A/N: I'm so sorry it took me so long! It's not easy having a muse that goes crazy every time I hear a song or hear something my friends say! Here's your next chapter!

"I don't get it," Alice said, shaking her head. She and Vlad were sitting on a bench under a shady tree, talking. She'd been asking him a whole bunch of questions: about ghosts, Amity Park's history, her grandparents, even the ghost boy and Ghost Zone. Vlad had answered every single one without so much as a second's hesitation. It was as if he'd rehearsed for all of this. Right now, she was trapped in a battle within her mind. The side that was telling her to believe Vlad was winning.

She had asked Vlad what the ghost boy did for the town. Vlad had told her his most sincere reply: that he was usually trapping ghosts, but that he soon let them go and then they would be out and about. That once he'd taken hostage the city mayor and had even attacked her grandparents a few times. Alice had tried to argue that he couldn't have been so destructive, but every time she made one point, Vlad had the perfect counter-statement. She was getting ready to give up.

"I thought he was a good guy," she mumbled.

"Where did you hear about Danny Phantom, Alice? He has not been around for nearly fifteen years," Vlad said. Alice shrugged one shoulder. She was leaning forward onto her knees, elbows propped on her thighs, head in her hands.

"I saw him," she said.

"Where?"

"In my dreams," Alice said. "He was a teenager, like about my age, maybe older. He kept trying to tell me something, maybe a warning, but I always woke up before he could. Something always woke me up before I can hear what he's got to say. I used to think he was trying to lead me onto something, maybe I need to embark on some sort of mission or learn some sort of lesson, but I never found out."

"What did he say?" Vlad asked.

Alice sighed and looked up and towards the playground. She flashbacked to the very first time she had that dream. Right after her thirteenth birthday.

FLASHBACK:

It was getting late, and everyone had gone home. "Bye, Alice, good night," Jonathan said, exiting through the door. Alice waved and closed the door behind the Twins. She sighed and looked around the living room. It was nearly nine, she noted. Maybe later.

"Time for bed, birthday girl," Sam said.

"Where's dad?" Alice asked. Sam hesitated.

"He's out, sweetie, something important," Sam said. Alice frowned. Where could he have gone? It's her birthday. "Come on, where's the smile you had this morning?" Sam asked her.

Alice smiled. "I think I'm gonna go to bed after all," she said.

"Okay, sweet dreams," Sam said as Alice climbed up the stairs to her room.

Alice stumbled at nearly tripping over a random toy on the floor. "Andrew," she mumbled as if she were scolding him. In truth, Andrew had been asleep since eight that night. He had a very weird habit of falling asleep the minute the lock struck eight. He was only a ten-year-old after all.

Alice stepped over the toy and walked into her room, quickly going to her bed and letting herself fall onto it. She hugged her pillow and feel immediately to sleep.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alice found herself waking to a soft-toned voice. It sounded so rhythmic, so boyishly wonderful. Immediately she found the voice reassuring and in her definite trust. She opened her eyes and sighed deeply, standing up automatically. "Where am I?" she wondered aloud.

"Ever heard of the middle of nowhere?" said the boy in front of her. Alice looked at him. He looked vaguely familiar. "Well, this is it! Come on, I need to show you something." The boy reached for her hand and led her off towards the greenish light in front of them.

"Am I dead?" Alice asked then, currently terrified by that light, yet entranced by it lightly.

"No," the boy laughed, smiling at her. They found themselves in, as the boy ahd said, the middle of nowhere. Everywhere Alice looked was green. Everywhere she looked only caused her eyes to want to search the environment even more. Everything looked so curiously interesting. It drew her focus entirely away from the boy.

"What is this place?" she asked. "Boy?" She felt the grasp around her wrist loosen, then leave completely. She turned to where the boy was standing. He had his back turned to her. She blinked and took a step towards him.

"Not any closer," he said sternly.

"But..." she started. He turned to look at her, and for a moment, his eyes flashed green.

"You've got to leave now. Go! It's not safe here! You need to-"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Alice?" said a voice, piercing her dreams. "Alice, wake up." Alice's eyes fluttered open, her vision blurry at first. "Alice?" came the voice again. She bolted straight up on her bed, staring at the person speaking to her.

"What?" she questioned, suddenly surprised. The familiar face and voice finally registered in her mind, and her blue eyes lit with joy. "Dad!" Without warning, Alice strung her arms around her father's neck. "God! Where were you? You missed the party! It was so awesome!"

Danny laughed and hugged her back. "Sorry I couldn't be there," he said. "I had stuff to check up on today. Simple problem I had to check into."

"Like what?" Alice asked. She pulled away from her father and looked him straight in the eye.

"Nothing too important," he said. "And Alice, you're a teenager now. With your thirteenth birthday comes a lot of changes. I remember when your mom turned thirteen. She had mood-swings, and just got crazy all of a sudden. One moment she was happy and playing around, and the next she's grumpy and getting the bat ready to knock me on the head."

"Daniel James Fenton you are such a liar," said the mentioned girl. Samantha Manson stood against the door frame, watching the two. Danny looked at her, and Alice smiled at her.

"Takes one to know one," Danny said. Sam shook her head and walked over.

"I think you're forgetting something. Again," Sam told him. Danny looked at her, confused. Then it hit him twelve times on the back of the head and once in real life as Sam smacked him gently on the head to make him remember.

"Thanks," he mumbled, rubbing the spot. "That really helped." She snickered. Danny turned back to Alice. "Give it to me to over-look the obvious," he said. "Happy birthday Alice." He hugged her again. Then, whispering in her ear, said, "And I think your mom is still having mood-swings!" She laughed.

"Ha, ha, very funny," Sam said. They all laughed then.

"I have to admit," Alice said. "I have changed, a lot."

"How?" Vlad asked. Alice sighed and crossed her arms, watching the little boys and girls run around the play ground, chasing each other in a friendly game of tag.

"I used to act like a little kid. Sure, people always said I was mature for my age, but ever since my thirteenth birthday, it was as if every small detail counted. Everything had to be perfect, and everything needed to be serious. Life has no short-cuts, or as my dad would tell Andrew when he would play too many video-games: Life has no cheat codes to get you through the levels. I think he got part of that from experience and from his teacher. I can never tell which."

"Alice," Vlad started, catching the girl's attention by the seriousness of his tone. "Have you felt anything strange? Anything that you believe might have something to do with ghosts or your powers?"

"I didn't really think I had powers," Alice said truthfully. "Well, not all of them anyway. I think I can sense them though. In the lab this morning, I found the portal and my dad tried to stop me from opening it, but I did so anyway. A ghost came out. I don't know his name, but I think he's some sort of hunter. At first I thought it was just some weird coincidence, but it happened again when you came. The temperature seemed to drop, and I can see my breath. But my breath has a small tint of blue in it. It's..."

"A ghost sense," Vlad said, nodding slightly. "You can sense ghosts. It's one of the simplest traits of ghost powers. You can sense when another is near. Other powers consist of ray, beams, or in Phantom's case, a such power called a ghostly wail. There are many others, but they are much more complicated to understand."

"I don't think I have any of those except for that ghost sense thing," Alice replied. "Maybe I don't have all of them."

"Or maybe they are not fully developed yet," Vlad said. "It is a more reasonable answer, don't you think?"

"Well, yeah," Alice mumbled uncertainly. "But...what can we do about it?"

Vlad smirked as Alice turned to look at the little kids again. She said 'we'. She ahd already begun to trust him, according to plan. "My dear," he said. "I, like your grandparents, am an inventor. I never thought I'd come across you, but yet here I am. I have been working on an invention, a reconstruction really, to help make the process of getting used to your powers and developing them fully almost painless."

Alice looked at him. Was that why she'd suddenly gotten pain surging through her system the night before right before everything went blank? Because her ghost powers bubbled up to the surface? "And?' she asked. She didn't fully trust the man, but she knew he wasn't a threat. If he was, he was only a minor one.

"I can help you, if you could just trust me," Vlad said, putting on one of the most serious faces he could pull. Alice looked at him, scanning for any signs of misjudgment and deceit, but found none. She sighed.

"I guess I can trust you," she said. "But once you've misused my trust, it can't be regained. One lie is all it takes to make a liar.

Then lies you shall not receive, Vlad thought, watching the girl turn away and stand. He stood. But half-truths and loop-holes are not lies. You have no idea what is coming, Daniel, you have no idea.

E/N:

--Airamé Phantom