Danny awoke in a cold sweat, sitting up with a gasp and panting as he tried to calm his rapidly beating heart. The sudden movement was enough to wake up his girlfriend next to him in bed.

"B-Baby-Pop? What happened? What's wrong?!" Ember asked as she quickly sat up and looked at him in concern when she saw his current state.

Taking a deep breath, Danny was calm enough to speak. "Sorry, Ember. It was just a really bad dream. I didn't mean to wake you."

This only made Ember frown. "Sleep can wait. Right now, you're my main concern, Baby-Pop. What happened in your dream to scare you like this?"

"…Vlad and Dan came back."

"Oh god," groaned out the fiery girl. She then wrapped her arms around her man's shoulders to comfort him. "You didn't win."

"That's where things get weird," replied Danny, putting his arm around her waist. "Vlad somehow came back from his exile to space, but instead of trying to fight me he warned me that Dan was free and I had to stop him."

"And this is where you lost?" she questioned, her hold on him tightened.

"No, I won, but for some reason Dan redeemed himself?" replied Danny, clearly confused by his dream. "Vlad, too, but I know both of them well enough to know that they're beyond redemption."

"So that's why you freaked out."

"…That's not even the worst part," added the boy, getting another groan from Ember. "After I beat Dan, time reset itself, again, so everyone except my friends and my sister forgot about my secret identity. Normally I'd be okay with something like that happening since I don't like my celebrity status, but I hate that I was my parents' number one enemy again."

Ember held him close as she rested her head on her shoulder. "I'm sorry to hear that, Baby-Pop, but at least we both know that if something like that does happen you can just tell your secret to your parents and they'll stop. Didn't you tell me that every time your folks found out about your secret that they accepted you no matter what?"

A small smile appeared on Danny face as he used his free hand to give Ember's arm a gentle, loving squeeze. "I did and you're right. If I could I'd have just my family and friends know my secret and with you by my side, that'd be the perfect life."

A now blushing Ember grinned before she reached up and placed a kiss on Danny's cheek. "I'd like that, too, Baby-Pop. So, did anything else happen in your dream or was that it?"

Danny emotions shifted and Ember could just feel the annoyance rolling off of him.

"For some reason I was dating Sam and it was implied that she was the only person who could ever make me happy," replied Danny with a grimace. He could feel Ember bristle next to him. "I almost want to believe this is Nocturn's doing, but he would have given me a much worse dream than something similar to those bad fanfictions Sam likes to read."

A growl escaped from the fiery girl's throat. "I don't know what the hell "fanfiction" is, but if that dipstick really is behind this, I don't care how powerful he is, I'll beat him black and blue!"

"Just as long as I can join in the beating," added Danny with a chuckle. "Anyway, we should probably get back to sleep. It'll be morning soon and we're going to need our energy to see the sights of the next city."

"I don't know, Baby-Pop. I feel like I could stay up just a little bit longer~" replied Ember in a sultry tone as she drew circles on his shirtless chest, looking at him with half-lidded eyes.

Danny grinned as he pulled Ember onto his lap, causing her to giggle. The hand that was around her waist made its way under her tank-top, while his other hand started to caress her bare thigh.

"You know what? I think I can stay up a bit longer as well."

Another giggle came from Ember before she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a lip lock.

They didn't get any more sleep that night.

-:-

The next morning, the ghostly trio had arrived at the next city and were currently standing in the most prominent plaza of the city. Before them was a fountain with a large sculpture of a woman on a chariot being pulled by two lions.

"So where are we now?" asked Danielle, looking around in curiosity.

"This, Danielle, is the city of Madrid, capital of Spain," said Danny before he took a sip of strong, black coffee from the Styrofoam cup he had.

Ember took a sip of coffee from her own cup before she continued. "Yup, and we've got a lot of places to visit while we're here."

"Like what?" questioned the ghostling.

"Aside from the Plaza de Cibeles, which we're currently at, we're also going to go see the Puerta de Alcala, Retiro Park, Puerta del Sol, and Las Ventas," replied Danny.

"Does this mean we're not going to a museum for once?" asked Danielle with a hopeful tone.

"Well if you really want to go to one, Danielle," said Danny, smirking when the little one let out a groan.

"No! I don't want to go to another museum! The last one we went to had naked people in it!"

This only made the teens roll their eyes with Ember being the one to speak. "Not every museum is like that, Mini-Pop."

"I still don't want to go."

"Good thing for you then that we're not going to any museums," stated Dann, earning a cheer from his little clone. "So let's head out to the first stop on our Spanish tour."

The ghostly trio then started to make their way deeper into the city.

-:-

Las Ventas, the largest bullfighting ring in Spain and the third largest bullfighting ring in the world, was the first stop on this Madrid vacation.

"This is where I'll holding my concert when the time comes!" exclaimed Ember with glee.

"This place can hold concerts?" questioned Danielle, looking at all of the pictures of bulls in confusion.

"You bet, Mini-Pop! The Beatles played here once."

"Not only them but also Diana Ross, Depeche Mode, AC/DC, and Radiohead played here, too," added Danny, causing Ember to grin.

Danielle furrowed her brow, even more confused now. "But what's with all the cows?"

"This is a bullfighting ring first and foremost, Mini-Pop. There's going to be bulls here."

"We'll find out more in the museum here," said Danny, causing Danielle to bristle.

"You said we weren't going to any museums!" snapped the ghostling, giving off a pouty glare.

But Danny just gave her a teasing smirk. "Technically we didn't. We went to a bullfighting ring."

The little one only pouted more as they entered the museum section of Las Ventas. Using the English language audio guides provided to guests, they learned a lot about the history of bullfighting. Eventually they came upon an exhibit that made them raise an eyebrow.

"El Diablo?" questioned Ember as they stared at the statue of a large black bull.

"According to this, El Diablo was a large Spanish Fighting Bull that was a lot more aggressive than others of his kind, to the point that he couldn't be used in bullfights," said Danny as he read a nearby plaque.

"I thought aggressive bulls were what they wanted in bullfights," replied Ember.

"Yeah, but it seems El Diablo was on a different level. Apparently, he purposely hunted down and attacked humans."

"Wait, what?"

Danny nodded. "He terrorized people for the years before he was finally put down."

"I'm still trying to understand how and why he did it," said Ember, frowning. "From what I know about animals, they don't attack humans unless provoked or unless they're a predator. So what the hell would cause a bull to purposely go after humans?"

"Unfortunately it looks like that's still a mystery," replied Danny, seeing that there was no information. "We might never know why El Diablo attacked humans the way he did."

"Maybe he was just bad," suggested Danielle.

The mere thought that an animal could just be plain evil was disturbing to Danny and Ember. Not even ghost animals were considered "evil" as they were much like their living counterparts and functioned purely on instinct.

It was decided that the trio had enough of the bullfighting ring for the time being and left to explore more of the city. As they left though, they didn't notice the head of the El Diablo statue turn and its eyes start to glow red.

-:-

"So why are we looking at a statue of a bear again?"

After leaving the bullring, the three went to the Puerta del Sol, one of Madrid's best-known landmarks. Right now they were on the north side of the public square where the well-known statue stood.

"The Statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree is an important symbol of the city, Danielle," explained Danny. "It represents the city's coat of arms."

He showed the ghostling a picture of Madrid's coat of arms, which only made said ghostling furrow her brow in thought.

"So wait, does this mean that this statue is the city's most famous landmark?"

"That would be the Royal Palace, but Puerta del Sol as a whole is a very close second," said Danny. "Along with the statue here, the square has plenty of other landmarks to see. In fact, you can see the famous clock tower of the Royal House of the Post Office from here."

Turning south, where Danny was pointing, the girls saw the clock tower in the distance. They all made their way across the square to where the building stood and once there, Ember turned back to Danny.

"Why is the post office considered royalty?" she questioned.

"I think it's just a name now, since it's no longer a post office. It's currently serves as the office of the President of the Community of Madrid, which I think is a step above the mayor?" replied Danny, questioning his own knowledge. "I'm not really an expert of other countries' politics."

"It's politics, Baby-Pop, so I don't blame you for not knowing."

"Danny! You said the clock tower is famous. What did you mean by that?" asked Danielle, looking up at her current guardian.

"It's famous because it's used to ring in the New Year, similar to the ball drop in Times Square," explained the older Halfa. "The tradition is every time the clock bell rings you eat a grape and once eat all twelve grapes you'll have good luck for a whole year."

"So basically grapes are the grease monkey's Kryptonite," said Ember with a grin, referring to Johnny and his bad luck powers.

"Well now I'm tempted to test that out," replied Danny, returning the grin.

Ember let out a giggle at that while Danielle tilted her head in confusion.

"What's a grease monkey and can I have it as a pet?" questioned the little one.

"Absolutely not!" came the immediate response from the teens, with Ember following up. "A grease monkey isn't even an animal, Mini-Pop…well, at least not in the traditional sense. The point is, we don't want you anywhere near the grease monkey unless me or Baby-Pop are with you. Otherwise, he might lower your IQ."

Danielle crossed her arms with a pout. "I still want a monkey."

"Would you take this instead?" asked Danny, pulling out something from behind his back that he knew would distract her.

It was a plushy bull dressed as a bullfighter.

The little one's eyes widened and she immediately made grabby hands towards it, to which Danny handed it over without resistance.

"I'm surprised that she didn't notice it when we were leaving the bullring," said Ember, watching Danielle inspect her new toy.

"That's why I bought it when she wasn't looking before we left," replied Danny with a shrug. "I figured it'd be a nice surprise for her."

With the ghostling placated for now, the three continued to explore the rest of the square before moving on.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the trio, havoc was happening around Las Ventas as people were running away in terror from a massive black bull with glowing red eyes that seemed to be searching for something…

…Or someone.

TO BE CONTINUED

-:-

Hola, mi amigos. We have reached Madrid, Spain on the Phantom Family's world tour and there's even some setup to the next villain. Originally I was going to have it be the ghost of a bullfighter, but I thought the ghost of a bull would be more interesting.

For this episode's song title, we have…

"Never Been to Spain" (3:46) – Three Dog Night

It was between that song or "Holiday in Spain" by Counting Crows, but the Counting Crows song just didn't feel right for this fic.

And yes, I took a potshot at the graphic novel in the beginning, because that's how terrible it is, especially when it gives Dan of all characters a form of redemption. Again, don't read this book if you're a Danny Phantom fan.