A/N: So This is another story of mine!

I wrote Mother Knows Best, but I don't think this will be better. It's mostly a test, to see how I fare with Danny's POV.

Not really a plot-bunny. I've put some good thought into the overall plot, so I'm pretty confident that I have a solid story here. I don't intend to force my readers into an OC POV, unless readers ask me to, but I'm pretty confident that my take on this one is a pretty good one. So, for anyone insecure and paranoid with the Mary-Sue threat, you should know that I'm really good with character creation, and I tend to map their personalities with a lot of detail, with my best method, which is easy to use.

4/5/6 positive traits, plus 4/5/6 negative traits, each with one or two - maybe even three - reasons for the character to have them, and a big number of associated behaviors/attitudes/thoughts for each trait, where I add or take things, depending on what happens to them in the course of the story because real people change, and so do my characters. I have books to help me with it, and it's pretty awesome.

I use this method to make sure I have a solid grip on their personality, and a realistic behavior. So trust me, no Mary-Sue.

Anyway, I don't own DP, and this disclaimer shall be left on the first chapter only, because I don't need to remind you again.

Rated-T for swearing, slightly violent fights, and moral dilemmas.

Also, sorry for any typos or grammar errors. My English tends to fail me sometimes. Specially at night, when I'm tired.

Mistakes & Consequences

Chapter 01

Everything is Wrong

Danny wasn't sure how long he had been flying.

Beneath him, there were vast farms that stretched into the horizon, and the sun would be rising soon. But Danny couldn't think much of it with the strain his long flight caused.

He was already tired from getting his butt whopped by his own half-ghost dad, and he hadn't eaten anything, at all, so he felt like he was about to pass out at any given moment. His stomach gave him another painful wail and he sighed. His destination was Wisconsin, more specifically Vlad's castle, and the only thing keeping him going, despite his exhaustion at these ungodly wee hours – it was still night when he left Amity – was the fact that he needed to fix his stupid mistake.

His mother was married to Vlad. Ew... He couldn't help but grimace at the thought.

After a few more endless minutes of flying, Danny could see the overly-dramatic glare of the Wisconsin castle in the distance, looming over the farms of doom. Danny scowled, remembering how he wouldn't even be in this situation if it wasn't for Vlad and his inconvenient scheming in the first place. So anything near Vlad was full of doom at this point and he just wanted to kick the fruitloop's sorry butt.

When finally reaching the castle, Danny landed on the ground, losing his balance briefly before he straightened as much as he could, choosing to walk with a lazy slouch that required less effort, changing back to human, and then walking to the stairs in front of those humongous doors.

Danny tiredly knocked on the door. Objective achieved, Danny felt his body giving up on staying up and about and fell by the doorstep. The last thing he saw and heard was the door being opened by a butler, who looked merely mildly surprised. "Oh, my..."

After that, he knew no more. One would think that after passing out due to exhaustion, he would've stayed asleep until he recovered most of his energies. But no.

Danny woke up feeling extremely comfortable. There was a rustle of soft sheets kissing his skin, and he just wanted to lay there. He still felt tired, like going to sleep after a ghost fight in the early morning, and waking up freaking three hours later to go to school, and sleep there anyway, so Danny squinted his closed eyes and laid there.

A moment passed before memories slapped him hard, and he opened his eyes, the light coming from an unknown source making him close them again, blinking for a few moments to adjust to his surroundings, and then to seeing a 'fancy sort of bland room', remembering quickly that he was supposed to be at Vlad's mansion.

Supposedly.

The room was almost as big as his own room, but there was only a bed – king size mind you – an expensive-looking dresser on the opposite wall, a seemingly antique desk to his right, a small polished wooden bed table to his left, with a fancy lamp, a big rug in the middle of the room and the huge window to the right, where he could see an overly-pampered front yard.

It must be a guest room. "Typical Vlad. Even his guest rooms look more expensive than my whole house." Not counting lab and Fenton equipment of course. Danny huffed, throwing the bed sheets off him and stepping carefully around the room and looking around for cameras.

Just because Vlad got his mother (still ew...) doesn't mean he's not a fruitloop anymore.

He jumped when he heard a knock on the door. A butler walked in with no care for Danny's permission to walk in. "Ah, good, you're awake." He said with what sounded like professional boredom. "Mrs. and Mr. Masters wish to see you at the dining room."

That just sounded so wrong...

"Sure, uh..." The butler gave no indication of wanting to hear what Danny had to say and walked out with his nose in the air. Danny's shoulders fell in dismay and he followed the man – even though he was sure he could find the dining room on his own – and spoke anyway. "What time's it?"

"It's twenty past five in the afternoon." Danny raised a confused eyebrow. He must have slept for at least 10 hours, but Danny was still way too tired... The butler didn't say anything else, and Danny remained quiet after that. They walked the seemingly endless hallways for about two minutes before reaching some place that wasn't a hallway, and a few more to reach the dining room. He heard talking before they walked in.

There, he saw the oddest scene ever.

His mother, Maddie, wearing an obviously expensive, but simple, pink dress, at the dining table, with Vlad, wearing a polo and those 'perfect hubby' cliché sweaters warped around his shoulders, and surprise, surprise, no white hair.

'Right, the accident never happened to him...' It was that same dark hair, almost blue, with a few white strands to the sides due to age. 'Weird…'

They were talking at the furthest end of the table, and Vlad was uncomfortably close to Maddie with that 'flirt-face' that Danny wanted to punch, but she didn't seem to mind.

'Gross…'

The butler cleared his throat, "Mr. Masters, the boy is here."

They noticed Danny standing there. Vlad was the first to stand up and speak, sounding creepily welcoming. "Ah, you must be the young man who passed out by our front door." He waved the butler away. He did sound less crazy, but then again, he didn't sound too weird the first few times he'd met him at the Reunion. "You must be famished. Why don't you sit and eat, hm?"

"Uh, thanks..." Vlad was at the head, Maddie directly to his right, so he sat in front of her, but leaving at least one empty chair beside Vlad because he didn't want to sit too close to the fruitloop. There was an awful lot of cheese available at the table, so he busied himself with that while he planned on how to lie through his teeth.

"So," His mother started with a chirp tone. "What's your name, young man?" She talked like was one of those 'special' little kids.

"Danny." He said while taking a bite of cheese. "Danny, uh, Fe-Foley." He corrected himself quickly. He couldn't say that he was a Fenton. That would've been a disaster…

"How did you ended up here all alone, Danny?" She sounded genuinely concerned, but then again, his mother has always been nice, and no Vlad was going to change that.

Danny gulped, stammering while he tried to lie. "Mo-I-I mean, I'm looking for my mom, yeah, she, uh, kinda disappeared…" And reappeared married to a lunatic. But he wasn't going to say that.

Thye both gasped, and Vlad spoke first. "Oh, you poor child!" He couldn't tell if Vlad was sincere or not. "When was the last time you saw her?"

Maddie continued. "And where?"

"Oh, uh… I'm not sure, it was somewhere close here, and I, uh, thought that I could, maybe, ask around here?" He wasn't sure what he was saying at this point. He just needed to ask if they had a ghost portal and all this lying was getting on his nerves.

Then again, he could just go ghost and snoop around...

"Oh, don't worry. We'll drop you by the police station and ask around," Maddie leaned forward from her seat, a motherly smile on her face. "But you look exhausted, still. You must have been walking for hours to get here." More like flying. "Why don't you spend the night here and rest?" Danny could have leaped with happiness. This made things so much easier.

"Ah, Maddie, you selflessness knows no bounds… You're wonderful as always." Vlad sighed dreamily like a high school girl – to Danny, it looked just like it – and leaned forward for… a kiss…

Danny gasped inaudibly. 'Oh no, I don't need to see that!' He quickly stopped Vlad from getting any closer to his mother. "Aaah, by the way, um," Vlad looked like he wanted to slap Danny. "You guys wouldn't happen to have a, uh, a ghost portal around here, would you...?"

Maddie blinked, before chuckling. He knew his mother's forced laugh anywhere though. "Oh, why would we have such a silly thing…?" Her voice faltered and she looked nervous, lightly covering her mouth with her fist as her eyes darted to Vlad.

Vlad himself looked a lot less nervous as he stood and turned around to pace. "Yes, why indeed? I'm a simple dairyman, successor of the Wisconsin Dairy king. We are a normal and simple family despite our wealth,"

'Family?' Danny didn't consider two people a 'family' 'Suit yourself.'

Suddenly, Vlad turned back to face Danny, looking livid. "And we DO NOT discuss GHOSTS in this HOUSE!" He yelled, flailing his arms around childishly.

Still, Danny blanched at the loud response. "…Sorry…" Was his meek answer, and he looked at his mother for help. She stood up and walked towards Vlad.

"He was just curious, dear. You know how teenagers are." His mother said, standing between Danny and Vlad and looking as calm as she could be, like she had dealt with Vlad's ghost-hating attitude before. "I'm sure Danny will be polite enough to not bring this up, now that he knows we don't appreciate it."

She glanced at him quickly and Danny nodded equally quickly.

"As patient as always, my dear, please forgive me-"

Danny held back a groan and tuned out Vlad's disgusting lovey-dovey talk, and soon enough they leaned for another kiss. Danny didn't have an excuse to stop it this time, so he just grimace and covered his eyes.

"Aw, gross…" Danny covered his mouth, but after a second realized that those words didn't come from him, much as he almost wished it did. He heard steps coming from the door.

"Oh hi, sweetie, how was school today?" His mother chirped with that same tone, and those same words that she used to greet him and Jazz when they walked in, and Danny turned to look.

'Oh, no...'

This guy looked to be Jazz's age and just a bit taller, looked like his mother, kinda, with the same eyes, nose and face structure and all, but had Vlad's hair color, a spiked hair that he pulled back, not completely taming it like Vlad, and almost reached his shoulders, wearing what looked like a private school's uniform.

Danny gaped, then looked at Maddie and Vlad, then back at him. 'No way… Just no…!'

Danny didn't notice the guy was right beside his mother now. "Oh, it was just great." He droned, with that teenage tone that indicated otherwise, then he looked at Danny, who flinched. "And who are you?" He raised an eyebrow, the same way Vlad does sometimes.

"Uh…" Since his mind was in overdrive, he couldn't think of anything to say. 'No, no, no, no!'

"This is Danny Foley, honey." Maddie said, not really feeling Danny's tension as she went from chirpy mother to concerned. "His mother kind of disappeared, and he stumbled exhausted at our door! We're letting him stay for the night."

"Uh-huh." Was all he said. Danny nodded quickly, trying to look truthful, but then the guy let out a silent scoff, whispering 'liar', which Danny heard with his enhanced hearing. His mother however...

'Crud...' He smirked as if he could hear Danny panicking in his mind.

His mother turned to Danny, placing a hand on the other kid's shoulder. "And Danny? This our son, Daniel. He's just a bit older than you."

Danny wasn't sure how to feel when they had practically the same name.'He doesn't look adopted, which means…'

Danny's disgust for the idea of Vlad ever touching his mother like that made his stomach flip very uncomfortably as his nose wrinkled. His disgust must have looked very obvious, because Daniel blinked, then immediately frowned at him, even though he looked cool with his presence just seconds before.

That must have looked so wrong to him… 'Double crud…'

"Okay." Daniel maintained his glare for another second before he turned to, well, their mother, crossing his arms. He kind of had Vlad's build, but he wasn't that big or strong-looking. "So mom, dad, I kind of need to talk to you guys about-"

Vlad interrupted with a raised hand. "Well my boy, whatever it is, we'll discuss it over dinner. Do us a favor and take this young man to the third guest room on the left hallway of the second floor, will you? Your mother and I have to talk."

Daniel took a deep breath, closing his eyes to avoid the eye-rolling move he obviously wanted to pull. "Alright." He walked away, snapping his fingers at Danny on his way. "C'mon pipsqueak, before they get all touchy with each other again..."

Vlad and his mother ignored the comment and continued whispering to each other, but Danny's brows furrowed with indignity at the jab to his height. "I'm not a pipsqueak!" Danny bristled, feeling his cheeks heating up.

"You're shorter and younger. Sooo, yes you are." Once both were out of the dining room, Daniel backtracked to take a peek inside the room again, before continuing on his way, mumbling and shaking his head in obvious disbelief. "…I told them to stop with the displays of affection in front of people…"

Danny held back a snicker. 'And I thought my parents were embarrassing… This is so much worse…' He continued following him up the stairs and into the hallway for roughly 30 seconds more before Daniel did an 180, stopping in front of one of the doors in the long hallway.

"So," He frowned again, and Danny sighed, knowing he would be getting questions. He just hoped he was as easy to fool as his mother was… Something told him he wasn't… "Are you here to rob us?"

"No?" He just needed a portal. Danny frowned in confusion at the question anyway, though.

Daniel looked satisfied with his answer and nodded, averting his eyes briefly before continuing. "Spy on us, then?"

"No...?" 'Paranoid much?'

"Murder?"

"What?! No!" 'Now I know he and Vlad are related...'

"Alright, calm down. I just needed to make sure." He raised his hands in a pacifying manner, not looking abashed at all.

"What makes you think a 15 year old would be here to kill anyone?!"

"You're 15?" He shrugged, sounding uncaring. "I don't know. I think you were lying about your reasons to be here, so I thought of any, ah, reasonable possibilities."

"And robbing, spying and killing were your best reasons…?" Danny asked with a deadpan expression before his eyes widened. "Wait, lying? W-why do you say that…?!" He's not easy to fool! Alarms were going off in Danny's head as his eyes darted around for possible escape routes. There were none.

"You're just really easy to read." He pretended to check his nails, much like Vlad does when he wanted to be particularly pretentious.

"Oh…" Danny frowned and looked down. Vlad also mentioned something like this before.

"Yeah, oh." He leaned against the door, with a hand in his pocket, and frowning a little too much suddenly. "When my mom told you I'm their son, I saw this funny look on your face." He waved a finger in the air to emphasize his point.

'Uh oh…' Danny gulped, getting even more nervous than usual because he knows he's a horrible liar sometimes, and Vlad usually saw right past him sometimes, but this guy's lie detection was absolutely ridiculous. Not even Jazz was that spot-on...

Daniel leaned forward just a little, glaring like he wanted to punch Danny, and considering his glare was a mixture of his mother's glare, with Vlad's glare, it was pretty intimidating. "…Did you know that sometimes disgust means hatred? Because that's what I was seeing there."

Danny took a step back. Maybe he should just disappear and… stay invisible while he looked for the portal.

He continued, ignoring Danny's discomfort, and dropped the glare, leaning away from Danny and using tired gestures. "But I couldn't tell if it was directed at me, or at my parents,"

Danny almost grimaced at the image the word 'parents' brought again and he couldn't help it. Vlad touching his mother was just… Ugh...! Danny tried to look passive and expressionless, but with Daniel's knowing look, he knew he was failing, somehow.

"Ah, at my parents it is then. Is it at my mom?" Now he crossed his arms and was back to glaring.

'Why would I hate my mom? Oh, and can you please STOP?!'

"No? Alright." He sported a small smile and rubbed the back of his neck, like Danny himself does out of habit, almost looking relieved. "Is it at dad, then?"

'This is the fruitloop's fault! Of course I hate-! Ah, stop thinking!'

"Oh, it is. Huh…" He looked just a little surprised.

"Stop...! doing that!" Danny suddenly yelled in frustration. "Are you reading my mind?!"

Daniel stayed quiet for a few seconds, watching him, then snickered before he burst out laughing with minimal restraint. "No! You're just the shittiest liar I've ever seen...!" Danny winced at the swearing. "Are you even trying to hide things from me?" At this point, he was just laughing loudly at Danny, how rude, he could feel his cheeks heating up again, and Daniel gathered his composure quickly, as if the laugh was fake. "But seriously, he's the Dairy King, for fuck's sake! What do you have against that?"

Oh, the F-bomb…

He had nothing against the Dairy King. He had something against Vlad. Oh, and who'd have thought that Vlad, the guy who swears via types of dessert, would have a son who cusses like a drunkard? The irony. "Just because you said I have something against him, doesn't mean it's true." Because how could he even tell? Danny found himself rambling mentally. He could've been disgusted with the whole idea of sex anyway, but Daniel just went and accused him! Danny walked forward, with the intent of opening the door to his room. Daniel moved out of the way politely enough. "Oh, and I have nothing else to say to the Dairy Prince!"

The speed to which Daniel grimaced and blushed at the jab made him feel so much better, and Danny smiled smugly when he saw that he struck a nerve hard. He opened his door, walked in and closed it harshly, feeling particularly proud.

Danny blinked in the cramped darkness.

'…This… is a closet...' He noted quickly. He also noted that there was an Ecto-Foamer right in front of him – right beside buckets and mops and cleaning utensils – and blinked as the gears in his head turned. 'Wait! So… mom DOES ghost hunt!' Danny didn't have time to muse over his discovery, as he was interrupted by a few knocks on the door.

"Uh, you do realize that this is not your room, right?" He heard from behind the door, and scowled. "I didn't think that things were that harsh at your place, to accept such a tiny space as a room... But you can sleep there if you want."

Danny yanked the door open. "Any more jokes at my financial class?" He was still standing there, now wearing a condescending smile that Danny had seen way too many times on Vlad's smug face, if it wasn't for the small left-over of redness that was quickly disappearing. "I was just waiting for you to leave."

"Oh, of course you were." He nodded unanimously. "It's your fault though. I didn't say this was your room."

"Then why did you stop here?"

"We were talking, and I don't like walking when I'm talking."

"Touché…"Danny huffed and looked sideways while crossing his arms, and Daniel snickered like this was all a big joke to him. Danny blinked. He didn't sound evil... There wasn't a jeering tone or cutting words. He just sounded a bit mean. A mild 'A-list' kind of mean.

Daniel turned around and started walking away, humor in his voice. "Your room is in the next door, now if you excuse me, I've got shit to do."

"Stop swearing..." Danny mumbled with a sigh, rubbing his forehead. He just wasn't used to it, and quite frankly, it did bother him a bit...

Daniel somehow heard him and turned around with an apologetic look that was offensively fake. "Oh my god, I'm sorry! I forgot you're ten!"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Uh, and you're the guy who thinks a ten-year-old is a threat to someone's life?"

"Ha! Wealth always comes with free paranoia. Speaking of that, no funny business, pipsqueak. There are cameras around the hallways." He gestured to the ceiling, then to his eyes with two fingers, then to Danny, as if saying 'I'm watching you', and walked into a room, seemingly at random, but Danny wasn't sure, he didn't know every single room in Vlad's castle.

'Gee, thanks for the warning. I'll make sure to stay invisible!' Daniel had changed his attitude with Danny suspiciously quickly. One second he was looking like he would strangle Danny at the first sign of provocation, and the next, he's just acting like a friendly A-list. Danny's past experiences with Vlad told him that one of these attitudes was fake, and he felt inclined to believe that the 'less hostile' act was the fake one, even if just for his own safety.

Danny's shoulders sagged tiredly and he continued walking until he reached the next door. He opened the door and was content when he saw the same room where he woke up. Maybe. They all probably looked the same... Danny closed the door and sighed, flopping down on the bed – that someone made – and looking at the ivory ceiling, because he had no idea what to do.

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to think at this point. All of this was his own fault. Clockwork did say not to destroy the past, and also said to face the consequences if he did. Well, he's facing the consequences now. His father became a half-ghost and was bitter and alone, while his mother went and married Vlad for some reason, probably because Vlad must have gone out of his way to make sure she would never see his father again and find out that he still loved her.

Because Danny was sure that if she found out, she would accept him, because they still love each other. He was sure of it.

But... then there's Daniel... Danny rubbed his eyes with both hands tiredly. If Maddie didn't love Vlad, then she would have never had a kid! Danny shook his head to dismiss the whole thought.

Vlad must have lied a lot to keep her around and get her to love him and even give up ghost hunting. Although, the Ecto-Foamer in the closet suggested otherwise... Danny sat up, tapping his chin in thought. If his mother didn't give up ghost hunting, like Vlad seemed to think she did, then did she hide her lab somewhere? Maybe.

He was sure she was capable of creating a ghost portal, even without his father, so Danny stood up and changed into his ghost form. It was time to look for a portal, go into the ghost zone, find Clockwork, and change things back, so his mother would be married to his father, like it was supposed to be, and everything would be back to normal. "...But if I do that..." Danny sighed dejectedly and sank back down on the bed, still in his ghost form.

If he were to fix everything, then Maddie would've never married Vlad, and Daniel wouldn't exist. Danny would be erasing someone's existence, even if they only existed because of his mistake in the first place. "...Wouldn't that be considered murder...?" He asked himself – and Clockwork, who was certainly watching and maybe even shaking his head with that disappointed look – and ruffled his hair in frustration. "N-no... It wouldn't be murder! It would be-" Danny stopped to think, but no excuse came to mind, and he sighed again. "W-well... If I fix it, it just means nothing ever happened. I... It doesn't mean I'll have blood on my hands! It'll just be back to normal!"

Even to him, his words sounded hollow, and he felt silly for talking to himself. Danny turned back into human and laid down on the bed, his chest heavy with guilt. It didn't matter that the guy was a bit of a jerk. Dash was a jerk too, but Danny would never kill him just for being a bully. This whole thing just felt... so wrong...! 'Not to mention...' Danny gulped at the thought and winced. 'He's technically my half-brother...'

They have the same mother after all.

Maybe this is what Clockwork meant by 'facing the consequences'. "If that guy asks me about murder again, I'll be so screwed..." And Danny found himself staring at the ivory ceiling once again, because he had no idea what to do.

A/N: So, yet another story of deep moral conflict. I just love these!

Anyway, tell me how it went, what you thought and all. This is just the beginning, and things will get much heavier later. Hopefully it caught a bit of your interest.

I'm not sure Danny was completely in-character. Was he? I'm also not sure Daniel was completely in-character with what I had planned either. It's somewhat easy to create a character when you compare it to actually writing the character. Penny for your thoughts?.

So REVIEW, Fave and Follow and all, tell me what was wrong, what was good! Because I don't intend to put time and effort in a story that won't be worth. This is mostly a test after all, and I'm really nervous about publishing this...