AN: I'm so sorry for the long wait, my health issues returned with a vengeance, or rather decided to just get worse for no explicable reason. On top of the fact my writers block has been awful. This will be the final chapter I wish I could have made it longer but i only had and hour to work on it. I hope you like the ending I wrote part of it sometime ago and was proud of how it turned out. Thank you to everyone who stuck with me through this story and for all of the kind reviews, favorites, and followers, this is the first story I've written that has every been so successful so thank you.

You're Not Alone Anymore

Warmth.

Yes there was warmth, but something wasn't right, something was far from right.

In fact it was very, very wrong.

Warmth became burning, and suddenly Danny's head felt as if it were on fire. His brain was screaming, his conscious was crying out.

Except that it wasn't his.

HAHAHAHAHA! Go on boy, it's all right there on a silver platter, literally. All that power and all you have to do is reach into his chest and rip it out.

Danny's eyes grew wide with horror; an instant latter Vlad found himself rocketing backwards with the blunt force of an ectoplasmic shockwave, his back hit the icy street and he slid until his head and body crashed painfully into the already collapsed helicopter. He made to stand "Daniel please I…"

"NO! Just Stay AWAY!"

The horrendous wail that erupted from the ghost boy shattered the windows of the buildings for two blocks in either direction. The Titans could nothing to shield the crowd from the massive sound wave, but the bystanders seemed smart enough on their own to know when it time to go. The blast ripped through the crowd and the entire street emptied as the people fled from Danny in a mass exodus of fear.

The Teen Titans, mean while, hit the deck all with the exception of Starfire, who was in flight, was pinned to a building ten feet off the ground.

Robin, flat on his stomach on the asphalt clinging to the street with a birdarang stabbed into the concrete, was thinking hard and fast, Fenton was losing control again, but this was completely different ability, the only real defense they had against sonic attacks was Cyborg's sonic cannon. He looked to his left, Raven had Beast Boy strapped down with her magic and beyond them Cybord was literally anchored to the ground by nothing more than his metal fingers.

In front of him the helicopter began to shift and metal shrieked against the blacktop, barely audible over the deafening wail, as the entire structure was starting to give way with Masters flattened to the flight carriage. Robin pulled another birdarang from his utility belt and just as he was going to shout to Cyborg, the assault on his body and ears died out with a strangled whimper.

Robin stumbled to his feet, his ears ringing and the world muffled, he spotted Danny on his knees clutching his throat, and instant later an orange and purple blur with streaks of green plowed into the white haired boy, and Starfire had him pinned on his back.

"You will be calm now please." She demanded, breathless from the ordeal, she looked at Robin and her eyes were desperate for a resolution, Masters had failed, maybe it was their turn?

He glanced at the millionaire who was slumped against the wrecked copter, his suit torn and hair disarrayed. The look of defeated resignation in the eyes of old man was enough, before Vlad Masters passed out there in the street.

The rest of the Titans approached Danny as Starfire helped him to his feet, satisfied that he was lucid enough for her to do so. The wail of ambulance and police sirens was finally rising in the distance.

Robin planted himself in front of Fenton and despite the Minnesota boy being several inches taller than he, managed to loom over him with a strong of a sense of authority as the masked boy could give.

"Looked Danny we're here to help you, but you have to tell us what you need, otherwise the only thing we can offer you is that." Robin gestured in the direction of the sirens, flashing blue and red lights were visible just down the street.

Danny was shaking, in a flash of light he was the quiet, black-haired boy again and he seemed smaller and younger than ever and his voice waivered as he spoke.

"Just keep me away from him." He glanced fearfully a Masters "for everyone's sake keep my away from him."

Robin nodded "Alright, we'll take you back to Titans Tower where we can help you, you can fill us in on your story, or as much of it as you want to on the way."

"Damn it!" Danny screamed as he pounded the counter with his fist. The tears of frustration, and fear, and loss were burning down his cheeks he ran his hands through his messy black hair.

"I ca… I can't do it…" He choked "I can't stop myself, I'm going to become him." He chest felt icy and hallow, his heart was ripping itself apart.

"I can't change my future, not without them, not with them gone."

He was breaking.

Finally, he was breaking apart. Vlad Masters was closing in on him. One day Plasmius would finally catch up, and…

What would he do then?

He wouldn't be able to stop himself, he would do it, he'd try to fight the darkness and…

Like every time before…

He would fail.

Fail, and then the whole world would burn…

Robin, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy.

The Teen Titians gazed at the young man, barely older than most of them, and yet so much older then he should ever be. His back was to them, leaning heavily on their kitchen counter. His entire body shook, racked with hopelessness. The weight of the future weighing on his shoulders, heavier than any object a child could hold, heavier than any responsibility a man could bear.

Heavier…

Heavier than any globe the gods held aloft.

Heavier than the weight of the world was the weight of its future.

That's what Danny held, and it had brought him to his knees, and shredded his flesh with the shattered glass of his soul.

"He was right; it's just a matter of time…"

"No."

Danny turned. Raven lowered her hood and locked eyes with the half-ghost boy.

"There's still hope." She said softly but when the darkness wouldn't leave his eyes, she took a deep breath and spoke again.

"It was foretold that I would become a portal, a portal that would allow the greatest evil in the universe, my father, to destroy the entire world." Her gazed shifted to her upturned palms, remembering the fiery red seals that had burned themselves into her skin on that horrid day.

She went on.

"I was told my entire life that I was destined to destroy the world, but when that day came, and I became the portal, my friends didn't give up on me, my friends helped me save the world." Her gaze returned to Danny, and her eyes conveyed a passion seldom seen in her dark features.

"The future isn't set in stone."

His fists clenched, the pain and the frustration were welling up again.

"Well what am I supposed to do?!" he demanded.

"My friends are dead, my family, even my teacher, are dead! Because of me!" He was shouting now.

"Saving them would have prevented ALL of this from happening, saving them would have saved me from… from him, but I couldn't…" he choked on his words.

He took a deep breath, calming himself. There was a soft flash of light; Danny raised his hand, gloved in white.

"I failed… all of my friends are dead. They can't change my fate anymore…"

Starfire's bottom lip trembled and there were tears in her eyes

"Oh no that is not true!" she burst out and bolted forward, sweeping the ruined boy into a crushing embrace.

Danny wheezed as all of wind was squeezed from his lungs. She didn't let go of him again until black spots began to spark across his vision. As the vice came undone he coughed.

"What do you mean?"

Then a hand appeared on his shoulder, he looked to the owner.

It was Robin, the masked boy smiled.

"What she means…" he began, and a steel gauntlet appeared on Danny's opposite shoulder, he looked up to Cyborg.

"Is we're your friends now."

All small green dog yipped at his feet then morphed into Beast Boy who held out his hand with a toothy smile.

"Yeah, you don't have to fight alone."

Danny stared at the smiling faces, the hopeful eyes, the offered hand.

It took three years.

Three years for him to finally fall apart.

It took them three minutes to put him back together.

Together…

The tears came again, but this time…

This time it wasn't the pain or the loss that made them fall. This time, it was sheer joy.

He took Beast Boy's hand.

"I'm not alone anymore."

The Ghost Zone.

The alternate dimension of the human realm in which all who die dwell. It green mists, floating continents, and eerie depths swirled, and had been dark of late.

No longer did the icy wind that herald safety, blow across the endless emerald space. A guardian was missing, a protector.

The ghosts, the poltergeists, the phantoms, the lonesome souls had wandered in search of him.

But the door was locked.

Eventually the years passed and the Ghost Zone grew accustom to its dead air.

Then the wind blew, and the heads came up.

Hope and joy came billowing through the solid steel doors, and they swept gently across the departed plains. A chilling breeze, like the breath of winter morn.

The ghosts felt the cold returning to their ectoplasmic bones and shivered in content.

But at the entrance, at the portal, six phantoms gathered.

She placed her hand on the door; it was solid to her touch.

She was a part of this world just as much as the door that sealed her here. Five more hands joined her own, pressing their palms against the heavy door.

The steel pulsed as if alive. The joy that flowed with each pulse seemed to wash over them, making them feel, for just a moment, making them feel human.

She smiled.

"You know, when we first had to go away. I was worried…"

She took her hand away.

"But now I know… he's ok."

And one by one they'd drifted away. Fading gently into wisps of mist, a soft icy blue…

~The End~