Danny grinned.

"Yeah. But now that I think about it, Valerie probably would have hated me anyway. So-" He hefted Cujo up, who didn't let go of the toy and tried to let out a happy yelp, "I might as well make him mine, don't you think?"

"Duh. Well, go on!" Dani waved him on, licking the very last of the frosting off of her fingers and dumping the rest of the cookies in a tan ceramic jar that said 'MONEY' on it in big brown letters. Danny smiled as twisted the tags on Cujo's collar to face backwards before generating a very small ectobeam and carving

'Cujo Phantom'

'Property of Danny Phantom'

'If found, return to Phantom's Keep'

"There!" He nuzzled his nose into Cujo's fur before making a face and looking up at Dani. "What have you been doing to him?"

"Oh, that? Well, he started following me right after I left France, so I figured that he just liked my perfume. So I gave him some."

"And what exactly was this perfume supposed to smell like?"

"Dolce & Gabbana."

"Which is . . ?"

"How should I know?"

"Ugh. At least it's not Boogers, or whatever it is Sam uses to annoy her parents."

The two began to laugh, knowing it would be just like Sam to wear something as horrible as 'Boogers' just to mess with her parents. Cujo barked along, smiling to get into the fun. Clockwork appeared in the doorway; face a mask, as usual.

"If you two are done, I have to show you something." He floated back out.

The two on the floor looked at each other before following him out.

"What is it?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Is it good?"

"Is it bad?"

"Is it Dan?"

"Yes."

"Is it- wait, what? It's Dan? He's OUT?" Danny nearly had a heart attack.

"No."

"Then- "

"I have a way to fix him. Watch this." Clockwork waved his hand, changing the scene on his Time Viewer. (TV for short.)

"This is when Dan was created. See- your ghost half and Vlad Plasmius mixed. However, if done correctly, he can be separated back to his original forms and we can get rid of his evil entirely." He played the scene, careful to not show any of the really gory parts for the sake of Dani.

"And . . ?"

"And we'll be able rid you of any possibility of becoming Dark Dan."

"Sweet! Where do we start?" Dani, of course, was not one to be left out, despite not knowing a whit about it.

"I am going to do this by myself. I have enough power, thank you. I was just warning you." Clockwork grabbed the thermos and began towards his 'Hazard' workshop, only to have the two young ghosts stop him.

"Just like that? You're kidding, right?" Danny was indignant.

"He's right. You can't just go 'Whoosh, hey we're going to stop the evilest person in the universe! Yes, really! Okay, well, bye!' No way, man. Uh-uh." The two crossed their arms. Clockwork seemed to suppress a smile. The two were more alike than they realized.

"There are sprinkles in the cabinet above the sink and information about Dani that not even Vlad knows in the black book on the shelf."

The much, much younger two were off like shots and Clockwork beat a hasty retreat to the workshop. After a lot of sprinkles, a lot of frosting and a ton of cookies, they finally consulted the book. The pages were musty, with scrawling penmanship that was all old English, though still relatively easy to read. The ink was rusty in color, and on the parchment paper it looked like Davinchi's sketches and notations. Halfway through the book, they still hadn't found the page about Dani. There was one about every other ghost, every other ghost zone item, place and rumor, and they still couldn't find theirs. Finally, Danny shut the book entirely.

"Danny! There were at least a hundred pages left!" Dani tried to open it again, but Danny stopped her.

"Dani, we've been here for what- hours?"

"-MAYBE one hour-"

"-And we still haven't found our pages. We're never gonna find them at this rate."

"That doesn't mean we should stop trying!" She dove for the book, not quite managing to wrench it away completely when Danny gripped it tighter and started a tug of war.

"Give it!"

"YOU give it!"

"NUAAGH!"

"BLEAGH!" Dani stuck out her tongue and let go suddenly, hoping for the shock to make Danny drop it. Success- however, she wasn't fast enough either, and the book hit the floor before flopping open.

Straight to their pages.

"That was unexpected." Danny twisted his mouth as Dani dropped to it and began reading.

"NAME: Danielle Madeline Phantom-Fenton

"DANGER LEVEL: Six

"OCCUPATION: Protector of Spare Portals-"

"Spare portals?" Danny cut her off, leaning over the book. "What are those?"

"Wild Portals. Frostbite lets me use the Map in order to protect them. Now shut up!" She continued to read, pushing him away slightly. He just huffed and sat back, his knuckles brushing the floor lightly.

"Dani . . ."

"Hush! Now, lesse . . . mm-hmm, mm-hm. Holy Cow!" She stopped reading suddenly and jerked up.

"What?" Danny was up in a second. She looked at him, still shocked.

"I'm your-"

"WOO-HOO!" Something that was either an explosion or something close to it rumbled through the tower. A bright flash of light followed, and suddenly both of them were wrapped up in an enormous hug. "BEST DAY EVER!" They were rocked from side to side. They tried to share a look, but the two were blocked by black HAZMAT.

"Uh . . ." Danny said, confusedly.

"Meet Dan, Daniel." Clockwork was actually smiling now, well, smirking, at them.