Coldness from the rough brick at his back seeped through his shirt, but it was real. It was grounding him. Danny wasn't going to complain about that right now. The brick was as hard and solid as the cracking pavement beneath him, and despite what it sometimes felt like, Danny knew it wasn't moving.

It was also a reminder that he wasn't moving, even though his stomach was alternately rising and plummeting like he was riding a roller coaster.

Danny gritted his teeth, kept his eyes screwed shut, and tried to focus on forcing that feeling out.

Johnny had talked him through this about as well as Sidney had, in Danny's opinion, but at least Johnny's comparisons made more sense. The terms were simpler. Less technical. That energy inside you? That's what home feels like to me now. You've got a piece of it. That's your key. You just need to find it. Once you can harness that, you can be picky about what you do with it.

Danny could identify the energy—or rather the feelings it gave him—that Johnny meant easily enough. It morphed from time to time, shifting from headiness to a pit in his stomach to a spine-tingling awareness of being watched, but it was always there. It was always inside him.

And it was always other, somehow, rather than his, even when the feeling filled him, just as the dizzying mix of terror and exhilaration did now.

"You holding up? You're looking a bit green."

"I'm fine," Danny ground out. The response was mostly automatic—he wasn't fine; he probably hadn't been fine since the accident, and if he had been, he definitely hadn't been fine since the shifter had come through—but he'd already had a chance to catch his breath. He couldn't afford to squander his precious time when the shifter could be doing who knew what in retaliation for his escape.

His second escape, technically.

He needed to figure this out yesterday. Jazz might be helping him now, too, and she could hopefully keep better tabs on their parents and Sam and Tucker than he could, but it was still dangerous. He knew that. So, he had to get this sooner rather than later, which meant pushing himself, which meant trying to do this even if he looked a bit green—

Wait.

Danny opened his eyes, blinking away stars and trying to focus on his hands. "You don't mean literally, right?"

They were swathed in shadow behind the building, the streetlights nearest to them dark in a way that Danny hoped wouldn't be too obvious a pattern to the shifter, but Johnny himself gave off a faint glow. It was light enough for Danny to realize, after a moment of rising panic, that he still looked normal. The panic calmed as he released a breath, and his stomach settled back to where it should be.

"What, you afraid to become someone like me?"

There was something in Johnny's tone that Danny couldn't pinpoint. It wasn't quite said like a joke, and Johnny's eyes looked serious enough, but Danny wasn't the best at reading facial expressions, so he couldn't be sure. Danny turned the words over in his head for another few seconds before venturing, "You mean, am I afraid to die?"

Johnny shrugged.

"I…I guess. I mean. Not everyone becomes a ghost, right? I don't think so. There'd be more stories, wouldn't there be, if that were the case?"

Johnny smirked. "I might be on the other side of this, kid, but I don't have all the answers. You'd want to talk to someone a little higher up than me."

Danny blinked. "You've got hierarchies?"

"There's still some semblance of society on the other side. Don't worry about the details now. Focus on finding that key inside you first."

Right.

Danny closed his eyes again. "I know the feeling you mean," he said as he tried to reach for it. It was cold now, unsettling, and trying to grab it felt too much like trying to hold water in his hands. "It's just…slippery."

"So don't grab at it. Isolate it instead. Pack it up and push it out."

The feeling was centred in the pit of his stomach now, but there was no boxing up and moving it anywhere. It was just stubbornly there and wasn't going to obligingly move because he wanted it to. "How?"

"Don't think about it too hard. Just let it gather and push it out."

Danny let out an exasperated sputter. "What?"

Johnny didn't wilt under Danny's glare. "You said you know what it feels like. What you need to do is take that feeling from inside of you and push it out. Doesn't need to be gentle. Rip it out if you have to. Get it off your chest."

"It's not in my chest. It's in my stomach."

"Figuratively. Imagine it bleeding out if that makes it easier. You said it was slippery? Gather it up and let it slip away."

"Tip me over and pour me out," Danny muttered.

"Sure, if it helps. I'm not going to judge you or your teapot impression as long as you hold up your end of the bargain."

Danny rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to do actions from a kid's song." He especially wasn't going to do something like that every single time he tried to do this. How embarrassing would that be?

"Good. Means you're not that desperate yet. Which means you can keep going. Movement might help you, though. Just doesn't have to be that movement."

"Fine." Danny moved his right arm in an arc from his knee to the wall, dragging his fingertips along the pavement as he did so. "That action-y enough for you?"

"Try that when you're focusing and you'll have your answer."

It seemed pointless, but whatever. It was worth trying. Danny imagined that feeling pouring out of him, draining down through his fingertips, and a sudden shift made his head swim. He broke off the action and found his palm flat on the pavement, holding him upright.

One of Johnny's hands landed on his shoulder, the other on his chest, and steadied him before slowly pushing him back. "I'd guess movement helps you." The words didn't sound as condescending as Danny had thought they would. "Run with that. Just don't stand up until you can do it without almost falling on your face."

"Gee, thanks, I never would've thought that I shouldn't try this sitting first."

Johnny snorted. "Just try it again."

Danny did, this time tracing a circle in the air. He kept his eyes open, watching for some sign of something, a spark of light or a ripple in the air like rising heat or something equally telltale if ambiguous, but nothing happened. "Crud." He tried again, then tried with the opposite hand, and then with both hands, but each attempt met with the same level of success. That is, nothing happened.

He didn't think he was doing anything differently. Sure, he was drawing a pattern in the air instead of on the ground, but why would that matter?

"Let me tell you more about Kitty," Johnny said, and Danny groaned.

"That's not going to help me focus."

"Maybe you need the distraction. You're probably overthinking things by now."

Yeah, right. He needed a distraction like he needed a hole in the head. "You want me to go backwards faster than I currently am? Then keep talking."

"Have a little faith in me. I'm helping you, remember? Now, my Kitty…."

Danny let Johnny drone on, only half paying attention to the words. He seized on that sense of disquiet within him and tried to yank on it and push it out, which naturally did nothing. How come he'd had more success when he'd barely been trying? That didn't make sense.

Not that he was going to say that out loud. Johnny would just claim that it meant he was right, that Danny needed a distraction from focusing.

"…underestimated, but if you fall for that, you're gonna be sorry. She'll go for…."

Danny held both his hands in front of him and imagined the energy at his centre flowing up and out.

Maybe he should try standing after all?

"…whip and twice as sharp with her barbs if you let her speak her mind—which you should if you know what's good for you. Otherwise, her words won't be the only thing directed at you when you aren't looking, if you catch my drift. See, she's really…."

Danny stood, and Johnny made no move to stop him, though he floated to his feet to stay on Danny's level. Danny took a deep breath to try to chase away the bit of lightheadedness the movement had given him and let it out slowly as he braced himself against the wall and pushed against a wall in front of him that didn't exist.

Yet.

There's a door there. There's a door there and I can open it if I can just—make it—show—up—

Pins and needles swept through his arms, and he wasn't sure if it was working or if he was just getting tired from holding them out.

"…best girl in the entire realm, and the best person next to me you could have to help you if you're going to pick a fight with a shifter…."

There was a tickle starting in the back of his throat, and panic that the portal might just be moving inside of him instead of moving outside of him like it was supposed to had Danny splaying his fingers and pushing at the air in front of him, and this time….

This time, something moved.

In a rough circle about four feet in diameter that was centred at a point between his hands, the world seemed to shift, the view within slightly skewed from where it had been seconds before, almost like it was suddenly underwater.

"Keep going," Johnny murmured.

It was taking most of Danny's concentration not to let whatever he'd done dissipate. "How?"

"Depends what makes the most sense to you. Pull it. Twist it. Rip it. Heck, you might even be able to just will it into existence. Keep trying, and you'll find out what works for you."

That wasn't as helpful as Johnny probably thought it was, but whatever. Danny was up for trying anything now that he was getting some kind of result, so he pulled.

Nothing.

He pushed.

Nothing.

He twisted, opening two imaginary doorknobs in opposite directions.

Nothing.

He curled his fingers into claws and spread his hands apart.

Still nothing, which meant willing it wasn't going to do any good, either, or that would've made one of the other methods work. Probably.

Danny squinted at the almost-portal. It wasn't rippling at all; it was more like he was looking into a still pond. Diving in might be possible, but that wasn't what he wanted to do. Maybe, if it was more like ice, it would give him something concrete to get through? So he didn't have to visualize an invisible barrier between worlds?

Danny took a deep breath, pursed his lips like he was about to whistle, and blew out a steady stream of cold air.

By all rights, that shouldn't have made a difference, but the almost-portal took on a glassy, greenish sheen.

Danny reached one finger forward to touch it, and a spiderweb of cracks spread outward from that point. He jumped back in surprise, but instead of completely vanishing, the not-glass shattered and melted to mist as the pieces fell.

Bright green light shone out into the night, pulsing slightly as if it were somehow alive. The circle wasn't perfect, bulging slightly on one end and wavering in its path to completeness, but the edges were clean, like a giant cookie cutter had just taken a chunk out of the universe.

The tickle in Danny's throat returned, worse than before, and he coughed to try to clear it.

Still, if that was the price he had to pay? He was fine with it. It was way less painful than what was apparently the default method.

Johnny, looking completely unperturbed by any of this, stuck his head into the hole and yelled, "Hey, Kitten? You close?"

"Johnny? Is that you?" The answer came almost immediately, and the girl—ghost—that must be Kitty flew into view, rising to meet the portal. Danny saw her hair before he saw the rest of her; it was green and styled in a way that would give him some idea of when she'd died if he knew anything about fashion. Maybe he could ask Jazz when this was all over, assuming Kitty agreed to help and those two actually met.

"It's me, Babycakes! I'm with that new gatekeeper. Come on over and meet him."

"No, wait," Danny said as the girl sailed easily into Johnny's arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck, though he held her without any trouble whatsoever. No. Crud. This was bad. This wasn't supposed to be happening.

Johnny's voice rang in Danny's head. I don't always play by the rules.

Crud.

What had he gotten himself into?

"That wasn't the deal." He sounded desperate. He knew he sounded desperate, and the suddenly writhing, sparking edges of the portal would be indication enough of his anxiety if Johnny somehow couldn't hear it in his voice. "Kitty was supposed to wait over there until we talked to her."

"I did talk to her," Johnny pointed out, and Kitty laughed and kissed him. Danny half-expected a cartoonish lipstick print to be left behind on Johnny's face, but there was nothing.

Not that he particularly cared right now. "Not about our deal! What about helping me?"

"Relax, kid. I'm still going to help you, whatever my kitten decides. But the deal was that I teach you to create a specific portal and you bring over Kitty, which you did."

That was…no. No. Danny still had no idea what he'd done. "That's only how the agreement started. And you didn't teach me enough!" There was a crack, and the portal collapsed in on itself and was gone. "I still don't get this. I can't do it again. You were supposed to show me the difference between windows and gates and—"

"You started with a window," cut in Johnny, "and broke it into a gate. Bam. Two different types of portals."

"But—"

"You wanna know how you made it a specific one? Because I was telling you all about Kitty and how great a girl she is, and some of that got through that wooden block you call a head and sunk in."

"Hey!"

"Point is, you focused on her even if you didn't realize you were focusing on her. I tell you how much you need her, you hear that when you're trying to focus on opening a gate, and guess where that gate opens."

Wait.

That actually made sense.

And it tracked with what Sidney had been talking about earlier about Danny calling him through, which meant Johnny wasn't making something up on the spot. Probably.

"Lay off the poor kid for a minute, Johnny," Kitty said. She slid out of his arms and settled onto the ground as she adjusted her jacket. "He must be pretty new at this if you have to tell him about the different gates."

"I—" Now that her red eyes were focused on him, he found them disconcerting. Sidney's were grey, like the rest of him, and Johnny's were green, but he couldn't pretend Kitty's were a natural shade, and her gaze pinned him to the wall like a stuck butterfly. "I'm figuring it out."

She hummed disbelievingly and looked over at Johnny, who shrugged. "He already got on the wrong side of a shifter. That's why he wants help."

Kitty's expression turned incredulous. "And you agreed to help him? What, you don't think we have enough of a bullseye on our backs? Your bad luck shadow can't protect you from everything."

Hold on.

Bad luck shadow? As in, Shadow shadow?

Was that the reason Danny had ended up stuck in a door when the shifter had turned up? Bad luck?

Maybe not. Kitty's words could be an exaggeration. Things hadn't gone sideways before that, and there had been plenty of time for it.

Danny cleared his throat. "Yeah, he's helping me, so you can either help, too, or I can get you back to where you were and you can wait for him."

"Sending her back wasn't part of the deal, kid."

"Neither was bringing her through before she knew the terms."

To Danny's surprise, Johnny smiled. "You're getting better at that. So let's see if you can remember what you did. Go on, make her a portal back."

"Johnny!" Kitty hissed, but he laid a placating hand on her arm that had her pursing her lips and biting her tongue.

Danny swallowed and raised his hands.

How the heck had he managed to make a portal?

"What do I focus on if I'm not looking for a specific ghost?" When Johnny didn't immediately answer, Danny dropped his hands and glared. "Come on, if you don't tell me—which you already agreed to do, I might add—then you run the risk of me screwing up and putting out another one of those general call things and letting the shifter know where we are."

"Okay, kiddo, look," Kitty said. "You just want a door to the other side, right? You don't care where it opens up?"

"He doesn't know enough to care," Johnny murmured, and Danny frowned. That was hardly his fault.

"Don't call me kiddo," he said, since that was an argument he could win, especially when his best other option was complaining that the others didn't tell him stuff. He didn't know enough at this point to know what kinds of questions to even ask.

"So you don't," Kitty reiterated. "Meaning you can make a doorway literally anywhere. Kid, if you're a gatekeeper, you can rip through reality more easily than Wulf. Heck, you don't even need to make your own door. You can just reach out and open what's already there because it'll always be there for you."

He—? It would—? What? "How?"

"If you did it once, you know what it feels like." She closed the distance between them and took his hands in hers before lifting them. "You held up your hands like this?"

"He did."

Johnny's voice was tight, but Danny didn't realize why until Kitty looked back at her boyfriend. "Relax, this is just so I can stay with you without listening to a third wheel gripe about it. And because me helping you not get yourself destroyed by a shifter benefits both of us, and if that means this kid gets through it, too, then all the better for him." She turned back to Danny, letting go but nudging his hands back up when he started to drop them to his side. "Walk me through what you did."

"I don't know what I did." He felt like an idiot, but it was true. "I just…. I dunno. I had my hands up, and I was trying to see something, and it just…." He shrugged and dropped his hands.

"What were you trying to see?"

"Anything. A gate, I guess. A door. A portal. Whatever."

"So you wanted there to be a gate."

"I think I was at the point where I'd have been happy with a wall. I'd figured, if I could touch that, then it wouldn't be that hard to make a window."

"So you took the fabric between realms and made it solid so you could open a window or a door rather than tear through it like paper."

She said that more like it was a statement of fact than a question, but Danny was a lot less sure of it. "I guess?"

"Then that's what you do until you get comfortable and have the time to figure out how many ways you can skin a cat. So do the same thing. Make it solid, find your window, and then open a door."

"But—"

"That's what you did," Johnny said. "You brought a section of the fabric into phase with this realm, froze over a window, and then smashed through it to make a gateway."

Danny blinked. "That doesn't mean I know how I did it."

"You just said how you did it." Kitty's voice held a touch less patience than it had seconds ago. "You wanted it to be solid, so you made it solid. Come on, hands up."

Danny obliged, mostly because having one ghost angry at him at a time was more than enough.

"Spread your fingers like you're pushing against that wall already," Johnny said. "That's what you were doing before, so mime it."

It felt ridiculous, but Danny did so, trying to remember what he'd been thinking last time he'd done this.

Maybe that didn't matter as long as he focused on doing what they wanted him to now; if nothing else, he was paying enough attention to rule it out if it didn't work.

Okay.

He didn't just have his hands flat out in the air. He was pushing on a wall. It was a solid division between realms, the part his parents had been trying to drill through when making their interdimensional portal. Just because they hadn't succeeded in doing that the way they'd expected, didn't mean it couldn't be done. He could do it now. That was the power inside of him.

He was a gatekeeper, and the shifter—terrifying though they were—was afraid he would figure out everything that meant.

Danny took a deep breath, focused on that feeling inside of him, and pushed it out.

Once again, the shadows shifted, settling into something not quite the same as they'd been before. Something not quite innocuous or normal. It might pass as such at first glance, but that spine-tingling feeling that had been inside of him pervaded the air now, and it wouldn't go without notice by anyone who looked twice.

"It worked!" The first time hadn't been a fluke. He'd done it this time, which meant he should be able to do it next time, and—

The shadows melted back to the way they'd been before.

Crud.

"You either need to focus or do it faster," Johnny said, which was utterly unhelpful because Danny had already figured that part out.

"This is harder than you think it is," he muttered. "It's definitely harder than it looks."

"Oh, sweetheart, everyone has a learning curve when it comes to their powers," Kitty said. "Sometimes you don't even realize you can do something until you do it, you know? I accidentally banished more than one ghost before I realized what was happening, and it took me even longer to figure out that I had a finite window to get them back."

"Wait." The idea of shoving the shifter through a portal was replaced with a much easier alternative. "You can just banish ghosts? So with the shifter—"

"No." The answer came from both Kitty and Johnny, which was completely unfair in Danny's opinion.

"I didn't even finish!"

Kitty huffed out a laugh. "I'm not banishing your problem, kid. I haven't figured out where they go, which means I haven't figured out if they can come back on their own. Just because no one has yet doesn't mean it's impossible, and I'm not going to tempt fate. I'm not opposed to giving you a bit of help, but I'm not about to paint an even bigger target on my back than Johnny's already put there. Shifters don't always work alone."

"I only let one through. Trust me, with the way they used to come, I'm certain about that."

Kitty crossed her arms. "You equally certain this one doesn't have friends? Doesn't have any way to contact their allies on the other side? Hasn't found any natural portals or arranged for someone to come through a gate you don't control?"

Danny hated the idea that the shifter might already have allies on this side. His plan, vague though it was, kinda counted on the fact that they didn't. "No, but—"

"But nothing. If you want them banished so bad, figure out if it's something you can do. With someone who isn't us as a test subject."

He was not about to ask Sidney to do something like that. "I'm trying to figure out this gate thing first. Besides, I don't even know if I have other powers." Unreliable emergency hovering and quick recovery time aside, anyway.

"You'll have other powers." Johnny moved so he could sling his arm around Kitty's shoulders, and she melted into him. They really must have missed each other; Danny was probably lucky they were still talking to him instead of disappearing somewhere without him. Not that he would have wanted to be with them if they had tried to sneak off, but he wasn't overly keen on being alone right now, either. "Having the ability to control the gates will have changed something in you, just like remaining on the other side has changed us."

Danny bit his lip. He'd known something had changed in him, but he'd thought this was it. What if the other powers he supposedly had also resulted in a messes like this one? He didn't want to deal with that alone. "This was all an accident, you know. I…. I did something stupid, and this was the result."

"You pissed off a shifter. The fact that you did something else stupid doesn't surprise me." Johnny smirked at Danny's glare. "What? We all do something stupid sometimes, and since no one can sweet talk the master of time into giving them a redo, we're stuck with those choices."

"Wait, there's a master of time? And people try to sweet talk them?"

"There's a master of time," Kitty said, "but I doubt anyone gets close enough to petition for anything. It's really easy for someone who knows you're coming to avoid you if they don't want to see you. But that's not Johnny's point. Point is, you're stuck with whatever stupid thing you did, so what matters is how you handle the consequences."

Right. Consequences. Danny didn't want to think about what consequences might come out of his current defiance of the shifter.

He raised his hands. "Fine. I need to get this. Let's try it again."