Okay, just one more chapter after this one, and I'll be done. Yeah, it's full of angst, I know. Thank you to everyone who reviewed.

Danny slowly opened his eyes and looked around, not having any idea where he was. He heard noises, but none that he was able to identify. He tried to get him, but someone slowly pushed him back down. Danny groaned, shaking his head. "Where am I?"

"Save your energy, ok?" Sam smiled sadly at him. "You were busted up pretty badly."

Danny felt a jab of pain as he took a deep breath. His vision became clearer and he saw the ceiling of the Casper High gymnasium. People were moaning and crying everywhere; he found himself on a crudely constructed cot.

"Danny, don't move." Sam chastised gently. "I'm glad to see you're awake; Mr. and Mrs. Fenton were real worried about you."

"What happened?" He asked.

"Sigh, there are places like this everywhere. That ghost destroyed most of Amity Park. We're lucky they found you, all things considering." He looked into her eyes, seeing dark circles in her eyes.

Sam was crying? Danny asked. That seems impossible; Sam never cries! Of course, most would say it was impossible for a ghost to destroy a city in a single night, but it was obvious that it was exactly what had happened. He took a deep breath, instantly regretting it.

"I'll get a doctor for you." Sam promised. She looked around the gym; it was extremely crowded, with moaning of the dying and the grieving of loved ones. The few trained personnel were under great strain, with people surrounding them, asking for their families and friends to be seen to.

"Sam, I'll live." Danny moaned. "These people need help too. Uh…how long was I out?"

"Nearly 12 hours; the whole country is still in shock. I haven't heard anything for some time."

"What about… Mom and Dad?"

"They're some of the volunteers that are doing what they can to help. They wanted to stay, but Jazz told them to try and do what they can; she's doing the same. Sigh, I'm not sure how much of it they can take. It's… pretty gruesome."

"I thought you were a goth." Danny smiled weakly and coughed, his ribs giving him hell. He screamed, trying to get the pain to stop. They were obviously broken, but he couldn't see the rest of him.

"Watching horror movies is one thing; this… I can't deal with this." She started crying again. Danny tried to comfort, but even moving took a great deal of energy. He groaned weakly, trying to put his hand on her shoulder.

"Sam… I'll be all right."

"I know when you're lying, Danny." She smiled sadly, and Danny knew she was right. The only other time he could think of something like this was when Vlad infected her and Tucker with ecto-acne so Danny would cure him as well. However, that was only them and this was an entire city.

"Sam, I've got to recover. I have to so something to beat that ghost."

"Danny, you aren't going anywhere. You weren't able to do anything against him; no one was. The military, the ghost hunters, the shield we put around the city… it was barely enough to slow him down."

"I've got to do something. This whole country is living on borrowed time now. There's got to be some way to stop him."

"Please, stop trying to be a hero this once. Just be Danny Fenton." After what seemed like forever, they saw a doctor nearby. He was standing over a boy that couldn't be more than eight years old, his parents waiting anxiously. With dark circles under his eyes, he checked the boy out and sadly shook his head. The parents were barely able to restrain tears.

Sam saw her chance and dragged him over to Danny. He knelt down and looked him over. Danny groaned, trying once more to sit up. The doctor laid his hands gently, touching various body parts, muttering to himself. "Well, son, I think you're going to live." He smiled, probably his first of the day.

"That's all you can tell us?" Sam demanded. "What's wrong with him? Give him some sort of medication; he's in terrible pain!"

"We ran out of pain medication hours ago." The doctor sighed, obviously used to this sort of reaction. "As for your boyfriend there…" Neither Danny or Sam had the energy to protest. "…he's got a few broken ribs, in addition to his leg. It'll take several weeks, maybe several months to recover. Be grateful he's alive, ma'am, especially with what his chart says, and be grateful he'll be able to use that leg again. It's nothing to turn a blind eye to, not now." That being said, he went off to another patient.

"Sam… where's Tucker?' Danny asked.

"He wanted to be alone for a while." Sam answered. "His father's dead and they don't think his mother's going to make it, so he wanted some time to himself. Goddamn Muslims…" Ordinarily, she was the most tolerant of the trio, but after everything that had happened, her tolerance had taken a severe beating. Logically, she knew that only the terrorists were responsible, not Islam as a whole, but seeing thousands of dead, dying, and wounded people around her, she found it very difficult to be logical.

"I…I don't know what to say. God, I wish none of this ever happened." He looked around, hoping Desiree was there. True, she tended to twist wishes, but anything she could come up with wouldn't be even one-tenth as terrible as what they were currently enduring. Sam's outburst surprised him, but it was hard not to feel anything but vengeful himself. He'd have corrected her, but was barely in a condition to talk. Me talking to Sam about tolerance; how's that for ironic?

"Sorry, she's not here. Even if she was, I don't think she's powerful enough to reverse anything like this. That ghost last night… I don't think we've ever seen anything like him."

"Neither have I, Sam." He groaned in pain once more, resisting the urge to scream, collapsing onto his makeshift cot. It didn't take him long to fall unconscious again.

X X X X X X X X X X X

Maddie sighed as she wrapped bandages around someone's leg. She wasn't sure who he was, or if it was a woman, or sure of anything. She was too exhausted and overworked for those details to stay inside her head. She was injured as well, having a sprained ankle. It hurt, but compared to what so many others were going through, it was nothing, so she forced herself to push through the pain.

She finished with her current patient and started looking for the next one. Jack was in the hallway, looking sick. She immediately ran over to him, ignoring the numerous pleas for help and the curses when she didn't turn around. "What's wrong, Jack?" she asked; his face was nearly green.

"I think I'm going to throw up." He complained, looking for a place to sit down. He finally found one in between two critically wounded people. "Come on, Fenton, keep it down!"

"Jack, what is it?" Maddie insisted.

"I had to…help amputate a leg. They didn't have any pain medicine, so they used a tourniquet and after a few minutes started cutting. That was my job, while they held the man still. Those screams, Maddie… I can't get them out of my head. He died from blood loss and shock; they weren't able to save him." Jack grabbed his stomach and started gagging. Maddie jumped back, waiting for him to throw up. "I should have been able to save him, damn it!"

Maddie was taken back, since Jack almost never swore. "Jack, you're doing everything you can to help. So am I; so is everyone." She heard the scream of a crying as two people carted her dead mother away. Throughout the school, many such scenarios were occurring. "Come on, Jack, let's go outside."

"All right, hold on." Jack managed to get up and they walked hand in hand. However, they didn't get more than a few steps before a kid was begging them to help his friend. "You'll have to find someone else; I can't do anything." You don't want my help, kid. I'll probably just end up killing him.

They walked outside, where they saw countless people in a huge crowd, either dying or trying to help their loved ones. Few people were able to do anything and Jack and Maddie were immediately dragged to an elderly woman.

"You've got to help her!" The daughter pleaded. "My mother needs insulin; she'll die without it!" Jack looked at her and her mother. Obviously, neither of them had eaten lately.

Bowing his head, he replied: "I don't have any insulin; I don't think anyone does, but I'll see what I can do." He looked her over, and while she wasn't yet in terrible condition, she was hardly the type of person capable of surviving for long. Could be type 1; if it is, she probably won't survive unless they get help her quickly. She's got maybe a day. The woman had obviously vomited several times and was barely able to move, although a lack of food likely contributed to that. "Sigh, and it looks like I can't do anything.

"Bullshit!" the daughter exclaimed. "You're like the rest of those bastards!" She threw a punch at his jaw, but he dodged easily, since she wasn't in good shape, either; in no imminent danger like her mother, but weak.

Maddie hissed in pain as her injured ankle hit the ground. Jack grabbed her arm and helped her around, as she was in no position to refuse. In a matter of seconds, a screaming mother slammed into Jack, crying and holding her young child, who was badly burned.

"Please help my son!" she begged. "I'll do anything you want!"

Jack made sure that Maddie could support herself and looked as close as he could, the odor of burnt flesh filling his nostrils. However, the child didn't seem hurt, although his eyes were barely open. He forced himself not to vomit as he pulled the child close and examined him. After looking carefully, and seeing the extent of the burns, he shook his head sadly.

"There's nothing I can do." he told her sadly, but obviously, the mother wouldn't be deterred.

"There's got to be something you can do!" she pleaded. "I'll go down on my knees for you if I have to; just help him!" The sheer desperation in her voice caused Jack to slowly back away from her. It was difficult to do, but since he was helpless, he couldn't think of any other option.

This became the routine for an undetermined length of time. Before either of them knew it, it was sunset and both Fentons were exhausted. "We've got to rest for a while." Maddie told her husband. "I don't exactly want to, but we won't do people any good in our present state."

"I want to argue with you, Maddie, but you're probably right." Jack replied, sitting down in the most comfortable place he could find. "I don't know how much more of this I can take." They looked out into the distance, where fires were still raging all over the city.

"I figured I would find you here." A voice said behind them. They turned around and saw Vlad, who looked as formal as always, though his clothes were covered with debris.

"Nice to see you, Vlad." Jack forced a smile. "I just wish it wasn't under these circumstances. Where have you been?"

"I've spent the past 18 hours at press conferences, giving the usual crap reporters want to hear." Vlad rolled his eyes. "Lousy bloodsuckers….and the damned bureaucrats are even worse. They're taking their sweet time getting help into the city. I've screamed my head off, but it hasn't done much good."

"So when we can expect help?" Maddie asked, looking at Vlad pleadingly.

"It'll take them a day or so to really get aid in, or so they tell me." Vlad replied. "Which means it's anyone's guess. Some supplies have already been brought in, but not nearly enough for everyone."

"So what's been going on in the world?" Jack asked. "We've been cut off from news, but you haven't. What can you tell us?"

"None of if is good, I'm afraid. Preliminary estimates are around 15,000 dead and an unknown number wounded. I wouldn't be surprised if it's double that number, maybe 3 times. It's little more than chaos out here. Raping, looting, people dying in the streets… it's nearly enough to make me cry.

"And of course, our president made a speech."

"What exactly did he say?" Maddie wondered.

"Nothing you missed; this is a major tragedy, we're doing our best to help, we need to stick together in order to pull through, the usual crap. If that's true, why hasn't that idiot sent even half the supplies we need? Come on, I'll take you to my house. Both of you could make do with some food and rest." Most of Vlad's viciousness was gone. He was not even able to muster up hatred against Jack. It was like he was in shock.

It took them around half an hour to get there, with Vlad asking about Danny and the others. He comforted them as best he could, but all three were exhausted, so conversation was kept to a minimum. Finally, they got to his mansion and after Vlad typed in the security codes, it let them inside.

They sat down while Vlad gave them some food. "Why exactly do you have this kind of security?" Jack asked.

"There have already been several groups that tried to break into this place." Vlad explained. "One of the groups was armed and would likely have killed me if they had succeeded, but that doesn't matter at the moment. What do we do?"

"I have no idea." Jack groaned. "We threw everything we had at the ghost and it didn't even slow him down." From the windows, the smoke and flames were still highly visible, running unchecked because there was no way for them to put them out.

"Jack, there's got to be some way to do it. I know you two; I know what you can do. You've got to have some weapon that can destroy him."

"Sorry, V-man; we brought our strongest weapons to fight him and they were useless. For now, I think we're going to have to focus on recovering from this disaster."

"Jack, use your head. This is only the beginning! Last night, Amity Park was destroyed. Who's going to be next? If we don't find a way to destroy him, this entire nation will be finished."

"I'm well aware of this; I just feel… helpless. It's hard to believe something like this can really happen here.'

"Well, it damn well has and we have to deal with it. I suggested using nuclear weapons against him, since everything else we've tried has failed, but our genius commander-in-chief refused. Apparently we have no right to use nuclear weapons, even in our own defense. He sugarcoated it, but that's what it basically meant. He's willing to let brutal dictators have them, but he's not willing to use them to protect Americans?! What kind of logic is that?"

"The whole country is still in shock, Vlad. We're going to need time to come up with a plan of action."

"We don't have any time! Your son is one of the countless wounded, and you're lucky Jasmine isn't among them. Tens of thousands are dead and hundreds are mourning their losses. This can happen all over again anywhere in the country if we don't do something now!" Vlad was surprised that he would care about others, but he was in his own way, patriotic, and the United States was his country.

"Maddie, you haven't said anything. What's on your mind?" Maddie's head turned towards them and she stayed silent for several minutes.

"There… might be another way to stop him." Maddie informed, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Well, tell us!" Vlad exclaimed. "Don't keep us in suspense; if you know a way, use it!"

"Vlad, it's not something I came up with." Maddie told the men. "Jack, you remember when I disappeared that one night with Davis?" She waited for him to nod before continuing. "Well, it wasn't exactly a date. He took me to a lab he set up and revealed a terrible secret to me. In an effort to solve some of the world's energy problems, he accidentally created a terrible weapon, one that can kill every living thing around it. He labeled it the ectoplasmic destroyer, after the matter he was studying. After showing it to me, he swore me to secrecy because according to him, if this was discovered, countries around the world would be developing this weapon and using them on one another. I still feel guilty about betraying his trust after everything he's been through, but it's the only thing that might be able to destroy him."

"Maddie, we're going to need Seriza's help; there's no way to beat him, and we have no time to debate amongst ourselves. Where is he now?"

"He's at Fenton Works, to the best of my knowledge. The ectoplasmic destroyer is there. This new substance he found… all you need is a pebble's worth to vaporize everything within 100 meters."

"Come on, we'd better get moving then." Jack declared. "You know, a large part of me still thinks we should have stayed at Danny's side."

"I'm sure Daniel will understand." Vlad replied, obtaining a 38 caliber pistol and his walking shoes. "Let's get moving; the less time we waste, the better."

They walked through the streets, all of them nervous because it was now pitch-black. Vlad fingered his pistol, looking around everywhere. Jack took the lead, while Maddie stayed between them with her head bowed. Suddenly, Jack started sprinting in a random direction.

Vlad was about to berate him until he heard the reason. He heard a scream for help nearby and it sounded vaguely familiar. He climbed over the rubble and saw a latina girl with her clothes half ripped off, still struggling in the man's grip.

"Shut up, bitch!" he yelled, backhanding her. Jack jumped into action, ripping him away from the girl and punching him in the gut. He doubled over and Jack kneed him in the groin with all his strength, finishing with a punch that nearly broke the man's jaw.

"Are you all right, girl?" Jack asked, but the girl backed away from him, clutching her torn clothes.

"Hold on, Jack; let me talk to her." Maddie intervened. "It's okay; we're not here to hurt you. What's your name?"

"Paulina," she managed to sob out. "That guy… he was going to…" She broke down crying again.

"He can't hurt you now, ok?" Maddie soothed. "We're here to help you, Paulina."

"You guys go back to Fenton Works." Vlad instructed. "I'll be along with you in a minute." Once they got about 100 feet away, he shot the unconscious man in the head, glaring at him with disgust. He quickly caught up to them, while Jack was carrying Paulina. It took some coaxing on Maddie's part, but she eventually agreed, especially since Maddie's ankle hurt her badly and she had to be supported by Vlad to move more than a few feet. It was a long, slow, painful journey, but they finally managed to get to Fenton Works.

"Paulina, just sit down and relax, ok?" Maddie gave her a weak smile. "We'll be back in a few minutes."

They saw Davis sitting at the kitchen table, or what was left of it. He was obviously deep in thought until he saw the trio. "Hello, guys." Davis greeted. "Look, if you're asking me to help with the injured, I can't. I'm not able to stomach it; brings back too many memories."

"We're not here about that." Vlad cut him off. "We need your ectoplasmic destroyer."

"I have no idea what you're referring to!" Davis lied in surprise, standing up. Even if Vlad had not known of the weapon, Davis' lie would have informed him.

"I broke my promise; I'm sorry, Davis." Maddie bowed her head. "We need you to use the ectoplasmic destroyer against that creature."

Davis gave Maddie a betrayed look and exclaimed: "No," sprinting down into the lab. Vlad, Maddie, and Jack quickly followed, where they found he had locked the door. Thanks to Jack's strength and the fact it was already weakened from the attack, they burst in.

They found Davis ripping apart his notes and grabbing the device, intending to destroy it. Maddie grabbed on to it, and they wrestled around, while Jack tried to break the two apart. "No, I won't let you!" Davis shouted, wresting it free from her, where she fell to the ground with a cry of pain.

"Maddie!" Jack yelled in concern, going to her side, while Vlad looked ready to rip him apart. Seeing the result, Davis quieted and saw to her.

"I'm sorry, Maddie, but I can't let this thing be used." Davis apologized.

"Then what is going to happen to us if we don't defend ourselves from that ghost?" Jack asked.

"And what will happen if a weapon such as I now have falls into the wrong hands?" Davis retorted. "Guns against guns, bombs against bombs, men against men, missiles against missiles, and now a new super weapon to destroy us all. As a human being, I cannot simply let it happen. I will not be the one to unleash this on the world."

"We aren't giving you a choice!" Vlad exclaimed. "We need that weapon and we're going to use it, with your permission or not."

"Think again, Masters…or should I say Plasmius?" Davis glared. Vlad's eyes widened in surprise. Jack and Maddie looked in his direction, the latter rapidly recovering from her head wound. They gasped when Davis took out a gun, but pointed it not at them, but at himself. "If I have to, I will kill myself to make sure the formula for this weapon stays a secret!"

"Davis, don't do this, please." Maddie pleaded with him. "You've got to help us."

"All I ever wanted to do was to help make the world a better place. I sacrificed everything to do so, and I'm not about to let you unleash something that can end it all. I came to you two because you were the only ones that still cared about me."

"There are others." Jack insisted. "Your life still means something!"

"Don't make me laugh, Jack." Davis sneered. "My parents are dead, Brenda's gone, I look like a freak of nature and now the only people I ever trusted are telling me to betray my principals.

"I spent over a year protecting others in Afghanistan. I faced danger every day, every minute, not knowing when I would literally be fighting for my life! One day, on a routine patrol, my vehicle was hit by an IED. I escaped a fatal blow, but my body was burned. We fought them off, and I saw one of them that was still alive. I looked into his eyes with hate, and finished him! And I was proud of it!

"You hear people complaining in the media about everything we do, saying we should hold back if there is even the slightest chance that a civilian will be hurt. I'm judged based on the actions of a few, and none of them truly understands what it is like. They condemn us when we make mistakes, when we don't give into their every demand. We treat them far better than they deserve! We don't torture them, we give them food, water, even the Koran, and they deserve nothing. Someone on the outside hears what I say and they are quick to brand me as a monster. We are fighting an enemy that plays by no rules, and I would say god help anyone that falls into their hands, if I still believed in him.

"Justice, not revenge, huh? Even after thousands of innocent people are dead in an attack even more vicious than Pearl Harbor, there are still too many that peace is the only solution. Even Neville Chamberlain eventually learned that there are people that cannot be negotiated with in the end; he learned force is the only way to deal with such people.

"That we should simply give up and pretend it ever happened… I promise that if you put them in the situation I was, they would change their self-righteous minds very quickly…or die. It wouldn't be any great loss. No, we cannot simply say 'peace in our time' and try to negotiate or treat it as a criminal matter. Even at a very young age, I learned that bullies cannot be dealt with by simply walking away. That depicts weakness and they jump on it. You fight back, you strike. That is how you ensure peace.

"You know why I told myself it was worth it? The death, the carnage, the screams, the constant fear that today my be your last day? Because I knew that the people I was facing would gladly shoot down Danny or Jasmine looking straight at them and have no guilt whatsoever; I give you New York City as evidence of that. I was not going to let them, not when I could do something to stop it.

"I was told I didn't have the right personality for the military, and looking back, those people were right. The first time I shot someone down, I was sick for a week. Even though he was trying to kill me, I still feel regret. But after a while, you stop thinking. It's either you or him, and he won't feel any of the conflicting emotions you start out with.

"I still have nightmares about someone I had to kill. We were under fire, one of my buddies wounded, and I took him down. He was only 9 years old and my shot took a long time to kill him. Every night, I still hear his cries. Many of us have stories like this; they use children as weapons, as shields! There are no words to describe some of what I saw!

"After I was wounded, I was honorably discharged and looked forward to seeing my fiancé. She told me she had found someone else while I was away, and they were now together. I felt like killing myself right there. I was hoping to be somewhere where I had someone to support me, someone that loved me, but she was gone.

"I poured myself into my father's work, and after he died, I continued it. I was working on a solution to our energy problem and discovered a terrible weapon: the power of a nuclear device without the danger of fallout. I was horrified by this secret, because of what I could now do.

"There's a part of me this wants to use this device on those bastards, to see them all perish! After what they did to my friends and my country, a big part of me believes it's no less than they deserve. I want revenge on them, and on everyone because of what this fucking world did to me! This is the reason why I can't use this weapon, even for this. It's why I came to you two, the last people I knew that might still care. No one deserves what the destroyer will do, but I'm afraid of my own inner darkness. I have to keep it in check, now more than ever. This weapon could put an end to everything we hold dear.

"Even if I destroy my research, the secret is still inside my head. As long as I'm around, how do I know that I won't be forced to make this weapon? It's stuck inside me head and I can't get rid of it!"

"Then you have a terrible choice to make, Davis." Jack looked at him. "You have your fears, which might become reality, and you have our current menace, which is reality."

"The choice is yours and yours alone." Maddie added. Davis groaned, burying his face in his hands, pulling his hair in frustration and conflict.

"Perhaps this will persuade you, Seriza." Vlad stated, turning on the television.

"Attention! Attention, citizens of the United States!" Exclaimed the reporter. "A worldwide prayer is currently being held for the victims of devastated Amity." It switched to a view of the devastation in downtown Amity. Fires were raging, people were screaming, rubble was blocking most of the roads. One person was half buried in concrete and no one was able to get him out.

Then it showed one of the many makeshift hospitals in Amity. Injured and dying people were lying there by the thousands, giving what comfort they could to one another. It showed overworked doctors and untrained volunteers bombarded by family members, trying to get help for them. One of the images was a young woman with her left leg gone, cradling her badly burned child while her husband put his arms around both of them. The next was a doctor looking at one of the injured and shaking his head sadly.

Afterwards, it turned to a massive candlelight vigil in Times Square. All of them were singing and crying together. It turned to various areas around the United States, and then a large crowd near Big Ben in London. Then the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

"Enough, enough!" Davis cried out. "I'll do it; I'll use the device. It's still very primitive and I was hoping for a chance to learn more, but you're right. However, this is the only one I will let the ectoplasmic destroyer be used." He turned to his notes on the weapon and slowly destroyed them, building resolve to what he had to do.

Vlad, however, knew more than he was saying. He knew more about what was going on in the world than the mainstream media was showing. In response to the attacks, the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan were encouraged by the devastation, and believed it to be a sign of imminent victory. It was likely to be the deadliest month they had faced since the beginning of the war. Not only overseas, but in America as well. Reports of attacks by angry mobs of citizens were starting to leak out.

This is our last chance to stop this ghost from destroying our country. Vlad thought to himself. Will it succeed?

Okay, just one chapter left before the story is finished. It looks like writing shorter novels seems to work better for me than longer ones.