The Good And The Bad {Danny Phantom Short Stories}

You Weren't There

Spoilers for Accepting Was Harder Than Admitting

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" You weren't at the funeral." He stated as he took a deep drag of his cigarette before tossing it onto the ground, crushing it beneath his foot. He turned his head to look at the her, his eyes full of the judgement she fully expected.

"I... I couldn't go." She tried to explain although knowing every excuse was as bad as the one before. She couldn't come up with a good reason. She just didn't want to see him lying there dead. Actually dead. She didn't want to see her father cry over him nor her friends. She didn't want to even acknowledge he was gone.

He just scoffed, the smoke puffing out his nose as if he was a dragon. She watched the toxic smoke float up in the night air, forming shapes before disappearing.

" No one wanted to go, Danielle. We still went."

She closed her eyes, her hands balling into fists at her side. Now wasn't the time for this, she tried to reason. She didn't come to fight.

"I still couldn't..."

"mhmm."

He turned from her, his shoes clipping across the stone leading into his house. "Come in, my dear. You'll catch your death out here."

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Neither spoke as they sat on completely opposite sides of the table. He seemed distracted with the newspaper but she knew his eyes were reading nothing. He did that when he was thinking of something but didn't want to be seen staring into space. Danni in turn played with her food, moving the peas around the plate before pushing the almost untouched food away. Just looking at the food turned her stomach.

Vlad didn't seem to notice or just didn't care. He wouldn't look at Danni and she knew why. Hell she hated looking at herself and seeing him. Getting ready for anything was hell while she tried to avoid mirrors.

"I'll take you to the Far Frozen today." Vlad finally spoke, his eyes never leaving his paper to see if she acknowledged or even agreed to what he said. She smiled sadly, knowing why he wanted to take her. They were reassuring each other that she wasn't him. He was buried away in the ghost zone. She was flying through the sky he should be.

She should have died that night.

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She honestly didn't expect to find a group of ghosts who worshipped her cousin.

She expect to find the far frozen to be similar to a graveyard or something but it was more lively then she felt it had any right to be. They worshipped Phantom but they seemed oblivious of the loss Danny caused in everyone.

Frostbite seemed friendly enough, he smiled at her showing her Danny's favorite parts of his realm. He didn't look at her and see her cousin, he looked and saw Danni Masters. That's all she wanted from anyone. Even Danny's friends couldn't do that.

" He's over here."

Danni followed the ice ghost underneath a natural bridge, Vlad trailed behind them seeming to ignore the very place they were. She could feel both of them growing more uncomfortable after every step they took. Before long the yeti stopped before a door carved into the ice. She watched him give it a look she knew too well before turning to look at them.

"The Savior... He resides in there.I... I will leave you two for this." The ghost gave the door a pained look before leaving the halfas to their intended goal. As Danni heard the crunching footsteps of Frostbite disappear she looked to her father, waiting for him to say anything. Ever since the far frozen came within their sight he clammed up, not even a snarky comment at the yeti's breath breaking through. Instead of answering her questioning look he moved forward, pushing the large ice doors open to led her into a cavernous natural ice cave.

Danni kept her head down, following the sound of Vlad rather than the sight of him. She ignored the carvings in the walls, knowing from stories from her cousin that they all depicted his feats in saving the ghost zone. She remembered fondly the afternoon she spent sitting on his bed as he excitedly explained everything in this realm. She had smiled and joked that they just gave him a fat head, something he did not need help with. He had playfully hit her arm, exclaiming that he'd take her there soon. He said they would love her and maybe they would be able to help her with her powers.

That was a week before... the incident with his parents.

He never took her.She never got to see how much they loved him while he was alive. Death always made people think the best of a person, regardless of how much of a stubborn idiot they were in life. She hoped that at least while he was alive the ghosts of the Far Frozen had sense enough to knock sense into Danny.

She heard Vlad stop in front of her. Cautiously she raised her head, looking at the entrance to yet another cave within this one. Vlad looked down at her before nodding to the door. With a sigh and a feeling of lead weighing down her every step , Danni moved through the small entrance.

Looking through the smaller part of the cave she saw a giant sculpture of her DNA twin, her original. It took her by surprise how close they got it to his actual likeness, right down to his look of determination as he changed from Human to Ghost. They even had his glowing white rings around his middle.

"I miss him."

Danni jumped, spinning around to look at Vlad. The raw emotion in his voice scared her. He ignored her shocked looks and took a closer step to the statue, almost reaching out to touch the icy visage.

"Even when we fought I tried to look out for him... I never used my full power against him. I couldn't, he was only a child for pete's sake!" The millionaire's shoulders slumped, his hand dropping to his side. " I couldn't protect him from them, when he needed me to."

Danni wasn't sure how it happened but she somehow moved herself close enough to him to wrap her arms around his waist, almost demanding a hug back. Vlad stood stock still for almost a minute before conceding. Gently he leaned down, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

Maybe he could save his clone...

 No, He'll save Danni Masters.