As always, I got completely distracted while writing this chapter. But it is DONE. :) And I am glad. The plan helped out a whole lot. Otherwise I would've been sitting around for years. But now I don't have anything else to write tonight, so all is well in the land of the Kirstyn. I can do whatever I want. Though I probably will start on Changing Their Fate chapter four. I won't finish it tonight, though. And since i have to work tomorrow, I might not have it up tomorrow... but as soon as possible, as soon as possible.

I'm glad to see that there have been a lot of hits to this story.

Where are my reviews, people?

Vortex of Deception

Chapter Five

Danny stared at his father in astonishment. How had the man known that Danny had left the room, let alone pinpointed the exact room that he had been in? And how was Danny supposed to answer such a question like that?
"My hair…" he whispered uncertainly. "It was disgusting."

Vlad's features softened slightly as he looked upon Danny's regretful expression. He obviously hadn't figured out that Danny had been eavesdropping on his conversation with his Maddie Bot. Danny hoped that it would stay that way – he wanted to find out as much as he possibly could.

"Son," he whispered, opening his arms wide. "You're exactly like me."

Danny smiled and ran into his father's welcoming embrace. He was suspicious of the man – he knew that Vlad was hiding something important from him – but for the meantime he would have to pretend that all was well between the two. Danny hoped that he was a good actor.

"I know you went to such a big effort to get your hair presentable for me," Vlad began. "But I was hoping that you would want to have a bath. I had one of our servants run it for you."

Danny grinned ecstatically. He had to be Vlad's perfect son. For now, at least. "Oh, father," he cried in amazement. "You shouldn't have! It'd be a dream come true."

"Oh, Daniel!" Vlad was basking in the glory of having a perfect son. "I have something I desperately want to show you! Have your maid, Veronica, show you to the dining room where we shall sit and enjoy a delicious meal together. And then, only then, will I show you the most amazing thing in the entire world."

"Oh, yes, Father. I can't wait," Danny cried.

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Vlad called out a word that seemed to be from a different language. It must've meant come in, for in came another one of Vlad's robots, only this one did not look like Danny's mother. This one had long black hair and sky blue eyes. In fact, Danny could honestly admit that it looked like a female version of himself. Only it was older, perhaps by five years.

"Veronica, please show Daniel to the main bathroom." Vlad gestured at his son.
The Veronica Bot turned her azure eyes to Danny and gave a small smile. "Of course, Mr Masters. Right this way, Daniel."

She nodded her head to the hallway and Danny reluctantly stood up. He didn't want to accompany this robot to the main bathroom – he'd been hoping that Vlad would trust him to find the bathroom on his own. Then Danny would've hid and followed Vlad when he had left Danny's bedroom.

"I'll see you at breakfast," Vlad promised his son with a smile.

There's something about you… that's unpleasant. Unpleasant and familiar. Danny decided as he spared one more glance at Vlad before following the Veronica Bot out of the room. Definitely unpleasant. But what?

Veronica had left him at the door. Danny would have been slightly creeped out and uncomfortable if she had accompanied him into the bathroom.

When Vlad had called it the main bathroom, Danny had only just imagined that it would be a small, tiled room with a bathtub, a shower and a basin. He had extremely underestimated this room. It was huge – bigger even than Danny's bedroom.

The bath was the size of four double beds and was filled to the rim with warm water. Danny couldn't imagine what Vlad would need such a large bath for – it was just a waste of water. But it was comfortable – there were sections of the bath that were smooth, sections that were tiled and sections that were even cushioned with gel pillows. There was a separate section the same size that was for showering.

Danny didn't bother examining this area – he wouldn't be taking a shower today, and he'd have plenty of time in the near future to explore every part of this mansion. For that's what it was – it was no longer a house to him. It was way too big.

There was a large full-length mirror that ran all the way down one of the walls, and on the other wall were the basins, with small mirrors placed above them. Danny even had his own choice of towels – one in every different colour imaginable, and each towel had his initials sewn in gold thread upon them. And when he turned them over, he found that there was a different set of initials. One side read D.M while the other read D.P. Danny would ask Vlad to explain it to him later.

When Danny had finished in the bathroom, he exited out through the door and found that Veronica was waiting for him. She had been waiting outside the whole time that he had been in the bath. But she was a robot so she wouldn't have minded.

"Did you enjoy your bath?" The Veronica Bot asked friendlily as they began walking to watch Danny presumed was the dining room.

"Yes," Danny answered simply. His mind was on other things, such as what Vlad was planning on showing him after breakfast.

"Here we are," Vlad announced proudly as he and Danny entered a large room that wasn't unlike a gymnasium.

"This is what you wanted to show me?" Danny asked sceptically.

It wasn't very impressive. It was just a large room that had unusually high metals walls. It was also sound proof, as Vlad had informed him upon entering. There was a control panel at the far wall, but other than that it was just a really big, unfriendly metal room.

"Ah," Vlad paused and turned to Danny expectantly. "No."

Danny returned the expectant look. "So… Um," he looked around himself curiously. "What was it that you did want to show me?"

Vlad smiled boldly. "Ah, my boy, my beautiful son. It is today that I will show you how wonderfully alike we actually are. For there was a part in you, when the accident occurred, that was compatible with ghost DNA. That is why you were not killed in the blast. You inherited it from me. I will show you how to once again rise up in glory as my son, Danny Plasmius!"

Danny frowned, recalling the story that his father had supplied him with when he had first awoken. "Excuse me, father," he politely interrupted his father's speech of glory. "But I recall that yesterday you called me by a different name. You called me Danny Phantom."

For some reason the name was familiar to both him and Vlad. Vlad went pale for a moment before turning bright red. After he had put a leash on his emotions, Vlad smiled at the nineteen-year-old. "You must be mistaken. There isn't, and never was, such a being by the name of 'Danny Phantom'." He spoke the name as if it were a silly idea that should never be repeated.

"But," Danny interrupted, certain of his memory.

"No buts." Vlad smiled a toothy smile at his son. "You are Daniel – Danny – Plasmius. You always have and always will be Danny Plasmius. We're in this together, son."

Yet another moment to add to the 'Reasons I am Suspicious of my Father' list. Maybe I should make a list…

"Daniel, are you paying attention?"

"What?" Danny was brought back to reality by the sound of his father's impatient voice. "Oh, yes, of course."

"I am glad. After all, this is of the utmost urgency. If we don't activate the ghost inside of you within the next few days, he could be lost forever. And it would be like losing the other half of you." Vlad warned him.

The other half of me… A stabbing pain shot through his head as an image of a silhouetted figure entered his mind. "Danny!" The figure cried out, begging for him to rescue her… Danny shook his head impatiently. It was nothing – he was just hallucinating again.

"Do you understand?"
Danny nodded confidently. "Yes, sir, I mean father, I do understand."

Vlad smiled and bolted the metal door shut. "We don't want any disturbances," he explained as he saw Danny looking at him wonderingly. "Someone may get hurt if they just come in unaware of the occurrences in this room."

He walked over towards the control panel and gestured for Danny to follow him. It looked extremely complicated – there were dials that read "intensity" and "level" and many other adjustments. Nothing about the control panel even hinted at what it was that it actually 'controlled'. It was especially confusing, due to the fact that there was nothing in the entire room that looked as if it could be controlled by dials and buttons.

"This, my son, is what I shall use to train you to regain your ghostly abilities. It may be hard, since you haven't done any physical exercise for five years, but we will return you to normalcy. And then we shall improve these skills of yours. All in good time, my dear boy." Vlad rattled on with a passion.

"I am willing to work long and hard on this." Danny assured him. "I will be dedicated to restoring myself to my original abilities. I will be committed to improving those abilities."

"I am glad to hear that," Vlad told him. "But, for now we must work on your actual transformation into Danny Plasmius. Each of us does this independently, and you may have a unique way of achieving your transformation. But until you remember the trigger, I shall go through it step by step with you."

Danny nodded to show that he understood and would comply.

"I want you to close your eyes," Vlad crooned softly and Danny obeyed. "I want you to actually imagine transforming into something else. To feel it within your veins. And I want you to whisper out your favourite phrase – 'I'm going ghost'."

"I'm going ghost," Danny whispered obediently.

Two rings of bright light formed around Danny's body. They travelled in opposite directions as Danny felt a shiver going up his spine. He felt as though he wanted to cry out but instead kept his mouth clamped shut. When the rings had disappeared, there was a lightness about him. He felt as though he could float through the air. And that was because he could.

"You are now Danny Plasmius," Vlad announced proudly.

As soon as Danny hit his soft mattress he was asleep. He was worn out from lack of physical exercise – and he and Vlad hadn't even begun to train yet.

There was a girl sitting in the corner of a dark room, glistening tears cascading down her two soft, pale cheeks. She looked lost and frightened, not to mention alone. She threw her hands up to cover her ears as if to block out painful sounds. She winced as she realised that these sounds were coming from inside her head, not outside.

Her long, orange hair was held back from her face by some sort of leafy ribbon and her sparkling amethyst eyes seemed to look straight at him, pleading him to rescue her. Her hands came away from her ears helplessly and she screwed her eyes shut.

Danny concentrated and discovered that he could hear the sounds that tormented her ever so much. He could hear a man screaming. He seemed to be in much pain and Danny even drew the conclusion that he was being tortured just from the tone of the screams. Each scream chilled him deep into his bones.

Soon, the screaming was filled with silence. The girl looked up thankfully, thinking that Danny had been the one that had gotten rid of the sounds. But instead of helping her, it seemed that Danny's presence just made things worse.
A crack of light appeared and then flooded into the room as a door was opened. Right in the patch of light lay a man's body, covered in blood and bruises. He was dead. He wasn't familiar to Danny but this girl must have recognised him because her hand flew to her mouth in horror.

Seconds later, the man's body was removed and the door had been shut again.
"Who are you?" Danny wondered aloud.

"I am Jessica."

The image faded, to be replaced by another. This time, it seemed as if Danny was having an out of body experience. He saw himself – only he was younger – talking to someone who was covered by dark, omnipresent shadows. No matter which angle Danny stood at, he could not see this girl's face.

Suddenly, the girl began to scream as she was torn away from Danny. He reached for her but found that his arms weren't long enough. He cried out in despair – he called her name – but it had no effect on the situation. The girl was ripped from him, from his heart, and vanished into oblivion.

Danny sat up with a start in his bed, a name on the tip of his tongue.

"Sam," he whispered as a rogue tear slid down his cheek.

Ahh haha. I hope that was such an ending that made you think OH MY GOD!! DOES HE REMEMBER! And then, hopefully you'll review with the same question. And hopefully you'll realise that next chapter belongs to Sam, so you won't figure out until the chapter after. And then you'll realise that I update faster if I get reviews.
So reviews?

Loving you but I am completely numb, I hate dentists.