DarkFoxKit: Okay… where is everyone? It's about time to update, and nobody is here! *Starts to look into Onyx's room* Onyx? Are you there?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yeah, I am! I'm just doing some redecorating! This room was too… dull for my tastes before. I've been wanting to make it more like the room of a royal.

DarkFoxKit: *Looks in Onyx's room to see that her room had indeed been redecorated and was still being redecorated* … But wasn't your room already for a royal?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yeah, a really bland one with no tastes. The walls were all dull grey, the carpet was a dull red, there was barely any furniture, and all of that just didn't feel like me. So I added brighter reds, golds, purples, whites, pinks, and some blacks and dark greys for contrast.

DarkFoxKit: Where's Andy? And is Danny still here?

*Darkzdragon 'Onyx' walked over and opened up one of her closets, showing Andy in there, playing on his Switch*

DarkFoxKit: Andy?

Andy: Huh? Oh! Uh… is it that time already?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': He came in here to hide from his responsibilities and play on his Switch. Danny is doing the same, but he's doing so in the library… the irony.

Andy: You've been working me to the bone! Don't I deserve a break? Besides, that new Pokemon game is out now, why don't you play that for a while?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Andy, up until recently you've been doing nothing but taking a break. You've had to show up once every couple weeks to make a little appearance and then you get to sit around, eat our food, watch TV, and do nothing to help out. It's about time you started carrying your own weight.

Andy: Because tormenting me isn't enough?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Smirks* You want torment? Fine~ *She grabs Andy's Switch and goes into the parental control settings before messing around with them* There we go!

Andy: *Gasps and takes back his Switch* What did you do?!

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I set it so you have a maximum of two hours of screen time each day.

Andy: You monster! Why did you do that!?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Because the rest of the time you and Danny are going to start helping me out more. Additionally, I finally found someone to come to this castle and help further your educations.

Andy: What? What are you talking about? I'm only a fictional character!

DarkFoxKit: A fictional character that is a teenager going to high school.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': And you need to continue your education and learn about other things~ Now come along, Andy, time to find Danny and let him know the news!~

Andy: No! No! Danny! Run! Run, Danny! *Is struggling in Onyx's hold as she took his arm*

DarkFoxKit: So dramatic… *Looks at the camera* What are you guys staring at? Don't you have a story to read?

Chapter 126: Strong Will

Andy's POV

There was an annoying buzzing sound. I kept hearing it a few times before I started opening my heavy eyes. I felt like I was just woken up from a nap that had only lasted 15 minutes. I felt groggy, but my mind was quick to wake, especially when I remembered I was in danger. I saw I was still inside of one of Vlad's containment pods. I looked to my right, seeing Danny just waking up in his containment pod. It also didn't take me long to locate the buzzing noise. It was coming from one of the machines I saw the Holo-Mom pushing a button to.

"Good, you boys are awake," Holo-Mom stated. "I would've rather you stayed asleep for the process, but my brilliant Vladdie needs both of you to be awake for this."

"Awake for what…?" Danny groaned as he fully awoke.

"For the process," Holo-Mom answered, as if that was going to tell us anything.

"What process?" Danny questioned, then he started struggling against the restraints on his wrists. "Let me out of here!"

"Save your strength, Danny," I spoke up. "I already tried struggling before."

"Bro?" Danny frowned, looking over at me. "So… we really were captured together…"

I frowned as well, wondering if Danny and I truly did somehow cross into each other's dreams. That was something to look into later, when we got out of this situation and got to safety.

Not long after we fully gathered our bearings, both of our ghost senses went off. Vlad himself flew into the lab from the ceiling, and he grinned at both of us, showing off his fangs.

"Nice to see you two are awake~" Vlad maniacally chuckled. "Did you enjoy your naps?"

"What do you want from us now, you big freakazoid fruitloop with a really ugly cape?" Danny hissed, trying to put on a brave and annoyed face.

I would be laughing right now if I wasn't feeling so anxious.

"Your mid-morph DNA," Vlad directly answered. "At least that's all I need from you two now. I've already taken scans of your minds and personalities and saved them to a few different places. After I've gotten your mid-morph DNA, I will have everything I need to stabilize my daughters and make my two perfect future-sons."

"Wow, you've truly gone off the deep end," Danny growled. "You've given up on actually getting us by yourself, so instead you're gonna clone us? You know what you're doing is beyond legal, right?"

"I don't think he cares at this point, Danny," I stated, keeping my eyes on Vlad.

"You truly think so, Daniel?" Vlad grinned. "I didn't know there were any laws protecting half ghosts or even full ghosts. If I get found out, I simply need to prove that you are less human and more ghostly and I'll be able to walk away without any form of punishment. I may even be heralded as a hero by some."

"Look who's talking about being less human and more ghostly, you don't even look human in your ghost form!" Danny argued.

"Isn't that the point?" Vlad questioned. "If I looked like my human self in my ghost form, then I'd be more likely to be discovered. It's a miracle that the two of you haven't been found out yet, though it might be due to the fact that nobody has ever gotten a close up picture of you or gotten a good look at your faces."

"Vlad," I spoke up.

"Yes, Andrew?" Vlad turned his attention to me.

I remembered how Vlad had helped me on more than one occasion. When Corrupted Danny took over, it was Vlad who kept me safe, and got me to the lab. When the evil future Danny destroyed the future, it was Vlad who took that Time Medallion out of Danny and brought him back here, and it was also Vlad who took my future self in according to Danny. I know Vlad wasn't evil, or at least, he has some good in him. But seeing him going down this dark path due to his obsession was painful for me to watch. Maybe there was something I could've done to prevent this spiral, but we had already come to this boiling point.

"Are you just going to silently stare at me or are you going to speak?" Vlad questioned.

"It's still not too late to stop this, Vlad. Do you really want to do what you're about to?" I asked.

"Hmmm… let me give that some thought…" Vlad said as he stroked his beard a little bit. He was then suddenly in front of my containment pod. "YES! I am tired of dealing with the two of you always getting in my way and stopping my vision for the future to be made a reality. Once I have what I need, you two will be taking a nice, long permanent rest in cold storage. And if things do go badly, you don't need to worry. There are backup systems in place down there to keep you alive for over 1000 years. And if the world ends, or if I die, well don't worry, there's a release system built in that will let you out."

"That's not the point here," I spoke up. "You're about to cross a line that shouldn't be crossed, Vlad. I'm actually worried for you if you go through with this."

"Your platitudes are not welcome, Andrew," Vlad responded as he floated back. "Nor do I care about you thinking this is a line that shouldn't be crossed. Lines are drawn in order for someone to cross them, in order for the boundary to be pushed and for a line to be drawn ahead and then one day surpassed once more. That is evolution, young Andrew, and I plan to keep moving forward no matter what."

"Yeah, and all you have to do is give up what humanity you have left." I frowned.

"Humanity, my dear Andrew, serves no purpose," Vlad informed. "Even if I discard my humanity, I will remain the same person I am, as I stopped being Vlad Masters the moment I became Vlad Plasmius. I have been using my old name for my human form in order to do things above the book and attain the resources I needed to attain. But in truth I have been Vlad Plasmius from the moment we first met. I am more at home with ghosts and their culture than I am with humanity."

Does it really take a world ending apocalypse to make Vlad good? I suppose with everything bad, comes good. And with every good… comes something bad. I sighed in defeat, seeing how Vlad wasn't going to listen to anything I had to say.

"Forget it, Andy, this fruitloop is too far gone," Danny spoke up, glaring at Vlad.

"More that I'm too invested in the plans I already have, Daniel," Vlad explained. "I have quite a few plans for the future, and I think I've allowed enough time for you two to say your final words. Madeline, it's time to begin."

"Yes, dear heart~" Holo-Mom spoke in a sweet voice before she went over to a control panel that was connected between my and Danny's pods.

"Follow the program that I created for you," Vlad instructed. "I've timed out what levels and what settings will be needed to gain both of their mid-morph DNA."

"Acknowledged, sweetie," Holo-Mom replied before she turned the dial up.

I couldn't really see what number Holo-Mom turned the dial to, but I was guessing either 3 or 4 since she hadn't turned it too much yet. I heard a low whirring sound coming from both of our pods. Not long after, my restraints began to light up. I let out a gasp as I felt electricity going through my body. I could hear Danny groaning in pain, so I could only guess he was in the same situation as I was right now.

"Good, it seems the primary systems are working as they should," Vlad nodded. "They're applying electricity to the shackles. Bring online the secondary systems, Madeline, I wish to see if the nodes along the boys' backs are operational."

"Of course, sweetheart," Holo-Mom acknowledged before she pushed another button on the control panel.

After a few seconds, I felt jolts of electricity shoot into my back, going up and down my spine and increasing the pain tenfold.

"Excellent." Vlad smiled. "Now keep following the program and bring up the levels when it is time."

"Yes, dear heart," Holo-Mom replied.

I clenched my teeth as I attempted to fight back against the electricity that was going through my body. The electricity wasn't nearly as intense as what I felt in the portal when it turned on. But this was still painful, and I could feel the electricity getting closer to my heart. Or maybe it wasn't aiming for my heart, but my core. I didn't know too much about how a halfa's core worked due to the lack of information on halfas in general, but I had guessed that our cores were dormant while we were in our human forms, and we could activate it a little when using a ghost power in human form.

When I felt the electricity hitting my core, I didn't feel like my core was in danger, but rather it was being forced to activate. I felt my ghost powers trying to surge through my body, my ghost half being forced to take over. I saw a bright flash of light appearing around my torso, and it began to split itself horizontally across my body. I fought back, trying to pull my ghost powers back into my core before it could spread too far in my body. The ring of light paused, and began to squeeze themselves back, but they paused again.

"This can end as soon as you like, boys," Vlad spoke up. "Just stop fighting back and let yourself transform."

I couldn't really pay attention to Danny right now, but I could guess he was in the same position I was. Fighting back against the ghostly transformation. I had to stay focused on keeping my transformation back.

"What's the current status?" I heard Vlad asking, likely to Holo-Mom.

"Subjects are still resisting morph, dear," Holo-Mom answered. "Currently at 40% output."

"Bring it up to 50," Vlad ordered.

"Of course, love," Holo-Mom acknowledged before she turned the dial to a higher setting.

It was only 10% higher, but it felt more like a thousand times more. The electricity became more painful to my human body. It was like shoving a shot of adrenaline directly into my core to force it to wake up.

"Good, good, things are progressing as they should," Vlad noted. "You can start sampling their DNA even as they fight back, as we need the data from while they are shifting."

"I'll get right on it, sweetie," Holo-Mom replied.

This was starting to become too much. I was still able to fight back against the transformation, but I didn't know for how long. I knew my plan to try to overload the chambers was a risky one, but it was the only plan I had in my situation. Now, I wasn't so sure if we could even do that. Vlad seemed to have planned for this for a while, so his machine may not overload like I had been hoping it would.

Suddenly, there was a loud alarm that was going off. It blasted my eardrums with how loud it was.

"Who set off the security alarm!?" Vlad shouted.

"It would seem that an upstairs panel was manually activated by Danielle," Holo-Mom informed. "Prior to that, the external and internal defenses and sensors were deactivated. Now that sensors are coming back online, I can sense a number of intruders, sweetie."

Seeing this, I realized this was our best chance to escape. The machines were trying to force us to transform, but I had the feeling that Vlad hadn't set them up to be able to take Danny's strongest ghost move, at least, that was what I was banking on. Knowing that this was going to cost me, I decided to put my faith in my brother.

"Danny!" I shouted as the ring of light went over my body as I had lost my concentration on resisting when I shouted at Danny, transforming me into my ghost form. "Use your Ghostly Wail, now!"

Danny let himself fully transform as well before he took in a deep breath and let out the loudest scream I had ever heard coming from him before. It almost felt as if reality around us was rippling as the bright green energy waves exploded from Danny's mouth, absolutely decimating the pods we were in. Unlike how it normally was, I could've sworn there was a bit of a secondary color mixed in with the green of the Ghostly Wail, an almost missable very light bluish color. The waves of energy smashed into Vlad, sending him across the lab and into the far wall.

Danny finally stopped, and fell to his hands and knees in exhaustion, and transformed back into his human form. I couldn't blame him, that was perhaps the loudest, and strongest Ghostly Wail I had ever seen, and heard, Danny use. I was pretty sure I was going to be hard of hearing for a while after that one.

I looked at Vlad, hoping this meant he would be out for a good while so we could get out of here. I phased out of my destroyed pod, since I was still in ghost form. I helped Danny get out of his very destroyed pod, making sure to avoid the glass and sparking electricity. When I fully got him out of the pod, I laid Danny on one of the empty lab tables, checking him over for any injuries. Thankfully Danny was just drained of energy and didn't seem to be injured.

"Jeez bro, that's gotta be damaging to your throat and vocal chords," I joked lightheartedly.

"It definitely doesn't feel great…" Danny softly said, his voice definitely sounding a bit hoarse. "I kinda didn't have as much control as I would've liked… and may end up losing my voice after this for a few days."

"We'll definitely need to do something about that later. Let's just get out of here," I suggested, surprised I was still able to hear Danny after feeling like my eardrums exploded from that Ghostly Wail.

"At the very least, I didn't rupture my voice box," Danny optimistically pointed out.

Since Danny was too drained to move, I picked him up in my arms. I began to float over to the door, knowing most of the lab was likely protected by a Ghost and Human Shield that only Vlad could go through.

"And where do you think you're going…?" A voice growled from the far side of the room.

I froze, shocked and horrified that Vlad was somehow conscious after taking that Ghostly Wail to the face. I turned around, wide eyed, when I saw Vlad Plasmius floating there. He was definitely hurt, but he was far from out.

"Oh come on! Why don't you ever stay down?" Danny groaned.

"Because it will take much much more than that to keep me down, Daniel," Vlad answered while growling a little. "Andrew, as your brother is unable to do anything at the moment, I will address you in this. You have two options here; surrender, or fight me."

I narrowed my eyes. "You shouldn't even bother giving me a choice."

"I figured I would regardless, as between you boys, you're the one who uses his brain more than his brawn," Vlad explained as his fists began to glow. "However, if you are indeed making the choice I believe you are, then, as the cool kids say, you are so on!"

Seeing that I was going to have to fight, I used telekinesis to lift Danny up, then put an ecto barrier around him so Vlad wouldn't try to attack him or use him as a hostage. I glared at Vlad as my hands began to glow as well. "Bring it on."

Vlad fired his reddish pink ghost rays at me. I flew up, dodging them. I knew I was going to have to be fast and smart if I wanted to knock out Vlad. Vlad was weakened from Danny's Ghostly Wail, so hopefully that meant we were on a more equal ground right now.

Vlad duplicated himself, creating 3 more Vlads, bringing the number of Vlads up to 4. They came at me. However, I had prepared for a moment like this. I knew we would be facing multiple enemies at once in future battles, so I had created a way for me to hit them all. Scarlet had taught me this trick. Using telekinesis, I shot out my ghost rays across the lab, and held them in place. I molded the ghost rays in the air into long swords. The Vlads looked surprised at the swords, but they moved quickly to try to get to me. I grinned before I moved the ecto swords at the duplicates. The swords moved fast, they pierced through 2 of the duplicates' bodies, destroying them. The other 2 Vlads dodged the swords, though one of them got their cape torn off.

"I see you've learned a new trick," One of the Vlads remarked. "Have you two been making trips to the Ghost Zone to receive training?"

"Why would I tell you that?" I asked back as I had some of my remaining swords float back over to me. "I'm not about to tell you what Danny and I have been doing, or who has been helping us, if anyone."

"I mean no offense to you, Andrew, but I don't see you picking up a new trick like that without some form of guidance or help," One of the Vlads remarked before they all grouped up. "Seeing as you do have new tricks, it might be best to come at you full force instead of splitting myself off."

Hearing Vlad's comment made me wonder if he had someone who taught him how to use his ghost powers. I began flying around quickly. While I was moving around, I launched my ecto swords at Vlad, having them try to strike him before zipping away. Vlad managed to counter the swords by bringing up a barrier. He also blasted the swords back with his ghost ray, or just outright dodged them. Although some of the swords were able to graze him a bit.

While Vlad was stumbling a bit from the swords, I flew in close, creating another ecto sword in my hand. I slashed at Vlad, and Vlad quickly put up a shield, which narrowly stopped the blade from slashing into him.

"You definitely have grown stronger." Vlad grinned before he shattered the shield and grabbed onto the sword. "So much so that I think I can finally stop holding back against you, Andrew."

Before I could let go of the sword, I felt electricity suddenly coursing through my body. I let out a scream of pain as my muscles tightened, making me unable to let go of the sword. I tried to fight through the pain in order to dissipate the ecto sword to cut off the link between me and Vlad. Thankfully, I was able to succeed in dissipating the sword… Unfortunately, Vlad had been waiting for me to do that. It gave him the chance to punch me in the gut, sending me flying back into the lab's wall. That was going to smart in the morning.

Okay, close combat, bad idea. I noted as I managed to peel myself off of the wall.

"You know…" Vlad softly chuckled. "Had life played out differently, the two of us might've been on the same side. There was a chance, before you became a halfa, where you were so adamantly against your brother, because he was an 'undead monster', that you nearly joined me. Had you joined me, you would be much stronger than you are now… It's still not too late to join me if you'd like. In exchange for joining me, I would even guarantee that I would stop targeting your oaf of a father and I'll even stop trying to woo dear Maddie's heart."

"As tempting as that is, you've had your chance to be a part of our family, Vlad, and you threw it away." I frowned. "I don't mind giving you a second chance, if you're willing to take it. However, I'm not going to let you tempt me with your silver tongue or manipulation. There's always going to be a catch or an ulterior motive with you. And while I am weak, especially compared to you, I'm not alone in this."

While I had been fighting Vlad, I dissipated the barrier I put Danny in. I could only hold it up as long as I concentrated on it. I needed Vlad to believe he wouldn't be able to get Danny, but more importantly, I needed him to think Danny couldn't get out. That was all I needed for Vlad's downfall.

Although I couldn't tell Danny of my plan, I had enough faith that he would know what to do, so I made sure to keep Vlad's focus on me. My trust wasn't betrayed as Danny came up behind Vlad, he was floating close to the ground. Danny was holding one of the electrical wires that was broken from his Ghostly Wail earlier, and jabbed it into Vlad's back.

Vlad let out a scream and for a moment I could've sworn the world almost became cartoonish as I spotted Vlad's skeleton in his body for a split second before he fell to the ground, his body twitching and convulsing. He was still conscious, but he couldn't do much except twitch and stare.

Seeing this, I quickly landed in front of Vlad, and held out an ecto gun at him that I just created. "You've brought this on yourself, Vlad. But remember what I had said, about being willing to give you a second chance."

"Well, it seems we didn't need to rescue you two after all."

I dissipated the ecto gun, and stepped away from Vlad before looking at who spoke. I was surprised to see Juliette, who was in her human illusion disguise, Andrea, Danielle, Sam, and Tucker standing in the doorway. I also noticed that Hope was being held by Andrea instead of Juliette.

"When did… you all get here?" Danny asked, looking just as surprised as I was.

"Not too long ago," Juliette answered. "We can explain more once we're outside."

"The Specter Speeder is out front," Sam informed.

"Wow, man, you look like you've seen better days," Tucker noted as he looked at Danny.

"I'm not beaten up, just exhausted… and we were getting electrocuted for a bit…" Danny sighed. "Long story short, the fruitloop was trying to force us to transform so he could get DNA from when we're transforming so he could clone us."

"We'll talk more once we're out of here," I spoke up. "Vlad… has a lot to think about."

I saw Andrea and Danielle looking at Vlad while the rest of us were leaving. I couldn't help but wonder why they decided to come here if they were helping Vlad. But I supposed I would hear the full story when we were safe. Andrea put a hand on Danielle's shoulder, who hesitated, but nodded at her sister. Both of them began following us out of the lab. I was carrying Danny, not wanting him to walk while he was exhausted. Although I couldn't help but grin a little when I saw Danny blushing in embarrassment.

When everyone was in the Specter Speeder, including Andrea and Danielle, I returned to my human form.

"So what happened?" I asked as Tucker began driving the Specter Speeder away from Vlad's mansion.

"Would you prefer the summary or the complete version?" Juliette asked.

"We've got time… might as well tell us the full version," Danny answered.

"Honestly I think a middle ground would be best," Andrea commented. "As there were some things that happened that aren't all that important."

I looked at Hope in Andrea's arms. "Are you alright, Hope?"

"She's fine. A little dirty from being left alone, but I picked her up when I saw her," Andrea reassured.

I sighed in relief, although not everyone knew Hope was alive, I was still worried for her.

"To explain things as best as possible, I will start by saying that I was convinced to take a look at what fa- Vlad was doing," Andrea began. "He had told us that he was getting your mid-morph DNA to help stabilize us as without those samples or constant maintenance, we will eventually fall apart and turn into a puddle of ectoplasm before ceasing to be. Upon seeing that Vlad had other primary motives outside Danielle and my wellbeing, I decided I would help the contact that had infiltrated the mansion."

Andrea let out a sigh. "I had disabled the security systems and opened the front door for the group here. But as we were making our way towards Vlad's lab, we were intercepted by Danielle who demanded to know what we were doing."

"Upon finding out that we were there to rescue you, Danielle set off the alarm and activated some of the inner defenses while engaging Andrea in a one on one fight," Juliette chimed in. "While those two were fighting, we did what we could to take out the defenses. When we had successfully taken out the defenses, I moved to assist Andrea and helped her to talk down Danielle and convince her to hear us out. Things may have gotten a little bit rough, as I did have to use some of my ghost powers to force her to stand down. Thankfully doing so likely helped contribute to her being willing to listen, as I believe she ended up sensing how old of a ghost I am."

I looked at Danielle, as I remembered how she taunted me before; pretending to release me, only to be actually tightening the restraints. "How were they able to change your mind?"

"Well first off that old goat-"

"My name is Juliette," Juliette stated in a stern, warning tone.

"Fiiiine…" Danielle grumbled. "Juliette revealed her ghostly energy to me, which actually stun-locked me for a second as I wasn't expecting a seemingly defenseless doll-like princess to be all that powerful. While I was stunned, she and Andrea began to explain to me Vlad's true intentions and how the two of you were actually heroes instead of the villains that Vlad had told us you were. If it had just been Juliette, I probably wouldn't have listened. But… as you had my sister on your side, I was at least willing to take a look. So before we headed to the lab, I went through the files on one of the computer terminals upstairs and saw that Vlad had a secret lab way underground meant for storing people and I also saw that he had plans on how to create 'the perfect clones'. Whether he intended to replace us or not doesn't really matter… the fact that we weren't enough for him is what ticks me off."

"We heard Danny's Ghostly Wail in the lab, and knew there was a fight going on down there," Sam spoke up. "I was honestly terrified for you and Danny. Especially since that was the loudest Ghostly Wail I've ever heard. The entire house shook and a ton of things were breaking all around."

"I had some… trouble controlling it… since I was already screaming…" Danny sheepishly admitted.

"Jeez, I was worried that the whole mansion was going to come down on us," Tucker commented.

"That actually would've been the better of what terrible things could have happened," Juliette informed. "A ghostly attack that powerful, with that much energy behind it, could have torn open a hole into the Ghost Zone or even another reality altogether."

"That… that can happen?" Danny asked, surprised.

"Just be grateful it didn't," I said. Although… what was with that almost nonexistent light blue color within the Ghostly Wail? I doubt it was breaking through reality, but it was definitely not normal…

"When we got to the lab, we were surprised to see you and Vlad were already engaged in battle," Andrea spoke up. "We were devising a plan to help, but it looked like you and Danny had that handled when Danny did his sneak attack. I was worried you were going to shoot Vlad with your ecto-pistol, but… you told him you were willing to give him a second chance. It was then I knew for sure that… you never were faking it, you genuinely are a good person. If you had been faking it, you wouldn't have hesitated to shoot him and rid yourself of Vlad."

"I'm glad that you know I wasn't faking being a good person," I chuckled. "But if you guys didn't trip the alarm, we wouldn't have been able to catch Vlad off guard as we did. That's what gave us the opportunity we needed."

"So… what will you two do now?" Danny asked Andrea and Danielle.

"Honestly, no clue," Andrea admitted.

"We don't really have anywhere we can go, but we can't exactly go too far from Amity Park until we're stable," Danielle pointed out. "Since you destroyed Vlad's lab, the only place we'd be able to synthesize the temporary stabilizer is at your parents' lab."

"Temporary stabilizer?" Tucker questioned.

"It's an injection that we need to take daily in order for our bodies to not turn into a puddle of goop," Danielle bluntly answered. "Andrea and I managed to grab backpacks and we have about… 2 weeks worth of stabilizers, but that's it. Once it runs out, we have to be incredibly careful about what we eat and how much we use our powers."

"We could probably last a lot longer in the Ghost Zone, with its natural ectoplasm and such," Andrea informed. "But even then, it's a danger as if we don't use enough energy, we could lose stability and melt."

"Is there any way to fully stabilize you two so you don't need the stabilizer?" I asked.

"Why would you care?" Danielle asked. "All we tried to do was trap you."

"It doesn't mean I wish for you two to just melt," I pointed out. "And maybe it wasn't Andrea's intention, but we did actually bond. That has to mean something, right?"

"The only way to fully and permanently stabilize us would be to harvest samples of your mid-morph DNA and work it into a special stabilizer," Andrea informed. "And even then, we wouldn't be able to stabilize ourselves in one go. We'd still need to ease ourselves into being stable. Meaning we'd still need those new stabilizers for a while. According to Vlad, it'd take about 2 months of those specialized stabilizers to fully become stable."

"So you both kind of… screwed yourselves by taking our side instead of Vlad's," Sam noted.

"Yep." Andrea and Danielle both said at the same time.

"But why?" I asked.

"Because all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing," Andrea responded. "Up until now, we thought we were the good guys and we were doing the right thing. But it turned out that we were helping the villain all along. We couldn't just sit by and let him win, even if it ended up costing us our lives."

"Although I can't say I'm feeling that good about it…" Danielle grumbled.

"Come on, sis, even you couldn't just sit by anymore when Vlad decided we weren't good enough for him, and he was going to practically end two teenagers' lives just for his own selfish goals," Andrea pointed out. "Not to mention that he would've ended up ruining more lives in the end as he had that goal to make sure Jack Fenton ended up in jail."

"If I may make a suggestion," Juliette spoke up, getting our attention. "There may be a way to stabilize you two, but it's going to take time. We might be able to salvage what was left over in Vlad's lab at a later date. But you two need to go somewhere that you can survive long enough for us to stabilize you. There's plenty of places near Fenton Works where Andy and Danny would be able to get you those stabilizers if you gave them the formula. And one of those places would even come with supervision from myself."

"I might also be able to make it if I had the formula," Tucker spoke up. "I'm really good with technology, as well as building them if I have to."

We do still have that ecto sample back home, which I think might be from one of those clones. That might help with creating the stabilizer. I noted to myself.

"We'll find a place to stay for the time being," Andrea said. "Danielle and I will need some time to… figure things out anyways."

"Like I offered before, one place that is available is with me," Juliette mentioned. "I have a building that I would be happy to let you two stay at and you would be safe from Vlad."

"I don't know if I want to stay with an ancient goat ghost…" Danielle muttered. "Especially since I doubt you'd have any money for food for us. Unlike pure ghosts, we do still need to eat."

"Danielle, show a little more respect to someone who helped us," Andrea sighed. "Sorry, she's a bit… blunt."

"It's fine, Andrea," Juliette assured. "As for getting you food, there are ways that I can handle that and I do actually have some money I have been slowly building up via trades in the Ghost Zone. I should have all the necessities for housing the two of you, and any that I don't have are things that I can procure."

Almost immediately, both Andrea and I looked at Juliette, and spoke at the same time. "You can earn actual money from the Ghost Zone!?"

I knew about the Ecto Dollars the Ghost Zone used, but I didn't know they could give money that could be used in the living world.

Andrea and I looked at each other, then chuckled.

"Wow, you two really are a lot alike," Sam snickered.

"Yes, you can earn actual money in the Ghost Zone, though it is usually through a roundabout method," Juliette explained. "By working jobs or producing Ecto Dollars, one can often trade those for items that have a value in this world, like gemstones or metals. Recently I've been sending out Lydia on jobs in the Ghost Zone as part of her rehabilitation and I've also been charging up Ectos in my free time. With the total income from both sources, I've managed to get a decent amount of both valuable items and have brought them back here. I already sold some of it at the stores that gave me the best prices, and the rest I am holding onto."

"What were you planning to do with that money then?" Danielle questioned.

"Do some renovation of my home, get new furniture, clean up the place, things of that nature," Juliette explained. "Unfortunately in this day and age, there are very few things that can be done in this world without money."

"Yeah, we know," Andrea sighed. "Well… we wouldn't want to impose, but… if you're really fine with having us… we would be glad to take you up on the offer."

"We would?" Danielle frowned.

"Yes, we would and definitely are," Andrea said before she looked at her sister. "Or would you prefer living your life as a homeless child until you melt?"

Danielle grumbled. "Fine… but only until we're finally stabilized."

Juliette smiled warmly at Danielle and Andrea as she discarded her illusion. "I give you my word that I will take care of the two of you for as long as need be. And if at any point you wish to leave, I will give you the necessary tools to succeed on your own."

"That's very generous of you," Andrea replied before she leaned in on me. "Um… so I know we have a lot to make up to you two after what Vlad put you through, and how we helped him do it. I promise, one of these days, we'll make it up to you both."

"That's not necessary, we're just glad you two left Vlad when you did," I waved off.

"Yeah… and it'll be nice to know… you'll be with Juliette now… She may not be rich, but… she'll take better care of you than… that fruitloop ever would," Danny added tiredly.

"Danny, you should rest now," Juliette urged. "You expended most of your energy and your body needs to rest."

"I'll see if I can have Jazz make you some soup or tea for your throat when we get home," I remarked in concern to my brother.

"I just hope your parents don't start worrying too much. With how your mom has been lately…" Tucker frowned.

"We'll worry about her later, let's just focus on one problem at a time," I sighed.

"Here…" Andrea said as she held out Hope to me. "I believe this belongs to you."

I nodded before taking Hope back into my arms. "Thank you, for taking care of her."

"You're welcome," Andrea chuckled before glancing around at the others and then at Hope. She eventually looked back to me and I could see there was some slight understanding in her eyes. "I found her sitting outside your backpack in the dining room after Vlad captured you. I wasn't able to save your homework though."

"It's… no big deal. I'll see if I can redo that homework later," I replied. All that matters is that Hope was safe. Although… does Andrea know Hope is alive? I guess Hope will tell me later.

"Let's hope Vlad might learn something from this," Sam sighed. "Although I doubt it."

"Let's just hope he'll not make a move until much later on," Tucker chuckled. "That seems more realistic."

I frowned a little before I looked out the window. I had meant what I said to Vlad about giving him a second chance. I had seen the good man that he could be if he didn't keep obsessing with his current goals. If Vlad didn't stop, one of these days, there will be no coming back for him. I could only hope that there would be a way for him to avert that fate.

It was the next day and Danny and I were sitting on the living room couch with Mom standing over us. It was nice to see Mom again, but it wasn't so nice that she looked so upset.

"Laryngitis?!" Mom scowled as she was looking at me and Danny on the living room's couch. "How did Danny get laryngitis?"

"Danny strained his throat pretty badly," I answered half truthfully. "He was helping me with my school play, and got a little too into character."

Mom frowned as she looked at me. "Wasn't your school play a few days ago? How is Danny only now dealing with laryngitis?"

"He kept straining his voice afterwards…" I added hesitantly. She kept track of the days?

"You don't need to cover up for me, bro…" Danny quietly stated. "The reason my throat is so messed up right now is because I got really into a challenge level in a video game where I had to escape a lab and yelled a lot when things weren't going right, so it ended up costing me…"

Mom sighed, and shook her head. "You need to be more concerned about your health, Danny…"

"I'm sorry, Mom," Danny apologized with his hoarse voice. "I'll be giving my throat the rest it needs."

"Well thankfully your father and I have a surprise for the two of you that should help you get the time you need to relax," Mom stated. "Your father pointed out how hard we've been working lately and insisted that we take some time off. So over the next couple of days, your father and I will be working more on this surprise."

"Does that mean you're… uh… getting better now, Mom?" I hesitantly asked.

Mom nodded. "Yes, sweetheart, I am. I was admittedly going through a bit of a midlife crisis recently. But thankfully I've found the direction I need to go in the future."

Really? Because my visions are still unsure about your future… I worriedly thought. Maybe… maybe now that Mom found this direction she mentioned… that might be a good thing?

"Now you two try to relax, you've had a long night," Mom said before pausing. "Well, considering you've been working hard with your school work, and visiting that new friend of yours, I'm sure it was a long night for the two of you."

Danny and I blinked at Mom, feeling like she was trying to hide something.

Mom cleared her throat. "I'll go make breakfast. I think Jazz is coming back with that tea to help your throat, Danny. Don't do anything strenuous until you've recovered, okay, sweetie?"

Danny gave a nod to Mom.

Mom walked away, and headed to the kitchen. It was good to see Mom was starting to seem like her old self, but I couldn't help but feel like something was still going on with her that we didn't know about.

mysteryfan4ever: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Glad you enjoyed our take on Kindred Spirits. We definitely wanted to make the plot line last a bit longer than the episode, which should've been a two parter at least. We also wanted to make it fit the characters better, like Vlad. He was acting uncharacteristically bloodthirsty and evil in the episode. As for Vlad, who knows what the future holds? Maybe Andy will reform him, maybe Andy won't, maybe Vlad will become even more of a super villain? He's one shaved head, trimmed eyebrows, and clean-shaven face away from being Lex Luthor.

naminexriku2468: DarkFoxKit: Andrea is more mature between the two of them. She's older, and inherited more of Andy's cautious nature. Danielle is younger, and more immature. She has Danny's hasty nature, though she is also quite mischievous. We didn't get to see a lot of Danielle in canon, but from what I can see, she is quite the trickster, and in some of my more favorite and longer Danny Phantom fanfics, Danielle's often portrayed as such. But she's also naive, so she was more inclined to believe Vlad's words than Andrea, who was starting to doubt Vlad's supposed 'good' intentions. Of course, this doesn't mean Danielle's evil, she just doesn't know any better.

kairixsora13579: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yeah, Danielle and Andrea aren't gonna be showing up here to answer any questions. It's a miracle that the boys are here to talk sometimes. As for the question, that's a bit of a hard one to answer. I mean most siblings care for each other and love one another, but every sibling has their differences and disagreements. I will say that we put more detail and care into the personalities of Danielle and Andrea than Butch put into the real Danielle.

DP-Marvel94: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': No need to apologize, everyone makes mistakes. As for the Maddie program, glad to hear you thought she was creepy as that was the intention. The program is Vlad's dream version of Maddie. Considering how twisted and creepy his dreams would be, it makes sense that the program would be creepy.

I'm honestly happy to hear that we were able to make you feel worried for Andy because it shows that the effort we put in to set up a certain tone can really work wonders. I will give a tiny spoiler and say that there's more to the shared dream thing than just what we showed. I will also admit that I had to pause at one point during writing the shared dream because I was busting a gut laughing at them not realizing the other was the real them.

As for Hope, we realized we hadn't been using her as much as we first intended to and she fit perfectly for this idea we had for the 'episode'. Andy has earned her trust and respect to the point that Hope truly cares about him and wants to help him out if she can. She's even willing to go so far as putting herself in real danger by exposing herself in order to help him.

Mana16: DarkFoxKit: Unfortunately Vlad already took into account the boys resisting, unlike canon Vlad apparently. And yeah, we figured it'd be better to have Vlad do it at the mansion rather than across the states, it would've been a long way for them to go to get there. Even with the Specter Speeder, it would've taken them a good while to reach there in time to save the twins. Kinda made me wonder how they got there so fast in the actual episode.

Yeah, My Brother's a Ghost was written years ago. Wow, I feel old. Sam being into goth was a bit weird, since she never seemed like a goth to me, she was too cheery to be one. As for Vlad, the fact he was willing to let these children die by the hands of the villagers is very concerning. Heck, he even pushed Danny into that ring of Blood Blossoms, which could've easily killed Danny had Tucker not eaten those flowers. Vlad felt more like a mindless evil villain there than he ever had before. Also, Sam seems to have a soft spot for animals, I don't know how she feels about witches.