A new chapter yet again! Thank you for the follows for both myself and this story! Again, for this chapter, there wasn't as much changed other than adding more detail and smaller changes to adjust the flow of the story! Enjoy!

SilverExcel115: There was a Harry Potter reference in the last chapter! Can you tell me where you saw it though? And I have not seen or heard of Unfriended. Is it interesting?

KorevainsoLightshire: Listen! There's no such thing as 'logic' in fanfiction world! JK JK! I may need to start running these chapters by you for proof reading since I don't really think about explaining the time passing as much when it comes to writing.

Chapter 6: The New Ghost

The clouds seemed more puffy than he was used to today. Maybe it was that Danny was surrounded by them up high in the sky or that he wasn't in Halloween town where the sky was usually dark and spooky with long narrow clouds that loomed over like a shadow in the moon at night. Or maybe it was Mavis' laughter that seemed to echo through the sky around him as he looked around for her bat form as they played their game.

"Boo!" Mavis called from behind him and he turned to meet a pair of bright blue eyes on the familiar small bat, who giggled and disappeared into the clouds.

Try as he might, he couldn't seem to find the small bat. Mavis seemed to know this sky like the back of her little wing. Or maybe it was because she was a fair amount smaller than him in her bat form. She had managed to catch him quite a few times when it was his turn to hide and now that she was the one hiding, he was seeking her. As he looked around the area he had last seen her, he didn't seem to notice the red eyes that glowed through the clouds behind him.

As Danny flew through the clouds, the growing silence made him feel a bit uneasy. Mavis' bell-like giggling had come to a halt and he, for some reason, felt like there was something else in these clouds besides himself and the vampiress. When a sudden familiar voice gave what sounded like a frightened and pained yelp, he froze, worry beginning to flood his chest.

"Mavis?" He called, turning in slow circles to look through the clouds around him. "Are you ok?"

When greeted by silence, the ghost tried to ignore the panicked feeling that caused his ice core to pulse with nerves. There was something else here with them and it had gotten Mavis.

"Mavis!" He yelled, squinting through the white puffs floating around him, wishing they would clear out.

He had to do something. Anything. But his body wouldn't move. He'd seen monsters. Real monsters not like those who he had grown to call family back at home. Flashes of those orange and blue monsters from his memories struck terror into his mind. What if they had found him? What if they had gotten Mavis? What if…

After a few seconds that had felt like millenia, Mavis' voice, another pained yelp, echoed through the sky around him. That was all he needed. It was enough to yank him from the panic growing inside him and jump into action. He flew forward, rushing toward where he thought he'd heard it come from.

"Danny!" Mavis cried as she came into sight and relief flooded Danny's chest to see she was ok.

Only to freeze yet again at the sight before him.

Mavis was still in her bat form, one of her wings flapping rapidly through the air in an effort to stay in the sky instead of letting herself hang limp from her other wing which was being held in the black gloved hand of a man who floated easily in the sky beside her. He had blue skin and black hair that was slicked upwards to form two sharp looking points. He was dressed in all white besides his boots and gloves and the underside of his cape was a blood red color to match his eyes. He gave a fanged smirk, his red eyes glowing in the darkness as they seemed to bore through the ghost boy, as if being able to see everything in the boy's mind and heart.

This knowing look in the strangers eyes made every cell in Danny's body scream at him to get away.

"Well hello, little badger. It's been a while." The stranger said, pure satisfaction in his voice.

"Who are you?" Danny demanded, knowing he had to ignore the feeling of running away. He had to help Mavis. He had to know who this man was and why he could look at him in such a way. His hand tightened into fists as his eyes glowed more intently in the darkness that seemed to fill the sky around them.

The man only gave a wicked grin as he laughed, letting go of Mavis' wing to lunge at the ghost boy faster than Danny could react and delivered a hard punch to his cheek. The ghost boy found himself flying backwards and out of the sky. As she watched him fall, Mavis tried to fly after him only for another copy of the man to grab both her wings this time and hold her back.

"Danny!"

"Danny! No!" A familiar voice screamed from inside his head, as if a memory was breaking through the cracks.

The white haired boy groaned and sat up from his spot where he had collided with the earth and a poor tree that was now bent over just enough to threaten to fold in on itself but still held strong. As he pulled himself up to a standing position, his head throbbed with a forming headache and the panic that had been tightening in his chest was forgotten. Ignoring the headache, he only had one thought in his mind. Danny had to stop this man. He had to protect Mavis. Eyes narrowing in determination, he took off, causing a gust of wind along the ground, and shot up into the sky where Mavis and the man were. He had to double take as he noticed there were two of them now.

"Oh great, now there's two of you." Danny couldn't help but point out, witty banter coming to him like an old habit. "Nice to see that you have a friend. You seem like the kind of guy who would need a cat."

The man's grin turned into a frown and the one who wasn't holding Mavis spoke.

"Still with the witty banter, dear boy. I had assumed you'd left it behind with everything else when you died."

This struck a sense of fear and surprise into Danny. Did this guy know him from when he was alive? If so, what kind of life did he have?

'If I'm dealing with guys like this, were there any others that I had to fight back when I was alive… But why? Was I some kind of hero? Or... a villain?'

Before he could defend himself, the man had sent a swift kick to his stomach, knocking the wind out of the ghost boy. The man caught Danny with a hand clenched around his neck. He seemed to be saying something but Danny's mind was racing. The only thought echoed through his dreary mind was that if he had time to be scared then he could make a plan.

Without his control, a memory flashed in his mind. The girl with long red hair was speaking.

"Wait, Masters? As in Vlad Masters, who was named Affluent Magazines second billionaire of the year next to Bruce Wayne?"

It was rushing back to him now. The night he had met the man behind this ghost. Who was he? What did he always want from him? Danny racked his brain for answers.

"My vultures were supposed to bring the big idiot to me, but you'll do. Danny Phantom, right?"

"You're the ghost boy who uses his powers for good. Oh, quaint."

Danny remembered being so confused. So scared. So worried for... who?

"How are you doing this?"

"Years of practice, which you unfortunately have no time for"

"Vlad." Danny sneered, catching the other man off guard. "I do remember you... or at least some things..." The teen let a smirk grow on his face as Vlad's grin fell. "Still haven't got a cat?"

Taking the beat of opportunity with Vlad's shocked look, Danny was able to kick the older ghost away. The ghost boy instantly thought of his trick he'd discovered back when he'd only been at Halloween town for a year. Green energy gathered in his hands and Danny grinned, remembering how Dr. Finkelstein hadn't been able to explain how he could do this and how frustrated the scientist had gotten over it, claiming he had to do experiments.

Experiments...

Danny shook his head, he didn't have time to be thinking about that word right now. He let his hands glow as the ghostly energy gathered before becoming more solid and stronger. Danny looked at Mavis and met her eyes, sending her look as if telling her to get out of the way. She nodded in understanding and transformed into a mouse, falling out of the black gloves holding her and catching the Vlad copy off guard as Danny aimed at both of the Vlad's, letting his energy shoot towards the two.

'No,' Danny thought. 'Vlad and his copy.'

As the energy collided with the men, Danny rushed to Mavis, who had transformed back into a bat, and grabbed her. She let out a squeak of surprise as he flew as fast as he could, holding her close as he took off.

"Sorry, Mave, but we gotta get out of here fast and I'm not letting you out of my arms until we get back to the hotel." Danny said, already hitting speeds of 200 miles per hour.

The vampiress couldn't help but blush at the protective nature of the ghost boy and his arms wrapped around her.

—

It wasn't long before they were back at the hotel. Danny finally slowed to a stop as he flew into Mavis' room and released her. Turning as she morphed back to her normal form, he turned and closed the window, locking the latch and trying his best to ignore the growing guilt in his chest. What had he just put Mavis through? How could he have forgotten about Vlad? The other ghost had been his enemy in his life and he completely forgot about him and the fact he was still a threat. And because of him Mavis almost got hurt.

'She must be mad.' He thought, his shoulders slumping in his guilt as he refused to look at the vampiress. 'She must not want to hang out with me anymore...'

"I'm so sorry, Mavis…" Danny said, running a hand through his hair. "I've only been here a few days and I've already put you in danger. I can understand if you don't want to talk to me anymore..."

He expected scolding or yelling. He expected Mavis to tell him she never wanted to talk to him again and somehow get himself and his aunt and uncle kicked out of the hotel for putting her in danger. What he wasn't expecting was for Mavis to start laughing. The bell-like tone of her laugh caused butterflies to flutter through his stomach like how her laugh usually made him feel.

"Are you kidding? Danny, that was awesome! I've never gotten that rush before!" Mavis cheered, rushing forward and hugging the ghost, whose face was currently decorated with a light green blush, but it didn't mean he was ok.

"But Mavis, you almost got hurt!" He exclaimed, pulling away and plopping down on her bed before putting his face in his hands. "What if I'm not around next time? What if Vlad decides to attack you? I put you in danger!"

Mavis was silent for a moment before she moved and took a seat beside him, setting a cool hand on his hand covering his face. He lowered his hands just enough to look at her, meeting her eyes.

"First of all; I can take care of myself. Yeah, I wasn't expecting that guy to show up. Neither of us were. So in the future, we'll be ready. And second of all; I know I can trust you to protect me just like you did tonight. You're not getting rid of me that easily, ghost boy." She teased. "Just do me one favor."

Danny nodded, having lowered his hands to his lap, her hand resting in one of his.

"Just don't tell my dad, ok?" She grinned, sending him a wink before she stood and pulled him to stand beside her. "Now, let's go get something to eat. I'm craving some scream cheese."

Danny chuckled and nodded as he let her pull him to stand. As he began to follow her, a sharp pain struck him and caused him to tense and sit back on the couch, forgetting about how they were still holding hands. Pulling the startled vampiress into his lap, he released a sharp intake of breath at the burst of pain as her face was bright red with a blush.

"D-Danny?" Mavis could only stutter, her cheeks burning as she turned and found her face an inch from his.

She couldn't breathe. Not that she really needed to but she suddenly was hyper focused on just how close they were with her on his lap. All she could do was watch his glowing green eyes as they seemed to be reading her very soul.

"M-Mavis…"

"Yeah?" She replied, her voice holding an airy tone as she tilted her head slightly.

"Could you get off? My side hurts and you're kneeling against it." Danny said, looking away.

Mavis gasped as she finally realized just how much pain the ghost boy was in as she quickly stood and apologized. Looking down at Danny's side, she gasped at the sight of green blood soaking through his shirt. Concern flooding her mind, she gently pushed him back to lay on her bed as she knelt beside the bed and carefully moved the fabric out of the way to look at the cut. The ghost boy didn't try to bother stopping her, the pain flooding his mind. While she wasn't exactly super knowledgeable about injuries, Mavis knew the cut was bad. It looked deep enough to be fatal on anything that wasn't already dead.

"Danny, this is bad. I need to patch you up. Don't move." Mavis ordered as she stood and grabbed a few bandages from her closet.

"I-It's fine, Mave… I'll heal from it. I just need a second to catch my breath." Danny said, slowly trying to sit up only for the vampiress to gently yet firmly push him back down with her vampire strength.

"Don't move, ghost boy. I'm patching you up." She ordered, not seeming to take no for an answer.

As Mavis got to work on patching him up, Danny couldn't help but think about Sam again. He couldn't remember much about the girl but she and Mavis felt like they were fairly similar. Curious. Caring. And in charge. He could see what her face looked like now and all the times she had patched him up after fights.

Fights with who? He couldn't remember.

"Sam, I'm fine. It's just a scratch."

"Danny, you were sent hurling into a building. I'm patching you up. Now stop moving."

He couldn't, for the death of him, remember how Sam had been important to him? He had other friends, right? And family? What happened to them? And why couldn't he remember…? Feeling a headache forming, the ghost boy quickly regretted bringing his hand to his head when Mavis noticed and started asking if he had hit his head too. Tugging tightly on the bandages to make sure they were secure, she stood and went to wash her hands.

"There, you're done. Unless you have other scratches on you that I missed." Mavis said, her tone hinting that if he didn't tell her, he'd be sorry.

Danny couldn't help but laugh slightly.

"No no, I'm fine. Just don't tell my aunt and uncle about this." Danny said as he sat up, taking note of how the pressure from the bandage helped a lot more with the pain that had begun to fade as his cut worked to heal itself. "You know I'm a ghost. I'm already dead so this wouldn't be fatal."

Mavis stared at him for a moment before her eyes turned down to the bandage tied tightly around his lower torso. She reached forward and set a pale hand over the cut, looking up when Danny winced, trying (and failing) to hide it.

"It still hurts though." Mavis pointed out, frowning at him. "You can't trick me."

Danny sighed and rolled his eyes. Ok maybe it did hurt but it was feeling better already…

"Danny! No!"

He winced as his head throbbed at the headache forming, not noticing the look on the vampiress' face as she stared at him, wondering if she should tell his aunt and uncle about what had happened. Deciding to let Danny heal up a bit and keep an eye on him for a few hours before she decided to let his aunt and uncle know about the attack, she shook her head and stood.

"I think we should get something to eat. I'm gonna go get some scream cheese from the kitchen and bring it back here. Do you want anything?" Mavis asked.

"You guys wouldn't happen to have some worms wart soup?" Danny asked, hopefully, having sat up but not bothering with standing. "With frogs breath?"

"I've never heard of it but let me go see. Stay here and I'll be right back." Mavis smiled as she left.