A.N - Hello! Hope everyone is staying safe and sane.

Jazz gets to drive the story this chapter! I'm not sure when this is set in regards to the previous chapters; Danny could be in college already and both kids were home for the weekend, or Jazz is doing summer internship research. You can decide which you like better.

Hope you enjoy!

Jazz Fenton stood in her parents' living room, hands on her hips, surveying the items spread out on the couch. Her laptop? Check. Video camera and foldable tripod? Check. Spiral-bound notebook and extra pens? Check. Official Columbia University messenger bag to carry it all, along with her phone, keys, and wallet? Check.

Jazz smiled, satisfied, until she felt eyes on her. She turned to see her cousin/adoptive sister, Danielle, standing by the staircase, arms crossed over her chest. Her dark hair was tied up in a ponytail, making it easy to see her little white skull earrings (a birthday present from Sam earlier this year). She wore black Capris, a dark blue tank top, and a scowl.

"Did you need something, Ellie?" Jazz asked lightly.

"I still think I should come with you," the 15-year-old replied.

Jazz sighed. "Elle, there's no reason for you to come with me," she answered in what she thought was her most patient tone of voice. "We've been over this already."

"No reason? After what he did to you and Jack and Maddie? Bad enough that you're doing this stupid interview, don't do it without some ghostly protection!"

"One, Freakshow is completely human. Two, he's locked up in a secure government facility. And three, I'm perfectly capable of protecting myself in the case something does go wrong," Jazz argued.

Dani scoffed. "Secure government facility, sure. The same one he broke out of the last time?"

Jazz threw up her hands. "You know what? We're done with this conversation. I'm going to do this interview, and you are not going to accompany me."

Then, before Dani could reply, Jazz gathered up her supplies, fished her car keys out of her pocket, and walked out the door.

Now, Jazz understood where Dani was coming from. When Jazz's psychology professor and research internship director, Dr. Wheatley, had suggested Jazz do some follow-up research on her ghost envy thesis, the first person she'd thought of was Frederich Isak Showenhower, AKA Freakshow. This thought had surprised her, actually, because the only thing she knew about him was that he ran a gothic circus and was a convicted jewelry thief. But Dr. Wheatley had loved the idea, and managed to get Jazz the access she needed to interview Showenhower at Amity Park Penitentiary.

But when Jazz - home from school one weekend - had mentioned her project at dinner, Danny had freaked out. He'd claimed it would be too dangerous for her to do the interview and begged her to reconsider. After constant badgering from Jazz and Ellie, Danny had finally confessed to them later that night why Freakshow upset him so much: he had once kidnapped the Fentons, the Mansons, and the Foleys and forced them on a roller coaster of death until Danny had tricked him into becoming a ghost himself and captured him in the Fenton Thermos. And then Danny had used Freakshow's so-called "Reality Gauntlet" to rewrite time so nobody but Danny, Sam, and Tucker remembered what happened.

Jazz had been flabbergasted at this explanation (though it did explain the recurring nightmares she had about ghost clowns and a giant roller coaster). Not to mention furious at her brother for messing with her and their parents' memories like that. Danny had looked ashamed at that part, but still insisted that she shouldn't do the interview. Danielle, after hearing that story, had echoed the sentiment.

But Jazz had refused. She wasn't going to let fear, especially over something she couldn't remember, get in the way of her research.

Besides, Freakshow likes me. We had a bonding moment together.

Jazz paused, hand hovering over the gear shift. Where had that thought come from? Shaking her head, she put it towards the back of her mind. She had to leave now, or else she'd be late.

...

Jazz was greatly annoyed, but not altogether surprised, when she pulled up to the black iron gate of Amity Park Penitentiary to see Danielle waiting for her. Her adoptive sister grinned widely and waggled her fingers at her, while the gate security guard looked over Jazz's credentials.

"This girl says she's with you, Ms. Fenton? Your research assistant arriving early?" the guard questioned.

Jazz sighed. Then, plastering on a fake smile, she replied, "Yes, that's right. She's with me, this paperwork should be enough for both of us."

The guard - an elderly black man with a shiny bald head and piercing brown eyes - glanced between Jazz and Dani, seeming skeptical. "She's a little young to be doing research at a university level, isn't she?"

"Advanced Placement," Jazz said smoothly. "You know, for the those special children that colleges like to keep an eye on."

The guard nodded slowly, then finally waved them in. He pressed a button on the inside of his control booth, and the gate opened with cranking sound. Danielle opened the front passenger side door and leaped nimbly into the seat. Jazz scowled at her, but drove forward past the penitentiary's gates.

After passing through metal detectors and having a light patdown, Jazz and Dani followed a guard to Freakshow's cell. The man was dressed in an orange jumpsuit and slumped in a simple wooden chair in the middle of the cell. There was little else in there, as this was the visitor cell. Two chairs had been set up for Jazz and Dani in front of the cell.

When Freakshow saw them approach, he immediately straightened. "Why, Miss Fenton!" he exclaimed, mouth stretched into a large grin as he walked up to the bars. "What a delight! When they said I had a visitor, I never imagined it would be you!"

Jazz paused, frowning. Why would he be so excited to see her? Their only interaction had been when he'd held her, her parents, and Sam's and Tucker's families captive, but Freakshow shouldn't be able to remember that. The only thing about Amity Park and Danny Phantom he should recall was the Circus Gothica incident, and Jazz hadn't met him then.

Dani glanced at her, concerned. "You okay?"

Jazz shook her head to clear it. "Yeah. Of course." She adopted a professional smile for Freakshow. "Hello, Mr. Showenhower. As you seem to know already, I'm Jasmine Fenton. The GIW has authorized me to interview you for a research project for Columbia University's Department of Psychology."

"How interesting! Well, I am happy to be of service, especially if it involves chatting with such a beautiful and intelligent young lady. Being stuck in here with all these agents all day every day is terribly boring."

The guard with them, a muscular light-skinned man with brown hair, a bushy mustache, and tinted glasses, frowned at Freakshow. "You'd best be on your best behavior, Freakshow," he growled. "Don't do anything to these ladies you might regret."

"Why, I'd never," Freakshow promised, batting his eyes at the guard. The guard's frown deepened, but he merely nodded at Jazz and Dani before walking back to his post, a few hundred feet from the visitor's cell. They would have some privacy to conduct this interview, but the penitentiary had refused to grant Jazz completely private access to Freakshow.

Once the guard left, Freakshow turned his attention on Dani. "And now who might you be? Bit young to be assisting in a university project, no?"

Dani narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm security detail," she replied tersely. "So you'd better watch yourself, Freakshow. Because I definitely am."

Freakshow laughed. "Well! Such animosity! I'm a simple jewelry thief, my dear. What do you think I'm going to do?"

"Considering you kidnapped my family the last time you broke out of here, I'm not taking any chances," Dani hissed, eyes flashing ghostly green.

"Ellie!" Jazz exclaimed, looking over her shoulder at the guard. What was the point of bringing up that event, when no one here even remembered it?

But then Freakshow, head tilted to the side, replied, "Goodness, and how do you know about that? I thought that event was erased from existence."

Jazz and Dani looked at each other, shocked.

"It...it was," Jazz told him slowly. "So how do you know about it?"

"Oh my! Did I let something slip I shouldn't have?" Freakshow brought at hand up to his mouth, then grinned before becoming serious once more. "Yes, well, whatever that lucky half-ghost dolt of a brother of yours did with the Reality Gauntlet affected everyone's memory in this place except for mine - why that is, I couldn't tell you. Perhaps vestiges of using the Reality Gauntlet myself, or having been a ghost with its power, prevented me from the mind wipe." He shrugged. "In any case, I'm actually glad we know this about each other now! No need to beat around the bush."

"Yes, well, I suppose that's true..." Jazz replied. After a moment of thought, she admitted, "I don't really remember anything, either, not like you seem to. My brother only told me about it recently. But...when I thought of doing this project, you were the first thing that came to mind." When Freakshow beamed at that news, she added sternly, "But I am here only in a strictly professional, scholarly capacity. You understand?"

"Yes, yes, of course. Whatever you need. Ask away," Freakshow replied, settling himself on the chair in his cell.

Jazz nodded slowly, then began to set up her equipment. She fitted the video camera into the tripod and trained it on Freakshow. Then she got her phone out and opened up a recorder app to catch his every word. Settling herself in one of the chairs, she grabbed her pen and flipped open her notebook. Reluctantly, Dani sat down in the chair next to her.

"Now, Mr. Showenhower - "

"Oh, please, don't be so formal. Call me Freakshow," the man interrupted.

Jazz paused. She had been referring to him as Freakshow in her head, but she didn't want to be recorded saying that. She didn't think it would give her paper the objectivity and credibility it needed. As if sensing this, Freakshow chuckled and said,

"Oh, I'm sorry, is that not professional enough for the world of academia? Very well. Call me Isak then! You can get away with that, can't you?"

Jazz pursed her lips, then nodded. "Alright. Yes. Now, then, Isak. Why don't you tell me about your childhood? Your parents, their occupation, how they treated you. If that's alright."

"Going right for the jugular, aren't you?" Isak's eyes twinkled with glee, and Jazz had to ignore the something twisting uncomfortably in her chest. "Well, my family has a long, complicated history with ghosts - hunting them, studying them. Sometimes serving them, enslaving them at others. My ancestors spent much time and money researching things like anti-ghost plants and artifacts that could control ghosts. Oh, everyone thought they were crazy, of course!" Isak laughed as Jazz's hand zipped across the page, writing everything down; beside her, Dani started shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

"And my parents, well, they were just as obsessed with ghosts. I think I was only born so they could have someone to pass their knowledge on to. Oh, and what a plethora of knowledge it is!" Freakshow leaned in, pressing up against the bars. "Ah, but you want to know about my childhood, you say? Well, I was born in 1965 in New York, New York, but we traveled all across the country..."

A couple hours later, as Freakshow was telling a tale about his teen years in Florida, he cut himself off abruptly.

"As much as I've loved having you here, Miss Fenton," he said, "I do wish you'd chosen another day to conduct your interview."

Jazz looked up from her notes and frowned. "Why? What do you mean?"

Suddenly, Danielle stiffened and shuddered before a long blue wisp escaped her mouth. Immediately afterwards, a loud ringing noise erupted in Jazz's ears. Red lights began flashing in the corners of the room and the guards began shouting things at each other. Jazz pulled out the laser lipstick she'd been keeping in her pocket and whirled around, eyes searching frantically for a threat before landing on a tall, green-skinned ghost with spiked hair and covered black tattoos.

Jazz's head began to throb. The ghost seemed so familiar - where had she seen her before? And why was it making her head hurt? The ghost hovered in the air, extending a hand towards Freakshow's cell.

"Ah, well, you see, because this is the day I'm breaking out of jail," Freakshow answered cheerily. "Oh, and I would move to the side if I were you."

Jazz and Dani complied just as the ghost released a blast of green ecto-energy from her hands, obliterating the bars keeping Freakshow trapped. The convict leaped over some rubble, mouth stretched wider than should be humanly possible.

"Cover me," Dani hissed in Jazz's ear. Jazz glanced at the guards, who were all focusing on the enemy ghost, before she wrapped Dani in a tight embrace, practically smothering her. A bright light shone between her arms, and then Dani-with-an-I Phantom was shooting into the air to confront the intruder. The ghost had been nimbly avoiding the prison guards shooting at her, but was unprepared for Dani punching her in the face. The ghost sailed into a wall with a loud metallic Thud.

"Lydia!" Freakshow called, stepping towards her. But Jazz trained her laser lipstick on his chest.

"Hold it right there, mister," she growled, trying to ignore the pain in her temples. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the ghost - Lydia - shake herself off and launch back into the air, where she traded more blows with Dani; green ecto-blasts zipped around the room, destroying walls and parts of the floor.

Freakshow seemed surprised, as if he had forgotten Jazz was there. Then his smile returned. "Why, Miss Fenton. You're not really going to hurt me, are you?"

"If I have to," Jazz replied. But then she winced as fresh pain rolled over her. The sudden image of a giant, four-armed green monstrosity flashed before her eyes and she stumbled back. What was that? Another image - she and her family plummeting down the hill of a roller coaster, Danny in his ghost form the only thing between them and a giant break in the track.

A loud Crack sounded above her. A hand on her forehead, Jazz looked up to see an ecto-blast hit the ceiling, which began to crumble. Her eyes widened as chunks of ceiling headed straight towards her, too fast for her to get out of the way -

A hand wrapped around her wrist and yanked her forward. Jazz cried out as she smacked into another body, then yelped again as the ceiling crashed to the floor, right where she'd been standing. Her heart slammed against her chest and she could feel a cold sweat on the back of her neck.

"Are you alright, Jasmine?"

Jazz looked up, startled to find herself barely three inches from Freakshow's face. She gasped and jerked away, slipping from his grasp. She looked behind her at the rubble, then back at Freakshow, who was looking at her with what seemed like concern.

"You...you saved me," she said, dumbfounded.

The sound of her mother's anguished scream echoed in the back of her mind, her parents sobbing after witnessing what they thought was their son's death.

"Yes, I did. I'm actually quite fond of you, you know, Miss Jasmine," Freakshow replied.

Jazz breathed in deepy, trying to calm herself. Her heartbeat was still fast, but slowing down. "Why?" she asked warily.

"Because!" Freakshow exclaimed, suddenly leaning in close, eyes wide. "You were the only one who understood me! The only human I'd ever met who knew what it was like to be completely overshadowed by ghosts. Even my own dear sweet Lydia, she can't understand, not everything - she's a ghost, too, you know."

Jazz took a step back trying to get away from him. She'd dropped her laser lipstick when Freakshow pulled her away from the falling ceiling.

Watching her, Freakshow's voice grew calmer, softer, as he continued, "You have no idea how much that means to me, dear child. And for that, I will give you another gift: I promise that I will leave your family alone, safe and unharmed. They'll have nothing to fear from me. As long as your two ghostly siblings stay away from me, of course," he added.

Jasmine swallowed. "I...how can I trust you to do that?"

"Well, one should never trust a showman on principle, that's true," Freakshow admitted. "But I assure you, my word is good when it comes to this, dear Jasmine." Then he grinned. "Have fun with your ghosts, if you can."

Then he raised his hand and a moment later Lydia swooped down and grabbed it, lifting Freakshow up into the air with her. She made them intangible and then whisked them away through the wall.

A.N. - I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one! How were Jazz and Freakshow? Did I keep them in character enough?

I loved the episode/movie "Reality Trip" and thought it opened up a lot of things to explore, including Danny's reality wipe, his classmates' and parents' acceptance of his ghostly form, and - as you might have guessed - Freakshow and his bonding moment with Jazz. I also was intrigued by his relationship with Lydia, which I think is romantic, though he also obviously as some issues with the fact that she's a ghost.

A really well-written and interesting fic that explores some of Freakshow's family past and ghost-hunting artifacts is a crossover with Beetlejuice called "Say It Thrice" by Bookwormgal on Archive of Our Own. It's pretty long and a bit wordy at times, but it has great worldbuilding, character relationships and growth, and plenty of action.