Disclaimer : I don't own Danny Phantom or any related characters. I only own my OCs.

AN: This story is an AU. It takes place during Danny & co.'s senior year. I consider the following:

- Valerie became friends with Team Phantom after D-stabilized

- Phantom Planet did not happen

This is my first try at writing a story, but this particular trope has been sitting in my head for a while. I am open to and would like honest constructive criticism and reviews.

Chapter I – Meet the OCs

This story starts on a bright sunny spring day on a motorway somewhere between Cleveland and Amity Park. Roxanne and Damien were driving to Illinois for a surprise visit to a few very close friends of theirs which they hadn't seen in quite some time. Damien used to live in Amity Park with his parents and siblings up until the end of his sophomore year. The whole Umbra family had moved to the USA when Damien was six. Having spent several of his formative years in France, he spoke English with a slight accent, as did his older sister for that matter.

Damien had settled quickly into his new life, become fast friends with Danny Fenton and Tucker Foley while in kindergarten, and later Samantha – call me Sam or die – Manson, when she moved to Amity Park from San Francisco just before they started third grade. The four of them were inseparable, to the point that they considered themselves brothers and sister, if not in blood at least in spirit and soul. Because of this closeness, Damien would not let Danny enter the – at the time- non-operational ghost portal in the Fenton basement. When the portal was turned on both 14-year-old boys were caught in a maelstrom of electricity and ectoplasm, thus giving the two of them ghost powers and alter-egos: Danny Phantom and Damien Shadow. Pitch black hair and baby blue eyes became snow white hair and toxic green eyes for Danny, and while Damien's brown hair also turned while, his warm chocolate brown eyes became glacier cold blue.

Having grown out of the awkward gangly teenage stage, Damien, at the age of 21, was as comfortable in his own skin as any pilot from l'Armée de l'Air had any right to be and stood tall at 1.93 m with a lean muscular - the result of regular training exercises and physical conditioning compulsory for any army pilot. However, unlike most pilots, his body was also covered in odd scars and a couple of intriguing tattoos. Most of the time, nothing was visible thanks to clever coverings that mimicked Damien's skin tone and texture perfectly which meant less awkward questions needing answering. Otherwise, how does one go on about their life in peace after explaining that the scars come from ghost hunting – like that's not going to raise eyebrows anywhere but Amity Park – or that the burn on his right palm was a dragon mark? And then, there were his tattoos. The first one, a wolf's head on his left shoulder, was innocuous enough, however the second one on the inside of his right forearm was another story altogether. A pitch-black wolf with eyes the same colour as Damien's Shadow alter-ego wreathed in flames, ice crystals, binary code and flowers which veritably moved was impossible to hide, let alone explain.

Whilst enjoying the feel of the rented Mustang speeding on the empty road, Damien sneaked a glance at the young woman sitting in the passenger seat, a woman he was proud to call his wife, reminiscing with a slight smile how they met. Roxanne had left France to come spend a year in the US to try to create a relationship with her Jersey-born father and American stepbrother who were living in Amity Park at the time. Despite being homesick for her mother and brother (another one who had stayed in France), or perhaps because of it, Roxanne quickly became friends with Damien and, through him, Danny, Sam, and Tucker, although they were wary of her at first because of their secret. But after a few scrapes together and a memorable incident involving Skulker, Technus and a load of canned tomatoes (do not ask, all this narrator will say was that it was messy and that the smell of charred tomatoes clung to them for a whole week), they trusted her and came clean. In return for this show of trust, Roxanne shared a few of her own secrets. In particular, she explained that she had inherited through her mother's bloodline a gift called Domino's Blessing, giving her the ability to create and manipulate fire (during that explanation, Sam was heard muttering "That explains the charred tomatoes").

Although she hadn't grown much in height since her high school days, at 20 Roxanne had matured into a wonderful petite brunette with pixie shirt hair, with dark brown – almost black- expressive eyes framed with horn-rimmed clubmaster glasses and a charming smile. Like Damien, she also was a pilot, although for the Royal Air Force rather than its French counterpart, which meant that she was more than capable of defending herself. Many an unwanted suitor had been fooled by her small stature and slim build, only to discover that she could pack a mean punch. Similarly, to Damien, Roxanne wore coverings to mask the dragon mark on her right palm, as well as several markings on her body: vine-like ones that snaked up her arms, a stylised flame outline drawn on the whole of her back, a fairy behind her left ear, a mermaid behind her right one and a compass on her neck, just below her hairline. Like her best friend's (and husband) ghost hunting scars, those marks – the result of lasting injuries leaving scars – would be difficult to explain. Her tattoos were hidden for the same reason, although the soaring eagle holding a dahlia in its beak on the inside of her left wrist would be simple enough to explain. The other two, a fiery red hedgehog also wreathed in flowers, paw prints, ice crystals and binary code and glowing (literally) icy blue ectoplasm (the five friends had companion tattoos made with certain elements representing themselves) niched on the inside of her right forearm, and a massive piece sporting wolves nestled in the flame etched on her back would leave Roxanne scrambling to find satisfying answers for those non-initiated with the complexities of her family tree.

"Why are you smiling?" Roxanne asked, speaking in French, startling Damien from his thoughts.

"I was thinking about how we met and how much things have changed since we left for your Dad's Alma Mater in Scotland at the end of our sophomore year" Damien answered.

He continued: "I mean, the time warp we've experienced since coming back the holiday we took on your ancestral home planet has affected us quite dramatically, but it seems that while we were away the team had an incident with a "Reality Gauntlet" – whatever that is. At least, that's how Danny described it."

"What do you mean?" inquired Roxanne.

"Well, it would seem that we managed to finish our last two years of school, a six-month trip to Domino, basic training, becoming fully fledged pilots and creating our joint air squad in the space of a year and a half and, apart from us, Danny, Sam, or Tucker no one is batting an eyelid."

"That is strange. Did Danny give you any more details about this incident he was talking about?"

"No, unfortunately. Even with Tucker triple checking and even making their all their tech, Danny's afraid all of his conversations are being listened to."

"The GiW overstepping the bounds of their authority again?"

"Something like that Chérie. He could probably also be worried about his mother eavesdropping;" Damien said with feeling.

"Has Danny's relationship with Madeleine Fenton deteriorated that much?"

Damien's terse answering nod only served to mark how much of an understatement that was.

A short silence settled comfortably between them, content to just be together.

"I worry about Danny, Chérie…"

"Why Darling?"

"I don't know, just a hunch. Neither Danny or Tucker are being very forthcoming about anything, what with the GiW bugging them and Mrs Fenton, but… snippets here and there, an off comment now and again…" Damien tapered off.

"Is that why you suggested we go to Amity Park? To be able to make sure the three of them are OK?"

"Four of them. And yes." Damien corrected

"Beg your pardon?"

"Four of them" Damien repeated. "Danny, Tucker, Sam and Valerie."

"Valerie Gray?"

"Oui, her."

"When did she become part of the Team?"

"Sometime during their Junior year. Possibly as early as September. Definitely by Christmas. She and Tucker are dating. He's over the moon."

"And you're telling me this only now?" huffed Roxanne, slightly annoyed about not being in the know. "She'll be good for Tucker though. Get his nose out of his latest PDA…"

"Désolé chérie, they only told me a couple of days ago. It was the longest conversation I've had with them in months. I think they were in the GZ, so they were less worried about people listening in. Danny even talked about Danielle which he almost never does otherwise. And besides, we hadn't seen your brother in years, I didn't want to detract you from it."

"Hmmm, mouais… You're off the hook … this time."

Roxanne ended her statement by leaning over to give Damien a kiss on the cheek, showing him there were no hard feelings. He flashed her a quick grin in return. Roxanne then proceeded to very nearly unhinge her jaw yawing.

"Pardon me", she said.

"Chérie, what time did you come up to bed last night. You seem tired all of a sudden."

"Rather late, I admit. I spent a couple of hours talking with Hadrian about his schooling. Dad wants him to go to our school in Scotland, whereas Hadrian and his mum would rather he went to its sister one in Massachusetts. It's closer to home for him and won't be such a culture shock on top of everything else."

"I had a culture shock" Damien chuckled

"Most likely, but you weren't alone. He will be. Boarding school in the same country would be daunting enough for any eleven-year-old. And after the war, our surname is rather well known in the UK. I'd rather he do without the pointing and staring."

Left unsaid was how much Roxanne had suffered from that kind of behaviour during their schooling.

"So, what will he do?" Damien asked.

"I've suggested he do the first five years here in the USA, sit his exams and then see if he would like to spend his last two years in the UK."

"Best of both worlds idea?"

"Something like that. I told him I'd, hopefully, make Dad see reason. It's not as if he'll be near Hadrian anyway, seeing as he lives in Mauritius now.", said Roxanne, stifling another yawn.

"Sleep Chérie. We have a couple of hours still before we arrive" Damien admonished.

And with that, Roxanne napped the rest of the drive to Amity Park, finally waking up just as Damien turned into Casper High's car park.