OK... PLEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSSSEEEEEEE DON'T KILL ME FOR WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ! OR FOR TAKING FIVE MONTHS OR HOWEVER LONG TO UPDATE...

Yes, I am going to get slaughtered by the readers if I do not quickly get out of here when you're finished reading... I think I should have you know that what takes place here is all part of the plot and I couldn't have been able to continue without it. If I could have gone without it, I would have, but it needs to be in here.

By the way, thanks for 30 reviews! Aiming for 35 by the time I finish the story. (Guys, I get more reviews in the Gilligan's Island fandom than from this fandom, I tell ya.)

I bet this chapter can make you cry. It made me cry. And I wrote the thing. D:

*begs* Do not hurt me D:

...Em... Enjoy?

Chapter 8- Prison Break (PART 3)

,.~*~.,

Danny's and Tucker's teams looked across the street at the torture prison, silent. Danny stood at the edge of the sidewalk, the end of his headband fluttering in the chilly breeze. He gazed upon the prison, sadness and determination in his blue eyes. His heart was full of excitement and fear.

He turned to Tucker. "We're on," he said.

"Not yet," said Tucker. He pulled out a device and hit a few buttons. "I've programmed the cameras to display repeats of the past five minutes. They won't see us coming."

Danny gave him a thumbs up and signalled his team. Tucker signalled his, then they both moved forward across the street, silent as the night. As quietly as possible, each teen climbed over the fence and gathered around the air duct, as they had been directed to.

Danny removed the vent cover and crawled in, his group following him. Once they had all gotten in, Tucker and his group followed. They wormed their way through the duct for what seemed like an eternity, crawling through the endless dark tunnel until Danny saw a light coming from ahead to his left. "Guys," he whispered loudly. "Hold on for a sec." Sam stopped and passed the message on while Danny crept up ahead.

The teen crawled into a shorter tunnel and, much to his satisfaction (and relief), found that the light source was another vent cover. He breathed a sigh of relief and peeked through the vent. It led out into a hallway that seemed to stretch on for quite a distance. It was, fortunately, empty. The vent cover was, oddly enough, loose. With a bit of jiggering and joggering at the ends of it, the thing popped off.

"Come on," Danny whispered to his group. He slid himself out of the duct and stood up, then dusted off his shirt and jeans. He stood there for a moment, enjoying the comfortable indoor temperature. Sam crawled out next, followed by John, Ivan, Ashley, Griffin, Ben, and Valerie. Then came Tucker, Brent, Amy, Cole, Brian, Jenni, Toby, and Remy.

"All accounted for here," whispered Tucker.

"And here," Danny whispered back.

"Why are we whispering? Nobody's here," Valerie whispered loudly.

"Because it's enemy territory," Amy replied sharply.

Valerie glared at her. "I'm glad you'll be out of my hair for a while, kid," she retorted.

"Guys, stop," Danny commanded, his voice raising a bit. "If either of you dies tonight, the other is going to feel awfully sorry."

Amy and Valerie stopped arguing. Danny turned to his group. "Come on, guys. We've gotta get through the rest of this place."

"And we've gotta find Danny's parents," Tucker said. "Come on." Tucker headed off with his group. Then Danny walked away with his.

,.~*~.,

"Are they here yet?" asked Carpathan, hanging over Baker's shoulder.

"No, sir," the peacekeeper answered, taking a bite from his sandwich. "And they haven't for three whole months."

"Patience," Carpathan said, his tone hushed. "Wait however long it takes. Look for the slightest oddity, anything that would suggest they are here."

"Yes sir."

,.~*~.,

Maddie and Jack looked up as the door to their cell flew open. "All right, Maddie... and Jack," Masters began, walking inside. "Your boy and his friends have arrived. Meaning, it's time to get out of here."

"Thank goodness!" Jack exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

Maddie frowned at Masters. She still didn't trust the devious man she used to call a friend. If he was so willing to double-cross Carpathan, would he be just as willing to double-cross them if caught red-handed? Vlad smirked at her smoothly, a foxy glint in his eyes. Maddie narrowed her eyes at him, standing up.

"Come along, then," said Masters, turning and leaving.

Maddie shared a glance with her husband. Then the two followed after the man.

,.~*~.,

Danny's team had come through a series of hallways and now found themselves in an open room. Two peacekeepers had been guarding the room, but they had been easily taken care of and were now knocked unconscious and stuffed in a closet. Taking down peacekeepers was easy when you had a blackbelt and an aggressive teenager on your team.

Now the bunch had reached another door at the end of the room. Danny's adrenaline was at an all-time high, with what could only be described as "fighting blood" coursing througn his veins and pumping loudly in his ears. He clutched the sword in his hands, anticipating the rush of battle and the marriage of steel to skin. Danny wasn't bloodthirsty, but he was certainly thrilled that he was in his first real battle setting.

He licked his dry lips and flung open the door. There were two peacekeepers again, who both jumped when the door opened. Danny smacked one in the skull with the broad side of his sword. Then the other grabbed the teen by the shoulders. Sam stabbed the peacekeeper in the shoulder, causing him to gasp in pain and grip his shoulder. Valerie then nailed him in the jaw with a punch.

Meanwhile, John and Ben had taken care of the other peacekeeper, who was lying against the wall and moaning half-consciously. "Stuff 'em in a closet?" Ivan inquired, thumbing toward another storage room. Danny chuckled.

,.~*~.,

Tucker led his team through the hallway of cells, shooting sorry glances at each person he saw inside them- civilians, not criminals. Some read books and Bibles, others scratched doodles or messages in the floors and walls. Some were sleeping, and others still were writing. They were letters to family, most likely, that would never get sent. The poor, poor people, Tucker mused.

Though each teen wanted to help those people, none of them were Maddie or Jack. Their mission was to help them alone; there were no provisions made for a massive prison break. And it broke Tucker's heart.

"Let's check the solitary confinement cells," the co-leader said, turning to his group.

Cole sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "'Bout time. This is depressing."

"As if living on the streets as a gang isn't depressing?" Brian said, glancing at his teammate.

"Let's go, guys," Remy hissed, urging the two boys after Tucker. They followed willingly.

As they approached the solitary confinement cells, Tucker noticed something very odd. The door to one was wide open. "The door to opportunity is open," Cole whispered, rubbing his hands together.

"Cole's right, Tuck," Brent agreed. "We should check it out."

Tucker nodded. "All right. I guess we should see if that's the place where Danny's parents used to be," he consented. If that was their room, Danny's entire plan was in a state of collapse.

,.~*~.,

Masters led the Fentons through the complex, quietly talking to them and explaining some things. "I can't take you straight out the front door," he said, "but there is a back door, invisible to the outside, that I can bring you out by."

"I still don't trust you," Maddie said, staring nails into the back of Masters' silvery head. Masters just smiled, pretending not to hear the woman's comment. This caused her to narrow her eyes to piercing daggers. She had never found that grin irritating before now.

"At least give him one more chance, Mads," Jack said gently and a bit hoarsely. "I mean, look at what he's doing for us..."

Maddie knew her husband was right. She should give Vlad a second chance. But she had never been a woman inclined to forgive easily. She, more often than not, tended to hold grudges. But for Jack, she would try to let this one go...

Even if it was the last thing she ever did.

,.~*~.,

"Sir."

Carpathan sighed and picked up his communicator, eyes still fixed on the security camera screens. "What is it, peacekeeper?" he asked.

"Sir, we've lost contact with the guards on the secondary half of the jail," came the response.

Carpathan narrowed his eyes. "Thank you for your report, peacekeeper. That was exactly the information I needed." He turned off the communicator and tucked it away in his suit pocket. "Baker, look at the third row of screens, and the last one on that row," he commanded.

Baker looked. "I don't see anything weird. Just a cell door and a spider on the wall," he said.

Carpathan approached the screens and pointed at the spider on the video display. "I've been watching this simple spider for the past fifteen minutes. Once it reaches the edge of the door, it suddenly pops back to its location five minutes before. It always makes the same movements, and always crawls in the same directions. That spider, Baker, is not actually there."

"Video loop!" Baker exclaimed, his eyes wide. "How did I miss that?"

"It doesn't matter. The Fighters are here and presumably up to no good. I must stop them," Carpathan said, striding out of the security room. He pulled out his communicator and turned it on. "I need four armed guards to come with me immediately," he said. "I'm heading for the main entrance of hallway B. They will meet me there."

"Yes, sir!"

Carpathan turned off the communicator and marched forward.

,.~*~.,

Danny pushed a partially jammed door open and stepped inside the room. It was large and dark. Scary-looking devices of many kinds lined the walls.

"Whoah," John breathed, looking around. "What kind of monster keeps all these lying around?"

"This Carpathan one does," Danny replied. "Keep in mind it's the same monster who ordered that massacre, and is holding my parents hostage."

"Yow," whispered Ivan, looking around with wide blue eyes.

"He's sick," Sam muttered, rubbing her fingers against the sides of a sharp spike. "What does he want to do with these spike things? Impale people?" Among the spikes were electronic torture devices, fearsome, dirty weapons, and even a couple of guillotines.

Danny swallowed, deciding to change the subject. "Collect as many weapons as possible," Danny ordered, pointing to a pile of cleaner weapons in the far left corner of the room. "We might need them in the times to come."

"All right then, all of you," said Ashley, heading for the pile. "Let's get to it."

Danny stood careful watch by the door as his team gathered the weapons. If Carpathan showed up, he might decide to execute the teens then and there. He certainly had the resources. But Danny could warn them if he kept watch. He could save them. He could feel like he was making up for all the time he'd failed them.

Once the group had collected the weapons, Danny led them out and into the halls again.

,.~*~.,

Underneath one of the cell's benches was a halfway-assembled device with features signature of Jack Fenton's work. It was, without a doubt, the same cell the ghost hunters had been in.

Tucker sighed and set the object down, hopeless. He left the cell. "This was their room, all right," he said. "And they're definitely gone."

"Yes, I believe we've already established that," Cole replied smartly.

"Now what?" asked Amy.

"Danny's plan is ruined, that's what," Brent answered.

The group exchanged glances. This was bad.

,.~*~.,

Carpathan and his four armed men marched down the prison hallways, towards the solitary confinement area. He knew the Freedom Fighters must have been somewhere around there, trying to get the Fentons out... if they hadn't already.

Though Daniel hadn't surprised Carpathan, he had certainly provided enough of a delay in the mayor's finding out that the boy would seem to have the advantage. But nobody could outwit Carpathan. The boy would suffer for this. Carpathan smiled twistedly.

Oh, he would suffer all right. He would suffer so much that he'd hate his life and finally give in.

,.~*~.,

Jenni shushed her chatting teammates. "Guys, do you hear that?" The conversation hushed. Distant footsteps could be heard. It was the click of expensive shoes and the thumping of heavy boots.

"It's Carpathan!" Tucker hissed. "Quick! Into the cell! And shut the door!"

The eight teens hurried into the cell and quietly shut the door. They huddled on the floor in the darkness, hoping the footsteps would pass them by. Tucker's heart dropped into his stomach when the footsteps stopped.

"Give me the key," a voice with a strange accent ordered. The jingle of keys sounded, but then Carpathan spoke again. "No. Wait." The doorknob rattled. "It's already unlocked."

Brent turned pale. Tucker swallowed. Remy held onto Jenni for dear life, and she held him back, scared. Amy backed against the wall, and Cole covered his face. Brian was paralyzed with fear. Toby clenched and unclenched his fists, ready to fight if necessary.

The door began to open. In stepped the tall, imposing figure of the tyrant mayor, a frown set across his face. "Freedom Fighters," he greeted calmly. He looked around at each teenager. "I would prefer to speak with your leader, but he doesn't seem to be here. So then, who will it be?"

Tucker rose to his feet and met Carpathan's eyes as boldly as he could. "I'll speak for this team," he said. The mayor raised an eyebrow. "I'm Tucker Foley, and I lead this team alongside Danny. Basically, you are talking to the leader."

"All right, then," Carpathan said, an evil twinkle in his dark blue eyes. "Where have you taken the Fentons, Tucker Foley?"

"We didn't take them anywhere," Tucker explained. "They were gone when we got here. And even if we had taken them, we wouldn't be here right now."

"And how did you get here?" asked Carpathan, who was quickly becoming irritated.

Tucker smirked mischievously, his hazel eyes twinkling. "Through an obvious breach in your security," he answered. "You should thank us for finding out about it."

Carpathan's eyes narrowed. "Don't get smart with me, boy," he growled, grabbing the collar of the boy's shirt and jerking him closer. "No one else could have possibly loosed them. You will pay dearly for this." He shoved Tucker into the hold of one of his armed men. "I have a special purpose for this one," the mayor said, a sick smirk on his face. Tucker struggled, but was unable to break free from the armed man's iron grip.

"Hey, leave him alone!" Toby declared, standing and rushing at Carpathan, dagger in his hand.

Something flashed in Carpathan's eye when he suddenly turned around and punched the teenager hard in the jaw. Bones cracked in Toby's face. Blood flew out of his mouth along with a short, strangled, agonized cry of pain. He fell to the ground and smacked his head on the hard floor with a loud crack.

Ashley squeaked, covering her mouth. The group was speechless with shock. With a single punch, Carpathan had killed Toby. The teen's face was frozen in a scrunched-up expression, his jaw slightly dislocated.

"You will all come with me," Carpathan ordered. The teens all looked to Tucker, who nodded. Then, the Fighters all stood and followed Carpathan and his crew out.

They didn't know where they were being taken, but they knew it couldn't be a happy place. Each teen knew he was about to face Hell.

,.~*~.,

Danny and his team had not found any evidence whatsoever that suggested his parents were there. Sighing and hoping Tucker's group had had better luck, the teen gave his group the order.

"We'll go out the front gates," he said. "Everyone stick together and fight as hard as you need to. Come on."

After they had walked for about five minutes, Danny began to feel that something was wrong. And he had learned to trust his instincts. "Guys, you all go on," he commanded. "I'll meet you all outside, but there's something I have to do first. Alone." He aimed his last word at Sam, expecting her to object. Instead, she just looked at him. Then, she turned to the other teens and told them to follow her.

Danny smiled gratefully, then turned and rushed back through the prison. He started walking again to save breath. Then, as he walked through one hallway, he spotted an open door. Danny grew extremely silent, softly stepping closer to the door. He peered inside.

There was a desk, a set of security screens, and a strawberry-blonde young man in a peacekeeper's uniform sitting in a chair in front of the screens. A key sat on the desk next to him. Danny smirked. This was too easy.

If there was something wrong, he could use the security cameras to see what was going on. Danny casually walked up behind the man and snatched up the key. "Out of the chair, dude. With your hands up," the teen ordered, pointing his sword at the man.

The young man slowly turned and looked up, his blue eyes wide and mouth agape. He rose from his seat, hands up, and backed off. Danny approached him, blade pointed at the peacekeeper's throat. "Get against that wall," the teen ordered, motioning to the wall next to the door.

The man obeyed and pressed his back against the directed wall. Danny kept his sword aimed at him as he shut and locked the door. Then, he looked at the man. "Keep your hands up, I need to check your screens for something," said the teen, walking toward the desk. He sat down in the office chair and spun around, sighing. "Been a while since I had something comfortable to sit on," he said.

The startled peacekeeper just stared. "You're... you're Daniel Fenton," he said shakily.

Danny spun around to face his hostage, raising an eyebrow. "I go by Danny, so you know. But yes. Yes I am." He spun back around and began looking at the screens.

"I hope this doesn't affect my paycheck," the man said.

Danny rolled his eyes. "You're my captive and all you can think about is your paycheck?" he asked.

"Um... sort of?"

Danny buried his face in his palm and groaned.

"What?"

"Never mind. Just keep your hands up." Danny looked at each screen, into each room, hallway, and other place in the prison, seeking out Tucker's team. "C'mon, Tuck, where are all of you?" he muttered. They weren't outside, and they didn't appear to be wandering the halls, either. Not a room held a trace of them.

The peacekeeper had been studying Danny as he looked for the team. "You don't seem nearly as bad as Carpathan makes you out to be," he said.

"You don't seem tough enough to be a peacekeeper," replied Danny.

The man chuckled nervously. "Why do you think I'm the camera guy?"

"Are your hands up?" asked Danny.

"Um... yeah."

"Then that explains why you're the camera guy."

The young man blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

Danny kept on looking at the screens, running his fingers through his shaggy, matted black hair in confusion and frustration. "Is there something wrong with the cameras besides what Tucker did to them or something?" he asked aloud.

"Oh. I haven't quite fixed that yet," the camera operative said. "Just... let me finish and I'll be right back against the wall."

Danny turned to see his captive grinning nervously. "All right, then," he said, twirling his sword. "I doubt you'd mess with a guy with a sword."

The man cautiously approached the desk, messed with a few controls, and flipped a switch. The cameras suddenly flickered, then switched to live. "There."

"Thanks, um..."

"Call me Caleb. Caleb Baker."

Danny nodded. "All right. You can roam this room freely now."

Caleb Baker breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks so much... I was about to have a heart attack."

Danny's eyes widened at one of the screens. "Wha... where are they?" There was Tucker's team, all together except for Toby and Tucker himself. They looked scared. They were in a white room surrounded by glass- possibly soundproof. The flooring was tiled and white as well. The teens were huddled together, trying to protect each other from whatever threat might come upon them. "They've been caught!" He turned around and frantically looked at Caleb. "You've got to tell me what that room is!" he said loudly.

"That's the experiment chamber," Caleb replied. "Carpathan, he... likes to use people as human guinnea pigs. It's weird."

Danny muttered something vulgar about the mayor under his breath, then quickly turned back to look at the screen. "And... and he's doing that now?"

"Sometimes, he... uses it as an execution chamber, too. For the really bad stuff."

Danny was beginning to tremble in fear and anger. "He's... he's gonna kill them!" he choked.

Suddenly, at the end of the white room, a man dressed in all black materialized. He drew a sword and slowly approached the group of teens. Danny watched, unable to turn away, as he raised his sword and began to kill the brave Fighters. Some drew their weapons and took blows at the man, but he was never hit.

This is like what Cam described when he talked about how Michael died, the shaken teen realized. He shut his eyes and began to convulse, holding in fearful tears. Caleb turned off that camera, much to Danny's relief. But they were dead. So he was still in a state of emotional distress, and sick to his stomach.

He looked up at another screen, which had an already-prepared device displayed on it. It looked like something out of a sci-fi horror movie, with clamps for the hands and feet, connected to great electronic devices. It was, without a doubt, a torture-and-execute device. "caleb, tell me where that room is," he said shakily, pointing at the screen. "Please... they're going to kill someone close to me. Tell me... tell me where it is and the fastest route there."

Caleb thought of his paycheck. And then he thought of life. So which of the two mattered more to him?

,.~*~.,

"I'll be right back, you two," said Masters. "We're almost out. First, I must check to see if there is anybody by the door that will stop us."

Maddie nodded and looked at Jack, who smiled. "Everything's going to be all right, Maddie, see?" he reassured his wife.

"It... looks that way, yes," Maddie replied. Then Jack fell. Maddie gasped as a buff figure in all black suddenly stood before her. She barely got a chance to register his toxic purple eyes before she was knocked unconscious.

,.~*~.,

Vlad heard a noise and came back from the small corridor he had been in to find Jack and Maddie had just... disappeared. And then he smelled an ectotrail.

"What in the name of...?"

,.~*~.,

Caleb had given Danny the directions to the room he had seen on the screen. He had set off on that route. So far so good. He ahd just climbed a flight of stairs up to an observatory deck. Below him was a room with a guillotine. He was about to pass it by and go through the door to the next room when suddenly, the man in black materialized in the room.

Danny gasped when his parents appeared with the man. He watched them slowly stand up, both rubbing their face or neck. The man in black- if he was even human- shoved Jack over to the guillotine. Danny's eyes grew wide as his father's head was shoved into the hole, beneath the blade that would separate his head from his shoulders. The blade fell.

Danny flinched, shuddering. He still looked on as the man grabbed the crying Maddie by the shoulders, locked her in, and...

Danny turned away, his mind growing hazy with anger and blood-filled thoughts. His mission was in vain because now, his parents were dead. And so many more were dead besides them. And Danny had promised. Promised he wouldn't fail. But he'd broken his promise.

"No!" Danny slammed the edge of his sword into the wall. He then yanked it out and threw open the door to the next room. He registered these things: The electronic torture device in the room below, Tucker hooked up to it, the two peacekeepers, and the haze of rage.

The peacekeepers turned to see Danny there, sword gripped tightly in his hands, teeth gritted with emotion. They were at the controls; they had started to kill Tucker. Now it was Danny's chance to stop them.

He was suddenly one with the sword, pumping all of his emotion into it. He attacked the first guy head-on, taking a generous slice out of the peacekeeper's side. Yelling in agony, the man fell to the ground and covered his side with both hands.

The second peacekeeper knocked Danny to the floor and came after him with the butt of his gun. Danny met the weapon with a clash of his blade and resisted, grimacing.. Finally, he keeled back and kicked the man in the gut with a spring of his legs, sending him staggering backwards. Then Danny stumbled to his feet, unsteadily trying to regain his sense of balance.

The peacekeeper saw his chance and lifted his gun to shoot. Registering this in his mind, Danny swung his sword to cut the gun from his opponent's hand, but he was so disoriented that he misaimed and instead drove his blade right through the man's chest. He fell down dead.

Danny gasped, then removed his bloody sword from the peacekeeper's body. The haze that had been over him during the fight had gone, and he could now clearly see the two men lying there, bloody, on the floor.

He sighed and looked at the room below the observation deck, where he saw an already pained Tucker. Danny realized too late that he didn't know how to use the controls. He couldn't shut the machine down. He couldn't save Tucker. And he was terrified stiff. But, he thought, he should try to have one last conversation with his best friend.

Danny easily figured out how to turn on the two-way PA system to the room. He slowly and shakily began to speak. "T... Tucker?" he asked weakly.

"Danny?" Tucker rasped. He looked around the room. "Where's your voice coming from?"

"Up here," Danny replied, relieved to hear his friend's voice.

Tucker looked up, a weary look in his hazel eyes. "You're alive?" he asked. Danny was about to answer, but something in his throat choked the words, so he simply nodded. "Then you should run while you still can."

"No, Tucker, I can get you out of there, I swear," Danny said. "I can figure out the controls, I can..."

"Danny, they told me... once the device is active it can't be shut off. I'm going to die. I'm sorry..."

"No, no, you can't!" Danny cried, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. "I'll find a way to stop it, I'll- "

"Please!" Tucker grimaced and turned his pain-filled gaze to look Danny in the eye. "Just... g-go," he strained out, a single tear falling from his eye. He was in obvious pain. "No one is going to blame you for this, just run!"

Danny just stood there, unable to turn away from Tucker's painful demise but desperately, desperately wanting to run. His blue eyes filled up with tears as he watched his best friend hold back screams of agony. Finally, Tucker could hold it no longer. He screamed louder than he had ever screamed. Danny backed away in horror, then shouted his friend's name until his throat hurt.

Finally, the machine and the screaming stopped. Tucker's body fell limp, his face twisted in the utmost contortion of pain. "Tucker..." Danny mouthed. He could stand it no longer. The teen turned and ran, his face wet with his own tears. He ran through the empty halls and out a back door he found, then until he found a dark place to hide outside.

He closed his sky-blue eyes and pressed his face against the outside wall of the torture prison. It was there that everything he had been holding back that entire year- every tear, every fear, every twinge of anger, every ounce of pain and emotion- came out in one big, anguished cry that didn't even sound human. It ended in a huge sob which eventually tapered down to a breathless whisper.

Words could faintly be heard coming from his mouth. "So much death... so much death... I can't take it anymore... the death... oh, the death..."

He took a deep breath and calmed himself down, eyes no longer clemched shut so tightly. His erratic breathing evened out, but his face still wasn't completely calm. He pulled back from the cold stone wall as all the memories of death came back to him. A calm type of rage beat through him with his fighting blood. It was cold, and it filled his entire being. His face became grave as his breathing grew quieter. He hadn't felt like this before, so restlessly... relaxed.

When Danny opened his eyes again, they were like ice. "I won't let death murder me any longer," he said, voice perfectly normal. His eyes narrowed into slits. "This isn't over yet. You may have won this time, but don't think for a moment that'll make us stop!" His voice raised passionately on that last sentence as he screamed his heart to Carpathan. Then, in a low voice, he continued, half to himself, "Even if my team quits, I won't."

"Danny! You made it out!" Sam called from behind him.

Danny turned around to see his other best friend running toward him. He walked toward her as she ran, solemnly gazing at her. She threw her arms around him. Danny hugged her back, staring off blankly into the distance.

The other six Fighters in Danny's group came toward the two, panting. Some were limping. None appeared injured, just very tired. "Where's Tucker and the others?" asked Sam after they broke the embrace.

"They're dead, Sam," Danny said hoarsely.

Sam swallowed. "Dead?" Danny nodded, now staring blankly down at his feet. Sam scoffed in disbelief. "Tucker is dead? He's actually... gone?"

"Yeah," Danny rasped in a hushed voice.

His friend looked disgusted. "I don't believe this," she said, narrowing her eyes. She shook her ehad. "You mean Carpathan seriously... murdered him?!"

"He did!" Danny snapped, emotion finally on his face. "And my parents, and the rest of the group I brought here! And I was there, Sam! I saw them all die!" Sam stared up at him, speechless. Her brow was furrowed in a mixture of grief, anger, and confusion. Danny's mask cracked. "Sam, I could have... at least tried! But I was frozen there and-" He dug his hands through his raggedy black hair. "I just let him..." he choked out the last word, "...die."

He felt truly sick of himself now. The sickness turned ionto disgust, and the disgust quickly turned into anger. His icy eyes blazed with a cold fire. "No one else close to me dies," he said, looking at Sam intensely. He knew he must have looked terrible to her right now; he was dirty, probably a little bloody, and he had red, puffy eyes from his crying. This, he guessed, was the reason why she flinched back a little.

"My brother," Ben said. Danny and Sam turned to look at the boy. "He's dead too... isn't he?"

The leader narrowed his eyes and nodded slowly, remembering as the blade cut young Remy's throat open. "I'm sorry." Ben drooped. Ashley set her hand on the boy's shoulder to comfort him.

Danny turned away. He had had enough grief for one night. Absolutely enough. Just when he started to walk away, heavy, pained, raspy breathing was heard. Footsteps pounded toward them. The teens all turned to see a tall figure running toward them, hands covering his face. "I made it out," he gasped, coming closer to his leaders. "I'm alive..."

Danny stared at Brent and the red liquid that was seeping through his long fingers. Sam approached him. "Brent? What happened?" asked she.

"Everybody died," Brent answered, peeking out from behind one bloodsoaked hand. "I pretended to be dead after a while, until they were all fallen around me and that... whatever he was vanished. I took a run for it. And my face is permanently ruined." Brent slowly uncovered his face. It was grossly marred and bleeding badly. All the teens cringed.

Danny shut his eyes tightly and pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't bear to look at another bloodsoaked body. It was sick. Revolting. "Spare us the details," he growled, walking off. "This mission was a failure." And so am I, he added mentally.

"Danny-" Brent began, but he was cut off by Sam.

"It's OK. He just needs to be alone," she said.

Danny mentally thanked her and kept on walking. He returned to his alley before anyone else. The ice in his eyes never left him the whole way back. It wouldn't break, it wouldn't melt. Even after the remaining Fighters returned to their domain, the ice remained in his eyes. In fact, it only seemed to grow colder.

A change was beginning to happen inside of Danny, whether it was good or bad. And whether he knew it or not, he was changing... and it would doubtlessly begin to affect the people around him.

,.~*~.,

I FINALLY FINISHED! I'm so glad to be done with this chapter, it has been killing me these past few months.

Heck, I haven't even been into this fandom for months, which is why I took so long to update this time. I've been into Doctor Who and Gilligan's Island. Yes, Gilligan's Island. And I wrote a lot of stories for it. XD I happen to think it to be a really good show with a lot of potential.

Anyway, with Frontlines here I have just thrown myself back into a world of angst... This story is too angsty for its own good. ONE CHAPTER LEFT, THEN AN EPILOGUE, THEN I'LL POST THE PROLOGUE FOR DESECRATION! That's book two. Cause the plot of this first book is coming to a close; the climax is over.

Now I shall hide from the mob of angry fanfiction readers who are coming after me because I killed Jack, Maddie, and Tucker. *runs away to hide*