A/N: Man, is it ever great to be writing again! W00t! Anyway, if you were confused by III, you might want to go back and take another look at it. Liaranne gave me some good feedback, and as of 12/20/04, there's a revised version of III up.

Lose Yourself

By JadeRabbyt

IV

It was track day. The sun shone bright and hot, and the powdered sand crunched softly under the students' tennis shoes. Danny, Tucker, Sam, Paullina, and Gordon all puttered around the finish line, each chatting with his or her respective cliques and griping about the mile. Gordon told Paullina that he liked the mile run, that it was a 'good test of strength' and 'really separated out the weaklings.' Meaning himself, Danny thought. He wished that he had the muscles to brag. If was on a sports team like baseball or something, then Paullina would have no problem going with him. Paullina always chose jocks for boyfriends.

Sam and Tucker noticed his brooding and quickly brought him back to the crucial subject of how awful this whole nonstop-mile-run thing was. Danny agreed that it was indeed awful and added that their teacher must crazy. He cringed when the teacher spoke up from behind him, warning him to watch his mouth. He blew the whistle for the students to line up, dispensing the obligatory threats and demeaning comments, It was only a mile you should be in good enough shape do it or you have detention blah blah blah.

Gordon prepared, showcasing for Paullina his 'ready' stance, left leg bent forward, right leg stretched out in back, hands planted confidently in the dirt. The rest of the class merely tensed for the whistle, and when its shrill tweet sounded they were off. Most kids started slow; they had to beat twelve minutes, but they weren't about to put any more effort than was necessary into it. Danny watched Gordon run ahead and realized that Gordon wasn't actually very fast at all. It just looked that way because everybody else was dragging their feet.

Danny thought about this as he jogged beside Tucker, watching Gordon pull ahead. Gordon was the latest bully in a long line of bullies to cross his path, and Danny thought about the trashings and the insults and the general public humiliation, and he decided that he was sick of it. He turned and told Tucker that he was going to try for a better time. Tucker nodded, waving him on. Danny picked up his feet and set his sights on Gordon. Maybe the strong ruled the earth, but after years of running away, the weak had pretty strong legs.

The runners passed and were passed by one another as the race wore on. One out of four laps completed, and Danny drew closer to Gordon. Laps two and three went by, and both of them slackened a little, but still Danny gained. By the fourth lap, Danny had victory within his grasp.

Gordon ran a little ahead of him, maybe a quarter of a track-length. Danny breathed hard, preparing his legs for last stretch of the mile, slowing a little, building adrenaline in his calves before cutting loose, sprinting ahead while his feat pounded like pistons. Though fuzzy, jolted vision he saw Gordon glance over his shoulder and pick up his own pace, the two of them breaking even as Danny reached him. Gordon huffed and puffed in near panic as Danny struggled beside him, and Gordon burst forward with the extra edge six years of sports had given him. Danny's legs began to give, beginning to wobble and shake as the adrenaline ran dry, but he kept running, kept pouring his will into them until a heavy set of mental gears turned. They groaned to life with a clang of iron and screech of disuse, picked up speed and turned faster as the rust ground away, and then the effort of motion shifted from the fibers in his legs to those gears in his head.

Danny ran and the gears whirled and Gordon choked for air. The finish line flew up the track to meet them as the gym teacher waved them on and Danny leaped, legs straddling the finish line in midair, sensing Gordon behind, and as he touched down, something at once obvious and supernatural became apparent to him. It consisted so much of both that he dismissed it soon afterwards as naïve and irrational, but for all that he held against it, he never quite forgot what he thought in that instant when he beat Gordon. When you run in desperation, speed is aided by temporary fear, but when you run with purpose, it is courage and measureless will that drives you. He didn't know what that meant, but it sounded high and noble and right, in perfect harmony with what he'd just managed. Around him the class was approving, cheering, and roaring for him. A hiss sneaked through his ears, and the ground felt wet. Danny stirred and opened his eyes.

Sam heard a weak cough in the dark as the heat bit into her clothes. The steam tore upwards in the darkness, scalding hot on her stomach as it rushed past her into the sky. She crouched down next to Tucker, squatting on the floor of the drain and below the hot rush, a thin current burbling past their shoes. The pitch black around them held solid everywhere, broken only by a colored blob a short distance away, a greenish smudge underlined in red. Sam pointed it out to Tucker, who nodded his recognition, and the two of them crept forward.

The steam rose from the color, and the color was a prostrate freshman. The green shifted and the red dimmed as he rolled to his side and managed to push himself into a half-crouch, limbs shaking as he teetered in the dark, still radiating that strange green glow that sparkled in the darkness. The steam lessened considerably-the humid air grew clearer-and a larger current swept past Sam's feet as the figure managed to draw himself from the water. She cringed as he managed to stand, arms held out for balance that lasted a short second before he collapsed heavily against the wall, mouth parted and breath shallow. Sam twitched forward but Tucker grabbed her back. She protested and struggled in his arms, her voice small through the hiss of steam. Tucker held tight, begging her to look again. Sam squinted closer at the color and froze, tearing hands poised motionless on Tucker's restraining arm.

Danny was leaning against the solid concrete wall of the drain, arms pressed tight against it. The green flowed around him as a disorderly vapor that made his suit look wrinkled and dirty; his hair hung disheveled and tired about his head. The red glow had returned at his back and feet, glowing brighter and spreading as Sam watched it creep along the wall wherever Danny's body touched it. The tips of his elbows sank in as the concrete softened to embrace him, and the dirty water boiled furiously from the red spot at his feet. Through the thick haze and steam and dim red glow, Sam could see Danny's haggard face. He gasped and shuddered in turns, moving his hand from the wall to wipe it across his forehead or massage his legs. He coughed and gave his head a quick shake, losing his balance for a moment. Sam pulled against Tucker again, but Danny caught himself against the wall.

"Hey Sam. Tuck."

They jumped at his scratchy voice, cringing as though caught at something dirty.

Danny lifted his head to smile at them. "It's good to see you guys." His countenance lay somewhere between earth and elsewhere. His eyes were heavy and sad, his smile authentic and wistful. It pierced Sam's heavy heart like a lance.

She managed a smile for him, but her voice shook. "It's good to see you, too."

Tucker stuttered, shifting his gaze from Danny's weakness. "Good work, Danny," he mumbled. He waved to the pipe around them, vaguely encompassing the sky in the gesture. "Is there anything we can do to um, help?"

"Not this time," Danny sighed. He rubbed his temples and slunk down the wall, letting his head drop. A sigh, and a quiet whisper: "I'm going to miss you guys."

Sam's brows shot up. She tried to keep her voice steady. "What are you talking about? You can barely move. You have to stay here" With me.

Danny gazed back at her. His eyes shone emerald, but not the emerald fire Sam had seen back at the clothing shop. These eyes were emerald stones, the power of the fire locked in a solid matrix, understood and controlled. "No," he said. "It's okay. See, I know what I can do now." Danny stood, and his legs did not quiver. "It's really going to be okay. Let me show you."

He looked away from them, staring into the opposite wall. The green light around his body flickered into a stronger flame as the red-hot wall around him began to sag. Danny straightened and moved away from it, closing his eyes and tensing his arms, his steps strong and firm. Brighter grew the flame around him; more intense the red glow at his feet. The fire flared and flowed from him to lick the low ceiling and swim in the boiling water as Danny himself stood with furrowed brow and fisted hands. He was a torch of the sewers, eyes squeezed shut and body held stonily rigid, but then as Sam and Tucker watched his arms swept up to cross his chest as his knees bent in a battle stance that pulled the wild flames in around him, whipping them around his body in a whirling ball that boiled water by the gallon and made the walls blush: but now a pause of motion, a slight frown of effort, and Danny flung his arms out to the air with fingers distended and emerald eyes opened wide to the world as the sphere around him erupted in a torrential blast of jade energy. Tucker grunted and Sam spun away but the green rushed past them, whipping at their clothes and blasting down the tunnels while Danny stood in the midst of it, white hair ruffling as if in a breeze.

Sam brought her arms down in the sea of blinding green. She grasped for Tucker and caught his wrist, feeling Tucker cover her hand with his own. The green spoke to them.

Don't worry, she heard. It won't hurt either of you.

Tucker's voice: "What is this?"

It's me.

There was a silence. Sam waved her hand through the green, but somehow it didn't burn. There was a pleasant warmth, but no burn, and the energy, wild and unbeatable though it was, reminded her of Danny when he laughed. She didn't understand.

It's me, Tucker.

Tucker didn't say anything for a moment. Sam couldn't imagine what this was like for him, but when Tucker did at last speak, it was with only the faintest waver.

"I'll miss you, Danny. I'll tell everyone about you. I'll let them know what you did, and not just this, either." Tucker's voice came stronger. "I'll tell them how many times you saved their butts and they didn't even know it. This isn't going to be like the other times, when you just do your hero thing and nobody ever…" He heaved a sigh. "You know, we had some fun together."

I know.

"We could always… You were always…" Sam heard him sniff. "I'm not going to forget."

"You can't do this Danny," she whispered. "You can't waste yourself for this. It's terrible, but I stand by what I said before. This isn't your fight."

It is, though. What are all the other fights worth if I lose this one?

"It's worth us!" she shouted. "You can't do this."

Sam Sam Sam…

The green closed around her, passing over her shoulders and lighting on her face. Sam leaned her head into it and reached in futility for some solid part of him to touch. "You can't do this." She didn't care if she was crying. "I'm not going to let you."

Sam, I love you and I want you to understand what I'm doing. I need you to understand what I'm doing, because in a way that's what this is all about. It's about you, and us, and the way we... The way people can…

Words failed him. Sam could almost feel his arms around her.

They can't be allowed to destroy us, Sam, or anybody else who feels the way I do about someone like you. It's not right. It's… it's obscene that they think they can. I have to leave now, before they come back. Can you see that? Can I have your forgiveness for this?

Sam barked a laugh like a cry and grinned for him. "You know you've always had that." She rubbed her eyes. "I guess I know I can't keep you here, and if you have to go out I guess this is the best way to do it. Not many better ways to die than in saving a few thousands." She laughed again, and the green lightened apologetically around her. "You can bet I'm not happy about this, but I do understand, or I will eventually."

Thank you, Sam.

She brought her head up sharply. "I'm not finished. I've got something for you to understand. I love you, and it's not right that you have to do this." She put her hands to her sides. "If it's right for you to save the anonymous masses, then it's right for me to save you. Danny, when you come down I'm going to be there, and that's something I'll promise."

Tucker remained tactfully silent. The green around Sam lifted a bit.

Thank you. Sam, I don't want this either. I want to be here with you. When this is over, I want to be there with you, but I don't think… this energy is…

A finger touched her cheek. Sam nuzzled the phantom limb, feeling its light caress move down to stop at the line of her jaw.

I love you, Sam.

She wondered if her eyes would ever dry. "I love you too."

Danny hovered around them before speaking Goodbye, and the green moved again, sweeping past the two of them and through the storm drain above in a hurricane wind that left the tunnel vacant and cold.

A/N: My reviewers continue to earn my gratitude: kiddette, Creator-Chaos, Mrs. Granger-Weasley, Liaranne, Raven of Fear, and prncssGrl1881. V is the final chapter, and it will be up sooner than you think. Don't forget to drop me a review!