Jim was tired of the constant trips out to the forest. The planning and training. The tension as they all waited for Gunmar to attack. He wanted it to be over, but he knew he had to wait until everything was in place. He knew they needed an actual plan. He couldn't just charge in and fight this by himself. He'd just get himself killed and the Amulet destroyed. Either way, they had a plan now and he just needed to find a way to tell Phantom to be ready and meet up with them in a few days.

"Cheer up, Jim," Claire said, nudging him with her shoulder. As they made the daily trip back out of the woods to their nice comfy beds.

"Yeah, man," Toby said, joining the conversation, "we're this close to beating Gunmar and you look like you're still waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Jim shrugged, smiling softly at his friends' attempts to cheer him up. "Just nervous, I guess. I don't know how to get Phantom's attention and tell him the plan without everyone else noticing as well. And, you know, we could still lose."

"A very good observation, Master Jim," Blinky said, startling them. They had forgotten he chose to walk with them tonight, instead of overseeing the camp. "There are still many things that could go wrong, but we have planned as much as we can and are in the best position we will be for a long time. We must take advantage of it."

"Yeah, I know," Jim said, "but I'm still nervous."

"Rule number one, Master Jim. Rule number one."

"Always be afraid," the three teens parroted back to him.

"Indeed. Now more than ever, you must be on your toes and ready for the worst."

Silence fell over the group again, and they walked peacefully between the trees.

As they approached the edge, Blinky's ears twitched, hearing something the young humans couldn't and that he couldn't quite make out. He gestured for them to slow, and move quietly, alert for potential attackers. He listened closely and lead them even closer to the edge of the woods as sounds of combat reached him.

"What are you going to do about it?" a young voice asked, angry and defensive. Jim frowned, confused. That… sounded a bit like Danny. His cousin Danny, not the ghost. It did have an odd quality to it that didn't seem quite right either, but it was definitely his cousin. But what was- "Going to just run off and ignore the problem?" That didn't sound right. "Leave me to clean it up like you always do?" What- "Or are you going to try and make my stop? Kidnap me and hide me away until the fighting's done?" The four Trollhunters exchanged a worried look as they edged forward. Just at the edge of the trees, they saw nothing. On a hunch, Jim looked up. "Or, hey, here's a good one, maybe you're going to pretend none of this is even happening and just go back to flirting with my mom."

Floating above them was Phantom, glaring at another ghost with a white suit and flowing cape. His skin, unlike Phantom's, was a pale blue and his eyes a solid red visible even from this distance. The other ghost was glaring at Phantom, too. "Daniel…" he growled.

"What the heck?" Jim said much louder than he intended (which wasn't hard considering he hadn't meant to say it out loud at all). This didn't make sense. The voices. He could have sworn it sounded like Vlad and Danny arguing again, especially with the flirting comment. But everything else… Danny wasn't fighting anything here. It could only be Phantom, and Phantom was a ghost. Dead. Danny was alive. How could the two- no, four- sound so similar? Not just in the voices themselves, but in how they talked to each other.

Both ghosts swiveled to look at the small party at the edge of the woods.

"Ah, your new friends," the blue ghost said, a gloating smile crossing his face.

"Plasmius…" Phantom warned.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt them."

"Pardon the intrusion," Blinky interrupted, taking step out from under the cover of the trees with two of his hands clasped behind his back while another rested at his side and the last held his staff- Vendel's staff, "but who are you? I was aware of Phantom, but not you." He pointed at the blue ghost with his staff.

The ghost puffed out his chested and swooped a little closer. "I am Vlad Plasmius," he said, pride dripping from him.

"He's a froot loop, is what he is," Phantom grumbled just loud enough for them to hear him.

Plasmius seemed to stiffen for a fraction of a second before his easy demeanor returned. "He does have quite the sense of humor," he said as he flashed a grin with a few too many teeth at the younger ghost. Jim was sure he'd seen fangs. "I came to this little town of yours because I'd heard of your problems and just had to come investigate. This will affect us all, you understand, so I had to be sure the right side would win. For the best interests of my people."

"Your people?" Toby blurted. "There's more of you?"

Jim nodded. "The Fentons talk about all kinds of ghosts, although most of them aren't very friendly or civic minded," he said before Plasmius could continue.

"Yeah," Phantom continued, a small grin on his face as he glared at Plasmius's back, "they call him the Wisconsin Ghost. I'm sure you remember those stories," he switched his gaze to Jim for a moment.

Jim shrugged. "Given what they think of you, I'm inclined to take their opinions with a grain of salt."

Phantom frowned. "I'm glad you're reasonable," Plasmius said. He was still grinning, and Jim thought it looked a bit predatory. "The Fentons are more than a little prejudiced against us ghosts all because of a few trouble makers that like to have a little fun in Amity Park."

Phantom was back to glaring at Plasmius. "It's more than just a few, and they aren't just having 'a little fun.' They'd destroy the town if I let them, and don't pretend you haven't done your share of the damages."

"As have you, Little B- Phantom."

"I at least try and keep it to a minimum. You like making my, eh, afterlife as hard as physically possible and if that means breaking things to ruin my reputation, you are not above that."

Plasmius shrugged. "All's fair in love and war, but let's get back to the point," he disappeared in a puff of pink smoke. "You-" his voice was right next to them. All four jumped. Claire and Toby had their weapons out in barely a heartbeat, while Blinky flailed for a second before holding his staff ready. Jim held the amulet, his center of gravity low. "-are fighting a war that affects us all, and I have come to the conclusion that it is in our best interest if you win, so I would like to offer my services to use as you see fit."

The Trollhunters blinked at each other. He was… intimidating and seemed more than a little… predatory, but he was on their side… apparently? "Well, that's a first," Phantom grumbled as he floated down to the group. "You sure you don't want to just-"

"I can acknowledge when I am out of my depth. They are the experts right now, and I will defer to them."

Phantom was still staring at Plasmius like he had been replaced by some kind of body snatching alien.

Jim glanced at his friends, who shrugged at him, then turned back to Plasmius. "I'm not sure-"

"I have a similar power set to Phantom and significantly more strength, experience, and skill," Plasmius interrupted, "and, from the looks of things, you need all the help you can get."

"He's not wrong," Claire whispered.

"Yeah," Toby answered, "but I get the feeling Phantom doesn't like him for a reason. And can we really afford to have them working together?"

"Can we afford to not accept his help?" Blinky countered. "As Claire said, he's not wrong. We are already on thin ice with our plan utilizing Phantom, more fighters would not be a bad thing."

Jim watched the two ghosts. Phantom was keeping half an eye on Plasmius, ready to fight if he needed to. Plasmius was ignoring the younger ghost and looked so calm and collected that Jim wasn't sure he even cared about the younger ghost's hostility. His smile still looked a bit threatening as well. "Phantom, do you have a way of contacting him?"

"If I leave without an answer tonight," Plasmius said before Phantom could do more than open his mouth, "I intend to leave town post haste."

Phantom scowled and snorted, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, right."

"Do not test me, Phantom. I will abandon this cause if they do not deal with me directly."

Phantom shook his head, then looked at Jim and nodded. Plasmius was serious.

Jim sighed. He needed to talk to Phantom anyway. This at least solved the problem of talking to him without the rest of the family noticing. "We're planning on attacking in three days. We'll meet back here at…" he turned to Blinky.

Taking his cue, Blinky stepped forward. "Meet here at 6:30 Thursday evening. We will go over our plan, and, hopefully, head out to begin our assault at between 7:00 and 7:15."

The ghosts nodded, and Plasmius vanished. Phantom stayed, waiting silently, his eyes unfocused on some middle distance. The four Trollhunters waited. A moment later Phantom glanced around and nodded to himself before turning back to the others. "He should be gone by now. I hope he's gone by now. He should have better things to do than hanging out and spying on us." Phantom frowned in thought. "Maybe. Hopefully. Point is, he's a dick, but if he's telling the truth about wanting to help us, he's going to be extremely helpful."

"Can you work with him?" Jim smiled. Claire was cutting straight to the point.

Phantom nodded. "It won't be the first time we've fought beside each other, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't watch your back. Plasmius doesn't do anything that doesn't benefit him. In my opinion, helping you does benefit him on its own, but he usually doesn't include that. He'll be trying to get something more out of this whether he actually wants you to win or not, and if it looks like we're going to lose, he is going to try and save his own skin."

"Thank you, for the warning," Blinky said.

Phantom nodded. "I'll do what I can to keep him from hurting anyone on our side, but…" Phantom shrugged. "He wasn't kidding when he said he was better than me."

"How-"

Phantom cut Claire off quickly, "Twenty years of experience and all the power that comes with it. He's a strategist and he knows his powers a lot better than I do. The only reason I ever stand a chance against him is because he doesn't usually want to hurt me, and I've learned to aim for disrupting his plans rather than trying to actually fight him."

"Is there anything that can be done about this potential threat?" Blinky spoke.

Phantom hesitated, then shook his head. "You could try and get some Fenton tech, but he knows how to deal with it well enough that it won't help you much. Just keep an eye on him and don't give him a reason, I guess." He shrugged. "Nothing else for it. So, uh, I'll see you guys in a few days?"

The group nodded and mumbled their goodbyes as Phantom vanished. Silence filled the air and they let it settle in them with the wind wrapping around them as they processed the new information.

"That whole thing had some kinda déjà vu to it," Claire finally said.

Toby nodded along next to her. "Yeah, man. I don't know what it was, but that felt really familiar."

Jim hummed slightly, his eyes drifting up to where the two ghosts had been fighting when he first saw them. "They sounded like Danny and Masters," he muttered. "But, you know, with more fighting and threats. Not that Danny and Masters wouldn't. After seeing them forced to share a dinner table, I get the feeling those two just hide the more violent aspects of what they want to say and do for the sake of appearances."

"I wonder if there's any relation between them," Blinky mused out loud as one of his free hands came up to rub at his chin and his eyes shifted to focus on some middle ground.

Toby snorted. "Really, Blink? They're ghosts. Dead. What connections could they have to two very living human beings?"

"With all the magic and craziness in our lives, Toby?" Claire said. "I don't think we can rule anything out."

"Quite right, Claire," Blinky praised as he moved into teacher mode. "Just because we do not know how does not make it impossible. Although, Tobias does raise an excellent point as well. Just because they are similar does not make them related. Either way, this is a matter for some other time, when we are not worrying ourselves over the rise and, hopefully, fall of warlords."

Jim nodded and turned back to his friends. "You're right, Blink. C'mon, guys, let's get home and get some sleep. We're gonna need it."