Funny story; I was trying to download a DP episode onto my MP3 player (legally!) and instead of going into the video file the stupid thing went into the music file. So now, I have the whole audio to Urban Jungle and no pictures to go along with it. Weird experience, I gotta tell you, but also quite enjoyable. I realized that without pictures to distract me I pay a lot more attention to the background music. Yeah, so, there's my story for the day and I'm sorry for the late update!

Nine: Almost Spilling the Beans

Phantom struggled against the anti-ghost net Jazz had trapped him in. He'd always hated these. He pushed fruitlessly against the tight, glowing bindings for what seemed like the hundredth time and gave a resigned growl of defeat as he gained nothing from it. He had to find Fenton! He didn't know why but he felt an urgent need to find his human half.

"So, ghost, are you going to talk now?" While he'd been struggling, Jazz had come down the stairs and into the lab where she'd dragged him, "What've you done with my little brother?"

"Jazz! I told you! The Observers tore us apart; Fenton and Phantom! I'm half of your brother!"

"So prove it!" She jabbed a small ectogun at him, "Where's Danny?! I'll call my parents and they'd love the chance to tear you apart molecule by molecule!"

"Jazz, I—!"

There was a resounding clatter of chairs falling over from up in the kitchen and a stream of curse words. Jazz looked at Phantom, set the ectogun on a table, and ran up the stairs. The kitchen was a mess; the table had been turned on its side, the chairs were knocked across the floor, and in the middle of it all were two figures. One had a mess of black hair, dirty blue jeans, no shoes, bandages around his middle, and was trapped under a chair. The other, face down on the floor, had white hair that was spiked rather eccentrically and yanked back into a ponytail by a spiked silver band. They wore a hooded navy blue jacket over what seemed to be a black and white shirt and black pants and heavy black combat boots.

"Danny?" Jazz tipped the chair off the first figure, "Danny!" She hoisted her brother up so he was in a sitting position, "Danny, talk to me! What happened!?"

"Ahhhhg…" Jazz, still holding her unconscious brother, looked around, "Stupid screen…I didn't think I'd fly through that darn thing so fast…ouch…!"

The other person was a young man, probably about twenty-six or twenty-seven, and he was currently pushing himself up with a hand to his head. It was then that he noticed Jazz and grinned. His skin was unnaturally pale, his eyes were a deep, flaming red, and un upside-down V-like mark was etched over his left eye.

"Well, well, well," The voice was cold and unforgiving, hinted with sneers, "If it isn't Jasmine," Just visible under his jacket was a white shirt with black going down the middle. In the center of his chest, in the black, was the hauntingly familiar DP symbol, "It's been, what, almost three years now?"

"Who…what?" The elder Fenton sibling's brow furrowed; things kept getting weirder and weirder, "Do I…know you?"

"Nnnhhhgg…Jazz?" Danny groaned and pushed himself off his sister, "What happened?"

"I—."

CRASH!

Jazz jumped to her feet, froze, looked at the two on the floor, and grabbed Danny to drag him down into the lab too.

"Jazz! What're you—!?"

"He's gone!" Jazz's eyes traveled over the chaos; a table was over turned, there were several scorch marks on the walls and floors, and the net that had held Phantom was in pieces.

"Who's gone?" The white haired man had followed the downstairs, tugging at his goatee as he went.

"The ghost who said he was Danny…or half of Danny…or whatever!" Jazz stomped a foot angrily on the floor.

"Ow…Jazz…you're hurting me!" Danny tugged his wrist out of Jazz's grip, rubbing it where his sister's fingernails had left indents in the skin.

"Jazz!" The white haired man grabbed the girl's shoulders and shook them, looking frantic, "You're sure!? This…this ghost! Did he look like Danny in his ghost form!?"

"Uh…yeah…"

"Found you!" A swirling portal suddenly spun its way into existence and Clockwork swept through, looking extremely ticked, "What're you two doing here!?"

"Clockwork!?"

"Jasmine?"

"Clocky…!"

"Danny!"

"Jazz!"

"Dan!?"

"What's going on!?" Jazz brought the impending argument to an abrupt stop, "And who," She jabbed a finger at the white haired man, "Is that!?"

"Aw, that hurts my feelings, Jazz." The man sneered mockingly, "It's me…Dan Phantom."

When Jazz had rushed up the stairs to find out what had happened to cause the crash in the kitchen, Phantom had gone into action. In the restraints of the anti-ghost net, he'd managed to rock himself into the nearby table where Jazz had conveniently left the ecto-gun. The first impact wasn't enough to knock the weapon off the table but the fourth one was and the gun skittered off the table and clattered to the floor. Phantom froze, listening to make sure that Jazz hadn't heard the noise and had come back down to investigate. When no one came he stretched his leg out as far as it could go while in the net and started scooching across the tile floor on his rear, trying to get to the gun. Highly undignified but under the current circumstances, Phantom could care less.

After a few frustrating moments, he reached the ecto-gun and, unable to think of any other way to activate it, fell on it.

Nothing happened.

Scowling and muttering, Phantom shifted his arm so that his fingers quested through the net and over the gun, attempting to find the trigger. It didn't take that long and he tightened his white-gloved finger around it, sending a blast into the net. The effect was almost instantaneous. The net exploded, Phantom was sent flying into the table that he'd knocked the ecto-gun off of, and the gun, receiving a rather nasty rebound detonated, sending charged ectoplasm ricocheting off the walls and floor, scorching it badly.

Terrified by the mess he'd made and still frantic to find his human half, Phantom floated into the air and bolted through the wall, heading out into the streets on a cool Sunday morning to try and find Danny Fenton, completely unawares that his goal was in the kitchen of the house he'd just abandoned.

If Danny had been in the room during the entire conversation between a very distraught, confused, and slightly angry Jazz, a teasing, mocking, blank-faced Dan Phantom, and an extremely irritated Clockwork, he probably would have laughed.

But Danny had lost his heart again.

Drained of all emotion since his argument with his future self and the shock of those strange mirrors, Danny had hardly registered when Dan had flown them both through one of Clockwork's screens and into the Fenton home kitchen with the ease of a stone thrown by a five year old. And he'd been resigned to go into his room when the whole "Phantom got away" bit started to play out.

Danny didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear any of the bull that Clockwork was spewing. He didn't believe, for a second, that his ghost powers were once again a separate being and that his life was in danger of ending because the Observers had torn his DNA. To him, it was a chock full of lies speal that the Ghost of Time was making up to get Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom one person, and a "hero", once again.

The Fenton boy was currently walking down the street having easily snuck out his window wearing a clean white and red T-shirt. He wandered down the sidewalk, heading in the vague direction of Tucker's house and hoping that Sam wasn't going to be calling or going anywhere the techno-geeks place of residence. He really didn't want her to seem him like this or to hear another one of her rants about how he'd been "special."

"Danny! What're you doing!?" Someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. Glancing up, he realized he'd almost walked right into on-going traffic. That would have meant no more Danny.

"Hey, you okay?" The boy looked around, his hands deep in his pockets, and met Valerie's worried gaze, "You look terrible."

Yeah, well, if everything you thought you knew about yourself was a lie and you let thousands of kids die and all you saw was their blood on your hands and when you finally do get rid of what it was the ruined you, you have some moron telling you that you have to take it back or you'll die and you just want them all to shut up and leave you alone and you can't take it anymore…! Well, geez, you'd look terrible too! He thought bitterly but muttered instead,

"I've just…had a bad week."

"Yeah, me too." Valerie had never been an exact friend but she was enough of one that Danny felt it was safe to talk to her. After all, she didn't know he had been a halfa.

"After…after all of that…of that stuff that happened at the warehouse, you know…" The traffic light turned red, stopping the cars, and the crosswalk sign changed to walking person. He, Valerie, and the others waiting on the sidewalk moved to the other side of the street, "I…I hated myself, Val, I blamed myself for being the only one left and being unable to save everyone…"

"Danny, no one blames you and you shouldn't blame yourself." Valerie steered him into the shopping district, "Things…happen all the time and we always want to blame ourselves." Her expression darkened slightly, "I thought the mess the Ghost Boy caused at Axiom labs was my fault for a while; thought I'd some how caused it."

Danny flinched slightly; more memories of when he'd been Danny Phantom and messed up. At least then nobody had died.

"This is…different Valerie." He murmured, starring at the sidewalk as they moved past numerous shops and people, "This time I, well, I really…it really is my fault. I killed them—no, I let them die!"

"Danny, you coul—!"

"I could have!" He shouted back at her and several people paused to stare but when he didn't say anything else they went back to their business, "I could have, Val, I could have…" His voice was lower now, his blue eyes shadowed by his bangs, "Back then I…darn it all, I was such a moron to think I could do anything." He drew a hand out of one pocket and knuckled himself in the forehead, squeezing his eyes shut like he could push back something that was haunting him.

"Danny…what's wrong." Valerie put an arm around his shoulders, hesitantly, and he didn't shove it off. They kept moving, "Come on, you can talk to me. I'll buy us something to eat."

"No." Danny balked, nearly tripping over himself, "Val, I really should have told you and I really should have and I regret it…! I regret so many things…!" He turned away and furiously rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes as a laughing couple moved around them, "But this is…if I'd just told you maybe you…maybe this…" He choked, unable to find the words.

Valerie made to move towards him but she blinked…and he was gone.

"But this is…if I'd just told you maybe you…maybe this…" Danny choked, swallowed, and sought the words out.

"Time out."

He felt the Time Medallion bounce off his chest as he wheeled around in a fit of rage, all former guilt, sorrow, and pain forgotten. Dan tapped a boot on the sidewalk in front of Valerie, arms crossed, an eyebrow raised in a cocky sort of manner. Clenched in one hand was what appeared to be Clockwork's staff, spikes protruding from it below the top and at the base.

"You thought you could run away again, huh?" Dan Phantom sneered, the V-mark on his eye twisting, "Clocky sent me after you since I've stolen his staff and used it before he felt that, instead of wasting his time," He chuckled darkly and Danny scowled at him, "He sent me out after while he cleared things up with our dear sister."

"She's not your sister, Dan!" The Fenton boy screamed and then he turned and ran.

Dan, unfortunately, was far faster. He grabbed Danny around the middle and hoisted him off the ground. Danny kicked and screamed but it wasn't like there was anyone around to hear him. Dan's claws dug into his already wounded stomach and the boy screamed even louder. One of his flailing fists caught Dan in the jaw.

"Oh, that is it!" Dan Phantom focused an electric burst of ecto-energy into his hand that was around Danny's middle and let it go in a flare of sparks. The shock jolted the boy around a bit and then he drooped, unconscious, in his future self's grasp. Dan snarled, turned invisible, and restarted time, flying off back towards the Fenton household.

Ooooh, so close! Danny almost told Valerie his secret! Sorry for the late update, I've been…doing nothing. Lamest excuse ever, I know.

Anyway, I hope this semi-filler crap will keep you busy for the moment. Hopefully, things will start getting really interesting with the next chapter. (They weren't interesting enough already?)

Oh, and as for Dan's outfit change when Clocky let him out of the thermos…um…let's just say he's not quite as evil as he was before. And when he shows up in the Fenton home, well, that's just something I did for fun. Clockwork's going to be more, how should I put it, human looking in a bit too.

As always, thanks for reading, don't forget to review, and byes!