A/N: Chapter 8, Folks! A lot of you were all like "ooooooh~" at the last chapter. All I can think of is…have any of you watched a TV show called Leverage? In episode 1, (around 38:00 or so) Sophie tells Nate "This time, you really are inside my head," and walks away. Hardison rolls past Nate in a computer chair and is all like "ooooh, oooh." Look it up if you can. It's absolutely hilarious, and it's what I picture every time.

I added two more sections to my Q&A forum: "Portals" and "Spirit, Humanity, Impurity"

KodiakWolfe13: I know, we haven't seen him since Journey of Secrets!

Avidreaded: Ring of Rage…to be explained later. And I'm glad you remember who was last seen with the crown…also: Ghost Pamela vs. Vlad made me laugh. :D

Chapter #8: Common Obsession

"Sam," Maddie Fenton smiles, doling out little spots of dough on a cookie sheet, "How are you?"

"Alive," Sam laughs, "Not sure how much longer, but…"

"Have you seen Danny? He went storming out of the police station before they could even get his witness statement, and I haven't seen him since."

"He was fuming at my house for about half an hour," Sam answers, taking an offered cookie, "And then he went to Clockwork's place. He'll be back soon. I told him to meet me here, so he might come through your portal downstairs."

Maddie nods, "…it's Vlad, isn't it?" she whispers, hesitating to place more soft lumps of dough on the cookie sheet.

"He believes so. I mean, we don't have any proof, but…"

"We never got proof of his…of his death, either," she finishes.

"Danny's been paranoid about it for three years now," Sam sighs, taking a seat at the counter, "I think part of it's curiosity. We don't know what'll happen when…when Danny dies. Will a halfa become full ghost? Will he be stuck in limbo? No one knows, and all we have are theories. I don't think he'll ever admit it, but…" she takes a shaking breath, trying to withhold the sudden need to cry, "…he's terrified, Maddie. Terrified of dying."

"He's even more terrified of others dying before him," she replies, "And he'll overlook his own fear for their sake."

"He will. He always does," she shakes her head. "…these are pretty amazing cookies, Maddie," she laughs, "I should put some in a baggie before Mr. Fenton gets up here and takes them all."

"When it comes to these cookies, Danny is nearly as bad as his father," Maddie snorts, "Danielle eats as much as both put together. Oh well – not my first half-ghost teenage superhero. I'm sure it takes a lot of calories."

"Especially because I don't have as much energy as Danny," Danielle phases down from above, plucking a cookie from the paper towel it cools on, "Innate ghost-energy, that is. We think it's a side-effect of cloning," she devours the cookie in a single bite and snatches another one, "I was created as a ghost. Ghosts are typically formed around emotions. Danny had fourteen years worth of memories and emotions for his ghost half to form around – I had none. My ghost powers have to sustain and form themselves around the memories I've created in the past…three years as they're created. Let's put it this way," she finishes her fifth cookie, "I'm a video that is racing along with the buffer line; every once in a while, I catch up and have to wait while the buffering line continues on. Danny's video had plenty of time to buffer, and the buffering line moves quickly enough that he'll never catch up to it."

"I think I understood it more before," Maddie sighs.

She shrugs, "It's the best analogy I could come up with. It's pretty good, coming from me."

"Yeah…so, Dani…" Sam smirks, leaning on an elbow, "Going to tell us about Ashton?"

"What about him?" she blinks, halfway through another cookie.

"Who's Ashton?" Maddie's brow furrows, and she slaps Dani's hand away from a tenth cookie.

"Just a kid who transferred in," Dani shrugs, "He got lost on his first day, so I helped him out – we were headed to the same class. He's started sitting with me at lunch."

"Oh?" Maddie smiles, "Is he cute?"

She chews her lip, "Yeah, I guess so, now that I think about it."

"What's he like?"

"Umm…" she leans on the counter, "He's kind of quiet until you get him talking. Stutters a bit, especially when talking to girls or anyone older than him. Average at sports…he's good at art. Like, comic-book stuff. I think he likes to write, too."

"And Danny scared the crap out of him," Sam snorts.

"I didn't hear what he said," Danielle frowns, "But Ashton went really pale. Did he tell you?"

"Something along the lines of 'keep your hands to yourself or I'll break them,'" Sam answers.

Dani rolls her eyes, "I can handle myself. He's not that type anyway."

"You know how Danny is," Sam shrugs, "Especially since he's meeting with The Observants' Coucil tomorrow."

"It could be worse," Danny appears in the doorway to the lab, striding over to snatch a cookie, "There could be no Observants' Council."

"What would that mean?" Sam questions, not surprised by his sudden appearance.

"Nothing I'm interested in being involved with," Danny answers cryptically, shoving another cookie into his mouth as means to ending the questioning, "So…I have a meeting with the Observants' Council tomorrow, so I'll probably be unavailable all day. Jazz comes in the day after that, and then Tuck and Val show up on Monday, two days later, right?"

"Yeah, that sounds right. By the way, Danny…" Maddie smirks.

"Yeah?"

"…how many of those cookies are you going to eat before dinner?"

He looks down at the nearly empty paper towels, little stains from where cookies had been cooling, and shoves the last bit of a cookie into his mouth before dusting off his hands, "No more."

"Wise choice," she chuckles, shaking her head.

-BREAK-

Her coffee is cold. She can't figure out why. She only poured it thirty minutes ago – scratch that, three hours ago. When did it become two in the morning?

"You don't usually stay up this late, do you?" Ghost Writer inquires, carefully placing a steaming cup on the wooden table and tossing the cold one into a nearby trash can.

"No. I have a lot of questions," she looks up at him, and he slouches into the chair beside her, sipping at his own coffee.

Waiting.

"These ancient ghosts that sealed Pariah Dark away…who were they?"

He hums softly, "Their names have long since been lost to us. I suspect Clockwork would know them, but…I know that there were seven of them. Some believe that they may have been The Seven Sins incarnated, others theorize that they're actually the Seven Virtues."

"What do you believe?" she leans forward a little.

"Emotions related to the Seven Sins are more believable," he begins, "Energy forms better around negative emotions. However, the Seven Sins would not have simply disappeared afterwards. They would've taken power for themselves. Therefore, they must have been the Seven Virtues, in my opinion."

She nods, "I can see that…now, a second question; what was Pariah's obsession? What made him so powerful even without the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire?"

"Believe it or not, Pariah's obsession is very simple. Common, even," he begins quietly.

She waits for him to continue.

"Power. Pariah was obsessed with power. He was strong enough to subjugate the Infinite Realms without the ring and crown, so why did he so desperately seek them? He wanted more power. But even with all of that power, he could not obtain the one thing he desired. He could not change what he desired to change," he takes a deep breath, "…do you know why power is such a common obsession, Jasmine?"

She shakes her head.

"Because in the moment of death, you realize how powerless you are," he answers, his voice hardly a whisper, "You realize that no matter what you do, your heart is going to stop beating. That you're going to end up in a casket six feet under. That those who love you will mourn, and there will be nothing you can do for them, not anymore. You wish you could change it. You wish desperately for the power to change it…and your obsession forms around that wish. Sometimes a ghost is more specific, but…in the end, those who crave power only want one thing."

"What's that?"

"They want their life back. Really, that's what every obsession is about," he takes a sip of his coffee with a shrug, "It's just whatever life meant to you."

"So the Box Ghost's life meant…boxes?" her face falls, "That's…sad, actually."

"But why did it mean boxes?" he counters, "Was it because he was working twelve hour shifts at the docks to support his family? To put a sibling through school? To care for ailing parents? We don't know. Obsessions can be…difficult like that."

She nods absently, her eyes scanning the shelves around her.

"You can ask," he smiles softly, "The question you really want to ask."

"So…life, to you…meant books?"

"Writing," he clarifies, "It wasn't my life, but…I wanted it to be."

His green eyes scan the tomes, an almost satisfied smile on his face, "When I died, Jasmine, I could see all of it. The ideas, the dreams…the novels that never got to be. The great minds who allowed their dreams to die. Everyone has a story they wish they could tell, they wish that they could just write down. The Infinite Realms are where ideas and dreams drift to, Jasmine. Every idea from the beginning of mankind rests within its borders. Every story that was never written, never told. I know every last one of them, and I will write the stories their creators never did. I will give life to every untold story, and gather the lost here in my library."

"It'll take you a long time, won't it?" she asks with a smile.

"Forever," he grins, his green eyes sparkling.

A/N: Uggghhh, I want to just tell you guys GW's back-story SO BAD!...but it'll have to wait. For now, you'll have to satisfy yourselves with little hints. ;P I kind of look at that second part as a bit of a sequel to "Getting' Deep at O'Hares" from my One-shot collection. Not the same players, though.