A/N: Gah! I am SO sorry for not updating in three weeks! I just got swamped with homework, visited California to the school I'm transferring to next semester, and then got way behind in homework again this week. Sheesh. So much stuff to do. Hopefully, I'll get caught up this weekend. Anyways, there are my excuses. They are legit, and I'm sticking to them. But feel free to yell at me and complain. I will not blame you. Three weeks is a long time. But here is the chapter! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own anything Danny Phantom.

Previously In Incommunicado: Because of Julie's manipulation of the watch, Danny was able to use his powers to escape with Taj from the house. They had to leave Toushiro behind, though. Exhausted from escaping, Danny passed out beside Taj in the middle of the jungle. In his nightmare, Vlad had brutally killed Toushiro and branded Danny in the ultimate symbolism of owning the teen. Taj then woke Danny up, and they both shared a bonding moment before deciding to find the oracle lady and her tribe in the jungle.

Chapter 25 Tribal Hospitality

"How did you get your powers back?" Taj asked as we walked and ate lunch. For the past six hours it seemed like we had been wandering aimlessly around in the jungle, but Taj swore he knew where he was heading. Sick of being a leader and worrying about everything, I decided to just trust him and deal with it if we were lost. We had enough food for a few days anyways.

Who knew? Maybe we'd get lucky. Right. Who was I kidding? We were never lucky. I was worried beyond belief, but it wasn't like I was going to show it in front of Taj.

Chewing on my mushy apple, I told him excitedly, "Oh, I forgot to tell you! It was Julie!"

"Julie?" Taj asked in wonder.

"That girl's a genius," I said. Taking another bite of my disgusting apple, I explained the entire story of knocking Diego out, stealing his keys, and running into Julie on Taj's computer. Taj listened attentively, probably because it concerned his best friend. A smile touched his lips whenever I mentioned her silly strangeness.

"She's worried about you," I finished at last.

"I know," Taj said with a shy, sad smile.

I offered a smile back but remained silent. I wasn't going to talk girl issues with Taj. For many years it bugged me when people assumed Sam and I were together because I'd seen her as just a good friend at the time. That wasn't the way I saw her now, but I remember it took awhile for me to get to that point. Taj probably needed that time without being teased. I wished him and Julie well, though.

"So you think we're going in the right direction?" I asked Taj for like the hundredth time.

"Yes," he answered as he glanced at the compass in his hand just to make sure. "If Julie's directions are correct, we should be only 15 miles or so away from the tribe the fortune teller belongs to right now."

Stopping briefly to dig a small hole in the dirt with my foot so I could hide my uneaten apple core, I asked, "How do you think this tribe will react to us, anyways?"

"I'm not sure, honestly," Taj admitted, fidgeting with the strap of his bag in his nervousness. "They like to stay remote. They might not like strangers like us."

"But if people know about this fortuneteller, then people from the outside must have visited her from time to time," I mused aloud. Taj nodded in agreement. Frowning, I said slowly and carefully, "I think Vlad met her."

Taj stopped walking for a split second. Surprised by this sudden revelation, he glanced over at me expectantly.

"Last year when we were in Tokyo, Vlad and I had a weird conversation about people with supernatural abilities," I said without looking at Taj. "He mentioned a handful of people he was interested in, and one of them was a fortuneteller in Ecuador who predicted his future for him. Some of those fortunes came true. This might be the same woman."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Taj asked incredulously.

"I...I didn't want to give your hopes up," I muttered, ashamed now that I'd kept it to myself for so long. "Jeez, I feel like a jerk now. I'm sorry, Taj."

Taj stared at me for a long time before giving a heavy sigh and saying, "I understand. I would have done the same."

"Really?" I asked with a grin. "You? Being secretive? I never would have guessed."

Taj shot me a pretend flat look at my sarcasm before breaking out into a grin. He was slowly getting used to me, I think. I could tell by his short-lived smiles he allowed himself every once in a while when I said something outrageous or sarcastic. At the same time, I was getting comfortable with Taj's odd personality. He was unusually quiet until you asked him enough questions. Then he unfolded, turning into a logical and very moral kind of guy. He knew exactly what he was fighting for and what were the right and wrong methods towards getting it. I liked that about Taj. You don't see many teens my age with that strong of an ethical code these days. It was kinda refreshing to talk to him about it all.

An hour after lunch, we decided we had to be close to whatever tribe the fortuneteller lived in. Though it felt good to be getting somewhere and laying down some progress, I still felt skeptical and paranoid. This turn of events was unnatural. Neither Taj and I were ever this lucky; therefore, I decided we didn't have much time before Vlad caught up with us. He had a whole team of men at his disposal and some of his own clones. Wouldn't take them long to find us. I half expected Vlad or Diego to burst out of the next set of trees and tackle us to the ground. It was a bad feeling, and it was screwing up what was supposed to be excitement.

As the afternoon wore on, the jungle floor turned dark and miserably wet as a rain storm hit us. The forest floor had turned into a giant mud pit. If it was hard traversing the jungle when it was dry, it was ten times harder when the earth was mushy and soft underfoot. Every raindrop was fat and cold. The steady flow slowed us considerably. It came to a point where Taj and I could hardly see five feet in front of us.

Feeling like a pair of drowning rats, Taj and I pushed on through the rain. We couldn't afford to pause because of the sky's gloomy mood. We needed to find this place sooner than later. So we kept going and kept talking.

Pushing a lock of wet hair out of my face, I asked Taj above the downpour, "So...those nightmares people get when around you. Have any of them...um...well, come true?"

Taj glanced back at me, eyes studying my face closely as he pondered his answer. He kept his stare on me as he said cautiously, "I don't know. My mother never allowed me to wake her up when she had one, but she never woke up with anything physically permanent, if that's what you mean. Mentally? I'm...I'm afraid that's a different story."

Rubbing the place on my inner forearm as if it still hurt where I'd gotten branded in my dream, I watched Taj look down at his shoes as if his mind had been transported to an entirely different place. I felt guilty for asking him. The guy always looked so sad whenever he was reminded of his past.

Something suddenly stung my shoulder. Curing the pesky mosquitoes with a hiss, I lifted my hand to slap the nasty creature. I stopped just in time as I saw that it wasn't a bug that had attacked me. It was a tiny dart.

"Huh," I said, confused. How'd I get that?

"W-what's that?" Taj asked, having to shout fearfully over the rain as he pointed to the dart still lodged in my shoulder.

"I don't know," I said. Wincing, I pulled the little piece of sharp wood out of me and rolled it between my finger and thumb. Looking up at Taj, I pointed at him and exclaimed, "You have one too, dude. In your neck."

Alarmed, Taj lifted a tentative hand to feel the dart in his neck. That's when the powerful wave of dizziness hit me. It sent me straight to my butt. No warning. One moment I was standing and coherent; the next, I was sitting in the mud and hardly able to string a lucid thought together. I knew Taj was bending over me and yelling my name, but everything else wasn't making itself clear to me.

Then Taj's voice was gone. I knew he was nearby, but he had stopped talking. Despite the fact this kinda worried me, I kept sitting and staring ahead. It was all I could do in that state of muddled mind.

That's when our attackers revealed themselves. Slowly and silently, they came out from behind trees and ventured closer. They were natives to the land. It was obvious by their tan skin, dark hair, and lack of clothing material. Loin clothes and monkey tooth necklaces seemed to be the popular fashion trend. All of them were lithe, strong men who walked the jungle floor so swiftly and silently, I could have sworn they were half deer. There had to be a dozen or so of them. In seconds, they had Taj and I surrounded.

Fear spiked through me, clearing my head just enough for me to react when their leader pointed to the passed out Taj and ordered them to pick him up. "No. Don't...don't touch...him," I said slowly, latching onto one man's forearm. He grunted at me, throwing me off him as if I was a lame puppy. I landed ungracefully on my side, slipping on the pasty mud. A few men laughed at my unfortunate state.

Gasping for breath, I fought through my hazy head and managed to get to my unsteady feet. "No! Taj!" I cried out as I watched the men tie my friend up and began to carry him off into the jungle like some hunting trophy. "Let...let him go!"

Hands roughly grabbed me, preventing me from following Taj. I slipped on the mud in my struggle to get free and fell to the ground, practically bringing half the guys holding me down with me. Yelling at me in some strange language I'd never heard before, they yanked me back to my feet and held me upright as the leader stuck his curious face into mine.

His dark, narrowed eyes studied my face as if he was searching for something important in my mystified expression. His big, flat nose was covered with odd piercings. With a rough, calloused hand, he moved my head from side to side, grunting a few times as he saw something that interested him. I didn't know what the heck was going on. Panting, drenched in rainwater and mud, and shivering from the cold, all I could do was stare fearfully back.

Suddenly, the man said something, nodded, then shoved some kind of foul-smelling substance under my nose. All it took was one whiff of whatever it was and I was out. My limbs went lax, my head lolled backward, and I blacked out with the sound of the rain falling and the men's laughter still ringing in my ears.

Snap!

Blinking dizzily, I slowly woke up with some odd yet sickly sweet smell washing over my senses. I hate coming to. It's one of the worst feelings. The confusion, the feeling of vulnerability while you were out cold. Those are never good things, yet somehow I'd been experiencing the knocking out and coming to feeling quite a lot the past few days. Each time it was new. Each time it was horrible.

And they just kept on getting worse, by the looks of it.

Giving a groggy and dreaded groan, I decided to face whatever reality I'd been stuck with since passing out. Cracking my eyes open, I noticed that I was in some kind of clearing of a tribe village. In the distance were small, open huts on stilts with thatched roofs. The only beds were home-made hammocks.

Seemed like the whole tribe was there to watch me. Men, women, and children crowded around the small clearing of what looked like a center point of their village, talking in mumbles in their strange language as they pointed at me and someone to my side. A quick right glance and I noticed that an unconscious Taj was strung to a pole beside me. We were both tied to our poles with sturdy rope; one end was wrapped around our wrists, and the other end was attached to the top of the tall pole, making it so our arms were pulled above our heads.

The entire village scene and its people were like those beautiful pictures you see in National Geographic. The pictures seemed to be popping out of the magazine with all this exotic, untouched rainforest tribal stuff. The only difference was the fact that none of those pictures had ever captured the rawness and fear of my reality. Of course, none of those photographers were ever strung to a pole for some kind of voodoo BBQ ceremony or whatever.

I watched as the leader of the group that had captured us in the jungle walked up to Taj with some kind of rock in his hands. He lifted the stone to Taj's nose and broke it in half.

Snap!

With a groan, Taj slowly woke up and shook his fuzzy head. Painfully quick and sudden, things hit him, and his eyes snapped open in fear. In only seconds, he was gasping for breath as he wildly took in his surroundings. His face blanched when he spotted me in the same situation next to him.

"H-how long have I b-been out?" he asked shakily.

Testing my tight and secure binds around my wrists with a curse, I told him, "I don't know, man. I just woke up. I'm just as confused as you. All I know is that we gotta get out of here. Any ideas?"

Taj squeezed his eyes shut, trying to calm himself down with whatever yoga breathing techniques from before, but he quickly failed. "Oh, m-man," he breathed in anxiety. "You d-d-don't think they're cannibals, d-do you, D-danny?"

"Hey, ha ha, no! They...no. They can't be cannibals. Our luck isn't that bad. Don't think like that, Taj," I said with a nervous, unbelieving laugh. Taj shot me a look filled with alarm. He didn't believe me either. My stomach knotted so tightly in my fear and apprehension that I almost threw up. What if they really did plan to eat us? Just what had I gotten myself into?

Things turned for the worse as the leader guy from before started to make a speech to the tribe. I couldn't understand a thing except for the fact that he was very passionate about whatever he was talking on. I assumed it was about Taj and I since he kept pointing adamantly at us. The tribe people nodded in agreement, sometimes voicing it in loud shouts and cheers. Oh, this didn't look so good. Panicking sounded like a decent option at this point.

"Um...y-your ghost p-powers," Taj said, swallowing multiple times to keep his voice from shaking. "Can...um...can y-you use them?"

Grunting as I strained against the ropes biting painfully into my wrists, I glanced up in high hopes that I could see my watch and maybe be able to turn it. Why hadn't I changed it back to intangibility while I had the chance? Flying wasn't going to do much for me at the moment.

"Jeez, what are these guys? Boy scouts? My hands can hardly move," I grumbled in frustration. Wincing, I watched a lone drop of blood run down my arm as I tried one last time to maneuver my wrists. Shaking my head, I told Taj, "It's no use! I can't move!"

"Well, we need t-to th-think of something fast, Danny!" Taj shot back at me, "b-because I th-think that man's speech is ending s-soon!"

"I-I don't know!" I said frantically. "I don't know what to do!"

"Me neither!"

"Don't give me that, Taj! You have to have some trick up your butt! Like that purple gas from before!"

"Th-that was all I had! I-I'm all out!"

"Some help you are!" I shouted at him.

"Y-you're the one with g-ghost powers! Use them!" he spat scathingly back.

It was the first time I'd seen Taj get so visibly upset and frustrated. I didn't think he was capable of such emotion. Surprised and contrite for pushing him so far, I clammed up. Taj saw my expression and realized what he had just said. Guilt and regret washed over the teen's face as he opened his mouth to apologize.

I never let him say a word. There was no time.

"Taj! Look out!" I screamed.

While we had been going back and forth with each other like caged dogs, the leader had taken a knife from it's scabbard at his side and thrown his fist up in the air with a warrior battle cry. Turning to face us, the man had zeroed in on Taj, picking him as his first unlucky victim. The machete-like knife glinted as it reflected the blazing late afternoon sun as the man held the blade before him and walked purposefully toward Taj. That's when I had shouted my desperate warning.

Taj's head snapped around in fear, spotted his attacker with the knife, and seemed to freeze in panic. I had to watch helplessly as the leader advanced without hesitation or pity. He was going to kill Taj for whatever sick ritual this tribe performed on outsiders, and I was going to have to watch as my friend was murdered by this crazy rainforest tribe. Then it would be my turn to die. Overwhelmed with such terrible and frightening emotions, I was silent and transfixed as the leader prepared to stab Taj in the heart.

It happened so quick, I would have missed it if I had blinked. Taj waited for the last possible second to strike. At that perfect moment, he brought up his leg and deftly kicked the knife out of the man's hands. In that split second, I didn't see this world's Taj. The Taj I saw was from the nightmare world: cold, determined, and calculating. I'd never seen that look in his eyes in this world before. It was almost scary.

The knife flung out of the leader's hands and spiraled out into the screaming crowd who managed dodge out of the way. The man gave a sharp, painful yelp as his hand or wrist might have been fractured. Taj's kick looked pretty powerful.

"Whoa," I muttered as the entire area fell into an angry silence. Taj glanced at me, scared beyond belief. He knew that his one deed of defiance had only delayed the inevitable and brought upon us an unnecessary wrath. It was odd thinking about it because Taj didn't seem capable to go to such extremes, but he had just royally pissed everyone off. He had thrown a rock through the wasps' nest, and there was nowhere to run from the livid swarm.

We were dead meat.

Shouting harshly to each other in their strange language, the warriors who had brought Taj and I into the tribe unsheathed their knives and machetes. Their dark, narrowed gazes were on us. Swallowing hard with rising trepidation, I spotted the evil, black intent in their hearts. Our deaths weren't going to be quick and painless according to their murderous stares.

"Wait! I-I said wait!" I cried out desperately. "Can't we talk this out?"

My pleas were firmly ignored. No one paid me any heed. The warriors stepped with wicked purpose up onto the platform Taj's and my poles stood on, their weapons raised and ready as they came toward our hopeless, strung-up bodies. We felt like pigs ready to be slaughtered.

Frantically, Taj glanced around and summed up his opponents. From the despair displayed on his face, it was obvious he knew he wasn't going to survive. Fear and panic hung in the humid air. Sweat poured down my face and clung heavily to my clothes. When did breathing get so difficult? This couldn't be happening!

"No! No!" I screamed at the men. "Don't do this!" They were deaf. I could scream my throat raw and they still wouldn't hear me. No. We were going to be killed by these men, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Powerless. That's what I was. That's all I've always been and would ever be. Tears of frustration sprung to my eyes. Could this really be it? Would I really die here in this God forsaken rainforest? This entire damn jungle was a boiling hot, muggy pit of dark insanity. It was full of lies, hurt, betrayal, false hopes, loneliness, and death. I couldn't take it. I just couldn't take it anymore.

The warriors paused in mid-step, hesitation hovering over their hardened expressions. The entire tribe fell silent. While it was preventing us from getting stabbed to death, I couldn't help but think that whatever they were staring at would only bring Taj and I more trouble. Gritting my teeth in intensity, I snapped my head to the side to see what they were looking at. Before I could stop it, a gasp escaped me. Taj did the same.

An old woman stood between us. Her white hair was a stark contrast against her sun-baked dark skin with its many wrinkles. She wore dozens of necklaces with animal teeth and bones strung to them. Piercings covered her ears and face. Stretched and old tattoos covered her arms. She was probably shorter than me, but she looked rugged and experienced enough to kick anyone's butt who gave her the slightest bit of trouble. It were her eyes that stood out most of all, though. They were a frosty light blue. Like ice. When those two orbs settled on me, I felt oddly exposed, as if she was looking straight into my heart and beyond. It was more than just creepy.

She asked us in a faint, lilting voice that command respect, "What are you two boys doing here in my jungle? First you trespass, and now you've hurt one of my warriors. Why should I keep the both of you gringos alive. Hm? Speak up!"

Taj was too stunned to respond. Taking the initiative, I swallowed and said quietly, "You're the oracle, aren't you? We...uh...we came here for you."

The old lady stood back for a second and regarded me in a new light. I could feel as her eyes raked over my body and searched my face for all my secrets. Finally, she nodded and said in the same cadence, "You came to see me. Both of you. What could you possibly want to see in your future at such young ages? This is nonsense."

"Not me," I corrected her. "I was just helping him." I threw my head toward Taj, saying, "He came to see you. You have to understand. It's important! Please, believe me!"

A crinkled, toothy grin crept across the oracle's face. "Do not deny it, Danny Fenton," she said, her ice cold stare boring through me. How did she know my name? A shiver spiked up my spine. "You want to see your future as well. I haven't met any human who has not been tempted by its captivated spell. You want to see it, don't you? You want to know it?"

I didn't answer. Even if I wanted to, I don't think my voice would allow me. There was something in her eyes that tore the breath right out of my lungs and rendered me speechless. She was seeing things. Things that nobody should be allowed to see because they were solely mine. I knew this despite the lack of evidence. She was peeking into my life, my secrets, my memories. Everything I held captive in my mind was like an open book to her prying psychic fingers. It put every one of my nerves on edge, and yet I never stopped her. Like a hypnotized mouse caught in a snake's steady gaze, I stared back at the oracle without question.

I didn't know how she did it, but I suddenly understood that her ability to see the future relied heavily on her knowledge of the past. That meant she needed to see all of me. Although I hated every second of it, I let her take my past. She smiled the same knowing, toothy grin at me the entire time. She knew. She knew how much I despised that very moment.

Chuckling, the oracle came toward me. "For one so young, you have lived a very full life, Danny," she said with some relish. Her arms were covered with metal and leather bangles. They clinked together as she used her hands to say, "One foot in the spirit world, and the other in this one; yet you belong to none. Many hardships have come your way. They will continue to come if you stay on this path you have chosen to walk."

"Is that one of your predictions?" I scoffed quietly. There was something spooky about this woman. I didn't find her dangerous or anything, but her supernatural power was making me nervous. Maybe she had that effect on everyone.

"Ah, a perceptive one, aren't you? But no," she answered, chortling to herself like a delighted grandma. Her chuckles were gentle and velvety, matching her voice. "It is too unmistakable. Anyone could predict that life would give a caring hero such as yourself much suffering." She paused with her face close to mine before smiling again and adding, "But you already knew that."

My only response was a firm frown.

Lifting her frail, gnarled fingertips up to my face, the oracle said, "Be still and let the visions come, young one. Let us travel together. I will show you all that you want to see."

As the oracles fingertips were raised to my forehead, my chest tightened with fear. What if I didn't want to see my future? Was she going to give me that option? Did she ever consider that I'd rather blindly stumble along life instead of seeing who I might turn out to be? What if I failed in the future? What if I somehow became like Vlad? Evil? I wouldn't be able to take that. I didn't want to see myself become the villain!

Closing her eyes, the oracle whispered breathlessly to me, "Yes. Yes, it is frightening, young one. But do not be afraid. It does not hurt...much."

With a nefarious cackle, she touched my forehead. Instantly, the world spun and darkened. Her haunting chuckles echoed throughout my head. It felt like I was falling. Just falling and falling. There was no end to the plummeting feeling into nothing. After a few minutes of this strange sensation, I let myself relax a little. That's when the visions came.

They flashed so fast across my mind's eye, I couldn't catch more than half of them. I saw myself fighting more ghosts in the future, hanging out with my friends, and sleeping in class many times. I saw Sam's angry face as she argued with me about something important. Then she was kissing me. I wanted to hang onto that vision in my future, but it quickly passed. A crowd cheering for me. I was in college. More ghost battles. Lots of stress. There was one vision where I saw myself half dead. That scared me. Yet Sam and Tucker were always there by my side. Especially Sam. That scared me too, but in a good way.

Then the visions started to speed up. I couldn't make out what any of them meant, they were going too fast. Desperately, I tried to slow the reel down and hang onto it all. The more I fought it, the quicker the images slipped through my brain. There was marriage. To whom, I couldn't tell. More ghosts and even people to fight. Lots of pain. Struggling. Hardships. Then kids. And...happiness. Lots of it. Joy.

Although I didn't see the visions that were connected to these emotions, I could still feel exactly what I was going to experience in the future at different times. The hurt was always balanced by delight. There were two sides to my superhero future. I was going to face a lot of suffering in the future...but also a lot of happiness.

As if a heavy burden had been lifted off my shoulders, I released a heavy sigh and opened my eyes, slowly returning to reality. The oracle had removed her fingers from my forehead. Her crinkled face smiled again up at me. For once, she didn't look so creepy.

"If this is the path you choose to take, Danny Fenton, then be aware of these three things," the old lady said. She raised up three knotty fingers to emphasize her point. "First, there will be many times where you will save more than just one world. Everything you are is connected. Remember that. Second, your daughter will be just like you. Let her make mistakes. Like you, she has to learn the hard way. Lastly," she finished as she gently cupped my chin in her hand and said with a faint smile, "Even without physical power, you are never powerless."

A/N: Next chapter, Taj's prediction. Yay! It will be...a fun one, to say the least. Lots of good stuff planned for next chapter. I can't wait to start writing it! Well, I need to get homework done. Thanks for reading! I'll update next weekend!