Content warning: Implied major character death, (graphic) descriptions of corpses

AN: Both chapters were written for Ectoberweek 2018, day 6: unearthed, but I ended up cutting the first half because I felt like the pacing was better without it. But then I posted that part separately anyway, so yeah. As a result, the second chapter is set before the first chapter, chronologically.
Also I don't know how genres actually work so... Too many options to be honest.

Crime in Amity Park, real actual crime, committed by humans, was exceedingly rare. Robberies and muggings were practically unheard of, never mind murders. And while ghosts attack the city almost constantly, physical injuries are very rare. Sometimes people get injured in the general chaos, hit by debris for a ghost fight, or get threatened, but no one ever gets killed.

So when a corpse is found in the woods near Amity Park, the whole town becomes abuzz with rumors and gossip.

The police are called, the crime scene thoroughly investigated, and the corpse is studied, but the public is told nothing except that a body was found.

But good God, were the police unprepared for this. Working in Amity Park prepared them for a lot of weird things, the job lending itself not to strict, highly experienced police officers but rather the adaptable younger officers, and most of them had never dealt with actual dead bodies like this.

And the investigation wasn't easy, either. It clearly wasn't a recent crime, the body partially decayed and burned beyond recognition. They can't even prove if a ghost was involved or not, because any traces of ectoplasm that might have been left behind would have evaporated a long time ago.

The slight body is brought back, and carefully examined. It was almost impossible to determine the cause of death, but there didn't seem to be any injuries. They determined it was likely that this person had been killed by the same thing that had scorched them so badly, but they weren't sure what, exactly, that had been.

It was much easier to determine who this person had been. The corpse was male, a mere teenager at the time of their death. And while he had been burned beyond recognition, there were more ways to identify someone than just by looking at them.

When the results of the DNA comparison came in, every single person on the case was baffled. They decided to verify it by comparing the teeth of their corpse with the dental records of the DNA match.

It was an exact match.

There was only one problem; the person that was a perfect match for the corpse from the woods was still alive.

It was one of the newer officers who suggested that they didn't actually know if he was, in fact, alive. And while this might normally get a person send off to get their head checked, it actually wasn't too crazy for Amity Park.

The boy was still in the city, still lived with his parents and still attended school, but he hadn't been to any medical check-ups in close to two years. It was absolutely possible that the boy was a ghost.

Which led to the next concern: was the ghost that lived among them in the city the teen's own ghost, or was it a different ghost pretending to be someone he wasn't?

While the ghosts of Amity Park weren't known to kill people, they had been known to pretend to be alive. Some could even pull it off so convincingly that no one knew until the ghost blew its own cover, usually in a fight with Danny Phantom.

So the possibility that a ghost had attacked an innocent teenager, killed him, and then replaced him, was rather unnerving. It was made all the more chilling by the knowledge that this boy had died and no one had noticed until they found his corpse.

This opened the way to another horrifying possibility, however. Maybe the boy's parents never noticed because they were the ones to kill him.

They had always been ghost nuts, even before Amity Park saw its first ghost. And if the boy had died two years ago, as his records implied, then that would have been just before the city had its first spectral visitors. The parents might have found a way to guarantee that the boy would become a ghost, and killed him so they had proof.

But the police weren't paid to speculate, they were supposed to find evidence and prove what happened to the boy. And so they set out to FentonWorks, where they interviewed every member of the family separately.

They couldn't diverge too much information during the interviews, of course, and the people they were interviewing weren't the easiest either. Between the adult Fentons, who would constantly ramble about ghosts and their inventions, the older kid, who seemed to be analyzing every single word the police said (and even what they didn't say), and the youngest kid, the possible victim, they had their work cut out for them.

The parents seemed genuinely upset by the news that the dead body that had been found was a teenager, and immediately jumped on the possibility that a ghost was responsible. While this would be rather suspicious for most people, it was rather characteristic for the Fentons. Between their responses, and their general behavior towards their family, it was declared unlikely that they were responsible for the death of their own son.

The oldest child, the daughter, also carried no answers. When she was asked if her brother had changed over the last years, she had shrugged them off and told them that "he was a teenager, it would be worrisome if he hadn't". Her gaze was sharp and calculating, however, and she was clearly taking in every word they said. They ended up cutting off the interview early, afraid of letting anything slip.

Her younger brother, the ghost, the possible victim, was the most befuddling. When they asked him if he had heard of the body that was found in the woods, he didn't respond with recognition. No, his eyes lit up with fury that had the officers shaking in their shoes, and clenched his fists as if he would go out and beat up the person responsible right that instant if he had known who it was.

It was clear that this ghost wasn't the killer of Daniel Fenton, but this just raised more questions. Because if he wasn't the killer, and he didn't know that it was his body that they had found (didn't even seem to consider that possibility), then who was this ghost? Was it the ghost of Daniel who had forgotten about his death when he became a ghost? Or was this just some random ghost who decided to pretend that he was Daniel, and then never stopped?

When the officers met back at the station to discuss everything they had learned (and everything they hadn't), they could only come to one conclusion; they had to interview the ghost again, but this time with a focus on identifying him.

This proved to be easier said than done, however, because they had to achieve this without the ghost finding out that they had found the body of the boy he pretended to be.

The spirit that may or may not be Daniel Fenton was brought into the police station for further interrogations. He seemed to have gone through a personality shift since the last time, however, and played the act of a stubborn teenager far more than he previously had. He was obstinate and bull-headed, eyeing them with utmost suspicion and constantly questioning why they were asking him this.

When the man leading the interrogation finally reached his wits end and growled out "Dammit boy, we know you're a ghost" the specter freezes up, eyes blown wide with barely hidden fear.

"I- I don't know what you're talking about," he stammered out. "Me, a ghost? That's- that's crazy."

The interrogator sighed deeply. "Look, we identified the body as Daniel Fenton's. That means that you," he poked Danny in the chest with a finger, "are either Daniel's ghost, or you're some spirit playing pretend."

Danny scowled at the officer and swatted away the finger, speaking with venom dripping from his voice, "I'm no pretender."

"So then why not tell us who killed you? Because I gotta tell you kid, when we asked you about the body last time, you looked ready to murder whoever did it."

Danny hunched in on himself, blushing, with embarrassment of all things clear on his face. "I… forgot."

"You what?!"

The boy shrunk in even further, rubbing the back of his neck in what had to be a nervous gesture. "I forgot about the body."

The officer blinked at him, stunned. "You forgot that you died?"

"Not that I died! Just- just where we left the body."

The interrogator groaned, sinking his head into his hands. "Can you at least tell us who did it? Who was this 'we'?"

Danny smiled sheepishly, still rubbing the back of his neck. "Uh, it was an accident. And my friends and I, we just kind of, uh, panicked. So we buried the body and then just kind of forgot about it?"

"Well, we're gonna need official statements from you and your friends. And then we'll have to inform your parents."

"Wait, no, you can't! They're ghost hunters! Why do you think we decided not to tell anybody?!" Danny scrambled up, the panicked look back on his face.

"Look, it's just protocol, alright?" the officer attempted to soothe, but Danny just glared at him.

"Really, you have a protocol for 'a kid dies in an accident and comes back as a ghost'?"

"Kid, just calm down, okay? I promise you that it'll be fine, your parents clearly love you."

Danny huffed, but slumped back into his seat.

"Fine, so what now? Official statements from the three of us, and then? Gonna officially declare me dead? Send me off to the Ghost Zone? Set ghost hunters on me to make sure I don't turn malevolent?"

The officer glared at him, but Danny ignored him.

"Well, if Phantom hasn't kicked you out of the city then you're probably fine to stay." Danny snorted at this, but the officer didn't understand why.

"As you guessed, we don't have protocol for this. Most people outside Amity don't know ghosts exist. Hell, most people in Amity don't even know that they could pass for living as well as you apparently can." Danny muttered something under his breath, but the officer didn't catch what he said and chose to ignore it.

"So, we'll take your statements, and then we'll talk with your parents to figure out the rest."

And so Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley found themselves at the police station, where they managed to comfort a once-again panicking Daniel Fenton, before all three had their statements taken.

Danny rode in the back of the police car with the same officer that had interrogated him earlier that day, and a female officer he didn't recognize. He felt like he heading towards the gallows, ice-cold dread pooling inside him.

He also felt somewhat guilty that he hadn't told the officers the truth, and hoped that it wouldn't come back to bite him. But the truth was just so ridiculous, they probably wouldn't have believed him anyway. Better to play along, he thought. Not that that stopped him from feeling guilty.

Instead he tried to focus on calming himself down. He took a deep, if somewhat shaky, breath. Calm down Fenton, he bit at himself. You've faced off against ghosts like Pariah Dark, but you're scared of your own parents? They love you, they'll accept you, and it'll be fine. They don't even know you're Phantom! They have no reason to hate you!

All too soon, and simultaneously not soon enough, they reached FentonWorks. Danny followed the officers to the front door, still trying to cork up his overworked emotions. He's so occupied that he doesn't even listen to the conversation between the police and his parents, just trailed after them and slumped into a chair in the living room.

He heard the male officer clear his throat, and snapped back to attention, cringing slightly at the worried expressions on his parents' faces.

"So, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. As you know, we found the body of a dead teenager in the woods near Amity Park recently."

His mom frowned, glancing between the officer and Danny. "Yes. But how is this related to Danny?"

"Well, we successfully identified the body-" Oh no, nope, too brash. They needed to break this to his parents with more care- "and we've received statements confirming it," the man just kept talking, completely oblivious to Danny's panicking. "The body belongs to your son, Daniel Fenton."

Danny froze up, fingers digging into the armrests of the chair with almost enough strength to tear them, anxiously gazing at his parents. His mental cursing fell silent, dread washing away all his emotions until he just felt numb.

The expressions on his parents' faces hardened, and their hands shifted to reach towards the anti-ghost weapons they carried, and yep, this was going exactly as he feared. But he stayed still, frozen in place.

The moment was broken when his mother swung up an ecto-gun, however, which was knocked aside by the female officer, the shot just barely missing Danny. He panicked, went intangible on instinct, and fell through the chair and onto the floor behind it.

"A dirty ghost replaced our son! Some filthy piece of ectoplasm killed our Danny and replaced him!" his dad roared, and Danny remained crouched behind the chair. He could feel adrenaline bubbling up, his core releasing ghostly energy into his body, and he was struggling to stop himself from transforming.

"Please calm down! We assure you that no ghost killed your son-" "And how can you be so sure?! It's been pretending to be our son for lord know how long, how do you know it didn't lie about- about killing him?"

Danny forced himself to block out the shouting match, glancing around the chair and catching the eye of the male officer. The man turned slightly towards him, then jerked his head towards the front door almost imperceptibly. Danny frowned at him before understanding dawned on him, and he turned himself invisible but remained in place for another moment to confirm. The man nodded, and Danny took this as a dismissal. He hesitated for another moment before turning intangible as well and launching himself towards the nearest wall, phasing through it.

Once outside, he confirmed that no one could see him, and then retained visibility again, having dropped his intangibility the moment he was through the wall. He stopped for a moment to think, trying to figure out what to do next. He checked that he still had his phone on him (he did, thankfully), and shot a quick text to Sam and Tucker, asking if he can stay over at one of their houses.

He stuffed the phone back into his pocket before they answer, deciding to go on a patrol first, to blow of some steam. He reached out to his ghost core and let the cold power flood over him, transforming him into Danny Phantom.

Turning invisible once again, he launched himself into the air. He retained visibility again somewhere in the clouds, but can't bring himself to care.

Several hours later, while on patrol with Sam and Tucker, he received a text from Jazz. It simply read "mom and dad think that a ghost killed Danny and replaced him, wtf?" and Danny can't stop the snort that comes through. God, what a mess.

"Hey guys, I gotta go talk to Jazz. I'll meet you back at Tucker's place, okay?" Receiving two nods as answer, he quickly texted Jazz ("omw") and shot off towards FentonWorks.

He hovered outside her window and knocked, then entered as she nodded at him. He opened his mouth to explain himself, but Jazz was faster.

"So, what on Earth is this about?" she snapped at him, and he rubbed the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly.

"Well! When the accident happened and I became half-ghost, I may or may not have left behind my old, fully-human body. And since we were kind of, you know, panicking, we decided to bury it in the forest so no one would ever find out what happened."

Jazz stared at him, incredulous. Danny hunched up in response, blushing in embarrassment.

"Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were past lying to each other, Danny."

"We are! I just… I just kind of forgot?" he muttered, guilt lacing his voice.

"Oh my God, please tell me you're joking." Jazz stared him in the eye, then sighed. "Danny, how on Earth did you forgot about the fact that you buried your own corpse in the fucking woods."

"Look, the Accident was a really confusing time, and then I had to learn to control my ghost powers, and then ghosts started attacking and we just kind of forgot, okay? Now will you please help me explain this to mom and dad so they'll stop shooting at me?"

Jazz looked at him with an expression he couldn't read, but she put her hand on his shoulder and pulled him into a hug. "Of course, little brother. We'll figure this out, okay?"

Letting go again, she put her hands on her hips and put on a determined expression. "So, first things first. How much are you going to tell them?"

"Uh, everything, I guess. Well, except for the Phantom part, they don't need more encouragement to shoot at me."

"You're not going to tell them about Phantom? Are you sure?"

"Jazz..." He sighed. "If this goes well I'll tell them, okay?"

She nodded, before cutting back to the original subject. "Alright, so you're going to tell them that you got into an accident with the Portal, and that you instantly became a ghost, and that you freaked out and decided to bury your body and pretend nothing happened. Does that sound about right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. You think that that'll be enough?"

"Of course it will be enough. The only reason they freaked out is because they care about you. Do you have somewhere to stay for tonight?"

"Uh, yeah, Sam and I are sleeping over at Tucker's place."

"Good, good. Come by tomorrow after breakfast and we'll talk this through with mom and dad." Seeing his hesitation, she spoke again. "Danny, don't worry about it. Everything will be fine, I promise. Now go and get some sleep, because you need it."

He smiled at her and disappeared. She shook her head, a fond smile on her face.

The next day, not long after his family would normally have breakfast, Danny found himself hesitating in front of the door of the house. He took a deep, fortifying breath, and then walked in.

He could hear quiet chattering coming from the kitchen, and made his way over. He watched them for a moment from the doorway before his dad spotted him.

"Danny-boy!" he boomed, before remembering their last interaction, face souring instantly. His mother's face also fell, but Jazz smiled at him and grabbed their parents before they could pull out any of their weapons.

"What are you doing here, ghost?" his mother hissed. "Haven't you caused us enough pain yet?"

Danny winced, and Jazz glared at their mother before chastising her. "Mom! I asked Danny to come over, not that it should have been necessary since he lives here."

"Jazz, that's not your brother. That's some foul ghost playing a sick game of pretend."

"No, you listen to me! Danny has been a ghost for two years, but he never told you. And this is exactly why! He came over to tell you what happened, and you won't even let him!"

"Jazz, you knew? How- how long have you known?" Danny had never heard his dad so quiet, and he hated it. He hated everything about this entire conversation. He could barely stop himself from turning invisible.

"I've known for a while now, but he told me about a year ago. And yes, I know the entire story." She looked over at Danny, hoping that he would take over to tell his story. Seeing that Danny wasn't about to join the conversation, however, Jazz kept going. "Do you remember when he had an accident in the lab, in freshman year?"

His parents glanced at each other, and loosened up a little. "Was that it? Was it- was it one of our inventions that- that killed our son?"

Danny sighed, drawing the attention back to him. "Yeah. It was the Portal. I uh, I turned it on while I was inside." He shrugged at them, smiling sheepishly. "You put the on button on the inside, that's why it didn't work."

"Sufferin' spooks," Jack swore quietly, eyes locked on Danny.

"But if it was the Portal, then how did your," her breath caught for a second, "your body end up in the woods?"

"I panicked, okay? We didn't know what to do and we were all really freaked out so we decided to just bury my body in the woods and pretend it never happened."

"Oh sweetie," Maddie mumbled, standing up from her chair and walking over to Danny. She touched his face, gently, before pulling him against herself, hugging him. "Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry."

A second pair of arms wrapped around the two of them as his dad joined in. "Oh Danny-boy," he muttered, and Danny was shocked to see tears forming in his dad's eyes.

"It's- it's okay. You didn't mean it. I don't blame you for panicking."

Finally they pulled away again, and he saw his family all smiling at him, and he found that he couldn't keep the truth to himself any longer.

"Actually," he glanced over to see Jazz nodding her approval, and steeled his resolve. "Actually, there's something else that I need to tell you. Uh, promise you won't freak out?"

"Of course Danny-boy, you can tell us anything!"

He stepped away from them, closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply. Then he called on his ghostly core, and let its power wash over him.

"I'm, uh, I'm Danny Phantom too. This," he made some vague hand motions towards himself, "is what I actually look like as a ghost."

Suddenly he was drowning in warmth as his father hugged him again, ruffling a hand through his hair. "Look at my son the ghost hunter! I knew you would follow my footsteps!"

"Well, I still think that Phantom has done some… questionable things, but I'm guessing that you have an explanation for all of that?"

Seeing that Danny was getting overwhelmed, Jazz cut back in. "He does, trust me. He has told me everything."

His mom nodded, and then smiled at him. "Then I must say that I'm proud of my ghost-hunting son as well. My own little superhero, huh?"

She re-joined the hug as well, and Danny's dad grabbed Jazz and pulled her in as well. Danny melted away in the familial love, feeling far happier than he had in a long.

He was in such a state of bliss that his next words slipped out without intending it.

"Also I'm only half-ghost, I'm not actually fully dead."

"WHAT?!"