How you guys doing? Enjoying your weekend? My week has been mostly rainy, hence the early update. But, good news! I have most of the rest of this written, so I'll be updating faster!

Enjoy Jazz's point of view!

Chapter 7

The campus was barely awake when Jazz power-walked to her professor's office. Her class didn't start until nine, but she was hoping if Professor Toady was here early she could start the test early. The sooner she finished, the sooner she could go home and start fixing things there.

Danny hadn't sounded good on the phone. He hadn't even been trying to pretend he was okay. Jazz was used to his false cheeriness, or (more likely) his confusion, but the tired voice that spoke last night was out of character. It was wrong. And she couldn't get it out of her head.

No, no it's not.

Four words had never terrified her more. It was the first time Danny had ever willingly admitted something was wrong. Worse, it had been the first time Danny had ever called because something was wrong. Usually his hero complex dictated that he handle everything by himself. But this time…he'd found something he couldn't fix. That scared Jazz more than anything. Not the fact he couldn't fix it (there were plenty of things he couldn't actually fix on his own, but good luck telling him that). He didn't think he could fix this. He was willingly asking for help. While usually a good thing, it felt more like Danny was admitting defeat. He was giving up. It was just…so unlike him.

And then her mother hadn't answered the phone…for all she knew her parents were out hunting her little brother right now. She had hardly slept last night, thinking of the different ways her parents were trying to torture her little brother. If he had gone Tucker's he wouldn't be that hard to find. It would be one of the first places they'd look. He'd be a sitting duck.

She didn't call to tell him that. She didn't want to worry him even more. It just meant she worried well into the morning, when she should have been resting for her test.

This test…she could have been home if not for this stupid thing. Her family needed her. But no, she had to take a test. Granted, this was a chapter test worth a third of her grade in this class, but that wasn't helping the situation. She hadn't been focused on studying at all, and she knew she wouldn't focus at all actually taking the test…she'd just have to hope for the best.

The psychology building was dimly lit, most of the hall lights still off. She climbed up to the third floor and found her way to her professor's office. Like she'd hoped, Professor Toady was already there.

She knocked on the door.

Toady looked up from her desk. "Ah, hello Jasmine. Come for some last minute help before the test again?"

Jazz smiled and shook her head. "No, actually. I was hoping you wouldn't mind letting me start the test now? There's a family emergency back home, and I'm leaving as soon I'm done this test."

"Oh dear. I hope everything is alright?"

"Well, we're still working on getting there, but I really need to be there for them," Jazz said.

Toady nodded. "Of course. Here, let me just dig one up…" she rummaged through piles on her desk, finally pulling a packet out. "You can probably go to the classroom now, but it will be noisy when everyone else comes in."

Jazz was already scanning through the test. "That's alright. It'll be easier to hand it in if you're right there when I'm done."

"Okay. You know where to find me if you have any questions," Toady said. She turned back to her desk as Jazz started to walk out. "Oh, one more thing!"

Jazz turned back to her.

"Now, I'm sure I don't really need to tell you this, but no cell phones, no looking at the book…"

Jazz smiled. "Of course not."

Toady nodded, and Jazz sprinted down to their classroom to start filling in the answers.

She was half way done when the rest of her class started coming in. The first of them started asking her questions, like what she was doing there already and what were some of the questions on the test. When Jazz explained she was leaving for a family emergency, they started to leave her alone. They even made sure the newcomers were quiet for her sake.

She appreciated it, but it didn't help her anxiety.

Finally, at quarter to eleven, she finished. It was sloppy, her handwriting barely legible at the end, and she honestly was not sure if she finished the last word she was writing, but it was done. Jumping from her desk, she tossed the paper to Toady and ran from the room, digging her car keys from her backpack. She had already moved her car to the closest lot and thrown in a weekend suitcase. All she had to do was get in and drive.

The drive was normally four hours. With her twisted nerves, she did the drive in three. Pulling into Amity Park was a huge relief. She was here, she was home. She could fix this. She would talk to Mom, make her see reason. She would reassure Danny, make sure he was okay.

Everything would be fine.

She turned a corner, nearly colliding with the end of a line of cars.

"What's with all the tra—Oh my god." Her mouth fell.

Police stood directing traffic, letting cars go through one at a time. A clean-up crew was busy at work, shoveling debris to the side of the work.

And where the buildings should have been, the rows of town houses, were gone, laid out on the street in front of her. Beds were torn in half, books and stuffed animals poked out of piles of brick.

"What happened?" Jazz wondered, glancing around. The destruction stretched for three blocks. Families picked through the wreckage, fresh cuts and bruises covering their faces.

This was far more damage than a normal ghost fight. And if these people had been in their homes when it happened…it was hard to imagine there weren't any casualties.

The line of traffic was hardly moved, so she pulled her phone out and called Danny. She wasn't that surprised when he didn't answer, but her panic rose nonetheless. She called Tucker next. It went to voicemail, and she barely kept herself from hyperventilating.

"Tucker, it's Jazz. Call me, please."

She was scrolling down her list of contacts to Sam's name when Tucker texted her.

In class still. Give me ten minutes.

Oh, right. That was still a thing.

"How can they have school after this?"

Part of her knew it was a silly question. Because of unpredictable ghost attacks and snowy winters, school was often cancelled. If the danger wasn't imminent, classes would continue.

But still…she'd have thought they'd make an exception with a disaster this bad.

Ten minutes later she had only just turned onto the next road. Her phone rang, and she snatched it up and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey Jazz," Tucker said.

"Tucker, what happened? I just got into town and everything's…."

"Yeah," Tucker cut in. "We're not really sure. A couple people caught some of it on camera, and it looks like Danny's wail."

Jazz narrowed her eyes and pulled her car to the side of the road. "Hold on, what do you mean 'looks like?'" she asked. "Didn't Danny tell you what happened?"

Don't tell her he was missing…that was the last thing she needed right now. Or worse, her parents had found him as Phantom and captured him…

"Well," Tucker started. "I haven't seen him since we went to bed. And I was the last person with him before the fight."

Oh this was bad. This was really, really bad.

"Do you have any idea where he went after the fight?"

"None," Tucker said. "But," he didn't continue right away.

Jazz clenched the steering wheel. "Tucker."

"It's just…Danny only uses his wail as a last resort," Tucker said. "It drains him pretty badly."

"Right…"

"So if he used the wail, that means things were pretty bad. And if it didn't work or he missed somehow…"

Jazz's stomach dropped to her feet. "He'd be too drained to fight back." Whoever he'd been fighting could have easily captured him. Or anyone else that stumbled upon him. He'd be an easy target.

"There's another option!" Sam called in the background. "His wail makes him turn back, so it's possible he's just passed out somewhere, too exhausted to find us."

Jazz chewed her lip. That option was almost worse. If he was just passed out somewhere, then he would see the destruction when he woke up. With his hero complex, when he saw the damage…he'd blame himself. And since his mental state was already questionable because of the current situation with their family…who knew what he'd do.

"Damn," Jazz cursed softly.

"We're about to start looking around town. Think you could snag the boo-merang from your house?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah…yeah I can do that," Jazz said. Find Danny. That was the number one priority right now. Handling his mental state could wait. First they had to find him.

She hung up and pulled her car back into the street, maneuvering the roads back to her house. Once she was away from the damage, the traffic cleared up some, enough that she made it home in another ten minutes. It still felt like too long.

She ran inside the house, intending to sprint all the way to the lab, but she was stopped in the kitchen by her father.

"Jazzerincess! What are you doing home?" Jack asked, a smile spread over her face.

Jazz skidded to a halt, her mind going blank. Her father was checking the calibration on a bazooka, one of many weapons laid out on the table. Wrist rays were already attacked to his forearms, and he wore a specter deflector.

"What are you…what's all this for?" Jazz asked.

"To hunt that no-good Phantom! He'll pay for what he did to our city!"

"Uh…mom hasn't talked to you, has she?"

He put the bazooka down and glanced towards the ceiling. "No…she wasn't feeling well today. Went back to bed as soon as we heard the news. I'm getting all this stuff ready for when she's ready!"

"Oh, that's…thoughtful," Jazz said. "But, uh, maybe you better hold off?"

"What for?"

"Um…" Jazz scrambled for an excuse. "Because…mom will only redo it her way."

Jack considered that. "Well, I suppose…but it's so much fun."

Jazz took a deep breath. "I'm going to go talk to mom, let her know I'm home."

"Sounds good. I'm gonna finish this calibration!"

"Yeah, you do that," Jazz said. She turned out of the kitchen and went upstairs, rubbing a palm over her face.

She found her mother curled in a ball under her quilt. The pillow under her face was soaked, the trails of moisture leading back to bloodshot eyes.

"Mom?" Jazz asked. "Are you okay?"

Violet eyes drifted up to look at Jazz.

"I'll take that as a no…" Jazz said. She sat on the edge of the bed, putting a hand on her mother's shoulder. "You're conflicted about Danny, right?"

Maddie curled into a tighter ball, pressing her face into the pillow.

"He's your son, and you love him, but he's also a ghost, which you despise on principle. And with the damage to the city, you're natural instinct to hunt the ghost responsible is warring with your natural instinct to protect your son."

"What am I supposed to do?" Maddie whispered. "I can't let something evil go free, but I can't hurt Danny either."

Jazz glanced at Maddie. "What if Phantom wasn't evil?"

"Don't be silly. Of course he is."

"Where's your proof?"

"He's a ghost."

"Not a full ghost, therefore he can't be fully evil."

Maddie glanced up at Jazz. "But he's still partially evil."

Jazz's eyes drifted to ceiling thoughtfully. "I suppose everyone has a little bit of evil in them…that's what keeps us balanced. But Phantom isn't as evil as you think."

"He destroyed half the town."

"Three blocks is not half the town, and he didn't do it on purpose. He was fighting another ghost, trying to protect the town."

Maddie snorted. "Some protection."

"You and Dad have caused property damage to and you know it."

Maddie looked down at the mattress, her cheeks reddening. "We don't do it on purpose."

"And neither does Danny."

"Well what about the time he kidnapped the mayor?" Maddie demanded. She sat up a little now, pushing the covers away.

"Kidnapped the mayor?" Jazz repeated, her mind working furiously to recall the event. "Oh, yeah he told me about that. He said some warden ghost from the ghost zone prison had framed him. The mayor was possessed by a ghost during that."

"The ghost zone has a prison?" Maddie asked.

Jazz smiled and shook her head. The woman may be having an existential crisis, but she was still a scientist.

"Anyway," Jazz went on, "Phantom didn't kidnap the mayor."

Maddie looked up at Jazz. She wanted so badly to believe her daughter, to believe that her son, as Danny Phantom, was someone she could trust.

"What about the crime spree he had? He stole over a million dollars in one night!"

Jazz put a hand to her chin. "Wasn't all that returned within a couple days?"

"They found it on that Circus Gothica train, but it wasn't returned."

Jazz snapped her fingers. "That's right, that's when that circus was in town! Danny told me all about that. Freakshow, the ringmaster, had a crystal that controlled ghosts and was using a whole crew of them to steal from every town they went to. When it came into town, Danny fell victim to it. Sam snapped him out of it somehow."

"So why didn't he return the money?"

Jazz stared at her mother. "He was already 'Public Enemy number 1,' he wasn't going to hang around and talk to police."

"He still should have owned up to it and explained it to us."

"Would you have listened?" Jazz countered.

Maddie opened her mouth to rebuke the insult, but then she had to shut it again. If she was honest with herself, then she knew the answer. If Phantom had been found with the money, he would have been shot on sight and they would have tried to arrest him. They wouldn't have listened to any 'mind control' story.

"I suppose not," Maddie said. She drew her knees to her chest.

Jazz reached down to her bag and pulled out her scrapbook. "I think you should look at this," she said, passing the book to her mother. "I have to go find Danny right now, but you read that. I'll have my phone on if you need to talk."

Maddie took the scrapbook and Jazz walked out of the room. The cover of the binder was pink, Jazz's handwriting covering the top half in her neat scrawl. The first page was covered in news articles about Danny Phantom, detailing some of his fights. Maddie read each one and then flipped the page, looking for more. To her surprise, the article on this page wasn't about a fight. It was about Phantom helping to clear away some of the debris from a fight and using his strength to pop out some dents in cars.

She remembered seeing this article, scoffing at it, thinking it was an act for Phantom to get closer to people and earn their trust. But knowing what she knew now…knowing about Danny's kindness, she could see it differently. It wasn't an act. It was genuine.

She flipped through the book, finding similar articles. Any article that depicted Danny negatively had Jazz's handwriting next to it, explaining what had happened. There were numerous photos of Danny pasted to the pages, most printed out from the computer. A lot of them were grainy shots of him flying, a few were action shots of him fighting.

Here, at last, was what her son had been doing for the last two years. All the late nights, all the injuries, all the secrets explained. She finally had the truth.

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