Author: loosedefense

Title: Weak

Pairing: Danny/Dash

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is the property of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. This story implies nothing about the characters nor does the plot of the story have any effect on the show itself. This story is pure fiction and fantasy.

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In the next few days, Danny waited anxiously for any sort of news from Walker. Having told Tucker what happened, and being told, in turn, that Dash had been looking for him and was now extremely suspicious about what went on in the lab, Danny could only mull over what it all meant.

He still hadn't seen Sam since the night they decided that they were going to be just friends, and he wasn't sure if he was relieved or upset about it; additionally, he now had to put up with the strange looks he caught Dash giving him every once in a while.

"What did you say?" he had asked Tucker, no doubt in his mind that he had had something to do with it.

Tucker had scuffled uncomfortably, reminding Danny that he had given him permission to do anything to get Dash out of the room.

"Tucker, what did you do?" Danny had demanded impatiently.

A little more hesitation and Tucker finally admitted that he had told Dash that he, Danny, was in the bathroom masturbating because of a sudden erection that had popped up.

Danny's eyes had nearly fallen out of his head when Tucker finished. "What?" he had screeched. "How could you tell him something like that?"

"You told me I had to get him to leave no matter what!" Tucker had protested.

"And—and you thought telling him I was jerking off was the answer?" Danny had asked faintly.

Tucker had merely shrugged apologetically. "It worked, didn't it?"

And now three days had passed, and Danny was on the edge of his seat waiting for something to happen.

"Come on, come on," he muttered during lunch. "What's taking so long?"

"What?" Tucker asked thickly through the food in his mouth.

"Walker can't be taking this long to interrogate Bullet," Danny leaned in close, so as to avoid speaking louder than absolutely necessary. "Something must be going on."

"Bullet's a tough guy," Tucker rationalized. "I mean, he wasn't Walker's right hand man for nothing, you know? It can't be as easy to break him down."

"I guess you're right," Danny said agitatedly. It made sense, but it did little to calm his nerves down. Every day that was wasted was another day the Plasmius spirit was in danger of being whisked away by some random ghost looking for a power trip.

"Where's Sam?" Tucker looked around. The Goth girl hadn't joined them for lunch in days.

"Huh?" Danny was pulled out of his thoughts. "Oh. I don't know."

"Don't you think you should be a little more concerned?" Tucker raised an eyebrow.

"Sam's a big girl," Danny protested. "She doesn't need me to take care of her all the time."

"Uh, she does when you're the protector of this town, and when all the ghosts are after the thing you asked her to keep," Tucker pointed out. Danny paused, his fork in mid-air. With all that had happened with Sam, he had forgotten that he had entrusted the container to her and asked her to hide it in the safest place she could think of.

"Fine," Danny reluctantly agreed. "Let's go find Sam."

The two of them made their way, passing a group of jocks who were noisily making jokes and poking fun at their peers. "Idiots," Danny muttered under his breath.

Inside was more quiet, the cafeteria filled with teachers and students who preferred to stay indoors during the lunch period; most seniors ate outside or left campus for better food. Danny scanned the area for Sam, but Tucker found her first, sitting by herself munching on an apple she had bought while reading a book.

"Sam!" he called as the two of them made their way over to her and sat down.

"Oh," Sam seemed a little uncomfortable by their arrival. "Hi, guys."

"Hey," Danny greeted after a beat. He wrung his hands together nervously underneath the table where neither of them could see. "So … I haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah," Sam said quickly. "I've been spending time at the library. You know, reading up on things."

Tucker watched this exchange with mixed feelings of amusement and concern.

"Danny went to see Walker the other day," he offered in order to keep the conversation flowing.

"Oh?" Sam asked. "Why?"

Danny scratched the back of his head. "Well, Bullet attacked us on Monday while we were at the pond. And he said something that I found suspicious, so I brought him over to Walker."

Now Sam seemed interested. "What did he say?" she asked, losing all traces of nervousness in her voice.

"Oh," Danny seemed taken aback by this sudden change in atmosphere. "I asked him what he thought he was doing, since Walker and his men aren't supposed to attack me any more, and he said that Walker didn't know that he was here; and it wouldn't matter once he had Vlad's ghost half with him."

"So he wanted it too," Sam looked thoughtful. "There must be something big going on, if Bullet is willing to break that pact. He's powerful enough in Ghost Zone—"

"Not if he wanted to get out of Walker's shadow," Tucker argued. "He's only ever been second-in-command. I don't think he's appreciated it very much."

"True," Sam gave him that.

"We thought it might mean that there's something happening in the Ghost Zone," Danny remembered to keep his voice down. "Maybe all these ghosts are trying to revolt against Walker or something. It would explain why they're so desperate for power."

"That doesn't make sense," Sam surprised them.

"Why not?"

"Well," she said slowly, "for one, why would Skulker and Ember care? Walker's prison is practically impenetrable, isn't it? So if they attacked you, they must not have been on the inside."

Danny hadn't thought of that. Walker's prison was extremely hard to get out of; he himself didn't have any trouble once he had figured out that nothing in the Ghost Zone could hurt him if he remained in his human form, but before then it had been a struggle just to survive.

"They could have wanted the powers so that they could destroy Walker and remove his threat once and for all," Danny said.

"Maybe," Sam considered. "But it doesn't seem like them. All the ghosts we've met in the past have been self-serving. Even when Pariah Dark attacked, all they cared about was saving their own skins instead of anyone else's. I can't imagine that they'd have a united front over someone like Walker."

"Maybe they don't have the same agenda then," Tucker shrugged. "It doesn't matter. The point is they're all after the Vlad's ghost half. It could be for different reasons. Bullet may be after Walker, but Skulker's always been after Danny. He could want extra power to gain an edge. And Ember, she's power-crazy, isn't she? Not to mention that they could all be trying to kill you as well."

"Ember said that this wasn't about me," Danny reminded. "But yeah, I guess you're right."

"Maybe next time a ghost attacks you should ask why it wants the extra power," Sam suggested, taking another bite of her apple.

"They're being mysterious about it," Danny told her. "You'd think they'd have revealed their plans by now."

"Well, with any luck, Technus will be after you next," Tucker joked. "He couldn't keep a secret if his afterlife depended on it."

"Well, I know one way of figuring everything out," Danny said. "I'm going back into the Ghost Zone. Today."

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Since Dash and Kwan were due to come to his house that day, Tucker was once again on guard duty while Danny ventured back through the Fenton Ghost Portal. However, flushing at the memory of the alibi Tucker had given last time, Danny had decided that it would be best to ditch the two, and when the final bell rang, hurried home with Tucker.

His parents, thankfully, were nowhere to be found, so Danny wasted no time heading down to the laboratory.

"If Dash and Kwan get here before I come back, tell them I went out," he instructed menacingly.

"Sheesh, I got it," Tucker said as though Danny had no reason to worry. Danny narrowed his eyes, and activated the lock with his thumbprint, and, changing once more into Danny Phantom, floated through to the other side.

Taking no chance, he powered up his hand, the green ectoplasmic glow circling his fingers to ward off the ghosts that passed by his path. Once again he reached the white fortress, and, clinging on to brick, changed his form into his regular human self to pass through to the other side.

There was no one around this time, and so Danny went through the doors and walls until he found the room which he knew to be Walker's office. Walking in, he found the ghost warden there sitting behind his desk.

"Phantom," Walker acknowledged in greeting.

"So, did you find out anything?" Danny asked. He wanted to get straight to the point and leave; he hated being in the Ghost Zone's prison.

"Nothing. Yet." Walker added.

"What?" Danny couldn't believe his ears. In all the years that they had known each other, Walker had never failed to intimidate; Danny couldn't imagine the white ghost not being able to extract information now. "You didn't find out anything at all?"

"It's a delicate situation," Walker told him. "Much more so than what I'm used to."

"What do you mean?" Danny didn't understand.

"Whatever Bullet's hiding, he's determined to keep," Walker said. "Beating it out of him is no use; he defied me, and therefore whatever he wanted with the soul is larger than the fear I strike in him."

"So what you're trying to say is … you're useless," Danny pointed out.

"I am not useless!" Walker hollered immediately, as if he had been contemplating the issue himself.

Danny backed away, and the ghost seemed to have caught himself, for he straightened up and cleared his throat. "This is simply going to a little longer than I expected," he clarified to an amused yet frightened Danny. "I have far more persuasion tactics to break out."

"I don't know why he'd bother keeping it to himself," Danny mulled. "While he's in here, there's no way he can get to the soul, so he might as well tell you why he wanted it." Unless of course, the reason was that he wanted to destroy Walker, in which case it'd be an afterlife of eternal pain from the ghost warden as punishment.

"Where is the soul?" Walker asked. "Bullet is a desperate man; who knows what kind of fantasies he may have of getting it."

"It's out of his reach," Danny said. "Tell him that, see if that brings any results."

"Fine," Walker nodded.

"Where is he?"

"Solitary confinement," the ghost informed him. "He is my highest priority."

Despite himself, Danny smiled at the thought of Bullet bearing the full force of Walker's rage. The ghost deserved it.

"I will let you know once I get anything of him," Walker said, following Danny as the half-ghost went to the door of his office. "I will locate you myself; until then, leave me here to deal out the punishment. I want no interruptions by your visit."

Danny nodded, then turned and went on his way. Walker followed making sure that he was out of the prison.

Then he smiled wickedly.

Walker passed his office and headed far into the depths of the enormous prison, where one lone door stood. Inside was Bullet, against a corner of the room. The purple ghost perked up when the warden walked in.

"So," he got to his feet, his eyes on the large man before him, "did he tell you where it was?"

"Nothing," Walker said. "Let the others know. We're going on with the plan."

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"Look, Foley, you can't expect us to believe that he dropped you off at his house and then took off. His car is right across the street." Dash was holding Tucker angrily by the collar of his shirt. "Where. Is. He?"

"It's really not that hard to believe," Tucker was sweating now, ugly images in his mind of one of those fists being raised and slamming into his face. "Danny just—" at that point, his PDA started beeping.

Dash glanced down at the techno-geek's pocket, where the PDA lay out of sight. "What's that?"

"It's been ten minutes," Tucker replied blankly. "Excuse me, I gotta go. Bathroom break!" he cried as he ran for the basement.

"There's no bathroom down there!" Dash shouted after him. He blinked and turned to Kwan beside him. "Is there?" he asked uncertainly. Kwan shrugged.

Downstairs, Tucker punched in the numbers for the manual override to open the heavy doors to the ghost portal in a frenzied fashion. The Fentons' had added it in the case of not having another family member present to open the portal via the genetic lock with their thumbprint. 'I hope he's there,' Tucker thought. Dash was bound to come storming down the stairs any minute now demanding once again to know where Danny was, and he wasn't sure he would be able to distract the jocks long enough to open the portal whenever Danny was ready to come out other wise.

Fortunately, Danny was standing on the other side when the door opened. Tucker breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived as another ghost shot through behind Danny before the doors were able to close in on it.

Danny's mouth opened as a waft of cold air escaped it, his ghost sense kicking in just as Tucker called out, "Danny!" frantically, pointing at the ghost flying just behind him.

"Foley, what is going on?" Dash's annoyed tone drifted downstairs.

"No time," Danny whispered. "We have to take care of them first." He transformed into his superhero mode, turning intangible, and soared through the room, leaving Tucker staring open-mouthed at the new ghost in the room. Did his friend just abandon him here?

Danny, for his part, was anxiously thinking of how to control this. He floated right through the door, transforming himself into Danny Fenton once again before his feet touched the ground, and jabbed at the doorbell. There was a pause, and the front door opened with Dash peeking out, his mouth in a ridiculous 'o'.

"Fenton!" he exclaimed. "Where were you?"

"I … went to get a soda," Danny rushed in. "I think I hear Tuck in the basement. Gotta go, bye!" he slammed the door to the laboratory behind him.

Dash stood stunned, his brain still trying to catch up with the encounter.

"No wonder those two were never accepted," Kwan said.

Dash gave him a frustrated glance.

"Those two are up to something," he stated. "I'm going to find out what."

Kwan got to his feet, his eyes wide. He held out an arm to stop Dash. "I'll go," he offered. "I need to go to the bathroom too, while I'm there."

Dash gaped as Kwan hurried downstairs.

"There's no bathroom down there!" he said loudly to the now empty room. He paused, a finger to his chin. "Is there?"

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Tucker was glad when Danny retuned downstairs. The ghost was still flying around, and though it had not attacked yet, it was certainly creating a mess. As common as facing ghosts had become for Tucker in the past few years, he had never been in a situation wherein he was trapped in a small room with one flying around haphazardly as this one was now.

When Danny returned, his face took on the determined look he usually got when he was about to turn into a ghost, but Tucker gripped his hand to warn against it. "You can't," he said to Danny. "Dash could come down at any second!"

Danny nodded. Tucker was right. He'd have to face this one on his own. Fortunately, the lab was full of weaponry to be used against ghosts. Before he could reach for one, however, the door swung open and Kwan tore down the stairs.

"Are you okay?" he gazed hard at Danny.

"What are you doing here?" Danny frowned, reaching for one of the guns his father had created to fight the ghosts.

"I figured you were acting so strangely because of a ghost," Kwan reached for a gun as well, much to Danny and Tucker's shock.

"What do you think you're doing?" Danny asked, although he knew perfectly well.

"Helping you," Kwan said. Tucker grabbed Danny by the arm and pulled him down, Kwan following suit as they narrowly missed the ghost when it swooped down on them.

"What, you think just because you know who I am I'm going to let you get into this stuff?" Danny hissed heatedly. "This is way too dangerous for you!"

Kwan didn't answer at first, instead aiming the gun at the ghost, that was now circling the ceiling in a corner. He fired the shot, but the ghost plummeted downwards, missing it. Kwan turned back to Danny. "You let your friends help you," he pointed out. "I'm far more able than they are."

"Hey!" Tucker took offense to that.

"I'm more athletic, more agile," Kwan went on as if he hadn't heard the protest. "And I shot Ember when she had you trapped, in case you forgot."

Danny opened his mouth to say something, but closed it immediately. The truth was, he couldn't think of an argument. And this was not the time anyway.

Tucker sulked on the floor as Danny and Kwan jumped to their feet, cocking their guns to the angle the ghost was currently hovering at, and simultaneously both boys fired. The ghost made to float away, but wasn't quick enough as both shots hit home. It shrieked in pain, falling from the air.

"The thermos, quick!" Danny's eyes were still trained on the falling figure. Tucker gave it to him, a disgruntled look still on his face, but Danny took no notice. Uncapping it, he aimed the light to the ghost. When it was finally inside, Danny sealed the thermos, and opening the portal again, released the ghost back through the Ghost Zone.

Kwan placed the gun back on the desk, which had several items strewn on its surface and on the floor thanks to the ghost. Danny wiped the sweat off his brow, and placed his gun on the table as well.

The door opened again and Dash peered through. "What was all that screaming?"

Before either boys could give an excuse, Tucker piped up, "Kwan caught Danny jerking off in the bathroom," with a bitter look still on his face.

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After having convinced Dash that it wasn't true, thanks to Kwan's help, Danny shut the door behind the two jocks when they left that night and sank down on the couch with Tucker next to him.

"So what did Walker say?" Tucker asked. He was dying to hear some insight on this mystery, but had not been able to ask all day what with Kwan and Dash around.

"Nothing," Danny shook his head. "Bullet hasn't given him any information."

"Wow." Tucker was disappointed. "So it was a waste, huh?"

"Basically," Danny shrugged tiredly. His eyes felt heavy. "He has Bullet in solitary confinement so that he can work on him; he hasn't broken yet. I don't know how long it's going to take. Walker said he'll come find me when he gets something."

"Too bad," Tucker sighed. He picked up the remote control and clicked the television on.

"Yeah," Danny leaned back in the seat.

The two friends sat there comfortably, and Danny was more glad than he had ever been to have a friend like Tucker by his side.

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Author's Note: Not my best chapter, I know, but it's helped drive the story along. Thanks, everyone, for reviewing the chapters.

black lady knight: Thanks for your suggestion. I did actually crank out a story in the Xiaolin Showdown fandom in the time between posting the previous chapter and writing this one. It's not the fact that I don't know where to go from here, because I've already got the entire plot planned out for all parts of this series, it's just that things are going to be a little slow for a while until Danny figures out a crucial part in the mystery coming soon. :)

Hope to hear from more of you! Keep those reviews coming.