Hello all, I meant to get this out sooner, but here it is, better late than never!

So I realized that the set up for this plot kinda already happened when Vlad woke Pariah Dark, lol, so...yeah, I'm kind of just copying that part, but I plan on taking it in different places, and I came up with a quick explanation to tie all that into a knot. Please bear with the familiar set up, I promise it's gonna take some turns. Now, I also have to address that this chapter is kinda heavy (violent) and I'm probably gonna have to adjust the rating if I keep it up. Is the more mature and gritty style something that fits Danny Phantom? I kinda think so, but if you feel strongly let me know! (Also, you know, you could leave me a review. I'm not saying you have to, but I mean...you could though, cause that's what sexy people like you do *smooch* ;)

Enjoy!

"You bastard!"

Jack Fenton lept away from his family and slung his artificial arm behind his back, winding up for the haymaker of all haymakers. Vlad smirked, his visage older than they remembered, but not by much. He looked damn good for someone who'd been excommunicated for over a decade.

Jack's warcry filled the room, and Vlad accepted it head one. The punch went right through him - although Vlad was not in ghost form - and Jack not only took the office door off its hinges, he sent it through the wall and out the building. Jack stepped away in shock, and Vlad moved closer to the group.

"A birthday party? How quaint. Congratulations by the way, Daniel. Fatherhood!? My, my, how the time flies."

Danny could only muster one question, "How?"

"How?" Vlad parroted in feigned confusion, "How what?"

"How are you back? What have you been doing all these years that brought you back into my life?"

"I'm so glad you asked!" Vlad clapped his hands together and slung an arm over Danny, who promptly slid out from under it.

"Eleven years it's been, and I spent nearly all of it in captivity."

"What, like some kind of pet?" Sam mused with a smirk.

"Better than he deserves," Maddie frowned.

"No. Not a pet. A slave. Manual labor. Lashings. The full nine yards. I was dust to those foul creatures."

"Well good," Maddie spat.

Vlad feigned hurt, "After the disastroid took me into the deep reaches of space, I was found by a warmongering race of brutish aliens. My ghost powers allowed me the chance to compete for my life in their gladiatorial games, but I was quickly thrust into slavery after I crushed foe after foe. They feared me...and rightfully so."

"Really? Afraid of a whacked out fruitloop like you? They can't be too good at war then," Jazz said.

Vlad went on, "I was broken. Again and again and again. I clawed my way up from the brink of death more times than I can count. They made me stronger, and that was their mistake. If they'd had just killed me they never would have come to ruin. But alas for them, I found my chance, and I exterminated my captors. Now, I've come back for the wretches who sent me away!"

"Hey what's with the getup?" Tucker gestured to the white finery over chain mail, and the sword and scabbard at his side, "And what's up with the crown?"

Vlad chuckled, "Being pushed to a life and death situation day after day makes one bold," He said, then let silence reign for a moment, "Let's just say, I've become the new King Arthur of the Ghost Zone. In fact, I think you all better refer to me as King from now on."

"Fat chance," Sam shot back.

"Oh, but I've done the impossible," Vlad countered, "I pulled the sword from the proverbial stone. Pariah Dark was not the first King of the Ghost Zone, nor was he the most powerful. In fact, because I know none of you know this, I'll let you in on a little secret: he had to overthrow the first King through treachery and deceit; unfortunately he was never able to claim his master's crown and sword. He hid them away, to ensure their power never fell into anyone else's hands, sure they would never be discovered."

He pointed to the majestic band on his head and snickered, "But I did it."

Danny went ghost and levitated towards his old foe, "Big whoop. I've kicked Pariah Dark's butt before - and yours. How about we go outside and see how powerful you really are?"

"Yeah, we'd all like to come along and beat you into a pulp," Maddie glared.

"Ah-ah-ah." Vlad waved a finger at them like a master chiding his dog, "The first battle is only for me and Daniel. The rest of you can come claim his broken and bloodied body when I'm finished with him."

"You...absolute bastard!" Jack raged in place, barely feeling his wife's hand on his shoulder, though she was glaring daggers at him too.

"Fine by me," Danny replied, "When and where?"

"Danny, no!" Tucker and Sam tried.

"Take the portal," Vlad said, and gestured out the window to the sky where a swirling, circular image of an old castle ripped open in the dark night, "But be warned Daniel, I'm not going easy on you this time."

"Danny, wait!" Sam tried again, but he moved faster than her words. He stopped only to give her another kiss and place a gentle hand below her breasts.

"I'll be right back," He announced to the room and flew past the image of Vlad, off towards the portal in the night.

Vlad laughed and faded into nothingness before their eyes.

"We've got to move. Now!" Maddie told the others.

The portal whisked him through time and space, a little like going through the Fenton portal into the Ghost Zone, but this one tugged at his essence more, felt filmier and more solid, like he had to break through it. And he did. Now Danny flew over a ruined courtyard and into a broken red keep. The roof was barely holding together in places, and had crumpled into broken stones and dust in other areas. Old statues and ancient weapons lined the walls leading into a large throne room. The ceiling was probably a hundred feet high, if not more, and danced with ancient whispers and ghostly swirls. On a black throne, smiling in anticipation, Vlad Plasmius sat waiting, his hands on the hilt of an ancient longsword glimmering with his signature pink energy.

Danny landed in front of him and began cracking his knuckles, "Let's get this over with - and this time, do us all a favor and stay gone."

"I admit, I'm new to this whole royalty thing, but aren't you supposed to bow before a King?" Vlad feigned confusion, sheathing the sword in the scabbard at his side and taking a step off his pedestal.

Danny was having none of it, "Okay, I'll start!" and flew at Vlad with all the speed he could muster.

Vlad was in front of him before Danny had made it halfway to the black throne, and as he registered this fact a deep and ominous pain erupted in his gut as Vlad's fist rocketed him all the way back to the front of the hall.

Danny coughed up a mixture of green plasma and red blood, and picked his face up. Vlad was looking at his own hand like it had just appeared on him for the first time. The dangerous glint in his eye gave Danny a bad feeling and made him cough up a little more.

"Lucky shot," He told himself as he wiped his mouth clean and stood.

Amassing enough ecto-energy in his hands to make the entire throne room glow green he aimed at Plasmius again, who was smirking that same damn arrogant smirk from over a decade ago. It was the self-righteous smirk of a successful adult who is not truly fighting a child, but toying with him for his own amusement. Well, Danny wasn't a child anymore.

The rocket of green energy shot off so fast and with such force it rocked Danny to his butt and made the castle quiver. The blast engulfed Plasmius in green energy, but when the flash broke and the smoke cleared, Vlad was still standing, holding his hands in front of him, and still smirking.

"Amazing…I didn't even have to go intangible!" He let himself go into a deep laugh, "I'm unstoppable now!"

"Not yet!" Danny shouted and duplicated himself beyond what Plasmius had ever shown. Not just five or ten, Danny brought out over two dozen copies, and as a unified army he stood in opposition to the new self-proclaimed King.

Vlad chuckled, "Too easy!" he shot back and let loose his own duplicates. Danny's confidence shook as Vlad matched his numbers, then surpassed them without showing signs of slowing. When he was finished there must have been three Vlads for every Danny. The armies stood against each other, the Dannies uneasy and cautious, the Vlads teeming with laughter and confidence.

"Ready? Oh wait...we don't care!" They all said at once and rushed the heroes.

It was a slugfest, and no matter how much he focused or how hard he fought Danny could not gain the upper hand. For every blow one of the heroes landed, the villains had struck ten times. It wasn't long before the Danny duplicates began to disperse and break apart; before thirty seconds of the brawl had elapsed Danny's clones were all but totally gone, making the beat down that much worse. When the last clone was torn in half by five Vlads, the original Danny slumped to his knees, bloodied and shaking.

Vlad did not take his shades back into his true form. Instead he let them all echo his voice as the Kings floated over Danny and circled his struggling form like vultures.

"This is ironic, isn't it? Yesterday I was but a figment of the past, forgotten in your memories. You thought you were untouchable. Well, now you know better, don't you, Daniel? Today, I'm real, I'm here, and I'm winning. You're far from unstoppable, you're so vulnerable I could snap your neck like a twig, and it would be just as easy."

Danny tried to stand, and managed to find footing on one leg, but crumpled back down before he could lift himself up.

"Not so tough now, are you, hero?"

Danny gnashed his teeth together as ectoplasm and blood ran out the corner of his mouth.

"I truly am the King of all Ghosts! Admit it."

Danny shook his head and received Vlad's boot to his ribs for the defiance.

"Say it!"

"...no…" Danny whispered.

Vlad kicked him again, in the head this time, and let a few duplicates follow up with kicks and slaps to the rest of him.

"Say it! I am the King! I am stronger than you can ever hope to be!"

Danny lifted his head, and one of the Vlad's leaned down to hear his slippery whisper. Danny spit blood on the Vlad's cheek, but his meager triumph didn't last long. Two more Vlads came from behind and together stomped Danny's head into the stone floor, cracking it under his skull.

"Very rude, Daniel. I hoped you would learn quickly and we could finish it cleanly. But, adulthood clearly hasn't touched your arrogance. It pains me to do this, it really does...but I won't lose sleep over it."

The duplicates merged with the prime Vlad, who grabbed Danny by the throat, and lifted him off the ground. His fingers were vices and they were stronger than steel. Danny was having a hard time breathing on his own, and with this constricting force he was getting no oxygen at all.

Exerting a primal force he rarely ever felt anymore, Danny opened his mouth and unleashed his hardest and shrillest ghostly wail into Vlad's face. Plasmius turned his head away, almost like the dump truck was driving past them, but ended the farce with a quick backhand slap that knocked out a tooth.

That was it. He had nothing left in his tank, and his hands felt like an infant's against the unwavering strength Vlad was exerting on him. The image of a crying child struck him all at once. If Vlad killed him Sam would be left to raise their child alone, if Vlad even allowed it. If Vlad killed him everyone he knew and loved would be at Vlad's mercy. That frightened him into doing something he never thought he'd have to do again.

"...okay," He choked with a breath that was taking years off his life to voice, "...you….you win Vlad!"

"Too late Daniel. You have defied me, and you must learn that there are consequences for that defiance."

Danny's vision began to blur and his thoughts began to slow. His hands fell from Vlad's wrist, and his conscious thoughts began to rip apart and fade, like he was falling asleep, but this felt different. This must've been the sensation of death. It was growing closer, and colder, closing in on him from every side, until it was so close that Danny barely even recognized that Vlad had let him go.

But he was fully aware of what happened next.

His scream rang out through the castle, and into the distant reaches of the nearby void. He'd never been in this kind of pain, and he felt the sensation of death back away and clawing a bit of his soul away.

Vlad let him go just before the life was clenched out of him, and drew his sword, still brimming with pink light. Danny never saw it coming, but he sure felt it. The metal flew fast and sharp. Danny's right hand was severed in an instant.

Red-green ectoplasmic blood spewed out of his wrist and limp hand as he rolled and writhed on the stone floor. Never in his life had he been pushed this far, and he was beginning to lose all sensation that was not the pain of sudden amputation. He did not hear his mother's voice ringing out from the hall.

"Danny!"

The only other thing that occupied Danny's world in that moment was the ghostly blade rearing towards him again. Vlad tucked it under his chin, sticking the point ever so lightly against his Adam's apple and glaring down fiery venom at the hero.

"I am your better Daniel, now and forever. Swear fealty to your King! Or die."

Words escaped him, but he was just beginning to register the sound of his family rushing towards him, especially his father, who was screaming like a revenant out for blood. Vlad stuck the point of the blade in just enough for a trickle of red-green mixture to roll down Danny's throat, and he finally obliged the older halfa.

"Okay...you're the King, Vlad."

It hurt to say that, to hear his voice so ragged and defeated, even more than the beating he'd gotten here, even more than losing his hand.

The twisted smile returned to Vlad's face, and he sheathed the blade again, "Very good."

"Vlad, you son of a bitch! I'm gonna kill you!" Jack screeched.

Something close to a snort escaped Vlad as he waved his hand towards the approaching meddlers. Pink bars fell around them and formed a plasma cage, burning bright with searing power, trapping them like mice.

"Danny!"

"What have you done!?"

"You monster!"

"Hold on Danny!"

Calls of encouragement and vitriol rang from the prisoners, but Vlad ignored them. He looked down at Danny, and put a hand to his chin, scratching at his beard to emphasize counterfeit thought.

"You know, I'm still not quite convinced you believe what you said. I mean, you did say it, and I'm glad you see things my way, but...do you really? I wonder…"

He turned and stalked towards the prisoners, "Maybe...maybe another example will make you certain of where the power dynamic between us lies?"

"No!" Danny called out as best he could through a ruined throat and broken ribs, "Don't! Please!"

"Maybe Tucker...I've never cared much for him, but you seem to treasure his company."

"Do your worst!" Tucker called, for his part.

"Don't touch him!" Danny called back.

"No, no, no, I've got it! I'll kill Jack! I've always wanted to do that."

"Come take me you sick bastard!" Jack called, beating against the bars with his bionic arm, searing the paint job and finish.

"NO!" Danny and Maddie shouted simultaneously.

Vlad put up is hands in mock defeat, "Okay. Fine. Murder is a bit much. How's about...one punch? To your fiance."

Green plasma ignited in Danny's eyes, so much so that he pulled himself onto his knees again, glaring, "No. None of them!"

"Yes. I think so. Come, Sam. I'll be quick about it."

The young goth woman clutched her stomach and took an automatic step back, everyone else stepping between her and the villain.

"Don't you dare!" Danny cried, jumping to his feet and finding once again the screeching, ghostly wail that had won him several close fights.

Vlad moved faster than any of them could process, and put a hand over Danny's mouth, shoving him back to the floor.

"Now, now! No more of that!" Vlad complained, then sighed, "Very well. Instead of harming someone you love, how's about...I topple your empire and build my own right on top of it?"

Nobody said anything, either because they couldn't, or chose not to. Vlad laughed and took out the sword again, holding it high like a Saturday morning cartoon hero, sending a flare of pink energy into the air, spraying down over the castle in a flashing dome.

The same transitioning feeling from before struck them, and Vlad snapped his fingers, teleporting them all to a balcony somewhere high up on the castle. They were back on Earth, floating where the portal he'd opened earlier up once was, hanging over Amity Park, blotting out the moon.

"Watch closely now," Plasmius warned, "For this is the fate of all who oppose King Vlad."

With the outstretched sword in hand, he swung it down in the direction of Fenton Corp HQ, and a second later a beam of pink energy crushed the tower, enveloping it in light, blinding them all. The dream they had all worked towards for the past eleven years came hurtling down in pieces before their eyes, breaking apart, shattering against the power of Vlad's blade. The wreckage hit the streets and shook the earth below. Concerned citizens and confused onlookers came running, and the panic set in at once.

"Now they see," Vlad said quietly, "What the world is like when their hero fails. Delightful as it is pathetic."

None of the prisoners had a dry eye, least of all Danny, who watched in silent pain as Vlad stalked back towards his family.

"Now," Vlad told them, walking before them, inspecting the rejected and unwanted mutts in their kennel, "You all face the same choice that I gave Daniel. Swear your fealty to me, and I will let you return to the ruins of your lives. All of you."

Jack, hunched over on his hands and knees, whispered something inaudible, and Vlad stalked nearer with a hand cupped around his ear.

"Come again, Jack? Finally ready to admit I'm the bigger man?"

He leaned in close to the plasma bars, and gawked in surprise as Jack left a Fenton Plasma knife in Vlad's eye socket. The newly proclaimed King stumbled backwards, and Jack reached for the hilt of the blade. It surged with power and blew his artificial arm to pieces, sending Jack careening into Maddie.

Vlad tumbled away and writhed on the ground, rolling like he had left Danny before, screeching in horror - until he couldn't hold the laughter back. He picked himself off the ground and pulled the blade out clean. His eye phased back into solidity and he broke into a hearty chorus of mocking.

"Oh no! My eye! What have you done Jack Fenton!? Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha...nice try."

The prisoners huffed and raged in place, and Plasmius had another genuine laughing fit before turning on them with a stern look.

"I am your King now, peasants. Fear me, and swear that you will be loyal to my every decree. Or else."

A pink glint of energy flared in his eyes, and Maddie answered for the group.

"Fine, Vlad. We swear fealty to you."

"King Vlad," he corrected.

"King Vlad," Maddie amended.

The plasma bars disappeared and Vlad rested a casual hand on the sword hilt, "Then collect your whelpling, and leave my castle at once."

Maddie and Sam rushed to Danny, who was lying on his side with open, but empty eyes. Tucker grabbed Danny's severed hand, and they ran inside to find the exit.

"Oh, and Maddie!" Vlad called, not turning to face them but smiling and looking at the mayhem around the fallen Fenton Tower, "I'll see you here tomorrow night. 8 o'clock. Come alone, of course."

"...Fine," She relented with closed eyes and a bowed head, "I'll be here."

"Yes," Vlad mused with a chuckle, adjusting his crown, "Yes, you will."

Some time later...

Frostbite looked out over the white mountain peaks and growled, "This is...troubling."

"Yes," Prince Aragon agreed, rubbing his hands together by the fire, "He pulverized Walker's Prison, incapacitated Nocturne and Vortex, then declared himself the Ghost King. A new King! Unbelievable. How many royals can the ghost zone possibly have?"

"It's not that," Frostbite shook his head, "Unless I'm mistaken it sounds as though Vlad Plasmius has uncovered the most dangerous artifacts of all time. You'd think he would have learned after trying to steal the powers of Pariah Dark…"

"I'm not suggesting we become friendly towards one another," The Prince hesitated, "...but it might be beneficial to form an alliance against him, before he gets too powerful. Not just us, everyone who's left."

"It would do us little good. He has the Wallachian Sword and the Crown of Tepesh, the items that Pariah Dark based the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire on. Much as Pariah Dark was a dim mirror of the First King, so too were his trinkets poor imitations of the originals. If Vlad Plasmius truly wields these powers, then he is well beyond the strongest of us."

"So what is to be done!?" The Prince demanded, "Do you suggest we cower in fear and send our armies home? That we bend our knees to him!?"

Frostbite nibbled at the edge of his claws, still staring out towards the great peaks of the Realm of the Far Frozen. Rumors were many, and if this much was true, how true could it be that Danny Phantom had not survived his battle against Plasmius? Could they find a way to prevail even if he were?

"I don't know...I must go to the human world. If there is a chance to save us all, it must be taken quickly."