This chapter is dedicated to Cellosolo2007, also known as Sapphire, who not only kept asking me to update, but also inspired some of this chapter through a forum conversation about the creation of Dan Phantom (hint hint). Thank you all for your reviews and for being patient.

Maddie stood up and pressed some buttons on the Specter Speeder. Blasts flew at the closed door, but nothing even made a dent. I stayed quiet, knowing that my portal was impervious to everything. Finally she said, "We're going to have to ram it." She sat down in the pilot's seat and backed the Specter Speeder up.

I ran forward and stopped her. "It won't work Maddie. Nothing can open a portal from the inside." She turned around angrily to face me.

"Than what are we going to do Vlad?" she demanded. "We can't turn around and fly back through the Ghost Zone, by then we'll be too late." Maddie began taking things out of the bag on her hip and looked at them, seeing if anything would be suitable for breaking down the portal door.

A huge pile was scattered on the floor, most of the inventions looked very dangerous. Finally she dropped something that I recognized. I grabbed it and examined it closely, making sure that it wasn't damaged. "Maddie," I said, momentarily distracting her from getting more and more panicked. "Where did you get this?"

She looked at it and said, "When I first came home I went down into the lab and found it destroyed. I found that on the floor and knew it wasn't a Fenton invention so I stuck it in my pack. Then I went upstairs and found you soaked in blood and Daniel looking like he had been put through a shredder, so I forgot." She turned her attention to me. "How did that happen anyway?"

My first instinct was to lie. Bad habits die hard. But I managed to say, "My ghost half attacked Daniel and threw him into a counter full of beakers." Her eyes widened. "That's not important at the moment." I said quickly. "This will open the portal door."

I said a silent prayer and pressed the button. For a moment nothing happened, and then the portal door slowly slid open. "Yes!" Maddie said, and then hugged me tightly. I froze, not knowing how to react. "Oh…" she said embarrassedly, before letting go of me and looking away.

She walked over to the control panel and looked at the controls. I just stood where I was. She had never hugged me since the accident. That wasn't a romantic hug, but it was a gesture of friendship. It had been a long time since anyone had done something like that for me. Maybe I would never be able to get her to marry me, but perhaps we could be friends again.

But after this mess was over and I was reunited with my ghost half, would she be able to forgive me for everything I've done? Sure she said she forgave me already, but once she sees my ghost half and what he's capable of will she feel the same way?

Did I even want to become half ghost again?

I dragged myself out of my thoughts and said, "I don't know if we should go in or not. My other half knows we're coming, and there's probably a trap waiting for us."

Maddie sat down and grabbed on to the steering wheel. "That's just a chance we'll have to take. I'm going to save Danny no matter what." she moved the Speeder forward and through the portal.

My lab, which I just realized I had never told Maddie about, was very dark. The only light came from the portal. Maddie pressed a button and the headlights turned on, illuminating the laboratory. It was almost as destroyed as the Fenton's had been. I noticed right away that several things were missing, including the version of the Ghost Gauntlets I had been working on. My version was very similar to Jack's, except for mine had long blade like claws on the ends of the fingers.

There was a muffled sound to my right, and I turned to where Maddie had been sitting. I stared at her seat for a moment before the fact sunk in. She was no longer there.

I opened my door and climbed out into the dark room. "Maddie?" I said quietly. "Where are you?" There was no answer, and I wasn't really expecting any. She had been kidnapped by my ghost half right out from under my nose. I walked back to the Specter Speeder and grabbed an ectogun from the pile Maddie had left on the floor. Now I was the one who had to save Daniel.

"Alright," I yelled, "I know you're here and you want revenge on me. Come out and face me so that we can get this over with." I was sick of running, and even though I probably would only last a minute against my ghost half at least I would know I tried. The headlights shut off as the engine to the Specter Speeder mysteriously died. The vehicle fell to the floor with a loud crash.

Two red eyes appeared and stared at me through the darkness. Plasmius became visible, illuminating the room slightly, and started laughing. "And here I was thinking that I had gotten all of the courage when we split. Apparently there is still a little bit of spine left in you." I glared at him through the darkness and aimed the gun I was carrying at him.

"Don't even bother, my human friend." He said. "Even if you could land a single shot I doubt you would even have enough strength to fire. And by strength I don't mean muscles." I pointed the end of the gun right between his red eyes and put my finger on the trigger. "You and I both know that without me you are nothing."

"That's not true." I said, even though I had a sinking realization that it was.

"Lying is bad Vladdie. I can read minds, as you so clearly have trouble remembering. Without me you will always remain a weak human." His eyes flashed dangerously. "A weak, mortal, human." Suddenly he blasted me with a bright purple blast and I was launched backwards into a wall.

Pain erupted and sped through me as I sunk to the floor. It was so strange, feeling something you hadn't really felt in twenty years. Now that I was completely human I was nowhere near as strong as I had been, and injuries were taking a much greater toll on me than they used to. After being half invincible for twenty years I had forgotten how much I could be hurt.

"Aww, poor Vlad has a boo-boo." Plasmius said, floating over to me. "Don't worry; it won't hurt for much longer. When you're dead it's really hard to find things that can hurt you more than the initial death." His hand glowed as he prepared to launch another ecto-blast. I ignored the screaming pain in my back and shoved myself away from the wall. The blast narrowly missed my foot.

"Just admit it." He said, not really caring that his blast had missed. "If you hadn't become a half ghost then you're life would have been miserable. I was the one who overshadowed those business owners to get you your fortune, I was the one who had all of those connections in the Ghost Zone, and I was the one with all of the power. Without me you are nothing."

For a moment despair filled me as I realized that it was true. Then anger flowed through me and I stood up as straight as I could and glared up into his eyes. "You're lying." To my pleasure he looked completely surprised. It had taken me a long time to figure out his weakness, but I finally had. He was only half of a being. I needed him, that was true, but he needed me.

"If that accident had never happened I would have completed college and gotten a good job anyway. I might have had a better friendship with Maddie and Jack. I would have had a life, maybe even a family, but you ruined all of that. I am human now, and I can still salvage what is left of my life, but what about you? You're a ghost, your chance at life is gone, and you never even had one."

His eyes were almost blindingly bright, and when he spoke I could tell he was furious. "No!" he yelled, "You need me to survive!" Then he seemed to freeze, and he instantly became very, very calm. "Because you are only half of a being too." Before I could move he blasted me with glowing ecto-bonds.

"You're going to wish you had never said that." Plasmius said. "I will prove to you that I am superior to you. Without me you are weak, but without you I am stronger than ever."

I saw my gun over on the other side of the room. Unfortunately it was in several pieces. My other half landed in front of me and grinned. "It's so much more fun to destroy people when they know that they have lost and can no longer deny it." He said. "Consider yourself lucky that I haven't blasted you yet for your little comment, but it does get rather boring without someone to talk to who doesn't threaten me."

"Assuming that you read young Daniel's file about 'Dan Phantom- '" he said, spitting the name out in disgust. "Which I know you did - then you know that sweet lovable Dan was created when Daniel's ghost half overshadowed me, thus creating the most powerful ghost ever created who ended up destroying the world of the future blah blah blah."

He paused, taking a moment to push me backwards which caused me to fall over. "But perhaps you missed something while you were skimming through looking for a clue. Although he never said his name, the evil ghost of the future was assumed to be Daniel's evil side. He acted like Daniel in many ways. The young halfa and his friends called him Dan Phantom, instead of Vlad Phantom or Dan Plasmius. No one seems to acknowledge the fact that Dan would never even exist if it hadn't been for yours truly."

Plasmius grinned insanely again. "I must say I admire Daniel's ghost half for being able to overshadow someone as powerful as myself. That was why he had control over me, why he was still Daniel, just evil. But I'm going to change that. This time I'm going to rip Daniel's ghost half from him, and then take control of it. I will have all of his power, all of his potential," he smirked, "And if I'm lucky then maybe I'll get his youth too. I'll be in control of the most powerful creature to ever exist. As for the whole issue about him being a hero… well it's very hard to be corrupted by good now isn't it?"

"How do you even know all of this?" I said. Daniel was doomed, and he probably led to his own demise by writing everything down.

"Bing bing bing, we have a winner folks!" he said smugly. "While you and Daniel were out looking for Jack I read through most of Daniel's files. Even if you did find Jack, how did you expect to save him from me? Thanks to Daniel I know exactly how to become as powerful as I can, and this time I know about Clockwork so I will exterminate him if he ever starts to interfere. So there, you know my plans and if you had any I would know those. We're even in that aspect at least. Go on, tell me I'll never get away with it, that good will always triumph over evil, you know you want to."

Instead I said, "So after you destroy the world what will you do next?"

"Kill you of course! I had warned you that if you didn't keep out of this then your demise would be painful and long. What worse way to die is there than watching everything and everyone you know and love be murdered by your evil half, while you sit by getting older and older and are unable to do anything about it? That reminds me, I have some people waiting for me upstairs. We'll have to finish our conversation up there."

He grabbed my shoulder and flew me up through the ceiling until we were in one of the other labs. Plasmius dropped me on the floor and landed a few feet away. "Vlad!" I heard Maddie yell.

"Which one Maddie darling?" my other half said before laughing. I looked up and saw Maddie bound in ecto-bonds like I was. She glared at him and then turned to me.

"How could you live with him for so many years?"

"Lot's of patience, and it still didn't go very well." I said. Then I realized that I had forgotten about Daniel.

He was strapped to a table, and he was unconscious. My other half smiled and pulled on the clawed gloves, which I hadn't come up with a name for yet. "Nice to know you both still have some humor left" he said. "Let's see if we can remedy that."

Dun Dun DUUUUUUNNNN!!!!