A/N: A quick fic I wrote a few months ago as a tumblr request (they asked for angst) and am only now getting around to posting on this site. Post-D-stabilized. Standard disclaimers apply.

"You're back early," Maddie mused when Danny walked into the kitchen in the hopes of finding some non-contaminated food to eat. She was making cookies at the kitchen table, which at least meant there'd be some edible food in an hour. "I thought Jazz said you two would be out all day."

Danny frowned. It was the first Saturday of Christmas break, and he'd planned to spend the afternoon at home. Ghost hunting had kept him up half the night again, but he'd headed out this morning to meet up with Sam and Tucker. Tucker was going out of town this year to meet up with his dad's side of the family, and since it was out of state he'd be away for most of the break. Danny and Sam had wanted to spend what time they could with Tuck before he left.

Sam figured they'd be able to sneak away to visit him at some point—he couldn't be busy all the time, and the Spectre Speeder was almost always available—but even though her parents didn't celebrate Christmas, they still attended a number of high society functions and dragged Sam to as many as possible. Consequently, Danny knew he'd be spending most of this Christmas stuck with his family, as he had for many Christmases in the past. As long as he made sure he didn't get stuck in the Ghostwriter's story again, he should be able to marginally enjoy himself.

At the very least, the Christmas Truce meant he'd actually get a real break.

But it still meant he had planned to avoid his family for large chunks of time, which meant he hadn't made any plans with Jazz.

"When did she say that?" Danny asked. He opened the fridge, trying not to let the worry clawing at his gut explode into anything serious. Jazz was the worrywart, not him. Usually.

Maddie laughed. "You were there, sweetie. It was only this morning."

Everything in the fridge looked suspect, either moulding or glowing or smoking, but Danny had already lost his appetite. He shut the door hard enough to rattle the test tubes on the top shelf. "Right."

He hadn't been there.

He hadn't even seen Jazz today.

Which meant he needed to find her.

Now.

Maddie was too distracted with trying to fish a tiny piece of eggshell out of the glass into which she'd cracked an egg to really notice anything Danny was doing, so he didn't even pretend to look for more food. He just spun on his heel, left, and called Jazz's cell phone.

She didn't pick up.

Tucker wouldn't be able to track her phone when he was stuck in a car, so Danny dialled Sam's number instead.

"Danny? What's up?"

"Jazz is MIA," he said. "I don't know who it was. Amorpho, maybe. Someone who can pass for me, at any rate. Mom said we left together this morning, but we didn't, obviously, because I was with you and Tuck." He bit his lip. "I don't know if Jazz knows she's in danger. I mean, she should realize that whoever it is isn't really me, but…."

"Think she's still in town?"

Danny had already checked the garage. "Her car's gone, but that doesn't mean anything. Can you check the library? That's close to you, and I can cover her other usual haunts faster than you." Not that she had many besides the library, but since she wasn't answering….

"No problem. Don't worry, Danny. We'll find her. I'm sure she's fine anyway."

That depended on who had her. Amorpho had promised never to come back to this town. Even if he'd decided to go against that, what reason did he have to take Jazz? What reason did any of the ghosts have to take Jazz? If someone had pretended to be him, this wasn't like it had been that time with Kitty and Johnny 13.

Danny shoved his phone into his pocket, took one last glance around to make sure he was alone, and transformed. He should be able to check almost everywhere by the time Sam finished combing every inch of the library. And if any ghost decided to show up to try to slow him down, they'd regret it.

Danny worked as efficiently as he could, zipping between places and taking his time once there, but he backtracked a few times to make sure Jazz hadn't shown up in the meantime. His ghost sense never went off, and he saw no sign of her, so he ended up doing a quick patrol of the entire town, hoping to spot something. When he finally gave up and met Sam at the library, he only needed to see the look on her face to know that she'd come up empty handed, too.

"She might have gone out of town," Sam pointed out. "Did you try calling her again?"

He hadn't, so he did, but there was still no answer. He bit off a message telling her to call him back and then looked at Sam. "We should check the Ghost Zone. I…I think it might be faster if we split up. Are you comfortable going in by yourself?"

He didn't doubt her ability to handle the Spectre Speeder, and she knew it. He was more worried that she might be attacked. If Jazz had been taken, Sam was definitely fair game. The Spectre Speeder had a wealth of built-in weaponry, but it could be overwhelmed.

And he didn't want to lose her, too.

"I'll be fine. If she's in there, she'll show up if I try tracking Real World items. And if you're really worried about me, I can swing by Dora's and ask her for help."

Danny couldn't hide his relief. "That's a great idea. Thank you." On an impulse, he threw his arms around her and squeezed. "Be careful."

"You, too," Sam whispered, hugging him back. After a beat, she pushed away and added, "I know you're going to hate this suggestion, but you should talk to Vlad. You'll know pretty quickly if he's behind this somehow, and if he's not, he should jump at the chance to get in your mom's good books."

Danny shuddered, but he knew she was right. "Yeah, okay." He thought he should say something else, but he didn't know what, so he just stepped back, mumbled, "Thanks," and jumped into the air, angling toward Vlad's.

The first energy blast nearly shot him out of the sky, and instinct was the only reason the next ones fired in quick succession didn't hit him. When he recovered his wits and spotted Valerie racing toward him on her jet sled, he growled and zipped in a zigzag fashion toward her. "I don't have time for this!"

"What, did I interrupt your plans? Sorry not sorry, ghost kid. You wreck too many plans of your own to get any sympathy from me."

She levelled another barrage of charges against him, but he dodged, turned invisible, and ripped the blaster off her suit before she realized his plan. Another sprang out of her shoulders, finding him almost instantly, and he dropped his invisibility as he threw the broken weapon onto her jet sled. "Jazz Fenton is missing," he snapped. "If you want to help people, help me find her. She was kidnapped by a ghost, but I don't know who it was, so I don't know where to look. Your trackers have a wider range than my ghost sense. Are you gonna help or not?"

Valerie blinked at him. "Jazz Fenton?" she repeated. And then, "You have a ghost sense?"

"Just leave me alone until we find her, okay? I promise we can fight later. Danny and Sam are already out searching. Call one of them if you find anything. Got it?"

"Why do you even care? She's the daughter of ghost hunters."

"Because she's my si—" He caught himself, stopped, and amended, "She's my friend."

Judging by Valerie's narrowed eyes, she didn't buy that, but he had no plans on elaborating. Fortunately, she didn't push him. "Fine. I'll help. But this doesn't mean I'm going soft on you, got that?"

"Loud and clear," Danny confirmed, and then he flipped over and sped towards Vlad's. He heard Valerie yelling something after him—she could probably guess his destination by his trajectory—but right now, he didn't care. Not if Jazz was in trouble.

Danny knew Vlad conducted about as much of his mayoral duties from his home as he did from city hall, probably by citing vague and suspect security reasons and overshadowing anyone who asked too many questions. Danny didn't care about the details now, but since being at home gave Vlad more freedom to plot, he checked there first.

Because it was Vlad, he didn't bother going intangible when he burst through the west picture window and into his home office.

"Temper, temper, Daniel," Vlad said without looking up from his desk, as if he didn't care about the shattered glass that had scattered everywhere.

Danny knew his eyes were burning green as he advanced. "Did you take Jazz?" he yelled. "Do you have her holed up somewhere? Is this another one of your stupid schemes? Because it's not funny."

The pen dropped from Vlad's fingers, rolling from his desk and onto the carpet. He looked up, finding Danny immediately. "Jasmine is missing?"

Danny's heart sank. The surprise and concern on Vlad's face were genuine; there was no hint of a smug smirk hidden in his features. "Mom said the two of us left the house this morning, but I haven't even seen Jazz today, which means it's someone who can shapeshift. Do you know if Amorpho came back?"

"My dear little badger, last I heard, Amorpho had moved on to bigger cities." Vlad's lips thinned. "I know for a fact that Spectra and Bertrand are scouting out a town in another state, for all that I advised them against that particular place, but I wasn't aware that another shifter had come here."

Danny had known Vlad kept tabs on the ghosts that invaded Amity Park, but he hadn't realized how closely. "There have to be other shapeshifters, though. Not just ones I've fought."

"Of course there are. But even if they did come here, Daniel, what makes you think they would be able to impersonate you so easily if you had never met them? And what makes you think they would choose Jazz as the target if they have not been here long enough for either of us to discover their presence?"

Danny swallowed. "Are all your clones accounted for?"

Vlad rolled his eyes. "Butter biscuits, Daniel, do you take me for a fool?"

"That's not an answer."

Vlad's expression softened. "I don't have any stable clones right now. You know that. Danielle is the only one unaccounted for."

"This isn't Dani. Even if she could pass for me, she wouldn't. Not like this." Danny raked a hand through his hair. "You really don't have any idea who it could be?"

"I dislike your father, Daniel, not your sister. While I wish to tear your family apart, I wouldn't do it like this."

"Gee, thanks." Danny crossed his arms and studied the intricate pattern on the carpet. In a quieter voice, he said, "Sam and I have checked all over town. There's no sign of Jazz or her car. I filled in Valerie on my way over here, and Sam's going to take the Spectre Speeder into the Ghost Zone and search with Dora. I guess…. I guess since you don't know anything, I'll have to tell Mom and Dad."

Vlad sighed. "Tread carefully, little badger. In the meantime, if you get me some of your sister's DNA, I'll look into reprogramming some of my trackers."

Danny's head jerked up, his face twisting with disgust. "You're not tracking me with those, are you? Or, oh, god, not Mom, right? Or Valerie?"

Vlad glowered at him. "Do you want my help or not?"

Danny shuddered and made a mental note to have Tucker look into something that could jam that sort of thing, assuming that was even possible. "Yes. Okay. I'll get you something. Hair's good enough, right?"

"Hair is essentially dead cells, little badger. Unless the follicle—that's the root—is attached, it's useless for us. Saliva works much better. The better the quality of the DNA, the more accurate the trace will be."

Okay, gross. Danny did not want to know how Vlad went about collecting DNA samples so that he actually knew that. "I know I can find hair, but I'm not making promises about anything else."

Vlad sighed. "Just bring me her toothbrush."

"Right." Danny glanced at the hole he'd made, added, "Sorry about your window," and took off before Vlad could say anything else.

This was all taking time. Too much time, considering he had no idea how much time they had. Were they going to have to wait until Vlad got his creepy DNA tracker thing working or hope that the ghost sent some sort of ransom note? Since Jazz had been taken by a ghost, the police wouldn't be able to do much to help. It's not like ghosts left behind a lot of traces; ecto-signatures were arguably the best way to track a ghost, and they never lasted long. He'd let his parents make that phone call; he had no idea what to tell the police. The ones in Amity Park would believe them, but anyone outside of the area….

Danny hit the pavement outside his house hard enough to crack it, but that wasn't enough to slow him down. He threw open the door, ran into the kitchen, and panted, "Mom, I think Jazz's been kidnapped. I can't find her anywhere."

Maddie, who was covered in flour, looked up. He saw her eyes widen and, in one smooth motion, she pulled out an ecto-gun from her suit and levelled it at his head.

Oh.

Right.

"What was that about my daughter, ghost?"

Danny still didn't feel ready to tell his secret to his parents. While he was fairly confident they wouldn't vivisect or even experiment on him, he wasn't sure any of them were really prepared to deal with the emotional turmoil that would come along with the truth. That was one of the reasons he'd wiped their memories with the Reality Gauntlet. They'd accepted him for the moment, but once shock passed and the truth really sunk in—the truth and everything that meant—there would have been major issues. Hiding had seemed simpler. He'd been too much of a coward to face all that emotional upheaval. It had been far easier to put all that off to some indeterminate point in the future.

But Jazz was the one best equipped to deal with that sort of thing, and she wasn't here.

And he wasn't going to sacrifice her for the sake of his secret.

"Jazz is gone," Danny repeated. "I don't know who has her, but I can't find her anywhere."

Maddie's lip curled, and he saw her flick off the safety and rest her finger on the trigger. "My children are perfectly capable of defending themselves," she snarled, "and are out together, safe and sound. You should have picked a different lie, ghost scum. Why do you think I'd ever believe that?"

"Because I'm your son, Mom," Danny said, shifting back to Fenton, "and I always have been."

The ecto-gun fell to the table. Danny dodged as it went off, rolled, and came back up to his feet. Maddie was still staring at him, pale-faced and wide-eyed. Her hands dropped slowly back to her side. "Danny?" He could see the fear on her face and hear it in her voice, the fear that what she was seeing was actually true and not just a trick.

"Fenton, Phantom." He shrugged and tried to smile. "Not really that hard to figure out once you actually consider it."

"How—?"

"We can go over all that later, Mom. I promise. Right now, we need to focus on finding Jazz."

Maddie shook her head as if she were trying to clear up all the possibilities and improbabilities invading her mind. "Why now?" she managed. "All this time—"

"I know, but Jazz is in trouble," Danny answered, "and finding her is more important than keeping my secret."

It always would be.