Lizzy's mind was in overdrive. The boy she had been taking care of was a demon, the son of Satan, no less! Being King of Hell also meant he had defeated Satan. Didn't that mean he was more powerful than Satan was?

The thought alone made Lizzy shiver.

Wasn't he still Rin, though? He was still the boy who loved to cook, who was clumsy and smiled at it.

"You don't look like much of a demon," Lizzy whispered.

"This is my human form, but even it's flawed. The ears, teeth, and tail are proof of that." Rin sighed.

"Tail?" Lizzy asked, the image of something black wrapped around Rin's waist as he pulled the sword out of his stomach flashed in her mind.

"I hide it by wrapping it around myself under my shirt." As he said this, something unfurled and swayed behind him. It was long enough to reach the floor, and it was the same color as his hair. It had a small tuft of fur at the end on it.

Lizzy's heart beat fast, and Rin stared at her. "Your heart's going to explode if you don't calm down. It's real loud."

Lizzy took deep breaths, then eyed him. "Can I see your demon form?"

"Only if you promise you won't think differently of me," Rin murmured.

"Never." Lizzy was surprised when she didn't hesitate.

Rin smiled nervously and transformed.

Lizzy stared, eyes wide. He really did look like a demon with the teeth, ears, horns, claws, tail, red pupils, and flames.

"I'm sorry you were so scared. I wish you could have trusted me," Lizzy whispered and hugged him tightly.

Rin froze for a moment before hugging her back, careful not to scratch her. "I did trust you. It's myself I didn't trust."

Jazz stared sadly at her brother. "Danny..."

"Jazz, what if Rin's dead? What if that's how, whatever he was, dies? What if he really did commit suicide just to avoid us because he was scared of exposure? What if it's my fault he's dead?" Danny ranted.

Jazz frowned. It was hard on Danny, not knowing if Rin was alive or not. It was his obsession to protect, and even though his human form dimmed it a bit, it was still his obsession, the center of his core.

"Danny, Rin's alive. He's smart, and he wouldn't kill himself for something trivial like that. He knew you were half ghost, so he wasn't afraid of rejection. Rin's fine, you just have to believe in him," Jazz told him.

Danny just nodded. Jazz sighed. "I'll leave you alone, but don't sulk up here forever."

Jazz left the room, and Danny put his head between his knees.

Rin was definitely their ally, but that meant that Rin was the one who scared Vlad out of his mind. Danny wondered what Rin did.

If Rin really was dead, Danny didn't know what would happen. Even if Danny hadn't know Rin for very long, he was one of his best friends, and somehow, Danny knew that Rin had just as many problems as he did.

Danny clutched his chest, the place where his core resided. He closed his eyes and felt no pain, no heavy feeling in his stomach. His core knew if he had failed his obsession.

Rin was definitely alive.

"Rin?" She asked, "Where are you taking me?"

"It's a surprise! Have some faith, will you?" Rin laughed, pulling her along through the trees.

Lizzy stumbled over the roots. "I'm too old for this..."

"Too old?! Mephisto is over a thousand years old, and he can still have fun. He is kind of crazy, though..." Rin murmured.

"Mephisto?" Lizzy asked curiously.

"He's my half brother, if you want to put it that way. He's also the principal of True Cross Academy back in my universe. He's the Demon King of Time." As Rin said this, his mind wandered to the being, Clockwork, wondering if the ghost knew Mephisto or not.

"Okay..." Lizzy decided not to ask anymore. Suddenly, all of the stuff he'd said about his family made sense.

"Here we are!" Rin cheered.

Lizzy looked around, but there was only grass and trees. "I don't see anything."

"I haven't shown it to you yet!" Rin laughed and looked to Kuro. "Kuro, wanna play?"

"Play, play!" Kuro meowed, bouncing around.

Before Lizzy could ask what he meant, Kuro suddenly grew to the size of a semi.

Lizzy gasped and stumbled back. "What in the-!"

"He's a demon, Lizzy." Rin smiled. "Come on, have you ever wanted to fly?"

"Fly? Why do I feel like this was a trap..." She muttered suspiciously.

"I wouldn't call it a trap..." Rin defended himself. "Let's go!"

He grabbed her and leapt on top of Kuro. "Onwards!"

"You got it, Rin!" Kuro jumped and took off into the air.

A woman's shriek could be heard over the whole town of Amity.

"RIN, YOU ARE SO GROUNDED!"

A boy's laugh accompanied it.

"Jack, I think I have the perfect idea to catch Phantom!" Maddie exclaimed.

"Really?!" Jack asks excitedly, bouncing up and down like a child.

"Everyone thinks Phantom is a 'hero', and if he keeps on pretending, he'll 'save' anyone in danger, even us! If we can lure him in, we can use our new invention, the Fenton Neutralizer, to capture him!"

"Great idea, sweetie!" Jack smiled and kissed her cheek.

Maddie's eyes glinted. 'We're coming for you, ghost boy, and this time, you won't escape.'

Jazz frowned at the voices of her parents in the lab. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but they sounded excited, which made Jazz worried.

Their mission was to capture Danny, and if they succeeded...

Jazz shuddered. They were her parents, but ghosts didn't mean anything to them on terms of emotions and pain. She understood why Danny had feared sleeping in his room at night at times, scared that one day, they would come in and kill him on the spot.

He'd told her of the nightmares. It made Jazz want to coddle him and protect him, but she couldn't. He was sixteen, and with her in college most of the time, she wasn't able to be there for him as much anymore.

Jazz's stomach churned, but Jazz ignored it. Danny was strong, he'd be fine.

The little voice screaming, "Stop him! Save him! Something's very wrong!" was at the back of her mind, but Jazz ignored it.

Danny would be fine.

Chapter Twenty-Five complete! Okay, so I'm not so sure Kuro can fly, but I have this vague memory of Rin and Yukio riding on Kuro's back through the sky when they were fighting Satan, so...

As for the 'Fenton Neutralizer', I also vaguely remember an invention being called that in Danny Phantom, but I'm not completely sure if it's an invention mentioned in the show or not, but for the sake of my book, let's just say it's a new invention!

Bye my doggies!