Disclaimer: I own nothing from Danny Phantom

Note: I started a new story about Wulf, clone-Dani, and Vlad but since the plot sadly isn't that fleshed out so I'm putting the idea on hold for now and working on the sequel to "Haunted" instead. I might still change the title of this story but I'm not sure yet. I couldn't think of anything else to call it that might fit the tone but still sound spooky. Anyways to those of you who are new readers, welcome, and in case you haven't read the first story I've taken the liberty of summing up more or less what happened in the last one. The Dani/Danielle in this story is the female version of Danny and not the clone and she's in a relationship with Vlad. If that makes any of you uncomfortable I'll understand if you choose to read something else. To those who are existing fans or who decide to stay, I hope you enjoy this story and remember that this is an AU fanfic so a lot of events borrowed from the show are going to be very different. This also contains sexual and gory scenes but I leave a warning before each chapter that contains anything like that. And with all that out of the way, please enjoy and don't forget to leave a review or follow to get updates on when I post new chapters!

Chapter 1: Reminiscence

Danielle's POV

I was sad when Vlad had to leave again to finish things up in Wisconsin but I knew I would see him again soon and there was no point in dwelling on it. And so, life went on for me as usual and my usual pattern of fighting ghosts and going to school continued. Although little by little it was becoming a lot easier. Still, I couldn't help but feel like Vlad was hiding something from me. He's been acting strange since we spent the weekend together before Vlad was forced to go back to tie up some loose ends. On the outside, Vlad's smile was as charming as ever and his words were even more gentle and loving when we were alone, however, I could tell something inside of him had changed...

And it wasn't necessarily in a good way.

Things between us hardly got off to a great start but back then Vlad was hell-bent on getting his revenge against the person who made him half-ghost too by accident, my dad Jack Fenton. Vlad was infatuated and desperate for my mother's love since he thoroughly convinced himself that my dad 'stole' her from him, just like he stole years of his life when Vlad was hospitalized with a horrible case of ecto-acne because of him. But when it comes right down to it, regardless of all of the wealth and power he accumulated over the years as he plotted his revenge, honestly Vlad probably had everything he could ever ask for except for the one thing that those things couldn't give him. The truth is, at the center of all of this, Vlad just didn't want to be alone anymore with no warmth and laughter to break the silence within the halls of his lonely castle and no one to share his life with...

It all began when Vlad came up with this clever plan to convince my mom to leave my dad after humiliating him at their twentieth college reunion by overshadowing him and making him do and say awful things that would make us all turn against him. It was obvious right from the start that Vlad had a special place in his heart for my mom since she was his crush during their college days, but when I met him I felt this unusual sense of familiarity and was drawn to him from the very beginning. I couldn't tell you why but I found Vlad absurdly attractive even though he's older than me. It was love at first sight.

Vlad felt it too, a strong invisible bond between us, but like me he assumed it was just his imagination because he only wanted to treat my brother and I like his own children once he removed my dad from the picture and I only thought Vlad was a really cool guy who actually paid attention to how I felt and tried to comfort and support me when I was upset. It wasn't until later that we found out there was much more to it than that.

Not only that, but we were more alike than either of us could have ever imagined.

That night, before Vlad could put the next phase of his plan into action, I thwarted them by safely phasing my dad through the floor and dropping him off in the nearest restroom using my ghost powers and then I returned to confront the three ghost vultures he sent after my dad while in my ghost form. And this wasn't even the first time I'd seen these vultures. I caught them at it once before too, long before we even began making the trip here for the college reunion with my family since my parents decided to drag us along and I kept the torn piece of photo that they had with them with my dad's face on it to show them who to attack, which meant there was someone else behind this attack. The vultures, however, fled before I could really do anything to them and then Vlad confronted me instead, wondering why the infamous ghost girl Dani Phantom would bother chasing his minions all the way out here.

We fought shortly after Vlad revealed that he knew exactly who I was and what I did, but for all his boasting he didn't know the whole story about me just yet. He soon found out though. After defeating me, I passed out and to his surprise, he saw that there, laying on the floor, wasn't just any old ghost girl but rather someone who was still half-human, like him. That's when it all finally made sense. No wonder Vlad felt connected to me, it because we were the only two people like us in the entire world, halfa's, hybrids with ghost energy fused into our very DNA that gave us many strange and amazing powers...

That's when all of Vlad's plans changed and his feelings of lust grew so powerful that he decided to pursue me instead of my mom since there was so much more we could do and be together without having to hide who we were. Or at least not from each other. After that, he began dazzling me with charming words and thoughtful guidance after he 'saved me' from that ghost when I had an argument with my family the following morning since they just didn't seem to understand how much pressure I was under.

At first, it was all just part of the act to win my heart, but it wasn't long before Vlad actually began to genuinely sympathize with my situation. And as a result of his kind words and patient understanding, I began to relax and rely on Vlad more even though we hardly knew each other. Especially since he seemed to actually give a damn about my feelings and noticed when I was feeling down. But sadly, some things about him weren't about to change that easily. The next day, when the reunion finally began, Vlad laid out a new plan to get me alone with him in his secret lab so he could reveal his secret to me in hopes of winning me over and convincing me to renounce my family since they obviously didn't care that much about my feelings and they wanted to control the way I was living my life or trying to anyway while juggling school and fighting ghosts in secret to protect everyone.

Unfortunately for him, I wasn't THAT easily fooled.

When we went to his secret lab to supposedly go somewhere quiet after Vlad mentioned something about seeing those vulture ghosts too and I started to panic, thinking he saw me transform back when I passed out. What I didn't know yet was that Vlad WAS the vampire-looking ghost who knocked me out in the first place who later convinced my parents that I was attacked by his vultures instead the night before and he valiantly rescued me from them. I fell for his act too at first until I saw the rest of the torn photo with my mom, Vlad, and my dad all together back in their college days, but my dad's face had been torn off and the missing piece was the same one I found before when his vultures attacked me the first time. After that, I demanded to know what this was all about and Vlad tried to salvage the situation before ultimately putting his back up plan into action and tricking me into transforming into my ghost half to defend myself against the other goons he hired and sent after me as a distraction, including the ghost hunter Skulker that I was already familiar with that was lurking in the shadows, waiting for his signal.

Vlad rigged the whole thing and ordered Skulker to shoot me with this new ghost tranquilizing drug they were testing so he could make sure I couldn't stop him from putting on a convincing show of rescuing me again to convince my parents to let me stay with him for a while for my own safety. My parents didn't even hesitate to trust him with taking care of me, much to my dismay. And because I was still drugged and on top of that got sick when I had an allergic reaction to the sedative, I was trapped there with him with no hope of convincing my parents otherwise since I heard from Vlad later that they had already left after I blacked out the second time. It hurt so much that they would dismiss my feelings so easily and just leave me here with a man I barely knew even after I tried to make it perfectly clear I didn't want to be there, especially after what Vlad did to me even though I couldn't tell them that without exposing my secret about being half-ghost too just like Vlad was. I was willing to though if I had to keep myself away from Vlad since I still felt threatened by him.

Once Vlad and I were alone after that, he tried to win me over with honeyed words and seemingly empty promises of not harming me or my family but I was having none of it. Not even after Vlad accidentally confessed his romantic feelings and kissed me after telling me all the things he hoped we could accomplish together and how much he was genuinely worried about the way I was being treated at home. I felt conflicted and confused because in spite of everything that Vlad did, how he lied and manipulated me, part of me was still strangely attracted to him so strongly it was almost as if 'I' was the one obsessed with the idea of being loved by someone. I wanted to trust him since Vlad did try to stand up for me a few times and genuinely seemed to care about me, but his actions poisoned those feelings to the point that they scared me and so did his outburst when Vlad angrily told me not to think of myself as a freak because he had romantic feelings for someone younger than him.

So I tried to run...

Sadly Vlad chose the worst time to test his anti-human and ghost shield before I escaped and when I tried to get away it hurt me by mistake. He never intended to make me feel trapped here and was only testing it as a last resort, assuming I was still too weak to transform, but things went horribly wrong and Vlad was left with a huge dilemma. Should he let me go home after all and try to win me over again later, or should he try to salvage the situation again and convince me he never meant to do me any harm?

In the end, Vlad finally gave in and decided to give me that choice instead of choosing for me like before about whether or not I would stay with him. That alone helped a lot because I was all too used to people controlling my life since my parents were grooming me to take over Fenton Works when I was older after my brother made it clear he had other plans for his future. It was like my future and my dreams didn't matter one bit to them and I had no choice. That's why it helped so much that Vlad was giving me a choice at all even though he clearly didn't want me to leave. In fact, after that Vlad sincerely tried to change and prove to me that he wasn't all that bad and he didn't want to scare me away. He even promised not to go after my dad again so long as he didn't hurt me while I was in ghost form.

Unsurprisingly I chose to go back home to process all of this on my own, including my feelings, and Vlad did everything in his power to make sure I had a comfortable trip back. He even promised to help me if I ever needed him to if I couldn't handle a ghost on my own or even with something as basic as asking for help with my homework. That meant a lot to me because it showed me that Vlad wasn't planning on going behind my back again to rig everything, well, maybe not to the same extent as before although he openly admitted he still had every intention of seducing me.

Still, over time I finally started warming up to Vlad as he proved little by little that he wasn't the sort of man who would make the same mistake twice and now that he understood my feelings he wanted to prove how real his feelings were so I wouldn't keep thinking I was a substitute for my mom. In fact, according to Vlad, we were probably soulmates which even among ghosts is extremely rare and could give us access to powers few others could ever imagine...

A few months later Vlad tried to surprise me with a trip to his mountain chalet in the Rockies disguised as a contest I'd won to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida but much like the first time, his plans blew up in his face when the ghost pilot he hired misunderstood Vlad's plan and forced me off of his private jet right over the chalet. Understandably I was pissed when I stumbled across it and put two and two together. That lying asshole had tricked me again! I was so angry with Vlad and assumed that the whole reason he set this up was because he had another plot of a diabolical nature planned for me so I demanded that Vlad call my parents and send me home because I wasn't going to stand for this, being deceived again.

That wasn't his intention this time, Vlad just wanted to get to know me without interruption but I was beyond done at that point. I was really looking forward to that trip and felt like I just couldn't win no matter what I did. I desperately needed a break and wanted to relax and enjoy myself. So when it all fell apart like things felt like they always did and this time it was Vlad's fault again I got pissed and outright called him an asshole to his face...

This action, however, had unexpected results because Vlad grew angry too because it was an honest mistake and it was never his intention to upset me, he cornered me against the sofa in the lounge of his chalet, hovering over me and then something inside of us made it impossible to think clearly and so after sharing a deep kiss we made love with each other for the very first time. It was a night of heated and feverish passion that I later came to regret so the first chance I got I ran off into the woods and cried myself to sleep, hating myself for giving in to those confusing feelings, unaware that even here...there were ghosts roaming the area.

Thankfully Vlad was able to find me but since I was still recovering from the night before I wasn't able to fight as well as I might have and ended up getting hurt. But he saved me and treated my injury and explained that this surprise was meant to be a happy one, not a trick. He never meant to upset me or let me get hurt and Vlad honestly didn't know I felt so strongly about my dream to become an Astronaut. It never occurred to him that it was more than just a passing hobby of mine to dream about traveling the stars and exploring the unknown, just like my parents outright ignored that dream and told me I was going to be hunting ghosts when I grew up despite the fact that I was ALREADY doing that in secret and still wanted a life of my own once I graduated. Provided I even would at this rate.

At any rate, once Vlad explained himself and apologized we actually did have a pretty good time after that and I started relying on him more for help and advice. That is until someone else set their sights on me and plotted to take me away from everything and everyone I loved. His name was Freakshow, the ringleader of Circus Gothica and a human at that but he had a secret. For generations, his family has been controlling the minds of ghosts and controlling them to make them do their bidding and Freakshow turned his sights on me. He wanted to use my power along with his other minions to steal gold and jewels and remove anyone who got in his way.

The plan was simple, all Freakshow had to do was expose me to the power of his staff which was powered by blood magic to the point that I only had to see an image of it to feel its power entrance me. I still barely remember what happened the first time he controlled me but my friends managed to save me that time. To some extent anyway. You see, since I'm half-human it couldn't fully control my mind so sometimes I was able to regain my senses and that's what happened when my friend Sam was knocked off of the train. I flew after him while still carrying Freakshow's staff, which had been knocked out of his hand and I caught it but didn't know what to do since no one was holding it now and therefore couldn't give me orders, but all I could think about was saving my friend from an untimely demise...

I managed to save Sam from drowning, but I barely even remembered who he was at the time and was lost and scared and didn't know who to rely on. So in desperation, I went after the staff again which had fallen into the river, hoping to seek my master's guidance, but then the rapids dragged roughly me far away from where it lay in the depths. I almost drowned myself until a sort of...phantom of Vlad saved me and now that I was far enough away from the hypnotic powers of that staff I started to regain my senses. But I was still frustrated, scared, and confused so I reached out for help by calling Vlad and that was the last thing I remembered. After that, I lost almost all of my memories and didn't even know who I was anymore.

Part of me remembered Vlad though so I trusted him enough to let him save me and bring me somewhere safe but, had I been in the right mind I would have stopped him from doing what he did next. It was all to protect me, to avenge me in case I never recovered from my amnesia, but I never thought Vlad would go that far even with our rocky history. Ha, get it? Because of the whole incident in the Rockies? Anyways moving on I guess it's still hard to imagine Vlad even at his lowest darkest moment would actually...kill someone.

That's right, in order to protect me from his hypnosis and dark magic, Vlad killed Freakshow to keep me safe. Sadly though, this seriously backfired because not only did Freakshow come back as a ghost...but when he kidnapped me again and took control of my mind again he set me loose against Vlad and I viciously attacked him. My friends were there too and managed to stop his second in command, Lydia, and break me loose but sadly Freakshow had a few more tricks up his sleeve and bound me to the power of his new staff he created using my blood this time...

At first it seemed to work since I attacked Vlad with a wild fury unlike anything he had seen before, but then, through some miracle Vlad managed to break through to me using our special bond and not only did we turn the power of that staff against Freakshow but Vlad was able to end his existence forever so he couldn't use me to threaten the lives of my loved ones or go after anyone else ever again. Still, those events showed me one thing, that I still have a lot to learn about being half-ghost and more importantly about what Vlad is truly capable of when backed into a corner and someone threatens the few things truly precious things in his life he can't replace. Turns out I'm one of those things.

I guess that's why I've been so worried about the way Vlad's been acting recently. What happened shook me almost as much as it shook him but we got through it alright. I trusted him with my life and know now that he would go to the ends of the earth to save me if need be. I wasn't a substitute for my mom, Vlad loved me for who I was and cherished each rare moment we could spend alone together. I just worry sometimes that Vlad is going to slip back into his old habits of scheming and weaving convincing lies and doing things behind my back for 'my own good' since he didn't want to risk losing me to more than just some other boy like he lost my mom. He was afraid of me dying and leaving him alone in this world...

I can understand that, but, when I decided to hunt ghosts I knew the risks. So unless Vlad wants to help me actually fight them, the best thing he can do is trust me and help me learn more about what we are. There's still so much I don't know and I'm ready to learn whatever Vlad has to teach me. And maybe I could teach him to lighten up a little because I wasn't planning on going anywhere. My life is here and so are my friends and family, once Vlad is here too...I'd have no reason to want to go anywhere else until after I graduate.

And with him by my side, for the first time in a long time, I felt like I might just make it.