Disclaimer: Don't own DP.

Thanks (again!) to Invader Johnny, Above the Winter Moonlight, DawnInk, Cookieplzandthnx, Brittany, noname, WDCain Man, Silverstone007, Domination of the World, Guest, trish, KraZiiePyrozHavemoreFun, DarkFastLight, SweetestChick, and ZoneRobotnik for reviewing last time! I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support.

So to preface this update: I unintentionally lied about updating with the Valentine thread! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I was talking with a few people and inspiration struck me for Aftermath, and I couldn't let it go. I'm also struggling a bit with the next Valentine update, and it's definitely not going to be ready for tomorrow, so I figured…why not update with this in the meantime? (SweetestChick and ZoneRobotnik, I hope this chapter answers your questions! Your reviews and PMs asking about what Dan was thinking at the time and why he did it got me thinking. So I partially tried to address that concern, but this is about as racy as I dare to get with this series.)

Aftermath Miniseries Summary: In his insanity and lust for Valerie, Dan Phantom rapes her, and she ends up pregnant with his child. She chooses to keep the baby so that she can raise it to defeat its father. But when Phantom returns months later as the newly-crowned Ghost King, he takes great interest in his unborn baby as the fulfillment of his desire for an heir to train and rule with. He forcibly kidnaps Valerie to the Ghost Zone, where she gives birth to Phantom's son and is forced into the role as the Queen of the Ghost Zone. Valerie and Dan then find themselves in a new kind of battle to gain control over the other, with their baby in the middle of the war.

Aftermath Part 7: Valerie confronts the reality that Dan Phantom was once Danny Fenton. Rating: High T. Genre: Drama/Horror

Chapter Warning: Violence and non-explicit reference to rape.

Deliverance

Shot 25: Aftermath Part 7

Valerie sunk against the gravel, gasping in pain. Her whole arm felt as if it'd been torn open and crushed. She'd taken a hit right at the elbow, and it had snapped. She could feel blood ooze from her ecto-burns.

"Valerie, Valerie," called a mocking, demonic voice. Pain radiated through her skull at the sound. Dan Phantom appeared from the shadows, his blood eyes trailing down her injured body. "I was going to say how pathetic you look when you're defeated. But I…kind of like you like this. All weak and vulnerable."

She struggled to raise herself up so she could shoot. But green power struck the weapon from her hand, and in an instant, Phantom stood before her.

"Oh, no," he said gleefully, shoving her back down with his foot. "Don't get up on my account."

Her back hit the gravel, hard, and she wheezed in pain, her visioning darkened with spots. It hit her then for the first time that she was probably going to die. She'd been stupid, and he was going to make her suffer. This was what she got for patrolling by herself at dark.

Before she could recalibrate, he swept his hand in the air above her, and suddenly her limbs felt like dead weights against the gravel pile. A green glow rose around her, freezing her nerves in her arms and legs. The rest of her felt as if a boulder were resting upon her, wrenching hard on her heart and lungs.

She realized what it was. She hadn't seen him use this power before—but he must have had another power growth spurt. Some form of telekinesis. It was as if he had control of her body. "N-no—"

"Well," he told her, fascinated as he watched her struggle against his power. "This is a rather delightful turn in our relationship, don't you think? You on your back. Staring up at me." He looked pleased. "Like the new power? I can move anything to my will—including the bodies of other people."

The ragged edges of his cape brushed against her cheek. It felt sharp. "You g-gonna kill m-me?" she challenged, her busted lip bleeding open. If she were going to die, then she'd at least die with some honor. Maybe if she pissed him off enough, he'd kill her quickly.

He smiled too wide. "But you don't fear death, do you?" He floated up, then gracefully twisted himself so he rested parallel above her broken and inert body, watching the determination and steel-will rise in her eyes. For a long time, he simply stared at her while she struggled to control her breathing—to not break gazes and admit defeat. The long edges of his cape swept over her hip and leg. "No," he smiled, almost impressed by her. "It's not the death part that you fear."

So he reached down and ran his finger from her sweaty temple to her quivering jaw, then her collarbones. "I think I know what you fear. It's the loss of control. It's giving yourself to others. And what we fear is always what we crave to happen, whether we admit it or not. We're never really happy until we live it."

She stopped breathing, eyes widening in shock as she realized both of his hands were touching her body in intimate ways, and dropping lower—

"—Stop it." She tried to struggle against the telekinetic hold he had over her, but she barely had energy to oppose his will. Panic made her even more weak as she snarled, "Stop!"

"Why?" he asked, voice dark with desire. "You want it, just like me. Deep down, you do. Your fear is what's standing in your way of enlightenment, Valerie."

She felt nauseated and dizzy. A very real fear struck her and made her feel that this couldn't be happening—it couldn't be happening—no—

"You know that I have this…tension with you," he said to her. "A maddening need." He fully pinned her down, his body settling over hers as a heavy weight. He began to spread her legs with his knees, his cape draping over them both. "I need your help."

She cried out, "No!" She managed to break her good arm out of his telekinetic hold, and she grabbed onto one of his sensitive, elfin ears, yanking sideways hard.

He hissed. His long fingers suddenly snapped back, gripped her throat, and squeezed tight. "Stop that," he demanded, eyes glowing hot. "We have to overcome our fears, don't we? And you can't do that by avoiding them." He squeezed her neck hard. "Get it?"

She gasped for air, feeling him nearly crush her windpipe. Her body weakened. Oh my god. Oh my god.

"Come on, Valerie." His face was twisted in a maniacal smile as he ran his free fingers down the side of her body. "I want to help you face all your fears. Starting with this."

"N-no!" Her voice was distorted with pain and breathlessness. She tried to move beneath him.

"But we could kill so many birds," he mused, "with just one stone." He breathed deeply as he listened to her gasp for air. "Overcoming your asinine fears. Relieving our…mutual attraction. The tension. I thought for so long this was hate, but I realized it wasn't just that. I can't stand it. Can you?"

Her teal eyes widened into something glassy. Her fingers twitched. Her broken arm jerked at her side.

He found great enjoyment in how she still resisted his power. No one had yet been able to resist his telekinesis, which had made it something of a handy way to stop an opponent. But Valerie— wicked, beautiful Valerie. She never failed to surprise him, which was perhaps one reason why he felt tension with her. They were always connected and defined by each other, and she was so driven, even when she was defeated. Like himself.

She tried to kick him and roll him off to no avail. She bordered on unconsciousness, her face reddening with no air.

He chuckled, desire tightening his body as he loosened his grip upon her neck.

She inhaled in a wheeze, heaving to breathe. She tried to activate any defense mechanism on her suit, but her nerves were still inhumanly frozen. Panic froze her mind. "S-stop—"

His mental and physical grip over her body strengthened. He began to unbuckle and rip at her suit, marveling at the tremble of her flesh, her innocent civilian clothes beneath her battle gear. His mind rewired at the sight. He had her. All of her. Finally to himself. "Don't worry," he said. "This is for both of us."

Over the years, Valerie had built walls upon walls to hide the memory of those she had loved once, even slightly. Danny Fenton had been a cute and nerdy boy who had made her heart skip more than a couple of times. She'd known it was hopeless, as Danny had loved Sam. And Danny was so innocent and sweet—she didn't want to get him mixed up in the dangerous life of ghost hunting.

Then after the explosion…Danny had sunk into total despondency. Danny Phantom stopped showing up to fight ghosts. She'd been so busy trying to protect Amity Park, she hadn't said goodbye to Danny before he moved to Vlad's. She hadn't even known of the lab explosion that killed him until the day after it happened.

And that same day, Danny Phantom reappeared, greatly changed. She'd barely had time to give anyone else much thought since.

Now, years later, she was just piecing the puzzle together. That Danny…was Phantom? That he had always been Phantom? "It can't be," she whispered, weaving her fingers into the tight curls of her hair and the sleek metal of her headdress. Her makeup began to run down her face. "No, no, no."

"No what?"

Valerie flinched. With great hesitance, she looked up, and suddenly her tears start all over again.

Dan Phantom floated inches off the floor, still in full King regalia. His arms were crossed, and he stared at her in curiosity, red eyes honed on the unending tear tracks down Valerie's face. "I must say," he hummed, "your emotional constitution is not at all up to par. Lucky for me that you held it together as well as you did at the Celebration, even if you did spare that vassal's life for questionable reasons."

Her full lips quivered as she stared at the man who had hurt her again and again. "Who are you?" she whispered bluntly. Her voice broke. "Tell me the truth."

Dan's eyebrows flew up in surprise, his eyes widening a small fraction. "What do you mean? You know me in ways no one else does. You of all people know me."

Her breath hitched. "The snow beast—he called you Danny." The words burned in her throat. "And your father's name was Jack." Now that she was looking for it, she could see the similarities. If she looked beyond the red eyes and fire hair and blue skin…She looked away, haunted. "No. No you can't. Tell me you aren't."

"Tell you what?" he asked, floating closer with a raised eyebrow. He looked greatly amused by her.

Her body echoed with shock and betrayal down to the windows of her soul. "Jack Fenton only had one son," she whispered. "Named Danny. You're either an ancestor somehow, or a dead twin, or…"

His face twisted into an ugly smile. "Or what?" he demanded softly.

"Or you're him." Valerie's voice was shaking. "You're Danny. I don't know h-how or w-why." She forced herself to stand—it made her wince to do so. She still had not quite healed from childbirth. It made her cry more. "But you're Danny."

"Give or take a few additions." He smiled something demonic and dark as he reveled in the horror on her face. "I really should have told you," he mocked. "But I figured you'd catch on sooner or later."

"How?" she whispered. "How did it happen?"

"Entirely by accident," Dan said. He gazed down to her stomach. His eyes were dark, glowing hot like embers. "As most good things are."

Her breath hitched. "An accident? But how?" Her mind scrambled, trying to think of exactly when Phantom had begun to appear. It'd been shortly after the start of freshman year in high school…."When you were fourteen—the Fenton Portal? I remember hearing you got hurt." In the beginning, Danny Phantom had been a mischievous sprite of sorts. He hadn't been malevolent as he was now. He'd acted like Danny. Maybe the accident gave him powers?

His thin lips widened. He clapped slowly. "Oh, your deduction skills are slowly increasing from the cesspool of nonexistent. Truly, it only took you ten years to figure out an obvious truth."

She barely suppressed a flinch. "And the blue skin and…everything else?"

He shined his fingernails on the lapel of his cloak. "Let's call that a power upgrade. I'd explain further, but you wouldn't understand micro-ectological core fusions, and then you'd get all confused again." He tapped her nose. "The important thing for you to know is your beloved Danny Fenton chose this. Freely."

Her nose scrunched, even as she twisted away from him. "No," she whispered, voice hard. "No—if you are him, he wouldn't have chosen this."

But the statement was so thin with want and ignorance that Dan laughed. Words hissed off of his lips. "You still think Danny Fenton was a saint, don't you?"

"He wouldn't have done this to himself," she argued. "He was a good kid. Whatever you did to him, it didn't come from him."

"Sweetheart," he said, voice rumbling into a psychotic snarl. "You didn't see the depths your precious Danny fell to in his last days. His pain and hatred for the world." His voice was mocking. "No home, no family, no friends? It can really twist your mind. No matter what you look like on the outside."

Then, Valerie stared in shock as black rings stormed down Phantom's frame. She saw the finite changes—the blue skin giving way to smooth, pale white. The fangs sunk back into human teeth. The eyes burned a sky blue that matched the baby's. Dan's hair darkened, falling back down his face and shoulders in thick, unfettered locks. A few uneven strands fell into his eyes, framing his cheekbones. He looked to be an older Danny Fenton, still clothed in the outfit of a king.

She blinked hard and then began to hyperventilate. "Oh my God."

The entire visage was only an illusion—the closest Dan could get to the human half he had murdered. Dan lightened his voice a shade to mimic his old self. "Valerie," he pouted, "I'm sorry I was too in love with that bitch Sam to see what a woman you really were."

She stared in great horror and awe, heart pounding. The not-Danny reached out, and he gently wiped her makeup-stained tears away with the soft edge of his black cloak. The action was so intimate and caring that Valerie allowed him to touch her, her mind completely blank with too many emotions.

"In my weaker moments," he whispered, "I wonder how different life would be had I just…chosen you to begin with. Maybe I wouldn't be dead."

Then in a blur, he pushed her away—and she hit the wall hard, still haunted by his image. She looked almost dizzy.

"But you didn't really care about Danny, did you?" he said, blue eyes twisting in darkness. "You turned him away. You didn't come to help him when his friends and family died. You never asked where he went."

Valerie's lips quivered. "I…I thought he had family." She swallowed back her tears, trying to focus on his face and the reality that Danny had really died in the massive devastation Phantom had caused across the earth. Only, he was the first victim. A suicide victim. "I knew he had Vlad, at least. I was b-busy trying to help the city."

Danny's face twitched. "He had no one," his voice broke, almost in a mocking way. "He was so tired of the pain, of being a half-ghost tied down by sentimental human emotions." His gaze turned to her sharply. "Not even his final friend from his past thought he was worth her time."

A sob began to work its work through her, and it was all she could do not to break down in front of him again. This was Danny. Some twisted version of the boy she had loved. "I didn't know," she breathed shakily.

His fists clenched.

"What kind of an answer is that?" he demanded in a snarl. Something about her response snapped his mind to a psychotic downspiral. "How could you not know? I'd just seen my whole family—the love of my life, my best friend—blown to bloody chunks. What did you think that does to people?!"

The entire castle rumbled.

Danny's face—so twisted in hatred and anger—struck her deep, and it distorted the images she held dear of a sweet and happy Danny. She was wide-eyed, frozen in place. Phantom had raised his voice to her before, but never in the form of Danny Fenton. And never with such pain. She felt small in the face of it.

"I needed someone, Valerie." His voice broke from anger into something accusatory. "You were the only friend I had left in Amity Park. And you abandoned me when I needed you most."

She squeezed her eyes shut, and tears ran down her dark cheeks. "I thought you were okay with Vlad." Her breath hitched as she opened her watering eyes. She grabbed onto his hand. "Danny—"

Dan pulled away, as if burnt by her. His blue eyes looked almost hurt and confused, and then he squeezed his eyes shut. "Agh," he breathed in a strange gasp, grabbing onto his head as if he suddenly had a pulsing headache. "No—no—" He turned away from her, muttering under his breath. "Stop. Stop—!"

Then suddenly, something overcame Dan, as if his entire mind and body readjusted from the breaking of a spell. His hands fell from his hair, his eyes widened in innocence. His neck snapped to look at her.

And it was as if he were an entirely different person. His pained expression grew more broken, his entire visage suddenly altering into a whole new personality. "Val?" he breathed, rushing forward. Unparalleled emotion overcame him. "How did you—?" He grabbed her hand, not unkindly, cradling it against his face. "Never mind. Don't listen to him; he's lying to you."

Her voice was hesitant and afraid. "…What the?" she whispered.

He looked desperate, holding her hand tighter. "It's me. He doesn't let me out much. Please get me out of here. I can't stop him." He begged, "Don't leave me."

Valerie trailed hesitant fingers down his face, tears rolling down her cheek. She knew that voice, the way the words were woven together. "…Danny—?" Words choked her.

"—I love you, Val," Danny's voice broke. Tears watered his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I couldn't stop him. I would never do this to you."

Her breath hitched. "You wouldn't?"

"I'm sorry," he begged. "For years—he's been inside my head. He's twisted everything. It's my fault he hurt you." He leaned his cheek into her hand, closing his eyes. "Don't leave me here. Don't hate me."

She swallowed hard. "You're…possessed...?"

The man nodded, his eyes watering up. "Since I was fourteen. And now he's taken you too." His breath hitched. "I'm so sorry, Valerie. I screamed at him to stop—I just wanted him to stop—I had to watch—"

At the sight of his tears, she came undone. She nearly wanted to hyperventilate again, because she was thinking back to the night Phantom had forced himself on her. She suddenly wanted to disappear into the walls. "You saw that?" she whispered.

He nodded hesitantly, his gaze flickering with something pained. "I try to make him regret it."

She looked away, feeling ashamed, and she hid her face in her hands. For a time, she stood there. Her thoughts were so scrambled that she could not think.

Oh my god. She'd spent a portion of her life trying to protect the ones she loved. But the greatest demon was already living inside of Danny?

The next thing she knew, Danny had gathered her up in his arms, cradling her close. And the action was so unassuming and pleasant that she allowed him to do so, and the solid feel of him rose tears to her eyes again. She began to cry into his shoulder.

"Danny." The name was but a shuddering breath on her lips. It hurt to say his name. His name meant too many things. She wanted to say too many things, and she didn't know how to say any of it. She wanted to collapse. "Danny."

His pale, human hands stroked the curls of her hair in a soft way. It was entirely unlike everything Phantom had forced her to endure, and she felt a need for the innocent way Danny held her. "I'm sorry, Val." His voice broke. "I'm so sorry. He's corrupted me. Us. Everything."

"It's not your fault," she whispered back. "Not you."

He pulled away from her, grabbing onto her shoulders. She allowed him to do so because his touch was soft and fearful. "Really?" he breathed. "You really believe that?"

Before she could respond, his broken expression tightened into an inhuman smile. "You really do, huh?" The sound was an awful modulation that tinged on the insane, dropping his voice down again into something demonic. He laughed. A smirk darkened his face as rings stormed up his body, unleashing the full breadth of his true self.

Valerie's eyes widened as she beheld the visage of Dan Phantom once again.

"Oh, Valerie. You're so easily manipulated." He waggled his eyebrows. "If I just needed to role-play for you, you should have asked."

She stumbled back, eyes haunted, mind warping with a thousand fear and thoughts. "…Is he still in you—somewhere?" she demanded, voice hard and wavering. "I have to know."

Dan raised a brow, then turned away. "Please. I left the Danny Fenton you know on a tile floor in Vlad Master's mansion. He bled out before I destroyed the place. He'd been too frightened to even beg for mercy."

Valerie winced, breathing hard through her tears. "No. No, he was right here. Just now. Even if—if you killed him, some part of you is still him."

He slammed his fist into the wall beside her head, and she tried not to flinch, not breaking gazes. "Valerie," he said patiently, "the truth hurts. I thought I was ridding myself of human emotions when I tore myself in two, but I just traded some for others." His face twitched with a psychotic smile, and he tilted his head. "So why don't you tell me how much of your precious Danny Fenton is left. Not that you really knew him to begin with. Or cared."

"He was sweet and kind," her voice wavered. "He was a good guy—someone I knew I could trust."

"And you don't see him in me at all?" Phantom mocked. He placed Valerie's hands on his face, forcing them to run down his temples. She tried to jerk away. "Can't you see me in here?"

She cried out, managing to pull herself away, stumbling back against the wall and leaning on it hard. "You stay away from me." In that moment, he was no more Danny Fenton than a butterfly was a caterpillar. Only a shell remained of the original Danny.

Just his face.

Oh, but it was his face. And now she could see it in Phantom. And in all the lines of his body.

"Don't touch me again," she hissed, voice breaking with betrayal. "You're not Danny."

Dan tapped his chin. "You know," he said suddenly, voice dark, "we never did clarify what you meant by 'touch.'"

"I meant don't touch me at all," she said, turning away from him, wiping her eyes of tears. "You know that."

He turned her back roughly.

"But it appears our deal has some slippage," he said, tilting his head. "You'll let Danny touch you, and I am Danny. You say you don't want me to touch you, but you do."

Rings stormed down his body. The illusion of an older Danny Fenton covered his demonic appearance again, and he smiled sweetly, like a small-town boy next door. He stroked falsely warm knuckles against her cheek. "Come on, Val," he tempted, nuzzling her skin. "We can forget for a minute who we are. We can play pretend."

She was still struck by the very image of Daniel Fenton, by the concept that Dan Phantom was him.

"Valerie," he said her name, almost as if to worship it, his eyes losing their darkness to take on a wholesome delight.

He cupped the back of her neck and kissed her, just as she imagined Danny probably would kiss a girl. It froze her—not in fear but in something she could not fight or deny. After ten years of pain and suffering, the not-Danny's kiss was an oasis. It was sweet, his mouth soft against hers.

The illusion, the lie, the total temptation to just…play pretend gripped her with almost the same strength that this not-Danny grabbed her hips.

Before she knew it, she was kissing him back, thoughtless and beholden to the convincing lie that maybe Danny was still alive—that maybe Phantom had simply possessed him. That Danny's love for her was real, and that the last ten years had never happened. For a second, she could believe it. Her fingers weaved into his dark hair with a desperate instinct of their own, and he pressed himself flush against her.

Real desire stormed through her body, the barriers she'd set up against one Danny Fenton tumbling down.

His large hands inched down the silk of her dress, caressing her soft baby bump. "I love my son," the man whispered brokenly against her lips. His fingers bunched into the dress's material, reverently feeling the remaining swollen flesh that had carried his child. "No matter that night—How can I regret him?"

Jax was a redeemed version of himself. Blue eyes without fear. One who loved both the darkness that had sparked his life and the mother who had chosen not to kill him.

Valerie's breath hitched, silent tears streaming down her face. "I love him too."

Not-Danny said, blue eyes broken and searching hers, "No one else could love anything that came from me."

"No," she agreed, voice hardly a whisper.

It didn't really hit her until she saw his lips tilt with something of a smirk—and then she panicked, spell broken. She quickly shoved him away, trying to catch her breath in the midst of tears and the feeling that she had been, again, manipulated.

It wasn't real. He wanted her to think it was real. Every part of her suddenly felt dirtier than ash. The sweet taste of Danny's soft kiss soured in her mouth, just as his sweet words fell dully on her ears. She tried to get a grip on reality, but it all left her feeling shaken. Her breath hitched.

The image of Daniel Fenton melted back into that of Dan Phantom with a flicker of bright rings of light, and he licked his lips in appreciation. His fangs shined. "We should play these games more often."

She tried to lift her chin high, despite the fact that her lips willingly were bruised by his and that her face shined with tears. "You're sick," she whispered.

He pointed his finger at her, sharp smile wide. "And you do like me."

She felt speechless, her body still tingling with want for a man who was dead. Her horror slowly drained away her desire, until the only thing remaining was the pain that none of it was real. The man she could have loved and all of his sweet mind, was gone forever. Devoured by the demon before her.

"Don't you ever use Danny against me again," she commanded. "He's dead. You're not him."

"But if it weren't for Danny," Dan whispered, face twisting dark, "I would have killed you a long time ago. Lucky you, there's this part of me that needs you, even though Valerie gave up on Danny ten years ago."

He shoved her back, and she winced, stumbling under his powerful push. He did not bother to help her up, nor did he continue to torment her. Instead, the amusement fell from his eyes, and he grew uncharacteristically silent, almost fearful of himself, feeling distant.

In too many ways, it shook him to pretend to be Danny and to love Valerie as Danny would have loved her. It was an easy mask to get lost in, especially because Valerie wanted that kind of love. But he was not Danny Fenton. And if Valerie loved Danny Fenton, she did not love Dan Phantom. The desire he'd felt from her was a sham.

His face twitched. "Go," he demanded, waving her off distractedly. "Get out of here. I don't want to see you now."

She blinked.

His eyes bled orange. "Did you not hear? I said, leave."

She was not impervious to his power or his insanity, but she managed to shakily wipe the dust from her dress and compose herself. "You should know," she said, voice wavering, "that I'm leaving not because you told me to, but because I want to. You don't command me. Ever."

His face twitched again, and he bared his fangs at her. She eyed him levelly, then walked away. Her steps were blind, her path heart heavy with the full realization of what Dan Phantom truly was—and that she had, if the previous conversation was any indication, contributed to his anger and insanity. That perhaps Phantom was not wrong to suggest she'd failed him.

Tears slipped from Valerie's eyes at the thought, and she ended up walking to her personal quarters in a daze. Her childhood crush had been a half-ghost. That half-ghost had gone insane from the death of everyone. Then he'd haunted the world.

Maybe, in some alternate reality, if she had been aware enough to question Danny's disappearance after he went to live with Vlad Masters—maybe if she had gone to visit. Maybe if she had learned his secret but loved him anyways because he was a broken human being instead of a monster…

The potential was too much, the reality of her care for Danny Fenton too close to her hatred for Phantom. She could not hold both in a balance. And apparently, neither could he.

They did not speak for days.

A/N: Okay, so this chapter was designed to give some more background into the night of the incident, and into the events that led up to Aftermath-Dan's fixation with Valerie. I tried to balance out scene changes to avoid getting too graphic regarding the incident itself. Also, the telekinesis thing is in reference to Dan's ability to freeze people in place, which he originally used on Tucker and Sam in the TUE episode.

Looking over The Ultimate Enemy, I'm of the firm conviction that the separated Danny Phantom was fully aware of what he was doing when he merged with Vlad Plasmius. His smile's too evil, his actions too precise for him to have been totally innocent. Which would mean that underlying intention and power-grab originated within Danny Fenton. That's why I'm not sure if it's necessary for Valerie to know too much about the Vlad-half of Dan, considering Danny appears to be the dominant body and the dominant mind (Vlad certainly never did half the destructive shit Dan pulls), and Vlad's half appears to be more of a subconscious/subordinate influence that just twisted Danny further. So I mention it briefly, but I'm not sure if it's necessarily a major plot point for the future. I'd love to know your thoughts here.

As a final thought, I had fun writing the Aftermath-Dan taking on a human illusion. The real question is: why did Dan say what he did to Valerie while in the form of human Danny? Was it pure manipulation? Or was some part of his mask heartfelt? Freudian slips in the heat of the moment? Hmm…

Okay, so this puts Aftermath into a holding pattern for now. I'll get back to working on the Valentine thread! Please review with thoughts, questions, ideas, or requests! Thanks!