Summary: A month after leaving Slade, Danny just wants to forget the whole ordeal and move on. But he can't let it go, whether he's awake or asleep. And it doesn't help when Slade returns, with perhaps his most sinister plan yet. DS
Hi, people! JK rulez back with the third and final installment to "The Phantom Apprentice" trilogy! I never expected this to go for three stories. I started with one idea, but I thought it would make it too much like Teen Titans "Apprentice", and then too much like another fic I read. Then I just chose to make it long-running, to Danny being Slade's apprentice, and then afterward. It just didn't feel like I should stop at two.
Wait's over! Here we go with "Never Easy"! I don't own Danny Phantom or Teen Titans.
Never Easy
Chapter One: Past, Present, and Future
Looking almost fearful, an average built teenage ghost with white hair, green eyes, and a jumpsuit with the letter S on it, flew through the interior of a large building at a fast and furious pace, watching his prey below him.
A teen with long red hair and a black shirt, another girl who wore all black and her hair in a bun, and a boy with black skin, a yellow shirt, a beret, and glasses. All of them had rips in their clothes, bruises and blood on their skin, and were out of breath.
Despite the fact that he seemed almost unwilling to attack, he fired a blast of green energy at them. A little of it hit all three of them and sent them crashing to the corner of a wall.
"No!" the girl in black cried, "Stop!"
The boy being chased then shouted to the ghost, "Don't do this! We're your friends!"
The girl with red hair called out, "Stop this! Please!"
He appeared to be listening to their words but responded, "I can't stop. I must do this."
From above him in one of the rafters, a tall figure encased in patches of body armor, with his faced concealed behind a black and orange mask, spoke coldly to him.
"Indeed, you must. Finish them off now."
Even as he powered up another blast, he screamed, "NO!"
The three trapped against the wall began to huddle close together, in fear of what their fate was.
With the blast in his hands at full power and himself staring at them with fear in his eyes, he fired a blast out of both hands.
BAM!
With tremendous power, the blast hit all three of them, large enough to hit every part of them at once.
Overtaken by the blast as the smoke cleared, the three of them fell to the ground, all with their eyes shut and their bodies falling limp. Looking frantic, the ghost flew down to all of them.
Tears were forming in his own eyes as he checked their Adams' apples for pulses. Nothing, nothing, and nothing.
Hardly believing what he had done, he simply sat there, hanging his head and staring at the ground.
The figure up in the rafters jumped down, landing harmlessly and gracefully on the ground. He walked towards the ghost, saying in pleasure, "Excellent work, Danny. You have thoroughly proven yourself worthy of my trust. I'm very proud."
Danny Phantom stumbled back, saying sharply, "No! What have you done to me?"
"I haven't done anything to you, or to them. You destroyed them yourself. That's who you are now, Danny. That's who you'll always be. That's who you were going to be, no matter how you tried to prevent it."
At this time, Danny was at a loss for words.
Finally, after moments of his throat seeming constricted, Danny roared at the top of his lungs.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!"
Danny Fenton's scream continued as he suddenly sat up in bed.
(He's a Phantom)
(Danny Phantom, Phantom, Phantom)
Young Danny Phantom, he was just fourteen
When his parents built a very strange machine
It was designed to view a world unseen
(He's gonna catch 'em all 'cause he's Danny Phantom)
When it didn't quite work, his folks, they just quit
But then Danny took a look inside of it
There was a great big flash, everything just changed
His molecules got all rearranged
(Phantom, Phantom)
When he first woke up, he realized
He had snow-white hair and glowing green eyes
He could walk through walls, disappear and fly
He was much more unique than the other guys
And it was then that he knew what he had to do
He had to stop all the ghosts that were coming through
He's here to fight for me and you
(He's gonna catch 'em all 'cause he's Danny Phantom)
(He's gonna catch 'em all 'cause he's Danny Phantom)
Gonna catch 'em all 'cause he's (whisper) Danny Phantom
Lights from houses surrounding his own came on, the residents obviously surprised by the noise.
When Danny finally stopped, he looked around frantically. He sighed when he saw that he was in his room. Alone. With no potential danger around.
Cold sweat drenched Danny's face as he looked at his clock. It read 2:47 AM.
He sighed as he whispered to himself, "Not again."
Before he could think anymore, his door burst open and Jack, Maddie, and Jazz ran inside, Jack and Maddie with their weapons drawn.
"Where is it!" Jack shouted, "Where's the ghost!"
Maddie cried, "Danny, is there one in here?"
Danny put his hands up and answered, "No! No, just relax. There are no ghosts. I just had a nightmare."
"Again?" Jazz retorted as she raised an eyebrow, "You've been having a lot lately."
"I know, I know. I've just had a lot to do lately."
Maddie looked curiously at him, "What could you have had to do? You've been out of school over a month, and you've just been hanging out with Sam and Tucker since summer began."
"Uh, just don't sweat it, Mom. It's just…teen stuff."
"Well, alright, Danny. But if this keeps up, we're taking you to see a therapist."
"Noted."
"Alright, let's all go back to bed." She and Jack turned around and passed through Danny's door.
Jazz, however, stayed.
She walked towards Danny's bed and said to him, "Was it him again?"
Danny sighed, "Yeah. Slade. Eleventh time since July began, fourteenth time since I left him."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
The ghost boy sighed again, "I guess."
Jazz sat down next to him as Danny sat up, continuing, "I can't help it. Every time I dream about him, involves me just in his old lair, and destroying you, Sam, and Tucker."
"I see. And how do you feel when you're doing this?"
"I feel…like I don't want to, but at the same time, I feel like I must and I have no other choice. And Slade claims that I do it by myself, that's who I am, and that's all I will be."
"You haven't forgotten last month, have you?"
"It'll never leave me, Jazz. Not ever. And I don't think my general fear of him will leave me either. During that fight with him, I thought I didn't fear him anymore. That's what I thought, but…I was wrong."
Jazz put one arm around her brother, "I think you need to relax, Danny. It's not healthy to be troubled by so many nightmares."
"What do you expect me to do? Slade's still out there; I know it. And who knows what he may still have in store for me? Or all of you guys? He might be willing to try anything just to get me!"
"KEEP IT DOWN! IT'S ALMOST THREE IN THE MORNING!" Jack's voice thundered from downstairs.
Jazz replied to Danny in a whisper, "Danny, just calm down a little. Come here." She got up and walked over to Danny's dresser. There, she picked up a picture as Danny walked towards her.
She held the picture out for him, "Look at this."
Danny took the picture and looked at it. It showed him, along with his two best friends, Jazz, and his parents, all smiling happy and in front of Fenton Works.
Danny found himself smiling as he looked at the picture.
Jazz smiled back as she said, "That's why you don't need to fear anything, Danny. Because you have people who love you and who care about you. People that will never let anything bad happen to you, and who will always be there for you. You know that."
Danny nodded, still smiling at his sister, "Yeah."
"Good," Jazz said as he leaned over and kissed Danny's cheek. Danny grimaced but said nothing.
With a smile at the fact that she had calmed her brother down, Jazz turned around and walked out, closing Danny's door behind her, leaving her brother with a look of peace and harmony etched across his face.
"The time is coming," a cold voice said in an office inside a glowing green building in a deep realm of the Ghost Zone.
He looked at a large arch in front of him with a series of controls next to it with an open case, a cylinder-shaped device on a desk, and then a screen on a computer.
The man, whose face was hidden behind a mask, and with armor all over himself, said, "Come August 1st, one week from today, my moment of triumph will finally arrive. The correct time will finally be here."
Behind him, a calendar with the month of August hung on the wall, with one with the month of July next to it. For the first of August, a large red circle was around the box for the day, and inside it, was a small black circle.
"It's taken me weeks, but I've finally discovered my last ingredient. The key to the execution of my plan. It will work when powered, thanks to my…former apprentice for his retrieval of the experimental power cell.
"Skulker's dimension twister, Axion's power cell, all I need is to take one more trip, and victory will be at hand.
"And Danny Phantom…will be history."
Oh, boy! Looks like Slade has something nasty planned for our favorite ghost boy! And it looks like it all goes down on August 1st! But what could it be? And why does it have to be that day? For now, just wait until Chapter 2!
Just so you know, this fic will NOT end on August 1st just to match the story.