Summary: As she thought about recent events, she came to a realization.
Characters: Valerie and Danny
Prompt: Valerie

Day Twenty-Two

The days following the whole event left her walking around in a daze. She felt betrayed and humiliated. Rage was mixed in there somewhere too, but her shock kept her mostly numbed to that bitter emotion.

How could Vlad Masters, her employer, the one that first gave her the equipment she needed to fight ghosts, be a ghost himself, be that awful Vlad Plasmius? It left her head spinning. A person that was half human, half ghost would have made a lot less sense to her, and she would have denied the evidence staring her right in the face for how unbelievable it was, if Danny Phantom didn't convince her to save Dani Phantom. Couldn't these ghosts come up with more original names? Thinking about the two different ghosts with such similar names gave her a headache.

Valerie rubbed at one temple as she walked down the hall of the school, still turning over everything that happened in her head. Danielle, that made it slightly easier, was a girl but also a ghost, just like, as she learned in what was probably the biggest shock of her life now, Vlad Masters. She stopped at her locker as she thought about Danielle. The kid was all right. And though Valerie didn't like being lied to, she could understand why the half ghost girl wouldn't tell her the truth right away when Valerie showed up in her ghost hunting suit.

As a ghost, Danielle looked almost exactly like Danny Phantom, except for the obvious age difference and their genders. Same hair, same eyes, same color scheme for their clothing, same insignia on their chests. But when she was human, her bright blue eyes and ebony hair reminded Valerie of someone. Glancing over her shoulder, the huntress easily spotted Danny Fenton sighing tiredly as he crammed a book into his bag. His usual friends weren't present with him at the moment. Danielle looked like she could be Danny's sister, or cousin or something. Heck, they even shared the same name! Valerie blinked a few times at that. Same name? If Danielle was Dani Phantom - Danny Fenton? Danny Phantom?

Valerie stared at the man across the hall from her, feeling like she was just sucker punched in the gut. If there were two other half ghost hybrids running around, why couldn't Danny Phantom be one too? And with the way Danielle looked in both forms, Danny Fenton looked like he could be the human half of Danny Phantom. But should she approach him about it? If she was wrong, if Danny Phantom was actually a full ghost, she didn't want to look crazy in front of the man.

Closing her locker, she decided she needed to know the truth. Valerie steeled her nerves as she crossed the hall, thankful that Danny was alone at the moment. She grabbed his arm, ignoring his protests as she dragged him to the nearest janitor's closet. After shoving him inside, she closed the door behind them. The light bulb dangling above them only provided a small amount of dim light, but it was enough for them to see each other, meet one another's gazes.

"What are you doing, Valerie?" Danny demanded, grumpiness in his blue eyes as his brows drew together in confusion.

"I know who are, Danny Phantom," Valerie said, stressing the word as her green eyes narrowed at him. Like she suspected he tried to argue, say she was crazy, but his quick denial only seemed like more proof that she was right. "I want an explanation, Danny. Why did you do all that stuff to me?"

"Hey!" Danny shouted, pointing a finger at her. "I tried to apologize for all of that and explain, but you were so 'I hate you' and 'I'm going to kill you' that you wouldn't even give me the chance while shooting at me." He jerked back suddenly, eyes growing wide as he slapped a hand over his mouth, realizing his slip up.

"Ha! You are the ghost boy!" Valerie smirked smugly at that little victory before it fell into a frown. "I guess I did let my anger get the best of me." She folded her arms. "Well, I'm waiting. You can start explaining any time now."

Danny sighed, rubbing at his face. He clearly didn't want her to know the truth about him being half ghost. "Cujo wasn't my dog, although he sure likes breaking out of the Ghost Zone to come play with me now. Not the point." He shook a hand to stop any questions Valerie might have had. "Cujo was one of the guard dogs at Axion Labs before that whole new security system made them obsolete."

"Wait. They killed the dogs because of my dad's security system?" Valerie stared at him, an uncomfortable feeling twisting inside her. She never knew anything about the guard dogs.

"I don't know the full details. But yeah, Cujo was definitely one of the dogs, and since he's a ghost, he obviously died. And all he wanted was some squeak toy that was buried in the old room where the dogs were kept. I wish I had figured that out a lot sooner and got it for him and saved us all this trouble, but I'm not exactly the smartest guy around." He frowned miserably as he said it. "Anyway, I'm really sorry about your dad and his job, and everything else. I never meant for any of that to happen. I was trying to keep ghosts from running around destroying things, but I really screwed up big time when it came to you."

Valerie felt a little guilty. Danny was only trying to do the right thing with his powers, and she hunted him down like some heartless, cruel monster. From her experiences hunting ghosts, she knew there were ghosts that fit that description, but Danny wasn't one of them. "I," she shook her head, "should have given you more of a chance to explain. But I was just so angry at the time. It all seemed so unfair. And the bad things just kept happening to me, and it felt like you were purposely trying to hurt me."

"I never meant for it to seem that way." Danny hung his head.

Valerie rubbed at the back of her neck, feeling awkward about the whole thing with them standing around in the semi dark closet. "I guess we can call a truce," she suggested. "We'll still have to do something about Vlad."

"Yeah - Wait. You know about Vlad?" Danny's eyes widened again.

"He might not be as smart as he thinks he is." Valerie smirked, though it was only by chance that she found out the truth about him.

"Truce then." Danny smiled as he held out a hand to her.

Valerie blinked at the hand, but after a moment, she pulled Danny into a brief hug. "We can talk strategies later. I'm sure Danielle will want to help us too." Opening the closet door, she gave him a wave before she turned to head down the hall. She walked a little taller. There was almost a spring in her step. She smiled to herself as a weight felt like it was finally lifted off her shoulders.

midnight: I've been planning to. XD;; I just need to come up with a good plot. Like figuring out what exactly Vlad is up to...

maltese: That could have gone in a whole other direction. XD;; *tried to keep things from going down that road* haha...

Just Will: Having a pet ghost dog would have been a lot cooler than the owl idea, which I... never understood why they wanted him to have a pet owl. That seems weird. When isn't Vlad creepy? XD;;;