The blaring noise of the alarm clock dragged the tired boy out of his comfortable darkness and back into reality. Grumbling rebelliously, Danny reached out and turned it off, then rolled over. After a while, sleep kicked him out, and he sat up stretching. He glanced at the clock and started to get up, then actually looked at the clock.

"Darn it, Jazz!" he exclaimed quietly, frantically getting dressed. She usually woke him up when he turned off his alarm like that. Trust her to choose the day he had a test with Lancer to teach him a lesson. "I can't believe it's after noon," he muttered, practically flying out the door.

He stopped short and slapped his forehead, then switched to ghost mode and literally flew out the door, the far wall, and the front of the house. If he was lucky, no ghosts would stop him on the way, and he would make it without being later than he already was.

Invisible, he dove through the roof of the school and changed back in the middle of the empty hall, then ran the remaining few feet to his class and slid through the door. No one paid him the slightest bit of attention as he quietly made his way to the back of the room, for which he was grateful. He had been expecting everyone to laugh and make fun of him for sleeping in, followed by a visit with the principal that would probably involve his parents and…

And suddenly the fact that this was not happening was very, very worrisome.

Danny glanced around at his classmates; they seemed to be acting normally enough. No one was paying the slightest bit of attention to the lesson, as usual. Dash seemed to be trying to hit on Fiona, which was disturbing. Paulina was doing her nails. Sam and Tucker were passing notes back and forth; he wondered what they were discussing.

Part of him was clamoring to yell something and get everyone's attention. He was relatively certain it wouldn't work, anyway, but if it did, he would never live down the embarrassment. Instead, he took notes as usual for what was left of the period and headed down to Lancer's class.

He continued to be ignored by all. While it was refreshing not to be tormented by Dash for once, he was too worried to enjoy it. Lancer completely passed over him when handing out the test, so he walked up and grabbed one off the desk. It was fairly straightforward, but he found it difficult to concentrate. When the last bell rang, he stayed where he was to finish, then slid the paper onto Lancer's desk and left.

He had been forgotten. Fiona had somehow forced everyone to forget about him. He tried to talk to Sam and Tucker, but they simply walked around him without even realizing it, and Jazz acted no differently. It wasn't until the Box Ghost showed up and was defeated by Fiona that he realized the full extent of what she had done. He hadn't just been forgotten, he had been replaced.

He flew up to the roof of the school and sat with his feet hanging over the edge. After the initial angst wore off, he clenched his fists in determination. Fiona was not going to get away with this, but first, he needed to know exactly what she was.

The dark haired woman paced the width of the deserted alley impatiently. Danny faded into view directly in front of her, startling a squeal from her. "There's something going on, and I know you're involved," he said without preamble.

The lady sighed and closed her eyes, an effort to slow the beating of her heart as much as to gather her scattered thoughts. When she opened them again, her face was an interesting shade of red, but she was calm enough. "Wondering when you'd get here…yeah, that was me," she admitted. "Sorry."

"What was you?" Danny asked suspiciously.

The lady shrugged and clicked her tongue. "Contrivance is my creature, I'm afraid. It had a v-very useful purpose until it realized it could mind control people, and then I had to…uh…uh…" She twiddled her fingers while she tried to remember the word. Danny folded his arms impatiently. "Lock her up," she finished finally.

So Fiona was the Monster of Contrivance; he wasn't surprised. "But why is she doing this?"

"To get back at me, I think. That and because it w-wants to be involved in things. It doesn't understand. I tried to teach it that it doesn't have to take over everything to be liked, but…" She trailed off with a helpless flip of her hand. "My other creatures got it."

Danny drifted toward the ground in dismay. "There's more like her?"

"Oh, no, no!" the lady replied emphatically. "Not like that one, no. My other creatures are normal. You can't even tell the difference." She said that last part with an egotistical lilt that reminded him of Kat. The boy looked at her skeptically until she turned red again and ducked her head muttering, "Well, maybe you can, a little…"

"Whatever," Danny sighed. As long as he didn't have to worry about dealing with anymore like Fiona, he didn't much care. "So how do I beat her?"

"I have no idea," the woman answered. "Wherever it's insinu..ated…oh bugger…" She smacked her forehead. "I am the stupidest...You know, I honestly didn't believe she would be that obvious, but I…" She shook her head. "So what name does she go by, and species and all that?"

After a moment's hesitation, Danny told her the whole story beginning with coming home from school that day. The woman jotted down notes in small book during the telling, snickered a bit when he got to the half ghost part, and said some very interesting phrases when he finished. He raised an eyebrow and resolved to remember the last one. It was very descriptive of the situation. "So shouldn't you know all this stuff?" he asked.

"You're kidding, right?" She scoffed and shook her head. "Danny boy, I have trouble keeping my own thoughts in line." She chuckled nervously as her brain caught up to her mouth, and she realized what she'd called him. When he didn't bother to ask how she knew his name, she went on. "Look, as long as…'Fiona' is half ghost, she'll answer to all the same rules you do."

"So I can catch her in the Fenton Thermos and sent her to the Ghost Zone?" That thought made him very happy indeed.

The woman grinned and shook her head. "Sure you could, but it wouldn't help. Catch her, then give her back to me. Once I have control of her again, everything will go back to normal."

"You're not going to get control of me!" Fiona exclaimed, dropping into the alley.

"Contrivance, stop this!" the woman called, pleading.

The creature went on as though she hadn't spoken. "You ruin everything! I wondered why brother didn't like me! It was because of you!"

"You're not my sister!" Danny protested at the same time the woman said, "He's not your brother!"

A lone tear made its way down Fiona's cheek as she addressed Danny. "I could have been. We could have had all kinds of adventures together. It would have been so much fun." She sniffed and angrily turned on her creator. "But you had to go and ruin things, just like you always do!" She threw out her hand and fired a blast of green energy at the woman, who vanished with a pained cry.

Danny had lunged forward when he saw what Fiona intended, but he was too late. He sank to the ground, wondering how he could have been too late when he was right there. It was as though time had slowed down around him to prevent him from saving her. He glanced up at Fiona in the realization that that was exactly what happened.

She sank down next to him with a bright smile, and he found he couldn't pull away. "It's okay, now, brother," she said sweetly. "We'll start over and pretend this never happened. And we'll have all kinds of adventures, won't we?"

He tried to shove her away, but something stopped him. Part of him wanted desperately to rebel, but she really was a sweet kid. She was just a little misunderstood, that was all. He grinned. "Sound like fun."

"Bugger it all anyway!" the woman yelled, slamming her hand against the wall. She shook it painfully and rolled her eyes at herself. At least, she knew where Contrivance had gone, this time. She set about trying to get back to Amity Park before her creature could do any more damage.