Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

Ok, the story Danny is going to tell Vlad is extremly altered. This is because Danny is still convinced Vlaad might try to create Dan. :)

Dedicated to wonderful beta: Cordria

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Danny let his eyes drift to the floor in shame, and couldn't bring himself to look up from the warm concrete. Dan had always been a touchy subject for him, however, talking to the other half of Dan about him was a completely different story.

But Vlad's reaction would have been priceless if Danny had been chipper enough to enjoy it. The man had jumped up from his position on the floor, while his tired face turned a scarlet, beet red. He, quite honestly, looked like a lobster with a bad sunburn and a scalding hot temper. Vlad opened his mouth to attempt to say something intelligent, but all that came out was, "Wh-h-ha-at-t-t?!"

Danny didn't even smile or manage to tease him about it. He just launched right into his story. "It all started with the CATs. I was very... stressed about my test results, after all, always being compared to Jazz the Magnificent was a large downfall.

Anyway, I was studying and a ghost pops out of nowhere. She tells me that her name is Box Lunch, daughter of the," Danny winced, "Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady."

He looked over to see Vlad had sat back down, but had turned a nasty green color while muttering something under his breath like, "Didn't know Lunch Lady was taken... Hmm... Ew. Guess I'll have to cancel our date..." Danny gagged slightly, hearing the last part of Vlad's whispers, and put his head in his chained hands. I'll never be able to unsee that picture... He thought. Ug. Well, at least he's laid off Mom!

"So Daniel," Vlad asked, "does your mother have any plans for Saturday?"

The young teenager sighed and beat his sore head against the wall and murmured, "Thought too soon..." Then he replied louder, "She will never go out with you. Lay off, and get a cat, Plasmius.

But to get back to the point, Box Lunch made the Nasty Burger explode and kill a few.. citizens. I ran away, to someone who promised they could take away the painful emotions. So he ripped my ghost half out."

It was Vlad's time to gag. His eyes went wide and he stuttered out, "W-w-who again did this?"

Danny shook his head, declining his question. Vlad didn't have to know it was he who created Dan. He couldn't risk his enemy trying to merge them together again. "Well, anyway, Dan was created by my ghost half being torn from my human half and merging with... Another ghost's." He had to force himself not to look at Vlad as he said this, "The evil ghost half overwhelmed mine and took over. It destroyed the world at twenty-four years old. All those people dead... And it was all my fault."

Danny sighed a sigh that sounded like he had given up decades ago, like he had been striped of all that was important to him. Vlad had noticed this and recognized the problem in the boy's story. "How did you know of this? And what happened to your human half?"

The younger hybrid was taken aback. Vlad asked the same question he had when Vlad's older self had told him this story. So Danny shook away the shock, pushing it to the back of his mind as he replied, "I know of this because that is no longer my timeline. During my CATs a ghost that ended up becoming very close to me showed Dan to me."

These aren't really lies. Danny thought, I can't let Vlad know the original story, he'll try to take advantage of it. Vlad wasn't looking too convinced though. He looked more confused than anything else. So the older hybrid said, "Daniel, no ghost can show the future! I know every corner of the Ghost Zone and everyone in it. None can show the future."

Danny smiled the first genuine smile he had in a long time and said, "No ghost that you know, Plasmius. This ghost's lair is very... Difficult to locate. He likes his privacy." He put a hand to the necklace around his neck, and rubbed the CW that was in the middle of the vine-like chain. He missed the old time ghost very badly. Clockwork had always been there to help. Whether it was for advice or just to play some checkers. (Danny hated playing chess with him, since he always lost.)

But he knew Clockwork had to work for the good of the time line, and creatures themselves. If he had to get rid of his charge, the time ghost would. Since he knew everything, after all. He watched the parade metaphor from above and all that crap.

"Daniel?" Vlad said, pulling the teen from his thoughts. "Your human half?"

Danny closed his eyes and replied with the only way he knew he could answer that question. "Some things," he murmured only loud enough for Vlad to hardly hear, "are better left unsaid." His enemy paled a shade while Danny felt a single tear run down his face when he pictured the feeble, given up, almost dead to the world, elderly Vlad saying those words to him. That Vlad was too pathetic for Danny to fight.

Danny opened his eyes and realized Vlad was staring at him intently, waiting for the rest of his tale. Danny continued on. "So after Dan took care of my human half, he terrorized Amity Park, almost destroying everything. Valerie and her dad tried to keep up a ghost shield to keep Dan out, but it was no use for his power. He demolished everything in his path."

Vlad seemed to be pondering something as he asked, "Where was Maddie and your idiot father? Surely they would try to keep him out to protect your sister, and the rest of the town."

"Of course the would have," Danny sighed, letting his grief in, "but they couldn't."

The older hybrid smirked a very Plasmious smirk and taunted, "What, did little Jacky get scared and run? Couldn't handle that his own son was destroying the-"

But Vlad didn't get to finish as a sore Danny punched his square in the face while screaming at the top of his lungs, "YOU BASTARD! MY FATHER IS TWICE THE MAN YOU'LL EVER BE!" Tears streamed down Danny's pale face as he felt the skin under his shackles rip open and burn from the unwanted movement. However, he wasn't crying from the pain, Danny was just about immune to pain now, he had experienced too much of it. So much more than Vlad...

A sob escaped Danny's chapped, dry, fevered lips. His family could be murdered by Dan at any minute, and it would be all his fault. If he had only stopped this from ever starting! If only he'd killed himself before he could kill his family, before he stole the answers! If only...

But no. He could never leave his humans undefeanded. Ghosts would still terrorize Amity after he died, and he wouldn't be there for them. He would have failed them.

But hadn't I done that already? Danny thought as he put his head in his hands, sobbing freely. I've already failed, people still die in Amity Park from things I can prevent. Every soul that dies on my turf is my damn fault. And now that I think about it, the more I realize that the only person's life I didn't screw up is Vlad's. I gave him a second chance in that alternate reality, so why not now? A feeling of purpose and determination filled his body, numbing the grief and guilt right away.

Danny Fenton was not going to fail again, and Vlad was getting his second chance, whether he liked it or not.

Danny wiped the salty tears from his face, and turned his eyes to Vlad, who was growling

incoherently until he saw Danny's now red eyes from crying, and the faint tear marks. Confusion welled up in the older hybrid's eyes as he walked over to the boy and put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Daniel?" He said softly, "What's wrong little badger? What happened to your parents in that time?"

Danny bowed his head, letting more tears fall. All his sadness was creeping back into his head. He took a shaky breath before saying softly as he could, "I killed them, Vlad. And it was all my fault. They all died, all of them! Sam, Tucker, Jazz, Mom, and Dad.. That's why I wanted to rip out my human half. I couldn't bear the guilt, but I wish I had killed myself instead. Less lives lost that way."

Danny looked up to see the older man staring at him incredulously in front of him. Vlad shook his head and said, "Daniel, don't ever give up your life! There's never a reason-"

"No Vlad, that's the difference between you and me. I'm prepared to sacrifice my life at any time to save my friends and family. But when they died... My life went into shambles. I couldn't think and my mind almost collapsed on itself, I wanted to die, to be with them." Danny shivered as he continued, "I would see them in my dreams, they would blame me, and disown me. I thought my own family hated me, and I never slept anymore. Life just wasn't worth going to the trouble to live."

Vlad let out a breath and gripped Danny's shoulder harder in comfort. The teen didn't shake it off, but realized he still had a story to finish. He sighed deeply and said, "Now back to D-dan. While he was terrorizing my hometown in the future, I was studying for the CATs. I had accidentally... stumbled on the answers to the most important test ever and I wanted to look off them.

But I never got that far. My ghost sense went off and I left with Sam and Tucker to go catch it. We turned the corner only to find a future ghost (No, I'm not telling you who it is Vlad!) of one of my surviving enemies." Danny felt a tiny smile grace his features. Skulktech was too stupid of a name not to be laughed at. "It caught me in some mechanical arm, and while Sam and Tuck were trying to pry it off, a time medalion fell off it's neck. A blast of white light surronded the ghost and all that was touching it, taking my friends and I with it to the time ghost's lair.

Now keep in mind, this was before my powers progressed farther than an ectoblast. I opened my eyes to see a portal in front of me and medalions. We each put on one for some weird reason, I'm not sure why, it just felt right.

The portal had a ghost that had my insignia on it, but flaming white hair and blood red eyes. He was using a green sonic wave attack on a field of tanks. They were blown away, of course, but I was amazed by the sheer power. I leaned foreward to take a better look, but the portal sucked me in along with my friends.

We were brought to what looked like a ghost town. Buildings were destroyed, trees pushed to the ground, and my welcome was to be shot with a glowing red net by the mighty Red Huntress. Thanks for that by the way Vlad." Danny shot at him sarcastically.

Vlad rolled his eyes and grinned evily. "I needed pawns Daniel. And your friend was an easy one to get."

Danny growled very much like an angry animal, and continued, "So Valerie flipped out as soon as she saw the three of us. She took one look at Sam and Tucker and said, 'It's not possible! You're dead.' Or something along those lines. And we hadn't even started to freak out before a green ectoblast shot toward her. It shot her straight into the sky as I broke out of the net and caught her before she hit the ground.

I set her down and flew as fast as I could back to Sam and Tucker, but Dan had already froze them in place. I saw his red ghost sense go off as I tried as hard as I could to fight him, but I only distracted him enough to break Sam and Tuck free. I yelled for them to run, but they ran under Fenton Works. Dan shot a blast at it and it tumbled down on top of them."

Danny felt his dry throught tighten and his feverish body elevate his temperature to dangerous levels. His head throbbed from water deprivation and his rib was still extremly sore and tender to the touch. He started a fit of coughing and wheezing, and after about five minutes, he said, "I thought they had died, but when I looked under the wreckage there were two medallions. They got away! But I wasn't as lucky.

Dan knocked me out and when I woke up I was in front of their graves. 'Gone but not forgotten', that's what the headstone read. He told me that the Nasty Burger exploded to cause their deaths and how it was my fault, ect. But he eventually told me that he fused the medallion inside of me, I couldn't get to it.

So he tied me up in glowing ropes and sent me off into the ghost zone, unprotected, and unable to defend myself. I floated for what seemed like forever before all of my remaining enemies cornered me, and started to toss me around. They threw all they had at me until I was gasping for air. I was so desperate so I started screaming for them to get away, but the loudest one wasn't a scream. It was my Wail. I had achieved at fourteen what took him ten years to do.

But anyway, I was about to head toward the Fenton Portal when the Boooomerang (You don't want to know.) hit me on the side of the head. It told me that a Mr. Vlad Masters knew something about this. So instead I flew to your subtle as a flying mallet portal and I was shocked at what I saw."

Danny stopped and put all weight on the floor he was lying on. He felt so weak and tired. It was like that incident in the park when he discovered his sensitivity to heat only twice as bad. The young hybrid groaned and tried desperatly to create some ice in his palm, but he was struck with the same fire as before when he tried to use his powers. Danny couldn't cool himself down, and he knew it, but he needed to tell Vlad the story first. He had to understand.

"I'm fine," He said when he saw Vlad's nervous eyes, "I need to get back to the story. Okay, so I got to your house and you weren't... you. This Vlad Masters was completely drained of his ghost powers, and had realized where he'd gone wrong in life. That Vlad took advantage of his second chance and took the medallion out of me, while he told me the story of his... Um.... Friend that had ripped away my humanity and turned me into a monster.

The medalion worked and I was blasted into my time where Dan had apparently discuised himself as me, got my friends, family, and Lancer together, and had them tied up against the almost exploding boiler of the Nasty Burger." Danny felt tears threaten to fall, but he blinked them away. Vlad couldn't see him break down again. "I used his powers against him, kicked his butt, and sent him into the thermos, never to see him again -exept in my dreams- until now. But now he's wandering freely around my mind and the world, going after my family to turn me into him. That's who captured us."

Danny stopped and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he shook aggressivly on the floor in pain. It was just too hot, and the fever had to be killing him. Vlad sat beside the teenager and asked urgently, "Daniel? Are you alright?"

Danny shrugged while grunting, "Nothing's wrong, 'm fine." But he was anything but fine as sweat started to pour down his face, and his insides felt like they were on fire. He could barely hold back a scream as the fire inside of his spread to his entire body, and turned his pale skin a deep red. The desire for water was forced to the top of his priority list as he rasped out unwillingly, "Too hot... Water... Need water..."

Vlad seemed to get the message. He shot out of his sitting position and looked frantically around the room. Where does a fourteen year old boy keep water? The older hybrid thought, what can't any child live without?! Come on Vlad, you were a kid once! His eyes scanned the room again before his eyes stopped on the TV that was mounted on the wall.

Vlad ran over to it and pushed the power button. The device instantly morfed into a vending mechine stocked with water, soda, food, and ice packets...? He pushed the button for water, but when nothig happened Vlad slammed his fist against the Plexiglas angrily yelling, "Come on you infernal mechine!"

The 'infernal machine' replied in a amused voice, "Say please Fruitloop."

"Blasted machinery!" He screamed, but as soon as he looked over at the shaking form that was Danny, Vlad complied growling, "Please." As soon as he said the magic word a gallon of freezing cold ice water appeared in his hands. Vlad rused back to the dehydrated boy, who grabbed the water and drank the entire thing in one gulp.

Danny gasped for air as he finished the water. He turned to Vlad who was looking at him like he had grown a second head, and said to him, "I uh.... Don't deal with heat well. My room at home is under freezing, but I can deal with anything up to sixty degrees. If it's higher I um... Do that."

The older hybrid shook his head while he said, "And you call me crazy?!"

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Serena floated through the castle toward the Fentons' room. They had given her quite a scare yesterday when Clockwork told her he had found the merely visiting Observants hanging from the rafters. Therefore, she took it upon herself to strengthen the shield around the two humans, and check up on them every hour or so.

But as she was getting closer to their room she heard horrible screams echoing throughout the hallway, the Ghostly Wail. Serena's eyes widened as she flew as fast as could toward the power.

But she was too late. The Fenton parents were dead with Dan Phantom standing above them, smiling like he just won 1.86 billion dollars on Powerball. Serena ducked out of the room invisibly before the ghost could see her and bolted away from the room.

Clockwork was going to kill her.

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Don't even have time to do proper author's note. Sorry. TOO MUCH SCHOOL!!!!!

Review please.

kirby