I think we're close to the end now, or getting there anyway

I think we're close to the end now, or getting there anyway. Thanks to all who have read this or are reading it! You guys are awesome! And may Writer's Block stay faaaaarrrrrrrr away from you (it'll help if you review XD)! Onto the chapter!

Thirteen: Intervention

"Don't you dare go, Danny! Don't you dare leave us!" Sam screamed as the ground continued to shake and eerie howling noises were coming from the summoning circle, "Danny! This whole town needs you! Come back, okay…! For us…! For me…"

She was draped over his chest, sobbing, Tucker slouched next to her, crying equally as hard, and a few feet away was Amethyst, so pathetic looking she could have been dead too. None of them cared that Zodiac was coming, probably coming to destroy the earth. Danny Fenton was gone. What did it matter if Zodiac destroyed everything? It was already destroyed anyway.

"Danny…" Sam moaned, pushing herself upright and tracing a shaking finger down the side of his face, "You are such a moron…why did you have to go and play the hero…?"

Danny suddenly convulsed and gasped, his eyes flying open, and Sam screamed and fell backwards into Tucker so that they both lay sprawled on the grass. Danny, meanwhile, was still laying on his back, hacking and coughing horribly, trying to breathe. Sam got over her initial shock of Danny actually moving again and rushed to his side to help him sit upright. He grabbed her hand as she did so and laced between his fingers was a black rose; she barely noticed its thorns tear into her skin as she clenched her hand in his.

"Danny, my gosh…how are you…?" Tucker's eyes were as big as dinner plates, if not bigger, and his mouth was hanging open in shock, tears still running down his cheeks, "But…but…your heart…it stopped beating…I double checked…!"

"Funny thing about death…" Danny wheezed, squinting at his best friends, "It doesn't always last, huh?"

"Aheh…" Sam's smile was evident and she threw her arms around him, squeezing him tightly, "Darn you…! Don't you ever do that to me again…!"

"Okay Sam…" He gasped, squirming in her grip, "But I can't promise that if you strangle me!"

The Goth let go of him and he pushed himself slowly to his feet, having some difficulty because the ground had not stopped shaking. Amethyst kept starring at him with a shocked look glittering in her dark violet eyes. When he'd finally managed to straighten himself up he pulled Sam and Tucker up as well and turned his attention to the still glowing summon circle.

"How long have I been out?" He asked, the eerie light making him all the more deathly as he shifted into his ghost form.

"Only about two minutes," Tucker replied, "And so far nothing's come out of that summon circle."

"And hopefully nothing will," Amethyst snarled, her ears back, "We can stop the summoning if we act now. All we have to do is mess up the circle; it'll throw off the summon commands and backfire on the one who activated it."

"Me?" Danny squeaked, looking at her with wide eyes, unconsciously grabbing Sam's hand in his own icy one. She squeezed his fingers reassuringly.

"No, of course not! Yulcifer!" An evil grin split the Yokai Fox girl's features, "He'll get blasted full in the face with what he deserves; the angry spirits of trapped Yokais!"

"This I gotta see!" Sam sneered and looked at Danny who shared her delight.

"Well then," The halfa was all to ready for vengeance, "What the heck are we waiting for!? The end of the world!?"

"I'd rather not!" Tucker cried.

"Then let's move!" Amethyst ran head on towards the summon circle, the Amity Park trio following in her wake. The enormous ectoplasmic pressure that the circle was emitting was enough to send them spinning backwards and it was all they could do to crawl forwards. Tucker actually slipped and fell and would have been sent head first into a tree behind them had Danny not snatched his best friend from the ground and dragged him forward too.

"So how're we going to ruin burned up grass!?" The techie shouted above the roar of ectoplasm and wind and the rumbling earth.

"Like this!" Amethyst planted her feet firmly into the ground, raised her hands above her head, and started throwing red balls of ectoplasm at the circle outline, blasting holes in it and scorching the nearby grass, effectively ruining the circle. Danny soon joined in, his fiery green ectoplasm almost white with the absolute hatred he felt towards Yulicfer.

"Hey, guys, anyone notice that the ground isn't shaking anymore?" Sam asked, looking around, "And that the wind's not blowing and it's sort of scary quiet?"

"Uh-oh." Tucker muttered and then all four of them were blown backwards by an explosion of green light, a roaring sound filled their ears, and they lost feeling with everything. Danny couldn't even tell he'd hit the ground.

"Is…is it over?" Sam asked, rolling onto her feet and looking around.

"Um, yes, I believe it is…" Amethyst was on her hands and knees like the fox she was, bushy tail frazzled and standing on end.

"ZeE!" Danny leapt to his feet and ran over to the cage containing the hacker, blasting the top off with a well aimed ecto-beam, "ZeE, come on, let's get out of here and go find Alex! ZeE?"

The other boy was slumped awkwardly in the cage, his skin pale and chalky, his eyes closed, and, as Danny, pulled him out, his limbs flopped about like a puppet. Danny shook the hacker's shoulders, half-smiling.

"Come on, ZeE, quit messing around! We won! Get up! Let's get outta here!" Nothing, "ZeE!? ZeE, wake up!" Still no response, "ZeE? ZeE, come on, man, wake up!" Danny shook the boy's shoulders again as his friends approached but ZeE's eyes wouldn't open and he wasn't breathing, "ZEE!"

"Danny…" Amethyst whispered, her ears drooping, "ZeE's gone…they're all gone. To summon Zodiac…it required the Yokai Ghost of a human…their Yokais were ripped out of them…the only reason you survived was because of your ghost powers…"

"No…no way…!" Danny moaned, feeling his eyes burn, his fists clenching on the cool earth, sagging to his knees, "I…I hate this…! I have powers…and I can't even save the people I care about!"

"Danny…" Sam crouched beside him, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder, "Danny, it'll be okay…"

"No it won't!" Danny screamed, squeezing his eyes shut, his white hair changing back to black as tears rolled down his cheeks unchecked, "It won't be okay! You don't get it!" He slammed his fists into the ground, "I'm supposed to save them all! All of them! THEY WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE!!"

And he started sobbing, his cries echoing over the clearing, tears leaving streaks in the dirt smeared across his face. Sam wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. Danny clutched at her, sobbing uncontrollably. Amethyst just stood by and watched.

"IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO END THIS WAY!!" Danny screamed, still crying, "EVERYONE'S SUPPOSED TO COME OUT ALIVE JUST LIKE ALWAYS!! HOW CAN I BE A HERO IF I CAN'T SAVE EVERYONE!? IT'S NOT FAIR! It's not fair! It's not…fair…!"

The sound of police sirens wailed through the night air, blue and red lights flickering through the trees, and Amethyst vanished from view, no doubt to run back into the Yokai Ghost pits. Tucker dropped beside his two best friends and they clung to one another in the darkness with eleven dead teenagers scattered in cages around them, Danny still bawling his heart out.

And that was how the police found them, three friends, covered in dirt, one of them the missing Danny Fenton, surrounded by death.

Oh man, I know, terrible ending, terribly sad. Poor Danny. Yeah, skipped out on the fight scene though, didn't I? Well, be prepared; there's much more to come.

Stole the "you're heart stopped beating, I double checked" line from Yu Yu Hakusho. There's my disclaimer for that.