All right. Last chapter or epilogue or whatever you want to call it of Clash of All Time.

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is created by Butch Hartman. I do not own any part of the show or any of its original characters. Just of the design of the older version of Danielle you can view on other websites.

Epilogue: Afterthought

Jack was the first to pull away from the hug he, his wife, and daughter had the two teenagers in to look at his returned children and ask, "So, how was the trip Danny's? Any trouble along the way?"

"Nope. None. And our visit with Clockwork was pretty enlightening." Danny said casually with a satisfied grin.

Mrs. Fenton then turned to the youngest of the family. "And Danielle, not too hard on that wound of yours, was it?"

"I'm okay." Danielle said with a shrug, rubbing around the bandages underneath her hazmat shirt on her abdomen, which was still a bit sore from the last battle with her cousin's evil self. Though, it was still doing much better than it had when she was first admitted to the hospital with it.

Maddie knelt down in front of the young girl and felt at the same spot as if in inspection. "Well, we should probably check it and change the bandages if needed anyway." She stood up, put a hand on the young girl's shoulder and started steering her towards the relocated Op Center. "Come on." She said as she was doing this.

Danielle rolled her eyes with a scoffing smile at being babied, but she supposed the overprotective feature came with the territory of having a family to care for you, which she certainly didn't mind after all she had been through before being able to obtain one at all.

While Danielle was being directed into the Op Center for her checkup, Maddie turned to look over her shoulder (without Danielle noticing), winking surreptitiously at the others behind her. They nodded, smiling in acknowledgment before sneaking upstairs.

Meanwhile, the two ladies took the tubular tram up to the interior of the Op Center and Danielle set herself on a cot where she turned back to her human form, which was still it the hospital outfit she had been wearing before sneaking out of the hospital with Danny.

"Wow. It's looking pretty good, even after only a few days of getting it." Maddie commented after just a short look at the wound that seemed to be healing over rather well despite its original severity. "Then again, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." She added as she stood up with a smile. "Danny did always tell me that ghosts didn't have as much of a problem with these types of injuries as average humans do. And the most critical thing that was happening to you from that battle, we had already fixed."

"Yeah. Thanks for that, Aunt Maddie." Danielle said gratefully.

"At this rate, I bet you'll be up and ready to go before the next ghost-attack too." Maddie smiled as she got out the first-aid kit and went to work in wrapping Danielle's wound with fresh bandages as Danielle's mind began to wander to the time when she got stabbed by that gauntlet.

She may have been unconscious at the time Maddie and Jack had brought in the Ghost Catcher to reverse her constant shifting of forms, but she still remembered how painful it was before she had blacked out in the Ghost King's castle. Having nightmares of being in that constant pain didn't exactly help her to forget even while she was asleep either.

Soon, there was another part of that dream that Danielle was reminded of. Something along the lines of a subject that always triggered her most fragile emotions…

"Danielle?"

"Huh?" The sound of Mrs. Fenton's voice snapped Danielle out of her trance and she saw that her aunt was giving her a concerned look.

"Something wrong?" Maddie asked.

Danielle quickly shook her head and tried to smile reassuringly. "Nah. Just thinking."

Maddie gave her a questioning look, but decided not to force the issue at this time. She can tell me or someone else when she's ready: Most likely Danny. She thought. "Well okay then…" She said reluctantly shrugging off that part of the conversation and standing up to go and retrieve something. "Come on. Here's a change of clothes. I'm sure you want to get out of those hospital garments."

Indeed Danielle did. She accepted the folded outfit without hesitation and Maddie headed to the transparent elevator shaft to let her change.

"I'll see you upstairs." She said with a smile before going down.

Danielle dressed quickly into her usual red slacks and blue, double-sleeved, hooded shirt before turning intangible to exit the Op Center through the floor and then walk upstairs, intending to go to her room to rest in a more comfortable and much less public setting.

Sure, simply flying through the ceiling would have been faster, but the knowledge that she no longer had to have her powers fully active in anticipation of immediate danger anymore made her feel good to walk through the house the normal way. Plus, she liked being able to see whatever she could, now that she had her sight back.

As she reached the top of the stairs, she was surprised to see that the kitchen was dark. The light-switch was on the other side of the room too. So much for that scenic view in traveling up to her room, she thought.

Well, she was able to get along well enough in the dark. So she simply felt her way across the kitchen with the help of the counters along the walls, like she did while she was blind, until she easily found the doorway to the living room.

Although, it did strike her as odd that the house would not have any lights on when she knew full well that it was midday and everyone else was home. At least…that's what she had thought.

"Hello?" Danielle said confusingly into the darkness as she blindly entered the front room of the house. "Aunt Maddie? Uncle Jack? Guys? " Maddie had said that she'd see her upstairs, so where was…

The lights that snapped on so suddenly blinded the girl and a great plethora of noise filled her ears on the spot.

"SURPRISE!" A chorus of familiar voices practically sang out, followed by cheers and catcalls that were accompanied by random other sounds. When Danielle's eyes had adjusted to the sudden brightness in the room, the first thing she noticed was the multicolored confetti that was drifting down on her like softly falling snow from the ceiling. As she looked around completely stunned at the excited faces of her family members and Sam and Tucker (whom she had no idea were even in the house), she noticed that the whole room was filled with balloons and steamers. A large homemade banner was hung on the wall behind them that said, to her further astonishment,

"Happy Birthday, Danielle!"Jazz and Danny chorused what the banner was saying before Tucker and the others blew some noisemakers: Except for Sam who was covering her ears in an attempt to block out all the noise.

"Wait a minute!" Danielle said in surprised confusion, after finally collecting herself from the unexpected frenzy. "But I don't even know when my birthday is! Vlad never told me and I wasn't with him long enough for us to celebrate it, even if he was interested. So how could you have…?"

"I picked up a little something from Vlad's mansion while we were browsing through his stuff." Jazz said proudly holding up a rather familiar book. It was a leather-bound volume that had the same style and feel of the inventory log they had found at the mansion. Danielle vaguely recognized this particular one as one that looked like what Vlad used to write in every night after finishing a day at the Colorado lab. This was back before she even met Danny.

"It has the date you were created listed in it." Jazz explained further with a smile, indicating the book. "Which coincidentally is this same day you woke up and have been…well…"released" from the hospital after what's probably yours and Danny's greatest achievement-to-date."

Danielle just stood there, speechless as her family members and friends were smiling and cheering in continued celebration of the kind of surprise-party Danielle had only ever read of in books or had seen on TV. She had never even dreamed that one might be thrown in her honor.

Then, she backtracked and looked around at everyone suspiciously. "Wait a minute. Is this the real reason you guys let us sneak out of the hospital?" She asked.

Maddie casually waved it off, replying, "Oh I'm sure a private birthday celebration is as good an excuse as any for an early release. Don't you think?"

"With that said, let's get this party started!" Tucker added in with enthusiasm as he led everyone with a march into the kitchen where a cake was being pulled out of hiding from a cabinet by Jazz.

Danielle lagged behind, giving Danny a suspicious smile. "You knew about this, didn't you."

Danny shrugged with a defeated smile. "Jazz told me about the plan while you were still unconscious in the hospital."

Danielle almost laughed. So it was that long ago that they had this whole thing planned. And they didn't even know if she was going to wake up that soon. Danielle smiled as she began to appreciate her family even more than ever in knowing that they had such faith in her. Vlad only had the faith of her eventual destruction, even if she didn't know it then.

Everyone gathered around the kitchen table and Danielle was seated in front of an enormous three-layer cake. When they told her to make a wish to blow out the candles, she couldn't think of anything to wish for. Everything that she would have wanted had already been granted to her by other means. Her sight back, the defeat of Danny's evil self, her own home, family and friends; anything a now designated sixteen-year-old half-ghost clone could ask for and could ever want. So she simply wished to be able to keep it all. As if that would be much of a problem.

Once she had blown out the candles, the cake was temporarily replaced by a wrapped present that was placed in front of her. It was her very own laptop that Sam had evidently helped to fully pay for. It had a copy of all Danny's ghost-files on it already as well as some memory expansion and security features Tucker had installed. Plus a few ghost-hunting modifications the Fenton parents had made. One of which included an Anti-Technus (and other ghosts) field that was similar to what Valerie had in her new ghost-hunting suit. There was also a feature that let it shrink to a more portable size to clip onto her belt for travel purposes. Jazz's contribution was in having the cover personalized to have the same theme colors as Danielle's ghost outfit with the black Phantom logo placed in the center. She was also the one who came up with the portability idea.

Cake and ice-cream were served later before everyone gathered into the living room for a few games. (Sam had ordered something separate and ultra-recycle-vegetarian through one of the many networks only a filthy rich Goth could have) Any conversation that took place was mostly enthusiastic comments about their last ghost fight with Danny's future self. Tucker Sam and Jazz kept wishing they could have been there to see Dark Phantom's face as he was zapped back to his own time. They also wondered if it was similar to Vlad's expression when he realized that his own devious plan had backfired on him and he had no choice but to leave.

As the Fenton family and friends continued to converse about this matter, Danielle's thoughts began to wander as she sat herself on the couch, looking down at her feet with confusion on her face. Before long, Maddie noticed an all-too-familiar glint of gloom and uncertainty creep into her niece's eyes.

"Danielle? Is something wrong?" She repeated the question she had asked back in the Op Center, "Even now, after the defeat of Danny's future self and even waking up in time for your birthday?"

Danielle looked up to see that everyone was starting to stare at her now, making her feel a bit awkward. There was something else that had been on her mind since she woke up, but she had never considered it appropriate to bring up. She wondered if it was even worth fretting over. Still, she had no intention of keeping it to herself. Not after discovering the astounding results talking things out with Danny and Jazz back at the mansion had. Plus, this issue did kind of involve everyone in the room. Including Sam and Tucker.

"Can I ask all of you a question?" Danielle began hesitantly, looking around at Danny, his friends, Jazz, and Mr. and Mrs. Fenton.

"Of course, Little Princess." Jack replied happily almost sounding surprised that she felt she had to ask permission.

He and Maddie sat themselves on the couch on either side of Danielle as she stared down at her half-eaten bowl of ice cream, collecting her thoughts. She pursed her lips before going on, wondering how they would react to what she was about to say.

"Um…Supposing Vlad…came back. Supposedly." She made sure to clarify her understanding of this unlikelihood. "And he did really have a change of heart…do you guys think you'd forgive him?"

This seemed to catch everyone by surprise and they exchanged thoughtful glances, creating a long silence that was only broken by Danny who was giving Danielle a sympathetic look.

"That's what you were dreaming about last night. Wasn't it." He asked her.

When Danielle gave him a surprised look, he clarified, "Back in the hospital, you were crying just before you woke up."

Jazz confirmed this with a concerned nod.

Danielle looked down at her hands again, letting out a heavy sigh as she nodded admittedly. Her mind went back to that vision of a homeless, broken, and weak Vlad practically begging for the forgiveness of everyone present, but especially hers.

Jack folded his arms, leaning back on the couch. "I have to admit, Danielle, that's a tough one." He replied with a shrug that everyone else seemed to agree to.

Another silence followed before Jazz shrugged in her own comment. "I guess I'd think he'd be trying to trick us first."

"But if you knew he was sincere." Danielle urged.

Yet another silence filled the room that Danny was the one to break after a great deal of thought. "I don't know if I could, Dani." He said, rather shamefully.

"Why not." Danielle almost demanded an explanation with a piercing stare.

"Understand Danielle." Maddie said, putting an arm around the young girl's shoulders. "Just as you and Danny…" She paused to look around at everyone else in the room, "or frankly any of us…have the chance every day to turn evil if we wanted to, Vlad had every opportunity to do good. To forgive all of us, but probably especially Danny and Jack, for the things we had done to him. And probably even me for choosing Jack over him."

Jack then sighed heavily, folding his arms, confirming, "but he never did."

Danny looked solemn as he expanded on this, not looking up at anyone, "I remember actually confronting him with an apology some time after he became the mayor. But he wouldn't hear of it. If he's so unwilling to forgive others, I don't see how I could forgive him. At least not without him putting forth a lot of effort on his part."

Danielle took this in with a sigh before Danny then turned to her. "What about you?"

The youngest of the company hadn't really expected the question to be directed back at her, but she supposed it was only fair since everyone else had answered honestly. "Well, I think I would still choose you guys over him." She began. "But…I don't know. I…it would still just be nice to know if he actually did care for me. Even if just a little. Maybe I'd at least forgive him for that."

"It may comfort you to know that he did in a way." Jazz unexpectedly put in.

Everyone shot her curious but confused looks at this.

"And how would you know that?" Sam asked with a cock of her head.

Jazz hesitated for a moment as if only realizing what she had just said at that moment. She then took out the book she had presented earlier. "It says right in here. Along with the recorded time of Danielle's creation." She said, holding up the leather-bound journal. Danny and his friends gathered around as Jazz opened the book to a particular page, saying to Danielle specifically, who was now at the edge of her seat on the couch, "I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to mention what else I had found in here, but…Vlad talks about how astounded he was that you lasted longer than the other clones. And he appreciated how you called him 'daddy' by choice rather than by command as he had to with the other clones.

Danielle had never thought about that. Really, all the other clones had called Vlad "Father" (the ones she didn't know were clones because they didn't look anything like Danny) and it just felt so natural for her to do the same. That was why. Vlad did always seem to like it in particular when she referred to him as her father though.

"For that, he admits in here that he would more than likely miss you once your… 'cycle was over' as he had put it." Jazz finished the summary before looking up at the birthday girl directly. "So, even though he was a creep and tried to destroy you later, I think it's still safe to say that he loved you for at least part of your life in his own weird, demented way."

Everyone just watched Danielle as she became lost her thoughts. So he did care. It may have been because she did whatever he asked her to, but…Vlad said that he appreciated her and acknowledge that she was still special in comparison to the other incomplete clones. In his private journal no less. Not just saying it to her to win her over.

Danny and everyone else said that it would take a lot for Vlad to ever get any sympathy from them, let alone forgive him for the things he had done, and Danielle had to admit she agreed. Vlad had already long-since blown his chance to earn her forgiveness she hoped he would take before cowardly running off the way he did in the middle of a crisis he himself had created. Though she still loved him for allowing her to know what existing in the world was really like and explore all the marvelous wonders in it. Somehow…Danielle felt knowing that he had loved her back, no matter how temporarily or in what way, this was just what she needed. This was enough.

Everyone felt somewhat relieved when Danielle looked up at all of them with a smile. She was glad that even though she had gotten a bad first impression of a family, she still got to find out what having a real one was like that appreciated her in the right way. And that she was going to continue to experience it forevermore.

After a moment, Jazz closed the book and looked at it in her hands. Her eyes shifted between it and Danielle as she bit her lower lip in consideration. "Here." She finally said softly, holding out the research journal to Danielle.

Danielle looked at Jazz, astounded. As did everyone else.

"I think you're the one who deserves to have this more than anyone else here." Jazz said sympathetically. Then she added with a rather sheepish shrug, "Perhaps you'll… find some other things about your relationship with Vlad in there that you never found before."

All stared between the two girls as Danielle looked hesitant for a while before extending a shifty hand towards the journal. She slowly grasped her fingers around it and took it from Jazz's hands. Staring down at it in her lap, she then ran her fingers over the cover with a sigh.

"Consider it as one more birthday present." Jazz said, breaking the silence.

Danielle smiled up at her adopted older sister, stood up from the couch and went over to give her a hug. "Thanks Jazz." She said quietly.

"Happy Birthday, Sis." Jazz responded, returning the hug.

After a thoughtful pause, Tucker cleared his throat. "All right." He said cheerfully clapping his hands together with eagerness. "Now that all the Vlad talk is over, who's ready to get on with the party?"

No one was opposed to this idea at all. At least before the Fenton Ecto-alarm started buzzing. Danielle instantly perked up while everyone else slumped lazily in their seats with moans of complaint, Jack hurried to the screen that was built into the wall, pressing a few buttons to shut off the alarm before checking the screen. "Looks like the Box Ghost is at it again." he reported with a shake of his head.

"Oh, and just as I thought we would be able to finish this day off with a ghost-free bang." Danny complained.

"And why did it have to be the Box Ghost out of all of the annoying odd manifestations of ectoplasmic energy and post-human consciousness?" Jazz, added with a roll of her eyes.

"Not to mention on your birthday, Danielle." Danny added, looking apologetic to the birthday girl under the circumstances.

Everyone else seemed to feel the same way until Danielle stood from the couch with a scoff and a surprisingly cheerful smile. "Oh come on you guys. At least with it being the Box Ghost, we'll know it'll get done fast and we'll all be back here in less than ten minutes. And I can't think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than in knowing that things have gotten back to normal." Then she looked at Danny with a sly smile, adding telepathically, except that now we've learned some new tricks.

Danny only took a second to think about this before he nodded with a grin.

Then Tucker cheered, jumping up on the couch, shouting out with his trusty PDA held high in his hand, "All right! Team Phantom is officially back in business!"

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While the Fenton's and friends alike broke to gather up their ghost-hunting gear or Go Ghost, Clockwork observed on his Time Window the team members' spirits heighten significantly from the enthusiasm that Danielle had started. Then he smiled as they gathered into the teleportation chamber to head out to do what they all did best. Together. Just as he knew they would for all time.

The End

All Righty. And that's for sure the end of all my fanfiction. Even if I did come up with something new, I wont be putting out any results for a long, long time. I'd estimate years in fact. Right now, I want to finish an original science fiction novel that I may animate certain parts for later. Speaking of which, I have a new poll up that has to do with the original character I had developed for that story. If you could take a vote on what the colors of her costume should be, that would be great. Full details can be found on my Deviantart account. I'll also do more DP illustrations for these now finished stories of mine, but my higher priority is to develop my skills to put out some original stuff. I'll more than likely show you guys what becomes of it in the future, so at least stay tuned on the other channels I have.

In the meantime, I hope what reviews you submit say that you all have enjoyed this story. I'd like to thank all of you reviewers (through public or even private messages) for showing me such support while I was writing these. I couldn't have completed a work I can be so proud of without all of you. ^_^