After much waiting and work... the saga continues!


"Danny?" Starfire called out from the entrance of the cave, her head whipping back and forth for any sign of the ghost boy as she entered. Raising a glowing hand in the air, she walked into the black abyss, the light from her starbolt bathing everything within a few feet of her in a calming green glow. She saw a few pieces of ice clinging to the wall and floor on her right, but that seemed to be all that remained of the halfa.

"Danny?" she called again, hearing some of the panic and urgency reverberating back in her echo as she continued deeper inside.

"Please come out. I must talk to you." The cavern seemed only to mock the alien girl as it replayed her words again and again, fading with each repeat. But she ignored them, focusing on her surroundings for any hint of Danny. The next thing she knew, she was in front of a large stone wall, the very end of the cave.

"He is not here," she said, more to distract her from the sense of defeat and keep her focused on her mission. "He must be at his other cave in the forest." With newfound determination, the Tamaranean took to the air moving as fast and stealthily as she could, the starbolt in her hand dying away as she flew back towards the entrance. A black and white blur intercepted her just before she could leave, the force of the collision knocking both her and the object out of the air and tumbling along the cave floor.

A groan pushed itself up from Starfire's throat, her mind still reeling from the collision. A deep grunt from above her cleared the daze almost instantly, noticing that there was someone lying on top of her. A smile began to grow as she saw the pale, unearthly glow around his body, the skin-tight black and white hazmat suit, and the unruly snow white locks of his hair.

"Danny!" The teen jerked away, his glowing green eyes wide with fear and surprise at the forest green eyes glistening excitedly at him. Moving on instinct, the halfa jumped back onto his feet and grabbed the alien girl by the arm. With a swift yank, the girl was pulled into his arms, spun around, and silenced by a hand over her mouth.

"Stay still and be quiet," he whispered into her ear, the metal baubles around her neck jingling as he dragged her to a group of stalagmites on their left. A cold, numbing sensation ran through her body as the white rings erupted out from his waist, traveling along their bodies until he was back in his human form. She looked up to see him staring intently at the entrance, her eyes following his and widening at the sight of the small metal ball moving inside. The little device gently bobbed through the air, the large green eye at its center glowing as it projected a shimmering green light upon the ground it stared at. Patches of luminescent footprints were revealed, earning a small beep from the device.

She felt the arm around her waist tighten as the little device got closer, pulling her closer to the halfa as he pressed them both even further into the stalagmite. They froze when the green light bathed the wall in front of them, the rock outcrop shielding them from the strange glow. The glow lasted for a few seconds before another beep sounded and the little machine continued further inside.

Danny relaxed his hold on the alien girl, though he didn't let go completely. Peeking out, the halfa watched as it scanned another section of the cave, though there was nothing appeared under the light as before. The droid took another ten minutes to scan the rest of the cavern before turning around, bobbing its way back to the entrance. They watched it exit the hollow and fly up into the sky, disappearing beyond the top of the opening. The Tamaranean just stared at where the robot vanished, not even moving until a sudden lack of contact snapped her out of her trance. She watched with growing fear as Danny bolted towards the exit, his body transforming with every step.

"Do not go," The hybrid stopped as something grabbed him firmly by the wrist. He spun around on instinct, ecto energy coming to life in his free hand as he drew the fist back. Staring back at him was Starfire, her forest green eyes soft and glistening with fear as they silently begged him.

"Please." His hardened battle face faded into stunned disbelief for the briefest of moment, a spark of hope coming to his eyes before he turned away from her. He could feel the sadness and pain burning through him again from the spark she had instilled again, those words echoing through his head.

'You are a liar and a criminal. I cannot be friends with someone like you.'

Her face fell into utter devastation when he turned his back to her, ripping his hand out of her grip. Without looking back at her, the ghost teen jumped into the air, his legs shifting into a wispy black tail. He was surprised when two arms wrapped themselves around his chest, feeling the side of her face press into his back.

"Please!" she cried desperately. "I do not want to see you captured and broken by the Guys In White." The halfa jerked out of her grip again and spun to around to face her, but made no move to leave. His thoughts were going a mile a minute, yet he felt completely dumbstruck by her statement, which left him only one logical reply.

"What?!"

The roar of engines echoed all around them, snapping the ghost teen out of his stupor and back to his present situation. His head darted from side to side for any visual sign of the GIW, as did Starfire. The Tamaranean girl let out a small squeak as she felt something cold grab onto her hand.

"Hang on!" Without further warning, Danny shot off towards the cliffs as fast as he could, Starfire letting out a small yelp of surprise as she was dragged along. Her eyes widened as they approached the cliff face, the ghost boy showing no indication of turning away from it.

"DANNY!" she screamed, closing her eyes in anticipation of the collision as a cold, tingly sensation ran through her.

The seconds ticked as she waited for the inevitable pain, opening one eye cautiously in case she saw the stone wall again. Her anxieties were immediately forgotten as she watched in awe as rocks and dirt pass all around her, the tree roots above blending into an earthly cloud. The sight did not last long before the two stopped and rose up past an empty section, through the surface and back to the world above.

"I never knew such beauty could exist below my feet," she stated quietly noticing the cold sensation vanished as he released his grip on her hand. She was surprised when the ghost teen suddenly turned on her, his glare made more intimidating by the glow from his cold, green eyes.

"How did you know the Guys In White captured me?!" he asked as he bounded towards the alien girl, forcing her to retreat from him until her back was against a tree.

"I escaped a year before you came to Earth and I know the Guys In White would never admit that a ghost escaped from one of their facilities, so how in the world did you find out?"

"You were captured before?" she asked, surprise and worry beginning to hide the fear the ghost boy's glare was instilling. His eyes never left hers as he stepped back from her, reaching under the white collar of his hazmat suit and pulling a hidden zipper down to his belt. A dangerous glint came to his eyes as he pulled at the top half of his suit open, the moon peeking out from clouds almost in sync.

The entire world seemed to slow around them, the moonlight and pale glow around the ghost providing enough light for her to see his exposed chest. Numerous scars of varying sizes were wrapped all over his torso, some reaching up to his neck while others went towards his back. Some were so stretched out that it seemed that a simple flex or twist would tear the wounds open again. But these aged wounds might as well have not been there to the Tamaranean, for her eyes were locked on one in particular.

Standing out amongst them all was a scar half a centimeter in wide starting at his belly button. It travelled upwards in a straight line to his sternum before dividing in a perfect ninety degree angle before ending at each shoulder blade to complete a perfect Y. She knew instantly what this mark meant, and it sent a frightening chill through her heart.

Danny watched the tears that began to pour down Starfire's face, his stone cold face hiding the conflicting emotions inside. A part of him felt a sick sense of satisfaction from this, knowing that he had managed to get revenge for the pain she'd inflicted on him all those weeks ago. Yet, another part felt… disgusted and guilty for doing this to her. After all, he'd known he would get hurt by befriending the alien girl and her friendship and kindness had been an addictive pleasure to him before then.

"Does this answer your question?" he growled quietly, his voice ringing loudly in the Tamaranean's ears as he pulled his hazmat suit shut and zipped it up, hiding the disfigurement once more. "Now answer mine. How did you know?" Starfire remained quiet for a moment, trying her best dry her face and stop her tears with her hands, with little success.

"I did not know that you had been captured before," she sniffed, trying to regain her composure.

"Then why did you say that to me?" Starfire was quiet again, wiping away her tears with more success this time than before.

"There was a robbery today at the technology museum. A villain from 100 years in future named Warp tried to steal a clock exhibit, and it seemed that we could not stop him. Just as he was about to escape through a wormhole he created, I tackled him and sent us both inside. We struggled until I removed the vortex regulator from his suit and sent us both twenty years into the future."

"I learned that my friends had broken apart and that the Titans were no more. I went to go find them, to see if I could get help so I could find Warp and make him repair the future to the way it was supposed to be, but Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven could not and would not help me. But it was after I had left Raven that I learned of what happened to you…"


20 years in the future

"Your mind…without friends you must have…" A wall of black energy shot up before her, earning a gasp from the Tamaranean. She stared at her friend sadly for a moment before exiting, leaving the white robed sorceress in her white walled room. She was just about to fly out through one of the holes in the ceiling when she heard talking from down below.

"I don't see why I have to have armed guards around me when I gather samples. He hardly moves at all," said a male voice. Starfire cautiously slid closer towards the metal rails and looked down to the floor below. A man in a white suit just barely out of his twenties was shutting a door down below, two men with strange metallic guns on either side of him.

"Don't believe everything you see when it comes to that one," said the man on the left. "Danny Phantom is the most dangerous ghost we've ever dealt with, and one of the craftiest."

"Danny?" she muttered quietly to herself, watching as the young man in the middle rolled his eyes and walked towards the exit, the other two falling in step with him.

"Maybe before Alpha team he was, but that isn't true anymore. You can just see the defeat in his eyes." The last thing Starfire saw of those three before they disappeared under the stone walkway she was standing on was the third man frowning before shaking his head at the younger agent.

"If there's one thing you ever learn as an agent kid, it's never trust a ghost."

Starfire listened to the echoing footsteps fade away before taking to the air, coming to a halt just before the nearest hole in the ceiling. Her eyes drifted towards the door the three had been in, her curiosity building the longer she stayed. It wasn't long until she was standing in front of the door, turning the knob and pushing the door open.

Her nostrils were instantly struck with the sickening scent of blood, forcing the Tamaranean girl to stagger away from the doorway and gag. It took her a few minutes before the smell was bearable enough for her to proceed inside. Once she stepped inside, a light in the middle of the ceiling sprung to life, illuminating the little room. Her eyes immediately locked onto the occupant.

Danny hung limply from restraints that sprouted from the four corners of the wall opposite of the door, his hands and feet encased in white cylinders that were enshrouded with the same green energy she'd seen him use. His black and white hazmat suit clung in shredded clumps around his body, kept in one piece by the smallest strips that had managed to survive whatever had happened to him. Sadly, the suit seemed to be in better shape than the body it sat on.

Through the mutilated remains, Starfire could easily make out scars upon scars layered over the hybrid's chest, green blood oozing from the freshly made lashes upon his chest and into the growing puddle below him. She would have assumed him dead if it weren't for the slight rise and fall of his chest and the sound of his shallow, haggard breathing.

"Danny?" His breathing hitched at the disturbance of his silent wallowing. His head slowly rose to face her and she could feel the beginnings of tears form in her eyes. His white hair hung in matted clumps across his face and back, green and dark stains only adding to the dirty snow-like color. A thin trickle of his green blood trailed out from the corners of his mouth and into the patches of hair that had managed to grow between the few scars along his face into a haphazard beard.

But the worst of it was the eye that stared back at her.

She'd seen that same look before, that resigned, broken look in his pupils. She'd caught it when she had called him a criminal and ended her friendship with him. That look was now amplified and it broke her heart to see the life drained from them. She watched as he squinted at her, examining her as she approached him. She was only a few steps away when his face fell and he went back to the position she'd found him.

"Go away." Starfire winced at the hoarseness in the whisper from his deep, baritone voice, but continued to get closer. When she was close enough, she reached out towards him, trying to get him to look at her again.

"What has happened to you?"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" he snarled, startling the alien girl and causing her to fall onto her behind as he pulled against the restraints. A beep sounded from the restraints before green energy crackled across the hybrid's body. A howl of pain erupted from Danny's throat as he convulsed in pain. Starfire watched horror from the ground, her body frozen until another beep sounded and the energy died down. Green smoke drifted from the ghost's now limp form as he struggled to breathe, coughing blood onto the floor as he shuddered in pain. Starfire slowly got back onto her feet, her eyes never leaving the captured man as his breathing slowly went back to the shallow, haggard rate it had been before.

"What have they done to you?" she asked, not willing to try another attempt at getting closer. "Why are you in such a state?" The hybrid remained quiet, refusing to acknowledge her presence.

"Danny?"

"What do you want from me?!" he snarled, glaring at the Tamranean before succumbing to another fit of coughing. "Why do you keep haunting me like this? Every time they leave, you appear to tell me how I deserve this because I'm a liar and a criminal. Why won't you just go away and leave me alone?!" Starfire just stared at him, stuck somewhere between frightened and sad for the man before her. Those feelings began shifted to sadness when she saw that he had started crying.

"But you can't leave me alone, can you? You're nothing more than a hallucination created by my mind to punish me for thinking I could have a friend." A tired sigh escaped from his lips as his head drooped back down, his tears now mixing with the blood on the floor.

"Monsters like me aren't allowed to have friends."

Four energy blasts flew through the air, each one striking the restraints and blowing them open with ease. They hybrid was surprised to feel himself falling towards the ground, but was even more surprised to feel his 'hallucination' catch him in a hug before he hit the floor.

"No one should be punished for wanting a friend," she whispered quietly into his ear. "And I cannot stand by when it is one of my friends who is."

"Y…You're real?" he stuttered, wobbling slightly as he pulled away and shifted his weight back onto his feet. His face moved closer towards her slowly, his eye staring in disbelief as it drank in the Tamaranean's features.

"But how can this be?" he asked quietly as he released her. "You look like you haven't aged a day." An explosion blew the door open, the halfa instinctively clinging to Starfire in a shielding manner as he turned them both intangible. The door flew harmlessly through them and the two spun around to see several agents rush inside, their gleaming weapons trained on the two inhuman occupants. From behind the agents, a woman in her mid-thirties wearing a skin-tight black combat suit walked in.

It didn't take Starfire very long to remember who she was.

"Don't even bother Phantom," ordered Agent S as he started to release the Tamaranean. "You're in no condition to fight." Starfire pulled herself out of the hybrid's protective hold and allowed two Starbolts to come to life in her hands.

"He does not need to fight…" she began, only to feel a firm hand come to rest on her shoulder. The energy in her hands died as she spun watched the ghost move in between her and the ghost hunters.

"She's right," he replied, his head bowed. Starfire opened her mouth to argue, but was silenced by the ghost's next words.

"I don't need to fight to make you guys look bad." Everything seemed to slow for her as she watched Danny turn to embrace her again. She could hear Agent S screaming at them as she began to reach for something on her thigh. The last thing she saw was a glint of green appear over the halfa's shoulders as he pulled her into him, blocking her view of the agents beginning to fire at them. A sickening squelching sound occurred behind the hybrid as the entire room vanished in a sudden burst of green light.

When her eyes finally re-adjusted from the flash, she saw that they were in front of the cave where their friendship had begun.

"How did you…" Starfire began, only to stop as Danny collapsed into her, his legs finally giving way from under him.

"Danny!" she cried, wrapping her arms around his torso to keep him from falling to the ground and possibly taking her down with him. Her left arm brushed up against something protruding from his spine, prompting her to shift him to see what it was. The Tamaranean's breath hitched when she saw the hilt of a dagger standing just below his shoulder, blood seeping out from the edges with every tired breath he took. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Starfire grabbed onto the hilt and pulled, a pained grunt escaping the hybrid as the glowing green blade left his body. She didn't even bother giving it a second look as she tossed it aside, focusing more on laying her friend down as quickly and gently as possible.

"Do not worry," she told him, looking around for any sign of something to help. "I will go and…"

"It won't help." She could feel her blood chilling in her veins at his words, tears beginning to form as her eyes fell onto his face. "It's too late."

"Do not say that," she begged, getting onto her knees to place a comforting hand on his chest. "You will be alright." Danny shook his head weakly, before staring up at the darkened skies above.

"The wound is too bad and teleporting us took everything I had left." His fragile frame shook as he broke out into a coughing fit, adding onto the helpless feeling growing in the alien girl. Once the fit was over, the halfa looked over to see the tears rolling down her face.

"Hey now," he said, his voice weaker than he had meant it. His hand rose to cup her cheek and his thumb began wiping some of the tears away.

"There's no reason for to cry. I have my freedom again…and I'm not alone anymore." This brought a fresh stream of tears from both of them as they let those words sink in. When he saw that the sad expression on her face persist, Danny began to hum. A gasp escaped the Tamaranean's lips, a nostalgic smile slowly coming to her face as she remembered being rocked back and forth in his embrace by the seaside. Her hand rose up to overlap his, her head nuzzling the comforting contact on her blushing cheek as she began to get lost in the ghost's melody and her memories. Danny merely smiled at her as he stroked her with his thumb, enjoying the warmth growing inside at seeing her smile.

The two became blissfully unaware of the world around them as the spell they wove upon each other grew stronger. Neither took notice to the slowing of the hybrid's breathing, nor the gradual fading of the music. The spell only started to fade when she felt his hand slowly slip out of hers. Her tearing eyes slowly opened to see Danny facing the clouds above with the most peaceful, heartwarming smile she'd ever seen him give.


"I buried you next to the opening of your former home and went to find Warp. He found me and defeated me with ease, taking the vortex regulator and he would have finished me had Robin not come and driven him off. With his help, my friends managed to find a reason to come and help and together, we defeated Warp. Then I stepped through the wormhole back to the moment I left, with the artifact Warp had stolen."

Starfire looked up to see Danny looking at her with a stunned, yet contemplative expression on his face. She also noticed the slight pink tint that still remained plastered on his cheeks. Before he could respond, she rushed towards him, clinging to him as she let the tears she'd been repressing throughout her story fall into his shoulder.

"I am so sorry I hurt you. If I had known sooner that the Guys In White were capable of such cruelty, I never would have believed their lies."

"Hey now," he cooed, stroking her back as he tried to calm the distraught alien girl. "It's okay now. You've changed the future and I'm still here." His words seemed to have the intended effect as she gradually pulled away. With a warm, caring smile, the Tamaranean grabbed one of the necklaces made of metal spheres that glistened in the moonlight.

"On my planet, we celebrate the friends we have made on Blorthog, the Festival of Friendship. I have already celebrated with my friends," she announced, throwing one end of the strange necklace over his head and placing it around his neck. "…and now it is time I celebrate it with you. Happy Blorthog Danny."

Danny just stood there, his mind trying to comprehend what the alien girl had said while she embraced him with another hug. In an instant, his arms were wrapped around her, desperately clinging to her as though she'd disappear if he let go.

"Happy Blorthog Starfire," replied the hybrid, a blush came to the Tamaranean teen's face from the sudden rush of warm and welcomed feeling from the contact. Without thinking, she nuzzled even further into his shoulder and releasing a contented sigh at being in her friend's arms again.


Hands down the longest chapter I've ever written.

Sorry for not posting for so long. I'm going to be honest, starting playing some video games and things went downhill from there. Hopefully this chapter will be up to par with the previous chapters you love so much. Will try to have the next chapter up a lot sooner than this, but with how my life's going, I can't make any promises.