A Daniel X Fanfic

by Sakura Martinez


Disclaimer:

I do not own Daniel X, or the characters in that story. James Patterson own the rights for them. What I do own is the idea for the fanfic and this fanfic itself.


Summary:

After surviving Void's Game, being reunited with his drang, and learning the truth about Void, Daniel X leaves with Khadagh to prepare for the imminent battle between Number One and Two. But when both Daniel and Khadagh disappears, The Prayer begins his revenge, seeking the aid of a mysterious group. Now, it's a race against time our heroes to put a stop to The Prayer's latest scheme before it's too late and it will take everything in their power to do so.


Daniel X: Out of Time

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Two-In-One


Undinogh couldn't understand it as he backed away from Daniel X. He couldn't understand where the boy's powers could possibly be coming from. He had already beaten the young Alien Hunter to the ground, and yet, here is Daniel X again, standing up, much more stronger than he was before...and with the seals in the ship still in place, no less!

Anger flared within Undinogh.

How dare this child make fun of me! He thought to himself. How dare he pretend that that was the extent of his powers! How dare he make a fool out of me!

Daniel, however, felt more than anger. He felt disbelief, and confusion, even as Khadagh's memories—for that was what the quick reel in his head was—explained to him what Khadagh did and what it meant for Daniel. Though he was thankful to now stand with more than a fighting chance against his enemy, he couldn't accept what Khadagh did.

"How am I supposed to pay you back for this?" He muttered.

Daniel then shook his head then focused his attention on Undinogh, who was wide-eyed at his sudden recovery.

Daniel smirked and, although he didn't really have the right to, he said, "What's wrong, Undinogh? Why do you look so surprised? I told you I still got something up my sleeves, didn't I?"

Undinogh gritted his teeth and, for the first time since their bout started, it was his turn to charge at Daniel. Daniel stood his ground, ready. He knew all the moves Undinogh might make. He knew all of Undinogh's powers. He knew all of that because of Khadagh.

I won't let it go to waste, though... Daniel thought to himself.

The real battle had begun.


"Dana, are you sure you should be doing that?" Joe asked me, worry was the only expression that had been on his face for the past few minutes.

I bit the insides of my cheek to keep me from saying something snarky. I had pushed myself up and half-crawled to where Joe was taking point before he noticed me and helped me up. After that, both of us had been busy trying to hold our position as hordes of enemies ranging from androids, cyborgs, beefed-up aliens, ghoulish-looking aliens, slimy aliens, and basically every bad race of alien out in the known galaxy.

I wasn't healed, not yet. But as the fight wore on, I was starting to feel less nauseous and had managed to fell more enemies than before, when most of my attacks had bad aim.

Although we Alparians are quick to heal, the process still takes us far longer if we were under stress—which I was feeling at that moment. So, even though my sides were still bleeding and I still had that tangy taste of blood on my mouth (not to mention the feel of Khadagh's lips on mine, though I try hard to forget about that), I kept on fighting side-by-side with Joe, all the while wondering how things were doing on Daniel's end.

"Why...are you blushing?" Joe asked me so suddenly that I ended up sending a psychic wave at the wrong direction—although it did end up causing a couple of slime aliens to explode in a gooey mess.

"Don't surprise me like that!" I retorted. "Look what you made me do."

"How did I surprise you exactly?" Joe asked with a frown. "I just asked you why you were blushing, I don't think that would qualify as surprising you."

"Just drop the question, Joe." I replied, taking aim at an incoming Grogan and letting an energy projectile fly towards it before it could fire its Rocket Launcher at us.

"Do I need to ask if it has anything to do with Daniel?"

"Joe—" I warned him. Down goes another Grogan and a Centaurian.

"Right. Daniel-stuff. Got it."

I glared at Joe and he finally dropped the subject.

We continued with our defense and soon we could see that the numbers of our enemies were starting to thin out. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. I wanted to be through with this fight and see if I can give Daniel a hand. I knew that if he wasn't with us yet, that he, Emma and Willy might be having a hard time dealing with Undinogh. I didn't particularly care about his instructions then, at that moment, all I wanted was to ensure that he and my friends were safe and that I would be able to help him in any way that I can.

When Joe finally put down the last of the mechanical monstrosities that had attacked us, he sighed and said, "Now we can get down to business. I sure hope there aren't any more booby-traps inside."

He motioned towards the entrance to the room containing the emergency ship—the room whose doors had exploded the moment I tried to use my powers on it, the room that was clearly booby-trapped with the trap set to go off when I triggered it. The memory of what had happened, the cause of my injuries, made me fuming mad. I wanted to wring the neck of the person responsible for that—although I did have an idea of who it was. I mean, I was still using my psychic barrier on both Joe and myself and I was the only one who was injured. That only meant one thing...which made getting my revenge hard.

I stood, putting weight on one foot then another, as I looked back and forth. First, towards the room that led to the escape ship and then to the hall that Daniel, Willy, and Emma took. I was so busy, contemplating on my dilemma and what I should do that I didn't notice Joe looking at me.

"Go," he said. I turned around and saw Joe smiling, his eyes filled with understanding.

"But—" I wanted to argue that he needed someone with him and that I would still be in no position to help in a fight, especially being wounded as I was.

Joe shook his head, "I don't think there would be any more enemies coming my way for a while. Daniel could use your shield. Besides, you want to go to him, don't you?"

I nodded, "Thank you, Joe."

Joe nodded back at me and, before I forced myself to run as fast as I could without causing excessive bleeding on my wounds, he asked me for a favor, "Make sure that everyone's safe."

"I will." He didn't need to tell me that, and I didn't have to think too hard of the silent request he made to me about Emma.


He was faster. He was stronger. He didn't have to focus all that hard in order to create something out of thin air. Khadagh's experience and his knowledge gave Daniel the edge to quickly turn the tide of battle, pushing Undinogh further and further back. It didn't take long for Daniel to exact revenge for the wounds the other alien had inflicted on him earlier in their fight.

Though he wanted so much to torture the alien that had caused him and those he cared about so much harm, Daniel couldn't bring it within himself to do so. Even though Khadagh's will, his memories and his knowledge was forcing him to do so. What Khadagh had done in order to save him had caused him to house not only his own thoughts but Khadagh's as well inside his mind. It was like having two people inhabit one body. It was confusing and disorienting and Daniel was sure he would have been sorting things out had he not been fighting with Undinogh.

Daniel had no problems with putting an end to the lives of those on The List. After all, the galaxy is safe without them. What he could never do, what he never had the stomach to do, was to torture someone and he made that known in that battle which wasn't just a battle between Undinogh and him, but between Daniel's own will and Khadagh's. The latter was a much more difficult battle. After all, Daniel was at an even match with Khadagh.

He deserves to be tortured. He deserves to slowly die...he deserves it after what he did to Dana. Khadagh's will kept on murmuring to him. He could feel the anger resonating within that will, the same anger that Daniel believed Khadagh truly felt.

I won't. He fought back.

On and on that went within Daniel even as his body moved in battle with Undinogh. It was taxing for Daniel. He was tired and he wanted it to be over already. He wanted to check up on his friends most of all. Though there could possibly be more nobler reasons, those were what actually pushed him to silence the angry voice of Khadagh's will inside of him.

With the voice of Khadagh's will gone, Daniel was able to think clearly and with a great deal of force, he skewered Undinogh with the sword that was twice as big as his arm—a sword that not only pierced Undinogh but also electrocuted him for good measure. As if that wasn't enough, Daniel used the one power Khadagh had warned him not to use—the same power he had used during his time in The Game and the whole room was bathed in a prism of colors that sucked the life out of Undinogh.

With that done, and with Undinogh thrashing for the final time as his life slowly came to a close, Daniel slumped to the ground. Too tired to stand up and do anything else.


Losing altitude. Engine 1 and 3, Engine 8 and 9 now out of commission. The artificial intelligence of the ship announced, giving a warning to quickly evacuate the ship. Ship no longer stabilized.

The AI didn't need to do that. I could feel the ship losing it's balance and it made it harder for me to get to where Daniel and the others or twice I felt as though I was about to puke, even though there wasn't anything left in my system to puke.

Several minutes of slipping, banging my knee on fallen debris, and having to duck and make my way to my destination, I finally arrived.

The room that was supposed to be the cockpit surprised me. For a moment, I couldn't breathe and wondered what that was about, until I saw that the oxygen levels on that room was already non-existent. Using my powers, I created a bubble of oxygen for myself and stepped inside.

It was total pandemonium. Everything was destroyed or in a state of disarray. What's more, there wasn't any movements in the room and it made me fear for the safety and lives of my friends, my drang. Putting my own safety on the line, I ventured into the room, my eyes slightly adjusting to the slight dimness as I searched for Emma, Willy, and of course, Daniel. I had to move a lot of debris around before I found Willy and her sister, both of them were unconscious. Relief flooded through me as I checked their pulse and found their hearts beating.

Using the communicator that Joe handed me before I left him, I contacted him.

"I need your help," I told him.

"Is something wrong? Is everyone alright?" Joe's voice fizzled in and out as he asked his questions.

"Yeah, yeah...Willy and Emma are alright. Just...knocked out and bruised but nothing as bad as what I had to suffer." I let him know.

"And Daniel?" He asked just as I was looking around the room, trying to find a clue of where Daniel could be or where he could have gone to. There wasn't a sign of Undinogh. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"I haven't found him yet, the whole cockpit's in shambles." was my reply. "Undinogh's not around as well."

Joe might have sense how frightened and worried I felt, or he might have heard the slight tremble in my voice as I spoke. Either way, his voice softened as he told me, "I'm sure he's just around there. Hold on, I'm coming."

And with that, he signed out. I waited while also resuming my search for Daniel. The state of the room really irked me and I wanted everything to just blow away and for the room to clear itself up. Oh, if only I could think things like that and it would just happen. Sadly, it didn't and I had to comb the room like a human—no offense.

Joe arrived a couple of short minutes later and I pointed him to where I had left the siblings sleeping. He nodded and walked towards them. He took Emma in his arms and began the painstaking journey back to the escape ship. I didn't think Willy would have minded if his sister went first, and I suppose that was the same reasoning Joe had...apart from the fact that, well, it was Emma.

With Joe no longer around to interrupt my search, I resumed it.

I was starting to get worried again, worried that Undinogh might still be alive and that he had taken Daniel away, when I saw Daniel slumped on the farthest and darkest side of the room. I saw him only because electricity flickered there. I didn't wait for another heartbeat, I immediately ran towards him, all the while praying that he would be alright, that he would be alive.

Not having the same powers to call on anything from my imagination hindered me a bit, especially since I wanted some light. I improvised and used a sphere of pure energy to do what a candle or a flashlight would have done. I saw Daniel's tattered and bloody clothes first, causing me to gasp and fear for him. As I began to inspect him, the fear and worry turn into disbelief. There was nothing wrong with Daniel—no wounds, no bruises, and his heartbeat was strong, his breathing normal.

I couldn't believe that he was merely sleeping and the relief that I felt was tantamount that I ended up slumping beside him. I knew that he should be bruised, maybe even have a broken bone or two, a large gaping wound (based on the amount of blood on his shirt), but there wasn't any of that. He was perfectly...healthy. And, although I was happy that that was the case, I was also confused and I couldn't help but wonder what had happened and if Daniel really was alright.

Joe returned a couple of minutes later and saw me with Daniel—whom I had used my powers to elevate and carry. He was also happy to see that Daniel was alive. I didn't tell Joe about Daniel being more than alive, didn't tell him yet about our "leader's" lack of wounds. I decided to wait until we were away from Undinogh's ship which I was sure would self-destruct any moment now.

With Emma on his arms and Daniel floating closely behind us, Joe and I made our way to means of escape—the lone emergency ship.

The ship was small and with the five of us—three of which were currently unconscious—it was tight. But we made do with what we have. It's not like we had a choice about that, though it was part of the plan to use this ship should Daniel be unable to lend us his powers and create one for us.

We didn't stay long after that. As soon as we were all seated and buckled up, Joe took the helm and flew us out of Undinogh's ship. And he did just in the nick of time, too, for as soon as we did, the whole ship exploded behind us. I don't know how many of Undinogh's men survived, if any...and I wasn't all that concerned about them. I was more concerned about the well-being of my family, my drang.