A/N: Happy DP Angst Day, guys!

The word survivor suggests someone who has emerged alive from a plane crash or a natural disaster. But the word can also refer to the loved ones of murder victims.

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

Just a little something to calm you down.

The words echoed through his mind as he slept fitfully, trying to wake himself up but failing.

You've got a meeting with Zeus.

Fight, move, run, do SOMETHING!

His legs and arms twitched, attempting to follow the commands, yet he couldn't seem to move.

You're going to die today for your beliefs. The world doesn't need people like them sullying it. At least I don't believe in superstitious nonsense.

The voice wouldn't stop, the echoes kept pounding into his head, over and over and over again. He just wanted it to go away, to shut up….

You'll be able to move soon. After all, it's not very fun if you can't even try to fight back.

GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT

I'm just doing my civic duty—

HEHURTMOM HEHURTDAD HEHURTJAZZ HEHURTTUCKER HE HURT SAM

—keep the world populated by the sane.

makeHIMhurt

Don't worry, kiddo—

Danny shot upright in bed, gasping harshly. For a single moment, he didn't recognize where he was and he was panicking and he couldn't see out his right eye and ohgodohgodZeuswascomingforhim—

But then the door swung open, and an equally panicked woman came in, hushing him and gathering him into a hug. "It's okay," she murmured to him, a slight accent coloring the words, "it's okay, Danny, he's gone. He can't hurt you any more."

Finally Danny could breathe again. It all came back. He didn't recognize the room because it was his social worker's house and this was his first night there after the hospital and police released him that morning. Well, the previous morning, seeing as the clock on the wall now read 12:58 am. It was Halloween. It was his birthday.

His first birthday without his family.

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

The social worker prattled on as they drove out to the funeral home. Since Seth Krios was found dead that morning with all sorts of evidence that he was actually the serial murderer Zeus, the bodies of his victims had finally been released and could be buried. Due to the overwhelming amount of both victims and mourners, it had been decided that there would be a mass funeral for the students and faculty of the school and a smaller funeral later on for the Fenton family. Danny would be just one of the many who would attend both, as a large portion of the town was still sympathetic to his loss.

When they arrived, Danny barely waited for the car to stop before he escaped the small confines. Though, upon exiting, he realized that he couldn't seem to force his legs to move. He stood, staring up at the building, knowing that, even among the hordes of people attending, he would be alone. His parents were gone, his sister was gone, and his friends were gone. He had no one, other than the social worker who had come up behind him and softly laid a hand on his shoulder.

He didn't hate her, not really. He knew she was trying her best to keep herself together, too. She had lost friends in the attack on Casper High, but she still had coworkers to fall back on, and family, even if they were an ocean away.

"Let's go in," she murmured.

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

Amika Ouwa had been assigned Danny Fenton's case as soon as the first bodies were found. Originally, she was just supposed to offer counseling services to him and ensure that he wished to stay with his sister voluntarily and that all the proper paperwork went through. She had decided on her own to give the siblings a couple days to mourn before invading them and had simply called Jazz to explain the situation and the paperwork she would need.

Then Casper High was attacked. Suddenly, Amika was the one mourning as she heard of friends and old teachers that had also been killed. Her plans for helping the Fenton children were put on hold for a full day as she made calls to see who, if anyone, had made it. All she'd discovered was that anyone in attendance that day had been at the assembly. The few who'd called out sick or ditched class were the only ones that survived.

She was finally getting back around to the Fenton case when the next disaster hit. Her charge, once thought to be in the capable hands of his valedictorian older sister, was now all alone in the world and on 24-7 watch by the police in the hospital while the murderer was still loose. Even with all her credentials and paperwork, it still took her a full day to be able to see him.

Something changed during that time, she could tell. She had seen the pictures from the news and the police reports. Even after his parents' deaths, he still was clinging to his friends and sister. He still had some spark in his eyes.

When she walked into the hospital room, it was gone. The teen she saw then was lost, drifting, had nothing to hold onto anymore. He needed someone, anyone to care about him.

So she did. He was still standoffish, avoiding her, trying to push her away, but she continued to care. That's why she stayed with him through the funeral, through both funerals, even when he stood over the tombstones for hours after the service had finished.

It was well past nightfall when she finally moved closer to him, laying a hand on his shoulder.

He flinched away.

Her hand hovered an inch or two over where it had been before she pulled it back. "…Danny, we should head hom—back now," she murmured, changing the word midway, knowing Danny refused to call anything but Fentonworks home, even though it was gone.

The teen didn't answer.

Amika's brow furrowed, eyebrows peaking. "Danny, we should go. It's late, and you need some rest. You haven't slept well since—"

"Since what?" he snarled, still refusing to look away from his parents' and sister's headstones. "Since they died? Since that jackass killed them?! What the hell do you know?!"

"…I know about the nightmares."

Danny flinched back again, eyes not moving, head not turning.

"I lost people, too, Danny. Not nearly as many as you," she admitted, watching him closely for any signs that she was pushing too far, "but I still can understand a portion of your pain. I have nightmares, and I wasn't remotely as involved. I can only imagine how bad yours must be." She moved over towards him, crouching beside him to force him to look at her rather than the graves. "But I want to know, Danny. I want you to tell me, when you're ready to."

For a long moment, both were silent. Danny's eyes were glossy, he was resolutely refusing to let the tears fall, but his whole body shook from the repressed urge. Finally, a small sob broke through, and Amika reached out, arms encircling him as his knees gave out under him.

"..It was my birthday…."

"I know," she whispered back, rubbing his back as he cried for what must have been the first time since he and his sister found their parents' bodies. "I know, Danny, I know."

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

Once more, Zeus' voice echoed around him as he slept fitfully. This time, the words weren't quite coming through, just the noise. Instead, all he could hear was his own voice, his thoughts as the obsession change went through.

He won't hurt anyone again.

No one else will suffer.

I'll avenge them.

Danny twisted, sheets tangling around his limbs as he tossed and turned.

No one will hurt them.

He won't hurt them.

I won't let him.

He tried to bury his head in his pillow, tried to wake himself up, tried anything to stop what he knew was coming.

I can stop him.

I HAVE to stop him.

I'LL KILL HIM

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

He'd snuck out. It was the stupidest idea he could've ever had, but he did it. He even grudgingly used his ghost powers to avoid making any noise that might've woken Amika.

Within ten minutes, he was back in the basement lab of Fentonworks. His ghost half ached for the Ghost Zone, to talk to someone who had a better idea what he was going through, but a mere glance reminded him that the one way he had of getting there was gone now. The Portal sat in disrepair, the two attacks on the house having left it smashed and burnt, the computer to the side that helped stabilize where it opened in the Ghost Zone utterly destroyed. Even if he knew how to fix it, it would take far more time than he could imagine. Building a new Portal would be quicker.

But he needed to get in there now.

And of course that was when his ghost sense went off. Danny flinched, not wanting to change fully into his ghost half, but the instinctual reaction had already happened. A flash of light left him glowing faintly, finally able to see (vaguely) out of his right eye. Of course, he really just saw shapes and colors and, oddly enough, auras, but still.

Then the air in front of him split open as a claw ripped through.

A slight grin came to Danny's face, barely a twitch before the muscles seemed to give up on the task. "Hi, Wulf."

"Saluton, amiko," the large wolf-man growled back, a facsimile of a smile spreading across his muzzle before he tugged Danny into a hug, rattling off a rant in Esperanto.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down!" Danny implored, pulling free from the ghost. "I may've picked up more Esperanto, but I'm not quite fluent yet!"

"Bedaŭras. Mi estis ekscitita," Wulf mumbled back.

Excited. Of course he was. Wulf was essentially a giant puppy, and he treated Danny like his best friend. It only made sense that seeing him again would cause Wulf to be overly happy.

But Danny could use this, could use Wulf. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Sendube," Wulf agreed.

"I need to see Frostbite."

It only took a few seconds for the air to be rent once more.

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

He wasn't shivering this time. While a part of him knew that was a good thing, he also worried that that meant he may be stuck with this new obsession and new ghost form.

And he really, really didn't want that.

"Ah, Great One!" Frostbite greeted happily. "What brings you here so soon?" Then, he seemed to take a closer look at the boy. His face fell, his tone turning somber. "What has happened? How have you already completed the change?"

"It's a long story," Danny admitted, "but I need it to change again."

Frostbite blinked. Stared at him. His mouth gaped open as if to speak, but then snapped shut again. Finally, he stammered, "You—You must be joking, Great One. You cannot possibly wish to go through that again?"

"I have to," Danny moaned. "I made a mistake, it's—it's not what I was focusing on, and I—I…. I did something bad."

The yeti's brow furrowed. "I'm sure you're exaggerating, Great One. You'd never do something—"

"Frostbite, I. killed. him," Danny spat, enunciating each word as he bit them out, obviously regretting even bringing it up. But he had, and now he was sinking again, and all he could see was the blade and the blood and he felt nothing, nothing at all, just that immense relief that it was gone, it was over, he couldn't hurt them anymore—

"Great One! PHANTOM!"

Danny gasped, tugged back out of the memory by Frostbite's voice, only just realizing the ghost's proximity and hands on his shoulders. "Wh—What?" he rasped.

Frostbite slowly released him, gently pulling his hands away before he tried to talk once more. "…Please explain."

And it all just spilled out. The stabbings, which Frostbite already knew about, the poisoning of the school, which Frostbite already knew about, the fire, which Frostbite didn't know about, and the kidnapping and subsequent killing, which Frostbite sure as hell never expected from the Great One, the One who Defeated the Ghost King. But Danny didn't stop there. He explained, in detail, how he felt, how his ghost half just snarled to life when he realized this psycho wasn't going to stop, that he was the only one who could stop him, that he could make sure he never hurt anyone else ever again….

He told him about the social worker, about the nightmares, about the funerals. He told him how desperate he was to change the new obsession that had taken root in that one horrible, terrible moment when he got the knife in his hands and reached out and stabbed—

"Phantom, PHANTOM, GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!"

Danny blinked up at Frostbite, noticing as he did that his hands were glowing and there was a sick grin, a twisted grin on his face, reflected in the ice of Frostbite's arm. He grimaced, pulling away once more, the green and purple ecto-fire flickering around his hands before going out. "I—I can't let that happen again, Frostbite, I—I can't."

"I know, Great One," Frostbite murmured, "but an obsession change… it's hard enough to survive one, but two?" He sighed, shaking his head. "That is suicide."

"I don't care."

Now both Frostbite and Wulf were staring at him, eyes wide and jaws dropping. "Bonvolu, amiko, vi nepre ne signifitiu!" the latter urged, a dog-like whimper rumbling in his chest.

"I sure as hell mean it!" Danny snarled back. "There's not much point in me protecting the innocent if I become the same kind of monster I'm fighting!"

"You don't have to be that monster," Frostbite tried. "Just because that clause is there doesn't mean—"

"Were you even listening?!" Danny burst. "I won't just stop if someone's hurting an innocent! It's right there in my new obsession," he sneered. "Protect the innocent, at any cost, even if it means killing. And I've already proved that I will go that far."

"I'm sorry, Danny," Frostbite breathed, "but even if you try to change your obsession again, there's no guarantee you can fully remove that clause. It's there for good, you just have to learn to master it."

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

After that less-than-successful trip, Danny ordered Wulf to take him back home. Once there, without even looking at his friend, he told him to get Technus to destroy the Portal and fled back to Amika's.

The social worker hadn't even woken up, never realized he had gone. Good. Less she knew, the better.

He slipped back to his room, crawled under the sheets, and lay there, unsleeping, unblinking, until Amika came in to "wake" him in the morning. When asked about the bags under his eyes, he shrugged and murmured something about nightmares.

She didn't need to know.

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

It took only three more hours before Vlad stuck his slimy nose into things. Danny should've known better, really should've expected this, but he'd had so much else on his mind that the froot loop had just… fallen between the cracks.

But now, here he was, standing on the doorstep, smiling that I-have-you-now smirk that everyone else seemed to think was charming. Danny didn't buy it for a minute.

Amika did. She opened the door, invited him in, and offered him a drink.

For the second time in the last twenty-four hours, Danny fled back to his room.

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

"Danny," Amika called, softly rapping on the door, "let me in, please?"

"No," he huffed back.

Amika sighed. "What's going on, Danny? Do you not like Mr. Masters? I thought he said he was a friend of your parents?"

"He's a sleazeball and only liked my mom. And that was 'cause he wanted to sleep with her."

The Japanese immigrant flinched at that. That definitely explained his reaction, but…. "Danny," she murmured, "I can't just turn him away—"

"The hell you can't!"

"—without a reason," she finished.

There was a long pause, then Danny peeked out at her. "What kinda reason?"

"You'll need to deal with him for a little while, at least. And without me around."

His expression hardened, eyes turning steely. "No."

"I need to see what kind of effect there is," she pushed on, "then I can make a suggestion to CPS that Vlad is unfit to foster you. Otherwise, his adoption forms will go through without a hitch."

"…But I hate him!" Danny whined.

"One hour, Danny, that's all I'm asking." She gently laid a hand on his shoulder, locking their eyes. "Just one hour."

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

It was the hour from hell. They sat there in silence for the first ten minutes, Danny fidgety and glaring, Vlad just smirking like the smarmy jackass he was.

Then, the talking.

"Quite the eventful week, wasn't it, Little Badger?"

Okay, forget the hour.

"Screw it, I'm out," Danny grumbled, pushing himself up from the chair and stomping towards the door.

"Oh, am I truly that bad, Daniel?" Vlad called, that stupid smug grin still in place.

"Yes," Danny hissed back, but he found himself stopping in his tracks, a mere five feet from his exit.

"Really? Can't think of anyone worse than me, hm? Even after some local thug murdered your family?"

Danny couldn't stop the flinch that followed the question. His hands, balled into fists, shook at his sides, shoulders tensed, chin dropped down and head ducked.

"Ah, not so bad now, am I? I'm sure you've turned the whole situation over in your mind a dozen times by now. Even if you're barely passing your classes, I'm sure you must still be able to connect the dots. Surely between your own… losses this past week and your ghost abilities, you would be able to figure out who was behind this whole mess." Vlad smirked once more, sipping at his tea and just grinning over the cup. "It's only too bad someone else got to him before you could. I'm sure Danny Phantom could've turned the fool around."

Once more, Danny grimaced. His whole body twitched, mind dropping him back into the memory of that night, of the attack, the knife, the blood, oh, god, the blood….

The smirk fell from Vlad's face for a mere microsecond. Then, it came back, full force, stretching even further into a Cheshire grin. "You did it," he breathed in realization. A chuckle followed the statement. "You actually did it! Danny Phantom killed a man!"

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

When the hour was up, Vlad left, as agreed. Amika saw him out, then moved back to the living room, glancing over at Danny.

The teen hadn't moved a millimeter since she announced the end of their chat. She thought it safe to assume that he'd been there for most of the hour. His eyes were blank, face expressionless, arms limp by his sides.

"Danny?" she murmured, trying to move slowly so she didn't startle him. She knelt beside him, reaching out to lift his chin.

He started violently, body spasming backwards a step before spinning to face away from her.

Her eyebrows peaked, dark eyes watering as she realized an hour had been far too long. "Oh, Danny…" she whispered, "I'm so sorry…."

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

The next day, Amika filed a report with CPS. It was brief, concise. In light of recent events and after permitting the candidate to speak with the child alone for an hour, I would recommend that Vlad Masters not be allowed to adopt Daniel Fenton, due to trauma suffered on the child's part and exacerbated by the candidate during their private discussion.

Vlad's adoption form was thrown out within an hour.

And now Amika had dropped the next bomb on him.

"WHAT?!"

"I'm sorry, Danny," she replied, not the least bit surprised that the teen was less than enthusiastic, "but you can't just stay with me. Unfortunately, I have other children I need to help find homes for."

"So you're sending me away!?" He was glaring, eyes narrowed and fists clenched.

"You're going to be fostered by a family in the next town over," Amika explained, brushing over his comment as there was no good response. "They want to help you out since they heard about—about what happened."

"Oh, the poor bleeding hearts," he drawled. "So concerned they couldn't bother to help until after the fact."

Amika couldn't seem to refrain from wincing. "Unfortunately, yes. The Marvins are a middle-aged couple who lost their own son about five years ago. They're very involved with charity work in their own town and were away last week. When they got back and heard about your… situation, they asked if they could foster you, at least for a while, until you are adopted, hopefully."

Danny was set to yell back some retort, but hearing that word, adopted, seemed to take all the fight out of him. His arms went limp, his mouth gaped just slightly open as he blinked at her. "A—Adopted?" he whispered. He wrapped his arms around himself, small shivers rolling down his spine. "I—I don't want a new family. …I want my family back…."

Amika dropped down beside him. "Oh, Danny, they're not trying to take your family's place. They just want to help you, if they can."

He shook his head, arms pulling tighter, eyes squeezing shut. "I don't need their help! I don't need anyone's help!" Amika's arms joined his, wrapping him up in a true hug as the first sob wracked his body. "I need them back!"

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

Two hours later, Danny had been wrapped in a soft blanket, handed a mug of hot chocolate, and bade good night. Amika had gone to bed, and the teen stared moodily into his half-empty mug.

A cool whisp of breath escaped his mouth, and a moment later, the chair beside him was filled.

"What do you want?" he muttered, not even able to muster up a proper emotion other than tiredness.

"I want to make you a deal."

Now confusion joined tiredness. A brow jumped up. "That's not your M.O."

"It is today."

Danny turned fully towards the ghost. "…What's going on here, Technus?"

"It's simple," the technology-obsessed ghost replied. "We've heard about… everything from Frostbite. We know you may not be here much longer. And we want to help you."

"That sounds oddly altruistic for a bunch of power-motivated ghosts."

Technus sighed. "We will protect Amity Park for you," he offered. "In return, we would like to use your parents' Portal."

"No."

The ghost seemed to expect that answer. He decided to go for broke. "You'll be leaving soon. The Portal is barely functional but will still require maintenance in order to avoid imploding or other dangers that could cause even more problems for the people here. The Guys in White won't leave the town alone for long, especially once they realize you're gone and they could get anything that's left in Fentonworks. We would fix the Portal, rig it so only those you permit can use it, and clear out any weapons or blueprints or other inventions that should not get into the GIW's hands. This would allow us to pass back and forth as we wish, and we would use that ability to defend the town from any other attack that may come." He leaned in towards the teen, meeting his eyes while reaching out a hand but staying just a hair away from touching the halfa. "We want to help you, and we know you'll want the town protected while you're gone. We can protect it for you."

The teen's eyes dropped down to stare at his hands, at the ghost's hand that hovered just above his. "…You'll protect them?" he murmured.

"Yes."

"…And you just want to use the Portal and defend the—their inventions?"

"Yes."

There was another long moment of silence. Then Danny's eyes slowly lifted again to meet Technus'.

"Do it."

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

When Amika woke the next morning, it was to a silent house. Danny was still in his room, yet a peek in told her that he wasn't asleep. "Hey," she called softly to him.

He glanced up at her. "Yeah?"

She sighed in relief, glad to see he had calmed down from the night before. "We need to discuss your foster options," she said gently, knowing the topic may upset him but also opening it some to show he'd have a choice still.

The teen stood, walking towards her. He stopped two feet away. "…The Marvins sounded okay," he mumbled, shrugging and looking anywhere but at Amika.

A grin spread over Amika's face. "Alright, I'll call them up."

|_057 0|35355!0|\|

A/N: Okay. So, some of you may recognize Amika from Zeus' Dice. That would be because this is actually the prequel to that story. Yup, this was planned since I started Zeus' Dice, and I'd wanted to actually post this and chapter five of Zeus' Dice last year for Angst Day 2013, but life got in the way and everything got pushed back a year. So, you get it now. Yay! Anyway, read and review, please!