Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!

I came home from an uneventful day of school and work to find Daddy slamming shut the door of a rather large safe.

"Daddy? What's with the safe?" I asked. I hoped it was some new super-valuable invention from his office; if they were asking him to store it for them then it means that they're starting to respect him more.

"Valerie, I'm tired of this ghost hunting business. It's dangerous and you should be spending your time doing something more worthwhile. This is all of your weapons. Tomorrow it's being brought to Axion, where it's being stored in a high-security vault."

"But…Daddy…" I stammered, both surprised and shocked. "I thought you said it was okay…"

"I changed my mind. End of story." I glared at him, my surprise slowly being replaced by a rage I usually reserved for that Inviso-Bill freak. He thinks he's the boss of me…he thinks he knows what it's like, defending this town from those spooks…I guess I'll have to prove to him that I can be a ghost hunter, with or without his approval. I stalked over to the balcony and stood outside.

"Valerie? What-"

"I'm sorry, Daddy," I growled, and the pink swirling sphere appeared around me and morphed me into my new suit, the one that I got right before going into outer space. Before he could say anything else, I'd dived off of the balcony and activated my jet sled. I brought the hover board in gear and blasted off into the night.

It wasn't long before my ghost sensor went off. I saw two blips on the right-hand side of my visor; one mid-level and the other high-level. Perfect. Inviso-Bill was trying to prove his innocence by fighting another of his kind. The townspeople are moronic to think that he's actually a hero for stopping them; for all they knew, he had a prior arrangement with the ghosts and only pretended to fight them in order to trick them into liking him. After all, he'd staged the Ghost King's invasion only to make off with the Fenton's Ecto-Skeleton, didn't he? I felt a grin twist itself onto my face as I neared the two blips. I would take my anger at Daddy out on Phantom. Hello, misplaced aggression.

I neared Phantom as he launched an ecto-blast at the other ghost. I hadn't seen it yet, so I wasn't sure who the ghost kid's opponent was yet. The ghost kid didn't look too good; he was bleeding from several places and had a couple of knives sticking out of him. Darn, if he's already weak and injured, his beating would less enjoyable.

The other ghost came out from behind a warehouse, and I grimaced once I saw it. Skulker. That ghost that had trapped Phantom and me in the Ghost Zone and handcuffed us together. I actually had to work together with that freak in order to get back home…I think I washed my jet sled about twenty times the next day just to get his Inviso-Bill-ness off of it.

I snapped out of the memory once Phantom trapped Skulker in that thermos of his. There was another reason why I wondered how the townspeople could possibly idolize him. He's a thief! I know for a fact that the Fentons have a device identical to that, so he must have stolen it from their lab!

Without bothering with any of that stupid witty banter, I shot him and scored a direct hit with my ecto-grenade launcher. He fell to the ground and got up shakily, then I shot him again. This time he was thrown back and he landed in the wall of one of the warehouses.

I caused my fists to glow with pink energy, thereby enhancing my strength and preventing him from phasing through my blows. I walked up to him and pulled him out of the wall by the front of his jumpsuit. The nerve of him…wearing a jumpsuit like that was a mockery of respectable ghost hunters such as the Fentons and myself. And furthermore, it made him look like some kind of superhero. Tch, like he could ever be a hero.

"Valerie…please…" He begged. I ignored him. I drew my fist back and rammed it into his face. I felt a savage grin unfurl on my own face as I saw his begin bleeding green ectoplasm. Oh, but this felt good! Even better than shooting him. I punched him again, and again, and again, each time feeling the anger ebbing away just a little more. I threw him down on the ground and yanked one of the knives in his leg out. Feeling infinite power rush through my veins, I bent down and thrust the blade right where his heart would be, in the center of that stupid DP emblem.

"Valerie…" he gasped, and then went limp. The visor covering my face lifted with a pneumatic hiss. I took some of the green blood gushing out of his chest in my fingertips, and rubbed it on my nose and cheeks like war paint.

"I told you, Phantom…I told you that one day I'd beat you, and finally I have…this is what you get for ruining my life." I stepped down on the blade, shoving it in further, and the ghost kid finally, finally stopped. I'd say he died, but obviously he was a ghost, so he couldn't have. Maybe his after-life ended…I don't know the details. But I destroyed him. And that's what matters.

Suddenly, a white ring appeared around his waist. Was this what happens to all ghosts once they've been destroyed? Apparently not. The ring split in two and each new ring traveled in opposite directions, and as it passed over Phantom it changed him into…

"No…" I murmured. There, on the ground, with a knife sticking into his heart, was Danny Fenton.

"NO!" I screamed. It couldn't be! It wasn't possible! There was NO FRICKING WAY that Danny could really be the ghost kid!

But then another side of my mind took over…maybe I was in so much shock that my normal stream of consciousness had overloaded and burned out, or something, because I was thinking very logically. Danny was never around when the ghost kid was. Fenton always ran away when a ghost attacked, and then Phantom would come in to save the day right after that. Wait a minute…Fenton? Phantom? They even sound the same. And both of their first names are Danny…they even look something alike; they have the same hair, and the same build…they're the same height, definitely, and around the same weight…they sound sort-of the same…Danny's parents are ghost hunters, so he's always being exposed to ghost energy…if anyone in Amity Park were to exhibit ghostly abilities, it would definitely be him…It had to be…there's no doubt about it…

Then the moment of logic went away and I was left with my raw emotions. I just killed my only friend. I sank to my knees. I just killed my only friend. I raised a shaking hand to my face and felt the blood, his blood, Fenton's blood, on it. I just killed my only friend.

I let out a bloodcurdling scream and passed out, falling on top of his body. Danny's body.

I just killed my only friend.