This story contains: Witty Banter(TM), alternate timelines, Dan Phantom who warrants his own warning, major and minor character death, rape, occasionally some fluff, and somewhere along the road, there will be a male OC.

I'd never thought that space could be this lonely.

Enclosed by eternal darkness, imprisoned between unconsciousness and the final remainders of something resembling a sense of being alive, he existed. He, the shadow of a man who had only himself to blame for losing his life. He, who had wanted to rule the world, when he hadn't even been able to rule over himself and his existence. He, who had tried to detach himself from his own humanity, from his human half, but had fallen victim to his own stupid emotions.

His whole life he'd believed to be lonely, abandoned and alone - however, only in these last ... (yes, what exactly? Days? Years? Centuries?) moments he'd learnt the true meaning of loneliness. Now, there was nobody and nothing, except for the pain that had followed him into his unwanted exile like a loyal servant would follow his master. The pain that fed on his body, devoured his mind and everything that might be left of his soul; and he couldn't do anything about it, couldn't protect himself, was helplessly locked in between rock and eternal emptiness. Couldn't escape his thoughts, his memories of those who had left him and those who had never belonged to him at all.

He had been stupid, so very stupid.

A jolt ran through his body, through his lithic grave that he had dug himself; pain scorched his body, liquid fire burned him from within.

And he lost consciousness.

-

Amity Park. A town like any other - and at the same time something very special. Idyllic, calm and movie-set lovely. Unless it was haunted by ghosts. Or asteroids. Or vengeful college friends.

Or - oh - like right now. When it was haunted by a meteorite. A tiny thing, to be honest, that only held a fraction of the diameter of this certain Disasteroid that had threatened Earth five years ago. And, astoundingly coincidentally, it was a fraction of exactly this asteroid, shrunken while entering the atmosphere, now only measuring a few cubic metres.

It was strange, as if by a wonder that nobody expected it, that there were no curious gawkers, waiting in a safe distance, close but not too close to the crash site, in order to - later - tell their children and relatives and everyone who didn't want to hear it about having seen this once-in-a-lifetime event. But maybe they were too busy telling everyone the story of five years ago; the story of he boy who had saved them all.

Maybe the gawkers were absent for the same reason the government's normally obligatory welcoming committee - possessed with observing every bit of possibly alien life, drawn to the crater like flies to honey, like vultures searching for their prey - was: Nobody new about the meteorite, nobody was expecting the impact.

Maybe that was astoundingly coincidentally, too. Most likely, though, it was fate.

The meteorite, the fireball, collided with the ground, impacting with an ear-splitting bang. Rock and dirt sprayed in all directions when the greenish glowing rock dug its way into the ground and left a deep crater, a fuming hole. Upon hitting the ground, the rock from outer space burst and uncovered what - no, who - it had hidden, imprisoned and buried inside.

-

As he opened his eyes, he saw colours and sunlight, so bright that it hurt him, that he had to close his eyes again, which - after all this time he'd spent in darkness and obscurity - cost him an endless amount of strength. A wave of noise crashed over him, hurt his ears that had not heard anything except his own heartbeat for so long. He moved muscles and limbs that had been motionless for such a long time; first his fingers, then his arms, leaning on them, staggering to his feet. These unaccustomed movements made him break out in cold sweat, made him clench his teeth.

He changed. Turquoise skin turned almost sickly pale, black hair became grey. Blue eyes opened again, and then, then Vlad Masters breathed for the first time in eternity.

Only to be overwhelmed by the impressions of his new old life and be welcomed by the darkness again as he fainted one more time.