Chapter 8:

Started

October 9th 2012

Edited:

December 13 2012

Uploaded:

December 13 2012

Chapter Warnings:

Sexual Innuendos, strong language

Chapter Rating:

T

Tucker's POV

If it wasn't for the fact that we needed him more than I'd care to admit, I would have made sure Dan was back in the Thermos long before now. I was afraid of him more than I cared to admit, but he reminded me of Danny and there was something between him and Sam that I didn't quite want to get between. Yet. But if her safety came into question then I'd jump in faster than a jack rabbit, but I wasn't prepared to face her wrath if she didn't want me to interfere.

I'd learned that the hard way several years ago, when we were all simple teens in high school. I'd much rather keep my arms in one piece. Valerie was enough of a handful, and I was constantly worried about her more than Sam, but I'd never admit that.

I loved Valerie, and somewhere in my mind I'd always known that I had. It wasn't something that was apparent; I hit on all the girls in school except for Sam. Not only was she like a sister to me, but Danny had dibs on her ever since we all became friends. And you don't just break a dude's trust like that.

But I already had my eyes on Valerie, and though she didn't return my affections until after grad and after we'd all moved out, and after Vlad started this war…it was still nice when we spent those nights together. Even if she chose to act like I didn't exist most other times. That did hurt but…she was concentrated on the war.

And besides it was kind of awkward to wake up in Sam's apartment and have to talk to her. She wasn't really a morning person and having me in the apartment—which had thin walls by the way, so she could probably hear us—wasn't the best additive to her grumpiness.

But Sam needed us now and I needed to concentrate. I was crouched outside what we assumed was Vlad's strong hold, crouched behind a downed piece of wall, typing furiously on my PDA. I was trying to hack into the building's security system so we could get in there and find Sam. Dan was beside me, lost in his own thoughts. He was having some pretty strong conflicting emotions however because his hands were crushing the concrete into pebbles.

"Dan," I murmured gently, glancing at him from the corner of my eye in concern. I knew why he was so anxious, but that didn't make me feel any better, or keep my own fears down. "Calm down, you'll give us away if you keep up that ruckus." I added gently, but he quickly turned from the building he was mentally destroying and glared at me.

Unwillingly, I shrank under his glare. As I said, I'm still terrified of Dan, even though I don't think I had any reason to be. But the man had more power in his pinky toe than I did in all my body. It wasn't a fair match and he knew that. But Dan loved to push my buttons.

Turning back to my PDA I left Dan to his own devices, seeing that he was slowly falling back into his own private world. Ignoring him, I sent specialized instructions to each of our team's personal controls, telling them once again their part in all of this.

We were very lucky we'd been able to get some ghosts on our side, after a lengthy search by Dan—and I assume a violent one, considering some of the ghosts in there hated our guts and would be further intimidated by a high-level ghost like Dan.

Aragon had begrudgingly sent one of his own, a small one, probably fresh out of training but he seemed confident enough—Riley, that was his name. He was only thirteen years old, so I was a little doubtful about Aragon's wisdom in the matter. But the dragon leader had sent along his prized amulet that allowed the young ghost to change into a more human appearance, which helped him go undeterred through enemy territory. We had several other dragon ghosts hidden behind us, invisible and trying to suppress their signature so that Vlad wouldn't sense them, but they were ready to fight when we burst out of the building, if the enemy was on our heels.

It hadn't taken Dan long to gather them, but it was impressive. We had several human allies as well, stationed all the way around the building, ready to get in when I gave the signal.

The plan was clear: Dan was going to get in and be the main assault as well as trying to find and rescue Sam; Riley was to be the inner attack force: if anything major happened, he was to take off the amulet and attack. I was to bring down the main surveillance and figure out if there were any ghost shields.

Though Riley was young, he had made it clear this was his rite of passage; the older dragons we have on our team were not to take his place no matter what, and they all seemed to be in agreement with this. So I had reluctantly agreed, but I instructed some of my more skilled humans to guard him from a distance but to get out of there if he changed forms.

So far, everything seemed to be going smoothly, and I couldn't be more pleased. We just might get Sam out today. It couldn't be a moment too soon, either, I was sure she was in a bad shape if not…

No, I couldn't think of that.

"We need to move out…now." I said, sending a similar command to my allies. They all began to move but Dan, still staring off into nowhere, hardly seemed to notice. "Dan?" I asked, nudging him softly in the side, jolting him out of whatever thoughts he was privately having.

But he simply nodded and turned invisible, following my plan. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, and I moved a little closer, hacking into the surveillance system.

With a frown, I noticed that Dan wasn't exactly following my orders. I saw him change to his Vlad disguise, sauntering down the hallway like he owned the place. I hissed quietly to myself, knowing he had deliberately disobeyed me. I was pissed. It was just like him to do this to us and ruin the whole plan.

I watched as he was approached by a member of Vlad's army, and they exchanged a few words before the guard turned around and walked away, Dan following him. I watched him over the cameras for as far as I could before there were no more cameras. Frowning, I turned my attention elsewhere, watching my team do their jobs. Some were already in slight combat, though no alarms had been raised, thanks to my tampering.

I felt a swell of pride. Everyone in school had always made fun of me for being so in tune with my electronics, but this was my true passion. I never wanted to be anything but an IT guy, working with computers all day would have been a dream come true. But then the war broke out, and Vlad had violently take over, and he hadn't been able to continue his schooling.

But this was helping him greatly, and to take over the entire building's security system, disabled it and its ghost shields and hacked into the surveillance system. It was quite a feat for a supposed "geek".

…Though the title was quite fitting.

I don't think I'd ever been prouder of myself in my life. Ghost hunting had always been something I'd been mediocre at, despite Danny and Sam's encouragements; I was never the best at running and dodging. I was much better when we fought Technus, because then I knew I was useful. Danny and Sam always handled the more agile ghosts, and I had always lagged behind.

I finally felt useful.

I was so caught up in my own little word that I didn't notice until Riley was in danger that the dragon ghost had found Sam. And now there was someone pointing a gun at his chest!

Of course I couldn't do anything from my position but watch in terror. The little ghost did the only logical thing: he quickly brought his hand up to the amulet, phasing it quickly off his neck and changing into his powerful dragon form.

He was only thirteen years old, but he was already over eight feet tall, his wings folded at his sides. The image was gray scale, so I wasn't too sure of his colours, but his massive chest swelled as he took in a deep breath, the guard shaking in fear, visible even over the camera.

Riley didn't aim his powerful fiery blast at the guard however; he curled his long, serpentine neck back, turning his face to the ceiling and letting out a flash of hot fire, exploding the brick and mortar in a shower of debris.

Riley protectively shielded Sam with his wings as the debris settled before leaping out of the tight hallway, taking flight to get her out of there as soon as possible.

Crap.

That was more than a normal alarm, and surely Vlad—the real Vlad was going to come storming down at any moment and ruin the rest of our plans….

Well, at least Riley had Sam…

Dan's POV

This wasn't supposed to happen.

I had long since sent the guard away, and I stood staring at the huddled mass of flesh before me in complete shock.

No.

No…

NO!

This wasn't supposed to happen!

It wasn't fair! This…

I pulled myself away from my downward thoughts, strolling into the room and allowing myself to change back into my true form. My red eyes bored into the quivering sack of meat and my brows drew down into a vicious glare.

Oh, how I'd love to kill this punk right now and never have to be bothered with him again.

But he had cowered the instant the door opened and he saw who he believed to be Vlad, and he had yet to look up. The hairs on his arms were standing up in rows, and he was shivering like there was no tomorrow.

I had to find Sam. I couldn't find him. This wasn't his story!

…but maybe it really was.

After all, I'm the bad guy.

Closing my eyes, I sneered, knowing what I had to do. Why I'd been allowed out of the thermos in the first place. "Fuck you, Clockwork. This is what you wanted me to do all along, wasn't it?" I growled with clenched fists, my claws digging into my palms. Of course I couldn't get off without more punishment. But I deserved it.

I am a monster after all.

Grabbing the quivering boy by the hair I yanked him up roughly, grabbing his collar and breaking it off easily. Just because I had to be forced through my punishment didn't mean I couldn't revel in it a little.

His eyes didn't open the entire time I freed him from his shackles. I felt ashamed for him; he wore nothing but his shredded boxers and his bloody, bruised and torn skin. So I shrugged off my cape and tossed it around his shoulders in a pathetic attempt to make him stop shivering. Not that I cared, I was beyond that at this point. I was furious.

Picking up the pathetic man before me, I turned to the door. Getting him out might pose a slight problem, but it wasn't anything I wasn't prepared for. I held him fireman style over my shoulder, kicking the door open. It was a long walk back up to the surface, but I could do it easily.

I just didn't want to hurt my charge more than he already was.

Tucker was going to blow a gasket when he sees this…

Silently, I walked up the long stair case, the only noise being the snivelling of the man on my shoulder; my boots were hovering just above the steps. I was using the base amount of powers I could, just in case Tucker hadn't managed to disable those damned ghost shields. There was no telling what would attack me down here.

As I got higher up, and the walls turned from carved stone to laid brick, the building suddenly began to shake. Clutching the prisoner closer, I turned us intangible and floated higher off the ground until the shaking stopped. It was either an earthquake, or there was already confrontation going on. I chose the latter as an explanation considering earthquakes weren't all that common in this area.

I decided to move faster and simply phased us out of the building, causing my charge to moan in protest. But I ignored him, taking simple joy in the fact that he was in pain. Petty, I now, but after everything I've been through, and have yet to go through, it was something I decided to allow myself. So what if I was going to get shit from Tucker over it later, I didn't really care.

But it was time to get to the meeting spot. If there was anything that needed to be done, Tucker would let us know. And I'd come back for Vlad's blood later, once I knew for sure that Sam was safe. If she was still in there right now, however, she might be hurt worse...but I couldn't find her right now, not if I wanted to…ugh, keep him alive.

Dan's POV

It took them all a while, but eventually they retreated and met up with me and the prisoner I'd rescued. I'd hidden him away in a back room of the house we'd chosen, grudgingly tucking him into a bed to try to warm him up. He still had my cape.

Clenching and unclenching my fists, I paced in front of Tucker. "We have Sam, Dan…" The techno geek muttered, watching me pace with concern. "The medics are looking her over, but I'm sure she's going to recover."

Sam had been unconscious by the time they'd gotten back here, and I hadn't been able to see her yet. I was antsy and I hadn't told Tucker about the newest…complication yet. There wasn't much time and I didn't want him to over worry. But now I had to, Sam was contained, so it wasn't like she'd be running off to see and I could allow Tucker at least this small thing.

"Tucker, I'm not worried about Sam," I growled darkly. What I was really worried about was how soft I'd gotten. Damned Sam…this was all her fault. If she hadn't needed me, I wouldn't have had to come to this dimension. I could have gone to any other one and not have to go through all of this again.

I could have sworn I'd gotten rid of all my humanity. That fucking Clockwork must have done something to me when I was locked up in that infernal thermos. Damn my parents for ever inventing that stupid device. I would make sure their deaths in the next dimension I visited would be slow and painful. All of their deaths would be. I wouldn't allow this …slump to continue. I was a ruthless killer, and I meant to keep it that way.

Tucker frowned as he looked at me over his glasses. "Then what's got you so wound up? Vlad won't be finding us we made sure of that—he's still fighting some of Aragon's guys."

I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding, grabbing Tucker by the front of his shirt and pulling him up. "Just—come." I commanded, dragging the geek behind me to the back room, throwing the door open and shoving him in.

Taking a few steps to stabilize himself, he took a moment to let his eyes adjust and when they did, he frowned in confusion at the mass under the sheets. "What the…" he mumbled, walking forward and peeling them back.

With a loud gasp, he turned back to me, his eyes wide and shining with unshed tears. "Dan…this is…"

I felt my eyes flash with anger and I looked away, the muscles in my jaws working. "I know." It still hurt that he was here now. It made my blood boil and my vision haze. I wanted the twerp dead, but he just wouldn't stay down.

Tucker grinned widely, overjoyed with the outcome. It was more than he could have ever imagined, and I knew that he saw this as the best possible situation. It wasn't something he'd wished for over and over, and it made my blood boil, so I kept my gaze locked on the wall. I couldn't let him see how much it was bugging me. I was a ruthless killer; nothing else.

"I'm still going to rip Vlad to shreds," I promised both Tucker and myself, not wanting to forget what I had originally set out to do. Vlad would never see what was coming if I were to attack him. Not to mention Sam wouldn't be back on her feet in time. "I'll rip him to shreds, and you can be rid of this nightmare." I said quietly.

Tucker nodded, turning back to the sleeping body shivering on the bed, a smile on his dark face. I knew what he was thinking, even without overshadowing him and picking his brain. He was thinking that everything was going to be okay now; that everything was going to work out and he wouldn't have to worry anymore. That everything he'd been trying to prevent was suddenly going to disappear with this.

I silently wished him the best of luck.

Tucker's mouth opened, and his throat tried to work, but no words came out. He cleared his throat, putting his finger under his eye and rubbing a tear away that I'm sure I wasn't supposed to see. I pretended like I didn't see it as Tucker was finally able to form words.

"Welcome home, Danny…"

A/N:

Hello everyone!

So school's out in the forever sense. Meaning I graduated college and now I have to work until I decide I'm ready to go back. Ahh!

So anyway, I'm giving you guys everything I've written over the last 15 weeks (which isn't a lot for this story eep! sorry!) and letting that settle in your minds until I'm ready to get back into the swing of writing!

Also, because i DO have to grow up and become an adult, stories MAY stay on a temporary hiatus for a while while I settle into my new RESPONSIBILITY roles.