Again, thank you to all who have reviewed, favorited and followed! I'm glad you're liking the story! I'm thinking there will be 2 or 3 more chapters in this story, and then I'll post episode 3 of season 4 :)
"It looks like he flew towards the lakefront," Tucker said over to Danny who was already running inside the house. Tucker followed Danny to the lab who was packing up some gear in a duffle bag. "Should we go wake up your family?"
"No. As long as they're here, I know they're safe."
Tucker nodded and grabbed another duffle bag to place a series of Fenton gear in. Once they had everything packed, Danny ran to grab the keys to the Fenton RV while Tucker ran to place the bags in the RV. Danny backed out of the driveway and floored it in the direction Silas took off.
Sam woke up with a pounding headache. She blinked a few times to get her bearings and noticed she was not in Danny's room. Instead, she was gagged and tied up to a pole in what looked like a warehouse. She shook her arms to see if there was any chance she could slip out of the ropes easily, but then she heard a chilling laughter. She looked up in the direction of the laughter and saw Circe walk out of the shadows.
"Ooh, I'm so happy we get to meet again," Circe said as she sashayed her way over to Sam. "Because I definitely want a rematch," Circe punched Sam in the stomach. From the impact, Sam cowered over gasping for breath. Once she settled her breathing, she stood back up and glared at Circe trying to say something to her.
Circe ripped the fabric that was used to muffle Sam to hear what she had to say. "I guess that's the only way you can win in a fight," Sam spat. Circe was about to punch Sam in the face but heard footsteps behind her.
"Circe, stop," Silas said. Circe growled and placed the fabric back in Sam's mouth. She walked away to lean on the boxes that were placed against the wall. Silas walked over to Sam and grabbed her face so she would look at him. "We can make this easy, Sam, but you're the only one who can decide that. You use Danny's powers, we take them, and you go free. No one has to get hurt in this."
Sam responded just by glaring at him. Silas let go of Sam's face and started walking away. He took the gun out of his pocket and shot it at Circe. "Have fun," Silas simply stated. Circe gave an evil grin and shifted towards Sam. Sam started feeling the pain that Circe directed her. She screamed into the fabric from the intense and sudden pain. As Sam's screams got louder, Circe's smile got bigger.
While Danny drove, Tucker was double-checking everything in the duffle bags. "Everything seems to be working fine." Tucker looked over to see Danny's knuckles were turning white from gripping the steering wheel so hard. "Dude, we kind of need your fists to beat the shit out of Silas and Circe," Tucker warned. Danny loosened his grip just a bit.
They got to the lake entrance and looked around to see if there were any hiding spots where Circe and Silas would be stationed. They looked to the right and saw the same warehouse that Nocturne was based out of when he was building his sleep army.
"That has to be it," Tucker said under his breath. They ran back in the RV and drove towards the warehouse. Tucker could still tell Danny was very tense. Rather than using humor to cope, he decided to go about this genuinely. "Danny, you know we'll get her back."
"How could I be this stupid? I should have never let her be alone."
"Dude, you can't blame yourself. We were all there."
Danny gripped the steering wheel tighter, "and then the ring…" He trailed off, shutting his eyes quickly to get rid of the memory of Silas taunting him by holding her hand up. "As if she isn't in danger every day, I just had to give even more ammo for ghosts to use against me."
"That's not fair," Tucker started.
"Of course it is, Tuck." Danny gritted through his teeth and quickly glanced at his friend before focusing back on the road. "She was already a target before. I fell in love. I decided to propose to her. I made her even more of a target. It's my fault! I may as well have a huge sign up with blaring lights pointing at her." Danny took a deep breath and looked ashamed of himself, "Being with her has been the most selfish thing I could have possibly done."
"Okay stop. You think just because you're Danny Phantom you don't deserve to go through life as normal as possible? What you can't have a heart? Even if you and Sam weren't together, she would still be a target, God, you guys basically ooze affection for each other and ghosts aren't dumb. Life happens Danny and we all knew the risks of being part of this. If Sam and I wanted to, we would've left you the second you got your ghost powers, but we're still here." Seeing his friend still tense, Tucker continued, "You can't just go through life as a celibate hermit, no one expected that from you. You cannot live life severing ties with loved ones. I won't lie and say that Sam's status with you doesn't look appealing to all of your enemies out there, because it'll be tempting. But we will all be there to help you out." Tucker took a moment to recount the fight that had happened earlier with Circe and Silas.
"Jazz is right, you know? You and I got knocked out easily while Sam was still fighting. I'm sure she's giving Silas and Circe hell right now," Tucker chuckled. He looked over at his friend and noticed that he had loosened his grip and had a small smile on his face with pride for his fiancé.
"Don't ever regret taking that next step with Sam. I know if she were here, she'd kick you in the shins for even thinking that for one second. Ghosts come and go, but we always come out stronger."
"Hopefully Sam leaves some action for us," Danny said, trying to alleviate the tension in his heart.
Tucker scoffed, "If she doesn't I'll be pissed."
The only thing holding Sam up were the ropes that were tied around the pole. She breathed heavily from the pain Circe relinquished. Silas stepped up and put a hand on Circe's shoulder to pause. He walked towards Sam and grabbed her face again so she was facing him. "Have you changed your mind?"
Sam responded with defiance behind her eyes. "Sam, you have to know something, please. Your fiancé wouldn't have taught you anything just in case you would be kidnapped. Honestly, if he didn't, how is he husband material at all?" Silas let out a hearty laugh. "Seems that he just wanted you to fail…" he trailed off. Sam muffled something in the fabric. Silas slid the fabric for Sam to talk.
"You will have to kill me if you want these powers. You would've gotten them by this point if I didn't need to use them. But since you need me to use them, well I guess you're shit out of luck." Silas slid the fabric back on her mouth and slapped Sam in the face.
Silas turned his back, walked to his work table, and dropped the transference gun on it. Circe looked back and forth from Sam and Silas and followed after him. At her footsteps, Silas turned around. "You're done?"
Circe shrugged in response, "This power is pretty new to me, I'm getting tired. Plus," Circe said, giving a smug smile and turning over to Sam, "it's not like she's going anywhere."
Silas nodded and yawned, "I suppose so. We should get some sleep anyway, I'm sure Phantom is going to be popping up at some point. Or should I say Fenton!" Silas said as he and Circe laughed. Silas swung his arm around Circe leading her to their bed away from Sam. Once they were out of sight, Sam's eyes flashed yellow.
"Okay, powers. Now would be a good time to help me," Sam thought. She shut her eyes and willed herself to turn into her ghost form. When she and Tucker had asked Danny how he turned into his ghost form, he told them that it was like breathing for him, he would just do it. But when he first got his powers, he explained that he would picture himself as a ghost, and boom it would happen. Now in this predicament, Sam took a deep breath and thought of herself as a ghost.
She felt two rings encompass her body and a slight chill in her area. When she opened her eyes, she noticed she wasn't wearing her normal clothes, but she was wearing the suit that she wore when she and Tucker went to Walker's prison. Except her suit wasn't purple anymore, but a dark yellow. "At least it's not permanent." Sam thought as she looked at her suit disgusted by the yellow. She would only guess that her hair was white like Danny's, and her eyes were now yellow instead of the flashes.
Next, she worked on turning invisible and phasing through the ropes. "Just like walking through air. I can do this." She sat up straight but groaned a bit from the new pain that Circe caused to her stomach. "If I didn't have any broken ribs before, I might now." Again, she took a deep breath and imagined herself walking normally but invisible. When she turned back, she saw that she successfully got out of the ropes. "Not smart enough to think of ghost ropes, huh?" Sam thought with a sly smile.
She looked over at the work table and saw the Transference Gun. Sam looked down and saw that she was still invisible. "Please stay invisible." She walked slowly over to the Transference Gun, careful not to make any noise. She looked over in the direction she saw Silas and Circe and noticed that they were busy with each other, giggling. "Gross." With new confidence, she walked with more determination to the gun, picked it up, and looked at it.
She debated on going over to Silas and Circe and taking their powers, or running out of the warehouse with the gun. "This could all be done now…" she thought and she took a step toward Silas and Circe. "But there's no guarantee I can escape with this right after. What if Silas uses his mind control again? Or what if Circe uses pain on me? I can't use the gun on both of them at the same time."
Thinking back to when Tucker stopped her from running off at the prison, and when Danny told her to get in and out, she decided to make her escape. She ran to the entrance of the warehouse in the opposite direction. Trusting herself, she phased through the door. She ran a few more yards away from the warehouse before turning around, becoming tangible again, and seeing where she came from to settle her adrenaline. She put her hands on her head, in disbelief and gratitude.
"I did it. I fucking did it."
She heard a car driving up and turned intangible just in case. She saw it was the Fenton RV with Danny and Tucker. Before they parked the RV, she phased in and sat behind them, still invisible.
"What's the plan?" Tucker asked as Danny parked.
Danny rummaged through the duffle bag preparing an ecto gun. "We go in quietly, find Sam, and if we can, find the gun and take it, but that's not a priority at this point. We'll see how lucky we get."
Seeing this as her opportunity, Sam spoke up, "Well, I would consider us very lucky," she turned tangible, holding the gun. Tucker and Danny flinched at her sudden appearance. Danny and Tucker looked at Sam, then each other then back to Sam. With both of them stunned, Sam spoke up, "Guess I had a decent amount of control over your powers." She leaned back into the seat and closed her eyes.
Tucker and Danny were still in shock. They looked at each other, then back at Sam, and opened their mouths, "Sam…"
Sam held up a hand to stop him. "To be honest, guys, I'm pretty tired. I just want to go to sleep," Sam grabbed a blanket out of one of the compartments in the RV and curled up in the seat.
Realizing she was still in ghost form, she transitioned back to her human self which earned more stares from Tucker and Danny. Danny came out of his state of shock first and started the RV back up to drive back home.