The shield protecting Amity Park began to crack like broken glass. The cracks echoed deeply and loudly over the entire town, stretching over it like a spiderweb.
People screamed in horror and ran to find cover, hoping that they would be protected. Children cried in fright as their parents rushed them to safety.
Tucker shielded his face as his beret flew off of his head, due to the powerful gust of wind that had begun. "The shield's breaking!" he shouted in terror. "Danny's Ghost Shield is BREAKING!"
"Mom, you've got to put another one up!" Jazz insisted frantically, pulling on her mother's arm. "You need to put another Ghost Shield up!"
"I can't, Jazz, we don't have enough power to make one this big!" Maddie replied worriedly. "And even if we did, we'd never put it up in time before Danny's is destroyed!"
Sam watched as people panicked around her and then thrust her arms around Tucker for safety, just as he did the same with her. "If this goes bad, Tucker, I just want you to know that I'll always be grateful you were one of my best friends!" she shouted over the wind. "I know it sounds sappy but it's true!"
"Right now, I don't think anything can sound sappy, Sam," Tucker replied. "Not even if coming from a goth." He held her tightly and shut his eyes. "I'm glad you and Danny were my best friends too. You would have made a great environmentalist."
Sam opened her eyes and looked up at the shield through Tucker's arms. Tears of fear filled her eyes. "Danny, please save us," she whispered through sobs before burying her face in Tucker's shirt again.
Danny stared in sheer horror as his shield continued to crack like ice on a flowing river. "No, it can't be," he whispered as tears filled his eyes.
The Ghost Keeper chuckled evilly, catching his attention. "Oh, yes, Daniel," he said lowly. "I told you that the destruction of your town would be of your doing. They would have been fine, had Danny Phantom never returned. It's all your fault. If you destroy me, you destroy everything you love..."
This last word echoed for long seconds in Danny's head. He raised his eyebrows in revelation as he finally understood what he had been doing wrong the entire time:
Dash beating him up; Paulina accusing him; Sam getting attacked by the Ghost Keeper; Jasmine taking an embarrassing picture; frustration at not controlling an ultimate power; a ghost who wanted to destroy his home…
Anger. Anger had been the dominant emotion in those times. Danny had used his hate and anger to fuel his Ultimate Control, making it accessible and powerful; but also deadly. He could gain complete control over any living being or any object, and order them to go where he pleased. He could control any ghost, any human, and use them to do his will.
But that was what he had been doing wrong the entire time; Danny could only think of how much hate and anger he had within him, that all he wanted to do was destroy whatever had caused his emotions to bubble in the first place. This made his Ultimate Control reachable, but he did not control it; his emotions did, and that's what was causing its power to grow, hit the ghost shield and cause it to crack.
Danny searched for a moment to find any other way to activate his power, and then finally, like the light of a new day, the answer dawned upon him, almost making him feel foolish and ashamed to not have thought of it earlier:
Tucker and Sam, coming home every year just in the hopes of seeing their best friend again; his parents and Jazz, rejoicing on having the youngest family member return home; the late nights out with his best friends; the intimate moments with Maddie and Jazz; the encouragement of his ghost rivals; the encouragement given by Tucker…
And the kiss… the kiss that changed his entire life in one split second… the kiss that was delivered by the very last person Danny ever expected to want to kiss him again… the kiss… that made the only other emotion, powerful enough to overcome anger, to finally burst out from his caged up heart and explode throughout his entire body.
"We love you, Danny," Tucker had said to him; "More than you'll ever know…"
Danny felt his heart fill with more determination and a new emotion settled in it. It pushed away the heat that anger had left there and replaced it with an even greater warmth, one that was enough to break through both his human and ghost forms. Danny shut his eyes tightly, clenched his teeth and shouted out loudly as the newfound energy within him exploded and thrust his entire body into a bright halo of white light.
The Ghost Keeper looked on in complete bewilderment and shielded his eyes as Danny's light expanded as far as it could possible go. "What?" he said in shock, uncovering his face.
Danny floated slowly towards him and only stopped when a few dozen feet separated them from each other. He frowned gravely, his eyes glowing with white light, and clenched his fists tightly.
"How is this possible?" the Ghost Keeper gasped. "How can you be controlling this power with so much ease? It's not possible!"
"It is possible," Danny replied. "You see, there's just one thing that you never figured out, Ghost Keeper; one emotion that can overrule Anger: and that's love. Nothing is more powerful than that."
Danny raised a hand and pointed it at the Ghost Keeper. "Don't move," he ordered.
The Ghost Keeper gasped again as he felt his entire body go stiff, almost as if a powerful chain had him tied in place. He tried breaking free but found that he could not, especially after Danny placed a glowing white forcefield around him.
Danny pointed at the town down below without looking away from the Ghost Keeper and then raised his hand. Out from the ghost shield rose several ghost weapons that the army left behind, even some of his parents' artillery. With glowing haloes of white light around them, they rose up and pointed at the Ghost Keeper, ready to fire on Danny's command.
The ghost Keeper growled at Danny. Danny narrowed his eyes and pointed at him. "Fire," he said incredibly calmly.
Every weapon there immediately began to fire at the Ghost Keeper. He yelled in horrible pain, as though he had never felt pain like this before. He tried to break free, using all of his powers that he possessed, but they only rebounded off of the forcefield Danny had placed around him and injured the Ghost Keeper.
After several seconds of weakening him, Danny raised a hand and all weapons ceased to fire. The Ghost Keeper, now incredibly weak, looked up at the ghost before him.
Danny smiled boldly in reply. "How does it feel to be attacked by a thousand ghosts?" he asked.
"You fool," the Ghost Keeper hissed. "You don't know how much energy you are spoiling to perform these stunts."
Danny glared in reply. "Maybe not," he said, creating a white orb of light in his hands. He pulled his arms back, as though he was about to throw a large ball. "But at least I know that my family will be safe from the likes of you."
With that, he threw his arms forward and shot an incredibly large and powerful ectoblast at the Ghost Keeper. Upon impact, the Ghost Keeper hollered in horrible pain. His body became haloed in several layers of white light.
Danny bared his teeth as he forced out as much power as he could, only thinking of protecting his family. The more the Ghost Keeper weakened, the more the world around them faded in and out to Earth.
I'd better do this fast, Danny thought. Before the ghost shield gives away!