Disclaimer: I own neither Yu-gi-oh or Danny Phantom.

I know I said I wasn't continuing any of the crossovers in V'V myself, but my friend moonymonster, who I am collaborating on the fic The Ultimate Hero (up under her account) requested this when I said I wanted to do gift-fics for my friends, therefore you all get this. I hope you enjoy.

There's a nod to moonymonster's other fandom in here.

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Innocent little rectangles of cardboard. Ha.

Vlad Masters knew that nothing and no one was innocent. Some seemed like they were but it was either stupidity, like Jack, or denial, like young Daniel.

These cards weren't innocent. Not when they made the energy detectors in his lab go haywire. Whatever it was, it was ancient. Even his vultures hadn't a clue.

He'd discovered this after the fact. No, his first encounter with the cards had been when he was innocent about they fact they held powers.

As did their creator.

The rising businessman Vlad Masters had decided the new game company Industrial Illusions was ripe for the plucking. The game showed signs of being a smash hit and the owner was notoriously eccentric, even, some rumored, insane. No one would think anything of him handing over control of the company in exchange for a lump sum from the extremely persuasive Vlad Masters.

He'd been smiling. It had irked him. Even then, no one was ever ahead of him, and Pegasus had acted like he knew exactly what he was about to do. Was waiting for it.

So he'd made his move.

Darkness, blackness. It had hurt worse than the accident that gave him his powers, it felt like his very soul was in danger of being torn in two.

He'd been thrown out of Pegasus' body, slammed up against a wall, so exhausted he transformed back to human.

He'd woken up in the hospital. He hated hospitals. And Pegasus had had the gall to be sitting by his bedside with a get-well card and a hidden smirk.

Then he'd brushed his hair aside to reveal something else hidden. A golden eye.

Vlad had known instantly it was the cause of whatever had happened to him. He could feel an almost overwhelming darkness. Foolishness. There was nothing to fear in the darkness. There wasn't anything he couldn't defeat.

Except for Pegasus.

Research had revealed that the last photograph of Pegasus that didn't have his hair brushed over the once-normal eye had been taken before he arrived in Egypt on a world tour he had taken after the death of his wife.

Vlad had gone to Egypt seeking answers. He'd found the legend of the Millennium Items and a ghost called Shadi.

Gather the seven Items and any wish would be granted? Ultimate power?

But Pegasus was also after the Items. And made an appointment with him. They'd struck a deal: Vlad would not pursue the Items and Pegasus would not reveal he was half ghost.

Now, with the Ring of Rage locked in the Coffin of Forever Sleep with Pariah Dark, Vlad had decided to focus more of his attention on that option. Industrial Illusions had grown.

And Pegasus' eye was a gaping hole. Vlad had looked forward to confirming that the Eye had been his defense by overshadowing him. No one got the better of Vlad Plasmius. Not forever.

Only someone else had put Pegasus in a coma first. Not only him, others who played this game. Monsters started appearing all over the globe.

The monsters were real. These cards held power. Power he would master.

The game wasn't chess, but he needed someone to hone his skills against. It was the masters of the game who had wielded magic in ancient Egypt.

Also, he'd given up on Daniel and chess. He'd hoped his wisecracks mocking Daniel's lack of chess skills would inspire him to take up the game in self-defense but he had shown no signs of doing so.

This game was popular with the kids and with the pictures was certainly more flashy. It wasn't a video game like Doomed but there was strategy to it.

If Daniel wouldn't come to him to be taught he would have to manipulate him into studying on his own. It was working well so far. When Daniel finally joined him he would progress much faster, however.

He should never have considered the clones. He would have needed to start from scratch even with the perfect clone. Training Danielle in the basics had almost driven him mad. Waste all his work on Daniel? No.

As soon as he eroded his trust in Jack he would see the light. Even the ecto-acne had showcased Jack's incompetence. Still, Daniel was loyal.

That loyalty meant he would be loyal to Vlad once Vlad won him over.

He'd given him cards, and suggested to the Manson girls' parents at a dinner party that their daughter might enjoy the game. With his crush playing Daniel would certainly learn to keep her happy. Ah, young love.

Daniel had better make a move soon, or else some idiot like Jack might steal the love of his life away. Of course, Daniel would hardly listen to him if he tried to give him advice on his love life. This was a job for reverse psychology.

Skulker was working on infusing ghost energy into Kaiba Corporations's hologram technology. Soon, Vlad would be able to play for real.

He'd added 'feed him to a Man-Eater Bug' to his list of possible ways to kill Jack Fenton. It had looked very promising when he'd tested it out on the Jack.exe program.

Jack.exe had won over Maddie.exe and then been destroyed. At least he'd gotten a good omen out of that whole fiasco.

Vlad's hands had been idly shuffling while he considered his options. He cut the deck and then drew a card.

Vampire Lord.

He frowned and started to shuffle again. That couldn't be right. He'd just drawn that the last time he'd played against himself. It had been in his first hand, maybe even the first he drew.

He'd heard the rumors about the 'heart of the cards,' and he'd built both himself and Daniel the most… appropriate decks money could buy, but surely…

He cut the deck several times.

Drew.

Vampire Lord.

Well now. This was interesting.

Vlad wondered idly if his other little pawn would like a deck. A present from him would further cement her loyalty.