A/N: About the last chapter, did anyone guess who the villain was? I hoped the talk about time paradoxes would hint to who it is. How will Danny deal with his Ultimate Enemy? Why would Dark Danny contain all of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone? Where are all of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone? How did Danielle escape? Where is Clockwork? All these questions, and more, will be answered very soon.
Danny realized he woke up late, but he looked at his calendar; it was Saturday. He entered the Ghost Zone on Wednesday. How was he in the Ghost Zone for two days? Time was always different in the Ghost Zone, and fighting in Clockwork's lair probably didn't help very much. He went downstairs to the kitchen, but no one was there. He heard clattering in the lab and assumed everyone was in there until the activation of his ghost sense. But who he saw shook him; Vlad Plasmius. He looked awful, the Disasteroid crashing into him probably didn't do him any favors; especially because it was made of pure ectoranium. "Plasmius!" Danny shouted at him. "Oh Daniel, you have to help me!", he pleaded, sounding utterly terrified. "How are you even alive?!", Danny questioned. Anger dripping from his voice because of Vlad's nerve to appear in his home. Vlad answered, "The ectoranium of the Disasteroid formed a makeshift portal into the Ghost Zone. I was wandering the Ghost Zone for years; until a monster appeared. He could've slaughtered me ten times over with both hands behind his back, without even breaking a sweat. I had to move slowly; it was only by God's grace I escaped. Do you have any idea who we are up against?", Vlad asked.
Danny began, "First of all; there is no we. I will fight Him on my own, if it comes down to it. Second, you wouldn't believe who He is if I told you.", Danny finished. Vlad scoffed, "I've been Vlad Plasmius for nearly twenty-five years. You would be surprised the things I've heard." Danny smirked, "Alright then. That 'monster' is Dan Phantom. He is an alternate future of me, when I cheated on the CAT Test. Lancer called a meeting with my family, Tucker, and Sam, but during the meeting, the vat of sauce in the back of the Nasty Burger exploded. After losing everyone I cared about, I went to live with the only person who could sympathize with me; you. While there, because I couldn't bear the feeling of the pain, I asked you to use your Ghost Gauntlets to remove my human side so I wouldn't feeling any emotion. But, you doing that, sent my Phantom half into a frenzy, separating you from Plasmius and merging with it, killing me and leaving you paralyzed. The evil from merging with Plasmius overshadowed the good that I left, and he wreaked havoc on the human world and the Ghost Zone." Danny finished.
Vlad scowled as dark pink ecto-energy surrounded his hands, "So, if I just kill you here, he won't exist." Danny barely restrained himself from laughing. "You definitely couldn't beat me in the condition that you're in now. I could probably beat you with my eyes closed. Even if you could beat me, it wouldn't matter. He's in Clockwork's Lair, which is immune to paradoxes and timeline changes. We'd have to force him out of there, or destroy Clockwork's Lair so the paradox would catch him and he would cease to exist. The chances either of those things can happen are nearly impossible.", Danny explained. The glow around Vlad's hands ceased as he collapsed in exhaustion. The only way he could possibly defeat Him would be to overwhelm Him with his ice powers, because He didn't know how to defend against them. Danny scowled at Vlad, "You have to get out of here. You're not gonna stay here. Can't you just to one of your mansions or something? I assumed a billionaire like you has places everywhere. Hopefully some that were not shut down when you were presumed dead." Vlad angrily scowled back and practically growled, "I do, Daniel. And, next time I see you, it will NOT be for your help." Danny spoke back, "I'm looking forward to it. Now, get out of here."
Vlad turned intangible and flew through the ceiling of the lab, as he disappeared into the sky. Danny heard the front door open and shut, indicating that his family was back. He transformed back to Fenton and nearly tripped, running up the steps. His mother gasped in a mix of surprise and relief as she nearly knocked him over with her embrace. "Danny! You're safe. You were gone for days, luckily Lancer understood why you were gone. Did you find out anything?", she asked him. Danny needed to consider if he would tell them. The chances his parents would even find out about Him are slim, so he made the decision. "No, nothing that I could go off of." , he said. He didn't like lying to them about this but he didn't want them to worry about something they couldn't stop or confuse them about all of the time travel and timeline changes. "How's Danielle?", he asked. After everything that's been going on, his "cousin" barely crossed his mind. Wait… Dan doesn't know Dani exists. Or...at least Danny hoped he didn't.
In the chronological order of the time stream, Dan was created before Dani was even made. So if Dan had saw her, he would've assumed it was Danny, which would not have been good. Maddie began, "She hasn't gotten better or worse. She's just been sleeping since she got here. Even when she wakes up, which isn't for long, she doesn't stay awake for long. Who exactly is she, Danny?" Danny never enjoyed answering this particular question, because explaining the story of Vlad cloning him was never a fun topic. Danny sighed and began, "Danielle is…my...clone. Vlad wanted another version of me to be completely under his control to do whatever he wanted them to, under the guise that it was the right thing. She came after me once, because Vlad told her I was a dysfunctional clone and she was the original. After she rebelled against him, Vlad sent Valerie after her, under the false pretense that she was planning to kill Vlad, she hunted her down and held her captive. After that event when we managed to stabilize her she went into the Ghost Zone and I didn't see her again until the Disasteroid incident."
Maddie shook in anger. How could Vlad do all that to a child? Her child? He manipulated that poor girl without a second thought. With no remorse. He was just...evil. Pure evil. How could anyone do all of that to child for their own personal gain? Danny asked his mother, "Where is Danielle now?" His mother responded, "She's asleep in the living room. Why?" Danny looked his mother directly in her eyes and said, "I think I may know what's wrong with her." Maddie guided Danny to where Danielle was asleep on the sofa, as Danny felt her forehead as if he was looking for a fever. He removed his hand and the saw the faint amount of ectoplasm that came off. "It's just like I thought. She must have really strained herself on her flight out of the Ghost Zone which slightly activated a very minor version of her previous destabilization. Do we have any Ecto-Dejecto left?" Maddie responded, "I think so, it's probably in the lab. Why? Do you need it?" He nodded his head as his mother went down to the lab to bring it to him.
She brought it back upstairs and brought it to him inside of a syringe. Danny took the syringe and injected the ecto-solution directly into Dani's arm. After the injection, he rested his hand against Danielle's forehead and removed it and saw no ectoplasmic residue. It was done! She was back to complete stabilization and she would soon be awaken. After doing what hopefully healed Dani, he decided to go see Tucker. Tucker doesn't even know that Danny's theory involving Dan Phantom was correct yet. The only people he spoke to since he got back were Sam, his mother, and Vlad. Danny flew to the Foley household and turned back to Fenton and touched down on the front porch. He knocked on the door but chose to let himself in when there was no answer. He walked up the stairs and knocked on Tucker's bedroom door, hoping for an answer.
"Come in!", Tucker shouted through the door. Danny opened the door and walked through the doorway and sat at Tucker's desk. "So, how did your little field trip through the Ghost Zone go?" Tucker asked. Danny answered, "Well, I found out what was keeping all the Ghost Zone. It's Dan. He escaped from the Fenton Thermos and ravaged Clockwork's Lair, and he has duplicates all around the zone to establish his dominance. Maybe that's why no one is leaving the Ghost Zone! He's not actively holding them in, none of the ghosts want to cross His path." Tucker questioned Danny, "Did you see Him?" Danny answered, "Yeah, I saw Him. I had to fight him inside of Clockwork's Lair for a little while." Tucker's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you beat Him?" Danny responded, "Well, I didn't really beat him. He's staying inside of Clockwork's Lair because it's immune to paradoxes and timeline changes so He won't cease to exist. My ice powers definitely helped because by the time He was created, I hadn't fought Undergrowth, so He never gained those abilities. And, speaking of people I saw, guess who showed up at the lab? Vlad." Tucker's eyes widened in surprise, "How? I thought the impact of the Disasteroid killed him." Danny replied, "It didn't. Instead of frying him, all of the ectoranium made a makeshift portal which sent him into a random area inside of the Ghost Zone."
Tucker groaned, "So, we not only have to deal with our Ultimate Enemy, we'll have to deal with Vlad?" Danny responded, "We'll definitely have to find out how to defeat Dan, but Vlad won't be a problem. You didn't see him when he got to the lab. He must've been trying to escape the Ghost Zone for years. And all those years were not kind. He could've stayed Vlad Masters instead of Plasmius, but if he did, the starvation would hit him. The only reason it didn't was because he stayed in his ghost form the whole time, and he couldn't starve in his ghost form." Tucker came to a realization, "The Time Medallions! That was how Dan stayed here before, and if He can't leave Clockwork's Lair, He hasn't found them yet!" Danny grinned in excitement, "You're right! All we have to do is find the Time Medallions and keep them from Him. But, how can we get in Clockwork's Lair and find the Time Medallions while He's in there." Tucker thought deeply, "Does He sleep? Do full-ghosts even need to sleep?" Danny responded, "I don't know, but even if he does sleep, it would be difficult to get a grasp on when he does sleep. Time moves different in the Ghost Zone and the fact He's in Clockwork's Lair won't make it any easier to manage." Danny hoped he would never have to deal with Dan again but He reappeared. Clockwork said he would keep Him contained, which leads to one question; where is Clockwork?