Disclaimer: I still don't own Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon and Viacom do, and they are very big companies armed with lots of money and lawyers. Since I'm not making any money from this and I never will be, there is nothing for the law-ninjas to sue out of me.
Author's Notes: Bleah, school semester started. Stupid math class and 12 hour school days twice a week. On the other hand, I do have big gaps on time on campus between classes. Maybe I need to start putting them to use!
Chapter 20: Alliance
"You came here to avenge his death.
You came here to save mankind.
You see now, you cannot do both."
-"The Stand (Man Or Machine)" - The Protomen
"It what?!"
"Some sort of energy ball came through the portal." Vlad elaborated slowly. "And it struck the sides of the gate as well as the ectoplasmic filter and the power regulator. It effectively resulted in the portal exploding. Thankfully the blast walls contained the explosion and the rest of the building is unharmed."
"Without the portal, how are we going to get to the Ghost Zone to use the gauntlet against Maghnus?" Tucker squeaked, shifting back to human form to better participate in the conversation.
"That's not the issue. It's a short flight by luxury jet to my lab, and my portal." The billionaire pointed out.
"Then I guess we better get back to headquarters and get packed." Valerie nodded, looking speculatively at the gauntlet she was wearing.
She hadn't really expected to be able to turn the dead ringmaster Freakshow from a ghost to a living, breathing human again. It was one thing to read stories about items of unbelievable power; it was quite another to experience it first-hand. Possibilities, bright and hopeful now dangled at the back of the huntress' mind, and remarkably few of them had to do with Dan. A decade's worth of destruction could be undone with literally a wave of the hand. The empty miles of broken ruins could be restored with a thought, or the debris swept away to leave the land a pristine wilderness.
She could make it up to Danny, and give him the chance at life that her idiocy a decade ago had denied him.
That's gotta wait until after Maghnus is taken care of though. Valerie shoved the pleasant daydreams aside as she helped drag a protesting Freakshow aboard a jet sled for the trip back to headquarters. If there was one thing she'd learned over the past decade, it was that daydreaming could be dangerous. You couldn't afford to get your hopes up too high, because invariably it would come crashing down, torn to pieces by the unforgiving reality of the present. Right now, that reality was Maghnus; even with the Reality Gauntlet, if that old book was right the battle would be difficult and by no means a certain thing.
Then again, neither was fighting him, and the odds never stopped me before!
--
"How dare you attempt to keep me from that which is mine by right!" Maghnus bellowed, his spiked mace passing close enough that Dan's firey hair was whipped wildly by the wind of its passing.
"That's two for two." Dan sneered, moving to put more distance between himself and Maghnus. "No more portals to the real world for you to use now!"
The chase evoked distant memories of being on the run, being hunted by those who at the time were stronger than he was. If Maghnus wasn't furious yet, the tyrant was pretty close to it after blundering across the Ghost Patrol's portal while hunting for Dan. It was only the quick information network of the Observants that had enabled him to reach the portal and take it offline before Maghnus could go through it to wreck havoc in the human world.
A silver colored bolt shot toward Dan from behind; he ducked and tumbled out of the way, the reality-twisting beam taking a chunk of out his cape as it passed. Well, I certainly have his attention now. He groused to himself.
"Too slow to catch me, fossil!" The fire-headed ghost taunted with a sneer. Or rather, too single-minded to.
As Dan fled, he was able to dodge attacks launched at his unguarded rear surprisingly well; but then he had something far better than a rear-view mirror. Maghnus hadn't seen the duplicate that was now invisibly tailing the chase from above and slightly behind; giving Dan an excellent vantage from which to plan his evasions. Even with that slight edge, the ghost was kept busy by the flurry of beams and attacks coming from behind.
I need enough of a lead on this guy to get out of here. Dan risked a glance over his shoulder, only to find that he wasn't gaining any ground on the tyrant. Maghnus thankfully wasn't closing the distance, but that was simply a matter of endurance. While Dan was confident he could maintain his top flight speed for several hours at a stretch, he suspected Maghnus could keep that pace just as long, perhaps longer.
The chase careened wildly through the Ghost Zone, those unlucky enough to be nearby scattering as quickly as possible rather than risk getting caught in the crossfire; or worse yet, attracting the attention of either of the two ghosts. The effort to scatter was a waste at best: Dan was focused on saving his own hide; and Maghnus was focused on Dan to the exclusion of everything else. Dan supposedly knew the whereabouts of the other gauntlet, and the tyrant wasn't going to let what he wanted get away.
A rippling flash of green caught Dan's eye, it took less than a second to recognize it as some sort of naturally occurring gateway in the Ghost Zone; he could see a purple-tinged cave beyond the small tear. The gap was wavering and shrinking; it would close and vanish in moments.
"Looks like I get away again!" Dan taunted, squeezing every last ounce of speed he could muster to dive through the gateway; Maghnus' shouts and the flurry of attacks ceased as the gateway winked out of existence a moment later.
Dan's relief was short lived, however; before he could get his bearings, something pounced him from behind, putting long green claws to his throat, snarling.
"Kion vi faras ĉi tie?!"
--
"Before we go, I think we should consider evacuating the city." Paulina mused aloud while packing her gear for the trip.
"The city?" Valerie raised an eyebrow. "We do that, it'll be instant panic, you know that."
"While it is true that you've been able to keep the full scope of what's going on from the general public, it would downright irresponsible to keep them in the dark now." Vlad pointed out. "After all, we're preparing to effectively wage war on a ghostly tyrant out of legend itself."
"Vlad's got a point, Val." Tucker nodded agreement, fussing with his PDA. "We don't know if we can even win. What happens if we lose and that guy comes here?"
"We can't think about losing." Valerie retorted with some heat. "If we lose, that guy is going to try and destroy everything anyway!"
"Yeah, but if people have warning, maybe someone can come up with some other way to beat that Maghnus jerk." Paulina countered. "In case we don't pull it off."
"I guess you've got a point." Valerie relented. "You want to stay here and manage that while the rest of us get to Vlad's lab and start hashing out a battle plan?"
The former cheerleader nodded. "I'll catch up. Just don't do anything reckless, okay?"
"You got it!"
Valerie stuffed the rest of her gear into her pack, and without further discussion, the group filed downstairs. It would be a short flight from Patrol HQ to the airstrip where Vlad's jet was waiting; the trip was taken mostly in silence with everyone lost in their own thoughts.
Winning is going to be a pretty big 'if', judging from the stuff in that old ghost book. The huntress mused, running a finger idly along the hard metal contours of the Reality Gauntlet. The ghost king was barely on even ground with this guy, and that was with this thing, that stupid ring, and that crown thing. All we've got is the gauntlet.
Her expression soured as she considered that.
And he has the crown and the ring. I don't want to work with him, not if we can find some other way.
--
"Let me go!" Dan snarled, grabbing one fur-covered arm and hurling whoever ambushed him away by main strength.
"Kial vi-!" His attacker yelped, twisting midair to land crouched on all fours, visibly bristling.
It took Dan a moment to recognize the mass of black fur and scars wearing a ragged ecto-green hoodie. "Wulf?!"
"Kial vi reven tie ĉi? Vi perfidita ĉiuj! Vi estas..." Wulf growled in response, flexing his long claws with barely restrained anger. "Enemy!"
"Oh great, another blast from the past with a score to settle." Dan groaned, not feeling particularly threatened. "Can we take a rain check on the revenge deal?"
Wulf's only response was a wordless growl, the canine ghost's hackles standing on end and making him seem even more massive.
"Seriously..." Dan backed a few steps away, not particularly wanting to get into a fight. "I've got a tyrant to make toast out of, or did you miss the memo?"
"Mi ne prizorg iuj nova fantomo reĝo!" Wulf snarled, with a dismissive gesture. "Vi perfidita nian amikecon!"
I suppose asking him to quit with the crazy moonspeak and talk in a legible language would be too much to ask for. Dan complained to himself.
"Look, I can't understand a word you're blathering." He crossed his arms, scowling at the canine. "So let's play twenty questions before you try to disembowel me, all right? You've heard about Maghnus?"
"Jes." Wulf growled, nodding once, not relaxing at all from his ready-to-pounce stance. "Mi helpos la ceteran pritrakt li post vi estas mortigita."
"Okay, I think I caught a 'yes.' Do you know what, exactly, he's capable of?" Dan quirked an eyebrow. He didn't much care for Wulf, and really wouldn't have objected to vaporizing the overgrown mutt except he did have more pressing matters to attend to that required his full power.
"Mi ne..." Wulf looked doubtful for a moment. "Kaj ŝajne VI faras?"
Dan didn't need to understand the words, Wulf's tone was blatantly clear. "Well, I do. I was just fighting him, and it's not the first time either. You remember what I am capable of, I'm sure."
"Vi mortpikis vin estas kapabl en mia legitim, perfidulo!" Wulf snarled, gesturing to a particular burn hole in his hoodie; undoubtedly the spot Dan had shot him with an ecto beam years ago.
"Well, then take that and multiply it by at least a hundred." Dan sneered. "I went head to head with him once already, and even I barely escaped in one piece."
That seemed to seriously give the canine reason to pause.
"Kion vi diris?!" He yelped, finally getting back up on two legs instead of four in surprise.
"Jes." Dan retorted mockingly. "Which is why I don't have time to deal with your old vendetta. Because somebody has to stall that tyrant until that idiot Valerie can find a weapon to finish him with."
"Ne insulto mia amiko!" Wulf growled, apparently taking offense to Dan insulting the huntress.
"Oh, whatever. I've got more pressing business to deal with. If you want to be useful, round up the other ghosts and take them to... I dunno, Vlad's or something. You and I are the only reliable ways out of the Ghost Zone right now. And I'm busy."
" Kion vi faras?!" Wulf lunged, grabbing the front of Dan's jumpsuit and forcing the shorter ghost to look him in the face. "What you do?"
"Oh, so you do speak some English." Dan noted with some exasperation. "I'll keep it to small words for your little doggy brain to grasp. I am fighting against Maghnus, and don't have the time to waste on killing you. Are we clear?"
"Vi estas don helpo al iu alia? VI?" Wulf's expression read pure disbelief.
"Assuming you said what I think you just said, yes. I'm helping someone else, in my own special destructive way. Now, will you let go so I can get back to my business?" Dan sounded primarily bored. "If you really want me to kill you and finish what I started a few years ago, you can wait in line like everybody else."
"...Mi ne fido vi, perfidulo." Wulf snarled, reluctantly releasing his grip on Dan's suit and turning to stalk away. "Sed la malamiko de mia malamiko estas mia amiko, intertempe."
"I'll just pretend to understand that." Dan remarked dryly, opening a portal. "Later, furball."
If the canine had a retort, it went unheard as Dan hopped through his portal, pausing briefly in the real world to survey Amity Park from the air. The city seemed like a kicked beehive of activity, a steady flow of vehicles and people moving away from the city center, and a faint murmur of thinly controlled fear audible even at his altitude..
What is Valerie up to now? Dan quirked an eyebrow. An evacuation?
Well, that made some sense. He'd managed to destroy their ghost portal, without anyone on the other side knowing what was going on. The rebuilt city sat like a giant target in the middle of the wastelands; getting the non-combatants out of the possible danger zone probably seemed a splendid idea.
Wait... would they be doing a full scale evacuation just over the portal blowing up? Dan studied the activity below more closely. Gah, as much as I don't want to, I need to find someone and ask what the heck has been happening since I took off.
With an annoyed sigh, Dan turned invisible and dove down toward the city streets below, angling for the Ghost Patrol building. That seemed to be the most likely place to find someone that knew what was going on with the situation. It was sorely tempting to turn visible skimming inches above the fleeing crowds; surely his abrupt appearance would set off a real panic and turn the somewhat orderly stream of people and cars into a mass of chaos and confusion. People could even get trampled in their panic to get away from him.
A shame that I have more important things to do than enjoy some leisure time right now. Maybe once this is over with...
He'd given the matter considerable thought while he'd been distracting Maghnus in the Ghost Zone and tuning out most of the Observants' chatter. He'd tried to be civil, to behave within some sort of socially acceptable boundary. And for what? Seething hatred and open hostilities? Dan was beginning to doubt whether the effort was really worth it, and that just maybe sliding back into old habits was really the way to go. On the one hand, he'd made some progress. Tucker and Dora could both be civil around him, and not act too fearful about his moods. He had something not entirely unlike an awkward friendship with Vlad. Sam had even become somewhat coldly civil, even if he'd caught the goth ghost giving him cutting stares when she thought he couldn't see it.
He had no idea where things stood with Danny, with his weakness; the ghost of the teen had every reason to be the most afraid, yet he seemed to be the most accepting, maybe even forgiving of Dan. It made no sense; Dan could recall that murder with piercing clarity. Perhaps the single most brutal killing he'd committed out of a decade of atrocities, and likely the only one he was anywhere remotely close to be forgiven for.
On the other hand, there was Valerie.
Stubborn, mulish, unrelenting, unreasonable, irrational Valerie. The huntress had every reason to hate him, but would it have killed her to at least accept her share of the blame? Would setting aside the vendetta long enough to deal with a real problem be that unbearable? Dan didn't care about getting her forgiveness; and he wouldn't have accepted it had it been offered; if anything she should have been the one seeking his forgiveness for what she caused. Things really would be just that much easier if he'd managed to knock her off sometime in the past ten years; to try and do so now would probably undo all the ground he'd gained with the others, they would certainly try to stop him if he did try and finish Valerie off.
But was that fledgling acceptance worth the humiliation of putting up with the woman? He couldn't just ignore her; she was friends with the others, and thus part of the package deal; barbed tongue and all. He was a loner, he'd gone without friendly company for ten years and loneliness had never bothered him. He didn't need friends, great big glaring weaknesses for an enemy to target... did he?
And if Jazz could see you right now, I'm sure she would have some psychobabble about this entire mess. Dan snorted to himself. Maybe with some ecto-babble about ghostly obsession thrown in for good measure-...
Maybe that was what kept driving him to try and destroy the city for the past decade. Doing so invariably brought Valerie out, they would encounter one another, and they would fight. Either he would be driven off, or he would drive her into hiding. In between, he'd always focused on how he would finish her off; he'd mentally concocted some truly atrocious scenarios that would have made Danny's murder seem positively tame in comparison.
It was almost as if he'd fashioned his entire existence around her. In hindsight, it was a rather disgusting situation; all the worse knowing that the reverse was probably true. Valerie had dedicated the past ten years of her life to trying to destroy him, always under the guise of avenging Danny, or her father, or any of the thousands of people he'd killed.
Dan was abruptly interrupted from his train of thought when he finally spotted a familiar face taking off from the upper floors of the patrol building. It only took a moment for the invisible ghost to come alongside Paulina's jet sled, turning visible before her ghost radar could sound the alarm.
"Finally, someone who should know what's going on."
Paulina shrieked in surprise at Dan's unexpected appearance not six feet away, and nearly lost her balance. Several seconds of windmilling her arms in a comedic manner, and she steadied her jet sled.
"When did you get back? And don't sneak up on people like that!" The ex-cheerleader scolded, apparently masking her initial jolt of fear with annoyance.
"Well if you would rather, I could have strolled right up to the front gates of your little patrol headquarters." Dan sneered in response. "I'm sure Random Joe Public down there would have loved that."
Paulina had the decency to look somewhat abashed at that. "Okay, point taken. What do you want? Valerie and the others are already on their way to Vlad's!"
"... They're what?"
"We found the Reality Gauntlet, and our portal blew up, so we have to use Vlad's to get to that Maghnus guy." The former cheerleader explained slowly, as if she were explaining to an idiot.
"I know about your portal, I'm the one that destroyed it. Maghnus blundered on it." Dan stated dryly. "So Valerie plans to go toe to toe with the tyrant du jour, does she?"
"Would you cut to the chase already?"
"Sure. What's with the evacuation?" Dan smirked, amused at Paulina's alternating unease and annoyance at his presence.
"In case something happens, duh." She shot back, as though the conclusion ought to be obvious. "I'm on my way to meet up with the others right now."
"What lovely timing." Dan chuckled. "I'm just dying to see how she plans to pull this off. I'm taking a shortcut."
That stopped Paulina in her tracks. "Shortcut? It's a few hours flying to Wisconsin!"
"Mmhm, yes, it is." Dan replied absently, forming another one of his portals. "But only a few minutes by way of the Ghost Zone. Care to tag along?"
Paulina looked doubtfully between him and the temporary portal, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "Ech, I'll take the scenic route, thanks."
"Suit yourself." Dan ducked through the portal. Another one with an axe to grind. At least she's a little more reasonable to have to deal with. I wonder if I should have mentioned that Vlad's portal was the first one to get fried?
Dan flew on through the purple murk of the Ghost Zone, alert for attack as he considered that.
Nah.
--
"Hey, Danny?" Valerie snagged the slender ghost by the back of his shirt as the group exited the jet that had brought them to Vlad's personal airstrip near the Wisconsin mansion. "Could I talk to you for a minute?"
"Ur... sure. Something wrong?" Danny paused, the rest of the group passing him and the huntress by.
"Well, I've been thinking about something since we found this thing." Valerie fidgeted with the Reality Gauntlet for a moment. "And well... you saw what it could do... what it did... to Freakshow, I mean."
"Yeah, that was pretty impressive." The ghost replied, apparently missing what the huntress was getting at entirely.
"I was thinking, when this is all over and this Maghnus guy is toast... that..." Valerie stumbled over her words.
Danny's expression turned from confused to a thoughtful frown. "That?"
"Well... I could use it to... I mean, for... you and Sam... and I guess Tucker-" She mentally kicked herself for stuttering over her idea. Geez, can't you just say you want to make it up to him since you got him killed?
"You mean use the Gauntlet on us." Danny guessed. "Like what you did to Freakshow."
"Well... yeah." Valerie cringed a little, the ghost's tone wasn't quite disapproving. "Y'know, a second chance and all that-"
"Val, it's okay." Danny cracked a slight grin. "I appreciate the thought, but... I don't think that's the right thing to do with it."
"But you guys... after all that, you don't want a second chance at... at... well, life?!" Valerie stood seemingly dumbfounded.
"To do... what?" Danny countered. "We don't even have an empty house to go back to."
"What, you think I'd leave you out to dry?" Valerie started to retort.
"But you can't bring the others back, they never became ghosts. And you can't make something from nothing." Danny cut her off softly. "And it'd be wrong for us to freeload anyway. I never finished high school, let alone college; how would we pull our own weight?"
"But-"
"It's okay, Val. I appreciate it, really. But times have changed, and we've moved on. Sam and I are happy together, with the way things are now. And Tuck's really done well for himself since then; I mean come on, he's a king. I doubt he'd want to give that... or his wife... up for a second shot at being human."
Valerie deflated with a sigh. "I guess it's a dumb idea, huh?"
"It's really a nice idea, but... I dunno, doesn't it just feel wrong to try to reset everything to how it used to be? Besides, it's probably better to destroy all of these Ascendancy things after Maghnus is taken care of. They're just dangerous."
"All of it..." Valerie murmured more to herself than to the ghost. "That's probably a good idea."
Further conversation was abruptly cut off by a loud shout from the mansion, audible despite the distance and walls.
"Chocolate fondue! MY PORTAL!"
That set the both of them running, or flying rather, since Valerie jumped on her sled and Danny selectively ignored gravity. In seconds they'd both rejoined the group in Vlad's lab, all standing around in some state of shock.
The portal, much like the one at the Ghost Patrol's headquarters, was little more than a slagged, useless framework.
"What, this one's fried too?" Sam groused to no one in particular.
"This is bad... how are we gonna even get to the Ghost Zone now?!" Tucker lamented.
"Hey, no time to start panicking. Vlad can just build a new one, right?" Valerie asked.
"Yes... I could." The billionaire rolled his eyes, tone condescending. "If-"
"So is this little party open to anybody or is it invite only?" A new, snide voice interrupted.
Dan stepped from behind the slagged portal frame with a smug expression on his face. "Hello, Valerie."
"You!" The huntress snarled, going for her weapons. "You did this, didn't you?!"
"Not inside the house, please." Vlad commented with some exasperation. "I just had the carpets cleaned."
"Mm... yes, I did. And not even a thank you for my hard work." Dan retorted, ignoring Vlad's attempt at brevity.
"And what should we thank you for?" Sam glared at the tall spook.
"For protecting you idiots." Dan idly brushed some imagined dust from one sleeve of his jumpsuit. "If I hadn't destroyed the portals when Maghnus located them, I imagine you wouldn't have had the time to find that shiny new toy that you're pointing at me."
"Don't cross me, ghost." Valerie warned, Reality Gauntlet aimed square at Dan.
"Tsk, tsk, is that any way to talk to your only ticket to the Ghost Zone?" Dan wagged a finger in a mock-scolding manner.
"Look, guys, now really isn't the time for this." Tucker planted himself between the fire-headed ghost and the bristling huntress. "We need to stop Maghnus first, remember?"
"And Val..." Danny laid a hand on her armored arm, gently making Valerie lower the weapon. "We're gonna need his help. We can't get to the Ghost Zone without him now."
"Over my dead body!" Valerie countered. "Who says I can't just create a portal with the Reality Gauntlet?"
"Oh, please, do try." Dan smirked, grabbing a nearby swivel chair and seating himself. "I'd like to see just what this fabled last bit of the Ascendancy can do."
"Changing the subject..." Vlad interrupted, surveying Dan's somewhat battered state. "I don't suppose you care to tell us just what mischief you've been getting into?"
"Nothing much. But it seems destroying a few dozen military outposts and supply bases is a good way to get a tyrant just a little peeved. I figured it would keep the tyrant du jour occupied for awhile." Dan explained idly, watching Valerie trying to make the Reality Gauntlet do something.
"Why isn't it working?!"
"Ah, yes. Valerie, the Reality Gauntlet is a tool of creation, is it not?" Vlad raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, so why can't I use it to create a portal?" The huntress complained.
"Ghost portals don't work that way, I'm afraid." Vlad explained, tapping his cane against the broken framework of his portal. "It isn't a matter of creating a portal; but rather a matter of destroying a portion of the dimensional barrier between this world and the Ghost Zone."
"Well we still don't need his help! Can't you build a new portal, Vlad?" Valerie inquired, trying to ignore Dan's bemused chuckling.
"Well, I could, if I had several months to work on it-" Vlad began.
A thundercrack split the air, the sound crystal clear and sharp despite the group being underground. Unlike a real peal of thunder, the sound was sharp and swift, a single crack! and then silence, rather than the long low rumble of real thunder heard muffled by ground and distance.
"Several months, I fear, that we don't have."
Author's Notes: Wow, only 5 more chapters to go. This chapter ended up a lot longer than anticipated, and is basically the final gathering of the cast before all bloody hell breaks loose. Hopefully that cliffhanger isn't too painful?
Anyhow, major thanks and get-out-of-homework passes to my super awesome reviewers: Moony's Metamorphmagus, Tie-dyed Trickster, Angelic Kittens, Granite Ghost, Calovan, phantoms-allie, Akino Ame, BaronOBeefDip, Phantom-Akiko, Sukoru, Fulcon, i AM the Random Idiot, spiritmind675, Luiz4200, and Selofain! You guys rock!