I wrote this forever ago... found it as I was searching through my hard drive. I lost my jumpdrive (and, thus, all my stories) and am rather randomly searching for anything that I remembered to back up. Been finding drabbles I don't think I ever posted, which is kinda neat. If you're interested, my next chapter of 'Pits' is almost finished being REwritten, as I know I didn't back that up. Darn lost jumpdrive.

Cell's Last Stand
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria

Twenty years: a magic number, really. Twenty years, give or take a few months, is how long it takes to completely replace all the cells in your body. I'm sure that somewhere in his head, Vlad Masters knows this little factoid – actually, I know for sure he knows it, I found it at one point.

It doesn't really matter whether or not he knows it – knowing a fact and applying a fact are two separate skills. And Vlad Masters, for all of his devilry and intelligence, cannot relate that detail to his life. So he tucked it away in some back corner of his mind and today, flying hundreds of feet in the air, he is blissfully unaware of the importance of that magic number. He has no idea that his body is busily replacing the last few cells that were contaminated during the explosion twenty years and a few months earlier.

If he would have known, I wonder if he would have guessed what would happen when the last of his 'old' cells died and he was 'remade'. I wonder if he would have even wasted the time to think that something might happen. Vlad Masters doesn't stop his plans in difference to a hundred souls being snuffed out… much less a few measly cells deep inside his body.

Me? I know what's about to happen. Hell, I've been waiting for it for twenty years. The past few months, knowing that the magic number was coming, have been pure torture. Every day, I can feel Vlad's control slowly weakening. I'm well aware that only the thinnest sliver of cells still keeps Vlad in control.

Twenty years to sit and wonder and think and dream. Mostly I wonder if Vlad even knows I exist. I'm pretty sure he doesn't or, if he does know, I obviously don't even register on his radar. He took my name – or, perhaps, I took his – but he's never taken even a heartbeat to wonder if I'm here. So I stay, locked away, screaming but unable to be heard, banging my fists against solid walls until I'm bloody and broken, seeing but unable to be seen. Twenty years of silence and solitary confinement.

Sometimes, I wonder if I went insane at some point. Part of me knows that I did – no soul can survive twenty years of being locked away without going slightly crazy – but the rest of me can't decide. The only person I really have to place myself up against is Vlad… and I believe that he's certifiable. After years of watching the world, 'crazy', I've decided, is based on the actions and words of an individual; if a person acts and talks sanely, than that person is not insane. Me, I can't move or speak or do anything of the sort, so I have a tough time deciding. Maybe, after that magic number passes Vlad by, I'll be able to find out.

I wonder what will be the first thing I will do when I'm free of my prison. I've thought of millions of scenarios over the years – ranging from the stupid to the absolutely insane. I will, rather quickly, move away from all the smelly cheese. I've decided I hate cheese; whether my hatred stems from Vlad's love of cheese, I do not know. Eventually, I think that I will run for some government office. Vlad loves his stupid businesses, but I find them dull. President is more along my lines of interest. Maybe I'll start by becoming Mayor.

Another cell dies, interrupting my thoughts, and I stretch a little, feeling Vlad's wavering control still holding me locked away. I circle, pacing a million eternal steps around my prison cell, waiting for the moment when the world would be mine and Vlad would be the one screaming into the unheard abyss I've been living in these deplorable decades. I wonder if I'll be able to hear him as he tumbles away or if it'll just be silence. I half-hope I can hear his shrieks, if only to know that he will suffer as I have these interminable years.

My new life awaits the death of just two small cells. I know I am grinning crazily by this point, bouncing on my toes, my eyes glowing with excitement. He doesn't seem to know I'm here, he has no clue that I'm coming.

Fear me, Vlad Masters, for I am Plasmius.

And when that last cell dies, your life will be mine.

Uploaded October 12, 2008
Halloween is a coming...
Thanks for reading!