Wow. This chapter was really hard. Especially writing the older Dash's character. Now that was hard! How do I manage to write once a week? I sneak a chance at the computer 4-6 times a day. xD Although it's never enough, only ten or fifteen minutes. D:

"Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not." ~Oscar Wilde

The sound of an elevator door slid open echoed the long and empty hallway.

As the entire group got out of the metal shaft, they looked at their surroundings. The place was one floor above where the lab was and it was basically a long hallway with doors on each narrow side of the wall. The older Valerie showed them the metal door as it slid open, revealing the guest room.

"Here's the room you'll be staying in," said the future Valerie.

It was a pretty big, pentagon shaped room, although the metal walls cold and grey. Five small, metal, twin beds were next to each wall. They were obvious high tech since they floated silently, to Tucker's delight.

"We have two guest rooms with five beds per room," the older Valerie continued. "Star, Sam, Valerie, and Paulina will sleep in this room and "

"We have to share a room?" Paulina interrupted. She didn't want to sleep in a room right next to the goth geek and loser during her stay in this horrible future.

Sam also expressed dislike for the sleeping arrangements, knowing that she was sleeping to a shallow prep and her best friend's ex-girlfriend who attempted to kill that said friend multiple times.

Valerie didn't even want to go near Paulina, mostly because she'll have to endure the long hours of watching ramble on of her creepy obsession for Phantom. She also disliked being near Manson, who hated her for being near Danny for obvious reasons.

Even Star wanted out on this plan. Knowing that she was a friend to both Paulina and Valerie, she'll probably get into some argument over Phantom or something stupid and she'll have to play peacemaker. Again. Also, she never liked the goth geek.

Seeing the girls' loathing expression, the future Valerie replied quickly. "Don't worry, it's only temporary at least we could find the nearest ghost portal."

The nearest ghost portal, as far as Valerie knew, was the Fenton portal. She had heard from Danny that his parents had built a ghost portal in their lab. A horrifying thought had just occurred to her.

In this future, the Fenton Works building was destroyed. What if the only remaining Ghost Portal was in that destroyed place? Would she along with everyone else be forever forced to live in this horrible place?

"Do you know where the nearest ghost portal is?" Valerie asked, hoping that there is one.

"Yeah, there is one working portal left that could bring you home," the older Valerie said, a bitter smile on her face, recalling the memories of the day the crazy man told her the truth a year after hearing about Phantom's imprisonment from Clockwork. "Vlad's place."

"Vlad…?" Then it hit her. She must be referring to Vlad Masters, her employer! "Do you mean Vlad Masters?"

Mr. Lancer perked up at the familiar name. "Are you referring to The Vlad Masters, multi-billionaire and owner of the Dalv Corporation?" he asked, hiding the astonishment in his voice.

"The very same," the older Valerie said soberly. Valerie looked at her older self oddly. By that tone of voice, her older self sounded almost…bitter.

"What's wrong with Mr. Masters?" she asked.

The older Valerie gave her a solemn look. "Let's just say he wasn't what I thought he was," she said simply.

What does that mean? Valerie thought ingenuously.

Paulina looked at Valerie curiously. She acted like she knew the man personally.

It may have to do with Valerie's ghost hunting status, Paulina deducted quickly. After all, Vlad Masters is a multi –billionaire. He probably knew about the whole ghost-hunting business. But why would a powerful man like Masters want to associate with a fourteen-year-old girl in poverty? She brooded, thinking over how it could be possible. The Hispanic felt like she was missing one important piece of the puzzle, but what?

The popular cheerleader considered ghosts a possibility for why the man would want to associate with her. Masters must want Valerie because of her ghost-hunting abilities, and the ghost she knew the Red Huntress hated the most was Inviso-Bill.

The immediate thought of the dreamy Ghost–Boy made her giddy inside. Imagining his beautiful snow-white hair, along with his innocent glowing translucent eyes made her heart flutter like a flock of doves. She envisioned her wedding, wrapped in glittering white and pink lace, her ghostly groom smiling beautifully at the Hispanic's lovely wedding grown as they both sealed their true love with a kiss. She placed her hands at her chest, clutching them tightly as she drifted off in her own daydream about the Ghost Boy.

Meanwhile the future Valerie, Dash, Star, Kwan, Mr. Lancer, and Valerie stared at Paulina in puzzlement as to what she could be possibly be thinking about, seeing the girl's sweet, lovesick puppy dog expression on her face. They then decided to themselves it was better if they didn't know.

Sam and Tucker weren't paying attention, too caught up in their own thoughts about the plan thinking the same thing. Even though Danny has managed to save their lives and his sanity thanks to the Ghost Gauntlets from Vlad, he was also the very same person who gave birth to Danny's evil future self in the first place. They recalled the times Vlad had done to them, giving them ecto-acne and putting them in dangerous situations just so he can achieve his own goals.

Could they trust Vlad, after all he has done to them?

I should probably ask Danny, Sam thought briskly. He would know.

Now that she thought about it, where is he? The older Valerie said Danny was in the lab they had just walked past a few minutes ago. She remembered that the place had a bunch of scientists who were whispering about them.

Sam paled.

What are they doing to him?

There was quite a difference between the Dash that was standing right in front of him and Dash the football player and bully. For one thing, the football player Dash often used him to pent out his frustrations and failures, one that Danny didn't really care about because he had bigger things to deal with such as capturing ghosts and trying to avoid his parents ghost hunting inventions. Really, Dash the football player was more of a pest than anything else. At least he didn't want to, y 'know, rip him apart molecule by molecule or rule the world like his parents or a certain fruitloop he knew.

Now the Dash right here did not want to rule the world or rip him apart molecule by molecule for further dissection. In fact, he looked like he wanted to murder him on the spot, or make him die a very slow and painful death. Sort of like how Valerie would do to him every time she saw his ghostly alter ego.

Which was actually quite worse, now that Danny thought about it.

"Fenton, it's been ten years," he said, his voice softening although he was still glaring at the ghost-hybrid. Danny thought, Okay, so maybe he's not going to waste me. But seriously, he needs stop looking at me like that. Danny looked at the metal tiled floor; not daring to look at the Haz-Mat suit his older classmate was wearing, nor did he want to look at his badly bruised face. It reminded him too much of what his dad wore, and he did not want to see a similarity to Dash and his dad. At all.

He didn't know what else to say to an older, meaner Dash Baxter. So he simply stood there and said nothing.

"Who are you?"

This time Danny looked up at the man's scarred face, his light blue eyes no longer glaring and angry, just somber.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, looking pale. He quickly tried to hide it, which wasn't hard since he was looking at the floor. Is it possible that he knows my secret?

The general looked at him with a penetrating gaze, and Danny was once again mesmerized by the man's cold glare, his eyes reflecting the demeaning horrors he had to endure, the amount of grief and torture he had live through for the rest of his life. It was unspoken, but no words were needed. The disturbing gaze was enough to reveal all.

Dash's next words gave Danny a chill of uneasiness.

"You should have been dead."

Dash didn't sound angry or upset as he said those words. It was as if he was stating a fact. And it truth, he sort of was. For some reason, it bothered the young ghost hybrid.

Relax Fenton, it's not like he's going to hurt me or anything. Right? Danny thought nervously... And besides, if Dash decides to wail on me, I can just escape using my ghost powers. Danny reasoned with himself.

But once again he remembered how Dash looked at him, how his eyes burned with rage and hatred. Danny, who was lost in his train of thought, was suddenly punched in the face by Dash with deadly accuracy and no hesitation.

He didn't remember how it happened, but the sudden force landed him to crash into the metal walls, the impact stinging his entire spine and skull. The pain on his forehead stung, a dizziness washing over him.

"Wha " Danny choked, getting back up with his hands clutching his waist. "I don't understand."

"You should have been dead," Dash repeated slowly. A silence followed the two, one man and one half-ghost. For a split-second nothing happened, like the absolute stillness of the cold autumn day. It was at that moment Danny understood.

He understood what he had to do.

There was a flash of light surrounding the young teen's waist, the ring of white light splitting into two. It traveled across his chest and legs, to his shoulders and knees, and finally all the way past his head and feet.

It was a magnificent sight to a new observer to see such process happening. It was hard to believe the Danny was half-ghost, but even more unbelievable to see him change before someone's very own eyes. Those who have seen him believe he was shy, clumsy, and at often times petty and immature. But when you look past his outer armor, his weak facade, you see a boy who is more than that.

He wasn't just a normal teenage boy with ghost-hunting parents. He had a name. He had a face. He had the courage and will to stand up for himself. He was a leader, a friend, a brother, a son, but most importantly, he was Danny Fenton.

So when his eyes glowed a supernatural neon green, when his black hair turn into a snow-white color, when you see his normal jeans and shirt turn into a black and white Haz-Mat suit, you saw something different. You saw a change, both within and on the exterior.

It was a change that was abrupt and without warning. He was now an enemy, a friend, and a hero to the town of Amity Park. He was brave, kind, heroic, and courageous. To the common townsfolk, it would be ridiculous to think that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were one of the same. It wasn't because one was ghost and one was human, it was because they were the masks of two different people that only very few could compare as one.

Danny went into his defensive stance and locked eyes with Dash, for once seeing something in the man's eyes Danny couldn't deny.

It was fear.

The emotion only lasted a split second before Dash grabbed the ectogun from his belt and started shooting away.

Green blasts of death spewed from the small gun, as one managed to hit Danny's shoulder.

A sharp pain shuddered from his injury. Danny tried to ignore the throbbing wound as he called back the empty feeling in his body and turned invisible. He looked like he was fading that instant, and then he was nowhere to be seen. He floated up, higher and higher, until he was almost close enough to reach to the metal ceiling. Almost.

But that didn't stop the general from throwing an ecto grenade at the spot he had just disappeared. And then…

KA-BOOM!

A rumbling sound of an explosion blasted from inside the narrow room. It was unfortunate that the place was too small, for the blast was like a gigantic nuclear explosion.

The entire blast sent Dash flying backwards and Danny, being invisible but not intangible, felt the hot, burning pain which rendered him visible and ended him crashing down into the metal ground. Pink smoke surrounded the two people, both gravely injured and coughing.

When the fog cleared, Danny was sprawled across the bent and sizzling hot floor, green ectoplasm and red blood splattered across his chest. Dash coughed, bruises across his face, but nevertheless alive. The same thing couldn't be said to the half-ghost bruised before him.

"DANNY!"

The doors slid open as Sam and Tucker rushed inside the already end of the battle, their faces filled in a mixture of guilt and anger. Guilt for leaving Danny here. And anger to Dash for doing this to their best friend.

They ran up to their injured friend, Sam clutching his limp body in her arms. Tucker studied Danny's face, a large gash on his forehead and his eyes closed and motionless. Like he's sleeping. The older Valerie stood near the doorway, looking from Dash to Danny, her mouth agape in shock.

"Danny! Danny! Wake up!" Sam said desperately, shaking Danny's lifeless body. His snow white hair fell messily to his pale face, no sigh of the slightest breath, his glowing neon eyes closed and dull. It all happened so fast, so quickly. She put her hand over his chest, hastily looking for anything, anything that showed that Danny was still here.

No heartbeat.

Terrified, she clung onto Danny's body, grasping his limp body him as if she was all she had left to prove that the boy was still alive. Red blood mixed with glowing green ectoplasm caked Sam's black clothes, as Tucker stood over his two friends defensively, eyes glaring at the general.

"Leave him alone!" He shouted angrily. "What has he ever done to you?" For a second, the older Valerie feared that Dash was going to answer, that he was going to tell them the truth. Instead, the general swiftly turned away, refusing to say anything. Sam laid over Danny, arms holding him and sobbing hysterically. Valerie had never seen her cry like this. It nearly broke her apart, seeing her like this.

"I'll take him to the medics." The older Valerie spoke. Danny isn't dead. He couldn't be dead. Dash isn't stupid. Dash isn't dumb.

But that only made the goth girl clung to him harder, her sobs became louder and louder, gasping for air, as she spiraled deeper and deeper into her own despair. Tucker had to pull Sam of her clutches out so the woman could carry Danny behind her back, pass the metal sliding doors.

Too upset and concerned for their best friend, Sam and Tucker followed the older woman, as Dash simply stood their, not a tear shed.

Please tell me what you think of the small fight scene between Dash and Danny. I need critique, since I suck at fight scenes. I also did some editing of Chapter three. You don't have to read it, but I'd like it if you tell me what you thought about it. *hides*

Is Danny dead? Well, that depends on how many reviews I get. God, I'm such an evil author. lol.