Sweet Surrender

Chapter 4: Foul play

(A/N: I skipped a few scenes to get the story going.)

Notethingie: It's a month later, and everything seems to be going smoothly…until Walker steps in and makes things take a turn for the worse…

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Danny, what's up?" Sam asked.

"Nothing," Danny snapped irritably, crossing his arms.

"You've been avoiding Tucker and me for a month now. Come on, we're your best friends! Tell us what's—

"No. I don't need or want to tell you. It's none of your business. Me and Dash can handle it."

Tucker glared and Sam struggled to stay calm.

"Listen Danny, we know that you and Dash have been hanging out a lot, and I think as your best friends, we're entitled to know why."

"Being my best friends doesn't give you the right to pry!" he shouted.

"Hey, Danny! We only want to know what's going on with you. We care about you," Tucker said.

"I don't need you to care about me. I need you to LEAVE ME ALONE!" he yelled, shoving them away.

Sam landed awkwardly on her arm, and cried out in pain. Danny felt bad, but he was still pretty angry.

"I'm sorry… but I think you should leave."

Tucker helped her up, gave one final glare at Danny, then left his house.

Before Danny could mourn over the fight, the phone rang. He picked it up.

"Hello?"

"D-Danny? I-It's me." Danny perked up.

"Hey Dash!"

"Danny, Shadow's about to take over me in a few minutes. Get here as fast as you can. I don't know what I'll do once he takes over. I don't want to hurt anybody."

"Just hold on, Dash! I'll be right---the dial tone rang in his ears.

He stood up quickly, nearly knocking the table over in his haste. He went ghost, and went intangible, then flew to Dash's house.

Dash was lying on the floor, shivering and jerking around. His jacket wasn't there with him. He was wearing a white t-shirt, torn, ripped and holey, in pretty much the same condition as his jeans.

"Dash," he said cautiously.

The still form on the floor moved a little. Then just as Danny was about to go over to help Dash, his eyes opened slowly, almost too slowly, as if someone had pried them open.

They glowed dark grey, then dark icy blue. So the ghost was losing control over Dash. It couldn't do a full transformation; only the eye, Danny mused.

Then Dash transformed into Shadow in a matter of seconds. Danny cringed.

'Spoke too soon.'

The transformation failed just a quickly as it had came.

'…or not.'

The blonde jock was now a quivering mass of jelly; he could barely move. Danny went back to human form and helped Dash up. He clung to the halfa like a scared child. He was shaking badly, and his body was covered in a light coat of perspiration.

"D-Danny," he moaned, clutching even tighter. "I-I'm scared," he confessed.

Danny stared in amazement. Dash had actually admitted his fear to him. Dash was biting his lip, desperately trying not to cry. For some reason, Danny felt a certain tenderness overtake him as he gently stroked the slightly wet blonde hair, letting him cling to him. He lightly kissed him on the forehead. A few seconds later, he blinked, realizing what he'd just done.

"What the hell, Fenton?"

Dash, despite his lack of strength, managed to push the smaller teen away, his anger fueling him. Sky blue eyes glowed dangerously close to dark icy blue, narrowing to thin slits. They looked like midnight blue sheets of ice.

"Dash, I think you need to calm—

"What the hell was that, Fenton?"

Danny tried to koe to lighten the boy's anger.

"So we're not on first name basis anymore, huh Dash?"

They narrowed even more to dark blue marbles of ice.

"You weren't trying to help me, were you? All this time you were out for yourself and your own need?" he accused.

The black haired teen stared at the other boy in confusion.

"Dash, what are you talking about?"

Danny was chilled to the bone by the hard, cold stare he was receiving from the football player.

"Don't play dumb with me. It's all clear to me now. You were only trying to help to seduce me. You conniving, fruity bastard. How

could you do that?"

All Danny could do was stare in shock, mouth hanging wide open in disbelief.

"I don't like you that way!" he protested, after finding his voice.

"Then why did you kiss me?"

"It was on the forehead!" he shouted in his own defense.

"So what! You still put your lips on me. Why?"

"I…I care about you, damnit! As a friend! I have a girlfriend!" he huffed indignantly.

Dash stared in amazement. He had known that already. So why had he overreacted? Then he realized the awful truth, looming before him like the dread of a first time bungee jumper about to take the plunge: Shadow had almost complete control over him. He already had control of his body. Now he had a grip on his emotions, too. Pretty soon, he would have control over his thoughts. He needed Danny's help to get Shadow out of him and send him to the Ghost Zone. He couldn't do this alone.

"Danny, I'm sorry," he apologized.

Danny could hear the genuine sincerity in his voice, but was still war of the still icy shade of blue of his eyes.

"Shadow's out, isn't he?" he asked.

"He almost has full control."

Admitting it out loud caused raucous evil laughter to rumble in his head. The door to Dash's house was knocked away as Walker came busting in, and it happened so quickly Danny had no time to comprehend what was happening, and the door hit him in the head, knocking him out.

"Honey, I'm home!" he called sarcastically. With Danny unconscious, and Dash being only mortal, he didn't have much chance against the evil ghost jailer…

(A/N: Next and final chapter is the fight between Walker and Danny. Who will prevail? And Ember regains her memory. Last chapter called Freedom.)