Seeing is disBelieving

by pearl84

Cowritten with Truephan. Rated T. Before PP. Ghost OCs. Caught in the crossfire between Time and Existence, Danny and Vlad are forced to face the Master of Time, the Defenders of Existence, a new Enforcer, and, ultimately, extinction. Full summary inside

34. Running Down the Illusionist Clock, Pt 2

Pearl: Hello all! SURPRISE! Yes, another chapter just for you all! Call it an apology for a month of no updates! Not to mention, these two chapters are that awaited final showdown between our half-ghosts and Iluzi-sicko! Ha-ha! Couldn't have let you wait anymore for the second part, so here it is! Enjoy! The hybrids will definitely be running down the clock, as you will see by how LONG this chapter is! *winks*

A/N: truephan here: Hey, there, everybodee! Are you surprised to see us again? Well, we really didn't want to leave you hanging too long, so here is your double-feature. And I'm too tired from fighting Ms. Hyde and Vlad Muse to say any more except to enjoy!

Disclaimer: We do not own Danny Phantom, but this story plot and OCs belongs to us.

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Chapter 34: Running Down the Illusionist Clock (Part 2)

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"Plasmius? Can you hear me?"

Vlad and Danny had been flying towards Casper High when they had heard Vlad's communicator on his wrist beep and Skulker's urgent voice coming through it.

The hybrids shared a concerned look, before Plasmius raised his communicator and pressed the talk button. "Yes, Skulker. What is happening?"

"We managed to trick Iluzisto into the simulation room, but I fear he was not weakened enough. You and the whelp better get ready."

"I copy that, Skulker," Vlad answered with a frown before terminating the link.

"I guess we will be fighting a stronger Iluzisto than we planned," Danny muttered, having heard Skulker's words.

"We just have to stick with the plan, Daniel," Vlad replied, though there was a heavy frown on his face, too. "We have the power-inhibitor cuffs. We just need to weaken him enough to get it on him."

"But even after we get the cuffs on him, how are we going to capture him?" Danny asked. "We can't use the thermos until he's frozen in time and we can't do that because Justeco was supposed to use Clockwork's Time Staff to do that, remember?"

Plasmius narrowed his eyes in displeasure. "Makes it very complicated, doesn't it? And to add more, I am sure Iluzisto is going to use Justeco against us at the first chance he gets. So, you can bet he will bring Justeco with him."

The older half-ghost paused before adding more thoughtfully, "Still, it might just work to our benefit. If we can get the chance to free Justeco, then we could proceed with our original plan. But it would also mean having to take Iluzisto's staff, so Justeco can will Clockwork's staff enough to thrust that wretched spirit back into their grip. It is certainly a long shot, Daniel. So, we have to be ready and hope we find another way to trap him ourselves."

"Well, it's like you said," Danny agreed before continuing, "We have to work with what we got. For now, let's focus on finding a way to get those cuffs on Iluzisto, and I think that's gonna mean tricking him again some more. At least, long enough for him to drop his guard, and then I could freeze him with my ice powers and get the cuffs on him."

"Good idea, Daniel. And if we can take away the Timeless Magic Orbs—assuming that he did capture Justeco and has his orb, too—then we stand a better chance at defeating him."

Danny nodded; and the two remained silent in thought for the rest of their flight.

As they landed at Casper High's football field, Danny looked around and said, "At least the Guys-in-White did something right and evacuated everyone out of schools and other large buildings, or things would be worse right now."

"They only did so under my orders. It is part of the emergency ghost invasion plans," Vlad answered, also taking in his surroundings, wanting to make sure he was familiar enough with it that he could fight well.

"It's funny, isn't it?" Danny suddenly said with a small chuckle.

"What is?" Vlad asked, turning his attention to the boy.

"That we're back here again, at Casper Stadium, I mean. This was where we first fought together during the whole Pariah Dark thing." Danny paused, and rubbing his neck awkwardly, added, "Well, I guess, technically, it's been the only other time we have fought together…"

Vlad smirked. "You mean the Vortex thing didn't count?"

"Oh, yeah, abandoning me to some weather ghost. Oh, that so counts," Danny answered, slightly annoyed but still smiling mischievously at remembering how miserable he had made Vlad with that whole thing.

And Vlad didn't hesitate to point that out, "Oh, I think you got your revenge on me just fine, dear boy." He then genuinely smiled and added, "And besides,… I would have never abandoned you if I would have had even the slightest uncertainty that you could not handle Vortex on your own."

"Well, this isn't Vortex we're dealing with now, Vlad," Danny said, suddenly serious. "So, don't abandon me this time. You can't. No matter what."

Plasmius was a bit taken aback by the boy's indirect admittance to needing him for this, but he was also a bit curious as to why Danny would think he would abandon him now—when they both knew they needed to combine their strength to defeat Iluzisto.

Sobering up himself, the man answered, "Daniel, I'm not going to let you fight Iluzisto on your own. We are in this together; and besides, I couldn't run if I wanted to. There is that curse still upon me, after all, remember…?" he added, pointing to the brand still on his forehead.

Danny touched the one still on his own head and looked away with a sigh. For some reason, he was suddenly feeling really bad for tricking Plasmius into helping him. Perhaps because they had agreed to trust and be honest with each other, at least to get through this; but Danny knew he had not fully done that yet.

The teen hesitated, but then quietly asked, "What if… there was no curse? …Would you still fight with me?"

Vlad raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

"Because…" Danny began with uncertainty, only to be cut off by Vlad's communicator coming back on.

But there was a lot of static interfering with the transmission…

"Plas-mius! He…. shh….copy! Shh…. trap! Pull back, it's a shhh….He—"

"Skulker?" Vlad called when the broken message abruptly stopped. But getting no response, the man raised his communicator closer, yelling, "Skulker! Can you hear me? Answer me!"

But all that replied back was static.

Vlad raised his eyes to Danny, who looked horrified as he began to fear the worse.

"Jazz…. My friends….," he whispered quietly, but then jolted and said, "Something happened, Vlad! We have to go find them!"

"Daniel, wait!" Vlad exclaimed, grabbing the boy's wrist before he could fly off.

"Vlad, they're in trouble!" Danny replied fearfully, completely sure something happened to the others.

"Daniel," the man began, only to gasp when he felt something hot grip his core before it escaped as a red vapor through his mouth.

Danny's eyes widened at seeing this strange mist come from the man's mouth for the first time; but before he could ask, both of the hybrids jerked right away toward the sudden next sound.

"Oh, no, crossbreeds. It is you both who are in trouble…" they heard a horribly familiar voice echo around them.

In an instant, a large purple dome of energy grew around them, covering about three-fourths of the stadium and effectively trapping the hybrids within it.

Iluzisto materialized a couple of yards away from them as he smugly said, "Your little allies are gone, crossbreeds. And you two now have nowhere to run. So, you have only two choices: give up and willingly hand me your cores. Or, I'll just take what I want by force."

Vlad just stared back at the spirit in disbelief as Skulker's broken words now made sense. The Iluzisto that the hunter and the kids had lured into their trap had just been a clone. The real Iluzisto had been stealthily watching them this whole time!

"How did you…?" Vlad began, but trailed off.

Iluzisto understood the question all the same and laughed. "Come on, crossbreeds. You did not truly believe you could trick me so easily? I must admit, though. I was almost fooled by those copies of yourselves with which you baited me. If it had not been because of the young crossbreed's heroic stunt to protect those human hunters, he would have not used up so much energy, and I would never have seen his form blur. I would have surely fallen for your little decoys, otherwise."

Danny cringed with guilt, but said nothing.

"I then knew you two were up to something," Iluzisto continued. "So, I vanished into stealth mode, leaving behind only a single duplicate of myself and letting you all believe it was me. I decided to play along and my copy followed your own copies back to your mansion. Indeed you creatures are clever. Hmm, to make your own illusions. I am impressed as I am annoyed," Iluzisto added, narrowing his eye a bit.

"Too bad you all failed to realize something very important, crossbreeds," the spirit said, raising his staff and glancing briefly at it in fake contemplation. "My illusions are connected to me as much as if they were my duplicates; therefore, I can see through my illusions as easily as if they were clones if I choose to. That is why it was easy to find both of you—the real ones—after you defeated my shark illusions at the pier. And now, here we are. I, at full strength, and you both trapped under a shield of my own creation. It is no illusion, crossbreeds. You are trapped. So, just give in, and I'll put you both down like good little mongrels…" he finished with a dark curl of his eye.

"We are not animals, you despicable creature!" Vlad hissed before suddenly raising his hands forward and firing a bright red ecto-bolt at the spirit.

Iluzisto was caught off guard by the attack and was sent slamming into his own dome-like shield on the other end.

Vlad quickly looked at Danny and said, "I'll distract him. Find a way to break this shield, Daniel! We barely stand a chance against him if he has us confined like this!"

Danny nodded and quickly flew up towards the top of the dome and began to fire all his energy at it, trying to find a way to break it.

Vlad attempted to teleport out of it, but was not surprised when the shield blocked him from getting past it. Still, it had been worth the attempt. He quickly turned his attention to Iluzisto just as the spirit was getting up.

The evil Observant glared at him as he spat out, "Fine, crossbreeds. We will do things your foolish way."

In an instant, Iluzisto summoned two large vampire bats and they quickly came at Plasmius. But knowing from before how to defeat these illusions, Vlad teleported as soon as they lunged forward, appearing behind them. He quickly fired two strong red ectoblasts and hit both illusions from the back, instantly destroying them.

"A quick learner after all, I see," Iluzisto mocked before he conjured up two more bats and added, "So am I."

The bats quickly lunged at Vlad and the man teleported yet again. But just as he came up from behind, the bats briefly vanished and then reappeared facing the older hybrid.

Before Vlad could process the unexpected move, the creatures opened their mouths and released two strong beams of energy. The man cried out as he was hurled clear across to the other side of the field—or, at least as far as the shield would permit.

Meanwhile, Iluzisto had long since noticed the young crossbreed's doing. Silly creature. He had made the shield with the use of Timeless Magic. It was impossible to destroy, unless countered by Timeless Magic itself.

Nevertheless, it was amusing to see the child try and, more importantly, waste energy. Actually, that wasn't a bad idea at all. Yes, there was a better way to weaken the younger crossbreed…

Raising his staff, Iluzisto created another illusion, this one quickly shaping into a giant spider. It immediately began to crawl up the shield.

Danny had been hammering his ice beam into the shield before following that with a strong ecto-blast. He growled when neither proved effective. Nothing he did to the shield would even put a dent in it!

It soon didn't matter, though, because he then caught sight of a bigger problem in his peripheral vision. His eyes darted towards it in time to see the hissing spider lunge at him.

"Whoa!" Danny exclaimed as the creature reached for his floating form with its hairy legs. They had almost grabbed him, too, but he had jolted back. "Man, I think I liked the dragons better!"

Right then, the spider jumped at him in a second attempt to pin him, but Danny shifted away again. This time, though, the creature reacted more quickly, and violently spewed out a ball of gooey white stuff from its mouth, hitting Danny in the chest with it.

The force behind the sticky webbing had been strong enough to push Danny back and into the side of the shield, where he quickly stuck to it like glue.

Danny gasped as he tried to break free from the steal-like webbing, but he froze when he saw the spider quickly crawling towards him, fangs showing and dripping black poison.

"Oh, crud!" Danny yelped. He quickly squeezed his eyes close, letting his body glow with ice energy. In an instant, the webbing around him froze and he was able to break free just as the spider lunged at him.

Danny darted down to avoid it, but he then made a sharp turn upwards and quickly positioned himself behind the spider. However, just as the teen raised his hands to fire an ecto-ray, the spider suddenly vanished and quickly reappeared to his right, facing him.

Danny gasped when the spider quickly spitted out more webbing at him. It came as a single rope-like stream this time, and wrapped around him several times, pinning his hands to his sides.

The spider seemed to grin evilly as it began to reel in the caught Ghost Boy like a fish on a hook.

Even as the teen struggled against his bindings, his mind was in high gear. How could he get out of this when Iluzisto had just said he could now see through his illusions as if they were actually him? Not only that, but the spirit had clearly wised up about their discovery of how to destroy the illusions, now making it virtually impossible for him and Vlad to get behind the illusions. But then he jolted at that last thought.

Speaking of the fruit loop…

Danny's eyes darted down and quickly saw how Plasmius was having a hard time himself. One of the bats was gone, so the man had somehow managed to at least destroy one of them.

But the last one was giving him grief.

Suddenly feeling a strong yank from his bonds, Danny focused back on his own predicament. He tried to use his ice energy to break free again, but this time, Iluzisto did something to negate them and the energy fizzed out.

"You and the other freak might have figured out how to break my illusions' visual link," Danny heard the air whisper around him, "But that hardly matters when I am here negating your every move and keeping my illusions one step ahead of you. So try as you might, little crossbreed, you cannot break free of my illusion now…"

"Maybe not as a ghost I can't," Danny grunted before he suddenly let his rings pass through him, turning him human. But although the rope-like web binding him had briefly loosened, it still held around his human body.

Danny's eyes widened in horror, as Iluzisto's evil laugh rang through the air.

"Think again, child," the spirit mocked when he suddenly appeared right next to the spider. He moved closer to the alarmed teen as he further said, "I am now powerful enough for my illusions to harm you as human, too. You are not going anywhere."

Danny yelled as the spider reeled him in all the way and grabbed him with two of its sharp legs, his face now inches from its dripping fangs. The teen almost instinctively turned into his ghost form, but forced himself not to when he saw Iluzisto raise his staff, ready to stab him with it the second he did so.

"Come on, crossbreed. It's either my staff or my illusion, which will love to eat you limb by limb…" Iluzisto said darkly.

Danny was too horrified at seeing the close-up view of the spider's fangs and mandibles to do anything but stare at the creature.

"Iluzisto!" Vlad suddenly yelled out of nowhere and suddenly came flying at him.

The evil spirit turned his eye on the man just as Plasmius halted and fired a bolt of red energy, slamming Iluzisto back into the shield.

The unexpected and savage attack had been strong, and Iluzisto briefly lost his focus, but it was not enough to disperse his already made illusions. Still, it was all Danny had needed to turn ghost again and use his powers without the spirit's stopping him. Further turning intangible, the teen escaped the spider's sticky rope and its sharp fangs. However, his head jerked in Vlad's direction when he heard the man shout in pain.

Having seen the boy's predicament, the man had been quick to aid him, even when he still had had the bat illusion to worry about. So, it was of no surprise that the creature now got the upper hand on the older half-ghost.

Danny watched as the bat grabbed the man by the shoulders and encased him in its claws. It pulled the man slightly upward as it flapped to a hover in the air before craning its neck down in an attempt to bite into its struggling but firmly captured prey.

"Let go, you horrid projection!" Vlad yelled out angrily, but there was also some fear in his voice.

The teen jolted into action, darting up and moving behind the occupied bat. With a quick but strong ice ray from behind, the bat was instantly destroyed.

However, at that instant, Iluzisto had recovered from Vlad's attack. The spirit let out a furious yell and their surroundings blurred under his power. But that was the least of the hybrids' worry because right after, the illusion of the large spider suddenly exploded into several hundreds of smaller spiders. And they all lunged towards Danny and Vlad.

Gasping in alarm, the two quickly flew down to the ground, but the spiders followed, actually turning the walls of the dome black as they crawled in mass down it even as more slid down little spindles of webbing.

As the creatures landed on the ground and began to encircle them, Danny and Vlad drew closer together, unsure of what to do. There was just too many of these illusions and they had no way of getting around them!

Unless…

"Daniel, do you think you can coat the entire dome with your ice energy?" Vlad asked urgently. "This time I'd like to make that unintentional trick we pulled off at the downtown area intentional…"

Danny frowned in confusion a moment. But then he suddenly remembered and smirked before replying, "Buy me ten seconds."

"You got it!" Vlad replied and instantly created six duplicates. However, he further released about thirty shadow clones. It wasn't of any surprise when his copies' attacks on the spiders were ineffective, but the shadow clones served their purpose, which was to act as bait and take the hits for Danny as the boy did his thing.

Meanwhile, the real Plasmius flew around, keeping himself open as a target while also using three of his copies to protect himself. Furthermore, he was sure to use his intangibility and teleportation powers to keep the spiders from touching him.

But then, Iluzisto quickly stepped into the fray. Just as Plasmius reappeared at one spot after teleporting, the evil spirit teleported himself right in front of the man and slammed his staff into his gut, sending Vlad plummeting towards the ground. The three copies that had been trying to protect their creator quickly lunged forward and attacked Iluzisto, keeping him at bay as Vlad recovered.

Now, however, there was nothing protecting Plasmius from the spiders…

By now, Danny had reached the top of the dome and he quickly poured out as much ice energy into it as he could. He barely heard Vlad's copies and shadow clones crying out as they continued to take the hits for the teen. Instead, Danny focused on the ice quickly spreading down the walls of the dome-like shield. In a matter of seconds, the entire shield was coated in ice-energy.

"VLAD!" Danny yelled, looking down towards the man, only to yelp as a spider suddenly tackled the teen, slamming him down toward the ground.

But Plasmius was having his own pest problem with two spiders that had jumped on his back, taking advantage of his compromised position after Iluzisto had pummeled him to the ground.

The man was hissing in pain since the creatures had now eaten through part of his clothing. But hearing the boy's yell, the man knew he needed to act now. However, at that moment, Iluzisto suddenly materialized in front of Plasmius, clearly having done away with the half-ghost's duplicates.

"You need more than some pathetic tricks to take us down!" Plasmius growled darkly. And not giving the spirit any time to react, he spun his cape around him, flinging the spiders off as he vanished within a vortex of hot pink energy.

But the spinning vortex quickly grew in size and turned red, heating up the air around him.

Meanwhile, Danny gasped just as he pulled himself off of the ground and the powerful twister being generated by Vlad began to push him back. But nevertheless, it was doing what it was supposed to do, and that was vaporizing the ice around the dome, making the air not just hotter, but thicker with moisture.

Now that the man's stunt was taking all of his energy and focus, he could no longer maintain his duplicates' forms. More and more of the clones quickly disintegrated as the vortex of energy swelled in size.

Danny hoped it would be worth it.

Iluzisto growled as he floated back with indecision and a bit of apprehension. He did not know the older crossbreed was capable of so much power—even if it should not have surprised him—let alone did the spirit know what to do to stop the heating vortex cocooning the older hybrid.

Iluzisto briefly glanced at the younger crossbreed who was still a large distance away from him. Still, he could see the boy panting, clearly being affected by the hot, barely breathable air being held in by the dome shield.

But when Danny thought he could take no more, Vlad abruptly halted his spinning and teleported next to the teen as the spinning vortex vanished.

"Ice dome, now!" Vlad yelled at the boy.

Danny saw Vlad's body light up with electricity, and the teen instantly knew what the man had meant. With a yelp, the teen covered himself in a protective ice dome-shaped shield just as the man released a wave of electrical energy in all directions.

Iluzisto jolted in alarm, but that was all he was able to do. The moisture in the air instantly conducted and fed the wild energy, like a live, exposed wire. And like what had happened with the Guys-in-White, only at a larger scale, the entire atmosphere exploded with electricity, jolting everything around it.

In an instant, all the spider illusions vanished and Iluzisto screamed as he was riveted by the red electrical storm.

Danny drew in a sharp breath as he felt his ice dome threatening to crack at the energy attacking it from the outside, sounding much like various whips cracking furiously against it. If he weren't in such a dangerous situation, he would have been fascinated with the smaller sparks erupting around his ice shell, which were the dissipation of the built-up static electricity caused by the stronger red current exploding around it. Even so, it was nice to know that ice didn't conduct 'regular' electricity or he would be toast by now, too.

The shield began to crack, though; but fortunately, Plasmius' 'firework' show finally came to a slow stop as all the moisture in the air was used up. Little sparks of energy jumped around the older hybrid's skin as he stood, breathing heavily, but still looking strong as his eyes stayed locked on Iluzisto's fallen form several yards away.

Danny at last lowered his dome and moved closer to Vlad. He gawked for a moment before whispering in awe, "Dude, that was freakin' awesome!"

"I just hope it worked, because I doubt I could pull that off a second time," Vlad answered, slowly regaining control of his breathing.

The two stared silently at Iluzisto for a moment. The spirit was still on the ground and not moving, but his staff was also still in his outstretched hand.

"Do you have the cuffs?" Vlad hesitantly whispered, as if making any sudden movements would bring their current nightmare back to life.

"Yeah. Do you think…?" Danny began, voice also filled with apprehension.

"That attack had to at the very least weakened him," Vlad muttered back.

The two half-ghost looked at each other before they slowly began to approach the evil spirit.

Danny began to reach for the cuffs within his suit while Vlad kept his hands filled with energy, ready to attack.

But just when they had been only feet away, Iluzisto abruptly sat up, his eye snapping open and glowing red with fury.

"Vlad!" Danny instinctively yelled as Iluzisto raised his staff.

But the man had already reacted. The red energy in his hand shot out, knocking the staff away from Iluzisto before he could use it. Danny reacted, too, and used his free hand to quickly fire an ice-beam at the spirit, freezing him completely right after Vlad's hit.

Iluzisto blacked out again; and not wanting to take any more chances, Vlad quickly flew forward and grabbed the evil spirit's fallen staff.

"Daniel, the cuffs!" he then urgently commanded.

Danny quickly nodded and darted over to the frozen Iluzisto. Using intangibility, the teen snapped one cuff on one of Iluzisto's wrist. That seemed to activate the device because the second cuff quickly appeared on its own accord around Iluzisto's other hand.

Danny had to admit, Skulker had some handy devices when they were not being used against him.

In no time, Iluzisto began to come to. When he saw he was encased in ice, however, he growled before a purple aura surrounded his body, which immediately began to attack his cold make-shift cell. The ice hissed and crackled in protest as it quickly melted away.

"You fools!" Iluzisto hissed, glaring at Vlad specifically at seeing he had his staff. "Return me my staff or else!"

"I don't think so, you jerk!" Danny growled back.

Vlad kept his hand firmly around the staff, which was still glowing a purple color, and dryly replied, "What the boy said."

The remaining ice shattered off Iluzisto's body. And he didn't hesitate to raise a hand, only to gasp when it was just as quickly forced back down by some unknown force.

The spirit looked down and his eye grew wide when he saw the cuffs around his wrists. They began to glow blue and a link suddenly appeared between the cuffs, forcing Iluzisto wrists next to each other and in front of his body.

The spirit stared at the cuffs restraining him in utter disbelief. But after a silent and tense moment, he suddenly looked up at the crossbreeds, and did something completely unexpected.

He threw his head back and laughed.

"You poor pathetic creatures!" he exclaimed in between his insane laughter. "Is this truly the best you can do?"

Plasmius and Danny narrowed their eyes, but a bad feeling was beginning to form in the pit of their stomachs.

Calming down, Iluzisto turned his smug eye on the hybrids and calmly ordered, "Return me my staff, crossbreeds… Or else."

"Or else what?" Danny dared to challenge.

Iluzisto's eye curved upward into a smile, clearly having hoped for the question. "Or else…," he repeated, and looked over at something on the right.

Vlad and Danny followed his gaze and gasped when they saw another Iluzisto standing outside the shield after having melded out of stealth mode. But he wasn't alone. The spirit had a bound Justeco in his grasp!

"Half-ghosts! Do not give him—!" Justeco cried out, but choked into a cry of pain as Iluzisto took out Justeco's very orb and used it against its very master. The Observant Leader's body lit with purple energy.

"No!" Danny yelled. "Stop hurting him!"

Right then, no one noticed that the staff in Vlad's hand suddenly flashed blue.

The Iluzisto outside the shield chuckled and let the bound Justeco drop to ground. Then, the evil spirit inside the shield, said wickedly, "You know, I knew there was a reason why I have not destroyed this fool yet."

Plasmius said nothing. But he was more confused than anything else. He knew for certain now that his and Daniel's ghost sense did not work on Iluzisto anymore. But thanks to his years with ghost powers, Vlad had also learned to feel strength levels. Among other things, it came in handy when dealing with specters that could duplicate. No matter what, the real one always felt stronger than its clones. So, Plasmius could easily tell which of the specters was the real one.

But with Iluzisto… He and his duplicate's strength levels felt the same!

And yet, what was just as surprising was that even when he shouldn't be able to tell which of the two Iluzisto was the real one,something else inside Vlad assured him that the real spirit was the one they had been battling—the one outside the shield was the duplicate.

It was that odd feeling—the same one he got when that red smoke would escape through his mouth—that assured him of this. And yet, Plasmius couldn't explain it. Unless… No, it was too unbelievable. Or, was it? Did…Did he possess the ability to sense spirits?

Vlad let that hot feeling inside him swell, and the red smoke immediately passed through his lips, wisping more towards the real Iluzisto. It was all the confirmation the older hybrid needed.

"What is the matter, crossbreeds? You appear troubled…," Iluzisto taunted, seeing the growing desperation in the young crossbreed's face. The older one looked surprised about something, though. And the spirit had no idea what that red mist that had just escaped the man's mouth was.

Iluzisto hardly cared, though. He cared about the fact that he had his two pets at a standstill.

But it seemed Plasmius believed otherwise.

"It's over, Iluzisto. You're powerless," Vlad said seriously. It didn't matter if Iluzisto had Justeco over their heads or not. Plasmius refused to give up the staff still in his hand.

"Over?" the cuffed Iluzisto repeated. "Oh, how wrong you are, crossbreed. We have only begun."

Danny and Vlad's eyes widened all over again as the cuffs on Iluzisto wrists began to spark before they suddenly exploded into metallic shards.

"No…," Vlad whispered taking an unconscious step back, while Danny did the same, but still quickly brought energy into his hands, knowing things were rapidly going downhill.

"Though it was marginally amusing, did you believe that you two could weaken me with your little displays of power, let alone hold me with your little toy?" Iluzisto asked, amused. "As strong as you both are, you compare nothing to me, not when I am at full power and have become the Master of all Time and Existence! And fortunately for me, all I need now is your cores to keep me all powerful for all eternity!"

Vlad and Danny glared, but they were clearly unsure of what to do now.

The real Iluzisto pulled out Okulo's orb and studied it before mockingly saying, "I think you both know what this is, yes? After all, it is what Okulo used to brand you, marking you pets as mine."

"We don't belong to you, you sick Cyclops!" Danny sneered.

"I beg to differ," Iluzisto replied, squeezing the orb, and the numbers on the half-ghosts' foreheads lit up.

The pair cringed at the burning feeling, but it wasn't bad enough to make them lose their focus. But Vlad now took Danny's lead, and let his energy pour into his free hand.

"And yet, that is not what makes Okulo's orb so unique," Iluzisto continued calmly. "It is its ability to bind any core to it. And once the link is made, the orb commands said core, and therefore, its owner." The evil spirit's eye narrowed as he darkly revealed, "I have bound Justeco's core to this orb. And if I choose, I can kill him in a blink of an eye. So, then, last time. Return me my staff," he demanded.

"Vlad… He has Justeco," Danny said softly, knowing they had no choice.

But Plasmius knew that if he returned the staff, not only would Justeco be destroyed, but they and everyone else would, too.

"Do it," Vlad challenged. "We both know he is going to perish anyways."

"What? No!" Danny protested, but the man raised a hand, silencing the teen.

Iluzisto glared, but then chuckled, "Oh, yes. I almost forgot who I was dealing with... Then, how about a threat closer to home..?"

Vlad gasped as the staff in his hand began to glow a deep blue that quickly spread through the man's body.

"Vlad!" Danny yelled when the man cried out and collapsed to his hands and knees, the staff falling out of his hold.

"You see, crossbreeds. I am the staff's master; so even if it is taken from me, I still control it!" Iluzisto jeered as he levitated the fallen staff back to his hold.

Danny was frozen as he watched the blue energy still around Vlad's body begin to rapidly age him, similar to how the time spell did to his copy in the cave. And vividly remembering that gruesome image, the teen panicked, screaming, "No! Stop! Stop it!"

Iluzisto gasped when, without his willing it so, the blue hue around Plasmius abruptly vanished and he returned back to normal. No! Why had it stopped its attack on the older crossbreed? He had not commanded it to stop!

But Danny didn't notice Iluzisto's confusion and anger. Instead, he quickly kneeled next to Vlad, who groaned as he slowly sat up.

"Remind me not to touch that staff again," the man whispered out.

"Are you okay?" Danny asked quietly, freaked out.

"Enough of this! I will have your cores! Right. Now!" Iluzisto proclaimed, raising his staff, and a cloud of black smoke exploded out of it. The smoke split into two clouds, one on each side of Iluzisto.

Vlad and Danny paled, recognizing the illusions from before, especially as the clouds formed evil red eyes and sharp teeth.

"Let us see you freaks try your little tricks on these illusions!" Iluzisto said darkly before he sent the cloud-like monsters at the two half-ghosts.

"Oh, apple crumbs!" Vlad cursed.

And Danny anxiously replied, "Yeah, you can say that again!"

---

Meanwhile, at another part of Amity, black smoke billowed from the slowly dying fire of where Vlad's speeder had crashed. The completely destroyed ship showed no signs of life. Then again, that had been Iluzisto's intention. Surely, no one could have survived such a crash.

But…

Team Phantom had jettisoned out of the aircraft before it had even crashed to the ground…

Groaning, Jazz blinked back to consciousness. "Uh, what happened?" she asked. But her brain suddenly fed her the answer, and she gasped. "Sam! Tucker!" she yelled, now more alert. She tried to move, only to discover she couldn't.

Eyes now fully focused, Jazz assessed her surroundings and gasped once more when she realized that she was hanging from a tree, her parachute's straps caught on a large limb.

"What the…? Help! Tucker! Sam!" Jazz shouted, too scared to even move now that she could see how high up she was.

Meanwhile, several yards away, Tucker had landed on the ground and had been busy trying to untangle himself from his own parachute. He then found Sam not too far from him and helped her out of the tree she got stuck in.

"Where's, Jazz?" Sam asked when she finally got loose. She was not so high, so she was able to jump down.

"I don't know. I didn't see where she landed," Tucker replied.

"Then, we better go find her," Sam said.

They quickly moved through the gathering of trees, calling out Jazz's name as they went. It was only as they had almost reached the opposite side of the gathering of trees that they heard a faint yelling.

"It's Jazz!" Sam exclaimed, and she and Tucker took off in the direction of the screaming.

They quickly found their friend's sister and gasped when they saw how high up Jazz had been caught.

"Jazz!" Sam yelled up at her.

The older girl quickly looked down and sighed in relief when she saw her brother's friends. "Sam! Tucker! Get me down! I really don't like heights!"

"Don't worry, Jazz! We'll get you down in no time!" Tucker assured her.

But Sam quickly whispered, "How are we going to get her down?"

Tucker grinned sheepishly. "Uh, I don't know. I just said it to keep her from freaking out even more."

Sam rolled her eyes, but then frowned in worry as she looked back up at the other girl. "Maybe I could try to climb up to her…"

"What? No way, Sam!" Tucker protested. "You could fall, and Jazz would have to climb down anyways, and I doubt she knows how!"

"Well, then, what are we supposed to do?" Sam snapped, though mainly because she was upset at the situation. She could easily and safely climb up, but she knew Tucker was right and Jazz wouldn't be able to climb down.

"I…," Tucker paused. "Hey, where's Skulker?"

Sam shook her head, but she tensed as she remembered she never saw the ghost get out of the speeder.

"I don't know, but one thing at a time, Tucker. We have to get Jazz down," Sam said, though she sounded even more troubled.

Tucker nodded and looked around in thought. But, suddenly, it hit him. "I know!" he exclaimed and quickly ran off, adding, "Be right back!"

Sam watched her friend run off in the direction of where they had landed. A few minutes later, he returned, dragging his parachute and the cut off ropes that had been attached to Sam's parachutes.

"Do you still got that Swiss-army knife we used to cut you lose?" Tucker asked as he began to tie the ropes together, making it thicker and longer.

"Well, yeah," Sam said, pulling it out.

"By the way, I don't even want to know why you carry a knife on you," Tucker added.

"Hey, it was birthday gift from my grandmother!" Sam replied defensively. "And besides, it's not just a knife. It has other cool features and uses!"

"Like what?" Tucker asked, tying the ropes together to make it one long piece.

Sam coughed, but replied awkwardly, "Like… picking the lock to my house to sneak back in."

Tucker grinned, and the goth girl quickly said, "Oh, be quiet, Tucker. And give me that! You're doing it wrong!" she grumbled, yanking the rope away from him.

"Oh, right, I forgot you're the 'survival expert'," Tucker teased as he watched Sam secure the knots on the rope. "We gotta get that up to Jazz," he added more seriously.

"I realize that, Tucker. I'm gonna tie the knife at one end and use it as leverage to get it up there," Sam replied, doing just that.

She then took a few steps back and Tucker moved away to give her space. Sam raised the end with the knife above her and began to spin it like a lasso. Narrowing her eyes in concentration, she increased the speed, and with a grunt, threw it at the desired branch.

And seeing the end of the rope spin around said branch right below Jazz's feet, Sam grinned and exclaimed, "Ha! And they say girls can't throw!"

Tucker rolled his eyes, but then yelled up at Danny's sister, "Jazz! Can you reach the rope below you?"

Jazz looked down and saw the rope with the knife at the end clinging from a nearby branch. She gulped as she tried to wiggle a bit lower on her harness to get the rope around her foot. It took her a moment and a lot of nervous struggling, but she managed to get the rope around her foot and she began to tug it up towards her.

Once in her hands, it was a matter of looping and shaking the rope enough to get it loose from the branch.

"Now what?" she asked.

"You gotta tie the rope around you and then cut yourself loose!" Sam answered back.

"What?" she exclaimed, her face paling. "What if I fall?"

"That's what the rope's for!" Sam replied. "You need to get yourself on one of the branches, then slowly climb down. We have the other end of the rope. We'll give you some anchorage in case you slip, so you won't fall!"

"I-I don't think I can do that! Can't you guys get help? Like get the fire department?" she yelled back fearfully.

"Jazz, we don't have time for that! We don't know where Skulker is, and Danny's in trouble! Iluzisto tricked us all! And we need to get to Danny before something happens to him!" Sam replied urgently.

Jazz swallowed. But knowing that the younger girl was right, she nodded. With nervous hands, she wrapped the rope around her body a few times and made a strong knot. At least she had learned that much from her adventurous mother.

She then swung herself towards the closest sturdy tree branch and managed to get her footing on it. Wasting no time, she began to cut herself free from her parachute. At last, she finished and then looked down and whimpered at how far she would have to climb down.

"I hate heights!" she whined before she hugged the tree's trunk and began to make her way down. She had made sure to go down at the opposite side of where Sam and Tucker held the rope in case she fell. That way, the branches would grab the rope and hold her weight if she did slip.

After a few nerve-wrecking minutes, with a few small slips, she finally made it low enough for Sam and Tucker to use the rope and tree branch as a pulley to help her down the rest of the way.

Once she reached land, she fell to her knees and whispered, "Thank you! Thank you! I'm not dead!"

Sam and Tucker rolled their eyes, but quickly sobered up as they helped Jazz to her feet.

"We gotta find Skulker," Jazz said, untying herself free from the rope. She looked over past the trees, and saw the smoke raising into the sky not too far away.

"What happened anyways? How did we even make it out of the speeder?" Tucker asked. "I seriously thought that we were goners!"

"Didn't you see it, Tucker?" Sam asked quietly. "Skulker managed to push the eject button on the control panel. He… got us out."

"He saved our lives," Jazz clarified, looking at the younger kids.

The three were quiet for a moment, but then Sam said, "Come on. I'm sure he has to be close by somewhere."

Tucker and Jazz nodded, but they all were sure they never saw Skulker leave the speeder.

It didn't take them long to find the remains of the speeder, now just billowing black smoke. The fire had died out with the moist evening air. It was strange, though, that there were not any firefighters or police around. Then again, there were worst disasters at other parts of Amity right now.

The kids hesitated, but slowly and carefully moved closer to the destroyed speeder.

"Skulker?" Jazz called. She paused and looked around the vicinity, hoping for an answer, but she got none. "Maybe he's somewhere else," she added.

But Sam spotted something familiar partially buried in the debris. She reached down and pulled out a metallic arm—Skulker's arm. The goth girl swallowed thickly and said, "I don't think so, Jazz."

The older girl gasped and covered her mouth.

Tucker was also alarmed, but he turned back and began to look even closer for any signs of the hunter. But now, his search was more desperate. "Skulker, come on, dude! We gotta get to Vlad and Danny!" he called out with a shaky voice.

Sam began to get more frantic, too, as she searched through the debris, only finding bits and pieces of the hunter—but not Skulker himself.

"Can… Can a ghost… die?" Jazz suddenly whispered, her voice cracking.

"What? Of course not!" Sam denied firmly, but she honestly wasn't so sure.

Then, Tucker finally found Skulker's head.

The girls quickly came closer, and they all held their breath as they pried the helmet open.

There was nothing inside.

"He… He's really gone," Jazz whispered, her eyes swelling with tears.

Sam and Tucker looked at each other, a distraught and lost expression also on their faces.

The goth girl looked down at the metallic head in Tucker's hand as she felt a wave of sadness and regret fill her. "I was… so unfair to him," she whispered.

"And for one of Danny's crazy evil enemies, he was pretty cool," Tucker added dejectedly. "I mean, he was as much a techno-geek as me! We… We understood each other."

"I feel like I've lost a friend, one I was only starting to get to know. Even if he hunted Danny, he... he was kind. He saved us," Jazz said as she began to cry.

But just when things could not look any bleaker, the trio heard a high-pitched groan.

"Did you hear that?" Sam whispered as she dropped the head in her hand and began to look around, trying to pinpoint the noise.

And hearing it again, Jazz and Tucker joined in and they soon realized it was coming from the back end of the speeder—or, the remains of it, anyways.

The three teens ran to that side and began to pull out the debris. They halted when they instantly spotted something green and glowing right on top of what remained of one of Skulker's newest level nine guns.

And although the gun was clearly destroyed and useless, the green little blob that was Skulker was clinging to it, as if trying to protect it with his body that was six times smaller than the weapon itself.

"Skulker!" Team Phantom exclaimed, and Sam immediately reached forward and pried the little ghost off his gun.

Opening one of his closed eyes, he peeked around his surroundings and asked in his squeaky voice. "Is it over?"

The three kids laughed in relief as Skulker sat up in Sam's hand. Rubbing his aching head, he frowned at them and asked, "What is so funny?"

"Nothing!" Sam replied, a smirk growing on her face.

"Yeah, but we're sorry to say that your weapon didn't make it in spite of all your effort," Tucker added with a grin. "Actually, none of you really made it…"

Skulker quickly flew off Sam's hand and looked around at the damage. And seeing his weapons and body parts all over the place, he placed his hands on his hips and pouted. "Oh, this is just perfect! I liked that new suit! Plasmius better have an extra one!"

But the thought quickly reminded him of what had happened and he looked at the three kids. He had been about to say something, but paused when he finally got a good look at their faces.

The Ghost Boy's sister had drying wet tears streaking down her cheek, and the younger two humans' eyes looked all red and puffy. But that was not all. Aside from the smiles on their faces, they looked immensely relieved about something. In fact, whatever emotional thing they had just gone through, they were still a bit shaken up about it.

Skulker blinked and blurted out, "What is wrong with you, whelps? You all look like someone kicked an earthly puppy!"

"We're just glad you're okay, Skulker," Jazz replied, wiping her face and smiling warmly.

Skulker's eyes widened in realization as he squeaked out, "Oh…" He paused and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, yes…" He cleared his throat and suddenly scowled at them. "Well, of course I am fine! I am the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter and a ghost! Takes more than some earthly flying contraption crashing down to get rid of me! Now, enough small talk. We need to find Plasmius and the Ghost Boy! Iluzisto tricked us and clearly has set a trap for them!"

Team Phantom quickly sobered up and nodded.

"Come on," Jazz said. "We have to get to Casper High!"

"On foot?" Tucker asked. "But it's several blocks away! It will take us like half an hour from here!"

"We do not have that kind of time, whelps. Sunset is less than an hour away!" Skulker said.

"So, what are we going to do? Head back to Vlad's house? It would take us the same amount of time, if not longer, to get back there, get a car, and then drive to Casper," Jazz argued.

Sam smirked as the older girl gave her an idea. "Well, who said we have to go back to Vlad's for a car?"

And seeing the girl wave at all the abandoned cars on the side of the road due to the quick evacuation, Jazz gasped and said, "What? We can't highjack a car!"

Sam scoffed. "We're just going to borrow it."

She walked over to the closest car, her friends and Skulker following.

Jazz looked unsure, but knew they had no other choice and quickly took the driver's seat. And while Sam took the passenger seat, Skulker and Tucker got in the back.

"Try not to crash this one, whelps," Skulker said dryly. "I don't see an ejection button on this contraption and I don't have a suit to take the brunt of another accident."

Jazz rolled her eyes and began to search for the keys. "Anyone know how jumpstart a car?" she asked sarcastically.

But to her surprise, Sam suddenly pulled out her Swiss-army knife, and with a grin, said, "Let me do it! I've always wanted to try this!"

"Uh, Sam?" Jazz said, jiggling the keys she found at the side of the car. "I was kidding."

"Oh," Sam replied. "Yeah, I knew that."

"Seriously, Sam. I said it once and I'll say it again, you scare me sometimes," Tucker said with a shake of his head.

"Oh, be quiet," Sam grumbled, crossing her arms and pouting.

"Whelps?" Skulker suddenly said, getting the trio's attention.

"What?"

"How about you all be quiet and just get moving?" Skulker replied dryly.

"Oh, right!" Jazz said, and quickly turned the car on. But she grinned at how much 'like them' Skulker had just sounded.

---

After realizing that it really was impossible to break the visual link with the cloud-like illusions, especially when the things now had eyes in the front and back of them, Vlad and Danny began to do their best to avoid the monsters.

But they were also very aware that Iluzisto was trying to split them up. It was the only explanation for the continuous attempts the smoke monsters made to get in between them. Still, the half-ghosts were not letting that happen!

At least together they could watch each other's back. Vlad had also been teleporting them whenever the clouds managed to pin them somewhere. But after a while, the clouds 'wised-up' and the half-ghosts were forced to get even more creative.

Luckily, Danny got an idea.

Danny began to use his own ecto-energy in one hand and his ice energy in the other. The teen then combined them together, effectively making steam as he and Vlad skirted around, avoiding the monstrous clouds.

It took only a moment for Danny to create enough of it to build a cloud of fog around them. Vlad and he then turned intangible to blend in with the mounting fog bellowing out around them.

As a result, Iluzisto's illusions were becoming confused as it became harder and harder for them to pinpoint their targets. In fact, they couldn't really make them out in the thick fog. So, although they continued to chase around the moving vapor cloud, the illusions— and therefore, Iluzisto—had no chance of getting a direct hit on the half-ghosts.

It was aggravating Iluzisto. In fact, he was itching to just strike and take their cores already; but every time he tried to get to either one of the crossbreeds, the other intervened and stopped him! It was making it virtually impossible for him to get an opening to even try!But he was sure the pair could not keep this up forever. Actually, it was best if he just remained patient and let them waste energy. It would just make it easier for him to get that opening and successfully remove their cores in the end…

Unfortunately, the spirit was right.

The half-ghosts were sweating and their glows were a little dim from all the flying, teleporting, and energy usage. They had been fleeing from the smoke monsters for almost fifteen solid minutes now.

The two paused to catch their breath, only able to afford the break because their intangible bodies were hidden amongst the fog surrounding them.

"Daniel. We can't keep this up forever," Vlad finally said, and the two cringed when one of the monsters lunged forward. It hit nothing but fog, but the creature had been inches from where they were floating.

Danny felt his head spin from all the ice and ecto-energy he had been producing to keep up their cover. But with a sigh, he stopped using his energy and replied, "I know, but what are we gonna do with these illusions? We can't even get near Iluzisto, wherever he is, since he's vanished into stealth mode again before I made all of this fog!"

But for once, Vlad really did not know what to do. With the cuffs gone, they had no way of slowing Iluzisto down enough to even try to trap him. And clearly, touching the staff was bad news.

Everything in the man told him that they needed to retreat.

But they had no means of doing that, either. Whatever this shield was made of, it was indestructible.

"Unless…," Vlad muttered to himself, his eyes darting over to where he had seen the unconscious Justeco and the Iluzisto copy holding Justeco's Timeless Orb. "We can get a hold of whatever is keeping the shield intact."

"What?" Danny asked, looking in the direction Vlad was.

"It's Justeco's orb, Daniel. It has to be," Vlad answered, and Danny could almost see the gears in the man's head turning. "That orb has to be what's keeping this shield intact. That's why our energies cannot break through it. The shield is made of Timeless Magic!" The man paused and his eyes narrowed in understanding. "That's why he created a copy of himself outside of the shield. Not only to keep Justeco out of our reach, but to keep Justeco's orb, the source keeping this shield up, away from us!"

"Then what are we…?" Danny began, but never finished.

Iluzisto must have grown impatient again or wised up, because the clouds suddenly stopped trying to blindly attack. Instead, the two lined up and began to suck the air in, quickly absorbing the fog and finally doing away with the hybrids temporary hideout.

But it didn't stop there. Now seeing the hybrids in full view, the illusions drew in air at an even faster rate, creating a powerful vacuum to pull them in.

"Daniel!" Vlad exclaimed and shoved the boy out of the air current's path. But the man was not quick enough to pull himself out of the path and he was quickly gripped within its strong suction.

Plasmius thought fast, though, and he teleported out of there before he could be sucked in by one of the smoke monsters.

But Iluzisto reacted just as quickly.

As soon as Vlad reappeared, the second smoke monster also teleported and appeared right next to him. The older hybrid didn't even have time to react, this time.

"NO!" Danny yelled as the smoke monster opened its jaws and engulfed Vlad.

Danny instinctively lunged forward. But he didn't get very far, for at that instant, Iluzisto finally stepped in, slipping out of stealth mode. The boy just barely caught a glimpse of the evil spirit before he saw Iluzisto's staff coming right at him!

The boy pulled back at the last second and avoided the strike but Iluzisto blindly yet quickly back-swung his staff.

Suddenly, however, the staff glowed blue and inexplicably veered slightly away from the boy.

Iluzisto, however, hadn't seen that and only growled when he could tell that the boy had managed to dodge his second attempt.

He would make sure that the boy wouldn't be that lucky in his next round.

The spirit instantly vanished and then reappeared just inches in front of the boy before actually slamming his powerful, angry fist into the Danny's jaw.

Danny yelled as he ricocheted off of the blow and plummeted to the ground.

Iluzisto's eye curved smugly, satisfied that at last he had been able to separate the two crossbreeds. He glanced over at his cloud-like illusion holding the elder one trapped within, and chuckled when he saw the illusion lighting up with all sorts of energy colors. Clearly, the man was throwing a tantrum in there.

Iluzisto waved a hand towards the cloud and it instantly turned more tangible just as Plasmius attempted to use his electrical energy to escape. As a result, there was a muffled scream of pain from within as the bolts of energy reflected back at its wielder, much like bullets ricocheting within a bullet-proof room.

"That should make him behave while I deal with his weaker counterpart," Iluzisto said evilly before turning his attention to the young crossbreed. His eye only curled with even more malice.

Danny groaned on the ground, feeling his head spin wildly and his jaw burning from the brutal hit Iluzisto's fist had dealt him. In fact, he could taste ectoplasm in his mouth and spit it out.

That's when he heard Vlad's painful screams.

Eyes snapping back into focus, Danny looked up in time to see what was happening to the obviously trapped Plasmius. He gasped in alarm, reflexively pulling himself up in an effort to try to reach the man.

Suddenly, however, Iluzisto appeared just a yard in front of him and Danny knew he was in as much trouble now. Nevertheless, Danny quickly staggered to his feet and attempted to fire an ecto-blast at the spirit, only for it to fizzle out of existence.

"Poor, weak, defenseless child…," Iluzisto taunted, slowly floating closer to Danny, who backed away from him. And seeing the fear in the teen's eyes, the evil spirit took his sweet time, savoring it and gloating, "I almost feel bad that I have to kill you. Almost."

Iluzisto narrowed his eye as he darkly added, "As much as I cannot stand your arrogant counterpart, I particularly despise you more. How a pathetic and ignorant creature like yourself has fought me for this long is beyond plausible! And yet you have. And you still refuse to give in! But you know what angers me more? Do you know what makes me hate you more?" …It is that because of you that the other crossbreed refuses to yield, too!"

"I could have long since broken the other crossbreed," Iluzisto sneered, still hedging closer to the boy while Danny continued to back away. "But somehow, you fuel him into fighting me as strongly as you do. But not only him. You give everything and everyone that comes in contact with you hope—foolish hope! Even the cowardly Observants who are about to be sent into Oblivion, have hope—hope in some pathetic and powerless child to save them! Why? It's sickening!"

A gust of angry wind abruptly appeared with the spirit's shout, and Danny was shoved back, finally colliding into the shield behind him. He now had nowhere to go now. Iluzisto paused, too, but still raised his staff at the boy. Danny gasped in fear before he felt his courage stir. He narrowed his eyes and glared coldly and defiantly at the evil spirit.

"Well, it ends now," Iluzisto assured him, calming down a bit but still sounding as dark as ever. "I will not let you take away my true victory and revenge. I am going to kill you, Danny Phantom. And in turn, destroy once-and-for-all everyone's sickening hope with it! And the first hope I will see fade from those arrogant eyes of his will be of the other crossbreed as I let him see me rip out your core. I will break him with your death!"

Danny glanced up and his eyes widened when the cloud-like illusion melded into a floating cell, with Vlad inside.

The man was now in human form on his hands and knees, clearly in pain and worn out. But when he realized he was not in pitch darkness anymore, he raised his blue eyes and gasped when he saw Iluzisto cornering Danny.

"Daniel!" Vlad yelled as he struggled to his feet and quickly gripped the bars in front of him, trying to break them.

Danny frowned in worry before looking back at Iluzisto. The spirit was using his illusion powers to block his mind from using any of his powers and he was now pinned against the shield.

Danny swallowed hard at the irony: once more, escape was only an illusion. Wait. No, it wasn't! He suddenly turned human before the spirit could stop him.

"Go ahead, then. Kill me," Danny finally said boldly. "But you are not getting my core."

Iluzisto narrowed his eye before keeping his cold, steel gaze locked on the boy. Immediately afterward, he slammed his staff into the boy's chest to prevent him from squirming away again. But the spirit frowned when he met resistance. He growled in frustration as he pushed harder on the staff before he dug his long, sharp fingernails into the boy's shoulder. "Oh, I am getting your core, you little freak. Even if I have to torture you until you give in!"

Danny screamed, but then he narrowed his eyes as they flared green with anger. "Don't get your hopes up, you one-eyed putrid jerk!"

Iluzisto grounded his fingernails deeper into the boy, but then he suddenly pulled them out at a sudden thought and floated back from the teen.

Danny panted as he gripped his bleeding shoulder, but stared up at Iluzisto in sudden confusion.

"You know, you are right," Iluzisto said calmly. "Torture has never worked well with you. I forget sometimes that as weak as you are, you are quite brave and… heroic…"

Danny frowned, not liking the spirit's tone, especially when he was for some strange reason complimenting him.

Iluzisto eye curved into a smile. "I do not need to make you give me your core, do I? Not when you are going to willingly hand it over to me. That is what heroes do, is it not?" Iluzisto taunted. "Well, then, what will it be, hero?"

"What are you talking about?" Danny spat back.

A sudden scream coming from Justeco seemed to answer him, and Danny gasped as he turned his eyes to the Iluzisto copy who had his hand inside the Observant Leader's chest.

Vlad's eyes widened when he saw the dirty card Iluzisto was using against the boy, and suddenly furious, his eyes turned a bright red as he gripped harder on the bars in front of him, yelling, "You sick demented monster! I swear if you go through with this, I'll rip out your core!"

"Easy, Vlad Plasmius. You will get your turn," Iluzisto teased, briefly looking up at the other trapped half-ghost.

Vlad's eyes widened in alarm at seeing the indecision in Danny's face. Without thinking, he desperately begged, "Daniel, don't do this! He's going to destroy Justeco anyways. Do not play into this!"

"Tick-tock, little hero," Iluzisto sneered at the boy. "Are you really going to watch me rip out poor Justeco's core? Or… will you be a good little hero and make the ultimate sacrifice?"

Danny lowered his eyes. He knew Vlad was right, but he just couldn't let Iluzisto waste Justeco.

The teen took a deep breath before he glared brazenly at Iluzisto, "You think you've won, but hope doesn't die with one person, Iluzisto. And I hope Vlad does rip out your core for this!"

But with those words, the teen turned into Phantom, and Iluzisto smirked. "So pathetic."

Danny screamed in anguish as Iluzisto suddenly reached into him and gripped his core. But the teen quickly grabbed the hand and began to pull back. He knew it was useless, but he wasn't going to lose his core and life without a fight!

Though his mind was now awhirl with pain even amidst his struggle with the evil spirit, Danny couldn't understand why Iluzisto wasn't just yanking out his core. Instead, his core was being jolted intermittently. But he could also feel his heart literally skipping a beat with each shot being pumped into his ghostly system. Not that this surprised the weakening boy, since he knew his heart was connected to his ghostly core and was also suffering the effects of this attack. Even still, Danny was in so much pain right now that he didn't care to know that Iluzisto was actually trying to stun his ghostly core long enough to pull it out without damaging the delicate organ. After all, the spirit needed the core in prime condition if he was going to merge it with his own.

Meanwhile, Vlad also screamed in terror with the boy's cries of pain.

Suddenly panicked, the man felt his strength renewed and his entire body began to light up with ghost energy, even when he was human.

"Let him go, Iluzisto!" Vlad shouted. But then shaking in sudden fury, he squeezed his eyes close and yelled, "I said, let him GO!"

The energy that had been building within the man's human body, suddenly exploded out, and in an instant, the illusion-made prison was destroyed out of existence by the energy.

Now free, Vlad gasped as he fell. But with his core fully active in human form and thanks to his experience, the man didn't even have to waste the effort of turning into his ghost form.

With pink energy glowing around him, the man levitated, instantly halting his descent. But he was not out of the frying pan, yet. The second smoke monster growled and lunged at the human man from behind. But Vlad quickly whirled around and instinctively fired an ecto-blast at the second cloud-like monster.

To Vlad's further surprise, the illusion was slammed back, as if it were tangible, and then vanished out of existence!

"What in the…?" Vlad began in disbelief, when it suddenly hit him. He had just discovered the best defense against Iluzisto's illusions!

But there was no time to celebrate that, and the man quickly looked down at Iluzisto who still had the boy pinned against the shield and his gruesome hand inside the boy's chest!

But the evil spirit, who had thought he had finally jolted the younger crossbreed's core enough to stun it, instantly froze when he saw what the elder one did to his illusions. It was absolutely shocking! How had the creature broken through and destroyed those illusions?

Plasmius quickly flew down, but seeing the man charge up his hands with energy, Iluzisto snapped out of it and sneered, "Not another move, freak!"

And to make his threat clear, he squeezed the core in his hold harder and Danny screamed in sheer agony. The teen then slumped forward, clearly on the verge of passing out.

But right after, Danny felt something jolt his foggy mind…And for some odd reason, he just knew that his friends and sister were calling him.

"Danny!" Sam, Tucker, and Jazz yelled, finally arriving at the scene along with Skulker, but not close enough for Iluzisto to have noticed yet.

However, Team Phantom and Skulker soon noticed the half-ghosts were not the only ones is serious trouble.

Jazz's eyes widened and she gagged her gasp when she spied another Iluzisto holding onto Justeco farther down and just outside of the enclosed football field!

"Ohmigosh!" she hurriedly whispered to the others before she pointed and continued, "There are two Iluzistos and one of them has Justeco over there!"

Her companions immediately looked to where the red-head was pointing and their eyes also widened in anguish. Their eyes shifted back at the other Iluzisto who had Danny within his grip before they looked at the Iluzisto holding Justeco.

Meanwhile, Vlad raised his hands up in surrender and quickly said, "Alright. You win. Let the boy go, Iluzisto. You said it yourself: the boy is pathetic and weak. You do not need his core... M-Mine will suffice. With it, you will be able to regenerate your powers and do everything a half-ghost can do. You do not need his. Take mine. I am more powerful than the boy will ever be!"

"You might be right," Iluzisto reflected with a smirk. "But why would I waste the chance to break you with his death?"

Vlad's eyes widened with sheer horror; but it was Danny's friends and sister who voiced it, as they screamed, "DANNY!"

As if renewed by their haunting voices, Danny could feel a sudden, faint pulse within his ghostly core. A tiny spark of cold energy had somehow been able to evade Iluzisto's assault. He clung to that hope, digging deeper into it as he had never done before. And as if he had breathed life into a dying ember, his core shuddered. And not even a heartbeat later, he felt a rush before his core was almost ablaze with cold energy.

Danny's eyes snapped into focus and he gripped the arm still embedded in his chest. Charged with energy and now livid with defiance and anger, he pulled back with even more strength than before as he yelled, "Get out of me!"

Iluzisto jolted at feeling his hand being jerked all of the sudden. He looked at the boy in shock. How could this be? His core was…was fully stunned! But now, inexplicably, the evil spirit felt his hand still gripping the boy's core growing more and more painful and numb by the second, as if it were being attacked by ice daggers. And…and what was this? This could not be happening, either! Somehow, the core was hardening and now he was losing his grip on it as surely as if he were trying to hold onto a slippery piece of ice!

Now enraged that the boy must have somehow been able to create some kind of ice shield around his core, Iluzisto growled as his hand sloughed off of it. But the evil spirit was not to be outdone. He just as quickly sent another, stronger round of his ecto-energy straight into Danny, hoping to stun the boy's core once and for all and then yank it out in one clean movement.

Danny gasped in pain as the strong blow slammed into his core just as if it were a giant ice pick. Another one soon followed and Danny's head spun. He just knew that the next one would surely breach his ice shield and leave his core open for the taking…

But at this point, both Danny and Iluzisto had forgotten one very important detail...

Now hearted by the boy's fight and unintentional distraction, Vlad quickly turned into Plasmius and flew forward. He tackled Iluzisto in the next instant, pushing him away from Danny. The boy cried out in pain as his now shocked core was abruptly released. He fell to the ground, turning human from the agony.

Meanwhile, Iluzisto and Plasmius tussled on the ground, trying to physically overpower the other. In fact, Iluzisto's copy just outside the shield was flickering and weakening with its creator's lack of focus as he fought to subdue the older crossbreed. But then Vlad managed to kick Iluzisto's staff away from him. However, getting fed up, the evil spirit yanked the man towards him and phased his hand into his chest, gripping his core.

Vlad screamed in pain, but he quickly summoned his electrical powers, and his very core shocked Iluzisto mercilessly.

The spirit howled in both fury and anger as he was forced to pull away from the man. But he quickly pulled out Okulo's orb and shot it right into Plasmius' core.

Vlad cried out even louder and convulsed as the orb took control of his core.

"Stop!" Iluzisto then commanded and the man ceased all movement except for his labored breathing.

Iluzisto got off the ground and summoned his staff back to his side. He looked back at his paralyzed and frightened victim before he aimed the orb to him again and ordered, "Get up."

Plasmius grunted as his ghostly body moved on its own accord.

"I am sick of you," Iluzisto sneered in his face before ordering, "Hand me your core."

Plasmius's eyes widened as one of his own hands turned intangible and penetrated his own chest.

"No!" he gasped out, as he struggled to get control of his body. But even as he fell to his knees, he could feel his hand squeezing his core harder, while shocking it at the same time. He knew it wouldn't take long to stun his core, and he wasn't sure if he could resist the orb's power commanding him to pull out his own core. All he knew was that the pain was indescribable!

In the meantime, Team Phantom and Skulker had been torn with indecision during the entire time. They continued to bat their gaze between the two Iluzistos and what they were doing, feeling more and more helpless at what they were witnessing.

However, just when Vlad had tackled Iluzisto and Danny was struggling to recover, Sam gasped, "Look at the Iluzisto holding Justeco! He's fading!"

Skulker suddenly growled in anger, "It is a copy! And it's weakening for some reason!"

"But what can we do?" Jazz cried out in anguish.

"Yeah, we don't have any weapons!" Tucker added.

Right then, Iluzisto got the upper hand on Plasmius, but the real Iluzisto was so furious that he's weakened copy was still flickering. And yet, it was still holding onto Justeco's core! And clearly, by the sound of his weakening cries, the once-Head-Observant could take no more!

The hunter frowned with uncertainty; now would be the time to attack this spirit clone. But he did not have anything to really hurt the copy with.

Wait.

He still had his ghost powers!

Still, his weak ecto-blasts were not going to make the copy release Justeco's core. He needed something more effective. But what…? It suddenly hit the hunter, except that it was very unappealing.

"Plasmius better give me a raise for this!" Skulker grumbled, knowing he had no other choice. He then turned intangible and suddenly flew right into Iluzisto's copy.

The copy instantly lit up with Skulker's green energy and it began to scream as the smaller ghost attempted to overshadow it. But in their struggles, the already weakened duplicate was forced to release Justeco who slumped to the ground, unconscious…

In all the while, Danny was panting on his hands and knees, trying to recover. His head was still spinning and his chest was hurting so badly from that close call.

"Danny!" he heard his friends and sister call again after they had run to where he had ended up.

He turned to look at them. They were now right at the dome next to him, their hands placed against the thing keeping them from helping their friend and brother.

He placed his hand right back against the shield, so glad to see they were safe. But then he squeezed his eyes close and opened them with another emotion.

"H-Help Justeco," he told them weakly as he forced himself to wobble to his feet.

"But you need help, too!" Sam yelled back desperately.

"But we can't get through this shield! Not even my PDA can break through it!" Tucker added.

However, at that moment, Vlad's sudden scream resonated through the area, and Danny saw what was happening.

"No!" he whispered out and quickly tried to turn ghost. But the pain in his core left him gasping for air as he dropped back to his knees.

But refusing to let Iluzisto waste Vlad, Danny ignored the fact that he couldn't turn ghost and ran at the spirit.

He barely heard his sister and friends' cries of alarm and fear for him.

However, the boy was slow on his weakened human feet. So, Iluzisto saw him coming almost instantly.

"He just does not know when to quit," Iluzisto sneered in disgust before he aimed at his staff at the teen, planning to blast him away with it.

Seeing that he would not be able to avoid the attack, Danny reflexively gasped, "No!"

To Iluzisto's sudden surprise, his staff's purple glow was abruptly overcome by a blue glow. And then the energy forming for a blast abruptly fizzed out.

Confused yet thankful that the spirit suddenly looked stunned, Danny skirted past him. He then tackled Vlad to the ground, which broke the link between Okulo's orb and Vlad's core. Plasmius instantly pulled out his hand out of his chest and turned human.

"What is this?" Iluzisto hissed in alarm, not really caring right now about the crossbreeds as he tried to figure out why his staff was malfunctioning. And it wasn't the first time it did so, either!

"Oh, that was unpleasant," Vlad panted out, knowing that if even a second more had passed his resistance would have collapse and he would have ripped out his core! He shuddered as he sat up and gripped his chest. But then he saw the boy and he anxiously asked, "Are you alright?"

Danny rubbed his own chest and replied, "Yeah, just a little shell-shocked, I think." Danny then raised one of his hands and summoned energy. He was happy to see his core was slowly responding again, which meant he would be able to turn ghost soon.

"He managed to use Okulo's orb to put a spell around my core, Daniel. I cannot turn ghost again, or I am done for," Vlad said fearfully, trying to slow his pants.

"Not unless we get that orb away from him," Danny replied, his eyes narrowing in determination.

The boy's words joggled Vlad's memory and he hurriedly said, "Daniel, I know how we can outsmart Iluzisto's illusions! Clearly, they can now be used against humans and ghosts! But, they are practically useless against half-ghosts!"

"What? But he's been kicking our butts with them for a while now!" Danny replied, confused.

"No, I mean, the illusions do not work when we are both," Vlad said quickly, though he glanced at Iluzisto who still seemed to be focused on his staff for some reason. "I broke through his prison illusion and got rid of those cloud-like monsters because I was using my ghost powers while human! Do you understand? If we are in a mid-morph stage, which is what happens when our cores are fully active and our bodies are still human, then we can destroy them! And it's possible we might even be immune to them—at least to some extent!"

Danny's eyes widened in understanding; but right then, Iluzisto finally turned his attention back on them.

He stared between the two half-ghosts, a calculating look now in his eye. He had been too cautious in testing these two and had allowed them to get the upper hand. Now it was time to change his strategy of attack. True, he was not being too successful in separating them physically, but there were other things about them he could sever.

"I do not understand you crossbreeds," Iluzisto muttered, a bit of uncertainty in his voice. "Why do you defend each other so fiercely? Are you not enemies? I saw enough of your timeline in the trial to know that together, all you bring about is destruction. You cannot hope to defeat me, not when you are destined to fail in each other's presence. Or, have you forgotten that creature within Clockwork's abode? Is he not testament of your combined failure?"

Danny and Vlad glared back, but then the older hybrid boldly answered, "Or maybe he is a testament of the amount of power we hold together. The Observants knew this and so do you. That's why you and your race fear us. You know we are capable of overpowering and defeating you!"

Iluzisto chuckled as an evil idea came to his mind with the man's words. "You hope in vain, Vlad Plasmius. Even if by some slim chance you two could defeat me today, the reality is that it will change nothing. The boy will return to his life. He will never be yours. He will never care for you like you care for him."

Danny glanced at Vlad with uncertainty, especially when the man refused to look at him. What was Iluzisto trying to do?

Vlad frowned. He knew Iluzisto's intention with all his words. And although they jolted his heart because he knew they were true, the man refused to show it and scoffed with indifference. "You are picking the wrong person to play these mind games with, Iluzisto," Vlad said coolly.

Iluzisto's eye curved into a wicked smirk. "And who says I am playing mind games with you?"

Iluzisto looked at Danny and added, "Is that not right, little crossbreed? We both know the truth. You do not care for this man, in fact, you cannot even trust him. And why would you? He never has helped you out of the kindness of his heart … To think, you had to resort to something as desperate as a lie to get him to help you now…"

Danny's eyes widened in alarm. How… How did Iluzisto know about that?

Iluzisto gleamed with smugness. "What? Did you think I do not know your dark secret, child? You would be surprised all I got out of Justeco with the help of Okulo's orb…"

Vlad frowned in confusion and looked at Danny. "What is he talking about?"

"Yes, what could I possibly be talking about?" The evil spirit interrupted with a mocking voice. "Perhaps you are the one to pity, Vlad Plasmius. You do not even know whom you have placed your hope and trust in. Then again, I cannot blame you. The boy seems so harmless. Who would ever suspect he is capable of conniving and manipulating others as well as you?"

"Stop it!" Danny abruptly snapped. "That's not true!"

"Then, tell the other crossbreed the truth," Iluzisto challenged, having too much fun with this, especially when he knew he was on the verge of accomplishing his purpose.

Danny looked back at Vlad. And seeing the wary but expectant look on his face, the teen could take no more, and helplessly whispered, "I-I… I had to find a way for you to help me, Vlad."

"Indeed he did," the evil spirit interrupted again. "After all, what could persuade a selfish man more than believing his own life is at stake?" Iluzisto said smugly.

But Vlad still did not understand and Danny didn't know what to say, because he knew Iluzisto was just going to twist everything!

"Ironic, is it not?" Iluzisto continued off-handedly. "Here I tricked Justeco into placing upon you crossbreeds the Timeless Magic Spell, so that you would be weakened when I came for you. I was somewhat upset when I later discovered Justeco reached you in time and undid the curse, letting you both recover and join together to 'defeat me.'…"

Vlad's eyes widened in realization, but Iluzisto quickly continued with an amused voice, "That is the ironic part. I am now thankful Justeco undid the spell, since it is thanks to that fact that I can say the young crossbreed tricked you into willingly fighting alongside him now. That is the real truth. Open your eyes, Vlad Plasmius. And look at the real illusion before you: the child who you are intent on defending from me has led you without an ounce of remorse to your demise."

Though the spirit knew he had them both in every sense now, he was willing to wait a few more moments to relish what he knew would happen next. After all, he had learned a lot about these two from his dealings with them in his prison —and still relished torturing them now.

Vlad could not even think of a retort to Iluzisto's scalding words. But still unable to believe the truth, he slowly turned his eyes to Danny and anyone could see that his incredulity and something more vulnerable was hidden behind them…

"There is no deathly curse on me? You… lied…. You tricked me?"

"You wouldn't have helped me otherwise!" Danny exclaimed back. "You gave me no other choice!"

Vlad's eyes suddenly flashed red with rage. "Really? I gave you no other choice but to dangle my life as some worthless bait to do your bidding?" He hissed back.

"What? That's not what I—!" Danny began to protest, but was cut off.

"Curses, Daniel!" Vlad exclaimed, completely ticked off. "Do you ever think anything through?"

"Look, Vlad," Danny growled, growing frustrated with the man's last words. "If I made up that lie, it's because I had to! I asked you to help me on good terms, and you turned me down! It was all I could do!"

"Did it ever occur to you that if I turned you down the first time, it was because I was furious with the Observants?" Vlad growled back. "Did it ever occur to you that I would have ultimately helped you without the need of your little trick, not because I care about the Observants, but because I care about you?"

"Well, you have a lame way of showing it, Plasmius!" Danny snapped back.

Vlad's hands suddenly fisted at his sides. "You are probably right, and clearly, it's also a waste of my time to pretend to care! And you know what else? You were also right about one other thing: we will always be enemies. Because clearly we cannot trust each other enough to ever be truly honest with one another!"

Danny just stared back at the man, his words hurting more than they should have.

"Tsk. Do not be so hard on the boy, Vlad Plasmius," Iluzisto teased, jumping back into the argument. All was almost ripe. Not only that, he admittedly loved how the crossbreeds so easily forgot about everything around them when they fought. "You really did give him no choice but to betray you. Really, just how many times have you done the same?"

Danny and Vlad quickly glared at the spirit, and suddenly more furious with the spirit, the two quickly raised their hands and fired a strong ecto-blast at him.

Iluzisto tried to block it with his staff, but to his surprise, the rapid combined energy was so strong that it threw him back all the same.

Iluzisto hissed as he quickly got back up. That was enough to shake the smugness out of him. He then yielded to his more sadistic side as he growled, "Not in the mood for any more discussion? Fine. Then how about you both do what you do best?"

Danny and Vlad jolted when twenty illusions of each of themselves appeared around them.

"Fight yourselves, crossbreeds," Iluzisto said evilly.

Returning to mid-morph, Vlad quickly raised a shield as a perfect image of Danny Phantom threw an energy blast at him. The force hit the shield and shook it. And even though the man now had leverage against the illusions in his mid-morph state, he now knew they could still hurt him if he let his guard down. And seeing, the other nineteen illusions of the Ghost Boy come at him, the man began to move back, dropping his shield and switching into attack mode.

Meanwhile, Danny turned into his ghost form and flew away from the twenty Plasmiuses now chasing after him. He put some distance between himself and the illusions before turning on his back and firing a beam of energy at the closest one. But when it just went right through the illusion, the teen's eyes widened as he remembered what Vlad had told him earlier.

"Mid-morph, dude…" Danny muttered, chiding himself.

He quickly concentrated as he recalled that one time in the Ghost Zone that he had somehow managed to be ghost and human at the same time. And recalling that and the feeling of manipulating his transformation rings from all the times he had had to repair his core, the boy let his rings pass over him.

He instantly turned human and quickly inspected himself. Under the situation, he couldn't say he was pleased, but he could tell that his ghostly core was still fully active and he was in mid-morph because he could see his black bangs, his ghost suit remained on his body and his skin still had a ghostly white hue around it.

"Evil puberty all over again," Danny muttered before halting completely and firing at the closest illusion of Plasmius again.

This time, the blast hit the illusion and it dispersed. Danny quickly began shooting more rays at the incoming illusions. As he fought on, he soon learned that although the illusions were capable of hurting him if they got a hit him from the front, they could not affect him from behind—while he was facing away from them. It was very much like what had happened at the pier again; except this time, Danny could hit the illusions from anywhere and destroy them. This certainly leveled the playing field!

But the half-ghosts were not the only ones to see what was happening.

Iluzisto's eye narrowed in displeasure as he watched the crossbreeds quickly wiping out his illusions. So, they had found yet another loophole against his illusions. And it was very visible how they were doing it. Somehow, these creatures were able to be both human and ghost at once. Their unique status made them all but immune to his illusions!

Iluzisto quickly pulled out Okulo's orb and attempted to use it to take control of the unsuspecting older crossbreed's core. But nothing happened! He didn't understand it! They looked human, but they were glowing and moving like ghosts. Their cores seemed active, but they were untouchable! Iluzisto was having a hard time even feeling their energy levels, which meant he could not take hold of their cores as they were. No, this wouldn't do! He needed them to return to their complete ghost forms! But he also needed them further weakened! And he now knew from his recent attempts to take their cores that it was not as easy as he had thought. Their cores almost fought back on their own accord, like an immune system. He needed to stun the cores long enough to pull them out; and to do that, Iluzisto needed to drain the crossbreeds of as much energy as possible!

It was time for more direct attacks, and now that he had managed to split up the crossbreeds in more ways than one, there would be no more resistance from them and this would end quickly.

Iluzisto suddenly began to glow as he made ten copies of himself, five going towards Danny and the remaining five towards Vlad.

Meanwhile, outside the shield, Team Phantom was still trying to get past it, but with no luck. All they could do was watch, as their friend and brother fought on.

But Skulker was having another kind of struggle, not too far from Sam, Jazz, and Tucker. He was still trying to keep control of Iluzisto's copy. But it was just too strong, and in his weaker true form, his strength was reaching its end.

"Whelps!" Skulker suddenly exclaimed from within the Iluzisto copy. And getting their attention, he hurriedly warned, "You all need to get away! I cannot hold him any longer!"

But the kids refused to move. They were not about to flee and leave Danny or Skulker alone, even if they were powerless to help either right now.

Skulker grunted just before the Iluzisto copy pushed him out, sending him careening away. The little green blob slammed into the ground, instantly falling unconscious.

"Skulker!" Jazz exclaimed; but she and Danny's friends froze when Iluzisto's copy fixed his glare on them.

"It seems I will have to vaporize you feeble varmints to assure myself of your demise!" he hissed darkly, raising his duplicated staff at them.

The kids took a step back, knowing all they could do when they were weaponless was wait for the attack.

But it never came.

"Leave… Leave them alone," Justeco suddenly whispered.

Iluzisto's clone turned around and gasped when he saw Justeco was conscious and free from his bindings. Iluzisto quickly realized that in his struggle with Skulker, he must have lost his focus completely, and the bindings on Justeco had faded away.

But in spite of being too weak to levitate now, Justeco had somehow crawled towards the orb—his orb—that the copy had dropped while he had been overshadowed, and it was now in Justeco's outstretched hand.

The fake Iluzisto could do nothing as Justeco's orb shot out a blue energy beam and instantly destroyed it.

"Justecto!" the kids exclaimed and ran over to him, quickly helping him to sit up and lean against the shield.

But then Tucker jolted and hurriedly said, "Hold on. Let me go check on Skulker!"

The boy ran over to the small ghost blob and smiled when he saw the hunter coming back to his senses.

Scooping him up, Tucker said, "You know, for a little dude, you're pretty tough, Skulker."

Skulker gripped his spinning head as he glared up at the boy, replying, "Whelp, if you ever call me 'little' again, I will skin you alive as soon as I get back in my suit!"

Tucker chuckled, knowing the ghost didn't mean it. "Yeah, I'll make a note of that."

He then took them back over to where Justeco and the girls were, saying, "He's okay."

Sam and Jazz briefly smiled at Skulker, but then they turned their attention back to Justeco.

"So, you're saying this shield is made by Timeless Magic, and only Timeless Magic can break through it?" Jazz repeated, going back to what they had been talking about before Tucker and Skulker had come.

Justeco closed his eye as his form flickered again, but he nodded and weakly replied, "Yes, he created it with my orb. And… I am too weak to dispel something so strong and large."

"Well, can't we use your orb?" Sam asked worriedly.

"Only spirits can will Timeless Magic," Skulker replied for Justeco.

"Then…," Jazz said dejectedly. "We can't help Danny."

"And they don't seem to be doing too well anymore. What happened?" Tucker asked as he saw Danny and Vlad on opposite sides of the dome, now being pummeled by Iluzisto's copies. All they had seen was that Iluzisto had stopped attacking for a moment and was talking to them about something. They had been too far for the kids to hear what; but whatever it was, it had upset Danny and Vlad by the looks on their faces….

"They… They must fight together," Justeco whispered weakly. He slightly paused at his next thought but immediately acted upon it. He groaned as he began to struggle to turn to face the shield.

"What are you doing, Justeco?" Sam asked, though she helped him move all the same.

Justeco's form continued to flicker in and out of existence as he raised his orb against the shield, saying, "My orb… Vlad Plasmius… He can… use it. I must… get it to him."

"Wait. I thought only spirits can use Timeless Magic!" Tucker exclaimed, now confused.

But he wasn't the only one, because Skulker and the girls looked equally as shocked.

"You must trust me…," Justeco whispered, his eye closing as he fought to stay conscious.

The kids shared a look with Skulker, who nodded and quickly flew up. He moved as close to the shield as possible, trying to get his employer's attention. But it was hard when the man was so focused on his current battle.

All Team Phantom could then do was watch as things continued to get worse as the sun slowly began to creep down behind Casper High…

---

Vlad groaned as another Iluzisto clone came from nowhere and hit him with an ecto-blast in the stomach, dropping him to his knees.

True, using his mid-morph status gave him an advantage over Iluzisto's illusions. In fact, he had destroyed all the 'Danny illusions'. But it left him vulnerable to Iluzisto's real attacks. And to his misfortune, he could not even risk turning back into his full ghost form, or risk Iluzisto taking control of him with Okulo's orb.

And then it would be all over.

His spinning head focused when he heard another of Danny's cries from somewhere. He then frowned when he noticed that the boy had turned back into his full ghost form and was getting blasted by a couple of Iluzisto's clones. Not that he could really blame Daniel. After all, he had also already found out the hard way that fighting in their mid-morph state was only effective against the spirit's illusions—and not his clones. And that was because of what Iluzisto had already told them: that unlike his illusions, Iluzisto's clones were so powerful that they were essentially equal to the original. So, that meant that both he and Daniel would be able to best withstand the Iluzisto copies' more powerful and very real blows when they were in their full ghost forms.

But that also meant that now that the boy was in full ghost form, his energy rays were merely shooting through the two remaining illusions of Plasmius that Daniel had yet been able to destroy. And then, of course, the illusions were able to return effective fire back at the boy.

He and Daniel really had gotten themselves into a 'lose-lose' situation. They were quickly running out of energy and Iluzisto was as strong as ever.

Vlad realized right then that that had been Iluzisto plan all along: to wear them out until they couldn't even kick anymore as he took their cores. But in spite of seeing the inevitable closing in on him and the boy, Vlad refused to give in.

Feeling more than seeing the real Iluzisto come at him, Vlad teleported, only to be intercepted by one of Iluzisto's copies. The clone blasted him from behind, throwing him back to the ground.

Meanwhile, Danny cried out as he was slammed face first into the shield by one of the Plasmius illusions. It was actually more upsetting to him to be getting his butt kicked by illusions of the guy he was supposed to be fighting alongside with. Worse, he also had to keep an eye on Iluzisto's copies, which continued to try and capture him now that he was in full ghost form—to ripe out his core, no doubt!

But Danny now understood what Iluzisto had done. He had split Vlad and him up to get the upper hand, because it was true what Justeco proclaimed all along!

They could defeat Iluzisto—but only together!

And Iluzisto knew it, too, and was afraid, which was why he had used that cheap move to get Vlad and him to fight! And now Danny wished he had told Vlad the truth all along…

Still, he had to push those thoughts aside. Feeling that he was unable to take any more hits, Danny concentrated and turned back to his mid-morph stage and fired several blasts, destroying the remaining Plasmius illusions.

But having already figured out that the half-ghosts were more vulnerable to their direct attacks in this mid-morph form, Iluzisto's copies did not hesitate to take advantage of that and quickly came at the teen with even more force.

Danny was hit by an ecto-blast in the chest, which jolted not just his core, but his very heart with pain. Still, he got right back up, feeling his anger fuel his stubbornness. Danny quickly retorted with several energy blasts, hitting anything that had a smirking eyeball as a head.

"Such a feisty creature you are," one of the copies teased.

"Shut it, you creep!" Danny growled back, firing at the Iluzisto that had said that.

But even when that one was shoved away, another continued, "But I cannot help to notice that under all that anger and determination is an even stronger sense of guilt."

Danny hissed like an angry mamba when another copy snuck up behind him and wrenched his arms behind him. "Let go of me!" he yelled furiously.

Of course, his demand was ignored, and the same copy that had been speaking before continued, "Not that I blame you. To think, you two were so close to defeating me, only for your silly little lie to bring it all crumbling down. It must be a blow to your heroic pride to know that you are the one solely responsible for the demise of not only you and the other crossbreed, but soon of the Observants and the rest of this town."

"Yeah, keep talking, creep! I'm not done yet!" Danny snarled back, as he struggled to escape.

"But that is where you are wrong, crossbreed. You are done. And so is the other crossbreed. You have both lost. Observe," Iluzisto said, waving his staff towards the setting sun. "The Observants will be no more in a matter of minutes. Face it, child. You failed all because of one. Single. Lie."

Danny glowered, but the pain of his guilt in his blue eyes was too great to mask. Still, he refused to give in as he retorted, "Maybe you're right, but… I'm going to kick your butt for as long as I can!"

Danny suddenly morphed completely again and took a massive intake of air, before screaming with all his emotional distress. The sound instantly turned tangible as his Ghostly Wail slammed into all the Iluzisto copies, destroying them in an instant.

But Danny didn't stop there. He quickly flew towards where Vlad was struggling with the other duplicates and let loose another wail.

Vlad, having heard and seen the first wail, had already been alerted to the teen's bold but risky move. So, the man didn't even wait for Danny to release the second wail before trying to dart out of the way. But much to the man's dismay—though he couldn't say that he was surprised—the boy's acoustical power still clipped him and sent him hurtling to the ground.

But this also wasn't the first time Iluzisto had seen the younger crossbreed use this particular attack. In fact, the spirit remembered all too well the brunt force of it when he had been subjected to this powerful force the day he had captured these two crossbreeds.

Unfortunately for the spirit, however, he had been too close to the boy when he released his second wail and Iluzisto was sent hurling back. All the clones also began to puff out of existence the moment the powerful ecto-waves hit them. But just before the last clone could be hit, it reacted and fired an ecto-blast at the Ghost Boy. The last copy was destroyed just as the beam struck the boy in the stomach.

Danny yelped as he was thrown back and slammed into the ground, instantly turning human and passing out.

"Daniel!" Vlad gasped as he struggled to his feet.

But then he glanced over at Iluzisto, who seemed to be having a hard time recovering from this last round of might. Still, the spirit was far from being down for the count. The man looked back at the younger hybrid, now more worried that he hadn't yet recovered. The older hybrid was certain he and the teen couldn't take anymore. And for once, Vlad didn't know what to do. In fact, losing this fight was no longer a possibility: it was a reality. He had assured the boy so fervently that neither of them would lose their lives today, and now, it seemed inevitable. It frightened the man more than he ever thought possible.

"Plasmius!"

The man turned his attention towards the sound and saw Skulker's blob form floating outside the shield. The hunter had finally been able to get close enough to his employer to get his attention.

"Skulker?" he questioned, finally really noticing that his ally was there.

"Justeco's orb! He says you can use it!" the hunter quickly exclaimed.

Vlad turned his eyes to Justeco, who was still on the ground against the shield but now facing him. But then the man's eyes darted toward Iluzisto. The spirit was now up and glaring murderously in Danny's direction. The older hybrid hesitated, the emotional part of him wanting to go to the boy and protect him to the very end. But his logic told him he needed another plan in order to survive, but that meant briefly leaving Danny to the hands of Iluzisto.

"Vlad!" Skulker abruptly yelled.

Vlad jolted at hearing his ally uncharacteristically use his first name and looked at Skulker. And for the first time, Vlad saw unhidden worry on his ally's face: the Ghost Hunter was afraid for him.

It was all the older hybrid needed to snap out of his emotional distress and do what he needed to do.

He glanced one last time at Iluzisto, and making sure the spirit was focused on Danny, Vlad, still in mid-morph mode, flew over to where Justeco was.

Placing a hand on the shield, Plasmius said with great urgency, "Justeco, you must get this shield down!"

But the spirit shook his head and weakly said, "I cannot. But you… you can. You know you can."

Vlad's eyes widened as the spirit used whatever strength he had left to create a small opening with his orb. He then pushed the orb inside just before the shield closed back up.

Vlad grabbed the orb, seeing it turn red with his power.

"Vlad," Justeco said, surprising the man, but getting his attention all the same. "Stand and fight… together."

Everyone gasped as Justeco suddenly passed out, his body now slowly breaking up.

"No!" Jazz cried out in distress and helplessness.

"Vlad!" Sam said firmly and desperately, "You have to do something! Help Danny! Help Justeco!"

Vlad frowned at the kids before looking at Skulker and seeing that unhidden troubled expression on his face.

The older hybrid slowly lowered his gaze at the orb in his hand. He knew they were all right. Things were more dire than ever. There was no more room for mistakes or petty fights with the boy.

Daniel and he needed to stop Iluzisto now. And there was only one way to do it.

They had to do it together.

Vlad's eyes narrowed in determination. Suddenly, however, his concentration was interrupted when an ecto-blast slammed into his back and thrust him into the actual shield. But he had somehow managed to tighten his grip around the orb.

The kids and Skulker cried out in alarm, but they could do nothing.

Iluzisto growled, angry at himself even as he shot the older crossbreed. He had been so focused on getting his revenge on the unconscious younger crossbreed, he had almost missed seeing the man not only suddenly near the feeble humans and ghost on the outside the shield, but also speaking with them! And Justeco was also near them all! And even though Iluzisto could tell that Justeco was just about to disintegrate, he would not risk having the ex-Head Observant attempting to help the crossbreeds even at his end. Not now, when Iluzisto was nearly triumphant!

But what the evil spirit didn't know was that he had just missed seeing Justeco speaking with the man, and the fact that the other Observant had given Plasmius his orb.

Meanwhile, Vlad's head spun so badly with the savage attack that he thought he was going to pass out. But he concentrated on the pain to keep himself focused, especially when he suddenly felt a cold arm wrap itself around his neck and yank him off the shield.

"Come here, you freak!" Iluzisto hissed in his ear.

Vlad coughed as the choke hold tightened, barely letting him breathe. But the man thought fast and quickly shoved one of his elbows into Iluzisto's chest—or, tried to.

The spirit reacted and turned his chest and abdomen intangible before he slammed his staff into the back of the man's head while still maintaining his choke hold.

His head now spinning wildly from that blow and the pressure around his neck, Vlad almost lost his grip on the orb—the orb!

But even as he realized that he was rapidly losing consciousness and Iluzisto was now holding him so tightly that he could not breathe, the man's brain screamed at him to use the orb! He instantly resisted the spirit even more, trying to pull the orb up enough. But in the next instant, he felt his strength failing as quickly as his depleted oxygen reserve. Nevertheless, he tried even harder to resist that dark curtain as it began to fall over his eyes, even while also realizing that wielding the orb would not be possible at this moment. But he wasn't ready to give in and now was more worried about losing the orb! Instinctively and with his last ounce of strength, he struggled to do the next best thing: he pulled the orb upward and shoved it into one of his pants pockets. And right after he did, he could no longer resist Iluzisto.

Suddenly, however, for some reason, Iluzisto let go! The man violently coughed but then began to gulp in air even when he could then feel Iluzisto's cold and rough hands harshly yank his hands behind his back. But right now he could do nothing about it, especially when Iluzisto used real ghost energy to bind his hands behind him, while holding him down.

But with his anger and pride instantly rekindling, Vlad's eyes flashed red. "Let go of me, you wretch!" he growled as he began to charge energy though his body. He didn't care how weak he was! He wasn't submitting to this loathsome creature just yet!

Too bad Iluzisto was having none of that.

"You are certainly resilient. This should take care of that,…." the spirit sneered as he increased his hold around the older crossbreed neck again and quickly siphoned off energy from him using his absorbing powers. He took enough energy from Plasmius to weaken him further and stop him from getting any more ideas.

Vlad groaned out loud this time as his head spun horribly, vaguely aware that Iluzisto was even pulling him somewhere. That is, until the spirit suddenly removed his arm from around his neck and then thrust him right at Danny's unmoving form.

Vlad gasped as he fell on top of the teen, who finally moaned into consciousness from the sudden painful weight on top of him.

"Foolish creatures. All your efforts have been in vain," Iluzisto hissed down at the helpless half-ghosts, watching as the older one managed to get off the younger one in spite that the man's hands were still bound behind his back.

"All you have done is delay your fate and make me really angry," Iluzisto growled just as he raised his hand and violently thrust a beam into Danny and then Vlad.

The two hybrids gasped and fell over in pain as the air was ripped right out of their lungs.

Eyes squeezed close with both physical and emotional pain, Vlad attempted to get his mind to work through it. He needed to think! But everything was unraveling so quickly that trying to come up with something was like trying to learn to swim when you were already drowning!

Why? Why had he let Iluzisto split him and the boy up and get the upper hand? That mistake had them on the verge of losing… more than their lives.

Even as Danny was trying to pull in enough air back into his lungs, the pain was enough to jolt his mind fully. He looked at Vlad with blurry eyes and gasped with a pant when the older hybrid looked as horrible as the teen himself felt—both physically and conscious-wise.

"V-Vlad," he called hoarsely to the man. And seeing the other hybrid's eyes slowly open to look at him, the boy added, "I'm sorry."

"How sweet…," Iluzisto suddenly interrupted. "Saying your good-byes? I suppose I understand. But… I've grown impatient and have toyed with you more than long enough."

Danny yelped as Iluzisto suddenly reached forward and grabbed him by the hair. Instinctively, the boy's hands latched onto the hand in his hair as he was wrenched to his feet. In spite of the pain, the teen's eyes turned green with hate, even when Iluzisto lowered the sharp end of his staff against his neck.

"You first, since I made a promise to your elder counterpart," Iluzisto said darkly; and because he was human, Iluzisto had no problem using his illusion powers to make the boy suffer.

Danny gasped as he saw his feet slowly freeze over and then begin to crawl up his body.

"What is wrong, little mutt? I thought you liked the cold," Iluzisto taunted; but he knew how vulnerable humans were to extreme conditions. And with the boy having an ice core, it would instinctively trigger his body to turn ghost in order to withstand what it naturally produced… Or, at least, that was the plan.

"No!" Danny grunted in both pain and frustration when he felt his core begin to twitch as the ice crawled higher and higher over his body. All his being was pleading for him to morph and push away the coldness, much like he had needed to when his ice powers first woke.

But he knew if he morphed, Iluzisto was going to waste him!

Meanwhile, seeing what was happening, Vlad struggled to get his hands free, but it was useless with his own physical strength. Iluzisto had really left him with very little energy with that blasted ability of his to take other's energies! And although he could also feel his core quickly regenerating his lost energy, it wasn't going to be quick enough to help the boy!

But then…

The orb. He had to get the orb! It was the only card they had left!

Vlad leaned to his side and curled his body as he struggled to get his hands close to his pocket. Fingers just barely stroked the bulge that was the orb, but he still began to push against it to get it to come out. All the while, his eyes continued to dart back to Iluzisto and Danny, feeling his desperation threatening to break his focus and panic. But when he saw the ice reach the boy's chest and the teen cry out, the man forced himself to look away before he lost it.

Nevertheless, more than ever, the man was glad Iluzisto's mindset was so ghost-like. When presented with his obsession for power, the creature developed tunnel-vision, focusing solely on that want. It was the main reason why Iluzisto wouldn't take his eye off the young hybrid. That, and the spirit was convinced the older one was completely helpless.

Vlad was about to prove him sorely wrong. Or, he hoped, anyways.

"Blast!" the man thought in irritation and frustration when the orb refused to bulge. "I never thought I would ever feel as fat as Jack!"

The orb was now just peeking out of his pocket. And when he saw a dull glow coming from behind him every time his fingers brushed against the orb, he suddenly got an even better idea. Switching tactics, Vlad fought to get the energy-bonds around his wrist closer to the orb.

"Come on!" he quietly grunted when he actually felt the temperature rise and felt the vibration near his wrists. The orb must have activated! "Break… Break it!" he pleaded.

And in an instant, the orb shot out a beam and broke the binds around the man's wrists.

Vlad froze in disbelief, only to be driven by sudden hope.

Meanwhile, Danny was at his strength's end as he fought against his transformation rings. It was horrible! It felt like he was back in Vlad's mid-morph pod during the whole cloning thing—only worse!

Finally, his tired body couldn't take anymore, and with a reluctant cry, Danny's body morphed, quickly dispelling the 'supposed' ice around his body just as he reached mid-morph. Much as he tried, he was unable to control his transformation from returning him to his full ghost form.

Iluzisto hardly cared that the boy had done away with his illusion, and instead, he yanked the teen closer to his staff and hissed in delight, "I am going to carve out your core."

Danny attempted to change back, but Iluzisto had had the foresight to use his illusion powers to negate such an attempt. He was not letting anything stop him from taking the boy's core!

"No! Don't!" Danny cried out when Iluzisto angled his staff to deliver his fatal blow.

"Iluzisto!"

The spirit's eye darted towards the older hybrid, as if finally remembering his existence. In fact, Iluzisto jolted when the man changed into Plasmius and then aim a hand at him. He had not seen that coming.

"You want the boy's core? You'll have to destroy me, first!" Vlad challenged before firing a bright red ecto-bolt at the spirit.

Iluzisto was forced to let go of the teen to evade the attack, and ignoring the thunderous clap as the bolt hit the shield somewhere behind him, the spirit quickly pulled out Okulo's core. The foolish man had just sealed his doom by turning into his full ghost form!

But just as Iluzisto aimed Okulo's orb, Vlad raised the pulsing red orb hidden in his own hand, having already predicted the evil spirit's move. With a growl, Plasmius fired a ray of blue Timeless Magic right at Iluzisto's extended hand.

The spirit yelled when the ray struck true and Okulo's orb was thrown out of his hand. In an instant, it flew through the air before hitting the ground and shattering into a million pieces.

Iluzisto froze in shock as he stared at the remains of Okulo's orb. But then his eye slowly moved to the older crossbreed, watching as the brand on his forehead faded away with the orb's destruction.

Danny also noticed this and placed a hand on his forehead, touching the spot where his brand was, feeling as it also disappeared.

But the teen was shocked, too, at how Vlad had just destroyed Okulo's orb. He had done it with Justeco's orb! But how was that possible? He thought only Justeco could wield that orb! Not only that, Danny vividly remembered when he had touched the orb that one time in Vlad's living room. It had dimmed with his touch. But with Plasmius' touching it, it was glowing a bright red! And if that wasn't enough, there was also that red smoke pouring out of Vlad's mouth again. Danny had no idea what to make of it all!

But Iluzisto finally voiced his own disbelief.

"How…? Only spirits can will Timeless Magic!" the evil spirit exclaimed.

"I guess I'm the exception to that rule," Vlad sneered before releasing another beam from the orb, this time, hitting the spirit right in the chest.

For the first time, Iluzisto actually screamed in pure agony as he was thrown back. But the man didn't stop there and he quickly fired another round through the orb at the fallen spirit, who gasped as he felt himself actually weakening.

However, knowing he couldn't take anymore Timeless Magic attacks, Iluzisto quickly reached for his staff. And just as a third ray came at him, the spirit fired a time ray.

The two similar forces collided, and the result was an instant explosion so strong that Vlad was thrown off his feet and the orb flew out of his hand.

"No!" the man yelled as the orb shattered on the ground, much like Okulo's orb.

He didn't see the shield begin to flicker in and out of existence with the destruction of Justeco's orb. But Danny did.

With a gasp, Danny quickly flew towards Vlad and pulled him up to a stand, saying, "Now's our chance, Vlad! We can beat him back!"

Plasmius looked over at Iluzisto, who was struggling to get back up. Daniel was right, but they had just lost Justeco's orb—the only thing that seemed to have a real effect on Iluzisto! So, how were they going to defeat this creature without it?

"Stand and fight… together."

Vlad's eyes suddenly narrowed with determination as Justeco's words echoed in his brain. Now he understood.

"You up for a bit of that 'teamwork' you love so much?" the man quipped with a smirk.

Danny grinned and replied determinedly, "Heck, yeah!"

"But first," Vlad added, his smirk still apparent as he suddenly willed his transformation rings and then turned human.

Danny frowned in confusion until he saw Vlad immediately reactivate his transformation rings until he was holding them steady in mid-morph until a glow surrounded him.

Now Danny knew that Vlad was recharging his core and his energy. The boy immediately followed suit, not only readying his core, but also digging deeper into what he called his inner strength.

The two half-ghosts turned ghost again, now ready for the final battle!

As if they instinctively knew what to do, the boy quickly began to make an ice-sphere as Vlad stepped closer and placed his hand over it, feeding it with electrical energy which quickly melted the inside of the sphere—but only just enough. That thin layer of liquid actually then began to boil a bit as the man's energy connected with the the ionic properties in the water and surged in power. Nevertheless, the bucking energy remained contained with the encasing of ice that Danny kept building.

Just then, Iluzisto finally was able to get up. He glared viciously over at the crossbreeds and groaned slightly in pain before producing two copies of himself.

However, oddly feeling the awakening of the spirit's two duplicates, Plasmius quickly moved in front of Danny, hiding him from Iluzisto's view and therefore also the vibrant energy orb now ready in the boy's hands.

"You know," the older hybrid began casually, eyes locked on the evil spirit, "—only cheap magicians steal someone else's tricks."

But Iluzisto was too angry to talk anymore, and he sent his copies forward to attack. Vlad reacted, too, though, and fired two ecto-beams at Iluzisto. As he expected, the spirit flew up to avoid the twin force.

And that was Danny's cue.

"Hey!" Danny called out, quickly floating up from behind the older hybrid, his hands held high above his head, holding the combined sphere of ice and electricity. "The cheesehead's right. You should learn to be more original… LIKE US!"

Not having expected the sudden attack from the younger crossbreed, let alone one of this magnitude, Iluzisto could only gasp as the combined force hit him right in the chest. The explosion immediately froze him just as his body was invaded by a strong electrical current, which instantly jolted him mercilessly from within.

Waves of energy poured out of Iluzisto as he dropped to the ground, screaming as the melting coldness encasing his body only fueled the electricity pulsating through his body. The attack left him so unfocused that his copies instantly vanished before they could do anything.

But the hybrids didn't give the spirit time to recover. Planting their feet firmly on the ground and lining up next to each other, Vlad and Danny's hands brightened with their energy.

They glanced briefly at each other, oddly feeling in sync. They locked their eyes on their foe and fired their energy at him at the exact same time.

Compact, contained red energy and wild, raw green energy twirled and twisted around each other as they shot forward, looking briefly like the dance of ying-yang before they merged and the now lone beam darkened into a shade of blue. But in the next instant, just before the massive power struck Iluzisto, the energy changed colors again, but it was something neither half-ghost had ever thought possible.

A flash of bright white light suddenly exploded out of the still churning combined energy before it turned gold and engulfed Iluzisto.

The evil spirit screamed even louder in pain as his body ignited with the golden energy. And in spite of being shocked by what they were creating, the hybrids held their ground and continued to pour out their energy, watching in awe as it continued to turn gold in color and peel away Iluzisto's strength and power.

Unable to take anymore, the spirit at last dropped to his side, the staff falling from his hold.

Danny and Vlad instantly halted their attack. But not wanting to take another chance, the teen quickly soared over to the staff. He remembered full well what had happened to Vlad after he had touched it, so Danny coated it in ice, grabbed it, and flew back over to Vlad.

Right then, the shield finally flickered out of existence. But Team Phantom and Skulker stood stunned and in awe at what they had just witnessed.

All the while, Iluzisto moaned as he struggled to even sit up. What had those creatures done to him? He had never felt anything so powerful and weakening as their last attacks!

"It's no use, Iluzisto," Vlad muttered, eyes narrowed. "You are out of energy. And unlike us, your core cannot regenerate your lost power. In other words, you're finished."

Iluzisto chuckled weakly as he finally managed to sit up and focus his blood-shot eye on the hybrids. "Fools," he replied hoarsely. "You think you have won? No, you have not won anything. You are too late to save the Observants!"

Danny's eyes darted to Justeco, and seeing his form barely there, he looked up at the sky.

The sun had gone down!

"No. No, no, no!" Danny cried out in anguish. And beyond logic, he yelled, "Stop!", as if that would command the last beam of sunlight to freeze.

Oddly, Iluzisto's staff flashed blue within the boy's hold in spite of it being frozen; but then just as suddenly, Justeco vanished completely.

"NO!" Danny screamed, while his sister and friends, who had been next to the Observant leader, gasped. He was gone!

Iluzisto laughed. "You lose, crossbreeds! Without the Observants, all Existence now belongs to me! Behold, Iluzisto the Insidious! You might have weakened me for the moment, but you cannot destroy me for I am no ghost. I just need to return to my realm to recover and I will be back as strong as ever and finish what I started. You will never be rid of me!""

Vlad's eyebrows creased with worry, because he knew the spirit was right. They had no means of containing Iluzisto without the Observants around and they had no way of destroying him because he was a spirit.

And seeing that the crossbreeds had fallen speechless, Iluzisto just laughed harder. "You also forget one other thing, crossbreeds…. I might be out of energy, but I still have one last card to play… Staff, come to me."

Danny gasped as the frozen staff in his hand began to shake and glow purple just as it tried to pry itself out of the boy's hands.

"No!" Danny grunted, fighting against the invisible pull.

All of the sudden, however, the staff began to glow blue again.

And seeing what was happening, Iluzisto's eye widened, finally realizing why the staff kept malfunctioning around the younger crossbreed. He growled at the thought. No matter! It was still his staff!

"I said, come!" Iluzisto ordered more fiercely.

Danny cried out when he was yanked forward as the staff struggled to escape his grip. And suddenly, purple energy appeared alongside of the blue aura and surged around the staff, quickly cracking the ice around it.

"Daniel!" Vlad yelled in alarm. "Let it go!"

"No, I'm not letting him get this back! It… It isn't his!" Danny suddenly yelled, just before the ice shattered completely and the purple and blue energy exploded outward, engulfing the boy within it.

"NO!" Vlad screamed before charging his energy and aiming at the Observant, only to see the spirit suddenly vanish.

"Plasmius! Behind you!" Skulker yelled out.

But it was too late. Just as Vlad whirled around, Iluzisto delivered a devastating blow to the side of the man's head with his remaining energy.

As Plasmius fell to his knees in pain, Iluzisto then turned back to Danny, who was still struggling with the staff.

"Staff, I command you to come to me NOW!" Iluzisto yelled.

But the blue and purple energy around the staff only whirled faster and Danny screamed as he felt his body weakening with the overwhelming forces circling around him. And yet, it was strange. Instead of attacking him, it felt like the two forces were attacking each other, and he was just caught in the middle of it!

Suddenly, as if the blue energy had devoured the purple energy, the staff exploded in an even brighter blueness. A terrifying ripping sound echoed in the air not even a heartbeat later as Clockwork's time staff and Iluzisto's staff abruptly pulled away from each other, emerging as separate staffs once more.

Danny screamed as he was sent flying back with Clockwork's staff in his hand, while Iluzisto's own staff flew right at the evil spirit before he caught it in his hand.

Iluzisto's eye turned bright red in anger. Incredibly, the little freak had managed to separate the staffs! He would surely pay for that!

Iluzisto aimed his own staff at the recovering boy, ready to deliver a paralyzing blow.

But Vlad, who had managed to get to his knees, reached forward, and grabbed the spirit's tail. He used his remaining energy to send a jolt of energy into the evil spirit.

Iluzisto yelled in pain, but quickly slammed the end of his staff into the man's gut.

The man wheezed as he struggled to get away from the impending danger, but he never managed it. And suddenly, he felt something even worse than the forceful loss of air slice through his stomach…

Danny was just recovering and getting to his feet when he heard Vlad's scream resonate through the air.

The boy's eyes darted to his direction, only for them to widened in horror as he saw Iluzisto push the sharp end of his staff deeper into the man's stomach before yanking it back out.

"Do not move," Iluzisto muttered darkly at the fallen older crossbreed before turning away and focusing back on the younger one.

"VLAD!" Danny exclaimed, seeing a puddle of green blood forming around the man. But the teen froze again when Iluzisto abruptly appeared a few feet from him.

The boy quickly readied himself into a fight stance, Clockwork's staff clutched in one of his hands.

Iluzisto narrowed his eyes at the boy, though there was some wariness behind his anger as he noticed how the child's body was glowing with the staff's blue energy.

"Give that to me," the spirit ordered menacingly.

"Forget it, pal! This isn't yours. It belongs to Clockwork!" Danny replied firmly, his free hand filling with ghost energy.

"Clockwork is destroyed! I am now that staff's master!" Iluzisto hissed back.

Danny's eyes widened with that claim, but he grew furious. "You're lying!" he yelled, firing an ecto-blast with his free hand.

Iluzisto, however, evaded it, and raised his own staff to retaliate.

The teen gasped and raised his hands up, having no time to evade the attack, let alone do anything to protect himself. But to his surprise, the staff in his hand shot out a blue beam of energy and it collided with Iluzisto's staff's own purple energy.

The impact sent both opponents back, but while Iluzisto managed to hold his ground, Danny tripped and fell, the staff accidently slipping out of his hand.

"Danny!" Sam, Tucker, and Jazz screamed.

And unable to stand by helplessly anymore, they rushed forward against their better judgment.

And it was indeed a mistake. Iluzisto had heard more than seen their approach, and he quickly turned his staff at the kids and fired.

"NO!" Danny screamed in horror as the beam engulfed his friends and sister before it exploded!

But when the smoke cleared, Iluzisto gasped when he saw a green dome covering the humans, thanks to a little green ghost hovering over them.

"Whelps, I don't know how many more times I can keep doing this!" Skulker grunted, knowing it wasn't the first time the kids put themselves in danger like this and he had to fly into the fray.

Now beyond livid, Iluzisto fired another ray, and this time, Skulker's shield buckled. They were all thrown back.

In the meantime, Danny jumped to his feet, and flew at top speed at Iluzisto, only for the spirit to sharply turn towards him. The teen realized his mistake a second before Iluzisto lunged forward and phased his hand into his chest.

Danny screamed as he felt the force of a steel vice grip his core.

The boy's cries of alarm and pain jolted Vlad a distance away. He glanced over at what was happening through blurry eyes, while holding a hand to his bleeding stomach. Thankfully, he was still in ghost form, so the deep wound was already healing. The problem was that he was so weak that he was struggling with his body's need to turn human. But he could not revert back with a wound this deep, or he would surely bleed to death.

But he also knew Daniel was in serious trouble. So, in spite of the threat of his own demise, Vlad struggled onto his hands and knees. It was truly astounding when the man then got to his feet, clutching his wound. He took a couple of steps forward before his weakened and injured body overcame his willpower.

Plasmius collapsed to his knees with a small cry of pain. His black rings appeared, but with a hiss, he pushed them back. He couldn't help Daniel. Iluzisto was going to kill him!

The thought alone threatened to break the man, and his eyes lowered to the ground in helplessness. But it was then that he saw something. He was right in front of the remains of Okulo's orb…

The man reached forward in some sort of desperation, but froze in shock when the instant he touched the shard remains, they began to glow red… and draw together….

Meanwhile, Iluzisto ignored the fact that the boy was still glowing blue in spite of the staff being on the ground. Instead, he drew closer and hissed in his ear, "Your time is up, Ghost Boy. And this time, there is no one left to save you from me… Not your human companions. Not the other freak whom I will finish off as soon as I am done with you. And certainly, not that meddling pest Clockwork in spite of his clever little trick!"

Danny's breathing picked up as Iluzisto's last words joggled his mind. Why hadn't he realized it before? All this time, Iluzisto was unable to use Clockwork's staff's power against him! Not only that, the staff reacted to him but did not harm him, especially when he didn't want it to hurt him! Clockwork's staff… it was somehow obeying him!

Danny whimpered as he felt the spirit painfully jolt his core into submission. But the pain he felt was also an emotional one at his next thought, the memory of what happened in the trial room… the last time he had seen Clockwork…

With the sound of the Council's shouts and gasps around him, Danny jumped into action and charged right at… Clockwork.

But seeing his intentions, the Time Spirit raised his staff in a horizontal position in front of him to block the young hybrid just as the boy reached him with his fist drawn back.

The teen growled at the block, knowing he could not punch the spirit anymore as he had wanted. But he quickly reacted and instead gripped the staff placed in between him and the Time Spirit.

"I see you are angry with me," Clockwork said calmly, though he held the staff steadily between them.

"That's an understatement, you jerk!" Danny snapped back before yanking the staff towards him, trying to take it from the Time Master.

"I do what I must… Allow me to prove it to you," Clockwork answered before his staff suddenly began to glow blue, and then he and Danny also lit up with blue energy…

Danny's eyes widened as everything made sense! But another tug at his core jolted him to reality and he cried out again. Clearly, Iluzisto was taking his time, wanting to draw out his death as slowly and painfully as possible.

Iluzisto's eye glowed with triumph, loving the terrified look on the younger crossbreed's face. They both knew that the boy's core was now stunned enough that all spirit now had to do was pull it out in one quick movement and it would be over. So, it was just icing on the cake as he rubbed in, "You failed, you little freak. You failed the other crossbreed, your little town, your world, and the Observants."

Iluzisto suddenly glanced back towards Vlad, who had managed to pull himself up into a sitting position, cradling his wound. There were sparks of black energy curling around his mid-section as he fought to stay in ghost form.

"Daniel," the man whispered, his eyes wide with helplessness.

"Strong together…?" Iluzisto questioned with a chuckle before turning his dark glare on the boy in his hold and finishing, "Not so much as foolish."

"Y-Yeah?" Danny choked out. "Well, we still… k-kicked your butt!"

"Feeble creature with your pitiful hope! Do you still think you have a chance of escaping your fate?" Iluzisto growled.

"Y-Yeah, because I realized something," Danny said, "Thanks to… Clockwork… I got one last escape card left…"

"And what could that possibly be?" Iluzisto asked, rolling his pupil. This creature was obviously grasping at air. It was pathetic.

"It's his staff…," Danny replied, and his eyes narrowed as he said, "And it's more powerful than yours!"

Iluzisto gasped when Clockwork's staff abruptly appeared to his right, floating on its own accord—or more like on Danny's mental command now that he knew he could control it. It immediately tilted forward and fired a bright blue beam at the spirit.

The Master of illusions cried out as the beam wrenched him away from Danny, who turned intangible to prevent his core from being ripped out in the process.

But feeling the lingering pain, Danny gasped and gripped his chest, just barely staying on his feet.

Iluzisto quickly growled as he sat up and grabbed his own staff lying beside him. "No, Clockwork's staff is mine! I control it now!"

"Actually, jerk, I control it," Danny replied back firmly, walking over to the floating staff and grabbing it. "You never did, because Clockwork gave me control of it way before you took it from him! It only obeyed you because I didn't know that until now—because I didn't command it otherwise. Well, I am commanding it now, and I won't let you use it for evil!"

"Then, I will destroy it along with you!" Iluzisto screamed, and shot a strong bolt of energy from his staff at Clockwork's staff. Danny yelled as he was thrown back and lost his grip on the staff just as the purple energy engulfed it.

However, to Iluzisto's surprise, his purple energy was suddenly consumed by the Time Staff before it turned a dark angry blue.

"Iluzisto!" Danny yelled in warning from where he sat on the ground. The teen just knew that the time staff's ominous pulsation could not be good!

But it was too late.

As if a dam suddenly burst, the mounting energy exploded out into a single beam, hitting Iluzisto right in the chest. The time energy instantly engulfed him and penetrated his core. The evil spirit instantly screamed.

However, sensing its master's peril, Iluzisto's own staff seemed to glow purple with rage as it quickly used its own power to counter the blue energy trying to hurt its master.

But seeing what had been happening from where he sat a distance away, Plasmius narrowed his eyes and raised a weak, shaking hand, determine to use his own trump card he had managed to get a hold of a moment ago...

"No you don't," the man panted out darkly before a bright yet strange blue beam of energy shot forward and hit Iluzisto's staff, vaporizing it in an instant.

Iluzisto only had time to gasp at his staff's destruction before the blue energy surrounding Clockwork's staff began to tear at him. Suddenly, ugly craters and boils began to explode all over the evil Observant's body as the creature screamed in agony.

However, in spite of the staff's relentless attack, Iluzisto, still stirred by all the evil and hate within him, rebounded. He immediately raised up his hands and poured out his own purple ectoplasmic energy in defense. Though he meant only to destroy Clockwork's staff, his beams fired in all directions since he really couldn't control his power so well while being bombarded.

Danny gasped, shocked at what was happening. Clockwork's staff was destroying the spirit! He was about to command the staff to stop when one of Iluzisto's wild beams slammed into him, knocking the wind out of him while stunning him at the same time.

The Time Staff's attack on Iluzisto instantly intensified, as if furious at the evil spirit for accidently hurting its 'master'.

The boy fell, his head spinning too wildly to even remember why he had ended up on the ground. But by the time the boy had recovered enough to get back up, it was too late.

To his dismay, Iluzisto was consumed by the Time Staff's power in the next instant until there was nothing left of the spirit but black ashes; and that soon also faded out of existence.

For a long moment, the boy just stared in shock, the silence now deafening.

But when the realization that this was over finally sank in, Danny felt the weight of his exhaustion hit him full force. But more than that, he suddenly felt tears brimming under his eyes at the immense relief, and in some ways, also grief and remorse at the same time. After all, he had never been responsible for another being's destruction before… It was a… terrible feeling, even if a part of him understood that he had tried to prevent it, only for…fate to decide the outcome.

But his emotions could wait. He needed to make sure everyone was okay, first. He first glanced over to his friends and sister. They were sitting on their bottoms, looking completely floored and a bit tussled, but otherwise, okay.

Danny slowly made his way over to where Vlad was, and he saw the man's wound had stopped bleeding, which meant it would heal eventually. Still, the man held both his hands against his stomach for some odd reason. But, really, the teen wasn't all that worried. He knew Vlad would survive; but he was also thankful for the man's last bit of help in the end. Danny didn't know where Plasmius had gotten enough energy to destroy Iluzisto's staff like that, but his timing couldn't have been more perfect.

Even more relieved, the teen finally gave into his weak body a bit. He let his transformation rings wash over him before he dropped to his knees in front of the older hybrid.

The two just stared at each other for a long second, seeing just utter tiredness and relief in each other's eyes.

But then the teen smiled weakly at the man, muttering, "You look like crud."

Plasmius would have rolled his eyes if he had the energy for it. Instead, he replied quietly, "You should talk, you little rat. You do not look any better."

But there was something else on Danny's mind, and he opened his mouth to voice it to his arch-enemy, only to be interrupted.

"Danny!" he suddenly heard his friends and sister yell as they came up from behind him and threw themselves at him in a group hug.

"Ouch! Take it easy!" Danny gasped out, and his friends and sister eased up a bit with sheepish smiles.

But he just smiled back at them, letting them know he was still really happy to see them.

Skulker had also gone over to the hybrids but flew closer to his employer, who raised an eyebrow at his ally's tiny form.

The hunter smiled in spite of himself, but then quickly crossed his arms and pointedly said, "You owe me a new suit."

Vlad chuckled, replying, "What happened to the one I gave you?"

Skulker coughed before reluctantly confessing, "It got destroyed along with your flying contraption."

"Then, you own me a new ship," Vlad quipped back with a weak smirk.

Skulker pouted, but then their eyes shifted to Danny when he suddenly spoke up.

"What's gonna happen to everything with the Observants gone?" Danny questioned sadly. He lowered his gaze as he added, "I promised Justeco and Konsilisto I would save them all… And, I couldn't. I couldn't stop Iluzisto in time. And now… now they're… gone. Iluzisto was right. I failed."

"You did not fail, Danny," a new, but familiar, voice echoed calmly from behind the group.

Everyone gasped as they twisted around toward the voice.

It was Clockwork, floating there in his eldest form!

"Clockwork! You're… alive!" Danny exclaimed, and finding some lingering strength, he ran over to the time spirit and wrapped his arms around him without a second thought.

Clockwork was a bit surprised with the sudden affection; but then he smirked and placed a hand on the boy's back, saying, "You know, technically I am not—"

"You know what I mean!" Danny interrupted, already knowing how the spirit was going to poke fun at his 'being alive' comment.

Clockwork chuckled and mischievously said, "I am quite resourceful, Danny. Even without my staff, I got a few good tricks up my sleeve—at least good enough to deceive a spirit like Iluzisto."

Danny just gripped the time spirit harder. He was so immensely relieved to know Clockwork wasn't gone like Iluzisto had told him that he didn't see that Clockwork was not changing forms, nor did he see the odd frown that had formed on Vlad's features at seeing the obvious affection the teen had for the spirit.

"You hope in vain, Vlad Plasmius. …He will never be yours. He will never care for you like you care for him."

Vlad suddenly realized how true Iluzisto's words had been…

"Clockwork, I'm so sorry about everything!" Danny suddenly said, pulling away. "I should have trusted you! I should have known you had a reason to do everything you did! I'm sorry!"

"Calm down, Danny," Clockwork said with a warm smile. "I could not have expected you to think anything but the worse when that was exactly what it seemed. But I told you before, I do what I must. You know protecting the timeline is my responsibility, but… if I can, I like to help you from time-to-time, even if it is not in a direct way…"

The Master of Time frowned a bit as he then added, "But I must apologize, too, for everything I put you through. You see, Iluzisto was a problem that I could not resolve. Only you, Danny—you and Vlad Masters—through your unique powers and combined strength could have defeated Iluzisto. And… you did."

Danny smiled as he looked over at the floating Time Staff. But then, his face fell as he quietly added, "But I wasn't able to stop Iluzisto being destroyed. I never wanted that! And what's worse… I wasn't able to save the Observants, Clockwork."

"Did you not hear me?" Clockwork replied. "I said you did not fail Justeco, or the other Observants, for that matter."

Danny quickly looked up, but Sam, Jazz, and Tucker, who had also been watching and listening, replied before the ghost teen could.

"But we saw Justeco fade away!" Jazz said.

"Yeah, he just vanished just after the sun set," Sam added, while Tucker soberly nodded.

"The Time Spell was placed upon the Observants through my staff," Clockwork explained. "As you said, Danny, it only obeyed Iluzisto because its master—you, for the moment—had not told it otherwise. But the moment you came into contact with the staff, it began to obey you, even when you did not realize it at first. Iluzisto could not hurt you with it because it could not attack its true master. And the Time Spell over the Observants never came to fruition because…"

"—I didn't want it to! I told it to stop!" Danny exclaimed. "You mean…?"

Clockwork nodded. "Yes, all the Observants are fine. They vanished out of my own doing. The spell and their being in the timeline did weaken them significantly. They needed to return to the Realm Beyond Time to recover, which is why I transported them back soon after you halted the spell."

Danny and Team Phantom grinned in relief.

"However," Clockwork said with a smirk, "Aside from talking to you, I also physically came here to pick up… two things…. Do you think I could have my staff back now, Danny?"

The teen blinked, but then smiled sheepishly, realizing he was still glowing blue. "Oh, right!" He raised his hand and called the staff to him.

Danny frowned at it before looking at Clockwork and asking, "So, do I, uh, just give it to you?"

"Unless you want my job…," Clockwork replied with another knowing smirk.

"Uh, pass!" Danny quickly said and handed the staff over to Clockwork.

The instant the time spirit placed his hand on it, Danny gasped as the blue hue around his body faded away and lit up Clockwork's body. The Master of Time instantly began to change forms again.

"Never thought I'd be happy to see you doing that again!" Danny quipped with a small chuckle.

"To be honest, I missed it," Clockwork answered with a grin; but then he floated away towards a certain area.

"What are you…?" Danny began when he saw Clockwork stop and point his staff down at the ground.

"Just picking up that 'other thing'," Clockwork replied.

Danny's eyes widened when he finally realized Clockwork was aiming his staff at the remains of Justeco's orb.

"Justeco might want this back," Clockwork replied before the pieces began to glow blue and suddenly rejoined together and formed back into Justeco's blue orb.

"I thought it had been destroyed," Danny said, confused.

Clockwork levitated the orb into his hand before turning to the teen and replying, "The only way you can destroy a timeless object is with another timeless object. A simple fall will only break it, but as you can see, it easily reforms back to its original state. "

"Well, then, where's Okulo's orb?" Sam asked with a frown.

"I see no evidence of another orb," Clockwork replied, though he didn't even glance around.

Danny shrugged. "Well, Vlad did shoot Okulo's orb out of Iluzisto's hand using Justeco's orb, so he probably did destroy it. You did destroy it, right… Vla—?" But the boy fell short when he glanced over to the older hybrid, only to find him gone.

"Vlad?" Danny asked, looking around the area.

"He's gone, Danny," Jazz said after looking around herself and not seeing any sight of the man.

"And… so is Skulker," Tucker muttered with a small disappointed frown.

Danny's eyebrows creased, feeling a bit hurt that the man would just leave like that. But… they had already done what had been needed to be done. And Vlad had been previously upset with him for tricking him.

Maybe he still was, so didn't care to stick around any longer than necessary…

Danny suddenly felt sad again, but he was distracted by Clockwork.

"I must go," the time spirit said, putting Justeco's orb in within his robe. His staff then began to glow a brighter blue as a portal started to form.

"Wait!" Danny quickly said, capturing the spirit's attention.

"Yes?" Clockwork asked calmly.

Danny rubbed his neck as he looked around a bit before asking, "So… did I really… destroy Iluzisto?" And since Clockwork hadn't commented on it before, he also said once again, " I-I didn't mean to."

"Yes, he is gone," the Time Master replied, answering only his question.

Danny nodded and looked away. He had never wasted anything before, not even a ghost, and he kind of felt bad—and even a bit guilty. Even though he was glad to see Iluzisto gone, he did not want to be responsible for letting it happen.

"But it wasn't you," Clockwork suddenly added, as if guessing the boy's thoughts. "In spite of the fact that the Time Staff does obey its master, it also has an ingrained 'sense of duty'."

"A what?" Tucker blurted out, confused.

Clockwork smiled a bit. "It means that it understands that it exists to protect both its master and his cause. For the moment, Danny, you were its master, so it had a duty to protect you. Iluzisto not only attempted to destroy you, but he was also endangering Time and Existence. So, my Time Staff did what it does best: it eliminates threats against Time."

Danny and the other kids nodded in understanding; but then remembering something Vlad had said to him, the Ghost Boy replied, "I thought spirits couldn't be 'eliminated'. Oh, and Iluzisto said timeless artifacts—or whatever they're called—like your stuff and Justeco's orb, can only be used by spirits. So, then, if this is all true, then how was Vlad able to use Justeco's orb? How as I able to use your staff? And how was Iluzisto eliminated when everyone says you can't 'waste' a spirit?"

This time, Clockwork smiled secretly and replied, "There is always at least one exception to any rule, Danny… Remember that."

Danny opened his mouth to question the time spirit, especially when that didn't even answer his questions. But the time spirit cut him off, saying, "I will see you all soon…"

And with that, Clockwork quickly vanished with the spin of a clock hand.

Danny and the other kids just stared at the spot where the spirit had been before they slowly turned to look at each other.

"I am so tired," Danny suddenly said with a deep sigh.

Sam, Jazz, and Tucker all chuckled, but nodded their agreement. Of course, they were not as beat up as Danny, but they were also exhausted.

"I guess now all that's left is damage control," Jazz muttered, looking around.

Danny suddenly cringed as he thought of all the mess Iluzisto had caused—and his and Vlad's houses were not the exception.

"Oh, great. Repair duty. I think I rather go back to fighting a psychotic power-hungry spirit!" Danny grumbled.

But as soon as he said that, they all looked at each other and laughed—all their relief and happiness sounding in it.

"Come on, let's go home," Jazz said, putting an arm around her brother's waist to help him walk.

"Thanks, Jazz," he replied as they made their way to the nearby car.

"If it's okay with you, dude, we need to get home. We got some worried parents to report to," Tucker interrupted.

"Oh, yeah. We need to get home," Sam agreed with a worried frown. But then she paused and looked at Danny, "Will you be okay?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah, I'm just gonna sleep for the next couple of weeks. I'll be fine."

"I'll drive you," Jazz said to Sam and Tucker, and they got into the car.

"Hey, at least you're not Vlad," Tucker suddenly spoke up with a smirk. "He's gonna have his work cut out for him for at least a few weeks with the mess Iluzisto caused around here!"

"Heh. Yeah," Danny replied weakly. But when his friend had mentioned the man, it reminded him of, well, Vlad.

But not wanting to think about that, he focused back on his friends and sister. Danny buckled his seat belt while Jazz turned on the car. It was only then that the Ghost Boy paused, realizing something. "Wait a minute. Whose car is this?"

Jazz blushed as she looked at Sam and Tucker through the rearview mirror.

"It's a rental," Sam quickly replied with an innocent smile.

---

A/N: truephan here: Well, I don't know about y'all but I AM BEAT! And, of course, glad that Iluzisto was destroyed in the end. Couldn't have happened to a nicer, egotistical, evil MANIAC! Iluzisto the Insidious! PFFT! He just couldn't see or believe that he was no match for our two halfas! Hope you liked this climax. But, heh, don't worry, there is still a little left to go! Until next time, wonderful readers!

Pearl: I second Truephan! This chapter has left me utterly exhausted, but as relieved to have it finally posted as everyone is with Iluzisto's demise! But, hey, it was worth the effort. I really enjoyed writing this finale! Iluzisto definitely proved to be one tough cookie to beat, but he should have known better than to try to go up against our powerful halfas, especially when they were kicking butt together! Ha! But now, it's over and we have the hybrids at an odd angle with each other. Anyone noticed Vladdie's jealousy of Clockwork when Danny hugged him? Heh-heh! I guess you will all have to wait and see how this all resolves in the next chapter, which is the epilogue. Yes, we have reached the end of this story. Amazing, isn't it? But no tears just yet! We have a few more twist and surprises left for you all before we close this fanfic book! Until then, let us know what you thought of this final fight! *winks* Ta for now!