Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Danny Phantom.

Chapter Seven: Faint

Vlad Masters looked up when a loud clattering sound rang through his mansion, which was nearly void of life. Standing, he headed down the hall from his study, eyeing a window that had blown open from the storm outside. Frowning slightly, he closed the large window and tightly locked it, before turning around.

"Hello Vlad." Vlad gave a small start in surprise, turning his head to find Danny, in his human form which would explain why he didn't sense him, standing in the hall a bit away.

"Daniel, this is a surprise… especially sense you've been vacant for two years." Vlad smirked. "I was starting to worry." Striding forwards a bit with a confident step, Danny frowned, hands clenched at his sides.

"I'd be the one worrying about myself, if I were you." He snarled out, eyes turning green. Vlad raised one eyebrow slightly.

"It seems you've come back with quite a change." Danny suddenly left out a cold laugh.

"Oh, I changed long before now- nobody cared to notice, is all." White rings washed over his body to leave behind his ghost-self. "And I'm here on some business. I needed two years to prepare myself, and finally, I'm ready to let people know I'm back. Sam and Tucker already know. Jazz does too. Others do too, but," another slight laugh, "but only those three knew who I really was." A white flash covered Vlad, as he, too, reverted to his ghost self. The red eyes regarded Danny smugly.

"I must admit, I like the changed, Daniel." Danny was suddenly right in front of Vlad's face, eyes changing red.

"Ya know, I never had told you how much it bugged me when you called me that."

A sharp red blast went off, and Vlad barely managed to put a shield up in time to block it. He was pushed back slightly though, even with the shield glowing before him. Lowering it, he lifted both hands just in time to lock fists with Danny, who had lunged forwards.

"My attitude isn't all that's changed, Plasmius." Danny growled out. "My fighting's changed too." A sudden knee to the stomach sent the taller of the two –although the height difference was very slim now- stumbling back. A foot collided with the side of Vlad's head before a succession of punches charged by red energy slammed into his sides and an elbow jammed down onto his shoulder. Backing up as Vlad struggled to regain himself after the sudden onslaught, Danny smiled widely. "I've gotten more into it, in a way. The fight, the battle."

"I find, getting more physical, is more fun." Danny's hand closed around Vlad's collar, tossing him with surprising strength down the hall. Vlad got up a little quicker this time, splitting himself into four. Danny mimicked him, before suddenly splitting two extra, so six faced Vlad's four. A collision seemed to shake the mansion as the Halfa's slammed into each other, the shockwaves of the energy being put off, quickly erasing any copies so only the originals stood.

"Any idea on how long your friends will refrain from telling your parents about you?" Vlad spat. Danny shrugged casually, ignoring the bit of blood trickling down the side of his face.

"It would be easier, if they told them actually. At this point, I really don't care." Danny darted forwards, a huge orb of red energy surrounded him before bursting outwards, slamming Vlad into the wall. "I don't care if they know." Danny snarled out, throwing a punch which Vlad dodged, Danny leaving a hole in the wall where Vlad's head had once been. "I don't care, because I'm not going back."

Vlad lifted both hands, pressing the palms together before slowly drawing them apart, dark green energy forming rapidly between them before he lashed out with one hand, a whip of energy lashing along the hall and striking Danny along the chest and across the shoulder. The two necklaces around Danny's neck, miraculously, didn't break as a thin tear appeared in his clothes, green blood instantly beginning to seep out.

With a roar of anger, Danny lifted both hands before bringing them down sharply, something similar to what Vlad had done –but in red- snapping out from both hands with the accuracy of a driver's whip. Vlad avoided one, the other cutting across his shoulder, the one he had avoided being hit by physically tearing a good rip through his cape.

"I wonder," Danny hissed out as he floated above the ground, hands glowing blood red, "how long would it take, for them to find your body?" Vlad's eyes widened in shock as he realized just how far Danny was intending to take this battle. Only one of them was going to walk away, unless one of them fled. And he had the feeling, if he tried to run, Danny would follow. So it was either die, or get Danny to run, and from how things were going, the latter option was slim.

Danny moved closer, and Vlad felt oddly paralyzed as he stared at the blood red eyes. A frown across his face as his hands slowly stopped glowing, and he continued to glare down at Plasmius. There was a moment of this, as if Danny was debating something. Finally he lowered so he stood on the floor, Vlad still struggling to stay standing. Danny suddenly smiled slightly.

"I'm not a villain," he said in a soft, mocking tone, "I just wanted to be loved."

The next thing he said wasn't even words, but a solid screen of a ghostly wail seeming to be filled with waves of red.