"Duck!" he shouted, firing an ecto-ray right over Valerie's head.

"Phantom!" she bit back, her visor now trained on Danny, and boy was he glad for once that she was wearing a helmet and thus couldn't employ her glare, "I thought we were working together!"

"We are!" He erected a shield to protect the both of them from a shot of their mutual enemy. "Which is why I told you to duck!"

"If we're working together, don't fucking shoot at me!" Valerie snapped, having turned to him entirely. Her armored hands were clenched around the handles of her guns, but in a true testament of their current alliance, she hadn't aimed them at him.

"I didn't aim at you, I aimed through you. Duh." He rolled his eyes, shifting his shield to take another hit Valerie hadn't seen coming due to her current distraction. "Also, could we maybe pick this up when we're not in the middle of a fight?"

"Fine." She whirled around and, in one swift movement, fired a shot. It hit Vlad right in the face, dispelling the duplicate. "But only because this ghost is being a huge dick."

He huffed a laugh, grinning at her. "Well, you've got that right, at least." He turned his back to her, knowing she did the same. They peered around, both trying to spot Plasmius himself – or see the next duplicate coming, hopefully.

"You know him, then?" Valerie's armored back met his own. "Any weaknesses, strategies… anything?"

"Well, he's a jerk." Danny shrugged, knowing that Valerie could feel it even if she couldn't see it. "And, uh, he's a jerk? He's strong, with a wide variety of abilities, plans ahead a lot. Easiest way to take him down is to catch him off-guard, either by using a skill you haven't before, or if he gets attacked by someone he had underestimated."

She hummed, a jarring motion that likely meant she nodded. "And you don't happen to have one of those, do you?"

"A new ability, or an ally he underestimated?" Danny's eye caught on a flicker of movement in the air, his ghost sense finally locking on to Vlad's core again. He nudged Valerie to alert her that he'd found their enemy.

"I'm fine with either, really." She twisted subtly, to make sure Vlad hadn't noticed that he had been caught. Quietly, she said, "On 3?"

"Fire from behind me," he answered, equally quiet. "It has a wide area of effect and I don't want to hit you."

"Gotcha." She braced herself, and from this close, Danny could feel the heat of her gun as it prepared a shot. "1. 2."

"3," they counted in sync. Valerie whirled around, following Danny's line of sight with an ecto-blast. Danny himself took a deep breath, and…

Wailed.

Caught right in the middle of the attack, Vlad took the brunt of its power. He had already become visible, which Valerie's shot was responsible for.

Danny kept up the Wail until he saw Vlad wobble in the air; barely hanging onto consciousness. Then he cut the attack off. The last thing he wanted right now was for either of them to shift back to human form.

"Damn." Valerie whistled, clearly impressed. "You been holding back on me, Phantom?"

"Yeah," he managed in-between pants. "How's Plasmius?"

"That's a dumb name." She hummed and hawed. "Well, he's still airborne, but I don't think he's in a state to fight." Then she paused. "Actually, no, I take that back. He looks pissed and he's coming this way."

"Oh," was all Danny managed before Vlad hit him at high speeds. The other half-ghost might have stopped the moment he hit Danny, but his momentum was enough to launch him into the street.

Still panting, Danny pushed himself out of the crater he just put into the street. "Hate that guy," he muttered.

"Need a hand, Phantom?"

"Won't say no to that." He took Maddie's hand, letting her pull him to his feet. "Thanks."

"Plasmius giving you a hard time?" Jack asked, joining the two of them. "Even while working with the Red Huntress?"

"Yeah, he's a pain. I thought for sure the Wail would've taken him out, but I guess not." He peeked up, but Valerie was doing an alright job of keeping Plasmius occupied. The Wail must've weakened him significantly, since he wasn't forming any duplicates. "I need something better to catch him off guard."

Both of his parents shared a meaningful glance with each other and then him. He quirked a brow. Then realized what they meant, and a grin formed on his face.

"That could work."

He pushed himself off of the guard, shooting back up to where Valerie and Vlad were fighting. During a quiet moment he burst in-between, bodily pushing Vlad away. "Hey Plasmius! Thought you'd gotten rid of me, huh?"

"That would've been too good to be true," Vlad grunted back, fangs bared in a snarl. "I wouldn't dare get my hopes up."

"Ha ha." Danny floated away from the two, his spectral tail twitching enticingly. He shot Vlad his most infuriatingly cocky grin. "Come and catch me if you can, old man."

Then he dove.

Vlad growled, but followed.

Rather than divert from his plunge towards the ground, Danny turned intangible at the last moment. Vlad, who hadn't noticed how close the ground was due to his proximity to Danny, didn't.

The blue-skinned halfa hit the ground with a meaty thud. He had had just enough time to bring up his arms, but he crumpled into a heap on the street nonetheless.

Danny phased out of the ground right next to him. Crossed his arms and grinned down on the older half-ghost. "What's wrong? Reflexes not as good as they used to be?"

Vlad lunged forward, black glove grasping for Danny's leg. He jumped back, barely dodging the digits. "Aw, come on, that's not nice."

"Would you stop," Vlad hissed back, using his other arm to push himself up slightly. "You're infuriating."

"And you are not going anywhere." A large ectogun pressed against Vlad's back, pinning him back onto the street. Danny knew that it had loaded a shot, the heat warning Vlad that he couldn't make an intangible escape. "So don't try, Plasmius."

And he didn't. Vlad flattened himself against the ground, empty red eyes cast upwards to search for Maddie's. The only thing he found were her unfriendly red goggles.

"Ah," he tried, but she shoved the gun down harder and he quietened.

"Good ghost," she said flatly. "Now stay down, and we won't have to make a bigger mess, will we?"

"So here's how this is gonna go." Danny crouched down next to him, resting his elbows on his knees. "You're gonna apologize. To me, to Maddie, to Jack, and yes, to Dani. And then, if we think you've done well, we're gonna let you go leave. Got it?"

"And if you decide I didn't do a good enough job?" Vlad's eyes narrowed. "Or if I refuse to apologize to the molten remains of the failed little clone?"

"Who are you calling molten?" Dani came into visibility, her mismatched gloves balled into fists. "Just because you were too incompetent to save me didn't mean it wasn't possible!"

Then she leaned down, face held close to Vlad's. Her glowing green eyes boring into his wide red ones. "But you never cared, did you? I wasn't who you wanted me to be, so all I was to you was a pawn."

"D- Danielle," Vlad spluttered, pressing even further into the ground. "It wasn't- I didn't-"

"Oh, come of it." She huffed, straightening back up again so she loomed over Vlad's downed form. "If it's not an apology, I don't want to hear it."

Vlad stiffened, muscles tensing. Then, suddenly, he snarled, "Then you'll be a long time waiting."

And before anyone could react, he blasted the ecto-gun away from him. Both Danny and Dani formed balls of coiling ectoplasm to hit him back, but Vlad didn't engage further. He simply dove through the ground, intangibly speeding away from them.

"Well, that could've gone better," Danny muttered as he extinguished his ectoblast again. His ghost sense confirmed that Vlad had left entirely. No duplicates or anything. "Jerk."

"Could've gone worse, too," Dani pointed out with a shrug. "At least I got to tell him off. You're not hurt, right, Mom?"

"I'm fine sweetie, he only hit the gun." Maddie ducked to pick the ecto-gun up, frowning at the molten front. "The gun is toast, however. He clearly didn't hold back like Phantom did."

"Everything alright over here?" A metallic noise as Valerie's boots hit the ground, the girl joining the rest of them on the ground. "I thought you guys had it under control, but it seems he got away anyway."

"He's slippery like that." Danny scratched his cheek, then inclined his head to indicate Dani. "Ah, by the way, Red? This is Danielle, Dani for short. She's my, um." He frowned, pausing to look over at her. "Little sister slash clone? Half-clone? Is that a thing?"

Dani simply shrugged. "Sort-of clone? Big oopsie?"

"I'll go with little sister." Turning back to look at Valerie, he gestured at Dani. "Anyway, like I said. This is Dani, my little sister who Plasmius created and then tried to turn against me. Dani, this is the Red Huntress."

"Hi." Dani finally offered her hand to Val, who hesitantly took it. And who was probably making a very confused face behind her helmet. "Nice to meet you. Phantom has said good things about you."

"Has he?" They shook hands, and Valerie tilted her helmet at Danny. He had the feeling she was making an intrigued expression at him, one brow quirked. "I'm flattered, Phantom, but I'm also not interested."

Danny rolled his eyes at her, stubbornly ignoring the bright green blush that found its way to his face. "Alright, so this was the last time I complimented your ghost hunting skills, got it."

Valerie swatted at him, but he simply flickered intangible to let her hand pass through him. "Funny, aren't you?"

"Hell yeah I am!" Confident that the blush had by now gone away entirely, Danny let himself become tangible again. "I mean, have you ever heard my puns? Comedic gold, I tell you."

A clatter sounded behind them, and all three whirled around in perfect sync. Cowering under the sudden attention of two potentially volatile ghosts and an equally volatile ghost hunter stood a now-wilting civilian.

"Oh," Danny said sheepishly, relaxing his tense posture again. "Sorry, you startled us."

"That's… my bad," the man answered, slowly. He twisted his head strangely, as if trying to peek past Danny. Probably was, he realized, since Dani was mostly hidden behind him and Valerie. "I just… I had to ask, Red Huntress, you've been seen working with Phantom quite often recently. Has something… changed?"

Valerie tilted her head, the helmet moving as if she was glancing between Danny and the man. "Yes," she finally decided on. "Yes, I recently discovered that I based my initial judgment of Phantom on… misinformation. And all information gained later, I twisted to fit my biased view."

"So he's not bad?" The man frowned, glancing between her and Danny. "But what about the robberies? The kidnapping of the mayor? The damages?"

"Oh, not again," Danny groaned, pressing his hands to his face. "The damages are caused by the attacking ghosts. Just imagine how much worse it would be if no one stopped them. The robberies, I was controlled for. Red can vouch for me, she saw. The mayor, he was overshadowed, and he grabbed me, not the other way around."

The man narrowed his eyes, eyes darting back to Valerie. "And you're sure this is true? That he can be trusted?"

"Well, yeah, obviously." She shrugged, drumming her metal-covered fingers against the armor plates on her thigh. "I mean, I believe him, the Fentons believe him. What else do you want?"

"I suppose that that's fair." He seemed to study Danny, his eyes restless. Still trying to spot Dani, probably. "I guess the teens were right all along, then."

"Uh huh." Danny nodded, dragging his hands off of his face and instead using one to support his chin. "Maybe if you guys had bothered to ask before, I could've explain myself sooner. But hey, you do you."

"Right…" The man made a face, something close to a grimace, but not entirely. He cleared his throat, seemingly awkward, then shuffled off. "I, uh, better get going. Thanks for the talk, Phantom, Red Huntress."

"See ya," Val said, giving him a short salute. Danny gave him a single short wave instead.

Once he was out of earshot, Danny huffed. "Really, can't be bothered to ask me until the ghost hunters work with you. Then suddenly I can obviously be trusted and oh, what caused this sudden change?"

"Shouldn't have blown your reputation so badly, bro." Dani leaned over his shoulder, grinning widely. "It's obviously all your own fault, duh."

"You're the worst," he told her without heat. "If I had known little sisters were such a pain I never would've taken you."

"No take-backsies." She flipped over his shoulder, floating in front of him and Valerie instead. "Hey, where's Mom and Dad?"

At this, Danny twisted around to look behind him. Indeed, both of their parents seemed to have disappeared. Must've wandered off before the man stopped to interrogate him, otherwise they probably would've gotten involved. "Looks like the Fentons wandered off, Dani. You want to go track them down, or should I just drop you back off at FentonWorks?"

"Wow, wait, hold on." Valerie held up her hand, her eyes quickly jumping between Danny and Dani. "Why did she call Mr. and Mrs. Fentons 'Mom and Dad'?"

"Okay, so… she may or may not be living with the Fentons." He scratched his cheek, shooting Valerie an uncertain smile. "And I guess that since she has no birth parents, Maddie and Jack count? Is that right, Dani?"

"Yeah, pretty much." The girl in question shrugged listlessly. It seemed like she wasn't paying attention, her bright eyes looking around instead. "They kind of insisted, really. Not that I mind, but still. Jazz said it was a good idea, too."

"Huh." Valerie paused, and now Danny started to regret not being able to see her facial expressions. "So… why are you living with the Fentons? I mean, Phantom doesn't, right? Are there health concerns, or something, because you're a clone?"

Dani zipped off, suddenly, and Danny sighed and answered in her stead. "Sorry for that. She might be cloned to be, like, 12, but in some ways she's only a few months old. As for your question, kind of?"

"You kind of live with the Fentons?" Valerie asked incredulously.

"No." Danny heaved another sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "There health concerns, sort of. You remember how, earlier, I referred to Dani as my half-clone, or partial clone? It's because she's only partly based on my DNA. About 50% come from an unknown human. So she has human needs and stuff."

"Oh." Valerie twisted, looking in the direction that Dani had left in. "But she looks just like you. Well, except younger and female, but you know what I mean. Are they just gonna adopt her, or something?"

"Well, that too." He scuffed his boot on the ground, aware of his depleting energy levels. He couldn't keep this up forever, unfortunately. "But she can shift into a more human appearance, too. I think the Fentons really attached themselves to said human form, since she looks a lot like their son like that. Black hair, blue eyes, kinda similar facial structure?"

He blew out a breath, hoping no one would catch on. It wouldn't be the worst, but he really didn't want to deal with all that just yet. "I think they might think that the human DNA Plasmius grabbed might have been from their son, actually. You'd have to ask, because I certainly didn't. Either way, they decided to pick her up as their own kid, and, well. I'm happy for Dani. She deserves it."

"Hmm. She seems like a good kid, yeah."

They both watched Dani appear again, now in human form, dragging both adult Fentons behind her. She seemed to be chattering up a storm, both parents smiling and responding back.

"I gotta get going, Phantom. It was nice talking to you. Say hi to your sister for me, will you?" Valerie waved him a goodbye as her hoverboard reformed. Before he knew it she was gone, and Dani filled up the empty spot, excitedly waving at their parents.

"Tah-dah, found them again!"

He grinned, patting her on the head. "Good job, Dani."

"Thanks!" She bounced lightly, eyes darting between him and their parents. She nudged Jack, then Maddie. "Come on, tell him!"

"Tell me what?" Danny asked, cautiously. A mild frown formed on his face as he looked at his parents, too.

Said parents exchanged a glance, as if fighting to decide who would take point. Maddie cleared her throat, having apparently been decided on as the winner. Or loser?

"Well, you see, Phantom…"

"We want to adopt you too!" blurted Jack before she could say more.

Danny felt himself still. Stood still like a statue. Then…

"What?!"

Maddie glared at Jack, elbowing him in the side. When she turned back to Danny, her expression had grown friendly again. "Well, you see… You're like a son to us, Phantom. And we're already adopting Dani, right? So you're basically family already."

He relaxed a little at this. Really, he should've caught on sooner. They specifically said 'adopt', so they hadn't figured him out yet.

Which, really, was kind of ridiculous. But hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, and all that.

"Oh," he said, realizing that he had remained silent too long. "Um, well, I mean. I kind of already have parents already, you know?"

"But you refuse to tell them about you being Phantom," Dani pointed out, a wide grin on her face. The little devil must've known all along, darn her. She was enjoying this. "So maybe you have parents, but Phantom doesn't."

Danny shot her a glare, his aura flaring slightly. She just stuck out her tongue in response.

"Phantom, you don't have to accept, it's just…" Jack paused, ruffling Dani's hair as if doing so would help settle his nerves. "You're like a son to me, and to Maddie. Clearly you see us that way too, since just recently you called Mads 'Mom'. You're Dani's big brother, and Jazz cares about you as well. Danny…"

He sighed, slumping in slightly. "Well, I don't know what is up between you and Danny, but he's not opposed to you at least. We just… Maybe we're going about this the wrong way, but…"

"I mean, it's really nice and all, but." But what, Fenton? How're you gonna talk your way out of this, huh? Let's just go and blurt out the truth, hmm? "But, um. No offense to you guys, because you're great and all, but you're not– It's–"

Danny groaned, burrowing his face in his hands again. He continued, now muffled, "It just feels like replacing my own parents, you know? And I don't want that, so. So I really can't accept."

Both of his parents looked thoughtful at this. Dani, who had clambered onto Jack in the meantime, nodded appreciatively. Must be impressed by his skill at digging his way out this hole, he supposed. Or his skill at digging himself further into the hole.

Jack heaved a big sigh, but nodded. "I see, kiddo. But in that case, I have to insist that either you tell your own family soon, or you'll have to come by more often so we can care for you, too."

"Well, I–"

"No, I agree with him, Phantom." His mom crossed her arms, settling her strongest Maternal Glare on him. "You can't keep them in the dark like this. It's not good for a kid your age to be without parents, and if you won't accept replacements, you should have your own."

Dani nodded, now to agree with Maddie, still smiling. Thus outnumbered, Danny groaned and ducked his head.

"Fine," he sighed finally, knowing he couldn't drag this discussion out much longer. Not without risking a shift back.

Which, to be honest, would end the discussion very quickly. But not in the right way.

"Fine, I'll tell them soon, okay?"

"Promise me," his mother insisted, back still ramrod straight. "We're serious about this, Phantom."

"Ugh, fine." He lifted up a hand, crossing his heart – and his core. "Cross my heart and hope to die. I'll tell my family about who I am soon, okay?"

"Okay." She patted him on the head, and he grumbled but couldn't help the spot of affection. "And if anything goes wrong, tell us and we'll put them in their place, okay sweetie?"

He cheered himself up with the brief mental image of his parents chasing down themselves. Plastered a smile on his face as he said, "I'm sure it'll be fine. Things have been better lately. See you soon?"

"You're always welcome, kiddo!" His dad slapped him on the shoulder, almost toppling Danny over. "Stay safe!"

"You too!" Danny replied, lifting up from the ground.

"And tell your parents!" his mom yelled after him when he left.

Yeah, right. He would have to, sooner or later. Now especially. He wasn't looking forward to it.

But it would be okay. That much he knew.

And so it ends, after a solid 60k words and 12 chapters! And, indeed, no reveal! I knew, from the start, that I wasn't going to write a reveal in this story. I just wanted to focus on that bonding between Danny (as Phantom) and his parents, and I felt that a reveal would detract from that. And there are so many ways it could've happened in this AU, so many people who a reveal would've had to focus on. So, yeah. I've got no 'canon' reveal situation in mind yet, but tons of ideas on how it could (or could have) happened. So maybe, one day, I'll write a third part to the series, and then the reveal will happen. But that will be its own story, and one that will come much later, since I've got other stories that I want to write for now. (and yes I know that the explanation that Danny and Dani gave for the whole half-ghost thing is dumb, but come on, tell me that these characters wouldn't far for it, at least at first)

The not-reveal aside, I did kind of expand this chapter to fit in that last bit of fluff, haha. It was originally going to end after the "What?!", but I couldn't withstand the temptation of a little more bonding AND the very subtle sequel hook.

On a weekly-update note, this was obviously the end of WaNS. Starting next Saturday, I'll start posting Play Your Part, another AU DP fanfic. It'll be closer to hurt/comfort, I think, but with a heavy emphasis on the comfort (and getting stronger as the fic progresses, of course). So get excited for that, too!