I'm so very tired… Here is the next chapter though! Happy Halloween to everyone who enjoys the holiday! You guys get to learn how Dark Parmius originated so yay for bad guys!

Disclaimer! I dont own Danny Phantom... its probably a good thing too.


Vlad was never a man who wanted or appreciated pity. Seeing these children looking down at him in such a way seemed to reinvigorate him and Vlad waved his hand at them nonchalantly. Forcing himself to sit up a little straighter Vlad attempted to straighten his tattered rags so he at least felt slightly neat. The sight of his bare feet annoyed him, the only reason he had clothes was because he had done as Dark Parmius wanted and promised not to use his clothes to hurt himself in any way. He crossed his legs allowing his back to rest against the cold metal wall then gestured to the ground before him.

They made no move to sit and Vlad was unsure if he could walk far, but his pride made it impossible to admit such a thing so he covered himself by saying "It doesn't matter where we talk as you children should know. Dark Parmius already knows you're here I'm sure and as of right now we are all the mice in his little cat and mouse chase. Before I start answering your ridiculous questions however I want two of my own answered. Number one how did you find me in this labyrinth? Number two…" he paused for a second a defeated look crossing his features, the same sad defeated look Danny had seen only one other time on Vlads alternate self. "Maddie…" Vlad whispered tears forming in his eyes.

Danny shook his head the wound of losing his parents still too fresh to easily speak of. Vlads features crumpled and what little life he had gained in the past few moments seemed to go out of him. Worried about him in spite of everything he had done Sam dropped to her knees calling on her healing powers as she gently pressed a hand to his side. Vlad flinched at her unexpected touch and a moment later she hissed in sympathy. He was bruised from the inside out, malnourished, and he was missing his ghost half. Regardless of what she did Sam realized that he was dying. Not in the next few days or maybe even months but Sam realized with a heavy heart that Vlad probably wouldn't survive another two years at most.

"Don't bother I already know." Vlad snipped as Sam opened her mouth. Vlad pointedly ignored her expression and waved her glowing hand away from his side. "My other question?" he stated making them look at each other looking a little lost. Dealing with idiots once again Vlad thought as he sighed not wanting to ask his question a second time.

"I found you." A voice piped up from behind Jazz. Danni poked her head around Jazzes form then stepped out from behind her fully to let her creator see her.

"Ah, finally something that makes sense." Vlad sighed "I created you so you could always find the people you imprinted on. To be fair I was supposed to be the only one you imprinted on but you went and imprinted on young Daniel then later his parents. I suppose I should be thankful that some part of the imprinting allowed you to locate me here."

They all stared at Vlad in various forms of surprise and Danny wrapped his arms around Danni who was shaking slightly.

"You're welcome you crazy stupid excuse of a human being. I can't believe I ever called you my father!" Danni snapped feeling strangely used.

"You have asked your questions and made everyone feel like crap. Congratulations. Now it's our turn. What in the heck happened to you?" Danny snarled being careful not to squeeze Danni too tight in his annoyance. Sam stood up to stand by his side while Tucker and Jazz stood to the other side effectively hemming him in.

Vlad laughed at their attempt of a scare tactic. "Don't worry children I shall tell all. Although I will say that you will all want to sit down for this. It a long story and I only want to tell it once so no questions or violence towards me until I am done."

"We are not children Masters." Jazz said fed up with the way Vlad was acting, they were trying to save him and in return he was obviously wasting their time. He clearly hadn't changed and all she felt toward this man was a cold fury. Her cold tone clearly illustrated this fact and Vlad stared up at her startled as Danny realized for the first time how similar her and his moms voice were. "We have spent over a year fighting in a war that from the sound of things, you have had a hand in creating one way or another. We have lost many people we loved including our parents. So to be completely blunt, tell us what you know and cut the drama act. Otherwise so help me I'll kill you myself and we can go find the answers elsewhere."

Vlad swallowed hard paling a shade or two lighter at her threat. While Danny could threaten and bluster all he wanted Vlad was almost totally certain he couldn't kill in cold blood. He had felt that way about Jasmine as well but the cold flat stare she was giving him made him rapidly rethink things.

"Very well then." Vlad muttered plucking nervously at his shirt. "You chi… I mean you all should really sit it is a long story." They all shared a look and after a moment seemed to agree because they started to sit down. He waited until Team Phantom settled as a group all leaning against each other. He wanted to roll his eyes at the saccharine sweetness of the huddle but with the way Jasmine was glaring at him Vlad felt it probably wasn't a safe option. Before they could get too impatient Vlad began.

"As you all probably know by now I was completely out casted by both worlds after the Disastroid. I still felt that I could easily rule but with Daniel becoming the world's hero and many of the ghosts actually respecting him I realized I would have to take everything I wanted by force. To do so however I needed more power. I already had the crown of fire but other than being able to siphon off some energy from it the crown wouldn't work for me. I knew I would need the ring of rage to really be able to use it so I went into the ghost zone and tried to steal the ring from Pariahs sarcophagus. I was planning on letting Pariah Dark distract you while I did as I pleased but I ran into a few issues. I couldn't locate the key to open the sarcophagus and I didn't realize that those dammed Observants had already removed the ring somehow. By the time I realized this I couldn't just go and take the ring because I couldn't find the dammed thing and I searched for it thoroughly. I knew the Observants had to have it but I couldn't take it from them as I was. While the Obsevants don't like to fight they will if they have to and unfortunately they are not beings you want to really cross."

Danny snorted at this, angrily thinking of his alternate future and the others glanced at him curiously. Danny simply shook his head and turned his attention back to Vlad. Vlad either hadn't noticed or didn't care about Dannys snort and had continued to drone on.

"-didn't care about the consequences at that point I just needed power to get what I wanted. So I decided to steal the power from some of the most powerful ghosts in the realms. Actually I didn't really want to steal their power as much as absorb them entirely. Think of it more like a way to merge one ghost with another. It took me several years to build a device that would allow me to merge the power of different ghosts with my own without killing myself fully. I started small of course and tested it out on several weaker ghosts of the zone. It worked and I could feel myself becoming more and more powerful with every ghost I merged with. Of course by this time they had crowed Daniel king of the ghost zone and I ran into another problem. The crown wanted to go to you Daniel."

Dannys expression changed from one of disgust from Vlads words to one of surprise and the others looked stunned as well. "The crown wanted to come to me?"

Vlad nodded his expression downcast. "The crown tried to return to you the moment the zone accepted you as its ruler. I was just barely able to prevent it by placing a special barrier of mixed power around it so it could no longer sense you."

"Sense?" Jazz asked beating her brother by a split second.

"Yes sense." Vlad snapped crankily at the constant interruptions "The crown and ring only work for the current king of the ghost zone or a previous king apparently. In other words, the more powerful the objects in the ghost zone, the more they are alive so to speak. The owner of said powerful object, are able to call the objects to them as long as the object accepts them as the master. The crown refused me." Vlad spat striking his hand against the ground in annoyance causing Danni to jump and curl a little closer to Sam and Danny. Danny glared at Vlad who sighed and shifted pulling his legs up under him a little further.

Taking a deep breath Vlad continued in a calmer tone. "As I was saying the crown refused me. There was two ways I could make it accept me. I could kill Daniel and become the new ruler of the ghost zone, or I could merge with Pariah Dark, then I would technically be a past king in a sense. Merging with Pariah Dark was far easier than killing you Daniel, since you had already far exceeded my powers even with the extra I had gained with the minor mergings. So I snuck back into the ghost zone and stole the sarcophagus of forever sleep."

Vlad paused for a moment his features scrunching up as he assembled the final parts of his story. Although his story fully enforced their thinking that Vlad was a crazy fruitloop, they feared that if they interrupted now, that he would decide not to finish his story, even if it was an insane quest for power kind of story. Team Phantom was hooked on the story by this point and the silence hung heavy in the air as they waited for him to continue. After a few more moments of silence just before they began to get impatient, Vlad continued his voice almost sad.

"My machine worked too well. I had only been using it on weaker ghosts, and only on creature type ghosts. I didn't need a random intelligent or humanoid ghost to disappear and someone notice, thus I didn't try and merge with anything with an advanced mind. I should have tried to test it out but I was impatient and because of my impatience I didn't realize that I was unbalancing my human ghost ratio so to speak. When I merged with Pariah Dark my humanity was… overwhelmed and then expelled. I… I was expelled and my ghost half fully merged with Pariah Dark. When he opened his eyes he called himself Dark Parmius and tried to kill me simply because I was a weaker part of what he once was."