Chapter 28: Danny's Will Be Done

Danielle was the first to exit the room. Somehow, she just couldn't stand being in the same room as Danny anymore. Seeing his body laying there unmoving while on the inside, she knew he was having the battle of his life…that he was losing. Yet, even distancing herself from his body like this didn't stop her from sensing his pain the poison was still causing him, even while unconscious.

Everyone had now gathered just outside the room in the frozen hall by the time Sam had finally come out. Tucker was the first to turn to Jazz and phrase the question everyone was thinking of as soon as the young Goth had joined them. "So… what did Danny say to you?" He asked.

It was a minute before Jazz answered. "Oh…um..." She began slowly. "He was just…requesting something."

"What was it?" Danielle questioned, though a bit nervously.

Jazz looked a bit awkward when she noticed everyone's attention suddenly locked on her. "Just in case he…well…doesn't make it…" She hesitated in saying at first, but she seemed to pluck up her courage and faced the youngest of the group specifically. "Danielle." The college student said, before finishing in one breath, "He wants you to take his place as the new Danny Phantom."

Danielle's eyes widened and she took a step backwards in surprise. "Wha…what?"

She glanced around at everyone as if trying to get an additional explanation, or just waiting for someone to say with a laugh that it was just a joke. But in seeing all of their faces, particularly Jazz's, she had no choice but to believe that Danny's sister was being serious about this.

"No." The ghost-powered clone suddenly blurted. "I won't do it." Everyone looked taken aback at how Danielle just protested straight off.

"But Danielle," Jazz responded. "If he goes, and when the word of that gets out, ghosts will be taking advantage of it and start coming in by the hoards."

"Well then, why didn't he tell me himself?" The young hybrid demanded incredulously.

Jazz only shrugged, saying, "He probably knew you would object to it and it's not like he's in any condition to argue anymore."

"The coward!"

"Danielle!" Mrs. Fenton exclaimed, quite bewildered that her niece would say such a thing.

Danielle turned her back towards the others and folded her arms tightly, ignoring Danny's mother. "So he just sends his older sister to make his argument for him." She huffed, rolling her eyes. "You guys are all his family. You've fought alongside him for longer than I have. Why can't you just do it?"

"You're also family, Dani." Jazz put in. Even though Danielle had turned away, this phrase suddenly had her attention. "And it makes more sense if you do it." Jazz continued. "Danny's become a symbol of hope for everyone. Especially in Amity Park. You were the first one among us who saw what happened when he was just gone for a week. Not even Valerie could hold them off. But Danielle, you're his spitting image. Just looking at you strikes as much fear into enemy ghosts as Danny does. You're the only one who can protect Amity Park as effectively."

"You're saying that as if there's no hope that Danny's going to survive at all." Danielle commented, frustration entering her tone.

"I didn't say that." Jazz raised her hands defensively as she said this. "I'm just telling you that if he does die, he wants to make sure that his position as the teen ghost-fighter is filled."

"I'm not replacing him!" Danielle spun around, shouting and tensing up. This outburst startled everyone and they remained silent as Danielle composed herself to say more calmly, but still sounding aggrieved. "And I won't have to anyway." She tried very hard to sound confident, though slowly wavering as she paused in between every sentence. "Because he'll make it. He'll live."

Despite her words, Danielle's surety disappeared as she saw the reflected meaning behind everyone's doubtful expressions. She looked down at the floor, trying desperately to hold back tears that were coming on. But remembering what Frostbite had said forced them up. Though, the people of the Realm of the Far Frozen were doing their best to make the antidote, chances were, it wouldn't be finished in time and Danny really would be lost.

The thought of living on without him scared the young clone and she could no longer hold back on her feelings. "He can't go." She whimpered and the tears finally began rolling down her cheeks as she sensed her cousin's life slowly and painfully slipping away. And there was nothing she could do about it.

Mrs. Fenton walked up to the saddened hybrid and put her arms around her in comfort: The way Danny usually did whenever Danielle was feeling so helpless. This shown affection somewhat surprised the clone, but she just couldn't help but let herself cry in Maddie's loving embrace. Everyone else looked like they were on the verge of tears as well as Mrs. Fenton softly tried to hush her sobbing niece.

Danielle look up from Mrs. Fenton's arms to see that Sam was approaching and flashes of the argument she had overheard her having with Danny started flying passed her recollection.

I can't help but think that these battles she's helped you with is all just an act. Danielle remembered her saying.

She glared at the Goth as she recalled this quote, word for word. "What?" She asked Sam bitterly, pulling away from Danny's mother. "You think these tears are fake too?"

Sam blinked, being completely thrown off by this question. "Wha…uh…I…" she stammered, not able to think of how to respond. Before she could think of anything that Danielle wouldn't take the wrong way, the clone bolted, shoving her aside as she ran passed her, crying harder than ever.

"Dani." Maddie solemnly called after her as she ran off through the frozen hall of the medical facility.

Sam watched guiltily as the poor girl disappeared through the cave-mouth entryway that led to the snow-covered wasteland outside.

000000

Danielle continued to run, letting her tears fall from her face. It was quite a bit colder out here than it was inside, but she didn't want to Go Ghost. Half of all the people living in this realm already guessed her to be related to Danny Phantom while in her human state, but her ghost mode would certainly make her instantly recognizable as such. And right now, all she wanted was to just be alone.

It was only when she had left the medical facility far behind that she finally slowed to a walk and found herself near the shrine. She shivered, rubbing her arms vigorously as the cold was starting to get to her and thought she would go inside to warm up a bit. Besides, it looked void of any visitors at the moment, so it was probably a good place to hide.

As soon as she stepped inside, she was surrounded by carved-out images of Danny in the events of heroic deeds. It was still quite a bit nippy in here, but not as much as it was outside in the snow.

After blowing warm air into her hands and rubbing them together, she started to look at the etchings on the walls. She ran her fingers over the drawings as she passed them, going deeper into the cave.

Over the passed few months of living in Amity Park, Danny had told Danielle much about his adventures, especially to help his clone get more familiar with the ghost enemies that were constantly attacking the town. But though the stories were many, the ones she remembered him telling her were only half of the events she recognized were on the walls. She could only guess that Danny had several more experiences that even Sam or Tucker didn't even know about.

Danielle suddenly stopped her progression into the cave at the thought of Danny's friends. Particularly Sam. The teen ghost's memories wandered back to the accusations she overheard Sam making. She had always avoided her from then on in fear that she might start blaming her for Danny's current condition.

Poor Danielle sighed sadly. Would Sam ever see her in a new perspective? Would she understand the changes she had gone through to purposely separate herself from Vlad? The teenage clone had even altered her own Phantom outfit to do so. Even though it already resembled Danny's jumpsuit a whole lot more than Vlad's vampire-like outfit, the young clone refused to keep the look her deceptive creator had given her. So she made the modifications to it herself from what it originally was.

On another note, as the girl went deeper and deeper into the cave, continuing to examine the etchings of the shrine, she was starting to think that maybe coming here wasn't a good idea after all. She stared at the pictures, and was starting to envision scratched-in mages of herself being in this shrine: Replacing Danny.

He wants you to take his place as the new Danny Phantom, Danielle remembered Jazz saying to her as she knelt down on the cold, stone floor of the cave to look at another picture that was lower on the wall. Then she started to feel tears coming on again as she thought of Danny's motionless body back in the medical facility.

She could sense that the Blood Blossoms were still burning him on the inside, causing him such prolonged suffering he would never be able to endure for much longer. The pain kept going, as if determined not to let up until every last bit that was keeping its victim alive was completely destroyed. The sorrowful clone so wanted the feelings inside her to stop, but she knew that if that happened, it would mean that Danny was dead. She could barley feel him hanging on as it was.

Danielle slammed her clenched fist on the rocky wall in anger as she began to cry again.

Why? Of the two of them, why was it Danny who had to undergo such a terrible fate? Why is it that Danielle couldn't help him this time? If Danny did die, she would never to be able to succeed in everything he had. Where would she even be without him? Off destroying the world after destroying the Guys in White as her evil self emerged, that's what. Melted down to a mass of liquid ectoplasm, being experimented on for research. Or even perhaps still working for Vlad until that happened.

And because Danny always had to come to her aid in trying times, look where he was now. In fact, now that Danielle thought about it, what if she had just listened to Danny and stayed in Amity Park where she was safe from the Guys in White?

Danielle willingly let out her sobs as she pressed her forehead to the wall, thinking back on that night she had been taken captive. Danny was right. She shouldn't have taken what Sam had said so hard. None of this would have happened if she had just listened to him. After all, before Danny earned his reputation as a hero, everyone in his entire hometown thought him to be another ghostly criminal. What did she have to complain about in comparison to that? She just heard one little comment that she had decided to take offensively and she was so focused on her own feelings that she didn't even think about what might happen to Danny or anyone else because of her selfishness.

"Danny, I'm so sorry." Danielle said aloud to the wall between her sobs.

"You shouldn't be blaming yourself for that."

Danielle jumped in surprise and spun around in hearing a voice say this behind her. But thoughts of antipathy suddenly entered her mind when she realized it was Sam. The Goth was wearing a warm-looking white jacket that had the green Fenton insignia on it that she had gotten from the Specter Speeder.

"Why?" The young hybrid responded bitterly, wiping her tears away with her sleeve. "Because you're the one who's supposed to blame me for it?"

Sam looked a bit taken aback by this question, as well as by the way Danielle had said it. "No. I just…"

"Oh, save it Sam." Danielle interrupted angrily, turning back to the wall. "I already know it's my fault, okay." There was a moment of silence between the two girls as Danielle emotions were beginning to reveal themselves through her tears again. "Danny's hurt because he had to come and protect me after I ran away. You don't have to say anything else."

"I wasn't going to say anything like that." Sam said, as she walked up behind the clone, who was still on her knees. "And if you would stop purposely avoiding me, and give me a chance…"

"You never gave me a chance, Sam." Danielle suddenly blurted, shooting up to her feet and facing Danny's friend. Though her tone had become harsher, her wet eyes still gave her away. "No matter what I did and no matter how hard I tried, you always thought of me as Danny's evil twin or something. An experiment gone wrong."

Sam looked down sadly before saying quietly, and regretfully. "I know."

In hearing this response, Danielle became the one who was surprised as well as confused. This was not what she expected.

"And I wanted to apologize for even saying those things." Sam added.

Danielle had been almost sure that she had come to accuse her for his current condition. Perhaps guess that Danielle's capture by the Guys in White was all just a lure into a trap that led him to be poisoned. And here she was, confronting her with an apology.

Yet, though the clone hybrid may have been having regretful feelings before in how hard she had taken Sam's insults, she just couldn't bring herself to forget those horrible feelings they had brought to her. She closed her eyes, making the tears that were still swelling in her eyes to fall down her face, and turned back to the cave wall, clenching her fists as if trying to control her emotions.

"How am I supposed to believe that coming from you?" She asked, almost in an apologetic tone of her own. She rubbed her arms out of instinct in feeling herself getting cold again until she felt something warm fall across her shoulders. She looked up to see that Sam had put a coat around her that looked like the one she had on.

"Because…Danny told me about how Vlad almost destroyed you." Sam began to respond hesitantly. "How you're always having to relive that in your nightmares."

Danielle stared at the Goth for a second, having half a mind to throw the jacket she had just put on her off and back to Sam, but it was too cold to refuse it. "He told you that?" the teenage hybrid inquired of her as she shivered involuntarily from the haunting memory of that experience.

"I don't think he wanted to at first, but I was being stubborn enough that he eventually had to." Sam said sorrowfully after seeing Danielle tremble from the thing that didn't have anything to do with how cold it was in this icy realm. "Dani, if anyone's to blame for him getting poisoned, it's me." Danielle looked at Sam mystified before she explained herself, apologetically. "You may have been the one who ran off, but I was the one who made you do that. I offended you and treated you no different than the Guys in White did." Sam sighed and Danielle could not detect any sign of mendaciousness in her voice, or in her expression before she finished. "And I'm really, really sorry."

Though the ghost girl had wanted to hear Sam admit that she had been wrong and take back the terrible things she had said, she never thought it would actually happen. The teenage Goth was always so unwavering in her opinions. But this time, Danielle just knew that Sam meant what she was saying.

It was at this time that Danielle finally smiled at Sam for the first time she had in weeks and slipped her arms through the sleeves of the jacket she had been offered. Come to think of it, she should have known that Sam had been trying to confront her with something to say. She had just been so afraid that it might just be more accusations that she didn't want to be anywhere near her, so she couldn't say them. But in doing so, she had been pushing her away, instead of the other way around.

Danielle felt a bit ashamed in herself in not realizing this before, but after fully putting the jacket on, she said, "Thanks Sam." And a cloud seemed to almost lift from over the both of them. At least until the fifteen-year-old felt a noticeable stinging pain that reminded her of what was happening to Danny. She sighed as she was mournfully reminded of the critical state he was in, that was slowly getting worse. "But…unfortunately it still doesn't change the situation, does it?" She turned back to the carvings she had been examining before and knelt down. This time, feeling warmer because of the coat Sam had brought for her.

"No, I guess not." Sam said, with a bit of a laugh as she knelt next to Danielle.

Danielle touched one of the pictures of Danny in thought. "Do you think he'll be okay?" She asked Sam, gloomily.

Sam gazed at the same carving Danielle was looking at and replied, "I sure hope so."

The clone straightened up and transferred herself to another wall, where another brave deed of Danny's was recorded. "I'm not ready for him to go Sam. I don't want to have to take over for him." She said, shaking her head. "I mean, just look at all these things he's done that I didn't even know about. I'm just a copy, I can never be the kind of hero he was."

"Danny wouldn't have even suggested you if he didn't think you qualified."

Danielle wished that they hadn't gotten on this subject again, but she faced Sam to argue it all the same. "If Vlad could never replace him, even with his perfect clone, I don't see how I can. Especially since I was flawed since the day I was made."

"Yeah, but Vlad's classification of a perfect clone was one that not only looked exactly like Danny, but one that wouldn't turn against him." Sam put in, folding her arms. "To Danny, you are that perfect clone." Danielle had never thought about that before. "And though, you may be right about him being irreplaceable, you're still the one who can best carry out his legacy." Sam finished with a bit of a shrug.

Danielle looked down at her shoes, thinking this over for a second, though still not fully convinced that she was ready to have such a burden put on her. She felt so helpless when she, again, looked in the direction of the carvings that portrayed Danny as the hero he had earned the right to be called. There was never a time when the ghost girl had to rely on someone else entirely to save someone she cared about. "I just wish…there was something I could still do to help him." She finally said slowly. "Even just a little."

Soon after, a Far Frozen citizen that was carrying a spear entered the shrine and approached the two girls who looked at him in wonder. He bent down to one knee and bowed, once he saw that one of the girls was Danielle.

"My ladies." He greeted them chivalrously. "Pardon my interruption, but my leader Frostbite requests the presence of Danny Phantom's peers."

Danielle and Sam looked at each other, both with the same question in mind. Was the antidote ready, or was Danny about to leave them forever? They both knew that they would soon find out as they followed the Far Frozen guard out of the Shrine and back to the medical facility.

Man. I don't know how many times I have looked this over and edited it, and I still don't think it's very good. I guess I kind of rushed it so I could get to the next chapter that I've been really looking forward to writing. I'll bet you're all getting anxious of what I'm going to have happen next.