When I wrote this chapter, I had no clue how to start it. Then I figured out what I would do, hence the scene at the beginning. In the meantime, it's as the title says. It is...the beginning of the end.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Danny Phantom.

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Chapter 14: The Beginning of the End

Danny Phantom stood before the Fenton Ghost Portal, his electric green eyes never wavering from the swirly green patterns that were spiraling around on the surface. He had a determined look on his face and his mouth was set in a grim line. His brow was furrowed and he seemed to be in thought about something.

Deciding on something, the ghost boy took off and dove into the portal, finding himself in the green surroundings of the Ghost Zone. He looked around at the empty landscape before taking off to his destination. His legs fused into a ghostly tail and his white hair whipped back as he pushed onwards.

'I hate to get them involved,' he thought, 'but I need to know if they saw something.'

Danny looked around at his surroundings, hoping to see a ghost he could interrogate but saw nothing. There were only empty ledges of rocks and the endless purple doors floating around in the space. He sighed and pushed onwards, flying at his top speed to his destination.

He smiled grimly as he saw the familiar white landscape of Frostbite's realm and landed in a flurry of snow and ice. He looked around and saw nothing to signify that the friendly ghosts were around. Danny let out his breath anxiously and took off again, this time at a slower pace to be sure that they didn't attack him accidentally.

"Frostbite?" he called out as he flew through the snowy world. "Anybody? Hello?"

He soon arrived at where they had first crash-landed the Specter Speeder and met Frostbite. He went on by memory from there and was flying to the stadium where he had learned to control his ice powers when a sudden explosion to his right sent him flying in the opposite direction.

"Aaagh!" Danny landed with a loud thump in the snow and skidded backwards before sliding to a halt. He rolled to his feet and took a defensive position as icicles showered him. The ghost boy put up an ecto-dome and held it up for a few moments before flashing to intangibility and flying through the storm. "Hey!" he yelled. "It's Phantom! Danny Phantom!" he added upon remembering his future self.

"Stay back, fiend!" he heard a yeti shout. "Don't make me use this!" The halfa watched in disbelief as he saw the aforementioned yeti hold up a large ice cannon threateningly.

"You're wrong!" Danny dodged a few more ice beams thrown his way and tried to reason with the yetis before they made mincemeat out of him. "It's me, remember? Danny Phantom!" he added upon realizing that "me" could mean a dozen different ghosts and none of them friendly. He stayed intangible as more attacks were thrown his way and looked around desperately, hoping to see Frostbite. "Where's Frostbite?" He thought for a moment before blurting out, "Parlay! No wait. I mean parley! I'd like to talk to your leader!"

"Why would a fiend like you need to talk to our leader?" another yeti demanded.

"I thought I was over that when my secret was revealed," Danny muttered. In a louder voice: "I'd just like to talk! I don't want to fight!" He was struck down by a stray ice beam that a yeti had let loose and landed in the snow. "Ouch."

"Why are you guys staring at me like that?" Danny asked.

He was standing in a small ice cavern with several imposing yeti-like ghosts and had yet to meet Frostbite. So far, he had been regarded with scared looks and a few glares. This confused him to no ends as he last remembered the friendly ghosts being just that, friendly.

"Silence," one of them grumbled. "Our leader will be here shortly."

Danny sighed and shuffled his feet slightly. He was feeling edgy with the wait.

He perked up on hearing a familiar voice. "Who is this fiend that wanted to parley?"

"He claims he's Danny Phantom," he heard someone else say.

Then Frostbite came in. He looked around before letting his eyes rest on a visibly nervous Danny and broke into a smile.

"Great One!" Frostbite said cheerfully. Then he added in a slightly less cheerful tone, "Unless you really are the great one."

"Why wouldn't I be?" Danny asked, confused. "I just came to ask you guys something. Did something happen?"

"You can leave," Frostbite told the other yetis.

They left reluctantly and Frostbite and Danny stood alone in the cavern.

"So," Danny began, "what happened?"

"There have been reports of a specter with your logo"—Frostbite looked at Danny's emblem—"flying around the Ghost Zone wrecking havoc."

"Since when?" Danny tried not to sound too nervous.

"Just recently," Frostbite answered. "Is there anything else you wish to know?"

"Uh, right." Danny scratched his neck, trying to find the words. "First off, I'm glad to see you're all right but I need to ask if you've seen anything. Besides the specter," he added.

"We have seen nothing out of the ordinary that doesn't concern the specter," Frostbite said, "Great One."

Danny bit his lip. "Have you seen my friends and family?"

"They were taken?"

"Sadly," Danny muttered. He sighed. "Well, thanks. I really don't want to drag you into this mess and now I just have to figure out where I can find that ghost."

"Do you know him?" Frostbite asked.

"Kinda," Danny said. "No, let me rephrase that. I know him. He's…just someone I've fought against before…and who I really hoped I wouldn't have to fight against again."

"You should know that our offer of help is always open to you, Great One," Frostbite offered. "I would be happy to assist you."

Danny shook his head. "Thanks but this is something I have to do by myself. I don't want you to get hurt trying to help me." He smiled. "Just knowing you're on my side helps."

"The offer still stands."

"Thanks again," Danny repeated. "But I have to go now. My friends and family are in danger right now and I still have to find them. If only there was a human tracker…" His feeble attempt at making a joke trailed away and he sighed once again. "Thanks, Frostbite."

"No problem, Gr—"

"Danny," Danny interrupted firmly. "You can call me Danny. That 'Great One' stuff is getting to be a bit formal."

In another few minutes, Danny had made his goodbyes to Frostbite and took off into the Ghost Zone. This time, he took off at a more leisurely pace to plan out his next move.

'I don't think Clockwork can help,' he figured. 'If he let my future self out, it means that something bigger is going on. It's just like Tucker said. Either that or'—he looked apprehensive—'my future self was completely unexpected. But he is the master of time. That shouldn't happen. What do I do?'

Danny flew by a ruined structure without realizing it before stopping abruptly and tracking back, staring at what he had just passed without noticing it.

It was Walker's prison. Or what remained of it. Only rocks, slabs of concrete, and the base of the prison remained from his future self's violent attack. He could now see why the warden had been so furious when he had encountered him in the news station. Heck, he would have been furious if something like that had just happened to him out of the blue.

"Where can I find him?" the halfa muttered. "How do I find him? He could be anywhere." He sighed. "Think, Fenton. Think. Where would you go if you were an evil, twisted, future version of yourself?"

"…as you said, he's you. You should know your own weaknesses and strengths," he recalled something that a ghost had said. "It's my nature to get into the mind of my prey."

He broke into a grin. 'It's the same thing here. He's my prey and he's me. It should be easier than I thought.' A thoughtful expression crossed his face. 'Now where would I go? What would I like to do if I wanted to make an entrance?' Something struck him. "Of course. How could I have been so stupid?"

"How could I have been so stupid?"

Danny Phantom whizzed out of the green Fenton Ghost Portal and phased through the ceiling and out of the Fenton Works. He immediately took off again as soon as he had gotten his bearings.

"I like to make an entrance. According to Sam and Tucker anyway…" Danny grabbed the Fenton Finder from his belt and turned it on. "And my future self should also. Where would he go if he wanted me to find him? I am such an idiot." Danny looked at the screen and smiled grimly. "Bingo."

He hooked it back on and increased his pace. Before he knew it, he had arrived at the Nasty Burger and landed. His green eyes darted around as he tried to note anything out of the ordinary. The restaurant was still intact and he couldn't see a boiler anywhere nearby. The lights were off and…the windows were glowing?

Danny frowned and approached it slowly. When he came up to the glass, he pressed his face to it and peered inside, not wanting to risk anything fancy. What he didn't expect were some numbers flashing before his eyes, counting down to zero. He barely had time to turn intangible before the whole restaurant exploded before his eyes.

Danny shielded his face from the debris and kept his intangibility. He dropped it once he deemed it safe enough and opened his eyes.

The first thing he noticed was that the boiler was still intact but his family and friends weren't there. The second thing he noticed was a figure standing on top of the boiler. He gritted his teeth as he recognized the cape, the fiery hair, and the smirk on his older self's face. He was grinning.

"Ironic, isn't it?" his older self asked, not moving from his spot. "You defeated me here…and we meet again."

"Unfortunately," Danny spat from his spot on the ground. "What's wrong? Did you lose your touch during your stay in the thermos? I can't believe you couldn't think of anything more imaginative."

"Could you?" The older ghost was still smirking. "I wasn't aware that you could do so. Enlighten me."

"Where are they?" Danny demanded. "What did you do to them?"

"Who?" Phantom said. "I wasn't aware of doing anything."

"My friends! My family! Or didn't you notice that they're gone? And because of you!"

"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," Phantom said.

"Oh yeah?" Danny snapped. "What's up with the 'happy hunting' comment?"

"Fine then." Phantom looked bored. "You caught me. Is there anything you're going to do about it?"

"Yeah," Danny said. "You're going to regret messing with them…and by extension me!"

Without saying another word, he lit up an ecto-beam and shot it at Phantom. Phantom dodged it by leaning to the side and fired his own in rapid succession. Danny barely managed to dodge but it still grazed his shoulder. He ignored the slight pain and flew straight up to the other ghost, his hands blazing with green energy.

"Pitiful," Phantom said. He grabbed both of Danny's glowing fists with his own and swung the halfa around. Danny was sent flying and crashed into a building, creating a decent sized dent. "What are you going to do? I already know all your tricks."

"Says who?" Danny retorted, pushing himself out of the hole he had made. He remained on the wall, glaring at Phantom.

"I am you, remember?" Phantom reminded him. "You can't surprise me anymore."

"You'll be surprised!" Danny declared. He then realized what he had just said. "Ugh. What a play on words."

He inconspicuously split himself into two, the duplicate invisible. The duplicate remained behind while the original Danny shot over to engage his older self. He shot several ecto-disks and kept Phantom busy while his duplicate snuck around to get the older ghost from behind.

Phantom dodged all of the ecto-disks that Danny had fired and shot back a few of his own. Danny countered with a few ecto-beams and while countered ecto-disks were exploding, kept on a barrage of his own attacks. He narrowed the distance between them with each attack.

"Pathetic." Phantom put up an ecto-dome to shield against a few close-range attacks and then immediately countered with a strong ectoplasmic blast to Danny's chest. "Is this really the best you can do?"

Danny was pushed back a couple of feet but stopped, his chest smoking slightly. He looked up, his green eyes sparkling.

"No." Danny grinned.

Danny's duplicate chose this time to become visible, letting loose an ecto-beam to Phantom's back. The copy then grabbed Phantom's cape before the other ghost could react and swung the ghost around in several circles before letting him go.

Phantom flew through the air and barely managed to stop his flight when the original Danny was there due to his teleportation and attacked him with another ectoplasmic burst. This time, it came from both his hands so it packed a lot more punch. Phantom was pushed down to ground level and a small dust cloud rose up.

"Can't handle the heat?" Danny taunted. He was watching carefully a safe distance away from the crash site.

Phantom wiped away the smoke with his hand. He wasn't grinning anymore.

"I see you finally managed duplication," he said.

"Surprised you?" the duplicate asked.

"Hardly." Phantom looked up, a slightly grim look on his face. "Especially not when I can do this." He split himself into four.

"Oh crud," Danny muttered.

"Remind you of old times?" Three of the Phantoms flew straight up while the fourth remained behind.

"Yeah." Danny appeared defiant. "It reminds me of when I defeated you!"

That being said, he barely had time to dodge the blasts the Phantoms threw at him. He evaded them expertly, using the new skills he had gained from training with his parents. He turned intangible to avoid a large fiery blast tossed at him from behind and twisted around to counter with his own. He never saw the fourth and original Phantom come up from behind.

The attack that came was almost completely unexpected. He had felt the heat come but didn't know from where. His question was answered when he was enveloped by a powerful beam from behind.

"Aaaaargh!" Danny screamed. His duplicate dissipated and returned to him.

"Perhaps you'll learn not to play with fire," Phantom said, keeping up the onslaught. He swung down his hands and the energy streaming from his hands to the fire that covered Danny swung down, too. Danny crashed into the street and raised several mailboxes off their roosts.

The fire fading, Danny managed to get to his knees, panting. His whole body was burning and the crash into the street hadn't helped matters either.

He felt someone land before him with a small rush of air. Danny lifted his gaze up a little to look at his future self's boots. Slowly, as to not draw attention, his hand crept towards his belt.

"Pitiful," Phantom said once again. "What makes you think you can beat me again?"

"I know I can," Danny said. He put a knee under him but still had a hand on his belt.

"Don't tell me it has to do with those ridiculous morals of yours," Phantom said, looking down at his younger self with disdain.

"I promised." Danny gave Phantom a sharp look with his electric green eyes. His face was grazed slightly from the impact with the street but his eyes held a defiance that couldn't be matched. "And I don't break promises."

"Only children believe in promises," Phantom said. "They are so easily broken."

"To you maybe," Danny said, "but that's because you never tried."

"But doesn't that mean that you never tried?" Phantom pointed out. His mouth curled into another sneer. "You can't escape from the facts, Danny. When are you going to learn?"

Danny was quiet for a moment.

"That may be true," he said in a low voice, "but even if you are me, I won't turn into you." He pushed himself off the ground in a second, startling Phantom. "When are you going to learn?"

He had in his hand the Specter Power Eliminator. It was switched to the "on" position and the prongs were crackling with electricity. Phantom had no time to react before Danny hit him with the new, untested invention.

What followed was very similar to a Plasmius Maximus. Phantom screamed as Danny hit him with the invention, his snake-like tongue out of his mouth. Danny was safe from the effects as his parents had at least thought of the person using the device on the other end. He dropped the attack in another second and jumped backwards, not wanting to be in close range with his older self in a mad mood.

Phantom bent over shortly as the effects of the shock still coursed through his body. He managed to push it out of his system and glared at Danny. He put up a hand and tried firing an ectoplasmic beam. Nothing happened.

"What did you do?" Phantom demanded.

"Well, I'd tell you but I'd rather not," Danny said loftily. "Who knows?" 'I hope it lasts, I hope it lasts, I hope it lasts.'

"You're going to regret that," Phantom said threateningly. His ghostly aura was gone but his hair still flickered.

" 'Says who?' " Danny quoted his older self. One hand was held out in a warning and the other still had the Specter Power Eliminator. It was now off as Danny wasn't willing to risk being electrocuted with it himself.

"Touché," Phantom remarked. If he could have, his hands would've been glowing with anger. As it was, he merely looked like a bully. A bully with fiery hair but a bully nonetheless. His eyes sought the device in Danny's hand and he smiled. "Taking a leaf from Vlad's book, are we?"

"Maybe," Danny said cautiously. He'd forgotten that the Plasmius Maximus had been introduced to him before the whole fiasco with his future self.

"Are you so desperate that you'd stoop to his level?" Phantom asked.

Danny frowned. He really didn't know that Vlad had been banished to outer space. It was something to be thankful for at any rate. On the other hand, he didn't want to know how it would affect Phantom's plans.

"No matter," Phantom went on, not noticing Danny's slightly thoughtful look. "Soon you'll only be desperate enough to turn into me."

"I already said I'm never going to turn into you!" Danny snapped the invention back on his belt and shot towards Phantom.

His hands were glowing and it was with relative ease that he managed to whack Phantom to the other end of the street. He was just about to follow it up with an ectoplasmic attack when he stopped, eyes widening. The ghostly aura to Phantom was already returning much to his dismay. It was only a matter of time until Phantom would discover that he had access to his ghost powers once again.

"Where are they?" Danny decided to try his hand at something else while Phantom was still unaware of his new status. "Answer me!"

"Didn't I already tell you that you'll have to hunt for them yourself?" Phantom got out of the rubble he had been thrown into. "It's only a matter of time before what I did takes effect."

Danny just barely managed to avoid throwing a ghostly wail at him. "What did you do?"

"That's for me to know and for you to find out," Phantom said. He smirked. "What do you know." He vanished from Danny's sight. A voice spoke next to Danny's ear, "My powers are back."

Danny had no time to react before a hot burning feeling fired up by his back. The next thing he knew was that he was flying across the street and landed in a shop full of musical instruments.

'Why didn't I just suck him up in the thermos?' Danny untangled himself from some guitar strings. 'Oh right. I had to find out where my friends and family are.'

Danny had just picked himself up from the mess when another attack from Phantom blew him off his feet. Literally.

A horrible sound filled his ears and it was all he could do to stop himself from falling to his knees. His other self was using the ghostly wail. He could feel the earth under him shaking and knew the shop was about to collapse. The only problem was that the ghostly wail was interfering with his concentration to turn intangible.

With no other options, Danny let himself be pushed back further by the ghostly wail. When he reached the back of the shop, he managed to concentrate enough to push through the wall. With the sound somewhat muffled but not much, he flew through the ceiling and out of the shop.

Danny had just phased out of the building when something made contact with his back. He felt a burning sensation enter his body and cried out in pain. Without wanting to, he felt himself transform back into a human and fell.

Danny Fenton felt something grab his leg and was held upside down, still tingling from the electricity that had coursed through him.

His eyes widened when he saw two Phantoms before him. The second one merged into the first that was holding him. He couldn't stop a small gasp of surprise when he saw what Phantom was holding in his other hand: the Specter Power Eliminator.

"When did you—?"

"You should really pay more attention when fighting," Phantom said, grinning. "Otherwise I might not have been able to get my hands on this little thing."

Danny flashed back to when he had heard Phantom speak to him invisibly and cursed silently. Phantom had nipped it from him then.

"What are you going to do? Drop me?" Danny asked. "What happens to you then?"

"I wasn't planning on dropping you." Phantom was grinning rather nastily. "I was planning on throwing you."

Danny barely had time to react when Phantom let go of his leg and threw him. He supposed it was fortunate for him that Phantom hadn't been very high. He was only several feet above the nearest roof and when the malevolent ghost threw him, Danny didn't have far to fly before landing.

"Nngh." Danny pushed himself up on his elbows, blinking the stars out of his eyes. His head was hurting him where it had made contact with the concrete but aside from a few other scrapes and bruises, he wasn't hurt much.

"What are you going to do?" Phantom asked, still grinning.

Danny shot him a defiant glare and reached for his belt. He rolled over backwards and stood up, holding an ecto-gun in his hands.

"I can do a lot," he replied, the barrel of his weapon glowing green as it fired up. In another second, he had fired his ecto-gun.

Phantom let the ecto-blast fly through a hole in his chest before diving in. Danny jumped backwards and dodged a green fist from Phantom and retaliated with another blast from his ecto-gun. It missed and Phantom was left with enough time to phase through the roof of the building the two were fighting on.

"Crud," Danny muttered, keeping his ecto-gun at the ready. He quickly grabbed the Fenton Finder from his waist and flicked it on.

"There is a ghost nearby," it intoned.

"Where?" Danny waited impatiently for it to tell him.

"Move two feet down. You would have to be an idiot to not notice the ghost two feet below you."

"What?" Danny's eyes widened and he just managed to spring forwards when Phantom burst out of the asphalt at his feet, sending rubble flying. The ground beneath Danny's feet shifted with the force and it knocked him off balance, leaving him susceptible to Phantom's attack.

And attack Phantom did. The ghost whacked the ecto-gun out of Danny's hand and punched him in the chest, winding him shortly. Danny was barely on his feet after the punch when Phantom grabbed his shirt and threw him into the air once more. This time, Danny was headed to the ground.

'Breathe!' Danny gasped for some air before twisting over to see the rapidly oncoming ground. Danny fumbled at his belt and managed to grab the mini Fenton Bazooka. He was going to fire it at the ground to soften his landing when his head snapped back as he got whiplash from his sudden stopping in the air.

"Can't have you die now, can we?" Phantom had stopped his near fatal plunge.

"Right," Danny managed to say through the pain his neck was giving him. "Because you're so macho that you have to take my friends and family hostage to ensure that I turn into you."

Phantom's eyes narrowed. "Don't push me, Danny."

"Why?" Danny persisted fearlessly. "Are you afraid you'll snap and kill me? Oh right. I forgot. You can't because then you'll die. Kind of defeats the point, doesn't it?"

"If I'm still here, doesn't that mean nothing happens?" Phantom retorted. The two were nose to nose. "It means you don't die. It means you still turn into me." He grinned then. "It means that everyone else dies."

"I won't let you," Danny snapped. He tried to reach for his ghost powers but couldn't. The Specter Power Eliminator was still working. 'Just great. The one time I don't need it to work it actually works. The world sure hates me,' he thought bitterly.

"How are you going to stop me? You have no idea where they are," Phantom said.

"Where would you keep them?" Danny asked. He looked down to see that he was only about five feet off the ground. If he landed lightly, he would survive. If he didn't…his ankles would probably be badly sprained or broken. It was a risk he had to take. He continued, tightening his grip on his weapon, "Of course you won't answer. But that doesn't matter. If you're me and I'm you, you should know that I'll find out sooner or later." He smiled. "Right? Just like you'll know that I'll do this!"

He kicked Phantom away from him and fell the remaining five feet. He hadn't anticipated the fact that kicking Phantom away would push him slightly over on his back. He felt something snap slightly in the elbow he landed on and knew he probably had fractured the bone.

Danny gritted his teeth through the pain and rolled over to his left side, which he hadn't landed on. He got to his feet and took the Fenton Bazooka in his left hand as his right arm gave off dull throbs of pain.

"Still as obstinate as ever, aren't you?" Phantom was flying above him, his right fist glowing.

"Yes. I am." Danny held up the Fenton Bazooka in both hands, ignoring the pain his right arm was giving him.

"What are you going to do with that thing?" Phantom said. "You know it won't do a thing."

"It won't hurt you." Danny tightened the trigger. "But it'll hit you!"

Danny shot the Fenton Bazooka at the same time as his older self shot the ectoplasmic blast he had been building up. Danny stepped back slightly but the ecto-blast still hit the ground at his feet, blowing the concrete to rubble. A particularly large slab of concrete broke off from the street and hit Danny in the chest, knocking him backwards and into a building.

Despite the growing darkness in his eyes, Danny was able to see that his shot had hit the mark, drawing Phantom into a portal into the Ghost Zone. His last thought before losing consciousness was,

'Great. He's going to come back.'

Pet peeve of mine: when people confuse the Fenton Bazooka with the Fenton Foamer. Come on...there's a clear difference between the two. One sends ghosts into the Ghost Zone, the other shoots sticky foam.

Thanks to Cyber-Porygon, TexasDramer01, MaxRideNut. logout, TPcrazy, hollagirl, truephan, Daedalos, Liz, and Miriam1for reviewing the last chapter!

TexasDreamer01: 'Course I knocked them all out in one chapter! O.o It would've been too short otherwise! Glad you enjoyed!

MaxRideNut. logout: Glad you enjoyed!

Liz: Dan is what he is called in the video games. I don't consider those canon (plus I've never played them) so I'm going with what SkulkTech called him: Phantom.