"With kindness comes naïveté. Courage becomes foolhardiness. And dedication has no reward. If you can't accept any of that, you are not fit to be a magical girl." –Homura Akemi, Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Nothing.

Time rippled from the touch of his staff as if it were water, the disturbances reaching to the boundaries of the vortex and ripping holes that had been sewn together all too hastily.

This did not distract the spectre from his task. Gathering solid entropy bound by temporal mass in ringlets around the timepiece he twirled it in his gleaming hands as if he were dancing before a watching audience, one that could stay fluid while time was not.

Impressive the Observants acknowledged, but what do you intend to do?

He ignored them. They did not matter at that moment: He had more important tasks to attend to. He knelt to the frozen ground, where a combination of flesh and ectoplasm lay before him. If time were not still, it would have been an intelligent being.

Shadows danced a dance, a dance that had never been but yet was always performed in the vastness of the universe, and with it came a being.

The being was enormous, stretching from the first instance to the last, towering over all but its sibling, which was equal to it in size, but of another kind.

WHY DID YOU/I/HE SUMMON YOU/ME/HIM? The being asked, though the being knew of all that happened inside itself.

He pointed to the flesh and ectoplasm. No words were needed: all things were written as clear as the sun to the being.

VERY WELL. I/YOU/HE NEEDS IT ELSEWHERE.

Nothing.

Time continued, as if it had never stopped, but one thing had changed.

Danny Phantom did not exist.

"What's done is done." the green baby said, though a single ectoplasmic tear dripped down his cheek.

I gasp for air like a drowning man and lie helpless on the floor, my scorched skin burning from contact with the painfully cool night air.

I open my eyes and look around at what should be pavement and roads, and fire, if such a thing caused my burns.

But there is nothing but trees.

Okay, it probably isn't the ghost zone, judging by the night sky, so where exactly am I?

Going ghost!

Ouch… my ghost form seems to have been pretty badly damaged by whatever happened, it's a good thing that I went Ghost when the explosion happened, or I would have been killed for sure.

But what about everyone else! They can't go ghost! And they were closer than me to the explosion!

Sam… Tucker… Jazz… Mom… Dad… dead… NO! Dad probably invented something that would protect them from explosions and forgot to mention it to us, stuff like that's happened often enough in the past, hasn't it? Heh, funny that, it's almost like I live inside a bad cartoon, or something. He must have survived.

But even if Dad did survive, then where am I?

AH! No, can't lose consciousness, fading… Sam…

All was quiet in the forest.

"Gastly?"

An organic cloud of gas and ectoplasm hovered above the ground, munching on the dreams of the nearby bugs. It was as happy as a cloud of gas can be.

"Gastly!" There, on the leafy forest floor was a human.

For the gastly, such a tasty morsel was very rare, as humans were so delicious compared to the bugs, but unfortunately most humans lived in packs that would chase it away before it even started to feast on their oh oh oh so lovely flesh.

But this one was away from its pack, or even the strong and powerful beings that they would carry in their horrible red and white spheres.

Such a thing was too good to be true!

"Gastly!"

Dream Eater is a curious move. Despite being useless in battle, unless you can send your opponent to sleep, it is used by Pokemon of the ghastly family to feed on their victims before the main course, the prey's flesh.

When used by ghosts it saps away the victim's spirit to fuel their own. This is fine for the species as a whole, but what would happen if one were to feed on the spirit of something unique, such as a halfa?

Halfas were humans with the ability to transform into spirits, ghosts, and use the abilities that come with such a form.

For their being to survive such a thing, their minds were imprinted onto the entity that they became in the transformation.

…And spirit is what Dream Eater feeds upon.

Do you understand?

The Pokemon lowered itself onto the boy below itself and started to feed on the his spirit…

prey-feed-delicious-tasty-morsel-dream-conscious mind-feed-delicious-feed-sustaining-alarm- what's happening? Who am? Why am? What am? Something has happened! feel different, somehow.

Get a hold; this is no time to be wondering who am!

Fenton… Is that who am?

No. Am not Fenton; am…

Am…

Who am then?

Sam?

…no.

Tucker?

…no.

Jazz?

…no.

Mom?

…no.

Dad?

…no.

Lancer?

…no?

Lancer is not like the others, could be Lancer?

Then what is a Lancer?

This prey… boy… below seems special somehow. Maybe it… he… knows.

I will ask him once he wakes up.

Lancer guarded the boy from all predators until morning, when the boy awoke.

"Gastly!"

"Ah!"