Author's Note: Thought or Emphasis; Flashback; Thought or Emphasis in Flashback. Certain type may also be used signify SOUND or other dramatic effects as necessary.

I don't own Danny Phantom.

Danny Phantom: Not All Bad

Part XII

It was another day in Amity Park. The summer started tapering off this time of year, a few brisk winds bringing a surprise chill to the otherwise sunny morning.

A young girl strolled down a busy sidewalk, bracing herself a bit as one such wind blew past. Her new hooded jacket, replacing her old blue hoodie, was left open to show her white shirt. She had replaced her red shorts for a pair of red jeans and traded her old blue sneakers for new ones in a bigger size. Finally, she left her old beanie behind, her pony-tailed black hair blowing in the wind.

Danielle liked her new look, courtesy of her last mall trip with Sam. The girls-only trip involved all kinds of questions…

"Hey, Sam?" Danielle sat in the food court, finishing off her fries from a burger joint. "I was wondering about something."

"Sure, Ellie." Sam munched on veggie fries from the restaurant next door. "Shoot."

"A while ago, one of Ember's friends said she bet Danny gave Ember 'a good workout' once, but I've been thinking about it, and I don't think she meant exercise." Her brow furrowed. "Do you know what she meant?"

Sam gulped. "Oh, boy..."

…and all kinds of clothes…

"No way!"

"I dunno, Ellie, I think you'll look cute."

"I don't care!" She folded her arms. "I am not wearing a skirt!"

…most kinds, anyway.

Also came other changes. Sam and Danny started letting her explore Amity Park again, moving past the Skulker incident a couple months ago.

Danny said, "He won't try that again, trust me," with some look in his eye. She remembered seeing the same face on Valerie once, and it almost scared her. I've never seen him like that before or since, though... Weird.

She also remembered a weird week when Danny didn't even want to mention Ember's name, but it seemed he was in a better mood since a certain day.

Was that... Ember's lipstick?

She started thinking about that 'workout' thing again, but quickly distracted herself with a less confusing thought:

As long as she told Sam and Danny in advance, she could finally go to Ember's lair on her own!

Things really are different now, she concluded.

Her ghost sense went off, and she heard a scream.

"...But some things stay the same."

Danielle sprinted to the nearest alley and made her declaration: "I'm Going Ghost!"

With a flash of light, the white rings turned Danielle to Dani Phantom, who laughed. "I get why he says that now. It's fun!"

Dani took to the skies and caught sight of the problem: a giant ghost dog with green fur, black ears, and blood red eyes barreling through the town's busy streets.

"Woah." Her eyes widened. "I'm gonna need a bigger Thermos."

Taking a chance on its intelligence, she raced to the dog's side and commanded, "Alright, Fido, pull over!"

He merely responded with a "BARK!" The force of his cry blew Dani back and triggered the nearest car alarms, making things even worse for the ghost girl's ringing ears. He pulled ahead to the next block, leaving her shaking her head till the noise stopped.

Her senses returned just in time to see a truck coming her way at 50 miles an hour. "AH!"

Both ghost and driver shut their eyes to avoid witnessing their terrible fates. The driver opened his first, and found... nothing lodged in the windshield?

"Thank you, ghost powers." Dani, no longer intangible, sighed in relief, then snapped her fingers. "Wait, ghost powers!"

She had an idea.

Using her ghost sense to point her in the right direction, she continued her pursuit. When the dog was in sight, she charged a Freeze ray in her hand, but rather than take a shot, she focused on a shape in her mind. With the mental image, she released it, a blue-green whip of energy wrapping around the speeding dog's neck like a leash.

"Gotcha—WHOA!"

The big beast pulled Dani along on its path of destruction. She soon made new friends with a mailbox, a lamppost, and a small sedan.

"Come on, boy!" She tried to right herself and tug back, but to no avail. "Heel!"

He continued to sprint, when he caught onto a new scent—a hot dog cart stood at a corner, the vendor sprinting away from the big green monster on the other end of the block. Unfortunately for Dani, the colossal canine veered ninety degrees to charge at its prey. This left her swinging headfirst into an office building's fifth floor.

"Excuse me!"

"Sorry, lady!"

"Ugh, stop screaming and duck or something!"

Dani tumbled out a window halfway through the building, intangible and irritated.

"Alright, that's it!"

She put one last burst into her flight, landing between the dog and the cart.

With a frown, she thrust her hands forward.

"STOP!"

The dog obeyed, skidding with enough force to tear the asphalt beneath his paws. As he slowed, he shrank in size. A little green puppy soon stopped at Dani's feet, panting with fervor and awaiting the next command.

"You're tiny… and trained?" She voiced her surprise, but it quickly succumbed to her anger. "You just put me through a lot of trouble. You're lucky we're ghosts, or we'd probably both get locked up for this mess you made!" With a pointing finger, she declared, "Bad dog!"

Knowing those words and gestures well, the puppy withdrew, whimpering in fear and shame. Looking into his sad red eyes, Dani sighed, and her frown melted away.

"You were just playing, weren't you? Probably just thought I was playing along too by chasing you." She kneeled to face him and beckoned him closer. "Come on." The little guy was hesitant, so she put out one hand. "I won't hurt you, I swear." Though I may have to put a leash on you again, she kept to herself.

Sensing good intentions, he sniffed closer and pawed her palm. A puny "arf!" and a wagging tail showed approval of his new friend.

Scooping him up, Dani scratched behind his left ear. "Good boy."

Slurp.

"And affectionate too... Ew." She wiped the green dog drool off her cheek. "Now, what am I gonna do with you?"

"I'll answer that."

"WAH!" Dani jumped back, nearly dropping the dog in her arms, until she recognized the voice. "Danny?"

"Did you know it took me three days, Sam's help, a dog training book, and a squeaky toy to get Cujo to stop?" Danny Phantom descended from his hiding place behind one of the city's numerous billboards. "You figured out how to do it in five minutes!"

"Cujo?" She recalled the name from one of Sam's old movies. "You already named him?"

"I already know him pretty well." He floated closer to pet Cujo's head. "Isn't that right, boy?"

A happy bark was his reply, leaning into Danny's touch.

"Let's get him back to the lab," he decided. "We'll pick up the gang on the way."

At the Fenton lab, the original Team Phantom had come together.

Tucker was in a particularly good mood since he announced the outcome of the school-wide bet on Sam and Danny through the gossip grapevine. He found out through Jazz, who predicted she would finally be able to get that car she wanted for college freshman year. As for Tucker's share, he had just begun collecting, regularly greeting Franklin, Hamilton, Grant, and all their identical siblings with an almost disturbing affection. Even now, he flicked his fingers over the bundle of bucks with a dreamy sigh.

Danny turned away from the love-fest and back to the Fenton Portal. It sat closed for now, its doors painted black and yellow to warn the curious and the brave. The warning hadn't stopped him or his friend and girlfriend, of course—and so, they literally opened the door to countless dangers, surprises, and changes.

One of those more welcome changes held a certain puppy in her hands, dawdling on her way to the Portal. Danny exchanged a look with Sam, both of them already knowing where this was going.

Sure enough, Danielle stopped in front of her. "You know, your house is really big... Maybe even big enough for-"

"No."

"But he's so cute!" Danielle raised Cujo closer to Sam's face. "Can't we keep him?"

"No way, Ellie." Her eyes tried to avoid the sight of convincing cuteness (her nose, the smell of undead dog breath). "As much as I love having you around, I'm definitely drawing the line at ghost pets."

"I'll take good care of him!" She declared, just as he floated out of her grasp and in a circle around her.

"You can barely take care of your room, a habit I'm pretty sure you got from Danny," she looked at him, shrugging in admission, then heard a crunch, "and while I don't know ghost dog diets, I don't think Cujo should share your sweet tooth."

With a guilty grin, Danielle slipped her candy for him back into her jacket pocket.

Faced with such resistance, she realized she had to bust out the big guns. She clasped her hands, took a deep breath, and activated the most adorable face she could muster: ice-blue doe eyes, a quivering lip, and above all...

"Please, Mom?"

Sam's face went red.

The M-word first left Dani's lips just a few days after the Ember incident. A simple, drowsy "good night, Sam" came out as something else. It wasn't until the next morning when Sam asked that she realized what she said.

"I-I-I didn't mean it, I swear!" Blue eyes wide, she scrambled for an excuse. "It was... it was a joke, like always!"

She folded her arms. "Danielle."

"I meant Sam, but I guess I said Manson, and you know words just get messy and—man, I'm so stupid-"

"ELLIE!" She held the girl's shoulders and literally shook her out of it. "It's okay!"

"What?"

"You're not stupid. You just care about me, and I care a lot about you too. It's why I call you Ellie." She smiled. "Whatever you want to call me, your sister, your aunt, or anything else... it's okay."

"For real?"

"For real. Just don't call me Sammy." She pointed at her playfully. "Ever."

"Sure..." a soft giggle, "M-mom."

"Don't you play that card on me, Danielle!" While her voice sounded firm, her eyes quietly begged the boys for backup. While she may have allowed Danielle to say it, the M-word was a dangerous one. It had worked on Sam three times in a row (hence, the remains of a recently purchased bucket of mall candy in Dani's pockets), and she was almost afraid it would work once more.

Luckily, Danny came to Sam's rescue. "She's right, Danielle. It's for the best. Cujo here is more of a free spirit." Danny chuckled to himself: Heh, ghost pun. "Plus, he'll just phase through the walls of anywhere you put him."

"But he won't do that if he wants to stay with me." She looked down to the puppy poltergeist now landed at her feet, and then dramatically into the distance (in reality, a corner stained with ectoplasm). "I can feel it... there's a deep, almost mystical bond between us!"

Sam wasn't fooled. "You've only known him for half an hour."

"Hey, that's way longer than you and Snappy." Tucker piped in, finally looking up from his wad of cash.

"Snappy?" Danielle inquired.

"Tucker," Sam's glare could have rivaled Dora's in dragon form, "you promised!"

"No, you said, 'tell anyone, and you won't make it to high school,' and I stood completely still and said nothing. Plus, we're almost in senior year, so I figure I'm safe now." He explained to Danielle, "We were 11, about your age, I guess, when we all passed by this pet shop one day. Sam saw a little turtle in the window and took about five minutes before she decided to 'free' him and all the other reptiles from the place. Snappy got snapped up by a bird in her backyard on the same day she got him. She was red-faced in tears the whole day. First time I'd ever seen her cry, I think."

"Hence the threat," Danny added.

"I knew I should have said 'college,'" she murmured. "I've become more mature about my feelings since then, guys. And I now know that some animals are more trouble taking in than they're worth."

"And I can barely hide my ghost half around here, let alone another whole ghost, so don't ask me, either." Danny saw her face fall and came to her side. "Come on, now, don't pout. If it's like you say, he'll be back before you know it, right?"

"I guess." With an accepting sigh, she stepped toward the Portal to let Cujo through. As Danny suspected, the Fenton genetic lock worked for her too, and a green glow filled the room.

Cujo looked into the swirling pool of ectoplasm, then back at his new Phantom friend. With a "bark!" of farewell, he wagged his tail and leaped back into the world beyond.

She gave a tiny smile. "Later, little guy."

"Don't feel too bad, Dani," Tucker consoled, nudging her shoulder as she left the lock. "You'll win Sam over next time."

"Thanks, Uncle Tuck."

He'd earned that name the day Sam and Danny told him they were together. He was proud to designate himself as 'Official Fun Uncle.'

They pointed out he was technically the only uncle, but that didn't harsh his mood.

"Speaking of Sam," Tucker left Dani, sidled over to Sam and whispered, "Did you compare your daughter to a dog earlier?"

Sam blushed once again. "Sh-shut up, Tucker."

"Well, guys, dog debates aside, that was quite the start to the day," Danny voiced his thoughts. "Let's just hope things are smooth sailing from here."

A bestial figure fell out of the Fenton portal, barely conscious and fur littered with cuts and burns.

"One of Frostbite's people!" Danny cradled his head. "What's going on?"

"You must stop him, Great One." In a voice from a raw throat, he continued. "He has taken the Infi-Map."

"Who has?"

"He calls himself…" he strained to say the last word, "…Plasmius."

The team's eyes widened, just before he fainted.

"Vlad!" Dani's fists clenched. "I've been waiting all summer to beat him again!"

"You only fought a clone, Danielle; you haven't faced the real deal." Danny's face grew stern. "That's my job."

"So… I'm backup?"

Sam shot down her hopes: "You're staying here, Ellie."

"But Mom, we already went through this! I'm strong too!" Dani put her hands on her hips, standing with aplomb. "If I can take down a dragon on my own, I can beat anything!"

"I know."

Sam smiled, exchanging the same face with Danny.

"That's exactly why you're staying here to protect Amity Park."

Danielle's jaw dropped. "You're serious?"

"We're serious," Danny explained. "You may be younger than I was when I started, and you've made some mistakes, but no more than I did when I started out."

Truthfully, it was part of why he let her go on her own that same morning. While it wasn't a test he prepared, he secretly held back from catching Cujo himself, to give her a chance to stand on her own two feet.

"There are a few mistakes you're still doing, though..."

"Sam..." He shot a not-so-irritated glance.

She merely smirked in return.

"The point is, you're a hero, and you should have more chances to show it." Danny placed a hand on Danielle's shoulder. "Get the city more acquainted with its second-favorite Phantom!"

"Second-favorite?" Twin white rings did their thing; Dani Phantom accepted the challenge. "Not for long."

"Well, look at that," a voice announced from the portal, "our little Dani's stepping up."

A blue fireball rushed out into the lab, circling the gang until it crashed at Dani's feet, coalescing into a familiar face.

"Auntie Em!" The girl flew to hug her at the shoulders, an embrace Ember fully returned.

After working things out with Danny and noticing Danielle had called Sam a certain name once or twice, Ember had gracefully accepted the position of 'Cool Aunt' as she had before.

(Jazz, however, was disappointed to know the title was already taken.)

"Showing off, Ember?" Danny jibed. "That's so unlike you."

"Every great artist knows how to make a great entrance." She pointed to the yeti ghost: "I saw the furball over there passing by and figured it had something to do with you."

"It does. Plasmius reared his ugly head, so we're going after him."

"The vampire guy with the cape, right?" She'd seen him before in passing, muttering and laughing to himself about a 'skeleton key' or something a long time ago. She shook his image out of her head. "Freakin' creeps me out."

"Dani's staying here-"

"I got her." She already knew. "Ice Pop ain't turning full-ghost just yet."

He chuckled. Of course, she did. "Thanks, Ember."

"No problem, Danny."

She would have said he owed her one, but she stopped herself.

I'll just surprise him later.

Oblivious to his fate, he assured Dani, "I'll be back soon."

"I know." Like with Ember, she hugged Danny at the shoulders. "Kick his butt twice for me…" her near-silent whisper met the crook of his neck, "…Dad."

Dani wasn't used to saying it yet. She still bounced back and forth with how she addressed him, testing the waters more than she did with Sam. Still, she had known since her stabilization there was something more than a cousin bond; ever since she and Sam had the talk with Danny about Sam's new title, the more she said the D-word, the more it felt just about right.

In hindsight, it was probably Ember's fault.

She felt herself pushed away from Danny's neck…

…to meet his courageous grin.

"Vlad won't know what hit him."

"I could stay here too," Tucker offered, knowing who they were up against. "You know, as support for Danielle?"

"Get in, Tucker." Danny pushed him toward the vehicle, "Unless you want to hang with Team Phantom's newest member, of course?" He gave her a wink.

"Not your teammate, Dipstick," she said for what was probably the fourth time in two weeks. "Although," a devilish thought, "I'm pretty sure I could have some fun with your friend..."

Tucker, curious what she meant (and a sucker for a pretty face, dead or alive), turned around from facing the Speeder. The rocker ghost was gone. In her place—and right in front of him—stood a fire demon with dark red eyes, a blue blaze atop her head, and a forked tongue between rows of sharp teeth, hungering for his blood.

"WANT TO PLAY?"

He squealed in one breath, "NopeI'mgoodlet'sgo!" and jumped into the Speeder's driver seat.

"Nice." Danny set up a fist bump, which she returned without a glance.

"It's a gift." Ember shifted her face back to normal. "Besides, that geek's always been as yellow as his shirt." Her eyes rolling, she floated over to Sam, who was smiling from a distance. "I know it sounds weird coming from me, but for a girl heading for a fight, you look pretty happy."

"With them in my life," she looked at the Phantoms, "why wouldn't I be?"

"Yeah," Ember did the same. "You got yourself a good guy and a good kid who both love you to bits." She sounded… wistful. "You're pretty lucky."

"I am. I'm thankful every day." With the summer nearing its end and her parents coming back soon, she promised to cherish every day she had left of this peace.

"But ya know, that kind of luck could always run out."

Sam squinted in confusion. "What?" How would she know about-

"If you don't treat Danny right, there might be someone else out there, just waiting to take him off your hands," Ember leaned in, "kid and all."

"Oh," Sam realized what she meant. "Well, I'd just have to tell that person that if she wants to take Danny away from me…" she glared back, with a grin much like her daughter's, "she can go ahead and try."

"Hey, Sam!" Danny called out from the Speeder, looking out the open door. "Are you coming, or what?"

"I'm coming!" She presented her hand. "See you soon, Ember."

"You too, Sam." She extended hers and shook. "And Phantom!"

In response to his questioning gaze, she gave a sincere smile.

"Good luck."

He smiled in return.

With a roar of rockets, Team Phantom blasted off through the Fenton Portal, a journey through infinite realms begun once again.

Dani and Ember flew out of the basement and into the air of Amity Park's air, where Ember took a deep breath and stretched. "Alright, kid, it's you and me. What do you want to do first?"

"Well, first thing is, I gotta know how you changed like that!"

"Like I said, it's a gift," a boastful grin, "though practicing on a few humans now and then doesn't hurt. Kinda like with my music."

"Oh, yeah!" She recalled a thought she had from listening to Ember's album again last night. "Speaking of music, I know I don't have one, but..."

"Out with it."

"Could you teach me how to play guitar like you?"

Ember's core skipped a beat, and she stopped her flight.

"Ember?"

Snapping back to reality, she swooped in, grabbed Dani close and ruffled her hair.

"When I'm done with you, twerp, the world'll be calling your name."

"Awesome!" Dani's eyes could have brightened a city out of sheer joy. "Let's go pick one out right now!"

Releasing her, Ember watched her new protégé take off to the east.

Her niece was a bona-fide heroine now, and Sam, the all-black wet blanket, would probably try to keep Dani on the straight and narrow—but Ember would make sure she wasn't too good.

I bet even her goody-two-shoes dad would like that.

She called out to the girl in the distance, "Do you even know where you're going?"

She stopped. "Uh..."

"Come on." She flew over, grabbed her wrist and pulled her in the direction of Moon's Music Store, mumbling, "You're just like your father."

She beamed all the same. "I'll take that as a compliment!"

Ember blinked, then shook her head with a silent chuckle. She's got that same stupid smile you do, Danny.

...Danny.

Her thoughts still dwelled on him from time to time, but her feelings were at ease, now that she stopped fighting them. She knew what this was. She wasn't telling the world, but she knew.

Maybe she didn't have Danny Phantom as her own. But that anger wasn't there, not at him, not even at Sam, not anymore. She could tell that she had a place in his half-dead heart, and in this weird little group she could best describe as a family.

Besides, when it came to him, she could always play the long game. After all, as a ghost, she had all the time in the world to play it.

As for what she had, here and now?

As far as Ember was concerned, flying with Dani toward the horizon…

It's not all bad.

END

And that's that!

This was harder than I thought, but endings always are hard to make. As with most of my endings, I wanted to leave just enough here to chew on, and clever readers over the last couple of chapters can find those loose ends.

You can also see where the final chapter leads. That certain episode has left a bitter taste in some Phantom fans' mouths, and I too have my own feelings about it. As a matter of fact, I kinda wonder if I could make my own version of it as a sequel...

But that is a question (and a fanfic) for another day. I hope this story made you laugh, smile, or just made you feel. I'd say not feeling anything about anything means you're probably dead, but as this fanfic shows, even the dead can have hearts.

For now, I'd like to finally move forward on a Teen Titans story I've left on the back burner but slowly simmered for years, "The Titans of Tomorrow." I've never abandoned a story, and I don't intend to leave that one. Even so, you never know what sudden inspiration will create.

See you next fic.