Author's Note: Sorry much that it has taken me so long to update. School. Deletion. The usual, you know. Mostly just laziness though. Did I mention that I am fluent in over six-million forms of procrastination?

"Make my day," Danny hissed at Rose.

Rose's eyes narrowed in fury. "Kid, just surrender and I'll take you in, no fight. You know I don't want to. I'd love nothing more than to kill you where you stand after slowly torturing you. But..."

"But nothing. You're empty."

Rose's soulless eyes (why they were soulless considering he was a soul in and of himself is a mystery) widened. So Danny knew. Or at least the boy thought he did."You wanna test that theory?" he bluffed leveling the gun at Danny's torso. Right at his heart. Danny stepped forward.

"You.. had better not come any closer," Rose warned. "One more step and I'll kill you. Richard Rose always does what he says he's gonna do and..."

Danny silenced him by stepping forward. Rose couldn't keep the pretense going any longer. Danny was two steps away from being in range to punch. Rose fell backwards and turned around diving and then rolling forward,and throwing a beam of ectoplasm to knock Danny back, which worked for about a nanosecond. His EE beams had never been the strongest. But it was time enough for him to reload. He jammed Jane's loading chamber out and spun it around...

Danny was charging and would be on him in a second at most...

The chamber stopped spinning...

Rose gave it a push...

WWHHSSHH!

The loading chamber fell to the ground, cut from the rest of the gun, and cut in half as the chi-charged wind severed it. The faint nasally cry of "Wind Blade" echoed an instant eternity after the attack happened. Rose turned around and saw Kaze...

SKFFQUECLKK!

Danny stopped in his tracks as Rose's severed head fell to the ground and rolled next to his broken gun, stopping face up. He lowered the ax and his head and sighed. Then Rose's body began to dissipate and Danny was silently thankful it was over."Heh heh heh heh heh heh..."A chill shook Danny. He looked at Rose's dismembered head. Rose just smiled. "Hard thing to kill a man. To take away everything he ever was and ever will be..."

Danny's eyes widened.

"Good thing I'm already dead," Rose's head said as it finally faded away...

For a long while nothing happened. Danny stood there, thinking of his journey so far, and thinking of where he must go next. And wondering things. Where was his sister? How had Kaze survived getting shot by Rose? He noticed that Kaze's right arm was bare--the pink gauntlet was gone... Well. One mystery solved. Because even through the identity-concealing mask, Danny could tell Kaze was dealing with the fury and grief of loss.

"Your gauntlets are living beings, aren't' they?" Danny asked.

Kaze just nodded.

"What happened?"

"I was trying to distract him from you, and then get away from his shots by moving fast. But I wasn't fast enough..."

"Is it...?"

"She'll live," Kaze interrupted. "She's gone somewhere to heal."

Danny frowned at this--out of sympathy. Neither hero said a word, they just walked together. It may have been an hour, maybe only five minutes, as grief and frustration can distort time, but eventually the two came upon the clearing where Vlad's old cabin stood. Kaze looked up into the sky. "Say. We can both fly, so why are we walking?"As if on cue, Danny detransformed. "Because I'm tired, and because we've already reached our destination. Or mine, at least. You can fly on back if you want."

"Something in the cabin you're not telling us about?"

"It holds a painful piece of history for me. But that isn't why I came here." Danny replied. "I think I've finally figured out why my mother doesn't go near it." Danny secretly hoped he was dead wrong. But he was not...

oooo

Timmy flew with Cosmo's aid back towards the Haven Base that Maddie Fenton had established as a ghost-fighting splinter-cell on the borders of ghost-held lands. He sighed, and wished Wanda were there. Not aloud, though, as Cosmo was just dumb enough to actually do it. Yeah, she would live, as he'd told Danny. But that didn't mean seeing her almost die was any less painful...

Flashback (Screen goes wavy and color desaturated)

BANG!

The shot from Rose's gun rang out and slammed into his right fore-arm, which was protected by Wanda. Normally her innate magical powers would have shielded her from the dark energy in Rose's projectile, but whatever Casualty Jane shot, it was powerful enough to inflict it's evil on even a Fairy Godparent of Wanda's caliber.

"AUUGHH!" Timmy yelled as he gasping in surprise and pain. But those gave way to panic when he realized that Wanda was the one causing said pain by writhing and twitching on his arm. He unfastened her and threw her to the ground... And had absolutely no idea what to do... "Wanda!" he screamed.

"Wanda! No, baby! Please don't leave me!" echoed Cosmo, who had poofed himself back into fairy from and hovered over his wife. The pink gauntlet became a pink haired fairy in a small fizzle rather than a word-filled poof...

"Cosmo, you have to do something!" Timmy yelled. Wanda had been with him for over three years, and had been with him through some tough situations. His evil babysitter; his even more evil science teacher. A swarm of evil cockroaches. His evil dentist. His evil Imaginary Friend. Evil Anti-Fairies. The evil Arch-nemises of his favorite superhero The Bronze Kneecap and Negachin. The evil alien Mark Chang from Yugopotamia. The his even more evil betrothed Mandai... Yeah, he and Wanda and Cosmo had put up with a lot of evil over the past few years. And to see her suffering like she was tore Timmy apart. "Wanda... Cosmo, use you magic, try and heal her!"

Cosmo complied. No effect.

"I wish the negative energy was gone..."

POOF... but no change.

He was running out of time. Wanda had finally managed to contain the plague in her right hand, but she was using most of her magic and then some. And Timmy didn't think any sort of tourniquet would slow down this sort of infection--an evil rot that ate away at the soul...

Then an idea occurred to Timmy. "Cosmo, give her your magic. As much as you can. Open the door to Fairy World and plug into the Big Wand if you have to, just give it to her!"

"But Timmy... what if I give too much!"

"That's exactly what I'm counting on--now DO IT!"

"Okay."Cosmo replied hesitantly.

He leveled his wand at his wife, and Timmy handed him hers as well. A faint aura the color of Cosmo's hair radiated out from the two wands and joined the pink aura around Wanda... "AAAHHUGHHGHUGHHH!" Wanda screamed in pain. The extra magic had little effect as the dark force fought on, eating it's way through Wanda's very soul."Timmy..." there was a horrible trepidation in Cosmo's voice.

"Keep going."

AAAAAAAHHHHHNNNUUGHHGAAAGUH!

The flow of magic got faster as Cosmo became more worried. (Timmy had always found that nothing motivated Cosmo as much as fear for Wanda. Fear of losing her)... Soon Wanda and Rose's attack had reached a stalemate. But all was not well. There gets to a point where something just cannot be compressed any more. This applies to both gases and tangible forms of energy. This is why it is physically impossible for a meta human with a physical body to cross a certain plateau. Energy seeks expansion, just as compressed CO2 would...

And this was also the behavior of the malevolence threatening Wanda. She couldn't' push it any farther, so all the magic Cosmo was now pumping into her was not going to contain the infection, but rather it was making Wanda swell up like a balloon. And balloons pop. As did Wanda! The explosion knocked Cosmo skyward and Timmy flat on his but, but it didn't make much noise. The pink-haired fairy now rained down as pink confetti. But there was no longer Rose's dark bullet for her to fight. She's need time to recover, and Cosmo looked afraid as he returned...

"Make my day!" Timmy heard Danny's voice--and Rose's. They were arguing over something.

"Poof her to Fairy World," Timmy--now once again Kaze-- told Cosmo.

Then he ran off to see what the commotion was about. By the time he got there, Danny was charging at Rose, who was diving away as if scared. And Timmy suddenly understood why: his gun was empty.

And Timmy had the perfect shot... Rose opened his loading chamber and Timmy knew he had to strike. "DOUBLE WIND BLADE!" he yelled...

End Flashback (screen becomes wavy again and returns to full color)

Vlad's Palace

The excessively fat ghost slowly floated out of the portal and hovered up to Vlad's throne. He mumbled something to himself--it sounded like mild profanities mixed with the names "Brian" and "Mayor West..."

Vlad sighed. This one looked pretty stupid. "Please state your name and any powers or special talents."

The man snapped out of his stupor and looked raised is hand as if swearing an oath. "My name is Peter, and I have a problem." The fat ghost, said. Suddenly he seemed to realize where he was. "HOLY CRAP! This isn't ecto-holics anonymous!" He looked around and could find nothing familiar. "LOIS!" He yelled.

Vlad's annoyance quadrupled. "Excuse me, peon. "

"It's Peter," the ghost corrected.

Vlad ignored him. "You are in my palace, and I am recruiting for my ghost army.""An army of ghosts, eh?" asked Ghost Peter. "What for?"

"To take over the world. Duh." Vlad felt as if this ghosts stupidity was intoxicating.

"Sounds nice. I owned my own nation once. Smack-dab in the middle of Rhode Island."

"I'm thrilled. Now please listen. I have a few more questions, Peter. How did you die?""I was playing cards with Death, and I lost. So I used my hold-out Uzi. He wasn't too happy about that."

Vlad just arched an eyebrow. "Do you have any special talents?"

"Well. I can play the piano like Leonardo da Vinci when I'm drunk."

There was an awkward silence. Vlad, blinked, started to say somethng, sputtered, then stopped himself... He wondered if it would be too obvious to point out that da Vinci didn't play the piano. In the end, he decided the answer was yes...Rasing his hand, he forced Ghost Peter break apart and meld with his own ectoplasm. He always did this. Worthless people were fuel. Worthwhile people were recruits... There very, very few worthwhile people. "There has to be a better way to expand my ranks," Vlad sighed, exasperated. Besides, he already had someone who could play the piano while drunk. He thought the name had been Klipspringer or something equally ridiculous.

Just that moment, the Masters Portal closed as the ex-Nazi ghost general Fox Rommel walked into the room. "General," Vlad acknowledged.

"Fuhrer,"Rommel addressed Vlad, "I have received word from a reliable source that Richard Rose has failed in his mission to exterminate the interloper. What's more, reports tell of a white-haired ghost child delivering the final blow. I fear your enemy has returned at last.""I know," Vlad said evenly. "With the power of my amulet, I can feel him even now. And he is about to learn that you don't have to be a ghost hunter to face my wrath. You need only be a Fenton." Something made Vlad quite angry as he said this. Rommel just assumed it was bad memories. In reality, Vlad was just normally like this--simply very good at concealing it.

Vlad motioned, and a spectral Vulture carried one of the seeing stones over and sat it in the pedistal by his throne. (How a half ounce bird carried a five pound crystal is lost to time. Perhaps it had something to do with being dead already.)

"Hanmah Sural Daniel." Vlad said...

Back in Colorado

Danny didn't like at all what he was seeing. The cabin was mostly dark, except in one room. Danny had only seen the front parlor and the hall that led to the helicopter when he had been there before, and that had been months ago. And all too much had happened during that time. So he didn't really know what room it was. But he had a hunch he would not like what he found in the house. He made his way to the door, and phased intangible and invisible through the door and found himself in the same room he remembered, minus the trophies on the walls. Too tired to fly outright, Danny did a combination of tiptoeing and hovering down the hall... The room with the light was the third door on the right, and not only light, but music as well was coming through it.

He sidled along the wall, being careful not to make a noise. Finally he got close enough to make out the words to the songs. It wasn't one he'd ever heard before, but it sounded very old. Something about battling alone...

The sad music stopped briefly and began what sounded like a chorus.

Alone again...

Yeah. Just alone again...

Trapped in here like an old shut-in.

As always: Alone, again...

The words trailed off into faint humming; the music wasn't recorded. Someone was in the house. And Danny's heart felt as though it simultaneously exploded and imploded.

Because the voice was Jazz's. Danny used some of his slight reserves of ghost power to remain invisible and phase through the door into the room...

Jasmine Fenton. If she could be called that. A wreck she was, no doubt. Danny's fury became a tempest within him. What could have done this to her? What could have taken his strong willed independent sister--who alone out of the entire student at body Casper High was immune to Penelope Spectra's "counseling"...

How could Jazz of all people end up like this. Danny noticed she was staring at a portrait on the wall. Two portraits, actually. Their father, and himself. At this he lost all control and phased visible. She thinks I'm dead. They all did. All of them except Mom.

Jazz looked over at Danny. She seemed to see right through him. "Hi, Danny," she said. "Leonardo and Mikey are coming over for tea and crackers. They might bring Splinter along too so you can eat and be HAPPY (Jazz said the word very angrily) just like all my other PEN PALS!"

She just went on smiling. If it had been anyone else, it would have been funny--in the mean-spirited way humans laughed at each-other's problems--but on Jazz, no amount of apathy could make it humorous. Not if one knew how far she'd fallen.

"Jazz. Mike, and Leo, and Splinter are fictional characters! It's me, your brother!"

"Oh I know. And technically you are fictional characters too as well and also. ISN"T THAT RIGHT, CHALTAB!" Jazz screamed the last part at the sky. No answer came and Jazz began to sing again. So Danny went over and shook her. "Jazz. It's me. It's really Danny! Please snap out of it!"

The hole in Danny's heart from the murders of Valerie and his father--yes, he'd come to accept Val's death as another stain on Vlad's hands--widened by several miles. "Good boy, Danny. None of the other figments have managed to touch me. You're the best one yet. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to imagining that you and Dad aren't dead. My offer of cookies and tea still stands."

"I thought you said crackers." Danny replied, beginning to tear up. He hated this. He hated Vlad. He just wanted to leave. But he had to reach his sister... Somehow.

And perhaps he did. Because after he answered, Jazz's eyes flashed wide as saucers and then became terribly angry.

"NO! THEY'RE COOKIES, YOU DEAD BROTHER! GO AWAY! YOU'RE DEAD! DEAD! DEAD!"

Jazz started slapping Danny and Danny took it. What else could he do without hurting his sister even more. If that were possible, his pessimistic side added. Then she pulled out a frying pan... (Why she has one in her bedroom is lost to time) and swung at Danny, who took the hint and ran away, with new-found grief-fueled power. Twin white rings slid around him and he was suddenly Danny Phantom again, and he sped away towards Haven Base. Where he would have to confront his mom.

And he didn't notice as Jazz's tragic rage finally wore off and she sat there. Still Alone...

But this time, instead of deadness in her eyes, there was a sad confusion. And a tear ran down her cheek. "Danny?" she whispered.

Author's Note: I wanted to include quite a bit more, but this chapter is longer than I had expected, So I'm dividing it up here. Sorry.

And bonus NO-Prize to anyone who can figure out what universe "Klipspringer" is from.