Disclaimer: I do not own 'Danny Phantom' or any of the characters, concepts etc. Those are owned by Butch Hartman/Nickelodeon, I believe. I make no claim to anything in this story, it is a perspective with hypothetical scenarios added in.
The Events That Shape Us
Ch4: Resisted Revelations
Vlad was, for once, rather pleased with his pawn's actions. She had not only managed to acquire his most infuriating of experiments, but also managed to delay young Daniel's misguided attempts to rescue the mistake that he viewed so fondly.
He was under no illusion that whatever Valerie had done to capture Daniel would hold him for long (the child had become remarkably powerful over the last year), but it would give him the time to analyse and finally dispose of his greatest error in judgement.
Still, time was of the essence, as Vlad, confident in his superiority though he was, couldn't be certain that he would be victorious in a confrontation with Daniel, especially if he factored in the boy's strange emotional connection to what, as far as he was aware, was his own clone.
Of course, if the boy ever discovered the truth, then the situation might be rather different, and far more dangerous. But again, he was confident that Daniel was unaware of the full details of his female counterpart's genesis.
With all this in mind, Vlad set to work, running a battery of standard medical tests and a number of non-standard ones, attempting to glean whatever information he could before the Core Destabilisation became acute and he could begin to observe exactly how the process worked.
His subject whimpered and pleaded after a pitiful attempt at defiance, but Vlad was unmoved. She was a means to an end, nothing more.
Dani had tried to be strong, like Danny, but everything hurt so much… she just couldn't keep the tears away.
And if she was honest with herself, Vlad terrified her. She had thought that he cared about her, that he would take care of her; but he didn't, he never had. For some reason, she was worth even less to him than the other clones, even though she was the only one that had lasted for any length of time.
She could feel the ectoplasm that encased her every cell beginning to shudder and writhe more frequently now; it wouldn't be long until her core died and then… what happens to a clone after they die?
Life and death, original and clone, all where things that were far beyond Dani's young mind, yet they were questions she had had to confront during her brief existence. But she didn't know that it wasn't normal for someone of her age, biological or actual, to have to wonder about what meaning, if any, their life had, or what it would be like to grow up with an actual family rather than a monster that considered you no more than an expendable tool, or worse, a mistake.
And so Dani began to cry and whimper and plead. She didn't understand why Vlad treated her like he did, or what he hoped to gain from his experiments. All she knew was that this was going to be the end of Danielle Phantom.
Valerie was still trying to process what Phantom had told her. It was so fantastical and ridiculous, she couldn't believe it. And it came from a ghost, she couldn't believe anything they said.
So why was she still trying to convince herself to ignore it?
A deep sigh could be heard from the figure still holding her against the wall as the grip around her throat lessened noticeably, before disappearing entirely. Valerie dropped awkwardly to the ground before sliding down the wall until she was sprawled on the cold, chipped concrete, massaging her chilled and likely bruised throat.
A roar of frustration from Phantom shook her out of her stupor as a rain of brick dust coated her armour and small chunks pinged off the ceramic plates. Looking up, she could see that Phantom had punched clean through the double-brick wall of the warehouse, not a foot away from where her head had been. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine as she imagined what might have happened if her head had of been in its path.
Phantom had begun pacing across the warehouse floor; not floating, but actually pacing. It was weird to see a ghost look so… grounded. Shaking her head to clear it of the questions surrounding the mysterious spectre, Valerie went back to wondering why she was actually beginning to believe all the accusations Phantom had made. They were crazy, but something about his tone made her stop and think; and those thoughts had grown, and spawned new thoughts.
Now, Valerie was beginning to question everything she thought she knew. Her neat little world of 'humans are good, ghosts are evil' was, against her will, beginning to blur into a world of (excuse the pun) grey where both humans and ghosts could be good or evil. And if you added these supposed half ghosts into the equation, then… what the hell then? If that little girl really was partly human…
"I'm not saying I believe you, but what is a half-ghost, exactly?" Valerie finally asked, her voice a little scratchy from the pressure exerted on her wind-pipe. She didn't want to believe this ghost, but if he was right, and that little girl was actually half human, then she couldn't live with herself if she let her get hurt; especially after all she had done already.
Phantom stopped his pacing and turned and fixed his burning eyes on her.
"They're humans with an ectoplasmic core inside them; basically they have the same abilities as most ghosts, but they are also fully human."
"So you're saying…" Valerie began, unable to complete the sentence.
"…That Danielle is actually a human, just with ghost powers; yes," Phantom finished for her.
"But how do I know these half-ghost's even exist? I mean, I've certainly never heard of one," Valerie questioned, her stubborn nature slamming up barriers once again.
"They're rare, very rare. You could count them all on one hand. And they go to great lengths to keep it a secret, from people like you in particular," the black and silver ghost replied icily.
"Okay, but-" Valerie began only to be sharply cut off by Phantom.
"Look Valerie, I don't have time to play Twenty Questions with you. Just tell me which one of Vlad's mansion you sent Danielle to."
Valerie paused, weighing up her options. If Phantom was right and she didn't tell him, then she might be directly responsible for the death of this little girl. But if Phantom was lying to her and she did tell him, then she would be betraying her employer and putting him in serious danger. An image of a hungry, desperate little girl flashed unbidden into her mind. Then a memory of the same girl grabbing hold of her and turning her intangible as the building collapsed around them.
She still didn't know what to make of most of what Phantom had said, but she did know this; that little girl, Danielle, needed help, and Mayor Masters was hiding something from her.
Sighing at what she was about to do, Valerie met Phantom's cold glare.
"On the table, there's a record of the address; she should be there."
Phantom dashed over to the table and quickly flicked through a small pile of papers before he found the right one. He scanned the document quickly and memorised the address before turning to fly out of the building.
"Phantom, wait!" Valerie called out, and much to her surprise, the ghost did indeed freeze, turning carefully back to face her.
"I'm coming with you. I need to know if everything you said, about Danielle and about Mr Masters, is true or not. And you can be damned sure that I won't hesitate to take you down again if you lied to me."
The ghost didn't move for a couple of seconds, but finally he nodded in acceptance.
"Meet me at the edge of the town in twenty minutes; otherwise I'm leaving without you."
Valerie signalled her understanding, and then Phantom was gone; flying straight through the roof.
Valerie couldn't help but shake her head at what she had gotten herself into. This was turning into one wild night.
After Danny had left the warehouse, he immediately flew back to FentonWorks. He had briefly considered getting Sam and Tucker, but he didn't have time and if he told them what was going on, they'd only freak out and insist on going with him.
Instead, he decided it would be best to tell his parents, if only because they were probably a bit concerned that he had all but disappeared for a couple of hours after dark.
When he flew into the living room he was immediately greeted by a rather concerned and confused Maddie.
"Sweetheart, where have you been? Tucker said you had things to take care of, but we didn't think that they would take four hours! And what happened to your face? And your chest!?"
"Sorry Mom, but I'll have to explain everything later. Right now I need you and Dad to grab your gear and follow my ecto-signature in the GAV. I'll tell you where to meet me later."
"What? Why- What is this about young man? Can't you slow down for a minute and explain exactly what on earth you are talking about?"
"No Mom, I really can't. Look, I'll explain everything afterwards but right now I just don't have the time."
Noting the iron resolve in her son's hard expression, Maddie decided it would be best to just accept the situation.
"Alright, we'll be on the road in ten minutes; but I expect a full explanation when this is over."
"I know, and you'll get it, just… thanks. Wait, do you still have any of the original Ecto-dejecto in the Lab?"
"Yes, there's a full canister of it on the main workbench, why? Wait, never mind, just explain it later," Maddie said as she sighed and shook her head slightly in confused acceptance.
"Thanks Mom; this will all make sense soon, I hope."
And with that, he phased into the lab, grabbed the bottle in question and flew to the rendezvous point, attempting to bandage his chest wounds as he went.
Valerie arrived five minutes after he did, and he was struck with the thought that her sled might not be able to match his speed while flying.
As it turns out, he was right, with Valerie saying that it could do about 120mph, just a little over half of what he was capable of.
"Hmm, too slow… alright, brace yourself and try not to scream too much."
Not giving her a chance to wonder about what he meant, Danny grabbed her by the wrist and turned both of them intangible; he could survive the friction and G-force created when flying at over 200mph, but he had no idea if Valerie's suit could, so intangibility was the best option.
And then he took off.
The great thing about not being affected by gravity or air resistance was that there really wasn't that much trying to stop you from accelerating and as such, Danny was soon flying at a ridiculous velocity, with a screaming Valerie on her sled being pulled along behind him. He didn't know how fast he was going but he was pretty sure it was a new personal best.
As he flew off towards Vlad, Danny knew only one thing for certain:
If that son-of-a-bitch had done anything to her, then there would be hell to pay.