Disclaimer: I own nothing from Danny Phantom.

Note 6/12/2022: I don't know why but I keep getting drawn back into thinking about my genderbent Danny and how I want to finish her stories. I recently finished re-posting "Haunted Soul" and while I plan to bring back the sequel too with an updated plot, I can't help but feel like I should finish this one first. For the most part the stories are similar except Vlad ends up becoming her legal guardian after rescuing Dani from a dangerous situation which tore her life apart. And now, an even greater threat is about to appear that she knows not even Vlad will be able to stop, so it's up to her to change fate before it's too late...

(Updated 6/12/2022)

Chapter 1: Two Halfa's Make A Whole

Vlad's POV

It was all coming together beautifully. After twenty long years of planning, the moment of truth had arrived to finally have my revenge against Jack Fenton. He was now within striking distance and to make things all the sweeter, Maddie and her two children were here to bear witness to the utter humiliation I had in store for my former friend. Originally I planned to outright kill Jack, perhaps even turn him into the thing he hated most until I decided that no, ghost powers would be wasted on a buffoon like him even if it would have been so satisfying to see Maddie put him down like a rabid dog after he returned as a ghost.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face imagining the look on Jack's the instant he realizes he's about to lose everything he holds dear and the family that by all rights should have been mine. I could barely stomach being near the man but for the sake of appearances, I ignored him and instead turned my attention to my darling Maddie as she introduced her children to me.

First, there was the eldest son, a boy by the name of Jason with bright red hair, teal eyes, who was wearing a simple black shirt and muted teal pants. Then there was her daughter, Danielle, who I must say looked rather...ragged but Maddie didn't seem to notice her sullen demeanor. Unlike her brother, Danielle had long raven black hair similar to her father's and a pair of matching blue eyes. Although hers seemed a bit listless for some reason. Normally I'd write it off as Danielle simply being a normal moody teenager or what have you, but there was something about her I couldn't quite put my finger on that seemed almost-

"Heads up V-Man!" Jack suddenly bellowed, tackling me to the ground unexpectedly while I was in the middle of proudly showing the rest of his family my prized football signed by Ray Nitschke once the pleasantries were out of the way. And frankly, it was only thanks to all my years of careful training that I didn't instinctively turn intangible to avoid the impact.

Glaring at him from where I laid on the cold stone floor, I heard Jack laugh boastfully. "Ha! I see you've still got the old moves."

Standing up and snatching the football back out of his fat sausage fingers, before I could think better of it I snapped and pointed out that I never had any old moves to begin with because of the accident that put me in the hospital for years! And again, if not for my careful self-restraint, my eyes probably would have begun to glow a hellish red since the wave of anger I felt was so intense and it could have ruined everything. Thankfully I managed to compose myself again and even went so far as to thank Jack for putting me on this path to become the richest man in the world. No doubt I still could have done so even without my ghost powers, however, they did come with more than a few advantages.

Either way, I noticed that my little outburst had somewhat unsettled Maddie and she began wondering aloud if it might be best for them to leave to avoid causing problems. And that's when I saw Danielle's odd expression out of the corner of my eye. It seemed as though she wanted to say something in protest when Danielle glanced between her mother and me for whatever reason. A minute passed like that before her shoulders dropped in defeat and she settled for staring at the floor, conflicted about something.

How peculiar...

Regardless of whether or not they wanted to, I needed Jack to stay for my plan to work so I acted as if nothing was wrong and insisted they stay here. I even brought up the Dairy King's existence to use as bait since I knew Jack would be unable to resist the allure of exploring a real haunted castle. Good thing I had no intention of actually letting him do anything of the sort, after all, HE'S the one who's about to be hunted.

As expected my plan worked like a charm and Jack practically ran full sprint right back out the door to unpack their belongings and Maddie moved to follow him soon after, as did their son Jason. But to my surprise, Danielle lingered for a moment and sighed, turning to me with a tired smile. "Sorry about my dad, he's just really excited to see you. Are you alright, Mr. Masters? That tackle looked like it must've hurt."

"No need to fret Danielle, I'm not hurt." I smiled in return, gently patting her head without a second thought. "And please, call me Vlad."

"Sure. If you say so," she nodded absentmindedly, her gaze drifting outside since Jack had carelessly left the front doors wide open. And Danielle watched them with a strange air of unease about her, especially when her parents pulled out what appeared to be a small arsenal of anti-ghost weaponry.

"Is everything alright, my dear? You seem troubled," I asked politely when truthfully I couldn't have cared less what had her so worried at the time since I had more pressing matters on my mind. Although Danielle's concern for my well-being was a very kind gesture on her part.

"I'm just tired, it was a...long trip." She replied, her tone becoming terribly somber as she shifted and rubbed her arm nervously.

Then, just when her parents began making their way back inside Danielle looked up at me and asked rather abruptly. "Hey, if you have some free time later there's something I wanted to ask you in private if that's ok. I know you're probably busy with the reunion and all, but-"

"Dani, what are you still standing around there for? Hurry and go get your things," Maddie reprimanded her daughter harshly and I stared at her blankly, momentarily taken aback by the uncharacteristically crass tone she had used just then.

The rest of her family had already brought their belongings in and even Danielle's brother wasted no time in asking me where his room was located. And then all three of them left her there without so much as a single word or an offer to help. I had never seen Maddie treat someone, let alone her own child, with such blatant disregard before. And quite honestly, maybe I should have taken pity on the poor girl and sent someone to assist Danielle myself since even I'm not that cruel.

Clearly, tensions were high between Danielle and her parents for some reason. However, if everything went according to plan tonight, very soon Danielle would be MY daughter and I would not let her be treated in such a way. Not even by her own mother. Surely Maddie had a reason for acting this way, no doubt because of Jack's ceaseless prattling about ghosts that even the most avid scientist would eventually tire of.

With that in mind, when Danielle returned with her bags I placed my hand on her shoulder and sympathized. "Just a moment Danielle. To answer your earlier question I would be more than happy to talk to you later tonight if time permits. In the meantime, you should get some rest and I will send someone to fetch you when dinner is served. Your room is upstairs to the far left directly across from the library which is marked by two sets of armor. Will you be able to find your way there on your own?"

"Yeah, I'll manage." Danielle replied with a hint of bitterness as she glared weakly in the direction her family had gone and added under her breath. "So much for all that 'family bonding' talk on the way here. Figures the first they'd do is ditch me and give me a lecture as usual..."

Ignoring her last comment which I only heard thanks to my ghost hearing, I watched as Danielle slowly made her way upstairs and again, I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right about her. Obviously, I wasn't going to let anything get in the way of my plans for Jack tonight, but I had some spare time to humor the poor girl. And from the looks of it, she could really use some company. I know all too well what it feels like to have no one to turn to, no one to talk to that would take your problems seriously because every teenager goes through this. However, from the moment I became half-ghost, that lonely feeling took on a whole new meaning since there actually is no one else like me who ever could understand me.

And there never will be.

Or, so I thought...

Danielle's POV

Ever since dad told us the story about Vlad's accident I just couldn't stop thinking about it. At the same time I was afraid to ask him about it in person because there was always the off chance that he might put two and two together about what happened to me since I had one just like it. But that's just it, lately, I've been feeling so alone because even my best friends don't understand what it's like to live like this in a house with TWO ghost hunters who are constantly talking about all the 'fun' ways they're going to experiment on the next ghost they catch.

And let's face it, if I'm not careful that could be me.

It's always been kind of uncomfortable being around all those strange weapons growing up, but until I became half-ghost like this I hadn't been afraid of them actually being used on me. So there's that and the fact that almost every day a new ghost appears in town who wants to pick a fight with me on principle. And lately it's been getting harder and harder to keep up with them all. Then there's school and my friends constantly berating me for not finding the time to hang out with them. It's not like I wouldn't rather be doing that!

The only problem is that sometimes I had to pass on it since I needed the chance to get some sleep more. I also still had to figure out how my powers actually work so they'll stop going off randomly and setting off all of my parent's ghost tracking devices because one day they're going to find out what I am and then its bye bye Dani Phantom. I used to be able to ignore my parent's ghost hunting for the most part, but ever since they actually saw me in ghost form at school it 'rekindled' their passion for it. Now it's like that's all they care about anymore.

They're always busy these days and whenever they do finally notice me, its when I'm doing something wrong. They never ask how my school day was anymore unless they saw the crappy grades on my report card or a teacher called them about something I had been framed for by one of the cheerleaders. That's part of the reason why we came to this reunion to begin with...

While they were giving me one of the usual lectures, Jason decided to get his nose out of a book long enough to chime in when mom and dad were ripping me a new one for missing curfew by a measly five minutes. And instead of just asking them to cut me some slack, he started treating me like one of his stupid psychiatric cases. But I'm not some test subject for him to poke and prod either! Why can't Jace just to go back to being all parental and overprotective like he used to be and stop acting like I'm a patient from a mental hospital that needs therapy and serious drugs to fix my gloomy mood?

News flash I'm not gloomy, that's Sam's thing, I'm just god-damn tired!

I'm so tired of fighting ghosts, of constantly arguing with the people I care about, and feeling like I don't have anyone to talk to about my problems anymore. I thought I could make the most of having ghost powers now by protecting people, but it's a lot harder than I realized. And to be fair this is supposed to be my parent's job, not mine.

But I didn't want them to get hurt if I decided to take a night off to act like I'm just a normal teenager like I used to be.

It's not even an option right now really because just the other day some wack job sent a trio of vultures -and by that, I mean literal ghost vultures- after my dad. I don't know who would want to do that because as far as I know my parents don't have any enemies like I do, so I can only assume they're gunning for my family to get to me somehow.

So needless to say, even during this trip out of town I would need to keep my guard up just in case those bird-brains show up again. Still, I had a feeling this might be my only chance to get some rest while mom and dad are off patrolling the castle in search of the ghost of that Dairy King guy. To be fair though Vlad probably just made up that story to stop us from leaving, or more specifically my mom from leaving since he seems to have a thing for her but whatever.

All I'm hoping for is that just maybe Vlad will be able to understand some of what I've been going through even though he doesn't have ghost powers. I wanted to hear his side of the story about the accident back in their college days because I'm curious what sort of person Vlad is and how he managed to get his life back together. He's filthy stinking rich, but does he have any friends besides my parents? Real friends that aren't after his money or jealous of him like my friend Trish keeps getting jealous of my powers?

Pfft, if she wants them that bad she can have them since I'd rather be dealing with the normal stress of being bullied by the cheerleaders at school instead of wondering if I'll live to see the next morning after yet another ghost attack in the middle of the night. Either way, this might be my only chance to talk to Vlad in person since I seriously doubt we're going to be visiting him again any time soon. Besides, he seems to still hold a grudge against my dad too.

It might be none of my business and I don't want to bring up any painful memories for Vlad, but like I said, I'm sick of feeling like this. Sick of feeling like no one understands me. Not my family, not my friends, nobody. So why not ask a complete stranger...?

Anyway, all of that aside I managed to make it to my room ok but as soon as I shut the door it's like my feet suddenly turned into led. I barely even made it over to the bed before I face-planted into the comforter and fell asleep. It wasn't a restful sleep by any means, but at this point I'll take what I can get since I'm on my own and there's no one here to willing to help make my life any easier. And that painful realization was so depressing that a few stray tears fell from my eyes and dampened the pillow beneath me; the only indication that deep down there was a stabbing pain in my chest because I've never felt so alone.