Yuki: No reviews as of March 25-

Anika: Not for the last chapter anyway.

Yuki: This is episode 10, Shades of Grey. I will not do Fanning the Flames, though it is a good episode. It will be missed.

Disclaimer: Butch Hartman would projectile vomit out of every orifice if he would read this misshapen horror of a story.

Warning: Cussing, Random Japanese, Characters might be slightly OOC

Note: The thing I meant to be looked up on Wikipedia last chapter was 'Two-Spirit'. I don't mean what you might find on there... Or do I?...

Song used: Remember by Ember McLain

Written from March 25 to April 22.

Chapter 9: Strength

Danny ran down the hallways of Casper High. It was after school and after Danny had finished on working on his clay sculpture for the day, he and other students (Dash, Kwan, and others) went to go see their spelling tests from Mr. Lancer. Dash had gotten a 'D' and was now going to kill him. What the hell.

"That's it, Fen-ton! Run, but I'm taking this D I got on our spelling test out of your hide!"

--

Kwan and Paulina stood in another hallway. Valerie walked up to them.

Yeah! Ohh-ooohhh!

"Hey, Valerie," Paulina greeted. "Like, I so much love your top." She drank a bit more of her Triple Hot Chocolate that she had gotten at the Black Cat during lunch. Tori had not responded to her talking to him, but he probably had dumped another asshole of a boyfriend. Sadly, Tori never had much luck with men.

"Isn't it sweet," Valerie answered, feeling so pretty. The shirt was rather simple, a purple tee-shirt with white buttons. Oh, well. It's the brand that mattered. "$579.00 and worth every one of my dad's pennies." The African-American girl looked up to see Danny Fenton skid from an adjacent hallway and turn the corner to come barreling towards the three.

Danny looked up and saw three of his friends from middle school. He attempted to stop, but he fell against Paulina, whose Black Cat drink spilled onto Valerie's brand new shirt.

"Ah!" Valerie looked down at her ruined shirt. Furious, she turned to Kwan as Paulina helped Danny back up. "Please hurt the unpopular boy for me!"

"Hey, accidents happen. Danny didn't mean it. Right?" Kwan looked at the smaller boy. Danny shook his head, regret on his face.

"I'm sorry, Ten. I didn't mean it."

Valerie scowled at him. "So?" Kwan was pulled down by the collar of his neck by Valerie and saw the rage in her eyes.

Kwan quickly looked at Danny, meeting his gaze. The smaller boy began to back away from his former friends, hearing Kwan cry out, "Fenton!"

Dark and Dahlia were screaming as they were dragged around by the currently huge dog. Before it had been an adorable puppy... Crap, they were going to run into a building.

It was, it was September,
Wind blows, the dead leaves fall,
To you, I did surrender,
Two weeks, you didn't call...

Dark and Dahlia fell through a metal door and landed in front of two guards, two other men, and Valerie.

"What are you two?" Valerie asked, annoyed.

The big dog came in and shook his head, saliva spraying everywhere and some landing on Valerie.

"I'll tell you what we're not," Dark said, Dahlia giggling beside him. "Coated in dog saliva."

Valerie screamed, but calmed down when Dahlia made her body intangible, making the spilled chocolate from earlier and the saliva fall to the floor.

The dog sprang forward and ran further.

"Bad dog!" Dark scolded, running after the canine, Dahlia apologizing to the five people and chasing after the ghost boy. "No, get back here!"

All three ghosts turned intangible and ran through another metal gate.

Your life goes on without me,
My life, a losing game,
But you should, you should not doubt me,
You will remember my name...

The dog became solid again and started to wreck the lab by jumping on tables and pulling down shelves.

"Whoa! Slow down!" Dark and Dahlia had grabbed onto the dog's collar and were being carried as the guards from the hall came in and proceeded to shoot ray guns at them.

"Cut it out, you stupid mutt!" Dark wasn't really a dog person.

---

The lab was now in a wreck by the time that the three ghosts left. Dahlia stayed behind.

"What are you going to do now?" Damon Grey asked Dahlia.

Dahlia put her hands out, facing down, and a blue glow enveloped her hands. Major things, such as shelves and tables were put back in their place.

A guard cut through the net that everyone was trapped in and everyone stared in awe as the lab was put together for the most part.

Dahlia's hands stopped glowing and she fell down, feeling faint. Her ghost form dissolved until it was just a glowing ball of ribbons, twitching slightly on the floor.

Valerie bent down and picked the little soul up. "Umm... Are you okay?"

"...sleepy..." Dahlia started to hover above Val's hands and began her trek to FentonWorks.

But not before hearing that Damon got a major demotion.

Oh, Ember, you will remember!
Ember, one thing remains!
Oh, Ember, so warm and tender!
You will remember my name!

Damon and Valerie put everything on the lawn, getting ready for their yard sale.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker came up to their house on their electric scooters.

"Whoa, talk about rock bottom," Sam said. "They're selling everything they own in a yard sale." Her family hadn't been poor since before her grandfather had made the cellophane machine for deli toothpicks, but her grandmother always told her how poor her family was back in Czechoslovakia.

"I feel bad," Danny admitted. "If I could've stopped that ghost dog, none of this would've happened." He and the other two teens took off their helmets.

"She's having a hard week..." Tucker brightened after he realized something. "Which means I can catch her on the rebound. Sweet!"

Valerie came out carrying a big box of her clothes. Tucker came up and stopped her in her tracks. "Hey, Val. Heard what happened."

"Oh, great," Valerie spoke sarcastically. "Word's already oozed down to the bottom of the social grapevine."

"Hey," Danny protested. "Come on. I know you're upset, Tenna, but he just wants to help. We all do."

"I don't." Sam assured, making Danny smile apologetically.

"Tenna?" Tucker asked, looking at Danny.

Your heart, your heart abandoned,
You're wrong, now bear the shame,
Like bad dreams in cold December,
Nothing, but ashes remain...

"Look, Nny." Valerie walked up to Danny after putting down her clothes box and looked him in the eye. "No one calls me that anymore."

Danny smiled. "Devi does."

Valerie grabbed at Danny's shirt, annoyance seeping in. "Paulina doesn't get it through her hopeful mind that we aren't the same kids that we were at Secondary."

Tucker and Sam knew that Danny went to Casper Secondary, but they didn't know that Valerie and Paulina went there as well. Nor did they know that the three were apparently close once, close enough to give each other nicknames.

"Well, Ten-Ten." Danny pulled Valerie off of his shirt. He picked up her box. "How about I help you now and we can play Catch Up?"

The girl pouted. "Thanks, but I'll pass." She took her box, not seeing Danny's breath.

"Well, I'm going to go now." Danny ran over to his scooter, put on his helmet, and zoomed away.

After Dark and the puppy had wrecked the moving truck, Dahlia had stayed to fix the Greys' stuff with her magic.

She felt bad that the dog was causing Valerie so much trouble, but the girl had become so stuck up that she didn't see how her color-blindness was spreading.

Oh, Ember, you will remember!
Ember, one thing remains!
Ember, so warm and tender!
You will remember my name!
Oh-woo-oh-woo, Ember!
You will remember!
Ember, one thing remains!
Ember, so warm and tender!
You will remember my name!
Yeah! You will remember my name!

1) I decided after about 2 weeks that I would cut it off at Dahlia's analysis of Valerie. The whole color-blindness thing is UBERLY-IMPORTANT!

2) I love Ember with a passion! She will come back. For some background info, she is The Witch of Lilth, a witch of music. She gets power from praise and the hearts of young lovers.

Leave any questions, comments, concerns (no flames) through the comments link, please.