Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

The four girls emerged from the portal into Herald's realm, a blank, white, totally empty space that reminded Jazz of a well-known sci-fi movie she had seen. All of a sudden, a shuddering sensation overcame the four girls. They dropped to the floor, gasping for breath, before they all fainted. Clockwork turned to Herald, who looked as if he had been expecting this. Without saying anything, Herald raised his trumpet. It morphed into a staff similar to the one Clockwork had, only instead of a small clock in the middle of the two prongs there was a spinning globe of gold. He waved it over the four girls, and the golden sphere started glowing softly. Herald snapped his fingers, and a bed appeared from under each of the four girls. Another bed appeared under Danny. He nodded and turned to Clockwork.

"Mm-hmm. That older, evil incarnation of your young charge gained more power than we thought. Although using the Soul Shredder to defeat Dark Dan was a creative solution, not even you could have foreseen what he could do."

"You know that my prescience can not peer into other realms where there is no time," Clockwork retorted. "What did he do?"

"The Nightmare Realm is a unique sort of dimension that exists within the Soul Shredder. It serves as a sort of nexus to the other dimensions; a crossroads or junction, if you will. Any being sent to the Nightmare Realm is probed about his deepest fears, and then sent to a dimension that contains only that. Dark Dan's power and status as a being existing outside time allowed him to momentarily resist being pulled into the dimension of his worst fear. He used the Nightmare Realm's feature as a dimensional crossroads to try and anchor himself to the other Dannys existing in the other dimensions."

"You said he managed to resist it only momentarily. Does that mean he is finally trapped in a realm of his worst fears?"

"For now, yes. The pull of the Soul Shredder is too strong; it would take a being with almost god-like powers to successfully fend it off. He could not resist it for long. The problem arises in the fact that the psyches of the other Dannys he used as temporary anchors were yanked along with him. As an automatic reaction, those psyches latched on to their respective dimensional anchors to avoid being pulled; their soul-mate, if you will, but they were pulled along too. When Dark Dan finally succumbed to the Soul Shredder's reach, these psyches were left in the crossroads and were drawn towards the nearest body that they recognized. These four girls are lucky. They managed to draw in a single psyche each. Danny took in four. Your young charge is currently struggling for control of his body, as each of the psyches try to assert themselves by bombarding them with memories of their respective lives. If he fails, he will lose all his memories of his life here, and retain those of the psyche he absorbed. Interestingly enough, the four psyches he absorbed have their respective anchors within each of the girls."

Suddenly, two of the people on the beds moved, stopping Herald's speech and drawing his and Clockwork's attention. Ember cried out Danny's name at the same time Danny said the name "Amber…" Herald smiled ominously.

"And so it begins."

Twenty-year-old Amber DeLaine made a small grunt of irritation as she tried to tune her guitar. Slowly, she turned the knob on the guitar to pull the string tighter. Without warning, the string suddenly snapped and flicked back, whipping her on the cheek. She jerked back in surprise and pain, nearly dropping the guitar. She stared at the broken string for a few moments before letting out a scream of frustration. Setting the guitar aside, she lay back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. When she had made the decision to move away from her parents and into the city, she had been supremely confident that her musical abilities would enable her to get a record deal quickly. Now, nearly three month after her arrival, she was beginning to lose hope. She had barely managed to find a job playing small-time gigs in bars and clubs, which earned her just enough cash to pay for food and rent.

She glanced at the broken guitar forlornly. With the string having snapped in half, she needed to go and buy a new one. Calculating the costs in her head, she sighed. She was going on a diet again tonight. Letting out another sigh, she got up. Stuffing her wallet and keys inside her purse and slinging her guitar over her shoulder, she went out of her apartment and nearly collided with her across-the-hall neighbor, Katherine "Kitty" Lyell, who was carrying a rather large box. Like Amber, Kitty had moved into the city with dreams of being a model, and the two had struck up a quaint friendship.

"Cleaning?" Amber inquired. Kitty shook her head.

"Nope, leaving. I'm moving in with my boyfriend. Didn't I tell you it was today?" Kitty's boyfriend Jonathan Trecé, a professional racer, lived in a rather large apartment downtown. He and Kitty had been going steady for the past month, and apparently he had finally asked her to come live with him. Amber shook her head.

"Uh, no. So you're leaving me all alone here?" Amber pouted. She and Kitty were the only residents on the third floor. Kitty shook her head and laughed slightly.

"No, no. Remember I told you I wasn't moving out until somebody else was moving in? Well, somebody is. Some guy contacted me a week ago and finalized the deal last night. He's coming over this afternoon, around five or so."

"He?"

"Yes, he. It's a guy, his name's Daniel Fontaine. I don't know what he does, but I think he's an artist of some sort."

"I see. Well, as long as he isn't some sort of creepy perv…"

"I don't think so. He sounded real nice on the phone. Who knows, he might be cute…"

Amber rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm going out. My guitar string snapped and I'm gonna have to get a new one before my gig tomorrow night. Are you still gonna be around when I get back?"

Kitty frowned. "Probably not. Johnny's picking me up after lunch."

"Darn… Well… See ya around then." She gave Kitty a hug. "Don't be a stranger, ok?"

"I won't. You have my number, right? I'll drop by every now and then. Who knows? Maybe you and Mr. Fontaine will hit it off and the next time I come around, only one of these apartments will be occupied." Kitty said with a wink.

Rolling her eyes again, Amber laughed and went down the stairs. Hailing a cab outside the apartment building, she got in and told the driver to take her to the music store. During the ride, her thoughts drifted towards her soon-to-be new across-the-hall neighbor, Mr. Fontaine. Briefly she wondered what he looked like. Kitty said he was an artist… The painting kind or the writing kind?, she wondered. The word artist formed in her mind the image of some guy in a smock and beret, feverishly attacking a canvas with a paintbrush. She giggled.

An "Excuse me, miss?" from the driver interrupted Amber from her reverie. Looking around, she saw that the cab had stopped in front of the music store. Upon paying the driver, she had just gotten out of the cab when she was almost sent flying to the side as another guy, apparently in a rush to get inside the cab, suddenly shouldered her aside and jumped in the cab.

"HEY! What's the big idea?!" She yelled. Unbothered, the guy closed the cab door with a slam. Amber barely managed to see him whisper something to the driver before the cab suddenly screeched away. She gave a "Hmph!" of irritation.

"Some people are just plain rude." She muttered as she headed into the store. Having told the guy at the counter what she wanted, she was waiting for him to get the guitar string from the stock room when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

"I knew if I hung around here long enough I'd bump into you." A frown was already on her face as she turned to face Richard Skulker, her ex-boyfriend. The well-built young man simply smirked upon seeing her facial expression. "Aww… What's the matter, Amber? Aren't you happy to see me?"

"As a matter of fact, Richard, no, I am not happy to see you. I told you before, it's over between us." The guy came back from the stock room and handed her the guitar string. After paying for it, she made a beeline for the door, but Richard followed her out.

"Come on, Amber! If you'd just give me a chance to explain…"

"Your chance to explain disappeared the moment I saw you with that… that tramp!" She hissed. "Now leave me alone!"

"I told you before, Amber! Her name's Desiré, and she's just a friend of mine! Nothing happened between us!" Richard replied, grabbing onto her arm as he did so. Amber glared at him.

"Let. Me. Go." She muttered through gritted teeth. She tried to wrench her arm away, but Skulker's grip held her tight. She was contemplating screaming rape when somebody spoke up behind her.

"Something the matter here?" She turned to stare into the bluest eyes she had ever seen. The black-haired young man was dressed in a white shirt with a red circle in the middle and was looking at them with a concerned expression. Skulker frowned.

"This doesn't concern you, kid. The lady and I were having a private discussion."

"From where I was standing, it looked as if she was trying to get away from you." The guy replied with a smirk. "I don't blame her for wanting to put some space between you two, though. You have a rather disagreeable visage." Amber had to admit, the subtle insult was well-said. Unfortunately, Skulker managed to understand it.

"Did you just call me ugly, punk?" Releasing his grip on Amber, Skulker swung a fist at the young man. Instead of dodging out of the way, however, the guy caught Skulker's fist by the wrist and then punched him under the arm. To her surprise, her bodybuilder ex-boyfriend gave out a yelp of pain and dropped to the concrete, clutching his arm. Amber turned to the young man, who looked just as surprised as she did.

"Damn, it worked." She heard him mutter. Skulker got up, still clutching his arm, and glared at Amber.

"This isn't over, Amber. I'll get you back eventually." He muttered, before turning around and walking away. Amber just glared at his retreating back, before returning her attention to the guy beside her. He gave her a soft smile.

"You alright Miss?" She rolled her eyes.

"Just fine. You didn't need to play hero. I could have totally handled that situation myself."

The smile turned into a smirk. "I'm sure you could've, Miss." He gave her a wink. "Didn't mean you had to."

Inwardly rolling her eyes at the cheesy line, Amber flashed the guy a smile and then flagged down a cab. Luckily for her, one stopped in front of her almost immediately. She got inside quickly and told the driver to head for the park.

"Hey, wait!" The guy called after her. "You didn't even tell me your name!"

"I know!" She replied. "Bye hero!" She threw him a wink as the cab sped off.

"Danny, NO!"

Samantha Manson's eyes snapped open and almost immediately closed shut again against the blinding glare of the overhead lights. Eyes closed, she tried to assess her location. The sterile smell that wafted into her nostrils told her she was in the Fenton Works' Med Bay. Ever since Danny's secret had been revealed and Team Phantom had become the town's duly-recognized anti-ghost protection unit, Fenton Works had been transformed into a miniature command center of sorts. Of course, it helped that the town's current mayor was a founding member of Team Phantom.

She felt someone take her left hand and give it a squeeze. As her senses slowly returned to her, a dull, aching pain coming from her right leg made its presence painfully known. She wondered for a moment why she was in pain, until her mind managed to recall what had happened before she was knocked out. Turning to her left to avoid the bright light, she opened her eyes and found herself looking at Maddie Fenton's half-relieved, half-worried expression.

"Samantha! You're awake! Thank God!"

She gave a wry grin. "It'll take a lot more than a broken leg to put me out of commission for very long, Mrs. Fenton."

"Yeah, but Dark Dan broke your leg AND sent you through a brick wall. If you hadn't been wearing body armor, you'd be dead." A somewhat reprimanding voice spoke up to her right. Turning, she sent the speaker a sarcastic smile.

"Nice to see you too, Tuck." Seeing that Tucker's entire torso was wrapped in bandages caused her to raise her eyebrows. "What happened to you?"

"Took an ectoblast from Dark Dan to the side at point-blank range. Broke a couple of ribs. Would've been dead too, if it weren't for the body armor." Tucker replied.

Sam nodded. Looking around the Med Bay, she was surprised to notice that the most prominent member of Team Phantom was absent. She turned to Maddie. "Uhm… Mrs. Fenton? Where's Danny?"

"He… hasn't come back yet. After you two were knocked out, Danny managed to blast Dark Dan back to the Ghost Zone through a portal Wulf made. Then he, Jazz, and Danielle went back into the Zone through the basement Portal. Danny said something about using the Fright Knight's sword to seal Dark Dan away before he left." Maddie answered, the worried look back onto her face.

"He WHAT?!" Sam yelled. "Well, what the heck are we still lying around here for? We gotta go help him!" She struggled to get out of bed, but the familiar whirring sound of the Fenton Taser stopped her. She turned and saw Valerie Gray pointing the pistol-like weapon at her. "What the hell, Valerie?"

"Sorry Sam. Danny left explicit instructions to keep you two in bed and recuperating while he went after Dark Dan. He told me to use force, if necessary. Tucker's the mayor AND my boyfriend, and I've already shot him twice. I was supposed to be going with him, but Jazz won the coin toss, so instead I'm forced to play babysitter. Now, lie back down. You too, Foley."

Sam lay back down with a grunt of irritation. Danny, her best friend and ex-boyfriend, was probably fighting for his life, and there was nothing she could do but lie down, sit tight, and wait.

When Danny came back, she was SO going to kill him.

A/N: Sorry for the delay. Real life keeps getting in the way of the updates. As usual, review and tell me what you think.