You know you were annoying when I had high school homework, but now, with college homework, you're a gigantic pain," Danny said before pulling out the Fenton thermos, trapping the box ghost.

Danny let out a tired yawn, stretching his back before he flew back to his dorm. Danny looked around, not seeing his roommate anywhere, before shrugging and putting the thermos on his bedside table. He would grab his phone, grab some dinner, and finish his homework. Danny was pulled out of his thoughts on where to go for food when his phone buzzed, saying he got a text.

Danny looked at it and was surprised when he read who it was. His eyebrows shot up into his hair, seeing who it was from

An hour later, Danny was walking into the Nasty Burger. It was late, so there were few people in the restaurant. Pretty much no one but Katie

Danny hadn't seen her in years, not since Vlad kidnapped her as part of his plan to frame him

Though Katie probably would have been targeted anyways for the sucker punch she hit him with at the carnival, 'probably the best part of that night.'

Danny walked over and sat next to her. She was taller, her hair was longer, and she had an Empire State University hoodie and little X-shaped earrings in her lobes. Katie was looking down at her hands.

"Hi," Danny said awkwardly, sitting down across from her

"Thanks for coming," she said, looking up at him. "I promise this isn't some kind of move to try and steal you from your girlfriend."

"Yeah, I kind of figured we hadn't seen each other in years," Danny said with a shrug. Truth be told, the last thing he'd been thinking of was Katie trying to make a move on him.

It never happened to Danny, but he was pretty sure feelings didn't last when a guy with your face kidnapped you. "not to be insensitive, but how did one of my cousins kidnap you?"

"He didn't. The robot guy with the flaming Mohawk who wants your pelt on his bed hit me with knockout gas when I wasn't looking" she had a bit of a cocky smirk on her face for a second before she shook her head. "I can pass. Sorry to whoever Vlad sent. I kinda threw him into a dumpster."

"It was Carter, and yeah, I'll pass the message," Danny said. Katie nodded. She and Danny slipped into an awkward silence.

"I'm sorry," Danny said, "about what happened with the date three years I should have been honest and told you about your powers."

Katie let out a cold laugh. "You don't have to apologize. You didn't do nothing wrong," she said

Uh, what Danny thought

"I'm pretty sure I did. I lied. I let you think I had feelings when I didn't," Danny said. "Pretty sure that's wrong."

Katie shook her head, a weird look on her face. "no, Danny, you didn't do anything wrong, but someone else did," she said. Danny was confused before Katie said, "I'm unlike normal mutants. I was enhanced," She began to explain, "by someone Sinister."

Katie let out a hollow-sounding laugh. "That was his name. He called himself Mr. Sinister. Before I was born, he snuck into my parent's house and injected my mom with gamma radiation to see what would happen. What happened was my X-Gene got kickstarted, and I started to go kaboom."

Danny sat there and listened, though he wasn't sure what this had to do with him. Through this, Mr. Sinister sounded like an even bigger fruit loop than the actual fruit loop he was used to dealing with

Katie continued, "Sinister watched me my whole life like a lab rat in a cage, studying how I'd react to different stimuli using his telepathy to give me suggestions and make them think they were my idea. It's why I joined the dating service and never got angry with other guys until I went out with you. They weren't interesting; they didn't have powers. They weren't viable candidates."

Danny had a bad idea of what she meant by candidates, but he had to know.

"For what?"

"To see what powers would complement mine in the next generation," she said. "he used his powers to make me angry. He wanted the ghost boy to show up to rescue the poor human boy from me." Katie laughed a little, though there wasn't anything happy about it

"For someone who thought he was so smart he wasn't expecting Danny Fenton to be Danny Phantom, that's when he changed plans. He used his powers to make me happy and fall in love. He used his powers on you and made you 'conveniently' forget about the institute."

Danny nodded, feeling nauseous and disturbed at how Sinister had messed with his head like that

And what happened to him was only a fraction of what happened to Katie, who'd been used as Sinister's puppet without even knowing it

"He didn't pay much attention to you. It's why you could tell my dad about the institute the day after the carnival," Katie answered. "he knew us getting together was a lost cause. He didn't want to pick a direct fight with the X-Men, and you were surrounded by people who'd fight to rescue you, but he wanted a kid with our genes, so he looked for other methods."

"Please tell me this isn't when you tell me he cloned a kid with our DNA," Danny asked. "I've had enough clones to last a lifetime."

He loved all his cousins even when some of them drove him crazy, like Nick and Scott, but he had enough cousins.

"No, not clones, the multiverse," Katie said, getting a different internal groan from Danny. Of course, it was multiverse stuff because, sure, why not

"Sinister hired this guy named Equinox to bring him a kid of ours from the multiverse. It turns out there's only one place in the entire multiverse where we get married and have kids."

Katie pulled out her phone and flipped through her pictures before she slid it to him. Danny's eyes widened, seeing Katie with a green-skinned girl with her hair and his eyes, who looked to be the same age they were now.

"That's Callie. She's a freshman at Fenton University from Earth 20 decades from now in the future," Katie explained. "Sinister's goons grabbed me when I returned from the library and took me to his secret lab in the middle of nowhere. He wanted to test how his new weapon worked against the original test subject," she said. "you can figure out the rest. We broke out and worked together. She beat Equinox, and I made sure Mr. Sinister won't be doing any more experiments."

Danny nodded, watching as Katie put away her phone and looked down. "Why did you call me Katie?"

"Mostly to apologize," Katie said. "get some closure. I guess I blamed myself for what I put my family through for years, and I found out it all happened because of a Count Dracula-looking mad scientist who likes playing with people's lives."

Danny reached over and held Katie's hand. "I think we've blamed ourselves enough," he said. "Let's stop and start over as friends."

Katie nodded for the first time, smiling. "I'd like that," she said

The two ordered some food. They talked and laughed at some of Danny's corny jokes. Then, when their food was done, they got up and went their separate ways.

Special thanks to Number Boy for helping me with this chapter.