Night Wind
By: Wilona Riva
Disclaimer: Butch Hartman does; I don't.
Author's Note: This is a rewrite of "Dying Word", which used to be up under my old account name. I will be saving some of the original material and the original oneshot, so parts of this will be familiar. I will change a few things here and there as need be. Oh, and this is not going to be a Danny/Dusk pairing like in the original version.
Sensing
Bell hesitated in the doorway. They were cherubic really. Sweet little Dusk was leaning her head on the Night Lord's shoulder listening to him read a story to her from the ancient lores of the human world.
"Are all humans like that?" Dusk asked him, when he reached a stopping point.
"Not always," the Night Lord said, noting Bell's appearance and nodded in greeting.
"Why does the daylight hurt so much?" Dusk asked.
Phantom looked sorrowfully at the twelve years old phantomic girl in front of him. Dusk wore her starry white hair about mid-shoulder, her jade eyes were always twinkling with laughter. He himself wore his hair long and tied back, his eyes more towards an emerald shade glimmering with the emerald light of all ghosts. Both wore the uniform of the phantomic guard: solid black trousers and shirts. Each phantomic guard had their own version of the uniform with white accenting here and there. Phantom had two thin white stripes encircling his sleeves. Dusk forsook the long sleeves and wore instead a black tank top with off-the-shoulder white and black bell sleeves.
His eyes mentally flickered to each member of the Night Queen's phantomic guard. Himself and Dusk, Bell, Twilight and Moon. Bell was in his late teens with dreadlocks and peridot shaded eyes. Twilight was a younger male around Phantom's own age with long, straight starry white hair worn in a braid and Moon was closer to the same age as Bell with her hair worn in a low ponytail. Twilight and Moon both had eyes of malachite as opposed to the traditional shades of green of the other phantoms.
He sighed. He, alone, of all the phantomic guard had no name. Maybe he should ask the queen, but no, it was he who had found the others roaming the world above and he who had named them when they were presented before the Night Queen and given their duties. All were Night Wind.
"It just does," he replied.
"Phantom?" Bell's voice broke his reverie.
"I know," came the Night Lord's reponse. "Give me a moment."
Bell nodded and backed away. Phantom, the nameless Night Lord, was the first of them all. He, alone of them all, had travelled the starry roads of the outer world when the bright death star shown high above. Even then, he, too, had to seek the shadows. "I will prepare the way." Saying so, he left.
"How many?" Dusk asked, getting to her feet.
"There are two," he murmured. "I must go above to find them."
"A little sister for me?"
"Or an elder brother for all of us," Phantom replied. "Who knows what I shall find out there."
"Your name, maybe?"
"Maybe," Phantom said, ruffling her hair. "Go and play in the Bubble Forest. I must attend our queen."
The Queen of the Night Stars softly stroked his silky starlight colored hair. He wore it long for her. They all did. He did not speak, for it was not the custom of the phantoms do so except amongst themselves. "My little phantom," she purred.
He addressed her silently with dark, solemn emerald eyes.
"Your wish is to go above; the Lord of Time forbids this, my little phantom."
He gave her a reproachful look.
"There is a stable portal I wish for you to study. Will you do this for me, if I obtain the will of the Time Lord?"
He pushed her hand away, rose to his feet and bowed to her respectfully.
She closed her eyes and chanted softly under her breath. Moments passed, then she smiled. "Thanks to thee, O Great Master of Time."
Twilight and Moon saw the excitement in their leader's emerald eyes as the prospect for a new sojourn to the world above was at hand. They couldn't wait.
"It's unnerving, that's all," the Observant on the left told him. He would call him L'orb.
"That sector has never been this quiet. The Night people are an over-protective lot," the Observant on the right agreed, his voice rising to the squeaking point. He would call him R'eye.
"What has got the Council in a titter this time?" he quietly asked. "The last time it was man walking on the moon."
"The Night Queen," L'orb hissed. "Don't you ever pay attention?"
"Only when it's really worth my while," the Time Master replied. "I usually ignore you-for the most part."
R'eye smirked slightly at L'orb. This Clockwork fellow was a sly one. "One of her phantoms has gone missing."
"A phantom never strays very far from his queen," Clockwork answered. "What was this one doing so far from his home?"
"Investigating the new portal, as you very well know," L'orb remarked, rolling his eye. "But it is hidden from us, what happened in the explosion when it opened."
"I have seen the timestream," Clockwork said, showing a white-haired boy falling out of the portal. "Our newborn Phantom will be instrumental in saving both our worlds in the time to come. He is still Night Wind and feels the call of his Queen."
"We're so doomed," R'eye moaned, shutting his eye. "A child with that much power..."
"Will be watched very closely," Clockwork agreed. "I will make sure he remembers nothing of where he comes from."
"And what if they find him?" L'orb asked.
"Not until the hunter binds his prey," came the response. "That is all I'm going to say. The door is over there."