Chapter 1: The Nightmares Begin

It's Friday night and Danny was patrolling around Amity Park along with his best friends, Samantha "Sam" Manson and Tucker Foley. So far the only ghosts that had shown up were Box Ghost (several times), Skulker and Cujo, although Cujo didn't really count since the trio basically adopted him and he lives at Sam's house. Danny had managed to perfect his parents' prototype ghost portal and made it a small ghostly doggie door fit for the pup.

Sam gave Cujo a scratch behind his ears." This is Goth One to Techno and Clueless One. I'm gonna head home for the night before I miss my curfew."

"This is Techno One to Goth and Clueless One, I'm gonna turn in as well, my mom's making bacon pancakes in the morning. If I don't wake up in time my dad will eat all of them."

"Do you even care about how many animals have died with all the meat you consume? I might just ask your parents to try my banana and tofu waffles recipe."

"Don't you even dare, or I'll convince your parents to make you audition for the school play." Tucker smirked into his Fenton phones as he reached his back door.

Sam could basically feel the smirk." Ugh, fine... I'm home anyway so I'll talk to you guys later, Goth One out." Cujo phased the two through the front door and flew Sam up to her room.

Tucker stopped in his kitchen to grab a slice of leftover cake his mom brought home from a friend's wedding. Taking a bite of the cake, Tucker spoke," All host forge, Tech no wan ute."

"First off, Tucker swallow your food. Second see you guys tomorrow, Clueless One out." Danny was almost to Fenton Works when he felt something watching him, looking around, Danny saw nothing. He was about to shrug it off when his ghost sense went off, but it felt... different somehow.

Danny slowly searched the area again and still couldn't find anything. As he got ready to leave again, Danny saw something out the corner of his eyes but all too quickly it was gone. Shaking his head Danny went home to turn in for the night.

Back at the spot Danny had searched, a tall man with dark gray skin and golden eyes emerged from the shadows. He turned to a small shadow. "You got too close, I'm powerful enough that if the boy is close enough, that strange puff of breath happens."

The small shadow moved and now appeared as a small cloud of black sand. Swirling into a small tornado, the sand took the form of a tiny bat and started chattering.

"I don't care if it was an accident, if it happens again I won't hesitate to replace you, understood!?" The man's eyes glowed brightly. The shadowy bat nodded its head. "Then get back to watching the boy!"

The little bat gave a small squeak before flying off into the night sky. Looking back he saw his master was already gone.

The little bat looked slightly disappointed, but shook it off. Flying over to Fentonworks the little shadow bat landed near Danny's bedroom window and observed him.

Danny was currently getting ready for bed. He had just put on some shorts when Jazz walked into his room.

"How'd patrol go tonight? Anything interesting happen?" Jazz was currently putting her hair into a fishtail braid.

Danny yawned," Not unless you count Box Ghost breaking into a toystore and stealing all the mystery boxes. Cujo also came out of the Ghost Zone and stole Tucker's nasty burger."

"That's not really odd for the Box Ghost, he's been doing that since he and Lunch Lady decided to create Box Lunch and now he wants to get their baby to have the most toys he can find. I know he's stealing and stealing is wrong, but you agree he's doing it out of love?"

"Not sure, but at least the mini portal for Cujo works." Danny yawned again.

Jazz frowned in concern." Have you been getting a good night's sleep Danny? You seem extremely tired."

Not wanting to worry his sister, Danny decided to lie." I'm fine, it's just been a long day. I had to wake up early to clean the lab because dad told me to last night, but I forgot. Then at school Mr. Lancer gave me detention when Dash pantsed me in front of everyone in the cafeteria. Now if you'll excuse me I'm hoping to get some sleep before either Box Ghost or Skulker show up again later tonight."

Danny was walking Jazz to his door when he saw the little bat on his window." There's a bat at my window."

Jazz turned to look for herself and almost squealed." That's the cutest bat I've ever seen!" In the blink of an eye, Jazz was across the room and at the window and trying to coax the small creature to come onto her hand. The little bat cocked it's head to the side before flying away.

"Since when are you into bats?"

"Since you got grounded and Sam invited me to watch the zoo welcome new nocturnal animals. Technically Sam was there to protest but it was still fun! The animals were so cute and there was the most adorable baby bat that I got to hold."

"So you and Sam hung out at the zoo and that sparked your love of... bats?"

"You make it sound so weird. Didn't Sam show you the pictures we took? Check your phone or computer."

"I will tomorrow, Jazz. I really should get some sleep, good night." Danny closed the door and sighed as he leaned against it. He walked to his bed and got under the covers. "Better get some sleep before a ghost attack or an 'inevitable' nightmare happens."

Like most kids, Danny would get the occasional nightmare, but when he got his powers, the nightmares had gotten worse. Danny's nightmares were usually about the incident, other nightmares were of certain Dash related memories where he's basically tortured at school, but ever since Danny fought his evil future self, his nightmares got worse.

Some of the nightmares were of Dan winning and taking over the world; Dan using Freakshow's orb to force him to kill his best friends and family. Another was some of Danny's more dangerous enemies teaming up and laying waste to the whole town.

A more recent nightmare was one that Danny couldn't explain. It was more of a lucid dream than a nightmare. Danny would sometimes be near a cliff and there would be a strange statue made from ice and some black mineral that he couldn't identify. At some point the dream would change and he's in a dark cave surrounded by empty cages. The dream always ended with Danny being surrounded by blurry faces as he's sucked into the ground, Dan's voice in the shadows whispering somewhere in the background about coming back for revenge.

Jazz stood at Danny's bedroom door for a few minutes before heading to her own room. Changing quickly into her pajamas, Jazz got out her laptop and opened a file she kept hidden from Danny and her parents. She knew Danny was having really bad nightmares. Jazz would sometimes wake up at night to Danny in the corner of his room mumbling in his sleep or would have to rush into Danny's room when he would scream in his sleep. One of the few times Danny told her about the bad dreams, Jazz suggested to her younger brother to write them down in a journal.

Danny actually took her advice and kept a dream journal under his pillow. Whenever Danny would leave for school in the morning Jazz would copy any type of dream he wrote down into her laptop and analyze them later that day. She made sure Sam and Tucker had copies of the dreams that involved them.

Jazz continued searching through her color coded notes until she found the entry she was looking for; the last couple dreams and nightmares Danny had in the past week.

Jazz carefully read through the four entries typing notes off to the side of it as she went. Once she finished, Jazz saved the files and closed the folder. Turning to the clock on her wall, she saw it was almost midnight, and decided to check on Danny before going to bed herself.

As soon as Jazz entered her brother's room, she immediately noticed Danny was no where in sight.