!Disclaimer: Over this break, I still have not come into ownership of DP, but enjoy the story anyways!
Reunion
"So Daniel failed in connecting the dots? I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised," he mumbled to himself as he sat tall in his throne. Danny had often overlooked the obvious in his youth and such traits don't completely disappear with age.
Feeling the need to stretch he stood and floated up towards his roof. He hardly felt the sky blow through him. Its musty stench didn't bother his nose. His slaves worked hard beneath the grey sky, menacing with its clouds and lack of sunshine. He had been content with his world for a while, but soon had expanded into the Ghost Zone where taking over the spirits had been much too easy to please him for long.
Just like his joints, he needed to stretch his power. He'd been wronged twice already in his eyes, and that could not be tolerated any longer. He hated disrespect—ask the prisoners chained in the dungeon—but he detested not knowing either. In order to never not know again he decided he had no other choice but to defeat Clockwork, and for that he would require a strong army. He didn't trust anyone but himself to lead in his quest for total triumph and his duplicates left his strength split amongst them, so he'd gone in search of allies and upon contemplation the answer smacked him in the face. Who better to trust than himself?
He, however, would still need to prepare so he could stay on top. They were not stronger than him alone, but together they did present a liability. Perhaps he should send another bot, this one with a recording device? Information has always, and will always be the best weapon to any war.
She didn't move except her head slightly to the left as he growled, "Who are you?" She didn't worry as he snatched what hair her helmet didn't cover, yanking her head back.
They both ignored Danny, who shouted, "Dan? What the fuck are you doing here?! Let go of her!" The halfa would not shoot because she was in the line of fire and furthermore he couldn't risk retaliation while he held Sam so high in the air.
"Well, it seems it's true what they say about your temper," she whispered back, the smirk easily heard in the tone coloring her words. "I'd be happy to tell you but not out here."
Dan narrowed his eyes at her flirty tone, giving her just enough of an opening to head-butt him and force his hand to let go of her, swiveling around in the air to latch onto his shoulders and flip herself over him like she'd done with Danny when they'd first met, where she landed on her hover board and could grab his hair and shock the other three Fentons into frozen silence. He tried to phase from her hold but her suit wouldn't allow it.
"How do you know of me?" he questioned as she pulled his hair back the same way he'd tugged hers. If Danny had yet to come to her aid she must be able to hold her own, and if he hurt her his chance of having Danny listen to him would dwindle considerably. Besides, she had easily out-done him.
"My mentor, Clockwork," she answered, clucking her tongue at the Cs and Ks. She felt him tense and jumped above her board just in time to avoid his backwards kick, laughing at how much fun she already was having with Dan. Not to mention how she enjoyed the fuzzy feeling warming her veins from first catching sight of him. Her conscious may not remember knowing him but her body alerted her that she had, in fact, known him and probably spent a lot of time with him.
"What does that fool want?" he snorted after settling down from his failed attempt at escaping, even daring to cross his arms as though bored with her.
"He's no fool and you'd be wise to show him some respect Daniel," she sneered, tugging on his hair to make her point. "Now, would you care to follow me?"
"Don't call me Daniel," he glowered, turning once she released him to begrudgingly follow her. He was aware Danny had called in the whole family to meet them at wherever they were going, keeping Sam and Dani as far from him as he could. He rolled his eyes. As if he would ever harm those two. The whole reason he'd come had been to protect her, and he'd always protected the younger one from himself. He groaned at seeing his parent's old home but the huntress ignored him as she landed before the front door and opened it to him. He raised an eyebrow and phased through the wall just to spite her, taking on intangibility as his sister tried to capture him with a ghost net. "Nice try Jazz."
"Please people, be civil," Vi called as she wiped her feet on the welcome mat and snatched his cape as the wind picked it up, pulling him into the kitchen as he wondered how she could touch any part of him when he'd been intangible? Why had he even followed her in the first place? He had acted akin to a lost puppy!
"I reiterate, who are you?" he demanded as she continued pulling him along as she stopped to pour a glass of scotch, sip it, and then sit on top of the kitchen table with her legs crossed one over the other. She didn't seem to care that they now had an audience, Danny the only brave soul stepping inside the kitchen doorway. Dan didn't care either as he leaned forward to brace both hands beside her bottom in an attempt to make her feel trapped.
"Why are you here?" she asked instead, tilting her head at his move as she wound the cape tighter around her left arm, letting him see the grin beneath her shield. She needed to give her helmet enough time to scan over him for any devices he may have installed before she could share her secret.
"Answer me woman," he ordered, fangs bearing. "I'm not afraid to hurt you."
Pulling his face closer to hers with her fingers under his chin she promised, "If you answer my one question I'll consider answering all of yours. I promise, and I never break my promises Dan."
"I'm here to…protect his world," he answered after deciding she could probably be trustworthy, though he found no logic in his gut feeling. He knew they were flirting but was that really enough to rattle his rational thought process? Was he starved for attention? Jealous of attraction he'd witnessed between Danny and Sam? "I saw something in Clockwork's tower that upset me and I'm here to stop it from occurring. Now who are you?"
She didn't give him a verbal answer, only unclasping her helmet so he could pull it off. She needed at least one hand ready in case he attacked in his soon-to-be-shocked state. "I'm from your timeline. Val sends her regards in case you were wondering. In your absence a lot has changed."
"My timeline has been destroyed," he informed her, his fingers curling under her shield, seeing as it only came down to just below her nose now. He didn't pull yet, hoping she'd continue with the story. She was obviously trying to explain herself to him, he just didn't know why yet.
"No, our timeline was very much kept intact. I can prove it if you'd like."
"I don't remember another huntress hanging around Valerie. I would have remembered any opposing figures, especially someone as skilled as you." Danny watched, unnerved, as Dan flirted with an alternate version of Sam. Even if they had grown up together, it seemed wrong for someone as unworthy and evil as Dan to be so close to someone as pure and heavenly as Sam. The rest of the audience watched with baited breath as to what would happen next, Sam finally understanding the desperate want of information from Vi the other day on the ghost currently two inches from her face.
"I happened to have been in a coma at the time, but I assure you it all happened for a reason; for the best," she explained, her last words. He seemed to understand he couldn't hold off any longer and pulled her helmet off in one swipe, mouth dropping as he looked her in her stunning, breathtaking, one-of-a-kind amethyst eyes.
Fury. He snatched her neck and forced her into the ceiling. "Who are you?!" He couldn't hold her as she kicked a pressure point in his arm and dropped gracefully to the floor beside him. He wanted to fight her, but at the same time he wanted to hide. She'd been alive all this time? Why did he have to suffer through the pain of losing her if he hadn't actually lost her? Why had everyone else need suffer from his wrath if it never needed to happen in the first place?
"You have two eyes, why don't you use them?" she snapped back, brushing ceiling particles from her suit, the white specks standing out against her black gloves. "Don't take too long though because I need to keep my helmet on."
"O, and pray tell why? Are you an imposture?" Dan accused as he physically restrained himself from crushing the helmet with misplaced anger. "If you are I will destroy you." The amount of deadly passion shining in his eyes at the thought of someone using her image for their own benefit easily allowed the rest of the occupants to take notice. Vi merely blushed, which actually threw Dan for a loop.
"Well, he does not need to know I'm here, now does he? Imagine what would happen if he killed me?" she insinuated, snatching for her helmet but not acting fast enough to avoid his hand grabbing her wrist. To calm the suddenly re-tensed atmosphere, she set her other hand on her hip and rolled her eyes.
"You died, I saw you. You were right next to the boiler," Dan spoke aloud, amazed that she didn't slip through his fingers and disappear, waking him to find this had only been a dream and she truly had been stolen from him.
"Long term coma; don't you listen? I told you that not two minutes ago," she teased, snatching his arm so she held his wrist instead of the other way around. Taking her helmet back now that his response had grown limp, she added, "Somehow I was resuscitated after my body was found a week or so afterwards and Val ended up taking care of me. The only explanation I was told was that it had to happen."
Dan growled at the last line. He firmly believed it did not have to happen! Yet instead of his eyes glowing a profuse red they momentarily flashed an acidic green. His anger fizzled soon though as his Fenton genius gene resurfaced, thoughts of what could have become of her vegetated state had something happened to Valerie. Had he rid himself of the huntress, would there have been anyone else to take care of her? Would he have inadvertently killed her? Dan turned his back on the group in hopes of hiding his overwhelming guilt. Dan Phantom was a heartless demon who laughed at other's guilt and acted without remorse. But…he had only been able to do so because the few people he didn't wish to disappoint had been snatched from him too early in his life. He suddenly felt the need to apologize, but shook it off as he straightened his shoulders and turned back to the group.
Danny still did not trust Dan but he would admit the demon had surprised him with his behavior thus far. Danielle could not believe the evil her dad had warned her of stood mostly unharmed in her kitchen as Maddie and Jack internally debated on whether or not hunting him would be hunting their son. Jazz's mind sprang to life with psychological cues she continually witnessed from the eldest Phantom as Tucker stood so his shoulder just barely covered part of Jazz's. He could never take Dan on, but if he did snap at least he could cover for Jazz at first. Bravely, Sam happened to be the only other one willing to speak up and move towards him.
"So, why are you back?" she questioned, stepping as close as she could before Danny moved more in front of her, as if blocking Dan's path to her. She was just as curious as her alternate self. "Not that I'm complaining, but why aren't you wreaking havoc or trying to kill us?"
"I'm here for personal reasons," he snapped, glaring at her forehead instead of her eyes. She may not be his Sam, but she was still Sam and since he wouldn't hurt her he should fear retaliation; he noticed she still wore her boots.
"But earlier you said you were here to save the world. We would appreciate an honest answer Daniel," the other Sam interjected, catching him red handed. He never had been good with words, one of the reasons he struggled in English during high school.
"Vi is absolutely correct, why are you lying to us and why are you here?" Danny demanded.
"What the hell is a 'Vi?'" Dan asked instead, biting his lip from lashing out at his Sam when she slapped him over the head. Tucker, for one, could not believe she had just done that and had gotten away with it without any type of retaliation.
"That happens to be my nickname nowadays," she indignantly informed him, glaring him down and even with the shield hiding her eyes he could feel them burning holes in his head. "I'm Vi, she's Sam, stop avoiding the question."
Sighing he answered, "Protecting his world is for my personal gain. One might even call it a moral duty." He chuckled low and dark at his twisted words, knowing to him it truly felt as such though no one in that room would probably believe him. Dan Phantom had no morals.
"Bullshit. If you're not going to tell us the truth I'm gunna have to—" Danny began his threat only to be cut off by Vi's, "Wait, hold up. We should show him the note and picture."
"Why?" Danny exasperatedly asked.
Vi ignored him in favor of pulling out the letter, which she'd kept in one of her many pockets on her suit, to shove it towards Dan. "What is the picture?"
He knew instantly, but that didn't stop him from asking, "What do you think it is?"
"Either part of a Specter Deflector, a Fenton Thermos, or part of the Specter Speeder. Do they have any significance to you or any combination thereof?"
"You're kidding right?" he practically laughed at their obliviousness. "I was trapped in a damn thermos, recently escaped. The Specter Deflector had been locked around my waist when I fought Danny earlier in our intersecting past which led to his victory, and I 'accidentally' disabled the Specter Speeder when I'd posed as my younger self once upon a time. If I had to guess though, I would say it was part of the thermos."
Sam startled everyone in the room by slapping her forehead with a mumbled, "Of course!"
"Why didn't you remember that?" Vi asked a bit irritably towards Danny. If it had been that obvious how could he have possibly let it fly over his head?
"Why didn't you?" Danny snapped back, flushed with embarrassment.
"Did you really just ask that?" Vi deadpanned with arms crossed. "Has anyone ever told you about your clueless problem?"
"Yes, you have actually told him that millions of times in the past. You just don't remember," Sam shrugged as she pat her husband's back in sympathy.
"Wait, why doesn't she remember?" Dan demanded, automatically grabbing Vi's chin to turn towards him. He searched her eyes for any sign of a concussion, his reflexes flowing naturally now that he wouldn't suppress them. "What happened?"
Vi shook his hand off her and with a sad smiled informed, "The coma left me with amnesia."
Author's Note
Yay! Dan has finally arrived!
I have to say, the kitchen scene is one of my favorite scenes I got to write for this story. And yes, I know some of you will be disappointed that Dan and Danny did not fight each other, but don't worry! ;)
Also, because I did not post this chapter earlier in the week like I should have, I will post the next chapter later today! I have a lot of free time today, due to Spring Break! Please forgive me for now updating sooner, I couldn't find enough time between enjoying the warm weather, finishing school work for midterms, and then traveling back home as well as hanging out with friends I haven't been able to see in months. But still, I gave you a promise and I broke that so I'm very sorry.
See ya in a few hours!
