Back again. :D

I had been planning on the climax being in this chapter...but it didn't work out that way. Instead, I left you with another cliffy. *evil cackle*

BEFORE YOU START READING THIS CHAPTER: Please go you YouTube and type in "Russian Roulette". It's a song by Rihanna. [Click on the one that reads Russian Roulette - Rihanna (Official Video). It's not really the official video, but the music video is kind of long and not worth watching. The back drop on this one is red with a black and white anatomically correct heart in the center of the shot.] If you've never heard it before, go watch it. It's important to this chapter.

Umm, soo...yeah. I don't own Danny Phantom. Or Russian Roulette. I just bought RR on iTunes, but I don't think that counts. Meh. OH and I don't own Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (which is where I got the idea of the speakers from. Not exactly like what was in the movie, but hey, I was inspired by it).

Enjoy (:

Darkness

Chapter 5: So Just Pull The Trigger

December 22, 2011

"You know what I missed most while I was trapped in that infernal thermos?" Dan drawled lazily. He was lounging in a spinning chair on wheels, turning a single wooden stake over in his fingers. The other stake was on a desk beside Dan. Sam was huddled in a corner, attempting to make herself as small as possible.

"What?" She whispered.

"Music. Oh, I missed music. Strange, I know," He chuckled, pointing the stake at her before turning it over in his hands again. "But I missed it so desperately." His eyes glazed over as he stared into space, as if remembering a fond, but long-passed memory. "I missed singing most of all. I loved to sing. I wasn't ever particularly good at it, though I thought I was when I was young. I used to love listening to people sing." He glanced down at Sam as if just remembering she was present. "Sing for me, Sam."

"What?" She coughed, her eyes widening in confusion. "I can't sing -"

"I said sing for me."

"I don't -"

"Sing!"

She hesitated a moment longer, before closing her eyes and drawing in a shaky breath. "'Take a breath. Take it deep. Calm yourself,' he says to me. 'If you play, you play for keeps. Take the gun, and count to three.' I'm sweating now, moving slow. No time to think, my turn to go. And you can see my heart beating. You can see it through my chest, that I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving. I know that I must pass this test, so just pull the trigger. 'Say a prayer to yourself.' He says 'Close your eyes, sometimes it helps.' And then I get a scary thought: that he's here, means he's never lost. And you can see my heart beating. You can see it through my chest, that I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving. I know that I must pass this test, so just pull the trigger. As my life flashes before my eyes, I'm wondering will I ever see another sunrise? So many won't get the chance to say goodbye, but it's too late to think of the value of my life. And you can see my heart beating. You can see it through my chest, that I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving. I know that I must pass this test, and you can see my heart beating. You can see it through my chest, that I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving, no. I know that I must pass this test, so just pull the trigger." Her eyes fluttered open, her whole body trembling, as she finished the quiet tune.

Dan watched her, his expression unreadable. He stood slowly, gliding across the floor toward her. Her eyes flickered between his face and the wooden stake still clutched in his fist as he approached. She felt her body fighting the urge to tremble when he knelt before her, his eyes even with hers, the point of the stake even with her heart. He glared at her, the fury in his eyes radiating against her skin. She fought to draw a breath through her terror, but just before she nearly lost her composure and screamed, she saw Danny in her mind's eye. Stay strong, he whispered. I'll be there soon. Everything will be alright. I promise. Sam bit her lip, closing her eyes and seeing his cobalt eyes full of protection and worry. She drew strength from them.

"You are a useless little brat, you know," He snarled. He seized her bad wrist with his free hand and squeezed, chuckling ominously at her squeal of pain.

He strolled casually back to the seat he had occupied before, ignoring the way the girl slowly calmed herself. He turned his back to her, facing a small speaker set up on the desk before him. A rather long antenna extended from the back of the speaker, its' signal deeply embedded into the Ghost Zone. He smirked, imagining the tower that had been constructed by the girl, Danny, and the technological one...what was his name again? Ah yes, Tucker. The signal from his little speaker, which had a microphone built in as well, would bounce from that tower to the identical speaker he had set up in the lab of his old home...of the boy's home. The speakers would be vital to his plan.

"Sam!" A frantic voice called faintly through static. Dan leaned forward immediately, his face splitting into a mirthless grin. Everything was going exactly as planned.

"Sam!" Danny called. He leapt down the stairs and landed in a crouch in his basement. The lights were off, plunging the room in darkness. Silence met his ears; he strained to hear any noise that would tell him where in the room Sam was.

Cautiously, Danny took a single step forward. He was given about two seconds' warning due to the sounds of a machine whirring to life, before he fell flat on his back. A blade of ectoplasm narrowly missed his head; it pinned him to the floor, rendering him immobile. To his horror, the lights of the basement flashed on, revealing his parents' completely empty lab. The door slammed shut, sealed by a wall of ectoplasmic energy that spread to the walls, floor, and ceiling. Danny was trapped.

"Nice of you to join us, Daniel." A familiar voice rang. Danny craned his neck, searching for the source of the voice, just to find that the room was empty. "It's useless for you to look for me. I'm not there. You see, I knew you would be expecting me to travel to your house, thinking that I would go to wherever I believed you would never look. So I set that trap for you there. It's working beautifully, might I add,"

"Where's Sam?" Danny asked sharply.

"You get right to the point, don't you?" Dan drawled. "But, of course, this is Sam we're talking about here...of course you're concerned. Sam is right here, doing just fine. Would you like to see her?"

Danny couldn't respond. A swirling mass of ectoplasmic energy formed above him, forming a window into a rather familiar lab. Dan was smirking down at him. Wordlessly, the window shifted to reveal Sam. She was slumped in a corner of the lab, her face turned down, her eyes averting the window. Danny heard a frustrated growl from the other end of the window.

"Sam, what did I tell you about not looking at people when they are trying to talk to you?" Danny watched in horror as Dan crouched before Sam, seized her roughly by the neck, and began slamming her into the wall. "When...people...are...talking...to...you...you...must...make...eye...contact!" He punctuated each word by slamming her into the wall. Danny's heart shattered when he heard the pitiful sobs that tore through Sam's throat as Dan stepped away. For a moment, she did not look up, but after taking several deep breaths, her weary violet eyes met his through the window. She looked dreadful; her face was pale and bruised. Danny felt his body lurching toward the window involutarily as the savage need to protect her made his vision swim. Her brows knit together as tears filled her eyes.

"Danny," She whispered. Her chin quivered as she gasped. Her body twitched as she screwed her eyes shut from the pain of her broken ribs pinging against her expanding lungs.

"Sam..." Danny gasped. He tried to tell her not to be scared, that he would find his way to her, that he would save her, but he couldn't seem to make the words form in his mouth. He did his best to communicate what he was feeling with his eyes, and from the look she was giving him, she seemed to understand exactly what he was trying to say.

"I know," She whispered. "It's okay." She shifted slightly, attempting to alleviate some of the pressure of her injuries.

"So, here is my dilemma, Danny." Dan mused. "You see, someone is going to die today. Either you, or dear Sam here. And I am leaving the decision to the two of you. This should be interesting," He chuckled humorlessly.

"Me." Danny said immediately. "Kill me, release Sam."

"No!" Sam shouted. She winced and gingerly touched her side. "Danny, think about this logically. If I die, it's not going to be a big deal. If you die, all hell will break loose!"

"I will not let you die. I have a choice, and I'm not letting you die. You are just as important as I am."

"In what world? Whose life would be in danger if I was gone?"

"Your family! My family! Tucker and his family! Me," Danny's voice broke. "It would destroy me to lose you,"

Sam blinked, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. "It would destroy me to lose you, too. But it would also destroy the world to lose you. You named ten people who would miss me if I died. I can think of seven billion people who would be effected by your death. Danny, seriously. We've talked about this," He closed his eyes, remembering their conversation from just 24 hours before. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

"I told you my view on the subject." He muttered through gritted teeth. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but the small rational part of his mind understood Sam's point. The world needed him, or rather, Danny Phantom, to protect it from evil ghosts. Ghosts like Dan.

"Danny, please," Her hoarse voice was just barely louder than a whisper. "Don't do this. Don't do it to the world. They need you. Desperately. They don't even know how much they need you."

Danny met her gaze through the window. Her violet eyes, which he had seen show a large variety of emotions, seemed dull and lifeless now. She was deadset. Danny knew it was a lost cause. He clamped his eyelids shut and turned his face away from the window, not wanting to watch what would happen next.

"Have we come to a decision?" Dan asked.

There was a pause. Danny kept his eyes closed, determined to block out as much as whatever would happen next as possible. "Yes," He heard Sam say. "Me."

Danny held his breath, every nerve on overdrive, every muscle tensed. Silence met his ears. He waited.

And so will you.

HAHAHA.

I promise you, NEXT CHAPTER, the Criminal Minds will begin.

I'm so excited. SO EXCITED.

And for those of you who believe that this story will have a negative outcome, you should REALLY go check out my profile. REALLY. (:

Drop a review, please. I'll love you forever. And if you're crazy enough, I'll mention you in my A/N on the next chapter. I've been known to do that from time to time (:

- Tori