Danny stood his ground, eyes burning with the fire of determination. "I don't want to have to fight you! So please- just get away from them and stop causing trouble..."

Stop causing trouble? Well, Phantom didn't know if it was just its Vlad side talking or if some other twisted mindset that was at this point definitely developing, but peace wasn't really an option. Not like it used to be. And this clone- its very existence mocked them. His presence almost felt like the world was telling it that they were replaceable. That everything it suffered through was irrelevant. Danny's stupid face made Phantom want to rip him apart. If Vlad thought the way the original Danny died was violent, just wait till he sees the bloodbath it was about to bring upon his precious little science experiment. This time there'd be nothing left to take the DNA from. Unless he was ultra dedicated enough to scrape the leftovers from the cracks in the asphalt. Phantom roared as he blasted the clone. Danny scrambled away, barely dodging the destructive force and starting to realize this was a mistake. His eyes snapped to Vlad, who was practically having ptsd from seeing Phantom try to murder another Danny. The man felt that same frozen sensation he'd felt back then, but this time, Valerie was there to snap him out. "Mr. Masters! The clone's in trouble! What do we do?!"

"I don't know! The poor thing can't seem to activate his ghost powers and neither can... I mean... I." Vlad cleared his throat. "I'm not exactly armed at the moment."

Valerie watched as the clone tried defending himself with his blaster, and Phantom attempted to strike him down with an array of attacks. The two were going at it, surprisingly pretty evenly matched all things considered. Danny was admittedly impressive when it came to dodging attacks, but the ray gun wasn't doing much damage and his aim wasn't the best. However, it was clear Phantom's technique was less focused on evasion or assault speed, and more about focusing most of its energy into its blasts. They paralleled each other in a very strange manner, almost cancelling the others abilities out. The girl sighed. "Right. Well, in that case, stay back. I'll handle this."

The clone, who still carried a glimmer of Danny's innocence, struggled to stand. His resilience flickered like a dying flame, and each attempt to conjure his ghostly powers ended in failure. Reluctantly, he clutched the ray gun tighter, slowly admitting to himself it was the only means of defense he had.

"You think you can stand against me?" Dark Danny taunted, it's voice dripping with venomous delight. "You're nothing but a shadow of what I used to be- a pathetic little science experiment! You're not even real!" The specter launched forward, plasma energy flowing around him like a rocket. Danny tried dodging, but it was too fast. The boy choked as he was pinned down by his throat. Phantom smiled a twisted smile as it tightened its grip on the clone's neck. "What's wrong? Got a frog in your throat ?"

But suddenly, a figure rushed forward through the rain, her silhouette a blur. Valerie sprinted towards the clone, determination etched on her face. With a swift toss, a small, black ball landed beside them. Phantom tilted its head at the device, and almost immediately got its answer as to what it was. It popped open and electricity erupted from it. The power, regardless of being in Danny's range, only targeted the ghost teen, making it release its grip and cry out. Instinctively, it whipped away to avoid the attack, leaving the clone to get up and run to the girl's side. The boy didn't know why, but Valerie's presence shifted the atmosphere of battle momentarily. The ghost glared at her, fury boiling beneath the surface. "Foolish girl." he hissed. It unleashed a torrent of dark energy her way, but she ducked, narrowly avoiding the blast. She was so done with this already...

Meanwhile, Vlad stood as a heap against a rain-soaked wall, clutching the wound on his side. He had thought he could control the darkness, that he could find some way to manipulate the phantom into allowing itself to be unfused. But that wasn't going to happen. It was clearly in a completely different mindset than Danny, so there was nothing TO manipulate. That... THING was all his fault! He had tried to justify it this whole time by convincing himself Danny was still in there, but watching the way it violently attacked the two teenagers, the pain in its eyes, the truth reared its ugly head. He killed Danny. In doing what he'd done, he murdered the innocent child. There has been several arguably horrible things Vlad had done in the past, but the one thing he never did was kill. Even if his ghostly half had occasionally corrupted him into thinking and attempting it, when placed on the spot, he never could. The human side that knew love and guilt always overpowered the anger and violence of the ghost side. And now, with Plasmius being no more in general, he felt even worse. Yes, they'd had their differences in the past, and fought many times, but he'd never wanted to be in the position where Danny was dead. Especially when the blood was on his hands. Vlad looked firmly through the rain at the battle. He didn't want this.

Valerie rushed forward, swinging her newly drawn weapon, a blade of ecto energy, at the spirit, but Phantom deflected it with a wave of power, sending her crashing against the cold pavement. She grunted, trying to push herself up, but the rain pounded harder now, mixing with the blood that seeped from her new wounds. The clone rushed to her side to assist. Vlad, witnessing the increasingly hopeless situation unfolding before him, clenched his fists; desperation clawing at his insides. "Listen to me you monster!" he yelled, voice strained. "This aggression is meaningless! You don't fight for a cause or to protect, so this behavior is uncalled for! There is no reason to continue."

The Phantom simply scoffed. "You think I care for any of this? The only thing I care about is ending your miserable existence. I don't need a reason. And even if you force me to give you one, I honestly couldn't tell you."

Vlad's heart broke as he stared into the ghosts' eyes. "Then why keep fighting?"

"I told you- I want to destroy you." It growled.

"Why? Because you're hurting? Because you're scared? Daniel would never-."

"STOP CALLING ME THAT! I'M NOT DANNY!" Phantom roared, zipping over to Vlad and getting right in his face. The ghost breathed heavily, but Vlad stood unmoving.

"Then who are you?"

The boy snarled, trying desperately to appear as intimidating as possible; every part of it radiating pure rage. Then suddenly it faltered. It's snarl slowly dropped, and its posture vaguely relaxed, but the fiery stare held strong. "I... I don't know." It floated back a few feet, finally breaking eye contact. "But identity doesn't dictate my drive. I don't need a name to rip you apart." The teen glanced at the clone standing further behind him. He still looked stupid. It still wanted him splattered into the pavement. And Vlad... ew. He looked like he felt bad. The look of pity made him sick. It growled irritatedlly as it floated up, backing away from the three trying to 'help' them. Lies. All of it. He turned to the clone and raised a hand to unleash a final blow. "Goodbye, losers."

In that moment, something in the rain-soaked air shifted as the massive beam rushed downwards towards them in slow motion. The blast crashed into the street, leaving behind only a large burn mark. They were gone. Phantom huffed, taking in the fact that it just annihilated the only remaining people on the planet that even remotely cared about it. It would feel horrible, awful even, but it didn't. It might have for a fleeting moment, but not anymore. It couldn't feel. It SWORE it couldn't feel...
_________

Vlad opened his eyes, clearly panicking. Frantically, he felt around himself to check if everything was still intact, and then let out a sigh of relief knowing he was. What happened? Everything was so dark. Oh no. Had he!? WAS HE IN-?! Before he could finish the thought, he felt a smaller figure touch and latch onto him. Suddenly, a light illuminated the darkness, revealing their situation. "BEWARE!" The light source proclaimed. "For I am the Box Ghost, and I have saved you from a terrible fate!"

They were in the sewer. He'd turned them intangible and pulled them through the street at the last second. Valerie groaned as she sat up, holding her head. Even in the faint light given off by the Box Ghost, Vlad could tell her visor was broken and she was bleeding from her upper arm. Oh God, this was all his fault. Looking down, Danny was latched onto him, looking exhausted and scared. The man let out a sigh as he stroked Danny's soft, black hair. The original Danny might be dead, but at least he could make it up to him by taking care of this one. When the girl finally came out of her dizziness, she panicked upon seeing Box and aimed her weapon. "State your business ghost!"

The specter tilted his head. "I just told you, saved you. You're welcome by the way. AND a thank you wouldn't hurt you know." He crossed his arms and turned away like he was offended. Valerie lowered her weapon in suspicion.

"Why?"

"Because, Danny's putting both this place and the Ghost Zone in danger, and-" The Box Ghost froze as he gawked at the boy that had shoved himself into Vlad. "Wait!- But how are- you? There's two!?!" The specter tripped over his words.

Vlad shook his head. "Relax, this one's only a clone. He's not the problem." There he goes again making it sound like he was just an experiment or helpless child.

Ug. "JUST a clone"..

Regardless of the wording decision, it was enough to calm the ghosts fear. Box got unnecessarily close to the boy and smiled. "Hello ghost child number two. I am the Box Ghost. Promise you won't go evil too, OK?.." The way he said it was slow and parental, like he was dumbing down his sentence for a toddler. Or as if it didn't understand human speech. Vlad quickly corrected him, stating the clone Danny wasn't stupid, just unable to go ghost. Momentarily he said. As if the man still expected it to happen at some point; even after all the failed attempts that seemed to prove it was impossible. Was it truly that he had faith in him, or was it just desperation induced delusion at this point? Danny honestly couldn't tell. As he thought on that, the others talked about various different things until one thing snapped him back to reality.

Touch.

Valerie had placed her hand on his shoulder and was observing him almost intently. "So, I guess we never formally met, huh? I'm Valerie. Nice to.. um. Nice to meet you."

The boy smiled. She felt familiar. The empty feeling that lived in his soul healed slightly in her teal eyes. He had no memory of her or a reason to believe she was trustworthy, but he went with his gut. She smiled as she looked into his eyes, but it quickly diminished then she turned away; almost ashamed. The empty feeling came back as the girl did so. It hurt... Vlad sighed at something the spirit said right as a loud explosion rang out from somewhere on the surface. He pulled Danny closer in an almost protective manner like it was instinct, but didn't really acknowledge the action. "Then we don't have much of a choice." Vlad furrowed his brow, looking up at the ceiling. Except he wasn't focusing on the bricks themselves but something beyond it. "We must destroy him before he destroys us."

Valerie questioned what they were supposed to do, seeing as it was apparent trapping it wasn't going to work. Box perked up in a strange sense of courage, puffing out his chest and placing his hands on his hips. With a way to high excitement level for this topic, he exclaimed that he had a plan. Well, technically, Skulker had a plan. In fact, Box had nothing to do with the plan's conception, though he claimed the opposite. Regardless of who the mastermind was, the three humans seemed both intrigued and rightfully suspicious. "You small humans are correct in saying the ghost boy would not stay put in a confine for extended periods of time, so we came up with a better plan. As we speak, a bunch of ghosts are out in the Ghost Zone trying to track down the one known as Desiree."

Valerie refused to really make eye contact with the Box Ghost, as she saw him as a potential enemy, but was definitely listening rather intently. He mentioned that the phantom would never allow itself to be trapped, and it was proving too powerful to defeat by normal means, so when you want the impossible done, you go to Desiree. She had the ability to grant wishes, but only to those of the living world. That was one of the reasons Box had saved them. They needed people who wouldn't run away screaming when the ghosts asked for help. And it wasn't like any of the spirits wanted to have to assist with this problem, but if Phantom chose to, it could destroy their home too. After that fact was extremely evident, it became their problem too.

"So the current plan is to find a ghost who can grant wishes and use her powers to WISH something to the situation?"

"Correct!" The Box Ghost flew around the man excitedly. "The only problem is that she's incredibly hard to find. Desiree likes to keep to herself and hide away in her pocket of the Ghost Zone. Also nobody actually knows where that is."

"Wonderful. I'm sure that will go swimmingly then." Vlad sighed. Another massive explosion shook the earth above, but this time the sound of a terrified crowd grew louder with it.

Valerie jumped up. "There are people in danger! We need to get up there and help!"

Danny wiggled his way out of Vlad's grip and rushed to the girl's side, agreeing with her. Vlad looked conflicted. "I understand your sentiment, but even if we were to help, there's no place safe from that thing! He'd attack us regardless of where we hid. It's not like there's a ghost proof building that-." He paused, clearly getting hit with the same idea Valerie had in that moment. Never mind. Let the rescue mission commence! Valerie and Danny rushed through the streets of panicked people as the sound of demolition echoed around them. They called for everyone to follow them to Fenton Works where Vlad was trying to figure out the new password for the ghost shield. "Ugh! I've tried everything! The names of his family, his favorite foods, the most likely number combinations... what would that buffoon have possibly as his-?" Vlad's annoyance dropped to a look of disappointment and exhaustion. The key board clicked as he typed. 'PASSWORD'...

"Access granted." The voice over the speakers uttered. It was Jack's voice. He used his own voice as the security system.

Vlad rolled his eyes, clearly over his nonsense, even now. But some small part of him already missed the idiot a lot. Wow. He never thought he'd see the day.

Valerie called out for a group of people who were hiding to follow her to safety as the clone Danny split off to help the people who were in the pizzeria. The doors clanged open as he burst through. "Everyone follow me!" The kid stood heroically in the doorway, but the people inside didn't seem to think that this was serious. Dash, Paulina, Kwan, and Star stared back at him. The only people in there.

Dash laughed at the runt that claimed to have come to their rescue. "Fenton? What do you think you're doing? I thought you moved to Wisconsin and we'd never have to see you again."

Oh. They knew the original Danny and were mistaking the clone for him. Understandable, considering they almost guaranteed had no idea what was going on. "Ah, yeah, I... um. Look, that's not important. What we need to do right now is get you all to Fenton Works where it's safe!"

The bully chuckled, seemingly amused by the situation. "Alright shorty, whatever." He turned to the other teens who were all doing what Danny said and walking over to follow him. Dash tripped over his words. "Where are you going? You seriously think this guy is gonna protect us? I dunked his head in the toilet last month like it was nothing!"

Oh. So that's why the clone never liked him. He was a jerk to the original. Some part of him subconsciously remembered that then. Interesting. Danny rolled his eyes. "It's up to you, but if I was in this position, I'd come with everyone to live to see tomorrow under the ghost shield." Another explosion erupted in the distance as the silhouette of a building crumbled. "Your call."

Dash glanced at his group who were all giving him either stern or pleading looks. "Dash, this is no time to be petty!" Star called.

"She's right dude. I kinda want to live." Kwan chimed in.

Reluctantly the jock met up with them at the door. He groaned as he told Danny to lead the way. With that, they were off; running down the street with Danny in the lead. Phantom let out a large roar as it demolished an office building. Destruction. It felt so good... It's breathing was heavy with adrenaline as it charged up another attack to the people below. But suddenly, it's ghost sense went off. Turning around, its eyes grew wide. Clockwork sat almost elegantly on top of the building, eye level with where Phantom was floating. "You again?" it huffed. "What do you want? Cause if you're here to give me another lecture, then you might as well leave. I'm done being talked down to."

The ghost of time didn't look mad, just a little sad and deeply disappointed. "Daniel, I'm not here to try to talk you out of this. Nor am I here to stop you. Besides, I couldn't even if I tried. I gave you a chance to change your path, and you didn't take it. What's done is done unfortunately, and I no longer have power over what happens in this timeline. Perhaps in a different one you'll have come to your senses. But regardless of what I can do, know that you are in control of your own actions."

Phantom snarled. "You don't think I know that?! That's what I'm doing right now!" It blasted a building to its left and watched as it crumbled. "See!? I did that myself! I'm in complete control! I CHOSE to become this!"

Clockwork shook his head slowly. "And for that, I am deeply sorry."

Phantom hated that. There it was again! The stupid look of pity! It made it fume like an active volcano. "Stop looking at me like that! You said you had no real reason to be here, so scram! Or I'll blow you into oblivion just like I did to that fruitloop!"

Clockwork tilted his head. "Is that so?"

"It is."

Just then, the ghost shield activated and illuminated the entire city block. Phantom's eyes grew wide as the lit ablaze with angered intrigue. "What...?"