I feel so horrible! I haven't updated this in forever! I guess I was too preoccupied with everything else. Sorry!
Danny absorbed his duplicate and turned into his human self after checking to make sure the coast was clear. Then, he proceeded to walk down the halls, head hanging. This was going to drive him insane! Fenton, Phantom, Fenton, Phantom, all the time! He was going to snap! How much longer could he keep this up? Lancer was so close back there!
As Danny deepened into his inner musings, he began to ignore everything around him. Unfortunately, that was perfect for running into a certain someone. Danny hit the stranger with an "oof!" and fell to the floor. A gasp escaped his mouth as he realized who he'd knocked into. His expression quickly twisted into anger.
"What do want, Vlad!" He demanded angrily, leaping to his feet.
"Oh, nothing." Vlad replied calmly. "I'm just enjoying the show."
Danny huffed and walked past the elder half-ghost, fists clenched.
"And how is your little duplication act going? Had a close call back there, didn't you?" Vlad sneered.
Danny spun on heel, fuming. Anymore and he'd attack again! But this time, there wouldn't be any poison involved.
"No thanks to you!" He shouted. "Why can't you just stay out of my life?!"
"Because, Daniel, this is not the life you should be leading."
Even Vlad's tone and voice was enough to get the boy's blood boiling. How could he always stay so annoyingly calm?!
"Well, for your information, I like my life this way! Sure, it'd be nice if I didn't have to pull off two identities at the same time, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! And there's nothing that you could ever say or do to make me give it up and join you!" Screamed Danny, his eyes blaring ghostly green.
"Ah, there's that temper of yours. You know, you really need to learn how to control that. Someday, you might let something…slip." The sinister man almost laughed out the last word.
Danny was barely under control. He had to turn away from his arch-enemy to keep himself back. One more word and…
"You never know when someone might be listening. You wouldn't want anyone to find out your little secret, now would you?"
"That's it!" Danny shouted furiously before rashly transforming into his ghost self and throwing himself at Vlad, who quickly dodged.
"A little irked, are we?" Taunted Vlad.
"You have no idea!" Danny shouted heatedly, wanting nothing more than to land this man in the hospital.
Danny fired a ghost ray at Vlad. Said billionaire was thrusted back into the wall, a cruel smirk on his face.
"Daniel Phantom!" A feminine voice roared.
Shocked, Danny turned around to see his principal glaring at him. He then angrily glanced back at Vlad who was pretending to be hurt. The man let out a fake groan, attracting the woman's attention. She rushed over.
"I am so sorry, Mr. Masters, I have no idea what's gotten into him." She apologized while "helping" Vlad to his feet. She gave the ghost boy a hard look.
"I'll be…fine…just as long…as you keep that…demon…away from me." He fake gasped.
"I'm the demon?!" Danny snarled. "You're the one who's intent on ruining what's left of my life!"
Vlad "painfully" and "exhaustedly" detached himself from the principal. "I'd…better be…going now…before he…attacks again." The old man began to limp down the hall, casting one last smirk at Danny.
"I swear, if you come within ten feet of me again, I'll make you full ghost!" Danny furiously claimed.
"Mr. Phantom!" The principal reprimanded. "What is wrong with you?! That is the second time you have attacked the mayor!"
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me?!" Danny blared. "What's wrong is that he started it and you still blame me! What's wrong is that you don't even know the things that he's done to me! What's wrong is that everyone expects me to be perfect! To never do anything wrong and to be able to handle everything that's thrown at me! Well, you know what?! I'm sick of it! I'm sick of having to be the strong one all the time! I'm sick of everyone's expectations that I can't always meet! I'm sick of trying my best, but having it never be good enough! And I'm sick of being blamed and not having any control over my life!" Danny screamed so hard that he practically unleashed a Ghostly Wail. By this point, he had to fight back the angry and tired tears that were threatening to pour down his face. "So I'm sorry if I can't be perfect and get angry sometimes! And that I'm obviously not good enough for you!"
The authoritative woman just stared in shock. For a few seconds, her mind was desperately attempting to sort out all of that new information and the massive display of emotion. Plus, he was almost crying! Phantom never cried! What was worse, she never even considered most of what he'd just said. No wonder he snapped!
"Daniel…" She began.
"Just…leave me alone." He interrupted, running past her before launching himself through the ceiling.
She sighed and picked up her phone, dialing a number. "Hello? Jasmine, do you think that you could find Phantom and talk to him? And could you also come by afterwards? Thanks. Goodbye." She hung up the phone. If anyone could get through to him, it was Jazz.
Jazz stood outside her brother's door. He had locked himself in right when he came home. She softly knocked on the door twice.
"Danny, it's Jazz, can I come in?" She requested politely.
"No! Go away, Jazz!" He shouted from the other side.
The girl sighed. She knew that he would say that. "Danny, please, I want to talk to you."
"No!" He screeched.
"I'm not going to stop until you let me in." She claimed.
She heard a grunt and then footsteps from the other side. Her angry and tired brother opened the door.
"What?" He demanded.
"You're upset. I want to talk to you. Tell me what happened." She said calmly, but not the irritating calm of Vlad.
Danny suppressed a groan as he retreated to his bed, his sister following him and sitting by his side. "There's no way you're going to drop this until I tell you, huh?"
"Nope." Replied Jazz positively.
The boy sighed. "I was walking down the hall after detention…"
She cut him off. "Detention? For what?"
Danny seemed annoyed by her interruption. "I accidentally made my duplicate write the same essay that I did. Lancer caught us and held us after." He explained. "Anyway, I was walking down the hall when I accidentally bumped into Vlad. He…he just said some things that made me really mad and I attacked. But then Principal Ishiyama came and Vlad pretended that I hurt him. She got really mad at me and then I yelled at her before flying off."
"What did you say?" Jazz interrogated coolly.
"A bunch of stuff. I don't even remember all of it. I remember saying something about how Vlad was just out to get me and how I was never good enough for everyone." Danny replied sadly.
"You know that's not true." She assured, forcing him to look at her. "Yeah, Vlad's a creep, but not everyone knows that yet. Maybe someday they will. And I understand that you were angry, those things happen. You're only a kid after all, something a lot of people don't notice when they look at your ghost form. But one thing that I want you to know, you are good enough. You're better than most of them deserve. They look up to you, though. You always make it seem like you're perfectly fine and invincible, so they expect a lot from you. You're their hero, Danny. Most people ignore the fact that even their hero isn't perfect."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. It's just…it's not fair. I always get blamed." Danny told her.
Jazz gave him a comforting smile. "Before you go and blame her, consider it for a moment. Replay the scene from her point of view. Who would you have believed?"
Danny thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "I guess I did look pretty guilty. Especially with Vlad faking being hurt. It just reminds me that some people don't trust me completely yet."
"Make them trust you. You're an amazing person, Danny. I want everyone else to see that too." The older sister advised. She got up off the bed. "Now, I've got to go and tell Principal Ishiyama that the problem's solved."
"Hey, Jazz?" Danny stopped her before she walked out the door. She turned around. "Thanks."
"Anytime, little brother." She assured with a smile before leaving.
Danny couldn't help but smile as well.
See? No cliffie!