Deep within the mother continent, known as Africa, a tribe was chanting as they danced around the fire. Others played their instruments as they watched the unique ritual continue as they chanted the ancient words. One tribe member looked toward a hut with two guards posted as the leader stepped out. He had white face paint on him in the form of a skull.

The others bowed at his feet as the leader, also known as the Hungan, raised a burning log to the sky. "After ten long seasons, the night winds have finally answered my pleas." He announced. "Our wandering goddess has been found. The power of the wind rider belongs to us." He threw the burning log at a wooden statue that was made in the form of a familiar X-Woman. "We will claim her once again, and Africa will be mine!"

Jean stepped outside into the school courtyard, holding her lunch, as she looked around for her boyfriend. While trying to find him, she saw Taryn and Scott and, acting on instinct, immediately walked away, but Taryn spotted her.

"Jean!" She called out. "Sit here with us."

Being caught, she plastered on a fake smile and joined them. The redhead didn't know why, but she didn't want to be anywhere near Taryn or Scott when they were together. For some unexplained reason, the sight of the two of them made her stomach uneasy and her eyes furrow in frustration.

"Hi, guys." She forced out politely. "I was, uh, looking for Duncan."

"Haven't seen him." Scott replied.

"Hey, how did you do on your school progress report?" Taryn asked.

"Oh, uh, pretty good, I guess. You know, easy classes." She said humbly. The three just sat there in an uncomfortable silence until Jean decided she needed to get out of here. "Well, uh, you know, I think I'm gonna go find Duncan." Using that excuse, she left the table only to run into Danny and Rogue, who were watching the scene with much amusement.

"You all right, Jean?" Danny asked.

"Yeah." Jean answered nonchalantly, attempting to appear put together. "I'm fine."

The couple shared a look, obviously not buying it.

"Really, cause you look like you want to tear Taryn's hair out." Rogue pointed out with a smirk. "Wonder why?"

"It's nothing." Jean brushed off as she walked past them.

"So, how long until she cracks and admits her feelings to Scott?" Rogue asked her boyfriend in amusement.

Danny hummed in thought. "Could be days, months, or hell, even years."

The two were about to head to their table when Rogue suddenly tripped. "Ahh!" She would've landed face-first on the pavement if Danny hadn't caught her.

"You okay?" Danny pulled her back up.

"Yeah." Rogue replied bitterly, realizing that her powers still needed to be under control. Though, it could've been worse. Her skirt could've phased off by accident, like last night at the dinner table. She almost died of embarrassment and came back as a full ghost. Although she did catch Danny's blush when he saw her underwear which secretly pleased her.

"My foot just phased through the ground for a brief sec. Made me trip. I thought I had these powers under control." She said in frustration.

Danny attempted to cheer her up. "Hey, don't get yourself down. You're making great progress. You're doing a better job than I did. We'll do a training session after school."

Just then, Evan passed them on his skateboard.

"Heads up!" Evan cried as he almost ran them over. "Thanks!"

Rogue got an evil smirk on her face as she shot a small ghost ray out of her finger at one of the wheels on his skateboard, causing the young lad to fall off and slide over a table, spilling the lunch all over the students, who cried out indignantly. Evan then landed on the pavement before looking up into the glaring face of Principal Kelly.

"Principal Kelly." He greeted. "Uh, what's up?"

Danny was pacing the Danger Room, waiting for Rogue to join him. He didn't know why, but he didn't want to be left alone right now in here. He thought he could hear whispering, and for a second, he swore someone said his name. As he tried to ignore it, he ended up jumping at the sound of Rogue coming in.

"Alright, let's get this over with." Rogue said, not exactly excited to be training.

Danny nodded, happy that he had company now. "Let's do this."

"Which one are we doing?" Rogue asked him.

"The phasing gauntlet." Danny answered. This program consisted of a corridor firing several non-hazardous shots at Rogue. The objective for her was to phase through the blasts and get to the other side. "Computer begin." The corridor formed as the turrets popped out. "Go get them." He cheered his girlfriend on.

Groaning, Rogue made a running start as she started dashing through the lasers, making sure all of them phased through her, while Danny walked along at a leisurely pace since the turrets weren't targeted at him. As he was monitoring her progress, four metal arms came out of the walls and snatched his limbs, lifting him up in the air. Rolling his eyes, he phased through the tentacles and blasted them each with an ecto-blast. The floor underneath him fell and would've dropped him into a pit if he hadn't flown out in time.

Vents then opened, releasing a smokescreen that clouded his sight.

"Danny, what's going on?" Rogue demanded, as she couldn't see what was happening.

"I don't know." Danny answered before deciding to shut this program down. "Computer, stop the program." The training session didn't stop. "It won't stop; just go along with it." He told his girlfriend. "We covered smoke screens last week."

While trying to make his way through the smoky room, he came face-to-face with red eyes. "What the?" How could that be possible? He can't be here. "No!" Danny fired an ecto-blast through the smoke as it stopped, revealing that what he shot at was a gun turret with the ends of its barrels glowing red.

The phantasm sighed in relief. For a second, he thought...

"What the heck is going on with this room?" Rogue demanded as she came up to him. "You didn't activate that program by accident, did you?."

"No." Danny said, shaken up by what had just happened. "I guess the Danger Room has a few glitches." He assumed. "We'll work on this tomorrow."

Rogue then left the Danger Room, leaving him all alone again. Deciding to see what the problem was, he started heading to the observatory deck. As he rounded a corner, he flipped a switch to turn on the lights, but it didn't work.

Just then, he caught a shadow in his sights as it appeared at the end of the hall before it ran off.

"Rogue?" Danny wondered if she was still here. "Are you down here?" The whispers return, prompting him to run down the halls instead of walking. As he tried to make his way through the tunnels, the doors next to him opened up on their own, freaking him out. "Who's there?" He demanded. For a brief moment, he thought he was dealing with a ghost, but his ghost sense didn't go off.

"Show yourself!" Danny fired an ecto-blast into the room as a warning not to mess with him. He felt a shadow dart past him, and then another. There was something down here with him. But what?

Having had enough of this, he went to the elevator and pressed the button. "Come on!" He urged the machine, as it was taking its sweet time. Looking over his shoulder, he found that there wasn't anything there, but that didn't reassure him at all. Pressing the button rapidly, he tried to get the elevator to move faster when he felt a shadow on him, making him turn around and see there was nothing there.

Keeping his eyes on the corridor, he heard the doors open and turned around to enter before screaming as he saw someone else was there. "Ahh!" He shrieked before realizing it was just Beast. "Oh, Beast." He said thankfully. "It's just you." Overcome with emotion, he hugged him. "You don't know how relieved I am to see that it's just your blue furry hide."

"I got to admit, that's a new one." Beast joked at Danny's reaction to his appearance before seeing how panicked Danny was. "Are you all right?"

"I don't know." Danny said as he calmed down. "I was having a Danger Room session with Rogue, and the room glitched on me. I guess I was a little spooked by the malfunction."

"Well, let's hope this doesn't deter you from further helping the others." Beast replied. "You have a good influence on the students here. I just saw Evan's progress report, and I'm willing to bet you had a hand in that."

Danny looked to the ground, trying to hide his blush.

Meanwhile, Storm was in the foyer reading a book when Evan entered the institute with a skateboard in hand.

"Hey, Auntie O, you doing okay?" He asked her.

"Yes." Storm looked at him puzzled. "Why do you ask?"

Evan pointed outside with his thumb. "There's a lot of fog outside; I thought you were feeling down."

"No, I am fine." Storm replied. "You said there was a lot of fog outside?"

"Yeah, a whole bunch of it." Evan gestured for her to come and see.

Storm looked out the door to see that the whole institute was practically covered in it. "How odd."

Now that the day was over, all the X-Men were sleeping peacefully. All but one.

Danny tossed and turned in his bed. "No." In his sleep, he was dreaming about a forest, but something was there. Hiding behind the trees. Though he couldn't see the figure as fog started to invade the area, he could feel whatever it was staring at him.

"Go away!" He mumbled in his sleep before the shadow slowly inched its way from the tree, before making a mad dash at him.

"Stay back!" Shooting out of his bed, his eyes glowed green as he roared. "Get out of here!"

"Danny, are you okay?" Scott asked. Danny looked across the room. Nothing. It was just him and Scott before Xavier, Logan, and Rogue busted in, alerted by his screams.

Rogue immediately went to his bedside. "Sugar, are you okay?"

"Someone or something was in here." Danny told them all. "I know it." Seeing their dubious looks, he cried, "I'm not crazy!"

Xavier turned to Logan. "Logan?"

"Nothing." Logan confirmed as he sniffed around for anyone's scent.

"There was something here, I'm telling you! I'm not lying!" Danny shouted as he saw Xavier frown.

"He didn't say you were." Rogue rubbed his back.

"Check the security system, just in case." Xavier told Logan.

"Right." Logan said before prodding Rogue out. "Back to bed, stripes. The prof's got this."

Rogue gave one last look of concern before leaving.

"I'm telling you, professor." Danny stated to his teacher. "Something was in this room. I'm not making this up. And I'm not delusional! I know it." He had been through something like this before. "I had an experience like this." He revealed before looking out the window. "But my ghost sense didn't go off, so there's no point in thinking it was Youngblood again."

"Youngblood?" Xavier questioned curiously.

"He was this ghost that only kids could see." Danny informed. "He kept bothering me, and my parents couldn't see him, so they thought I was crazy." How funny that his parents thought someone else was crazy. "Which is kind of ironic now that I think about it." He turned his attention back to the psychic. "I know that this isn't my imagination. But it's not him this time. It's something else."

"Perhaps it's stress." Xavier guessed. "Maybe you just need a good rest. And in the morning, if nothing changes, then we'll figure something out." He gently pushed Danny back down to bed. "Relax, Danny. You're safe."

"Rest." Danny said to himself. "Yeah, that's what I need." He closed his eyes, hoping that everything would be okay when he woke up.

He slept peacefully that night, so when the morning came, he was in a good mood. Getting to the bathroom, he started a bath. Letting the sound of water running soothe him, he went over to the cabinet to grab some shampoo. When he got the bottle, he closed the cabinet, and on the mirror was the shape of a skull.

Danny screamed, dropping the bottle of shampoo to the floor. It wasn't over. It was still here. It hadn't left. Backing away, he tried to calm himself down while trying to get his thoughts together.

Though the skull was the mark of the Hungan, to Danny it meant something else. He remembered back in the mountains that he had come face-to-face with another skull. The skull of death. Not death, as in literally dying. But the death of his innocence. The death of his humanity, for if he lets it die, he will become just like him.

Down below, Xavier was rolling down the hallway when a drop of water hit his head.

"Huh?" Looking up, the professor saw water leaking from the ceiling.

In the bathroom, the bath was overflowing, but that meant nothing to the ghost sitting in the corner with his hands around his knees. Rogue phased through the door and was taken aback by just how frightened her boyfriend looked.

Pushing her worry aside, she went to her boyfriend's side. "Danny, what's wrong? What happened?" Danny didn't respond, making her put a hand on his arm to get his attention.

"Rogue?" Danny looked at her as if he were in a daze.

"Nice pool party you got here." She joked as she lifted him to his feet before turning the water off.

Danny walked out, where he came across Xavier, Jean, Storm, and Logan.

"Danny, are you all right?" Xavier asked.

"Is there anything we can do?" Jean inquired.

"No, I'm good." Danny told them. "Really, I am." He reiterated when he saw that they didn't believe him.

Rogue came up to him and led him to his room. "Come on, sugar, let's get you out of here."

"What could've gotten into him?" Storm asked the professor.

Logan crossed his arms. "He's got a lot on his plate, Storm. Being a boyfriend to Rogue, a brother figure to the other runts, and a student to us. Not to mention handling all those powers."

"He may be powerful, but he's still just a child." Xavier reminded him.

"Physically, Chuck." Logan pointed out. "But I've looked into his eyes. Bub has seen something. Something that truly terrified him to his core. You don't walk away with yourself intact after these kinds of things."

"Professor?" The three adults turned to Jean, who closed the cabinet, revealing that Danny smashed the glass.

Back in his room, Danny had finished getting dressed when, as he was about to leave, he saw Rogue standing outside his bedroom door.

"Is something going on, sugar?" Rogue was frankly getting worried about him.

"Don't call me crazy, but I think something is stalking me." He confided in her. "But I don't know what. It was in the Danger Room, and it was in the bathroom." He then saw Rogue looking at him funny. "I'm not crazy."

Rogue placed a hand on his cheek. "I will never call you crazy, and I won't let anything hurt you. I promise."

Danny sighed in relief. "Thank you. I think I just need to get out of here. Come on, let's go to school."

"You want to go to school?" Rogue said jokingly. "Never mind, sugar, you are sick in the head."

He kissed her. "More like lovesick."

"I'm telling you, something's going on with him." Rogue said to Kitty as they walked the halls. She phased her hand through her locker and grabbed her books. "First, he thinks someone's out to get him, and this morning, he wigs out in the bathroom." She looked down. "I just feel so useless." She looked at her hand as it glowed with energy. "I have all this power, and I can't even help my own boyfriend."

"Don't worry, Rogue." Kitty assured her. "I'm sure Danny will get better. You'll see."

"You should have seen him, Scott." Jean told him as they walked outside the school. Strangely, there was fog outside, but the two didn't pay it any mind. "I'm really starting to worry."

"Hey, Danny's a tough guy." Scott said, feeling confident Danny will overcome this issue. He knew his friend, who he saw as a second brother. He was a guy that never seemed to be bothered by anything. "Whatever's bugging him, he'll work through it."

While his friends were voicing their concerns, Danny was at his locker, getting his things for class. When he closed it, he found Evan right next to him. "Ahh!" He jumped a bit before smacking Evan's arm. "What the hell, Evan? Don't you know not to sneak up on people like that?"

"Sorry, man." Evan apologized as he rubbed his neck nervously before asking the question that was on his mind. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Danny replied tersely. "Just dealing with something stalking me. It happens every day." He said sarcastically. "If only the rest of you could believe me."

"I believe you." Evan told him, making Danny swivel around and lock eyes with his friend.

"You do?" He asked, holding back his shock.

"Yeah, man." Evan said. "I know you. You're not the kind of guy who would lie about something like that. And I know you're of sound mind, so you can't be crazy."

Smiling brightly, he patted his friend on the shoulder. "Thanks, Evan." Just then, his good mood was ruined as he saw something at the end of the hallway. Throwing Evan aside, he shot an ecto-blast down the hall, burning a locker in the process.

"Where are you?" Danny shouted, getting the X-Men to look at each other in disbelief. Never had they seen Danny act like this. Thankfully, no one was around to see what he just did.

"Danny, what's up with you?" Scott demanded, making the hybrid turn around to see all the X-Men staring at him.

"It was there!" He pointed down the hall. "I saw it!" He shouted before giving up when he saw them look amongst each other in doubt. "Oh, who am I kidding? You're never going to believe me." Glaring bitterly at them, he said, "After all the help I've given you guys, you're just gonna write me off as some lunatic."

"Danny, wait!" Rogue tried to chase after him, but he had already left through the school doors.

Beast was walking down the lawn to the institute as he heard the shouts of excitement from the New Mutants.

A football was thrown past him before the blue mutant saw Sam coming at him.

"Watch out!" He cried as he knocked into Beast, sending him flying a couple feet.

"Uh, sorry, Mr. McCoy." Sam apologized sheepishly. "You okay?"

Beast chuckled. "Yeah. I'm fine." He returned the football. "Nice moves, Cannonball. Is Storm holding a session out here in the fog?" He asked as he looked around in the fog.

"Nope." Ray answered. "Actually, Danny was the one who was supposed to be here, but he never showed up, so we thought we'd improvise."

"Uh-huh." Beast smiled as he crossed his arms. "Which is usually followed by costly repairs." Not wanting the students to not be productive, he decided to take charge. "Well, I guess that means I'm your sub, and I've got just the activity for you."

He led them down to the Danger Room, where he had a volleyball net pop out of the ground.

"Okay, listen up." He told the students. "It's time to learn a valuable commodity." A volleyball was launched at him, which he caught in his hand. "Self-restraint." He handed it to Amara. "The goal is simple. Volleyball with no powers."

The students cheered as they got ready to have some fun.

"And for me to survive a session without a trip to the infirmary." Beast muttered to himself.

Amara served the ball as Roberto bounced it back, hitting Ray in the process.

"No way you can hit that hard without your powers!" Ray challenged as his hands glowed with electrical energy.

It took only a few seconds for everything to turn to chaos as Beast was blasted through the door.

"Oh, boy." He sighed to himself.

It was 1 a.m. in the morning, and Danny was struggling to fall asleep. How could he when he had something out for him? When he saw a shadow pass through the window, Danny dashed over it and looked out to see another one appear at the gate before vanishing.

"That's it." Danny knew he couldn't let this thing stalk him forever. "It's time to end this."

As he flew out to confront this thing, he passed by Storm's room, waking her up in the process.

She stepped out onto the balcony. "Danny?" She said sleepily before seeing her student leave the institute. "Danny, wait! Don't run away!" She went to follow him, but he was gone. "Danny!" Whispering was heard as she looked around before coming face-to-face with an old friend.

"Nirambo!" She exclaimed in recognition. He had been a member of the tribe that she was part of back in Africa.

"You must turn back." He warned her. "It is not safe."

"Where's Danny?" She demanded. "What have you done?" She ran past him to find the hybrid. "Danny!"

"No!" Nirambo pulled her back. "The Hungan has come for him."

Storm turned back to her old friend. "Come with me." She ordered. "You will explain everything."

As Danny was flying through Bayville, he found his way to the docks, where he encountered a man sitting cross-legged on one of the boats.

"It's you, isn't it?" Danny interrogated, angry at being made to look like a lunatic thanks to this man. "I don't know how, but you're the one who's been following me everywhere." Making his way over to the one who was responsible for all this, he was ready to punch him when the man, moving at breakneck speed, threw some kind of ball of magical energy at him, causing the hybrid to fall into the opening of the crate.

He looked up to see the man close the door, trapping him inside.

Danny was about to phase through the crate when it lit up, shocking him and knocking him down. Inspecting the walls, he saw that there were several ancient-looking symbols carved into them. As he decided to charge up an ecto-blast to blast his way out, he heard chanting.

Ignoring it, he tried to charge his energy before he started to feel drowsy and sleepy. His body started to sway a bit as the energy from his hands faded. Sitting down to steady himself, he attempted to snap himself out of it, but his eyelids felt heavy. Closing his eyes, despite his better instincts telling him to, he drifted off to sleep.

The Hungan looked through the box to see that the spirit had been subdued. He raised a hand, silently telling his minions to stop the chant.

Nirambo stood in Xavier's office as he explained to the X-Men what was going on.

"He had come here originally to take you under his control as revenge for turning the village against him ten years ago, but he has seen your friend, and he believes he will be a better substitute."

"He was right. There was something after him." Rogue felt guilty for doubting her boyfriend. After all he's done for her, she couldn't even return the favor by believing him.

"And we didn't believe him." Scott also felt culpable for not taking Danny's words seriously. Danny always had his back, yet he wasn't there when Danny needed him most.

"Yes." Xavier said feeling responsible for his student being in danger. "But now we do, and we must rescue him."

"The Hungan." Storm snarled, remembering him and all the trouble he had caused her back at home. "That fiend. When I get my hands on him."

"Where is the Hungan holding him?" Rogue demanded.

"In a crate aboard a ship, the Unyoka." Nirambo revealed. "But you must hurry. For if he takes control of your friend, he will use his power to rule over Africa and possibly the world."

Rogue's eyes were filled with determination. "I won't let that happen."

"X-Men, let's move out!" Wolverine commanded as they went to rescue their teammate.

"The runes will contain him in that box." The Hungan confided as he looked over his staff, the tool that would allow him to control the spirit.

"But how will you be able to take control?" His subordinate questioned him. "You must break his spirit first for the staff to take control."

"I will find a way." The Hungan said arrogantly before smirking at the crate. "Where is your power now, spirit?"

As they were beginning their preparations for taking control of Danny, the X-Men arrived at their location.

"Team up, and let's move it!" Wolverine ordered as they started looking for the crate that held Danny. Following them were a couple of tribesmen; Wolverine smelled them coming.

"Watch your back!" Wolverine yelled to Spyke as darts were shot at them. Using his claws, the orange-suited mutant was able to deflect them, while Spyke did the same with his spikes.

"Oh, man!" Spyke was a bit taken back by how quick they appeared and how they seemed to vanish just the same. "What are these guys? Ghosts?"

"It's illusions and magic." Storm explained. "That's how they were able to get into the institute and pursue Danny."

"Besides, there's only one real ghost here." Rogue said as she transformed into Vampira. She fired an ecto-blast at a sword that was thrown at her, while another tribesman threw a spear at Kurt, who teleported out of the way, allowing it to pass through Rogue's chest.

"Thank goodness for that training exercise earlier." The hybrid muttered to herself as she fired a low-level ecto-blast at the man, while Jean used her telekinesis to push another two back.

A rope was wrapped around Shadowcat as she was pulled across the docks before phasing out of it. She then phased through a box, allowing her to get a surprise kick on the guy, sending him to the water.

While the X-Men were dealing with the group, Rogue had found the crate where Danny was. Opening it, she flew in, picked him up, and brought him out.

"Danny, we're here for you." She shook him awake as he groaned.

His eyes focused on his girlfriend, who peered down at him in relief. "Rogue."

"Sugar, we're sorry for not believing you." Rogue apologized.

"It's all right." Danny told her. "It isn't the first time it's happened."

The Hungan then dropped down in front of them. "Let us see how strong your will truly is." He started chanting a spell—a spell that would summon the shadows and make them form a person's worst fear. This would break him.

The two hybrids watched in awe and fear as the shadows poured across the floor before coming stepping out into the third dimension.

A black silhouette stood in front of them, with glowing red eyes. The top of his head burned with black flames.

"No!" Danny was petrified at sight of the familiar image. "Not you!" He started to panic. "No! No! No!"

"Danny!" Rogue tried to snap him out of it, but he backed away, pulling Rogue with him as the shadow kept taking steps towards them.

"It's just a trick." She reminded him as she tried to hide her own fear. Despite it being an illusion, something about that figure made her shiver. Looking past the magical construction, she saw the Hungan directing it with a staff. Spotting a weak point, she aimed her hand at it. "Show's over." With an ecto-blast, the staff was destroyed as the shadow, with no magic sustaining it, melted to the ground.

"It's all right, Danny." Rogue hugged him. "It's over." Her eyes glowed with anger as they glared at the Hungan, who began to run away when Storm flew down.

"How dare you threaten one of my students, Hungan!" She roared with anger. "You want power? Here's more than you can handle." She summoned a massive whirlwind that carried him away.

"He's gone, Danny." Rogue managed to get him to relax. "He can't hurt you anymore."

Danny started to calm down. "What if he gets out?" He asked fearfully.

"I doubt he'll ever try anything with you after what Storm put him through." Rogue joked, but she didn't know that Danny wasn't talking about the Hungan.

"They're all gone." Wolverine said as he and the others joined them. "They've simply vanished in the mist."

"Let's hope they stay vanished." Danny mumbled.

"Thanks, guys." Danny said gratefully as he sat in the professor's office with all the X-Men around him. "I really appreciate you all coming through for me."

"Hey, you've always been there for us, man." Scott said, happy to have the guy he saw as a brother back.

"Yeah, you're part of the family." Kitty added.

"We need someone to keep things fun in here and keep Scott from making everything serious." Kurt joked, making Scott give him a mock glare.

Jean then pointed at Kurt and Evan with her thumb. "And we also need someone to keep things from getting out of hand with these two."

"You're also great with helping me study." Evan reminded him.

Danny snorted, amused. "It's great to know you rescued me for your own benefits."

"Be as it may. I am glad to have my student back." Xavier told him with a grin on his face.

The ghostly X-Man smiled back, happy that they all came to help him when he needed them the most.

Rogue then brought Danny closer. "Come here, Danny." The two then kissed, with Kitty making aw sounds while Kurt and Evan made mock expressions of disgust, getting everyone to laugh.

The mood was celebratory now that the X-Men were all back together.

Hopefully, it will stay that way.