Kyon! Well, I was going to update on the 5th of December, but I realized I only have the prologue up, so updating a little early wouldn't be sooo bad! ((It's been killing me!)) Thanks for all the reviews, I feel so special! Once I get a chance, I'll reply to them all! My computer time has been tight, sorry, Kyo.

Oh, I wanted to mention that, in this story, Danny's older self wasn't put in the thermos. That incident didn't happen, but you'll see why by story's end!

Read on!

Chapter one:

Clock Work slowly moved out of the darkness of shadows. His aged face smoothed into a handsome young man's. The ghost sitting before him had a pale face, almost greenish in tint. His eyes bore thick black edges, and bloody crimson eyes shone with a preternatural glow that would have frightened the man, if he did not have a pair like his.

This spirit had approached ClockWork several minutes ago for a 'confession'. He had been battling this one for a long time; so having him safely in his lair did not bother the father of time one bit. In fact, he planned on turning on him, once the process was through.

"Before you begin, may I ask you something?" said Clock Work

The surrogate shrugged nonchalantly, "Ask away,"

"Have you been alone these entire twelve years?"

"No," he confessed," I've tried to form alliances. Like The Box Ghost, but his constant 'BEWARE' 's got annoying. I gave him to Skulker for his loyalty, who, after becoming irk by the little maggot himself, dropped him into the ghost jail after his first daughter was born," Dark Danny shrugged once again, "I think he was their weight lifting champion before he disappeared…"

"And Skulker?"

"That went fairly well, until he decided I would make wonderful prey. I mounted him on a wall. Technus found him and tried to free him. So, I smashed his hard drive. Against a wall. Several times."

"Did you form an alliance with him?"

"No, I gave his remains to Ember McLain, teenagers love that technology crap…"

"And Ember?

"Horrible. Her teen angst was unbearable! She hated adults, and decided to write a song about one." Dark Danny pressed his hand flat to his chest," Me. She tried to disguise it, but I was the only 'Pyro-haired Devil in crimson rage, Raving and ranting and wrecking the place' I didn't take to tell to it, so I sang her a song of my own. A wail of a song!" he laughed," Turned her guitar to scrap metal, which Johnny 13 happily took for bike parts."

"And…"

"Johnny? Well, tried working with him, but he was so damn rebellious and always running around with his homely girlfriend. He got into an accident and was paralyzed from the waist down. I really should have practiced my aiming…"

"Isn't there anyone you agreed with?"

"Yes. Her name was Venus. She was a puppet master, and could manipulate both humans and ghosts alike."

"What happened to her…?"

"She was controlling. She's floating helplessly in the ghost zone, no strings attached."

There was a silence that tailed these words. Then, slowly, Dark Danny took a breath

"I was... he was...Danny was fourteen at the time. Naive and a bit thick, but you can't expect him to be more than typical. His parents were working hard in the lab, building some expensive machine and, of course, ignoring him. They were loving parents, when they got around to doing some parenting. Most of the time, they were muddling through something ghost-related, and Danny had become used to it. It took some time, of course. Resentment coursed through his veins constantly, but soon, he had become numb.

"On the fateful day, Danny had actually acquired some interest in his parent's doing. He watched transfixed as the Jack and Maddie hammered and drove and melded their way into the basement wall. Finally, when they were finished, they called in Danny's sister for the magical moment when they opened a portal into the ghost zone. (In retrospect, it was a foolish thing to do. They only created the portal to have something to play with, when if they'd left well enough alone, Amity Park wouldn't have been infested...)

"Jack connected the two wires. There was this brief, blinding spark. Danny and his sister were amazed-"

"But it didn't quite work." finished the aged man.

Dark Danny nodded," And his folks, they just quite." a chuckle bubbled in his throat as he had said that.

"The portal was dormant for some days after that. Life came and went, Jazz used this failure to try disprove the existence of ghosts to Jack and Maddie Fenton...things were almost normal in that house for a while. Then..."

The specter took a deep breath," Then the day finally came."

"Danny went down to the basement to get a frozen treat out of the freezer when out of the corner of his eye, he saw that preternatural spark. The portal wasn't dead, and, being a foolish fourteen year-old boy, Danny decided to take a look inside. Can you believe that kid? Well, he put on this protective Fenton Jumpsuit so he wouldn't be hurt...and it worked. Instead of being battered to death completely by the portal, he was buffeted and only killed partly. The signature of the apparition's realm laced itself within Danny's body and took hold of him like an animal's teeth does it's prey. He screamed and screamed...the pain was intense, I don't think he had ever experienced anything quite as painful as that moment, even in his ghost-fighting years to come."

Clockwork stared at the evil version of Danny," Do you mean to say that a ghost possessed Daniel and-"

Dark Danny shook his head," You misunderstand. A lot of people would. No one ghost became a part of Danny, it was the essence of the ghost zone that fused with his DNA and half destroyed the boy. It's a wonder neither his human half, or my ghost half died instantly when Vlad separated us. We are unstable and weak on our own...we depended on one another."

The eidolon stopped a moment, his eyes considering the table again. His fists clenched and his leather gloves made sound against the strain.

"When he awoke...Daniel was half I."