A/N: So, date I started working on this? June 29. Date finished? July 18. Woohoo, chemistry class. In other news, who's ready for an epic eight-part final battle? But don't let that fool you, there's still more after this chapter. Apologies in advance as I know some of the battle scenes aren't the greatest. That's what happens when chemistry class sucks up all my energy before I get to sit and type this out.
Playlist for this chapter (no, seriously, I listened to these on endless repeat while typing this up): "Blow Me Away," "Had Enough," and "You Fight Me" by Breaking Benjamin, "Is Forever Enough" by Hawk Nelson, "Frontline" and "Throwdown" by Pillar, "You're Going Down" by Sick Puppies, "Riot" and "Get Out Alive" by Three Days Grace, and "Stay Alive," "Stand Up," and "Headstrong" by Trapt. Yay for my over-abundance of rock music.
|23|) \/\/|-|!73 4|\||) |)34|)
The small bit of training the BAU team had gotten in using the ghost weapons was definitely paying off. Morgan, true to form, broke down a door to start off the fight, taking the metal hunter ghost—Skulker—completely by surprise. Danielle followed him in quickly, ordering the rest of the team to, "Find the other guards!" Luckily, they listened, and Valerie herded them off.
Skulker finally recovered and grinned slyly at the two before him. "So, the whelp's clone had to go get help to face off against her daddy, did she?" He chuckled. "Once a failure, always a failure, huh?"
Danielle snarled, but Morgan was the one to land a shot on the hunter, firing from behind.
Skulker was blasted away, obviously surprised by the attack from who he thought was a harmless human. He shook his head and pulled himself from the rubble, looking around to find that the two had scattered to find hiding places. Skulker grinned. That was fine. Let them hide. Hunting was always the best part.
|23|) \/\/|-|!73 4|\||) |)34|)
Val led the BAU team out into a hallway that ended in a fork. She studied her ghost hunting suit's specialized tracker, then glanced back up. "Technus is this way," she said, nodding to the left. "That means Spectra will be on the right." She turned to the four adults, nibbling her lip nervously. "We'll have to split up…."
JJ laid a hand on her shoulder, smiling reassuringly. "We always knew it'd come to that." JJ looked to Prentiss, who nodded. "Let's do this."
The two women headed right, and Hotch and Rossi followed Val down the left corridor. They came to a door that Val quickly blasted away, tucking and rolling into the room while firing off two of the guns her suit supplied her with.
Hotch and Rossi immediately followed, deciding it'd be best to assume she'd have a Morgan-style plan. Sure enough, they walked in on a shootout that was rather one-sided, the ghost mostly shielding itself with Doc Oc style metal limbs.
Hotch glanced at Rossi, motioning for them to split up to search for the hostages. The two broke apart, rushing down each side of the room and giving cover fire when they could for Val, who continued pounding away at Technus. Obviously, Val had something personal against this ghost, so it would be their job to find and secure the hostages.
And, dammit, they were gonna do their job.
|23|) \/\/|-|!73 4|\||) |)34|)
Prentiss made quick work of the door to the last room, and JJ led the way in, gun raised and ready to fire. Following Val and Danielle's advice, they spaced out their shots so one was always firing, but they quickly found out that the ghost they were faced with was difficult. They were easily separated, unable to see each other or communicate at all.
Meanwhile, the black shadow ghost, Spectra, laughed and mocked them, sending off her own ectoblasts every so often. "This is the best the FBI has to offer?" she chuckled, waving a hand dismissively at them. "Two pathetic little girls who have never even seen a ghost before?" She laughed, feeling the two start to believe her lies, breathing in their misery. "The ghost boy did a better job fighting me off when his little girlfriend died!"
JJ and Prentiss winced at that, knowing from Danny's statement how well that particular fight went. Unfortunately, what Danielle and Val failed to mention to them was that Spectra gained power with each negative thought she collected off her opponents. They were unknowingly powering her up each time she spoke. The two found themselves hoping Reid would show up soon.
Otherwise, they were screwed.
|23|) \/\/|-|!73 4|\||) |)34|)
Danny choked on a yelp as Vlad slammed him into another wall. His arm and ankle let him know that they had not yet fully healed as they throbbed in time with his pulse. One of his hands came up to try to force Vlad's hand off his throat.
Vlad simply chuckled at the weak attempt. "You truly are pathetic, aren't you, boy?" he spat. "I should just kill you now like I should have when we first met two years ago!"
Danny coughed and hacked as he was dropped, trying to bring in as much air as he could. When he could speak, he choked out, "D—Do… what you want… to me. J—Just… leave… my family a—and… friends a—alone."
There was a moment where all was calm and quiet. Then, Vlad laughed. Danny could do nothing but stare as Vlad doubled over in mirth.
"W—What?" Danny panted, gaping. "What's s—so… funny?"
Vlad stood again, wiping a tear from his eye. "You, my boy."
Danny's brow furrowed. "M—Me?"
"Yes."
"W—What'd I do th—that's… so f—funny?"
Vlad sneered down at him. "You think they're still alive."
|23|) \/\/|-|!73 4|\||) |)34|)
Skulker was quickly getting tired of this hunt. It seemed that the clone and the human were hunting him instead of the other way around. Every time he got close to where he assumed they were hiding, he'd get hit from behind by one of their little blasts. It got to the point where he attempted to go the opposite direction in order to catch the one sending the potshots, but they even anticipated that and managed to get the upper hand still.
Morgan and Danielle were simply splitting up, taking shots if he got too close to the other's current hiding spot and searching for the hostages. Unfortunately, they were proving difficult to find, but both Danielle and Morgan could see that Skulker was weakening from the cheap shots he was taking. In an unspoken agreement, they both began firing on him, blasting from opposite directions so he had nowhere to hide.
The whole room got so bright it appeared white. Then, a blue beam cut through the blinding blasts, and Danielle cried out, "I got him!"
Both ran out to meet in the middle of the room. "So that's half our job done," Morgan stated, "now we've gotta find the—"
"No, not we."
Morgan's brow furrowed. "What're you talkin' about? Of course we have to—!"
"I'll get the hostages," Danielle said, holding up a hand to stop him from arguing. "You need to go help Danny."
Morgan thumbed over his shoulder, face going taut with repressed anger. "But, we were just supposed to—"
"Look," Danielle interrupted, placing her hands on Morgan's shoulders and shaking him. "I know Danny. He's going to need help against Vlad, especially after everything that's happened the past two years. He'll need you and the rest of your team, when they're able. I'll find Maddie and her clones. Go."
That was all he needed to hear. With a quick nod, Morgan was off.
|23|) \/\/|-|!73 4|\||) |)34|)
Hotch was having absolutely no luck looking for the hostages. At some point, the ghost had begun fighting back, causing Rossi and Hotch to be pulled into the battle, mostly to give cover fire and provide the occasional distraction while still hunting for the hostages. Every so often, they heard what had become a tell-tale CLUNK, signaling that another piece of the ghost's technological armor had fallen off. Valerie definitely knew what she was doing.
Rossi met up with Hotch once there was a slight lull in the battle. "We can't both stay here," Rossi declared. "We're obviously no help to Valerie, and just one of us is needed to find the hostages and clones."
"Then what do you suggest?" Hotch asked.
Rossi glanced at the ghost and huntress, then back at Hotch. "Go see if you can help Danny. We both know he's in no shape to fight Masters alone, especially when Masters can use those ghost powers."
"And you'll get the hostages?"
Rossi scoffed. "Of course I will. Seriously, Aaron, what else would you expect?"
|23|) \/\/|-|!73 4|\||) |)34|)
Prentiss cursed as the ghost flew past them once more. She fired off a quick shot that went wide. "Did Danielle or Valerie ever mention whether these things could run out?" she asked JJ, motioning with here ectogun.
JJ grinned weakly. "They never said they would."
Prentiss rolled her eyes. "Didn't say they wouldn't, either, though…. Dammit, where's Morgan when you need him?"
A shriek answered her, then a glowing blue light. There was a moment's pause, then a voice called out, "Well, I'm not Morgan, but will I do?"
"Reid!" both women exclaimed, happily heading over to him after seeing that the ghost was gone.
He chuckled. "You'd think I just saved your lives or something!"
Prentiss punched him in the shoulder. "Can it, wise guy!"
"Besides," JJ stated, hands on hips, "I seem to remember quite a few times where things were the other way around and we were saving you!"
Reid blushed. "P—Point taken. Now, wh—where's—?"
Prentiss held up a hand. "Ah, ah! We'll take care of that! You have someone else who probably needs saving." She thumbed over her shoulder at one of the three inner doors, just as a loud cry was heard.
"Danny!" Reid yelled, rushing towards it.
|23|) \/\/|-|!73 4|\||) |)34|)
"W—What are you talking about?" Danny stammered. "O—Of course they're s—still—!"
"There's no 'of course' about it, boy!" Vlad snarled. "Think for once in your miserable life! All those bodies, and the only way to tell the clone from the original is a barcode tattooed on their neck!"
Danny's eyes went wide, and he dove away as Vlad tried to grab him again. He phased through the bed, hoping the makeshift shield would delay Vlad some. "The clones are the only onese with the barcodes!" he shot back, charging an ectoblast in one hand. "You said so yourself!" He pushed the blast forwards, a burst of green flying straight at Vlad.
A pink shield materialized before him, dispersing the blast into harmless little beams. Vlad retaliated with his own blast too quickly for Danny to defend, then phased through the bed as Danny attempted to pull himself up from the floor.
Danny barely managed to roll out of the way of Vlad's punch. He actually slammed into the other wall at the end of his spiral, wincing when the motion jarred his still-healing ankle and arm.
Vlad laughed as Danny cradled his arm and pulled his wounded leg in towards his body. "Of course I said so, boy!" he growled. "And you actually believed it!" Vlad leaned in, smirking at Danny, who could only glare back. "Do you know," he hissed, "how easy it is to tattoo a corpse?"
Danny froze, eyes wide and mouth gaping. He worked his jaw for a few minutes before managing to gasp out, "W—What?"
Vlad grabbed Danny by his still-healing arm and flung him into the wall on the other side of the bed. Danny crashed into the nightstand, screaming as his arm and ankle twisted once more. Vlad stalked over as Danny struggled to move, to get pressure off his aching limbs. A black boot heel dug into his stomach, aggravating the cuts there as Vlad leaned down.
"Your friends and family are dead, Daniel," Vlad hissed. "I killed the originals first. They never even left Amity Park." The heel ground in deeper, and Danny was choking on each breath. "They're all dead, boy, and it's all because you couldn't save them. You were never good enough for them, and you couldn't even stop me from killing your own obsession right in front of you!" Vlad stood tall again, backing up a few steps to stand, imposing, in the middle of the room, glaring down his nose at a curled-up, in pain, cringing Danny. His hands lit up with pink fire. "And now, I'll finally kill you." Vlad's hands rose to fire—
Just as all three doors were broken down and Danny spun, unfurling himself. Green beams came from each direction, meeting in the middle before Vlad even knew what had happened.
All that remained was a charred body, arms still raised above its head in an attack that would never come and mouth gaping in a final expression of surprise before it crumpled to the floor.
|23|) \/\/|-|!73 4|\||) |)34|)
A/N: God, that's the longest it has ever taken for me to type up a single chapter. Three weeks. Ick. But you'll all be glad to hear that my class is done next week, so after that (and 4-H Fair) I'll be able to type out the last two chapters and epilogue fairly quickly. Then I can start posting the sequel, which is going to have less (but longer!) chapters. Anywayz, hope you liked, and I hope you all feel Vlad got what was coming! Read and review, please!