Note: Hey, guys, thanks again for reading and following this story! I'm beginning to think I have a much better updating schedule now than back when I was a more active fanfic writer, heh heh... Anyway, thanks in advance for checking this chapter out.

Chapter 6: Fessing Up

I stare at Valerie while she flies both of us a couple of blocks away from the fiery disaster. "Phantom? How...? W-what are you talking about?" is all I can splutter, my mind now bombarded with questions.

Did she just really call me Phantom? Does this mean she knows? Did Vlad tell her? Did she figure it out on her own? How long has she known? What is she going to do to me? Will she even believe me if I tried explaining all this?

"Cut the act, Danny," she snaps. Immediately after, she drops me behind a dumpster in an alley. "I'll be asking the questions when I get back." Without another word from her, Val motions her glider back to the burning buildings, already preparing her cubic lasers, probably to hit Phantom.

I'm left dumbfounded. What the heck just happened?

She can't be that mad at me if she left me here, probably to stay safe, right? So what does she really know? Ugh... I'm not sure and I can't deal with this right now. Whatever's going on between us will have to wait. I still have to get back there and get my gear to hopefully capture Phantom. I could try helping her, but I'm guessing I'll be mostly trying to stop her from destroying him. Yeah, there's no chance for this to end well.

I dash out of the alley and head straight to where I last saw Phantom. By now I'm guessing he's fighting Val, so that might actually give me a chance to grab my things and stay away from the actual flames. I might even catch him off guard. When I get to the site, Val is no longer visible but I guess she's not far from here. Maybe she's flying around the damaged structures that are still standing. I also notice the firemen still trying to put out the fire, succeeding slowly but at least avoiding any other building from catching fire. I gotta hand it to those guys; they stood their ground and continued working even when the ghost responsible for this was floating a couple of feet away.

Fortunately, no other wall has crumbled to the ground either, so I manage to find my backpack without a problem, still partially stuck under some of the rubble. I just hope nothing got smashed in it. If I can at least find my thermos intact... Yes! Slightly battered, but still in one piece. Now to find Phantom...

"Where did he go?" I'm startled to hear Val's demanding voice behind me. I turn around and face her angry expression. She stares at the thermos in my hand. "Did you hide him in that thing?"

"No, I just came back to get this to help you," I try to explain, in hopes that she'll calm down a bit. Scratch what I said earlier: she's definitely mad. "He can't be too far. Did you try your tracker or whatever that suit comes with?"

She crosses her arms. "If you don't have him in that container-"

"Thermos," I automatically correct.

"Whatever! If he's not in there, he got away again."

Crud... That's apparently the same thing he did yesterday. He's probably staying away from all the ghost hunters. But why? Is he still weak or something? Does he need to recover from being separated from me? If he's avoiding the hunters, why would he trash Valerie's apartment? He said he didn't mean for all that to happen, so maybe he wanted to play some prank on her? I'm not sure, but I do know he didn't really look that evil to me. Maybe he's just fooling around without some bigger plan up his sleeve, which doesn't make him any less dangerous though. Still, whatever he's trying to do, I'm positive he didn't get that kind of personality from me.

"Are you even listening?"

I flinch when I realize I haven't really been paying attention to Val, the tone reminding me again of how she called me 'Phantom' a couple of minutes ago. "Sorry, I... kinda have a lot in my mind right now."

"Oh, trust me, you'll have a lot more in your mind when I'm done with you," Val mutters. I'm taken aback when she extends her hand and gives me a stern look. "Come on, we still need to talk."

I hesitate but end up taking her hand and hop on her board. She tells me to hold on as she takes us to a rooftop not far away, not uttering any other word on the way there. I'm still not sure what she thinks she found out or how, but maybe it's a good thing if she really does know I'm Phantom. There's no way I'd be able to convince anyone that we're the same person but we got separated by some crazy mojo pulled by an exorcist ghost. Although, who would want to admit that when the ghost kid is destroying everything? My parents would look completely sane next to me.

As she retreats her sled after our landing, we stand nervously in front of each other. I'm not used to dealing with Valerie, the phantom slayer, while I'm only human. Even if she wasn't apparently caring if I knew about her side-job before, I'm guessing she's not comfortable with confronting me like this either, since she seems to hesitate with whatever she wants to say. If she really thinks I'm the spook she's been so bent on destroying until recently, I can't say I blame her either for being so tense.

Instead of facing me, though, Valerie walks to the edge of the rooftop and stares numbly at the smoke coming from the fire we left behind. She takes one hand in front of her face. I think I hear a faint sniffle and it dawns on me that she just lost her home and everything in it. Whether intended or not, Phantom took everything from her and her dad again. I can't even begin to imagine what's going on in her head. Oh, man...

"I'm sorry," is all I manage to say, not only as her friend but also as someone who feels partially responsible for all of this. If only I had made it in time. If only I had attacked Exorkizein sooner. If only I had asked for her help to begin with...

"Did you do this?" she snaps and turns to look at me furiously. "Was this your fault?"

The rage in her voice makes me instinctively take a step back. Even with her faceplate on, I can notice the tears brimming in her eyes, along with all the pain and anger in them. I don't even know what to say. "No," I reply softly, not believing it completely myself.

"I'm not buying it," she responds coldly. I should've somehow expected it. She narrows her gaze and folds her arms. "Talk. Now."

Talk. Just like that. Sure, as if it were really that simple. What am I supposed to say? I'm not even sure about what she knows. And her aggressive stance isn't helping either since she's making me even more nervous. With the way she's glaring daggers at me, I'm not sure telling her the truth is a good idea if she doesn't really know what my real connection to Phantom is, even if she did call me by that name. Or did she really call me that? Maybe I just heard it all wrong. I have to find some other thing to say, see if I can't figure out what she knows and what to tell her. I don't even know what she's expecting me to explain, anyway.

"Why aren't you at school?" I ask in a calm tone, tentatively avoiding the confrontation and trying to get her our of her 'huntress' stance.

"Why aren't you at home? Weren't you supposed to be sick or something?" she shoots back, but at least not as aggressively as before. Ok, maybe this is something we can start from, talking about how we both got here.

I rub the back of my neck. "I was kinda sick. I was at home when I heard, uh, Phantom was attacking this part of town and thought I could help fighting him." No lying whatsoever. I should be proud of myself, actually.

"Really? All on your own." Something in her dry tone and unimpressed look tells me she's not believing a word I said.

I meet her eyes with a firmer look. "Yeah, all the way from Fenton Works, on my scooter, in case you're curious. I actually just got here." I stare behind her, at the remaining smoke in the distance, the reminder of all the damage still hanging heavy over my head. "I was already too late."

Even if she still looks mad, Val's hard scowl softens a little. She avoids looking at me and stays silent for a few seconds. "I came rushing over here as soon as I heard about it after one of my classes," she says quietly. "I couldn't make it in time, either."

I close my eyes and shake my head. "This is all messed up," I mutter under my breath.

"I know, Danny," her low voice makes me wince as I realize that's not the sort of comment she needs to hear right now. She needs a friend, someone to support her, maybe just to tell her everything will really be all right.

I shift nervously. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound-"

"No," she interrupts. I stare silently at her, already confused, when she suddenly takes her helmet off. She discreetly wipes away her tears and then goes back to the determined stance she had earlier. Her green eyes stare at me directly in the eye. "I know, Danny," she stresses.

I stare at her blankly, realizing she's going back to the original topic but still not sure of what I should say. "What do you know?" I cautiously ask.

She sighs and stares at the helmet on her hands. "Pretty much all of it. I know you're half ghost. Danny Phantom, huh? Kinda hard to ignore all the signs once you start paying attention to the smallest details and piece everything together."

My brain kind of stopped working when the words 'half ghost' came out of her mouth. One thing is to think I'm overshadowed; another to think I got some spooky powers. But knowing exactly what I am? I guess it kinda makes sense if she found that out about Vlad. She could've put two and two together if she figured out who I am. The question is... "How?"

She shrugs nonchalantly. Yeah, as if finding out my secret was no big deal at all. "You changed right in front of my eyes when you fainted in the park. Everything else clicked after that."

Wait, she has known for that long and she's just telling me now? That would explain why she's been so nervous around me or why she didn't keep attacking my alter ego after that. It would explain why the sudden change of heart and why she even offered the truce. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Why? So you could lie again to me in my face? Just like you did all those months while I was chasing you and almost killing you?" Her hurt tone is a huge slap on the face. She lets those words hang there for a second. "I needed to make sure what kind of person you are, Danny. It's not exactly nice to find out someone you considered a friend wasn't even being honest."

"Honest?" I spit the word out. Somehow I don't think she even knows what that really means when you're a half-ghost freak with a price on your head. "You wanted me to tell you I was the same guy you hated so much you couldn't even go out with me anymore? You wanted me to tell you my biggest secret when you couldn't even tell me yours?"

Valerie scoffs. "You're pinning this on me? How was I supposed to know you weren't just some stupid spook? You not knowing my secret didn't put either of usin any danger. Me not knowing yours did!"

That was enough to shut me up. I stare at the ground not wanting to see her in the eye. She's right, but I couldn't be sure she wouldn't still go after me if she found out. When she called things off with me, I realized her need for payback against Phantom outweighed anything good there was between us. How could I have been so sure it wouldn't be the same if I told her? It was painful, it was frustrating, but I knew I wouldn't be able to change things with the truth. That's why I begun to reconsider everything after the truce.

"You thought I wouldn't understand, didn't you?" her question pulls me once again out of my thoughts.

"Apparently you don't," I admit bitterly. "You were blaming me about this whole thing just a minute ago."

"I didn't see any other ghost around the fire. Did you? 'Phantom' looked pretty amused with it."

I'm this close to pulling my hair out. This is exactly what I was hoping to avoid if I ever told her. How could I have forgotten about it when I stupidly considered asking her for help just a couple of days ago?

"Maybe you didn't see any other ghost. But did you happen to notice I was around? Saving that kid and trying to confront the ghost responsible?" I know she's not dense, but why is it so hard for her to see past her misconceptions about me?

"That's why I want to know what's going on!" Val yells.

We stand in silence, as if daring each other to say or do something to make the heated argument start all over again. The weird thing about all of this is she's mad at me but she's not trying to torture me in the million ways I thought she would if she ever found out about my secret. She did say she wanted to talk. If she knows I'm Danny Phantom and she knows he was responsible for the fire, she should be at least aiming a gun at Fenton. But she's not. She attacked Phantom and rescued me. Sure, she's been giving me a piece of her mind since we got here, but she hasn't threatened me even once. Maybe Val really is trying to make sense of whatever's going on. If she kept this from me for that long, she deserves more credit than any of my friends or I have given her. She deserves an honest answer. The truth.

I soften my posture and walk towards the ledge, sitting down once I reach it. Val imitates my actions but remains standing next to me. I try to think of the best way to explain this. "I'm not Danny Phantom anymore."

Her confused look tells me she wasn't expecting that kind of answer. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I'm still trying to cope with all of this, but here I am spilling the beans to the girl who had me as her main target a few weeks ago. "You remember about The Exterminator?" She nods slowly. "Well, apparently he exorcised the ghost out of me. We've been separated since yesterday, you know, after our talk. I still don't know if Phantom's being controlled or-"

"Or if he's evil on his own," she blurts out.

"No!" I reply quickly. Part of me doesn't want to think of that possibility, but another part knows that can't be the case. At least not exactly. "We're the same person, but I'm not evil or anything close to what that thing out there is. Maybe whatever The Exterminator did took out the raw energy out of me, with no conscience or emotions whatsoever. I don't know, that's what I'm trying to figure out."

Val takes a second to let it all sink in. "Ok, so you're just you. Just human?"

I place my head in my hands. I don't think she realizes how vulnerable the idea alone makes me feel. "Yeah, pretty much."

"And you still came all the way over here to fight him?"

Her surprised tone brings a weak smile to my lips. "Hey, I'm the hero, remember? It's not like I'd let anyone get hurt, much less because of him."

"But you wouldn't stand a chance alone against him. You could get seriously hurt. Or worse," she says as she seats next to me.

I roll my eyes. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Come on, Danny. You couldn't even beat half of the class in the P.E. laps two days ago. How do you expect to confront a ghost as strong as him?"

I don't know how to respond to Valerie's question, maybe because my mind is still trying to process the weirdness of the whole situation. Val and I sitting together, ex-ghost and ghost huntress talking openly about our secrets and the double lives we lead. And to think things were so tense just minutes before.

"I don't know," I answer honestly. "I just know I have to do something, or at least try."

"And what about this Exterminator guy?"

"I don't know, either."

Silence strikes again, but with everything said I don't feel it as uncomfortable as before. Now it's more like we're finally getting close to an understanding, coming to terms with what's going on between us. Still, I need to give closure to some of our issues. "I'm sorry for ruining everything. You know, starting with your dad's job."

A gloved hand rests on mine. "Unless everything you told me when we got out of Vlad's lab was a total lie, I know that wasn't your fault."

"I thought you said you couldn't trust me back then," I say with a small smile, remembering the long talk back home. But now that I think about it, she didn't even know about my secret at the time.

"Yeah, well, it's going to take some time to really get there, to be honest," Val replies. "I have no reason to trust ghosts yet, Danny. I mean... just look at Vlad."

You gotta be kidding me...

I gape at her baffled. Apparently we take one step forward and two steps back. "So just because Vlad is some crazed-up fruit-loop you think I can turn out to be anything like him?"

"No! It's not like that. I just- Look, just because you're a good guy that doesn't mean your ghost half is necessarily good. Case in point," she says while facing the blaze in the distance.

It's kind of a huge blow to the gut to have someone still believe you could be evil even after knowing the truth. "This might be hard to believe," I begin trying to keep my cool, "but I had a run in with Vlad in a different timeline where he didn't get ghost powers. Vlad was still a jerk in that reality and did whatever it took to get what he wanted. You see where I'm going with this?"

The huntress shrugs. "Ok, so Vlad is a jerk anyway. I haven't met any friendly ghosts during any of my battles. No offense, Danny."

I weigh my options. "How about this... when all of this is over, and I get my powers back, we'll go into the Ghost Zone to meet some of my friends." I notice her skeptical look. "What, you don't believe I've met good ghosts out there?"

"Fine, we'll go visit your buddies," she begrudgingly accepts and I finally realize she's only comfortable with anything I say or propose because she knows there's no "putrid ectoplasm" inside me manipulating every thought or action. Maybe earning her trust will be hard, but it might get better if I break all those barriers and misconceptions as Danny Fenton.

We sit in silence, looking at the city skyline, at the dying fire that left smoke and ashes still floating aimlessly in the air. "So what do we do now?"

She doesn't turn to look at me. "Right now, I guess I should go find my dad. I want to help with that spook and make The Exterminator pay for this, but I gotta figure out what we're going to do now that we don't even have our crummy apartment anymore."

I turn to look at her defeated expression. I guess she was sort of expecting something like this to happen someday, with the way she's taking this. "You could stay with us, if you want. I'm sure my folks will be more than glad to have you over."

And it's true. Heck, if dad knew she was the Red Huntress, he would even consider her his new sidekick. I kinda shudder at the thought, since I figure it would be the same thing with me when I finally tell them what I do on my spare and not-so-spare time.

"I-I don't know, Danny," she replies hesitantly. "I'm not sure my dad would love the idea. He... sort of knows about you and Vlad."

"What!?" I yelp. That I definitely didn't see coming. "You told your dad?"

Seriously? Valerie knowing is one thing, but... her dad? The tough security guy who told me to keep my ghostly weirdness away from his daughter?

And apparently Valerie knows how bad the situation is since she cringes at my expression. "I know, I know. I probably shouldn't have told him anything. You don't know how paranoid he's been lately since he knows I've been going to school with the ghost kid I was so bent on destroying."

"No kidding."

"But," she continues, "I was losing my mind, Danny. You know how hectic everything was that day. But do you know how hard it is to find out you've been lied to by two of the most important people in your life? To realize your mentor and benefactor manipulated you to do his dirty work? Or that you almost became a murderer by attacking one of your few friends?"

I guess I got nothing to say to that. I've been lucky to have my two best friends and my very understanding (though overbearing) sister close almost since this all started. They've been there for me either to hear me out, guide me, or smack some sense into me when I need it the most. Val didn't have any of that. Until now, I mean. I just hope she realizes that.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to overreact." I place a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to go alone with this again. You know that, right?"

The warm smile on her lips is all the answer I need. "Thanks, Danny."

"Unless, of course, I have to worry about your dad coming after me with an ecto-gun," I add making a face. We both laugh, breaking any tension there was left between us.

It kinda makes me wonder if things could've been a lot easier all along if we had both been honest when we became friends...

After making sure Val would at least consider my offer, the trip back home took a little longer than I thought, mostly due to the fear of being caught off guard by Phantom. Fortunately, no ghostly incident got in the way and I think I at least made it in time before my parents got home.

As I park my scooter next to the shed, I belatedly realize the Fenton GAV is already parked in front of the house. I mentally groan, already bracing myself for my parents' reactions when I open the door. Sure enough, as soon as I place a foot inside, the yelling begins...

"Where in the world have you been, young man? Do you have any idea how worried we were?" mom's voice booms loudly from the living room as she gets up from the couch, followed closely by dad, who just finished hanging up the phone.

They both look at me expectantly with crossed arms. "I'm sorry," I sheepishly say. "Valerie's home got attacked by a ghost and I wanted to see if she was okay." No way am I going to say out loud my ghost half did the damage. Especially not in front of my parents.

Their expressions seem to soften only a little. Even though they've always been out of the loop with part of my social or 'romantic' life, both of them know Val and I were sort of dating a few months ago. Well, at first they thought it was Sam, which made it kinda awkward, until I explained who Valerie was. They seemed slightly disappointed, not sure why.

"Just tell us where to go and we'll get rid of that nasty specter for good!" dad voices loudly.

"Now, Jack, before we get ready for battle, we need to have a little word with Danny first," mom reminds him with a serious tone, which means I'm pretty much grounded.

"Oh, sweet cheeks, you know we can punish Danny later. But this spook could get away before you can even say 'rotten sack of ectoplasm'!"

"Uh, it's all right, dad," I say, reluctantly focusing their attention on me. "He's already gone."

"Awwww," dad exclaims disappointed.

"Valerie lost her home, though," I quickly add. "I was actually wondering if she and her dad could stay with us until they find a new place."

They both turn to look at each other, silently discussing something. "Oh, sweetie, of course we would love to help them. That's very thoughtful of you," mom answers in a more loving tone. "We'll have to tell Vlad we won't have the guest room available, but I'm sure he can very well afford a hotel room. Anyway, you can call your friend and tell her she's welcome to stay with us for as long as they need."

My mind freezes on its tracks... "Wait, what was that about Vlad?"

"Oh, that's right! Vladdy is coming over!" dad announces happily, oblivious to my paling expression.

"What!? Why?"

"He'll be tomorrow's guest speaker for the Ghost Awareness Week. I'm sure everyone at your school will be thrilled to have a renowned billionaire coming over," mom explains.

Sure. Thrilled.

This can't be good. Not good at all. Actually, I don't think it can get any worse...

"You're still getting grounded, by the way," dad adds.

Can't I ever catch a break?

Note: As far as giving closure to old projects goes, I'm glad to announce this story is halfway done. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far :)