A/N: Hiya, everybodee! I know it's been awhile but my awesome beta went on her own holiday adventure during the, well, holidays! But now, she's back and it's time to get back to fantasy! Now we're getting into the meat of the story. Enjoy the show!

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Entanglement—Chapter 21—Examining the Future

Evil Dan was the first ghost who was able to rid himself enough of Ĉasista's venom to come to. Danny was next and Plasmius followed shortly thereafter.

All three, however, still had enough of the poison in their ghostly veins to make it difficult for each of them to think clearly, which suited the spider's purposes. She didn't want them to be able to resist her efforts to gain mental control over them. And she also made sure that enough poison remained to form a thin, red film over their eyes, which for all intents and purposes, make them essentially blind. For what she had planned for them, none of them would need their vision and; more importantly, their temporary blindness would force them to fully focus on her thoughts. Of course, they were all still powerless since the ĉerko negated their powers and the spirit had made sure that each of them was gagged for the moment.

Ĉasista silently observed them all while they were fighting off the effects of her venom. After all, one of many measures of a ghost's power level was the ability for him or her to rid themselves of her poison. These three were all doing a very good job of it, too.

Interesting.

Glancing momentarily at Sam and deciding to ignore the frail human for now, Ĉasista concentrated on the three that held her most interest. A few moments later, she was satisfied that all three of the ghosts could comprehend what she was saying. She was also amused at each of them struggling immediately yet vainly to break their bonds.

"Ah, pets," she coolly and purposely said out loud when she saw all three sets of ghostly eyes jerk toward her eight.

Ĉasista paused only a moment as she smiled only to herself. Though the ghosts were blinded by their red 'masks', she could easily see through them. She could readily see that each set of those ghostly eyes was throwing very angry darts at her general direction! But what pleased her more was that their eyes only confirmed what she already knew about their cores.

Firstly—and even though there were exceptions— most ghosts who had red eyes had hot cores and most ghosts who had green eyes had cold cores. Those who had cold cores with red eyes or, conversely, had hot cores with green eyes, were usually much, much lower in power. But most importantly, she could tell by how intense the glow around their angry eyes were in spite of the red film over them that each of them was as powerful as she wanted.

Still, she was so satisfied at the moment that she allowed herself to play with them. She giggled at the irony just before she continued with a slight and hideous chuckle, "She hopes that you are comfortable." Then looking at their gagged mouths, she continued with a chuckle, "And she was not wrong about any of you. You do not jump to petty talk even when you are at a disadvantage."

Even though the three ghosts couldn't talk at the moment, she was mostly right about her last statement. Though Evil Dan and Vlad always studied their foes before reacting or even speaking with them and Danny usually mouthed off, all of them were too groggy to respond at the moment even if they could.

Suddenly, and before the three could even try to scan where they were, Evil Dan, Plasmius and Danny all cried in intense pain under their gags as Ĉasista's telepathic energy tore into each of their brains as if her power was dissecting their minds—which, in effect, it was.

But no sooner had she mentally assaulted them when all three ghosts were controlling their pain and muffled yells and now grunting in defiance. But what none of them knew was that Sam and Tucker had also been mentally attacked from their connection with Danny and were knocked out by the powerful blows!

The spider liked what she first 'heard' about the trio's reaction to her assault. They would not be disappointing in the least.

Keeping the ghosts from doing much of anything else but feel the terrible pain of her telepathy, and blocking them to her thoughts, the creature drew closer to Evil Dan. And then, keeping the hybrids' minds in control and fogged enough that they could not hear her, she mentally threw her thoughts only at the future Phantom…

"So, pet," she mentally began, "Ĉasista already knows that you are indeed a most rare ghost and are the most driven of your companions. Driven by powerful talents as well: anger, recklessness, selfishness, and an intense lust for power and destruction. Delicious and ripe."

Evil Dan startled and instantly stopped struggling against his bonds at hearing the sudden and foreign voice within his head. Though he didn't know how that was possible, he grew angry when he realized that the voice sounded a lot like the being that had addressed him when he had first awakened!

Even so, Dan was determined to give her a piece of his mind even if he couldn't do verbally because of his gag! He also resumed pulling at his bindings as he mentally spat back, "I don't know who you or what this 'Ĉasista' is or how you did all this, but I don't care! Get out of my mind if you value your after-life!"

"Tsk-tsk, do not be hasty, pet!" Ĉasista insincerely cooed. "But it is your after-life about which you have to worry!"

Dark Phantom mentally rebutted, "As if a gazillion ghosts haven't said that to me before I destroyed them, even when they thought they had the upper hand! So, I'd like to see you try!"

"Oh, but she will," she smugly replied only to his mind.

She suddenly thrust more pain into his brain.

Evil Dan immediately hissed with the assault, but tried to fight back. But when he did, the pain increased ten-fold. He attempted to concentrate all the while grunting under the strain. He didn't understand why it felt as if his brain was put into a vise and the main screw was quickly and firmly tightening. After several more minutes of this mental tug-of-war, Dark Dan panted as he relented. He was extremely dizzy. Even so, he knew if he put up any more fight, his ghostly brain would be ghostly goo.

"Aw, that is better, pet," the spider spirit blew into his battered mind. "As you have found out and no matter what you do, your powers are inferior to Ĉasista's. You will now answer her as she wants…"

Though Dark Phantom really hadn't agreed to her announcement, he was too dizzy and drained at this point to resist again. But before he could clear his head, he heard the spider's voice echoing in his hurting mind, "But first, what of the two who are with you?"

The older Phantom didn't understand that the spirit was referring to Danny and Vlad. Instead, he mentally answered, "I don't know what you're talking about, whoever-you-are. The only ones who were near me before I was brought here were two silly dweebs."

Ĉasista knew that he meant the two young humans, for indeed, they had been captured together.

However, she instantly blocked his thoughts from her own as she mused only to herself, "'Dweebs'? Is that the name of each of those two ghosts-to-be? How can that be? But no matter, she will find what she is looking for!"

Ĉasista proceeded to probe Dark Phantom's mind even further. She would search to see whether he was a compatriot of the other powerful ghosts or not. After all, his ghostly DNA was similar to the other two…But even as she dissected his thoughts, which were deliciously evil and full of destruction, she could not find a meaningful link among the three.

She couldn't know that because Evil Dan's thoughts were so full of evil and mischief, that feeling any kind of link with Vlad and Danny had been long overpowered by those same thoughts.

Finally, she mentally asked him, "So, pet, you are just as interesting at the other two powerful ghosts here…"

But the older Phantom interrupted her, "What other ghosts?" When he tried to blink and look around to search for them, he couldn't because his vision was still very, very blurry.

"Aww, that is correct. Ĉasista has not give you the pleasure of seeing who else gives you and her the company," she almost purred in self-satisfaction.

She was most certainly enjoying herself.

Evil Dan was not amused. He demanded to her mind, "First of all, who are you and who is this 'Ĉasista'?

The spirit rolled all of her eight eyes this time. She was annoyed about his demand because this was the third creature in here who had asked her that annoying question. She hastily replied, "Ĉasista will not repeat it again! Ĉasista is your mistress and captor, the one who is speaking to your mind right now!"

Though that only partially satisfied the older Phantom, he put more effort into resisting his bonds and mentally replied with grit, "You will not be my 'captor' for long!"

Ĉasista was somewhat amused with his futile attempts, but she pushed on nevertheless because she was still following her self-assigned strict method, which was at this point for her to 'more thoroughly examine her prey'.

She nonchalantly pushed his thoughts away and inserted her own into his brain. "As Ĉasista was saying, pet, it is true that you do not know of the others. But perhaps if she does show them to you, you will tell Ĉasista all that you know about them."

But before Dark Dan could comment, he felt a wave of heat seemed to swath his body before it momentarily glowed red. Little did the ghost know that Ĉasista had pulled the rest of her poison out of his veins so that he could now see clearly. But as the older Phantom blinked several times to fully clear his vision, he felt the webbed capsule firmly holding him being lifted upward as if he were a swaddled child being lifted by his mother. And then, the spider illuminated an area just to his immediate left before the spider swung him and his cocoon around as one unit.

The blue-haired ghost's red eyes widened a bit before he smirked. "Well, I'll be," he mentally remarked now that he was more amazed than angry at the moment. He had still expected to see Sam and Tucker, not the two ghosts whom he had come from!

Even though he was also a prisoner, he was amused at seeing Vlad and Danny struggling as vainly with their bonds as he had! But they weren't looking at him. In fact, he could see a thick red haze over their eyes and guessed that they, too, had been essentially blinded by the creature still clutching at him.

But Ĉasista literally interrupted his musings as she jerked him back and secured his ĉerko back to its place on the wall, "So, pet, you know these two, hmm? Tell her, are you all allies?"

"Allies? Allies?" Evil Dan mentally snickered, "Hardly!"

The spider scoffed at his answer and replied, "If you are not allies—and although Ĉasista knows that you recognized them—then, how do you know the Plasmius and the Daniel?"

"I don't!" he simply replied to her mind.

"What?" she asked in a mixture of disbelief and confusion.

He flippantly said, "Just like I said. I don't know them at all because in my world, they don't exist."

Ĉasista paused in astonishment. What could this mean? How could this ghost have almost identical DNA with the other two ghosts they had been talking about and not know anything about them? She was certain that he recognized them—and he didn't deny it when she told him that. Was he lying, then? No, her victims couldn't lie to her once she had their brains in control. But then again, maybe she didn't have full control yet or maybe he was a rare ghost who could resist her powers enough to lie!

That last thought suddenly angered the Guardian. She sent her thoughts so forcefully to him that Dark Dan hissed with all the pain that suddenly seemed to cleave his ghostly brain in two, "You will tell Ĉasista all that you know about the Plasmius and the Daniel, worm!"

Still smarting under the mental assault, Evil Dan answered, "I told you that they do not exist in my world!"

"What world?!" she demanded as she thrust more pain into his head.

"T-The f-future one!" he barely was able to convey to her mind.

Not satisfied, the spirit mentally seethed, "You are lying, worm! You are allies with the others!"

The future Danny felt as if his head would explode if she didn't stop hammering his brain. Nevertheless, he was able to insist back, "N-No! I-I'm telling you... the truth! I am from…the future…L-Look for the…chain…around my neck!"

It was all that she could do to keep herself from destroying this creature that instant because she still thought he was lying! But then, she slightly paused at his insistence before she rejected it. What he said was impossible because she could not reach ghosts from other timelines or dimensions! She quickly searched his mind even as she exerted more pain into it because she was still angry.

"Casista does not believe, you, worm!" she pressed.

Dan almost didn't hear her because the pain echoing in his brain was so bad. Nevertheless, he managed to answer her between his groans, "I-I would…s-show it to you…m-myself if…my…ugh…h-hands were free! ….P-Please! Ugh, just…look..uh…a-around…m-my neck…"

He could say no more and his gag smothered his painful groans. If this creature didn't stop hammering his head, he might never recover…

Once again, the she-spider hesitated; and lucky for the older Phantom, she stopped assaulting his mind…The ghost had sounded so desperate just now. Perhaps there might be some truth to his words…But then again, if he was somehow lying…

One of her forelegs slowly reached for the top of Evil Dan's costume before its claw hooked itself at its neck and yanked downward.

As if that claw was shear as scissors, the ghost's clothing rent loudly. But in addition, his spectral skin was also cut in her haste.

Ĉasista ignored the alternate-Danny's audible yet muffled hiss of pain as she continued to carve downward until she felt resistance. Her insectoid face puckered in a mixture of curiosity and puzzlement as she pulled harder against the resistance—without success! Finally, she twisted that claw and hooked firmly onto that little defiant object, all the while ignoring the audible grunts erupting from her victim as she continued to carve into his ghostly flesh with her search.

Finally, the spider pulled it upward and out from the now torn and open front part of Dan's costume. She ignored the ectoplasm coated on it as it clinked once it was pulled away from the ghost's body.

"What is this?" she asked only herself as she momentarily severed the mental connection with the ghost but not her mental control over him. But then, she gasped when she saw the unmistakable initials adorning the medallion at the end of the chain.

"Clockwork?!" the powerful spirit growled only to herself. "What does the old schemer have to do with this? He knows all too well that he is no match for Ĉasista and could be easily destroyed if he dared to meddle!"

A bit unsettled about her last thought, but rapidly re-focusing back to the ghost in front of her, Ĉasista reconnected their telepathic link and growled, "How is it that you have this…jewel, pet?"

Though Dan continued to feel the sting from the assault to his brain and now his lacerated ecto-flesh, he managed to compose himself and dryly say to her mind, "I told you I'm from the future and I needed a way to get here. So, I sort of borrowed it, that is, without the consent or knowledge of the old rascal who owns it."

"And why would you want to come into the future, if you are indeed from the future, pet?" she countered suspiciously.

Dark Phantom stifled himself. If she could detect his plans for coming into the future, then she would know there was a definite connection between his younger self and him. But he quickly acted upon his next thought, "I have an enemy I want to eradicate in this timeline, an enemy who would ruin my future world by bringing too much…goodness into it. Somehow, I think you can understand that."

Though Ĉasista was amused by his cleverness, she fell into her own thoughts. "If this one is from the future as he says, that might…complicate things…No matter. Ĉasista will take the chance and have her own way in her realm! Still…this also means that what she wants from him might not be pure enough…But no matter again, because that would be true if she had to take it from him. But as long as he gives it up willingly, which he will, she will take that chance. But she must know if it is pure enough."

She refocused on her victim yet again and concentrated.

Suddenly, Dan felt something foreign penetrating his body. Though it wasn't physical or tearing his flesh at all, it might as well have been because the pain had significantly increased. And this pain was very different than what she had done to his brain for the last few minutes. It was as if something had its hand around his throat and squeezing it shut—even if he didn't need to breathe at all. But the feeling of suffocation was still there for some reason.

Little did he know that Ĉasista was done examining his mind and was now in the process of reaching his core….But to do that, she had to pull away the layers of semi-solid energy from its outer shell. She knew it was a delicate process because each ghost had different layers surrounding the core.

The number and quality of each layer depended on the experience, the strength—and most importantly, the grit of the ghost. Here, she would find any ghost's essence. And, like the symbiotic and yet antagonistic relationship of yin and yang, the combined number and quality of all the layers was the source of the ghost's energy and power. She also knew that all ghosts were formed at a certain power level and remained at that power level for their entire existence. Still, her method of rending those layers to reach and then examine the core was different for each kind of core. Hot cores were the easiest for her to breach because her hot core could easily overwhelm any resistance. Warm cores were more of a challenge because if the power from her core overwhelmed it too much, it could be destroyed. And cold cores? For ghosts low on the Fantomos Scale of Power, it was tricky and they were more likely to be destroyed; but breaching them wouldn't be impossible. But powerful ghosts with cold cores? They were almost impenetrable…almost. But in the end, the process also had to be delicate so that her 'surgical incision' wouldn't puncture the core to the point that it wouldn't heal or even...destroy the ghost.

In the meantime, Dan began to pant under the strain that the spirit was exerting upon him. He instantly and desperately resisted. It didn't matter to him that he knew he still would have utterly failed to summon any of his powers because the ĉerko wouldn't allow it. But more than that, he failed miserably in trying to draw out one of his powers to counter her because in all honesty he didn't know what she was doing to him!

All he knew at this point that no matter what she was doing to him, it was beginning to hurt—badly!

Dark Phantom startled when all kinds of memories unexpectedly flashed very quickly in his mind. One moment, he was desperately trying to resisting the spirit, and the next, all of these images started to bombard his mind without his consent! Scene upon scene, like a quick movie trailer, momentous events of his mind played in his head—including feeling all of the emotions surrounding them. But what was really freaky was that it started with his most recent memories and moved backward chronologically and he was sure that he would be next 'viewing' the first memories he had after being 'created'—and the creature would discover that he knew about Plasmius and his younger self. But then, just as weirdly, as if a DVD was slowly being stopped before his earliest memories and then re-wound, he was now seeing all of those same memories before they 'stopped' moving chronologically forward, only to halted on one particular memory.

And none of it was happening by his consent! No matter how he tried to change the memories—or even his thoughts—the past imprints pushed onward in the same order—paired with pain!

The older Phantom hitched in a ghostly gasp underneath his webbed gag. What was she doing to him? He felt as if she was pawing at him, only that she was doing that within him, which in effect, she was. He felt all sorts of sensations he didn't recall ever having…and they were very unpleasant!

How could that creature be doing this to him? The pain was so intense that he didn't realize that Ĉasista was manipulating all of that as she dissected the layers of his hot core and was sorting through his memories—and for more important things—as one would sort through a deck of cards in search of the ace of hearts.

Dan felt as if he were going crazy with the agony; and for the first time in his existence, the wicked ghost was…terrified.

But then, just as sudden, he heard Ĉasista's voice clamoring in his brain, only that, she wasn't talking to him…

"Aww, his core is indeed very powerful and the source of some of the most interesting powers Ĉasista has seen in a very long time!" she mused as she delved more. "Any one of them could be suitable…Oh, ho! Here is one that looks to be the best of the lot! Now, let's see how pure it is..."

Now getting hungry to know more, the spider put more pressure on Phantom's core.

"He has no one close to his core," the spider remarked only to herself before she added, "Good. Good. And he is cold-blooded in all of his actions…Perfect." But then, she slowly added, "...except the most recent memories, that is." She then paused on what that could mean. Then pushing onward in examining that part of the ghost's core she had become interested in, she added, "No, no one affects his core…That is, not another ghost….Hmmm…"

She paused yet again before she touched his core at a particular place, and then directly addressed Dark Phantom, "Though as disgusting as it is, you seem to have some…weak thoughts about a ghost-to-be! Though she must say that at least this one is a warrior with tenacity!"

What was still vividly in the male ghost's mind—placed there by Ĉasista— stunned him to silence. He couldn't believe her 'accusation'. She had to be wrong! He immediately rejected the insinuation! He would never admit that this creature was somehow able to wrench out that insignificant warm feeling he thought he had been able to keep under wraps for several years now. Impossible! He couldn't have a miniscule amount of…feeling about Valerie of all beings!

Even though he was in the midst of denying it, Evil Dan wasn't exactly sure when those…weak feelings had started, but he knew he had somehow…changed shortly after he had had that momentous fight with his younger, alternate-self. He still couldn't understand why the teenage Phantom had spared his after-life. But he didn't care. At first, he scoffed at the boy, thinking that he was just being the straight-laced chump he was.

He dismissed it…or so, he thought he had. Shortly afterward, a nagging feeling grabbed hold of his core and his arrogance toward the boy suddenly evolved into resentment. He hated the new feeling associated with that uncomfortable throb in his core. He would never entertain the notion that his younger alternate-self would have awaken his seriously entangled conscience. In fact, he rejected that concept as well, because after all, his humanity had been ripped out of him at his inception…

Or so, he thought…

But little did the older Phantom know was that all sentient creatures had…souls, which meant that all of them had…consciences, which were ingrained by design to discern right from wrong. Whether a ghost—or human, for that matter—chose to heed the promptings of their consciences or not was directly correlated to their free will.

In Evil Dan's case, he willfully squelched and choked off that conscience and he had had many years of practice at keeping it repressed.

But when young Danny Phantom cured him of the Dark Shadow Decay and spared his afterlife, that harden shell trapping Dark Dan's conscience cracked open a bit. Ever since that time—five years to be exact—the older ghost wasn't able to mend that crack, especially when that other event happened shortly after he had been returned to his own timeline.

He was, of course, referring to his encounter with Valerie shortly after he had returned…

His psyche had been in flux, the girl warrior had attacked and badly injured him when his guard was down…and when it seemed to be the end—again—for him, she, too, for some unfathomable reason, spared his afterlife!

True, she had also demanded a truce, a sort of ransom for his after-life. But she could have easily obliterated him at that time…

He often wondered why she had spared him; and as a result, that crack around his hardened core widened a bit more, breathing fresh air into his conscience.

The change, however, was minute. And for the most part, evil still reigned in his core. But on occasion, which he irritatingly called his 'spell of irrationality', he actually would do something less awful…and on very rare occasions, even something that others would call 'nice'….

And his feelings for the future Valerie unintentionally and unknowingly…grew. He actually admired her spunk, determination and ingenuity. And she was an excellent adversary, which gave him an odd sort of thrill to be around her, since no other human could come even close to her in getting into a stalemate with him.

An outsider would never call those feelings 'love', but it was as close as Dan Phantom would ever come to it. Fate even played a wicked trick of its own about that, for he was finding it more…acceptable to call Valerie those endearing names for the past five years, even if in the beginning, he had meant them to be sarcastic and condescending. He didn't care if Valerie thought anything…just as weak about him or not; because in the end, he couldn't help himself on the matter.

Of course, none of his unintentional musings was lost on Ĉasista. Though he was not as pure as she had hoped, she had found what she was looking for about him!

"Yes, of course, that little piece of information, which seems useless to him, is the key that Ĉasista will use in the very near future to get the worm to do her bidding!" she almost purred to herself. "Pity that she couldn't just take what she has found; but she knows all too well that if he does not give it willingly, it could be destroyed if ferociously taken…"

Ironically, however, the Guardian didn't care in the least as she violently pulled her probing power away from Dark Dan's core.

Dan gasped in pain when it felt as if she had not only rent his core going in, she had brutally scraped it on the way out.

But then, he felt as if his mind was in a vice again when the spirit exerted more pressure on it. She wanted to keep control of and block his mind of her future plans at the same time. Though the blow didn't knock the older Phantom out, the pain it delivered scrabbled his thoughts...

In the meantime, Ĉasista had shifted to Dark Dan's left and set all of her eight eyes on…Vlad.

"Now, then, now would be the time to scrutinize the Plasmius," she almost giggled as she opened a telepathic channel to the older hybrid while keeping the other two powerful ghosts in so much mental pain that they were too helpless to resist…

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A/N: Well, then, I hope the wait was worth it for you and there were a few surprises for you—wow, just like this new year might have a few surprises! *hears crickets*…Ahem, well, yes. I've always thought it would be interesting to explore the possibility of having Valerie and Evil Dan sorta become a 'couple'. After all, Danny was attracted to Valerie at one time and, of course, dated her for a short time. She, too, was attracted to him. So, why wouldn't it be possible for Valerie and Evil Dan—if Evil Dan became even a little good—to have some kind of romantic relationship? After all, there are literally no rivals for their affections in the future Amity Park. And it could begin like the kind of slow romance of the old TV show called 'Beauty and the Beast' (broadcast in the late 1980s)….Just a thought anyways, which is part of the reason for why this chapter came out this way…Hope y'all like it and will send your new year's thoughts down in that box below. Hope to hear from you soon!