Summary: Based on lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks 's Prosthetic Soul au. Danny dies and his parents use ectoplasm to heal his body. They create a poltergeist, which thinks it's Danny, as a prosthetic soul, so their son can live again.

This whole idea has been ringing around my head for a while so I finally wrote something. This is based on lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks 's Prosthetic Soul au. In the comments, kreadstornham mentioned Danny coming back as a full ghost and having to watch. And I'm ecstatic! Just imagine the pain, the drama! This is also kinda based on tachvintlogic 's ideas and the snippet they wrote. This story would theoretically happen after that snippet; the new Danny has figured out that there was something wrong with him but hasn't yet learned what Jack and Maddie actually did to him. So que full ghost Danny meeting his counterpart and both of them having an existential crisis!

The mist parting, Danny stumbled through the portal. He blinked, taking in his surroundings. Concrete floor, metal tables, silver and green devices. It looked like... was this... his parents' lab? After how ever long he'd been... dead, had he finally found his way home?

Hope rose in his core. His friends, his sister, his parents. He could... he could finally see them again. He could tell them how much he loved them, how much he missed them. Then... a hint of sadness. Danny had no idea how long he'd been dead. His loved ones... they must have been so broken over losing him. They probably still were, still grieving. But... he wasn't lost anymore. He was here. He was home. Even if... he looked down at his glowing hands, wincing. He was still here, even if he was a ghost now. Still...

With that, the ghost boy flickered invisible. It wouldn't do to be seen and potentially scare someone before he was ready. He needed to figure out what he was going to do first. Especially considering his parents'... attitude towards ghosts.

Silently, he floated up through the ceiling and into the living room. The house was quiet, no sign that anyone was home. At least.. His parents weren't. If they were anywhere nearby, he'd be able to hear them. But then again, maybe that had changed. They had lost their son, to their own portal no less and…

Danny shook the thought away. Focus. He still needed to check upstairs. Still unseen, the ghost floated up the stairs. He paused at the top, in front of… Jazz's door. His core fluttered, a mixture of nerves and sadness. He phased through and looked around the room. The full bookshelves, the orderly desk, the cleanly made bed. It looked the same as ever, except… Bearbet was missing? Danny shook his head. Anyway… it didn't matter. The point was, his sister wasn't there.

His family must be out then. Really, he should have checked the time, figured out what day it was. He turned around, intending to do just that, and phased out of the room. Silently, he floated through the hall. Danny paused in front of his own door.

His core clinched almost painfully. His own room. The door looked the same as ever, with his name and his stickers of the stars and planets. But inside… had his family boxed up his things? Had they given his possessions away? Or… was it untouched? Again, exactly how much time had passed?

A heavy grief passed over him. He… he needed to know. He needed to see. Taking an unneeded breath, the ghost phased into the room. For a moment, he stared. It…it looked the same, exactly the same, even down to the dirty clothes on his floor. His eyes darted around the scene and…

If Danny still had blood, it would have run cold. There was… there was someone sitting in his chair, at his computer. He floated forward, staring at the back of the black-haired head. Trembling, the ghost boy approached. Dread rose in him, the cold of his core stirring. There was… something familiar about… about… Whoever was in his chair…

The person stiffened, suddenly turning around. Blue eyes met the empty air and…

Danny screamed, losing his invisibility. He dropped out of the air in his fear. That was… those blue eyes… that was.. That was his own face. That was… that looked like him. His mind raced. Was this… was this a dream? A nightmare? Did his parents adopt a kid that looked just like him? Or…

The other being was pale and looked just as terrified as Danny himself was. The mouth opened and closed. "What are… what are you?"

Danny's own mouth fell open. Oh god, that was his voice. His voice! It sounded and looked exactly like him. The ghost's eyes trailed up and down the body. Green eyes met blue. And… something otherworldly flickered behind the seemingly human eyes. So… a ghost? Some kind of ghostly shapeshifter. But…

His eyes fixed on the chest, rising and falling. Breathing. It was breathing. And…. the right hand. The ghost's eyes somehow widened even more. There was… there was a scar. A starburst, starting at the palm and moving up the arm before disappearing under the sleeve. It was… that was where he'd been electrocuted. That…that was… he'd turned on the portal. And… and it killed him. But… but this being had the scar, his scar. And….

It hit Danny like a bucket of ice water. A feeling of nausea. "F-ck. That's my… that's my body." His body. His corpse. Except… except it wasn't a corpse. It was breathing and blinking and… and standing. When had it stood up?

"What are you… what are you talking about?" The fearful voice that sounded so like Danny's asked.

The question stabbed Danny's mind and he saw red. His body. His body! And… something ghostly green flickered in the eyes. "My body. You're possessing… you're possessing my f-cking body."

"I… no… that's not…" The being stumbled backwards, hitting the desk.

The ghost barely thought, enraged. He darted off the floor and turned intangible. He was… he was dead. And some f-cking ghost was possessig his body. Some ghost was in his house, his room, his body. And he wanted it back. Danny phased inside his body's chest.

Suddenly, it was too dark. Too light. Too hot or… too cold. It was too cold. Danny squirmed. No… something squirmed, very near him. A poltergeist, a little wisp of a ghost. Barely… barely even a spirit. It writhed and Danny pushed. He needed it out. Out of his body. Leave! It needed to leave.

The poltergeist screamed, its voice ringing in Danny's mind. Its thoughts brushed his. No, please. It hurts. Hurts. I didn't… I didn't do anything.

Didn't do anything?! Danny raged, pushing harder. He brushed memories. Memories that felt like his own. His birthday. Cake, presents, games. His parents' smiling, loving faces. It looked the same. Except… that telescope. He'd… he'd asked for that telescope for years but his parents had never bought it for him but…

You… you tricked my… my family. You stole… you stole my life. You…. took… you took everything.

No! I…I don't… I don't know what you're talking about. The poltergeist argued.

It pushed back and Danny dug his claws in. He was going to destroy it, tear it apart. He was going to take back what was his and-

Twin cries of pain. The poltergeist pulled. The memory of his death, the electricity frying him, his muscles twitching. Danny grabbed the memory and shoved it down. He yanked and…

Drifting underwater, surrounded by green. On something fluffy and soft. His mother's voice. "Jack! Jack! He's breathing. He's breathing! It's… it's working."

"But…" Dad's voice, tinted with doubt. "The poltergeist, the prosthetic soul. Do you think… it took?"

"It… it had to. It must…" Mom's pained voice quieted. "We..we did everything right. It will think it's really… it… it'll know it's supposed to be Danny."

Eyes fluttered open. "Ma…Mom? Dad?"

The blurry image of his mom's face, stained with tears. "Yes, Danny. Danny. It's… it's Mommy and Daddy. We're here. We're right here, baby. You're… you're okay."

Both ghosts gasped, recoiling. Danny was thrown back, out of the body. He skidded across the floor, hitting his bed. The poltergeist, still inhabiting his body, landed heavily on the floor.

Danny shook, a queasy sense of wrongness overtaking him. Mom and Dad… Mom and Dad did this. They… they did something to his body and they made…they made that thing, that poltergeist and put it inside of his body to…to…. 'It will think it's really…' Danny. 'it… it'll know it's supposed to be Danny.' The boy shivered, feeling sick. Think it was him, supposed to be him. That… that thing was supposed to... To replace him. His parents replaced him.

Danny… Danny wished he could throw up. But he… he couldn't because he was dead. He died and his parents experimented on his body, shoved this thing inside, and… and replaced him.

The sound of sobs stole Danny's attention. His head whipped up and… it was crying. The thing was crying. An ugly hate crowded his core. It… it took his life, it replaced him, and it was crying.

Danny snarled, rising from the floor. His hand lit green and he raised it, standing over the creature. "What? Upset that you've been found out?"

The small, thin body shook, curling in on itself. Watery blue eyes tentatively met his gaze before darting away. The creature forced words out through the sobs. "I…I knew something was wrong with me but not… not this."

Danny blinked, his rage wavering. "What?"

"I knew… I knew something was wrong with… with me. But this. They… they couldn't do… this. How could… could they? How could they?"

The words poured out and it gave Danny pause. The devastation, the pain, the betrayal, the disgust. It… it sounded too real. And… too like what he himself was feeling.

Tentatively, Danny dissipated the ectoenergy. "You didn't… know?" He asked.

The being shook its head stiffly, still afraid. "I… They told me I was in an accident. And Jazz… she said I died. But… I thought… I thought they did something to bring me back, some… some weird ghost thing. But… it didn't go right. So… so that's why my memories don't match. But… but…" It gasped through a sob. "I'm… I'm not even me. I'm not real. They made me and… they… they did this." The creature rambled, near hysterical. Tears mared its face, expression screwed up with revoltion.

Danny's core clinched. It sounded… this sounded real, authentic. It was telling the truth. The ghost boy knelt down, beside the crying figure. "You didn't know." He repeated, the realization washing over him.

Danny looked down. This was… this was insane but… the being in front of him didn't know. It hadn't planned this. It didn't know what his parents had done. Shakily, Danny placed a hand on a pale, bare arm.

The being below him stiffened. It sucked in a breath, forcing the sobs down. "I…I'm sorry." The blue eyes met his. "I'm sorry. You… you can have your body back. Just…. Figure out how to get me out. Or… or possess me. I won't fight you this time. You can… you can have it. Just please… don't… don't hurt me."

Something in Danny cracked. His expression softened. "I'm not going to hurt you. Mom and Dad did this, not you." He sighed. "And… I'm not going to do anything… yet." He looked over the being. Oh, it was tempting. Oh so tempting. The body he was touching was warm, a pulse fluttering under his finger. Somehow, miraculously it was alive. If he could push out the other ghost… could he slip right in? Could he pick it back up and keep living his life as if he never left?

The being shakily pulled itself into a sitting position. "You're… you're not?"

Danny shook his head. "I need to figure out what exactly Mom and Dad did first." And that was a whole can of worms. But…

The ghost boy looked from his hand, still around the pale wrist, to the intelligent blue eyes. For a moment, they flickered neon green. And that was another thing, not just his body but… the poltergeist inside, the spirit behind those eyes. Danny's core churned, reacting to the presence of another ghost. Another ghost, like him. And…he'd seen its mind. Or… No, his. Not its, but his. Not a creature but… a boy. Danny had seen the other boy's mind, his soul. A soul that wasn't Danny's but… just as existent, just as vibrant as his own.

The other boy swallowed. "Yeah. I… I want to know what they did too."

Danny let his expression relax. "And we'll go from there. So…" He bit his lip. "I guess we'll start with names. I'm Danny." He held out his hand, as if to shake.

His counterpart did the same, awkwardly shaking this hand. "And I'm.. uh… well, my par-... er Mom and D-... I mean everyone calls me Danny too."

Danny, the full ghost, almost smiled. "So, Danny. What do you remember about coming back from the dead?"