Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. I would never dream of making money off his work, this is but one fanatic's homage. So please don't sic the rabid lawyer hordes upon me, there's not much for them to sue out of me.

Author's Note: As of this chapter, the story is moving out of its first emotional phase (angst, in case you're just now joining us, which I rather hope is not the case, you'd be terribly lost if you skipped the first several chapters!), and into the second. Have I mentioned how badly I would like to tear Dan apart myself?

Chapter 7: A War in Progress

"I can hear their lament between these rocks

The whisper of an angry ghost

He speaks for them all trapped on this lost world

I am their very last hope"

-"Eternal Glory" - Rhapsody

"This is all your fault!" I shouted, the sound carrying erratically through the ruined mansion.

Despite my flash of temper, Vlad Masters was infuriatingly contrite. You know what they say about the grieving process- denial, sorrow, anger, and so on. Well, I was moving right out of sorrow after paying my respects at Danny's grave, and now I stood firmly in anger while we were discussing the situation regarding Danny. No, wait. That monster doesn't deserve to share a name with that loveable boy. Dan, then, for lack of a better name. Or Phantom. Sure, I had chased Danny off, but this madman was the reason that monster was born!

"Yes, and I shall rue my actions thoroughly." The billionaire sighed, eying that college photograph he had sitting on a salvaged shelf. "Now, do you want my help or not?"

I stopped short before I could continue ranting, and before I could indulge a desire to smack Vlad upside the head repeatedly. "How much can you help?" I glared at him, clearly doubting the man and his intentions.

"Much of my lab was destroyed, but you would be surprised and pleased to know that my most recently developed equipment is surprisingly durable." Vlad smirked at me. "And if you can leave just a telephone, I can assist in other ways."

"What? How?" I glowered, trying to keep most of the curiosity out of my tone. Amity Park honestly needed all the help it could get, but I didn't want to say as much.

"My castle was destroyed, Valerie. Not my fortunes." Vlad stated flatly. "I've been cut off from civilization this past year, so I haven't been able to tap into that. With communication to the outside world, I can access my wealth and perhaps put it to good use for the first time in my life."

I paused, considering that. The man was a billionaire, regardless of how he got that money. "What are you suggesting?"

Vlad crossed his arms. "I give you what equipment I have here, which is precisely the reason you came all this way to begin with. I can also provide technology and funding for this defense force you've mentioned. As you've suggested, throwing Daniel into the Ghost Zone is most likely a temporary solution at best. If he attacked Amity Park once, I would imagine that will be where he strikes upon his return."

I frowned as I considered the offer. On the one hand, Vlad freely admitted to having been a real manipulative jerk; but on the other hand, he did seem to be genuine in his regret, and he did have a considerable amount of financial clout. Grudgingly, I dug my phone out and handed it to the billionaire. "Fine, but you'd better remember I'm really ticked off at you, Vlad Masters."

"I shall make a note of it." The billionaire smirked, dialing some numbers into the phone and then apparently getting to an automated system, given the continued number-punching. Gotta love banking-by-phone, I guess. "You say that Axion Labs is making your weapons and equipment now?"

I nodded confirmation while Vlad continued to wade through the automated banking system. Aside from the circumstances, it was amusing to see how much hold music could apparently annoy even a self-described villain. He was hobbling back and forth with a thoroughly annoyed expression by the time he got ahold of a real live person. It took several more minutes of boring banking details before he was done. I think my jaw came unhinged at the amount of money he was having the bank transfer, not to Axion, but to me directly. He caught my open-mouthed stare and grinned wickedly.

"You see, my dear, I was putting in a takeover bid on Axion prior to... events." Vlad explained, apparently bemused. "I doubt they will be willing to accept such a sizable donation from me. But if the funding comes via the heralded savior of Amity Park, well, how can they refuse?"

I remembered finally to shut my mouth. Somehow, the idea of one man possessing billions of dollars is almost a mythical concept. At least, until you see one almost casually toss several hundred million dollars your way just because he could. "Let me get this straight... you just made me a multi-millionaire like it's nothing, just because a company you tried to buy out might not take it from you-"

"Yes, that is the general idea. I assume you'll use the money far more wisely than I have." Vlad was already dialing some other number on my phone, and beckoning me to follow him to a ruined room adjacent to the old lab while he issued several orders to whoever he was on the phone with.

I surprised myself, being able to pass through that room again without breaking down in tears a second time. True, I felt my gaze drawn with laser-precision toward that stained section of wall, and felt the tears of my still-fresh grief threatening to spill over, but I was able to function, to keep walking. I guess the cloud of confusion left by Dan- by Phantom's rampage was lifted now that I knew the truth of things, and I could see clearly. True, the knowing was painful, and will always be painful. But now, now I could shut away the feelings of affection I had for Danny that had hindered me before. Danny, I couldn't hate, couldn't fight. This monster, Phantom though, I could hate him. I could hate him with every fiber of my being, and desire nothing but his absolute annihilation. Like Paulina before, I could now take the role of the avenging lover. My friend had not turned on me, he had been slain, quite literally, by his own inner demons. Now it wasn't fighting a friend turned traitor, now it was straightforward revenge. Revenge for the deaths in Amity Park, revenge for the destruction, and most importantly, revenge for my father's grievous injuries and now for Danny's murder.

Those dark thoughts flitting through my mind, we came upon the second room, apparently what had been a storage room adjacent to the lab. The ceiling here was mostly intact, with only a few sections fallen in, smashing anything beneath those massive slabs. I stood in the doorway as Vlad picked through the scattered devices, making a clumsy pile of items that he stacked on top of one of the fallen ceiling panels. I recognized many of them to be new weapons, several varieties of guns, throwing weapons, and so on. The billionaire heaved a silver pack onto the pile before turning toward one of the collapsed areas, studying the wreckage with a critical eye.

"Valerie, would you be so kind as to assist an old man?" Vlad gestured at the mess. "I need to shift some of this to get to a new jet sled."

"Fine." I grumbled, walking into the dim gloom of the chamber, studying the heap as well. I was moderately surprised to see the exo-skeleton Danny had stolen during the ghost invasion in the mess. The device was partly crushed by a slab of the ceiling, but it appeared that it had prevented the collapse from crushing the board underneath the weight. "How the heck did the Fentons' suit get here-?" I asked before I stopped and shot an accusing look at Vlad as we took up positions to lever the ceiling off the board.

"Ah, yes, you've caught me out once again, my dear." Vlad gestured at the thing. "You see, I stole it for myself after Daniel used it rather spectacularly to stop Pariah Dark, the ghost king. I'm sure if you had seen what the boy was capable of with the suit boosting his powers, you would have desired it yourself. I was going to modify it to correct the very nearly fatal flaw in its interface and power system, but as you might guess, I didn't get a chance. It's no more than scrap now, unfortunately."

I pondered on that while we both worked at getting the jet sled unburied. It really was a shame the exo-skeleton was damaged beyond repair. It would have been a desperately useful weapon against Phantom. But even I could see that the contraption was smashed beyond any hope of use as the ceiling slab was gradually shifted off of it. Once the wreckage was clear, I tugged the jet sled free, surprised at how lightweight the device was. Sure, my original sled didn't weigh much, but this slick new model weighed even less.

"This one doesn't have the built on missile hardpoints or blasters, but I believe you should be quite pleased with it's speed and mobility." Vlad plucked a small wristband from the rubble and handed it to me. "I would suggest you let Axion use your old one as a basis for production however. This is the only new one I have, and it would be a terrible shame for it to get broken by engineers."

I nodded slightly as I began to pack up the new arsenal. "And what are you gonna be doing while I'm cleaning up your mess?"

Vlad looked thoughtful for a moment, considering his answer. "I suppose that the safest thing for me to do is move to Amity Park. Daniel bears no good will toward me, and I'm quite badly vulnerable here." I cringed at the idea of the creepy billionaire moving under the protection of my task force, but he continued. "But I think I shall opt to remain here. I fear I will not be well-received, a sentiment I have rather earned. I need to think at length on my actions."

"And what are you gonna do if Phantom shows up to finish the job he started?" I glared, jamming the last of the guns into a large pack.

"That is the trick, isn't it?" Vlad looked thoughtful. "While he is the fusion of Daniel's ghost half and mine, I don't believe his memory from my ghost half is complete, and that his memories are primarily those of Daniel."

I raised an eyebrow at that, slipping my new battle suit on over my clothes. "What makes you say that?"

"Simply put, if he did have any substantial portion of my memory from my ghost half, I don't think we would be having this conversation right now. He would have already found his way to my Ghost Zone portal, and as you put it, finish the job. It is very well disguised in the Ghost Zone, you would have to know exactly where it is to find it."

Somehow, I couldn't bring myself to be surprised at the revelation that Masters had a portal as well. I guess after all the revelations of the day, this newest one simply failed to meet the high standards already established. "If you say so." I slung the pack full of weapons over my shoulder as I stepped aboard the new jet sled. "Keep the phone. Hopefully I won't need to talk to you again."

I blasted into the sky through one of the gaps in the ceiling, leaving the billionaire coughing in a cloud of disturbed dust. I know I was being rude and irrational to some extent, but now I knew he'd been using me... can you honestly blame me for not having any fond sentiments for the man? Besides, I had an uneasy feeling, having been away from home now for a number of days. Maybe I was homesick, or maybe I had some sort of flash of intuition telling me to get home, and quickly. Either way, I was itching to take to the open skies on my new sled and get away from the creepy billionaire.

Unease aside, I couldn't resist letting a few loose a few loud whoops of delight as I pushed my new ride to its upper speeds, twisting through intricate acrobatics that would have put my original sled to utter shame. That was one thing I truly loved in of itself- the wind in my face, the freedom to tell gravity where it could go and just fly. As I covered the long distance between Vlad's castle and Amity Park, even that simple thrill was tinged now by the emotions I was going over and shuttering away. Did Danny enjoy being able to fly? Since he was part-ghost, he didn't even need technology to slip free of Newtonian physics. I always had my sled firmly under my feet when flying, what an incredible feeling it had to be to zip through the air like something out of a kid's fairy tale!

My thoughts slammed back to Amity Park and that monster when I was at least an hour's flight from home. Smoke in the sky, visible from my altitude at least a hundred miles away. I told Dad to call me if- I slapped my forehead. Vlad Masters had my phone. I had no way to know how long things had been happening- even with the new sled, it was still at least three days solid flying to get to Amity Park from Wisconsin. The battle could have started any time since I left Vlad's castle. The Patrol could have been trying to contact me, and only gotten some creepy old man on the phone.

I crouched low to my sled, urging the device to surpass its already impressive speed. "Go faster! Go faster-!" I pleaded, reaching into the backpack and grabbing two of the new guns, the weapons uncompacting into a pair of impressive ecto-blasters.

My knot of worry only tightened the closer I got. There was so much smoke, and at a distance of roughly 50 miles away, I was able to see the brightest flashes of green and red energy, most likely only a minute fraction of the total amount of firepower being flung around. At that distance, the light show was almost beautiful. If not for the knowledge that people I knew, people under my protection were in the thick of that, I could almost have enjoyed the fireworks. As it was, I was ignoring a chill sweat that was seeping slightly into my clothing beneath my new battle suit, nearly sick worrying about my dad's safety.

At ten miles away, I could see the damage clearly, but I had to sigh with relief when I saw the brilliant green dome of the FentonWorks Ghost Shield, obviously at maximum power and covering at least three or four square miles of the town. At least people had someplace to take cover. But the closer I got, the more appalling the damage became. I was surprised to see military vehicles below, humvees and tanks, trucks and artillery. And all of it in smoldering ruin. This had to have been going on for at least two days if the military had mobilized. I forced myself to keep my stomach from protesting- even from my altitude the foul stench from below was sickening, a sort of coppery, acrid scent wafting warm and sticky towards the sky.

As the final miles ticked down, I steeled my nerves and readied my weapons. My thoughts about Danny, my youthful affection well-buried, replaced by a hatred burning white-hot within me now. He would pay for everything he'd done. I stayed high in the air, scanning the chaos below me, seeking out the enemy, looking for my target, my prey. A few hundred feet away from the boundary of the green shield, I found him.

He had changed a little in the intervening almost two years since I'd blasted him into the Ghost Zone. He was taller now, and while he was still quite lanky, his shoulders were a little broader, the faint outlines of increased muscle mass visible through the tight fit of his jumpsuit. In addition to the flaming upsweep of his hair, some of that white mass was pulled back into a short ponytail at the nape of his neck. My face twisted into a scowl when I saw the familiar icon in the center of his chest, a mockery now of everything Danny had fought for. He looked up then, and my gaze met his.

I snarled a curse and aimed my weapons, firing twin pink blasts down at the ghost. He smiled wickedly, showing those gleaming fangs of his, and launched into the air himself, neatly avoiding the blasts, letting himself be boosted skyward by the shockwave of the explosion. He floated level with me, some fifty feet off, arms crossed and smirking. "I was wondering when you'd show up, Valerie." He sneered as he studied me, head tipped slightly to one side.

I didn't waste the moment, drawing a bead on Phantom with both my guns. "When I'm through with you, you'll wish you could die, ghost!" I shrieked, launching a volley of the powerful blasts. A couple of them did strike their target, sending the monster reeling for a brief moment before he corrected his trajectory, his smug expression now turned to an angry scowl.

"So that cheesehead enemy of mine survived after all?" He growled, a low, guttural sound that sent an involuntary chill up my spine. "When I'm through with you and your little friends, I'll have to remedy that error."

I raised an eyebrow. "My friends-?"

I really ought to have known, honestly. I was interrupted by a loud shout from below, and the sky filled with green and red fire.

"Let's shoot his eyes out!" I heard Paulina's voice over the din. "Get him!"

I shot out of the way of a few errant blasts and risked a glance down. Paulina was leading a squad of the Patrol, all wearing the new uniform of the task force- matching orange and black jumpsuits with a multitude of belts for carrying weapons and ghost-fighting tools on. As I dove down to ground level and past the group, I slowed enough to hastily salute them as I tossed several of the devices from my backpack to the ground.

"You made it back!" I heard one of the hunters shout as I shot past.

"Cover me!" I replied, my jet sled arcing skyward to pursue Phantom.

I didn't hear the reply, but I knew my orders must have been heard as the focus of the blasts shifted from the ghost to covering my flight, protecting my flanks with the high powered energy beams. Phantom snarled, ducking and weaving through the mess of ecto-beams, his attention apparently focused again on me.

"This time this will be finished." He stated flatly, firing brilliant green streams of ectoplasmic energy at me. "You don't have a portal handy to throw me into this time!"

"You got that right, Phantom!" I snarled, my sled flitting nimbly around his blasts. "It's gonna get finished alright!"

It was his turn to dodge as I shot past him, planting a gleaming pink blast from my gun into the side of his head. The blast missed him for the most part unfortunately, barely scuffing his face. I spun back around as my momentum carried me well out of range of an instant counterattack. He smiled at me across that distance, but the hate was clear in his eyes.

"Well, well. You've gotten your old spunk back." He shrugged, a motion that for a moment reminded me most painfully of Danny at his most abashed. "Reminds you of the old days, doesn't it? The battles on the way to school..."

"Shut UP!" I shrieked, punctuating the command with a blast from one of my guns. "Danny's dead because of you, and I won't rest until I tear you apart!"

"Will that be limb-from-limb or molecule-by-molecule?" He taunted, dodging the hail of blasts and taking a swing that hit my shoulder and sent me flying off my new sled with a yelp. He grabbed the sled, effectively preventing it from being able to catch me.

"Valerie-!" I heard Paulina's startled cry as I plummeted.

I was high on the adrenaline, I think. Despite the hatred, my anger and thirst for revenge, I think in a sick and twisted way I was enjoying the battle. The challenge of throwing everything and more at a mortal enemy, a kind of thrill that you get only when your life is in serious danger. I ignored the wind howling past my ears as I fell, I smirked up at the ghost. He raised an eyebrow in mild confusion, secure in the knowledge that while he held my sled immobile, I had no way to break my fall and would momentarily be little more than a red splotch on the unforgiving ground below.

Wordlessly, I clacked my heels together, hearing the mechanism click as my old jet sled unfolded from the hidden compartments in my shoes. My fall stopped, I returned fire, with one shot catching the ghost's wrist. With an angry and slightly pained cry, he let go of my new sled, and I slapped the button on my wristband to recall it. With a pleasing roar of engines, the slick new board shot toward me, and I leapt back onto it as it shot by. The old one fell to a rooftop somewhere, forgotten for the moment.

"I swear, when I find that cheesehead, I am going to tear Vlad into more pieces than I did my useless human self!" Phantom howled with anger, launching himself at me again. He was caught up short in the attack by several well-aimed blasts from below.

"Well just remember that you're part-cheesehead too, ghost!" I snarled, leaping at him with energy charged into the gloves of my new suit. He was startled enough by the surprise maneuver that I was able to land a flurry of solid punches to his face and midsection before gravity caught up with my wild aerial antics and I had to call my sled back to catch me.

He snarled again, launching an extremely rapid blast at me. I ducked out of the way barely, wrinkling my nose slightly as the brief stink of scorched hair, and I knew then that he had very nearly gotten me. Well, I had been thinking of cutting my hair anyway, he just saved me some of the trouble. I was pleased to notice the squad below had scattered wide, in a way slightly reminiscent of the tactics we used to fight Phantom before. Lances of green or red fire shot skyward at the ghost regularly, and he was forced to divide his attention between my aggressive attack and the more subtle fire support from below.

Danny's rampant messed-up ghost half had grown a lot more powerful since I'd first driven him into the Ghost Zone. But while he was busy fighting the patrol, civilians caught in the battle zone could make a break for the safety of the FentonWorks shield. I wasn't sure yet what we would do beyond that- we couldn't hide beneath that shield forever, it simply wasn't large enough. The spook was right in that we had no portal we could drive him through- nobody had attempted to fix the Fentons' portal after I'd broken it in the first fight.

First things first. Stalling him and hopefully weakening him enough to drive him away! I told myself, barreling hard to the right to avoid a volley of green blasts, strafing Phantom as I circled wide. I was too far off, he was able to raise a shield to deflect my blows, but while he was distracted, a small energy beam caught him square in his unshielded rear. He yelped almost comically, both hands flying to his scorched backside as he spun to find who shot him.

Two men in white suits stood pointing bizarre ecto-guns skyward, their expressions stoic behind dark sunglasses. They certainly weren't part of my task force, but they looked vaguely familiar. Phantom apparently forgot about me for the moment as he shot down toward the ground, avoiding further blasts from the two men. "Well, here I thought I'd already swatted all the government bugs." The ghost sneered, firing a blast that knocked one of the two agents flat, marring the man's suit with filth.

"Multiple sanitary breeches in back sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, leg sectors SO1 pi theta 23 and lambda epsilon 42-" The downed agent recited as he staggered back to his feet.

I very nearly fell over as it dawned on me. The government's supposedly top-secret anti-ghost team, Guys in White. Supposedly top secret, but everybody knew about them. I cupped one hand to my mouth and shouted at the two idiots. "Get outta here! If you think you can fight him like that, yer toast!"

"We are professional-" The still-spotless agent began to retort, not getting a chance to yelp or cry out before the ghost was in his face, a shimmering blast of green energies detonating inches from his shades.

I cringed at the gruesome display as the dirtied agent started to scramble away, his glasses askew, revealing wide, panicked eyes. They'd never seen real spectral combat, obviously. "L-leak valve failure in abdominal s-sector omega 455-"

I opened fire at the ghost, distracting Phantom from the useless agent. "You forget about me, ghost?" I sneered as I blazed right over his head, the wake of my aerial pass briefly flattening the white flames of the ghost's hair.

"Feh. I guess I'll deal with you later." Phantom snarled at the terrified government agent before he lifted into the air to chase me, a rapid burst of energy blasts preceeding him. I risked a glance back and sighed with relief to see the agent scrambling away from what was left of his companion, making all speed for the safety of the shield. I was also relieved to see that there weren't many people besides my task force outside the shield. Granted, they'd been under attack for at least two days, possibly three; but still, it was one of the few positive things in a situation that otherwise reeked.

Quite literally, too. I will never be able to think back on those days without smelling that foul odor as though I was back on that battlefield. The destruction was more widespread, Phantom having had more time to rampage, and there were plenty of corpses, or the twisted wrecks of them at least. As with before, the final toll was never fully known; all anyone could say with any certainty was that more people were killed than in the ghost's initial rampage. Phantom had spared no one his wrath. I saw the still forms of permanently silenced Patrol members, of businessmen and women, housewives and students. And children, oh god, the little kids, tiny faces frozen in horror and agony, pristine above the terrible wounds that had stolen away their lives- limbs ripped away leaving jagged stumps, great red gashes and gelatinous gobs of unidentifiable entrails. And covering it all like a filthy blanket was that coppery, oily stench, like spoiled meat left out too long, only slightly warmed by sunlight filtered red through the smoke. Needless to say, I have been unable to look at, let alone eat any sort of meat product since- just the thought of it makes me queasy despite all these years.

"This game can't go on forever, Valerie." Phantom smiled coldly as we clashed midair, a chaotic dance of attack and evade. "You've got to wear down sometime. You're only human after all."

"And you're just a ghost." I retorted, managing to land several strikes from my guns. He did have a point though- my adrenaline would only be able to sustain me for so long. The fight was on a timer, and it was steadily ticking down. While the fire support from the Patrol was a welcome aid, the brunt of the battle fell truly to me, and me alone. In order to effectively battle a ghost, you have to be able to level the playing field, meaning you need an effective means of getting airborne. I had the only effective means to do that- I ducked an explosive sphere of ecto-energy, an idea coming to me. I took note of Phantom's position, tapping some buttons on the older of the two wristbands I had on.

"Yes, and I don't have to bother with silly problems of sustenance or sleep, or burdensome feelings like kindness or heroism. I'm free to do what I want, while you're trapped by your silly concerns." Phantom smiled wickedly now, launching himself at me.

"Well I'd rather be trapped by my silly concerns than be a psychotic ghost who's all lonely and bitter about what he lost!" I snapped back. Sure, it was a low blow, but the ghost stopped in his tracks, his already fierce expression taking on an even more enraged edge.

"This isn't about my problems, Valerie." His voice was deceptively smooth, silk covering the razor blade of his anger. "This is about your problems. Namely the fact that you're still breathing."

I wasn't really listening to him, I was paying attention to a faint but familiar sound behind me, and the movement of the Patrol members on the ground below. Paulina really had become a very dedicated member of the Patrol, and the former cheerleader displayed an excellent knack for leading and directing others. She had seen what I was up to, and was ordering everyone into position, anticipating my ploy.

Phantom resumed his lunge at me, glowing green fists ready to slam into my body, to tear me apart. I smiled, knowing my own expression was a wicked, merciless glare to match his, and deactivated my sled, letting gravity pull me out of harm's way. The ploy worked, the timing was impeccable. He never saw what was behind me until my old jet sled slammed into his face at full speed, the small blasters on it firing directly into his face repeatedly, briefly blinding and disorienting him. Wasting no time, I added a full volley from my two guns even as I fell and restarted my new jet sled. I heard Paulina and other squad leaders bark out a firing order, and my two-gun barrage was joined by a veritable fireworks display of expertly aimed blasts from every ecto-weapon conceivable. Plasma beams, lasers, ectoplasm-coated bullets, ecto-grenades, ghost-seeking shuriken, lightning guns, shock nets... you name it, somebody was shooting it. Like a green and red pyramid, the barrage rose skyward from dozens of places spread throughout the immediate area, with Phantom at the apex as it all slammed home, ripping into him. In seconds, the ghost was lost in the plume of explosions and smoke.

"Cease fire!" I shouted, the order quickly relayed as the fire died down and shortly ceased. I stood on my sled, both weapons ready, checking my radar and watching the smoke cloud for signs of ambush. The cloud of smoke soon dispersed, joining the general haze hanging over the city, with no sign of the ghost. I dared to hope as I heard nothing from the radar. I didn't even consider the possibility that we'd actually destroyed Phantom, but I began to hope that perhaps even he had been maimed by that mass barrage, and had fled to nurse his wounds.

Several tense minutes passed, the only sound audible was the drone of my jet sled and the occasional crack and clatter of slowly settling debris. Still, my radar remained silent, and no ambush came. We had done it. The Patrol had taken its share of loses, and hadn't been able to save everyone, but we'd probably saved hundreds if not thousands of lives. We'd managed to do the almost unthinkable, we fought that ghost. We may not have won, but we certainly hadn't lost. I landed my sled, the nearest members of the Patrol all rushing over as I gave the all-clear.

For a moment we all just stood there in the middle of that battlefield, taking mental note of who made it and who was missing, who was hurt and how badly. Then we all burst into excited babbling.

"Ohmigosh, Valerie, you did it!"

"You guys did great! That last attack tore that spook a new one!"

"Awesome idea using two jet boards!"

"Did you see the look on his face when that hit him?"

Overcome with relief, we all started laughing. Not the relieved laughter of friends having fun, but the slightly crazed laughter of soldiers. We were laughing not because we were truly relieved, but because if we didn't laugh, we probably would have been screaming. We had won the battle though it had cost us all dearly, but we all knew that the war was far from over.