Danny had his head in his arms, his knees drawn up and arms wrapped around them.

He was back.

Back with the Guys In White.

He shivered in his cell, a new cell that was clean of his blood, for now at least. He didnt remember how he got there, he just remembered the forever evil robots sucking all the air from the room. He remembered watching his friends fall and his vision going dark as he too fell unconscious.

He awoke here, his blinking collar back in place with no bed or old clothes to be found. He was dressed in the white skin-tight clothes that he used to wear, usually green and red by the time the GIW were done with him.

His middle stung where the fire had burned him, after a quick check he saw bulbus blisters and knew it would scar. His healing ability was helping, but it was delayed somehow, Danny figured it was the collar. After having it off for so long his neck burned as it siphoned his ecto energy.

It pulled at him, it pulled at his core, his very essence felt like it was draining away. The halfa wanted to claw at it, to do something to get it off, but he knew if he made any attempts to do so it would result in even worse pain. While he had built up quite a bit of energy from not having the collar on it was taking a while for the collar to get him in a manageable level. But too soon was he deprived of energy, like a desert with no water but the moisture of his own body.

The air was different as well, it seemed... empty. Not an empty that was usually there, but like something was missing. It gave Danny an uneasy feeling, an underlying theme of wrongness.

Unlike his other cell this one was dark, the lights were out but Danny did not mind. He prefered it, it gave him a sense of calmness, like a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. But it did little to sooth his racing mind, he was here, and here was bad.

His door opened with a bang and two GIW agents Danny didn't recognise walked in. Their cores were the usual yellow and red, but they seemed much calmer and wore permanent scowls on their bald faces.

He shrank away, he didnt want to be here, he wanted his brother, he wanted his father. He whimpered when one of the agents grabbed him by his hair and forced him up. Like everything else in this new place something was different, usually the agents would sneer at him or something, this guy went straight to business.

His hands and feet were chained like they always were, but this time there seemed to be some freedom as there were chain links between his hands instead of solid metal. Of course his feet always had the chain links so he could walk but the hands were new.

Danny kept his head down as they walked down the white halls, but it was different as something green was splashed against the clean white. Something was glowing and they were walking towards it.

Danny almost fell as he paused to gape at the large circular thing, the agents shoved him forward into a crowd of agents surrounding the thing. It looked like the GIW had set a camp around it, the large room was littered with computers and other machines. There were lots of agents, most of them standing guard, but a few were actually doing stuff on the machines. The weird green thing reminded the Halfa of the core's he always sees. It was writhing and green, swirling and getting faster and slower, pulsing almost.

It gave off waves of a green substance that melted into the air, clean ecto-plasm. The halfa walked in a daze, his toxic green eyes fixed on the core-like object floating in the air. He felt good around it, like it was giving him an energy boost. He was snapped back to the present when something latched onto his chest.

It looked like a bullet-proof vest with wires and buttons. The agents said nothing as he was hooked up to a weird blockish machine with dozens of screens on it. The lights started blinking on his vest and an agent that operated the large machine flipped a switch.

Danny doubled over in pain, gritting his teeth to keep from screaming. He panted as the operating agent turned a dial and the pain in his gut lessened. It was a show of power, they wanted him to know they still controlled him.

"Specimen G-01, you are to enter the rift and return within ten minutes or we'll terminate you. Got it?" An agent said. Danny nodded lowly, they wanted him to go INTO the weird glowy thing? Danny saw no purpose in doing so, but he figured the GIW were testing something, probably to see if it was possible to enter and exit the portal thing.

Danny blinked in surprise when the chains around his ankles fell unlocked, they were letting him move around freely in the other place. Danny eyed the portal with apprehension, what was on the other side? Maybe the freedom of his feet were not for exploring but for maneuverability that he might need if he encountered hostility. Danny didn't notice the light on his collar turned to orange.

Danny was liking this idea less and less.

"We're lowering the intensity of the collar in case of trouble," the agent informed, "this shows how much time you have left, once it hits the yellow area you have three minutes to get back here before we knock you out." he said pointing to a gage level thingie on the vest.

"If you try an escape, if the vest gets taken off, we'll know and hit the kill switch on your collar." Danny paled and nodded again, eyes stuck on the floor. "Get going, the time starts when you enter."

Danny shuffled closer to the 'rift' as the agent called it, the vest was bulky and make it hard to move, it was also heavy as it was a mini machine strapped to his chest. Danny would have to jump to reach the portal, with the added weight and weakness of his shaky knees he wasn't sure he could do it.

The agent sighed, "Get in there or I'll throw you in."

Danny stiffened at the thought, if he was going to do this it was going to be without the GIW manhandling him. He inched closer, the vibe the rift was giving off was much more pleasant, almost welcoming.

He was drawn to it now, like a moth to a flame, he could breathe better as he got closer, the pain from his blisters lessened and the burning sensation around his neck seemed to fade. He touched the portal experimentally, having to reach his hand up to do so.

The portal glowed brighter at his touch, to his surprise it felt cold but seemed to fizzle under his skin. He put his hand down and crouched, needing some spring in his jump. He leaped up and into the portal, it felt like jumping into a cold pool.

He was stunned for a moment before opening his eyes hesitantly, not surprisingly all he could see was green. It was like a tunnel, a very short tunnel in which the exit was coming very fast. Danny yelped and covered his face as he crashed into the other side.

-0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0-

Danny Phantom flew high in the air, it was a nice night, there was a warm breeze and the stars were visible. It was almost past his curfew, which was now 11 since his parents found out about his double life. The event with the disasteroid(Dick would have a lot of fun with this word) had revealed his identity to the entire world. At first he was scared his parents would go all 'die ghost scum!' on him but thankfully they are good parents and accepted him and his ghost half.

Now he was doing his routine rounds around Amity, the ghosts may have saved the planet but it wasn't out of the goodness of their cold hearts. Skulker had just tried to take his pelt again, the stupid ghost hunter couldn't stop talking about how 'great' he was at hunting, so Danny straight up left him.

Sam and Tucker would be home by now, Tucker still reminiscing over the 'girlfriends' he had, the kid seriously needed some help, machines shouldn't count as girlfriends. It reminded Danny of Vlad and his Maddie holograms, those were seriously creepy and only solidified his opinion on the fruit loop. Hopefully Vlad would stay in space and leave him alone, no one needed that Fruit Loop in their life, especially Danny.

Sam was as awesome as ever, after their kiss during the disasteroid adventure they'd become girlfriend and boyfriend. She took no crap from anyone and was able to keep the crowd away when Danny went somewhere public. Unlike Tucker who used it as an opportunity to meet hot girls.

School was somewhat easier, Mr. Lancer never let up on the homework though, stressing that 'if he can fight ghosts he can study his vocabulary'. Although he did excuse Danny whenever his ghost sense went off during class, and to the teacher's dismay the entire class refused to do anything but watch Danny as he fought the ghost.

Danny was thinking about his family when he nearly forgot to turn intangible before entering his house. He phased through the wall into his space themed room, landing and changing into Danny Fenton. He flinched as he heard a bang and thump and the whole house shuddered.

"Sorry! My bad! Fenton Bazooka malfunction!" His dad's loud voice yelled to the house. Danny opened his door and went down the stairs, seeing smoke billowing from the open Lab door. Jazz was sitting at the table doing some college stuff while Jack Fenton climbed the stairs coughing into his hand.

He was covered in soot, even his bright orange lab suit was darkened by the paste. He smiled wide when he saw Danny, Jazz doing the same upon his arrival.

"Danny boy! How were the ghosts tonight? Do ya need your old man's help?" Jack said giving his son a half hug and pulling out the Fenton bazooka with its barrel still smoking. Danny lifted his hands and smiled with his face squished up against his dad.

"I'm good Dad, thanks." Jack let go with a smile and Danny stumbled to the ground. "I ran into Skulker,"

"Are you ok?" Jazz asked, knowing Skulker was one of the more harmful ghosts that Danny had to deal with. Danny nodded while Jack searched the fridge for his favorite chocolatey treat.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's taking notes from Technus because hes was monologuing about how great of a hunter he was. He didnt even trap me, so I just left." Danny stated, Jazz arched and eyebrow.

"You didnt even put him in the Fenton Thermos?"

"Nah, he wasn't actually hurting anyone." Danny said as he sat down at the table, he frowned when he noticed his mom wasn't there. "Where's Mom?"

"She's out doing stuff, she said she found an irregularity somewhere in town and went to go check it out." Jack said as he stuffed his face with fudge.

"An irregularity?" Danny asked, his curiosity peaked. His Clockwork hadn't told him much about the other reality he went into a few days ago, he agreed he should keep it between him and his friends though. Especially the Dan part.

"Mom and Dad think it's a portal to another dimension." Jazz informed as she focused on the paper in her hand, she didn't see Danny pale.

"A-another dimension? What? thats crazy!" Danny said while rubbing the back of his head, trying to play innocent. Jazz glanced at her brother in the corner of her eye and scrunched her nose.

"So you know nothing?" she questioned, Danny began to sweat

"Of course I wouldn't know anything about other dimensions, not that they're real or anything." Danny said quickly, his eyes darting about trying to find an excuse to leave the conversation. "Ah, I just remembered Mr. Lancer wants me to find one of my old assignments that I didnt finish, I'll go find it." He sped off to his room while Jazz glared daggers at his back.

He knew something, and she wanted to know why he was hiding it.

-0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0-

Maddie Fenton blew her cheeks out as she studied the numbers in front of her. The information wasn't making any sense. The data was at least five years old, but completely different than her own data from five years ago.

She sat in the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle with her goggles on, she frowned at the data and bit her lip. Something had to make sense, some connection between the two different information. On one hand there was data from her dimension she called 'Homerealm data' the other she called 'Pentarealm data' on account of the five year difference.

There were very few things similar, according to Pentarealm data the dimension had a ectoplasm in it, but it was low compared to Homerealm. She was so enthralled in her findings she didnt notice the glowing portal she had been studying right outside her door flash.

She was yanked out of her thoughts when the Assault Vehicle rocked to the side as if someone had thrown a dead body at it. She steadied herself and looked out the passenger window that was facing the portal, it seemed normal. Then what had caused the car to shake?

Maddie pulled out her anti-ghost gun and jumped out of the car, pointing it at anything that moved. She lowered her gun when she was met with a miniature white haired ghost boy in chains. He was knocked out and sprawled on the ground in front of the dent in the van, obviously the source of the bang.

Her mouth parted in horror at the state of the small ghost, skinny, obviously underfed, chains around his small wrists, a blinking orange collar around his blistered neck, and wore a vest with numbers and lights on it. Maddie had no idea what to do, this sad looking ghost from another dimension that reminded her an awful lot of Danny laid before her.

Since her son had become half ghost she was still weary of the specters but gave them a chance to explain themselves before firing on them. But this boy needed a mother's help right now.

Maddie marched up to the car and opened the door as wide as it could go, then approached the little ghost boy. She carefully lifted the ghost up, surprised at the weight, and gently laid him in the passenger seat of the car.

She needed to get him home so she could help him, take care of his injuries and figure out what had happened to him. Jack was going to be super excited, he was going to be excited anyway but this was a ghost from another dimension. She wondered how Danny would feel about it, maybe he knew the ghost. After all, she read somewhere that some alternate dimensions had the same people but different backstories.

Maddie moved to the other side of the car and got in the driver's seat, turning off the machines she used to acquire her data from the portal. She gently pulled out of the alley and turned onto a street, it took around ten minutes to get home from here.

She had her sights set on the lonely road and cast worried glances to the little boy next to her, she didnt know weather to go fast so she could take care of him as soon as possible or slow as to not injure the boy further. Suddenly he moaned.

Toxic green eyes blazed to life as he blinked them open, he looked around groggily and frowned as he saw his surroundings. Where was he? His stomach hurt like he needed to throw up, he was in a car of some type, he could feel the car bump and rumble beneath him.

"Hey there, I'm not going to hurt you." A woman said, Danny's head snapped to her and his eyes widened. "I'm Maddie Fenton, do you mind telling me your name?" Danny's supposedly dead adoptive mother asked while she drove. Danny blinked in surprise, Maddie?! Her core was a mix of red and yellow, a disgusting reminder of the GIW but she held some blue and black as well.

He stayed silent a second longer, not sure whether to trust this person. The only thing that kept him from completely freaking out was the GIW death threat and the fact that it was someone he knew, sorta. He had just gone through a portal and was now with his dead mother, was he dead too? He took stock of his situation, he was in his dead mother's car going who knows where and-wait how long has he been here? Danny looked down at the gage on the vest, halfway to the yellow part.

He relaxed a little bit and took account of his injuries, all of which were feeling better, Danny had no idea what was in the air but it felt amazing. But it was so new and raw that it felt wrong, this was not his place, he knew that already.

"Do you have a name sweetie?" Maddie asked again, wondering if the different dimensions had different languages, this could be more complicated than she thought.

"D-Danny..." He mumbled, he needed to keep track of the time, and where was the portal? "W-where..?"

The smile died on Maddie's lips, his name was Danny, like her Danny. She shook her head to clear it, she had to keep in mind this wasn't her Danny, but something very similar.

"I'm taking you to my house so I can help you, little boys such as yourself shouldn't be in chains." Danny was confused by her logic but shrugged.

"A-are y-you dead?" He asked hesitantly, he wanted to know where exactly he was and why the GIW would send him here.

Maddie was taken back by the question, why would he ask that? "No, I'm not dead, but I've got a son who looks a lot like you but he's older. He's strong and saves people, maybe he can help you." She said, Danny looked down at his lap and his chained hands. "Why are you chained like that if you don't mind me asking."

Danny shrunk in his seat but answered anyway, his Maddie had accepted him and this Maddie seemed to already accept him but he knew that could change like a flip of a coin. "H-halfa.."

Maddie pulled down her cowl and goggles and swerved to the side of the road before stopping. Danny's breathing quickened at her reaction, was it a good one or a bad one? Maddie looked over the ghost in her passenger seat, seeing his frightful gaze and quivering and bloody body.

"My son Danny is also a halfa, what happened to you?" Danny lowered his eyes and thought for a moment. She also had a son named Danny who was like him, what was this place?

"G-G-GI-GI-I-W..." he stuttered, tears brimmed his green orbs as Maddie put a hand to her mouth.

"The GIW did this to you? How old are you?"

Danny held up nine fingers, then removed the hand that held four. "Five with G-G-I- them..." Maddie's core erupted in a flaming red, Danny squeaked and flinched backwards. Maddie had thumped her fist on the steering wheel in anger, a mean scowl on her face with the intent of very harmful things. Her gaze softened when she noticed Danny's reaction but her core remained its violent color.

"Sorry Danny, I'm angry with the GIW, not you." Danny nodded slowly, eyes still downcast, his eyes found the gage and the needle was in the yellow area. He popped up, worry evident in his face.

"I need to go b-back, to the p-portal." He said, Maddie frowned in concern.

"But what about your injuries?"

"I h-heal fast, They're waiting."

"Who?"

"G-GI-"

"Wait, the GIW put you up to this?"

He nodded, "I need to get back or t-ter-termin-minate."

Maddie looked at him in horror, "I refuse to take you back to them. We can fix this, Danny can help, do you have your ghost powers?"

"Sorta..." he pointed to his neck where the collar was, "They c-cont-control me with c-coll-collar." His stuttering was less like stuttering and more like trying to pronounce unknown words. "If free, ve-vest zaps."

Maddie frowned in thought, "But I can't take you back there, they treat you horribly!"

Danny nodded in agreement, "I-in my world I-I'm not your s-son, but you ad-adopted me, th-then the G-GI-W k-kill you. This world's Danny needs mom. I have new family, it's little and broken, but it's still good."(Heck yes Lilo and Stitch!)

Maddie didnt know what to say to this, she didnt think there was an appropriate answer to it.

"I need to leave, y-your world b-better than mine. I can handle it."

"How?" She asked, she was having a hard time seeing any up side to the plan of giving Danny back.

"My family, Batman and Robin." Danny said with confidence, Maddie stared at him, those were comic book characters. "They'll find me and I'll be home again." Danny checked his gage, two minutes.

"I gotta go, bye mom." He hugged the surprised woman and she raised her hand to say something but he phased down through the van floor.

He flew as fast as he could back the way he came, searching for the pulsing feeling the portal gave off. Instead of pulsing it felt more like sucking, he flew down to it and didn't hesitate to ram the portal.

He entered the green tunnel and exited the other side. He gasped as he returned to the ecto-deprived air of his world, he fell with a clunk and his eyes closed.

-0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0-

Maddie sat stunned for a second before putting her car into drive and speeding the rest of the way home.

She barged into the house and zeroed in on her little boy. Danny sat at the table with Jazz eating cereal for dinner while Jack made Jack-shaped toast. They all looked up at her abrupt entrance and saw the look of concern on her face. They watched silently as Maddie marched up to Danny and hugged him.

"You ok Mom?" Jazz asked, Danny would have but he was currently being squeezed to his second death. Jack looked on with a concerned frown.

"I love you Danny." she said, Danny gave her a confused look.

"Y-ah, I love you too, can I breathe now?"

Maddie let her son down and wiped away a few stray tears. "What happened Mads?" Jack asked, Maddie put a hand on her forehead.

"The portal, it's to another dimension, someone came out of it." She said, Jack's eyes lit up and he opened his mouth but Jazz stopped him.

"It was Danny." Danny dropped his spoon.

"He was only nine and was in chains, he had a collar on and-"

"What?!" The whole family exclaimed, that was not the direction they thought she was going.

"In his world we adopted Danny and the GIW killed us and took him, They've been experimenting on him for five years."

"Where is he?" Jazz asked, everyone else too stunned to say anything.

"He had to go back, they said they would kill him if he didnt return. Said he had a new family with Batman and Robin."

"but those are comic book characters." Jazz stated, Maddie nodded.

"He said good bye and called me mom." Maddie sniffed and tears sprung out of her eyes again. "It makes me realize how fortunate we are, he was so skinny and scared..." She mumbled, Jack came over and hugged her.

Danny sat down on the ground, that was the Danny the other Clockwork was talking about. And his mom had met him. That portal was still open, Clockwork warnings or no, he was going to help.

-0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0-

Nine year old Danny woke in his cell again, his skin felt raw and vulnerable. He was laying spread eagle on the ground as if he was tossed inside, he probably was. The vest was gone and the chains were back, his collar blinked its annoying green.

He groaned, his whole body felt sore, like he had tried to run a marathon. Even his bones felt weak, was his world really that deprived of ecto-energy that being in an ecto-energy filled world for ten minutes had rejuvenated him to the point of returning was painful?

Danny rolled to the side, maybe he could get some sleep.

But of course the GIW had impeccable timing.

"Common Scum, we got a new toy to play with." an Agent said, Danny sighed and sat up but got kicked in the face.

His head hit the ground and he could already feel the blood dripping from his nose.

He was back.

Ready to fall into his old routine to keep his sanity, though he had more useful tools now the GIW were experts at breaking down the mind.

The halfa just hoped Batman would find him soon, because he could already feel himself cracking.