Sick. Going to post this and go back to sleep. Enjoy.

Pits
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria

Interlude: Former

I snarled softly to myself as the hybrid was lead out of the cell and off to his pit fight. I had no doubt that the hybrid would survive… but the lack of control I was having over my own plan was frustrating. I had wanted to become the master of the Pits now, not later.

Taking a deep breath, I gritted my teeth and waited for the door to shut behind the annoying guards. I could wait. Walker had been in possession of the Pits for many years and a few more hours would not do me any harm. I closed my eyes for a moment, centering my thoughts. I was above my more basal ghostly instincts. Besides, I had a few loose ends to tie up anyways.

Digging my claws into the stone floor, I slipped across the cell and out through the small hole in the hybrid's door. The first of my tasks for the day was one I'd been doing for some time now and was, oddly, beginning to grow fond of; it was strangely exhilarating to feel in control of another's thoughts or actions.

My destination was the barracks: the 'home' of some of the worst scum and villainy in the spectral universe. Two floors up and three hallways over from the hybrid's cell, you could smell the guard's barracks from a hundred paces… and it became nearly impossible to breathe when you walked through the door. Ghosts might not have the various bodily functions that humans did, but when a place hasn't been cleaned in over a hundred years, even ghosts can create quite a stench. It was where I needed to be, however, and I hurriedly made my way into the crowded room.

Beds were scattered around the area, hammocks hanging every which way from the ceiling. Used more for tables than for beds, dozens of guards were crowded around a few of the cots, playing a variety of games to pass the time. Only a few ghosts were passed out in the hammocks. It was those few ghosts that I focused in on, sliding through the shadows and climbing up to their beds.

"Evening," I whispered to the first of the sleeping guards. Rather predictable, he didn't answer. The guard looked vaguely familiar – the broken nose and scar over his left eye were distinctive. "I do believe we've met. So you already know the drill."

Twisting my clawed hand intangible, I plunged it into his head. "Such pretty dreams," I cooed when the ghost twitched, having felt the invasion. "I just want to watch." When the guard's movements ceased, I grinned and closed my eyes, letting my mind wander towards the guard's dream.

The dream was a depressing repeat of one I'd seen a hundred times before. The guard was standing in Walker's box above the Pits, watching a fight take place, his chest swelled out importantly. Beside him, the warden was saying something to his 'prized deputy' (which I took to be the dreaming guard), but I didn't bother to pay any attention to what it was being said.

"There is treachery afoot," I breathed into the guard's ear. "They're plotting, aren't they?"

"Plotting?" the guard mumbled.

I smiled. "Oh, yes. They're plotting against Walker – they want to kill him, you know."

"Kill?" he breathed. His dreams shifted suddenly, the guard standing before a faceless enemy, defending Walker with his gun Lone Ranger-style. I waited while the guard got off a few perfectly aimed shots.

"You know who they are too, don't you?" I asked, studying the people the ghost was shooting. "Those treacherous human filth… they're the ones plotting. You heard them whispering. They want to kill Walker and leave."

Suddenly the faceless enemy was no more. In its place was a mangy collection of the Pits' human staff. "I know," the guard murmured. "I told Walker I heard them."

"You did so good too!" I praised, watching him gun down a few of the humans in his dream. "Maybe you should tell him again, just to make sure."

"Just to make sure," he repeated.

"Excellent." Backing out of the dream, I opened my eyes, gazing around the dimly lit barracks.

The guard was still asleep, but now his forehead was wrinkled in worry and confusion. "Plotting," he mumbled in his sleep, causing me to grin. I patted his head a little, pleased with the result, and turned to jump off the hammock.

Back on the ground, I glanced around, wondering if I should plant some more seeds of discontent before I headed out. If all was going to plan – and it was, I'd been watching – than Walker had been receiving all sorts of reports about the 'treacherous humans' and their various plots to escape. Dream-given suggestions led to doubts, and any semi-suspicious behavior on the humans' part could then be twisted into a firm belief that the humans were plotting against Walker.

Finally, I just shook my head and slid towards the door, deciding that I'd done enough with this. My plan would be in action before too much longer and Walker had heard enough to get his guard up. He would jump the right way when the bait was dangled in front of his eyes. "Bye," I said over my shoulder at the guards still playing their card games on the beds, but none of them heard me. They never did.

Making my way through the shadowed hallways, my second destination already in mind, I let my mind wander over plan. Most of the small snags that had been created over the past few weeks had all been ironed out. Everything was going according to plan.

My eyes were glittering brightly, I had no doubt about that, but I couldn't hold back the excitement that was growing inside of me as each step of the plan unfolded in my head. I had successfully gotten the boy into the Pits – even though I'd had to give those ghost hunters more help than they should have needed. I had managed to dream-suggest to the right guards that he be placed in the right cell. I'd broken the boy's spirit and gotten him horribly sick with some chemicals I'd left in his food… and then gotten him to eat a specially designed soup that would merge his human and ghost halves into one. I'd given him the key. I'd gotten him to trust me.

I had my hybrid. I had the key. It would only take a few more hours to convince the young hybrid that I deserved the rule the Pits and that he should destroy Walker. His curious connection to the ectoluminum blades was unforeseen, but didn't make much difference.

Now, all I needed to do was take away the hybrid's last bit of resistance. He had, oddly, managed to make a friend or two here in the Pits. I had doubts that he would be willing to go through with his plan without knowing his friends would be okay.

They wouldn't be, of course. My plans left no room for the safety of the annoying humans and ghosts that roamed the Pits. Once I was the master and Walker had been destroyed, I would be able to sever the ties to both worlds. Whoever was stupid enough to be here when that happened would be stuck here for all the rest of time. That was the point of the idiotic 'resistance' I'd been coaxing in to life – the pure amount of ghosts in the Pits at any given time had dropped dramatically.

I had the hybrid wrapped around my finger. He had no clue that he would be trapped in the Pits once Walker was destroyed, but that was exactly what I wanted. The power I'd been slowly cultivating in the young boy would be siphoned off after I became the true master of this place. I'd be able to use energy to rebuild my home. He might even survive it.

But I would have my home back and the only things standing in the way were two puny humans. After that, the hybrid would be putty in my hands, willing to do anything I asked.

I finally hesitated outside of the room of the human named Gory Former, one of the humans the hybrid had formed an attachment to. Listening at the door for a moment, and hearing nothing, I slipped through one of the small rat-holes in the wall and crept into the shadows of the book-filled room. The human was sitting at his desk, scribbling in that large book, his shoulders hunched and dark rings under his eyes.

Settling down in the darkest bit of shadow I could find – situated between two half-fallen-over books on the Dark Ages, humorously enough – I waited for the human to move. Long moments passed as the human scratched his pen over the paper, rubbed his temples, and mumbled to himself about some sort of 'cursed game'. Eventually, the human pushed himself to his feet and stormed across the room to search through a large bookshelf.

I made my move. Slinking out of my hidden hole, I raced across the rocky floor and climbed over piles of books to make it to the top of the human's desk. I hurriedly pushed a few of the loose papers out of the way and grabbed the pen, complaining loudly about my inability to turn human as quickly as I wanted; I couldn't allow the human to see me. I'd have to make my 'correction' to his fight log in rat form.

Scribbling out the next name on the list of fighters, I used my best impression of Walker's scrawl to add the name and ID number of the fighter of my choosing. Pulling the scattered papers back to about where they had been when I jumped up, I surveyed the desk with a small sense of pride. That was it: with that one, small change, the last hitch was out of my plans.

The door rattled suddenly and I froze for a moment before diving under the human's desk. The guard poked his head in the room, blinking stupidly when he noticed the human all the way across the room. The guard tramped over to the desk, his feet slamming down inches from where I was crouched, and searched through the large books for the names of the next two ghosts that would be fighting. I bit back a grin from my hiding spot; my plan was about to come into action. The guard studied the names for a moment before confusion wrinkled his green forehead. "This right?" he grunted towards the human.

"Yes, it's right," the human snapped back, rubbing his temples as he searched through the library for whatever book he was looking for. "Go get them and leave me alone."

For a few more moments, the guard stood still, unsure. Then he shrugged and vanished back through the door. The hidden grin slipped onto my face as I crouched in the shadows, waiting and watching to see what would happen next.

"Stupid tournament," the human grumbled sourly, finally finding the right book and hauling it back to his desk. Dropping it on top of the list of fighters, never noticing the change I'd made, he started to page through it. "I hate Walker for doing this." His feet scuffed at the ground as he read a few passages here and there, quickly scanning each page.

Quiet fell in the room, broken only by the soft rasp of pages turning and the occasional scratch of a pen on paper. When the door opened, the human didn't even look up. I peeked out from under the desk, taking in the sight of the ghost fighter being escorted into the room. Small but muscular, the ghost had the aura of a spirit that was thriving in the vicious atmosphere of the Pits. This ghost would be perfect for fulfilling my plan and destroying the opponent I'd chosen for him. "Morning," the ghost grunted, crossing his arms over his thick chest.

"Evening," the human muttered darkly.

The ghost narrowed his eyes for a moment. "Who's dying today?" he asked.

"I'm busy." I smiled at the human's distracted tone. The longer he took to find out about my switch the better. I couldn't give him time to correct it.

"Look, buddy," the ghost said angrily, obviously offended by the brush off, "I got a job to do."

"Me too," the human said, setting his pen down, frustration evident in his voice. "I have to get this whole stupid tournament set up by tonight. Do you realize the implication of the fact that it's already evening? Do you have any idea what will happen to me if I don't get this finished?"

The ghost took a few steps forwards, emerald energy flaring into existence as the ghost got angrier. "Just tell me who the hell I'm killing and I'll leave you the hell alone."

The human growled, pushing his book out of the way. "Fine. Whatever." I tensed, hoping that he'd been distracted long enough to keep my plan in motion. "You're fighting…" he trailed off. Stunned disbelief radiated out of the human like heat from a fire, followed a split-second later by a pain so intense that it had both me and the other ghost backing away from him. "Mi…"

The door to the pit fight slammed open and I suppressed a grin. It'd been long enough. Risking a glance upwards, I took in the human's white face before slipping as far into the shadows as I could to watch what happened next. The guards that were set to lead the fighter to the pit fight stuck their heads into the room. "Come on," one said in a bored tone.

"I don't know who I'm fighting," the fighter said back. "Idiot human won't tell me."

The guard glanced up at the human, then shrugged and walked over, pushing the human a bit so he could read the book. The human dropped heavily to the ground, his eyes blinking blankly, his mouth open in disbelief. "You're just fightin' a human name Mica," the guard said. "Let's go."

"Hell, I can kill a human in three seconds," the fighter boasted as he walked to the door with the guard. "I timed it, once."

"This'll be quick, then," the guard answered, letting the door swing shut behind them.

"Probably take his head off in one swing." The fighter's voice drifted away as they walked towards the pit.

The human's mouth was moving, but no sound was escaping. I kept hidden in the shadows, waiting for something to happen. Sooner or later the human's brain would engage, forcing him to do something.

"Mica…" The human breathed the name of his younger brother, horror and terror starting to mix in with his emotions. "No…"

Suddenly, he was on his feet and moving. He took a few unconscious steps towards the door before he froze, his breath rasping loudly in his throat. The emotions swirling dangerously around him were wonderful feeling as they drifted through me, caressing my mind. The roiling fear, panic, and agony were delicious.

He raced towards the desk, stumbling a little on the rug. I ducked down, worried for a moment that he'd seen me, that he'd somehow figured out that I was behind his brother ending up in a pit fight to the death, but he just started to yank open drawers. He grabbed something, scrawled a note on top, and then dashed towards the doors leading to the pits. "Mica!" he yelled, wrenching the door open, and vanishing into the darkness of the hallway.

I waited a beat in the silent office before coming out into the light. The ghost would have no trouble killing both humans that dared to enter his fight and I highly doubt Walker would stop the fight just because the human stumbled onto the floor… especially not after all the whispered rumors about how he was coordinating an escape attempt.

I chuckled a little at how smoothly my plan had gone. Both humans would be dead in a matter of minutes – the small snag taken care of. Heading back towards the hybrid's cell, I silently congratulated myself. There was nothing holding the hybrid to this place anymore – he'd happily follow along with my plan. Walker would die, the Pits would be mine, and I would be free to return my home to the way it used to be.

Proud. Honorable. Mine.

A few doors down the hall I heard a scream and hesitated. Normally I would have just gone by – screams are quite common in Walker's Pits – but there something was different about it… familiar. Besides, based on the odor coming from that direction, Walker himself was most likely behind the screaming. Familiar screaming plus Walker… it was worth checking out.

I slunk through down the dark corridor, sticking to the shadows as much as I could. One of the doors was slightly ajar and my ears twitched. Walker's raspy voice was coming from beyond the thick plank of wood. I sniffed the air, quickly sorting out the burnt smells of the guards from Walker's rotten odor, leaving only a very recognizable scent. "The hybrid," I whispered. What had he done this time?

"Where did she go?" Walker's voice yelled, echoing through the deserted corridor.

I poked my head around the doorway just in time to see the hybrid, one arm coated in luminescent blood, scoot away from Walker's boots. His eyes were wide, but there was little real fear tarnishing his scent. He was looking up at the warden warily, pressing his slashed arm tightly against his chest.

"I don't know," the hybrid answered softly, his voice trembling slightly.

"How did she get there?" Walker snarled. Picking up the hybrid by the front of his shirt, he shook the boy violently for a moment, nearly choking him. "Answer me, punk!"

The hybrid's unhurt arm coiled around Walker's hands. "Get where?" he asked. "Like the Box Ghost?"

I blinked, the fur on my back standing on end. Like the Box Ghost? What did he mean by that? Where did she go? Did 'she' – whoever that was – vanish like the Box Ghost did? Through the portal? For some reason, the thoughts were sending horrible feelings swirling through me. I felt my tail unconsciously curl closer to my feel.

"Yes," the warden hissed, "like the Box Ghost. Where. Is. She?"

The boy struggled for a few moments, his voice coming out raspy and strained when he finally spoke. "I don't know, I don't know." He was lying. I could feel it in every molecule of my body. Not only did the hybrid know where 'she' went, he knew how 'she' got there.

My teeth gritted in frustrated anger as the obvious answer slammed into my brain: he'd used the key to open a portal. Walker was two seconds from figuring that out. The instant Walker felt the key's power on the hybrid, Walker would get his key back, kill the boy, and my plan would be ruined.

With a scream of inarticulate rage, Walker threw the hybrid across the room. The boy slammed into the wall and tumbled to the ground, whimpering in pain before he struggled to his knees. I couldn't feel too sorry for him at the moment; he was instants from destroying a plan I'd had in place for years. I'd gone through immense amounts of trouble to create this plan. He could suffer a little for almost ruining it.

The warden stood in the middle of the room with his eyes closed, the temperature of the room and the hallway tumbling as his rage built. "Enough." Walker's voice sent shivers through every person present in the room. Many of the guards took a few steps away from the furious spirit. "Enough." Glowing raisin-like eyes turned towards the door, fixing on the ghost floating near the door. "Collect the Fentons. Bring them here."

"NO!" the hybrid screamed. He was on his feet in an instant, throwing himself at Walker. Energy pulsed around the boy as the twin ectoluminum blades exploded into existence. Fury and pure terror was etched on the young hybrid's face.

He wasn't even halfway across the room when Walker pressed the button, activating the boy's collar. Yelling in agony, the hybrid fell to the ground, twitching and rolling at the power that was coursing through him. For a long few moments I watched, hoping that the boy wasn't about to be killed.

When Walker finally let up on the shock collar, the hybrid was left lying on the floor, totally silent. Stalking up to him, Walker picked the hybrid up; the boy's head rolled limply on his shoulders. I tensed. That close to the key, Walker would be able to feel its power. He'd know that the hybrid had it.

I waited, but Walker just tossed the boy to the guards. "Return him to his cell. When you collect the Fentons, place them in the cell next to his. I want them to be able to hear each other scream."

"Sir." The guards saluted and started to drag the hybrid towards the door. I scuttled away into the shadows, my brain sorting through what I'd just seen, but sticking on one fact.

Walker hadn't felt the key.

Why not? There was no possible way that Walker would have overlooked it. Likewise, the hybrid couldn't have hidden its aura somehow. He just didn't have enough talent to do that. Pure, raw power and potential, sure, but he had absolutely no finesse and patience to learn a talent like blocking auras.

Watching the guards half-carry the boy past my hiding spot in the shadows, I snarled in fury, finally figuring it out. There was really only one logical solution to why Walker hadn't felt the key on the hybrid's person.

The hybrid no longer had the key.

The young human closed the notebook, her heart pounding in her chest. "The rat is behind all of this?" she whispered, stunned. "I knew… but I didn't think…"

Her eyes swept over the empty cell she'd been thrown into, but there was no sign of the rat. "His plan must have eventually fallen apart," she said, thinking. "For some reason, the boy vanished. He never got his key and Walker was never killed."

"And now the boy's family is being brought here," she breathed, shaking her head sadly. "I hope they made it out okay. I really hope he didn't have to kill someone from his own family."

She opened to the next page, but she hesitated. "I wonder whatever happened to that girl he gave the key to. Would she be the master of the Pits now?"

Unable to answer her questions, she turned her attention to the page and continued to read…

Thanks to phantomphreak09, kdm13, Enray, Kit turned Mighty, ImmortalPhantom22, MaxRideNut, Chaos Dragon, fetchboy84, Nylah, Hiei's Cute Girl, Invader Johnny, Lockblade, CatalystOfTheSoul, Writer's-BlockDP, skitzofrenic, Thunderstorm101, katiesparks, Kinoshita Kristanite, bloodmoon13, KareBare, Kiomori, FreakLevel27, Ignotus Somnium, ShadowFox123, and Silver Child of the Sea for reviewing!

And that was the last of the interludes. ON TO THE CLIMAX! :laughs evilly: :sniffles: :starts to cough painfully:

And me, off to bed.

Thanks for reading!

-Cori