Last part of a three-piece fic.

Executioner
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cori

"What about me?" Phantom asked into the silence, still holding Maddie's hand in a death grip. All the one-eyed ghosts turned their attention to him.

Maddie glanced down at her husband - still lying comatose at her feet - before looking up at the leader of these ghosts. Seated on the silver-toned throne with a huge purple cape, the leader of the one-eyed ghosts leaned forwards in its chair with a dark grin on its face. "You have been deemed an aberration against the universe itself, and it is our responsibility to deal with your existence."

"You don't deal with Plasmius," Phantom argued. His back was straight, his head tall, but Maddie could hear a slight tremor in his voice. His hand was trembling, almost like he was refusing to let go of her now that he had her.

On the stage, Plasmius's eyes narrowed. He opened his mouth to speak, but the ghost on the throne spoke over him. "Plasmius has struck a deal with the Council, with certain guarantees on his behavior-"

"I'll make a deal," Phantom interrupted. "What do you want?"

The slow grin that crossed the ghostly leader's face sent chills down Maddie's spine. "Something rather small," the ghost said, "just to prove that you're more ghost than human."

"What?"

"Kill them."

Maddie stared at the ghosts on the stage in horror before turning to Phantom. His age and naivete showed at the empty look and the blink of his eyes. "Who?" he asked.

"No," she whispered.

Glancing in her direction, Phantom's eyebrows furrowed. Then his expression cleared into something incredulous. "Not a chance!" he snapped, twisting around to glare at the one-eyed ghosts. "Find something else."

The ghost trailed a finger in little circles on the arm of its throne. "That's the price. Take it or leave it."

"You can shove-" Phantom started, his fingers tightening painfully around Maddie's.

Plasmius stepped forwards, holding up a hand and cutting into Phantom's answer. "The boy is a child. Surely-"

"It is the same price you paid all those years ago, creature," the ghost said. "Do not overstep your bounds or you'll join this aberration in his punishment." Plasmius scowled, red light flickering over his hands, but took a step backwards and bowed his head under the glares of the ghosts. The one-eyed leader turned back to Phantom. "Do you accept the price?"

Maddie extricated her hand from Phantom's and stepped in front of him. "You can't do this!"

"Can't?" The ghost laughed. "You are human. You have no say on what we do!" It stood up and walked forwards, stopping just on the other side of the bars. It's huge, red eye stared at her. "You are in our world, don't forget. Now step aside."

Ignoring the insistent tug on her hand and the way Phantom was trying to get her attention, Maddie narrowed her eyes and clenched her jaw. "He's just a boy. You have to-"

"I don't have to do anything," the ghost said slowly, deliberately, with a grin on its face fit for a Halloween jack-o-lantern. "You are a criminal with a thousand year sentence to carry out. Now, you will remain silent or you will be bound and gagged and removed from this council."

Maddie opened her mouth to speak, but the ghost held up a cautioning finger. Sullenly, she clamped her lips shut. When the ghost made a small shooing motion with its hand, Maddie tensed, then took a step to the side, all the while glaring at the ghost with the hope it would burst into flame.

"Do you accept the price?" the ghost said, its red eye fixed on Phantom. "Will you kill these humans?"

"No!" Phantom snapped.

Plasmius stepped forwards again. "Let me speak to the boy. Surely-"

"No price is paid," the leader of the ghosts said, words sharp before its voice dropped quiet enough that it barely travelled past their little group. "Although I have to admire a beast that will stick to its morals." It spun on its heel and stalked back to its throne. Settling down in a wave of purple cloak, the ghost's voice rang out through the courtroom. "The abomination has refused our compromise. The threat posed by him must be neutralized. The decision of the court will be followed through."

"What decision?" Phantom asked quietly. Maddie clenched her fingers into tight fists.

"You will witness the humans being taken care of, and then your core will be removed and placed inside of Pandora's box."

Phantom paled and took a step backwards. His green eyes flicked to hers, looking horribly young and terrified, before that confident mask slipped back in place. "You can sure try," Phantom said. Maddie felt his fingers grab onto her arm. He breathed, "We've got to get out of here before they get too close."

"Jack," she whispered, reaching for her comatose husband.

"I'll come back." Phantom pulled on her arm, tugging her towards the bars. "Come on."

Maddie didn't want to leave her husband. He was her best friend, her stalwart companion of the last twenty years, her business partner and fellow spectral enthusiast. But the guards were starting to close in. Their chances of escape were narrowing by the second. And Phantom had been crystal clear about his decision to rescue her first. She didn't have time to argue - she had just enough time to make a choice.

It broke her heart, but she turned to Phantom and nodded. She'd get this boy free and then they'd come back for Jack. Maddie was already starting to catalog the weapons in their lab that would be useful. After all of them were out of this - and they would get out of this - Maddie and Jack would be able to start making reparations to this mysterious ghost that had not-died in their basement.

She felt Phantom tense as the guards reached for the lock and fit the key in. Maddie took this last moment to glance back at Jack. No sooner at the lock clicked over than Phantom slammed her body into motion with enough force to rip her arm from its socket. The cage door blew open, the guards bowled over, and they made it to the main doors of the council chamber before Maddie's brain had decided whether or not it wanted to scream in pain. The doors vanished in a flash of green and smoke and flying shards of solidified ectoplasm.

Reaching up with her other arm, Maddie wrapped her fingers around Phantom's wrist and tried to take the pressure off her arm. There was nothing she could but close her eyes as green flashed and walls vanished and ghosts screamed and hollered around them.

Something hot-cold burned into her leg. Maddie bit back a shriek of pain, twisting her body, but the ghost that had shot her was already in the distance. Her watering eyes flared open to survey their surroundings, startled to find them already in the depths of the Ghost Zone. A glance back showed a large, white palace and hundreds of guards.

"Hang on!" Phantom shouted over his shoulder, throwing them into a spiral and forcing Maddie to slam her eyes shut again. Vertigo made her head spin and her stomach churn.

And then they stopped. Maddie felt the sudden silence as a pounding in her ears, broken by Phantom's erratic panting. Her shoulder screamed in pain. In front of them, she spotted that bone-white ghost from earlier. Easily three hundred feet tall, Walker had his arms crossed over his chest. "Where are you going, boy?"

"Home," Phantom said. "Let us go."

Walker hesitated before shaking his head. "I have my orders. Now you will come peacefully-"

Phantom raised his free hand and sent a blast of energy at the ghost's head. Walker batted it away, but Phantom used the distraction to duck between Walker's legs and shoot past the white ghost.

Maddie saw the hand reaching for them. "Watch-"

It was too late. An ice-hard and frozen hand slammed into them. Maddie felt something in her side give way and felt Phantom's fingers separate from hers before darkness claimed her.

The world spun nauseatingly. Maddie was being dragged forwards by her good arm. Her shoulder was still out of its socket - useless and painful - and there was a burning ache in her side. The blurriness of the world when she opened her eyes spoke of a possible concussion. "Lemme go," she slurred.

Phantom was being pulled along beside her. Half his face was a greenish bruise, his body limp, his head rolling. Maddie slowly turned her head the other way to see Jack, still unconscious, being hauled along as well.

A horrible, sick, painful noise worked its way out of her mouth. The ghost pulling on her arm paused to glance back at her, arch a nondescript red eye, and then turn forwards again.

"You'll be in much worse pain soon," came a quiet baritone.

Maddie had to blink a few times before she was able to focus on the white blob padding along behind them. It was the Walker ghost again - only now the ghost was their size, perhaps only seven feet tall. "Don't do this," she pleaded.

"I have my duty to this world, as you have a duty to yours. Humans and real-world objects do not belong in our realm." The ghost eyed her. "It's nothing personal."

"Nothing personal," came another sneering voice, this one thick with sarcasm. It took Maddie far too long to drag her eyes away from the white ghost to focus on the one walking next to it. Plasmius. Black hair mussed and red eyes glaring daggers at the world, the other living ghost looked furious. "I'll double my price, and you can keep the boy. I just want the female."

"I haven't been given permission to sell the prisoners," Walker said, "however tempting your offer."

A sharp jerk on her arm made Maddie close her eyes in agony. She heard Phantom groan in pain as well.

"The Vortex of Pain." Walker's voice was almost soothing. "There are worse ways to spend a thousand years, I suppose."

Maddie was dumped on the ground. She rolled into a ball, feeling her ribs spasm and her shoulder burn, before she was able to open her eyes again. Phantom and Jack and been dumped beside her; Jack still out cold, the boy trussed up and groaning. The three of them and their retinue of guards stood on a spit of land - the edge of a precipice that lead into a swirling mass of color. Unable to help herself, Maddie peered over the edge.

A whirlpool of rainbows. Dark things circled inside of it like sharks, full of spines and claws and fangs. Other things that looked more like jellyfish had long tentacles, searching for prey. It was dizzyingly beautiful. And, with her head spinning from the earlier blow, Maddie was entranced by the sight.

"Is the ghost child awake?"

Walker's voice jerked Maddie out of her dazed stare. "You can't do this," she said, her voice slurring drunkenly. "Please. Just let us go."

One of the faceless green guards kicked Phantom. The boy lashed out with his feet - a wild kick that came no where near landing a hit - and rolled away from the guard, broken sounds coming through the gag.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Walker said. The white ghost settled down in front of Phantom, grabbing onto the boy's chin and jerked his head around so that they stared eye to eye. "The first stage of your punishment is to watch these humans be dumped into the Vortex of Pain."

Phantom jerked his chin free with a terse, furious noise. Green crackled in his dazed-looking eyes.

"Preference for which goes first?" Walker asked.

Phantom's eyes narrowed, his body tense. He struggled against the bindings, but the guards had obviously taken the time to fasten them more tightly than before.

"You seem to be more attached to the female," Walker said, standing up and gaining a few feet of height. "She can go last. Throw the male in first."

"NO!" Maddie screamed, struggling to her knees despite the sharp, agonizing spikes of pain in her body. Phantom was moving too, but he was too trussed up to do little more than squirm. "Please. Please, no. Please!"

Jack's head lolled forwards as the guard lifted his body. Maddie couldn't take her eyes off her husband's face as he was totted to the edge by an emotionless, faceless guard.

"Jack!" she shrieked, not believing her own eyes as his body toppled over the edge. "NO!" She managed to crawl a few feet closer to the bone-white ghost and spat at him. Plasmius was standing there as well, looking somewhat stunned at this turn of events. Tears raced down Maddie's cheeks. "Monster! I'll kill you!"

Phantom was making similar sounding noises, gargled and muffled by the gag.

Walker stared at her, his red eyes bland beneath his hat, listening to her rant and rave at him without a single ruffled feather. "I admire your spirit. Must be where the boy gets it." Then he jerked his chin. "Her next."

Maddie felt hands close around her arms. "Let me go! Don't touch me!" She kicked out, but it was useless. The green guard dragged her inexorably towards the edge.

"I'll pay anything you want." It was Plasmius's voice, barely audible over her defiant yells. "You name the price."

"Her life is not yours to buy, much like the Packers. Stand aside, creature, before you suffer the same fate as the boy."

Maddie looked back. Walker looked passive and empty. Plasmius was staring at her, his hands limp by his side. Phantom had tears on his face and energy flashing around his body like a miniature lightning storm. The nearest guard was a good five feet from him, but the boy was tied up too well to escape.

Then Plasmius's face hardened. She saw him take a step towards Phantom, pulling something out of his pocket just as the hands released their grip on her arm.

She fell.

It took a long few seconds before she passed into the colorful swirls of light. Every caress of the light against her skin was torment. Each color was a different sensation, a different form of agony. Pinpricks, burns, shocks, cold, hot, scrapes, stabs… it melted in a horrifying scream as her brain was overloaded.

Overhead there were flashes of light. Red and green and red and green. Maddie reached for them with her good hand.

One of the black jellyfish-like things floated nearby. Its tentacle wrapped around her wrist - a searing jolt of agony that made her body convulse. She blacked out for a moment, blinking herself back to consciousness as her hand jerked free of the blackness. A huge scar was burned into her wrist. More of the things crowded nearby.

The jerk on her hand sent her body into a slow tumble. As she rotated over, she could see into the depths of the vortex. Pitch black, even though it looked to be miles away, she could see millions of the seething creatures formed into a huge mass. Far below, she could see Jack's body, a tiny smear of orange against the black. "Jack!" she screamed as her body spun back around.

A black shark-like thing missed her by inches. Up above, there was a brilliant green light, and it was getting closer. Maddie shrieked in pain as something brushed her leg, the steadily increasing agony of the Vortex becoming a mind-numbing torture.

The green flare of light resolved itself into Phantom. He dove towards her, snagged her arm. Emerald lightning flashed around him, chasing off the worst of the black creatures. "I got you," he yelled, pulling her body to a stop before angling upwards. "Plasmius is keeping them busy until we get away."

"Jack!" she screamed, twisting her head around to spot his body, but it was too hard amongst the swirling colors and furious black shapes. "JACK!"

It took only seconds for them to clear the edge of the Vortex. The absence of the pain echoing through her body was startling, despite the sharp agony of her side and shoulder. Maddie couldn't hold back a gasp as her body convulsed, muscles twitching in defiance of her thoughts. Her body had gone through too much. It was on the verge of shutting down.

"Hang on!" Phantom yelled, twisting through the acidic atmosphere of the ghost world, dodging past floating doors. Flares of energy flashed past them. Maddie felt the icy burn as several connected and tore into her jumpsuit and skin, felt the tensing of Phantom's fingers and the jerk of their flight path whenever they slammed into him.

More twists. A loop, with a barrell roll.

Maddie glanced back. Dozens of guards were behind them, more joining the flight with each passing second. Green obscured her gaze for a moment when Phantom managed to conjure a shield behind them, only for it to disintegrate at the first impact.

"Can't hold it and fly," he gasped. "Hope they have bad aim."

The guards were catching up. "Faster," she said.

"This is as fast as I can go while carrying you," Phantom answered, panting. His voice sounded panicked. Maddie glanced up to catch sight of his face - his eyes were wide, terror showing clearly in the set of his mouth and the twitches of his cheeks. "We can make it." He didn't sound convinced.

If he dropped her, he'd be much faster. She was a solid hundred and twenty pounds of mass to haul around. Maddie stared at him, feeling his fingers close more tightly around her wrists as the ghost broke into a sharp dive.

She looked back, saw the guards, then saw something behind the guards. White. Like an emergency flare or a super nova, a light flashed brightly behind the ghosts. "Phantom!" she yelled.

The boy looked over his shoulder, then somehow found the ability to speed up. Doors flashed past. Rocky outcroppings whipped by. Mist and fog and scattered ghosts appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye.

The white light expanded from a point of light to a small sphere, then to a ball, and steadily grew bigger. No matter how fast Phantom flew, the light was faster. It grew faster and faster, swallowing the objects behind them and rapidly catching up.

"No, no, no, no…" Phantom chanted. Maddie looked up at him, then back just as the light swallowed the guards on their tail. She only had time for a half a breath before it slammed into her and Phantom.

It wasn't an explosion. It wasn't painful. Instead, it curled into her skin, soothing away the aches and pains of the Vortex and the burns from the ghost's blasts, taking away the sharp stabbing in her side, resetting her shoulder and rubbing the remaining pain away. Memories drifted into Maddie's mind - of loving her, of having a family, of chasing ghosts and creating inventions, of the happiness and pain of life.

It lasted for less time than it took Maddie to take in a startled gasp. She blinked away stars as the leading edge of the white sphere roared past them and vanished into the distance.

Phantom slowed, and Maddie looked up at him. He was shaking his head, rubbing at his hair, and blinking rapidly. His natural green glow was tinged with white. The burns and bruises of his experience the last few days were gone as well. Then Maddie looked back. The guards chasing them were in disarray. Several were falling through the green atmosphere like dead flies, the rest were milling around and leaderless.

"What was that?" she whispered into the sudden silence.

The boy doesn't answer, instead tightening his grip again and heading further into the Zone. Their pursuers were quickly left behind. Their flight - once full of crazy spirals and desperate maneuvers - was almost lazy. Phantom swooped around doors and bits of floating islands before setting her on a spit of land and pulling her towards a familiar-looking swirl of green.

"No," Maddie said, planting her feet. Yanking her arm out of Phantom's grip, she turned around to stare behind them. "We need to go get Jack."

Phantom gazed blankly at her. Something dark floated in the back of his eyes. With a scowl, he grabbed her hand and yanked her through the light. Her feet were unsteady for a moment before finding their purchase on the familiar concrete floor of their lab.

Maddie blinked and looked around. "Good idea. We need equipment." Testing her shoulder - still not sure how the light had fixed it, but willing to run with it - Maddie started to dig. "We'll need-"

The boy pulled the ectoweapon out of her hand and set it back down. "Stop," he whispered.

"I'm going back for Jack," she said. "I can't leave him."

"I'm sorry," Phantom said, his voice soft. When she reached for another weapon, he grabbed that too. "Maddie, stop."

Maddie spun on him, anger flaring. Her fingers clenched into fists. "We have to go back. You can't stop me! I need to rescue him!"

"I'm sorry," he said again, his green eyes steady. Little flickers of white mist curled through them.

"Jack-" she started, confused as to why the young ghost would refuse to go back and rescue her husband.

"I'm sorry," he said for a third time, his voice barely a whisper. There were tears on his face as he set down the ectoweapon. "Maddie. Stop."

Then she caught on. "Jack?" she breathed, her knees giving way. She sat down on the floor.

Phantom crouched in front of her. "When a human dies in the Ghost Zone, they give off a lot of energy," he said, his voice quiet and gentle. "That's what that light was."

"I saw…" Maddie trailed off, raising a hand to her head. She stopped, staring at the ghost of a scar still traced around her wrist.

"His memories." The young ghost touched her hand. "There's no one to go back for, not anymore."

Her vision went blurry. "Jack?" she whispered, her brain still not accepting the words she was hearing.

"I'm sorry."

She jerked her hand out from under his and stumbled to her feet. "Don't…" she trailed off, not knowing what she was trying to say.

Jack was gone. Jack was gone and she was here. Jack was gone and she was here and Phantom had rescued her and not him and…

But they always came back from their adventures. They were the Fentons. Nothing could touch them.

How could Jack be gone for good? Surely if they just went back…

Surely he would walk through the door...

When she blinked the worst of the fog from her eyes and looked up, Phantom was gone. Maddie felt a flare of hope that the ghost had gone back for Jack, but she quickly squashed it. Instead, she dragged a chair over to the edge of the Fenton portal, sat down in it, and stared at the glowing, swirling light.

It had been their greatest invention.

It had apparently half-killed a child and left him to wander the world as a hunted living ghost.

It had led to her husband's…

Still unable to think the word, Maddie stayed there for hours, watching the portal. Eventually she dragged herself over to the radar - setting it to scan for real-world items and watching it blip and bleep and show nothing at all. Then she dug out one of the probes Jack had been working on, set it up, and sent it through the portal. She used a remote control to pilot it around for hours before the batteries died. She couldn't find the Vortex or any sign of Jack. Remote dead in her hands, Maddie just sat there.

It was dark outside before she made her way up the stairs. The house was quiet. Maddie stood in the kitchen, looking around blankly. Her feet felt like lead as she walked up to the second floor.

The first room revealed her daughter, sprawled under the blankets and fast asleep. Maddie stood there, allowing the hallway light to illuminate the gentle rise and fall of Jazz's chest. Softly closing the door, Maddie worked to the next room.

Danny was on top of the covers, still in his clothes. He was curled into a tight ball, facing away from her. Maddie briefly considered getting a blanket to cover him up, but she didn't want to wake him.

She wasn't ready to talk to anyone.

Pulling the door closed, Maddie checked the third door - just in case. Their bed, hers and Jack's, was cold and empty. Struck by an almost obsessive need, Maddie checked the bathroom, attic, and every closet and cupboard in the house before finding herself back down in the lab.

The green mist swirled serenely. From the depths of her mind, a memory surfaced. It wasn't hers - it was Jack's. A memory of sitting down here, eating fudge, staring at the portal and wondering how the ghost world worked.

The memory broke something inside of Maddie's carefully balanced mind. Even as she sank back into the chair, desperately hoping her husband would walk through and swoop her up and spin her around in that bone-crushing hug of his, she started to cry.