Memory
A Danny Phantom Fanfic by Cori
What's a memory worth?
Chapter 14
Maddie could do nothing but watch as her son was surrounded by government agents and pummeled with the ends of their weapons. She choked back a scream and tried to rush forwards, but muscular men blocked her path. With her hands bound behind her back, there was little she could do. She had to settle for a dark glare, watching anxiously as her son's body was dragged around by an arm.
Phantom appeared to be out cold. Green oozed from a variety of cuts. Maddie's breath caught in her throat, her heart settling only when Jack stepped up next to her and whispered, "He'll be fine."
"He shouldn't have come here," she hissed back.
"Shut up," one of the men barked, shoving a weapon at them and driving both Maddie and Jack back a step. "You haven't been given clearance to speak."
Maddie glared down the man, putting every year of martial arts training into the stare. The man - surprisingly - just stared back, seemingly unperturbed by the look. Maddie was the one who found herself scowling and taking a small step backwards and turning her gaze back onto her son.
Vlad walked over to them, still straightening his messed up hair. "So sorry you had to witness that," the man murmured congenially, smiling as he brushed a bit more at his jacket. "But I knew I wouldn't get the boy to react if you weren't here. Seeing you and getting the opportunity was all I needed to drive him into doing what I wanted."
"What are you going to do with him?" Maddie demanded.
"What I always planned to." Vlad's smile vanished, leaving his face looking empty and dead. "The child is mine. He'll figure that out." His blue eyes cut over to the guards. "Take them back to the room. Bring Phantom with and make sure he's locked up tight."
"You're a bastard," Maddie spat. "Rot in Hell, along with anyone who is blindly following you."
"Temper, temper," Vlad murmured. "To think I used to find that delightful." Then he spun on his heel and walked away.
Maddie stared at his back, wishing she had the ability to make him burst into flames. The guards started to direct them in the opposite direction, back from where they'd come. Maddie held her ground for only a moment before giving in, allowing them to drive her back a few steps, then turning around and stalking next to her husband.
The walls of the government building were as shiny and polished as the floor. Maddie walked through them, quietly and with her head lowered, ignoring how her reflection danced back at her from the plastic walls. The overhead lights refused to allow her to make a shadow, throwing everything into bright, glistening, blinding white.
A door opened seemingly at random, the guards being none-too-gentle when they pushed Maddie and Jack through. Jack, who'd remained uncharacteristically quiet the last few minutes, finally spoke. "Can we at least get jackets?"
The guard at the front stared back, unspeaking. His breath fogged slightly in the cold air. When he stepped to the side, it was only to allow a few more agents to drag Phantom into the room, towards the chair set up in the middle.
"What does that chair do?" Maddie asked.
Nobody answered. They just levered Phantom's unresponsive form into the chair and started to buckle the thick leather straps into place.
A sudden buzzing went through the room as ghost shields activated around them. Maddie felt the tingling in the center of her bones. Phantom - strapped to a metal chair that no doubt had the same energy running through it - jolted back to wakefulness. His green eyes jerked open and he stiffened, pulling on the leather straps.
The silent agents took a step back, watched him struggle for a moment, then turned and left the room. The door shut behind them with a sharp click.
Maddie and Jack - who'd been kept to the side as the men strapped Phantom into the chair - were next to his side in just seconds. "Danny?" Maddie said quietly.
"Ow," Phantom whispered, blinking hard, his voice tight with pain. "I don't know know what's worse - the bruises or the chair." The hair on his head was shifting and actually starting to stand on edge from the electrostatic charge of the ghost shield.
"We'll get you out of this, don't worry," Jack said, trying to sound confident. But he stood there, just as impotent as Maddie was to do anything to help their son.
The door clicked again. Maddie glared at it as it swung open, revealing a man in a white uniform with a large, imposing weapon. "Back away from the prisoner," he ordered.
After a few seconds of defiance, Maddie complied. There was nothing to be gained at the moment from not playing along. The man watched her back up with a grunt, crossed his arms over his chest, and just quietly stood there, watching them. Maddie glanced from the man to Phantom and back, watching her son shift painfully on the metal chair.
"Aren't you going to do anything?" Phantom asked.
There wasn't even the faintest twitch of the man's head. He just waited, watching.
It didn't take long before it became apparent what the man was waiting for. The door opened once more, this time admitting Vlad Masters. Vlad stalked past the man with the barest acknowledgement, heading straight for the chair. "Well, well, Little Badger, do you do have yourself in a predicament now, or what?"
"Do you want me to answer that honestly?" Phantom said through his teeth.
"No." Vlad crossed his arms and chuckled. Strangely, Vlad's breath didn't fog the air like everyone else's.
"Leave him alone," Maddie said, trying to engage Vlad's attention. Vlad didn't even bother to glance in her direction.
"Yeah," Phantom parrotted. "Why don't you just leave me alone?"
"Because you have something I want," Vlad said with a gentle smile. "And I get what I want."
"I don't work for you," Phantom said. "I'm never going to work for you. I don't care what you do to me or my family or my friends."
Maddie watched Vlad stand still a second, then slowly shake his head. "Bad choice, boy," the man said, sounding almost sad. He pulled a small device out of his pocket and ran his fingers over it almost lovingly. "I turned off all the cameras in here. Marcus over there," Vlad nodded to the man still standing by the door, "doesn't care what I do to you."
Phantom's eyes narrowed. He opened his mouth to speak, but Vlad held out the small device and pushed a button.
Maddie couldn't help but squeeze her eyes shut as electricity raced over her son's body. She wished she could clamp her hands to her ears to shut out the sound of his screams. It went on for far too long before the room fell back into silence, broken only by Phantom's broken, gasping breaths.
"I just know how far I can push you before you die," Vlad said. His voice sounded small and quiet compared to Danny's screams. "And your parents get to watch."
Maddie cracked her eyes open. Phantom was hanging limp in the restraints, his eyes mostly closed, not seeming to be very aware of Vlad's taunts.
"Maybe I'll let them live after they watch you break. Let them go with the knowledge that their son will be working for me, let them have those memories of what happened to you." Vlad walked forwards and grabbed a handful of white hair, jerking Phantom's head up. "Wouldn't that be fun?"
Maddie was tense and shaking - partly from the chill of the room, and partly from the scene going on in front of her. The warm bulk of Jack sitting next to her was only the slightest reassurement that at least she wasn't going through this alone. She jerked on her wrists, trying desperately to come up with a way to get them off.
"I don't work for-" Phantom started, but Vlad simply pressed the button again. Phantom arched against the restraints, screaming. Green and blue light etched over his body like tiny lightning bolts.
Jerking forwards a half step, Maddie had to physically stop herself from rushing to her son's side. It would do him no good.
"It's basic biology," Vlad said after the screaming had died down again. "Eventually you'll crack. Eventually you'll be begging me to stop. And my little requests won't sound so bad."
"Not a chance," Phantom hissed through clenched teeth.
"It's because I'm the bad guy, isn't it?" Vlad walked forwards and traced a finger over Phantom's face. "It's so easy to hate me and glare at me and refuse my every wish, because in your naive, little mind, I'm evil. I'm the epitome of what you don't want to be." Vlad pulled back, looking contemplative. "Well, perhaps we should change that up. Marcus? Would you release Mrs. Fenton's restraints?"
Maddie drew back against Jack's side, instantly wary of what Vlad had planned. Phantom seemed to have the same worry, because he looked from Vlad to her and back with narrowed eyes.
The burly man in white stalked over without a word, swiveled her around, and had the handcuffs off in just moments. He gave her a sharp look, then returned to his spot by the door, still carrying that huge weapon in his arms.
"If you'd come here, Madeline, dearest," Vlad said smoothly.
It took Maddie a few seconds to decide to follow along. Her feet moved slowly, dragging on the floor. As she drew nearer, she could see the effects of even a few blasts of the electricity on Phantom's body: pale skin, sweat, and a flush of unnatural color.
"Now, my dear," Vlad said, holding out the device. "Would you be so kind as to hold this for me a moment?"
Maddie reached out and took it, careful for the button that would activate the chair, confused as to why Vlad would hand over the device. Surely he knew she wouldn't be giving it back. He'd have to pry it from her cold, dead fingers. Her grip tightened.
With a wave of his hand, Vlad turned on a small projector. An image appeared on the wall - a car, on a highway. "This, for your edification, is a live satellite image of your daughter's vehicle. She's currently breaking several laws trying to get here to… I'm not entirely sure what she thinks she'll be able to do, but she's certainly headed this way." Vlad smiled as he reached into his chest pocket and drew out another device. "Your remote will activate the chair your son is sitting in," Vlad said gently. "Mine will activate both the chair and the nanobots still in your daughter's bloodstream."
Maddie's mouth went dry.
"You have a choice to make," Vlad said. "Either you torture your child - the one that can heal quickly, survive the experience and, honestly, made the choice to be here… or I torture them both. And the one currently travelling down the highway likely won't survive it for long."
There was a sharp creaking of leather as Phantom jerked against the restraints. "You can't do that!"
"Oh, you'll find that I can," Vlad said.
Maddie wasn't paying much attention. She stared down at the cold metal sitting in her hand, suddenly realizing what Vlad's game was. Her mouth was dry, her mind spinning in a million different directions.
Vlad chuckled darkly. "I wonder how long you'll last when it's your own mother causing you pain. She's not evil. She's not the bad guy."
"It's not her fault," Phantom shot back.
"True, and yet she'll be the one pushing the button. She'll be the one causing you intense agony. I wonder how long you'll remember that." Vlad took a step forwards so that his nose was inches from Phantom's. "Now," he said quietly, "What will you trade me to stop the pain?"
Maddie looked up. Phantom's eyes were glowing brightly, but his lips were clamped shut. He kept glancing at her, looking torn on what to say.
"I… don't work for you," Phantom finally said, glaring at Vlad.
"Push the button, Maddie," Vlad ordered.
Maddie stood there, her heart caught in her throat. The device practically buzzed between her fingers.
Suddenly Vlad was by her side, standing behind her, his breath warm and wet on her neck. "Push it or I will," his voice growled. "Five. Four. Three."
Maddie couldn't look at her son. She stared down at the button. Torture one or torture them both? Jazz would likely die from it, Danny would survive. But she couldn't…
"Two. One."
Her eyes clamped shut as her finger hit the button. This time the screams seemed worse - possibly because she was the cause of them. She trembled and shook and her fingers were so tightly clenched around the small box that her knuckles turned white. Her hatred for Vlad ramped up a notch.
Despite the hired goon pointing a gun at her head, Maddie contemplated simply attacking and attempting to kill Vlad Masters here and now. She wasn't entirely sure how to kill a hybrid just yet - but she was sure she would figure it out now that she was properly motivated. Her feet only stayed in place because of the knowledge that it would be a pointless gesture at this point. It wouldn't get Danny out of that chair. It wouldn't free Jack.
Until she figured out how to kill Vlad permanently or get them free of this, she would need to bide her time.
Her eyes opened when Phantom's screams ended, turning a hate-filled glare on Vlad, who stood just behind her. "It's going to be either you or me leaving this room alive," she informed him. "Not both of us."
"That is the plan, dear," Vlad purred. He stepped out from around her, turning to address Phantom. "Was that as fun for you as it was for me?"
"Suck it," Phantom panted.
"Again, Maddie."
This time, Maddie didn't hesitate. She just pushed the button, never taking her eyes off Vlad's body. Her mind was racing back to that folder Director Carson had dropped off at her house. He'd been acting with Vlad's permission, handing out information on hybrids that Vlad hadn't gone through and scrubbed of pertinent details. There was something within that folder that would be useful, otherwise Vlad wouldn't have started this plan until it was soundproof. The fact that Vlad moved too soon, was being forced to react, forced to do this, said that there was something in that folder Maddie shouldn't have seen.
A weakness. A deficit. A way to get past their defenses and kill them.
She just had to remember what it was.
"Look at how eager your mother is to cause you pain," Vlad said with a dark laugh. "Perhaps she's not as on your side as you had thought, boy. Maybe she secretly can't stand the fact that her son is a half-ghost monster."
Maddie pursed her lips, trying to tune Vlad's voice out. It didn't matter what the man said at this point - she needed to think. His words were nothing but distractions. Her mind sorted through the biological and psychological records that had been contained in the folder. Each of those ghost-human hybrids had died. Been killed, perhaps. But how?
"What will you do to stop the pain?" Vlad asked.
"I don't work for you," Phantom said. The words came out stilted and broken and being panting breaths.
"Maddie."
She pushed the button automatically, wincing away from the sound of her son's screaming even as she refused to look up. She just had to think. She needed to find the commonality among the hybrids. The single thread that ran through the data.
All were half-human.
Most were children.
All died.
…All were in the Guys in White data system.
She blinked at that, narrowing her eyes and trying to follow the thought. Vlad was talking again, but Maddie ignored him completely. They were in the system. Each had data from when they were alive, which likely meant each had been captured alive. Which meant they had all died while in the government's care. Vlad's care, apparently.
Maddie looked up, focusing on the back of Vlad's head. "I just know how far I can push you before you die," he had claimed. The only way he'd know that… is if he'd done it. Put other ghost-human hybrids into this chair and done something similar, only not bothering to stop. The chair had killed them.
"Again," came the order.
She pressed the button, this time forcing herself to watch Phantom's reactions with a scientific detachment. As Phantom's body arched and shook from the electricity, there was a slight fuzzing around his edges. His ghost form was trying to dissipate under the onslaught. The shock was at just the right frequency to cause a massive disruption to the ectoplasmic core, the supernatural equivalent of a ghost's heart and brain. Destroying that would - theoretically - destroy the mind of the ghost.
"You are being childish," Vlad told Phantom darkly. "Look what you're making your mother do."
"Find a dark hole and stuff it," Phantom rasped.
"You think she's going to be able to live with the knowledge of what she's done? A few more of those shocks and you'll be as dead as the others." Vlad stalked back and forth. "Do you want her to kill you?"
Phantom spit out a bit of saliva. It was tinged a bright green - probably the boy had bitten his tongue or cheek at some point. "Yeah, maybe I do." He laughed, although the sound was harsh and rattling. "Like I said: one of three ways to get you to stop hanging things over my head."
Vlad scowled and stalked forwards, snagging something out of his pocket. Maddie watched as Vlad took the small knife and made a deep gash on Phantom's cheek. Green flowed down the side of Danny's face, mixed liberally with red. Vlad stared at the mixture for a moment before nodding and taking a step backwards.
"Again."
Maddie pushed the button. The mixture of ectoplasm and blood leaking from the slice sprayed as Phantom shook his head at the pain. The ectoplasm sparkled and shone brilliantly green. When the chair finally turned back off, there was considerably more red than before.
Maddie smiled as the last bit of knowledge fell into place. "So that's it," she whispered.
"Look at your mother, Badger," Vlad said with a laugh. "She's smiling at the pain you're in."
Phantom looked up, meeting her gaze. His eyes were dull and empty, the skin on his face pale, his hair plastered to his sweaty skin. But when he saw the look on her face, he returned the smile - just a bit.
Maddie looked away, trying to surreptitiously glance over her shoulder at the guard standing by the door. She couldn't make any sort of move on Vlad without the man noticing. She couldn't take out the guard without Vlad intervening. If only she could-
Something sparkled in the corner of her gaze. Maddie tried not to jerk her head around, to study the thing without looking at it straight on. A ghost. Or at least the remains of one.
It was a girl - perhaps a teenager - decked out in a prom dress. Maddie recognized her as one of the girls from the folder Director Carson had dropped off. She was standing beside Jack, watching what was happening to Phantom with a dark expression on her face and brilliant red flashing in her eyes.
Perhaps the young ghost noticed Maddie's gaze, because the girl chose that moment to switch her attention from Phantom to Maddie. The ghost pointed towards Phantom with her head tipped to the side, then held out a hand. Something silver glittered between her fingers.
A key to the handcuffs.
That's when she noticed the expression on Jack's face. The man still had the same dark look to his eyes, but there was a slight smile on his lips. Maddie fought down a smile as she realized Jack's hands were free.
"Again!" sliced through the air.
Maddie pushed the button, keeping her gaze on Jack. She jerked her head towards the guard. Jack nodded and switched his gaze to the man, and Maddie turned her attention back to Vlad and Phantom, confident that Jack would have the guard angle covered. Now all she needed was a way to incapacitate Vlad long enough to get Phantom out of the chair and Vlad into it.
The man was so busy goading Phantom and taunting him that Vlad didn't notice the change in the atmosphere of the room. Maddie watched his every move carefully, studying him, waiting for a chance.
Silver glittered in his hand. Vlad was still carrying the knife he'd used to cut open her son's cheek. He switched it over to his less-dominant hand - the one closer to Maddie - and gestured wildly with it, his attention completely focused on the young half-human strapped into the chair.
Maddie took the opportunity for what it is and, unlike her son's earlier attempt, had decades of martial arts experience to allow her to capitalize on it. It took only a second to casually snap Vlad's wrist and retrieve the knife, another to stab it directly into Vlad's throat. Blood gushed everywhere, coating Maddie in a wave of warmth. Vlad's red eyes snapped over to meet hers even as they started to dull and he sank to the ground. Before Vlad's body had completely settled onto the floor, there was the sound of the guard hitting the floor behind her.
"Is he dead?" came Jack's voice.
"I doubt it," Maddie said, keeping a hold on her knife as she hurried towards the chair holding her son. "Yours?"
"No, but he's not going to enjoy waking up."
Maddie started to yank at the leather straps, trying to move as quickly as possible. "Let's get you out of there, sweetie," she said.
"I'd love that," Phantom rasped. As soon as the straps on his arm were lose, Phantom joined in on the effort, jerking at the strap holding his chest against the back of the chair. "You two are kinda scary when you get the chance," he said.
"Nobody messes with a Fenton," Jack muttered darkly, getting the last few straps undone and jerking Phantom bodily off the chair. "Come on."
The instant Phantom was out of the electrical field of the chair, his body gave way. Light flickered over his skin, returning him to his warm, human self. "Ow," Danny groaned, his voice shaking. "Oh, I forgot that it would hurt worse now."
Maddie allowed herself only a second to stand next to Jack and stare at her son. His blue eyes were closed, his face scrunched in pain, the thick slice on his face oozing blood over Jack's shirt. She ran her fingers gently through his hair. Then she took a step to stand over Vlad's body. The stab wound was already healing. "We need to deal with him."
Jack was silent. "Got a plan?" the man finally ventured.
"Put him in the chair." Maddie pressed her lips tightly together after the words left her mouth. "You heard him earlier - it's one of the few places in the world where ghosts can die."
"But-" Jack started, but stopped.
"Danny's right. He's not going to stop. He's just going to keep coming until one of three things happens." Maddie glanced up at Jack and Danny. Danny had gone limp - probably unconscious - and Jack looked torn. "Either we die, Danny dies, or he dies." She let out a breath. "I know which one I'd like to pick."
Jack nodded, although he didn't look completely convinced. He carefully set Danny down on the ground and helped haul Vlad's unresisting form towards the chair. The only sign of life was the slow, steady rise and fall of the man's chest. They loaded him in and strapped him down.
Red sparkled in Vlad's eyes as the electrical charge in the chair caused Vlad to wake up. Maddie and Jack took a step back, watching as Vlad took in his surroundings. When he opened his mouth to speak, his teeth were stained with blood. "You think you've won?" he man asked. His voice was strange sounding, coming from a throat that was still healing.
"I think you've lost," Maddie said. She held out the device.
Vlad laughed. "You don't have it in your heart to kill. Ghosts are one thing, but humans are something else completely." He sneered at her, red completely washing away the blue. "Leave and I'll let you live another day. Best offer you're going to get today."
Maddie stared at him. Her mind trailed over the images of all those children that had died because of Vlad. Her own son's screams still echoing in her head. The way Vlad had been slowly, painstakingly tearing her family apart for years.
There was nothing human left in this man. And that made her decision that much easier.
Her finger pressed down on the button, and didn't let up. She watched, straight-faced and empty-hearted, as what little was left of Vlad Masters died.
Jazz made the turn onto the smaller road, frustrated at how long it had taken her to reach the facility in Wisconsin. Danny had been here for hours already. She was definitely going to have to give the boy a piece of her mind for leaving her behind.
According to her GPS, the facility would be about a mile up ahead. She drove white-knuckled, going over and over her plan in her mind. She was going to walk up to the guards, politely demand to see Vlad, and then shoot the bastard dead-on with the Fenton Peeler. Simple, really. But the best plans usually were.
She didn't make it the whole mile. A few human-like shapes walking down the highway quickly resolved into her parents. Her father was carrying Danny. Her mother was coated in blood.
"Oh, my God!" she shrieked, pulling the car to a stop next to them and hurrying over. "What happened?!" Her first stop was Danny, and after finding him alive, practically attacked her mother.
"We're all going to be fine," Maddie reassured her. "Vlad's dead."
Jazz stopped and stared at her. "Really?"
Maddie nodded, her face pale and drawn. "It's over."
Jazz found that hard to believe, but decided to roll with it for now. "Are you going to tell me how?"
"Once we get going," the woman answered tiredly. "Let's get in the car and get home."
They'd just gotten Danny arranged on the back seat, his head cradled in Maddie's lap, and the car turned around and headed back towards the highway when sirens started to race past them. Police cars and ambulances - all of them headed up the road towards the government facility.
"Just how many people died?" Jazz asked after the fifth ambulance had raced by, sort of dreading the answer.
"Just one," Maddie replied from the back seat with a dead chuckle. "But one rather important one."
Jazz glanced at her mother in the rearview mirror. "And the government just let you walk out after you killed Vlad?"
"I wouldn't say they let us walk out," Maddie said. Her eyes were closed and her head rested on the back of the seat. "We may have had a hostage. And they were rather preoccupied with trying to save their fearless leader. And most of them were busy searching for Phantom and didn't particularly care about us." The smallest of smiles was on her face. "But it doesn't really matter. We're out, Vlad's dead, and we're all still alive."
Jazz frowned and turned the car onto the highway that would take them back towards Amity Park.