The Ghost Zone is an infinite and mysterious place. It defies every law the human plane abides. The volume of this cosmos is indefinite, as it constantly shrinks and grows at its own will. It's as if the Ghost Zone is a sentient being itself, living, breathing, feeding off the very existence and emotions of its inhabitants.

Two inhabitants in particular were having a heated argument so great that their realm, hidden behind the door you would find in an eighties dive bar, bent aggressively around in hideous shades of red and brown.

"You are not going out with that Phantom girl!" screamed the boy, focusing on his girlfriend instead of repairing his precious motorcycle.

"Why not!" said the girl indignantly, "She's a good girl, I get her in more trouble than she could ever put me in. And besides, you were good friends with Danny if I recall."

"You were better friends, if I remember."
"That was only to make you jealous, and nothing ever happened! One fling over the thousands of girls you've been drooling over the past forty years."

Leaving him speechless, she smiled. "Got nothing to say about that?"

He then looked up in worry, "We both know there's a hit out for her head, Baby Doll. I just don't want to get hurt in the crossfire."

She was truly touched by his words. She knew well enough he wasn't any kind of poet, only charming and, if you can get past the greasy hair and grungy clothes, good looking. But just the way he said his words, a way where she knew he truly meant them, spoke greater volumes than any verse. It was one of the many reasons she fell in love with him, after all.
A split second later, concern for her living friend washed over her.

"That's another thing: Skulker wasn't the only one he hired. There are ghosts and humans that are going to go after her. We should at least warn her about the hit."

The boy was obviously annoyed that his charm failed. "We don't have to do anything! That little ecto-brat can handle herself and daddy dearest will go ape on any one who lays a pinky on his kid. We don't need to stick out necks for a girl who was doomed from day one!"

Incensed by her boyfriend's apathy, she turned to the door.

"Oh, Babe, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it like that."

Her hand was on the door when she turned her head towards him. "I'm not planning on being her babysitter again or anything, I just want to spend one night with her. We'll be at the Devil's Gate," she slammed the door behind her. A split second later she opened it again and stuck her head in. "And don't even think about having your stupid shadow follow me!" And she slammed the door again.

The boy went back to his bike as a form of meditation, even if didn't believe in the "guru karma garbage" as he put it. His shadow came alive and formed right next to him, awaiting the next command.

"Not this time, Shadow." he spoke to the inaudible umbra. "We should let her handle herself. It will be better for her if she scares herself away from the ecto-brat."

Shadow then looked at the door, his green circles for eyes formed into a shape of concern. The boy looked at his shadow worried. If an entity of pure misfortune showed worry, then there must be something to worry about.

"Fine, but don't follow Kitty. She'll have my head for it. Follow Ophelia, we both know that's where the trouble starts."

With that, Shadow melted into where the ground would be and slithered through the door.

"Where are we going again?" Trix inquired of her new friend. She was sitting on the bed of her friend's home, watching her get ready for the night.

"It's called Devil's Gate, it's a rock night club for teens. The name actually came from an old rock song from the seventies." Ophelia was putting on a hoop earring by her mirror.

"I thought this place was in the Ghost Zone?" Trix asked.

"It's for ghost teens," said Ophelia. "Dead kids love to rock out. Including halfas like me."

"I suppose," Trix agreed. "When do I get to see this friend of yours, anyhow?"

"Kitty?" Ophelia was reapplying her eye-liner and couldn't fix her gaze at her friend, "We'll be meeting her there. Her boyfriend forbids her from coming near our place."

"Why's that?"

"He thinks we're cursed. Ironic since he's the one with the bad luck shadow."

Just then a blue wisp flew form her lips. Ophelia scanned the room only to find Trix and her black shadow looming on the bed.

"Speak of the devil." she said as she flicked a spark of light onto the shadow. When the spark made contact the shadow twitched as one would do when pricked by a needle. At seeing this, Trix bolted off the bed as Shadow arose on the spot she had just sat.

"Is this the shadow you spoke of?" Trix said with surprise.

"Yep," Ophelia said. She turned to the dark apparition. "I'm guessing Johnny doesn't trust me around 'his girl' and sent you to follow me. Right?"

Somehow, the two-dimensional being managed to nod his head in confirmation.

"Seriously!" Ophelia said with annoyance thickly spread on every syllable. "He's known me forever, if anything I should be the mistrustful one." She paused for breath and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Ugh, whatever, fine. You can follow me around as my shadow for tonight, but if Kitty finds you, you and 13 are on your own."

With a fanged grin, Shadow leaped into the spot Ophelia's shadow would have been, had not the soft light of the room diffused it. Ophelia then got up and tested her pseudo shadow against the wall. He formed himself around every detail of her body to make the perfect silhouette, and then faded in opacity to match the amount of light against his subject.

Ophelia whistled.

"I have to admit, the guy knows how to blend into his surroundings"

When both girl, ghost, and shadow were ready, Ophelia opened a ghost portal with a snap of her fingers and they entered. As soon as Ophelia set foot on the alternate reality, two white rings formed at her waist and then moved up and down, turning her raven black hair snow white, and her flashing green eyes into glowing purple. Her skin tanned and her body glowed like her ghostly friend next to her.

Trix was startled at this change and Shadow altered his density to the new light.

"Why did you change form?" Trix asked, a new pair of purple eyes flashed at her.

"Hmm? Oh you mean this?" Ophelia asked, pointing to her hair and eyes. "It's a natural reflex I have. Since I can't separate my ghost half from my human half like my Dad can, my body instinctively charges form to fit my surroundings….at least, that's what we think happens. I can change back if I want to, but this will always be how I naturally look in the Ghost Zone. I don't bother. I honestly don't care how I look either way."

"Do you think this will change when you divide your halves successfully?"

Ophelia averted her eyes from Trix.

"I can't. I'm not like my Dad, there isn't anything to separate. And trying would…end me."

Trix looked at her hybrid friend nervously.

"I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me."

"It's okay, you didn't know."

"I'm not sure if it's my place to ask this, but are you sure that's something you should say so openly? With a life like yours, words like that could be dangerous if fallen onto the wrong ears."

Ophelia had a pang of regret, and responded to her friend with a little stress. "I know you're a good person, you wouldn't do anything to hurt me if you can help it."

"How do you know that? We've only known each other for a few days."

Ophelia's eyes flashed brightly at her friend. Trix felt like those eyes were digging into her very being and reading every secret she ever kept. "I'm just a great judge of character. I only associate myself with people I know would make good friends, and I've never been wrong so far."

Trix looked down at the floor at the third party projecting Ophelia's form.

"What about him?" she asked pointing at Shadow.

Ophelia looked down and shrugged.

"Eh, he can't talk. And he knows that if anything happened to me my Dad will toss him into the sun."

Shadow broke his character at that point to shudder at the thought of the deadly exposure to light.

After an awkward silence, Ophelia led the way to a red door molded and painted into the shape of a metal rod gate. Outside was Kitty, Ophelia ran up to her on sight.

"Kitty!" Ophelia exclaimed to her friend.

"Phé!" Kitty screamed at the sight of her friend. They hugged as if they haven't seen each other in years rather than months. After a few moments they broke their embrace and turned to Trix.

"Is this your new friend?" Kitty asked the snow-haired teen.

"Kitty, I like you to meet the newly independent Miss Beatrice the Amazing. But she likes to be called Trix."

"Pleasure to meet you Trix." said Kitty as she shook hands with the copper-haired ghost.

"The feeling's mutual, Kitty." said Trix politely.

"Shall we go in?" asked Ophelia.

"Let's" Both Kitty and Trix replied.

Devil's Gate, being a ghostly realm, somehow merged every form and style of rock seamlessly into one place. It blended in a British underground rock club with a Sunset Boulevard nightclub during the seventies with an casual American dive bar. There was a stage for bands to perform any variation of rock (but it would usually play the classics). There were tables and a bar area where people could sit and have a couple of drinks, though the bar was more of a formality and a force of habit, like most human things that ghosts do.

Ophelia and Kitty automatically took their usual table closest to the dance area. Trix followed soon after she examined the place, seating herself opposite to the close friends.

"So Trix," Kitty said to the quiet girl, "Phé told me that you haven't been in the Ghost Zone for a while."

"She did, did she?" Trix said skeptically, Ophelia just gave a shrug. "Well, Ophelia has told me a little about you too, like how your boyfriend has a second shadow over you." Ophelia's eyes glowed violet in protest, the color emphasized by her black eye-liner. Shadow squirmed a little, but not enough for anyone (especially Kitty) to notice.

"Is that so?" Kitty looked at Ophelia slyly and started to laugh. "It's okay, she has a little issue with keeping secrets. She knows how to keep big ones, like the ones that could do serious damage if they fall onto the wrong ears. The little ones don't go through her filter well."

"Well, you're no better." Ophelia retorted in a jocular tone.

Kitty looked at her friend in an equal jocular glare. "When have I ever given away any of your secrets?"

"How about the time when you told my school that I skipped class and let a duplicate take my place. I missed the whole lesson and I still got an A on Mr. Darwin's pop quiz."

"Yeah sorry about that, I didn't know your duplication powers wasn't public knowledge. You probably wouldn't have to sign the Contract if I didn't tell them."

Ophelia nearly hissed at the words but managed to shrug instead. "It's alright, I can't stay mad at you."

They laughed a little and Ophelia got up from the table.

"I'm going to go get us some drinks, what would you guys like?"

"I'll take a soda." said Kitty.

"I'll take a malt, please." said Trix with Kitty blinking at her before realizing that Trix must be from a time before soda.

"Two sodas and a malt," said Ophelia, "I'll be right back." she headed to the bar to get the drinks, leaving Trix and Kitty alone with each other.

"So Trix," Kitty said to the timid ghost, "how did you meet Ophelia?"

"Nothing too big," said Trix, "she recused me from slavery by an insane magician with a cheesy mustache."

"The usual," Kitty laughed

"And how did you become friends?" asked Trix.

"I knew her parents back when they still were clueless teens." Explained Kitty, "I had Johnny help me possess her aunt's body since he fried mine in the Fenton Portal. We started a friendly antagonistic relationship with the Fentons ever since. I was actually Ophelia's babysitter back when she was little. Well, littler."

Trix thought this would be a perfect time to ask what was bothering her since her escape.

"Did you ever notice, when you were babysitting her, certain marks on her skin?"

Kitty's smile quickly faded and her face darkened.

"You mean the scars. Yeah, when she was little they were actually stuck on her all the time. Somehow she managed to heal enough for them to disappear. It was taboo to mention them but I knew what had happened."

"What?" asked Trix with worry.

Kitty looked up from the table, her eyes pained to mention them.

"If it's alright with you, I'd rather not talk about it. Not only would it be a betrayal of her trust but the pain of the experience she had went through is so potent that just listening to the story hurts…" she looked out, not staring out anywhere in particular. "The things some are capable of doing, and to a child no less, it makes you lose faith…." Her eyes flicked back to Trix, as if remembering she was still there. "Honestly, you're better off not knowing."

Trix seemed to understand, but she still held great concern for her friend. If what happened to Ophelia was worse than what she had seen back in the Presto Theatre, maybe she was better off.

"The scars weren't as bad," Kitty said, an unenthusiastic smile on her face, "after you spend a little time with her you forget they are there at all." Her smile got just a little bit warmer. "She's got some heck of a personality, gets it from her mother. She can grab the room by the ear and pull them towards her without even trying. Sometimes I wish Johnny and I had a little rugrat of our own, and that they were like her."

They were back on lighter subjects when Ophelia returned with their drinks and three coins

"What are these for?" asked Trix. Ophelia and Kitty smiled as they picked their coins from the table.

"They're for the jukebox." said Kitty.

"What jukebox?" The moment Trix asked, a little jukebox machine appeared right by her. "Oh"

"Pick a song," Said Ophelia as she flipped through the selection. "stick the coin in and the band will play it as a request." Ophelia then picked the song "People are Strange" and stuck the coin in as she had just instructed. As soon as the last song ended, the band played the requested song without any hesitation. The band sounded exactly like the Doors as if the band themselves were possessing the group and giving a "live" performance for them. Trix was amazed at the sight, she was reminded even more that she has been gone from the Ghost Zone for way too long.

Kitty seemed to be reading her mind because she then asked "Do you have your own realm?"

Pulled back from her thoughts she replied "Yes, I do."

"It must have gone to ruin in your absence." Kitty said and then stared at her drink when Ophelia's eyes glowed at her.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would've been. All I really had to do was a little weed trimming and bookcase dusting. It's still not completely cleaned up but I can at least live in there...for lack of a better word."

"We'd love to come over when you fixed up the place." Ophelia said with a warm smile. "I want to see what you call home. We can always help you with the cleaning too." Kitty didn't look too happy on cleaning someone's house."Well, I can always help you, anyway."

"Thanks," said Trix, "but I can handle it myself. Besides, my place is a little shy so it won't let you clean if it doesn't know you well. It's already got abandonment issues, making it hard for me to clean."

"I understand," said Ophelia, "I have a realm of my own. I know how hard it is to manage it, especially when it absorbs your moodiness."

Kitty and Trix were both wide-eyed in surprise. "You have a realm in the Ghost Zone?" they said simultaneously.

"Technically it's my Dad's realm. He got it when the Observants gave him dual citizenship in the Ghost Zone. Sometimes, though, I think it likes me better. Or maybe it's my Dad's paternal instinct rubbing off on it, which I guess still counts as it liking me better."

"Why didn't you ever tell me you had your own realm?" asked Kitty, surprised her close friend could keep such an amazing secret from her.

"I thought I already did." Ophelia shrugged, "It isn't that hard to miss, it's got my Dad's emblem on the door. My family has a little habit of putting their names on everything."

Kitty laughed knowing what Ophelia was referring to. Like his parents, Danny had said tendency to put his name on anything he had made or improved. Instead of a car or a baseball bat with the word "Fenton" on it, he would mark whatever ghostly work he had done with the DP emblem. The emblem would even be stuck on a bad guy if the fight was so spectacular that he had to let people know who the guy went up against. That is the only form of show boating Danny allowed himself to do when crime fighting. Ophelia never really inherited this trait. Instead, she tried her best not to leave any trace of herself. The last thing she wanted was attention, and she tried her best never to get it. Which, as Kitty knew from experience, was nowhere near good enough.

They had been there for a while, they nearly lost track of the time. Ophelia nearly forgot about Shadow but a a couple of squirms when the lights hit him reminded her of the fourth party at the table. Kitty and Trix were getting along faster than Ophelia could've imagined, and she was glad. She needed them to be friends so Trix would have someone in the Ghost Zone to go to.

The three of them each picked a song from the jukebox and now wanted another round. Ophelia got up from the table to purchase more coins from the bar. When she got there she felt an eerie presence. This isn't the eerie presence one would get from a ghost, that would be silly to feel such a way in the Ghost Zone. This is the eerie presence of someone that she didn't know was watching her. That someone was at the edge of the bar. If she wasn't having such a great time with her friends, Ophelia would have noticed them. The person was a woman about her parents age (who, unlike them, actually showed it) with red hair and purple eyes. Ophelia could tell the woman was human, but that didn't make her any less worried. Ophelia got the coins, trying not to stare too much at the woman as she returned to the table. As soon as she put the coins down a laser was shot directly at her. Ophelia was able to dodge it by an inch and the laser blasted the table behind her startling the ghost seated there. Ophelia turned to find, to no surprise, that the red haired woman had shot the blast from a gun strapped to her wrist.

Everyone started to flee the club as soon as the first shot was fired. Ophelia turned to the tender and was about to tell him to notify the police when she remembered that ghosts try to avoid the police as much as possible. Especially since Walker heads the police department in the Ghost Zone and would quite possibly throw the caller in jail for some minor rule he would make up on the spot.

She turned to her friend Trix "Get the Police!" she demanded and Trix was on her way. The red haired woman tried to shoot at Trix, but she managed to dodge and slip through the door before another shot could be fired.

"Let me guess," Ophelia told the red haired woman, "You're after me for the bounty."

The woman smiled "How did you guess?" she said in a mocking tone.

"Am I really worth a billion dollars to him? I'm touched." Ophelia put up a shield to block another hit as she said this.

"Your corpse is worth a billion, the bounty is double for the person who takes you in alive." the woman pulled out what looked like a red version of the Fenton Wraithe Rangler and tossed a lasso at Ophelia. Ophelia grabbed the lasso so it wrapped around her wrist and used it to pull the woman off balance and swung her around. When she let go the woman flew into the empty stage and land right into the abandoned drum set.

"There are a thousand drum puns I can do right now, but they are too lame to even mention." Ophelia said.

"Looks like someone's getting beat." Kitty said, oblivious of Ophelia's statement.

"Like that one." Ophelia said annoyed.

The woman picked up a cymbal and tossed it at Ophelia. The cymbal passed harmlessly through her without her having to turn herself intangible.

"I'm half human, you know that right?" Ophelia said in response to the woman's surprise "Humans are intangible to anything in the Ghost Zone and so am I. If you wanted to capture a half-human in the Ghost Zone, you should have known that."

The woman smiled.

"I do."

The cymbal cut through a rope and an ecto-net dropped on Ophelia trapping her. When she tried to break out, the woman pushed a button on her wrist and a electrical current zapped Ophelia. She walked over to her and bent down to eye level.

"I was trained by the best and have been catching ghosts for twenty-four years. I have caught bigger and more powerful ghosts than some whiny little teenager with ectoplasm in her chromosomes. You are coming with me, whether you like it or not. And if you have any sense, you won't."

She was about to grab Ophelia when a ghost ray hit her in the shoulder and knocked her across the room. The shot was made by Kitty.

"I'm guess you aren't that good if you forgot about the whiny teenager's friend." she retorted to the woman.

"Banter later. Rescue now, please." Said Ophelia, still struggling under the electric net. Kitty ran over and tried to pull the net off of Ophelia, only to be shocked by the current.

"No use, can't touch it." Kitty said.

"Does this place have a basement?" Ophelia asked.

"They must to stash some of their equipment."

"Perfect." with that Ophelia phased through the floor, leaving her "shadow" behind.

The woman got up and hit Kitty with her wrist laser, now set to work as a taser. Kitty fell to her knees from the shock.

"There's no money in it for me if I destroy you, not that ghosts can be destroyed." the woman said "But it will be very enlightening to see what happens to a ghost when their energy is completely zapped from them." The woman reset the laser and shot at Kitty, now screaming as the laser ate away at her physical form.

Ophelia phased through the floor and floated to the net. The net glowed with her hand and was lifted to the air. She commanded "Get her" to the freed shadow on the ground. Shadow slithered across the floor and pounced on the woman knocking her to the ground. The wrist laser broke when hitting the ground and the ray zapping Kitty disappeared. Ophelia went to her friend to see if she was fine, and they both watched as Shadow was giving the woman a royal beat down.

"What's the matter," Ophelia taunted, "Can take down ghost ten times your size but can't handle their shadow."

"I told Johnny not sick his stupid shadow on me." Kitty said, eyes glued to the fight.

"Technically Shadow was following me around and I'm pretty glad he did. Saves me a lot of energy."

"Do you think we should kill the lights before she figures out he's photophobic?"

"On it." Ophelia then used her ghost ray to blast every spotlight on the stage and on the dance floor so all that was left were the dim lights of the club, completely harmless to Shadow and allows the girls to watch the fight before the police can arrive.

By the time GZPD arrived the woman was tied up in rope Ophelia had produced with her ghost energy, already finished with her long winded speech about seeking revenge on the girls for defeating her and having her arrested.

Trix was there with the police as well as Danny Phantom, who was called up by Walker as soon as he heard the word "Fenton" in the same sentence as the word "assassin". He was at his daughter's side before he set his feet on the ground.

"Are you okay? Is she okay?" He said to Ophelia and Kitty respectively while checking on Ophelia for injuries.

"Whatever cuts and bruises she may have gotten are gone now and as far as can see there's no concussion or anything like that." Kitty said, far too used to these lines of questioning from her babysitting days. "Honestly, I think I got it worse than she did, thanks for asking."

"Are you sure? She looks flushed."

"That's because you're embarrassing me." Ophelia grumbled.

"Well excuse me for being concerned when his child gets nearly killed three times in one month."

"You're excused," Ophelia said dryly.

Danny gave her a stern look that warmed into a smile and a hug.

"I'm glad you're okay." He said.

"Kitty!"

Johnny came through the doorway, pushing his way through GZPD officers as a greasy-haired blur until he made it to Kitty's side. She didn't get a chance to greet him before ensnared her in a long kiss and worried embrace.

"I rode straight here the minute I heard sirens pass by our realm." He said as soon as he pulled away, "What happened?"

"I'm fine, Johnny," she said, after a momentary daze from the sudden display of affection. "Just a little out of shape from the fight, but I'll be good in the morning."

"I told you this would happen." Johnny said, partly angry, partly scared, partly glad to be in those rare moments where he's right.

"And I told you not to sic your stupid shadow on me," Kitty snapped back.

"I didn't, I had him follow Ophelia."

"Do I look like I care about semantics!"

"You should, since it just saved your afterlife!"

"How about we leave the happy couple to their bickering," Danny said, "You don't want to get caught in their spats."

"Don't have to tell me twice." Ophelia said, racing after her father.

When Danny approached the woman they immediately recognized each other.

"Phantom." said the woman in disgust.

"Well if it isn't Vivian Redd, or would you rather go by Vid." replied Danny to the former member of Masters' Blasters.

"I go by Vendetta now." said the woman.

"That's a silly name." Danny said, eyebrow raised. "Who would you seek revenge on?"

"If it weren't for your little quibbles with Masters, I wouldn't have risen to the top to fall rock bottom in the trash heap."

"That's a perfectly sane reason to don the name Vedetta and try to kill me." Ophelia said with an eye roll and a heavy coat of sarcasm.

When Vendetta was hauled away Ophelia looked around the Devil's Gate and realized that it was in shambles.

"This place won't be open for a while." Danny said while looking around with his daughter.

"It's a crying shame too." Ophelia said "I like this place. It'll be bankrupt when they finally put this place together."

"There's a beauty in the Ghost Zone, Ophelia. When a realm is well liked and leaves an imprint on people, it heals itself based on that imprint."

At that moment, the place seemed to be putting itself together as the shattered glass vanished and the broken furniture started to put itself back together again.

"Is Johnny okay with you hanging around Kitty again?" asked Darcy.

Ophelia was now at school and she had just explained to her friends what had occurred over the weekend.

"Probably not," Ophelia explained, "They were still arguing by the time we left, but most likely scenario has me not allowed to breathe the same air as her. But that doesn't mean I'll never see her again, she does her own thing."

"This Vendetta chick, was she really put away?"

"Yes, she's in Walker's jail right now in the Ghost Zone. Once they finish with the courts they'll trade her off with Skulker and take her to a prison in the Human Plane."

"Aren't you worried, Ophelia?" asked the very concerned Owen. "Three people have tried to kill you in the past month. This bounty thing is serious, What if one of these guys actually succeed?"

Ophelia hid her surge of concern with a smile. "If the person behind all of this is who I think he is, then he won't hire anyone that can actually kill me. He wants me alive, I don't know why but he does. He'll pick someone who will be good enough to either capture me or make me go insane enough to turn myself in. My family can manage, we've been through worse. You don't have to worry about me."

At the Thirteenth Precinct and at Walker's Prison at the same time, two prisoners were being swapped for appropriate incarceration. One Vivian Redd was to be transferred to the Human Plane and one tiny Skulker to be transferred to the Ghost Zone. This was the plan at least. However, three ghostly vultures broke into Walker's Prison and took away both prisoner's from the vicinities.

Once far enough away in the Ghost Zone and released from their cuffs, both hunters asked the three very old birds why they were sent to break them out. They responded by saying it was part of the Boss's plan. When pressed further, one of the birds gave each of the hunters a communication device. They will be called when they are needed and shall await further instructions until then.

The hunters looked at each other knowing who organized their escape. It was the same man who had hired them in the first place. They knew when they were given their orders, it will somehow involve the Fentons once again.