Disclaimer: I own nothing from Danny Phantom

Chapter 35: Rivalry

(Chapter inspired by Circus by Britney Spears)

Vlad's POV

"Nice going horn-head," Samson frowned, climbing back into bed since he was still a bit under the weather which would explain the delay in embracing his dear friend Danielle despite feeling just as relieved that she was safe. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to get Trish to come see me by herself today? She has a serious case of Nosocomephobia, aka fear of hospitals, and she's already stressed out as it is since Trish had to cover for me AND Dani after we stopped Freakshow. Not the best time to be making jokes dude even if it was to lighten the mood."

With a shrug, I replied, "In my defense, I was completely unaware of that so from now on I will refrain from doing such childish things in the future. With any luck, we won't have to mingle very often anyway, least of all under circumstances such as this." Turning to look him in the eye, hands behind my back, I continued curtly, "At any rate, I'd like to correct your earlier assumption that I 'ditched you' in the woods after our previous encounter. Do not misunderstand me, unlike Danielle I am under no obligation to protect nor help you or anyone else but I did so anyway for her sake, not yours. I also took some valuable time out of my search efforts to lead the search party to your location before returning my attention to a more serious matter, which was Danielle's safety. Be grateful for that, otherwise, it would have taken them that much longer to find you. Also, I think we can both agree that bringing Danielle back while she had amnesia would have proven disastrous for all concerned considering how many enemies she has."

"Fine fine I get the picture," he huffed, still eyeing me warily. "Is Dani ok now though? She seems kinda nervous which is unlike her. No matter how serious the situation she always tries to keep things lighthearted to make things less stressful on the rest of us. She's usually not so...apologetic. Dani has to know that what happened wasn't her fault. Freakshow's been controlling ghosts for years from what I can tell so this was something we weren't prepared to deal with. The last ghost we faced with any sort of hypnotic powers was Ember but she used sound waves, not magic. I just wish I knew what kind it was that controlled her. Necromancy maybe?"

I raised an eyebrow, surprised that Samson was so knowledgeable about magic, but then again he WAS a Goth meaning he probably liked dressing in all black and reading ghost stories in the dead of night by candlelight. That is until Samson here learned that some of them might be real. Just as he would soon learn that most forms of magic are real which brought up my next point...

Rolling my eyes, I corrected, "No, it was blood magic. That staff was created through some sort of ritual by his family many generations ago and thus it was bound to his bloodline. However, once those ghosts killed him it's power died with him. Shattering it would have only weakened the effects on her mind, not remove them. As a ghost though, Freakshow's spells need HUMAN blood to work, ectoplasm won't work. At least not that I'm aware of. But he does seem to have this misguided belief that since Danielle's blood contains both it'll somehow grant him more power if he can perform another ritual to forge a new one to control her with."

"How do you know Freakshow was murdered by ghosts?" Samson asked, still highly suspicious of me.

Smart boy, but alas...not smart enough to outwit me. I thought to myself before audibly scoffing, "I have my sources. That's all you need to know. But the point is, while we did come to warn you of the danger and let you know she is safe, Danielle is in grave danger here so for the time being she'll have to stay with me."

His eyes widened and Samson protested, "Are you crazy?! Dani can't just up and leave! Her parents are beside themselves and her brother is barely keeping it together either. And what are we going to do if another ghost attacks while she's gone? Dani has a life too you know and we have school!"

My eyes flashing brighter red I snarled, "Of course she can. Danielle's safety should always come first, not last as it often does here so the rest of you can go on with your merry lives and leave all the heavy lifting to her! As for ghost attacks, well, maybe if Jack and Maddie were any good at their so-called JOB as ghost hunters Danielle wouldn't have to fight them all by herself night after night."

"That's not your decision to make horn-head, it's Dani's," Samson growled, undeterred by my anger. "And we both know that unlike you she DOES care about people other than herself."

"Oh?" I sneered, lazily lifting the medical board at the end of his bed before letting it drop. "You think this is about me? That I'm 'keeping' her from coming back? Well, you're wrong my boy; I came here to warn you and Miss Foley because it was what Danielle wanted. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered. I only care about HER happiness, HER safety, which is a lot more than I can say for you and your other little friend since you often selfishly accuse Danielle of prioritizing fighting ghosts over spending time with you. But do you know the real reason why she fights ghosts? Danielle fights them to SURVIVE and she does it to keep YOU safe! As a result, Danielle constantly puts her dreams and her personal life on hold anyway whether she's physically here in Amity Park or not. She sacrifices EVERYTHING for you people, and what does Danielle get in return? Nothing. Absolutely nothing! So excuse me for putting her needs before my own since no one else seems to be stepping up..."

"Ok that's it, you wanna go asshole? What's your deal anyway? You sound like some sort of jealous-!?" Whatever Samson was about to say was abruptly cut off when I felt hot air pass through my nostrils as my ghost sense went off and I whirled around, forming a shield around us just as several small ghosts attacked from all sides, their sights set on him.

I recognized this lesser specters! They belonged to that tattooed ghost, Lydia! But that could only mean- "Danielle! Damn it, it was a ruse after all!"

With a few well-aimed attacks, I easily disposed of them and immediately expanded my powers to try and sense Danielle's presence once the coast was clear. I had no way of knowing if Danielle was under attack yet or not but the fastest way to alert her if her ghost sense hadn't gone off was to set off the fire alarm so I scanned the roof for the nearest sprinkler-head and obliterated it with a blast of ecto-energy fire. Soon after the alarms started blaring and everything fell into chaos as the doctors and nurses and another hospital personal rushed to evacuate as many patients as they could in this wing of the hospital where the supposed fire was.

"What the hell did you do?!" Samson, exclaimed, rushing to his feet again but sagging against the wall, coughing as thin wisps of smoke wafted his way.

"What I had to. Danielle's out there by herself and this was the quickest way to alert her to the danger. I KNEW coming here was a bad idea, I should have-" Shaking my head I dismissed those pointless thoughts and teleported out of the room just before one of the doctors burst in to 'save' Samson from the fire. As for me, I had more important things to worry about such as rescuing Danielle...

Danielle's POV

By the time Trish stopped running to catch her breath, we were nearly back near the entrance again so it was obvious she had fully intended to bolt once her courage failed her. I felt really bad for doing this but I couldn't be seen so I overshadowed Trish just long enough to duck into a nearby supply room where I exited her body, turned visible again, and hugged my friend. "It's ok Trish, I'm right here ok? Just take a deep breath and pretend we're in the janitor's closet at school instead of the hospital..."

Nodding, Trish tried to calm herself down and closed her eyes and kept muttering 'not a hospital' over and over until she managed to convince herself and opened her eyes. She blinked a few times, adjusting to the soft glow of my ghost form before glancing around for a light switch and waiting til I unwrapped my arms from around her to turn it on. Trish wasn't normally afraid of the dark either but right now, everything set her on edge. The smells, the sounds, everything about this place brought up terrifying memories for Trish, memories I could only imagine since mine were still hazy, but she eventually calmed down enough to sit down on an unused gurney and I floated up slightly to sit down beside her til she was ready to talk to me.

On a whim though, I rubbed the back of my head and laughed nervously, "Sorry about overshadowing you. I wasn't sure how else to get you to stop without being seen. I'm especially sorry about what Vlad did. That was uncalled for and not the best time to mess around."

"Yeah, no kidding..." Trish sniffled, "Is he always like that?"

Deflating a bit I admitted, "I...don't really know. Like I said I can't remember things very clearly right now. My guess is that Vlad took what I said on our way here to heart about making jokes to make things seem less serious. I didn't mean for him to spook you like that. And you know me, I can't pull off spooky even if I tried!" I smiled weakly, nudging her shoulder.

Turning to look at me, in a dead serious voice, Trish said, "You're wrong there. When Freakshow took control of you you were plenty creepy Dani. It was scary seeing you act like that but we both knew it wasn't you. I'm glad you're back though. Sam and I didn't know what to do when we heard you were still missing. And when I saw that news report..." grabbing my shoulders suddenly, she asked fearfully, "Dani, tell me the truth...is there any chance that YOU might have killed Freakshow while still under his 'turn-evil' spell? I know you'd never hurt anyone on purpose but-"

"No, it wasn't me...I promise you that," I told her, internally flinching at the memory of seeing Freakshow's death now that I knew it was Vlad's doing. But a promise was a promise so instead, I only told her a half-truth. "After Vlad found me, I had this strange sort of...vision where it was like I was still connected to his power and was compelled to go defend Freakshow but it already was too late. Not long after I had another dream only Freakshow was actually talking to me and told me his plans. Not a very smart move but Freakshow he...he did confirm that he is in fact dead. And he wants to use my blood to make a new staff so he can control me with it again to get back at his killer. Part of me still didn't want to believe it was real but after hearing that news report..."

I trailed off, unable to bring myself to say anymore but that seemed to be enough for Trish and her shoulders relaxed as she let go of my shoulders, sighing with relief. "Oh thank god. I knew you'd never do something like that even when under some kind of freaky spell but I just wanted to hear you say it. Anyways I'm sorry your memories are still kinda screwed up. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Smiling, I told her, "I'm sure once we kick Freakshow's ass it'll all come back to me, don't worry. The best way you can help me right now is by keeping a low profile and staying safe until Vlad and I sort this all out. Then we can worry about jogging my memory if there's still a problem. But now that you guys at least know what's going on we can form some kind of plan to lure Freakshow's ghost out into the open. We might have to capture Lydia first to do that though and I have a feeling he might send her after you or Sam at some point. I was worried that's why she was so close to the hospital but Vlad reminded me that the train tracks are just southwest of here. Either way, we need to be careful."

Trish nodded, the all too familiar determined glint returning to her eyes as she declared haughtily with a smirk, "Don't worry Dani, we'll hold down the fort til you get back! Then we'll worry about getting the rest of your memories back! I'm just glad you seem like your old self again. Did being near Vlad really have that much of an effect on you?"

I blushed, unsure of what she was implying and coughed into my fist, looking anywhere but at her face, "You could say that. I mean, the only thing I could sort of remember was that I was half-ghost so when I met another one who seemed to know me it seemed to spark some sort of reaction and helped me remember enough to get by. I'm hoping once we get rid of Freakshow again things will go back to normal and I can hang out with you and Sam again and do all the stuff we used to do together."

Laughing nervously herself, Trish began toying with her hair and asked, "It doesn't have to be 'exactly' the same does it?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, tilting my head in confusion.

"I mean like, do we have to go patrol EVERY night or can we take breaks as long as they don't hurt anyone? Or better yet, can we just take a break from it altogether?" she asked as if it was something we could just 'stop doing' which made me frown a bit.

When she continued speaking though, it made more sense why Trish felt that way because she started rubbing her arms after a chill ran up her spine and she explained, "Dani, I know this is kind of your thing now since you have ghost powers but this time what happened really freaked me out. It...reminded me of how dangerous ghosts can be. Not that I'm scared of YOU! But other ghosts...like Vlad for example, they're bad news."

"Wait, why are you saying that Vlad is bad news?" I asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Girl, have you SEEN the way he looks at you? It reminds me way too much of the ravenous way Freakshow kept looking at you as he ordered you to attack us. His eyes looked crazed and possessive and while not as intense as Freakshow's eyes I get the same vibes from Vlad. Also, he kept staring at Sam like a wolf with his hackles up, guarding his...mate." She blushed a bit at the last remark and all the color drained from my face.

Oh god...does she know that we've- I began thinking fearfully when suddenly the fire alarm went up and instinctively I leap to my feet, charging my hands with ecto-energy and no sooner had I done so when my actual ghost sense went off. Seconds later a somewhat familiar presence made my heart start to reverberate painfully in my chest before a shudder swept through me as Freakshow's voice echoed in my head as he said-

Miss me my pet? Then we both heard actual laughter before I was violently yanked backward through the wall and just barely registered Trish calling out my name before the wall blocked out her voice and I was thrown outside into the open air. It took me a minute or two to reorient myself but when I did, my eyes caught sight of a certain red cloak as it floated past me and when I looked up...

...I saw Freakshow's ghost form for the first time.