My submission for The-Hidden-Pearl's V.S Contest on DeviantArt. It got me third place, so I hope you'll enjoy it too.
Follows Pearl84's DaoS universe (mostly). I hope I don't mess it up too much.
Disclaimer: I do not own DoaS nor do I own Danny Phantom or other relating characters.
"You've known." Maddie pointed her finger accusingly at the ghost standing before her. "You've always known I was his real mother!"
Desiree clutched the small white-haired child to her chest, refusing to let him go. "Yes, I have known. Are you happy?"
"Happy?" Ghosts could be so cruel sometimes. Luckily, she would see to it that this ghost never messed with her child, or anyone else's child, ever again. "I spent four years grieving over the boy I thought I'd lost. Am I happy you say?"
What would you call happy? Maybe the ghost hunter was happy.
Here she had a ghost trapped, unarmed, and weakened before her, but not just any ghost, the ghost that had tricked her boy into thinking he was her mother, the ghost that had enchanted the human child, her child, into becoming one of their filthy kind.
In the arms of the ghost was her now four year old son, lacking only the humanity that had been born unto him.
Even for a ghost, Maddie had to admit the boy was handsome. He was her and Jack's son, how could he not have devilish good looks? It was a little saddening to see them ruined by the ghostly aura, but that wouldn't be a problem for long.
"Yes, I am happy. I'm happy you're here because now I can have my revenge. Now I can have son back." Maddie's voice got louder with each statement. "Now I can rid the world of one its biggest nuisances."
Young Prince Daniel buried his face in his mother's shoulders. He couldn't understand what she and that human lady were saying; his English wasn't that good yet. He could, however, tell they were arguing. The strange lady was yelling, but his mother was doing her best to remain calm. He could feel it as his hand remained fixated on the mark on her chest. She was telling him it was going to be alright.
The prince pushed his face closer into his mother's shoulders when he heard the shouts escalating. He didn't want to be here.
His mother gently stroked the hair on head, whispering softly to him in Esperanto, telling him this would be over soon, that this was all just a bad dream.
"Now what are you doing?" Maddie demanded. She wasn't going to settle for this anymore. "Are you still filling his head with lies? Don't you think you've done enough damage already?"
"Damage?" Desiree was beyond insulted. Lies too? "Tell me something, human, do you think you'd make a better mother?"
"Yes, I am his biological mother, I am the best choice. I will always be the better mother."
"Even now that your son is a ghost? You'll accept him as is?" Desiree smirked, already knowing the answer to the question.
"I'll fix him, like a good mother would. I'd never let my son suffer from this, this disease!" Who knew how much pain Danny was in now that he was a ghost? How long had they let him suffer? All four years of the toddler's life?
"Fix him?" Desiree gasped in horror. "You'd risk the operation? You'd risk his life to 'fix' him?"
"Of course!" This was ridiculous, why was she arguing with a ghost? These feral creatures couldn't even understand logic. "No son of mine will live like the scum of the earth."
Granted, the procedure was…a tad risky. Maddie would be splitting genomes out of
chromosomes. And not in just one cell, millions of cells. Every single cell that came together to form the shape of her son would have to be fixed.
One mess up could result in a cancerous cell, one that would spread and slowly kill the boy. Then again, if she missed even one cell, it would duplicate until ghostly cells were running rampant in the child again. The cells would come together and form another ghostly core.
Speaking of core, Maddie would have to find a heart donor for the boy. His core would have to be removed. That procedure alone had a high fatality rate.
"If you truly loved your boy, you wouldn't put him through something so horrible. Tearing everything out of him and giving him a false body, no, worse, a body that belonged to somebody else." Desiree subconsciously tightened her grip on her boy. She would not let the disillusioned lady lay a hand on her child. "You'd let him die because of his form? Where is your mother's love?"
"What do you know of mother's love?" Maddie placed her hand on her chest, over her heart. All the emotional pain was coming back to haunt her. "I love my boy enough to save him from you. I love my boy enough to cure him of his malady. I love my boy enough to stop his suffering. I'll send him to the next world if I have to!" She was in tears by now. No one could understand all she'd gone through, trying to get her boy back.
Amidst their discussion, neither mother noticed a small auburn-headed girl quietly come down the steps to the Fenton Work's basement. Little Jazz had heard her mother's shouts and came down to find the source of the distress. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and peered into the laboratory.
"Don't you know?" Maddie continued. "It's better that the hand which gave life take it away." A crazed look entered her eyes as she knew what she had to do.
Desiree gave up. It was over. The human's mind had lost all restraint. There was no use trying to reason with her now.
"Don't worry, Danny." Maddie approached the ghosts. "I'll fix you. Mommy's here. You don't have to worry now." As she drew closer, she took a medical scalpel off a nearby table and held it up. "Come here, Mommy will make it all better."
Desiree drifted backwards, trying to put a distance between herself and the human. Thanks to the Fenton shield, she couldn't phase out of the basement. She was trapped. "You humans are all the same. You spout nonsense of acceptance, but can never go through with it. Human or ghost, I'll love Danny unconditionally. That's more than I can say for you." She placed her hand under Danny's chin and pulled his face out from her shoulder. Giving him a looking over, she sighed.
The boy was perfect exactly as he was. She had to be the luckiest woman on earth and in the ghostly realm.
"Don't worry." She whispered into Danny's ear in English this time. "I'll die before I let any harm come to you, my angel."
As Maddie approached, her mind's final pieces shattered. Her boy a ghost was too much for her to accept. She cornered the two ghosts, raising the scalpel into the air.
"Mommy, no!" Jazz screamed from the stair well.
Maddie stopped in her tracks, turning away from the ghosts to face her daughter. "Jazzy? What's wrong?" She asked, a caring tone evident in her voice.
"No, Mommy, don't kill them." Jazz' mind had not been tainted by her parent's ghost hunting yet. She believed them to be what they truly were, good-hearted creatures.
"Don't worry, Jazzy." Maddie was now standing over her daughter. "Mommy will make it okay." With one hand on her daughter's head, she pulled her into a hug.
Jazz, thinking her mother had regained her senses, hugged her back.
In that instant, Maddie swiftly raised the scalpel and pushed it through her daughter's temple. "Mommy will fix you too."
The young Prince screamed at the top of his lungs. He knew death when he saw it.
Desiree knew this was serious. She turned her back to the crazed woman and set her son down on the ground. "Danny, stay here my prince. Okay?"
Danny was terrified. He wanted to be in his mother's arms, where he knew it was safe. He clamored to grab onto her once more, but was only pushed away.
"Come here, Danny." Maddie cooed in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Come to Mommy."
"Madeline, don't do this. Wake up, Madeline." As much as Desiree hated it, she had to face the fact she and Maddie shared a bond. They both mothered the young prince, each in their own manner.
"I am awake. And now I can see." Maddie exhaled, as if she had relieved a burden that had been placed on her chest. "I need to save my son. I'm a good mother; I'm going to save my son."
"Me too." Desiree flew directly at Maddie, so fast she was only a blur. She turned her hand intangible, phasing it through Madeline's head. She called upon her magical powers to see inside the human mother's mind, to try and find the ounce of humanity left in her.
Inside Maddie's mind, Desiree found herself surrounded by fragments. Fragments of Madeline's consciousness. Old memories from the girl's childhood and some new ones were in the midst. Of course, none of them held any real matter now that they were broken apart. They drifted through her brain, no longer restrained by the morals the lady once held. Mixed in them were Maddie's real desires, her anger, her resentment, her need to cause pain to those whom have ever made her suffer.
"Maddie?" Desiree called into the vast emptiness. "Where are you?"
Her only response was the soft sound of a child singing.
Desiree floated quietly through, trying her best not to disturb the mess. At the center of it all was a small red-headed girl. She looked no older than five. She had vibrant purple eyes that matched the purple of her sleeveless sundress. In the girl's arms was a baby doll. A baby boy doll.
The girl continued to sing, ignoring Desiree's presence. She gently rocked the doll back and forth, finishing her lullaby.
She looked up, her song over. "Hello. I'm Maddie. What's your name?"
"Well Maddie." Desiree cooed. "I'm Desiree. My, what a pretty doll you have."
Little Maddie smiled at Desiree. "His name is Danny. See." She held the doll up for the ghost to see. "When I have a baby, I'm naming him Danny."
Desiree smiled. There was still hope.
"Maddie." She called softly. "You do have a boy."
"I do?" The girl looked up with big questioning eyes.
"Yes. You do. He's waiting for you now."
"Waiting? That can't be good."
Desiree held her hand out to the child. "Maddie, he needs you. It's time to go."
"Okay." Maddie set the doll down on the ground, or where the ground would have been had there been one. She took her little hand and placed it in Desiree's much larger one.
Desiree smiled, leading the girl through the floating fragments and darkness. A pink light waited for them to return, a little orb of Desiree's power specially made to help her find her way out of the darkness.
Suddenly, Desiree was back in the Fenton Laboratory, her hand still in Maddie's skull. "I'm sorry." She pulled her hand out gently.
Maddie gazed around confused when blood suddenly spurt out of her eyes, ears, and mouth. She fell to the ground in a coughing fit.
Finally, the blood cleared from her airways. Maddie gazed about the room, her eyes landing on Jazz' corpse. "Oh no." She shook her head in disbelief. "Oh no, what have I done?" She grabbed her own hair, pulling out chunks. This had to be a nightmare. She was going to wake up soon, right?
Desiree gently placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, trying to calm her. "Madeline?"
Maddie turned swiftly to Desiree. The ghost saved her. She saved her from herself. She saved her, no, their son from the same horrible fate as her daughter.
Desiree was surprised when Maddie gently placed her hand over her own.
"What have I done?" Maddie whispered, still horror stricken.
"You know what's going to happen next if I don't help you, right?" Desiree asked, not wanting to have to relay the information on a traumatized woman.
The human mother nodded. Her body would not be able to process the ghostly magic now that it was within her. She would begin vomiting more blood, her body trying to get rid of the foreign presence, before her organs would begin shutting down.
She'd be dead in ten minutes flat.
"Uh…Your majesty," Maddie said awkwardly, not used to addressing people, let alone ghosts, so formally. "Take Danny. Get him out of here before I lose myself again."
"Maddie?" Desiree could not believe her ears. Had she heard this right? The human woman wanted her to take her son?
Ignoring her questioning look, Maddie grabbed the lab table for support. She pulled herself up and slowly, very slowly, made her way over to the lab's control panel. She punched in the password, taking down the shield surrounding the house. "Go!"
Desiree would not have it. "Maddie, I can take the spectral energy out of your system." Her hands lit up as she moved her hand closer to Maddie's forehead. "It doesn't have to end this way."
"No!"
Desiree's hand was roughly slapped away.
"Take your son and leave. This is my punishment; this is the price I have to pay for what I did to my daughter, for what I did to all the ghosts who ever had the misfortune of falling into our clutches."
"Madeline, stop this nonsense!"
Maddie gave the ghost a weak smile, falling to her knees. "This is my real mother's love. You helped me find it." She stared at the ghost prince, awing over his beauty. "Quickly, take Danny and return to your world."
Take him before I change my mind.
Nodding in understanding, Desiree went to retrieve her son from the corner of the room. Once the boy was tucked safely into her arms, she prepared to leave.
"Wait, Your Highness!"
Turning to face the human, Desiree hoped she was now willing to have the energy removed from her body. "What is it?"
"Promise me you'll take good care of our boy." What more could a mother ask for? With her death, she'd insure that her son loved to see another day.
"Of course."
She could rest at ease; her boy would be taken care of. Now she had to pass on, she needed to find her daughter in the other world. That was her mother's love. Her daughter was waiting for her to come find her. She failed her in the world, but now she was going to make it up.
"Thank you."
Desiree went to the fallen human and, with her free arm, helped her up. Then, she did something she never thought she would.
She embraced the human who had spent all her life trying to destroy her people.
Maddie returned the embrace in her final moments. "Go, before my husband returns."
As much as Desiree tried, she couldn't push off Maddie's death. The woman's body grew weaker in her grasp until finally, it stopped.
All signs of life diminished. The warmth left her body as quickly as it came on the day she first entered this world.
Desiree smiled, gently laying the woman on the ground. "Rest at ease, my dear. You're a good mother after all."
That's a wrap.
It's darker then most of my works, but I blame the music. I was listening to Tim Burton soundtracks!
Review Please.