Author's Note: I am rather unsatisfied with this chapter. Maybe it's just my being half asleep though. I don't know if it's really all that bad, or if I am just imagineing it. Also,I figured I should warn you that I used a rather severe curse later in this chapter. If anyone is offended, I will remove it, but I felt it was essential to conveying Sam's mood, so it is there for now. Thanks for your time.

Danny found himself halfway back to the base his mother called home before he knew it. He swooped down into the cemetary, but instead of using the security system,he just phased through the ground and went inside, as the ghost chatcher was still lying across the ground from earlier.Danny was undoubtedly furious at his mother. She had lied to him about Jazz. She had hidden the truth from him. And why? To protect him? As if he wasn't capable of handling it! Why did she feel the need to shield him?—knowing that he was who he was—the Phantom child. Amity's superhero.

But when he saw the slaughter that Rose's men had caused, his anger at his mother was quickly replaced by unadulterated rage. And it was directed at Vlad—the man who has sent the sadistic gunslinger. It was all Vlad's fault. Just like the murder of their father, and Valerie's death. And Tucker's. And Sam's transformation into somethng that Danny didn't like in the least. All of it was the fault of the cursed Plasmius.

Danny collapsed onto his knees as he saw them. Most of them, he did'n' even know their names. But Dash. This Dash was completely unlike the Dash he knew. He risked his life to save people. He fought... in a real war against real villains. Dash Baxter, star quarterback would never do that: this rat-hole world had changed everyone.

Danny barely noticed when Marty walked across the circular room and over to him. "Hey. I know it hurts to see a friend die." he comforted.

Suddenly Flare was there too. "Danny. You're mom is going to be fine."

"Fine?" Danny gasped. What a moron he had been! In his selfish rage he had forgotten his mom had been wounded by Vlad's wild-west lackey!

"Wha... her arm... It's..."

"I had to burn it off." Flare stated gravly.Danny felt faint again, as he had when he'd seen Valerie and his father die in the same two minutes. And the overload just caused him to pass out...

oooo

"Danny?" gasped Marty. "What is it with all the fainting? I think I radiate fainting energy or something." Marty sighed, dragging Danny to his feet as he and Flare struggled to get him to the infermary. Medical Bay... Whatever they called it. He did have to admit the fact that it was a ghost helping him do this task was a bit disconcerting.

"There, put him down on that bed," Flare said pointing to a vacant bed...

"What's going on?" Danny asked, awake now, and back in his human form. "Why are there so many in here?" Indeed, there were at least five or six, though the small size of the room and the fact most of the beds were full made it seem like much more.

"Danny, after you went and chased Rose, we were attacked again by a bunch of ghosts. Nobody died in the follow up, as far as I know, but we would have been in it deep if Kaze hadn't showed up and bailed us out."

"You should not be so brash," Flare added.

"Thanks for the lecture," Danny snapped.

"He's right, son," Maddie interjected. She seemed fine, standing upright and nothing out of place... except for the charred stump where her right arm had been.

"Mom..." Danny recognized. He still felt dizzy with sorrow, so he buried it deep. Wangst would have to wait for a time when he wasn't in mortal danger from an immortal enemy "If Flare was a pawn to lead Rose here, then that means Vlad didn't know where you were—until now. He knows and he'll be coming back."

"Danny, I am aware of that."

"Egh.. Dick killed Dash. But I got him." Danny mubled. He felt dizzy yet again.

"Danny, just because he's a sadistic monster does NOT give you the right to use such language."

"Um.. Er.." Danny snapped awake at the tone in his mother's voice. "His name... yeah.. His name was Richard Rose. Hence, 'Dick'... Right?"

Maddie's glare told him she wasn't buying it. "Danny, all this aside, we're going to have to move. Val... er.. Vlad has found us. We survived this time, but now that he knows where we are, he'll be sending more and more at us utnil we're overwhelmed. We have to find a new base."

Suddenly, Danny knew what to do.

"No." He said, setting straight up. The dizzyness was gone, replaced by an intensity fueled by his indignation. "We fight back. Running will only empower him. We either win this or die trying..."

Maddie's eyes showed a mixture of emotions... Hope, dispair, ridicule.

"Or," Danny continued, "That is my decision. You can do what you want, but I am done running away. If my fate is to die fighting Vlad, then fine by me. I'd rather be dead than..." Then he thought of his sister. And how being all ghost would be worse than insanity...

"Danny, what's wrong," his mother asked, concern filling her voice again. Mother's have that power, even if their son is from ten years in the past.

"Jazz." Danny replied. "Mom, why didn't you tell me? Were you trying to protect me? Do you know how insulting that is?
"

"Danny, I didnt' think you needed to know..."

"ABOUT MY SISTER?"

"This is why. I knew you would flip out and blame yourself for it."

"MYSELF? I'm not blaming myself, I am blaming Vlad..." Danny realized it was true. He had superficially accepted that Vlad was responsible. But he had the nagging sensation that HE could have done something. If only he had been there, it would have gone right. After all, the fact that he wasn't dead is what had caused Jazz to flip out...

"Danny, you aren't God." Maddie stated emphatically. "You can't do it all alone. It was unfair of me to expect so much of you. I wish I could make it up; no teen should suffer what you have, and no one should shoulder the pressure I've been putting on you. And as long as I have any fight in me—as long as I have a chance of hurting Vlad—I am going to do so."

"Thanks, Mom." Danny smiled for real, for the first time since coming to the future.

She placed her remainng hand on his shoulder. "No, Danny, Thank you."

oooo

(For this medely of scenes, imagine the Gerudo Valley theme from

Zelda V: Ocarina of Time)

The next few hours were spent prepping. It would take a few days for Vlad to mobilize any significant force, as ghost recruits tended to be rather stubborn, what with the posssible threat of obvlivion and all. But eventually Rommel would get them motivated, so Maddie and her people would have to work fast.

The first step was getting the Spectral Speeders ready to go into battle. There were only three of them; the one from the old lab in Amity Park, and two new models built during the ten years after that city was razed. (One of them had been converted from the Fenton Ghost RV Mark II) Danny and Marty worked on one together; Paulina and her cousin Dora worked on another. Maddie and Flare were fixing-up the third.Maddie found it odd, herself being a ghost hunter most of her life, to find the company of Flare so enjoyable. He seemed like a nice, sensible young man. Would have made a goos husband for Jazz, if she wasn't insane. Too bad he was twenty-years dead.

oooo

Danny turned a wrench clockwise, tightening the bolt that held something in place on a spectral speeder, and this something did something to something and the end result was that the metal vehicle weighed several tons and yet was able to float of the ground via ectoplasmic repulsors. (In laymans' terms, it used ghost juice to hover off the ground.) Said repulsors flared to life as Marty connected a hose to a valve and opened the valve. The speeder lifted up. So far so good.

oooo

It was several hours later still, about 2:30 in the morning, when the prep was complete. Minutemen they weren't, but Danny's mother still found her soldiers loyal. Now they had to go over the plan one last time, and then... pay their last respects to those who had fallen to Casualty Jane and others of her species. (In laymans' terms, guns.)

The Fenton's walked into the map room, accompanied by Flare and Marty. Danny was expecting high tech, but what he got completely surprised him. He had imagined the tall room-high hologram projectors, the 3D maps on high-tech tables... So when he simply saw a simple map of the United States—or what was left of that nation—printed on a simple atlas page, he goggled. Several circles marked things. Clusters of dots were armies.

"We're underfunded," Maddie explained.

"I can tell." Danny and Marty said simultaneiously. Danny had been doing his best to use the healing techniques he had learned from Raven to fix his mother's fighters up, but he had very limited sucess. Mostly because his lacking empathetic powers made it impossible for him to take the pain away, so the best he could do was fix some cuts and mend a few bones--very painfully.

"Gyzz." Maddie's tone was even. "Let's make sure everyone knows what to do. We have a lot of work to do and fast."

"OK," Gyzz sighed. "Our splinter groups in Aaron City and Endsville have given word that they will be able to support us. Their forces and our decoy group will converge on Amity Park where Vlad's forces have been stationed in search of Danny. Fight will take place, Yada-yada-yada. This should draw Vlad's army to Amity Park rather quickly, especially if..." He tapped a button on his belt, and suddenly a hologram disguise that resembled Danny appeared around him. "One of us wears this."

"Meanwhile," Maddie continued for Gyzz, "Myself, Danny, Marty, Qwan, and Flare—after he finishes whatever special attack he has planned at Amity—will procede in the light speeder to Wisconsin, where Danny will try and distract Vlad somehow long enough for Marty to get to the Time Machine.""Then what?" Danny asked."You'll have to improvise once you're back in the past." Gyzz said. "That's comforting."

"This is ridiculous!" a voice from the back insisted. It was Sam's. "It's suicide. Even if Danny, by some miracle, manages to get back to the past, he won't be able to change anything.""What would you have us do, then?" Maddie inquired."Mrs. Fenton, look. We can't win. You treat this like a war, but it isn't about victory—it's about surviving until we have a way to destroy ghosts. If you throw it all away now, then this stalemate could last forever—or worse. Vlad could... no... he WILL wipe us out."

"Sam, they can't just keep running away everytime they're discovered. Eventually they''ll have nowhere to hide from him. And there is no time to evacuate this place. That would take days—days we don't have." Surprisingly, this well thought out response came from Danny.

"Danny, quit it with your stupid idealism. Not every problem can be solved by your special powers and your goddamn thermos! Get it through your head that this is not another of your child-hood battles. This is life and death."

"And it wasn't back then?" Danny muttered. Sure, for her it wasn't, but he was the one constantly risking his life.

Sam just gave him her trademark glare.

"Sam," Maddie said calmly. "If you aren't going to help us, then leave. Find someplace to hide, and stay there. We are going to do this because we are out of options. And if you would turn your back on us after all this time, then so be it. But you cannot convince me not to go through with this."

Sam said nothing. She just turned and walked away. Then she turned back and walked over to Danny. Smiling, she pulled her ax from her belt. "I heard you did good with this earlier Danny. You're going to need all the help you can get."Her voice bitter, she handed him the ax and left."That's one more I've lost because of you." Danny whispered. Vlad would never hear it, but if Danny had his way, he would make Vlad feel it.

oooo

"We are gathered here to remember and bury those of us who have departed. They fought bravely to the last." Maddie said shortly after standing up. From the way she moved her right stump, Danny could tell she was having phantom-limb syndrome.+

"We remember them because they fought with us. And died beside us. Dash Baxter. Football player. Father. Murdered in sadistic cruelty, in the line of duty, defending this base from invaders.

Gentson Carver. Former hacker. He was one of our bests weapon specialists. He will be missed, mostly for his disposition—always cheerful. Always cracking a joke and lightening the mood.Mary Sue. Our team all star. She succeded in everything she ever attempted, and cheated death too many times to count. She was gorgeous, radiant, despite being severly beaten as a child by her father and abandoned by her mother. Her excellence knew no limits, and now at last the grave claims her. She will be missed and sadly mourned by us all for days, even though most of us barely knew her.

And Aiko Kondo, who gave her life trying to rescue Mary's. Our gifted medic who will be missed on and off the battlefield...Let us hope that Vlad does not have his way with their souls." Maddie finished somberly. She had heard of what had happened to those ghosts whom Vlad could not control. He tore them apart... and made them part of him..

With the eulogies finished, the four who had died were lowered into the earth in wooden boxes far too small to be used for this purpose. Collin Roberts, the team Terra-kinetic, lowered dirt and rock into the hole, and erected a head stone with the four names.

"It is time," Maddie said. The sun was about to rise.

+Phantom Limb Syndrome is the experience of an amputee or someone who has otherwise lost a limb experiencing sensations as if that limb was still there.