So, I was listening to iHeartRadio when I got this idea. Hope you enjoy! ^v^ And a character from Danny Phantom makes an appearance as well. DON'T SCREAM AT ME BECAUSE HE'S NOT PAIRED WITH SAM.

…well, I suppose that gives it away.

Inspired By: "Daylight" by Maroon 5 and "Some Nights" by Fun

"…we will return when the dawn breaks to collect Mr. Brewer and the young Leo."

With that, the palace guards turn and leave the small dwelling. Mrs. Fenton wails and runs after them, begging and pleading for them not to take her brother and her son at the same time, that if only they could have a bit more time with them…

30-year-old Jackson Brewer drops down on the couch, numb, the strength suddenly leaving his legs. Both him and his nephew had been chosen. The man knows that he's bound to have been selected at some point, with all the times that he had put his name into the Draft Drawing, but Leo?! Why Leo?

And most importantly, how Leo?

Said eight-year-old sits across from the man quietly, head bowed and hands folded quietly in his lap. The boy is a spitting image of his uncle when he was at that age, minus the blue eyes he inherited from his father. Apparently they not only shared looks and blood, but the same bull-headed determination to do whatever he wants instead of following the rules.

"Leo."

The boy doesn't respond.

"Leo, look at me."

Terrified and sheepish blue eyes meet stern brown as the child slowly lifts his head.

"How could you do something like this?"

"I'm sorry, uncle," the boy cries. "But I'm tired of being hungry all the time! All I wanted to do was help!"

Jack curses to himself. He knew he should have questioned where the extra food was coming from, but he didn't want to ask the guards for fear that they would realize their mistake and take away the surplus food.

In all honesty, he should have seen this coming. He hadn't thought to wonder about how this war was affecting Leo and his daughter Olivia. None of the adults had. They were too busy worrying about closing down the dojo, about sales in the shop, about all the problems that had befallen them and the rest of the population because of this godforsaken war.

No one knows just when it had started. Jack knows it was before he was born. But, his now dead parents remembered the time before the war, so it couldn't have been more than fifty years. But the whole country is suffering; most all of the available resources are going towards the war effort and the royals, leaving the people with little to nothing.

The Draft Drawing had been started to give people an opportunity to earn more than the meager rations of food that they were given each month. The war situation had gotten so desperate that the King had begun to allow children the age of eight or older to put their name in the drawing as well! It was completely absurd, but someone had convinced their ruler that the enemy was less likely to fight against children.

No one knows if this is true or not.

You were allowed to put in your name at most ten times per two months. Each time you put your name in meant one more small loaf of bread, one more hunk of cheese, or, if you were lucky and had good land, one more packet of seeds.

If your name is in the Drawing for more than two years, then it disappears, and you don't have to worry. You're required to put your name in at least three times by the time you were eighteen, men and women. But, judging by how much more food they were getting, Jack suspected Leo had done it much more than that…

Jack sighs. He hears a sound before he can start to speak though, and he turns around. His seven-year-old daughter Olivia jumps out of her hiding place behind the couch and runs off before she can be reprimanded. Jack sits forward again and drags a hand down his face. Just one more year before she can put her name in as well.

Jack can hear his wife Kimberly and his brother-in-law Danny, trying to console their sister-in-law and wife Kiara respectively.

"Leo…" he trails off. He doesn't even know what to say. How could he punish the boy who just wanted to help his family? Jack can't say he wouldn't have done the same.

"I can fight, uncle," the boy says quietly. "Father and I, we've been working on controlling my powers."

The man stares at his nephew, planning on having a talk with Danny later. "Please don't tell me he's been teaching you how to use them as well?"

Leo huffs. "No. He's only teaching me physical combat so I can protect myself from the boys who pick on me at school."

The corner of the man's lip curves upward against his will. He can just picture the small boy standing over his larger tormentors with a smug grin on his face. His smile fades, though, at the thought of Leo's powers. "Leo, you can not let anyone else besides this family know about your abilities, alright? If the palace finds out—"

"—they'll surely cart me off to some unknown place to use me as a weapon," the boy recites obediently, the words having been ingrained into his head after hearing them for years. "I know, uncle."

"Alright," Jack says, clueless on what else to say.

At that moment, Kiara, Danny, and Kim walk into the small living room. Kiara immediately flies out of her husband's grip and approaches her child, sobbing.

"Oh, my precious boy!" she wails, hugging him so tightly that Jack fears the boy isn't getting any air. "My precious, stupid boy!" She pulls back and half glares at him, not seeming to have the heart to be completely angry at her son. Jack's theory is proved correct when the child inhales deeply. "How could you?!"

"I'm sorry Mother," Leo says, near tears. "I just wanted to help get us more food."

His words throw the woman into another round of hysterics as she hugs him again. Danny slowly approaches his wife and son and places a hand on the boy's back. Kim also sits down next to Jack and places a shaking hand on his leg, reminding him that Leo isn't the only one leaving.

He grabs her hand and squeezes it tightly.

The sun had hidden away for the day, leaving the full moon and stars to illuminate Jack and Kim's room instead of the usual candlelight. Jack can easily his wife's form on the bed, sitting up and staring at him with wide, sad eyes. He obliges, climbing onto cot and slipping under the covers next to her.

She gravitates towards him, and he allows her to move into his arms. Her hair is free from its normal bun and flows around her like liquid gold. They face each other and he lifts a hand up to rub her cheek absently with his thumb. She tilts her chin towards him and he kisses her slowly, gently, savoring every moment.

They wordlessly let Olivia into the bed when she walks into the room. They don't speak at all, not even when the girl falls asleep in between them.

Truthfully, the adults knew this day would come. They knew it all along. The question was… how did it come so fast? To Jack, it seems like it was only yesterday when he was putting his name into the Drawing for the first time. And now… now he's going to leave.

It's only a matter of time before the other adults gets picked as well. They had all decided that Kiara would no longer put her name into the Drawing. She had already put in her name the required amount of time, years earlier. They agreed that she was the best one to stay and take care of the children if the others get chosen. In reality, though the other three would never admit this to her, it's because they doubted she would last ten seconds in a situation where she had to kill someone.

Jack shakes himself out of his musings, instead focusing on his wife and child (not so) peacefully slumbering away. This is their last night together. Kim and Jack can give the child hope that her father and best friend will come back some day, but chances are they never will. No one they know has left and ever come back.

It's late now, but Jack is trying not to fall asleep, because he knows he'll have to leave when he wakes up. When that daylight comes, he has to go. With that thought, he holds his wife and daughter close.

He stares at his wife. She looks so beautiful, even in a tortured sleep. Why does he have to leave her and their equally beautiful daughter? (He knows exactly why.) He looks up at the window behind her, a tear falling down his face as the sun burns the stars out of the brightening sky.

If only he could slow it down somehow.

It's so hard. He knows that when the sun comes up, he'll be going, leaving everything he's ever known behind. He looks down at his wife child again. The physical feeling of holding them, touching them, feeling them, will soon be nothing but memory.

He used to be afraid of the dark, as a child. He'd shun it, always having a candle to temporarily chase it away. But right now, as it recedes away from the offending brightness, it's all he wants.

There are a lot of things Jack wishes for, depending on what night you ask him. Some nights he wishes that he could cash in years of bad luck and just send himself and Leo home as a reward. If not him and Leo, then just Leo. Other nights he just gives up. Still others he wishes he had the power to build be incredibly wealthy; wealthy enough to build castle of stability and serenity around himself and his family and everyone else that's suffered from this war, even the enemy. Yet other nights he wishes that he didn't have to deal with anything; not protecting anyone, not doing anything.

He supposes it's his stupidly selfless behavior that makes the other six men hate him. If it's not that, then he doesn't know what is. Even the freaking leader hates him. He doesn't understand what he did wrong; they seem perfectly fine with Leo. Then again, it could be because Leo is the youngest in the group and they're assuming a sort of older-brother role.

He tries twice as hard to get everyone to like him, but he's still half as like as everyone else. Yet, whenever he does something good, one of them will always be there to copy it and get the credit for it. It just makes him wonder.

Wondering is something he does quite a lot. He wonders what exactly he stands for in this war. He doesn't know what he's fighting for, so how could he? What does he represent? A man fighting to defend one's country from invaders? Or one trying to help take over land that doesn't belong to him and therefore ruining the lives of others?

He's been doing this for ten years and his still has no clue.

The only one positive thing about all of this is that he and Leo were never separated. He thanks whatever deity is up there for that fact every single day, for the fact that he's been able to watch over and take care of the boy as if he were his own. Heck, Leo practically is his own. There's nothing like ten years worth of fighting to strengthen an uncle/nephew relationship.

Jack laughs wryly at his own humor. He looks around, vaguely knowing that he's wouldn't have woken anyone up (these men sleep like the dead) but still doing it anyways. Above him (they sleep in bunks) come Leo's steady breaths. Precious breaths, because there's always the chance you never will breathe again. When you're fighting like this, you live every day like it's your last.

'This may be the last time I sleep in a bed,' the man thinks, as he drifts off. 'This may be the last time I hear Leo breathe in his sleep. This may be the last time…'

He dreams about Kim. She's lying on their cot, back at home, and just beckoning to him. With her, he knows who he is. He's Jackson Brewer, husband, father, brother, uncle…

But as he moves towards the bed, she gets farther and farther away. He walks, then runs, then practically all out sprints, but no matter what he does she's always out of his reach. It's torturous. He wakes up with a gasp. It's morning.

He doesn't see the grenade flying through the air until its too late.

Leo and him were the only ones in the grenade's vicinity. He turns to warn his eighteen-year-old nephew to run, run, but he slips in the sand from moving too fast. He failed. He hears Leo's voice yelling if he's alright over the gunfire before—

BOOM.

Jack's body flies through the air, and he feels strangely detached from it. His brutal landing on the unforgivably hot sand does a good job of remedying that. 'Leo,' is his first coherent thought through the pained haze of his brain. 'Where's Leo?'

He looks around, ignoring his injuries as the thought of his nephew's safety takes over his mind. 'Leo. Leo.' He tries to call out, but he can't get above more than a whisper. He sticks to just looking around.

A flash of brown hair.

Jack digs his fingers into the sand and drags himself towards the prone form of his sister's son, leaving a bloody trail in his wake. 'Leo!' The teen had fallen on the other side of a small dune. He isn't moving. 'No!'

He moves closer to the teen. When he reaches his side, he collapses, laying on his side next to the younger. "Leo," he croaks, brushing his nephew's long hair out of his face. Jack smiles weakly when a pair of pained baby blues slowly open. The teen's head turns towards him.

"Uncle…" Leo's eyes glisten with unshed tears. "Uncle, am I dying?"

Jack takes in how much of Leo's blood had already escaped him and seeped into the sand. His heart sinks. They're both dying.

"No," Jack lies. He suddenly realizes what might help the teen. "Not if… not if you use your powers."

"But you said—"

"I know what I said," Jack snaps, feeling guilty when the teen's face looks hurt. "But just this once… speed up your healing process or something, so you'll be okay."

"But what about you?" Leo asks, his voice already sounding faint. "If I do that, I won't have enough energy to help you."

"I'll be fine," Jack lies again, as he feels his eyelids grow heavy. Death approaches slowly, taunting him, letting him know that he doesn't have much time left.

"Are you sure?"

"Do it!" he chokes.

The last thing he sees are a pair of blue eyes turning green.

I'm in a depressing mood so I write depressing things. Deal with it.

Until next time,

~BP

10/19/14 Edit: Response to Reviews-

JasmineLief: Wowowow usually I don't like crossovers but this might be the exception to the rule :) I likey
I'm glad my oneshot garnered two extra "ow"s in the word "wow". :)

KarateGirl77: nice work
Thanks.