Are you ready for this, 54 fans? Are you ready for the new chapter? Well I hope so!

…Cause it's kinda late.

Inviso-Al: Thank you, like always. Here's what I know you want!

its-ackim95: Yeah, here you go.

jim89: Thanks, but just you wait until the fun, emotional part.

Well, it's been fun answering your reviews, but I must move on to the main story!

~Rainosa

Chapter 14: Surrender

"No."

Jazz closed her eyes, squeezing the lids shut as she tried to get her point across, "I'm sorry, Sam, but there's nothing we can do."

"He is not gone."

Jazz sighed, "Sam…"

"He can't be."

"Well he is!" Jazz glared fiercely, her voice attracting the attention of several others in the school hallway, "And you need to accept that, or we will never get him back."

"There has to be something, the Booomerang, the Ghost Tracker-"

"You don't think I tried those?!" Jazz cried, tears forming in her eyes, "I did everything I could! Nothing works anymore! It's hopeless!"

Slowly, it sunk in that this was real. Slowly, Sam realized that Danny wasn't just gone on a ghost fight. He wasn't just away for a family vacation. Danny was gone. GONE. Captured by Vlad. He wasn't coming back anytime soon. He'd been left completely at the mercy of his two worst enemies. Vlad… and Valerie. Sam didn't trust Valerie. Danny had trusted her, and she had just thrown it away like it was a stick for fetch. Jazz had told her that Valerie had been captured, too, but Sam didn't buy it for a second. The huntress probably just wanted an "in" on the deal.

Tears glistened in Sam's own eyes, "We have to tell Tucker."

"Tell me what?" Tucker walked up, his cheery voice shattering the solemn mood.

Jazz slowly dragged her gaze up to meet his eyes, "Tuck, its… its Danny, he's…"

"Gone," Sam whispered, acknowledging it for the first time, "He's gone."

"What?!" Tucker shrieked, drawing the attention of the crowd for a second time, "Like, dead gone?"

"Oh, no no no," the girls assured him in unison, "He just got… kidnapped, by Vlad."

"Oh. Oh GOOD!" Tucker mimed a weight being taken off his shoulders.

"But still bad. None of our tracking devices are working. We have no idea where he is," Jazz brought the atmosphere down again.

Tucker shook his head, "That's okay, I can make a new one that will work for sure. I've had an idea for a while now, but I need the lab to build it. Are your parents going to be in there tonight, Jazz?"

"After that ghost disturbance? Nuh-uh. They're all up in the Ghost Zone right now," Jazz informed.

"Great. Let's meet there after school to set up a game plan," Sam directed.

They nodded.

DP

Apparently, when Tucker said he had a plan, he didn't mean a working one. More like a half-assembled, semi-functioning lump of somewhat possible ideas. Add in tech that wouldn't work, lack of a test subject, and the first layers of depression, and the situation in the Fenton's lab was summed up.

"Stupid unstable ectoplasm! Can't it just work for me this one time!?" Tucker smacked the Booomerang against the desk for the gazillionth time, hoping against the odds tht the action would miraculously force the parts into submission.

In the corner, Sam was banging her head against the wall, "Tucker *bang* you *bang* said *bang* you *bang* had *bang* a *bang* PLAN!"

"I did!" he protested, "I thought I could get this Booomerang working again, but it refuses to lock onto its target!"

"Yeah, I ran into that problem the first time. I'm pretty sure it's because Mom hit Vlad with the Booomerang, so now it tracks Vlad," Jazz suggested.

"But that doesn't make any sense! If it tracked Vlad, it would go to Vlad! But look!" Tucker threw the tool, but it fell pathetically to the ground.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jazz complained.

"It means the target doesn't exist, but that doesn't make sense either! We know Vlad's out there!" Tucker tugged at his beret in frustration.

"What about-" Jazz started, before Sam interrupted.

"That son of the Fright Knight," she insulted, turning to face them, "He used a duplicate. He used a frickin' duplicate! The jerk didn't even have the decency to come himself!"

There was a pause, before a sudden new voice came in.

"That makes sense," Dani nodded, floating in the top corner.

The whole group leaped ten feet in the air before turning to her.

"Dani! When did you get here?" Tucker cried.

She shrugged, "A couple moments ago. Long enough to hear Sam's theory. It makes sense. When Danny was teaching me to make duplicates, he told me that when you get rid of them, you tell them to stop being, to not exist anymore. Clearly, Vlad's duplicate is gone now."

Sam threw her hands up in the air, "Well then, how are we going to track him?!"

Tucker gave Dani a suspicious look, a plan already forming in his head.

"I think I have an idea."

DP

Valerie awoke to feel only pain. A dull, throbbing sensation emanating from the forefront of her skull. Some kind of headache. That was inconvenient.

Slowly, her other senses came back to her. Cold concrete was pressed against her entire right side, but it was the worst against her cheek, where the cold seemed to bunch up and assault her skin. She should probably move around and get warm. The whole place felt chilly, and her body warmth hadn't put a dent in the iciness. Only exercise would solve her problem. Why was she in such a cold place anyway?

Her eyes snapped open to take in her surroundings. Bright green light flashed throughout the small space, throwing it into a dramatic perspective. The light glowed from the white-gloved fist of a young, ghostly figure, dressed in black and white, who seemed to be attacking an invisible barrier. He actually looked quite ferocious, with his glowing green eyes, filled to the brim with anger, and his hardened face, smothered in hate. He was glowering at her, but she could tell the emotion was not meant for her. It was directed towards another, probably the second figure with a wide open, laughing mouth. But it was shadowy in that corner, and she didn't like to look over there. She much preferred to watch the heroic phantom in front of her. He looked so interesting with no sound, although he also seemed a lot less aggressive. One could obviously see, though, that his pursuit was hopeless. There was no way he could breach the barrier, especially if he kept pounding it like that.

All at once, the sound rushed into her ears, and the memories came with it. The angry figure, Danny, now filled the room with his roars, nearly unintelligible as they tore out of his mouth.

"YOU LET HER GO RIGHT NOW, OR SO HELP ME, I WILL PERSONALLY RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!" he screamed, clawing at the barrier like there was no tomorrow.

In the corner, the second entity, who Valerie identified as Vlad, laughed, "Of course you will, Daniel! Right after I let you go! Which is, oh let me check, NEVER!"

Suddenly Danny's eyes glowed blue, and a thin layer of ice slowly spread across the surface of the unseeable wall, allowing Valerie to determine the exact boundaries of his enclosure. The ice grew continually thicker and colder, until she could feel the chill rising on her side of the barrier, and just as she decided to get up and move around for real this time, she heard a muffled roar from the space across from her. A loud cracking noise resounded throughout the cells, and in seconds, all the ice lay shattered in pieces at the foot of the wall. Danny stood in the center of it all, eyes closed and fists clenched, panting with both anger and exhaustion.

"What did she ever do to you, FRUITLOOP!" Danny screamed, green ecto-energy lighting up his hands once again.

Vlad chuckled, "Why dear boy, she betrayed me to help you! Even before she knew your secret, she turned against me and saved that vile clone girl of ours!"

"Don't you DARE insult Danielle!" Danny threatened, before taking a deep breath, steadying his stance, and attacking his boundaries with a Ghostly Wail.

Like the cold-blooded monster he was, Vlad simple cackled darkly.

She hated him.

With a groan, she whispered into the cold, flat concrete, "I… hate… you."

Across the wall, the Wail was cut off as Danny fell to his knees, his snow white hair dangling in his eyes as his tears fell to the ground.

"I can't," the words were barely audible as they escaped his lips, "I can't save her. There's no way out."

The surrender didn't even register in Valerie's mind before she opposed it. There was always a way out. Every problem had a solution, that was the nature of problems, they were solved. Giving up was definitely not the solution. She needed to get up and help him, work with him to explore all options. But she was halted by his next words.

"You win, Vlad. I give up. You win."

No. Vlad never won, and he never would.

So Valerie sat up and told Danny, "Vlad will never win."

Boom! How was that? The next chapter is going to be great; I've been planning it for a while.