A/N: I hope you like this chapter. It's taken me awhile to figure out what to do with it. You chose the song Axel, perfect choice might I add.

Chapter Three

I Don't Want To Hurt You

"You better watch out
If you don't know what's going on around you
You better think twice
Before you fly off the handle and lose it
You better join us
Before you get lost in the shuffle
You better rise against
The demons that are gonna try and hold you down..."

Danny ran from hall to hall to get into the one where his, Tucker, and Sam's lockers were. The place was crowded with students, but skirting around them was easy. He reached his locker and found the one person he'd been looking for.

"Sam!" he shouted, catching the Goth girl's attention.

"Hey, Danny," she said, smiling at him. Danny reached and without so much as a little warning, embraced her tightly. "Uhm...what's the occasion?" she asked, slightly confused at this. Danny let go and looked at her with frantic blue eyes. Immediately she new what had happened. "Not again," she whispered.

"I really didn't mean to this time," Danny said, walking away slightly, then turning back to her. He was pacing, not a good sign. "It was as if I was on autopilot. I lost it and-"

Sam stopped him, putting two hands on either shoulder. Danny looks so panicked, frantic. It really did make her feel bad seeing him like this. "Danny, stop," she said, trying to make her tone both soothing and stern. It was a powerful combination when dealing with stuff like this. It was also getting easier to make such a combination since it was getting to be routine. "Tell me exactly what happened. I swear, this is getting to be a problem. One day you're going to end up hurting someone really bad."

"I don't want to hurt anybody," Danny said, exasperated.

"I know you don't," Sam assured him. "But we need to find the link between all of this and try to prevent it from happening again. It's that simple."

"Easier said than done," Danny murmured, rubbing his eyes. "This is just so complicated."

"What's complicated?" asked a voice. Perfect timing, as usual. Both teens turned towards the new presence.

"Nothing," Danny replied towards his red-head older sister Jazz. Jazz looked at him suspiciously.

"Danny," she said. "I heard a commotion down the hallway. A fight? You wouldn't have had anything to do with it, would you?" Danny looked at her, but failed to look at her in the eye. She sighed. "Why did you do it?" she asked. She was getting tired of this happening.

"It's not my fault," Danny said, really tired of explaining himself again and again to different people.

"We're just concerned, Danny," Sam told him. "I mean, we can't have this happening to often. People will start to think you're going crazy."

"You seem almost hypocritical," Jazz agreed. "One minute you want to back down and the next you're taking people down with a single swing. Danny, it's not normal."

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe something's wrong with me?" Danny asked suddenly. Both teens were clearly taken by surprised by the sudden question. "I've been doing a lot of thinking," Danny explained slowly. "I really think this has something to do with when-"

He was cut short by the shrill scream of the bell ringing to remind them they had to go to class. He sighed. Of course, interruptions were so common now. Every time he tried to say something, another thing always broke his explanation short. Sam and Jazz both looked at him. "Talk to you guys later?" Jazz asked. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, bye, Jazz," she said. "Come on, Danny. We'd better head to class." Danny walked with her to their first period. Hopefully science would be a little stress-relieving. If not, well, they had the rest of the day to kill.

Meanwhile, off in the Ghost Zone, someone was viewing this all closely. "It's getting to be too late," said a wise, old-sounding voice. He looked into the screen and watched as Danny and Sam talked about something. "I must...warn them of what is to come."

Out of nowhere, two observants appeared. "Clockwork," the first said. "We need your help once again."

"It is about the Danny Phantom boy," said the second.

"His future is at stake," said the first.

"I know," Clockwork said gruffly, currently a little annoyed by their sudden intrusion. "I was planning to tell him as well.

"Why did you not tell him before?" asked the first.

"Why wait until now?" asked the second.

"You had a month and a couple of weeks," said the first.

"You had nearly a month and a couple of weeks!" echoed the second.

"I know what I'm doing," Clockwork said. "I just wanted to see if the boy would come to me. I asked him a very puzzling question he has not yet answered. I wanted to see what he did to find that answer."

"What now?" asked the first Observant.

"I need to send him a fair message," Clockwork replied. He put a hand towards another screen and it spiraled for a second. A figure stepped out.

"What now?" the girl asked. She had long silver hair that fell over her shoulders and cold, ice blue eyes that seemed to bore right through her. She wore a white shirt and blue jeans. She looked at Clockwork with those cold blue eyesand glared daggers at the ghost.

Clockwork switched to a younger state and said, "This is Nemisis. Nemisis, the Observants; Observants, Nemisis."

The girl looked at the two strange-looking ghosts and smirked. "So you're the odd couple of ghosts that's always bugging Clockwork," she said. "Pleasure to meet you all."

"Hello," said the first.

"Pleasure to meet you as well," said the second.

Nemisis turned back to Clockwork. "What is it this time?' she asked. Clockwork merely made a small hand motion towards the screen and showed her what had happened a few hours before. Nemisis watched with wide eyes as the boy suddenly...changed. Even from this screen, she could sense something in him she could not quite comprehend. It was his anger. It rose to such levels... "Who is he?" she asked, eyes glued to the screen.

"Daniel Fenton," Clockwork said. "Also known as Danny Phantom. He is now and officially your charge for the time being."

Nemisis looked at him. "You're assigning me a charge?" she asked in disbelief. Clockwork nodded. The shock passed and she looked back at the screen. "He's powerful. That have anything to do with it?"

"A bit," Clockwork admitted. "He needs help. I want you to research his life. Learn as much as you can."

Nemisis smiled at that. "I will," she promised. "But what do you want me to do with him?"

"The boy's future is a bit at stake. You need to help him. But it is up to you to do it either directly, or indirectly. It's your choice," Clockwork said.

"Surely you are not going to trust this child with the boy's life!" the first Observant said.

"He is going to be vital in the future now!" said the second.

"Vital!" echoed the first.

"Stop repeating yourself," Clockwork said firmly. "I know what I'm doing. I know everything, remember?" He turned back to the girl. She looked interested in getting started. Already she was going through a few of the boy's memories. "I want you to first not tell him anything if you decide to do this directly," he stated. "He must find out for himself. But steer him in the correct direction."

"Don't get me wrong, Clockwork," Nemisis said. "And with all due respect, he's my assigned charge. I'll do what I can, but not everything you're saying. I choose whether or not I give him information. It's always fun to keep people guessing." A small smile curved her cherry-red lips.

"Do as you wish," Clockwork said. "But try not to mess the time-stream up too much."

Nemisis snapped her fingers. Behind a small, quick-flash, she was gone. Clockwork sighed. "She always did like pyrotechnics..."

Meanwhile, the end of school had come and our three favorite people were wandering down the halls. Danny had lit up a little bit, but his thoughts of his probable future self still lingered in his head. Could he be becoming evil too? No matter what he did, he couldn't help but sense that either something was trying to get to him, or maybe he was the one reaching out.

Danny had found that he was starting to keep grudges against people: Luis, Dash, even some he hardly knew. He didn't know why, but something was not right. He promised himself to keep it secret from Sam, Tucker, and Jazz. Not to mention his parents. Jazz would go all therapist-like with him; Sam would become a little worried, not something he wanted; Tucker might be able to help, but he had a feeling he wouldn't understand; his parents, well, he could only imagine what nutty way they had built up to fix this kind of problem.

"Danny?" Sam asked him, seeing as her friend had suddenly grown quiet. Tucker was still laughing at their earlier joke. "Something wrong?"

"Nothing," he answered quickly. "Just...thinking."

"About earlier?"

"What did happen?" Tucker asked. Danny sighed. Tucker had been late to school because his alarm was once again turned off by a certain little cousin.

"It was nothing," Danny said. "Nothing at all. I just feel like something's really wrong here, is all."

"I could do some late research on the problem if you want," Tucker said, holding up his PDA. "Sam told me every detail about what happened down at when Vlad-"

Sam nudged the boy hard in the ribs, signifying she didn't want him to bring up the subject.

"Sorry, sheesh," Tucker mumbled, rubbing the spot.

"It's okay," Danny told her. "I don't mind talking about it. Besides, it's not like I'll go into a angry rampage because of the memory. It's no big deal."

"If you're sure," Sam said uncertainly.

"I am." Danny nodded feebly.

"All I'm saying is that if you ever want me to figure out anything about whatever made you beat Vlad up so much, I can always-"

"It's not like I meant to," Danny cut him short.

"I know, but obviously something made you get mad enough to almost beat the guy into a coma," Tucker said.

"I didn't mean to," Danny repeated, his words harsh and cold.

"I know," Tucker repeated. "That's why we need to find out what did that to you so we can stop it from happening again. I didn't mean to offend you, man."

"Danny?" Sam asked him again. Danny's glance was now downcast. He also looked as if he were trembling. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Danny said through clenched teeth. Gotta keep control, he thought. I can't flip out...not now. "I just need to think this through."

"If you want some company..." Sam trailed off.

"It's okay," Danny assured her.

"You sure you don't want me to do some research?" Tucker asked again/

"Just mind your own business," Danny snapped. tucker was shocked.

"Danny!" Sam said, shocked by his snapping at Tucker so sharply.

"I just need to think this through," Danny repeated, holding his head as if he were trying to block something out. "I need some time to think." They had already arrived at his house. They were going to stay over to hang out, but it seemed plans had changed.

"Danny," Sam started.

"Come on, Sam," Tucker said. "Let's give him some space..."

"I'm sorry guys," Danny said.

"No need," Tucker said and he and Sam walked away after waving good-bye.

"I don't want to hurt you," Danny whispered, looking up just in time to catch a small glimpse of Sam's expression. "I don't want to."

"As days go by, my heart grows cold
I can't seem let this all pass me by..."

E/N: I don't own 'Blood (Empty Promises)' nor 'Take Me' by Papa Roach.

--Airamé Phantom