appeared to be already inside. Sam took out the thermos from her backpack and looked at Tucker.

"Ready?," she said. Tucker nodded. As the last of the customers fled the building they went inside.

The place was filled with the demon like ghosts and Danny was having a hard time in the confined space of the restaurant. Sam and Tucker quickly dove behind an overturned table and peeked around it to see what was happening. Danny spotted them instantly.

"Thermos," he yelled at Sam as one of them tried to slice his head of.

He narrowly escaped, flipping backwards while the demon's claws passed his neck by only an inch. Sam pointed the thermos at the demon that was furthest away from Danny and sucked him in. There were at least ten more. Danny started blasting them away from him, but although they were thrown backwards by his ecto beams, it didn't really do much damage to them.

Tucker could do nothing but stare as Danny jumped and kicked and actually formed a sizzling green sword like beam and started hacking them, severing limbs and heads. Tucker didn't have any weapons on him and he couldn't believe that only a few hours ago he had been jealous of Danny.

"Call his parents" Sam hissed to him as she was crouching beside him, firmly holding the thermos, waiting for one of the demons to get away from Danny far enough so she could suck him in without sucking in Danny as well.

"What!" Tucker yelled back, thinking he hadn't heard her right.

"Call his parents! He's in over his head!"

Seeing as he couldn't do anything in here Tucker bolted out the door, fumbling with his cell phone. He had Fenton Works on speed dial and he pressed the button, while looking back worriedly through the large windows of the restaurant. Maddie answered the phone.

"Mrs Fenton!" he yelled, "Ghost attack at the Nasty Burger! We need your help!"

Maddie remained calm. "What kind of ghost?"

"Those demons! Lots of them!"

Tucker ducked as one of the demons came thrashing through the window, causing the glass to rain on Tucker and he hissed in pain when one of the shards cut his hand. He started cursing as he scurried away from the building, trying to find a safer place to stand and watch the fight.

"Tucker! Tucker are you alright? We'll be there in a couple of minutes!" Maddie said, from the sound of it already on the move, shouting at Jack and Jazz to hurry up and get their gear.

"Tucker! Are you still there?" she yelled and Tucker heard a thud in the background, as if closing a car door, "Is... is Phantom there?"

Tucker was surprised at the question. "Yes, but he is losing, there are way too many of them! Please hurry!"

As he hung up, Tucker noticed that Danny had managed to take the fight outside where he had more room. Sam came bursting out the door, looking flustered.

"I got three!" she yelled at Tucker, shaking the thermos.

She looked up, where Danny was desperately trying to avoid the remaining demons. The Nasty Burger was thoroughly thrashed, glass from the windows crackling under their feet, splintered tables and chairs everywhere. Sam wondered briefly if they had insurance and if so, if it covered being thrashed by ghosts twice a month.

"Did you call?"

Tucker nodded, edging away from the building while looking up into the sky. A small crowd had formed a little bit away from them, cheering whenever Danny hit one of the demons and going 'Aaah' when he was hit himself.

"They'll be here any minute," he said and he winced when he saw Danny take a blow on his head as one of the demons simply crashed in on him.

Danny blasted it with a bright green ecto beam and it was driven back somewhat. Sam had been waiting for that and quickly pointed the thermos and sucked it inside.

"Four," she muttered, looking up worriedly.

Danny was tiring quickly from the high speed he had to keep up to avoid the claws. She could see he hadn't been successful in a number of occasions and she hoped they wouldn't get too far away from them, because then they'd be out of range for the thermos and she would be unable to help him. She wished she had an ecto gun, but Danny always returned them to the weapons vault after a patrol, saying he didn't want his parents to find out he was borrowing them.

Tucker turned when he heard a vehicle come to a screeching stop behind him and was relieved to see it was the GAV. He never thought he would be glad to see Danny's parents in a ghost fight, but right now Danny needed all the help he could get.

Maddie jumped from the vehicle first and ran over to Tucker and Sam.

"Take cover," she yelled at them as she aimed the Fenton Bazooka at the demons.

"Don't hit Phantom," Sam yelled at her.

"Don't worry, I won't"

Maddie took careful aim and placed her shot right next to the demon that was farthest away from Danny. A swirling green vortex appeared next to it and it was sucked right in, together with another one Danny managed to throw at the temporary hole to the ghost zone.

Jack came up next to her, holding an ecto blaster. He had, however, clearly been instructed not to use it, because he didn't try to fire it. Tucker and Sam ran to the GAV, just as Jazz came out, holding two more ecto blasters. Without a word Sam and Tucker grabbed them from her hands, ignoring her "hey!" and they ran back to the fight.

Maddie had managed to remove another demon from the fight, but she couldn't use the bazooka now, because the demons were too close to Danny. He was kicking and blasting them when they got too close but he couldn't keep them off for much longer. His movements became slower, less accurate and he could no longer control the ecto sword he used before. It dissipated and he gave out a strangled cry of frustration.

Tucker and Sam took aim and each blasted a demon from behind. That gave Danny some space and he kicked them away from him so that they could be blown into the ghost zone by Maddie. He turned and used the same trick on them he had used before, grabbing one demon by it's head and simultaneously kicking the other two away from him. As he twisted the head of the demon, breaking it's neck, he heard the booming sound of the bazooka. When he turned, the last of the demons were gone.

For a moment he hung there, suspended in the air, looking totally wiped out. Then he slowly drifted to the ground and Tucker and Sam rushed up to him. When he touched the ground he immediately went down on his hands and knees.

"I hope he doesn't pass out here," Sam muttered to Tucker.

Just when they reached him, two white rings appeared around his waist. Danny let out a scream and balled his fists, willing the rings to go away. His parents were here, half the town was looking. He was not going to pass out. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's get you out of here," Sam said to him.

He could only nod mutely and Sam helped him up, draping his arm over her shoulder and motioning Tucker to do the same. They were about to move when they saw Maddie standing in front of them, holding the Fenton Bazooka. But she wasn't pointing it at him, she just looked.

"Hey, it's the ghost boy," Jack yelled, but as he took aim with his ecto blaster Maddie took it away from him.

"Hey!" Jack yelled indignantly.

Maddie walked up closer to Danny and studied his face, looking worried and apprehensive. Then she narrowed her eyes and she seemed to reach some kind of conclusion, because she nodded once.

"Come with us for now," she said, "I promise we won't hurt you."

Danny gulped, but he was in no condition to make a run for it at that point, hanging between Tucker and Sam. He felt them shiver from the coldness he was radiating, but he could do nothing about that.

"You're not going to tear me apart molecule by molecule?"

Maddie smiled a little and shook her head. "Not today. Jack? You heard me?"

The big man sulked, but agreed and they carried the injured ghost to the GAV. The small crowd that had gathered moved aside when they approached them and let them through, much to their relief. Sam scanned the area for Valerie but it seemed they were lucky.

Danny sat down heavily in the back of the GAV, using all his remaining power and concentration to keep him in ghost form. Sam and Tucker sat beside him, holding him steady, not unlike they had done a few weeks earlier when they had found him. His father climbed behind the wheel and started up, just Maddie and Jazz entered, closing the doors behind them. Jack drove away, surprisingly gently so the ghost in the back wouldn't be jerked around too much.

They drove for a few minutes in silence, Jazz ogling the ghost in the back of the GAV nervously, obviously not knowing what to think of him. Danny averted his eyes, trying to look anywhere but at his family, feeling extremely agitated for them being so close to him. He could see them shiver every now and then and he knew he caused a temperature drop inside the GAV.

Jazz seemed to compose herself and started rummaging through the various cabinets in the vehicle, taking out a first aid kit. She took out some bandages and started wrapping it around his arm one of the demons had ripped open when he had been too slow to move away.

"Cut it out, Jazz," he muttered, pushing her away, "You'll make a mummy out of me. I'll fix this later."

She frowned at his use of her name, but backed off. She contented herself with just staring at him instead and he started to feel very uncomfortable. He took a deep breath.

"Could you eh, drop me off here somewhere. I'm alright now," he asked his mother.

She turned to look at him. "No Danny," she said, "You're coming with us. I think maybe you have something to tell us."

She wasn't looking at him, more like looking past him. He blinked at her. She bore that same look on her face as when she had seen he had gotten his ear pierced that day with Sam in the mall, in fact... he could kick himself. She was looking at his left ear and he brought his hand up to feel the silver stud there, the one thing that remained the same in both his forms. He should never have allowed her to come so close to him.

Suddenly it all seemed pointless. He was too tired, too much in pain to care anymore so he leaned back, closed his eyes and let go of his ghost form. Two white rings appeared around his waist, one traveling up, the other down, revealing a battered teenager with some nasty cuts on his arms and a quickly spreading dark stain on his shirt. Not nearly as bad as the cuts on his ghost form though.

His father hit the brakes and turned to look at him, his mouth wide open.

"Wa..wa..what?" He stuttered.

Jazz let out a sharp cry, covering her mouth with her hand and staring at him wide eyed. Sam and Tucker just looked at each other.

"So that's how you do it," his mother said, not looking surprised at all. "No wonder we could never find you. You were right under our noses."

High above the GAV a vampire like ghost was floating, keeping his distance. He shook his head.

"You're losing your touch, Daniel," he whispered to himself as he saw the GAV come to a sudden halt. "High time to teach you a lesson I think."

With that, he vanished into thin air.