Blackness Phantom

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

The Fourteenth Darkness: Danny Phantom Rebirth

The day has arrived. Three days have come and gone, giving rise for time to settle just right. What that means is it's fighting day for Danny.

He gets up out of bed bright and ready, dressing in his usual gear despite the intensity of what he is destined to come across. Doesn't even grab his backpack, knowing he isn't going to school today; his dad can make up an excuse.

Phasing through his door, he comes upon Sam and Tucker just waiting on the other side, each one with varying degrees of expression and worry. He asks, "What's wrong guys?"

"Danny, are you going to be okay?" asks Tucker as he looks at his half ghost friend.

"Of course. I'm ready for her. This won't be like last time," he replies, his voice beaming with stalwart confidence.

"You better," Sam finally says. "I don't want you to die before I can forgive you, and that's gonna take a while."

"Thanks, Sam." With a defeated sigh resigning to her callous response, he phases through the floor heading into the basement of Fenton Works.

There at the bottom, he sees his father awaiting him by the Ghost Portal with Jazz and Desiree waiting for him. "Danny, are you ready?"

"Don't worry dad," says his daughter as she goes to her brother's side, her tangerine kissed hair flowing with her movements. "I'll be looking after him."

"But Jazz, you barely just got your powers. I don't know if-"

"I'm not going to leave you in the Ghost Zone by yourself. We're going to save mom together." She raises her hand to him, and her more experienced brother takes and shakes it.

"Right."

"Now Danny, remember your limits. Everything you need to know about your suit is programmed in the visors," says their moderately overweight father to them.

"Thanks, dad," he replies, sporting a confident grin to his only sibling. The two go to the portal as he turns it on, before stepping inside with intense scowls and determination.

Jack then checks the monitor as they pass through, before locking it shut. "Good luck, Danny."

The Ghost Zone…

Out within the recesses of the emerald lit realm of purgatory, Danny and Jazz fly out from the portal. With no equipment or gear on their human selves, they fly through the ghastly air.

She appears to be having trouble. "This is harder than I thought, flying in human form."

"You get used to it," he replies as they press on.

"Why aren't you in your ghost form?"

"Everyone here already knows what I look like. Also, the Ghost Zone is like a reverse of the real world; here, we're the ghosts and can pass through anything," he tells her, making the girl pat her hands together.

"Oh! Is that how it works? Good to know."

They continue forth heading through the air. The male half ghost checks the card for directions, and immediately recognizes the main appearance it holds. Indeed, it's Pariah Dark's castle.

As they traverse, Jazz speaks her mind. "Have you ever thought that this is a trap?"

"Oh, duh. It'd be easier to ask who doesn't think this is a trap."

"So you're not worried?"

"Of course I am. But I'm also prepared." He hands her the Fenton Thermos. "Just in case."

Eventually, they reach the royal settlement, the towering palace and its wide field open for all to see. Adding to that is the massive army of ghosts that have assembled surrounding the arena like a crowd to see a baseball game. Or, to be more accurate, Americans coming to see a football game.

He lands with his sister in the midst of the opening, where the gargantuan gathering starts to look familiar to him. He recognizes every ghost who has come to take him out at his home, as well as spirits he's put away over the past year. He even spots Nightmare and Frostbite, but not Clockwork.

From above he watches her, seeing the vampiric ghost princess descending down. Her scarlet black cape flows in the euphoric wind as she comes before her half dead opponent, her sword the Melibur drawn as she completes the entrance landing. Reina Dark then snaps her fingers.

"Observants, as you have requested, he's here!" she says in a commanding voice that echoes throughout the zone. Up above, the eyeball spirits watch in spectator seats made of shapeshifting ghosts. "Now all throughout Purgatory will witness my triumph over the ghost boy."

"Where's our mom?" he demands angrily, not giving a pig's knuckle for what she just said.

"Oh, she's fine," she answers, pointing over at her palace with her blade. "In my palace, she rests, imprisoned waiting for you to take her home. After our battle."

Jazz comes up to her, gripping the princess by the collar of her clothes. "What's this all about?!"

She grabs her hand and twitches, making the scarlet half ghost cry out in pain before she's thrown aside. "My right to rule."

"Jazz!" He goes to her side with excessive worry, taking a knee.

"I'm okay."

"Due to rules that were unknown to me, I cannot rule this world if someone else has that right. Having challenged and beaten Pariah Dark before, you have the entitlement that I cannot override."

"And killing me would have given you that?"

"I must beat you within a formal challenge around spectators, or else your death will mean you just become a ghost." She raises her hands to the Observants watching from above. "With them watching, there will be no question about my authority and I can take over as the Queen of Ghosts."

The spectral princess stretches her hand out toward Danny, sending a beam that hits him. The magenta energy circles around the human as he groans, placing a hand on the ground to keep from hitting his face. "What…is this…"

"It's a special beam I created for the likes of humans like you, so you can't move while you're in that form of yours. Not all of us have the luxury of being a half ghost," Reina explains, before swiping her sword aside. "Now, begone little girl. This is between me and your brother."

The scarlet half-ghost isn't having it. "You kidnap my mom and torture my brother; of course it's personal!"

"Jazz!" he shouts, pushing himself up. He releases ectoplasmic energy from his body around him in an aura, glaring at her as it turns black. "I'll save mom, and put an end to this bull shit. I'm going ghost!"

Pumping his fists back, twin white rings of energy encircle Danny. They pass over him, turning the boy into his ghost half Danny Phantom. But instead of the usual jumpsuit, our favorite half-ghost is revealed to be wearing new gear.

His new suit clings more tightly to him, with black straps for tightening on the sides of his abdomen, legs, and arms. His boots and gloves are predominantly white with the left arm having a watch-like device attached – it's emerald in color and possesses a black cross in the center – and the right having a silver attachment wrapped around. The suit retains its dominant white color scheme with black being on his chest, biceps, underneath his belt, and down his legs. He also sports a silvery white cape that hangs just above the ground and an emerald visor over those white blue orbs he calls eyes. Across his chest rests the DP symbol, colored with a green P inside a black D.

The new and improved Danny Phantom stands tall as the magenta energy leaves him, the audience in awe at his new appearance. Even Reina is impressed. "So, you brought your Sunday best this time. Congrats! Now I can crush you at your best."

The Observants then rise. "This battle between Reina Dark and Danny Phantom shall begin; the two are to fight until one person either dies or concedes, and neither is to use any items unless those they've brought that do not include healing. The winner shall gain the full right to rule this realm as the king or queen of ghosts upon their afterlife. Commence!"

Jazz flies away to give space as Danny flies forth, throwing a punch at her charging with black ectoplasm. She blocks using her sword, a move he expected. "You know, at first I didn't care about you or that whole ruling thing, but I think it's best left in the hands of someone who wouldn't kidnap a guy's mom to get what she wanted!"

"Oh, get over it! It isn't as if I need to kill you. All humans are below me…" She pushes back, deflecting his fist. With a spin, she kicks him across the field.

"Cut him apart!" shouts someone in the audience.

"Make him cry!" says Penelope Spectra.

"Hit him wit' a box!" Guess who?

She wields her Artifact of Darkness drawing the guard along the length of the blade and sliding it back, before sending a wave of energy. Before her appears Vortex and Vlad Plasmius, something that understandably shocks Danny.

"What the?! I thought this was a one on one fight!"

"It is." She then points to the audience, and Vortex in the crowd just as confused.

"Wait, you can make clones?" The duplicate Vortex sends out bolts of blue lightning to zap Danny, who flies out of their path before firing green beams to counter. Duplicate Vlad with his ghost tail slithers behind Danny, and with a hand charged with red energy smacks him into the pavement.

"If you think my power is to create clones, then you don't understand the power of my Artifact of Darkness…" Reina raises her sword. "It can read people's memories. Within those lockets of time, I can dive in and retrieve something I like, materializing it into reality."

She then gestures to the duplicates before her, as if saying voila, before ordering them to attack. The fake Vlad splits into four copies and fire purple beams at Danny while Vortex sends a stream of flames.

"Fakes huh…" Taking a moment to lift his visor, the green on his watch turns white as he summons his ice powers. With a wave of his hand, space rends in front of him causing the attacks sent his wave to enter a void.

As it closes up, another opens just over the top of Vortex and he is promptly and immediately vaporized by the attacks that would have hit Danny. His remains disappear into green dust.

The crowd gapes in shock. The real Vortex asks, "What was (loud gasp) that?!"

Not giving time for a beat, Danny splits into four clones, with each one summoning the Doomsickle and slicing up the clones. Only one manages to avoid death, taking a step back to prepare a supercharged beam. Two of Danny's clones disappear while one flies overhead and fires an ice beam, forcing Vlad to form a sphere of energy to protect himself.

But even as he holds it up, a rend in reality just behind Vlad opens up, and the Doomsickle impales in through his back out his chest. He voicelessly swats at the blade through his chest before dispersing into dust.

"So, you wear that suit in order to control that power of yours," Reina says as she views them. She raises her sword again, and a ghostly wail expels out towards Danny.

He hears it coming and summons a white shield to protect himself, recognizing the attack. "Wait, that's my-"

"Like I said, anything I like." The barrier he wields begins to crack.

The crowd cheers on as she appears to be winning, all of them rooting for the defeat of the half-ghost bane of their non-existence. Jazz sits far from the audience knowing they won't take too kindly to her. "Danny…"

"He's doing pretty well," says a new voice, surprising her. She turns around to spot Zalam standing just next to her.

"You! You're that guy who stole the Reality Gauntlet!" The girl phantom stands to summon the scarlet energy.

"Save it. If I wanted to kill you I'd have done it back then," he tells her, flipping his black sword by the chain. "I just came to watch the fight."

"What exactly are you after?"

A finger to his lips adds to a shush. "Secret."

Back to action, Danny flies about dodging her finger beams, each one getting closer and closer. He opens up a portal and flies through, coming in at her from behind, a move she expected for she swings keeping him at a distance. This is followed up with stabs to his face, forcing him to dodge.

Moving in quick he summons a sphere of green energy and slams it at her face. Making contact makes him believe he got the hit in, but this disappears when her face slides along the sphere, the work of spectral manipulation. 'Damn!'

Reina slashes across his chest, making him fly back away from her to avoid more blows. His cape flows over everything below his neck, covering him like a bat in the knight. "Is that all you can do?"

"It's not about quantity, but quality." She fires another finger beam, which he dodges by tilting his head to the right, leaving him open.

She flies in quickly and stabs his center, piercing through his cape through to the back. This causes an uproar thinking she won. His sister's shouting for worry can be heard in the background.

However, something's off. "Wait. I don't feel anything."

"I can shift my body too." The cloak flows open, revealing Danny's chest is shrunken and twirled to avoid the blade. "The cape's for misdirection, stupid. As if I'd wear something this tacky; it's not cool."

"I've read your memories, liar."

"Shut up!" He kicks her back, but as she comes in closer for a decapitation, he grabs his head and pulls it back, while his other hand stretches out aiming a cyan beam. She gets blown further back now, slowly turning into an icicle as it continues to blast her.

He summons the Doomsickle, and having half of it extends to swirl it like a blade on a chain, throws it at her. It swipes across the air like a fan as it continues towards her.

Her eyes glowing red, she amasses energy to break free and fire eye beams to divert its path. Reina then raises her sword, summoning duplicates of a larger variety of Danny's enemies; this time there's the Box Ghost, Aragon, Ember, Technus, Skulker, and the Fright Knight. Once they arrive, she takes a knee making orders: "Get him."

If this keeps up he'll get tired before he can get in a good blow to finish her. Looking around, he decides now's the time to try something new. Closing his eyes, his watch turns black with a white cross, as all above the battlefield appear stars. Everyone stares up above seeing it.

"Oh no." Reina summons a shield around herself.

Pointing his right hand in the shape of a gun, Danny shouts, "Darkest Plasma," before all those stars shoot down in a bombardment upon the duplicates and Reina. The battlefield is covered in white explosions, leaving all in awe.

Concluding this attack, Danny takes a knee looking forth, as the smoke clears away to show Reina underneath the fading body of Aragon. Despite that, she's shown to be bleeding from her legs, forehead, and left shoulder. Her expression is furious.

"Damn you, Danny Phantom! I knew what that attack was, but I couldn't defend against it…"

"Can't do that very often," he mutters, out of breath having used that attack.

As Jazz cheers, the ghostly members watching converse with one another, some out of worry for should he win.

"Oh balls…" speaks Skulktech 1.0 as he watches. "If he wins, any attempt I make to hunt him may be preceded as an assassination."

"This isn't going well…" says Walter rubbing his hands. "I can't imprison the king… unless he's impeached."

"Yes!" says princess Dora with glee. "If he wins I know this realm will be safer for my people…" She then thinks further. "…maybe I can strengthen our relationship even more."

Aragon, sitting not too far from her, narrows his eyes having heard her last mutter. His eyes then turn to Jazz with a smirk. 'Maybe I can as well…'

Danny gets back up and walks towards her. "You wanna give up now? I bet you can't make any more of those clones without tiring yourself out."

"Shut up!" She makes a stand and raises her sword, which gets wrapped up along with her arm by a chain and pulled down, courtesy of Danny's scythe's bottom end having turned into chains.

He then pulls her forth and flips over her, pulling back so his scythe's blade is by her neck. "I honestly don't mind cutting you down for kidnapping my mom, but I'm still kind of grateful for giving my power back. Now yield."

Reina tries to break free, but with her sword pulled with an arm to the right of her neck, she can't really move it. "A Dark never surrenders!" She twists her right hand to point her finger at his abdomen, charging magenta energy. "Bang."

Her beam fires, entering a rend in space he made just in time, that pierces through her sides. She bleeds from her newly made wounds and mouth as the beam continues and explodes one of the audience stands, as well as everyone sitting on that section.

Releasing her, Danny lets Reina drop-down face forward. "I yield…"

A collection of gasps can be heard on repeat. The Box Ghost shouts, "He is our lord and master now! Run for your lives!"

"Now hold up!" begins the male half ghost. Jazz jumps up with joy. "I never said I wanted to be king! I mean, it seems like a nice idea, but-"

"Danny Phantom," speaks one of the Observants up above, "you have one this challenge. As such, you have full authority to rule over this realm as the new King of Ghosts when your time has come."

"Like I said…" He stops. "Wait, when my time… oh, so I have to die first." He smiles at that, meaning he can look forward to something in the afterlife.

Jazz then flies in as a collection of boos now reverberate from the crowd now, the female half ghost hugging her victorious brother. "You did it!"

"Yes… you did all right…" Reina turns her head looking up at her victor, eyes filled with the obvious emotions of hatred. "You beat me. No matter how much of an advantage, no matter how much experience…"

"I haven't exactly been stale either," he retorts. "I just wasn't aware of a princess being so strong. Usually, you need a big strong guy to solve all your problems."

"This isn't Disney." Jazz pokes him in his ear, before glaring at the fallen princess. "Reina, we're taking our mother back. If you threaten us again, next time I'm coming for you."

Together, the siblings walk towards her towering palace to reclaim their prisoner of a mother. That is when they notice it, the blue and red wisps of air coming from their respective mouths. Looking up they see the possible source of the ghost signal, a meteor coming down for the battlefield. It shatters upon impacting the field, breaking it apart and creating dust clouds to mask everything. Two hands shoot out and grasp the siblings, taking them further down into the deeper depths of the Ghost Zone.

Reina pushes herself up, looking for whatever that was. "What happened?"

"Hey, miss princess." She angrily turns to the ghost she intends to murder for that and sees Zalam by her palace steps. "Instead of worrying about those two and him, how about worrying about her?" He points back up at the top of the steps, as Maddie Fenton can be seen coming down.

"You? How did you get free of your prison?!"

No answer. Instead, the beautiful mother descends the stairs one step at a time, her fuchsia eyes turning a deep emerald shine. Her hands brimming in black smoke rise over her hair and brushes it through, causing a transformation that makes her hair jelly-like with the motions of a squid.

"Zalam, is that her?"

"Yes, it is Hel."

"Good."

Back to Action…

Down below, Danny and Jazzy Phantom land in the depths of the Ghost Zone, where skeletons and the formless await them. Before them in shocking detail is their newest enemy, who very much resembles Vlad Plasmius.

Vlad now has huge, black hair with a green streak running through it. He has his black and silver jumpsuit, adorns with streaks of blood, and red eyes. On his back is a black and red cape attached to him by two green skulls. Strapped to his left hand is a two-pronged claw. He looks more like the ghost king than himself now.

"Vlad!? How did you-"

"Daniel, and Jasmine…" he speaks, his voice booming and commanding as he approaches them. "It's time I sent you to your graves for what you two have done to me."

Kei: The last chapter will depict Danny's final fight with Vlad.

Yusei: Final?

Kei: Don't worry. There's a third part to this adventure, a Final Phantom if you will.