Chapter 13

By the end of this you'll probably hate me… You'll have to tell me which cliffhanger was worse.

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

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Tucker:(To Danny) I aughta bust you for child endangerment! (To flour sack) There, there. Daddy's here. Daddy loves you. Yes, he does.
Sam: Uh, Tucker, point of information: it's a flour sack that you almost got killed over! (Looks lovingly at flour sack and wipes off bruise on its face)

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"Come back here! Stop running!" The Fright Knight had just about had it with the chasing of humans. The older ones in front of him knew their way around the mansion a little too well for his liking and the younger ones behind him were shooting things at him.

So in that moment he decided. He hated humans.

"You're going down Ghost!" Ami yelled from behind.

"No, wait no." The Fright Knight said, stopping abruptly and turning around. This caused Ami and Stacy to stop as well. Ami with a giant gun on her shoulder and Stacy aiming the lipstick gun. "I don't think you two understand." He said in a calmly flustered voice. "I'm supposed to be chasing you. Shouldn't you be, I don't know, running in the other direction or something?" He asked in a confused tone.

Ami and Stacy shared a look. The trigger-happy girl cocked her gun. "Not exactly my idea of a good time." She responded. "I'd rather be doing the chasing."

"But…you're the human and…"

"And you thought that maybe because I'm a girl and a kid that I can't do anything?" Ami interrupted hotly, yelling back in defense as she powered up her gun to 'kill' rather than 'stun'. "Would you like to test your theory? I'd love to prove your thesis wrong…" She said in a low, calm voice.

The Fright Knight gulped and then he remembered who he was. He was one of the most powerful ghosts in the Ghost Zone. Pariah Dark's number one general. He was the spirit of Halloween. Here he was losing an argument with a puny human child.

"You don't know what you're dealing with child. I've been commanding armies of ghosts for centuries before you were born. You don't stand a chance against me." He told her, summoning up darkness around him and amplifying his voice further to add to the dramatic effect. He sent a short ecto-blast in warning that destroyed Ami's large gun.

Ami was stunned and disappointed at the same time. "You aren't so brave now, are you human child?" The Fright Knight spoke again, this time with true confidence.

He shouldn't have counted Stacy out of the equation.

As he was sent spiraling into the wall, too quickly to go intangible, he saw the blonde with her ecto-weapon, disguised cleverly as a container of lipstick. It was still smoking. "I hit him!" She exclaimed happily, jumping up and down in celebration.

This only made the Fright Knight angrier. He growled in warning. The girls seemed to get the hint this time and took off in the direction they had been running in the first place, only this time they were the ones being chased.

"This isn't very fun!" Stacy whined as she ran.

"It's not supposed to be!" Ami yelled back in frustration as they barely dodged on the Fright Knight's attacks.

Meanwhile the adults had reached the main entryway. They stopped to catch their breaths as they noticed that they weren't being chased anymore.

"Did we lose him?" Tucker asked with heavy breath. "Man, we are so out of shape for this sort of thing. We used to be able to run all over town, ride seven people on a bicycle up a hill…"

"Speak for yourself." Sam responded, but she was just as tired. "I don't know why he isn't here yet though."

"I hope the kids are alright. Maybe we should go back to make sure?" Jazz suggested.

Before any of them could come to any consensus about that issue they were all surprised to hear the doorbell ring. They looked around at each other in confusion.

"Who rings the doorbell of a mansion in the middle of nowhere owned by a solitary billionaire at one in the morning?" Tucker voiced the unsaid question.

Jazz decided to answer that question by opening the door. "There's only one way to find out…" She said as she pulled hard on the doorknob.

"It's about time someone opened the door!" Complained a dark haired woman. She wore a sharp, yet slightly frazzled suit. Her hair was long and nearly perfect had it not been pouring outside. "The rain was totally ruining my makeup! How can I advertise my new hair and skin care products if my own persona isn't perfectly flawless?!"

The three inside the mansion stood with jaws dropped. After all these years they could tell immediately who it was. "Paulina?!" They exclaimed simultaneously.

The now adult Paulina gave the three a good look and a blink before she spoke again. "Sam Manson? Tucker Foley? And Jazz Fenton too? Don't tell me Danny is still alive and running around here somewhere too? I thought he was missing or something." Pause. "What are you all here for anyway?"

"Oh dear, Paulina is asking intelligent questions? The world is ending!" Sam said sarcastically.

"You just couldn't help it, could you?" Tucker said dryly about Sam's comment.

Paulina raised an eyebrow when she spotted something of interest on Sam's finger. "You're married? You and Danny actually and finally did it? I always knew you two would get together!" She exclaimed in triumph.

Sam growled. Now it was Jazz's turn to raise an eyebrow. "How did you know it was Danny?"

Paulina rolled her eyes. "Everyone knew it. It was painfully obvious, especially senior year when Danny started to avoid me. I knew from then on something was wrong. Besides, I'm a reporter now, I see everything. Now, are you going to let me and my camera crew in, the rain is ruining the equipment."

Jazz opened the other of the double door to let the crew in as two makeup artists fixed Paulina's messy hair and suit. In a matter of seconds she was 'perfectly flawless' once again. "You're a reporter now?" She asked in conversation. Silently she wanted to get out of this and check on the kids. This was not the time to play catch up. They had to get her and the camera crew out of here. For good reasons, television crews had been a frequent part of Danny's nightmares as a teenager.

"For channel six Milwaukee." She responded. "We were on our way back from a live broadcast when the tire blew and then it started to rain, ruining my image! This place was just down the road so I figured I could woo the owner into giving us a place to stay for the night."

The three who knew the whole situation all had slightly gagged looks at the thought of Paulina trying to; well…it was too unthinkable. Besides, there were much greater thing to worry about at the moment.

"There should be some extra rooms around here somewhere. We were taking the kids on a field trip to the Wisconsin Dells and Vlad offered a place to stay." Jazz explained quickly, leaving out the many, many details that Paulina did not need to know about.

"This…this is Vlad Masters mansion?!" Paulina exclaimed, and then turned to one of the men on the camera crew. "You, why didn't you tell me that this was the Masters Estate?"

The man shrugged. "You saw it out there, Paulina. You can hardly see two feet in front of you." Paulina pouted and the man resumed checking the equipment.

Tucker gained a closer look at the red-haired man. "Mikey?! Is that you?"

The man walked up to Tucker. "Once a geek, always a geek." Mikey said, giving Tucker a hand shake of the secret variety. Although he still had a little acne, Mikey no longer had glasses and looked drastically different then everyone remembered him from high school.

"Wow. I can't believe I still remember that." Tucker said amazed at himself that he still knew all tiny weird stuff, which the handshake fell into the category of. "That's sad." He said in a rare moment of self-realization.

"Excuse me." Said a new voice from the door. "I got a call about a stranded news crew. I take it you're it?" The man was a sheriff. He also looked as familiar as Paulina.

"Kwan?!" Was the general surprise, but this time Paulina and Mikey had joined them.

"Whoa, what's this, a class reunion that I wasn't told about?" He asked in shock.

"Tom Sawyer! What's all this racket out here? Some of us are trying to sleep…Great Expectations!" Mr. Lancer exclaimed as he walked in from the hallway, notably in a bathrobe.

"Dude…I'm so tired, I don't wanna deal with loud kids tomorrow…" Dash said, coming in after Mr. Lancer, also in his pajamas. Upon seeing the others he blinked.

Then screamed. "AHHHH!!!!" He attempted to run off down the hallway but was abruptly stopped as he came face to face with the last thing he needed to see at the moment. Thankfully he didn't have to change what he had been planning to scream next. "GHOST!!!!"

The Fright Knight had found them. He searched the room, overlooking the adults. His face was one of annoyance.

"Now, Stacy!"

The ecto-blast from the lipstick gun hit its target. Ami and Stacy stood up from their hiding place behind the grand staircase. They smiled and shared a quick hi-five.

The moment was short lived however, as the Fright Knight was upon them fast. "You two have interfered for the last time." He said as he lifted his sword. "You both will now know fear…" He said in a low voice.

The girls braced themselves. "We're gonna die, we're gonna die…" Stacy chanted with eyes closed tightly.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up." Ami told her more forcefully and continued to look the Fright Knight in the eyes.

The blow never came. Just as the Fright Knight was about to swing his sword, he was sucked into the Fenton thermos.

"That would make the score 8 to 0." Cam said, rather satisfied, as Ted stood next to him, capping the thermos.

"Which sport?" Ted asked lightly, putting the thermos in his backpack and making small talk with his friend.

"I'm thinking hockey this time." He decided.

"An excellent choice I think." Ted smiled.

"Well, I guess we owe you one." Ami said as she and Stacy joined the boys.

"No need." Cam insisted suavely. "Just doing my job." Ami narrowed her eyes in exasperation.

"Gulliver's Travels! What is going on here?" Mr. Lancer demanded of his…current students.

"Mr. Lancer, I can explain everything." Jazz told him before he could approach the kids.

"Dr. Fenton, you've been explaining things since you were in high school. I want the answer straight from the mouths of the involved parties. That includes the two of you as well." He said at the end looking directly at Sam and Tucker.

"I…I thought you said there wouldn't be any ghosts on this trip!" Dash complained. "That was a ghost! And those two, "He said pointing again at Sam and Tucker. "I thought were dead!"

"Hey, if we didn't want to show ourselves to the world, that's our choice." Sam defended. The former classmates' coming was completely unexpected and if at all possible they would not find out the exact reasons why.

"Man, now would be a really good time for someone else to show up so we don't have to explain anything." Tucker said with little hope.

"Sam? Tucker? It's not possible! This has to be a trick or something. You two were supposed to be dead!"

As everyone turned towards Valerie standing the doorway Sam, Jazz and Tucker sighed in relief.

"See, I'm not the only one!" Dash defended.

"You know, I think I just had a major sense of déjà vu…" Sam recalled their trip to the future and the eventual defeat of Danny's 'jerky older self'.

"I do have good timing like that." Tucker said proudly.

"No, you're just horribly in tune with luck in general." Sam told him, not very impressed.

"I got a huge ecto-plasmic reading on my scanner and I traced it to Mr. Masters' place. I got here as fast as I could when I realized this was where the kids were staying." Valerie said, still shocked to see most of her old classmates there. "I'm sorry I'm late."

"Don't worry Valerie, we got rid of most of them already." Jazz assured her.

"So there are more! Where? It could hurt the kids!" She said, a bit panicked. "Oh, if only I'd gotten here sooner…"

"She would have if she hadn't picked me up." Said the newest voice in an apologetic tone as she stuck her blonde head through the doorway. "The tire on my car blew out."

"And she's still copying everything Paulina does…" Sam said in a low tone so that only Tucker could hear her. "Some things never change…"

"Aunt Star!" Stacy said, elated. The girl ran up to give her aunt a hug and the rest of the group berated themselves for not seeing the similarities earlier.

"Great now we're only missing Fenton and then the whole gang is here…" Dash said in a sarcastic tone. Not really meaning anything to it.

"Speaking of Fentons…where is Lily?" Mr. Lancer dared to ask. "You don't think the ghost could have her?"

There was silence in the group. The kids exchanged a look with each other and gathered into a huddle as Stacy rejoined them.

"Wasn't Lily with you two?" Ami accused of the boys.

"She was. We were so busy helping the kid ghost that we didn't even notice where she had gone." Ted contributed.

"She was in the hallway with us. She disappeared after the argument about helping her dad." Cam concluded. The silence fell to the kids as they all came to the realization of where she was.

"Oh crap, she didn't!" Ami said with a bit of horror. "She's helping him take on Plasmius."

"Wait, I don't get it! What's happening?" Stacy asked, but none of the other kids answered her question.

The select female hearing of Valerie, Sam and Jazz caught the tail end of the conversation.

"Plasmius? He's dangerous! Who's taking care of him?" Valerie sputtered.

"Danny Phantom is supposed to be, but I think Lilith went to go help." Jazz said. "That's the problem. She just thinks she's a little ghost hunter, just like her grandparents." Jazz bit her lip and hoped it was a good excuse. Granted she had momentarily forgotten about Valerie's long-standing grudge.

"You have a kid too?! And, like, what kind of name is 'Lilith'?" Paulina interrupted, addressing Sam.

"I'm still trying to get over that." Dash told her with little enthusiasm. He was still in a very delicate state of mind.

Paulina sent him a weird look. "Why? Besides Danny, you're the only one of us here who has a kid."

Sam had a horrified expression on her face, not even listening to the conversation between Paulina and Dash. So much so that she couldn't make fun at Paulina's newly acquired powers of observation or to defend her choice of name for her daughter. Tucker slapped his palm on his forehead. "This isn't going to end well…" He voiced. They knew what was coming next.

The sound of a large gun powering up was heard. "I'll be back." Valerie said in a dark tone, jumping on her jet sled and riding off.

"Valerie! No! He's not a bad ghost!" Sam yelled, running after her.

"You're after Plasmius! Not Phantom!" Tucker reminder her. Although with Valerie's one-track mind, it was probably lost to her.

"We're coming too!" Ted yelled as he tried to run after them, almost taking the other three with him.

"Hold on you four, you have a lot of explaining to do." Mr. Lancer said as he stopped them.

"You're not going after the ghost, Cam. It's not cool." Dash said sternly. "Your mother would kill me if you got hurt."

"Dad…I play every sport imaginable, if mom was worried about me getting hurt, she would have killed you a long time ago." Cam said as his response. This confused Dash for the time being, but Mr. Lancer still refused to let them go.

"But Mr. Lancer, they may need our help!" Ami pleaded.

"We know what we're doing!" Stacy added.

Well, after that the kids were convinced they had no chance to the adults letting them go. Mr. Lancer sighed in knowing this and told them to stay put after ordering Jazz to keep an eye on them.

"You kids have done plenty to help. It's up to the rest of them to finish what they started." Jazz said as reassurance. "If they can't stop Plasmius, no one else can."

During all of this Paulina, Kwan, Mikey and Star had been more or less silent, being good listeners for once.

"Okay Mikey, set up the cameras. As long as we're stuck here we might as well do something useful until Mr. Masters wakes up and can get us a ride out of here. Ghosts are interesting enough." Paulina said with a resigned sigh, but then lit up. "Especially if the ghost is Danny Phantom…" She said lovingly.

Mikey sighed deeply. Inwardly he contemplated if Danny Phantom knew about the shrine Paulina had of him in her dressing room. He'd seen it. It was frightening to any man who tried to walk into her life, which was probably her desired effect in the first place.

The fifteen years Phantom had been missing had only added to his 'mysterious allure', as Paulina had called it. She would not be settling for anything less.

"I don't want to wait." Ted said angrily on the opposite side of the entryway. "I can't stand the fact that Lily doesn't have us backing her up. She had to battle the Fright Knight alone and I don't want her to get hurt…"

"She's not alone." Jazz told him. "Danny's with her. Sam and Tucker will hopefully get Valerie under control before she can tear Danny apart but the point is she's in good hands. Danny has tons of experience under his belt. He won't let anything happen to her."

"But Lily doesn't." Ted stressed. "The fight during the dance was the first real ghost fight she's ever had and although she won, she barely won. I was talking with Box Lunch about it earlier and she told me what Lily's been through. I'm worried about her."

When Lilith had gone to be by herself Ted had been left alone with Skulker and Box Lunch. Their discussion on her well-being had been interesting to say the least. Box Lunch had dragged Ted into the 'free Lily club'. Skulker had been about yea –close to bringing out the weapons and doing some serious pelt-removing. The kids had been saved when Lilith had come back, suddenly feeling a lot better for no apparent reason.

Cam had been freed from the parental conference as Dash went over to catch up with his old classmates, mostly making fun of Kwan that he worked as the sheriff of 'Hicksville, Wisconsin'. Kwan claiming it was only temporary until he could get a job on the international scale.

"She's going to be fine." Jazz said again. "If she's anything like her parents, she's tougher than she looks." With this last remark Jazz went to settle the other adults down and possibly get them to go to sleep to decrease the chances they'd find out what's going on.

The kids sat down on the grand staircase, all of them moping around with their own thoughts. "If only we had some more help…but I don't know any other people who are into this kind of thing." Stacy finally pondered out loud.

It was after this that the wheels in Ami's mind started to turn. She slowly sat straight up as a thought dawned upon her. "Stacy, I think you may have actually thought something worth while." She said off hand, concentrated on looking strait ahead as if formulating some sort of plan.

"Huh?" Stacy asked, confused.

Not bothering to elaborate, Ami jumped out of her seat and ran over to the adults. She asked Kwan a question and he directed her outside to his car. She ran out fast enough so no one could ask questions. Cam, Ted and Stacy shared a look and then quickly followed her out.

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Meanwhile…

"Vlad; let her go. I'm the one you're after." Danny demanded, but it ended up coming off as almost a plea.

"You're right." Vlad said, tightening his grip on the still struggling girl in his arms. "You are, but this is an excellent way of going about getting what I want."

The two men were at a standoff. Neither one had moved for a good while now.

"This isn't getting you anywhere, Vlad. You wanted me to join you willingly. Making me angry is not a very good way to do it."

Vlad tightened his grip on Lilith's throat. She panicked as she felt ecto-energy surging into that hand. She knew this would hurt.

Danny noticed the red colored ecto-energy form in the hand as well. Considering how powerful Plasmius was and the extremely close range at which he would use it, Danny had a very bad feeling about what he might have to do.

"Vlad, don't! You could seriously hurt her!"

Plasmius sighed. "That's the point, Daniel. Either I do something rather nasty to your daughter or you could pledge you allegiance to me. You'd live here, with Samantha and Lilith as well. Your family would be safe," He reasoned. "…with the exception Jack of course." He said with malice in his voice. "All you have to do is call me 'father'." He ended sweetly.

Lilith tried to shake her head furiously. She was terrified, true, but the last thing she wanted to do was be the reason for her father's downfall. From what little she had picked up, Danny didn't want to join Plasmius even if it meant the loss of his own life. She didn't know the background nor the specific events before her birth that had lead up to this moment, but she knew that Plasmius was bad and bad guys getting their way was never good.

"Don't do it!" She squeaked out. Even that small effort was a challenge with Vlad's hand limiting the amount of breath to speak. As she spoke the hold grew tighter. Lilith couldn't help but gasp. Half-ghost she may be, but air was essential still for life.

"Vlad, stop it!" Danny said, sounding more desperate.

"I will if you say the words. You should know them by now. I've only been repeating them to you since you were fourteen. Otherwise all this built up ecto-energy is going to have to go somewhere." Plasmius threatened. "You know I'd rather have her alive, but that's completely up to you."

Lilith shook her head again. The word 'no' passed her lips, but no sound was made as she made eye contact with her father. She pleaded with him not to agree. "It's not worth it Dad! Don't do it!"

"Just let her go." Danny said. The look in his face was tired and sad. His answer was clear.

"Ah, and so the paternal instinct takes over in the end." Vlad said with a satisfied smile on his face. "I won't accept your defeat until you say the words. After all these years of fighting it all comes down to this pathetic moment. You never had a chance, Daniel. Never."

"I'm not a kid anymore, Vlad. You know that I'm just as powerful as you are, maybe more." Danny dared to say. "I can't be your protégé. I'm an adult, you can't adopt me. Taking over the Ghost Zone is a horribly stupid idea. It won't work and you know it's not what you really want!" He said with the purpose of tearing apart Vlad's master plan.

The last point made Vlad visibly shake with rage. Lilith felt the result of it, but the older man did not comment on that particular subject. "I have enough informants on my side. All I need is your power combined with mine and of course Lilith is more than welcome to join." A finger made its way stroking Lilith's throat to her chin in an affectionate manner. Lilith squirmed as it tickled slightly, but more that it made her feel uncomfortable. "After all, what good is having all of this power and not being able to do anything with it?"

"It's good for stopping evil maniacs from taking over the world." Danny glared. "Before you captured me, I was never bored. I used my powers on a daily basis making sure Amity Park was safe."

"And what did you ever gain?" Vlad asked. His hands were still glowing red with the ecto-energy ready to fire at any moment. "Did the citizens ever say 'thank you' or ever really care? You were their hero and they shunned you. I can only imagine how much potential was wasted." He finished in disgust.

"Because I knew that I would never join you!" Danny yelled, riled up by now. Talking about those early days was still a touchy subject for him. It still hurt, even today, even after they had slowly started to see him as a hero. Soon he almost wished he could retract that bold statement he was so used to saying.

"Careful Daniel, you don't really want to be saying that too loud do you? I know you didn't mean it." Vlad said in warning. He still kept the hold on Lilith's neck, but used his pointer finger on his other hand to let a string of ectoplasm drip down. It formed a rope that Danny recognized alike to one that he'd been bound in by his own future.

"What are you up to now Plasmius?" Danny asked. He was still stuck as to what to do, but he knew exactly what might end up happening next if he didn't do something soon.

"Since I have my hands full at the moment, I'd like to ask you to do me a small favor." He told Danny. "I need to go deal with the issue of your friends, but I'd rather not leave you two here without some reassurances. So I'd like you to tie her up for me. Then you can join me and only after that I can deal with the others accordingly. Besides, necks are fragile things and I'd rather not harm my granddaughter to- be.

Danny seethed. He was angry at himself. "I should have confronted him a lot earlier…Now my family is going to have to pay for it along with me…" "I'm not going to tie her up, Vlad."

"Dad…it's okay. I don't mind. I'm used to it." Lilith said softly, stopping Vlad from making another threatening comment. She was still gagging slightly from the hold he had on her. "It'll be better. Trust me."

Danny held her gaze. He still didn't like the idea and his face said as much. He nevertheless did as Vlad requested. Danny could almost see how red her neck was going to be later and although she would be mostly helpless, it would be more comfortable. "But why is he going about it this way? I don't get it…it doesn't benefit him at all…"

"Hands behind your back child." Vlad instructed Lilith as Danny picked up the rope of ecto-energy, the whole time never loosing eye contact with his nemesis.

It took an amazing amount of bravery on Lilith's part to take her arms off of the hand gripping her neck. It had given her a false sense of security, as if she had some sort of control. After relinquishing her own grip she was completely vulnerable. But she trusted her father. Even though she had only met him a few times she now put her life into his hands.

"It's not too tight is it?" Danny asked Lilith with worry as he wrapped it around her wrists.

"Just as long as it's not too loose either, Daniel. She'll be fine just as long as you do what I ask of you. After you join me and I deal with your friends, telling them of your changed allegiances, I'll be asking her the same question." Vlad explained with a satisfied smirk.

"I'm fine." She was lying, but thankfully her voice didn't give her away.

When Danny was finished he backed off, trying to prepare himself for whatever might come next. Although he knew what he needed to do to keep his daughter safe, it was the one thing he never wanted to do. Whether it was just for his pride or for the well-being of others, he wasn't sure at this point in his life but it was clear that this battle would not continue for much longer. After many long years it was time to end this. One way or another.

Vlad finally released his grip on Lilith's throat then made a duplicate of himself and had it place her in a sitting position against the nearby wall, while he kept an eye on Danny lest he try anything heroic.

"Thank you again for your help, my dear." The original Vlad recombining himself as he spoke. "I couldn't have finally won without you. Now, back to business." He turned to face Danny for the last time. "Will you join me? Live out the rest of your life doing something worth your while?"

There was an unnerving silence in the room. Lilith felt she needed to say something, but found no sound coming from her mouth. As she kept her eyes on her father, he was keeping his eyes solely on Vlad. She could feel it coming, whatever it was.

As the silence continued Lilith let her eyes wander. Vlad was in a state between impatience and joy. He almost had one of the things he wanted so desperately. As her eyes were drawn back to Danny she caught a glimpse of an almost forgotten Plasmius Maximus.

Lilith felt herself gasp in surprise and hoped neither would notice. The device was lying on the floor just off to her left. Had she not been tied up she probably could have been able to reach it.

That fact, of course, did not stop her from trying.

"Daniel, as much time as we have, I'd really like to get this over with. Yes or no?" He asked again as Lilith moved as quietly as she could behind Vlad's back to get the device that could potentially turn the tides.

"It's my fault…if only I hadn't tried to help…" Lilith thought fleetingly as she reached out for the device. She was having difficulties looking where she was going and grabbing the Plasmius Maximus at the same time. Her hands being tied made it even more difficult to grab it. She didn't want to shock herself as it was still on.

Danny seemed to notice her efforts, but tried not to let it show. He began to stall for time. "Do I have to decide now? Aren't you going to give me five minutes? This is kind of a big decision."

"I've given you nearly twenty-five years. You will say it now and you will not give your daughter time to help you get out of this." He said sternly. He turned around and prepared an ecto-blast. "Time is up."

Lilith didn't have time to think or move. Danny didn't have time to answer. Vlad didn't even have enough time to finish his attack.

She had been taken out of the way at the last second by the very last ghost either man expected to show up.

"I still honestly can't believe this…" Danny said, still amazed.

"Skulker, you're interfering with my work. I'm this close to achieving my goals. This is a very, very bad time to be switching sides." Vlad said seriously. "Although I'm glad that little stunt was able to pull you out of hiding."

Skulker set Lilith back down without untying her. "Now we're one for one, Ghost-child." She was very exasperated at him not untying her, but his statement confused her. It was not something he was usually likely to say. It sounded…too deep, too serious, too thoughtful. As she thought about this Skulker took the opportunity to answer for himself. "Before I knew any of this was coming, I unfortunately made a promise that the child would not be left alone. I haven't seen a reason yet today why I should go back on it." He said blandly.

Plasmius laughed. "All these years, I still can't believe you of all ghosts were hiding her right in front of me this entire time. I have to give you credit. You weren't thinking about adding her to your pelt collection were you? She belongs here with her father. We could have been one big happy family years ago."

"You couldn't have ever replaced the family I have now!" Lilith yelled, trying to very comically jump out at him, but with Skulker holding her back still.

"She belongs to the Ghost Zone." He said. "To me especially. I didn't raise her so I could hand her over to you."

"You owe your allegiance and quite possibly your existence to me." Vlad Plasmius seethed. "This is between Daniel and I. You should not be a part of this!"

"Doesn't matter, because all it means is that I can do this." Danny smirked as he delivered a very powerful punch to Plasmius's face. He plummeted into the opposite wall. "Not so tough without anything to hold against me, are you?"

"The fact still remains that I have twenty years more experience than you, Daniel. I can and will defeat you, and then you will join me. I don't think I can make it any easier for your mind to comprehend!" Vlad said annoyed, dusting himself off. He then prepared for an attack.

"Dad! Look out!" Lilith yelled and instinctively rushed forward to help. Skulker, who had just finished untying her, stopped her by force before she could go anywhere.

"You've already done enough damage. I'm getting you out of here and back into the Ghost Zone. Now." He told her.

"No! I'm not done yet! It isn't over!" She tried to squirm out of his grip to dosomething, anything. She just wasn't sure what.

"Lily! There you are! Are you okay?!" Box Lunch cried as she phased through the wall, having just abruptly ended the conversation with her own dad, telling him very sternly to stay where he was She didn't want him getting into any more trouble. An oxymoron and she knew it.

Skulker let her go for just a moment as the friends reunited with a hug. "Yeah, I'm fine." She assured her. No sooner had Lilith said it, Danny was knocked back by a particularly powerful ecto-blast. This gave Plasmius enough time to turn his attention towards the small group for just a moment.

"None of you will be leaving here." He said, not looking very tired after his first bout of fighting against Danny. He had the power to back that statement up too. He sent a blast in Lilith's direction, keeping good on his word that if Danny wouldn't join him that he would do something nasty.

Everything happened fast. Lilith had averted her eyes from the blast, so when Box Lunch got in the way of the attack before it could hit her friend; everyone was a tad bit surprised.

"Box Lunch! Are you okay? Why did you do that?!" Lilith demanded holding on to her ghostly friend.

Box Lunch groaned in response and gave Lilith a glare of indifference.

"Heh, sorry." Lilith said sheepishly. "Standard question."

"You're my best friend, Lily." She said with half closed eyelids and a heavy voice. "I came here to dish out some doom and that's what I'm going to do, regardless what happens. All I want is for you to be done with this nightmare." She said sincerely. "Argh… it hurts…" The girl mumbled.

"She will be fine." Skulker said with a scowl. "Unfortunately"

Lilith couldn't help but feel horrible about it. Her friends were getting hurt, badly. She hadn't seen what was going on with her human friends, but hoped still that they were okay. What had begun with just a few select people had finally grown way out of proportion.

With a shadow across her face Lilith slowly stood up, leaving the two ghosts to wonder what she was up to.

"What are you going to do now, Whelp? I'm taking you back to the lair now!" He received no answer. "You had better not be doing anything stupid!" Skulker yelled after her. Lilith didn't answer him, ignoring the hunter ghost for probably the first time ever. She picked up the Plasmius Maximus where she had almost grabbed it earlier and gripped it tight.

Box Lunch was finally able to sit up straight, but it was still a bit painful for her as she held onto her side. She watched her friend move with determination, a look of worry on her own face. For once in her afterlife, she had nothing to say.

Danny was finally able to move out of the wreckage in the wall, but he still seemed a bit disoriented. Vlad took note of this, but kept his eye on the man's daughter instead.

"So, have you really decided to really try to fight me then?" He almost laughed. "I wonder…do you really have what it takes to win?"

"I don't have to win." Lilith responded, flipping the device off and on quickly to prove a point, make sure it was working properly and for dramatic effect. "I just have to make sure you lose." She said, eerily calm.

As Danny stood off to the side, gathering strength and in the middle of getting a weird feeling of déjà vu, Vlad was slightly caught off guard by the tone in her voice, but grinned. "So you do have a little bit of evil in you then. You have more in common with the two of us than I had originally thought."

"I don't have anything in common with you, besides the ghost thing. I'm not like you!" Danny yelled out of habit, finally out of the rubble and with a clear head.

"I…I just can't stand you anymore! Do you enjoy making other people's lives miserable?" Lilith demanded. "Everyone here..." She said motioning to the two ghosts behind her. "…and then everyone not here has influenced my life somehow in a positive way. I count myself fortunate that I had as many opportunities that I did; to meet my parents, to have such great friends and family. But you," she yelled, finally at her breaking point and raising an index finger at Plasmius, "…have caused me nothing but trouble since the beginning!"

Vlad smiled. "And what do you plan on doing about it?" He said with a satisfied look on his face. Behind him, Danny had a look of worry that was slowly turning into one of panic.

"Lilith, no!" Danny yelled, flying in before she did what she was about to do next.

For her part, Lilith had flown in suddenly at top speed right towards Vlad, who was anticipating the attack, but did not move. Danny was heading towards Lilith, bringing the three half-ghosts in a collision course with each other.

Lilith shifted her grip on the Plasmius Maximus quickly before striking, she closed her eyes right before the impact. She felt the device ram into a body and a tear escaped her eyes. She had attacked someone purely out of anger. She had never done that before and it scared her.

She opened her eyes slowly, expecting to see Vlad Masters in his human form. Through teary eyes instead she saw he was still in his ghost form. He was grinning madly as he held a barely conscious Danny up by the scruff of his shirt.

And it was he who was in his human form.

A/N: Heeey, I'm getting better at this whole cliffhanger thing, huh:-)

The next chapter we're taking a break from the storyline and taking a trip to the past. Well, Lilith's past in the Ghost Zone that is. She has a big decision to make in the final chapter, so maybe the past will shed some light on why she makes the choice she does. (The one for one thing also is explained.)

Thanks for all the suggestions! They're all great ideas! To Quacked Lurker, Clockwork gets a really big role in the epilogue, so hopefully what you're looking for will be there. I think it's pretty funny in any case.

You guys spoil me way too much. Big happy thanks to: Meagaisttheworld, hermie-the-frog, katiesparks, DP fan, Quacked Lurker (and thanks for chapter 6 too!), ectoenergy, Psychic-Ghost, and Sleep Warrior (and for chapter 11 as well!). You guys make me feel tons better about writing. You are all so amazing I feel unworthy.

The past scenes still aren't done yet. I've got two more to write and one of them is pretty lengthy. All in all, the next chapter is pretty long. You'll have your fill of Ghost Zone by the end of it. I will try my very, very best to have it out next Thursday on schedule.

Thank you all for reading! I hope you enjoy!

-Unrealistic :-)