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

Note: Thank you so much for your reviews "Dp-Marvel94" & "WritingIsAwesome11"! It took me a while to decide how to proceed once the whole gang got together but this chapter turned out extremely well! Think of it as the calm before the storm or the night before the 'final' battle since we're about to reach the big reveal soon about what makes Owen such a special person and what Azrael's connection to him and the council is. Some hidden truths are about to come to light that will be important later on in the story but for now, let's focus on getting everyone ready for the most difficult rescue mission they've ever faced against a ghost with a terrible secret of his own that will shock them all! Dun Dun DUN!

Chapter 29: Waking Nightmare

Vlad's POV

"NO!" I shouted, bolting upright as the helmet on my head broke apart and my eyes snapped open only to be met with near-total darkness.

It was so dark in fact that I had to risk summoning a bit of ectoplasmic energy to my hand just to get my bearings since my ghostly night vision just wasn't strong enough to work properly in my current disoriented state. From the looks it it, I seemed to be inside of a warehouse used to store home decor since there many couches, sofas, tables, chairs, beds frames, and mattresses stored and displayed all over the place. In fact, what I was laying on was but one of many of the beds on display.

Frowning, I reached over to pick up one of the pieces of the confounded contraption Nocturne had placed on me after I was rendered unconscious from a violent blow to the head. Tossing the metal fragment aside I lightly brushed my fingers across the wound again and this time, there were still faint traces of it but otherwise it had healed nicely otherwise so I couldn't have been asleep for too long which was a small comfort. Honestly, apart from feeling extremely groggy I seemed to be perfectly fine.

Apparently I had reverted back to human form in my sleep due to the sedative power Nocturne no doubt used on me to make absolutely sure I stayed under while he turned his attention to Owen. I could remember small bits and pieces of what actually happened during our confrontation with Nocturne so if nothing else I knew Owen managed to escape if only briefly by astral projecting at will this time. And despite the seriousness of the current situation, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride knowing what a clever maneuver that had been on his part.

Transforming into my ghost half once more, I flew up into the air and scanned the room for signs of Nocturne's ghost signature so that I could have my revenge and recover Owen's body but to my surprise it felt close yet extremely weak. That's when I noticed a faint light coming from the far side of the room which upon closer inspection seemed to be emanating from the glow of a giant sleeping pod which someone or something had quite recently smashed to bits. Worst still, there was ectoplasmic blood splattered everywhere and a small trail of it led away from the broken device as if someone had dragged themselves across the floor...

Furrowing my brow, I followed the trail which led me to the pathetic display of Nocturne leaning heavily against a nearby wall, a literal featureless shadow of his former self barely able to keep himself upright. Large chunks of his body had been torn apart by what appeared to be a large set of fangs which to my surprise he couldn't regenerate as the wounds were being kept open by some strange red energy curling off his skin.

It didn't take me long to realize what the cause was when I felt a familiar stinging pain myself and noticed the ring of loose Blood Blossoms haphazardly thrown around him, effectively keeping Nocturne rooted to the spot. My eyes widened in horror however when along with the small puddle of ectoplasmic blood trailing down his arm, there were traces of red mixed in too which could only be-

Human blood.

Enraged, I incinerated the roses with my power then lunged forward and dragged Nocturne up by the collar, my eyes burning so brightly it bathed the area around us in even more red. Nocturne hissed in pain but I ignored his pitiful whimpers and demanded. "What happened here? And where is Owen? Tell me NOW or suffer the consequences!"

Weakly looking up at me he coughed. "You're too late, that boy...has been claimed by another ghost. Even I have...never fought anyone so ruthless and cruel before so you would do well to fear him..."

Slamming him down against the cold stone floor, purposefully pressing his back against what was left of those Blood Blossoms so the loose petals began to burn his back like hot coals, I snarled. "You didn't answer my question! WHERE. IS. OWEN?!"

Panicked now Nocturne struggled against my grip and blurted out desperately. "I don't know! My sleep walkers were no match for him and his dark magic so we were quickly overpowered. I foolishly did not believe the ancient rumors of such a ghost truly existing and yet there he was right before my eyes!"

His voice quivering with fear, Nocturne continued. "I beg you, release me before he decides to return to finish me off. For your sake too, just forget about that child; he belongs with one of his own kind..."

"Stop speaking in riddles!" I bellowed furiously, charging my hand with even more energy to do just that, finish Nocturne off unless he gave me a straight answer.

Two things happened at once before I could strike. First, I unexpectedly sensed Daniel's presence just before his hands firmly pulled back my arm, effectively preventing me from pinning down Nocturne any longer, and then a familiar blue light shot out and trapped him in the Fenton Thermos. Moments later, I was blinded as the lights flickered to life and I could see everything clearly at long last...

Yanking my arm away after allowing my energy blast to dissipate I briefly glared at Daniel before my gaze drifted over to his friends Samantha and Tucker along with an additional young woman. I recognized her immediately as Owen's missing friend, Eris Wright. Our eyes met and there was a familiar hatred reflected there not unlike Daniel's, the kind where he saw me only as the villain. That was rich coming from her though, the girl who has been lying to Owen since the moment they met.

Whistling to himself, Daniel's friend Tucker took one look at the bloody aftermath now that it was in full view and commented. "Dang dude, talk about overkill. I know Nocturne was a bad guy too but did you really have to literally rip him apart?"

Forcing myself to reign in my temper, I scoffed dismissively. "Yes well, as much as I wish I could take credit for putting Nocturne in his place someone else got to him before I could."

Floating past me to take a closer look, Danny knelt down and frowned. "Crap, that means we're too late. I've said it before and I'll say it again, hate it when I'm right."

Giving Daniel a hard look, I placed a firm hand on his shoulder and demanded harshly. "Right about what? Daniel, what are you doing here? Did Owen call you for help? If so then where is he now and how on earth did you find-?!"

Noticing a large scroll sticking out from his belt, I reflexively snatched it away from him while Daniel was distracted. Irritated, he stood up and tried to get it back but I simply floated away and held out out of reach, effortlessly dodging each and every attempt Daniel made to retrieve it. "Hey! Give that back!"

"No. Not until SOMEONE in this room tells me where in god's name Owen is!" I barked after landing on the ground again and for a second Daniel just stared at me in wide-eyed disbelief, taken aback since he hadn't seen me this angry since...since the Wraith attack.

To my surprise, Eris was the first to step forward who confidently brushed past Daniel and looked me straight in the eye, completely unafraid. Or rather, Eris was masking her fear extremely well as she took my other hand in hers and said. "I don't know where Owen is, but I can tell you who he's with. So please, calm down and listen to me, alright? His awakening...its begun, Vlad. We're out of time. But since I know you care about Owen as much as I do we can use the power of that love to find him instead since the Infimap won't work. We already tried it earlier but Azrael must have put up new wards to keep us away while he prepares to complete Owen's coming of age ritual."

Realizing exactly what she meant, I took a deep breath and reluctantly nodded. "Of course, I should have known he had something to do with all of this. Owen even said the timing of Nocturne's appearance in Salem was too perfect. It's almost as if he knew we'd be here."

Unexpectedly, Daniel gave me an odd look and laughed nervously as he added. "Yeeeah, about that. Turns out he DID sort of know you guys would end up here in the future but I won't bore you with the details. I didn't know anything about this Nocturne creep making the rounds on Salem too until Owen called me for help, but I had a feeling Azrael had some sort of trap set up for you so he could get his mitts on Owen again. I'll explain everything later but Eris is right, we've got to hurry."

Reclaiming the artifact from my grasp at long last, which I knew all too well was the legendary Infimap, since the last thing on my mind was to actually steal it from Daniel since Owen's life was at stake I let him take it back and returned my attention to Eris. Her body language said it all. She knew, as I suspected, that Owen is far from an ordinary boy. And from the looks of it, Eris already knew that I too am not an ordinary man...

However, the question remained as to whose side she's really on.

Owen's? Or the council's?

Eris's POV

Even though I knew it would happen, I still clung to Owen's unconscious form as he vanished before our eyes in a swirl of blue flames. It took every ounce of self control I had left not to burst into tears since I was so scared of losing him because I felt so powerless. Thanks to Danny and his friends I managed to pull myself together long enough to help them fill in the rest of the blanks so we were all on the same page.

Not long after that, I agreed to go along with their plan to use that strange ghost map of theirs to find Vlad first and take out the more immediate threat to us right now, Nocturne himself. If Azrael planned to abduct Owen in the midst of all the chaos then we knew he'd at least be safe for the time being until we could regroup with Vlad Masters. Either way we'd need him to find Owen again because as expected, my dowsing spell had long since worn off and I could tell Azrael had renewed his wards to keep me from doing it again...

However, if there's one thing more powerful than any form of magic on its own, it's love. As much as I hate to admit it, deep down I knew Vlad's love for Owen ran a lot deeper than mine. The love of any parent or parental figure is hard to match when the life of their beloved child is in jeopardy compared to my pitiful excuse of a friendship with Owen. He's my best friend, but our relationship up until now has been built on nothing but lies. Vlad on the other hand, at least his lies weren't nearly as selfish or blind as mine at least judging by everything Owen told me.

Vlad knew all along I wasn't who I said I was, but he kept that from Owen to protect him from the crushing weight of another loss, another betrayal. He knew I was Owen's only friend regardless of whether our connection was real or not and Vlad didn't want him to feel the same loneliness has for the past twenty years. That part at least, I could relate to.

Danny explained the rocky relationship between himself and Vlad due to a mistake his parents made when they were in college that nearly killed Vlad, turning him half-ghost. He only told me on a need-to-know basis since we were all on the same side fighting to protect Owen, but not gonna lie the idea of anyone being half-ghost is something I had a hard time wrapping my head around. I've met plenty of Wiccan's who practice more modern magic that pretty much anyone can use, but that's not the same as being from a long line of Witches or Necromancers born with their powers...

So the idea of two people gaining the same power as ghosts through some sort of portal device was a lot harder to believe at first. But sure enough, Danny changed back to a normal human kid just like me to prove his point and from there I had no choice but to believe his story. Still, that made me wonder if what was currently happening to Owen is something fairly common to true-blooded Necromancer's or if there's a lot more to it just as Azrael suggested.

Either way, since there was no time to waste the four of us held onto each other before using the Infimap to travel directly to Vlad's location. Danny even admitted that getting him on our side first would make rescuing Owen a lot easier since Vlad's much more experienced than the rest of us when it comes to magic and ghosts in general. I don't doubt that either since he's also half-ghost not to mention a rich and powerful man. I'd even go as far as to say Vlad's probably a lot more influential than the council too which also made me want to get on his good side to get Owen out of this mess as soon as possible.

After everything I had learned about them on top of how much I didn't know, it's clear to me now I've been nothing but a puppet to those people for way too long. Azrael wasn't wrong about that. That's why I wanted to do everything in my power to prove I'm on Owen's side, and not because Azrael also said he wanted me to do that too. No, it's because I refused to let anyone else use me to hurt or manipulate Owen again. He deserves to be free and happy for once in his life and if Vlad's feelings are as sincere as Owen believes then just maybe they can find what they've been searching for all this time-

A second chance.

Since the rest of Salem was finally starting to wake up and we didn't want to get caught at the scene of the crime, Vlad led us to Owen's house to use as our base of operations. It made sense given how the two of them never made it to a hotel since everyone in town was still fast asleep so it's not like they could have checked into their room. Besides, this place was supposed to be locked up tight just like the antique store where I found Owen hiding from Nocturne and his sleep walkers so no one from the outside would think to look for such a rag-tag group of misfits hiding out here.

Thankfully, Vlad gave us a few minutes to breathe once we made it there since we weren't going to do Owen any good overexerting ourselves. Between Danny and his friends borrowing that relic from the spirit world which is apparently called the 'Ghost Zone' now and me barely escaping Azrael by the skin of my teeth, we have definitely all been very busy. I even swallowed my pride to apologize to Sam since I was acting like a bit of an entitled brat earlier.

"It's fine, I get it. If I were in your shoes and Danny was in that bad a shape I'd probably do the exact same thing if it meant getting help for him sooner." Sam shrugged, helping me put some tea together I had borrowed from the antique store while grabbing that quilt for Owen.

Staring blankly at the kettle on the stove, I replied. "Thanks for understanding but still, I shouldn't have lashed out on you guys like that. I had no idea Owen had made any friends he could actually be completely honest with, unlike me."

"We all have our secrets." Sam smiled coyly, getting the tea bags ready in each cup. "There's nothing wrong with that. But hey, at least he trusted you enough to tell you everything once you two met up again. That's got to count for something."

"It's not like he had much of a choice." I sighed, staring down at my hand. "Imagine if you and Tucker didn't know Danny became half-ghost? He'd feel so lonely and guilty even when standing right next to the two people who mean the most to him outside of his family. I didn't feel all that guilty since I thought the council planned to explain everything to Owen about his powers and help him.

"But Owen, he told me he planned to keep his powers a secret from everyone forever because he was afraid of losing his ONLY friend and any chance he might have had to be part of a normal family after his parents died. The thing is though, what Owen needs is a family who accepts for who he really is and understands him. That's the only reason why I'm even considering letting Vlad make good on his promise to adopt Owen, because Owen needs HIM, not me. I'm no good."

My chest began to feel tight admitting that and I was taken aback when I turned around only to see the man in question enter the room. Sam then gave me a small encouraging smile before ducking out of the kitchen as if Vlad gave her a silent signal to let us talk in private. Apart from strolling up to him before in that warehouse though this was the first time I had actually seen Vlad Masters face to face and not to be weird or anything, but he radiated this strong and yet unapproachable air to him so it was hard for me to imagine him as the doting father type. But according to Danny, Vlad was a huge softie at heart who wanted a son more than anything else and used to obsessively try to get him to leave his family behind just to fill that role.

Giving me a once over before reaching past me to help carry the mugs to the living room, Vlad commented off-handedly. "I suppose that answers my question then. You weren't lying about turning your back on the council to save Owen after all. That's commendable of you given how you owe them everything you have now, or rather, had since they've written you off as a lost cause."

I wasn't sure if he meant that as an insult but I let it slide and followed his lead, taking the kettle off the stove just before it started to hiss then skillfully picking up the three remaining mugs with the other hand. "Well you're not wrong. But it was worth it because Sam's right, at least now I don't have to lie about it anymore and we can start over from there."

Nodding, Vlad gave me a smug look and continued. "I'm glad you feel that way because I for one have a lot of questions for you, young lady. Lots of questions indeed."

Rolling my eyes I added. "Slow down there buddy-boy, if you're wondering if I know the deep dark secret about Owen's family I'm afraid you're out of luck. The council never told me anything beyond to be on the look out for signs of his power manifesting which a certain someone got in the way of."

Smiling though I told him sincerely. "This probably isn't the best time to say this but, thank you. For being there for Owen in ways I doubt I would have been able to even if I did make it to your mansion in time when the Wraith attacked. I owe you a lot for keeping my best friend safe and I'll pay you back by doing everything in my power to help you bring him home."

He didn't respond to that but something told me Vlad understood exactly what I was implying. I didn't mean home as in sending Owen back to Mistveil again or even the building we were in now, I meant his new home with him in Wisconsin because this was my way of saying I had finally accepted Vlad as someone important to Owen too. I didn't think it'd be that easy to do but there you have it. We both want the same thing for him after all, for Owen to be happy and find the place where he truly belongs which isn't anywhere near that manipulative scumbag, Azrael.

Vlad and I had a score to settle so whatever our personal feelings were towards each other I knew there were two things we agreed on a hundred percent. One, Owen will always come first. And two, Azrael's got to go once and for all if Owen wants to be free to discover who he is and who he wants to be on his own terms instead of letting anyone else force him to be someone else.

It's true they might share an unknown past together, but in this lifetime Azrael still made the conscious choice not to help Owen when he lost everyone he loved out of the selfish desire to become the only one he'd have left to rely on which is wrong on so many levels. Both my motivations and Vlad's might have started out selfish in their own ways too, but now, we know better. We know what's worth fighting for even if there might come a price to pay before this is all over. But as long as Owen doesn't have to lose anything else, even himself, then we're willing to pay that price for him so he doesn't have to.