Disclaimer: I own nothing from Danny Phantom

Note: Ok, so just a heads up, but I am going to be keeping a few darker themes intact for this version of Freakshow that was also in the original story. But to avoid any major issues he's been aged down to his late teens so it's still acceptable. So long story short, I'm keeping some of his old character traits so you know that Freakshow is VERY bad news and extremely dangerous which means Vlad is still going to have to get rid of him once and for all to protect Dani from the influence of his blood magic and mind control. I will be dialing some of it back though, just not anything major. Anyways, with that in mind, let's press on!

Chapter 11: Crimson

3rd Person POV

Despite what happened between Danielle and Vlad during their previous encounter, she returned home feeling surprisingly better than before and fell back into her normal routine of ghost hunting, spending time with her friends, and doing her best to keep her grades up. Even her friends and family had noticed something different about her. She seemed more energetic and lively despite almost getting held for ransom according to Vlad.

As expected though, the calm atmosphere didn't last long. Even so, Danielle faced every ghost from then on with renewed confidence in herself, determined to prove to Vlad that she wasn't as helpless as she seemed when those ghost animals caught her off guard the last time they met. Vlad had yet to see Danielle in top form so she worked tirelessly to train improve her skills in order to show Vlad that he didn't have to worry so much. And the last thing Danielle wanted was to be underestimated again by him or anyone else.

Nothing out of the ordinary really happened over the course of the following few weeks aside from facing her usual enemies such as Skulker, Technus, even Ember a few times. Either way, Danielle was confident she was finally getting the hang of this whole hero thing and sure that she could handle almost any threat on her own now without Vlad's help. Sadly, she never expected someone far more sinister than anyone Danielle had faced before to appear in Amity Park whose sole purpose was to shroud her heart and mind in eternal darkness so there would no longer be room for anything else...

Not even her sense of self.

Danielle's POV

Even though Sam's parents kept giving me a dirty look when I stopped by their place to give Sam the morbid-anti-social music CD he wanted to borrow, I didn't let it phase me because I for one was in a great mood. For one thing, I actually managed to finish most of my homework done the night before, and best of all, there weren't as many ghost attacks either. As a result, I got almost a full eight hours of sleep just like everyone else for the first time in months!

Jason even left enough hot water for me to enjoy a nice long shower this morning before left to meet up with Sam. After all, I knew I might not have time to give it to him after school since we were heading straight to the circus that rode into town last night, Circus Gothica. I didn't blame him for being excited about it, since it's not often you hear 'goth' and 'circus' in the same sentence since they're basically polar opposites. I'm not a hardcore goth like Sam, but we both liked the unusual theme of this circus and were looking forward to seeing the show. Honestly I'd rather see a clown that was TRYING to be creepy as opposed to a normal one that just was on their own for no reason. The only time I've seen creepy clowns is during Halloween. But I had a feeling the music was going to be something like old organ music meets punk rock or something which I was looking forward to.

Speaking of which, since Sam's parents still had the TV on in their kitchen, a commercial for it suddenly popped on and we all turned our heads to watch; although his parents only did out of morbid curiosity. I only caught a glimpse of it when this strange swirling red orb drew my undivided attention to it's glow the screen and its like everything else faded away. As for the commercial itself, before I zoned out it showed all sort of freaky people with tattoos and piercings all over their bodies and skeletons juggling heads, but it looked interesting. Not nearly as interesting as that mysterious staff though, it was almost mesmerizing...

I don't remember much after that except how I could hear was Freakshow's voice calling to me, beckoning me to the dark side. "Cross over to the darkside..." I repeated airily, as those wonderfully tempting words filled my thoughts.

I barely registered it when Sam's mom walked over and turned off the TV, commenting about how 'vulgar' that show was or something, but it's like my mind was blanketed in a thick fog. I repeated that phrase Freakshow said to us a second time and Sam just rolled his eyes at me and led me outside by the hand since I wasn't moving of my own accord. He sounded a bit annoyed by the time we reached the bottom of the stairs and I finally snapped out of it.

"Huh? Oh..." I blinked, shaking my head to clear the remaining fog in my head. "Sorry Sam, I must have gotten a little spacey. I was up pretty late last night working on my homework. I figured it was a good idea to take care of as much as I can while it's quiet before the next group of ghosts decide to attack Amity Park, you know what I mean?"

"Just watch what you say around them. They already think I'm on the road to troubled teen-hood as it is," Sam sighed, taking a few steps in the opposite direction.

"Where are you going? School's this way," I pointed out. "And don't tell me you didn't notice because you were spacey too."

After that Sam smirked and explained that he was skipping first period to watch the opening ceremony of Circus Gothica and paid Trish to cover for her, which seemed odd, but who was I to judge? I still didn't like the idea of him skipping, especially since he was lucky not to have to worry about being late because of ghost attacks like I did.

So it seemed unfair that wanted to skip on purpose, not to mention dangerous if he was attacked by one of my enemies while I wasn't around. Eventually I just shrugged and told Sam he could do whatever he wanted, but I was heading to school. He's a big boy, he can take care of himself, right...?

The second Sam left, as if right on cue my ghost sense went off and who should I see but the same four ghosts I fought last night who tried to rob a jewelry store. I even used that trick with my ghost shield Vlad taught me with my ghost shield to drive them off. I looked all over for them before I went home for the night after patrolling the city but they got away before I could catch them. So I wasn't about to let them get away again!

Besides, I kinda needed to get to them before the police got hurt trying to take down enemies who don't exactly play by human rules and their weapons are their powers, meaning they don't carry guns in most cases. In fact, most ghosts are more dangerous without them. That's why I'm here, to do what they can't to protect everyone.

After getting a running start I zoomed into the air, transformed, and chased after their ghost signatures while also doing my best to make sure the cops didn't get caught in the crossfire. Especially since I didn't want them thinking I was a bad ghost too. Thankfully I managed to knock the money bag the dwarf guy was carrying out of his hands and caught it, glancing over my shoulder at the approaching cop car so I wouldn't hit it, then I tossed it over onto the sidewalk instead and continued chasing the ghosts across town.

When I finally caught up to them, I saw them phase through a billboard with Freakshow's face on it and when I saw that swirling orb again, I got a little dizzy but shook it off and kept following after those three ghost robbers. Too bad that small distraction gave them plenty of time to get away. Great. Just great.

I was in the middle of berating myself for letting them escape when Sam noticed me from down below and called me over just before some cops ran past and I had to quickly change back to avoid being noticed by them. After that, since I was there anyway and already late to school, I figured I might as well enjoy the opening ceremony along with Sam so we made our way to the front of the crowd just as Freakshow revealed himself by dramatically stepping out of the shadows. He was a lot creepier in real life but in an oddly appealing way.

His hair was swept back and dyed this rich dark burgundy that was buzzed on the sides to reveal the natural black hair beneath, his eyes were the same piercing red the bat-shaped staff in his hand, and he wore a long black trench coat with buckles on the arms, red pants, long black boots, and of course black leather gloves to complete the look. He looked oddly young to be a ringleader to a circus like this, only in his late teens, maybe early twenties. Regardless, Freakshow really knew how to rile up a crowd of goths and we watched as each of his performers emerged one by one from the train car behind him and everyone gasped in awe and horror depending on who we saw come out.

I was watching them too before my attention was drawn to the irresistible glow of his staff again and my thoughts began to slowly drift away as its red glow drew me closer, drowning my senses. I even took an unconscious step forward when suddenly Sam's parents of all people showed up with a bunch of protesters and signs that were all anti-goth. Sadly, that's when I wound up getting myself in trouble with them for the second time that day...

In response to their judgmental comments towards Circus Gothica and the rest of us, aka his audience members, Freakshow just smirked and devilish urged us to show our true colors and so I did. Without realizing what I was doing, I loudly proclaimed exactly who we were and some random goth-guy spray-painted my shirt black and proudly said I was one of them now and all eyes fell on us. Including Sam's parents, unfortunately, and after that we were both dragged off to school for punishment and a harsh scolding from the principle for cutting school.

At least, that's what Sam told me happened. But honestly, I was totally out of it until I heard my parents familiar voices giving me the usual 'we're very disappointed in you because we know you're better than this' spiel, which I actually haven't heard in a while to be fair. Like I had no idea what came over me though so I I wasn't lying when I told Sam I didn't even know why we were there. Not that it mattered what I said since he was super pissed at me for getting us caught.

As you can probably guess, the meeting went about as well as expected since Sam's parents have never liked mine anyway thanks to the whole ghost-hunting thing that runs in our family. But to make matters even worse, my dad accidentally set off one of the ecto-goop guns built into his jumpsuit which totally drenched Sam's parents in gunk, so to top everything off they told us we couldn't see each other anymore. On top of that we were obviously grounded so today just couldn't get any worse...

No, scratch that, this whole WEEK couldn't get any worse because we were given detention too, which meant there was no way we were going to the circus now. That said, I was starting to think that was actually a good thing because I've been having a really hard time focusing lately. What happened today is clearly a sign of that so in order to fix this mess and I was going to have to keep my head back in the game. Especially if I ever hoped to catch those four ghosts that've been hanging around town robbing banks and jewelry stores.

So the next day, while I was stuck in detention with Sam and Trish -since they caught her cross-dressing as Sam to trick the teacher- the three of us gathered around Trish's tablet while Mr. Lancer was...uh, preoccupied with cutting his nails, to watch the webcast of opening night with the volume down low. As soon as we started watching it though, there was something about Freakshow's voice that seemed...off. Almost like there was an echo to it, and then that strange feeling of intense longing I had before compelled me to stand since I desperately needed to go to where he was...

To where...my Master was waiting for me.

Mr. Lancer tried to stop me from leaving, but I wouldn't let him interfere with my Master's will, so I overshadowed him and locked him in the Janitor's closet. His feeble pleas for freedom fell on deaf ears as I turned to Sam when he asked me if I was looking for trouble on purpose. In response to his stupid question, I smiled at him and laughed, "There's no such thing as too much trouble. Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica..."

And with that, I left the other two to their own devices to fly to my Master's side. I couldn't keep him waiting for too long. I didn't know what he wanted me to do for him, but I would do whatever it took to please my Master. That was my only desire, my only purpose. However, for a moment I hesitated when I heard another voice call out my name, it sounded...familiar but it was no higher than a whisper so I could barely hear it. I turned, silently wondering whose voice it was, then shook my head and kept flying towards Circus Gothica where I belonged.

I stood perfectly still before my Master as he carefully examined me, turning my face from side to side and marveling at how oddly human I seemed for a ghost. I could hardly remember being anything else as the red glow enveloped my mind, smothering any memories of my human life. Once he seemed satisfied, Master smiled at me and turned to his other minions as he boldly stated, "I've got it! I've chosen the perfect act for our newly enthralled ghost slave! She shall be a harbinger of death with tattered black wings that will walk the high wire, constantly tempting fate since she cannot fly and save herself from plummeting to the earth below. Doesn't that sound absolutely thrilling?"

"Yes Master," I replied with a nod, eager to follow his orders although I swayed dizzily on my feet eyes lazily following the movement of his staff, addicted to its crimson light.

"Did I say you could speak, my rose?" Master snapped harshly, making me flinch so I shook my head no and fell silent.

"That's better," he nodded, walking back towards me and brushing the back of his gloved fingers across my cheek as he warned in a low whisper, "I would hate to ruin such a pretty face by punishing you for such insolence in the future, so see to it that you don't disobey me again. Is that clear, my rose?"

I nodded silently again, shivering involuntarily because unlike his voice and the power of his staff, which held sway over my heart, his touch sent shivered down my spine and not the good kind. I was afraid of facing his wrath so I had to make sure I never did something so careless again. He needed me. And Master was my everything which meant I only existed to serve him. There was nothing else...no one else that mattered. And yet, even as I thought that, I couldn't shake off this odd feeling of dread that I was forgetting something important...

What that was though, I couldn't remember.

And I didn't want to.