A/N: Hey folks! Just so y'all're aware, this is one of the chapters with heavy themes! They are, however, contained within titled sections, so if you'd like to keep reading past them I'll list them here, and state the non-triggering stuff in a second note at the end.
Those of you who stop here, thank you for reading as much as you have! I really appreciate it 3

TWs in this chapter:
Homelessness (and, well, possession)- "Possessed"
Panic Attack- "Voice"
I'll be back to explain the other parts of these sections at the end!

Possessed

Danny blinked, and found himself uselessly rubbing away at his eyes, tears flowing too quickly to be swept away by hand. Blinded by emotions he was sure weren't his, he felt himself falling, hurtling , in no discernible direction. Was this what it felt like to be possessed? Those nasty ghosts tricked him! Lulled him into a false sense of security, pretended to be him, and took the opportunity to parade around in his body!

This-

This was-

Lonely.

He could find no other word to describe it, but the emotion he felt right now...

He wasn't angry.

He expected to be angry.

Were these the ghost's feelings?

But-

Ghosts don't have feelings.

Do they?

"I'm sorry," he found himself saying. "I'm so sorry. I wasn't good enough, not for him, not for you guys." A moment of pause, before the voice from his lips －the voice that wasn't his, couldn't be his, didn't even sound close to how his had sounded in a long time. Was this his body?－ spoke again. "I'm not good enough for anyone."

Maybe he was the ghost. Not the possessed, but the possessor.

How could he do something like this?

Why would he do something like this?

The ghost was finally taking over, wasn't it?

And then－

"Owww. Okay, note to self, don't go zipping around fully tangible when you can't see." Probably wise. Whatever just happened, something hurt.

His body －or, maybe, the body he was in － sat up, braced against a wall. His －her?－ the head shook, casting those blinding tears away.

He was in an alley.

Yuck.

"Oh man. Where am I going to go? Not like I can get a job; Danny said I look twelve, and no one's going to hire a twelve-year-old. Maybe I could convince someone to adopt me? No, no. I couldn't do that to someone again. Valerie seemed to like me at least－ well, after we got past the half-ghost thing... No. I have to do this on my own. Wait this out until I'm older? Best option, really."

She took a deep breath. "Back on the street. Lovely."

And he was back.

Voice

"What- I- What was-" Danny struggled with words, mind racing as he came back into his own head. He was back in the Ghost Zone, by the abandoned Lair where he and Elle had been training.

He stopped talking, and his head snapped up to where Elle had been before… whatever that was.

Crying .

She was crying .

"Elle? Is… is everything okay?"

"I don't- I- What is wrong with me?"

Oh. Uh. How to handle this…

"Uhm. I think you're pretty cool, actually?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm not－" She took a deep, desperate breath. "I'm not-"

I'm not good enough, something in his mind said.

A voice that wasn't his.

A voice…

A voice he now recognized, though he should have realized it sooner.

"Guys?" called an older voice, this time not in his head. "What's going on? Did something happen? I saw- Well, this is going to sound really weird, but-"

"I know. I saw it, too."

"You did?" Adult Danny asked.

"Us too," Jumpsuit Danny announced, making sure Tall Danny had plenty of room to barrel past him as they flew in.

Tall Danny came to an abrupt stop a few feet away from Elle.

"Hey," he said, voice seeming far calmer than his frantic arrival would suggest.

It's an act, Danny heard. He's just trying to calm her down.

That was… not the same voice, but one that he'd also heard in his head before…

He'd puzzle that out later.

Right now, Tall Danny was offering Elle a hand. "It's okay, cuz. I'm right here. I trust you. I won't leave you behind, okay?"

Elle's sharp, ragged breaths were the only sound as the Dannys fell silent.

Oh, come on, what's that thing Jazz does? "Five things you can see", or something?

That voice was entirely new.

Later .

Tall Danny whipped around to glare at him, eyes flickering between icy blue and harsh violet. Had he said that out loud?

"N-no, that was about something else! Something that's not… super important right now."

Tall Danny squinted his flashing eyes, maybe with scrutiny, very possibly with bubbling anger.

Ohhh, no.

Danny braced himself and…

Tall Danny's eyes went wide, sparking an orange color before returning to green.

Elle floated behind him, eyes red and puffy, yet dry. She had a tight grip on his sleeve, relaxing as he turned to face her.

"You okay, cuz?"

"Yeah, just… remembered something not-too-great."

She gave a withered smile, and her cousin(?) scooped her into a hug.

"Don't scare me like that," they chorused.

Multiples

"So what… what was all that?" Jumpsuit Danny asked. "That… vision , the whole 'hearing you guys' voices in my head' thing…?"

"Is that not just a ghost thing?" Danny asked.

"It's… a little complicated," Adult Danny replied.

"Keep talking. If something's going on, I want to know about it," Tall Danny said, prompting the others to nod.

"Okay, just… bear with me for a sec." Adult Danny took a deep breath. "Clockwork warned me this would happen. And no , before you say anything, I did not know it was going to happen like this. All I know is, when there are multiples of the same ghost in a timeline at once, they tend to… blend together, sort of. Memory-sharing, telepathic communication… The timeline sees the same ectosignature in too many places and tries to put them together the best way it can. It's not really a problem when it's a small enough number, especially when the signatures are slightly different－that's why Elle can exist without, well, merging with her Danny. Her artificial signature is just close enough that it doesn't usually cause a problem. And the other Danny also isn't a Danny, so he has a way different ectosignature."

"'Other Danny'? Let me guess, time stuff."

The others nodded. "Time stuff."

"But when there are enough of the same ghost around, that puts crazy amounts of pressure on spacetime. It's part of why duplicates are so hard to hold on to for long periods, and why the Ghostcatcher doesn't quite work like we thought it would."

"So what you're saying is there's too many Dannys?" Danny asked.

"Yeah. Too many Dannys."

A/N: I'm back! Hope y'all enjoyed; that chapter was a ride, huh? :)

Those of you who skipped sections for trigger warnings, here's what you missed:
"Possessed"- In a blink, POV Danny finds himself living out a situation he can't control. At first, he thinks he's being possessed by one of the other Dannys, but quickly realizes it's not his body he's sharing... The scene that plays out is a flashback to when Elle escaped from Vlad after D-Stabilized, and started weighing her options.
"Voice"- POV Danny comes out of the flashback, only to find that Elle is upset over something. The other Dannys show up, revealing that they saw the flashback, too, and "Tall Danny" rushes over to calm Elle down. POV Danny starts to recognize the voices he keeps hearing, and "Tall Danny" hears something POV Danny didn't think he said out loud. He misinterprets it, and gets angry at POV Danny, who tries to defuse the situation until later. "Tall Danny" is torn between anger and concern, until Elle catches his arm, and they hug, telling each other, "Don't scare me like that again."