Notes:

Wow. I'm at a loss of words (not literally or else I wouldn't be writing another chapter, right?). It's just that I'm very thankful for all your comments and the favs given. Really… much appreciated. Muchisísimas gracias!

I'm also glad to know that the previous chapter wasn't confusing and that you didn't mind about the length.

Anyway… the show must go on! Oh, my… Chapter 10 already?

Chapter 10: I've got a theory

"Danny… open the door…" Jazz insisted as she once again tried to turn the knob only to find it locked.

Both Fenton and Phantom looked at each other. "What do we do?" the human boy asked.

"I should hide. You have to act naturally. Don't make her suspicious," the ghost replied, starting to float outside the room.

"Are you coming back?" Fenton asked before his ghost half could disappear. The phantom just nodded and faded from view.

Ok. This is it. I'll just open the door and get this over with.

Danny hesitated before unlocking the door to allow his 'sister' in. He took a step back as she stormed into his room. He really didn't know what to expect. She seemed a bit angry and a bit concerned. Danny hoped she hadn't figured out his plan with Phantom, although they didn't have that much of a plan yet.

"Care to tell me what happened today?" Jazz asked, her voice full of worry.

"About what?" Danny asked confused and somewhat nervous.

"You know well about what…" she paused for a moment as she looked at her brother expectantly, but the boy gave her a blank look. She sighed before continuing. "About your little conversation today with Sam and Valerie? Ring any bells?"

Danny now stared at her in confusion. Wow, I thought she would want to talk about Phantom. Wait… Oh, no…

"How did you know about that?" he asked nervously.

Jazz sat on his bed and crossed her legs. She raised an eyebrow at him. "You were a year in a coma, remember? I've been talking to your friends for a while. Sam told me about it on the phone just a couple of minutes ago," she replied, as if it were obvious.

Danny rubbed the back of his head trying to come up with a plausible explanation. "I… uh… took your advice and tried to talk about my feelings to see if I could fix a few things…"

Jazz gave him a confused look. "I told you not to stress yourself and to talk if you wanted to, but what you did is just silly".

"Sorry, I messed up. I'll talk to them tomorrow. I promise," Danny smiled at her as warmly as possible. He felt awkward having this conversation with a figment of his imagination or ghost… or whatever Jazz was in his head.

The older sibling approached her brother and ruffled his hair before heading out of the room. "Just think before you blurt something like that next time, little brother," she said with a wink and disappeared into the hall.

Danny sighed as he closed the door once again. Why did my parents have to build that stupid portal? It has been the source of all my problems in both the real world and the dream one.

There has to be a way to beat this thing. We must get out of here somehow. Though I don't know how we can defeat that freak.

Wait! My dream… I'm not sure but I think I was about to wake up.

The image of the cloaked ghost kneeling by his side popped in his head.

I've seen him before. He's the last ghost I fought. Before I fell from the building. Before I woke up from a coma. But which one is it? There were two. What if they're working together?

Another memory flashed in his mind. 'Why would I want to speak if I don't have any business with you?' the second ghost asked him that fateful night.

What did he mean by that? Maybe he didn't want to hurt me. No, that's not it. He used some kind of telekinetic power to make me float out of the building…

…by holding his hand up! Maybe he was the one kneeling by my side and that's why he had his hands above me. He was using some kind of power to keep me unconscious!

So, maybe he didn't have a business with Phantom, but he probably had a business with Fenton.

But what about the other one? They look alike. They're probably together in this. Maybe one is tricking the Phantom and another the Fenton me…

And if I'm still unconscious on the middle of the street, why hasn't anyone gone to help me? I wouldn't be that hard to miss if I'm on the ground in front of a collapsed building.

Unless…

If this is all in my head, maybe time is not moving the same way it does as in the real world. Maybe it has only been a couple of minutes since I hit the ground.

Did I even hit the ground at all? The fall would've killed me or at least left me with a serious head injury…

… is that why I'm even hallucinating all this? Did I have a head injury and the ghost used it to get into my mind? Or what if he 'saved' me at the last minute?

Geez… so many questions and not enough answers. I seriously don't have a clue of what I should do.

Hmm, now that I think about it, it was not until I fell asleep that I could reach the real world. And ever since I supposedly 'woke up' from that coma, I haven't been able to sleep well. I couldn't even dream anything. Until now.

So… if I sleep, I might wake up from this dream? It's worth giving it a shot…

But if I do wake up, what will happen to Phantom? Where is he anyway?

Phantom had returned to the darkness of his cell, figuring that his captor was probably growing suspicious and might look for him.

Fair enough, the ghost showed up. "I don't know how you did it, but you're not getting away that easily. You seem to forget that there's no way out even if your human side believes you," the dark figure told the white-haired phantom. His voice was deep and somewhat soothing.

He turned around preparing to leave when something unexpected happened: his prisoner shot a beam at him. "You might be controlling our mind, but you're still a ghost and I'm still a fighter, which means that I can still beat you," Phantom said smugly as he walked towards his tormentor.

The cloaked fiend shot him a sly smile and began to cackle. "You're a fool," he said, without moving his lips. Phantom hadn't noticed until now. In fact, this was the first time he came this close to see the ghost's features. His eyes glowed red and his glowing smirk gave him an eerie effect to his blank face. Actually, he didn't have a real face. It seemed like his eyes and smile just floated between the shadows inside his cloak.

The dark garment also covered the rest of his body. No arms or legs (nor tail) could be seen. So that was it. He was some sort of cloak filled with smoke and who happened to have eyes and teeth.

The ghost boy shivered as soon as he saw the fiend clearly (or as clearly as possible). Wait… I've seen him before. He's the last ghost I fought before I ended up in this place. Well, one of the two I battled. But which one? Ah, who cares. They're probably together in this…

The creature then held a hand in front of him with his palm facing the boy. Danny paled as soon as he saw this. So he does have hands. Crud… that can't be good.

The hand began to glow in a dark shade of red and soon the ghastly hero began to feel pain. It was hard to describe it, mostly because of the unbearable feeling he was dealing with now. He felt as if his head wanted to explode and the rest of his muscles ached with a burning sensation.

"What the heck are you doing to me?" the boy managed to scream.

"I might not be able to destroy you by convincing Fenton to do the job for me, but I'm still in charge here. Now that the boy is useless to me, I don't see the point in keeping him," the ghost then approached Danny. "You see… it was going to be much more fun to see him destroy you while I fed from his energy, but now that I'm fully charged, I can use that energy to control you. And now, you will kill him," the figure added with a dark smile.

"Fully charged?" Phantom asked in confusion. His brain then processed the rest of the cryptic message. "Wait, what? Kill Fenton? You must be kidding me…"

"Ah, my dear boy… did you seriously think that I was growing weaker by the minute? The only reason why I allowed you and Fenton some freedom was because I was too busy absorbing his energy to even care about what you did," the enemy replied in a bored tone.

Danny was curled on the ground (or at least what felt like ground) trying to fight the horrible pain that filled him. He tried to suppress an agonizing scream but he could barely stand it. "What are you? What did I ever do to you to deserve this?" Phantom asked through clenched teeth.

"You don't get it, do you? This isn't about some vendetta. This was never about some sort of game with the rest of the ghosts to see who could get you first. You have power beyond anyone's dreams. Oh, excuse me for the terrible pun," he said with a playful grin. Danny just glared at him as he used his hands to grab his stomach. "You are an excellent source of energy. The fact that you are half a ghost and half a human is what made you my target. You see, I'm by most known as a Dream Eater, though I'd rather be called Remy. At least that name doesn't give away the source of my power: dreams. I feed from people's fantasies and hopes," the ghost continued.

"Aww, how nice of you," Danny mocked even though he still felt the burning sensation. "I thought that a dream eater ate the bad dreams".

"Don't believe everything you read, my boy. Besides, don't you even want to know what made you so attractive?" When he didn't get a response from his victim, the Dream Eater again held his hand and telekinetically pinned Danny against some sort of wall. "Ghosts don't dream".

"Ghosts have unfinished business. Of course they dream," the boy said unsure of his response.

"No. They have ambitions, yes. But they don't dream anymore. They don't go to sleep thinking about their future, about love, about their hopes. The only desires they have are to fulfill their unfinished business, as you call it. They have nothing else to look forward to. Not even life. They're dead. As simple as that. You, on the other hand, are not. You're still half alive. Your ghost is tainted by your human emotions and even its dreams. Dreams of having a normal life, of getting away from all of this, of getting a certain girl to like you back, of being an astronaut… You're perfect," Remy finished.

"If I'm so perfect, why do you want to destroy me?" Phantom challenged. He was now unable to move but at least the pain was more bearable.

"The only useful thing about your ghost half is your power. It's your human side's dreams that keep me going. If I made him forget about you, then I would be able to feed from that power without you interfering," Remy replied.

"So, if his dreams were fulfilled, you got stronger. But now that he knows about you, you can't feed from him anymore" the boy said, trying to sort things out.

The dream eater just stared at him. "This has been a wonderful conversation, but I'm afraid that you and I have a job to do. Mostly you, of course".

Remy sent another wave of energy towards Phantom. The green-eyed boy screamed in pain as he was surrounded by the same crimson glow that emanated from his captor's hands.

Danny Fenton went out for a walk once again. He couldn't stand watching the illusion of his family nor the emptiness that he felt in his own room. He kept walking with no real direction. His feet stopped once he reached a familiar place: the building under construction where he battled the two ghosts.

Weird… why would he put this building in my mental scenario if it would remind me about the fight we had?

He shrugged it off as he headed inside the construction site. No one was there. The workers had already gone home (if one was to follow the logic used in real life and apply it in this dream). He reached the floor where he had last been and sat on a pile of bricks. The building didn't have the front wall yet, so Danny was able to see the town of Amity Park just before the sunset. It seemed so calm, so quiet. As if nothing could go wrong in such a beautiful view.

That's what he wanted me to believe. That somehow things were perfect. That nothing would hurt me ever again. And I was so eager to live a normal life that I failed to notice all the facts put in front of me. Life isn't perfect. Life is far from pretty. Perhaps being half ghost isn't normal either, but at least I had obstacles in that life. Nothing was ever easy. But having difficulties is part of what makes us humans and what keeps us growing. It's through struggle that we learn. We fall just to stand up and dust ourselves off.

And God knows I've fallen hard as Danny Phantom. I've made terrible mistakes and dealt with the consequences or at least I learned from it. When I faced my evil future self, I used it as a lesson. That's what would've happened if I took the easy way. And, unknowingly, I was almost doing just that by believing this fantasy. I saw an easy way out and took it. I evaded my responsibilities as Amity Park's protector.

I was willing to push aside my Phantom half.

Well, at least he didn't get mad at me for doing so. Being a misunderstood hero sure gave him the means necessary to understand others. I guess I should learn something from him too.

Hmm… I hope he knows how to find me. On second thought, I just hope he wasn't trapped again.

Danny stood up and turned around to leave, but stopped mid-step when he noticed Phantom standing in front of him with his eyes closed.

"Hey, what took you so long? I was starting to worry that you wouldn't be able to escape this time," Fenton said as he approached the ghost. Phantom didn't respond or move, which made the human boy grow a little concerned. "Uh… Phantom, are you alright?"

As soon as the blue-eyed teenager said this, Phantom's eyes shot open, revealing a burgundy tone in his gaze. Fenton jumped back in shock and the ghost began to raise his hand, making it glow green as he prepared to release a beam towards his human counterpart.

Notes:

And now, you finally know who the evil ghost is. I'll give a chocolate to anyone who gets the reference for the name 'Remy'. Sorry for the cliffhanger.

Save Danny Phantom from cancellation! Check at the bottom of chapter 8 for ways to help.