And here is the sequel to "Shadowy Rose, Dark Path"! I have finally worked out a nice plot line for this, and I know exactly how it will go.

It's been a year since Rose melted. It's been a year since my boyfriend sacrificed himself to save me from Plasmius. And it's been a year since I've been able to think about him without thinking about how he nearly died.

My parents collected the ectoplasmic puddle of goo that used to be my boyfriend and the shattered remains of his core and stabilized him. He was alive, but just barely, and it was like he was in a coma. He had little to no brain activity, and his core was repairing itself very slowly. Sometimes he reformed for small time periods, a second or two here and there. But it was like he was really there. Every time he reformed, Rose was in the same position; smiling, reaching out to me. I always reached back, as though if I could just touch him he would stay there with me; he always melted before I could touch him.

Everyone at school had been told he was very very sick and that was why he hadn't come back to school. Everyone knew that Shadow had sacrificed himself for Phantom, and no one knew that Shadow was Rose and that I was Phantom. Well, except my parents, my friends, and Jazz. They were the biggest reason why I hadn't snapped yet, being unable to see my boyfriend even in my dreams without remembering how he had nearly killed himself to protect me.

My parents were doing all that they could to jump-start his mind and make him wake up; they believed that if they could just make him wake up, his body would reform even without his half-repaired core. He wouldn't be able to use any of his powers, nor would he be able to transform, but he would be here. And I would be content with that. Anything to see my boyfriend again without the pain of his sacrifice clouding my memories of him.

My friends were right by my side the entire time; they didn't complain when I got angry over something ridiculous; they didn't care when I would get so depressed that I couldn't move; they never once even looked like they wanted to just walk away. Sam and Tucker always listened whenever I needed to vent my frustration, and they understood my frustration too; Rose had been their friend as well. We were all relying on each other, and it made a sort of web of trust between us. We were there for each other, and it made it much less difficult to get through the days as we waited.

Jazz helped the most. She had nailed down all of the breakable possessions in the house, which really wasn't a lot because of what my parents did, and she let me scream and shout at her for no reason other than that I was angry and couldn't find someone to yell at. She never held it against me; she would sit there and let me hurl insults at her and I had destroyed her room more than once in a fit of fury. Afterwards, Jazz always held me the way she used to when I was little and had a nightmare, just whispering words of comfort in my ear as I cried and apologized.

I had never cried so much than I did the year during which Rose was sitting in a beaker as ectoplasmic goo. It wasn't all-out sobbing, but it wasn't just a few tears sliding down my cheeks either. I often didn't sleep for fear of having nightmares of Rose melting again; as much as I wanted to see Rose again, my mind couldn't conjure up any memory of him without thinking of him melting.

It was my birthday, April 3rd, when I finally got news of Rose. My parents ran into my room at 4 in the morning, and they shook me awake. It was Saturday and I had been expecting to sleep in, but once I saw their excited faces I knew that they had pulled Rose out of his ghost coma. They didn't even need to tell me; I jumped right out of bed, all thoughts of sleep forgotten, and I ran to the lab. Technically, we weren't supposed to run in the house because of how dangerous the house could be, but my parents made an exception for this.

When I got to the lab, I finally saw what I had been hoping to see for the past year. Rose stood in the exact center of the lab, looking exactly as he had when he had melted; he was in Shadow form, but his ghostly glow was gone. His back was to me, but I could tell he was trying to figure out what was going on. He hadn't noticed me, not yet; he must have sensed his own core though, because he coughed painfully and staggered towards the bulletproof case that his core was in.

It still wasn't completely reformed, and as I watched I realized that Rose wasn't completely reformed either. He was trailing ectoplasmic goo after him, and it followed him towards his core. He reached out silently as I watched, frozen in shock, and he placed his hand on the case his core was in. I could see his face now, and his one remaining eye was completely grey; I realized he couldn't see anything. His core pulsed as his hand come close, and yet his face twisted into an expression of fury and pain as he couldn't reach his core. His eye regained some color, though; it glowed turquoise a little.

As I watched him, he swung his hand at the bulletproof glass than encased his core; I wanted to tell him that that wouldn't work, I had tried that myself before, but my mouth wouldn't move. And yet, his hand smashed the glass to dust and shards. Rose panted, looking exhausted just from the slight movements he had made, but he reached out and touched his core.

It pulsed again, louder this time, and it actually began to repair itself quickly. Without the ghost who owned it, it must not have been able to repair quickly. But when its ghost touched it... Rose's core finished repairing itself after I found myself able to move again. Rose turned his core intangible and let it back into his body, and his ghostly glow returned. His eye regained its color completely, and he sighed. He blinked once, twice, and then he swung his head towards me.

"Rose," I whispered, unable to manage anything more than that in my unending joy at having my boyfriend back. He regarded me for a moment, and then a small smile came over his face. He looked like he was confused, and he probably was. His purple rings formed around his waist and spread, turning him back into the dark purple-haired boy I had known when I was a child. His hair fell back over his empty eye socket,

"Danny," came his voice, weak and raspy from disuse, and that was when I couldn't contain myself anymore. I flung myself at tiny Rose, tackling him with a hug. He stumbled back a little, surprised and still weak, but I felt a smile on his face. It was a confused smile, proving that he really didn't know what was going on, but he rubbed his hands over my back as a way of calming me down. "I'm sorry for leaving you alone, Danny," he said, his voice a little flat as though he couldn't hear himself, "but it's okay. I'm here now. You don't have to be afraid anymore."

I couldn't bring myself to tell him how worried I had been, how much I had missed him. All I could manage was a choked, "You're back."

***line break***

Rose was really tired, and I kept him company on the couch as he slept. He refused to let me carry him to my room, but he also couldn't walk that far. When Jazz woke up to find me cradling Rose's head in my lap as he slept, she nearly shouted for joy. She yelped as it was, and nearly woke up Rose. She hugged me tightly and pet Rose's hair softly before going to make breakfast. She figured that Rose would be hungry when he woke up.

For the first time in a while, I thought about Johnny 13 and Kitty. They had been devastated when Rose had melted, and I knew why now. Rose had pretty much been raised by them; he was pretty much their only child. The only thing that had stopped them from staying at the Fenton household (even my parents had wanted them to stay because they knew how much it would hurt to lose a child) was that Johnny needed to get fixed up at the ghost hospital and Kitty couldn't leave his side.

Kitty had left his side only once to tell me that Johnny's back had been broken in five places and that he would never walk again. He used a wheelchair now, and his Shadow usually wheeled him around. I wondered how happy they would be when they learned that Rose had reformed. I wondered how upset Rose would be when he learned that his foster father would never walk again.

For now, though, everything was perfect. And that was all I could ask for.