AN: Hey friends! Guess what? It's been more than a week since I updated, which I'm sure you know, but it was a surprise to me. I got really sick this past week, so my sense of time got a little fuzzy. So sorry about that. I really did not mean to do that.

ANyway, the moment you have all been waiting for! Danny vs the Light! Who will win?

I don't own Danny Phantom or Young Justice. I don't even own any merch for them. So sad.

Danny woke slowly. He hurt everywhere. He felt like someone had filled his lungs with burning needles that stabbed into him with every breath he took. He breathed shallowly, not wanting to set off a coughing fit. He just knew that would hurt a frickin ton.

"Shade? Are you okay?"

Danny groaned mentally. Now someone was talking to him. Why couldn't they just let him die in peace?

"Shade, I know you're awake. Open your eyes!"

Groaning out loud this time, Danny obliged, cracking his eyes open. After a few seconds, his vision cleared enough for him to make out Robin's face.

"There he is!" Robin said with a grin, leaning back on his heels. "Thanks for joining the land of the living. Took your sweet time about it."

"I never join the land of the living, I'm a ghost." Danny grunted, pushing himself into a more upright position. Unfortunately, talking set off the coughing fit he had been wanting to avoid. And yes, it hurt just as much as he thought it would. Lovely.

Danny looked around, trying to figure out where they were. The whole team was there, which was a blessing. It would be easier to escape if they were all together. They were in a cell which seemed normal enough. He couldn't help but wonder why Superboy hadn't just ripped the door off its hinges. That was when he noticed the collars. Each team member had one, and Danny could only assume that they blocked meta human and alien powers.

Danny suddenly realized that he had his own collar. He panicked, memories of the lab pressing in on his mind. He yanked at the collar, trying to phase it off, but it didn't work. He yanked harder, but all the movement did was set off another coughing fit, this one much worse than the last. He doubled over as he hacked. It felt like his body was trying to cough his own lungs up.

"Are you okay?" Superboy asked, supporting Danny carefully. Danny let his head flop against the clone's shoulder, trying to catch his breath.

"I got a lungful of ectoranium particles, so not really no." Danny said quietly, barely able to get enough air in his lungs to speak.

Robin's face darkened. He exchanged a look with Aqualad before placing a hand on Danny's forehead.

"Normal." He said quietly. "For a human anyway. Which means you're running a fever. Not good."

"He'll be fine. We extracted the ectoranium, so he should heal nicely."

The whole team whipped around to see Lex Luthor and Klarion, along with a couple of guards, standing in front of them. Kid Flash growled, sending death glares at Klarion. The chaos demon didn't seem to care.

"Luthor, you run a great risk in detaining us." Aqualad said seriously. "The League will come after us."

"Oh I'm sure." Luthor said carelessly. "But what is war if not a collection of calculated risks? And this one has such a large potential reward."

Luthor pressed a button on his watch and every collar in the room lit up with electricity. The teen heros cried out before collapsing to the ground, twitching.

"Apologies." Luthor said with a smirk. "But I felt a demonstration was in order. If you should attempt to escape, well. There will be consequences."

That said, Luthor gestured to the guards. The men stepped forward and opened the door to the cell. The team glared at them but made no move to escape. It would be a pointless waste of strength. They would be better off waiting for a more opportune moment.

Luthor strode into the cell, followed by Klarion and the two guards. The guards approached Danny, grabbing him and pulling him to his feet. The rest of the team tensed, but subsided when Luthor tapped his watch.

"Look at you." Luthor said softly, turning his attention fully to Danny. "The perfect weapon. All we need to do is figure out how to use you."

"It'll never happen." Danny spat, sounding defiant despite the fact that he was still struggling for air. "No matter what you do to me, I'll never help you."

"Of course you won't." Luthor said with an amused grin. "I would never dream of trying to turn your loyalties. It is far too difficult. Much easier to just clone you."

"You say that now, but you wouldn't be the first to try. I'm not easy to clone." Danny said darkly. This whole situation reminded him way too much of the lab.

"Oh yes. The GIW. They attempted to clone you, didn't they? It didn't quite work out for them, did it?" Luthor shook his head. "Honestly, the way they treated you was just shameful. They would have destroyed you prematurely."

Luthor took a step closer to Danny, looking him over. "I've wanted you here for a long time. Did you know that I was in the process of having you transferred to Cadmus when you escaped? The timing was just terrible. I thought I would never have another opportunity to study you."

Luthor grinned, patting Danny on the shoulder. "But here you are! My perfect weapon."

"I'm not a weapon!" Danny gasped, struggling to yell but not quite having the breath for it. "And I'm not going to be your little lab rat. I'm done with that!"

"Don't be so dramatic Daniel." Luthor scolded. "I'm not like the GIW, those short sighted fools. I have no idea what they thought they were accomplishing with their little experiments. I mean, they actually destroyed the one clone of you that was stable. It was like they were actively trying to sabotage themselves."

Danny shuddered, memories overwhelming him. He blinked rapidly, fighting back tears.

Luthor didn't seem to notice Danny's distress, continuing his little monologue.

"Very short sighted. I do wish I could have preserved your clone. It would have made this much easier."

Luthor paused, a sly grin forming on his face.

"Of course, she's not entirely gone. Is she Daniel?"

Danny froze. No. He couldn't know. No one did.

"Klarion, if you would?" Luthor said, stepping aside. The Witch Boy cackled, walking up to Danny.

"What are you hiding?" Klarion asked, running a hand down Danny's face. Danny jerked, trying to get away, but the guards held him too tight.

Klarion cackled, dragging his hand down til it rested in the center of Danny's chest. Then, without warning, he shoved, burying his hand in Danny's chest.

Danny screamed, his back arching as he tried to get away. The rest of the team started yelling as well. Robin tried to attack Klarion, but a red shield formed around the two supernatural beings, keeping everyone else out.

Klarion laughed. "Give it up boy." he said with a manic grin. "You can't keep it from me forever."

Slowly, Klarion pulled his hand out of Danny's chest. Clenched in his fist was a glowing ball about the size of a baseball. It was slow going, with the glowing ball clearly reluctant to leave Danny, but finally Klarion managed to yank it free.

Danny went limp, taking shuddering breaths. Klarion spun around, offering the ball to Luthor.

"Here you go!" He said cheerfully, as if he hadn't just painfully ripped the thing out of a child. Luthor smiled, pulling a strange container out of his pocket. He pressed a button on the container and the glowing ball was sucked into it.

"Thank you." Luthor said, tucking the container back into his pocket. "That will be all for now."

The guards let go of Danny and he dropped to the ground, unable to support himself. The whole group walked out of the cell, closing the door behind them.

"No…" Danny said faintly, looking up.

"No." He said louder, scrambling to his feet. "NO! Bring her back!"

He ran to the front of the cell, reaching out as if he could grab hold of Luthor.

"Bring her back!" He screamed. "NO! DANI!"

Danny was curled up in a ball in the corner of the cell. He had screamed and cried for hours after Luthor had taken Dani away. Nothing the team did helped at all. Danny seemed borderline hysterical.

He finally managed to calm down, tears fading into hiccups. Robin approached cautiously.

"Shade? What happened?" He asked cautiously. "What was that thing that they took?"

Danny shuddered, looking up at Robin. He took a deep breath.

"It's a long story." He said softly.

"We've got time." Robin said with a small smile.

Danny nodded, uncurling a bit. The rest of the team gathered around him, settling down.

Danny leaned against the wall, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"Robin, I told you that the GIW had caught a friend of mine. That was the only reason they were able to get a hold of me. That friend was… well my clone. The only stable clone that was ever created of me. Her name was Danielle, but she liked to be called Dani with an i. We called each other cousins, but we were a lot closer than that."

Danny wiped his eyes. He had thought that he had cried himself out, but apparently there were a few more tears in him.

"The GIW brought both of us to the lab. But Dani… I say she was stable but she really wasn't. She couldn't… handle the experiments. She destabilized rapidly."

Danny trailed off, staring into space. They waited for a minute before Robin gently prompted him to continue.

"She… dissolved. She dissolved right in front of me and I couldn't do anything. I promised I would protect her, but I couldn't do anything."

"I'm sorry." Superboy said softly. Danny tried to smile at him, but his face couldn't quite make the shape.

"But Danny…" Miss Martian said hesitantly. "What does that have to do with that ball that Klarion took?"

Danny twitched. "Uh… that's a bit more complicated."

"Try us." Artemis said shortly.

Danny nodded a couple of times.

"Right. Um… well. That thing that Klarion took was a ghost core. Dani's ghost core specifically."

"Ghost core?" Kid Flash asked. Even now, he was intensely interested in knowing how ghosts worked.

Danny's mouth twitched into a smile. He knew exactly what KF was thinking.

"Yeah. Every ghost has one, even halfas like me."

Danny placed a hand on his chest and a moment later it began to glow. The light was otherworldly, a strange blue green color lit up the entire room.

"Whoa." Robin breathed, leaning forward unconsciously to get a closer look.

Danny's smile became a little more genuine.

"That was my reaction the first time I saw it too." He said, the glow fading away.

"But what is it?" Kid Flash asked, inching closer.

"The ghost core is… everything thats makes a ghost a ghost." Danny said slowly. "It's the first thing that forms when a new ghost is born. Everything that you see when you meet a ghost comes from the ghost core. As long as the core is undamaged, a ghost can recover from almost anything."

Danny went silent. He seemed almost ashamed.

"I shouldn't have done it." He whispered. "A ghost's core is… everything. It's almost sacred. But I couldn't lose her too."

"You… absorbed her core?" Robin asked.

Danny nodded miserably. "She went so quickly. Before I even realised what was happening, she was practically gone. There was just her core left. I just… grabbed it. I wasn't thinking. I just wanted to… to hold her. I didn't want her to be alone when she died. I held the core close to my chest and it just… went in. I didn't mean to do it. But… I wasn't sorry that I did."

"Is she still alive?" Aqualad asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.

Danny shrugged one shoulder.

"I don't know." He confessed. "Sometimes… it feels like she's still there. I feel things, hear things…"

Danny trailed off, looking sad. "Maybe it's just wishful thinking."

"Well, maybe not. If she's still alive, maybe we could bring her back. Do you think you could heal her?" Superboy asked cautiously.

Danny shook his head helplessly.

"Maybe? If the core was in perfect condition… but it deteriorated quite a bit before I absorbed it. Important pieces are probably gone forever. And Dani was never very stable to begin with. I just don't know if it's possible."

The whole team fell silent. It seemed hopeless.

"At least your breathing seems a bit better." Miss Martian commented.

Danny blinked, sitting up straighter.

"It is…" he said slowly. He looked around the room, blinking a bit. Was it just him, or did the room look brighter? He stood up, completely stable on his feet for the first time since he had woken up.

"Shade?" Robin asked, also standing up. "Are you okay?"

Danny looked at his hands, flexing his fingers. They seemed to thrum with a power he had almost forgotten. He glanced at Robin.

"Yes. As a matter of fact, I feel better than I have for a long time."

With that said, he reached up to the collar around his neck and phased it off. He had to try a bit harder than usual, but it came off without any significant problems.

"What?" Artemis leapt to her feet, her mouth hanging open. "How did you do that?"

"Better question, how did you know you could do that? You couldn't before." Robin pointed out, fingering his own collar.

Danny shrugged, staring at the collar.

"I'm not sure…"

"Well who cares?" Kid Flash yelled. "Get rid of ours. Let's get out of here!"

Danny nodded, quickly phasing each collar off of his teammates. Soon they were all free.

"Superboy, if you would." Aqualad said.

Superboy grinned, grabbing the door and ripping it away from the wall. The whole team exited the cell, looking around.

"I recognize this place." Robin said, turning in place. "It's one of Luthor's properties. Batman's been quizzing me on all of his more… secret properties in the last couple of days. Guess that makes sense now."

He stopped spinning, pointing toward the left. "This way should lead to the exit. Come on!"

The team headed in the direction that Robin indicated, but Danny hesitated. He could sense a ghost in the other direction, and there was only one type of ghost that gave off that type of signal.

Robin paused, noticing that Danny wasn't moving.

"Shade?"

"I'm sorry." Danny said quietly. "I can't leave her."

And Danny turned and ran in the opposite direction, further into the building.

AN: WHAT? A cliffhanger? Also, there you go. That is what happened to Dani! I left all kinds of clues throughout the story hinting at what happened to her. I am so proud of my ability to think ahead.

This is a bit shorter, but it's important to what happens next time. Hope you like it!

Bye bye for now!