Almost… there… Twelve made his way closer to the mansion, one barrier standing in his way between him and revenge. Vlad would pay; Vlad was going down and he was going to make sure of it. The bastard that took everything from him—but also gave him everything?—was going to pay for his crimes and he was going down now. This couldn't wait another minute.

Putting his hands against the barrier, Twelve bit his lip, his flaming hair crackling as he summoned more power than he'd used in a while, testing the boundaries of the barrier, looking for that one split in the fabric that would let him in to tear it apart. Everything had one, one weak spot that could be exploited and torn into, ripping it apart. But Vlad had always been meticulous, unlike his Dad—unlike Jack Fenton, the things Vlad did had purpose, and they weren't released from testing until every last bit of it was tried and true. Which was why the clone had been so surprised to get through the first barriers without much issue. It showed a lack of consistency that wasn't native to Vlad's way of working; it was wrong and strange in so many ways. But he wasn't going to complain about it.

"Vlad!" Twelve snarled, slamming his fists against the barrier, letting his power surge out of it. The greenish-blue energy surged around his hand and cascaded up the shield. The energy barrier flickered, but didn't die out. "You coward!"

He could see Vlad from here. The bastard sitting smug in his mansion, looking down at Twelve in the courtyard.

Twelve growled to himself and paced. He'd have to bide his time for now. "You'll be out eventually," he said to himself with a smug little grin. "I know you will."

"Tucker, did you do what I asked?"

He knew Tucker nodded behind him, but he wasn't going to turn to look. He couldn't take his eyes off of the pacing form below. It was like a tiger trapped in a cage. A dangerous tiger with deadly powers.

"I did, Danny." Tucker said quietly, exchanging a glance with Sam that Danny didn't see.

"I never thought we'd be helping Vlad out." Danny said with a slightly bitter laugh. Vlad was the last person Danny would ever willingly wish to help. If anything Danny would normally be happy to just let Vlad handle things on his own, and watch the aftermath with a sadistic smile. But Danny didn't want Twelve to win. Especially since looking down at him, Danny was remembering the face of his nightmares.

"Danny…" Sam started, knowing how hard this was going to be for her half-ghost friend. "You don't—"

"It's okay, Sam." Danny finally tore his gaze away from Twelve and turned back to his friends. "Just… follow the plan. I'll be back soon, once everything's done with."

Sam and Tucker could only meekly nod as their friend shifted forms. Phantom stood before them now and he offered them a sad smile. "I promise I'll be okay," He added, his echoing voice quiet. And then he was gone, leaving his two friends to worriedly wait for things to work out.

Vladimir Masters didn't like having to rely on Daniel Fenton. He didn't like it one bit. But he knew without a doubt that Twelves powers had gone out of control. The warning sirens were blazing and he knew his shield would not last much longer. Twelve was pacing like an angry tiger, his eyes locked on the window Vlad had moved away from. The older man couldn't look out and into his creations eyes anymore. The boy had been twisted by hate and confusion so much that he was no longer the boy he'd created.

He was a monster.

Whatever was left of the boy's hair was currently flaming. It's white fire licking at the air in a menacing way as he slammed his fist against the shield yet again. Vlad cringed when he heard his equipment groan, and knew that whatever power was left in the shield was about to go out.

But he had sensed, on the very edge of his senses the presence of Daniel. And he knew that while Twelve was strong, he was no match for himself and Daniel. If Daniel would cooperate, things would work out. They'd get rid of this, and hopefully Daniel wouldn't turn on him afterwards.

Vlad suddenly felt the warm fingers of his ghost sense crawling up his throat and he clamped his mouth shut to keep the vapors from escaping. "You've really fucked up this time, Vlad." Danny's voice was a low growl as the teenager materialized in the room. Vlad was grateful that Danny learned from observation, or the boy would never have learned teleportation.

"I know," Vlad said quietly, his gaze drawn again to the window as he heard Twelve shout. The clone could sense Danny there now, and it enraged him.

"The hell were you thinking?" Danny snarled, stepping up to Vlad. The boy had grown considerably recently. He was now eye level with Vlad and the older man thought that he would soon surpass him. "What the hell did you do!?"

Danny was furious, and Vlad knew that the boy deserved the answers he demanded. Turning his eyes from the window to the enraged hybrid, Vlad began to speak. "When my attempts to get you to join me failed, I was desperate." Vlad explained quietly, "And I was so close to perfecting my clones last time, I had to try again." He ignored Danny's growl of outrage and continued with his story.

"I knew all I needed was some DNA from a mid-morph state, and I thought, why not use my own? I didn't know why I hadn't thought of it before; it seemed like such a good idea. Taking some of my own DNA and preserving it, I worked on whatever little bit I had left from you." Vlad paused, closing his eyes.

"I was able to locate and remove the DNA strand from Jack, removing the abomination from your genetic code, and I incorporated my own." The process had taken him years to do, but he had been ecstatic when it had finally worked. "And then Twelve grew. He was perfect. He was stable and grew at an exponential rate. As he was growing, I developed a neurotransmitter that could place artificial memories in his mind."

Vlad explained the process to Danny though he was sure that the boy was unable to understand most of it. He explained the memories he'd created and placed, everything that he and Daniel had gone through was placed in as well. He explained that he didn't want to have anything too easy, so the memories of the multiple fights Danny and he had had were essential to the clone's mental development.

"Things started to go wrong though, when he matured. He was too depressed. He barely responded and wouldn't talk much to me." Vlad sighed heavily. "And then he ran away. And I knew then that what I had done had pushed his mind over the edge. I lost him."

"Do you know what you've created!?" Danny demanded, snarling. He was beyond furious, and while Vlad didn't know why aside from the fact that they now had a battle on their hands, Vlad didn't want to push him.

"I created a dilemma that we need to deal with," Vlad replied cooly, his eyes narrowed slightly in challenge.

"That's not the issue!" Danny yelled before turning away from Vlad and pacing. This was too much for him. Vlad wanted to ask what was plaguing the boy's mind, but he sensed that that would be inappropriate.

Danny paced again before going over to the window and making a face at Twelve. "My friends are out there, a safe distance away." He said bitterly, and Vlad wanted to ask what they were doing so close to such danger. He knew the trio often fought ghosts together, but this ghost was unpredictable and dangerous. More so than any other one that haunted Amity Park.

"I had Tucker set up some of my dad's inventions. It's like the Specter Deflector—remember that belt?" Vlad nodded that he did. In fact, it was a painful memory and one he'd hope to forget. "My dad thought that that idea was so great, that he made ones that could cover areas. It's like a shield, but its more painful."

"Is that a good idea, Daniel? After all, we'll be fighting Twelve and we'll be in range of the attack." Vlad inquired, and Danny frowned at him.

"I've thought of that," he said, looking slightly annoyed. Whether his annoyance was at his oafish father of at Vlad himself, the billionaire didn't know. "And I've tested it. It doesn't hurt so much in human form. More of a… tolerable itch, I guess." Vlad raised a brow. Any sort of discomfort would be annoying, but he supposed he could live with it.

"Twelve doesn't have a human form," Vlad mused quietly, looking past Daniel and out the window where his shield was starting to flicker. "I've known that since he first started to grow. His human form is more of a disguise than anything else."

Danny nodded, biting his lip as he looked over the lawn. "I know. That's why we've set it up as we have." He said quietly. Twelve wouldn't be able to escape the shield that the trio had set up; it would most likely hurt him more than they could.

"You realize this is going to hurt, right?" Danny asked quietly, and Vlad almost thought he saw a flicker of doubt on the boy's face.

"Yes, I know…" Vlad answered. "But it's this, or let him become powerful enough to terrorize others."

Vlad saw Danny's jaw set, and his lips were pressed into a hard line. "No." Danny finally said with conviction. "Never again."

The barrier hadn't lasted much longer. It let go with a blast from Twelve and a slight explosion as Vlad's transformers blew and the house lost power. Quickly, Danny and Vlad transformed, flying out of the house to confront the clone before he got into the castle.

"It's time for some fun!" Twelve hissed as the halfas landed before him. Danny growled, his fists lighting with energy as he shot a punch at the clone's head; Twelve ducked, running forward and ramming his shoulder into Danny's stomach. Danny gasped, the air driven out of his lungs as he was flung back with Twelve's charge. The clone grinned to himself, lighting his body with energy and shocking Danny. The younger halfa screamed through clenched teeth, his muscles seizing.

Danny felt like the pain was going to last forever. His body writhed and his arms twitched. Danny didn't know how long he could take this. The pain seemed like it was consuming him; setting him on fire and he didn't know if he'd ever get out.

Suddenly though, it was gone. And Danny gasped in relief as he feel to his knees, coughing and sputtering. His eyes watered and he blinked hard to try to get the tears out, but they would regenerate as soon as he got rid of them.

Shaking his head to try to clear it just ended up with more pain and Danny wiped the ectoplasm that was trailing out of his lips with disgust. Finally able to see, even if his vision was a little blurred, Danny looked up and blinked.

Vlad and Twelve were engaged in a battle in the air. They were furiously dodging and throwing ectoplasm blasts at each other, and every so often one would hit the other. Regaining control of his body, Danny got back to his feet and flew up to the fray, tackling Twelve when the clones back was turned.

"Danny!" Twelve snarled, writhing under neat him and punching at him with charged fists. "Let me go!" Twelve tried his electrocution trick again but Danny quickly turned intangible. Twelve stopped and glared at him. "Danny, we're like brothers," Twelve said quietly, glancing back at Vlad who landed a few feet away.

Danny paused, his fist raised and his power sparking across his knuckles. Brothers? "We're nothing like brothers." Danny said sadly. If Twelve had been given different circumstances; if he had chosen another path, things might have been different. As it was, Twelve was nothing but an enemy.

Twelve was just like Dan.

"We could have been!" Twelve pleaded, and Danny felt a growing itch in his ghostly core. Deciding to ignore it for now, he listened to what Twelve had to say. "If you had just let me explain things could have been different." Danny felt a pang of regret. He hadn't let Twelve explain himself when he suddenly appeared in the young man's bedroom. He'd jumped to conclusions and attacked him.

"We could have figured something out. Something other than this." Twelve continued and Danny narrowed his eyes slightly. Were Twelve's eyes glowing a bit brighter?

"I could have made things right for you, Twelve." Vlad said quietly as he approached the two. Danny still hadn't let Twelve get up, but for now the fighting had paused. "I was going to be the father you needed; that you deserved."

Twelve's eyes narrowed in hate at Vlad and he spat in the man's direction. "A father?" He hissed the word out like it was a poison. "You are nothing of the sort."

Danny didn't need to look at the billionaire to know that the man had hurt written all over his face. Knowing that that would just fuel Twelves vengeance, Danny gave the clone a light shock to keep him down.

The itch in Danny's core was becoming more apparent and he shifted with discomfort. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Vlad was rubbing at his own chest. He didn't have time to think about it before he felt something shift under him.

Looking down, Danny quickly gasped in horror and backed off. Twelve was no longer solid. Twelves face elongated and his eyes were glowing fiery red. His body distorted and grew. Danny backed off, bumping into Vlad as the two of them stood still and watched as Twelve grew.

He was easily over ten feet tall at this point and still growing. The itch in Danny's core exploded into pain and he gripped at his chest, doubling over. He knew what it was. It was his ghost sense going crazy as the clone's power doubled and redoubled.

Twelves laughter spilled out of his jagged lips. His body was made of ghostly fire, and Danny didn't know what chance they had against him now.

Twelve finally stopped growing. Danny estimated him at twenty five to thirty feet tall, his body still shimmering with ghostly fire. His laughter was a deep baritone that shook the ground under his feet and Danny fought to stay upright. He and Vlad shared a look.

"Well…" Danny said, his hand still pressed to his chest to try to alleviate some of the pain Twelves powers were giving him. "…The bigger they are, the harder they fall…right?"

Sam and Tucker watched with open mouths as Twelve grew. It wasn't something they'd seen before and it was a little frightening to say the least. The ghost was now so much more powerful, and they were quite worried about their friend.

"What if Danny's plan doesn't work?" Tucker asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as they watched their hero friend fly up to confront Twelve. "I mean, this is putting a major kink in it…"

Sam nodded, her hands balled and placed lightly against her stomach in worry. Neither of them wanted to see Danny hurt, and they both had to wait for his signal before they could help him. "Do you have everything hooked up and synced to your PDA?" Sam distantly heard herself ask. She was trying to focus more on the battle than what Tucker was saying. Her worry for her friend was clear in the way she held herself.

"Of course. I had it ready shortly after Danny went to see Vlad," Tucker answered quietly. Somehow he knew that his friend wasn't really listening to him. He didn't mind so much, considering the situation. "As long as Danny doesn't use the Wail, I think he'll be okay," Tucker added, as much to himself as it was to Sam.

Danny's Ghostly Wail would leave him powerless and defenseless. Twelve would be able to do away with him unless Vlad was somehow able to protect Danny. The chances of that were also minimal considering Vlad's dislike for Danny.

"All we can do is hope, Sam." Tucker said quietly, taking his friends hand in comfort. The Goth girl hardly seemed to notice as she stared at the battle taking place before them.

After they waited for what felt like hours, they saw Danny pull back from the fight, gathering energy and sending it up where it exploded in the sky. Their signal. They watched as he and Vlad fled from Twelve, and changing to human form as Tucker quickly pressed a button on his PDA.

Sam swallowed nervously, watching as the devices quickly sent out a field of anti-ghost energy. The end of the barrier came to just above Twelves hips and the clone let out a deafening roar of pain and anger.

"Come on, Danny…" Sam murmured to herself anxiously, balling her fists and holding them to her chest.

Danny and Vlad had fought hard against Twelve, and Danny had more than a couple bruises to prove it. But it was time to bring out their secret weapon against the over powered clone. "Vlad," Danny said as he moved away from Twelve, gathering energy in his hands to set off the signal. "I'm going to let them know."

Luckily Vlad didn't need to be told twice and the older man dove quickly to the ground. Sending out his ectoblast caused Twelve to look at it then at Danny in slight confusion. He didn't understand what Danny had done, but it didn't matter. He was going to crush them anyway.

Danny darted down to be by Vlad's side, changing to human seconds before the devices activated, trapping Twelve where he stood. The clone let out an earth-shaking roar of pain and anger, and Danny and Vlad took an unconscious step back. Facing this goliath was nerve wracking, and even Vlad was feeling shaken from it.

Twelve continued to scream and Danny and Vlad exchanged a look before Danny's eyes widened. If Twelve was indeed his clone, he could probably harness the power of his Ghostly Wail, and if he used that at his current power level and height…

Danny suddenly didn't think that this power barrier was such a good idea anymore. The more Twelve screamed the more his ears hurt—and not the normal kind of hurt. "Um, Vlad?"

"Yes, Daniel?" Vlad was feeling it too, Danny could see him shifting and cringing as Twelves screams gained in pitch.

"You might want to block your ears." Danny bit his lip nervously, taking another step back from Twelve. This was about to get really bad, really quickly.

As Danny feared, Twelves screams gained enough volume to turn into the Ghostly Wail. The clone had enough sense to turn his head, angling it down and the powerful vibrations tore through the courtyard and blew Vlad's castle to shreds.

"Butter biscuits!" Vlad cursed but didn't have much time to lament his destroyed home as Danny quickly knocked him over, getting him out of the way of the sound waves as Twelve continued his assault. Danny was caught in it, however and the young man screamed in return. His screams didn't reach the level of the Ghostly Wail, but it did cause him to collapse on the ground, twitching. His ears started to bleed a ghastly mix of blood and ectoplasm. The pain in his head was astounding. His vision was narrowed to a dull point and all he could hear was an annoying ringing.

He could feel himself twitching and moving, his fingers and toes cramping as they clenched and unclenched of their own accord. He was in so much pain he didn't know how to handle it. Was this what he did to other ghosts when he used his Wail on them? He only used it in emergencies, but it must hurt them something awful if it was doing this to him in human form.

He could feel the shock of the sound waves moving around him, but he couldn't tell where, or how far away. He could only feel the vibrations and the pain masked a lot of that, too.

He felt like he was going to die.

Vlad could only stare as Daniel knocked him out of the way of the clone's powerful attack. He could only stare helplessly as Danny writhed in the aftermath of it, his body contorting as his ears bled. Why had Daniel sacrificed himself to protect Vlad?

Well, the logical answer to that would be Daniel's obsessive habit to protect others. Unfortunately Vlad couldn't get to Daniel while the attack was still on him so all he could do was wait. Twelve had already proven that their attacks were no good, having brushed them off like mere insects.

He was at a loss as to how to beat him. The great Vlad Plasmius was at a loss! Oh, if his allies could see him now…

But he had more pressing matters on his hands. Finally the attack moved away from the boy, letting the billionaire rush to his side. To his dismay, he found Danny unresponsive and still stuck deep in a fit resembling a seizure.

"Daniel!" He called out, trying to grasp the boys shoulders but Danny was writhing too much. "Daniel, can you hear me!?" He doubted it; he could barely hear himself over the noise Twelve was making.

Vlad cast an angry glance over his shoulder at the clone, irritated that something he'd created was doing so much damage to both his property and the boy before him. It would have been a different story if Vlad had ordered this to happen, however.

He narrowed his eyes as he stared at Twelve. Something was off. The clones body of ghostly fire was growing dimmer, and Vlad thought he saw some drops of ectoplasm falling off of him.

Was Twelve losing control of his form? Clones had always been unstable; they weren't able to maintain their solid form for long and often dissipated back into piles of ectoplasm long before they could do anything worthwhile. The possibility that Twelve would dissipate was high, leading Vlad to the assumption that all they had to do was wait him out.

If he could tire himself out, he would end himself. Vlad cast a worried look at Danny, whose thrashing had eased into a more subtle twitching, his eyes open, but distant. The annoying itch in Vlad's chest was growing stronger again. "Daniel…" Vlad desperately tried to get Danny out of his pain educed coma, but was unable to.

He felt the ground shake as a blast came towards him and he desperately put up a shield, knowing that if Twelve's Wail hit him, they'd be done for. The piercing noise wasn't unbearable unless in its direct path, and his shield helped somewhat. Beads of sweat appeared on his brow as he tried to keep the two of them protected while trying to ignore the pain from Tucker and Sam's attack. "Wake up, Daniel…"

He didn't know what had come over him; what this power was. But it was something amazing and he intended to use every bit of it to his full advantage. This power, his voice thought, as he felt his body expand and explode into flames. This power is glorious. He didn't know what was happening, but he was much more powerful than he'd ever been. Nothing hurt. The tiny blasts his adversaries shot at him did nothing to temper his power. They barely even dimpled his skin. He was all powerful.

And then they were retreating. Twelve was a little confused as to what was happening, but he didn't care too much. The world was his. Those insignificant ants landed by his feet and he wanted to lift his foot to squish them. He would have too, if the smaller one hadn't sent out some sort of beacon.

Twelve had felt a flicker of confusion before a searing pain had started up. It felt like someone was repeatedly stabbing him in the legs, sawing them off with power tools.

He started to scream. Scream as well as he could with his new body. He felt it coming; building up in power as his breath escaped his body. He felt it come out like powerful waves and knew that this weapon was one he had to use against his adversaries. Turning it against the two ant-like halfas, Twelve caught Danny in his blast, making sure to hold him in it before he was forced to turn away from the repeated assault on his senses.

The outburst was making him weaker, but he couldn't stop. The power was just flowing out of him now, consuming him. He was stronger than he'd ever been, and it was amazing. He was going to battle his enemies and win. He was all powerful.

The smaller one, the one he'd been modelled after was writhing in pain and Twelve only dimly registered it. He aimed his blast at the mansion in the distance, obliterating it and the bad memories it contained.

Twelve felt funny. His head was swimming and his body felt weird. He knew this feeling. He'd had it before, and he had a nagging feeling that he knew what it meant. But for the life of him he couldn't place the feeling. He shrugged it off as a simple annoyance.

He would destroy Vlad and Danny, even if it meant his own destruction.

Things were barely coming back. His senses were still blurry, and his hearing was simply gone. But he was waking up. The world was a tinted pink and he frowned in both confusion and pain. He looked to his side, noticing Vlad standing there, holding a shield above him. Danny's confusion lessened, but with it came an onrush of memory. His situation was coming back at him in a rush and he sat up with a gasp.

His head swam with pain and dizziness, but he struggled to his feet. "Vlad?" He heard the words clearly in his own mind, but with his hearing being blown out. The billionaire clearly got the message though, because he turned around, frowning at him before saying something Danny couldn't hear.

Vlad seemed to understand that Danny couldn't hear, though he didn't seem too thrilled with it. The halfa motioned to his own ghost form, indicating that Danny should change.

The younger halfa did so with a bit of a struggle. His head was still spinning, and his powers seemed to flicker weaker than a candle flame; but he grasped it and coaxed it to life. It took a second, but his powers responded and changed him to Phantom form.

Vlad let the shield drop and Danny felt the effects of his friend's trap. The pain was almost enough to knock him out of Phantom form, but he held on stubbornly. He needed it to defeat Twelve. Vlad was motioning to something, his mouth moving and forming words that Danny couldn't grasp without sound.

But his arm motions were enough to drag his attention away from the older man, and to the berserk clone. Danny gasped when he noticed the large puddles of ectoplasm that were leaking out of Twelve.

Of course! The clone was unstable. He'd always been unstable. That was partially why he was able to get so powerful now. Because his core hadn't had a proper foundation to grow on, it was now leaping well past it's capping point and destroying his body from the inside out. They didn't have to fight him. He was going to destroy himself.

But, Danny thought to himself as he turned and watched the destruction Twelve's Ghostly Wail was causing. The clone could not control his power, or so it seemed. It was going to destroy too much of Vlad's property and perhaps even beyond that.

Danny ground his teeth, unsure of what to do next. They had to find a way to stop Twelve, and Sam and Tucker's attack seemed the most effective so far. But they couldn't just sit back and let Twelve do what he wanted till the attack destabilized him enough to take him down. They had to fight.

Starting to float, Danny charged his hands with energy. Maybe a constant attack would help diminish Twelve's energy, but at the same time if Danny's own experience with his Wail was any indication Twelve would soon exhaust himself.

The power was overwhelming at the best of times; for an unstable clone it was a death sentence. Danny watched the flaming body that used to be Twelve with a mix of sadness and regret. It wasn't Twelve's fault he turned out this way; if anything, Danny should be blaming Vlad. But he didn't have it in his heart to do that.

Letting himself land on his feet again, Danny sadly watched Twelve. The clone would soon wear himself out anyway.

A/N: If you're thinking I took the easy way out with this fight, you're right. I wasn't sure what to do once Twelve became over powered, and you'll see how he goes down in the next chapter, which hopefully is the last. I'm tired of writing this story.

I'm also going to try to update all my stories faster. They're almost done, and I've got some ideas sitting on the back burners that I really want to start. I promised myself no new stories till all of mine are finished.