A/N: Okay, sorry for the suspense, all! You'll be glad to hear I'm officially an epic fight and epilogue away from writing the end of this story! Which means, Lord willing, it'll all be up soon! However, there will probably be some delay between the end of this and posting the sequel, since I kind of need ideas for spy gadgets. Please send in ideas if you come up with them! Only rules are, they need to be disguised as something a teenage boy would carry and they can't be lethal. Just give it a name, tell me how it works, and if I use it, you'll get full credit and honors when it comes up in the sequel!
On with the fic!
Playlist for this chapter: Trapt's "Use Me to Use You," Crush 40's "I Am (All of Me)," and Three Days Grace's "Pain."
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The teen twitched fitfully in his sleep, eyes flickering quickly back and forth. Reid and Morgan looked on, unable to help.
"What's wrong with him?" Reid demanded of any EMT passing by.
Most ignored him. One finally stopped to say, "He's reliving the stress. Probably will encounter some problems with PTSD." Then he rushed off again.
Reid turned to Morgan, who shrugged. They both glanced about, noticing what was missing. "Where's the message?"
The EMTs were suddenly rushing around as Danny spasmed and thrashed, almost knocking away the blanket covering him. It took four people to hold the boy down and a fifth injected him with something.
"Pain killers?" Morgan asked quietly.
One of the men holding Danny nodded. "Mixed with a relaxant. This is the third dose we've had to give him."
"High resistance?"
Another EMT shook his head. "There aren't any signs of him ever using, no marks, no obvious health issues…."
"Some sort of natural immunity," Reid whispered, arms folded across his chest, one hand unconsciously stroking the inside of his elbow. He shook his head when he noticed what he was doing. He'd been clean for a good two years, and dammit, he was gonna stay clean.
The EMT who had dosed Danny nodded. "That's quite likely. Do either of you know of a way to contact his parents or guardian?"
"As far as we know, he doesn't have any."
The EMT pursed his lips. "He has no emergency contact?"
Morgan's eyes narrowed slightly. "He has us."
The EMT stared them down, attempting to change their minds. When he saw this fail, he sighed and nodded. "Fine. Our John Doe—"
"Danny."
"Danny, then. The point is, he's very badly injured. He's been stabbed multiple times, beaten. There are bruises all over his body…."
"Can we see the stab pattern?" Morgan requested. "We can often identify the unsub from patterns like that."
The EMT winced. "You won't like it. When I said 'stabbed multiple times,' I really meant—"
Reid cautiously pulled the blanket away from Danny. He heard Morgan's sharp inhalation when he saw the teen's body.
His shirt was gone, exposing his body and the markings covering it. Words had been carved all over his body.
"Well," Morgan said softly, "there's your message…."
Reid nodded weakly, reading it.
'I'll kill them all. I'll make you watch as I torture those you love, those who left you. Then I might put you out of your misery.'
Then, Reid noticed the mark on the teen's neck. "Morgan, this symbol…."
"What about it?"
"It's Phantom's symbol!"
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"Alright, my G-Men, Masters has checked himself back into his swanky hotel. All we need is for Danny to say it's him," Garcia nearly sang.
"He's in no condition to make any claims," Morgan stated angrily.
"Garcia, can you look up some stuff on both Phantom and Danny for me?" Reid asked.
"Sure, sweet cheeks, whaddaya need?"
"The exact dates that Phantom and Danny went missing. Also, when Phantom first was sighted and anything that happened to Danny up to three months before that."
"I'm on it."
"You've got an idea, Reid?" Hotch asked.
"A hunch. Depending on what Garcia pulls, I might have figured out the connection between those two."
Hotch nodded, turned to Morgan. "Tell me how he is."
Morgan sighed. "They're stitching up what they can, but there'll definitely be scars. He's got a broken arm, fractured ankle, concussion. He was in the OR for a while to make sure they stopped the internal bleeding and did as much as they could for the head trauma. One of the cuts they were most worried about went directly across from one hip to the other, barely missing a certain sensitive body part." Morgan seemed a little green.
Prentiss and JJ winced. Even Rossi and Hotch seemed nauseous. "Any ideas on recovery time?" Rossi wondered.
"They're not sure. As of right now, he still hasn't regained consciousness, and they've given him nearly four times the average dosage of pain meds. They don't seem to stay in effect for very long."
"More pressing issue, here," Garcia called out. "Dr. Spencer Reid has done it again. Danny and Phantom disappeared on the same day. Times vary slightly, but they both just vanished. As to your other inquiry, Phantom first showed up about two and a half years ago. A month into Danny's freshman year was when Phantom began to be noticed, along with the other ghosts. They apparently came through some ghost portal made by the Fenton adults. There's a small report about it having not worked at first, then suddenly it was fully operational, and Danny was sent to the hospital for being electrocuted."
Most of the team shared confused looks while Reid simply nodded. "What materials were used to make the portal?"
"Mostly electricity and something called ectoplasm."
"Masters was an old college buddy, right? Check on any similar accidents during college."
"Okay," Garcia said, sounding skeptical. A few minutes later, she gasped. "Oh my God, Reid, how do you do that?"
"What does it say?" he asked instead.
"An accident with something called a Proto-Portal that landed Masters in the hospital with ecto-acne. He somehow got a faceful of that ectoplasm stuff. Which, by the way, looks totally squicky."
"One last thing, Garcia. Check into where Masters used to live. See if there were any reports of a ghost there."
Another short wait, then, "Yes. A Dairy King, and something called the Wisconsin Ghost or Plasmius."
"And are there any records of Phantom and this ghost meeting?"
"Several. None of them good for Phantom. They fought a lot, mostly ending with Phantom hurt or in Plasmius' clutches."
"More bad blood," JJ noted.
"Anything on a first name for Plasmius?"
"Phantom's been heard to call him… oh my God… Vlad."
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Danny woke up screaming, thrashing against the restraints that kept him on the bed. Several of the new stitches pulled, the smaller, unstitched cuts reopened. He couldn't move, which panicked him even more, and he kicked at the bottom of the bed he was on. This caused his fractured ankle to twist more, and he screamed again.
Nurses and doctors flooded his room, rushing about to calm him and make sure he hadn't injured himself further. One doctor reset and immobilized his ankle. A nurse gave him a calming drug—not one to knock him out, just to make him calmer.
His main doctor sat down next to him. "You gave everyone a big scare," the doctor stated quietly, hoping to use her voice to calm him even more. "Your friends in the BAU were very worried. One of them, the tall, skinny one, even offered to pay your hospital bill if your parents couldn't."
"They can't," Danny rasped. His throat was sore and scratchy from misuse.
"We really need to know as much as we can about you, to help you."
"I need to talk with Reid," Danny murmured.
"Ah, who?"
He took a guess. "The one who said he'd pay my bill."
The doctor forced a smile and nodded to a nurse, who quickly left. "We're going to call him now. Is there anything else you'd like?"
"Water?"
The doctor didn't have to force a smile this time. It came easily when she saw the hopeful, almost pouting look on his face. She patted the less injured of his hands, not knowing that his body was rapidly repairing itself without any help. "Of course, dear."
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"Reid, what exactly does all this mean?" Hotch asked.
Reid shook his head. "I'd have to check with Danny to make sure, but—"
A ringing cell phone interrupted him, causing him to blink. He pulled his phone from his bag and answered it. "Hello? …Ah, I see. …Yes, I'll be right there. …Thank you, bye." He closed the phone and looked up at Hotch. "He's awake."
"Great, we can all—" Rossi began.
"He asked to speak with me."
Hotch nodded, knowing Reid wanted to speak to him alone. "Have Morgan drive you."
Reid, knowing it was the only way he'd be allowed to go, agreed.
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"Dr. Reid is here for you," a nurse said to Danny.
He'd managed to convince them to sit up the bed and take off most of the restraints. His stomach and broken arm were still strapped down. "Should I bring him in?"
Still sipping greedily from the cup of water he'd been brought, Danny nodded.
The nurse smiled, left, and quickly came back with Reid. "I'll let you two talk, but visiting hours end at four." She left once more.
Reid sat by Danny's bed. "What did you want to talk about?"
Danny put down his water, coughed once, and sighed. "How much do you know?"
Reid wasn't too surprised by the question. "Not much. I only began to figure it out because of the symbol."
Danny nodded, fingers twitching to rub at the mark. "Everyone at home only found out when Vlad told them."
"How exactly did it happen, though? I mean, I know it had something to do with the accident with the portal, but I'm confused as to how it would do anything."
"You and me both. Apparently, the ectoplasm got infused with my DNA."
Reid blinked. "But, that would only happen if—"
"I was inside when it turned on."
This admission made them both pause for a moment. Finally, the full meaning seemed to sink in for Reid. "So, how did the ecto-acne make Vlad become Plasmius?"
Danny's eyebrows shot up, and Reid realized this was probably the first time he'd seen the boy honestly surprised. "You really have done your research, haven't you?" He sighed. "I don't know what happened with Vlad. He was staring at the Proto-Portal, it turned on, and ectoplasm was launched at his face. Unless it was overly concentrated ectoplasm, he shouldn't have changed."
Reid's brow furrowed. "How do you know that?"
"My friends and sister have been hit with ectoplasm before, many times. They never became half-ghost."
Reid shook his head to bring himself back to the main topic. "Back to your case. You were electrocuted, too, right? Shouldn't that have killed you?"
Danny smirked slyly. "Technically, it did. At least, partially."
"Why is Vlad after you?"
Danny sobered. "Ghosts have an obsession. Even half-ghosts. For Vlad, it was my mom, but I wouldn't let him have her. So his obsession switched. Now, it's me. Only he wants me dead."
"What's yours? Your obsession?"
Danny went quiet. For a long time, Reid thought he wouldn't answer, then, "F—For a while, I thought it was protecting my town, but then I realized it was more. I was protecting my town because my obsession was in it. But now… now, she's dead."
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A/N: Okay, before y'all kill me, yes, I know that was shorter than most. It's the shortest chapter in this story with the possible exception of the epilogue, whenever that gets written, lolz. Anywayz, please send gadget ideas and review!