AN: Hey everyone, welcome back to the series. For those who saw the old VG7, sorry, but I decided to scrap it. To put it simply, I didn't like where it was heading and I don't want to flood this series with with DC. So I've moved it in a different direction that I like a lot more. I have recycled what I could from the old story, but there's plenty of new or edited stuff in there and that's only in the first six chapters. New or old reader, I hope you enjoy it.

The Planning Pariah

Many great things came from the sacrifice made by the Guardians after the battle with Maleficent and her forces, that could be seen by anyone who remembered the disaster that occurred. A planet that was overrun and consumed by the Heartless, just moments from eternal darkness destined to spread and destroy all that exists, was restored to its former radiance and a great many Heartless were eradicated, finally returning their stolen hearts to their true owners. All those involved agreed, it was well worth the sacrifice of memories and established bonds of all those around the world.

However, the removal of those bonds and memories did still lead to chaos, at least for a time. Information, formations and much more was lost along with the connections between the societies, leaving large gaps and confusion in the lives and business of everyone and they didn't know why. These hiccups and were quickly resolved of course, the magical societies, the normal Governments and all other groups returning to the routines and procedures they knew and followed back before the Guardians formed and united them all. Before long, for most it was as if their alliances and shared societies never existed.

However, the time of that chaos made the perfect openings for many undesirable people, both aware of the change and those who'd circum to the altered memories alike. And this included none other than Vlad Plasmius.

The sudden gaps and confusion in world security and observation procedures made it easy for the cunning ghost hybrid to slip back into the revitalised Earth and with his powers, knowledge and his memories still completely intact, having being well beyond the Dimensional Witch's powers from his place out in space at the time of their unleash, he was able to move and scheme throughout the human and magical worlds without any difficulty whatsoever. It wasn't long before he'd managed to get a small fortune and a hidden base of operations back under his control, from which he watched and planned.

Sitting back in a chair that the word throne would probably more accurately describe, Vlad couldn't hold back a sad and angry sigh as one of his monitors showed him an image of Maddie Fenton alternating between writing down notes for a Ghost Hunting Guide she intended to publish and staring longingly at a picture of her children sitting on her desk, courtesy of one of his many spy cams creeping around the world. She'd never be his now, never love him, that was guaranteed. He'd revealed every last one of his old cards during that meteor fiasco, both to the world and to Jack specifically. Maddie knew everything about him and would never so much as smile at him ever again, with the only possible exception of him being in her crosshairs.

To finally admit that had almost completely crushed him. If he were a full ghost, it would have, his biggest obsession was annihilated. But he was still alive and the living could develop new desires, even core obsessions, and so he pressed on.

"Oh Maddie. Perhaps one day I will finally manage to have you at my side. Even if I have to force you there." He sighed again, letting his adoring stare linger on her for a few more moments before finally changing the screen. "But unfortunately, until then, I have other business to attend to."

That he did. His goal of gaining Maddie's love was gone, but he was determined to make the world pay for it. He would regain the power and control he'd lost and more. He would succeed at gaining Daniel at his side, whether by trickery or force, and he would succeed in taking the world as his own, just as he had before the meteor proved to be untouchable. He would become the most powerful man on the planet, this time with forces of the normal world, the magical world and the ghost realm alike answering his call. Then, he would remove Jack forever and force Maddie to be his Queen.

But first, he had to deal with those that would stand in his way.

"Now let's see. Where should I make my next move?" He mused, a dark smirk crossing his face as he brought up eight profiles on his monitors, each one depicting a very recognisable teenager. Mildly looking each one over, he set to work with the center three monitors, using them to peruse backed up video logs from his spy cams and information shared by both the mundane and magical internet, looking for anything worth adding to his profiles.

He was through underestimating the youthful heroes. Too many times, his perfect plans had been foiled by children simply because of his own arrogance, underestimating their talents and resourcefulness. He'd had plenty of time to swallow his pride and admit it since even Jack left him to float around in space. Even if he hadn't, it couldn't be denied. Forever looking for a way safely back in, to take what was rightfully his, he had continued to watch the world from a space station he'd thought to send up before he busted himself, fortunately well stocked with food and water. With the help of that and his spy cameras, he'd easily kept tabs on the world's development and saw full well just what the Valour Guardians had accidentally created and worked to maintain. The kind of world unity that was next to impossible to make, but if done successfully, the kind in which the less than law abiding types like himself only found doing their business that much more difficult. Add that to the fact that the Valour Guardians was already an alliance movement involving dozens of heroes and support teams that were only going to grow, with or without members' entire societies backing them up, and you had a real problem. What made it even worse for his plans was that with Daniel being one of them, he was even further from Vlad's influential reach than ever. Even an idiot could tell you, this union had to be stopped and the very event that allowed him to return to Earth was exactly what he needed to make sure it never happened again.

Once he'd managed to successfully organise his base of operations, he'd immediately set to work, gathering everything, both new and old, about the Guardians that he could find, carefully determining how to proceed.

Naturally, the ones he'd initially wanted to strike at first were Saiyaman and Lucky Girl. With Ben Ten's Omnitrix destroyed, there was no question that they were the most powerful members of the Guardians. Video recordings his spy cameras had managed to acquire from the end of the battle with Maleficent suggested that one of the Nobodies might be a contender as well, considering the enormous amount of light that exploded from that place, but both of them were long gone from this world, completely out of his hair. That only left two major powerhouses to threaten him individually.

"If only I could go after them." Vlad grunted, looking over the data on both of them and finishing their updates before closing both files right down. 'But that would be too foolish.' Truer words, he'd never spoken. He'd put up a good fight against them for sure, and might even win, but the risk was far too great. Both of these members had a lot going for them. Power, intellect and resourcefulness, just to name the similarities between them as individuals, and in addition, they both also had a number of people more than capable of assisting them within arm's reach. Every shred of common sense screamed at him that he simply wasn't ready to fight such warriors. So he moved on, not only to the others, but to a new type of threat. The threat of influence.

The American Dragon, Kim Possible and his ultimate prey, Danny Phantom. Famous the world over, each one of them had countless different contacts and could quite easily gather an army each if they ever desired. In reality, the power of unification that each one of them represented individually was incredibly dangerous to him, if they were able to reunite and combined networks again, he'd never stand a chance in this world. Even all the other Guardians and their connections combined paled in comparison to the force those three could set up together. Add that to the fact that each one of them was a threat as an individual, if only a minor one to someone as powerful and experienced as him, then you had the most important targets. And so, he made plans to quickly remove all three.

However, much to his delight, this was practically done and gift wrapped for him. He'd barely started planning out his own moves when the Dark Dragon made the first move of his own with a dark sorceress. It was a brilliant piece, if he did say so himself, one that he doubted could have ended much better if even he tried. True, the American Dragon wasn't dead, but he had not only lost the bulk of his influence, his most powerful allies and all those that would join them had turned on the boy, fully intending to kill him themselves. On top of that, the whole disaster had gotten Danny lost in the dimensions, effectively removing the one person on the entire planet that had any chance of organising and allying the ghost zone with the living world.

Normally he'd be mad at the possibility of Danny being out of his grasp, but he knew that the boy would return sooner or later. He had continued to spy on those who returned from their interdimensional trip and knew full well where the boy had ended up. It was a little concerning just who's company he was currently in, but by the time he'd return home, Vlad was confident that the rest of his plans would play out and leave him free to work on Danny once again.

He was a little concerned that the American Dragon was now under the close protection of Saiyaman, not to mention the other Z Fighters and the high speed duck that came through the portal with them, but he quickly got over that. The Dragon Order was ripping the world apart looking for their 'traitor' while the rest of the magical societies worked desperately to hide it and repair it before the non-magical world could get suspicious. They were sure to find him eventually, and if they didn't, Vlad could always tell them after they caused enough chaos. Either way, once they found him and discovered who was protecting him, not only would that end any chance of the Z Fighters allying with the magical world, it would most likely end up with them fighting and eventually killing the Z Fighters for him. Whatever the result, it would only be beneficial to Vlad.

With the two with the supernatural connections dealt with well enough for the moment, Vlad was completely free to work on his other plans, eliminating Kim Possible.

That was the trickier one, as strange as that may sound. With no powers of her own, you'd think it'd be the easiest, but Vlad was not one to fall for such simple-minded thinking. Even while ignoring the immense power her previously incompetent sidekick had revealed, Kim represented possibly the biggest threat to him of all.

Kim had, by far, the most advanced and wide reaching network and allies, all of which would pay a great deal of attention to any action taken against her and the acts of Vlad himself. Kim basically had the entire world watching out for and assisting her. Sure, the surplus of celebrity friends, travelers, CEO business men and the like weren't much of a problem, but they did qualify as eyes and ears everywhere around the world. Team Go was an ally of note. They may be rather pathetic since Shego left the team, but they could still be tricky and were always happy to assist Kim at a moment's notice. Kim was more than capable of taking up Shego's old role, keeping the boys focused and sufficient. The secret Yamanuchi School of ninjas was another legitimate threat. Their masters were some of the most effective ninjas in the world and their Sensei had developed mystic powers of his own.

But the real threat to Vlad, the one that always kept tabs on Kim Possible, was Global Justice.

Though he found many of their agents laughable on their own, they were a well organised, highly dangerous organisation monitoring just about the entire world. That kind of heavy surveillance alone was dangerous and it was backed up by highly trained spies, scientists and highly advanced tech for an enormous range of scenarios. Even in the old days, when he could hide behind his human face, they'd forced him to backtrack and tread cautiously on multiple occasions. If they ever got the slightest hint that he was back, he'd be risking his life just exiting his front door. Especially since they'd acquired all of his old gear from his mansion and made business deals with Fenton Works. They were all set to throw a small army in his face. No, if he was to survive, much less win, Kim Possible and her contacts had to be neutralised before any other move was made. And unlike the others, this Guardian's most dangerous contacts had to be gutted first or simultaneously. Otherwise the retaliation would be disastrous.

Fortunately for him, Kim had developed quite a list of enemies as well. The kinds that had a lot of different skill sets and resources. On top of that, many of them had actually found each other before and proven their compatibility in partnerships. Kim had defeated them all time and again, earning her plenty of rage and hate, more than enough for him to work with. Bringing up her list of foes and their noted interactions had Vlad smirking in moments. They could work fine, for every target involved. Vlad had made plenty of less likely alliances before than this bunch. With his skills in manipulation and the right starting candidate, he could have the lot of them eating out of his hand in minutes. A certain blue skinned pawn would do just fine.

"The perfect plan." Vlad sighed, quite proud with himself as he took a sip of his tea. It was incredibly simplistic, but perfect all the same. After all, the goals were to hide his return and eliminate the threats to him. No one would ever suspect his involvement in this 'revenge scheme' even if they did know he was back on Earth. After all, he'd never once made a single move towards Kim, as friend or foe. Why would he ever aim for her?

A cruel grin spread from one side of his face to the other as he moved on and closed down all of his files until only those of Ben Ten, Wudai Warrior and Justiman were left.

"Now that one would be easy, normally." Vlad muttered, frowning at the files spreading around the base one for Ben Ten. "Still near powerless, but incredibly influential with the Plumbers, maybe more so than Lucky Girl." His frown hardened as he turned his attention to a screen depicting the surveillance of the boy to find him sitting at his town's Mr Smoothie with his cousin and friend, Kevin Eleven. Judging from the spell book sitting in front of Ben, they were taking a break during one of Ben's new magic lessons, not that he seemed very good with his pitifully small amount of magic. He couldn't help but let his frown turn into a scowl as he watched them. Every single Tennyson had some influence over the Plumbers and multiple other aliens on the planet. He would love to wipe them out, but he couldn't risk it. He had no way of influencing people powerful enough to take them on, most who could were as powerful as Vlad himself and plenty intelligent. He could only hope that someone with a grudge would come along now that Ben Ten was no more than a weakling mage.

"Still, it could be worse. The Plumbers left this entire sector of the galaxy in the hands of Ben Ten and those he gathered. They're strong, but hardly a leading influence in this world." Feeling a bit better as the thought crossed his mind, he scrubbed Ben's details from view and focused on the others.

Seeing that The Xiaolin monks had had their hands full with only increasing numbers of Heylin warriors, Vlad pushed Raimundo aside for now. He was confident that Wuya, Hannibal Roy Bean and Chase Young would take care of him. After all, each of them was a legendary force of evil, all of them doing unspeakable horrors individually. With all three causing strife at once, he doubted the Xiaolin Dragons would last much longer. That just left Justiman, the tenth Guardian.

"Such a powerful warrior. Defeated even the Saiyan brat once." Vlad had to admit, Justiman was fascinating. And a very big curiosity. It had been difficult to find a lot of information on his origins and power sources, but what he had was definitely intriguing for the scientific mind. It was right there on the screen in front of him, information stolen by hacking some of the most secure and isolated systems on the planet. A man-made superhuman, just like the ghost hybrids.

"If only I could find the identity of what they used to alter him and how." Setting his cup aside, he set to work, typing furiously, analysing every bit of data and footage before him, looking for the slightest hint of what was done. His abilities didn't help much. Most of his different attacks were due to the metal arm simply using and reshaping the purplish-blue energy his body exuded, an invention he'd discovered was created by his teammate Tech, another person Vlad had taken interest in. The abilities he had without it were far too generic, simply being super strength, durability and stamina, combined with exceptional fighting talent. Combine that with the fact that so much data on the actual process was missing and a major component commented on frequently in the notes was only called 'the element', there was almost nothing to go on.

"Damn it! If I could figure out what was used, I could easily duplicate the process." His eyes narrowed into slits, he fiercely examined every single word in every report and entry note he'd acquired, over even the slightest of details in the videos of Justiman's battles. He had to find the source of this power, had to find an answer. If he could then he'd have the potential for creating an army that could wipe out even the greatest forces on Earth in a day! A force powerful enough to help him take over the world, but not powerful enough for any member to be a threat to him. "There has to be something, some sign of...aha!" Eyes widening and a victorious smirk splitting his face, he immediately froze a recording, one he'd barely noticed through the side of his vision. Bringing up a report he'd read only a few minutes ago, he reread a paragraph, frequently looking back and forth between it and the frozen image, before bring up an internet search, confirming his theory. A moment later, the entire room was filled with a loud, evil cackle. "That's it! Amazing, how did they ever manage to get their hands on that? Oh, this is perfect."

It only took moments for a plan to form in his mind after that. It was fool proof, there was no doubt about that. And the best part was that he'd barely even need to lift a finger. One little prick and the heroes and their little friends would do the job for him.

"Whether he succeeds or fails, another Guardian and who knows how many others will be out of my way. HAHAHA!" The laughter actually turned psychotic at that. He had his next two targets. A few more dominoes were about to fall and these ones would take countless more with them.