starxrobin: I'm so glad you like it!

chaotic-odium: Your wish is my command... well at least for this chapter anyway. .

PhantomAlchemist: I never really thought of it that way, lol.

"Talking"

'Thoughts'

Flashbacks

Disclaimer: Don't own Danny Phantom, but I do own the original characters Morbid and Pallas Dark.

Chapter VII

Diamond stars wheeled overhead as Freak Show stood apart from the ghost child, leaning listlessly on his staff in a careless manor. He was right about the man contacting him, because the next day he received a call from his mysterious boss.

"I am interested in seeing how much control you have over your new ghost, Freak Show," the voice said.

"I hope I get my first installment of the payment you owe me," Freak Show grumbled. "Like we agreed."

The voice chuckled. "You are pushy, aren't you?"

"The money?"

"It will be there when we finally meet."

It was sometime past 12 and the man still hadn't shown his face. Midnight was when the fabled meeting was supposed to take place and Freak Show was becoming impatient and crabby, a dangerous combination for him.

Ah, who was he kidding? This was a stab in the dark even when he fist took the job two weeks ago. Listening to someone he didn't even know give him orders over phone conversations, promising riches beyond what he could steal in the human world. Powers that would make controlling ghosts seem like mere child's play.

Freak Show sighed and looked about once more. No one. Not a single soul besides himself (and the ghost child, but he didn't count that) was around. "I guess out mystery man decided not to show, drone," Freak Show whispered. "What a jerk."

"You should watch what you say, Freak Show. You many never know whose listening." That voice. The one from the phone conversations floated to him over the still breeze rustling the excessive grass and near by leaves on stilled trees.

"You're late," Freak Show snapped, boldly yet he took a step back as a cloaked figure stepped out from shadows that seemingly came from no where, swaddling his shape and blurring his image.

"My apologies," he said, amused. "I was deterred in getting here. Some problems that needed my immediate attention." Freak Show almost snorted. Who did this guy think he was? He carried himself like some sort of god, showing up when he wanted, leaving people waiting in nervousness if it amused him. Freak Show knew he had to be wary of this guy and he hoped he wasn't in over his head.

"He truly is amazing," the man spoke interrupting Freak Show's thoughts. The being had moved, now standing in from of the ghost child, running one lone finger down the curves of it's jaw. The ghost didn't move, or acknowledge the beings presence; it only stood their, it's eyes unfocused and starting off into space, seeing something that neither of them could.

"Yes, yes. It's truly spectacular," Freak Show agreed sarcastically. "Now, about the money--"

"Patients, Freak Show. Do not get ahead of yourself. I still have to see a demonstration. If he truly is under your control, fully and completely, then I will give you what you asked."

The being snapped his fingers and six ghosts' appeared, blue floating sailors by the looks of them, and they were grinning wickedly. "Fighting these ghosts would be too easy and predictable for a presentation since that is what he used to do. Stealing things, as you so graciously have him do, is not the challenge I was looking for," he denounced, then paused in his speech.

"So what do you want me to do?" Freak Show asked irritated.

"Silence!" Even though Freak Show could not see the man's face, he could almost imagine a smile spreading across his lips. The atmosphere lightened, his mood changed.

"It seems we are being watched, Freak Show." The man said finally. "And it seems like perfect timing. I want you to command the ghost boy to attack and get rid of our unwanted guests."

Danny finally managed to stand somewhat shakily in this prison of miasma. The crushing fog and choking nothingness didn't bother him anymore. Nothing did.

What was the point anymore? To struggle against this, or not. To live or die. To Danny, nothing mattered any longer. Sam was dead. He would never see her brilliant smile again; feel her touch when they accidentally brushed against one another. His life had now turned into that saying: You never know what you have until it's gone.

He had never known how much Sam meant to him. How much joy it brought whenever he watched her ogle over a new protest on the environment, her amethyst eyes would sparkle with such devotion and love that Danny caught himself wishing those eyes would looking in his direction.

But it didn't matter now, did it? She wasn't coming back. And it was all of his fault.

Danny felt his body move; however this time was unlike the others. He was dodging, ducking, and firing ectoplasmic energy from his hands. He tried to focus, to make an image appear like the last time and to his delight it did, filling his view.

What Danny saw made his choke in horror. It was Jazz and Tucker, dodging behind bushes, deflecting his blasts and failing miserably in fighting him off. "Fight back, guys!" Danny yelled with all his might. His words would not--could not be heard. He knew that, but somehow… Danny felt body alter to his invisible state and from his view; his body quietly crept up behind them.

Danny gritted his teeth. Everything that had been done to him was because of Freak Show, that stupid clown. Sam's death had a helping hand by none other then the clown, his loneliness was another result and the pain he was now experiencing- Freak Show. An epiphany swept over Danny as he realized...

He hated Freak Show.

Jazz had scarcely been able to sidestep that last attack which came inched from her countenance. If it wasn't for the Fenton Specter Deflector, her face would have been a mess of burning flesh. Danny, jerked back his hand as it came in contact with the ghost shield, temporally weakening him--the key word being temporary. He vanished from Jazz's sight and the teen stumbled over to Tucker who was gingerly picking himself up off the ground. "Dang, that stung," Tucker grumbled. "Where's he now?"

Jazz shook her head in askance as she scanned forest devoid of light; trying to discern regular forest noise from perhaps ghost noise. She knew it wouldn't be much but perchance a small slip up from Danny could give her a clue as to his position. "Danny!" she tried calling out, her voice horse and tired. She knew he could hear him; however, all she wished was that he could recognize her voice. The voice of his sister.

"Danny, it's us," Tucker caught on quickly, much to Jazz's revelation. So he wasn't just there to be the comic relief, she thought.

"Danny, I know you can hear us," Jazz shouted again, apparently to thin, dried air. She stood, bushing her strawberry red hair from out of her face, where it seemed to stay while in the mists of battle. "I'm me, Jazz. And Tucker's here too. Remember?"

No response.

"We've come to rescue you, Danny," Tucker tried after Jazz was met with silence. "You don't have to be under Freak Show's control anymore. We're here to help."

"…I…"

It was so quiet, the voice that Jazz immediately knew belonged to her dear baby brother. She winced hearing how much grief, how much hopelessness and fear spiked across that voice. What had happened to him the time he was away? Was that a week ago, it seemed like a lifetime passed. A lifetime filled with forlorn hope, foolish speculation and a despair that was denied significance in their hearts.

"…I am so alone…"

Jazz and Tucker turned, at last discerning the voices origin. Danny hovered, inches from the ground, his scarlet eyes brimmed with tears that defied gravity's prodding-- to streak his face with its damp presence.

"…I can't… can't fight…"

"Let us help you, Danny," Jazz prodded, taking a delicate step forward however, Danny floated back keeping the same distance between them. "Tell us where Freak Show is so we can destroy the crystal staff."

There was longing in his eyes; conceivably hope--even in the smallest amounts, and something else… something much darker than Jazz could grasp. Where was her sapphire eyed child she had grown up with?

Danny opened his mouth, then instantaneously shut it and once again disappeared from sight.

"DANNY!"

"As I suspected," a different voice, much colder and baleful drew Tucker and Jazz from the spot Danny was once at to a location several yards away where a shrouded man, six ghosts, Freak Show and Danny stood. "The ghost boy is not fully under your control, Freak Show. Didn't I tell you not to overestimate his willpower?"

Freak Show cursed as he was not to gently dumped on the ground by the ghosts who carried him over to the edge of the forest from the middle of the field. "How dare your cronies touch me!" He straightened his coat. "So, I can't control him fully. The point is that I can control him somewhat!"

"Foolish clown," the man smirked. "For what I have planned, I need his unconditional cooperation." Reaching into his cloak, the man pulled out what looked like a broach shaped like the same bat that was on the staff.

"Hey!" Tucker called. "What are you going to do to Danny?" Freak Show and the man turned, almost surprise that they were being eavesdropped on.

"Let Danny go!" Jazz called not liking the looks of that broach. The man laughed, and handing the ornament to Freak Show who grudgingly put it on Danny.

"Just think of it was this broach is an accessory to the staff. It will subdue his mind further until he will not hesitate to kill anyone that his master orders," the man explained. "I don't know how you managed to get your paltry words through to him and pull him from the recesses of his mind, but with this broach on, no one can bring him back."

Jazz looked at her brother, almost begging Danny to give her some hint that he was still in control. That at any second he could break it—with their coaxing, of course—and prove the man wrong, that his own overconfidence would be his downfall.

"Now, attack!"