!Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable, which basically means don't sue me for writing Danny Phantom FANFICTION. :P
Subtle
He growled, throwing his robot into the wall beside him with a searing pink plasma ray. He didn't like what he'd seen and didn't like not knowing more. When had the new huntress come into play? Who was she? Why had she stopped Danny from taking on Dan? Why hadn't Dan immediately taken on Danny?
Too many questions for his liking and he feared he would have to rush his plans along. He need only turn one of them onto his side and then the other would fall easily enough into his clutches. Though Danny remained the youngest and could quickly be persuaded as such, he also had much spirit and fire so for that he would focus on Dan first.
Though only a couple years younger than himself, Dan held much wise information and advanced education. That's one bonus Vlad left Dan with when Phantom merged with Plasmius for more power. However, because he was still Danny somewhere inside his conscious thought he would hold those same fears and weaknesses.
What could make Dan Phantom fall to his knees? For that, he would have to do a bit of research. Telling his head slave-akin to his assistant-he would not like to be bothered for the next day or so, he headed to his study to begin gathering information on the premature tales of Dan Phantom.
He smirked at what he learned.
"What?" He showed no emotion of how unnaturally distraught he felt. His face showed no movement but to blink and he asked in monotone as though he'd simply heard wrong.
"The farthest back I can remember is a year, and that's when Val woke me up. I only know what I've been told by these," Vi spoke as she held her hand open to the family from this timeline, "people and a few facts from Val and Clockwork. I'm sorry." She added the apology after a pause, feeling as though it needed to be said.
She didn't remember him? She didn't remember growing up with him? She only knew him for what he'd done after her supposed death? Dan felt shell shocked as Vi replaced her helmet, hiding her face from sight. He didn't like it, having not seen her face in too long and it took a large amount of mental strength to stop himself from snatching the mask away again. She needed to keep it on to protect her identity after all.
Feeling the need to move past this Vi announced, "You all may go to bed, seeing as it's late now. I just need to speak with Dan on my own if you wouldn't mind."
"Then what? Am I supposed to let him stay here? Or roam my town?" Danny asked with malice and distrust.
"O please," Dan snorted as he redirected his mind on Danny instead of allowing it to travel back to all the times Vi couldn't remember. "I have a lair here in your Ghost Zone that I can access. It's not like I really need to rest or anything anyways."
"Danny, I really don't think we have to worry," Sam announced as she sent Danielle upstairs with the elder Fentons, waving Jazz and Tucker on their way to follow as well. "If he was here to do something he would have done it by now." It took a few more minutes and a little more prodding before Danny settled with a warning glare and followed Sam to their room. Everyone would stay tonight in the guestrooms they'd added into the Ops Center, just in case.
Alone, Vi turned to Dan and asked, "How much do you know about him?"
"Only enough to understand he is a threat and one that would not take mercy. I have a theory about where he came from but am unsure," he answered, his mind racing with ideas. "Why are you here?"
"Clockwork assures me that you and Danny can defeat him together, so please at least try to get along better alright?"
"It's not me you should worry about." Dan had already come to this timeline hoping beyond hope for a truce. He no longer had the want to destroy Danny's life or happiness and he would do all in his power to ensure Danny would not grow into Dan himself. That life only birthed from the terrible loss in which he had committed himself to do everything in his power not to let happen again. He was a new Dan, only the slightest bit dark.
In fact, the new Dan happened to include a bit shorter hair as he could no longer feel the ends of his pony tail trailing along the middle of his back. He wondered about what had happened and wanted to examine it, but did not wish to bring it to attention. He could worry about his hair when they all went to sleep, for he no longer needed slumber to maintain life—or death.
"He's going to be stubborn, that much I'm sure of. I'm asking you to keep your temper and help me out as much as you can. I fear we don't have much time at all to prepare," Vi shared as she, too, headed for the stairs to call it a night. "I expect you to be back by seven tomorrow morning, when training begins."
"Training?" Dan echoed, but she didn't reply as she closed her door and slipped into bed. He rolled his eyes as memories of training with her and Tucker in his early years came back to him. He hardly managed to hold the smile down as he ripped open a hole to his lair in the Zone. He immediately summoned a mirror by morphing ectoplasmic waves from the atmosphere as soon as he closed the portal, which was the only thing necessary for any ghost to do in their lair for almost anything they wanted. He examined the pale red his eyes had dulled to, the shorter length of his hair by a few inches, the trim his goatee had taken on. It alarmed him to see such changes and sent him on a search for answers as to why this was happening to him. Vlad had many books that Dan had kept for happenings such as these. Though Vlad had known much he hadn't known everything, and Danny hardly knew anything when the two mixed to create him. He spent the remainder of the night searching for some clue yet coming up empty handed by the time six rolled around the next morning, which was when he decided to make his way back to the Fenton household, stationing himself in a tree in their backyard. This way he could easily be spotted by someone in the house while still keeping himself hidden from the world around them and without startling the members of the house into attacking him. He'd actually been rather comfy when Vi walked through the sliding doors and up to his tree. Lowering himself to just above her eye level, he phased through the tree limb and kept his sitting pose with arms crossed and back leaning against the trunk.
"Good morning," she greeted, not fazed in the least that he hovered in mid-air in front of her. "Ready to go?"
"Go where?" he inquired in a bored tone though he truly was anything but. He wanted to know who Sam—Vi had become. What did she like now? What did she believe in? What changed? Did anything actually change?
"To the training ground, duh." And with that she took to the skies and Dan had no choice but to follow. He kept his eyes on her and only her even as he felt many pairs on him. Danny could not take the day off for training due to his job, but summer break would start in a week.
"Hey, did Dan get a haircut or something?" Tucker asked as the owners of the prying eyes turned from the kitchen windows, all guilty of spying on the two. None truly trusted Dan and weren't keen on the idea of him growing stronger with training, but Vi wouldn't hear anything of it. She told of a greater enemy that could make Dan look like a superhero in his own time, so they had to suck it up as the lesser of two evils.
"It definitely does not look the same as it had earlier," Jazz observed. "His goatee is the same length as yours had been during college, Danny, and his hair reaches just below his neck. The top looked shorter too and moved less. Not to mention the duller complexion and eyes."
"You think he's doing it to impress Vi?" Sam guessed as she took a sip of her morning coffee.
"Don't even talk like that," Danny shuttered, fumbling with his tie before Sam took mercy and fixed it like she did every morning. No one talked of Dan and Vi like that again in Danny's presence, but as soon as he walked out his front door they all exploded.
"Dan totally likes Vi!" Dani shouted in awe. She didn't have school because she'd had all that information downloaded by Vlad in her early years, and she wanted to wait 'til college age before actually furthering her education. She learned plenty from her grandparents and her other family members anyways.
"He does seem to act like it," Maddie added, looking to her husband for his input.
Jack nodded to her statement. "He reminds me of when Danny first brought Sam home after a 'real' date!"
"And did you see the way they acted yesterday during her interrogation?" Tucker commented, waving his hand in front of his face and smirking like he used to when teasing Sam and Danny in their teen years.
"He thought he'd lost her, and knowing she survived had to have caused some sort of mental breakdown," Jazz decided as she cleaned her plate in the sink.
"Honestly, I think they just started where they left off," Sam said, shrugging as she leaned back against her island. All questioning eyes turned to her with confusion evident amongst them. Sighing she explained, "At the age Dan lost everyone, Danny and I were still holding our feelings in for each other. True they hadn't been as strong but they had been present. He's reverting back I think."
"But Vi doesn't remember that time," Tucker pointed out with a finger on his chin in thought.
"Maybe not her conscious mind, but her body probably does," Jazz answered, laughing along with everyone else at Dani's "Ew, I didn't need to hear that!"
"I mean her unconscious mind probably remembers Dan as Danny and is alerting her by relaxing her body around him, even though her conscious mind can't remember."
"As long as Vi is around, I would guess Dan will behave," Maddie added with a chuckle as she thought back on how different Danny would unknowingly act when around Sam.
"He even acts pensive around her," Jack commented with a chuckle.
"It's very interesting and I think it's something worth keeping an eye on," Sam announced. At everyone's nodded heads she added, "However, on that note, I don't think we need to mention this to Danny. He's stressed as is with school ending for summer and then Dan's returning on top of the new threat and his daily worries."
"He stresses way too much," Dani agreed with an eye roll. "It almost rivals his over-protectiveness, and that's saying something."
"Why are you holding back?" Vi demanded as she blocked yet another punch from Dan that held no real fire behind it. She felt offended that he didn't think she could handle him yet curious as to why he would even bother.
"I am not," Dan grunted, lying and realizing it. He'd just gotten her back he didn't want to hurt her. They'd never sparred during his halfa years—sure an odd wrestling match or two but those didn't really count—and he found himself less and less willing to touch her at all. His heart had been seized with inappropriate longings that he felt unsure if he could fend off, and startled him because Dan Phantom didn't have a heart.
"Fine, if you're not willing to give it your all we'll move on," she decided after throwing her arms up in frustrated defeat. She had guided them to the cabin she'd been staying at previously which Dan had informed her was Vlad's. They spent their first hour together talking—well, Dan telling stories and Vi listening, though his stories had included many snorts and eye rolls and few moments of amusement.
"What next?" Dan asked, happy to be moving on. He didn't need to fight with his fists when he had many other powers in his possession. He'd spent most of his time practicing while he'd been working on his ghostly wail, and part of him wanted to show off in front of her. He liked just spending time with her like they had when they were younger. He made a mental note to think about his next move later: on whether he would pursue these long lost feelings or if he would bottle them back up even tighter.
"Target practice. I need to shoot something," she grumbled as she loaded up her wrist ray. "You're targets are blue, mine are green. Look about twenty feet to your right and tell me if you see them or not."
He did just that, wondering when she'd had time to put those up or if Vlad had them set up prior and she'd simply found them upon first arriving. "I see them."
"Good. On my go I want you to hit the target with the number I call as fast as you can, and no," Sam order, pulling his head back from examining the numbers, "you can't memorize the numbers ahead of time. You won't always see your enemy and need to be able to aim within the blink of an eye."
"And how is that fair? You probably already know the locations of your targets," he accused.
"You can switch the numbers when you go collect your targets. Three," she answered and demanded, to which he didn't hesitate in turning to locate the correct target and shooting a beam, hitting just shy of a perfect bulls-eye.
"Not too bad but faster in location. One," Vi commented, smiling at his talent.
"Four. Even faster."
"Eighteen. Nice hit."
"Two. Sixteen. Right hand for seven." There were a total of twenty targets for him to hit, some high in trees some low to the ground, some partially hidden behind other branches. He hit them all and with dangerous accuracy, though Vi insisted he could do better. "But I'm impressed none the less. Go grab them and rearrange mine."
Dan smirked and did just that, choosing to leave hers as is to see if he could use some form of reverse psychology by doing so. He took his time taking down his targets, intangibly so as not to make a noise and alert her to what he was really doing. Flying back he chuckled at her impatient foot tapping, popping up directly in front of her in a shallow effort to scare her.
It didn't work. "Call a number," she said, not amused by his sudden mischievous streak.
"Twelve." She turned with fluid movements, aimed, and fired. The first had been a bit slow but all she needed for her helmet to track and train on the future numbers. She wondered if Dan would catch on or not.
"Ten. Fifteen. One." Her arm moved according to her tech and her aim rivaled that of Dan's. Practicing with Clockwork had been much harder than this, but perfecting the fundamentals never hurt. After target practice, Vi demanded Dan work on his shields, his eye rays, duplication, and she worked on her flight, more aiming with the assortment of weapons at her fingertips, and meditated.
"We should work on your agility and reflexes and then we can go back," she decided once she reclaimed some peace within her conscious mind. She would have liked to meditate longer but she could tell Dan felt impatient.
"My reflexes? What do you mean by that?" But she didn't answer as she floated away a good fifty feet and up higher in the air. Her back faced him but he knew she smiled when she turned to look at him over her shoulder. A sense of dread filled his being but he didn't understand what he should do with the feeling—until she retracted her hover board and began dropping at an alarming rate.
She didn't scream, hardly moved, and didn't use anything in her control to prevent herself from falling. Dan hesitated in shock but his brain quickly caught up to what she'd warned him of. He flew at speeds he'd never cared to fly at before in order to catch her inches above the ground, letting out a long breath of relief—metaphorically of course—as he held her safely in the air.
"Nice catch, but a little sooner would be better," she criticized as though she didn't almost seriously injure herself. As if he hadn't barely made it in time.
"Woman, don't ever do that again," he tiredly demanded of her.
"Fine, we can be done for today. Put me down so we can fly back," she said, patiently waiting for him to set her down.
"After that stunt? I don't think so," was all the warning he gave before throwing her over his shoulder and taking to the skies. Her mouth parted slightly in surprise as his arm tightened around her knees.
"Hey! No! Put me down! Dan!" Vi protested the whole way back to Fenton Works and the only reason nobody came to her aid was because she couldn't stop laughing and smiling as she threatened and yelled. Even more so that Dan's smirk looked more like a genuine grin than anything evil.
Author's Note
There's some cute little fluff. Also, his pink robot left before Vi removed her mask, due to the security Vi installed earlier. I know I didn't explain that well enough, which is why I've put it in the Author's Note.
IMPORTANT: When I italicize his, I am referring to the villain of this story. I don't want to reveal his name or who he is just yet, though I'm sure some of you have a good guess. I was just thinking I would clear that up for anyone who was confused. Sorry for not warning you earlier. It seemed obvious to me, but it should because I'm the author XD
Love you all lots, and I hope you all accept this as my apology for not posting the last chapter on time. It shouldn't happen again, so I'll see you this weekend!
