Part 10—Chapter 27

Danny's eyes snapped open and he groped for something by his throat. Earlier that night, after he had come back from meeting Dice, it had been three in the morning and he went back to sleep. Just now, he had a dream and the memory was very vivid, it had felt so real.

He ran a hand over his eyes and sighed shakily. Everyone else was still asleep, and it was close to six, so he decided to go ahead and get ready for the day. About an hour later, Jazz and his mom came dragging themselves out of their tent.

"Morning sweety," Maddie said, taking the plate that Danny had offered her.

"What are you doing up so early?" Jazz asked, looking skeptically at him. "You didn't have any trouble sleeping last night did you?"

Danny really knew that she was asking if there had been ghost trouble.

"No," he said truthfully. "Just couldn't go back to sleep."

The smells of breakfast soon wafted over to Jack's side of the camp and he bounded out of his tent and was soon wolfing down bacon and eggs. Danny had already eaten, having taken the herbal pill he was suppose to swallow every morning. He had activated some of the machines to see if there was a ghost too far for his ghost sense to well… sense. He had found it, about two kilometers from camp. He was planning on confronting it that afternoon, but with his parents around, it wouldn't be a good idea. Maybe he should wait for that night? But what if he could meet Dice again? Well, it wasn't causing any trouble, so he guessed that he could leave it alone.

His dad dragged him out of the camp right after breakfast to try and hunt down another ghost; but, halfway through the walking down the path, Jack had tripped over a root and twisted his ankle. Danny had to help lug him back to camp, not an easy task without ghost-strength to say the least.

"Well, we might have to cancel the rest of the trip," Maddie said after she had a look at Jack's ankle.

"But Maddie," Jack whined. "We might get something this week!"

"Jack Fenton, you won't do any work on that ankle," Maddie told him firmly like a stern parent.

"Should we pack up?" Jazz asked.

"Everything you can," Maddie nodded. "We're going home."

Danny sighed in relief. He really didn't want to be out here anymore feeling more comfortable to be within the limits of the others' reach. He was confused right now and all he wanted was answers. He would call Silvi once he got home, wait, maybe he shouldn't. Should he call Sam and Tucker first?

He debated it the whole ride home, deciding that he would call his friends first. Once in the safety of his room, Danny checked his messages to see if anyone had left him anything. There were a few junk e-mails that he deleted quickly, but there was one from someone he didn't know. Lucky66 was the user name and the message was short and quick: 'Are you there?'

'Yeah,' Danny typed out. 'Who is this?'

'It's Dice.'

He nearly jumped out of his chair when he read that.

'How did you get my e-mail address?!' he typed out, but happy, not angry.

'Sort of read your mind,' she answered. 'I think it's because we're triplets, you know.'

'Makes as much sense as everything else. Camping trip was cut short so now I'm home. Is anything wrong?'

'No, just wanted to make sure I was right. And to give you my phone number.'

It was like that for hours. They exchanged stories, how much they hated school, and Danny gave her some tips on how to control her powers. When it was three a.m. on Danny's side of the world, he had to break the conversation.

'Tomorrow?' Dice asked.

'Yes, be here.'

Chapter 28—

Danny resolved for hanging out with Tucker and Sam for the rest of Spring Break and spend his nights on the computer with Dice. He might have not known her for that long, but he already felt a strong connection with her. She felt like his sister, even in an im conversation. He had no doubts that if she was in trouble, he would fly all of the way to L.A. to protect her if he had too. He was also troubled though about his second sibling. He knew that Dex was alive, there was no doubt about that either, but he knew Dex was… quite different from Dice and himself. All he could do was hope he would see Dex again.

"Something wrong Danny?" Sam asked him the day after he had come back from the camping trip. "You seem distracted."

"Huh?" Danny said snapping out of his thoughts. "Oh, nothing Sam."

"Something's wrong," Tuck nodded, sucking on the empty straw from his extra large Nasty Shake.

"Nothing's wrong," Danny insisted.

He hadn't told them about Dice and he wasn't about too. He wanted to try and keep that whole thing a secret until he was sure that he was right. Sam was about to ask him another question, one that he possibly couldn't worm his way out of, but luckily, another ghost started to trash the Nasty Burger and Danny had to go to work.

After that ghost was captured, another one started to fire at him for no good reason, so he had to chase that one down. He followed it to an abandoned part of town, the old train station to be exact, and managed to stuff it into the thermos.

"This thing is getting pretty full," he muttered to himself as he capped the thermos.

There wasn't any warning when the whip cracked and his wrist was brought back sharply enough to wrench his shoulder. The thermos was lost from his grip and bounced on the old tracks, only to be picked up by the same eyeless spirit that had almost killed Danny on two more occasions.

"Told you he was a live wire," Aquila told whoever was behind Danny.

"I never doubted, just underestimated," said a cold voice from behind.

"Yeah, he sure likes to buck," said another.

"OOIE! Let's have a rodeo Riders!" yelled a fourth.

Danny knew he was in trouble, real trouble.

'Uncle Simon!' Danny shouted in his head, hoping the other Halfa could hear him. 'HELP!'

"That won't do you any good mutt," Aquila said, grabbing Danny by the throat. "There's no one to help you now, no one."

"Oh God, help!" Danny struggled to say as Aquila's hands became tighter and tighter.

"Like I said, no one, spirit or other-wise, is going to help you now," Aquila sneered, making his cohorts chuckle as well.

Danny was beginning to become lightheaded, the sides of his vision doing a good impression of a rockslide is he were inside the cave. He tried to give one more shout, but could only manage a gargled phrase of 'help', which Aquila found to be a big joke. The more Danny struggled, the more it pleased the soul-less man that was slowly squeezing the life out of him.

"What the--?"

One of his captors yelled out but didn't get a chance to finish. A harsh roar filled Danny's ears as Aquila let him go. He fell hard on his side, knocking the rest of his breath out of his chest. He coughed and gasped, making both his throat and his chest burn like fire.

While he was catching his breath, he listened to the fight he couldn't see. He could make out some sort of angry beast, because of the roars it gave off, it was kind of obvious that it was angry. It was giving Aquila and his posse a hard time. Danny could hear the angry shouts from the demon and how they were losing. Soon, it became quiet, but he wasn't sure if he had blacked out or not. It hurt to move everything so he really didn't want to get up and look.

He felt cold fingers by his neck, probably checking his pulse. There was a sigh of happiness when it was found by the person who was checking him. He felt the same cold hands move the collar of his suit out of the way to see his neck.

"Oh pup," said… whoever it was. "I'm sorry that I didn't get here sooner."

Danny tried to say something, but he couldn't talk.

"Can you hear me? I guess you can. I'm going to take you home now, to the Fentons."

Danny could hardly protest as he was lifted up and then he felt the cold of passing through a portal, not flying. He felt the hard press of his bed as he was set down gently. Whoever was with him, he was doing a good job of making sure he was careful, almost overly careful.

"I'm going to heal you now," said the stranger. "Don't do anything, there are other people in the house. I have to use some of your energy, or else it won't work. You'll sleep for a little while, but not very long."

Danny felt the fingers of the stranger close around his throat, right where Aquila's hands had been. They didn't squeeze hard though, being almost too light on his skin. He felt his strength being sapped, just like the guy said, then his throat felt normal and he gasped in surprise.

"You'll be fine now. You might want to revert to your human form, you'll sleep better if you do."

Danny really didn't have much choice. He was too weak to keep his Phantom form any more. Right before he went to sleep, he felt the stranger pull the blanket up to his shoulders and run a hand through his hair.

"Sleep tight pup."

And sleep he did.

Danny bolted to a sitting position in his bed and scanned the dark room. He saw the window was open and a slight night breeze was coming into his room, making it chilly. He was also aware at how parched he was. He went down to the kitchen to get something to drink and saw his sister at the table upon entering. She was reading a book of some sort, wrapped up in it since she didn't see him come in.

"Do you know that almost every ghost you fought, the more powerful ones anyway, were actually locked up by some other ghost," Jazz said flipping through the book.

"No," Danny said. "what do you mean exactly?"

"A ghost named Rannoch locked them up, but not like in prison. To one place in the Ghost Zone like a deserted island of sorts."

"Wonder how they got out," Danny said after a moment of thought.

"They could always get out, Rannoch just guarded the entrance so they couldn't get out. They were scared of him that much. Still are."

"How do you know?"

"It says here that Rannoch mourns for a lost loved one and has never had the will to fight since then. That's kind of sad isn't it? Have you ever met him?"

"I'm not sure," he said, hating to lie when he knew he had met Rannoch before. "Don't think so. Where are Mom and Dad?"

"Out patrolling the city, they said there was an ecto-signature in the house earlier."

"Oh, that might have been me," Danny said nervously. "I came back in through the window upstairs."

"Oh, then you left again?" Jazz asked with an upraised brow. "The signature went straight out of the house as soon as it was detected."

"No, I took a nap. Wonder why I didn't sense it."

So the man who saved him was a ghost, but why did he use a portal instead of flying straight here? Maybe it was faster? Ripping a portal from one reality to another was energy consuming for any ghost, no matter how powerful, so why waste that much energy when it would have been easier to fly?

"Well, it didn't cause any harm," Jazz said, breaking his chain of thoughts. "Must have been a small one."

"Yeah, must have."

Danny's phone was vibrating in his pocket and he flipped it open to answer it.

"Yeah, you got Danny," he said leaning on the counter.

"Danny, something's wrong," Dice said shakily over the line.

"Whoa easy," Danny said soothingly and started to walk out of the kitchen to get more privacy. "Just tell me what happened."

"Some men were here, they wanted to look through my file, my adoption file," Dice explained. "They had to get permission from my guardian, but he turned them down. They sounded angry Danny, really angry. Then they started to ask some weird questions."

"About what? Your powers?" Danny was starting to get worried himself.

"Yes, I'm worried on how they knew what to ask."

"What did they look like? Did you get a look at them?"

"Yeah, I'm just glad that they didn't see me. They were big, wearing white suits and sunglasses, all government-business like."

"The Guys in White," Danny growled out.

"That sounds like them. I take it they've given you trouble before?"

"Only Phantom, Fenton is pretty under-the-radar unless they need a new invention. They're the ghost hunting division of the government. They want to be taken seriously, but most people think they're a waste of money."

"Well, they're doing a pretty good job of freaking me out. What do I do?"

"Just keep calm and try to stay inconspicuous. Stay out of their sight if they come there again and call me if they do."

"Okay, I can do that. Danny, what if they have people following me?"

"Stay in crowded areas, places with a lot of people. I'm sure that's not hard there?"

"Not when you live next door to Hollywood. Thanks for the talk."

"Any time sis, see ya."

"Bye."

"Who was that?"

Danny spun around to see Jazz leaning against the door jamb between the living-room and the kitchen. Her frown told him that she had heard everything.

"Don't you know when you need to keep a conversation private?" he asked scowling. "It's none of your business."

"You called her sis! I think it's my business when my title is used for someone else."

"Fine then, she's my long lost sister. We were separated when we were two years old, and we also have a brother that we can't find," Danny leveled with her.

"Yeah right Danny," Jazz scoffed, just like he was hoping she would. "Get real."

Jazz stomped up the stairs as Danny let go of the breath he had been holding in. He would have to be careful with the conversations with Dice from now on.

Chapter 29—

School started again, the students a buzz from their well-earned break. Telling stories to their friends on how they spent their week. Danny wished that he could tell his friends everything, but he wasn't sure if he should. He knew that the idea sounded ludicrous, but it was the truth, he was sure of it.

He saw Tucker walking down the hall towards him, the tech-geek was swaying with some music he downloaded into his PDA.

"What do you have there?" Danny asked.

"The newest Diana and Ashton hit," Tucker boasted. "Stayed up until mid-night last night waiting for it to go nation-wide."

Danny shook his head and slammed his locker shut.

"Want to listen in?" Tucker asked, handing Danny an ear piece.

There was really no need. Danny could hear it from where he was. He had heard the sister-duo over the radio and stuff, but he never really paid attention to the voices until now. There was something about their voices, or at least one of them, that rang a bell in the back of his head. He knew it was going to drive him crazy until he finally figured it out, but it would have to wait until school was over.

"So, are you going to tell us what's up?" Sam asked him, after he had managed to avoid her all day at school.

They were enjoying their traditional treat at the Nasty Burger, Tucker trying to clean out his shake like he always did before they left to do their homework, and for Danny to go on patrol.

"What makes you think something's up?" Danny asked her, trying to act natural, but his friends knew better.

"The way your acting, we know when you're lying," Tucker said adjusting his glasses. "You don't talk to us anymore man. We never know if you're going to show up to school the next day or by lying in a ditch somewhere, fully dead."

"I'm not half-dead," Danny pointed out, trying to change the subject, but he knew he was going to fail. "I was born this way, haven't we established that?"

"That's another thing," Sam said frowning. "How can you be so sure that it wasn't the portal that gave you your powers like Vlad?"

"Oh I'm sure," Danny said looking down.

"You've been doing some investigating on your own haven't you?" Tucker asked.

"You could say that. I met someone, she confirmed a lot of things for me. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I do know a few things."

"Like what? Danny we're in the dark here, give us something to work with," Sam said sounding sincere.

Danny sighed and ran a hand over his eyes.

"Not here," he said at last. "Outside."

Chapter 30—

Tucker and Sam looked at Danny with eyes bulging out of their sockets. Danny sighed and threw up his hands.

"I knew you were going to look like that," he accused them. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but I know it's the truth."

"And how can you prove it?" Sam asked.

"These for one," Danny said, showing them some papers he had in his pack. "I found them in a stash in the attic. I also want to ask Silvi some questions."

Tucker took the papers from him and scanned them.

"Dude, these have your name on them, and your parents' names," he said looking back at Danny. "Are these…?"

"Yeah, adoption papers. I'm pretty sure my parents didn't want to tell me because they wanted me to feel like a part of the family, even if I wasn't their biological son, they still treated me as if I were. Plus if they told me now, then I might turn away from them."

"I guess they don't know you very well," Sam said looking sad. "Are you going to tell them that you know?"

"Eventually, maybe when I tell them about my powers. The two subjects can go hand-in-hand since they'll connect the dots soon enough. I need to talk to Silvi though. If I'm right, then she may be my aunt."

"Your aunt?" Tucker asked. "That's weird dude. Then again, it looks like your life is anything but normal. Does this mean you know who your real parents are?"

"Yeah, but only one is alive and he might not be willing to talk. I want to go see Silvi now, I can't waste time."

Danny turned Phantom in a hurry, holding out his hands for Tucker and Sam to take. With determined looks, the trio flew back to the school, hoping to find Silvi there. Her car was still there, but who was to say she wasn't flying somewhere.

They found her at her desk, grading papers.

"What are you doing here?" Silvi asked them when Danny phased them all through the third story wall. "Is something wrong?"

"I need some questions answered," Danny said, letting go of his friends. "Silvi I know what you're thinking about me, everyone has. You think I look like your sister."

Silvi looked at him, unmoving, with a frown on her face. Danny knew that this wouldn't be easy, but he saw that she would talk on their flight here. He didn't know how he was going to get her to talk, but he knew he would do it.

"I have been thinking about it and I've also been doing some research. I found adoption papers in my parents' attic, so I know that I'm not a Fenton. And with everything else you've been telling me, I'm not so surprised that Aquila is after me. He tried last night, did you know that?"

Silvi's eyes widened for a moment before she motioned for him to continue.

"Someone saved me after I called for help, that someone kept calling me pup."

"Rannoch," Silvi said in surprise.

"I think so, he really didn't want to cause me pain. I also called Simon in my head for help, but I called him Uncle Simon on impulse. Silvi, if you're my aunt, I would really like to know."

Silvi was thinking about what he said for a long time.

"You were only two," she said tiredly. "you were with Dex and Dice in the nursery."

"Yeah, it was late. I remember that. Calla came and got us."

"That was after the house was attacked," Silvi said getting to her feet. "Men invaded it like bugs looking for a home. Calla's orders were to take you and your siblings to the Ghost Zone and to wait for your mother and father to get back."

"He never made it. Other wolves got in our way."

"A rival pack no doubt. Mar saved you I guess, he had been missing for a long time after the attack. That's not where Sadie died though. About two days after the house was attacked, we all split up looking for you after we found out that you weren't in the Ghost Zone. Sadie had been alone and something had caught her, we think it was the same people who attacked the house. She must have found you because her last words were: Had to do it, for them. The person must have threatened you, so she died protecting you, and Rannoch tore the person into pieces, being bitter ever since. He blames us for not being fast enough to save her after she called Simon for help. Though the man was only an agent, the man in charge is who Rannoch really wants, but he has never found him."

"And who was the man in charge Silvi, I want to know who killed my mother."

"I can't tell you if you have energy dancing in your hands Danny."

Danny looked down, seeing his hands balled up into fists and glowing green, much like when he got angry.

"You won't tell me will you?!" he growled at her.

"No, not until I'm sure you won't go after the people in vengeance," Silvi said being calm. "Vengeance only leads to more violence."

"You don't know that! I want to know who tried to kill my siblings and me."

"Look at Vlad," Silvi said sternly. "He blames is troubles on Jack Fenton, but he only has himself to blame. Has his vengeance gained him anything but trouble?"

Danny looked at the floor, knowing she was right. The haze of hate was gone, but it still hurt.

"Don't tell me," he agreed, nodding. "I have no idea what I'm capable of, but tell me one thing. Was it Aquila or any of his gang?"

"No, Aquila has been around for a long time, and he has never laid eyes on you till now, though he does know who you are. I'm not surprised if he kept tabs on Rannoch all of these years, and now I think he's watching you. He had opportunity to get your sent after we visited his territory."

"Where I found wolf-song," Danny said. "We were in his territory? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought it wasn't important at the time. You didn't need to know about Rannoch, but it's clear that you do now."

"Not now," Danny said turning back to his friends. "I need to go on patrol, and get some homework done. Maybe tomorrow?"

"I won't be here, but Simon will be. You can meet with him if you want."

Danny nodded and took his friend's hands again.

After dropping them off at their houses, he went to his own home, not in the mood for taking a trip around the city. He more or less spent the night looking up at the ceiling. Feeling confused and empty at finding his theories confirmed. He knew he should feel rage, sadness, or something, but he felt nothing and that was what troubled him.

He glanced at his phone when he heard it vibrating on the side table. He really didn't want to pick it up, wanting to be in silence, but something prompted him to answer anyway.

"Yeah," he said tiredly into the phone.

"It's me, I had a feeling you needed some company," Dice said. "Something happened today, mind telling me?"

"Nothing happened," he said.

"Danny, I think I know you better than that. Please tell me."

"Dice I really don't want to talk about it."

"You're worried that you don't feel anything about the fact that you are adopted and everything. You feel wrong for not feeling."

Danny sat up in bed as he listened to his own thoughts echoed back to him.

"You really can read minds," he said his mouth gaping.

"No, I can hear the truth under your words. I figured it out last week, it's pretty neat, but I can't let anyone on since I can't just turn it off."

"I know how that feels."

"Anyway, back to you," Dice said firmly. "Danny you don't have to worry about not feeling anything."

"But normally I'm sensitive to this junk," he nearly whined into the phone. "Dice what if something is wrong with me?"

"I don't think so Danny, maybe you're just growing up. You know how adults are always saying teenagers are over dramatic and stuff, and when we think back, we realize that we were a bit out of place. Admit it, you think so too."

"No I don't."

"I knew you did," he could hear her smile by the sound of her satisfied tone. "Be thankful that you aren't an emotional wreck. You'd be floating through ceilings and blasting things into oblivion right now if you were."

Danny bobbed his head to this, and then realized that she couldn't see that over the phone.

"Yeah okay," he admitted grudgingly. "Have any more problems from the spotless hunters?"

"No, not lately, but I do think that they have someone following me. It's no big deal. Ashton takes me to malls, spas, and stuff to keep me occupied, though she doesn't know what's going on."

"Ashton?"

"Yeah, she's my sister. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you that, it just didn't feel like a topic to pick at since we just found each other after all this time."

"No, it's alright. Ashton might be a good consultant for you. Can you tell her about your powers?"

"I think so, but she's not known to be the best secret keeper. I'll have to do something to make sure, like a test or something."

"Yeah, I can't help you out there. My friends were there when it happened and my sister found out. Maybe you should make it easy for her, maybe go ghost between curtain calls?"

"They're rehearsals, besides, she is always at my side when we leave," there was a pause over the phone as Dice realized what she just said. "How long?"

"Just now," Danny said, his turn to sound smug. "Tucker likes your albums, stayed up until midnight last night to download your new song. The voice was familiar when I listened to it, but I put it together when you mentioned Ashton's name."

"Are you mad?"

"That you didn't tell me that you are an international pop star? No, I'm not mad. I understand about the whole secret thing, about not wanting it to get out and getting recognized for it. Sam's the same way with her millions."

"Thank you Danny! You know, I'm glad I wear that stupid wig now. I can really gather a crowd when I wear that thing. Without it, I'm not noticed."

"Can I say one thing? Who wrote that song for you?"

"Our writer, they won't take anything that Ashton and I write. We're not the best poets I must say. I can sing it, but I can't write it."

"Then maybe you'll want what I just came up with."

"Danny, really?! That would be fantastic, and I promise it won't hit the stores."

"Get on your computer right now. I'll send it to you."

He uploaded the lyrics and the audio to her and soon got a reply on the phone.

"Danny, this is great! You're lucky that I can tell the notes on the audio, I can copy that to sheet music if I wanted too. Thank you so much!"

"No problem, I'll send you more if you like?"

"That would be great Danny, and I promise to keep this out of my producer's hands. Ashton and I are going to be doing a tour during the summer, I'm going to try and convince them to stop in Amity Park. We can meet up then and do stuff."

"That sounds awesome! You could meet everyone, Tucker and Sam are wanting to see you, to see if we look alike that is."

"You told them about me? And Dex?"

"I'm not sure about him. I did tell them that I can't find him, but I'm trying. I get some snippets of him when I sleep, but that's it."

"Maybe you shouldn't do it on your own strength. To be honest, I think God brought us together first. Maybe Dex isn't ready for this."

Danny had almost forgotten that Dice was a believer. She had been for years, but she was always scared to share her faith. Ever since she met Danny, she found her knowledge to be beneficial and she mentioned God much more often now when she talked to him. He didn't mind, in fact, this stuff was starting to rub off on him.

"Hey Dice, can I ask you a question?"

"Anything."

"Why do you believe in God? What's in it for you?"

It took Dice a moment to think up her answer.

"All of my life, people have let me down and I'm on my guard constantly. God's one of the people that has never let me down. I pray every night for a companion to understand me, someone that I can lean on, and then He brought us back together. I spend every night thanking Him for sending you now. I also have reassurance about the good of life, of there being light in the darkness. It gives you such peace if you lean on Him. Also, with the government thing going on, I've found out that thing can be out of our reach. Ever since I handed it over to God to handle, I haven't had fears about the Guys in White. Maybe you should let God handle Dex until we can be reunited."

"And you believe this? It gives you comfort?"

"It gives me great comfort that there is something out there bigger then myself that can take care of everything. I'm sure that you have wished the same thing with your adventures."

"Yeah, maybe He's been with me the whole time. That would explain why I'm not dead after all of the trouble I've gotten in. Do you think He'll hear me if I pray tonight?"

"Of course He will. He always hears, but you have to open the door to let him in first. Is it okay if I leave you now? I have to get going."

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Talk to you later."

"Bye bro."

Danny hung up the phone and let it drop to the desk with a clang. He turned off his computer and got back in bed, looking up at the ceiling again. He thought about what Silvi had said a while back, about God giving people a spirit of strength and not weakness. After seeing her in action and hearing Dice's story, he was sure that was true. He knew he could do anything if he put his mind to it, but for some reason, things never turned out the way they were supposed to. That usually happened when it became too big for him to handle, something for a bigger person to take over. Maybe Dice was right, he should hand it over to God and not worry about it. He knew God had impeccable timing: sending Silvi in the nick of time, sending Rannoch to save him last night, and now Dice giving him what he needed to hear.

"Okay," he whispered into the air. "I need help here, and I'm not really sure how to do this, but here it is. I want to see my brother again, to help him, but I can't find him. Please help me find him, I can't do it on my own. I can't fight ghosts on my own anymore either. Aquila is too strong for me alone, I need help. My grades are slipping, my parents worry all of the time, my friends worry… boy there's a lot with my life I didn't know needed fixing. Um, maybe one step at a time? Help me find Dex, please."

Danny didn't know why, but he felt the world lift off of his shoulders after he admitted that, and everything else. He didn't feel weak anymore, feeling a powerful presence in the room. He hoped that it would stay with him as he fell asleep.