Danny was barely able to keep aloft at quarter to two in the morning, when he finally felt a reaction to his searching. Almost thinking he had imagined it, he looked down at his hands, and then into the distance. A glowing green light met his eyes, if only barely, and he couldn't help but feel pride and a touch of hope rise in his chest at the sight.

"Finally," he yawned and flew towards the light. When he reached it, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and reached out to touch it. Instantly, he felt himself transported to the Ghost Zone, and looked back to see the familiar porthole-like door that looked out at the lake. He'd found the right door.

Too tired to do anything but grin proudly, he turned and flew away from the porthole. He knew where he was going now.

xoxoxox

Danny saw the darkened purple door, and immediately knew things were far worse than he had expected. Deep gashes now graced the once flawless ectoplasmic wood. With a growing sense of dread twisting his stomach into knots, he floated warily to the door and turned the handle.

Darkness greeted him, almost seeming to absorb any of the eerie light seeping in from the ghost zone. Taking a deep breath, he stepped inside, and closed the door, so no one could see him. He had a feeling that whatever would be discovered in here shouldn't be spread around the ghost zone, although he didn't really know what would make "the front page" so to speak.

Taking a deep breath, he held up an ectoplasmic light in his hand, and looked around. At first he couldn't see anything, and then the small lights around the room from before began to glow, illuminating the enormous, cave-like room.

As the sight became more and more clear, Danny felt his breath catch in his throat. When he'd come here before, there had been large, graceful sculptures made from the material covering the walls, floor and ceiling. Now, nothing but broken and shattered remains met his gaze. Almost every statue had been destroyed, and now lay in shattered pieces of what looked like liquid glass scattered across the floor.

Suddenly, his dream came to mind, and he immediately knew that it hadn't been just a dream. Her feelings and emotions had been so strong, that even though he hadn't really seen them, he'd picked up on it subconsiously. Jazz's psycho babble suddenly made a lot more sense as the words came to his mind. He'd been listening to her too much, he thought grimly.

A shiver suddenly ran up and down his spine as he looked around. A general feeling of hatred and pain now filled the once peaceful room, partly due to the shattered remains, and partly due to the one statue that remained standing.

He slowly floated forward, looking at the statue in shock. It had been the one she had helped him make...and it had been drastically altered. Sharp spikes now stuck through it, impaling it at several points, and it too had been shattered in many places. Harsh words had been randomly written all over and around it, hitting too close to home for simple vandalism to apply.

Alesha herself had done this, Danny knew...but why? He couldn't understand why she'd destroy anything that reminded her of her brother... Jazz would know. He sighed, his heart filling with an empathetic pain for his former friend. Despite everything he knew, he was beginning to blame himself for what happened...

Throwing the thoughts far away, he finally turned and left, in a stupor, and floated aimlessly through the ghost zone. He ran into very few ghosts, and most either ignored him, or gave him wide berth. He didn't care, he could only keep the situation running through his mind, numbing his body.

'So who is really responsible for all this?' he asked himself. 'Me? Alesha? Obviously Vlad...because he started it all.' The thoughts just kept coming, like a flood gate had been opened, and he couldn't stop it. Suddenly he realized that if he really wanted to get to the root of everything, his father had a large part of responsibility for giving Vlad the powers in the first place. If it hadn't been for his stupid obsession... Danny suddenly stopped as the realization of his current train of thoughts hit him. Perhaps he himself wasn't blameless, and neither was Alesha really...but the two people ultimately responsible for all of this, were Vlad, and his father.

A cold anger began to gather inside him. "I swear I will never be so obsessed," he vowed to himself suddenly. If this was the kind of pain that obsessions caused, then he would have no part in them. "Not with ghosts, not with ghost hunting, not with ANYTHING." He would hold himself to that promise. He would. No matter what.

With a new determination, he finally got directions to his own porthole, and flew off in that direction, his mind focusing firmly for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Finally! phew I got another chappie up...but I'm working through writers block at the moment, so sorry for the suckiness. sigh

LaBOBruen: Do I torture them because I love them? Yes. Do I do that to everyone I love. Heck no!