Shatterglass

A Danny Phantom Fanfic by Quill N. Inque

I do not own Danny Phantom.

"One shall stand. One shall fall."-Optimus Prime, "Transformers," (2007)

Chapter Eight: The Last Battle

Prologue

Fifteen minutes ago…

The beat-up rental car skidded as it swerved sharply into the driveway of the ridiculously expensive and lavish French summer home. A spray of granular gravel rocketed skyward as the vehicle's driver slammed on the brakes, and FBI Agent Thomas Brody was out of the car before it had even finished coming to a halt in the driving and pouring rain.

The agent, now soaked to the bone, blew water out of his eyes whilst he drew, with smooth, practiced motions, the battle-scarred and scratch-covered Sig Sauer from the holster at his waist. Its weight was comfortingly familiar in Brody's callused palms, and the gun's hammer made an ominous click as the venerable agent drew it back with his thumb.

Brody kept his head down against the deluge as he quickly and quietly approached the mansion's front entrance. Every muscle and sinew in his body was tightened like a coiled spring, and Brody inwardly shuddered as an ominous feeling came over him. He didn't know what it was, yet, but something was very wrong here, and this atmosphere of dread served only to further Brody's desire to get to the bottom of what was really going on here.

The agent didn't bother with knocking or any other social niceties one may observe when entering another's home. Brody smiled grimly at the sight of the cast-iron padlock that had been placed around the handle, and its presence was a silent confirmation that Mr. Masters didn't want visitors right now.

Fortunately, Brody really didn't give a damn about what Mr. Masters wanted, nor did he care about the inevitable grilling he'd get from his superiors for going in for an unauthorized sting. He was planning to retire anyway, and thus Brody was almost gleefully looking forward to telling those bureaucratic bastards to shove it up their collective ass without any fear of retribution.

The agent smirked whilst he fished a set of lock picks from his pants pocket. Brody could have just broken the door down, of course, but he had long held the opinion that such theatrics were more suited for TV shows like CSI rather than in an actual police investigation. The now-defunct lock sent up a splash as it landed on the soggy ground, and Brody charged in with his weapon at the ready-

But, to his consternation, there was no one here. In fact, the entire dwelling was utterly deserted, and the labyrinthine hallways and corridors seemed as quiet as a freshly dug grave. There was not a single person to be found. The only noise that could be heard in the seemingly abandoned place was the crackle and hiss of the roaring fire that blazed in the massive hearth.

Brody frowned, stepping cautiously into the opulent parlor. "This can't be right," he told himself. "Masters' phone is still active, the signal is still be transmitted, so why…?"

Something made the hairs on Brody's arms and neck stand straighter than soldiers on parade. He stopped once more, his mind racing. Was that a draft? There can't be any wind here! All the windows and doors are closed!

Again, a cold, slight breeze made his skin tingle. The gust itself was so gentle and so almost-nonexistent that it would have been missed by almost anyone.

But Brody was not just anyone.

The flames that cast their eerie orange glow on the room's single occupant validated Brody's theory when the whisper-thin breeze tilted them ever so slightly to the hallway on the agent's left. Brody's eyes silently followed the heading that Providence had seen fit to furnish him with, and his face became grim along with his iron resolve.

"I'm coming for you, Masters," Brody growled, hastening with all of the speed he could muster toward the dark corridor from whence the draft had come. His shoes echoed loudly on the cold, stone floor, and Brody took a minute to wet a finger with saliva before holding the digit aloft.

Like a homing beacon, Brody's makeshift compass guided him like a magnet to iron, and the agent felt his heart beat faster as the cold, drafty breeze grew stronger with each passing step. His palms began to sweat nervously, and Brody shifted his grip so as to get a more secure hold on the handle of his beloved Sig. He rounded the corner like a hunting dog on the scent of his prey, and Brody's chest heaved as he glanced at the downward-spiraling, hewn staircase that seemingly traveled ever downwards till it was lost to sight.

That cold, lifeless breeze sent a chill down Brody's spine, and he hefted his weapon once more as he descended into the darkness…

Now…

Danny Fenton waited sadly, quietly, but with extraordinary courage for death to claim hm. He shut his eyes tightly as he heard the Soul Shredder's razor-sharp edge cut through the air as Vlad swung it downward. At any moment, he would feel the metal cut and slice through his flesh, tearing his young life away amidst a spray of blood. His body would die, and the cursed blade would banish Danny's soul to a nightmare dimension forevermore.

Sam's hysterical sobs made Danny's own heart clench whilst Vlad screeched his victory cry, and the eldritch sword swung downwards like a swift guillotine as it closed in for the kill-

"FREEZE!"

At the very, very last moment, a gravelly and unexpected cry made all heads turn to the man who now held a gun at Vlad's exposed back. The villain himself was as surprised as his intended victims, and pure reflex made Danny's mortal enemy turn his head to stare down the barrel of Agent Brody's Sig Sauer.

"Whoever or whatever the hell you are, you're under arrest," Brody snarled. "Drop the sword, bud."

"A wonderful offer, but I think I'll pass, Agent Brody. Surely you can see that I'm a little preoccupied," Vlad sneered, turning his attention away from Daniel for just a moment. "I hardly think you're even worth worrying about right now."

"Is that so?" Brody retorted, his weapon never faltering. "I'm the one pointing the gun here, you ectoplasmic son of a bitch."

Vlad stared at him disdainfully. "I think I've had just about enough of you," he said, his tone bored as he turned to his minion, the Fright Knight. "Kill him."

The spectral warrior advanced on Brody, and Vlad turned once more to his still-prone enemy-

-Whereupon Danny Phantom's fist made contact with the side of Vlad's head so hard that it made the villain's ears ring shrilly. Vlad staggered and dropped the Soul Shredder from his grasp, stunned by the blow whilst stars burst in his vision.

Vlad had no way of knowing that as soon as his concentration had been diverted, the young ghost boy had half-risen from his kneeling position whilst his hands and even his eyes were glowing with energy the color of sunlight through a mossy pool. The ectoplasm that now flowed and coursed through Danny's veins made his entire body give off a soft verdant aura, and the buildup in his palms began to make the air smell like ozone.

Whether it was fate or coincidence that guided the sword's downward descent, no one knew, but the fact remained that the cursed weapon's pointed tip seesawed and spun before coming to a quivering halt in the floor.

On the way down, its falling edge sliced through Danny's manacles as if they were nothing but paper chains. The ectoplasmic shackles that had confined the hero were severed into pieces like so many links of a sausage, and Danny sent a bolt of glowing green energy blasting away at his foe before the metal had even finished falling to the ground. The wind was driven from Vlad's chest with a great whoosh as the force of Danny's strike knocked him off his feet, and the only thing that stopped Vlad's sudden flying lesson was the small crater he made as the villain slammed against a cast-iron pipe with a resounding clang.

Danny turned to Brody as the agent took a potshot at the Fright Knight. "Get them out of-AAAGH!"

Any further speech on the part of the hero was abruptly cut short as Vlad's blurred shadow slammed into him like a runaway train. His mortal nemesis clutched Danny by the neck so hard that the hero thought his spine would be crushed, and so great was Vlad's sheer velocity that both he and Danny easily punched through the mortar-and-stone walls amidst an explosion of shattered rock and choking dust.

Both hero and evil-doer landed only a sparse few feet from each other, but it took a measure of time far too small to comprehend for both fighters to regain their senses and their footing once more. The tempest raged and ranted as it sent sheets of rain downward with driving winds, as if even the very heavens were eager to witness this last battle between those who embodied the forces of good and evil.

"You can't stop what I have set in motion!" Vlad screeched. "You will lose this fight, Daniel! YOU ALREADY HAVE!"

Danny's didn't waste his breath replying, and his snow-white hair was dripping and damp as he took the fight to Vlad, lunging forward and driving a punishing blow into his enemy's innards. Vlad gasped and showed the whites of his eyes, flecks of spittle flying from his mouth, but then recovered and brought his fists together so as to bring a hammer-blow down on the back of Danny's skull. The hero staggered under the punishing double-handed strike as Vlad followed up with a lunge to Danny's ribs, but at the very last moment the hero ducked low to the ground and lashed out with his foot in a sweeping arc. Vlad grunted in surprise as his legs were swept out from under him, and the villain bit his tongue hard as Danny met his fall with a sweeping uppercut that rattled the fillings in Vlad's teeth even as the villain lashed out with his foot. The impact of Vlad's boot sent Danny staggering backward as his nemesis spat out blood defiantly, and the villain's fist made an ominous cracking sound as it thudded into Danny's rib cage with devastating force. The hero gasped in pain, coughing a spout of crimson gore as white-hot arcs of electricity danced over the left side of his body, but the fighting skills that had been honed after months of ceaseless combat were running on autopilot. Even whilst he felt the bones there shatter, Danny recovered enough to backhand Vlad across the face and lob a volley of disc-like, explosive green energy shrieking like artillery shells in the evil-doer's direction.

Vlad's eyes widened in surprise, and he drew his cloak about him as he immediately turned intangible, and a smirk crossed the villain's face as the ectoplasmic explosives sailed harmlessly past. Lightning streaks of crackling, violent pink flashed and thundered toward Danny as his enemy returned fire, but Vlad's efforts, too, came to naught. The temperature began to drop as Danny felt ice begin forming on his clothes, and he reached for the freezing globe that was the source of his newest ability while the ghost boy's eyes burned like lanterns with an icy blue flame. A howling shockwave of icy energy, wailing a high-pitched dirge, burst forth in all directions the instant Danny thrust his hands outward. So enormous was the power of this chilly attack that the pouring rain was momentarily transformed into a numbing blizzard, and the grass underfoot became fragile and brittle as a myriad of huge, jagged spires of crystal exploded from the soil. The ectoplasm that Vlad had shot at Danny was entirely encased in ice, and the blasts of frozen energy landed clumsily as they fell to earth.

Vlad snarled like a dangerous beast, and all thoughts of self-preservation were forgotten as the psychotic villain threw himself back into the fray, grabbing Danny by the scalp and twisting cruelly before ramming his fist into the boy's face. Danny's lip and nose began leaking red as he twisted his torso and landed a quick, hard jab to Vlad's kidney before coming back around and slamming his elbow into the villain's temple. The villain screeched in the throes of madness, grabbing Danny's wrist and twisting cruelly before nailing the hero with an ecto-blast at point-blank range. The resulting blow threw Danny into the air as if he were made of straw, and his body twisted like a macabre spin top before a multitude of branches and limbs from close-by trees and shrubbery painfully broke his fall amidst a hazardous rain of splinters and tree bark.

Danny only just managed to orientate himself before gravity reclaimed him, twisting around so as to land on his feet, and the soles of his shoes carved deep furrows in the squelching wet loam as gravity reclaimed him. The hero may have been down for a moment, but he was far from out.

So was Vlad.

The diabolical madman blasted clean through any local flora that blocked his path, and the fallen forest giants creaked and groaned before making the earth shudder under the impact of their descent. So great was his insane fury that Vlad utterly demolished anything and everything in his path with reckless abandon and unthinkable barbarity. The villain even went far enough to snap a tree clean and half before seizing its broken and twisted tree stump and swinging it at Danny like an oversized baseball bat.

The hero, to his credit, kept a clear head. Instead of ducking or dodging like he had done so far, Danny rather opted to blast Vlad's makeshift weapon back into its component atoms before it could make contact with his body. Vlad, in, turn, recoiled like a snake from the needle-like wooden shrapnel that flew in all directions, throwing up his hands to shield his vulnerable eyes and face while the splinters shredded his cloak and tunic. Normally he would have gone intangible as he did before, but Vlad quite obviously wasn't operating at full…mental capacity right now.

Danny saw the opening and took it. The roiling, viscous-like ectoplasm that began to burn in his now-scarred and aching hands lit up the night like the eyes of some great beast of legend, and the hero bellowed his challenge in unison with the great crash of thunder that split the skies. The twin pillars of solid green energy surged forth in a furious, savage, and untamed manner that mirrored Danny's own vengeful wrath.

But Vlad was no pushover, either. He uncovered his vulnerable optical organs just in time to see Danny's latest blow, and it was but the work of a moment for the villain to tap into the well of his own eldritch power. A monstrous gust of hot air drove Vlad's ragged cloak streaming behind him like a blast from Hell-furnace doors as the madman met Danny's strike with one of his own, and the pinkish hue of Vlad's ecto-rays shined on his malevolent face as he sent the full brunt of his might burning and crackling on its way.

Danny's vibrant green met Vlad's blinding pink halfway in one mighty, thunderous explosion.

There was a blindingly white flash at the exact nanosecond the reaction occurred, a light that for just one, immeasurably short moment lit up the dark and stormy night brighter than the summer at midday, and from its unbearable luminescence was spawned a swirling, massive ball of furious flames. The giant sphere of fiery oblivion boiled and grew until it towered over the treetops like some primeval leviathan from the Earth's creation, trailing a skirt of molten earth and stone as it spread out in all directions of the compass, seeking to devour everything its path with its all-consuming fire. It had a roar, too, a deep, bass sound that one felt rather than heard, and its sheer volume was enough to shatter glass and crush eardrums like overripe tomatoes. Trees that had only a moment before been so gloriously alive were burnt to blackened twigs, incinerated to ashes, or snapped like matchsticks when faced with such an unstoppable juggernaut. Boulders, tree limbs, and chunks of earth were hurled heavenward by a hurricane-force wind that shrieked and howled like a thousand screaming men, and the air became so thick with ash and smoke that it seared the lungs and stung the eyes.

Both Danny Phantom and his nemesis were thrown all the way back to the mansion where the fighting had started, and the shockwave of the blast had propelled them at such a high speed that the two combatants crashed clear through a plate-glass window, obliterated the adjoining bedroom, and demolished the far wall before finally coming to a stop out the other side so as to land in the adjacent courtyard.

Danny's ears leaked small rivulets of blood into the puddles of rainwater, and his vision blurred and unfocused and his head was still aching and throbbing from the noise. But, impossible as it may seem, the valiant hero tapped into some previously-undiscovered reserve of endurance and slowly, unsteadily, got to his feet. His clothes were now nothing but ragged, soot-stained tatters, and his exhausted body was lacerated, broken bruised and bleeding while his very bones ached. The thick panes of glass that had broken Danny's fall left him streaked with a web-like myriad of long, shallow cuts that stained what was left of his garments with slowly oozing crimson.

Vlad had not fared any better. Far from it. His cloak was gone, shorn away by the explosion, and his once-elegant suit was now nothing more than a rag. Vlad's face was bruised and bloody, and he was now sporting a noticeable gap where one of his fangs used to be. Deep gashes ran along his arms so that his hands were dripping with gore, and Vlad struggled to breathe because of the burning stitch in his side where Danny had hit him.

Now Vlad struggled to his feet once more, running on nothing but the sheer force of his bottomless hate as the fighting began once more in earnest. There was no witty banter to be heard here, no repartee or snide remarks that Danny normally spouted at his enemies. Whereas the ghost boy had once been almost playful while performing his heroism, Danny now bore a grim and determined expression that might as well have been carved from granite.

The blood feud that had defined Danny and Vlad's enmity now seemed paltry compared to the bitterness in which this battle was fought. This was now a blow-for-blow, no-holds-barred, tooth-and-nail slugfest between two irreconcilable foes.

The lightning momentarily shadowed Danny's face as he aimed a hard jab to Vlad's solar plexus, but the villain swiftly caught Danny's hand in his own with a speed that belied his injuries. Danny could hear the myriad bones in his hands grate and scrape as Vlad savagely wrenched his wrist back before mercilessly pummeling the side of his face. But as Vlad pulled back for a second strike, Danny lunged forward and rammed his forehead against the base of his mortal enemy's skull. Bolts of agony shot through Vlad's crazed brain, but nevertheless he had enough cognitive functions left to coat his hands in ghostly energy, and the super-heated ectoplasm made Danny's skin sizzle and smoke as his enemy latched onto his arm with scorching-hot fingers. The hero screamed as the flesh of his forearm blackened and charred amidst a smell reminiscent of barbecue, and Vlad laughed callously as his foe writhed and squirmed in the burning grip. But then Danny lunged forward and gripped the horn-like edges of Vlad's hair. Using these as leverage, Danny pulled hard and brought his knee to up to smash the villain's nose like a battering ram before blasting his mortal foe point-blank in the face. Vlad shrieked as the heated energy singed the flesh of his cheek and the tender flesh of his freshly broken olfactory organ, and blood ran out from between his fingers as the villain clutched his face. In his incoherent fury, Vlad blindly lashed out with a powerful haymaker that connected with the side of Danny's jaw amidst a sound like an iron pipe smacking into a wet side of meat. Danny felt a ribbon of something coppery and red on the side of his mouth, but the sensation was ignored as he used his cryogenically-oriented powers to coat his hand in ice before ramming it straight in Vlad's left eyeball. The effect was not unlike getting hit by a gangbanger packing a set of brass knuckles, and a flurry of spots and stars exploded in Vlad's vision. But the villain still had one eye that was working perfectly, and so Vlad used Danny's close proximity to deliver a nauseating, breath-emptying upward punch to the upper chest. Danny was actually lifted off of his feet slightly as the force of the strike made him gasp and wheeze, and Vlad relished the warm flecks of blood that dotted his face as Danny struggled to breathe. Sensing victory, the diabolical madman went to seize the hero by the throat once more-

-But was surprised and appalled when Danny deftly grabbed the unwittingly proffered limb and twisted it sideways so hard that the bone threatened to break. Vlad gasped in pain and shock while Danny's eyes seemed to bore into the blackened mire that had once been his soul, and the hero's hands shone with a gathering bioluminescence as he balefully stared down his mortal enemy.

"All you've ever done is scheme and plot!" Danny yelled, driving his fist into Vlad's jaw once more. "But in the long, run, what's all of that gotten you? You've wasted your entire life in a futile attempt to steal Mom and lost your best friend in the process! What do you have to show for all of this, Vlad? What do you have to gain?"

"As if I'd tell you," Vlad hissed, spitting out a molar before trying to attack yet again. "You'll know soon enough!"

The madman swiped at Danny's temple, but the ghost boy simply turned his head to one side so as to send the wild swing whooshing past his ear. Then, with strength that was forged of desperation, Danny placed his heated palm against Vlad's chest and shoved.

The villain cried out in astonishment as he fell heavily to the ground, but no sooner had his equilibrium been broken than Danny was on him like a hawk upon a chicken. The hero threw himself upon his sworn foe, grabbing the torn collar of Vlad's shirt in his fist as he drew his other arm back.

The sheets of icy rain reflected the forked tongues of flashing electricity that lit up the skies as Danny's fist connected, again and again, with Vlad's already swollen and bleeding face. The skin of the boy's knuckles became bloody from repeated strikes against the villain's skull, and the crimson ichors that spattered his face tainted the gathering rainwater with streaks of gore.

With a heart-rending cry that was spawned by all of the torment Danny had thus far suffered at the hands of his old enemy, the ghost boy interlaced his fingers to deliver a pulverizing piledriver that splintered or fractured many of Vlad's remaining ribs. The fake lawn that had covered the western side of the subterranean lair was practically vaporized-

-As was the plaster-and-bedrock roof that lay beneath it. Enormous chunks of rubble broke and cracked under the enormous strain as the stunned Vlad fell like a downed bird. Sparks and small explosions greeted the boulder-sized wreckage as their descent damaged or destroyed much of the equipment and machinery that Vlad had used for his nefarious purposes, and this had the added bonus of freeing Danny's friends and family when the electronic manacles' circuitry was fried.

And, a stunned Agent Brody thought, the veritable mountain of jagged boulders and splintered iron rebar that had buried the Fright Knight was hardly worth complaining about. The deluge of broken plaster had crushed Vlad's minion just before the ghost had broken Brody in half, and the Soul Shredder skidded along the wreckage-strewn lab as it was released from the Fright Knight's nerveless hands.

Danny gasped as his adrenaline began to wear off, and the full extent of his injuries almost made him collapse with exhaustion. Sam gasped softly at the sight of her battle-scarred and bloodied friend, and all other coherent thought was forgotten as she buried herself, sobbing, into Danny's chest. This is worthy of note because Sam was not a naturally emotional person, but the enormous relief that washed over her thrust aside Sam's normally strong personality and dry cynicism.

He hissed as her arms clutched his injured chest, but Danny did nothing to stop Sam's embrace as he drew her close to him. And despite the fact that Danny was the one who looked beaten all to hell, on the verge of collapsing in exhaustion and dripping with blood, the first thing he asked was…

"Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah," Sam took a moment to steady her shaking voice. "I think so."

"Not for long."

The hoarse, ragged edges of Vlad Plasmius' arrogant tones made Danny whirl around, but the villain took advantage of his enemy's consternation and blasted him into a jumble of ruined, furiously sparking electronics. Danny screeched at the top of his lungs as the sudden onslaught of roiling voltage made his body twitch spasmodically, and Vlad never took his eyes from Sam's as he slowly and deliberately picked up the Soul Shredder from where it lay at his feet.

"I always wondered if you two would ever get around to doing that," Vlad smirked, backhanding the girl across the face and sending her sprawling. "Pity you'll never have a chance to find out where this relationship goes, eh?"

Though his entire body was twitching in agony at the after-effects of the electrical shock, Danny managed to raise his head enough to discover with horror what Vlad was about to do. The shining blade reflected Sam's terrified face as Vlad caressed its scalpel-sharp edge lovingly, relishing in the Goth's fear before he raised the blade to take her life.

Deep inside Danny, something snapped. Every cell in his body and every minute of his life were instantly dedicated to one simple task.

Protect Sam.

Retching blood, Danny tried not to scream as he forced himself upright yet again, restoring his now-precarious balance as that singular thought thundered through his brain like a cathedral's booming knell. The hero never even noticed his hand stray outward as his feet began to pound the cracked and dented floor like the pistons of some unstoppable machine, and even the air seemed to slow his progress to a crawl while Vlad reversed his grip and began to plunge the blade downward, point-first.

Danny's lungs were starving for air as he drew ever closer, his breath burning as it rasped through his nose and mouth.

Protect Sam.

Vlad's manic eyes shone with evil joy, and Sam automatically turned away from the sight of her impending doom-

SHKLUK.

The Soul Shredder fell from the villain's grasp in apparent slow motion, almost as if time had slowed its descent until it clanged loudly at Vlad's feet. The eldritch glow that had shimmered along its length vanished amidst a geyser of blood that splattered the walls and stained the floor, and Sam gasped with breathless horror at the grisly sight that awaited her opening gaze.

Vlad Plasmius glanced down, almost as if puzzled, at the jaggedly pointed piece iron rebar that had so suddenly sprouted from the middle of his chest. What was left of his tunic was rapidly dyed solid red as the villain's still-beating heart forced his life out of him, and Vlad partially turned his head so as to gaze upon the person who had taken his life.

Danny Phantom felt wave upon wave of bitter tears cloud his sight and course down his cheeks until their saltiness mingled with the pouring rain. Rolling thunder sounded overhead, heralding Vlad's death with its earsplitting roar whilst Danny continue to clutch his makeshift weapon.

Strangely, though, Vlad didn't seem angry or scared at the unspeakable act Danny had just committed. If anything, the corners of his mouth tilted upward in a triumphant grin as crimson gore spilled over his lips.

Vlad smiled at the boy who had slain him, and his once-strong voice was now a harsh death rattle as he spoke with his dying breath.

"Well done, Daniel. Well done, indeed."

Then the villain's head sagged whilst the light in his eyes faded, and Vlad Plasmius died. The only thing keeping him upright was the piece of metal that was still embedded in the madman's corpse.

Danny fought against the bile that rose in his throat, and a massive pull finally pulled the weapon free as the rapidly cooling body fell forward like a toppled redwood.

He felt Sam's eyes on him, but Danny couldn't bring himself to meet her gaze. A caustic mixture of anguish, grief, and despair fomented inside of him like a burning acid, and Danny felt an enormous weight on his tired shoulders at the sight of what he'd done, at the act he'd sworn never to carry out but had committed anyway.

Silence reigned as Danny's friends and family, Brody included, gathered around him to offer their silent support, and Jack tried to place comforting hand on his son's shoulder.

Danny twitched away. "D-Don't," he said simply, the raw emotion in that single sentence a testament to his guilt.

Jack's eyes were sad as he looked at the fallen body of the man who'd once been his closest friend. "We won't judge you, son," he murmured. "There was no other way."

"Do you know that? Do you? Do you?" Danny asked harshly, whirling around. "Don't you guys get it? This was probably his scheme from the very beginning!"

"He planned for you to kill him?" Brody asked, bewildered.

"Of course he did! Vlad wanted me to do it, and he framed and exposed me so that I would hate him enough to actually go through with it! He wanted me to murder him so that at the end of the day I would be no better than he was! Do you know for sure that there was nothing else I could have done? Are you absolutely positive that killing Plasmius was the only way to save Sam? We'll never know, and that's the whole point! Vlad knew that I would always question myself after he died, always wondering and never really knowing if there was any other alternative! Haven't you realized it yet? Vlad has won!" Danny cried, breaking down completely. "Even in death, he's come out on top!"

"That sick bastard," Brody murmured.

Danny seemed to notice him for the first time. "Who are you, anyway?"

"He's the guy they sent to capture you," Jazz muttered bitterly.

The older man flashed his badge. "Agent Thomas Brody, FBI," he stated.

Danny looked up at him, and for a moment Brody thought the boy would attack him next-

-But the agent was taken utterly aback when Danny held his wrists out for the handcuffs to clasp. "You want me? Here I am," the hero said, his voice tired and broken. "You saw what happened, and I will accept the consequences of my actions here today. I don't care anymore, I'm tired of running."

Brody stared at the quiet sincerity in which this boy had so nobly accepted his fate. The venerable cop had known grown men who had cried like babies as he read them their rights, and yet Fenton was willing to submit himself to the scorn and hatred of the entire world without making any excuses or arguments to justify himself.

It was a rare thing to come across one like this, Brody reflected. Deep down, he knew he'd have done the same thing had it been his girlfriend's life on the line. In a stroke of extremely good fortune, the few surviving surveillance tapes taken from the lab's security cameras had given him more than enough evidence to vindicate Danny before the feed had been cut by Vlad and Danny's rubble-strewing re-entrance. Thus, there was plenty to simultaneously get the boy in the clear while suggesting nothing of Vlad's untimely demise.

And to be honest, Brody wouldn't have been able to live with himself if he'd arrested Fenton after all he'd gone through. Such a course of action was not only heartless, but downright cruel.

Brody snorted. "I dunno what you're talking about, kid," he said. "I didn't see anything."

"What?" Danny couldn't help looking confused.

The agent sighed. "You know, Fenton, I've been Federal agent for a long, long time. And I've seen a lot of the bad side of life, especially how many people your age go bad. I had a hunch at first, but now I am certain: You're not one of those people. You willingly bent under the blade, literally, to save those who mattered the most to you, and I honestly don' t know if I'd have done the same. You're a rare, special breed, Fenton, one I've seen far too few of after all these years."

Brody paused as he went to the lab's nearly-ruined panel of buttons and levers, and his fingers flew over the keyboard just before an alarm began blaring.

"What are you doing?" Maddie demanded.

"I've activated the self-destruct sequence," Brody replied. "The entire estate will be vaporized in less than fifteen minutes, along with any evidence linked to that madman's demise. No one outside of this room will ever know of what took place here today.

"I know that no apology can be enough, Fenton," Brody said, his voice growing soft. "But I hope that, someday, you'll be able to forgive me for the wrong I've done you."

"I already have," Danny replied, his grin watery but there nevertheless. "Think you can get us out of here?"

"I've already called in a favor with those boys in the Air Force," Brody smirked. "If you'll follow me to my car, I'll give you guys a ride out of here to the rendezvous point."

Jazz glanced nervously at the ticking countdown. "That would probably be a good idea."

Epilogue

Danny covered his ears as the hulking C-17 touched down amidst the roaring whir of its engines. Brody's trench coat flapped around his body at the sudden gust of wind, and no sooner had the landed wheels stopped turning than Major Andrew Skryme strutted out from the aircraft's belly. On seeing Danny, his eyes narrowed.

"Oh, good, you actually did your job and caught it, Brody," he said scornfully. "Though I wonder why you didn't just shoot that genetic monstrosity and save yourself the trouble."

"If you're looking for an execution, I think you'll be disappointed," Brody said sweetly, waving the videotapes that he held in his hand. "I've got enough video evidence here to clear Fenton of all charges."

Skryme stammered and stuttered for a long moment with disappointment on his face, but then he blustered, "Well, I'll still be keeping a close eye on it! After all," he sneered, turning to Danny's parents, "a wayward dog deserves to be put down."

Sam cut off the Major's litany of cruel remarks with a well-placed kick between Skyrme's legs. The rat-faced officer collapsed as his face drained of color, but Brody looked profoundly sad whilst he assisted Danny up the boarding ramp.

"I wanted to do that…"

A/N: Wow…that was pretty hardcore, eh? It seems there were more wheels turning in Vlad's grand design than anyone realized! But what will happen to Danny as he returns home to Amity? Will his battle-wounds take their toll? And what will happen between him and Sam? Find out in the last, upcoming chapter of "Shatterglass!" And PLEASE review! I think we ALL know how hard fight scenes are to write, and so I would appreciate any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions on how I can make future ones even better! I will say, however, that I did my damnedest to make Danny and Vlad's battle appropriately epic, and I can only hope that it meets all of my readers' expectations and lives up to its hype… (*Is nervous*)

Your humble servant,

-Quill N. Inque