Unplanned

The drive to Vlad's mansion went by far quicker than Danny had expected. Knowing his friends, he expected the a-listers' addition to be disastrous at best. Danny was, however, pleasantly surprised. After recent events, it seemed like the only thing that mattered at the moment was who they sided with. Seeing as everyone was there to help Danny, the group ended up gelling pretty quickly.

"Wait a second, he did what?" Paulina sputtered, concealing a laugh with a bite of the lip.

"Yeah, he froze his hands together," Sam finished her story about the time Danny accidentally overused his ice powers and it got the best of him.

"We don't have to talk about it," Danny grumbled next to his girlfriend.

"Oh, we absolutely do," Sam teased, smiling at him with playful glint in her eyes.

"That's too good," Paulina snorted, hands flying up to cover her mouth as soon as she realized what she'd done. After a split second of silence, all the teams burst out laughing, including Jazz and Valerie, who were in the front of the Speeder.

"Lina, I didn't know you snort when you laugh!" Kwan joked, wiping his eyes quickly as he finally stopped laughing.

"Shut up! It's not even that big a deal," Paulina huffed, crossing her arms in front of her.

"Well I think it's adorable," Star cooed, throwing her arms around her girlfriend and planting a kiss on her cheek. Paulina sank into her touch, a slight blush creeping to her cheeks.

"We're here!" Jazz called from the front seat, drawing everyone else's attention.

Vlad's mansion was still untouched — most likely because the GIW was otherwise occupied — so it was easy to get in. Tucker reset the alarms once Jazz parked the Speeder underground, and everyone met in the main dining hall with their luggage.

"So...you guys just...lived here for a while?" Kwan asked Danny as they entered the hall. The jock looked around with wide eyes, taking in the rich, intricate design.

"Yeah, I guess," Danny chuckled nervously. "I mean, it was more training than anything else, and only for a few weeks."

"That's..." Kwan looked around, mouth agape in awe.

"...Weird?"

"No, I was gonna say so fucking cool dude!" Kwan exploded, voice startling Danny into an awkward chuckle.

"Yeah, I guess..."

"Just set your stuff down anywhere, we can figure out rooms again after," Jazz's voice echoed across the massive hall, grabbing everyone's attention. "We should really sit down and talk about...and plan, I guess."

Danny followed his sister's lead, sitting down and watching as his friends followed. Dash and Kwan sat next to one another, across from Paulina and Star. Jazz was seated next to Valerie, who's side she hadn't left since they'd arrived. That left Danny, Sam, and Tucker to take the head of the massive rounded table, the two mortal teens flanking the halfa.

"So...what do we do now?" Paulina was the first to speak as soon as the teens were all settled. All attention turned to Danny, causing him to tense up in surprise. His sister sent him a reassuring nod, which helped ease some of the tension in his chest.

"Um...we train. I'm going to go into the Ghost Zone and do some investigating, which should—" Danny started his response.

"Wait, you're going into the Ghost Zone?" Sam cut him off, brows drawn together in concern. "By yourself?"

"Uh, yeah. Dan's been up to something and I have to figure out what," Danny answered in a low tone.

"We need to discuss this kind of stuff," Sam's voice grew strained, a bit of anger leaking through. "You can't just make decisions like that."

"I didn't make the decision alone," Danny's cores clenched at that, reminding him of Sam's words towards Phantom. "Phantom and I decided this is what needs to happen."

Sam opened her mouth to respond, only for the words to die in her throat. She looked down at her hands in her lap, clenching tight until the knuckles went white. "Yeah. Fine."

"Woah, what's up with you two? A little lover's quarrel?" Paulina asked, raising an eyebrow with a smirk.

"We're not—!" Sam started before taking a deep breath. "We're not fighting. It's fine. Let's just...ok, so we're training, then. I guess."

Danny looked over at his girlfriend, who's gaze was now fixed to her hands. He wanted to say something to make it better, but the words refused to come to him. After a few more moments of silence, Kwan cleared his throat, bringing Danny back to the moment.

"So, we train? That's all?" Kwan asked Danny, uncertainty flashing in his eyes.

"That's all we do for now," Danny explained, throwing Sam one more worried look before turning back to Kwan. "Dan is planning something, even if we don't know what. We have to be ready at any moment to leave, or to go help. It's only a matter of time before the media catches wind of what happened last night, and we can't let them spin it for the worst."

"How do we do that?" Star asked, leaning forward on her elbows. "I mean, if they want to paint you as a monster, what can we do to stop it?"

An idea broke over Danny's head, washing over him along with a small grin. "That's what I need you and Paulina to focus on. You guys know more about social media than the rest of us combined. Think you can do something with that?"

Both Star and Paulina's eyes lit up, their heads bobbing in affirmation. "Oh, we're on it," Paulina said as she grabbed her phone from her pocket, Star following suit.

"We also need to keep in touch with Amity Park to make sure they're not falling apart, Danny hesitated for a moment before making up his mind. "Kwan, Dash, you guys have been on the board the entire time. Can you keep in contact with Meg and Wes? Or...uh I guess whoever ends up in charge?"

"Dude, whatever you need, Dash and I've got it," Kwan flashed Danny a toothy grin and gave him two thumbs up. Dash, on the other hand, looked at Kwan for a few moments before turning away quickly, cheeks and ears tinted red.

"What about the rest of us?" Valerie asked quietly, and Danny realized with a start that that was the most he'd heard her speak all day.

"We'll...we'll keep training. And planning. The more I know about Dan's plan, the more we can figure out what to do," Danny explained, watching Valerie nod wordlessly.

"Let's get to bed," Jazz yawned. "I'm exhausted."

"Uh, it's only, like, five," Paulina chuckled, stopping when Jazz sent her a serious glance.

"We've been up pretty much all night," Jazz sighed, rubbing her eyes before looking back to the younger teen. "Make yourselves at home, just don't take any of our rooms."

With that, Jazz left, followed by Valerie and Tucker, who headed towards their respective rooms.

"We should talk," Sam grabbed Danny's arm before he had the chance to walk away. "I'm sorry about what I said."

"Yeah. I know," Danny tried to shake Sam's hand off, only for her to hold on tighter.

"Hey, I'm serious. I really—"

"Look!" Danny pulled his arm through Sam's hand with his intangibility, taking a step away. "I don't want to talk about this right now, ok? I- there's already so much that- with Dan and—"

"Danny," Sam tried unsuccessfully to calm him down.

"No," Danny could feel himself beginning to unravel, but he didn't care at the moment. "This is all too much. I can't- do you even know what Dan did tonight? He- he took Phantom and before I could get him back he—"

"Shh, Danny it's alright—" Sam started to cut in.

"No, it's not!" Danny yelled, the lightbulbs above them shattering inside the massive domed lighting unit, keeping the glass from falling on them. Electricity sparked over his skin, ice lingering on his fingertips. "I lost Phantom and then he- Dan attacked my- my cores again. It's too much, and it hurt so bad."

Silence fell between them, Danny's ragged breaths slowing as the ice and electricity was pulled back into his body.

"I'm sorry I got so mad," Danny sighed, breath falling with his heavy chest. "Please say something."

"I don't know what," Sam looked up at the light fixture before turning scared eyes back to Danny. "I'm sorry."

"Sam—"

"I think you should sleep in your own room tonight," Sam covered her mouth as she turned towards the hallway and ran.

"Wait—!"

"Hey, let her go," Paulina grabbed Danny's arm before he could run after his girlfriend. He willed the electricity dancing over his skin to stay away from her, letting out a sigh of relief when it obeyed.

"I got so mad. I shouldn't have done that," Danny shook her arm away, rubbing the back of his neck. He let out a sharp groan when his scar throbbed under his fingers, cores twisting painfully in his chest.

"Are you ok?" she asked, taking a small step back. "Danny...you don't look so well."

"Yeah, well I'd like to see how well you'd look after- after..." Danny trailed off, looking down at his bandaged arm warily. "I should get some rest."

Paulina took a second before nodding slowly. "Yeah, ok. Well, if you need anything, Star and I will probably be hanging out in the living room. Or one of them? Damn, this place is big," Paulina chuckled at that, the small laugh dying off when she realized Danny wasn't laughing along. "Um, ok. Well, goodnight, Danny."

"Yeah, goodnight," Danny grumbled, turning around and storming off to an empty room.

"So, what's going on with the dorks?" Kwan sat down on the couch in one of the many living rooms next to Dash. Star and Paulina were cuddled up on the sofa across from them, both scrolling on their phones.

"Hey, be nice," Paulina snapped back, not even looking up from her phone. "There's a lot going on right now."

"Well, yeah," Kwan laughed, throwing his arms over the top of the couch. He didn't miss the blush that came from Dash when his fingertips brushed his shoulder, his own ears tinting themselves red in response. "But what about Fenton and Manson? Are they fighting or something?"

"Yeah, something like that..." Paulina trailed off, finally looking up from her phone. "I don't know. Danny's pretty upset."

"About what? I thought they were doing fine," Star mumbled, snuggling closer to her girlfriend.

"I don't know..." Paulina shrugged, looking down at her phone. "And honestly, it's none of our business."

"Wow, that's a first," Dash chuckled, shaking his head a bit.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Paulina asked, glancing up with ice cold eyes.

"Well, coming from you, it's just surprising to hear," Dash shot back, crossing his arms against his chest and leaning farther back into the couch.

"Why you—" Paulina put down her phone and shifted in her spot, only to cut herself off. The other teens looked around, Star opening her mouth to speak when Paulina held up her hand. "Shh, do you hear that?"

In the hallway outside the living room, light footsteps echoed dully. The a-listers fell silent, listening to whoever was out there.

"...can't believe she said that," Valerie's voice bounced into the living room.

"I know. I'm sorry," Jazz responded, the footsteps stopping just short of the living room. They must have stopped walking.

"It's just- I just- Jazz...what do I do?" Valerie sobbed, sniffles echoing louder than her words.

"Oh, hey, come here," Jazz cooed, words gentle and soothing. "This will work out, I promise. Hey, trust me, ok? You're doing great, even though everything is falling apart. You're ok."

The teens listened as the sniffling ceased slowly, Jazz's hushed mumbling drew quieter and quieter until it was just a hum, low and soothing.

"Hey, are you—" Jazz's voice was cut off, a small squeak of surprise following shortly. Paulina and Star perked up, hardly restraining themselves from peaking around the corner.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry I can't believe I just—" Valerie began to ramble breathlessly.

"Hey, uh, it's fine," Jazz chuckled tensely, the sound of shifting feet filling the otherwise silent space.

"I should—"

"Yeah, me too."

And with that, footsteps echoed in opposite directions, leaving Dash, Kwan, Star, and Paulina alone again in shocked silence.

"Woah, hold on a second, what just happened?" Kwan asked, looking between Star and Paulina, who were both looking at one another with excited expressions.

"They totally—!" Star started.

"Hey! Let's go to bed, yeah?" Paulina cut in, looking between the boys and her girlfriend.

"But—"

"But we can talk about it in private, where it belongs, right?" Paulina sent another pointed look to Star, realization washing her face.

"Oh! Yeah, for sure," Star got up, helping Paulina up as well and turning back to the boys. "See you guys tomorrow, bye!"

Paulina grabbed Star's hand, leading her out of the living room and giggling quietly.

"Well that was..." Dash trailed off, shifting a bit in his seat.

"Weird?" Kwan offered a small chuckle, spurring one in Dash as well.

"Yeah, weird for sure."

"Hey, listen buddy," Kwan turned fully to Dash now, eyes falling to the ground. "About earlier today—"

"No worries," Dash rushed out, turning away from his friend. "I mean, uh, forget about it. It was an accident, so, let's just pretend nothing happened."

"...That's really how you feel? It was an accident?" Kwan asked slowly, eyes coming up from the ground to meet Dash's face.

"Yeah. Totally," Dash closed his eyes, attention still turned away. "Seriously. Let's forget about it."

"Yeah," Kwan gulped, turning away and blinking misting eyes. "Ok."

Hey all! What do you think?

First of all, thank you so much for your continued patience - this story is really important to me and still one I'd like to continue, but the stress of a regular posting schedule was honestly a bit much for me at this point, so posting whenever a chapter is done is going to be how it goes for a while.

I'm so so excited for everyone to meet the secondary villain. I've already gotten a few good guesses, but I won't tell who it is quite yet ;)

Thank you to my amazing reviewers, as well as to anyone who favorites, follows, and reads! Ya'll are so amazing!

Until next time,

~Ash