Disclaimer: I still don't own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does, and I somehow doubt that will be changing any time soon. Since I'm not making any money from this, there is nothing for the law-ninjas to sue out of me.

Author's Notes: Back on my hot streak! Plasmius is a lot of fun to write. Though the final line of this chapter I have to give my friend Makou the credit for. He came up with an oath suitably different from the norm to convey a very strong expletive that I ended up using As always, reviews are appreciated!

Chapter 5: Dark Thoughts

"My past breathes down my neck

And it seems now that all I can do is

Go back to beginnings when all lay ahead

A fading illusion now plagues me instead"

-"Solitary Ground" - Epica

What have I done? What did I do? Why did I do that? Everyone around me gets hurt or killed because of me- The thoughts were an intrusive litany on his consciousness as he flew over the familiar buildings of a city ten years burned to the ground. That he burned to the ground. He wasn't sure if he was crying or not; and if he was, whether it was from anguish or from fear or from something else entirely. He wasn't sure of anything. Everything was wrong, it was his fault, why did he survive that awful day?

They were all supposed to be dead. It was his fault, if he hadn't cheated on that exam, if only he had made the right choice! Clockwork had been right, he should have turned his behavior around, this was worse than merely witnessing history repeat itself. He could hardly believe himself, what he had been about to do. To Sam-! Even through his shock he could still understand why he had been ready and willing to do that to Valerie. But to Sam? To Tucker? To his sister?

Even Valerie didn't deserve what he had been so close to doing. He shivered as he flew onward, remembering the day he came back to Amity Park after everything had gone so wrong. Try as he might, he could not outrun those memories.

"D-danny? What are you doing?" Her voice was stunned, hurt, the first traces of terror flying across her dark face as he stood there, fist still clenched after delivering that first bone-cracking punch.

"What I should have done months ago." His voice was cold even to his ears as he stood, glaring death at the ghost huntress.

He was angry, unbelievably enraged, any restraint he might have once possessed ripped away and replaced by hate. He had trusted her with his greatest secret, he had gone to her for comfort, and she repaid his trust with her weapons.

"I-I know you're probably mad at me, but Danny, after you disappeared, I was so worried-"

He didn't let her finish, striking her down again. It felt so right, hurting her, making her pay, retribution for how she had hurt him. "You had your chance, Valerie. We all did."

"What are you talking about? Danny, I didn't know... if I'd known, I'd never have done what I did before. I know you're upset-" She gasped as he lashed out a third time, his fist almost instantly raising a welt across the girl's face. "Danny... why are you doing this? I'm your friend!"

"I don't have any friends." He stated, a frown crossing his face. "Not anymore."

"Why? WHY?" He shrieked to the night, voice cracking on the senseless plea.

He couldn't stand the achingly familiar city laid out below him. The idea of burning the memory away was worse, a maddening temptation and fright on his already addled mentality. His concentration was shot, wits scrambled, exhaustion setting in. He couldn't stay airborne forever, and fell whimpering toward one of the familiar buildings below. The interior was dark, almost as if abandoned.

There was no one to hear Phantom's trembling cries.

---

"Sugarcookies! Fudgenutters!" He spat, landing atop a random roof and quickly collapsing to a sitting position. "Cinnamon buns! Apple strudel!"

He knew he had to sound absolutely ridiculous; a fierce looking ghost sitting carelessly on a roof and spouting an impressive litany of dessert items. Ten years ago he would never have lost his cool like this. Of course, ten years ago he didn't have the blood of thousands of murders on his hands. Ten years ago he hadn't been subjected to the dizzying and mentally scarring fusion with his archrival's ghostly self. Ten years ago he would never have thought he would be in part responsible for the wholesale annihilation of an entire city and everyone in it.

Plasmius rubbed the bridge of his nose as his string of pastry oaths finally wound down. What was he going to do now, freed from Daniel's ghost self and ten years of that shared consciousness? Maddie was still alive in this strange new timeline that Daniel had created. He frowned. The woman would never accept him, the ghost half. Though he was loathe to admit it, Plasmius knew that Maddie barely put up with his complete self. He had played his hand in the past poorly, and in the end it hadn't mattered, Maddie was dead. But not now! Thanks to Daniel, the lithe ghost hunter was alive!

And so is my intact alternate self. Plasmius' frown deepened at the thought. He knew quite personally that his past self would not appreciate any competition for Maddie's affection. That was why they both hated Jack so badly, after all. His past self had every advantage, no less. Vlad Masters had the money, had the estate, had the connections and contacts. Vlad Masters had the one thing that mattered most: a human form.

Plasmius could easily overshadow someone and continue his pursuit of Maddie's affection that way... but no. He wanted her to love him, not some meat puppet. He could access the vast fortunes of his present timeline self, perhaps try and launch new schemes of his own. No, his present day self would notice the financial drain. Vlad Masters had no qualms about spending large sums of money, but he also kept meticulous records of his spending.

His present day self could become quite a threat. Plasmius considered what he could dredge from his own addled memory. There were gaps in what he could remember from before the fusion. The ghost knew there were bits of recollection missing, information that would put him at a disadvantage if he was careless. His recollection of the past ten years was painfully flawless, each murder burned into memory. But fifteen years ago? Twenty years ago? All he could dredge were disconnected images and emotions. Like staring at a fauvist painting, he could gauge the emotion and vague idea, but the details were beyond lost; a blur of impressions.

Plasmius knew there was something wrong, horribly, unimaginably wrong; but he could not yet place just what it was.

---

"Ah yes, Miss Gray." Vlad leaned on the armrest of his comfortably upholstered chair, phone propped against his ear. "I haven't caught you at a bad time, have I?"

"No, no, of course not!" The young huntress's hastily replied over the phone. She sounded tired, the background noise implied to the billionaire that Valerie was lying down. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm afraid so, my dear." Vlad scowled. "As you know, I have been supplying you with weapons and equipment to fight ghosts, the ghost-boy in particular."

"Yeah, the new stuff works great!" Valerie's grin was clear in her voice.

"New stuff?" I haven't given her any new equipment recently. Vlad quirked an eyebrow, mentally filing a note to look into that later.

"Well, I'm not certain if it reached the news in Amity Park, but my home was destroyed today." Vlad smiled slightly when he heard Valerie's gasp of surprise.

"Are you alright?" She asked. "What happened?"

"Fortunately, I wasn't inside when it happened. It would seem however, that the ghosts know I've been the one giving you weapons." Vlad paused, to give the girl the proper chance to jump to conclusions.

"You mean a ghost did it?" Valerie yelped, her tone laden immediately with a finely-honed anger.

"Not just any ghost." Vlad kept his tone carefully level. "I have good reason to believe that it was in fact Phantom himself. Perhaps he learned I was supplying you, and thought to take out his problems at their source."

"He did it?!" Valerie shouted loud enough that the archvillain winced and held the phone away from his ear for a moment. "After what happened today, he-"

"Wait, something happened today?" Vlad interrupted the huntress and her tirade.

The billionaire hadn't yet caught up on the news, with the better part of the day having been spent on shifting his operations to his vacation house. Well, he had been meaning to take a trip to Colorado anyway. While much of the clone experimentation could be controlled remotely from Wisconsin, he did prefer to check up on that particular project personally.

"Yeah, something happened today." Valerie spat with a venom in her voice that impressed even the billionaire. "And I bet you that it made national news, too!"

Oh cheeselogs, and I haven't had a chance yet to watch the news. Vlad griped to himself. "Unfortunately, I've been terribly busy today. I assume you were there and involved in whatever happened?"

"Well yeah!" Valerie scoffed. "Some creepy ghost was outright attacking the city, Mr. Masters. The ghost-kid and I were both trying to fight the guy!"

"Wait, wait. You cooperated with Danny Phantom?" Vlad's interest was piqued.

Was Valerie's "creepy ghost" related to the ghost he thought was somehow Daniel? If Daniel was in Amity Park during the day, there was simply no way for the boy to have been in Wisconsin. Unless Daniel had not only acquired a great deal more power but also a considerable boost in flight speed. The flight from Madison to Amity Park took a number of hours even for Vlad; he couldn't imagine any way for Daniel to be in both places within a single day.

"Not intentionally." Valerie sounded almost apologetic about having actively cooperated with her nemesis. "But between the ghost kid and that guy, the ghost kid was the lesser of two evils."

"Really now?" Vlad found himself glad that he had decided to phone Valerie.

He had originally planned to tell the huntress that Daniel had destroyed his castle in retaliation for supplying Valerie with her weaponry. Ideally that would give the girl further motivation for attacking the boy. Now however, it seemed that the circumstances involving his castle were not so simple, and the girl could be a useful source of information.

"Yeah, you wouldn't believe how powerful that ghost was." Valerie 's voice held the barest note of... was that fear?

"Do go on." Vlad shifted to lean back more comfortably in his chair. He was probably going to be there for awhile. "I'm most curious about this other ghost."

There was a pause over the phone line as Valerie apparently organized her thoughts. Whatever had happened seemed to have thoroughly rattled the fiercely motivated huntress. Vlad hadn't heard anything about any ghosts with such power, and he was usually quite well-informed of the latest news out of the Ghost Zone.

"It was awful, Mr. Masters." Yes, that was definitely fear, perhaps even just a shred of honest terror thrown in for good measure. "I didn't catch a name, but he looked like he might have been related to the ghost-kid. I thought they were brothers or something."

"Really now?" Vlad quirked an eyebrow at the information. "What makes you think the two were related?"

"Well..." Valerie paused, a frown clear in her voice. "The older guy looked kinda like Phantom. They had similar outfits, and the same emblem. You know, that D-P thing on the chest?"

"Yes, I know the emblem." Vlad frowned. Daniel's silly little logo always struck the billionaire as extremely childish.

"But it was really weird. The ghost-kid was totally bent on stopping the guy, he even seemed offended when I accused him of being related to that other ghost." Valerie continued.

"And what precisely was this ghost doing, my dear? You sound rather shaken by whatever happened." Vlad shifted his tone to sound slightly more sympathetic to the girl's plight.

"He was... it was awful." Valerie's voice caught on the declaration. Clearly whatever she had seen was deeply troubling. "He was attacking people, destroying anything he could get at. I watched him blow up an entire building! And he was laughing, he was enjoying it!"

"Valerie, please calm yourself." Vlad interrupted the girl's tirade, honestly surprised at what must have happened to rattle the huntress so badly. "What became of this ghost?"

There was another pause. "I... don't know for sure. He hit me pretty hard and I think I blacked out. He was gone when I came to."

"I see. And Phantom-?" Vlad prompted.

"He was gone too." Valerie's voice regained a fragment of its usual steel at the mention of her nemesis.

Vlad nodded to himself at the information. It was clear now to the billionaire that the circumstances of his castle's destruction were far more complicated than he had initially anticipated. If it wasn't Daniel's doing, who was this new ghost that had come almost literally out of nowhere? Clearly there was something going on that he needed to be aware of.

"Might I make a suggestion?" Vlad knew he had to take care of his pawn first; it was evident that Valerie was not going to be of much use in this scenario.

"Sure."

"Take a break from ghost hunting, would you?" Vlad immediately heard the hissing intake of breath as the girl prepared to argue the matter, and he quickly continued. "You are clearly not in peak form due to this ghost. It wouldn't do for you to get hurt or worse by pushing yourself so soon after such a terrible encounter."

"But what if that ghost is still on the loose? Who's gonna stop him from..." Valerie trailed off, apparently uncomfortable with stating it. Killing people.

"Yes, well there isn't anything going on right now, is there?" Vlad wouldn't admit it, but even he was unsettled at the notion of a ghost who was willing and perfectly capable of performing lethal violence on a grand scale.

"Well... no." Valerie grudgingly admitted.

"Then get some rest. It would be a shame for your talent to be wasted because of a single careless act." Vlad smirked when he heard the girl sigh. Appealing to her ego was a certain way to make sure she wasn't underfoot. "I shall look into the matter myself."

"Really?" Valerie sounded thoroughly surprised. "But don't you have to deal with the stuff about your house blowing up?"

"A simple enough matter. I would think that this ghost takes priority over my castle, wouldn't you agree?" Vlad was already considering how he would investigate this new ghost. "After all, a building can be replaced. The victims of this ghost cannot."

"Yeah..." Valerie groaned. "Alright, I'll get some rest. Thanks for taking care of this, Mr. Masters."

"Oh, think nothing of it, my dear." Vlad prepared to end the long-distance call. "You just focus on your own recovery."

"I will. Good night!"

Vlad set the phone handset back in its cradle, musing on this new information. With his ghost portal destroyed again, it would take at least several days before he heard from Skulker. The vultures he could send almost immediately, but the trio of feathered ghosts weren't exactly intelligent enough to find the information the billionaire wanted. He needed to know what Daniel was up to, and he needed to find out more information on the ghost who had the nerve to attack his castle.

If only Valerie hadn't been knocked out during the fight! Much to Vlad's annoyance, the girl's story of events left out the critical information: What had happened to the apparently psychotic ghost? Had Daniel been able to beat the ghost, or had something else occurred? Vlad Masters relied heavily on information to plan his schemes; he was not a man who enjoyed not knowing what was going on at any given time.

With an annoyed sigh, Vlad stood up and made his way to the basement, looking over the various containment tanks. The clones inside them were not yet ready, and most were horribly misshapen. They would only be of any use as disposable minions, and the archvillain suspected they wouldn't be much good even for that. Still, he held out hope that the 'good clone' could be stabilized using the knowledge he had gained from the creation of the monstrosities.

That particular scheme would have to wait, Vlad noted to himself as he walked past the cloning equipment to a computer console against the far wall. With the press of a few buttons the billionaire sent off an electronic message to Skulker. True the hunter was a ghost, but Skulker's suit was built with the best technology the Ghost Zone and the real world could offer. Contacting the ghost was no more difficult than sending an e-mail. All he had to do was wait for the brute's report.

Vlad Masters despised waiting.

---

"Darn it!" Danny growled as he and his friends tried to pick their way through the mess of caution tape and hurried reconstruction. "It's been almost a week, and we haven't had any luck finding those two!"

"On the other hand, there hasn't been a sequel to this." Sam gestured at the blasted out heap of rubble that had been a building.

"Yeah, but what if they start again?" Danny's gaze slid over the shattered concrete and mortar.

"Dude, don't be so hard on yourself." Tucker gave his friend a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "People got hurt, yeah, but nobody got killed!"

"But a lot of people did get hurt." Danny frowned. "Some of them really bad."

It had been a long several days, the teens spending as much time as possible roaming the streets of Amity Park trying to locate the two ghosts. No one had seen or heard anything unusual, it was almost as if both had simply vanished from the face of the Earth.

Plasmius observed the trio invisibly from above, far enough away so as not to upset Daniel's apparent ghost-detecting ability. He still hadn't decided on what he would do with himself, and he had the constant nagging feeling that something was off. It had started as simply a vague notion; but as the days ground on, the tall ghost noticed that vague notion was slipping steadily into mild discomfort.

As the teens below rounded a corner Plasmius felt a sudden chill, gasping in surprise. That wasn't right. He knew what it was; ten years of fusion with Daniel's ghost self had given the older ghost plenty of opportunity to experience the boy's ghost sense. What failed to make sense was that he knew he never had that ability. Yet he had no doubt that was what just occurred.

The whine of jet engines pulled Plasmius from musing on this strange development and he spun to face the source of the noise. Skulker was flying overhead, apparently also spying on Daniel. The hunter seldom simply spied on the boy, he was normally bent on having Daniel's pelt as a wall ornament unless...

Of course. Plasmius nearly slapped his forehead. His present day self would be displeased about the destruction of the castle. He couldn't blame his alternate self for it, either. Laying waste to that much rare and valuable Packers stuff was an unspeakable crime. Still, he didn't particularly want to deal with the billionaire yet if it could be avoided.

Plasmius drifted up to Skulker's altitude, clearing his throat loudly. "Skulker, what are you doing here?"

The big ghost spun in surprise at the displeased voice, a multitude of weapons activating as he swung around, ready to let fly at whoever thought to sneak up on him. Upon seeing Plasmius though, he lowered the weapons in surprise.

"I'm here finding the information you wanted me to find." Skulker raised one metallic eyebrow, confused.

I was right. Plasmius noted to himself. Skulker was playing minion to find information for his present day self. "I don't need it anymore."

It was Skulker's turn to frown as the armored ghost studied Plasmius. Far be it for the hunter to miss details. "Wait... you aren't him."

"Of course I am, fool!" Plasmius snapped. "Who do you think I am?"

Apparently his tone came across in a flawless rendition of Vlad Masters at his most irate, for Skulker backed down momentarily. Plasmius suspected he still wasn't going to be able to bluff his way out of the situation however. Skulker again sized the ghost up, a small scanning device sliding out of his armor as he glanced at Plasmius' slightly tattered attire.

"I don't know who you are." Skulker announced, aiming one of his weapons. "I will admit your camouflage is impressive, but it will take more than that to fool Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter!"

Oh dinner rolls. Plasmius mentally groaned. Of course the diplomatic solution failed. The ghost wasn't worried, he knew his strength was leaps and bounds beyond Skulker's most powerful weaponry. If he had to pound Skulker to forestall dealing with the present-day Vlad, so be it.

Plasmius raised a square energy shield to deflect Skulker's first volley of weapons fire, fully expecting the projectiles to ping harmlessly off the barrier. Needless to say, he let out a startled yelp when instead the barrier shattered under the assault, several blasts striking the ghost and sending him reeling.

"What was that?" Plasmius gasped out as he recovered from the attack. That wasn't right, Skulker's weaponry shouldn't have been able to so much as scratch him!

Skulker didn't answer, readying a second round and firing. Rather than try his luck on a shield that he no longer trusted, Plasmius darted around the rockets, using small red ecto-blasts to destroy the few he couldn't avoid. The tall ghost wasted no time after the smoke cleared, launching his own volley, red beams striking Skulker's armor in a multitude of places.

"I enjoy it when my prey puts up a fight." Skulker growled with a steely grin, ignoring the damage done to his suit.

Further banter was cut off by an obnoxious digital ringtone sounding from the ghost's wrist. With an expression that was part surprise, part annoyance, and part fear, Skulker raised one arm, consulting a device on his armor. Plasmius held his fire, curious as to what this meant.

"'Check traveling exhibit on the purpleback gorilla'..." Skulker recited, confused. "'Checking online schedules'... San Diego, California?"

The boosters on the ghost's jetpack spun up to full speed, almost drowning out Skulker's angry cry of "Not again!" In moments the hunter was careening into the sky and in a vaguely southern direction. Plasmius floated there blinking dumbly at the display for nearly a full minute before a bolt of pain shot down his spine.

Plasmius didn't even have the chance to spit a food-item oath before he plummeted, thrashing to a graceless landing on a rooftop. The spasm passed quickly enough, leaving the ghost sprawled flat on his back and dazed. What was that? It felt almost as though something had tried to rip him limb from limb, an ache that while subsided had not completely gone away.

Vague notion had changed to mild discomfort and now to actual pain. Something was wrong, seriously so. Plasmius struggled to a sitting position, rubbing his head and trying to ignore the dull ache that lingered still. It had been days since the split. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of Daniel, though he'd seen plenty of this timeline's alternate, intact version. Was it possible that the ghostly halves couldn't sustain themselves separately?

Plasmius's red eyes opened wide at a mental image. He recalled how some of his animal ghost experiments had been so unstable that they had simply melted away to nothing. Was that to be his fate separated from Daniel's ghost half, split out of that genocidal existence? Twisted fusion or absolute oblivion?

This was far too dire a situation for mere pastry or dairy-based oaths.

"Caesar salad!"

Closing notes: Heehee, the plot thickens! First off, thanks and virtual bags full of Halloween candy go to Sapphire Wolf Master, The Fluff Ghost, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, PotterPhan21, Tornada Silverwind, i AM the Random Idiot, Punker88, Pieling, MissMune, CharmedNightSkye, Artsy Resuri, and Sasia93 for taking the time to write and submit reviews. Wow, finally broke 10 reviews per chapter on this chappy! (It's sorta an unofficial goal of mine to eventually reach an average of at least 10 reviews per chapter.)

Anyway, I hope I'm keeping you guys on your toes, and hope to see you next chapter!