A/N: I have once again determined that I love you all. Period.

This chapter is going to be a bit shorter, because their isn't as much to say, but some pretty big changes start here. First off a big shout out to my new beta, ShatterMyMuse! Thank you bunches! He got rid of all of the little grammer mistakes in here. So, if you think it unusual how accurate some of these are, thank Shatter!

Now to respond to some reviews.

Icewolves: Yes, he is acting that way, isn't he? There is actually a good reason for that. Remember that Raven believed that no matter what her prophecy would come true, and she only fought it later because of her friends. Danny's circumstances are, believe it or not, a bit worse then hers, and he refuses to have a friend because of it. That's slowly changing, however. The bigger changes will happen in the next season, and the biggest ones in the fourth.

The Alien of Pluto: Well, the fact that I have a beta should help with my grammer. A lot. I hope you find one soon!

Brad W: I can't wait till' the episode when Starfire goes into the future. Hehehe...

Lord Sia: True, true. But I couldn't help it! I'm poisened by countless cool chess metaphors!

ZombieKillerLevi: Dani will come along. I've got this whole thing planned for her. And Terra, too. I can't say much, but I can say that by the end of this fic, the Teen Titans will have a lot more members then just five...

Pure Momo: Nah, Danny doesn't normally want a ton of control over his emotions, but in this case, he does. For a very good reason. Which will be revealed. Later.

Truefortune: DannyXRaven does start in this chapter, but they are both horribly scarred teens. It's going to take a while. A long while.

Rinchanmidnight: Oh, believe me, Starfire is much less naive now. After Danny nearly killed her, her world went all wonky. I'm not sure she's ever gonna recover from that, but it'll show in later chapters. Most notably when Robin is working for Slade...

Now, read, enjoy, and review! FEED MY ADDICTION!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Teen Titans. Sadly.

Responsibility

Which is worse? Being the cause of something, or causing it yourself?

What's the difference between thoughts and thoughtless actions?

Why do we fight?

Why do we try?

Does anybody know?

Fixit was staring at the puppet on his lab table. He tilted his head, clearly confused. Well, clearly to anybody who knew him.

He had tried all manners of tests on this strange puppet. He had scanned it, poked it, prodded it, jolted it with electricity, and everything else he could think of, short of slamming it into the wall. Nothing did, well, anything. It just remained stubbornly inert.

He sat down on his chair, staring at the puppet in front of him. Danny claimed that it was alive, but it clearly wasn't. And it clearly wasn't organic. What could make something live that wasn't alive in any sense of the word?

Ah, of course. Why didn't he see it before?

He gently took out his newest set of tools and set to testing the puppet.

Danny grunted as he got out of bed, his permanent scowl already adorning his face. Grumbling, he phased his hands through the few pieces of furniture he had to get his clothing for the day. He quickly put them on, after phasing out of what he was already wearing, and walked down the stairs.

Last night was not something that he planned on repeating, so he did what he always did: he shoved down his emotions so far that they wouldn't interfere.

Quickly and efficiently he set up shop, preparing for the day... despite how much he didn't want to. He had a responsibility to his costumers, after all. The first thing he learned when he started up his shop was that he couldn't just open and close it without a care. He had responsibilities.

These ones, at least, wouldn't hurt anybody if he messed them up.

With that small thought of comfort, he flipped the sign leaning on the door to the side that said 'open'. He was ready to start a normal day with his normal routine.

"The Titan's are busy with their new foe under the water... the phantom is nowhere to be seen... excellent."

Slade leaned back in his throne. "Let's see what this ex-hero will do when the town is threatened... shall we? Send in the Slade bots. The visible ones. And avoid the bookstore; we don't want another encounter with 'Breakit'."

His butler bowed as he walked away, clearly going to implement his orders.

"Your move, Danny Phantom."

Danny hmmm'd as he turned another page in his book, a redone old magic book describing several different dimensions and the like. He briefly looked up, checked on the store, and then looked back down at his book.

Then he looked back up again.

Nobody was there.

This was quite strange... normally, at that point in the day, there'd be a good ten to twelve people in his store. He quickly went through his mental list of holidays, and there wasn't any that day that he was aware of... so why hadn't anybody showed up at his store?

He closed his book, carefully placing it on his counter. He then got up and walked towards one of the many windows in his store to look out... and he saw a city in panic. Well. Sorta. Just some robots stealing stuff. He took a brief look up and down the street, but no human (or other organic being) was there. Good. That meant nobody was in danger.

He turned around and went back to his desk, and continued reading his book. As long as nobody was in danger, and they weren't attacking him, it wasn't his problem.

Sure, it was a callous way to think of things, but it was how he survived. Stay out of what wasn't his business. That's how it went. Besides, they weren't hurting anybody. Not physically, at least. And they weren't ghost robots.

He did feel a twinge of guilt... but it wasn't his fault if the Titan's couldn't guard their town. They should be more vigilant, or perhaps have more team members.

Pushing his thoughts aside, he flipped the page. Interesting. Inter-dimensional gods.

-5 minutes later-

Danny's cell phone started ringing. He sighed. It was going to be his self-proclaimed quiet day, his special day for relaxation and reading. No training, no testing, no nothing. He quickly flipped open his old-style phone and pressed talk.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Danny. This is Fixit, and I am glad to pronounce that-"

In the distance was heard, "Is that master? Can I speak to master? I want to speak to master!"

Danny blinked. That was new. "Fixit, who was that?"

"That was-"

His voice was interrupted as a bit of a scuffle was heard, with intermittent sounds like 'Give that back!' and 'Just for five minutes!'

Eventually, the scuffle ended, and Danny heard a familiar voice on the line. "Master? Is that you, master? Thank you for saving me master!"

"...Okay..."

"Thank you thank you thank you, master! Hey, I'm not done talking to-"

Pretty soon Fixit was back on the line. "That was the Puppet Master, the puppet you gave me."

"...And he calls me master because...?"

"Because you saved him. Er, gave him back life. What have you."

"I see..." Danny was a bit startled. He did not expect this turn of events. So now he had a loyal cyborg and a slave puppet that knew magic. If this kept up, he'd have to get a tower like the Titan's.

"Apparently he kept his mind while he was... not alive. It is unclear how this happened, but I am trying to find out."

"How did you... erm... reanimate him?"

"An injection of ectoplasm."

Danny blinked. An injection of ectoplasm? Really? Did that mean that every stray rock he shot got a mind of it's own? He sure hoped not...

As Danny was pondering the philosophical consequences of giving a mind to everything he shot that wasn't alive (or a ghost), his phone spoke up again. "Danny? How are you able to speak to me? Isn't your store usually... crowded at this time?"

"Ah, some robots are going on a stealing rampage. People aren't in the area, so I effectively get the day off."

"...shouldn't you be fighting them?"

"No. I'm not a hero."

"But you can do a hero's deeds."

"I'm not going to do it, Fixit."

"But-"

"No."

Danny heard a sigh through the phone. "Danny, since I have come out of my self imposed exile, I have been reading up on every kind of literature that I could find. I have also recently found that comic books have a fascinating array of-"

"Is this going anywhere?"

"Ah, yes. I have recently read a passage in the comic book 'Spider Man', and have come across a passage that might be apt to this situation. 'With great power comes great responsibility.'"

"And how is that relevant?"

"You are the most powerful person in the city. You have great power. Does that not also make it your responsibility to use it wisely? Protecting the weak and innocent and such?"

Danny didn't like where this conversation was going. He knew deep down that his logic wouldn't hold up upon close scrutiny, and that made him nervous. This nervousness, as it went from subconscious to conscious, became irritation, which was evident in his voice. "And I would if anybody was actually in danger. Nobody is near the robots, and they aren't out to hurt anybody. Well. Not physically, at least."

"...you are annoyed."

"Yes. Yes I am."

"You are annoyed because you know I am right."

Danny shut his phone. No. No. No no. No. No. No. Fixit was not right. It was not his responsibility. He would not go out there. No. No. No no. No. No. NO!

He leaned back in his chair. He didn't know what to do. It wasn't his responsibility. He left all that behind. He would not go out there. He would not do a thing. He would just read his book, go to bed, and open the store tomorrow.

But... those people's stores... and the police where helpless...

No! No! NO!

He would stay here, where it was safe. He would stay here, where he could read. He would stay here, where he could hide.

But those others... they couldn't hide... they were being robbed...

NO! NONONONONO!

It wasn't his job! It wasn't his responsibility! It wasn't...

"Damn it."

Danny got up, turning into a ghost as he did so. He grumbled as he phased out of his store and faced the robots. "Look here, robots. I was having a fine day. And now, I'm not. So I'm going to take it out on you guys. Understand?"

The robots only response was to rush him.

"Perfect."

And the slaughter began.

One robot... two robots... three robots...

Danny expertly used all of his ghostly powers and physical skills to destroy all of the robots. One of them punched, he dodged. One reached for the head, he ducked. On tried for a kick, he phased through.

Twenty two robots... twenty three robots... twenty four robots...

All the while he was deftly punching through the variety of robots with ecto-enhanced kicks and punches, tearing through them like tissue paper.

Forty eight robots... forty nine robots... fifty robots.

And then, there was no more robots.

Danny looked upon the new scrapyard, a dispassionate look in his eyes. He wasn't even breathing hard. He tossed a robotic arm he was holding into the pile with a slight mental grumble. If he was going to get back into the game, he would need the right tools.

He started flying towards where he knew the Titan's would show up... the giant T.

The Titan's (and Aqualad), after an exhaustive battle with a recent underwater threat, were returning home. The Titan's sub rose above ground to the beach near Titan Tower.

Beast Boy and Aqualad were chatting like age old friends, comparing stories and enemies and all sorts of stuff. Unfortunately, their friendly chatting immediately stopped when Beast Boy got a good look at who was waiting for them at the beach.

Danny Phantom.

Just sitting on the a rock.

Staring at them.

The noise of chattering in the sub kept up for a while, until everybody's eyes were drawn to the ghost boy on the beach.

For a few moments, everybody was silent, the sub closed, Phantom staring at them. Robin silently opened it up, allowing access to the beach. Starfire, taking immediate advantage of the open hatch, flew out of the sub and started shooting Phantom with her star bolts. But with a flick of his wrist, a ghostly green shield was erected, blocking the starbolts from reaching their target.

"I am not here to fight, Starfire."

"I do not care! You are our enemy! We-"

Robin, recognizing that things would only get worse, quickly intervened. "Starfire! Halt! Let him speak."

"But-!"

"Starfire!"

Starfire let loose a small scowl, a first for her face, but she obeyed. She slowly floated down to right behind Robin, who had already gotten out of the sub. Everybody else was behind him.

Robin took a step forward. "What do you want, Phantom."

The ghost boy sighed as he got up, his head rolling around. He almost seemed... sheepish? "Yeah. Look, your town was under attack. By some strange looking robots."

"...And why are you-" Robin was quickly interrupted by Starfire.

"You were helping them, were you not? I am placing a bet that you are behind that attack!"

"Starfire!" Robin barked, looking behind his shoulder at her. Starfire had the grace to look a bit embarrassed as her gaze fell to the ground.

He turned back towards the ghost. "And why are you telling us this?"

Danny held out a hand. "To explain this. Give me one of your communicators."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "...excuse me?"

"You heard me. Hand one over."

This effectively silenced the group in front of him. Robin, however, after a moment, stepped forward, and handed one over. A variety of noises followed this, with almost everybody in the group saying that it was a bad idea. Danny and Robin ignored them all.

Danny leaned in to whisper to Robin's ear. "Call me only if you have no chance of victory. Understand? No. Chance. If you call me frivolously then I'll have to take vengeance."

With that said, Danny quickly disappeared and flew off.

Robin sighed as he turned back to the group. He raised a hand to silence them... which didn't work.

"Guys."

They continued to speak.

"Guys."

They were just getting louder.

"GUYS!"

That got their attention. Robin sighed. "Look, I understand that there are... reasons... to not give Phantom a communicator, but listen. He is more powerful then all of us, and he could just as easily as stolen one then asked for one. Easier, in fact. It was a show of trust for him to ask us... one that there was no real reason to refuse."

That brought up a whole host of other complaints, namely one from one teen alien princess.

"He tried to kill me!"

That brought a silence to the whole group. That pretty much capped what everybody else wanted to say. Aqualad, however, was only silent for a moment after Starfire's exclamation.

"What? He tried to KILL you? And you just gave him something that you can use to talk to him with? What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that he is stronger than all of us! Combined! Easily! He defended the city from a threat that would take all of us twice as long! I was thinking that this is only the beginning, and we need all the help we can get!"

Robin sighed, shaking his head after his tirade. "Look. I understand that it is hard to trust him. So don't. I certainly don't. We will call him if- and only if- we have no other choice. And in the meantime we will grow stronger, get more teammates, and Raven will do all she can to research ghosts. Right, Raven?"

Raven only nodded.

Robin grinned. "There. Any questions? Complaints?"

Starfire looked put out, but even she couldn't argue with their leaders logic.

Aqualad looked around at his fellow super-teens, and decided to try to break up the awkwardness. "Well... if that is all, then I guess I'll be going." With that said, he turned to leave.

"Hey, now, I just gave this spiel about getting stronger and getting more teammates, and you're just gonna leave without one?" Robin said with a grin.

One hour later...

After everybody had calmed down from the two bombs that Robin dropped on the rest of the team, Starfire was, as usually, hunting down Raven. She found her in her room.

"Friend Raven! Isn't it just glorious that friend Aqualad is now a titan? Isn't he just on fire?"

Raven sighed from her meditative position in the air and turned around. "On fire?"

"You know. He is warm to the touch. Like the sun. Hot?"

Raven mentally shook her head. "...ah. I guess."

"You guess? Who is on fire for you, friend Raven?"

A very, very slight blush appeared on Raven's face. "No one. Leave me alone!" Quickly using her powers, Raven pushed Starfire out of her room and shut the room, desperately trying to keep the image of a shirtless ghost boy out of her mind.

Danny sighed as he appeared inside Fixit's warehouse... only to be glomped by a miniature alive Puppet, screaming, "Master!"

Danny raised an eyebrow. Fixit shrugged apologetically. Puppetmaster snuggled with Danny.

It was going to be a strange night.