Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom copyrights.

Nyaa.

=^'.'^=

Chapter 36

When one suddenly finds themselves surrounded by potential enemies, the worst reaction is to panic. Fortunately for him, Vlad was not the sort to panic, as he had been in his youth. The first thing that he thought of to do when he returned home was to lock himself up in his basement lab and begin to work on his newest project.

In both scenarios, Stitch Witch had told him that death was only possible for Vlad or Danny only after their human and ghost halves had been separated. So, logically, she would succumb to mortality as well if her human and ghost halves were separated. He just hoped that her being a naturally-born halfa wouldn't affect that possibility too greatly.

Now, in his defense, he had no intention of flat-out murdering Stitch Witch. Even if she had kept information from him and was fully prepared to kill his son if Danny should ever turn evil – Vlad still scoffed at the thought – she was kind to the boy with no minding of his social status in either world. Plus, she was Lily's daughter, and the man had grown accustomed to having both around.

But he needed to be prepared to defend his son, no matter the cost.

Still, even as Vlad worked, the thought of fighting Ashley left a bitter taste in his mouth. Even for all of her masquerading as a cat and brazenly calling him a young man on several occasions when she'd gotten a little too heavy into the catnip, her childish demeanor had greatly affected the way he viewed her. She was more like a wise child than an immature adult, and her human form did look like an older teen or a younger adult.

She was like the daughter he had missed having.

He paused to think of Jazmine. What would she have been like if she had survived as well? It was unlikely that she would have become a halfa, but he probably would have treated her like the princess she was. In a way, that made him feel bad. He would have liked to know her as well.

Vlad now found himself brooding over his reaction to his broken friendship. One that he had broken, no less, and he was loathe to admit it. Perhaps it was because he was finally moving on from losing Maddie in a romantic sense, or perhaps it was because – and he'd never admit this out loud – there were times when he saw Jack Fenton in Daniel. It was namely because of the boy's unchangeable kindness; he was so unnaturally good-natured, even for his age, that he couldn't possibly be any other man's child, biologically. Vlad certainly hadn't taught him that.

"Hey!" There was a banging on the lab door. "Hey! Dad, are you in there?!"

Vlad teleported over and opened the door. "Come in, Daniel! What brings about this visit to my workshop, hm?" he asked as Danny marched inside with his backpack.

"I've gotta get away from Thomas. He almost killed Dash today!" Danny sighed and shook his head in exasperation as he put his backpack on the floor and began digging through it. "You should here the way he talks about Stitches. I asked him if he had an Oedipus Complex; he said no, but I think he's in denial."

"I'm impressed that you even know what an Oedipus Complex is." Vlad returned to his workbench. "As for Thomas attacking the Baxter boy, I cannot say that I entirely disagree with his actions. I've seen the aftermath of your interactions with this 'Dash'." He glanced at Danny, amused.

"Then why'd you get mad when I hurt Dash?!"

"I didn't get mad that you hurt him, per se. I was upset that you could have seemed abnormally strong for your age and stature."

"Well, Thomas definitely did something like that!" Danny ran his hands through his hair at the recollection. "And the way he talks! He's like… a super-old guy! Oh, but you should've seen Aaron. He's so cool! I mean, he acts and talks like he's old, too, but he's like… like… some weird mix of Buddha, a ninja, and a samurai! I'm not sure what his moral code is, but the fact that he doesn't fight is…"

"Interesting?" Vlad offered.

"Beyond that! He's nonviolent, but he was totally ready to take a hit for me! I guess I kinda stepped in for him when Dash didn't look like he was going to back off, but… still! He's really nice, too. Sam and Tucker like him. Sam likes Tommy, too, but he's really… rigid." Danny frowned, not sure if that was the right word. "It's like he's just really grumpy all the time."

"I see. Well, I would say Stitches should have a word with him, but from what I understand he's fairly old, and I hear that it's hard to break an old man of his grumpiness." Vlad mused.

Danny laughed. "Yeah, I guess so."

Vlad smiled as his son began scattering his homework on the lab floor, occupying a little corner of the room. It had been quite some time since Danny had exhibited this habit. Not surprisingly, he had missed it. Seeing his little badger display his more childish behavior made Vlad feel better about the strange age that Danny was entering – that age between childhood and the teenage years. He didn't look forward to it, nor did he want it to progress as quickly as it was, but this moment of reprieve was something that he was entirely grateful for.

"I can't believe that you got in a fight." Stitches grumbled, arms folded across her chest. "You could have seriously hurt that dumb boy! What have I told you all, time and again? If you're going to go about hunting children, at least make sure it's those psychopathic eleven-year-olds who kill their parents, or their siblings, or whoever it is that they kill!"

"I said I was sorry…" Thomas' eyes were cast to the floor, and his voice was raspy. More than just his physical appearance changed when he re-aged himself. It was something that they all experienced, but for Thomas, it was particularly miserable.

It was the period in his life when he felt incredibly small and helpless.

She cast him an angry glance, then loudly blew out a puff of air, which visibly deflated her. She rubbed her neck as she knelt to the floor, examining him curiously. He lifted his strange, yellow eyes to hers carefully.

"Oh, you brat." she said, pulling him into a hug. Even after all of these years, between his real childhood and now, Ashley's arms felt incredibly strong around him. Safe, and homicidally so.

Thomas sighed and closed his eyes, relaxing. When he was little, he used to curl up in her arms like a baby, or would wrap his arms around her neck and not let go. Then again, when he was little, she was going through hard times romantically, and had just found out that her current companion was a Nazi metaphysics scientist who was experimenting on her youngest group of children. Thomas had just been a little boy bent on protecting his mother.

"Look, Thomas…" – She drew back, holding onto one of his shoulders. He was brought out of the brief memory. – "If you want, I can find one of the others to do this. You should go home. Be with your own babies."

"…The Witch said to her ten-year-old son…" Thomas mused, smirking. Ashley laughed too, shaking her head. "Your grandchildren are fine, and so am I. If you're trying to make the world safer for us, I want to help. I owe it to my kids and to you."

"You also owe it to them to be around for them." Ashley tweaked his nose. Thomas scrunched up his face, habitually grabbing at his nose to keep it safe from her. Her smile broadened. "Well, at least you clearly won the fight, even if your brother decided to step in and make sure it didn't continue. And I am proud of you for wanting to champion Danny."

"Of course I did! That boy certainly wasn't about to fight for himself after his last mishap!" Thomas crossed his arms and huffed, nose in the air. "Besides, he's Oliver's age. Except Oliver would have slit that boy open from navel to nose, the two of them are quite a lot alike!"

"I have to disagree with that. Danny is more like Mikau."

"Kenny's son?! Are you insane?!" Thomas scoffed again. "Mikau's a sweet boy, but I doubt he's got fight in him – Danny's shown me he can do a lot, if he knows it's for the right reason!"

"You're right." Stitch Witch froze, touching her chin thoughtfully. She was having an epiphany moment. "Danny doesn't hold back when he's fighting you 'bad guys' the way he does when he's training… because he knows he's allowed to…"

"Mom? You okay?" Thomas looked worried.

"Yes." She stood up suddenly. She glanced around the kitchen as if she should be elsewhere. "Yes." she repeated, shaking her head. "I have to go. I must speak with Clockwork about something."

As she disappeared through the veil, Thomas muttered, "I hope that she hasn't been in the catnip recently…"

"You must have been in the catnip, Stitch Witch, if not something stronger and more illegal in the Living Realm." Clockwork accused the moment that she blurted her idea.

The Witch gritted her teeth. "Indulge me, won't you? Look, you cannot deny that one of the core things aside from good vs. evil separating Danny and Dan from one another is their ability to hold back! Danny does it too often, making his father undervalue his true strength, yet Dan does it too much, exasperating anyone who knows of his origins!"

"But you're forgetting something: there are many things separating Danny from his future self. I find it slightly disturbing that you're so confident in his good nature to count an evil Danny Phantom as a different entity entirely."

"He is a different entity entirely." Ashley glared at an image of the evil Dan Phantom, frozen in his possible future. "One that I intend to see deleted from existence." She gave her godfather a pleading look. "We've agreed from the beginning that killing Danny outright in the explosion was a disgusting idea on the Observants' part. You took a big risk in tampering with their plan, and I know you still hate yourself for not being able to further modify it to save his family as well." – The old ghost narrowed his eyes at her. – "But look at how Vlad Masters would have turned out! Look at the awful things he would have already done, and Dan Phantom would still become a possible threat! Is his life not better? Is that not enough to reteach you possibility, and the virtue of risk?!"

"It did." Clockwork snapped coldly. "But while Danny may have increased Vlad's potential for good, his own potential for evil has doubled what it had been otherwise. I'm glad that you see the lighter aspects of this situation, but looking into that light – "

" – could blind me to the dangers. I know." Stitch Witch maintained eye contact and a hard look. "I still choose to have faith in Danny. I like to think that you still do, too."

Clockwork silently turned his attention to the frozen screens. They showed a world of destruction, a world in which a mad Dan Phantom roamed free and unopposed in power. It was the possible reality in which Danny had stood up to Vlad, and his father had struck back by trying to disarm him of his ghost half.

He reached up and touched one of the screens. "This is the reality that is most likely to happen right now."

Stitches felt her eyes widen. "…Tell me why." She tried to reign her nerves back in as she walked over to Clockwork's side.

"Unfortunately, it is due to your interference with the current time stream that I cannot see his past." He nodded his head to Dan on the screen. "Whatever the contributing factor is to his presence, I cannot see when it was seeded, or how this possibility was fostered. I'm afraid…" Clockwork paused, then cleared his throat. "I'm afraid that I do not know why he turns out this way, only how."

She gave him a baffled look. Clockwork not knowing something was like fish not knowing how to swim, or birds forgetting how to fly. Thanks largely to his role, it just wasn't natural.

"Do you see how important this is now?" He gazed at her critically. "You have taken sole responsibility for their lives – Danny, Vlad, and everyone in the world – because you agreed with me on keeping the boy alive in reality. If my mind should change, shouldn't yours, as well?"

"No." Stitches frowned softly. She looked very human and sad for a moment. "I know that it would be the easiest way, and perhaps it would even be the only way to save the world, but I cannot have Danny's blood on my hands."

"Did you tell Vlad that?"

"Of course not. I told Vlad exactly what he needed to hear and what I would do. I will kill Dan. But I can't kill Danny. He's just… he's too dear to me." She clenched her fists close to her chest as her heartstrings pulled tight. Her jaw set in place. "…I'm going to go into this time stream."

"You'd rather risk Dan now instead of later?" Clockwork mused, worry tracing his usual serious monotone.

"I'd rather risk facing Dan than worrying if Danny is going to die, especially when there's something that I can do about it." Stitch Witch gave a mild sigh and shrugged. "It's me; what do you expect?"

He frowned at her. "Nothing less, unfortunately. I can't let you go into one of these time streams. Any time stream where Dan Phantom exists is too dangerous, even for you. Besides, he's smarter than he looks; any interference from an outside timeline runs the risk of accidentally dragging him back with upon your return."

Clockwork waited for Ashley's response. When it didn't come, he turned to where she had been standing. Then he had to turn all the way around so that he could check all of his tower. She was nowhere to be seen.

Stitch Witch had gone to track the most dangerous form of Dan Phantom.

=^-.-^=

Stupid Stitch Witch, going AWOL. Buckle up, kids – it's gonna get intense here real fast…

Nyaa…