What Lies Within

Two

"Jazz!"
"Mm?"
"Jazz!"
"Huh?"
"Jazzy..." the voice whined.

"What Danny?" Jazz groaned.

Silence.

Jazz sat up. She opened her eyes only to be met with a long empty hallway which looked like it had green, blue and white paint splattered over the black walls.

"Where am I? Danny? Danny!" she called out.

Jazz was about to call out again but clamped her mouth shut as a wave of coldness shuddered through her. The cold was soothing, like that breath of fresh air when you step outside in the crisp morning air. It reminded her of Danny's small cold hands when he brushed her hair to make her feel better.

She relaxed as a thick white mist appeared in front of her. The mist dispersed and revealed the unconscious bodies of her parents and the teachers and students of Casper High.

Jazz glared at the bodies of her parents and crossed her arms.

"WAKE UP!" She yelled, causing many people to do exactly that. Some people gave shouts of surprise and looked around wildly. The older Fentons awoke and looked around confused.

"Where are we?" Jack groaned.

Maddie looked around. "Jazz? Danny? Where's Danny?! Does anybody see Danny?!"

People shook their heads at her as they helped each other up.

"We need to look for him! He has to be here somewhere!" Maddie exclaimed.

"Don't bother." Jazz snapped.

Everyone turned to look at her. Maddie bristled. "What do you mean? We need to find him right now! Phantom could have done anything to him, he needs medical attention-"

"You don't get it! You're not even trying to listen to me!"

"That's because you don't know what's going on, and you aren't making any sense-"

"No, Madeline! YOU don't know what's going on, YOU aren't making any sense! Because YOU don't listen to your children, YOU don't try and understand what I'm talking about, and YOU barely pay any attention to us at all! You and Jack barely know what's happening, and you're doing stupid things because what you hear doesn't sound anything like what YOU want it to sound like!" Jazz yelled.

The people in the sidelines tittered and just awkwardly stood there.

Maddie looked flustered. Jack frowned. "That is no way to talk to your mother-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP! JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN FOR ONCE IN YOUR IDIOTIC, MORONIC, PITIFUL, WORTHLESS LIVES!"

Jack looked disheveled. Maddie turned red but shut her mouth.

Jazz closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing.

She opened her eyes. "I don't know where we are, but I think Fenton and Phantom are nearby. We can-"

"So let's go get Danny then!" Maddie yelled.

"DANNY IS DEAD!" Jazz fired up again. Maddie looked shocked.

"No he isn't. We were just with him."

"That wasn't him!"

The watching crowd was confused. Phantom and Jazz said Danny was dead, but they all clearly saw him in the containment unit.

"That was not him! That back there, that was Fenton. Not Danny...he's dead..."

"What's the difference?" Jack asked stupidly.

Jazz lunged for him, about to claw his face off but strong arms grabbed her from behind and pulled her around.

She was turned to face the handsome young college student Wyatt Freeman. She had met him in college taking a child psychology course and asked her to help her with Danny. He had grabbed her wrists and pulled them around her stomach, forcing her to stop moving her arms. His brown hair fell into his emerald eyes.

"Jazz. Don't do this. Just let me explain it to them."

"No, Wyatt. I need to tell them, and they will listen."

Wyatt raised his eyebrows. "Mind if I restrain you then, my lady?"

She glowered at her parents. Wyatt shook his head. It was for the best.

"Whatever, then." he said and let her go. Jazz sighed. She looked to her parents.

"He told you. He trusted you, and you crushed him. That kid back there, that wasn't my Danny. That wasn't your Danny. That was Fenton."

She took a deep breath, her eyes flicked to the crowd. "Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom. And now they're both dead."

The crowd fell into shock.

"What happened?" a voice spoke up. Out of the crowd stepped none other than Dash Baxter.

"How'd he end up as Phantom?" he asked bravely.

"Its their fault!" she gestured to the oldest Fentons.

Maddie spluttered. "It was not-"

"Shut it." Jazz snapped again. "It was all their fault. He didn't give me details, but its because of them. He's not dead, not alive. He was stuck in the middle. Never accepted on either side of that thin line that he balances on every day." she looked down sadly.

"And his life, or death or whatever he had, it was terrible! No sleep, always getting bullied, always in pain, being neglected. He is always fighting to help all of you! And the worst part is that he puts up with all of it, knowing that one tiny slip-up can turn him into his worst nightmare....

"Imagine hearing your parents tell you every day that they were going to 'rip you apart molecule by molecule'. After a fight he'd be really messed up, and he'd still patch himself up go back to school, only to be shoved into a locker to bleed out and almost die! All day- every night it was the same..." she shuddered, pulling her arms around herself.

"A-And he'd come to me. In the middle of the night he'd come and ask me questions....'Jazz, should I trust them?' he'd say. I'd tell him that he should. 'Jazz, I feel like giving up, what should I do?' Keep trying, I'll always tell him." She had started crying. Maddie looked like she got hit by a bus.

"And last night, he broke bad. He came to me and cried, he was hysterical- he said, 'Jazzy, I'm so scared. I need your help' and I j-just didn't know...w-what to d-do next!" she wailed.

"And the one t-time in my life when I leave him alone, t-the one time his friends aren't there to back him up- he decided to go and t-trust you two lunatics...."  She started shaking and Wyatt pulled her into a hug.

"My little brother is dead, you killed him! Why couldn't you just stop with the idea that there is an algorithm that explains everything?! Not every problem can be fixed with inventions! Not the fact that Danny is a Halfa, not the fact that you guys are terrible parents, and not the fact that you are murderers." she finished coldly.

"C-Can you tell us how we're supposed to get out?" Dash asked.

Jazz shook her head. "Phantom and Fenton brought us here, wherever we are...only they can get us out. Either them, or Danny. And they're gone. When you separated his ghost half from his human half, you killed him. Unfuse their mindsets, and he doesn't exist."

The students and teachers sat wide eyed. The one person that they all treated unfairly, for no reason whatsoever, was the one that would die for them in a second, hands down. And he was gone.

"So congratulations. You finally got your to tear your son apart. Molecule by molecule." Jazz sneered.

She turned on her heel and started down the hallway, Wyatt following close behind.