Chapter 19: The Real Change

Valerie didn't know what to do or say. She rubbed her eyes, but the image still remained clear and precise. It was Danny Phantom standing there and she couldn't deny that, just like he had told her. "Y-you-you're just like Vlad Masters!" She exclaimed.

"No, I'm not—I'm not evil." Danny stammered. He paused to regain his confidence. Going over this in his head was much easier than actually revealing the secret. His heart was vibrating in his chest, and his forehead grew white hot with the pressure. The pressure of possibly losing his girlfriend over a big secret like this one. "I think that all this time you've just been misunderstanding me. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have—if you happen to have them."

"I wouldn't know what to ask." She gulped. She started backing away from him slowly. "Are you really my boyfriend?"

"Yes, I'm still Danny Fenton, see?" He transformed back into Danny Fenton. "I'm still the same guy."

"What kind of a creature are you?"

"I'm half-ghost and half-human." He replied. "It took a lot of guts for me to show you this. I really trust you, Val, and I want to stay with you for a long, long time." The boy said sincerely, not realizing that tears were forming in the corners of his eyelids.

Valerie avoided making contact with his eyes. "What about all those times that I tried to hunt you down? You can't just forget about that! You're telling me you're not mad? I would never have hurt you if I knew who you were…" a tear started to form in Valerie's eyes as she remembered all the threats she had made to Danny Phantom and all the times she'd attacked him and punched him and hit him with ectoblasts.

Danny gave her a few moments to gather herself. But he smiled down on her because he really did forgive her. Maybe that's why fate granted him these powers: because there was just something special about him that allowed him to handle things like this without having a total breakdown like Valerie. "I forgive you." He told her.

Valerie began to sob heavily with the realization at everything she'd done.

"I know that you meant well, Valerie, which is why I told you my secret. Now, I was hoping we could fight the bad guys as a team. I really care about you and I don't want us fighting anymore."

Valerie looked at him as if he were a stranger to him. She started to walk away. For a moment he just stood there watching her carve her path through the cold December wind. Danny wanted to chase after her, but his feet froze suddenly and he couldn't seem to move them. He looked down at them and they were just fine. The only thing between him and her was a name: Danny Phantom.

"Valerie, don't go!" He said rashly but softly. He didn't think she heard him. And she didn't turn back around either.

Suddenly, he could move his feet now that she was further away. He chased after her and wrapped his arms around her hoping she would not resist. She didn't. "Close your eyes and listen to my voice. I'm still the same Danny—the boy you liked in freshman year. I'm still the same Danny you got up the courage to talk to just a short pair of months ago. And I'm still the same Danny who loves you no matter what happened in the past. We can't change what has happened, but we can accept it and move on." Danny closed his eyes.

"I'm not sure I'm ready to accept that yet, Danny." Valerie said slowly. "I won't ever hunt you again, I promise. But I don't think I'd want to date you again either." She opened her eyes and turned around to face him. He opened his eyes too. "We can still be friends and all but, you being a ghost is a lot to take in. And right now my thoughts about ghosts are not happy ones."

"I can change that!" Danny pleaded.

She motioned for him to stop. "I'm going back to the party."

"Did you just break up with me?"

Clueless, clueless Danny, Valerie thought. "I think so." She said. "Please try to understand."

Danny nodded. "I will. And I do."

"Maybe someday we'll be able to give this another chance. I just need time, lots and lots of time. But right now, I think I'm going to go talk to Cecelia." Valerie walked into Dash's house with Danny following close behind.

Danny walked over to where Sam, Danielle, Tucker and Garth were all seated. "Hi everyone." He said sadly.

"What happened, Danny?" Sam asked him.

"I told Valerie my secret, and now I feel like my heart just got ripped out." Danny confessed. Danielle gave her brother a hug for comfort. "Thanks, Danielle."

The group of friends stopped making small talk and none of them said anything but they all secretly wished they knew what Valerie had said to him.

"She broke up with me." Danny said with a defeated tone of voice. It was as if he read their mind.

Danny's friends knew that no matter how hard they tried to get his mind off the fact, they still couldn't keep him from feeling sorry for himself.

"Danny, it's not the end of the world." Sam said gently.

"Yeah, and we'll always be here for you." Danielle said comfortingly. "I know it's not the same, but it's what we have to offer. And I'll say that things can only get better from here."

"Danielle's right." Tucker agreed. "What you need, my friend, is to get fresh with some new ladies." Tucker said like the hormonal guy that he was.

"I think I'm going to pass on that one." Danny said.

"Are you mad?" Garth asked.

"No, just sad." Danny confessed. He lay down on the couch and buried his face in a pillow.

"Aw, I've never seen him this upset." Sam said.

"Hey, everyone, are you enjoying this party or what?" Paulina came over to the five of them, completely unaware of the situation.

"Or what." Replied Danielle, Sam, Garth and Tucker.

Paulina looked confused.

Danielle attempted to explain. "Well you asked us if we were having fun at the party, and we're not, so—"

"Give it a rest, Danielle, she's not going to get it." Sam whispered.

"What happened to Danny?" Paulina sounded almost sincere. "Not that I care. And I'm only making small talk so that I'll get you to pay attention to me long enough for me to ask you where Cecelia is because that's the only reason I came over here."

"We don't know." Tucker said.

And like that, Paulina walked away.

"Go enjoy the party guys. I don't want to be a let-down on your mood." Danny said. His voice was muffled by the pillow.

Danielle knew that was the only thing they could do right now. They needed to give him some space. Garth and Tucker got the hint and pretended to be having fun at the party. Danielle had to practically pull Sam away from Danny. Eventually Sam gave in. "Sam, the last thing Danny needs right now is a rebound." Danielle shot a harsh glance towards Sam.

Sam was a bit annoyed that Danielle would say that to her face, but Sam knew it was true and yes she did want to get back together with Danny.

It was only a little while later before Valerie came up to Sam, "Have you seen Cecelia, I've been looking all over for her."

Sam frowned. "Have you seen Danny? He's all curled up on the couch because of something you told him!" Sam's voice escaladed.

"Whoa, Sam, let's not start a fight here." Garth held the goth girl back from Valerie and tried to calm Sam down.

Valerie shirked that off as if she didn't hear it. And then she went over to Tucker to ask him where Cecelia was. But before she could open her mouth, Tucker put his hand over her face to stop her from asking. "Save it, Valerie. You hurt my best friend and I don't wanna have anything more to do with you!" and then Tucker walked away.

"I didn't mean to hurt him!" Valerie argued her case. "It's just a lot to take in. I told him I needed time. Surely you must understand that my feelings for him couldn't just disappear…" Valerie's voice got softer as Tucker walked away. She wondered if he had heard her at all.

Valerie saw Danielle standing by the punch bowl and drinking a cup. And then Valerie remembered that Danielle was half-ghost too. That was back when these kind of things didn't freak her out so much. Valerie had accepted Danielle's secret, so why was it so hard to accept Danny's? Valerie kept a safe distance away from Danielle.

Valerie sighed. She went over to Garth. "Where is Cecelia?"

Garth looked at her but didn't give an answer. His eyes revealed that he knew something, and he couldn't hide that.

Valerie put her hands on her hips. "Garth?" she asked him. "Is Cecelia here at the party or is she someplace else?"

Garth sighed. He really didn't want to tell Valerie. "No, she's not at the party." He said reluctantly.

"Then where is she?" Valerie asked with a little more urgency this time.

"She's probably in her father's lab destroying the Equator right now."

Valerie gasped. She began to panic fearfully. "Well, we need to stop her! She'll ruin all of her father's plans!" Valerie tugged on Garth to come with her but he would not budge.

"That's the basic idea. But it's not that simple either, Valerie. Dr. Hazel isn't doing his work for the right reasons. He only created the Equator so that he could get revenge on ghosts for killing his wife. He really doesn't care about ridding this town of bad ghosts—that's Danny Phantom's job."

Valerie still tried to pull Garth along with her. "How can you say that? You've worked with Dr. Hazel ever since he got here!"

Garth still stood firm. "There's a lot you don't understand about the way things work. Danny's been trying to give you a chance to understand it but once he finally finds the right moment, you reject him. I didn't need to be there to know just exactly the "big surprise" Danny revealed to you." Garth looked at Valerie's wild eyes and he knew he had to help her. "But if you really want to see Cecelia, I know a quicker way to get there." Garth rounded up Danielle, Sam and Tucker and then the five of them all walked over to Danny, where Garth explained the situation.

Poor Danny was more upset than ever before in his entire life. "Why ever did she do that?" Danny asked.

"Cecelia never actually told me the entire thing, but I got enough hints." Garth admitted.

"We need to find her and stop her." Tucker said.

"No!" Garth protested. "Her plan is sheer genius. There's not a soul in the Government Guys in White laboratory and that's exactly what she wanted. The whole place is going to go kablooey, but she'll be using the intangibility effect on her suit so that she won't get blown away."

"Let's fly. I want to have a word with her." Danny said. He and his friends left the party and walked on foot until they were too far away to be seen.

Danny and Danielle transformed into their ghost halves and Valerie pressed a button and her suit appeared. Then she clicked her two heels and the hover board appeared beneath her feet. Garth looked at Danny awaiting approval to change into dragon form.

"I think Valerie's learned enough secrets for one night." Danny whispered to Garth.

So Garth rode with Valerie on her board. Danny picked up Tucker and Danielle picked up Sam and off they flew into the night sky and onward to the Government lab.

Not far was the Government Guys in white lab, where Cecelia had come straight after school. She was glad that this morning the vulture ghosts arrived at her house to guard her sleeping dad.

Cecelia was wearing her yellow suit as she entered all the passwords and other characters required to initiate the self-breakdown of the Equator.

She then entered the password to her father's lab. She smiled at her own success when the door opened. However, she did not look down and she tripped over something small and with a "thud" she landed on the floor. She was lucky to have the reflex that allowed her to put her arm down to break her fall.

As Cecelia stood up, she realized that the whole lab was messy. Oh well, she thought, it was all going down anyways.

This lab was wrong. Cecelia always knew there was something off about her father and in these last few minutes before she initiated the self-destruct on the Equator, she reminded herself of why she was doing this: to save all ghosts.

The ghosts would never even realize what she was doing. By destroying all of her father's research she would be dissolving the possibility of the Guys in White creating and distributing technology that could seriously hurt bad and good ghosts alike. Cecelia couldn't let that happen. She wouldn't let that happen. She knew that her father had a habit of going too far before he learned his lesson.

Cecelia entered the code.

"DR. HAZEL YOU HAVE INITIATED THE SEL-BREAKDOWN SEQUENCE. YOU HAVE TWENTY SECONDS TO CLEAR THE BUILDING." An automated sequence sounded.