Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom

A week had passed by since Danny stayed at Charlotte, and he had already crossed the border into South Carolina. He was now heading just south of Charleston to a fort where Danny experienced some ferocious fighting during his time in the Union. That was also the spot Danny lost his best friend Tucker Foley. To Danny's knowledge, the fort wasn't given a name, so Danny just called it the Secessionville fort after the battle that took place there.

When Danny entered Charleston he got some food to feed his horse and quickly found a place to stay. It was almost night after all and Danny wanted to get up early in the morning. The mercenary woke up to find it pouring outside. He still had a job to do so he went outside to find a few stalls open. One such stall had a dozen roses all bundled up. Danny paid for the roses and went to the stables to get his horse.

Longma was huddled at the very back corner of the stables while rain dripped from cracks in the stable's roofing. I guess he doesn't like the rain. Too bad I need him so I can get to the fort in time.

After a little bit of riding on his horse, Danny finally made it to the Secessionville fort. The two guards stationed right outside of the gate picked their rifles off the ground and walked up to Danny. "Halt, what business do you have being here?"

Danny took of his hat letting his dry hair get pelted by rain.

"I want to talk to your commander. I would like to ask a favor of him."

One of the guards walked into the fort to relay the request to someone else who ran into the fort's main building. A little bit later the man returned.

"The commander said he will hear your proposal. Don't try anything though. We will need to take your weapons"

Danny got off his horse and let one of the guards grab her with his rifle and ammunition. Of course Danny still carried his two knives and the pistol, but those wouldn't be of much use if things turned bad.

"Yes, because I can somehow take down an entire fort full of soldiers."

I already tried that and it failed miserably.

Danny was led into the building and was greeted by an old man drinking some wine while looking out a window at the fort.

"Why hello there stranger! One of my soldiers told me you had a request?"

Danny looked behind him to notice the two guards in the room were on edge. One slip up from Danny and he would be dead.

"Well sir, you must know of the battle that took place here a couple years prior, right? The battle of Secessionville.

The commander took another sip of his drink and nodded his head. "Yes, I was one of the men defending the fort a couple years prior."

Danny shifted the wait from his right leg to his left as he thought of a way to say his next words without getting shot. "I was one of the Union soldiers attacking the fort."

Both guards pointed their rifles at Danny and were waiting for their permission to fire. The life of Danny was in the palm of the commander's hand. The commander got up from his seat and eyed Danny suspiciously. "Why are you telling me this? What is your reason for coming here?"

Danny stiffened. He apparently did word that correctly.

"I am here to ask permission to go to the outskirts of the fort so I can make a small memorial for my fallen comrades. I am no longer in the Union army so I pose no threat."

The commander turned so he was facing the window opposite of Danny. He watched over the fort for a couple seconds as he thought over the request.

"I was an officer during that battle. I still remember every second of that. I will grant you access because of my code of honor. I will like if three of my soldiers escort you though. No offense, but I don't exactly trust you."

The commander gestured to one of his guards to get the requested men. "Will you need anything to complete this memorial?"

Danny gave it a few moments of thought. "No, I should have everything I need. Just give me back my horse and I can collect my rifle later if you want."

The commander nodded his head and ordered the other guard to escort Danny out of the house. The heavy pounding of rain onto Danny's hat causing it to droop a little. The guard halted at the gate and turned to Danny. "Wait here while while the three men prepare. Your horse should be with them."

A couple minutes later, three Confederate soldiers appeared each on horseback. One of them also had Longma in tow. Longma looked scared out of her mind as she was relentlessly drenched in rain.

"Here is your horse. We are just going to ride to the outskirts of the fort and no further. The commander gave us permission to shoot you if you try something."

Danny just smirked.

"Wow, all this suspicion and I don't even have a rifle. I must be very deadly."

All the soldiers present glared at Danny.

"Shut it. Let's just get going."

Danny got on his horse and followed one of the soldiers to the wet field while Danny was flanked by the other two soldiers.

The field was completely empty except for a lone gravestone. The dead Union soldiers were most likely buried a long time ago. To the victor go the spoils and the dead. Danny walked his horse up to the stone while the soldiers watched. On the stone read 'Here lies the fallen at the battle of Secessionville'. Danny couldn't help but feel contempt for the stone. Thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers died for what, a small little stone that barely says anything?

Danny still remembered that day in his nightmares.

He and his regiment had been preparing for an upcoming assault on the newly built Secessionville fort. They had their orders from the higher ups to march through the night and attack the fort as part of the first wave in the morning. They would eventually be supported by more waves of men and hopefully take the fort and then Charleston. It would be a huge blow to the South and help boost Union morale,

Danny had a horrible feeling in his stomach; like it knew this mission was doomed. He tried to tell his best friend and another private in his regiment Tucker, but the young black man didn't listen. He just wanted to end the war as quick as possible. Then again, that's what everyone was talking about. Tucker was supposed to be thrown in one of the forming black regiments to work in the fields, Basically they were to be paid workers for the Union, but the Fenton's had a long military tradition with a lot of connections and were able to pull some strings for Tucker to be placed with Danny in an all white regiment.

Danny striked his tent, prepared some dinner, cleaned his weapon, checked his ammunition supply, twice, checked his black powder supply, and made sure everything was in working order, until he was ordered to march onto the fort. He quickly found Tucker and got into formation right next to him. Standing in their way was two rows of hedges, a couple cornfields, and pitch black darkness, not to mention the hundreds of Confederate soldiers manning the fort. Danny decided to start a conversation as he was walking. It wasn't like he had anything else to do.

"Tuck, are you prepared for hell?"

Tucker tried to look at his buddy through the darkness. "Come on man. A couple minutes of fighting and they will surrender the fort. They have what, a few hundred soldiers max?"

Danny could only shake his hand and grip the trigger guard of his Springfield rifle a little tighter. "They probably have several thousand. Why do you think the commander wanted to wait for more troops to arrive before engaging?"

Tucker thought about it for a moment. "Because he doesn't want to fight and is too scared to act. We just need to attack them in mass and the Rebs would route in fright!"

Danny knew Tucker was just being naive, but that could get him killed on the battlefield. Danny fought in a couple battles before Tucker was finally allowed to join his regiment. Tucker just went through basic training with little experience on the actual field.

The regiment came across a hedgerow and several soldiers tried to carve a path through it, some more successful than others. Danny was one of the first men through and decided to wait for Tucker. After a couple minutes of struggling to cross the hedgerow, the regiment decided to leave any stragglers and continued their march. That's where they ran into problem number two. Between them and the fort was a huge cornfield with corn bigger than the soldiers. Danny did his best to keep straight and not hurt the corn, but Tucker was whacking away at any cornstalk that got into his way. They were able to make it out with most of their group intact. A few soldiers were still navigating the field though. The remaining soldiers ran into yet another hedgerow and had to repeat the process yet again. Danny cut through the hedgerow and waited for Tucker to catch up. Once Tucker showed, Danny noticed several scratch marks on Tucker's face and wrists.

"You okay, Tucker"? He asked as he tried to think of who in the regiment carried the first aid supplies.

Tucker put a hand on his face to trace the scratches. "Yeah I will be fine. Definitely ready to fight." Tucker marched on ahead of Danny. Danny sighed as he thought, That man's going to get himself killed, and continued his march. That's when he got a good look at his surroundings and noticed that only half his regiment was left. He quickly rejoined Tucker but put his hand on his shoulder to force Tucker to stop. "Tucker, maybe we should get our officer to wait. We only have half our men and it is certain that the rest of the first wave was also detoured."

Tucker barely listened to Danny as he looked at the fort in the distance. "Come on Danny. That force will be easy to take. Look we have a straight shot to it."

He looked at the path ahead. It was just clear grassland. There was a forward outpost between them and the fort, but that would be easy to take.

"Tucker, let's just play it safe."

The black man turned to Danny. "No, we can take that fort now and that is what we are going to do!" with that, Tucker stormed off in the direction of the fort. Danny reached out to Tucker, but he was to late. A couple minutes into their march, Danny's regiment was ordered to form up. They wanted to create a battle line for when they stirred the fort. Danny's regiment and several other regiments that made up the right flank of the Union assault, decided to rush the fort to try and surprise them. Danny was one of the first soldiers to reach it to the advanced pickets of the fort with his regiment. That's when it all went downhill. The fort, with 5 artillery cannons, opened up into the advancing Union lines, except, they weren't firing a normal solid shell, but shrapnel shot. Nails, glass, iron chains, and pellets, flew out of the black cannons and contacted with several soldiers who fell to the ground crying in agony. Tucker watched the scene as he got even closer to the fort. He was debating turning tail and running away, he didn't want to be one of those soldiers, but Danny glared at him as if anticipating his actions. "You are not running away. You signed up for this."

Tucker gulped before nodding his head. The regiment stopped as they got a couple hundred yards closer. Danny knew what was to come next. The officer shouted at the top of his lungs, "Ready arms!"

Danny, with the rest of the back line, hovered his rifle just above the shoulder of Tucker who was right in front of him.

"Fire!"

Several bangs could be heard around Danny as he pressed the trigger of his rifle, firing his one shot. Smoke began to envelope the regiment, making it hard to see what was going on. Next thing they know, several nails and pellets collide with Blue uniforms, sending those soldiers to the dirt.

"Fire at will!"

Danny grabbed a cartridge from his box, ripped it open, and shoved it down his rifle. He noticed Tucker was doing the same in front of him. Danny grabbed his ramrod and was about to jam it down his rifle, when he noticed the wall of rifles coming out of the fort. All Danny could do was brace himself. Several bangs could be heard from the wall as soldiers all around Danny dropped like flies. The officer also saw this and shouted retreat at the top of his lungs. The entire regiments started running away as Danny aimed his rifle and fired it before doing the same. They must have ran several hundred yards before they finally regrouped next to the second row of hedgerows. There, they got a good view of the second wave of soldiers running up to the fort and also getting mowed down. The officer came up to the remaining members of the regiment. "We have to make another attempt at that fort. It has to fall by the end of the day!"

Several booms came from the cannons of the fort as more shrapnel teared into the second wave of soldiers.

Tucker started to back away and threw down his rifle. "No way am I going back there! I will almost surely die!"

The officer grabbed his pistol from its holster and pointed it at Tucker. "You can either take your chances out there, or die where you stand."

Tucker reluctantly reached down to grab his gun before joining Danny back in line. Once again, the regiment, with others, marched onto the fort. Bullets and shrapnel whizzed by Danny's head connecting with soldiers all around him. The smoke was getting so bad that several soldiers were having coughing fits. As the line stopped, Danny had to step over two bodies.

"Ready arms!" the officer shouted.

Danny put his rifle just above Tucker shoulder.

"Fire!"

With that, another wave of bangs could be heard as the smoke clouded Danny's vision. He began to reload when fate happened. Bangs could came from the fort and the officer fell to the ground dead. A second later Tucker was struck in both the left leg and right arm and collapsed onto the ground. Danny quickly knelt down right next to him, trying to grab some medicine from his sack. Tucker just lightly grabbed Danny's hand as tears came to both of their eyes. "Danny, I am told old to die man!"

Danny got up and tried to lift Tucker off the ground. If he could get him to the field hospital, then maybe he could save him. Danny started running to the hospital with Tucker on his back, but the boy was already losing too much blood.

"Danny, you remember Valerie, the girl at our hometown? Can you please tell her I love her?"

Danny ran even faster. "No, because you will. Right buddy?"

Danny waited for an answer he would never get. He eventually collapsed to the ground from exhaustion and fell unconscious. He awoke several minutes later with Tucker already dead and several thousand Union soldiers running for their lives. Danny grabbed his rifle and slowly got off the ground. Bodies and blood were everywhere. It looked like the devil had been through here, and, in a way, he had. Danny followed the retreating soldiers and walked off the field in shame.

It was soon learned that the Union middle and left flank were slowed down by hedges and swamp, and weren't able to attack with the right flank. It was a disaster waiting to happen. That's how Danny remembered it at least.

Danny knelt at the monument and placed the flowers he bought. He then got off the ground to watch the rain hit the now perfectly green grass. "I will join you guys someday." he walked up to his horse and got on it before following the Confederate soldiers back to their fort.

There we have it. The chapter I have been planning to write since the beginning of this story is finally finished. I am wondering, are any of you annoyed that Sam hasn't shown up in the story yet? It has been 10 chapters and I probably should've sped the traveling up. Please review!

Reviews:

Inviso-Al: Yeah, I can be pretty indecisive when I run into a problem. It has been a long wait, longer than I thought, but the update has finally come.

Guest: That is about all my knowledge of Longma. There is also something about them and great rulers, but I am not sure exactly how that goes.

AJ: