So, this chapter is a little bit older. I wrote it around Easter. It was not a happy time, this year. Writing this helped me a little bit. It was the first chapter I wrote of this story. The previous chapter happened as an afterthought.
Anyway, enjoy and review, please.
Disclaimer: bla, bla, bla don't own DP, Nickelodeon does, bla
Afterthought: Are those disclaimers actually needed? Anybody knows, it isn't mine. Me writing it isn't, doesn't change anything legally, does it? It's not as if I've uploaded an actual episode on a video website. This is just fanart or fan...something. Nobody cares. At least nobody from Nickelodeon.
"It isn't right"
"It is."
"Let me change it."
"No."
"But-"
"No! The court has spoken. You aren't allowed to intervene anymore. Your service in this issue is over. Direct your attention to other issues."
"That isn't right!"
"The threat is bound."
"Yes, but-"
"No buts. This is the perfect solution, don't you agree?"
"No, I do not. This is cruel!"
"How high is the probability of another rise of the dark Phantom?"
"Low. But at what cost?"
"A few human beings. Humans die like flies. Six dead bodies more. The world doesn't care, if it's saved through their sacrifice."
"But he does!"
"He was the problem in the first place. If you had listened to us and killed him, we wouldn't need to have this conversation. But he is alive, as you wished. And the threat is under control, as we wanted. Everybody is happy. Let it be."
"But-"
"What would be the alternative?"
"I let him save them. He imprisons the dark and I keep it locked away. Easy."
"Locked away? Where? In your tower?"
"Yes."
"Outside of time? In a simple piece of human technology?! You have seen it; how he simply escaped and attacked the boy again? How high would be the chances of that going wrong?"
"… I can't answer this. The tower is outside of time…"
"To get that clear: You'd endanger the well-being of the world, no, ALL WOLRDS, for the happiness of one boy?!"
"I- N-no…"
"Everything's the way it's supposed to be."
"…"
"Say it, Clockwork!"
"… Everything's the way it's supposed to be."
"Hello, little badger. How are you?"
Danny looked to the door of his hospital room. It hurt. In the door was an all too familiar figure. The one person he'd wish death to, but yet as it seemed the only person who had been able to escape death.
"Vlad," Danny said flatly. The billionaire had a bunch of flowers with him. How cute. Danny averted his eyes and rather looked at the white ceiling of his room. If he'd ignore the fruitloop, he'd probably leave eventually.
The silence stretched out for a few painful seconds in which Danny just wished the man would vanish. But instead he broke the silence:
"I asked you of your wellbeing."
"And I said 'Vlad'," the teenager deadpanned. "That should answer your question."
"To be honest, it does not. I thought you'd be happy to see your dear uncle Vlad."
Danny scoffed, but other than that remained mute. The billionaire sighed. He raked his fingers through his grey hair that was normally well maintained and always perfect. But now, it was unkempt.
"The last weeks have also been hard for me, you know?", he started and waited for a reaction from the teen. He received none, but Danny's butt sore staring at the ceiling.
"I also lost everybody I loved. Everybody but you. And even that was a close call."
Silence and a defiant stare at the ceiling was the only answer he got. Now tears ran down the man's cheeks. "Daniel, please: talk to me! I- you can't imagine how it was to come here every single day in the past two weeks. Hoping, that you would wake up. And now, you finally did and… and…"
"I wish I didn't," came the hoarse answer.
"What?"
"I- I wish I had died right beside them."
"Don't say that, little Badger. Don't think that." A sad smile crept onto the man's wet cheeks. "What would I do without you?"
"I would have deserved it," the raven-haired boy quietly replied, his gaze still on the ceiling.
"No, Daniel, no. You don't." Panic filled the man. Was he serious?
"Why? Because I am the hero?"
This time it was Vlad who was to fall quiet, for he didn't know the answer.
"It was always that way, wasn't it? Me, the righteous hero. You, the insane villain."
"I wouldn't say insane," Vlad Masters interjected.
Danny turned his gaze from the ceiling and looked at Vlad intently. Thereby, he noticed for the first time that his old nemesis was, indeed, in a bad shape. His hair was unkempt and grease, his suit was creased and the dark circles under his eyes were big as plates. Danny shook his head to get the image out of his head and the reply back on his tongue. What was it that he wanted to say? Oh, right.
"You tried to kill my dad to get my mom. You tried to kill me, then you tried to get me on your side. You gave Val ghost hunting equipment to hunt me down. You let a bunch of ghst animals you have killed hunt me and my mom through a forest. The list goes on," the boy pointed out.
"Let's call it eccentric," the billionaire suggested. Danny rolled his eyes and lifted his gaze back to the ceiling. "Fine. Me the righteous hero and you the "eccentric" villain. That's how it always was." Vlad nodded. Not that Danny recognized it at all.
"And yet, I let them all down. They died, and I didn't do anything to save them. I- I couldn't do anything to save them. Even worse; weren't it for me, they all would be still alive. It is my fault, that they are dead. And you; you saved me. It's all mixed up now. You're the hero, I'm the villain."
"Daniel", the older man placed a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder. Though, the lack of a wince or struggle against the touch startled him a bit. And worried him. "Daniel, believe me: You are not the villain. You tried your best, I'm sure. But sometimes we are powerless. Even us two, with our "condition"."
Danny averted his eyes and looked to the window on the opposite side of the room. "If you say so," he mumbled.
Vlad sighed and place the flowers in a vase next to the boy's bed. "I see, you need some time for yourself."
Vlad turned to leave.
At the door, he stopped.
"When you leave the hospital, you'll be living at my place for a certain amount of time. Your aunt cannot support you. I'm sorry."
A deadpan laugh escaped the boy. "How much did that cost you?"
"Sadly, I got you way too low under your value, little badger. It is nearly insulting."
"…Oh."
The car drove through the heavy gate and revealed Masters Manor, Amity Park, in all its glory. But Danny had no nerve for it. Too often he had had to break into this property so that he knew the frontside like the back of his own hand.
And even if he didn't, he wouldn't care. This place was no home. There never would be a home for him, anyways. His parents were dead, his sister and friends, too. He had no family. The only thing left was… Vlad. Needless to say, Danny didn't look forward into a bright future.
The black limousine stopped, and the chauffeur exited the car to get to Danny's door. Danny however had long left the car as well and was now trying to get all his stuff out of the small trunk. The chauffeur came and helped the teen by that task. After that, he wordlessly went back into his car and drove off.
Now, Danny stood alone at the beginning of his "new life". A life, he didn't want to live. A hand touched his shoulder. Vlad. The man, now all dressed up to his normal self, smiled down at the boy in sympathy. How could that become a life for him? Danny took out a photo of all that he had lost. Mom, Dad, Jazz, Sam, Tucker. Just Mr. Lancer was missing.
Somehow, his death bothered Danny the most; he hadn't been close to the overweight teacher. To break him and turn him into his supposed "future self", the teacher didn't need to die. It was just raw and cruel perfectionism of Dan, nothing more. Everything as it was the first time, when he broke. But this time was different: This time, Danny knew what breaking down would mean. This time, there wouldn't be a dark Phantom to happen. He'd seen the future, he knew the future and he knew, he could alter it. If his new power, the ghost wail, wasn't any indication his double victory against Dan sure was. He had defeated the evil ghost, the first time on the battlefield and the second time in the endless fight during his coma in the hospital. He had won, and by the graves of his family, and by the graves of his friends: He wouldn't lose now. Never.
"What are you thinking, Daniel?", Vlad asked curious.
"Huh? Oh, err… Nothing," Danny lied.
"Really? Because that 'nothing made you break the glass on that pretty photo of yours."
Danny looked down again. Indeed, there were cracks in the glass covering the image, and the wooden frame was crushed on one side. Red liquid started to expand under the broken glass. Danny just looked in confusion, and then panic, as the orange jumpsuit of his father slowly got soaked in red. "Make it stop!", he screamed, tears welling up. He felt how the picture got taken out of his hands. "Right, let me handle it," Vlad said and went into the house without another glance at Danny. "Let yourself in and make yourself at home," he said while walking off. Danny didn't mind. There were more important things than him. Anything was, to be honest.
The halfa looked at his hands. There, in the base of his right thump was a glass shard. Blood exited the wound around it. Danny pulled it out and dropped it. Then, he turned to take up his bags and suitcases. The pain in his hand was nothing but a vague shape at the end of a dark tunnel.
There he was, in his new room, the bags unopened beside him. The decadence of Vlad's Amity Park mansion was sickening: His new "room" was bigger than his old house's first floor. A house for itself. Unnerving was the similarity to his old room back home: The same wallpapers, the same blanket cover for the bed. Heck, even the bed was the same as back home, and… and everything else, too. From the table he used to do his homework at, to the closet in the corner. There was even the rocket model he had built as a child. Strange; he had left it at home on purpose, to not be remembered of the day his mother and he had-
But still, it was here. It was unnerving. Even more unnerving was the fact, that everything stood at the place it used to stand in his room. The problem was; it wasn't his room. It was at least twenty times bigger. Maybe even more. So, it looked like the room had expended or grown, only Danny and his belongings had not. He felt small. This, he thought, is how galaxies drifting apart must feel. It was the first time in his life that thinking about space and its endlessness had nothing comforting in it.
The next hour, Danny spent on unpacking, the hour thereafter on crying. When his tears ran dry, he looked at the injured hand of his. As always, the wound was already at closing, a slightly green shimmer at the margin of the wound. Saving the picture wouldn't be that easy. Another two hours passed, until a knocking at the door disturbed the boy from his dark thoughts.
The door opened slowly and an unsure Vlad Masters shoved his head in. "Hello, little badger. Would you like some dinner?"
Danny shook his head, but his stomach betrayed him. The growl echoed in the large room. It was no use to deny it any further: yes, he was basically starving. But taking anything from Vlad? On the other hand; he was already living at the fruit loop's Mansion. A failure, considering Dan's origin. So, should he…?
His stomach urged him to say 'yes'. But before he could decide whether to lose his face by accepting or playing the stubborn idiot, Vlad decided for him. The man held his hand in front of the boy.
"Come. For grieving is always time afterwards."
Reluctantly, Danny grabbed the offered hand and got lifted from his sitting position next to the bed. They went out of the room and downstairs into a big dining hall. The table was empty.
"Here we will dine with guests. It is over the top, I know. But it serves to show our wealth, son."
"Don't call me that."
"Call you what?"
"Son. I am not and I never will be your son."
Vlad's face cringed for a moment. "Sure. I apologize. I didn't mean it that way, Daniel. I-"
"Don't care."
"Well (*cough*), it's settled, then. I will now show you our real dining room." Vlad Masters stepped in front of a bookshelf at the far end of the room. "Behind this shelf is a secret room that leads to my lab and other private places, the living room included."
"Wow," Danny deadpanned, "can it even get more cliché?"
"Oh, I'm afraid not," the mad billionaire replied before he became intangible and stepped through the shelf. "You know?", his voice said from behind the wall, "There isn't a secret mechanism to open a doorway to the room. No fake book or something. It is a hundred percent save from humans. Come, Daniel."
Danny sighed and stepped through the wall as well.
The room was a lot smaller and homelier than the rest of this big, decadent house of Vlad's. But yet, it could only be called small and homely by a rich person who had no idea what those words really meant. Danny was led into another room with a "small" Table and a pair of chairs around it. On the table were two plates with…
"Spaghetti? At dinner? Really?"
"Why not? Don't you like them? I cooked them myself."
Danny sighed. "Whatever."
"Take a seat, Daniel. Here." Vlad offered him a chair. Danny, reluctantly, sat down.
The meal was quiet, nobody said anything. Danny just stared at his plate and ate one or two of the spaghetti every few minutes. Vlad had already finished his meal and just sat on the opposite side of the table, waited. Every now and then he took a nervous glance at the boy. Danny wasn't half through his meal, when he lay down the fork and announced that he had eaten enough.
"And?", Vlad asked. "How do you like it?"
"It's… eatable." Danny dropped his gaze onto his hands. He didn't want to talk. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be. Yet he was. And he was here. And he would need to talk eventually. At least when Vlad asked another question.
"I'm glad, you like it. You know? My wife isn't the best cook, so I have to cook for myself. And now you."
Danny perked up. "You have a wife?"
"Oh, yes Daniel, I have a lovely wife." Vlad grinned proudly. "And I think you know her well."
Just as he finished this, the empty space beside him got filled with a person. Or rather with the holographic projection of a person. More specific, with the holographic projection of Maddie Fenton. Danny's stomach cramped and he had to pull himself together in order not to throw up.
"Hi, darling!", Holo-Maddie chirped before she hugged Vlad. The projection obviously couldn't touch him, but he acted as it did and padded Holo-Maddie's arm, which only fueled the sickening feeling inside of Danny. "Slow, slow, my dear. Today, we have a guest."
"Oh?", Holo-Maddie wondered and turned her attention to Danny. His head hurt, his stomach hurt, every fiber of his body felt like it had cramped as well. He wanted to throw up, he wanted to cry, he wanted to scream. "Make it go," he whispered instead.
"What?", asked Vlad.
"What?", asked Holo-Maddie.
"I said: Make. It. Go!", Danny shouted.
Holo-Maddie looked confused. Vlad smiled a smart-ass smile. "Daniel, she is not an it. Boy, she's your Mom."
"His Mom?", Holo-Maddie asked confused.
"That is not Maddie Fenton," Danny objected.
"I am," the program opposed.
"Shut. Up." Danny's words were pure poison and cold hatred. The hologram recoiled.
"Sweetie, that boy is talking rough to me, do something," it said and half hid itself behind its Master. Before said Master with the fitting name of Masters could do or say anything, a green ghost ray was shot past his ear and through the hologram.
"I said SHUT UP!", Danny screamed, tears now flowing down his cheeks. Vlad wanted to point out the pointlessness of the young halfa's attack to shoot a projection of light, when the hologram fizzled and disappeared. Vlad turned around, disbelieving. "Why…?"
"Why? Why?! Because, this was not Maddie Fenton! This was not my mother! My mother is dead! This was nothing, but a program you programmed, you sick bastard!" Danny was fuming. How could he dare to build a replacement for her?! How? Danny's head spun. He felt sick, he felt angry, he felt confused. He felt shattered. The image of his mother had shattered him. Hearing her voice again, although she was dead, pained him. It just wasn't a halfway good pain. Looking at a picture of her, pained him. Watching a video with her in it, would certainly pain him. But these pains would be natural, maybe even positive. But this what he had witnessed just seconds ago, a holographic slave without own will wearing his mother's face and using his mother's voice? No. That was sick.
"You should watch your tone, Daniel," Vlad coldly replied. Danny could see hurt in the man's face. A voice in Danny argued, that Vlad, too, had loved Maddie Fenton, that Vlad had also lost a beloved person, that he also had suffered, that he had to fight his own demons while Danny had fought Dan's memories in the hospital. Now, this voice was there, but it was small. There was a mightier voice, filling nearly every part of Danny's self:
"How dare you," It said. "How dare you acting, as you'd care for ANYTHING but yourself?!"
Surprise filled Vlad Masters' face. A black light appeared, and anger filled Vlad Plasmius' face. A pink ray struck Danny in the chest and threw him back against a wall at the far end of the room. For a short moment, Danny was baffled. Therefore, he didn't see the fist coming for him. It connected with his chin hard enough to dash his head against the wall.
In the next moment, Danny was really pissed. He didn't feel the pain, as the fist connected with his face or as his head met the wall. He just tasted copper in his mouth. With a flash of white light, the copper taste was replaced with the one of ectoplasm. Phantom spat the green liquid into his foes face. Then, while Plasmius was blinded, he himself threw a punch. It sent Vlad in the air, before he crashed into the dining table, shattering it. Spaghetti and sauce now covered his white suite and cape. He sat up and glared at the younger half-ghost. Within the blink of an eye, he was gone. Danny levitated and watched the area carefully. Everything was silent. Then something connected with his back (Vlad must have sneaked through the wall) and crushed him into the ground. Danny groaned. Then, a sting of fire struck his back. "How dare you, boy?" Again, the fire stung in his back. "I got the best doctors for you." Again. "I paid your hospital room." Again. "I organized your family's funeral." That stung more than the fire that followed: He had literally overslept his family's and friends' funerals. "And I opened my home to you." Again, there was that fiery pain. Slowly he realized, that it must be ecto-rays shot at him. "I did everything for you!" Another ecto-ray pierced into his back. "Why won't you love me?!" He heard, how his ghostly foe fell onto his knees and sobbed. Danny rose up. Every use of a muscle hurt, so he mainly used his ghost powers to levitate him upright. He looked down onto Vlad.
"I asked you for nothing," Danny coldly replied. Then, he flew trough the ceiling, leaving Vlad alone in the destroyed dining room.
Slowly, Vlad Plasmius stood up and phased spaghetti, sauce, and splinters of wood out of his clothes. A black ring formed around his waist, parted in two, and traveled up and down to reveal Vlad Masters. "Unthankful brat," he muttered. "I should have let those ghosts kill you, while you were in coma."
He went into the next room to look after the holoprojector, and realized, that Danny's shot through the wall had hit his lab's main computer.
"Just great."
Hope, it wasn't too rate and review, if you have the time. What do you think?
