Phew. Just in time.
It is officiall 11:42pm. I got the chapter up IN TIME, PEOPLE, IN TIME.
And Okay, I know it was later than I originally said I'd write it. And I got reviews (thank you!!) but there were some difficulties...

Unforeseen complication - My internet committed suicide. All the things that I own do that - it's isn't uncommon. So that took a while to fix, but finally I am back on!
Foreseen complication - I had to work.
Foreseen complication - I needed Steph to help me with this one.

Okay, so I suck at the emotional thing. So Steph went over this and made it AMAZING. Congratulate her, people who read the story of mine!! She is the reason this chapter is breathtakingly awesome. She basically wrote the whole thing. I did a simple, 1,800 word little guide line and she awesomeafied it!

I look forward to your Reviews. Expect the next chapter within 48 hours.

Changing Their Fate

Chapter Three

Reaction

Jazz was the very image of despair. Her body lay crumpled up on the floor, her shaking hands clinging to the cool, smooth metal of the table leg as if it were all that was keeping her grounded. Tears were streaming uncontrollably down her pale white cheeks and fell from her ruddy nose. Her face was screwed up as if she were afraid to let her inner turmoil loose. The emotions that roared through her very veins –the feelings that scorched her heart as her head filled completely with an image of her newly departed brother– could not be described.

Jazz couldn't write off this experience as a nightmare, as it was real; and it was a thousand times worse than anything her subconscious could ever possibly conjure. Danny, the one who had heroically thrown himself in front of many ghosts to save people he didn't even care about had been killed because of a petty grudge that Valerie had against the ghost half of him.

It was unbelievably true.

She shut her eyes against the solid flow of tears, attempting to block out the absolute hopelessness that was consuming her mind. A wet sob escaped her trembling lips as a wordless, intense pain stabbed deep through her chest: her heart, so used to loving, had torn mercilessly in half. The deep loss that ripped a hole through her chest drummed faintly in her ears and echoed mournfully in the empty space that was once filled by Danny. Flashes of what her life would become without the amazing boy she was proud to call her brother slashed the hole wider with every beat of her anguished heart. The pain that burned her entire being threatened to overwhelm her; she could feel herself being yanked from coherent thought and reason as she fell into an endless abyss of grief.

Maddie's eyes were glued to her daughter's despondent figure. Sobs shook her entire body as her eyes and nose alike ran and dripped onto the floor. Each tear caused a tiny patter as they hit the tiles and dug deeper into Maddie's suddenly breaking heart. The pain that she felt at her daughter's desolation was nothing at all compared to the terrible feeling that was creeping into her heart as she thought of her son.

Even though she knew that the answer to her next question was obvious, Maddie couldn't help but ask in blind hope if it was all a big prank.

"You're kidding, aren't you?"

Silence greeted her denial.

"Aren't you?" Maddie pleaded, desperation causing her small voice to waver as her amethyst eyes clouded over with unshed tears of anguish.

"Jasmine, it's not funny." Her knees were weak – Maddie blindly tried to steady herself but found it difficult.

"It's not a joke."

"But… he was my little boy… my little baby boy…" A single tear spilled from her eyes to roll tauntingly down her cheek. She cried out in disbelief. "It can't be… no, it's not true!"

Jazz lifted her tear-stained, blotched face, irritated by her mother's lack of acceptance. Every word that her mother spoke cut deeper into her own whirlwind of emotions. She didn't want her mother continuously repeating the fact that Danny was… the he was… well, it just made the situation even harder to bear. "Oh, you know it's true!" She lashed out before choking on a sob. "It was so obvious." Her voice was diminished to a whisper upon speaking that one truth.

The only logically thinking part of Maddie's mind responded with memories that confirmed Jazz's statement.

She and Jack had only just finished working on their newest invention – the Fenton Finder. It had instantly sensed a ghost's unique ecto-energy. Unfortunately, it had led the two of them to their fourteen year old son, Danny.
"Ghost directly ahead. You would have to be some sort of moron to not notice the ghost directly ahead." The Fenton Finder had informed them.

And also…

Maddie and Jack had been disappointed that the invention that they had worked so hard and long on, the Fenton Ghost Portal, did not work. They had gone out for refreshments to cheer up, but once they arrived home, they discovered that a miracle had occurred. Though Danny was nowhere to be seen, somehow he had gotten the Portal to work. After all, he had been the only one home.

Not to mention…

All those times Danny had come home from school, injured, and hadn't told them what had happened.

As well as…

When they had been on the private jet that had been sent to them by DALV, the pilot had announced that they were about to crash. She had turned on her Spectre Deflector and Danny had put his hands upon her shoulders and had… well… been deflected.

And don't forget…

Jack had created the ecto-skeleton to send any ghost back to the ghost zone – but there was only one problem. It sucked the energy out of its wearer. But it had been stolen by Danny Phantom to defeat the legendary Ghost King, Pariah Dark. He had succeeded, but no one had seen the battle suit again. And the suspicious thing was, when Danny was found, he was completely worn out – his energy had been sucked dry.

There was no doubt in Maddie's mind that her son, Danny Fenton, was also Danny Phantom. And it was obvious...

Suddenly, it dawned upon her; the terrible, heart-wrenching truth. She had tried to kill her own son. Not just once, but over and over again. This realisation hit her all at once, leaving her frozen in disbelief. A maelstrom of grief and agony whirled around inside her head, intensifying until she felt as though the only way to suppress them would be to release everything in one long, piercing scream of anguish.

But before Maddie could liberate the sound of her pain, a man edged into her vision. It was her husband; the father of the boy she longed to hold once more. Jack Fenton, blissfully oblivious, bounced cheerfully into the room. Spotting his daughter and wife in their grief-stricken states, he whistled softly.

"What's going on? You should be happy!" he protested. Why his family was so miserable was beyond him. "After all, Danny Phantom is dead."

Although Maddie knew deep down that Jack was unaware of what Danny Phantom's death truly meant, her deep despair had stifled any voice of reason that may occur to her. She lunged wildly at him with a heartbroken wail, tears running afresh down her stained cheeks.

Gathering all of her pain and anguish, she released them: not in an agonised scream, but in an uncontrollable assault upon the only other man she had ever loved. She clawed at his astonished face with her unkempt fingernails, screeching hysterically.

Jazz had detached herself from reality. Silently and emotionlessly, she witnessed her mother's furious attack on her father. The family was being torn apart before her dull eyes, yet she could not find the will to stop what was happening. It was as though her passion had been replaced by apathy; she didn't care about anything anymore. Deep within her cold, mangled heart she knew that this was true.

Jack stood, bewildered, as he allowed his crazed wife to violently unleash her anguish onto him. Although he could not understand why Maddie was in this terrible state, he couldn't bear to raise a hand to stop her. She lashed out with fists and words that cut him deeply – words that Jazz had also forbidden them to use – despite his awareness that she was not in her right mind. Jack knew that if she continued behaving this way, someone would be hurt.

Maddie too knew this, but she was beyond caring. All logical reasoning and thought had been stifled by angry, grey clouds of loss and an abandoned hope.

Jack firmly grabbed both of Maddie's arms in an attempt to restrain her, thinking that it might calm her down. Instead, she collapsed into sobs that spilled over with heartbreak and flung herself at her husband – this time to be welcomed into his warm, enveloping embrace.

Jack glanced quizzically at his teenaged daughter, searching for some sort of explanation, but found that he could not bring himself to meet her eyes for more than a second. Although Jazz's face had slackened with lost passion, fat tears continued to cascade slowly down her pale cheeks in an unending stream. Jasmine Fenton parted her lips and drew breath to speak, but instead shuddered with horror and forsakenness.

"Danny is dead." The whisper was so quiet that Jack had to strain to hear it. Jazz looked as though she had more to say, but she shook her head noiselessly, unable to convey any more. She slumped in total silence.

Jack stared at Jazz in horror. Unlike his wife, he did not even think to question the truth in these words; what else could possibly leave his family so stricken with anguish? "Danny," he choked out. "No…" Before he knew it, despair had claimed him, too.

He still clung to his wife even as his heart-felt cries broke the eerie silence that had embraced his family. Death lingered by, its touch like the bite of a poisonous snake.

Jack blamed himself for the death of his only son.

Sam walked down the dreary, empty streets of Amity Park. Her face was like a gravestone – hard and cold. Her face drew a picture of the emotions that she felt inside. None at all.

Her destination was a familiar one, and she went there for a selfish purpose. She needed to get the guilt off of her chest, and the only way she could possibly do that was to talk to an old friend. Of course, by doing this she knew that she would lose the only friend that she now had. But that was what she deserved for killing her best friend.

First, she had sliced a knife directly into his heart. She had sliced and diced until it was broken into many bite sized pieces, and then she had walked away. She had left him in a time of need – she had left him while he was at his weakest. She hadn't even cared if he had trailed her – which she knew he had – because she had wanted him to know that her heart belonged to another.

It was then that she took the tiny pieces of his heart and chopped them into miniscule parts – they were so small that it was impossible to repair them. She had made sure of that. But what she hadn't made sure of was that Danny didn't do something outrageous. She should've thought of the consequences before she had been so cruel and heartless. But now she would pay for her actions, for the destruction that she had left behind.

"Oh, Sam, have you come to see Tucker? My, he hasn't come out of his room all day! I wonder what's wrong. Normally he comes out to eat something every once in a while," Mrs Foley chattered as she let Sam into her small, cosy house.

"I'm not surprised, Mrs Foley." Sam agreed as she made her own way to Tucker's bedroom.

She didn't even bother to knock. She swung the door open dramatically and ducked inside. The door slammed shut behind her.

The sight before her was a sad one. Tucker huddled in a corner of his bedroom, the only corner that was not crammed full of his beloved technology. He had a box of tissues resting on his lap and a pile of used ones formed a circle around his body. His face was red and stained with tears. His lower lip wobbled as he saw Sam come in and sit on his bed.

"Sam," he whispered before sniffing deeply. She didn't say anything to him – instead she listened to his soft sobbing for a few minutes, until she could stand it no longer.

"Tucker, it's all my fault." She informed him calmly.

She received no response. She took that as an invitation to finish telling her story.

"He called me to the park. I knew why he wanted me to meet him there, I just knew." Sam whispered, looking at her pale hands. "He confirmed it only seconds later when he stuttered about really liking me. But I was horrible. I blew him off."

She looked at Tucker, but he had his head turned from her. She had the feeling that he wasn't paying her story any attention at all. So be it. She had to get it out.

"And that wasn't even the final, merciless blow I delivered to his fragile heart. Oh no. I had to go and tempt him into following me. And well, let's just say I broke his heart once again," Sam had the urge to laugh, to run her hands through her hair. They were nervous gestures of hers. "He was distracted. He was heartbroken. That is why he allowed himself to be shot off the top of the building."

Silence.

She continued to look down at her hands as one single, pale tear made its way hesitantly down her cheek.

"I broke my best friend's heart before I killed him," Sam concluded.

Sam jumped in fright as she heard Tucker growl like a feral beast. She turned to her best friend and was surprised to see that he was not sitting huddle up in the corner any longer. Instead, he leaped up and with a scream, launched himself at her.

His large hands found their way to her throat and once it was encircled, they squeezed. Sam felt her air supply being cut off, but despite the natural instinct to fight, she couldn't make herself do it. For the one thing left in life that she wished for was being delivered to her.

Death.

Yay! A round of applause for Stephary! My amazing editor!

I don't have much to say, except.

I'm not going to be updating as much as I have been the past week (36,000 in four days, people) and will only be doing this story once every 2-3 days. Maybe more often if you're lucky. I also have to write the next chapters for my other stories because even though I'm not updating yet, I have to still WRITE the chapters. Ah I suck at emotional.

Next chapter is titled Reactions TWO. Or something. And then the next chapter is hopefully to be exciting :)

Review! Same rule applies - I need reviews for another chapter.

Love you, my glorious fruit loops of fruity heaven! Buce out!