CHAPTER 37: WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP

Human beings are a species that have evolved a sharp need for others and strong social connections with one another; a trait inherited time and time again from its ancestors, and one shared with many other creatures on this planet, but it is unique in that they hold the conscious awareness of this need, as well as the paradoxical need to be distinct and still separate from others of their kind.

Nonetheless, there is still enough of the basic human trait of social and emotional need that can make them put aside their grasps at individuality and make them embrace a greater whole, coming together to form a unity for a shared specific purpose and see that purpose fulfilled and accomplished.

For Vlad Masters, Jack Fenton, and Maddie Fenton, they have come into a unity of their souls, combining their spectral beings in a form of intercourse beyond physical sex, intermingling their thoughts and ideas to recreate a human soul, doing so for the sole purpose of giving their only son, Danny Fenton, his own soul back after it had been destroyed.

The act was a complete success, resulting in Danny regaining full consciousness of himself and his place in the universe, as well as getting one step closer to getting his powers back. Now that the act is complete, the need for the unity is gone, and the souls now must break themselves apart once again, becoming their own beings once again; separate once again from the whole they once made and forced to be alone again.

Separate and solitary in their own forms, Vlad, Jack, and Maddie all stood apart and looked to each other, working out their own internal introspections made out from one another. Touching each other in the closest and most personal way possible, their secrets and desires are each other's to know, as are their own guilts and regrets.

Vlad's guilt for his own wrongdoings are well within the minds of the Fentons, but so is the Fentons' longtime care for Vlad known to him, allowing him to feel it personally.

"I... I never knew that you still cared about me, after all these years. Even after everything I did. Even now." Vlad said.

"Well, it all seems the more appropriate after what we saw, Vlad, old buddy. Feeling the need to keep climbing for glory, just to make up for that little mishap all that long ago? That's a tough struggle that gets you nowhere, my boy. Sorry I had to put you through that." Jack said.

"You don't have to do that, Vlad. You've never had to do that. You've always been good enough for all your life, and you don't need to prove anything to anybody. I'm sorry that I wasn't the one for you, I really am, but you shouldn't let a little thing like that get you down or define you. You are what you do." Maddie said.

Maddie laid a hand on Vlad's face to offer physical comfort to her comforting words, but Vlad once again turned away in shame from her.

"I know what I've done. What I've done to you. I've felt that anger for me in you, too. I know that you can never really, truly forgive me for that." Vlad said.

Maddie leaned into Vlad's turned face and laid a kiss on his cheek, making him finally look back to her in end of his shame.

"And I've felt your guilt for what you've done, not just to me, but all your life. I know that you want to change, and you can still change now. The opportunity's right here, and it's waiting for you." Maddie said.

Satisfied with how the time has turned in his favor, Clockwork placed himself between the group to speak once again.

"Maddie Fenton speaks the truth, Vlad. My plan is set, and it has already been accomplished. You shall have the redemption you seek; the second chance you crave will be yours. What you must do to achieve it is follow the directions I give to you now." Clockwork said.

For one of the first times in his life, Vlad knelt before Clockwork, offering his obedience and will to him as his humble servant.

"Yes. Please. Tell me what I need to do." Vlad said.

Clockwork pointed his staff towards a seemingly empty space in the Ghost Zone, granting Vlad with the first orders he desired.

"In that direction, a rift within space-time will appear. You will go through the portal, and it shall take you to the time and place you must go next. You will know what to do when you arrive." Clockwork said.

Given his orders like a soldier obedient to his commander, Vlad rose from the ground and accepted them in full, raising no question in response.

"Yes. It will be done." Vlad said.

Vlad took a gaze to his destination, premeditating his flightpath towards the yet-to-exist rift, then a look back to Jack and Maddie, as if making one final goodbye to them. Approaching the two, his intentions proved to be indeed a last farewell. He had done his best to savor the departure, unsure if he would ever meet the two again.

"I will do the right thing. I promise you." Vlad said.

"We know." Maddie said.

"Go. Now." Clockwork ordered.

Lowering his head to the Fentons as a final gesture, Vlad then began flying towards the specified segment of space, shooting through the cosmos without any knowledge or care for where he was going, operating only under the instructions given to him by the master of time.

The action is made completely on faith, different from a leap of faith only in terms of transportation and movement.

And as Clockwork has promised, providence is found with the discovery of a rift opening before his eyes. His faith is put to a greater test in that he does not know where this portal will lead him, nor what he will do when he passes through, but he is left with no choice nor anywhere else to go but through the portal, and on to wherever it may lead him.

In an instant, he passed through the rift, and it disappeared just as he had. He is sent on his mission.


Tucker Foley, the 47th President of the United States, is dead, as is his entire cabinet, leaving the country without an executive branch.

Without a figurehead of leadership in the most powerful nation on Earth, the world itself has its eyes on the United States with anxious, fearful eyes; the fates of the many other countries on Earth owing their prosperity to the U.S., and that prosperity now hanging by a thread in the country's current crisis.

Many pockets of the country itself has fallen into chaos, the more predominantly religious, the moreso anarchic. Having been under the rule of one objectively real leader for so long, the opportunity to place their own figureheads of leadership, despite their status of nonexistence, is more than seized by the remaining slivers of religion on Earth, seizing their one moment of glory while they still can.

The city of Old Amity Park is no exception to this new rule. What was once excused as a simple town, holding numerous respectable citizens both living and dead that simply wished to be left alone, in peace and away from the many militaristic religious groups occupying their home, have now found the relatively controllable threat unleashed and more dangerous than ever, turning their city into a war zone.

The trio of Danny Fenton, Danielle Phantom, and the ghost of Jazz Fenton have managed to narrowly escape the crossfire, settling themselves in a smaller, nearby area to catch their breath and senses again, where they may do so peacefully and not worry about the danger of any straggling fighters.

They have been on a mission lasting almost two entire days to help Danny Fenton gain his soul back so that he may regain his powers; a goal they have long since accomplished and succeeded. But they now have another roadblock in the way of helping him gain his powers back.

His powers can only be gained by the one thing that none of them have access to at this moment in time: A Ghost Portal.

With no immediate way to obtain a Ghost Portal, the group are left with nothing else to do but share their thoughts on their predicament so far, trying to reflect on what can be done at the present time. Danny, with many of his own grievances and angst on his mind, is silent to the conversation, leaving the talking to his two sisters, just as he did before the reacquiring of his soul.

Managing to hear faint explosions and war in the distance echo to their location, their conversation ultimately leads to the obvious topic of the chaos unfolding now.

"So much for human civilization. All it takes is one man dying before you're all starting to kill each other. How does that logic even work to you? 'Oh, the President just died, so that means I can do whatever I want, and so I choose to join a cult kill every person who doesn't believe in the same book as me'? How fragile is the human mind if it can be compromised that easily?" Jazz asked.

Jazz's comments, damning to the very concept of religion as it pertained to the human condition, brought offense to Danielle, not sharing her sister's vilifying remarks.

"I spend two whole days with you, taking you through the heart of Amity Park and its people, trying to show you the people that live on the other side of life, and you still didn't learn anything about them, didn't you?" Danielle asked.

"What's there to learn, Danielle? They went crazy and they're starting to kill each other. I don't care how much philosophy and Hallmark greeting card bullshit you throw at me, that doesn't change the fact that people turned to monsters at the drop of a hat. What have you even been going over with our whole trip? Telling people we need to make new religions and teach people how to make their own? What kind of answer is that to cult-like thinking? You're not enlightening them out of a cult, you're just swapping one for another, and they're still willing to give up their humanity at the drop of a hat for it." Jazz said.

"People are starving on the streets, and they don't have enough to feed themselves or their family. When you get desperate and willing to do anything, suddenly humanity becomes a hell of a lot easier to trade in for food and shelter, just so you can survive another day."

"And what kind of a life is that where you have to sell your own soul to survive? To a cult that acts like its saving your soul from some nonexistent enemy? Is that a life even worth living?"

"What's the alternative to that? Death. Do you think death is a good alternative to life, just because your life isn't going so well at the moment?"

"As someone who's already dead, I can attest that it's not so bad. But even if I had no guarantee that I'd get another life past the one I'd got, at least I'd be free from pain or suffering, and I'd have died actually having my own soul."

"That's easy for you to say when you were one of the richest people on Earth, and you actually managed to come back. Not everyone gets lucky enough to hit either of those odds. Most importantly, I don't know whether of not if you know this, but people don't want to die in general. That's one of the main cornerstones of life. It tries to exist as long as it can."

"And exactly what good is life if it's spent in a lie? Is that even something you can call your own life?"

"That's not for you or me to judge. If you think you have a better way of life to show people, you can try and present your case and let the chips fall where they may, but life isn't something you can objectively measure or value. People have their own experiences and values that form their own lives."

"I've had my own life once, and I can measure it against other people's experiences, just like how you say I should present mine to others. I can see with my own eyes when something's not right, and I'll gladly speak up against it if I think it's wrong."

"And who are you to say if you think something's wrong or not?"

"Nobody more than you. You're the one who says we should build up our own moral codes and philosophies, you don't expect us to act on it, too? The whole point of a moral code is to distinguish what's right and what's wrong, and change the things that are going wrong around us to make them right? You obviously did that more than enough times with any of the religious paramilitary groups you've fought."

"Those were people trying to hurt other people. I try to save people from clear and present dangers that could harm them."

"And if people are harming themselves by lying to themselves, and you're not acting to save them, how is that different from not saving the people you've saved from the crazies trying to kill them?"

"It's not my place to judge if they're hurting themselves or not because of what they believe. Beliefs aren't the same as actions."

"No, they cause actions, you've shown me that so far. And we've seen the actions that the people of Amity Park took based on their beliefs."

"Because they were forced into bad situations that made them make bad choices."

"Now you're starting to contradict yourself. Did they have bad ideologies forced on them through a rough patch of life that we need to change, or is it not our place to judge them for believing what they believe? Which is it?"

Seemingly checkmated in her own argument, Danielle paused in thought for a moment, attempting to think of an answer to give to clear the contradiction.

"Maybe it's a balance between both. I don't know what the middle ground is, and maybe nobody does, but we need to at least try to find a proper agreeable floor we can all agree to, and then decide what areas of disagreement are acceptable. But what I do know is that we don't dismiss them as too far gone, and essentialize them in a certain, unchangeable thought process. Nobody's worth less of a person because they were forced into beliefs just to stay alive." Danielle said.

"'Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither, and will lose both'. Benjamin Franklin." Jazz said.

"'God is a concept by which we measure our pain'. John Lennon. I can quote famous people to make my point, too, Jazz."

The debate between the two sisters came to a sudden stop with the outburst of anger from the sideline-stricken Danny Fenton; having heard his fill of the heated discussion for too long, stuck in between their philosophical talks even before gaining back his soul, he, now having the capacity to feel and express anger clearly, can do so now in full.

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU! What is this shit you two keep talking about?! I can remember how much you two talked even before I got my soul back, all your crap about religion and spirituality and this, this, this- bullshit you think is so important! You go on and on about how the world is so screwed and all your bright ideas on how to fix it, but you're not doing anything to actually solve the problem! You're just babbling about all the problems and making up your bullshit arguments against it to feel like you're actually doing something important! What about actually doing something?!" Danny yelled.

With their attention now turned away from each other, Jazz and Danielle now had their focus solely on Danny, with the latter opting to comment first on his complaint.

"What about actually doing something? I don't know if you noticed this, Danny, but the entire time we were making our 'bullshit' arguments, we were taking you somewhere where you can get your soul back, then your powers. We were actually doing something to fix the problem, because, right now, we've got the problem of a crazy future you loose and none of us, or even most of the world, can stop him. That's why we need you." Danielle said.

"Oh, yeah, and how'd that work out? Oh, that's right, not only did you not find any way for me to get my powers back, but you also gave me back the ability to feel like shit over my own dead family. Yeah, Danielle, that's something I should be real thankful for, thank you, thank you so very much, lil' sis!" Danny scoffed.

"Danny, please, don't act like this. We're still trying to find a way for you to get your powers back, and we will find a way. I know you've got the strength to do this, you've gotten so far as it is, and we can do this if we keep working together." Jazz said.

"For what? So we can lose to a guy that I already lost to once? Who killed my whole family? Who took them away from me? What do I even have to fight for?"

"What about me? I'm right here. I'm dead, but I'm not gone. I'm still here with you, and I'll fight with you again. I'm your big sister, after all. I can't leave you all alone. That's why I came back."

Jazz attempted to hold Danny in a hug to relieve his angst, but he shook off the ghost of his sister, rejecting her efforts with a disinterested shrug.

"You? You're not my sister. My sister was killed by that thing that calls itself Demon Phantom. I saw her slaughtered like an animal. There is no more Jazz. She's dead. You? You're just what's left of her. You're a matrix of thoughts and ideas she once had, not her. You're not human. You're a corrupted save file. You're a mockery of my memory of my real sister. If you were my sister before, you're not anymore." Danny said.

Being rejected from her own brother, Jazz retracted her support and turned away in shame, expressing a look of hurt and pain on her face. Watching the reaction of the ghost of her sister, Danielle took great sympathy on her, and a greater antipathy towards Danny, putting her full anger and attention on him.

"Hey. Asshole. That is still your sister. You think just because she doesn't have a body of flesh and blood, that suddenly doesn't make her your sister anymore? You think if somebody dies, then that means they're not related to you anymore? No, of course it doesn't. They still live on through your memories of them, and she's a literal example of memories keeping her alive." Danielle said.

"And how do I know that it's actually her that came back and it isn't some projection of my own thoughts of her creating some kind of copy? You wanna play these stupid debate club games, I can do it, too. I can remember when I first saw her as a ghost. I was almost dead in a pile of garbage, and I saw her flying down to me. You know what I was thinking of at that moment in time? I was trying to think of someone who could help me, wishing they were there with me. Jazz was always there to be there and back me up, so she was the one who was on my mind. Was it just my own thoughts of her that brought up her ghost? Does she only exist because I thought of her? We barely know why ghosts come back at all, maybe ghosts aren't even really the people they used to be." Danny said.

"Are you even listening to yourself? It sounds like you're just coming up with all these rationalizations to excuse yourself from doing anything to fix the problem. She's been fighting long and hard to make sure you stay alive and got as far as you did, you ungrateful bastard. You just wanna give up after all she's done? Just because she's a ghost and not human anymore? If you think Jazz really is gone, don't you think it's worth fighting for her anyway, just to avenge her and the rest of your family?"

"If they're gone, what's the point of fighting for them? They're not here to feel satisfied that I did anything, and they can't even feel ashamed of me for not doing anything, either. Forget it, Danielle. I quit." Danny said.

Danny sat up from his place, stepping to another area of the house to seclude himself, folding his arms and locking himself out from the rest of the world. Danielle, still not willing to allow him to quit, stepped up and grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him towards her to put each other face to face.

"Come on, Danny, you can't just quit, what about Demon Phantom? He's gonna destroy the whole world, doesn't that mean anything to you?" Danielle asked.

"Who cares? If he wants to destroy the world, he can have at it. With my family gone, what else is there to fight for?" Danny asked.

"What about the millions of people who look up to you as a hero? Aren't they worth fighting for?"

"Those millions of people look up to Danny Phantom, and you made it clear that Danny Phantom did more harm to this world than good. I brought all kinds of ghosts to attack the world, I had an evil version of me from the future come to destroy the planet, and I left the world to go to ruin because I never really led them to a better future. But I'm not even that anymore. I'm not Danny Phantom anymore. He was the one with all the powers to change the world. I'm just Danny Fenton. I'm nobody."

Not knowing how to encourage her brother to fight anymore, Danielle stopped her efforts in self-reflection, thinking of another way to push him on. He thoughts led her to decide that perhaps reason was not the answer in this situation, and, instead, perhaps it is a more hard-edged approach she must try instead.

Turning the retreating Danny around again, Danielle punched him in the face, knocking him against a wall. The act of violence stunned both Danny and Jazz from the sudden outburst of aggression, with the latter coming to the former's defense and comfort after the punch.

"Danielle! What the hell are you doing?!" Jazz shouted.

Danielle stepped forward to continue what she started, only to be stopped by Jazz, putting herself in between her siblings.

"Out of the way, Jazz. It's time for a little tough love." Danielle said.

Pushing Jazz aside, Danielle picked Danny off the floor and punched him in his face again, sending his body against the wall.

"10 years. For 10 whole years, I was left on my own to survive and take care of myself with no help or support whatsoever. I didn't have a great life, but I did the best I could with what I had. But you're supposed to be the source of my own genes. You're supposed to be better than me! How can you just lay there and die so easily?!" Danielle shouted.

Danny attempted to block the next incoming punch, but Danielle grabbed him and threw Danny to the ground, causing him to tumble across the floor. Not understanding the reason for the fight, Jazz's forced position on the sidelines made her scream for the violence to stop.

"Danielle, stop it! What are you doing?!" Jazz shouted.

"Not just yet, Jazz. Just stay back, I got this. Danny, you still didn't answer my question. How can you just give up on everything so easy?" Danielle asked.

"I don't have my powers, what am I supposed to do?!" Danny pleaded.

Danielle delivered a sharp kick to Danny's stomach, knocking his head against the wall.

"You've relied on your ghost powers way too long! Valerie Gray had no powers, your parents had no powers, Jazz had no powers, and Sam had no powers, but all of them could easily catch up to you! What's your excuse?!" Danielle shouted.

"I'm not strong enough! I don't have-" Danny tried to say.

Danielle picked up Danny and threw him against an assortment of boxes, causing him to collapse the stacks of cardboard and to get himself covered in packaging popcorn.

"I'll tell you what you don't have. Balls. You don't have what it takes to fight. You became dependent on your powers and let them get you soft and weak! You're a burnout! A has-been! A failure!" Danielle shouted.

Hearing the word of 'failure' somehow make its way to his ego, the disgraced superhero took great offense to the word, feeling it hang heavy on his own true failure to save his own family from death. No longer able to take the verbal abuse from his younger sister, Danny got up from the ground and charged her head-on, preparing to finally make his own move in the fight.

"SHUT UP!" Danny shouted.

Danny rushed towards Danielle head-on, tackling her and pushing her to the ground, forcing her to land on her back. With his opponent on her back, Danny began punching Danielle in the face, holding nothing back in his punches and giving her no time to recover and retaliate.

Using whatever defense tactics she still had at her faculties, Danielle grabbed Danny's arms, stopping his incessant punches, then kicked him off of her. Her kick had sent him into a wall, making him crash through the plaster and drywall to leave a large crater in the shape of his body against it.

After recovering from his fall, Danny got up again and made his approach back to Danielle, taking a careful defensive stance instead of a simple head-on attack. Yet still, Jazz was without any clue as to the reason or meaning behind the fight, and her calls to make it all stop were just as loud and desperate as ever.

"Danielle, stop! What are you doing?! Why are you doing this?!" Jazz shouted.

"I'm trying to get him going again. He's starting to get it again now!" Danielle said.

Danny threw his first punch, aiming for Danielle's face, but, as she held more experience in hand-to-hand brawls, Danielle easily dodged the punch, leaving the strike to miss her completely. The miss did not stop Danny from continuing; he threw several more punches, all trying to anticipate Danielle's dodges, but, without any ghost powers to increase his speed, none of his punches were fast enough to land.

Throwing his punches without any true coordination, his anger clouding his judgement and awareness for tactics, Danny's attack pattern was quickly learned and deduced by Danielle, allowing her to think of a plan to end his attack. Grabbing his arm as it came towards her in a punch, she twisted it, bringing Danny to kneel to the ground while groaning in pain.

Espousing his desire to give in moments before, Danny no longer carried the sentiment, now refusing to give up in the fight, just as Danielle had desired.

Kicking at Danielle's feet, he knocked her on her back, hitting the hard ground once again. Sending Danielle down on her back once again, Danny followed by delivering an elbow dive to her stomach, knocking all the breath out of her, taking out all the fight she once had, and leaving Danny the apparent winner.

Having depleted the energy with his last move, Danny did not bother getting on his feet again, only rolling off of Danielle to catch his breath and crawling to the nearest wall. Danielle, not only defeated and depleted of energy, but also giving Danny the drive to fight once again, did the same, taking to another wall catch her own breath.

Jazz's wishes of having the fight come to an end were finally met, but done so with the remaining sibling standing in anxiety over the damage the two did to each other.

"Jesus Christ. First, the town goes crazy, now, you guys, too?" Jazz asked.

"No... Just making Danny... the right kind of crazy... to keep going." Danielle panted.

"I know... what you're trying... to do..." Danny panted.

"I'm trying to... get you motivated again... and it looks like... it's working. Because if I... can get you... to fight like that... then you can still... fight Demon Phantom. So... are you still gonna give up?"

"No. I'm gonna keep fighting... and I'm gonna make that... son of a bitch pay... for what he did to my family."

Danielle's pants were at last accompanied by a smile, letting out a few laughs in leu for the much-needed breaths.

"Good. Now we're getting somewhere." Danielle panted.

"Okay, okay, you guys are seriously getting out of control here. Can we please just focus on what we're gonna do to help Danny get his powers back?" Jazz asked.

"We're not out of control. We're just getting back on track. But we still need a Ghost Portal. We can't get one in the city or possibly any other, and we can't get one from Fenton Works. Where else can we get one?"

The group brought their minds together to brainstorm for a solution to the question, all coming together to contemplate where the device might be available for them to access. In dealing with a piece of equipment so world-changing and heavily regulated yet available to any group willing to make it, the paradox of trying to think of an available location of another Ghost Portal.

The easy answer is to simply give up and give no answer, to call the task impossible to succeed, but Danny Fenton is past the concepts of surrender and cowardice; he is the one who struggles the hardest in trying to think of a likely place to find a Ghost Portal, and somewhere it may be easy to access.

And, just like a shot of inspiration from a source divine, the answer is in his mind.

"Wait. There's one place where we could still find one." Danny said.


Likewise, the topic of technology meant to explore the dimension that lies beyond death is on the minds of all the present members of Fenton Works. The particular kind of technology that the group focused on was universally collective for all but one member; the underlings have their jobs set to work on the God Machines set to reprogram human beings into gods in mind, making them gods in soul after their deaths...

...and the leader is focused on Ghost Portals, just as well as a select few people on his mind, for those devices are the primary and greatest concern and threat to his plans as they stand now. Moments ago, Demon Phantom had gained the knowledge that his counterpart in this timeline was still very much alive, and still posed a threat to his greater plans.

With his very existence, the possibility that he can regain his powers, becoming an existential threat to his grand scheme, he took to Old Amity Park in hopes of eliminating the threat before it could manifest into a clear and present danger, bringing with him a squadron of newly-designed Techbots, killer machines designed by Technus for any and all combat situation.

Dismissing the machines as a waste of manpower and resources, the machines had proven themselves to be useful to the new and current challenge, giving him the chance to hunt down and kill Danny Fenton for good. Alas, victory was still out of the reach of Demon Phantom, stolen out of his hands by the workings of fate.

Returning to the airborne base known as Fenton City, his spectral body is focused on the task of flight, but his mind raced to think of where a Ghost Portal may be found, knowing that Danny Fenton would be making his way towards it as well. He cannot afford any other taxation on his mental processes or any other waste of thought in the task of trying to locate any potential Ghost Portals; his very existence depending on it.

But, having subordinates with their own pasts intertwined with each other, and all the potential to fight with one another, he still cannot be spared from any distractions. The repeat offenders of this problem, the on/off lovers of Skulker and Ember, have once again made problems for their leader.

He is fortunate enough that their conversation is less volatile than their arguments of before, and that he is not yet present to hear them.

"Okay, Technus, next contestant ready?" Skulker asked.

"Yes, take that one to the Ghost Portal, please." Technus said.

"Got it. What's this one, 'urination'? How the hell do you worship pissing?"

"That's Urantia, dipstick. Imagine if Scientology and Mormonism got thrown in a blender, mixed with a lot of acid." Ember corrected.

"Sleep with a weirdo to learn that one?"

"Nope. Garcia, Vaughn, and Hendrix were big fans of the book. Don't know why Hendrix was, there's some pretty racist shit in there."

"Figures the druggie guitarists would go for it. What happened to guys like Ted Nugent, make some good, old-fashioned rock-and-roll, pure talent without any drugs to sell it."

"Ted Nugent? Aw, give me a break, that guy hasn't been relevant since 70s, and that's coming from somebody who actually liked his music. Besides, have you ever heard 'Stranglehold'? Ain't no way you can hear that song without thinking somebody was on something, or any way you can hear it without being on something."

In the midst of their discussion, Demon Phantom arrived back at last in the hangar, bringing back with him the majority of the Techbots. The units that were damaged or, in the case of those carried back by their siblings, destroyed, reported to be repaired, where Demon Phantom himself somberly walked on, still contemplating the more important issue in his mind.

He spares only a passing interest to his subordinates to ensure they are still hard at work, only to be interrupted by Skulker and Ember once again.

"Hey, boss, you wanna give me some help here? Ember seems to think you can't have any talent as a musician unless you fry your brain out with drugs. Care to comment?" Skulker asked.

"Quiet. I care not for you inane conversations. I have more important matters to contemplate." Demon Phantom said.

"Uh, no offense, boss, but, first, you were standing all by yourself for, like, almost an hour or two, off-handedly claiming you killed the president, then you say that Danny Phantom's still alive and you had to go kill him. You wanna fill us in on any blanks we might, and by 'might' I mean 'most definitely do', have?" Ember asked.

"Turn on the TV if you want to know so badly."

Forced to go through an indirect means to have their answers fulfilled, the ghosts took to the artificial intelligence of M.I.S.T.E.R. to get what they desired.

"Hey, M.I.S.T.E.R., play us the news, will you?" Ember asked.

"Playing all national news stations, Miss McLain." M.I.S.T.E.R. said.

Obeying the order given out by its new masters, M.I.S.T.E.R., controlling all aspects of Fenton City, altered the environment of the room to comply with its orders. Multiple television screens began to come down from the ceiling and out from the walls, all playing a different news channel to report on the current happenings of the country.

And each and every one of them, as the group all were suddenly shown, had gone nothing short of ballistic from current events.

"A doppelganger of Danny Phantom calling itself Demon Phantom..." One news channel said.

"Tucker Foley, the President of the United States, and his entire cabinet is dead..." Another news channel said.

"Civil war has broken out in the United States of America for the first time since 19th century..." A different news channel said.

"Entire religious factions have gone to war in the streets..." Yet another news channel said.

"...could be the end of the United States as we know it..." One more news channel said.

Being fed an overload of information drastically changing their understanding of the situation of the world, the ghosts all collectively stopped in their work, staring at the televisions and their feeds in complete shock. Ensured a degree of secrecy with the assumption of the Fentons' identities, the knowledge of their leader and his destabilizing the world brought them all great distress.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! You told the entire country who you are? And you made everybody go to war with each other? What the hell, man?!" Ember shouted.

"For once, I agree with the tramp, my lord. Is it truly advisable to risk our safety now, when our work is not yet complete?" Fright Knight asked.

"I agree as well, master. I might be nearly done, but I'm not nearly done enough. What if some kind of counteroffensive gets pushed and the government comes to attack us?" Technus asked.

"All of you calm yourselves. The military is not a concern as of now. They have too much on their hands with their own country trying to kill itself; something I had little hand in more than giving them their one little push into chaos. This merely buys us some time. My main concern is Danny Phantom." Demon Phantom said.

"You told us he was dead, then it turns out he wasn't, right? So what? He's got no powers, what's the problem?" Skulker asked.

"He can easily regain them by stepping back into another Ghost Portal. In addition, he's got two new allies: A female Danny Phantom, some kind of clone, I assume, and Jazz Fenton."

"Now, wait a minute, we know that skank's dead! I've been using her body ever since we snuffed her!" Ember said.

"She came back as a ghost."

The news brought the other ghosts to silently converse among each other, each looking for assurance of belief over the new revelation.

"But... But she didn't come back in your timeline, right? How did that happen this time?" Skulker asked.

"I don't know." Demon Phantom said.

"Then is it possible the rest of the Fentons could return as well? Could they all be planning some kind of retaliation? Shouldn't we-" Technus began to ask.

"I SAID, I DON'T KNOW!"

Demon Phantom's shout brought them to an instant silence, none daring to ask any more questions. That privilege belonged to their leader, who pondered his aloud.

"Now, the main concern is to take care of Danny Fenton. If he is gone, then there is no counter-offense for the Fentons to make, if they are all indeed back. The only way he can get his powers back is through a Ghost Portal. We find the nearest convenient one, we find him." Demon Phantom said.

"Yeah, and where exactly do we find one? Fenton Works has one, but he's obviously not coming back here. Other labs across the world used to have them, but we shut them down with our play with President Foley. There's plenty in the city by these religious gangs, but good luck trying to find one that's not heavily guarded. Where else does that leave him to go?" Skulker asked.

Having all other possibilites narrowed down by the hunter of the group, the answer soon came to Demon Phantom; his mind wandering back to his past to find the it.

"Vlad." Demon Phantom said.

"What? Vlad? What does the turncoat have to do with it?" Fright Knight asked.

"He's one of the ones who helped bring this technology to light. He's still got one."

"Where? You mean his old company, VladCo? Didn't the A.I. say Fenton Works bought it out some years ago?" Technus asked.

"They bought the company, but not the headquarters."

"And what is the 'headquarters'?" Ember asked.

"The place of my birth."

Demon Phantom's response at last clarified his thought for the others, all opening their eyes in realization of the answer.

"Wait, you mean...?" Ember asked.


The city of Madison is the capital city of the state of Wisconsin, standing as its second-largest city and 80th-largest in the country. A unique fact regarding this city is that it was named after James Madison, the fourth president of the United States and one of the founding fathers of the country.

Prior to his service as president, he was most famous for being one of the chief architects of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, hailed as the 'Father of the Constitution', and being a key proponent of the separation of church and state, summarized in his original wording for the First Amendment:

'The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established.'

His position and legacy has since been besmirched and fabricated as standing for the opposite by conservatives and religious fundamentalists, attempting to claim that he advocated for religion to be imposed by the way of government, or that man could not be moral without any god or religion, but, like any false statement, the truth has overcome the lies and prevailed in its opposition.

But even with his staunch position of a secular state, he was indeed a religious man, and was often classified as a deist rather than a theist. Perhaps it is some cosmic irony that the city named after him carries the homeplace of the man who helped usher in the death of religion and Gnosticism...

...and perhaps it is also another cosmic irony that he has returned home, coming through a rift in space and time to arrive at the building's front steps.

"Oh... Of course. Of course I had to come back here. I'm home." Vlad said.


And as Vlad has arrived back to the Masters Mansion, the occupants of Fenton City have at last the location where they will find Danny Fenton.

"Alright, well, that's that. We all just go up and take him out, right?" Skulker asked.

"Yes, we can lie in wait for the half-breed, slay him in his tracks before he-" Fright Knight began to say.

"No. I need you all here. I will handle Danny Fenton myself. He is nothing that I cannot handle on my own." Demon Phantom said.

"Uh, no offense, but didn't you just get back after failing to kill him? And now you want to try again?" Ember asked.

Ember's question made all eyes turn to her; Demon Phantom's glare one of offense and anger, with the others all looking at her with the expectations of her to perish soon before their eyes. However, such a possibility does not come to pass, and Demon Phantom instead took the criticism in a constructive way.

"That is true. That's why I'm not going to do it by myself. I'm going to make use of what I've got instead." Demon Phantom said.

"And what exactly will you use, then?" Technus asked.

"Another ace up my sleeve I haven't thrown away yet. If it was good enough to kill the president, it's good enough to kill Danny Fenton."


Valerie Gray is dead.

She lived as a woman who followed the 'riches to rags' story, living as an egotistical girl in her high school years, finding more humility with poverty changing her for the better, and rising through the ranks of a newly-created branch of the military known as the Ecto Corps to become its hard-boiled leader.

She was murdered by the apparition calling itself Demon Phantom, who then possessed her body to carry out the assassination of President Foley. Her body, well-trained and conditioned for any combat situation against ghosts, was more than useful for killing the president and his cabinet, decimating the entire executive branch of the government.

She now laid on the floor of the White House, or whatever was left of her. Having served its new purpose after her life was taken by Demon Phantom, the remains of Valerie Gray, no longer having a use to her killer, are unceremoniously left to decompose on the floor, without a grave or even a face to mourn over.

At least, one would hope, that she would finally find peace for once.

But while her soul may have found some peace now, her body has not found it yet.

Another ethereal body belonging to Demon Phantom was present with the body of Valerie Gray, having possessed it moments ago. With duties to attend to both at Fenton Works and in Washington, he had split his body to two separate entities, allowing one of them to use Valerie's body to be used as a weapon to eliminate the threat of the president.

Receiving the same information that its counterpart had in Fenton Works, it now had a new purpose for the body, preparing to possess it once again.

Working its way through Valerie's body, he slowly made his way to the brain, beginning to repair the damage inflicted from the bullet that went through. Rewiring neural connections and membranes manually, Demon Phantom began to piece together the control center needed to access the muscles and nerves of the body, allowing it to be made use of once again.

With the damaged brain repaired and the controls to the machine functional again, the spirit once again took the helms of the body, assuming control of the body of Valerie Gray once again. With control now his, Demon Phantom rose from the ground, placing his new feet on the ground.

Beginning to move towards its glider, the body reactivated the hoverboard and stepped onboard, setting flight once again. With stealth and subtelty no longer a concern, the body did not waste its time trying for a simple exit, opting instead to shoot a hole in the wall open, reaching the outside more easily.

Taking to the sky, the body made its way to thecity of Madison, Wisconsin, ready to complete its next task:

Kill Danny Fenton.


The estate of Vlad Masters has been abandoned for many years, even prior to his exile from the planet. Leaving the city of Madison in favor of the greener pastures of Amity Park, even becoming its mayor, the mansion has been left to time to fall into a derelict state, as if it were a haunted house.

With the entry of a ghost that once was an occupant of the home now returning, the comparison is all but perfect to make, but there are no intentions of cheap scares to be made here, nor any cheap decorations present to lighten and excite the mood for those who would enter.

No, there is nothing fun or delightful to be found here. For Vlad Plasmius, this journey is only a dark reminder of the past he has had, and the many wrongdoings he has carried out during the days when he was once alive. There is only reflection of crimes and pain that he has brought out on the world, both as Vlad Master and Vlad Plasmius.

Soon, a literal case of reflection is presented to him once he stumbled on a mirror. Looking at his own reflection, he is shown once again the terrifying appearance of a blue-skinned monster, donning a vampire-esque cape and sharp black hair; an image guaranteed to bring terror to the uninitiated with ghosts.

And knowing he has been a monster both inside and out for most of his life, he cannot bear to look back at his reflection, turning away in shame.

The self-hatred and anger he feels is spared only for a moment when he caught ear of some faint noises coming from the outside of his old home, leading him to come to the window to see what was causing the sounds. What he saw was the arrival of two ghosts and a human coming to the lawn, soon to make their landing.

He knows the three very well as Danny Fenton, Danielle Phantom, and Jazz Fenton.

Arriving just outside the mansion, flying over a series of fences and 'RESTRICTED AREA - DO NOT ENTER' signs surrounding it, Danielle and Jazz safely set Danny on the ground, coming to contact with the ground themselves soon after. Not wanting to rush into the building too hastily, the group scanned the area, seeking out any potential threats that may lurk their way.

Vlad hid himself back behind the curtains of the window, preventing himself from being seen yet.

Failing to spot Vlad or any other potential issues in their skimming of their surroundings, the group proceeded to go inside the mansion.

"I still say that heading through Plainsville would have been faster." Jazz said.

"Don't complain, we're here now, and now we can get what we came for." Danielle said.

"Fair enough. Anyway, things should be simple enough, right? Go in, find the portal, Danny gets his powers back?"

"And then we take on Demon Phantom and kill him once and for all." Danny said.

Despite Danny's enthusiastic declaration of intent and willingness to get inside as quickly as possible, Danielle was less than ready to head within the mansion. Having been created in the house long ago by Vlad Plasmius, the mansion brought a stark reminder of the lie of a life that Vlad put her under, and what hardships she had to live through afterwards.

Beginning to remember the deceit Vlad had inflicted on her, Danielle began to grow angered and enraged, clenching a fist at the sight of the building.

"Danielle? You okay?" Danny asked.

Upon hearing Danny's question of concern, Danielle snapped out of her trance of regret and anger to answer his question.

"Just... Just remembering some unpleasant things. This is where I was made, you know." Danielle said.

"Do you want to stay out here? We can do this without you if you don't want to go in." Danny said.

"No. Let's not stop on my behalf. We made it this far, it'd be stupid to stop over nothing. Let's go."

Acting with caution and alertness, Danny, Danielle, and Jazz made their way into the mansion, slowly moving down the abandoned halls in search of Vlad's old laboratory. Not knowing what to expect inside the building, the group maintained careful eyes on their surroundings as constantly as possible, readying themselves for any potential threat that may be in wait, no matter how likely or unlikely they may be.

The once-fanciful mansion, with no housekeeping and maintenance to keep its appearance up to standard, had turned from the prestigious home of Vlad Masters into a derelict mausoleum, becoming a rotting time capsule for a rich man living in the early 2000s. No futuristic technology found in Fenton City are present to lead the group along their mission, leaving them to rely on their wits and senses.

The archaic construction of the mansion had run down over time, with spiderwebs accumulating over the ceilings and the walls creaking and groaning with lethargy, with the colors of the paint decreasing in quality to an unhealthy shade of the vibrant color it once had.

Such a setting provides more than enough uneasiness for the group, and makes the journey through the mansion an anxious experience.

"This might be a bad time to ask, but, are you sure that there's still a portal here, or anything else? The government have seized this property years ago." Jazz said.

"Well, considering Tucker's presidency consisted of chasing women ever since he gained the slightest bit of relevancy, I doubt it ever crossed his mind to change things up here." Danny said.

"Maybe, but something still doesn't feel right here. Wouldn't a place like this have some armed guards ready?"

"When the country's starting to tear itself apart in a borderline civil war, guarding a mansion that nobody's touched or even thought about for years seems like the last thing you want to protect. Any soldiers deployed here must've gone downtown to handle the riots." Danielle said.

"I know, but it still just seems too easy. I get the feeling that something's watching us."

Jazz's suspicions are indeed true that there is another party present and watching them, but it is not a threat that keeps its eye on the group. It is Vlad Plasmius that watches them, keeping himself at a healthy distance to observe their actions, and see where their journey will lead them.

He knows it is their mission that he must influence in some way, but he has no clue as of yet how he must help them... or convince them that he will help them.

And his help could indeed be made of use, for after many tense minutes spent searching for the entrance to the lab to no avail, the group finally stopped to rest, making the library their choice of a resting place. Seating themselves in chairs and sofas laid about, they took the opportunity to brainstorm for a resolution to their dilemma, contemplating on where an entrance to the laboratory might be.

"We've been searching this place for half an hour now, where's that entrance? Danny, you've been here the most, don't you remember where it is?" Danielle asked.

"I haven't been in here for years, not to mention he's had this place rebuilt once before. Of course, that's not taking into account all the times he might've remodeled the place while I was away. He might've wised up and upped his security. Can't you just guys phase us through the floor and take us down?" Danny asked.

"We have no idea where it might be exactly. Since you're not a half-ghost anymore, you can't survive being intangible like us. If I keep you underground for too long, you could suffocate before we find it. You're no good dead or undead in this fight."

"Then why don't one of you just search by yourselves instead? Better yet, you were made here, why don't you think of something else? Isn't there something you remember about the lab?"

"I don't. Vlad might've erased that part of my memory before he moved me to Amity Park. And quit getting pissy at me. It was your idea to come here, you know."

"And it was your idea to beat me up to try to not give up, which I'm still not okay with, by the way. What if I end up peeing blood after that?"

"Nothing you don't deserve for making me go through all this just to help you. You dragged me into this, so you're not getting yourself out of it. Now, how about you stop acting like a little bitch and help us think of something?"

"I already told you my idea, you weren't listening. Maybe if you actually opened up your ears to something other than cheap philosophy, you might actually be able to solve more problems around here."

"Look, asshole, I'm getting real tired of dealing with this. I haven't slept in the past couple of days, and I'm not complaining about it. I'm still trying to keep it together to see this through."

"I haven't slept or complained about it either. Why don't you just-"

As Danny and Danielle argued among each other in a state of sleep-deprived delirium, the one member of the party not affected by loss of sleep opted to use her own reasoning skills to try to deduce another possible way to reach the laboratory. Her answer came with their current setting of the library, giving her an idea to try out.

Ignoring her fighting siblings, Jazz flew into the air, phasing herself behind the bookcases and throwing the books off the shelves, leaving most of them nearly hitting Danny and Danielle. The sudden onslaught of falling books took the two out of their fight, instead turning the book-bashed siblings to Jazz in confusion, who returned their looks with a smug smile.

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you two finished?" Jazz asked.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Danny asked.

"Well, while you two were bickering with each other, I started to wonder why we haven't found the laboratory yet. We obviously haven't found it in any of the rooms so far, so it's not something we can find easily, not to mention it's not something he'd want anybody finding so easily in the first place. What if he had some secret entrance?"

"Like what?" Danielle asked.

"Well, we're in the library, I thought, 'maybe he has a certain book that acts as the switch'? Checking all of these books would've taken us hours, so I thought of an easier solution: If one of these books is a switch, it wouldn't have flown off the shelves with a simple knock, so the last book on the shelf must be the swtich."

"A hidden book switch? How cliche do you think he is?" Danny asked.

"Did either of you have a better idea?"

"Well, I did, but Danielle opted to ignore me completely and-"

"That was a rhetorical question, Danny. Besides, you ought to trust your big sister more. The oldest is always the more wiser. Especially when she has a PHD just like her mother."

Jazz proceeded to scan the shelves for a single remaining book, leaving her other two siblings to stand in silence, ideologically defeated by Jazz's scientific and superior logic and thought process leading them to a likely answer to their problem. Seeing Danny humiliated by her older sister, Danielle looked to him with a mocking smirk.

"Shut up." Danny said.

"I didn't say anything." Danielle said.

Humiliated once again, Danny gave a sigh of annoyance.

"Now, if I were a megalomaniacal, creepy, old guy who wanted to take over the world and screw my mom, what book would I pick as-" Jazz began to ask.

Jazz's quick skim of the shelves, searching for a single remaining book, led her to find one single book remaining on the shelves, confirming her theory.

"Ah-ha! I love being right all the time." Jazz said.

"What book was it?" Danny asked.

"'The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark', by William Shakespeare. How classical."

"Eh, I could've guessed that."

"What? No, you couldn't, how would you guess this one?"

"Hamlet's about a guy who kills another guy and marries his wife. Sound like something someone you know would try?"

Outsmarting his older sister with his literary knowledge, Jazz returned Danny's smile with a look of defeated frustration.

"...Shut up." Jazz said.

Upon giving the book a hefty pull, the bookcase began to turn from the wall, opening a door to a secret passageway, playing out like a scene from a mystery or spy movie. The bookcase gave way to a stairway that led to the lower levels of the mansion, where the laboratory presumably laid below.

Having their new path revealed to them, the group took the stairway down, being led down to the lower, hidden levels of the mansion.

"Since when are you a Shakespeare expert?" Danielle asked.

"Mr. Lancer made us read Shakespeare for a month straight. I couldn't stop saying 'thee' and 'thou' in every sentence for weeks." Danny said.

After a short walk down the stairs, the group at last found themselves in Vlad's abandoned laboratory, untouched and preserved after being sealed away below the mansion for several years. Within the laboratory laid anything and everything that one could think could sit in wait below; weapons, equipment, vehicles, and all sorts of other useful tools...

...but, most importantly, however, there laid a Ghost Portal at the end of the room; providence gifted onto them at last.

"There it is. Now, how do we get it working again?" Danny asked.

"Shouldn't take too much time. We've got all the parts we need to make it work here, and I've got all the skills to put it together." Jazz said.

Floating to the portal, Jazz took a screwdriver and began opening up a panel on its side, removing the metal to inspect the electronic components within. Though the portal and many other pieces of technology in the lab appeared to be in good shape, the portal itself revealed not only that it was not in good operating condition, but that its build was far different than Jazz was used to.

The sight of different components and parts inside were akin to reading a foreign language to Jazz, leaving her unable to decipher what the parts came together to do.

"Aw, what the hell?!" Jazz shouted.

"What, what? Is it too broken to fix?" Danny asked.

"'Broken'? I don't even know what the parts are supposed to look like when they're working. I knew this thing was supposed to be old, but, there's stuff in here that makes Atari look like Apple. I can't tell what's what in here."

"I never got around to updating the parts from the prototype. Didn't want to risk any chances of Jack and Maddie knowing what I was up to." Vlad said.

Hearing a voice not belonging to any of the group was enough to get a rise and jump out of everyone in the laboratory, but to quickly recognize it as the voice of Vlad Plasmius turn to it with hostile intent, with Danny clenching his fists and Danielle and Jazz both preparing ectoplasmic bolts.

In contrast, Vlad made no attempt to raise his guard or provide any offense to the Fentons, instead raising his hands in surrender.

"Wait. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help." Vlad said.

The offering of a motion of peace was lost completely on Danny Fenton, who opted to rush to Vlad and punch him in the face, leaving little in the way of damage to his ethereal body. Even without his powers, he did not allow his state of humanity to prevent him from making a strike on Vlad, continuing to hit him without remorse.

Again, Vlad made no attempt to fight back, instead accepting the well-deserved punishment, unwilling to lay a malevolent hand on his illegitimate son ever again. The lack of retaliation on Vlad's part seemed to allow Danny to relent on his punches, stopping his attack while still keeping a raised fist towards his face.

"You son of a bitch! YOU SON OF A BITCH! You killed my family, Vlad! YOU KILLED THEM!" Danny screamed.

"No, I didn't. It was Demon Phantom who killed them. You know that. I didn't want anyone dead, except you... but that changed."

Vlad's correct statement regarding the Fentons's deaths relinquished only a sliver of rage from Danny, but it still remained after his questionable statement on change.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? What do you mean 'that changed'?" Danny asked.

"Demon Phantom told me who he was. What he did. I've done a lot of bad things in my life, but I never wanted to destroy the world, believe me. It was just revenge I wanted... and Maddie." Vlad said.

"I already know what your game is. I'm not buying your redemption crap."

"I found your parents, Danny. I found Jack and Maddie. They told me... They told me that I had to help you. That I had to put a stop to this."

Vlad's reply brought out greater anger from Danny once again, making him raise his voice in response.

"Don't lie to me! My parents are dead! My whole family is dead!" Danny shouted.

"Then why is Jazz still standing there?" Vlad asked.

Danny turned to look back to the ghost of Jazz, understanding the possibility that his parents might still live as ghosts elsewhere. The possibility that Vlad might have met them is still low within his range of contemplation, despite its very reality, making him turn back to Vlad for more answers.

"You say you met my parents, huh? Why did they say you should help me?" Danny asked.

"I... I can't tell you why they said it, Danny. You'll just have to trust me." Vlad said.

"Trust you?! You?! You've been my worst enemy since the day I became a half-ghost! Why the hell should I trust you?!"

"Because I'm the only one who can make that portal work... and I'm all else you've got right now."

Vlad's plea and reasoning seemed to finally reach through to Danny, causing him to subconsciously lower his fist, bringing an end to the beating he wished nothing more than to continue on Vlad moments ago. Now, there is the greater focus of the mission of regaining his powers at the forefront of his mind again, reminding him of the greater good to be achieved.

Danny released Vlad from his grip, allowing him to stand upright once again.

"Alright. Consider this your official parole. Anything you do that I don't like, you're dead, then you're dead again." Danny said.

"I'm already dead. I've only got one life left on the game." Vlad said.

"Then that's all the more reason not to piss me off. Now, how do we get the portal working again?"

Danny's question is answered by actions rather than words, with Vlad taking to the portal to repair it and Jazz, the only other person present with any knowledge of technology and science to see the project complete, acting as his assistant. In between the sessions of repair, he liberally shares the many details of what he has been filling in his time with, including Demon Phantom's greater plan.

But of course, he does not dare tell them the fact that he is the father of Danny Phantom, and he can never allow them to know this detail.

The long hours of work put into after a long diagnostic of the portal, checking every part and component of the portal and ensuring that it was in perfect shape to run and use, the group stepped back to look at the finished portal, admiring the hard work and labor that went into repairing it.

"Nothing like a common goal to bring different people together." Danielle said.

"And now we've got the goal of stopping Demon Phantom, starting with me getting my powers back." Danny said.

"Wait a second, you'll need this." Jazz said.

Jazz stopped Danny to give him a safety jumpsuit, colored in a white-and-black scheme like the one he wore on the first time he first stepped into a Ghost Portal. And like the second time he stepped into one to regain his powers, the jumpsuit bore the symbol designed by Sam Manson, the girl who would grow up with him and become his wife, this time redrawn by Jazz.

"It was tricky getting this to work with an old printer from the 2000s, but, I had to make sure the symbol was on. Sam made this so you could wear it proudly." Jazz said.

The sight of the symbol reminded him of that day and Sam's face, bringing a somber mood out from Danny once again.

"You're right. I do need it." Danny said.

Danny then placed on the jumpsuit, securing it on tightly and ensuring the symbol on his chest was front and center. Having the last of the precautions taken with the preparations for the portal, Danny looked back to Danielle and Jazz, giving them a light smile out of all they shared together.

"Thank you. Thank you for not giving up on me." Danny said.

Danielle and Jazz both responded by hugging their brother, who returned their affection by hugging them back. The display of sibling love lasts but a moment, but the moment is sweet and tender for Danny to cherish, even after the embrace is long gone and past.

He then looked to Vlad, taking a glance at him that held many mixed feelings within it. Vlad responded in silence, quietly taking his son's judgement.

"As for you... let's hope you did something right for once." Danny said.

"Let's." Vlad said.

Making his final speeches to the group, as if saying his last goodbyes, Danny stepped inside the portal, patiently awaiting for it to be activated.

"You know, if there's one thing I have to give you credit for, Vlad, it's that you actually thought not to have a button inside the portal where it could kill someone." Danny remarked.

Finally given a moment to laugh, Vlad seized it with a small chuckle.

"Don't give him too much credit. You ready?" Danielle asked.

"More than ready. Hit it." Danny said.

Danielle pressed the switch to the portal, creating a rift between the world of the living and the dead. The dimensional rift created a large amount of ectoplasm to flow in the device, bringing forth the substance needed to reach through to the Ghost Zone beyond the walls of reality.

The amount of the artificial hellfire is more than enough to prove lethal to anyone unlucky enough to stand inside, or crazy enough to subject themselves to it. Danny is desperate enough to be one of the latter, but he is genetically disposed not to be the former. Though the ectoplasm flowed through his body, causing him immense agony and pain through the experience, it does not kill him.

Instead, it began to separate the material and immaterial parts of his being, separating body and soul from a whole being into a new symbiotic being; a process that he has gone through a grand total of three times, including one reversal and one failed attempt, but this time just as agonizing as the rest.

Never used to such a painful experience despite following through such an experience many times prior, Danny again screamed in pain from the ectoplasmic assault, his mind unable to withstand the torture of the large amount of ectoplasm running through his body.

After only a few seconds of the agony, a timeline that seemingly went on for hours in his head, Danny finally emerged from the portal, falling to the ground in exhaustion. Deactivating the portal, Danielle quickly rushed to his aid, with the others coming to help him to his feet again.

"Did it work? Are your powers back?" Danielle asked.

After standing against a dimensional rift in time and space, combined with a journey that lasted two entire days without sleep, Danny's stamina had finally given in, his body exhausted of all its energy and falling unconscious. Danielle and Jazz slowly lowered him to the ground, attempting to wake him up once again, but their efforts were made to no avail.

"Come on, Danny, you've made it this far, you can't give up now! I won't let you just give up, now get back up! Get up!" Danielle said.

Danielle shook Danny as hard as she could, trying to encourage him to wake up, but her efforts were ultimately put to a stop by Jazz, taking her hand in a gesture to stop.

"He's totally worn out. He needs to rest." Jazz said.

"Rest? You and I've been up for days, just like him!" Danielle said.

"I'm a ghost without a body that needs sleep. You and I also weren't just standing under a Ghost Portal while it turned on. Relax. We won. We just need him to rest before he can go on."

The news seemed to bring a sense of defeat to Danielle, lowering her head in frustration. Vlad attempted to relieve it by placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Relax, Dani. Like she said, we already won. We just have to wait for him to rise again." Vlad said.

Danielle dismissed his gesture by swatting away his hand, turning to him with an angry look.

"You don't get to touch me. And you don't ever call me 'Dani'." Danielle said.

Before Vlad could respond to Danielle, the sound of metal clinking against the floor sounded, catching the group's attention away from the resting Danny. The peculiar sound struck them as strange and out of place in the laboratory, none understanding any reason why it should be present...

...until the sound was revealed to be the falling of grenades down the stairs, taking away the confusion and laying way to pure panic.

"GET DOWN!" Vlad shouted.

Flying in and swooping up the unconscious Danny, Vlad also grabbed Danielle and Jazz, carrying them all away from the grenades as quickly as possible. His flight allowed the grenades to carry out their explosion a few feet from the group rather than right next to them, sparing them from the most damage it could have done, but still blasting them to land against a wall.

Save for the unconscious Danny, the group all picked themselves up, recovering from the grenade blast while they could.

"Hope you aren't counting me saving you as a touch." Vlad joked.

"Cut the jokes. We've got a problem." Danielle said.

Looking back to the origin of the explosion, Danielle heard the loud roaring of a jet engine beneath the roaring of the flames in the laboratory, which the rest of the group soon began to hear as the threat grew nearer. Soon, the threat had made itself clear and present, presenting itself as Valerie Gray, riding upon her hoverboard and flying through the flames of the explosion she caused.

The appearance of Valerie, someone Danielle has a good history with, caused her to let her guard down, flagging down the body of Valerie to stop attacking.

"Valerie? What are you doing? It's me, Danielle!" Danielle called.

The body of Valerie paid no mind to Danielle's plea, responding by activating the glider's submachine guns to fire straight at her. At the command of its rider, the glider's submachine guns let loose a storm of bullets headed straight for the group, once again prompting the group to run out of the way.

Danielle acted quickly to dodge the bullets by jumping away, only to get struck with one stray bullet that landed in her leg, making her scream in pain. Once again acting to save the young people under his watch, Vlad phased his hand through Danielle's leg, seeking to remove the bullet.

Upon reaching the bullet and touching it, Vlad, too, felt a strong pain upon touching it, informing him that it was no standard make of ammunition. Keeping a tight hold on the bullet, Vlad phased it through to remove it from her leg, finding that the round was laced with Ectoranium, making it deadly to any ghost it hit, including them.

Tossing away the Ectoranium bullet, Vlad once again grabbed the group and flew them upwards, removing them from the gun range of the body of Valerie Gray.

"That's twice I had to touch you to save you. Still keeping that rule?" Vlad asked.

"Just shut up and get us out of here already! We need to protect Danny!" Danielle shouted.

"Don't worry. Seeing Danny hurt is the last thing I want now, believe me. I'll do whatever it takes to save him."

Phasing the entire group through the ceiling, Vlad carried the group away from the line of sight of their enemy, hoping to give them a chance to escape and be safe. In response, the body of Valerie flew back up the stairs, seeking to catch up to its targets as quickly as possible.

Managing to reach the library with time to spare before the arrival of Valerie's body, Vlad handed off Danny in the hands of Danielle and Jazz to protect him.

"Keep him safe. I'll handle Valerie." Vlad said.

Allowing the Fentons time to escape, Vlad turned to see the return of Valerie's body, watching it fly back up the stairwell to confront him. Preparing himself to battle against what he believed to be the famous ghost hunter, Vlad's expectations are subverted when he hears what the body said to him.

"Vlad. So, you've decided to turn on us. And after all I shared with you... father." Valerie's body said.

The comment of 'father' is what clarifies most the confusion Vlad initially had, soon understanding the true ghost behind the machine.

"Demon Phantom?" Vlad asked.

"In the flesh. Rotting flesh, at that. You should know that I hate being in these walking caskets any longer than I have to. I'm just thankful it's merely a duplicate in this body, where I can finally end you at my convenience." Valerie's body said.

Vlad once again charged up his fists with ectoplasm, preparing himself to take on his new enemy.

"Don't be so sure. I've met ghosts with god complexes more impressive than you." Vlad said.

"And I've met more honorable dead men worthy of fights." Valerie's body said.

"Since when does a dead man need honor?"

[Soundtrack Cue: KMFDM - That's All]

Vlad fired his first ectoplasmic bolt towards the body of Valerie, aiming to disintegrate it with one single shot. Retaining the training and muscle memory embedded in it, the body was more than able to avoid the shot, dodging away from it with one movement of its glider.

In response, the body of Valerie Gray flew forward and began firing back on Vlad, leading him to fly away to avoid the shots. Taking to the air, Vlad returned fire while flying through the limited airspace of the library, turning the battle into a close-quarters dogfight between two pilots without any planes to speak of.

Vlad also took greater advantage of the close combat situation and began swinging punches towards the body of Valerie Gray, flying closer to throw his attacks. Once again, the superior tactics and muscle memory of the body of Valerie Gray prevailed, avoiding the majority of the attacks thrown by Vlad.

Even with the peak physical condition of the female body, however, the physical body can never match to the spiritual body of a ghost, even with the technological advancements of the hovercraft to assist. Managing to move fast enough for Valerie's body to be unable to catch up, Vlad laid a successful punch in the body's face, sending it flying back on its glider through the air.

After a speedy recovery, the ghost behind the body prepared its next strategy to defeat its enemy. Taking advantage of the mess of books that Jazz left earlier, the body Valerie prepared and threw a pyrotechnic grenade on the pile of books left on the floor, creating a large bonfire in the room.

More accustomed to seeing in the dark as a half-ghost, Vlad averted his eyes to the flames, unable to spot Valerie's body through the immense light of the flames. The body of Valerie, taking advantage of the situation it created, adjusted its hoverboard to a stealth mode, causing its engine to go dead silent under the roaring flames.

With his eyes adjusting to the flames at last, Vlad began scanning the room in search for his enemy, still finding himself unable to spot it in through the wall of flames all throughout the room and without any clue where to attack. Having little more than vague silhouettes to shoot at through the flames, Vlad fired on whatever glimpse of an enemy he saw, hoping that it would land a killing shot.

Soon, the sound of the hovercraft's engine roared once again, giving Vlad an auditory means of locating his target. Locating the sound and narrowing it down to one specific part of the room, Vlad flew towards it and opened fire just above where the noise came from, aiming for the rider of the hovercraft itself.

When reaching the glider, he found it floating in midair without a rider, leaving him uncertain where his target was once again. The answer laid above his head, the body of Valerie Gray holding onto the chandelier of the ceiling to position itself above Vlad for a means of surprise attack.

Taking advantage of the elevated surprise position, the body of Valerie Gray released itself from the chandelier, dropping on Vlad with an Ectoranium knife. The knife embedded itself deep into Vlad's shoulder, with the weight of Valerie's body bringing Vlad back to the ground again.

The descent led Valerie's body to break its legs, collapsing on the floor in apparent defeat of its legs loudly cracking. Once again, the ghost controlling the body once again began manually repairing and reactivating damaged bone and tissue, undoing the damage done to the body.

Standing on its feet once again, the body of Valerie approached with another strike at Vlad, taking a strike at his cheek and drawing ectoplasmic blood from the wound. Still unable to anticipate her moves, and pained from the damage he had taken so far, Vlad fired another blast towards her, missing yet again to her peak human agility.

The body of Valerie approached to make yet another strike, this time embedding the knife in Vlad's stomach. Unable to withstand the immense pain of the poisonous Ectoranium blade in his body, Vlad let out a pained scream, feeling himself nearly crumble under the Ectoranium poisoning.

Making a quick move to save save himself, Vlad fired an ectoplasmic blast to the chest of Valerie's body, leaving a large crater in it and leaving many organs not vaporized in the blast to fall out. The attack had led the body to stumble back, putting a safe distance between the two, and giving Vlad the chance to pull the knife out from himself.

Rushing to attack the possessed body of Valerie Gray again, the body, ready for the incoming attack, pulled out a handgun and fired several shots straight for Vlad, hoping to land a killing shot with an Ectoranium bullet. Utilizing his own ghost powers to increase his speed, moving faster than the human eye could see, Vlad seemingly disappeared from sight, leaving the user of the body to search for him again.

Vlad had soon reappeared behind Valerie's body, throwing a punch to the back of its head, sending it straight to the ground. Picking itself up off the floor, the body of Valerie prepared an Ectoranium machete from its back, its user readying itself to fight Vlad head-on once again.

The body of Valerie made its move first as it intended, swinging several strikes with its Ectoranium machete straight at Vlad, aiming for his neck and stomach to land a killing move. With superhuman speed, Vlad managed to avoid the strikes, but only just barely against the rage of the possessor of the body.

Making use of his fists, Vlad began aiming for more vital places as well, hoping that he would manage to make a killing blow to end the usefulness of the body, trying for nerve bundles and endings. After making several well-placed strikes, however, Vlad's strikes proved to be just as ineffective, though the large hole left from his ectoplasmic blast should have been evidence enough to that fact.

After the two were stuck in a mutual deadlock for a good minute, the both of them striking at each other with numerous stabs and strikes that either just barely missed each other or had no effect whatsoever, depending on the attacking party in question, Vlad finally lucked out with an attack.

Grabbing one of Valerie's body's hands, Vlad twisted it to causing it to drop the Ectoranium machete, disarming it and leaving it defenseless. Grabbing the machete before the enemy could acquire it back, Vlad used it to make a swiftly-landed a slice to the body's neck, decapitating it in one fell swoop and causing the head to fall and roll across the floor.

Defeating his enemy, Vlad gave a victorious grunt, believing himself to be the victor.

[Soundtrack Cue End]

However, even though Valerie's body no longer had a head, the body was not defeated just yet; still did it stand, as if its head was not gone. Instead, the body walking back towards its severed head, picking it up and firmly placing it back on, giving its neck a crack as it went back into place.

Observant to many bizarre sights over his life, the sight of a body returning its severed head is one that Vlad can only respond to with amazement and shock.

"What the fu-" Vlad tried to say.

Before Vlad could finish his sentence, the body of Valerie took out an ectoplasmic handgun and fired several shots into Vlad, damaging his ethereal body enough to cause him to fall to the floor in pain. Collapsing to the ground in agony, Vlad could no longer stand on his feet once again, left at the mercy of the body of Valerie Gray, used as a weapon against him by Demon Phantom.

Defeating the foe at last, the body of Valerie Gray stepped to the downed Vlad to deliver the finishing blow.


The lack of fighting noises are made clear upon the ears of Jazz and Danielle, who are forced to sit out the battle as they protect their brother from the danger that sits outside, and it has made them ponder who has won the fight. Retreating into a room adjacent from the battle, they are able to peer around a corner to catch a glimpse of the fight, seeing who the winner was for themselves.

And seeing Vlad fall before the body of Valerie Gray, they know that they are beginning to lose, and have one of their own allies lost.

"She's gonna kill him." Jazz said.

"So? He did his best, we can swoop in and claim a victory after." Danielle said.

"What are you, crazy? He needs our help!"

"Yeah, Vlad needs our help. The guy who helped get us into this mess. Who still might try to kill us."

"After putting up a huge fight to save us and Danny?"

"Look, I don't know what his game is, but I still don't trust him. And if he does turn on us later, this could be our one and only chance to get rid of him now."

"And what if he doesn't turn on us? Then we betray someone who was on our side?"

The debate led Danielle and Jazz to come to a stalemate, none able to come to an agreement on how to handle the situation of Vlad. However, the debate had a third entry make itself present, just now coming to awareness with the unconscious state of sleep coming to an end for him.

Opening his eyes once again, his eyes had turned from blue to green, with the rest of his body changing suit for the task. Stepping up from his place of rest, Danny rose from his apparent sleep, slowly stepping up to his two arguing siblings and placing his hands on their shoulders.

Observing him now awake and transformed, they stepped aside for him to intervene, allowing his own conscience to decide on the moment.


Having its prey in the perfect finishing position, the body of Valerie Gray summoned its hoverboard back, jumping on top following its swift arrival. Not settling for any small-arms firepower to eliminate Vlad, it instead preparing the weapons of its glider to fire upon him.

"This world will be cleansed of the concept of life. I am sorry you were unable to join me in that dream, Vlad, and how you failed to see its perfection." Valerie's body said.

Before the body of Valerie could fire its weapons upon Vlad, an ectoplasmic bolt flew seemingly out of nowhere, heading straight for the glider. Before the user of the body could realize what was happening, the bolt landed at a missile on the hoverboard, triggering a larger explosion that vaporized both the body and destroyed the glider, causing shrapnel from the board to fly over the room.

As Vlad turned to look where the bolt came from, he saw Danny Phantom standing tall in a full return, holding up a hand which smoked from ectoplasmic fire.

"Fair warning, Demon Phantom: Next time you want to attack the Fentons, don't use tech we designed." Danny remarked.

Exhausted once again of all his energy, Danny Phantom collapsed to the floor, involuntarily reverting back to his human form. Danielle and Jazz both rushed to pick him up from the floor, returning him to safety away from the flames. Likewise, Vlad slowly crawled away from the fire, with Jazz and Danielle lending helping hands to help draw him out.

Once saving the two, Danielle and Jazz then took fire extinguishers and began spraying down the flames, flying about to put out the fires as swiftly as they could. The flames seemed to be insurmountable for two lone fire extinguishers to put out, but the two made good use of what they had, managing to control spread of the flames.

Centering the flames down to once location, the two then left and returned with buckets of water, putting the flames to rest at last. All the while, Vlad leaned against a wall, allowing himself time to heal, taking the opportunity to watch over the downed Danny Fenton. Having witnessed his former enemy return spectacularly and save his life, Vlad allowed himself a moment to smile, taking relief after the affair had ended.

To take a moment for his own relief, Vlad gently stroked against Danny's head, like a proud father would do for his son.

"Good job, Danny. Good job... son." Vlad said.

The very concept of Danny being his own flesh and blood is a concept that Vlad needs much time to take getting used to, attempting to reverse and undo the image he has made of a boy he has made into his enemy for many years, and attempting to make himself a better person on his behalf. He does not know if his journey is worth trying or will be successful, but he knows that to not try is not something he can afford.

And, as if being granted one small reward for his first efforts, Danny, through no act of his own consciousness, let out a smile.