An Opera of Death

[nyrax]

"You think this is the place?" Danny asked Tucker over his commlink as he looked over the warehouse. Danny had flown over in his ghost form to see this area that Tucker had deduced where Vlad would be. Like many buildings in Amity Park, it had been abandoned and had become a perfect place for a ghost to take refuge, even one as dangerous as this monster they were currently after. Danny landed at the doorway as Tucker responded.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure he's waiting for us in the flower shop or something. Of course this is the place" Tucker said as he geared up. "This was an old docking zone, but after some political backlash the place was forced to shut down and no one's bought ever since. It's old school Danny, no electric cameras in there. We're going in blind" Tucker said as he slipped on the last of his gear. "I'll meet you inside as soon as I can" Tucker said before getting out of his car and making his way to the pier.

Danny nodded, knowing that Tucker would get here as soon as they could. He didn't have time to waste though, Vlad had been missing for a month now, and who knew what kind of condition he'd be in. Phasing through the door, Danny floated about. The air was musty, filled with the smell of fish and rotting wood. The plate truly had been abandoned. Danny continued forward, looking around as several chains hung ominously from the ceiling. He moved past them and went for the back rooms, knowing that Vlad wouldn't be by the entrance.

Danny phased himself through a locked door before coming face to face with a horrifying site. "Vlad?"

[Fateful]

Time blurred, a strange disembodied experience that was not something Vlad could explain, especially in his current state. The barely visible spectral rays of light fought through broken and rotted wooden planks that had been hammered over the inside of the windows almost two decades ago. No cameras, no internal heating system; the frigid soul crushing air made him tremble at first.

Before this, Vlad thought himself near unstoppable, invisible even. He didn't need oxygen to live, he didn't need heat to remain comfortable, he didn't need anyone to care about him. No, it was more accurate to say Plasmius didn't need those things. Vlad did.

Known for his gentlemanly behavior and attire, Vlad never appeared without some form of dapper attire appropriate for whatever occasion. Usually, his black suit did the trick, and it had been what he wore when he was taken. Now, the torn and tattered clothing barely covered his body. While a month had not been enough time to strip him of his muscular form, the dehydration, starvation, and freezing weather had been enough to destroy a good portion of it.

Vlad Master's lay on the ground, bound in ghost chains, covered in dried and fresh blood, mostly red, but with some green. The concrete floor boasted these colors mixed and mingled, mostly dried, pooled and spread, with hands, with fabric, with boots. The odd similarity this floor held to a child's finger painting was one that made you stop and look it over. However, the more one looked, the sicker they would become, especially when they considered how much blood a human body contained, as this floor was drenched in the blood of more than the body on the ground. A body, which twitched.

Movement sounded around him, an aerial presence that made Vlad almost consider he had a chance of leaving this place with his life.

There was no chance of that happening.

Horrified to hear his name, he tensed, arms and legs coming toward the core of his body. His entire form looked smaller, and not only due to it's fetal stance on the ground, barely clothed and covered in dual-blood and bruises, but because he was starved and incredible weak. By some miracle, he remained alive, and no doubt due to his ghost powers.

From his wrist, blood trailed, both green and red, mingled together with a festive reminder of Christmas. A inch thick, black solid tube went straight through Vlad's right wrist. It didn't move, but most notably transected the vein in his wrist. As he moved, pathetic and barely conscious, he moved from his left side to a quarter of the way to his back, arching his exposed spine and craning his neck to look up at the last person he expected to see.

Perhaps he wasn't. Perhaps this was the poetic karma of making Daniel's life miserable, that he would appear to him in death. All he ever wanted was a son, and a remorseful smile came to his face. The pain surged him and a wave came over him, which seemed to originate from his wrist. He gargled as his ghost powers were neutralized and his ghost powers were forced to a deep, unreachable part of his soul.

A strange hissing escaped, and when his eyes finally opened, they focused behind the little badger he realized much actually be there, the way he was being stalked.

"Daniel," came Vlad's barely audible, wheeze. A weak arm trembled, but railed to raise. "Behind you."

[nyrax]

Danny felt his stomach churn as he saw Vlad come in to view. They had their battles and their skirmishes. Vlad had been beaten down, but never had he been injured to this extent and stripped of so much. To see the man that always held himself with pride being torn down like this, Danny could hardly believe it. Danny clutched his stomach to stop himself from throwing up as he just took in the imagery. However, with Vlad's three words, a new problem emerged.

Danny turned around just in time to see a chain wrap around his neck. Just as he saw a figure, he was yanked from the ground, thrown in to the ceiling before plummeting down to the ground. The figure moved the chain to the side and sent Danny crashing through a nearby wall. The wood gave way with ease, though it didn't stop the pain from affecting Danny. The ghost boy looked up at his attacker as the ghost stood over him.

The ghost was tall and lean, though muscle was clearly defined throughout his body. He could hold himself well enough, though by far it wasn't his most striking quality. He wore a simple attire of black pants with an exposed torso. Across the skin were deep cuts, four tally groups with a line slicing through them. They were markings the ghost had given himself in life, and held on to in death. Over his face he wore a simple red mask, one that contrasted horrifyingly with the whites of his eyes. The ghost leaned down and tilted his head. "Symmetry is so boring, but don't worry...I'll fix that" he said before lifting up his boot and stomping down on Danny's skull.

[Fateful]

|30 Days Prior |

At first, Danielle didn’t want to come back, she avoided it for a while, but when the police got close, she had no choice. So, she flew back to Amity Park. She made the trip in a few days, flying on and off. Exhausted, she slept in the bad part of town, in an abandoned building. She wasn’t sure how long she’d slept, but a chill went through her body and when she woke, she could sense a ghost. With a groan, she rolled over, transformed and phased through the ceiling of the building. She didn’t have to look long before she spotted Valerie on her hover board.

After that, she used her ghost ray to hit the animal ghost that looked vaguely like a long snake and watched it disappear into a thermos Valerie had. Slowly, Danielle approached her.

“I haven’t seen you before, Ghost.”

Danielle laughed. “Of course you have, Valerie.” She flew closer to Valerie and heard her gasp.

“D-Dani?”

“The one and only. Sorta.” She shrugged.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to see my cousin.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“Yeah, you could say that, I suppose.”

“Come with me. I’ll make sure you’re alright.”

Danielle followed Valerie home. There, she showered, ate a rather excessive amount, and then settled in to sleep in Valerie’s guest room.

Over the past few years, her father worked with the Fentons, Valerie told her while they ate. Evidentally, he lost everything because his security systems didn’t work with ghosts. Now, the Grays and the Fentons worked together to create ghost security systems. They worked well, except Danny Phantom could still get through some systems. It annoyed Valerie.

Valerie went to wake Danielle when she was leaving for school, but the ghost girl was gone. She left just a note, expressing her thanks and that they would meet again.

And there wasn't really anywhere for her to sneak out in the early morning, with dew still on the grass. So, she flew to Fenton works. She went right into Danny's room and waited on his bed, flipping through a comic book that she found on his desk, able to hear him in the shower down the hall.

[nyrax]

Danny finished up his shower, drying off and throwing on the only outfit he seemed to own. After that he moved to his room before opening the door, stopping in his tracks as he saw someone there. It had been some time since he had last seen Danielle, but her growth hadn't made her change that much. He could just hardly believe that she was here now. Danny closed the door behind him, knowing that Danielle didn't enjoy big announcements that she had returned. Danny just walked on over before taking a seat next to her.

They say in silence for a moment before Danny broke the silence. "You've gotten stronger, I can sense that easily enough. Still fighting to defend everyone?"

[Fateful]

Danielle bent part of the comic book to look at him, knowing it would annoy him. She grinned and put it on his bed side table and leaned toward him. "Yep!" She announced with gusto. She raised her arm and flexed it, but it wasn't visible through the thick material of the hoodie she was wearing. "You look stronger too." She observed, examining him for a few moments. "Wanna skip school and train with me?" She meant it too, then again, if it caused trouble and shirked most responsibilities, Danielle was always game for that.

"I wanted to see you. I figured I'd been away for too long and you'd want to spend some quality time with me." It wasn't the right time. If he found out how much trouble she was in right off the bat, he might not let her stay. The fear of not being accepted by him still loomed at the back of her mind, knowing that there had to be something that would make her lose his good graces, and this could be that thing.

[nyrax]

"A lot's happened since you left...a lot" Danny repeated as he actually thought about it all. Working with Valerie's family was just part of it, Danny had also finally told his parents the truth about himself and his powers. At first they laughed, thinking Danny was just trying to get attention now that Jazz had left for college. However, it only took a few displays of his power for them to quickly realize that he wasn't joking. It had been a hard thing to accept, but Danny was their son, that was all they ever needed to know to accept him.

"Maybe, it's actually not as hard as it used to be for me to skip school" Danny admitted. With the knowledge that their son was protecting Amity Park/the world from ghost threats, missing a day or two of school was hardly punishable. "I told my family about my powers Dani, Tucker told his family that he's been working with Danny Phantom as well. Sam and Tucker have been helping me out a lot more when it comes to fighting ghosts"

[Fateful]

At the mention of skipping school, she smirked and appeared insanely unexcited. Whenever she came, Danny always had school, which she had been known to haunt and make everyone file out in fear. Danny laughed once and said that most schools had snow days, but they had school cancelled or even dismissed because of ghost attacks. Danielle was more than happy to oblige, especially since they had been kicking ghost butt all night and he was about to fail a test.

What were cousins for, right?

Danielle looked surprised to hear Dany actually told his family. There were very few people who knew about her powers and the dangers that came from telling one person was something she still wasn't sure had blown over. "You're still friends with them?" Was the question that followed. Danielle had little experience with the others and knew that they didn't care for her much. Normally, whenever she came around, Danny hung out with her and they almost never saw Sam or Tucker. Given her bathing them in high school cafeteria food, she assumed they were justified in not caring for her too much.

Without warning, Danielle did something even Danny was unable to do, she rose her body up from the bed, able to hover in human form. "Alright!" She stretched out her legs, but was still unmistakably floating above his bed. "Where do you want to go? I'm starving."

Movement followed outside Danny's door, followed by a brief knock. “Danny, you need to leave for school.” Maddie opened the door as the girl appeared and her eyes widened.

Seeing Maddie, someone she had never spoken to, only overshadowed, Danielle turned invisible.

Now, Maddie looked to her son. "Danny?" Came her mothering tone. She wanted an explanation.

[nyrax]

"Yes I'm still friends with them. I don't call them my best friends without reason" Danny pointed out as he watched Danielle just levitate. While Danny had trained his powers longer, there were cases where Dani's powers were stronger. As she was basically created with ghost powers, she was able to have her body become more used to them. Perhaps Danny would be able to do that himself one day, but for now he had to "go ghost" to really use any of his powers.

Before Danny could answer her question though, his mom opened up the door just in time to see Dani levitating before disappearing. "Uh..." Danny became as he was not prepared for this conversation at all. How did you explain to her mother that her old colleague, someone she considered a close family friend, was trying to clone her son because he was insane? Dani had been created instead, at least as the only semi-stable clone to survive. But how could he do that? Informing Maddie of Vlad's true nature, that was something Danny wasn't prepared to do.

"The Guys in White" Danny finally explained. He looked to where Dani hid before nodding. While she was invisible to humans, Danny still knew she was there. "They wanted to try and create a life based around the powers that ghosts have. The result was Dani" Danny said as he motioned for Dani to come out of hiding. "I helped her escape when I realized that she was nothing more than a bad experiment in their eyes. She's been helping me for a long time in Amity Park"

[Fateful]

Danielle stayed silent and invisible when Maddie entered. For some reason, she didn't think she would get caught here. It had yet to happen, so Danielle just assumed she was safe here. She hid herself and considered leaving, but felt Danny look at her, so she hesitated. If it was anyone else, she would have taken off without any consideration whatsoever. Her feels and comradely with Danny kept her in his room. She returned to the ground and heard the story Danny had told them. It meant his parents knew about Danny's powers, but not about Vlad's. Danielle was a quick learner. So, when Danny waved for her to come toward him, she sighed and reappeared slowly. Then she approached where Danny was.

Maddie examined the girl and looked surprised, immediately noting the physical similarities between her son and this girl. "And her name is the same as yours? Danny?"

"More or less, my name is Danielle, but most people just call me Dani."

"Why does she look like you?"

"The Guys in White cloned me some from eco samples of Danny Phantom's blood. Or, tried to anyway, I was considered a failed experiment and marked for extermination. Danny helped save me." She looked to him and smiled.

Pushing aside her disgust that they would terminate a living person, she nodded. "How can you be a clone and be female? That's genetically impossible."

"There were a lot of their experiments. I was one of the last creations, so I assumed they were using genetic manipulation and that's what caused my gender to warp."

Maddie nodded and approached the girl slowly, examining her. "Well, sweetie, if you need a place to stay, I can make sure the guest bedroom is clean. If you are a clone of Danny, then it makes you our daughter and you're welcome to stay as long as you want."

Danielle looked surprised and glanced toward Danny, as if to ask if this was a trick. Of course, Maddie seemed genuine and Danielle read people well and Maddie meant it. "T-Thank you..." She smiled, looking a bit relieved at how easy this was going, as if expecting for it to go south very quickly.

"You're welcome, sweetie." She stated happily and then looked at her son. "You need to go to school, I can spend the day with Danielle, if she's okay with that?"

"Didn't you once say they wanted to dissect you?" Danielle asked, but didn't look afraid or doubtful. "Will there be any of me left when you get back?"

"Well, I could get carried away and run experiments on you," Maddie offered. "I won't say no if you want to be dissected."

This made Danielle grin. "Yeah? You can't cut up Danny, so I'm the next best thing?"

"I will never say no to a willing participant. Come downstairs and have some breakfast with me, sweetie. We don't want to make Danny skip school." She waved the girl to follow her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as she did so.

A lot had changed in the last year. When Danny first told them that he was the ghost boy, Maddie didn't want to believe him, but Danny Phantom acted strangely around the Fentons, used Fenton weapons, and was often around the high school. Then, there was the fact he seemed to age. Maddie had her suspicions, but waited, wanting to know what was going on with her son before she accused him. After all, while he was a teenager, he still had his right to privacy, so she didn't push him. Jack didn't believe him at first, and Maddie wanted to see his power. This, new addition wasn't hard for her to accept. Danielle looked so much like Danny that she couldn't complain and she didn't hesitate. After all, with her older daughter done and off in college, it was nice to have another she didn't have to give birth to. Still, she wondered about Danielle and wanted to know more about her, but held off for the time being, not wanting to spring too much on the girl.

"Do you like eggs?" She asked, picking up her apron as she entered the kitchen.

"I like everything." Danielle answered honestly.


- -

Sam waited in the parking lot with Tucker for Danny. It was always a mystery on when he would arrive, how late he would be, and if he would choose to fly over trying to fix his Jeep. Danny had gotten a Jeep for his birthday the year before and it worked great. Except it was the vehicle they always took ghost hunting and boy did it take a beating. The back of the Jeep made it easier for them to store everything they needed in it. Not to mention, the doors came off so in a pinch, they could shoot ghost weapons and rays out of it. It was also Fenton vehicle, so Jack and Maddie had made some moderations to it, like ghost shields, weapons, and other little things here and there. Depending on who was driving it, it was a less terrifying, petite version go the Fenton Assault RV.

"Do you think we should go inside and he's going to be late?"

[nyrax]

Danny loved his mom, and she had made the transition in to telling his patents the truth easiest. She had criticized him for not trusting them earlier, but at the same time understood the hesitation. Some parents had a hard time accepting their kids were going through puberty, how would the Fentons feel that their child was now part ghost? At the end of the day, Danny was still her son, and she loved that he was using his powers to try and help others instead of being selfish. How easy it would have been for Danny to use his powers to lie, cheat, steal, or anything else nefarious. Instead, he risked his own life and safety to keep Amity Park, his home, safe.

What else could a mom ask for in a son?

"Don't worry Dani, she'll take good care of you" Danny said as he touched her shoulder, happy that they were already getting along. "I'll be back, but you both know how to reach me if either of you needs anything" he said before heading downstairs. If he hurried, Danny might just make it before the bell rang. He really didn't want another ear full out of Mr. Lancer.


---

Tucker glanced at his watch as Sam asked her question. "Always hard to say with him. He's either dead asleep, or he's booking it through traffic to get here on time" Tucker said as he glanced over to Sam. "Course he's your boyfriend. Has he texted you at all today, or do you think that he's out cold?" he asked curiously as he pushed himself off of the wall he had been leaning up against.

[Fateful]

Danielle smiled at Danny. "I'm sure I'l be fine. If she's going to feed me, we'll get along just fine." She insisted, but wasn't sure how to contact Danny without physically going to his school. Then again, she could always do that, it could be fun, especially if she could slip out later. For now, she'd have to play it by ear, and she was entirely content with that.

---

Sam shrugged her shoulders for a moment. Danny had texted her that morning, but he sometimes texted her when he was half asleep and didn't remember it when he woke up. There had been more than one instance of him texting her in the morning and falling back asleep, dating back as far as the start of high school. She smiled, knowing Tucker had a good point. He seemed a bit annoyed that morning and she didn't bother asking why. If he wanted to talk about it, he would.

"He's probably awake. He was coherent when he texted me this morning and sent more than one message. Come on, let's head inside. If he's going to make it on time, he'll have to either almost be here or be flying." He flew much faster than any car, so there was no sense in waiting out here, otherwise all three of them would be late, and that happened often enough without it having to add to it.

[nyrax]

Tucker nodded before slipping his hands in to his pockets as they walked. "So, this weekend we talked about doing something normal if there weren't any serious ghost issues" Tucker mentioned as they walked to class. "So I've been trying to come up with something that would be fun for all of us" he said before pulling out his electrical calendar and flipping through a few apps. "I found a good choice of restaurants downtown that sell enough meat to feed the bottomless pits of Danny and I, while also serving the strange stuff you like" he teased before texting her the restaurants.

"Just look those over for me and let me know which one sounds good to you. That way we can plan ahead"

[Fateful]

Sam glanced toward Tucker as he went through his phone and could feel hers vibrate in her backpack as they crossed the parking lot. It was cold out, and even though there was currently no snow on the ground, it was one of the rare days when there was no snow. It was a strange relief, considering almost all they had done lately was run around, knee deep in show while Danny hunted ghosts. It had been exhausting. As their breath cascaded from their lips and twisted around into the sky, she nodded. "That sounds like fun. We could probably also go snowboarding or something." Then, she grinned. "Want me to rent a cabin somewhere and we can take off for the weekend?" Part of her thought it would be fun since the three of them almost never got to do anything like that, and it was only Tuesday, so they had plenty of time to plan and get things ready.

"Not to mention, if Danny flies back here and uses his ice powers, he can make it show so we can have Monday off from school too. We're finally seniors, so we don't have to make up extra snow days." It sounded like using Danny's powers to get out of school was something that had crossed her mind more than once.

[nyrax]

"Hey, all that sounds like a plan to me as long as said Cabin has wi-fi" Tucker reminded her. While Tucker wasn't as dependent on techology to feel comfortable as he used to, he still enjoyed having it in his hands or around him at least. Technology allowed him to feel helpful and important to the rest of the team, it was something he really didn't want to go without if he had a choice. "And I bet if anyone would convince Danny to use his powers that way it'd be you. You just gotta make sure it isn't too out of the blue though. With Danny's parents knowing about his powers now, you know Maddie might actually figure out what we're up to"