Chapter 5:

David and Damien sat up, rubbing their heads.

"Damien? What happened? I was up in the tower, and… who is that?" He pointed at the white-haired girl who was laid out between them. Damien shrugged.

Danni felt the tingling sensation of the melting about her stomach. Scared, she powered down.

A white ring flowed down her, changing her hair black and her clothes back to her usual hoodie and shorts.

"Danni?" Damien gasped.

Danni pushed herself up off the ground, grateful not to see her arms dissolve.

"Guys? She asked."

"How'd you do that?" David was practically bouncing.

"What are you?" Damien asked.

"Why are we down here?" David asked.

"What happened to the guy with no face?" Damien asked, his eyes growing wide.

At the last question, Danni pointed up at the tower, where the black silhouette could be seen watching them from the shattered window.

"Why isn't he coming down?" Damien asked.

"He's trapped there. I'll explain it on the way home. Remember, Kay said to be home before nightfall?"

David and Damien exchanged glances.

"Oh, man!" David finally said. "Mom's gonna kill us!"

"I swear, I'm gonna kill them." Kay growled, checking her watch. "If they haven't been in some terrible accident that prevented them from getting home on time, I'm gonna kill them."

"So you're Danny Phantom's super-powered clone?" Damien was beaming. It was like something out of a comic book.

"Yeah, but if I use up too much energy at once, I'll melt into a puddle of green goo." Danni sighed.

"Cool!" Danni and David glared at Damien. "Not in a good way…" Damien muttered.

Danni had told them everything. About Vlad, Danny, the other clones, about how she'd run away after finding out her father was just using her. In a way, she felt a bit of the weight she'd been carrying lift off her chest. The twins babbled excitedly, asking about her powers, about Danny, about the clones and Vlad. She was cool. In their eyes she was the coolest thing that had ever graced their little tourist town… besides the time Harrison Ford had visited, of course.

"What about the Bishop?" Damien finally asked.

"He's some sort of evil ghost. He's able to control people when their asleep, or the ghosts of the people he's hurt." She shuddered, remembering his cold touch.

"He's like a vampire." David said. "Only he takes people's energy instead of blood. Mom once told me about it. They're called sigh-vamps." He puffed up his chest, proud to of added something they didn't know.

"Did you see the memories?" Danni asked them.

David and Damien stared at her blankly for a moment.

"I think I had a nightmare." Damien mumbled. "When he touched me, I saw things. I thought it was a dream."

"I saw things too. I think it was his past. He was a preacher, he scared people and hurt them." Danni said.

"And when they found out what he'd done," added David, suddenly remembering a piece, "They hung him from a tree."

"And he's been haunting Derytown ever since." Damien ended.

"But he can't leave the tower room for some reason." Danni reminded them. "He called it his prison."

"There better be an excellent explanation for why you're late." Kay's voice boomed out from the shop door, where she stood, tapping her foot.

Danni, David and Damien flinched. Danni had never heard Kay so mad she actually hissed, but the twins recognized that tone of voice all too well.

"Hey, Mom…" David grinned sheepishly. "Erm, how are you?"

"You're looking very nice." Damien blinked his green eyes, trying to look cute.

"Sorry we're late," Danni apologized in her most innocent voice. "We lost track of time?"

"Teaching Danni to play basketball?" David added.

"And where is your basketball?" Kay softly growled at them.

"We… lent it to one of Mike's friends?" Damien tried desperately to remember what exactly he'd done with it. Yeah, he'd left it with one of Mikes friends when they snuck into the Carter Place.

"Ah, that's very kind of you." There was a rumbling in the depths of Kay's throat that told the three kids they were not going to get off. "But you're still late coming home. I was getting scared."

"But Mom, Danni collapsed!" Damien suddenly burst out.

"What?" She put her hand against Danni's forehead. "You're as cold as ice!" She exclaimed. "Natalie! Heat up the tea! We've got ourselves an emergency!"

Natalie peered out from the kitchen.

"What kind of emergency?" she groaned.

"Danni collapsed earlier, and she's like an ice-cube!"

Natalie gave Kay a puzzled look.

"She looks fine to me."

"It's eighty degrees outside!"

Natalie disappeared back into the kitchen, and Danni could hear the beeping of the microwave as Natalie set it to reheat a cup of tea.

Danni sat down on one of the chairs as Kay run upstairs for a blanket. She was still feeling weak from her fight with the Bishop, but she didn't think it was that bad.

The microwave beeped again, signaling that it was done. Natalie carried out the cup on a small plate and handed it to Danni.

"This is the famous Lemon family recipe," Natalie told her, "It'll cure just about anything that ails you."

"Really?"

"Short of getting hit by a semi, yup."

Danni sipped the Tea, grimacing as it burned her tongue.

Kay ran down with the blankets, shooing the boys to their beds, her earlier anger forgotten.

Danni hid a smile behind the teacup. In her concern, Kay had forgotten to ground Danni and the twins. They'd skated by this time.

This time. But the Bishop was still up there in the tower. And Danni had a creeping suspicion that it wasn't over.

Those kids know how to play her. Danni was okay. I figure at the most she'd suffered from low blood-sugar. As for turning cold, well, I can't explain that, but she was back to normal by morning. Kay sat up with her all night like she'd done the first night Danni arrived.

Mike Mores and his friends came by in the morning and returned David's ball. To think I'd suspected them of lying. I thought they'd bounced it through another window.

Not that I pay much attention to such things, but there was a bit more animosity between Mike and David. Mikes friends seemed to be excited to see David, though, and the lot of them went out to play ball.

For a while there I thought Kay was going to ground the lot of them, but just now she was talking about getting them all cell-phones. She said that way they could tell her when they would be running late. Whatever. Kay says people underestimate kids. She says that kids should be allowed to explore their world, to find things out for themselves. I told her that was hardly how parents were expected to run things anymore. "Live and Let Live. It's the only way they'll ever truly learn."