I am so sorry for my extreme lack of updates lately! I've been so caught up with school and I was having problems at home that I'd rather leave out of this wonderful website. Please forgive me. Anyway...
I think I'm going to do a slightly different style for this one. I know, I freaking know, I said I'd finish 'Fabric of Unreality' first before I started the sequel to 'Earthdance' but, hey, I love Earthdance and I left you guys with a horrible, horrible ending. Now I'm making up for it. Unfortunately, I might just do this first chapter and then stop for a while in order to complete FoU.
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom
Seventh Waltz
--Dance to a rhythm that no one can hear, sing to a tune that no one knows, and do it all like you're getting paid for it.--
1: Shaking Hands With Evil
-South Ocean, the Guardian of Water's Lair, Two Days Ago-
He should have heard her coming. The water around him was empty, peaceful, quiet, black as the night above. But he was lost in his plans, not that they were evil or anything, he was just planning. He liked to plan. It made him feel like he was in control.
"Still squirming in the water then, are we Walker?" The voice was so familiar and yet so alien, "Tsk, tsk, I thought you'd out grown your petty fancies…"
He swirled around and froze.
"You…!"
"Oh please," A dark chuckle, so sweet, so innocent sounding, so anything but, "That has to be the most cliché line I've ever heard! What, can't think of something else? Is that against one of your little rules, Walker?"
"You shouldn't be here!"
"And why shouldn't I? Because your older brother said so? What a pathetic reason."
"My older brothers are none of your concern!"
"Ah, but, Eighth Son of the Elements, I believe one of them certainly is…!"
"You wouldn't dare…! He's a Guardian! You can't-!"
"I'm not bound by your parents' rules, Walker! I am my own being! Not a part of you guys!"
"You know, you totally ruined your threat with the word 'guys'…"
"Shut up!"
Walker backed away slowly and then, in a flash, swam through the water. But he wasn't faster than her. She grabbed his leg, dug in her wicked little nails, spun him around (amazingly quickly for being underwater), and smashed him into a rock face. His head spun with the impact, bubbles flying around him and he gagged suddenly as her hands closed around his neck and started squeezing with all her might.
"You're not going to tell them I'm back!" She snarled as he writhed and kicked at her, trying in vain to get free, "I'm going to take them by surprise and, don't worry Water Rat, it's not going to be anything like that moron Plasmius tried…!"
On surface of the South Ocean, the sun reflecting off the blue water in a sparkling glimmer of diamonds, a dark spot tainted the brightness. A small pool of dark red, leaking up from the bottom of the ocean.
-Amity, Present Time-
"Daniel Fenton I don't give a damn if you are the Guardian of the Forest it doesn't get you out of doing your chores!" Jazz shouted, standing on the roof of their stone built home and screaming up at a figure disappearing into the clouds, "DDDAAAANNNNYYYYYYYY!"
"Hahahahaha! Got out of it again!" Laughed a white haired boy, loop-dee-looping in the sky, "Works every time!"
Danny Fenton had, about a year ago, been combined with the Guardian of the Forest, Phantom, to create Danny Phantom. But soon after that event took place, Plasmius, once a human called Vlad Masters and the Guardian of Fire Molten, had kidnapped Danny and tried to make him hate the humans in order to wipe them out. But, as almost every story goes, Danny's friends had shown up just in time and, speaking of time, Clockwork, the Guardian of Time, had permanently locked the Fire Guardian out of the time stream; making it impossible for Plasmius to harm anyone again.
Over the year that had passed, Danny had learned to better control his Guardian powers and was using them to every advantage he could. Including skipping out on his afternoon chores to hang out with his two best friends, Sam and Tucker, in the Ghost Wood; his Guardian territory. Currently, the young Guardian was soaring through the air on pair of wings weaved of white petals and thin wiry vines that burst from between his shoulder blades and through the back of his shirt, pumping the air to keep him aloft. Danny loved flying; it was an awesome freedom that made bubbles swell up inside him and burst, making him laugh out loud.
"Daaaaaannnnnnyyyyyyy…!" The voice sounded far away because of the wind whistling in his ears and he pulled up short, looking down into the trees of the Ghost Wood for the source, "Dooooowwwwnnn hhheeeeerrrrreeeee, brrrrooooooo!"
Johnny 13; the only Guardian who called him 'bro' instead of 'brother' or, in his older sibling's cases, 'Brother Forest' or 'Little Forest'. Danny folded his wings and dropped from the sky at a frightening speed, snapping them open just above the tree tops and slowly landing on the forest floor. With a shiver, he let the wings slide smoothly back between the slits cut into his shirt and back under his skin, his white hair turning black and his eyes becoming blue as he quelled his Guardian powers, before looking up with a grin at his older half-brother. Technically, the two were only related because Danny had fused with Phantom but Johnny never had been one for details.
"Hey, Danny, how ya' been?" The Rock Guardian clapped him on the shoulder, smiling warmly, "Goin' off somewhere?"
"I was just about to meet up with Sam and Tucker," The teen replied, "Wanna come along?"
-Amity, Middle of the Ghost Wood, the Guardian of the Forest's lair, Present Time-
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Sam Manson and Tucker Foley…!" A cheerful voice issued from the trees and made the duo glance up, "It's been almost a year now, hasn't it?"
Ghostwriter stepped into the clearing where the two were perched on a fallen log. He looked a little more cleaned up than when they had last seen him; his black hair wasn't as greasy looking and his glasses looked a little cleaner but his clothes were still worn out and he was still pretty short for the Guardian of Light.
"Yeah, nice to see you again." Sam smiled back, "What brings you here?"
"Visiting." The Light Guardian muttered evasively, "Where's Danny?"
-Amity, Near the Middle of the Ghost Wood, the Guardian of the Forest's Lair, Present Time-
Danny and Johnny had been walking through the sunlit forest for a while when they heard the sounds of someone crashing through the undergrowth behind them. Johnny tensed and turned around, raising his arms in a fighting stance but the Forest Guardian beside him grabbed his arm, brow furrowed.
"Whoever they are, they mean us no harm." Danny murmured, blue eyes flashing green briefly as he tapped into the spirit of his territory, "They're hurt, they're frantic, and they're looking for-."
"Phantom!" Walker, the Guardian of Water, his usually spotless white suit stained with dirt and blood, stumbled from the trees and fell right into Johnny 13's arms, "Ah, Johnny too, this is good…!" He gasped in pain, "She got out, Johnny…! I don't know how but she's after Phantom…!"
"Damn it!" The Rock Guardian snarled, "I'm gonna leave you here, Walker, the Ghost Wood will protect you!" He lay the Water Guardian on the grass and whirled to face Danny, "Come on, your friends could be in danger!"
Urgency made a shot of adrenaline shoot through Danny and he panicked, jumping ahead of his brother Guardian and running as fast as he could through the Ghost Wood, not caring if he left Johnny behind or not. Sam and Tucker; he'd almost lost them once and he wasn't about to see if that would happen again. He tripped into the clearing where he was to meet them, slamming onto his stomach on the hard earth, and looked up with a smile and a sigh of relief. They were safe. Ghostwriter, the Guardian of Light, was with them. There was no way they could be in-.
"Bastard! You'd use my older brother's form to get to him! How dare you!" Johnny's usually friendly expression was livid with wrath, "Get…out of here!" The Rock Guardian clenched his fists at his sides, shoulders tense, his emerald eyes that were far darker than Phantom's blazing brightly in his anger, "Get out of here! NOW!"
Several chunks of rock ripped from the ground and hovered in the air around the angry Guardian; Danny stayed where he was and Sam and Tucker dropped to the forest floor, fearing they'd get hit as well. Johnny was a good aim…when he had a cool head.
"Hello Johnny…!" Ghostwriter sneered, most uncharacteristically, "How very nice to see you again…! I suppose that rule-obsessed idiot followed me here, didn't he?"
Johnny continued to seethe, holding back on his attack as he spat out a question at the person who was obviously not the Guardian of Light,
"What the hell do you think you're doing here!?"
"Me?" The fake Light Guardian, grinned maliciously, "What do you think, Johnny-boy? Chatting up Sam and Tucker…?" He turned his gaze on Danny who was still sprawled in the grass, "Or waiting for the Fenton boy?"
A chord of fear struck inside Danny and he felt ice run through his veins, paralyzing him. Whoever this was, they were scaring the crap out of the Guardian of the Forest who had held his own against Plasmius, the Guardian of Fire. But he was still only a teenager, acting on the instincts of his Guardian powers, and even then it was for the protection of his family and friends. There was something about this person that gave him such horrifying chills…
"LEAVE!" Johnny howled and thrust his firsts forward, sending the rocks spinning towards Fake-Ghostwriter and slamming him off his feet. There was a few moments of rustling in the undergrowth and then a streak of black zigzagged into the sky and out of sight.
"Johnny, what-!?"
But the Guardian of Rock had already blasted off with a shower of earth carrying him through the air, the silhouette of Walker disappearing along side him. Sam pushed herself to her feet, helped Tucker up, and then moved over to Danny pulling him into a more vertical position.
"What was that about?" Tucker was squinting up into the sky like he would still be able to see the Guardians and the mysterious person who'd taken on Ghostwriter's persona, "I don't think I've heard anyone use so many swear words so close together before…!"
"I have no idea." Danny brushed the dirt that was sticking to the front of his shirt off, "Probably just some old Guardian grudge or something."
"But Danny," Sam grabbed his hand and he felt his face flush, "The way the, uh, conversation was going, it sounded like whoever that person was they wanted to get to you. Remember what the real Ghostwriter said a year ago, after you beat Plasmius?"
"What?" In all honesty, he'd completely forgotten.
"He said you were the Septimus, man." Tucker responded and Sam gave him a mocking look of shock, "Hey! I can remember stuff!"
"Whatever," Danny shrugged, "Johnny and Walker chased him…it…her…well, they chased 'em off so why's it matter?"
"Ever care-free Fenton…" Sam muttered rolling her eyes as Danny started walking back towards Amity, "And they say ignorance is bliss…"
--Seventh Waltz--
That's about all I can give you at the moment. Maybe I'll start working on chapter two and maybe I won't. Well, Sam, is ignorance bliss?
Please leave me a review! Reviews help me decide whether to work on this fiction or on 'Fabric of Unreality' and make Danny dance the Macarena!
Danny: What the hell!?