Well that was a bit of a disappointment. Then again, I guess that "sneak preview" didn't reveal much at all, did it? Well, I thought it sounded dramatic. So, anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Twenty-Two: The Value of Life


"What did you do to this!?" Vlad snarled, examining the extent of the damage on the containment unit, "Throw it at a wall!?"

"How about a wall of Observant guards!?" Dan snapped back, turning away from Clockwork who still wore a smug expression, "Next time you get the bright idea to steal something from the Observants, you go in there and do it, Plasmius!"

"Like you could make me…" Vlad hissed under his breath, irritated, "I am sick of having to tote all of you around. What a nuisance!"

"It'll be over soon, Vlad." Clockwork chortled, "As soon as you get those containment units fixed up and ready to put Fenton and Phantom back together again."

"And then I can go back to my own time!" Dan stated triumphantly.

Silence followed these words and the ghost from the future made a growling noise. Even he knew that his words had not held the conviction they once had. Something had definitely changed. With another feral snarl, this one louder, Dan floated out of the room and into the living room where Fenton, Phantom, and now Sam were currently sleeping. There was a nasty taste in his mouth as he sat down in a chair in the corner and stared at them with unblinking red eyes.

Clockwork knew.

Dan didn't understand completely what was going through his head at the moment but he was certain that Clockwork knew exactly what he, Dan, was feeling. Conflicting thoughts chased themselves around his mind. Watching Danny's trauma through the past couple of days made Dan suddenly aware of his own feelings and brought a very interesting question to light:

Why was he having a sudden change of heart?

The strain of staying awake and using so much of his power started taking its toll on the older ghost. His head started drooping down so his chin was touching his chest and his eyes closed ever so slowly. In minutes, the room had four sleeping occupants, all breathing softly and peacefully.

Danny felt his nose twitch in the midst of his half-sleep and tried to fight back the wakefulness. He sneezed and fell off the couch onto the floor, getting tangled in the blanket as he did so. A yelp of pain escaped his lips as he fell onto his ruined right arm. Someone across the room gave a snort and Danny shivered as he looked towards the source of the noise.

Dan was sleeping in a chair in the corner with a full view of the whole room.

Shaking himself but not quite ready to get up off the floor, Danny looked around and found Phantom curled in a chair with a blanket tucked around him and Sam stretched out on the love seat not far away. Danny smiled to himself as he watched her.

There was no denying it…he loved her.

Every thought was driven from his head as pain lanced up his legs and made him scream.

Across the room, Phantom was writhing on the floor as well.

Their shrieks echoed one another like a chorus of agony.

Dan jolted out of his dreamless sleep and blinked a couple of times to process what was going on.

Their DNA's breaking down again, you idiot! A voice in his head screamed as he stared at Fenton and Phantom scream in pain on the floor, Don't just sit there! Do something! Get Clockwork!

Dan leapt to his feet, jumped over the two boys on the carpet, and shook Sam awake, "Watch them! I'm getting Clockwork!" And he vanished through the floor into the lab, "Clockwork!" The urgency in his voice made the Ghost of Time look up quickly, "Their DNA's breaking down again! I think it's worse this time!"

"Get them down here!" Vlad screamed from behind the containment unit before Clockwork could get a word in, "It's the best place for them to be!"

Dan nodded shortly and was back in the living room in seconds. Tucker and Jazz were now there as well, trying to hold the two boys down as they thrashed and screamed. Dan shoved them aside, scooped up Fenton under one arm and Phantom in the other and dropped back to the floor. Sam scowled at the place where he'd vanished and ran for the stairs, taking them two at a time down to the lab.

It still took her ten minutes to get there and when she did, Fenton and Phantom were both unconscious on the floor with their shoes, socks, and pants off. Sam thought she was going to cry. The skin on the two boys' legs was exactly like that of their right arms and chest. Mutilated.

"It's speeding up…" Clockwork said hoarsely, leaning over to check the damage, "As soon as they wake up they need to go into those units. Another attack like this one…" He let the sentence dangle unnecessarily and Jazz shuddered, rubbing the tears from her eyes. There was a part of her that wished her mother and father were here just because she needed the comfort of family.

It made her wonder if Danny was ever going to tell them…

Phantom cracked his eyes open with a groan that was copied by Fenton. Both of them sat up and simultaneously rubbed their foreheads. But they could go no farther than that as their DNA breaking down had ruined their legs. Danny swallowed the thick bile rising in his throat.

"Vlad…" Phantom murmured, "Please tell me you're almost finished…"

"No." The millionaire grumbled, "The mechanics of these devices are more complex than I thought. The soonest I can have these down is probably in two days."

"T-two days!?" Tucker yelled, "By that time they'll be dead!"

"Then help me, Foley!" Vlad snarled, eyes flashing red for a brief instant and Tucker gave a visible shudder. But he crouched down beside the man and proceeded to assist him.

Danny glanced around the lab and saw Sam and Jazz talking in soft voices not far away. The look on Sam's face made him ache so he looked away and caught sight of Dan and Clockwork hissing at one another.

"Then you tell me what it feels like." Clockwork said in an insisting sort of tone.

"I don't know!" Dan hissed back hotly, "It's different but not…unfamiliar."

"Then it's not my problem." Clockwork replied in a sort of triumphant voice and turned away. Dan frowned at him but didn't do anything to try and get the Time Ghost's attention again.

"Hey…Dan," Danny whispered and his future self turned expressionless red eyes on him, "Could you…um…help me up?"

Dan paused for a moment before sweeping down and hauling Danny into his arms and walking to a quiet corner of the room. Danny struggled, suddenly terrified he was going to end up the same way Dan's human half had.

"I'm sorry." Dan said in a hoarse whisper as he set the teenager down, propped against the wall, and slid down beside him. Danny stared at him but Dan only looked at the stainless steel floor, "I know you hate my guts, I know you'd rather be anywhere else then sitting here talking to me, and I know that you'd just love to destroy me right now."

"You tried to kill my family and my friends," Danny said coldly, "I have every reason in the world to hate you."

"I know that!" Dan's voice cracked and he cleared his throat before continuing, "But I was wrong! All of it was wrong!"

"I don't get what you're saying; what was wrong?"

"All of it! Yes, I hurt! I knew that!" Dan's voice was shaking now and his red eyes were brimming with glowing green tears, "It hurt so badly! I wanted it to stop but I went about the wrong way! It wasn't Vlad's fault! It wasn't the world! It was me! Stupid, arrogant, self-righteous me!" He slammed a fist into the floor and left a dent there.

"Dan…" Danny whispered but his future self didn't seem to hear him.

"And then I had to go and be stupid again! I thought more power would make it all stop so I stole Plasmius from Vlad but the hatred…all that hate and anger and lust for revenge just…consumed me!" Dan buried his face in his clawed hands and Danny just kept staring at him. This was so…so un-Dan-like that it was starting to scare him. But then, what if this was the truth. Dan had been human once, a long time ago, and maybe, just maybe, some of that still lingered.

"Dan, um, I don't…know what…you're trying to…what do you want?"

Dan slowly lifted his face from his hands and turned his swollen reds eyes on his younger self, "No one's asked me that in almost thirteen years, Danny…" The ghost looked away to where Sam was still talking to Jazz. Both of them were smiling at some secret joke, "But what I want…can't ever happen. I really wish that none of it had ever happened. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. What if I hadn't cheated on the CAT? Then that stupid ghost wouldn't have attacked and I wouldn't have caused the Nasty Burger to explode…and kill them all…"

"Come on…" Danny put a tentative hand on his future self's shoulder and felt the numbing coldness spread down his limb, "This isn't the time or place to talk about this sort of thing. We can sort it out after I don't have to worry about my DNA falling apart, huh?"

Dan chose not to answer, whether because he didn't want or didn't trust himself to Danny wasn't sure. The older ghost picked Danny up again and started moving back to where Phantom was still sitting, looking around in curiosity, wondering where his human half had vanished to.

Danny suddenly became very quick friends with the floor.

"Ow! Dan! What the heck!? You dropped…me…" Danny's snarling retorts faded on his lips as he stared at Dan.

Something was wrong.

Oh no! Corny cliff hanger and a filler! Oh my gosh, no! What have I done!? Well, anyway, Danny's getting closer and closer to falling apart completely and unless Vlad and Tucker finish that second containment unit up soon there won't be a Danny to put back together.

But that point has suddenly been sold to the second hand store and now everyone's focused on Dan? What's up with our favorite future self?

You'll just have to wait and find out in the next chapter! Aaaannnnnndddd, cue evil laughter!

………….

Maybe not…