I am so sorry for the long wait! I didn't realize that cross country, homework, and work would take up so much of my time. I am halfway done with the last chapter right now, but I never get a chance to type them, which is why you guys had such a long wait. Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews. Oh, and special thanks to Griffinkhan for pointing out my mistake. I'll be editing that part soon, so if you had a question about it feel free to look through the previous chapter again.

Well, because of the long wait I'm sure you are all impatient to get to Chapter 10: Unraveling the Folklore.

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It was close to two hours later when Fenton groaned and rolled over onto his back. Raising one hand wearily to his forehead without opening his eyes, he moaned, "I hate it when this happens. Note to self: Never use Ghostly Wail ever again."

Well, at least he was acting normally…

Danny opened his eyes, sat up, and managed to scoot over to the wall and lean against it, immediately closing this eyes again. The boy was obviously still exhausted.

Come to think of it, Dash had often heard of Phantom being involved in ghost fights around 2:00 AM, which really explained why Danny was constantly falling asleep in class.

The frequent ghost attacks also accounted for why he was always late for class, or ran out in the middle of them, sometimes missing them entirely. And why he was always appearing in strange places at strange times, running around corners without paying attention and bumping into people.

Dash had always just attributed it to him being weird or trying to make trouble and attract attention. Now that he knew the truth all the pieces were falling into place. It was a wonder he hadn't seen it before. Of course, why would he? Nobody had ever dreamed that a being such as this could exist, and those who thought it was possible had no idea how it would actually happen.

This explained so much. How Danny was able to beat him up so easily earlier, how he always seemed confident and assured of himself, sometimes even cocky, during fights. How he had told that strange Danny Phantom earlier… wait a minute, what was all that about?

Getting Danny's attention, he decided to ask directly. "What was with you and that ghost in the beginning that looked kind of like you?"

Fenton's eyes opened, and the quarterback was instantly captivated by the intense pain ad self-hatred he saw in them. A humorless chuckle escaped the boy's lips. "Would you believe me if I told you that it was an evil version of my future self from an alternate timeline?"

Dash blinked, and Danny looked away, staring at the floor with a deep haunted look invading his sky blue eyes.

"How'd that happen?" Dash couldn't resist asking. Danny winced, and Dash was immediately sorry he had.

In a strained monotone, Fenton told him, "I cheated on the C.A.T.'s. Lancer called my parents and told them to meet him at the Nasty Burger. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz came to warn us that the sauce was getting overheated. They were all standing right next to the building when it exploded."

Danny closed his eyes and swallowed past the lump in his throat, then continued. "I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I went to one of my parent's old friends from college. I asked him to rip out my ghost half to get rid of my human emotions. My ghost half ripped out his; I didn't think of what would happen when the two halves came together to make a whole."

He had given a nearly identical explanation to Sam, Tucker, and Jazz after his experiences in the future.

Dash had, unfortunately, picked up on the part of the story that Danny had hoped he wouldn't. "Wait, so you ripped out someone else's ghost half- which, by the way, sounds totally gross." Danny smirked. "Does that mean there are other people like you?"

The smirk faded and Danny sighed as he stood and began ambling slowly down the hall. "Only two others. The guy I just mentioned got his powers from an accident in college. He thinks my dad ruined his life and cost him his only chance at my mom. Now he's trying to kill him and marry her, and make me his evil apprentice or something like that."

Dash gave him a look that said plainly that he was very wierded out. Then he asked who the other was.

"A failed cloning attempt by the fruit loop. She starts melting into goop every time she uses her powers, though."

Dash paused for a second. "Hold on, she? Your clone is a girl?"

Danny glared at him, "Hey, I said she was a failed cloning attempt!" Then he commented wryly, "After all this I can't believe I almost went steady with a ghost hunter."

Dash stopped short, blinking. "Sam's a ghost hunter?"

Danny's jaw dropped. "No moron, I'm talking about Val-" he stopped short, realizing that he probably shouldn't tell Dash who she was, but it was too late.

"Valerie? But I've never seen her hunting ghosts!"

Danny sighed, "That's because she's got a mask, a jet sled, and a huge grudge against ghosts, mostly me." He winced. "I keep telling her that the ghost dog was the reason her dad lost his job, and that I was trying to stop it, but she never listens."

Dash blinked in disbelief… again. "But if she was broke, where'd she get the weapons and stuff?"

Danny was just about to tell the jock that he had no idea when he was cut off by a silky smooth and all-too-familiar voice. "I provided them. Nice to see you again, Daniel."

The boy turned to the newcomer, eyes narrowed and flashing green as he growled, "Vlad."

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Okay, because you guys are all so fabulous, I now have 180 reviews and two chapters to go, plus the epilogue! My goal is to get at least 20 reviews for each chapter, hopefully making it to 250 by the time this is over.

Let me know what you think, if I had any glaring mistakes, anything like that. You peeps are wonderful!