Chapter 8

Little did I know, my dear friend, was that the ghosts would be coming at me with a vengeance. They all hated Dan Phantom even more than Danny. The ghosts I fought were evolving, becoming far more dangerous, and I would never allow them near my friends and family. Or near Amity Park if I could help it.

So, I started to do all my fighting in the ghost zone, honing my fighting skills and powers. Marking my territory. Making sure they all knew who the boss was. Clockwork was a great help, too. He was also the only ghost who knew who I really was, although I wouldn't have been able to fool him if I were stupid enough to try. All of the other ghosts had no clue that I was now the only Danny/Dan Phantom in existence. The real one.

But I soon realised that I could no longer let my weaker counterparts interfere. They would surely die at the hands of the more powerful ghosts that I'd been fighting. I could only trust Jazz to look after herself. I mean, I'd started training her and I'd like to think that I'm a pretty good teacher in the art of ghost-fighting. And I still hadn't shown my new self to anyone else, but don't ask me how I managed that. I have no idea to this day.

That was gonna have to change though. If I was gonna scare Sam and Tuck away from ghost-hunting, I'd have to scare them away from me.

Danny barges into my room, out of breath and his blue eyes feverish with excitement.

"Jazz!" he yells, "Come down to the basement! I have something awesome to show you!"

I sigh, but reluctantly follow him. This is the third time today that he's tried to get me down there. Well, I might as well give him a chance to get it out of his system.

He rushes excitedly down both flights of stairs, out of sight. I follow him somewhat less enthusiastically until I reach the bottom level of our house. I lean against the reinforced metal doorframe.

"What is it, Danny?" I ask my little brother with a world weary sigh.

Danny doesn't answer me. He's standing looking up at the metal wall that conceals the entrance to the Ghost Portal, as if hypnotised.

"Danny?" I ask again, a frown crinkling my brow. I take a few steps towards him.

He hears me, and his head whips around as if he'd forgotten that he was the one who'd asked me to come down here in the first place.

A dark expression flickers across his face, and I blink rapidly. I look at him closely again, but his young features appear unchanged. Maybe I imagined it?

"Jazz," he says my name tentatively, as if saying it for the first time.

"What's wrong, Danny?" This sudden change in his tone alarms me.

"Jazz, what – what are you doing?" he starts to look almost scared as I take a few steps closer to him, holding my hand out in concern.

He backs away to the opposite side of the room and bumps into something on one of the numerous shelves of ghost weapons contained in our large basement.

I feel the blood drain from my face as he picks it up and shows me what it is that he now holds in his hands.

A large pair of metallic gloves with enormous, sinister looking needles at the end of each finger greets my rapidly fading sight.

"What were you going to do to me, Jazz?" my little brother's voice quivers in fear.

"Danny, I – I would never –," but I don't get a chance to finish my sentence before my vision suddenly goes dark.

I open my eyes blearily, my sight unfocussed. There is still a shadowy darkness around the edges of my vision and I sit up carefully, worried that any movement too sudden would send me back into the black depths of unconsciousness.

I blink a few times, my eyelids remaining heavy. I sense a figure standing, or rather kneeling, in front of me.

"Jazz," my brother's now deep voice washes over me.

I blink a couple more times and shake my head slowly, trying to remember why I blacked out. My vision is slowly getting clearer, with the exception of a pounding headache that prevents my eyes from focussing properly. I hear Danny talking again, but I can't hear what he's saying. He may be talking to me, or even to himself, but nevertheless I try to concentrate on his words. I manage to catch a few fragments of his speech:

"Thanks to you…" so he was talking to me, "…gauntlets...hurt but I'm… human side," I feel my pulse quicken and a cold sweat break out on my brow.

I'm starting to remember.

"Take a look at your handiwork, big sis," My brother's voice sounds strange as I float in and out of comprehension. Flat, and emotionless. Totally unlike him.

"What do you mean?" I almost don't want to know.

"You did it." He stands directly in front of me and I stare at his muscular calves. I'm too weak to move my head to look up at him, but he grabs my chin with one of his big hands, forcing me to look into his angry, red eyes, "You always wanted some of the power for yourself didn't you," he gives a strangled, humourless laugh. It is a horrible sound.

"And you just couldn't resist yanking the humanity out of your little brother, trying to make him the most powerful ghost of all time, based only on what could have been one of many realities. How could you be so selfish? I thought you loved me!" He shoves my head backwards, and I almost fall flat on my back.

"Danny!" I cry, surely he couldn't believe that, "Why would I do that to you?"

"I don't know, Jazz," the sudden look of utter betrayal on his face is almost worse than his fake laughter.

"I didn't Danny! I swear! Look, just change back again!" I desperately nod my head, to affirm my statement as much in my own mind as in his.

"I can't," he snarls and looks pointedly down at my hands.

I instinctively look down and scream in horror at what I see. My hands are gloved in the very gauntlets Danny claimed that I'd removed his humanity with.

"Wha -?" My mouth feels too dry to finish the thought.

"You see now?" Danny smirks. He'd moved over to the still closed ghost portal, his white flaming hair casting wild shadows along the surface of the doors. But he comes back to me now and crouches down, staring into my eyes accusingly.

"You've just turned me into the very monster I promised I'd never become."

I feel my eyes fill with tears as the thought sinks in to my still fuzzy mind. Danny's hard eyes search mine as he tries to guess at what I'm thinking, but even if he could read my thoughts, I don't know what he'd see. My mind is blank as I don't believe, or don't want to believe the bombshell that Danny has just laid on to me.

I don't know how long I sit there, motionless, looking straight through my brother, gaping at the inhumanity and utter evilness that were obviously my recent actions. My gaze falls onto the gauntlets that still cover my fingers. An intense rage takes over my mind and realise that I have never hated myself for anything as much as I do now. But I don't care. I don't even dare to care about myself. Not after what I did to my little brother. My sweet, idiotic, goofy little Danny.

I struggle heatedly to pull those wretched gloves from my hands, yelling in frustration at myself and crying waterfalls at the same time. I only succeed in scraping myself a good number of times before my brother sighs and intervenes. He gently tugs them off one by one, all the while eyeing me carefully, as if he thought I was going to break down at any second.

I certainly felt as if that was the case.

I hang my head in shame, tears still streaming down my cheeks as he puts one icy hand to my face, in an attempt to wipe them away. Danny tries to get me to look at him, but I cannot face my brother. Not after what I did to him.

"Jazz," he says softly and sighs, "I tried not to forgive you. I really did. But you will always be my sister no matter what happens, and I can't change that. Believe me, I've tried," I snort involuntarily at this typical Danny humour, before quickly sobering up again. This time I allow him to lift my chin and look into my watery eyes. I gaze into his intense, burning ones. They're tender and, I'm shocked to see, genuinely forgiving too.

"I couldn't forgive myself Danny," I barely whisper.

"You have to, Jazz," he replies comfortingly.

"But, how can I ever show you how sorry I am for doing this to you, little bro?" I tentatively add the childish term at the end.

He smiles sadly, "Just always believe that I'll never do anything to hurt you," I jerk away, horrified at the mere thought, but then nod seriously at the painful truth of it.

"And Jazz?" he asks, sounding like a small boy, "please don't forget that I'll always be your 'little bro', 'kay?"

"How could I Danny? I'm stuck with you," I try a nervous giggle, but his face grows stern.

"I'm serious, Jazz. You need to remember, no matter what happens, I am still your brother who loves you and who will protect you 'til the ends of the earth."

I gulp at the reality of this statement.

"Okay, Danny." I reply. Unable to wait any longer, I throw my arms around his neck. I feel an odd, cold sensation down my right shoulder. I almost burst into tears again when I realise that Danny is crying. I feel his ghostly pain travel down my shoulder blade and tears trickle down my own face once more.

My now full-ghost brother pulls away and looks at me intensely, but after a while all he says is: "You know Jazz, you are the world's ugliest crier."

I punch him in the chest, right on the DP emblem of his new outfit and we both giggle like children, our cheeks still shining with newly released tears. I hug him again and I hear him breathe in deeply, committing me to memory. He stands up sharply, picking me up with him and cradling me protectively in his strong, safe arms. I nuzzle into the space between his collar bone and neck. My thoughts take me back to when I cradled the new born Danny in my own small, chubby arms. He'd looked up at me with his intelligent, mischievous blue eyes and then pushed his cheek into that exact space, fitting perfectly.

As if the last and most beautiful piece of a puzzle had finally slotted into place.