Hello and welcome back! Thanks to my reviewers!

Previously In The Love We Had Before: Despite Danny's desperation for a reconnection, Sam's homecoming isn't everything he hoped it would be, as the couple finds themselves in an argument.

Author's Note: This chapter is brought to you by "Breathe" by Greenwheel.

Chapter Twelve

After the fifth attempt at trying to get her brother to talk to her, Jazz ended up letting herself into his bedroom. But a part of her had expected his silence meant he wasn't just ignoring her, he wasn't actually there, and she was right; his room was dark and empty. She also theorized that he hadn't left the house and had gone back to the routine he'd committed to most of the summer: keeping himself distracted by working on Lyra.

The idea for Lyra had first come into conception back when Danny was a few years younger and his ghostly encounters in space had triggered a series of creative ideas involving astronomical travel and exploration. With the aid of the Infi-Map, the Spectre-Speeder, and a jetpack "borrowed" from Axiom Labs, they'd ventured as far they'd dared but he'd craved more.

So Lyra and Vega were born, two sides of the same coin. Jazz had viewed the blueprints firsthand, Danny's excitement at sharing them contagious. Their parents had eagerly gone along with it, helping him to find the materials and tools needed to make his dream a reality. All summer, he'd worked with Maddie, Jack, and occasionally Tucker to design the perfect yin-and-yang of spaceships. They'd spent hours upon hours, creating, honing, refining and sometimes lying on top of the Op-Center, stargazing and trying to come up with purposes and names for each ship.

Lyra, named after the constellation of a lyre, had been Sam's idea. Lyra had been designed to withstand damage for bigger, riskier missions. It was more of the warship variety, with lots of ghostly weaponry attached. Vega, named after Danny's favorite star, was built for speed and stealth, whether it be getting away from a strange new space ghost or having a little fun racing through the vast universe. Vega was supposed to be engineered second, after they'd tested Lyra enough times to document experimental runs. Lyra, however, was way ahead of schedule in its design.

But Jazz had never witnessed the final product with her own eyes, just bits and pieces here and there. She'd tried to stay out of his way, as he'd become very determined to get it done as fast as he could. Now it was almost finished and Danny's workspace - which had been built atop the ops center for launching purposes - was crammed packed with the space exploration vehicle. The spaceship itself was about eight hundred feet wide and fifteen feet tall, smaller than most NASA vessels, but adequate for what they'd need for their own personal missions.

The ship was beautifully crafted, from the shiny aluminum and titanium-alloyed metal exterior to the cozy, passenger-suited interior. There were four chairs inside the craft and they all looked comfortable despite the harnesses and safety straps. Touches of Maddie and Jack Fenton existed in some places, but she could tell this was Danny's baby, his pride and joy. She recognized Danny's tedious planning, from the bright, practically glowing layout of the control panel to the ghost shielding on the internal panelling. Right down to the small crate of snacks nailed down next to the pilot's chair, which Danny himself was sitting in now.

Jazz, who had crept as quietly as she could up to the roof of the Ops Center, stood staring up at the ship. The orbiter and rocket boosters had been attached and were readily docked and waiting on the external fuel tank, so currently the shuttle itself was hovering vertically instead of horizontally and Jazz was looking into the back of the orbiter from underneath it.

Her fingertips drummed on the metal frame of the open door, debating. She couldn't get up to him without climbing, because no regular human could. He must have flown to the front seat using his ghost powers, no doubt. She was not so lucky. However, she didn't really want to ask him to lower it for her sake either. Not when she'd inconvenienced him enough already.

So climb it was. In the center of the shuttle was a metal ladder built into the floor, designed for moments of anti-gravity harnessing, and she took a deep breath as she ascended one rung at a time until she was almost at his level. But with the amount of noise she was making, she very much doubted he wasn't immediately alerted to her presence, especially since by the time she made it up there, she was panting from the effort.

"I am not going to look down," she murmured to herself, realizing with a small burst of panic that she was hovering at least twenty feet off the ground. Sure, if she fell, she wouldn't necessarily die but it would hurt. A lot.

Danny hadn't acknowledged her, his knees pulled up to his chest and his face slightly buried in his arms and turned away from her. She knew he probably didn't even want to look at her, let alone talk to her. Not that she blamed him. However, he hadn't immediately told her to go away either, so maybe, just maybe, he'd calmed down enough to listen.

She sighed, knowing what she was going to say was extremely hard for her to admit on several accounts. But she was going to say it. "Danny...you...you were right. I was wrong to get involved and make things awkward for you. I shouldn't have been nosy. And I'm sorry, little brother. I wasn't...I wasn't trying to be mean or do it to hurt you."

Jazz reached out to touch his knee but her foot slipped on the small rung she was trying to balance on. She gasped, flailing, and just as her stomach dropped in anticipation of the fall, a hand caught her wrist at the last second. With ease, Danny pulled her upwards and into the passenger seat to his right. The angle was strange but she eventually figured out how to sit like he was, though it took a lot of balancing acts and nonsense mutterings to do so.

Relief coursed through her when she finally settled in and looked over at him. "Thank you…" And she met his eyes and immediately saw how red they were, despite his attempt to quickly look away as if both embarrassed and angry she'd noticed. But he hadn't sent her away still, which to Jazz meant a part of him had slightly forgiven her, even if he hadn't said it.

"Do you wanna talk?" she asked softly.

He shook his head slowly but said, "What's there to talk about? I'm an idiot. I just made things worse and everyone knows it."

"Danny, stop being so hard on yourself. You're not an idiot. No one thinks that but you, silly. I mean, look around you. We are sitting in a spaceship of your making."

"Yeah, it's great. I can build a space vessel but I can't figure out why my own girlfriend is mad at me. It's awesome."

Jazz sighed. "Danny...did you ever stop to think that maybe she's not upset with you at all? That maybe she's just got her own issues she's trying to work out?"

"Then why didn't she just tell me that?"

"Maybe she doesn't know how?"

He debated this silently a moment but then shook his head. "That's not Sam's style. She always knows what she wants."

"Well, maybe this time she doesn't?"

"I doubt -"

"Danny, I'm not Sam. I can't speculate what she's thinking or how she feels," Jazz told him. She wouldn't pretend to know her like Danny did and give him advice that wouldn't hold up in their current situation. She knew it was the lack of self-confidence her brother was notorious for causing him to feel as if it was somehow his fault. But she also knew this didn't necessarily have to be the case despite his insistence on believing it.

"You should try talking to her," she said quietly.

"I don't know if she'll want to talk," he replied. "Especially after tonight. I shouldn't have gotten jealous and assumed. Ugh, I screwed everything up."

Jazz knew he was just getting himself riled up again and reached for his arm, hoping it would comfort him. "You didn't screw everything up. Yes, you lashed out. But people do that when they're confused and angry and afraid."

"I'm not afraid."

"You're not?"

"I…" She watched him look away from her as if he'd just realized he was. "I don't know. Things just feel...complicated right now. I'm not sure how I feel anymore. The worst part is that it was all me, I can't even blame Infe."

"Why would you blame Infe? Did he do something to you and Sam?"

"No," he answered, looking down at his hands fidgeting restlessly in his lap. "But remember how Amor told us Infe has the power to infect people with rage and hate?"

"Oh, yeah. He said that the first day we met."

"It's true. Infe got me with one of his arrows earlier today. But it fazed out of my system long before we had dinner. I said those stupid things on my own." He frowned and she could tell he was trying not to replay the fight over and over again in his mind.

"Could be there's a bit of drawback after the fact. Like the crash after a caffeine rush."

"Maybe."

"You say 'maybe' as if there's something else you're thinking," she prodded.

"Apparently, because of what's happening with me and Sam, I am more vulnerable to Infe's attacks. People who are broken-hearted are easier targets for Infe. People like me. He's pretty powerful and he can short-circuit my powers. The only reason I managed to trap him is because I tricked him. He seems to like me or he wouldn't have talked to me like that. He even asked me to join him. I don't know what he wants."

"We caught him fair and square, so we won't have to worry about that," Jazz pointed out.

"One less thing to worry about, I suppose," Danny grumbled.

"Danny, you just have to have hope that things will work out for the best. And know that I'm going to be here for you no matter what happens. I'd do anything to see you happy again, little brother. Anything at all."

"I know," he murmured, glancing back at her. "And thank you."

"I'd hug you but I'm afraid to move," she admitted, trying to look down but deciding quickly against it.

"What are you going to do when we take off?"

"Hopefully I'm not walking around the cockpit when we do," she retorted.

He grinned. "A cockpit is for a jet or a plane. It's called the crew cabin for a shuttle."

"And how much longer before your shuttle is complete?"

"Two weeks, give or take. The fuel tanks are going to take the longest. They're shipping from Alabama."

"And where are you getting the gas?" she asked. "Can't imagine that'll be cheap."

"They won't need gas. It'll use a combo of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. But yeah, still not cheap. Hence the reason they haven't shipped yet. But I'm working on it."

"That's a lot of mowed lawns," Jazz pointed out.

She managed to coax a small smile from him. "Yeah, well, Dad doesn't know I'm using my powers to speed up the mowing process."

"I think that's cheating."

"I think that's called working smarter, not harder."

"All joking aside, this is…" She glanced around the vehicle, admiring everything a second time. "This is awesome. You've done such a great job."

"It's nice, yeah? I can't wait to take her out to the - "

A loud boom from underneath them cut off Danny's words. Even hovering above the ops center, Jazz could feel vibrations rock through her. Her heart lurched, worried that it was some sort of explosion. She met her brother's panicked blue eyes and reached out for his hand out of instinct. He leapt into action and she felt the familiar tingle of intangibility course through her, which fought with the feeling of her stomach dropping as they phased rapidly through the house and into the lab.

Together, they landed on the cold tile and reformed as solid again. Both siblings whirled around, looking for the source of the noise, but nothing looked too out of the ordinary. Though her heart was still beating madly, Jazz couldn't help but wonder if one of her dad's inventions had misfired. However, she didn't see her father anywhere and then -

"Danny," Jazz suddenly said, a hint of warning in her tone. She pointed towards the lab table on the right and Danny followed her gaze, only to see the Fenton Thermos that had contained Infe was now in pieces all over the floor.

"No, no…" he murmured, angrily kicking at one of the shredded remnants. Jazz already knew he was blaming himself. But she was feeling just as guilty. How stupid she'd been to underestimate how powerful Infe had been. Her brother had warned her something hadn't felt right; he'd admitted it to Jazz but she'd foolishly allowed him to leave the thermos downstairs, unguarded, optimistic that it'd be enough to hold him, too caught up in her own ego at their success.

"He could be anywhere!" he shouted.

"Not as far as you'd think…"

Infe's voice echoed from above them and startled, Danny and Jazz looked up and gasped at the sight of Infe hovering in the corner of the room. Flanking either side of him were their parents, who were stuck to the ceiling in some kind of green web. But Jazz could see the web was starting to break because they were dangling dangerously close to falling.

"Miss me?" Infe asked them with a wicked smile. He held both hands out and lightning gathered in his palms. He threw out his hand just as Danny put up his ghost shield and the energy redirected and streaked wildly into the lab.

Jazz reflexively ducked, covering her head with her hands and watching as a bolt of lightning soared over her. She'd been so close to getting zapped she could smell the ozone in the air. She didn't waste any time after that thanking her lucky stars. She climbed to her feet and headed for the lab table where several Fenton weapons sat waiting.

Grabbing the Wraith Wrangler, she hurriedly attached it to her wrist and turned around to see her brother facing off against Infe in hand to hand combat, still in his human form. Infe landed a hit to his stomach and Danny bent double, which was all the invitation Jazz needed to send out the glowing lasso.

But at the last second Infe grabbed Danny by the shoulders and the ghost rope caught him instead, just as Jazz threw out her arm aggressively. Danny was forcibly yanked into the wall while Infe stood laughing.

"Couldn't resist," he commented, clapping his hands as if he was amused.

He is not going to let me live that one down, Jazz thought to herself as she released the rope by pressing a button on her wrist. But she'd deal with her brother's frustration later: right now, it was time for action. And she had plenty of other Fenton weaponry to utilize.

But as she grabbed the Jack-o-Nine-Tails next and spun around for a second face off, Infe bemusedly pointed upwards and she glanced up to see the webs holding her parents break with an audible snap.

"No!" she shouted.

There was a flash of light in the corner and as if in slow motion, Jazz watched her parents slowly descend to the ground but at the last second were caught by her brother, who had managed to duplicate himself just in time to catch both simultaneously. As soon as they touched ground safely, they launched into the fray like they hadn't just fallen from the ceiling. Both Jack and Maddie seemed to summon weapons seemingly from nowhere and fired almost immediately.

Infe dodged with ease, rising up into the air to hover above them. But even he wasn't prepared when both replicas of Danny fired at the same time from both directions, catching the Wrecker in the chest and back. The ectoplasmic energy in their hands was charged so much it was nearly glowing white instead of green. When they finally desisted, Infe was hunched over, his ghostly body smoking.

But he chuckled and said, "Feels like someone's a little angry. Because you have everything you could possibly want, Danny Phantom: your perfect little family to back you up. But something's missing - that final puzzle piece. You need them because without them, you're weak. And you know it. You've seen it and so have I. Your memories carry more nightmares than I could even think to dream up. And you think you need her but you- "

Jazz charged forward and kicked Infe the face, who didn't expect the sudden attack and reeled backwards. "You talk too much," she stated, swinging the Jack-o-Nine-Tails as hard as she could. It caught him around the middle and wrapped around him tight. But he just smiled and vanished, turning intangible to escape.

"Where'd he go?" Jack demanded. There was a burst of light as the duplication of Danny vanished and he reabsorbed the energy, his eyes glowing more vividly. The four of them circled with their backs to each other, watching each corner of the room, fully armed.

Infe reappeared a few seconds later, his crossbow in one hand and a pulse of lightning in the other. "Here's one for you!" he said, firing a bolt straight at Maddie, who didn't dodge in time. The arrow nicked her in the shoulder and she cried out, sounding more angry than in pain.

"Mom!" Danny shouted, his eyes wide.

"And one for you!" Infe continued before he pulled the trigger again and aimed at Jack, who was too busy fretting over his wife. The bolt pierced him in the knee and he grunted as he fell forward.

"Dad!" Jazz yelled, going to him. But upon further inspection of the wound, she realized there was no wound. Just a flash of purple light in the shape of an arrow that Jack's leg seemed to absorb. The bolt disappeared and she realized it was some form of energy, some kind of ghostly spell. He didn't even seem to be in pain, just disoriented.

She looked up at Infe, who smiled down at her right before his pulsating hand switched over to her brother. As he took aim, Jazz made a judgment call and shoved Danny out of the way just as the lightning hit her.

She felt it rush across her skin, a mixture of heat and cold. The hairs on her arms and neck stood up and her long red locks seemed to float beside her head in the haze of static electricity she was conducting. The room lit up like a Christmas tree in her vision. But although she had taken the full blast of the hit, it didn't hurt or make her feel drained.

It just made her annoyed.

"I don't have a broken heart, Infe," she muttered, shaking herself off as the aftershock faded. "And you don't scare me."

She grabbed her mother's fallen weapon and fired, hitting Infe square in the chest. And lo and behold, was that fear she saw in his eyes? Shock? Awe? She didn't care. She was too angry to care. This ghost had come in her home, had damaged her family, manipulated her brother, hurt a lot of other people; and they'd beat him down just like any other ghost that dared threaten her world.

Jazz continued peppering Infe with blasts, some he dodged and others he didn't. With a cry of rage, he suddenly raked his hand through the air and created a rift in the air, a small portal Jazz already deducted he'd formed as an escape plan.

"Hey!" she screeched, launching toward him. At the last second, he spun and backhanded her, causing her to stumble backwards, dazed. It was Danny who steadied her from behind, his gloved hands gripping her shoulders tight.

But something strange was happening to her. Her limbs felt incredibly too heavy. Her vision was beginning to spin. She felt as if she could nap for days.

"Whoa…" she whispered, blinking several times.

"Jazz, take care of Mom and Dad," Danny was saying, but his voice sounded very far away.

"What?" she asked, and her own voice sounded very loud in her ears.

But he wasn't there and she wasn't sure what was happening anymore. It all seemed very disorienting. Logic told her to sit down. She always listened to that logic.

"I'm just gonna take a quick nap," she murmured as she fell over.

Dun-dun-dun! There's a little excitement for you! Also, Jazz is one of my favorite characters so I wanted to give her some really cool fighting scenes.

So, I will say that some of my favorite chapters are heading your way. Little bit of humor, little bit of drama, a little bit more intensity as the stakes get higher.

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Please read and review! Your support means everything!

Kat Day