Disclaimer: Don't own DP.

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Chapter started: Saturday, February 16, 2008

Chained

Chapter 11

"Fascinating," came a voice in the darkness. It was tired and strained. "Yet another example that the future is never set in stone."

Clockwork, the Master of Time, shut off the screen, heavily leaning against the console. He had abandoned his staff on a shelf where clocks ticked away the time. It seemed that everything had changed once Valerie pulled the trigger of the Specter Saver. Danny Phantom's future, Clockwork's own future, the fate of the Ghost Zone...

The Ghost Council, his employers, would not be pleased to hear of the consequences of this sudden twist, given their suspicion against the half-ghost known as Danny Phantom. Upon Phantom's capture two years ago, they had demanded that nature take its course. They'd calculated the probability of anyone coming to Phantom's rescue was minimal and that the half-ghost would fade into oblivion. They had not considered what Clockwork called the Chaos Factor: that there were no algorithms capable of defining a concrete future. No matter the pre-calculated probability of a fire (so very slim), it had happened. No matter Valerie Gray's standard behavior (there had been less than a 7 percent chance she would free Phantom), she had deviated.

Of the thousands of paths the future could have taken, it'd taken the one most unlikely.

Now, Clockwork had an even bigger mess to clean up than the one he could have fixed two years ago. His cloak swirled around his form as he flew deeper into his lair. "The Council will be angry," he murmured, "but this might be my only chance to undo their work."

As he rounded a corner, an Observant materialized from the shadows. "Clockwork," he addressed him.

The elder ghost brushed the eye aside and continued pacing forward.

But the one-eyed ghost followed him. "Clockwork," he persisted, his tenor voice bouncing off the walls. "I must speak with you."

Clockwork wheeled around, defiantly staring his colleague down. He reverted into his adult form, his height and broad shoulders blocking the light. "What do you want?"

"I need you to confirm a future event," the Observant said. He motioned to the screen through which he saw Time pass. "I have been monitoring your charge, Danny Phantom, and it seems that his future is once more uncertain." He hesitated on his next words, but he nevertheless forced them out. "Tell me," he struggled for words, "is…I mean to say…" He paused rather delicately. "Will Phantom survive his injuries?"

"I'm not obligated to reveal such information to you," Clockwork said. His red eyes darkened in annoyance. "I know that you wish for me to confirm his death. If so, then leave me be for he is not dead yet."

At that, the Observant raised his hands in surrender. "Please, Clockwork. According to the Council, I'm assigned to supervise your actions, and I intend to carry out that order." He dropped his hands and eyed the ghost. "I realize that you feel obligation towards your charge, but it appears this...Valerie Gray has not provided him enough energy to survive on his own. Just allow him to fade out in accordance to the Council's will. It's in the best interest of all."

The Observant's comments made him rather short-tempered. He retorted dryly, "What do you know of best interests? You see only what you wish to see."

"And I see that glint in your eye, Clockwork. I know how long you've waited to defy the Council's will, but I'm here to remind you that they gave you your abilities to manipulate time. You cannot defy their orders out of some emotional impulse."

The Master of Time curled his lip in disgust, "This is not impulse. While they make short-sighted decisions in fear and take the path of least resistance, I make decisions that will positively affect the centuries to come."

"Do not change the course of time to save your charge, Clockwork," the Observant reminded him once more. "The Council has deemed all these years that you not interfere, and for good reason. You know exactly why he needs to fade out." The one-eyed ghost turned to leave. He hesitated at first, but then he materialized into the air, his shadow swirling to another destination.

That left only a heavy silence behind.

Clockwork sighed, rubbing his temples. His red eyes swiveled to land upon his tall staff, and he raised his hand. The staff flew to him until it settled comfortably in his grasp. Its end made a solid thunk on the floor as he leaned on it for support. In that moment, he felt old.

"Yes," he said to the air. "I know why Danny Phantom should die." His body aged until he was an old man, his wrinkled face pained. He eyed a forgotten Fenton thermos that had gone silent long ago.

Despite his open heart, there was a darkness in Danny Phantom. Nothing quite seemed to exterminate it, even though the boy had managed to better control his anger, depression and unstable impulses ever since facing an evil, future version of himself. The risk always remained, looming every time his powers grew to all-new and terrifying heights.

The Council was not willing to risk it at all.

Now, the risk was much more elevated if Phantom managed to survive his injuries. No one endured torture without scars. Clockwork spoke to the air tiredly, as if the Ghost Council could hear him, "If my charge becomes evil, then you know what it took to get him there. Or did you turn your face entirely so you wouldn't have to see his suffering?"

It had been difficult, watching his charge's pale face twist in terror and pain and tears...He had observed Danny struggle to maintain sanity as the CGIA ripped his flesh and mind. He'd heard the boy cry out to him in the dark when he'd thought no one was listening, and he'd nearly answered, only for Ghost Council to threaten removing Clockwork's powers.

But now the Chaos Factor had upset the balance.

And the future was so gray with so many different possible paths, not even Clockwork dared to guess what it held.

Downtown in the heart of Amity General Hospital, Valerie was sleeping in the Intensive Care Unit.

Dreams plagued her as she raced within her own mind. Memories.

And she couldn't stop them.

.

The Red Hunter walked into the viewing center, her strides keeping in time with her boss. "What did you need me for?" she demanded grumpily. In her hand was a high-tech weapon, and she angrily clenched its handle.

She'd just been called straight from a ghost raid, and she was not happy.

"I needed to show you something," her boss told her. He motioned for her to sit down in a plush seat. "The Board has decided that the continuing existence of Danny Phantom has been jeopardized, so they need your help."

At the mere mention of the name Phantom, Valerie stiffened. "My help?" she repeated cautiously. "With what? I thought you said that all I needed to do was capture it, and then you'd take care of everything from there."

Her boss shrugged his shoulders. "Yes, but this type of weapon has to be approved by you before we can undergo mass distribution to all of the Central Labs."

"Oh really?" Valerie raised an eyebrow. "And what's so different about this weapon that you had to call me off duty?" Her eyes narrowed on her last two words.

"It's not our weapon," the boss admitted, holding up his hands. "We just bought it from a couple of ghost hunters, although the team experimenting with it made a few modifications." He closed the door behind him and flipped the light switch. "You'll see the weapon in action first, mainly because we actually need it this time, and then you'll have to decide."

Instantly, the viewing room was swept with darkness.

Moments passed before Valerie could see beyond the ectoplasm-proof window, and a few more passed before she could decipher shadows from their substance. It was dark, save for a few lab lights and the bright glow from the Experiment.

She squinted, and within the bright glow, she saw the form of her arch enemy. Phantom.

But something was wrong.

Phantom wasn't trying to blast away his cage or terrorize the scientists. Instead, he had been carelessly thrown into a human-sized cage, and he was half-sitting, half-laying down in the corner, his body leaning heavily against the bars. He could barely hold his head up. The ghost looked defeated, as if he were drifting between consciousness and oblivion.

Valerie furrowed her eyebrows. She turned to her boss and asked, "Why isn't Phantom reacting? What's wrong with him?"

The man sighed, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair. "A backlash of electricity in our system surged through Phantom's Lab last night and into his cell generators." He waved to the scene before him. "He was directly affected, and our teams have been trying to raise his power levels ever since."

Valerie's frown deepened. "Power levels? I thought the object was to keep him down. Why raise that?"

And at the question, her boss turned to face the glass window. "Because if they don't, Danny Phantom will 'die.' He'll fade away into nothing." And as if to prove his point, Phantom's entire form shimmered. For a second, Valerie could have sworn she'd seen his hair turn black. But then she blinked, and all she saw was shock white. "They've been working on him all night and haven't had much success until now."

She turned to the scene unfolding through the glass.

"What is his status?" asked one of the scientists from within the Lab. Their speech was muffled to Valerie, but she could still pick out their words.

"Stabilized," answered his assistant. She scribbled something down on a clipboard. "It appears that every blast increases his power, although the blasts are weak." She stopped writing and looked back up at her colleague. "It could take anywhere from five to seven consecutive blasts to bring him back to optimal conditions."

In reply, the scientist sighed. "How unfortunate." He ran a hand through his spiked hair. "I didn't realize that Phantom had a limit to how much electricity he could be exposed to."

He motioned for the other person beside him to initiate another round of experimentation with the weapon. And the man, rather happy to do so, shot the small weapon once more.

The resounding of the bullet echoed throughout the entire complex.

As the blast hit him, it tore into Phantom's body and spasmed him into seizures. His emerald eyes grew unfocused and too bright to be normal, and his entire body shook uncontrollably. Ectoplasm trailed haphazardly from the wide, open wound, and it had splattered across the bars.

The scientist laughed.

It was perhaps the most primitive, barbaric thing Valerie had ever laid eyes on. What the hell?

This can't be… A strange feeling came over her.

I mean, I-

But she tried to smother it before she could identify what it was. No. He deserves this.

Another blast. Another seizure.

A gasp of pain.

She hardened her eyes and forced herself to watch. He deserves it, she thought repeatedly. The weapon was shot again, and she tried not to look away. He deserves it. He would kill me if he had the chance, and he wouldn't stop there.

But Valerie watched in morbid horror as the scientist turned to his comrade. "Hey," he said, "lemme have a go with that thing." A small, twisted glint had appeared in his eyes. "You're hogging all the fun."

His comrade turned to face the scientist, and he sighed, handing over the newly renamed Specter Saver. He knew he couldn't win a fight against the man. "Oh, alright," he said, somewhat depressed over giving it up.

"Just be careful," the assistant warned. "Don't give him too much power. We wouldn't want that."

"Oh, but we couldn't have that," the scientist readily agreed. He took the weapon in his hands, and his greedy eyes drank in its raw power. "Just let me have a little fun; I haven't been able to shoot at a legal target for a long time." He then lifted the Specter Saver and aimed. He pulled the trigger, and a dark green blast shot from the nozzle-straight into the heart of Phantom.

It was a dead-on hit.

As a breathless, agonized gasp tore from Phantom's lips, the scientist smiled in satisfaction. "Bull's eye," he grinned triumphantly. The assistant clapped.

Valerie's eyes widened.

Phantom, overwhelmed by the blast, could no longer stand it. His back arched in pain, and he opened his mouth to cry once more, but he couldn't. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his body's glow flickered before it began to fade. Then, his muscles slowly released their tension as he relaxed into the puddle of his own ectoplasm. A trail of ecto-blood slowly escaped from the corner of his mouth.

The Red Hunter's hands clenched tighter onto the seat. This isn't right, she admitted to herself. A small part of her felt very much ready to vomit.

They're enjoying this?

The scientist shot him once more, just for good measure. Phantom's entire being jerked, and the blast cut through his shoulder like a bullet.

But slowly, the wounds inflicted from the Specter Saver reversed. The greater the impact, the more healing the effect. And Valerie could only stare as the ecto-stains on the floor melted back into the bloodstream of the unconscious Phantom. The wound over his heart sealed rather decently, smooth skin and a new layer of his jumpsuit stitching itself back together. Most of the minor injuries remained.

His gloved hands subconsciously dug into the tiled floor, as if he were desperately clawing in escape. But his strength did not last, and he collapsed entirely after mere seconds.

And it was around then Valerie realized she had lost circulation in her arms. She had been crushing the seat handles so tightly, her knuckles had turned white. She carefully unstuck her fingers from the upholstery, but she never took her terror-stricken eyes away from the Experiment.

"I think he's had it for the night," one person observed.

The scientist nodded, albeit hesitantly. "I agree." He set the weapon down upon a lab table, and he gently ran his fingers over the humming gun. "I must say that I love the modifications you gave it."

His comrade smiled appreciatively. "Thanks. It didn't originally hurt the ghost, but in order to get this thing past the review board, it had to insure pain to the inflicted ghost." He shrugged. "The Guys in White are so picky about that."

"Who cares?" the assistant said casually. She turned to face Phantom, whose glow had slowly begun to flicker again. "It's not like he doesn't deserve it." Her cold eyes narrowed. "Trash like this needs to be eradicated."

And as the light switch flipped back on in the viewing room, the image of the tormented Phantom was burnt in the back of her eyes.

Instantly, she demanded her boss to give her the only Specter Saver the CGIA had. And with that, she tore up the contract and walked out.

She still heard Phantom's gasps.

.

Valerie woke up.

Her eyelids fluttered a bit, and she groaned as her pains hit her full force. When she opened her eyes, they were hollow and misted with tears. For moments, she lay there on her hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling.

.

The scientist waved over another team, who had been waiting on stand by. "Send him back to his cell down the hall," he barked orders, and his subordinates meekly obeyed.

One subordinate in particular, a woman in her forties, ran out before the others. She landed on her knees beside the unmoving body of Phantom, and she gently began treating his wounds, wrapping them in sterilized Ecto-bandages.

And when the Red Hunter glanced through the windows as she passed by, she saw tears streaming down the woman's face.

.

Valerie blinked, and she felt the effects of her remnant dreams wash away.

Ugh…The distant expression on her face slowly reverted back to clarity and sharpness. With a groan of pain, she lifted her arm to wipe the cold sweat from her forehead and the tears from her eyes.

I hadn't thought of that in...forever.

After that fateful night, she'd had those scientists immediately moved to another area, and she had appointed a new team in charge of Phantom. The leader? The female scientist from the clean up crew, the one who'd at least had the decency to bandage him up.

It was the only favor she ever did him, and sometimes she wondered why she did it. Maybe it was to silence her guilt. But that memory never left her mind, even though she'd forced it far into the recesses of her thoughts.

She swiveled her eyes to stare at the Specter Saver. Did I do the right thing? she wondered silently. She knew that only one blast wouldn't be enough, and she hadn't wanted to subject him to more pain. She knew that she had been playing with fire. But she could only pray that it was enough.

Please…

Her heart still hurt. That look on Phantom's face, the second before she'd been whisked away, had nearly been enough to make Valerie cry. She couldn't erase it from her memory. Such betrayal, so much hurt. His eyes spoke the same sound that his mouth had screamed in her dream.

Perhaps that was what had triggered her nightmare.

If only he knew, she thought worriedly.

If only he knew that I had been trying to help…Her eyebrows furrowed, and she bit her lip. But was it enough?

Did he make it outside alright?

A hammering concern suddenly squeezed her heart. And what if he didn't?

But Valerie quickly stomped out the flame to her fears. No, she thought with forced resolve. I can't think like this… He's okay, he's gotta be!

Phantom's just fine, I'm sure of it.

Her words felt forced, even to herself. Was her heart in it? She didn't know.

As she waited for a doctor or a nurse to find her, she pressed the button beside the bed. Her shoulder protested the action. The TV on the wall flicked on, and Valerie found that it had been left on the news.

"-And according to surviving agents and back-up equipment, it has been concluded that Danny Phantom was eliminated in the fire." Valerie's eyes widened. Her heart skipped. Oh my God…"His ectoplasmic signature was disrupted by the fire's intense heat, and scanners only found miniscule traces of his power levels."

No way…

Fear gripped her heart, and her breathing grew more erratic. The beeps from her heart monitor shortened in pace and rhythm. No…

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Amity Park's most controversial icon, Danny Phantom, has officially been destroyed by the CGIA." The reporter bowed her head. "May his spirit finally find peace."

That…t-that can't be true…!

The TV then switched to eyewitness accounts.

And at that moment, Valerie felt the strangest feeling overwhelm her. Her burnt fists clenched with an immeasurable strength, but she felt no pain.

Rebellion. Denial. Anger.

"No," she whispered to the TV. Her voice was raspy and it sounded nothing like her, but her vocal chords strained to speak. "No!"

"You're…y-you're….wrong…" I saved him!

I saved Phantom…! Her vision blurred with confused tears. You're wrong! You can't be right!

But somewhere, deep down, she knew that only one blast from the Specter Saver wasn't enough.

In horror, she watched the TV as countless technicians explained the circumstances. And every single explanation led up to one conclusion:

Danny Phantom had met his end, and the Red Hunter had barely escaped with her life.

No…

Not for the first time, Valerie felt a tear roll down her disbelieving face. He's not gone… He can't be!

No…!

A tear for Phantom.

Wow, I'm completely amazed and astounded and in shock right now.

Did I just seriously write a whole chapter in a week? Did I really? :)

…(insert a gasp.) I guess I did! I'd like to know how I did that…

So anywho, this chapter was actually not that hard to write. Did you know that this is the first time I've ever written Clockwork? Aside from Danny himself, I think Clockwork is my next favorite character. Just 'cause he's awesome:) I hope I got his personality down half-way okay. And, with any luck, this whole chapter wasn't freakishly OOC.

Did you know that this whole story was supposed to be only three chapters? …Yeah, I know: I really underestimated it…

Chapter completed: Friday, February 22, 2008 at 5:24 P.M.

Current Song Inspiration: Sister Rosetta Comes Before Us by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

1.) How was the transition between scenes? Choppy or smooth?

2.) Are the characters still characters, or are they wooden and need more work?

3.) Any comments on word choice and word flow?

4.) Was the chapter stagnant in any way?

5.) Is this story still interesting, or has it lost its suspense factor?

6.) Is the plot predictable, or has it maintained some sense of unexpectedness?

7.) Any suggestions you might want to add:)

(Thank you so much if you answer any of these questions! I know that they get really tedious and stupid, but it really helps me gauge each and every chapter's personality. This way, I can see how constant my writing level is, and whether or not I need to improve the plot.)

So thank you all so much for reading,

Lightning Streak

Please Review:)