Me with an angsty one-shot? What's the world coming to? XD OK, I honestly have no idea where this came from. I was just randomly wondering about good and evil in story format and the next thing I know, this comes out of my head. Oh well.

I'm warning you guys now that this is rated "T" for a reason. As for whose POV it is, I think you can guess well enough.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Danny Phantom.

Good and Evil

(The line between the two is more blurred than people realize.)

The line between good and evil is always clear, right? One side's good and the other evil. Someone who steals is technically "evil" and someone who gives to the poor is "good". And if one steps over the line, they're doing so knowingly, right? At least, that's what I thought.

Who decides who's good and who's evil? How does one know if one's good or evil? Who decides? Is it me? You? Some higher being? I wish I knew. It'd make things so much easier.

How does one decide if you're good? Evil? Saving people from evil ghosts is "good", right? That's why I classified myself as a good guy. But is sacrificing innocent people to save your own friends when they're in mortal danger "good"? Or would it be considered "evil"? Is stealing for your children "evil"?

Sometimes I think the line is more blurred than people let on. What used to be so clear to me before is now merely a blurred image. Am I "evil"? Am I "good"? The truth is, I don't know. Not anymore.

But maybe I should start explaining why I'm asking myself these complicated questions. Let me start from the beginning…

It was a normal day. Normal for me, that is.

I started with chasing the Box Ghost before school. I was delayed by five minutes, leaving me with a detention and no homework since Cujo had eaten it after I caught the Box Ghost.

I got another detention because Skulker messed up the cafeteria trying to get my pelt. Once Phantom had caught him, Fenton somehow ended up with the blame. Lucky, right? Not by far.

I missed my second detention because Technus had decided to take over the water pipes of the school in an attempt to claim world domination. (Don't ask why.) The good news was that I was excused since everything was sopping wet and the toilets had overflowed. The bad news was that I had to redo that detention the next day plus another one since I had run out in the middle of it trying to capture Technus.

And I thought it couldn't get any worse…

"It's not your fault that you get blamed for something Skulker did, Danny," Sam said, trying to comfort me.

"But he was aiming at me so of course it's my fault!" I replied scathingly. "And since Fenton disappeared, it was oh-so-convenient to pin the blame on me."

"Duplication would solve the trick," Tucker suggested.

"Yes. Because a two-headed Fenton or Phantom would go over well with the school."

"You can eat and drink at the same time," Tucker persisted. "That's kinda cool."

I shot him a withering look and was about to reply heatedly when Sam cut me off. "We're trying to help, Danny. We'd appreciate it if you stop trying to bite our heads off."

I sighed, knowing she was right. I felt ashamed at my behavior. "I'm sorry, guys. It's just been a rough few days. The Box Ghost isn't enough of a punching post."

Sam was sympathetic. "We understand, Danny. Do you want to go to the gym? There's a free punching bag there."

I laughed hollowly. "That won't solve my problems, will it?"

I then felt something cold creep up from my chest and through my throat. My mouth opened automatically, letting out a faint blue mist that disappeared as quickly as it had come. I snapped my mouth shut and scowled.

"Great," I groaned. "Just what I need. A pick-me-up." I dove under a car and triggered the familiar transformation from Fenton to Phantom, whispering "Going ghost" as I did so.

My black hair became white, my clothes changed into a black and white jumpsuit with "DP" on the chest, and my blue eyes switched to an electric green. I was Danny Phantom, Amity Park's most famous "phantom".

I phased through the car, looking for the annoying ghost. Instead of a ghost like Skulker or Technus or the Lunch Lady, which I can appreciate going after, it was an ecto-puss. One of the lowest ghosts around and one of the first few ghosts I ever fought.

My shoulders slumped and I blew a lock of hair out of my eyes frustratingly before setting chase. The Fenton Thermos my parents had unknowingly given me was on my back; I reached up for it and was about to uncap it when a pink beam narrowly grazed my shoulder.

"Whoa!" I twisted to my back to see who had shot it, even though I already had my suspicions. Sure enough, it was Valerie. "Oh come on!" I returned to my normal flying position. "Life really hates me, doesn't it?"

The ecto-puss was still within reach. Before it could fly all over the place, I activated the thermos and sucked it in, capping the invention and setting it back in its place on my back. I now turned my attention to the angry ghost hunter on my tail.

"You've menaced this town long enough, spook!" Valerie shouted, shouldering her huge ecto-gun. It looked like it could really pack a punch.

"Get some new lines!" I shot back, looping around her. She wasn't able to turn her board fast enough, buying me some time.

I turned invisible, which was really superficial since Valerie had a ghost detecting device. It was only supposed to distract her a little so that she looks at it to determine my location, leaving me enough time to take away that huge ecto-gun she was really getting too fond of.

And that was exactly what happened. Right after she registered that the dead weight in her hand was gone, her head snapped up, murder evident in her eyes.

"Phantom!" Valerie screamed, glaring daggers at me. "You're going to regret that!"

"Why would I regret stealing this huge thing?" I summoned ectoplasmic energy to my hands. "It's just one less weapon for me deal with." Valerie summoned dozens of smaller ones from her shield and armor. "And dozens more for me to deal with in the long run," I grumbled.

Before the enraged girl could attack me, I successfully combusted the weapon in my hands. I turned intangible to avoid the major fallout.

"Now you're really gonna regret that!" Valerie shrieked, all her guns flaring up. "Die, Phantom!"

"I'm a ghost," I muttered, turning invisible. As I expected, Valerie immediately opened fire on where she had seen me last, leaving me free to zoom up close and personal. I started shooting off small ghost rays from my fingers that fried each gun in turn.

"Aaargh!" Valerie turned on me next, even though I was still invisible. "I wish you faced your own worst enemy!"

Now, two things happened here. One was that my ghost sense went off, and two was that a gun I hadn't noticed earlier trained in on me and blasted me backwards. I turned visible from the shock and waited anxiously for the ghost that had set off my ghost sense.

"So you have wished it—"

'Oh no.'

"—so it shall be!" It was Desiree, my own worst nightmare now.

What's so bad about my own worst enemy? It's just Vlad, the old guy who wants to kill my dad, get my mom, and make me his apprentice while ignoring Jazz, right? Wrong. My own worst enemy is actually…

"Nice to see you, Danny." A ghost with a black cape, my famous DP emblem, flaming white hair, and red eyes appeared before my very eyes, grinning malevolently. It was my future self from an alternate timeline, the one that I had sworn would never exist. "Miss me?"

Valerie swore violently, nearly falling off her board with the appearance of him. "Who the hell are you?!"

Phantom shot a glance backwards and shifted his eyes back to me, still grinning. "Fighting Valerie, are we? And you're still holding back?"

Even though I was scared to death about the apparition before me, I was still concentrating on the wishing ghost. Desiree had seemed shocked at the specter that Valerie's wish had conjured up and was now attempting to sneak away.

"You're not getting away," I snapped at her, snatching the thermos from my back. I aimed it. "I wish you were in the thermos!"

It was only after I had caught her that I realized she could have helped—not willingly, of course—get rid of Phantom. But since it was too late to remedy that mistake—I wasn't going to release her because she'd just escape—I turned my attention to Phantom, the back of my mind dealing with the enraged Valerie behind him.

"You're not here," I said, trying to speak calmly. "You're just an apparition made from Desiree's wish."

"And if I am? Does that make me any less real?"

"I asked you who the hell you were!" Valerie demanded again, aiming yet another enormous ecto-gun. Where does she put those things?

"Why of course." Phantom turned to Valerie. "You don't know me yet. I'm him." He threw a hand in my direction.

"That's not true!" I protested loudly. "And you know it's not!"

"Is it?"

"You're not making any sense!" Valerie said. "Start making sense! Now!"

"I'm him," Phantom repeated, grinning evilly. "I'm your dear Danny Phantom. Like the makeover?"

"No way!" Valerie leaned back slightly on her hoverboard. "That's—that's not possible! You're—you're completely different!"

"Of course I'm different, Valerie," Phantom said. "I'm him in the future."

"And you're gonna stop talking!" Having heard enough of his rambling, I zipped in low, trying to catch him off guard. Unfortunately for me—and now that I think about it I should've not yelled—he caught my oncoming fist, flung me up and over his head, and threw me to the ground.

My vision swam at the corners and I missed what happened in the next second up there. I got up to my elbows, wincing as the motion sent torrents of pain through my back. It soon vanished, though, as my healing kicked in and I managed to get to my feet. My eyes widened as I caught sight of Valerie firing at Phantom, he blocking it, and firing back in turn, flinging her backwards and into the park. She crashed into a tree and her armor retreated back to wherever it went, leaving her lying there unconscious.

"Valerie!" I couldn't tell if she was alive or not. But she should've been unconscious since one blast from Phantom shouldn't kill her. It would take more, far more, I realized with an unpleasant thrill.

"You have no time to worry about her," Phantom said, suddenly appearing before me. "You should instead worry about yourself." He accented these words with a smoldering ghost ray to my stomach, which sent me into an unfriendly lamppost.

"Nngh." I curled up in a ball, holding my head. Tears of pain leaked out of my eyes as I tried to breathe through it. My head was then split by the sound of Phantom's laughter.

"Have you really become weaker? Or is it just that I've become stronger?" I looked up to see a nasty grin on the older ghost's face. "Would you be able to stop me if I did this?"

Then, so fast that most of the frozen pedestrians on the side couldn't react, Phantom had released his sticky ecto-rope from his fingers and reined in five people, each one of them with terrified expressions plastered on their faces. A small girl with red ringlets and wide green eyes opened her mouth, screaming at the top of her lungs.

This in turn broke the spell on the other four captives, who also began screaming. Five seconds later, Phantom idly muffled each of them with a green gag. They all cut off, staring at him out of wide eyes and flicking back to me.

And what was I doing? I was petrified. I couldn't move no matter how much I wanted to. It was all too much like what had happened last time between the two of us. Except, this time it was innocent civilians and not my friends in danger.

I wanted so badly to run in there and save them. But I couldn't. Why? Because I knew that Phantom was stronger than I was, better than I was, and far crueler than I ever could be. Than Vlad could ever be. And far more dangerous than Pariah Dark could ever hope to be. Where Vlad and the ghost king couldn't finish me off, he would. I instinctively knew this and my body locked down automatically, not wanting to risk a dangerous fight that my mind knew was coming anyway.

Then, something else happened that rocked me to my core and shattered each and every one of my beliefs. Sam and Tucker suddenly appeared on the scene, having run all the way from the school to the current location. Both of skidded to a stop, eyes widening and their jaws dropping at the sight of my older self standing there.

Sam shot me a look, which I could barely return. I merely flicked my eyes from hers back to Phantom's red ones, not wanting to let him out of my sight for too long. Tucker was simply shell-shocked, apparently not having words for the sight before him. Neither of them were prepared for this…this catastrophe.

Phantom, much to my horror, caught sight of them, too, and grinned. "Well, well," he said. "Things have just gotten much more interesting."

What happened in the next minute I should've predicted. And stopped. I should've stopped what happened next. Instead, I just sat there, paralyzed as the evil ghost went for the only two friends I had that weren't my family and that were human and not wielding a grudge against my ghost half.

He threw aside the package of five humans into a car; they crashed into the hood, which dented. Meanwhile, both Sam and Tucker were also paralyzed at the sight of oncoming ghost.

I found my voice sooner than I had anticipated. "Move!"

But it was too late. Before either of them could take a step, Phantom had them in both of his hands. Sam in his right and Tucker in his left.

"It's been a while," he said, grinning evilly at the two of them. "Still hanging around and fighting ghosts?"

"L—let me go!" Sam had found her voice and kicked his elbow.

Phantom ignored the pain—if there was any. "You two will do nicely."

"For what?" Tucker had found his voice next.

"Oh nothing," Phantom said casually. "Just a simple hostage situation that my dear younger self should do splendidly in." His hands flared green and green bonds wrapped around Sam and Tucker, effectively tying them up. He then bound the two together, back-to-back, before slinging them to a lamppost and binding their mouths so they couldn't speak.

I got to my feet, my heart in my mouth as I saw what he did next. The group of five humans that had been thrown in the hood of the car were now being held to the engine of that same car. Phantom was slowly heating it up, sending it close to boiling point. I had a sneaking suspicion that it would soon combust.

"Well, Danny?" Phantom raised an eyebrow, slyly throwing a grin my way. "What's it going to be? These people"—he gestured to them—"or your friends?" He nodded towards Sam and Tucker.

I took a breath. This was going to be easy. Sam and Tucker weren't in any noticeable danger, leaving me free to rescue the five people. But then I saw a second Phantom materialize behind my friends, his hands flaring green as he held it dangerously close to their throats. My heart—if I had one in ghost form—stopped for a beat. I couldn't breathe. He wasn't asking me to do this, was he? Choose between my friends and innocent civilians?

I held Sam and Tucker's gazes, trying to read their thoughts. Both of them were defiant yet scared. Sam was telling me with those fierce eyes to not let those people die. That I should rescue both groups. Tucker was saying a similar thing. But I couldn't decide. Not really. Not when both of their eyes betrayed their true fear. While they hoped that I would dive for the five captives instead of them, they were secretly hoping that I would rescue them. The same went for the five captives. Except, they were just begging me to save them. I could see that their skin was already blistering with the heat from the engine.

I swallowed dryly, aware of all the eyes riveted on me. Most of the by-standers had hidden somewhere else or were standing in the open, foolishly brave enough to observe this fight.

"Thirty seconds," Phantom said, upping the energy he was feeding to the car engine. "Decide, Danny. Who will die?"

"Or will both die?" the ghost by Sam and Tucker added.

"I…I…" What could I say? That this was impossible? That I give up? But if I did that, we'd all be dead. Not only Sam and Tucker. Not only the group of five. We'd all be dead before we knew it.

One more look between the two groups decided it for me. I couldn't decide. It was one or the other. Or maybe…both of them. I couldn't duplicate—not yet. And I wasn't about to try. Instead, I would have to rely on luck…and hope that Phantom didn't react fast enough to do anything.

Without thinking it through some more since time was almost out, I dove towards Sam and Tucker. They were my best friends. If they died, I knew that I wouldn't be able to pull through. If the other group died, I'd have that on my conscience but at least my friends would be there.

But if my reasoning worked, I wouldn't have to sacrifice anyone.

As I flew towards them, I could easily read Sam's thoughts through her eyes. "You idiot. What are you thinking?"

Tucker's eyes were also warning me. "Danny, behind you!"

I didn't want to look. All I was focused on was saving my friends. But…I could hear.

"You've decided?"

'No.' I realized then, mid-flight, that my pitiful plan would never work. And with that, my whole world came crashing down around my ears.

Phantom laughed mirthlessly. "Or maybe you hope for a miracle?"

I could hear hissing from the car engine and knew, even as I grabbed the duplicate's cape, that I would be too late.

"But there is no miracle. Pitiful, really. I expected better from you."

'No!' I dispatched the duplicate easily with a few ghost rays. It didn't put up a fight since its job was done.

With Sam and Tucker safe for now and a nonverbal agreement ringing between us, I sped towards the group, knowing I was too late and yet hoping I wasn't.

Phantom smirked, the engine under his hand red. "Too late."

A final burst of heat on his part and the engine exploded.

"Want to hear their screams, Danny?"

And I did. I heard the little girl's, the mom's, a man's, and two teenagers'. The engine had not been big enough for a quick death, giving them a slow and painful one. One that would haunt me forever, a fitting price for having decided so foolishly.

Did I really think that I could rescue both? Why didn't I do something different? Why didn't I? And of course, I don't know.

I dropped to the ground, stunned. Stumbling forward a few steps, I stared at the burning car, their screams still ringing in my ears. I could hear shocked cries, screams, and even sobs from spectators. But these sounds were whispers compared to the roaring in my ears.

"Your fault. It's your fault they're dead," a voice whispered to me. "It's all your fault."

"How does it feel, Danny?" Phantom was speaking now. "Knowing that your decision cost five people their lives. How does that make you feel?"

Sick. Just like a therapist. "How does that make you feel?"

"Evil. You're evil," the voice was whispering. "You murdered innocent people."

'I didn't,' I protested. But it sounded fake. 'He did.'

"Evil."

I watched in shock as Phantom, laughing insanely, disappeared into black tendrils of smoke. I had, as Valerie wished, faced my worst enemy. And now, it seemed the wish was finished.

I sank to my knees, only partially aware of Sam and Tucker, both approaching me, and the mutterings of the spectators. Tears were streaming down my face.

"Evil. You're evil."

'Oh my God. What have I done?'

And in the end, I'm faced with this…dilemma.

What is "good"? What is "evil"? Is there a line between the two? Or is there no line and we only create our own?

Vlad… Even though he's "evil" by my standards, is he "good" by his own? All he really wants is happiness. Even though he wants to get that by killing my dad, marrying my mom, and by making me his evil apprentice, he still wants happiness. Is he on the "good" side of his line when he's on the "evil" side of mine?

I don't even think I have a line anymore. What's good is evil and what's evil is good. I have no idea who I am anymore. I have…innocent blood on my hands. Even though Phantom was the one who orchestrated the whole thing, it doesn't the change the fact that I was the one who took away their lives through a choice.

We all have choices. A choice to be "good" and a choice to be "evil". Or is it the other way around? Do we know if we're "good"? Or if we're "evil"? Is it the legal system who decides? Me? You? Strangers? Our family? In the end, I just don't know.

Am I "good"? Am I "evil"? The truth is, I don't know.

I'm also aware that I have yet to update my crossover story. I'm working on that next since I've got this out of my system. I didn't want to pass up a good story idea. :D As you guys can also see, this has potential for a future story arc. I won't continue this namely because I can't write angsty stuff. This is, by far, the angstiest thing I have ever written. If you want to take this, PM me.

So...REVIEW please? What'd you think?