AN: Yes, I know, I shouldn't have started a new story. I shouldn't be putting off these four school projects I have either, but apparently, I like doing what I shouldn't. You all can blame Within Temptation's rather inspiring music for this new fiction. And don't worry, I am still working on all of my old ones, although I think there might be awhile before I update any of them. Cause, you know, I do have to work on those projects sometime.

Danny Phantom doesn't belong to me, however, this story does! Steal it and I will remove your spine and use it as a whip to punish other thieves!

Truth and Lies

Chapter One: The Accident

Amity Park was one of the most desired places to live in, and not only because it was the Royal City, in which the Royal Manson family lived in. In recent years, the good people of Earth had found themselves ravaged by vicious ghost attacks, and Amity Park was one of the few places in which they had a fully operational ghost shield. It was also the home to the Fentons, the world's most prominent ghost experts. If anyone could take care of renegade ghosts, it was them.

Most of the media attention on the Fentons focused on Maddie and Jack, the brilliant ghost-hunting couple. Though they had their critics, for some felt that it was absolutely absurd to abandon all magic in favor of science, they were widely loved by all. They had two children. The oldest was a girl named Jasmine, though people simply called her Jazz. Their youngest was a boy, named Daniel, though most referred to him as Danny.

The Mansons had reigned most of Earth for as long as the people could remember. Their line stretched back for generations, and their latest heir was a young girl named Samantha Manson, though most called her Sam. Sam and Danny had always been close friends, which lead to speculation among many in the kingdom about what would happen with the two when they grew up. Danny and Sam, however, blew off any possible rumors of the two ever having a relationship outside of friendship.

"So, this is it, huh?" Sixteen-year old Danny Fenton turned away from the glowing portal in front of him, looking at his parents. They both nodded, proudly, and Danny grinned, turning back around, his light blue eyes focusing on the portal.

This was his parent's pride and joy-The Fenton Ghost Portal. It was designed to access the Ghost Zone, so that they could return all the invading ghosts back to where they had come from. After months of testing, false starts, and minor setbacks, they had finally been able to complete it.

Officially, no one was supposed to see it before the project completion announcement date on Saturday, but Danny's parents had decided to bring in both of their children to see it before-hand. Jazz had politely declined, as she wasn't very interested in her parent's ghost research. Danny had come out of sheer curiosity.

Maddie sighed happily, leaning against her husband's shoulder, smiling. After many long months, their work had finally paid off. But there was something nagging at her, saying that something was wrong. She simply played it off to paranoia because of the mass scale of the Ghost Portal project. She had gone over the calculations about three times before she and Jack had turned it on. Everything was in order.

"Hm?" Danny frowned, blinking. "Mom, is it supposed to be doing that?" He had noticed that the swirling of ecto-energy in the portal, which his mother had said was natural, had suddenly gotten a lot faster. He turned to his mother, looking a bit worried.

Maddie frowned, looking at the portal. The energy spins had indeed gotten a lot faster, and it was beginning to make her worry that a ghost was trying to force itself through. Maddie had made sure that the portal was one-sided, but there were some rather determined ghosts out there. She left her husband's side to check up on the monitor screen information on the portal.

Her eyes shot up wide, and her head whipped around to her husband. "Jack, it's malfunctioning! We need to preform an emergency shut down!" Maddie then remembered that Danny was standing almost directly in front of the portal. "Danny! Get out of there!"

"Huh?" Danny turned around, looking at his mother, just as the energy spins hit maximum speed. The already glowing portal glowed even brighter, just moments before a large blast of ecto-radiation was let loose from it, Danny directly in it's range. It wasn't until after this that Jack managed to preform the emergency shut down.

"DANNY!"

Danny barely saw it coming. He had absolutely no time to react, and before he knew it, he was engulfed by the blast of ecto-radiation. He let out a loud, piercing scream, born out of both fear and pain. He suddenly felt everything just stop, and he slumped onto the ground, as the last bits of the radiation blast vanished.

Grateful for the protection that their Hazmat suits provided from the remnants of the ecto-radiation, Maddie and Jack rushed over to their son. He was lying, groaning on the ground, curled up into a tight ball, as if he had a bad stomach cramp. Maddie kneeled down by him, gently picking up his head, noticing with a bit of shock that the radiation had caused his black hair to turn snow white.

"Danny?" She whispered quietly, exchanging a look with their husband. Both of them prayed that a change in hair color was the only side effect.

"Mom..." Danny choked out weakly, his eyes slowly flickering open, which got a loud gasp from his parents. Instead of light blue, his eyes were now a bright, glowing green. Maddie desperately searched over her son's body, having already noticed the rapid drop in body temperature, as well as the fact that his ears had been tipped off into points-a somewhat common ghost trait.

"Danny... Danny, you're okay, right?" Maddie asked, almost pleading. It couldn't happen. There was no way that the accident could have killed her son, and made him one of them. It couldn't happen, not to Danny. He was okay, he had to be.

"I feel like I was hit by an elephant flying a jumbo jet..." Danny moaned, trying to pull himself up from his mother's grasp, holding a hand on his head. "When did it... get so cold in here?" Danny asked, looking between his parents, wondering why the two of them looked so freaked out. "Mom? Dad? What's wrong?"

"Danny... you..." Jack begin, exchanging a look with his wife.

"I what?" Danny asked, his voice both nervous and confused. If his parents, people who spent their lives hunting ghosts were freaked out, then something had to be wrong. "Mom, Dad, what happened to me?" He asked them, begging.

After his question, there was a long pause, Jack and Maddie both trying to come up with possible explanations-any possible explanation except for the one that was most prominent in their minds. "I... don't know, Danny." Maddie said finally. What could she tell him?

"You don't know?" Danny asked, his voice was wavering in fear now. "Something did happen to me then?" He asked, trying to fight back a rising panic. He looked at his hands, noticing that his skin was slightly paler, and furthermore that he had a strange glow surrounding him. His eyes shot wide with full-blown panic.

Maddie and Jack watched the explanation they didn't want to face dawn on their son. Both of them exchanged a look, wondering when it was that they would loose him. When he would become one of them, one of the ghosts. When would he change from the sweet boy the knew so well, into the malevolent spirit? They prayed that the process took time, maybe then they could try and find a way to keep their son's sanity.

"I'm... a... a..." Danny forced himself to choke out, but he still couldn't make himself say the last word. "No... No, no. That can't be true! This is just a mistake right! Or a nightmare. One crazy, crazy nightmare..." Danny said, pinching himself to see if he felt the pain. He winced as he did it, realizing that this was no nightmare. This was reality.

"Danny, calm down..." Maddie said, trying to keep her voice calm and soothing. She knew it was only a matter of time before the Mansons sent someone down to investigate the commotion. "We don't know exactly how the whole process works. You could have months before... before..." She bit her lip, unable to finish her sentence.

"...before I attack someone." Danny finished for her, pulling his knees up to his chest, and resting his head in them. "I can't believe this..."

"There... might be a way to keep it from happening, and we swear to you Danny, your father and I will do everything in our power to find it." Maddie said, resolutely.

As expected, moments after Maddie spoke, two guards came down the stairs, followed by none other than the Mansons themselves.

"What on earth is going on down here?" Mrs. Manson asked, brushing back a bit of her red hair. "We heard a terrible noise and-oh my!" She exclaimed, catching sight of the white-haired Danny, her eyes widening in surprise. "What on earth is this?"

Jack and Maddie exchanged a look. Surely the Mansons would understand the situation, and allow them to temporarily suspend the work on the portal in order to help their son. He was, after all, a close friend of their daughter.

"There... was an accident. The portal malfunctioned and..." Maddie said, glancing back at her son, who wasn't meeting eyes with anyone, whether from shame, depression, or both, she wasn't quite sure. She turned back to the Mansons. "And my son... got caught in the middle of a blast of ecto-radiation. It appears to have had some rather... adverse effects on him."

"Oh dear, that is bad." Mrs. Manson said, sounding sympathetic. "What kind of effects? Besides the obvious, of course." She said, looking over the altered form of Danny.

"You two don't mean to say that it changed him into a ghost?" Mr. Manson asked, after giving Danny a visual assessment of his own.

"...We believe so." Maddie said sadly. She caught Mr. Manson opening his mouth to speak again and regardless of the proper etiquette, she cut him off. "But please here me out! As is stands, Danny has yet to gain the natural malevolence that is present in all ghosts. And I believe that there still might be a chance to save him..."

Mr. Manson rubbed his chin, considering. "And what would you two do if he did become malevolent during your research?" He asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, we'd put him in the Fenton Thermos until we finished." Jack said. Danny looked at his father, a bit startled. "Don't give me that look, Danny, it's better than destroying you, or sending you away to some place where we might never be able to get to you again."

"And what would happen to the Ghost Portal research while this is all going on?" Mrs. Manson asked. "Surely you cannot do both at the same time."

"Yes, and I would like to know more about this malfunction. Will we have to set back the revelation date?" Mr. Manson asked. "We can't have one of your inventions turning people into ghosts every time it malfunctions."

Maddie looked back at Danny once more, checking that he was still there and allright, before she turned back to the King and Queen. "We don't know much time we have to find a way to prevent Danny from losing his mind. Jack and I will have a pressed schedule as it is, without having to worry about determining what went wrong with the Ghost Portal, and how to fix it. We preformed an emergency shut down for now, so there should be no further danger on it while we work on something to help Danny..."

"No." Mr. Manson said, sounding incredibly resolute. Maddie and Jack exchanged a look, all of the sympathy that they had seen just moments before in the two had vanished. This happened often, especially when they started to talk about some sort of set-back with a new ghost invention, or whether or not they should study a ghost before the destroyed it, or before they sealed it away.

"But with all due respect..." Maddie began, but she was cut off by another resolute no, this time by the Queen. "But, Danny!" Maddie protested, forgetting for a moment their status difference. Maddie looked back at Danny, who appeared to be getting more and more depressed by the second.

And he was, too. When the Mansons had first come down, he was feeling a mixture of both fear and shame. Once they seemed to be sympathetic to what had happened to him, his mood had begun to lighten. And while he wasn't too keen on the idea of being trapped in the Fenton Thermos should the ghost malevolence rise in him before his parents finished their research, it did sound a lot better than just being whipped out, or sent far away, loosing all chance at ever regaining a normal state of mind.

But then the Mansons had changed their tune, and now the only thing he found he could feel was a sinking depression. Perhaps his parents should just destroy him now, while his mind at least was still human. He suddenly felt in increase in the yearning that had been constant in him ever since the ecto-radiation's effects had become known, a yearning to be human once more. He just wanted it so badly now. If he was still human, none of this would be happening.

His eyes snapped open, suddenly feeling his body warmth all coming back to him in a rush. He heard a collective gasp, the expressions on the faces of those around of him were mixed ones of astonishment and happiness. Danny looked down, staring at his hands, and found that he no longer had the strange ghostly glow.

"Danny..." Maddie was the first to speak. "You... you're back to normal?" She asked, half-doubting what she was seeing. Just as she was grappling with the fact that she would loose her son to the spirits, two ice blue rings of light enveloped his body, doing the impossible. They turned him back into a human. Gone were the white hair and glowing green eyes, replaced by his normal black hair and light blue eyes.

"What?" Danny asked in equal confusion. "How is that even possible?"

"Come here, let me check." Maddie shook her head. "No don't bother, I'll get up." Maddie got up from her seated position, since she had been on the ground ever since she had kneeled down by Danny, and moved over towards him. She carefully checked his pulse in both his wrists and neck and found that he was most definitely alive again.

"Maybe it was only temporary?" Jack offered.

"Jack, that's impossible. Nobody can turn into a ghost for a couple of minutes, only to become human again minutes later." Maddie said, sighing.

"Hey, people die for a couple of minutes and come back to life a couple of minutes later, so why couldn't it happen this way too?" Mr. Manson asked, the sudden grim seriousness in him gone for the moment.

Maddie rubbed her forehead. "Because, Your Highness, the composition of ghosts and humans is too different to allow that. They might look alike, but their insides aren't the same. Ghosts are made up of a substance known as ectoplasm. It makes up everything in them, from their hair to their internal organs, to their blood." Maddie explained.

"So then, what did happen?" Mrs. Manson asked, her curiosity peeked.

"I honestly have no idea." Maddie said, letting out a long sigh. "I'll need to run a few tests to determine exactly what... Danny!" Maddie exclaimed, her violet eyes widening. The two ice blue rings had returned around his waist. Danny looked down at them, stunned, as they once again enveloped his body, turning their son into a ghost once more.

"Huh?" Danny asked, sounding confused. "I'm not..." Danny looked up at his parents, both of which nodded. "How! I was human again just a second ago!" He exclaimed, starting to panic.

"Danny, just calm down. Panicking's not going to get anyone anywhere. I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for everything." Maddie said. "Right, Jack?"

"Right! But for now the only explanation we can give you is that the Ghost Portal's ecto-radiation really, really screwed with you!" Jack said, nodding.

"Well that's comforting to know." Danny said, slightly annoyed. He realized the mistake in his tone when he saw those assembled exchange looks. He sighed. "Sorry, I'm just not in the mood for much humor right now, dad..." He apologized. "I'm just really freaking out here."

"Well, we'll run a few tests..." Maddie began, but she was cut off by Mr. Manson, the look of forbidding seriousness on his face again.

"No." He said, simply. "You two have to get back to work on the Ghost Portal, and figure out why it malfunctioned."

"But..." Maddie and Jack began to protest, but Mr. Manson waved a hand silencing them.

"But I will have some of our other scientists run a few tests on your son. And if they can't figure out what's wrong with him, we'll take him to our spiritualists. What's important for you two now is fixing that Ghost Portal, so it doesn't malfunction like that again. We don't want to create any more..." Mr. Manson paused, eyeing Danny slightly. "...any more anomalies."

"Hey!" Danny shouted. He didn't exactly appreciate being called an anomaly. He only received a disapproving look from the two Mansons. Apparently the fact that he was Sam's best friend meant nothing to them now that he was screwed up like this. Whatever like this meant.

"But surely we would be more studied to..." Maddie began, but when the Mansons turned their disapproving look on her, she sighed, submitting to their rule. She had already pushed them as far as she could push them, and she didn't want to know what would happen to her if she pushed them too far. "...Allright. But we can see him still, right?" Maddie asked, sounding hopeful.

"It depends on what they find." Mrs. Manson said simply. "Come now Danny, don't sit there all day." She said, coaxing Danny to come towards her, and follow the two up the stairs and into one of the other research laboratories.

Danny didn't like the idea of having some strangers running tests on him, but he knew he had no choice but to go. He was really in no situation to protest-he didn't want anyone to think he had started slipping when he hadn't.

It was a bit strange though, because besides the growing panic and confusion, he felt mentally no different than he had before the accident. But perhaps that was the way it worked, no one was quite sure what it was, or when it was that ghosts went berserk, only that they all did, without exception.

He pulled himself up from the ground, standing shakily on his feet. His body felt a bit odd to him, but that was to be expected if what his mother said was true. Supposedly, if he really was a ghost, and Danny had no reason to doubt that he was, at least right now, then he was made up of something entirely different than before. Ectoplasm. He had heard his parents explain to him about it before, but now he was wishing that he had actually listened to them.

"Danny! Come on, we don't have all day!" Mrs. Manson shouted, and Danny, not wanting to annoy them any further than he thought he already had, quickly followed after them, pausing for a second to look back at his parents. They met his eyes, the three staring at each other, until another impatient call from Mrs. Manson made Danny tear himself away and hurry from them.

None of the Fentons could have ever imagined what was to come.