Chapter 7

Holy Super cells, Batman! 1000 hits! Congrats gang, here's a new one. This would have been out sooner, but I was watching the radar all day making sure the storm chase team didn't get caught offguard.

Eh, some stuff happens in this chapter, but it's nothing you weren't expecting. As always, the quote should give it away. This is one of my favorite quotes of all anyway. Makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. :-)

Enjoy the chapter.

Line Break

Maddie: We love you, sweetie. You.
(Danny smiles warmly)
Jack: Whether you're ghost, boy, or something in between.
Danny: And I appreciate that. More than you guys will ever know. (Hugs both of them, then looks down at the Reality Gauntlet; frowns) Or will ever remember.

Line Break

It was the Tuesday after the dance at Casper High. Ted and Lilith hadn't been at school on Monday. Skulker had been quite serious about that. Therefore, their friends wanted to know what happened as well as tell them the great news.

"Where were we on Monday?" Lilith repeated the question. "I had a slight fever on Sunday and I wasn't feeling good on Monday morning. I'm better now." She lied nervously.

"My parents had a gig late Sunday night. We didn't get back until early Monday morning. I just stayed home." Ted replied easily enough. That Monday had been one of the worst in his life. He'd had to get used to Skulker's antics, which resulted in a 'trial run' in the forest on the island as Lilith showed him exactly what she went through in her life. Ted learned that he wasn't in shape at all.

"Well, you guys totally missed out on probably the biggest event this school's had since the ghost outbreak." Ami started.

"The whole freshman class is taking a field trip in the spring!" Cam interrupted with excitement. "No school for a whole week!"

"Sponsored by –you'll never believe this- billionaire Vlad Masters!" Stacy squealed. "He's got enough room in his mansion to house us all before we go to the Wisconsin Dells water parks! It's going to be the best non-school funded field trip ever!"

Lilith and Ted exchanged glances. Skulker had been so sure that Plasmius would come to their school Monday. They were confused as to why he hadn't.

"Why would this guy come out of the blue and treat us like that. He lives in Wisconsin. What business does he have in Amity Park?" Ted asked, seeming a bit suspicious. Lilith raised her eyebrow at him, not making any connections.

"Apparently he was a good friend of the Fenton's. He knows Jazz the counselor pretty well since, and I quote, 'I most look foreword to catching up with Dr. Fenton', I think he just wants to see her. She and her brother both went to Casper in their day." Ami noted.

"There weren't any ghost attacks yesterday, were there?" Lilith asked, not really caring about the field trip. She was mostly concerned about finding her parents.

"None, there hasn't been any since the dance. Speaking of which, we haven't seen either of you since then either." Cam interrogated.

"I ran off after the ghost appeared." Lilith said sadly. "My family has a history of being ghost magnets; I wanted to get out of there before more trouble was caused because of me."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore! There's a new ghost-kid in town to help protect us from the evil ghosts." Stacy said a matter-of -factly. "And this time, the ghost is a girl!"

"I say it's about time." Ami stated with a smug smile.

"Although…" Cam said with a slight frown. "I almost wonder what happened to Danny Phantom. My parents tell me he just up and left one day and it was as though all the bad ghosts went with him. Now suddenly the bad ghosts are back and this new girl comes along."

"What else are they saying about this new ghost-kid?" Lilith asked tentatively. Ted gave her a quick look of sympathy.

"Well, Valerie's pretty angry…" Ami said. "But besides that everyone is expecting another Danny Phantom. My dad says they look a lot alike. They could be related."

"I just wish the bad ghosts didn't have to come with her." Stacy said as Lilith bristled and quickly looked around for Desiree on instinct. "It looks like Amity Park is going to be ghost central once again…"

"Well, I hope they don't expect too much out of her." Lilith said a bit sadly, luckily only Ted knew the reason why. "Even ghosts have other things to do than fight each other."

"Let's just hope nobody gets hurt." Ted finally interjected. "If our parents were able to deal with the ghosts, then so can all of us. At least we have an example to look at." He finished his lines by giving Lilith an encouraging look.

"Hey Ted, you've been in the Fenton's old house before…how many weapons are still in tact?" Ami asked.

"What? Why would you want to know that?" He responded surprised, then raised an eyebrow. "And why would I even check on that...?"

"Well…since Lilith spends some time there and she just admitted she's a ghost magnet…maybe the five of us could do some ghost hunting ourselves?" Ami proposed for the group to consider. She seemed a bit overly hopeful, which wasn't usually like her. Normally she was the pessimist if anything.

"Thanks for your concern Ami, but I'll be fine…" Lilith started, a bit worried. She didn't want to be hunted by her own friends. Valerie was bad enough.

"Oh, no I just think that as long as we're going to be targets for ghosts, we might as well fight back." Ami said completely serious yet sounding totally light-hearted at the same time.

"Sweet, that sounds awesome!" Cam exclaimed seemingly very excited at the prospect.

"We should go to the old Fenton house after school today and see what's still there." Stacy suggested. "I hope there's a weapon disguised as lipstick like in those spy movies, I totally call that one!"

Lilith didn't say anything. She had a pained expression on her face. Ted put his hand on her shoulder in emotional support.

"I don't know if this is such a good idea, guys. I mean, the ghost portal is right there. Nobody's dared to get that close to it." Ted warned, mostly in Lilith's defense.

"It'll be fine!" Ami said enthusiastically, trying to convince Ted. "All those weapons and being able to shoot things…"

"Whoa Ami, when did you become so trigger happy?" Cam questioned.

"I've always been this way. I just have to wait until I'm home to take it out." She said, giving Stacy a glance.

"That's neat!" Stacy bubbled.

"Why does she have to be so cheery…?" Ami muttered angrily. Stacy didn't seem to notice, but the other three heard and sent nervous looks amongst each other.

"Well, I guess we're going to the Fenton house after school." Lilith finalized. "Nobody should be there after school. They never are…"

Break!

During school that day Lilith was zoning in and out. She was distracted by the sudden decision to go to her secondary home and start to fight ghosts with her friends. "I hope nobody's there…" She thought nervously, thinking about the ghosts.

It was her first period and Mr. Lancer was speaking on Mark Twain and his several books and then something about doing a book report on one of them. She wasn't really paying attention as her thoughts were most definitely elsewhere.

Mr. Lancer sighed deeply. "Miss Manson, are you listening to a word I'm saying?" This passing comment brought Lilith out of la-la land.

"I'm sorry sir." She said quickly. "I've had a lot on my mind lately."

Mr. Lancer frowned. In the beginning of the school year he'd had great hopes for his newest student. Lilith had seemed eager to learn and her grades thus far proved it. She was usually bright and cheerful, quite the opposite of what both her parents had been.

Since the homecoming dance, she'd suddenly turned into her father. Depressed, moody and with a tendency to stare off into space, the only thing she hadn't done was suddenly skip class and constantly ask to be excused for a bathroom break.

He'd wanted to ask her what had happened to Danny and Sam. They were his former students and he did still care about them. So far he had not had a chance to. All he knew was that she lived with an uncle. "Besides," He thought. "that's Jazz's job to figure out."

"Try to keep your mind on the lecture, young lady. Because of this new field trip you're all going on, I have fewer days to get all of my lesson plans in. We're all going to have to work extra hard to get through the curriculum." He addressed all of the students. This resulted in a collective class groan.

Lilith didn't let it bother her. All she could think about were the ghost attacks, her parents, Plasmius and now her friends were getting involved. She sighed as she stared into her vocabulary worksheet. This was turning into a nightmare.

"And also a reminder to all of you, parent-teacher conferences are coming up in a few weeks, so if you need to get your grades up now would be a good time to start worrying about that." Another collective groan from the students, but this time the mood was lifted as the bell rang, signaling first period was at an end.

All the students ran out the door as fast as they could. Lilith slowly gathered her books and materials up, still lost in thought.

Now sitting at his desk, Mr. Lancer called for her. "Miss Manson, could I speak to you for just a minute?" Lilith nodded as she walked up to his desk.

"I'm sorry I haven't been paying much attention Mr. Lancer. I'll be a lot better tomorrow, I promise." She said pleadingly.

"Up until now your grades have shown me all I need to know. You're an excellent student Lily and whatever's on your mind, don't let it interfere with your schoolwork. Sometimes doing homework and keeping yourself busy keeps your mind off the problem." He said.

Lilith nodded and started to walk away to her next class. "One more thing, Lily, I look foreword to meeting this uncle of yours at the parent-teacher conferences. He must be a very close family friend."

Lilith paled. "Uh, I guess you could say that. He and my parents go way back. But I don't know if he'll be able to make it…he's very busy."

"I expect to see him, unless you have another relation in mind." Mr. Lancer said seriously. Lilith brightened slightly. It was time to pay a visit to the school counselor.

Break!

"Lily, I haven't seen you in a while, how are you?" Jazz asked eagerly. It was lunchtime and Lilith had excused herself from her friends. Jazz didn't have too many visitors during the day; nobody enjoyed going to see the school counselor. It didn't help that Jazz was sometimes overly peppy.

"Okay. Actually I need to ask you a favor. Will you go to the parent-teacher conferences for me? My uh, uncle is really busy and I know he won't be able to make it and Mr. Lancer really wants somebody to come." She cut right to the chase.

"Really, because I've wanted to meet this 'uncle' of yours for a while now, did Danny and Sam even know him?" Jazz interrogated.

"Yeah, they knew him pretty well." She said truthfully. "So will you go for me?"

Jazz sighed. "I suppose, but one of these days I am going to meet him. I'm your aunt. I want to make sure you're in good hands. I only want the best for you and I definitely don't want to lose you again."

"Thank you!" Lilith said happily, standing up from her chair at the same time. "Oh, I do have one more question…"

"What is it?" Jazz asked.

Lilith looked a bit nervous. "Well, your parents were ghost hunters, right?"

"Yes, they still are too. I haven't heard from your grandparents in a long time though. Last I heard they were somewhere in Eastern Europe hunting ghosts." Jazz sighed dejectedly as she reached for her mug of coffee. "The last time I actually saw them was at your parents' wedding."

"Yeah, well my friends and I have decided that since there's been a major ghost outbreak again, that we're going to do some ghost hunting ourselves and we need some help with figuring out what the different weapons do…" Lilith said hopefully.

Jazz very nearly spit out the coffee she had been in the middle of sipping. She gave Lilith an incredulous look. "You….you're going to hunt ghosts…with your friends…"

Lilith nodded. Jazz seemed to keep her thoughts to herself for a moment before speaking again. The older woman smiled in retrospect. "Did you know that your dad used to hunt ghosts too?" She asked calmly.

Lilith smiled. "Yeah, I hear about it a lot actually. It's kind of in my blood, isn't it?"

Jazz smiled warmly again. "Yes, it's definitely in your blood." She confirmed.

"It was mostly Ami's idea and I don't exactly feel comfortable doing this, but with these new ghosts I don't think I have much of a choice." Lilith ranted.

Jazz took Lilith by the hand. "You always have a choice. In the end, it's what you decide."

"So, you're not totally freaked out by me ghost hunting?" Lilith double-checked.

Jazz grinned knowingly. "Like I said, we both come from a family of ghost hunters. It's in both of us. Besides, "she said with a wink, "I know more than you think, a lot more."

Lilith continued to stare at her aunt in silent contemplation. "I know you may think I won't understand, and I know I can't totally comprehend your life, but I did help your dad with his situation. I may be able to help you too." Jazz continued.

"Thanks and maybe someday I will talk to you about the whole thing, but right now if you helped me with the weapons and the conferences that would be great." Lilith responded. She didn't want to tell her aunt yet. Not until she knew for sure what was going on with Plasmius.

"You can count on seeing me there. I may be a little late though. I've got students to see after school hours." Jazz finished.

"Okay, I'll see you there!" Lilith responded and then left the office.

Jazz sighed after her niece left. "I was so close…" She muttered. She looked around the office. Behind her she recognized some burn marks. "Heh…I'd forgotten how much progress Danny made with his powers. This old office would have been burn to a crisp had he done the damage a few months later…" She reminisced. "I miss you so much, little brother..."

Break!

After school the quintet of students arrived at the Fenton house. Lilith led the way having been there many times before to Ted's one time visit. Ami was right behind her, eager to get a close look at all the weapons.

"It's really creepy in here…" Cam said, walking slowly in the back of the group. He'd remembered suddenly on the way to the house that he had grown on to his father's fear of ghosts.

"There's no reason why there would be a ghost here Cam." Stacy said. "There's tons of ghost hunting equipment here. They'd be insane to come here."

"They'd come if they wanted the technology…" Lilith thought nervously to herself.

"There's also no one here to handle the weapons." Cam retorted. "The ghosts are totally safe."

"Not for long…" Ami said convincingly. Lilith felt her already short breath tighten further.

"Does…does anyone hear that? I think it's coming from the basement lab." Ted suddenly said.

Lilith listened closely as she put her ear against the door, although it wasn't hard to hear. The voice was loud…and nasily. "Oh, no…" Lilith said in horror as she opened the door and ran down the steps and into the lab.

Once there she saw the being responsible for the noise. "Technus…" She said mostly to herself in agony. "What are you doing here?" She demanded exasperated.

Lilith heard the rest of her friends' footsteps reach where she was. Technus turned around at that time and greeted her with a smile. "Ah! Hello Ghost-child! You are just in time to witness I, Technus: Master of all Technology in my latest plan to take command of the entire world's electronic gadgetry!"

"Who is this guy?" Stacy asked innocently enough. Lilith didn't have time to stop her. The damage had been done.

"Who am I? I am Technus, master of all things scientific and technological! Now that I have finally escaped the confines of the internet I shall use its resources to take command of all things electronical that may or may not work!" He ranted in his nasally voice.

Ami gave off a noise of uncaring. "Who cares who he is, he's a ghost bent on world domination. I'm blasting him to bits."

"Why did he call you 'Ghost-child'?" Cam said as he asked the other 'innocently enough' question.

"Why? Because that is what she is!" Technus began to rant again as Lilith tried to give him her 'shut up' signal, motioning across her throat. Ted began to look worried as well, but didn't know what to do about it. Ami and Stacy were now very interested in this as Ami had stopped looking for a decent weapon.

"She is part ghost as well as human." Technus continued to blurt out Lilith's secret without even realizing it. "You may see her now as a human, but she has a ghost form that you four do not know about, just like her father, the previous ghost-child."

Lilith was white as a ghost, which considering most ghosts that she actually knew, wasn't very white, more of a greenish color. Rather, in a figure of speech, she was white.

"What?" Cam and Stacy asked simultaneously. Both could hardly comprehend this new information.

"Guys, please don't freak out." Ted began Lilith's defense.

For the first time Technus looked down at the scene and suddenly realized what he had done. "Ah, whoops…"

A shot of a gun was fired and Technus freaked out enough to fly back to the Ghost Zone as fast as he could. The remaining four kids turned to Ami, who was holding the smoking gun.

"I missed him, rats." She muttered. She put the weapon down and walked up to Lilith, who was shaking worse than a leaf. "Lily…is it really true, what that ghost just said?" She asked in a more concerned tone.

Lilith was very, very tempted to go invisible and leave forever, but that would mean no more school and therefore no more human world for the rest of her life. Having Ted find out was bad enough, now all of her friends knew. She didn't want to loose any of them because of her secret and now she was very afraid. But her parents were out there somewhere, alive. If revealing her secret to her friends was what it took to progress foreward in finding them, then so be it.

So, instead of saying anything Lilith swallowed hard and let the transformation of appearance do the talking for her. She stood before them in her ghost form and awaited their reactions with nervous hands and several gulps.

"That…is so cool Lily! You're the new ghost-kid?" Cam's voice came first. He was excited. The strong quarterback lifted his friend up in a hug and twirled her around. Lilith didn't know how to respond. She kept a confused, yet still horrified look on her face as she held on to him tight.

As Cam let her down to the ground, she felt a poke in her shoulder and turned to see Stacy. "I thought that you couldn't touch ghosts…I give you hugs every day at school! How's that work?"

"It…its part of my powers, I can control when I'm intangible or invisible." Lilith said shakily.

"You might as well tell them about your other powers too." Ted suggested off to the side.

"You knew man?" Cam asked.

Ted nodded. "I saw her transform after the Homecoming dance." He said simply and left it at that.

"So how many other powers do you have? That kind of makes you like a superhero, right? Just like Danny Phantom! You beat up the bad ghosts and keep us all safe! We can totally help you with that!" Stacy said enthusiastically.

"I'm in!" Cam followed up, raising his hand.

"I'm not sure how much I can help, but I'm in too." Ted responded.

All eyes fell upon Ami, who hadn't said a word since Lilith's transformation. The girl sighed heavily. "Well, if Lily is brave enough to trust us with her big secret, I might as well tell you guys mine. It kind of ties in…you know my dad works for the government right?" There were nods from everyone. "Well, he works specifically for the Guys in White, the government's ghost hunting division. I've been known to help him out on several occasions…" She let that fade out for contemplation.

Lilith had squeaked upon hearing this new information and couldn't help but stare at her friend in fear. Ami smiled and winked. "Don't worry Lily. You're secret's safe with me. I'd be insane to let this chance slip by. I prefer to work apart from the government anyway, too many rules and regulations. This is my perfect chance to do some ghost hunting…with my best friends."

Lilith stood still for a moment, soaking in all this information. She seemed shocked that she still had all of her original friends after finding out her secret.

"Thank you." She said suddenly after a moment of silence with tears in her eyes. "You honestly don't know how much this means to me. Ever since I was little I've lived a ghosts' existance. I've never had human friends or knew what it was like to go to school, to live normally, to be alive. Thank you. All of you."

"We can definitely help you with that." Ted nodded firmly, referring the the living 'normally' bit.

"But now we've got to find you a secret identity." Ami said. "You've got the look, but we need a name to keep the reporters happy." She spoke like she knew from experience. No one asked.

Ted smiled. "I guess the only suitable name for you would be Lily Phantom."

"Are you insane?" Lilith exclaimed. "I can't use part of my real name! People will catch on!"

"No one noticed your dad." He responded back calmly.

"Your dad? Wait…Danny Phantom…you're kidding Lily, right?" Cam sorted out. His sharp brain he had inherited from his mother.

"You do realize this just makes you even cooler now." Stacy stated importantly.

Ami just laughed. "The ghost, Technus, did blurt that out. How in the world have you survived all these years, Lily?"

"That's a story for later." Lilith said, still slightly embarrassed that she was the center of attention and not for a bad reason.

"Now that's settled, we can all be team Phantom!" Cam said.

"No! Guys this is too much…" Lilith said, turning a bright shade of red.

"Trust me Lily. I've been picking team names since I was in grade school. You're part ghost and you know way more than any of us. It's natural that you're our team captain. Now, what's your first order as leader?" The words rolled easily off of Cam's tongue. Usually he was captain of the team, but that was sports, this was ghost hunting.

Lilith gulped, unsure of what to do next. It all seemed a bit surreal. "Well…I guess we all need weapons…I have my powers and you guys have pick of the room I suppose."

"See! Here's the lipstick! I knew this place would have one of these!" Stacy shouted, holding up her prize. "Way to lead the team, Lily!"

"I call the biggest, most powerful gun here." Ami said solidly.

"Hey, this thing looks pretty cool." Cam said, holding the Fenton Fisher and getting a feel for it. "It's just like a fishing rod, only it probably catches ghosts and stuff."

Ted looked around the room. "I've got a device at home actually. I was dared to come in here during elementary school. I don't know what it does, but when Jazz gets here I'll ask her."

"That's right! I totally forgot Jazz was coming! I haven't told her my secret guys, just act normal when she comes." Lilith said quickly, transforming back before she forgot.

Cam gave a thoughtful look at all the weapons in the room. "I wonder why the Fenton's left this entire collection behind. I thought they were still ghost hunting."

"Maybe they don't work…the Fenton's never did catch Danny Phantom even thought they were always trying to and Phantom always caught the ghost in the end." Stacy mused.

"Oh they work all right." said a new voice. Jazz was standing behind them all. "My brother was always the guinea pig, even though my parents never knew it."

The teens tensed. "How much did you hear?" Lilith asked.

Jazz sighed. "I really didn't want to say anything, but when I told you earlier today that I knew a lot, I meant it. I know about you being part ghost. I knew about my brother and how his ghost powers transferred to you. It was always hard to baby-sit you with your powers acting up all the time though." She reminisced.

"You knew?" Was all Lilith could think of to say.

"You knew Lily when she was little?" Ted asked. "But she's been living in the Ghost Zone…" He wandered off.

Jazz stared. You could have heard a pin drop. "You've been living…where!"

A/N: And there you have our mid-way point and the first actual cliffhanger. Which means I have a question for all of you. I've been dabbling in a lot of ideas for prequels and sequels and I'd like to get your opinion on that. Right now a Prequel seems more likely. It would be about Lilith's younger years from the point when Skulker finds her until the beginning of this fic. I can't say anything about a sequel now, 'cause that would ruin a scene in the epilogue.

The plan as of right now is to just add a bunch of scenes together and have it almost be like a drabble session, only it's just a bunch of clips from Lilith's life in the Ghost Zone. I have a lot of ideas now, but I'm asking you readers for suggestions. Remember, anything from age 4 to 14 will work.

The genre can be anything and you guys don't even have to think of anything either. Just if you have an idea, PM me and I'll see if I can work it in somewhere, I have space to fill. This is also a lot like what the epilogue is going to be like as well, so suggestions for that would be appreciated as well.

Again, thank you reviews and faithful readers. It really does mean a lot to me. This is becoming one fic I am very proud of. Not because of content really, but because I'm actually going to finish it. So the big thanks goes out to: katiesparks, Sweeteen19, DP fan, The Sleep Warrior, and A Friend for the encouraging comments. Not too thrilled with this chapter, so remember, opinions, comments and critiques are not only welcomed, but are read with intent.

Later.

-Unrealistic :-)