A/N: Sorry for such a long delay!

Danny

I've been searching the ghost zone for… well I really don't know. Weeks, maybe. I finally got a clue from a rumor ghost about where I could find my family and friends. I was sure I was in the right place…

I cast my eyes around me, searching for a sign of life. Or, well, afterlife. I was in a part of the ghost zone I hadn't seen before. It was so much darker and oppressive here. There weren't any doors or floating pieces of territory. It was just… nothingness. Then I saw a light in the distance. If I can reach it, I know she'll be there.

I fly towards it faster then I'd ever flown before. She's there, I just know it.

"Sam!" I yell into the light. It starts pulling me in, and it scares me. But I refuse to fight it. "Sam!" I scream. The light is burning me, but I bear with it.

I see them everyone I know is here, just as they were in life. Mom and dad are even wearing their ridiculous jumpsuits. (Not that I am one to talk.) Everyone shouts their 'hellos', and wave at me. My eyes linger on Sam, and she smiles at me.

"Danny, you came! I'm so happy to see you again." Sam flew up to me, and intertwined her fingers with mine.

"Sam, I can't believe I found you! I've been searching for so long, trying to figure out where you would be… We can be together now, right? You don't have to leave anymore?"

"We can stay together now. Oh, Danny. I missed you so much! I… I love you."

"I love you to, Sam." I pulled her close to me, and gave her a short kiss. We both blushed and smiled, hugging each other close.

"I'm so glad you came for me, Danny. I was afraid I'd be alone forever."

"I'm not going anywhere, Sam. I'm never leaving you again."

Vlad

Daniel's been gone for too long.

I am sitting in my study, trying to get some work done, but I just can't shake this feeling of worry. It's been too long. I drop my pen, giving up on whatever it was that I was trying to do, and stand up.

I pull out a small device from my pocket, and turn it on. This device tracks Daniel's vitals and his position in the ghost zone. He was fine; there was absolutely nothing to worry about.

"Ridiculous." I sit back down at my desk and stow the handheld device in a drawer. The kid wanted to go alone into the ghost zone. He has plenty of weapons at his disposal, and even a panic button that will alert me immediately if he's in danger.

There's nothing to worry about. The boy has been in the ghost zone many times before. I myself have been there, for scientific purposes mostly. I place my chin on my hands and narrow my eyes. There is no reason to be so obsessed. The boy is fine.

My eye twitches.

I tear open the drawer in my desk and retrieve the unassuming device. I stare at it for a moment, and then turn it on again, staring at the boy's location.

I make a noise between annoyance and affirmation. I decide that I will make sure he is really okay, but I'm perturbed about it once again interrupting my work. I stand from my chair and make my way to my lab. I need to see for myself that the boy is alive and kicking. My mouth twists into a grimace.

Once in my lab, I plug in the device and pull up the information on the big screen. I access a program that the handheld device can't do on its own. That is, showing me what Daniel's doing. I made it a habit to check his position every night before going to bed, and in the morning. Usually he was just flying around, or talking to the more friendly or weak ghosts. Sometimes I'd see him fighting a ghost, and I'd watch until the end, ready to jump into the ghost zone if it looked like ever got in over his head.

He never did though. He always ended up on top, and his fighting actually seemed smoother then it was before, more practiced and efficient.

This time, however, he wasn't fighting. He wasn't talking to any ghosts, and he was flying around.

"For the love of all that's… He's doing it again." Daniel was incased in ice and drifting through the zone. "I told him not to do that anymore. How stupid could he be… he's basically asking to become target practice-" I was cut off by flashes of light appearing on the screen.

That foolish boy… I turn into Vlad Plasmius, grab the handheld device and dashed through my portal.

"Where are you, boy?"

Daniel was far away from my current location, in the deepest part of the Ghost Zone. The child better be alive when I get there.

Daniel

They were so alive, so happy here. They weren't green or disfigured like the other ghosts. This must be where the innocent go. Somewhere that's separate from the rest of the ghosts, somewhere… happy.

"Daniel, I know I've told you this before, but I want you to know that I really don't blame you. None of us do." Sam leads me back to where the rest of them are, and I'm enveloped by their hugs.

"I'm never leaving."

"You don't have to, son."

Vlad

He is too far away. I won't be able to get there in time. Maybe if I try a shortcut…

I survey the doors around me, trying to decide if I should risk taking one of the many unpredictable doors. I could end up farther away then ever. I could end up in a strange dimension. My hands barely touch the handle to a nearby door when I hear a gut-wrenching scream gone from within.

Better not.

I turn back to the path I was taking, and continue onward. He'd just have to survive until I find him.

I'm close now. I tear my eyes off the device and survey my surroundings. I can see, not too far away, a large group of ghosts shooting plasma at the unconscious halfa. His ice has almost completely been blown away.

I make several copies of myself, and rush the group from behind.

"What the-" I take the first one out easily, completely by surprise.

"You're gonna regret that!" A large, ape-like ghost charges at me, and I throw up a shield. When he hits it, I push my shield outwards, throwing him into the distance. My copies are making short work of the other ghosts, who have all turned their attention away from Daniel.

Once the mediocre band of ghosts has been taken care of, I fly after Daniel. He landed safely on a floating piece of land.

"Daniel! Daniel, open your eyes!" I command, grabbing his chin with my left hand. I pull his face upwards, and inspect him.

He's taken a lot of damage, and his body was colder then it had ever been before. I pry his eyes open with my right hand, but he still won't wake.

I toss his limp body over my shoulder, and make my way back to the lab.

Daniel

"Seriously? You teamed up with Vlad Plasmius?" Tucker looked at me with an expression of such disbelief that I couldn't help but laugh.

"I wouldn't say 'teamed up.' More like, used and abused. Did I already tell you the part where I beat the snot out of him?"

"No, this I want to hear!" Sam leaned in for my story, and I wrapped my arm around her.

"Wait wait wait wait wait. Vlad Plasmius as in… Vlad Masters? Vladdy is a ghost to?" Dad had an extremely confused look on his face.

"Yeah, remember that lab accident way back when? It turned him half ghost, like it did with me."

"Oh, I see! You and he must have teamed up to form a super-cool crime fighting team! Right?"

Sam, tucker and I all looked at each other, and busted up laughing. Even Jazz couldn't control herself.

"Dad, Vlad was the most evil ghost I ever fought!" I responded, feeling slightly guilty. "Well, I mean he was. He's actually not that bad anymore."

Vlad

I made it back to my lab without too much trouble. I had to become invisible once I realized that all of Daniel's enemies had heard that he was floating helpless through the ghost zone.

I laid Daniel down on the examine table in my lab. I grabbed some tools and set to work finding out if there was any hope in bringing Daniel back from the brink of death.

After several hours, it became clear that the external damage was not the only thing keeping Daniel from waking. The damage was indeed extensive, but it wasn't the physical damage that was the problem. There was something wrong with his brain. It wasn't brain damage, or at least any that I'd seen before.

I looked closer at the scans and readings. It was ice. There was ice in his brain.

I looked at the boy in a coma on my table. He must have accidentally done it when he had encased himself in ice. Entombed was really a more appropriate word. He didn't plan on waking up again.

"Foolish boy!" if he wanted to commit suicide, I'd be more then glad to help. Plasma formed around my hands, and I was on him in moments.

My fist rose high in the air, and it came slamming down on the boys face. I grabbed his collar with my left hand, and pulled my right hand back again.

"You! Stupid! Boy!" I mark each word with a blow that would have killed a normal human. "Giving! Up! So! Easily?" I feel something break underneath my hand, but I don't let up. I don't think I ever will. Why should I? The boy wants to die, might as well give him hand. Or a fist.

My eyes could only see red, and my entire body felt hot.

Finally I dropped the boy to the ground, and stood over him with a twisted sneer on my face. I stared at him for a few moments, then turned and left the lab.

Maybe he'd live, maybe he wouldn't. It wasn't my problem anymore.

A/N: Anyone confused with Vlad's violence, remember; he's not a good guy. However, he genuinely did want to help Danny, and when he saw that Danny had tried to die, he kind of… Snapped.