Hello! Tis I, your friendly neighborhood author, come to bless you with a new chapter!
in all seriousness though, thank you to all those who take the time to give this a read, and to all the Betas that have helped me out! I'll be responding to reviews given on this chapter as a thank-you, so take advantage people!
The Life We Fight For
Chapter 20: Planning Phase
Danny's eyes slowly and groggily peeled themselves open while the rest of his body seemed adamant on not moving an inch.
It was one of those sensations one would feel when trapped in a horrible dream and somehow rendered unable to move. Danny felt frozen to the spot, yet unable to stop his eyes from opening.
What he saw when his sleepy eyes went into focus was dark shadows and a vast amount of gray. Everything seemed devoid of vibrant color and light.
He finally found the strength to move but found that his will alone was not enough to get him standing from his slumped position against a dark gray wall.
Large, almost ridiculous looking chains wrapped around his arms and legs, keeping him bound to the plain wall behind him. Danny could barely make out a padlock the size of his open palm laying two feet from him, hanging innocently beside the boy.
Danny heard sudden footsteps, soft but deliberate, and set his face to a calm expression. He could do this. He would do this.
"Amazing, how easy it is to manipulate a youthful mind such as yourself these days." A mocking voice broke through the silence. A dark figure came into view and Danny felt a shudder run down his spine as the bony body of the ghost became visible.
Its long, hooded coat was dark as night and dragged on the floor, the edges in tatters. All Danny could clearly make out were the two bright purple, pupil-less irises that stared into him as Ivix approached.
"Where is she?" Danny demanded, less as a question and more as a statement. All he could see around the room was dark gray and black, unable to fully distinguish what wasn't right in front of him.
"Patience, half breed." Ivix said, raising a bony, clawed finger to what Danny could only assume were his lips, so dark was the room. "All in good time."
"My name is Danny." Said the halfa. "Why are you so obsessed with my family? Why target us?"
The ghost grinned, and Danny was able to see the white, fanged teeth that smile held, and a shudder threatened to shake though him. Danny tensed.
"I was powerful, so very powerful..." Said the evil ghost, seemingly lost in a daydream. "But that was so long ago. The Observants let me roam free, so long as I left the humans be. But they are so incredibly tempting...so fragile, weak."
"So the Cyclops Ghosts caught you and imprisoned you for what you'd done." Danny finished, thinking of how many people had been tricked by the ghost in its long existence. "And now you want revenge. But what does that have to do with me?"
Suddenly, Ivix' smile disappeared, and he gave a deep growl of frustration. He raised his claws, and this time Danny could see bright, glowing ectoplasm dripping from them. A horrible stench filled the air and he was forced to suppress a gag.
"I killed, yes, but it was for the sake of order!" Ivix ranted. "To keep order among the ghosts, the dangerous, the uncontrollable, the unnatural must perish! Such was the way of the Observants- such was the way of the Ghost Zone."
"But much has changed." He continued. "My imprisonment has kept me out of touch with this modern world. When I escaped and saw the same murderers and liars permitting such atrocities as you and the elder half breed to live among us, I could not stand by idly. I was created to kill those that stain our world with their filth. However, I could not pass through to this world with my own strength; the power that the Observants used to seal me away had weakened me."
Danny shifted uncomfortably, trying to digest what he was hearing. Ivix' eyes were hazy yet crazed, darting about with a glazed over stare.
"So how did you get to my mother, if you were trapped in the Ghost Zone?" Danny asked.
"Fool," Ivix snarled. "Twas not I that came to your mother, but she who summoned me."
Danny went rigid, watching as one of Ivix' blood stained hands moved to point to Danny's left. A dim light appeared and Danny gasped as he adjusted to the light and his eyes focused.
His mother lay in a similar chained position to himself, yet she looked significantly weaker than he. Maddie would have seemed dead had her chest not been steadily rising and falling in shallow breaths.
"I'd heard of your existence from the guards who mocked me from behind the safety of my cage's walls." Said Ivix. "It was only too easy to listen for the yearning heart of a hate-filled human who knew of you to give me the strength to breach through to your world."
"No..." Danny whispered.
"Ah, but it gets so much better." Ivix laughed. "Not only did I find you, but you brought me to another of your kind!"
A foggy picture of Vlad floated into Danny's view and he tensed up once more. Great, now he'd gotten both the halfas in trouble.
Danny turned to his mom and frowned, wishing he could move closer to her, hug her, tell her just how much he was determined to save her.
Too long had he lived without her sweet voice and love, wondering if he'd ever see her kind smile again. He knew in his heart that Maddie's hatred for Phantom came from a deep desire to protect. Her family had always- and would always- come first.
"Let me talk to her." Danny pleaded, not looking at the ghost beside him. "...Please."
Ivix laughed coldly. He eyed Danny as the halfa gazed upon his mother in grief. His sorrow brought a wicked smile to Ivix' shadowy face.
"Out of mercy, I shall allow it." Said the sadistic ghost. His form grew hazy and flickered in and out of view as he taunted, "You have five minutes, halfling, make it count!"
Danny's bonds disappeared as did the invisible weight keeping him from moving. Ivix finally blinked out of sight and within seconds Danny was up and kneeling by Maddie's side.
"Mom? Oh, geez, you gotta be okay..." Danny said shakily.
Maddie's light, lavender eyes slowly opened and it seemed to take an agonizingly slow amount of time for her to focus. When she saw Danny, her mouth parted in shock.
"Please...tell me this is not a hallucination. Are you real?" Said Maddie, her hand coming up to Danny's face, but not having enough courage to touch the boy for her fear that he might disappear.
"It's me, mom." Danny whispered with emotion. He rested his cheek into her open palm and sighed silently in relief. "I'm here, I'm gonna save you, I swear."
Maddie pulled herself up into a sitting position and looked at Danny with a troubled expression.
"No." Maddie said. "This ghost, this monster is beyond anything we've ever seen. He'll hurt you, or worse!"
Maddie brought her other hand up so that she cupped her son's face in both of her hands.
She'd missed him, dearly. But she also loved him too much to lose him. Especially to one of her mistakes.
"You have to stay away. He's manipulated your father somehow, he's-"
"I know," Danny interrupted. "But I've gotten stronger, mom. I can take this guy; I have to try!"
Maddie just shook her head, her eyes filled with grief. She looked him straight in the eyes and whispered:
"I would relive getting possessed by this demonic ghost one hundred times...if it meant I could see the truth about you."
She moved her hands down to his shoulders, her hold firm and gentle all at once. A mother's love was powerful, and the feeling in the air was strong enough to be near tangible.
"I see it now, the good in your heart, the hero you've become... I've never been more proud."
Danny grabbed his mother's hands in his own. He couldn't allow himself to let it end like this. His powers were given to him to help people! His entire purpose was to protect!
"If there's one thing you've taught me, it's that you never leave your family behind." Danny said. "I'm never going to stop fighting to free you, and I swear I'll succeed! and then everything can go back to the way it was!"
Maddie simply looked on with a sad smile. Her baby boy had become so brave, and she'd failed to even realize it. How many times had she sat here in the dark in agony over the failure she'd been as a mother? She would gladly accept this punishment if it meant she would no longer be a threat to her own children.
"My baby boy, all I want is for you to live."
Danny opened his mouth to reply, but found that he could no longer move. He shuddered as a sudden dip in temperature surrounded them, and fought to yell as his mother's face took on a horrified expression.
Maddie was suddenly pulled backwards away from him, and Danny pushed himself to move, to fight, at least to scream in protest.
"That's enough of that." Came the twisted voice of his enemy. "It's time to end this little visit."
'No!' Danny tried to yell. 'Don't touch her!'
"Daniel!"
Danny fought with all of his willpower to fight back as Ivix slowly drifted backwards, dragging Maddie along with him. The halfa felt tears gathering in his eyes and shamelessly let them fall.
"Daniel!"
Why? What had he done to deserve this? Hearing his own mother sound as if she had no hope left felt as if someone had ripped a hole straight through his heart.
"Daniel, wake up!"
Danny's eyes snapped open and he shot up into a sitting position, only making his disorientation worse. He looked around in a frantic state, his throat hoarse and sore and his muscle tense.
"Calm down, you're safe!" He heard a voice say.
He turned and finally saw none other than Vlad, kneeling on the bed in his less than formal middle-of-the-night look. His hair was disheveled and loose, his eyes were dull, and he wore expensive looking pajamas in green and gold.
"I, uh- I-" Danny couldn't continue as the pain in his throat became near unbearable. His hand came up to rub at his neck, and he finally realized that he was wearing gloves. A simple glance down told him he had unknowingly changed into ghost form.
"You screamed your throat raw." Vlad supplied. "Brought almost everyone in the manor to the threshold within seconds."
Danny raised an eyebrow, not willing to ask what he wanted out loud.
"I convinced Jasmine and the servants it was a nightmare and came here alone, to find you not only yelling at nothing, but asleep and in ghost form. Now if I'm not mistaken..."
Vlad turned to Danny's nightstand, and the boy tensed. Vlad picked up the small box shaped device on the stand and examined it.
"Switched off...how peculiar." Vlad said, his eyes moving to Danny. The moonlight gave them an almost menacing sheen. Danny shrugged.
"You'd do well to remember that I believe shrugging your shoulders is not an acceptable answer." Vlad said sharply. Danny glared.
"I thought I could sleep without it." Danny said, his throat feeling a tiny bit better, which was most likely his ghost form's doing. He decided then to change forms, letting the white rings travel over his body and reveal Fenton. "Obviously I was wrong."
"Do not take me for a fool, Daniel." Vlad replied, shifting to properly sit beside Danny. "What did Ivix tell you?"
Now confused, Danny's hands clenched to fists and he scowled at the older man. Who did Vlad think he was, anyway?
"It's none of your business, cheesehead!" Danny snapped. "Besides, you've practically given up on fighting him, you haven't even done any investigating since Walker! Admit it, you just don't love my mom anymore!"
Vlad's eyes widened horribly and Danny nearly slapped a hand over his mouth, but refrained from doing so. He was too angry, and he wasn't quite satisfied yet, either.
"If you really cared, you'd stop pretending this," He gestured to himself and room around them. "is the new reality and finally help me save my mom! I'm not your s-"
"I know!"
Danny went rigid as Vlad interrupted him. Vlad stared at him, not with anger, not with hate,
But with sadness.
Before Danny could address it, Vlad continued.
"I'm not your father; my name is not Jack Fenton." Vlad said. "But have I not looked after you, given you my time, attention, and knowledge? Trained you to defend yourself and taught you to be the intelligent young man I know you're capable of becoming? I cared for you when you were injured and tried to keep you in line so that you would make good decisions, I cured your nightmares!"
Vlad stood. "If that's not what a true father does, I will never know what it means to be a parent."
The man turned over the cube he still held in his hand and turned it on. The warm, red glow began to emit from it and Danny instantly felt Vlad's powerful ectosignature projected into the air. The tension was so thick he almost didn't trust himself to speak as Vlad placed the object onto the younger halfa's nightstand. He kept his gaze downward when he finally spoke.
"Vlad, I-"
"Go to sleep, Daniel." Vlad ordered, his tone still gentle but stern enough to get the message across: 'Don't push it'. But Danny never was a good listener. As Vlad turned to leave Danny phased through the tangled covers and leapt out of the bed.
"Wait!" Danny exclaimed as Vlad walked to the door, actually grateful for once that his bedroom was obnoxiously large and Vlad couldn't escape too easily. "It's not that I'm not grateful for all that stuff, I am! I just want- I don't know- Hey! We're not done here!"
Vlad had reached the door and hadn't so much as glanced at Danny. He finally paused and Danny tried to relax his wound-up muscles.
"Don't ignore me, please." Danny said softly. Vlad looked at him. "I'm sorry, okay?"
Vlad didn't seem to buy it at all, for he simply turned away again and grasped the doorknob. Danny acted quickly- thanking his training for his fast reflexes- and wrapped his arms around one of Vlad's, preventing him from leaving.
"You're not being fair! I said I apologise!" Danny looked up, and Vlad still wasn't giving him a reaction. "Quit giving me the cold shoulder already! You're supposed to be mad, I called you 'cheesehead'!"
"Enough, Daniel." Vlad finally said. He phased out of Danny's hold, but Danny quickly followed suit and regained his grip, digging his heels into the floor. "I said enough. You should be thanking your lucky stars I'm leaving you alone instead of making you one sorry little boy for snapping at me!"
Danny's cheeks reddened but he forced himself not to react. He clung to what determination he still had and replied.
"You've been avoiding me since I last saw you, and it's seriously not cool!" Danny defended. "How can you expect me to look up to you when you treat me like I'm a new toy that you don't like anymore?"
"All I've given you is attention!" Vlad snapped back. "One day of something different and you become an insufferable brat? I can't even fathom how you survived this long without me!"
Danny's face grew even more red but this time it was with anger. Vlad was acting almost like his normal villain self. More Plasmius, less Masters.
"You're insufferable! It's no damn wonder you have no real friends!" Danny cried.
"Oh no, what a wounding insult! However shall I recover?" Vlad hissed sarcastically. He once again freed himself of Danny's hold and this time Danny let him. "I will not be pushed any further, I'm willing to let this continuous disrespect and attitude drop, here and now. I highly suggest you take advantage of that."
"That's just it," Danny replied. "I don't want to take advantage of it! I want you to be normal! I want- Why can't you just- just-!"
Danny couldn't bring himself to finish, his embarrassment was too great. But luckily Vlad finally seemed to realize his dilemma as Danny struggled with his pride and his feelings. Vlad looked at Danny in disbelief.
"You want me to punish you?"
Danny looked up into Vlad's confused royal blue irises. Is that what he wanted?
He felt unbelievably distraught over Vlad ignoring and dismissing him, more than he ever thought he would when it came to the elder. In some twisted way, the young teen suddenly thought that if Vlad cared about all the less-than-kind things Danny had said thus far, he couldn't really be giving up on the younger halfa.
"N-No...!" Danny stuttered, then looked away. "Maybe..."
"You are absolutely unbelievable." Vlad sighed. he snatched Danny's wrist and began pulling him towards the bed. "First, you want me to stop treating you like a son, then the opposite, and now, you expect me to put up with your childish need to make everything right."
Vlad sat down on the edge of the bed and Danny finally felt reality hit him. In a sudden attempt to stop what was happening, he choked out a shout of 'Wait!', but was completely ignored.
Vlad didn't give his actions a single thought before pulling but not forcing Danny over his pajama-clad knees. Within seconds Vlad was set to punishing the boy.
Danny had been certain he could handle Vlad earlier but now he felt like turning intangible and flying as far away from the man and his evil hand as physically possible. That seriously hurt!
"Indecisiveness is not a trait I admire nor tolerate." Vlad said. "And you certainly have no business cursing or yelling at me."
Danny whimpered not because of the pain, but because he's never pushed Vlad so hard that he'd begun lecturing him as he dealt with him. He'd seriously messed up.
"I'm sorry!" Danny hissed as convincingly as possible.
"Unfortunately, 'sorry' does not always fix everything." Vlad replied. He'd never felt such hurt as when Daniel had insulted his treatment of the boy. He'd done nothing but cater to his every whim! And then mentioning Maddie...
All he'd ever wished for, since the day they had met, was for Maddie to be his. For years he'd struggled through hard times without the support of the one person who he'd grown to love, yet still he could not get over the genius woman that was Maddie.
Even though he hated Jack Fenton with every fiber of his being, Daniel was born to him and Maddie. If it weren't for this fact, Vlad would have deemed every second in the hospital as they lived on in happiness an utter waste.
But here he was, with the only other person of his kind, born from the woman he loved. Yes, Daniel was cheeky, and stubborn as a mule at times, but he had so much potential. And Vlad fully intended to see Daniel become ten times more powerful than he already was, but in the meantime...
"This attitude of yours ends right now." Vlad said, before delivering the final swats and then resting his hand on Danny's heaving back as the younger tried his best not to cry.
Vlad's intention was never for Danny to break down or beg for forgiveness in times like these. All he cared about was making sure Danny understood that wrong decisions had consequences, and for that reason they were to be avoided.
Vlad waited patiently for Danny to calm down and get up on his own, knowing how truly remorseful he was. When Danny finally did get up, he quickly rubbed at the two watery eyes that looked at Vlad in repentance and stood in front of him awkwardly.
"I believe staying in this room until tomorrow afternoon will give you ample time to reflect on the decisions you made tonight." Vlad said, also standing. Danny shoulders slumped significantly but he nodded regardless.
Danny expected Vlad to simply leave but was surprised when the man turned around and untangled the mess of covers and blankets, turning his bed into something he could actually sleep in. Vlad pulled back the covers and gestured for Danny to get in.
"Into bed with you, and I mean it this time." Vlad said. Not wanting to disappoint Danny scurried under the covers, confused when Vlad didn't leave but instead reached for Danny's desk chair and sat beside the bed.
"I am going to tell you something very important, I need you to listen, and don't interrupt." Vlad said. When Danny nodded, Vlad began. "When your mother made her deal with Ivix she did not just give him power, she gave him a connection to her. Everyone who makes a deal with Deus Ivix enters into a contract in which Ivix is allowed a way to possess them. Mainly, this is established through physical contact. According to the footage from that day, in your mother's case, it was a kiss."
Danny shifted uncomfortably, hating how his thoughts brought him to ponder just how much his mother had to have hated him in order to kiss a ghost.
"Once that connection is made, there is no way out, and no matter what both parties are obligated to complete their end of the deal." Vlad explained. "But the longer the human is in the contract the weaker they become, and since Ivix is not nearly as powerful as he once was, he has fed off of her energy more than necessary. If this continues, there is a chance that she could die."
"But then-!"
"Don't interrupt." Vlad reminded the boy. "This is not an excuse to go heading into danger. I promise I am doing all that I can to find a solution that will save your mother. But so far, killing Ivix himself is our only option."
Vlad ran a hand through Danny's messy hair and sighed. A few months ago Danny would have blasted his head off for doing such a thing, now he barely blinked.
A few months ago, even Vlad would have laughed at the thought that Danny could feel anything other than hate for the billionaire that wanted his father dead. Yet, here they were...
"I won't kill." Danny stated.
"I know." was all Vlad replied.
When Vlad did not elaborate, the two fell into a short silence while Danny thought about the events of earlier in the day, and their connection to the information he now had.
"Is that why you were avoiding me earlier? You didn't want to tell me all this stuff?" Danny asked. Vlad nodded, letting his hand rest on the boy's head for a few moments before pulling away.
"I'm only telling you now so you know how serious it is that you follow the rules and stay out of trouble. This is life or death now." Vlad replied. "That said, I don't want you to dwell too much on this right now. All you are allowed to do at this moment is go to sleep. Peacefully, this time."
Danny watched as Vlad once again made to leave his room and yet again stopped him from leaving. "Vlad?"
The man stopped. Danny closed his eyes and said, "Goodnight."
Vlad turned just enough to see Danny's eyes closed and his body finally relax before letting the smallest of smiles appear on his face.
"Goodnight, little badger." Vlad replied, carefully leaving the room as quietly as possible.
When morning finally arrived Danny was less than cheerful about having to wake up after sleeping for barely 5 hours. Especially when Godfrey had been the one to wake him and bring him breakfast. The symbolism was not lost on Danny.
With Vlad having kept himself so close during Danny's short time in his home, the man's absence that morning spoke more than a lecture ever could.
A Saturday, of all days, and the ghost hunting teen was stuck inside four walls and nearly bored to death...no pun intended.
While Danny sat in the silence of his room he was almost forced to remember the dark, quiet place in which he'd seen this mother suffering, losing her will to fight little by little as time went on.
It was near impossible not to think about how badly he wanted to make things right again, and be the ghost fighter he was meant to be. Danny was supposed to be a hero, but it seemed that lately he wasn't even close. Days where he wondered if life would ever be normal again were getting more and more frequent as of late.
It was then that Danny decided he couldn't sit back and do nothing any longer. Ivix had held the cards for far too long.
He had to go to the Ghost Zone.
Easier said than done. FentonWorks was a dead no-go, and Vlad's portal was secured with a fruitloop only lock! Danny definitely wasn't able to get through Vlad's security system without getting caught.
But he knew someone who could.
Getting out of bed and grabbing his phone from the nightstand, Danny quickly dialed his best friend's phone number and impatiently waited to be connected.
"Yo dude, you ever heard of beauty sleep?" Danny heard after a few seconds. He was tempted to tease his friend, but pushed himself to focus on the task at hand.
"Sorry Tuck, it's kind of important." Danny replied. "I need your help."
Hearing Danny's solemn tone the dark-skinned boy sobered up and curiously asked, "With what exactly?"
"I need you to hack into a security system." Danny explained. Tucker scoffed arrogantly.
"Cool."
"Vlad's security system." Danny elaborated.
"Not cool!"
Danny sighed. "I can't keep this up Tucker, I have to at least try to find Ivix."
He could almost hear the indecisiveness in Tucker's voice as he grumbled out a reply. "We don't even know where to begin to look! Sam's been looking all over for information since you told us the ghost's name, but it becomes a dead zone whenever we get close to something about him."
Danny ran a frustrated hand through his hair as he stared at the floor, deep in thought. There had to be someone that knew where to find the ghost, Frostbite, or even Clockwork...
But he doubted that Clockwork would help him. The ghost was as passive as one could be, and to intervene unnecessarily would 'upset the timeline'.
"We gotta think of something. There has to be someone who knows where Ivix is!" Danny said.
"I can help with that."
Danny looked up with surprised, wide eyes at the new voice and was confused to see his sister walk in holding an ancient looking book. Danny quickly switched the call to speaker as he replied.
"How would you know where Ivix' lair is?" Danny interrogated. Jazz rolled her eyes and shoved the book into her brother's hand, snatching his phone afterwards.
"It's called investigating. You should try it sometime." She teased. She turned her attention to the phone and said, "But there's no way you guys are getting through that portal with Vlad's security system in place."
"That guy's tech isn't just state-of-the-art, the dude's a genius with codes. I don't know if I can do it." Tucker admitted.
Danny sat down on his bed, wishing he could be in the same room as his friend. He put all his sincerity into his voice, hoping Tucker could hear it.
"You're the best techno-geek I know, Tuck." Danny said. "And I live with parents that build weapons for a living! If there's anyone that can do this, it's you."
There was a tense moment of quietness that overcame them before Tucker finally responded.
"Fine, I'll help. But if we get caught you owe me a burger." Said the technology obsessed teen.
"Fair enough." Danny laughed. He opened the cover of the book in his hands, being as careful as he possibly could. The heavy material was so dated he felt as if it would fall apart at any given moment. "So what exactly is this Jazz?"
The redhead set down the phone on the nightstand, making sure it was close enough to pick up their voices, and sat beside Danny.
"I found it in the lab." Jazz said. She hesitated for a moment before looking her brother in the eye and speaking. "Danny...Vlad had been researching Ivix since the beginning. He knew more than he ever let on. This book says that mom will- She'll-!"
"I know." Danny interrupted. "And I'm just as miffed about it as you are, but we have the information now, so let's use it."
Jazz nodded and helped Danny find the correct page they needed. As they searched, Jazz saw the determination in her brother's eyes and felt a small bit of relief at Danny acting somewhat like his old self. Jazz found the paragraph she was looking for at pointed to it.
"Here, it says that the place they locked up Ivix before Walker's Prison was an island in the Ghost Zone." She told them.
"That could be anywhere!" Tucker complained. "I'm gonna need more clues than that!"
Jazz rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to end the call. She flipped the page and started deciphering the older English used in the book.
"Whoa," Jazz whispered, pointing to a picture of a menacing dragon with an amulet at its feet. "Hey Danny, know any dragon ghosts?"
Danny stared at the amulet drawn near the bottom of the page and smirked.
"Actually, I do." He replied.
Jazz told herself she shouldn't be surprised, but couldn't help the small raise of her eyebrows as Danny looked at the dragon with familiarity. She read the paragraph beneath the artwork swiftly.
"It says that the dragon people tried to kill him after finding him on an island that was forbidden to their kingdom." Jazz explained, yet somehow she felt dangerously out of the loop. "The island is only described as 'Evil and chaotic'. I can't find an exact location."
Danny handed the book back to his sister and turned to his cellphone. "Nothing on the internet, Tuck?"
"I found plenty of info on our dragon friends, but nada on a scary evil island." His friend replied. "This is more Sam's expertise."
"Sam probably won't like this idea, but I can get her to come around." Danny said.
"Sounds like love to me!" Came Tucker's teasing voice through the speaker.
Danny blushed and hung up angrily, running a hand over his face. Jazz forced herself not to laugh but a smirk still appeared on her lips. Danny turned away from her.
"Vlad won't be expecting to see me for a little while longer, but you'll still need to cover for me if I take too long." Danny told her. Jazz stood and nodded, though the boy couldn't see it.
"I can do that." She assured him. Jazz crossed her arms in a contemplative manner. "But Danny, what if Vlad used his ghost sense ability and finds out I'm lying?"
The half ghost rubbed at the back of his neck, trying to think. Vlad didn't often use that ability since he already had ghost servants like Godfrey who could very easily set off a ghost sense, but Danny had heard Vlad on more than one occasion reveal his ability to locate specific ectosignatures.
"Don't think too hard, little brother." Jazz said arrogantly. "I already have a plan!"
Danny rolled his eyes. "Of course you do."
He watched as Jazz picked up the Projector from his nightstand and flipped it over. Curiously, Danny stepped forward and looked on as Jazz pulled open a small panel and revealed small vials of glowing goop.
"While I was talking to Godfrey in the lab, he mentioned that this thing was powered by Vlad's ecto-energy." Jazz said. She gently pulled out the green vials and handed them to Danny. "In theory, we should be able to use your energy to do the same thing this device was doing with Vlad's."
Danny's eyes lit up with understanding and he smiled. "Jazz, you're a genius!"
"Yeah, I know." She replied as her brother ran to the bathroom to dispose of the contents of the vials. She followed, albeit slower, and asked, "So how do you plan on making your energy into liquid?"
Danny emerged from the bathroom and in a flash of bright light, changed into his ghost form. He looked at the empty vials and thought for a moment before replying.
"If Vlad can do it, it can't be too hard right?" Said Danny. "I just gotta concentrate."
Jazz watched passively as Danny sat down on the bed and focused his attention on one of the vials. He stretched a hesitant, gloved hand over it and within seconds it was glowing with carefully controlled ectoplasmic energy.
Danny tried to focus it into some sort of liquid but as of that moment he'd only ever managed to make ectoblasts and solid objects with his energy. He tried to focus a tiny bit of his energy into the vial, but only succeeded in nearly shattering it.
"This isn't working." Jazz said rather bluntly.
Danny set down the vial with frustration and glared at his sister in annoyance. "Gee, what gave it away?"
Jazz rolled her eyes and once again sat beside him. She picked up the discarded vial and began to explain.
"You have ice energy. Ice that is formed through your energy, to be more exact." She said. "What if you fill this thing with ice, and then melt it with ecto-energy?"
Danny quickly snatched the vial from his sister excitedly, never having attempted such a thing before. He lifted a hand above the container once again, but this time, his hands began to glow blue.
The teen focused his colder powers into the vial and this time it didn't almost break. He was able to freeze ice inside of it successfully! Danny sighed in relief before tensing up again for the hard part.
Jazz watched intently as Danny heated up the beaker with energy and the glass began to accumulate condensation outside of it. Danny melted only a quarter of the way through before heating it up further and melting the rest to H2O.
"You did it!" Jazz exclaimed. She took the glowing, blue vial from Danny and capped it, returning it to the Projector device.
Danny swiped a hand across his damp forehead as he felt sweat begin to build. That was much harder than it looked. But he'd done it, and now Vlad wouldn't know he was gone.
Jazz turned on the box and instead of glowing red, it began to glow blue. Danny shivered and his face scrunched up in a confused expression.
"Is that really what I feel like?" Danny complained. Jazz laughed and handed him the other still-empty vial.
"This just might work, Danny." She told him. "But I'm worried about you going up against that monster."
As Danny concentrated on filling the second container up with ice, he responded.
"I know, but this is the only way I can get our family back. I have to try, Jazz." He sighed. "I promised mom I wouldn't give up, and I'm not going back on my promise."
Jazz rubbed her now cold arms in deep thought as Danny finished up and placed the last beaker into the device.
The last thing she wanted to do was let her brother fly head first into danger, but she didn't exactly have a choice. She knew how much her family's happiness meant to Danny, and how much he was willing to sacrifice in order for that happiness to remain strong.
It was a blessing to have a super heroic brother, but also a curse at the same time. As Danny changed back into Fenton, Jazz looked at him carefully.
"Just be careful, okay?" Jazz said.
Danny nodded, trying to give Jazz as convincing a smile as he could. He wouldn't ever blame her for worrying, just as he would never fault his mother for wanting him to start away and be safe.
But this was what a hero was supposed to do. Danny was fully prepared to put his life on the line to ensure that no one ever had to lose theirs for his sake. Even his family.
"I'll let you call Sam." Jazz said, giving him one last glance before leaving the room.
Danny turned over the cube still in his hand and switched it off. Hiding it under his bed, he grabbed his cellphone once again.
"I'm coming for you, Ivix." He promised.
Next Chapter - In a reckless attempt to save his mother's life, Team Phantom head into the Ghost Zone. Will they make it out alive?
Thank you all for your support, till next time!