* IMPORTANT! EDIT: Some of you may have already read this chapter! Something weird happened with the uploads, and this didn't get posted. I am going to try and post this chapter again, and see if it works. Thanks for your patience.*

Haha! I said after the first of the year and here I am!

You may want to re-read the previous chapters, but I'll try to sum it up for you.

Previously:

Danny is out fighting ghosts (Skulker) when his parents capture him and run all sorts of horrifying tests and experiments (kind of just a vivisection) on him causing him a great amount of psychological damage. Jazz bursts in, freaks out, and get's Danny the hell out of there. She ends up a bit at odds with her parents. Maddie, meanwhile, figures out somethings up and kind of connects Danny with Phantom (although not correctly). Danny, on the other hand, is having a hard time coping. Sam stops by (that was mostly filler). Here comes the big stuff. Maddie bursts in, confronts Danny, trying to figure out what's going on. Danny freaks, has another flashbacky thing, and phases through his mother, confirming her (incorrect) suspicions. Jazz gets Danny the hell out of there (again, Jazz the hero) and he flies off to stay at Tucker's house for a little while. Before he falls asleep, Danny considers contacting "someone who understands" (congrats, you all know who, I'm about as subtle as a flying mallet).

I actually really like this chapter. Enjoy.

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I don't believe that Sam, Tucker, or even Jazz truly understand my relationship with Vlad Masters. I mean, when you're one of seven billion, it's difficult to comprehend being one of two, the other being a psychotic obsessive recluse who may be your only model for how you might turn out when you're his age.

It was a bit of an inner struggle for me, anyway. While on the one hand, he was more than willing to teach me everything he knew and guide me to reach my "full potential", he was also completely insane. These were the two thoughts that bounced around my head as I sat on Tuckers bed, staring at my phone. Currently, Tucker was in the bathroom doing god knows what. I was back at school today, and was supposed to be getting ready.

Tucker had helped me change the bandages earlier this morning after we had woke up to his, quite frankly, ridiculously loud alarm. The parts of the wound that had ripped open yesterday were pretty decently back to how they were, and the rest of it was forming thickening shiny white tissue.

I absentmindedly rubbed it as I browsed through my contacts, finally coming to Vlad's. I opened it, looking through the numbers I had listed. I have no idea how they had found their way into my phone, but for now I was glad that I possessed his private cell phone number.

Vlad.

We need to talk.

I kept the message short, knowing he would be more than happy to meet my request, most likely with glowing fists. My finger hovered over the send button, tense. Tucker came out of the bathroom.

"Hey dude. You ready?" He asked, giving me a small smile.

I looked up at him before glancing back down to the phone. Obsessed? Yes. Crazy? Definitely. My best hope? Most likely. I sighed and hit send, closing the old flip phone and standing up. "Yeah, alright. Let's go."

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Sam was waiting for us outside of Tucker's house. "Hey!" She called to us, running over to the front door. "Wow, Danny. You look a lot better than the last time I saw you. How are you feeling?"

I managed a small half-smile. "Better, thanks." We started out towards the school when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket, and pulled it out. I turned a little away from my friends before checking the number.

"Oh." I commented, a little surprised, before hitting the answer button. "Hello?"

"Danny! Hey! How are you doing?" Jazz asked me.

"Fine, fine." I said. "Same as last night when you called. Still a little sore, of course, but I think the swelling is going down and it's stopped bleeding." I noticed Sam stiffen a bit beside me, her and Tucker being unusually quiet. "I'm doing much better."

"Don't lie to me Danny." Her voice was even and low, and I could practically see the glower I would have been receiving, had we been in the same room.

"I'm not." I returned, but her silence told me all I needed to know about what she thought of that answer. The truth was I actually felt a lot better. I felt less jumpy and on-edge, able to relax a little. I just sighed at her. "How's the uh... thing... with Maddie?" My voice cracked slightly on the last word, and I felt my temperature drop, making me cold in the morning heat. Well, colder than usual. Sam reached out and grabbed my hand, which made me jump a little, but calmed me down a bit.

"She's roped Jack into it. I talked her out of out of running out to find you, and I've managed to destroy or hide what I believe to be all of the ghost finders, and the boooo-merang. I'll see you at school, but make sure you're on the lookout."

"Thanks Jazz, you're a life saver, literally." I laughed at my own joke, but she didn't seem to find it as funny as I did.

"Well, be careful. I'll see you in a bit." Jazz hung up. I sighed, slipping my phone back into my pocket.

"Well, are you ready for school? Did you do the work you missed?" Sam asked me, changing the subject.

"Yeah, well, mostly. Jazz is bringing my backpack. I didn't really have time to grab it." I replied. "I missed a test though in Lancer's, didn't I?"

"Unfortunately." Tucker replied. "You'll have to make it up."

I opened my mouth to complain when I was interrupted. A cold feeling built up in my chest, rolling and spilling out of my mouth, causing my breath to be visible. The cold tightened the muscles in my chest, causing me to groan a little as the wound ached. I automatically looked around to find a secluded spot.

Sam's hand tightened around mine, which I didn't notice I was still holding on to. "Danny, no." She warned me. I opened my mouth to protest, but she was right. With the shape I was in, I might do more harm to the city than good.

A huge rumble thundered through the street, originating from a fountain nearby in the park. I watched as the sky and surroundings grew darker. Suddenly, a giant, 30-foot squid burst from the fountain, causing water to spray everywhere. It clicked menacingly, red eyes scanning for victims. A few nearby people ran screaming for the trees.

"See?" Tucker said. "It's just a mindless animal ghost. No biggie. Valerie can take care of this, no problem." Sam groaned at him, resting her head in her hand. "What?" Tucker asked innocently.

"Every time someone says something like that, everything gets worse." She whispered to him, always keeping an eye on me, but I was focused on the squid.

It wasn't the highest power level, nothing like Spectra or Skulker, but it could possibly do more physical damage. My point was proven as it crashed through the fountain, shattering the statue spouting water from the top of it. I winced.

"Let's go. Hey, Danny, let's go." Sam moved her hand up my arm, grasping my elbow, and pulled. I stood my ground, eyes watching it. "Red Huntress is going to be here any minute, and she can take care of it. We're going to be late for school." I ignored her.

"I don't think that's going to work." Tucker commented.

"Thank you for your opinion." She forced between gritted teeth. Sam turned to me. "Come on, Danny. You know I would be the first one urging you to get in there and beat that thing, but you can't right now. You'd probably just end of getting yourself more hurt, then that's a longer recovery time. Walk away now, be back to fighting ghosts sooner." I faced her, staring into those violet eyes.

"Hey, here comes Valerie." Tucker commented, and sure enough, the Red Huntress flew in, guns blazing. She shot a few anti-ecto blasts at it, and the squid screeched.

I gave in. "Alright." Valerie was perfectly capable of facing it. We turned away from the fight, heading back towards the school that was now coming into view. I tried to tune out the noises from the battle raging behind us.

A sudden rushing noise caught my attention, and I whipped my head behind me, just in time. "Duck!" I yelled, grabbing Sam and Tuck and pulling them to the ground right as Val flew through the space we had just occupied, slamming into the building beside us, and crumpling to the ground.

I groaned slightly, clutching my chest, but gritted my teeth. "That's it!" I yelled, and stomped off towards the nearest alleyway.

"Danny, no! You're going to hurt yourself!" Sam called after me, but it was just too much. I could barely handle ghosts in my town, let alone destroying everything and hurting people. I couldn't fight my obsession, but I could fight this ghost.

I looked either way as I reached the darkest part of the alley. Seeing as no one was around, I reached for that spot of cold inside me, triggering the transformation. The blue rings swept around my body, and my breath caught as my heart stuttered, and stopped beating. My chest ached, and I had to catch my bearings for a bit, but recovered quickly.

Thank god for super healing in my ghost form, the worst issue I would have was less energy at my disposal as compared to usual. Gravity slowly released me and I floated off the ground before turning and flying out of the dark side street.

"Thermos!" I called over to my friends, stopping briefly as Tucker searched his bag. Sam shook her head in disapproval, and I just grinned at her.

"I know I have one in here!" Tucker yelled at me before emptying the contents onto the street. Our heads turned as a huge crash echoed from behind, the cephalopod smashing into a tree, and starting towards Val, who had once again crashed into the ground.

"Save it." I told Tuck. Turning my head back towards the squid, I called out "Hey ugly!", bringing its attention away from the dazed Val and back towards me.

It was a relatively quick fight. As it heaved its huge grotesque body at me, I quickly analyzed the situation, smirking when I realized I had the advantage. Being covered in water; good when you're a sea creature, bad when fighting a ghost with an ice core.

I landed on the ground and pressed my hands into the ever-growing puddle leaking from the destroyed park fountain, eyes glowing a bright ice-blue. The thing screamed as ice slowly crept up its tentacles, freezing them solid. Once I had it good and stuck, I straightened up from the ground, and charged a green ecto-blast in my hands.

I hadn't felt this good since before the incident a couple days ago. Burning off the extra ecto-energy pumping through my veins, I could feel some of the human emotions lifted from my conscience. I hurled the sphere of energy at the beast, grinning as it hit the creature right between it's ugly eyes.

It screamed in pain. I drew in a sharp, unnecessary breath, as frozen as the squid in front of me. My shot had created a small crater in its flesh, singed black. The green solidified ectoplasm was a putrid color, and its green, gooey version of blood oozed from the wound. It tried to rock back and forth to get free, but it was stuck, completely at my mercy.

The gory smell of ectoplasm rolled over me, and I felt myself start to gag. My shaking hands reached around to grip my arms, as if I was trying to hold myself together. I failed.

Not even trying to fly, I turned invisible and sprinted back towards the alley I had transformed in. I lost my invisibility as I stumbled into a dumpster, and lost my transformation as my legs gave out and I fell to the ground. My entire body felt numb and dead, and I was shaking. I started sobbing as tears spilt down my cheeks, chest tightening and breath catching. It got harder and harder to breath, and I started getting dizzy. One of my hands made its way into my hair, grasping and holding it. I tried to breath, but all that came out were choking gasps.

"Oh my god..." I heard a small voice gasp. "Danny..." I felt arms wrap around me, and someone holding me. "Shhhhh... it's okay." I latched onto Sam, feeling a dam break inside of me, crying harder, but breathing a little more freely. She rocked me in her arms, letting me let it go.

"I... I can't." I told her.

"It's okay. Everything's okay."

I managed to pull myself together relatively quickly after that, actually pretty embarrassed.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, wiping my face off.

"No, Danny. It's okay." Her hand settled onto my shoulder. "Can I ask you a question?"

I nodded, and Tucker grabbed my hand and helped me to my feet. "Sure." I said. My legs were still a little weak, and I leaned against the dumpster.

"Has... this been happening a lot?"

I shook my head. "Nothing this bad really. I've been having some... nightmares lately. I've kind of freaked out like that before, but nothing this bad. It's just-" I searched for the right words. "It felt like that squid was me, and I was Maddie and Jack..." I rubbed my face with my hands.

"I get it." Tucker said. "You know dude, if you ever need to talk we're here for you."

I took a couple of deep breaths, just to collect myself, before turning back towards the main street. "What happened to the ghost?"

"Don't worry about it. Red Huntress got it, even though you did all the work."

I tried to smile. "Don't I always?"

We managed to finally make our way out onto the street. One destroyed statue sat in shambles, water and mist spraying weird directions and creating rainbows shimmering in the air. About half of the ruined fountain was covered in ice, and some larger blocks sat scattered around the scene. A thin coating of ice shined along the ground. As my eyes scanned the scene, I glimpsed a small pool of green which stood out from the rest of the clear water, but Sam quickly slid in front of my view.

The school loomed up ahead of us, tall and imposing, still about a block away when the bell went off.

"Well, that's just great." Tucker said. "What a wonderful addition to a fantastic morning."

I rolled my eyes, hands still a little shaky, chest still a bit tight. "Tell me about it."

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Yeah. Sorry Danny. I wrote the first half of this chapter and accidentally made him too happy, so of course, being me, I had to completely crush it. Sorry if I got the panic attack wrong, I've never really had a full-blown one, and it's hard writing from wikipedia articles.

Vlad will come in the next chapter, promise. I'm actually super pumped to write this next one. Yay!

Also, from this point on

Okay! You know what time it is! That's right! It's time for selfishly self-promoting!

If you like this story, feel free to leave a review, and feel free to check out some of my other stories! Especially Good to be King which I am ridiculously in love with and will be updating within the next week or so (I've got about half the next chapter written) then I'll start on the next chapter of this story. Your ETA is the first week of February for this next chapter (Sorry, finals suck).

So yeah. Follow. Fav. Review. Tell your friends.

Later Gator,

NerdyWriterGirl