God, I've been horrible with these updates, given I have no flipping COMPUTER! Ah… okay, then. I must thank you all for the wonderful ideas that you have decided to give me with this one shot challenge, as I am fervently working on plot specks and whatnot. So, I'll give you another Vlad one shot challenge.

Spoilers include: Masters of All Time alternate ending.

Challenge by Annab3ll3 L33

11. Loss

It really was a double edged sword.

He gritted his teeth in despair, mind working furiously. What could it have been? Never before had he felt so useless. If only he had the ingredients for the portal and that cat-needing bachelor's ecto-acne problem. A hand was on his shoulder, and he looked up. The master of time gave him a sad sort of smile. "I'm sorry, Danny," he whispered. "It was meant to be this way."

The hybrid shrugged the hand away, angry tears clouding his vision. "Why?! If I could have figured out what had been changed in the whole thing…" This wasn't fair! Why couldn't he figure it out? It was almost as if something was clouding his vision. Danny Phantom glanced at Clockwork again. "Can't I do something?"

"Loss is a part of life. In your case, it is a double edged sword. You lose your two best friends who know and share almost everything with you, but you also lose your mortal enemy." He pointed his staff to the trio lying in beds under quarantine. "Go. Be with them."

Phantom didn't have to be told twice.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Danny sat by Sam and Tucker's bedsides, looking at both of them with sad, blue eyes. They both looked sick to their stomachs, especially Tucker, whose continual moaning had almost the entire Fenton clan surrounding him. Maddie took a thermometer from his mouth and looked down at it. "103.4 degrees and climbing," she mumbled worriedly.

Jack took the one from Vlad's mouth. "We'd better keep going," he told his 'pal', rubbing his chest. "You're at 106.2. C'mon, V-man. Don't fail me now!"

Danny growled softly enough for only Sam, Jazz, and Tucker to hear him. "That fruit loop is so dead if he makes it out of this alive."

Sam smiled weakly. "Save it, Danny."

Tucker squeezed his gloved hand. He could hardly make any sounds now; his throat had felt as if it had swollen to the size of a watermelon. He wanted so badly to speak to his best friend. The harder he tried, the worse he felt. So itchy, so painful… a thought suddenly occurred to him. Maybe he looked like a balloon. He closed his eyes. Sleep. Glorious sleep. Oh, that would be so nice right about now. Nothing more…

He let go of Danny's hand. It limply fell to the side of the bed. His heart monitor flat lined.

Danny stared at his best friend, tears of anger and stunned realization coming to his eyes. "Oh, my god. No. No way. Tucker?"

Sam's eyes shone with what little tears she could muster. "Oh, god. Tucker…" She squeezed Danny's hand. "Danny…"

He took a deep, shuddering breath. "I wasn't strong enough to save him, Sam. Why?"

Jazz looked over at the duo next to each other and Danny's friend. She swallowed and watched him with horror. "Tucker?" She walked over to his bedside, tears beginning to slightly fall. "Oh, no…"

Danny shot Vlad a venomous look. Sam's hand began to slightly slip from his hand. He turned back to her, a small smile escaping from her lips. "We'll… we'll come back, Danny," she whispered, forcing herself to hold onto his hand. Her breathing began to slow down slightly. "As… as ghosts. I prom… promi…" Her eyes closed, the red blotches on her face slightly inflating. Her hand slipped from Danny's grasp and hit the side of the bed.

He shook his head in sadness, disbelief, anger. No. She couldn't have been dead. Tucker and Sam, gone from his inept abilities to figure out the cure. Maddie walked over to Danny, wrapping her arms around him lovingly. It was all he could take from breaking down and sobbing like a five year old child. Jazz's quiet sobs wracked the background as she rocked her son back and forth. "Danny, I understand how hard this may be for you, but…"

He pushed away. "No. No, Mom. You don't understand. Just… please just leave me alone for a little while."

She just nodded before walking over to Jack, who was still hitting Vlad on the chest. She put her hand on his shoulder and nodded sadly. "Jack, let's go."

He nodded simply, shaking his head in disbelief. Maddie gripped him and practically dragged the man from the room as he tried to stay by Vlad's side. It was almost a heart-wrenching moment from Danny; had he not had so much hate for Vlad, he would have almost insisted that Jack stay with his friend.

The two ghost hunters finally left the room as Danny slowly walked over to Vlad's bed. The male's hand tried to grip Danny's arm, but he instead found his hand. His eyes burned emerald as he tried to wrench away from him. "You've ruined everything," he hissed angrily, foaming at the mouth. "Everything!"

Vlad opened one eye and grinned, griping the edge of the bed now. Triumphant ice-blue eyes bore into his foe's now sky-blue ones. "True," he whispered, trying to get one last gasp of air. "But now your mortal enemy would soon be dead, Daniel, won't he?"

With this, his chest stopped lifting as his arms slipped off the sheets to which he held. Danny stood there for a moment, and he finally turned back to his two friend's dead bodies. The tears were flowing much more freely now. Clockwork was right- he had always been right. Loss truly was a double-edged sword. He lost one thing, but he gained another. Right?

It was true. He would wait for the day he would someday meet Vlad Masters once again. And when that day came, Vlad had better be ready- he was going to seriously die a painful death.

Aaaaaaaah! Stupid Plasmius. Some ending… well, I hope you liked it. Reviews are feeding my muse. Wait for the next chapter, and thanks for reading!