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

Note (9/13/2020): Just real quick, thanks for the reviews guys! And sorry in advance if this chapter gets kinda boring or really heavy with some topics, I'm basically just catching Vlad up to speed on the whole story from start to finish about Dan in this notebook from Danny's perspective so that Clockwork won't need to rehash everything himself. As you guys already know, he's got his own test laid out for Vlad too but Clockwork isn't going to outright tell Vlad anything about what's going on.

Oh no, Clockwork's only going to give him a few hints about the path to his ideal future being carved by confronting ALL of the sins of his dark past which he obviously isn't gonna very happy about since Vlad thinks he's done plenty of that already. But nope! Clockwork's not gonna let you settle for just 'doing enough' to justify getting everything you want in life Vladdy, you're still going to have to put in the work buddy!

Chapter 24: And How Does That Make You Feel?

Vlad's POV

The first entry in Daniel's notebook is roughly what I expected it to be. And thankfully he already explained that this was originally meant to be a hidden record of all his information on Dan so he would be prepared if his future self ever escaped from that thermos looking for a rematch. But unfortunately, there were other forces at work which gave Dan an unfair advantage over him that he never considered while preparing for that eventuality...

Not that it matters anymore now that that fiend has been dealt a fatal blow by my hand. Still, I can understand why the contents of this notebook steadily began to change once Daniel realized what Dan put him through the first time was too personal to share even with his sister and two best friends. He desperately needed someone to confide in that actually understood him, and since I was not that person yet all Daniel had was this flimsy little book where the first page read as follows:

'I know this is going to sound stupid since I won in the end, but when Jazz I got home after everything that happened it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks just how dangerously close I actually came to getting everyone I care about killed. Sure I've been in a few tight spots before, but nothing like this. I've never felt so powerless before even when I wasn't very good at fighting ghosts yet. Seriously if it wasn't for Jazz and that future version of Vlad, not to mention Clockwork saving everyone at the last minute, I would have lost everything...

That's why I have to get stronger. I can't come that close to losing to such a powerful ghost ever again because it's my friends, family, everyone here in Amity Park, AND the world who will pay the price if I fail again. Great, guess that's one more thing to stress out about. And if Dan ever DOES break free, I have to be ready for him this time. But for now, at least he's trapped and Dan can't get to me since Clockwork brought the thermos to his tower in the Ghost Zone for safekeeping. Still, now that I'm alone I can't sleep because I keep reliving that memory over and over again of when I was too weak to activate my ghost powers and I saw my friends and family strapped to a vat of Nasty Sauce that was about to explode and I ran as hard as I could when-'

The first entry cut off abruptly either because his sister walked in or perhaps there was a ghost attack. In either case, Daniel picked up where he left off the next day and continued:

'Sorry about that, I had to stop writing since my ghost sense just went off but it was just some random ghost creature and not one of my usual enemies so it didn't take as long to deal with thankfully. Then again, who am I apologizing to? You're just some random blank notebook I noticed sitting on my desk today that I was going to write down a copy of the test answers in here to study so I could return the real answer sheet to Mr. Lancer. Guess it's a good thing I still have you because now I can use your pages for something good instead of ruining my future.

Here's the thing though. I know that cheating is wrong, but let's face it what I said to Sam and Tucker is still true that I haven't had the time or energy to study since I'm dealing with problems that no one else does. They don't get that and it kinda makes me mad that even my best friends kept getting on my case about why I shouldn't cheat when it's not like THEY didn't have plenty of time to study or sleep at night. Those two have it easy compared to all the crap I have to deal with at home, at school, every single night, so I seriously doubt they could handle a full 24 hours of trying to live my life.

And even though I understand the consequences of cheating on this particular test it's so frustrating that I'm still trying so hard to do the right thing but it never gets me anywhere. Like I'm fighting tooth and nail just to scrape by and yet everyone else around me has it oh so easy. Or I make one mistake and it basically costs me an arm and a leg or the whole world's freaking future! As if the pressure my parents put on me wasn't bad enough, but now the whole world's future hinges on me making sure I don't crack under the pressure again.

I guess one good thing about all this is that at least I don't feel intimidated about asking my sister for help on the makeup C.A.T. test after all since I know she genuinely wants to help me and Jazz isn't trying to make me feel like an idiot in comparison. And I don't have to keep my ghost fighting a secret from her anymore so now I have someone to help cover for me at home too which is already helpful. But still, there are some things I'm not ready to talk about with any of them yet so that's why I've decided to write down what happened in here instead of making a file on my computer. Especially since I know that they're going to bug me about what happened while I was trapped in the future eventually...

Now I just have to make sure I hide you somewhere no one -not even that crazy present-day fruitloop- will think to look. Heck if I have to I can probably phase you directly into the mattress so at least Sam, Tucker, and Jazz can't reach it without tearing it open. But I mean seriously guys, I don't go around snooping around your stuff. I barely have enough privacy as it is!

And since Dan is MY future self, there are still things about what happened that are too scary to talk about even for me. Maybe I'll tell them someday, but not now, it's still too fresh in my mind. That reminds me, I'd better get started writing down everything that happened before I forget, fall asleep, or another ghost shows up. Let's just hope I don't run out of ink since there's a LOT to unpack here. Hope you're ready for this because I know I'm not.'

I couldn't help but chuckle a little at Daniel's antics and how despite having gone through such a harrowing experience he seemed to be taking it all in stride. At least at first that is so I had to admire his tenacity. And the fact that Daniel wants to share the contents of this notebook with me when his sister and friends have never so much as seen it is yet another sign of the trust he has placed in me on a deeply profound level that I never would have dreamed possible before. It warmed my heart and helped me recover a bit from the embarrassing moment of weakness I had a moment ago when I began second-guessing myself, which rarely happens to begin with.

That said, I just want to be the best father I can be to Daniel even if he's not technically mine as far as a full adoption goes. But that's irrelevant to me now because even though I can only claim him as my god-son that doesn't mean I'm barred from treating him like anything less than a son. If anything, that's something Jack should have been doing instead of acting like such an ill-tempered child even around his own wife. How Maddie can tolerate babysitting a full-grown man for so many years I'll never know but I digress...

The point is that my obligation to take responsibility for his care and upbringing from now on as Daniel's father figure is precisely why I'm reading this notebook instead of relaxing after everything that's happened today. As Daniel put it, there's 'no rest for the wicked' and I need to know the whole story behind Dan's existence and what emotional scars it has left on my little badger. Once I finish it maybe then I will finally be able to have the tools I need to come up with a plan on how to help him beyond what I'm doing for Daniel already.

Setting the notebook aside I leaned back in my seat and sent a duplicate to the kitchen to brew some coffee because good lord did I need the caffeine. I've spent the past few days tending to Daniel's health not unlike when I first rescued him and when I wasn't doing that I've been making sure the castle is secure from any conceivable threat so that neither the Fright Knight, nor any other foolish ghost for that matter, could come after him without paying dearly for trespassing on my property. I've also been busy making arrangements as I mentioned earlier for Daniel to start school again as soon as his health will allow it.

Of course, that means I'm making sure Daniel will be provided with only the best instructors who will practically bend over backward to help him succeed and they won't hold his previously horrid grades against him. They'll still challenge him of course, after all, I'm not about to make things too easy on Daniel since I know he's already more than capable of greatness, so while I expect them not to give him as hard of a time as his teachers in Casper High they will still do their job which is making sure he stays on task. But I have every confidence that without any ghost attacks to fear during every waking hour of the day and pressure from his friends to demand what little free time he had to study, Daniel will pass all his classes with flying colors. And if he has any trouble with his homework I will take the time to assist him with it like any good parent should.

Even so, while I don't want to be the sort of parent who feels separation anxiety when their child goes off to their first day of school if I'm going to let him out of my sight again I want to make absolutely sure that nothing will happen to him while I'm absent because there's always the remote possibility that something could. That's why I'm going to make sure that Daniel will not be able to so much as sneeze without my hearing of it. And I will continue to monitor him just in case until he reaches a point where I know he can hold his own, but even so, he will never be without a way to contact me in the event of an emergency. One way or another I will be alerted immediately if there's ANY sort of threat within a ten-mile radius of him.

It honestly feels a bit strange to resort to using my spy bots again for something like this, but with Skulker out of commission and- Oh yes, I forgot to mention that didn't I? I've been meaning to tell Daniel this as soon as I found out from those three feather dusters of mine just the other day, but despite his formidable display of raw power during their last battle when Daniel assumed he had outright destroyed Skulker it turns out that that puny speck of ectoplasmic energy managed to eject himself from his battle suit at the last minute. And last I heard Skulker's been desperately trying to rebuild his ecto-skeleton with little success ever since that day.

I'm sure Daniel will feel somewhat relieved once I tell him he didn't 'kill' Skulker, although frankly, I'm still proud of Daniel for teaching him a lesson at the very least. If he's smart, Skulker will think twice before crossing Daniel's path again without my permission. Provided he gets desperate enough for work that he'd risk crawling back to me.

At any rate, back to the topic at hand since I realize I'm dragging my feet at this point, as soon as my duplicate returned with my coffee I poured myself a generous amount of the dark liquid and inhaled most of it before setting it aside to resume reading. As expected, a lot of it was summarized as far as how he discovered Dan's existence and how he got from point A to point B so for the most part I glossed over everything I already knew about his trip to the future and the initial confrontation with Dan, making a mental note of any extra details that stood out to me or something I'd like to ask him to clarify for me. Now I finally understood why Daniel was so upset when he thought he destroyed Skulker because Dan had gone out of his way to destroy or entirely cripple many of his ghostly enemies out of pure spite...

Myself included.

This was the part of Daniel's experience in the future I wanted to know about the most because according to him this is why he decided to give present-day me another chance despite everything I've done to him over the past year. This is when he saw a glimmer of hope for me and realized that I've always cared about him, but not always for the right reasons. Daniel glossed over my part in saving him in the future by removing the time medallion Dan fused inside of him which I know now is what also made it possible to anchor Dan to the present when the two of us fought since his timeline technically no longer existed, so now I was eager to hear what his honest opinion of me was and what happened before he returned to the present to confront Dan the first time to save his friends and family from certain death:

'I've always thought Vlad was a pitiful lonely old man but actually seeing him act like it was...honestly really sad. And that's when I realized that even though future me had nowhere else to go, I wasn't the only one who lost someone important to him when the Nasty Burger exploded and killed my friends and family. Vlad lost my mom, the woman he's been in love with for years and he lost the source of all his hatred and bitterness when my dad died too and for the first time I think he realized how stupid he's been.

I mean yeah my parents made a mistake and they should have apologized to him and tried to make things right, but Vlad's the one that let what happened to him ruin his life. No one forced him to use his powers to rob banks to make his millions and make it his only goal in life to crush my dad so he could steal back my mom. Vlad's the one who decided to burn the bridge between them instead of confronting the two people he thought were his friends that hurt him. At least when I had my accident I shared the blame for how I ended up half-ghost when Sam and Tucker convinced me to step inside the portal so we could take pictures.

Anyway, future Vlad seemed to realize once he was just a normal person again like the rest of us how pointless what he was doing was. None of it made him happy. The only thing that seemed to make him feel anything was his obsession with my mom and how much he hated my dad, then later his obsession with me too when he wanted me to become his son. Without that, his wealth didn't mean squat. He was still alone in the end even when I was sent to live with him. But at least since Vlad did care about me in his own twisted way, seeing me like that... like a broken empty husk of a person, that's what finally made him stop acting like a fruitloop long enough to try and help me.

Too bad Vlad made a huge mistake that nearly got him killed and what killed the last of my humanity, as in my actual human half. That's a scary thought, that without my human half my ghost half is like...an exact copy of me so what does that mean after I actually do die? What happens to my soul? Heck, what happened to my friends and family after they died? Where did they go after dying so suddenly? Did I think they became ghosts? And how long was I even living with Vlad before I couldn't stand the pain anymore and begged him to take it all away?

I didn't have time to ask Vlad about any of those things and something I still find kind of odd is how as soon as Jazz's note pointed me in his direction, Vlad asked if the better question would be 'what hasn't happened to me, yet.' It's almost like he already knew I was from the past or something. I honestly don't really know. What I do know is that he pretty much immediately explained to me before I could even ask who Dan is and how he accidentally created him because of a miscalculation with the Ghost Gauntlets and doomed the entire world when our unstable ghost halves merged together after my ghost half ripped out Plasmius and his evil side totally corrupted my ghost core.

But I don't think it's because Vlad's THAT evil, not after seeing how much his human self regretted what happened to me more than losing his powers. No, I think the Ghost Gauntlets removed his humanity too but it all happened so fast that he didn't have time to stop my ghost half from doing it. That being said I can't tell you how terrified I was when Vlad's eyes got all bloodshot and he mentioned how he could always just destroy my past self to save the future and prevent everything from happening...

For a second I thought he actually meant it and Vlad was about to kill me when he came at me with those claws. It hurt enough to feel like dying if I'm being honest, maybe even as much as the accident that turned me half-ghost, so I remember falling to my knees and trying to catch my breath when the pain finally subsided. And when I looked up, I saw my ghost half floating there, dazed and confused before he looked down at me and we sort of shared this deeply personal moment before he landed and helped me to my feet.

It was really freaky since it's like I was just helping myself up, but maybe that's how duplicates are supposed to work. But this is different, he was like my exact twin and I could hear his thoughts and sense what he was feeling when he showed me the medallion sitting innocently in his hand. Both of us were shaking from head to toe before finally turning to look at Vlad who had taken off the Ghost Gauntlets in disgust and he just...looked so- I'm not even sure I know how to describe it.

He looked scared, but not in the way you might think. And when my ghost-half walked up to him future Vlad actually flinched, like he thought I was gonna pummel him, but all I did was put my other hand on his shoulder and told him 'thank you.' I didn't know what else to say since I legitimately thought I was about to die when he threatened to end me on the spot. That's why I was so shocked when Vlad motioned for my human half to walk over to him too and then pulled us both into a tight hug before he suddenly just broke down and started sobbing, telling us he was so sorry for everything over and over again.

But I don't think it's me Vlad was apologizing to...

I think...he was apologizing to Dan.

I'll never forget what future Vlad told me when he finally let go of us either and how he straightened himself up like the Vlad I'm used to and said with an affectionate and hopeful smile on his face, "Now go, make this right and make sure this future never happens. I believe in you, little badger. And if you ever get the chance to, please give my past self my regards by knocking some sense into him before he does something this blatantly idiotic again. He needs someone like you to set him straight..."

After that, since I knew I was running out of time as soon as he mentioned the past I awkwardly merged back together with my ghost-half again before handing him Clockwork's time medallion and being teleported back to my own time. Basically, after that it all went down as you'd expect. I grabbed all the anti-ghost weaponry I could carry hoping any of it would help me beat a more powerful version of myself, a thermos, and I wasted no time rushing off to save my friends and family. It was a close fight, and I almost lost until I suddenly unleashed my Ghostly Wail for the first time after seeing him do it and it gave me just the edge I needed to catch him.

Unfortunately, it left me completely drained and I changed back and had to run on foot to save my friends and family. But I've already written about that part so I won't repeat myself. I'm just glad Clockwork saved them and rewound time just to the point where Dan had posed as me to cheat on the test so I could come clean and the rest is history. Now it's only Jazz, Vlad, Sam, and Tucker who know my secret again and everything is back to normal.

Still, I hate how I wasn't strong enough to get rid of Dan for good because he's still a threat. And he's a much bigger threat than Vlad ever was, or is I guess. Vlad I can handle. I just wish it didn't have to be this way between us when I've seen a Vlad that actually does care and doesn't want to crush me or make me feel worthless all the time.

Then again, I should be glad that I haven't lost everything like he's always saying he did because of my dad. He hasn't lost anything, not really. And until I can figure out a way to help him like his future self helped me, I guess some things will never change even if I want them to...

That's why I'm never going to tell him about Dan. It's too dangerous for both of us and I honestly don't know what present-day Vlad would do with that kind of information. So with that, I bid you goodbye little book of secrets. Your only job is to keep my other biggest secret safe so don't fail me, ok?'

I had to force myself to close the book after that because that was about all I was going to be able to handle tonight. And Daniel wasn't joking, that was extremely hard to sit through. Especially when Daniel was still painting me as someone not to be trusted once my future self saved him from being trapped in the future until Dan killed everyone he loved. Not to mention some part of me was horrified at the possibility of my future self making good on his threat to destroy Daniel outright to change everything back to the way it was.

I know myself well enough by now to believe I would NEVER do such a thing, not to Daniel, because as much as I loved Maddie I've realized that I've always wanted a son far more than just a loving wife. Even so, I can't imagine what was going through his mind when my future self mentioned such a horrible thing to Daniel when he was already so scared and vulnerable. What I can understand, is how much he regretting getting Daniel Fenton's human-half killed because as selfish and 'evil' as I was, I'm no murderer.

And despite our differences, I've long since realized how much Daniel truly means to me to the point where I will never lift a hand against him ever again. At least, not unless we're sparing while training with his ghost powers, which is as it should have been all along. Now we're here. We've both changed our fates and so I think Daniel has already succeeded in knocking some sense into me. I hope that would make the future me rest easy to know his words left an impact even though he no longer exists because from here on out, it's up to us to create a new and hopefully brighter, future moving forward from here.