Authors Note: I keep re-reading this and I'm still not satisfied with this chapter, but I hope you all enjoy it, regardless :) I appreciate all the reviews and patience so far. Hopefully chapters will be coming quicker.

Sam was more than a little surprised as Tucker relayed the details of the locker room scene from earlier. This wasn't like Danny. The Danny she knew was kind, compassionate, and thoughtful; a true hero. Sometimes he got a bit mixed up, but he was just a teenager. When you're a teenager, you're bound to screw up a few times. But, to be so violent was completely out of character for her friend. Danny was the good guy, and this wasn't how the good guy was supposed to act.

"I'm honestly getting scared," Tucker admitted. "and I don't know what to do about it, which is even scarier."

Sam stayed quiet, considering what Tucker was saying. Was there anything they could do? The problem was obviously something wrong with Danny's ghost half. Maybe it was starting to affect his brain. But what could they do to change that? Not even Danny knew all that much about the ghost realm, and her and Tucker were kind of just sidekicks.

"Maybe talking to Vlad isn't such a bad idea after all." Tucker suggested.

Sam only paused a second before shaking her head. "Danny would never agree to that," She argued. "First of all, he hates Vlad. Secondly; he has too much pride to ask anyone for help, let alone his arch-enemy."

"Well then we'll just talk to Vlad. I mean, we have to do something, and Vlad will have a better idea of what's going on with Danny then we do," Tucker paused. "Danny doesn't have to know." He finished, almost as a guilty afterthought. His friends never liked going behind his back, but sometimes it was for the best.

Sam sighed. She didn't like the idea, but she was worried about Danny. He was her best friend. The boy meant a lot to her, more than she liked to admit. She couldn't bare to just sit around and watch him destroy himself and all he had worked so hard for.

"Fine," Sam caved. "But…not yet. Let's give him a chance. If anything else happens, then we'll talk to Vlad." The feeling of wanting to save Danny dramatically outweighed the urge to respect his wishes, but the nagging feeling was still there. She didn't want to jump to any drastic decisions.

Tucker gave a satisfied smirk. Sam couldn't tell if it was because he had won the debate, and Tucker always liked to be right, or if it was because he found some comfort in having a plan. Tucker was like that. Always planning. His whole life was organized, and he liked it that way. Sam respected that.

Content with the subject, they switched to less heavy topics such as what was in the mystery meat at school and the upcoming Dumpty Humpty concert on Sunday. The conversation had focused on video games when Danny in his Phantom form materialized into the room. Even though both Sam and Tucker were used to Danny's ghost powers by now, they still both jumped at the sudden entrance.

"Dude, don't do that, you scared us." Tucker joked, but the currently white-haired teen was not in a joking mood, which he made abundantly clear by pacing back in forth in a panicky motion in front of his friends, who were still seated on the couch, with an angry expression frozen on his face.

"Is…something wrong?" Sam finally asked, after a few moments of this repetitive action.

"'Is something wrong?'" Danny mocked sarcastically, breaking his pattern. "Yeah, only everything!"

"Hey, just calm down, man," Tucker interjected. "She's only trying to help."

Danny turned to him, acting as if he was going to yell, or hit him, or something equally as dramatic, but instead just took a deep breath before going into an apology. "I'm sorry. I just…" He stopped, rubbing his temples, acting as if it hurt just to think. "I'm just angry."

"Why?" Sam questioned calmly, trying to ignore the boy's biting tone.

"Well," Danny began, looking to his darkly-dressed friend, "The whole reason I got called to the office in the first place is because I got in this fight with Dash…"

"I all ready told her what happened earlier." Tucker interrupted, saving Danny the explanation.

"Wait," Sam spoke up. "Dash went to the principal about it?" The way that Tucker described it, she wouldn't be surprised if the jock had been seriously injured, but she never expected him to be the kind of guy to go crying about it to the principal. She thought he had more pride than that.

"Well, Mr. Lancer handled it, but yeah, pretty much," Danny confirmed. His tone was snappy and annoyed. He acted as if he didn't know what to do with himself, twitching or adjusting his shirt or hair every five seconds. "He said I'm suspended for three days." The half-ghost began scratching at his upper arm angrily, trying to release his emotion without totally exploding and destroying everything in the room. Red marks appeared rather quickly, and Sam felt like saying something, but was too surprised by what he had just told them.

"Seriously?" She questioned. "And he suspended you?" Tucker stayed quiet, and Sam could tell he wasn't as shocked as she was.

Well he was there to actually see it. Sam thought. And he did say it was pretty bad…but had it really been so bad that Dash would go to Mr. Lancer? He beats Danny up every day, he didn't really have a right to snitch. No right at all.

"Yeah," Danny replied tersely. "And Mr. Lancer called my parents and told them, so now I'm grounded until the suspension is over, which means I can't go to the concert."

"What? Lame!" Sam proclaimed, upset by this new development. She was hating Dash more and more by the minute. They had been planning this concert for months now.

"If you're grounded, then how are you here?" Tucker questioned.

"I kind of just stormed off to my room and then flew off." Danny replied, flopping down on the couch with the other two teens.

"Sneaking out probably isn't the best way to get on your parents good side right now." Tucker suggested. Sam didn't understand why Tucker seemed to be against everything Danny was saying. Aren't friends supposed to stick up for each other? Who's side was he on, anyway?

"I don't care," Danny responded. "I had to get out of there. They're being totally unfair. They didn't even care that he does the same thing to me every. Single. Day."

Sam had to admit that it was unfair. Dash had never been punished for hurting Danny, but as soon as he fought back, Danny ended up with a suspension.

On the other hand, she also had to consider that the damage that the football player did was probably never half as bad as what Danny was capable of doing.

Regardless, Dash's bullying was a constant thing in Danny's life, and all the boy had done was get a small bit of revenge.

She allowed herself a smirk. She hadn't seen Dash yet, but she knew he had to look terrible by the time Danny was done with him. It would be nice to see Dash get what has been coming to him for once.

She debated whether or not to feel guilty for that thought, but ultimately decided not to. Dash did kind of deserve it, anyway.

She didn't think about the fact that Danny had lost control. She didn't think about the fact that he was totally losing himself. She couldn't think about the fact that his ghost half taking over. If she had, she would have totally lost it. She would have totally lost it because she was totally losing him, and she knew it. She knew it in the back of her mind, and it was trying to climb it's way up, but she managed to push it back down, play it off as no big deal. The thought was still there, however, nagging at her, gnawing at her stomach, slowly killing her from the inside. The same thought that was all ready ingrained in Tucker's mind, the one that was making him act the way he was acting.

She turned to look at their other friend. The techno geek was sitting, hunched over, with his head in his hands. He wore a frown and seemed very upset by Danny's attitude towards the whole situation. He knew, just as Sam knew, that he was losing his friend, but instead of pretending like it wasn't true and ignoring the problem as Sam was, he was trying to express his indignation towards Danny's new Phantom-powered personality without angering him. It would probably help, Sam reflected, to have some support, and he was probably right in his actions, but she wasn't quite ready to accept that Danny might actually be able to become…evil.

"That's ridiculous," She merely spoke instead. "You should be allowed to go the concert." Well, ignorance is bliss, and Sam was more than happy to ignore Danny's potentially dangerous future.

"Oh, I'm still going." Danny assured her.

"How?" Tucker questioned. "I know you're a good talker and all, but there is no way you're going to convince your parents to let you out of that house." Sam could tell that he was subtly begging Danny not to go to the concert and cause more trouble, not to go down the path, but it wasn't as obvious to Danny.

"I don't have to," Danny told him. "I have ghost powers, remember? It's not exactly hard to sneak out of the house. I mean, I'm here, right?" The boy's lack of morals did not go unnoticed by his friends.

Sam noted that it seemed like Danny had relaxed a little, however, even though he was still restlessly tapping his foot. She was glad to see he was calming down a little.

"I really don't think that's a good idea." Tucker advised.

"Why not?" Danny snapped. So much for that whole 'calming down' thing.

"I'm just saying, maybe it would be best not to make your parents any more angry at you than they all ready are…" Tucker seemed hesitant for a moment before continuing, he could see Danny's eye twitching in anger. "Besides…maybe it would be best just to stay and have a nice, calm weekend."

"What are you saying?" Danny spat, fury apparent on his face.

"Nothing, just that…" Tucker sighed. "Dude, we all know you've been acting weird lately. I saw the way you attacked Dash. It's not like you. You've been so angry all the time lately and maybe you should just try to take it easy for awhile."

"So I should just ditch the concert I've been waiting to go to for months on account of Dash?" Danny exclaimed, quickly standing up.

Sam's heart sank. She didn't like where this was going. Neither Tucker nor Danny were one to back down from an argument, one of them was bound to go too far.

"No," Tucker countered, standing up from his seat as well, "you should stay home from the concert because there's something wrong with you and we don't know what's going to set you off anymore!"

He just went too far.

"That'll just about do it." Danny growled through clenched teeth, eyes glowing green. It was obvious that it was taking him all his energy just to stop himself from punching his best friend in the face.

Sam, not wanting to see an actually fist-fight break out between the two, decided to intervene.

"Guys," She interrupted, standing between them. "Let's just all chill out, okay? We're all a little upset-"

Suddenly, Danny's hand shot out and grabbed hold of the girl's arm. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best idea to stand in front of angry, super-powered, out-of-control teenager who had a history of attacking people as of late.

"Don't tell me to chill out!" He yelled. "If one more person tells me to 'calm down' or 'chill out' I swear to God I'll-"

"You'll what?" Tucker shouted. "Hurt your friends worse than you all ready have?"

Danny seemed shocked by Tucker's outburst. He looked back to Sam regretfully and released his hold on her, which she girl was thankful for. She carefully rubbed the now scratched and bleeding spot where his nails had dug into her, a bit of fear now gracing her expression. Danny's eyes were suddenly filled with horror.

"S-Sam, I…" The half-ghost stopped, knowing there was nothing he could say to make up for what he had done.

Sam wanted to say something. She wanted to tell him it was okay, or that she wasn't upset, but she couldn't. Even if those things were true, which they weren't, she wouldn't be able to force any words out of her mouth at the moment, anyway. All she could do was stare at him, stunned and hurt, until he finally disappeared out of the roof and ascended into the sky.

If there was one thing she knew, it was that she couldn't pretend anymore. There was no more ignoring it. Danny was changing.