Authors Note: The flashback takes place during Phantom Planet. If you look closely you'll see the Ghost King making a cameo among the masses of ghosts when Danny goes to get his massive 'ghost power source' (he might be in the parts where they power the intangibility device to, I'm not sure), while this is probably just some mistake, like Technus being in Reign Storm (which I also have an in story explanation/excuse), I got thinking how that would work, in story, and now it's a big part of the story.
Flashback
The Ghost Zone was in complete chaos.
Of course the zone was always in chaos, aside from few organized civilizations (Like Dora's medieval kingdom and Frostbite's group of yeti's), the Order of the Observants, and Walker's prison.
But now the Ghost Zone was worse: massive overpopulation due to too many ghosts coming back to the zone in hopes of escaping the deadly asteroid, the smarter ones who knew of the Ghost Zone's link to earth…completely abandoned their intelligence and ran around in panic with the knowledge that the end was near, a few ghosts tried to rally control and formulate a plan (Skulker was doing a particularly admirable job of this) but the majority was too stuck in the chaos to listen. It was the apocalypse by Ghost Zone standards, and that was saying something.
The Order of the Observants, even with their massive political influence over the dimension, was almost completely powerless to stop it. That's why the six members of the Observant High Council were here, preparing to do something they vowed never to do for millennia.
And with that they turned Skeleton Key and unlocked the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep unleashing the Pariah Dark, King of all Ghosts, and hopefully-through respect and fear- the one who can keep the Ghost Zone together long enough for the half-ghost kid to arrive with his plan to save both worlds.
End Flashback
It had worked of course. The Ancient Ghost King, was a great leader, and he did manage to keep the Zone together long enough for Danny Phantom to arrive (mostly through intimidation).
Even better, Danny Phantom, so incredibly preoccupied with the Disasteroid didn't even notice the King among the masses of spirits he was he was trying to convince.
Of course now there was the problem of the pissed off Ghost King in the middle of the newly rebuilt Observant High Council Tribunal Headquarters.
"So what do you plan to do about me, my old disciples," Pariah Dark inquired, "Or do you prefer to be called the 'Ancient Ghosts'.
"We prefer the Observant High Council." They said in unison, their voices not betraying the slightest hint of emotion.
"Very well 'Observant High Council' do you plan on stopping me, I don't recall you attempting to defeat me last time, almost a shame really, I would have relished the challenge of a rematch." The Ancient King said.
"We knew the Phantom-child would defeat you, aside we now have an oath 'To watch, never act.'" Replied the Council.
"Never Act!" The great king cried angrily, "When have I ever inspired such cowardice in my teachings, oh…wait, that's right…you were always so spineless, never able to do what must be done!"
"What must be done?" One of the Observants growled, "You attempted to subjugate the entire Ghost Zone! Thank the Aspects that we were able to stop you before you reached that crystal!"
The other Observants attempted to calm their brother down, though Pariah never noticed as he drifted out of reality at the mention of the crystal.
"Ah...yes, the mystic crystal ball that could control the minds of ghosts, it was to cement my control in this Ghost World, and begin my invasion in that strange human land. The day you defeated me was when I looked for it in fact, you attacked me while I was distracted with searching for the orb, while your strange ice wielding yeti followers handled the Fright Knight and my other generals. The Ancient king recalled. "What ever happened to that crystal ball?"
"During the chaos, it fell through a natural Ghost Zone portal, into the lap of a man named George Nickolas Showenhower, who used its power to enslave ghosts for entertainment purposes." An observant replied.
The ghost king's face contorted in disgust at the idea of such a powerful object being used for such a purpose.
"Until his descendent, Fredrick Isaac Showenhower, aka Freakshow, used the object to cause major thefts. The Phantom-child defeated him sometime afterwards; the orb was destroyed in the process."
"Such a shame for an object with so much potential," Pariah Dark said, with a frown, which suddenly became a cruel smirk. "Oh based on your mentioning of them before I assume the Aspects doing well."
Six head sized eyeballs shot up wide eyed. Two of the Observants tried to attack the ghost king, two other held them back, one just stood silent, unable to move or speak. The last one simply spoke quietly, "Many of the Aspects died as you know, most of the others were driven insane, their lust for power having driven them mad, like you. Only Clockwork remains under our employment."
The 'King of all ghosts' simply stood smugly, happy at the Observants reactions and turned to leave. 'Who says I can't manipulate others.' He thought.
"Ah, but enough reminiscing, I must regain the Crown of Fire, I suppose you will not stop me as par your Oath." The King smirked.
"No we won't, but my king, please do not look for the crown, look how its power has corrupted you!" The last Observant pleaded.
"Bah! Corrupted? You were just always too foolish to grasp true power!" And with that the Pariah left the Tribunal headquarters.
The Observants watched as their former master left, thinking back to the moment after the locked Pariah Dark in the sarcophagus, when they first made their oath. 'From this moment on we shall never act on our power, so it may never corrupt us as it corrupted our great king, from this moment on we shall simply observe.'
"So Danny's the ghost-kid," Valerie repeated for what seemed to be the bazillionth time.
"I guess I should have figured it out, what with Dani and Vlad being half-ghosts, and I mean Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom, how could I have not been able to figure that out?"
"You got me; maybe you should work on you detective skills a bit more." A playful voice came out of thin air.
"Ahh!" Valerie screamed, whipping out an ecto-gun and pointing it in the direction of the voice.
"Hey! Don't shoot!" Dani said in panic, turning herself visible.
"Oh! Dani! Sorry! Though you shouldn't really sneak up on people like that." Valerie said in surprise.
"Heh, sorry bout that, forgot I was still invisible." Dani replied sheepishly.
"I want you to know though, Danny's the good guy, he's always been the good guy, and…if you want to hurt him, I'm gonna have to stop you." Dani replied remorsefully, ectoplasmic energy lighting up in her hands.
"It's okay, I won't hurt him." Valerie replied, "I just never wanted to think, that I was the bad guy, and Vlad was always so quick to reassure that Danny Phantom was the villian, he was always so convincing, so…"
"Fatherly." Dani finished solemnly.
"Yeah" Valerie agreed
"I know what you mean." Dani continued "Vlad acts so much like, not just like a dad, but the perfect dad, like he always understood you, and knew how to make everything in you're life better."
Valerie certainly understood, she remembered wishing that the so understanding, 'Mr. Masters' was her father. 'He understands that I'm the only one that can stop these ghosts, and has
"Is Vlad your dad, I mean, it just seems…you were just talking about how much like a father he is…and you're both half ghost, so I just thought…" Valerie said, clearly having trouble on how to approach the subject.
"Well, kind of, I'm, well, a clone of Danny, made by Vlad, a failed attempt at getting his 'perfect half-ghost son.'" Dani said awkwardly
Valerie just stared speechless, startled at the revelation.
"Vlad acted like my dad though, he fed me, took care of me, and he was actually a really good dad, which made it so awful when I realized he was just using me, and…I guess he was, except parents aren't supposed to really think of you as a 'mess he isn't going to clean up' as Danny said." Dani continued.
'Or sacrifice you're other children lives for some crazy plan.' Dani thought sadly. 'Mindless or not they were my brothers.'
Danielle never told Danny how much the deaths of the other clones upset her. Like her they simply did what there father said following his orders, naively believing that their father would never cause harm to them. She never told Danny of her feelings, of how horrifying it was when Danny (and later on she herself) killed what were essentially her brothers, because Danny, if he ever saw her point would have felt guilty and, aside from the fact the he didn't know and it wasn't his fault, he had more than enough things on his mind.
"Well Danny still has a lot of explaining to do though, the ghost dog thing, kidnapping the mayor, all those thefts." Valerie said eager to change to depressing subject.
"In fact, I've been kinda avoiding him for the last few weeks and with him now doing the ambassador thing, could you take me to him, so I could get some answers out of him and…er…sorta." She continued, stumbling on the last part.
"Apologize to him?" Dani suggested helpfully.
"Maybe." Replied Valerie, still stubbornly refusing to admit outright, that she had something to apologize for.
Dani replied, "Well, I don't know exactly where Danny is, but I know someone who can get you there. Hey Wulf!"
And with that the werewolf-like ghost fazed through the ceiling of Valerie's apartment and promptly started licking Dani, covering her (and thereby Valerie, who was standing right next to her) in ghostly dog slobber.
'I suppose I should be grateful that the Observants were to preoccupied with Pariah to notice the signs.' Clockwork thought, and looked at the horribly battered Fenton Thermos 'or the thermos's recent damages.'
Clockwork teleported out of his tower, just as the Fenton Thermosbroke, unleashing one of the greatest evils ever upon two unsuspecting worlds.
Authors Note: Ugh. I think I really messed up the Valerie and Dani parts; hopefully I'll do better with the Danny, Valerie, Dani stuff next chapter.