Chapter 7
Danny felt himself tremble as he walked through the dank and dirty halls of Vlad's castle. It was lit by torches clung to the stonewalls by disfigured metal in the form of his face. Danny swallowed as he continued to look around the hallway he was walking down. The floor was lined with a blood red carpet. The walls were thin enough for Danny to hear the battle raging outside, but still thick enough to muffle the screams of his fallen friends and family. His gloved hand clenched. He couldn't take much more of the death march down this cursed hallway, the walls themselves seemed to bleed from the torment they had seen.
With every step, a flash appeared before him of his friends and family in his own world. Mom, Dad, Jazz, Tucker, Sam… All of the happy times he remembered, and was instantly saddened by the fact that the friends he had here would never experience those sights. Danny felt his eyes shift to the man in front of him. Danny felt his insides tremble with internal hate and sadness. He opened his mouth to make sure he still breathed because his chest was cramping up hard. The dark cape around Vlad's shoulders seemed to give away how arrogant he was as he floated down the hallway. Even though Vlad's back was still to Danny, he knew the older halfa was smirking. Vlad stopped suddenly at a pitch-black door with old iron locks and door handle. Danny stopped too. As he stared at the locks and door handle, he reached out to touch it, when Vlad held out an arm to stop him.
"What are you.." Danny started, but Vlad cut him off sharply.
"If you reach out to touch that in your ghost form it will electrocute you." He explained, as if Danny was a stupid child.
Danny sneered, then transformed back into his human state. He undid the locks and opened the door. "Mom?" he said as he entered the bedroom. His gaze drifted from the walls to the bed as he stepped into the room. He couldn't see his mother anywhere. Then he saw something move in a nearby corner. He walked over nervously and pulled away the curtain, he saw his mother crying. His blue eyes widened and he stepped back as her eyes met his.
His voice betrayed him as he tried to call out, "mom" but all that could come out was a noise not human nor beast.
Her face became increasingly hard and stopped tear production almost as she saw him. She stood up and brushed past him. Her hair had grown longer and the clothes she wore reminded him of a Greek goddess. He turned and saw her sit on her bed. Numbly he followed suit, until her head snapped to where he was and her gaze caused his body to stop and go rigid.
"What? No wise cracks about your poor pathetic mother?" She snapped, her body giving away that she was hurting deep inside.
"I'm…sorry…" Danny chocked out, his voice was still being difficult.
"Your sorry, for what Masters? That you didn't kill Jack sooner?" Her voice had no feeling but hate within it.
Danny shook his head, desperate for her to understand. "No, I'm not him.. I'm not this Danny.." He tried to explain.
"As if I would believe that trick." She said crisply.
"No seriously. I'm not him! I'm from another world.. a world better than this.." He closed his eyes pained. "Ill show you." Two rings formed at his center, changing him into Danny Phantom. He opened his now green eyes to see his mother's stunned face.
"Please mom, I love you. He may not, but I do. I'm going to find a way to end all of this, somehow I will. You have to believe me."
Maddie Fenton's brain was working on overtime as she saw the boy change into the Phantom. With that her guard was let down, and the emotions came flooding back. With shaky arms, she grabbed ahold of the boy and hugged him tightly, not letting go, for fear of losing this one. "Danny…" She whispered. "Its you, oh Danny!" She cried on his shoulder, not able to keep in all her emotions anymore.
Danny looked surprised and scared at the same time. He had never seen his mother this broken before. His heart yearned to make everything okay for everyone. He hugged his mother back, making a promise there and then, he would not return to his world until this world was set right again. His eyes blazed green. He swore he would make everything right.
"Hello Sam." The voice said, taunting her sleeping form.
She gasped and opened her eyes, to see two red orbs stare into her soul. She shrieked and his hand slammed down on her mouth, muffling her screams. She scrambled to escape from his foul presence. But her body gave protests and she would not get far in her weakened state. She felt herself give a shudder and relax. Hesitantly his hand was removed from her mouth. Her eyes now narrowed with hate.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
"Cant I come and see an old girlfriend?" He asked with a smart alack smirk.
"You stay away from me." Sam threatened, her hand searching for something under her pillow.
"Are you looking for this?" He asked, a small knife appearing in his hand. The tip was very sharp and Danny smirked, floating on his back in the air, playing with it as if it were a toy.
Sam stared hard at him. "If you kill me, you'll only enrage him more."
"Who? Oh yes, that other Danny. I suppose I would. Oh well." Before Sam could blink the evil Danny held it to her neck. She gasped and tensed as he held her life in his hands. "Now… where is my dagger?" he asked her.
Sam felt the knife's cold metal press against her throat, causing her breathing to turn ragged. "Ill never tell you." She cried as it pressed harder.
"Tell me!" he ordered in a terrifying voice.
Her amethyst colored eyes stared defiantly into his, which were consumed with death and hatred. The evil within him had fully consumed his soul.
"I'm not afraid to die Danny, I would only come back as a full ghost, and spend the rest of my afterlife hunting you!" Sam said, the two sets of eyes shooting fired into the others.
"So be it." Danny hissed, his hand grasped the knife tighter.
"Let her go!" a voice demanded behind them. Danny's eyes momentarily widened, then resumed their normal nature as the voice registered in his brain and he remembered who it belonged to. He once again floated on his back, in mid air, his fingers tangled together behind his head.
"Hello there.. teach." Danny said as Mr. Lancer appeared in full war attire. He was no longer out of shape thanks to the war, but was still bald.
"Masters…I've had it up to here with your evil ways. I'm asking you to leave, or be executed on the spot." Mr. Lancer threatened, holding a gun with ectoplasmic bullets.
Danny raised an eyebrow. "You and what army?"
Suddenly forty other soldiers appeared out of their hiding spots in the room. Now both of his eyebrows were raised.
"You really didn't think we would leave Sam unprotected would you?" Dash sneered, his weapon loaded. He aimed it at Danny's head. As did everyone else in the room.
" I guess I overstayed my welcome." Danny said, not minding the weapons pointed at him at all. " Ill be back and Ill get my dagger too."
"Fire!" Lancer yelled, and all the weapons were fired as Danny disappeared. All the blasts collided in the middle of the room, causing a green plasma explosion that lit up the room in a blinding green light.
Jazz was still in stealth mode as she saw Danny talking to their mother inside the room. She held her weapon ready, after all, the door was open and Vlad was no where in sight. She smelled a trap. She knew she couldn't just stand there, she had to try to get Danny and their mother out of there, without Vlad catching them. But she had a feeling it was already too late. She took a breath and entered the room. "Mom Danny! We gotta leave now!"
Danny and Maddie's heads turned to where Jazz was. The door behind her slammed shut by some unknown force and the room itself became ice cold.
"Kids! Get behind me!" Maddie ordered. Jazz ran to her mother's side and grabbed ahold to make sure her mom wouldn't do anything that they all would regret.
Danny's eyes glowed a radioactive green and he formed similar color blasts in his hands.
A hideous laugh echoed through the room. Followed by a taunting voice.
"You really think those plasma blasts will stop me?"
"Its worth a try!" Danny snapped.
" I wouldn't get too brash boy. I don't know how powerful your Vlad is in your world, but here I am immortal!"
"Oh yeah, a real god." Danny spat. "What are you? Aries god of war? You do know they were destroyed. Don't you?"
A reddish blast appeared out of nowhere and hit Danny in the chest, causing him to fall to the ground. He groaned and Jazz helped him up.
Maddie's eyes turned horrid at what Vlad did. She looked around the room, angry.
"Coward! Why don't you show yourself? If your all that powerful why don't you face us like a man? Oh that's right, you're not even that!" Maddie's anger was on overload and she prayed that she could somehow get them both out of this.
A form appeared in the coldness of the room. Vlad smirked, floating there, two blasts formed in his hands.
Jazz pulled a glowing green whip from her belt and snapped it towards Vlad. It wrapped around his waist once and that was all she needed as she pulled with all her strength. It worked, Vlad came flying towards them and they all ducked as he flew into the wall, cartoon style.
Danny couldn't help but chuckle. "Enjoying the view Vlad?"
"No time for jokes, come on!" Maddie grabbed both of their arms and dragged them out of the room.
As they ran down the hallway Vlad materialized. He grabbed Danny by his suit and threw him to one side. He hit the ground with a sickening thud and Vlad smirked.
"You can't win boy. Join the side that will actually accomplish something, not the side that will lose, painfully. You don't have to feel any pain, any remorse, any suffering." As Vlad continued his monologue, Jazz pulled something else from her belt. It resembled a frisbe, only it was cut in the middle. It more or less resembled a chakram. It was also glowing bright green. She threw it at Vlad and it hit him in the face, causing him to stagger away, it then hit the wall and came back to Jazz. She was smiling as she put it away.
"Ow! You little.." Vlad yelled, as he held his nose in pain. By the time he looked up, the three were gone. He let out a yell more horrifying than Zeus himself did. The earth around the area began to tremble and shake violently.
" MADDIE!"
Tucker was fighting a ghost when the earthquake hit. Every person and ghost ceased fighting as they all kept trying to keep their feet on the ground. This included Jack, who was falling down every second he got up.
"Tucker!" He yelled. "What's going on?"
"I have no idea!" Tucker said.
"Thanks!" Jack yelled sarcastically.
The earth finally started to calm down again. The shaking stopped and the battle once again resumed, everyone acted as if nothing happened.
But Jack noticed something. The castle in the distance had pitch black clouds around it, and he saw three retreating figures run from the entrance and continue their desperate escape from the cursed site.
Still staring at the sight, Jack didn't see the ghost come up behind him and knock him on his ghostly head. He gave the goofiest smile and said.
"The ghost did it……in the basment…..with the salami."
With that he promptly fainted.