Broken Phantom

-Sam-

The roaring cheers from the crowd had barely settled when she stepped into the arena. Somewhere deep inside, something screamed at her to stop, but the command in her mind overpowered it. Her body moved on its own, precise and efficient as if she had trained for this moment her whole life.

There was no thought, no hesitation. Only obedience.

Interfere. Distract. Do not fail.

With that, she had walked into the ring for the ALL-in round.

Where opponents can simply keep coming one after the other, with each passing contestant trying to be the one who lasted against the most opponents.

Her opponent stood tense, probability recognizing that something about her was off, but she had no room for hesitation. She was a weapon, sharpened and honed by forces beyond her control. Power flared around her hands, the specialized gloves that she had been hiding to use when the opportunity arrived, a violent mix of black and green energy as she launched forward, a blur of motion.

The battle began.

Her strikes were relentless. Her mind registered every opening, every moment of weakness in her opponent's stance, and she exploited them without mercy. Her body reacted before she could think, moving in a perfect rhythm of destruction. She wasn't fighting. She was executing.

This was what was trained into her, what was programmed into her very being.

She and Tucker had been turned into specialized weapons.

The crowd roared, but the sound barely reached her through the static in her head. The voice inside whispered, coiled around her thoughts like chains. No hesitation. No failure. Simply eliminate the enemy.

And yet—

When she landed a brutal strike to the ribs, sending her opponent stumbling, a flicker of something unfamiliar surged through her. Not satisfaction. Not triumph.

Doubt. Guilt. Shame.

The moment was small, almost imperceptible, but it was there. A tiny crack in the overwhelming control, a brief moment where she felt wrong.

The commanding voice inside roared, drowning it out, and she launched herself forward again.

-Tucker-

The cold, damp walls of the dungeon were lined with reinforced ectoplasmic barriers, pulsing faintly with energy. Danny had made sure the Fentons would never escape—until now.

Tucker's movements were smooth and efficient, not his own. The control device embedded in his spine dictated his every action, and though his mind screamed in protest, his body obeyed.

He wasn't freeing them because he wanted to.

He was freeing them because they commanded it.

Jack and Maddie Fenton sat against the far wall, restrained by spectral chains. The moment the cell door slid open, Maddie's sharp gaze snapped to him.

"Well, well," she murmured, voice cool and calculating. "Right on schedule."

Jack grinned, flexing his fingers as the restraints flickered away. "Good boy."

Tucker's body didn't react. He stood still, eyes empty, waiting.

"Come." Maddie's voice was clipped, authoritative. "We have work to do."

Without hesitation, Tucker followed.

His body moved, but inside, his mind thrashed wildly, trapped in a prison of his own flesh. Every step felt like a betrayal he could do nothing to stop. The Fentons had made sure of that.

Arena—Sam-

She fought with flawless precision, each movement calculated for maximum damage. Her opponent dodged her strikes, moving with trained efficiency, but Sam felt nothing. No frustration, no anger. Only cold execution.

The voice in her head commanded her to keep going. Strike harder. Do not falter. They don't deserve mercy.

She landed a hit, sending her opponent skidding backward, but the force of her own attack made her stumble. Her limbs twitched. Her vision blurred.

The voice roared, but something else—something small, buried deep—pushed back.

Before long she could hear two voices warring in her mind.

It felt like her head was being split open.

She clutched her head, a strangled noise escaping her throat. The static grew louder. The once-clear commands turned to shrieks and distortion, like a radio frequency breaking apart.

The pain hit like a sledgehammer.

Her mind splintered as a wave of unbearable agony coursed through her skull, sharp and piercing. The voice in her head screamed, twisting into something erratic, malfunctioning. A mix of commands clashed at once—

Fight.

Stop.

Obey.

NO.

Shut down.

Her body convulsed violently, collapsing onto the battlefield. The control was breaking.

-Tucker-

They moved through the underground tunnels of the castle stronghold with practiced ease. Tucker led them past security checkpoints, moving through everything he had seen when they were here at first, his body reacting before his mind could even process what was happening.

He was still under their control.

Every fiber of his being screamed for him to stop, to turn and fight, but the device in his spine held him like an iron vice. He wasn't Tucker anymore—he was a tool.

As they neared the facility's exit, pain erupted through his spine. His body convulsed, dropping him to his knees as the device **overloaded**. Sparks of blue energy flickered along his skin, burning deep into his nerves as static **flooded his mind**.

Commands clashed violently in his head—

Run.

Stop.

Obey.

NO.

Fail.

Tucker gasped, fingers clawing at his neck as if he could rip the device out. His limbs twitched erratically, his muscles locking up before violently spasming.

Somewhere far away, he heard a scream—

Across the arena, Sam collapsed mid-fight.

The pain was unbearable. It felt like his mind was being torn apart, dragged in a thousand different directions at once. The control device was failing, and it was killing him in the process.

Maddie sighed, shaking her head. "How disappointing."

Jack scoffed, cracking his knuckles. "We had high hopes for them."

Tucker struggled to lift his head. His muscles spasmed, twitching as he fought to break free, but the Fentons had already dismissed him.

Maddie turned away. "They served their purpose."

Jack grunted. "Leave them. We'll find new test subjects."

-Danny-

The moment Sam fell, Danny moved.

He didn't think—he couldn't. One second he was standing, the next he was across the battlefield, catching her before she hit the ground.

"Sam! Sam, wake up!"

She convulsed in his arms, her breathing erratic, fingers clawing at her head as if she were trying to rip the noise out. Her mind was collapsing in on itself.

Danny barely registered the distant, agonized cry of Tucker in the distance. He turned sharply, catching sight of him just as he collapsed, blue energy sparking wildly from his body.

He didn't hesitate. In a single, blinding streak of motion, Danny was there, catching Tucker just before his head hit the ground. His pulse was weak, his eyes fluttering in and out of consciousness.

Danny's vision burned with rage as he lifted his head, scanning the crowds. Jack and Maddie were gone. He could give chase.

But he wouldn't leave Sam and Tucker like this.

Cowards. Monsters.

His grip tightened around his two fallen friends. Whatever the Fentons had done to them—

He would undo it.

And he would pay them back a hundred times the pain they had inflicted on others.