Disclaimer: I own nothing from Danny Phantom

Note: Two chapters in one day? Christmas must be coming early this year or I couldn't resist the urge to keep writing lolz! So anywho, if you haven't already guessed I've been going out of my way to make Dani less of a damsel in distress like she was in in most of "Haunted" which is a good thing because she is still a version of Danny and wouldn't take things laying down if there was something he could do to get out of there while still able to move. Basically, this is my way of avoiding having the Dairy King randomly show up to let her out of there like he did for Danny in the show.

Anyway, I know I ended the last chapter on a cliffhanger but I split the chapter since it sounded better where I was about to switch off to the next part. Also, I woke up really early this morning and suddenly got this surge of ideas for what to do next so I basically outlined pretty much what's going to happen in the rest of the story. That's good news for me too since I won't have to make up as much on the fly as I usually do with only a basic idea in mind. But trust me when I say things are just getting good so I hope you'll stick around to see how it all ends!

Chapter 7: My Hero?

"My father was a great man, a hero, so they say. But sometimes the world doesn't need another hero, sometimes what it needs is a monster."
~ Dracula Untold

Danielle's POV

Damn it, think Dani! Vlad may have locked me out of his ghost portal, which to be fair wouldn't really help me much anyway since I'd still need a way to get back here in time to help my dad, but there must be a way to shut down the room's force-field at least. It must take a lot of power to run just like my parent's ghost shield so even if Vlad has money to burn he probably doesn't keep it on ALL the time, right? At least I hope not. Either way, the controls must be hidden somewhere nearby, I just have to find them!

After that, I flew all over the room looking for any sign of some kind of control panel apart from the ghost portal controls, but even when I searched the most obvious places I couldn't find anything. Then I tried to think of where I saw Vlad pretending to look for that present for my parents because he must have just barely turned on the force-field once we were inside the lab because even at home whenever mom and dad activate the ghost shield I can almost feel some kind of unpleasant electric charge in the air which probably would have tipped me off sooner that something was wrong. I hate that feeling, but at least it comes in handy most of the time.

Not sure why I didn't feel anything this time though.

"Wait a sec, Vlad said that force-field only affects GHOST powers didn't he?" I smirked triumphantly, "Well if he seriously thinks I'm only going to rely on my powers to get out of this mess when I can just waltz out of here he's got another thing coming! Take that you stupid fruitloop!"

Changing back to my human form I ran straight back to the door we came through and pressed the button to open it, but nothing happened and I groaned, "Ugh, ok fine, I suppose if Vlad already knows I'm half-ghost he would have thought of that too. Onto plan B then!"

Taking a deep breath, I tried shouting for help like a classic damsel in distress, hoping someone would hear me since this room is only on the second floor. Then again, this is a stone castle and the walls of Vlad's lab are reinforced so much to my dismay I realized they're probably sound-proof too. That's just great, now what am I supposed to do? I thought bitterly, trying to keep myself motivated so I wouldn't get caught up in everything that Vlad told me because it was still too much for me to unload all at once.

But the longer it took for me to find a way out, the more anxious I grew until finally I couldn't take it anymore and transformed into my ghost form again, getting ready to smash everything in this room into a thousand pieces until I found a way out. But then I jerked in surprise when my ghost sense suddenly went off and the room was filled with a familiar green light from the far side of the lab when Vlad's ghost portal opened on its own and the silhouette of a familiar ghost became visible on the other side.

Oh shit, you have GOT to be kidding me, I scowled when none other than Skulker stepped over the portal's threshold into the lab.

After that Skulker grunted, "Hmm, Plasmius isn't here yet? That's unusual. Did I get the time wrong? And after I gave up the hunt for an exceptional specimen too just to make sure I didn't show up late again. He'd better make this worth my while-"

It's only after that that his robot-suit alerted him to my presence and his head jerked up from the controls on his arm and our eyes met. At first, Skulker just blinked at me in surprise until he quickly covered it up with a sneer and began cracking his metallic knuckles gleefully, "Well well well, if it isn't my favorite prey. Not sure what you're doing so far away from your natural habitat in Amity Park but I'm not complaining. I've been looking forward to our next meeting. Plasmius should reward me handsomely for getting rid of such a pest too."

A split second later, Skulker aimed one of his guns at me and I just barely managed to duck behind one of the lab tables in time to narrowly avoid a direct hit. My heart rate was through the roof though because I knew I was in real trouble now. As if being trapped in here with Vlad wasn't bad enough earlier, now I'm stuck in here with a ghost who actually HAS tried to kill me before with no way out except the ghost portal but there's no way I was going to risk going in there because I may never find my way out again. After all, I've never actually BEEN to the Ghost Zone.

Ducking into a roll and springing up a little off to the side, I charged an energy blast at Skulker and at least managed to graze his left side. There isn't much room to maneuver in here though so I needed to be careful. Recovering quickly, Skulker smirked and activated some sort of glowing green blade and rushed at me with a flurry of slashes that I did my best to avoid but he managed to give me a nasty cut across the cheek which hurt like hell and made my whole face throb painfully.

I kept my gaze fixated on the blade to avoid getting stabbed by it but I realized too late what a mistake that was when Skulker took advantage of that and slammed his fist across my face, knocking me to the ground. Thankfully he hit the uninjured side which isn't saying much but I was getting really sick of this. All I could think about is that I can't lose to someone like Skulker! If he can beat me just as easily as Vlad did then I'm dead meat.

The throbbing in my cheek was getting distracting now but I did my best to ignore it by rushing in with a few powerful kicks, hoping to put some distance between my upper body -aka where all my vital organs are- out of reach. Too bad Skulker had the bright idea to catch my foot mid-swing and flung me over his head, slamming me back onto the ground. Momentarily stunned, I tried to sit up when his heavy boot planted itself on my stomach and he pointed the blade directly at my throat.

"You're losing your edge Phantom, how disappointing. I thought you would have put up more of a fight," Skulker grinned smugly, grinding his boot in just to watch me grimace.

"Well maybe if we had more room to actually fight maybe I would, but right now you're stuck in here just like I am until Plasmius gets back," I growled, trying to figure out how to get away since I couldn't phase through the floor either because it was reinforced just like everything else in here.

Bending down on his knee and putting more weight on the foot he was using to pin me down, Skulker raised an eyebrow and asked, "So you've heard of him? Should have guessed as much given you're in the middle of his territory. The idea of finding another of your kind must have been too hard to resist! To be honest I was a bit disappointed myself when I first met Plasmius and he told me he was a billionaire in the human world since the appeal of hunting you mostly came from the fact that I thought there weren't any other half-humans in the world. He offered me a job running errands for him in the Ghost Zone and in exchange Plasmius kindly located my battle suit again and he even threw in some upgrades to help me do my job better. But that's enough talk. It's time to end this-!"

At the same time that Skulker yelled and brought down his blade, I pulled myself up as far as I could since his foot was on my stomach and not my chest, wrapped my arms around his leg, and heaved with all my might to pull him off of me. Thankfully my plan worked and he crashed onto his side in a clumsy-looking heap and then I kicked him upside the head before he could recover. But I didn't stop there, I kicked and punched Skulker as hard as I could from every angle I could think of until my hands started to go numb from punching solid metal even with my ghost-powered levels of endurance. They were probably a bit sore from earlier too when I was beating against the wall while trying to escape from-

While still hovering over Skulker, I heard the same sound Vlad made when he teleported earlier and seconds later he re-materialized in the room looking oddly pleased with himself. "Forgive me for keeping you waiting, one of my former classmates caught me just as I was just about to visit the kitchen and..."

His eyes widening in horror when he saw the ectoplasmic blood dripping freely down my cheek, Skulker and I both flinched when we sensed a surge of powerful ecto-energy coming from Vlad.

Glaring down at Skulker, Vlad demanded coldly, "Skulker, what is the meaning of this? How dare you pull a stunt like this showing up in my home uninvited? I've told you a thousand times that you are NOT allowed to enter the lab even though I've given you the privilege to freely use my portal unless I am present. And what did you do to Danielle?"

Pulling himself off the floor and brushing himself off, Skulker sheepishly looked over at me and then back at Vlad, then, like a child being caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar he explained, "About that, well you see I...I must've gotten the date wrong for that meeting you arranged since I've already gathered the information you were looking for. But when I saw the whelp in here, I assumed she was an intruder and attacked her on sight. I meant no disrespect Plasmius."

Warping in front of him and grabbing Skulker by the throat, denting the metal with his monstrous grip alone, Vlad leaned in uncomfortably close to his face and warned darkly, "Consider this your first and only warning Skulker, disobey me again and you will regret it. Do I make myself clear? And until further notice, you are NOT allowed to harm Danielle in any way. If I find so much as another scratch on her that can be traced back to you I will burn you alive inside this tin can suit of yours."

"B-but I'm a ghost-" Skulker stammered like an idiot to correct Vlad and in response, Vlad threw him against the wall and bellowed-

"I won't say it again. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?" swallowing hard despite not having an actual throat to do that with since Skulker is actually just a blob ghost without his exoskeleton, aka battle suit, he nodded weakly.

Satisfied with his answer, Vlad relaxed his shoulders and smiled in the most sickeningly sweet way imaginable like a cat toying with its food while it's still alive, and said, "Good, then we understand each other. Now go. And don't even think about returning here until I contact you first. And make no mistake, we'll be discussing the consequences of your actions at a later date."

Without another word, Skulker bowed his head, not even bothering to shoot me a dirty look or making a last-minute promise that he'll skin me another day, and silently stepped back through the open portal which then shut itself firmly again behind him. As for me, I was mentally and physically exhausted so not caring about keeping up appearances anymore, I floated back down to the floor and landed as carefully as I could but unfortunately, my knees still decided to buckle under the weight so I sank completely down onto the floor.

Absolutely everything hurt right now from head to toe to the point where I felt like crying, but the worst of it was the cut on my cheek which wasn't healing as fast as it usually does so whatever that blade was made of, it was pretty nasty. I didn't even notice Vlad reflexively try to catch me when I fell or saw his gaze soften when he was relieved to see I'm still in one piece no thanks to him. I didn't have the energy to fight anymore but that didn't stop me from weakly glaring at Vlad when he spoke.

"Danielle, are you alright?" he asked calmly, kneeling down next to me.

And despite not being in the mood to laugh, I did anyway while running a hand through my ghostly white hair, "What do you care? This was probably your plan all along. You trapped me in here and then 'conveniently' let Skulker in to finish the job," sniffling and feeling a few rebellious tears roll down my cheeks, I tried to angrily wipe them away but hissed when that just irritated my cheek even more.

Reaching over and grabbing my chin with a deceptively gentle touch and turning my face to the side to get a better look at the cut, Vlad let go and silently stood up again, walking over to one of the cabinets I tried searching earlier for something I either pushed out of the way or threw across the room and then came back with a bottle of this strange-looking liquid that almost looked like glowing water.

Instead of applying it to the injury itself personally, Vlad offered it to me and instructed, "Here, apply this to the wound and that should combat the anti-ghost properties of Skulker's blade designed to greatly reduce a ghost's regenerative powers."

Turning away from him I replied coldly, "No thanks. It's probably poison or some other weird drug that's only going to make it worse."

Sighing heavily, I heard Vlad's cape flutter as he stood up again and I assumed he was about to put it away when I heard the unexpected sound of him hissing in pain too and looked up at him cautiously. I flinched when I saw the scalpel in his hand which he quickly set back on the nearest table before returning to where I was and once again kneeling down beside me. Once he knew he had my full attention again, Vlad opened the bottle and without bothering to remove the other glove from his hand, he rubbed the glowing substance onto his now injured hand and I watched, transfixed, as the wound started glowing bright green and began knitting the skin back together and in a matter of seconds the cut was gone.

"See? There's nothing to be afraid of, this ointment is perfectly harmless. Like everything you see here I invented it myself and as you can imagine had to develop ways to take care of my own medical needs when I began to display more...ghostly symptoms," Vlad explained, looking straight into my eyes and asking calmly, "May I?"

Giving him a non-committal shrug I turned my face and stared blankly in that general direction with my tired half-closed eyes. After cleaning the blood off with the palm of his hand, Vlad began softly brushing more of that stuff across my cut with his fingers and I'm not going to lie, it did make me feel a whole lot better. The best way I can describe it is like taking a long refreshing drink of cold water that's at just the right temperature that it doesn't give you brain freeze or enjoying walking into an air-conditioned room on a hot day and feeling that almost instant relief.

For a brief moment, I almost forgot it was Vlad's fault this happened in the first place. He's the one who left me here to fend for myself, but at least he came back. And...and Vlad defended me after Skulker explained himself to him, telling him to back off from now on. Does that mean, Vlad's serious about wanting to help me? Did it mean that...just maybe there's some hope for him after all?

Closing my eyes and considering my next words carefully, I was about to ask Vlad if he was telling me the truth when once again I felt him wrap his arms around me, cradling my head as he sighed and told me, "I am truly sorry for what just happened, little badger. While I only meant to test you last night I never expected one of your enemies to show up in the lab until you were long gone. It was NEVER my intention to put you in harm's way. In fact, I put you in here to KEEP you out of harm's way, not to trap you forever. I'm not a monster Danielle, despite my appearance in this form. I meant every word I said to you before. Jack and Maddie have no idea how special you are and yes, while I understand we haven't known each other for long I can't help but feel a strong bond with you. That's why I don't want anything to happen to you if I have the power to prevent it."

There it is again, why do I...still feel so safe when Vlad holds me so close and talks to me this way? I know he's not lying to me right now either, I don't know how, but I do, I thought silently to myself, still feeling like there was a heavy weight on my chest because I was scared of what might happen if I decide to try putting my faith in Vlad again. If he betrayed me again, I don't think I could take it because I still feel so alone in the world. Skulker wasn't wrong about that. I felt the same way as Vlad even though I didn't want to, I felt bound to him, like what we are, what we've been through, made us closer than anyone else in the world.

Feeling my lower lip quivering, I hesitantly pulled away from Vlad and he didn't resist so without looking at him, I asked, "I still don't know if I can trust you but can you...give me some time to think about what you said? I can't turn my back on my friends and family but, if you actually do care about me then...maybe I'll give you another chance. I just...I can't deal with anything else right now while we're still on this trip. Damn it..."

Feeling a second wave of tears flow down my now fully healed cheeks I began to cry silently, feeling completely drained and this time I didn't even care when Vlad turned back into his human form and scooped me into his arms. Doing the same, I let him carry me at least as far as the hallway before he set me down and suggested going to rest for a bit in my room. I nodded and began to make my way back down the stairs when I was stopped by my parents who frowned at me and scolded-

"Where have you been young lady? We've been searching everywhere for you," dad frowned, eyeing me skeptically and of course ignoring the fact that my eyes were red and puffy and my cheeks were still glossy with fresh tears.

Just as I felt another wave of anxiety that threatened to push me over the edge again, I felt the now-familiar weight of Vlad's hands on my shoulders as a show of support and explained with a light smile, "I'm afraid that's my doing Jack. Danielle was only keeping me company while I was busy attending to the other guests and we lost track of time. The poor girl has gone and worn herself out though walking around so much so I was just about to escort her back to her room to rest for a while. After all, you have a long drive home ahead of you this evening once the reunion is over."

"Ah I see," mom smiled, looking relieved, "That explains why we couldn't find you anywhere. I was worried you snuck back to your room without permission but I'm glad you had a good time with Vlad sweetie."

A 'good time' she says, I thought tiredly giving Vlad another uncertain look before he nodded and said he'd let me make my own way back instead so he could catch up with my parents in the meantime since he hadn't seen them all afternoon either. I'll admit I still felt nervous leaving Vlad alone with my dad, but so far he hasn't given me any other reasons to doubt him so I went along with his story and said thank you for spending so much time with me when in reality, I'm just glad the nightmare is finally over...

At least for now.