Challenges, challenges, challenges. And to think, I won't go on my usual Danny and Vlad sort of thing. Yay for me! And to my reviewers and readers: Fernclaw wins at guessing the reference. That CSI: season finale kind of left us all hanging by a thread. Her challenge is next.

By the way, want to use one of these ideas? Go ahead. Live bait! Just credit the source to me.

Challenge by Fernclaw.

2. Revelation

Her own son, gone by her actions… takes place during Public Enemies.

"Wait a minute."

The white-haired, emerald-eyed teenager flinched at the harsh addressing of himself by Madeline Fenton. He turned around and looked at her, and for a fleeting moment, she thought she saw a raven-haired boy with sky blue eyes. She shook it off, though, when Danny Phantom spoke. "That's my cue to leave," he told her cheerfully, beginning to fly to the roof.

Her bazooka went off, hitting him in an upward motion right to the stomach. Phantom screamed in pain as he fell for the ground and hit granite with a sickening THUD! It seemed like nanoseconds to her when he landed, and in moments, he was moaning in pain and lying on his side, clutching his rib cage. She pointed the gun at him. "All right, ghost. Tell me something: why haunt Amity Park, huh?"

"Listen!" he asked weakly, wincing. "Just hear me out! Not all ghosts are evil! There are those who want to save the city as much as you do, and I'm one of those people!"

She narrowed her eyes in suspicion but lowered her gun all the same. "I'm taking you back to the lab. We might talk. If you're lying, you're toast."

He nodded, barely registering her voice as he faded into unconsciousness.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The teenage hybrid opened his eyes and… couldn't move. Phantom wearily tried to look at his surrounding in what appeared to be pure darkness in a strange sort of light. He tried to feel around with his hand but couldn't move more so than an inch. Seemed cylindrical, given the status of how the wall felt. A familiar cylindrical…

Wait a second. He was inside the thermos. Inside the very Fenton Thermos he used to catch ghosts. He laughed silently, bitterly to himself. Was this irony or did fate have some sort of cruel plan for him?

The top suddenly opened, and Phantom found himself in the outside world alive. Sure, he was dizzy and sick with dread, but he was alive. His eyes adjusted to the bright light quickly as he quietly floated in the room. It was eerily silent as he began to look around for anything out of place. His mom wasn't there. Jazz, Sam, and Tucker were nowhere to be found. So who decided to let him out of the canister that held ghosts? He turned around a moment later, Maddie holding the gun in one hand, aiming it at him warily. He began to back away. "Look, I thought I told you this. I'm not evil!"

"Ghosts always lie like that," the ghost-huntress explained, as if it was so obvious. The weapon was charging. Thirty seconds to firing.

He looked at her pleadingly. "Please. You've got to believe me, Mom… I mean, Maddie. Right, Maddie… heh-heh." He laughed nervously. Options were running out as the gun began to hum to life. What could he do? Fly out of the room? Fat chance that would happen. The Ghost Shield was probably up. Reveal his identity? Maddie might shoot him… or die of shock. Talk some sense into her?

Last resort.

Twenty five seconds.

She narrowed her eyes. "Trying to call me your mother? If I didn't have to wait any longer, I'd blast you into ectoplasm for that remark. You're no son of mine!"

Fifteen seconds.

Phantom growled. "Will you listen to me?!"

"You're evil, Phantom. You always have been, and you always will be!"

A strange fire lit in his eyes. "Get off your damn parade float and read my lips: I'M NOT EVIL!"

Five… four… three… two… one…

The gun went off. In slow motion, Phantom's eyes widened with shock as the blast from the bazooka hit him square in the chest. He went flying back ten feet into the wall and slammed into the iron-clad building. It burned him as he slid down the wall, screaming in pain. He landed on the floor with a nasty crunch, Maddie's gun smoking and pointed at the boy. He took a deep, shaking breath, blood beginning to slowly seep from his chest area. He began shaking, two rings of light splitting down his body and revealing the raven-haired boy she had seen before.

Her own son.

Danny began to weep, quiet wracking sobs echoing in her ears as she rushed over to comfort the one whom she had shot. Her son, the one she loved.

The one she had been hunting. He opened his eyes and tried to smile weakly, but only a sad spark in his eyes remained. "Mom," he managed to whisper.

The sobs began to subside, the shaking ceasing to exist. Maddie began to feel for a pulse as it slowly drifted away from his body. She held his head in her arms, rocking him back and forth as slowly but surely, the light went out in his eyes. "Danny?" she whispered, horrified at what she had done. "Danny?"

It was gone. There was nothing more in the hybrid's eyes except for an empty darkness no soul could penetrate.

"Danny?! Oh, dear god, no. Danny!"

No response.

"DANNY!"

I tried, Fernclaw. I really did. Another draining and emotional piece. I'm trying so hard, gang. Reviews are appreciated. Thanks for reading.