Chapter 03 – Bitter Reunions

"You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour's."

…

What if the neighbour coveted?

Danny saw his home not too far ahead, his electric scooter hurrying him along. He and Phantom had been out for most of the night, looking up more things about ghosts and how exactly to confront them without causing so much confrontation.

"Finally. One day where I don't miss my 10 o'clock curfew." Only five minutes to the said time. He'd avoid getting lectured, something only his magic teachers had done and it was quite uncomfortable for Maddie and Jack to do so.

He gasped and saw his breath. Of course, a ghost would come just as he was getting home from a long day. Of course…

Maybe it won't be hard.

Hopefully. A powerful human in magic, he might be, but Danny knew his limits. He drove his scooter behind a van and cried out his battle cry. Phantom had realised that through many of the books that they read, a witch or other supernatural being needed a vocal form to summon their strength should they wish for the largest, most beneficial effect. Humans did it often during forms of martial arts, claiming that it aided them into driving more force into their attacks.

Danny, his ghostly tail emerging, flew up into the sky towards the vultures that had been going through several homes moments ago. "You fellows look lost. Um, any chance of you staying that way?"

"Mind your own business, fancy-pants ghost boy!" The vulture with the fez hat and sharp beak scowled and quickly led his two companions, a vulture with sunglasses and a vulture with a smoother beak, down to rest in a passing bus. Danny quickly followed and observed them. They were like arguing adults at his mother's family reunion, with the way they were fighting.

"We've been circling this town for hours!" The sunglasses-wearing vulture griped. "We coulda been half way to Flor-Ida by now. Ask for die-rections."

It was kind of funny how they spoke, but he kept a straight face and continued to listen.

"I know vhere I'm going!" the leader protested, his shoulders hunching.

The third vulture waved his wing like an arm, as though attempting to wave away his cohort's smug attitude. "You so do not. Ask him!"

Danny blinked, the wing pointed at him. "Ask me what?"

The ghost birds flew up and stayed at a level quite a bit above the buildings of Amity Park. They remained stationary as they patiently waited for the ghost boy to meet them there. When Danny came to their level, the leader came forward.

"Ve are on a search-and-destroy mission." Danny crossed his arms and processed the words, a look of hesitance in his eyes. "Could you help us find, and peck to death, this guy here?"

Danny blinked after the vulture held up a part of a photo. The piece was not at all in good condition, having been forcibly ripped from its original form and some light damage had been done to it, fluorescent lighting diminishing its quality and blurring the fine lines of the face within it. It was still recognizable and it struck a chord of caring and concern in Danny's chest. The hair, he had not seen in years in the style portrayed in the photo, but the eyes were still the same navy blue, hopeful about life. The strength in them was youthful, but a dash of wisdom was held there in the blue eyes.

"Dad?"

Danny sighed, pulling out a book to read from his backpack. The bag was filled with books that his birth mother had left him. He had been a bit too young to understand them at first, even with the magic that he had thought he had known. The witch that taught them could not figure it out, even with her 1000 year knowledge and her education.

„A witch specializing in Eastern magic cannot comprehend the arts of Western magic and vice versa. Only few witches can obtain the ability to control both. This requires energies of both to unite, which done improperly can lead to destruction of the subject itself."

"How is it that you goof up-" Danny looked over at Jazz. She was gripping the seat underneath her, clearly agitated. "-and I have to spend four days jammed in the Fenton Ghost RV?"

As Jack began to boldly praise his invention, Danny felt somewhat suffocated. He should have expected some part of the RV to spray ectoplasmic goo when he pressed the button he thought was for windows, though he did smile inside when it landed on Jazz's face. He did not waver at her threat.

"I'll get you for this."

„Witches are prisoner to the anti-magic toxin. Properties of this toxin are more clearly described in Chapter 8, but to put it bluntly–

„The Anti-magic Toxin can kill a witch. Human witches have the ability to withstand this, but the time that they can resist it is determined by the Witch's own strength. It is highly effective against ghosts and exists as a green energy."

Vlad Masters smiled, standing in the doorway. He saw and heard the RV pull up to his castle's front door, the vehicle silver and green in the colours that he knew Jack grew terribly fond of in college. Out of the aesthetic class that he had years ago, Vlad had argued that their Proto-Portal be blue instead. As the family got out of the RV, he came out of the shadows, his black suit prim and proper.

There she was… with her idiot husband and her children.

When he had been called twelve years ago, being told that he would be the godfather of Maddie's son, his heart felt so torn. Every knife-edged scalpel, every hypodermic needle, every pained thought, memories from the hospital, lying in bed as he stared up at the anti-bacterial white ceiling; those painful feelings wrapped around him again, strangling him. The child had no sin, so young, so fair… as fair as Maddie was.

So he never suspected that the child might not belong to Maddie genetically.

The family approached, Vlad dismissing all but Maddie.

"Jack," he greeted.

"And Maddie," he said with far more pleasure than the first name. "You've never looked lovelier, my dear. Come in, come in."

Vlad wrapped his arms around Maddie, her daughter, and… Daniel, was it? He closed the door on Jack and smiled to himself at hearing Jack remain confused outside.

Jazz began to criticise his decorations. Shame… Didn't Jack introduce Jasmine to football?

"Jazz, hello?" Daniel scolded playfully, as though Vlad's home décor decision should be obvious. "Football helmets, jerseys, cheese-heads; he's a Packers fanatic."

Vlad smiled. A bright boy, he thought, ruffling his hair. Also, very familiar looking. "Oh, 'fanatic' is such a negative word, but yes."

Jazz remained skeptical. "I don't understand. You have billions of dollars. Instead of buying this stuff, why don't you just buy the team?"

"Because they're owned by the city of Green Bay," Vlad griped, "and they won't sell them to me!" He pouted somewhat childishly and then recalled that Maddie was there.

"One of two things my wealth has not as of yet been able to acquire." Maddie smiled weakly.

That small smile, it would grow into one of joy and love, Vlad knew. It was destiny. He would repair the wound left on his heart from the call that he received in the hospital, an invitation to be the Best Man at Jack's wedding… His wedding to Maddie. It was so painful.

He didn't see Danny furrow his eyebrows somewhat, puzzled by their interaction.

Danny sat on the couch in one of the studies that Mr Masters had allowed them to use. Jack and Maddie were arranging their things while Jazz looked through some old film reels that she had gained interest in. It seemed that she was getting vaguely interested in football.

"…"

"I'll grab another book a bit later, but I want to finish this one first," he said softly to the air about him.

"Reading alone, Daniel?" Danny looked up and saw Mr. Masters standing by the door. He nodded and looked at the man. If he really wanted to, he'd stand up and greet him in Japanese, but Danny felt that it wasn't necessary. He only did that when Maddie and Jack had already introduced him as their adoptive son, something they hadn't done in years. He had liked to embarrass them at parties that way.

"Yes, Mr. Masters." Vlad came over and asked what he was reading. "1984 by George Orwell."

"That's a strong book. Are you enjoying it?"

Danny nodded. "I like Winston's characterisation. He sounds like a lost teenager, hearing the guy at the bar talking about pints of beer and hearing that other guy talk about the church."

Vlad chuckled. "That is very true. Have you heard of Brave New World by A. Huxley? He wrote of a dystopia, much like Orwell did, but his world took a different turn."

Danny shook his head. "I'll try and find it at the library when I get home-"

Vlad never thought he'd lightly curse Maddie, mentally, though, for interrupting their conversation. Daniel seemed to be a very nice boy, though shy and sensitive to criticisms, as he hid the book under one of the couch pillows when his mother approached. As he watched Daniel's attention turn to his mother with curiosity, Vlad felt the pang of longing inside of his chest.

The same blue eyes, slight frame, the form he had loved for a short time; long enough to make a mark on his heart, but not to dissuade his love for Maddie.

"Danny, your father and I need help getting something from the RV."

"Yes, Mom."

Such a nice boy… Much like how he used to be.

Danny dreamt that night of two powerful things, not entirely certain of what they were. They were in the form of people, but it was more of a humanoid shape. Their eyes were bright and glowed with an antagonizing aura.

"We have seen it all come to pass. Shall one more Time hurt the present? The Precious Gift?"

One was dressed in white and Danny couldn't tell if it was a man or woman. Probably a woman, as the form was in a dress, it seemed, but its voice was deep, a threatening voice, with a hint of honey for baiting one to come with a breath's distance.

"Show the Maker's face, the Board overturned and, in its Anger and utter Sin, destroyed!"

The last creature, dressed somewhat like a Catholic priest, all in black, was still and had a somewhat softer voice. Perhaps it was the air about him or Danny's own apprehension, but he both wanted to get away from and to come closer to that creature. Its voice was deeper than the one what was in white and its tone spoke volumes.

"The Sin hath paid, the Board righted, its cost of Execution. Time for the Penance! Let die the Hatred and bring forth the Just Punishment of dear and glorious Armageddon!"

Danny felt his body run cold and with that, he awoke. His strange dream forgotten, Danny only paid attention to his Ghost Sense, his breath visible in front of him.

"Just what I need; a working vacation."

Danny, in Phantom's form, hushed the ghost that inhabited his mind. The other was usually so guarded, it was interesting to hear him practically incoherent when he woke him from his slumber.

Going on?... Was ist das?

A ghost is here in the Masters Castle. Danny hummed as he thought over what Phantom had said at the end. You speak German?

Deutsch? Um… I guess I do. The realisation spread through their linked minds in a certain degree of shock. Phantom could speak German and he had some connection to Amity Park… and Danny. Maybe they could find out who he was, a long time ago. The ghost went back to sleep, his power in Danny's body now.

Danny smiled to himself as he floated down intangibly and saw his father chased by the same ghost vultures that had been after him in Amity Park. Once he got him to the bathroom, Danny came up behind the ghosts.

"Hi, guys. Remember me?" He punched his right fist into his left palm, hopefully appearing tough. What he didn't expect was for the vultures to shriek in terror and fly away, disappearing into the walls.

"Okay, that was almost too easy."

"Ah! Bright boy!" Danny turned and felt fear wash over him. It was a ghost, of that he was certain. What he was unsure of was the reason he looked like the daemon in his dream. His red eyes stared down at Danny, a feeling of superiority emanating from his ghostly aura. The white he wore was somewhat ironic to the ghost boy, such pure connotations of the colour that he had read from all of his books, yet seeing the white-clad ghost, he felt threatened at his most basic mental level.

That would not best him.

"Oh, whatever." He came closer to the ghost. "I was aiming for the birds, but you'll do."

Danny raised his fist and intending to punch the other's face… He didn't expect his fist to be caught, the larger black-gloved hand trapping his white-clad one. He cried out as he was thrown against the wall. If Mr Masters saw the mess, what would he think? As he slid down, he landed on a stone bench. His hand came to rest on his head, trying to orient himself.

"Whoa. Fast," he spoke to himself. "Alright; Better stop fooling around." He flew again at the ghost and gagged as a hand clamped around his throat. His enemy threw him down to the ground, Danny's back making painful contact with the hard floor.

"My vultures were supposed to bring the big idiot to me, but you'll do." The vampire-looking ghost spoke down to him, teasing him through mimicry. "Danny Phantom, right?"

Danny tilted his head. He gently thought to Phantom, trying to wake him.

Wha- Who is he? How does he know us?

I… don't know.

"You… You know me?" Phantom took over, hushing Danny, and asking their question. This ghost seemed familiar to him somehow. His appearance was frightening, but his voice was like that of a teasing mentor. Danny could only process the fear, not the familiarity. Above all, Phantom was wondering how the other was aware of him.

"Of course, I know you!" The ghost slipped through the wall to the library, prompting Phantom to follow. The books were welcoming, but the ghost boy knew that they held no answers and had no entertainment for him now.

"You're the ghost boy who uses his powers for good! How quaint." The older ghost was making fun of him, taunting the rules that he and Danny both held dear. It reminded Phantom of some of the books that Danny read, books that were required for his faster-paced, supplemental Social Studies class – Ethics. He remembered in one of Danny's readings about Friedrich Nietzsche.

„You look up when you wish to be exalted. And I look down because I am exalted."

Phantom frowned. That was definitely this man's thought.

The ghost came close and Phantom instinctively backed away. "Aren't you going to try and shove me into your ridiculous thermos?"

"I… I don't want to fight you!" This ghost was powerful, pure energy radiating from his core. Phantom couldn't fight him… he couldn't.

"No. No you don't." The ghost blasted him with an ectoplasmic ray, its colour pink. Phantom yelled in pain as his body made contact with a table, knocking everything from its surface, and stopped against a bookshelf. The books scattered and Phantom gripped the table in front of him to quickly get back up. As the ghost came close, he shot his own ray.

"Get away!"

A translucent shield blocked him. His enemy merely laughed. "Ah, an ectoplasmic energy blast." He yawned, moving his shield to block the other blasts. "So… Year one." After Phantom stopped, seeing the superfluity of the attacks, the blue-skinned spectre came close and said, "Tell me, child. Can you do this yet?"

The ghost duplicated himself three times, four ghosts surrounding him. The teenager floated away, concerned for his and Danny's body.

"No, I can't! How are you doing all this?"

"Years of practice," the clones spoke, their voices in unison. "Which you, unfortunately, have no time for."

Four energy rays lit Phantom's form with a pink light, the energy burning him and draining his energy. Phantom curled into himself in pain. Danny was still asleep, making it easier for him to focus, but Phantom could only wonder of the repercussions of this battle.

The ghost duplications dissipated and left the original smiling at his power, his black-gloved hand smoking with bright pink energy.

Phantom was only aware of pain for the rest of his time conscious. Punches hit him in sensitive areas, his joints and parts of his head. His own attacks missed or scarcely left a mark on his foe.

After the last punch that his pain-racked body registered, Phantom went intangible and passed through the wall, back into the hallway. The floor was unforgiving and with that last thought, he passed into unconsciousness, letting the transformation rings pass back over Danny's body… He could only hope that the ghost paid no mind to his friend.

Another half-ghost. Another like him!

Vlad felt such joy in his heart… something he had not felt in over twenty years. Ten years spent in and out of that hospital, fifteen years training, bettering himself, making him far more superior than any mere mortal man, and creating the greatest part of his life, only to have it taken away.

Daniel was such a bright boy, not well understood by his parents and he could see why. As he had taken the boy back to his room, Vlad had spied several bottles of prescription medication. Prozac and Seroquel XR for depression, Abilify in combination with the other two for the depression.

Vlad could recall a few things from biology and psychology. Abilify was also an anti-psychotic. Somewhat ironic for ghost hunters to have their child on that pill. Sometimes only children could see ghosts, spirits that equipment could not detect. Or perhaps Daniel was seeing something else?

Something not ghostly, only children being susceptible to seeing them, perhaps. This just made Danny far more special, more necessary to nurture and facilitate to grow!

He would learn more about the boy in time, just as Daniel would learn to enjoy his fatherly company in time. Yes, Daniel would come to him for guidance! Daniel seemed alone in his universe, his sister dismissing many of his thoughts and his parents most likely unnerved by the things that their second child "saw".

Vlad would no longer be alone. They'd fill the holes in their chest with each other and no one else would be needed. Maddie would come along, of course, but for the first time in almost thirty years… Vlad was not consumed by passion and lust, whimsical longing. Only love, familial love.

Daniel would become his son, Madeline his wife, and they would be happy in their universe together.

He'd finally get the family that he had been looking for for twelve years.

Danny sat in the same study from the previous day, his bookbag at his feet. He was reading with Mr Masters again, the man's company rather pleasant.

"So 'love' was what they were trying to eliminate in 1984?" he asked the grey-haired man. Danny had gotten far enough into the book that he was trying to pin down Winston's crime. Of course, he was going against the government, but what was his sin exactly?

Vlad chuckled. "That's your theory?"

"…"

Danny blinked. Surely he had found the answer. "Yeah. They eliminated the need for enjoyable sexual contact, the use of the word 'love,' and similar things. They want to be rid of love as an opposing force. I mean, it makes people to crazy things."

Vlad smiled. "You are quite intuitive for your age, my boy. Humour me a moment. Say we are in a debate and you need to use a quote in your support for love. What quote would you choose?"

Danny bit his lip for a moment and pulled out a notebook that he had in his backpack, turning to a certain flagged page. "'There is no shame in being hungry for another person. There is no shame in wanting very much to share your life with somebody.'"

"...Is that Augusten Burroughs?"

"Yes." Danny smiled at Mr Masters. No one had sat with him like this in years, not since his tutor died two years ago. He certainly enjoyed Sam and Tucker's company, but they seemed so focused on their own interests that Danny could not impress his own on them, not as they did upon others. Sam's magic was limited to her interest in reading the subject, not its usage, and Tucker devoted himself to technology.

Where did his own magic fit in?

"Your parents-" Danny listened intently to his father's friend. "-weren't too fond of subjectivity in literature in college. They read science journals and textbooks, always looking for more factual knowledge and their way to spread their influence outward…"

Vlad moved from his armchair and sat next to the boy, not too close. "Ghosts interest you, but you would rather not dissect them, would you?"

Danny froze. How should he answer? "Uh… No, I wouldn't."

Mr Masters chuckled. "No harm in speaking your opinions and beliefs, child."

"No one ever seems to listen." Danny stayed silent as Vlad stood to get a book from one of the four shelves in the room. He opened one and smiled. Danny spied the cover and it seemed to be a scrapbook of sorts.

"How about a quote, in support of adolescent minds, little badger?" Danny nodded, taking the nickname in stride. Apparently, it was the mascot for his parents' and Vlad's college football team. Considering how much the man loved football, the nickname was a good thing, then, he so figured.

"'I find it really offensive when people say that the emotional experiences of teenagers are less real or less important than those of adults.

"'I am an adult, and I used to be a teenager, and so I can tell you with some authority that my feelings then were as real as my feelings are now.'"

Vlad saw the boy's eyes, bright and blue, gain a spark. Perhaps it was the feeling of acceptance, but Vlad could just feel happiness from the teen's core. He would have to learn how to hide his ghostly aura from- No… He'd never have to hide again.

"Who said that?"

"John Green. He's a rather popular writer these days, I hear."

Danny smiled and continued to read, Phantom content as well. They'd found a nice person, a nice adult, after wandering alone. They had each other, but it was nice to add a friend to their Universe.

Danny had been pretty tired for most of the day; up until the reunion, he had rested in the study, finishing his book.

That night, Danny went along with his parents to the room where the college reunion was being held. It was spacious and decorated in a rather nice way. Danny spotted a man with cheesehead and sighed a bit. Would he value his college days like that? Hopefully, it wouldn't be as embarrassing as his parents pogoing to New Wave music.

He was at one of the tables with a punch bowl on it, having talked with Miss Harriet Chin until something else caught her interest, and straightened as a hand touched his shoulder.

"Well, son, you're looking much better," Mr Masters observed. He continued, "I was wondering, if you could do me a huge favour."

"Oh, sure, Mr Masters!" Danny answered. "But call me 'Danny'. 'Son' is what my dad calls me." He smiled.

"Oh, yes, yes, of course. Now, could you go to my lab, second door on the right upstairs? There's a present in there for your father that I'd like you to bring down." Did the child not sense any malicious intent from him? He was still innocent in the ways of Man, something Vlad found both puzzling and endearing. The boy read books like 1984 and still he was so innocent and trusting. He would teach him the ways of the world, so that he would not be hurt.

"Okay." As Danny got up and went to do his given task, Vlad turned to the dance floor, seeing Jack pogo and Maddie watching in scrutiny.

"Maddie...That lab accident cost me my youthful chance at you, but that's all about to change..."

Danny opened the door to the lab and didn't find it surprising that it reminded him a bit of his parents', Vlad being their college buddy on the paranormal and whatnot. He looked around and was confused.

"Present? I don't see a present…" He continued walking into the room, hearing the door slide shut behind him. As he went further in, Danny spotted a photo frame. He approached and was looking at a black-haired, eighteen-year-old Vlad Masters, his smile sincere and youthful. Next to him was an eighteen-year-old Madeline Martin, eighties' style hair-do up and large hoop earrings in her ear lobes.

A large corner was torn from the photo, the only visible part of the third person in the photo part of the orange-

Orange jumpsuit?

"Hey, wait a minute..." Danny reached into his suit jacket and pulled out the scrap of photo that he had gotten from the ghost vultures. Laying it against the glass of the frame and making it fit into the crack between the wood and glass, making the picture look whole again.

His father's visage completed the photo, sending a pit of denial into Danny's stomach.

"Oh, no. No way." His ghost sense alerted him and distracted him from the photo for now. Phantom's power surged through him and the transformation rings passed over him.

Danny screamed as he was pulled up to make eye-contact with two ghosts, the Ecto-Pusses that he had beaten and fought back into the Ghost Zone. "Hey, let go!"

He kicked one away and grabbed the other by the tentacles that had a grip on his arm, flying back down to the ground and slamming its head against the lab floor. Its gelatinous form couldn't maintain itself and it disappeared as a smoke, leaving Danny's hand.

"Those ghosts… They were two of the first ghosts I fought."

"And they're not alone, pup!" Skulker's net wrapped around him faster than Danny's focus wrapped around Skulker's words. He hit the wall and felt electricity run through the fibres of the netting, his vision blurred until Skulker stepped into the light.

"Skulker?" He broke out of the net and kicked the other, making the ghost ram into some of Vlad's equipment. "How did you get back in your Ecto-skeleton? What are you doing here?"

"All excellent questions. Catch!" A black cube slid to Danny's feet. He gasped as the cube seemed to expand and wrapped around him, his body from the neck down encased in the object. Phantom's thoughts, his instincts, were suppressed, made completely silent.

"Hey! I can't phase out of this! It's disrupting my powers!" Danny didn't pay attention to Skulker pressing a button on his wrist, shouting as more electricity coursed through him, the pain exhausting his reserves and returning his body to its human form. The teen, feeling somewhat ill, let his head fall forward, hitting the surface of the box surrounding him.

Skulker, smirking as his prey was fully weakened, came and grabbed his head, yanking it back and letting a glowing blade come out of his left wrist.

Danny yelped in surprise and stammered for a few moments before chuckling awkwardly. "The glowing blade is new!"

The hunter smiled. "You like it? I've had some upgrades." His gaze became predatory again, hungry for blood. "Now-"

"Enough!" Both turned to see Vlad Masters, standing as though he hadn't walked in on an almost slaying, but rather on an employee who had been doing something inappropriate while on the job and needed a stern talking to. "I didn't free you to kill the boy, Skulker. Your work is done."

Skulker looked at Danny in confusion and reluctantly pulled the blade back into his wrist. "Yes, well, I-" The PDA that was still programmed to Danny's old Purple-Back Gorilla Research schedule chimed in Skulker's wrist. "I've gotta go to the library and checkout a book on a gorilla..." He pouted in annoyance. "Again!"

As the hunter of all things rare and unique intangibly flew out of the lab and out of the castle, Danny turned his attention back to Vlad.

"Skulker? The Ecto-Pusses? I don't understand!"

Vlad felt exasperation well within him. Surely the child had lost some innocent thoughts of the world, so trusting and naïve.

"Of course not! You're, what, fourteen?" As he spoke, he walked towards Danny, around the cube, and away again. "Too young to drive and not in college yet! I sent those ghosts, and others, to test your father's skills. Imagine my surprise when I find you; the second ghost hybrid his foolishness created!"

Danny's blood chilled. "'Second'?" Danny couldn't believe it until the black transformation rings from the man completely altered his appearance. Vlad Masters was no longer his friend. Just the enemy of his family, his father… his first friend.

"You?!" He exclaimed, "I'm going ghost!"

Nothing happened.

"I'm going ghost!" He looked down at himself. No HAZMAT suit, no white hair. "Why can't I go ghost?"

Vlad chuckled, amused. "You have a battle cry, hilarious. I, on the other hand, have this." he gloated, walking forward and patting Danny's cage. "A spectral energy neutralizer; designed by Skulker, paid for by me. And as long as you're contained within that box, you're as human as your idiot father."

"Let me out of here!" Jack was his father, his parent that took such good care of him and accepted him for what he was – a freak. Even if he hadn't told him that he was half-ghost, Jack had accepted him before. When he had looked at the grimoires at the library, Jack had not questioned it, only asked him not to perform anything that could be harmful to anyone. As he grew older and began to have problems in socializing normally, Jack comforted him and had taken him to the therapist when he asked, never questioning him. He helped him practice instead.

Jack would just smile and wish Danny all the luck in the world, wanting him to be as happy as fate would allow anyone to be.

"Why? So you can go back to stumbling through your adolescence, desperately trying to get control of your powers? Powers, by the way, that I've had for over twenty years." Vlad began to demonstrate some of his powers, something that the boy had shown interest in: the idea of having power.

"I have experience, my child. And the money and power attained through using those powers for personal gain, you see."

He split himself into three bodies, smiling at the child's silence. Was he figuring out the offer? "I could train you, teach you everything I know."

As he united into one again, Vlad presented the offer bluntly. "And all you'd have to do, is renounce your idiot father."

Danny glared at the other, with an "Are you kidding me?" look. "...Dude, you are one seriously crazed-up fruit loop. That is never going to happen."

Vlad harrumphed. "Yes, well, once your father is out of the way, we'll see how you'll feel." He laughed in a way that sounded demonic and quickly teleported away.

Danny felt, for the first time in not so long, useless.

Dad had said that Vlad had been in the hospital for four years; then there was twenty years of no contact. He had to help his father.

It wasn't his fault that Vlad closed his heart.

After the Dairy King had set him free, Danny transformed quickly. Phantom stayed silent, feeling his host's desperation. Nearing the reunion host room, he heard his father's voice.

"If you live to tell the tale, remember that big, fat Jack Fenton did this to you!" Danny felt vengeful. This was his family, his domain, his universe, and no one was allowed to mess with it.

"Guess again, cheesehead."

Danny flew intangibly through Jack's body, pushing Vlad out and pushing him back into the library where they had first fought, according to Phantom's memories. Vlad quickly dodged the punch that Danny threw at him in rage, giving him a chance to kick the boy away.

"Daniel, stop!" He floated above the floor, in a stable position, not to be easily knocked away. "Think about the things I could show you. The doors I could open for you. You, Danny Phantom, and I, Vlad Plasmius. Together we could rule!"

"Forget it, pal. Your money can't buy my mom, it can't buy the Packers, and it can't buy me!" A green ectoplasmic ray from Danny was caught by Vlad, the energy storing itself in an orb in the older half-ghost's palm. He pulled it with his other hand, letting the same amount of his own energy build in the same attack. Once done, he fired it back at Danny, who quickly threw up a hemispherical shield.

Danny glowered at him. "I know who you are. I'll tell my father. I'll tell everyone."

"And so will I," Vlad countered. "Honestly, if you expose me, you expose yourself."

Danny turned his head at the sound of RV's horn. He jumped out of the way as the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle/RV came into the library, busting down the doors. When it pulled to a halt, Vlad saw his chance. He turned his arms intangible and reached for Maddie.

"Mind if I cut in?" Maddie gasped and felt her body become intangible, a tingling sensation, as though her entire body had fallen asleep, spreading through her.

"Let go of me!" she ordered, once pressed against the blue-skinned ghost's chest.

"Never again, woman!" he sneered. She would be his. It was destiny!

Danny picked himself up from the rubble caused by Jack's reckless driving and saw his father running to retrieve his mother. "Maddie!" Jack cried, fearing for his wife's safety.

Danny flew into the RV, invisible, and sat in the driver's seat, ignoring Harriet Chin and focusing on the fact that he was going to drive this bulky vehicle. "Oh, great. It's a stick."

He shifted the gear and pressed his foot to the gas, his grip on the steering wheel white-knuckled; that is, if he was visible. He almost steered into Jack, prompting a cry of warning from Maddie to her husband.

"Sorry, Dad." He positioned and parked the RV so that it was facing Plasmius. "I've got one shot at this."

The steering wheel shifted into its battle mode, two handles with buttons, almost like those of an old video game controller, in its place. Danny aimed and fired. The first attack, Vlad just knocked away. Lightning, Vlad phased through it. The ectoplasmic goo hit him though, Maddie falling out of the air.

Danny flew into Jack's body, overshadowing him and catching his mother.

"Jack, you did it!" Maddie beamed at her husband, making Danny proud of himself.

"It was nothing, Mom." He realised his mistake and quickly went to correct himself. "Uh, Maddie! Sure, heh, Maddie." He set her down, asking her to check on Harriet as he "finished this". He went to Vlad, smirking. He hadn't won. Danny had, and he would submit to Danny's terms for sure now.

Gripping Plasmius by the collar, he lifted him up from the goo. "How's it going, V-Man?"

Vlad stated mockingly, "Ooh, you've overshadowed Jack. Ooh, I'm so scared." He raised an eyebrow. "What's next, a card trick?"

"Listen to me," he ordered softly, firmly, to the older man. "I swear I'll walk out of my dad's body and expose us both, unless you call a truce."

Vlad stared at him. "You're bluffing!"

He brought Vlad close. "No, I'm not. My parents will accept me, no matter what. But if I expose you...Well, heh, what would my mom think of you?"

Vlad grimaced. Maddie had hated ghosts for so long, viewing them as subjects rather than sentient beings. She would despise him!

Danny set him down. "You'll be miserable and alone for the rest of your life. Unless you call a truce."

Vlad remained frowning, but to Danny's surprise, he smiled again, as though not thrown off by this unfortunate circumstance on his part. "Using your opponent's weaknesses against him. I am teaching you something after all. Very well. Truce. Eventually you will join me by choice. You and your mother. But for now..." He cleared his throat and took to the ceiling.

"CURSE YOU, Jack Fenton! Your world-renowned expertise of all things ghost has defeated me!" He smiled to himself and muttered. "...Until next time, son."

He cried out, turning his body to mist and disappearing.

Danny had to credit him on the acting.

Danny pulled out his book and one of the flashlights from the glove compartment. His sister and mother were asleep in the back and his dad was completely unconscious from having the energy completely taken from him today. Being overshadowed and then having to sort everything out with the Madison police department must have taken its toll, finally. An added factor to his father's heavy sleeping might have been the sadness at his friend not bidding him "good-bye"; if Jack had only known…

Danny pulled out his 1984 book and read silently, his pages lit by the passenger overhead lights. Only until a certain paragraph did he whisper the words out loud.

"…'O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself...'"

Danny stared at the page.

No. That would not be him.

Never.

The Scriptwriter set down his pen and laid his head on his desk. He looked over to the bassinet where his son slept and then down to the last line he wrote. He heard one of his readers in his head.

Never is a very long time.

"I guess it is." With that in mind, the Scriptwriter picked up his son, being careful not to jostle him awake. "We'll sleep in my bed tonight. Just so I can cherish what may never happen again."

His son didn't stir when his father pressed his lips to the child's forehead.