Freakshow stood in the center of the circus tent, watching his ghosts add bags to the already sizeable mountain of jewels and gold. True, he did not have the magical gauntlet that was powered by rubies and diamonds anymore, but he liked wealth and things that shone. He also needed a way to solidify his control over his gang of haunts, and this was as good as anything else he could come up with. Last time he had escalated things too quickly with Phantom and he lost everything because of it.

Lydia floated next to him, her arms crossed in a huff, "How much longer do we have to be petty theives for you? What's next?"

"Patience. Things will go as planned." The ringmaster nodded towards the exit, "You should be making sure our star knows his act for the show."

"And the girl? People will look for her when they notice she's missing."

"Find a way to mind wipe her and let her go, then. She needs to believe most of this if we want everything to go well."

She pursed her lips and flew off, "Somehow I doubt you really have a plan at all."

Vlad adjusted the position of the small portal he was using to spy on Freakshow's operation. Given the man's past failures with Circus Gothica and the reality gauntlet, Vlad did not have high hopes for a successful stunt. The mind control thing was too delicate of an operation. Any wrong move would put them back to square one.

A warning from Clockwork echoed in his memory, "Not all futures are certain. One decision has hundreds of various consequences. Do not try to force a certain timeline into existence."

Of course, at the time the ghost thought Vlad was trying to take over on his own. But the millionaire was smarter than that. He needed a powerful pawn to do most of his dirty work.

The portal focused in on Danny learning his choreography. The boy still had a way to go before he was ready. Danny was too good. Too human. Freakshow and the circus was supposed to give him cause to forsake that. He just needed a few suggestions and some help to make the unfortunate incident happen, but Vlad would enjoy the little bit of entertainment the humiliation of his act.

Sam woke up in her room with no memory of how she got there. A glance at her phone told her she was missing something important, so she scrambled to call Tucker. "Hello?"

"You're alive!" The relief was strong in his voice.

"Of course I am. Should I not be?"

"Sam, we haven't heard from you or Danny since he asked us to make creepy circus protection tech."

She scrunched her face, "Circus? Freakshow? He's in jail, Tucker."

"No... He has the mind control staff back and made Danny make out with Ember McClain. He said that you were there and saw the whole thing! Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

Maddie's voice came through from somewhere in the background, "What is the last thing you remember, Sam?"

There was a long pause before she spoke again, "My parents were forcing me to go to the opening ceremonies of some Cirque du Soleil show. I told Danny to come and get me."

"Her mind has been altered." Maddie spoke quickly, "Sam, that was almost forty-eight hours ago. Meet us at the lab. I have a few things that may be able to help us retrieve some of your memories."

Sam lowered her phone to her lap, more confused than ever before. After a mostly peaceful period of three years, Freakshow came back? She could not remember anything of the past couple of days, which probably meant Danny was in trouble... Again. With a sigh, she grabbed her cars keys off of her dresser and hurried from the house. Something in the Fenton labs had to help. Maybe with her memories back, they could figure out the bigger picture.

It took exactly nine minutes for her to get to Fenton Works. The van was already there, so she let herself in and went straight to the basement. Maddie and Tucker were there, typing madly into a pair of computers and barely glanced in her direction as she came in. Maddie pointed to a helmet laying on the table, "Put that on."

"This look like Tucker's virtual reality thing he made years ago."

"It is the virtual reality thing." He grinned, "We modified it so it can replay memories. We're hoping yours are just suppressed and not fully removed from your short-term storage." He walked over to adjust the helmet slightly so that the goggles hung straighter.

Sam gingerly put it over her head, "And it works, right? You've tested it?"

"Of course!"

It was not very convincing, but she finished putting it on anyway, "It better, Tucker." Her world went black as she anxiously waited for Maddie to flip the switch on her memories.