Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

DarkFoxKit: I know it's been a while since we posted the last chapter of Digital Phantom, but we've finally got the first chapter of the sequel. But first, you guys need to know, in case you missed it, there was an in-between story between the first story of Digital Phantom and season 2. If you haven't read it, you may be confused on how the characters saved Takuya and the other Legendary Warriors. The story is called Digital Phantom Frontier. And it's posted on my account.

ZAFT: It's also on AO3 under my account, so read on whichever site fits you best! :3

DarkFoxKit: Here's hoping you guys enjoy Digital Phantom Season 2.

Chapter 1: Promises and Wishes

Andy looked at Takuya. Things have been pretty dang rough lately. Not that long ago, Maxwell Carbon, a man who studied psychology, and was the teen therapist in Casper High after Spectra 'mysteriously disappeared', had become too ambitious and self-righteous. He took it upon himself to trap the 6 Legendary Warriors, all who were children, with his Tapirmon partner, in a dream created by his Digimon and a machine. Maxwell had hoped to make them into the Legendary Warriors he believed they should be, and to keep all non-Legendary Warriors out of the battle in the Digital World. While it had only taken a day in reality, Andy and the others had spent months in the dream Digital World, trying to free their friends from the dream.

Maxwell and Tapirmon had run off into the Digital World when Cherubimon, Seraphimon, Ophanimon, Biyomon, Labramon, and Kokuwamon had sacrificed themselves to erase the dream permanently, including the viruses that infected it.

This had left an impact, however, as Andy, Danny, Tucker, Sam, Valerie, and Dash had lost their Digimon partners due to this. Partners they had gotten used to having around, to rely on, for battle, emotional support, and just to have a friend be there for them. It had hurt, and Andy hadn't been holding up well. Danny had to talk to him before he finally let out his emotions. Though they weren't sure how well Valerie and Dash were taking this as they hadn't seen them since the incident.

Hoping to cheer them up, Takuya had, on the suggestion of Jack Fenton, told the twins about a monster truck on show at the car dealership, hoping the boys would enjoy some bonding time and get to see something cool at the same time. So, they were now checking out the monster truck that was on display. Thankfully, it seemed to be working. Maybe a little too well with Danny and Tucker, they were both pretty interested in monster trucks.

"How are you holding up?" Andy asked Sam.

"I do miss Biyomon," Sam admitted with a sigh. "She and I have been training… and I was able to ride on her while she flew. For the first time, I could really understand what it was like to fly, like Danny. I wonder if I can do that again…"

Sam paused before she looked at Andy. "What about you? You've had Lopmon for a lot longer than I had Biyomon after all."

Andy sighed. "I've gotten used to having the little guy around… it's weird to be here without him. It feels more empty… and lonely. I was… in a dark headspace this morning. Danny had to help me… get out of it."

"Hey, that's Danny for you." Sam chuckled. "He's just that kind of person."

"Yeah. Though I know he misses Patamon, he knows Patamon wouldn't want him to be depressed all the time," Andy agreed. "And I know Lopmon wouldn't want to see me like that either. We have to move on, for their sakes. And… maybe one day we'll see them again."

Takuya was looking over at them, having heard the conversation. He felt guilty… after all, this only happened because Maxwell wanted him… and the other Legendary Warriors. He felt like maybe he could've prevented this. He didn't know what it was like to have a bond with a Digimon partner, but… he remembered all too well how much it hurt when his friends… and his cousins… as Digimon left him and his friends after they gained their Beast Spirit. And even though Agunimon and BurningGreymon were a part of him, it would hurt to be separated from them. That must be what it felt like to the others right now, that a part of them was missing.

"Andy…" Takuya said as he approached. "I know it's hard, and… I feel like it's my fault they're gone. All because of us Legendary Warriors… They had to make that sacrifice to save us…"

"Don't blame yourself, Takuya," Andy spoke up. "In the end, it was their choice to make. They didn't have to do that… you guys were already saved. But they felt like they had to… in order to prevent the machine from being used ever again, and… to get rid of the viruses."

"Maybe we should drop the topic," Sam suggested. "It'll just be depressing to keep bringing it up. It's ultimately Maxwell's fault… he shouldn't have tried to turn you guys into perfect soldiers that are only meant to protect the Digital World and nothing more."

"It's also kind of our own fault too…" Andy sighed. "We… had gotten into a lot of dangerous situations lately. Jazz felt worried about us… and she started talking to Maxwell more and more about it. That's likely what led him to do this. It wasn't just to turn the Legendary Warriors into what he believed they should be… it was also to protect us."

"Yeah, but… he still went too far…" Sam frowned.

"I agree on that," Andy replied. "But it's important to consider other factors too instead of just looking at it from a black and white perspective. Doing so only leads to arrogance and ignorance to the full picture. But I'm sure you've learned that when you were with Dairy."

Sam grimaced. "Yeah… I remember that…" She admitted. "I just… someone who wanted to help and had good intentions didn't need to go that far. I guess… I'm just a bit freaked out to know some people can go to extremes for something they believe in."

"You're one to talk, Ms. Turned The School Menu Into a Vegan Menu," Takuya snickered.

Sam blushed. "I…" She groaned and put her head into her hands. "That wasn't one of my smarter ideas… and it was one time! No need to hold it over my head!"

Andy smiled, seeing Takuya joking around, alleviating the gloomy atmosphere a little. Though he had to agree with Sam, it was scary to know what people would do and how far they would go if they were pushed enough… determined enough to fight for what they believed in. Maxwell was a good guy, he had good intentions, and yet… he did something that was morally bad.

It wasn't just Maxwell either. There were people like Fredrich, a.k.a. Freakshow and Vlad Masters who fell into the deep end, doing morally bad things in order to get what they wanted, things they believed they rightfully deserved. Heck, Andy could even make the argument his parents were similar in that situation. They wanted, so badly, to create a portal to the Ghost Zone, ignoring what repercussions that could make on their world, that they actually managed to succeed. And they had been paying the consequences since then.

Andy couldn't help but wonder, with a worrying and nagging thought… what they could be capable of if any of them should be pushed into fighting for what they believed was right. Maybe they already were doing that, after all, that was what they planned to do with the Digital World, wasn't it? To create the Digi-Destined guild, and help the players realize that they were in a world that really exists, and that Digimon were real, living beings, not just something a video game created. Although… Andy wasn't sure how tangible that goal was anymore without their partners. Everyone involved, them, and the Legendary Warriors, were still recovering from the dream world incident after all.

Sam looked at her watch for a moment and frowned. "We should probably get going. We'll be late for school if we stick around here for much longer."

School just seemed so… trivial. But life kept going, no matter what.

However, Danny and Tucker seemed too mesmerized to pay Sam's comment any attention.

"Isn't it everything I told you it would be and more?" Danny said to Tucker.

"You did not lie, dude, you did not lie." Tucker grinned.

Both of them were staring at a large yellow monster truck in the middle of the lot on display. The two boys were almost drooling over how cool it was.

"I think… we're going to have a hard time getting these two to school." Takuya sweatdropped when he saw how interested they were in the truck.

"The Ginormo 6000…" Both of them said in unison.

Just to see what made the truck so cool, Sam walked over to the truck. It was so tall, she had to pull herself up to the truck's window to see a list of what the truck had.

"Seats made of owl leather, interior wood paneling from the Amazon rainforest, 12 gallons to the mile?" Sam scowled. "This truck is an environmental nightmare!"

"Was that last one a typo? Because I don't think anything can get 12 gallons to a mile." Takuya scratched at his head.

"Let's hope so, either that or it's something they put in to make the truck seem cooler than it really is," Andy replied. "They are trying to sell it after all."

"Isn't that a false advertisement then?" Takuya asked.

"Wouldn't stop them…" Andy grumbled.

"Besides, even if it's real or not, the fact is this truck is still an environmental nightmare!" Sam grumbled.

"Maybe, but you're not going to make a crazy suggestion, are you?" Danny asked.

Sam sighed. As much as she wished these trucks didn't exist, she couldn't just cause havoc because she didn't like them. That would only cause more harm than good, especially since it would put people out of a job.

"Still, you can't blame me for feeling angry about this," Sam huffed.

"It's a cool truck," Tucker said. "And the more monster truck enthusiasts wouldn't go for a truck that only uses faux leather, or fake wood paneling. Heck, most popular fashion people often use rare animal skins or pelts for their fashion."

"Skulker comes to mind when you mention pelt…" Danny shivered. "Maybe Sam's got a point."

"Uh-oh, the world's ending," Andy joked.

"No it's not!" Danny pouted. "I'm just saying maybe Sam has a point. I mean, I'm being hunted by a hunter because I'm one of two half ghosts. I kinda empathize with the animals now." He then paused. "Which is kinda weird…"

"It's probably a good thing, I mean I love animals myself. Heck, my partner was the Celestial Digimon for beast Digimon," Andy reminded.

"Good point," Danny replied.

"One problem at a time, we're still trying to figure out how to save the Digital World. And we kinda can't right now due to us lacking Digimon partners at the moment," Tucker grumbled. "We don't want to get too hasty and walk into something we know nothing about. Like when Sam had Danny walk into the ghost portal."

Danny groaned. "Way to remind me of that, Tucker."

Sam also grimaced. "To be fair, I do feel bad about that. I mean, I could have gotten you killed, Danny… We're lucky all the accident did was give you ghost powers."

"Yes, please talk about this in a public place…" Danny grumbled.

"I think it's fine. We're some teenagers talking about something as crazy as ghost powers, at worst, people will think we're talking about you as an avatar in a video game," Andy chuckled. Though for a while, I thought I lost my brother in that accident.

"At the very least I took off your dad's face sticker off your chest before the accident happened. Imagine you flying around with your dad's face on your chest in your ghost form," Sam snickered.

"Danny's cover would be blown sky high!" Takuya laughed.

"Either that or someone would think he stole one of the Fenton's hazmat suits for some reason," Andy snickered as well.

"Oh, c'mon!" Danny groaned. "I don't want to imagine either of those two scenarios! Flying around with dad's face on my hazmat suit would've been embarrassing!"

Everyone laughed for a bit, feeling a little more cheerful since the gloominess had taken over.

"Well, we better get going, we don't want to be late for school," Sam spoke up , deciding now was the best time to get everyone moving.

"Yeah, maybe we can come back later to admire these trucks. I know Kokuwamon would've loved it," Tucker sighed.

"How cool would it be to drive one of those babies?" Danny smiled as he and Tucker started geeking out while the group began walking.

"Yeah, just driving one of those would be so cool!" Tucker grinned. "Imagine all of that cool tech that must be inside! Like a GPS navigation system!"

"Or those big tires spinning round and round!" Danny agreed with a matching grin. "Throwing mud all over the place! Imagine the mess it could make!"

"Ugh… what is it with you boys and monster trucks?" Sam groaned.

"Hey, don't lump me in with them," Andy grumbled. "Monster trucks don't got anything on Turuiemon."

"Or BurningGreymon." Takuya grinned. "Being able to do so much as a Digimon is definitely better than a monster truck."

Sam chuckled. "I guess that's true. But some boys will never change, I suppose."

"Bro! How could you even say that!? You're supposed to be my twin brother!" Danny whined when he heard Andy say that.

"So? Doesn't mean we always share the same interest," Andy shrugged. "Monster trucks are loud, way too big to be efficient vehicles, they're only good for showing off in an arena, not to mention they spew out a lot of gas. I really don't like breathing that stuff in."

Danny and Tucker stared at Andy like he just cursed the existence of life itself.

"Dude, you did not just disrespect the monster truck!" Tucker gasped. "That's like, the last thing you should do!"

"Back us up here, Takuya!" Danny begged.

"Um… Sorry…" Takuya held up his hands. "I'm not getting involved in this."

Seeing a good opportunity to diffuse the situation, Sam ran over to a movie poster. "Oh my gosh, I almost forgot!"

That got everyone to stop arguing and look over at Sam and the poster. The poster showed the words 'Trinity of Doom' written in red. It showed pictures of a reptilian, green skin alien woman, a cyborg woman, and a fat looking woman with long, sharp green claws.

"Trinity of Doom comes out in theaters this Friday!" Sam said. "Femalian vs Terminatra vs Nightmerica! All my favorite female movie monsters in one film!"

"Why would they make female versions of these well known monsters? That feels like a controversial blow out just waiting to happen," Andy questioned.

"Hey, I can't complain." Sam grinned. "I like horror flicks, and I love all the horror monsters. And these three just happen to be my favorite ones! The three biggest female box office monsters battling it out in a big budget special effects bonanza!"

"Only you would be geeking out over this film." Tucker snickered at Sam.

"I am not geeking out!" Sam exclaimed, but her cheeks were red, showing she knew she had been. "Besides, you two were geeking out about trucks earlier!"

"She's got a point," Takuya pointed out.

Tucker grumbled. "I know that…"

"Hey, it does sound interesting." Danny grinned. "I mean, how many movies can say they have three main monsters fighting it out to see who is better?"

"You already did promise we'd go see it on Friday last week," Sam reminded Danny. "So I already bought us tickets."

I remember something about that conversation a while back. Andy thought. But then the kidnapping happened, and… by all rights, we were in that dream world for months. It was easy to forget about something like this.

"I guess that might be a good way to spend Friday. A good chance to unwind, and just watch a monster movie having three horror monsters duking it out," Andy decided.

Sam grinned. "This is gonna be awesome! We haven't done the movies in a long time!"

"Hey, I'm game." Takuya grinned as well. "I haven't seen a movie in a theater since I came here."

Tucker gasped. "Then we need to get you to a theater this weekend!" He exclaimed, as if horrified.

Before Danny could say anything, a familiar voice called out to them.

"Danny? Andy?"

That got everyone's attention. They recognized that voice. Despite it being months, at least to them, that was a voice they couldn't forget. It was Paulina, the most popular girl in Casper High. She was known for her beauty. She had the figure every girl wished they had, a thin stomach, flawless skin, a graceful composure, long, silky black hair, and make-up that wasn't too much, or too little, it was just right to highlight her natural boys fell for Paulina as soon as they saw her, with only a few exceptions.

Paulina was crossing the street, holding on to some papers.

"What do you want, Paulina?" Andy asked, being one of the few boys who didn't fall for Paulina's beauty.

"You two never told me if you were coming to my Quinceañera on Friday." Paulina replied.

Paulina held out one of the papers for Danny to take.

"Uh… well, that's because when you invited us, I thought you were joking," Danny admitted.

"And that you forgot to invite me," Tucker stated.

"And remembered not to invite me," Sam added with a huff.

"I don't do fancy parties," Andy grumbled.

"And completely ignored me…" Takuya finished.

Andy whispered to Takuya. "To be fair… you are in a grade higher than us. It's common for students to only invite those in their own grade and class."

Takuya blushed. "Ah… right…" He whispered back, feeling embarrassed now.

Paulina smiled. "Oh, didn't I tell you? You're all invited! And yes, that includes you, Takuya."

Paulina handed the rest of them her invitation papers. Tucker and Takuya were actually quite surprised as they looked at their invitation. Though Sam looked more angry since the party was set on the same day as the Trinity of Doom. Andy was… unsure how to feel about this. He had a similar experience when Dash invited him and Danny to his big party, though that was before Dash became their friend and, supposedly, a part of their group.

"I knew Danny and Andy wouldn't come if I didn't invite you three," Paulina stated.

"Wait, why are you inviting us?" Andy asked. Last time I checked, we weren't on the popularity scale. Dash only invited us that time because he had a crush on Jazz. What's Paulina's excuse?

"My papa is holding the party at the country club, and it's happening the same day as the meteor shower." Paulina said. "But I really want the ghost boy and his cute little pet to be there, and since the ghost boy shows up where you two show up, I figured I had no choice but to invite you two, your loser friends, and Takuya since you five seem to be together all the time."

"Hey! We're right here, you know!" Tucker exclaimed, having overheard how Paulina insulted them all within earshot.

"Yeah, I know," Paulina replied, showing she didn't care in the slightest that she was insulting them.

"The ghost boy and his… pet?" Danny said, getting an ache in his chest at the mention of 'cute little pet'; it reminded him so much of Patamon, and it hurt. "Um… He'll…" Danny felt his words get caught in his throat.

Though Paulina had already walked away.

"The fact she seemed so sure the ghost boy and his 'pet' will be there just because we're there is… illogical," Andy muttered.

"Though she's not exactly wrong, is she?" Tucker questioned. "Considering who the ghost boy is."

"Yeah, but that's why I'm concerned. She may not know who the ghost boy is, but… she might be suspicious of us, at least subconsciously," Andy pointed out. "Why else would she be inviting us of all people? It should just be pure coincidence to her, yet she seems sure she had to invite us to bring the ghost boy to her party."

"To be fair, we do seem to be around when the ghost boy shows up." Takuya noted. "But I do agree with Andy; this is just too coincidental to ignore. Besides, if she is suspicious, that's gonna make Danny's appearances as the ghost boy more difficult to keep under wraps. And it puts Danny's secret in danger."

"Well, what does she think we do with the 'ghost boy'? Hang out and do ghost stuff?" Tucker retorted grumpily.

Danny looked at Tucker. "... I mean… that is what we do…"

"This is just a… weird thing all around," Takuya sighed. "Then again, maybe that's something we're used to at this point. So something that's normal is now weird to us."

"Just don't go to that stupid party," Sam stated. "You don't go, there's no issue here. Besides, her party's happening at the same time as the movie. And the tickets are non-refundable."

"Her party's happening at night, around 7 to 9 pm," Andy stated as he looked at the invitation paper. "The movie should start at 4 pm, which gives us time to go see it after school."

"... Yeah… but I guess I was hoping to watch it at night. Seemed more appropriate, given the context behind the movie," Sam grumbled.

"I know, Sam." Danny said. "But if you think about it this way, you get what you want, and we get what we want. It's a win-win!"

"So you want to go to that party," Sam noted. "Despite the risks involved."

"Come on, Sam, we never get to go to these parties!" Danny pointed out.

"What about Dash's party?" Takuya asked.

Danny paused for a moment. "We never get to go to these parties together."

"Yeah, and we don't get to go if he doesn't!" Tucker added.

"What if I don't go?" Andy asked.

"She wanted both you and Danny to go!" Tucker pointed out.

"Besides, I'm sure it's not going to be like Dash's party, where we're going there alone without our friends. And you don't need to create some elaborate costume or prank this time. We can just go there to have fun and hang out," Danny stated. "Come on, how cool would it be to say you went to the most popular girl in school's Quinceañera? And… you know… not crash it."

Andy thought about it for a moment.

"It'll be quite the story to tell to Lopmon when you see him later~" Danny offered. "You could probably bring some leftover goodies to share with him too. He'd love that."

"Oh, that's playing dirty," Andy pouted.

"Is it working?" Danny asked.

"... Yes…" Andy grumbled.

"Then I'm fine with playing dirty~" Danny grinned.

"What about you, Takuya? You coming?" Tucker asked.

"Hey, it would be fun." Takuya grinned. "I'm not skipping out on hanging out with you guys. No battles, ghosts, or Digimon to worry about? Who can say no to that?"

"Not to mention it might be a good way to hang out with Dash and possibly Valerie if she got invited," Andy muttered. "We could all use a pick-me-up."

"And hey, it can also be used as a celebration for successfully rescuing Takuya and the others." Danny smiled. "No need to be depressed about that, right?"

"Yeah, you're right." Sam replied, feeling a bit better at that thought. "It may be all about her to Paulina, but to us, her party is our own celebration."

"Then it's settled, we'll watch the movie after school, then head to Paulina's Quinceañera to celebrate." Takuya smiled.

"Whoo-hoo!" Danny and Tucker high fived each other.

Andy smiled, seeing his brother and friend in such high spirits. "Well, we better head to school before something else happens."

"With how dull school is, especially after months of going through the dream world?" Sam asked. "I almost wish something would happen. Worst case scenario, some assassins would try to hurt Paulina and get the party canceled."

"Well, let's go. We have plans after school!" Danny grinned. "Movie, then party!"

With their plans set, the group of teens headed off for school. Unbeknownst to them, however, a certain ghost genie flew over to the movie poster after they left. The genie grinned sinisterly to herself.

"Well, she did say 'wish'," The genie muttered to herself. "And so she has wished it, and so it shall be~"

The genie laughed to herself as she shot glowing purple and green magic at the movie poster.

School went on as usual. Andy had yet to talk to Dash and Valerie since their adventures in the dream world, but Dash did wave at them earlier before class started. Unfortunately, Valerie was in another class, so talking to her would have to wait.

Mr. Lancer was talking about astronomy today, it was likely due to the meteor shower that was happening that Friday. Danny was invested in the lesson, given that he was interested in astronomy.

"Thousands of meteors will be visible in the skies of Amity Park this Friday." Mr. Lancer said as he held up a rock as if it was a meteor. "People tend to wish upon these 'falling stars' without realizing that at the speeds they're falling, they can drill holes through your skulls like wet toilet paper." He added with a growl, showing he wasn't in a good mood.

The students stared at Mr. Lancer, wondering what his problem was, but was also now anxious of getting their skulls drilled in.

Sam just ignored the lesson for the most part. Her mind was on other things. She was doodling in her notebook. She drew her partner, Biyomon, and a few random drawings of small, simple Digimon, and some ghost stuff. One thing she was paying special attention to, however, was a ghostly 'D' that looked like it was in flight, with the back edge having three lines tapering to points off of it, and the interior looking like a 'P' that was inside the 'D' itself.

Sam hadn't been thinking much when she drew it at first, but looking at it more, she began to wonder. She had Danny's ghost form in mind as she was drawing it, she could easily see this being somewhere on his hazmat suit, like some kind of logo. Most superheroes on TV usually had a logo somewhere on their superhero costumes after all, but Danny's suit was completely blank. She should talk to him about using a possible logo at some point, and this could be the base for it. She circled the 'DP' to make note of it for later.

Paulina was grinning. "Papa said that the stars are falling on my birthday just for me~ And I'm going to make a wish to meet the ghost boy and his cute little pet. And if one of those meteors fly towards me, the ghost boy and his pet can save me! Maybe I'll even get to pet his cute little bat!"

"You'd know what I would wish for?" Dash muttered. "My partner to come back with all of her memories…"

"What?" One of the other students asked.

"Just… wanting to see an old friend," Dash replied.

"That's lame," Calvin said. "I'd wish for extra arms to catch more footballs. And to wail on nerds like these Fenton twins!"

Calvin looked at Danny and Andy.

"Though that probably doesn't count as a wish since I can do that any time," Calvin remarked. "Like this!"

Calvin ended up punching Andy on the shoulder since he was sitting closer to Calvin.

"Ow!" Andy yelped, rubbing his poor, abused shoulder.

Both Danny and Dash glared at Calvin for that.

Danny felt his eyes flash green, but he squashed that as soon as it happened, making sure it was completely missed.

Nathan grinned. "And I'd wish to meet Flamma-Bill! I want to see him in action against a foe!"

Danny sighed, not really sure what to make of Nathan's wish. But before he could do anything else, he gasped as his ghost sense escaped his mouth. Uh oh…

With only his ghost sense as a warning, part of the ceiling broke down as some kind of large, green, reptilian-like beast landed in front of the class. Though strangely, it was easy to tell the being was a woman of some kind. She had black hair that was tied in pigtails, and lipstick around her lips. She wore a black bra, black shorts, black ankle braces, and silver arm braces. It seemed like a half reptilian, and half humanoid monster. It had sharp yellow claws jutting out of her hands and feet as she turned and glared at one person in particular.

"Paulinaaaaa!" The alien hissed in a feminine voice.

"Um… Did that thing just say your name?" Calvin asked Paulina in disbelief.

"Neat!" Paulina grinned.

Tucker slapped his own face with an open palm. "A ghost says her name and all she can say is 'neat'? Talk about skewed priorities."

Mr. Lancer grabbed the nearest object he could find, which was a fire extinguisher. "Lord of the World's Creature! Get away from my youthful charges!"

Mr. Lancer slammed the fire extinguisher at the alien's back of the head… which did nothing but cause a loud 'CLANG' sound. The alien's eyes only turned to look at the man.

What are you doing!? It's a fire extinguisher, not a hammer! Use it like a fire extinguisher! Andy thought frantically and frustratingly.

"Well… I tried." Mr. Lancer said before he dropped the extinguisher. "RUN!" He yelled.

Dashing to the fire alarm, Mr. Lancer pulled it, triggering the alarm and causing everyone to turn to run from the building.

I have to give the man some credit though, he at least knew what to do in this situation, and he wasn't leaving the students behind. Andy noted, seeing how Mr. Lancer didn't leave the classroom until all of the students ran out first.

Andy picked up the fire extinguisher on his way out, he had an idea.

"Dash! Keep Paulina safe!" Andy called out.

Battle instincts already taking over, Dash didn't hesitate to run over to Paulina and grabbed her hand, moving her in front of him. Dash was using his body to try to keep Paulina out of direct danger as the alien roared and was chasing after them.

"Danny, don't go ghost, but use your intangibility with me," Andy ordered his brother, who was next to him.

Danny blinked, but nodded. "You got it, bro!" He said before grabbing Andy and concentrating. Both twins turned intangible a few seconds later.

Andy and Danny ran across the hallway. Andy pointed at the alien as it was trying to slash through Dash to get to Paulina. Andy and Danny grabbed the alien by her tail, turning her intangible, and caused her to sink under the floor.

They ended up in an empty classroom that was likely already evacuated thanks to the fire alarm Mr. Lancer pulled earlier. The alien hit the ground as Danny returned them to being solid.

The alien monster roared as she attempted to slash them. Andy turned on the fire extinguisher and shot out tons of foam at the alien's face while also making sure to get it stuffed down her mouth, hoping to make her suffocate or choke on the foam.

The alien monster jumped back to get away from the foam, only to end up coughing to try to dislodge any foam stuck in her lungs. It was like breathing through a filter that was clogged.

"Now's your chance, fire at her!" Andy spoke to Danny.

While his ghost ray would be stronger in his ghost form, Danny could still fire a ghost ray as a human. He didn't really have time to transform, so he shot his ghost ray as he was now. It was still enough to push the alien back into a wall.

The alien roared as she was blasted back and landed on the floor after slamming into the wall. Danny glared at the alien monster, his eyes flashing green. "Alright gruesome, What do you want with Paulina? And who sent you?"

"Saaaaaaaaaam…" The alien said in a vague tone.

"What do you mean Sam sent you?" Andy questioned.

But the alien disappeared, seeming to have faded away rather than turning invisible.

"That… wasn't a normal ghost…" Andy frowned.

"Yeah… But why would the ghost be after Paulina, and why did it say Sam's name?" Danny asked, confused.

Andy started thinking. "It's too early to make any conclusions. We don't even know if this Sam is the same one we know. We better talk to the others about this. Since we just had a ghost attack, Valerie will want to be involved with this conversation too."

"And since ghosts attack the school often, we're not going to get out of school so easily either," Danny sighed. "So we'll have to wait until everything calms down, and talk to them at lunch."

"Yeah. Let's hope Sam can tell us more if she is somehow involved," Andy said.

"By the way… good idea with the fire extinguisher," Danny complimented.

Andy looked down at the fire extinguisher. "Yeah… well… since I'm currently partnerless, I'm going to have to make due with what I can. I'm not out of the fight just yet after all."

Danny chuckled. "I wouldn't want you to be, bro. I am glad you used what you had."

Looking around before sighing, Danny spoke up again. "Anyway, let's get out of here. I don't want to be in here longer than we have to be. Mr. Lancer's probably gonna be wondering where we are."

"And we don't want to be caught in a messed up classroom either," Andy added before dropping the fire extinguisher. "Let's go."

Later that day, the school called for an early lunch to fix up the classrooms that were affected by the ghost attack. Danny, Tucker, Sam, Dash, and Valerie decided to meet up on one of the picnic tables that was far away from the other students so they could talk in peace.

"So, first off… let's get the elephant in the room out of the way," Andy spoke up. "This is our first meeting since the dream world incident. I want to make sure everything is cleared up before we go any further. Dash, Valerie, what do you know about the ghost boy named Danny Phantom?"

"He's actually Danny Fenton." Valerie replied. "And he's a good kid."

"He has ghost powers, and has a ghost form." Dash added. "He can also turn between his human and ghost forms at will."

"Okay, good, so everyone here knows about Danny's other half," Andy said in relief. "And you know not to go blabbing it to anyone else, right?"

"Of course, I've made sure to keep quiet about it," Valerie nodded.

"Yeah, me too. Don't want the government to use him as an experiment or anything," Dash agreed.

"Then this meeting of Team Digi-Destined can now commence," Tucker proudly stated.

"We're still missing Takuya," Sam pointed out.

"He has lunch at a different time due to being a grade higher," Danny explained. "We can tell him what we know after school."

"He still doesn't know that we know about Danny's secret, does he?" Valerie asked.

"I don't think so. We hadn't had the time to tell him in the dream world as we were focused on other things," Andy sighed. "And we were grieving for our partners after everything was over, so it hadn't crossed our mind to tell him."

"Well, this should be interesting when he finds out." Danny chuckled. "When I told him my secret, he actually freaked out a bit because he outed himself as Agunimon to me before he knew I was Phantom."

"Seems he's always behind when it comes to information." Valerie grinned.

"But aren't we the last ones to find out about Fenton's… uh… ghost form?" Dash asked.

Valerie was about to reply when Andy spoke up. "We better get back on topic. Lunch time doesn't last forever. How are you two holding up since the incident?"

Valerie sighed. "It's been hard… I know they will return, but it just feels so lonely without Gatomon around."

Dash rubbed one of his arms. "Coming home to an empty room is kind of heartbreaking to be honest. Labramon being there was so nice, and now that she's not…" His face showed his heartache.

"I wasn't quite myself this morning either… Lopmon helped me through a lot," Andy sighed, knowing what Valerie and Dash were going through.

"We all miss our partners," Sam said softly. "But right now, all we can do is keep going forward. They'll return to us before long, I'm sure of it."

"Yeah, we were actually planning to go to Paulina's Quinceañera this Friday as a form of celebration for succeeding in saving Takuya and the others, as well as a pick-me-up," Tucker explained.

"Oh yeah, I got an invitation for that too," Dash remembered.

"Well, I didn't," Valerie grumbled. "I'm not cool enough for that. Why would she invite you guys?"

"That's one of the reasons why we called this meeting. We think Paulina might suspect one of us being the ghost boy," Andy informed. "At least on a subconscious level. She only invited us because she says the ghost boy and his 'pet' only show up where we are."

"That's kind of concerning." Valerie noted. "She didn't strike me as someone who would make connections like that."

"The safest option we have is to just not show up," Sam said. "But it'd be a shame to not take advantage of this opportunity to celebrate."

"Yeah! And I'm allowed to bring someone, so I could bring you with me, Valerie," Dash offered. "That way you can celebrate with us."

Valerie smiled at Dash. "Thanks, Dash."

"So, when we go to the party, we will just have to keep an eye on Paulina to see if she figures things out." Tucker mused. "That can't be too hard."

"But that's not the whole reason we're having this meeting," Andy brought up.

"It's about the ghost attack, right?" Valerie asked. "I heard the fighting and the roaring, but I was too far and my teacher was keeping a close eye on all of us, so I couldn't sneak away."

"Yeah, it was some weird lady alien ghost thing," Dash answered. "She wanted Paulina, and from the way she was trying to use her claws on her, I think she wanted Paulina's head."

"But why?" Tucker asked. "That's not normal for a ghost to target someone directly." He then paused. "Except for when they go after Danny."

"They always seem to have it out for me," Danny grumbled.

"But that's not really unusual, since ghost attacking ghosts could just be for mere territory or for a challenge," Andy stated. "But you are right in saying a ghost attacking a specific human is unusual. And here's the kicker, when we pinned the ghost down and demanded who sent her and why she was after Paulina, all we got was a dragged out word."

"What word is that?" Sam questioned.

"Your name," Andy answered.

"What?" Sam gaped. "Why? I have nothing to do with this! Heck, even I'm looking forward to the party!"

"You do have to admit though, it's suspicious," Danny said. "I mean the alien ghost that attacked looked just like that Femalien girl from that poster. And when she disappeared, it was like she faded from existence."

"Now we don't know if that alien meant you, Sam, or a different Sam," Andy spoke up. "We don't have a lot of information or evidence. Who would be after Paulina, and why? And how did they send that alien after her? And if it's you, how are you involved in this? And if it's a different Sam, who are they and what's their beef with Paulina?"

Sam frowned. "I highly doubt it's me, but you do raise a good point. I'm just not sure how I would be involved if that name was mine. I don't like this one bit."

"But how can we know for sure?" Dash asked.

"Maybe we can keep a closer eye on Paulina to see if she gets attacked again?" Tucker suggested.

"That might be difficult," Valerie sighed. "According to Star, Paulina is at the cleaners picking up her party dress. So she has already left the school premises."

"Well, you do have your hoverboard." Danny pointed out. "Perhaps you could follow her that way. The Red Huntress on patrol for a ghost wouldn't be that unusual."

"It is if I'm noticed following her around," Valerie replied. "You have your ghost powers, you can turn invisible while you fly, why don't you keep an eye on her?"

"Do you really want a boy with invisible powers to follow a girl around all day?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

Danny blushed. "I wouldn't do anything indecent!" He exclaimed, but his blush on his face gave some stuff away.

"Dude, you're blushing." Tucker grinned. "I think that should be enough information to go off of."

Andy was snorting in his hand.

"What's so funny!?" Danny hissed, seeing his brother snorting at him.

"Erm… well moving on," Andy quickly changed the subject. "We should take into account that it's possible there's some strange ghostly activities going on. After all, some ghosts can feed off of humans for their own purposes, like with Penelope Spectra. It's possible something Sam said or did at one point could've caused a domino effect that led to them sending these assassins to Paulina. So in my opinion, we should probably wear some kind of protective equipment on us somewhere until we can get to the bottom of this."

"I have my suit, but what about the rest of you?" Valerie asked.

"Good question… we don't usually have hazmat suits with protective gear from ectoplasm stuffed in our backpacks all the time." Tucker frowned.

"Wait, how do you always have your suit?" Dash curiously asked Valerie. "Do you keep them all in your backpack or something?"

"Not necessarily my backpack…" Valerie replied a little uncomfortably. "It's difficult to explain exactly, but my benefactor gave me a suit that's able to be retracted and put on at any time, including my hoverboard."

"Wow, that's some seriously sweet tech, it sounds like." Dash whistled. "No wonder you can hold your own against ghosts."

"Yeah, well, I still have to make sure I'm hidden when I put it on. I do want to try to keep the Red Huntress's identity a secret after all. Especially from my dad. He'd freak if he knew I've been fighting with ghosts," Valerie sighed.

"Heh, so we're kind of in the same boat then," Danny remarked.

"I don't know whether to be jealous or just annoyed about it," Sam remarked. "It's not like the rest of us hide our identities when we get into a fight."

"To be fair, in these big ghost fights, people are more focused on the ones flying around rather than the people fighting from the ground," Andy remarked. "Or they just think the Digimon are the ones fighting the ghosts rather than the human children. People see what they want to see. It's easier to think a giant rabbit with punching gloves, or a giant flaming bird are able to go toe-to-toe against ghosts rather than a small group of human children after all."

"That's true." Tucker admitted. "And it leaves us more behind the scenes, allowing us to remain… um… discreet from being seen."

"But getting back on topic," Andy spoke up. "It's true we don't have a lot of protective equipment on us right now. We should probably see if Mom and Dad could make something for each of us. We only really have the Specter Deflector, and I guess the Fenton Thermos, but that's mainly used to catch ghosts rather than being protected by their power."

"Since it's possible Sam might be indirectly involved, we should probably put the Specter Deflector on her," Danny suggested. "Just in case it's one of those ghosts that latch onto one person instead of going to others."

Sam blinked. "Wait, what?" She asked in surprise. "I mean… I know it said my name, but… That can't be enough evidence, right?"

"It won't hurt for you to wear that belt for one day," Tucker said before grinning. "Unless you think it clashes with your gothic outfit or something."

"No way!" Sam exclaimed. "I think I could pull off wearing the Specter Deflector no problem!"

"Great! So it's settled then." Danny smiled before he took the familiar silver and green belt from his backpack out and put it around Sam's waist.

"So what's the 'Specter Deflector'?" Dash asked.

"It's a belt Dad made." Danny replied. "It's supposed to shock ghosts that try to touch humans." Danny then grimaced. "It's like a Tazer, but with an output that hurts worse than being stung by a hive of bees."

"I'm guessing you got zapped by it a few times?" Valerie grinned in a teasing way.

"My mom may have worn it before… while we were on a mother and son trip, that wasn't very fun," Danny groaned.

"Supposedly the Specter Deflector can also protect someone from a ghost's power because it's made from the materials from the Ghost Shield," Andy explained further. "We haven't seen that in action yet though, only seeing it shock a ghost. So that remains to be seen."

"Well, I suppose this would be a good time for that to be tested." Tucker grinned. "I mean, how many ghosts want to be zapped by a taser worn around the waist? Not many."

"Maybe your parents can make more of those?" Dash asked.

"We might ask them. The only issue with that is…" Danny frowned. "They might make one for me too."

Sam looked down at the Specter Deflector. She wasn't sure it was necessary to wear it, but it didn't look that bad on her all things considered.

However, their conversation came to an abrupt end when a familiar blue mist came out of Danny's mouth. A second later, they heard a girl's scream not too far away. Everyone turned to the street. They saw Paulina riding on her moped, holding onto a pink fancy looking dress that had a protective plastic bag over it. But something was running after her.

It was a cyborg woman. She had black hair pulled back in a red hairtie, tan skin, and one of her eyes was pure red, surrounded by metal on her face around the eye socket. Her other eye was blue, and she had a mechanical left arm, matching her left eye. Her outfit was completely black save for red boots, and she had red earrings as well.

The cyborg woman was running on the side of the building as she chased after the hapless teenager.

"Another one!? Great…" Danny sighed.

"Come on, we better help her!" Valerie quickly said.

"Guys, cover for us!" Danny instructed.

Dash, Sam, Tucker, and Andy stood up as Danny and Valerie went under the table. With a flash of light, Danny Phantom flew out quickly. The Red Huntress followed shortly after on her hoverboard.

"Whoa… now that's cool." Dash smiled.

"Come on, let's see if we can back them up!" Sam spoke up, grabbing her backpack from the table.

"How are we going to keep up?" Dash asked.

"On our own mopeds," Andy pointed out.

Meanwhile, Danny and Valerie were flying toward Paulina. The cyborg woman shot out a red beam at Paulina, but barely missed as it grazed against Paulina's dress.

"Hey! I just got this back from the cleaners!" Paulina snapped, though she was still trying to get away from the crazy cyborg, she didn't appreciate having her birthday dress getting ruined.

The cyborg woman jumped at Paulina, but Paulina's moped sped up, causing the woman to miss and slam into the road instead. The cyborg woman formed a small rocket on her back, allowing her to fly into the air and straight at Paulina.

Paulina came to a halt in the park. "Out of fuel!? Oh no… This is like the worst birthday week ever!"

Then, a familiar form appeared from underground. Returning to a tangible form, was a glowing boy hovering there. "Well, let's see if we can change that, shall we?" The ghost boy grinned.

Paulina smiled as her heart fluttered with excitement. "And now it's not!"

Danny fired a ghost ray at the cyborg. But the cyborg was able to morph its body easily. She made a hole in her torso area where the ghost ray went through before transforming her body into what appeared to be a net.

Danny was about to dodge when Paulina spoke up. "Wait! Let me give this to you!"

Paulina took out one of her invitations. "If I invite you, I can uninvite the twins and their loser friends! I might keep their cousin though, he's pretty hot and good at soccer."

Danny looked at her, only able to get out a surprised and confused, "What!?"

Then Danny was caught up in the net the cyborg made, forcing him to crash at the fountain's base that was several feet away.

Danny yelped as he was being shocked by the cyborg ghost. In a few quick seconds, the cyborg had untangled her net form and threw Danny into the fountain, where he transformed back into his human form, all soaked and wet.

Danny felt a little off balance, not only did Paulina distract him with her shallowness and… questionable priorities, but he didn't have his partner with him anymore to back him up. But that didn't mean he had no back up at all.

Before the cyborg woman could do anything else, she was shot to the side by a purple laser beam. Danny looked up, seeing the Red Huntress there on her hoverboard.

"Need some help?" Valerie chuckled as she reached down to help Danny up from the fountain.

"Yeah, thanks." Danny replied. "Ugh… normally I'm much better than this!"

"You let the girl distract you," Valerie noted.

The cyborg woman wasn't out yet. She shot out red beams at Valerie and Danny. Thinking fast, Danny, who still had Valerie's hand in his, turned both of them intangible to avoid getting hit.

After the cyborg realized her shots weren't hitting them, she ran at them with her cybernetic arm that was flowing with electricity. She was clearly intending to shock them with the water.

"Look out!" Danny yelled.

Valerie flew up while holding Danny to avoid a nasty electrocution. She summoned one of her bazookas and fired at the cyborg woman. The cyborg woman wasn't going to make this easy, and created a shield around herself to protect her from the attack.

As this was going on, Sam, Tucker, Dash, and Andy arrived on the scene. They weren't sure what to do since this cyborg woman could easily destroy them without their Digimon partners.

"What should we do?" Dash frowned. "If I had Labramon with me, she could probably distract that cyborg woman with her Retriever Bark."

"That's… Terminatra!" Sam realized.

"So I'm guessing the third one will be Nightmerica?" Tucker deadpanned.

Sam frowned, these assassins were using her favorite female monsters' forms. So maybe the boys had a point in saying she may be indirectly involved in this.

Andy frowned as something was bothering him. He couldn't tell what, but something kept his attention on the fountain. It was like… he was seeing something that shouldn't be there.

Andy saw Danny and Valerie facing a large silhouette that was staring down at them. The silhouette had a red eye staring down at them and appeared to be laughing. The silhouette's hand was glowing a bright purple light and the purple light was shot at both of them. It wasn't just them, but the purple light was shot at Tucker, then Sam, then Dash, and finally… him.

Andy gasped as he felt like someone just shook him out of a nightmare.

"Andy! You need to snap out of it!" Dash's voice exclaimed.

"What's wrong, Andy?" Tucker asked.

Andy blinked a few times before seeing Sam on her moped, riding ahead of the group.

"Something's wrong…" Andy whispered. "Something bad is about to happen."

"What?" Dash blinked. "What do you mean?"

Andy put his hand on his forehead. "I don't know, but something bad is coming!"

Terminatra fired missiles at Valerie and Danny. Valerie did her best to dodge, but one of the missiles managed to hit her hoverboard's engine, causing her and Danny to fall back into the fountain. Terminatra was about to electrocute the water again when Sam came charging in on her moped.

"Leave them alone!" Sam shouted before she ended up tackling Terminatra into the water.

Terminatra's body didn't take water very well, her body went haywire as the others watched. Terminatra looked up one more time and said a single word. "Saaaaaaaaaam…"

Then Terminatra's body disappeared, showing her robotic parts a moment before fully disappearing.

Sam frowned at what she had just heard. "Okay… hearing it from you and Andy was one thing, Danny. But it's quite another to hear it for myself."

"Yeah, you see why we decided to put the Specter Deflector on you," Danny chuckled.

Danny took Sam's hand for a moment as she was trying to help him out of the water, only for the Specter Deflector to activate and shock Danny. Danny let out a scream before Sam quickly let go of him, causing him to fall back into the water.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Danny!" Sam apologized, horrified that she accidentally hurt Danny.

"It's fine…" Danny replied. "I'm kinda getting used to the taser effect…"

"You weren't kidding when you said that thing shocks you on contact," Valerie noted as she helped Danny up herself since she wasn't wearing anything like a Specter Deflector. "But it's kinda cute to see you two reacting to each other."

Sam blushed. "I… I do not like Danny like that!" She exclaimed. "In fact, I feel like I should wish we never met so you'd stop teasing me about that, so that everyone would stop teasing me about that! It's so embarrassing, I want to crawl into a hole and never come out…"

"Aww come on, you don't mean that," Valerie chuckled. "What would life be like if you two never met?"

Danny was blushing as well.

"Guys!" Andy suddenly called out as he, Dash, and Tucker ran up to them. "Get out of the fountain, now!"

Sam, Valerie and Danny all looked up at them, only for Danny to freeze. "Oh no…" He whispered, looking down at the fountain; coins were inside it.

As if on cue, the fountain had purple bubbles coming out of it. The bubbles formed into a purple smoke that formed itself into a familiar ghost genie.

The ghost genie had green skin, red eyes, and long, silky black hair. She wore silver bands on her upper arms and matching bands on her lower arms, with the right arm having two bracelets on it and the left arm having one bracelet on it. Her top was blue with a silver collar that went around her… assets… and she had her midriff exposed while she wore a silver belt matching her top's silver part, and a silver necklace was worn around her neck. Her tail was blue, matching her top.

She was laughing maniacally as she looked down at them. "FINALLY!"

Andy saw her red eye, the same one from the strange vision he saw earlier.

"Desiree?" Danny asked, looking shocked. "You… look different."

"You know this ghost?" Valerie frowned from within her mask.

"Desiree is a ghost with strong magical powers. She grants every wish she hears, but she twists them to her own amusement and benefit," Andy warned.

"Do I look more powerful?" Desiree replied with a grin. "With every wish I grant, the more powerful I get."

"S-seriously!?" Dash asked in surprise and horror.

"What's even worse is that this Friday… everyone will be making wishes…" Tucker paled.

"Very clever, aren't you?" Desiree grinned.

"What do you want exactly?" Andy questioned.

"I want all of you troublemakers out of my hair by Friday night," Desiree stated before grinning. "But I'm not here for something I want. I'm here for something your friend wants~"

Sam paled as she realized the implications of what she said just moments before.

"Oh no…" Danny paled.

"Oh yes!" Desiree grinned. "She just wished she never met you!"

"It wasn't a serious wish!" Sam shouted. "Don't you dare grant that!"

"It's too late! You've already made that wish!" Desiree grinned sinisterly. "And so you have wished it, and so it shall be!"

Desiree's hands glowed a strong purple aura.

Andy, in a panic, looked over at his brother and gave a shout. "RUN!"

The group scattered. Even Valerie knew she wouldn't stand a chance against this ghost genie as she was now. None of them had their Digimon partner to help them either.

"You can't escape from your fate!" Desiree shouted as they ran.

Danny and Andy ran back toward the school.

"We can't just run! She'll hunt us down until she grants that wish!" Danny spoke up.

"I… I know! I know…" Andy frowned. "... The thermos… Danny! Where's the Fenton Thermos!?"

Takuya was bored. He wished class would be over soon so he could eat lunch. However, his wish would soon be granted in a way he didn't like. Because someone suddenly turned on the fire alarm, which doubled as a ghost alarm these days. That was twice in one day, since Mr. Lancer pulled it earlier.

The class had to evacuate quickly. Takuya ran down the hallway, trying to find the ghost. Maybe Danny and the others could take care of it, they were able to take care of the last one fairly quickly, but he still wanted to find them just in case they needed back up.

Takuya saw Dash running down the hallway, looking scared.

"H-Hey! Wait!" Takuya called to Dash. "What's going on?"

"Ghost genie! Wish granting!" Dash shouted as he didn't slow down.

Takuya had no idea what Dash was shouting about, but he soon pieced it together when he saw Desiree flying around the school. It wasn't just Dash she was after, but she had created multiple clones of herself going through the school. Takuya gasped, seeing Mikey being shot by a purple beam before he fell to the floor unconscious.

"Crap!" Takuya swore. He didn't know what else to do besides run. He couldn't just evolve in public. He had to find a place to hide to evolve.

Someone then ran into him, nearly knocking him to the floor.

"Takuya!"

Takuya turned, seeing Andy and Danny there. Danny quickly grabbed Takuya's arm and pulled him to his feet.

"We have to do something, the entire school is under attack!" Takuya quickly said.

"They're not being attacked exactly." Andy frowned. "Desiree is rewriting their memories!"

"What?!" Takuya exclaimed. "Why?! What kind of wish could do that?!"

"One where someone said they wished they never met someone," Danny quickly said.

Before Takuya could react, Andy pushed Takuya down, barely avoiding a purple beam from one of the Desirees.

"It's not safe here, we have to get out!" Andy spoke up. "Apparently we left our Fenton Thermos at home!"

"Give me a break, we were all kinda messed up this morning!" Danny groaned.

"Let's go then!" Takuya said, grabbing Andy and Danny's hands. "We can't remain here if Desiree is on the attack."

Takuya pulled the twins down the hall, trying to avoid Desiree and her clones chasing after them.

They started moving quickly.

"Is there any way we can stop this?" Takuya asked.

"Not unless we can catch the real Desiree," Andy replied. "And if we get hit by one of her magic attacks, we're done."

"But unless we have a Fenton Thermos, we can't catch her." Takuya grumbled. "What a time to have left the thermoses at the house…"

"Maybe I can try to knock her out," Danny suggested. "I can still use my ghost powers."

"It's too dangerous, you'll get caught up in her memory wipe magic," Andy hissed. "I don't think I'll be able to save you from that!"

"None of us will be safe if we keep yapping and don't keep running!" Takuya shot back.

They stopped when they saw Dash lying on the floor. He had been caught.

"Dash…" Andy frowned.

"Leave him, let's go!" Danny pushed Andy to keep moving.

More Desiree clones began flying through the school. Kids were screaming in panic, the school staff didn't know what to do.

"I can't just keep watching this…" Danny hissed.

They saw an exit door ahead of them, but a bunch of Desiree clones surrounded them.

"You can't escape from me!" The Desiree clones all said at once.

"We have no choice, we have to fight back." Takuya hissed as he took out his D-Tector. "We won't get out otherwise!"

"We can't fight that many clones!" Danny protested.

"We're going to have to try!" Takuya replied. "It's better than doing nothing!"

"But what about Andy? He doesn't have the means to fight back!" Danny pointed out.

"Yes I do," Andy said as he took out a familiar rod from his pocket. "Danny… overshadow me."

Danny blinked before he grinned. "You got it, bro!"

Danny turned intangible and flew into Andy's body, overshadowing his twin.

Takuya knew what he had to do. He held up his D-Tector and the blue digital form of his first Spirit appeared visible on the screen of his D-Tector as he formed a ring of fractal coding on his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he would come to know by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital, and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. Red armor formed and latched onto his body as his hair changed to blonde and became long and wild. His height increased, as did his strength and agility. His eyes snapped open, now a brilliant blue instead of brown, and his canine teeth were sharper than a human's as well. He landed, crying out his name. "Agunimon!"

Now evolved, Agunimon was ready to fight, as was Danny, using Andy's body.

Andy's eyes glowed green, but Andy himself was very much conscious.

The Desiree clones began firing their magic at the two. Agunimon summoned the Plasma Sphere to cancel out the magic. As soon as Agunimon put the sphere down, Andy jumped over Agunimon and swung the Fenton Rod across the clones, then fired a ghost ray with his other hand at more of the clones, causing them to disappear.

Thinking fast, Agunimon focused before holding up his right wrist, fire flickering from the open ports on it. "Pyro Darts!" He threw the small fiery bits at the Desiree clones. More clones disappeared with each that was hit.

The path to the door was clearing with each attack that had been made.

Andy ran forward at more clones. Desiree fired her magic at him. Danny used his intangibility to make Andy turn intangible, making the magic go through him. This gave Andy an opening to swing his rod at several of the clones. Things were going pretty smoothly.

Agunimon was surprised at how well coordinated the brothers were. He knew they had fought with each other before, but Andy and Danny rarely fought like this. Andy generally didn't like having someone take over his body after all, which was fair enough.

Shaking his head, Agunimon forced himself back to the situation at hand. The Desiree clones came first. His sharp blue gaze fixed on the clones, Agunimon called forth the Fenton Gauntlets, red electricity crackling over them. He grinned, showing his sharp canine teeth. "Time to mix things up!" He exclaimed before punching at the closest clones.

The Desiree clones didn't stand a chance against the Fenton Gauntlets Agunimon was using. The clones disappeared with each hit.

"That gave us the opening!" Andy, with Danny's voice overlapping his, spoke up. "Let's go!"

"Right behind ya!" Agunimon exclaimed. The two of them ran from the school and through the opened doors.

Of course, the Desiree clones chased after them, at least the clones that remained anyway.

"These clones won't quit!" Agunimon hissed as he glanced back, seeing the group of clones still on their tail.

"Don't stop, keep going!" Andy/Danny shouted back, at this point Agunimon had no idea which brother was talking to him.

The boys managed to get outside. Desiree and her clones were still chasing them.

"What do we do!?" Agunimon shouted.

"Let's get to our house! We can put up a Ghost Shield there!" Andy/Danny replied.

Agunimon didn't protest the plan, since it was the best one they had. The trio raced down the streets towards Fenton Works. The clones continued to give chase.

"We'll never outrun her!" Agunimon shouted as they were starting to get surrounded by the clones.

The clones were firing their magic at other people in the area, likely to erase their memories of Danny and Sam having met, which could have serious implications.

"Forget running then!" Andy/Danny shouted before he started flying, grabbing Agunimon's hands.

Agunimon was shocked at first before he remembered ghosts could make their host use their powers as demonstrated by Walker before.

"What if someone sees you!?" Agunimon shouted.

"With Desiree altering everyone's memories, that's the least of our problems!" Andy/Danny shouted back as they were flying through the sky and avoiding the magic beam Desiree and her clones were firing out.

Agunimon felt his Digi-Core racing as a few beams barely missed them a few times. Normally, he wouldn't be so freaked out, but in this case, it was kinda warranted to be freaking out with a memory-erasing genie ghost after them.

"How much further?!" Agunimon asked frantically.

"I can see the building!" Andy/Danny called out.

Agunimon looked ahead, seeing the big sign of Fenton Works. Maybe they were going to make it after all.

We have to make it. I don't want to lose my memories, my bonds, my friends again… not again… Andy's thoughts chanted.

However, just before they could make it, a giant Desiree appeared right in front of them. Andy/Danny and Agunimon gasped as they didn't have time to stop or turn around. Desiree gave them a maniacal grin before blasting all three of them at once with a powerful purple beam of light.

Danny let out a cry as he was forced out of Andy's body. They fell from the sky, though to Andy it felt like they were falling into a dark void.

Andy couldn't tell what happened after they were hit by the beam of light. Everything was dark and it still felt like he was falling.

I can't see the others… maybe I fell unconscious? … I failed. Despite everything, I failed to keep us safe. What's going to happen to us now?

"What is your ideal world?"

Are we just going to keep falling until we die? Is the world going to end? Did everything we do… end up for nothing?

"What is it that you desire?"

I don't want to lose them again. Please… I've fought so hard, and came so far… Lopmon… I wish you were still here. I'm useless without you… I'm not like Danny, nor am I like Takuya. I have no special powers of my own. No matter what I do, no matter what I was able to accomplish… I will always just be…

"I will grant you what you desire."

… a normal human boy.

… So… warm… Something is… warm. Where am I? How long have we been falling? … Maybe I've died and went to heaven instead of the Ghost Zone… I feel warm and comfortable…

For a moment, Andy thought about just going back to sleep. However, his mind started to wake up when he realized he wasn't falling anymore.

Wait… where am I? Are Danny and Takuya alright?

Andy realized his eyes were closed. He slowly began to open his eyes, he could hear the muffled sound of vehicles outside. He blinked a few times, getting the blurriness out of his eyes. He recognized where he was. He was in his and Danny's room, lying in bed.

Not only was Andy lying in bed, Danny was lying in the same bed as him. Apparently they had been snuggling up together. That would explain the warm feeling…

Andy thought for a moment. That's… not right. Wasn't Danny always cold since the accident?

Danny groaned as he held onto Andy. "Don't go, bro…"

Andy looked down at Danny. "Danny… it's morning, we should get up." What are we doing back home? Is this real or an illusion conjured up by Desiree?

Danny finally sat up, rubbing at his eyes. "Why do we have to get up…? It was so nice being in bed…" He yawned.

What day is it? Andy furrowed his eyebrows. Were we out the whole day yesterday? Or did the day start over?

"It's a school day… right?" Andy asked, wondering if Danny was just as confused as he was.

"Yes, why?" Danny asked. "It's Wednesday, bro."

Andy frowned a little. Danny seems to know what day it was. Maybe his ghost powers protected him more than me?

"Then we should get up. Otherwise Jazz will come in here and drag us out of bed," Andy warned, trying to figure out if Danny knew what was going on or not.

"Or is it that you're more afraid of her bringing in Bearbert?" Danny teased his twin.

"We do not joke about the Bearbert threat," Andy hissed. "Also… are you maybe… running a fever?"

"Huh? Why would you think that?" Danny asked, surprised and confused by the question.

"It's just… you're warmer than usual," Andy replied, looking worried.

"Are you sure? I'm pretty sure I feel normal," Danny said.

Exactly. You haven't felt normal since the accident. Andy frowned. What's weird is that you don't think it's weird. In fact, we haven't been able to sleep together because of how cold your body temperature became. I… I had missed this.

"If… you don't feel sick, then I guess it's nothing," Andy said. "So there's no excuse to stay in bed."

"I wonder if Jazz has woken up Takuya yet." Danny mused. "He is more of the lazy butt in the mornings."

"I guess I can go wake him up like I did with you," Andy offered, though in reality he wanted to see if Takuya knew what was going on.

"At least you waking me, and him, up is much more pleasant than Jazz when she yanks the covers off of us." Danny joked.

"Not the best way to wake up," Andy chuckled as well before both of them got out of bed. "Um… Danny? Do you… remember Patamon?"

Danny frowned before he sighed. "I still can't believe he's gone…" He admitted. "To think… what we had gone through together, and then he and the others made that sacrifice…"

"Y-yeah, I miss Lopmon and the others too," Andy agreed. So he does know about Digimon and the Digital World. I guess that wasn't an issue. What about…

Andy paused as he thought of how to ask the question. "Do you still think we could fight ghosts without our partners?"

"Ghosts?" Danny asked. "What are you talking about, bro? Mom and Dad haven't even gotten the portal activated."

What? Andy blinked, surprised to hear that. "The… Ghost Portal isn't… activated?"

"Yeah, don't you remember?" Danny asked back. "They tried to get it to work, but it wouldn't turn on. They've been trying to figure out what went wrong ever since."

Andy furrowed his eyebrows. If the Ghost Portal was never activated, then… that meant Danny never got his ghost powers.

"So you… don't have ghost powers?" Andy bluntly asked.

Danny blinked before he started laughing. "Oh gosh, bro, did you have some kind of ghost dream or something? Was I a ghost in it?"

"Uh… sort of? You were half ghost, so you didn't die if that's what you were worried about… i-in the dream," Andy quickly said.

"That must've been one heck of a dream then." Danny grinned. "As cool as it would be to have ghost powers, that's not possible."

"Right, well…" Andy began before getting the urge to check on Takuya and the Ghost Portal. "You go ahead and get ready. I'll go see about waking up our cousin."

Danny nodded. "Okay, just don't take too long. Who knows if Jazz will barge in on you two?"

"We're not lovers, Danny, I don't think that will matter." Andy rolled his eyes before he headed for the door, trying to keep his cool.

However, as soon as Andy closed the door, he rushed down the stairs, just about jumping down them. Jazz let out a gasp when she saw one of her brothers rocketing down the stairs, wondering if Andy's room was on fire or something. The boy made a beeline to Takuya's room before Jazz could even ask. She decided to just let Andy be for now.

Andy didn't waste time opening Takuya's door and closed the door behind him. "Takuya! Wake up!"

The boy in the bed groaned as he sat up. "What's wrong, Andy?" Takuya asked around a yawn. "I was just having a nice dream…" Takuya gave another yawn.

Good, at least he didn't get kidnapped again.

"Takuya, please tell me you remember ghosts!" Andy all but shouted.

"Wah-"

Takuya barely had time to respond before Andy was on his bed, grabbed his shoulders, and started shaking him. "Ghosts! Desiree! Magic blasts! Us falling! Any of that ring a bell!?"

"A-Andy! Stop s-shaking me!" Takuya exclaimed. "I c-can't a-answer y-you!"

Andy managed to stop shaking Takuya, though he didn't let go of his shoulders. "I need to know I'm not alone in this. That all of that wasn't just some crazy dream my mind concocted!"

"Why would I forget about ghosts: Or Desiree? She's hard to forget." Takuya replied before he frowned. "Why are you freaking out about that?"

Andy sighed in relief before he let go of Takuya's shoulders. "Okay… I'm sorry. I… I had a chat with Danny earlier. While he remembers the Digital World and the Digimon, he doesn't remember the ghosts. He says the Ghost Portal was never activated, and… he's not… half ghost anymore."

Andy looked away from Takuya as his eyes widened a little when he mentioned Danny not being half ghost. Before, he was just surprised that Danny didn't have his ghost powers. But that felt different from declaring Danny wasn't half ghost anymore. Danny was… human. Something Andy thought wasn't possible anymore.

Takuya was talking, but Andy hadn't been paying attention.

"Huh? What did you say?" Andy asked as he snapped out of his thoughts.

"Andy… what happened?" Takuya repeated. "Last I remember was the clones of Desiree attacking us and now…"

"Right… Desiree hit us with her magic," Andy recalled. "And the next thing I knew, I was waking up in my room with Danny… cuddling me."

Takuya was surprised Andy just admitted Danny cuddling him. As far as he remembered, both of the twins were always embarrassed whenever someone saw them cuddling together.

"And you're just telling me that?" Takuya asked.

Andy looked at Takuya. "Don't you get it, Takuya? Danny and I hadn't been able to cuddle with each other since he became half ghost. He was always… too cold."

Takuya's eyes widened. "Oh… Oh! Crud… This… this is just…" Takuya ran a hand through his hair.

"Let's… focus," Andy spoke up before Takuya could try to finish his awkward sentence. "That magic Desiree hit us with, it was obviously a memory changing spell. It might've also warped reality for all we know since the Ghost Portal is… apparently inactive. Danny doesn't remember being… having ghost powers, nor does he remember fighting ghosts."

Takuya nodded in acknowledgement.

"But… why do we remember the ghosts?" Andy questioned. "The spell hit us too, right?"

"I think it may be because I have my Spirits, at least, that's the only reason I can think of as to why I remember." Takuya admitted. "But as for you… last I knew, Danny was overshadowing you when you were hit by the blast. Maybe that is why you remember?"

Andy frowned. "Maybe. I haven't done a lot of research with overshadowing and possessions, because it was always such a… taboo thing. I know ghosts can use their powers through their hosts, but… I guess in a way, Danny inadvertently protected my memories at the cost of his. Stupid brother… always feeling like he has to protect me…"

"Well, in a way, it's a good thing, I guess…" Takuya said before grimacing. "But damn… this is definitely a difficult situation we've found ourselves in."

Andy sighed. "Let's… go check the Ghost Portal. I want to make sure it's actually inactive and not just something Desiree implanted as a memory."

Takuya nodded.

The two boys left the room, and headed to the kitchen.

"Oh hey, you're actually up early," Jazz noted as she was reading one of her books at the table. "I guess Andy really wanted to get an early start."

"Yeah, an early start," Andy said. "Are Mom and Dad in the lab, Jazz?"

"Are you kidding? They haven't been in the lab since they haven't been able to turn on the portal," Jazz replied. "They've been too busy looking through their blueprints to figure out why it didn't work. Heck, they're falling asleep on the couch these days."

Takuya grimaced. "I feel bad for them. They worked so hard on it, and then it doesn't work? That must've been a real gut punch."

"It's not surprising. Ghosts aren't real, so of course it wouldn't work," Jazz sighed. "I think they're just coming to terms with that since it was their life's work."

"Don't count out ghosts and Mom and Dad's work yet, Jazz," Andy said. "Maybe there might've been something to what they were working on."

"I'm just saying, when it fails again and again, they will have to give it up eventually." Jazz replied.

"C'mon, Andy." Takuya said. "Let's see if we can figure out what is going on. Maybe we can find something Aunt Maddie and Uncle Jack missed."

"You shouldn't try to fix their mess. It might be dangerous," Jazz warned.

"We're just going to look at it," Andy assured. "We won't take long."

Andy and Takuya headed down into the lab. The lab looked… clean. Like it hadn't been touched in months. But their attention was mainly on the big hole in the wall. There were wires connected, and the inside had a lot of glowing lights, it almost looked otherworldly by itself. But the distinct lack of a familiar neon green swirl caused an uneasy feeling in their guts.

"... Did Desiree shut off the portal?" Andy frowned. "I thought the portal couldn't be shut off so easily when it… well… turned on. Since it basically busted through the dimension between here and the Ghost Zone. Turning it off would be dangerous."

"I don't think she shut it off…" Takuya frowned as well. "Something must be missing. I definitely remember you saying Danny had his accident with the portal."

"Yeah… but…" Andy frowned again. "If Desiree made it where the accident never happened, then… maybe the portal just couldn't turn on without Danny?"

"Do you remember how Danny turned it on?" Takuya asked.

Andy shook his head. "I know he went in, then it suddenly turned on. I never asked how he turned it on…"

"Do you remember who was with Danny when he went into the Ghost Portal?" Takuya asked. "Because apparently he had wanted to show it off to your friends."

"Tucker was there that day," Andy said as he remembered that day, it was during Summer vacation, so they were able to invite Tucker over. "But I don't think Tucker wanted Danny to go into the portal. We just showed it off to him. But then Danny decided to put on his suit and go in."

"Are you sure it was just Tucker?" Takuya asked. "Because I remember hearing it told differently."

"Who else would've been there? We only had Tucker as a friend," Andy asked. "You were still in Japan."

Takuya ran a hand through his hair. "I know, but I get the feeling someone else was there… Someone who you were close to besides Tucker. At least, I remember someone else hanging out with the three of you."

"Someone else?" Andy frowned as he tried to remember if there was anyone else who hung out with them.

It wasn't Dash or Valerie since neither were on friendly terms with them at the time. But now that Takuya mentioned it… maybe there was one other person. But strangely, Andy couldn't think of a face or a name.

"Oh… oh shoot!" Andy realized. "Remember when Desiree blasted us with that memory wipe spell? What if it wasn't just erasing memories about ghosts? What if it was erasing someone we knew and that just happened domino-effected to not remembering ghosts?"

"That's highly possible." Takuya admitted with a grimace. "I mean, removing the memory of someone can change things into an alternate reality. At least, I've read about that in the manga back home, so maybe it happened here in real life."

"Damn it! So we weren't completely protected!" Andy snapped as he slammed a fist against the wall. "Desiree technically completed the wish. Neither of us can remember that person, we were just protected from the rest of the domino-effects…"

"Dang it…" Takuya growled out. "But what can we do? We don't know who this person is, and technically, Desiree is supposed to be in the Ghost Zone since the portal never opened. Which means we can't undo this wish!"

"I don't know. Desiree would be screwing herself over if she did that. If she could stop competition from coming out here, that would benefit her. And knowing Desiree, she always twists the wishes to make sure she would gain the most benefit," Andy explained.

"So she may be outside the Ghost Zone then." Takuya realized. "Which means we should try and find her to undo this wish."

"Maybe… she could have this stupid rule that only the person who originally made the wish can undo it," Andy muttered. "Otherwise we would've been able to take away Tucker's ghost powers when he was mutating at the time by just wishing it away. But… we don't even know if this person remembers anything at all, or even us."

"And we don't remember this person either." Takuya growled out. "Which makes this even more difficult for us, but not outright impossible."

"Kids! Where are you!? It's time for breakfast! You don't want to be late for school, do you!?" Maddie's voice called.

Andy and Takuya looked up.

"We'll act like nothing unusual happened, and head to school," Andy said to Takuya. "We'll try to see if we can find this person we can't remember. Even though Desiree erased our memories, maybe our bonds or something would still draw us to each other."

"Yeah, that's true." Takuya chuckled. "Just like in an anime."

"That's the hope anyway, this is real life after all," Andy said before looking at Takuya. "Do you still have access to your Spirits?"

Takuya reached into his pocket and pulled out his D-Tector. "Okay, yep. I still have my D-Tector."

"Okay, so anything Digimon related is safe at least," Andy sighed. "Let's head upstairs."

Takuya shoved his D-Tector back into his pocket and nodded. "Better not make Aunt Maddie suspicious."

The two boys headed up the stairs and left the lab.

Andy sadly had to split up from Takuya when it was time for school to start, due to being in different grades. Things were about the same as usual, until around noon. In-between classes, students were out in the hallway by their lockers.

Dash and Kwan were stuffing nerds into one locker. Andy was looking over, frowning. Without the dragon amulet incident ever happening, Dash never had a reason to want to change. So he was still just a bully here.

"This could be a new record, but there's room for one more." Dash grinned as he looked at Kwan. "Go get Mikey!"

As Kwan stalked past Andy, Danny and Tucker, the two boys were speaking.

"So, what do you want to do tomorrow?" Danny asked.

"Well, we're free every night until college, so we could see if our partners have been reborn into Digi-Eggs." Tucker suggested. "I mean, we still have to deal with those players in the Digital World. So at least we'll have a lot of free time to help the Digital World at least."

"That's good," Danny said. "And with our parents supporting us, that makes things easier for us. Right, bro?"

"Huh? Did you say something?" Andy asked.

"You've been spacing out a lot lately, are you okay?" Tucker asked in concern.

"Sorry, I was just…" Andy frowned for a moment. "Didn't… Dash help us out in the Digital World?"

Danny and Tucker looked at each other for a moment.

"Dash was in the Digital World, but he didn't help us. He was with Calvin and Kwan, remember? He had that wicked Dobermon that nearly took us out," Danny reminded.

So… I guess not everything Digimon related is safe either. If Dash never had a reason to change, why would he help us in the Digital World? Andy frowned. "What about Valerie?"

"She's too busy hanging out with Paulina and Star. I mean, why would she help the losers anyway?" Danny groaned.

"Right, I guess that was a silly question. I guess I just kinda like her… like how you have that crush on Paulina," Andy chuckled, teasing his brother to try to keep from sounding like he was crazy.

Danny went red in the face. "I can't help it! She's so pretty and beautiful!" He squeaked out.

"Too bad she's way out of our league," Tucker sighed, bumming Danny out. "The A-List is off the table for us considering we're at the bottom of the barrel."

"It doesn't have to be that way, you know…" Andy said softly, remembering how he was able to get a date for the school dance early in the year just by talking to the girl. Maybe we can still have Valerie join up with us, and she can meet Salamon again. I don't know about Dash though… it'd be sad if he wasn't a friend anymore. Maybe we can figure something out if we have to.

Andy remembered all the hardships they went through while trying to save Takuya and the other Legendary Warriors from Maxwell's dream world. Dash and Valerie had both played a key role in all of that. They spent months in that dream world together. It was difficult to not see them as friends and comrades after that.

Andy's thoughts were interrupted when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Naturally he thought that was Tucker at first, but when he turned his head, he was surprised to see the hand belonged to his brother. He had gotten so used to Danny's coldness that it was almost foreign for him to have warm hands again. Danny was giving Andy a concerned look. Even though Andy had been trying to hide it, Danny could still tell when something was bothering him.

"Andy, are you okay?" Danny asked. "You looked like you were thinking hard about something."

"I guess I was… lamenting about something," Andy sighed.

"Like that math test you forgot to study for?" Tucker jokingly said, hoping to lighten the mood.

"That's today?" Andy frowned, math was never his best subject.

"Calm down, dude. It's not until Friday." Tucker reassured Andy. "I was just joking with you."

Andy gave a sigh before grumbling. "Don't joke about math tests. Mom and Dad… well… actually, Jazz is already getting on my case for barely passing my math class."

"Then let's talk about something else," Danny offered. "When we get our partners back, we should finally officially form the DigiDestined guild. We already have permission to use Seraphimon's castle as our base too. Just think, we'll be able to fight together again with our partners. We'll be able to show that even regular humans like us can keep up with the Legendary Warriors."

It was so strange to hear Danny say that. Andy looked at Danny. "You aren't… envious of Takuya for being able to turn into a Digimon while we're just… regular human beings?"

"Are you kidding?! How cool would it be to be able to turn into a Digimon or something similar?" Danny said with a grin before sighing. "But none of the other Spirits found us worthy, so of course I'm jealous! But there's nothing we can do except support him and the other Warriors the best way we can."

"It would be cool to have our own powers, but I'm fine with just having Kokuwamon by my side. I don't know why, but I feel nervous about the idea of having my own powers. I think I would just abuse them," Tucker said.

Huh… so he subconsciously remembered the lesson he learned when Desiree granted him ghost powers that time. Andy noted. So maybe my theory of bonds finding us together again may not be so farfetched.

"Still, I can't help but wish I could have powers. At least with Patamon when he digivolves, we could fly. I always loved flying," Danny sighed.

Did he substitute his flight patrols with Patamon as Angemon carrying him around? Andy wondered. "I guess having powers would be cool. But… I…"

Andy stopped himself, he felt… guilty for even thinking it, let alone saying it.

"What?" Danny asked.

"I… well…" I'm happy that you'll be just as human as I am when we get back to the Digital World. "Nevermind, it's not important," Andy said instead.

Footsteps reached the hearing of the three boys as a voice called out to them. "Hey, guys!"

The three boys turned to the void. There was a girl about their age, wearing a black tank that was short enough to show her belly button, and a black mini-skirt with green checkered lines. She wore purple tights, and black boots. She had a scrunchy that tied the top of her hair.

Andy blinked, getting a sense of familiarity with this girl, yet he also didn't know her.

Danny and Tucker looked a little confused.

"Uh… are you talking to us?" Danny asked after a while when the girl didn't move past them to show she was actually greeting a friend who was standing behind them.

"Um… yeah, why?" The girl asked. "Don't you know it's me? We've known each other since the third grade."

"I'm… pretty sure we would remember a girl we've known since the third grade," Danny said.

"But maybe you'd like to get to know us, or rather, me now?" Tucker grinned, putting his flirting face on. "Hi, I'm Tucker, Tucker Foley. That's 'TF' as in 'Too Fine'!"

The girl stared at him for a moment. "... Are… are you hitting on me?"

Andy grabbed Tucker's backpack and pulled him away from the girl before he stood in front of her. "Uh, hi… you know us, don't you? Like… we've been friends for a while?"

"Um… Yeah…? I know I said I'd wished we'd never met before, but I didn't mean it literally." The girl replied. "I mean… there was Desiree, but didn't you guys handle her?"

The conversation was quickly interrupted when there was a sudden roar. Everyone turned to the roar, seeing Mikey had transformed into some kind of monster and leaped out of the locker that he was being stuffed in by Dash and Kwan. Dash and Kwan started running in fear. However, they also saw Desiree, grinning as she got bigger.

"Does that answer your question?" Andy hissed to the girl.

Desiree floated up to Danny. Tucker ran away in fear. Danny stood stiff at the ghost, he couldn't believe his eyes. This wasn't a Digimon, and he didn't have his partner with him to help him fight. He felt helpless and a surge of fear.

"Boo~" Desiree grinned.

Despite that not being a jumpscare, it was enough for Danny's instincts to make him jump and cover his face.

"G-g-ghost!" Danny screamed, cowering against the lockers. "Go away, go away, go away!"

Desiree looked giddy at Danny's scared reaction before she flew away. "No memories, no powers, perfect~"

Sam ran over to Danny. "Desiree is still loose! Danny, you've gotta catch her! Why aren't you going ghost already? And why are you… acting like you're terrified of her?"

"Look, girl, I don't know who you are, or what you are talking about! All I know is that because I don't have my partner Digimon with me, I am out of here." Danny said before he turned and ran down the hall in the opposite direction.

Danny thought Andy was with him. "Andy, we need to find Takuya! Maybe he can use Agunimon to handle…"

Danny noticed a lack of Andy running with him. "A-Andy?"

Andy was still back at the lockers with the girl.

"Andy… what's going on with Danny? Why did he run off like that?" The girl asked.

"He doesn't remember fighting ghosts, and he doesn't have his ghost powers anymore," Andy explained. "And without our Digimon partners, he doesn't know how to fight back. He… probably isn't used to facing ghosts as a human either, so he's likely not used to handling those instincts to run away from a ghost."

The girl looked at Andy for a few moments before speaking again. "And yet… you remember?" She asked, as if daring to hold onto hope.

"I remember the ghosts, yes," Andy confirmed. "So does Takuya. But we don't remember everything."

Andy gave another sigh. "I'm sorry to say this… but we don't remember you. You know us, but we don't know you. So… could you tell me your name, please?"

The girl paled at hearing this, realizing the severity of the situation.

"Um… I'm Sam… Sam Manson." The girl introduced herself. "I didn't think this would happen…"

The girl, Sam, reached into her backpack and took out a scrapbook. She opened it up to show Andy a picture of herself with Danny, Tucker, and himself, in the picture.

Andy remembered taking the picture, but not with Sam. He frowned as he realized how messed up this whole thing was. He opened his locker door to see the same picture Sam showed him, but it didn't have Sam in it. Not only did Desiree erase memories of Sam, but any memento, objects, or events that had happened because of Sam in their lives seemed to have been altered or erased in some way.

How powerful is Desiree's magic? Andy paled.

That was when Andy realized something before he looked at Sam. "Wait a minute, that wish should've affected you too. Why do you remember everything?"

Sam paused, thinking. "Before Desiree used her magic, I do know Danny put the Specter Deflector on me, as a precaution because some movie monsters brought to life with her magic were causing trouble and apparently said my name."

Her eyes then widened. "That must be why I remember everything! It's the only thing that makes sense! I guess it was a good thing I wore that after all… Wait… why do you remember the ghosts? I know you don't remember me, but still… you remembered more than Danny and Tucker did. With Takuya, I can easily guess it was due to the Spirits he held."

"Takuya and I guessed that it was due to Danny overshadowing me when Desiree hit us with her spell. Danny likely took the worst of it, but shielded me from most of the effects in return," Andy answered. "So… I got lucky because of Danny."

"That's just like Danny." Sam chuckled before she became somber. "But it didn't work completely if you had your memories of me erased."

"Like I said, Danny shielded me from the worst of it, not all of it," Andy sighed. "Desiree's getting stronger. She was able to shut off the Ghost Portal in the lab, but allowed herself to still be in our world. I'm guessing she can't grant wishes of other ghosts, or she only gets stronger by granting wishes of living humans. Why else would she keep trying to grant wishes in our world?"

Sam frowned as she considered Andy's words. "That… makes sense, now that I think about it. The best guess I have is that she is bound to only grant wishes of humans because of her past and how she died."

"We'll have to try to catch her before she becomes too powerful," Andy grumbled. "Without our Digimon partners, we'd have to rely on Takuya and- … well… I guess just Takuya now. Unless my parents still made the Fenton Thermos."

"I should still have one. The Fenton equipment that I had remained unaffected by… whatever reality changing magic Desiree used," Sam explained. "But even so, we can't really face a powerful ghost on our own. Takuya's BurningGreymon could keep up with her, but he'd cause a lot of collateral damage, not to mention the town would rather focus on a giant dragon they can catch instead of a ghost they're not familiar with and could get away easily."

"And Agunimon wouldn't be able to keep up with Desiree," Andy added. "Without Valerie's hoverboard, none of us can really fly after her."

"We've got to talk to Danny," Sam said.

"What good would that do? He doesn't have his powers anymore," Andy pointed out. "He's as human as you and I are."

Sam grimaced. "Yeah, but… we need a ghost to handle another ghost…" She admitted. "And while BurningGreymon may be strong and able to keep up with Desiree… the fact he can get caught would be a big advantage for her… I can't believe I am saying this… but we need to recreate Danny's accident…"

Andy froze at hearing that. Sam didn't seem to notice.

"Where did he run off to?" Sam ran down the hallway to look for Danny.

Andy looked down after Sam left. Recreate… Danny's accident? Recreate… the accident… that turned him half ghost… recreate Danny's… death…

Andy snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Dash yelling. "Get us out of here!"

Andy remembered that Mikey had transformed into a big, green beast, and had slammed Dash and Kwan into the locker. After he did that, the wish ended and Mikey was turned to normal. Though nobody opened the door for Dash and Kwan after the incident.

Andy walked over to the locker before opening it. He quickly backed away as the two jocks fell to the floor.

"Are you okay?" Andy asked with genuine concern.

"Oh, hey, thanks for getting us out, I was getting a cramp," Kwan said gratefully before Dash glared at him. "I-I mean… we totally didn't need your help, nerd!"

"Why did you even bother helping us?" Dash asked Andy as he stood up. "Were you hoping to get less of a wailing later, Fenturd number 2?"

Dash grabbed Andy's shirt and pulled him up for a moment. The two looked at each other in the eyes. A moment of silence passed by them. Dash frowned as he lost any motivation he had to beat up the boy in front of him just because he was angry and scared of what happened earlier. He put Andy down.

"Get out of here before I wail on you, Fenturd," Dash grumbled.

Andy looked at Dash before he turned and walked away. Maybe our bond isn't completely gone.

Andy didn't meet up with Takuya until school was out for the day. Danny was looking for Andy while Sam was trying to talk to him.

"Will you go away, please? I'm trying to find my brother," Danny grumbled at the crazy girl.

"You need to listen to what I'm trying to say!" Sam spoke back as she continued to follow the boy.

Andy and Takuya were walking out of school.

"So that's the situation," Andy said, having explained the girl named Sam being the person who made the wish.

"Well, that certainly explains why we don't have any memory of her." Takuya grumbled. "But now we have to take on Desiree without Danny's help, and you guys don't have your Digimon partners right now. So that means the whole thing depends on me."

"Maybe…" Andy said softly. "Sam seems to believe we really need a ghost to fight a ghost. She is right in some points. Agunimon can only do so much to keep up with a ghost. You can't fly, nor can you go through solid walls. And BurningGreymon could cause a lot of collateral damage, putting people in danger, and you'd be targeted by people thinking you're a ghost or some other kind of beast. And without the rest of us being able to back you up with ghost weapons, equipment, or Digimon partners… it doesn't paint a pretty picture."

Takuya grimaced. "Yikes…" He then realized Andy sounded a bit… bothered by something. "Hey, is everything okay?"

"Sam is thinking about recreating Danny's accident so we could have Danny Phantom back," Andy explained. "The accident that made him half ghost…"

Takuya looked worriedly at Andy. "Andy… I… That must be so hard to even consider…" He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "I… We need to stop Desiree, but if it puts me at risk… And Danny being made half-ghost again… Geez… We're caught between a rock and a hard place…"

I never thought about it before, but… that accident… it sort of killed Danny, didn't it? People don't just… become ghosts via superpowers. It's something a person becomes when they die. Takuya thought to himself in grimace. It was a miracle that Danny didn't fully die… but…

"You're starting to see the problem, don't you?" Andy asked. "That accident… was a once in a billion chance of not fully killing someone. Danny being half ghost meant he was standing on the fine line between life and death. He wasn't dead, but he wasn't all alive either. I can only assume it was a combination of the ghost technology, the electricity, the ectoplasm, and Danny's own complex DNA system that caused that miraculous combination. It shouldn't have worked, the living and the dead can't truly be mixed. Undead are not living beings. Ghosts are purely dead beings. And yet… somehow Danny was both living and dead. The thing with Vlad is just as complex. He seemed to have gained ghost powers through a ghostly disease that should've killed him, but it didn't. There's a reason why there's only been two known human and ghost hybrids in the world."

Andy rubbed his head for a moment, then covered his right eye with his hand. "But… who's to say it'll happen again? Who's to say the portal is on all the right settings that'll create the same outcome? Who's to say that Danny's body will be able to take the shock to his system again? Who's to say his DNA will be able to adapt to the ectoplasm this time? There are too many variables and uncertainties. For all we know, going through the accident again will just kill him straight up, or cause him to be critically injured but still alive."

"I can see the difficulties, yes…" Takuya admitted before he groaned. "But what else can we do? There's a wishing ghost on the loose, we only have ourselves and Sam to rely on, and using my Spirits will put me at risk. But trying to recreate Danny's accident has too many unknowns and could backfire on us in a spectacular fashion!"

Andy looked at his cousin before giving a sigh. "I suppose there will always be a risk no matter what we do. Desiree's put our backs against the wall. But… she's only one ghost. Perhaps we can figure something out."

Takuya looked at Andy. Despite what Andy said, he couldn't help but wonder about something. This was the same boy who fought tooth and nail against Takuya and the rest of the Legendary Warriors when they were causing havoc in the city. The same boy who challenged Maxwell at his own game to save the Legendary Warriors. Who went into the dream world trusting his Digimon partner to protect him. The same boy who would risk his own life to save his brother, his cousin, and his friends.

Why is Andy trying to take the easy way out? Takuya wondered.

Before Takuya could ask, Danny's voice called out.
"Andy! Takuya! There you two here!"

Danny came running over with Sam behind him.

"Were you guys going to leave without me!?" Danny shouted. "This crazy girl won't stop following me!"

"No, we weren't gonna leave without you." Takuya groaned. "Just calm down."

"Danny, wait!" Sam cried as she chased after him. "Please, you have to just listen to me!"

"No! You're just crazy! Stay away from me!" Danny exclaimed as he tried to get away from Sam.

"Why won't you listen to me?" Sam frowned.

"Listen to what? That I had superpowers? You were friends with us even though we never met you? And you're the only one who knows it?" Danny grumbled.

"Yes! Isn't that easy to understand?" Sam asked, clearly showing how desperate she was.

"Um…" Andy spoke up. "How about we talk tomorrow? I'm sure the… ghost attack at school has caused us all to be a little high strung."

"Andy! Don't encourage her!" Danny hissed.

"I think we need to just calm down and see how things are tomorrow." Takuya said, sweatdropping. "I mean… I can understand how you feel, Danny, but can't you at least give her a chance?"

Danny grumbled. "Have you been hearing her? She's been saying all sorts of crazy stuff."

"I'm not saying anything crazy, I'm saying the truth!" Sam argued.

"Danny, let's head home. Takuya can talk to the girl and help her calm down," Andy said.

"What?" Takuya frowned.

"Good luck, Takuya." Andy grinned as he waved, taking Danny's… warm hand, a sensation that Andy was still not used to, but enjoyed very much.

"Wait… Andy! Don't leave me like this!" Takuya cried out as the twins left the school.

"Takuya, surely you believe me. Andy said you still remembered," Sam said as she looked at the older boy.

"I do remember the ghosts, but not you, sadly." Takuya groaned. "I just knew there had to be someone else that was with Danny on the day of his accident, but other than that, I have no memory of who you are… err… were…" He put his head in his hands. "My head hurts…"

Sam lightly punched Takuya's shoulder. "I know that already, you idiot. I just meant that you and Andy should remember enough to know I'm telling the truth, at least about Danny's ghost powers!"

"Yeah, I get it." Takuya grumbled as he rubbed his shoulder. "I definitely remember Danny having ghost powers. That's not something one can make up if they witnessed it themselves." Takuya went red in the face. "And I definitely remember when the three of us tried to find out what I could turn into; Andy and Danny thought I was a new kind of ghost at first…"

"Then maybe you can talk to him? Or have Andy talk to him. If Danny would listen to anyone, it would be either you or Andy," Sam requested.

Takuya thought for a moment. Something was going on with Andy, so he wasn't sure if Andy would really be that willing to have Danny go through the portal accident again.

"I can try… but I don't have a lot of proof that what you say is true to Danny. He might just think I'm pranking him at best, or that there's something wrong with me at worst," Takuya pointed out. "As for Andy… I don't… think he… wants to talk Danny into getting his ghost powers back."

"Why not? Andy should know that we need Danny Phantom back." Sam frowned.

"This isn't easy for him," Takuya sighed. "Look… if you want to convince Danny, you might need to show him some proof."

"I might have something that can help, but how do I get him to listen?" Sam frowned.

"I don't know…" Takuya frowned.

Sam grumbled. "Forget it. I'm going to talk to Andy."

Before Takuya could stop her, Sam ran ahead. Takuya realized he was never good with dealing with angry girls when they have their mind set on something.

"Wait!" Takuya cried as he chased after Sam. "Sam! Don't just leave me here like that!"

When Sam reached Fenton Works, she knocked on the door. Danny answered the door, and almost immediately closed it when he saw Sam.

"Wait! Please, just hear me out!" Sam begged.

"Why should I?" Danny frowned.

"... Can I talk to your brother? I think he at least knows me," Sam requested.

Danny scowled. He wasn't so sure letting this girl talk to Andy was a good idea. "I don't know…"

Takuya finally caught up to Sam. Takuya was athletic, or at least he liked to believe he was, but Sam just reminded him why she was one of Casper High's best athletes.

"Finally… caught up to you…" Takuya huffed.

"Takuya!" Sam smiled, seeing the older boy. "Takuya will vouch for me!"

Takuya gaped. "W-Wait, what?! I just got here!"

"She wants to talk to Andy," Danny explained. "She says Andy knows her. Is that true?"

Takuya stared before he shook his head to snap out of his staring. "Y-Yeah, Andy does know her, as do I." He replied. Aw man… I hate being thrust into situations like this!

Danny raised an eyebrow. Andy never mentioned this girl before, so he found that hard to believe. Still, he shouldn't get between Andy and… his… friend…?

"Hey, Andy!" Danny called out.

Andy came over, and saw Sam and Takuya. "Oh, hey."

"Do you know this girl?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, that's Sam," Andy confirmed.

"See? Andy does know me!" Sam exclaimed. "Now can I please come in to talk with him?"

"... Why didn't you mention her before, bro?" Danny questioned.

"I just met her earlier today. Unlike you, I spoke to her instead of running away," Andy answered honestly.

Danny groaned. "Andy, are you crazy? This girl is crazy! I don't want you to be affected by her craziness!"

"Hey, I'm not crazy!" Sam exclaimed with a pout.

"Danny, just let Andy speak to her." Takuya groaned. "Once she gets her mind set on something, she will just go for it."

"It's okay, I can talk to her," Andy said to Danny as he walked outside.

Andy looked at Takuya, then at Danny. "Alone."

Takuya groaned, but was glad for Andy's decision. "Good… I'm gonna need to rest. Chasing her back here was tiring…"

As Takuya walked inside, Danny scowled at Sam before he turned and walked inside as well, showing he didn't trust Sam.

Andy looked at Sam after he closed the door. "So… what do you want to talk about?"

"You know what I want to talk about, Andy," Sam said. "We have to get Danny to understand the situation. Once he does, I'm sure he'll want to do the right thing and become Danny Phantom again."

"We can't guarantee that he'll listen or want to go through that kind of accident again," Andy pointed out. "After all, to him, he's never had ghost powers before."

"Even so, we need Danny Phantom to face down Desiree." Sam replied before she hesitated. "But… even if he got his ghost powers again… would he even stand a chance if he's never had ghost powers before?"

"That's a good question, isn't it?" Andy sighed. "He'd be like a total beginner. Besides, we don't even know if the portal accident would even give him ghost powers again. He could've gotten astronomically lucky the last time."

"We'll make sure everything is set like the way they were last time," Sam stated, determined to make this work. "We both know Danny is capable of this. He's done it before and he can do it again."

"Is that for certain?" Andy asked. "Is Danny becoming half ghost the only way to handle Desiree?"

Sam hesitated. "Andy, you remember how ghosts are… And… Takuya's Spirits can only allow him to do so much… Another ghost is the best way to handle a ghost."

"We haven't tried anything else yet, how do we know for sure this is the right way to go?" Andy asked.

The winds began to pick up, blowing Andy and Sam's hair.

"Andy… it… it is the right way to go." Sam sighed. "But… if you want to try something else first, I wouldn't blame you. I mean… I feel bad thinking about putting Danny through that accident again, but I also know what we need to do to stop Desiree. We weren't able to handle ghosts on our own… we needed Danny Phantom's help. You know that."

"I know things are looking bad right now. Desiree's reality spell caused a lot of things to not to be like they should. But I believe with some time, we can set things right. Mom and Dad will start making the Fenton Thermos and other weapons to fight against ghosts with Desiree on the loose. We can talk to Dash and Valerie, have them come around again. When our partners are reborn, they can help us," Andy said. "We have options. We don't need to take the nuclear option of having Danny become half ghost again."

"We have options… in time," Sam pointed out. "But time isn't what we have right now, Andy. As we speak, Desiree is out there, granting twisted wishes and getting stronger. If we wait too long, that could be the end of Amity Park or the world as we know it. We need to act now. We need Danny Phantom. Besides… would the memories that Desiree erased ever come back if we do nothing but wait?"

'What is your ideal world?'

"Things aren't perfect, but they're not as grim as you say they are," Andy argued.

"Andy, you know we need-"

"Do we!? Do we really need Phantom again!?" Andy snapped, catching Sam off guard. "Do we always need to put my brother on the frontlines? Does he have to keep doing most of the heavy lifting while the rest of us struggle to keep up? Sam, that accident wasn't just some heroic comic book origin story. That accident was Danny's death. It turned him half ghost. Do you remember what ghosts are? Where ghosts come from?"

Sam was silent.

"Do you, Sam!?" Andy said louder.

"I do!" Sam shot back. "I remember where ghosts come from and what they are very well! But should we really rely on Takuya all the time?! We don't have our Digimon partners! And Takuya is only one Legendary Warrior! I don't like the idea of making Danny suffer a second death anymore than you do, especially since I was the one who pressured him to go inside! I don't want to do it, but at least I know what needs to be done!"

The two teens looked at each other for a long while as the winds blew harder.

"It's the right thing to do, Andy," Sam finally said after the long silence.

"How is killing someone the right thing to do?" Andy hissed. "You just want Danny to be 'special' again. You don't want him to just be human, like everyone else."

Sam glared back. "You want Danny to stay human, like you. It's not that you don't know what the right thing is, you just selfishly want Danny to stay like you."

'What is it that you desire?'

"Why is that the wrong thing then!?" Andy snapped. "How many times did Danny put himself in danger to save one of us? How many times did Danny freak out or worry when his powers started to act up and none of us can tell him 'it's okay, it's normal'? Danny isn't some protagonist superhero in a show or comic book, Sam, he's a real person. Someone who has the right to make his own choices, to choose if he wants to live as he is now."

Sam paused for a moment before looking at Andy in the eyes. "That may be so, Andy… but are you letting him choose or are you choosing for him? In order for him to even make a choice, he has to know his options in the first place."

Andy looked away. "Would he really want it though? Or would he only choose to half die again because he believes it's the right thing to do? What is the right thing to do?"

"Andy-"

Andy held up his hand, stopping Sam from continuing. "Our Digimon partners chose to sacrifice themselves to save us. Was it the right thing to do though? They left us completely helpless against ghosts like Desiree. If our partners were still with us, would they have kept us safe from Desiree's magic? Or at least stopped her from using her magic? Perhaps they would've sensed her sooner and we could've prevented this whole thing to begin with."

Sam sighed. "Maybe… but… if they hadn't saved us, would we even be here right now?"

Sam walked over to Andy and took his hand. "I know this is difficult for you, Andy, and I'm sorry for trying to push for this. But… if you believe that Danny should have a choice… then the least we could do is at least tell him."

Andy noted that Sam's hands were a little cold, likely due to being out in the cool night. His own hands must've felt warm to her's.

Andy closed his eyes for a moment before letting out a sigh. "Tomorrow then, after school. We'll talk to him about it then. Just give him tonight to be a regular boy."

Sam sighed as well, figuring that was the best response she was going to get from Andy. "Okay. Sounds good."

"We'll meet at Elmer's Pharmacy after school," Andy stated as he and Sam let their hands down. "I'd like to treat my brother to ice cream before we spring this on him. He always did love his ice cream."

Sam smiled. "Of course. Knowing Danny, he'll probably go for the simplest flavor possible. But… thanks for doing this, Andy."

Andy sighed. "I just hope… for all of our sakes… we don't end up regretting this."

After Sam left to go home for the night, Andy closed the door behind him. Danny and Takuya quickly went over to him, curious to know how'd Andy's talk with the 'crazy' girl went.

"So, how did it go?" Takuya asked.

"I wouldn't just trust her, bro." Danny warned. "She seems a bit too crazy, if you ask me."

"Don't worry about it right now," Andy said before he looked at Danny. "Hey, bro, want to get some ice cream tomorrow at Elmer's Pharmacy?"

"Hmm? What brought this on?" Danny questioned.

"I just thought it'd be nice to get some ice cream before the temperature starts to drop," Andy said. "And we've not had ice cream in a while."

Danny looked a bit skeptical, but the thought of getting some ice cream with his brother sounded too good to pass up. "While this does seem a bit sudden, I can't exactly say no to ice cream." He chuckled.

Andy smiled as well.

Although things were quiet in the Fenton house, mostly due to Maddie and Jack having given up on trying to activate the portal, Andy decided to talk to Takuya in his room, telling him what he and Sam had decided on doing.

"So you're going to tell him all about his ghost half and ghosts in general tomorrow," Takuya noted.

"Yes," Andy confirmed. "Sam and I argued about what was best for Danny, but… in the end, it should be Danny's choice, not our's. He has to know about it before he can make that choice."

Takuya sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "That's true. I just don't know about it. I mean, you said it yourself; Danny surviving the accident could've been a one-time thing, he may not be so lucky a second time."

"I know," Andy said. "But if we keep dragging our feet and not make a choice because it's risky, then that gives Desiree more time to become powerful and potentially change and destroy our current world. If Danny decides he doesn't want to become a ghost, we'll have to try our best to fight Desiree without Phantom. Sam still has the Fenton Thermos, the Specter Deflector, and whatever else she was able to keep before Desiree changed our reality. So while it may be difficult, I don't believe it's impossible."

"If that's so, why tell Danny at all?" Takuya asked.

"Because… like I said, it's his choice," Andy sighed. "I shouldn't take that away from him. Being half ghost was… something he had to deal with for the past several months, something he used to fight ghosts and keep the town safe, even if people hated him for it. If he wants to give up his ghost powers, that should be up to him, not because of some magical genie, or because of a wish that was made by accident."

Andy then looked at Takuya. "Let me put it this way, if your Spirits were taken away from you, would you be happy if someone else decided you didn't need them anymore and kept them away from you without you even getting a say in the matter?"

Takuya scowled and shook his head. "No, I wouldn't. I definitely would be upset if someone took something away from me and didn't give me a chance to say what I wanted to do."

"Exactly. The only reason I understand this feeling as well as I do is because we lost our Digimon partners. While I'm… scared for Danny if he goes through with the recreation of the portal accident… it wouldn't be right for Phantom to disappear for good just because we're worried of the 'what ifs'," Andy said. Or being selfish of wanting to keep him human, because of… my own helplessness.

Takuya sighed. "I guess… the only thing we can do is go through with it and hope for the best." He admitted. "I just… I guess I'm scared too… I've only heard about the accident… This time, I may be witnessing it for myself and that scares me…"

"Trust me… I don't want to do this either…" Andy sighed as well. "Maybe if we hadn't lost our partners, we could've…"

Andy shook his head. "Well, it's pointless to think about what could've been. This is our reality, so we have to deal with it. But at least… you're still here."

Takuya gave a sheepish chuckle. "And I don't know if that's bad or good in this case…" He admitted.

Andy slapped Takuya upside the head. "Knucklehead. Don't even joke about that, we didn't spend months in the dream Digital World and lose our partners just for you to say something like that."

"Right, right… Sorry…" Takuya apologized. "Keep the bad jokes to myself for now."

Andy chuckled though, he really was glad that he and the others were able to save Takuya and the other Legendary Warriors. He hoped the rest of the Legendary Warriors were doing alright after the ordeal. Takuya looked like he was fine, and didn't seem to have any ill side effects from the dream machine. Still, Andy couldn't help but worry sometimes. It seemed people were going to target them whether for good or bad intentions, like Freakshow and Vlad. Maybe it was because they weren't all human… and they had power.

Andy walked toward his room.

'What is your ideal world? What is it you desire? I will grant you what you desire.'

Andy stopped. He heard that thought run through his head a few times now, and it seemed to have started when Desiree hit him with her magic. He wasn't sure why he was thinking this, or… if he was somehow hearing someone else's thoughts.

Andy looked around for a moment, wondering if there was a ghost or a Digimon nearby. Though if it was an invisible ghost, Andy didn't have any way to know. He decided not to worry about it for now, because he wanted to spend the rest of the night with Danny.