*The camera was pointed at a fireplace and a couple chairs near it*

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Walks into frame, covered in snow. Instead of sitting down in a chair, she plopped herself down in front of the fire* Welp… the weather outside is definitely frightful. And like the song says, there's nowhere we have to go, so let it snow. *Lets out a sneeze*

Andy: *Chuckles and walks over with a huge mug of hot cocoa as the snow began to melt off Onyx* It just sucks you had to go out and put the trash cans out for pickup in the middle of a snowstorm. At least this castle has its own power generation, so we can make hot cocoa and more without having to worry about the power going out. Here you go, by the way. *Hands Onyx the mug of hot cocoa*

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Thank you. *Sips the hot cocoa* I think what I'm most grateful for is the fact I'm not a cold-blooded dragon, otherwise I'd probably be unconscious right now. And due to how hot my body naturally is, I'm not actually shivering despite being covered in snow. Though… I am making a mess. *Her body glowed before the snow vanished and a warm towels appeared in its place, drying her off and soaking up the puddles that had formed around her* So… where's Fox?

Andy: She says she has to pack, getting ready to leave to go visit her grandma for New Years.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Grumbles* Right… well if this snowstorm doesn't let up, she won't be going anywhere. *Chuckles softly* Which, honestly would be the best thing as I consider her a part of my dragon hoard and don't want to let her go too far from me~

DarkFoxKit: Okay, I got my games, my phone, my charger, my books, my clothes… Onyx, Andy? Are you two drinking hot chocolate?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Well I am. Andy made this mug for me as I was outside in that snowstorm, putting the trash cans on the curb. Oh, don't forget your laptop and that charger.

DarkFoxKit: Of course not. Hmm… wow, can't believe Christmas already came and went. Shouldn't we upload a chapter before I go? It can be a late Christmas present to our viewers.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Christmas definitely flew by. And… we are meant to update today anyways. *Points at the camera* So I guess you could consider this a late Christmas present to them, as we easily could've taken the holidays off.

DarkFoxKit: We were!? Where did the time go!? Jeez, I'm losing so much time!

Andy: Don't go white rabbit on us now. You've been stressed about this visit to your grandma's, why not sit with us and relax a bit?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Especially as you might not be able to go as this storm might not let up until New Year's Day.

DarkFoxKit: Heh… I'm sure my parents will find a way… anyways, let's go ahead and get this chapter up, and wish the viewers a Merry Late Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Years!

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yep! Enjoy yourself as much as Danny currently is outside! Stay safe, warm, and hopeful for a brighter 2022.

Andy: *Grumbles a little* Must be nice having ice powers…

DarkFoxKit: Shush! That hasn't been revealed yet! *Runs over and covers the camera* Spoilers, Andy, spoilers! Now how do I turn this thing off again?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Red circle button on the si- *The recording stopped*

Chapter 123: Vlad's Move

Danny's POV

I gave a yawn. To be honest with myself, patrol was really boring sometimes, especially when there weren't any ghosts around. I always loved flying and looking down at Amity Park, but today I just felt bored. Although, I figured I was just feeling a little uneasy. Being alone with my thoughts, I couldn't help but wonder about our future. Andy was going on a 'not-date' with someone, and I may get to go on a real date with Sam one day in the near future. We were already 15 years old, and we would be 16 soon.

Adulthood was getting closer, and Jazz would likely leave for college as soon as she was done with highschool. Andy had the ability to see into the future, and yet, he hasn't said much about what would happen once we graduated from high school.

Not that I could blame him, he did say the furthest he could see is a year from present day, and doing so usually gave him a massive headache. But still… I sighed to myself. A lot of things will change by then. I'm not sure if they'll all be good changes either… Even if I was able to make up all my grades to get into the space program, that would still mean saying goodbye to everyone… including Andy…

"You look like you've got the weight of the world pressing down on you."

I quickly stopped, looking up at the voice that suddenly spoke to me. I quickly saw it was that ghost girl again, the one Andy told me was named 'Danielle'. She was floating above me.

"Hey, it's you!" I spoke up. "You're… Danielle, right?"

"Yep." Danielle confirmed. "What's up? Besides me~"

I could see she had a sense of humor, which made me chuckle a bit. "Well, I was just deep in thought about something. I'm also on patrol, to see if any ghosts decided to attack, or if someone needed some help in general. Just because I'm a superhero doesn't mean I should only fight ghosts, right? … So, uh… what're you doing here?"

"Pretty much the same," Danielle replied. "Took care of some ghosts near the edges of Amity Park City earlier, helped some firefighters evacuate a building that was on fire, the usual hero stuff."

"Wow, sounds like you've been pretty busy," I remarked. "Not that I disapprove of it, since it's always nice to have the extra help, but… why would you care about helping people and stopping ghosts? Aren't you a ghost yourself?"

Danielle shrugged. "Why do you feel the need to be a hero despite being a ghost yourself? It's not like you were tasked with the job of protecting this place. And even if you're half alive like the rumors say, that doesn't necessarily explain why you chose to be a hero."

"Because I felt it was my responsibility for unleashing all the ghosts into this world," I answered. "And, well, now that I know ghosts are people too, and not mindless, evil monsters like my parents always told me they were, I also catch them to save them from my parents. As well as from other ghost hunters who would experiment on them, like the Guys in White. I can't just let innocent people, ghosts or humans, be put through any of that."

"I mean you didn't unleash ghosts into the world," Danielle replied. "You just gave them an easier path to get out. Ghosts have always had natural ways of escaping into this world. The portal at Fenton Works isn't the first portal in existence. There have been natural ghost portals all over the world for millennia. As for ghosts not being mindless… there are mindless humans who just want violence and chaos, and unfortunately that means there are also ghosts out there who only exist for those purposes."

"When I turned on the Ghost Portal, I didn't know about ghosts, or that the Ghost Zone had natural portals. To me, it was my fault that they were coming to Amity Park. So that was the initial reason why I fought with the ghosts," I explained.

"So what's driving you to remain the hero now?" Danielle questioned. "Sure, you want to protect the ghosts and the humans, but what else? Is there something personal that drives you?"

"Well, since I've been protecting people from ghosts, it sort of just stuck. I have this power, I feel I should use it to help people when I can. If I could save a life from a collapsing building when nobody else could, that's worth it enough for me," I answered.

Danielle looked at me for a few seconds before frowning. "From what I can tell though, you're not using your powers to the best of your ability. You're holding yourself back. You could save way more, and keep people from being put in those dangerous situations, if you tapped into your full potential."

I frowned as memories of being in that other form, the form Andy feared so much, quickly flashed through my mind. I was wary of that form, but I was more scared for Andy if I should somehow access that form again, rather than losing control.

"This wasn't the point I was trying to make. What I wanted to say was I don't know anything about you. I'm not saying you're a ghost with malicious intent, so try not to get me wrong, but I am wary since I have dealt with ghosts who pretended to do good things with good intentions, only to actually have an ulterior motive that is harming people," I explained.

"Fair enough, I don't know you either and I'm keeping my guard up despite being willing to talk to you," Danielle replied. "Look, if I wanted to harm people, I would be. I'm the type of ghost who gets straight to the point instead of beating around the bush. I'm also the type of ghost that doesn't hold back. What you see is me, and there's nothing more to it than that."

"Is that so?" I raised an eyebrow. "What's your reasoning for fighting ghosts and helping people then?"

"Well, they don't belong here in this world," Danielle replied. "The ones I fight are usually here to cause some kind of chaos, so I try to capture them and get them back to the Ghost Zone as quickly as I can. Helping people… well like you said, I have this power, why not use it for something? Personally, I'm not a fan of being bored and protecting this area has been helping to stave off boredom. Though on top of that, it's also been helping me to grow stronger. I can't guarantee that I'll be here forever though. At some point I might just wake up and decide to move on without saying a word. I like to go with the flow and tackle things as soon as they pop up."

"So you're a travelling ghost?" I asked.

"Something like that," Danielle answered. "In a sense, I'm a nomad."

"Well, I suppose as long as you mean no harm, and are just helping… I don't see any reason why we should fight or be enemies," I remarked. Although, the fact she looks so similar to me and Andy still bugs me a little.

"Like I said, if I meant harm, then I'd be causing harm," Danielle pointed out. "If I wanted to be enemies and fight with you, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Heck, you wouldn't even know my name until one of us was about to deal the final blow."

"No offense, but just because a ghost isn't actively causing harm doesn't mean they don't mean any harm," I sighed, remembering ghosts like Spectra who could blend in with humanity pretty easily.

"Except if I was wanting to cause harm, I would actively be doing so," Danielle retorted. "Like I said, I get straight to the point. I'm not a 'long game' type of gal who enjoys beating around the bush to try and get the 'best' result. I go for the immediate result that best fits my goal."

She may not be that different from me. I realized. "So what made you decide to talk to me now? You always kept disappearing when I tried to talk to you before."

"I saw something was on your mind and was curious," Danielle answered. "I decided I wanted to talk to you, so I did. I have literally nothing better to do right now."

I couldn't help but feel a bit deflated at the fact she was just talking to me to alleviate her boredom. I supposed it didn't help that I likely had an intimidating reputation among ghost kind.

"Right, well I have to get back on patrol. You go do whatever," I sighed.

"Sounds like if you get back on patrol, you'll go crazy from boredom." Danielle snickered. "So how about you do something else instead?"

"Like what?" I questioned.

"Well, I hear you're fast," Danielle informed. "So… how about we see just how fast you are?"

While I tried not to brag, I was a pretty speedy ghost. Andy would always get annoyed whenever Scarlet had us race for training since I always outsped him. Looking at Danielle, I couldn't tell how strong or fast she was, she was likely suppressing most of her ecto energy. The fact she sounded like she was going to challenge me to a race showed she either had a lot of guts, or she was incredibly fast and wanted to compare her speed to me.

"Or are you the ghost of a chicken?~" Danielle grinned.

That quickly got me competitive. "I'll show you how fast I am, any time, anywhere."

"How about right now then?" Danielle asked. "A race from here to…"

Danielle looked around. "That water tower in the distance?"

I looked at the water tower myself. It was a pretty far distance, but for a speed ghost, that was a mild track. I nodded. "Sure, I'll race you to that water tower. Just don't be mad if I end up winning."

"Oh I won't~" Danielle smirked before looking me dead in the eyes. "Because I won't be losing~"

Before I could reply to that, Danielle already took off to the water tower. I quickly flew after her. Danielle was pretty fast, however, I was able to catch up pretty quickly.

"Not bad!" I spoke up to her. "But you'll have to be faster than that if you want to win!"

"Faster than who?" I heard Danielle ask up from ahead of me.

I blinked in surprise, before realizing that there were two of them. Either Danielle had an identical twin sister, or she duplicated herself. The latter being more likely.

"Hahaha! You should see the look on your face right now!" Danielle laughed.

I'm more annoyed that every other ghost seems to be able to duplicate themselves. I inwardly grumbled. "Neat trick. Unless you teleported yourself at the water tower, which would be cheating, you still need to be faster to win."

"Too bad I don't have your natural advantage of speed," Danielle remarked. "I'm not a speed ghost, I'm a defense-strength based ghost. I can take way more hits than most other ghosts you've come across."

"Really?" I asked, surprised. I wasn't sure why I thought she was a speed ghost. Must be because she looks like me. And the fact she challenged me to a race. "So you only challenged me to see how fast you are compared to me? Did you actually expect to win?"

"Maybe I did." Danielle grinned.

I frowned a little.

"If you don't give it your all, I may surprise you and beat you~" Danielle taunted.

"Fine then, I'll show you just how fast I really am." I grinned before I turned up the speed and began flying much faster than I normally would on a leisure flight.

Before I knew it, I was right at the water tower. I looked back to see where Danielle was. "Heh, looks like I lost sight of her. Guess I won!"

"Did you now?"

That voice sent shivers down my spine. I didn't even turn yet and something grabbed my chest and pulled me close to them. I was looking into crimson red eyes.

"Hello, Daniel," Vlad Plasmius greeted. "I see you were having fun with another ghost. It seemed that she sensed me and knew it would be best for her to run away~"

"What are you doing here, Plasmius!?" I snapped, trying not to look as scared as I actually felt being this close to the fruit loop's ugly face. "Shouldn't you be pampering your two daughters?"

"They've got their own lives that have nothing to do with mine," Vlad replied. "They're simple children who will one day inherit my company and money. They don't need to be involved with the other aspects of my life and my ultimate life goal."

"Ultimate life goal?" I frowned. "I thought you just wanted your own family. You got that now with your two daughters. I was hoping that meant you gave up on trying to marry Mom, and trying to take me and Andy as your sons."

Vlad laughed. "Hahaha! Do you truly think my goals are that simplistic and inane? Those aren't even near my ultimate goal, those are just subgoals I have which I would like to complete before I reach that ultimate goal. I will admit that the last one you stated would help in achieving my ultimate goal."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "You know, you really are starting to sound like a cartoon villain now. Let me go!"

"Do you really think I'm just going to let you go?" Vlad questioned. "I have you helplessly captured here and I don't plan on letting you or this opportunity go."

I didn't know what Vlad was planning to do, but I wasn't going to let him take me so easily. I raised up a hand to fire a point blank ghost ray into his face. However I felt my hands being grabbed and pulled behind my back.

"Seriously?" Vlad asked with a chuckle. "Did you think I would just let you attack me? No no no, you're going to be coming with me, Daniel. We have much to work on and very little time to do so."

I glanced back and saw another Vlad holding my hands behind me. Darn it!

"I'd recommend you make this easy on yourself and not try to struggle," Vlad suggested. "You and I both know that you're in a helpless position and it would be best to just let me have what I want so you don't get hurt."

I could tell Vlad was impatient tonight, because he wasn't making any wise cracks about Dad, nor was he saying anything about how he would get Mom. But little did he know that I had been training under Scarlet lately. As well as Andy. I looked back at the duplicate's hand that had grabbed my own, and used something I didn't often use in a fight, but had been practicing on. The duplicate's hands suddenly got crushed by an invisible force. The duplicate, having not expected that, let out a shout as his broken hands let go.

This caught Vlad himself by surprise before I punched him in the face. While Vlad was still stronger than me, he wasn't invincible, that punch was enough to force him to let go of my suit and went flying back a few feet. As soon as Vlad let go, I kicked the gut of the duplicate behind me.

"I see…" Vlad grumbled a bit. "Seems that you still won't listen to reason. Fine then. You will be coming with me, Daniel, though I do not guarantee you will be conscious. I can guarantee you that you won't remain unharmed."

"I can listen to reason, fruit loop, but you're being anything but reasonable," I replied back.

Vlad came at me pretty quickly. It was only thanks to Scarlet's training that I was able to react fast enough to dodge an incoming gut punch from Vlad. Vlad gave an annoyed growl before he came at me with another powerful looking punch. I was able to dodge, and fired a ghost ray at him.

Vlad blocked the ghost ray with a pinkish red barrier, then created two duplicates. They fired their ghost rays at me, and I put up a green barrier around myself. Of course, Vlad was still more powerful than me, so his duplicates were able to push me away several feet, while causing my barrier to crack. I quickly dissipated my barrier and flew away quickly.

Taking on Vlad one-on-one was suicide. If Andy, or one of my other friends were here, then maybe I would stand a chance. But as it was now, Vlad had the advantage. All I could do was try to flee, and fight defensively. Unfortunately for me, Vlad wasn't giving up so easily. He suddenly appeared in front of me. I forgot he could teleport, which was a big mistake on my end.

Due to Vlad's sudden appearance, and my startledness, he managed to grab me with his hands. I let out a gasp as he blasted me with his ghost ray at point blank. I felt a hot, painful energy going through my body as I flew back. I had to get myself together quickly. I managed to stop myself from flying any further back. I could see Vlad coming in again. I had to be wary of his duplicates too. I used some telekinesis to slow Vlad down, and did a quick look around my area with my ghost sense to see if any of his duplicates were nearby.

Vlad was trying to power through my telekinesis and break through it. He was easily doing that right now. I released my telekinesis and fired a ghost ray at him. Vlad responded by firing his own ghost ray at me. I growled as I struggled to push him back. Despite knowing that Vlad was stronger than me, I was desperately trying to win this power struggle. I could feel something inside me welling up with hot, yet cold, energy. I didn't know what was going on, but it was helping my ghost ray get stronger. I was making Vlad sweat, which was good in my book.

"I think it's time to end this, don't you?!" Vlad loudly asked as two duplicates flew up beside him and started to help him push against my ghost ray.

Duplications suck! I inwardly shouted in frustration.

Seeing how I was trapped between a rock and a hard place, I let go of my ghost ray in hopes of using my speed to my advantage and avoiding Vlad's ghost ray as well as his duplicates. The duplicates weren't going to let me go so easily, however. One of them created an ecto barrier in front of me. I had to go around it, which cost me precious time. The other duplicate fired more ghost rays at me. I had no idea where the real Vlad went. I yelped as one of the ghost rays managed to hit my back. I tried to respond by firing my own ghost ray back to try to slow them down. I need to get into contact with someone.

I reached into my pocket to try to pull out my cellphone, however, just as I was doing so, I stopped cold in midair. I was looking at Vlad's hand that was 2 inches away from my face, crackling with electricity. I was frozen, feeling like the moment I moved, I was going to just cease to exist. All I could do was shakingly stare at the sparkling hand.

"Sleep well, Daniel~" Vlad grinned before his hand made contact with me and everything went black.

Meanwhile, with Andy

Andy's POV

"I never want to see numbers again…" I groaned, rubbing my head.

"Well too bad, you still have a couple more years of high school," Anna chuckled. "Everyone has the ability to be a great mathematician, Andy, even you. You just need to… relax a bit with it and not correlate numbers with headaches or frustration."

"Hah… math will forever be my bane, nothing you say will convince me otherwise," I pouted as I laid back on the couch. "Sometimes I can't help but be envious of your intelligent brain."

"I can tell that deep down you have the ability to be just as intelligent as me," Anna replied. "And I'm not just trying to compliment you. I really do have a feeling that you could easily be flying through school if you just applied yourself properly and let yourself be the best you can be."

"I mean I'm not struggling in school, unless there's a particularly busy day for me," I admitted. "Danny used to have it way rougher in school though. But thankfully, his grades have started pulling up recently, and you encouraging him and giving him motivation has definitely helped with that. Although…"

"What?" Anna asked, blinking curiously.

"I can't help but think about our futures too," I answered. And I don't mean the futures I can see. "One day, we'll eventually graduate. Jazz will leave to go to her college of choice. Danny might get into the space program. I'm not sure where I'll be though…"

"Do you not have any ideas of what you want to do afterwards? No… dreams? No aspirations?" Anna questioned.

"Hmm…" I hesitated. "Well… to be honest, while Danny and Jazz found out what they wanted to do pretty early on in life, I was never sure. I was pretty happy with the way things were. I just wanted to have fun, and be with my family. But a lot of things have happened since then, and now that we're getting closer to graduating, I can't help but wonder if maybe I would just stay here in Amity Park, and become a ghost hunter like my parents…"

"Do you want to be a ghost hunter?" Anna questioned.

"I'll admit, I am curious about ghosts, and researching the ghostly world may not be such a bad career," I admitted. "But I don't know if it's what I want to do for the rest of my life."

"Well… How about this, I list some aspirations that most people tend to go for and you can tell me if anything catches your fancy?" Anna offered.

"Yeah, sure, it's better than going over more algebra," I replied in a lighthearted tone.

"Let's see…" Anna gave a thoughtful look. "Do you want to possibly become an athlete of some kind? Or maybe you'd prefer a more creative aspiration like painting or writing music or even just writing books?"

I shook my head. I was never interested in becoming an athlete, if I was, I would've tried for football years ago. Although I liked writing in my spare time, and maybe this journal may one day be published, I wasn't interested in it enough for it to be my career.

"What about… family. Do you have any desire to have a large family or have a family that's successful?" Anna questioned. "Or maybe you would prefer to be the successful one and become wealthy? Maybe even a multi-millionaire or even a billionaire with lots of homes and yachts and other expensive assets?"

"Please, I'm not Vlad. No offense. Although, a lot of people would definitely want to go for wealth," I sighed. "And no, I don't have any desire to have a family. I can't even imagine myself with kids down the road." I don't think I'd want to have kids as they'd possibly be halfas too… or would they be quarters? Either way, it's not something I want to find out down the line. Although Danny… oh boy...

"Well what about food, have you ever thought about becoming a chef? Or a baker?" Anna inquired. "Maybe you could become world famous and have your own cooking show."

"Hmm… Maybe? I've never tried cooking before," I admitted. "Well… except for that one time when I tried to make pancakes… the batter ended up exploding in the kitchen."

Anna blinked. "Sounds like you may have gone a bit overboard with ingredients then… or used a homemade appliance that created an unstable reaction."

"Hah… ah… maybe…?" I sheepishly replied. Although I was going half insane at the time… I probably did use one of Mom and Dad's inventions though, and those definitely always lead to disastrous results.

"Okay, so you don't want to be an athlete, to have a family, to have any sort of fortune… You aren't sure on the food front, so I'll mark that as a 'maybe'," Anna muttered to herself. "You aren't interested in any base creative aspirations… Do you care about popularity at all? Or fame?"

"I used to, until I had a pretty nasty run in with some popular people," I admitted. "Although it seems nowadays, popularity and fame are coming after me."

Anna chuckled. "I apologize if I cause you any trouble. Let's see… What about knowledge? You said you wanted to research ghosts and their world. How far does that go? Do you only want to know things or do you want to have knowledge that can be useful?"

"Mostly the latter," I replied. "Let's just say knowledge has helped save me and my friends."

"Do you only care about ghosts and ghost culture or do you want to also study what our world has to offer?" Anna asked.

"Well, I admit, I don't know too much about our own world, let alone the ghost world. But ghosts fascinate me much more in comparison to living people," I explained. "How different they think, operate, and 'live', for the lack of a better term."

"So you might have a knowledge based aspiration," Anna acknowledged. "Do you care about technology in the slightest? Or better yet, do you care for technology in the way that Tucker Foley does?"

"Heh, well I don't think I can live without my computer, internet connection, and some of the game consoles I have. But otherwise no, in fact, some of Tucker's passion for technology really creeps me out," I chuckled.

Anna gave a small nod. "So you appreciate technology and care for it, but it wouldn't be something you'd want to dedicate your life to. Got it. All that would be left would be… Do you like collecting things? Items, artifacts, anything of that kind? Or… maybe you have a fondness for nature? Do you like plants at all? Would you be like Sam Manson and dedicate your life to plants?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "I mean I like nature, when it likes me, but I never thought about it too much. I always had a problem with camping in the outdoors, for one reason or another. So maybe not?"

"Okay, so I'll mark that down as 'unlikely'," Anna acknowledged as she wrote down something on a piece of paper. "Let's see… you don't seem like the type who would care about fishing or hunting… You don't seem like the type of guy who'd care about getting a specific career. I, and I mean no offense by this, don't see you becoming something like a surgeon or a doctor. So there's only two options left… Do you want me to tell you Option 1 first or Option 2?"

"Take your pick," I shrugged. "I won't know about either of them until you tell me."

"Alright, well then Option 2 is first," Anna informed. "You said you don't want a family, but what about a life partner? Have you ever thought of finding your true love? Your soulmate? Your 'one'?"

"What? What kind of question is that?" I questioned, feeling my cheeks heating up in embarrassment. "Love doesn't have anything to do with careers!"

"Aspirations are more than careers, Andy," Anna explained with a small chuckle. "Aspirations are life goals, things that one wants to fulfill before they die. They can include careers, but they don't always have to. Love is an aspiration that many have, as finding that 'one' can help them figure out what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Sometimes finding your 'one' is what leads to figuring out your career."

"Oh… I guess you have a point there." I nodded, though still feeling slightly embarrassed. "Well… I suppose I've had a few crushes in my life. But I couldn't say if they would be my soulmate. In fact, if I'm being honest with myself, I'm not looking for that kind of superficial love. I mean romantic love comes when it comes, I rather not be forced into it when I'm not ready, or if the other person doesn't feel the same way about me. While I don't have a romance partner in mind yet, I… feel like I already have someone you described. My true love, my soulmate. It's something I didn't realize until about a year or so ago. When I thought I lost him. It's familial love, but it's still love all the same."

"Is there anyone outside your family and friends that you feel a close connection to?" Anna asked as she put down her pen and paper. "Anyone that you might be on the verge of forming a romantic relationship with?"

I rubbed the back of my head a bit. "Well… maybe. At least two of them. Though if I wanted to have a romantic relationship with one of them, that would be complicated for various reasons."

"If that one you are thinking of is your true love, then it's possible that those complications wouldn't matter in the end," Anna responded informatively as she gently put a hand on my shoulder. "If you're in love with someone, you should admit to that someone your feelings before you lose the chance."

"I doubt she would ever feel the same way," I sighed. "So what's Option 1, by the way?"

"Well you seem to be at odds with nature in a sense, but also have a willingness to try and be close to it," Anna explained. "Instead of being a fisher, or a hunter, or a botanist, you could go into a different aspiration with nature. You could have something to do with wildlife. Perhaps a wildlife enthusiast who studies animals, or maybe a veterinarian who takes care of animals, or… something else."

I raised an eyebrow. It was certainly something that never crossed my mind before. I remembered when I used to go to the Amity Zoo, I always loved watching the animals. The zoo was good to their animals, making sure each animal had their own space, and environment that was a replica of where their wild counterparts would live. Danny and Jazz enjoyed the zoo too, but I remembered always wanting to watch the animals while they preferred to move on to the next thing right away after watching the animal for 10 minutes.

"Hmm… I don't know about a wildlife enthusiast, but it is something to consider," I replied after a while of thinking, and digging up nostalgic memories.

Anna smiled and nodded as she jotted down a little more on the paper. "So what I have so far is a 'maybe' in regards to cooking and baking, a nearly confirmed aspiration with studying and gaining knowledge of certain things, an 'unlikely' in regards to plants and all that, a 'possibly' with love, and a 'possibly' with animals… I feel I'm forgetting…- Oh! What about traveling? Do you want to see the world at all? You said you wanted to learn more about the ghosts' world, but what about our world?"

"Well, yes and no," I answered. "Travelling the world sounds fun, especially if I get to see more of it. But not if I have to travel alone. I'd rather be able to travel with my family, or at least with someone I really care about."

"So if you have that possible love, you'd want to travel the world?" Anna inquired.

"Yeah, I don't see why not," I replied before realizing something. "Oh, and an insurance that my hometown wouldn't just fall prey to the ghosts or something while I'm gone. Because that would definitely suck."

"Seems you have a list of possible aspirations then," Anna remarked as she held out the piece of paper she had been writing on. "I'd definitely work on trying to talk to that person you love and see how they feel back to you. Love is something that can slip away all too easily. Just look at what happened with Romeo and Juliet. Their love for each other led them to their deaths."

"I'm not entirely sure if I feel that kind of love to them," I chuckled. "It's more of a crush."

"Then perhaps… you need to figure it out," Anna suggested. "Spend more time with them alone, go do things that you don't normally do. Have fun, go to the movies, heck… go out on a dinner date as friends and see how you feel as it goes."

"I suppose…" I slowly noted. Juliette does need to see more of Amity Park after all, and she might feel safer if she had someone other than Scarlet show her around. She might enjoy hanging out with me as a friend at least.

I wondered about Valerie. She's usually busy with her part time job, or chasing after ghosts as the red huntress. I'm not sure if she's interested in having a relationship with anyone right now. So I guess I can try with Juliette first, and see how that goes.

Wait… do I actually like Juliette and Valerie in that way though? I asked myself. I suppose… When Freakshow put us through those worlds, all I had was Juliette to keep me anchored. And I guess Chad, but he could've just been my imagination. It was easy to start getting attached to someone when they were all I had in those strange worlds that weren't my own. At the very least, I know I feel something for Juliette. I just hope Tucker's feelings for her aren't too passionate… I wouldn't want to make him feel like I betrayed him.

"Well, Andy, I think-" Anna began to say before one of the doors to the dining room suddenly swung open that quickly caught our attention.

I felt like blood left my face when I saw who just came in, especially the form he was in. I instinctively grabbed onto my backpack, wanting to get Hope out of here, and threw it across the room before I felt something grab my head, and I felt the ground quickly. My eyes were closed, so I couldn't see, but I was still conscious.

"What are you doing here?!" Anna yelled. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Your little plan to gain his trust was taking far too long," Vlad's voice replied. "Besides, he's here, his brother is here. I have them both where I need them to be."

"I had gained his trust, Father!" Anna yelled. "I saw hope for him, hope to rehabilitate him and make him good! There wasn't just evil in him like you said, and I was bringing that out of him! If I had had another week or two, then I could've potentially completely rehabilitated Andy! And you told me I would have those two weeks earlier! That I would be able to turn the brothers, or at least one of the brothers, good!"

"You should mind your tone with father, Andrea," A second voice, one that was a bit familiar, said. "He has been very patient so far but he is not in a good mood right now. If you continue to yell at him, there's a high possibility that you will receive a severe punishment."

"You should listen to your sister, Andrea," Vlad replied in a soft, yet harsh sounding tone. "I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by me just because you were going soft."

"But I wasn't going soft," Anna, who was being called Andrea, replied. "Father, I had gained his trust to the point where he was willing to come into his archenemy's home. I had been working with him on aspirations, life goals that would've done good for the world."

I heard a piece of paper being moved.

"This here is his list of potential aspirations, all of them aspirations to do some form of good and none of them evil," Andrea continued. "He wants to do good, father, and I could've helped him onto that path if we hadn't been interrupted. I felt that we were making remarkable progress."

While I couldn't move, I had enough consciousness to still think. What is she talking about? Did she think I was evil or something? And… her name is Andrea?

"Perhaps I could've turned him into a force of good within his family," Andrea went on. "He could've helped his brother onto the path of good. He could've saved Maddie from that oaf's continued route towards demise and damnation. He could've helped the Fentons become a force of good in the world, instead of one set on the experimentation and subjugation of all ghosts."

What? I was confused, but then again I was also clinging to consciousness at the moment. But we weren't evil to begin with.

"Don't you understand what's going on, you naive girl?" Vlad replied in an irritated tone. "He's deceiving you. He's smarter than his brother, he uses manipulation and words to sweet talk you, he uses his charisma to make you believe he wouldn't hurt a blob. That's what makes him so dangerous. I can't have him poisoning your mind either, Andrea. I had to knock him out for your sake as well. If you spent a longer time with him, he would convince you to turn against me and your sister."

I wouldn't do that… why would he say that…? I was trying to think, but my consciousness was starting to fade away the longer my body lay on the floor. Darn it… no… have to… stay conscious...

"Is that… true…?" Andrea asked, her voice sounding like she was now looking at me. "I figured that with his intelligence he may more easily see reason… not that he would try to manipulate me. He seemed quite genuine the entire time we had dinner, were working on his homework, and conversing about his aspirations."

"He's very good at acting too. Why do you think nobody was able to catch him or his brother for so long?" Vlad chuckled before I heard his footsteps approaching me. "But fear not, my precious daughters. I'll be sure to take care of both of them before they truly become a threat to the living world."

I felt something grabbing my body, and lifting me up from the floor. I wanted to struggle, to fight back, to do something. I wanted to argue, and tell Anna, or Andrea, or whatever her name was, that Vlad was lying. Vlad was the one manipulating and deceiving her. But I couldn't move, I couldn't open my eyes. My consciousness was fading more and more, I couldn't even make out the voices anymore. They sounded garbled now.

Hope… please… get away… from here… Those were my last thoughts before I completely lost consciousness.

KaseyKay17: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I am a child of the 90s as well, as is Fox. And good, patience is an invaluable virtue.

ZAFT Convoy: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yeah, even though they're just friends Anna saw that Andy needed some serious comforting as his past trauma was starting to come back.

DarkFoxKit: Mmm, cinnamon rolls~

RedHood001: DarkFoxKit: Andy is usually the cautious one among his group, and for good reason, since he's had to face ghosts and trickery a few times before. While Andy had become more trusting to Anna, he also knew she was living with Vlad, someone who is still considered an enemy. Andy wouldn't put it past Vlad to use innocent children to lure the twins to his house for whatever schemes he had planned. Although Anna has been a bit suspicious with those questions she asked.

Believe it or not, Andy does share Danny's ideals with creating a utopian world. It was just Corrupted Danny took it too far, and royally screwed up when he did what he did. The dystopian/utopian dimension showed if Corrupted Danny had Andy by his side, he was more likely to succeed in what he was trying to accomplish. Of course, the incident instilled a strong fear in Andy whenever anything about that utopian world or Corrupted Danny caused him to regress back to his fearful state, and prevented him from really seeing any benefits from making a utopia.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Continuity can sometimes be a bit of a headache to maintain, but that's one of the few headaches I actually enjoy having as I'm a sucker for continuity and one overall flowing story. My mind also wraps itself around the principles of time a lot more easily than with Fox. Though I do rely on her to occasionally remind me of events that fit on the timeline, as I can be forgetful with specific events. Thank you for the compliment though, it really means a lot to see the readers enjoying the continuity.

naminexriku2468: Andy: Uhhhhhhhh… *Looks at Onyx and Fox* Neither of you are planning on doing any of that, are you…?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': No, I think they're simply asking you a very specific hypothetical situation with extraordinarily dark tones.

Andy: No seriously, what does this question have to do with anything? Why are they asking this question at all? Are they hoping to see me suffer?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I think they just want to know how you'd react in that situation. Even though that's a very… lose-lose situation that… is not going to happen in our story. Pulling back the curtain a little, we'd definitely have Clockwork intervene before something like that came to pass.

Andy: And if you want my answer to this extremely dark situation, I would probably just go into the Ghost Zone and live with my now ghostly family there.

DarkFoxKit: Death is kinda weird when it comes to a show about ghosts after all.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': On the morbidly bright side, nuking Amity Park would mean that all of Amity Park would end up in the Ghost Zone, including the structures and all that.

Dp-Marvel94: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, Andy's starting to get attached to Anna, though Andy is definitely worried about Vlad planning something. While he grew to like Anna, she was still taking him to enemy territory. Danny acted like he wasn't worried, but he was actually planning to go to Vlad's mansion if Andy wasn't back in the allotted time, he just wanted to give Anna a chance. Andy bringing Hope was a last minute idea, but one I'm glad we made, because we felt Hope should play a bit of a bigger role since she's a recurring character.

As for the topic, yeah, it is pretty suspicious that Anna was asking such personal questions about Danny Phantom. It's almost as if she knew something, huh? And Andy thinking about Corrupted Danny, despite facing an illusion of him, and another version of him in a different dimension, the original Corrupted Danny still strikes fear in Andy's heart. Andy had grown since he got ghost powers, but he had never truly conquered his fear of when his brother became Corrupted Danny. At least, with Dan, the illusion, and the other Corrupted Danny, while they were Danny, they weren't his Danny, so they didn't hit as hard as the original Corrupted Danny did, and still does. Anna was genuinely worried when Andy had a panic attack, so yeah, hugging him was the best she could do to calm him down quickly.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': The thought behind hugging someone having a panic attack is giving them enough of a shock of a different kind to bring them out of that panicking state. If hugging hadn't worked, Anna's only alternatives would've been to kiss him or just straight up knock him out, which she wasn't going to do.

SmartAlec132: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': We might or might not bring back Corrupted Danny later, but we can't exactly confirm or deny it because we don't do spoilers. What Andy is seeing definitely could be possibilities of the future or it could just be his mind messing with him.

DarkFoxKit: If you'll recall, early on in WAP's story, Andy's head was continuously showing him Corrupted Danny, and it was tormenting him for a while. He has grown since then, but if he starts thinking about it too much, he begins to regress back to that state.

Guest 05: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': It's fine, I started off working with Fox as a male but Mew happened and I became female and I kinda just kept going with it. I could ask to be turned back at any time, but I don't really care to. I'm alright with being female. After all, female dragons are a bit more flexible than male dragons.

Glad you enjoyed the chapter!

DarkFoxKit: Heh, Onyx has definitely grown to like being female.

GhostHex: DarkFoxKit: Heh, 'Butch-ered', nice one. And yup, Andy's got a bad habit of falling into rabbit holes, especially when he's worried about something.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': It's kinda miraculous he hasn't ended up in Wonderland with the amount of rabbit holes he's fallen into.

DarkFoxKit: Very funny. And as for Anna… yeah, I think the chapter speaks for itself.

kairixsora3579: Danny: Are… you and that naminexriku2468 person the same? Or at least in the same household or something? Because your review is pretty much the same as theirs except you're asking me how I would react to it. That and the fact that you're kairixsora while they're naminexriku and you have odd numbers while they have even numbers… there's too many similarities to simply be coincidence.

Just to humor you, let's say I did see this all happening. I don't see myself just sitting by and letting it happen. I would stop Andy and return him to his senses before he killed his future girlfriend and then help him remove that nuke trigger from his future girlfriend. Or, knowing how our luck is, Clockwork or Dora would intervene.

Andy: And why in all the living and dead universes and dimensions would I turn evil and try to rule the world and Ghost Zone just because of all of that!?

*Lots of offscreen 'innocent' whistling*

Andy: *Looks at someone who was 'innocently' whistling offscreen* … You better freaking not!

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I don't think these kinds of reviews are exactly appropriate as they don't have anything to do with the story. It's fine if you want to review the story and ask about what happens in the story. But asking hypotheticals like these that have nothing to do with the plot aren't alright. We try to use the review sections to answer questions or respond to comments about the actual story we are writing. While I do appreciate that you and the naminexriku person are reviewing, do try to keep it focused on the story in the future. These are the Reviews after all, not an 'Ask Us Anything' section.

Mana16: DarkFoxKit: Andy usually likes to try to think ahead even if he doesn't have future visions. Andy wasn't naive enough to believe Vlad wouldn't try something once he was in his mansion. Funny thing is that Andy's always had a similar ideal to Corrupted Danny's, if Corrupted Danny hadn't gone to such extremes, or had he turned Andy before he showed Andy his experimentations, then we probably would've had a world similar to the dystopian/utopian dimension. Also, yes, it would be nice for loved ones to never truly have to say goodbye when death hits.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Ahh, okay. Well no harm done and I accept your apology. Like you, I often tinker with ideas to make them work. Fox can attest that I have taken many of her ideas that wouldn't perfectly work in stories and found ways to make them fit like they were always part of the puzzle we're building.

DarkFoxKit: Yes, ghosts have been adopting human children even in modern times, it's just not as common or publicly shown. Since humans either don't believe in ghosts or don't take too kindly to ghosts, the ghosts have to be sneaky. And they usually only take in children that don't have families of their own, or their families are abusing them. Taking a child who was happy with their home would only bring trouble to the ghosts, especially as the child would not be happy living with the ghost.

But there have still been cases where a ghost was so desperate to adopt a child that they take the first human child they see, and then use their powers to erase that child's memory of their old life. It's rare that it happens, but it still happens. Who knows, we might even explore that one day with our story. Happy holidays, and have a happy new year!