Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Danny Phantom.

Note: Sweet! I'm finally starting to get emails again about reviews! Let's hope the story traffic is going to be fixed soon too. Anyways, it took several attempts to get this chapter set up the way I wanted to since things are getting pretty serious now and Owen's not doing too great. It's not his fault though and I really didn't want him to keep blaming himself so I'm glad Eris was there to talk some sense into him. Plus Danny and the others are there to help too so whatever happens next, at least they tried their best. As for Vlad, you guys are probably wondering what he's been dreaming about so fear not, you're about to find out!

Chapter 28: Convergence Of Fate

Danny's POV

"So let me get this straight." I began, trying to wrap my head around what Frostbite told us after we told him why we came to borrow the Infimap. "Nocturne is an ancient ghost that used to help people when they died in their sleep in exchange for the energy from their dying dreams, but now he's become a power-hungry nut-case that puts people to sleep by force?"

Nodding Frostbite explained. "Indeed, I'm afraid that is the case O Great One. There are only a few such ghosts old enough to remember a time when some of us were close allies to mortals with gifted with special powers and the sight which allowed them to see the true nature of this world, but yes, Nocturne was one of them. As times changed however and those pacts were seemingly abandoned, he turned to other less honorable means to gain their power. So I would proceed with caution when you go to face this adversary, especially if your friend is indeed a Necromancer as you say because their energy in any form is especially potent."

Leading us to the map chamber, Frostbite unlocked the chest for us and understandably kept it firmly in his hand until we were ready to go because the last time he showed it to us I accidentally activated it and it brought us home by mistake. This time, we definitely didn't want to make any extra detours since Owen's not doing so great judging from what Jazz told me. Speaking of which, since Owen seemed to be suffering from some kind of supernatural chill similar to my ghost sense I decided to ask-

"Hey Frostbite? Do you happen to know why Necromancers have a ghost sense like I do? Owen said he was feeling really cold which I think is because he's astral projecting again while Nocturne's goons are still looking for him and-" I began when Frostbite shook his head sadly and cut me off, saying.

"If that is so then time is of the essence." He began with a serious look on his face. "You see, as I explained to you once before, what you refer to as your ghost sense is part of a rare ability among our kind. However, when it comes to humans it's actually rather common trait everyone is born with as a means to sense danger from the supernatural world; although obviously to them it is merely the sensation of an unnatural chill or noticing a sudden drop in temperature. Necromancers on the other hand are born with the same ability to sense ghosts much more effectively than your average human which is why it manifests physically just as yours does.

"And whenever a Necromancer comes of age -provided they have enough power left within their blood in the first place to retain such abilities- they are brought to the brink of death and must then choose how they wish to live from that moment on. They may either choose to continue on as protectors against and guides to lost souls, or return to a mortal existence by sacrificing their gifts forever. During that time, their powers grow stronger yet unpredictable which is why it is customary for them to perform a Rite of Passage with the help of several elder Necromancers. If there are none there to assist him though, I fear that child may not survive so I sincerely hope you can help him before it is too late."

Swallowing hard since I didn't expect the stakes to be raised quite that high, I turned to Sam and Tucker to ask them one more time. "If either of you want to back out, this might be your last chance. I seriously have no idea what's going to happen once we get to Salem and I'm not gonna lie, things look really bad. Even if we take down Nocturne there's no telling if we'll be able to help Owen since I don't know the first thing about Necromancers or their magic apart from what he told us last time, which isn't much."

"Well duh, that's why you have me." Sam scoffed, crossing her arms. "Frostbite's not the only folklore expert around here and I at least have some idea of what we'll have to do for this ritual thing. Vlad can help too once he wakes up from his cat-nap so don't look so glum Danny. Owen's going to be just fine. He's got us after all."

Nodding in agreement Tucker winked. "Yeah! What she said. I might not get all the magic mumbo-jumbo -ah no offense Sam- but Frostbite mentioned earlier that Nocturne probably uses some kind of helmet device to keep people asleep so if I can jam the signal that should give us the opening we need to take him out. Besides, we've got the element of surprise on our side too since he has no idea we're coming. And the faster we defeat that jerk, the faster we can save Owen because he's our friend too!"

Smiling at us, Frostbite handed me the map once our minds were made up, gently wrapping his claws around my hand as he said earnestly. "I wish you luck and god's speed on your quest to rescue your friend. And take heed, for there are many natural portals in Salem that open this time of year when the barrier between our worlds begins to thin so do not stray from the path the Infimap leads you upon. Do that, and I have no doubt you will succeed."

Laughing nervously I replied. "Thanks. We're gonna need it since Vlad's bound to be cranky when he wakes up."

Eris's POV

"...and now you know everything." I finished, giving Owen a chance to let that all sink in.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to keep Owen very warm after all by sitting in his lap so once I knew he wasn't going to disappear on me I finally did do what he asked and grabbed a quilt from upstairs he could wrap himself in. The shivering wasn't too bad since those oogie-boogie knock offs wandered off some time ago, but I could tell Owen wouldn't be able to resist the pull back to his body for much longer.

After that, it was Owen's turn to tell his story and I'll admit, even I was shocked to hear about all of the things that've happened to him since Vlad Masters took him in. To be fair, Azrael told me about their Wraith encounter too but it was different hearing about it directly from Owen. I felt horrible for not being there to help him, yet, as much as I hated the guy for taking him away from me, I was glad this Vlad character didn't seem all that bad after all. You'd better believe I still had a thing or two to say to him about getting Owen's hopes up about being adopted like that.

I know for a fact they tried to place Owen several times but either the trauma, talk of ghosts, or odd occurances caused by his powers became too much for your average family to handle so eventually Owen gave up. His plan was to just make it through graduation and then go back to Salem once he turned eighteen to sell the house and his mom's store so he would have enough money to start a new life for himself. But I knew, thanks to the council, that he would have bigger problems to deal with on his sixeenth birthday thanks to his Necromancer powers. And now, I was seeing it happening to him first hand...

Nothing could have prepared us for the rest though, how a ghost from one of Owen's past lives even rigged it so his family Grimoire would end up in Vlad's possession years before the two of them ever met. Azrael it seems, has been pulling the strings from behind the scenes a lot longer than I realized. Owen told me he vaguely remembered seeing a ghost in red when he was younger, but that after his parents died he tried to stay away from ghosts as much as possible. Unfortunately that was easier said than done because to them, he is like a flame in the darkness, bright and comforting that they either want to embrace or covet so no one else can have it.

Honestly, when it comes to Owen I'm not really that much different...

I want to keep him all to myself and protect him but recently I've started to realize I'm not strong enough to do that on my own either. All this time I've been blind to the council's true motives -in fact, I STILL don't know what they're waiting for- and clearly they couldn't be bothered sending someone to rescue me either which is why they reported me missing and left it at that. If they wanted to, they could have found me easily through a dowsing spell since I hadn't cast any barriers against that sort of thing. So that's at least one thing I agree with Azrael about, that those people are not my friends.

But Owen, he's my friend. He's always been my friend and now that we had opened up to each other completely I felt so relieved Owen accepted me for who I really am. His power to see into the hearts of others was really something special despite mainly being a power meant to help ghosts and discern which ones are dangerous enemies. Human hearts aren't nearly as easy to read. Not to me at least. So I was really impressed that Owen's empathy went a lot deeper than I originally thought.

"You know..." Owen began airily, clearly struggling to keep his eyes open now. "I never thought I'd end up making so many friends I can actually be myself around. I thought I was going to have to lie about my powers for the rest of my life. But now I have you, Vlad, Danny, his friends, and his sister, so I don't feel so alone anymore. Who knew all it would take is a chance meeting with someone who actually knows a lot more about ghosts than I do..."

Flicking him on the forehead I frowned. "Hey, no falling asleep on me now. I know you're tired but that ghost friend of yours should be here soon. Then we'll get your body back and-"

Rubbing the sore spot I left, Owen let out a hollow laugh and pointed out. "Oh come on, we both know it's not going to be that easy. I appreciate your confidence in me let's be real here, without Vlad I can't do anything on my own which is why we're in this mess to begin with. If it wasn't for me and my stupid powers acting up you never would have been kidnapped and Vlad never would have been captured. Sure, I did what I thought was best at the time, but it doesn't change the fact that I still ran away like a coward..."

"No you didn't!" I huffed, giving Owen a stern look. "It's called living to fight another day you dingus. Sometimes the hardest thing any of us has to do is retreat from a fight we know we can't win. Why else do you think I turned into a cat to escape Azrael instead of sticking around to kick his ass? It's because I knew you needed me more than I needed revenge. So, does that make me a coward too, or a good friend who knows what's more important?"

Looking away from me since he knew I was right, Owen opened his mouth to say something else when a puff of cold air escaped his parted lips and he staggered to his feet, the quilt dropping to the floor. "It's Danny. He's here."

"Whoa whoa, don't stand up so fast or you'll make yourself dizzy again." I scolded, standing up too so I could steady him. "Are you sure it's really him?"

Nodding Owen glanced back at me, smiling weakly. "Yeah, Vlad taught me how to recognize ghost signatures so I'd know Danny's...anywhere..."

A moment later, just as three people phased through the door like ghosts, Owen suddenly collapsed and I barely caught him in time. "OWEN!"

Rushing over to us after letting go of his friends once they were all inside, the guy I assume was Danny blurted out. "What's going on? Is he ok?"

"Of course not! Do people usually pass out when they're fine?!" I exclaimed shrilly despite myself, looking at him dead in the eye. "You're the ghost kid Owen told me about, right? Well it's about time you got here! Now if you don't mind, could you hurry up and go do something about this?! He's fading fast..."

"Hey! Don't talk to Danny like that!" the girl next to him snapped, standing between us with her hands on her hips. "We came all the way out here to help so stop ordering us around!"

"Sam, it's fine." He said, stepping around her and kneeling down to take a better look at Owen, wincing when he saw the sorry state he was in. "Yikes, this is a lot worse than I thought it'd be."

Looking at me, he added calmly. "You're Eris aren't you? I recognize you from the pictures Owen sent us since he hadn't heard from you for a while which is how we found out you'd gone missing. I'm Danny and this is Sam and Tucker. We're here to help."

"Uh, Danny? Am I the only one who thinks it's weird she's not -you know- surprised that we just walked through a wall?" His friend Tucker pointed out and I sighed heavily.

"Not this again. Alright fine, guess I'll summarize it for you." I began irritably. "Long story short, I'm a Witch that used to work for the council who're always on the look out for magically or psychically gifted people and since Owen was the only one I've found so far I was supposed to get close to him and look for any signs of his powers awakening. But when Vlad Masters took him from Mistveil I followed them on my own because I had a premonition something bad was going to happen. And then was kidnapped by a ghost named Azrael before I could do anything to help. I just barely got away from him recently and used a dowsing spell to find Owen here in his mother's antique shop. We already swapped stories earlier so he already knows all about this too."

"Hold up, you mean Azrael is here too?" Danny frowned, glancing back at his friends. "Honestly, I'm not even surprised by that anymore. He's been involved with everything going on with Owen since the beginning according to Clockwork. At least now we know why, more or less. This is probably exactly what he's been waiting for all along and if Azrael's not already there I'll bet you anything he's heading towards Nocturne right now to cut us off and get to Owen first while Vlad's still trapped in dreamland along with the rest of Salem."

"Then what should we do? Owen was able to summon Nocturne last time but look at him, there's no way he has the strength to do it again." Sam added, looking troubled.

Smirking, Danny pulled something out of his belt that looked like a scroll and put an elbow on her shoulder, interrupting before I could say anything. "Way ahead of you Sam. We'll just use the Infimap again. It already led us straight to the nearest ghost portal which led us to Owen so if I understand Frostbite's instructions correctly, the map can lead us to Nocturne's current hideout too as long as we ask it nicely. The question is, who should stay behind to look after Owen? We can't take him with us like this."

Cradling Owen's head close to my heart, I shakily admitted. "It doesn't matter. He's already been outside of his body for too long as it is so it's only a matter of time before Owen disappears again. I just didn't think it would happen so fast so please, you have to save him."

"That was our plan from the start." Danny smiled encouragingly. "Don't worry, everything's going to be ok. Trust me."

Biting my lower lip, I reluctantly nodded. "I will, for Owen's sake."

Vlad's POV

Despite having defeated Nocturne and restoring everything to normal in Salem, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was...off. Understandably everyone seemed confused at first but explained away the rest by saying there had been a gas leak or some such nonsense. Owen seemed a lot more relaxed too once the town was safe and happily showed me around.

It was like Owen finally felt right at home where he belonged which I'll admit stung a little, but at the same time seeing Owen so filled with hope and joy was a welcome change of pace. A part of me wished we could stay longer to just enjoy the scenery and the hustle and bustle of the townsfolk we had liberated, however, since we still had a lot to get done I had to cut our time in Salem short so we could pay our respects to his parents graves before nightfall.

I expected Owen to be a lot more emotional about it since he hadn't been home for five years, but he seemed surprisingly calm. I was tempted to ask him why but didn't want to ruin the moment with my doubts. Obviously I still wanted to tell Owen about the adoption, however, the moment just never seemed right. And how could I ask him to accept me as his new father when Owen never got the chance to say goodbye to the loving man that raised him?

Something else I also found strange was how...empty the graveyard was. Normally I could sense the traces of ghosts who visit their own graves or wait to see how their loved ones are doing who go there to greet them indirectly, but this time I couldn't sense anything. Glancing around, all I could see were gravestones lining the hillside littered with autumn leaves falling from the sky and catching the last rays of the setting sun, almost as if the sky was on fire. And all the while, Owen showed no signs of discomfort either despite his ghost sense being far more sensitive than my own...

But why? Everything was going so well so why did this feel wrong? What am I forgetting here? I wondered, trying remember as I placed one hand on the nearest gravestone and the other over my eyes.

"Vlad? Are you ok? Does your head still hurt?" Owen asked, leaning over to peek up at my face.

"No I-" Stopping myself mid-sentence, I glanced at Owen from between my fingers and asked. "Owen, do you remember why we came here?"

Confused, he answered. "Of course I remember. Don't you? We're here to find out more about my powers and the Ravenwood family in general. Vlad, you're starting to worry me. Maybe we should head back to the hotel early. See, this is exactly why I told you to take it easy after you got that nasty cut on your head. Just because it's healed now doesn't mean you've fully recovered yet."

No, that's not right. There's another reason we're here, I know there is. Why can't I remember what? I grimaced, my fingers brushing over the area where the cut Owen was referring to used to be.

Thinking back to our encounter with Nocturne, he said something to Owen right before attempting to lull him to sleep through the weakening barrier but for whatever reason what it was. It's true I was momentarily stunned after Nocturne threw me against the wall, but the noticeable gap in my memory still seemed very odd. That's when I looked up and saw Owen had wandered over to another gravestone with an odd expression on his face.

Shaking my head to clear away the cobwebs as it were, I walked over to join him and asked. "Hmm? Is this the grave of someone else you know?"

He didn't answer.

Curious, I reached forward to brush off a few leaves from the name plaque but it was completely blank. And by that I don't mean the names and dates had faded, no, it was more like there had never been one there to begin with. In fact, when I strode over to the one next to it that one was blank too. All the graves except for the two that Owen and I knew were there had nothing written on them as if they were merely props rather than memorials to those who have long since passed.

That's when I finally realized the truth and turned to face Owen only for him to fade away before my eyes. Alarmed, I called out his name when a phantom wind suddenly picked up, blinding me with a flurry of autumn leaves. The colors then changed from orange, yellow, and brown to a vivid and bloody red as they collected to form a cloaked figure with a pale face similar to the one Owen described to me floating above the gravestone in front of me which was the only one that remained. Apprehensively, my gaze followed down to where his hand was pointing to and the name written there in fresh blood that dark purple vines began to slowly curl out of was-

Owen Ravenwood.