Danny set his bag down by his desk and pulled out his homework. He wished he could leave a duplicate to work on it for him but he hadn't managed to develop that power yet. He really needed to stop lamenting the powers he had yet to develop as well and focus on growing himself in the present. There was no point dwelling on the past… or the future? The whole thing still gave him a headache when he thought about it.

He sighed softly as he began to work on the homework, starting with the harder stuff, like reading boring old poems and formulating opinions on them and analyzing imagery. This kind of thing came easily to Sam, but for him it was more of a struggle, he preferred science and engineering to nebulous concepts like art. Granted there was a time and place for the arts, particularly in movies and video games - not to mention building model rockets-, but that didn't mean he "got" it anymore than before. He opened the book of poems and began looking through them. He was supposed to be analyzing style, rhythm, and imagery. He wasn't even sure what that meant if he was being honest. The only thing English was good for was perfecting his writing skills for research reports and publishing findings. He didn't get through more than a few poems by Blake before there was a knock on his door.

"Jazz?" He asked, grateful for the break in his tedious English homework. He stood to walk over and get the door, but Jazz opened it and let herself in first. They stood awkwardly staring at each other for a moment before Jazz spoke.

"Hey Danny… we need to talk about what you showed me at lunch… I don't know if I can wait any longer." She said as she closed the door behind her and walked over to sit on the bed. Danny sighed and nodded, walking over and joining her, sitting next to her on the bed. He took a deep breath as he tried to figure out how best to explain before scrapping that idea and letting the words flow out of his mouth with no guidance.

"Okay… so… the portal accident kinda… filled me with ectoplasmic energy… It kinda gave me ghost powers." He said as he looked down at his hands before up at Jazz. "Um… I guess we should start with any questions you have."

"Ghost powers… so ghosts are real… how do you know it's ghost powers?" She asked softly, looking at him with concern.

"I… I can walk through walls, disappear and fly. If I'm not a ghost, I don't know what else I'd be… besides… some of Mom and Dad's ghost hunting equipment has been going off around me lately… and then… there's my ghost form." He shrugged. "There's more to it than just that… but that's the basics. I don't want to overwhelm you. Just finding out ghosts are real is a lot to take in… let alone that I've sorta become one."

Jazz looked at him, frowning as she nodded slowly, he wished he knew what she was thinking exactly, but figured it was something along the lines of wondering if Danny was crazy, if she was crazy, and then what it meant if Danny was telling the truth. He watched her and waited for her next question as she sat quietly for a moment, processing everything.

"Ghost form?" Jazz finally asked, looking over at him. "You don't exactly look like a ghost." she pointed out. Danny nodded and ran a hand through his hair.

"Yeah… I'm… Well I look like my human half right now, my ghost half looks… different… glowing, floating, white hair… kinda creepy." He said with a shrug. "I… I can show you now that we're back at home and not in public." He offered.

"Creepy?" Jazz asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's not being very kind to yourself."

"It's objectively true though." Danny said with a shrug before looking toward the window. The two siblings were quiet for a while before Jazz spoke again, gently prompting Danny.

"You can show me though… I think I'd like to see that… If you're comfortable showing me." She said with a small smile as she put a hand on his knee. Danny smiled and nodded.

"More comfortable than you'd expect." He said before standing and closing his eyes, he let the change wash over him. It was still a little uncomfortable when his breathing stilled and his heart stopped. He forced a breath he didn't need before finally opening his eyes and looking at Jazz. Jazz stared at him open mouthed, shocked as her little brother transformed before her eyes into something inhuman.

"Told you it was creepy." He said, his voice echoing, his glowing body cast strange shadows across the room and his own face, flickering and making the room feel eerie. His aura was cold, causing the temperature to drop and Jazz shivered as she looked at him. Danny kept his feet firmly planted on the ground, resisting the urge to float over, instead walking and pulling his blankets around his sister and sitting down next to her still in his ghost form. Jazz was still speechless so Danny took the initiative in speaking again.

"You doing okay?" He asked, the echo in his voice lending to his inhuman appearance. "Before you freak out, I'm still me… mostly." He said as he looked down at his hands. He might be fine telling her about his ghost half, but he knew for a fact that telling her about his first life and the time regression would be too much for her, for now. He looked back up at her and smiled kindly, at her while she continued to stare at him.

"Um… so… ghost form…" He mumbled and gave a small wave over his body, "Especially with me like this… I don't think Mom and Dad would recognize me… they'd probably have to see me transform to get that I'm me… but that's no guarantee that they wouldn't think I was just pretending to be Danny Fenton and that I'm not actually myself… or they may think I did die in the portal and I'm just pretending to be alive and that they need to help me move on or something… or even worse, they may see my ghost half as some sort of infection and try to cure it." He felt like he was rambling, but he didn't have much to work with when Jazz wasn't talking and just staring at him. He blinked at her then forced another breath and changed back into his human half, this time he didn't bother talking, letting Jazz take time to process everything.

He studied his fingernails as he waited for her to process, he had a hangnail on his ring finger, he should get the nail clippers and fix that… or he could fiddle with it and rip it off… no that would just make him bleed and he'd be doing enough of that in the future. He looked at the dark smudge under the fingernail of his thumb and wondered what it was, maybe some graphite? He wasn't sure, could be any sort of miscellaneous finger gunk…

It felt like an eternity before Jazz spoke again.

"Does it hurt?" She asked softly, reaching out to take his hand.

"Does what hurt?" He asked, brow furrowing as he met her eyes, he could almost see the relief in her face when she noticed his eyes were his human blue ones.

"Changing like that… does it hurt?" she clarified, Danny smiled and shook his head. It was strange to be asked that question, no one had ever asked him before if it hurt to "go ghost." Perhaps she understood on some level that every time he changed, he died, to become a ghost, he had to die with each transformation, a little death over and over.

"Not really… not in the way you'd think… it's… uncomfortable… but it isn't painful. It's gotten better since the first time… my heart stops, I don't need to breathe… I can if I want to but… I don't need too." He shrugged. "It's definitely weird, but if I don't change it feels weirder… it's hard to explain. If I don't change I feel… restless… like my insides are itchy. This is a part of me now, I can't ignore it, even if I've tried. Plus… flying is cool… and convenient." He said with a small laugh and a smile. Jazz managed a small smile in return and nodded, she looked him over before reaching out and pinching his arm, as if to test he was still solid and human.

"Ow! What was that for?" Danny frowned and rubbed his arm.

"Just… checking I guess." She said as she looked at him still, studying him, his expressions and mannerisms. Danny glared at her before shaking his head.

"I'm half dead, not completely dead." He scoffed, "I can still feel pain, though admittedly it is diminished when I'm in my ghost form."

Jazz continued to analyze him and Danny sighed, rubbing his arm still and looking away. While he had wanted to tell her, the staring was making him self-conscious.

"Can you stop inspecting me like I'm some kind of freak. I may have accepted this whole thing, but I still don't like the way you're looking at me… plus I'm a teenage boy, you're making me more self-conscious then normal." He frowned at her. Jazz nodded and sighed, forcing herself to look away and rubbing the back of her neck before speaking again.

"So… you're taking this pretty well all things considered." Jazz said as she looked back over at him.

"Yeah… well… It's been about a month." He sighed and looked down at his hand, building a small ball of ecto-energy in his palm before closing his hand around it, smoke escaped between his fingers as he did so and he sighed. "It's gotten easier to control and… It's hard to explain, but I feel like I'm meant to be like this. I have these powers for a reason, something like destiny." He said with a small smile.

"Destiny?" Jazz raised an eyebrow at him, "That's… are you having illusions of grandeur now that you've got powers?" It was Danny's turn to stare at her before he burst into laughter, holding his stomach as the laughter rolled through him, he finally stopped long enough to smile at her.

"Now that's the Jazz I know." He smiled. "It's more complicated than that, trust me, but I also don't want to overwhelm you."

"We've gone past that point already just by finding out ghosts are real, let alone that you've become one. You might as well tell me the whole story… wait… does this have anything to do with your PTSD fueled question about coming from the future?" Jazz asked, her eyes widening.

"Damn… you are definitely the smart one, you put that together fast." Danny said, surprised that she figured that out so quickly, even with her mind being blown from his earlier confessions.

"So… time travel… but… why are you fourteen if you're from the future? How are you from the future? Why are you from the future?" She frowned, rambling off her questions. Danny sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I don't know… let me start at the beginning, with the portal accident." He said before he began to explain everything that he'd already shared with Sam and Tucker, his missing memories, waking up in the portal after the portal accident as his younger self, about how he'd become a hero in the future and somehow he'd died, forcing him back in time to undo the terrible world ending future that he still couldn't remember. Jazz listened carefully, not butting in and nodding when appropriate. When Danny finished she pulled him into a hug, holding him close for a moment, causing Danny to gasp in surprise.

"You've been through a lot, little brother." She said softly. "I'm proud of you."

"What? You're not going to call me crazy or have a mental breakdown about everything I just shared?" He asked as he pulled back and studied her face carefully.

"I'll have a mental breakdown later, in the safety of my own room… but I trust you, I believe you, even if I can't completely wrap my mind around it yet." She said with a small smile as she put a hand on his shoulder.

"You know I'm also here if you want to talk." Danny said as he returned her smile, putting his hand over hers and giving it a small squeeze.

"I blink and you've grown up." Jazz said sadly. "Pun not intended given the time travel thing. I just… There is a lot for me to think about. I can't vocalize it all right now, I'll probably spend a while journaling tonight to try and get my thoughts onto paper." She sighed and shook her head. Danny nodded and looked back at his abandoned homework before sighing.

"Are you going to be okay? I… I do have homework." He sighed as he looked over at his desk again then back to her.

"Oh… right… yes… I'll be fine." She said with a nod. "Good luck with the homework Danny." She said as she stood then kissed the top of his head as she left. He watched her go and hoped she was as fine as she said she was. He would check on her later that night to make sure she was coping well. He smiled to himself, it was nice that he didn't have to hide anything from Jazz anymore. Even if it had only been a month, he had missed her guidance, even when it was meddling and overbearing. He ran a hand through his hair and turned his attention back to his desk.

"Okay… sister brought into the loop… time for homework." He sighed as he pushed off the bed, going to his desk and back to the torture of 19th century poetry.

Danny wasn't entirely sure that Jazz was okay, he knew she would be given time, but he still caught her staring at him that night at dinner. She was probably still processing what she'd learned about him and how she felt about it. He gave her a reassuring smile, he'd check on her again in the morning, tonight he had more important things on his mind.

He waited till his parents had gone to bed before making his way to the basement quietly. He pulled a chair to the middle of the lab, the glow of the portal illuminated the lab enough that he didn't really need to turn on the lights. He turned the chair so that he could look at the portal and he stopped and stared into the depths. The swirling green portal gave off a baseline of ecto-energy, it was part of what made it easier for ghosts to manifest in Amity Park. There were other places that naturally generated low level ecto-energy, but the portal was a massive source in the "real" world.

He stared at it, each swirl of glowing green morphing and changing as he sat there and breathed in the ambient energy the portal gave off. There was a week left until the menu changed, he wasn't entirely sure why, but after the Lunch Lady came through the ghosts continued to come, getting progressively more powerful. He needed to remember what he could about the events to come and the order in which they would happen so he could try and predict the best possible outcome. He didn't have Clockwork's powers of foresight to decide what would be the best course of action, he didn't know what actions he should avoid, or which would give the desired results. There was a lot he didn't know, and it haunted him. Pun intended.

He took another breath, drawing the ecto-energy from the portal into his body, it hummed in his core, helping soothe him, helping his human body accept this new part of him, and giving him energy to avoid sleeping so he could think. His eyes glowed softly as he practiced drawing in the energy to charge his core, then circulating it through his body. He stared into the depths of the portal, his mind wandering through the different possibilities and scenarios, ways he could fail, ways his successes would complicate other futures. It was so complicated, the way everyone's choices were so interlinked and connected, the slight deviations from the timeline he knew could compound to larger deviations down the line. How the butterfly effect could change things for better or worse.

Danny's eyes glowed a bit brighter as his core absorbed more energy, he took a breath and sighed, pulling away from the portal so as to not overwhelm his human half. His eyes remained closed for a moment before he looked back into the glowing depths. His eyes no longer glowed now that he was no longer drawing in the ecto-energy. He still needed to think, to plan, to process, he didn't have time to waste on mere sleeping.

"Danny?"

Danny jumped slightly and looked up, he saw his mom on the stairs to the basement, he smiled softly and nodded.

"Hi Mom, did I wake you?" He asked softly, tilting his head as he worried about her.

"No, I couldn't sleep, I thought I'd check some readings, see if the old tales of 3 am being when the veils between worlds are thinnest had any merit by comparing the readings in ecto-energy around the portal." She explained. "What are you doing down here? Why aren't you wearing a Hazmat suit?" She asked.

"My suit got toasted in the portal, then cut up by the paramedics, remember?" He said before looking back at the portal. "I just… I needed to think." He said, still staring into the portal, Maddie brought a chair over and sat next to him, she shivered slightly at the cold leaving the portal despite her hazmat suit and looked over at Danny. How wasn't he not showing signs of being cold? He was just wearing a thin pajama set and he looked so comfortable in front of the portal, the thing that had nearly killed him.

"It killed me." He said, startling Maddie who looked over at her. "I died inside the portal Mom." He said softly as he stared into the depths. "I survived in the end, but I did die… it really… It changed me." His voice was soft and contemplative, not bitter or afraid as she might expect from such a confession, she looked at him, her brow furrowing. Danny leaned over and rested his head on her shoulder, he missed being shorter sometimes, able to seek comfort in his mother easier when she could still wrap her arms around him and he could lean on her without having to bend too far over.

"Why didn't you say anything earlier? It's been weeks." Maddie said. She pulled off a glove from her hand and went to feel his forehead, pulling away shocked with how cold he was, but he had been sitting in front of the portal for a while now.

"I… I was scared." He said softly. "I know you and Dad love me… but if you thought I was overshadowed… or broken… I don't know. It scares me still." He sighed and leaned against her, Maddie wrapped an arm around him, rubbing his arm to try and warm him up as she looked to the portal.

She had been so fascinated by the fact that it had worked, once she was certain Danny was safe she had allowed herself to get distracted by it. She hadn't checked on him properly in the past month, she hadn't asked how he was doing besides the occasional "how are you?" in passing at dinner, when they managed to have dinner together. Danny looked up at her and smiled softly at her, his eyes seemed off, tired but older than he should be at fourteen, like he'd been through hell and back. How had she not noticed before that look in his eyes, the innocence having faded despite the baby fat still clinging to his cheeks.

"I've got a lot on my mind since the portal accident… It really changed me, and… I want you to know that I'm not broken because of it… just different. I came down here to think because… I don't know, even though it killed me the portal still calls to me, to the part of me that died." He said as he turned away looking back into the depths of the portal. "I feel… more energized near the portal, even if I don't enter it, it feels… oddly comforting, even if it's super creepy too." He explained. Maddie watched him, his blue eyes reflected the glow of the portal, almost seeming to glow themselves, the spinning vortex of the ecto-energy pooling around his irises as he fell quiet again and stared into the portal.

Maddie considered the implications, he said he'd died, he mentioned the pull of the portal, perhaps he was more contaminated with ecto-energy than they initially thought. She wondered if she should worry that he was becoming a ghost, even if he wasn't a ghost, had his near death imprinted enough emotion on the ectoplasm to form its own ghost, even though he was alive? Was the ecto-contamination consuming him somehow, changing him against his will into a different creature? Why was he so calm about it?

As the thoughts ran through her head she wondered if she should contact Vlad. It wasn't the first nor even the second time she had considered it, but Vlad had pulled away after the proto-portal incident, his own ecto-contamination had sent him to the hospital. Danny shifted next to her drawing her attention away from her thoughts as he turned back to look at her with a frown.

"I'm not sick, I'm not broken, you don't need to fix this, you can't fix this." He said with a shake of his head. "This is who I am now, I will never be the same as I was before the portal accident." He said as he looked at her sternly.

"Danny… if you're suffering from ecto-contamination then we-" Maddie started, but Danny cut her off.

"Mom. I'm not suffering, I'm fine." He said as he shook his head. "I suppose you could call it ecto-contamination… but that's not really what this is, not in the way you think. You can't run me through decontamination procedures and magically fix this, you'll just make me sick." He said before shaking his head. "I didn't mean to explain so much already, I meant to ease into telling you, showing you, all of that… I'm doing things faster than intended today." He mumbled before looking back into the portal. Maddie frowned, her hand had paused in rubbing his arm and she resumed its path up and down his frozen skin, turning her gaze to the portal as well. She wondered what sort of call he felt. She wondered if she was losing her son.

"I'm worried." Maddie finally said, Danny laughed, the sound bitter and hollow.

"Only because you found me down here, if you hadn't found me down here, you wouldn't have noticed anything remiss for years." He said, rolling his eyes. "You and Dad love us, I know that, but you get wrapped up in your obsession with ghosts and you don't pay enough attention to us. That's probably why Jazz turned to psychology, some kind of way to deal with her feelings of abandonment and being parentified, also to help her kid brother deal with those feelings as well." He shook his head.

"Danny, that's not fair." Maddie protested, anger rising in her chest, maybe he was becoming ghostly, picking fights and trying to make her feel bad.

"Mom. I love you." He said kindly, his eyes were so sad that the anger died in her chest. "But you didn't notice that I died in the portal." His words felt like sharp daggers to her heart. She had been worried, she had been scared, but he was right, she hadn't noticed that he didn't just have a near death experience, he had a death experience. Danny turned away unable to handle the guilt in his mother's eyes as he looked back into the portal.

"Sorry… I didn't mean to hurt you, but… you and Dad… there's a reason Jazz and I don't talk to you guys so much. You've been unavailable to us for the past few years, your work on the portal distracting you from us, and after it turned on you've been even more absent, we've seen you maybe four times in the past month. I needed you… but you're not there for me or for Jazz." He sighed as he pulled his legs to his chest without breaking eye contact with the portal.

He had been thinking of how to tell his parents about his powers, about the future that was coming, and he realized he didn't want to do that, at least not when he knew his parents wouldn't be listening, not when he knew they wouldn't even notice if he turned invisible in front of them. The last time his parents had been at dinner with them, he'd told a completely bullshit story about how school went, complete with alien abduction and they had just told him "that's nice." He figured the word ghost would have gotten their attention, but he'd purposefully avoided using it, realizing that it would defeat the purpose of the bullshit story.

Maddie was silent, staring at Danny, he wondered if she was debating on how long to ground him. He could feel her eyes on him and avoided looking over, opting instead to stare into the Fenton Portal and consider his options, how to take care of Skulker when he came to hunt him, if he would even need to fight the ghost dragon if he made sure to give Dorthea back her amulet after it fell off, maybe he could even help her overthrow her brother earlier than before and keep the ghostly princess pageant from occurring. He tried to remember how he first met Technus and how to take care of him the fastest. Would Ember listen to him about how her music could be a positive influence and she could be popular without needing the mind control, why did she want to take over the world anyway if she just wanted to be worshiped as a rockstar?

Danny was so wrapped up in these considerations Maddie startled him when she pulled him into a hug, holding him close to her, she felt so warm and he hesitated before wrapping his arms around Maddie in return. He closed his eyes and leaned into her, he could taste her guilt but more importantly her drive to do better. He smiled softly as he hugged her, he hadn't meant to sense her emotions, but he was reassured by them nonetheless.

"You're right… your father and I will do better, pay more attention, try not to let Ghost Hunting completely distract us from what's important, our family." Maddie said as she pulled away and looked at him kindly.

"We'll work on it, I promise, but while we work on it… I'd like to introduce you to a friend, he went through something similar to you, he might be able to help with this, you feeling like some part of you has died, or perhaps thats just the ecto-contamination in your body. But he can help you to manage it without making you sick or forming a ghost." She said softly as she put a hand to his cheek smiling sadly at him. Danny blinked, he slowly nodded and smiled softly.

"I'm glad you're going to try." He said as he pulled away gently and looked back to the portal before focusing on his mom. "I… I can't tell you everything right now, but I appreciate that you're trying. I'll tell you everything one day… if you don't figure it out before then." He said with a small smile.

"Your father and I just want you to be safe and happy." Maddie said. "You should get some sleep though, you have school in the morning. We can talk more after dinner." She promised as she stood, pulling him to his feet along with her. She kissed his forehead and ruffled his hair.

"Goodnight Danny." She said before gently nudging him toward the stairs.

"Goodnight Mom."