"Danny? You're Danny Fenton?" Valerie asked. She looked hurt and betrayed.

"I'm so sorry, Val," Danny said. A glowing ring appeared at his midsection, making Valerie step back and stare wide-eyed at the transformation.

"Fenton?" she repeated. She skimmed over his body while she shook her head. "I don't understand. W-what happened? Why wouldn't you tell me?" Her face turned from confusion to anger. "You ruined my life!"

In a flash of anger, she reached over and gave him a powerful shove. Danny tried to catch himself, but he fell off her board.

Out of reaction Valerie went to grab him, but immediately sat down on her board with her legs crossed when she remembered the boy wouldn't need it. She wiped away a couple stray tears that escaped her eyes.

Danny Phantom flew back up and floated a little distance away from her hoverboard. "I know, and I'm really sorry. None of that was supposed to have happened. There was this ghost dog, and I was just trying to catch him. He turned out to be the ghost of one of the guard dogs at Axon, he was just looking for his chew toy."

Valerie didn't look up, she continued staring at her hands. Thunder rumbled somewhere over the ocean.

"When I destroyed your suit I knew you weren't in it. Danny Fenton was with you before then. I saw you and knew it had to be destroyed." He waited for her to say something. To fill the silence he added, "Plus you ended up getting a really cool and scary upgrade." He motioned to her suit and glider.

Valerie shifted, then looked up at him. "Do you realize I broke up with you to protect you from... you," she gestured to him. "Don't you think then would have been a pretty good time to tell me the truth?"

"Val, you hated Phantom with a passion. If I told you then I doubt you would have been very accepting. Especially if you didn't know about Danielle."

The hunter blushed and looked away, glaring at the tree tops. "How'd it happen?"

"You know my parents' ghost portal?" She glanced at him and nodded. "It didn't always work. I went in to check it out, but I accidently hit a button inside. It turned on while I was still inside and woke up like this."

Valerie stared with her mouth slightly open. "Oh my God. Danny that's horrible."

He shrugged. "It has it perks, sometimes."

A flash of realization crossed her face. "And Danielle was there too," she said.

"What? No."

"So… how did she get her powers?"

"Dani? She, um-"

"What's so different about her?"

"Nothing!"

"Why can't you just tell me the truth for once?" she yelled. "I thought we were friends, Danny! We were more than friends at one point!" She was standing on her board now. "But now I feel like I barely even know you!"

Danny tried to interject, but Valerie kept going.

"How could you keep this big of a secret from me? All this time I thought we were still pretty close friends, but I guess not."

Danny crossed his arms, his eyes glowed a little brighter. "I don't think you're being fair here, Val. It's not like I was the only one hiding a secret identity!"

She looked back down at the trees.

"You were working with Vlad. How was I supposed to know that you wouldn't turn me into the Guys in White?"

She bit her lip.

Danny took a calming breath. "I get that you are probably really mad right now, but can we still be on our truce? So we can get off of this stupid island?"

She gave a little nod without looking at him.

They stood in an awkward silence for a minute or so. Until Valerie finally spoke. "I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"What?" Danny asked in shock.

"I'm sorry," she said louder, meeting his gaze.

"Really?" His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

She sighed. "I would have done the same thing if I was in your position," she said with a small shrug. "And believe it or not, I have actually heard your apologies and reasonings of why you're not evil that you shout out during our fights. I just never cared 'cause you were just a ghost, but now," she trailed off with a shrug.

Danny gave her a small smile. "Thanks." He glanced back down at the island. "I promise I'll tell you more later, but we really should go."

"Why? What's wrong?" she demanded.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, we went into Vlad's secret hideout-"

"We?" Valerie asked.

"As in most of our class. Anyways, Vlad decided to capture us, we escaped, and they found out that I'm Phantom," Danny said quickly. "The point is-"

"They all know?"

Danny tried not to look annoyed. "Yup."

"How did they take it?"

Danny shrugged. "Then I went to find you."

"Well, then this is going to be interesting," she said with an eyebrow raised and a hint of a smirk.

Danny gave her a half-hearted glare as she put her visor back on. Suddenly a memory struck him. "Oh, crud," he mumbled.

"What now?" the huntress asked.

"I forgot to find the bag of ghost weapons Vlad took from us," Danny said with a groan.

"Ghost weapons? Why do you need those when you have powers?" she asked.

Danny shook his head. "They're not really for me. The only thing I use is the thermos. Sam and Tucker need them," he explained.

"Well, I have a thermos and I'm an arsenal of weapons by myself. I think between you and me we'll be fine," Valerie said with her arms crossed.

Danny thought about what she said, but shook his head again. "No, I can't do that to them. We fight as a team, they need those weapons. Plus who knows what other ghosts are going to attack us. The more help we have the better."

"Fine. Then after you."

Danny smiled and took off in the direction they had just came.

"So, Tucker and Sam know," she shouted over the wind after she caught up with him.

Danny nodded.

"Not that I'm surprised," she added. "But how long have they known?"

"They were there when it happened."

"Should've guessed," Valerie said as they came to the waterfall. "With how close the three of you are it's surprising that they didn't follow you inside the portal." She froze and turned to the floating ghost boy. "They didn't, right?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "No, I was the only one who went in. Sam and Tucker are still both 100% human," he assured her.

Valerie slightly relaxed and nodded. "Get on," she told him.

Danny once again stepped onto the glider and grabbed onto her shoulders to make them invisible, she shuddered and took off towards the rockwall and Danny phased them in.

They quickly searched many different rooms, most of them empty, until they finally found the bag in a room with two humanoid-like ghosts that were chatting with each other.

Valerie slowly flew over to the corner of the room and Danny reached down and grabbed the duffle bag, but made sure to keep a hand on Valerie to make sure she would stay invisible.

"Go," Danny whispered after he had a hold of the bag.

She went straight into the wall they were closest to. She came to a halt when they entered the next room.

Small televisions aligned the wall. Each screen showed a different part of the island. Currently the biggest screen showed a shot of their class. The others showed different camera shots of various close-ups and angles of their classmates. A panel of controls laid beneath the monitors.

"There you two are!" shouted a nasally voice.

Valerie and Danny both turned toward the voice. Technus stood looking directly at them. The teens glanced down at themselves in confusion to make sure they were still invisible. Danny turned visible and took his hand off Valerie.

"How'd you know we were here?" the halfa asked.

Technus snorted. "I can sense when one of my own creations is near me," he said while he gestured at Valerie, making girl shift uncomfortably. His eyes widened at a sudden realization. "Gah! Wait! I didn't set up a camera in here!" he shouted as a scrambled around the small room. "Aha!" A small, glowing green camera floated up next to him. "And action!" he said with a mechanical grin.

Danny and Valerie shared a confused glance at each other.

"Do I wanna know why you're recording this?" the ghost boy deadpanned.

Technus cackled. "I'm filming this for your-" he stopped short. "I mean, I, Technus, do not just blurt out plans anymore child!"

Danny sighed and shot an icy blast at the floating camera. Ice encased it and it dropped like a brick. Technus looked mournfully down at it.

"Tell us or the other equipment gets it," Danny threatened while flashing icy blue eyes at him. Valerie joined him and pointed an ecto-gun at the screens.

Technus threw his arms out to protect the technology. "I needed to record you for the show!"

"Show?" Valerie and Danny asked simultaneously.

"Your reality show!" he told them happily. "I, Technus, will gather the greatest footage of you and it will create the best reality show the Ghost Zone has ever seen!" he shouted. "Wait! Hold on I need to capture your reactions!" He scrambled to summon another video camera.

"Reality show?" Danny echoed, confusion clear in his voice.

The ghost turned back to the teens and his smile fell as he saw the halfa's glowing hands and Valerie's ecto-gun pointed at them. "Or you could just act surprised when they tell you later on camera, you're already a great liar! The heck with teaching, you should be an actor!" he said to Danny.

Danny's eyes and hands burned with energy. "I know it can't be you who's doing all this. Tell me who's in charge, Technus."

"Sorry kiddo!" With a smirk, he was gone.

An ecto-blast whizzed past Danny's head. He spun around to see Valerie with her gun smoking.

"Gah!" Valerie shouted in frustration. She sighed and turned to Danny. "So all of this was for them to make a reality show out of?" Valerie said.

Danny blinked. "Usually they just try to take over the world," Danny shrugged. "This is new."

"Well, what do we do?" Valerie asked.

"Nothing for now. We have to get back to the others in case another ghost attacks," Danny said.

"Fine," Valerie said as she lowered her gun in disappointment. She looked back to the monitors and smirked. "But first." She aimed at one screen and started to shoot each screen out one at a time.

Danny gleefully joined her in destroying the rest of the room.

Mr. Lancer rolled up his pant leg to examine the wounds the mutant beaver left on his leg. Luckily he hadn't been injured that badly. Everything for the most part was pretty shallow, although that didn't make it hurt any less. Lancer didn't want to think about how much bacteria was festering in the wounds, he was just glad everything was mostly scabbed over. He sighed and unrolled the leg his tattered pants to cover the injury back up. "This is the last field trip I chaperone," he muttered, bitterly.

The teacher glanced around at his students. After a long walk they finally settled down at this location. It seemed semi-familiar, which was good enough for Lancer to call it quits and set up camp. The teens formed various small groups and were currently talking away. Lancer didn't have to be near any of them to know what the topic of conversation was; Mr. Daniel Fenton, or should he say, Danny Phantom.

His shy, slacking student, Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom. He couldn't help but chuckle. Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom. They even sounded the same. "Very clever Mr. Fenton," he mumbled. They- he - looked the same, save for the different color hair and eyes. If he took a picture of Danny Phantom from the newspaper and colored him with black hair and blue eyes it would be Fenton in Phantom's suit. It was amazing, so simple. The truth was right there, anybody could connect the dots if they knew who Danny Fenton was. The only thing masking the truth was nobody would ever think that Phantom could possibly be a human, and even so Fenton seems like a polar opposite when comparing personalities to the hero.

Danny Fenton wasn't actually the boy everyone thought he was. He is so much more. Everything he does in school, the shyness, the clumsiness, the "dork" of the school, it's all a charade to blend in. Everything except the skipping, tardiness, poor grades, and late assignments, those were probably the aftermath of having a town to save.

Lancer didn't feel so well after the last thought. The boy had so much responsibility thrown onto him. It was so much easier to think of Phantom as just a ghost. Thinking of him as a human, as one of his students, that was too much. He has, everyone has, seen Phantom taking beatings he didn't deserve. He couldn't imagine how much stress his student has to deal with on a daily basis. Not only Daniel, but as Lancer had seen on this trip, his sidekicks, Tucker Foley and Samantha Manson.

"Okay, they should be right around here. I think this is the spot we were before we went to Vlad's cave," Danny said while he tried to scan the ground through the trees.

"Then let's go on foot from here, just because you blew your secret doesn't mean that they have to know mine," Valerie remarked.

"Yeah that's fair," he replied as they descended.

Once they landed Valerie retracted her suit and Danny reverted back to human. Valerie watched with an odd look.

"What?" Danny questions as he fell from where he was floating a second before.

Valerie looked caught off guard for a moment and shrugged. "Uh, just thinking about the show and how many ghosts were watching us," she said. "It's creepy."

Danny nodded with a grimace and continued walking.

After a few minutes Danny stopped, causing the huntress to pause and look at him in confusion. "Val, if you wanna ask me something you should probably do it now before we find our class," he finally said after trying to pretend that he wasn't noticing her constant side-glances.

The girl blushed and looked down. "Sorry," she mumbled. "It's just, you and Phantom, you guys- no I mean you, seem like two totally different people still. I knew Danny Fenton, a shy, scrawny, awkward-"

"This is a real confidence booster, thanks."

She ignored him. "Then there was Phantom, a cocky, powerful, know-it-all ghost who ruined my life and who I hunted," Valerie said with annoyance clear in her tone. "And it's just really hard to think of you as the same person."

Danny sighed and rubbed his neck and started to walk again. "Isn't that the point of keeping a secret identity? So people can't figure out that you're the same person? You out of anyone should realize that."

Valerie gave a slight shrug. "Yeah. I guess I should."

It wasn't too much longer until they heard the chattering of their classmates. They weren't too loud, but it was enough noise for Danny and Valerie to detect.

Before they emerged out of the woods Valerie looked at Danny and asked, "Ready?"

"Would it make a difference if I said no?"

Valerie gave him a sympathetic smile and walked in the view of her classmates with Danny reluctantly behind.

All conversations died at the sight of the two. Valerie gave a small smile towards no one in particular and Danny shouldered his backpack and stared at the ground.

"Ms. Gray, Mr. Fenton," Mr. Lancer greeted as he got off the rock he was sitting on and walked over to them. "Glad to see you two are okay."

The students both nodded. "We brought some food," Danny said. Valerie took off her backpack and handed to Danny.

"Wonderful! I'm sure everyone could use some," said Lancer as he smiled proudly.

Danny nodded again. It was painfully obvious that Lancer along with the rest of the uncharacteristically quiet students were trying to treat Danny as normal as possible. He took a container out of the backpack and handed the bag to his teacher to let him deal with dividing out the rest of the food.

Without another word Danny walked over to Sam and Tucker. He could tell by their looks that they were pitying him. He sat down next to Tucker. Unfortunately for Danny the circle the class had made was so small it meant sitting next to Kwan and the rest of the A-listers who sat watching his every movement. "Hey, man. You don't happen to want any of this meatloaf do you?" Danny asked as he opened up the container.

Tucker stared at the loaf as Danny handed it to him, then back at Danny. "I could kiss you."

Danny and Sam laughed. "Just eat your food." Tucker nodded and took no time grabbing the meatloaf and stuffing it in his face. His friends watched on half disgusted and half amused. "Guess I forgot utensils, got kind of distracted," Danny said apologetically. "But I did manage to get these."

He dropped the duffle bag down with a 'thud'. Unfortunately, that drew attention to his injured arm.

Tucker looked wide-eyed at the wound. "Doob, whab habbened?" he asked with a mouthful of meatloaf.

Sam peaked around Tucker to get a better look at his arm and gasped.

Danny cursed as he saw that there was blood running down his arm. "It should have already healed, the bullet must have been ghost proof. Skulker shot it at Valerie but it skimmed me instead." He inspected it critically. "It looks a lot worse than it is."

Sam was already getting the first aid kit out from the bag Danny brought. "Skulker came after you guys?"

"Yeah, but that's not the worst of it," the halfa grimaced. "I found out the real reason we're stuck here," he whispered.

"What?" Sam asked, forgetting about his injury for a moment. Tucker also seemed to neglect his meal to look at his friend.

Danny dropped his voice even lower and leaned into his fiends and shook his head. "I don't know much, but according to Technus, him and others have been recording our every move for some reality show," he whispered and watched as his friends' mouths dropped in unison.

"That's insane," Sam gawked.

Danny nodded. "Valerie and I destroyed his equipment so we should be safe for at least a little while."

Sam and Tucker sat there in silence for a moment.

Finally Tucker shrugged and said, "Hey, we know they love to watch you be miserable. Guess it was only a matter of time before they made a show out of it."

Danny snorted and nodded. When he saw a slowly approaching figure out of the corner of his eye, he turned to give her an inviting smile and waved her over.

Valerie walked over to the trio and awkwardly stood to the side of where Danny sat. Tucker and Sam looked from Valerie to Danny questionly.

"She knows," Danny answered their unspoken question.

"And?" Sam asked as she threw a skeptical look at the girl.

Valerie crossed her arms and glared at the goth. "And I want to help."

The stare down ended when Mr. Lancer interrupted. "Food?" he asked, flashing a wary look at the two girls.

Sam and Valerie both took a piece a fruit and Danny shook his head. Tucker peeked inside the bag, but crinkled his nose and went back to his meatloaf.

Sam put down her fruit and continued to nurse Danny's wound, while the other students ate in relative silence. Danny ignored the prying eyes to the best of his ability. Valerie chose to squeeze in between Kwan and Danny. Kwan and the rest of the friend group readjusted so that they could watch Danny without craning their necks around Valerie.

"Mr. Fenton, what happened?" Lancer asked, looking at the blood that had made its way down his student's arm.

"Ghost," Danny replied.

The teacher watched as Sam tended to the wound with an apprehensive look on his face.

Danny shifted uncomfortably under his educator's steady gaze. "It's fine, Mr. Lancer."

Lancer looked up to meet his student's eyes. "No, it isn't," he said firmly. "I'm sorry I never saw it sooner. I saw how you would come to school with injuries. The resemblance is clear to me now." Lancer paused to scan the teen's face, making Danny squirm. The teacher finally recognized the student's uneasiness and glanced down at the bag he was holding, before looking back up. "I'm sorry for every criticizing you for your laziness and lack of effort, when it's incredible that you even maintained passing grades all the while protecting the city."

"Wow. Um, thanks Mr. Lancer," Danny said, struggling to find a proper response. He caught Sam's eye, and saw that she looked equally confused. "Uh, but don't worry about not figuring it out, it was a secret for a reason," he nervously chuckled. "But I know I owe everyone an explanation."

Lancer shook his head. "You don't owe anyone an explanation. What you choose to keep a secret is your business." With that the teacher smiled, which Danny returned, and walked away to sit back down in his spot.

"So you're actually the ghost boy?" a voice interrupted.

Danny closed his eyes to gather his composure, as Lancer snapped, "Miss Sanchez!"

"Yeah, I am," he answered looking at the Latina.

She looked back with wide eyes as though she wasn't expecting that as an answer, besides the fact she had witnessed the transformation herself.

"Danny, before you start this Q&A, remember what Lancer just said," whispered Sam from his side, "your secrets are nobody else's' business".

"Not anymore they aren't," he murmured.

Sam sighed and leaned back.

"So, you're dead?" a paler than normal looking Dash asked.

"No, I'm still alive. I still need to eat, sleep, breathe. I just have ghost powers," he shrugged. "A real, live, bona fide freak," Danny decided to add in dark humor. Using the word he had heard spat from the jock's mouth so many times before.

Dash and a couple others looked away in guilt.

"How long have you been Phantom?" Mikey asked.

"Since freshman year."

"So what's your origin story?" Lester asked, practically bouncing in excitement from being in front of real superhero.

Danny shrugged. "Like I said, got into an accident in my parents' lab." He bit his lip as he contemplated how much he should say. "Except it wasn't a small zap like I said before." Danny shifted as people leaned closer. "I was inside their portal and when it turned on. I got electrocuted and the ectoplasm from it fused to my DNA, I guess."

"Cool," Lester whispered in awe.

"Why keep it a secret?"

Danny turned around to Star. She stared at him in curiosity. "Wouldn't that have made your life easier? Teachers wouldn't have been so hard on you, no more bullying-"

"You could've been popular," added Kwan. "Or at least got special treatment."

Danny shook his head. "I didn't want that." He paused. "Well I thought I did for a little while. But I learned the less people that knew my powers, the better. Some things could've been easier if people had known, but I don't regret keeping it a secret," he said with a shrug.

"Since your parents both still go after Danny Phantom, I'm assuming they don't actually know about your powers." Mr. Lancer asked.

Danny gave his teacher a guilty look, remembering the lie he had told his teacher the day before. "No," he admitted. "It never quite seems like the right time to tell your parents that you're the very thing they've dedicated their lives to hunting," he said dryly.

Some people grimaced while others gave him a look of pity.

Danny cleared his throat and stood up a bit taller. "Anyways, I think I've figured out a plan to get out of here." The class perked up at the news. "Remember when the parents were taken on that ghost ship for a cruise and we rescued them?"

Most of his peers nodded.

"Yeah that was awesome!" Kwan said as he smiled fondly at the memory.

"Turns out the same ship is docked on the opposite side of the island."

He saw some faces light up as they realized where he was going with the plan.

"Who's ready to hijack a pirate brat's ship?" Danny said with a smirk.

Hello! I'm back! It only took a couple years, heh. I have no excuse. But I'm very veryy sorry and I'll try to update quicker from now on. Thank you so much to everyone who is still reading this and to everyone who reviewed telling (or threatening) me to keep writing!