Danny didn't want to go back to see Vlad, he didn't want to be in that cell, too see that man… see his sadness… catch his crazy…

No. I'm not like Vlad, he assured himself as he pulled on a white and red T-shirt. I'll get better, Sam is just a coping mechanism; she'll go away in time.

But even as he thought this is his chest felt constricted and his mouth became dry, he wasn't ready to let go and even thinking about it made him feel sick.

I'm sure most people are a little crazy right now, it's a fucking apocalypse.

He quickly brushed his teeth and left room 605 without looking too hard in the mirror. He hadn't washed and his hair was a mess. The bags under his eyes were getting worse.

He was beginning to look crazy.

"Any news?" Danny asked casually to his older sister as he entered her usual haunt – the big white room.

"No fresh news about the ghost activity." Jazz said, she began to make cups of tea at the small kitchen area near the lounge chairs in the corner of the room. She decided politely ignored Danny's appearance.

Jazz poured the tea into two cups and handed one to Danny. He stared down at the hot liquid as its warm steam caressed his face, it felt comforting. He took a small sip and thanked her.

"There are other news though," Jazz said as she leant against the counter clutching her tea with both hands, "Good news, too. Tucker has made a bit of a breakthrough in creating a vaccine for your transformation problems, it still needs some tweaking, but it will be ready very soon!"

What a relief. No more being useless.

"That's brilliant! All these transformations are making me tired." Danny said, making a weak excuse for his dreadful appearance (although it wasn't entirely untrue), "you said 'there are other news'?"

Jazz nodded while taking a sip, she quickly swallowed and said, "Yes, brilliant news. Valerie Gray is awake."

To this, Danny was taken aback. He had honestly forgotten about Valerie what with all the other things going on, but upon hearing these words something inside him suddenly felt so much lighter, like a huge pressing weight he didn't even know existed in him was suddenly lifted. She was alive, she was more than alive – she was ok.

No thanks to me.

"Can I see her?" Danny hesitantly asked.

"Of course, she's in the hospital wing on floor -11. Room 49." Jazz had finished her tea and began to wash up the mug.

Danny had a feeling his sister had known exactly how this conversation was going to pan out. "I guess I'll have to tell her… what I am."

"Yes. There is no point in her not knowing. Do you think she will attack?"

"Let's hope not. But I'll be alright; she won't have her usual ghost hunting gear and I she'll be weak still."

"Good luck, you'll be fine"

Danny glugged down the rest of his tea and cleaned up before heading out the large white doors towards the elevator. He wondered how he was going to break the news to Val that her mortal enemy and the guy that cost her father his job was the same guy that she dated back in high school. Was there even a good way to put that?

Danny looked at himself properly in the mirror of the elevator for the first time. He combed his black hair with his fingers, trying to tame it as much as possible, and slapped his cheeks to give them a bit of colour. There wasn't much else he could do after that. Sleep was the only real cure.

He hadn't transformed all morning, so that was something.

"So now you care about your appearance." Sam tutted as she appeared behind him in the mirror, she put her hands on his shoulders and massaged them the way she always did when she could see he was stressed(although, of course, he couldn't feel her). "Does that have anything to do with the fact that you two went out?"

"What? No!" Danny felt ridiculous, he was arguing with his hallucinated dead girlfriend over a girl the liked when he was fourteen.

"I don't blame you Danny." Sam chuckled, "She's only gotten hotter over the years. Did you notice her body when you stripped those flaming clothes from her? Wow."

"No, I didn't." Danny retorted. his cheeks and ears burning.

"Well clearly you did, otherwise I wouldn't be talking about it."

And with that, the doors opened and Sam disappeared back into the nadirs of his mind.

The plaque on the wall of the corridor he was looking into read FLOOR -11 HOSPITAL WARD. Other than this feature there was no real difference between this corridor and the all the other corridors in the building – white, white and more white.

Danny followed the corridor until he reached a metal door with 'Room 49' on it and paused there, gathering his thoughts.

Hey, Valerie! You'll never guess who I am!

Hello Val, remember that time Danny Phantom ruined your life?

Remember that kids show Hannah Montanna? About a girl who was secretly a celebrity? Well, you'll never guess what celeb I secretly am!

Eugh.

Just get in there, Fenton.

Danny pushed the door open and peeked in. The room was small, but was packed full of various machines that stood paranoid around the white-sheeted hospital bed. Sat up in the bed was Valerie Gray. Although he frequently saw her around town in her ghost hunting gear, he hadn't seen her actual face without the mask and hood in quite a while. Her hair was untied and tight, individual curls brushed her shoulders. I was about as long as he remembered it. She looked different to the future Valerie he had once met – less hardened to the world.

She glanced up and her lips broke into an easy smile, "Danny Fenton." She spoke in a slightly croaky voice. "My God, you got tall!" She patted the chair next to her bed.

"I hope you're feeling alright, Valerie." Danny said, returning the smile as he strolled to the chair and sat down.

"It would take more than crash-landing at high speed into a ghost shield to finish me off." She laughed, "Gosh, I don't think we've spoken in years! It's a shame to meet again because of these circumstances."

This wasn't strictly true for only a few weeks before The Bomb she had been chasing after Phantom, swearing to kill him while he had retorted quips back.

"True. It's a good thing you had your ghost hunting gear or you wouldn't be here!"

Val suddenly blushed, looking embarrassed, "Yeah, I guess everyone knows I was the town ghost hunter now… No point in hiding it anyway. Still, I would have preferred to actually tell them, rather than them to find me unconscious in my ghost hunting gear."

Danny was a little knocked for six by this, he had completely forgotten that most people – and as far as Valerie was concerned, no one – didn't know that she was The Ghost Hunter before now. He suddenly had flashbacks of being in the middle of class and if a ghost threat showed up, he wasn't the only one to suddenly make up a lame excuse and leave the classroom.

"I wish I could have seen your face, Danny. Where you surprised?" Valerie said, looking at him curiously. She must have already been filled in about her rescue.

"Ha, ha. Well… I kinda'… sorta' already knew actually." Danny looked down bashfully, scratching the back of his head.

When he glanced back up Val's face had turned to one of confusion. "How? I was so careful? Did everyone else know, too?"

"Just me… And Sam and Tucker… And Jazz." Danny said, laughing awkwardly. This wasn't how he had been planning to open the topic of his identity at all, "We knew because there's something you don't know about me."

Valerie didn't say anything, but just stared at him, confusion fogging her expression.

Here goes nothing…

"You weren't the only one with a double life… I'm surprised you haven't guessed it already because we look awful similar, and our names are practically the same, too."

Valerie still hadn't clicked, her brows furrowed in further confusion, "What are talking about?"

Danny's mind raced to find the right words, his clenched and unclenched his clammy fists. Think, Fenton.

"I'm sort of Danny Phantom." He blurted out. Wow. Really? Did he really just say it in that way?

He looked down at his sweaty hands, unable to bring himself to make eye contact with the Ghost Hunter. There was a long pause.

"Bullshit."

Danny looked up at Valerie in shock, "Pardon?"

Valerie looked light hearted again, a slight smirk on her face, "Very funny, Danny. Do you say that to everyone? You're right! You guys do look alike! That's hilarious."

Danny sat there speechless, she didn't believe him? She thought he was joking?

"I'm serious, Valerie! Fenton… Phantom. Did you think that was just a coincidence?"

Valerie was full on laughing now, "You're forgetting one thing, Danny phantom is the ghost of some asshole who died. You're not an asshole or dead."

He got up and began to pace, searching his brain for a way to explain to her the truth. "Did you ever wonder why I kept skipping school and coming in covered in bruises? I was fighting ghosts!" Now he definitely sounded crazy.

Valerie had stopped laughing now, but she was still smiling, "Now you're making it unfunny. But my god, please dress up as him for Halloween. I wonder where the Little Shit is now, anyway. Probably leading the entire ghost army."

Little Shit? Ouch. This was getting frustrating. Why couldn't she believe him?!

"Think about it. You, a living, breathing man, is claiming to be a dead spirit who, as far as Valerie is concerned, is the cause for most of the ghost trouble in the town. Would you believe that?"

You're right, Sam. He needed to prove it to her. He needed to go ghost.

But could he?

He tensed his muscles, concentrating like he usually did. Nothing. .

Of all the times his sporadic changes had to decide to subside.

He was locked in human form for now.

"If you don't believe me then I'll have to prove it to you." He said, plonking himself at the end of her bed.

"what do you mean, 'prove it to me'?" Valerie asked, looking confused again.

Danny picked up an old copy of 'The Crimson Chin' comic book from the selection of books the nurse must have left on the bed side table and started leafing through it, "The Bomb fucked up my powers, so I can't transform into Phantom whenever I like anymore, I have to wait until my body changes its self."

"Do you even hear yourself, Danny? Isn't this going a bit far?" The ghost hunter folded her arms.

"This has to be done, you have to know the truth."

Valerie picked up a book and opened it to the page she was at, "Do what you want, Ghost Boy."

And with that, the two of them sat in silence for a while, both absorbed in their books. Valerie kept stealing glances at Danny every now and then, as if to say: "Are you done with your joke yet?" But he ignored her.

When Danny looked back up at the clock again it had been an hour. Why wasn't he changing?

More time passed and Danny's eyes began to droop. The lack of sleep was catching up with him and he was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on his comic.

"D-Danny!" A startled voice brought him back to consciousness. Had he fallen asleep?

"Oh fucking hell!" Valerie's voice came again.

Danny opened his eyes just in time to see the ceiling fly away from him. He landed on his back on the floor near to the side of the bed. "Aurgh." He exclaimed as pain cracked through him.

Valerie screamed and began to rip the tubes connecting her to various machines off herself. She clambered to the floor next to Danny, who was still somewhat bewildered.

"Are you alright? Jesus Christ, you were floating. Fucking floating!" She cried as she hastily shoved a pillow under his head, stroking his hair out of his eyes.

Then it occurred.

Danny watched in silence as the bright light he was emitting from his stomach reflected off Valerie's face, making it look ghostly white. Her Hair began to go static as two white rings of energy travelled over his body. The ring got to his head, where Val's hand still was, she jumped back as it gave her a small electric shock.

What was left was Valerie, kneeling down holding her hands up away from the form the boy who was now, in her eyes, an utterly different person.

Well, that could have gone better.

"What the actual fuck…" Valerie whispered, no longer trying to help Danny, but rather subconsciously moving away from him, who had propped himself up on his elbow.

Danny couldn't help but laugh at her reaction. He never imagined her to have such a guttural vocabulary!

"You look like you've seen a ghost!" He stated, smirking.

Danny got to his feet, a fall like that was nothing these days. He held out a white-gloved hand to the Ghost Hunter. She hesitated, looking his glowing body up and down, she took in his illuminated green irises and messy white hair before resting her eyes on his outstretched hand. She got up on her own without touching it.

"You… It was you all along." She stuttered.

Danny chuckled, "Yep. The child of the ghost Hunters was actually a ghost himself. The word irony comes to mind."

"But... But you were the ghost who ruined my life! I have been hunting you for years!" Valerie shouted, she held up a metal bedpan brought out a metal bedpan from behind her back and held it up defensively.

"That wasn't me, Val. You have to believe me! It's all a-"

"A misunderstanding?! You flew through my dad's facility with a 10ft dog and wrecked the entire building!"

"No! I was trying to catch the dog! He's not mine! He kept escaping from The Ghost Zone and I kept putting him back!" Was she ever going to believe him?

Val still looked scared and angry, but she had lowered the bedpan slightly, "What happened to you, Danny?" She barely whispered.

Danny began to pace again, "It happened when I was 14. My parents were trying to build a portal to the ghost zone and the machine…malfunctioned. I was with Sam and Tucker and I decided to have a look inside, that's when it happened."

"How…?"

"I flicked a switch when I got inside and I don't really understand what happened next. Tucker recons that the electric shock I received from the portal basically killed me, but the energy from the ghost portal somehow saved me, mixing my DNA with ectoplasm. It left my body in a state somewhere between alive and dead – I am usually able to summon one more than the other… sort of like a seesaw between states. But I am not fully ghost, nor fully human. Just like the inside of the portal I am something that is somewhere in between those two worlds. "

Danny had no idea whether what he was saying made any sense, but he didn't know how else to put it seeing as he didn't really understand himself.

Valerie had now put the bedpan on the table, but she still had her hand touching it. "During my time as a ghost hunter, I have heard the phrase 'Halfa' a lot… I never understood what it was before. It's you, isn't it? Half ghost half human."

Danny stopped pacing and turned to Valerie. "Yeah, I've had a lot of nicknames in my time – Halfa, Inviso-bill, Ghost Boy…" Val blushed slightly at that last name – the name she herself had chosen for him.

"Jesus Christ, Danny. You kept that one quiet." She said.

"There were a few times when everyone found out – alternate timelines… let's not get too into that – but when people found out they hunted me down and tried to experiment on me. My friends and family were mobbed and exiled. People just weren't ready for my secret."

"Oh, Danny." The ghost hunter perched herself down on her bed, now completely forgetting the bedpan, "But how come you told me? Why tell your secret to someone who hunts ghosts for a living?"

Danny came over and sat down on the bed next to her in the same sport where he had fallen asleep. "Well, as I mentioned before, since the bomb, my powers haven't worked properly. Something about my core being destabilised by the gas. I can't transform whenever I like anymore, and my ghost powers are weak at best. Tucker and Jazz have almost completed a cure for me, though. In the meantime it is impossible to hide my identity to anyone anymore because of these involuntary changes. Most importantly, though – I need someone like you on my side. That's why I came to tell you."

"Well, you've got me. I want to crush these asshole ghosts just as much as you do, and it would be helpful to have someone like you on my side." She managed a smile.

"Looks like we've come to a truce." Danny declared, the two smiled at each other, glad that they both finally could be honest with one another.

Valerie chimed a laugh, "The ghost hunter and the Ghost. No wonder we never worked out."

Phantom chuckled lightly, "Worst couple ever."

"You ended up with that Sam girl didn't you. Everyone saw that coming from a mile off."

Danny looked down, blushing and smiling slightly, "She was there when I was made into Danny Phantom. She accepted Phantom straight away and never once viewed me as anything less than a person. She learned to fight ghosts for me and put herself in danger just to save me so many times. She was selfless. So yeah, it was pretty inevitable. How could I not fall for someone who did all that for you?"

Valerie put her hand on his shoulder (which surprised him because he was still in phantom form), "You're speaking about her in past tense. Did something happen to her, Danny?"

He kept his head down, letting his white hair fall over his eyes, "It was the Bomb… She didn't make it. My powers… I couldn't do anything."

He felt Val's slender hand squeeze his shoulder gently, "When you are used to saving the day all the time, it is easy to blame yourself when things happen that are out of your hands. Believe me, I understand."

Danny let out a weak chuckle before saying, "Thanks."

He spent the next hour explaining and discussing the plan that he and Vlad Masters had formulated the day before. He clarified the workings of the Bomb's gas and the extra strong ghost shield, and how he nor Vlad would be able to get past it even in human form.

"So, Vlad is like you, too?!" Val questioned? She was looking a little warn out from all the surprises.

"Yes, he had an accident similar to mine back in his college days. He is more powerful than me though because he has had his powers for a lot longer than me. He used to be an enemy of mine, but in these circumstances an enemy of my enemy is a friend." He explained.

"so what powers do you have? Phantom?" Valerie grinned curiously.

"Once I get the cure, I'll show you." Danny gave her a crooked smile back.

"Looking forward to it, Ghost boy."

After that, the Nurse came in to check how Valerie was doing, and Danny took that as a cue to leave. His body flashed bright blue-white and turned back to human as he waved goodbye.

Once Danny got back to his own room, he realised he had spent the majority of the day with Valerie – and he was ravenous. He opened his mini-fridge and got out a plate of cold pizza. He sat down on his bed and wolfed it down.

"You had fun today, didn't you." Sam said, leaning casually against the wall by his bed.

"It felt good to get that out the way, I had been dreading her reaction."

"She'll be a helpful comrade because she will be able to get past the ghost shield, and she knows what she's doing."

"True. She's no stranger to the nature of ghosts. She's fast as well – caught me a few times." Danny finished his pizza and lay back on the bed, the cool sheets welcomed him. "You stayed pretty quiet when I was with Valerie, usually you show up a lot when I'm in sticky situations?"

Sam chuckled darkly, still leaning on the wall, "Isn't it obvious? You weren't thinking about me."

Danny looked at her, confused, "Yes, I was, I was talking about you and everything."

"Yes, but I am made of your subconscious, and your subconscious was distracted."

He didn't quite understand what she was saying, but decided not to question it. "What do you think we'll do if we manage to free all our friends? I mean, they'll still be ghosts, do you think they'll be able to carry on a somewhat normal life?

"I honestly don't know. I hope so. But if they can't, we could always help them move on."

"Move on?"

"Well, ghosts are very agitated creatures – that's why they exist. They feel like they need to full fill a purpose, or get revenge. Many people believe that once a ghost has done what it feels it needs to do, its spirit can finally move on. Whether there is a sort of heaven that they go to, no one knows, but even if there isn't, finally being able to let go might be the best thing for these people."

Danny didn't really like to hear this – the thought of having to say goodbye to all of his friends for the second time might be just too much. But He knew that, if that was what they wanted, he would do his best to help them to be happy.

For the first time in months, Danny had a full night's sleep. When he was woken up by is phone ringing the next day, he only remembered a few snippets of dream containing out-of-focus flashes of peoples' faces – Tucker, Sam, Jazz, Val, Maddie, Jack. They all had white angel wings and were hovering in front of him, smiling pleasantly. It was a welcome change to the usual dose terrifying nightmares.

"Hello?" Danny said groggily down the GIW phone.

Jazz's chirpy voice sounded in his ear, "Danny! We have a present for you down in the labs!"

Danny sat up in bed properly, heart racing "It's ready?!"

"Yes! All the tests came back with good results. The Vaccine is finally ready!"