A/N: Chapters will be coming slowly. I've got finals this next week and also I'm finding this story harder than I had originally thought it would be. I'm putting a lot of thought through each chapter before I write it. I really hope you guys like it. My confidence in my writing has gotten a little shaken due to getting a story almost reported to the site admins (If script format isn't literature then why do we study Shakespear's plays in school?).

As always, Number of reviews means faster chapters and this one is competing for my time with one other story. Any comments besides 'Continue' are appreciated.

Chapter 4 – Transformation

"For the last time… I DON'T KNOW WHERE THAT GHOST ENERGY IS COMING FROM AND NEVER KNEW ABOUT IT TEN YEARS AGO!" Vlad Masters yelled and slammed the door of his house in the faces of the two GIW agents that had been annoying him all morning. He quickly locked the door and hurried down to his lab. Even if they were annoying, they had given him some very valuable information.

He had been in the process of repairing his lab during the past few days, meaning that his ecto-scanner had been offline. Vlad began reactivating all his computer systems. "Curses… She just would have to reappear the same time an equipment failure leaves me practically blind." He cursed under his breath and continued messing with the computers.

He was still hard at work when Ann phased through the ceiling of his lab. She floated up above him for a while just watching. Why is Danny like me but Vlad is so different… she wondered silently. Not that it really mattered. Vlad was much smarter in either case and that was what mattered.

"Well this can't be right…" Vlad muttered to himself. "According to this she is.."

"Right behind you?"

Vlad jumped at the voice, something he would not normally do so he disguised his reaction with a light cough. Ann faded into view behind him. "Ann my dear…" Vlad said with a false welcoming tone of voice. "When did you wake up?"

"About 3 days ago. Are you surprised?"

"Don't be silly. Why would it surprise me? After all you have come to me twice and did say you would be back again."

"But you didn't think I'd be able to find you easily since you had moved, correct?"

Vlad hid a nervous twitch with a smile, "maybe a teensy bit," he admitted. "I suppose you've come for the same reasons as last time, hmm?" Ann nodded and Vlad turned to his computers.

Ann lowered herself to the ground and returned to her human form. Plasmius hadn't transformed so there was no reason to expend the extra energy. She walked over to stand next to the man noting how much he had changed since she last saw him. His hair which had been pure white since his first death now also held some more human tones of grey in them. His face had aged as well. Twice in the past twenty years, she had seen him and both times she had been amazed at how he continued to age in his human form but not his ghost form.

"I'll be honest my dear, I've made more progress than I had the last time you came but I am still nowhere near fulfilling your request." Vlad punched some codes into his comptuers and images of Danny Fenton popped up. A moment later, images of the clone Danielle were added to the collage.

Ann stared at the image. "Who is that?"

"Her name is Danielle," Vlad explained. "She was, and is, the closest I have come to success. She is a clone I created of young Daniel Fenton, who is…"

"The other halfa." Ann nodded. "I know of him already. I've been getting close to him and his friends since I awoke." Vlad looked at her in surprise. She merely shrugged and pointed out Clockwork had alerted her of Danny's existence.

"Ah yes. The master of time…"

"Yeah you know… the only one that hasn't done some kind of job for you?"

Vlad smiled and folded his hands behind his back, "I don't have the slightest idea what you are talking about."

Ann just rolled her eyes, "Uh huh, right… So you said that girl was a clone? Does that mean you haven't attempted to make a new halfa yet?"

At this Vlad got a little nervous. Even if he was evil, not even he would purposely put an uninvolved human in mortal danger, unless it was Jack Fenton of course. "Well about that… I can't simply go around running tests that could potentially fail, not only would that expose my identity to the world it would also.."

"Because I really care about your human identity crisis." Ann knew she was being a bit harsh but for now she didn't care. "Have you even attempted to look for a test subject?"

"Well no… but…"

"Why not?" Ann put her hands on her hips. He's had over twenty years to at least make one attempt. What was taking so long? She sat back on a nearby chair and swivled around in a circle. She rested her elbow on the edge of the computer panel and looked up at the screen. Her hair fell down over her shoulders as she watched the different video clips of Danny and Danielle. "Danny… he's different than you… more like me. Why?"

Vlad looked down at the girl. Her face showed her confusion, and her fear. Were she anyone else he would manipulate her in some way to get that perfect clone he wanted. Wait… Why couldn't he? His expression changed to a false sympathy. "I honestly have no idea. Perhaps if I could run some tests on yourself and Daniel I might be able to…"

"No." Ann pushed her chair back and stood up. Vlad felt a shiver run down his spine. From Daniel they were a thing to laugh at, a loss of emotional control; but on this girl, those glowing green eyes were terrifying indeed. Looking into them he could see a void as deep and unforgiving as the Ghost Zone itself. Unconsciously, Vlad took a step back.

Ann noticed his reaction and took a breath to calm herself. "Just use the boy. I'm running some tests of my own this week, while I will be attending school with him. You can monitor those. But until I say so, Danny Phantom is not to know of my existence. Am I clear?"

Vlad smiled and nodded, "As a well-polished trophy." Ann nodded and transformed again, taking off through the ceiling. Vlad glared as he watched her go. The billionare never liked being bossed around. If only he could find some way to gain control over her then he would be unstoppable.

His hologram of Maddie, the love of his life, popped up to alert him to a visitor at the door. The Idiots in White were back. Vlad stared at the monitor in annoyance. Then an idea began to form. An evil green crossed his face as two black rings split over his body. "It just might work."

XXX

"Are you sure you saw a human with them? No offense Jazz but you tend to jump the gun when chasing ghosts." Sam leaned back against the wall in Danny's room. Danny sat on the bed thinking.

"Look, I know what I saw. One minute they were talking to a human the next… She looked just like Danny when he transforms." Jazz waved her arms around in the air as if to emphasize her point. Sam just looked at her skeptically.

"You said it was Skulker and Ember right?" Danny asked, looking up at his frantic sister. "And you're sure the Fenton Tracker only showed two ghosts in the area right?" Jazz nodded to both.

Danny scratched his head thinking. If there was another half ghost around, it would explain why the Fenton Tracker hadn't detected them, but it wouldn't explain why his Ghost Sense had been going crazy; or why all his enemies had started behaving strangely.

"I just don't get it," Sam argued. "If there is another half-ghost… where did it come from? Is Vlad making more clones?"

Danny shook his head, "No. He wouldn't be able to make any more progress without my DNA. Vlad doesn't both with anything that's a waste of his time." A smile crossed his face, "Besides. Most of his computers were destroyed in our last go-around. Since that was less than a week ago, he's probably still repairing them. Not to mention that Tucker remotely deleted half of his cloning data."

"Oh right. I forgot you and Tucker did that," Sam laughed.

Jazz looked around the room for the first time since she'd walked in, "Where is Tucker anyway?"

Sam and Danny exchanged a smile. "He's busy today," Sam said. "He talked about inviting Ann to some techno-geek thing at a nearby internet café."

"Who's Ann?" Jazz asked.

"Some new girl in our class." Danny explained how Ann was a techno-goth and Tucker had started to like her. He refrained from telling them anything about Technus, but thinking about it… Jazz did say it looked like they were talking to a girl. But that didn't make sense… If Ann were a ghost, he would have noticed. Also, why would Skulker be talking to a Half-ghost instead of hunting her down? It's possible Jazz could have seen a ghost that could take the form of a human like Spectra, but Danny still wasn't convinced.

Innocent until proven guilty, he reminded himself. He kept telling himself this mostly for Tucker's sake; Tucker, who had been getting down about not having a girlfriend, whenever he saw Sam and Danny getting closer. They weren't official yet but Danny knew it was bothering him.

They sat and listed different theories, as to the strange behavior of the ghosts, for most of the day before Mrs. Fenton came up and pointed out how late it was and that Sam should be getting home for dinner. On her way out Sam noticed the worried-spacy expression on Danny's face. She lightly punched him in the arm, "Chill Danny. We'll figure it out like we always do." Danny smiled and bid her good night.

Later that evening, Danny transformed and slipped out for a flight around the city to clear his head; thinking that if he happened to find out anything about the mysterious new ghost in town it would just be a bonus.

While he was flying around he passed over Tucker and Ann coming out of the Nasty Burger. "Way to go Tuck!" he said out loud. Even from his place high in the air he could see that the two of them looked to be having a good time. A twinge of guilt pulled at his stomach, "great… now what am I supposed to do?" He raised his hands doing an idiotic impression of himself, "Hey Tucker, I know you like her but I think your new girlfriend is a ghost!" He ended his impression and looked down at them sadly, "Yeah that would go over so well." Not wanting to get caught again for following a friend on a date, Danny turned and took off in the opposite direction.

Down below, Tucker took a sip of his soda and belched loudly, to which Ann responded with her own attempt which was much more loud and impressive than his.

"I really had fun today." Ann said smiling at him. "The tour of the city was great. Honestly I'm surprised how many places ghosts have been spotted around here."

Tucker laughed, "Yeah well after Danny's parents built the portal things have gotten kind of crazy."

"You mean after that ghost boy showed up right?"

Tucker shrugged. He was used to covering up the sudden appearance of the ghost boy by now. "He might have come around the same time. No one really noticed him much until the thing with the previous mayor though."

"So you're not afraid of ghosts at all?" Ann asked.

"Who me?" Tucker flexed his muscles. "Ghosts go running from me and my technology."

Ann laughed. A couple hundred years and she had forgotten how much fun it was to hang out with a human boy. Too bad it couldn't last longer. Well on the bright side, she had managed to get a large amount of information on the daily activities of those ectoplasmic manifestations of human desires that she was supposed to control; much of which her right hand man, Clockwork, had failed to mention.

Ann felt a chill in her body but managed to cover up the annoying gasp with a yawn. Glancing up in the sky she saw Danny Phantom flying away.

"I guess it is getting kind of late," Tucker said looking down at his watch. "Mind if I walk you home?"

Ann smiled, "Actually I've got to do something before I head home." She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you at school tomorrow." She turned and ran off while he stood there still stunned from the kiss.

She followed Danny from the shadows until she decided that he wouldn't do anything other than fly around. "Oh well I'll see him later," she said, then turned and waved her hand through the air. A portal opened up and she stepped into the Ghost Zone.

What do people think of Ann's character?

Some of you have already guessed who she is (Not that I tried very much to hide it), but has anyone guessed what she wants with Danny and halfas?

Leave Reviews! Love you guys!