Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom

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Consciousness finally found the young halfa albeit, a bit stiff and confused, but awake none the less. Blinking furiously the boy struggled to comprehend where he was. He concluded he was in a stranger's bed. The Crisps white sheets entwined him, holding the young child captive. He struggled to break free from his prison. He struggled to break free from the blanketed prison only to fall to the floor with a loud thud.

"Stupid sheets…"

The child muttered. Escaping the clutches of the newly dubbed 'blanket from hell' the boy rubbed the sore spot from where he had fallen, surveying the room. It was BIG. The whole room screamed 'MONEY.' Where the hell was he? Oh right... Vlad, he thought flatly. His thoughts turned to fear as he recalled the events prior.

"Why aren't I dead?"

He thought. He was sure Vlad was going to kill him. But, not only had he woken up alive he had all his body parts intact and he wasn't strapped to a metal table. What was going on?! Frantically he realized he couldn't stay here. He'd figure out who, what, and why later.

Right now he had to move! Who knew where the neurotic fruit loop could be! Scanning the room with dread, the small child spotted a door. Relief and hopefulness engulfed the ghost boy's system. He ran towards it stumbling slightly, unused to his new much smaller body. Throwing the door open he ran out into a wide hallway.

The hallway was already large, but, for a 14 year old turned 6 year old it was HUGE. Danny turned his head frantically in both directions. Both sides held many doors and hallways that turned off into different directions. It didn't matter if he went left or right he was trapped.

"This blows!"

The little hybrid scowled mentally. He didn't see a way out. His pulse sped up. What should he do?! Not seeing any other option…

"Going ghost"

He muttered quickly. The boy felt the familiar sensation of the transformation begin, however, as the white rings appeared he felt a sort of waiver. The rings hesitated as if wanting to die out. Danny panicked, his morph was failing. Like a car that wouldn't start he muttered,

"Come on, come on, pleaseeee!"

Anxiously, he coaxed his ghost half forward willing the rings to keep going. It was exhausting and the young halfa found himself start to breathe heavily from the effort. The rings were dim but, still present. They slowly moved and towards the end started flickering. Danny now agonizingly struggled to keep the rings intact.

A light sweat broke out on his forehead. With one last 'shove' to his ghost side, the rings finished their conversion and a breathless white haired green eyed child stood in the stead of the raven haired counterpart.

Danny Phantom clutched his head and fell to his knees taking quick gasps of air. An aching throb banged in the ghost boy's head. The change had taken its toll on the small child. Attempting to get his breathing under control Danny tried to collect himself.

Why?! Why, was it so hard for him to morph? Shaking his head to clear the remaining dizziness he determined he didn't have the luxury of thinking such things through at the moment and needed to get out, fast, before Vlad could find him.

Picking himself up the white haired ghost attempted to form his ghostly tail but instead found himself turning invisible and then quickly visible again. Confused, he willed himself to at least float above the floor but, soon found himself turning intangible making him crash through the floor. Danny continued to swiftly sink through the many levels of the mammoth mansion to finally hit an unfriendly metal floor with a loud thud, turning tangible.

"Ow…"

Needless to say, the fall had not been kind.

Danny rubbed his sore back taking a look around the chamber. The cold room was covered with lab equipment and strange weapons eerily similar to his parent's weapon designs. Dismay filled the now 6 year old Phantom as he realized what part of mansion he landed in.

Vlad's lab

As if on cue a voice spoke out,

"Daniel?!"

Danny stared up dreadfully at the silver haired man headed towards him. Noting the boy's timidity the man stopped a few paces from the child, schooling his surprise into a blank mask.

"Daniel..."

The man started leisurely,

"What… brings you to my lab?"

Vlad inquired, wording his question cautiously. He had just finished installing new lab equipment. While money wasn't an issue he did not want to go through the annoyance of replacing everything -again- due to an over fretful ghost teen- er... child. Said halfa on more than one occasion had demolished a lab or two.

Daniel was young, as well as inexperienced -in Vlad's view- to his growing ghost powers. At present, he was even YOUNGER and Vlad had yet to see how his ghost half would react to this new body. Now would be a miserably bad time to find out. Keeping the child calm was priority at present.

The muteness from the ghost child dragged on as he lay, tense and ready, waiting for the unavoidable attack he knew would arise from the older hybrid.

Vlad stared inquisitively at the young halfa. If they had been anyplace else a hint of pleasure may have crossed his face at the ghost boys' unusual dilemma. But, then again, after the events of today he didn't want to put the young halfa further on edge or give him reason to destroy his new equipment among other things.

The seconds ticked by as Danny waited for an ambush of some kind but… it never came. Easing up slightly, he blinked and relaxed his edgy posture. Sensing the child's uneasiness lessen Vlad decided to gamble his luck at another question seeing as the first went disregarded.

"Daniel,"

He drew out slowly, carefully,

"Why are you in my lab?"

He tried again, this time, making the inquiry more direct.

Danny blinked in disbelief. This…- this- FRUIT-LOOP was out to murder him and had the nerve to ask why he was here?! Sure it had been chance that had landed him in Vlad's basement but, the man had the… audacity! To draw his slaughter out with this stupid interrogation?!

The boy let out a low pitched snarl only to recoil, at the pain it produced in his throat, which then turned into an all-out coughing fit. Vlad raised his eyes astonished by the sudden rage radiating from small child and then disturbingly the boy started to cough and grasp his throat.

This shouldn't be happening, with all the medications the man had the young halfa drugged with, working collectively with his regenerative core, his only ailment left over from the... 'Lesson' was that blasted bruise that for some odd reason was taking its sweet time to heal. For the love of gingersnaps the boy's hand hadn't even needed stitches when he broke that blasted cup and had not just shards but chunks of glass in his hand. By the time the EMTs arrived the hand had healed to the point that the large gashes were simply small cuts, with a few pieces of glass still embedded in the battered flesh.

Danny's parents had been in the kitchen and never really got a good look at the wound, hence no one questioned the speedy recovery. They simply plucked out the remaining shards of glass, cleaned and wrapped the hand, then told the teen to be more careful. When they arrived in Wisconsin the teens' hand had long since healed over.

The only reason for such a stagnant recovery or at least sedate for a half ghost, is if something was wrong with the small child's powers...

"Daniel!"

Vlad barked snapping out of his reverie,

"I know you didn't faze through four stories just to sight see."

He settled a lengthy glower at the boy; his eyes bore into the white-haired halfa, and then without warning,

"How are you feeling?"

Was this supposed to be a joke? A sick warped game that this demented old man thought amusing?

"What?"

Danny all but snarled heatedly. Vlad reacted accordingly.

"Pray tell,"

He hissed, leveling an angry glare at the irate child,

"Do you mean 'what' for?!"

The man continued working himself into fury.

"I asked how you're feeling you daft child! It's not rocket science!"

The child threw him a repulsed scowl

"God, your sick Vlad!"

Danny retorted,

"You like to play with your victims before you kill them."

Vlad's eyes flashed red,

"Insolent brat, what nonsense are you prattling on about?!"

Danny threw him a dirty look.

"Stop playing games Plasmius!"

Instantaneously the boys temper faded away and a submission took its place. The boy looked to the ground, a noticeable collapse could be seen in his former defiance, and he all but whispered,

"You win."

Vlad observed, wordless. The child lamented on,

"Just do it Vlad I can't escape, I can't even use my powers right!"

A noticeable hitch could be heard in the child's voice.

"Just get it over with please. I can't take this, just do it!"

Vlad was lost for words what was this child going on about?!

"Boy what are you blathering on about?! Do what Daniel?!"

He asked with suspicion.

"K-kill me-damn it Plasmius! Just do it! I get the point! I can't escape, YOU WIN! Isn't this what you wanted?! I GIVE UP!"

The boy glared into the man's eyes, a hatred like none other varnishing his own. What choice did he have? His friends were states away; his family all but dumped him here with his arch-enemy. His powers weren't even working properly. Danny wasn't a genius but even he knew when to quit. Vlad had effortlessly beaten the crap out of him yesterday and that was when he was still in his teenaged body and had full control of his powers now he was in this strange child body and had no hope of beating the man let alone having any sort of reinforcements come to his rescue. His family didn't know what happened nor did his friends, he was screwed.

He knew what the man wanted. Plasmius wanted him dead. Instead of prolonging his pain, he decided to relent to the man in hopes of not being beaten to death. Perhaps the man would be merciful if he stopped fighting, and would end it quickly?

"I've been you're punching bag since I got here, just do it!"

Accepting his 'fate' the boy looked defiantly into the older halfas eyes challenging him to finish what he started.

"Congratulations! You win Vlad, greatest evil scheme yet."

Vlad looked at the boy dumbfounded. Several emotions flickered across the man's face, confusion, rage, shock. Strangely, the man abruptly burst out laughing. It was a full on throaty laughter that echoed off the walls through the metal room. The man's frame shook and tears came to his eyes.

All the while Danny stared in disbelief. This man was insane. Fury welled within the boy a deep hot sweltering anger. Vlad's laughter cut off short, as a scorching beam of ecto-plasmic blast narrowly missed him. A single Strand of silver hair fell to the ground. A dark scorch mark on the wall with black smoke wafting from it was the only evidence left over from the attack.

Vlad's laughing instantly sobered. A foreboding glare carved itself onto the man's features, aimed at the white haired, green eyed child before him. Extraordinarily, there was no flash of red in the older hybrids eyes. The billionaire kept his emotions sealed, allowing only the cool icy glare of his eyes glowering deeply into the green eyed child's, as any indication of his existing emotional state.

Seconds, which felt like minutes to the little ghost boy, passed neither of the hybrids moving. Danny was frozen. His arm remained held in front of him, unmoving from when he had blasted the billionaire. As if called by some strange force, Vlad finally ceased his frosty stare and, moved his eyes away from the boy, his expression melting into a composed blank mask. As soon as the man's glare released Danny, he exhaled a giant breath he'd unintentionally been holding.

The boys breathing evened out, his gaze never left the billionaire. Just as his racing core started to slow down Vlad took a step towards him. Adrenaline flooded the ghost boys system, his pupils dilated, as he was again put on edge by the older halfa. The child willed the ghostly green energy to come to life in his hand for a second time but strangely the energy did not come.

His breathing hitched, why couldn't he control his powers?! Of all the times for them to short out it just had to be now! Involuntarily, a small childish whimper escaped the ghost child's mouth. Danny baulked at the strange sound that was produced from his mouth. His powers weren't working and now his body had a mind of its own, what else could go wrong today?!

Vlad halted his advances towards the boy taken aback at the strange cry. That helpless childish sound had him hesitating. It made him feel a strange urgency in his chest, towards what, he didn't know. The older hybrid faltered for a few more moments more contemplating the strange feeling, only to shove it away. He had more important matters at hand. His indecision lasted only a moment more as he composed himself and continued purposely towards the little ghost boy.

Meanwhile Danny failed to notice the man's brief dilemma, or his speedy recovery as the older halfa continued in the boy's direction, too caught up in his own problems. The child continued attempting to form the familiar green energy but it never came. The horror was reaching a definitive high as each attempt yielded nothing. The man was beginning to close in on the child, not even a foot away from him, when, without warning the green energy the boy incessantly strained for was brought into reality.

Observing this new manifestation the man quickly morphed into Plasmius. Danny's surprise at the man's rapid morph had the forming green ecto-energy snuff out from existence. Before the boy could blink, a black gloved hand found its way to the boys shoulder pressing down enough to cause only mild pain.

Plasmius captured the young child's gaze, he narrowed his eyes and in an ominous tenor spoke,

"Enough games."

With that the man sent a slight surge of his own ghostly energy into the boy, shorting out the young child's powers and forcing Danny Phantom back to Danny Fenton. The abrupt forceful change had the child collapsing to his knees, not from the change but from the suddenness of it. Vlad still had a firm hold on the boys shoulder and kept him from completely hitting the floor.

Turning himself and the boy intangible he flew upwards and through the ceiling, the boy in tow. Not even ten seconds later they found themselves in a familiar room. It was the room Danny had woken up in, the sheets still cast away to the floor. Vlad still had a firm grip on the boys shoulder and continued towards the bed. Danny still disoriented from the change, to the sudden intangibleness, looked around the room in bewilderment.

Vlad shifted his hold from the boys shoulder and used both hands to pick the boy up from under his armpits and firmly placed him on the unmade bed. Danny remained in shock as the man placed him on the bed his legs collapsing beneath him, he simply stared blankly at the older hybrid.

Vlad turned his full attention to the sullen child before him. He leaned down, his arms on the bed, and stared directly into the child's azure colored eyes. He sent a pointed look at the confused child,

"Stay."

He said firmly. With that he straightened himself and phased through a neighboring wall. Thought seemingly returned to the young child as his blank stare followed the halfa until he disappeared through the wall. As soon as the man vanished his body came out of its frozen stupor. The all too familiar anger returned to the child like a warm blanket.

" .HELL!?"

Danny thought furiously. What just happened? One second he was sure Plasmius was going to waste him and then the next thing he knew, the man dropped him off in this room, with the parting comment "stay." Danny mocked the man mentally. What was this fruit-loops deal?!What was going on?!

The child racked his brain for some form of logic in this situation. He found none. Vlad was the bad guy. He was the good guy. Vlad always had some stupid scheme and Danny 'foiled' his evil plan, that's how it went, that's how it always went!

The good guy always won. Sure there were times he failed but with the help of his friends and family he bounced back. There was no bouncing back from this situation. Nothing made sense; even if Vlad had him totally beat this time, Vlad should have killed him, end of story. The man went to all this effort to incapacitate him, from turning him into to this helpless child to screwing up his powers, why had the man not killed him yet?!

Danny continued to contemplate these strange facts only to find himself back at square one with a massive headache. Damning it all, the boy scowled. He didn't know why Vlad had momentarily spared him or his strange actions but, that didn't matter. What mattered now was escaping. Gathering his bearings once more the child hopped off the bed. He knew his powers were messed up right now but he still had access to them. Focusing, he again willed Danny Phantom into the world.

Just like earlier he met the same hesitation with his ghost half but he pushed forward almost passing out in the process. He had used too much energy today he knew this, from the almost nonexistent rings around his body and the crippling exhaustion that came with the attempt.

Danny Phantom fell to the floor panting. When the world stopped looking like it was double the boy attempted to stand. He'd get out of here this time. Taking a few more moments to collect himself Danny finally took action. First he noted a window in the corner of the room he hadn't noticed before, this told him he didn't have to waist energy phasing blindly through walls trying to find the outdoors. He surveyed the window to see if it could be open but it appeared built-in with no means of opening it. He'd have to phase through it.

Taking a deep breath the young halfa told himself it was now or never. Danny steeled himself for what he was about to do. He shakily walked towards the large window and looked down. He was up high, about three or four stories. Normally he wouldn't be so nervous about what he was going to do but then again he'd never lost so much control over his powers before, not even when he first started out with them.

Taking one last breath the boy prepared himself. He knew he'd have to focus or else this wouldn't work. Danny willed himself to simply float above the ground. It took a couple of moments but after a while he felt himself become weightless as his body floated a few inches up from where he had stood. Closing his eyes he floated forward his hand outstretched to simply touch the cool glass of the window. He started out small focusing on turning only his hand intangible.

Again there was this hesitancy from his ghost side and this hesitation caused his balance to break for only a moment. He dipped down but quickly regained himself. Again he returned his focus to his hand, a few moments passed, when he finally felt his hand sink through to the other side of the window.

Ever so slowly the boy continued to do this with each part of his body, soon he had himself phased to the other side. Danny opened his eyes only to stare directly at the ground far, far beneath him. He felt his focus slipping he started to dip again but with an iron grip he held himself in the air.

He had to at least get into the woods then he could walk the rest of the way. This had him falter for a second, his way to where? Where would he go? How could he even get himself out of the state let alone back to Amity, mainly in this reduced body. The boy shook his head he'd think about that later now he had to at least get out of view from the castle.

With this in mind the boy looked on towards the forest and prepared himself to fly towards it. Maintaining the intangibility and flight was difficult but he somehow maintained it. A shred of hope filled the boy. This might work he wouldn't die. Plasmius wouldn't get him. Speaking of the senile man, where was he? He just left.

This one lapse in concentration was all it took. The boy lost his focus. He struggled to regain it but found that the sensation of falling combined with the reality that he was free falling to his death left him unable to regain the careful concentration he needed. His green eyes were wide with fear; tears involuntarily welled up in his eyes. The child knew he was going to die.

The ground neared getting closer and closer Danny closed his eyes tight. Unexpectedly, in the place of meeting the hard ground below he felt himself land into something firm and soft. Shocked the boy swiftly opened his eyes to meet the eyes of a panicked Plasmius. The firm soft fleshiness turned out to be two strong arms. Vlad's arms.

The boy lay cradled in the man's firm hold, shocked beyond belief the child was left dumbstruck. He had almost died. The adrenaline still pumped through his veins. The realization that he had only moments ago been seconds away from death had the child panicking. His hands unconsciously had reached up to clench at the fabric of Vlad's ghostly form near his chest. The child's hand clenched and unclenched at the fabric. Vlad flew back into the mansion the boy still cradled to his chest.

Vlad had found the boy when he decided the child had enough time to calm down. He needed to talk the little brat. However, when Vlad entered the room and saw no signs of the halfa, he concluded the boy must have attempted to morph again. He had a sneaking suspicion that the there was something very wrong with the child's powers. Something flickered from the corner of his eye. The man abruptly turned to face a lone window in the room. At first Vlad saw nothing out of the ordinary but then to his horror he saw the child suddenly appear, floating right outside the window only to see him begin to crash to the ground seconds later.

Vlad didn't even think, he abruptly teleported, a cloud of pink smoke forming around his body and then he was gone. He reformed outside just in time to catch the young halfa. Now to find out why the boy did something so stupid…

"Daniel what were you thinking?!"

The man had sat down on the bed the child still clutched to his chest. There was no response from the boy. Annoyed Vlad moved to put the child down but soon found himself met with resistance. Danny clutched at the fabric on the man's chest not wanting to let go. He stayed frozen in place, his face pressing into the man's chest.

Danny continued to be lost within his own mental turmoil, the instincts of the child kicked in without the boy realizing it, and the child wanted comfort.

Vlad didn't understand what was happening one second the child acted as if he were a deadly disease and now here he was acting as if Vlad was the air he needed to breath. The man's eye twitched he wanted answers. He attempted to move the child again but the boy clung to him like a leech. Once more he was met with resistance.

"Daniel let go, this is ridiculous."

The man stated firmly. There was no response from the child who was pressing himself further into the man. Vlad was just about ready to pry the child from him when he felt that strange wet sensation again. He had felt it earlier when he had to rush the boy to his lab for treatment he had thought the boy had bled at the time. Oddly there had been no blood and upon further inspection the man had found the boy had been crying….

Oh.

Realization hit the man like a ton of bricks. Gently this time the man inquired softly to the child that had an iron like grip on him,

"Daniel… are you alright?"

The man was met with more silence. This time he tenderly put a hand on the boys back and tried again,

"Little badger… "

"Please, say something."

Hearing the affectionate nick name the man had given him, the boy's sense of reality seemed to gradually return, and ever so slightly the young halfa raised his head to meet the soft gaze of the older hybrid.

Finally meeting the gaze of the older halfa Danny seemed to realize just what he was doing and who was holding him. He had been so wrapped up in the shock of his almost death, that he hadn't realized what was going on around him. His near death experience had shocked him. It made him feel alone, he wanted the familiar comfort of his friends and family however, they weren't here. Apparently this childish body had picked up on the need and decided to get that comfort one way or the other, even if that comfort came in the form of Vlad Plasmius.

Danny's face took on a very tomato like shade. He still felt rather shaken from the ordeal while he stopped burrowing himself into Vlad he did not let go either. At this time Danny's ghost half decided to fail on him and white rings soon appeared around his torso. Leaving a blushing raven haired Danny Fenton.

Vlad looked at the child puzzled but didn't say anything after Danny's morph he soon followed suit. Danny shivered at the energy that came from Vlad's morph and his closeness to it. Breaking the silence Vlad looked at the child with a stony expression.

"Little badger we need to talk."

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End of Chapter 5.

I do realize it's been a year since I last updated…How do I put this… Fanfiction happened, specifically transformers fanfictions…lots and lots of transformer fanfictions 0-o

Well aside from my yearlong hibernation from updating, this chapter was …hard to write VERY hard to write. I'm not sure how everyone is going to take to the ending of this chapter…Did I make it to emotional to soon? Or did it seem to fit with the chapter? Please let me know. I was trying to avoid bringing all the 'fluff' in to soon.

Welllllllllllllllllll not sure when I'm going to update again I tend to do it when I feel like it soooooo….yeah who knows it could be tomorrow or next week or more accurately another year judging from my past history lol.

Until next my audience, in the meantime stay beautiful. ;D