CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

THE DARKNESS RETURNS

Tad, and for that matter everyone, looked stunned at Francis. The gray skinned bully had changed. For one thing, he was no longer gray. He was tanned, clean and well groomed. His clothes had somewhat changed as well. Francis was now sporting a plain back T-Shirt and plain blue jeans.

There were two things, however, that were the same. He still had a chain hanging from his belt, and he was still very large. He looked down at Chad very sternly.

"Now Mr. Country Club, I know you weren't just threatening Turner and his friends," said Francis who cracked his knuckles.

Tad regained his composure and said rather snarkily,

"So what's it to you? You're not one to judge me, especially after what you did to other kids."

Francis came up to Tad and looked down, very menancing at the rich boy. Tad tried to retain his hubris, but it was difficult. This bully, or rather former bully was still very intimidating because of his sheer size.

"That's the key; what I did. I don't do that any more. That don't mean though I've stopped being so ...aggress.."

Francis turned to A.J and said,

"Hey, egghead, what's the word when you still want to fight...aggreeesi..."

"Aggresive," said A.J.

"Yeah," said Francis, "what he said. The difference is I don't do my aggressives towards weaker kids; I use it to stop punks like you from picking at other tiny little geeks."

Tad straightened up and tried to say something, but Francis simply growled. The sound was very intimidating, and now other people, adults were noticing the exchange between the group.

"Fine," said Tad, "I'll go. For now."

And with that the blond rich kid departing.

The three boys looked at each other. Timmy spoke first,

"Thanks, Francis."

"Don't mention it Timmy," said Francis, "have a good time, guys. I have to go to tend my rosebushes now."

Francis left. Chester frowned and said,

"Dude, you heard that, didn't you? Francis is taking care of ROSEBUSHES?"

A.J. shook his head and stated,

"Well, stranger things have happened."

At the Delise house, a different blond headed rich kid was trying to mend his friendship with someone, well, who was really his first real friend.

"What do you want to tell me about Timmy Turner, Remy," asked Winston, "that I don't already know. I mean you tried to kill him. I'm not sure how you can excuse that."
"I'm not going to excuse it," said Remy, "I was wrong, very wrong, and I was a jerk. I don't know how to put this, but I've ..changed. I'm trying to be a better person."

Winston was quiet for a second and then said,

"Well, why are you telling me this?"

"Because, Winston," said Remy, "You're really the first friend I've ever had and I want to keep your friendship. To put it simply.."

Remy swallowed and looked down a little sad and then he spoke again,

"I need to know that you're still my friend."

Alden Bitteroot approached the sleeping Timmy Turner clone.

"Be careful, Alden",said Vlad," we don't want him to wake up."

"Why not?,"asked the wizard.

"Because, it's important that the memories that are forming in this clone's minds are Timmy Turners. If we wake up him, we risk contaminating his thoughts and the Darkness will know it's a trick. Plus, the way I've worked it if he's awakened prematurely, he'll stop his accelarated development."

"Stop his development?", asked Bitteroot.

"Yes," said Vlad, "for instance, this Timmy is physically seven years old, but in about three hours he'll be eleven unless he's awakened. If that happens, his aging will slow down to normal and it would take four years for him to be eleven." Vlad paused, then added, "Of course, we would have to destroy him immediatedly."

Alden nodded and said,

"Excellent Vlad and Anti-Cosmo. Now let's check on our prisoners.

As the three villians were about to depart a beeping sound came from one of the communications station. Bitteroot looked at it and frowned.

"You two," said the wizard, "go ahead. I'll join you in a minute. Dorkus is calling with his update on that Sheen person."

The Anti-Fairy and the Ghost hybrid nodded and left the room. Alden approached the transmitter.

Of course, neither he, nor Anti-Cosmo or Vlad noticed that the Timmy clone's fingers were twitching slightly.

Anti-Cosmo and Vlad floated into the room where Cindy and Jimmy were imprisoned and where Calamitous was now back in the bottle. Both other wordly being smiled maliciously at the two kids in the cell. Anti-Cosmo looked down at the shrunken Calamitous. He noticed that the evil scientist was asleep. The Anti-Fairy smirked and said,

"So did you two brats bore the Professer to sleep."

"Something like that," said Jimmy, "and this is how we bored him to sleep."
Suddenly Jimmy pulled out his sleep inducer and aimed it at Vlad and Anti-Cosmo. The Anti-Fairy and ghost hybrid immediatedly fell to the floor; sound asleep.

Jimmy and Cindy smiled at each other.

"Now," said Jimmy, "to get out of this cell."

The Darkness searched the fake Timmy's mind for his first meeting with Chester and A.J. It seemed hard to get to. He finally got to it. Using the memory, it attempted to recreate the day the three friends met. Now it seemed to be getting easier; it was like Timmy wanted to please the Darkness like his Eliminators...

Wait. His Eliminators with their programmed devotion. The Darkness got a little suspicious. It tried to bond even closer to Timmy. It came to a realization; this was programmed devotion from this being. This was not Timmy Turner.

The Darkness had been tricked.

With that, the being roared his mighty rage at the ship where Anti-Cosmo, Vlad and Alden were at.

Norm sensed Danny Phantom coming so the genie morphed into human form. The ghost hybrid floated down to Norm and said

"Norm?"

"That's what I've been called all my life. I believe you're looking for this."

With that, the genie produced the bottle and handed it to Danny.

"Thanks," said Danny, "I'll get this back to the ghost..."

Suddenly Danny stopped. The sky became very very black and it seemed like a roar ripped through the atmosphere. Indeed, Norm sensed it seemed to be ripping through the universe. There was only one time before that the genie had sensed this, but it couldn't be.

"Well, guys," said Timmy, "I guess we better meet the girls at the pool."

Suddenly, though, the sky grew very dark. There was a roar and a scream. A scream that Timmy was all too familiar with. The eleven year old looked up and saw a swirling vortex. Chester and A.J. looked up in disbelief.

"I don't believe it," said A.J, "it can't be."

"It is," said Timmy, "It's the Darkness."

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