Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom

A/N: I don't know how I should voice this... You are all have been so kind at giving me all those lovely reviews! It made me feel that continuing this fic is quite worth the while! First, I wanted to say thank you to Arteesta. Oh my god. YOU gave the best review EVER and it made me feel very and utterly happy! I must say that your review managed to boost my ego and productivity in creating more chapters! This also applies to every other who've read my chapters, but forgive me, I am far too lazy to write all the names here... I am very truly sorry, I hope this doesn't make you hate me... No hard feelings kay? By the way, just letting you know, I was listening to With You by Flight Facilities while I'm writing this Author Note. Not a very important information, but I just feel like it to let you know. Please forgive me again for my blabbering. But seriously, check it out. I recommend you.

Because of your awesome review, this chapter is dedicated for: Arteesta

I hope you love it Arteesta!

Any kind of reviews are welcomed. Please give me critiques so I will be able to evaluate my chapters and make it more efficient and less excessive, I have a habit to make excessive lines. Just tell me about what you think, I will not mind at all.

Anyway, if you haven't noticed, I changed the rating of this fic into T and switched the genre from Tragedy to Angst. I think this fic is quite the angst, don't you think? A review made me thought about this and I can't help but find it true indeed. It seems more rather like an angsty fic than tragedy.

Thank you for all your supports! Follows and Faves are very appreciated as much as reviews!

SACRIFICE

CHAPTER 3: LAST THOUGHTS

Start: 22 September 2012

Done: 11 October 2012

Vlad woke up feeling miserable the next day.

Friday. Today he had to make plans for Danny's funeral. The man sat up on his bed, hands massaging his slightly disoriented head. His silver hair was freed from its usual ponytail, pooling around his neck. He brushed them back and sighed, not feeling like he wanted to do anything for the day. He wanted to crawl back to sleep, to forget about everything. His guilt, sadness… Danny… everything. He glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table- 5:38 AM. It was still too early, yet he couldn't go back to sleep. His thoughts kept drifting back to the dead boy. Sighing, the man got up and started towards the bathroom and decided to make an early start.

Walking to the door he remembered something. His eyes searched around the room and the man was relieved to see Danny's old diary resting on the top of his desk. He stared at it for a moment, thinking. In it, he could find out all about Danny. He could learn more about the boy. The thought made him smile, but as fast as it had came, the quirk of the lips quickly disappeared into a sad frown. Learning about him wouldn't change the fact that he's gone forever.

Why care about him now when he was already dead?

Vlad absentmindedly started tugging at his hair and swirled the silver tresses with his fingers, eyes still fixated on the book.

He glanced away forlornly and turned the doorknob open.

After taking a long soothing shower, Vlad stepped out of the bathroom; dressed in only white shirt and black slacks. He was still bare footed, his feet touching the carpeted floor and damp hair falling freely around his face. He ran his fingers through them and steam wafted off of the silver strands, drying them instantly using his ghost powers. Still drying his hair with his fingers, the man walked over to the desk with almost uncertainty. It was still 6:57 in the morning.

He still had a long time before heading to Fenton Works to plan Danny's funeral- and said boy's book was lying innocently on his desk.

He kept brushing his fingers through his hair while looking thoughtfully at the object of his attention. The book was thick; the man wondered if Danny had ever finished writing in it.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Jumping a little at hearing the startling sound of the alarm clock, he instantly snapped out of his reverie. His hair was already dry by now. He swiveled his head to the other side of the room, narrowing his eyes a bit disdainfully at the clock. Sighing inwardly, he gazed back at the book again. Reading it can wait, what can't wait now is getting prepared for what's to come at Fenton Works. They also needed to retrieve Danny's corpse and dress it for the funeral. Thinking about the boy now as a rotting corpse sickens him. He could never picture Danny as a dead being.

He always thought that Danny looks just like he was only sleeping.

If only that was true.

"Oh… hello Vladdie-

We've been waitin' for ya…

….just come inside."

Jack Fenton opened the door more widely so the silver-haired man could step in. He looked different. Something about Jack seemed off. There was no joy radiating off of him, his whole being screamed of despair and depression. His usually happy and bubbly demeanor had been reduced to a stoic posture of blankness.

Jack Fenton looked almost unrecognizable.

Vlad nodded stiffly. He still didn't like Jack, but after Danny's death, his anger towards the oaf seemed to diminish. He doesn't have the energy for petty revenges anymore.

Maddie didn't join them as they made plans for Danny's burial. She locked herself in her room, and sometimes the man could hear her sobbing from the second floor with his enhanced hearing. He felt like crying as well.

The now only child- Jazz Fenton- was at school at the moment. She decided to wallow in school works and bring the bad news of Danny's death to school herself.

Everything looked normal. The birds were still chirping outside and the sound of cars zooming on the streets and their loud honks could be heard as both men planned about the young hybrid's funeral.

The cheerful air around them seemed as if to be mocking their despair.

"I believe that is all Jack. Do not worry over the expense, I will cover it all. It's the least I could do."

Jack nodded again, his hands holding Danny's birth certificate. A picture of Danny from some early months ago was lying on the square table of the living room, smiling slightly at the camera- almost uncomfortably. A wisp of blue smoke was coming out from his slightly parted smiling lips, if observed very closely. His eyes weren't entirely focused on the camera, the orbs looked wary and fearful and seemed to be staring ahead of the lens. He must have sensed a ghost when this picture was taken.

But aside from all that, Danny looked very nice with his soft, boyish features.

Vlad sighed as he leaned back on his seat across from Jack's sofa. He rubbed his temple and rested one of his hands on the back of the chair, gazing at the photo.

Just thinking about the funeral due two days from now made him shiver. He could never, ever in his whole life imagined the boy being actually dead. How he managed to hate Danny until recently baffled him. He had never even treated Danny as anyone of importance too…

He took his cup of tea and sipped at it when he heard the front door opened. There stood Jasmine, looking a bit disheveled, shoulders sagging.

"I'm home." She called uselessly while putting her bag on the floor. It was then when she noticed that Vlad was sitting in the living room with her father, she straightened up a bit.

"Oh… hello Mr. Masters. If you don't mind, I'm heading to my room now."

"That's alright dear; just you go and have some rest. We are planning for the funeral."

Jazz gazed sadly at her father at the mention of the funeral. The man looked like a worn out teddy bear. Broken. She looked back at Vlad and nodded grimly as she descended up the stairs.

Vlad glanced at his watch and noted the time showed there. It was already half past three.

"Jack, if you don't mind, I would be heading back to Wisconsin now. My flight is due at 4 and I still have some matters to attend to."

Jack looked up and mumbled a yes, gazing back at the birth certificate for the last time and placed it on the table, along with the photo.

Vlad's eyes followed the certificate. Danny was born on the 3rd of April. It is said that those who were born in the month of April are fearless pioneers and strong, not afraid of sacrificing themselves for those who they love.

How very accurate it was.

"Well then, I will be going now Jack. Just call me if you need anything at all, concerning everything."

Jack nodded again but didn't say a word in reply.

The hybrid sighed and stood, putting on his coat. He walked over to the door when-

"He was such a great kid. He still is. I'm glad that he at least died for trying to save you Vladdie. He must love you really much."

Vlad stop dead on his way. He didn't glance back when he reply, staring sagely at the floor instead.

"Yes… he must have."

That said, the man twisted the knob and walked out into the sunny weather.

He actually didn't have any flight at 4. He lied about it as an excuse so he could avoid the Fentons.

Vlad didn't know what he should do. He didn't want to go back yet. With no destination in mind, the man started walking down the streets, putting up the collar of his black coat and tilting his head down. No need for any nosy reporters right now. The news about Danny's death hadn't come out yet, but he was sure that it will soon, with a cause of death like that. Saving a billionaire.

What a way to die.

As he walked, the man reminisced the days he spent torturing the young hybrid. He remembered he had many times broken Danny's arm and spraining the boy's legs as the result of their battles. Not mentioning all the cuts and bruises that must have littered the boy's body. He wished he had a chance to rewind it all, to repair all his mistakes.

"Hey, did you hear? About that kid, the scrawny one with black hair?"

Vlad perked up and slowed down his walking as he heard a couple of teenagers to his right talking excitedly. Three boys and two girls.

"Yeah, umm… that Fenton kid right?" Sauntered a dark-skinned girl while twirling her hair unconsciously.

"Yup, he died you know. Stabbed by a sword his sister said. Man, she looked awful today. I heard her talking about it to the teachers before they announce his death. They didn't say anything about the cause when they told us in the auditorium, only that he was one of the victims of the skeletons yesterday."

"Oh god, really? Well, lucky that it wasn't someone really important though. He wasn't even really known anyway, I only knew his name today when they announced it. I heard that he was a freak, always going to the bathroom and come late to class. His parents are ghost hunters right?" The other girl with a blonde hair piped in, suddenly interested in the topic.

"Yeah, he was Dash's punching bag you know. Nobody knew why he never stood up to that guy, but I bet it's because he doesn't want to get into more trouble. The teachers will side with Dash anyway, being a football star and all. His grades were awful I heard."

"Maybe that's because he was too busy spending his time in the bathroom, what did he do in there anyway?" Chuckled one of the boy; tall and lanky with black hair.

Vlad stopped walking and glared at the teenagers that were now already some paces ahead of him, completely oblivious that the man was listening to their rather cruel conversation. Although he was quite far from them, he could still hear their conversations very clearly.

And he didn't like the sound of it.

"Masturbating I bet, 'cause he could never get laid."

All the teenagers laughed at hearing one of their members (who hadn't said anything since the conversation started) -a boy with letterman jacket and brown hair- suggested the atrocious thought almost tonelessly, as if it was only a common fact.

"Ooh, that explains everything! He was always so sweaty and looked tired whenever he came back to class! I got physics with him, I saw this happened many times." Added the dark-skinned girl; jumping up and down jokingly while saying this.

They laughed again and shoved at each other playfully.

Vlad felt his blood boil when he heard them laughing about Danny's death. What in the hell was wrong with them, laughing about someone's death like that; let alone make fun of it?

How could Danny spent his days and nights fighting off the ghosts just to save these ungrateful adolescents?

Worse, they even made fun of his sacrifices for saving them. Vlad knew that whenever a ghost attacked, the boy always hid in the bathroom to transform, and used it as an excuse to the teachers whenever he was late. He saw Danny doing it once when he stalked the boy to give a surprise attack. It was awful to hear those teenagers make fun of the young hybrid in such a lewd way. Danny was such a sweet and innocent boy... and their lurid comments had shamelessly sullied the memory of him. Danny sacrificed his schoolwork, free-time, his health, everything…

Just to be made fun of?

Ungrateful. They all didn't deserve Danny's protection. Danny should have just let the ghosts send them to their demises; after all, they were the source of his pain. His peers were the ones who beat him up, made fun of him, speak ill of him, shunned him, and made him felt worthless.

But who was he to say all of these about Danny's peers? Not some days ago, he did exactly the same things to Danny.

He made the boy's life miserable; he inflicted pain upon the young hybrid. Come to think of it, the kind of pain he gave the boy was even more horrible than the ones his peers had given him. He even made Danny felt worthless in the last seconds of his life.

"Hey, wanna hit the Nasty Burger? I'm kind of hungry for a double-cheese burg now."

"Sure Matt. Hey, just wondering… are you coming to his funeral? The whole school's invited."

Matt- the boy with the letterman jacket and brown hair- shook his head flippantly.

"Nah, I got stuff to do on Sunday, I don't know him anyway. Why, are you coming Dean?"

The tall lanky one with black hair nodded thoughtfully, "Yeah, I don't have anything to do on Sunday so… maybe I think I'll just come to see around. I kinda want to see it myself. Are you all coming too?"

The girls shook their heads and the blonde scoffed, "We're hitting the mall, there's a sale at Luell. They sell Fall-Winter collection and we're going to buy cute coats for winter."

The dark skinned one nodded agreeably.

"Well… I think I'm going to Fenton's funeral, the guy at least deserved some respect since he's dead now." Added a red-headed boy; the one who had started the whole conversation.

Matt glared balefully at his friend's mention of the funeral again and snapped rather tiredly,

"Sheesh, stop talking about it now-

Let's just hurry up to NB. I'm hungry."

Vlad stared hatefully at the retreating forms of the teenagers in front of him, hands shoved deep into his coat's pockets. The man then turned around to walk to another direction, as long as it was far from that group of obnoxious teens.

Keep in mind to order Skulker to cause mayhem more often at Casper High.

"Hey, wait up!"

Vlad swiveled his head and looked around, a bit startled. It sounded like Danny's voice. He looked to his side and saw a boy about Danny's age running towards his friends while calling out excitedly. His heart clenched at the sight of this. It reminded him of Danny. Everywhere he turn, anywhere he sees, he was always reminded of the young hybrid.

The man was currently at the park, just walking around and thinking to himself. He still doesn't want to go home. At his castle was where the boy's diary located. Somehow, although very curious, the man felt that he wasn't ready to read the book just yet. He was afraid that it would break his heart to read the boy's diary. It would remind him too much of Danny.

Vlad sat down on one of the park's benches, leaning on it and relaxed himself. It was already twilight; the sky was a blazing orange and tinted with deep blue; the sun was setting. He looked around the park again, noting at how people started leaving the place rather hurriedly. They must have a family to eat dinner together with. He wondered what the Fentons would do at dinner. Would they sit together and eat as usual now that they're short one member?

He sighed softly and leaned further into the bench.

He really needed to get home.

He caught a glimpse of a mop of midnight tresses from the corner of his eyes. The man turned his head to the side and saw that it was the hair of a ten year old that resembled Danny's slightly. He dropped his gaze and stared at the grass of the park after seeing that. His mind was consumed with guilt every time he saw anything that resembled Danny. Or anything that reminded him of the boy.

The little child was tugging at his mother's shirt, whining for ice cream.

"Please Mommy? I promise I'll clean my room today!"

The mother only sighed and petted the black unruly hair of her son and smiled tiredly, giving up to her son's whining.

"Okay, but just this once. You're still yet to recover from your flu and I don't want you getting sick again just because of eating ice cream."

The 10-year-old grinned and nodded excitedly.

"I want chocolate flavor!"

Vlad felt a tug at the corner of his lips at seeing the scene. He wondered if Danny ever whined like that, bribing Maddie or Jack to buy him ice cream by promising to clean his room. Maddie would probably be sterner than Jack who would have simply complied.

He got up and walked out of the park, passing the kid who was now staring at him with interest.

"Aiber, it's rude to stare." Chided the mother at seeing her son's gaze at Vlad. She looked up and met the man's eyes, smiling apologetically. She didn't recognize Vlad as the famous billionaire, but rather as a common man just wondering idly at the park.

"I'm sorry sir, Aiber is just getting excited at getting his ice cream."

Vlad gazed down at the child who was still looking up at him curiously. He noted that the child's eyes were a blazing green; almost like Danny's ghost half's eyes.

He looked back up at the mother and smiled amiably, "It's quite alright. You have such a great son. Have a good day."

The woman nodded a thank you at the compliment and took her son's hand in hers, walking to the nearest ice cream parlor.

Vlad's gaze followed both the mother's and son's back. He inhaled deeply and looked up at the setting sky. It was mostly colored in dark blue now, only some spark of orange tinting at the bottom of the view. He wondered if Danny was up there, watching him and everybody else. He was a protector and Vlad was sure that even in death, the young phantom will always be watching over them.

He quickly slid into a nearby alley, looked to his back, making sure that no one was looking, then shifted to his ghost form. Black rings washed over him, changing his ivory skin into sickly blue.

He then proceeded to fly home as the sky turned darker and the orange flame of the setting sun snuffed out.

"Welcome back Mr. Masters, your tea is already waiting in your study as usual. I hope that the flight was fine?"

"Yes, thank you Albert. It was fine. I would be heading to my bedroom now, just leave the tea in the study. Don't interrupt me while I'm there, please Albert?" Answered Vlad, holding out his coat to his butler.

"As you wish, Mr. Masters, I will inform the other maids."

Vlad nodded curtly, and gave a slight polite smile to his butler, showing his gratitude. Albert had been working under him for many years. He was a polite, efficient, and a very good employee. He never asked questions concerning Vlad's secrets or his master's interest in the paranormal. He simply kept to himself, aware of his place.

"Oh, and please Albert, if there was any call from my office tell them that I am busy at the moment. I will call them back later."

The old butler smiled politely back, the wrinkles on his face creasing when he made the gesture.

"Understood, Mr. Masters."

Vlad nodded again, satisfied with the answer. He then walked briskly to the direction of his bedroom.

Opening the door he inhaled and exhaled his breath deeply. There. The book that has been plaguing his mind for the whole day; sitting calmly on his desk. That dull red, hard-covered book. In long strides the man crossed the room until he was suddenly standing in front of his mahogany desk. The man looked down upon the book. He fingered the cover silently, marveling in the feeling of the red fabric covering the front. He picked the diary up gingerly, holding it carefully in his hands. He walked over to his bedroom's door and closed it, locking the bolts. He then sat on his armchair, the red diary in hand. He gazed forlornly at the object, closed his eyes for a moment, and opened it.

He had read the first page while in Danny's room, so he skipped to the next page. It seems that Danny doesn't write in his diary regularly, only when he was in the mood or if his sister nagged him to write in it like he did so in his first page. The boy sometimes didn't write the date of his entries. Vlad could only deduce when this was written according to the boy's hand writings.

In the second page of the book the entry was much longer, about one and a half page. It was written in Danny's tiny and messy handwriting, but still decent enough to be able to read. It was about his days at his school, about funny and trivial things he experienced and new friends he just met. It also tells about his bullying, about how some kids in his class- a boy named Kwan and that Dash kid again- stomped on his back and leg. Vlad felt awful after reading that second entry. Danny was only what? About four or five when he wrote this? How could the boy grew up into such forgiving individual when he was bullied and made fun of since he was a little child?

It made shame crawl mercilessly inside the man. He'd been striving to kill Jack for the incident back then in college. He had been so bitter about it, yet here Danny had been bullied for his whole existence but he still protected his ungrateful peers and partial teachers from the ghosts, sacrificing his own life.

Every single day.

12 August 1997

School was awful today. Dash locked me inside the locker again, for the 6th times this week. He also swapped our English tests, he has mine and I have his. His grade in the test is really awful. He got D-. Mom told me that it's been the 4th times I got bad tests and she didn't allow me to watch TV for the whole week. I couldn't tell her that it wasn't my test because then I would be a tattletale and Dash would beat me up more if he finds out. I hate everything.

He could understand how Danny must have felt. He too, had felt it in some point of his life where he feels like he hated everything. Mainly, the time he spent in the hospital was to hate everything around him.

He read of Danny's days through the boy's 1st grade, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and up until he was in Junior High. In that period of time the bullying got worse. That Dash and his friend Kwan had made almost everybody in school to avoid Danny and his two friends, spreading rumors about how he was a freak and have two crazy parents who hunt ghosts. Danny didn't write this in a whiny manner; only stating it nonchalantly as if it was only a mere common fact that he was already accustomed to everyday. He gnawed at his bottom lip when he read at how Danny handled everything so… so calmly. With no real resentment as if he just accepted it because he somehow… deserved it.

There was a line in the book that disturbed Vlad. It was written when Danny was still 9 years old, according to the date.

Sometimes I think that maybe Dash was right all along. He and all his friends kept saying that I was only a waste of space in everybody's life. I agree that nobody really cared about me, but it's not that I want to be called like that too. But I think it's true though, Mom and Dad cared because they're my mom and dad. Jazz only cared because she's my sister. If she wasn't my sister, she wouldn't care at all. I'm so different from Jazz. She's smart, look good, and everybody likes her. I only have Tucker and Sam and they are the only two people aside from my family that cared about me. Sam's parents care a lot for her. They like to buy her lots of things and always say yes to whatever she asks them. Tucker's mom and dad always ask him about his day whenever he got home. I know that it's bad to think that Mom and Dad didn't care about me just because they never asked about my day. I understand, they're busy people. Their inventions are important.

But sometimes I just wonder that maybe-

Maybe I am less important than Jazz and their inventions. They always have time for Jazz.

…

'Maybe I am less important than Jazz and their inventions…'

Danny was jealous of his sister. His perfect, smart, and beautiful sister, who was liked by everybody despite her parent's unusual job. Jazz was never bullied for that reason. She was never bullied at all as far as Vlad knows. And Vlad knew that for sure because he kept tabs on the Fenton children.

It was normal for anybody to feel jealous for at least once in a while of their siblings, but for someone like Danny to feel like that… it was disconcerting. The boy rarely showed emotions like jealousy or resentment for people he loved. In conclusion, anything that made Danny felt jealous must affected him so much that it made an impact on the boy.

His grip tightened as he replayed the line in his head, again and again.

It was all so unfair. Why did he have to go so early? Danny had yet to taste the world, the joy of life, love…

All the boy had ever tasted in life was the bitter part of it. Anything that Danny frequently experience was hatefulness, the feeling of being unwanted, unimportant-

Worthless.

It was implied in the way Danny wrote in his diary that he felt worthless. He wasn't important to anyone. That if he was to die, then so be it.

Nobody will care.

Is that why the boy threw himself in countless battles without further consideration of his own well being?

Did he wish to die?

Is that why he was always so careless about himself but deemed that everyone was worth his protection because they are somehow-

More important than him?

5 March 2003

Today was just plain annoying. I got stuffed inside the locker again, and Dash managed to somehow find me avoiding him after school. He tried to stick my head inside the dumpster again like yesterday, but I was faster than him, for this time thankfully. I don't find being stuck inside anything fun to do. Tucker couldn't hang out after school because he got detention for showing up late in art class, again. Can you believe it, Tucker's on the verge of failing ART CLASS. All you have to do is just show up, which he obviously lacks of. Tucker hates art. It's just a waste of time for him. Sam couldn't hang out too because her parents made her come with them to some gala. All dressed up in a dress her mother picked for her. She hated it.

Mom and Dad are still working on that portal thing non-stop. I don't really think it will work at all, besides, how could there be real ghosts? For God's sakes, they both hadn't even encountered any ghosts before in their whole life. They only relied on theories. No wonder I was labeled 'the freaks' kid'.

I didn't do anything interesting today, but if you count calling out to your friends to get you out of your locker interesting then you should try it sometimes. Crud.

Vlad continued skimming through Danny's Junior High days. Mostly, it was about trivial things, things that fascinated the boy. Whether it's about a good test he got or his accomplishment in avoiding his bullies, several things he wish he had, new album that came out and he wanted to buy…

It never occurred to him that Danny was just like any other kids his age with mundane wishes and simple wanting in life. He always thought the boy as his enemy, not a child.

Rifling through the pages of the book, the man finally gotten to the part where Danny entered High School. The boy didn't write very often in his diary, the book still had about a quarter pages blank.

My arms and legs kept going invisible and intangible from time to time and here I thought it was only a onetime thing because of the accident three days ago… When I woke up this morning my hair was white again, exactly as when I got out from that damn portal. It's all so confusing, what am I now? Can it be possible that I'm- I'm a ghost? But I feel human; I look like human… sometimes. Great, now my parents are going to freaking hunt me if they know that their son had turned into more than just a regular freak. I'm a freaking half human/ghost thing! Does that mean I'm half dead too? I didn't even get any funeral for being half dead.

Vlad almost wanted to laugh and cry at the same time when he read the last line. Danny had made a joke about not having a funeral for being half dead.

Now he's getting one for being fully dead.

He wondered how Danny must have felt the first time he got his ghost power. Did he get scared? Afraid? Unsure? Worried?

It suddenly dawned on him that Danny had always lived and been on a fine, dangerous line. He lied constantly to his parents who hunted his ghost half, making excuses for countless things, all because he was afraid that they will find out. What if they did find out? Would they think that Danny was overshadowed? Tried to rip out his ghost half? Would they disown the boy?

If they did, then where would Danny be?

Vlad couldn't believe that Danny lived through all these fears constantly, every day, every night, every time he went to sleep and get up in the morning. Terror must have been grained into his mind. No wonder that he was sometimes so jumpy and moody. He must have felt scared… scared that his parents wouldn't accept him for being part the thing they hate.

And he did no better at lifting the fear and worry from the boy's shoulders. If so, he made it worse.

The boy managed to confuse and irk him even in his death. He felt irked that Danny could make him feel so very guilty.

But he couldn't deny that he missed Danny.

He sighed and flipped the pages, jumping from one scene to another in Danny's everyday life. There was his first fight with a real ghost; Danny called her the Lunch Lady. There were also several other ghosts that Vlad recognized. Technus, The Box Ghost, Skulker, Ember…

Desiree?

Vlad had never heard of this ghost before. He squinted his eyes, inspecting the name and the ghost's power that Danny had described, making sure that he didn't get it wrong.

Granting… wishes?

That's Desiree's power?

Danny described Desiree as a ghost genie who grants any kind of wishes she heard. She often twists and bends the wishes to her own will, but if you said your wish in perfect details with no loopholes, she wouldn't be able to twist and turn it horrible in the outcome.

Desiree.

That's it! Vlad's mind snapped up at the sudden idea that popped into his head. He could order Skulker to search for the ghost mage! He could make a wish for Danny to be alive again! Hell, he could wish anything he wants as long as he was aware for any lurking loopholes in his words! He could… he could have Danny back. Danny would have another chance to live and enjoy life… to feel happiness...

He could give Danny the happiness that his friends and family couldn't give him.

He could protect Danny from it all. He could save the boy from his ghost fights.

He could have the boy back and have the chance to fix it all.

He marked the page that he was currently reading with a slip of paper he found in his pocket and snapped the diary shut. This is it. This is what he would do. He would have Danny back; he would do anything to have the boy back.

Even if it means suffering in a long hunt searching for the ghost mage.

He would contact Skulker tonight. This plan must proceed immediately.

A/N: Yes, Vlad will eventually meet both Desiree and Clockwork. For your information, I will post parts of Danny's diary in every coming chapters as the opening. The diary will not stop here because it is part of the crucial matter in the fic. It creates the right feeling and makes a good opening. To be honest, I wasn't quite satisfied with the outcome of this chapter. It lacked something. Perhaps you could point out what is it that I'm missing? Please, don't be afraid to give me harsh critiques, I find it quite useful in creating new chapters.

Well, see you next time. I hope you all have a good day.