Danny got back just in time to hear the end of Alex's short speech. The spy had been explaining how MI6 was once again doing nothing when he had asked for their help.

"I told them how Yassen had been of more help lately than they had ever been. They were pretty shocked at that."

"I bet Yassen will be pretty upset when he finds out that you exposed him like that."

"If he is, he can always just wipe their memories."

"Is Yassen here?" Danny asked, phasing through the wall and flying to a chair to sit down. He didn't bother transforming. Sam shook her head.

"We have no idea where he went off to."

"Are you sure? It feels like some ghost is here…" Danny muttered, looking around.

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Danny shivered as his ghost sense went off again. By then, he knew that the ghost was just messing with him.

"I know that you're there, so just come out!" the boy demanded. A voice chuckled lightly, and Yassen appeared in the doorway.

"Speak of the devil!" Tucker said, grinning and throwing a hand up to high five the ghost. Yassen ignored this. Instead, he created a small flame of black energy in his hand. Before anyone could blink, the flame grew, engulfing everyone and taking them away.

They were deposited under a blanket of stars, beside the burnt shell of the warehouse. Everyone stared, their eyes full of horror. Danny stumbled back a few steps, his hands clamped tightly over his mouth as he fought the urge to be sick. He continued backing away, until Yassen appeared behind him, stopping him with a cold hand on his shoulder.

"The moment you gave yourself up Danny, was the moment you let this happen. Do you want to live?"

Danny nodded slowly, tears falling from his green eyes. His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground. Yassen remained standing, only allowing his gaze to lower so that he could still see the cursed boy. The boy sharing half of the horrible curse he had: death.

When he was alive, it never mattered to him about the death of humans. Every time he drew a breath in, hundreds of other people would have died from plague or war. It was a fact of life.

Now, however, he knew how terrible it was. He was unable to taste food, to feel the breath of wind on his face; unable to even feel, having only the memories of his emotions to act on. Here, there was this child who had to live every day like this, only halfway. How must it feel for the boy, to feel the wind, and then question if it was really there?

Keeping Danny alive would be almost as terrible as just killing him out of pity. If the boy was truly dead, his family and friends would never see him again. As Yassen had quickly learned, it is impossible to see the ghostly impression of someone you knew or loved in life. Yassen had found Helen and Ian Rider within a month of being in the Ghost Zone. According to them, John was right there, beside his wife, but Yassen had never been able to see him. It had been Alex's mother who had passed the message to the assassin: Watch over Alex, if anything were to happen. They, his family, were unable to even touch him. Yassen agreed, but it wasn't until he saw the young spy, simply by chance, on Skulker's island, that he could actually follow through with their wishes.

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Alex's mouth had gone dry. He saw the building, and knew that, in some twisted way, he had caused it to become like this. Now, it was a large tomb, what it was meant to be in the first place.

"Damn it all," he said hoarsely.

Sam and Tucker saw his reaction, and reality hit them. It was real, what had happened. Sam felt tears prick at her eyes, and she gave no effort to stop them as they fell down her pale face.

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"If you want to live, then fight for yourself. Don't give in to help others. Think, does your enemy have any reason to kill the three over there? No, he does not." Yassen hit Danny on the head lightly, but roughly. "You're the only one he wants dead. Think about that."

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The ghost left once more, leaving the four teens in a shocked silence. Danny's hands slowly left his face, resting instead on his knees. His eyes were wide, staring down at the ground to see everything and nothing. Tears ran unchecked down his face. The boy was completely silent, not even giving the effort to breathe because he knew that in reality, it was unnecessary as Phantom.

"I want to live." His lips formed the words, but, without any air in him, not a sound came. He shook his head limply, allowing it to drop to his chest. He began sobbing lightly.

"I want to live." He tried again through shaky lips, to no avail. His face twitched, and he snapped his head around to where Yassen had just been.

"I WANT TO LIVE!" he screamed, his voice cracking and failing. He froze again, shocked at the absence of the ghost. He had never even noticed that Yassen had left. Danny's hands flew to his face, covering his mouth in surprise.

Yassen was… gone.

He...left?

"C-come back…" Danny whispered through his fingers. He had momentarily forgotten the three teens behind him. All he knew was that he was alone, so very alone, and he hated it.

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Everyone jumped when they heard Danny scream.

The halfa had twisted himself around bit face something behind him. Now, his hands were covering the lower half of his face, as if something had startled him terribly. They watched as he slowly rose to his feet, turning around to stare in nothing once more. His hands left his face to fall to his side, where they hung limply.

"Yassen!" he called weakly. Already, his friends were running to his side. Alex got there first. He reached out, sort of resting his hand on Danny's shoulder. At the same time, he called the boys name softly. Danny gave a start, quickly turning his head to stare at the boy.

"…Yassen left." he finally said. Alex nodded slowly.

"Right. He's been doing that a lot lately, hasn't he?"

"But you're here." The boy pressed, as if he thought this was very important. "Sam and Tucker too." Danny nodded to himself, turning his head back around. He wiped his eyes, which had stopped their crying only a moment before. Alex looked rather uncomfortable, unsettled by what had just happened. Dropping his hand, he walked around to stand in front of Danny. The halfa had shut his eyes, and was currently humming a slurred version of some unknown song.

"Oi, Danny," Alex said, waving his hands in front of the other boys face. He was ignored, and Danny continued humming. Sam and Tucker cautiously made their way to stand at opposite side of Alex. Already, their faces were tight with worry. Their presence was noticed by one, and the halfa took two steps back, one for each new person. He didn't take a third, because Alex had found him first, so he was the winner. He won.

Danny told this to the losers, because he felt that it was important for them to know. If they wanted to win next time, they'd just have to find him more quickly.

"We probably won't be able to play this game any more guys," he said, opening his eyes. A somber, yet very serious, look came across his face. His head tipped ever so slightly to the left, and his eyes looked down in a sad and tired way. "I already told Yassen that I wanted to live, but he just left, so I guess he's not playing. Vlad is a cheater anyway, so the game won't be very fun then. I'm not so sure that I want to play anymore."

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Sam spun around, stomping off into a thin line of trees. Danny looked up, confused but choosing to stay silent. Tucker, the closest to where the Goth had run off to, could barely hear her crying.

"Sam's not playing the game?" Danny asked softly. He looked between Tucker and Alex, waiting for one of them to answer him. Alex was biting his lip tightly, looking halfway over his shoulder to keep an eye on Sam and Danny at the same time. He missed what Danny had asked. Tucker sighed, putting his hand on Danny's head and ruffled his white hair. Danny flinched, and then smiled awkwardly, wondering what had just happened to bring his friend to act like that.

"Danny, man, there is no game." He said, locking his gaze with his broken friend. Danny raised an eyebrow, smirking at what he thought to be a joke. Tucker shook his head, again, and then returned his hand to his side. He smiled wearily.

"Dude, name the game."

"The game, Tuck? Hmm." Danny grinned earnestly, thinking. He began to hum again, and it seemed he wouldn't answer. Tucker looked over, not surprised to see that Alex was still there. While the spy cared for Sam as a friend, he also cared for Danny in the same way. It was really hard for him to stay there, and not go off to comfort Sam. He knew that Danny, quite possibly already past the term "delicate", would absolutely freak if he even thought Alex was trying to make a move. Tucker tapped him on the arm, gesturing with his eyes to Danny. The techno geek slapped Danny on the shoulder in a friendly way before brushing past Alex to go and find Sam.

"Get him to think of what the heck this game is." He whispered. Alex nodded, looking back to Danny, who looked crestfallen.

"Everyone is leaving. First Yassen, then Sam, and now Tuck." He pouted. Alex nodded, trying to understand what was going on in the guys head. He asked what the game was. Danny shrugged.

"It was checkers, but Tucker left."

"He likes checkers then?" Alex asked, trying to see Danny's eyes. The blue eyes were shut however. Danny snorted, sneaking a peek out of one eye for a moment to check if Alex was still there.

"No! You weren't playing, so it was just us." He began to slowly spin around. "Trivial Pursuit was the only other two-player game I could think of, but that takes too long. If we were playing for too long, you would get bored and walk away like Yassen and Sam."

"Danny, I wouldn't leave you guys."

"Are you lying?" Danny asked, freezing. He was facing the other boy once more, so he checked again to make sure if he was still there.

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Sam had collapsed at the base of a tree, bringing her knees up and hiding her face there as she began to cry.

"It's all that… Stupid! That ghost did this on purpose. He knew Danny was breaking, so why would he do this?" she thought, hiccupping.

She couldn't stand to see him like that. He had drawn in on himself or something, taking himself back to a time when all that mattered were games. That was the only thing, the only excuse that she could think of. She didn't believe it for a minute though, because she had looked into his eyes. His eyes were dead, hollow, terrified, and cold. He was scared, didn't know what to do. Did his mind just shut down? Was there anyway to help him, or was it already too late? Sam began to blame herself, though she knew in the back of her mind that there was little she could do to stop this from happening.

Leaves began crunching as someone made their way towards her. She didn't want to see who it was, for some wild thought that it was Danny, asking why she had left the game. She couldn't bear that.

"Hey Sam," Tucker said. His voice, the Goth could tell, was sad. Of course he was though. Ignoring the fresh wave of negative thoughts, she remained silent. Tucker sighed, sitting down next to her. As a last thought, he lightly draped one arm over her shoulder, bringing her into a hug of sorts. There was no protest from the girl, nor did she try to pull away so that she could have a good cry on her own. Both teens knew that the other was very sad and extremely worried, and that they wouldn't feel any better if they were off alone.

"Thanks." One of them muttered to the other. Later, they would forget who it was that had thanked the other.

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"Hey, Danny, pick a color."

"Black." Danny said instantly, opening his eyes. His mood went from oddball cheer to moody angst in mere seconds. "Black, because it's dark there, and people can't see me. Black, because I'm in control there, because he can't see me. It's dead."

"You sure you want to pick that color?"

"Yes."

"Right. Mine is red."

"Why would you want a color like that?" Danny looked disgusted and pissed off at the same time. "It's like blood and stupid ketchup at the same time."

"Checkers usually have black pieces for one team, and red for the other, right?"

"You're right!" Danny grinned, instantly snapping back into his previous mode of happiness.

"Hey, Danny, I spy something black." Alex said, expecting something bad and getting just that. Danny's face twisted into a mask of rage.

"Damn warehouse!" Danny shouted; turning and firing a huge blast of ecto energy from his hand to the burnt shell. He must have hit a certain spot just right on the place, because the entire front wall caved in. He was breathing heavily after that, as if watching it took something from him. The noises had scared the birds, causing them to leave the trees and seek shelter elsewhere. Dozens were flying over them loudly. Danny sighed, turning back around. He was still mad, and Alex took a cautious step back, trying to pass it off as no big deal. The halfa glared at him.

"Danny…" Alex began, putting his hands up.

"Why the heck would that stupid ghost put us here?" Danny yelled, flinging his hands up and walking off a few steps to the side. He stopped suddenly, pivoting on his heel to face the spy again.

"What is his problem anyway? I swear, sometimes, he really just drives me crazy!"

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AN: Leave a review, and the next chapter will be posted before you know it!