Chapter 13

Pain stared at the other ghost, sleeping in a corner of their current hideout. They weren't real brothers. As far as Pain could remember, they had always been together so they called each other brother. For now, Palsy slept peacefully thanks to the "meal" provided by the half ghost. However, in one more day, Palsy would return to the living hell brought on by his addiction. After the end of the final day, they would have to fight Danny Phantom again.

Before hunting down Danny Phantom, they had spent a couple of months learning how to control their powers. Pain didn't care when they took "meals" from other ghosts because their strongest emotions had always been of anger and hatred. However, Danny's strongest emotion was love. Seeing the half ghost unable to feel love made Pain feel guilty about attacking him, but if he wanted to help his brother, he had to do what Plasmius told them to do.

"I can't believe we got ourselves into this mess," Pain mumbled as he stood. He knew he didn't have to worry about Palsy leaving because his brother had been sleeping for days. That was the way it was after every "meal." Palsy ate the "meal," and for a while he would act like everything was normal again. Then four days before the next time he needed to be fed, Palsy would fall into a deep sleep.

Pain phased through the wall of the abandoned building near Casper University. He decided it was time to have a talk with Danny Phantom and find some way to convince Danny to join Plasmius. If Danny joined Plasmius, then they wouldn't have to steal "meals" from the half ghost. Pain only hoped Plasmius kept his end of the promise.

Finding the half ghost was easy. Danny sat with his friends at their normal table in the small diner near campus. The three friends looked like they were discussing something rather serious. Pain noticed a fourth person walking toward them. It was the guy he always saw hanging around the Goth girl. Pain floated down to man and shoved him to the ground, sending the two bowls of salads clattering across the floor.

"Tom!" Sam shouted as she leaped out of her seat in the booth to help her boyfriend off the ground.

Pain heard Danny whisper "cover me" to Tucker before switching to his ghost form. He phased out of the diner, followed quickly by Danny, who looked extremely pissed at the ghost's arrival.

"You said a week," Danny stated as he glared at the ghost. "Why do you keep popping up all the time?"

"Join Plasmius," Pain said simply.

"You think I'm going to join Vlad just because you come here and tell me to?" Danny's hands were clenched into tight fists ready to attack Pain at any moment. He didn't see or sense Palsy anywhere so he wasn't worried about suddenly being paralyzed.

"You like feeling the pain of your love being ripped away?" Pain snorted as he floated closer to Danny, who flinched away. "I'm not here because I want to be. Palsy and I were perfectly happy with our afterlives until Plasmius got us mixed up in your stupid fight. I don't want to see my brother suffer anymore because of you. The only way to get out of this is to either kill you or have you join Plasmius' side, whatever that is."

"Then you're just going to have to kill me because I'm never joining that jerk," Danny growled as a green ecto blast formed in his hand.

"If I had wanted to kill you, do you think I would have let you go last time?" Pain's hand glowed with a red ecto blast. "Palsy and I just want to be left alone, and we can't do that until after you are destroyed or join Plasmius."

"If you really just wanted to be left alone, then why don't you stop doing what Vlad wants you to do?" Danny's voice held less anger in it. This was what he had wondered about since the day at the hospital.

"That's not an option." Pain's face twisted more with anger. "It's your fault that Plasmius gave my brother this addiction. You better take responsibility for it because if you don't, next time I won't hesitate to take from you again."

"Addiction?" Danny blinked as the ecto blast faded from his hand. "What is this addiction?"

"Palsy has to feed on the 'meals' of a ghost's strongest emotion," Pain answered, relaxing out of a fighting stance as his ecto blast also vanished from his hand. "If he doesn't feed once a week, his soul starts to slowly disintegrate. If he doesn't feed in over four weeks, his soul will completely disappear. I can't stand watching my brother slowly fade away because of something we're not even involved in. Do you know what it's like to watch your only family scream in constant pain as he disappears when he didn't do anything to deserve it? It's your fight. So why do my brother and I have to suffer because of it?"

"I," Danny said, frowning, as he stared at the ghost. He hated Vlad even more now for making innocent ghosts suffer. Danny could only describe what Vlad felt for his mother as lust since a person needed a heart to love, and Vlad definitely didn't have a heart.

"Plasmius said if we got rid of you, he would cure my brother's addiction," Pain said when Danny remained silent.

"You can't trust anything Vlad tells you. He'll use all kinds of tricks to get what he wants. Once he has it, he'll just throw you out like garbage. He doesn't care what happens to you and your brother."

"I can't just sit back and let my brother die," Pain growled, his mouth becoming a thin line.

"There has to be some way to cure your brother that doesn't involve Vlad's help. You don't need to do what he says." Danny didn't want to have to fight the brothers again, especially now that he heard why they were following Vlad's orders.

"I can't take the chance. Plasmius might be the only one who can cure my brother. I won't let my brother disappear."

"I don't want to fight you."

"I don't want to either, but I guess we have no choice. I'll see you again when the final day is up." Pain vanished before Danny could try to convince him further to stop doing as Vlad told him. He couldn't risk losing his brother.

Danny floated back to the ground. After making sure no one was around, he switched back to human form. He walked into the diner to join his friends; his mind stuck on Pain's reason for acting under Vlad's order. Pain only wanted to save his brother from disappearing. Danny wanted to help them, but he didn't know where to start looking for a way to cure Palsy's addiction.

"You look like you've got something on your mind," Tom said to Danny when the man flopped down beside Tucker at the booth.

"Oh, I was just thinking about some… things," Danny replied with a forced smile. Sam and Tucker gave him a questioning look, silently asking if it had anything to do with ghosts. Danny nodded slightly before closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the padded booth. He would tell them about the encounter with Pain later when Tom wasn't with them.