Hi everyone! Nope, I'm not dead, nope I'm not a ghost and nope, that's not some trick, it's a new chapter! As usual a little help for new readers:

"regular talk"

'thoughts'

inner talk

loud cursing

Warning! Strong language ahead! Be ready for this.

Butch Hartman is the one responsible for Danny Phantom's exictence. You can blame me only for this plot. #BringBackDannyPhantom

Chapter 12. In the Maze (part 2)

Echo of fast approaching steps and screams rung across high glassy walls of the ancient maze disappearing in the far end of the passage announcing the arrival of unwelcomed guests. Danny warily glanced over his shoulder at the shining surface trying his best to catch a glimpse of his friends. Well, he's got to admit, running ahead of them without warning to see if there's another turn was a really bad idea. Especially with them moving in the opposite direction. Now he was lost. Feeling alone and left behind ghost-boy tried to find them, but he only got himself confused in all of the turns and dead ends. Attempting to cheat and pass through the wall Danny found himself failing once again. As if breaking any rules of the Ghost Zone the damned wall won't let him pass even as a human. Turning himself into Danny Phantom was no help at all. He failed to overfly the invisible barrier or break it with his ectoblasts. As much as he wanted to find his friends ghost boy refused to use his Ghostly Wail. Who knew what could have happened? 'What if this maze had collapsed and buried me and my friends alive under the debris?' He shuddered at the thought. So the only way is to fly around calling for someone in hopes for an answer. And he's got it raver quickly, but thunderous echo made it nearly impossible to locate a source of the voices. And his acute hearing wasn't helping at all.

"Danny!" Sam's voice echoed of the walls all around him. "Where are you?!"

"Danny, dude?! Where da heck did you go?!" this time it sounded similar to Tucker. Young hero screamed something in return and run forward trying to locate the voices and the direction they were coming from. 'If only I had a radio set.' thought he mentally kicking himself in a rear. He should have thought better before going to the Council. What would it take him to put on some Fenton-phones? Nooo. He had to leave it behind. 'I knew this old one-eyed dudes were bad news, but I never expected them to backstab me like this. Oh, if you do something to hurt Sam and Tucker, things will get ugly.' thought the Phantom angry clenching his fists and keeping his breathe in. Passing wall after wall ghost-boy noticed what he was getting farther and farther away from his friends. The ring of the echo was getting quitter behind his back, letting him know he's made another mistake. So when he found another dead end Danny stopped abruptly and growled a throaty growl looking at the glass.

"Oh, come on!" yelled he facepalming. "I'll never get out of here at this rate!"

This place as sure as hell was getting under his skin. White-haired teen won't be able to look at his mirror or window without cringing that's for sure. The temptation to break it will be too strong. His fists were already itching to try, but he knew it won't work. Especially not against this walls.

"Okay, calm down." took a deep breath Danny slapping himself. "I need to get back to the group. SAM! TUCER! DANI! CLOCKWORK!"

He called louder than before, but there was no answer. Worry crossed ghost boy's face. He was about to escape the dead end he so stupidly ran into, then he heard a strange tearing noise and ring of a broken glass behind himself. Was the wall breaking down because of his loud scream?! Gasping young Phantom turned around half expecting to see new opened passage. What he saw though was more interesting.

"DANNY!" screamed Sam on the top of her lungs hearing him yelling back. "We are here!"

'Yeah, if only you knew where was this 'here'.' taunted her subconscious. 'Is it even clever to scream then you have absolutely no idea where you are?' Especially if screams are mixed with loud crushing and screeching of the walls around. Goth sighed and rolling her eyes turned around. First they've been traveling through the maze for God knows how long, then Danny being the genius he is decided to get lost, and now the group searching for him ended up in a dead end. Even though turning back was the only logical thinking Dani and Shadow decided to try and break through the barrier. They've been up to it for a few minutes with Clockwork slightly amused and Tucker extremely worried. Black huntress swung her glowing whip slicing at the glass, but leaving no mark. Green poisonous beam slipped over the surface with loud clank, but glass seemed to knit back together. Ghost-girl to her right faming with rage tried to break the wall with ectobeams, blasts, shining exploding spheres. Using every single trick she had up her sleeve. But the glass staid perfectly clean, without a scratch or holes, tauntingly shining back.

"How can this thing be so tough?!" screamed Dani jumping at the wall with punches and kicks. But soon enough stepped back hissing with pain and holding her aching fist to her chest.

"Take it easy." calmly said Shadow switching he whip off and patting little girl on her shoulder. "You might break something."

"That's no use." sighed Master of Time floating up to the glass and touching it with his old shaking hand. "The Observants used very clever trap against us what we won't be able to break free out."

"How come?" raised an eyebrow Tuck.

"Swords only sharpen in a battle." mysteriously said Clockwork stroking the wall. "This glass will only get thicker and stronger as much you attack it."

"Great. What took you so long to figure it out?" sarcastically grumped ghost-huntress to herself crossing black gloved hands over her chest and glared at him. "This Watchers or whatever their name is are total dumbasses if they thought trapping us here was a good idea. I thought you had a little chat with them, Tick-Tock."

"The Observants, miss Shadow." corrected the ancient spirit lifting his red eyes a her. "I've tried to talk some sense into the Council and they accepted my request and promised to help us. And I'm surprised as much as you are. But I'm sure we are not their true target."

"Then who?" asked Dani stomping her foot. Sam and Tuck exchanged with worried looks. They already figured that out.

"I'm afraid it's clear as the daylight, Danielle." mournfully answered Clockwork changing his form once again and gripping his staff in little hand. There was no need for questions after this. All had been said by his sad and worried pale blue baby face hidden under shadows of his long purple hood. His red eyes shone with worry and fear. Young goth nervously chewed at her lower lip glancing around with hope to spot her ghostly boyfriend. Little girl in a black-white suit blinked and looked at the uncommonly serious Tuck. Without finding any answers in his dull eyes she looked up at the huntress who met her gaze with stoic face. Woman in black inhaled deeply and said with icy cold voice:

"They are hunting that Phantom and the ghost-boy himself. We ended up being here only because we are a team."

"Danny?" asked the white-haired girl with confusion clear in her voice. "What do they want from him? He's done nothing! I can understand they wish to eradicate Dan, but Danny… They are two different humans, errr, ghosts."

"The Observants still think of Danny as of a world threat." slowly and monotonically said Clockwork looking at everyone with first sighs of rage in his bloodred eyes. "They are convinced he's been too close to crossing to the dark side. And now he might be tempted to try again. And in Phantom's case, Observants can't even imagine him being any help at all. For them he's not worth a second chance and will always be viewed as a world ending catastrophe. I can't believe the Council rejects such helpful allies and instead chooses to destroy them."

"BULLSHIT!" yelled Sam clenching her fists and causing an echoing ring off the walls around her. "Danny will never become someone as Dan! He promised us and he will never break his word! He was always doing a right thing with his powers! Heck, he saved the world! And just because once his fate played a cruel joke with him and he lost hope doesn't mean he will do the same again. And Observants still blame him for this?! Let's see them judge someone else then! Everybody makes mistakes! Danny has no reason to turn to the dark side so it's just plain stupid to think he'll do this just out of thin air. The Danny I know and love will never do this. Is it so hard to understand?!"

"Hmmm, and they want to end Phantom just because he's a big dangerous scary spook?" thoughtfully said Shadow rubbing her chin and leaning on the wall with her back. "This old farts are too scared to think rationally. It's better to risk everything once for the sake of the World than silently watch it crumble. And you call them the Observants. To me they are more like a bunch of old Marasmatics who can't see the whole picture due to their prejudices. I'm not a fan of Phantom, not even close, but I can see how useful he can be in this mission. He might be our only chance to overpower this dark guys."

Tucker raised his eyebrow and looked at the two girls nervously. Their expressions mirrored each other perfectly. Looks like this Observant dudes really pissed them off. He could say the same about himself as well. Why do they use such strong conservatism (yeah-yeah, sometimes he listens to Lancer) against Danny and Dan? Yeah, it's true that Phantom was a world threat №1 in the future, but the Time stream or whatever it's called like has been righted. So big beautiful world could finally relax and lay low. But not for too long. New, more scary and powerful threat appeared out of nowhere and Dan might be helpful in kicking its ass back to where it came from. So why keep pushing the old button? Can't this guys do something good for a change? Noooo, sir, not this time.

"Then we need to show them!" said Dani punching the air and tearing everyone out of their thoughts. "I'm seriously feed up with such cold welcome from everyone who we came to! First we've got our butts fried at Space's now we are stuck here! Come on! We are heroes after all! Where is respect and hospitality?!"

"Look, we've got a hero here." chuckled Shadow closing her eyes and shaking her shoulders with laugh. Suddenly a thundering boom shook the silent maze, making glass walls dance with terrible ringing echo. Some of them actually cracked and broke to shards. Strong vibrating resonance shook the glass trap. Screaming with fear teens covered their ears trying to block the rumble and screeching echo around themselves. Clockwork lifted his staff ready for an attack or defense. As if reading his mind black huntress took her whip out of the holder and stood over quivering kids looking for any intruder. Something told her she knew who was capable of such doing. Few seconds later everything went still and silent. The maze stopped shaking and ringing echo died down leaving deafening silence behind. Making sure everything is alright Sam finally let her hands fall down and looked at Shadow waiting for a command. Whatever it was it must have been powerful to cause such strong earthquake. Thanking skies for having her backpack with herself young goth took her favorite Fenton pulse ray out and with a soft click wrapped it around her wrist. Technogeek nodded at her and took a small blaster out of many pockets of his blue backpack. Raising their weapons they stood back to back ready to strike at any threat that dared to show up. A large crack appeared in the thin air right in front of them as if some invisible giant hand had clawed the space. Still widening until it became big black hole the crack emanated a soft blue glow. Out of darkness appeared two very familiar looking figures: a green-eyed white-haired teen in a black hazmat suit with white gloves and boots and tall long-haired youth in a white long clothes with happy silver eyes. Seeing them Dani opened her mouth and cried out:

"Danny! Space!" she ran straight past Shadow to hug her lovely cousin. Black-haired pale girl and a lanky boy in a red beret shook off their short-timed shock and run after her to a smiling ghost-boy. Huntress abandoned her battle stance letting out a sigh of relief but kept watching over little group of laughing kids. Master of Time visibly relaxed lowering his staff and walked to his younger brother pleasantly rubbing his long white beard.

"Space, my dear brother." said he with a polite smile.

"Clocky!" exclaimed the white-haired youth in Arabic clothes acting like a little kid who finally got his favorite candy and rushed to his elder trapping him in a bear hug which made the last one cringe and huff and everyone else to gawk. Teens' jaws hit the floor with a loud crack.

"For how many millenniums have I been asking you to not call me that?!" grumbled the ancient spirit with slight blush on his cold blue cheeks changing his shape to a young man and finally freeing himself from his brother's hold. "And may I ask what are you doing here?"

"But brother dearest, we see each other so rarely that stars managed to be reborn as often as human kind remade itself." pouted the Master of Space acting so much like a little kid that even Clockwork who changed his form to a newborn looked a lot wiser and older that him. Danny raised a shocked eyebrow at this, Sam and Tucker standing right behind him tried their best to stiff upcoming giggles under their hands. This ancient spirit acted worse than tiny toddlers in the kindergartens. That must be the infamous downside of the eternal life.

"Oh, Space." sighed Clockwork rubbing his eyes clearly used to such behavior from such a powerful being. "I ask again, what are you doing here?"

"You're as cold and emotionless as a rock under my feet, brother." threw the space ghost over his shoulder, but soon enough smiled with his famous one thousand megawatt smile. "But I still love you! I'm here, my lovely brother, because of one well known one-eyed reason. You see, right after your loyal helpers and my new dear friends had left me to the solitary of my Temple, the Observants paid me an unexpected and to be truthful unpleasant visit."

Having heard that Clockwork's face visibly darkened and changed to an angry scowl. He crossed his purple-gloved hands over his wide chest with a sickening screech of the leather and loud clicks of many watches on his wrists. Could it be that this one-eyed fools find out about Darks a lot more earlier than he did? Did they use their meeting as an excuse to hunt and capture Phantom?

"Please, continue." asked he through clenched teeth waving his hand. Maybe his long-term wish to teach this green monsters a lesson will be finally granted. Sam shuddered at his voice and took Danny's hand in hers. If she got the situation right Phantom won't be the only mad ghost on their team.

"That annoying green Cyclopes who had not earned a place even in the Greece Mythology were asking a lot of questions about what in the name of Pariah Dark happened in the saint place of the Ghost Zone, namely my Temple. They've never mentioned Darks or anything, but they clued me about some strange ripples in time and space in a very rude and vulgar manner." explained Space with an innocent face. "Purely, I've made a mistake by telling them about my dear friends and their mission. As soon as I understood that I rushed to you, my brother. But your Tower was empty and lifeless, I was too late. But thanks to light and dark I'm here now and ready to assist you in anything."

During the talk Clockwork's face became darker and darker. Pure rage crossed his features. Red eyes blazed with fury, deep shadows under them eat up half of his face making him look a lot older than few seconds ago. One single wrinkle crossed his forehead. Purple gloved hand clenched his staff till it shook. Danny instinctively swallowed happy for not being the center of this fury. Dani nervously grabbed goth's hand trying not to look in this bottomless blood red pools. Shadow smiled weakly and crossing her hands shook her head letting out a light chuckle.

"Right me if I'm wrong alright?" asked she lifting her cold purple eyes at the Master of Time. "Old freaks knew about this from the very beginning and still decided to act on their own account. And you, Clockwork, was nothing more, but a tool to complete their plan. You set Phantom free from some-I-give-no-fuck-there after they let you, right? They thought we'll go straight to them even though it's kinda illogical since Space is the only guardian of this damned clocks. When they understood their plan had been fucked up they tried to act, but it was unnecessary since we were going to them anyway. So Observants waited for you to show up and lead us in this trap. They used you to get Phantom and us in one place, Tick-Tock. All this mess just to finish off one damn ghost. Dan's gonna love all this attention."

"But why go through all of this?" asked the ghost-boy looking at huntress and ancient ghost with confusion. Clockwork looked back with one of his most feared glares making Danny back away.

"All just to please their old damn principles." cursed the time spirit turning away. "They must have thought that Darks will attack my Tower anyway and will accidently or on purpose free Phantom. To them he's like a pain in the neck, unpleasant and constant."

"And then they decided to get rid of the smaller evil so it won't lead to a bigger one? That's stupid! They had a bigger problem at stake!" said goth joining the conversation. Tucker standing close to her nodded and crossed his hands with an unpleasant look on his face. So Dan was the main reason for all this mess? Great. Another thunderous blast went through the walls of the glass maze. Ringing echo and cracking noise painfully sliced the air. Ground shook and roared under feet. Glass walls screeched and burst into million little shards sending shrapnel rain on the ground. By a miracle none of the heroes was on its way.

"That must be stopped!" yelled Danny after silence once again fell all over the maze. "We better get out of here. I don't want this thing collapsing on any of you."

"But we have to find the big guy first." noted Tuck turning around and looking at the spirit brothers. "Any ideas?"

"I can teleport us to your big, scary, dangerous, but very sad and tragic friend, but I need a help of the dark lady." smiled ghost of space reaching out his hand in a long white sleeve to a stunned huntress. "If my ancient memory doesn't false me, you, my lady, are the same as our dark Phantom. You exist out of time. This little fact is a detail what bounds you two together."

Long-haired woman's been starring at his outstretched hand with raised eyebrow and indecision clear on her pale face for a few seconds. She glanced from the corner of her eye at the Master of Time for an advice, who nodded with a deep frown. After that she lifted her amethyst eyes at the Master of Space who's been patiently waiting with a welcoming smile. She will ask about this "bound-thing" later and kids with wide surprised eyes are not gonna stop her.

"Milady, I'm asking a little innocent touch of yours for a good doing." asked the spirit still holding his hand out for her. "I'm asking this without any dark meaning on my side, even though your beauty would have put Helena to shame and make her hide among the servants in the darkest corners of the palace."

Shadow gulped understanding the meaning of this compliment and fighting back a pleasant feeling of being addressed in such manner, even though it wasn't enough to make her blush and a little handshake is not the reason of her worries.

"That's a good thing Dan's not here." mumbled Dani to herself as quite as possible noticing Danny and Sam exchange with confused looks.

"What do you mean?" asked Tucker who somehow managed to hear her. White-haired girl looked at him with a knowing smirk and whispered back:

"I'll tell you later." she winked at him and took his hand leading him to their friends. Our heroes surrounded two ancient spirits and the huntress who accepted the space master's hand.

"Please stay close together my friends." said the ghost in white long clothes. "Take my warning, the travel won't be pleasant."

"Oh, trust me, he's right. I'm still fighting back my gag reflex." grumbled Danny to his friends rolling his eyes. Sam smiled at him and reassuringly pated his hand, Tuck and Dani at the sight of the lovebirds smiled at each other knowingly and exchanged with pair of light laughs. Holding Shadow's hand Space closed his eyes and started chanting something ancient under his breath. Strange letters glowing with soft blue light once again appeared on his face and hands, symbols incurved in a gold ring in his free hand glowed in sync with his chanting. Glass walls around them vibrated with strange rhythmical echo, air became cold and strained. Suddenly Space finished chanting and opened his blazing silver eyes tore at the air with a battling cry and a golden ring which became sharper than any sword in a history. Ring tore right through space leaving behind a gaping hole of absolute darkness.

"Oh yeah… Lancer's never brought so much fun in a class…" coughed dark Phantom trying to stand upright. The last blow that 'Danny' landed on him had beaten him right in the glass wall. Sharp shards of different forms and sizes struck him in his back and sides causing ectoplasm to flow freely under his cape. Clone attacked him with so much strength what Dan actually flew right through the wall leaving cracks all over the surface. Ringing echo thundered over his sensitive ears nearly deafening the ghost.

"You have fun?" asked his double with sadness evident in his deep voice taking few steps closer to his opponent. "It doesn't seem like it."

"Oh, come on." smirked Dan lifting his head off his chest and looking with mocking hatred at the double. "As if you're not enjoying yourself."

"Not one bit." answered clone reaching out and grabbing Phantom for his collar and ripping him out the hole. Monster hissed with unbearable pain ripping through him and grabbed 'Danny' by the hand and pushed him away as far as he could. This caused a new wave of ectoplasm and pain to his wounds and Dan had to grab a nearby wall for support. His healing will kick in soon, he just needed to last for a little bit longer.

"Oh yeah, liar-liar pants on fire…" he sarcastically chuckled spitting out an ectoplasm on the floor and looked at his enemy like an old angry wolf on its prey. "Then what the hell are you doing teaching me some kind of a lesson? And where did you come from, freak?"

The double looked at him with a shadow of a pity in neon green eyes, then crossed his hands over his chest and send an angry look to his original.

"I didn't want to do this, but you left me no choice. Have you never heard of the reflection theory?" said he nodding at the mirror behind him. "Reflection is a copy of your appearance, but complete opposite of yourself. This mirror over there just gave life to your reflection which become my new body."

"So?" Dan raised his eyebrow and watched his enemy closely feeling how skin on his back heals and his powers act up again.

"I've been inside of you." sighed 'Danny' turning his head away. "For all this years. We've been the one once you know? The one person. But ever since you've started to run from your troubles, we've been drifting apart. And soon enough we were completely separated into two different beings. You took over and banished me to the darkest parts of our mind. You've been torturing me since then, until I've been reduced to the voice of your conscience. Well, at least it's called this way. I've tried to stop you, but it was too late. All that was left for me to do is to watch through your eyes how you tortured and killed so many innocents, enjoyed destroying cities and countries and to try to get your attention, but your madness and fury became a perfect shield I couldn't break through. Only after Danny captured us in a thermos I finally managed to get to you."

"I'm wailing up with tears." sarcastically remarked Phantom standing upright and stretching his back and hands before the battle begun. "So you are a martyr, Danny?"

He spat the name with disgust like it literally gave a bad taste in his mouth. Rubbing his knuckles Dan slowly walked closer to his opponent fighting back a spike of adrenaline what told him to tore his enemy apart. The temptation was real and strong, almost to the point of being a command. He would make this wimp pay for this two attacks he managed to land on him. But he had to be careful. The clone proved to be almost at his own power level. 'Almost' thought Dan smugly hissing at his double with long forked tongue. 'Copy is no match for an original.' When there was only two or three feet between them Dan turned to the side circling his enemy, 'Danny' did the same and soon enough they were circling each other like predators on a hunt. Red eyes full with rage and hatred met sad and determined green ones.

"Looking at you now, I see all of my mistakes." sighed the double clenching his fists. "The biggest one was to use Plasmius as an energy source."

"The source what gave you power." corrected him Dan watching his prey with piercing glare. "The power what made you who you are now."

"If only it was used for good." added his opponent with a heavy sigh.

"Oh please." spat Phantom cringing as if the words physically disgusted him. "Stupid heroism and all that goody blah-blah-blah? What did it give you? Nothing, but problems!"

"That meant everything to us until the accident." double's green eyes crossed real pain and hurt. "After that there was nothing."

"Don't you dare cry on me!" growled Dan setting his clenched fist on a blazing green fire. "I don't give a crap about this puny humans. And this whole drama means nothing to me!"

"It did once. What about your 'weaker moments'?" asked 'Danny' noticing shadow of confusion and fear on his enemy's face. "I remember times when you've been destroying and killing everything in sight for days, then spent nights mourning your loss and cursing your luck for your predicament."

"That never happened!" roared Dan stepping closer. "I was never a whining wimp! I have incredible power and strength which means no weaknesses, no regrets! Especially such sentimental crap!"

"You are such a coward." spat white-haired clone looking at his other self in the eye with determination and a little bit of scorn. "Always running away from your problems, always blaming others for what happened in the past, always being egoistic and doubting. Enough! You are not strong, you are the weakest person I have ever met! If you were strong you wouldn't have ran from fear and hurt, you would have faced it! The strong person never takes it out on others! Strong man can protect himself and others he cares about! You're just a weakling! That's all you ever will be."

"Come again." slowly hissed Dan through clenched teeth with venom dripping with each said word. "You, fucked up piece of whiny shit, just called me a weakling?! Me?!"

"Yes. You." answered 'Danny' with the same determination he used early.

Phantom's eyes flashed red with uncontrollable rage, fiery hair blazed bigger with new strength, veins on his neck and face raised marking his blue cold deadly skin, long clawed fingers clenched into tight fist with a protesting click of a glove. His fury was at full control now, having spread inside like a deadly forest fire eating up everything else. The need to destroy this pest became as important as existence itself.

"That's it." growled dangerous ghost under his breath feeling his fangs pressing against his lips and waves of power rising off his steaming form. "So be it, this time I'll do one 'good deed'. I'll free you from your misery and myself from the constant headache!"

"I will disappear only along with that gap between us." sighed double shaking his head with sadness and no traces of fear at the sight of a mad beast in front of himself. "Only then we will become one again."

This words worked for Dan like red for a bull. Roaring at the top of his lungs like a wounded crazy beast in a deadly embrace of maddening fury he rushed at his enemy with intend to finish off this annoying voice once and for all.

So that's it for now, friends))) R&R as usual)) And have a nice day)