Twenty years is a long time. So much can happen, so much can change. Yet you remain the same? How is that so?

I never stopped thinking about you, you know. As each year, each month, each day passed. As every hour, every minute, every second ticked by... you were the one thing on my mind. The one thing that I could hold onto using the last bit of my sanity. And even though now, that we are once again together...

Why do you still reject me?

Why do you continue to hate me?

Everything that I did... it was all for you.

So that we could finally be together, as we always should have been.

Just give up little Phantom.

Give up, and surrender yourself to my madness. 

************************************************

Third Person POV

Danny felt his blood run cold as those familiar words were whispered into his ear. His core pounded with fear as the figure drew back his head to stare Danny in the eyes.

Vlad was hardly the same man Danny remembered. His blood red eyes now had small streaks of green in them, his pale blue skin was now a deeper shade of blue, and his fangs seemed to be even longer, whiter and animalistic. His black hair was no longer pointed upwards like horns, but instead fell down past his shoulders in a tangled, oily, matted mess. The black cloak he wore was burned and torn. Beneath it, the tattered remains of a purple uniform could be seen. One last detail about this 'new' Vlad was the broken green shackle on Vlad's left wrist.

Danny stared up in fear at the man he had all but completely forgotten about. "H-How?" Danny managed to squeak out. "How are you still here?"

Vlad looked at Danny in surprise, as if he hadn't been expecting the boy to speak. The surprised look quickly faded as Vlad bared his fangs and chuckled. "You really haven't changed." He whispered. "You're still a child. It doesn't make sense, but I suppose when it comes to matters regarding us, nothing ever makes sense."

The Titans continued to stare at their captured teammate, all trying to think of a way to rescue him. Robin stared daggers at the man holding the white haired teen, desperately trying to think of a plan that would save Danny without causing the halfa any harm.

"Keep an eye on Danny." Bruce's voice echoed in Robin's head. His memory immediately flashed back to his conversation with the Dark Knight a few days ago.

"Why?" Robin remembered replying. He wasn't in the best mood that day to deal with Bruce's scolding but that day his old mentor had been oddly calm. As if something was really troubling him.

The acrobatic hero remembered the uncertain look on Batman's face as the vigilante answered, "Back in Amity Park, after we left Danny's house for the first time, I felt like someone was watching us. Or, to be more accurate, watching Danny. That feeling has yet to go away."

Robin sighed and closed his eyes as he muttered sarcastically, "And we all know your instincts are never wrong."

"That is correct." Batman replied, no hint of humour in his voice.

Back in the present, Robin grumbled to himself. He should have taken Batman's advice more seriously, especially since it was Danny they were talking about. But the two of them had just been getting more and more hostile towards each other Robin despised the idea of doing anything his old mentor asked - or more like told - him to do.

The raven haired hero saw how violently his brother was shaking and wanted so badly to fly out of Starfire's arms to beat the now un-hooded figure to the ground. Sadly, he was still only human and leaping out of Star's arms would only lead to him getting up close and personal with the pavement below.

Vlad noticed the heroes all around him, their glaring eyes mixed with hate and concern. He looked back to the small teen in his arms, still paralyzed with fear and confusion. It made his heart pound with excitement as he saw his prey so weak and defenseless in his arms. He could end it... once and for all. Vlad removed his hands from the boy's shoulders and he felt the other heroes tense around him, preparing to attack once Danny was out of danger. Vlad chuckled softly; he wasn't going to allow them that chance. Quickly, the elder halfa wrapped his hands around the younger halfa's throat and began to squeeze.

Danny's eyes widened and he began clawing at the hands around his neck that were currently crushing his windpipe. He stared into Vlad's eyes, silently pleading him to stop. From the corner of his eye, Danny noticed pink tendrils of electricity dance across Vlad's fingers. His eyes widened as he knew what was coming next. Danny let out a painful choked scream as Vlad sent thousands of volts of electricity coursing through his small body.

The Titans had finally had enough. They were going to have to put Danny at risk in order to save him. Robin opened his mouth and shouted, "Titans, go!" 

Before he had even finished giving the order, the other Titans immediately leaped into battle. Beast Boy and Cyborg were released from Raven's hold as she grabbed a large piece of broken concrete with her telekinesis and hurled it at the two halfas. At the same time, Beast Boy morphed back into a Pteranodon and Cyborg landed on his back. He trained his sonic cannon on the formerly hooded figure and fired. 

Vlad saw both attacks and released the boy, zipping to safety with the attacks barely missing him and Danny. A swarm of the blob ghosts immediately surrounded him in a defensive formation.

Danny took in gulps of air once his throat had been released as his body twitched from the electricity that had been flowing through his veins moments ago. Robin and Starfire quickly flew to his side while Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg took up defensive positions around them.

"Danny, are you alright?" Starfire asked, her eyes glowing with concern.

Danny coughed once more and nodded. His core still pounded with fear and his vision was fuzzy. The young halfa looked over at the man he had once called his mentor and felt a dozen more chills run down his spine. "How?" He whispered, his voice shaking.

Robin looked from Danny, to the mystery man and back to Danny. "Do you know him?" The colorful hero asked. Robin knew it was a stupid question, of course Danny knew who the man was. But they didn't. The Titans had to know who they were dealing with before they could create a plan of action.

"Not again." Danny whispered, "I... I can't do it again." The frightened teen looked at his brother, though his eyes were foggy and unfocused. "Don't make me hurt him again. I can't..." The white-haired teen began to shiver and hugged himself as tears welled in his eyes. "I can't hurt you again... Your promise... I can't..." Starfire and Robin watched as their teammate seemed to be at war with himself, and they couldn't do anything to help.

From within his shield of blob ghosts, Vlad floated silently. He stared at the boy, feeling the adrenaline pump through his veins. It was just like back when he was called Champion. The energy in the arena, the screaming spectators, the strong prey, it was all coming back to him. He felt the energy building inside him and prepared for battle.

Cyborg kept his eyes glued on the mysterious man that Danny knew for some reason and noticed the blob ghosts surrounding him becoming restless. "Uh, guys?" He called, "I know you're trying to work with Phantom right now, but I think we should start moving!"

The other Titans, excluding Danny, looked over to see the blob ghosts start circling their master. Then, to their surprise, the man began absorbing them! Robin's eyes widened and he shouted the order to fall back. The Titans retreated away from the mysterious man, with Raven grabbing Danny and pulling him along. 

Vlad chuckled as he watched them flee. Fine, he would take this opportunity to fully prepare himself for battle. He would allow his prey the false hope of survival and when he was done with them, he would take back his prize.

Amazing Line Break here! Nice to see you guys again after such a long time! Here, have a cookie for being such an awesome reader!

After fleeing from their attacker, the Titans had decided to take refuge in their tower. It was a good base for defense and far away from the city so no civilians would be harmed if the hooded man decided to attack. And the Titans expected him to attack, since they now knew what he was after. 

Speaking of which, their newest teammate was still in a state of shock. He was currently sitting on the couch in the main room of the tower, rocking back and forth slowly. "Not again. Not again." Danny whispered over and over. Starfire and Beast Boy sat beside him doing her best to comfort him but no matter what they tried Danny was unresponsive.

Cyborg, Raven and Robin all stood in the kitchen, silently watching the three teens on the couch. Cyborg sighed and placed a hand to his forehead. "I don't get it. How could seeing that guy send Phantom into such a crazy state?"

"There is still a lot we don't know about him." Robin offered, frowning as he realized the deeper truth behind those words. Robin hadn't asked Danny a single question about all his time of being his own hero. He knew nothing of his brother's time when they were apart. Robin shook his head, there was a time and place to think about this stuff and that wasn't now. Now, they needed to calm Danny down so he could tell them who they were dealing with.

Raven coughed and the two male heroes near here turned their attention on her. "I could try something." She muttered. Robin and Cyborg looked at her expectantly. She sighed. "Remember back when Robin was under the influence of those chemicals Slade had on his mask?"

Robin's eyes widened as he realized what Raven was talking about. "Are you saying Slade had something to do with this?!"

Raven frowned and sent Robin a glare, warning him to go no further with the topic. "No. I'm talking about when I used my powers to telepathically find you when you escaped from the infirmary." Raven looked over at Danny who was still shaking on the couch. "I could try using a similar spell to enter Danny's mind and try and snap him out of whatever he is going through."

Robin and Cyborg shared a look. What Raven suggested sounded a little risky and with what Danny was going through, they didn't even know if it was safe for Raven to do this. But, at the moment they had no better option. Champion was going to be at their doorstep sooner or later and they had to know what they were dealing with. 

Robin and Cyborg agreed to Raven's plan and they started walking over to Danny. Robin quickly informed Beast Boy and Starfire of the plan and they also reluctantly agreed. 

Starfire and Beast Boy removed themselves from Danny's side as Raven stood in front of Danny and began chanting her incantation. She gently placed a hand on the shivering halfa's forehead and whispered, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos". The other Titans watched as Raven's eyes shone white and a giant raven made of shadows exited her body and entered Danny. The white-haired teen immediately stopped shivering and his soft muttering faded into silence.

Robin, Starfire, Cyborg and Beast Boy all watched silently. Beast Boy quickly grew impatient thought. The green skinned teen sighed and walked up to Raven. "Is she gonna spend all day in there?" He asked loudly, "We're kinda on a time limit here! That guy could show up any minute!"

"Beast Boy, just be patient. Raven needs to focus!" Robin scolded.

Beast Boy huffed and crossed his arms, staring at Raven and Danny. All of a sudden, Beast Boy was thrown backwards as Raven and Danny let out two very loud and powerful screams.

The four Titans clapped their hands over their ears as the screams grew louder and louder. Just when it seemed the screaming would never end, Danny's eyes closed and he slumped to the side, silent. Raven's hand fell from his forehead and she dropped to the ground, motionless.

Quickly recovering, the three Titans took to attending to their teammates. Robin and Cyborg dashed to Danny's side while Starfire and Beast Boy rushed to Raven. They were all relieved to see that their teammates were still breathing. Starfire moved Danny into a more comfortable position and Beast Boy and Cyborg were about to do the same with Raven, when the dark haired girl suddenly bolted upright with a scream. Cyborg and Beast Boy scrambled onto their feet in surprise and tried to approach Raven, only for her to immediately fall silent. Raven looked around the room, seemingly confused.

"Raven?" Robin questioned, slowly approaching his friend. He didn't know the extent of the effects of Raven's spell so he had to be cautious. Everyone knew how powerful Raven was and it wouldn't be a good idea to be accidentally fired upon by her.

Raven blinked a few times and that seemed to help her regain her composure. She slowly stood up with some help from Starfire and brushed herself off. Starfire helped her sit on the couch while the other Titans gathered around her.

They waited patiently for Raven to say something. The pale girl saw their looks and sighed, rubbing her temples. "You guys better sit down." She said, "This is going to be hard to explain."

Flashback

Raven opened her eyes and surveyed her surroundings. She was currently in a metal walled room with nothing in it. On the far side of the room was an octagonal shaped doorway, sealed with secure looking doors. Raven took a step towards it, curious about what could possibly so important about it that it was in Danny's strongest memories.

"If only I hadn't gone down there that day."

Raven froze. She whipped around, looking for the source of the voice, but no one was in the room except her.

"Would everything be different?"

A staircase shimmered into existence on the right side of the room. Raven watched as a small boy with midnight black hair and bright blue eyes wearing casual shirt and jeans descended the stairs. He slowly walked over to the portal and stood in front of the metal doors.

"Could I have lived a normal life?"

The boy placed his hands on the door and leaned against it slightly. The doors began to give as if the boy weighed thousands of pounds. Raven's eyes widened and she took a step towards the boy, only to walk right into an invisible barrier. Raven backed away in surprise and cautiously reached out a hand to touch the barrier. It rippled at her touch, like a stone skipping across a pond, and showed no sign of giving way.

"I would have been happy... Right?"

Raven watched as the door the boy was leaning against fell to pieces. The boy was now staring into an endless swirling mass of green. Raven began pounding on the barrier, shouting at the boy to stop, but no words came out of her mouth. The temperature in the room began to drop steadily and frost began to line the metal walls, spreading the snowflake designs across the floor and ceiling. The frost pooled around the boy's feet, but it dared not touch him. Anytime the frost got to close, it would melt away. Raven shivered as the frost swirled around her, but she wasn't going to give up.

The teenage girl took a step back from the barrier and began unleashing her magic on it. Every spell she could think of that would be of use, even some that she thought would be useless. The barrier remained intact.

"I can't keep your promise. I'm sorry."

"No!" Raven finally screamed as she watched the boy step into the portal. The portal exploded in a flash of white light and Raven was thrown backwards, crashing into the solid metal walls and coming out the other side. She lay there for a while, unconscious and unaware of the change in scenery.

When Raven finally came to, she felt a water droplet land on her cheek. She looked up and saw dozens of stalactites above her. She sat up with a start, ignoring the faint ringing in her ears, and took in her new surroundings. She was currently in a cave, and it looked like it had been lived in for many years, but not by any animals.

"No Vlad!"

Raven heard a familiar voice shout from behind her. She whipped around and saw Danny Phantom floating eye level with a grungy old man. Danny looked panicked and concerned as he begged the man to rethink whatever he had just offered to the teen. "There has to be another way! I can try to help change you! I can try-"

The old man dropped his cane and grabbed Danny by the shoulders. "You can't change me Daniel!" He shouted. Raven's eyes widened as she immediately recognized the voice, despite it sounding much more withered and lacked the air of confidence she had heard in it when she had first seen the man.

Danny Phantom was speaking with Vlad Masters.

Raven continued to listen to their conversation. Apparently the Danny she saw talking to Vlad Masters was from the past and was trying to convince Vlad to help him defeat his evil future self. Danny's evil self was a result of Vlad's selfishness and he felt extreme guilt towards what he had done to Danny so he agreed to help rectify his mistake. 

The two exchanged meaningful words that Raven felt a little guilty about listening in but in this situation it couldn't really be helped. She watched as Vlad made Danny promise to hate him when he returned to the past, in order to prevent this dark future from ever having even the smallest chance of occurring.

The next few moment passed by in a blur. Danny fighting with his future self, saving the people his future self had captured. And then, possibly the biggest reveal of all. Raven saw Danny Phantom transform into a teenage human by the name of Danny Fenton.

While Raven thought over the reveal about Danny Phantom being half human, his situation with Vlad made a lot more sense. She watched their fight in Vlad's mansion, all while being subjected to Danny's inner thoughts. Regret, pain, sadness, anger, all of it was being thrown at her and she was finding it difficult to keep her powers controlled. She had to wrap this up, and quickly.

As Raven started muttering a spell to expel herself from Danny's mind, a flash of white light blinded her. Raven furiously rubbed her eyes and started to chant the spell again, when she noticed Danny sitting a few feet away from her.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, looking up at her with foggy green eyes.

Raven offered her most sincere smile to him. "To help." She replied.

Danny snickered and stood up, brushing himself off. "Help? You think you can help?" He laughed, turning away from her. "No one can help. He's unbeatable. No matter how many times I think that I can escape him, he comes back." The young halfa wrapped his arms around his small frame, fighting back tears. "I can't keep the promise. I know even more now of what a monster he is, but I can't bring myself to fully hate him."

The halfa started to shake and Raven took a cautious step towards him. Danny whipped around, his eyes clear and focused now, brimming with tears. "Why can't I hate him!?" He screamed. The teen gripped his white hair and fell to his knees, tears dripping down his cheeks. "After everything he's done to me, my friends, my family, why can't I bring myself to hate him!?"

Raven walked to his side and knelt down in front of him. She gently placed a hand on the teen's shoulder, awkwardly doing her best to console him. Deep down, she secretly wished one of the other Titans was with her. They would know how to comfort Danny better than she could.

Danny leaned into the touch and threw his arms around the girl, catching her off guard. Raven froze, but after sensing the confusion and turmoil Danny was in she lost her stiffness and wrapped her arms around Danny, letting the boy sob into her shoulder. "You can't bring yourself to hate him because you still care about him." She whispered. "You saw the good in him once and you believe that it's still there. You're holding onto the illusion that the man that once helped you is the true version of him."

Danny's sobs slowly became more controlled as he listened to Raven talking to him.

"The Vlad you knew is gone, or more like he was never there." Raven continued. "He put on a mask to make you trust him, believe in him. And in the end, he used you for his own personal gain." She stroked the teen's hair as he fell silent. Raven gave him a comforting squeeze. She knew this must be painful for him but in order to snap him out of whatever trance he was in he had to know the truth about the man he had once looked up to.

"When you met him in the future, that was the Vlad who had fully realized what he had done was wrong. He knew that he was never going to change and to protect you he told you to hate him." Raven pulled away from Danny and looked him dead in the eyes. "You don't have to hate him. You don't have to stop caring about him. But you need to know that your family, you friends," Raven placed a hand on her chest, "we are all here for you to support you."

Danny sniffed, wiping away his tears. "But, the promise. If I hadn't-" He began. 

"Nothing is your fault Danny!" Raven interrupted. "You are not to blame for any of this!" Raven pulled Danny back into their hug. "None of it is your fault." Raven felt Danny's nodding head as he hugged her back. "You have no need to feel any guilt about what you did. You made the right choice and you shouldn't feel regret about it. All you can do now is move forward."

"Oh, how cute."

Raven and Danny whipped around and Danny immediately froze in fear. For Vlad Plasmius was standing just a few steps away. He crossed his arms and smirked at the two teens. His clothes were shabby and he was covered in cuts a bruises. Parts of his hair was singed and one of his gloves was missing. "Nice to see you, Little Badger." 

Raven moved in front of Danny and readied to cast a spell. "He's not real Danny!" She shouted, "Don't be afraid."

Vlad tilted his head and poked himself in the stomach. "I seem pretty real to me." He said with a smile.

Raven gritted her teeth and was ready to fire a retort when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Danny stepped in front of Raven, his face dead serious. Danny turned to her, gave her a quick smile and wink, then resumed his serious expression and faced Vlad.

Vlad chuckled, "So, the cowardly young halfa is finally going to own up to his mistakes and take responsibility for his actions?" He took slow strides towards Danny. "Look at me boy. Look at what your decision has caused." Vlad kept walking until he was about three steps away from the younger halfa. "You have brought nothing but pain and suffering to those you care about."

Raven looked worriedly up at Danny and was surprised to see her friend smiling. Danny laughed, much to Vlad's own surprise. When the teen finally stopped laughing, he raised an eyebrow at Vlad and took a step toward the older halfa. "You know Vlad, I'm really tired of all this." He started. "I'm tired of blaming myself for not doing anything. I'm tired of thinking about any way I could have made our relationship end better. I'm tired of feeling guilty for not being honest with you." Each time Danny spoke, he took a step closer to Vlad. In return, Vlad took a giant step away from Danny.

Danny's hands began to glow with green energy as his eyes glowed mischievously. "And you know what I'm tired of most of all, Vlad?" Danny stomped on the ground, causing ice shards to pop out of the ground in a path to Vlad. The elder halfa caught his cape on one of the spikes and fell to the ground. He started scrambling backwards away from Danny, the confidence gone from his eyes, now replaced by fear. "I'm tired of feeling sorry for you." Danny finished, unleashing a giant fire ball of green energy at Vlad.

The ball made direct contact with Vlad, causing him to let out an ear piercing scream. In seconds, the ball of energy faded away and all that was left was a smoking crater. Danny fell to his knees and started shaking violently. Raven rushed to his side to comfort him but Danny threw up a shield around himself.

"Don't come any closer!" He warned.

"Danny, you don't have to be alone! We're here for you!" Raven shouted, banging her fists on the shield.

Either Danny didn't hear her or he was choosing to ignore her, either way he gave no answer. "I did it." He whispered. "He's gone." Tears trickled down his cheeks as his body shook with sobs. "Why don't I feel any better?!"

Raven watched in horror as a mass of shadows swirled around Danny before taking the form of Vlad once more. "You'll never escape me Little Badger."

Danny looked up at the man, blinding rage in his eyes. He then dropped the shield and unleashed his Ghostly Wail. Vlad vanished in an instant, but Danny didn't let up his barrage. Raven ran to his side and wrapped her arms around his waist. She began uttering the spell to break their link. Clapping a hand on Danny's forehead, Raven finished her spell and felt their mental link break.

End Flashback

The Titans sat in silence as Raven finished her story. She had decided to leave out the part about Danny's secret identity, but other than that the Titans now knew everything. Robin pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. "At least we know who we are dealing with now."

"No we don't." Came a voice from the other side of the room. The Titans turned to see Danny sitting upright, rubbing his throat.

"Danny!" They all shouted, rushing to his side. Cyborg looked him over for any injuries while Robin stared at him confused. 

"What did you mean by that?" The leader of the Titans asked.

Danny rubbed his forehead. "I don't know how to explain, but something about Vlad is different. Very different." The halfa sighed. "He kept talking about being gone for twenty years, not to mention when we interacted, my ghost core was going crazy."

"Wasn't that just your 'ghost sense' or whatever going off?" Cyborg questioned.

Danny shook his head. "Since Vlad and I both halfas, my ghost sense doesn't go off around him. When I was near him, it was going off like crazy and I couldn't stop it." The teen scratched his head as he stood up. "I don't know exactly what's wrong with him or how to beat him." Danny walked over to the large window of the tower and stared out at the ocean.

"But I do know one thing." He placed his hand on the window. "I'm going to finally rid myself of him."

Danny felt a hand clap his shoulder and looked up into the kind eyes of Cyborg. "And we'll be right beside ya, Phantom." The other Titans gathered around their friend, all offering their smiles of encouragement.

"Alright then." Danny said with an excited smile. "Then let's get ready to bring down a ghost!"

A/N: *peeks out from under bed* Oh, uh, hey guys... I'm so sorry that this update took so long. I kept getting busy and distracted, went through writers blocks off and on and had a few personal issues going on. I wanted to get this chapter out as soon as I could and that lead to me writing quickly and not thinking through a lot of what was going on in the chapter. When I went through to edit I noticed that it lacked a lot of what I wanted to put in, it was missing crucial details and had a lot of errors. Now me being me, couldn't live with that and since you guys have been waiting for this update for so long, me giving you an update that looked like something I had written in 10 minutes was not fair.

So, I went through and wrote it properly, even though I knew it would take even longer to get out. Again I am so sorry for the wait, I hope you all can forgive me. See you all in the next one!

(Also I wanted to say a quick thank you for helping me reach 700 followers! You guys are great and I can't thank you enough for staying with me and supporting my books!)