Chapter 25! So, this was a hard one to write. Lets just say, bring your tissues, and enjoy the show. Please enjoy, and review! Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, Nickelodeon does.

The hotel bed was stiffer than Dan had remembered. He was sprawled there all night as he tossed and turned, thinking of Izzy and their child to be. His mind repeated of the previous conversation that he had with the only person he truly cared for...

"Danny? You never call me that!" Dan said.

She was caught off guard for a second, her spine stiffened as her eyes widen, only for her to shake it off to resume her argument. Her anger grew further; the honey liquid in her eyes seemed to glow with fire, setting ablaze, pushing ahead and consuming anything in her path. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned came to mind the second he saw her anger.

"Well, I never heard you talking about murdering someone, or this secret life of yours! Who the hell are you evem?"

He brought his hands together as he ran up to her, and pleaded as fast as his mouth would allow. The tremble in his figure was small, almost unnoticeable, unless someone was as close to him as Izzy was. "Izzy please, let me explain. You have no idea what I've been through-"

The desperation in his voice almost broke her; it reminded her of the Danny she knew. Used to know.

That did it for her, pure rage clouded her judgement and ran through the veins in her body, the throbbing fury pounded and flooded throughout, blinding her vision, allowing her to only see the color red. "What you've been through! No! You cannot fathom what I gave up for you! What I endured to see you again! Then it all leads to this! I loved you! I have always loved you!" Izzy deeply inhaled, letting the heated air soothe the flames of her anger. She watched as his eyes glanced at her slightly extended tummy.

The outrage, however, was starting to become tame now as she saw where his eyes landed. But it still rolled around in her soothing honey eyes. Her thumb creased the pudge on her stomach, letting the baby soothe the anger that stirred in her as the tension in her shoulder's subsided. Her eyes narrowed at him, her lips fixed in a taunt downward line, accompanied by a few wrinkles that twisted at the edge of her lips.

"Get out, Dan."

He reached out to her, only to pull back at the last moment. He balled his fingers into a fist instead, worried that if he did try to brush his fingers along the length of her arm, he'd have another red mark slapped across his cheek. Tears burned at the surface of his eyes, but he refused for them to go any further. "Please Izzy, just let me explain and you will under..."

"Get out, now!"

Dan looked at Izzy for a moment, trying to remember every detail of her beautiful face, knowing it might be the last. Wrinkles sank into her forehead whenever she was inflamed about things that she was passionate about. The higher structure of her cheekbones became more pronounced as she spoke with anger, the soft jawline that ran the curve over her face along with her slightly pointed chin— which a few blemishes of lines that could be figured as scars still intertwined with her skin— tightened as she continued cursing at him.

How her cute narrowed nose sat evenly on her, her soft full lips that she'd always bite at when was nervous, or was angered in this case. Even though she thought her face looked horrible when she got mad, Dan would completely disagree.

But the one thing that he loved the most about the physical aspect of her was her ignited golden eyes. He never thought that after being accustomed to the amethyst of Sam Manson from all the years ago that he'd never be okay with looking into a different set of eyes, but one glance into her honey filled gaze, he knew he was a goner. While the violet eyes of his old love were beautiful, Izzy's eyes had beautiful specs of chocolate brown layered throughout, with different tones of rich honey lurked in the bases, combining to create such a golden beauty, one that no one should be able to have the honor of having.

And here he was, messing up another amazing thing in his life, all for the sake of stupid revenge.

Sighing in defeat, he scrambled to the door, every pound of his foot against the wooden floor was a blow to his heart. "Okay."

"Idiot! Fucking moron! What the hell is with that ironically self-harming asshole! Kill Danny?! What the fuck! I should go over to his hotel and beat some sense in his stupid ghost face and then put my stomach against his face so his son can get in a few good hits too! AHH!"

Lilith just gawked on at her aunt as she paced back and forth. Izzy's hands went to the back of her head for a moment before she instinctively interlocked her fingers together at the knuckles, as her hand slipped down, wrapping them around the base of her neck, bunches of hair getting locked against the nape of her neck in the process.

Deciding it was best to break the silence, Lilith took a few cautious steps to the enraged pregnant woman. "Izzy... Are you okay?"

That, however, was the wrong question. Izzy halted her pacing, and steadied her gaze, peering directly into her soul.

"Am I okay? No, I'm not okay! I died and got reincarnated just to see his dumb ass again! I had to wake up to my mother's dead body with a metal rod sticking out of my gut when I was just five!"

Lilith tried to stifle the flinch that her body acted on. Deciding the best thing to do to keep her body still was to intertwine her arms behind her back, and crossed a foot over her other, which thankfully seemed to help keep her body's reaction to Izzy's screaming at bay. Seeing as the older woman wasn't doing anything to ease her screams, Lilith assumed that she hadn't seen her reaction.

She definitely hadn't noticed Lilith's reaction. "I had to get this shitty waitress job that damn near breaks my back every day! My feet were swollen everyday! I lived an entire lifetime with a lot of shit just to be with that asshole and then he pulls this kill Danny shit! I've been having trouble keeping my two lives untangled, but. it's almost impossible at this moment! What the hell happened to him that made him so freaking stupid!"

"He lost you."

That sobered Izzy quickly. Her eyes adverited to the floor, refusing to meet Lilith's gaze. Her arms instinctively went to wrap around her stomach.

Lilith didn't miss a beat. "He lost everyone. There was no one to grieve with him. Everyone he ever cared about, gone in a single moment and he was in pain. Pain unimaginable. When you were born again, you started fresh. New life, new memories, and no clue whatever happened to you when you were Sam. When you finally remembered, you were in your apartment carrying the child of the love of your life. The one you lived again for. You got him back practically the moment you remembered who you were. He didn't get that."

Clicking a few buttons on the time medallion, a bright golden hue broke out and colored the room. Images of Dan's timeline began to flash in front of the two, dancing along with the spinning of the color.

Lilith continued, herr voice taking on a more gentle approach, "He was alone, hated, and just wanted the pain to go away,"

Izzy's breath left her as she saw young Danny take that step off the top of Vlad's mansion, and tears started trailing down her cheeks in waves. Her hand automatically went to cover her mouth in her horror, her hand catching the small gasp released from her lips.

Placing a comforting hand on Izzy's shoulder, she tried to keep her voice soft for comfort. "So, Vlad gave him what he wanted. But with all the anger and guilt that was within him... When he killed his human half... His soul. There was nothing holding him back from that need to fill that emptiness."

Her hand had begun to tremble, but not of her own doing. Looking to the charcoal black haired girl, her lips breaking apart in little bouts, and closed again, her lips never staying still for long.

The color had started to drain from her face; Lilith knew she wasn't filling her lungs with enough air. Her lips were becoming pale, and her eyes were glossed over with an empty stare and was fixated on nothing. Releasing the medallion, Lilith pulled the woman into an embrace, rubbing circles into the small of her back, all the while whispering in her ear to breathe.

Making sure Izzy's sudden panic attack had diminished, and after setting them both down on the living room sofa, she asked the nervous woman if she wanted to continue, to which she gave a wordless nod. Taking a deep breath herself, Lilith did as instructed.

"So he did. He turned into the most feared being in both his world and the Ghost Zone. But it never brought him peace. My dad, this timeline's Danny, lived through Dan's timeline, experiencing everything he went through. But what he didn't see was all the other horrific possibilities. Every time a Danny lost someone close to him, it changed him and more often than not, it wasn't for the better. Dan saw all these Dark Dannys and came to the conclusion that the more Danny loses, the darker he becomes."

Lilith paused, allowing Izzy to absorb the information that was being thrown at her. She breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of color returning to her face. Izzy's eyes were now fixated on her instead of the wall, and she was happy to see life returning to her honeycombed eyes.

"That's why he wants to kill my dad. He's scared that with so many more loved ones in his life, that it is only a matter of time before Danny loses them and becomes a monster. Only a matter of time before he loses you again. Along with the baby."

Izzy's voice is shaky at best, but she's still able to choke out the words. "I didn't know. He... I just."

Bringing Izzy back into an embrace, she nodded against Lilith's shoulder, now understanding the full story. Lilith was also careful not to put too much too pressure on her stomach.

"It will be okay. It will be okay."

"It'll be okay Danny, just relax!"

Sam's soothing voice did little to him his jumbled nerves. With every member of the Fenton and Manson family gathered in the living room, nothing seemed to dampen his frustration and anxiety.

With his face in his hands, his words were muffled, but still understandable. "We had it, and now it's gone, just another mess down in the lab."

Tucker did his best to reassure him. "Well, if it's any consolation, it did have a nice confetti look to it when it disintegrated, like you may have failed but you did it in a pretty way. Like poof, FAILURE." Based on the befallen look on his best friend's face, he could tell he failed to brighten the mood.

A hand covered his mouth before he even had time to scream. Glancing to his side, he saw that it was only Danielle, making his shoulders sag in relief. A fake smile mixed with pain from his words sat on her lips.

Danielle tried to keep her voice as sugary as possible to keep the blow not to low, "Sweetie, I know you think you're helping but right now, it's better if we just don't say anything."

Removing his hands from his face, Danny looked to the three. "No, it's fine. He's right. Poof," — He an explosion of smoke gesture with his arms. —"gone."

Danny flung himself onto the sofa, then ran a hand through his inky black hair, catching on a few strands that he wasn't able to brush through yet. He repeated the word 'stupid' through the cracks of his fingers.

The fear that Sam and the others fought so hard to remove was obviously back, though just a little. Sighing, she sat beside him, playing with a flyaway strand of his hair.

"Danny James Fenton! You're more than this. You have to give yourself more credit. You're a hero! You're the man I love, that all of us love. I won't sit here and let you talk about yourself that way! If not for yourself than for all the people that believe in you."

Danny looked around the room to see all his friends and family look at him with warm smiles, a small uneven smile found its way onto his own lips as well when seeing the pride that filled his loved one's. "Thanks guys. You know, sometimes I forget that it's not just me like the old days."

Sam's eyes narrowed, sending him a warning glare. "Um, just you?"

Tucker almost mimicked her expression. "Yeah, I remember three kids always getting detention, not just one."

Pulling Sam into his arms, he jumped to his feet."You know what? I'm going to make it up to you. Pizza Gut is on me tonight!"

A smile overtook Danielle's mouth. "And a movie night?"

Danny beamed, mirroring his daughter's face. "Sure, what type?"

Tucker was the first to voice his pick. "Sci-Fi!"

All eyes rolled as Jazz yelled, "Romance!"

Jack and Maddie were on the same page for what they wanted for a movie. "Comedy!"

"Psycho Slasher!"

The entire room looked to Pamela Manson in utter surprise. Jaw's dropped to the floor, including that of her daughter's. A pin could be heard dropping to the floor form the silence that surrounded them. No one moved, not even a twitch.

Pamela's eyebrows cocked together. "What? All the stress is giving me wrinkles. I have to take out my aggression somehow." All remained silent, now all fearing for their lives if they ever crossed Pamela.

With that, Sam tugged at Danny's arm, yanking him in the direction to the side of the hallway while everyone else started the preparations.

"Danny?" His steps paused as he turned to see a complexion of an unreadable expression splashed on Sam's face. She glided over to him to cup his cheek, which he happily leaned into, enjoying the softness her touch brought. "It's gonna be okay."

Dropping her hand from his face, she grasped his hand, tugging him to the room where the rest of their family resided.

Yeah, maybe it'll be okay.

Hours seemed to drag by as Izzy attend to the rush of customers that stred to file in around noon. The tables soon became compact with waves of people with buzzing conversations. Rush hours always sucked and with Lilith words echoing in her mind, bounding back and forth while she did her best to quiet it.

Be careful. I know what he did was wrong, but you've been given a second chance. Don't waste it.

And as much as she knew Lilith was right, at the moment, it hurt. So she waited on people, got their food orders, and ran back and forth to get her job done. Food had been served; some of it, almost mouth watering to the pregnant woman, and some made her want to throw up her breakfast. She did everything to keep herself busy, feet moving, hands carried trays of food to a few testy people. It didn't matter, as long as she was moving, the outside world was in the back of her head.

As she started wiping down tables— to which she had gotten weird stares from Jenny for that along with, 'Izzy, it's a table, not an ex, you don't have to put a hole into it.' to which, Izzy just ignored her and continued on with her work— her boss had started to become obviously concerned and told her she could have an extra break if need be. But Izzy declined.

Busy.

She needed to keep busy.

People blured together as the time slowly passed. Her body was on autopilot as she worked to get food out. But the thoughts still haunted her. Eventually, she came to the conclusion that she was not going to be the one to apologize, that was for sure. But maybe, just maybe, if he came in, begging on his knees for forgiveness and a promise to work to be good again, she'd forgive him. A love like theirs was rare, she couldn't let it slip away.

Buried deep in her thoughts, she jolts when, the bell above the diner rung throughout the tiny space, crashing through her hazy thoughts. Putting on her best 'customer service smile,' she gave the usual greeting.

"Hello. Welcome to the Rusty Ghost Diner."

I have to make this up to her, but how?

Dan scraped around his room, hoping to find something that would do the trick. "Vodka, no. Ninja movie, nope. My only pair of black skinny jeans, why do I even own these? Ugh, there has to be something!" Dan tossed the jeans to the other side of the room, settling in a corner, when a clink reached his ears from the intended forgotten part of the room

"What was that?" Dan walked over to the direction from where the sound came from. Laying there, mere inches from the pocket of the jeans, was his parent's wedding rings he had taken from the house after the incident staring directly back at him. He was just happy at the time of the accident they were having them polished, before his soul had been ripped out. It was a keepsake of a reminder of how much he missed them.

Before he became a monster.

"Well, I guess that's a sign. But where the hell am I gonna get a suit?"

Dan marched up to the diner, gravel crunching from the slightest pressure from his feet, as rain opened pour down on him, wearing the finest suit he could find, with his bottle of caffeine-free cherry cream soda in his hand. To his surprise, he saw police cars around the building.

Shaking his head, he heaved a sigh, which departed into the brittle cool air. "What the hell did Jenny do this time. Ugh, better bail her out. Again."

Dan scuffled his way to the entrance when he was stopped by an officer dressed in a blue uniform, with an officer's hat and sunglasses that really hid most of his face. The subtle that lined his chin was on thin side, but noticeable enough to know he hadn't shaved for a while. "Please sir, I'm going to have to ask you to stay back. There has been an incident and we need to do inquiries."

Dan rolled his eyes. "What, did Jenny deck another guy trying to look up her skirt? I'll pay her bail if you need me to."

That didn't quell the officer's holding stance. "Sir, I cannot disclose any information about the situation because it is still under investigation."

From behind the officer, a voice filled the space, "Izzy! Why!"

Fear gripped him at the familiar voice. "What the hell! That was Jenny."

Seeing that Dan wasn't going to comply, the officer raised an arm to put a hand on his chest."Sir, I'm going to insist that-"

However, that did little to hold the halfa back. Dan pushed past the officer, and ran inside to see Izzy lying motionless on the ground, blood covering her abdomen and starting to pool around her small frame as she laid there, matting into her perfectly kept ponytail. Her body lay motionless, her limbs contorted uncomfortably, her head lifelessly laid on its side.

"Izzy?"'

The air quickly escaped his lungs, the room spun for a minute and the floor beneath him began to sway. Breathing through his nose, Dan did everything he could to regain his bearings. Kneeling down next to the unmoving body, he pressed an ear to her chest, hoping for a faint heartbeat at the very least, anything. Putting a finger to the pulse point on the neck, he came up with the same result.

Nothing.

As a last ditch effort, Dan instinctively placed his hands on her lifeless form as they began to glow, intending to reverse time. He was going to do whatever it took.

To save her, to save them.

He couldn't lose his family. Not again.

"That's it, come on." However, as the minutes slowly ticked on, nothing happened. She just remained still and her skin started to become cold, her lips slowly turned icy blue. Her eyes stayed shut. "Izzy? Come on."

The glow intensified."Come on, damn it! Why isn't it working!" Yet again, nothing happened. Tears started pouring from Dan's eyes. His voice began to break. "Give them back! Please, give them back! I can't lose them again. I can't do it again!"

His wails began to shake the ground below them as dishes and silverware begin to float. "Give them back!"

His voice finally gave as he laid next to her body, muffled sobs shudder his entire body as he held her tightly, just hoping she would hold him back.

"Please."

After coming back from the kitchen with her soda, a sudden pain stabbed at Lilith's chest, making grab at it as air fled her lungs, and but she couldn't regain her breath. Her eyes tensed close as she hissed in pain, her tongue pressed against the back of her teeth.

Unknown to her, her eyes began to glow a haunting white.

Danielle tore her gaze away from the movie, noticing the sudden illumination, to give her sister a worried look. "Lily, are you okay? Mom already left, and Grandma and Grandpa already went up to bed, we can go too if you need to."

Lilith began to stumble, swaying back and forth as her legs gave way underneath her, almost collapsing to the ground. Danielle sped to her and caught her just before she hit the ground. "Lilith, what's going on?"

Out of nowhere, her voice echoed, bouncing off the walls of the living room, sounding nothing like herself. "Clockwork said if you travel through time, you can feel when a fixed event is taking place. It feels different depending on the event. I've never felt one like this before. This just feels... awful."

That's when Danny started convulsing uncontrollably, dropping to the ground.

Jazz stared at the halfa. "Danny! What the heck is happening!" She felt helpless as she crouched down next to her little brother—not knowing what to do—as his hair ignited into white flame, his eyes burning red, and a pale greenish blue began to spread over his skin.

"Ah, it hurts!"

"Danny!"

"Make it stop! Please, make it stop!" Danny's vision began to blur. "I... It... Ugh." Danny lay completely still on the ground, curled up into a ball, as his physical form reverted back to normal. He could faintly hear the scream of his sister for their parents, but blacked out before they arrived.

Pamela was making a fresh batch of Ecto-Cookies when she saw her daughter grab at her abdomen, tears flowing rapidly down her face. Dropping the mixing bowl, Pamela sheltered her daughter in her arms, brushing her hair out of her face to see if she was still conscious. "Sweetie, are you okay?"

Sam could feel something sharp in the pit of her stomach, building further up, until it exploded and spread throughout her entire body, bringing pain to every nerve littered within her. Everything was burning with pain for a while, but soon she felt numb, both physically and mentally. Her eyes clenched closed to as if to keep the pain at bay.

Shaking her daughter, Pamela yelled to wake her daughter; her attempts at rocking her daughter awake became more violent as she grew desperate with each passing minute.

"Honey! Please answer me, are you okay?"

Her eyes blinked opened. Her stare was fixated her Pamela, but the older woman was hit with an indescribable sensation of something being off as she held her daughter tightly in her arms. It was as if her whole world was tilted off its axis as the stare from Sam's amethyst eyes bore into her own. "Mom... I missed you so much."

Uncertainty gripped her as she touched Sam's forehead, looking for any signs of a fever. Maybe she had a concussion. "What are you talking about. You've been with me all day-" She was interrupted when Sam passed out on the floor, completely losing conscious this time. "Jeremy, get help!"

Dan just stat at his normal booth, head down, not saying a word. The officers had left a while ago and it was just he and Jenny left in the diner. He was ripping pieces of a forgotten straw wrapper that was left at the booth. When that was torn to shreds, he grabbed a napkin to busy his hands.

Anything to keep his mind distracted.

Jenny walked up to the booth and sat across from him. Her makeup was smeared from earlier. Mascara covered her cheeks; any attempt at wiping away the mess only rubbed it further into her skin.

She couldn't hold a steady voice as she did her best to explain what happened between breaths. "He just came in here like anyone else. He sat at the bar and asked for me. Izzy didn't know who it was, it was just another customer to her."

The hasty intake of breath was short, Dan honestly worried that it wasn't enough air. Her hands shakily grasped tightly around the cup of coffee that she made. Her grip tightened to the point of her knuckles turned white, veins popped out, contrasting against her skin

"But as soon as I came out I knew who it was. It was that bastard's brother. My ex, the one you took care of. He saw me come out and pulled out a gun. I froze the moment I saw it, but not Izzy. She never freezes. She got in between him and me, and in a moment the gun went off and he was out the building. Izzy did her best to hold out until the ambulance came, but she just couldn't. She um... Her last words. They didn't make any sense. She just said that she'll find you again. I'm so sorry."

Dan's mind began to race. It was that bastard's brother's fault. He should have made sure that there was no one to come looking for that piece of nothing. He was the reason she was dead, along with their baby. He was the reason Izzy lay motionless, cold, on the hardwood floor. This guy would pay. With blood.

"Dan?"

Dan gazed up at her, with burning black eyes and in a voice that pierced Jenny's very soul asked. "What did he look like?"

A scrawny man wearing a blue sweater ran down the stormy alleyway, making sure not to be seen, as water puddles splashed around his ankle with every stomp of his foot. "Stupid bitch got in the way. Why couldn't she just let do what I needed to? Now I have to freakin make sure she doesn't skip town before I can see her again."

Suddenly, his feet came. to a screeching halt. In front of him stood a tall man, masked by shadow. There was something about him that made the scrawny man feel unnerved. "Hey, what the hell do you want?"

The figure started shrinking forward. Seeing this, the man took out his gun and aimed it at the shadow. The outline of the man was large, muscles curved the outline of the shadow. Every step the shadow took, the pounding in his ears grew. "Oh no! Keep your big ass over there."

The figure advanced, taking larger steps, closing more distance between the two.

"I'll kill you, idiot!"

Smoke filled the cramped space, as the sound of gunshots echoed through the deserted alley. The figure held out a scarred and disfigured hand as it drops the bullets on the ground.

"What the hell are you?" The figure stepped out of the shadow. Looking down at the man was an inhuman looking creature with blueish grey skin, midnight black eyes and black flaming hair to match. On his chest was a faded D logo. He grabbed the man's shoulder and snapped it with ease, like how one breaks a toothpick. The figure gazed down at the man with a toothy grin.

"Didn't you know? I'm a hero."

Dan began to ascend into the sky as he held tightly to the man's arm as he dangled by his broken shoulder, screaming in extreme pain. They were accelerating at a rapid velocity and soon had risen above the dark clouds over Amity.

Dan looked down at the man once more. His breaths were now coming in shallow pants as the air became thin. a slow sinister grin spread itself onto his face, creating an evil glare etched in his eyes. The hold he hands on the man tightened to the point that his nails broke through layers of skin.

"Tell me, have you ever been to the top of Mount Everest. Up that high, you can see the very curve of the Earth. It is a sight only a handful have seen. It is truly awe-inspiring and I myself have only seen it once."

The man began losing color in his face due to the altitudes of which they were ascending. Dan halted mid-flight and looked around to see the very sight he had described. "Beautiful, isn't it? Here's a fun fact while we are up here. Did you know that you actually remain conscious for seven minutes after your heart has stopped? Kinda neat isn't it? Well, here we are at the top of the world."

Dan looked at the man in disgust as he tried his best to breath. The man looked for mercy in his eyes the same way his brother did before. Dan gave him nothing. Just as he's about to rip the man's heart out, Izzy's face flashed through his mind. His hand stopped, mid-way. Please don't. She wouldn't want this. They wouldn't want this.

She isn't here anymore.

But as much he argued, the voice tore at him, if not the tiniest bit. It wasn't enough for his humanity to seep through, but the voice was enough for him to at least play with his prey. "I want to kill you, so badly. But I can't. At least not without a chance."

Descending back down to the earth, he floated above a deserted lake, just low enough for the man in his grip to have a chance of surviving the fall. A very slim chance.

"You can now gaze upon the most beautiful sight this world has to offer, while you contemplate how you took away my world. This is what you get for destroying the only thing that I loved." Dan would keep an eye, making sure the deed was done, or he'd take matters into his own hands.

With that, Dan released his grip as he watched the man descend to the cold icy water below.

After making sure Izzy had her justice, now it was time to get his own.

Izzy! Nooooooooo. And now, what does Dan have planned to get his own justice? This can't end well. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Shoutout to my beta reader, silente faery