Living Ghost

by Green Tima

AnimorphDP crossover what happens when the most important person in your life is dead? What else you go see the experts. Ch 28 29. The past and future are faced by our heros, some prosper, others fall.

10. Sins of the past made present

Tobias POV

Ok I had no idea what was going on, Jazz was up but not saying anything and still holding her brother's wrist, her brother seemed to be in shock, and Nikki and Desiree were keeping their distance from both of them. Nothing like putting the fates of almost half a dozen people in the talons of a single bird.

Taking a deep breath I puffed up my feathers and screamed, (OK RED NEUTRAL CORNERS,) my thoughts only hitting the Jazz in the hopes that the metal roar would be enough to bring her out of whatever was going on in her head. For a second nothing happened and I feared Jazz's mind wasn't inside her body, then slowly she began to blink, her eyes losing the slightly wild look to them as the lids rose. Ever so slowly her head turned, her eyes locked on me, and I wasn't completely sure what she'd end up doing.

"Tobias," her voice seemed so small, like it was miles away.

(Your home Jazz,) my own mental voice seeming pretty weak at the moment, (you were dreaming,) hoping with all my heart she'd forget everything she had just seen.

"Dreaming?" cocking her head to the side, her face a mask of confusion. With hesitation she looked down at her brother who had begun to move slightly and was weakly fighting against her. Before any of us could move she dropped down on him and hugged him, tears running freely down her face as she buried her face into her brothers neck. The tears soon gave way to a full blown sob as I realized everything that she'd seen was still with her and it came out in one massive wave, something I remembered well after I had escaped the attack, the only difference was at the time I was incapable of crying so she had it easier.

After a few moments Nikki whispered in a voice only I could hear, "I'd say she's back to being herself." My only response was a slight nod of the head.

I let them stay like that for a while before I decided to try and help her and morphed my human form and wrapped my arm around her and tried to comfort her as she had me all those times I'd lost it. Given how that it had been my life she'd seen I was a little surprised she didn't shrug me off. Holding her the way I was just made me feel worse than I already did, this entire situation was my fault, if it wasn't me for Jazz wouldn't have been forced to live that. Because of me she was forever corrupted, she'd never have the idyllic freedom people have before they witness death at their own hands. I'd robbed Jazz of something precious and I hated myself for it. Up till then I'd held out the hope maybe she shouldn't remember everything that had happened, that she'd wake up and be only have a feint memory of the events, but as I held her and listened to her near silent sobs I knew that wasn't the case. In the end I started crying myself, both for what I'd made her see and for myself, and hoped there was some way out of this nightmare. In the end it took a while but we finally managed to get a grip on ourselves and regain some measure of control over our respective bodies.

Her breath was still ragged as she wiped the tears from her eyes and face, "you lived that," looking at me and bringing her hands down and hugging herself.

"Yeah," looking away from her, noting wanting to see the accusation in her blood shot eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me."

"Would it have done any good?"

"I…," her voice trailing off as she shivered and sighed raggedly and given how her eyes looked I was guessing she was about to start crying again.

Off to the side Danny did his best to sound light hearted, "ok I don't need to be here for this," looking over at Desiree. "You promise to stay out of our hair I'll send you home.'

I spared a glance at the green harem ghost who looked at us and nodded her head, "after all this I'm looking forward to going back where things are nice and simple."

"You must live in a different part of the Ghost Zone," as he jerked his head to the door and the two left the room followed shortly by Nikki who sensed that it would be for the best if she let us talk in piece.

"Have you ever heard the saying 'I'm a good man that's done terrible things'?" looking over at the redhead that was still trying to compose herself.

"Something close to it," nodding her head.

"I'd love to say that was me but I can't," closing my eyes, the images of countless dead by my hands flashing in my minds eye in a moment. "Terrible things doesn't even begin to describe what I've done in my life. The blood of more innocents than I can count is on my hands, layered so thick that I can never scrub it all off. The things I did as you well know were only partly to do with justice and protection, I was motivated by revenge just as much. At some point in my life I may have been a good person but that time has long since passed, whatever was good in me was drowned in the blood of a thousand lives I ruined in one way or another."

"Tobias…" reaching out to me with her hand.

"You don't understand," pulling away from her, "I'm not a person Jazz, people don't do the things I do, I'm an animal, a monster, I never wanted you to see that side of me."

"Your not…"

"Grow up Jazz, you think what you saw scratched the surface of the things I've done? What I did that night was a warm up," my voice growing cold and cruel.

"But those were accidents, I know you didn't mean to do them. You wanted to stop them without hurting them, it wasn't your fault that things didn't go the way you planned."

"Yeah, that night was full of accidents," bringing my eyes to meet hers and watching her jump back slightly. "The first few were accidents beyond that however almost everything was intentional, every slash, every removed body part, every snuffed out life was done because I wanted to, because I didn't see another way around it."

"You think you're the first person alive to do those things," a new stream of tears running down her face, "look at our past, humans have been doing things like that since they first started walking. What you did is no different from what anyone else would've done if they were put in the exact same position."

"You forget I'm one of five humans and none of them went through this. They all retained their humanity, I on the other hand tossed it aside years ago when it ceased to be of use to me."

Desperation, fear and raged mixed together as she barked, "that's a lie, I know you, you're a good person," the tears coming down harder as she added, "and you are a person!"

"Only when I want to be, when I choose to be, most of the time I'm a bird, a killer."

"You think being a bird makes you less of a person."

"No I think it's a reminder that I'm not a man, that I am a monster. And before you say anything it has nothing to do with the feathers or the talons or anything else physical that can be changed by choosing to be something else. I am a hawk, it's what I am on the inside, when I look in a mirror regardless of the body I'm in, I see that bird looking back at me, that is who and what I am. I am a killing machine, that's all I'm good for, all I've ever been good for."

"Tobias," her voice was tired and more than a little scared and defeated.

"No forget it, I thought I could do this, run away from what I was, hide with a bunch of humans and pretend that I wasn't that thing anymore but I can't. I'm not human, I don't think I ever was, and I shouldn't be bringing this into your life," I didn't give her a chance to say anything before I bolted down the stairs. I managed to get part way through the second floor hall before she started after me, but by then it was to late, she wasn't going to catch me.

"Tobias wait, you don't understand," she yelled after me.

"I understand all to well here Jazz and I'm sorry for all of this, I'm sorry you had to know what I am, what I've done. I'm sorry I've forced you to carry all those memories with you, that I tainted you with the scourge that is my existence."

"You don't mean that!"

"Yeah I do," tearing the door open to the outside world, "what I am should have died a long time ago, only problem is someone still has a plan for me and is making sure I keep going. I may have to live with that but that's doesn't mean I'm going to make you suffer with what I bring into your life any more." With that I ran into the street and to the nearest alley and demorphed and flew away with her on my heals.

"Damn it Tobias get back here and listen to me, you don't understand, you don't…" her words trailing off as I forced myself into a head wind that helped block out the sounds of the redhead below me that now carried a curse I wish I could take away. I cared about Jazz, I'd gotten close to her, and now she had been forced to see and do things no one should ever be forced to see or do, and I hated myself for it. She was a good person, she had a good heart and I'd corrupted it by being near her, I'd hurt her once and I wasn't going to let myself do it again.

---

Jazz POV

"Damn it birdie," I hissed as I slammed the door, not surprised when Danny came up the stairs to find out what all the commotion had been.

"What happened, are you ok, where is he?" His eyes were aglow with green light and looking around.

"He left," I growled dropping into a chair, "that idiot left without hearing a word I said."

My brother just gave me a puzzled stare, "huh?"

"Tobias blew up," my voice cracking slightly as I felt a new wave of tears starting to form in eyes. "I tried talking to him about what I'd seen, about what he had done and just lost it, he started screaming about being a monster and took off."

"Really," a genuine note of surprise in his voice, "he seemed pretty stable over the last few days."

"Few days?"

"It's Saturday night sis, you've been out three days or so, the bird's been covering for you with our parents since then."

"Oh man," holding my head in my hands, "you can't be serious."

"Like a heart attack," kneeling down next to me.

"Oh man, can I have some time alone Danny," meeting his eyes.

"You sure you'll be ok?"

"I don't know, I just need some time to get things straight in my mind right now, to much has happened to fast."

"You want me to go after him?"

"Yes…no…I don't know, even if you tried you couldn't catch up to him at this point, I've been in his mind Danny, even when he didn't know how to fly, he knew how to fly. It doesn't matter how fast you went or how good you were I don't think you could pin him down."

"Gee thanks for the ego boost sis," rolling his eyes and moving over to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder then bent down and hugger me, "I love you sis and as cliché as it sounds I'm so glad to have you back, don't even do that again."

Feeling his warm body against me made me feel good, loved, and I wrapped my arm around him and pulled him close, glad to know somebody carried about me in the wake of what just happened, my anger towards Tobias temporarily averted. "Thanks Danny," I whispered after a few moments then finally pushed him away and watched him reluctantly walk up the stairs after a few moments as he remembered I wanted to be alone with my thoughts.

"What is wrong with you birdie," I hissed to myself when Danny was out of the way. I'd lived his life for three days, had been him in every conceivable way and yet I was no closer to understanding him than I had been before I went under. "Or maybe you now understand him to well Jazz," I whimpered. I'd always known he was holding things back, details of what he'd done, things he'd thought but I had no idea that was what he'd been talking about.

I'd read about combat conditions and their various side effects on the human psyche, but I had no idea just how far they might go. What Tobias had done went far beyond anything I was capable of handling from a psychological stand point, maybe more than I could endure as a person. He had to suffering from a host of combat related illness, things he should've gotten treatment for years ago, instead he let them build up inside him, festering and mutating till they were nearly out of control. It was true I'd never seen him be violent outside of battle.

"Except you have seen him in fights," I hissed to myself and thought back to all those times. He might've been gentle as a lamb most of the time but when he fought he did seem to become someone else, he fought harder and more brutally than many of the ghosts I've seen. Part of the time he almost seemed to be reveling in the carnage he was causing. "No that isn't quite the right word," shaking me head, it was more like he lost himself in the animals, like he enjoyed the fight, the battle of supremacy, and later there did seem to be an uneasy silence that surrounded him, like he was ashamed of what he'd done. Maybe it wasn't that strange that he'd gotten that mad, he was a private person after all, he did seem to want to hold information back from me, and now that I knew it, it shouldn't be that surprising that he was angry or embarrassed, and ashamed of the things he'd done in his lifetime.

"Give him time," the new voice making me jump slightly.

"Nikki," looking over at the woman who stood at the stairs.

"Tobias is very private, the things he did during the war hurt him greatly, maybe more so than the others. Since the moment I met him he's been walking a tightrope, doing his best to balance his humanity with the hawk, to keep the caring human in balance with the predator and to hold back the darkness that was growing in his heart with any other emotion he could hold on to. You have to understand he hates what he became in the war and he's done his best since then to bury most of it away, but he's never been totally successful in that attempted, for you to see that hurt him. He cares about you Jazz, more than I've seen him care about anyone in a long time, and for you to see the darkest times of his life, it's a slap in the face of everything he's trying to bury."

"But why, of all the people here I should be the one he confides in."

"No your not," walking over to me and taking my hands in hers, "you can claim to understand what he's done, but till now you never could. Saying you understand and actually doing so are very different, till now you held him in an idyllic light, you believed he was someone he was not. War is an ugly thing, and it forces you to make decisions that you ordinarily would not, and for Tobias it became a way of life. Since the end of the war he's tried to pull away from the darkness, tried to return to what he was before, and for the most part he's come close. For what he was to be forced back into his face, and for you to be the one to do so makes him feel like his identity is in question, like he can never walk away from it, never have a semblance of a normal life."

I just kind of cooked my head at that, "wow," it was a clear thought out hypothesis, backed up by reasoned medical theories. "How did you come up with that?"

"I use to study under Sigmund Freud and ever since I've been interested in the idea of mental health and it's applications to my own kind."

"Again wow," pulling my hands from hers.

"Yeah, people say that when I tell them all the people I've met."

We sat in an tense quite for a few moments till I broke the silence, "what did happen while I was out?"

"We won," counting off on her fingers, "came home, the others took care of you, Tobias covered for you in life, they called me in since I ended up back home, someone struck a deal with Desiree to get you back, you woke up." I couldn't help but giggle that she now had seven fingers raised thanks to her hologram.

"I mean to him, last I talked to him he was in control and focused, and now this, were their signs of this happening?"

"None on my side," shaking her head, "but then again reading him is hard. Humans have expressions that can be read, he doesn't, when he wants to hide something he just goes hawk and never shows a thing on the surface. It's also possible he just snapped, that when he lost his focus on getting you out emotions that had been kept in check were now free to come to the surface."

"What do you think he's going to do now?"

"Its hard to say, he might just need some time to cool down and come back on his own or he might try to fly away from here out of some misguided need to protect you."

"I thought we already fixed that," throwing my hand in the air.

"He's a man and he's a bird with massive psychological damage you don't fix that with a little talking for a little while. He's scars run deep and it'll take a while for them to begin to heal over with any kind of success. If you really want to help him, just give him time and if he comes back, hold him like there's no tomorrow, if your still able."

"What do you mean still able?"

"I've seen the end results of their work, for that matter I've seen them as they worked. I know what you saw, and while I can't feel the same way about it you do, I don't doubt that I can guess at it."

I sighed at that, "I knew he had to do thing to live, I'm not naive enough to believe to he got out of a war, and that was a war, without doing things no one should ever have to. I'm mad that he didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth, that he thought he had to sugar coat everything for me like I was a little girl. Yes it would've been hard for me to hear that, and hard still for him to tell me it, but it would've been better for all of us if he told me what he had gone through, what…who he had lost."

"You mean his father," interpreting my meaning.

"Yes his father, I can't imagine what that would feel like," hugging myself slightly. "You know that he knew, at least on some level that they were connected?"

"Really," lifting a fake eyebrow.

I nodded, "yeah, I could feel it when I looked at him, I don't really know what I…he was feeling but there was a sense of connection, and sense of coming home when he met him." I watched as Nikki seemed to want to say something but then changed her mind and we once more fell into an awkward silence. We were like that for several long minutes and in that time I just pulled my knees up and hugged myself tightly as I started to shiver slightly, the memories of what I had seen and essentially done starting to haunt me and making my stomach sick.

"I find it odd," the ancient girl started, breaking the silence, "that The Crayak made such a grave error on judgment in picking Desiree as one of his warriors for the last battle."

I could tell what she was doing, she wanted to take my mind off the thought creeping into my head and as much as I didn't want to talk to anyone I didn't want to offend this woman. "A little," I sighed looking up at her, "he painted this guy to be a master strategist and yet she helped free me so I can't help but wonder why."

"Even omnipotent beings are capable of making mistakes not that I'm disappointed by this one." She was goading me, I could tell by how she looked at me, she'd been playing a human for to long, she showed all the tell tale signs of trying to trying to herd me into a decision, and I could feel misled falling right into the trap.

"Free will," leaning my head on my knees, "that's what Tobias use to tell me. They can only lead us somewhere but it's still up to each person to make their own decisions and we don't have to make the ones they would put in front of us. For whatever reason Desiree choose not to make the decisions The Crayak gave her, that or she did and now she's just being opportunistic since her backer left and she knows she can no longer control the situation."

"It's very possible that's what happened, all the same I'd feel better if I knew what had gone through her head just prior to her attack of you."

"I'd feel better if I knew what Tobias was doing right now."

She sighed at that, "you're a broken record girl," leaning forward, "you do know what a record is right?"

"Yes I know what a record is, my parents have a shelf full of them."

"Then you know what I'm talking about, Tobias is a big boy, and he can take care of himself, you should be more worried about yourself than him."

"I am, but I have a hard time being worried about him if I don't know if I'm ever going to see him again."

"Fine," walking over to the door, "I'll see what I can do about tracking him down but I'm not bring him back to you, that's something he has to decide on his own."

"Thanks," watching her shut the door behind her. "Where the hell are you birdie," I whimpered to no one, "and why didn't you trust me enough to tell me what's going on inside your head." I slowly walked over to the window and looked at the night sky, "after all this I'm not sure what I believe in, but if someone is up there and you can here me, protect him for me, and please send him back to me, I don't want to end it like this."

---

DP Style

Vlad tapped his fingers on his desk, he was a man use to getting what he wanted quickly, and thus far many of his plans hadn't worked out quite like he wanted, if at all. Maddie's love still eluded him, Danny still refused to accept his destiny as his student, Jack refused to die, the power of Pariah Dark had slipped through his fingers, the Charm of Soll Thild had ripped from his grasp, and he still didn't understand what Tobias was.

He sighed and lent back into his chair, "how could things be going so wrong," his eyes drifting over the framed picture of he and Maddie from their college days. "How did I lose you to him," pulling it to him and stroking the still life image of the redhead, "he's an idiot, a fat psychotic idiot. In every measurable way I am ten times the man he is so how is it he has everything that should be mine. Why did you choose him over me," running his fingers over her cheek, "what on earth does he have that I don't, what could possible make him a better match for you than I am?"

"Some things are meant to be a mystery," the odd voice making him jump slightly and lose his grip on the picture, only to have it rescued from the ground as he cloned himself before the glass could shatter. With it safe the older halfa in the chair lifted his eyes to the old ghost bird in the door way, his eyes blazing red with a threat of eminent destruction if the reason for the intrusion wasn't good.

"Speak quickly bird."

"The Knights back," bowing his head to the thin man.

"And," his eye losing their glow by still remaining red as his twin united with him and he leaned back into the chair.

"We think he found something but he won't tell us anything."

At the news he jumped out of the chair and brushed past the prehistoric bird and transformed to his ghost form and flew through the walls in order to make up for lost time, hope that he would soon turn his run of bad luck around starting to take root. It took a few moments but soon appeared in front of the black and purple warrior, but the fact that he was alone did little to endear him to the other man.

"I thought I told you not to return without finding someone who knows about this new pawn on the board!"

"Just because I didn't bring them it doesn't mean I didn't find anyone," his voice calm despite the anger being directed at him.

"This wasn't a hard task," a calmness surrounding the ghost, yet his voice dripped condescension, "all I asked is you bring me one person that knew him and your telling me you can't even do that. It appears your reputation was overly exaggerated or was it built on misconceptions?"

At the insult the Knight gripped the hilt his sword and fought the urge to impale the man, he could take so much, but essentially calling him a coward was a step to far. With a patience born of many battles he regain his composure and did his best not to glare at the man, "there are reasons I didn't bring them to you, things you should know before I make the necessary arrangements to get them. Consequences I need you to know about because I believe they may interfere with your own long term plans."

That got Vlad's interest but did little to ease his anger and calm his ego, "what could possibly be this bad?"

"An assault on Walkers prison," folding his arms, his fire somehow showing the pleasure he felt at Vlad's surprised reaction.

"You have to be kidding me," hunching over slightly, his jaw going slack for a moment.

"I wish I were," growing more confident, "I've followed many lead and have two that I believe to be reliable sources of information the only problem is one is an inmate and the other is a bounty hunter in his employ, and both are said to be very dangerous."

"How dangerous," it was less a question of the personal danger they represented and more a question of what it would bring down on his head. There were very few people in the Ghost Zone that Vlad concerned himself with, but Walker was one of them. If the ghost warden wanted to he could cause a great deal of problems in many on the long terms plans that were running throughout the Ghost Zone.

"Hard to say, I was able to watch the bounty hunter fight, she's a formidable warrior but I could stop her. However I have no way on knowing how mach damage we'd cause before I could stop her, and it would raise the suspicions of any near by and undoubtedly get back to Walker. From what I've come to understand he values the girl as a weapon and I don't think he'd let you take her without a fight. From what I've heard he may even have feelings for her, but those sources are less than reliable."

"A dangerous prospect, I know what happens when you get between a man and his love," as he hovered and paced through the room, his hand on his chin. "What of the other, it might be possible to get it out if I handle it diplomatically."

"Doubtful," following the blue skinned man with his eyes, "apparently there's a sublevel of the prison or perhaps mystically induced additional levels. These level hold, in Walkers opinion, the worst offenders in the Ghost Zone. However I can't be sure about any of this, information on this creature is slim at best, little more than rumors to be honest."

"Yet you trust them," a little awry that he'd bring something like this up.

"Indeed, while this creatures existence is little more than myth for the few that have heard of him, he is known in the proper circles to be a very real creature. However the additional levels do exist within the prison itself since there are those that have seen them and they can be gotten to. When the two piece are combined it does make it seem like this creature does exist within the Ghost Zone."

"But you don't think we can get to him."

"Correct, if what I've heard is true getting to that level is nearly impossible by force, and getting out is even harder, and before you ask no you can't simply walk through the level in your human form. The entire compound has been retrofitted to prevent Phantoms escape should he also be recaptured."

"This is not what I wanted to hear."

"I'm aware of that," the fire around his head dieing down slightly, "but I did find something else but I'm not sure how much I trust it."

"I'm listening."

"I found stories of someone who may be connected to the bird, but there are so many lies surrounding this person I can't be sure. It seems like half the things I hear contradict the other half, so I can't be sure about anything, but luckily Walker is not involved with this one so this should be easier."

"I take it there something more to this situation that you haven't told me," the halfa's eyes igniting ever so slightly.

"Where Walker surrounds the other two this one is also surrounded by those I will have to deal with in order to fulfill my mission. That however is not a difficulty, they are weaklings for the most part, only a small handful could offer me more than a few moments distraction but they are enough to allow our quarry to escape in the chaos."

"Allowing it to go underground," nodding in understanding, "we can't have that can we, better a dealing with a several petty thugs than trying to infiltrate Walker's fortress."

"I did not say they were petty thugs, many by most standards are very powerful, but to me however they are weak in comparison. It will take time for me alone to deal with them all and while it is only a fraction of the time it would take others to do the same, time will be of the essence for us, especially if what I have heard of this one is true," That comment forced Vlad's eyebrow to raise in an unspoken question. "From what I understand the one we seek is quite powerful, more so than those that surround it, even if I'm able to deal with the others capturing it may be the hardest part of the battle."

Vlad could already see where this was going and he liked the idea of letting off a little steam at those that wouldn't be able to stop him. "Enough," raising his hand, "I'll accompany you to the Ghost Zone and help deal with this creature and ring the truth from it myself."

"Excellent," his fire blazing brightly, "whenever your ready, I'll escort you to our target."

"No time like the present," one hand igniting with red ectoplasm. It took over four hour of flying through the Ghost Zone to get where they needed to be and within that space of time the halfa never spoke once. He mind was miles away throughout the trip, something about this situation didn't ring true, it was true the Fright Knight had been honest with him in the past, he couldn't help feeling like something important had been held back in this instance.

"That's it," not believing his eyes as his looked at the building where their target was suppose to reside.

"Indeed."

"You are joking aren't you?" looking over at him. The building was by far not what he had expected, it wasn't as though he anticipated a mansion, but he expected more than this. It was little more than a bar and not in a good way, the exterior walls were bar save the neon sign that hovered about it that said 'SCREES' or would have if the C and second E weren't burned out and the random graffiti that covered the walls. Given the general look and decay of the structure Vlad guessed it was somewhere between one and three hundred years old, but it had been then was something he could only guess at.

"This is where they congregate and do not let the appearance deceive as those inside, this will not be easy for us. If we do not strike quickly and with precision our quarry will elude us and we'll be back where we started."

His eyes ignited red at the comment and he turned to his companion, "DO NOT PRESUME YOU CAN LECTURE ME!" Despite the intensity of his voice his words didn't travel far enough to alert any within the building.

Despite the anger in his leaders voice it didn't faze him, "I wouldn't dream of it," bowing ever so slightly, "I was merely making sure you didn't overestimate our side."

"You truly believe these ghosts to be a threat?"

"I can never be sure what will happen in battle, but I suspect there is a reason these spirits aren't in Walker's prison themselves."

"Then lets get this over with," his hand igniting in red flame as two copies of himself appeared on either side of his body.

"That's what I was hoping you'd do," pulling his sword, "if I may take the lead."

"You may," falling in behind the black armor clad ghost as he stormed the bar, the four flying in rapidly. With a roar the Fright Knight kicked in the door his sword drawn, bringing the attention of every ghost in the room to the Knight, the purple fire surrounding his head almost blinding.

"In the name of my master stand down, refuse or face the consequences," the warning was little more than a formality at this point, he knew what was going to happen next, but he still felt he should at least try and spare a few of them if he could. A roar of laugher erupted from the motley crew before him, many bearing a striking resemblance to normal humans with the exception of their color. That is save a few that had taken on more monstrous forms that ranged from sludge creatures to tentacle monsters and a few that looked like they'd walked off the set of a bad Japanese monster movie.

"Of course," shaking his head and mentally summoning his multisided energy construct and throwing it into the crowd and watched them scatter as it exploded. While they were distracted he moved in this a speed and ease born of experience and with a single strike sent three to a realm of their nightmares. Another strike soon followed sending another two away while he tossed another energy construct into the crowd and sent them scrambling before it detonated. It was a simple strategy but an effective one, send out a concentrated ectoplasm construct to keep them off balance then dispatch a few with his sword, however it was one they came to anticipate sooner than he had planned. With a snarl somewhere between ducks quack and a car backfiring a gray tentacle wrapped around his neck and pulled him back, a second pulled his sword from his hand.

Chuckling to himself while he was pulled closer and more tendrils encased him, "a bold move," his cape flaring and a second later emitting a purple light so bright it blinded everyone in the room and incinerated the tentacles around his body. While they were disoriented he rolled to his sword and faced the largest contingent of the attackers and waited for them to come, his senses on over drive to detect when it would happen. He didn't have to wait long till they advanced on him, only for what he'd been waiting for to burst through two window and the downed door respectively.

The white clad halfa was a stark contrast to the dark colored warrior and his appearance threw the others off balance once again, "tell me again why you need me," a hint of distain in his voice.

"If the stories are true you'll see soon," as he jumped up, twisting and landing on the ceiling and pushed off landing with the grace of a cat on the other side of the group. The three moved like clockwork, both driving forward at the same moment, the soul shredder removing ghosts right and left from the fray while Vlad let lose with his ectoplasm, arcs of red of varying sizes laced through the room and prevented the assembled from getting off more than a few hits and random blast of ectoplasm in varying colors.

Without warning a ghost leapt onto the back of the Fright Knight and tried to put him in a sleeper hold, and in a high nasally voice hissed, "you have no idea who your messing with do you."

"Nor do you," head butting the ghost and forcing him to let go and spinning around and grapping the offender by the throat, "but you will learn." With a roar he launched the spirit forward and imbedded him in a wall with enough force to make the building shake.

"EONOUGH OF THIS!" Vlad roared filling the air with a red glow as he formed a shield around his bodies that rapidly expanded and threw everyone back and sent many threw various windows to where the other Vlad copy was waiting to deal with the stragglers that still wished to fight.

"Hmmm, I have to learn that trick," the Knight mused to himself before slipping back into combat mode and took a measure of those around him, looking for their quarry and hoping the fight hadn't allowed them to lose what they came after.

"I'm growing bored with this," the white clad ghost merging with the clone in the room and hovering over to the knight.

"Patience is a virtue in peace as well as war," keeping his guard up.

"You say things like that just to annoy me don't you?"

"Just sharing my experience with you," a small energy construct forming in his hand, just the right size to keep it concealed from those around him.

"I don't keep you around for your experience I keep you for your…" the rest of the words never making it as he was struck from behind and knocked onto his face.

A second before Vlad could hit the ground the Knight released his energy construct at the attacker, only to miss as the assailant leapt back and back flipped through the sky and landed several yards away. "You seem to be as fast as I heard you were."

"Anything you've heard is a gross understatement," he hissed letting the Knight get a good look at his prey, he wasn't quite what he expected, but from what he heard that wasn't a surprise. His entire body seemed to be made of black-purple flame, the sparks rising off of him in an ever shifting mass keeping his body from every being a single shape. Despite that what he was suppose to look like was obvious, he was a large cat, albeit one that moved on two legs. From his back ripped a long tail that seemed to move with the breeze emanating from the air conditioner. His chest was broad, almost to the point of daring someone to try and hit him. His arms were large and powerful, each finger ending in a sharp burning claw that promised there was nothing he couldn't deal with. The head was surrounded by a mane of flames that seemed somehow independent from the rest of the body and burned brighter and more out f control. The feline head was that of a typical enraged cat, ears pulled down, fangs up and practically daring the two from coming after him.

"We'll just have to see about that," bracing himself for an attack while he took measure of the creature he had come after. Every lick of flame that rose off him told the knight a story, his stance spoke volumes as to his experience, his face let him know what was running through the ghosts mind.

"Lets," shooting forward, combining speed with flight to cover the distance in a fraction of the time it would under normal conditions. With a roar identical to the lion he was modeled after he struck with his claw, doing his best to take a chunk out of the knight, only to be met by the knights forearm. For a moment it became a matter of power between the two, neither willing to give up any ground as they compared the strength of the Fright Knights armor to the edge of the lions claws. In the end it was the burning feline that was forced to back down as the Knight swung his arm and sending the cat through the air, only to stop as he landed on ground and released a roar at his opponent that made even the Spirit of Halloween hesitate.

With a feral grin he dove back in, his claws burning brighter only to be stopped as Vlad palm thrust him in the chest releasing a blast of red ectoplasm that sent him flying back. The strike however did little to the lion ghost, his ears and nose having already picked up the movement of the halfa and beginning to move back, thus only taking a fraction of the hit's power. With a flip he came to a stop on his feet and snarled at the pair in a primal challenge.

"You've challenged the wrong man creature," Vlad's eyes burning red.

"Yeah right," keeping his body low as he jumped forward, his senses on high alert as he deftly dodged the blasts of red ectoplasm that exploded from Vlad's body. To the cat they might as well have been in slow motion, he could smell the ecto charge before it took form, he could see the subtle shifts in their bodies telling him where they'd move before they did so, he could hear the thousand sounds around him that told him where everything was and how it would react to him. With a small growl in his throat he darted closer with a speed that almost defied the eyes ability to follow and moved closer with every second that passed.

The growl grew loader as he jumped forward and slashed at Vlad, his claws connecting with the halfa, only to have the form dissipate as the newly cloned body lost cohesion. His ears darted back as he picked up the subtle sounds of a cape flaring in the breeze and a acidic scent of ectoplasm and darted left out of the way of the red energy before it could escape his opponents hand. The second the scorch mark appeared on the floor the cat had jumped and leveled a round kick at Vlad's face, his claws phasing through the body as Vlad lost his tangibility from the neck up. With practiced ease a clone formed behind Vlad and fired red blasts of energy from his eyes firing straight through his intangible other self and struck the cat in the back, sending him to the floor.

"Neat trick," the flame beast growled spinning his body landing back on his feet and charging back in without a second of hesitation. His leap however was abruptly halted as he slammed face first into an energy shied formed by the first Vlad while the second shot over him and delivered a second blow to the cat's back, this time with a red ecto whip.

"Your out matched and out powered," the pair speaking in unison.

"And you talk to much," his fire flaring only to settle down revealing a different configuration. He was now thinner all over, without a hint of a mane or claws and his neck and tail were not considerably longer. His face had also changed, where it had formerly been a lions it was now distinctly reptile, even down to the tongue that flicked out of it at random intervals. The change startled Vlad and made him hesitate, a move that allowed him to hear the subtle rattle that filled the air as the creatures tail vibrated. With a speed even greater than his pervious form one arm seemed to grow longer and shot out around the shield punched him in the chest while his other arm did he same and wrapped around the seconds Vlads neck and pulled him down. The rattle grew louder and faster as he moved, jumped forward he moved past the other Vlad and landed on the edge of the shield and sided kicked the first Vlad in the face while releasing his grip on the second. At the strike the shield dissipated and the two Vlads remerged with one another, but by that time the burning reptile had already moved landing behind the halfa. Swinging his arms back he repeatedly whipped the half, lashing him across the back for a few moment till the shock wore off Vlad and he formed another shield over himself only to do intangible a moment later and vanish through the floor as the flamed beast moved around it.

"Coward," he hissed his head darting out of it's long neck looking everywhere as fast as he could, his tongue darting out and tasting the air, not quite sure why the black armored warrior with him hadn't moved in to attack him.

"You fight well for a child," Vlad's voice seemly coming from everywhere at once and sending the creature into overdrive as he tried to find him. "But this ends now," the floor under him exploding in red ectoplasm and sending him skyward. The creature tried to right himself but didn't get the chance as Vlad appeared above him and brought his hands together and struck him where his neck met his shoulders. The trip down didn't last long as another Vlad appeared and shot out and energy whip that entangled his neck. With a heave that Vlad spun around in midair a jerked the creature off his target and sent him over the halfa's shoulder and into a wall. The second he started falling he was met by another flying Vlad that upper cut him straight into the ceiling of the bar and embedded his head in it. That Vlad in turn darted back and joined the other two while a forth Vlad materialized from the floor and hovered below them having come from out side, mentally summoned by the original. The four struck as one, each releasing a blast of ectoplasm at the dazed creature and sending him back and dropping him the ground, never the less they didn't let up. After a second one broke away from the group and dove down and started blasting from the ground, cutting off a possible escape route, the other three in turn took up positions at other locations keeping him locked down, unable to escape without getting past one of them. The blasts continually changing positions making sure he couldn't form a defense and staying aware that the creature could try and escape at any second.

After a few moments Vlad as a group grew bored and one gave a subtle nod to the Fright Knight letting him know he wanted to end this. Making sure he acknowledged him one Vlad cut off his stream of energy and let the Knight dive in and slash the beast with his sword and removing him from the battle. With a slightly tired sigh Vlad reformed his body, glad for the energy increase that always accompanied remerging with his other selves.

"I told you this one could be a handful," a tiny hint of satisfaction in the Fright Knight's voice as he watched Vlad wipe a few beads of sweat from his brow.

"Indeed," rubbing a soar spot o his body, "not the greatest threat I've even run across in the Ghost Zone but more than I was expecting, with the proper training he could be a true force."

"Indeed he could," sheathing his sword, "he's a little wild, and his ego will need to be broken but he could be of use to us if we approach him correctly."

"For now," lifting his hand and igniting it in red ectoplasm, "I just want the information about the bird, his usefulness everything after that is relative."

---

Tobias POV

(The things I've done can never be forgiven,) I hissed to myself, not for the first time since laving the house while looking at the rising sun from my perch on a power line. (I can't believe I was stupid enough to think I could have anything resembling a normal life, I'm a monster, something that shouldn't be allowed near people. All I do is bring death and chaos to those around me, everyone I touch is changed for the worse and now I've brought it to Jazz. She now knows darkness on a level on one should, she know the feeling of blood on her hands and sight of death.) I shook my head and let out a scream that made every animal in the area run for cover, (I HATE THIS!) my words going out in all directions my ability to care who heard me long since gone.

"Melodramatic as always Tobias," Nikki's words easily reaching my ears despite being above her.

(Leave me alone,) I hissed down to her, easily spotting her below me.

"No, not till you grow up," the comment making me lifting my feathers on my head in anger.

(What's that suppose to mean?)

She put her hand on her forehead and shifter her hologram till it looked like my human body and in my voice, "oh no my life is so hard, I'm a bird that lives in a tree, I've killed so many people, no one knows what it's like to be me, I'm one of a kind, you can't live my life, blah blah blah," she mocked. "Would you get over yourself bird, of all of them I use to think that you would be able to hold it together but apparently I was wrong."

(Well excuse me if things were a little harder for me than the others but I wasn't privy to a mind wipe and a normal life.)

"No you weren't but your doing a good job of throwing away the closest thing you'll even have to one," Nikki growled at me.

(In case you hadn't noticed I can't go back there, every time I do I end up making their lives ten times worse.)

"Their lives were screwed up before they even met you, I've looked into their history they had big problems long before you ever showed up and they'll probably be having them long after you've gone."

(Yeah but till I showed up she didn't know what it was like to kill a man or to see the bodies incinerated.)

"No…she didn't," her hologram reverting to her Nikki persona.

(Everyone's better off if I'm not being in their lives, I just need to go back into the woods and wait for something to eat me so I can stop ruining the lives of the living.)

"Then why was Jazz so upset when you left?"

(Because she was still reeling form what she'd seen.)

"Try again mouse breath, she's upset because your upset. She cares about you and if you weren't so hard headed maybe you could see that it doesn't matter to her what you were, she wants what you are."

(A homicidal bird,) looking away from her, (that brings death to all those near him.)

"Someone with their own grasp of right and wrong, who isn't afraid to go after what the want regardless of the consequences and can survive anything in order to protect those around him even if it costs him his own life."

(You make me sound like I'm some kind of hero Nikki.)

"Aren't you?"

(No,) jumping down next to her, (I systematically killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people Nikki, more than that I liked it. I enjoyed the killing, the feeling of bodily fluids on my fingers of paws or claws or whatever I had at the time. You can't do that and still be a person, people don't do those things to each other or to anything for that matter, at least they don't unless they belong in an insane asylum.)

"Those people also don't get hung up on the fact that they did those things," squatting down and grabbing my face and making sure we looked each other in the eyes. "I've been around a long time Tobias and I've seen the worse your people can dish out, and if you think what you've done is new, I have a wake up call, it's not. Human have been doing thing far worse than what you've done for reasons that don't even live up to yours. People have been wiping themselves out for some of the stupidest reasons I can comprehend, different skin color, different beliefs, different language, simple stupid things."

(In other words humanities already doomed and I'm just the latest sign.)

She just shook her head at my comment and sighed, "what I'm saying is your not that different from any other human that's fought in a war."

(That doesn't make me feel better,) a little surprised she let me pull my head away.

"You are one of the most stubborn people I have ever met," she hissed and ran her fingers through her holographic hair, "your also one of the most decent people I've know in my life. And your right you have serious problems, you've done things no one ever should, but that doesn't diminish what you've done for the rest of the world and more importantly what you've done for a handful of people. My life is better have having known you and the others, and their lives were better because of you. Jake, Rachel, Macro, Cassie you kept them all going when the pressure hit them, they looked at you and saw what you had gone through and how it hadn't stopped you…."

(Not that most of them remember it,) I hissed.

She ignored me and kept going, "…from continuing to fight. And even now Jazz and her friend are looking to you, they rely of your experience and strength to get them through situations they've never imagined they could go through. Yes what's happened has changed you but that doesn't mean your life is over or that you don't deserve some happiness."

(Rousing speech there Nikki but if your done, I want to get out of here and figure out how to end my life with some dignity,) spreading my wings. It was nice of her to come out here and try this but I wasn't in the mood for a pity party, at least not from someone else, especially when most of what she was saying was a lie.

"Fine then drama queen," rolling her eyes, "let me ask you this do you know why I'm here?"

(Because you're an annoying mutt that can't keep her nose out of my business,) I snapped.

"Because Jazz asked me to find you."

(Here we go,) spreading my wings wide, (the old somebody else sent me maneuver, it's old Nikki try it with somebody else.)

"No she really did send me," crossing her arms, "for some reason she's worried about you and actually cares about you, but for the life of me I don't know why at the moment. Look I don't want to get involved in this, so I'm going to stop arguing with you and try and make this as clear as possible, GO BACK TO HER. If for no other reason than she needs you right now, she's lost and scared Tobias, she experienced things you know to well and she's going to need someone to talk to in order to get through it. Look I don't know her well but I don't think she's the type that can just keep things bottled up for a long time, and of all the people out there you're the only one that can really help her get through this. After that I don't know what to tell you but right here and now you need to stop thinking of yourself and start thinking about what's best for her."

"And what's best for her is for me to stay out of her life," spreading my wings and flapping up into the sky.

Down below after a few seconds I could hear Nikki speaking to herself, "freaking idiot bird, those two belong together, he's a neurotic mess and she's almost as bad."

---

Jazz POV

"AAAGGGGGUUU," the sound filling my ears as I felt something on top of my head that was blinding me, I tried to move it only to realize my arm was gone and I was somehow imprisoned, my legs and still attached arm somehow unable to move. I felt panic start to enter my mind as I struggled and tried to free myself knowing at any second my captors could attack but did little more then help the fear grow in my body as I felt my palm grow slick with sweat. I thrashed about for a few seconds finally pushing off whatever had been blinding me and was greeted by a blast of light that was more painful than the darkness I had come from.

By the time my eyes adjusted to the light my brain was finally comprehending what was going on around me, I'd been having a waking nightmare, or whatever you call it when your somewhere between asleep and awake and can't quite process everything properly. I tried to flex my sleeping arm a little only to have it lay on top of the blanket that had somehow become incredibly tangled around me during the night. After a few moments of laying there I could feel the blood begin flowing back into my arm and making it tingle as it slowly became of use to me again.

"I spent three days sleeping," staring up at the ceiling, "how can I still be tired?" Taking a deep breath I looked over at the window, slivers of light escaping the blinds and casting eerie patterns on the walls and regrettably no Tobias. "So much for trusting Nikki to get him to come back," I half yawned half hissed pulling my other arm free now that I could finally understand how I'd trapped myself and kicked off the other covers.

Hunching over the side of the bed I could still feel the after images of the dreams haunting me and regretting that I'd taught myself how to remember dreams for self analysis. They were full of blood and death, less dreams than after thoughts of what I'd seen through Tobias' eyes, almost all of them were gruesome ending with someone or something dieing by my hand. Of the lot the only good part of them was when I flew, that section alone had brought pleasure to me, helped in maelstrom of death and fear that seemed to wrapped around me like a second skin.

"Is this what you go through birdie," I whimpered quietly and pulled my knees to my chest and rocked gently on the bed while I shook uncontrollably, "is this the side of your life you didn't want me exposed to?" I held myself like that till I could feel my body and mind clam down enough so that I could slip out of my room without alerting anyone who might see me as to my true condition.

I slipped into the bathroom and turned the shower on and waited for the water to warm before sticking my head under it and letting it wash the unseen blood of my body. Even in the wake of the water I could feel the tears start to well up in my eyes and run down my face merging with the other water, becoming indistinguishable. All the fear and anguish of the dream and the memories they conjured up rushing out once again. I hated to think what this must have been like for Tobias those first few days, his hawk body unable to let him do this. I stayed in the shower till the water started to turn cold and I once more regained control of myself.

With ragged breath I got dressed and looked back out the window and wondered what Tobias was feeling at this moment. These memories were painful for me so I could only imagine what they were doing to him, what had they brought up in him. Was he going through this as well, was he somewhere shivering as the deaths of countless individuals both real and dream flashed across his mind.

"Get a grip girl," I finally hissed as I felt new tears run down my face and wiped them away with my sleeve, "you don't cry and you don't get this upset. Right now he's out there somewhere feeling bad enough and he doesn't need to fell worse knowing he's making me feel this bad." I found myself actually growling a bit after I said it, something I hadn't gone since I was a little girl when I use to make believe I was different animals.

With a deep sigh I forced my thoughts on to anything else, but ultimately found myself still thinking about what I had seen and done and tried to control the stream of thought, turn it to something I could take at the moment, morphing. That had quite possibly been the only good to come out of the memories, the feelings of being other animals, their power and strength, the raw confidence and agility of the cat and unbridled joy of flying. "No wonder he refused to become a human again," I whispered. For a few moment I was able to lose myself in those memories and doing my best to try and remember every thing about being those creatures as well as the acts of becoming them. "My life is totally screwed up," I sighed pulling myself away from the window and letting the feeling of flying circulate through my body.

In the end I was pulled from my thoughts someone knocked on my door, "you up."

"Yeah I'm up Danny," I called through the door not wanting to open it and let him see me looking the way I did.

"Mom and dad are on a job and said we could were free to do what we wanted today, well technically they said they'd be disappointed if we didn't study but I'm still choosing to use the loop hole."

"So your going to see Sam and Tucker," looking back out the window and seeing the edge of the RV.

"Actually I was thinking you and I could do something," his voice cracking a little, "I mean…it's been a few day's since I've really been able to talk to you." He was trying to hide it but I could hear it in his voice, he was worried about me, and in the wake of everything that had happened to me it made me feel good to know someone was still concerned about me.

"Give me a little while," walking over and cracking the door, "and think of something you want to do, I have a little money stashed away."

"Whoa thanks Jazz."

---

DP Style

"Your sure you want me to release him here?"

"It's why I had the room made," Vlad sighed unsure why the Fright Knight seemed so uneasy about releasing their captive.

"And yet the bird was able to escape from this room without much difficulty."

"This room is designed to holds ghosts not…whatever that creature is."

"If your sure about this," pulling his sword and cutting a hole in the sky into his nightmare dimension. For a moment nothing happened, the cut simply existed allowing the pair to see into the creatures inner most realm and see a world that appeared to be full of giant rats, then it slowly began to close, mending itself like an open wound.

"You didn't releases him along with the others did you," Vlad accused, his eyes glowing red.

"Do not question my control over my realm," the Knight hissed as the portal nearly finished closing. A second before it became to late a creature dropped out of the portal in a fetal position and whimpering softly to himself having been overwhelmed by his nightmares.

"YOU LOST HIM," Vlad roared his hands and eyes a blaze.

"I didn't," the Knights voice calm in spite of the sight before him, "I have full control over the location of everyone in the nightmare realm, he is the one you fought, but it appears he has another side to him."

For a moment Vlad considered attacking him but let it go, the Knight had yet to fail him, and there were many ghosts that could change their forms. "You had better be right about this," looking down at the ghost before them who had quickly regained his composure and was staring up at him with a look of defiance on his face. In that moment Vlad could tell this creature was one of a rare variety of ghosts, one that for all intents and purposes could pass for a normal human. Well almost normal, like many of his kind his skin was grayer that that of a normal humans, but even that was passable. He was modeled on a teenager, but that could be for any of a thousand reasons, his gray skin accented by shaved gray-blond hair stubble and gray-brown eyes. However while his skin was gray his clothing was not, he seemed to be decked out in the Ghost Zone equivalent of black leather. Black jacket and fingerless gloves with silver studs on the knuckles, shiny black shirt that was largely obscured by the jacket, black pants and black combat boots. On most it would seem that the kid was trying to hard but the look on his face told those assembled that the clothing was a refection of his personality, dark and dangerous. He just looked up at Vlad with eyes that seemed to scream he'd find a way to kill the halfa, eyes that belonged more to a wild animal than a human spirit. From those eyes black purple flames erupted and spread outward, or would have had Vlad not shot him in the back and halted the flames progression.

"We'll have none of that now will we," the Fright Knight chided reaching down and grabbing the boy by the neck and forcing him onto the rack to keep him from doing anything else.

"You really think this will hold me," he hissed, black-purple flames eruption form his eyes again and changing back into his feline form and trusting his arm outward in an attempt to break free. Despite his strength he wasn't able to break the specially crafted bonds of the device not that it stopped him. When the cat failed he changed into his reptile form and trying to pull his body free of the bonds only to have them constrict around his thinner body. His tail giving off one final rattle he changed to a new form, one that resembled a bug, a second set of arms emerging form his body, antenna rocketing outward and his tail vanishing. That form to failed to make a dent in the medieval device but it didn't stop him from shifting once more to something like a human crossed with a bird, his wings spreading outward from his back and snapping at the air and trying to free himself. When that failed he grew larger, a new tail ripping out of his body and forming fins at the end, his head grew thicker, almost as if he didn't have a neck a dorsal fin emerged from his head. With a roar he tried to escape again mach to the boredom of the other two. He went on like this for a few minutes, shifting from one form to another but he didn't seem able to assume any other configurations.

"Are you done yet," Vlad asked with equal parts amusement and contempt for the creature.

"No," he sneered returning to his human form, "I'm going to get out of this and when I do I'm going to rip you in half and feed you to that one," looking at the Fright Knight.

"As I said he has spirit but he lacks the training to back up his power," the Knight chuckled.

"Indeed," as Vlad grabbed his face, "do you have a name child?"

"Master," spitting in Vlad's face and being rewarded with a slap to his own face so hard that his head knocked into the rack.

"Of all the impudence," he snarled, "do you know who I am!"

"No do you know who I am?" smiling at the halfa.

For a moment Vlad considered doing far worse to his captive but ended up laughing at the boys bravado, "I do like you creature, but don't think you can do that twice or you will regret it. You have the honor," bowing slightly in mock civility, " of addressing Vlad Plasmius future ruler of both the live and ghost realms, and you are?"

"Just plain David, the guy that's going to rip your throat out."

"Well David, do you have any idea why you're here?"

"You're a complete idiot who wants to find out how badly a ghost can have his tail kicked."

Vlad couldn't help but laugh even harder at that, "you have a lot of gall David all give you that," and turning a palm thrusting the other ghost in the nose, "and I've grown bored with it. I have questions concerning a living creature, one I was told you could answer and I will have those answers now or you will spend the rest of your miserable existence locked away in a realm of your own worst fears."

At the sound of that his interest rose, "let me guess a bunch of idiots that turn into animals," a sadistic-crazy smile on his lips that scared even the Fright Knight.

"You know my trouble maker then," in spite of the insane answer Vald's spirits rose.

"Oh I know those traitors intimately, I know how they betrayed me, how they were afraid of me and my power, how they knew they'd never measure up to me so they decided to doom the world rather than let me run the show and do what they were to gutless to do."

"You don't say, it sounds like you may have all the answers I'm looking for."

"You name it I know it, hell promise to give me a shot at them and I'll tell you anything you want to know."

"Then tell me everything you know, everything that could be of conceivable aid to me."

"And I'll get my shot at them?"

"If I like what I hear I'll even pay for their heads to be mounted I know quite a few good taxidermists."

"Where to start then."

"Try the beginning and leave nothing out," taking a seat on one of the tables in the room.

"It all started several years ago, back when I was still alive, a bunch of kids were walking through a construction site when a alien space ship landed…"

At that Vlad's eyes ignited in red ectoplasm, "I said I wanted the truth not a fairy tale," raising his hand to the spirit, the tips burning red with the promise of pain soon to come.

"No one ever said the truth had to make sense, after all I'm dead yet I'm in the land of the living and that's something you generally don't see outside of the movies. Now if I can continue," a hint of venom in his voice, "the ship crashed and alien emerged and warned those stupid kids of a war that threatened everyone one on Earth. Our world was being overrun by alien parasites, by Yeerks, and he'd been trying to stop them only to end up being fatally wounded. In the end he decided someone should carry on the fight till his people arrived to finish off the invaders, and given he had few options he armed them, armed me with the power to hold them off. He gave the ability to become any animal we could touch, a useful little weapon if you know how to use it right."

"Can you believe it six kids in a war against an army of alien warriors hell bent on bending this world to it's knees?" Before Vlad could answer he continued, "the first night we were all in a haze, but after that they all panicked, everyone of them freaked out, hell one even had a nervous break down," a sadistic smile on his lips. "In the end it came down to me to pull that group of losers together and convince them that we had to fight or risk losing everything. Oh it was hard work in the beginning, Marco couldn't do anything with out complaining about missing his mommy, and Cassie was always harping about protecting the animals. Then there was Rachel who couldn't think about anything but guys and cloths and cloths to get guys. Not to mention Jake the would be hero, Mr. 'this is how they do it in comics', that boy was so useless it wasn't even funny. Finally their was a our freak out boy Toby, the little sack of dog crap couldn't do anything, he was the one that ended up losing it completely in the first few days, the coward ended up trapping himself in the body of a bird in order to keep himself sane. The little freak sacrificed his humanity, turning into something less than human, why we needed him at all was beyond me."

"It was hard but under my leadership we held our own for a while, at least till they started getting scared," rolling his eyes, distain creeping into his speech. "None of them had what it took to really be in the fight after a while they all thought we were going to far, they did get that the Yeerks would go just as far if our situations were reversed. And what's more they were all jealous of me, of my power and skill, of my leadership and my knowledge. They'd all scrambling during the fighting, taking the DNA of any animal they could get in the hopes of getting stronger, I on the other hand only needed a few bodies to get where I was going and do the job. More importantly they all scarified bit of their humanity by acquiring those beasts, one by one each ate away at their souls making them less human than beast, they made me sick."

"It was that fear that ended up driving them to betrayal, none of them could stand that I was so much better at the fighting than they were, that I knew what had to be done, that I was born to do this. One by one they formed an alliance against me, I wasn't sure who started it but it had to be either Jake or Rachel, he wished he could be me and that skank was always pawing at me. Unfortunately I'd been to preoccupied with figuring out how to win the war to deal with them, it was my own fault under normal circumstances I would've seen it coming a mile away. The little backstabbers got me to morph a rat then shot me full of tranquilizers from Cassie's parents, by the time I woke up it was to late, I'd gone past the two hour time limit and could do anything to change back to my old body, and just to add insult to injury they left me on an island in the middle of the ocean that was inhabited by nothing but other rats."

"I stayed on that miserable rock for years, killing anything that challenged me whether it be rodent or bird, but in the end even I wasn't strong enough to hold out forever. The body aged to fast and while my mind was still sharp my claws had dulled, I ended up being killed by some young rodent with the brain capacity of a tree stump. Thankfully in death I was finally freed of that worthless body and given back real form, not to say I didn't get a few upgrades with it," changing into his flame lion body, "and I've been able to work out a nice niche for myself. But all the while I've just been waiting for my chance to get back at those ingrates for betraying me, not to mention find out how in hell they managed to win the fight with their little morals," spitting the last word. "So tell me which one is giving you trouble, Jake of the hero, the little slut Rachel…."

"Tobias," at the name David surged against the table his eyes growing more insane.

"He's still alive," his voice making both jump back in fear, the sound coming off more like a demon than anything that had previously been alive.

"He is," Vlad composing himself, "and I take it you have a problem with him."

"Problem doesn't even begin to say it, he was the worst of them all, a weakling and a coward, where the other at least left me be he had the nerve to come after me quite a few times after I'd been trapped. He had dreams of being a real hawk but had to be fed prekilled rats by Cassie because he couldn't get it right on his own. He use to fly out and practice on me every chance he got, only to lose every time, he even taunted me when he got his powers back. Why some benevolent creature saw fit to give that hopeless wreak such a gift is beyond me, I was so much more deserving than him and yet I was stuck scavenging for food. What's worse he squandered his gift, he chose to remain a feathered freak of nature instead of becoming human again like any rational person would. But then again I suppose it isn't that much of a leap, if he went human whatever sway he had with Rachel would have gone out the window. The little slut seemed to like the bird, adding one more little perversion to her long list of them, I doubt she'd look twice at him if he went human. Hard to believe he's even still alive after all these years I figured he would've killed himself or been eaten by something bigger and smarter than himself by now."

"Hmmm really," stroking his bread, "then killing him would be for the best."

"Oh yeah," giving him a predator smile and sounding to eager to do the deed.

"There is a problem however," Vlad's face remaining neutral, "he has allies, that I do need alive for a long term plan, and I doubt they'll let you kill him in cold blood."

"They get in my way they die, those are the rules," his flaming tail swishing wildly behind him.

"Maybe I didn't make something clear," the halfa hissed shooting over to him and slamming David's head into a metal plate of the rack while he slowly closed his grip on the boy's neck. "I need them alive and you are in no condition to make ultimatums as to how things will be handled. If I let you go these individuals will not be harmed, you can kill anyone else you wish, but if those I need are in anyway injured you'll find there are worse things than death."

"You really think you scare me," David coughed and weakly snapped in Vlad's direction, "I was killing thing bigger and mean than you years ago."

"I may not scare you," looking back at the Fright Night who's head flames grew larger and darker, "but he does. He's made a living out of torturing creatures, both living and dead, and he will make the rest of you existence as excruciatingly painful as possible. If you think living as a rat was bad he can you experience things far worse."

Chuckling primally he licked the blue skinned man in the face, "your intimidation needs work."

At that Vlad couldn't help but laugh as he released the boy's neck and walk away from him, "it appears I've been going about this the wrong way. Comparatively you're a simple creature one ruled more by the baser instincts…"

"Excuse me," pulling his ears down against his head.

"Power and revenge," looking back at him, "that's all you want isn't it? Don't feel insulted that's a good thing, some the greatest minds in history were driven by those same desire and more importantly you can always trust someone who's looking for those objectives."

"Really?"

"Quite, so how about a deal, one's that's mutually beneficial to both of us, one that will give you a reason not to harm those I want."

"And now that I know where he is why should I even care what you want."

"Two reasons," giving him a smile that made his ectoplasm quiver, "one your weak, that is to say you could be so much stronger, your moves were mundane at best."

"I almost beat you."

"Anyone can take an early lead in battle, only the best can keep it, you have potential but you could be so much more with the proper training and the right teacher."

"And you would be that teacher."

"Actually that would be him," nodding over to the armored warrior who squeezes his sword.

"Uh-hu," a little fear in his voice, "and what's the second reason?"

"If you don't do what I say I'll hand you over to Walker," brushing his gloved fingers in his body, "I'm sure he can find some reason to lock you away for all eternity."

"Your resorting to blackmail?"

Spreading his arms wide, "the classics never go out of style."

"You really think that's going to make me help you."

"No child but I think it's an excellent motivator to do as I ask without question and for you to willingly work for me rather than against me. But don't decide right away think about it for a few moments, we'll be back shortly," nodding the Fright Knight who followed him to the door. "And don't even think about trying to escape this room will be monitored and I will stop you if somehow manage to escape, and you don't want me to catch you, trust me on that one," and slammed the door closed behind them.

They walked down the hall before the Knight spoke, "you think trusting him is a good idea?"

"Not in the least," as Vlad looked down the hall, "only two or three of the things he said rung true, especially his portrayal of Tobias, that or he's changes quite a bit since he knew him, whatever his reason for changing his role in the past I don't think we'll get it this way. But we now know more about the situation than we did before we found him, now it's only a matter of determining what was true and what was fabricated in his tale. However his anger towards Tobias is genuine and I can use that, I doubt he could beat Daniel as he is, but he might be able to deal with Jack and Jazz, and who know he may prove to be a valuable weapon later on."

"You can't believe that, I've known men like him through out my life, he'll betray you the first chance he gets," the Knight warned.

"I'm aware of that," nodding, "but I as I told him I can use that to my advantage. It's simply a matter of knowing all the players on the board and knowing how to manipulate them into getting what you really want and convincing them it's what they want as well."

"I still think this is a dangerous game, there are those you can control and those you can't. As you said he's a primal creature, he has a few desires and he'll go to them as soon as he feels he can and if we stand in his way he will attempt to go through us."

"I told you, I'm aware of that," a knowing smile on his lips, "I know what I'm doing you just have to trust me, by the time I'm done he will be eating out of my hand and doing exactly as I ask. In this brief time together I already know how he thinks and what he'll say to my offer and from there it's simply a matter of letting all the other pieces fall into place."

"Sometimes I think you place to much faith in grand plans Plasmius, I'd rather rely on my blade and my strength to get through these types of situations."

"And that is why we are very different people my Knight and why I keep you around, I'm fully aware this may go wrong and I'll need your strength to survive it," doing his best to lay on the charm to keep the Knight happy. There was an amount of truth in words through, he was aware that in the past his plans hadn't gone as intended and he now needed someone to fall back on in case it happened again.

"Don't think flattery works on me," folding his arms, "I'm more disciplined than that."

"Oh that I'm aware," leaning into the wall and closing his eye's and putting his finger to his lips signaling that he wanted silence. They stayed like that for a few minutes and let their captive thing about his situation till Vlad nodded and reentered the room. "So tell me," standing in front of David, "what is your decision as to you immediate and possibly long term future?"

"As long as I get to kill that bird I don't care what rules I have to follow but be aware if anybody else gets in my way I can't be sure what'll happen to them but I'll try not to kill those in my way."

"That is the most I can ask," pulling a remote from the depths of his cape and clicking a button causing a wall to recede and a screen to be revealed.

"Nice set up, it come with surround sound."

"I'm having it installed next week," pushing another button and filling the screen with images of Danny in his ghost and human forms. "This is the first and most dangerous of those the bird has surrounded himself with, I want him alive, test him if you must but do not kill, if he's injured all bets are off."

"Why's he have different hair colors?"

"That is the halfa perhaps you've heard of him?"

"Whispers from a few, I didn't think he really existed. This should be interesting, the weasel always did have a way of surrounding himself with those that were more powerful that himself."

"Keep that in mind," clicking another button filling the screen with images of Maddie from various times in her life, "she is also not to be touched under any circumstances, if she is harmed your afterlife is forfeit, and that is not a threat that is a fact."

"Gee your not a stalker or anything," Vlad ignored him and changes images again, this time of Jazz, "let me guess I can't hurt her either?"

"Quite the opposite, she's the halfa sister and from my surveillance I've come to believe that she and Tobias have grown quite close, but to that extent be aware if you harm it will cause Daniel to come after you, so if you must harm her be aware of that."

"I'll give him this he does know a looker when he sees one."

"This one however you can kill," Jacks face filling the screen, "Daniel and Jasmine's father, I want him dead, I don't care how you do it just make it done."

"So killing the sister you warn me not to do yet killing the father, something that'll tick him off just as much you don't care about."

"Correct," changing the screen again, "Samantha and Tucker, Daniels friends don't care what you do to them."

"Cool, so this is pretty much just a free run to kill everyone and everything thing except for two people is that what your telling me?"

At that Vlad realized leaving even a hint of interpretation to his plan could be a bad thing with this ghost, he needed to be specific in what he wanted or else long terms plans would quickly fall apart. "Tell me," a new plan forming, one that required a few details, "what exactly are you capable of?"

"You mean other than this," changing into his insect form.

"Yes other than that, or were you not fortunate enough to gain other abilities?"

"I have a few other tricks," going invisible, "I can also fly regardless of form, go intangible, fire off energy and some fortuneteller lady told me I could overshadow people whatever the hell that means."

"It means you can possess the living, a useful talent when used properly," the pieces of a plan falling into place as he listened. "So when you were alive you could become anything or could they only be animals?"

"As far as I knew anything with DNA why?"

"Did you ever become another person?"

"I became a few and I was pretty good at it to, I could convince anyone I was somebody else," a dark smile appeared on his lips as he returned to his human form. Something about the look made Vlad very nervous, as though there was a dark story behind it, something even he may not want to know.

"Well then," stroking his beard, "I have a very special task for you, one that if you succeed in I'll provide the work to find where everyone of your enemies are currently located. I'll even arrange transport for you if you desire it, and anything else you want to deal with them for that matter."

"Sweet, what do I have to do," leaning in close to Vlad, or as much as he could with the restrains in place as the blue skinned halfa told him his plan and what was expected of the one time Animorph. With a cruel smile he nodded his head liking the simplicity of the idea. "Throw in my freedom at the end and we have a deal old man."

"I'll ignore that last part," floating over to him and releasing one of David's hands, "and while I'm sure this is a foreign concept to you, lets shake on this bargain, like gentlemen."

"Keep with the jabs blue boy, we'll see where it gets you," taking the hand and changing into his lion form and sinking his claws into it, or trying to as Vlad's hand went intangible.

"And you should be aware I'm not one to suffer fools lightly, and you are doing a good job of playing the fool."

---

Jazz POV

"Tell me again why we're here," Danny whined next to his sister and leaning on the railing.

"Because all of your ideas for things to do were bad or cost to much," I sighed and watched the seals swim through the water of the enclosure. "Besides it could be worse at least Samson, or is it Delilah now, isn't running free," I teased and poked him in the ribs having heard the story from Sam and Tucker.

"Still why the zoo, ok I'll give you that the water park cost to much, but why not the mall or Bucky's?"

"You don't drive yet Danny so I'm going to make this simple, I never go into one of those parking lots during the weekend if I can help it, you pretty much take your life into your own hands when you do that because everyone drives like a lunatic." Something that was very true, but the longer drive also gave us a chance to talk and for me to hear everything that had happened while I was asleep so I could be ready for the consequences of Tobias being me late on if I needed to be.

"But why here, you of all people should be tired of animals by now," that one struck close to home and I don't think Danny even realized just how much it hurt. Truth was I hadn't planned on coming here, I'd gotten lost on the roads and didn't want to admit it to him. And he was right, being here did stir up memories, but they weren't bad, at least not for the most part, yes I did tremble in fear when I looked at the elephants and tigers but the rest I was pretty neutral on. The few memories that were creeping in were pretty good as I remembered the time Tobias and the girls had walked along the back side of the enclosures, it was an exhilarating memory, one marred by everything that followed everything from that point.

"Look Danny lets just enjoy the day together, and if you don't want to stay it's not like you can't leave and find your own why home."

"Ha ha very funny," walking away from the seals and over to the park map, "so where to next reptile house, gorilla enclosure, petting zoo?"

"Oh yes I really want to go pet a llama right now," I hissed sarcastically and joined him. It'd been a few years since coming here and I'd forgotten what was here and where everything was, not to mention all the new additions they'd added over the years. "Lets see," running my finger on the 'you're here' icon and seeing what was closer, not surprised that Danny had picked the exhibits that were furthest away from us and each other. "The nocturnal enclosure is right around the corner next to the live act stage, we could swing by that and see if they have thing going on today that's remotely interesting."

"When Sam drug me down here for the extra credit project the stage was pretty much a magnet for screaming kids and guys in animals suits and someone forgot to turn the lights on in the nocturnal exhibit."

The second he said it I grabbed the bridge of my nose and squeezed and hoped the vein in my forehead I had just become very aware of wasn't going to burst. "Danny I'm going to be calm about this," trying to keep my voice even, "tell me that was a joke, for my own sanity and your future tell me that was a joke."

"No really the place was full of screaming kids and guys in stupid suits," either oblivious to what I was referring to or dedicated to the joke.

"Never mind," I hissed grabbing him by the wrist and puling him along, "but we're going to have a long talk about science when we go home."

"What why?" half whining half afraid as we walked over to the theatre and to what might be going on later that day. After a few feet it was obvious later that day wasn't really a concern as people walked in and out of the small outdoor arena along with animals and their handlers inside the open air building.

"Well what's going on here," speaking more to myself than Danny as we walked into the crowd of people.

"According to this," pushing a cheap brochure into my hands, "it's basically a petting zoo but with more exotic animals."

"Yeah I'd call that an understatement," looking up stage where a woman was bringing out a good sized monitor lizard and what might have been a bobcat was leaving the stage with it's handler. "Lets poke around for a little while Danny, never know what we'll find here."

"I don't think so," backing up, "I've been up close and personal with enough animals for a lifetime I'm just going to hang out by the bench out there till your done."

"Come on Danny," reaching out for him.

"Nope, look you do what you want but I'm turning around," practically bolting out of the building.

I shook my head as I watched him disappear into the crowd of people, "going to have to add zoos and wild animals to the things that make him nervous. One day your going to make a therapist very happy because you'll put his or her kids through college with all the mental problems you have." I ended up walking around for a few minutes and couldn't help but feel a little self conscious being the oldest person in the area that wasn't escorted by someone under the age of ten. Most of the animals, despite my first impression weren't that exotic, and what you could do with the few that were almost made the effort to high a price for the experience, if it could be called that by the time they were done sanitizing the actions.

But there was animal that caught my eye, one that was pretty much abandoned by all the kids and parent running around, a bird of prey. "Aren't you a magnificent specimen," walking over to the bird and teenager it was perched on.

"She use to be," the boy holding her lightly stroking her breast feathers, "names Chris by the way."

"Your name or hers," keeping my eyes on the bird, something in his voice saying he was going to start flirting with me if I gave him an opening.

"Mine, she's Weaver and you are," flashing a smile in my direction.

"Jazz, so what is she some kind of hawk," as I admired the head, so much like Tobias' but different in subtle ways.

"She's a Hobby out of Europe, of course she's not the only hobby I have," flexing his muscles on his exposed arm.

At that moment getting out of here without flirting didn't seem to be an option and it wasn't something I was really looking forward to. I moved a little hair from my face and gave him a smoldering look, or hoped I did, I was never good at giving those looks. "Yes you do," fluttering my eyelashes at him.

"Maybe we should go somewhere."

"Don't you think you'll get in trouble," deliberately looking at someone that I hoped was a senior handler.

"Right…um…this is a Hobby, she was originally part of a private collection and was taken in an a police raid. Prior to coming to us she was sterilized and her wings were clipped making it impossible for her to fly, for these reasons it's impossible to release her into the wild, but she now serves as a ambassador to her kind in this program."

"You are a beautiful girl Weaver."

"And your not bad looking yourself."

"Thank you Chris," still trying to flirt with him, "so can I touch her," my eyes meeting with Weaver's and sending shivers down my spine. I'd only felt like this one other time, and I wasn't myself at the time.

"Sure, two fingers on the back," turning her around and forcing our eye contact to break.

"Right," almost hesitantly reaching forward then slowly stroking down her back and feeling every muscle in her back, grow tense. "Sshhh," slowing the stroke, "calm down girl everything's going to be ok," and starting another stroke.

"Your good with her, you do this before?"

"Once…in another life," remembering the time I…Tobias had acquired the red tail. How it had felt to feel the hawk's DNA merging with my own, the slight warmth as it flowed into him…me, became part of me, the feeling of the hawk going eerily calm under my fingers.

"Whoa," Chris's voice snapping me out of my memory, his eyes wide with something I couldn't recognize, something between fear and surprise.

"What," still stroking Weaver and realizing she'd relaxed, actually more than relaxed, she wasn't doing anything other breathing, it was something I recognized but I wasn't sure how it was possible, the bird was in a trance. "Ok I have to go," trying not to sound like I was panicking and leaving as quickly as possible without looking like I was running. If Chris said anything I didn't hear anything as I found Danny outside and pulled him away from theater.

"Something up Jazz," a slightly worried expression on his face.

"I'm not sure," taking a deep breath, for all I knew it was just a coincidence that the bird had calmed down as I stroked her. "I couldn't have done it," keeping my voice low so Danny didn't hear me.

"Sis your starting to freak out little brother you sure your ok?"

"I don't know," running my fingers through my hair, "I guess everything that's been happening over the last few days just caught up with me."

"So do you need to go home?"

"No I'm good," sighing, "lets just keep going ok," walking past him to the nocturnal exhibit where the low light would hide me for a little bit. We ended up walking around for another few hours, but I honestly didn't remember most of it, I kept going back to touching the bird and trying to remember what I was feeling while I did it, but I couldn't, I truly had no idea what I'd done in those few moments. Maybe I somehow had acquired the genetic material of Weaver, or maybe I was trying to rationalize something that had just been a coincidence, something that had just been a cosmic joke. After all it was ridiculous, I couldn't have those powers, I hadn't been there, I had been experiencing memories of a time long past. And yet the question still remained in the back of my mind, had I really acquired the bird, had Desiree somehow messed up and I somehow retained Tobias' powers for my own?

---

Tobias POV

These are the times that try your soul, by all rights I should keep going, keeping flying till Amity Park was just a distant speck on the horizon, but I just couldn't. Maybe it was what Nikki had said, maybe it was my own stupidity, maybe I was just scared, but I couldn't seem to leave. Maybe it's true what they say, some people are just gluttons for punishment, that they're just the galaxies whipping boys, maybe I'm one of them, maybe I want to suffer, maybe all I care about is seeing how badly I can screw up my own life and all those around me.

(What am I going to do,) looking up at the sky, (I could use a sign here, I don't care what it is but I could use something here.) After I said that I braced myself, waiting for something to fall or crash, or any of the thousand of cliché way of answering that request. After a few minutes of nothing happening I came to the sad truth that this was something I'd have to figure out on my own. (Ok smart guy you've officially exhausted all other options, so what do you want to do?)

(Great not only am I talking to myself I'm waiting for a reply,) shaking my head and casting my eyes to the sky. If I went back to the others they'd be in danger of me continuing to bring my fights into their lives, fights that had long been ended till I showed up. Of course by going back I could help them deal with whatever came next, but they had done a pretty good job or dealing with that before I showed up. (Why are you trying to rationalize this man,) I hissed to myself, (they don't need you to fight, they don't need you for anything. The only one that needs you is Jazz, and she needs you because of you, she's strong and she's tough and she can deal with anything, it doesn't mean she should have to, especially alone.) I wasn't totally sure where all this was coming from, but I was hoping it was a moment of revelation. (The things I did should not be seen by anyone, and they hurt all of us, but at least we had each other to confide in and help us through them, Jazz doesn't have anyone. Yes she can talk to her brother, but that only goes so far, he doesn't know about what I…we have done, Jazz needs someone who's already gone through this, someone that can help her put everything in perspective.)

(And in the process screw her up more,) I sighed, my collected fears somehow gaining a voice in this conversation. (Face facts she doesn't want us back, she's better off alone than with a freak like us mucking up her life.)

(Then Why did Nikki tell us Jazz wanted us back, that she was worried about us?)

(Why do you think, she was lying, she just wanted to make us feel better, it's who she is a lying mutt that can't keep her metal nose out of our life. If it wasn't for her we wouldn't even be in this mess.)

(Except Nikki doesn't lie, at least not to us, if she told us to go back, that Jazz wanted us then it was true and we need to go back.)

(And do what?)

(What do you think, heal what's been broken, fix the damage we've caused, yes we're a monster, but we're still a monster with feelings. We know what it's like to live in fear and deal with the darkness in out own soul, a darkness we've now given to her. Yes we can run, but right now we need to help her deal with what she now has, we have to show her how to live with what she now is, have to show her that killing isn't the end, especially when she really didn't do anything. After that all bets are off, but we should probably move on, despite what she may think, we are dangerous and we shouldn't be around normal people, especially those we care so deeply for…those we love.)

(Again where the hell does that keep coming from,) shaking my head and forcing a few stray feathers to come free from my head. But I was right, this couldn't be about me or the others, this had to be about Jazz and how she was handling what I'd done to her. (Why can't I have normal problems like everybody else,) spreading my wings and flying back to Amity Park.

---

Jazz POV

I was glad when Danny wanted me to drop him off at Tuckers, why or how he had already gotten out of his grounding I don't want to know. It was more than just being free of my little brother that put me in a slightly better mood, there was something I really needed to try if for on other reason than to convince myself it had been nothing so I could stop obsessing over it. Thankfully when I got home my parents were still on their job so didn't have to worry about dealing with them either. I locked myself in my room just for a little added safety in case someone decided to barged in, and knowing my family that was a real possibility at the moment.

"Ok remember what he did," speaking quietly to myself, "focus on the bird, let the change happen, don't lose concentration, don't…wear good close," looking at my sleeve and remembering how I…he had morphed out of them. Sighing I started rummaging through my drawer and closet looking for something tight fitting to wear, "for something that's not going to work I'm going to an awful lot of work." I never did find anything that looked like it might work, which meant there was one thing to do unlocking the door. "I'm either to old or to young to barrowing my mothers clothing," slipping into her closet and pulling out one of her jump suits. A few seconds later I was back in my room, my normal clothing laying on my bed and admiring myself in the mirror. I had to admit to myself it was a little vain, but it's amazing what the suit did to my figure and every once in a while I was due a for brief moments of ego.

"Ok girl focus," pulling the mask into place, "lets just do this so you can put your mind at ease once an for all." I took a deep breath and tried to remember exactly Tobias had done, I placed the hobby in my mind, I could see her feathers slowly rising and shifting as she breathed, see the glint of her clipped talons in the light, the vibrant shine in her copper-brown eyes. She was a magnificent creature, sleek, beautiful, strangely confident and ethereally beautiful, I could wrap myself up in that body and be happy about it for years. The feeling of wind against my face and wings, the subtle warmth flowing all over my body as I rode a thermal, the total awareness, the tempered, realistic confidence. I understood why Tobias never changed back, the memories of the body were so spicy and rich, a sharp contrast to the bland dull world humans were forced to live in.

"But it's only a dream," I whispered to myself, or intended to, all I got out was, "Bauk whit sserrly uh drehhaaa." The sounds snapped me out of my haze, the memories of what I had once been forcing to the back of my mind as became aware of something very wrong with me. I looked over in the mirror and nearly freaked, well more so than I already had.

I was a mess physically, tuffs of feathers were sticking out all over my body, my face had a half formed beak sticking out of my normal human face and I had shrunk about a foot. My arms were bent at odd angles with abnormally long fingers, each ending in a few feathers. I had a tuff of blue-brown feathers coming out of my butt and black yellow feet as the hazmat suit merged with the genetics of the hobby. For a second I thought I was dreaming, that it was nothing more than a day dream, a hope that ended as I took a step forward and fell flat on my beak. I ended up screaming after that, a weird mix of my human voice and a high pitched shriek that I thought would end up breaking glass. Taking a deep breath, or as deep as I could slowly realizing my lungs were a jumble as well, I concentrated on what I knew and forced myself to be calm and tried to reverse the morph and go back to my human body. At first nothing seemed to happen, but then slowly I could see my fingers start to recede and the feather melt into my skin. In those few moments I lost track of time, all my attention focused on the changes that were running over my body and the slight numbness I felt all over my body, but eventually my body returned to normal and left me with a few very big questions to answer.

"Ok lets look at this logically," hugging myself tightly, "you can now become animals, that or your having a nervous breakdown and need to be institutionalized, both of which are entirely possible at the moment," a giddy little laugh escaping my lips. "So you can either forget this ever happened since no one else saw you, or you can keep going and run the risk of Desiree or whoever is calling the shots, making you life a living nightmare." At that I looked out the window in spite if myself and stared up at the white clouds slowly moving across the sky. "Of course if I don't do this then I give up something precious, something few people have ever experienced," sighing, "something I've wanted for years." Staring up at the ceiling and taking a deep breath, "you really going to let your little brother do something your afraid of, ok it's not quite the same, but if he finds out he'll never let me live it down."

Taking a few calming breaths I focused on my reflection in the mirror and on hobby that I hoped was now part of me, "this either works or I'm insane." I let the hobby come to my mind again and imagined myself becoming it, it's feather's becoming mine, it's beak, it's mind, all that is was I would become. At first nothing happened, I simply looked at my normal reflection, then it slowly crept into me, it was small and subtle, more a tingle than anything else, but it was there. I could feel it radiate out form my hands, I could feel my bones shift and melt and grow while my muscles kept perfect time with them. The second they started growing a fine layer of feathers formed over my suit, followed by the larger feathers meant for flight. The change radiated from my arms, the feathers growing back up my arms till what had once been a normal human was gone, leaving a girl with two perfectly formed light tan and dark brown wings in her place. I stretched my new wings out more than a little impressed by the wing span that nearly went from one end of the room to the other. The changes however didn't stop there, the feathers of my wings continued to spread along my back covering my shoulder blades then down my spine till it erupted in tail feathers than followed down my body like a wedding train just shy of dragging on the carpet. The change also flowed up my neck to the back of my head, my hair inside the mask mutating to feathers on the way up till it peaked and started down over my face. My brow took on a dark brown hue as it flowed down my face, my eyes shifting from blue to gold in a heart beat and bringing the world into sharp focus while my nose turned gray and fused with my upper lip forming a beck framed in dark brown and white-tan feathers. From there they flowed down and met with the feathers that began flowing over my breast while the feathers from around tail flowed around my hips and started working towards each other. My legs were undergoing a similar transformation as feathers erupted from them before ending as a scale like pattern started to manifest till it reached my feet, the shoes of the jumpsuit mutating with the rest of my feet as three toes emerged from the front and a fourth from the back of each foot, each ending in a killing claw that I knew well. Despite all these changes I hadn't shrunk at all, I now a something mid way between human and hobby, and despite the unorthodox appearance I couldn't help but admire the beauty the form and the change I had undergone to get to it. Inside me I could feel organs shift and bones hollow out, I don't know how I knew that's what was happening but I somehow did. From there I shrunk, growing smaller rapidly as the rest of the changes occurred changing me into a form indistinguishable from a normal bird.

(Wow,) it might not have been the most eloquent thing I've ever said but it did some up how I was feeling better than anything else. The power I felt in the body was astounding, I was so much stronger than I'd been in my human body, so much more confident. (This must be what Tobias feels like all the time,) I whispered, unsure how far I was broadcasting, (I could get use to this.) Then it hit like a punch in the back of the head, something I'd somehow forgotten about, the hobby's instincts. But strangely it wasn't as strong as I'd thought it's be, not to say it wasn't there, but it wasn't the rush that I'd felt when I was Tobias, it was there and it wouldn't let me forget it but it didn't try and take over. However it did want something, it wanted to fly, to escape this cage, to be free in the open sky. It hated being caged, she despised it…I despised it, I wanted out, the walls were creeping in on me, trapping me. I jerked my head around everything seeming to grow smaller and I could feel my breath catch in my chest, I had to go. All I saw was the sky surrounded by things I didn't care about, it was my way out, my way to freedom. Spreading my wings I flapped, I couldn't find a head wind but I didn't need one and moved as fast as my little wings would take me and flew to the open sky, and bounced off something in the process as everything went black.

(Ow,) the word slipping out as I blunk my eyes, the world in frightening sharpness, (what in the world,) now sure why my voice sounded so strange, or why I was on my back to why the room seemed so much bigger. Then everything thing came back to me, morphing, the hobby's instincts taking over, slamming face first into a plate glass window. That last part lit a fire under me, (how long have I been out) looking around and not seeing a clock from where I was. (Son of a…) I hissed to know one as fear tried to get a strangle hold on me, (BACK,) the world an order as focused on my human form. I could feel the panic start to rise in me when nothing happened at first then slowly I could feel my organs shift again, the feathers started to melt into my body. (Thank you, thank you, thank you,) I chanted till I lost the ability to and was left a normal human on the floor of my room clutching myself. "Well not doing that again without a teacher or at least someone to slap me around if I lose control again."

After a few minutes I pulled myself up to my bed and looked over at the digital clock by my bed and tried to figure out how long I'd been out, glad to see it had only been a few minutes. Then it also dawned on me, it had only been a few minutes, even if I had only been out for half that time, it wasn't long enough, morphing took a long time, or comparatively a long time, but it couldn't have been longer than a few seconds for me, maybe the same speed Tobias was currently morphing at. Of course to find that out meant I needed to try again, and at the moment one near miss was all I wanted.

"Congratulations girl you life has officially became ten time more complicated, but on the plus side, if Tobias doesn't come back under his own power I can now track him down if I have to."

---

DP Style

By the time the sun came up everyone was going about their normal Monday morning routine, Danny was with Sam and Tucker trekking through the halls and trying to avoid Dash and those like him. Jazz was sitting in class waiting for it to start while jotting down the names of various animals on a piece of scrap paper and hoping Tobias was alright wherever he was.

"So how many more days," Danny asked looking over at Tucker who was caressing a barrowed PDA Sam had lent him, a little surprised when he found out his friend's grounding didn't apply Sundays.

"Four days, thirteen hours, forty-seven minutes, eighteen seconds."

Sam stared at him and slightly lifted one side of her lip, "You need a lot of help."

"What else is new," Danny laughed.

"Hey," weakly glaring at them.

"Face it man you do," putting his arm around the shoulder of his best friend, "no one gets this worked up over not having a computer for a few days."

"Only people that don't know better," pulling away from him and taking a lead on them down the hall.

Sam leaned over and whispered to the half ghost, "you think we're starting to take this to far?"

"Hard to be sure with Tuck," scratching the back of his head, "but still the fact that he can tell us what second is still pretty scary."

"No argument," looking down the hall at the tech expert, "but still I think we should lay off for a while, right now we need all the help we can get in case things start to go wrong."

"Pessimist," grinning at the goth girl.

"You say that like it's a new thing," returning the grin and running up to Tucker who had walked around a corner.

"Hold up man," the half ghost catch up to him after a quick sprit and taking half a second to catch his breath a little surprised he was breathing heaver than usual, almost like when a ghost was near by.

"What," Tucker coming off harsher than harder than usual.

"Look Tuck I'm sorry, I'll lay…"

"Yeah you are sorry," the boy in glasses hissed back cutting off his long time friend.

"Whoa calm down," raising his hands in defense.

"Why should I," poking him in the chest, "I'm sick and tried of you making fun of me like I'm some kind of joke. Do you how many times I've covered for you, how much you owe me you over grown freak of nature."

"Ok stop it," Sam hissed quietly pushing her way between the two and glaring at Tucker, "what is wrong with you."

"Nothings wrong with me you wanna be blood sucker."

"Excuse me," lifting one her eyebrows in surprise, "what has gotten into you?"

Danny just groaned and held the bridge of his nose, "oh your going to get it now."

"You know I was defending you but if this is the way your going to be forget it," intentionally knocking him against the lockers, the sound of his body hitting metal ringing through the halls.

"You are so lucky she didn't break something," Danny hissed in a low threatening tone, his eyes containing the tiniest hint of green in them.

"Yeah like I'm scared of either of you, you forget I know everything, I own you," giving him a smile that made Danny hesitate as the other boy pushed past him and walked down the hall.

For a second Danny considered going after him but decided not to, whatever was going on with Tucker he wouldn't get it solved at the moment. He was better off letting him cool down a little then trying to talk to him, "that or drop him off the roof," he hissed under his breath. Sighing and shaking his head he moved on to his class, glad that he didn't have to share the room with Tucker at the moment.

For the most part the class went by without incident but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with the situation but he couldn't put his finger on it, it just seemed like everyone was looking at him and a few of the whispers he heard seemed to contain his name. For a time he though it might have something to do with what had happened in the hall earlier, but that hope was dashed at the end of class when Val walked up him.

"So is it true what they say," giving him a wary look, not for the first time grateful that the ghost hunter had come to like his human side even if she despised his ghost side.

"Your going to have to be a little more specific," rolling his shoulder a little and shifting the weight of the backpack.

"That your…um…cutting yourself constantly and the reason you missed that day is because your sister had to take you to the emergency room because you nearly killed yourself in the restroom."

"Hadda whadda huh?" his jaw hanging open not believing what he was hearing.

"Is that a yes or a no," pushing his jaw up and smiling at him, a slight hint of a flirt in the look.

"No…I mean yes…I mean that's not what happened," running his fingers through his hair. "I do not now, nor have I ever, cut myself let alone tried to kill myself and who is saying this, no wait let me guess, could it Dash by any chance?"

"Actually I heard it was Sam saying this, but then I got it from Star who heard it from Paulina who heard it in the restroom from someone who might've been Sam. In other words I have no if it's true or just some nasty rumor but I had to check it out."

"Yeah if I was doing that…which I'm not, I appreciate you checking on me, but right now I need to find Sam and have a little talk with her and make sure something really weird isn't going on."

"Really weird breaking up or really weird ghost troubles?" giving him a look that he couldn't quite read.

"She's not my girlfriend," he hissed walking down the hall, aware that Valerie's eye's were burning a hole in the back of his skull. In order to save time he ducked into the restroom that was thankfully empty and when invisible and intangible and flew through the halls as fast as he could, zipping through people and walls in his pursuit of the goth. He didn't believe for a second that Sam had started the rumor, but all the same he wanted to hear it from her own lips just to be sure.

It took a few long moments but he finally spotted her black clothing among the sea of colorful students and shifted back into his normal human mode and ran down the hall after her. "Sam," a little louder than his normal voice but not enough to really cause anyone to look in his direction, glad that his call made her slow down as he pushed past people in the hall. When he got to her everything he had planned to say evaporated as he looked at her, her eyes were red and he could see a few dried lines of tear on her face, that was combined with a look of rage that was focused squarely on him. "I…um…Sam..," his voice no longer working for him, the look striking him almost mute.

"DON'T EVEN START," her voice halting everyone in the room as she poked him hard in the chest with two fingers. "I'VE TAKEN A LOT FROM YOU BUT I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'D DO THAT…"

"What," cutting off her rant before it could begin and grabbing her hand and pulling away from the crowd of people and through the down that led outside, "has gotten into you?"

"DON'T YOU DARE BLAME THIS ON ME," tearing her hand free, "I'M NOT THE ONE THAT STARTED THIS!"

"Started what," throwing his arms up, his own anger rising.

"YOU KNOW FULL WELL WHAT, I THOUGHT PAULINA WAS JUST MAKING UP THINGS BUT THERE WAS NO WAY SHE COULD'VE KNOWN THE THINGS SHE KNEW," a fresh set of tears starting to run down her face.

"Ok you have to calm down because I don't know what your talking about," grabbing her shoulders and feeling her tremble under his touch.

"DON'T EVEN START WITH ME," pulling away from him, "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT FROM YOU ANYMORE," and running back into the school a choirs of "OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHSSSSS," filling the air as he looked up and saw various students looking out the windows, each hanging on his every word.

Growling something under his breath Danny pushed the door open and was greeted by the accusing stares of everyone in the hall. "This is going to be one of those days isn't it," he hissed to himself and trudged past the others, and wringing the straps of his backpack. The whole trip he was very aware of all the eyes on him and tension in the air around him as almost everyone seemed to be whispering or silently threatening his life, "what does Sam think I did to get this many people ticked off."

"Would you get over here," the voice almost one of a monster as the owner grabbed him by the collar of his shift and pulled him away from the others in the hall.

"Ok," pulling away from the hand, a little surprised he didn't rip the material of the shirt, "what'd I do to tick you off Sis?"

"How about your systematically throwing away the best things in your life," pushing his against a wall so he couldn't escape, and for the first time in years actually scaring him as she somehow turned on the 'older sister' aura as he use to call it when her was younger.

"Let me guess this has something to do with Sam?"

"No it has to do with the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, yes it has to do with you a Sam," throwing one arm back. "How could you say those things about her, how could you say them about anyone, of all the people I thought you'd been raised better than that!"

"Ok how come everybody knows what I've been saying but ME!" his eyes glowing slightly.

She moved back half a step at that, "your telling me you didn't say these things?" her voice a mix of confusion and anger.

"Well if I had some clue what everybody is talking about I might know how to respond to that. Val said Sam said I'm cutting myself, you and Sam are ticked off at me for something I don't even know about, Tucker's ticked off about the ribbing. If someone would at least tell what's going on it would help a lot in the long run."

"Your telling me you don't know what's going on?"

He shook a little at that, "I just said that," sounding somewhere between hysterics and crying.

She moved in close and between clenched teeth she hissed, "someone is saying you and Sam have an aborted child, and their describing things about her body and her home that most people don't know, the only reason I know some of these things is because she came to me over her uber chipper mother when it came to some really personal matters."

What he just heard hit in the gut like a sledge hammer and drove the breath from his lungs, "what," the word containing every ounce of emotion he could muster all rolled into one.

"So your saying you didn't have anything to do with this," the redhead just needing the hear the word.

"I don't even know a word for this, I wanna say no, but that doesn't even begin to say how much I didn't do this, I can't even believe Sam thinks I did this."

"Thank you," pulling him into a hug, then pulling away after a few seconds. "I don't know what's going on but we need to find her and straighten this all out."

"Not to mention working damage control on the school, knowing all this now, I'm just waiting for Mr. Lancer to show up and make my life even more complicated."

"Nothing he can do is worse than where you are at the moment, look we should…" her words cut off as the bell for the next class went off. "You have class with one of them now right?"

"Tucker why?"

"Ok try and get things settled with him, I'll find you after the next class and hopefully between us we can figure out how to smooth things over with Sam."

"Yeah until she cools off I don't think that's physically possible without me being thrown through a window."

"Stop being melodramatic bro, you've been through worse than this," backing away from him.

"NO! I haven't," shaking his head and moving on to class.

As she watched him go she just shook her head, "and here I thought I was already through the hardest parts of my life," readjusting her backpack and heading on her next class as well.

The half ghost growled as he walked into his next class, and doing his best not to meet the teacher gaze as looked at his normal seat next to Tucker that was flanked by some boy who's name he couldn't think of off the top of his head. A quick look told him the only open chair was next to Val, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Sighing he dropped down next to the ghost hunter grateful that she was the only one in the room not giving him a death glare.

"I'm going to go out a limb and say you've been set up," she whispered over to him when the teacher started talking.

"No I enjoy ruining my own life," leaning back into the chair and crossing his arms.

"Yeah so I figured," giving him a sad little smile, "what I can't figure out is who in the rumor mill you guys ticked off for them to start turning out things like this."

"Guys? You mean someone trying to ruin more than just me?"

"Oh yeah, aside from the one I heard about you and Sam and the one I told you about I picked up a few in the hall."

"I don't want to hear this do it," almost afraid to look at her.

"Well they're not as bad, apparently Tucker is gay and wildly jealous of you and Sam," lifting fingers as she went, "your sister spent two years in an institution for something involving a ghost, your parents preformed horrific illegal experiments on both of you. Then there are the ones that I'm pretty sure are just the normal rumors that pop up, Tuckers bed wetter, your sisters a pyro, Sam's on eighteen different drugs, you know the normal stuff."

By the time she was done Danny had his head on the desk surrounding by his arms, "my life at this school is over, there is no way and digging my way out of this."

"It's not that bad," patting him on the back, "ok it's not great, but it could be worse."

"How?" not moving from his spot.

"They could all be true," at that he couldn't help but laugh lightly, it making him feel betting in a perverse kind of way.

"So any idea what your going to do," leaning down next to him.

"I have no idea, I know I have to figure out what's going on but I don't know how to do the yet, let alone how to deal with it. So far all I've managed to do is tick off Sam and Tucker every time I go near them, and I'm just grateful my sister has enough sense to trust me."

"Seems like we're the only two that do."

"Excuse me," pulling his head up and looming at the dark skin beauty.

"We may not talk much but at this point I think I know you well enough to know your not someone that would throw everything away on a whim." Her voice growing even softer, "after all you kept my secret and if you were gong to start burning bridges you might as well have started there." For a second he wasn't sure if she was talking about her job at the Nasty Burger or her ghost hunter but left it alone either way.

However he didn't get a chance to try and out as the teacher cleared her through over them making them both jump and knock there heads into each other. "I know the mindless prater in the halls can be engaging Mr. Fenton and Ms. Gray but I do ask that you focus while in my class room."

"Yes ma'am," they spoke in unison, straightening up and catching a few glances from those around them.

The second her back was turned Val whispered, "this is going to be one of those days isn't it?"

"That's exactly what I said," shaking his head and letting the class go on and doing his best to signal to Tucker that he wanted to talk but was continually stopped by various people that seemed to rally behind the boy and his plight. By the time class had ended he had all but given up hope of talking to his friend and just growled at the ceiling while the others filtered out of the room.

"Come on," Val offering him a hand up.

"Why are you doing this anyway," taking the hand and looking into her dark eyes.

"You helped me when I needed it, I'm just trying to return the favor," moving a strand of hair face and giving him a lopsided grin.

"Thanks," the simple statement lifting his spirits as they walked down the hall together, grateful someone was there to help block the whispers, even if she was longer part of the elite female clique she still had some weight in the school and most didn't want to offend her.

"Danny," his sisters voice breaking what had become the only moment of piece he'd had all day. Almost afraid of the action he turned to look at his sister who jogged up next to him, "let me guess things aren't going well with Tucker?"

"Bingo," nodding slightly, "you remember Val," introducing the girl.

"From the ghost invasion," nodding to her.

"Unfortunately," forcing a laugh out, and rubbing her ribs in remembrance of what had happened.

"I have gone through everything I can think of short of tranquilizing those two and shooting them full of sodium pentathol."

"And making them tell the truth will help why?" Val asked listening in on the conversation.

"Used properly you can use it to alter someone memory, and we want to the to listen to reason not brain wash them."

"Great so we're back to talking to two people that can't stand me at the moment."

"Pretty much yeah," nodding her head.

"It could always to wor…," her voice trailing off as she seemed to faint for half a second before righting herself.

"You ok," Danny asked as both he and his sister braced themselves in case they needed to catch her, there attention resting solely on the girl and for some reason Danny felt his breathing quicken.

"Yeah just a little head rush, where was I," scratching the back on her head, "oh yeah, it could be worse for all you know there's some truth to the rumors. That is what they say isn't it, that all rumors have some element of truth to them. Maybe the one about the little goth girl sleeping around with everyone on the football team was true, and that would explain the abortion and all the stories going around."

"Val," Danny barked backing away from the girl, "how can you say that?"

"I open my mouth and let the words come out silly," giving him a look that might have been alluring with a little practice, that is if she lost the hardness in her eyes. "Look at this as a blessing," moving forward and pushing her chest into his, surprising the half ghost, "she's out of the way which means we can have what we've always wanted." Without warning her hands shoot around the back of his head, her time ghost fighting making her incredibly fast, and pulled him forward into a deep soulful kiss. It took both Danny and Jazz a second to accept what they were dealing with, a second more for Danny to realize something was wrong, he hadn't kissed many girls but something about this one just felt wrong to him, thankfully Jazz pulled the two apart before he could.

"What's wrong with you," the redhead hissed at Val while noticing the growing crowd and Sam disappearing down the hall.

"Look I don't…"Danny started.

"What's wrong with me, what's wrong with you," the brightly clad girl snarled pushing Jazz back, "Oh I get it this is a race thing isn't it, you think your to good for me IS THAT IT!" starting to cause a scene.

"That's not it I just don't…." Danny tried to start.

"YOU HEAR THAT THEY'RE RACISTS, THE FENTONS ARE RACISTS," she barked down the hall while the pair received accusing glares and things started to be thrown at them.

"This is getting out of hand," Danny growled as he started to run down the hall, his sister a few steps behind him.

"Your telling me," covering the back of her head with her hands.

"Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, what do you think your doing," a familiar voice ringing out from in front of them making them both stop on instinct.

"Running from that Mr. Lancer," thumbing back down the hall to all the ticked off kids that were quickly heading the other direction, all save Val who stood there with a smug look on her face.

"I think we need to have a talk Mr. Fenton," the bald man looking over at him.

"This is about all the stories going around isn't it?"

"Very," an unhappy look on his face.

"I don't suppose telling you I'm being set up would help me much would it?"

"It would, but at the moment your causing a bit of a scene."

"No," Jazz growled defensively, "we're not causing anything, everyone around us that's freaking out and causing a scene, we just want to know who is responsible for all this and make them stop."

"Alright calm down," lifting his hands, "I'll try and get things straightened out around here, you to get to class."

"You mean class where everyone thinks were crazier than that normally do and hate us for things we in no way did?"

"Don't play mind games with Mr. Fenton, both of you get going," pointing down the hall.

"I can think of over about thirty things I'd rather do instead," walking past him, his sister beside him.

"Let me rephrase that, go to class or your expelled, I will be checking in on you later," and walking back into his office.

"You ever get the feeling the world hates you," looking at his sister.

"Lately, every single day," sighing and breaking off to go to her next class and hoping she could make it without getting pelted by anything. While Jazz ended up being fine Danny was another matter as everyone in the school stared at him, many giving off the occasional threats and promises of beating the like of which he'd never received from those with a pulse. In the end the only thing that kept him being wheeled out of the school was everyone's desire not to cross Mr. Lancer's strict no school fighting policy, something that had attained near mythic proportions over the years.

The class went by much as the last two had only now with the exception of Val, something Danny was glad for, but he did still wonder what had come over the girl to make her change so rapidly. However this class did have both Sam and Tucker in it both of whom where as far away from Danny and they were from each other. More than a few times he tried to catch the attention of both but all he got in return was the occasional hand gesture that did more than a little tick him off. Being in this class however did give him one thing of value, it would make it easier to find them when it ended since they had lunch after words and he hoped it would give them time to talk and at least explain to them he had nothing to do with any of this.

The second the bell rang he was ready, whatever was going on he was going to end it, since as he figured it, the longer it went on the worse it seemed to get. However getting to the others was proving hard than he expected with other people hovering about them, doubting on them or making fun of them depending on the person. Growling to himself he let everyone leave, glad the teacher had the next period off and as soon as his back turned Danny phased through the floor and went after them. Long hours of practiced paid off as he skimmed along the underside of the floor boards, occasionally peaking his invisible head up to check where he was going before grabbing each, one after the others, making them go intangible and pulling them down through the floor while people around them screamed and panicked.

"LET GO," Sam barked and struggled as Danny pulled them both to the basement.

"NOT FUNNY," Tucker mirroring the goth's sentiments.

"Really don't care," letting them go when he got where he was going, "we're talking right here right now, because I am really getting tired of this."

"What's there to say," Sam growled taking a swing at him, the blow passing right through him as he remained intangible, "you betrayed my trust, you made out with Val, you lied about me."

"Yeah like your one to talk," Tucker snarled, "you told everyone I was gay."

"What, I did not," the dark haired girl spinning away from the half ghost.

"Please I heard it with my own ears."

"Oh so your deaf as well as blind," she hissed.

"Better than being an antisocial ninja sociopath."

"At least I'm not a coward who has a melt down if you take away his PDA!"

"Yeah well….," his words halted has Danny shot a blast of ectoplasm between them.

"WOULD YOU TWO COOL IT!" glaring at both of them, "does that even sound like either of you?"

"Seeing is believing Danny I know what I saw and I know what I heard," turning around and heading to the door only to be stopped as he floated in front of her.

Throwing his arms back, "OH YES BECAUSE SEEING IS ALWAYS…WHAT…you…get," his voice lowering as he covered his face with his hand, understanding starting to form in his mind. "We've been tricked," growling to himself.

"Whatever," pushing past him, Tucker on her heels.

"Stay away from me Danny or you'll be the one shoved in a thermos," his other former best friend growled while just hung in the air in disbelief.

"Freaking overshadow," he growled trying to piece everything together and finding it made sense, random personality shifts, people saying things they wouldn't say, the ability to check thing no one had a right to, even the few times he'd been around them he'd thought his ghost sense had gone off but hadn't written it off. "Guys hold up," flying after them, "I think I can explain everything."

---

Tobias POV

(How did I forget what day it was,) I sighed to myself heading out to the school, (for that matter why am I still talking to myself.) I caught a head wind and headed into it rising higher into the sky and pushing the doubts that were still lingering to the back of my mind, (find her, check on her, and bail if you can that's it bird, if she's good so are you, no reason to make her life any harder then you've already made it.)

Even before I was visible to the others on the ground I could make out everyone around the school eating lunch and I could tell something was up. It wasn't any one thing, more a combination of things, the way people moved, the way groups seemed a little more hunched together, even the air seemed somehow tenser, but thankfully since I didn't see the Fenton RV or any emergency vehicles I wasn't that worried about everything. The closer I got the more that changed however, words started drifting up to me things like abortion, racist and Fenton, three words that didn't belong together in any conceivable way unless 'not' was included in the mix.

Needless to say I wasn't happy when I actually got full sentences about what had happened, and really didn't like where this was going. Rather than flying around, something that starting to tire me out considering I'd been flying here nonstop, I stopped on the top of the roof to try and find the others. Of course I doubted I'd be able to find them in this mess considering they were all labeled enemies of the state, if it'd been me I would have hidden myself away for awhile till all this passed over. Then again that was me and this was them, and we were very different animals so there was a chance they'd be out trying to fix this. Knowing this I slowly scanned those below me trying to find some trace of the others and hoping somebody hadn't strung them up.

I took my time with this, even if I found them there was a good chance I couldn't help them fix this mess. None the less I scanned each person in the yard, tacking note of who they were with and what they were talking about in case I could use it later, granted I didn't really need to do this since I was going to be hanging around very long in the grand scheme of things, but it was a an old habit. I was surprised when I caught sight of a few new people, it was a big school and there was no reason to have everyone's face memorized, but all the same I slowly took them in on the off chance I might need them later on.

(Know you, know you,) speaking to myself as I watched then run around, (don't know you, know you and you, know that entire group, Dash, know you, don't kno….) my words trailing off as I took a second look at the boy I'd just seen, a thousand warning lights going off in my head. (You son of a…) my feather rustling as I watched him leaning against a tree doing a good job of being nonchalant, but obviously pleased with himself. His color was a little different and his clothing was way off, but everything else was the same, same eyes, same look of contempt, same sadistic grin. It was the face of a thousand nightmares, not only for me but those that had once been my friends, (David,) keeping the name to myself and understanding exactly what had been going on in my absence, or at least thinking I did.

At that moment I was caught between going after him and finding the others and making sure he hadn't done anything to bad to them. In the end I turned away from him, I'd been at the game long enough to know revenge was all well and good, but there was a time and a place for it, as long as the others were fine I could deal with him at my leisure. Of course that didn't stop the question from forming in my mind, well questions, how did he get out and why was he after the others instead of after Jake and our old team.

With renewed energy and speed and looked for the others while trying to remain discreet so as not to set David off, who knew what kind of powers he'd gained in death, and given our past he had a really good reason to come after me and try and turn me into a bucket of extra crispy. Thankfully, and a little regretfully, finding them didn't turn out to be a problem as the sound o them yelling at each other filled the air rather quickly telling me where to go. When I saw them it took my breath away, Sam red in the face, Tucker's hand's were balled into fists, Danny looked like his head was going to explode and Jazz was in the middle of them trying to calm them down.

(EVERYBODY COOL IT,) my thoughts running through their skulls at full blast and actually making Tucker and Danny jump a few feet into the air while Jazz scanned the sky for me.

"Tobias," her voice containing more hope and joy than I thought it would considering what I'd done to her.

"Not the time you gutless chicken," Tucker hissed.

(Trust me you want me here now, because you've been seriously set up,) and then almost as a after thought I hissed, (keep your voices down, we already have a crowd around us.)

"That what I've been telling them," Danny hissed not looking at me, "but they won't believe there's a…" looking up, "how do you know we're being set up?"

(Because I either saw the guy responsible or it's a major coincidence, and he's not someone you want to mess this or underestimate.)

"You two have a past," Jazz sounding skeptical.

I sighed internally remembering the last time I'd seen him alive and shuddering at the thought, (that's one way of putting it.)

"And you know this is related how?" Sam hissed.

(Because he's a sadistic psychopath, and if he knows we're related in the slightest he'll have no problem tearing you apart just to tick me off. Honestly think here, I haven't been at the school long but from what I've heard things have gone to pieces since I left. Look I may not know you well but I think I know you enough to know you wouldn't stab each other in the backs. You three have known each other for years and you think you'd all just start throwing that away from no reason at all. Guys your being manipulates by a guy who thrives on messing with peoples minds and getting what ever he wants.)

(Come on Sam you told me Jazz was like you big sister, you really think she'd do anything to harm you intentionally?)

"She didn't," looking at Danny.

Focusing my thought on Sam alone, (he cares about you, you know it and so do I, do you really think for a second he'd sacrifice what he has with you for anyone or anything? Your smarter than this Sam, you know this isn't who he is. This ghost is playing with you and your desires, he's obviously trying to tear the team apart it's the only thing that makes sense. Look him…them in the eyes Sam, you know them, you trust them, there is no way they'd do this so calm down.)

I could hear her growl silently and see her tear ducts begin to water which was my sign to move onto Tucker and focused my thoughts, (think for half a second here. You've known these guys for how long and your just going to call it quits over a few things they didn't even say. Did you not beg Danny and me to overshadow or become someone so you could get a date? Just on that alone you should know everything is not what it seems on the surface, heck man I'm a living example of things going beyond the surface. Beside you have proof of what we are and what we do, do you really think they're stupid enough to try and set you up let alone each other? You're the smart one here Tucker think logically here, what I'm saying makes a lot more sense than them losing their minds.) I was grateful when I saw the anger slowly drain out of his face and be replaced by shame.

"Amazing, I've been trying to convince them something was wrong for the last few minutes and the unprocessed feather bed can do it in the space of a few seconds."

Jazz slapped him up side the head for that, "shut up Danny."

(Look whatever your feeling put it aside cause you have big problem,) looking in the direction of where David had been, (we have evil here on a very human level, and I don't think you've ever faced anything like this before, and before you crank out Vlad, this guy is worse, this guy tried to sellout his entire race for the promise of power. This is not a guy you want to tangle with, stay together and stay out of sight, let me deal with him alone, you don't want him in your life.)

"Stop saying that," Jazz hissed, her voice almost completely venom, "every time I turn around lately it's 'you can't deal with this, let me handle it, this shouldn't be in your life'. Get over yourself bird, your life was hard, horrible really and no ones going to deny that, least of all me, but stop treating us like kids that don't know any better, you'd be surprised what we can deal with if given half a chance." Her words hit home with me just as they had meant to, but at least it told me she was dealing with what had happened to her, of courses what that meant for the future I couldn't be sure.

"Ok," Sam hissed slightly waving her hand, "I know I of all people shouldn't be talking at the moment, but can we take this some place else, preferably some place that isn't swarming with people?"

"Basement," Danny nodded moving into the school with the others then showing up a few moment later in his ghost form and pulling me through the floors to their safe haven. By the time we got there a tense silence had already settled over the others, not that that was surprising. Things had already been said between them, things that couldn't easily be taken back and I didn't doubt that it would take a while before things regained anything even close to normal.

With steps that barley made a sound Jazz walked over to me and sat down on the crate I was perched on. "For what it's worth," almost hesitantly placing a hand on my back and keeping her voice low, "I'm really glad you came back, I was really sacred I'd lost you for a little while. Some things have happened since we last talked, some things I need your help with," looking over at her brother, "some things I don't think the others could help with even if we were on the same page." I didn't have to be a brain surgeon to figure this one out, it was either the nightmares, the guilt, or the feeling of blood that never seemed to wash off your hands.

(Look Jazz,) looking up and meeting her light blue eyes, (I'm really not sure we should be doing this, I'm not the person you think I am, I…) Stopping as she put a finger on my beak and while it didn't stop me I knew what it meant.

"I told a few seconds ago, stop with the pity routine, or I'm the strong independent bird shtick, or whatever you use to try and push me out of your life." The hand on my back moved around an encircled my body, "I know you now, I understand part of who you are and what made you that way. And who better to deal with you than someone that's seen your dark side and isn't afraid to look away."

(Jazz,) looking up at her.

"Let me finish, you told me you weren't human, if you weren't human you wouldn't be this concerned about how this effected me. Doing bad things doesn't make you a bad person and I can honestly say I've known worse people in my life."

(I wouldn't be so sure of that,) not letting the words travel to her, something things were best left buried in the darkness.

"So who is this guy, was this guy," as Danny scratched his head, "I mean who was he when he was alive?"

(David,) my thoughts hitting all of them while I did my best to keep my mental voice stable, (use to be one of us, an Animorph, well sorta.)

"Meaning," Sam leaning against a wall.

(He wasn't one of us when it started, a few months after we got going David showed up in our lives when he found the Escafil Device,) looking up at Jazz, (the blue box that gave us our powers. After Elfangor was killed the cube became lost to us and somehow he found it and planned on selling it off over the internet. We found out, but so did the Yeerks, they attacked him took his parents and pretty much left him an orphan and we only had a few choices and decided to give him the power to morph in the hopes he could help us. Things however didn't go as planned, the guy had some serious mental problems, made even worse by the fact that we couldn't let him really live a normal life without endangering all of us. He ended up trying to kill us along with selling us out to the Yeerks in the hopes of power. He rationalized it to himself by saying that when we were animals that we didn't have souls so killing us wasn't a bad thing. In the end we had to deal with him.) At that I had to stop and take a few deep breaths to hold back some things I was feeling, (We ended up figuring out how to trick him and trapped him in the body of a rat, we did to him what I'd done to myself, made him a nothlit. We ended up leaving him on a small island off the coast that was inhabited by other rats, just far enough away from anyone to keep him quite and to ensure he couldn't swim back.)

"Wow, that seems a little harsh," a slight chill running over Tucker.

(That's what we all thought at the time,) closing my eyes and seeing the memories flash before my eyes, (no one really wanted to do that, but we couldn't see any other options. We knew first hand how dangerous keeping someone with our abilities anywhere against there will was and we couldn't watch him around the clock, even if we could there was no way of being sure he wouldn't escape at some point. However after a few months a couple of details slowly came to the surface and we didn't feel quite as bad about what we did to him.)

"Must have been something big to justify doing that," Tucker looking at me then quickly looking away before our eyes could meet.

(Ax and I use to spend time in the local Police Station and see if we could pick up any leads on Yeerk activities and occasionally went through the files to see if anything had been swept under the rug. Turns out David had been quite the busy little psycho before we managed to pin him down.)

"Your telling me you didn't notice any wild animal attacks during this time."

"Let him talk Tucker," Jazz hissed holding me tighter, somehow knowing this wasn't easy for me.

(I told you before we don't just become animals and aliens, human are just as open, and it was something David indulged in,) a chill running down my spine. (There's no easy way of saying this so I'll be blunt, we found a few records about women being raped during the time David was free. At the time Ax and I didn't think anything of it and put the files aside since they didn't really concern us and for some reason reading them didn't really sit right with me. But Ax being Ax didn't really get the stigma and continued reading them and found out that a couple of the guys that they could prove with DNA that had done it had air tight alibis when it came to their innocence. When he showed me this I got interested, turned out that there was a massive string of rapes all over the city that stopped almost as soon as they'd begun, all during the time he'd had his powers.)

"Tell me your joking," Sam's words sounding far away.

(Wish I could,) turning my head, not wanting to look at her, (for that matter I wish I could've told the others about what had happened.)

"What do you mean wish you could," Danny asked.

(The others had a hard time accepting what they did to him, they knew he was crazy and dangerous, but they still thought he had limits. Even by the time I found all this out the others were having a hard time dealing with what they'd done.)

"So you should've told them, let 'um know just how bad he was and that they did the right thing."

(Could've done that Tucker, of course by doing that I let them know they gave a monster the power to do anything he wanted and he used it to cause the suffering of countless people. They already had enough guilt on their plates, I didn't want them to think they were indirectly responsible for all of his sins as well.)

"So you kept it to yourself," disappointment coloring Jazz's words.

(Yeah we did, what's the saying, 'what you don't know won't hurt you'? That was how we operated, compared to us the others had an innocence about them, they still believed they could get through this without completely dirtying their hands, yes there had been moments, crisis of faith if you will, about how far was to far, and some lines were crossed, but at that time they still had a hope that I wasn't willing to shatter. Ax and I knew batter than the rest of them just what the war could end up becoming, and what had to be done to make it out so we shielded them as best we could from some of the smaller details, the ones that they could live without knowing.)

"So you kept that to yourself," a single tear running down Jazz's face.

(My chance at a normal life was already over, no reason for them to suffer the same fate,) ruffling my feathers under her and trying to pull away from her, the images of what came next in my mind and on my tongue, things I didn't want them to know.

"What is it Tobias," Jazz tightening her grip on me.

(Nothing,) pulling away again, I'd forgotten that in that short time the girl had somehow learned to read me a little to well.

"Spill birdie," holding me tighter.

"Don't pressure him Jazz," her brother sighed leaning against a wall, "you have enough problems as it is without getting anybody else mad at us," glaring over at Sam. She looked away from him after that, the guilt obvious on her face and trembling slightly and opened her mouth, only to shut it again with out saying anything. "Fine if no one else will say it I will, we got played, it's not the first time a ghosts turned us around and it won't be the last. Ok yes we said some things we can't take back, but compared to what we thought we said they weren't that bad, at least I don't think they were. You guys are like family to me, and I know your like that to each other so can we do…I don't know…SOMETHING TO PUT THIS BEHIND US!"

"Clam down little brother," Jazz finally turning her attention away from me and I tried to get away form her arm, only to have her grip me tighter. "This isn't like wiping off a table, things were said that can't just be taken back, I think we all need a little time to deal with this."

"She's right," the goth sighed, "but so are you," looking over at Danny. "I'm sorry," sighing even deeper, seemingly aging in front of me, "I don't know why I believed any of that, I just…the things he knew," holding herself, "I didn't think anybody else could know those things. I know you, all of you, better than that, I can't believe I'd believe that you'd do that to me."

"Ditto," Tucker added getting glares from the assembled.

"Ditto?" Sam snarled, "I said all that and all you can manage is 'ditto'," throwing her arms back.

Danny leaned back and laughed lightly at the exchange and Tucker subsequently moving back out of range of the girl, "well things are already getting back to normal."

"What it's not like I can add anything after everything you two just said, besides you know how bad I am at apologies."

"Oh I don't believe this," diving at him, only to miss as he scrambled out of the way.

"What, you two said everything, we forgive each other what's the point in me saying the words."

"It's traditional, it shows breeding, it keeps me from breaking your neck."

"Wow," the redhead shaking her head, her mane of hair flowing around her shoulders, "and here I thought getting them back together would take a long time to fix."

(Don't think it won't be,) looking for a way out of her grasp, (I know what it's like doing things you can't undo, the scars never really go away.) At that Jazz growled and pulled me off my perch and carried me like football to the other end of the basement.

"I've had it with all the negativity, macho male ego that's spewing out of your mind," he growled low enough to keep the comments from the others. "Look I'm not some little doll you have to be gentle with, I know about the world, more now than I did before. I know people can be horrible to each other, and I know they do horrific things to each others, but you aren't one of those people and you don't have to protect me from your past. People like that don't regret what they do, they don't care who they hurt and they don't have reasons for the things they do. None of that applies to you, at least not from where I'm standing. I've listened to you Tobias, I've made a history of listening to what others say and trying to figure out what's the truth and what isn't. Everything you say to me, every time you talk about fighting regardless of what form your in regret permeates your words, bad people…monsters don't regret those things. You might be an animal most of the time, but your heart and mind still belong to one of the most decent people I know. Whatever you think you did, you didn't do, and you have nothing to feel sorry for, at least not with me," taking my head in one hand and making me look at her. "I don't care what you did to other people, other creatures, because I know in my heart you had a good reason for it and all you really cared about was protecting those around you. And I don't regret knowing you the way I do, yes it's hard for me to know exactly what you did, but I got so much more from the experience, more than you know. I was able to fly through you, that's something I've wanted to do since I was a little girl and you made it a reality, I consider that a fair trade for everything else."

(Your insane,) looking up at her.

"I'm told it's genetic," patting me on the head.

(Look,) struggling in her grasp, (I know you can handle yourself, and you think you know what your doing, but you don't, the things your messing with are way beyond what you think you know.)

"Don't underestimate me."

(Don't underestimate my past, there's a reason I'm trying to protect you, things I…things you shouldn't know about…things your better off NOT knowing about.)

"Like what," the anger draining from her voice and in the process it becoming soothing as she gently stroked my feathered head as if I were a pet cat.

(You really don't want to know,) squeezing my eyes closed and trying to fight back the memories.

"Yes I do, whatever it is I want to know."

(Jazz…)

"I won't think any less of you," cutting me off.

(Yes you will,) looking at the floor, (there's no way you can't.)

"Tobias."

(Whatever you think I am Jazz, I'm not, I'm a monster Jazz and not just for the reason you know about.)

"That's ridiculous Tobias, there's nothing you could do that would be that bad."

(Yes there is, and I've brought it on top of you.)

"You mean David," her voice somewhere between stating the obvious and worried.

(No I mean the other homicidal rapist ghost running around, yes I mean him,) looking up at her with my permanent hawk death glare.

"Whatever comes we'll deal with it, it's not like my brother hasn't dealt with ghosts before, not like I haven't."

(None of them have had grudges like this,) I hissed and mentally slapping myself fro saying to much.

"Yeah trapping him as a rat for a few years you would build a bit of a grudge alright," patting me a little harder. By the way she was holding me I could tell she wasn't believing me, at least not totally, not that I blamed her, it wasn't exactly the whole truth to the matter. "Running around never knowing what'll happen next having to fight off other rats, that's got to be a hard life, assuming he knows about us I can understand why he did the things he did."

(No you can't,) panic and anger and fear and guilt welling up in my faster than I could handle as I tried to get off of Jazz, accidentally scratching her with my talons and making her release me.

"Ow," holding her bleeding forearm, "what's wrong Tobias," fear in her voice.

(This isn't something you want to be part of,) the emotional onslaught slightly jarring my control over the hawk side of my mind. For years I managed to hold back the pain of what I'd felt but I suddenly found all the walls I'd built around that memory, the grudging acceptance of that moment falling apart inside me.

"Tobias," bending down nest to me.

(He doesn't want you Jazz, any of you he wants me, he wants revenge,) hopping frantically and trying to gain control over my body.

"Calm down Tobias," reaching out for me then flinching, forgetting momentarily about her hurt arm.

(I can't calm down he wants me, and he'll go through all of you till we settle this.)

"All this because you trapped him?"

(All this because I killed him,) the words slipping out before I could stop myself.

"What," the word seeming to take forever to say, "you mean figuratively…by trapping him."

At that point I didn't see a reason to keep hiding the truth, if anything it might finally, albeit regretfully, make her see the truth about me. (I mean kill Jazz, as in I broke his neck, tore out his guts and ate him before his heart stopped beating.) She did have anything to say to that, I think the words might've put her into shock, either way I choose to continue. (After we trapped him he escaped the island with the help of The Crayak who made him a deal, if he could turn one of us into his servant he'd get power beyond comprehension in return. He choose Rachel, and for a time she bought into it, The Crayak offered her power enough to end the war, but she saw that in the end it would've turned her into a tyrant and she rejected it, and by doing so David ended up being abandoned by his benefactor. From what I've come to know she and David ended up alone in the sewer where David ended up asking Rachel to kill him so he wouldn't have to live like a rat anymore. Rachel choose the high road, to be human, she wouldn't do it no matter how much he deserved it, she was far better than I was.)

(I went after her as soon as I found out what had happened, we all did, but I was the first to find her, more to the point I was the first to hear her. She was crying in the sewer, a combination of what she'd almost done, and what she'd been asked to do. That however didn't stop David from trying to run away, by that time I knew his body by sight, every piece of fur, every pattern, even how he moved. When I saw him I understood everything, that he would never be out of our lives, that he would be a constant threat to us, to the others and I couldn't let him endanger that. If I brought him back they'd just put him back on the island where he could escape again, they'd do it because they were human, they still hoped to get through this with out killing humans who were fighting of their own free will. I couldn't let them do that, I couldn't let them put themselves in danger just because they thought they were doing the right thing, so I took it out of their hands. I already had blood on mine, I was already to far down the path by that time, so I decided what was one more life in the grand scheme of things so long as they could sleep soundly in their beds.) At that point I could feel my mental voice start to waver and took a deep breath to settle my nerves before continuing, but even after that my voice wasn't as steady as it had been. (It was over before it began, a quite dive and flare of my wings, talons severing his spine before he could even struggle or say anything, but make no mistake he knew it was me, and given the choice I'd do it all over again. The boy was a monster, even more than I am, and he threatened my friends…my family, the others wouldn't…couldn't bring themselves to do what had to be done, so I did it for them. I don't imply to be a hero Jazz, I'm not, I just see things differently now, predator and prey, hunter and hunted, hawk and rat. I did what I had to do, as it applies to the war I don't regret it, in my heart I believe it was the right thing to do, but what little part of me was still a person died that day, that was the first time I did anything I truly consider murder, and also the last.)

"You didn't…you couldn't, Tobias," her voice a mix of emotions.

(I'm sorry Jazz,) looking away from her and flapping over t the stairs and morphing my German Shepherd, (I started this, I'll end it, some how. Stay with your brother, stay inside and be safe, you won't be seeing me again after this, I'm so sorry Jazz.) I didn't wait to hear her say anything else as I ran up the stairs, thankful the door was open at the top so I could slip through without any kind of difficulty. The trip through the hall on the other hand was very different story since I picked the moment lunch ended to run through the halls and get swept up in sea of kids lumbering back to class. On the plus side, a dog running through the halls did a fairly good job of distracting them and making them jump to the side so I could get by and slip outside.

The second I was back looking at open sky I threw my head back and screamed at the top of my mental lungs, (HERE I AM DAVID COME AND GET ME!) I knew everyone in the school had probably heard that and at that moment I didn't really care, by the time I was to the side walk I was back in my bird body and flying like my life depended on it heading as far away from everyone else as I could. I knew full well when he caught up to me things would be ugly and I didn't want to hurt any more people that were absolutely necessary.

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Jazz POV

I sat on the floor for I don't know how long, my mind simply refused to function after I heard what Tobias said. I knew he had done things, I really did, but that last part just didn't seem to make sense, no that wasn't entirely true, it did make sense he was a protector after all, and he did see what he did as an extension of that. But even taking that into account he'd killed a man in cold blood, granted if everything he'd said was true then on a level he deserved it, but still it didn't change the facts of what he'd done.

"Sis," my brothers voice coming from above me as I weakly looked up, the action seeming almost alien to me, "you ok, what did he tell you?"

"I…," the words catching in my throat preventing me from coming up with anything else as I fought back the tears that threatened to start flowing.

"Oh great," rolling his eyes and sitting next to me, "calm down," pulling my head down into the crook of his shoulder and slowly rocking me as I let everything out, something I've been needing to do since I woke up, this time making the past sobs look like a pale imitation. Anger and fear I'd been holding on to mixed with new regret and sorrow as I bailed like a little girl for a for minutes, my mind still not really processing anything other than at a base level. To that extent I wasn't aware Sam and Tucker were holding me as well till they had started, their bodies making me feel safe, and helping slow the tide of tears and fears.

"Chicken soup for the Soul what is going on down here," the voice one I had come to know well as Mr. Lancer pushed open the door to find a rather strange sight. I could feel Danny leave my side and go up to the man but what he said was beyond my ability to hear at the moment as I clutched Sam's back and pulled her closer to me. Whatever my brother said it was enough to get the balding man to leave us alone till I was able to clam down and regain my mind.

"Let me guess problem with Tobias?" Sam asked warily, obviously aware it was a touchy subject.

"That is the understatement of the millennia," shaking my head and taking a long controlled breath. "He's in trouble, in mores ways than one, and right now he needs us because I'm not sure he isn't about to throw his life away on some stupid blast of male hormones disguising itself as a noble intention."

"Jazz the boy can take care of himself, we've seen him in enough fig…,"

"Not this time," cutting the other girl off, "when he's thinking with his head he's dangerous, right now he's running on guilt and anger. He's going to do something stupid and he's going to get himself hurt I can promise you that." I looked over at my brother, "I need you to go after him Danny, you have to keep him safe, from himself as well as David."

"You mean right now?"

"No in a week, yes now!"

"I mean with," pointing to the door, "him knowing we're down here, I can't exactly slip out without it seeming weird. And I almost hate to mention this but what about the whole suspension thing hanging over my head I'm not sure skipping class is the best idea you've ever had."

"Danny," I tried to start only to be stopped as he raised his hand.

"He's in trouble I get it, but he can hold his own against some of the toughest creatures I've ever seen, he can easily make it a few hours without back up. Besides knowing him tracking him down won't be that hard if he gets in a fight."

I really wanted to argue the point with him but it wasn't in me at the moment and what he said had the ring of truth to it. Tobias wasn't subtle, at least not anymore, if he did get into a fight it'd probably end up on every news station in the area. I nodded weakly, a shiver running up my spine as I stood up on wobbly legs and tried to make them obey me as I headed to the stairs only to lose my balance and have Danny catch me and help me back up.

"Don't be in a rush sis," his tone soothing, "we've been through tough times before, and it's like the bird told us, you just have to have faith sometimes that things will turn out alright."

"At the moment I'm not feeling all that hopeful Danny," closing my eyes as memories not my own flashed through my mind. Sighing I righted myself, renewed strength coming from somewhere I couldn't place, and walked up the stairs and through the door glad that almost everyone was gone, well almost everyone. Mr. Lancer was still standing there with a look even I couldn't read along with part of the campus security force, including one of the drug dogs they occasionally used.

"Nice to know they're taking all precautions with our safety," Tucker hissed behind us, probably seeing the dog. "Let me guess you want to make sure we weren't doing anything down there?"

"Mr. Foley you wound me," a mock hurt look on his face, "check them," nodding to the man with the German Shepherd who brought it near us. "You must understand a little while ago you were at each others throats now you seem like your almost friends again after spending time alone in a place few would find you. If I didn't check to see if you were under the influence of something I'd be neglect in my duties, especially since they're already on the property for a random check of the school."

"Who do I think the incesnce is going to get me trouble," Sam sighed coming up beside my brother.

"It shouldn't," the officer replied bring the dog near Tucker, "Sally here's been well trained, she's not going to be fooled by some substitute."

"She isn't a biter is she," the boy in glasses whimpered as she sniffed him while he did his best not to wince.

"Only if you provoke her," A trace of a laugh in his voice before pulling her away and moving her to me, the move giving me an idea.

"She been doing this long," a forced calm in my voice.

"She has some experience behind her, but she's not exactly old if that's what your getting at," letting her sniff me.

"That's good to know," my hand moving forward slowly, my palm open in the typical 'I'm your friend move' her nose moving up my leg and moving towards it.

"You don't need to do that ma'am," looking at me and nodding to my hand.

"Just don't want to give her any reason to hurt me," my voice low and soft waiting for the moment of truth and hoping I was right about this. Almost hesitantly she moved towards my hand, like she was caught between instinct and training, but she refused to come close enough, so I took matters into my own hands. I wasn't sure I made it look like an accident or not by I tried and gently moved my hand forward like I were gently swinging it. Before anyone could react my hand was touching her nose and I had started, what I hoped, was the acquiring process. After a second Sally stopped moving and I could feel something going on inside me that I couldn't explain in words, I just knew it was working. As soon as I somehow knew it was done the officer pulled the dog away and gave me a stern look.

"Not smart kid," leaning down and petting Sally, making sure I hadn't done anything to her, "she might be trained for drugs but she doubles as a personal protection dog, your lucky she didn't take your hand off for something like that."

"Sorry," feeling the dog somehow being added to my body, knowing that she was now part of me.

"Don't do it again," turning his attention back to Sally, "you ok right girl," scratching under her neck and messing with her ears for a moment. "Yeah that's my girl," as she moved past him and started sniffing me over again then moved onto my brother. After a few moment she was done and her handler nodded to Mr. Lancer in what I hoped was an all clear signal, a little surprised that Tobias' scent that had to be lingering on my body didn't somehow through her off. "They're clean," Narrowing his eyes as he looked at me, "even if they're not to bright."

"Good to know," Mr. Lancer looking over at us, "considering everything you've gone through over the last few hours I'm going to let you off, provided you all get to class here and now."

"Done and done," Tucker starting to walk away, Sam at his side.

"Oh boy," my brother rolling his eyes, "more class, where people hate me you things I didn't do."

"I've already heard your sob story Mr. Fenton, while you have my sympathy there's not much I can do to fix it at the moment."

"So I've been hearing," running up next to the others, "you will protect me from everyone that wants me dead right now right?"

"This day just gets better and better," shaking my head and walking down the hall to my next class, my mind on fire with plans, some instantly discarded as being to ridiculous others saved in the back of my mind to be considered later on the chance they could lead to something workable.

---

Tobias POV

After a few hours I was beginning to question just what I was doing, or more specifically what David was doing. I'd picked him up almost an hour ago, I gave him credit up till then he'd been quiet so I couldn't be how long he'd been on my tail feathers, but he couldn't maintain it. I couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't attacked yet, I was open, a free from almost all sides for a ghost, then again I had no idea what kind of skills he now had, for all I knew he couldn't do anything now but I doubted that was the case, I knew fate couldn't be that kind to me. No, whatever he was planning he wanted to drag it out, wanted me scared in the hopes I'd make this easy for him, I wasn't going to give him that opportunity.

Flaring my wings I sat down in a tree and turned to look in his direction, (lets just get this over with,) my thoughts going in all directions.

"So the feathered rat's smarter than he looks," becoming visible a few in front of me. He just hung in the air his arms folding over his chest, looking so much like he had in life with the exception of his color and clothing, he didn't even have a glow around him.

(Your not one to talk about rat's David,) narrowing my eyes.

"All these years and that's the best you can come up with?"

(I'm not here to trade barbs,) my feathers rustling, (and I know you didn't come back if that either.)

"Really what was your first clue the fact that I followed you or the fact that you ripped out my heart you miserable piece of excrement."

(Funny from what I heard you wanted to die,) lowering my head and snapping at him.

"I wanted to die by her hands," an animals growl in his voice, "one more little pay back for everything done to me. Letting you do it was no fun, she could still be knocked down a little, but you," his eyes a glow with black-purple flames, "you were already less than human, killing me wouldn't have done a damn thing to you. If I wanted to die by the hand of a beast I would've run into a cat the second I got off the island, I wanted to bring down someone with an ounce of importance to them, to show them what they were really like."

(Sorry to disappoint,) clutching the tree branch.

"It's for the best," a dark sadistic laugh flowing from his lips for several seconds after that, "thanks to you I'm so much more now, and I have plans now that I'm on this side, big plans, and it's only fair I get to start with you."

(Oh yes big plans, terrorizing a bunch of teenagers, your such a big man, you haven't changed a bit.)

"Teenagers that were important to you," giving me a feral grin while I almost slipped off my perch now that I knew what the others were my friends. "Oh yes I know all about them, a freak show with blue skin has a serious mad on for them and made me a little deal, I do a little something for him and I get everything I want, you being here is just bonus, but it does make things faster, you were going to be the hardest one to find after all. Just out of curiosity who should I go after next little Jakey with his high and mighty ideals or should I go after the little slut and make her scream till her throats raw?"

It took everything I had not to go after him after he said it, but I recognized something important when I heard it, something I could use later if I had to. (Flat out revenge, you've got to kidding me,) shaking my head, (I've met a lot of ghosts, I have yet to find you that just wanted revenge and power, and here I thought death would make you dangerous, that you might actually learn something over the years. You were a waste in life and just as much in death,) the feathers on my head rising. (You want to go after them, you couldn't even get through me.)

He laughed at that, the same dark violent laugh, "you think you can bait me bird, what do you think I've been doing on the other side, I've been getting stronger, better, you think you can do a thing to me, all you can do is morph, while I can do so much more." At that his body ignited in black flame and taking on a form resembling a burning lion. "What do you have bird, a couple of rodents and an ego, I remember you all to well, you don't morph unless you have to, and even if you did get into it there's no way you can hurt me with any little body you might've picked up."

(Really,) narrowing my eyes at him, I wasn't stupid I only had one form that I knew could take him out and I wasn't willing to use Denoxgo Lihnep, not if I couldn't control it, and not this close to the city. Without the others regardless of what body I took I could do any long lasting damage, at least not and still contain him. But then again I didn't really need to contain him, I just needed to hurt him enough to make him turn tale and lick his wounds somewhere else till I could find a way of going back and getting a thermos or one of the other weapons that could send him back to the Ghost Zone, that or find a way of getting rid of him here and now. "Lets test that little theory shall we you raping sociopath," dropping off the branch and head to the ground, my comment stunning him for the few moments I needed to get near the ground and morph into something that might stand a chance.

My options were small so I went with surprise as much as strength, hoping the two together could help me win this fight. I summoned the Deinonychus from my genetic archive, letting the ancient ancestor of the hawk regain it's former glory. By the time David's feet hit the ground I was done morphing and enjoying the look on his face as he slowly looked over the dinosaur body I was in.

"Well you are full of surprises aren't you," his flaming tail whipping back and forth, "this might actually be fun after all."

(Your not the only one that's gotten stronger,) as we slowly started circling each other.

"Please, I took out Jake remember and he was the best of all of you," his lips pulling back in a snarl.

(Try again, Rachel was the best,) shifting my weight while processing everything about or surrounding, my nose picking up every scent from the world around us, and more importantly him as I tried to figure out the strange mix of scents rising off him in the hopes it would let me decipher his moves before he made them. (And I've been in enough fights over the years to get pretty good at doing things one on one.)

"Funny I don't remember you being this talkative the last time we met, oh wait you didn't say anything the last time we met you just ATE ME," diving in at me, his claws out as he swiped at my long neck. The strike barley missed as I jumped back, only having to move again as he followed me using his ghost flight. "Come on freak I thought you said you were tough."

(Keep talking little mouse,) dodging again and turning it into a spin and leveling my tail at his head, a move that did little as he pulled back letting my tail pass by harmlessly.

"That's it, that's all you got?"

(Yep,) jumping forward and landing on top of him and sinking my killing claws into each shoulder, I was a little surprised the flames didn't burn me, and turning the strike into a flip and throwing him forward before he could counter attack. He only traveled a few feet back but it was enough to give me an edge in the fight.

"Alright so you're a little better than you use to be," rubbing his right shoulder as the flames seemed to flare around it for a few seconds before calming down. "If you think it'll save you your mistaken," jumping into the air, adding height with his ghost abilities then diving down in an attempt to come down on top of me. I held my position while he came, knowing all to well that if I moved to wouldn't make a difference, at least not if I didn't have it planned right. Relying more on my nose and ears and timed it out and darted just before his strike could connect with me, his claws cutting a chasm into the earth. When his claws hit earth mine hit him as I shot back in the second my feet hit the ground sweeping my finger claws down along his back earning a scream of pain from the dead human. With a lions roar he threw me off while doing a mid air spin, thankfully the Deinonychus had a few skills of it's own and I was able to twist my body in mid air and land on my feet, my claws leveling a small trail of scratches in the earth.

"Well the little bird has some teeth inside that beak, lets see if I can't rip them out," darting forward faster than I would've though he could with that much bulk and upper cutting me, his claws leaving bloody trails in my scaled flesh and sending me sprawling to the ground. Before I could bet up he did an aerial flip his claws sinking into my body and sending me skyward again, only to send me to the ground as another burst of speed allowed him to grab me by the neck and slamming me to the ground.

For a second I lost consciousness when I hit but by the time I was up I was greeted by a searing pains that I recognized all to well, a piece of my flank had just been torn out and claws were sinking into my neck. "How's that feel bird," he snarled bringing his face next to mine, "and this just is this the beginning for you and the others. One by one I'm going to track them all down and deal with them, I've had years to plan out everything I'm going to do, it'll be nice and slow for all of them, each one's going to take days to dies, and then when everything is over I'm going to find them in the Ghost Zone and really start the torture. I've had years to prepare for that time, you'd be surprised just how many sprits I've practiced on to make sure I could maximize the pain without running into the risk of anyone losing consciousness."

(You son of a,) snapping at him, his claws tearing a chunk out of my neck in the process, and unfortunately I didn't even making it to him and he flew down and went intangible and drifted down through the ground while I fell on my face. Growling I stood back up and sniffing the air ready for when he popped out of the ground.

"I'm curious who I should start with," the voice coming from behind me, making me turn and jump at him without thinking about the situation, only to pass through the intangible burning lion-man. "I have dreamt about killing Jake for a long time, but starting with him just seems so wrong, so easy, the same with Rachel," the name making me madder. I let out a snarl at the though of him hurting her and struck at him again I knew it probably wouldn't work but I could dream. "The things I have planned for her have to remain till the end other wise everything else will just seem anticlimactic. I suppose I could start with Cassandra, comparatively she's in for the least amount of pain since she actually had a shred of human decency. So that just leaves Marco and the alien and I just can't decide who to start with."

After the second failed attack I just stood there watching him, my growl growing louder by the second, my control over the Deinonychus dissipating in the wake of my anger. (YOUR NOT GOING TO TOUCH THEM,) the threat somewhat pointless at the moment but making me feel better as I said it.

"And what are you going to do, spit and snarl at me if I don't," laughing at me, "face it freak your old news, everything you can do I can do better and faster. No matter what you try I can counter and beat, this fight was over long before it began. As it is I don't even know why I'm bothering to fight you at all, I could be doing so many other things right now, like getting a hold of that little redhead at school," his voice suddenly going low and quiet, "the things I could do with her."

(YOUR NOT GOING TO TOUCH HER,) jumping at him in a blind rage, my claws out, the Deinonychus screaming in my mind to kill him.

"Pitiful," his body flickering into color as his fist connected with my snout, my head filling with a sickening crack that I recognized as bone breaking followed by a squish that I knew was a collection of skin, muscle and most likely my brain being punctured through as his claws extended into the strike, going further in than they should've. For a second I lost the ability to feel in my face while I fell back to the ground, angry at myself for falling for that trick and for underestimating him, but mainly sorry that I was about to be killed by a weasel of a human being. As I fell he moved in, his freakishly long claws out and tearing into me, my right leg met with searing pain as it was sheared off at the hip, while my left foot was slit into five pieces with a single swipe. His legs launched out and tore open my stomach forcing bones to fly everywhere along with several organs that were probably important. That same strike had him grab my small arms and rip them off me leaving twin streams of blood on the ground and essentially rendering me the first quadriplegic dinosaur on earth in a few millions years.

When I bounced off the ground my first thought was to morph, between all the things I was missing and given that I could see the lower part of my jaw a few feet away that seemed like a really good idea. In the space of a few seconds I shrunk, feathers replaced scales, my beak replaced the half mouth I was currently sporting and my limbs grew back, albeit in a different configuration. I was whole again after a few seconds but still feeling like I had been put through the wringer. And I also couldn't help but wonder why he'd even let me morph, after all if he was going to kill me that would've been the time, while I was hurt and broken and pretty much helpless.

"Now the fun begins," the black cat punching me in the face shattering my beak while the world went dark a few moment later, the sound of David's laughter reach my ears the last think I heard.

---

Jazz POV

All I could do was pace in my room, and try to figure out what I could do. Thankfully I'd managed to convince Danny to go after Tobias the second school ended so with luck they were safe with each other, but in my heart I knew something was happening that Danny couldn't stop. But to his credit he had gone anyway and made Sam promise to stay with me till he came back as an extra insurance policy in case David popped back up and wanted another shot at us, unfortunately getting Tucker to stay wasn't an option, his grounding was still in effect and couldn't be broken for something as trivial as a ghost might be trying to kill him. However with Sam watching over me it made it nearly impossible to get out and go look for Tobias in my newly acquired body, ok not impossible but I knew there was no way she'd let me do it, not after promising to my brother to keep me safe.

Of course just because she promised that, it didn't mean I'd let her fulfill that obligation, like my brother I was now a lot harder to pin down in any one spot especially if I didn't want to be there.

"Relax," I wasn't sure how many times Sam had told me that since she started watching me but I was getting tied of it in a hurry.

"Do you ever relax when my brothers out there?" the words coming out a little more hostile than I had intended.

"No," leaning back into the couch, "I don't."

"Then why should I?"

"Because you do it badly," folding her arms, "when they come back, and they will, they need to know we weren't here planning their funeral. Danny's good at what he does and so is Tobias, whatever this guy tries to do they'll be ok so don't worry."

"You sound like your mother," I hissed back at her.

"Low blow girl," narrowing her eyes at me.

"It's true," giving her a playful smile, "lately your all sunshine and kittens with words like faith and hope and trust escaping your mouth, pretty soon," wiggling my fingers at her, "your going to start wearing neon pink and dye your hair blond."

"Or I could just slit my wrists it'd be less painful," throwing a pillow at me, only to miss as I side stepped it, the action making me hopeful that what had gone on earlier was on the mend.

"Say what you want Sam we both know it's true, you've just been getting more and more peppy since this all started to happen, I wouldn't be surprised if you weren't asked to join the cheerleaders soon."

"Ok David get out of her I'm not falling for it."

"It's all me here," dropping down next to her and putting an arm around her, "and seriously I wouldn't be surprised to find Paulina trying to recruit you soon, we all know she's jealous of you, and we've all seen how Dash looks at you. The attention of cheerleaders and jocks, your just one step away from pom-poms, florescent colors, and chemically induced perkiness."

"Stop saying that," yelling in mock horror and holding her ears.

"You know it's true Sam don't fight it, you will be wearing pink nail polish by the end of the month at this rate!"

"NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!" running away from me and down the hall in mock hysterics, a few seconds after she disappeared down the hall I heard a door slam.

"That went better than expected," shaking my head knowing that would get her off me for a few moments, and with luck that was all the time I needed. Taking a deep breath I stomped up the stairs, making a bit of a scene, hopefully without over doing it, and slipped into my room, locking the door behind me and shucking off my outer layer of clothing, revealing a my newest addition to my wardrobe.

I'd picked it up yesterday after my first attempt at morphing, it had taken a while to find something I liked that wasn't to revealing, and considering it had to be skin tight that was a tall order to fill. But after almost an hour I'd finally found something I liked that didn't make me feel cheap. It was a spandex top with matching shorts, the top was a little more than what an average tank top would have, ending in very short sleeves and coming down all the way to the shorts. The shorts were the same deal, ending just before my knees, but it didn't change the fact that both looked like they were painted on my body. Both were a matching hunter green that bordered on black, the top however had a small stripe about an inch wide running from just under the left sleeve to my right hip that was a gray-red color.

I couldn't help but look at myself in the mirror, something I'd avoided up till now, not really wanting to buy into the sheer vanity of the purchase, let alone see if I could really pull it off. Grudgingly as I gave myself a quick look over I had to admit I didn't look that bad, it was still a little more skin than I wanted to show but it wasn't bad.

"Congratulations girl, your going to look good when you die," shaking my head and open a compartment on my desk and removing a large feather from it, one of few Tobias had left over his trips, and opening the window to my room where I places the long feather and absently rubbed my neck not wanting to slam into it all over again. Taking one more deep breath I focused on the hobby that was now part of me, this time the feather erupted all over my body, covering my in a fine layer, from what I'd read they were the layer below the outer layer meant for flying. Then I started to shrink while a set of wings ripped out of my back, looking over to the mirror I couldn't help but think I looked a little like an angle, a short freaky angel, but an angle none the less. The rest of the changes came quickly and I was soon a fully formed raptor, one that was ready for the instincts this time.

Like before they just kind of came, but this time I was ready for them, the need to be free was there but not as strong this time, the panic of being somewhere new not at great, but I could still feeling them all around me trying to take over. Keeping the thoughts to myself, or hoping I was, (you know what to do girl,) remembering Tobias' struggle with the hawk, focusing my thoughts I mentally gripped the instincts with my mind and held them still, making them be quiet and bending the to my will. (Keep in balance,) reminding myself, if I kept to tight a reign I'd have to fly on my own, and I didn't have the time to learn and let go just a little, just enough to feel the desires, the knowledge of the falcon at the back of my mind.

(Lets go girl time to track those two down,) spreading my wings, somehow knowing how to move each feather and flapped, slightly amazed by the feeling, my first time all over again. I landed on the ledge of the window and gripped the feather for later and looked out, still amazed by the vision, I'd thought my vision was good before, it was nothing compared to that of a falcon, compared to a falcon I was blind, hopelessly and pathetically blind. (Time's running out, time to decide looking down,) to the falcon it was an easy fall, nothing at all to be worried about, to the girl, it was a long way down that was really going to hurt if I didn't fly.

(You owe me so much birdie,) taking a single step and falling from the window and hoping the falcon knew what she was doing. Without thinking of it my wings spread I righted myself and I flapped and somehow got air born and caught a breeze and sailed higher into the sky, Weaver instinctively knowing how to fly and how to use the winds to get her where she needed to go. For a few seconds I panicked as we sailed higher into the sky and over looked the roofs of various buildings, and in the process tried to regain control of my body and nearly put myself into a tailspin. Luckily I remembered to release my control after a few feet and Weaver retook control of the body, (stay calm girl, let the bird fly, just tell her where to go,) reminding myself of the lessons I'd learned from Tobias' first flying experience. (That would be a lot easier if I knew where I was,) looking down and not recognizing any land mark from my current height.

Mentally sighing I dove down and landed on a roof and found my bearings and called up a mental map of how to get to the school from where I was and took off again following the road below me. I knew it wasn't the most direct route to the school but is was the best I could do at the moment since the last thing I needed was to get lost on my way to the one solid idea I had at the moment. For the most part I stayed near the ground during the trip, well near the ground compared to what I could do, I didn't get much above the roof tops.

By the time I landed at the school the sun was beginning to set and the thermals were starting to die down which would make flying in this body hard. From what I'd read off a website falcons were perfectly capable of flying under there own power but they were adapted to using naturally occurring thermals to get where they were going, combine that with their bad nocturnal eye sight and it was for the best if I lost the feathers for the rest of the trip. I quick circle around the school only showed a few cars in the lot, but hopefully that wouldn't cause to much of a problem for me in the long run.

I demorphed behind a few bushes on the side of the school and could help but look around, somehow being at the school at this time feeling unnatural, of course everything I was doing today felt unnatural so that wasn't really a surprise. Taking another deep breath I pictured Sally in my mind and let the changes happen, fur shot down my arms and legs while a tail seemed to drop out of me completely covered in fur. My legs shifted, bones mutating, and making me taller, the fur continued to spread over my body while I simultaneously shrank. My eras moved up to the top of my head while my nose and face elongated like something out of a werewolf movie. When my nose kicked in it was like getting hit in the face with a perfume from the mall, it was almost painful and made me forget about the other changes to my body till they were done. When the instincts kicked in I almost wanted to cry in relief, they somehow controlled the overload of sensory information. In addition to controlling my nose the instincts had one other benefit, I didn't have to control her, the dog wanted to work, it was the complete opposite of what I'd thought I'd be. From what I'd heard dogs were playful and fun loving, but this pup was a work horse, all she wanted to do was her job.

(Who am I to refuse then,) dropping my nose and smelling the feather, doing my best to take in every detail of the smell and trying to memorize Tobias' scent. After a moment I lifted my head to the sky and took a deep breath and let my nose get assaulted by the obscene number of other scents. It took a while to translate all the smells and narrow them all down till I finally picked up the multiple scent traces of Tobias and found the strongest one, somehow knowing it was the most recent. Yeah it was in the sky, but it still left traces on the ground and if this dog was half of what I was hoping I could follow the smell right back to the source.

(Ok lets see what we can do,) following the scent, the disorientation from the color shift wearing off rather quickly as my nose and ears made up for the lack of visual detail. The only way I can describe it was as if I were possessed, where the scent trail lead I followed blindly and without hesitation, and I was actually happy to be doing it. I didn't care where I was going, or at least Sally didn't, all she wanted to do was follow the scent and by doing that I was making her happy, giving her a job to do. I followed the smell for what I thought was almost an hour not caring about anything around me, at least on a base level I didn't care the human side of me was very aware of how badly this could go as I side stepped people on the side walks and cars on the road. At any moment I was expecting a the old cliché giant net to drop out of the sky and throw me into the back of a truck.

I stated getting conflicting information as the sun went down, the trial I'd been following leading my out of town, but a new trail that was somehow a fresher and different it was something the dog's instincts understood but was beyond my ability to know what the new smell on him was. The new trail lead back into town and slightly confusing the canines instincts but not my human mind. While Sally wanted to stay of the trail and simply run it down regardless of where it went I had other plans and forced my nose onto the new trail and headed back to town. At first I was just focusing in on birdie's smell, but it became clear after a while that he wasn't alone, that someone else was with him, it's smell something Sally didn't recognize, that however couldn't be said for the smell hanging on Tobias that I finally was able to understand as we went along, fresh blood.

My bird was bleeding and badly from the coppery smell that hung on him which told me one of two things either he wasn't able to morph and heal or he'd fought something and hadn't wanted to wash off the blood. Somehow I was doubting that he had killed something in the short span of time since we'd last seen each other. I also had a feeling that whoever was carrying my bird didn't have the best of intentions regarding his well being.

A growl started deep in my throat when I realized just what kind of shape birdie was in and picked up the pace, shifting from a quick lope to a sprint as I tried to cover the distance from where I was to where I hoped Tobias was as soon as possible. The trail ended up leading me to the docks, the salt air slightly stinging my nose tongue as it hung out, my body in need of a drink. I was lucky there weren't any new ships coming into port, having to deal with people unloading cargo was the last thing I needed to deal with. Unfortunately the smell of ship fuel along with the multiple other toxins swimming through the air made finding birdie's scent a bit harder than before and I eventually had to abandon using the nose all together, and decided to demorph and rethink my plan.

As my body shifted a terrifying thought entered my mind how long I'd been in morph to begin with and the thought chilled me, up till that moment I hadn't really thought about the time limit but now I felt it hang over my head like the Sword of Damocles. "Stupid girl, really stupid," the words escaping out of my perfectly formed mouth, "I have to figure out some way of telling time before I get myself trapped, the last thing I need to explain why I'm a dog to my parents."

I took a second to calm down, aware that I might have dodged a bullet back there and looked around, everything seeming a little different now that I wasn't in my dog form. "I can see why Tobias stays an animal," scratching my head and looking around, "birds have better sight, dogs better noses, compared to them the human body just doesn't cut it for processing information." I felt like I was blind, deaf and had socks shoved up my nose, I actually felt like I was in the wrong body for a few moments, it was more than a little unnerving.

I walked around for a few minutes, doing my best to navigate in the dark and hoping I did hit anything of value in the process. The more I walked the more I felt like I was wasting my time, the Sally's nose might have been over loaded but it was more productive than this. About the time I settled on going back to my canine form the choice was somewhat taken out of my hands as I heard a very distinctive scream tear through the night, one I knew by instinct alone, "Tobias."

Focusing my mind I retook my falcon form, not caring that it was dark out, and took wing. My eye sight wasn't as bad as I thought I'd be, it was about the same as my human eye sight at night, not great, but good enough to let me fly as long as I focused on what was in front of me. The first scream followed by others, each more painful than the last, and each helping me figure out where he was in the maze of dark building. Three screams later I'd found him and slipped through a broken window, or more specifically found them, someone that I assumed was David was hovering above Tobias and holding what looked like a cattle prod. Under normal circumstances this would be bad, but now it was all the worse considering birdie had at least one other little problem in addition to the maniacal ghost over him, the fact that he couldn't move. Wrapped around his body were yellow bands that put off an ethereal light and seemed to be connected to a table by a single strand, almost like a ghost aura, and knowing that it meant they probably had a few additional tricks other than holding him down.

My first instinct was to dive down and try and deal with him but my higher brain function won out, if Tobias couldn't deal with that guy what were my odds with only a fraction of the experience and bodies. I had to go about this in the right way, I had to be smart and wait for my moment to strike, so just stood there in the rafters of the building biding my time and waiting for the moment to strike. At the very least I knew Tobias was alright, that or this guy was a ventriloquist in his spare time and that made me fell a little bit better about doing nothing. I also couldn't help but wonder where my brother was, had he not been able to find Tobias, or had David already found him and left him bleeding in a gutter some where, these were answers I was intent on finding out before I left.

---

Tobias POV

I awoke to the sound of screaming and the feeling of pain, well more pain anyway something was really wrong with my beak and I felt like part of me was on fire. No not fire just a lot a pain, the feeling an type slowing making sense as I got my eyes open and realized I was the one screaming as a result of whatever David was stabbing into me.

(Thought you were dead,) the thoughts sounding weak even to me, (I didn't think it was time for this nightmare.) After I said it, my mind started clicking on, this wasn't a dream or a nightmare, it was reality as the last few hours came back to me.

"I am dead," he snarled stabbing me again with the stick and causing a jolt of pain to run through my body that felt like I was being burned from the inside out.

(What you've never been confused in the morning,) I growled lamely and focused on the mallard that had on stock at tried to morph it not caring what he did to me. Boy was that a mistake, the second I felt the change start it felt like I was being squeezed all over my body by something while being scorched and flash frozen at the same time, not a pleasant experience. In the end I couldn't take it and had to morph back in defeat as nothing at all was changed.

Above me David nearly laughed his butt off, even falling back in the sky and laughing on his back in hysterics, "that was so worth it, I LOVE THIS STUFF!"

(It wasn't that funny,) trying to sound menacing and knowing that I was failing.

"Oh yes it was," righting himself and hefting some kind of metal stick that I had a feeling was the cause of at least part of the pain.

(No it wasn't,) trying to stretch my wings and figure out what was around me only to be met by the same burning, freezing, constricting assault and more of David's laughter that chilled me to the bone.

"Do you like it," moving towards me and grabbing whatever was around me and picking me up by it, letting me see the yellow color of it. "I picked it up from the guy funding this let get together, it has some pretty ugly properties as you've seen, and it's going to be keeping you nice and calm while I have my fun with you. You should feel grateful, your going to be the test for it, if this does what I hope it will it'll find place in my plans for the others."

(You really are a sicko you know that,) trying to sound like a grizzled action movie hero.

"Your hardly one to talk there feather boy," running his free hand over the mess that use to be my face and poking me causing a new jolt of pain to run through my body then flung me back to the ground. "Now where exactly should I begin," floating away from me over to a tray who contents I couldn't see. "So much to do and so little time to do it in," running his hand over something in the container, "I really do have no idea where to start. I suppose the classics are the best," pulling something that looked like a fine bladed serrated machete out and testing the blade with his finger, "but what body part to start with."

(How about my ears so I don't have to listen to your miserable voice anymore.)

(I could but it wouldn't stop me,) still possessing thought speech and floating over to me, "but I prefer the sound of my own voice, that mind talking thing never did feel right."

(Then how about you just stab me in the heart so I can stop caring about all this and kick your tail on the other side.)

"Like you could," digging a free finger into the gabbing hole that was now my face, "and I told you, this can't be fast, that ruins all the fun of what I have planned."

(Well pardon me for ruining your fun time,) I hissed at him.

"How can you ruin it you're the guest of honor," fingering the blade, "but you can help with something, how should I go about dealing with the others?"

(You want my opinion on you torturing my friends, you've got to be kidding me,) at the moment I doubted telling him the others didn't even know who he was would be a good idea, and why he didn't know Rachel was already on the other side was beyond me.

"Not really," giving me a smile that made my skin crawl, "I just want you to know what awaits them when I get to them."

(Let me guess cutting skin off, a slow burn, eating them?)

"Oh no, your the only one here I plan on eating," grabbing my by the throat and pulling me forward, "but that's a ways off."

(So what are your plans,) wish beyond anything I've ever wished for to bite him in the nose.

"In due time little red tail, in due time," dropping me down on the table, "I can't tell you what I'm going to do, I have to show you," stabbing the knife between the bonds into my chest. The pain was intense, not as bad as the bonds but still pretty bad, "how does it feel, be honest," twisting the knife, "I'm planning on starting all my conquests like this."

(Go gargle with sulfuric acid,) I snapped not wanting to give him anything.

"Oh," pulling the knife out, "thanks, I'll have to add that one to the list," stabbing the knife into the middle of my leg and pulling it straight down cutting it in half. "Oh wait that was suppose to come later," shaking his head and removing the knife, "can't be helped, now where to next," picking up a rag and wiping off the blood.

(You were going to let the bird go,) I offered on the off chance it would work.

"Try again," putting the knife back in the tray and pulling out a syringe, "it's amazing the things you can get when you have full access to a hospital's pharmacy."

(I'm not going to like this am I.)

"Hard to say, this is meant for a human, I have no real idea how it'll effect you," tapping the plastic tube, "but it'll be fun to find out won't it," stabbing me in the chest with it. I didn't like getting shots when I was human and I didn't like them now, which was funny because I've been hurt a lot worse in the past. After he stabbed me he dropping the syringe back into the tub and hovered there watching me, "I really hope this doesn't end up killing you, it would be such a waste of a great opportunity."

(Seriously there are psychologists on the other side go see one you obviously need the help,) I growled at him while the world started spinning, colors changed, things seemed to turn inside out. (What did you shoot me full of you miserable waste of ectoplasm?)

"If the guy on the other side was right a very potent blood thinner with a few other things added, but really it's hard to say he was at least eighty years old and it was hard to understand him past the accent," his whole body looking like a giant blob with five mouths.

(Yeah I'm going to say you got it wrong,) my head swaying slightly as I felt warm all over, and this time not from pain.

"Huh, pity," I though he moved back over to me but I couldn't be sure, the perspectives seemed to be going to crazy and I was having a really hard time thinking straight. "So we'll just have to move on to round two then, holding what I really hoped was a knife and not a rattle snake that was spitting fire. The next thing I knew I was feeling something between my legs and I assumed it was whatever David was holding, however if it was suppose to hurt he was doing a bad job of it. "No screaming," his voice sounding like it was miles away, "have to fix that," doing something to my leg that I couldn't feel.

(That the best you got you donkey…,) the words trailing off as I lost control of my head and slammed into the table and for a second though I was going to start flying again. The feeling was so nice I spread my wings to catch the air and was greeting by searing pain that brought reality back into sharp focus.

"You know if your going to torture yourself if kind of takes all the fun away from me," folding his arms.

(Well if you were smart enough to know the difference between species this wouldn't be a problem,) I snapped, my anger coming back as full strength and feeling the drug's effect trying to come back to the surface.

"Don't get high and mighty with me bird," stabbing me in the chest with what looked like a pair of rusty pliers and opening them inside the hole they'd made.

(Hard not to when I'm looking down on an idiot,) trying to scratch him with my good foot only to discover that last slice had removed it from me completely.

"But I'm not the one with a stump," stabbing me again, the pain helping to keep my focused.

(No you're the one with the brain deficiency,) glaring at him.

At that his arm reared back to strike at me only to stop himself and running his fingers through stubble on his head, "no, it's not going to be that easy bird, we have so much left to do before I finish you." He put his hands behind his back and floated back and looked back in the container, "this isn't really going as planned, not in a bad way, but still not as I envisioned. Maybe things will go better with one of the others, they seem to know how to play their parts." That got a growl out of me, "So many choices and only one opportunity to do them in," running his hands along the contents.

My vision started to mess up again so I stretched and sent a new blast through my body to clear my head again. "You know he's paying me to deal with those little brats your running around with," not looking back at me, "granted he didn't say I had to kill them, but he didn't say I couldn't either, at least not all of them. Maybe I should start with them first, a kind of warm up for the main event, something to test out all my theories before I put them into practice." At that I surged against the bond out of instinct and wanting nothing more than to hurt him anyway I could and was rewarded by a new blast of the varying pains.

"Oh now I have to do it," glancing back at me, "if it get you that riled up, but who to start with, the little geek boy's a little to easy, and the goth freak might enjoy it, so I guess that leaves the redhead," pulling the previous knife out, "oh yeah she's going to be fun."

(Touch her and I will find a way of killing you all over again,) my thoughts deadly serious.

"Oooooo," running his fingers along the blade again, "the tough killer bird has a soft spot for her, tell me how does Rachel feel about you hanging around jail bait?"

(Leave them out of this,) my thoughts on Jazz and her friends more than my own.

"Can't do it," stabbing the blade into my wing and through a few bones, "now that I know all this, and here I thought I was the sick one," throwing his head back and laughing.

(I swear…)

"What, what can you possibly do," twisting the knife, "in case you hadn't noticed your not the one in control here. I'm going swallow you whole then I'm going down the line and killing each and every one of them after I have my fun till I get to that little skank you claim to love."

(YOUR NOT TOUCHING JAZZ!) the roar ripping out of me and going everywhere before I even knew what I said as I tried to snap at him with my nonexistent beak.

"Oh yeah I did not just hear that," his smile growing wild and frightening, "first the blond now the redhead," grabbing me by the throat, "I'm going to have so much fun with this. I was planning something special for Rachel considering how much you cared about her, but now I get to do it twice, oh this is my lucky day, tell me there are more. Tell me there's just a line of sick sick little whores behind you that can run through till the sun comes up."

(I will find a way to KILL YOU!) lunging at him the best I could and getting a massive blast of burning and freezing.

"You and what army?"

(Me,) the voice making me think I was hallucinating as David suddenly moving backwards and grabbing at something behind him.

"GET OFF ME," his hands moving back, clawing at something just beyond my ability to see, "GET OFF," the panic in his voice rising while he turned in the sky revealing his unwanted guest. For a second I thought the blood loss was starting to catch up to me I swore I saw a falcon on David's back, an old enemy from the wild trying to get a lick in before it was to late. It was almost surreal it clawed at the back of the ghosts head and flapped it's wings trying to hurt him, but the moves were primitive, more instinctual than the should be, almost like it had never been in a fight before.

(I NEED HELP HERE,) the words cutting into my mind like a razor blade, it was Jazz's voice but not, while a mental groan I struggled against my bonds getting another blast through my body and clearing my head and hoping things would now make more sense. (I CAN'T DO THIS BIRDIE,) her words hitting me again, this time I understood them, or not, I knew it was Jazz in front of me but I had absolutely no idea how she'd gotten feathers.

(Jazz,) the words almost hesitant as I focused my thoughts on the bird alone.

(Yeah we need to talk,) losing her grip on David as his body flared into his burning lion form and she impacted the table I was stuck on.

(Now that's an understatement,) watching her fall on the ground.

"I should've known," he growled lifting his lips in a snarl, "you don't go anywhere alone, you don't live alone, you don't fight alone, how could I believe you'd come here by yourself. So how'd he drag you into this Jake, or do you still just need to be the hero?"

(What,) Jazz asked me from below, already having gotten some of the finer elements of morphing down.

(You look like a peregrine, the same bird Jake had, he must not remember the scent, don't say anything we might be able to use it,) my mind on fire as I pushed aside the rising anger at the situation, at once more ruining Jazz's normal life, and tried to come up with a plan to get her out alive. (Fly, distract him, either make him let me go and find your brother…anyone in your family with the right equipment for fighting ghosts.)

In a bitter tone, (nice to know you have faith in me,) rising from below the table and flying at the burning cat.

"Once a hero always a hero huh," a deep rumble coming from inside his throat, "fine lets dance," diving in and sweeping his claws, his strike barley missing as Jazz flapped over the strike, her size giving her a slight edge. But while she avoided that first strike it didn't stop him from spinning into a kick than landed with a strike to her beak sending her end over end into a crate. "That's it," floating over to her, "all this time and that's all you got Jakey, I was hoping for so much more."

(Brave man aren't you,) sending my thought's into David's head, (all that power and this is all you can do with it, pick on those you know are weaker than you.)

"Well if I picked on those stronger than me this wouldn't be any fun," turning his attention back to me, the momentary lapse in focus letting Jazz get back into the sky and fly out of reach, at least for the moment. "Oh very cleaver," his ear turning, "the old distraction play, you really think that's going to save you? I'm unbeatable now bird and your all going to die, it's just a matter of when." At that he changed growing longer, losing the feline characteristics and replacing them with reptilian ones, becoming a bipedal rattlesnake, "lets see how you do against this Jakey boy," and diving at Jazz his speed going beyond what he had formerly had.

(Well this is different,) flapping up near some crates and out of David's reach, or so she thought as his jumped up on the boxes and coiled around the with the speed of his genetic donor. With the blink of an eye he ended up above her and lashed out with his hand hitting her in the back and sending her downward before she could even turn to look at him. She didn't get a chance to hit the ground however as David coiled around her and tried to squeeze the life from her as if he were a python.

"To slow, to confident, to easy," he hissed trying to squeeze the life out of her, his mouth moving closer to her face.

(CLAW HIM,) focusing my thought in on Jazz, hoping she could move enough to do it.

(I think they're broken,) her voice far away, this time due to her own problem instead of the drugs in my system, his body was crushing the life out of her.

(Fight him, morph, do something, don't let him do this to you,) struggling against my bonds and getting a massive wave of pain running all over my body.

(Can't) her voice almost not existent in my head.

(DANNY GET HERE IN HERE,) my thoughts going everywhere channeling my pain into the thoughts and trying to send the thoughts as far as possible in all directions. I had no idea if he was in the area or if he could even hear me but I had to try, at the moment it was all I could do. Well almost, (stop it David that isn't Jake!)

His hold to Jazz slowed at that as he looked at me, "really then which one is it, I do need to know for the count, no point in looking for someone here if they're on the other side."

I was kind of surprised that actually stalled him, now the problem became what was I going to tell him, at this point I didn't think the truth was a good thing but what could I tell him, there were only so many of us I could shift the blame towards. (One of the kids,) I lied pulling the idea out of my tail, (you think you were the last one we gave the power to morph to, we gave it to others, ones that weren't sociopaths, you were just a failed prototype.)

"Really," his coils tightening around her, "then I'll just have to make this one quick won't I."

(LET HER GO,) surging against the bonds again, the pain not is intense this time, whether it was from the ghost cord somehow losing it's power or my senses deadening I couldn't be sure.

"Sounds like someone important to me," turning his face back to Jazz and shooting forward with his face biting down on her.

(NO!) the hawk in me jumping to the surface and my desire to take this guy part overwhelming me.

"HA…," turning and looking at me, "GOT…YA," his voce trailing off as I started morphing again, the pain from the bonds no longer of any concern to me.

---

Jazz POV (A few seconds earlier)

I never felt so good as when that burning black snake head pulled away from me, those haunting eyes were the things of nightmares, those teeth ensuring I never looked at a snake the same way again. If I could've breathed I sigh of relief I would've but I couldn't feel anything below my neck, well not entirely I could feel a dull far away pain but that was due in part to not having any blood circulating in my body. As it was I wasn't sure how I have even managed to stay conscious, as long as I had.

(Not done with you yet,) he spoke directly into my mind, (I plan on making him suffer through you,) then turning to Tobias, "HA…GOT…YA," his voice growing slow as he said the words. For a second I didn't understand why then I saw birdie and began to understand what was startling him, if I was right about what he was becoming I'd be scared to if I was him. For that matter I wasn't him and I was scared because I knew things were about to get really hot, really fast.

The rope glowed, trying to contain or stop him from growing but if it was doing any good I couldn't be sure but I doubted it considering it wasn't slowing him down. Growing was soon met by burning, blue flames rising off his body, flames that had reduced a Howler to a quizzing mess of ectoplasm, flames that ate through the ghost bonds that tried to contain his power. He was becoming a demon in feathers, something raw and primal, something the likes of which this guy had never faced before, something that might do more damage than good.

I broke my silence to David while he became mesmerized by the sight before him, (you should be running.)

"What," looking at me, "I know you…," whatever else he was going to say was drowned out as Tobias screamed the call of the strange alien bird and looked down at us his body still forming.

(LET. HER. GO.) his words taking on a savagery I'd never heard before as it mixed with something that might've been concern.

"Well this might be fun after all," unwrapping from my body, I tried to suck in air but I suddenly became aware of the bones puncturing my internal organs making that very difficult and painful. "So this is the best you can come up with, some messed up bird body, at least it's a little more interesting then the dinosaur but it'll end the same way." With that said he changed again, his body growing thinker, his head shifting into a form I recognized by instinct alone now, wings followed shortly coming out of his back while his hands an feet took on an unmistakable formation. He had gone bird on me, granted he was still burning like his last body, but he was definitely a bird based on a bird of prey.

(This is very bad,) looking up at him as he finished morphing and really hoping that at some point while I was unconscious he had learned to control that body.

"Bye bye bird," spreading his wings lifting into the air and shot Tobias, his hands open showing the talon that adorned the end of each finger. Tobias looked at him, or at least I thought he did, it was hard to tell with his head on fire like that, the blue glow of the flames almost blinding and painful as they made the building into a sauna that would cook me alive inside the warehouse. A building that soon wouldn't be there as I caught sight of the orange yellow flames that danced around his head, his body igniting the roof of the structure.

With a roar from David, black ghost flame met blue alien flame, a confrontation I knew David didn't have a chance of winning. Something that was confirmed a few seconds later as he we thrown back and landed on the ground and slid into a crate, blue flame mingling with his own black and screaming.

"PUT IT OUT," slapping his body as he tried to stop the spreading flame, something I knew from experience wouldn't be easy.

(You have to fight it Tobias,) I called into his mind hoping it would bring him out of it, (that body is dangerous birdie you have to take control of it.

If he heard me he didn't show it as David went back at him, his talons out as fly up high and tried to slash at the top of his head. He didn't even get close to him as Tobias swatted him away with one of his upper wings and in the process setting the a larger section of the roof on fire. David on the other hand went careening back into a wall, the blue flames rising further over his body as they tried to engulf him.

Landing on the ground with a thud this flames died away and in the process taking the ones courtesy of Tobias with them. "Oh that is it," growling at Tobias, the growing flames on the building casting him in an eerie light and highlighting the burn marks that ran over his body, a lasting present from birdies flames. Thrusting his hand forward a stream of florescent purple ectoplasm shot out of it and hit the burning bird in the face but unlike Tobias' fire this one did little to the target.

The burning alien bird just shook it's head at the impact and looked back at the ghost and struck with it's beak, lunging through several crates and knocking them aside as they erupted in more fire, trying to grab him. The strike barley missed as the ghost rose into the air and let loose another volley of ecto blasts that only seemed to enrage the beast that had once been Tobias.

"Yeah how do you like that you feathered freak," shifting into a new form that seemed to be based on a cat and striking at the neck of his opponent and seemingly doing more harm to himself than the alien bird as he pulled back two burning fists. "How do I kill you," throwing his head back and swatted away by a wing to embedded him into a wall.

(Tobias,) trying again, (get a grip your going to get us all killed if you keep this up,) the fire growing hotter around me and flames starting to move near me. I could've demorphed but at the moment I had a feeling that might make me more of a target to the beast in control of that body. (Come on birdie I know your in there listen to me, you have to stop or at least take the fight somewhere else before you get me killed not to mention everyone who might be in the area!)

If he heard me or even understood me I doubted he cared as he snapped at David who was continuing to throw blots of ectoplasm at him, the bright purple a stark contrast to the subdue version of the color he was surrounded in. "Would you just die," lashing out with a larger burst and hitting his target in the back between the wings. At the impact the burning bird seemed to faultier then drop onto it's chest and David threw his fists into the air, "got ya." His moment of joy was short lived however as the upper wings of the giant flamed bird shot up and caught him between them as though he were little more than a fly, a slow fly, but a fly none the less. For a moment the cat just hung in kid air almost like in a cartoon then reverted to his human ghost mode and fell down on the bird's back, blue flames covering his body and making him disappear in the burning aura put off by the bird.

For a second I just stood there in stunned silence unsure what to do or say, part of me thought I should say something, but I couldn't put the thoughts into words. Then Tobias' body flared, it had happened before during the fight, from what I could tell it was normal, but that one was larger, brighter and apparently screaming. The noise was followed by what I hoped was David leaping off the bird, a howl of inhuman pain escaping his mouth as he flied erratically around the room seemingly trying to put out the blue flames that covered his body and leaving a trail in the sky like a firefly wherever he went. In response to the escape Tobias went after him again but wasn't able to catch him with his beak, the ghost running for his life instead as he shot through a burning wall of the building, his ability to go intangible either not working or forgotten in the wake of what had to be inhuman pain. Tobias tried to follow him, his beck snapping at the ghost, or at least where he had been.

That left the two of us alone and if what Danny had told me about this body was true that was a bad thing the Denoxgo Lihnep or however you said it, was suppose to be incredibly strong and resilient and completely wild. I had to get Birdie back in control of himself, so I did the only thing I could, I talked to him because I doubted a girl, a bird, or a dog could put a dent in that thing if a ghost couldn't.

(Tobias you have to stop,) his attention turning away from the ghost's trail and to my general direction it was had to tell considering I couldn't see his eyes, (you have to regain control and you have to do it now.) All I got in response was a roar that would've been at home in a monster movie accompanied by a stream of hot air that I was surprised to feel given the inferno around me. The force of the air actually pushed me back, sending my beaten body rolling but somehow avoiding getting forced into a outcropping of fire.

(Come on birdie get a hold of yourself,) I half whimpered half roared, (your letting the body control you and that's not something that should happen, not to you. Your stronger than that, better than that, you made a hawk part of who you are, this thing can't be any harder, you have to be able to control it.) All I got in response was another roar and him moving closer to me, although what he had in mind I couldn't be sure.

I had to change my strategy, I needed to get through to Tobias and this wouldn't do it, raw flattery wouldn't get me any where, the bird was to far in control, I needed to jar his memory, give him a reason to fight, a reason to come back. (So this is it,) I hissed into his mind, (you finally have what you wanted, an outside to match your inside, to let me see the monster within you. A creature of death and destruction something that can't be stopped and doesn't care what it does as long as it lives, I hope your happy there.)

When I said it the Denoxgo Lihnep through an upper wing out sending a crate flying in my direction that shattered a few feet from me. I wasn't sure if that was a sign he was hearing me but I took it as one, (a monster you claimed to be and a monster you are. I'm happy you finally got what you wanted, your better off this way you don't have to pretend anymore, now your free to be what you are on the inside, I'm happy for you, ecstatic really because I get to see you kick off your new life with your first kill, with me. You do know that's what's going to happen don't you I'm going to die here and you going to be the one to kill me, it doesn't matter what I do I'm going to die either by fire or by you directly, even if I demorph it won't save me, there's simply no what out for me.)

At that he seemed to slow and look around, but for what I couldn't be sure. (But what'll it matter it's not like you care about killing anymore, all the blood on your hands what's one more to add to the list. The way you talk your totally fine about snuffing out lives of anyone that gets in your way without a second thought, you almost seem to enjoy it. That why you don't want me around isn't it that your afraid the blood lust will grow to strong and you'll kill me one day, that the animal will win out, well congratulations that day has already come, you are an animal, a monster.)

If I could've covered my ears I would've as he screamed something that made the room shake and the fire flicker. (A happy little monster free to do as you wish with out regret or remorse, totally without concern for humanity or those you kill to appease your hunger. You'll be a true monster and true beast finally free of silly human concerns like friendship or love you can do whatever you wish. After all animals don't think about things like that, they don't need to, they just get in the way of being animals and surviving in the hash realities of the wild. They don't care about hurting things, they don't think twice about anything they do, they don't have to. But for someone that already claimed to be an animal you did a lot of that, how many times did I hear 'I killed people, that you wouldn't like me if you knew me, that I'm a monster, an animal'. Guess what birdie ANIMAL DON'T CARE ABOUT THOSE KINDS OF THINGS!)

(Animals don't regret, they may miss a mate but that's only a few species, humans are the only creatures on earth that truly regret doing things. That's what separates us form all other life on Earth, it's not power, or brain size or thumbs, it's about caring about what we do and how it effects other people. You've done horrible things I understand that, more now than I ever did before, but you didn't do them because you wanted to, you did it to protect your friends, your family, more importantly you regret what you did. I listen Tobias it's what I do, I hear it in your voice and in your thoughts when you talk about those moments, you hate them, hated doing them. Every time you went out there you knew what your were going to be forced to do and did it anyway to protect those you loved, that's not the sign of a monster Tobias that's the sign of a man. More importantly you regret doing it, it doesn't even matter why you did it, if you went out there and did all those things and didn't care about the out come you would have been a monster, but you didn't do that. You think about them all the time, think about what they did to you, think about who they hurt, monsters wouldn't do that, at least not in the way you do. When they think about those things they get a perverse pleasure out of them, you don't, you hate them, you hate what you did to them and hate what you did to yourself.)

(Listen to me birdie, I don't know you as well as I wish I did despite knowing your past the way I do, but I do know this, you're a good man. The things you do you don't do for yourself, you do them to protect life, protect those you care for and those that don't even know you. You've done bad things but your not a bad person and nothing will ever make you one. You're the nicest, sweetest guy I've ever known, you've opened my eyes to things I didn't know I never considered. You let me see the world around me in a new light, let me be with my brother in a way I wasn't sure I could be, you made me a better person for knowing you and the others will say the same thing.)

(You have to stop blaming yourself for everything birdie, it's not all your fault. No one is perfect, and you no exception but your not the creature you believe yourself to be. Think about it, I've dealt with monsters in my life, I dated one for a short period of time, I know freaks and monsters, and people that deserve to be locked up and your not one of them. If you were really as bad as you say you are would I be working this hard to get you back, would I put my life on the line? I need you in my life Tobias, I need to know your there looking out for me, to know there's one decent person lift on Earth that's willing to give everything for those that he loves. Birdie please I'm begging you, I need you, PLEASE WAKE UP, be the person I know you are, be the good man we all see, the one that forgot who he was, the one who saved my life, THE ONE I LOVE.)

---

Tobias POV (A few moments earlier)

The food-prey left, all who challenge me will run or die it is the law but I hunger, it won't get far, spreading my wings ready to pursue, the only thing that stops me is the buzzing. I feel it in my head, there but not, a distraction, something I shouldn't bother with, but I have to. All things are important, they all reveal food-prey if you know how to use them, the buzzing is no exception. I don't know where I am, nor do I care, it will bend to me, everything does in time, and I will find the hiding place of the food-prey.

There, food-prey, but a waste, laying there hiding, thinking it can escape, it will not, it's barely a meal but it will do. The buzzing starts again, is it the food-prey? Doesn't matter it will either be gone when I eat or it will not it doesn't matter. I roar at the food to see if it runs or others come, a meal may still be found here, they may come tome rather than run and anger me, but nothing comes and the food-prey flees or tires to stopping soon after. The buzzing beings again and I roar at it once more at the food prey.

No? Looking up not understanding something was changing, confusing me, food-prey is not food-prey? Small creature was food-prey looking at it, but not food-prey, if not food-prey what? The thought confused me, angry I removed part of the cave sending it at food-prey making reveal what I was.

The buzzing grew louder and caused pain, inside pain, I didn't understand was it attacking me? I didn't understand what was happening, was it food-prey, how could food-prey hurt me like this? I needed it to be quiet, the inside pain grew worse, nothing could hurt me, food-prey would pay. I screamed, I would make food-prey stop buzzing, stop hurting.

The buzzing didn't stop and the pain grew worse but different, close but far away, I didn't understand, food-prey had to die, had to be stopped. Food-prey did not hurt me, food-prey would…not food-prey? Looking at the creature again seeing something else, food-prey but not food-prey, food-prey…mate?

Food-prey not mate, the idea confusing me, to small for mate, could not be mate, beast must be food-prey. But was still mate, had to be mate, could not be food-prey. The buzzing, the buzzing was doing this, it made food-prey into food-prey mate, had to kill food-prey.

Then the buzzing changed, same but different, it meant something but what? I didn't understand I just wanted everything to be quiet and stop hurting so I could eat.

(good man,) I understood it, I knew what it meant, but it wasn't me, I didn't know what it meant, but I did, I didn't understand, I wanted food-prey-mate-Jazz to be quiet. Jazz? Food-prey-Jazz, the thought confused me, I didn't understand, what did that mean, what…who is Jazz? The thought burned in my mind the buzzing making more sense but not making sense, it was important but why?

I wanted to scream but nothing worked, it felt like threat brothers were attacking me, hurting me inside wanting me to do something but I didn't understand any of it I just wanted Jazz to leave me alone, I didn't want to hurt her anymore why couldn't she understand that, the longer she was with me the more she was in danger.

When that thought flashed through my mind everything made sense, just like so long ago it felt like the word turned inside out and upside down, I knew who I was, I knew where I was, I was Tobias, I was human, I was…in a burning building killing Jazz with my very presence.

(JASMINE,) screaming into her mind trying to get her to answer me, needing to know right here and now that she was ok.

(Hey…birdie,) weakly looking up at me everything she had said to me running through my mind, the photographic memory of the Denoxgo Lihnep laying somewhere between blessing and curse at the moment. (Glad to know your back with me,) her mental voice weak, but with a hint of a laugh still in it

(Thanks to you, but next time don't lay it on so thick,) watching the fire burn around her, and more importantly seeing the damage done to by David. She was a mess, feathers were gone, she had burned patches randomly littering her body, blood was everywhere, bones were sticking out at odd angles and I was pretty sure she couldn't move under her own power any more. (You are one ugly sight red,) shaking my head a little, the shift of my head letting me see what came next before Jazz even knew what happened. The roof was burning, but I already knew that, it was when the roof collapse that I became freaked out, a large patch falling right towards Jazz. With all the speed I could manage I shot my upper wings forward and tried to catch the material, unsure what would happen but needing to try something. I managed to catch part of it, most of it burning at it touched my wings and flipped it away but some still got past me landing on top of Jazz and I could only imagine the sound it made.

(JAZZ,) hoping to get something out of her to know she was still alive down there. When she didn't reply I had to get to her as fast as I could, but I had to shift forms first cause at the moment if I tired to help her I'd make the situation worse. As fast as I could I demorphed and flapped over to her, the heat rising off the burning building and igniting my feathers and forming blisters on my skin. (Gotta move fast,) focusing on the Deinonychus, it might not have been the best body for the situation, but it was that or a Hork-Bajir and I had a feeling I was going to need the extra jumping power more that the raw strength.

I didn't wait for the body to finish forming, the second I had something resembling hand and started digging in the debris and trying to find Jazz. (Come on red talk to me,) I growled into the mess hoping to get some response from her, anything to let me know she was alive but didn't get any. By the time I was done morphing I'd found her leg, unfortunately it wasn't attacked to anything. Forcing down the panic that was rising in my body, and the knowledge that part of me was on fire being pushed to the side, I kept digging, speed replacing caution not caring if the pile collapsed so long as I got her out fast as possible.

With a growl and a snarl I tossed aside the last chunk of material and found her and almost wish I hadn't, her internal organs were now on the outside and part of her head was crushed, bits of brain along with the rest of her frying on the ground. I couldn't stop the scream from coming out of my mouth, it was a roar of pain and sorrow the likes of which I didn't know I could feel. Growling to myself I held on the hope that it wasn't to late, that there was still enough of her to wake up and demorph. As gently as possible I scooped her up in my clawed hands, her body seeming so small now, and tried not to throw up like my human side wanted to do, or eat her like to dinosaur side was screaming. Looking around quickly I saw what I hoped was a way out, a window on the cat walk near the roof, I had no illusions that it was anything other than a bad idea but I couldn't see another way out and she was running out of time.

With my growl growing larger I jumped over a rising river of flame and bounded up crates as fast as possible and prayed they could support my weight and that they didn't somehow explode when I touched them. The whole trip I kept talking to Jazz, trying to revive her, hoping that it wasn't to late and that I was doing the right thing. After a few leap I managed to get onto the cat walk, however I probably left most of my feet attacked to various crates, the soles now bloody from the lack of skin, only my uplifted killing claw still remaining untouched.

(Time to do something stupid bird,) running at the window and really hoping I wasn't going to bounce off it and back into the fire. With a snarl I ran and jumped at the window, turning in midair and hitting the plane of glass head on in an attempt to shield Jazz, the material giving way under my weight and shattering outward and dropping me into the unknown. (Oh this is going to hurt,) I managed to get out still spinning in the air and landing on my back the impact jarring me for a few seconds but not enough to stop me. By the time I scrambled to my feet I became aware of something else, the sound of sirens heading my way, inside the building the roar of the fire had deafened me to their call but now I knew I would've had company rather soon one way or another. (Stay on target bird,) I reminded myself and started running in the other direction and doing my best to ignore the pain radiating from my body due to the fall.

I ran for a few yards before my concern for Jazz took priority over needing to hide and bolted behind a building and hoped it would be good enough. Up till now I hadn't been able to get her to respond to me but up till now I'd been nice about everything, that was about to change. Dropping her on the ground without any kind of ceremony, (your getting up now Jasmine,) the words more a statement of fact than anything else. My growl filled the air as I looked at her and put my bloody foot on her, adding a little more color to her misshapen form, and stabbing the long claw into her. (GET UP,) roaring inside her mind hoping to jar the last remnants of her consciousness to the surface, hoping the next time I saw her it wasn't inside the Ghost Zone. When she didn't stir I kicked her with the other foot sinking the claw into her back, (YOU WILL WAKE UP OR I WILL FEED YOUR BODY TO A RABID JUNKYARD DOG!)

When that didn't get her up I started to panic and knelt down next to her and sunk my finger claws into her, (please girl, please get up, please, don't do this to me,) rubbing my snout into her damaged face, (fight it Jazz I know you can, come back to me, I can't lose anybody else, I've lost to many people I love already I can't lose anymore.)

(And you say,) a groan tearing into my mind, (that I lay it on think.)

(Demorph girl, do it now because you aren't going to make it if you don't,) tearing coming to my eyes, up till that moment I wasn't aware this body even had tear ducts.

Watching her shift back to her human form was almost sickening, burned feathers grew back in to her body, reveling a body riddling in scars and open wounds. Watching her organs that poked out of her body get sucked into her body was one of the most frightening tings I've ever seen before. The wounds then knitted themselves back together her flesh healing and smoothing out, the beak sucking into her face and becoming lips, a nose and teeth. Red hair cascaded out of her head as her skull repaired itself and one eye regrew in it's socket, the sight making even my skin crawl. Her shattered wing fixed itself and grew into an arm, bones shifting and mend in a second, and another grew from a stump. Her legs were in much the same condition, one growing from nothing and one growing from mangled remains. For a second I considered turning away but when her body started turning green I figured it was safe to assume I wouldn't see anything she'd beat me for later on. After that the changes were more minor, limbs finishing taking shape and gaining definition and then it was over, but I couldn't help note the speed of the changes, they were all to fast for a normal morph capable person, in truth the only one I'd seen that could do it that was fast was myself, another piece to a very interesting story.

"Considering how much that hurt I'm guessing I'm still alive," she groaned sitting up.

(No your in a very ugly section of the Ghost Zone, with some really bad company,) the comment getting me slapped in the face before I knew what was happening.

"Stop saying those things," pulling my burned and tender scales into a hug, "just stop it."

(Jazz…,) I started, her fingers on my beck stopping me.

"I heard everything and I know you heard me, or at least if what Danny told me about that body was true I know you heard me, so lets stop with the games. I don't care what you've done, you're a good person and if you try and run away again out of some macho ego driven desire to keep me safe I will cut off you legs and bring you back home as many times as I have to until you get it." Holding my head in her hands, "I see past what you were to what you are, a good man who did bad things for a good reason and now you have two choice try and leave me at which point I will kick the crap out of you or stay with me and have a good a life as two weirdo trouble magnets like us can possibly have."

(Jazz)

"Those are the only choices here birdie, I'm not letting you run away anymore, from yourself or from me. It's time to let go of the past and look towards the future, it's time you forgave yourself for all the things you couldn't help and you couldn't stop, and know if nothing else that I forgive you for everything you think you did wrong with me, which in truth is nothing at all."

(I made you a freak,) I whimpered.

"You gave me wings," looking into my eyes, "you showed me who I am, that's nothing to apologies for you under fed turkey," playfully rubbing the top of my head. At that I hesitated for a moment the words slowly sinking in and in the end I buried my head into her shoulder, it was almost kind of a shame that the Deinonychus didn't fit into the small spot, or that it was so burned it hurt beyond words. We stayed like that for a few moments, Jazz's hand playfully running up and down my spine, somehow a feeling of calmness flowing through me despite all the turmoil I'd experienced. A moment that was cut all to short by the shots of people and sirens, whoever had been dealing with the fire starting to look around for anyone in the area that might need help.

"I think we need to fly birdie, that or have a really good story ready to tell them."

(I'm your pet dino and you're a pyromaniac,) offering the bad joke, the strange serenity still hanging on me as I demorphed to my bird body while she morphed her own. (Think you can fly at night,) looking over the obviously day light raptor.

(Um…maybe,) looking away from me a little embarrassment creeping into her words, (I kinda got her on foot and I'm not exactly comfortable flying really high up yet.)

(A bird that doesn't like heights, your pathetic,) cocking my head and flapping up into the night sky, (keep up, I don't want you eaten by a owl on the way home,) laughing a little as she followed me into the night sky while the warehouse burned and the sirens screamed and flashed filling the night with a creepy light that lit the way for several miles. Thankfully flying at night in the city isn't that bad, street lights and office buildings make the sky just bright enough to get around with a degree of safety, granted visibility was still poor over long distances but it was enough to get Jazz home with out much trouble, although I did have to coach her on a few of the more subtle elements of flying and make sure she stayed on my tail so she didn't get lost and taken down by any of the owls that roamed the area.

The trip itself was mostly spent in silence aside from those moments of guidance, my mind heavy with everything she had told me. As hard as I tried I couldn't make the words grow quiet, each one holding some element of truth I couldn't let go of. The more I thought the more it seemed to confuse me, everything that I knew, everything that I thought about myself didn't seem to make sense anymore all because of some girl that couldn't really understand me, yet somehow did more completely than I knew myself.

(This isn't good,) the sight in front of me breaking off the thoughts swirling inside my head as we approached the Fenton Works, a new problem making itself known.

(What,) Jazz asked behind me, at the moment I wasn't worried about anyone finding it weird that we were flying in formation.

(You don't have a twin sister do you?)

(Why?)

(Because I'm looking through your window and your already in your room,) looking at a very human Jazz pacing in her room.

(Wow I wonder if Danny ever had this problem,) sounding almost calm behind me.

(Let me try something,) focusing on the Jazz inside having an idea who it was but not completely sure, (open the window I'm coming in.) A few seconds later the glass lifted, the redhead doing so moving out of the way so we could drift in without concern. (Thanks Nikki,) looking up at the human Jazz who shimmered and retook her other hologram identity.

"Not a problem," looking at the real Jazz, "well that's different nice to know your not alone anymore Tobias."

(Not that I'm arguing here but how did you know to be here,) Jazz demorphing, the changes mesmerizing me as she changed with a subtle ease and beauty that she hadn't when demorphing from the burns and damage, a series of breath taking changes I'd only seen one other person manage.

"I know him and I apparently know you," smiling and crossing her arms, "I already had a good idea how this would end and I thought it would be for the best if I kept the others out of your way for as long as possible, that or run the risk of them destroying what you were trying to do."

"Say what now," Jazz regaining her human mouth.

(The dog out smarted us and knew you'd come after me at some point,) Looking from one to the other, (so she covered for you without you needing to ask. Don't try and figure out how she does it,) looking over at Jazz, (the Chee are just to smart and to aware for the likes of us to understand.)

"The benefit of age young bird," the ancient alien looking down at me, "and now that I know your in capable hands I'm going home." She looked over at Jazz, "Sam thinks you were here all night so don't worry and if you want to tell them about this morphing thing you'll have to do this on your own terms. Oh and keep him out of trouble ok, or at least as much as any one person can, and you," looking back at me, "drop me a line if you need me but I'm done going off world for almost any reason short of planetary extinction."

(That's the only reason who've gone off world since we've met.)

"I know, I'm just making it clear, be safe you two," nodding her head slightly and disappearing as her hologram kicked in, only to reappear a moment later. "Almost forgot, tell Tucker to check his PDA when his parents finally give it back, I made a few Chee level upgrades yesterday considering I knew Tobias would come back, they're all pretty straight forward but I'll let him figure most of them out. Make no mistake this is some serious equipment and is beyond what most people on Earth have seen before. It's nothing dangerous I've mainly upgraded all existing abilities to a considerable degree, you should find it useful for the future, I also threw in a few little things I thought might be useful. And make sure he knows he can't try and take it apart, if he does it will self destruct on him and I made sure no one outside the five of you can use it, I'm willing to help out a friend but some secrets are best left unknown."

(So what happened to not giving us technologies Nikki?)

"I consider this a loophole," and with that she disappeared again and while the room didn't change I had no doubt that she had left the room, her hologram extending to the door to prevent us from seeing her go.

Jazz just shook her head after a few moment, "that is a weird lady but I do like her."

(She does grow on you after a while,) nodding my head and flapping over to the window ledge and taking a deep breath of the night air.

"Where do you think your going," I didn't have to turn to know she was glaring at me.

(Jazz,) closing my eyes.

"I told you birdie…"

(I know,) cutting her off, (but I need to get out of here for a while,) turning and looking at her, (you don't know how confusing this is for me. I thought I knew who I was, but I'm not sure anymore, some of the things you said I'm not sure I believe, others I think you might be right about but I'm not sure and I can't be as long as I'm with you. Every time I look at you it messes with my head, makes me doubt what I'm thinking, both for and against. I just need to be by myself for a little while and try and get my head straight again, figure out where to go from here.)

"And if you decided to leave."

(Then you'll chase me down,) nodding my head, (not that you can catch me if you can't fly any better than that,) earning a little laugh for her.

"Consider that one more reason to come back," walking over to me and rubbing my back, "this is new to me and I'm going to need a teacher and I can't think or anybody better."

(That might seem touching if there were actually other people running around that could teach you,) enjoying the attention.

"You know what I mean."

(Yeah,) spreading my wings and jumping off the ledge before she could say anything else and flying off into the night and heading back to the park and hoping I could figure out what was going on inside my head. The whole night Jazz's words just ran through my head, the Denoxgo Lihnep might not have understood the words but it remembered them and so did I. For a years I'd tried telling myself those same things but they'd never worked, never lessened the guilt I felt about doing them, but now it wasn't like the guilt had gone away but the I felt freer, the words actually meaning something. (I'm not a monster,) the words somehow feeling right for the first time in years, the little voice in the back of my head that always told me I was deluding myself falling silent.

(So what am I going to do about Jazz,) the words hanging in my mind as I looked at the moon and tried to understand where I stood with her and how I could even be around her without losing my mind by simply looking at her.

By the time the sun came up I was no closer to those answered than I had been when I left her home, the thoughts simply to big to monstrous for me to hold on to. I cared about the girl there was no way around that, and for all I knew I really did love her but I couldn't really be sure, all I knew is that she confused the hell out of me and that I needed her more than I had the words to say. I don't know what it was about the girl, her mind, her heart, but she made me feel like a person again, made me feel worth wild or maybe I'd just been in the woods to long I honestly didn't know.

(So what's it going to be,) Jazz's mental voice almost making me fall out of the tree I was in. I searched the sky and didn't see anything that looked like the falcon body from last night and got a little nervous, people sneaking up on me wasn't something I was use to. (Look down,) the tiniest hint of a laugh in her voice letting me find her, or what I hoped was her.

(So how many bodies do you have,) looking down at the German Shepherd below me, hoping it was her.

(I'm pretty sure just these two,) looking up at me with a dog grin.

(Pretty sure,) not liking the sound of that.

(I think I might've acquired my brother on accident when I woke up but I haven't tested it yet, I'm a little afraid it might work.)

(Oh boy,) rolling my eyes, (when you make things complicated you really make things complicated you know that?)

(After the last couple of days I've had I'd believe anything,) her ears perking up, (but you still haven't answered my question, what's it going to be, run and chase or are you going to stay here and help me get a grip on this freak'n power?)

(Jazz…)

(And if you say your to dangerous to be around I will jump into that tree and bite your legs off.)

(Why is it I'm always surrounded by women that are crazy and can completely control my every move and thought with a few words and gestures?)

(Is that a rhetorical question?) cocking her head to the side.

(It means if you want me you have me, but know this isn't going to be easy, I'm still pretty screwed in the head, and I'm still not completely sure I believe everything you say about me.)

(You will in time, everything I told you it true, every single word of it and it's not like we don't have time, and I do enjoy a psychological challenge.)

(Isn't it illegal to practice that stuff on your friends?)

(It's illegal to do it on family too but that doesn't stop me from messing with my brother every chance I get,) lifting her muzzle and trying to smile at me, a rather disturbing sight all things considered.

(If I were smarter I'd leave your furry butt.)

(If you were smarter I wouldn't have a furry butt,) giving a little yip and jump up and down, bits of her fur coming off and drifting in the breeze of the early morning air.

(I've created a monster,) shaking my head and gliding down to her.

(Yes you have,) bring her nose under my beak and nuzzling me gently, something that might've seemed strange if anyone had been in the area.

After a few seconds I pulled back and considered morphing my own German Shepherd but shook it off as the time of day flashed through my mind. (Don't you have school today, or are you skipping that after everything that's happened over the last twenty-four hours?)

(No I'm going back,) her ears dropping in disappointment, (I just wanted to check on you first, I needed to make sure you didn't have a big lead on me yet.)

(Want some company?)

(You offering to come to school, this must be bad, you think David's going to come after us again?)

(No with any luck he's off licking his wounds, and right now I think if I don't come with you I think I'll end up doing something really stupid.)

---

DP Style

"I'm guessing things didn't go quite as planned."

"Minor mishap it won't happen again," David growled trying to work a kink out of his arm, the burns he had gotten from Tobias still evident on his skin and sending random blasts of pain through his body depending on how he moved.

"They didn't seem minor when the birds brought you to the plane," the Fright Knights voice cool and calm but with a hint of mocking to it knowing full well the ghost couldn't raise a hand against him.

"He had a few new tricks," growing defensive, "how was I suppose to know he could turn into some kind of demon bird?"

"I wise man know everything about his opponent before he strikes, to do other wise," looking at Vlad, doing his best to tread carefully, "is to invite defeat."

"I already know everything I need to know about him," he hissed, his body trying to spark into flame and failing at the attempt.

"Then you should have delivered him to me and shattered the bond Daniel has with his family," Vlad's voice cool but with an unmistakable edge of irritation. "You must face the obvious David you can't win against him not as you are."

"Meaning," he growled and flinched in pain as his burned flared up from the attempted use of his ghost power.

"Tobias is not the person you remember, he has gained allies, people with great power, people that I believe will help him, people I believe are already helping him. If you want him you can't strike on your own you will also need allies, people that can make up for you own ineptitudes."

At the words David tried to lung at Vlad only to be halted by the Fright Knights sword appearing at his neck, the blade keeping him from his target. "You think you can talk to me like that, do you know who I am you miserable piece of slime!"

"A sad little boy with delusions of grandeur," Vlad sighed rising form his seat and floating over to David, "who knows nothing of the powers at work, or the forces that he faces. While I admit," stroking his beard, "the bird was more dangerous than even I thought, for someone that knows him you do a poor job of showing it. Which begs the question," his hand shooting forward and grabbing David by the throat while the Knight pulled his sword away, "what else don't you know, or more specifically haven't told me," his eyes and hand glowing red. "You see David I already you were lying to me about your past, bit and pieces of the truth built into an elaborate falsehood. I knew and yet I let you tell me it anyway and do what you wish to attain my own ends, that's what separates us David, you think in a straight line, how to get what you want as fast as possible with the least amount of resistance. I however see the layers beyond the surface, I see all the choices that can be made and know how to make them happen in order to get what I want and make it seem like those I'm using are the ones that always wished it. That's what separates the small times players from the real one, that separates you from me," releasing his grip on the boy.

David coughed and clutched his throat the pain from his burn mingling with the ectoplasm from Vlad's hand made the feeling almost to intense for him to stay conscious. After a moment he managed to get his voice back, "you want me to kill you all over again don't you."

"No I want the truth," putting his hands behind his back, "all of it, everything about yourself, everything about the bird, everything about anything you know that might be of use to me in future confrontations with my enemies, both in the mortal and ghost realms."

"And I should give this to you why," coughing and hacking.

"Because if you don't I will show you everything you consider torture is merely a prelude to what I, and he," glancing at the Knight, "can do. Second you have potential and I hate to waste those that can be of use to me."

"But you just said…"

"That you were a pathetic waste of a ghost, quite right, but with the proper tutelage you could be so much more, someone that knows how to play the game instead of someone that merely moves over the board. So what do you say David serve me willingly and gain great power and experience, choose not to and face pain great pain and still give up everyone of your secrets."

"You think I'm going to work for you willingly, your insane."

"No David I'm quite sane," twin rings of black energy forming around him returning him to his human form, "and I'm also full of surprises. I know what you want and so do you and there's only one way of getting it and that is severing me."

"You know the second your back in turned I will find away to deal with you, whatever you are."

"Then I take it your answer is yes?"

"Oh yeah," adding a threatening growl to the reply.

"As I knew you would," walking past him, "I look forward to seeing just what your capable of."

"You would see it till it's to late."

"Somehow I doubt that, but if you do manage to surprise me then it means I've taught you well and you'll finally be ready to deal with my enemies for me."

"By the time I'm done with you, you won't be around to see it," he hissed.

"Lesson one David," glancing back, "I will only take so much insolence from anyone under me. Lesson two know when to yield to an expert," snapping his fingers and walking out of the room, the door slamming behind him.

"What was that suppose to mean?"

"Your not very smart are you," the Knight shaking his head and pulling the Soul Shredder out and advancing on the ghost, looking forward to finally venting his frustrations on something.

---

Jazz POV

"Ok what part of that was a lie don't you get," I growled at the boy, I honestly didn't even know who he was but he was asking about some rumor that had either gotten started by David or one of the endless mutations that always springing up.

"So you and your brother…"

"No," walking away form him, "this is getting really out of hand."

(No kidding, I'll give him this, the psychopath knows how to stir up trouble?)

"Between the four of us we've been using seven different drugs, making three of 'um, one of us is a pyromaniac, my brothers a cutter, I'm one of the two biggest racists in the school, three of us are pregnant," shaking my head.

(Your talking to thin air,) birdie offered from inside my backpack, (but you have to admit Tucker being pregnant by a ghost was pretty creative, that had to be someone other than David.)

"I liked you better when you were crippled by misplaced guilt."

(And I think you more attractive in feathers what's your point?) I couldn't help but laugh lightly when he said it, for a while I'd been really afraid I'd lost him, that he was buried down to far beneath the sins of his past to claw his way back to the light. But hearing him laugh and joke made me feel a lot better, he still wasn't quite himself, a lot of what he was saying had the tiny hint of being forced, but I had a feeling we were through the worst of it.

"Let me guess talking to yourself," Sam walking up from behind me.

(In a manner of speaking,) Tobias hopefully just speaking to the two of us.

"Where is he," the younger girl's voice dropping so only I should've been able to hear it.

In an equally low voice "backpack," the word being enough, then bring my voice up to normal levels, "your day any better than mine?"

"People either faun over me and treat me like a baby or I'm freakish outcast."

(You say that like being a freak is a bad thing,) the comment lightening both our moods.

"Anyway I keep trying to tell them everything was a mistake but at this point I'm not sure that's possible, no one will believe me anymore. To make matters worse from what I've heard Paulina's been pumping out new stories since yesterday, and some of her stuffs sicker than David's."

"Not that you have any proof," reminding her, I'd also heard about Paulina, well more looked into her, I knew Danny had a crush and I just wanted to make sure he wasn't walking into any kind of trouble. From what I'd heard the girl was a little self absorbed, had a pretty ugly catty streak and didn't let go of a grudge unless it was absolutely necessary. So to have some of the rumors trace back to her wasn't all that surprising, but never the less, "and after yesterday we more than any should know not to believe everything we hear."

(You sound like an after school special.)

"Shut your trap rat," I hissed trying to be nonchalant about it.

"You think I'd be use to having conversations with invisible people by now," Sam sighed softly.

(Not invisible just small,) he corrected.

"And annoying," I added.

(I can leave.)

"You can try."

Sam just dropped her head and held the bridge of her nose, "this is very strange."

"Try being on this end," I laughed.

"Sam, Jazz," Tucker barked down the hall and he bolted towards us with Danny and Val in tow, and I could see this ended in a train wreck.

Hissing to Tobias, "keep your beak shut we have company."

(Gotcha.)

"What is she doing here," Sam Hissed looking at the other girl, someone that I now knew was the infamous rouge ghost hunter of Amity Park.

"Easy Sam she's with us on this one," an air of tension in my brothers voice, not that I blamed him, I could only imagine his day was going much worse than mine. "Val tracked me down and doesn't even remember saying Jazz and I were racists, she's pretty sure it was a ghost controlling us."

Sam crossed her arms and glared at the girl, "and she knows this how?" When she said it I wanted to elbow in the ribs to keep her quite, reveling who Val was to the rest of the school wasn't a priority at the moment, not to mention we didn't need to explain how we knew what her after school job was.

"Um…I…," the girl looking for an answer to the question, "it's obvious isn't it? I'm surprised the two form the big time ghost hunting family didn't figure it out first, any time something weird happens in the school it because of ghosts. Getting attacked by meat, everyone losing energy, everyone in school liking the same band, going to the hospital and getting ghost powers everything weird is the fault of ghosts."

"She does have a point there," Tucker added getting a dirty look from Sam, not that I blamed her. I knew she liked Danny and lately Val had been showing signs of being interested in him as well, so it was only natural that she'd be jealous, especially since he was praising her for something we'd already figured out but didn't know how to prove.

"The question becomes what do we do with this," Danny sighed.

(Handle it maturely and let it go away on it's own,) the comment making me want to lean into a locker to shut him up.

"Well the fastest thing might just be to get on the PA and tell people it was a lot of rumors started by ghosts to discredit our family and that they don't mean anything," I offered a little surprised that I'd even say something that stupid, the bird was defiantly rubbing off on me.

They all remained silent after I said it, and Danny ended up being the first to speak, "you want us to break into the main office," a little skeptical, "you sure your even my sister."

"Yes I'm your sister and I didn't mean it that way," I pleaded knowing where this might lead and wanting to put an end to it, "I just think we should talk to Mr. Lancer and see if we can use it to plead our side of the case to the school."

"Or I can use this PDA to hack into the school mainframe and redirect the transmission through it and we can transmit it directly through the speakers without going near the office."

I grabbed the bridge of my nose feeling the beginnings of a headache starting, "Tucker we're in to much trouble al…"

"That's a great plan Tuck," Danny slapping him on the back, "no way this can fail."

"Guys," I warned.

(Give it up red, you've lost them, the best thing to do is let them go and hope that when their done it's not as bad as it is now.)

"You really think you can do that?" Sam asked more than a little surprised.

"Well I could on mine so I don't see why I can't on this one."

"This is perfect."

"This is stupid," looking at the girl in yellow that wasn't helping matters.

"How long will it take Tuck?"

"I don't know, end of next class maybe," scratching the back of his head, shifting his beret forward slightly, "there are a lot of unknowns here."

"Guys listen to reason here, we are not on good terms with this man we don't need to him a more reasons to be mad at us here," as I watched the four move off lost in a plan that had grown to wild to fast, a plan that might work or might get us expelled, or both.

(They got away from you didn't they?)

"Yep." sighing and leaning into the locker suddenly like all the energy had been drained out of me.

(Well on the plus side they do seem to know what they're talking about, of course that's not saying much in the grand scheme of things.)

"So what are the odds they can do this without getting all of us in trouble?"

(I never finished high school, I never got involved in crazy pranks from a purely human perspective, if you want to know if I thought they could pull off stealing a tank I could give you that, but this is even beyond me and my years.) The answer making me shake my head and filling me with a sense of dread as the back of my head touched the back of the metal locker. (One other little thing,) his voice coming in clearly, (would you move your crushing me.)

"Sorry," jumping forward, momentarily forgetting where he was.

(Just let them go they probably know when to stop, they do seem to have a little bit of common sense.)

"You talking about common sense, that's got to be an oxymoron," walking down the hall to my next class and trying to ignore all the looks and whispers I was getting.

(Yeah keep talking see if you don't find a present in here when this is all said and done,) the idea making me laugh. The class went by more or less like the others had, for the most part normal but with the distinct hint of hostility towards me. That wasn't exactly something new to me, but this time it was for something other than ruining the curve on the latest test. Almost at the end of class I could here the distinctive click of the speaker letting me know something was about to happen, along with a feeling of terror something was about to go horribly wrong. I put my head on my desk and buried it with my hands, not wanting to see or hear what was coming next.

"Attention students of Casper High," a raspy and obviously artificial voce announced through the speaker in the corner, "we have a special announcement to make."

A new voice that sounds an awful lot like Mr. Lancer took the place of the old voice, "it has been confirmed that a group of ghosts entered the school yesterday and possessed several people and began spreading tales in order to discredit the Fenton's in an attempt to make them leave Amity Park so they could enact a hostile take over of the town. At three A.M. this morning the culprits were caught and deported back to the Ghost Zone, regrettably unlike many of the other attacks this school and town have faced the results will not be wearing off in time since the damage they caused was not a direct effect of their ghost powers. For the continued safety of the school and the town we ask that you please cease and desist all attacks to everyone in school that may have been directly targeted by the ghosts until the mystery of what they wanted and what they did has been determined. Thank you for your time."

In the back ground of the final moment I could hear someone say, "hurry up we have company."

The whole time I just shook my head, not believe for a second this was going to work, although I had to give them credit it sounded better than I thought it would. "I'm going to have to have a very long talk with those guys after this."

(Well think of it this way, at least nothings on fire.)

"Not helping here," Sighing into the table knowing he could here me.

"Makes sense to me," someone said a few moments after the speaker went dead, followed shortly by a multitude of voices saying, "totally does man," and "after everything that's gone on in this school I don't know why we didn't see it before, " and "I told you Jazz was to cool to do that," along with a several others that I didn't pay much attention to. I was in total shock as everyone in the room seemed to shake off the hate they felt for me and my brother in a manner of seconds for no other reason than someone the sounded like Mr. Lancer told them to.

(Un-Be-Lievable)

"Everyone in this school needs serious medical help because they must all be brain damaged if they let it go this fast."

(Don't look a gift horse in the mouth,) birdie whispered into my mind, (the sooner things get back to normal around here the better, besides you'd be surprised what people will accept if you give them a good enough reason to do so.)

"I still can't believe it."

"Look I'm sorry Jazz I never believed that stuff for a second," Nick whispered over to me, "yeah me to," Carla added from in front of me with as little cattiness as she could muster, followed by everyone else in the room apologizing as well.

"Yeah sure," lifting my head up and straightening my hair, "it's not like anyone could've seen something like this happening or anything. " The statement got a whoop of agreement, the mob not even recognizing that I was being sarcastic as they continues to talk about how it was so obvious as to what had just happened and not believing they hadn't seen it sooner.

"Alright everyone," the teacher tapping a piece of chalk on the, "calm down we need to get back to work." But by that time it was pointless, the whole class was lost in stories of how they had always known, or how they suspected, and a thousand other ways of trying to save face. After a few moment he just gave up and sat down behind his desk and let the class run out.

(You know what I said about people believing anything?)

"Em-hm," not wanting to say anything.

(I take it back, the people in your school are just weird.)

"Oh yeah," shaking my head, glad when the bell went off and running out the door and through the hall to the restroom and opened up my backpack, equally not wanting to face everyone in the halls on the off chance the class room I had been in was the exception to the rule and needed to get Tobias somewhere to safely demorph. The mouse crawled out of bag and shifted back to a red tailed hawk and looked at me gold eyes, something about eh situation very funny as he sat on the back of a toilet.

(Thanks I was afraid I'd have to remind you of that.)

"You don't need to, I'm very aware of the two hour time limit, especially now," patting him on the head.

(Good, I hate to see if you have that to,) looking up with me, his eyes somehow growing soft and full of concern.

"Don't worry birdie," stroking him under the chin, "I'm going to be ok, after all I'm learning from an expert aren't I, someone that won't let me get hurt under any condition as long as he can prevent it."

(Jazz, I'm serious here, you don't want to cross the line.)

"I know birdie," rubbing him a little slower, "I don't intent to temp fate, but don't think you have to coddle me, this is not a lesson I want to learn because I don't think I can live the way you do."

(Few people can,) leaning into my touch, (I won't let you go through what I do.)

I stayed like that for a few moments till I realized I was having a tender moment with someone in a restroom, "Ok enough of this time to go, get back in the bag."

(I guess that's for the best,) leaning in one more time the going mouse again and crawling back into my bag, (but please promise me you'll be careful when you morph.)

"My word is my bond," shouldering the backpack and walking into the hall where people were a buzz about what they'd heard from the PA. To my surprise and shame they all seemed to believe it, which meant my belief that humanity was self destructing before my eyes might not be that far from the truth. Thankfully the day seemed to fly by after that and I wasn't able to get back to my brother or the others till after school.

"Looks like things are getting back to normal," he happily barked as I approached him.

"What did you guys," I hissed when I was close enough and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, "do you have any idea how stupid that was?"

"What it's not like you said anything."

I just stared at him not believing what he had just said, "I can't believe you…I told you…the hall…BAD," my body actually shaking in rage my mind and my mouth no longer on the same page.

(Jazz calm down you'll burst a blood vessel or something.)

"Well it's not like it didn't work," breaking my grip.

Taking a deep breath and calming down, "how did you do it," I hissed.

"Well," Tucker started looking around and lowering his voice, "I was going to run voice synthesizer program through the mike on the PDA that would make us sound like Mr. Lancer, but Danny had a better idea," patting my brother on the back. "He overshadowed Mr. Lancer for us instead and just had him say it over the intercom to save a lot of time, it turns out Sam doesn't have much in the way of upgrades on this model somewhat I was planning probably wouldn't have worked anyway."

"And you did what with Val?" almost afraid to hear the answer.

"Danny overshadowed her first," Sam smiled, "and locked her in a closet."

"Nice one bro," my voice dripping with sarcasm, "tick off the girl that already wants you dead, really bright."

"Ladies and gentlemen the redhead is about to blow, step away from the redhead for you own safety," Tucker doing an impression of a public safety announcement.

"You know what forget it I don't care, I have a date," pulling off my backpack and freeing Tobias and letting him scurry on the ground and over to a tree that he climbed with a skill I didn't think a mouse could pull off.

"Sister," lifting his fingers as he went, "date, rodent," looking up at me, "yeah this isn't the slightest bit creepy.

"Shut up Danny," tossing him my backpack, "do whatever you want today I'm off the clock I'm spending time with him."

"Mom and dad aren't going to like that, we do have tutoring today."

"And ask yourself this, 'do you really want to be alone with me right now'?"

"Good point, have fun, I'll be doing something else," and turning to walk away with his friend.

"One more little thing," making him turn around and look at me, "get everything I leave ok," looking around and making sure no one else was around. Thankfully most of the people had already left by this point as I slipped into the shadow of the building.

"What do you mean 'everything you leave'?"

(You'll see,) Tobias taking the words out of my mouth as I focused on Weaver, feeling the unmistakable tingle running over my body as feathers grew, organs changed, bones hollowed out and I grew smaller, all my clothing falling off me save my tight fitting morphing outfit under my cloths. The others just stared in stunned silence as they watched me change, Danny's mouth even hanging open not that I blamed him, it must have seemed awfully strange.

When I was done I flapped up next to Tobias and looked down on the other three, (shut your mouth little brother you never know what might drop into it.) I looked over at Tobias, (alright teach me, give me your worst,) spreading my wings as best I could, (give me everything you can, I'm a blank page, an empty canvas, show me how to do this.)

(Lesson one, getting away from your brother before he kills me,) spreading his wings and jumping off and soaring into the air with a speed I wasn't sure I could match.

(Later bro, looks like your not the only one in the family that gets to fly anymore,) spreading my wings and following the red tail into the sky, into his home and world, with total faith we'd come down soon enough and rejoin my world in the end.

---

DP Style

"I'll ask you again," the voice slow and smooth with a distinctive aura of menace to it, "Where. Were. You?" each word a statement and threat unto itself.

"You really think I'm going to tell you anything."

"Maybe I'm not making myself clear here, I can stay here as long as it takes so your going to tell me what I want to know one way or another. The others they don't understand you, I do, I know just what kind of a creature you are, I know what you've done in the past and I know what you'll do in the future, and I'm going to make sure that never happens."

"Then good luck, there are power at work here beyond your ability to control, powers that can crush you like a bug at any given moment."

"Your going to have to be more specific there four eyes I know a lot of creatures like that, and most of them don't scare me."

"You'll discover in time," showing each of his sharp teeth, "and when you do you won't like what you find."

"Let me put this another way you sack of crap," standing up and kicking him across the face and leaving trails from her claws on his face, "you are going to tell me what I want to know or your never going to walk again, or eat, and if I do it right reproduce," punching him in the face.

While she questioned the man she was being watched by her employer through a elaborate monitoring system only available to ghosts.

"I'm confused," as Bullet looked over to the Warden of the prison, "doesn't protocol require a 'good cop bad cop' scenario? For that matter doesn't it require that we not damage the only source of information that we have?"

"Under normal circumstances," Walker putting his hands behind his back a small smile on his face, "but she does this so well, and she has been known to get information this way."

"From alleys, not from with in these walls, what she's doing is going against almost every rule that governs this facility."

"Escaping violates every rule of this complex as well Bullet, and that creature has done just that, more importantly he was stupid enough to come straight back to his cell, I want to know where he was, and how he got in and out. We have a security leak Bullet and I want it plugged, until that happens I'm authorizing her to do whatever it takes to find out, nothing is off limits now."

"I fear you are making a mistake," shaking his head, fully aware that he had to be careful or run the risk of angering the warden.

"I know," sighing slowly, his eyes still on the monitor, "things are changing my friend, I've been getting reports that Vlad is up to something. I don't know what it is yet, but I have a bad feeling about it, so right now the last thing I need is to fight a battle on two fronts, especially against that halfa and the most dangerous inmate in my care."

At first Bullet considered arguing with Walker but decided not to, the older ghost's words made sense, they could fight a battle against one or the other but not both, and while they couldn't control Vlad while he slipped from the mortal realm to the Ghost Zone and back, they could deal with Visser while he was held here. And he had to admit that the situation made him nervous, the super max wing of the prison was suppose to be escape proof, yet this alien had somehow done just that, so what did that say for the rest of the compound, were their walls on the brink of collapse? Could they be failing in their task of protecting all of the Ghost Zone, it was something they needed the answers to.

With a sigh or relent he turned his attention back to the monitor and to the bounty hunter's interrogation of the alien shape shifter. "Is that the best you can do," Visser growled staring at the half human half wolf ghost.

"Oh no," her voice cool as ice, "unlike you I'm not a one trick pony," extending her claws as the wolf side was replaced by her grizzle side.

"You realize when I get out of here you will be the first creature I deal with."

"So you keeping telling me," backhanding him across the chest, the chains the only thing keeping him from colliding with the roof.

Groaning quietly, unwilling to let her know just how badly the blow had hurt, "then I'm going to kill Elfangor's spawn and I will show that flame winged monstrosity what it means to anger me just as I did his father."

"I thought you would've learned by now," thrusting her right arm forward and embedding her claws in his face, right through the lower set of eyes, "you don't get talk about MY BELOVED," and pulling down and leaving oozing trailed down his face.

---

DP Style

Countless interconnecting lines ran in all directions, each a different color, even if only by the slightest fraction, many not even having human names. Each line belonged to a living individual somewhere in existence, showing their past, their present and the many roads of their future. It was in many ways the home of The Ellimist, not that he had a specific home, he had no need for one, but this is where he found himself so much of the time, continually trying to figure out how to beat The Crayak and how each of his piece was progressing. Even his power had it's limits, and while he could feel out everyone in existence at once, observing them this way was just so much easier for him.

The ancient game master slowly moved through the realm of his devising check on his various pieces and seeing to his greater plans, never knowing what might occur when he was away. His form continually shifted, taking various shapes as he moved, something he enjoyed doing every now and then, shifting from human to Hork-Bajir to Leeran and a thousand other species, some the dominant life form, other not, but in it's own was important to him.

Then one of the lines shifted ever so slightly, a sight one of his fifteen eyes caught and made him focus on with interest, unsure how this might effect the future. Almost tentatively he touched the line, afraid what he might see, then filling with a sense of calmness, a smile forming on his face as he became human. Well humanoid, it was his typical earth mode an old man, very short, with hair traveling down his face, looking almost mystical by human standards.

"Well it's about time," speaking to himself as he let go of Tobias' line, "I was beginning to think that boy would never forgive himself," shaking his head in amusement. For a long time he had been afraid that his former emissary would never let go of the anger he felt, that he could never forgive himself for his actions. "I was right about that girl," feeling a little smug, it was true he'd arranged Tobias with her to help deal with The Crayak's forces but it was not quite an accident his former emissary had found Jazz first, he'd hoped the two could help each other, help them both heal old wounds the neither was able to deal with alone.

Standing a little straighter he looked at Jazz's line, it too had changed since last he looked, "so I was right, they didn't return her to normal," stroking his beard, "but it's not the worst thing that could've happened to her," remembering the possible dark futures that could've erupted had things gone badly, if Jasmine hadn't been awoken in one form or another. Even without the ability to see the many possible timelines what happened to her didn't surprise him, mixing only two different substances could result in strange and unpredictable results, and these two were mixing so many more. In those moments of dreaming Desiree had done far more than even she knew, she hadn't simply given Jasmine the memories of Tobias she had linked them in an inexplicable way. Her body may have remained with her brother in her home yet she had also existed as Tobias, part of her spirit in his body, and even then, before he received the Andalite morphing power he was already far from normal. Thanks to his lineage he had already been touched, a tiny fraction of The Ellimist's power was on him, just as it was on his father, marking him as one of the many warriors that were, or might become, agents in his services. Mixing those two elements with the ghost magic effecting her, and substances she came into contact with thanks to her parents, the unique reactions such as the ones he had foreseen were to be expected. "It'll be interesting to see how this new change effects everything on the board, very interesting indeed."

While he pondered the new shift to the futures of his chosen warriors of the past and possibly the future he caught sight of Tobias' line bend ever so slightly. The new wrinkle made The Ellimist look closer and examine the shift, it wasn't unexpected, but it was none the less surprising. He'd expected Tobias to move closer to the others, for their lines to slowly align as they had with his old friends, but even he had doubted that his former emissary would begin the first of many shifts to intertwine with Jasmines line, with her life.

"Now that is unexpected," smiling as he touched the line, looking at the many possible futures that might lie ahead for him, some lives ending horribly, others showing a bright future, and many more in between. But as all those flashed through him, one in particular stood out, a future featuring a young girl with long red hair that had a long rust colored feather intertwined in it and shining gold eyes who dreamt of nothing but the sky and feeling the wind in her face. She was in turn watched over by an older redhead with short hair except for a long braid running off the side of her face that watched her with a bright smile as she was held tightly by a man with slightly unruly blond hair pulled into a loose ponytail that watched the girl with equal fascination. "So many choices, I can't wait to see what comes next, and who knows Tobias may not be the last of his line to aid me after all."

Feeling pleased with himself he pulled his hand away and went back about his business, checking other lines and seeing to his more immediate plans, but all the same looking back, "maybe I'll finally be able to stop worrying about that boy."

---

Authors notes

Damn this was long, but I'm done with this chapter, hopefully I kept everyone in character through out this, yeah I know some of the stuff with Tobias seems out of left field, but it was always intended to be part of the story, I just didn't look at my notes for 10 when I was doing ch. 9.
With luck I wrapped up a lot of questions that have been hanging since I started writing this, most notably 8-9, but with bits from a few others.
Yes I brought David back and I made him a monster, you thought he was bad in the books, I made him worse, and this is only the beginning of the damage he'll be wreaking under Vlad's tutelage. And I know it was questionable having Tobias be the one that kills him but I thought it worked, if for no other reason than I didn't thank anyone else could do it. And the raping think I also admit was questionable but come on if you had this power and very few morals your telling me you wouldn't abuse it horrible ways if you didn't think you could get caught, kinda makes you wonder what's in Vlad's past doesn't it (no he didn't do anything like that I'm just saying)

Up next hopefully something a little easer for our hero's

Please R&R