Friday update! I'm trying to fit it ito the weekends now, I have three assignments due in the next two weeks... I can do at least three thousand words on average a session, but it does go crazy after a while. I don't want that to happen.

I love all you who reviewed, and the people that read but don't comment, I love you too!

This is divided it to three parts, so it might be long.

Chapter seven: Recovery

Anna

She had known for years. Really, first day on the job a ghost floated in and freaked her out. He had been looking for Vlad, and revealed more than a lowly part time job taking notes should have known. Vlad, to keep her quiet, promoted her to his personal assistant and secretary. Naturally people talked. It was Vlad's first public scandal and had him in newspapers for a while. He had offered to pay her a large sum of money to start somewhere else, to fund her med school. She chose to stay. Mostly because she liked her stable job, he wouldn't replace her.

She was one of the only people who could say they knew the real Vlad Masters. Sure, he donated to charity. Attended fund-raising events, seemed to have a loose hand on his wallet to give to the 'less fortunate'...

But she knew his dirty secrets. Using his powers at the beginning to build himself up, stealing from banks, the development of illegal technology, the clone vats in the basement...

But there was one dirty secret she did not know. Not until today. She had been packing up. Her music turned up loud. She could listen to the same CD for hours and neve get tired of it. She wasn't watching TV or radio. If she was, she would have seen what was coming.

With the familiar cold feeling, Vlad appeared carrying two teenagers. She instantly recognized one as Danny Phantom. Before her eyes he transformed from an injured ghost boy to a critically injured human boy. Danny, Vlad's nephew. The cute black haired teen that hated coming to the office, absolutely hated Vlad with a passion. She didn't know why until now.

"He's…" The words were caught in her throat. Just like you. He's just like you! Vlad got his powers in an accident. What about Danny...?

"Valerie is sick." He cut her off, indicating the girl, her hair was soaked with both her blood and sweat as a fever assaulted her body. He laid them both down on the carpet of the office. "Daniel, I suspect has internal bleeding, in his weakened state he's not going to go well without medication." He looked up to her from the ground as he checked over his body. "He might need surgery."

"Take them to the Lab, I'll get my medical gear." She did take the medical coarse, and was now a qualified surgeon. She dashed over to the secret room, well, the second secret room anyway to get her things. While Vlad flew through the staircase she had to manually open the bookcase and quickly descend the stairs. When she got there the older ghost was buzzing around the room moving the beakers full of green goo. They looked the same to her, but to him they were all different, unique to his eyes. The teens were both on tables, the girl, Valerie Gray, another common visitor to the office was already taken care of.

"He's bleeding from somewhere, I can't find where." He said, he had equipment scanning the boy, who on a operation table looked small and broken. His human body could not take the injuries and she knew for a fact they could force him to transform.

"Get out of the way Vlad." She said, she would have pushed him away, but she was busy putting surgical gloves on. "Broken ribs, hopefully they don't puncture his skin and cause even more damage."

The rest went in a blur. She worked on him and fixed him up a best she could, bruises, internal bruises, internal bleeding, broken bones, fractured bones... a hell of a beating for a young boy. A small thought grew larger in her mind. Did Vlad do it? The way he was acting, she wished she was wrong.

"He needs blood." she said. He was running out, and she had no supply of Danny's blood type.

"Use mine." Vlad immediately said.

"I'm not an ectoplasm expert, but you said it would contaminate a person and he needs a match-"

"I'm a match! My stored blood will help." In a second he had the bag of blood ready. She stuck a needle into his arm and let the blood coarse through his veins. She would have to monitor them both to make sure Danny took the blood well, and that Valerie stayed alive.

But she knew that he would take the blood without much trouble. And Vlad knew it too.

"He's much more than just another half ghost isn't he?" She asked, after she sterilized her hands again. He paced between the tables, keeping an eye on both kids. He paused and wiped his face, stalling an answer.

"Yes." Vlad looked so troubled. She had never seen him like this. Only one time, at that was after the trip to the Rocky's Cabin. He had dosed himself in enough alcohol to make a liquor store jealous.

"He's you kid isn't he?" The way he tried to bring Danny closer, and the more physical evidence like the matching blood type, the same black hair and blue eyes. Jack had the same, so it would have been easy for Maddie to pass Danny of Jack's.

"He doesn't know. Jack also doesn't know." He said. "Maddie made me promise not to tell them. I plan on keeping that."

But you will do anything to get around that roadblock. She hadn't known a promise Vlad hadn't twisted to his own agenda. He kept them, that's what made the whole ordeal more hard. He made a promise he couldn't go around without breaking, to Maddie no doubt. He was trapped and his own obsession for the woman was doing it. She was sure irony was in there somewhere.

Any other time, she would have known what to say. An illegitimate son to a married woman. The tabloids would kill him with this.

"I honestly don't know how I can help this time Vlad." She said, sitting down on a lab table. "No one else knows?"

"No."

"Do you want it to stay that way?" she asked. To gain a family of his own, to take his son back he would destroy a family to do it. Vlad had done some cruel things before. But Maddie was involved.

He stayed silent. Time passed and soon it was nearly ten pm, Anna called the Fenton's to give them a cover story. Danny had been crossing the road to get home and a hit and run occurred. Vlad was coming in a limo and had her fix her up, since their part of Wisconsin was on lock down from the Ghosts' fighting they couldn't take him to a hospital. There were holes in the lie, why go all the way back to Wisconsin and not to the closer Amity hospital? The Couple weren't thinking. They have a blown up basement and portal to deal with, along with the added stress of their injured son they left him in Vlad's hands to look after until the can come pick him up.

Valerie was a different story. Her father was screaming into the phone and it took almost fifteen minutes to calm him down. She had told the truth; Valerie had been saved but was ill from side effects. He would be at the castle by morning.

Anna cleans up, covers up, and deals with Vlad's messes. How was she going to deal with this one?

Danny woke in pain. On his forehead were bandages, his right arm had been broken, which he was now feeling from when the portal exploded and he knew it was a bad thin that he could brely feel his legs. He couldn't remember past being crushed by a purple block several times. But he did remember his older self screaming to Vlad about hating him. That was went Danny attacked him, Vlad getting the Antidote to Valerie-

"Valerie." He said, sitting up. Vlad jumped. He sat next to his bed. Moving wasn't a good idea, he found that out a second after trying. Pain shot up his spine and he tried to ignore it. He winched instead of showing anything else.

"Try not to move." Vlad offered.

Too late, genius. Danny mentally snarked. "Is Valerie alright?"

"She's running a fever, but the antidote has worked and she will be alright."

The room was large. to the left was a door and adjacent to the bed was another one. A plasma sat in the corner, a wardrobe to his right. It looked like the room when he first stayed in at the reunion.

Vlad looked exhausted, mentally so, like he had a weight on his shoulders. Danny realized he never had a chance of beating him after running around Amity Park, maybe even then. He was never intended to kill Vlad. Then what was his Older Self playing at? To talk to Vlad? The other human Vlad from the future was a broken man, what was he hoping to achieve? His parting words were worrying.

"You've won this round, little me. But I have too."

"Daniel, we have serious trouble." Vlad said, snapping him out of his thoughts by once again stating the obvious.

"You're telling me." Danny said. "He got away; I have to go talk to Clockwork..."

"The Time Master?" Vlad had heard tales of the mythical ghost. To hear that the teenager had met him and on good terms with the old ghost surprised him. He pushed it away to pay attention to Danny.

"Yeah..." The memories of the broken Vlad flashed over his mind again. The arrogant, selfish, obsessed, fruit loop before him could become that without his powers, without anything. He was too tired to even think anymore. "How are we in trouble?"

Vlad took a deep breath. "It's all over the news." He turned the TV on and surfed a few channels before finding a news report. It was on mute. "The little run around in Amity and the fight here have been linked. The media pieced it together, The huntress was kidnapped, you received a threat and a taunt and ran you around Amity looking for clues, destroying the Fenton portal…" A lump formed in Danny's throat. His parent's life work, gone. Even if he felt glad that the stupid portal was gone, the look of his heartbroken parents didn't leave his mind.

"They don't blame you for that." Danny stared at the screen. The burnt letters in the school, the broken clock tower, the destroyed portal with interviews in front of its smoking remains.

"Why not?"

"They knew you were trying to save Valerie." Then the silent replay of the news that morning, which seemed forever ago. "You're still their 'hero'." Danny ignored the subtext of the comment and watched the TV.

Valerie saving him from falling, defending him in front of the cameras, using the confident voice he loved. He looked so pathetic holding his shoulder and sitting on the board. He didn't realize his face had showed to awe he felt.

He thought of the older Valerie from the future... Did His older self still like her? Was that the reason she was still alive? No. She survived. His older self would kill her, like her tried to kill present Valerie.

"But the Guy's in White and Government are on your tail after that new power you displayed." As if on cue, the devastating ghost wail shattered cameras and ripped the field up. From one tattered, tired ghost boy. Mayhem, disaster. He couldn't watch as he almost hit the stands and turned his head away. One of the reasons he never used it in Amity, too many people, too many close buildings. He couldn't even practice to control it, he had no room to unless he flew for half an hour to find somewhere isolated enough for him to practice.

"What about... Him?" He was almost afraid to ask. Weakened, his older self would be regrouping somewhere. What could he tell Vlad? Hey, that's a possible future for me! you turn into a hermit and become even more lonely for another ten years and I kill the world!

"He escaped." Vlad flicked his eyes to the clock. "I have people searching for him in the ghost zone."

"Do you need a list of his powers?" He turned to be more comfortable but ended up causing more pain, he hissed slightly. "You'll need every advantage and surprise you can take."

"Don't strain yourself." Vlad said. And then Danny was sick of it. Sick of talking to Vlad like there was no bad blood between them. No scheming or putting his family and friends in danger or the other things he's pulled. Vlad was not friend, they've only teamed up a handful of times, and even then it was rocky.

"You're not the boss of me!" He snapped. "I need to catch him! I need to put him away again, or else he's going to kill everyone I love and destroy everything!"

"Who is he?" Vlad pressed. Not fazed by his little temper. It did catch Danny off guard.

"He's..." What can he say? "No one you should worry about. Let me deal with him."

"Daniel, he nearly killed you and Valerie, and roped me in as well for a personal agenda, I should worry about him."

"... He would have told you." Danny muttered. "What else would you too have talked about while I was out of it? Telling you how he killed mum and dad, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, Mr Lancer, and that was just the beginning, who knows how many lives he took, how much damaged caused..."

"Daniel, is he from the future?" Vlad asked. Maybe he remembered Clockwork was involved and it didn't take a genius to think he was connected in time travel.

It didn't surprise Danny Vlad pieced it together, he could never call him an idiot. A fruit loop maybe, but he had the same qualifications his parents had. It was easy to forget he was a scientist.

Why keep it a secret any longer? His Future concerned Vlad, his powers being yanked out and absorbed by him. Becoming the most powerful being on the planet and Ghost zone. And If he knew, they could both take steps to prevent that future, he can work with him on that with no trouble.

"He's my future. Something happened; an accident killed my friends, family and teacher. I was sent to live with you... I had nowhere else to go." His voice crack, the mere prospect of losing his family, and having only Vlad still troubled him. "I couldn't live with it, and I asked you to get rid of my human emotions. You complied." He took a moment, wondering if he should go on. Too late to stop now. "It went to right. My human and ghost half were separate, but my ghost half was crazy, he stole your powers and took it as his own and became that thing you say today.

"Ten year's rampaging the world, nothing could stop him. Valerie was alive, you were alive." He bit his lip and decided to skip what happened to Vlad out. "Things happened, and then we met in the future. He trapped me there and went to the past, disguised as me and tried to replicate the accident that sent me down the path of becoming him."

"So he's going to try and remake the accident now to get you on the timeline again?"

Danny shook his head.

"It wouldn't work. Things change, Clockwork told me that. The same thing doesn't happen twice, the same accident can't be redone." Then determination held him. The ruined Amity will never happen, the deaths of thousands will never happen. "It's a different path now, and I will not let him ruin it!"

"Calm down." Vlad said, he admired the spirit in the boy, but he would hurt himself. Bones could reset faster if you didn't move.

"You're taking this rather well, Vlad." Danny directed his attention to the older Ghost, who froze. "What did he take to you about? Since, it wasn't about the future."

Vlad visibly paused and had to think about it, it was a short moment but it sent alarm bells ringing.

"Hating me for pulling his humanity out, nothing new. Didn't understand what he meant until now." He got up and went for the door, almost a little too quickly for Danny. "Your parents know you're here, the cover is you got hit by a car in a hit and run."

"And Valerie?"

"Father's coming in the morning." He watched Vlad close the door behind him and Danny was alone to his thoughts.

Liar. He loves not having humanity. Danny didn't dwell on it for long. He flicked through the channels of the TV, trying to find something that didn't show the last twenty four hours of hell.

Valerie woke up in a panic. The late thing she remembered was Phantom grinning like a maniac and throwing an ectoblast at her. Truce breaker! Was she wrong to trust him the second time?

Her head hurt and she felt extremely warm, she checked her forehead and discovered she was running a fever with a damp towel; she was under a thick blanket in a very fancy four post bed. She looked at her surroundings. She was a room that was large with old fashion decorations and a large chandelier. Not any where she's seen, but the walls were made of stone, why would they be…?

"Castle." She deducted. Now it was time to escape. The door opposite the bed looked to be the way out. She felt dizzy getting up. And naked, her equipment was gone, even the bracelet that was the armor. No matter how much her father hacked at it, it wouldn't come off. She suspected only a ghost could take it off. Phantom took he stuff and left her in a castle room, where he treated her for her headache... Well, it made no sense now, but let her gather evidence to support her theory and she'll get back to us.

The front door was the first thing she went for; she peaked outside to find an empty hallway. She quickly exited to find another way out.

"Stay in your room, human!" A voice suddenly roared, she yelped and stepped back. A black horse with unnaturally large sharp teeth with leather bat wings appeared in front of her, it's rider with equally black armour. She instantly recognized him from the ghost king incident.

She retreated back to her room and locked the door, before mentally kicking herself. It could just phase through. The fever was affecting her mind, because she swore she heard Phantom yelling through the wall, muffled. How could she hear through the stone walls anyway?

"I haven't moved, Night Light!" An arrogant voice called out. Phantom!

"Insolent pup! I'll have you sliced..." Didn't sound friendly, it must have been the Knight ghost.

"Yeah, yeah, Masters won't like you killing his nephew. I'm healing as fast as I can, then I'll be out of here!"

She was pretty sure she was delusional. But it sounded like it was coming from the other door. She pressed her ear against the wooden door. She heard SpongeBob Squarepants set to a high volume.

"Ha! Sandy's going to rip your skin off!" If she could laugh at the ghost boy's commentary she would have. She tested the handle, slowly turning it. "Holy Crap, this is a kid's show!"

She peaked inside, and didn't see the person she was expecting.

"Danny?" Danny Fenton looked like he had been hit by a truck, then it back up over him with all eighteen wheels. He was prompted up with pillows in a bed similar to her own. Luxury surrounded him. The plasma roaring and junk food surrounded the bed and covers.

"Val! Hi! You're awake..." He said, turning the TV to mute. What was he doing here?

"What the hell happened to you?" She shrieked. She could barely see a part of him that wasn't bandaged. He visibly winched, and not from his injuries. "Did Phantom do this to you?"

She jumped to the conclusion with a fire in her eyes. If Phantom did this, the truce was dead! Dead like she was going to make him for touching Danny!

She heard him sigh, it sounded rattly. She shouldn't yell at him, he wasn't the one to yell at, no when there was someone she can shoot at... She saw how drained he looked. He laid back down.

"Val, I've been meaning to tell you for a while." He began. "You remember when I told you to meet me on the roof to talk? I was going to tell you then, but things got complicated, I don't know how much you remember but you'll see it on the news soon enough."

Now she was confused. She had no idea where she was, why Danny was sitting injured and talking nonsense. She didn't remember the last few hours and the last thing was Phantom blasting her. She had the right to be confused.

"What? What are you talking about Danny Phantom asked me to meet on the roof, you're…" Her words died in her mouth as a blue ring appeared around his torso and split into two and travelled up and down his body. She watched as Danny Fenton was replaced with a white haired teen with tired green eyes.

"Phantom? You're... Danny? You're Danny and Danny?" She felt stupid saying that. Really stupid. Phantom, Fenton. Danny, Danny. One in the same.

"Half ghost." He smiled. "Neither boy or ghost, the little freak caught in the middle." He reached for a bottle on the counter next to him. "Excuse me, every time I get grouchy I have to take one of this."

"Are you like Vlad?" She managed to choke out. The person she crushed on for nearly a year was the person she was trying to protect, from himself. Her head hurt.

"Yeah, like Vlad." He said. "It's not a genetic thing, we both had accidents involving ghost portals being activated." he scratched his neck, a common action by both Phantom and Fenton. Now that she thought of it, there were so many indications she must have been flying around with her helmet backwards. "My parents told me he was staring into the portal when it was activated; I was inside the portal when I activated it. I told you my death was an accident. My stupidity got me half killed."

"That's your pain pills talking." She said. She was tired; he was tired, she was sure the medication was making him sleepy. Her fever was making her dizzy. She could think straight later. She left the room to go back to her own and dragged the large blanket of her bed into Danny's room.

"Shouch over." She ordered, he moved slightly, as best as he could. She cleared the bed and sat down next to him and threw the cover over them. He frowned slightly.

"Aren't you going to yell at me for not telling you? Where are the questions? I'm confused." He rubbed his head, the part that wasn't bandaged.

"I am too; I plan on yelling at you in the morning." She confiscated the remote of him, he protested as she flicked the channels. "Now, I've watched this episode. We're switching to Disney."

"Aww..." He groaned, sinking in his place. He quickly sat up again and tried to take the remote. "Wait! Val-"

She stopped flicking as she passed a few channels with the news. All of it was Danny Phantom fighting Vlad at the Wisconsin football field. Then another ghost with flaming hair. Then film of the school with words burned into the structure. Ten minutes or she dies,the broken clock tower, the destroyed ghost portal. The destroyed stadium...

"You did all that... to save me?" she asked, her mouth gasping. He did care for her. All this, for her. If it hadn't been clear before, it was now.

"You said you'll yell at me later..." he said. She would have laughed at him at his tone.

"What for?" She asked with genuine surprise. "You saved me; you did all that, fought Vlad, that guy, who is that?"

"I'll... tell you later." He sighed. "You're weird, you do a one eighty on me, and you're not the least bit phased by this."

She didn't know what compiled her, her fever or something else. She sat up while Danny laid down, Being slightly higher than him, she lent down and kissed his forehead, he was cold, as ghost's were. He looked up at her white his green eyes. She felt stupid for not seeing the same person beneath them.

"I fight ghosts for a living, the irony in that statement should be enough for you." He was going to say something, but she shushed him and made herself comfortable on the bed next to him. "Now shush, Phideas and Ferb is on."

A little iffed at the ending of this, Valerie is just 'K, what evea lets watch cartoons'. Fever running, she's confused! that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Just rewatched Reign storm and Control Freaks, wow, two years ago I knew every episode by heart and constantly haunted (no pun intended) fanfiction. And I'm in love ith Danny phantom again. At the worst possible time, my finals are in October!

Fright Night was going to appear in the last chapter to help Vlad fight Dark Danny. But it never came to a fight, so Fright Night never had to come. So, having him as a glorified babysitter is hilarious to me. Danny was going to find out this chapter, but it never came to that, just like Fright night not getting involved in the last fight.

I'm not a trained medical student, or doctor (I watched every season of Scrubs, close enough). But I've done my best trying to describe the medical stuff, I tried trimming it down. You must be thinking, what has Vlad, the glorified businessman, been up to to need a private, secret surgeon? Well, we have his youth to go through...

Final chapter next before I start a sequel. I don't know wether to write in the same story or start a new one. Opinions? The next part will deal with the meeting more and catching Dan, Danielle will appear and Danny would have heaps of inner demons to face.

Over 4,850 words. Hope your happy. It's 11pm were I am. I got to study tomorrow.