Heya everyone! My wonderful sister helped me come up with this one. I was kinda stuck. Thanks again, sis!

Enjoy!

Chapter 5- Burning

Everything is so… quiet.

Too quiet, Danny mused as he looked around.

His surroundings seemed distant, drained of all color. A gray street stretched endlessly into the distance, framed on either side by dull trees and buildings. The sky, too, was gray, though by clouds or smog, Danny couldn't tell.

Confused, he wandered aimlessly down the road, glancing to his left and right at empty shops, dirty windows revealing nothing. A faint mist was draped over everything, giving the air an eerie feel.

Movement caught his eye.

He swiveled around, but it was only a ragged sheet of paper, fluttering in a phantom wind. It struck him again, how quiet it was.

The silence was deafening.

This place is devoid of life.

Or so he thought.

Out of the corner of his icy eyes, he spied a flash of auburn.

He willed himself to go ghost, to fly after the figure that turned a corner and disappeared. But his ghost powers wouldn't obey him, so he settled for running.

The halfa rounded the corner and ran into Jazz.

"Jazz?" He asked shakily.

She stood silently, staring at him as he picked himself off of the ground.

"Jazz," he said again.

"Oh, my god, Jazz, I thought you were dead! I was so worried! I came back and it seemed as though nothing had changed. It was like a dream. So weird…"

His voice trailed off. He peered intently into her eyes. She was looking at him but didn't seem to see him. They were blank.

"It really wasn't a dream, was it?" Danny said.

He stood there a while longer, searching her face in vain for any sign of emotion, of recognition. He then looked away, biting his lip in frustration.

A faint crackling sound reached his ears.

He turned back to Jazz, nose wrinkling as he smelled something… burning?

And it was coming from… Jazz?

His eyes widened when he realized that Jazz was blackening around the edges. He stood for a moment, and then it hit him.

Jazz had burst into flames.

"No!" he cried.

Danny tried to shoot beams of ice energy from his outstretched palms, to no avail. His powers had failed him yet again.

He then did the only thing he could think of.

He leapt at Jazz, and beat at the bright flames with his bare hands. The smell of roasted flesh filled the foggy air.

Danny fell back, crying out in pain, clutching his hands to his sides.

All he could do then was stand, frozen in fear and pain, fat tears rolling down his cheeks, as his dead sister was consumed by the hungry flames.

--

Danny walked dejectedly down the street, kicking stray pebbles into the clumps of straggly weed that grew up through the many cracks in the road.

What was that?

He still held his hands to his sides, not looking at them.

They still hurt like hell.

He was a little afraid to look at them. They were probably useless now, just burnt, crispy lumps of flesh that clung to the ends of his wrists.

As he walked, he stared at the road, only looking up when he sensed the presence of others, right in front of him.

When he raised his head, his eyes met the gaze of then two people, one in bright orange day-glo spandex, and the other in blue.

His parents.

Their eyes were dull, as his sister's had been. Not expecting an answer, he said, sadly, "Hey Mom, Dad."

He didn't get one.

Taking a few steps back, he caught their gaze and held it.

Tears once again flowed down his face as they, too, burst into flame.

Danny did nothing this time, knowing that he couldn't. He crouched, sobbing, blackened used-to-be hands holding his sided as they shuddered, as if he were trying to hold himself together.

When the fire had died down, he bowed his head for a few seconds for a few seconds, and moved on.

--

After a while, he came upon Tucker.

Tucker's eyes followed Danny's as Danny walked up. They stood, staring, for a few moments.

Then Danny asked, softly,

"You're not really in there, are ya, Tuck?"

This time, he knew there would be no answer.

Tucker's red beret was the first to catch fire. The flames moved down his shoulders, enveloping his backpack.

Danny heard the faint pops and snaps as Tucker's beloved gadgetry was burned, along with the rest of him.

As Tucker's ashes were carried away on the wind, Danny whispered,

"I'm sorry, Tuck."

--

The halfa traveled on, down the dreary road, dreading who he would next meet.

He wouldn't be able to see her, slowly burning. He would fall apart.

He noted that Wraith had been oddly silent, this whole time.

How uncharacteristic.

He continued, thinking,

I don't get this. Is this real? Or is it just a dream? What is this all about?

Then he saw the figure in the distance.

He stopped.

Am I ready for this?

Wraith gave him no answer. Not a word.

He took a deep breath, and kept walking, closer and closer to her.

As he got nearer, he saw that she was not stock still, as the others had been. She was shifting her weight to either foot, rocking from side to side, as if she was impatient for something.

Danny stopped a few feet in front of her. Her amethyst eyes looked up at him. They were just as bright and sparkling as they had been in life.

This was no empty shell.

When her eyes met his, Sam smiled and took off, running away from him. Danny sprinted after her, forgetting the pain in his charred hands in his excitement.

His happiness, soon died, however, as to the place Sam had led him.

It was there, the end of the street.

The Nasty Burger.

Not the semi-clean, kinda cheerful Nasty Burger, but the post-explosion Nasty Burger.

Sam stopped in the middle of the wreckage.

He did, too, pushing back the raven hair that had flopped in front of his eyes as he ran, but doing so just in time to see Sam disappear into the ruins.

His heart skipped a beat.

"Sa-am!" he cried in alarm, then in sorrow.

"Please don't go, Sam! I don't think- that I- could lose you- again…"

He thought he heard something, Danny cocked his head to listen.

It was Sam's faint voice, carried to his ears by the wind.

"I'm closer than you think."

--

Danny's eyes snapped open.

He sat up, blinking back unshed tears.

I just had the… strangest… dream.

I know.

Yes, it was... odd, but we were up late last night! Chapters of a twisted, tired mind...

Thanks for reading! Please review!

-Flaming Water