The Ghost Zone didn't seem nearly as foreboding as it had a few days ago. In fact, Maddie almost felt comfortable as she followed Phantom through the alien atmosphere.

Flying felt good as well, and Maddie took the opportunity to see how well she could manoeuver in open air. With every sharp turn and successful acceleration, her good mood was bolstered. It all just felt so natural…

In contrast, Jack's face had turned alarmingly pale as soon as they had taken off. His arms were clamped tightly around Phantom's throat, with the younger halfa wincing and repositioning the hunter's grasp every few minutes. Maddie would have carried him herself, if not for the fact that she still occasionally turned intangible without warning.

Phantom assured her that these little slip ups were a natural part of adjusting to a ghostly core, and had regaled the couple with stories of social embarrassment and an assortment of dropped beakers in chemistry. He had even spoken in ghost a little bit, testing how quickly Maddie's development was progressing. She could understand words on their own or short sentences when spoken very slowly, and the teen reassured her that it would be a little while before her powers were strong enough for her to speak the language of the dead fluently.

Jack was the odd one out. Despite acting as though greatly interested, Maddie conceded internally that he was still upset about the entire situation. He only listened half-heartedly, and information that would have once had the man jumping in glee had barely elicited a response.

The only way to fix this was to give him what he wanted.

Sooner or later, Jack had to become a halfa, and Maddie wasn't entirely certain how she felt about that. The more she thought about, the greater a curse immortality seemed to be. She had tried to broach the topic with Phantom, but whenever their eternal lifespan was mentioned, the kid withdrew. It had immediately been obvious that he had not come to terms with the situation himself, so the woman had chosen not to press that matter until he seemed a little more comfortable.

The portal was closed when they reached it.

Phantom deposited Jack on a floating chunk of stone, fumbling with a mobile phone that he produced from the pockets of his black suit. The phone itself was nondescript – a Nokia brick, sturdy and with no features to distinguish it from others of its type.

The perfect choice for a superhero trying to avoid identification.

"Hi, Jazz, it's Phantom."

A shrill sound filtered through the receiver, and Maddie found herself smiling as the teen winced. "Yeah, I told you that yesterday! Your parents are trying to get back into the human world, so could you come and open the portal, please? …Thank you."

"Why don't you just make a portal home?" Jack grunted as the halfa hung up and pocketed the phone.

"I don't like to do it a lot," Phantom admitted. "It uses heaps of energy, and I usually have to turn human afterwards. It'll take me a few more months of training to do it in battle, if my wail's anything to go by."

"How do you know Jazz?" Maddie queried, sidling closer to the hovering teen.

She had her suspicions, but there was no use jumping to conclusions. Evidence was required.

"I thought we already established that we go to school together," Phantom said slowly, sending the woman a sidelong glance. "I'm pretty close to Danny, and Jazz is really protective of Danny and anyone who's his friend. She made all of us put her number in our phones, and we're supposed to call if we ever need help."

At Maddie's murderous glare he held up both hands. "I swear that I don't get her involved in anything dangerous!"

"Does she know who you are?" Jack queried.

Phantom met his gaze unflinchingly. "That's solely between Jazz and me," he responded. "The same goes for anyone else. Whether somebody knows my secret or not is between me and them, along with anyone else whom I decide to tell."

"So she knows?" the hunter demanded.

The teen's brow furrowed. "Whether she knows or not currently-"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Maddie shouted. "If you have any relationship with my children, I have a right to know, since it could put them in danger!"

He had hesitated just then when saying the children's names, as though checking himself before he spoke. Coupled with the way he moved his head and hands, the way he carried himself, those small inflections in tone and accent… Maddie couldn't be entirely certain, but this kid sure acted a lot like her son.

Phantom sagged.

"Yeah," he sighed, "both Jazz and Danny know."

Maddie rubbed at her eyes. If her suspicions turned out to be incorrect, she knew that she should object – a relationship with Phantom would make her children prime targets for ghosts that hunted the halfa – but she couldn't bring herself to say anything. Phantom was strong, and could obviously take care of himself, but the size of his support system was currently unknown. If Maddie caused a falling out between the spectral teen and her two children, Phantom could be affected rather badly. This would likely lower his performance in battle, placing Danny and Jazz in greater danger. Besides, what right did Maddie have to subject Phantom to such bad treatment, especially after all the good that he had done for her family and the town?

Another thought wormed its way into the woman's mind, informing her that her kids were already targets. Danny had said so himself – ghosts targeted them because their parents were hunters.

The way things looked, it was better for everyone if Phantom maintained a close relationship with the Fenton children.

With a sound like the vacuum trying to suck up an aluminium potato chip bag, the matter of the Ghost Zone warped, forming a vortex of swirling green.

It was exactly the same colour as Phantom's eyes, and Maddie furrowed her brow, wondering if the colour of the halfa's ectoplasm matched the portal due to his accident. Upon inspection of her own ghost form, the woman had noticed that her hair and eyes had simply reversed into their composite colours, but that couldn't be that case with her strange new companion. After all, she would have noticed if any of Danny's friends had red eyes…

Jack stretched out his hands, and Phantom hoisted the man into the air with a grimace. With a flick of his spectral tail, the boy angled himself in the right direction and disappeared into the portal. Maddie followed, passing through the trans-dimensional gateway with a not- unpleasant tingling that made her fingers and toes curl.

Home.

The lab gleamed, familiar and safe. Everything was exactly how she had left it, and for a moment, it was as if nothing had changed.

Jazz was next to the portal's control panel, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Such movement from the normally still girl was immediately apparent, as it was behaviour she adopted only when anxious.

"I'm alright," Phantom announced in answer to her pinched expression – he didn't even consider that she might have been worried about her parents more than she was worried about him.

Maddie noted with growing dread that Jazz's expression relaxed when the halfa said that, the girl's fidgeting immediately ceasing.

"Vlad keeps calling, at least once a day," the young woman announced. For some reason, Maddie wasn't sure which halfa this was directed towards. "He heard about the bank, and has apparently been worried sick."

Phantom tossed his head and rolled his eyes, giving off the impression that he cared about the man to about the same degree as Maddie.

Jack was the only person to smile at the news, moving behind his wife and placing gentle hands on her shoulders. "That's nice," he remarked. "We'll call Vladdie soon to let him know everything's alright."

Phantom shared a glance with Jazz, smirking. Maddie could only notice how the boy held himself, the way he flicked his head as his hair fell into his face, that little smile he shared with Jazz as though they were involved in some secret joke…

Everything seemed off-kilter, and the answers to the riddle that was this strange young hybrid just wouldn't present themselves to Maddie's muddled mind.

She hadn't wanted to believe it was him, because then that would mean…

The door at the top of the stairs slammed open, a figure in faded blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt taking the steps two at a time.

"Mum!" Danny shouted, launching himself at the woman with such force that she would have gone sprawling had Jack not been standing at her back. "You're okay," her son breathed, clutching her tightly.

Maddie carded her fingers through that mop of dark hair. "Yes, Sweetie, I am. Sorry for scaring you."

He was trembling, laboured breaths pressed into her shoulder as the boy clutched his mother.

Swallowing, Maddie risked a glance at Phantom. The halfa leaned against the portal's frame, eyes closed as though concentrating – keeping his form after carrying Jack for several minutes must have taken a greater toll on the kid than she had originally thought.

Danny pulled away from their hug, turning to face the ghost himself. "Thanks for rescuing my mum," he said.

Phantom opened his eyes and flashed the family a grin full of perfect teeth. "No problem," he responded, voice tight. "Now, I really have to go see my parents and get an early night."

"I picked up your homework," Danny offered. "I left it at your place, on your desk."

The ghost's face dropped into an unimpressed stare. "I'm not even going to acknowledge that you just said that. Jack, Maddie, I'll be in touch."

A gust of freezing air, and he was gone.

Maddie stared at the spot where he had been standing, her mind suddenly blank. For a minute there she had actually believed that Phantom and Danny were the same person.

Her eyes had just proven that impossible, but her gut told her otherwise; if there was anything Maddie had learned from her years of hunting, it was that your gut never steered you astray.

Danny turned to his parents. "So, I know you just got back and all, but what's for dinner? I'm starving."