Author: /sigh

Disclaimer: Not mine.

300 Feeling (sun 12/6)

"Hey, you feeling okay, Danny?"

Danny looked up from Calculus homework and gave Jewel a wan smile.

"Just haven't been sleeping well," Danny said.

Jewel tsked and said, "Now that is the understatement of a lifetime."

Danny's smile wavered before she sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "That really is the problem, the not-sleeping. I need the rest and instead…"

Instead, there were the nightmares. Even if she exhausted herself with exercise or staying up too late, the desired dreamless sleep was far from dreamless.

Jewel gave her a sympathetic smile. "Well, maybe when winter break rolls around you'll have less nightmares? School will be over, afterall, so you won't have the stress of a workload and you'll be back in your hometown where everyone else can take care of ghostly problems."

Yeah, but during winter break is the solstice, where it's either figure out how to get this thing out of me or become something…else.

"Yeah, break will definitely help," Danny said, although something must have been off in her tone from how Jewel frowned.

"Well, I mean, if you need help with anything…editing papers, someone to talk to, you know, anything…I'm here for you. Alright?"

Danny smiled. "I know. And I'm here for you too."

"I know," Jewel said and returned the smile. "I'm gonna miss being your sidekick for a month."

Danny couldn't help but laugh.

121 Death (mon 12/7)

"Light, Danny, you look like death."

Danny looked up at Finn and smiled faintly. "Think you've been playing too much of that video game to pick up that swear."

Finn didn't even look embarrassed as he said, "No, really. You sleeping at all?"

Danny sighed huffily. "jewel's saying the same thing. I'm just having nightmares. I'll be fine."

Finn held his hands up in a placating gesture and said, "Okay, okay. Just don't need you keeling over in the middle of class. I am CPR certified, but still."

Danny blinked them smiled faintly. "Fine, whatever."

Finn gave her a cautious, crooked smile back before their professor walked in.

The nightmares had been getting worse and worse. Anymore, Danny dreaded going to sleep, because that's where the thing waited to pounce on her weakened consciousness. However, her still-changing body dragged her under every night, and every night she got about three hours of sleep. It really was getting the point that she was thinking of going to Vlad to ask for help. Maybe the woman would have something that could keep her from having to wake herself up or go mad.

It was something to look into, when she didn't have to pay attention to lecture.

196 Angry (tues 12/8)

Danny tried very hard not to become angry anymore. While it did have a lot to do with her ghost powers getting out of hand, it was also just a general desire. She didn't particularly like herself when she was angry, as that was when the darker part of her surfaced, and that she could do without.

But, there were just times that her emotions got away from her. She was glad that she had enough presence of mind to be able to make it into the Ghost Zone before releasing her frustrations.

Stupid…I can't even...what the…

Danny let loose a Ghostly Wail into the void and was glad that she was exhausted from the expenditure of energy.

People insulting her she could deal with—she had dealt with it all throughout high school. But she didn't tolerate other people bullying her friends.

While she had wanted to immediately fly over and kick some testoerone-fuled butt, Tucker had talked her down from literally and figuratively seeing red.

"How dare they say that about you," Danny had hissed, her shoulder tightening.

"Danny, Danny, please. Look, they're just douchebags," Tucker had said, although the protest had been half-hearted.

"No. No, no, and no. No-one says that kind of stuff about you ever," Danny snarled.

"Paying attention to them only gives them power and influence, and ignoring it takes away it because they see they won't get a rise out of me."

"This isn't nothing!" Danny half-yelled. "Insinuating that you only got in because of something you did for an admissions officer, mocking your intelligence when you're at the top of your classes, I'm so not standing for that."

"wait! Stop."

Danny was vibrating with fury, but sat back down in her chair. "Why shouldn't I hunt them down and make them repent?"

"Because it's not your problem. It's mine."

"That doesn't mean I can't help!"

"Yeah, but you can't help with everything. I mean, I appreciate what you want to do, I really, really do," Tucker said quickly. "But I'm a big girl, too."

Danny sulked for a few seconds before letting out an explosive sigh. "Okay. Fine. You can deal with this. You are a big girl. You can take care of yourself. You're out on the West Coast far away from your family and friends and have been doing fine. Okay, okay. Just…I'm going to go hit things now. If you need me, I'll still have my cell on me. Don't know how reception is in the Ghost Zone, though."

Danny floated down onto a rock and put her head in her hands.

I really hope everything will turn out okay. I really, really do.

85 Fire (wed 12/9)

Danny found Vlad sitting by her large fireplace in her mansion, absorbed in a book.

"Vlad?" she called out carefully, which made the billionaire look out of the novel and frown slightly in disapproval.

"Danny, why are you here? You should be focusing on—"

"Vlad, I need your help. Again."

Vlad quirked an eyebrow, "If this is about homework, you're coming up on finals, so you should—"

"No, it's not about that. It's…" Danny sighed and settled onto the floor, returning to her human form. She ran a hand nervously through her hair before saying slowly, "I need you to possess me tonight."

Vlad's eyebrows snapped up. "Pardon?"

"I can't...the thing inside me. It's getting stronger, bigger, I think. I can't see it, though, can't locate it. If I can't see it, identify it, I can't fight it. I trust you, I know you can help me. I'm thinking that maybe the presence of another will help me see who or what it is that I'm getting nightmares from."

Danny watched Vlad place her book down and walk over, she stopping a few feet away from Danny. "Now or later?"

Danny swallowed. "Tonight. You'll see when I start having nightmares. Jewel has woken me up from more than one. I want you to take control then."

Vlad was silent for a very long time before she nodded slowly. "If you think that will work. You're not doing it just so you can sleep with me?"

Danny flushed and shook her head. "No. I mean, that's nice but…"

Vlad smirked and placed a hand on Danny's shoulder (Danny idly noticed that the woman didn't have to reach that far down anymore). "Well, then. I'll be more than happy to take you tonight, Danny."

Danny blinked, then felt her face heat even more as she cried, "Vlad!" to the billionaire's unapologetic chuckle.

45 Hug (thurs 12/10)

Danny woke to Vlad hugging her tightly, and felt light-headed and weak, as if she was recovering from a fever.

"Vlad?" she asked, and was surprised at how raspy her voice was.

"You're awake? And still you?" she heard Vlad mumble tiredly.

Danny blinked, then frowned as she ran a hand through Vlad's hair. "Pretty sure. So, uh, what happened?"

"I'm never doing you a favor again," Vlad muttered and shifted Danny so that their eyes met. "Your mind is very messy and we're running out of time."

"So, you know what it is that's in me?"

"We met," Vlad drawled. "It wasn't particularly happy to see me."

"And?"

"We had an altercation, and I'm glad that it wasn't physical. Although, there are a few things I want to ask you, young lady."

Danny winced and gave Vlad her best unsure-but-game smile. "Go ahead?"

"You've been lying to me about the extent of your ghost powers—unless you have them locked away. You haven't really accepted that darker self, have you?"

Danny looked away and shifted uneasily in the bed, resting her forehead against Vlad's collarbone. "I…no. I haven't accepted Phantom. Not entirely. I just…can't."

"You must," Vlad said firmly. "I believe that may be the only chance we have."

"What do you mean?"

"Right now there's a…hm, I suppose 'gap' would be the best word…within you. That is where the entity is residing. That gap wouldn't be there if you were an undivided person. I think I felt that entity, too, on Halloween. It was looking for something like us, both mortal and ghost. But, since I am perfectly at ease with my ghostly nature you, apparently, are not. And that is where it is."

"You can't be seriously saying that you want me to accept something that has killed thousands—maybe millions—of people in cold blood? You want me to accept that I might have been a murderer?"

Vlad sighed softly. "Might have been. You won't become one in this time-line. Not with your friends, family, Clockwork…or me."

Danny sighed and closed her eyes.

"But, you can't just accept her at any time anymore."

"What?" Danny asked and opened her eyes, puzzled.

"The thing has taken root in you and I can't get it out now. It's up to you. And you have one shot at not becoming its puppet."

Danny frowned.

"On the solstice, you and—what did you call her, Phantom?—need to have a meeting of the minds. Only if you act as a whole person will you be able to survive and remain yourself."

Danny sighed unhappily. "So, still have to deal with the nightmares?"

"Oh, I think I may have managed to get it to back off on that," Vlad said smugly, which made Danny's lips twitch in amusement.

"Now, go. Shower, change, grab your belongings. You have classes to attend to."

137 Snow (fri 12/11)

Danny sighed as snow drifted down in clumps, quickly accumulating on the semi-frozen ground.

Classes had finally ended, and she had nothing but a week of finals left in the fall semester. But after that is Winter Break, Danny thought as she drew absent circles on the blank paper with her pencil. And during winter break I either lose everything I am to an ancient entity that not even Clockwork can fully control, or I accept my evil self and remain whole. That shouldn't sound like a terribly hard decision, but even just the memories I got from Phantom were…

Danny squinted her eyes shut and put her hands over her ears as images of splattered remains on the sides of buildings—courtesy of the Ghostly Wail—flashed before her eyes and a twisted, maniacal laugh reverberated in her ears.

A cry of jubulation reached Danny's ears, which made her shudder, take a deep breath, open her eyes, and let her hands fall to her desk.

I can't fail, she thought bleakly. I can't fail either school or on the solstice.

"Danny!"

Danny jumped and looked over to a breathless Jewel standing in their doorway. The girl's face was flushed and snow was melting on her shoulders and hair. Behind her in the hall people were coming and going, some covered in snow, some bundling up for it, everyone in a surprisingly light mood considering what loomed overhead.

"C'mon, it's snowing! You can relax for tonight. We'll help each other with studying tomorrow, promise."

Danny hesitated, then smiled as she felt a ghost trip her senses. Fun and stress relief.

"Okay, okay, fine. Let me get into my jacket and I'll be right out."

254 Waiting (sat 12/12)

The waiting was the worst part.

Danny closed and rubbed her eyes. It'll be okay. Everything will be fine. It will be over soon. Just four tests left and then I can go home and sleep for days. Take out my frustrations on the Box Ghost or something. Spend some time with family. With friends.

With Vlad.

Danny hated waiting, though. She was a person of doing, and that she had no control over the inexorable approach of finals, the time that they were to be done, their location, or their difficulty drove her insane. She wasn't even sure what to study! Sure, they had done some review in the last class and she had been given a list of what could be on the test, but it was overwhelming and terrifying and she wasn't sure how she would survive.

Danny's lips thinned out into a determined frown. Like you've survived everything, she told herself. Through hard work, guts, and sheer dumb luck.