Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom and I do not make money off of this fanfiction.

Nyaa.

=^n.n^=

Chapter 4

The part that really sucked about having the memories of two different people was that they weren't really memories at all. Dan Phantom lived with the memories of Danny Fenton-slash-Masters and Vlad Masters, but they were more like… dreams. The vivid kind that a person had when they were very, very lucid, except that he had no choice in the decisions being made when he recalled them. He hated those memories. They made him feel like he was crazy or something.

Possibly why he was referred to as a psychopath.

But he wasn't a psychopath. Not entirely, at least. There were his sociopathic aspirations to consider, too – although the previously-mentioned 'memories' interfered with his thinking as much as that. When he wanted a goal in life, he recalled the motives that his forebears had; Danny's desire to protect and Vlad's desire to have. Vlad always had been such an empty, lost narcissist, more so in the timeline that created Dan than this one.

Dan could still 'recall' the day that Lily had turned on Vlad for trying to harm her child. Oh, Vlad had taken that one hard. It had utterly destroyed the old badger to be rejected a second time – and by a woman who had the same face as Maddie Fenton, no less!

That was what had led up to Dan's creation, really. It certainly played a huge part in it. After destroying the second love of his life, Vlad's heart had died, and even his beloved godson was not immune. Vlad didn't turn spiteful or malicious on Danny, the way he did his other acquaintances, but he certainly did grow cold and distant when the boy needed him the most. There was no filter to remind Vlad that Danny's life would not echo his own, either, and Danny had been so horribly, horribly poisoned by his godfather's mindset, well into his teen years.

At fourteen, Danny had finally had enough of it. It had killed the boy to turn on the only father he could clearly remember – indeed, the only father that Danny had actually known – when he had screamed at Vlad to stop comparing his two best friends to his dead biological parents. No amount of reminiscing and painful longing was going to bring them back, and he was just subjecting Danny to an unfair pain.

Danny Phantom and Vlad Plasmius had fought for three full days, a complete 72 hours to the minute before the younger could finally take no more. He 'blinked', so to speak, and that was all that Plasmius had needed to disarm his son. After all, he couldn't bring himself to kill his own son, the last shred of memorable decency that the man had left in his life.

Vlad tore out Danny's ghost half. Danny's ghost half tore out Vlad's ghost half. The two halves had merged, creating Dan.

Dan killed Danny, not out of flat-out animosity – although there was plenty of that for both the halfas by that point – but because, by that point, some small part of Danny had wanted to die. He knew Vlad needed to be stopped, and that no one else would stop, could stop, the tyrant his childhood hero had become, and Danny… Danny was the only one who would. Danny was the only one who could. But, by God, Danny didn't have it in him… and there would have been only one other way to wake Vlad up.

In the end, Dan was doing his namesake a favor. It was assisted suicide, technically, and while Dan didn't 'remember' what Vlad felt immediately after watching a monster that was part Danny, part Vlad himself, he could see it all over the billionaire's face. Vlad had watched his son die… and he was utterly powerless to do anything about it. He couldn't take revenge. He couldn't bring Danny back. He couldn't do a damn thing.

Dan had turned on him – Danny's face on his son's murderer – and given Vlad that maniacal grin. The old man expected to be slaughtered next; to be burned away into cinders, at least! But Dan was punishing Vlad. It was part Danny's need, part Vlad desire, and mostly just because Dan wanted them both to suffer.

Vlad was left alive because there was truly nothing more awful that Dan could put the former father through.

But now none of that would happen. None of that was possible. Dan studied the picture in his hands curiously. Vlad had always kept the picture of Jack, Maddie and himself from college on his desk, with a picture of a much-younger Danny and Jazz in another frame next to it. The picture of both godchildren in their youth still sat there, but the one in place of the college photo was a family photo – Lily, Danny, Vlad, Stitches in her human form…

Ashley. He gazed intently at her face in the picture. He had torn apart the world for her. At first, it was because of Vlad's rage at her interfering with his plans, for giving Lily to him and then ripping her away, paired with Danny's pain at not knowing why she had abandoned him. As Dan had begun to become more aware of his own independent thoughts and feelings, on the other hand, he tore apart the world so that he could have her. He didn't really care if she liked him, loved him, or thought he wasn't worth the dirt on her boot.

Then she had to go and fuck that up, too. Her and her knowing he was neither Vlad nor Danny. Her and her chaos. Her and her wild swings of rampant bloodlust once rage took her over that left even him reeling in sheer awe. She was gorgeous, with her scars and stitches and that angry gleam in her eye when she wanted to burn the world, especially when she was bathed in the blood of a thousand cannibals.

He sighed softly and ran his thumb over her glass-covered, glossy face. Why couldn't she have been just one thing, like the rest of his victims? Why did she have to have this… this… dual nature? If she could just be a killer, like he was, then he could either get along with her, or do away with her. It could be so simple. He liked simple. Simple was easy to kill, or manipulate, or do whatever it was he needed to do with it. Simple didn't give him massive headaches, or make his chest hurt.

"Oh, Vladdie… You don't know what an ally you have." he muttered, leaning back to sit on Vlad's desk. The home study was comfortable in its familiarity – in a secondhand sort of way. Vlad had worked here. Danny had played here.

Dan wondered what it would look like on fire.

He sighed again, setting the picture neatly back in its place as Vlad's computer gave a chime, having completed its task. Dan popped the disk out of its drive, put it back in its case, and tucked it into his belt. "I really must thank you for the blueprints, though; it's going to make my life a lot easier."

With that, he flew through the ceiling and towards the heart of the town. Now that he had the means to do real harm to Vlad's business empire, he needed something else… a distraction. Chaos. He remembered how weak the veil between the dimensions of humans and ghosts was in Amity quite well.

Having a flood of ghosts would be a surefire tell to Vlad and Danny that something was going on. However, it would also make Dan himself harder for either halfa to detect.

Dan perched himself on one of the taller buildings and looked over the neighborhood where Fenton Works once stood. He couldn't remember the building itself to save his skin, but the memorial was a different story. Good thing the old badger was so sentimental.

He paused for a moment as he rolled over the formula he needed his body to perform mentally. He wasn't going to be relying on machines for this one, like others might. It was why he was so powerful by comparison, after all, and he wasn't about to pass over an opportunity to flaunt that fact… even if it was just for him. Using the point of origin of the explosion would make tearing open a hole to the Ghost Zone easy, but he had suddenly hit a snag he had previously ignored. It could bite him in the ass if he went through with it.

Or… A predatory grin curled across his face. Even if the side effect did come back to haunt him, it would be oodles of entertainment watching poor, spoiled little Danny Fenton squirm. That boy had wounds in his mind that could never fully be healed, no matter how hard his current family tried.

"You're home!" Stitches the cat flew at Danny's feet, butting his legs with her head and purring loudly. She repeated this behavior with Lily, then sat in front of Vlad. "I killed a bird for you, but then I eated it."

"That's not a word." Vlad frowned, but picked his feline step-daughter up by the scruff of her neck so that he could tuck her in the crook of his elbow. The black cat purred, eyes drawing shut as she leaned against his shoulder.

"She didn't really kill a bird and eat it, did she?" Danny asked.

Lily smiled at him. "Do you really want to know the answer?"

He stared at her for a minute. "…No. No, I don't." The messy-haired teen looked around. "Well, there's still a few hours of Sunday left… I'm gonna go see Sam and Tucker."

"Be careful!" Lily called after him as he retreated back outside.

"Y'wanna know something interesting that I noticed?" Stitches asked, staring at her mother lazily. "Last couple of weeks, it's been super warm and sunny, and just the right amount, too. Very comfortable. Good for napping."

"And?" Vlad gave her a look.

"It's not like that outside of home. And, this weekend, when I stayed here instead, I couldn't help but notice that it wasn't warm and sunny." The cat narrowed her eyes. Her tail was now swishing wildly.

"Ashley, are you jealous?" Lily asked, frowning as she placed her hands on her hips.

Vlad looked between them, confused. "Why would she be jealous, exactly?"

"Aha!" Stitches leaped from Vlad's hold, tail puffed up. "I knew he didn't know! I knew it! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

With that, she began running up and down the hall in a manic frenzy.

Vlad frowned. "…Lily, you really should rip up that catnip garden. No good has come of it." Then he gave her a confused look. "What is it that I apparently 'don't know', now?"

"That I'm pregnant, of course." Now Lily frowned, especially when she was met with a genuinely shocked look. "Wait… you really didn't know?"

"Of course he didn't!" Stitches cackled as she ran past them for a second time, ears pinned against her skull. "He's too human! Too huuumaaan!"

Vlad's eyes narrowed into slits after the black blur as she made a U-turn and came barreling back towards them. Reacting quickly, he caught her by the scruff of her neck and picked her up, holding the now-writhing and growling beast at arm's length. "You are not helping the situation."

"I'm not here to help the situation. I'm here to be a general nuisance that's too cute for you to kick." An evil smile curled Stitches' lips and she twitched her whiskers.

"Ashley." Lily took the cat from Vlad, looking at her pointedly. "Vlad and I need to talk, obviously. At least give him an hour or so before you start poking fun at him over something like this."

Stitch Witch tutted, visibly deflating. "Fine. Talk. Whatever. I don't care. I am a cat." As soon as her feet touched the ground, she tore off towards the back yard, screaming, "I'm going to hide a mouse in your shoe, old man!"

Lily shook her head, touching one of her cheeks. Then she looked at her husband. "I'm so sorry, Vlad. I just… didn't realize. I forget that it's been quite a long time since a ghost child was born rather than made through some tragic event."

He wasn't listening, though. Instead, he reached out to hold her, one of his hands brushing over her abdomen. That's when he felt it – a weak signature that was an imperfect blend of both his and her ghostly energies. After a moment, he felt the tiny life – he didn't stop to care about whether or not that was the right word – trying to latch onto its father's energy, as a primitive ghost might when trying to investigate a stranger.

Vlad's posture relaxed as he gazed at the spot beneath his fingertips. "That's wonderful…" Without warning, he pulled Lily into his arms, holding her close as he pressed his lips against hers. This was followed by several more, smaller kisses to her cheeks and temple. He couldn't think of anything else to do. He felt… Elated? Excited? Ecstatic? Certainly, all three, and then some!

He was going to be a father for the second time.

"I've got to call Daniel home." he said suddenly, looking around for a phone. "He needs to hear about this!"

"Vlad!" Lily laughed warmly, holding onto him as he tried to move away. "He can wait just a little longer! Let him be with his friends for now."

He didn't need to be told twice; he returned his full attention on her, still not entirely sure of what he should do next. He'd never had a pregnant wife, after all, and he felt like his chest was going to explode with the sheer joy. Finally, curiosity set in, calming him – though, of course, Lily couldn't help but notice that a childish excitement didn't leave his eyes. "I thought that ghosts couldn't…?"

"It's just uncommon. Ghosts tend to be solitary, and our psyches do mold our physical abilities, after all – I doubt we'll be hearing about Ember ever having a child, for example." She smiled at him. "Besides, this comes about once a pair of ghosts have grown attached to one another and synchronized, so to speak. Their energies bleed together to create children for them. That's why I thought you'd known already, since males seem to notice when their own signature is being carried by a female. Of course, seeing your reaction…" Her smile turned into a teasing grin.

Vlad smiled, leaning his forehead against hers. "Yes. If and when this ever happens again, you should definitely tell me, just to be sure."

=^nwn^=

D'awww, Vladdie! Don't you love a random piece of fluff in a fanfiction? I do, especially when it's right before everything starts hitting the fan! *Ride of the Valkyries begins playing in the distance*

Nyaa! *puffs up tail and runs away*