Prompt by kinglazrus aka unluckyalias. Phic Phight!

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Danny knew he was chained to a wall as soon as he started to move. This was, sadly, typical. He swallowed hard before opening his eyes, trying to judge how long he had been asleep and whether or not he had been drugged.

The answers he came up with were 'no idea' and 'probably.'

Right. That was just about everything he could find out with his eyes closed, unless someone showed up and started monologuing to his apparently unconscious body. Although that had happened a few times.

All that Danny could hear at the moment, however, was his own breathing, echoing slightly in whatever dungeon he was trapped in. So, he'd have to open his eyes.

He did so slowly, blinking away the blurriness. The first thing that came into view were his own legs, still in their pajamas, and a completely smooth gray floor. Interesting choice for a dungeon, but there was no way to escape down there. He lifted his head, something white caught his eye-

-and he immediately jerked back, pressing himself against the wall.

The white-suited GIW agent chained to the wall across from him mirrored his actions almost exactly.

Danny's brain caught up to his observations. The agent chained to the wall. Danny wasn't a prisoner of the GIW. Thank the ancients?

"Who the hell are you?" demanded the agent in a voice that felt almost too familiar.

"I'm-" Danny's mouth stopped working as he finally looked the agent in the face. "Who am I? Who are you?"

The agent was wearing his face.

"You're a ghost, aren't you?" demanded the 'agent,' which was a really weird thing for someone who had to be a ghost to say.

Except... Danny's ghost sense hadn't gone off.

Danny looked around the room. Who was this guy trying to convince?

The rest of the room was the same smooth grey, except where the chains were attached. There were no doors or windows, and the light seemed to come from everywhere.

So. A weird ghost room. Probably.

"Why do you have my face?" demanded the... person on the other side of the room, straining forward. "Why did you bring me here?"

"I didn't bring you anywhere," said Danny. He shook his head and rubbed his face on his shoulder. It felt like it was still his normal face.

"What are you doing?" asked the other person.

"Checking that I'm not wearing your face. I'm not clipping through my arm or anything from your perspective?"

It was weird to see his own features twisted into such incredulity.

Well, Danny hadn't really expected to be stuck with some stranger's face. He was still in his own pajamas, and if the people who kidnapped him wanted to do the whole body swap thing, they could very well have swapped their whole bodies, rather than just their faces. Same with illusions.

He frowned at the person in front of him who was returning an equally intense glare. Something green flickered in the other teen's eyes.

"Hah!" said Danny. "I just saw your eyes glow. You are a ghost! That disguise is pretty-" disturbing "-good, but not good enough." Unless this guy was a clone, in which case it wasn't really a disguise. They didn't feel like a clone, though, and Danny doubted one would be able to get past the GIW background checks.

The person blanched. "I- I'm not a ghost! You are! Stop playing this game! What are you even getting out of it?"

Danny tilted his head. That reaction was way too similar to what Danny would react like if someone random found out he was a half-ghost.

What exactly was going on here?

Danny reached out to the 'agent' with his ghost sense, searching. Normally, he couldn't feel Vlad or Dani, but when he was looking...

"I don't tell people this usually," said Danny, "but I have two middle names."

"How the hell do you know that?" demanded the person who Danny was rapidly becoming convinced was an alternate universe version of himself.

"Uh, because they're mine? Mom and Dad did tell me my name, you know. That's what people do. Now, the second one is pretty pedestrian, it's James, but the first..." he trailed off. "You want to finish that? Because I want some confirmation here, too, you know. It was because of the portal," he prompted when the other didn't say anything.

"Janus," said the other teen. He looked scared. "How do you know this?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure, but we might be each other. Maybe. I still don't trust you."

"The feeling's mutual," said the other. "So, what's going on, exactly?" The words dripped with suspicion.

"No idea. I've never been somewhere like this. Since when were you a GIW agent? How can you stand working for them when you're," he made a flicking gesture, "you know."

"Well, I wasn't when I started two months ago!" there was a slightly hysterical tone to the young man's voice. "Dad thought I should intern."

"You weren't what?" asked Danny.

"Like this! With the-" He stopped. "Oh, god, this is a trick, isn't it? To get me to admit it?"

"Not sure why ghosts would want you to admit it," said Danny. "Almost all of them seemed to know already, when I started. But, your, you know, the portal accident. When did it happen?"

"When did it happen to you?" shot back the other Danny.

"Four years ago," said Danny. "I was fourteen. It was the one in the basement. Mom and Dad were trying to make one."

The other Danny swore and started muttering under his breath.

"I'm guessing it went differently for you? GIW portal?"

Cautiously, the other boy nodded.

"A month ago?"

Another nod. Danny caught the edges of his body flicker.

Danny frowned. If this were a trap, it was an awfully weird one. He licked his lips and phased out of his cuffs. The other Danny yelped.

Danny raised his hands in a gesture of piece. "Look," he said, "I'm not going to pretend to understand what's going on here, but truce? At least until we get out? And maybe I can teach you a few things."

Danny's counterpart gave a slow nod. His phasing wasn't as smooth as Danny's, but it did the trick of getting him out of the chains. They both stood and walked towards each other.

"Deal," he said.

They shook on it.