Phantom pressed down on Danny's sword as Danny resisted the force; sweat breaking out over his brow, "Why are you stopping me? He killed her! He deserves to die!"
Danny gritted his teeth, "Because if you kill him you'll be just like him and I promised my family the last time I fought him that I would NOT become that! Or do you not remember? We promised everyone that we would NEVER become like that!"
Phantom's eyes narrowed but he didn't respond.
"I wanted to kill him too but until he said what he just did I had forgotten my promise. I can't let you kill him and become like that. I won't be a murder; not now not ever."
Phantom's hand shook and then he released his sword and it evaporated into thin air. Danny released his own sword and fell forward, gasping for air.
"What do you suggest we do with him then," Phantom asked in a near whisper, anger still very apparent in his voice.
Before Danny could answer Dan started to laugh. The two good halfas turned to their evil counterpart (who still sported bruises and cuts from his fight with Phantom). He clutched his side as he laughed, "You human fools! If you don't kill me what do you plan to do? You can't possibly think of capturing me again. You saw what good that did. Are you going to just let me go? That's even more of a laugh. Please I'm dying to know what you heroes have planned for me."
Phantom made a move to attack Dan but Danny stopped him, "Wait you'll just be playing into his hand."
Phantom gritted his teeth but relaxed, "Then please come up with a suggestion soon because I'm about to not give a damn what happens to my morality if he keeps existing."
Danny sighed, it was hard to believe they were the same person, 'Of course April isn't technically my daughter…yet. I can't begin to imagine the pain he must feel. It must be taking all his will power to hold on and deal with Dan in a justifiable manner." Danny thought back to his last encounter with Dan…
((Flashback))
The older Vlad looked sadly down at Danny as he continued his story, "All you wanted was to make the hurt go away. I honored your wishes…no more painful human emotions to drag you down." Vlad noticed Danny give him a strange look and he continued, actually pulling up video footage that had been captured while he was in the lab.
"Sadly that freed you up to rip the ghost out of me," Vlad said as the screen showed a scene of Vlad being held up by an evil looking Danny. The Danny on the screen wrenched Vlad apart from Plasmius and threw them to two separate sides of the room. The evil Danny flew at Plasmius and slipped into his body.
"And when my evil ghost half mixed with yours and my evil side overwhelmed you," Vlad said, the screen showed the evil Danny clutching his head in torment. There was an explosion of green light and Vlad paused the screen.
((Cue Danny Phantom Theme Song))
"That's it," Danny muttered.
Phantom looked down at his younger self and Danny continued, "We keep forgetting that Dan isn't just one person…I mean ghost."
"What?"
Danny sighed, "Don't you remember? When I first came across Dan I was eventually led to that future's Vlad. He told me all about how our ghost side was ripped out and then it did the same to Vlad and over-shadowed him."
Phantom raised an eyebrow, "So you're saying…"
"…if we overshadow Dan…"
"You can then split me apart," Dan finished. Phantom and Danny turned to him and found, though Dan was still rather beat up, was standing. He smirked, "The problem is…you have to catch me first." Dan then flew into the air at high speed.
Phantom cursed and flew after him. Danny hesitated a moment then teleported and reappeared directly in front of Dan. He blasted him and Dan flew backwards right into Phantom's arms. Phantom smirked, "One."
"Two," Danny continued.
"Three!" They shouted turning intangible.
"NO!" Dan shouted as he was overtaken by the two halfas. Dan dropped to the ground clutching his head. Cracks began to appear over his face. Suddenly he began to warp and two separate beings began to fade in and out of existence. Dan screamed in agony and then there was an explosion and a brilliant flash of red and green light.
((Down the Street))
Sam had broken free from Tucker's hold eventually and was now running like hell towards the school. Tucker was on her heels and trying to catch up, however a worried wife/mother is hard to keep up with as Tucker was discovering. Sam saw the building looming before her and if anything else her speed picked up.
"NO!" she heard a voice cry from the direction of the soccer field. A cry of immense pain followed but Sam didn't stop. That is until she was suddenly thrown down by an explosion.
Tucker caught up by that time and helped her up. They hurried to the soccer field which was pretty calm looking…except for the rather deep crater in the center.
"Danny," Sam shouted. She ran to the edge of the crater and without pausing slid into its smoky abyss.
Her friend tried to reach and stop her but it was too late of course. He peered over the edge and could make out four bodies at the bottom and Sam's quickly vanishing form which was clouded by the smoke.
((Bottom of Crater))
Danny sat up, he ached everywhere and when he finally got the nerve to open his eyes he realized he was no longer in ghost mode. He glanced around and noted that he was sitting on a bunch of rocks at the bottom of a large crater. A few feet from him he could make out three other forms; the smoke was clearing quickly and he could begin to make out the figures and who they were. Just then Sam was beside him. Her eyes widened in happiness as she embraced him in a warm hug, "You're alright!"
Danny enjoyed the hug but he knew they didn't have much time. He was lucky though that Sam had shown up, maybe she would have a thermos or two with her. So he asked, "Sam do you have a Fenton Thermos with you?"
Suddenly Tucker flopped down beside them rather ungracefully. On his back was strapped at least five thermoses, "What's up," he asked standing up and brushing the dirt off his pants.
"Quick we have to trap Dan's two halves!"
"Huh," Tucker asked raising an eyebrow.
Danny rolled his eyes and pointed directly in front of him. The smoke had cleared enough to where Sam could make out that two figures were sprawled under the blades of her husband and a doppelganger Phantom. Sam's eyes drifted down to the two figures and she gasped. The one on the right was rather short and wore mostly white with a long cape spread out under him. He had pale green skin and black hair and a goatee. His eyes were voids of red and his teeth were like fangs; obviously this was Plasmius. The one on the left looked a lot like Phantom except he was light blue and had burning red eyes. His outfit was a simple black jumpsuit with a white 'D' emblazed on it. He was very tall and rather lanky.
"Who are they," Sam asked.
"The two halves that made up Dan Phantom," Danny explained emotionlessly, "Now hurry and suck them up into different thermoses."
Sam and Tucker each took an empty thermos and aimed them at the evil entities. The thermoses pulled at the evil spirits and the two beings were finally sucked into the thermoses. As soon as they were gone Phantom's doppelganger disappeared and the original Phantom's sword evaporated. He closed his eyes in exhaustion and fell forward; transforming back into his human half. Sam caught her husband and he groaned.
She helped him to sit down and then sat beside him. Tucker sat as well and the younger Danny sort of collapsed onto the ground beside the adults. His eyes drifted to the two thermoses that held his ultimate enemy and he sighed, "Its over."
The adults looked up and older Danny scowled, "But at what cost?"
Sam and Tucker noted his bitter tone, "What's wrong? You're both alive, Dan's defeated and April's…," Tucker paused as he realized the newest of the halfas wasn't there.
Sam straightened up, "Danny…where's April?"
Both Dannys avoided Sam's gaze and Sam jumped up, grabbing her husband, dread etched onto her pale face, "Where is she!"
Younger Danny wiped some tears from his eyes in an attempt to hide them, "April…she…she fought Dan."
The adults turned to him, even for older Danny this would be the first time hearing exactly what had taken place. All was silent as they watched the young Danny. Danny's eyes drifted to the sky, tears beginning to freely flow down his face, "She fought Dan with all her heart. She wanted to save her dad…me. She fought and got caught up in the heat of battle and…and he impaled her with the Ghost Gauntlets." Danny wiped the tears away with his hands; the pain of the death was still fresh with him and having just told the story had brought the memories of the incident back to him in full force.
Tucker looked shocked and had to turn away so as not to witness anymore crying. Sam had no such qualms and cried profusely for her lost daughter. She buried herself into older Danny's shirt and the hero wrapped his arms around his wife, rubbing her back in an attempt to console her.
Silence fell over the field except for the sound of a weeping mother. After a few minutes the older Danny stood up and took everyone's hands and flew them out of the crater. Younger Danny carried the thermoses as they walked slowly over to where April lay. They reached her body and Sam, who had finally calmed down a bit, burst into tears again; blocking the view by burying herself in the embrace of her husband. Tucker took a step back and would walk no further; the thought that five feet from him lay the body of his best friends' daughter was too much for him.
Younger Danny clenched his fists as he saw the reactions and depression sinking in around him, "How can it end like this?" he hissed.
"It isn't going to," a deep voice said from beside Danny's shoulder. Danny jumped and spun around to face the familiar specter of Clockwork. Danny looked past Clockwork to see that everyone behind him was frozen including his older self. His eyes fell on Sam who was in the middle of crying and he had to turn away.
"You're too late…she's already dead," Danny muttered.
Clockwork scowled, his form changing from an old man to a young child, "Since when was I ever too late for something?"
Danny perked up at this, "You mean…you can bring her back?"
"It would be rather unfair if I didn't considering my henchmen, Tick and Tock, are to blame for this."
"Who?"
The spirit of time sighed, "You didn't meet them but I have a few assistants who help me maintain the time stream. It turns out Tick and Tock, two of my newer and younger apprentices, messed with the thermos I had taken from you that contained Dan while I was out."
"So it's YOUR fault she died," he growled.
"Indirectly, yes. I've come to make amends though. Dan's an entity that exists outside of time and space thus his interferences in this universe are null and void anyways," Clockwork explained as his form shifted into adulthood.
"I see," replied Danny with a confused expression, "What about your two helpers?"
"They were dealt with accordingly. I trapped them in a pre-historic era," Clockwork paused and scratched his head, "I believe they are currently making friends with a T-Rex."
Danny was silent before he gave a sideways glace to Clockwork, "Remind me not to anger you."
Clockwork smirked, "Enough banter, shall we get to business before The Observants spy me messing with their precious parade again?" Clockwork lifted his scepter and waved it over April. She shimmered for a bit before the gaping hole in her chest closed and even her clothes mended themselves. Clockwork turned to back to Danny, "Now there's just the matter of what to do with Dan."
Danny blinked, "Well we split him in two different thermoses," he paused as an idea hit him, "but what if we can split him even further…by putting him in two different times."
"I like your thinking Danny. You don't mind if I elaborate on your plan a bit though do you," Clockwork asked.
"What do you have in mind?"
"I can place a time barrier around the thermoses so that they exist in that time and that time only and no one would be able to touch him."
Danny nodded, "Sounds good."
He handed the thermoses over to Clockwork, "I am only going to share this information with you just in case you need it in the future. I'm going to put one container in the distant past, around 28,000 B.C.E while the other will be placed in the distant future in the year 5618 C.E."
"Those numbers are rather random," Danny commented.
"Fewer people will be able to guess at it. I don't want any more Dan incidents so I will do all in my power to ensure he stays down this time," Clockwork said seriously.
Danny nodded, "See you soon Clockwork."
"Let's hope not Danny. Time In."
End
AN: Yes April's alive. Unfortunately for those of you who like stories ending in sadness I'm not one of those people. I may have bad things happen in my fics but generally the ending is happy (in some form or fashion). While this is the final chapter of the fic I do have a small epilogue I will post up here shortly. Also I would like to dedicate this chapter to Crimson Ninja (Jake) because he helped me come up with a way to bring April back without being really too cheesy/unbelievable. THANKS MINION!