Never Far Behind

Song Fiction one shot.

Never Far Behind by Ally and AJ

Disclaimer: I don't own the song or Danny Phantom; Danny Phantom is owned by Butch Hartman who creates awesome cartoons that anyone who is a kid at heart can enjoy.

This is a one shot but it could possibly be made into a chapter story if there are enough requests for such a thing. This is set after Ultimate Enemy but it is the first ending rather than the ending where (spoiler alert) Clockwork saves everyone and gives Danny a second chance. This time Clockwork doesn't save anyone but (and here is where I take creative liberty) Sam was wearing the Fenton Peeler due to a previous ghost fight that resulted in the Nasty Burger sauce becoming overheated. This protected her from much of the explosion but it still left her with severe enough injuries that it left her in a seven year coma. Because her parents never liked Danny or his family, they kept the news of her survival from him and the media thereby ensuring that Danny never knew that any of his loved ones had survived. So yeah after that it follows the original explosion storyline: Danny moves in with Vlad; Danny asks Vlad to remove his ghost half; Danny's ghost half rips out and merges with Vlad's ghost half and ends up becoming a monster that destroys the world. So yeah enjoy my attempt.

Never Far Behind

I know this really isn't you

I know you're trying to fit in

I'll do anything I can

To help you break out of this spell

News, clip after clip, flickered across the holographic screen; each a poisoned dagger to her heart. She watched violet eyes wide with sorrow and cheeks soaked with tears. The carnage- the utter destruction- the apparent malevolent glee that it was all done with tore at her. Compounded more so by the fact that she knew the monster personally, had known him before he had ever become so dark, and that the monster should never have had the chance to be created in the first place. From her memories of the boy he had once been she saw a hero, a young teen thrust into a world where adults had a difficult time staying sane. She remembered a funny dark haired youth with sky blue eyes that expressed all of his emotions. A boy who was loyal and protective; a human granted extraordinary powers and responsibility at an age when all he should have had to worry about was keeping the acne at bay and how many hours on Doom he could get away with without severely affecting his school grades. A boy her teenage-self had loved. Now that boy was gone, replaced slowly after a fiery explosion had shattered his world and removed the only support he had ever had, support that kept him sane in a world that did its very best to destroy him. It broke him, leaving behind a murderous, malicious shell bent on self-destruction and world-wide death.

I see you following the crowd

I know you're trying to fit in

But if you're going to find yourself

You got to start from deep, deep within

Hold on to what you believe

She almost hadn't recognized him when they had first showed her what had happened when she had been in the coma. She still didn't really recognize him; sure he greatly resembled the Boy but he wasn't the boy she remembered. There was however, something that she SAW hidden deep within the dark outer layer of the soul rampaging before her. Something no one else cared to look for.

I will always be your friend

I know who you are inside

I am with you 'till the end

Never far behind

In his crazed crimson eyes, buried beneath the pain induced insanity, was a cry for help; a plea for mercy; a beseeching scream for salvation from the agony that tore him up inside. Everyone thought she was crazy to believe that Dan Phantom was crying for help. They never entertained the idea that that was what was occurring so far inside the monster. They couldn't believe because they could only see the surface. Shallow creatures deceived so readily by what they can physically see without taking the time to look deeper: that is the human race. They were afraid and had been afraid of this monster for so long that the people had forgotten who he had once been and the circumstances that had led to what he was today. She remembered and so she was the one to spot the remaining humanity that not even Phantom probably knew existed.

I am standing in the distance

You can take your time

And I will be here waiting

Never far behind (Yeaaah!)

Never far behind!

She could save him; she knew she could save him from himself if only she was given the chance. But no, they wouldn't even let her outside! Always spouting something about her parents' last wishes not to let 'that fiend' know she was alive. Well, 'that fiend'- as her parents had been so kind enough to call him- was once one of her best friends and she was not about to let him destroy himself any longer. The whole world may believe he was a 'lost cause' or 'a monster through and through' but she was not one to simply roll over when she knew she was right.

I am sending you a message

Don't ever think that it's too late

When you care about someone there is always

Room for change

You're allowed to make mistakes

It's a part of every life

I don't see you any different

Truth is shining in your eyes

Tonight however, she would be given her chance to try and bring back the boy from the depths of the beast. The chance she had been striving for after waking up from her coma five years ago and first learning what had become of her childhood friend and crush. Oh, she held no fantasies that the road to changing Phantom would be easy; on the contrary she knew that she would be fighting a Life-or-Death battle. But she hoped that someday she would make it to her goal. After that it was anyone's guess as to how her relationship with Phantom would progress. Would they become simply old acquaintances; old friends re-united; or something…more? She hoped if they could be nothing more, than they could at least become friends once more because then, there would be the slight chance of friendship blossoming into love over time. She just wouldn't 'count her chickens before they were hatched' as the old saying went.

Hold on to what you believe

I will always be your friend

I know who you are inside

I am with you 'till the end

Never far behind

I am standing in the distance

You can take your time

She had finished dressing, finished watching the news clips once more, finished preparing herself physically and mentally for the long battle before her, and now the time had finally arrived. She pulled her long black hair up into a ponytail just as the door to her darkened chamber slid open with a slight hiss. The hall light illuminated pale features and determined violet eyes as the messenger spoke the words she had been waiting to hear:

"Samantha Manson, it's time."