Chapter 6

Notes: Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been focusing on my WebNovel story called Seradeihn, but I have not abandoned my fics. Thank you to everyone who sent follows/favourites and comments :D You make my day!

Danny woke slowly as the previous night's events caught up to him. He didn't really feel like getting up, but he knew that he needed to meet with Sam and Tucker.

He suddenly realized that something felt off and that it was probably what woke him up, seeing as the room was darker than it would be if it was morning already.

A noise caught his attention, and he immediately turned towards it, only for his scream to be cut off before it even began as Plasmius pushed him back down while holding his mouth closed with one hand and holding his wrists above his head.

Danny's eyes darted around wildly as he tried to figure out what Plasmius was going to do to him, but the older halfa merely released the hand around Danny's wrists to put a finger on his own lips to show that Danny needed to stay quiet before he slowly moved back, as if not to startle him.

Of course, he wasn't going to let the guy get away with whatever he was trying to do, even as he tried to stop his traitorous body from reacting as the image of Vlad only wearing a towel flashed through his mind once more.

The infuriating man had been doing quite a lot of that lately…grabbing him out of nowhere. If it had happened in the past, he knew he would have protested against it with everything he had…but he could feel that something had changed somewhere between the two months that he'd evaded Vlad because of the cloning incident and their recent little skirmishes.

Before he could do anything, like maybe punch the ghost to try and get rid of his thoughts, he noticed that Plasmius hadn't made another move after releasing him and he cautiously moved back to sit up, glaring at the other halfa and whispering, "What the hell, Fruitloop?! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

The man rolled his eyes, seemingly not believing it for even a moment, "I doubt that could ever happen. I just came to talk to you. Something happened quite a while ago and I think you should be aware of it."

Danny just barely fought down the urge to scoff, "Yeah? What could be so bad that you had to attack me in the middle of the night to tell me about it? Couldn't you have waited until morning like a normal person?"

Plasmius raised a brow at that, "I hate to break it to you Little Badger, but neither of us can classify ourselves as normal anymore, and no, it couldn't wait until morning."

Danny felt like growling in irritation, "But you just said it happened a while ago! If it was really that urgent you would have told me about it last night. Heck, you could even have told me about it whenever we fought in the past few weeks!"

Plamius nodded, "I should have, and probably would have if you hadn't hightailed it out of there as if the place was going to blow up at any moment." They both knew that Plasmius hadn't really been planning on revealing whatever it was, but both ignored it.

Danny folded his arms as his voice unconsciously became louder as he became more and more frustrated with the other man, "And whose fault was that?! I can't figure out how your mind works anymore…"

Plasmius held up his hand for silence, but Danny was having none of that as he moved forward and grabbed the other ghost's wrist after also transforming, and forced it down between them, yet not letting go of it, "You claim to be my enemy, and yet you pull your punches and go out of your way to remove problematic ghosts that I didn't even know were in the area! So tell me, Vlad! What the hell is it that you really want? What are you after!"

The other halfa seemed shocked for a moment before his eyes narrowed in suspicion and he unconsciously gripped the wrist that held his own with his other hand to stop Danny from escaping, "How do you know about the other ghosts?"

Danny's eyes widened as he realized his slip, but then he decided that he simply didn't care, "I was there when you ordered the Box Ghost to ship some of them away to the Carnivorous Canyon. It was also why I entered that lab…what are you hiding?"

The last words were barely a whisper, but they made Plamius sigh as he slowly released Danny before stepping back and trying to create some distance between them so that they could talk, or at least trying to as Danny's hands tightened, "I'm not hiding anything. Why do you think I said I came to tell you something?"

The older man tried to step back once more, but it seemed Danny had been holding in both his temper and his frustration over the past few weeks and a 'civil' conversation was the last thing on his mind as he thought that Plasmius was trying to evade the question by stepping away from him.

Plasmius had truly forgotten how much hormones tended to mess with common sense, especially when you threw being half-dead and angry into the mix as Danny grabbed the front of his suit.

This time though, he wasn't planning on simply taking everything that Danny tried to dish out.

Plasmius instinctively ported them to the most deserted area in the Ghost Zone that he could think of, and it didn't surprise him when the younger halfa immediately released him before throwing a right hook.

Plasmius didn't even move to block it as he brought up a shield of energy to protect his face, but this served to make Danny even angrier as he realized how much the older halfa had truly been holding back.

Phantom let out an almost-animalistic growl before he lunged at Plasmius, but the older ghost coolly evaded and parried his attacks.

The 'battle' took a lot longer than their fights usually did, but then again, no one had ever pushed Phantom so close to exhaustion while merely parrying his attacks and shielding themselves.

As a result, Plasmius wasn't even tired by the time Phantom collapsed back against a rock in exhaustion, though his eyes were still as deviant as ever as he glared at Plasmius.

The older halfa rolled his eyes, "Don't look at me like that. I have been trying to tell you something important if you recall, but as always your emotions seem to run from extremely happy to extremely angry in mere nano-seconds. Do you really hate me that much?"

Plasmius expected the younger halfa to nod his head without a second thought, but then he noticed a flare of uncertainty in those green eyes before they closed and Danny let out a sigh before shaking his head and opening his mouth to speak.

Whatever the younger halfa was about to say was drowned out by the appearance of several strange ghosts and Plasmius' eyes widened as he realized that he'd made a mistake in bringing Danny into the Ghost Zone.

Luckily the ghosts seemed to hesitate as they noticed his presence, but the fear they clearly felt was short-lived in the face of the renown they would receive for permanently killing Phantom.

Not that Plasmius allowed them to get close as he immediately threw up another shield, this time to protect Phantom as he made short work of taking the first few ghosts out.

Unfortunately, they were in the Ghost Zone, and given that their argument had caused their energies to clash wildly before spreading to the surrounding area, it didn't take long for more and more ghosts to arrive.

Plasmius fought his way to Phantom's side, knowing that he would be able to port them back once he reached him, but the ghosts seemed intent on keeping them apart for as long as it would take them to break the shield that currently surrounded their drained target.

He could see that Phantom was trying to get up to help, but he'd fully exhausted himself against Plasmius and the older halfa was starting to tire against the ghosts that just seemed to keep coming out of nowhere.

The sound of a blaster suddenly echoed in the area and Plasmius barely had a chance to duck before a familiar energy beam blasted the ghosts on his left to smithereens.

A yell of excitement told him exactly who it was and Plasmius rolled his eyes in amusement as a highly teched-out jeep ramped over the closest hill, revealing Skulker, accompanied by the distinct sound of a guitar-rift, which also revealed Skulker's new girlfriend, Ember McLain, and caused more than half of the ghosts to freeze in place and turn towards her as if in a trance.

It helped to keep the tide of ghosts at bay, but then Plasmius felt his shield shatter under the onslaught and the thought of what was about to happen had him seeing red.

$$$$Danny Fenton & Vlad Masters$$$$

Danny's eyes widened in surprise as Plasmius placed a shield over him before fighting off and destroying the ghosts that dared to attack him, even though it was clear that Phantom was their only target.

Unfortunately, the ghosts simply seemed to keep on coming, and even Danny could see that Plasmius was getting tired as the battle dragged on, given that he'd also been using his energy to defend himself from Phantom's earlier attacks.

Danny looked around while trying to force his tired body to get up. They were in the Ghost Zone so why wasn't his energy recharging?! And why did it seem like Vlad was having the same problem?

The familiar sound of a blaster had Phantom almost grinning for a moment, given that he and Skulker had made something of a truce, and he knew that the ghost would help Plasmius, but then the shield around him shattered and he hissed in pain as he felt multiple sharp objects pierce his body as the ghosts attacked.

For a moment, Danny was convinced that it would be the end of him, but then oppressive energy swept over them, and even Phantom instinctively froze in fear before he realized that the core of the energy felt extremely familiar.

He forced his eyes to open and he was sure that the image would forever be stuck in his mind as he watched Plasmius' form catch fire before floating into the air and rapidly changing.

At first, he thought that Plasmius had changed back into Vlad, but although his skin had taken on the color of Vlad's, it was very much still Plasmius even as real horns appeared in a flare of familiar magenta fire and his black hair now floated loosely around his shoulders.

His ears remained sharp, and when he opened his eyes, Danny could do nothing more than stare into furious crimson orbs that only held the promise of death.

A small part of him noticed that Skulker grabbed Ember before ducking down to hide, but the rest of him was focused on the stranger that had suddenly taken Plasmius' place.

The being slowly lifted its hand and observed it for a moment, before bringing it down, causing any nearby ghosts and even the ground to shatter as if testing its-his power.

A slow smirk formed as the being slowly descended as he walked toward Phantom, and the frozen ghosts around him seemed to explode the moment he came into close contact with them.

Danny felt his own form strain against the oppressive power, but it felt dulled as if something was protecting him from the brunt of it.

Still, he'd never seen Plasmius in such a state before and it was clear that he'd lost control, leaving something else to take his place.

The remaining ghosts scattered, but the being paid them no mind as he steadily made his way ever closer to Danny before coming to stand near his feet.

He lifted his hand once again as his smirk seemed to widen even more and Phantom closed his eyes and braced himself for the attack that was sure to come, seeing as he could barely seem to lift a finger, nevermind trying to gather enough energy to block an attack in his current state.

But the attack didn't come and he coughed in surprise as a heavy weight suddenly trapped his legs and lower torso in place.

He wrenched his eyes open and found that Plasmius had collapsed on him.

A closer look revealed a familiar dart in the other halfa's shoulder and he looked up to find a relieved-looking Skulker holding a tranq-gun before visibly leaning against the jeep.

The hunter seemed to notice his gaze and he sheepishly hid the gun behind his back, "I tell you what…I get the two of you safely back to Plasmius' place before more ghosts attack, and you promise to keep quiet about this whole extra alter-ego thing."

Danny's eyes narrowed, "Does this happen a lot?"

Skulker froze before he shook his head with a wry smile, "Only during certain circumstances."

The younger halfa wanted to question him more, but the sound of ghosts in the distance had Skulker throwing both of them over his shoulders and rushing to the jeep before hightailing it out of there.

Danny didn't even manage to make it halfway before his body gave in to sleep as it tried to heal his battered body.