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

Note (8/3/2020): I was feeling inspired so this chapter ended up a little longer than planned but I'm sure you guys don't mind because that means there's more story to enjoy. I also remembered another detail from 'Nowhere To Run' I thought would be really fun to add in this chapter so we could see a bit more of Valerie's girlish side. You'll see what I mean near the end of the chapter. Also, I'm going to wait a bit before updating again so please enjoy this chapter until I start working on the next one!

Chapter 11: The Reveal

(Chapter inspired by A Light To Call Home by Julia Brennan)

Danielle's POV

Breathing heavily I ducked into a nearby alleyway to catch my breath and held a hand to my chest since my lungs felt like they were on fire from all that running. Before I did anything else I needed to calm down, but still that was a really close call! Someone almost saw me use my ghost powers and the last thing I need right now is to cause a scene and draw too much attention to myself.

Just how much longer am I going to have to live like this!? I thought angrily before forcing myself to start moving again since I wasn't out of the woods just yet...

As if avoiding the ghosts and little spy robots Vlad has sent after me wasn't hard enough, now I have these random government jerk-wads after me and honestly I have no idea why. It's hard to explain but, when I was crea- um, I mean born- I was given a ton of information about Danny and most of his enemies in advance in case I needed to help him fight them to gain his trust. Actually, I guess you can't really call it 'information' when its more like I had all of these...vague feelings or this sense of attachment about certain things and people that are always in the back of my mind that were only put there to help push me in the right direction so I'd know exactly how to act around Danny.

Back then I was totally loyal to Vlad first above everything else so I didn't need those 'imprints' or whatever like the other clones to obey him because I already loved him like a father and wanted to make him proud. Or at least I used to. So anyway, back to what I was talking about earlier, basically what I'm trying to say is that while I do know a lot about Danny I don't know what these government agents want with me since I don't have copies of his actual memories inside my head or anything; I just know a lot of the basic stuff about him and my ghost powers in general that Vlad taught me...

As for these agent guys who've been chasing me the past few months, thankfully they haven't spotted me up close yet but its only a matter of time before they do if I'm not careful. At first I wasn't sure if Vlad tricked them into hunting me down or if they were other enemies of Danny's I was being mistaken for that I didn't know about until I overheard them talking while I was hiding and one of them said that they have orders to capture 'Danny Phantom.' But since Danny and I have the exact same name it was impossible to tell which one of us they were actually after until they said 'he' had to be around here somewhere the last time they tracked me down.

Seriously now that I'm out here on my own I really wish Vlad would have given me a different name. Then again, I'm actually the only clone that ever really HAD a name so I should probably count myself lucky he gave me one at all. Vlad introduced me to the other clones once as soon as I was ready so I knew how to tell their energy apart from other ghosts, but since they were considered mindless tools Vlad told me not to feel bad if I had to destroy them to win Danny's trust since he could always create new ones until Vlad got what he wanted.

Looking back on everything that happened that day I can't believe I was such an idiot! I should have seen what a heartless person Vlad is from the start since he only cares about himself and the rest of us are expendable. To be honest I still have nightmares about what happened to the other clones and almost happened to me when Vlad told me to overshadow Danny knowing that the last clone who did that couldn't handle it and melted away. And you know, I feel really bad for them because unlike me they never knew what it was like for someone to love them and treat them like family, or pretend to at least. I used to believe Vlad loved me and I was happy that he treated me like I was special and didn't talk down to me as much as the other clones since he made sure I was more self-aware than the rest of them and could pretty much fend for myself for the most part.

But to Vlad, all of us except for his perfect clone he hid even from me were considered nothing but well-trained animals expected to blindly obey his every order without question. And the rest of them did exactly that. And in the end, all of the clones melted into a puddle of ectoplasm before even the last one, Vlad's 'perfect' son, ever got the chance to become anything more than just one of Vlad's twisted experiments like me.

After all, my only real purpose in life was to help Vlad trick Danny so he could kidnap him and take a mid-morph sample from him to complete Vlad's perfect clone. But instead of destroying me too when I revealed that I was actually working for Vlad, Danny saved me by exposing Vlad's lies. He showed me Vlad's true colors and if it wasn't for him I'd also be nothing but a puddle of ectoplasm right now...

It's been almost six months since I last saw Danny and dramatically flew off into the sunset after we beat Vlad together. And ok sure, I wasn't stupid enough to think Vlad wouldn't come after me eventually, but I hate living in fear and being trapped in this sick game of cat and mouse. And yep, you can probably guess who the mouse is.

What I don't get is why these government agents all decked out in white are after Danny too. What did he ever do to them? And what do they want with Danny for so badly that they would waste all this time hunting him down anyway? Or me I guess since they've mistaken me for him.

I figure the only reason they're after me is because I probably have the same type of ghost energy readings as Danny since I'm his clone, which is bad news either way. That's part of the reason why I'm trying to make my way back to Danny as fast as I can, I need to warn him about this. I just hope I'm not leading these creeps straight to him...

That's not the only reason I need to find Danny though because the truth is that I desperately need his help. There's something seriously wrong with me and I'm still really unstable when I transform into my ghost-half. And unlike before when I could just stay in human form for the most part to prevent most of these problems, it doesn't matter anymore whether I'm human or ghost because no matter how hard I try to conserve my strength I keep getting weaker whenever I overuse my ghost powers. Not only that but whenever I have to stay human form for too long I get these weird...ghost energy withdrawals? Is that what its called?

In fact, just a few weeks ago I had a really bad episode and ended up dealing with this horrible skull-splitting headache that just refused to go away. And when it finally went away, I noticed something strange had happened to my hair when I was walking past a window the next day and trying my best to blend into the crowd after um 'borrowing' some new clothes since the ones I've been wearing were getting way too small for me. I couldn't stop myself from staring at the small section of hair that had turned completely white for some reason and after that, whenever I changed into my ghost form I noticed it was still there but automatically switched to black like the rest of my hair normally is in human form just like Danny's.

I still don't really know if this weird mutation or whatever has anything to do with my headache from that day but one thing's for sure; whatever is happening to me is only going to get worse. But if anyone can help me, I know Danny will. And even if he doesn't realize it yet, Danny needs my help too to make sure these guys in white don't find him first...

Valerie's POV

Danny wasn't kidding about easy it was for him to keep Vlad's strawberry malt cool with his ice powers since I could feel how chilly the air around his hands was while I sitting next to him in the back seat of the car even though he was trying to keep the cold feeling focused on only his hands. He kept apologizing for not having much control over it since it's been a while since Danny practiced using that power whenever he saw me shiver beside him, but honestly, his powers had nothing to do with it since I feel strange enough as it is. I didn't want to freak either of them out by telling them how uncomfortable and irritated I felt the longer I didn't have my battle suit which I'm not gonna lie is pretty unnerving.

It's not the same as feeling annoyed when someone ruins your favorite shirt, which is ironically what happened the day I first saw Danny in his ghost form, it's like I was dealing with separation anxiety or something. It's just a piece of clothing though, right? I mean, well besides this freaky telepathic thing I had going on with it which isn't exactly normal. I even asked Danny if he ever felt this way whenever he had to take off his hazmat suit to wash it and it made me feel like less of an idiot when he admitted that at least at first he used to feel weird without it too. But for him it was more because he felt like it was a really important part of his identity as Danny Phantom and since its what he was wearing during the accident it became part of him too just like my battle suit.

"I don't think its exactly the same though," Danny explained with a sheepish smile, "Another reason I really like my hazmat suit is because I made it mean something for myself and it wasn't just something my parents made for me since I was expected to take over the family business of ghost hunting. It's ironic that I pretty much did anyway but instead of shooting at them with ectoplasmic guns, I AM the gun. At least that's how Tucker puts it whenever I focus my energy into smaller energy beams..."

Looking down at his hands which were glowing with a faint hint of blue Danny continued warmly, "Anyways, I hope you'll be able to do that too Valerie. To take something someone else made and make it your own to give it new meaning. And I know you're doing this for your own reasons too but I can't tell you what a relief it is knowing you'll be here to keep Amity Park safe. Not only that but unlike me, you're not alone. You have your dad and my parents are going to be doing their best to help too. Then there's Tucker and Sam-"

"I saw them today actually," I interrupted with a small huff, "And I've been meaning to talk to you about that. I know you're just trying to help but next time I'd appreciate it if you talked to me first before asking your friends to stick their noses in my business. I'm still trying to get used to knowing your secret and realizing that I never really stopped bullying you like I thought I did. After all, it was basically my goal in life as the Red Huntress to make your afterlife miserable because I thought it's what you deserved after you ruined mine. At least now I know Sam has a reason for hating me so much, she's just worried about you."

Rolling his eyes Danny scoffed, "Oh come on, Sam doesn't hate you! Ok sure she might dislike you but that's different. She's a goth remember? Sam thinks she has to treat almost everyone she's not friends with like that! But once she gets to know you I'm sure you'll get along. I'm sure she wouldn't mind having another girl around or someone to complain to about Vlad..."

"That's not what she said," I shrugged and looked out the window, "When I told them I knew you asked them to keep an eye on me I believe her exact words were 'It's not like we have to be friends or anything, we just promised to help out if you decided to keep ghost hunting.' "

"Sam actually said that?" Danny asked, surprised.

I nodded without looking at him and replied, "Yep, so personally I don't think her attitude towards me is part of her goth thing at all. Besides, we're basically already sworn enemies for other reasons long before I found out about any of this so it doesn't really matter anymore. At least Tucker seems genuinely worried about me so I don't mind talking to him as much. And I really do appreciate you looking out for me Danny, I mean it so I know it doesn't sound like it but I'm not taking what you were trying to do for granted."

Danny opened his mouth to say something else when my dad told us we were there and we silently climbed out of the car. And all at once I felt my anxiety come back but I shoved it down and thought, Get a grip Valerie, it's not like Vlad's going to make me look like a cheap superhero knockoff. Besides as long as it works and stops making me zap everything I touch I'm happy. At least when I took the battle suit off it wasn't as bad, it just feels weird not to have it with me so I can activate it whenever a ghost-

"Aw crap, hey I'm gonna run up ahead so I'll meet you two inside!" Danny told us abruptly before sprinting inside. Well, that was weird, why would Danny suddenly run off like that unless...is there a ghost in the building?

"Dad, let's go. I think Danny sensed a ghost nearby," I frowned and I was about to go after Danny when my dad held me back and shook his head.

"It's probably just Vlad so don't panic just yet. We don't want to get back into the habit of jumping to conclusions," he said calmly, letting go of my shoulder. "And if there's a problem I'm sure they can handle it so let's head inside and find out if he's finished yet."

I groaned dramatically, "You know, it'd be easier just to admit that you want me to be normal a little teenager for a little bit longer before I go back to running off like that too and being all guns blazing against every ghost who messes with our town."

"Maybe," my dad smiled impishly before adding more seriously, "But really, I don't want to cause any problems when tensions are high enough as it is. We still need Vlad's help after all otherwise we'd have to see if Danny's parents could take a look at your suit instead which means we'd have to wait until Monday when they start working at Axion Labs. We're much better off leaving it to Vlad Masters before he takes Danny back to Wisconsin."

Danny's POV

Looks like I made it just in time before Vlad transformed because I knew I recognized that ghost signature from somewhere. I was shocked to see her here but it was nice to see a familiar face and I wanted to see who I was sensing first to avoid freaking out Valerie and her dad. I'm glad it was a false alarm though. Vlad frowned when he saw my reaction as soon as I phased through the door to catch them in the act, but Evelina just smiled at me in her human disguise and regarded me fondly.

"Vlad, what's Evelina Petrov doing here?" I blurted out once Vlad let his transformation rings fade and he turned to face me.

"I can explain my dear," she began in that familiar accent of hers, "Vladimir came to visit me and said he had a favor to ask of me. And when he explained the details of course I couldn't resist the chance to breath some new life into the damaged battle garment of this young lady he spoke of. It should save him a great deal of time fine-tuning the more...advanced portions of it but I'm sure she will look simply dashing in it. But alas, Vladimir insisted that I return home before she returns as she may not be as accepting of me as you are, Daniel."

"Oh, right," I blushed and glanced over at Vlad who got over his annoyance pretty fast and was smiling at me again.

"You'll be happy to know I'm nearly done with the adjustments so as soon as we re-calibrate Valerie's suit to the appropriate settings she should no longer run the risk of discharging access electrical energy so long as any damage the suit sustains is as severe as before. After all it also had to recreate her hoverboard from scratch if you remember correctly. I'll have to ask her to summon that as well once she tries on the new battle suit to make sure everything is functioning properly," Vlad added but I just stared blankly at him.

"Dude, you totally lost me when you used all those big technical terms. Translation please?" I asked and Vlad sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"It means I've successfully redirected the flow of energy through the suit so if all goes well it's essentially isolated so it won't shock her even if the battle suit does eventually get severely damaged again," Vlad explained casually before adding a little more smugly, "I've also added an ecto-filtration device to it that's similar to the one in your phone and most of my other technology so Technus shouldn't be able to control any of her weapons or the battle suit itself with his powers again.

"The last thing we have to do before we can finally call it a night is to make sure the suit is fully synced to Valerie's brainwaves again so that it will only work for her when she uses any part of the suit. And if someone tries to hack into the system it will do what I've programmed everything else to do and will infect the hacker's devices with a virus that will delete all relating data rather than installing a self-destruct function. I had a feeling that might put some of your minds at ease about the changes I've made to it. And besides, the least I can do is make sure Valerie looks the part of a representative of Axion Labs as the first non-official member of our ghost fighting team," Vlad smirked before winking slyly at Evelina just as Valerie and her dad finally walked into the lab.

I stiffened when Valerie's jaw dropped as soon as she saw Evelina and sputtered, "Is that...Estella Lilov?!"

"Who?" I asked in confusion, forgetting what Vlad told me about Evelina having a bunch of aliases in her human disguise as a fashion designer over the centuries.

"Who? What do you mean who?! This is only the most amazing clothing designer in the freaking world! Paulina, Star, and I used to get outfits from her teen fashion line ALL the time," Valerie exclaimed, looking like the old her that was disgusted by my stupidity and looked down on me. Wow, she must uh...really be a fan of Evelina's work.

Her eyes crinkling with amusement Evelina smiled and said, "I'm pleased to see that you're a fan of my work, darling. And while it is not what I normally find myself working on I sincerely hope you will appreciate wearing the custom redesign of your costume Vladimir commissioned. It is now one of a kind in all the known world and I'm sure you will look lovely."

"Wait, Vlad asked you to- but why? I thought-" Valerie gaped slack-jawed at Vlad while conflicted between still wanting to give him a dirty look and hugging him for letting her meet someone famous that she admired.

"Oh come now, as I told Daniel just a moment ago if you are going to be representing Axion Labs I cannot have you look like some cheap superhero from a child's play. And as it so happens Estella and I are old acquaintances and I often visit her whenever I'm in need of a new custom-fit suit. It's a luxury that normally only someone like me could afford but now you have the honor of wearing something she helped me restore personally," Vlad smirked.

Turning to Evelina though and offering his arm, Vlad told us, "Now if you'll excuse me I should escort Miss Lilov out and I'll return in just a moment to reveal the finished product and we'll make the last few adjustments before retiring for the evening as well."

"It was lovely to meet you, Valerie," Evelina smiled after graciously taking Vlad's arm. "Do take care..."

"S-sure! It was nice meeting you too!" Valerie beamed and followed them out the door, waving excitedly. As soon as they were out of sight she turned to me and gushed, "Oh my GOD, wait til I tell Star about this! She's never going to believe I met THE Estella Lilov!"

"That's Vlad for you, he just loves showing off," I snickered after getting over the shock of her unexpected visit. But even though Valerie had no idea Evelina is actually a ghost, it was nice to see her so excited about something.

I guess not even her hatred of Vlad could overshadow that feeling...

Once Vlad finished 'escorting' Evelina back home the same way he probably brought her here he immediately went straight back to business after handing Valerie the repaired battle suit and instructed, "The rest of your uniform is waiting for you in the dressing room so as soon as you've changed and made sure everything fits properly we'll need to run a few tests to make sure everything is in order and calibrate it so that it will only work for you. After Estella salvaged as much of the original outfit as she could I installed an ecto-filtration device so that Technus won't be able to override it again with his Technopathy powers which allows him to control, upgrade, or transform any form of technology to suit his needs, no pun intended.

"And as I explained to Daniel I've also insulated the inner lining of it so that if your battle suit is ever this badly damaged again it won't be able to shock you as easily. The added protection should also reduce the chances of any built-up electrical energy you create discharging from your hands like it did earlier this afternoon at Casper High. Not to mention the mesh should help protect you from most minor injuries."

Nodding, Valerie stepped back into the dressing room and while we were waiting I handed Vlad his strawberry malt which was still cold thanks to my ice powers. I just hoped it wasn't too cold but I'll admit I felt a lot better after releasing some of my own pent up energy from my core. And that's actually a really good sign because it means I'm pretty much fully recovered at least physically, so once this is all over I could really use the distraction of working out again. It's one of the things I miss about living with Vlad, not to mention I missed the quiet and wondered how Maddie-the-cat was doing. Although to be fair I'm sure Vlad had precautions in place to make sure she was taken care of if he ever ended up away from home longer than expected...

And what happened with Dan definitely counts.

"Hey Vlad, is it weird that even though I've known you this long I still forget how many connections you have?" I asked to break the silence while Valerie's dad was double-checking the status report of all the changes Vlad made to her battle suit and the ones he was planning to finish up once she came out of the dressing room.

Resting the edge of his cup against his chin while leaning back against the wall next to me, Vlad chuckled, "Not at all Daniel, we still have a lot to learn about one another. The same could be said of Valerie as well since I genuinely had no idea she was even remotely aware of someone as discerning in the fashion industry as Estella Lilov."

"Neither did I but I guess it makes sense because Valerie used to just be another snobby rich kid at school before we got to know each other," I smiled, "It was nice to see her look excited about meeting her since she's either been super tense or irritated around you. I hope this turns out to be a good way to crack the ice a little so to speak."

"Indeed," Vlad nodded, taking another drink of his malt.

It wasn't too much longer before Valerie finally came out of the dressing room and wow...she looked incredible! Evelina really outdid herself and I couldn't help but blush a little when I thought how hot Valerie looked right now. This new design was like the perfect blend of Valerie's old suit and the upgraded one Technus gave her before; it was a standard red one-piece outfit with a turtleneck, thin V-shaped gaps in the fabric on her shoulders with these long fingerless sleeve-gloves or something, the one-piece itself cut off short around her upper thigh and below that her legs were mostly covered up with these long burgundy colored boots...

At first glance, I could still tell parts of it were from her previous suit because the brighter red parts matched where some of the wire patterns were before on her arms, legs, waist, and chest like that distinct triangle one. And finally, to complete the look there were crisscrossing black utility belts across her chest too and a brand new control console thing on her right forearm, I can't think of the technical term for it right now though honestly. Either way, what made Valerie look even cooler was that she wasn't wearing a helmet and had her hair tied back, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have one or at least some sort of high tech visor to protect her eyes during flight. At least I hope so.

"Valerie, you look incredible..." I finally managed to tell her and she nodded, twisting her hips and arms around a bit to stretch see how well the fabric moved.

"Thanks Danny, and yeah surprisingly this feels really comfortable now. It's a bummer we couldn't save more of the old suit since I wasn't expected the legs to cut off so short but I'm not complaining," then Valerie turned to Vlad and asked bluntly, "So, what're we supposed to do next?"

Raising an eyebrow at her Vlad clicked his tongue and chided, "What, not even a thank you? Such terrible manners. I thought your father taught you better than that."

"I'll thank you when I know it works Plasmius," Valerie replied, flexing her fingers. "At least we know Estella is a genius when it comes to designing clothes because not only do I look awesome but I feel awesome, is that weird or what? It's like...now that the suit is pretty much fixed now I feel better too. I didn't shock myself on the doorknob or anything when I left the dressing room this time."

I sighed heavily because I figured that's probably the closest Vlad is going to get to a thank you tonight from Valerie since she's still skeptical about his intentions and we're all really tired. I already knew she was in good hands even if she wasn't so sure if that herself so I told Vlad I was going to go wait in his office until they were done to call Sam and Tucker and let them know Valerie is ok...

I saw a missed message from Tucker earlier telling me he was really worried about her and asked to let them know what was going on. I figured I could at least tell them that much and maybe ask Sam why she was still so against Valerie even though she's basically one of us now that she knows my secret. Anyways, Vlad agreed to let me wait in his office as long as I didn't leave the building and then told me I was welcome to rest on the couch over in the lounge room next door once I finished calling my friends and I nodded because yeah, I'm totally wiped out from all the weirdness and drama today. But at least everything is finally falling into place and I feel like we've made a lot of progress.

Every step forward we take is a step closer to creating a better future for ourselves and soon I'll finally be able put the problems of the past and my old fears behind me for good so I can focus on figuring out what I want to do with the rest of my life or at the very least make an effort to graduate high school in one that will be free of ghosts. And Valerie, she's moving forward too and I'm really proud of her. This is a big step for her and the best part is, since Vlad's forming a special ghost fighting team if Valerie ever decides this isn't what she wants she always has that option.

Up until now, I didn't have a choice because I was the only one who could protect Amity Park and everyone in it. So I guess Valerie's dad has a point, it's ok for me to do what's best for me too and to let others handle their own problems. But at least with this last thing it's something I've felt guilty about for a long time and now I don't have to worry anymore. Valerie chose to keep doing this and like I said she can duck out at any time...

As for me, my next step was to say goodbye to Amity Park for now to start a new life with Vlad. We earned this. And most of all we CHOSE this. My friends and family didn't die, Vlad isn't going to rip out my ghost-half, and I'm not drowning in misery like the version of me that became Dan. Sure it's going to take me some time to get over the nightmares and used to having a choice in life but right now I'm just happy to be alive and Vlad seems happy too.

That's all I really need to know to remind me that we're still on the right track.