Chapter 16

"Trust In You"

"Scared?" Danny Fenton asked his other self, his head tilted to one side and a sneer slowly started to form. The familiar ring appeared around his waist and he closed his eyes and lifted his head, smirking as the transformation took place. When he opened his red orbs again, a plasma blast was heading right for him. He turned intangible and the blast sailed through his body, crashing into the wall behind him. He disappeared and appeared behind Daniel Masters and whispered, "Now now, don't want to destroy me before you know me Danny boy."

"Shut up!" Daniel snapped and formed another red blast of plasma in his hands. Danny raised an eyebrow and held out his hand and formed a green tinted dome around him.

"Admit it Daniel, I scare you! Because I am you! Especially now! I easily turned as you did because you were afraid! You felt like everyone betrayed you! Everyone, every single person you thought you were close to betrayed you because of who you are." Danny told him, his red eyes boring into the other's.

"I said to shut it!" Daniel yelled, the pain beginning to come back, he threw the plasma and Danny narrowly avoided it, dropping to the floor and then rolling away as Daniel threw more blasts at him rapidly.

Danny ran into a wall and jumped up, taking a blast into his chest and hitting the wall. He groaned and fell to his knees. He understood now, everything. He understood himself and more scary, Vlad. "You loved them, you still do, that will never change." He said breathlessly. " Even if you have to kill them one by one, its better than living this torture you go through every single day Daniel. Of deciding whether what is right and wrong to do. Good versus Evil, Hate versus forgiveness and love. You chose hate and evil because you had no choice!"

Daniel growled, his arm holding out another plasma blast. His eyes were fixated on his other self. "That's right! I had no choice! No one would accept me! So I had to make them pay by going to Vlad!" Daniel yelled. " I hate them! I really do!" the pain was almost too much for Daniel to bear, Danny was bringing everything back again, all the pain, all the shock, all the sadness, and he wanted it just to die. He wanted Danny to die. The boy was reaching too deep into his soul. He had already been weakened by his inner self, now this boy would turn him back? He didn't think so. He held his arm back, ready to throw…

"But you don't have to hate anymore."

Daniel faltered, his eyes widened in shock as he stared at himself. The white hair, red eyes, spandex suit, he held no defense position, his arms at his side, just staring at Daniel, his eyes wide and innocent. "W-what?" Daniel stuttered. He took a step back and thoughts flooded his mind, is this true? Can this pain really go away? Could he become good again? He slammed his eyes shut and shook his head frantically, trying to escape the inner voice. "No, No no no no no no!" Daniel yelled, his eyes open and now wild with fury. "You are lying! There is no way to go back, you hear me? NONE!" The plasma disappeared from his palm and he threw himself at Danny, both falling to the floor with Daniel on top of Danny, choking him. Danny gasped and tried to escape but Daniel held him down firm.

"You….can.." Danny gasped. "All, you need to do…is….forgive."

"Forgive them?! Never!" Daniel hissed, tears forming and falling from his eyes.

"Not….only…them.." Daniel's eyes narrowed. "But..yourself."

Once again, Danny managed to hit a nerve within Daniel's soul and the evil halfa pulled away from Danny, shaking his head as the tears flowed freely now. "No! I don't need to forgive myself! You're wrong! You're.." he trailed off as he looked at Danny. Danny coughed and regained his breathing. He smiled weakly to Daniel, then sat up, eye level with his other self.

"You have to Daniel, please, they love you, they will always love you, no matter what you do, or how bad you are. They will always love you. Mom, dad, Valarie, Jazz, Tucker, Lancer.."

"Sam?" Daniel whispered. He looked at Danny pleadingly.

"Sam too, especially Sam." Danny smiled softly to his darker self. "Vlad doesn't love you. He can't love you, it would cost too much."

Daniel looked down, tears flowing to the floor, forming a small puddle. He grabbed a hold of his pants and clutched the fabric into fists in his hand. His body trembled and he finally met Danny's eyes, but what Danny saw wasn't hate, malice or revenge. Only sadness, only guilt, only fear.

"What do I have to do?"

"He told you?! How?" Sam demanded, running to Tucker and grabbing him by the collar.

"Woah! Easy Sam! Calm down! That isn't what I meant." Sam released him and sighed, turning away and running a hand through her black hair.

" I meant before the battle, Danny told me he would be okay. Trust me on this. He may be unsure at times, especially this Danny, but he is alive. I know he is." Tucker looked out of the cave mouth towards the ruined city.

"But what if he is no longer on the good side." Everyone froze at that comment. Tucker turned to the speaker, Sam, who was sitting down now, her head low.

"Sam, no this Danny has people who he knows loves him. He would never turn from good to bad." Tucker reassured, kneeling next to her and putting an arm around her.

"Tucker's right Sam." Maddie said softly, appearing on her other side and also putting a arm around the tortured girl. "Danny would never betray us, just because Daniel Masters has, doesn't mean Danny Phantom will as well. Even if they are one in the same they are still two different people."

Sam sighed, relief clearly shown on her face. She turned to Maddie weakly and smiled. "Thanks. You both." She looked to Tucker and also smiled. She stood up with them close behind. Her weakness faded and she turned to what was left of the group and made a stone face. "They have Danny, we have to find him. At all cost. If we want to win this war, he has to lead us."

"Are you crazy? If we leave this cave we will turn into mindless zombies like them." Dash yelled, pointing out to the large group of humans that were fully under Vlad's command. "We go through that dome and we are goners!"

"So we wont go through the dome." Maddie smirked and loaded her ectoplasm gun.

"How are we going to get to Vlad and Daniel without going THROUGH that bright red dome magic thingy?"

"You'll see." Maddie smirked and fired a blast at the rock wall.

" Oh, Crab Cakes!" Vlad cursed, bitterly dusting away dirt from his solid gold suit. "This blasted metal suit is harder to walk in than I thought." He looked down at the imprint of his body that was left in the dirt. He then took his gaze up to the world around him. It was finally his. The resistance was all but gone. All he had to do and pick off the remaining team hiding in the caves and he was sure of his future. He was confidant things were going well, except Daniel saving Danny. But Vlad was sure that Danny could do nothing and Daniel would hold the young boy hostage until he got there. First of all what he had to do was secure his right as leader and send his troops out to secure the outlaws.

He turned and saw the army before him, humans and ghosts alike, standing at attention for him. He smiled and walked over to his army, slowly and quite unsteady considering the fact that he was off his horse, yet he continued on. Skulker, glanced over at him, briefly wondering what his leader was up to. The stride he took was unstable and hurried. The chrome plated ghost turned his attention back to the multitude of slaves before him. All of them were drones now. Vlad could do whatever he wanted with them all. Skulker's mind was a blank. It had to be to continue being under Vlad's rule. He hated to be ruled by anybody. But after a encounter with Vlad, Skulker had to obey, no matter what.

"Why the gloomy face tin man?" a bright voice asked. Instantly Skulker's eyes narrowed and turned them up to the annoying ghost who said them. Floating eye to eye with him was Youngblood, the pirate son ghost, with an obnoxious streak.

"Would you please stop calling me that." Skulker growled, then surveyed the scene before him again. The drones were all doing the word he told them to do.

"Aw c'mon Chef Boyardee don't be madddd." Youngblood teased, then his face fell and he glanced at the drones. "Thinking about how life used to be huh?"

Skulker's green eyes turned to the child's. "You miss it?"

"Sometimes. I can't have fun anymore. Master took away my parrot and left this pirate no crew, only orders." Youngblood said, with a tinge of annoyance.

"Well at least you got that pirate lingo down now, brat." Skulker smirked, then looked over again at Vlad. "What do you suppose he is doing?"

Youngblood looked over at Vlad. "Who knows? That bil-Master can do whatever he wants now, can't he?"

" I suppose." Said another voice, this time it was Spectra. "But he should know by now that he is only on borrowed time. He can only make enemies from here. None of us would trust him. If we can get a hold of his little ghost toy we could rule this world as well." Her glowing green eyes glared at the man climbing the nearby cliff. She wore a simple black and green suit with flames decorated on it, green boots and her hair up in a ponytail.

The pirate clad Youngblood frowned at Spectra. "Rebel against Master? That isn't a good idea Spectra."

"What? Are you now his cabin boy? C'mon twerp. Think about it." Spectra sneered.

Youngblood growled. " I am nobody's cabin boy! But I wont against Master. I cannot." He turned and flew away.

Spectra watched him with little interest.

"You shouldn't tease him too much." Skulker muttered.

"Why not? The kid's obviously too spineless to be who he once was." Spectra sighed.

"Because his bird was taken and hidden away." Skulker informed.

Spectra frowned. " He's an old enough ghost to know to get rid of that human emotion."

Skulker chuckled. "Don't we all have a bit of that left still? You, maybe even me."

Spectra scoffed. "The great hunter Skulker actually have a human heart or spirit? Tell me I'm dreaming, oh wait, I haven't dreamed in centuries."

Skulker grinned. "Keep laughing whelp. But we will see who has the last laugh. Though it obviously wont be Mister Gold Plated up there."

"Really?" Spectra raised an eyebrow, mistrusting Skulkers words.

Skulker turned to Spectra and blinked comically. "Don't you trust me?"

"Slaves! Ghosts! Attention!" Vlad called out from a fairly high cliff. "If I may say this now and only once! Find the rest of the rebels and bring them to me, NOW!" Vlad hissed, his eyes blazing with sudden anger at realizing that his plan almost did not succeed. Then he turned to his other prisoner. The young witch under his power that made all of this possible. He smirked, he heard the millions of followers move and start their search. But all he was concerned about was the girl right before him. He walked towards her. She did nothing. She was under his complete power. Although, inside her spirit was fighting for all that she was worth. She couldn't let this evil man get away with this. Hurting millions of people. Just for his own greed. She ordered her body to take the horse she was on and go. Go anywhere. But her body did nothing to obey. Vlad got onto the horse before her. She instantly held onto him as they rode off to the palace. Her eyes were still devoid of life.

But inside she would continue to fight. Fight for the ghosts and the humans. Against the man who hurt everyone and betrayed his own race.

He would not be forgiven.