Bittersweet Future

by Balshumet

Danny is sure his life can't get any worse. Vlad is the mayor, and is ruining his life, or so he thinks. In an impulsive act, Danny changes his past and future. But what if the future he's made isn't what he hoped it would be?

18. If You Thought This Was A Typical Trip

A/N: Woo what's this? A new chapter before a whole year has passed? Inside of two months even? Yes that's right! I know I said once a week, but that's more of a suggestion, like the pirate code from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Still! I hope you all enjoy, and I'll see you at the bottom.

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If You Thought This Was A Typical Trip…

Danny ignored the of sound of the cushions creaking for the third time in the last fifteen minutes. They were stacked on top of each in the back third of the RV, and the noises were the least of his problems. Every joint ached and creaked, his body having decided to remind him he'd slept in a basement the night after fighting the GSU in Amity and the day before fighting them in the valley. Ghost powers came with a lot of perks, but even they couldn't salve all the aches of being slammed into shields or taking ecto-weapon fire to one of your limbs. Still, he was in better shape than either the eldest halfa or Daniel. The latter had gotten concussion symptoms at some point between 10pm and midnight, and spent the night bouncing between yakking his brains out and wincing at every drip in the cave. The former couldn't even lay down flat or breathe without suppressing shivers; he'd wheezed all night like a squeaky toy. Danny would have found it hilarious under different circumstances.

He could deal with a little soreness and the annoyance of one of the twins punting his back all night...even if it makes me want to kick them back. As another dream induced kick popped him in the ribs right near his kidneys, he gave up on sleeping any longer. He didn't want or need any more bruises, and he couldn't manage to get comfortable enough to sleep more anyway. He struggled out from the twisted up blankets and picked his way past people towards the bathroom. His alternate universe twin glared up at him the moment he passed, mouthing something about shutting up, but he was tiptoeing and everything made him wince, so Danny ignored it.

He stumbled back out of the bathroom to find his elder sister grimacing back at him, all bed head and dark circles under her eyes. He eyed the wrist she'd been rubbing the day before and suppressed a wince when he saw the dark bruise and the swelling. It looked more like a big purple plum than a wrist at the moment. He shuffled towards the front of the RV, dodging when Daniel threw a pillow at his head and actually hissed at him. Dude is annoying, but if my head hurt as much as his does right now, I'd throw something heavier. Danny reasoned before getting off the RV. He was hungry, and determined to find some food.

He shuffled back into the middle of the rocky antechamber the RV was parked in, and startled when he saw his mom already setting up what looked to be a hot plate and some pans. She had a frown fixed firmly on her face though and was rummaging through some metal crates. "Where is any of the damn—"

"Morning." He watched her stiffly stop leaning over a box and wave at him.

"Is Jasmine awake? I'm trying to find the packaged meals."

"Um, yeah?" Danny grumbled, voice still gravely with sleep. "Just saw her head towards the bathroom. What time is it?"

"A little after 4:30 in the morning."

"Oh God, I'm going back to sleep. I don't care if they keep using my left kidney as a soccer ball."

"No you're not. We need to start preparing to head down into the valley to grab supplies." He groaned then, realizing he'd be lifting things and moving objects way earlier than he'd like.

"Can't it wai—"

"No." Her voice was flat, drained, and strained. She swept a piece of sticky hair away from her forehead and pointed back at Danny. "Go grab Jasmine, quietly, so she can tell me where she packed the food. Then come back here with Daniel." She made a shooing motion and leaned back over the boxes, pushing something around inside before pulling out a cast iron skillet.

"He's probably going to kill me if I try to talk to him."

"He can't shoot an ecto-ray strong enough to hurt a fly right now. Stop being such a baby, and go do as you're told."

Yikes! This day is off to a great start. Danny complained before making his way back towards the RV. Inside, he heard whispering and climbed up to find his sister and Daniel in the front half of the RV, hissing back in forth in tones that sounded like an argument. He moved to join them, and they stopped to gaze tiredly in his direction. "Hey…so Jazz your mom wants to ask about where the food's gotten to? Also, I'm supposed to bring you with sourpuss pillow thrower."

"I'll tell her where the food is, but he shouldn't be moving."

"I'm fine."

"You have a grade three concussion."

"I'm conscious."

"You have ghost powers. Which is why you aren't dead, but still. You need to stay still."

"Fudge off you controlling blitz."

"See? Vomiting, nausea, irritability, memory loss, dizziness, headache—"

"Regardless, I'm not staying here in the RV when there's work to do." He announced while standing up from his seat. The suddenness earned him some wobbling and a glare from his older sister, which he ignored. "I'll be fine, we have to work. We don't have time for me to have sick leave ok?" With that, he trudged towards the stairs to the RV, carefully working his way around a protesting Jasmine and a silent Danny. He stomped down the stairs and half way into the antechamber before either of the other teens could stop him.

"Stubborn, ridiculous, pigheaded, reckless-"

"Um, so I'm going after him. Your mom is pissed enough without me trying her patience by staying here any longer."

"She's your mom too." The other girl looked more amused by the idea than she should, eyes sparkling in the low light coming from the front of the RV cabin.

"Tell her that. She practically bit my head off a few minutes ago."

"Did you talk back?" She asked, heading after him out of the RV.

"Uh—"

"That sounds like a 'yes'."

"Whatever." The sulking teen slumped as the table and Maddie came back into view, ghost power enhanced night vision giving him a good view at the frustrated look on her face. He watched as Daniel drifted back and forth, clearly trying to stay upright, but too dizzy to tell vertical from horizontal entirely. Maybe Jazz is right about him staying still…

"I'm mostly fine. If I was slurring my words or still throwing up right now I'd sit this out, but by the time we get down into the valley, I'll be able to help." His mother didn't seem convinced, but it wasn't like they had a lot of options at the moment. His father was still too touch and go to leave alone, and the twins and Lizzie would be no help packing, much more likely to waste precious time poking through everything. Sure, the inside of his skull felt like someone had put it in a blender, but he'd had worse concussions…He couldn't remember when at the moment, but that was besides the point. He watched his mother's expression go from disquieted to resigned.

"I trust you not to overdo it out there. I already have enough to worry about, and head injuries can go from marginal to serious quickly. Don't lift anything heavy, and try not to bend over. You've clearly got vertigo and the last thing you need is to lose your balance and fall." She noticed the other two teens hovering farther away and motioned them closer. "Hey hun," she smiled tiredly at her daughter, "which box is the food in?"

"I'll bring it here." The red haired teen passed an uneasy glance to her still swaying brother before disappearing farther back into the cave.

"Alright Danny, you'll have to do most of the heavy lifting. I can't actually go with you, so follow Jasmine's instructions. We've got the shield set up inside the cave, but outside, you'll be able to be picked up by the GSU satellites, so no ghost powers. I'm going to explain the basics of how our miniaturizing technology works, because that's how we're going to get all the supplies we need back here before we have to leave." She glanced behind her when she heard her daughter struggling to carry the box. "Get that from her will you?"

Danny rushed over to grab it, and set it down on the table next to the skillet. "Wow, how is it this heavy?"

"Water bottles." Jasmine shrugged and poked at the side of the metal box, somehow convincing it to retract its top.

"Huh, I don't know why, but I thought it be made of cardboard."

"What you thought we sealed it with duct tape and shoved it inside the Hover? That's hilarious."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a moron. Whatever man. So how does it—" Danny cut himself off as his mother pulled a gallon of water, and a couple of large food packages out of the inside of the container. It was the size of a cereal box laid flat. Ok, that's bizarre.

"As I was going to explain, they have a maximum mass capacity they can safely store, but volume is a different thing entirely." She set the food down on the table and placed the skillet on the hot plate. "Here is the power," she said pointing to a slightly recessed section near the top. "Don't try to turn these off with things still inside, it won't let you. You'll have to turn a crate on and let the battery prime itself before it can function." She pointed out two more sections on the same side. "This first one tells you that it's operational. Some of them are going to be damaged, please don't place anything into those, even if they do turn on."

"They turn into black holes in that case, things go in and never come out again…" Daniel looked wistful for a second, drawn into the memory of some items he'll never get back. "The second indicator tells you it's full. Don't try to over stuff it either. They have this internal sensor that prevents that from happening, and it'll just disgorge all of its contents violently. Think explosion." He stopped swaying and leaned against the table, pulling out a fourth food package and placing it on the table. "You can't actually stack anything either."

"That's correct, it just cares about mass, it'll self-organize."

"How do you pick out something specific from inside of it? Like, is it a Wonderball, just a total surprise what comes out next?"

Maddie smiled then and motioned for Danny to lean over the top of the crate. "Look for yourself." She stepped away to pour some of the water into the skillet and put some more into cups that had materialized from a different crate. The raven-haired halfa did as instructed, peering into what he'd assumed would be a void. Instead, it was like looking at tiny versions of the gallon jugs and packages on the table, doll house style.

"Wow. So you just reach in and it turns, like, normal size once it comes out? How is that even possible?"

"You want the real scientific explanation with the dimensional physics, and the length contractions, and the Lorentz transformations, or will you accept 'it's super science'?" Daniel leaned away from the table and smirked in the other boy's direction.

"The fuck is a Lorentz transformation?"

"Super science it is!" He said a little too brightly, while grabbing a glass of water.

"Why is it every time we talk it feels like you're calling me an idiot or threatening to kill me?"

"Oh, because I am. Glad you picked up on it." Danny opened his mouth to reply before his mother cut him off.

"Eat breakfast instead of bickering. Daniel, stop. No, I don't want to hear it. I know some of this is the concussion, cut it out anyway." She quirked her mouth into a frown when he glared at Danny, but considered the matter handled for now. "Save your energy for packing, we only have a few hours to get down into the valley and back again, and only today to grab things before we'll have to get on the road. Now, the most important things are living quarters, medical supplies, and any false documentation you can find. The more recent stuff gets priority, but anything from the last year is good enough. Expect that things will be in disarray down there, they picked through everything, but try to be thorough." She stirred something smelling garlic-y, but otherwise bland in the skillet, and pointed the spatula at the group of teens. "You'll drive the Hover to the opening in the cave roof farther in, and then fly down into the valley cloaked. You'll only have about two hours outside the shields to grab everything, and you'll need more than one trip. Don't dawdle, and don't waste time fighting." She spooned the unappetizing looking slop onto a plate and handed it to Danny. "You're out of the cave by 5:30am at the latest, and back here no more than 45 minutes after. It's five minutes of flight one way, so 35 to pack each trip. That gives you four trips maximum, don't waste them." She handed off a final plate to Jasmine and set the skillet to the side to cool. "I have to go check on your father. Finish breakfast, and get started. I'll wake the twins up when you get back from the first trip so they can help you unload and they can organize while you return to the valley. Any questions?"

"How's father?"

"Breathing." She took a deep breath then, realizing she was taking out her anxiety on them. "Feverish, the wound is infected, three broken ribs, his left tibia is fractured in two places, still recovering from blood loss and delayed burns have showed up on his chest and back." The burn wounds worried her. Wounds only continued bleeding over from ghost form like that if they got worse. The burn marks looked less like temperature damage and more like…"I think he's got ectoranium poisoning; I'm running a few blood tests." She waved towards the farthest chamber in their section of the cave.

"You got all the metal—"

"I did. But it was coated in it and he doesn't have enough energy to neutralize it." She sighed again and waved back towards the group's field hospital. "We'll see what the tests say. You have other things to focus on right now; I'll keep you updated. If it gets any worse, I'll have the twins try to pass him some energy." She watched her eldest two children finally brighten up at that and move to prepare to grab the Hover. She refocused on cleaning the remains of breakfast after putting the rest onto plates. She had to go wake up the youngest children.

The oldest three kids worked through gathering the needed equipment for the flight down quickly. They were packing light, leaving as much room for the equipment from the valley as possible. She'd have preferred bringing a few more emptied crates just in case the ones in the valley were too damaged and they needed more extras, but space was a premium. She got Danny's attention just as he stacked the last metal boxes into the back of the Hover. "Ok, so just grab Daniel and we'll start heading towards the exit." She yawned then and shook out her wrist. It ached. She'd had her mother look it over though, and it was just bad bruising and swelling. Didn't help the pain though. She vowed to bring more medical supplies back on the very first flight. Her own pain aside, they needed scanners for her brother and dad.

"God, I'm not looking forward to this. What if there's still some of those GSU goons standing around?"

"Don't be ridiculous. We sent out probes last night, and they showed the GSU collected everyone and retreated yesterday. We wouldn't even risk grabbing essentials if we thought they were still hanging around." Daniel groaned from the co-pilot seat next to her, and she eyed her still swaying brother with more concern. "Is the headache getting any better?"

"Would be if people stopped asking stupid questions about it." He leaned over the control panel, staring blankly at the buttons and dials for a moment too long. "Don't." He said when he saw his sister about to start up again. "I know what they do, it's just…slower bring up the—" he snapped his fingers a few times, "you know the stuff, the memories."

"Information."

"Yeah. It's not like Danny knows how to co-pilot, so you're stuck with me."

"If the pain gets worse—"

"I know the symptoms alright? Stop fudging bugging me about this thrice cursed nonsense, and just…" He trailed off, waving his hand between them. "Just fly the Hover Jasmine, it'll work itself out."

Daybreak was coming and with limited hours to gather supplies, she put a pin in it. She started the bug-tank and maneuvered it past the RV back into the tunnel leading to the rest of the cave system. She drove it father back into the caves. The only sound in the cabin was the whirring of the hydraulics controlling the Hover, drowning out the dripping plinks of the water inside the cave. The path narrowed, walls coming close to the sides of the machine. The path cut out then, a hole appearing in the rocks ahead. She turned the wheel and had it climb the wall to their left.

"Wow. It really is a just like a bug."

"Shut up."

"Dude. I get you feel like shit, but don't take it out on me."

"If I could summon even a drop of spectral energy, I'd phase your brain half way out of your skull."

"Gross. Are the graphic threats normal?"

"Nope. Only gets this specific and weird when he has a concussion. Anyway, almost—oh shit." She pulled the Hover to a stop, the cave immediately in front of them a pile of rubble and stone. She sighed and pushed buttons on the panel in front of her, bringing up a few glowing holograms. Her face scrunched up as the scanners inside looked through the cave-in in front of them. "Looks like it's only a few feet deep, guess all the collapsing rock in the other part of the cave triggered a collapse here too." She flipped through a few more screens.

"You know this is the only way through, that's why—"

"It doesn't take anything to just be sure." She frowned when the scans proved her brother right. Jasmine ran her hands through her crimson locks and thought things through. Normally, Daniel could just turn the Hover intangible, but he was drained dry, all of his energy going to healing his injuries. Danny's energy signature wasn't in their equipment yet so he couldn't phase the Hover himself. If the other boy didn't use his powers on the Hover then the energy signature could be picked up.

"I know you all said no ghost powers," Danny ignored the other dark-haired teen's sarcastic remark about his memory, "but there's no way we're getting through that blockage without them."

"It'll take at least twenty minutes to get your ecto-signature into the Hover's system, and that's if we had the permissions to do that, which we don't." She stated before eyeing her brother curiously. "Could you absorb his energy and then phase the Hover?"

"If the idea didn't make me want to crawl out of my skin."

"This is a yes or no question Daniel."

"Yes, but I won't like it. Happy?"

"No more than you are, but I'm trying to come up with solutions here. Try to be more flexible." She waved Danny towards the cockpit from the cabin of the metal beetle. "Not anyone's first choice, but I can turn on shielding to block energy inside the Hover." She paused and did just that. "Hand over some spectral energy, and then Daniel can turn the Hover intangible and we can get going."

"Non-hostile energy. Don't just charge up an ecto-ray or something."

"Right, sure…I don't think I've ever tried to do that before? I mean, other than the stuff last night in the cave with the battery. Oh like that?"

"God no, that was fine because he'd transformed, but I'm too tired to manage that." When the other boy just stared, he elaborated, "I increased my energy production twice yesterday. I don't think I could transform if someone pointed a gun at my head. Just think of bringing your energy out while concentrating on something…pleasant?" He rolled his eyes and held out a hand, willing this interaction to be over by now. It took too much concentration to make sentences, chasing down words that slipped away through his fingers like…silt…syrup…sand! God, I shouldn't be sitting up.

Danny held out his hand pulled some energy into it. He winced when he saw the unimpressed glare his otherworldly twin was giving him. "I'm trying, damn, give me a second." He closed his eyes and focused on the feeling of joy he got when flying, and jumped when someone grabbed his hand.

"Good enough, just keep doing that." Daniel held his other hand against the walls of the cockpit, pulling the energy from the other boy inside and through his core, feeling it work to exchange the other teen's ecto-energy for his own. It traveled out of the other side, drip by drab, into his left hand. The intangibility started up, spreading slow and steady across the surface of the Hover until the whole was out of phase. "Alright, drive this thing through the rubble before I lose concentration from how disgusting this feels."

Jasmine punched it, flying through the rocks, into clear open space on the other side. "We're through." She continued towards the opening a few hundred yards farther back. "We'll have to do that on the way back."

"Don't remind me... or do. Who knows, with the way my head hurts, I'll probably forget by the time we're back."

"Don't joke like that." She pulled up on the controls, moving the beetle up through the hole in the cave ceiling. She brought the cloaking device up, and turned the machine back towards the valley they'd left the day before. In only two minutes, she found herself landing on the still pre-dawn valley floor, among the ruins of Camp. "First on the list is medical supplies and scanners. We need antibiotics, antivirals, analgesic, antipyretic, the works. I want to grab those first, yes even above the documentation. We can figure something out if it comes to that, but dad has an infected gut wound and I'm worried you've got a growing brain clot. I'd rather scramble for false documents than watch one of you die."

"I'm not going to die…the rest of the way or whatever. But, I still think you're right."

Danny listened as the elder two Masters siblings thought through where the supplies would be, before pointing him off of the Hover to go get them. Daniel stood up to join him, before half-tripping himself back down into the co-pilot seat.

"Just stay here. I'll need you for the second and third runs to find the IDs and move the living quarters. I don't think Danny can take one of them on his own, and I know mom said not to lift anything heavy—"

"But we both know that can't be avoided for everything. Right, benched. I'm too dizzy to walk right now anyway. Shouldn't have used my powers to turn things intangible." He sighed then and leaned back in the seat, closing his eyes. "Hurry up, the faster we get each trip done, the more of them we can do."

The two able-bodied teens jumped off the Hover, picking through the crates and boxes nearest the bug-tank first. Jasmine had brought them down near the remains of their medical tent. She sighed when she noticed much of it had already been scrabbled through by the GSU. All of the obvious medication had been swiped…but, looks like they didn't grab any of the reagents and base chemicals. We grab those and some beakers, Bunsen burners, and mom may be able to synthesize the medicine herself. She grimaced as soon as she thought it. Her father was the bio-chemist; her mother specialized in electrical engineering. Still, she knew enough. She heard Danny 'whoop' and hold up a large metal crate.

"I think I found the jackpot!" He pulled the closed container out from under a stack of half collapsed and crushed metal. He hoisted it higher when she walked closer so she could take a better look. "It's sealed, but everything works, and it says—"

"Right." She opened the top of the crate, depressing the latch, and peered inside. A real grin broke out when she saw what was inside. On top of basic first-aid kits were bottles of more specialized medicine. It looked like one of their emergency medical boxes had been spared, an explosion from the battle having thrown it under others. "This is a life saver, let's get this back to the Hover."

The next two trips went similarly, other than Daniel having been to told on the third, over his objections, to sit still when he'd leaned over and almost slammed face first into the ground from his vertigo. He spent the rest of that trip with a scowl on his face, but otherwise compliant, which worried his sister more than anything else. He must've felt worse than he'd let on. Still, even in one spot, he was useful for pointing out places to look.

They had time for one last trip, and this one was for the largest pieces of equipment: the shield nodes, the living quarters, and the still being rebuilt kitchen. She groaned when the Hover landed back in the valley, imagining lifting something with her throbbing wrist and arms. She'd been huffing the entire last trip, arms quivering as they rushed the last of the crates to the Hover. They'd picked things in order of importance, but that left the heaviest for last, sentimental though much of this was, but that didn't make this trip any less painful. "I'm not looking forward to this anymore than you all are, so let's get this done. First is the shield nodes, or what's left of them. There are a few more buried around that make up the full perimeter for Camp, after that is common rooms, and then living quarters, then sentimental we're too tired to get to everything, we're getting the most important things first."

"And the heaviest…" Daniel stood up from his position in the co-pilot seat and walked towards the open exit to the Hover. "I'll grab the shield node over there," he said pointing off to the left, "Danny can grab the one by the twins' room and their room. Just stack them," he declared with a roll of his eyes when the other boy looked likely to protest. "You grab the last one, and we'll meet up back here." He ignored the throbbing ache behind his eyes at the increasing glow in the sky. The worst of the vertigo had abated on the last flight back to the cave, and disappeared after phasing them through the rubble for this last flight out. He hated to admit it, but the small boosts of ghost energy he was getting from Danny were helping his concussion.

He walked over and carefully lifted up the buried node of their shield into his arms. By the time he'd picked his way back to the Hover past the debris littering the remains of Camp, Danny had dropped off his first load and was coming back with a second precarious looking set of crates.

"God, these are way heavier than anything else we've hauled; my arms are gonna fall off." He huffed while placing them into the back of the Hover, and hopped back down to face the other two teens. "What's left?"

"The other bedrooms," Jasmine ignored the pained groans coming from the boys, sympathetic pains flaring up in her own arms, "and then that's it actually. The kitchen was fried, nothing left to grab." She watched Danny blinking up into the rising sun, eyes squinted against the light.

"What day is it anymore? This all feels like one long moment of eternal torture."

"It's May 6th; I think." She rolled her shoulders and started off towards her own room.

"Wait, the sixth?"

"Yeah? What, you miss an appointment?"

"No! Why are-nope, no not getting pulled into an argument with you. I'm just—my mom's birthday is tomorrow?"

"Our mom…" she corrected absently, before she frowned taking in what Danny had actually said. "Oh, yeah I guess it is."

"Great birthday present you got her this year man. She'll never forget it!"

"Oh my fucking—my point, is that there's gotta be, I don't know, party supplies or presents somewhere around here."

Jasmine's face scrunched up in thought, looking around at the chaos on the ground around them. "Maybe, but we do not have time to look for them, if they are still intact. Let's grab last of the bedrooms, and hurry back."

Danny hunched his shoulders a moment, resigned to following orders before the ridiculousness of the entire situation got to him again. "What's the point? No, I don't mean this supply run, just, in general. What's the point of doing any of this if we're just gonna run and hide and cower the whole time?"

"Don't know if you've noticed, but we're not in fighting shape."

"That's not what I mean." He stopped and wiped some sweat away from his forehead, it was already getting humid out. "If we're just surviving, if we can't even celebrate a birthday, then why are we doing any of this? It's not living to just scrape enough together to make it to the next day." He turned back towards Jazz, ready to try to convince her once again, when Daniel interrupted.

"It might be the concussion talking, but I agree with dipstick over here." He ignored the affronted look the other teen was giving him and plowed forward. "No really. It's not like mother will remember on her own, but having a little bit of normalcy after all this might be nice. Besides, I spent way too long on my present to just leave it to rot in the rain and muck out here. Come on peanut butter, you know you want to rescue your gift too."

The temptation grew for only a moment, before she gave in. She didn't have energy to argue with the both of them, and the idea of a surprise party was genuinely appealing. "Alright, but be quick about it. We need to get back to the caves before too long." She half jogged her way back towards her room, content that at least her present was safely nestled inside. By the time she'd picked her way back to the Hover, arms arching from the room she was carrying, she could hear her brother pointing out the last of the party supplies. "You're sure that's the last of it?" She dropped the crate with a huff, eyeing the brightened morning sky with apprehension.

"As I can be with everything scattered all over the valley." He stood from the crate he'd been sat on, heading back to the Hover with a stretch. "We'll have to improvise, but we're pretty good at that." He eyed Danny squishing the last of the supplies into a stable arrangement in the back of the Hover and stalked back to the co-pilot seat. Even if the headache had abated some, the rest of him still ached like, well, exactly like he'd been dropped hundreds of feet into the unforgiving earth.

Jasmine settled in next her brother, starting up the machine, and admonishing Danny to strap in before they took off. He stopped fiddling with the contents in the back third of the flying tank, and sat down as she guided the bug back towards the caves. With any luck, she thought looking at the pink and gold of the brightening skies, we'll leave tomorrow around this time.

---

Dawn broke bright and golden over the crests of the snow topped mountains, kissing them with warm light while the walls and valleys below were still wreathed in darkness. The fog that settled into the crevices of the mountain slopes overnight left a thick wetness to the air, dimming the lights of the RV as it set off out of the other side of the caves. They'd been up two hours before sunrise reorganizing, miniaturizing, and otherwise packing. Now, everything they'd need immediately was packed inside the cabin. That had taken the majority of the time, pulling things in and out of crates, since it'd been so hastily packed during the escape two days before.

The time traveling teen sat pressed against one of the windows in the middle of the RV staring grumpily at the passing gray stone and sparse vegetation. There was a slow building pressure at the base of his skull he recognized from the times he pulled all-nighters. At least I ache less today… he thought while pressing his forehead against the coolness of the glass. Opposite him on the other side of the RV was the twins, poking around on some old fashion Gameboys. They'd pulled them out and began ignoring everyone else the second they'd all set off. His sister was closer to the front squinting at a map with Daniel, brainstorming…something. He was too tired to get wrapped up in that.

The other halfa had been in a brighter mood this morning, the symptoms from the concussion abating to a dull roar and lifting his spirits with the lightening headache. Sure, he'd still hissed something about killing him if Danny tried anything, but that was expected and not even vivid in detail this time. The youngest member of the group was reading something in the seat behind him, fully off in her own world. In fact, the only member he hadn't seen or spoken to the last two days was Vlad. In ordinarily circumstances, that'd be the best news he could hope for. Now though, especially having overheard the list of injuries he was nursing from his not-quite-mom yesterday at breakfast, it was itching at him.

Back in his own timeline, the elder halfa seemed untouchable. It was unnerving to see him waylaid by something as small as a grenade. The ghost weapons back home aren't so effective. He thanked his lucky stars, what was left of them after burning through a few on this trip, that they weren't. His otherworldly twin had mentioned that they were specially designed to damage their ectoplasmic signature. It made his skin crawl.

The Guys in White hated "Invisi-bill", but even they didn't have specialized guns and bombs. What was up with this timeline? He mused while watching the stone grays of the barren upper slopes of the mountains give way to the softer browns of soil and warm greens of old growth forest and grasses. The path out of the cave system was part natural and part ecto-blast carved, leading first deeper into the range and then emptying out close to US-70. At least, that's what he'd heard when they were packing, with a warning to find something to do for a good six to seven hours before they escaped the mountains. Personally, he was going to get comfortable in his seat, wedge himself against the wall, and sleep until someone poked him awake… He only got to rest his eyes for what felt like a few minutes before he was being poked. "What?"

"You hungry?"

"It's been, like, five minutes. How could I be hungry?"

"Dude, you've been snoring and slobbering into the side of the RV for the last four hours." Danny finally peaked an eye open, taking in the amused grin of one of the twins. He was still being poked though, he realized, not by the one in front of him.

"Cut it out." He brushed the hand away, only for the twin in front of him to start up the poking. He blinked and sat up, batting the new hand away. "Come on, what part of 'cut it out' is confusing."

"I'm not Nate."

"Oh for…" This time he rubbed at his face, before opening his eyes again. A quick glance out the window confirmed they were still in the mountains, and he felt the urge to groan. He'd wanted to sleep this entire part of the road trip away, but that was not happening.

"So…food?"

"Still not hungry."

"You should eat you know. Your core is probably tired from all the fighting you did, which is why you're so sleepy."

"No it's not Jazz; I just hate being up before 10am if I can help it." He looked towards the front of the RV, where he'd last seen her, in vain, before searching the middle of the RV for her.

"Behind you, and stop calling me that. I hate it." She sat flipping through a magazine, open notebook next to her, pencil tapping against her lips. She scribbled something down, before looking back towards the other teen. "I don't know where you got the idea for it, but it's terrible." She went back to the magazine for a moment, flipping a few pages, before putting a bookmark inside. "In any case, you haven't been eating enough. Not that we're hoping for another confrontation with the GSU, but you'd be useful in a fight if you were full power."

"At the very least, you'd make a good meat shield."

"Aw, come on bro, he's not that bad is he?"

"You only think that because you didn't see his form. It's miserable. And the way he wastes energy? Eugh, I think you both have better energy control than he does."

"Thanks for the critique. It'd been, like, a whole five minutes of consciousness without you insulting me. I was beginning to get concerned." The other boy was still in the forward section of the RV, maps still spread out before him. "How interesting can maps even be? I sleep, you're looking at a map. I wake up, you're looking at a map." He stretched his arms above his head, muscles still protesting, even some new ones from the cramped position he'd taken while asleep. Maybe Jazz has a point about food...He hadn't been very hungry, which was unusual for him, but the thought of food made his insides churn like something was fighting inside him. He'd just have to force it, he guessed.

"These maps are different from the first ones. They have all the information on which personas we adopted where. I'm making sure the route we picked actually has all the documentation we need for those personas and cross referencing it to the latest list of updated ID requirements the government just released that the parental units got last week in town. Some of the documentation is bound to be outdated, and we don't want it to be the ones we're using for this trip. I know your brain is empty of most thoughts, but I actually use my mind for important things, and sometimes complicated problems take a few hours to solve. You should try it sometime. I think Elizabeth has a couple word searches you can try; it should keep you busy so you too can experience a few hours of thought."

"Dear God, do you have any setting that's not condescending prick?"

"Yes. Here's a question though, Danny Fenton, why should I be nice to you?"

"Uh, because we have to be stuck in this," at this he stopped and waved his hands around, "place together for weeks?"

"Oooo, survey says?" Jasmine made a buzzer noise, while the younger kids giggled.

"Well, I don't know! I don't imagine arguing with someone—"

"—arguing? Do you hear me trying to contradict some logical point your feeble mind cooked up?"

"You are purposefully trying to piss me off."

"Yes. That much is obvious, remember the not being nice?" Danny took a deep breath then, staring out the window and counting to ten, before responding.

"How does being an asshole to me make this experience less terrible?"

"I find it entertaining." Daniel paused to circle two places on the map, before tapping the pen against the table once more. "That's a good enough reason for me."

"Don't you want to get along?"

"I'm not throwing you out of the moving vehicle am I?"

"That's your version of 'getting along'? How are your standards so borked?"

"You still haven't come up with a reason for me to be nice to you."

"Why should I need one?!"

"Because I'm usually not nice to dangerous incompetent fools who endanger my family, put my father on death's door, get my home blown to bits, and decide to remorselessly curl up in our last remaining refuge whining that I remind him what a complete bumbling buffoon he is."

"That's not fair. I didn't do that on purpose."

"That contradicts nothing I've said about you being an incompetent fool. Do you need me to define 'incompetent' for you?" He heard the other boy take a deep breath, to start denying it again, and cut him off. "Doing all of that on accident is worse than doing it on purpose. If you were malicious, but smart, you could be predicted, even countered. Instead, you just fumble backwards into situations, making a disaster, confused about how it could have turned out that way."

He turned in his seat to face the other teen, a scowl fixed on his face. "If you're doing all of this on accident then you lack both the foresight and critical thinking skills to avoid a repeat, at worst, or just don't have the experience to consider all the potential pitfalls that could get us killed at best. You're a walking liability, and worse, one who isn't even aware of what a burden he represents. That's irritating. It would chafe even if you hadn't just imploded our very precarious life and safety with your ignorance. Why should I be nice to a constant inadvertent crisis in the making?"

"It's easier to work together, and for me to learn stuff, if I'm not getting insulted all the time?"

"Is that really true, or does it just make you feel bad?"

"Both! Everyone learns better when they aren't being belittled."

"Oh that's a big word for you."

"I walked right into that one…" Danny sighed before rubbing at his temples and glancing at his sister. "You don't have anything to say to this?"

"I mostly agree with Daniel. I think you're a time bomb sitting in the middle of the group while we're all watching with growing horror as the timer counts down. I don't think being mean to you will change how dangerous you are, but I get why he finds prodding at you amusing the same way poking a bomb designed to kill you is morbidly fascinating."

"I don't like being compared to a bomb."

"Don't care. Anyway, he'll chill when he thinks he can trust you not to bring the government on top of us again."

"How do I make that happen faster?"

"Be even a little curious." At the look the other ghost powered teen was giving him, Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose. "You have been awake for half an hour, long enough to comment on me bent over maps the entire time, and not once did you consider asking what we were doing. You know you're missing information, that this reality isn't like your own, that the entire nation wants to kill us, and you've done nothing to help." He took a deep breath and rolled his aching shoulders.

"No," he held up a hand when the other boy seemed ready to speak, "I don't mean helping pack yesterday, I meant nothing to help solve your lack of knowledge. You haven't asked about what to expect at checkpoints, or how the shielding and scanners around every building in America works, or how to build a convincing persona, or even questions about the GSU's tactics and weaknesses. It's like your entire head is empty of all strategic thought, or you just figure someone else will worry about this for you. I'm choosing to believe you're just so ignorant, you don't know to ask, because the other option is malicious sloth, like Acedia sin level." At that, he turned around to circle another thing on a map on the table, before rolling up the two directly in front of him.

"Ok, I can see how I look incurious, but it's kinda hard to think with my head feeling like it's full of cotton from lack of sleep."

"You don't think we're tired too Ent dung? But we still have to work."

"She's reading a magazine."

"It's called research. You think she's reading Sweet 6teen because she wants to know what everyone's wearing to prom this season?"

"Maybe? That's what my sister does at home."

"Well, she's not. Band names, pop star gossip, fashion trends, top 100 Billboard songs, everything the average teen knows down cold, we have to absorb artificially. It's not like we can just go to our friends at high school and ask 'hey Braden did you see the Kittycat Dames newest music video?'."

"I don't know a single person named Braden."

"No? The name is popular. I've meet so many Bradens, and yeah they do look exactly as 'white and plays lacrosse' as you're imagining." Jasmine wrote a few more things down in her notebook, having focused back on the magazine the moment her younger brother started to monologue. "There's plenty you can do to close that knowledge gap—"

"—more like a chasm—"

"—you've got about how to stay safe from the GSU." She finished, plowing over her brother's jab. "You probably even have info that's useful to us."

"Sure, I'm the only normal teen in this RV somehow. I can at least teach you to stop sounding like a Sci-fi convention had a baby with a grumpy thesaurus."

"The malignancy might be inoperable in Daniel's case though." Nick laughed and high-fived his twin, earning an eye roll from their older brother.

"Yes that's right, most eleven year olds can identify every species of of beetle, moth larva, or caterpillar in the lower forty-eight and talk about it randomly. You are both very normal." He grinned when his brothers stuck out their tongues at him.

"You just don't see the benefits of telling them apart. Many of them only eat specific plants, and their feeding grounds are poisonous, but easily mistaken for much more edible common plants that—"

"—Uh huh, yes, keep talking. It makes you sound less nerdy and sheltered."

"Whatever. All we're saying,—" Nate started while picking at some threads in the fabric of his chair.

"—is that even entomology knowledge is useful." Nick finished while looking at Danny. "So, I'm sure Danny has something useful he knows, even if you're both convinced he's hopeless."

"Point taken, Thing One. So, are you going to come exchange knowledge, or do you wanna take another nap?" Daniel watched the other boy squirm under his gaze, and waited for a reply.

"Fine, I should at least know where the first stop is once we get out of the mountains."

"Stop? Not until we're three hours down US-70. We should be near the crossing to Utah by then. That's about five hours away. Is that all you're interested in?" He watched the other boy sigh and make his way towards the front of the RV with a listless shuffle.

"Might as well get info shoved into my brain until then."

"It might take until the Rapture, but God as my witness, you will learn something." He frowned when that didn't provoke a reaction out of him. Shame. He'd have to try harder later.

In the last two hours, he'd gone over how the checkpoints at every crossing between states functioned. They'd updated the IDs, but the west was slow on uptake, so the old ones for Colorado and Utah would still work. He'd pointed out that each state had their own individual procedures. Turns out, their reality's version of the National Heroes Act was 10x stricter, so Danny found every version over zealous. He'd mentioned it loudly, repeatedly. Luckily, we look similar enough to make use of my fake IDs, because even a wig, color contacts, and make up could only do so much. This was when he'd learned they also shared a birthday; the universe was horrible sometimes.

The Master siblings, save Daniel, couldn't stop being amused. "Another set of twins! It's funny." The oldest Masters child prodded at him, the same smile fixed on her face she'd had for the last fifteen minutes. He failed to see the humor. Still, the other hybrid had paid attention long enough to get the procedure of how state crossings worked and what not to do. He was surprised he had the attention span for it.

It would be a while before they stopped for the crossing, and as a rule, they only did one of those a day if it could be helped. So the plan was to stop before the Nevada border for the night. That left another three hours until the crossing and another four after that until they stopped. More than enough to get the presents wrapped and the surprise party set up. Though, calling it a party is a bit of a stretch.

He eyed the twins behind him in the cabin with suspicion. They'd agreed to the idea, but the two of them were terrible at keeping secrets. True, their mother was distracted with driving, the crossing, and their father's health, but the RV was only so big. He hoped they could keep it together. It wouldn't do to spoil the fun after all this…everything they'd been through the last few days. He'd spent the last hour being louder explaining things to the other boy than strictly necessary to cover for Jasmine rummaging around getting supplies and wrapping her gift.

Right now, she was corralling Lizzie Bear into signing her name on a card and trying to shush the twins' giggling. They'd give them all away at this rate. Danny had, through some miracle, figured out what they were up to without having to be spoon-fed. To his credit, he was being obnoxiously noisy. Tapping on the table, asking questions, kicking the siding on the RV. It was a cacophony of nonsense he couldn't have gotten away with without suspicion. He was almost grateful. "And that's what to do if we're pulled over by the police. It's also why we keep to the speed limit, even if it means more hours staring at nothing. More contact with the authorities is not worth the risk."

"Dude, my dad speeds all the time, and I don't think I've seen him get a single ticket."

"If what our dad says about his driving is true, the speeding is the least of his road crimes. Mom, didn't he once—"

"—Kids, I do not want to talk about that man." She frowned back into the mirror they'd installed just to keep their rambunctious kids in view while driving. They had a habit of fiddling with and deconstructing weapons if they got too bored. Her frown deepened when she caught sight of four of them with their heads together in the back. "What are you," she cut herself off when on alarm on her watch went off. "Could one of you go check on your father? We can't pull over for a few more hours if we want to get over the Utah crossing."

"I'll do it!" Danny hopped up, working his way past the other kids into the back third of the RV.

"He's not your dad…"

"If I look at maps any longer, they'll be permanently burned into my eyeballs." He reached up to pull down a ladder that lead to the upper section of the RV. The thing was more like a weird double-Decker bus and RV hybrid. He wasn't sure how it moved so agilely when they'd escaped the valley, but he wasn't going to complain about more space. It was cramped enough as it was. He climbed the last of the ladder steps and popped his head into the makeshift field hospital in the top of the vehicle. Well…he's still breathing. So that's something. He climbed the rest of the way into the space and walked over to the eldest hybrid. All the little blinking lights were green and nothing was flashing ominously at him, so he thought that was a good sign.

"What time is it?" Danny startled, backing away from the screen he'd just been looking at.

"Um, a little after noon?" Vlad sounded like death warmed over, but he was awake and that was a good thing. He hadn't done more then wheeze and sleep the last day and a half. He couldn't remember being down that long after a fight. Seriously, what was in that grenade? For a couple seconds, the other halfa just started at him, before throwing an arm over his eyes and sighing.

"Do you know? I was really hoping that'd been a nightmare."

"Yeah, 'hi' to you too." He'd been on his best behavior for hours, and everyone being annoyed he existed or was within a few hundred yards of them was starting to wear on his nerves. "So we're on the way to the Colorado border, and there's something about the crossing—"

"—I know how those work…" He trailed off while he worked himself into an upright position, a hiss of pain making it past his grit teeth. "How long until we reach the crossing?"

"Like three hours? Are you going to be up—"

"—Rest assured, there's no choice but to be up for it." He grimaced, scrubbing his hands carefully through his shoulder length hair, tugging at a few knots. "I should start getting presentable."

"You still look like you have a fever?" He hummed noncommittally at that, before swinging his legs over the edge of the cot.

"I only have to pretend for an hour or so; I can manage that. The crossings in the west are poorly manned and lazy, so we shouldn't be given much hassle."

"What's with all the security anyway? The scanners on the buildings, I get that. But why harass every car traveling in the US like this?" Danny took a couple quick steps to help balance the other halfa when he saw him wobbling his way to his feet.

"We can't stay in one place for long. We can't travel by plane, and rail or bus commute wouldn't be feasible. How else would we be moving around so much? If we can figure out the best way to travel, they can try to stop us." That made a certain amount of sense, if they did have to keep moving.

"Why travel at all then? Wouldn't be easier to just...pick some place and blend in?"

"Theoretically...do you have the knowledge and money is needed to fake a Social Security number, family and friend connections, previous work history, previous school transcripts, doctor's records, ect?" He smiled at the confused look on the teen's face. "It takes a lot to build 'someone' out of thin air, and since they are looking for people who 'appear suddenly' we'd have to take pains to make any fake versions of ourselves look deep and real. Faking enough to pass a state border? Doable. Faking it well enough to settle somewhere? Much much harder." He frowned down at the readouts coming out of the nearest machine. "Maddie's being over cautious, it shouldn't take all this…"

"She said you had blood poisoning or something." He watched as he poked at another machine before saying, "today's her birthday by the way."

"Oh yes…Oh, darn it." He'd forgotten in the chaos. It was understandable, but his gift was probably someone back in the valley in a puddle of mud. "Do you think she'd take 'I didn't die!' as a gift this year?"

"Well, maybe, but we've got a better idea."

"We?" Now he was curious.

"Yeah, we got most of the party supplies yesterday and the presents too. Uh, not sure about yours, but if you help distract her we'll be able to surprise her with party when we stop for the night." He rubbed the aching muscles in the back of his neck, stooping over those maps hadn't helped his body aches any. He decided to grab lunch after he was done with Vlad, surprised he'd forgotten.

"I can manage a distraction." He leaned over and pulled new clothes out of a bag. "Oh, she already found the supplies for the crossing." He sighed, clutching them closer to his chest. "How did I get such a thoughtful, wonderful, beautiful angel to marry me?"

"I think the drugs are making you loopy." The younger halfa scrunched up his face at Vlad's mooning, and headed back for the ladder. "If you need me, I'll be downstairs, while your kids condescendingly explain how lying works, or whatever else they think I'm too stupid to understand."

"You haven't made the best impression on them Danny, but I'm sure it'll work itself out in a few days." Vlad dismissed while looking through another bag for a pair of shoes.

"Yeah right…" the younger halfa doubted the problem could be solved with a few days of singing Kumbaya and holding hands in the RV. He jumped off the last two rungs of the ladder and stalked back to the middle of the cabin. "He's awake, full sentences and everything." He watched the other kids brighten up at his announcement.

"Thank goodness. If he slept any longer, it mean he'd need an energy transfusion, and I'm still bone dry." Daniel rolled his shoulders as he walked back to the middle of the cabin.

"Seriously? I've never been out of energy that long, even after a big fight."

"I doubt you really scrapped the inside of the barrel and then some like I did." When the other teen glared at him, he shrugged. "The inside of my bones ache from how much energy I used, you ever have that problem?"

"Well no, but…"

"What? We're waiting?" the other teen sighed, scuffing his foot on the floor.

"Whatever. Not fighting about this. Anyway, your dad is down with operation May Day. God that name is dumb."

"So, back to running interference." He ignored the other boy's complaint. "Mother, father is awake." Daniel yelled back towards the front. He heard her ask about the readouts from the scanners upstairs, when he saw his father come down the ladder in the back. "You could ask him yourself; he's downstairs."

"Honey, you should be in bed for another hour or two."

"I'm fine. You're fretting over nothing—"

"—You had ectoranium poisoning."

"It was mild. You saw the blood tests yourself." He dodged past the kids standing in the middle of the cabin, stepping over the very obvious half-wrapped presents on the floor. "I'll need about a week to fully recover, but I can at least be up now."

"I know you feel fine, or are at least fine enough to lie about it, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be resting right now." She flicked her eyes towards the mirror and then blinked when she noticed him to her right instead. "Vlad," she frowned, flicking her gaze between the road and her injured husband settling into the seat next to her.

"I won't do anything energy intensive today, just get me caught up. What did you decide for a travel route?" When she looked away from him and back to the road, he sent a thumbs up behind him. Hopefully, he could keep her engaged long enough for those gifts strewn all over the floor to be wrapped and hidden someplace in the next couple hours.

The next few hours passed swiftly. A half dozen gifts appearing and then disappearing out of compartments Danny hadn't known existed, the party decorations were shoved into one of their fancy miniaturization crates, and they'd signed cards. There had been a near miss, but true to his word Vlad was excellent at being distracting. It helps she's so worried about him. He felt more queasy about that, watching her dote on him was disorientating.

They were pulling off the interstate now, to get everyone dressed up for the crossing and go over last contingency plans. Running the crossing was out of the question with all the main fighters down for the count, so they triple checked IDs, wigs, and makeup instead. He chafed under the makeup, fake freckles, scars, and all. It was worse than being caked in it for the school play in elementary school.

The cabin was reorganized so everything suspicious was in the upper compartment, the opening to which hide away so well he was still surprised it opened at all. They did full inspections of the inside of every car, along with questioning every passenger over the age of four. Excessive? Yeah he thought so, but the federal government had decided privacy was a luxury in the wake of Amity.

Re-dressed, there was about an hour of travel to the crossing now, or there would be, if there wasn't a line and a slowdown a couple miles out from the actual crossing. So they'd be sitting in traffic, anxiety building, for a good hour before they got to the front themselves.

"You think this is bad? You should the border crossings on the other side of the Mississippi." The other boy smirked at him, a blonde wig to match Jasmine's on his head. His own was a dirty blonde, weird dyed tips on the ends like some Bsychonized band member. Ugh, why pop boy band fan? Why couldn't I get something rock?

"Isn't this against some law or the Constitution or something?"

"What illegal search and seizures? Yeah the Supreme Court decided that America could bend the fourth amendment if it meant catching us. The only one they don't compromise on is how many guns everyone can own. Just think! What if an evil, dangerous ghost hybrid showed up in front of you?"

"Yeah, you definitely need to defend yourself with your totally normal bullets." Nick shifted in his seat next to his brother, itching at cuff the jacket he was wearing.

"Intangibility? What's that?" Nate quipped back, himself tugging at the cuffs to a similar looking coat.

"Stop that."

"We hate this fabric."

"I know, just put up with it for a bit." Jasmine admonished, leaning closer to a compact as she adjusted her eye makeup so it looked done, but not fresh, like they'd be traveling all day.

"We're not at the crossing yet."

"We've gotta get new clothes for these weird characters next time."

"Chill gremlins, they're going to be retired completely after this." Daniel resisted the urge to tug at the tag inside of his shirt. He hated these clothes as much as they did. "Look, Elizabeth's sitting quietly playing Disney Princess. Why don't you try to get into character. In fact, why don't you go practice with Danny? He could use the help, and if you do it in the back they'll be plenty of room too." He watched his younger sibling's faces light up when they caught his hint and they started trying to tug a reluctant looking Fenton along. Please, Emperor's sake, just cooperate. He was going to try another hint, when he saw the other boy wink and ooze his way out of his seat.

"I get it. 'Go be somewhere I don't have to look at you for a while'. Well you know what? I'm sick of your shit too dude. I hope you fix your attitude before you have to pretend to like me to the police." He didn't even have to act. He hoped whatever was back there was good and distracting until they had to make nice at the crossing. Not that I think he's really capable of it…

"Ok, so what's the emergency?" The twins exchange a look before scrambling to the very back of the cabin, carefully pulling out a metal crate from where it was wedged behind a seat.

"So, this is the party supplies," one of them whispered while scooting it closer to Danny.

"Uh, why isn't that, you know, upstairs with everything else?" He could feel sweat prickling up his spine at the size of the thing and its contents. They were gonna make him lift this weren't they?

"Mom inspected everything before we closed upstairs off; she would have noticed this."

"Ok?"

"Well, how are we gonna hide a surprise party,—" Nate started, tone exasperated.

"—If all the supplies come tumbling out in front of her?" Nick finished, just as annoyed.

"I don't know! But this can't stay down here. How are you gonna explain it to the border agents?"

"Oh we'd give up the game way before it got to that, but it doesn't have to come to spoiling the surprise."

"Yeah, all you gotta do is sneak this upstairs." They both smiled at him expectantly.

"Uh, how do you expect me to do that? The entrance is sealed and opening the ladder is super obvious?"

"That's the best part!" Nick then wandered to the complete end of the cabin and pointed above him. "There's an emergency hatch right here. So, you can just—"

"—Doesn't that trigger an alarm?" The youngest Master finally spoke up, having gotten finished setting up a few props to fake practice.

"Yeah, but that's why they're distracting mom. Look, they are already being annoying." Danny did look then, peering over the other kids' heads to the very front of the RV where the oldest two siblings were engaged in…some conversation with their mom. He supposed that'd have to do.

"Ok so we pop the hatch, I climb up—"

"—Uhhhhh, I didn't say there'd be a ladder."

"What."

"If there was one, we'd be able to do it ourselves."

"Yeah, it's not that heavy." Nate quipped, leaning around the older boy to watch his sister place very useful looking blankets to block the view, loudly announcing they needed a curtain for the 'theater". Liz was the best sometimes.

"You gotta climb up into the hatch, and then we can hand the box to you."

"Cool. So is there anything else I should know? Like, it's actually a tiny maintenance area and I'll have to pretzel myself to navigate it. Or wait, is it full of dust and oil or something gross?"

"Nope." Nick walked over to help his sister pin the last of the blankets in place. It would do for a few minutes before their parents complained about not being able to see what they were doing. To be fair, that was because the last time they were out of sight, him and Nate had made a bomb. It had been a little bomb though, so he thought his parents were overreacting.

"We just have to wait for one of them to, oh, yeah there's the signal." Nick motioned back behind him, heading popping back to the other side of their blanket shield. "If we hurry, they won't even be suspicious."

"They'll be suspicious even if we hurry, but they'll be less suspicious." Nate said, poking at a panel and flipping a switch inside. The hatch above him slide away, revealing the darkened upstairs of the RV. "Ok, so just climb up and we can pass you the crate."

"You might want to hurry though. They can only misdirect our parents from that flashing red light for so long."

Danny looked up at the at the black space above him, before jumping and clinging to the sides of the open hole. He started to pull himself up, before he felt his arms starting to buckle. Oh right, I was supposed to get lunch…Between the gift wrapping, gift hiding, and the stop to change, he'd forgotten and now his muscles were reminding him of that fact. A few seconds of struggling ended with him slipping and ending up on his ass.

"What was that?" Maddie leaned around her oldest children to look at the blanket covered back third of the RV. She'd switched places to let her husband drive when they'd stopped. Experience told them sexist border agents asked less questions when the man was driving.

"Uh," the twins started together, "nothing! Everything is fine!"

"Very not suspicious you two." He whispered frantically looking between the crate still on the floor and the yawning black hole above him he was somehow supposed to get it through.

"Silly, you know you can't fly like Peter Pan, this isn't real fairy dust!" She giggled loudly to sell the point, and looked down at the teen on the ground. "Hurry up, I don't think that will work a second time."

"Right." Danny said looking up into the blackness above him. "Why don't I just toss the box through the hole? It's sealed right?"

"Oh yeah, that'll make no noise at all. Totally not shady, the loud thumping crash."

"I get it." He took a deep breath and jumped back at the opening, ignoring the way his arms protested. He promised himself a sandwich, chips, and soda as soon as this was over, kicking his legs a little as he hauled himself the rest of the way up. "Alright, lift it up." He crouched near the opening, reaching his hands down towards the other boys. In a moment, the box was in arms reach, and he levered it through the opening and upstairs with him.

Darkness greeted his vision, and he realized with a start he couldn't see anything. He'd put on a suppressant bracelet before they'd exited the caves this morning. He knew it would suppress his core, but he hadn't remembered what it was like to have human night vision. It was….upsetting, unnatural. He couldn't shake the feeling that something inside him was wrong or broken. Ignoring it as best as he could, he maneuvered through the dark cautiously, stubbing his toe on something hard, suppressing a hiss. Finally, the box was set somewhere away from the hatch, wedged against the wall, and he worked his way back towards the hole.

"Coming down." He announced before he dropped back through the hatch, thudding-loud landing ringing through the cabin.

"I'm going to come back there if you all don't take down those blankets right now. You had better not be—"

"—No mom!" The twins exclaimed, Nate punching in the code to close the hatch while everyone else made a run for the blankets they'd pinned up. "We promise, we're being good."

"You said the same thing right before you tossed that bomb out the window when you lit it on accident."

"It was only a little—"

"—It blew a 10ft hole in the road Nathaniel." He blinked when he remembered how big the resulting explosion had been. Ok, so maybe the bomb had been moderate sized instead of small.

"We're being good, scouts' honor."

"Your word is worse than theirs, for reasons I'm sure you understand." Maddie said with a sigh.

"Dozens of them in the last three or four days even." Daniel commented.

"Hey," Danny started, walking back to the middle of the RV, "I've only been around you like two days."

"Yes? And I'm sure you were a menace to whoever else you were around before you got to us." He watched the other teen scowl, before pointedly flopping into a seat and gazing out of a window. The effect was somewhat ruined by the bad haircut on the wig he was wearing. It looked realistic, just ugly, and he was happy he didn't need to wear it all over again. He glanced out of his own window as he felt the vehicle slow down, traffic picking up as the they neared the crossing. Hopefully, this will be painless…

It was. The agents manning the crossing between Utah and Colorado were underpaid, overworked, and nowhere as fanatical the ones in the South and Midwest. The politicians in this part of the country hated "government excess", so the lean budgets lead to undermanned crossings.

Now, they were few hours into Utah, the border into Nevada closing in with the setting sun. They'd pull off soon, and then it was just a few minutes of distraction to set up the party. They weren't stopping in a town for the night, too risky, but after passing the sign for Eskdale, his mother had finally started to relax. She was in the front of the RV alone. His father had been worse than he'd let on, giving up being conscious a little after getting into the state. How he'd managed with the ache of recently healed broken bones and torn core muscles for that long was a mystery.

He eyed his older sister working her way through a Psychology Today magazine, looking worn and eyes red rimmed. She'd been up sixteen hours, but was still trying to power through until the party. He wasn't much better. The only teen with any pep was their carefully managed disaster, having napped through most of the trek out of the mountains in Colorado. He must have noticed his staring, because now he was glaring in his direction. "I'm not gonna reach into my secret communicator and sell you out the moment you take your eyes off me."

"Oh that's not what I'm watching you for." Let him fill in the blanks. It'll be fun to watch his meager brain spin in place for a half an hour in paranoia before giving up. Instead, he just shrugged his shoulders and went back to looking out the window. He had to resist the urge to huff, that would have gotten him paranoid, he thought it was a good ploy.

Finally, the RV pulled off the highway, driving off-road away from the stretch of US-70 they'd been on and into the desert. Danny ignored the small bumps, surprised the suspension smoothed out things that well. Before he'd had too much longer to think about it, the vehicle rolled to a stop, settling into the sandy soil in the darkness of the desert night. He heard his not-quite-mother sigh from the driver's seat, turning the key to shut off the engine.

"We're done for the day. The plan is to be up early so we can do the crossing around 7am." He had to grit his teeth to stop the groan threatening to escape. Why were all the travel plans so early? "So, I expect you up around 5am so we can grab breakfast, pack up, and get back on the road. Tomorrow will be easier. We should be done driving before noon; so we'll rest most of tomorrow afternoon and go over the plans for setting up Camp in The Meadow. We'll be there soon, so bear with it." She stood, shaking out the tingles in her legs from sitting for so long. One of these days, I'm going to go numb from the hips down from all this driving. She thought opening the door to the RV. "Go stretch your legs for a bit, we have some time to set up for a late dinner and bed." She turned to go check on her husband, when she heard him stir from deeper in the RV.

"Come on hun, let's take a walk."

"Oh no, you are not walking anywhere. You just fractured one of your legs in two places."

"It's already healed, and all this laying down isn't making it feel better. Just a quick one."

"Vlad—"

"—The stars are pretty this far out in the desert Maddie." He walked up to her in the front of the RV, managing a pout he thought was pretty cute. He watched give in a deep sigh on her lips.

"Just a few minutes, fifteen, I don't care how nice the stars are, you need to rest you stubborn man." She stomped down the steps out of the RV, legs still a little asleep.

"I was good earlier wasn't I?" He carefully made his way down the stairs after her.

"Oh my god, that's not enough time! We need to hurry." Jasmine jumped up, heading towards the back third of the RV for the ladder. She turned to find Danny to her left, a confused look on his face.

"There's six of us, it can't take that long."

"She said fifteen minutes, but that means more like five." She said taking the ladder rungs two at a time. She grabbed the party supplies from their hiding place in the back and tossed it down at the other teen without looking. "Did you get everything in one crate?"

"Yes, but where did you put Elizabeth's present, it's not with the others?" Daniel called out from the midsection, wrapped presents in one arm, and rearranging furniture with the other.

"Third compartment on the left, under the booth seats." She tossed back, already opening the top of the crate and grabbing supplies from inside. "Gremlins, you need to hang up these lights." She tossed a tangle of Christmas lights at the two of them, trusting their nimble fingers to undo the knots. "Lizzie, go arrange the presents on the table so it looks cute. You," she said, looking up at Danny, "dropped this on the ground. There's way more important things to do than just holding this." She watched him drop the crate, and tossed a 'Happy Birthday' banner at him when his hands were free.

"Where?"

"Across divider between the middle and the sleeping area."

"The party food?" She threw, a little more forcefully than needed, a couple liters of off-brand soda and bags of chips at her oldest brother. She reached in to grab table settings and rushed to go arrange them on the one that'd been pushed into the middle of the section. She looked up taking in their quick handiwork. Only thing left now is the music player, which can wait, and rest of the streamers. She ran back to grab them tossing them at the other teens so they could be hung higher.

"I think the banner is uneven?"

"It's fun Elizabeth; it's artful and on purpose."

"I don't think that's true."

"Well, we'll fix it if we have time." She backed away to the front of the RV, trying to take in how it looked when first entered, the way her mother would see it in just a few minutes. "Ok, it is uneven. Daniel and other Daniel, get over there and even it out."

"No. Absolutely not. That's not going to be a thing."

"Fix the banner you big baby." She scoffed before watching them try to even up the drape of the banner, uncoordinated, fatigue clearly throwing off their efforts.

"There, it's perfect."

"That's how it looked to begin with!"

"No it didn't. It was two inches lower on the right side." Elizabeth helpfully supplied, scooting the table settings this way and that until everything was even. She nodded to herself after things were to her liking, hopping down to survey the rest of the decorations. "Everything else is good too."

"Good, because I think my arms are gonna—"

"—group huddle everyone. Time to turn off the overhead lights and get ready. We can't pop out of anywhere, but we'll say 'surprise' anyway? Yes do that." She muttered the last sentence to herself, rushing back to the middle section, flicking out the power and pulling the curtains as she went. They'd all just gotten settled when she heard her parents' voices growing nearer.

"I know more sandwiches aren't great for dinner, but I can't imagine the kids would like MREs more than PB&J at this…why are the lights off?"

"Surprise!" Everyone yelled when they saw her. No party poppers, but the group yelled loud enough to make up for it.

"Oh my God, what is—is it really—my birthday is today?" She stuttered taking in everything from the skewed fairy lights to the green vinyl tablecloth with gifts on top.

"We knew you might forget, but we had dad distract you just in case." Jasmine picked up a present and crossed the space to her mother, wiggling it in front of her. "You've got to open one of these; we've been trying to keep quiet about this all day. Do you know how hard it was keeping something like this secret on the drive?"

"You were in on this?" She turned to smile at her husband before looking at the little ghost print wrapping on her present.

"Only enough to run interference my dear. I didn't know they had something this grand planned."

"Come on, there's one from everyone." Jasmine said, before dragging her mother closer. Danny watched as the she slid into a seat in front of the table with her gifts. His eyes roamed over the food—chips, soda, and even cupcakes—and presents feeling happy his suggestion had come to fruition. He was content, until he realized he was the only one who didn't have a present on the table. It struck him all at once how out of place he was again, and the queasiness he'd been fighting all day was back.

That's right. Presents from everyone whose supposed to be here. He thought skirting around the outside of the group, angling for the door. He slipped out into the quickly chilling desert night. He forgot how much the cold bothered him before his powers, and the absurdity of the situation all boiled over in his mind. He heard his not-quite-mother laugh, questioning what 'this was supposed to be', and he decided to take a walk. The stars were nice in the desert right?

---

That thought had driven him a few hundred yards away. Not far enough that he couldn't find his way back, but enough so that he didn't have to hear the revelry and 80's music pouring out of the speakers in the RV. His mood had soured the further he'd walked from the group, until he'd found a rock to sit on. He glanced up. Vlad was right; the stars were magnificent this far out. The desert skies were free of light pollution, and there was not a cloud to be found now that the sun had set. Above him thousands of twinkling stars spilled across the inky firmament like diamonds embedded over the darkest volcanic rock he'd ever see. He could name a dozen constellations, see the Milky Way, even pick out fainter, redder stars that appeared as his eyes adjusted. He lamented not having his enhanced night vision, the sky would look breathtaking then, he was sure.

Still, the peace and stillness helped settle his stomach, even as it wearied his limbs. Maybe I can sleep out under the stars and head back to the torture chamber in the morning? No sooner had he thought it, than he dismissed it. They'd be looking for him soon. As if the universe could read his thoughts, he heard someone trudging up behind him through the sand. "The party get boring already? Didn't think it'd need me for entertainment."

"I'd wondered where you'd gone."

"Daniel miss his punching bag that much?"

"Has my son really been that persnickety all day?"

"If you mean 'a royal pain in my ass' then yeah Vlad, all day. Even when I stopped giving into his bait. So is he bored or—"

"—No. We were just worried."

"You were just concerned I was going to signal the GSU again somehow." He scuffed his shoe against the rock he was sitting on and leaned his head farther back, taking in the expanse of the sky.

"No. I'm going to have to have a talk to him." The eldest halfa plopped next to him on the stone. "I was concerned because you disappeared twenty minutes ago, and we were going to break into the cupcakes, but you were nowhere to be found. That seemed odd. Then, Elizabeth mentioned she saw you sneak off right after the party began."

"Yup." He looked into the horizon, he could make out the silhouette of rock plateaus in the distance against the stars.

"Do you want to talk—"

"—How did you marry my mom anyway?" He'd been dying to ask for a day, but he didn't want to hear whatever version came out of anyone else's mouth.

"Is that really what you want to talk about right now?"

"Yes." He deadpanned, eyes still fixed on the horizon.

"Well, alright." He agreed after a moment of staring. "After you left, I took your advice. I forgave Jack, at least internally. I tried my hardest to smother the grudge I had. Things…got worse between him and your mother after he came back from that small fight you saw about money."

"That was a small fight?"

"Compared to the rest of them? Yes." He sighed, rubbing at the ache in his left leg where the new bone had grown back in the last day."

"Your knees bugging you old man?"

"Har har, just the last of the twinges from that fracture healing." He saw the other half-ghost wince, quickly looking away from his general direction and back towards the sky. "I'll be fine Danny."

"Where's the rest of the story?"

"Hm, well as you can guess, they divorced soon after. Especially after he, uh, you know I'll skip that bit. The important part is, I didn't antagonize him, and since I wasn't busy being frustrated with him, it was easy for me to just be supportive. They didn't get divorced immediately you know, and I know I would have taken out how long the separation was taking on her if I hadn't let the Jack stuff go. We got together soon after the divorce papers were signed."

"I guess haunting the place like the ghost you are finally paid off for you."

"I'm going ignore your sniping, little badger, you're clearly upset at someone else."

"Uh no. I'm annoyed at you too."

"What did I do?"

"You weren't supposed to marry her dude. You were just supposed to stop trying to kill my dad all the time and, I don't know, be normal?"

"Well, how was I supposed to know that? You told me you'd never exist if I didn't forgive Jack, and then I did and Maddie and him divorced and we got together and," he sighed brushing his hair out of his face from where the wind had mussed it. "As far as I knew, you were my son; it made the most sense. Why else ask for me instead of Jack and Maddie?"

"I was just trying to get into their house! I didn't know what else to say. Just, now everything is fucked. How did I make this worse? Forgiveness is supposed to be good for you!" He threw up his hands before scrunching up into a ball. Why was time stuff so difficult?

"Well, it was good for me." The older halfa commented before turning to look at the younger hybrid, "are things really that much worse?" He waited in the cold and dark for the answer, a gloomy pall hanging over the air between them.

"Do you hate me?" It wasn't an answer, he hadn't even meant to say it, but now that it was out, he realized it was the only thing he wanted to know.

"Hate you? No, I don't-I don't think anyone here hates you."

"That's not what it feels like."

"He can't have been that caustic."

"It's not just him. Jazz hates me, Daniel obviously does, the twins, I think my mom even does. Just maybe not Elizabeth, but she's like five so she probably doesn't hate anything but broccoli or something.

"I'm not even sure I hate Jack, and he's done a lot worse than you." He paused and leaned over to wrap his arm around the teen's shoulders. "Everyone is wound up, scared, tired, and hurt. But no one here hates you, especially not me." He leaned closer when he felt the other male's shoulder shake with quiet sobs. "I owe you everything. My family is my whole world Danny; I'd do anything for them." He hugged him tighter for a moment before continuing. "That's why I forgave Jack for you."

"You thought I was your kid."

"I thought that after the fallout happened. Before…" He trailed off to ruffle his hair. "I'd always wanted a little brother." He looked up at the sky, taking in the expanse of the stars. "Even if they did hate you, I promise I do not and I never will. No matter what, you're stuck with me kid." The other halfa didn't respond, just sniffed a few more times before leaning back to watch the skies with him again. This far out, you could even see meteors falling. He wished on the next one the rest of the trip went well.

...then you should have checked the guest list.

---

A/N: And scene! Wowie, Danny is really going through it huh? Hope having an explicit ally in Vlad helps him, because he's having a bad time on the family road trip XD. Here's hoping we get two chapters out this month, but we shall see. Hope to see you soon, and as always my lovelies R&R.