A/N: I don't really have an excuse for such a long update, but I was trying to make this chapter as realistic as possible, an that took a few rewrites. Apart from that, there's not much I can say.

Thanks to Horselvr4evr, DemonSorcess and CharmedMiliE for reviewing!

Chapter 6: On the Edge of Eternity

Daniel couldn't breathe. Sam—no, Manson—was standing right in front of him. His mind was completely blank.

"Danny," she said softly.

Daniel panicked. What would she say when he found out he hadn't tried to stop the deaths Vlad had caused during the school reunion? What would she say when she learned he hadn't stopped Jazz's death? What would she say when—?

Daniel flew off into the sky, faster than he had ever gone before. He just needed to escape. He knew when he heard what she had to say, it would only hurt him. And he couldn't stand to be hurt anymore.

With more resolve than before, he swore he would stop being weak and stop getting hurt. But he remembered easy how Vlad beat him with barely a thought and despite it being nearly two months of training, he was still weak. And the only way to do that was to destroy all his weaknesses.

Daniel stopped and turned around. The park was far below him and he couldn't tell if she was still there anymore. But if she was …

Daniel closed his eyes and gathered all the energy he could into a single crimson orb above his head. His arms moved in the direction of the ground, and the orb followed.

Daniel tried flying away before he saw the ground explode, but that didn't stop him from seeing the red glow illuminate everything in sight.

And it suddenly struck him.

What did I just do? Daniel thought, horrified at that thought. How could he have shot down his best friend? Daniel turned around and sped to the ground.

"Sam!" he called. "Sam!"

The ground was smoking and the air around it almost unbreathable from all the dust that was in the air; it was choking him, making it impossible to see. The ground was turned inside out, and pieces of twisted metal lied everywhere.

"Sam!" he called again.

He went on his knees and started throwing rocks in the air, digging in the ground. But there was no one there. His eyes burned and filled with tear as he felt a lump grow in his throat.

"Sam … Where are you? I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking …"

He continued to dig, hardly noticing the air clear, when he heard a cough to his right.

"Sam!" He saw her covered in dust, making her normal black clothes look gray, despite the darkness of the night. He ran to her, and gripped her shoulders. It didn't look like she had anything more that a few bad cuts and bruises, but …

"Sam, are you alright?" When she didn't answer, Daniel shook her. "Please, wake up, be alright … Sam."

She started coughing more, getting the dust out of her lungs. Daniel continued to hold her.

"Thank god you're alright," he said quietly.

Sam looked up at him for the first time and her eyes widened. "Get away from me!" she shouted, her voice scratchy from the dust, and pushed away from him.

"What—what are you doing?" he asked, perplexed.

"What am I doing?" Sam shouted at him. "What are you doing? Why were you trying to kill me?"

Reality hit him, and Daniel remembered it had been him who fired the blast.

"Sam," he whispered, and tears started running down his cheeks again. "I'm so sorry. I—I don't know what I was doing?" It was much harder apologizing when she was awake.

"Get away from me! I don't know you." Sam backed up and started limping away.

"Sam!" Daniel called and started following her, when she only ran faster. It made his own leg hurt, seeing attempt to run on her injured leg.

What did I do? He had tried to kill his best friend, and now she hated him for it. He sunk to the ground and tears continued to fall.

"Don't cry, Daniel," a sharp voice said from behind. Vlad.

"What are you doing here?" Daniel yelled, voice cracking. "Just get the hell away and leave me alone." Daniel expected Vlad to be mad, to be angry, to attack, but he just couldn't care. Instead, Vlad just smiled.

"Why are you mad at me, when it's Sam Mason you should be mad at?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" Daniel got up and wiped away the tears that had finally stopped. He couldn't cry in front of Vlad.

"Ms. Manson is the one you tried to kill because she made you weak, no?" Daniel nodded, not knowing how Vlad had virtually read his thoughts. "You made the right choice when you tried to kill her; it was only by pure luck that she survived."

"I shouldn't have tried to kill her," Daniel said softly.

"No." Vlad's voice was cold, flat. "You have liked her for quite sometime, anyone could see that. She could have taken advantage of you, tried to trick you because of your weakness."

"Sam wouldn't do that." Only I would, Daniel thought.

Vlad took a step closer, forcing Daniel to lift his head to meet Vlad's eyes. "She would. Why do you think she kept your secret? Because she was your friend? No!" he shouted before Daniel could interrupt. "She wanted power over you!" Vlad's voice became quiet now, close to a whisper. "Why did she run away? Because she realized she couldn't take advantage of you anymore. A true friend would have stayed and heard you out." Daniel was about to say something when Vlad held his hand up. "You still don't believe me. Fine. Let's just she what Sam is doing now."

Vlad took ghost form and started in the direction Sam had gone. Daniel hesitated for a moment, then followed.

They caught up to her quite easily, and made sure to turn invisible when they got close. Sam headed to her house, before she even tried going to the hospital to help her leg, which she was still limping on.

What is she doing? Daniel wondered, not really wanting to see.

They followed her into her room, and Daniel couldn't believe what Sam did next.

She took a box from under her bed and tore the top off. Inside were countless pictures of Daniel, her and sometimes Tucker. She grabbed a handful of his pictures and tore them apart. She grabbed more and more and did the same.

"I hate you, Danny Fenton! I hate you!"

Daniel felt anger build inside him. How could she say she hated him, when she wouldn't even let him explain?

"I hate you!" she shouted again. "I never loved you."

Daniel didn't hear anymore as Vlad pulled him out of the building.

"How can she say that!" Danny shouted at Vlad. "She doesn't understand! She thinks she knows why I tried to kill her, but she doesn't. She didn't even let me explain!"

But that wasn't what had hurt him the most. It had been seeing the pictures being torn. He knew people said things without thinking, but Manson wasn't one to do anything without thinking.

Daniel wanted to cry, to scream, to do something before he exploded with his wild emotions. But he couldn't do anything. He was frozen in place, eyes closed. He shook from emotion and flew away, fast as possible. Eyes still closed, he flew, and flew and flew. But that didn't stop the tears from falling or the hurt from stopping.

X-X-X

"I hate you!" Sam screamed a final time before she collapsed on her bed. She pulled her legs to her but it just made her injured leg hurt more. Sam let go of her legs and started crying, hopelessness drowning all other emotions out.

"How could you?" she whispered to herself. "How could you betray me—kill me—when I love you?"

How could Danny think she would forgive after he tried to kill her? There wasn't anything he could ever say to make her forgive him, not after he tried to murder her with his own two hands.

"I do hate you, Fenton! And I don't love you!"

But even as she said those words, she knew she wasn't being completely truthful.