Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Danny Phantom.

Note (7/4/2020): Happy 4th of July everyone! And to "Dp-Marvel94" yeah what Danny's feeling is a pretty natural response to reminders of old trauma or scary memories or feelings and sometimes you have to let off a little steam as a stress reliever and just work through it, for his own sake Danny needs to learn that for himself and not be too hard on himself since he has actually been doing pretty well all things considered! Anywho, with that out of the way, on with the next chapter!

Chapter 6: Where One Thing Ends Another Begins

Vlad's POV

Convincing Jasmine to return home once I arrived was no easy task seeing as the very thing we were both concerned about happening in my absence had come to pass when Daniel had a momentary relapse while left to his own devices. And frankly, when she puts her mind to it she can often be just as stubborn and willful as the rest of the Fenton's. But to be fair though I doubt either of us expected something so unorthodox to happen such as an ambulance being called for a totally unrelated incident happening inside the hotel during a brief power outage to set his emotions spiraling out of control like this.

Eventually, I was able to convince her to let me take care of this unfortunate situation and so, reluctantly, Jasmine finally gave in and began making her way back home after giving her brother one last hug. As for Daniel, he hardly responded to her embrace, and the moment she left he practically curled in on himself, clutching fistfuls of raven black hair and gritting his teeth as he inhaled short ragged breaths in a futile attempt to control the whirlwind of emotions no doubt swirling in his head. It didn't take a therapist to see Daniel was tormenting himself because he felt ashamed of asking his sister for help during his moment of weakness; ashamed of the intense fear he still felt when reminded of Dan in any way shape or form.

And honestly, I can understand why Daniel would feel that way since those are the same feelings that allowed Dan to take control of him and caused all the current problems in Amity Park. In Daniel's mind, even this small unexpected relapse of his is just another failure to add to the list with potentially devastating consequences. That's why my little badger currently seems incapable of forgiving himself for feeling this way...

But, if there's one thing I've learned though in all this, its that forgiveness can drastically change your entire outlook on life whether it is allowing yourself to forgive someone else, or being forgiven yourself. I know the sentiment is ironic, coming from me, however that doesn't change the fact that Daniel was now about to receive the same lesson he taught me. The lesson about first forgiving myself before anyone else.

"I'm such an idiot, I can't seem to do anything right even when it's supposed to be over now!" Daniel yelled and I could feel his ghost energy spike in response even though he was still clearly in human form.

"Oh come now Daniel, did you really expect this to be easy?" I smiled with a slight teasing tone in my voice since I was hoping I would be able to cheer him up with a little of our usual banter splashed with the hint of a challenge given his usual competitiveness.

"I've told you time and time again how strong you are so how much longer is it going to take for you to believe me? Because the way I see it Daniel-" placing a supportive hand on the back of his neck and between his shoulders I continued, "-considering the fact that you WERE doing just fine for the past few hours leading up to this unfortunate incident is very reassuring believe it or not. I expected to get a worried call from you or your sister LONG before now and planned to drop everything to check up on you personally. So given the fact that I didn't receive any calls until I was already on my way back means you're doing remarkably well. So there's no need to be so hard on yourself, little badger."

"Yeah right..." Daniel scoffed bitterly but in spite of this, I did feel the slightest bit of tension leave his shoulders when I said this and continued to gently massage his neck.

"You're literally just saying that to make me feel better, but it doesn't. You say I'm strong but if that's true why did I have a panic attack from the red glow of sirens of all things? Even when my parent's ghost alarms went off with the same sound I never freaked out this badly. And it's not like seeing YOUR red eyes in ghost form makes me nervous so why did I..." he trailed off, not sure how to put his feelings into words.

"Simple. As you yourself pointed out when the power went out and all you mentally registered was the red glow of the sirens while alone in your bedroom it triggered a traumatic memory for you which shouldn't come as a surprise sadly," I replied, tightening my grip on his neck and shoulders slightly I admitted, "When I was sent to the hospital after the accident with your parents portal I displayed similar symptoms of PTSD whenever I was exposed to green light as it reminded me of the swirling vortex of a ghost portal before it quite literally blew up in my face. It took me years to overcome it but with you, it shouldn't take nearly that long. Do you know why?"

He didn't reply right away, but with a timid side glance Daniel eventually asked, "Why...?"

"Because dear boy, you are not alone in this like I was," I smiled affectionately, dropping my hand to pull him into an awkward hug of my own. "A great man named Nelson Mandela once said that 'I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.' And you've already conquered your greatest fear in person when we defeated Dan through our combined efforts. I know it troubles you not to have your own proof that he's gone but I can assure you, Daniel, he will never harm you nor anyone else in your life again so there is nothing left to fear and these feeling WILL fade with time. I promise."

After that we spent the better part of the evening talking and as time went on with a few choice words I eventually convinced Daniel to join me for dinner as planned. Although, I did make a few slight adjustments to the venue. For one thing, I canceled our reservation at the restaurant I was originally going to bring him to, and instead, we graced a small bakery that was about to close with our business and ate our food in silence floating under the stars.

It was far enough away from Amity Park itself not to pose a risk of being seen and since I was with him and we were both in ghost form it would be a simple matter of teleporting away if for whatever reason a ghost appeared, which I highly doubt anyway. In a strange way, I suppose I have the Fright Knight to thank for his sound advice about Daniel's unease whenever he feels confined for too long. And I admit that was a bit of an oversight on my part when I thoughtlessly asked Daniel to stay inside the hotel for hours on end today...

I'm getting better at knowing when to leave Daniel alone and when it's best to keep a close eye on him, but at times, it's still all too easy for me to forget that Daniel desperately needs to regain some normalcy in his life again. Especially now that he can walk down the streets freely and I have to trust him not to be reckless using his ghost-half right now. With that in mind, in some regards, I realize I'm just as guilty as the rest of his family when it comes to being a bit overprotective of Daniel now that we have come full circle and know exactly how he feels about himself and what he's been through.

I wanted nothing more than to give Daniel his freedom to go out in public back, to mingle with others his own age again, but realistically I also didn't want to risk someone he passed by dredging up the past knowing Danny Fenton was once considered a missing person. Because regardless of whether the questions were innocently curious or morbidly so considering the trauma of it all or not they could potentially bring back bad memories for him in either case.

And as odd as this may sound I also didn't want to risk having a stray ghost attack him even if Daniel was being careful about keeping his distance from Amity Park if I did let him use his powers because if any nearby civilians saw him even just flying past a building it could ultimately undo all our hard work we've put into getting to this point so he can leave it all behind in their good graces. And as I said, if someone DID see him fighting ghosts again they would begin spreading the word all over town that their resident town hero was alive and well so to speak. And worse, they would assume he was resuming the whole 'ghost-fighting-hero' thing prematurely before I could set up someone else to take on the mantel instead.

So as hard as this may be for him to believe, no, I'm not trying to treat Daniel himself like he's delicate or broken, but sadly, the situation surrounding him still IS and this time I am the one who can't afford to make any mistakes. Because if I do, HE will be the one who pays dearly for them. Since I wasn't about to let that happen, I made sure to reassure Daniel that come what may I will always be there for him from now on...

He is not alone.

And Daniel will NEVER be alone as long as I'm here.

"Are you feeling better now Daniel?" I asked when I noticed the boy dozing off slightly.

"Mmmhmm," he muttered, stifling a yawn and sitting up despite the fact that we were still floating in mid-air before adding hastily, "Sorry, that wasn't really much of an answer, was it...?"

Then Daniel sighed heavily before elaborating in a somber tone, "But yeah, I guess feel do feel a little better and...I'm sorry. I know you're right but in the heat of the moment I felt so ashamed of myself, you know what I mean? It's like I was letting myself fall apart all over again and getting easily overwhelmed over nothing just like before and I hated myself for it."

"It's just so...frustrating that I STILL feel that way even though Dan is really gone," Daniel growled running an agitated hand through his snow-white hair as he admitted, "In my head I KNOW he's gone, but it's like deep down there's a part of me that still refuses to accept it. I don't know why I feel that way either which frustrates me even more! How much longer am I going to feel this way, Vlad? Will I ever stop feeling like his shadow is still there, watching me, waiting for me to let him drag me back in?"

Sitting up as well and crossing my legs I nodded to myself mostly before explaining casually, "As I said, Daniel, it will take some time before either of us will be able to fully unwind and begin the healing process. Until then you'll continue feeling those lingering doubts. But eventually, they too will inevitably become a thing of the past. Even so, as of right now I'm sure you'll be happy to know everything is progressing smoothly so we may actually be able to leave Amity Park ahead of schedule which is but the first step. There's one more matter I'd like to take care of though and I could use your help with it actually. Maybe that will help keep your mind off of what happened tonight."

He blinked, looking slightly more alert but only in that I had his full attention and then Daniel joked humorlessly, "Really? What could you possibly need MY help with Vlad? If you need ectoplasmic samples I'm afraid I'll have pass on any ghostly bounty hunting even for old times sake thanks!"

When I didn't respond to that right away and simply gave him a meaningful look, it finally occurred to him that- "Wait, is this about Valerie again? Did she say something to you?"

Shaking my head I explained, "Quite the opposite actually. You see now that our secret has come to light for both of them as well as your parents it has made me...reevaluate a few of my previous ventures and I've begun looking at many of them from a new perspective. To put it simply, I'm trying to lead your parents by example by turning some of the things that I once used against you to better use. But, there's also something else. I'll tell you the details tomorrow but essentially it's about Valerie's battle suit and concerning whether or not she wishes to continue ghost hunting herself."

"Oh...that..." Daniel sighed, sounding worried for a moment when I ignored this and continued.

"It's not as bad as you think I assure you," I explained calmly to allay his concerns. "I've already made it clear that I will respect her wishes either way since I have other plans in place to make sure you won't have to worry about Amity Park's safety anymore. Because my first priority is to make sure you will be able to finally be able to focus on living out your own life. There are, however, a few concerns I would like to address before I can safely say everything is settled and we can return home."

Sounding slightly impressed I added offhandedly, "At least they seem to have accepted what I told them about the future version of your friend Valerie you met in Dan's timeline who appears to have been a very capable woman. So who knows, maybe their part in history may repeat itself afterall and I don't think that's a bad thing, do you little badger?"

Daniel surprised me when he laughed nervously and blushed a little when he commented, "Oh yeah, Valerie really wasn't messing around when she thought I was just another of Dan's tricks. She totally caught me in an anti-ghost net without even breaking a sweat! Thankfully Sam and Tucker were there to stop her from wasting me too but later on, when Dan attacked us, I saved her and Valerie actually admitted she used o think I was cute 'back then.' Can you believe it...?"

A bit more sadly though Daniel added, "You know, it's kind of a shame. Like I know this is for the best but I'm going to miss hunting ghosts in a weird way and it would have been cool to see if Valerie and I COULD have worked together as a team. I just hope if she does decide to keep doing it it'll be her decision and not because she wants to make it up to me for when you tricked her into becoming my enemy using some bad blood between us. I'm glad you can see it too, in your own way, and not to brag or anything but I still think Valerie is pretty awesome in her own right."

"Indeed she is," I mused thoughtfully."I already told her and her father this earlier but even though I have no intention of apologizing for my past actions Valerie really has exceeded my expectations of her...

"At first, she was merely a pawn to keep you on your toes and to observe you, but now Valerie has come into her own and I believe I have stumbled upon a rare talent indeed. It's nothing close to the potential I see in YOU, Daniel, however seeing as its not so simple a task for just anyone to impress me that's how I know it would be a shame to waste it. Only now, because of you, I too want her to use the gifts she's been given for the right reason. That reason being carving a new future for herself as well."