The Soul Sepulchre Chapter 26: That Might Scar, a danny phantom fanfic

Hiya!

I-It's an update! Yes it is! And… and… I can't believe I survived exam week ohmygoodness! Seriously, I've have 8 hours of sleep in the last 4 days, my coffee haze is making the world slightly surreal and I'm STILL grinning XD

(I'm SO going to end up crashing hard tonight, oh boy)

Disclaimer: Ownership of Danny Phantom goes to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon.

Enjoy!

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The Soul Sepulchre

-By Sholay

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Chapter 26 — That Might Scar

"Okay, you sure this is going to work?" Jazz asked as she jogged down the stairs to their parents' lab.

"No." Danny, in ghost form, admitted as he rolled Tucker's unconscious body off his shoulder. Lowering the other boy to the ground, his legs merged into a spectral tail as he arced upward to fetch the Fenton Ghost Catcher. He hefted the glorified dreamcatcher by its narrow stand and set it down in front of Tucker before drifting up to consider the device. He cupped his chin in one hand, the other gripping his elbow.

"Does this thing even work?" Jazz wondered, flicking one of the feathers attached to the sides of the large metallic circle at the top of the device.

"Sure it does." Danny nodded. "Remember that time a few months ago when I… uh…" He faltered, hands suspended mid-shrug.

"Grew a ponytail overnight and started acting like a surfer bum while your accidental doppelganger was busy being a Marvel comics reject sporting a bedsheet?" Sam interjected dryly folding her arms as she scanned the remnants of the Jack and Maddie's latest experiment strewn across the stainless steel lab table.

"Yeah, that." Danny pointed at his friend, not even bothering to be embarrassed. "Well, it's because I'd wanted a break from all the ghost hunting and threw myself through this thing." And the hybrid stuck his hand through the green webbing interlacing the wide circle. Jazz gasped as not one hand, but two emerged from the other side: one the pale, fleshy tone of Danny's human half, the other encased in a glowing glove. "See, it really is a ghost catcher. Well… sort of." He amended. "It splits the ghost from the human."

"Among other things." Sam muttered. On the table near her was a row of plastic containers holding staining solutions. Next to them stood a rusty ring stand held a covered beaker of viscous neon pink liquid over a slow burning flame. She watched the unattended experiment, eyebrow arching as the liquid undulated and bubbled.

"Yeah, uhm…" Danny pulled his hand—his single hand—back through the net and ran it through his snowy hair, grasping the short strands at his nape sheepishly. "I guess it works differently for me 'cause I'm only half a ghost."

Jazz was still staring at the spot where her brother had split himself into two.

…Split into two…

"Of course! That's why there were two of you running around! And I thought I was going crazy! You!" She smacked Danny's arm. "How could you do that to me?"

"Huh?" He stared at her, bemused, as he rubbed away the tingling of her slap. Then his mouth formed a small 'o' of realization. "Ohh, I get it. You saw… before even… and then after… and you thought… ohh… Sorry." His shining eyes weren't at all apologetic and Jazz was tempted to smack him again. But when her eyes caught on the claw marks curling over his throat and the faded hand-shaped bruising just visible over his collar, she stalled, smile fading.

Sam, stepping away from the lab table, shook her head at Danny as she approached the siblings and the Fenton Ghost Catcher. "You know, it says something about how well I know you that I was able to understand exactly what you just said."

"Speaking of which," Danny swooped down to land in front of Sam to gaze seriously into her eyes. "I'm really sorry I didn't listen to you before. I know you only wanted to find out what was going on at the museum, but I should have explained to you why I didn't want to go back there instead of getting angry."

Here violet eyes widened in shock, then lowered as she rubbed one hand over her arm. "Look, don't worry about it, Danny. It… was a bad decision all around so why don't we move on?"

'You're apologizing again.' The sinister voice that only Danny could hear sneered in his ear.

'It's worth it this time.' He said back resolutely. 'They went through something terrible—'

'And you didn't?'

'—because of my thoughtlessness and the least I can do is apologize.' Danny continued, pretending he hadn't even heard the voice's jibe.

Looking back at Sam, he saw that she, lost in her own thoughts, hadn't noticed his brief distraction. "But you're okay, right? No voices in your head, nothing trying to take over your body—no ghost, I mean?" He asked concernedly.

"I don't feel overshadowed." She answered slowly. "That's good, right?"

Jazz glanced at Sam. "That's a rather odd thing to say." Sam's eyes flashed in annoyance, but Jazz persisted. "How do you feel overshadowed? If you were then you wouldn't be able to tell, and if you—."

"Your eyes are normal, so that's a good sign." Danny cut in quickly, sensing the beginning of an argument.

"That reminds me!" Jazz snapped her fingers. "Danny, do you know why Tucker's eyes were black? And the thing in his said it wasn't a ghost—"

"Let's just get him through the Ghost Catcher, 'kay?" Danny interrupted brusquely, not meeting his sister's eyes as he gathered Tucker in his arms. "Sorry dude, but this is for your own good."

As he tossed Tucker at the Fenton Ghost Catcher, Danny was struck with a sense of déjà vu. The last time he'd done this was when Tucker had wished himself to be a half-ghost, forcing Danny to remove the malevolent spirit inside his friend. That time, the exorcism had gone smoothly, he could only hope the same would happen this time.

However, the moment Tucker hit the net and a flash of black energy exploded outward, Danny knew smooth was the last thing this was going to be.

A howl of agony ripped through the air as Tucker appeared on the other side of the Ghost Catcher. He hit the ground shrieking and convulsing. All three teens ran to Tucker's side but they could only watch as something black and viscous began to form in the air above Tucker. Danny thought of using the Fenton Thermos, or even firing a ghost ray at it, but even as the idea occurred to him it was too late. In the span of a second, the putrid energy had attached itself back to Tucker, absorbing back into the boy's skin.

A maniacal laugh began to sound from Tucker's mouth and Danny saw a half circle of black appear under his eyelids as he began to wake.

Almost instantly, Jazz leaped over and strapped a breathing mask onto Tucker's face. The teen's eyes immediately opened in rage, but Jazz simply pressed a button on the mask, allowing it to fill with blue mist and Tucker's head knocked onto the ground as he fell back into unconsciousness.

For a moment, all three teens just stood around Tucker, staring at the unmoving body with eerie calm.

"GKO Gas?" Danny remarked offhandedly, already knowing the answer. Jazz simply nodded as she removed the mask from Tucker's nose and mouth.

"GKO Gas?" Sam questioned.

"Ghost Knock-Out Gas." Danny clarified. "Supposed to knock ghosts unconscious—ideal for dissecting, molecule ripping, and all that fun stuff. It works. Problem is, it knocks humans out just as completely."

"Hm…" Sam said, sounding much too thoughtful for his taste.

"Oie, I know that look," he said pointing at his friend. "You better not be planning on knocking out the cheerleading squad before the next school pep rally, or something, are you?"

"Oh, you have no idea what I'm planning." Her evil grin was a little scary, though the look was quickly wiped off her face as she stared down at Tucker soberly. "Seriously though, how long will he be out?"

Danny looked at Jazz, who shrugged.

"Anywhere from one hour to one day." The elder sibling said unhelpfully.

Sam sighed. "It's too bad there's an evil ghost taking over his body, or I'd so be giving him a make-over right now."

Danny grinned, though it was only half-hearted.

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Hours later, Danny and Sam were still in the lab watching Tucker's unconscious body. Jazz had gone upstairs to order pizza, since no one was in any mood to cook and the Fenton siblings had no idea when their parents would be returning home.

Sam was busy at the computer, typing and clicking as she tried to search for any information on Tucker's mysterious ailment. Danny however, had hardly moved from his sitting position near Tucker's head. He'd allowed himself to lapse back into his human form, but was still tense and twitchy. His mind was awhirl with thought: a montage on fast-forward. Each image flipped by sharp enough to set his teeth on edge, but too fragmented and fleeting to focus on.

So he drifted, letting his mind run on autopilot while his eyes stayed fixated on the source of his anxiety.

There was a terrifyingly familiar black stain on Tucker's cheek. After that horrible moment when they'd tossed Tucker through the Fenton Ghost Catcher, Jazz had leaned down over the unconscious teen and pointed out the strange mark.

She had dismissed it as merely a bruise, but Danny had been struck with a shock of cold realization and had only barely restrained himself from grabbing his shoulder and alerting Jazz to his fear.

Now, without his nosey sister peering over his head, Danny reached up and rubbed his shoulder. Under his shirt he knew there was a mark almost identical to the one on Tucker's cheek. Except Tucker's was much larger, stretching down over his neck and past the collar of his shirt.

Danny didn't dare check how far down it actually went.

The ebony colour of the mark was much less obvious against Tucker's dark skin. On Danny's ghostly complexion, it was so painfully noticeable that he cringed every time he looked at himself in the mirror without his shirt on. But he had to look closer to see Tucker's. Once he'd recognized it for what it was though, he couldn't tear his eyes away.

'That… thing inside Tucker… Is that what's inside me?' A flash of memory reminded him of the emaciated creature he kept seeing in his dreams, the one that had stolen his face…Danny shuddered in repulsion. Subconsciously, his fingers slipped beneath his shirt to scratch at the spot on his shoulder, as though his nails alone could dig it out. 'But Tucker has only had that thing in him for a couple of days, and he's already been taken over. I've had it for... almost three weeks now.'

He shivered.

"Danny! Mom and Dad's car is coming into the driveway!" Jazz's muted voice floated down over the stairs and Danny jumped to his feet.

He was about to grab Tucker and switch to his ghost form when Sam swivelled around in her chair and stopped him.

"Wait!"

Danny paused but bounced impatiently on the balls of his feet. "What?" he prompted. "C'mon Sam, I gotta get Tuck upstairs."

"Maybe not," Sliding out of her chair, she made her way past the lab table with its still burning Bunsen burner and mysterious bubbling liquid to reach Danny's side. "Look, Danny, you're parents are paranormal experts, maybe they can help Tucker."

He immediately dismissed the idea. "No, Sam. Mom and Dad won't know how to deal with this. Before I—before the Ghost Portal started working, they'd never even seen a ghost before. They haven't even caught one on their own yet."

"Okay," she conceded. "But that doesn't mean they don't know what they're doing. I mean, look at all the stuff they created." She gestured to the lab with its plethora of gadgetry and glassware. "How many times have one these inventions saved your life?" Danny had to confess that she did have a point.

"But—" He protested. Wasn't Sam the one who was always telling him not to trust adults? What was with this sudden change in attitude?

"But what? Danny, this isn't about you and your secret. This is about Tucker. And right now we need to think about him first. Do you know how to help him? Do I? Does Jazz? No, we don't. But your parents might. Come on, Danny, think. You're not being reasonable. You're being paranoid." Her eyes, sharp and demanding, bored into his own.

He opened his mouth, hesitated, then closed it again, licking his lips.

He didn't want to ask his parents for help. But why? They really did know more about ghosts than he did. Sure, he was a better hunter, and maybe he had more practical knowledge, but no one Danny knew was smarter than his mother, and his father could take apart just about anything and put it back together—sometimes without even understanding what he was doing. His parents knew everything there was to know about the pure science behind ghosts and the supernatural. So why was he so resistant to Sam's idea?

He knew the true reason. Even if he didn't want to admit it.

Ever since Danny had gained ghost powers he'd learned to develop a healthy pathological fear of his parents. Healthy, because that it kept his limbs firmly attached to his body, thank you very much. Pathological, because there was nothing healthy about his simmering resentment and the way that he instinctively wanted to leave any room they were in.

Sam was right, though; this wasn't about him. This was about Tucker. And his parents were their best bet right now. He'd just have to suck it up.

He took a deep breath and looked towards the stairs. "Okay."

Maddie was putting the groceries on the counter when her son's head became visible around the door between the lab and kitchen. He hugged the frame, standing awkwardly in the threshold.

"Uh… Mom?" His eyes flicked to her then to Jazz standing near the sink, hesitating.

Maddie turned, immediately sensing that something was amiss. "Honey? Is there something wrong?"

He stepped fully into the room and when Maddie was able to get a good look at his face, she realized that the dark bruise on his cheek from last night had completely healed. He also had on a long-sleeved sweater that was zipped up, covering him from wrist to jaw. The attire was much to warm for late April—especially for Danny, who never seemed to wear anything except jeans and a t-shirt. These things struck her as odd, but when Danny started speaking she focused back on his words.

"I… uh… I was wondering if you and Dad could help—" His hand gravitated to the back of his head, as it was prone to do when he was nervous.

"Danny!" Jazz's harsh chiding caught Maddie by surprise and her eyes cut to her eldest child.

"I don't know what else to do, Jazz!" Danny's voice rose as he said this, the hand on his head fell and he struck the doorframe with the side of a fist. Then, as soon as it came, the anger bled out of him and he was left looking weary. "Mom, Tucker's hurt."

Maddie could have reacted. She could have shouted out and demanded to know what was going on. Was there another ghost attack? How did Tucker get hurt? Why was Danny's friend even at their house when Danny was grounded?

But then she saw the looks her children were giving each other. Jazz's expression was cryptic as she stared at Danny, who stubbornly refused to meet her eyes. He shuffled with agitattion before tuning his head up to stare Maddie full on, hands buried deep into his pockets. Jazz might have been unreadable, but Danny had always been an open book to Maddie. He looked scared. Scared and confused. And then she knew what she had to do.

"Show me where he is." She said decisively, abandoning the groceries on the table.

"Jazz, get your father. He's upstairs." Head dipping in compliance, Jazz headed around the island countertop. Her eyes were locked with Danny's the entire way and when she passed in front of him, Maddie saw the spark of unspoken communication between them. Danny's mouthed words, carrying only a hint of breath—'Trust me'—did nothing for Maddie's anxiety. It seemed to work for Jazz though, who abruptly broke eye contact, nodding once before hurrying toward the stairs.

Maddie considered her son, weighing her choices. Scolding and grounding Danny didn't seem to be stopping him from getting into trouble. Openly asking questions didn't get her any answers. Waiting just seemed to be making things worse. Maybe she could try a different way.

They descended the stairs to the lab, Danny jogging ahead to meet Sam, who stood at the bottom, watching them come. Maddie wasn't all that surprised to see the girl. Where there was one of Danny's friends, the other was not often far behind.

"Sam!" He called. "He didn't wake up yet, did he?" He asked anxiously.

Sam shook her head and Maddie wondered at the phrasing of her son's question: they didn't want Tucker to wake up?

Then she saw the boy lying in the middle of the room and she rushed to his side.

"What happened to him?" She demanded, immediately lowering herself to the ground by the boy. She raised his head, lying it on her knee as she examined him closer. Tucker was breathing, a little roughly, but steadily. He had a heartbeat and he seemed to be unhurt, except for a dark bruise across his right cheek. There were holes burnt into his shirt, but when Maddie looked for resulting marks on his skin she didn't find any.

"What happened?" She asked again, twisting around to face the teens when she received no immediate response. Danny was staring at her wide-eyed, and he looked to Sam. The girl was frowning, and they exchanged a meaningful glance before turning back. Danny's mouth opened—

A loud gasp near the stairs alerted her to the presence of her husband and daughter and she looked up.

Jack staggered in the doorway, his eyes wide as he stared at Tucker with such severe disbelief that it bordered on horror. Danny and Jazz looked at him worriedly, never having seen an expression like that cross the face of their normally easygoing father. But Maddie, who had loved and supported Jack through some of the darkest moments of his life, recognized the expression.

Ghosts, not of the literal kind, but the figurative, echoed in Jack's eyes as he stared at the black mark on Tucker's face.

"You've seen this before." Maddie stated. When he didn't respond, she urged him further. "Jack… Jack! Don't just stand there, tell me what you know!" She half rose when she said this, and ended up jolting Tucker sharply before she calmed back down. She placed a hand over his forehead. His hat had fallen off, and lay discarded on the ground. Now, Maddie removed the boy's glasses. When she reached up to put them on a table she felt a pair of hands gently pull them from her fingers. Looking up, she saw Danny's apprehensive eyes and gave him a reassuring smile.

Then she heard a low groan and Danny gasped and looked down. Maddie followed his gaze and saw that the sound was coming from Tucker. The boy made another sound in his throat, though this one sounded more like a growl; then he twitched.

It was as though someone had exploded a firecracker under Jack's feet. Defying his large girth, the man leapt forward, tearing the teen from Maddie's hands and nearly throwing him onto the dissection table. Tucker hissed, though his eyes didn't open and he jerked against the leather bands Jack tied to his wrists and ankles to hold him to the table.

"Jack!" Maddie exclaimed.

"Dad!" Danny yelled, rushing forward with Sam. Jazz stood back, her hands flew to cover her mouth.

"Danny, get back!" Jack ordered his son. But Danny paid him no heed, rushing to Tucker's side and placed a hand on his friend's arm.

The instant fingers brushed skin, Tucker's eyes snapped open. A feral yowl escaped bared molars and sinister black eyes fixed on startled blue. Tucker strained up against his restraints, teeth gnashing, muscles in his neck and arms bunching.

Danny saw it a split-second before it happened, but couldn't react fast enough: the strap on Tucker's right arm was loose—wild spasms made it come completely undone and then Tucker's hand shot out, fixing in Danny's collar and yanking him forward, forcing the half-ghost to bend double across his friends chest.

Someone was yelling, there was scrambling of people rushing, but Danny was deaf to everything except Tucker's hissed words.

"You think you've won, Halfling?" Tucker breathed, his lips so near, they brushed against Danny's ear. Someone was pulling at Danny, trying to tug him away. But Tucker's grip was a vice and it held strong, jerking Danny close. "You can try and cut us out, but we will keep coming again and again and again… until we have devoured everything. This boy spilt blood on our sepulchre, his soul is mine." Danny gasped and tried to recoil when he felt something warm and wet touch his neck.

"And so is yours." Tucker grinned into Danny's jaw.

Large hands slammed down on Danny's shoulders, wrenching him back and tossing him almost violently across the room where he stumbled and hit his back against the wall. Tucker gave no resistance this time, letting Danny go easily and his head leaned back as he let out a bark of cold laughter that sent chilled spiders down Danny's spine. Tucker laughed, and kept laughing even as Jack pinned his wrist roughly to the table and pulled the strap so tight that it was bound to leave marks on the boy's arm.

His mother was at his side, touching his shoulder and asking if he was all right. Danny could only nod dumbly as he rubbed at the spot of wetness on his neck with the back of his hand, trying to erase the lingering, wormlike sensation Tucker's tongue had left. He stared at the monster in his best friend's body. It laughed, cackling with a manic expression that was all wrong on Tucker's face.

The sound of tinkling of glass crashing and scattering across the metal floor brought Danny out of his daze and he blinked up at his father who was upsetting the beakers and Petri dishes on the table in a clumsy search for something. Not finding it, he abandoned the tabletop and opened the drawers, pawing through the insides. Presently, his hand emerged, gripping a dark, amber tinted glass bottle. Spinning the top off, the liquid was poured into a vaporizer, which was promptly attached to a facemask. Jack wasted no time in slapping the slapdash device over Tucker's nose and mouth.

"A sedative?" Maddie drew away from Danny as she watched her husband fiddle with the vaporizer.

"Sevoflurane." He informed curtly out of the corner of his mouth.

Danny looked to Jazz for clarification but she looked as confused as he felt.

"General anaesthesia, Jack?" Maddie looked bemused. "What are you—"

"There's no time! We have to hurry." Jack looked up briefly at his wife when he said this. Under his hands, Tucker's struggles became sluggish, though he had begun to mutter darkly under his breath. "Maddie! I need you to help me. I … I can't use the ecto-scalpel like you." It was a testament to the seriousness of the situation that Jack was actually putting his pride aside and admitting his wife was better than him. This was not the point she had focused on though.

"You want to do surgery on him?" She gasped and behind her, Maddie thought she heard Danny choke.

Jack merely leaned over Tucker, bringing up a pair of scissors he sheared upward through Tucker's shirt, then flipped the ruined garment aside.

Everyone in the room seemed to inhale sharply at what was revealed.

What had looked like a simple bruise on Tucker's cheek darkened and curved over his throat; it burned the entire right side of his chest black and, even as they watched, seemed to be creeping over his left pectoral.

"It hasn't reached his heart yet. We still have time!" Jack insisted, holding out the scalpel to Maddie.

"My God… It's the Devil's Mark." She breathed putting a hand to her mouth. She had read about it, but had never expected to see one in real life.

"What? Wait—the Devil's Mark? What's that? What's going on?" Danny's agitated voice interrupted their exchange and he stepped around Maddie to place himself almost protectively over Tucker. "Someone tell me what's going on! Dad, you can't possibly want to cut Tucker with that—he's still awake!" As though to punctuate his words, Tucker chose that moment to let out a hissing snarl, though his eyes stayed shut.

Remembering how Tucker had lashed out at her son just moments ago, Maddie hastened to pull Danny away from the dissection table. But Danny was unmoved, spurning her attempts at moving him and yanking his arm from her grip.

"Dad—" he started

"Danny, not now." Jack ordered sternly.

Danny's eyes were opened wide, but he held his ground, stubbornly putting an arm over Tucker and blocking him from Jack. "No! I came to ask you to help, not dissect my friend!" At the end, the teen's voice was almost hysterical and Jack looked like he'd reached the end of his fuse. Maddie quickly intervened.

"Danny," She soothed, putting a hand on her son's shoulder. She didn't fail to notice how he repressed a flinch at the touch. "I need you to trust us right now. Tucker is in grave danger; we have to operate now otherwise he will not live. If that mark reaches his heart, he… He'll die, Danny."

Those words had a dramatic effect. Danny staggered back, as though struck. He stared disbelievingly up at Maddie.

She looked straight into his bright eyes. "And… Tucker should have been put completely under by the general anaesthetic." She watched as Jack took off the Sevoflurine mask and replaced it with one that provided oxygen. "Whatever is causing his body to move is not Tucker."

Danny looked pained, "You… can take it out?" He croaked. "Cut it out? Are you sure?"

She gave him a sad smile, but nodded definitively. "I will. And I will explain everything you later but right now you need to let your father and I work. Don't worry about Tucker, the scalpel is designed only to cut ghosts."

"…Ghosts?" He echoed, a strange look on his face. "Will… it work on demons?"

"Demons?" Maddie's eyes sharpened. "What—how did—"

"Get back, Danny, I won't say it again. Maddie, take the Spectre Spectacles," If the situation hadn't been so dire, Maddie might have laughed at the name. Even Danny, she saw, had his eyebrows raised in dry humour. She took the pair of amber-tinted glasses from her husband, who gave her a brief rundown of their function: "You'll be able to see any foreign energy in the body with these. Ecto signatures should light up like a Christmas tree."

Maddie was suddenly aware of the empty space near her—Danny must have finally retreated to join Sam and Jazz. Grateful that he had finally decided to leave Tucker in her—and Jack's—capable hands, she turned the glasses over in her hands. The arms were thin, so were the two circular lenses. A small dial on the side proved to be an ingenious magnification device, but other than that, they looked like a set of ordinary, if dated, spectacles.

Shaking her head at her husband's quirkiness, she raised the goggles already on her eyes so that they rested on her forehead. Tentatively, she placed the Spectacles on her nose.

Almost immediately, a loud gasp escaped her mouth.

She could see it. She hadn't exactly doubted Jack's expertise—not much, anyway—but this… This erased all doubt.

Tucker's entire body was shrouded in a dull grey glow—no doubt proof of the foreign entity's possession. The grey turned to tepid ash before burning a sinister black around the Devil's Mark on Tuckers cheek and chest. But there was a certain spot, directly over the boy's sternum, which seemed to be the source. It pulsed, and as Maddie watched, it seemed to inch slightly to the left.

She swallowed, then steeled herself for what was to come.

"Scalpel." She said in her firmest voice, holding out her hand.

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End Chapter 26

To Be Continued…

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Hey now… Tucker? Dissection? This is worrisome ;P

To: Dark Scrivener, aslan333, MidnightResWri, Rogue Alice, Phanfan925, dragondancer123, smallvillephantom14, Iaveina, Alkhemy Flynch, ginnywillalwaysrock, DPfruitloop and Senside. You guys rock :D

Please review, I really, really wanna know what you guys think of this one (evil grin)... Remember, even if I don't necessarily write for reviews, I won't deny that they inspire my to write (coughUPDATEcough) faster! (What? Nooo, that's not extortion! Waddaya talking about? Think about it as... um... purposive encouragement? Yeah XD)

Adio!