* Chapter edited September 6, 2010.


Woot! The next chapter's up! Okay, just for those reviewers who said they've never actually seen an episode of Naruto (you know who I'm talking about) this chapter provides a little inside on Haku's dark past.

Note: Ghosts do need to eat in all my stories (In Prisoners of Love, Walker's prison had a cafeteria, and ghosts were eating), they also need to breath (in Doctor's Disorders, Bertrand had to wear a mask while he was gassing all the rooms to prevent himself from breathing it), and they need sleep (I can't think of any episodes off the top of my head where a ghost has slept, but I'm putting it in anyway).

Disclaimer: I don't own DP or Naruto, but Sheila and Gyl are mine.

Chapter Eight: Awake

Running.

Danny was running. From what, he did not know yet, but he knew he had to keep moving, to not let them catch him. Somehow, he found he couldn't go ghost or use any of his powers as he tore through the frozen night air, the bare branches of a dormant and snowy forest trying to snare him in their wooden limbs with every step. But still Danny tried to push on, even though every step seemed to send pain shooting up his leg, and every swat of a tree branch felt like razor sharp claws raking across his arms and face.

The deep snow had long since frozen his feet and lower legs, and with the constant raking of tree limbs his arms and hands had become bloody and raw. Everything in him screamed to stop, to just give up and succumb to the cold embrace of death that was already starting to take hold in the young halfa's body. But his mind thought otherwise as he heard voices shouting behind him, such as "Get him! He can't have gone far!" or "He can't run forever! We've got the whole valley surrounded!"

Suddenly, he came to a clearing, bringing the light of the full moon out into the open, and granting momentary freedom from the deadly trees. A smile crossed Danny's face as he knew he might be able to lose his pursuers, completely forgetting about the clear tracks he left behind in the snow. But, as he swerved to the left, his left ankle caught onto a fallen log that had been hidden beneath the snow. He fell into the glistening powder with a dull thud—the two feet of it muffling his impact—unable to get back on his feet.

How ironic... Danny thought as the blood from his arms starting to stain the snow around him a rich red, then to black as it started to freeze in the chilled air. I have ice powers, and I'm going to freeze to death out in the middle of nowhere, running from I don't know what. He closed his eyes, finally allowing the relieving and welcoming embrace of death envelope him, as the shouts grew closer.

Suddenly, though, and without warning, something big, feathery, and scaly grabbed onto him and lifted him up out of the snow and into the air. Danny, being broken out of his near death trance, stared up in awe at what had grabbed him.

An icy blue gryphon, at least seven feet tall and ten long, was clutching him cradle-style in its scaly forelegs, the beast's feathery midnight blue wings outstretched in a glide on the rising wind.

"Hold on. I know somewhere that's safe." A young girl, maybe 14 or 15, called from in front of the gryphon's wings. All Danny could see from his point of view, however, was one of her thick, leathery boots rapped around the beast's chest, grey fur mittened hands clinging to its neck like a lifeline. "Oh, and try not to look down."

Unfortunately, that advice came a second too late, as Danny was already frozen from not only the cold wind rushing past his poorly sheltered body, but from the terror of seeing just how high up and defenseless he really was.

The three of them were cruising along at maybe 90 miles an hour—not very bad in itself—at about only 350 feet in the air—also not too bad—but the thing that was terrifying Danny was the fact that they were heading straight for a very steep, and very high cliff. How can that girl stay so calm? We're heading right for a cliff!

As if on cue, the girl stated, "Relax. Gyl here—"she gently pat the gryphon's chest with her visible arm, "—is a ghost, so he can phase us through the cliff if necessary."

Can she read minds or something? Danny started to panic, his already fast heartbeat becoming even faster.

"Didn't I just say 'relax'?" The mysterious girl's voice still sounded calm, but somehow irritated at the same time. "You'll be fine."

Danny was about to yell something along the lines of "How am I supposed to relax when I'm being flown against my will by some girl and a giant ghost gryphon that are about to crash into a huge cliff at 93 miles an hour?" But he and the gryphon, "Gyl", were suddenly blasted out of the sky by an all-too-familiar blue ectoblast. The beast had been forced to release Danny in order to save the girl from losing her own balance and falling, and, unable to reclaim him, the teen began his long plummet to the ground.

Close to ten Guys in White operatives were trailing them in jetpacks, which had surprisingly been able to handle the current speed. One of them, slightly shorter than the others with unruly black hair and seemingly iris-less and feral black eyes, was holding a smoking ecto-gun. "You can't run forever, reincarnate of Zabuza!" He fired another shot toward him, but barely missed, grazing Danny's leg. "You will pay for what you have done!"

As Danny continued to gain speed from falling, he once again attempted to go ghost, but again he found he couldn't. Only this time, he saw why. There had been a glowing blue wristband locked on his right wrist that looked suspiciously like GIW technology.

He quickly did a barrel roll to avoid another ectoblast, but it managed to nail him directly in the chest, causing a wave of electricity to circulate through his body. It was all Danny could do to scream in pain and terror as the unmerciful treetops grew ever closer...

Everything went black as something struck him in the back of the head.

Danny snapped his eyes open, making everyone in his hospital room gasp in shock. He closed his eyes again, realizing it was all a dream. Then, Danny snapped his eyes open once more and sat bolt upright in the bed, realizing he wasn't in his room and it wasn't the middle of the night.

Or he tried to, because the second he sat up, pain shot through his entire midsection and his upper left arm.

Danny, biting his tongue in order to stifle a scream, slowly leaned back, taking in his new surroundings. He was lying on a hospital bed, his left arm and most of his body concealed by white sheets, with his right arm lying over his chest, an IV attached just above the wrist. A bandage was wrapped over his left eye.

For a brief second, Danny thought, Where am I? Then it all came back to him. Oh no... His one useful eye widened in horror as he frantically grazed around the room.

Danny's bed was in just about the center of the room, the backboard pushed up against the wall with the door on his right wall at the back of the room. The wall to his left was one whole window, with sunlight streaming in. Sam and Jazz were standing up at his right side, smiling at the fact that he had woken up, with Jack and Maddie sitting in chairs backed against the window.

A wave of relief washed over him as saw that there were no GIW in the room. But... Who is that guy? Danny stared at Haku who had been once again leaning against the wall with his arms and legs crossed—only without the needles—directly in front of him. More importantly, why isn't anyone attacking him?

"Danny! You're awake!" His thoughts were cut off by Sam's joyful outburst. She leaned over and embraced Danny as best she could with him lying on the bed, but released him when he yelped with the sudden and unexpected burst of pain that shot through his left shoulder and torso. "Sorry." Sam apologized.

Once the pain died down, Danny summed up the courage to speak. "Um, Sam...Who's he? And, uh, more importantly, why is he here?" Danny asked her hesitantly, eyeing Haku nervously.

"Well- um- Danny- uh, this is Haku." Sam stuttered as she gestured toward him. "Apparently, you're the reincarnation of his old master while he was alive." Haku walked forward slightly and bowed to Danny, his face still impassive. "He—"

"And why should I trust you?" Danny asked Haku skeptically, cutting off Sam in the process.

Before Sam could continue after Danny's interruption, however, Jazz cut in, "You really should be thanking him; he's the reason the Guys in White haven't taken over this entire hospital yet. They seem to be...afraid of him."

Danny still glared at Haku warily. "And what proof do you have that he's telling the truth? Maybe he made a deal with the Guys in White! For all you know, he could be part of some sort of convoluted plot to capture me!"

Before Jazz could open her mouth to respond, Haku stood up to his full height, walked over to the edge of Danny's bed, and stated, "If I was not to be trusted, then why had Clockwork directed me to you? Besides, if I really was working for those pathetic excuses for ghost hunters," He pointed to Danny, "you would currently be chained to the bed, unconscious," He gestured to his right, "everyone in this room would be dead, and the Guys in White would have taken over this place about... 48 hours ago."

Danny was stunned, to say the least. After blinking a few times, he snapped out of his slight trance. "Wait, did you just say that Clockwork sent you? And...Have I really been out for two days?"

"Forty-nine, actually—" Maddie chimed in, "—the Guys in White hadn't showed up for another hour...after...you know..." She trailed off as she began staring down at her feet again.

"Oh, you mean when you almost tortured him to death with acid? Is that what you're referring to?" Sam cried, about to start another long rant about their lack of morality towards ghosts.

Jack and Maddie flinched at Sam's verbal lashing once again, while Jazz simply turned away. "Sam..." Danny said quietly. When she didn't stop talking he spoke a bit louder, "Sam..." Still, Sam continued her rant. "Sam!" He yelled. At last, she heard him.

Sam turned and asked sharply, "What?" For a second, she didn't understand why Danny had stopped her. "Oh..." She sheepishly backed off. "Sorry..."

Meanwhile, Haku had been debating whether or not he should step in. He decided not to. What's done is done. Besides...I don't think Master would be very pleased if I killed his parents...Without his orders, anyway. And if I had intervened earlier... He gave a slight shudder, remembering what Clockwork had shown him of the future Ghost Zone. I don't want to think about it. I really don't want to think about it.

Danny sighed. "Okay, to get back on topic..." He turned to Haku. "Do you have any proof that Clockwork sent you?"

Haku could only stare at the geta and socks on his feet. "No, Master. I do not." Shame was evident on his face. "I am sorry."

Before Danny had a chance to reply, Sam's cell phone rang. "Um, excuse me for a moment..." Sam exited the room quietly. Please don't be my parents, please do not be my parents! She thought frantically as she pulled out the cell phone from her pocket, flipping it open without looking at the caller ID. "H-hello?"

"Sam, where the hell have you been?" It was her boss at the Skulk and Lurk bookstore. "You can't just walk out in the middle of your shift! Who do you think you are?" The rage in the man's normally emotionless voice was clearly evident.

"Look—I-I'm sorry! There was an emergency..." She tried to explain.

"I don't care! Get your butt back here right now! If you're not here in 10 minutes, YOU'RE FIRED!" He then hung up with a small click.

Sam sighed deeply, grudgingly closed and put her cell phone away, then stepped back into the room. "Guys, that was my boss. He says he's going to fire me if I don't get back to work in 10 minutes. I'm sorry." She reluctantly turned and made her exit.

Farther down the hallway, as the doors of the elevator slid open, however, a wave of reporters came rushing out, including from the one Sam was about to board.

To put it lightly, they almost ran her down in their haste to get to a certain room 413. As Sam slowly recovered from the sudden onslaught and entered the elevator, she thought, Those reporters are going to get the surprise of a lifetime...

Meanwhile, back in Danny's hospital room, a very large and still growing group of rabid reporters was attempting to break down the door. The combined weight of Jack, Maddie, and Jazz were barely holding them at bay. Haku was standing behind the small group, facing Danny.

"Do you want me to chase them off, Master?" He asked, pulling out four senbon in his right hand, holding them up.

Danny simply stared, his mouth closed. Wait...Did he just call me 'master'? He thought for a moment on what Sam had said about Haku. If he's serious...Well, it couldn't hurt...

"Um... Let one in, and get the rest out of here." The halfa ordered, starting to take advantage of his newfound power. But if this turns out to be like on all those shows when a character is saved by another character and they're 'in their debt'...

"As you wish, but which one, sir?" Haku asked him, pulling the hood of his cloak over his head.

"Err...It doesn't really matter to me; you can pick anyone."

"Yes sir." He bowed and phased through the wall into the crowd of reporters.

He was suddenly assaulted by what must have been hundreds of camera flashes, and maybe thousands of questions, ranging from "Who are you?" to "Do you have any information of Mr. Phantom's condition so far?"

He ignored all of them, or course, and yelled, "Silence!" Surprisingly, they all fell silent. "Alright!" he projected his voice into the hallways now filled with people. "This is how it's going to work: I pick one person to come inside. The rest of you, get out! Any objections, I'll make you get out! Understood?"

There were a few "yes's" from the crowd as Haku slowly levitated above them with his feet mere inches from some peoples' heads, scanning the reporters.

After a few minutes, he lifted his right index finger and pointed to a girl no older than 25 years old. "You."

She pointed at her chest in a "Me?" gesture. Haku merely nodded in reply. As the girl pushed through the now parting group, a few murmurs of complaint reverberated throughout the room. A quick glare from Haku's cold and deadly eyes silenced them immediately.

Haku landed by the door just as the young reporter made it through the crowd. As he grabbed her shoulder with his left hand, preparing to phase back through the wall, he took his hood off with his free hand, turned his head around, and said to the other reporters, "Well?"

Most of the reporters left without saying another word, but a group of about ten stayed behind. "We are not going to take orders from some lowlife ghost who thinks he can tell us what to do!" The apparent leader stated, pointing at Haku.

Haku released his grip on the girl's shoulder, turned around completely, and said, "I'll give you one more warning. Get out, or I'll be forced to make you." His voice was emotionless, but had an underlying edge of steel to it. He reached from under his cloak and brought out four needles in his right hand.

"Oh, what are you going to do, knit me something?" The reporter mocked, growing more cocky and confident as his colleagues laughed at Haku.

You just made a big mistake. A fraction of a second later, the over-cocky reporter was lying on the tile floor, all four senbon piercing straight through his neck. His eyes seemed to stare blankly ahead, but no blood was coming out his mouth.

"Anyone else want to challenge me?" The others, dead silent and staring down at the man's body in horror, quickly scattered. The girl, whose shoulder length brown hair and the camera around her neck were now clearly visible, stepped forward timidly and felt the other reporter's wrist for a pulse. When she felt nothing, she turned her head around and stared at Haku in shock.

"You- you killed him...J-just like that..."

Haku reached down and grasped her shoulder once more. "Don't worry—" he reassured her, "—it's only a death-like trance. He should wake up in about 4 days. Come."

She stood up slowly—still staring at the man—and followed Haku, finally managing to tear her eyes away from the unmoving body. As the two entered via phasing through the wall, Jack, Maddie and Jazz released their holds on the door.

"So, they're gone?" Jazz asked.

"For the most part. A few wouldn't leave quietly, so..." Haku trailed off, realizing that Jazz wasn't listening anymore. She already had her hand on the doorknob, attempting to unlock it. For a few moments, it didn't budge. When Jazz finally managed to yank it open, she screamed at the sight that beheld her.

"You killed him?" Jazz cried, horrified, backing up into Jack and Maddie, who were also staring at the needle-pierced body. They had just witnessed their first display of what exactly Haku was capable of.

"Oh, my..." Maddie had her hand over her mouth slightly, too shocked to finish her sentence.

"What?" Danny once again tried to sit up, but quickly lay back down in pain. He turned his head to Haku. "Why did you kill him?"

Jack, Maddie, Jazz, and Danny all glared at Haku, expecting an answer. He brought his hands up in self defense. "He'll wake up in a few days... Maybe longer, but he will wake up, I assure you..."

Maddie sighed. "We'll get him checked into a room." As she and Jack exited the room, she turned. "Jazz, are you coming?"

"I'll be out in a minute. One sec." She answered. When the door had closed on Jack and Maddie, Jazz turned to Haku, her right index finger less than an inch from his face. "You might have Danny feeling something that may resemble trust towards you—" she whispered harshly, gesturing to Danny (who was now preoccupied with question after question from the slightly overzealous reporter) with her other hand. "—but I know better than to think that you have any good intentions as to why you're here."

Haku reached up and grabbed Jazz's wrist—quite roughly—and brought it down to her side, still clutching it. He leaned over and spoke mindlessly into her ear, "I am but a tool for his use. Tools do not betray their owners." With that, he spun Jazz around, released her wrist, and lightly pushed her toward the door.

Jazz, slightly confused at what Haku had said, left without another word.

"So, what was that all about?" Danny turned his head away from the girl, glad to be momentarily free of questions.

Haku turned to face the halfa. "Your sister does not trust me."

Danny sighed. "She always has been a bit...overprotective. It's probably nothing personal, just that you're a ghost, and all."

"I see." He stared out the window. "In time, she may learn to trust me, but for now..." Haku trailed off, not knowing what to say next.

The silence that followed didn't last for very long, as the nosy reporter soon continued her onslaught of questions.

This is going to be a long next few hours...


When at last, the unnamed girl had finally left with full notepads and recording tapes, Danny had felt a wave of relief wash over him. It didn't last, however, when Sam, finally freed from her job for the day, was forced to return home and face her doom at the hands of her parents. Jazz also had a job interview early the next morning, so she had to leave to get a good night's rest at home. So it was just him and Haku for the night, after Jack and Maddie had reluctantly gone home with Jazz after Danny had insisted that they also try and get some sleep. When they at last exited the room—still eyeing Haku nervously—Danny couldn't help but sigh. "Parents..."

The next few minutes passed in silence, only interrupted by the constant beeping of the heart monitor. Then a thought struck Danny. "Haku..."

Haku looked up from his glass of water that he had poured from the pitcher sitting on Danny's apparent nightstand. "Yes?" He took a small sip.

"What were your parents like?" Danny asked out of the blue.

Haku almost choked on the liquid at the unexpected question. After sputtering and coughing a few times, he looked up, stunned. "M-my parents?" He drew in a couple deep breaths. "My parents...It's, eh, a bit of a long story..."

"We have time." Danny desperately wanted to know what the ghost's past had been like.

Haku sighed. "I guess I should start from the beginning." He put down his glass on a nearby table. "My ability to move incredibly fast is the result of a Kekei Genkai, or a special bloodline trait passed down through the generations. Before I was born, war had broken out between the Land of Mist and its neighboring countries, and the people with these traits were used as mercenaries, assassins, soldiers, etc. Bottom line, they all killed thousands. They had been the perfect weapons. But when peace finally came, they were all seen as monsters, and were hunted down and killed. Only those who could keep it a very deep and dark secret managed to survive. My mother was one of them.

"Although she had never told me I had this gift, I found out on my own one winter's day that I could do this: " He walked back over to his glass of water and held his hand above it. His hand quivering slightly, the water in the glass started to slowly rise up out of the glass, eventually forming a bubble-like glob levitating above the ninja's now upturned hand. "However, when I went to show her, she slapped me and said to never do that ever again." He sighed. "But it was too late; my father had seen." He let the water flow back down into the glass cup, splashing his hand slightly in the process.

Haku shook off the liquid and continued. "That night, he and a few of his friends came and killed my mother. But when they came after me..." He seemed to stare off into space, trying to recall the event. "Something came over me...I don't know what exactly happened, but I know I killed them. All of them."

Apparently not noticing Danny's shocked expression, Haku continued his monologue, pacing. "After that, I guess I just wandered the streets for a while. Weeks, months, it didn't really matter. Then Zabuza found me. He didn't see me as a monster; he didn't shun my skills, he exploited them. He saw me for what I truly was: a tool. A tool that would do anything and kill anyone it was told to. With him as my master, my life had a purpose: to help him achieve his dream of ruling over the Land of Mist as a conqueror." He balled his right hand into a fist in front of his face. "And that is the reason that I have come to serve you, Master." He turned his head to face the young halfa.

Danny still continued to stare in shock and disbelief. "You- you killed your own father?"

"It was either me, or him. I chose myself." Haku once again picked up his glass of water and took another swig. "You probably would've done the same. Wouldn't you?"

Danny hadn't known how to respond to that. After a few moments of silence, Danny finally spoke up. "Err, Haku, um, I don't think you realize this yet, but...killing someone in this world, as opposed to your world, is one of the worst things you could get yourself caught up in..."

"I understand. I will not kill unless in a life or death situation. I will simply knock them unconscious." The ghost bowed deeply, then continued to take small sips of his drink.

Looks like I'm not going to get any sleep after that story... Danny thought, trying to will himself to rest. Surprisingly, after a few minutes, the halfa started to grow drowsy. It started to seem that with every passing breath, it became harder for him to keep his eyelids open. With each second, Danny slowly slipped away into unconsciousness.

The last coherent thing that registered in the teen's mind was a dull thud and glass shattering, for Haku had also fallen victim to this strange, artificial sleep.

"Hey, he's waking up!" An ambient voice called from somewhere close by.

Danny managed to barely crack his eyes open, trying to take in his new surroundings. He gave out a slight groan as he tried to move, only to be held back by a gentle hand over his chest.

"Lie back down. Your feet might not be frostbitten anymore, but your ankle is still broken and you've lost a lot of blood." The mysterious voice was that of the girl from his earlier dream.

Danny obliged. His vision still blurry, he could barely make out the outline of the girl standing over him. "W-where am I?" His words slurred over each other, but were more or less understandable.

"Don't worry. We're away from those demons, the Guys in White. You're safe now." The girl moved away from the halfa, letting him get a clear look at his surroundings.

Danny was lying on the floor of a medium-sized cavern, wrapped in what appeared to be a midnight blue wool blanket. A small flame flickered somewhere off to his right.

The same ice blue gryphon as before was curled up in a ball on the other side of the flames, his eyes reflecting pain. Upon further scrutiny, he could see that the beast's left wing—the only one visible—had been bandaged up at the joint where it connected to its back, blue ectoplasm oozing through the gauze slightly.

A few survival necessities—and a couple not so necessary—were propped against the walls, including a large notebook. It was open, but in the dim firelight, he couldn't tell if there was anything written on the page.

The strange girl was hovering over the fire, using a tiny ladle in order to stir the bubbling contents of a small, travel-sized metal pot sitting directly in the flames. "My name's Sheila, by the way." She said, now taking the pot off the direct flames. "What's yours?"

"D-Danny." He answered, stammering. Sheila carefully poured the searing liquid—stew—into the top of one of the two thermoses next to the fire, and offered it to the injured halfa. Danny once again tried to sit up in order to take it, and, gritting his teeth in pain, managed to prop himself into a sitting position on the cave walls.

As he outstretched his arms greedily for the steaming soup, his eyes caught the bandages wrapped around his arms and hands. Flexing his arms, he asked, "You did this?"

She nodded, smiled, and handed Danny the cup. "Your feet are fine now, too. Although, it had been murder to pry that wristband off."

While Danny started to sip the delicious stew, Sheila moved away to pour herself her own cup in the other thermos. Once she was done, she sat down from across Danny, the fire literally inches away from her back. That was when the halfa got his first real glimpse at what she looked like.

Her most distinguishing feature would probably have been her pitch-black hair, ending at about the middle of her back, and surprisingly neat. She was wearing a grey fur tunic on the outside, with a plain light brown leather sweater on the inside. Her boots were black leather and went up to about the middle of her calve, a buckled strap every inch or so. Her pants were also grey fur, tucked in behind the boots.

Despite all that, however, the things that seemed to almost hypnotize Danny were her eyes. The irises shined the color of icebergs standing in moonlight, refusing to reflect the firelight, but that alone was not what seemed to mystify the teen. She had no pupils. They seemed filmed over, almost like the ice in her eyes had crept up and veiled them from any light at all, as if they had become permanently frozen over. For a brief second, he thought, I wonder why she doesn't have any pupils...? before taking another gulp of the rich, meaty broth.

Seeming to read the halfa's mind again, the girl turned to him and answered, smiling mischievously. "I think I'll just keep that my little secret, now."

Danny sighed, knowing he will not get a clear answer. "Okay, then. But, how can you know what I'm thinking? It seems like you can read my mind or something."

I'm afraid I'm the one who's the telepath here, not Sheila. A new voice entered Danny's mind, startling him a little.

"W-who said that?" The young halfa cried, glancing around frantically.

Sheila chuckled lightly. "Don't worry, that's just ol' Gyl. He's a telepath; all gryphons are."

The large beast slowly rose from his spot on the ground and heavily made his way over to them.

From this close up, Danny could see several other cuts and a couple more gashes on the beast's legs and chest. At the sight of this, the half-ghost hissed and grimaced.

"We might've gotten away, but the Guys in White really did a number on him." Sheila put down her soup and reached out a tender hand to Gyl's injuries. "I sure hope they don't get infected."

For a moment, all was silent.

"You only think you got away!" Suddenly, the same ten soldiers who had been chasing them earlier reappeared out of seemingly thin air.

Before anyone could even think, Gyl had been lying on the floor, writhing and screaming in pain, Sheila had been smacked upside the head and knocked unconscious, and Danny was being restrained by two guards, while a third—the same one that had shot him earlier—injected the contents of a syringe into his shoulder.

"Sleep, boy, sleep." The black-haired Operative leered, "When you wake up, you'll be right back in the place you tried to escape from!"

Danny slowly opened his eyes, trying to make sense of the figures standing over him.

"So, the mighty Danny Phantom awakens. Not so cocky now, are you?" One of the blurry figures leered.

Danny instantly recognized it as Operative O's voice. Oh no... The halfa shot his head up, now fully alert, and stared in fear at what he saw.

He was currently chained by his right wrist and ankle to a hospital bed, surrounded by GIW agents. They had managed to swap out his hospital gown for a black prisoner's uniform, with Velcro straps running down the pant legs, the sleeves, and—the way it felt—down his chest and back. The bandages over his left eye, as well as his arm and leg, were still present, although now covered up by the black fabric. He could tell he was still in the same room, only now surrounded by Guys in White Operatives, all with guns charged and ready to fire if necessary.

All the agents laughed evilly at Danny's surprise and horror. "For the next four months, Welcome to Hell, Ghost Boy!" Operative K yelled, making the others laugh harder, in sinister, sadistic cackles.

Including the black-haired, black-eyed man from his dream.


Yes! The chapter's done! This was even longer than the last one!

Well, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas (or Happy Hanukkah in Sam's case) and a Happy New Year! Yay 2008!

I don't know when I'll next update, but I hope it'll be ready soon! Byes!