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Title: Ten Long Years

Author: Gray Aibou
Rating: T…May Change Later
Summary: The war between ghosts and man has been going for ten long years, and for Sam, it marks the disappearance of someone important to her as well

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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- Ten Long Years -

Chapter 1

Prologue

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A glowing green scaled claw thrust forwards at Sam's gut, she gave a short gasp as she was catapulted against a wall of rubble, her chest heaving wildly. She looked up weakly to see it whip its head around to her, bright orange eyes glittering evilly. It approached her again, a cruel smile of satisfaction crossing its lips. She tried to push herself up, but her battered body cried out in protest. She lay there for a minute, her breath lost as she tried to recover from her attack. A small trickle of blood ran down her forehead as she tried again to get up. She gave a groan as she finally got to her feet, just as the ecto-beast came to a pounding run, its scaled feet smashing against the rubble ground

She rolled, just to the side as the creature smashed its set of pearly white horns into where she stood only a moment ago, driving them deep into a crumbling wall. She grasped her arm with a gruff intake of breath, staring at the creature with a surge of hatred.

She bent down and picked up her anti-ectoplasm gun, which was lying by her feet. She grasped it angrily as the creature struggled desperately to get its horns out of the wall. It roared and flicked its spiky tail as a final resort, which whipped through the air and barely missed her face.

Then she clicked the gun, and winced at the cries of the ghost as its every fiber was ripped to shreds in a glorious arc of blue light that lit up her face and blinded her eyes. She released the trigger slowly and shakily, staring at the puddle of carnage she created, she gave a short gasp as she tried to walk again, and realised one of her ribs were broken. She had a broken toe once when she was eight; it hurt a little when it first happened, then after hours it got agonizing. She didn't like the thought of that at all; she was miles away from head quarters, or any form of hospitable living quarters…and she was in the Grey Zone, the ghost territory.

She gazed upwards at the dark looming crumbled buildings, shadows, imprints of a society long ago. War had torn the buildings down into dust, only their hulking frames remained, ravaged by time and fighting.

It was night, a very cold night at that. She could feel cold biting at her bare shoulders; she could see her silver breath puff out before her very eyes in white beauty. The stars were blocked off by long looming black clouds, and she was alone, all alone in the dark silence. With a broken rib and thin material on her in the freezing cold

She tapped her ear piece and tried to speak into it

"HQ? Do you read me, over?" She muttered clearly into her ear, holding the com piece with her black nailed fingers. Dismay came over her as all she received was distorted buzzing. She tried three more times…then nothing

She gave an exasperated sigh, still clutching her right side with trembling and numb fingertips. Her violet eyes flickered and surveyed her surroundings; there was nothing that would make good living quarters, no shielding from the elements

She decided to try her ear piece one last time, a vein attempt, she knew

"HQ do you read-" She was cut off as something swift and dark grabbed her shoulders and threw her into a wall, she gave a cry of agony and protest as her ribs exploded in agony. She was curled slightly against the wall as she looked forward through stinging eyes at her culprit

Someone was standing where she had just been; she presumed it was a male. His long black cloak covered all of his features, and he was facing away from her. It twirled and mingled in the shadows of the darkness and hurtling winds, she could see two blades, one in each hand, gripped tightly as he stared forward at another ghost-beast, though this one was different. It was larger, more vicious, and a long set of glowing white teeth draper down from its thick snarling lips

She realised he had shoved her out of the way of the charging creature, ultimately saving her life. Her eyes swam slightly as she propped herself up against the wall and tried to stand, but found she couldn't. She collapsed down again with a small muffled groan

Her eyes shot up suddenly at the sound of charging footsteps, the second that night. Her eyes settled quickly on the running beast, and the man standing unprotected before it. She didn't have time to yell as it came in contact with him

She watched as in a series of rapid movements, the figure had swirled out of the way, leaning backwards slightly and slashing his knives straight past the beast throat. She heard it gave an agonized road and slide to a halt as its feet and knees buckled under it, it collapsed, obviously dead. Air was pushed out from under it, making dust and rubble rise upwards from the crumbling street and obscured her already foggy view

There was a queer interval of silence; Sam eyed her chest in irritable and sore pain, when she raised her face she almost cried out in shock as her rescuer was standing before her…

But no one sneaks up on me?

She looked into his face briefly, but it had been cast into shadow by his dark black cloak. Where his long baggy cloak sleeves had ended she could see ebony black, leather fingerless gloves, still gripping a pair of short knives that dribbled bright blue blood, her eyes fell to his bottom half, and where his cloak ended there, was a pair of black leather boots that matched his gloves, layered in brownish gray dust. He was tall, even taller than her

He seemed to be looking at her somewhat expectantly, and she could almost sense confusion from his not visible face. She couldn't hear him breath, she could only see his cloak, and shadow

"Thank you…for rescuing…me" Sam breathed as she ignored the tightness of her breathing. That was all she could manage to say, all she could think of really.

"Why are you out here?" A cold voice murmured from under the hood. An emotionless, smooth and coarse voice, almost icy, but unfaltering. She glanced at him as he turned to walk away, kneeling down and inspecting the dead ghost body. It didn't sound like he was casually asking; it was more of an order

"I…got lost whilst fighting" She looked down at her wrist, her map broken "I'm a member of the Gray Raiders-"

"-I know, I can tell by your logo" He muttered, his same cold and soft voice cutting in rudely. Sam glanced down at the obvious logo emblazed on her shirt then back up as he spoke "Do you know your way back?"

"N-…No" Sam murmured, lowering her eyes from him

"Then you'll come with me" he stated without debate, standing up as he released the ghost's head with a thump. He stared at her with a stone hard gaze as if waiting for argument.

"Wait a second…" she gasped, but she stopped as she clutched her chest in anguish, she noticed his face flicker to her, almost with a slight amount of concern

"Are you injured?"

"Yes, I think it's my rib…"

"Let me see" He muttered as he stepped towards her again, his gruff boots grinding the gravelly ground as he walked. He crouched down by her side as she sat there on a pile of dirt and rubble. She looked up at his shadowy face as he slowly and gently lifted up her top, just underneath her breast. He glanced down at the black and blue bruise almost casually, and then lowered her black net top down again.

"It's fractured; I propose you come with me"

"I don't even know who you are" She told him rather bluntly

"No one does" He muttered, but this time very quietly. He hung his head a little, and then raised his cloaked face to mine "You can either come with me or stay here and freeze. It's going to rain tonight, and you'll die of hypothermia"

She glanced over at the dead ghost then back to his face as he weighed up her options. Staying here would mean she would have to wander her way back, freezing with a fractured rib and no way of knowing where she was going, going with him would mean company, maybe food and warmth

"Ok…But I can't really stand…" She murmured as he tried to haul herself back up again, but fell back down with a short gasp

"Then we camp here" He murmured briefly. He then got up from his crouching position, cloak twirling almost elegantly, and then he turned and walked over to some wooden supports for another building. With a quick number of slashes and hacking he had wood; he thrust blocks of firewood over to her without any interest

"How do we make fire?" She asked the stranger

"I'll sort that in a minute" He muttered as he continued to hack the wood

She sat there, realizing she didn't even know who this man was and she was camping with him and making a fire, she glanced up at him

"What do I call you?" She asked him quietly as she reached over very slowly and piled the wood together. He stopped chopping the wood and remained stiffer

"Call me shadow, that's what people call me"

"Don't you have a real name?"

"A long time ago, yes…" he trailed off, and then she saw him cut the wood brusquely, a lot harder than before. Sam stared at him with curiosity and demented fascination, her twenty four year old eyes alight

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"So, what are you doing out here?" Sam muttered, at last making some form of conversation they didn't have for the last half an hour. Sam was against having a fire out in the open, she thought maybe it would attract unwanted ghosts, but from under his hood she thought she sensed him smirk, and he made but one comment 'I can handle it'. She had sat there as he piled the firewood together, lit it up with almost his bare hands. She presumed he had a lighter or something in his pocket, or some other form of making a spark. He had mentioned he didn't have any food, but he would find some in the morning, so she had sat there, curled up in the bare cold, trying to absorb as much warmth from the fire as possible

"I hunt ghosts, it's what I do" He told her in his dull emotionless voice "I'm guessing you're in the same business"

"I don't go out here solo though-" She told him with a note of concern "-We usually go in groups, teams. I came tonight with my partner, Jazz; we got split up in the fight though"

There was an unusual silence as 'Shadow' sat there, unmoving and almost rigid. Then as if to shrug it off he shoved some more wood on the fire and watched it glow and burst forth in orange flame, licking away like red tongues at the wood

"Jazz Fenton?" He murmured, almost bordering a whisper

"Yes, do you know her?" She asked him hopefully

"Once, yes, her parents were quite infamous in the ghost hunting business after the Black Sunrise" Shadow stated rather breathlessly "I only heard about them in rumor, never met them"

"Oh…"

"I don't think you've told me your name yet"

"People just call me Manson, it's my last name"

She felt his eyes settle on her again, analyzing her with a pair of invisible eyes. It was almost creepy, but he seemed in the right place. He was sitting across from the fire, and above the glowing flames they cast jagged beams of light on him, but as if he had a perfect knack for it, he always had his head at the right angle so she couldn't see his face

"Why…do you wear that, if I may be so bold?" She asked him rather quietly

He was silent for a few minutes then as if arranging his words together he spoke

"I don't want some people to see my face, even people I don't know" He added as if in regards to her. His black coat ruffled a little in the wind, giving an even darker effect to his frame

"Why is that?"

"Its better people don't see my face, I have my reasons" He murmured, and then he was cast into the dark crevasse of silence again, unmoving as he sat in thought. Glowing embers rising up past his face in golden glory, Sam clutched her chest as a pang of pain resurfaced, her every breath becoming labored in the cold

Then, as if to make everything worse by taking away her heat support, it began to rain down by the bucket, large pellets bouncing of the ground and making clay dirt into mud. Sam gave a small curse as Shadow raised his head to the sky, observing the lightning crackling down in its familiar light blue. There was a short clap of thunder, and the rain fell harder

"You're going to have to stand" He said louder over the rains, but still maintaining his voice

"I can't"

He sat there, his cloak becoming soaked. He didn't seem to care though; he was just surveying Sam with his calculating gaze. Then he got up and slid one arm under her armpit and slowly, gently raised her as she gasped in small amounts of anguish. The fire had become smoke now, wafting up past them as they fought to stand. Finally, they did manage to get to their feet, she could feel his body warmth radiating off him, the soft cloak returning some form of heat to her shoulders

"Now walk" He told her bluntly

And she did

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Ten long years…

Ten long years since Vlad released his ghost armies and set them loose on the world. Ten long years since countless innocents have been killed for his sick purpose. Ten long years the battle has been raging destroying cities in countless numbers…

And Ten long years, since Danny Phantom, disappeared

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-αιвσυ

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Authors Note: It May Take A Few Weeks For Next Update. I'm Sorry.

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