Hi there!

I actually have not much to say right now, apart from the STAAR tests tomorrow. So I decided to try to write this chapter before those horrible tests, since I probably will not have time to update until Thursday or Friday. Wish me luck!

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman because there would be a National Danny Phantom Day if I owned him (Who knows, maybe there is a National Danny Phantom Day :)).

Gone

"You can't catch me, Danny!" Specter taunted as Phantom chased after her in the moonlit park, laughing as they played.

"I've caught every other ghost in Amity Park," Phantom responded. "So catching you will be a piece of cake!" he flew faster. Specter looked over her shoulder with a smile on her face before turning invisible.

"Hey! That is so not fair!" Phantom pouted, landing on the ground. "Okay, Colle, you win." When he got no response, he got a little annoyed.

"Colle, you can stop now." When he still got no answer, his irritation was replaced with a slight worry. "Colle? Are you there?" It might've just been because of his ice core, but Phantom felt the temperature around him drop. A chill went down his spine.

"Colle?" Phantom called—and then he heard a scream. But it wasn't just anyone's scream…

It was Colle's scream.

"Colle!" Phantom yelled, taking flight and racing in the direction that the scream had come from. However, as he flew towards the noise, the trees started to grow thicker until he could barely fly without hitting one. Then, he found a small clearing in the center of the forest.

And in the middle, lying in a puddle of her own ectoplasm, was the mangled body of Specter.

"No!" Phantom flew over to her, dropping to his knees beside her. He gently laid her in his lap, holding her close to his chest. Phantom cupped Specter's face with his free hand.

"Oh, Colle…" He whispered ruefully. Then, Specter's eyes fluttered open slightly. Phantom subconsciously drew her closer to him.

"Dan…ny…" She let a small smile pass on her lips, raising a shaky hand and stroking his cheek. Phantom moved a strand of black hair out of Specter's eyes, putting it behind her ear. Specter moved her hand to the back of Phantom's head and pulled him into a kiss. Phantom immediately kissed back, but as soon as he did, Specter's hand dropped limply to her side and she changed into human form, making Phantom draw back in confusion. Colle's eyes were closed and her mouth was still slightly open from the kiss.

"Colle?" Phantom shook her shoulder a little bit. She was unresponsive. Colle was…

… dead.

"Aah!" Danny bolted into a shaky upright position, sweat beading his forehead. He stared wildly around, realizing that he was in his room, in bed. As his heart rate and breathing slowed, Danny's dream replayed in his mind. He had a feeling in his gut that that dream was not just a dream.

"I have to find Colle." Danny said to himself. "I don't care if have to skip school or if my parents think I'm lost… I can't let that happen to Colle." An idea popped into his mind, and he got dressed and went down into the Fenton Works lab.

Phantom was in front of Clockwork's lair, inches from the huge, wooden doors. He turned intangible and snuck into the citadel. He floated over to the large, round viewscreen set with gears that could show the past, present, and future. Dark and light green streaks swirled around in the screen like a vortex.

"I wonder where the 'on' button is…" Phantom muttered, trying to picture in his mind what Clockwork always did. But, conveniently, a scene appeared on the glowing viewscreen. It showed… Colle Specter… and she was flying towards a mansion that looked mysteriously familiar.

"Plasmius!" Phantom growled. "I should've guessed that he'd have something to do with this." He spun on his heel and flew out of Clockwork's citadel.

And little did Phantom know that the Master of Time was watching him the whole time with a small smile on his face.

It took Phantom a few hours to get to Wisconsin.

"Who knows what's happened since I left the Ghost Zone…" He muttered, worried about Colle. Then, he saw Vlad's mansion in the distance. Phantom raced faster and faster until he though he broke his speed record. Then, using his momentum, along with his superhuman strength, Phantom blasted through the bricked wall of the mansion. He looked around, noticing that the mansion had been nearly destroyed on the inside, though it looked like it was slowly being repaired. An obvious sign of a fight.

"Plasmius!" Phantom roared, hearing the pure hatred in his own voice. He flew through the mansion, looking for Colle, Vlad, or any of Vlad's minions. Phantom phased through a wall that led down to Vlad's lab, flying so fast that he could hardly stop himself from crashing into the wall when he got there. The lab… looked like it had gone through an explosion. Everything was destroyed. Then, Phantom saw a blue-skinned figure with black hair sleeping in a chair in one corner of the lab. Phantom floated closer, and as he did so, red eyes opened to stare up at him. It was…

Vlad Plasmius.

Phantom seized Plasmius by his neck and forcefully slammed the older halfa against the wall, making him grunt in pain.

"Where—is—she?" Each word was ground out through gritted teeth.

"I don't know… what you're talking about…" Plasmius gasped for breath. Phantom tightened his grip on Plasmius's neck, and Plasmius started to wheeze.

"Where is Colle? I know she came here, Plasmius! Tell me where she is!" Phantom was losing his temper, and he was losing it rapidly. Phantom was just about to use his ghost stinger on Plasmius when he himself was electrocuted instead.

"Aaahhh!" Phantom crumpled to the ground, smoldering. With Phantom no longer holding onto him, Plasmius also collapsed. Plasmius, however, recovered more quickly than Phantom and snatched the white-haired teen's wrist and held him up so that they were eye-level with each other.

"Daniel, what… is wrong with… you?" Plasmius snapped, trying to suppress his coughing. Phantom started to struggle in Plasmius's grip.

"Where is Colle?"

"Child, I do not know who you are talking about!"

"Nicole Spencer!" Phantom spat. "What did you do with her?"

"Nicole…" Plasmius suddenly released Phantom, who let out a little yelp when he hit the ground, before turning away, looking deep in thought. "I've heard that name before."

"Yeah? Tell me where," Phantom said sarcastically. "I'd love to know." Plasmius ignored his sarcasm. Phantom then saw something mentally click in Plasmius's mind.

"Nicole… now, that's a name I've not heard in a long time."

"How do you know her?" Phantom interrogated, aggravated by Plasmius's vagueness.

"That is none of your business!" Phantom was slightly taken aback by Plasmius's sudden burst of rage, but he didn't let it show. Instead, he flew up into Plasmius's face, snatching the front of his suit in his hand and pulling Plasmius closer to him until their faces were just a centimeter apart.

"Fine then, but now you know who I'm talking about," Phantom growled, "and I know that she's been here. So, where—is—Colle?"

"I don't know!" Plasmius retorted. "I wasn't home when this happened!"

"Then where were you?"

"I can't remember! It was about a week ago!" Phantom's eyes widened and he backed away from Plasmius.

"Then—then why is your house destroyed?" He asked.

"I don't know." Plasmius answered. "I came back and it was like this. I'm still trying to find out who did it." Phantom turned away from Plasmius, looking down at the ground.

If Plasmius isn't behind this, then who is? He thought hopelessly. Then, he noticed something on the ground where he was looking. Upon closer inspection, it was a snapshot. Phantom, momentarily forgetting about Plasmius, picked it up and tried to make out what was on the old, faded picture. He expected it to be some sort of picture of his mom, dad, and Vlad, but instead, it was something totally different.

It was a picture of a family with four members on it, a man, woman, and two little girls, presumably sisters. Both had blonde hair and blue eyes, but one was wearing a strikingly familiar black cloak. Phantom rubbed his thumb over the cloaked sister to clear it up a little, and realization set in when he recognized her face.

This was a snapshot of Colle and her family. Then he noticed that a note was attached to the back of the picture.

'Looking for your friend, Danny?

Don't worry. She's with me, in the Ghost Zone…

… Tied up and waiting for her "hero" to come rescue her.

For convenience, she's at Skulker's lair.'

"Skulker!" Phantom spat. "He's using her as bait!" he turned his head so he could look over his shoulder at Plasmius.

"Just so you know, Plasmius, if you were the one that captured Colle, you'd be dead by now."

Phantom had wasted no time in getting from Vlad's mansion to Skulker's lair. He knew this part of the Ghost Zone so well that he didn't need a map anymore to navigate—though he still got lost in other parts of the Ghost Zone. After what seemed like a lifetime—or rather, afterlife-time—Phantom finally saw the floating jungle island with a huge skull towering over the rest of it. It was Skulker's island. Phantom took landing once he was there and not-so-cautiously looked for Colle.

"Colle?" He called for his friend. He went deeper into the jungle until he could barely walk without hitting a tree. This looked eerily familiar…

Then he heard a scream.

"Colle!" He took flight again, turning intangible so that the trees wouldn't slow him down. After about a minute, he came to a small clearing. It also looked strikingly familiar, though Phantom had never been here before. Then he caught sight of a figure in the center of it, lying in a puddle of scarlet-speckled ectoplasm.

Specter.

"Colle!" Phantom flew towards her, not caring about the ectoplasm that got on his suit as he dropped to his knees beside the blue-skinned ghost girl. He picked her up and held her in his lap, using his free hand to cup Specter's face. Specter's eyes opened slightly from the movement. She smiled, just barely enough for Phantom to see, and she lifted a hand to stroke his cheek.

"Dan…ny…" Phantom held her closer to his chest, moving a strand of black hair out of her face. Specter's hand moved to the back of Phantom's head, and she pulled him downward into an electrifying kiss. Phantom could feel the buzz of electricity passing from Specter's lips to his own. But it only lasted a second, for as soon as their lips connected, Specter's hand fell limply from Phantom's head and she transformed into her human form. Phantom drew back so that he could see her face, and saw that her eyes were closed and her mouth slightly open from the kiss.

"Colle?" Phantom shook her shoulder a bit, but she was unresponsive…

… Colle was dead.

Phantom's nightmare had come alive.

"No!" He cried out in anguish. Tears rolled down Phantom's face as he clung to Colle's lifeless body. He prayed over and over again in his mind that this was just a dream. A very bad dream. But it wasn't. Through his sobbing, he heard footsteps. Phantom looked up and saw a pair of ruthless, blood-red eyes that belonged to his ultimate enemy.

"Hello, my pathetic younger self."

OH MY GOOD GRIEF!

I hated, hated, hated, ...

(nine hundred ninety-six "hated"'s later)

... hated writing this chapter! I feel like I killed the other half of Danny that's still alive! But I needed to, in order for the story to progress.

Now the story has taken a (hopefully) unexpected twist. I couldn't stop myself from adding Danny's 'ultimate enemy' into the story.

Also, this story is currently at 17 favorites and 29 followers. So, my little tiny goal that I've set up is to reach 20 favorites and 30 followers. If it doesn't happen, don't worry! I'll still keep writing (I don't like it when awesome stories are discontinued because they didn't reach xxx favs/followers. It's kind of unfair to the people who's already faved/followed them.)

Just for kicks, I'm going to have a fun fact at the end of every chapter (You learn something new every day!)

Fun Fact: Today is March the 27th, the day in which the Goliad Massacre occured in 1836.