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If I get THIRTY reviews for this chapter, I'll update as soon as I can, okay? If not, then I'll see you not this Friday but the next!

Buckle in tight, ladies and gents, this is going to be a nonstop ride to the finish.

DISCLAIMER: I own neither Teen Titans nor Danny Phantom.

Chapter 22: The Unspoken Promise

'What…the hell?' This, along with numerous other exclamatory statements and swearwords were currently running through Danny's mind. All the while his eyes were fixed on the ghost who had appeared by the trees to his right.

It made no sense. He really couldn't understand it. He'd never seen a ghost like this in his lifetime, nor had he heard of one like this.

"Who are you?" Danny demanded, turning to face the unknown ghost head on. His hands balled up into fists.

The ghost, who wore a jumpsuit similar to his own except that the emblem on the chest was half torn off, cocked his head to the side. His white hair flickered oddly on the right side, almost as if it was having trouble staying solid. For a moment, the entire right side flickered out of view before solidifying. As it did, Danny saw the ghost's mismatched eyes, which were an exact copy of the mist's eyes.

"Why…" the ghost spoke, "does everyone…ask that?" The ghost spread his arms, brandishing the silver staff he was holding. There was a claw on the top end with a smoky black orb in the middle. "Who…am I?"

"It's a logical question," Danny said sharply, narrowing his eyes. "You look like me. But I don't know you and you don't act like me. So that leads to the question: who the hell are you?"

The ghost's voice was cold. "What's…in a name? 'A rose by any other name…would smell…just as sweet.' " A smirk stretched the ghost's mouth. "Do…you really need to know?"

"That'd be really great, thanks," Danny said lightly, only the shift in his stance revealing his tension. "Right now, you're just 'the ghost' in my head."

The smirk widened. "Can't you sense it?"

"Sense it?" Danny frowned in confusion. "You…"

"Go on." The ghost laughed, the light tone sending chills running down Danny's spine. "You're so…curious…"

Hoping that he'd read the situation right and that the ghost meant his ghost sense, Danny focused his senses inward, closing his eyes as he did. He didn't think the ghost would attack him until whatever it wanted from him was done with.

He'd never used his ghost sense like this so he was moving blindly. First he took in the sense of his own presence, which was rather chilly. Then he expanded his senses outward, trying to sense the other ghost. The moment he did, he instantly recoiled.

The sense of pure insanity coating the other ghost was almost unbelievable. But that wasn't it. He had to go deeper.

Repressing a shudder, Danny forced his sense forward. Gritting his teeth, he poked and prodded at the other ghost, finally finding what seemed to be his ecto-signature as it seemed very like his own sense of self.

That was when he paused, slightly disconcerted. 'No way… It feels…almost identical?'

There was a slight difference on the outside but fundamentally, the ghost felt the same. It was as if he and Danny had sprung from the same root but had become different leaves.

His eyes sprang open, meeting the gloating eyes of his enemy. "What…who… You're not me…but…almost?" He shook his head, thinking furiously. "You're from another timeline, aren't you?"

The ghost broke into snickers, clapping his hands together twice. "Well done… Clockwork…is so careless…with his things…isn't he?" Rustling around his waist for a moment, the ghost held up a gleaming medallion with the initials CW inscribed on it.

Danny barely refrained from rolling his eyes. "Why am I always given the time-traveling ghosts to deal with? Do I have a poster on my back or something that says I deal with time-travelers?"

"Don't joke!" the ghost snarled, his sudden outburst causing Danny to step backward in surprise. "You…" The ghost started giggling. "Would you believe me…Father?"

The title made Danny's eyes widen. "W-what? F-father?" His head was shaking in denial. "No way. There's no way." But he couldn't deny the facts: the ghost was almost a carbon copy of himself. "…How?"

"A small…accident." The ghost spit the words out. "Involving highly combustible ingredients…and a boiler."

"And that gave birth to you?" Danny laughed incredulously. "Sorry to say this, but I've already faced that future. And I've got to say that you're not in it. He would've rubbed my face in it if he'd had a son!"

A second later found him ducking an ecto-blast shot in the direction of his head. He got ready to fire his own but held off upon seeing that the ghost wasn't doing anything else.

"You're not listening," the ghost snarled. "An accident occurred…and you went to Plasmius. You ripped us apart. But we merged…" The ghost laughed maniacally. "We merged and became…so powerful. No one could stand in our way."

"I'm sensing there's a 'but'," Danny said, unable to repress his innate sarcasm.

"But"—the word was growled, warning Danny he was walking dangerously close to the edge—"you were poisonous. We had to…rip…you out."

Like a flash of light, Danny understood. "You…you were a part of him. He thought he was getting rid of something that made him weak, didn't he? And he got rid of you. And whatever happened…it turned you into this?" He laughed bitterly. "Now I get it. 'Father' indeed." Thinning his lips, Danny tilted his head slightly to the side. "But you're not from the same timeline I met him. You're from sometime completely different." His eyes narrowed. "You're too similar to me to have been from ten years in the future."

"Clever, Phantom," the ghost complimented, grinning maniacally. "Well reasoned…clueless one."

Danny didn't flinch. "It stands to reason you've got my memories. You're not going to freak me out using nicknames Sam and Tucker have given me." He smirked. "You don't even know what's happened in my timeline. I'm guessing you're just as clueless – if not more so – than my actual future self." He sighed heavily. "Or should I say, former future self. I'm not turning into that monster, so I'll never 'give birth' to you." He spread his arms questioningly. "So I suppose the question is…what kind of grudge do you hold against me?"

The ghost's tone was incredulous. "You…really think…that just because you decree…it won't happen…that it won't?"

"It won't," Danny confirmed confidently.

"Suppose it won't…what does it change?" the ghost challenged, his face an ugly parody of Danny's own, twisted in hate as it was. "You're still the same…the same half-ghost…the same person. You…ruined us."

Danny was getting the sneaking feeling that he'd been a little too naïve in dealing with this insane ghost. He'd forgotten that being insane meant not being able to reason like a sane person. That meant none of his reasoning would get through to this ghost.

But he could still try, right? "Now just wait a minute—"

"You caused us pain!" the ghost roared. "All this…we did to destroy you!"

That caused Danny to pause, realization striking him. "Wait…you mean you're the reason for the ghosts disappearing from the Ghost Zone? For why I ended up here?" His eyes landed on the staff the ghost was brandishing like a weapon. "Is it that staff?"

The ghost never responded; his eyes were without reason as he swung the staff in Danny's direction. A stream of black jettisoned out of the smoky black orb. Suspecting that getting hit by that would be really bad, Danny teleported behind the ghost with a mere thought. The stream of black swept across the field and didn't stop until it hit the picnic tables. The tables were immediately gobbled up and the black stream dissipated.

"You can't escape!" The ghost whirled around, trying to hit Danny with the staff.

Danny ducked under it, lifting a hand to try and grab it. He missed as the ghost jumped back, grinning widely as he unleashed another stream of black.

"Damn it!" Danny blasted off the ground into the air, able to maneuver better while airborne. He unleashed an ecto-beam, not bothering to modulate the intensity.

The green was blinding as it rushed to the ghost. But it never came into contact, as a swirling black vortex opened up, swallowing up the energy before it sealed shut with a hiss.

'I have to get that staff!' Danny's eyes narrowed as the ghost's right half flickered out of view again. 'He doesn't seem very stable. Then again, nothing about him is stable. Ripped out of him without any consideration, he doesn't even have a name. And he wasn't sane enough to give himself one either. He just knows that he doesn't have one…and he doesn't care either.'

Heedless of Danny's momentary lack of action, the ghost cackled gleefully and opened a gigantic vortex to his right. Numerous shadows dripped out of it.

"Oh," Danny breathed, eyes tracking the monsters as they sank into the ground.

"Like my pretties?" The ghost's voice was high-pitched now. "So friendly, aren't they?" He giggled maniacally, throwing his head back. "Get him!"

Danny didn't budge from his spot, instead gritting his teeth. As the shadows converged on him, he let out a yell and unleashed a mass beam of energy that incinerated the mass horde.

"Did you forget?" Danny asked, glaring at the ghost. "Those things are useless against me. You'll have to face me yourself. Unless you've grown too reliant on that magic staff of yours?"

He was well aware that he was playing with fire. But experience had taught him that the angrier someone became, the easier they were to take down because they became irrational and made stupid mistakes. He'd fallen prey to that same weakness himself. Anger might make him more powerful, but it also made him more foolish.

Danny's comment did the trick as the ghost's eyes flashed in anger. A split-second later he leapt towards Danny, taking flight. Danny danced out of reach, using his speed to avoid the swipes of the staff and wincing as inarticulate snarls escaped from the ghost.

"Think you can run forever?" The ghost jabbed the staff forward, not coming close to hitting Danny.

Danny furrowed his brow. "What was that supposed to do?"

When he felt a sudden chill at his back and what seemed to be a sudden suction, Danny inhaled sharply, reading the ghost's cruel intentions in his face.

"I'm not going without you!" Danny snapped, whipping his hand out and grabbing hold of the staff.

The ghost had no time to pull back as the portal that he had opened up behind Danny pulled both of them into blackness.

Danny spent a brief and terrifying moment in blackness so deep that his only ghostly glow lit up the area around him, revealing the ghost he had pulled in with him, the unearthly light casting his insane face in dark shadows. Then there was brief flicker from the smoky black orb in the staff and another portal opened, pulling both of them through.

He had time to register burning heat before the ghost yanked the staff out of Danny's hand and darted back. Then Danny looked down and around to see that the entire world seemed to have turned into molten lava; they were flying directly over a steaming, bubbling volcano, and all around them were countless other volcanoes.

There was no such place on Earth, Danny knew. 'Oh God…a staff that travels through dimensions?'

There was no time to further think on this as the ghost opened another portal and disappeared into it. Danny reacted, bolting forward and into the portal just before it closed. He found himself suddenly floating in water and directly before a larger-than-life shark, which had its gaping maw open, revealing dozens of deadly sharp teeth.

He released a stream of bubbles in a shocked shout as he scrambled backward. The shark chomped down on empty water and twisted to the side, its beady black eye glaring at Danny hungrily.

Danny wasted no time in darting away from the shark. As he did, he opened his senses for the ghost. He was not going to stay in a dimension where there were huge sharks that were way too big for Earth. Plus, there was the whole issue of not being able to breathe. As far as he could tell, there was nothing but water around him.

When he found the ghost, he teleported directly to where he was located. He ended up behind the ghost, but any surprise he would have had was gone as the green flash alerted the ghost to his whereabouts.

The ghost whirled around, mouth open in a wordless snarl. The staff whipped at Danny but he grabbed it, stopping it in its tracks.

Danny almost yanked it out of the ghost's grip but was stopped by a boot to the stomach that let out another stream of bubbles.

'Great…running out of air!'

There was an evil smirk on the other ghost's face as he opened another gaping vortex. A mini-whirlpool formed as water poured into the rip in space. The ghost was sucked in first, while Danny was caught in the slipstream. He tumbled into black space, completely disoriented and sopping wet.

The only warning he had before something hit him in the back was an insane yell. "See you!"

The powerful whack sent him tumbling head over heels in empty space. Closing his eyes, Danny focused on the other ghost's location and teleported.

Being in nothing but blackness, the green flash of light was more disorienting than helpful this time. Danny took the opportunity to grab the staff and tear it out of the ghost's grasp. He promptly sped backwards, staff in hand and panting heavily, water still running down his face in streams.

The ghost let out a wordless scream of rage. "THAT'S MINE!"

Danny shook his head, holding the staff behind him with his left hand. "I don't think so."

The negative reply sent the ghost rushing to Danny, fury written over every aspect of his countenance. Danny ducked under him and sent an ecto-beam in his direction, hitting the ghost in the stomach and ripping a scream of pain out of him.

Green ectoplasm sprayed Danny in the face and he recoiled backward, momentarily blinded. As a result, he felt the ghost grab hold of the staff and try to pull it away.

'I just tore a hole in his stomach and he's still fighting?' Danny wiped the ectoplasmic blood off with a hand, not giving the staff an inch. His eyes met those of the ghost, which were manic with pain. His stomach was a gaping hole that was knitting itself closed before Danny's very eyes. As it did, though, the ghost's right half became slightly transparent before becoming opaque.

"Pain…" the ghost breathed, tugging at the staff and grinning maniacally, "…means nothing."

"You have a hole in your stomach," Danny retorted, pulling the ghost forward as he pulled back on the staff. "I'd say pain means something, but you're too thick to feel it."

"Tell me, Danny Phantom," the ghost said, not resisting. As a result, he was directly in Danny's face. "Have you ever…been ripped in half…by a hole in space?"

Danny stared at the ghost in confusion. "What?"

There was no reply aside from a widening grin. Then the ghost jerked the staff so it pointed to the side, as Danny's grip had loosened in the ensuing confusion. The smoky black orb flickered and opened a portal directly next to the two fighting ghosts.

Neither had any time to react (though the ghost didn't even look away from Danny's surprised green eyes) before they were pulled through and thrust into the interior of some kind of building. Danny impacted with a pillar, losing his breath and reflexively loosening his grip on the staff.

The ghost darted away to the side, sneering as Danny coughed, trying to get his breath back from the sudden collision.

"You won't…be keeping that," Danny informed the ghost in-between coughs, wiping his face clean of what remained of the ghost's ectoplasm. Taking a deep breath, he assumed a sitting position on the extremely dented pillar.

"Care to…back that up?" the ghost challenged, grinning.

Danny's eyes flared green. "With pleasure!"

He erupted from the pillar in a blur of black and white, crashing into the ghost with a loud smack! The impact hurtled both of them into the ground of the building, creating a mini crater.

Panting, Danny pushed himself off the body of the ghost, who was still grinning despite the debilitating impact to the ground. The ghost's figure was entirely solid with no hint of flickering.

"Thank you," the ghost giggled, ectoplasm staining his teeth. He spit a mouthful in Danny's face, causing him to flinch backward in disgust.

The ghost kicked Danny off, getting to his feet with a loud cracking of his spine.

Danny rolled to his feet, scarcely able to believe his eyes. "You…you're inhuman!"

"Brilliant…observation." The ghost wiped his mouth, showing Danny the green ectoplasm on his glove. "I'm…a ghost. And you…feed me!"

"…What?" Danny narrowed his eyes. "Feed you? I know you're completely crazy, but make some sense!"

"What do fathers do?" The ghost opened his arms, baring his body to the half-ghost. His figure was entirely solid, with no hint of flickering. "They nourish…their children."

Remembering how the ghost had looked before, with his right half flickering out of view, and comparing it with how the ghost looked now, completely solid, Danny realized with horror that he had been feeding him – however unintentionally. Whenever he'd hit the ghost with an ecto-beam, the energy had been feeding into the ghost, giving him strength. And what he'd done just now had brought the ghost into full contact with his own body, giving him even more energy.

"Realize it now?" The ghost grinned. "And…there's nothing…you can do about it."

Danny thinned his lips, thinking. "You really think so?"

"Every attack…just feeds me," the ghost said, dropping his arms to his sides. "Your own body…betrays you."

"Ecto-beams feed you; my ghost half might inadvertently give off energy," Danny said coldly, making up his mind, "but you're forgetting a critical fact."

"Oh?"

"There are some attacks…that are nothing but destructive." Taking a deep breath and focusing his energy in his throat, Danny released his ghostly wail.

Ordinarily already very powerful and capable of taking down entire buildings, Danny's ghostly wail was significantly even more powerful since the Puppet King. The attack ripped up the stone floor, sending debris flying into the air and scattering to the sides. The energy didn't just spiral towards the ghost; it also encompassed the rest of the building, cracking the stone ceiling and threatening to demolish the pillars.

The ghost didn't have time to move before the destructive energy of the ghostly wail hit him, sending him flying backward. The attack ripped up the floor where he had been standing.

Danny stopped the attack a few moments after unleashing it to take a quick inventory as to the destructive potential of it now. It was the first time he'd used it since his "leveling up" and he had no idea how it had changed since then.

Upon noting the fact that the floor looked like a powerful earthquake had come and gone and that the pillars and ceiling had cracks running through them even though the building looked very sturdy, Danny's lips tightened even as his eyes hardened in determination.

His eyes fell on the groaning figure of the ghost, who was struggling to his feet on a rocky sledge of floor that looked like a mini-boulder. "Liked it, did you?" he asked shortly. "I have more where that came from."

"You"—the ghost's voice was a rasp—"you didn't…have that…"

"Different timeline, remember?" Danny said, flying over to the ghost. "I can't help but notice that you don't think 'pains mean nothing' now. Did my wail change your mind?" He folded his arms across his chest. "I have to thank you, you know, for the Puppet King. It's your own doing."

"The…puppet?"

"What did you think would happen if you ripped someone's ghost half out?"

The ghost managed to get to his feet but he was noticeably more shakier than before, having to struggle to keep his balance on the uneven floor. "…Fool," he snarled.

"Most minions are," Danny said, looking down at the ghost.

"What…made you think…I was talking about him?" The ghost smirked at Danny. "You are the fool. This place…what is it?"

Danny furrowed his brow. "A building?"

"A dimension."

"This building is a dimension?" Danny said incredulously.

"Nothing outside…but empty space," the ghost said, cocking his head to the side. "Everything…torn apart…in a war."

"Get to the point!" Danny snapped. "I doubt you brought us here just to give me a history lecture on the dimension!"

"Your friends…family…where do you…think they are?"

The halting manner of the ghost's speech was on the verge of driving Danny insane. "My friends? My family? How the hell am I supposed to know? You're the nutcase who took them!" His eyes narrowed. "Wait… You're telling me that you took my family?"

The ghost's grin widened. "Is nothing safer…than a building…in empty space?"

Danny's eyes widened as the implications of that statement sank in. And he'd just unleashed a ghostly wail in here!

"You put them in here?" Danny shout echoed in the building with a hint of power behind it. The energy slammed into the ghost, throwing him into a pillar.

Danny hastened to calm down, shoving the energy back into his core where it belonged. After he'd done so, he flew over to the ghost, yanking him out of the rubble and pinning him to the upper half of the pillar by the collar. "Where are they?" he demanded.

The ghost didn't reply except to grin. "Why don't you…find them?"

A flicker out of the corner of his eye made Danny turn his head to look at the staff the ghost was still clutching. The orb had flickered and that meant…

A roar erupted from behind him, sending vibrations through Danny's entire figure. Whirling around, Danny's jaw dropped open upon seeing the gigantic…shadow monster behind him. It easily reached up halfway to the ceiling, which was roughly about the height of an eight story building.

It was eyeless but something was dripping out of its eyes and dripping onto the ground. The mouth was open, revealing a gaping maw of sharp teeth that were stained with things Danny would rather not think about. Its skin was not just black; it was writhing and seemed to be crawling like it was made up of countless shadow monsters that were swarming over it.

"Damn," Danny swore, his grip loosening on the ghost's collar.

"Get him…" the ghost breathed in Danny's ear, his voice echoing through the area, "…pet."

With a roar, the shadow monster pounced. Danny didn't think, bolting to the side and sprinting off, legs fusing into a ghostly tail. There was no question about fight or flight; every instinct in him was screaming to get the hell away.

The shadow monster was absolutely silent except for its rancid breath, which reminded Danny of the times the Lunch Lady had used rotten meat, except that it was a hundred times worse.

'These things are in-between dimensions?' He swooped to the side, dodging around a pillar to come out behind the shadow monster.

To his great surprise, it didn't work. All of a sudden he was faced with another gaping maw of teeth as the shadow monster slammed into him with those same teeth, sending him hurtling through the air with his entire body stinging from the contact with the sharp pieces of bone.

He crashed through several pillars before he recovered enough to turn intangible. He flew through one pillar before he tried to bring his flight to a halt by teleporting to the ground. It worked…to a point.

He ended up teleporting into the ground with the full force of inertia instead of teleporting on it the way he had planned. Groaning, he managed to float out of the crater he'd formed, wincing as the movement tore at the numerous holes the monster had left in his skin. Ectoplasmic blood was running into his eyes and he wiped at it in irritation, needing to see.

"Danny!"

The sound came from behind him and was so familiar he turned around without thinking. He blinked in surprise upon seeing the Titans, his friends, his family, and Dani inside a transparent green dome.

"You guys…you are actually here?" he asked, surprised. He wiped off some more ectoplasm, noting how Sam, Tucker, Dani, and his family winced on seeing the ghost blood drip to the ground.

"Never mind that!" Sam said, eyes running over him.

"Are you okay?" Maddie demanded.

"What happened to you?" Dani exclaimed. "It's like you had a run-in with a bunch of ice picks!"

Danny lifted an arm to see the wounds the monster had inflicted healing over with no scars, noting that Dani's comparison had merit. "I will be in a moment." He wiped his forehead one last time to get rid of any residue, noting that his face had already healed. "I had an accident"—he winced in remembrance—"with a jaw of teeth."

"You weren't caught, though, were you?" Raven said sharply. "How did you end up here?"

Danny opened his mouth to reply, only to close it when he smelled the rancid breath of the monster. He whirled around to see the gigantic monster leap at him from between two pillars.

"Oh hell!" he heard Cyborg shout.

"What is that?" That was Tucker.

This time there was no conflict in his mind either. His friends and family were behind him, meaning that he couldn't run away.

Firing up a powerful ecto-beam in his hand and feeding as much power into it as he could, Danny released it with a yell. Packed with even more power than usual, the ecto-beam exploded outward. It hit the shadow ghost and poured outward, disintegrating parts of the pillars and even the floor before it finally dissipated altogether.

When he was sure the shadow monster was gone, Danny turned back to the dome and flew over, stopping right before it and landing on the ground. "Are you guys all right?" he asked.

They were just blinking at him, rather shocked.

"Danny," Sam finally said, "that…was that easy?"

Danny shrugged, glancing behind him. "No harder than before. I just put more power in it. Judging from the size of that thing, it needed it."

"You're not even winded!" Tucker burst out.

"Do we have to have this conversation now?" Danny hissed, feeling for the ghost's presence. "We're about to have company!"

"The ghost?" everyone asked simultaneously.

A manic giggle sounded then, rounding off the chorus. "How…nice… You're all…expecting me…"

The ghost appeared in the area where Danny had destroyed the monster, manic eyes roving over the entire group.

"We could do without you," Danny said sharply, ignoring the warning hisses from behind him.

The ghost's eyes widened comically. "But we're…not done yet…Danny Phantom."

"If I had it my way," Danny said, his fist flaring green, "we'd be done now!" He fired it in the ghost's direction.

The ghost didn't move, but it wasn't an ordinary ecto-beam Danny had shot his way. The energy struck the ghost head on and threw him backward into a pillar, sticking him to it.

Danny then split into two, giving the duplicate a nod before it headed off to deal with the ghost. He turned back to the dome, eyes scanning the group.

"Wulf isn't here?" he asked.

"He wasn't from the start!" Beast Boy confirmed. "And he won't tell us!" he added loudly, pointing in the direction of ghost, who had phased backwards through the pillar and was now being harassed by the duplicate.

"Danny, are you all right?" Jazz asked hastily before anyone else could speak. "We haven't seen you for days! I told you not to go into the Ghost Zone by yourself!"

Danny frowned. "For the record, Skulker threw me into the Ghost Zone. I was just fine with staying in the lab. Besides, I didn't plan on being thrown through a portal!"

There was a mini-explosion from somewhere, signaling that the duplicate had blown something up.

"But are you all right?" Maddie asked frantically. "You're covered in blood!"

"Am I?" Danny brushed a hand through his hair, noting that it had some resistance. His hand came away with a faint green tinge and he made a face. "I don't think that's mine."

"That wail earlier, that was you?" Sam said.

"I wouldn't have done it if I had known you guys were here," Danny asserted, frowning. "I didn't know how much damage it would do. Luckily I didn't use it at full power."

"That was your ghostly wail?" Raven sounded surprised. "I suppose it's a good thing you insisted on not doing it."

Danny smiled wryly. "Yeah, well…it's a bit of a last-ditch resort. I just used it because anything else is something he feeds on, giving him more energy. He's solid now, did you know? He was flickering earlier…"

"We saw him," Dani said, her hands clenched into fists. "He never told us who he was."

Danny grinned at his "cousin". "Hey, Dani. Sorry about meeting up like this." He didn't bat an eye upon hearing another explosion.

"Is that normal?" Jack asked, trying to see if he could watch the fight.

"He's probably just throwing ghost rays around," Danny said. "It'll keep the ghost on his toes."

"He didn't tell you who he was?" Robin demanded.

"The impression he gave off was that he wouldn't tell us because we're weak," Jazz said hotly.

"He is not a nice ghost," Starfire said adamantly.

"That and he's completely insane," Tucker added.

Danny hesitated, thinking about what the ghost had told him. "He did tell me. He doesn't have a name…but that's because he was never supposed to be."

"What does that mean?" Sam said. "Never supposed to be?"

"Never supposed to be, you mean?" Raven clarified. "As in, never supposed to be a being?"

"Yeah." Danny gave off a flinch as his duplicate suddenly fizzled out. "Oh damn. There goes my duplicate." He got a faint sense of sharp teeth and rancid breath. "Great…cause of death – another shadow monster." He didn't see the confused looks his friends and family from Amity Park gave him.

"Focus on him for now," Raven said hurriedly, catching Danny's attention. "We'll be all right. I'll focus on finding a way out, okay?" She gestured to the dome separating them from Danny.

Danny nodded. "Yeah. I'll try and see if I can't take this fight to another dimension." He looked around the area with a faint sense of unease, noting the damage his ghostly wail had done even here. "Somewhere more open."

Tucker blinked, disconcerted. "I never thought I'd hear you talking about dimensions like they're just another neighborhood."

"With that staff," Danny said, "they might just as well be another neighborhood. Stay safe, all right?"

"Be careful, Danny," Sam said fiercely. "All right? Don't go doing anything foolish. We want you back home. Do you promise?"

Danny gave her a smile, not answering her in the affirmative. "I want to be back home, Sam."

Giving the others a final nod, he bolted off in the direction where he could sense the ghost was. He used his sixth sense to fly through pillars and didn't even flinch when he ran into the second shadow monster, instantly annihilating it with a bright flash of energy.

Slowing down now, he didn't miss the sitting figure of the ghost on a pillar. He floated in front of him, eyes narrowed.

"Regardless of what happens," Danny said calmly, ghostly tail flicking to the side, "this ends now."

The ghost tilted his head sideways. "You…speak of death."

Danny smiled mirthlessly. "I think we both know how this is going to end." He clasped the thermos on his belt. "I don't have an empty thermos on me and even if I did, I would never lock you in one. I locked him in one and he escaped. And he was saner than you will ever be. What would an insane ghost do when locked in a thermos?" The rhetorical question hung in the air between the two. "So, there can only be one way to end this."

The ghost's eyes glinted. "Annihilation?"

Danny thinned his lips. "I don't kill, even if the ghost deserves it." He eyed the staff the ghost was holding. "Even as insane as you are, perhaps you can guess?"

The question posed, Danny didn't give the ghost any time to reply, darting forward to grab the staff. As expected, the ghost didn't let go, swinging with the staff as Danny jumped off the pillar into the air, flying up to the ceiling now.

Then he took the initiative, channeling as much harmless power into the staff as he could, focusing on opening a portal elsewhere. He didn't know how it worked but he was determined to try.

When he did, the ghost's eyes widened in surprise and realization before narrowing in determination. Suddenly, Danny felt his power being suppressed by the ghost's crazier energy, which caused the orb to flicker.

A portal formed and Danny didn't even think about it, pulling both of them into the rip in space. When their surroundings righted themselves, Danny froze upon realizing that he was in a very familiar area. It looked like Amity Park, but it was completely and utterly wrecked. There was not a single standing building, plumes of smoke were rising from various sites, and the sky was an ashen gray.

What's more was that there was not a single sign of life anywhere.

Danny's shock let the ghost pull away from him, still holding the staff.

"Recognize…the place?" the ghost asked, seeming to enjoy Danny's horrified shock. "Like…what I…did?"

Danny turned on the ghost, eyes narrowed. "You did this? What about him? The one who created you? He doesn't seem like the kind to let someone like you run around scot-free!"

The ghost bared his teeth angrily. "Him? He's gone! Thought he could live without me! But he couldn't – he couldn't!" He was laughing maniacally. "He tore me out"—he was speaking rapidly—"he tore me out but couldn't stay! I was him and he was me."

Danny gave a short laugh. "So he fell victim to his own pride, huh? Decided he didn't need you, but it turned out that without you he just – what? – destabilized? I bet that just was a riot for you, wasn't it? The ultimate irony: he threw away what he really needed." He smiled ruthlessly. "Does it bother you? Knowing that he threw away what was absolutely necessary? Knowing that he considered you so worthless that he didn't think twice about tossing you when he could?"

He watched as the ghost's aura started to flare angrily, continuing coolly, "I bet it does. And you know why? Because you went after me. If it didn't bother you, you would've just stayed here. But instead you found Clockwork, saw that there were other timelines, saw me, and decided that I just had to pay. You hated it so much that you were just thrown away that you went after me." Danny raised an eyebrow. "Did I miss anything?"

His words had done the trick.

With a wordless roar, the ghost rushed to him, his aura blinding in his fury. Danny didn't flinch, batting aside several punches and fielding the ghost's kicks. He waited for a brief break in the ghost's guard before he swooped in with a hand, grabbing hold of the staff.

"I bet"—he barely flinched as the ghost kicked his stomach—"that you've figured out what I want to do now, huh? I can't confine you via normal means"—he blocked a punch—"I can't destroy you because it's just not in me to do that"—his eyes hardened—"I can't use this staff because I don't know how and I know you'll never teach me"—his head turned intangible as the ghost tried to head butt him—"but I can destroy it, and lock us both in this dimension. You won't disturb anyone ever again." His eyes bore into the insane ghost's, absolutely no hesitation in them. "It'll be just you and me."

The staff was now directly in-between the two of them. Neither of them was moving – Danny because he was waiting for some kind of confirmation and the ghost because he'd frozen.

Without a word, the ghost's eyes flickered down from Danny's to the staff. Danny felt power suddenly seep into the staff; the smoky black orb flickered.

It seemed to sink into the staff, which began to vibrate furiously.

The whole thing took a second and by now the ghost's hand was a viselike grip over Danny's, preventing him from moving.

Realizing with calm clarity what would happen in just another second, Danny closed his eyes, exhaling slowly.

With a silent implosion, the staff exploded into a vortex.

Well...what did you think? Think we can go for about thirty reviews this time? If I get that many, I'll update immediately! I'm pretty sure you all want to know what's going to happen next.

Thanks to seantriana, knighthawker, SkyHorse32, formerlyarandomreviewer, bug349, lokoforsonic9559, Bucio, kirara the great, Wilona Riva, Mak8907, Mysterious Prophetess, Kung-fu Blaziken, warrioprincess951, ChopSuzi, HalfafanD, ChristinCC, anon, Akela Victoire, and coopt98 for reviewing the last chapter!

formerlyarandomreviewer: I'll take that to mean you liked it?

anon: Thank you!

coopt98: Hope this chapter satisfied your expectations.