Note: I normally say the timeline and basic events before the story, but this one explains itself throughout. What I shall say instead is I got the inspiration from "Second Chance" by Shinedown.

Edit: As of 8/15/2018, I'm going back through this story and updating it so it's more cohesive. I don't want tenses changing akwardly and midway through. I'm also adding a bit more detail where I feel like doing so which could be decently heavy in the first several chapters with how long it's been since I wrote them. ~Via

Danny collapsed on his bed, exhausted, and transformed back to human. He had been fighting for almost three days straight. Besides the normal things he should have been doing during that time such as going to school and sleeping, these past days he really had needed the free time he didn't get. It had been four months since the Disasteroid incident, and he'd thought his parents were used to his powers. He had found out a few days ago how wrong he was. Despite knowing he was truly good and understanding what occurred during the times they thought he wasn't, they had been researching for months on one particular task. Separating Danny Fenton from Danny Phantom without harming either of them, including personality-wise.

Since then though, Danny hadn't had a free moment to sit down with them and discuss why it was a bad idea though their concern was admirable, he supposed. He had neglected to tell them all of his escapades and never would but apparently needed to inform them of what would happen if they tried separating him. He couldn't balme them for what they didn't know; he hadn't done so the entire time they'd hunted him, after all. But despite the stress of being a superhero, Danny didn't want to be two separate people. The incident with the Fenton Catcher proved what would happen. Even if they could make him into two completely separate but nearly identical beings, that would mean a separated Phantom could easily lose his mental humanity. The Dan Incident proved just how dangerous a Danny Phantom without his human half could, and most likely would, be. Removing his powers just before the Disasteroid had doubled that assurance that he needed to be both. Even if they could separate his halves without destroying his personality, he wouldn't be complete as Fenton because he'd be sitting on the sidelines mostly. He knew he was too weak physically to fight ghosts constantly in his human form. These thoughts swirled around in his head in full force now that he had made sure every ghost in town had been locked in the ghost zone. It wasn't an invasion of any sort. Just an absurd amount of random ghosts, some of whom were pretty tough to beat like the Fright Knight, Vortex, and Undergrowth. He'd even seen Frostbite and Dora for different reasons during the mess of a week he was having.

He groaned, cursing his mind from being to active when he just wants to sleep, and sat upright. He stood slowly, sore from all the bruises and cuts currently healing at a fast rate though it never felt fast enough. He stretched some and noticed a slight twinge in his right ankle. Everything should be all be healed by school time as long as he didn't fight any more that night and actually got to go to school. Mr. Lancer had begun tutoring him when he had time, working flexibly with Danny's unpredictable schedule, but it was preferable to be in class and awake while he was there.

He took one step and almost fell over as pain shoots up his leg. He shifted the weight off of it, biting his lip against the pain, and pulled up his pant leg to reveal that it had swelled up and gotten very discolored. He sighed in irritation.

"I knew I landed on it wrong when I was fighting Skulker," he muttered to himself. He persisted, though, limping his way out of his room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen, the lights to which were still on. He glanced at the clock on the stove- 11:26 PM. His parents were probably still down in the lab. He made his way to the fridge slowly, not wanting to Go Ghost since it would probably take more energy than walking on a twisted (possibly sprained) ankle. At least, it hurt like he'd only twisted it, but he had a skewed perception of pain anymore with how much he'd managed to endure. He put together a quick but decently large meal and began wolfing it down, having not eaten since about 6 AM. Yesterday. In ghost form, he could live off very little food and drink. In his human form on the other hand, he had such a high metabolism that he needed to eat a lot more than most and plenty more than he used to. He suspected it was from the energy his body required to keep his powers from exploding out randomly. (Okay, so it was Jazz's theory, but he agreed with it.) As he's finishing up, his mom walked into the kitchen, two empty plates and cups stacked in her hands. She jumped slightly when she noticed him, having been on a beeline for the sink and having not expected him to be home until much later.

"I didn't know you were back home, Hon. I'm glad you are, though. You know I don't like when you're out past curfew to fight," she commented, chiding him slightly at the end out of residual habit. His curfew was still ten but now it had the exception of ghost fighting. As long as he was fighting, he didn't have a curfew. If all was silent, he was grounded if he missed it. It had been a difficult compromise to make since his parents wanted him to be able to sleep, but he'd made sure they understood he'd just sneak out to fight if need be.

"I know. I don't think there'll be any more tonight though. Mainly because I haven't had time to empty the thermoses from the past several days so some of them have kinda been in there a while. Once I do that, I'm sealing the Portal for the night if that's okay with you guys. It might keep some of them at bay at least, and I need some sleep." His mom had begun to wash the few dishes in the sink along with the ones he had just dirtied while he was talking.

"That's fine with me, and I'm sure your father will agree. I want you to go ahead and do that now because your father and I want to talk to you before you go to sleep." She never turned around while saying this, but Danny could tell immediately by her tone that she was excited. His parents being excited was almost never a good thing for him, even nowadays.

"Can't it wait, Mom? I've barely slept from fighting and ni-" he begins to complain but stops and pales when he realizes he almost admitted to having nightmares. He was relatively used to them by now, seeing as they plagued him almost every time he actually managed to fall asleep. It was too late to back track now though as she had been listening intently and was smart enough to figure out a word beginning with "ni" that would keep people awake a night.

"Daniel Fenton, have you been having nightmares without telling me?" she asked, turning around to face him with her hands on her hips. The sheepish look on Danny's face told her the answer that he knew he couldn't hide then. "Danny, you know you're supposed to tell us! I thought the nightmares mostly stopped when you were ten. The doctors said you passed the sleep study and everything. When did they start back up? How bad have they been? Wh-"

"Mom, it's fine. I'm used to having them. It's not like they hurt me." 'Physically,' he added in his head. By the look on her face, she wasn't placated. He sighed. "Fine. They started up again right after the accident. Well, if you can even say they stopped. They just calmed down because of and for a while after taking that medicine they put me on. I just never told you and Dad because I didn't want to worry you. As for how bad, it depends on what it's about." When he was eight, Danny had been diagnosed with Chronic Insomnia by cause of Chronic Nightmares and Sleep Terrors after waking the house up from screams every other night and just not sleeping the other nights. He had seen how worried his parents had been about him not getting enough sleep, so he started pretending after a while. Learned to comfort himself. He slapped his palm to his forhead in a sudden realization. "I guess that means I had some sort ofHero Complex before all this happened, huh?" His mom chuckled though the worry was still in her eyes.

"Alright, I'll leave you be about it, but if they ever get too bad then you had better take some of that Melatonin we keep in the medicine cabinet. And, I would really rather we not wait until morning, especially since you have school to go to and we'll be up late finishing everything," she conceded, knowing she couldn't get Danny to do anything in this circumstance. Since she had apparently never noticed his nightmares for the past several years, she doubted he would tell her when he had more. One of the things she had yet to comprehend was how she had been so blind to Danny's secret. Sure, she had suspected there was a big secret he was keeping from her, but never the actual secret. He sighed then agreed. He got up and started to make his way upstairs again to grab the thermoses when he's stopped once again by his mom though this time from her gasping.

"What did you do to your ankle, young man?" She didn't wait for an answer though as she rushed over to him and lifted his pant leg enough to see it. "No arguing this time. I want you to sit back down, tell me where the thermoses are, and let me wrap up your ankle." For the stern look on her face, Danny noded, deflated, and dropped back into the chair.

"I can get the thermoses, Mom. Since I know you're not going to let me point out the uselessness of tending to my ankle which will be healed by morning time, at least let me do things like normal. I can go ghost if you don't want me walking on it." He knew he was playing on some of her weaknesses to get what he wanted, but he wasn't about to let anybody but him put those ghosts back. There were too many for an accident to happen and let them all out. He was speaking the truth at the same time, though. His ankle surely would be fine in the morning, and he didn't want to be bothered with trying to wrap it or for it to change his routine any. When leaving, he had even been trying to keep from limping, but apparently it was still enough for his mom to notice. She thought for a moment then nodded at his request.

She left the room and came back with the bathroom first-aid kit then quickly cared for his swollen joint, informing him it looked like a sprain and probably wouldn't be healed by morning time if he didn't stay off of it. When she'd finished, she instructed him to change so he could fly and not put weight on it. He swiftly touched his ice core and morphs but wished immediately he hadn't. Though he had been able to change quickly, it hadn't been effortless like it normally is from the sheer exhaustion he was facing.

"I really am drained," he muttered then floated himself off the chair and to his room, taking the normal route to keep from using too much of his non-existent energy. He made it to his room then back downstairs, this time with five full thermoses piled in his arms, when he started to have difficulty. The familiar bluish-white halo of light appeared around his waist, wanting to change him back. It split and started to travel over him, but he fought it while floating down to the basement as quickly as he could manage. He safetly landed right in front of the operation panel for the portal before losing his internal battle and changed back completely. His dad was watching him, oblivious to how exhausted his son is.

"Danny! Glad you're home! Did your mother tell you we want to talk?" he asked, bouncing in his spot with excitement. Danny simply nods weakly and begins emptying the thermoses. Most of the ghosts screamed as they were sucked from the thermos and into the vacuum of the Portal, but some remained quiet, used to it by now. By the end, only two remain in thermoses, alone in separate ones and not allowed out until in proper hands. Vortex had escaped the Observants once again and had to be returned directly while they had begrudgingly asked Danny to hand them Undergrowth as well since they'd failed to catch him so many times. He heard his mom coming down the stairs as he typed in the sequence to lock to Portal and turn on the special new Ghost Shield that only covered the area of the Portal door. It was so no ghost could phase through the metal, as Danny had explained that weakness before they built the new one. Now the only ghosts capable of getting to Amity Park were those who could create portals, those who were currently out of the Ghost Zone and able to fly to Amity from another place, anyone lucky enough to find the right natural portal, and anything strong enough to break through both ectoplasm-infused steel and a ghost shield. Danny could only think of three capable of the last option, two of whom he never wanted to face again and the third being a friend.

"Oh, good. You're done. Now, I know you're probably exhausted, Hon, but we have to talk about this tonight or wait until the next possible time which would be at least a year away." She paused to see his response. He simply raised his eyebrows to tell her to continue, barely keeping on his feet but knowing he'd fall straight asleep if he sat down for even a second. "Alright. Your father and I have been researching, and we've done it! We found a way to get you back to normal without destroying Phantom or either personality! We have to rework the inner process of the Fenton Ghost Catcher and then get enough power built up. The only problem is we'd need a specific surge from the electric company and on a night they aren't in too great of need of excess energy. Those nights are extremely rare, but tonight is one of them. We've already done most of the reworking but need to make it better using your specifics. If you want, you can sleep while we gather the necessary information then we'll wake you up when we're ready, Sweetie!"

Danny was surprised about how well thought out this plan seemed. It was still not going to happen though. He normally would've been a bit more sorry for them having hard work go wasted, but he could only truly think about sleep at this moment.

"Mom, Dad, I appreciate all the work. I really do. I'm not allowing this though. I have my reasons from past experiences which I'll share with you tomorrow. Just know that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom being two separate beings is a terrible idea and never going to happen again. Now, I've been up constantly for days. I. Am. Going. To. Bed," he stated as bluntly as possible then limped his way across the room (while avoiding the surprised and hurt expressions on his parents' faces), up both flights of stairs, and over to his bed but after remembering to lock the door. He didn't bother to undress as he literally collapsed on the bed and was asleep before his head hit.