Thanks to Artgirl4, DPcrazy, Garnet Sky, Cartoon_crazy987, Thunderstorm101, inukagome15, Luiz4200, Oh My God They Killed Kenny and artyluvr for reviewing.

First of all, I'm not dead. There are a few reasons why I didn't update.

Number 1: I was lazy. I admit, I was feeling lazy. The fact that I suddenly found a whole bunch of interesting and some inspirational Harry Potter AU fanfics didn't help at all.

Number 2: My exams. It started on 21 October. The last day is 7 November. Yeah, I still have one week of exams left.

Number 3: I wasn't sure how to write this part convincingly. But a sudden spark of inspiration settled that problem. I made it extra long, hopefully.

Please enjoy.

Too many. Phantom may be strong, but he couldn't fight all of them at once.

Beside her, Danny had already grabbed a weapon and was shooting at the ghosts. He didn't seem particularly worried of hitting Phantom, and Phantom seemed to know where every shot was. Telepathy?

Anyway, Danny had the right idea. The day she let Danny, Fenton or Phantom, fight alone was the day she willingly wear those hideous floral frocks. Fenton helping Phantom doesn't count because they were technically the same person.

Sam started shooting. The others were shooting too, even Lancer. Together, they could even up the odds a little.

Bullet yelled something and the other ghosts turned their attention away from Phantom to the humans, them. Now Phantom wasn't in such a bad situation, but they were. They were outnumbered, not too much, but a ghost, having powers, had an advantage over humans, and they were in the ghosts' territory. This was bad, but they will survive somehow, whether by their own power or by luck. They've been in worse situations than this, but they were still in one piece. That had to count for something.

The ghosts closed in fast. One of Walker's goons fired at her from her blind spot. She barely dodged the cuffs that would trap her limbs to her side. She didn't want that. If she got caught, she would only be a liability.

Groans. Sam crouched as a shot flew above her, passing through the space where her chest had been few moments ago. A quick look showed that Star and Lancer were on the ground, glowing green cuffs around their wrists and ankles.

One by one, Team Phantom was immobilized. They were now horribly outnumbered. Even thought their weapons worked better on ghosts than a ghost attack on them, they were bound to the ground while the ghosts had more freedom.

Sam fired. She shouldn't think about that. They were already caught in the bad situation, they would just have to face it with whatever they had like all their other battles.

The goth dodged a cuff, only to jump right into another. Another cuff was aimed towards her ankles and she fell to the ground. Now, only the two Dannys and Mrs. Fenton were left. Few moments later, human Danny was captured and brought straight to Bullet.

"Human, cease fire." Bullet commanded. His fingers wrapped around Danny's neck as he held the blue-eyed teen in front of him like a shield.

Sam clenched her fists. No matter how powerful Danny was, she always worried for him during his ghost fights. That was why she never hesitated to help out. By helping out, she could make things easier for Danny, she could take comfort in the fact that she was doing something to help. And now, Bullet had taken Danny hostage, Danny was powerless, she couldn't do a single thing. If she could just free herself, she would give him hell.

"You ectoplasmic scum. Let go of my son." Mrs. Fenton yelled. Sam could see her fingers, twitching to pull the trigger. The only thing stopping her from blasting Bullet to kingdom come was Danny.

"I propose an exchange. Phantom is a danger to your city, agree? He is also a wanted criminal in the Ghost Zone. If I get him, you get your son." Bullet said.

Liar. Both of them were two halves of the same person. Walker wouldn't settle for one half.

"Phantom, don't. If you give yourself, he'll only come again to get Danny." Sam yelled when she saw that look on his face, the one he always wore before he did something heroically stupid.

"You have a better chance of fighting them than Danny. It will be harder for us to save you than for you to save Danny. You know it." Sam tried to get through to him. It was better in the long run for Danny Fenton to be the one taken.

"Listen to her." For once, Danny was supporting her. Why? She was supporting his decision to sacrifice himself. The irony.

"So, you will leave my son with that post human ectowaste." Mrs. Fenton stated.

"It's a little complicated…" Phantom started.

"You will sacrifice my son for your freedom. I should have expected that. You're a ghost. All ghosts are evil. All you care about is your survival. You're the same as the whole lot of them. You are not the hero of Amity Park. You are a hypocrite." Mrs. Fenton said. The venom in her words stunned all of them, Phantom most of all. Mrs. Fenton had no idea how much her words had affected him.

He didn't even react when Mrs. Fenton fired her weapon at him. The neon green eyes dulled as Phantom fell and hit the island with a soft thud. Mrs. Fenton took out a coil of glowing rope and tied Phantom's wrists together.

"An exchange." Mrs. Fenton said.

"Mrs. Fenton, no!" Sam cried out. "Don't do it."

"Glad we came to an agreement." Bullet said and came closer, until his ghostly tail almost touched the ground.

"Mom, don't. You can come and save me later." Danny tried to convince her.

"I'm your mom, you are my son. I am supposed to protect you." Mrs. Fenton's gaze softened for a moment.

"But mom." Danny paused, his blue eyes unfocused slightly for a few moments as he thought of something. Sam could almost sense his thoughts, what he was going to do. After a few seconds, he came to a decision.

"Mom, there's something we've been keeping from you. You remember that ghost portal incident?" Danny said.

"Yes, sweetie."

"Danny Phantom appeared after that accident."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Mom, I'm Danny Phantom. See, Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom. Heck, switch the hair and eye colour and we look exactly like each other. I'm a halfa, half-a-human, half-a-ghost. I know this doesn't sound very convincing right now. We got separated after we came here. I'm the human half, he's the ghost half. You can't exchange Phantom for me. We're both…"

"What have you done to my Danny?" Mrs. Fenton demanded. "Answer me, Phantom."

"Nothing. He's telling the truth." A small sparkle of hope sparked in his dull eyes.

"It is scientifically impossible to be dead and alive at the same time. I am a scientist before I am a ghost hunter. I should know. Stop lying. Stop pretending to be a hero. You are not one." Mrs. Fenton looked towards Bullet, who had a smug smile on his face. "Let my Danny go."

"The ghost kid first." Bullet said.

"Same time." Mrs. Fenton narrowed her eyes.

"Agreed."

Both of them held on to both halves of Danny. Then, at the same time, they let go of one hand.

"Release them and return." Bullet called out.

Sam felt the cuffs disappear. Soon, there was no ghost in sight. Not one.

Not even half.

"Danny! Sam!" Tucker quickly opened the door to let the humans into the Specter Speeder. The sooner they got out of here the better. Wait… why was the atmosphere so gloomy? Why was Mrs. Fenton holding on to Danny like he almost died?

"What happened?" The techno geek asked.

Valerie couldn't believe it. If she had not heard about what happened from Sam but from Star and the others, she most probably wouldn't have believed. How could Mrs. Fenton, how could anyone say such hurtful things?

She stopped herself. After how she had treated Phantom, she had no right to judge Mrs. Fenton. She blindly hated Phantom and hunted him down because she wanted to blame what had happened to her on someone. But Danny stayed with her, became her friend, even though he knew she was the one behind the mask of the ghost hunter that made his afterlife horrible.

Mrs. Fenton made the same mistake as her. There must have been a reason for it, no matter how unreasonable it seemed. She couldn't judge her. Danny didn't judge her. He just accepted everything she dumped on him.

Valerie saddened. Danny deserved better.

He should never have made them forget. Sure there would have been awkward questions, but his parents had already accepted him being Danny Phantom. If he did not make mom forget that he was a halfa, this would not have happened. She wouldn't be holding him desperately as if she had almost lost him when she had just given away half of him to Walker. Mom would be planning on how to get him out of Walker's Prison with his other half.

Danny buried his head in his arms.

What was he thinking when he changed reality?

In the end, Mrs. Fenton's opinion of Mr. Phantom did not change. He saw the look in his charge's eyes, how affected both of them were by their mother's words. Mr. Lancer had seen how Mr. Fenton endured since the beginning, even though he had not known of Mr. Fenton's extra activities then. The young teen had so much determination, always ready to face whatever life threw at him. It took a lot to break young Fenton.

He could only hope for Danny to pull himself together, both halves.

A small bug detached itself from the woman's neck. Unnoticed, it turned itself intangible and slipped out of the vehicle. Once out of sight, the ghost bug turned into a serpent, its true form.

It was a manipulator, manipulator of shapes, manipulator of thoughts. It was easy for it to manipulate that woman's emotion without her notice. Amplify some emotions, dampen a few, as long as her words crushed the ghost kid. Such an easy job with so much payment. It hoped to work with the other halfa again.

Phantom allowed them to lead him. He couldn't focus on anything. His mom's words were still echoing in his head. It was so overwhelming, a lot more than what he had expected when he thought of revealing his secret to his parents. The words just kept replaying themselves, not even in order sometimes. His brain couldn't even begin to actually absorb what the words meant. All he knew was that the words hurt.

A lot.

"We meet again."

Dull green eyes lifted slightly. The jail door closed behind him.

"Walker allowed me thirty minutes with you." Spectra said. Behind her, Bertrand wringed his hands in anticipation. She shivered.

"Your misery."

She held his chin and lifted it so that his eyes met hers. Her lips curved in a smile.

"It's delicious."

The sequel for Defending their Hero will be Finding their Danny. Unfortunately, I probably won't be updating much in November. I'm going for the NaNoWriMo. And I'm hoping to finish up my own original story to publish it as soon as possible. I hope that all of you can be patient with me.

And.

Thanks to all of you who have supported me all this time, in all your different ways.

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Thank you.

Enray.