Whoo! Twenty chapter, I'm so excited! I hope you guys are too. Now Sable stuff will go down. Hope you all enjoy it! Also, I hope you guys like the irony of the horse's name. You'll understand what I mean when you get to it.

As a side not, I seem to say hope a lot, don't I? I should probably work on that.

Also, yay, one hundred favourites! I love you guys all so much

Potterheads2016: Some good stuff is going to go down while Danny and co are gone, you guys just gotta see how it happens. And thanks, I thought it would be kind of a funny way for her to find out, especially since she didn't even see it first

SilverFlameHaze: Until I googled it after seeing your comment, I had no idea what MorganWant was, so yeah, nah

Sophia the daughter of Nyx: Thanks!

LooneyAces: And continuing has commenced!

ShinyMudkipGal: Thanks, and I'm glad people are liking the way she (and her friend, but whatever :P ) found out

Mimi1012: Aw, thanks! I was originally gonna write a little more involving their retreat, but thought that that would be a good place to stop instead. Good to know I made the right choice

PhantomFanForever: Just a little subtle, situational humour

Guest: thanks

Nesy Girl: That's great to here, and this is actually kind of funny because I have a friend named Ness :P

Echgrl: I normally update within three days, I try to aim for two. Over the weekends, since that's my primary homework and work time, I might not update as quickly, but I try to keep it as constant as possible.

Enjoy!


Ember and Tucker followed closely behind Danny as they walked through the icy halls, worried that he might zone out again, whatever it was that he just did. They were partially right. Nothing would happen now, but Danny knew that, if they weren't close by, he would have been pulled right back into his memories.

"Hey, dipstick, isn't this the wrong way?" Ember asked, looking down the next hall they passed.

"Oh, is it?" Tucker's eyes roamed across the walls and ceiling. It all looked the same to him.

"We aren't going back to the hall. Frostbite will probably send someone to get the others, so we're going to meet him in the war room," Danny explained.

"Cool, there's a war room?" Tucker grinned.

"Yeah. And it looks like everyone's already here," Danny said as he reached a large open door. There was a large table in the middle of the room, a large map of the Ghost Zone spread across it. Frostbite stood across the table, with Snowstorm and Dora beside him. The Ghostketeers were grouped together, but they no longer looked tense or wary in the presence of ghosts. At least most of them did. Maddie still looked a little cautious, but not visibly hateful at least. Danny moved to close the doors, but Frostbite's voice stopped him.

"We are still waiting on one more person," Frostbite called. Danny stopped and leaned back against the door while Tucker and Ember went to the table.

"Who are we waiting for?" Danny asked, going over the likely allies in his mind. Pandora was gone, Clockwork couldn't interfere. There were his enemies turned sort of friends, like Johnny 13 and Kitty, Poindexter, and Youngblood. He couldn't really picture them helping out, considering there's nothing for them to gain from rescuing Sam. Unless they decided that Danny would owe them something afterwards, like Ember was saying. Although Danny suspected that Ember was only saying that.

"Someone like family," Frostbite smiled, which only caused Danny's frown to deepen. He considered all his allies to be his family. Dora and Ember were like his sisters, Youngblood his annoying younger brother, Johnny his infuriating older one. Clockwork, Pandora, and Frostbite were parental figures to him. Although Clockwork seemed more like the estranged uncle type.

"Danny!" Danny's head whipped around in time to see a black and white blur flying towards him. It collided with his chest and forced him farther into the room.

"Danielle!" Danny shouted joyfully, hugging the girl close. Then he firmly grasped her shoulders and moved them so they were kneeling face to face. Danny quickly examined her, tilting Danielle's head and inspecting her for wounds. "Are you okay? You didn't get hurt at all when you were gone? I don't remember you having that scar when I last saw you."

"I'm fine, Da-Danny," Danielle stammered, spying the humans just barely within sight. "I was in Brazil, and I kinda fell out of a tree and didn't think about going intangible, but it's all healed!"

"So you're fine?"

"Uh-huh," Danielle smiled.

"Good. So why didn't you contact me? And you were supposed to tell me as soon as you got here, I was really worried," Danny fussed over Danielle a little bit more.

"Well, I kind of got caught up exploring and all, but I really missed you! And that was sort of my idea. I wanted to surprise you," Danielle now looked a little guilty and slumped in Danny's hands. "Surprise?"

Danny looked her over once more, then his face splint into a wide grin. "I'm glad you're finally back."

Danielle's face brightened, and when they stood, she grabbed Danny's arm. Her own personally way to request being picked up. Danny complied, holding her with one arm against his hip. Danielle may have had the body of a small twelve-year-old, and she may have been relatively smart, but she was technically still only a few months old, and mentally she was no different from a little kid. Danny wasn't totally sure how little, but it was enough for her to eagerly desire being picked up by her dad. Not that Danny didn't mind.

"It's the ghost girl!" Jack exclaimed, and Danny instantly found himself turning so that Danielle was safely hidden behind his body.

"What about Danielle?" Danny asked. His voice was low and quiet, and sounded somewhat threatening.

"She's just like the ghost boy," Jack continued, grinning.

"Yeah, yeah she is. What about it?" Danny's eyes narrowed, and now there was no mistaking the threatening tone in his voice.

"I didn't know ghost could be so similar," Jack elaborated, and Danny relaxed a little. It didn't actually sound like he wanted to experiment on her. A fact that surprised Danny greatly. His eyes slid to his mother, and he didn't like the look he saw there.

"You won't touch Danielle," Danny growled, and Maddie blinked.

"Danny, you will not take that tone with me," Maddie said.

"And you will not touch Danielle," Danny repeated. He walked to the other side of the table where Tucker and Ember were.

"Hi, Ember! Are you gonna start my lessons now that I'm back?" Danielle asked eagerly.

"Totally, kid," Ember grinned in return.

"Are you Tucker?" Dani pointed to the techno-geek, who nodded. "Yay! Oh, if Uncle Tuck is here, then that must mean that-"

"Not at the moment," Danny cut Danielle off. He was quiet again, and for a moment his eyes flashed. But not their usual green. They flashed red.

"But that's what we're here for. Frostbite, do you have any plans?" Danny turned to the yeti king.

"Of course, Great One. We have thought of various strategies that can put us at an advantage," Frostbite started. While he spoke, Tucker started whispering to Danny.

"So she knows who I am?" Tucker glanced at Danielle.

"Yep."

"I'm guessing you told her about me, and probably Sam?"

"Yep."

"Is there any ghost you haven't told us about?"

"Hmm, not really," Danielle answered before Danny could.

"Hey, that's not true!" Danny gasped.

"Oh yeah? How about that time you were talking to Johnny? 'She's my best friend, so I don't know. Maybe I should tell her. How did you and Kitty meet? Do you think you could give me some advice?'" Danielle blinked innocently while Danny turned a furious shade of red.

"I did not ask him that!" Ember and Tucker started chuckling.

"Uh-huh, you did."

"No way."

"Loads of times.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Great One?" Danny and Dani looked at Frostbite at the same time.

"Yeah?" The father and daughter chorused.

"If we could focus on the plans?"

"Um, right, yeah. Sorry," Danny ducked his head and Danielle grinned.

Frostbite grinned as Danielle his 'yes' in Danny's ear one last time.


Having fun yet?

"Not really. It's actually kind of boring," Sam sighed, squeezing back tears of pain.

Boring?

"Yeah. You just keep doing the same thing over and over," she nodded sluggishly. It was so hard to stay awake. While the cuts along her body weren't too deep, there were enough of them that she'd lost a decent amount of blood. Sam couldn't help but flinch when the ghosts' claw rested against her collar bone. Sam stared defiantly up at him, although it was somewhat ineffective when she was struggling to keep her eyes open. Danny would rescue her. Danny would be here soon

Oh, I don't know. I always think that, if you do something enough times, you start to enjoy it.

He dragged the claw lightly across her skin, and Sam hissed as her pale skin split open and bright red blood started to gather in the new cut.

So, are you enjoying it yet?


Danny was actually quite adept at horseback riding, much to the surprise of the Ghostketeers. Dora had insisted she teach him the skill not long after they became friends, and he had picked it up fairly quickly. The horse he was riding was pale blue, with pitch black eyes, and a dark main. It had an ice core, just like him. The situation would be a little problematic if it were otherwise.

He was riding a good fifty yards ahead of the fixed Speeder, and just behind the Speeder was a fair number of yetis. But for all appearances, Danny was alone. Dora and Ember had turned the Speeder, and everyone inside of it, invisible, and the yetis behind them had done the same.

Danny briefly cast out his sense, making sure they were still following him, and no other ghosts were approaching. They had a simple strategy, considering they didn't know what they were going into. They had recruited the stronger yetis, the ones that could conceal their ghostly energies, in case there were any ghosts with a sense like Danny's when they got there. Danny would leave the doors open when he entered, something not entirely strange, since the doors were usually open. The yetis would follow him, concealed, at a distance, while the Speeder remained outside, Tucker at the controls. Danny didn't trust his parents not to barge in before the right time. He and Tucker could communicate through the Fenton Phones, and once Danny gave the signal Tucker would fly through the castle to Danny's location, and they would quickly retrieve Sam.

That was another reason Danny wanted Tucker on the wheel. Not the retrieving Sam part, but flying through the castle. Sable wasn't like the rest of the Ghost Zone. Humans and real world items couldn't just pass through every wall and floor, only specific ones. Danny trusted Tucker to remember this route better than his parents would. They also might not have been able to resist the urge to explore, something Danny definitely didn't want.

When Sable was in sight, Danny stopped, reigning in Bellefire. He remained sitting on his mount, looking down at the gothic castle. It was made of a black stone that shone in the eerie green light of the Ghost Zone. Torches of blue fire flickered beside the massive silver doors, casting their pale glow against the walls. From his vantage point, Danny could just see the courtyard in the middle of the castle. There, dark ivy crept along the walls, and a massive willow grew in the middle of a meandering gravel path. He wasn't close enough to make them out, but Danny knew that growing among the roots of the Willow were dark purple and blue flowers. Danny continued to stare into the garden as he waited for the others to catch up.


Star was turning the lipstick blaster over in her hands. Maddie had decided that she shouldn't have any of the bigger guns, since she didn't know how to use them, but she should have something. Just in case she ended up outside the Speeder. That was one of the fundamental parts of the plan. The humans were not to leave the Speeder. For the moment, Ember and that princess ghost were with them, but they would soon be joining the yetis outside. Star's hands stilled.

"How did I get into this?" She asked herself. She hadn't wanted to join the Ghostketeers in the first place, but now here she was, following them into what may turn out to be their second ghost fight. It was because of this that she had listened closely during the strategy meeting, and there was one thing she had noticed that interested her greatly. While Frostbite and Princess Dorathea had done most of the talking, they had often looked to Danny and receive either a short nod, or the barest shake of his head. And when it came to the layout of Sable, Danny was the only one to speak. Star had waited patiently throughout the meeting, and as soon as it was done she had pulled Danny to the corner of the room, throwing a dark glare at anyone who moved to follow. Danny had helplessly shrugged at his friends and complied to Star's not quite request.

"So who's Danielle?" Star asked. It hadn't been easy to separate the pair.

"What?"

"Danielle. Who is she to you?"

"She's m- she's Phantom's daughter," Danny respond quickly. Star didn't miss the way he stumbled over his words, and she smirked, now one hundred percent sure of her theory.

"Okay, whatever," Star had flipped her hair over her shoulder and sauntered back to the other A-listers, but the smirk remained on her face. She wasn't smirking now. She believed wholeheartedly that she was right, which meant she owed Fenton one serious apology.

Star's hand closed around the blaster, and her face set in a determine scowl. Once this was all done, she would confront Danny.


"Tucker, it would be best if I took control. I built the Speeder, I can fly it a little better," Maddie cringed as the Speeder jerked away from a purple door.

"Um, it's okay, Mrs. F. I think I've got it down. And Danny and Frostbite said they wanted me driving," Tucker responded, not taking his eyes off the Ghost Zone.

"Danny is just a boy, he can't make a decision like that, and Frostbite is-"

"A ghost? He also saved Danny's life. Danny trusts him, and I trust Danny. You should to."

"I trust my son, but this is just... He knows all these ghosts, talks to them all the time, lives with them! It isn't normal," Maddie shook her head.

"Well, Danny isn't normal. Never has been," Tucker shrugged, and silently added especially now.

"What do you mean?" Maddie raised an eyebrow as she looked down at Tucker.

"I mean, Danny's super smart, right? That's not normal. He doesn't show it, but I remember him being smart when we were younger. But then, some things happened," Tucker tilted his head a little in the direction he knew Dash was, "and Danny simply stopped broadcasting it. Don't even get me started on the German. And Latin too, I guess."

"Latin?" Maddie was now genuinely curious, momentarily forgetting the reason she had first started talking to Tucker.

"Oh, yeah! I guess you guys didn't know either. Last week in English class, Danny was writing a bunch of Latin on this paper in his notebook. Lancer was super impressed."

Maddie stood up straight and briefly looked at the overweight teacher.

"The German I knew about. But no, not the Latin. Jack, did you know Danny could speak Latin?" Maddie turned to her husband.

"No, but that's great! I always knew Danny-o was a smart boy," Jack grinned. Maddie nodded slowly. Danny and smart were honestly not two words she thought about together, and she realized something. She wasn't a good mother. When Danny was younger, they frequently forgotten his birthday because of work. She hadn't even known that Danny was fighting ghosts, and obviously getting hurt. Her son's numerous scars rose in her mind, and Maddie swallowed guiltily. There were a few that looked like they could have killed Danny. She hadn't mentioned it at the time, too stunned by its presence, but when treating Danny's chest in the carriage Maddie had seen a scar on his throat. That wasn't everything. When Danny had his accident, she and Jack had easily accepted Danny's explanation, and didn't think anything of his dramatic change in behaviour. How he suddenly became distant and secretive, coming home with the occasional bruise Maddie took to be the result of bullying (although now she knew better), his increasing tardiness and absences at school, coming home past curfew, all the sick days, and the failing grades. It was at that point she had stopped using Danny and smart in the same sentence.

Maddie looked at her husband again. He apparently never stopped thinking of Danny as smart, maybe seeing a little bit of himself in their son. Maddie remember how Jack had never had the best grades, but he was a genius in his own way. She was glad that at least one of them had still believed in Danny. Jack had also accepted Danny's relationship with ghosts surprisingly easily.

Now Maddie turned to said ghosts. Dora and Ember, the ghosts that Danny treated like sisters. The ghost girl, Danielle, had been left at the frozen kingdom at Danny's insistence. There was something about the way he treated her, being so protective, almost paternal towards her. Maddie smiled, glad that her son could care about someone so much. Enough to threaten her to protect them. She looked back out the window, now content with letting Tucker drive, and decided that she would have to apologize to Danny once all this was done, and Sam was safe.


Lancer found his current situation to be very similar to the one in the carriage. He was, once again, dwelling on the subject of the boy that had always been his worse student. During the meeting, Danny was focused and confident, his suggestions logical, and his opinions sought. The confidence had been interesting to see. It was a look that Lancer was not used to seeing on Danny's face, but for some reason it seemed to settle there so perfectly. And he had accepted it. It was for this reason that Lancer decided to cast away all prior opinions of the boy, and instead focus on what he had learned during their little adventure so far.

His ease while being wounded, the closeness with ghosts, specifically Phantom's daughter. The confidence. The smarts. His protective nature. His confidence. An easy grin Lancer could have sworn he had never seen before, but was surprisingly familiar with.

Not to mention the green eyes. Green eyes… Lancer thought back on the meeting between the Fenton's that he had called, when they first saw the green eyes. Daniel had said something. He was ranting about Phantom and his parent's unjustified feelings towards the ghost boy. Lancer's eyebrows knit together as he thought.

He had just solved one thing (Lancer had finally translated the Latin sentence that had been bugging him earlier), and now he had something else to think on. He tapped a finger against his knee, frowning all the while, and let out a frustrated sigh.

Maybe I should get more clues, if I can get Daniel to talk to me… Lancer froze, then looked at the figure outside the figure, now stopped, mounted on a blue mare.

'Me.'


Danny took a deep breath and spoke into what appeared to be empty air.

"Are we all set?" He asked, lips barely moving.

"All good in here," Tucker replied over the Fenton Phones.

"We are ready," Frostbite echoed from somewhere to Danny's right. The halfa gave a small nod, and swung his leg over Bellfire's side. For a moment he stood there, one foot in a stirrup, hands gripping the saddle, and gaze cast down to the courtyard that was so close, yet seemed so far. Once more, Danny breathed in deeply, then jumped from his mount. The fall was considerably far to the ground before the gates of Sable, but it was hardly the highest Danny had fallen from. He had hardly thought of the humans watching him when making his impromptu dismount, and the muffled gasps that came through the Fenton Phones reminded Danny of them as he rose from his landing crouch. He chuckled a little, then approached the massive doors.

His hand had barely rested against the cool metal when they swung open with little resistance. Tendrils of pleasantly warm air flowed from the open doorway and seemed to curl around Danny's outstretched arm, beckoning him inside. Like the door, Danny did not resist. He focused on his core, gathering as much power as he could without actually transforming or agitating the damaged areas. Sable recognized Danny for who he was immediately, and when his foot fell on the white marble floor, and icy mist flared around his feet, and every time he lifted his foot, a frosty print was left behind. As Danny walked through the halls, the temperature dropped. The ice that had found eternal home among the cracks in the brick walls began to spread, creeping out onto the stone. Danny's feet carried him straight to the throne room across from the main doors. Marble floor gave way to black and white tiles and the room opened into a massive space, pillars standing from floor to ceiling, with the same blue torches seen outside lining the way to the throne.

Floating before the throne was a robed figure, no doubt the ghost Danny had arrived to confront. Although Danny couldn't see it, under the hood the ghost was smiling, and it floated to the side to reveal Sam, bound and gagged, numerous cuts running across her arms and legs, sitting on the throne. Danny's eyes narrowed as two more figures stepped from the shadows behind the ornate chair. The halfa wasn't surprised to see the Fright Night, who had a tendency to attach himself to the biggest, baddest ghost he could find. The other figure, however, Danny was a little surprised to see, and the air around the halfa turned frosty as he took in the spiked hair, blue skin, red eyes, and distinct fangs.

"Plasmius," Danny spat.

"It's a pleasure for you to join us, Little Badger."


Wah bam! Cliffhanger! Big confrontation next chapter, it's gonna be fun.

'See' you next time!