Danny sighed and hung up his phone a little reluctantly. It would have been nice to stay on the phone for a little longer with his sister but he knew that under the current circumstances he was pressing his luck as it was. He sighed and stood up, swaying a little bit as he did so. "You okay?" asked a voice behind him.

Danny looked up and saw Kitty hovering over him. "Yeah, I just stood up to quickly."

Kitty floated down and landed on the ghostly landscape. "You don't seem to well Danny," she said.

"Since when do you care?" he asked, not unkindly, just a little puzzled.

"Well geez, I did spend almost two weeks with you. I'd like to think I knew you a little bit," she said placing her hands on her hips.

Danny blushed as he remembered the most recent of the Paulina incidents. "Oh," he said rubbing his arm.

There was a sudden air of awkwardness between the two as they both tried to think of something to say. "What happened back there?" Kitty finally asked.

Danny looked at her and for a moment she could have sworn she saw a brief flash of fear cross his eyes. "I don't know," he said quietly.

"Well, do you know why?" she asked.

Danny shook his head.

"Oh," said Kitty softly.

"Maybe I should go back," Danny said trying to change the subject.

Kitty nodded and smiled a little, "Yeah, that might be a good idea. You don't look so good."

Danny nodded back and started to walk back to the ghostly version of town hall. He and Kitty went inside the building to be greeted by the box ghost swooping down on them. "Beware!" he called as he flew back up towards the ceiling.

Danny rolled his eyes and looked around, he noticed that everyone was staring at him and the all too familiar sensation of a brief fire once again spread across his cheeks. "H-hey," he said nervously.

Skulker flew down, "Where were you?" he asked.

"I called my sister, she's gonna cover for me," Danny explained.

Skulker nodded, "Good, good. Now I want to talk to you."

Kitty took the hint and left to go look for Johnny.

"What do you want to talk about?" Danny asked.

"What just happened here," Skulker said. Danny flinched and Skulker shook his head. "You're not getting your way out of this one, Gho… I mean Daniel."

Danny sighed, "Truth is, I have no idea what just happened. It just did…"

Skulker raised his eyebrow.

"Well, I mean that…" Danny struggled to search for the words to explain what happened. "I was getting so mad at Walker and then something snapped, I guess. There was a new power, something I have never felt before, but it definitely did come from my power because it felt like my power but not really… Does any of this make any sense to you?" he asked.

Skulker nodded, "More then you're giving me credit for."

Danny smiled weakly, "Well, anyways when whatever it was snapped I just had all this excess power. I really didn't control it all that well but it was enough that Walker left."

Skulker rubbed his chin thoughtfully and Danny wondered vaguely how he wasn't burning himself when his goatee gave the impression that it was on fire. "Well, it seems that we won't know what happened until we search into Vlad's plans a little more. Until then…"

"Yes?" Danny asked.

"You stay here and stay out of trouble," Skulker said.

"You sound like my parents," Danny muttered.

"Well, unless you can transform, and even if you could, you would have to have enough energy to fly, you can't come," Skulker said.

Danny crossed his arms and sulked but he knew that Skulker was right. He wasn't going to help with how little energy he had left.

"Don't worry, we'll try and get you out of here by tomorrow," Skulker said and flew up.

Danny watched as he and Technus, Spectra, and to his very great surprise the Box Ghost flew out of the door and into the ghostly night air.

Ember flew down and landed next to Danny. "Hey," she said.

Danny jumped and spun around to face the pretty ghost teen, "Wha?" he asked.

"A little jumpy aren't you?" she asked.

Danny sighed and sat on the floor, "Can you blame me?" he asked.

Ember gave him a grin, "No, not really. I am really scary."

Danny rolled his eyes, "That's not what I meant."

"I know, I was joking. You don't seem to have a very good sense of humor," she observed.

Danny made a face, "Actually I do. I'm just a little paranoid being in the midst of all my worst enemies."

"We're allies now, kid. Get used to it," Ember said, sitting cross-legged next to him.

Danny looked at her, "Well I obviously know that now."

Ember shook her head while laughing, "Not in a very good mood are you?"

Danny felt a little guilty, "Sorry, I'm just tired."

"No kidding, I don't think I've ever seen an energy blast that intense for awhile," Ember said.

Danny nodded and there was a little silence. Then Danny finally got up the guts to ask something that had been plaguing him for a long time. "Hey Ember, can I ask you something?"

Ember rolled her eyes, "If you're asking me out, the answer is no."

Danny turned bright red, "No! I'm not! I mean well…" he started to stutter.

Kitty laughed and came down to join them, "He likes the goth girl he's always hanging out with," she said.

Ember nodded, "Of course. I knew that from the beginning!" she laughed.

Danny turned redder then ever, "I do not. We're just friends."

"Suuuuuuuuure," Ember and Kitty said together.

"I don't!" Danny protested.

The girls laughed and Desiree came down to join the fun. "Anyway, what is it you wanted to ask me?" Ember asked.

"What?" Danny asked, still trying to keep his body temperature in the norm.

"The question?" Ember reminded him. "There was a question you wanted to ask me?"

"O-oh! Yeah," Danny remembered. "Well, this is going to sound weird, but how did you… well…"

"How did I die?" she asked.

"Yes!" said Danny.

"That's not a bad question," Ember said. "You made it seem like you were trying to ask me how old I was or something." Danny opened his mouth, "And no, you are not learning that," she said.

Danny grinned sheepishly.

"Anyways, well what happened was that I was an up and coming rock star. I was about to make my debut in New York with my new band. We had been offered this awesome deal and we were all pumped about it," Ember frowned. "Some more then others. Anyways, my older bother who was also the drummer of the group went out the night before and got really drunk.

"So, he was the only one of us with a license and we didn't know about his partying that night. The deal was in New York so he drove us there from our home in New Jersey. Me, him my boy friend and our mutual friend. There was rain the night before and it was foggy so on the way there he crashed, everyone but by boyfriend died instantly."

"Oh my god," Danny whispered.

"And I promised myself I wouldn't move on after that until I saw my boyfriend at least once more," she said. "I know he's probably moved on, but I can't just bring myself to pass on," she said quietly.

Kitty put her arms around Ember and gave her a side hug, "It's all right girl."

Ember nodded and Danny was amazed. This wasn't the punk teen he was used to fighting, this was a vulnerable girl. He even went as far as to feel sorry for her.

Johnny came down, "So, what's going on?" he asked. Everyone glared at him and he shrugged his shoulders innocently. "What?"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Danny fitfully fell asleep on the floor after discovering that he fell through all the furniture in human form. He was too tired to try and go ghost so he figured he would just sleep where he lay.

The other ghosts watched him as he fell into a fitful sleep. "He is really paranoid," Ember noted.

"Well who wouldn't be?" asked Johnny.

Kitty nodded, "The sooner this is over the sooner this can end. Then we can go back to our love-hate relationship and pretend this never happened."

"Oh?" asked Skulker coming back from his information gathering. "Do you really think that will happen?"

Kitty sniffed, "I can pretend it can," she shot back.

Skulker grinned, "Fair enough."

"What did you find out?" asked Desiree.

"Vlad really does have the Jewel. And we saw him copying it," Skulker said.

There was a collective gasp and instant murmuring.

Danny turned over and stirred, Skulker held up his hands and there was instant silence. "Sh, I don't want the Ghost Child to hear this."

"Does that mean the attack today was done by the power of the crystal?" asked Johnny.

Skulker gave Danny an uneasy glance, "We think so. The Trinsed Jewel should never come into direct contact with a ghost; it's just too much power. If there are copies then I think we may have found out what happened to him," he pointed to Danny.

"What can it do?" asked Kitty.

"The Trinsed Jewel, according to legend can bring out the untapped potential in any ghost, and it can also manipulate it. Legend says that the Trinsed Jewel has it's own awareness," Skulker explained.

"It's alive?" Kitty squeaked.

"In a way, yes!" said Technus, taking the role of explanation away from Skulker. "The Jewel is many many years old. It is said over the years that it developed a mind of its own through all the collective ghost energies that made it up."

"So?" asked Desiree.

"If that's true, then we are in very big trouble if the Gh… if Daniel gets it. He lost control just by being near a cheap imitation. If he came into contact with the real one it would not only be dangerous for him but also whatever world he's in at the time," Skulker took over.

"Wait so…" Ember said.

"Vlad isn't trying to break up the resistance," Kitty continued.

Skulker nodded, "He's trying to capture Daniel."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

I am soooooo sorry it took me so long to update. Really I am, I kinda became obsessed with a new anime and long story short I spent the past week watching 40+ eps of Konjiki no Gash Bell. Anyways! To make up for it, I give you the long chapter! Yay!

Oh, and again, I really don't do this often, only every other month or so. It was just so addictive.