To Maddie, it felt like she and Phantom were playing a game of cat and mouse. Trouble was, she wasn't certain who was playing which role. Phantom was acting like she had the upper hand, not him, and yet he was the reason she was here in the first place.

She couldn't understand why he didn't just run. Why keep heading into the school? He wasn't blind, and she wasn't foolish enough to think him idiotic. He knew there were weapons in there, things she could use against him, and she doubted he knew precisely which weapons she'd removed from the FentonWorks booth, anyway.

What was clear, however, was that Phantom didn't feel like changing his story. Well, she'd show him. She hadn't been thinking clearly earlier, but she was now—or, at least, she was as much as her throbbing head was allowing her to.

Maddie powered down the Fenton Bazooka. If she was right, if this worked, she wouldn't need it. Not immediately, anyway, and she'd have plenty of time to get it ready again.

Phantom was back in the auditorium, floating up near the stage, immediately visible. The FentonWorks booth, Maddie noted as she came closer, was clear of its weapons. Whether Phantom had moved them or blasted them to pieces, she didn't know, and right now, she didn't care. It had probably been a move to show her that she wasn't as powerful as he figured she thought she was, but he was wrong.

She still had the upper hand.

"Please, can we just talk?" Phantom asked when he spotted her. He looked hopeful.

Maddie placed the Fenton Bazooka down gently on the table, watching as relief seemed to flood Phantom. The ghost was a good actor; she'd give him that. She tucked one hand into her pocket, noting with relief that she did still have what she wanted, and rested the other on her hip, near the Wraith Wrangler. "All right," she said, looking up at Phantom. "Let's talk."

He drifted down and hovered at her eye level. "Um, without weapons?"

"You seemed to have disposed of most of them."

Phantom rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, and Maddie's heart wrenched as she was reminded of her son. "I kind of thought you wouldn't agree. I figured it was best to take precautions."

He thought he'd try to cut off her supply of weapons, while he, being a ghost, would never be caught unarmed. Maddie frowned but merely nodded. Let him think she was going along with it, and she might get a bit of truth out of him.

"I wasn't lying before," he said. "I know you think I was, but I wasn't, and I'm still not. I really don't know who is behind this. Like I told you, it might be Desiree. It might also be another ghost, Nocturne. He's the ghost of sleep and dreams and nightmares and stuff. I've fought him before, but this isn't like last time, so if it is him, he's changed his game a bit." Phantom was still doing a phenomenal job of looking nervous. "Those two are my best guesses, but it might be someone else, too. There're a lot of ghosts, and most of them seem to be against me."

"So you don't have many friends," Maddie said bluntly. In truth, she figured Phantom was talking about alliances, since ghosts seemed to be either allies or enemies, but from what she did know about Phantom, he would be more liable to call his allies friends. It fit in with his fabricated image of being a good ghost rather than one that fought in battles where he needed allies to win.

Phantom gave her a shaky, crooked smile. "Not really."

"Then I'm surprised," Maddie said, pulling the Ecto-Entrapper out of her pocket, "that you aren't more used to subterfuge." She pressed the button, activating Jack's invention, and dropped it at Phantom's feet. It was just lucky that Jack had insisted they'd take it along and that he'd shoved his bag of weaponry at her when he'd taken the wheel of the Assault Vehicle. She'd taken it then, intending to leave it in the lab and thinking they could perhaps study it once they had Phantom and were questioning him—she did want to see its effects on more ghosts, after all—and had forgotten to remove it, so she still had it with her now.

Luck, it appeared, really was with her for once. It appeared to be working. That, or the ghost boy was going to burst out laughing before he flew away.

As it was, however, no such thing happened. Instead, Phantom froze. For a solid ten seconds, he just looked at her, disbelief written all over his face.

And then he sneezed.

Maddie picked up the Fenton Bazooka again. Judging by Phantom's wide eyes, he wasn't going anywhere. She primed the weapon and levelled it at his chest. "Let's try this talking thing again, shall we?"

Phantom glanced at the Ecto-Entrapper, then back at her. "I think I'm allergic to that," he said. This statement was followed by another sneeze, as if to prove his point.

Maddie closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked Phantom in the eye. "I don't know why you think this is funny," she said quietly. "I don't know why you think this is a game."

"I don't!"

"I don't know," Maddie continued loudly, "why you picked my family. I don't know why you're toying with lives. What I do know, Phantom, is that it has gone on for long enough. Stop this, right now. No more lies, no more games."

Phantom stared back at her with wide, bright green eyes. Then he closed them and shook his head, his shoulders slumping. "I can't tell you what you want to hear," he mumbled, staring at the Ecto-Entrapper on the floor instead of at her. "It's not true, and lying isn't going to fix this mess."

"Lying never fixes anything," Maddie informed him shortly.

Phantom looked up at her again, opened his mouth, and seemed to reconsider his words. After a moment, he said, "Just think about it. You're a genius. Made the cover of Genius Magazine, didn't you? You—"

"How did you know about that?"

Phantom faltered. "Uh, I, um…saw it. Once. You know, when I was passing through somewhere. It doesn't matter." He shook his head and continued, "Like I said, just think about it. If I were behind this, why would I trap myself with a family of ghost hunters and make them mad at me? I don't have a death wish."

"You're already dead."

"You know what I mean," Phantom said. "Besides, if I could control this, you wouldn't've caught me back home."

"Back home?" Maddie repeated, arching an eyebrow.

"Back at your home," Phantom quickly corrected.

"And why were you there, anyway? Trying to raid our lab? Get through the Ghost Portal to gather reinforcements?"

Phantom shook his head, then stopped, reconsidered, and said, "I was trying to get through Ghost Portal. I was lucky. Someone left it unlocked, so, you know, getting it open wasn't any trouble, but that wasn't my problem. I couldn't get into the Ghost Zone. Every time I went through the portal, I just came back out into the lab."

Now it was Maddie's turn to stare at Phantom, searching his face for a sign of truth. She'd thought the Ghost Portal had been locked, but she remembered seeing the flickering of the radar screen when she and Jack had been heading to FentonWorks. Ghosts lie, a voice reminded her, but she ignored it. Against her better judgement, Maddie put the Fenton Bazooka aside again and looked at Phantom. "How many times did you try?"

"Five," Phantom admitted, looking a bit sheepish.

Five times. Five times the radar screen had flickered. Five times she'd thought it had glitched. If Phantom was telling the truth, it had been working perfectly after all. Either he had more control over this realm than she'd anticipated or he really was as helpless as he'd claimed. Maybe he really wasn't behind this.

But if he didn't know any more than she did….

"Maddie? Are you okay?"

The tentative voice brought her back to reality, and Maddie nodded. "Yes. I'm fine."

Phantom looked worried. "I didn't mean to hurt you," he said. "Back at the lab. I didn't…. I don't like that power. I mean, it's probably the most powerful one I've got, but…. I don't like it."

Maddie's head twinged at the thought. "What was that, anyway?" If Phantom was willing to tell her, she might as well collect what information she could. It certainly wasn't a power she'd witnessed him using before. Wasn't it? She vaguely recalled a similar howling last Christmas, when the trees had been attacking, and then she'd found Danny…. Had Phantom helped save Danny?

"It's my Ghostly Wail, but it takes a lot of energy, and I'm still tired from using it." He drifted down to the floor and sat beside the Ecto-Entrapper. Why he didn't try to fling it away, Maddie wasn't sure. A sign of trust, perhaps? Unless he was making the entire thing up, it didn't make sense for it to be a show of strength. "I was pretty weak in the lab," he added. "There wasn't much to that one."

Despite that statement, Maddie joined him on the floor. Something told her that he hadn't meant it to be a threat, that he wasn't gloating about how powerful he could be. He was merely stating a fact, something that he didn't sound too proud of. Or was that a touch of fear in his voice? That wouldn't make sense. It wasn't like Phantom would be afraid of the responsibility of that power. He ought to be lording it over the other ghosts, but—

But he didn't. She hadn't seen him use it before today; if it had been him at Christmas, that didn't really count. She hadn't actually experienced it like she had now. But she had no doubt that he'd be able to defeat most of the ghosts that frequented Amity Park easily if he simply used that power, even if it did take a lot of his energy. He might even have been able to take them on all at once. And yet, despite that, he never used it.

"Do you believe me now?"

"I don't seem to have much choice." Phantom looked crestfallen, so she added, "But I'd believe you anyway, yes."

It wasn't until after he'd brightened again that she realized she was starting to treat him like a human, like one of Danny's friends, rather than the ghost he actually was.

"Thanks," Phantom said, toying with his hands in his lap. "That means a lot." He looked up at her again and smiled. "Really."

For the moment, Maddie didn't care that she was sitting down with a ghost and having a decent conversation. For the moment, it didn't matter that she could have shot Phantom numerous times by now and hadn't lifted a finger to do so. Because, for the moment, she trusted him. And she realized that it wasn't just because she had to or she might never see her family again.

"Can you tell me again," Maddie asked carefully, "what you do know about this situation?"

And Phantom, looking relieved, happily complied.

Tucker stared at Desiree, completely at a loss. He was grateful for the help, providing she was sincere, but judging from what they'd seen at Clockwork's, he figured she'd be in for it if she wasn't. But now she was just sort of waving her hands and there was the occasional crackle of light between them. Despite what she'd said, it didn't look like she was doing anything that remotely resembled helping.

Sam evidently felt this way, too, since she asked, "What are you even doing?"

"Checking the strength of the spell," Desiree said. She stopped for a moment and looked at them. "It's getting weaker. The realm Phantom is in won't hold much longer."

Tucker's mouth felt dry. "We don't have long to get him out then, do we?"

Desiree shook her head. "The spell has to run its course. The wish has to be granted. I can't change that."

"But what if it doesn't?" Sam retorted. "What if the spell can't run its course because the wish isn't granted because—"

"It is being granted," Desiree interrupted, sounding testy. "In case you've forgotten, I grant wishes."

"Yeah, well," Sam groused, "I don't see you getting more powerful after granting this one."

Desiree sighed, but when she started to speak, it became clear to Tucker that she really was trying to help instead of just putting up some sort of show—even if it was only because she had to. "I don't expect you to understand, but—"

"I understand plenty," Sam snapped. "Danny and his mom are going to die because of something you did, and Tuck and I can't help him because we're his friends!" The last words came out as a rush, and for a minute there, Tucker wondered if she was going to start sobbing.

That would be…awkward. Sam wasn't really the sobbing type of girl. And, anyway, if she was going to start something like that, Danny should be the one to deal with it. Those two were going to have to wake up one of these days and accept the truth.

"I've been punished," Desiree said shortly. "I'm still being punished."

"Punished or reprimanded?" Sam asked. "Because it looks to me like you just got a slap on the wrist and were told not to do it again."

"Punished," Desiree repeated. She didn't elaborate, Sam didn't ask, and Tucker definitely didn't want to get involved in that argument. Eventually, Desiree added, "I broke a law, not just the rules. I don't just have Walker breathing down my neck. I want to see Danny Phantom back here as much as you do."

"But you're just helping us because you have to."

"I'm helping because I know what will happen if I don't," Desiree said quietly, "and I don't want to take that risk."

"What's the risk?" Sam challenged. "What would happen if you left Danny there to rot like you want to?"

"You don't want to know," Desiree said, reiterating her earlier words. The anger was still a sharp edge in her voice, but at least she was containing it. She probably did have a bunch of threats hanging over her head right now. "Now listen to me, you insolent human. I need you to make sure everything is set up the way it was. It'll make the transition easier."

Sam glanced around the auditorium. "It is set up the way it was."

"Not really," Tucker said, cringing when Sam glared at him. "I mean, we took some weapons with us and moved some things around, and the Box Ghost took the boxes."

"Okay, fine, so it's not exactly the same, but I don't remember what it was like before." She shot a sidelong look at Desiree. "But you know what? I don't have to. I wish things were set up the way they were before."

"This morning," Tucker quickly corrected, knowing how many ways Desiree could twist Sam's words and knowing that the wishing ghost wasn't exactly endeared towards Sam at the moment.

"Before this morning," Sam added, "after you granted Valerie's wish, right before the Fentons disappeared."

Desiree shot them both an exasperated look. "So you have wished it, so shall it be," she said monotonously, gathering power in one hand before releasing it with a bright flash.

Tucker glanced around once he'd blinked the spots from his eyes, noting that everything was back in place, and saw Sam doing the same. "Well, that was easy," Sam said. "No tricks up your sleeve that time?"

"Not that time," Desiree answered, sounding a bit bitter.

Tucker spotted the Fenton Thermos and walked over to pick it up. "So is the Box Ghost in here again?"

"No," Desiree said shortly. "It's horrible in there. You can't keep your form, and if there are any other ghosts in there with you…." She shuddered, clearly remembering a few bad experiences. "I wouldn't even wish it on the Box Ghost."

"That bad, huh?" Tucker said, looking the thermos over.

"Yeah, real shame it doesn't come in another size," Sam said dryly. "What else needs to be done, if you're the expert?"

"You need to build a bridge. And before you open your mouth, it's not as easy as wishing for one."

"And tell me again why we can't just stick you in the thermos and cut off your magic?" Sam asked. "That usually works pretty well when it comes to reversing any of the wishes you've granted." Desiree didn't answer, and Tucker figured it was because she knew they already knew the answer. If it were as simple as that, this whole thing would've been over when Clockwork had caught her and she'd been handed over to the Observants.

"So how do we actually build a bridge?" Tucker asked. "No one's told us how to do it. They just said we had to."

Desiree looked honestly surprised. "You're human. It should be easier for you, especially when there are a lot of you. Your emotions are stronger. That's what you use."

"Our emotions?" Sam repeated, looking extremely sceptical.

"I thought you'd met Penelope Spectra. More than once, from what I understood. We may not all feed off human emotions as directly as she does, but you can't deny how useful they are."

"Hold on, you all feed off emotions?" Sam made a face. "Oh, gross."

Desiree rolled her eyes. "We can if we need to. But the point is, your emotions are the only thing strong enough to penetrate the wild magic and take hold. Do you know my story? Do you know how I became a wishing ghost? Do you know who I was before?"

"A harem girl," Tucker said. "Danny told us. He'd asked Madam Babazita. And Clockwork told us about the whole old magic thing."

"Yes," Desiree said. "That's right. I died of a broken heart. Emotion was the death of me."

"And old age," Sam put in.

Desiree ignored that. "But this wish was made out of jealousy and anger and frustration, and it was very easy to bind it with the wild magic. And wishes granted like that become permanent after a time, so they're never as simple to reverse as isolating the source of the spell." She looked at Tucker, a slight smirk on her face. "I wouldn't think that you'd forget something like that."

Sam shot him a curious look. "What's she talking about?"

"Nothing!" Tucker said quickly. "Nothing at all. You know. Nothing. Just a little misunderstanding that happened the first time Danny and I ran into her. You know, that time you had a rotten cold. But it was fine. Nothing happened."

Sam's face told him she didn't believe a word of that. "Right." Looking back at Desiree, she said, "So, we need to use emotions. How?"

"You focus them."

"But it can't be as simple as that," Sam protested. "Clockwork said Danny Phantom couldn't be helped by his friends."

Desiree shrugged. "Maybe he can't. Not if you're trying to act alone. It'll take more than just the two of you to build a strong enough bridge. And, anyway, the bridge alone isn't enough. Even if it's there, Phantom can't cross it until the wish is granted."

"But you said it was granted," Tucker said.

"I said it was being granted," corrected Desiree. "But if it doesn't get resolved in time, having a bridge to cross won't help him."

Sam and Tucker exchanged looks. "How long have we got?"

"I don't know for certain, but I'd guess midnight."

Sam looked relived. "Okay, that's better than I thought."

"Midnight for Danny Phantom," Desiree added.

Now Sam looked worried again. "And what time is it there now?"

"Mr. Fenton had said it was after supper," Tucker said. "And that was easily an hour ago for us."

But Sam was still looking at Desiree. "Well?"

Desiree crossed her arms. "I don't know everything," she said. "I can't break into it without destroying anything. I've tried. I don't know what's going on or exactly how everything's playing out. I've told you all I know. I can't help you with anything else."

Sam grabbed her phone, and Tucker reached for his. "You call Jazz," he said. "I'll call Val. We can get everyone to meet us here."

Sam nodded, already dialling. When the phone was up to her ear, she looked at Desiree. "Thanks," she said quietly.

"You can tell Phantom," Desiree said, "that even his enemies will work with him if we need to, if he can convince us we should."

"What?" Tucker asked, in sync with Sam, but Desiree had already vanished.

A/N: I have the distinct feeling that more than a handful of you saw through me with the Ecto-Entrapper being the reason Danny's stuck in ghost mode, but no one explicitly mentioned it, so I'll pretend I still managed to string a few people along. Thanks to everyone who reads and reviews!