A/N: Forgot it was Friday today... Ooopse. Well.. you're lucky I remembered now, because I'm leaving town in about an hour and if I forgot you wouldn't get an update until tomorrow. :: gasp:: THAT WOULD BE TRAGIC.

Anywhoodles; TO THE STORY!

Danny had a nightmare that night, he dreamt that his friends, parents, and sister were trapped in a dark, ghostly cage, calling out for him and reaching for him, terrified beyond anything. But each time he tried to get to them, he was flung further away, and part of his power was drained.

Glowing red eyes appeared above the cage, a maniacal laugh shook Danny to the core as a flock of ravens burst forth, cawing in warning, feathers flew everywhere as a ghost misted into view over the cage. "Danny Phantom," The ghost mocked, floating inches above the cage his friends and family were contained in. "How nice of you to join us," he crossed his arms as a particularly large raven flew into view and perched on the ghost's shoulder.

The raven had swirling white pits for eyes and its feathers seemed to be made of black smoke. It puffed itself out and cawed loudly at Danny. Even though it had no pupils, there was no mistaking where it was looking.

Danny looked in fear at the ghost, then down at his friends. "What do you want with them?" he asked, looking the ghost in his red eyes.

"Oh, Phantom, nothing from them," he said, smiling mischievously, "I want you, dear boy."

"Me?" Danny asked, gulping in fear, "Why me?" the fear Danny felt rushing through his bones made him force himself to remember he was asleep and in control of this dream.

"Because, Phantom, you're the key I need, the final piece of the puzzle." The ghosts eyes narrowed, and he pointed at the cage of his friends. Suddenly, Danny noticed Valerie in there as well. He gasped in anger and looked up at the ghost.

"Let her go!" he said, clenching his fists and teeth in his anger.

"Hah! Dear boy, I will never." With a flick of his wrist, dozens of ravens descended upon the cage. Danny could hear Tucker, Sam, Valerie and his family scream in pain and terror, and that was enough to fling Danny out of his dream.

He sat up in his bed, panting heavily as he stared at the door across from his bed, the screams still haunting his mind as he tried to calm himself down.

"What… Was that?" he whispered, hiding his face in his hands.

He wasn't able to go back to sleep after that.

The next day, Danny yawned as he met up with Sam at their locker. "Wow, rough night ghost-boy?" she asked, leaning against the locker next to theirs as Danny put his stuff away.

Danny mumbled something, still shaken from his nightmare and unwilling to go into details about it just yet. Sam rolled her eyes and closed the locker when Danny was done and walked him to his class. "I'm glad you're okay now, Danny." Sam whispered to him as they got to his class.

"Thanks," Danny said, shifting his books in his arms as he looked at her, then away. He couldn't stop remembering her screams and the guilt he felt about being more concerned over Valerie than her.

Sam noticed his reluctance to look at her, and looked away sadly. "I'll see you later, Danny." She said, and left him alone.

Danny stared after her for a moment, and felt horrible. Now she must think that it was something she had done, when it really hadn't been. He sighed- he'd have to apologize to her later. He wandered into his class and sat at his normal lab station.

Valerie came in and sat next to him, flashing a bright smile at him as she plopped her books down. "What's new Danny? Are you feeling better?"

Danny looked up and couldn't help but smile at her. "Yeah, my parents and Sam were able to help, I feel better now."

Valerie looked even happier when he said he was feeling better, and scooted her chair closer to his. "Hey, Danny…" Valerie hesitated, and then ran her hands through her ponytail. "Do you think you might want to get a burger at the Nasty Burger after school?"

Danny looked at her, then a bright smile spread on his face "I'd love to!" he said, thrilled.

The class passed in a happy blur, Danny couldn't remember anything they did, or anything their teacher said, but he just remembered the feeling of bliss he experienced. The day passed much the same; even Sam's disdain at him going on a date with Valerie could not dampen his mood.

Danny was counting down the minutes to his after school date with Valerie. They'd exchanged end times, and Danny finished an hour later than Valerie, so she'd pick him up from school and drive them over to the Nasty Burger.

When school was finally over, Danny raced outside and waited for Valerie's car to show up. When it did, he smiled broadly and jumped into the passenger seat.

At first, things were a little tense, Danny was unsure of what to say beyond the customary "Hi, how are you?" He rubbed his arm nervously as he watched the scenery on their way to the Nasty Burger, hoping that their entire time wouldn't end up like this.

At the Nasty Burger, Val ordered their food and brought it to the table, sitting across from Danny and smiling at him in a friendly way. She and Danny ate their food in relative silence, Danny would crack a joke or two, and Valerie would laugh politely, sometimes even honestly. Danny wasn't as bad at jokes as Tucker was.

After they were done, Valerie drove Danny home. "I'll see you tomorrow, Val!" Danny waved with a smile as he closed the passenger's door. Valerie smiled and waved, and then drove off.

Danny opened the door to Fenton Works, and nearly ploughed into his dad as he walked in. "Danny!" Jack said opening his arms wide and embracing his son in a hug, "You're back! Maddie! Danny's back!"

Danny's mom came out of the kitchen holding a dishtowel to dry her hands, "Hi, sweetie!" she greeted him.

"Danny-boy!" Jack smiled and steered Danny into the living room where Maddie joined them. The two adults looked at Danny expectantly.

"W-what is it?" he asked nervously, looking around.

"Tell us about it!" Jack almost shouted, his excitement apparent on his face, "Tell us all about your date!"

Danny's face flushed a dark red as he looked to the carpet under his feet. "Uhh…" he hesitated, unwilling to share the details with his parents, even if it had been something as innocent as a supper. "We uh, we went to the Nasty Burger, and then she drove me home…" Danny avoided looking at his parents as he spoke and chose to look everywhere else instead.

"Oooh, just wait until I tell Jazz!" Maddie chirped, putting her hands together and swaying a bit in bliss. "My little boy's growing up!"

"I didn't know Sam could drive."

Danny turned his head and looked at his dad in shock. He didn't know his parents shared the same belief Tucker did, that Sam and Danny would end up together. "I-I wasn't out with Sam!" he defended himself, feeling his blush grow deeper.

Both Maddie and Jack looked at him, clearly not believing him. "If it wasn't Sam, who was it sweety?" Maddie asked, crossing her arms.

"It was a woman in my class," Danny rubbed the back of his neck, "Her name's Valerie. Valerie Gray."

There was a silence that settled over the room after that and Danny slowly looked from his dad's face, to his mother's face, not understanding the looks on their faces, or the fact that they had clammed up.

His father's face was blank; devoid of emotion and unreadable. His mother's lips were pulled into a thin line, and she was studying his face carefully.

"Danny…" his mother started cautiously, "You know her story, right?"

"…Tucker told me something." Danny said, his heart sinking. "Something about her hating ghosts, because her mother died by one." He mumbled.

"And what are you?" Jack asked, running a hand over his face.

"A ghost." Danny murmured, not really wanting to answer their question. "But only half ghost!" he said louder, looking at his parents pleadingly. "She can't hate me all that much."

"I'm honestly surprised her equipment hasn't picked up on you yet." Maddie mumbled, looking at Jack, "Do you think we programed it wrong?"

"You gave her tools that could potentially kill me?" Danny squeaked, shocked.

"Before we knew what the ectoplasm did to you," Jack said, standing next to his wife and putting a hand around her shoulders. "Before we knew you'd be half ghost. Before things happened as they did and you ended up being able to come home with us."

Danny placed his face in his hands and sighed. Why couldn't anything be simple? "Well," Danny said, putting a hand over his stomach, which had, for some reason begun to bother him. "Until she becomes hostile, I'm going to go along with it."

His parents exchanged a look at this, but smiled pleasantly at him anyway, "Okay, Danny." His mother said smiling, "If anything happens, your father and I are here for you."

"Thanks," Danny said getting up. His head spun. "I… have some homework to do." He said and made his way upstairs.

Danny pulled out his laptop and opened up his chatting program. Sam and Tucker popped up immediately.

"So?" Tucker asked, leaning into the camera, "How did it go?" Danny rubbed his face with a hand and split the screen, pulling up his homework at the same time as talking to his friends.

"Okay I guess," Danny said, not looking at the two of them as he typed away at his homework. "We ate and talked. Nothing much happened."

"Did she say anything about ghosts?" Sam asked, avoiding looking at Danny.

"No." Danny said shortly. Was everyone going to bug him about her ghost hatred? He ran a hand through his hair as a pain shot through his stomach and he groaned.

"You okay dude?" Tucker asked, hearing Danny's groan and noticing him wince.

"Just a stomach ache," Danny admitted, "I probably ate too fast."

"Are you sure, Danny?" Sam asked, finally looking at Danny. "You look really pale."

Danny chuckled at that. "I'm fine, Sam, thanks. I am half ghost. I'm supposed to be pale, remember?" Danny asked, wheeling out of sight of the computer for a second as he grabbed a text book.

"You missed it, Danny." Sam was saying as Danny wheeled back into sight, "While you were out on your date I got to meet Tucker's girlfriend."

"Oh?" Danny was intrigued he looked at Tucker for a moment, "So he's not making her up then?"

Sam ignored Tucker's "Hey!" and smiled at Danny, "Nope, she's real flesh and blood- just like you and me. She's pretty, which is shocking, and maybe even more shocking than that is that she's not dumb. Anyone who falls for Tucker and isn't off their rocker is just… I don't even know."

Danny held back laughter and looked at Tucker who had folded his arms and was now pouting, looking away from the screen. "What's her name, Sam? Tucker's been pretty secretive about her."

"Amelia," Sam told him, pretending to inspect her nails. "I'm sure Tucker will let you meet her eventually, right Tuck?" Sam asked looking over to Tucker's window.

"I don't know, you guys are pretty mean." Tucker muttered rebelliously, "But I suppose she does want to meet Danny, so one day maybe."

Danny smiled at him, but his smile disappeared quickly as he felt his stomach flip. "I- uh, I'll be right back guys." Danny ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

Danny expelled the contents of his stomach into the toilet, each retch causing his throat immeasurable pain. It felt like instead of just normal bile, it was laced with fire and battery acid, searing his throat and slowly ripping it apart. When he was done, he flushed and wiped his mouth, sitting back and sighing.

Why had it burned so much? Every other time he had vomited as a child, he couldn't remember it hurting as much as it had then. Danny groaned and got up, splashing some water on his face and then cleaning up any splash back that had occurred. He had to admit, his stomach didn't hurt anymore.

He made his way back to his computer, sitting down and looking at his friends. "Okay, back guys."

"You okay dude?" Tucker asked, "You were gone an awfully long time."

"I'm fine," Danny said, closing his text book and homework on his computer and just concentrating on his friends. He didn't feel like working anymore. "Just an upset stomach."

"Oh gross, Danny."

"Hey you asked!" Danny raised his hands. "I'm going to get to bed now, though." Danny said, with a sad smile at his friends, "I'm not really feeling well."

The trio said their goodnights, and Danny slipped into bed. When his lights went out, there were again red eyes glowing outside of Danny's room. Silently, they slipped inside, making their way closer to the sleeping boy. Danny shivered and pulled his blankets up closer to himself, and his breath came out visible.

The eyes floated beside him for a time before disappearing with an eerie, echoing chuckle.

"Report," The man sitting in the room demanded, watching her with narrowed eyes.

"I've started what we planned." The woman sat in her usual chair, back straight and eyes planted on her employer. Truth be told, he made her skin crawl, but she had no other choice if she wanted to rid her town of the abomination that currently lived there. Well, lived was a very liberal word.

"He suspects nothing, and phase one is in play."

"Excellent." The man clasped his hands together and leaned on his elbows, watching her with his eyes still narrowed. "And you're not allowing yourself to get… attached, are you?"

The sound of wings flapping caused the woman to turn her head and watch as a raven flew over, perching on the edge of the man's chair. The bird made her skin crawl more than the man himself. She knew this bird was a ghost. It's feathers looked more like smoke than actual feathers, and its eyes were just swirling pits of white.

The bird watched her, tilting its head from side to side as it assessed her. "No, sir, I'm not getting attached to him."

"Good girl, Valerie. Because you know what I'll have to do if you get attached…"

Valerie Gray stood from her chair and the bird spread its wings, squawking in what appeared to be a warning. "I will not get attached to a half ghost freak," Valerie hissed behind her teeth at the man. "And once I'm done with him, I'm going to be coming for you. All ghosts should be eliminated from this world."

The man looked taken aback as he feigned shock. "Me?" he asked in an innocent tone. "Oh, Valerie, I only want to expunge the world of these ghosts as well," he stood up as well and his raven flew onto his shoulder.

Valerie glared at him, and turned and stormed out.

The man stood silently for a moment stroking his bird's head as he pondered Valerie's potential. "Well," he started as a smirk spread on his face, "She's got quite the temper. We may have to dispose of her before necessity calls." The bird trilled in response, and the man laughed, "We'll have to show up soon." He said, "And make sure that Danny Phantom cowers in fear, especially with his powers weakening."

"Sulker did us a great favour putting up a notice about a half ghost child." The man continued on to his bird, "Warning us that it was his prey… but that idiot does not know the full potential a half ghost holds." The man's hair suddenly burst into flames. A black blaze burning on top of his head as his eyes turned red and began to glow. "What powers I can take from him when I finally get my hands on him!"

The bird leapt off of the man's shoulders and led the way out of the room and the man floated after it. "The boy will be the key to unlocking my final power… and allowing me to take over this blasted world!"

Sam didn't meet Danny at their locker the next day, but Danny didn't think much on it. It was coming up on the end of the term, and Danny knew Sam was swamped with projects. There would be snow on the ground soon, and in a couple of weeks, Tucker would be flying over to spend winter break with his family and his two best friends.

Danny closed his locker door and turned, coming face to face with Valerie. She looked tired but she smiled warmly at Danny. "Hey, Danny," she greeted, glancing away and holding her books tight against herself, "I had fun yesterday. Do you want to maybe do it again sometime soon?"

Danny smiled at her, thrilled that she looked passed the awkwardness and wanted to see him again, "I'd love to!" Danny said happily, "When would you like to?"

"Oh, I don't know… maybe tonight? Are you free? You could come over to my place and I could cook something for us."

Danny blinked at her. One date and she'd invited him over to her place? Danny felt his face flush and he stammered, "Er- y-yeah, that's fine! I'll um I'll meet you after school? Same place?"

Valerie smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I'll drive you over." She noticed his flush and laughed, "Oh no, you're such a boy!" She turned and started to walk to their class, "It's just dinner, maybe a movie, too. Not that." She giggled as Danny blushed more as he walked next to her.

"I wasn't thinking about you know that," Danny mumbled not looking at her as they wandered into class and he sat at his place. "Just… you know it's your house and all and your parents will be there so…"

Valerie paused, crossing one leg over the other as she wrote down the notes on the board for the new experiment. "…It's just my dad and I." she said quietly, "And dad works really late."

Danny could sense that she didn't want to talk about it anymore, so he let it drop and focused on the task at hand.

A/N: So, this is completely irrelevant to this story, but.. I wanna check something. With the world of quickly evolving electronic devices... Who remembers a VCR? I mean... I need to use it in the final installment of this story arch; and I wanted to know if anyone remembered it. Maybe if I said VHS? I know that some people at my school don't remember the VCR... Because of DVDs taking over everything- ah I'm rambling. I'm a 90's kid. All my favorite movies are on VHS :'D

Anywhoodle. Lemme know in a review, if enough people remember it, I'll add it. If not I'll think of something else.