BVQA: I am so sorry about the long wait! I didn't mean to take so long writing this, but things have just piled up. . . back to back summer camps were not helpful. I kept telling myself, 'just wait until you're out of this camp. . . aaaand this camp. . .' and the next thing I knew I hadn't updated all summer! I'm so, so, so, sor-
Dani: *smacks BVQA upside the head*
BVQA: Ow! What was that for?
Dani: Just start the story already, will you?!
BVQA: Ok, ok! That really hurt!
Danny hadn't been happy about it.
To be totally fair, Dani hadn't been very happy about it either, but since she'd been the one to suggest it in the first place she wasn't exactly in a position to complain. And it was the right thing to do, she knew that much. But why couldn't someone else do the right thing? Why did it have to be her?
Because if someone else did it, it wouldn't be the right thing. Some part of her said softly. She mentally whacked it around the ears with a rolled-up newspaper. Shut up! Stupid conscience! I thought I told you to keep your opinions to yourself, you jerk! It''s your fault I got roped into this!
Dani scowled briefly, then continued to pad down the long, empty hallway as quietly as she could. She unclenched her teeth and breathed shallowly through her mouth, trying to keep the sound of her gasping for breath below the level that could be detected by human ears. Silence was key. She knew she wasn't strong enough to hold her own if she was discovered, something that annoyed her to no end. . . and frightened her quite a bit, if she was really honest. Hence her rapidly thudding heart. But she knew that she could get through this if she just kept a cool head and a cautious heart. So what if she was infiltrating Vlad's mansion? Alone? As in, all by herself?
Her hand drifted up and closed over her pendant, thumb tracing gently over the green eye. It was warm to the touch, burning gently with a small spark of life. She wondered how something so beautiful could come from someone she didn't. . . couldn't. . . really trust.
Especially with that voice coming from the lab downstairs. A very familiar voice.
"Oh, Danny." She whispered, feeling like she'd been punched in the stomach. "What's happened to you?"
"Nothing compared to what's going to happen to you." The familiar voice said from behind her.
It was around then that she felt the sting of a needle and passed out before she could even turn around.
LINE BREAK
There had been a long, tense silence after her question, and then Dani's mom had filled it with forcedly positive chatter.
"What do you mean, Dani? Nothing happens now. You beat the bad guy, congratulations on that, and everything goes back to how it was before this mess."
Dani wished she could believe it. She wished it, but wishes didn't mean anything in the real world. "It's not over. He'll try something else. I won't be able to stay one step ahead of him forever. I want to be able to relax every once in a while, you know? I'll have to deal with him sooner or later. . ."
"Then it'll have to be later." Danny (Phantom) said decisively. "You aren't strong enough to face Plasmius. . . em, his ghost partner. The one who helped him. Whoever that may be. I certainly don't know for sure that it's the Wisconsin Ghost."
Dani shook her head. "No, it has to be now. And it has to be me, before you go all overprotective and say you'll fight this one for me. This is my fight and mine alone. It needs to take care of this once and for all. . ." Dani sighed and, even quieter, mumbled, "Not that I have any idea what would do that."
It was a somber moment for them all. Sam and Tucker shifted uncomfortably in the tense air, and for the first time Dani felt a stirring of mistrust for them. If she couldn't trust Danny, who was to say that she could trust his best friends? They were certainly more his friends than they were hers. . .
And her friends were no better. Youngblood and Sid could both be in on this, as well as. . . Dani shuddered to admit it. . . her own parents. Hadn't they always hated ghosts? Maybe they were all plotting against her. She couldn't trust any of them. Not really.
Jack, usually the chipper one, stared down at the last melted dregs of his ice cream with uncharacteristic melancholy. "Good old V-man. . . I didn't thing he'd go so far to get you back. . . I know it doesn't seem like it, but back in our college days we were inseparable. We'd known each other since. . . forever, really, and we didn't see any problem with that." Jack raised his eyes to his son, who was sitting across the table and staring blankly into empty space. He didn't look as if he was listening, but Dani knew him too well to fall for that act. . . he was hanging onto every word, she knew.
"We were just like you and Tucker, really. . ." Jack said softly, and Danny dropped his facade, turning to his dad as suddenly as a snake that had its tail stepped on. A poisonous snake.
"What are you saying?" He asked quietly.
"Just that you and Vlad. . . you aren't really so different."
That was when Dani made her decision. She stood and left the table, not responding as they all called after her. In a moment of confusion she was off and running.
Because Jack was right.
Vlad and Danny were exactly the same.
LINE BREAK
Dani woke up slowly, drifting back into consciousness and realizing without really being surprised that she was strapped onto a lab table. Again. The cold steel pressed against her, smoothing away the heavy warmth that had settled over her.
"I've asked before and I'll ask again. . . what is it with you and examination tables. . ?" She mumbled. The question lacked real sting, the sedative still making her drowsy. Good thing, too, or she'd probably be panicking. It was a scene out of her worst nightmare. She was lying on her side, staring blankly into the harsh florescent light beamed down from somewhere above. She was, somehow, thankful for the too-bright illumination. Outside the small circle there was nothing but blackness, and this blackness scared her more than anything else she could remember. Well, bot the black itself. . . but of who she knew was waiting in it.
She realized, in an absent sort of way, that she wasn't thinking of Vlad.
"Oh, good. . . you're up, sis." Dani didn't want to turn her head towards the voice, partly from the numbing effect of the drug and partly because she didn't want to see the speaker. Unfortunately they didn't give her a choice, and they rounded the edge of the table step by step with a happy little smile in their voice.
"Honestly, I thought it would be harder to trick you into coming here, but it was easy."
Step.
Snow white hair entered the pool of light in front of her.
"I mean, really? 'No, Dani, don't go. . . it's too dangerous'!"
Step.
Those trademark glowing green eyes popped up.
"Can't believe you didn't listen, actually. I'd thought you would have held onto any excuse to avoid this confrontation."
Step.
First the distinctive white boots were illuminated, then the rest of the unique outfit.
"After all, you're so weak sometimes. . ."
Step.
Dani shut her eyes, closing out the awful truth, though it took every ounce of strength she had left. The effort felt like it took a year. Why did it hurt so much to breathe now? Why were the backs of her eyes stinging like that?
Why were her cheeks wet?
"Aw, she's crying." A new voice now.
Three steps. In unison. Dani's eyes swept open in an instant and she saw, to her growing horror, two more figures flanking the first.
I think the sedative's wearing off from the inside out. Dani mused in a distracted sort of way. My heart's racing, but the rest of my body is frozen. Like ice. Maybe that's all I am. Maybe I'm not crying, maybe I'm melting and soon I'll be all gone. Then it won't hurt anymore.
The thought almost made Dani smile.
"Crybaby. That's the thing I hate about you, you know. Well, one of them."
Step.
"Hi. . . guys. . ."
Dani whispered.
Danny, Sam, and Tucker smiled at her in a way that radiated kindness.
Well, maybe it would have if the circumstances had been different.
"Come on, little sis." Danny said as if he were discussing the weather with her. "Father wants to see you."
Dani clung to some small, insane hope.
"You mean. . . Jack. . ?" Why was it so hard to breathe?
Danny gave her a chastising look and Dani's heart stopped twitching in her gelid rib cage. "That moron? No, I mean our real dad."
"Vlad. . ." Dani hissed, and Danny beamed down at her with the air of a teacher that has finally broken a difficult student as he started to release her bonds. She'd hardly noticed the metal bands, and she hadn't even considered trying to break loose from them. In her current state, it would be a stretch if she could sit up unassisted, much less escape from her fully capable older brother and his two friends.
"Right. And don't worry, I had him get rid of that cheap hologram he made of you. I mean, he could have made a better effort if he wanted to frame you. . ."
"Are you a. . . hologram too?" Dani didn't even bother to cross her fingers. She could feel his gloved fingers, warm and almost gentle, brushing against her own gloved wrists as he snapped the cuffs open. No hologram felt like that, Dani knew.
"Well, now, that's just insulting. I'm as real as you are, little miss clone. Do I have to punch you to prove it?" Danny moved to the clamps on her feet and opened them just as deftly as he had the ones on her wrist. Then his hand drifted up over her face, the fingertips glowing green. "Will a good solid blast be enough to convince you, or. . ?" Danny let the question trail off, and Dani shut her eyes to ward of the intensifying green glow.
"Will you stop playing with the clone already?" Sam said exasperatedly. "We're taking too long as it is."
"Seriously, dude, you can catch up later." Tucker paused. "Well, not much later. . . she won't be around too long. So, actually, if you're going to say your final goodbyes you'd better make them quick."
Danny shrugged. "I can ramble on when I'm melting her down to goo. Let's just get moving before my dad gets mad at me." He slipped his arms around Dani's knees and shoulders, lifting her off the table and striding off into the shadows.
Dani looked down at the ground until it was too dark to see her tears shatter against it.
