Paranoia

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this chapter. I think it could have come out better, but I dunno what I could have done with it.

/sigh

Oh well. At least it's finally done and I know what I'm doing with the next chapter. I'm pretty sure that it's going to be two more chapters (maybe kind of long chapters) until the end. Next chapter is going to really start the drama and I'm excited for that.

Anyway, no warnings for this chapter, just a little kiss thing. it's pretty much just opening the door for the final stages of fic.


---

The rest of Danny's day after he had told Jazz seemed to go by in a haze. He was on autopilot, his mind occupied with the things he had recently done. Why had he told Jazz who it was? He was just making her life harder, and he didn't want to be a burden on anyone. He was the one with ghost powers, he was supposed to be the one helping people, not putting them in more danger from ghosts.

Not like he had seen any ghosts lately other than the one that had been harassing him. He was surprised that not even Clockwork had come to tell him what was going on. If he was even ok. He had to be though, after all he had come to him after the thermos had gone. Suddenly as if his thoughts had summoned the ghost the coin he had been absently flicking in the air froze.

Looking around he stood from where he had been sitting next to his door. "Clockwork...?" he called softly.

"Yes, Danny?" Clockwork replied as he appeared floating a few feet away from him, making him twitch in surprise.

"Clockwork, you're..." Danny trailed off with a frown. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting the Master of Time to look like. Shocked, maybe. Confused, scared, but there was none of that. Clockwork almost never showed facial expressions, the only time Danny had seen him at least appear frazzled was when he had come to tell him about the Thermos. Suddenly something clicked in Danny's head and he took a step back so he was flat against the door.

"There's no need to be frightened, this is all for your own good. You'll see that," he paused for a second, "This is for the worlds good. As you know I can see the futures and they all looked quite grim, except, perhaps, this one."

"You're saying my future could be worse than this? Worse than him?" Danny said tightly, a note of pain in his voice.

Clockwork just shrugged and said, "I'm sorry, Danny, this is how it has to be."

Danny chuckled humorlessly, "Yeah, of course it does since it was your fault I turned into Dan in the first place." When Clockwork raised an eyebrow Danny continued, "If you hadn't interfered and sent those ghosts from the future after me I never would have caused the accident at the Nasty Burger. The Nasty Sauce never would have been exposed to that heat, and most of all I never would have phased through Mr. Lancers briefcase and gotten the answers stuck to my back. No temptation. No cheating. No one dies."

Clockwork chuckled and shook his head, "You really are quite clever, I should have seen that. Yes, it's all for a purpose. You see, things change for better, and for worse, but always for a bigger purpose. I never had to change the timeline this much before."

"And I never used to get raped by myself either, what's the point?" Danny muttered darkly.

"It will all be revealed in time." Clockwork said before he vanished and the coin fell to the floor.

After a moment Danny sunk to the floor as well. 'That didn't explain anything!' he thought frantically, 'All that did was make me more confused. Does he mean that somehow I deserve to have this happen?'

Danny shook his head, trying to make his thoughts change direction. He couldn't afford to think like that, especially now that it seemed his will power concerning Dark was wearing thin. He had to figure out something, and soon, before whatever Clockwork had been talking about happened.

Clockwork. As his thoughts rounded back to the ghost of time Danny had to wonder. What was his plan? What could he have possibly seen to have him act this way against Danny? It was almost as if Clockwork was the evil ghost in this case. It didn't make any sense. Were they all just pawns now, tools for him to move around as he saw fit?

Danny frowned and worried his lower lip. If that really was the case things were a lot worse, if that was even possible, than he had thought in the first place.

---

The next day after lunch the Fentons, excluding Danny who hadn't left his room since Saturday afternoon, drove Vlad to the airport to wait for his plane. Jazz seemed lost in thought and it made Vlad wonder again why she had ran yesterday when she saw him.

It was as if he had triggered some sort of memory and had caused her to be stuck in a state of slight depression. Her parent's didn't seem to notice much other than she wasn't talking and she kept her head down for most of the trip.

He mentally growled at Jack and Maddies apparent blindness to their childrens dilemmas. It seemed as if they couldn't see anything past themselves. Though Vlad still loved Maddie he was starting to see that she really wasn't the kind of woman he had deluded himself into thinking she was. Maybe they really did belong together, Jack and Maddie, as neither of them seemed good at reading emotions, or really seeing through lies.

Vlad himself had seen what had happened when they saw Danny. First there had been a flash of concern from his mother, and nothing but acknowledgment of his presense from his father. Then, when Danny had said that he was all right she had immediately believed him. Believed him despite all the evidence showing that he was not ok.

Mentally scowling as he bid a 'cheerful' goodbye to his 'college friends' and got onto his jet Vlad's mind was still in a dark place. This trip had been unexpected and what had happened during it even more so. He knew that he would probably be making more visits via his other persona to Amity Park to try and figure out what was happening soon. Something was going on with those children and he needed to find out what, especially with how Danny had been acting.

Leaning back in his seat he tried to sort out as much as he could without knowing details. Danny had something wrong with him, that much had been apparent the first time he had seen the boy, pale and sleep depraved. Vlad was sure Danny didn't know he talked in his sleep or else he never would have allowed him to stay in his room.

He had overheard Danny protesting to someone and muttering other things too soft to hear. Obviously whatever had happened to him was enough to affect his psyche and dreams. It had been enough to cause him to go to a party and seemingly do things he wouldn't otherwise.

Also...when he picked up Danny he had reacted in odd ways. Vlad wasn't sure he wanted to think about either of their reactions, but it was just so odd. Brushing off his own and thinking about Danny's he made a mental note to try and not touch Danny as long as possible. Or unless it seemed relevant to the circumstances.

Shaking his head he decided he would wait to think about it more until he got back to his mansion. Everything always seemed easier to think about in the comfort of his own home.

---

The phone rang interrupting Sam from putting on her eyeliner. With a sigh she put down the stick and picked it up. "Yeah?" she said blandly.

"Sam?"

"Yeah, who's this?" Sam asked, a slight frown on her face.

"It's Jazz." a pause and the sound of nervous swallowing, "Do you- Do you think you can call Tucker and meet me at the park in about half an hour?

Sam's eyebrows crinkled together in confusion. Something was wrong. Jazz sounded as if something had happened, but what could it be? Her mind immediately went to Danny.

Narrowing her eyes she replied, "Yeah, can do. But...one thing I want to ask."

"Yeah?"

"Is...is this about Danny?" Sam blurted out.

She frowned as she heard Jazz's breath catch. "...it is." she said and Sam was worried at the tone her voice had taken on.

Making up her mind Sam nodded though no one could see her. "I'll call Tucker. You said half an hour, but would fifteen be ok?" at Jazz's reluctant yes they said their goodbyes and hung up.

Picking up the phone to call Tucker Sam had a feeling that a lot of things were about to be answered and just hoped they could take what was going to happen.

---

Tucker sat on a bench next to Sam, not knowing that only a few days previously Danny had been there with Valerie. Not knowing that a huge confession had taken place in that exact spot. Still blissfully unaware of the horror he would be feeling in a few minutes.

They saw Jazz in the distance and waved at her and she waved back less enthusiastically and wandered in their direction. As she got closer the younger teens exchanged a look. Jazz seemed even more worried than ever. Sam had the impression that she had been been crying.

The two moved apart as Jazz approached so she could sit between them. There was silence for a few minutes before Jazz mumbled, "I almost wonder if we should have gone to your house, Sam, but oh well. Right now that would just be delaying the inevitable."

Sam and Tucker exchanged another worried look Jazz couldn't see and watched with interest and slight confusion as she took out a ghost-detecting device and scanned the area before looking around once more and sighing.

"All right," she said, "So, I...I know what's been going on with Danny."

Sam sat up straighter, "Really? How?" she exclaimed.

"He told me."

---

Jazz couldn't believe she was about to break her promise to Danny. Well, she had known all along that she was going to do it, but the reality of telling people was suddenly weighing heavily on her.

She had debated how much she was going to tell his friends, and had almost considered calling Val too, but decided that could wait until later. She figured she didn't have to tell them about the party, and what she had heard happen there, and just say what Danny had said to her earlier.

Wincing and biting at her lower lip Jazz leaned down causing Sam and Tuck to have to lean closer as well. "Yesterday I finally confronted Danny," she started and she saw that Sam was having trouble not saying anything. Jazz continued quickly, "At first he didn't want to say anything but as soon as I said that I 'knew' he was raped..." she trailed off.

"What is it Jazz? Did he say who it was?" Tucker asked, sounding concerned.

She swallowed and licked her lips nervously, "Do you guys remember Dan?" she saw that they drew a blank for a second before their eyes widened.

"Yeah, evil alternate ghost of Danny. I don't know why I didn't remember before you said something though." Sam frowned, "You wouldn't think that you could forget something like that so easily. It hasn't even really been a year."

Jazz agreed and had a suspicion someone or something had been blocking their memories, but that wasn't relevant right now. Tucker was the first one to almost see the implications.

"Why are you talking about him? I mean, isn't he...?"

"No, not any more." Jazz said, hoping that they would realize what she meant so she wouldn't have to say it.

"So now Danny has a psychotic ghost and..." Sam started but trailed off when Jazz shook her head.

There was silence for a few more moments as the younger teens tried to figure out what she meant. Finally Tuckers eyes widened. She didn't mean, she couldn't mean that...

"It's Dan isn't it?"

Sam froze and looked between the two of them helplessly, hoping that Jazz would shout 'Just kidding!' or something, but she knew that that would never happen. Swallowing she tried to make sense of it.

"You mean to say that Dan somehow got out of the thermos and decided that-that-!" she had to stop and take a deep breath because her voice was getting louder. After a moment she continued in a whisper, "Danny's older, evil self has made up his mind that Danny is the perfect target for...for..."

Jazz saw that she couldn't say it, and couldn't blame her. She was having trouble too. As the three teens sat on the bench, thinking about all that had just come to light Jazz had a thought.

If they were having so much trouble just knowing about what was happening with Danny, how was her brother feeling when he had to actually deal with it.

---

Monday seemed to almost come too soon for Danny. Walking through the halls was strange, almost as if he didn't belong there any more. There also seemed to be something wrong with the atmosphere. Though it was normally kind of dark with the taint of bullying hanging around, today it seemed worse.

As soon as he saw his friends he knew that his day was going to be a bad one.

"Danny, we need to talk. Seriously." Sam said, crossing her arms and staring at him.

'What does she want us to talk about?' Danny thought to himself and said aloud, "Ok, whatever."

Sam didn't look convinced and he had a feeling that he was going to be followed around all day. Tucker was off to the side shifting back and forth nervously as if he wanted to say something now, or warn Danny about something.

Checking the time he saw that they still had about five minutes until class started. He had gotten to school much earlier than last time, and after a second made a decision.

"Hey Tuck, come here, I need to talk to you for a sec." Danny said mock cheerfully and forced himself to grab his friends arm and pull him a distance away.

As soon as they were out of earshot Danny asked his friend what was going on.

Sighing and fixing his beret Tucker just looked at him and said, "Aren't we the ones who should be asking you that?"

"What do you..." Danny trailed off before his eyes widened and he took a step back. "Jazz."

Tucker watched a variety of emotions flicker across Danny's face and they finally landed on anger and frustration. "Look Danny, you can't do everything yourself. Especially against him. You're not putting us in danger, or at least any danger we weren't in already, but if you told us we would at least be prepared if something did happen."

Danny shifted uncomfortably and ran a hand through his hair, "I...all right. I guess...I'm sorry. I should have known that you would say that." he bit his lower lip and looked away, "I'm still not happy. Just say, say that you won't do anything stupid."

'Like you?' were the first words that came to mind for Tucker but he decided it would be better if those were left unsaid.

"All right."

---

Sam had been shunning them since Danny dragged Tucker off to talk with him, but that session was abruptly cut short after lunch.

"Where's Lancer?" Somebody asked and someone else shrugged.

"I dunno."

The other person was about to reply when the door opened and everyone fell silent. Two people walked in. One everyone recognized from seeing around school, the other only about five students in the class thought looked vaguely familiar. Of those five students only one recognized him immediately.

As the two walked to stand by the desk all the eyes on the room were on them. The recognizable teacher smoothed her skirt and began to speak.

"Unfortunately Mr. Lancer was feeling unwell and had to go home. Luckily we had this substitute on call. Please welcome..." Danny only caught the first couple sentences as his thoughts drifted off and became more disjointed.

'You have to be kidding me,' Danny thought frantically, desperately trying to keep from staring at Dark who, apparently, had brainwashed somebody into thinking he was a substitute teacher. 'What does he think he's doing? It's not like he can really do anything to me while he's here like this...right?'

The real teacher finally took her leave, and Dark began to speak, "All right, I'll assume that whoever was here before lunch will still be here. You will be treating this as a study hall because your teacher left me no plans. You may talk amongst yourselves, but I had better see you working." He gave them a smile which made Danny shiver and didn't bother to give more details as he went and sat in the desk.

---

Students rushed to get some work out. Sam decided to stop ignoring them and got into a group with Danny, Tucker, and Valerie. Danny and Val looked at each other for a second before glancing away, making Sam frown.

They sat there in awkward silence for a few minutes before Sam said, "Do you guys know the sub?"

"What?" Valerie exclaimed, careful to keep her voice soft. "What gave you that idea?"

"Um, maybe the fact that you look so nervous?"

"We met him at a party," Danny mumbled, looking slightly ill.

Sam was about to say something along the lines of 'Party?!' but Tucker interrupted her.

"Hey man, are you ok? You don't look so good."

Danny laughed, "I've been hearing that a lot lately."

"Danny," Valerie started to say but was interrupted by a gasp as Danny put his hands over his mouth.

"Hey, was that...?" Sam asked, looking around as Danny nodded, his eyes wide.

"It's a ghost."

---

Dark smirked to himself when he noticed a slight commotion from Danny's group. His younger self was probably trying to figure out what was going on. If he had left a duplicate in the seat and walked over to him or if it actually was another ghost.

The teens question was answered as the Box Ghost flew through the wall, causing mayhem and panic as usual as everyone fled. Resisting to roll his eyes he saw Danny give a panicked look his way.

With a grin Dark made a shooing motion, his grin growing wider at the confused look. By now it was only Sam Tucker and Danny left in the room. Valerie had probably left to get her gear on and would be back soon. He saw them have what appeared to be a small argument and Danny finally closed his eyes, and Dark was sure he had not been expecting to be able to change when he opened them in ghost form with a look of shock.

Danny glanced over at him once more curiously before flying off to find where the Box Ghost had gone. Sam and Tucker looked to where Dark was sitting calmly at the desk before exchanging a look and following their friend.

Once he was alone Dark let his human guise slip away. Stretching, he grinned again and went to go find his counterpart.

---

Blasting a globe of energy from his right hand Danny knocked the Box Ghost nearly senseless. It really had been easy to fight him once he had actually found him again. Now he just needed a thermos, which hopefully Sam or Tucker had that he could use when they got here.

Sighing he stood over the ghost, looking down at him. He remembered what he had looked like in the future, huge, built, and with much more control over his powers. That had probably been because of Dark too. It seemed like his evil older self was not just content with killing and messing with live humans.

Danny made a face and the Box Ghost began to stir. Setting back so he could be ready if he attacked Danny was surprised when he opened his eyes to give him a look of pity.

The ghost opened his mouth as if to say something, something besides 'beware', but was interrupted by being sucked into a thermos. Quickly turning around Danny saw Sam and Tucker had finally caught up with him.

"Thanks guys," Danny said, trying to sound enthusiastic about it when he was really sort of upset he hadn't gotten to hear what the Box Ghost wanted to tell him.

A few more people had filtered back into the school now that the ghost was gone. Danny received a few curious looks, after all, nobody had seen the Ghost Boy for almost a week.

Danny was about to go somewhere and change back when he was hit with a sudden force and knocked back into the wall. He winced as he felt a hand on his throat, a familiar hand on his throat. When he opened his eyes he was not surprised, though still afraid, to see Dark grinning at him.

"Hi, Danny boy," he hissed in his ear, "Long time no see."

"You just saw me in class," Danny retorted just as softly. Though the crowd was scared by this new ghost they were still curious to see who had trapped their 'savior' so easily.

Dark laughed, "It's not the same. I haven't seen you like this for awhile."

Suddenly realizing that he was near Dark and his powers hadn't shorted out Danny glared at him, wondering what was going on.

"Don't worry, this won't become regular. It was just so boring seeing our human self all the time." he paused, "Also, if you couldn't go ghost how else could I threaten you effectively with your friends around."

Danny's eyes widened and he looked over Darks shoulder to see his friends standing there in shock. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Valerie on her board flying down and tried to tell her to stop. He wasn't fast enough though and without even looking Dark held a hand out behind himself and blasted her off the board. It managed to catch her before she hit the ground, though it stalled a bit and Sam and Tucker rushed toward her. Still without looking back Dark trapped all three of them in a barrier.

"Oh dear, it seems your friends are captured." Dark said with a grin on his face, "Now all we need is your sister to make it a party."

"What are you going to do, you can't hurt them, I won't let you!" Danny exclaimed causing Dark to laugh.

"You won't let me? What could you possibly do trapped here that would save them over there?"

Danny swallowed and looked around, not quite sure what to do. There was only one thing he could think of to do, but he had a feeling he would be playing right into Dark's hand. Not like he hadn't been doing that already.

A couple moments later Danny took a deep breath. "I...I'll do anything you say if you promise not to hurt them."

Dark raised an eyebrow as if surprised. "Anything I say?" he asked, pushing their bodies together and hissing the words out.

"N-not quite anything I mean I won't turn evil because you tell me to or-or kill someone or, um," Danny rambled, his voice quiet as well. 'Anything' was quite a lot of things and there were still quite a few Danny didn't want to do.

Suddenly hearing a loud noise he saw his parents vehicle thing pull up to, or more specifically on, the curb. He hoped that Dark's promise, which hopefully the man intended to at least half way keep, extended to them as well.

Sighing as if disappointed Dark quickly phased their bodies through the wall into the empty room behind it. Danny thought he had heard a shout of outrage from his father and would have smiled if he hadn't just basically given up.

Standing in the room Dark did something with a small device and Danny cried out in pain as he was forced out of his ghostly form. Panting on the floor, Danny had a feeling Dark had made that as painful as possible, Dark knelt down in front of him.

Placing a hand on the side of his face Dark leaned in and kissed him roughly, forcing his tongue in his mouth. When he pulled back Danny automatically rubbed a hand over his mouth making him laugh. Since Danny had promised to do anything he didn't have to worry about that any more, not like he seriously had.

With a little finger wave Dark walked out of the room, changing his appearance to human. Yes, today had been a productive day so far and he was sure it was only going to get better.

---

End Chapter Eight