Once the children were back in their shared room the girl thanked them both and then she and her brother ran off to their parents' bedroom. Valerie sympathized. If she were one of those kids, she wouldn't want to sleep alone, either.

She and Phantom lingered outside the window until the sounds of concerned parents could be heard in the background. Satisfied with this confirmation that the children were safe and cared for, they drifted off, floating up and above Amity Park.

"How did those kids get into the park?" Valerie broke the silence that had settled between them.

"Whatever that thing was it captured them. I must have chased him out of half a dozen bedrooms before he got those kids."

"I can't believe you let him kidnap those kids." Anger rose up in her voice. If she had been the one chasing the ghoul, it never would have laid a hand on anyone's children.

"I didn't mean to," Phantom snapped back defensively. "He was just so damn, fast and it was so hard to get them away from him without hurting them, too..." His voice trailed off. "The important thing is they're safe now."

"I suppose so." They stared out at blinking town lights for a moment, another silence passing between them.

"What did it want with them, anyway?" Valerie finally asked.

"I don't know." Phantom said, sadly. "All I know is that it wanted children."

"Maybe we found the boogie man."

"Maybe."

It might have been funny but they didn't laugh. Valerie sighed.

"It's just so... I don't know. What's with the universe and human spirits that people can become things like that or that things like that can appear?"

Phantom looked at her, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise and his glowing green eyes clearly curious. This was far more of a conversation than they usually had and it wasn't like Valerie to open up to him like that.

He knew Valerie could be compassionate and introspective, almost too a fault but he knew this from his relationship with her as his alter ego, Danny Fenton. They'd dated the summer before their Junior year. They'd gotten close but she'd never known about his secret, that it was actually the same boy floating next to her now. It had almost been a relief when the relationship fell apart due to non-ghost related circumstances and the two of them had drifted into friendship. He was used to her saying things like that to Danny Fenton but hearing her talk to Danny Phantom like this sent a bit of a shock through him.

"What?" she snapped. "I guess being a ghost this all seems just fine to you, so long as you can act out your hero obsession."

"No!" He jumped back. "Wait... what? Of course I think it's awful. But people do some pretty terrible things to each other, too. And I don't know... it all just sucks sometimes."

Valerie grunted in reply.

"Clockwork says that it's the price of free will for all things, being able to chose the wrong as well as the right. And as long as we are able to choose some people are going to chose wrong." Phantom said softly.

"Who's Clockwork?"

"A friend of mine. He's an old ghost."

"Oh." Somehow, Valerie had never pictured ghosts having friends. The thought was a bit foreign to her.

They flew quietly in silence for a bit longer, lazily making their way over the town, keeping one eye out for any trouble. The night was warm and clear and flying made the humidity tolerable. Ordinarily one or the other would have excused themselves by this point or another fight would have occurred between the two of them, ending in insults and threats as they zoomed away into the night. Maybe it was the children, Valerie thought. She had to admit she'd been a bit shaken up by the whole capturing and planning on doing God-knows-what with innocents by that terrible creature. Perhaps the ghost of a boy beside her had been, too.

"Would you like to go for a flight?"

"What?" Valerie's head snapped up as his voice knocked her out of her thoughts and back into the present.

"Would you like to go for a flight?"

"We are flying." Valerie looked at him quizzically, even though he probably couldn't see her behind her visor.

"I mean, like out of town. It's just... well it's been a weird night. I don't know about you but I could use a break." So it had shaken him up. Huh. "I mean, we already caught to bad guy."

"O...okay." Valerie, caught herself stuttering in surprise to the offer. But this doesn't mean we're friends, she reminded herself.