Idly pulling the fuzz off the fabric of the couch's arm, Danny replayed his argument with Buster in his head. He felt bad, he wished he hadn't lost his temper. The kid was worried, it was nice, but he just didn't understand. There were many more lives at stake than his own.

Wes had returned from the kitchen, placed a plate of food in front of him, and sat back into his own seat. Danny glanced at him, flashing him an appreciative grin and reached down to pick up the plate. He tried hard to hold back the wince from bending down, but Wes caught it nonetheless. "Dude, I've seen you get injured brutally before only to find you in school the next day. I always thought you had some sort of healing powers, what gives?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. He had been wondering the same thing. "I…I should have healed by now. But, honestly, I feel worse than last night," he admitted, plopping a bit of food into his mouth.

They ate in silence, Wes occasionally glanced at him with a scrutinizing stare. When Danny was finished, Wes grabbed the plate out of his hands and rose to put it away. Returning, he crossed his arms and bit his bottom lip"…You can't actually die right?"

Meeting his gaze, Danny raised his brow. "Uhm…well it is possible, if that's what you mean."

"But you are a ghost," Wes deadpanned, confusion written all over his face.

Danny shook his head, finding it hard not to laugh. "I'm not a dead ghost, I'm as alive as you," he explained. Looking down at his pale hands, "Well, most of the time," he added bitterly.

A heavy breath was let out across from him, he glanced at the ginger who seemed to be in deep thought. "Maybe the kid is right."

Danny rolled his eyes, unable to keep the annoyance out his voice. "He's right, but I can't go to the hospital. They won't give a damn about how alive I am, you know that."

"I know, I know…" he trailed off scratching his head in thought. "It's your stomach wound that has the worst of it," he voiced. Turning his head towards him, "Hm?" Danny questioned. Wes straitened up, gesturing towards him. "The shoulder and knee seem to actually be doing alright for a normal human, but I think they stabbed you pretty deep."

Danny nodded in agreement, "The bullets were aimed at Fenton but they stabbed Phantom with a ghost weapon that I haven't seen before, it was glowing a strange colour and kind of smelled funny," he explained. The reason behind his state was actually pretty obvious if he really thought about it but he was just reluctant to admit it to himself.

"Do you think it had something that's messing with your powers?" Wes pressed.

"Maybe, I haven't tried going ghost since they can track my signature." Danny shrugged, "I threw up before I passed out in the hall though." He bit his lip, holding back a laugh as Wes made a disgusted face.

"It doesn't take Sherlock to figure it out then."

Leaning back, Danny rubbed his temple with his uninjured arm. Shaking his head in defeat, "I was poisoned." he didn't want to say it out loud, but deep down he knew from the moment the sharp object pierced his skin. He was dying. Without help, he couldn't do anything to stop it.

"I guess a hospital wouldn't be much help after all," the ginger across from him stated as he worriedly fiddled with the hem of his shirt. Danny smiled at the concern.

"Yeah, its effects are probably slow on me since I'm not a full ghost," he mused. It made sense if the strain was developed to exterminate ghosts. It wouldn't be potent enough to kill a halfa on spot.

"Dude, you're killing me with all this open ghost talk. I would have all the evidence I need if I just recorded this conversation."

Chuckling at Wes's sudden outburst, Danny shook his head. "It wasn't me who decided to change the rules of the game. That was all you." Wes glared at him, pouting childishly. Danny snickered at his expression, enjoying teasing the boy more than he should.

After a few moments of silence, he was overcome by a wave of exhaustion. He yawned and pushed himself to lay down for a nap. Just as he was drifting off, "so what are you gonna do then?" Wes pushed, irritating Danny slightly. "It's obvious you're getting weaker"

Sighing, Danny opened his eyes and looked at the boy. He didn't want it to come to this, but it was really his only option. "There's someone I know that can probably get me the antidote…" he disclosed. Making a decision, he gently pushed himself back into a sitting position, "guess I gotta make a deal with the devil."

Wes raised his brow amusedly, a curious smile on his lips. "Look at you, teaming up with your enemies all willy-nilly."

Rolling his eyes playfully, "You're not my enemy," Danny giggled.

Crossing his arms angrily, Wes turned his face away from him. "Well you're certainly mine."

"Sure buddy, whatever helps you sleep at night," Danny grinned, "So could I borrow your phone? I kinda threw mine away."

"Jeez Fenton, what do you have against phones?"

At the sound of knocking on the back door, Wes locked eyes with Danny before turning off the TV. Danny grumbled in annoyance, it was just getting to the good part.

Getting up, Wes stretched his long limbs. They had been cooped up in the living room for hours, Danny was impressed that Wes had actually stayed. He strolled over towards the sound through the kitchen. Turning the knob, Wes pulled open the door to reveal a man standing behind it, shielded from the pouring rain under a large black umbrella.

Wes' eyes widened, "Mayor Masters?" He sputtered in shock and fear.

"Good evening child, this is the Weston residence, am I correct?" The man greeted, a condescending smirk on his lips.

"Uh…I…it is," Wes managed to say. Danny rolled his eyes at the boy's nervous behaviour, some stalker he was.

"You got the right place, I'm here Unky Vlad," he called out tiredly causing two pairs of eyes to turn in his direction.

"You called the Mayor?" Wes asked in disbelief as he moved aside to allow Vlad access into the house, "I thought you said this 'someone' was a devil."

Danny shrugged, "Same difference."

Shaking out his umbrella, Vlad narrowed his eyes at him. "This better be worth my time Daniel, I do not appreciate having to sneak around in the rain."

"So you know him?" Wes scratched his scruffy ginger hair, "How did I miss that?"

Smiling at the confused expression on the boy's face, "He's my dear old Uncle, isn't that right Unky Vlad," Danny informed as he waited for the pair to seat themselves around him.

"Don't test me child," Vlad growled as he uncomfortably descended into the worn arm chair. Turning to Wes who was silently watching him, "now if you could run along we would like to have a private conversation," the man demanded.

Narrowing his eyes immediately, "I'm not going anywhere," Wes defied with his arms crossed.

The calm expression on Vlad's face quickly melted into irritation, "you will do as I say you little brat."

Wes was not affected, his earlier apprehension towards the man completely vanished as he leaned back comfortably. "My house, my rules. I'm staying."

Finding the exchange highly amusing, Danny laughed softly. "It's okay Vlad, he knows about me."

Turning his glaring eyes away from the smirking ginger, Vlad stared at Danny with a questioning brow. "Honestly Danny, are you so incapable of keeping a measly secret?"

"I didn't call you here so you could nag me," Danny whined. He wished he didn't need the man's help. It was kind of embarrassing, even if they had been at the flip side of the situation many times before.

Fixing him under a scrutinizing glare, Vlad crossed his arms and rested his ankle on his knee. "Well then would you care to explain why those bumbling fools have invaded my town looking for not only Danny Phantom but Fenton as well? Why you look as if death is knocking at your door and why you are hiding out in some dingy old town house? You have gotten yourself into quite a pickle, my dear boy, and I can't say that I'm surprised."

Gritting his teeth and refraining from rolling eyes, "Long story short, I wreaked mayhem at one of their secret facilities, they got a couple of hits in, and now I'm poisoned."

"That leaves a lot of unanswered questions Daniel," Vlad replied calmly, his expression unwavering.

"I know, I'll explain everything…" Danny promised, "But do you think you can find an antidote?"

At the sound of Danny's desperate plea, a wide grin broke out on Vlad's face. He leaned back, "I most probably could…but there is no certainty that I will."

Danny wanted to punch that smile off his face, but he knew that he was in no shape for combat. "Come on Fruit-loop, I know you don't want me to die."

Vlad raised his shoulders, an amused gleam in his eyes. "Au contraire Little Badger, your death may benefit me a great deal. Imagine a world without your insolent chatter; heaven if there ever was one," he sneered menacingly.

Wes snorted from his spot. "Dude, you really are the devil."

Danny couldn't help but snicker at the glare Vlad sent Wes's way. "But you don't really want that, now do you V-man?"

They studied each other, both glaring daggers until a small smile tugged at the man's lips. "You got me there. Heaven is rather overrated."

Danny looked towards Wes who had been watching Vlad, confusion apparent in his eyes. Wes flickered his gaze towards him, raising his brow. Danny grinned shaking his head playfully. His relationship with Vlad was baffling to say the least.

"Will you do it?" He asked the man hopefully, hating how broken he sounded.

Vlad dusted invisible dust off of his sleeve, "We'll see, I need the full story before I make my decisions. I'm a thorough man, Danny, I don't make blind deals."

Breathing through his nose in annoyance, Danny relented. "Fine, I'll tell you. But I don't need you telling me how stupid my actions were, okay?"

With his best evil smirk, Vlad shrugged. "I'm not making any promises my boy."

"Neither am I," Wes added, his own smirk growing at his lips.

Wondering why he chose these two to help him, Danny shook his head. "…Whatever."

He looked away from them. Resting his head against the backrest, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "A little over a week ago I came across a suspicious building in the middle of nowhere…there was a makeshift graveyard behind it." He paused, taking his time to clear through the terrible memory of that night.

"The sign was kinda worn out but I recognized the GIW logo. There were a lot of graves Vlad, they were killing people." He heard a breath hitch at his words, but didn't turn around to take in their expressions. "I asked Tucker to help me hack into their system, I didn't tell him about the graves but he still agreed. It was a lot harder than I thought, but after a few days of digging we finally found files about a top secret project taking place at that location. Tucker couldn't unseal the files, he said they needed to access the hard drive manually, so I asked him to disarm the security system. I knew they were up to something that had to be illegal, if I could get those files I could shut down the operation." He explained, his voice growing softer the longer he spoke. He never realized how tiring it could be to just talk.

"You broke into a GIW facility for files?" Vlad's patronising voice questioned.

Irritation prickled all over his body. "Would you just let me tell the story?" he bit out shakily, opening his eyes to glare at the man. He simply narrowed his eyes but said nothing further, so Danny proceeded. "When I got there, I was easily able to phase through the walls without alerting the system since the security was down but I didn't realize that the ghost shields had a manual generator…"

A low groan interrupted his story once again, "Daniel, you can't be serious. You willingly walked into that building in your human form? That was incredibly idiotic." Wes snickered at his expense, apparently agreeing with Vlad's statement.

Anger and embarrassment bubbled inside him. "I know, I wasn't thinking straight. But, what was I supposed to do?"

Vlad rolled his eyes. "Go back home? Anything other than blatantly walk into unnecessary danger?" he posed, as if it were the most obvious answer.

"It wasn't unnecessary!" Danny argued, pushing himself into a more guarded position, "People are dying, I couldn't just call it quits."

"Well you could have just called the cops and let them handle the murder case," Wes scoffed, a smug expression on his infuriating face.

With anger fueling his sudden surge of energy, Danny turned his head sharply. "As if they would have believed me without evidence!"

Wes raised his brow mockingly, "I think a bunch of sketchy graves outside a building is enough evidence. You could have just called it in last week and none of us would have to be here," he stated, as if it were that simple.

"They're a government agency, you don't think they would conduct a cover up?" Danny growled, "The police wouldn't be enough and you know it."

Wes glared, the self-satisfied smirk slowly disappearing as he considered Danny's words.

Apparently having enough of the argument, Vlad interjected, "just continue."

Taking a few more seconds to glower, Danny leaned back once again, the exhaustion slowly but surely taking control. "I transformed and walked right though the shields, there were a lot of individual ones covering each room. I knew I was supposed to look for a control room of some sort and it seemed like no one was there, so I wandered and snooped. The place was huge, I kinda got lost for a god knows how long. After a whole lot of nothing, I heard a noise from underneath the floor. I tried phasing through but I realized there was another shield surrounding the bottom floor so I looked around for a staircase…" He stopped as his speech began to slur and his breathing became strained. Clutching his chest as his lungs constricted, he wheezed. His eyes were shut in pain.

Moments later a cool hand was placed on his shoulder. Looking up, he found a glass of water being offered his way. Gratefully accepting the offer, he relieved the burning in his chest and smiled at Wes who simply nodded and sat back down. Danny sighed, it was getting worse.

Flicking his gaze towards Vlad, he was surprised to find a hint of worry in his hard eyes. He looked down at his hands, not wanting the pity, and continued. "Finding it wasn't really as hard as I thought, I walked right down into an extremely dark basement. I couldn't see where I was going so I made a small ecto-ball in my hand and began looking around. I found a bunch of computers and junk so I dug through the files until I found what I was looking for," he explained half-coherently.

"You're telling me that you did all this without alerting the agents and you still managed to get caught in the end?" Vlad asked skeptically.

"Can't you just shut your big mouth and listen?" he spat, more annoyed at himself than anything.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, "The files…they were horrifying. I didn't know what I was expecting but I wasn't expecting this." He bit his lip as memories of the information he uncovered bombarded him. Guilt seeped into his soul; he had left so many people behind.

"Out with it child," the man grumbled impatiently.

Danny flicked his eyes to meet Vlad's before he spoke, his already weak voice cracking. "Experiments Vlad. Hundreds of thousands of them. On ghosts and humans both. They've been abducting people from all over the country, or at least paying someone for them. More than half of them didn't even have missing person's reports in their files… They're targeting high risk victims. You know; runaways, homeless, prostitutes… I knew the GIW were inhumane but I didn't think they would outright mutilate and murder people for research."

He shivered, making sure to avoid looking over at Wes. He didn't need to witness the horror on the boy's face. He wished with all his might that people like the GIW didn't exist.

"What were they doing?" Vlad inquired in a surprisingly soft voice, probably sensing Danny's distress.

"I…I'm not sure"

The man wrinkled his forehead in thought, "Do you have the files?" he asked.

"Do you want them?" Danny counter-questioned.

"Yes."

Studying the man through slightly lidded eyes, "I'll give them to you if you promise me something."

Vlad rolled his eyes at Danny's childish behaviour, "I'm not fond of making promises Little Badger"

Unfazed, Danny pushed on. "I'll hand them over right now if you get me an antidote and have the information published in all the news sources, big and small, all over the country."

Vlad was quiet, considering the offer. Danny knew it was a pretty fair deal, he wasn't asking much. "I'll let you know once you finish your little tale," the man finally stated.

Looking at Vlad incredulously, "Why do I have to finish," he disputed feebly, not wanting to retell the end of his encounter, "It doesn't really make a difference."

Casually shrugging, "Humor me."

Danny bit the inside of his cheek, "Fine..." he breathed. "I didn't realize that accessing the files could trip another alarm system… but just as I secured the information, doors from the top floor burst open. I panicked, I thought about going ghost but I knew that I wouldn't be able to leave the place like that so I ran further into the basement to hide."

Ignoring the judgemental sounds the two made, he sipped his water and carried on. "They came straight down, I guess there really was nothing important above ground. There was a lot of shouting, my memory kind of goes fuzzy at this point… I remember the door to the room I was in getting kicked open, I backed up and hit something smooth and hard. It was glowing slightly in the dark; a glass cage. Ghosts were trapped inside, suspended in some sort of liquid. I was distracted, I didn't notice the agents coming up behind me but I ducked just in time and ran. They saw that I was just a snooping kid but they were still relentless. I don't know what ghost hunters were doing with human guns but I guess when you're in the human trafficking business on the side, you learn to carry some around. I did a pretty good job at dodging the bullets, but I tripped, that's when they got my shoulder."

"You were shot?" Vlad abruptly exclaimed, Danny coughed slightly but ignored him. "I probably should have tried to escape and turn invisible at this point, but I couldn't just leave the ghosts trapped there…"

"Oh please Danny, I can't believe your foolishness…"

Choosing to ignore him once again, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "The GIW aren't as clever as they think they are because I spotted a big red release button on the wall on the other side of the room, so naturally I made a dive for it. It was a pretty incredible stunt, you should have been there," he bragged, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "I got to the button and released the ghosts but not before they hit me again. I figured there was enough chaos so I hid behind something and went ghost. I really don't know what happened after that, there were ghosts everywhere. I eventually found the shield generator and blasted it, I don't know how many of the ghosts escaped, but I bolted. The buffoons recognized Phantom and followed me. We fought for a long time, I can't say for sure when I lost them…I passed out when I got back to amity."

Concluding his story, he swallowed the bile that had risen in his throat and waited for a response, however they were both quiet. They didn't seem to have trouble talking during the story, he mentally grumbled. "I know they've got humans locked up in there somewhere Vlad, I don't care how heartless you are, you have to help me," he tried desperately.

Vlad uncrossed his legs. Scooting slightly, leaning closer to him, "I'll help you Daniel."

Danny widened his eyes as well as his heavy lids allowed. Quickly looking over at Wes who wore an equally surprised expression, "really?"

Vlad waved his hand down, "don't get too excited…I've got my own reasons," the man stated cryptically.

Danny shrugged, he was too tired to be wary of the guy's full intentions. "As long as you keep your promise."

"Hand over the files then," he demanded, getting right down to business.

Not moving his gaze away from the man's face, Danny placed a hand on his forearm and phased out a microchip. Enjoying the genuine astonishment apparent on Vlad's features, he smirked.

"Hm," Vlad muttered as he made his way over to retrieve the chip, "I guess you are capable of some intelligent thought after all."

Settling back down once Vlad took his leave, a sample of Danny's blood safely tucked away, Wes turned the TV back on. "Do you really trust that guy?" he wondered aloud.

Keeping his eyes trained at the screen, Danny shook his head without needing anytime to ponder over the question. "I don't trust him, I'd be stupid to."

"…and yet you placed your life in his hands. Genius," Wes mocked with a disbelieving snort as he flipped through the channels.

Danny grinned, pushing some of the sweaty hair out of his face, "he's too attached to kill me Wes. That I'm sure of."

Wes considered him for a minute before getting up to head into the kitchen, "Whatever you say, Little Badger."

Danny made a face at the embarrassing nick name, grumbling at the boy who chuckled in triumph at finally getting on Danny's nerves.

Finishing up their heated pre-frozen dinner and terrible TV movie, Danny yawned, fighting to keep his eyes open. Quietly, Wes cleared their plates and began washing the dishes. He felt bad, he wanted to help but he could hardly stand straight. He didn't want Wes to take care of him like this but Danny hadn't given the boy much of a choice.

"Hey, you should probably sleep in a bed. Do you think you can climb the stairs?" Wes's voice filtered through his fuzzy mind.

Danny had somehow fallen asleep mid-thought. Smiling up at him, Danny sleepily shook his head. He didn't want to be any more trouble than he already was. "Maybe, but I'm okay really"

Wes rolled his eyes, "Shut up, I'm trying to be considerate," he said as he helped him to his feet. "If you die, I don't want making you sleep on the couch on my conscience."

Gripping the boy tightly for support as they headed for the steps, Danny giggled. "Oh, how selfless of you."

Wes directed him into his room, helping Danny into the bed. After making sure everything was set, "just don't give out in your sleep, a dead body in your bed is something no one can recover from," he jabbed as he walked towards the door.

Danny shifted on the mattress to face the retreating boy, "Wes?" he called out quietly.

"Hm?" the boy answered, reaching out to flick the switch.

"Thanks for spending the day with me." Danny hated how small his voice sounded as he spoke, but he was truly grateful the boy hadn't left him alone. He didn't think he could handle that.

Noticing the look on Danny's face, Wes frowned, pulled his hand back, and came back into the room. "Hey, I was only joking. You're gonna pull through this like you always do, dude," he said, his voice gentle. Danny thought it was strange to hear him sound that way, but he didn't comment on it.

He had never felt this vulnerable before, sure it wasn't the closest he's ever been to death but this time felt different. Without Wes, he would be completely alone. His friends and family had no idea where or how he was. He looked up to meet the boy's eyes, "I'm scared," he confessed softly. He could barely hear himself, but by the reaction on Wes' features, he knew the boy heard him.

Awkwardly threading his fingers through his ginger hair, Wes cleared his throat. "…I was going to go sleep in my dad's room but if you want me to stay in here… I can take the floor."

Danny contemplated letting him go, making him sleep on the ground was really pushing it, but he couldn't bring himself to decline the offer. "Thanks."