Author's Note: Well, this is a collection of short stories and drabbles set all throughout the Danny Phantom series. All of them are AU, some more so than others and I find that this is the perfect opportunity to practice writing short stories, since I write long stories more than I write short stories. Plus I see it as a good way to help with writer's block. So this is liable to be updated randomly whenever I come up with an idea.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, I never have, I never will and I'm only saying this once so I will not repeat it in later chapters

Shots in the Dark

Haven

Main Characters: Danny, Vlad

Genre: angst/hurt/comfort

Swirls of green dotted with doors of a wide range of colors. That's all I can see. There aren't any ghosts around, for which I'm grateful. The last thing I want is for my enemies to catch me, especially in the condition I'm in since it will make it so much easier for them to capture me; everyone will take advantage of it, I already know they will.

But I still risked coming in here because the alternative is not much better.

All I did was make a decision, one single decision and my life had taken a drastic turn for the worse. It's not quite as bad as my decision to cheat on the CAT was but it's still pretty bad. Not my decision, no. I've wanted to do this since I first became half-ghost. No, it isn't the decision; it's the results of my decision.

I made the decision to tell my parents the truth, to tell them that I'm half-ghost. My sister Jazz approved my decision wholeheartedly and even offered to come with me when I told them. My best friends, Sam and Tucker, wanted to come with me as well but I decided to talk to my parents by myself.

I should've let them come with me but, when I think about it, I realize that if Jazz couldn't convince my parents of the truth then what chance would Sam and Tucker have?

I told them the truth and even transformed in front of them to prove that it was true. I tried to convince them that I was still alive, that I was only half-dead; they didn't believe me. It hurt to know that they didn't believe me; that my own parents refused to see that I was still alive.

Jazz tried to explain to them that what I was telling them was the truth, that I really was their son, that the accident had merged ectoplasm with my DNA, at least that's Tucker's theory, but they still refused to believe it. They actually shot at me; I'm lucky I'm quick and I was able to avoid the attacks.

They didn't stop though; they kept shooting at me forcing me to flee. I couldn't flee through the door because they were standing in my way and Mom had created a sort of portable activation switch that turned on the ghost shield around the house. The only way I could escape was through the portal and that's where I headed.

Jazz tried to distract my parents, keep them from following me but Mom managed to get past Jazz; she attacked me and stabbed me right in the side. The wound is, by far, the worst wound I've ever received; it's still bleeding by the way and is the main reason why I'm weakening as rapidly as I am.

Anyway, Mom would've succeeded in capturing me if Jazz hadn't put herself in between us. She told Mom to leave me alone and told me to get out of there. I didn't need to be told twice and I fled into the Ghost Zone.

Ever since then, I've been flying through the Ghost Zone trying to figure out where to go before I lost consciousness with one hand on the wound on my side as I attempt to stop the bleeding. Already, the doors and the natural green atmosphere were starting to blur together. I force myself to keep going trying to think of someplace to go, a haven, a place of protection that I never thought I would need.

I can try reaching Clockwork's but his tower is at the other end of the Ghost Zone and I know I don't have the strength to make it that far. I'm losing too much ectoplasm too fast; if I fall unconscious then I'll be in even more danger because I'll shift back to my human form and humans can't fly through the Ghost Zone without either the Specter Speeder or another ghost.

I can try for Dora's but if I try to head to Dora's kingdom then I will have to go past Walker's Prison and I know that Walker will take delight in catching me, especially since I'm in no condition to fight back. I will also have to go past Skulker's island and, like Walker, Skulker will love capturing me so Dora's is out of the question.

But where can I go?

I realize I'm losing altitude and I quickly look around trying to place where I am in the Ghost Zone hoping to find at least some sort of floating rock to land on and get my breath back. Unfortunately, I see nothing, except a giant floating purple football that hid Vlad's portal.

Vlad.

I struggle to keep my eyes open as I float in midair gazing at the football. I don't know what to do since I'm not even sure if Vlad'll help me or not. I doubt I'll be able to make it anywhere before I lose too much ectoplasm and revert back to human. And, since wounds in my ghost form do transfer to my human form, I know losing too much ectoplasm will not be good for my human half. My mind is telling me that if I remain where I am then I'll die fully and if I attempt to get someplace else then I'll either lose too much ectoplasm and die fully or I'll get captured by Walker or Skulker. I really have no choice if I want to live and I do want to live.

My parents may not have accepted me but my sister does and my best friends do. I still have them even if I don't have my parents, which still hurts as much as the knife Mom had used to stab me.

I think it's how my sister and my best friends will react if I died that makes my decision for me and I find myself flying over to the football. I'm so weak that I have to pause by the football before pushing it out of the way. A black wave is rising up in my eyes but I try to push away unconsciousness; it's not going so well.

I return my hand to my side as I fly through the portal. Imagine my surprise when I crash into someone entering the portal at the same time as me. Both of us are sent sprawling to the ground. I groan in pain clutching at my side before blinking up to see who I flew into. But, just as in the Ghost Zone, everything's blurring together and I can't make out anything, not even the person I flew into.

"Whelp?"

Oh great, well, this isn't good.

I struggle to get to my feet but my legs refuse to cooperate; actually, every part of my body is refusing to cooperate. I can feel the ectoplasm still falling from the wound in my side and that black wave is getting higher.

"Plasmius!" Skulker shouts.

I try to get up again but, again, I collapse and, this time, I just lay there. I'm too weak to move as it is; ectoplasm continues to fall rapidly from the wound and I'm really not that surprised when I shift back into my human form. Almost as soon as I shift into human form, red human blood begins to mix with the pool of ectoplasm I'm already lying in.

"Skulker, I thought you…Daniel!"

I just barely manage to lift my head to find Vlad, in his human form, kneeling down beside me shock glistening in his midnight-blue eyes. He shifts into his ghost form and duplicates before sending his duplicate off somewhere and shifting back to human form. "Daniel, can you hear me?" he whispers.

"V…Vlad," I manage to get out. "H…Help me." I never thought that I would ever utter those words to Vlad Masters; I guess life's funny that way.

"Shh, don't talk, little badger," Vlad says softly as his duplicate returns. He turns and accepts the medical supplies his duplicate hands him before reabsorbing the duplicate and turning his attention back to me.

"Skulker, you can go now," he says not taking his eyes off me as he lifts my shirt to see the wound. I hear him swear—he always seems to swear using sweets. I might have laughed if I wasn't in so much pain—but I don't feel what he does next. Actually, I don't feel anything; the blood loss is making me light-headed and things are starting to become dark.

"Daniel, stay with me," I hear Vlad whisper but he sounds so far away and yet that is the last thing I hear before there's nothing but silence.

I wake up to find myself lying on a comfortable bed and, for a minute, I'm confused until the memory of what happened returned to me. I can't help but shiver as I remember the look of utter loathing in my mom's eyes right before she stabbed me or the hatred and betrayal that blazed in my dad's eyes right before he shot at me. I feel tears appear in my eyes and I slowly brush them away before I try to sit up only to hiss in pain and clutch at my side.

Right, sitting up is not a good thing to do right now.

I rest my head on the pillow just as the door opens spilling light from the hallway into the room. A moment later, the lights in the room come on; I shield my eyes from the glare as they slowly adjust before I turn to find Vlad making his way to the side of the bed.

"Hello, little badger, how do you feel?" he asks as he comes to a stop.

I hesitate but decide to go with the truth since he did help me though I don't know how much time has passed. "Better than yesterday. How long was I asleep?" I ask.

"Only a few hours," Vlad says. "You lost quite a bit of blood. I had to ask my personal physician to come in to do a blood transfusion because you have a rare blood type. It's a good thing I have my own infirmary or else I would have had to take you to a hospital."

My eyes widen as I think about my secret since I know my blood is different from everyone else's.

"Relax, Daniel," Vlad says clearly seeing my panic. "My personal physician is the one who helped me when I was in the hospital with ecto-acne. She knows about my ghost half and she has already told me that she is sworn to maintain patient confidentiality. She will not tell anyone about you, Daniel."

I relax a little before frowning in confusion. "Wait, how were you able to do a blood transfusion?" I ask. My blood type is rarer than others because of the fact that it's AB negative and because it, like my DNA, is merged with ectoplasm.

"I'm O positive, Daniel, which is a universal donor and my blood is mixed with ectoplasm just as yours is," Vlad says.

I realize exactly what Vlad's telling me; he is the one who gave me the blood I needed for the blood transfusion.

Vlad frowns. "Did you honestly think I was just going to let you die, little badger?" he asks.

"I…" I break off because I don't know what to think. I didn't think that Vlad would've let me die; he has gone through so much trouble trying to get me to join him—granted the incident with the million dollar bounty is the only time he wasn't trying to get me to join me and the Pariah Dark incident too—that I doubt he'll let me die. So, frankly, I don't know why I'm surprised.

Vlad narrows his eyes but decides against waiting for me to come up with a reason why, which might be a good thing considering I can't think of a reason. "What happened, Daniel?" he asks.

I lower my eyes and don't respond as I begin playing with a loose thread on the blanket.

"Daniel, do your parents know where you are?" Vlad asks.

I grit my teeth feeling tears well up in my eyes. "They won't care," I whisper.

"What?"

"I said they won't care!" I shout tears flooding out of my eyes. "I thought they would accept me, I even told you that they would accept me but they didn't." I don't realize I'm practically screaming while crying until I feel myself being drawn into someone's arms.

"Daniel, I don't understand," Vlad says softly. "Did you tell them about your ghost-half?"

I sob. "I didn't want to keep lying to them. I just wanted them to know the truth, to understand why my grades have been slipping and maybe, just maybe, they'll see me for the hero I'm trying to be. But they didn't. They called me evil, they…they accused me of impersonating their son and…and they…they shot at me. Mom…Mom actually stabbed me." I'm crying so hard that anything else I say after that is an incoherent jumble of words that I can't even begin to untangle.

"Shh, Daniel, shh, calm down, calm down," Vlad says and I feel him rub my back as he draws me closer until my face is in his chest. I'm crying too hard to bother pulling away.

Eventually, my cries die down into sobs that, in turn, slowly fade away. Vlad keeps his arms around me though and I can feel him still rubbing my back. I'm surprised by how comforting it is even though it's my archenemy that's doing the comforting. A week ago, I would never have thought I would be comforted by Vlad Masters but, like I said before, life's funny that way.

Finally, I pull away from Vlad a bit embarrassed and glad that no one saw that.

Vlad looks at me and, removing his arms from around me, he stretches out a hand and gently wipes away a few stray tears. He's sitting on the bed beside me. He doesn't say anything; actually, I don't know if he knows what to say. In fact, he seems as shocked by what I just told him as I was when it happened.

"What of your sister? And your friends?" he asks finally.

"I decided to tell Mom and Dad by myself; Jazz supported me. I don't think she knew Mom and Dad would react that way too," I whisper before I close my eyes. "They hate me, Vlad, my own parents hate me. They think I'm evil."

"I know you are not evil, Daniel," Vlad says. "You have too many morals that you refuse to go against to be evil. Your parents are wrong. If they can't accept you for who you are then it's their loss. But why did you come here, Daniel?"

I open my eyes. "My parents activated the ghost shield around the house after they shot at me," I say. "I didn't know where else to go so I just flew into the Ghost Zone but the wound was too serious that I couldn't make it to any one of my allies so I came here."

"You only came here because it was closest?" Vlad asks. I can't be sure if that's hurt in his voice or not.

I look away. "Pretty much," I admit. "A part of me was afraid you wouldn't care."

"Daniel, of course I care," Vlad says.

"You have a funny way of showing it," I mutter.

Vlad seems to flinch and his jaw clenches but he says nothing.

I, on the other hand, am wondering why I just said that. I mean if Vlad didn't care then why did he give me his blood for the blood transfusion? He saved my life, for Clockwork's sake!

Maybe it's because I'm still wary about him and I fear that he might use what happened to his advantage, that he might wish to use my parents' rejection to get me to join him but am I really being fair? He hasn't once mentioned anything like that and he seems genuinely concerned.

I look at Vlad who is still silent and I find myself whispering, "I'm sorry," before I have a chance to think about what I'm saying.

Vlad stiffens before looking at me clearly as surprised as I am by my apology.

I look down until I feel a hand under my chin tilting my head up until I was gazing into Vlad's eyes. He doesn't say anything for a long moment before he says, "I suppose I deserved that. But you must know that I do care about you, little badger. If you wish then you may stay here. Your parents won't think you've come here and you'll be safe from them."

That what he's always wanted, a part of me says but I ignore it since I already know that. However, Vlad just told me that his place could be the haven that I sought when I first came into the Ghost Zone.

I continue to gaze at Vlad—I kinda don't have a choice since he's still holding my chin—before I say, "I'm still not gonna join you, Vlad," I say softly. "And I'm not renouncing my father."

Vlad's upper lip curled. "The father that shot at you, that considers you evil, that made it clear he hates you because you're half-ghost. Naturally, you wouldn't want to renounce such a wonderful father," he sneered.

I wince because he's right. "I…He's my father. I still love him," I whisper.

Vlad releases my chin shaking his head but he says nothing in response to that. Instead, he says, "Very well. You've made it clear several times that you won't renounce your father so I won't ask you too, though he certainly deserves it after what he did to you. You may stay here, Daniel, and you won't have to renounce your father or 'join' me."

I frown; the offer sounds too good to be true. "What's the catch?" I ask.

Vlad grits his teeth. "Must there always be a catch, little badger?" he asks.

I shrug. "This sounds too good to be true and when something sounds too good to be true, it usually isn't."

Vlad sighs. "All right, fine. All I ask in return for letting you stay here is to let me train you."

I blink but I'm not too surprised. I continue to gaze at him.

Vlad looks irritated. "All I want is to teach you all that I know, as is what I wanted from the very beginning. That's it," he says.

I'm silent for a long moment. "Don't try to force me to do something I don't want to do, Vlad," I say finally.

Vlad's lips press together but he nods. "I would not do such a thing, Daniel."

Yeah, right.

"I'm serious, Vlad. I'll leave if you try anything. I'm giving you another chance so don't screw it up," I say remembering another timeline in which an older, more broken Vlad received a second chance when Dan was created. I'm not above giving people second chances, with the exception of Dan since I have no doubt he would not use that second chance to become a better person like Vlad did.

A faint amused look crosses Vlad's gaze but he nods. "Very well, Daniel. I shall not force you to do anything you do not wish to do," he says. "For now, you need to rest."

I yawn before I can protest.

"Good night, little badger," Vlad says softly.

"Good night," I say quietly before I rest my head on my pillow.

I can only hope I made the right choice, that my decision to give Vlad a second chance won't come back to bite me. But I'll worry about that later. For now, I'll do as Vlad suggested and rest.

A/n what do you think?

Blaze: this oneshot is basically an altered beginning to Sanctuary

Darth: I liked it

Blaze: you always like it. Reviews are much appreciated as always.