Part 3—Chapter 8
"Silvia," the skeletal thing spoke as if greeting an old friend while at the same time mocking an enemy. "I can say for the first time that I am shocked that you are here. Normally you are four days behind me."
"I don't follow you, you just end up in the same place as I," Spectral said with no hint of playfulness in her voice like the other thing was talking. "So why are you here?"
"Isn't it obvious?" the thing chuckled. "I'm here for the new blood."
He turned his eyes on Danny, only now Danny saw that there were no eyes, just empty sockets.
"They all have a choice, you won't force him into anything," Spectral said with authority. "And if you do then he can fight his way out."
"But most of the time they don't," the thing smirked. "And he is no different. He will join my army."
Specrtal's hands blazed an angry red and she threw a warning shot of ghostly fire at the thing as it took a step towards Danny. It looked up at her as if it was amused.
"That cheep hat trick?" it asked. "Take some advice from a professional. Get some new tricks."
The thing suddenly burst to life with fire. It enflamed it's head and covered its skin, barely showing the bones that were hidden by the deadly flames. It looked like a demon with blazing black holes where its eyes should have been, its tattered coat and cowboy-like fashion everything faded into the darkest black. Danny didn't know that black could be that dark.
"I've seen that one too," Spectral said, gearing her hands up for more fire. "To bad I don't do much damage since we are of the same element."
The thing chuckled, an evil sound that sent Danny into shock. If he wasn't frozen to the ground, he would have fainted, threw up, or both.
The evil demon thing, brought his whip out and it turned into fire as well, a snake of fire. It threw the whip at the ghost but Spectral had a shield up so fast that it took more time for Danny to blink.
'How did she do that?' he asked amazed in his head. 'I've never been able to do that that fast.'
The demon rushed at Spectral and a fight so intense ensued that Danny couldn't fully register if he was in danger or not. It was lightening fast and the sounds were almost muted. He caught the blaze of fire here and there in the sky or right in front of him sometimes, but when he caught physical movement, he was awed once again. Spectral moved like a cat, graceful and well balanced. The demon was just as good, but it had more power then moves. It went at her like a bat at a baseball, continually looking for an opening to try and hit the ghost. Spectral was on the defensive, Danny wondered what would happen when she went on the offensive.
He never found out. Spectral let her guard down when the demon faked a punch to the gut and hit her in the head instead. She was sent flying from fifty feet above in the air and into the ground.
"No!" Danny yelled when he saw her fall.
'Ice tames fire,' a voice said in the back of his head, and not really a voice either, a thought so powerful that it was a voice.
Danny watched as the demon came striding up to where Spectral had fallen, getting ready to give a deadly bow with his whip.
Something grew in Danny until he couldn't contain it any longer. He shot ice from his hands, though this was normal, it wasn't usually at this magnitude. It almost felt like something was helping him move the ice at the thing and freeze it into nothing.
The demon yelled in pain when Danny shot him. Danny rather liked the sound, it meant victory, if only a small one. Ice readily grew around the thing and incased it in a block of solid water. Danny felt weak and fell to his knees, panting from the exertion.
'Very good child,' said the voice, but it was gone before Danny could question it.
"Get up," he heard Spectral say. "We have to go, that ice won't keep him like that for long."
She acted quicker then he could. She had already grabbed him by the arm, his good one he noticed, and pulled him up with her in the air. The air was knocked out of him as Spectral flew at a pace so fast that he almost lost his grip on her arm. She soon landed on a roof, on the other side of town.
"Are you alright?" she asked him as he fell on his butt. "Is your head okay? can you breath normally? How's your wrist? Any burning?"
"I'm fine!" he blurted out to stop her worried rant.
He saw that her outfit had changed. She was wearing black pants with a red top with the tracing of the bird on it. She had black bands on her upper arms and black fingerless gloves on her slender fingers. Black boot blended in with her black boot-cut jeans quiet nicely.
He looked at his wrist and saw that he had some burns from the leather on the whip, or whatever it was made of. It felt like he had put his wrist on the stove when it was on, slight blisters, but nothing major as a burn.
"You better get that bandaged," Spectral said with a disapproving frown that reminded Danny of his mother when he often came home hours after curfew. "If those were normal burns, then you would be fine, but those burns are something different."
"What makes them different?" Danny asked pulling his coat-sleeve up higher so it would hide the blisters.
"Well, for one thing, the fire was from a very nasty spirit, not human made. Spirit weapons are different from human weapons, but they still have the desired effect," Spectral traced something on her arm, but her outfit hid her skin.
Danny guessed that she had a nasty scar there and the motion wasn't a conscious one. That made him think that he really should get it treated when he got home.
"I guess I should thank you," Spectral said, bringing him from his thoughts. "That ice trick made the battle. Good thing ice and fire are opposites, or else you probably wouldn't have had any effect on him."
"Who was he anyway?" Danny asked pointing his thumb in the direction that he guessed they had come from.
Spectral's eyes darkened and that frown came back on her face. She crossed her arms and looked back at where they had come from.
"His name is Aquila, like the drink," Spectral said. "he's a demon of hell, and a good one too."
"Does that make you an angel?" Danny asked, thinking of the close call he had before Spectral came in and saved his hide.
"I guess you could say that," Spectral had the faintest of smiles on her face. "I'm really more of a very equipped human that was chosen to handle things like him."
"But, aren't you a ghost?" Danny asked baffled.
"In a sense, I guess, I never really thought about it. I've been given a gift and I use it the best way that I can."
"Okay then, why was that thing after me?"
"Well, that one is a bit difficult to explain," Spectral said nervously. "but I can tell you that we will be seeing each other more often. He won't go away until you make him, and you aren't ready to do that."
"Is he like my own personal demon or something?" Danny said sarcastically.
"Actually, there will be many more of those to come if you make it past this one," Spectral said matter of fact.
Danny raised an eyebrow at her and backed away a step. She was a little weird for him. She was just so, down-to-earth. Living in reality fully and that was a little odd.
"How did you know I was in trouble?" Danny asked the ghost-angel-spector before him.
"I was sent," she said shrugging.
"By who?"
"Who do you think?" Spectral pointed upwards. "You did ask Him for help didn't you?"
"What? But, that was before I knew I was going to be attacked! How could you… you couldn't have… this can't be… He heard me?"
Spectral chuckled at Danny, who looked like a drowning sheep looking up in the sky with its mouth open.
"He always hears," she said holding her hand out. "Ready to go home?"
"I can get there myself," Danny said, changing into his ghost form.
Spectral blinked for a moment, as if she was shocked that she had been right. By the time the rings had completely turned him ghost, she had a slight smile on her lips and her eyes were sparkling green.
"Well, alright," she said shrugging. "I'll follow you until we reach the east end of town. I have business down there, but it's not to destroy the human race."
She added he last part so quickly that Danny barely caught it. He didn't think that she was a threat anymore. She had saved him and that said a whole lot if you were a ghost.
Chapter 9—
The flight back into town was quiet, both Halfas were in their respective thoughts. Danny thinking about what Spectral was thinking the entire time. When they steadily reached Danny's house, Spectral turned left and started to head east. She had a smiled planted on her face that seemed oddly familiar to him and she waved goodbye.
He watched her go, but didn't make a move to wave back. He phased through his window and landed on his bedroom floor. He changed back to Danny Fenton as he went into his bathroom and retrieved what was needed to clean the blisters on his wrist.
He felt groggy and decided to flop onto his bed, pull he covers over his head and just shut the world out for a long, long time, but his mind wouldn't let him rest. It was still running at high speed with questions of what had happened earlier.
He finally got up with a growl and headed downstairs. He was halfway down when he heard a small explosion from the lab in the basement. He ignored it and continued his way into the living area, where all books ghostly could be seen and taken off of the shelf.
Ever since he had started to battle ghosts, Danny had borrowed these books and read them. It had helped him in battle a lot, though some things he avoided since he knew that they weren't true.
He ran his finger through the titles until he came across the one he waned. It was one that he normally avoided, but now he wasn't so sure if he should. It was titled 'The Wonders that is Ghost', and it said that ghosts weren't the spirits of the dead. It was one his mother had gotten, but he never saw her use it.
He brushed the dust off of it and opened it up to a random page, and oddly enough, it was the one he wanted.
'Ghosts aren't spirits of the passing, since there is no proof of this. Rather, they are more powerful beings sharing domain with human man, like the animal or the plant, but at the same time, they have a home world, like the angel, or the demon. Who's to say that ghosts aren't individuals with choices to make like the rest of us? Who think and feel like we do? Do they also follow a higher authority like the most of us? A Buddha? A Zeus? A God of some deity? Who's to say that ghosts aren't just like us?'
"What are you doing honey?"
Danny jumped when he heard his mom speak.
"Nothing, just, browsing," he said shutting the book and slamming it back on the shelf. "I've got homework."
He rushed up the stairs before Maddie could question him further. He knew his odd behavior was going to be questioned later, but he needed time to think.
What he just read made some sort of sense. Danny knew that ghosts were just as individual as the snowflakes that started to gather at his window. He himself was unique in some way or another, even from Vlad whom Danny had more in common with than anyone else on the planet, but now he wasn't so sure about that either. Spectral sounded as if she wasn't a full ghost, as if she was half like he was.
'I'm more like a very equipped human to take care of things like him.'
She had said that she was human. Did that mean she thought of herself as a human with ghost powers as he did? She saw them as a gift, something to use for the better. He saw his as a burden that he was trying to turn into something good.
"Wait! I blew my secret in front of her!" he suddenly realized.
If she truly was half human, they she had to have a human life like he had. He wondered who Spectral was in her human form. That smile was so familiar, the voice held something with it that was recognizable as well. He felt safe when she talked, something inside that made him happy and less brooding then he had been. He felt that way when Silvi talked at school… and the demon called Spectral Silvia.
That made sense! Silvi moves to town and that same night Spectral shows up! Spectral had green highlights in her black hair which was the exact opposite colors of Silvi's. They even had it in the same fashion. The look on Spectral's face when he transformed in front of her, as if she was shocked that she was right.
"What am I going to do?" he moaned falling into his bed again.
Monday was going to be interesting.
Chapter 10—
Sam was starting to get worried about Danny. On Friday, he didn't want to hang out, said he just wanted to go straight home. He didn't call when he got home, which he did all of the time to make sure that his friends could come up with an excuse for the adults in case he was ghost fighting. She had called his house a few times, but it was always his mom that answered, saying that he was still in bed. He hadn't come out of his room for the entire weekend, not even to eat.
When she saw him Monday at school, she could have looked at him and not tell the difference between his human and ghost forms. He looked like the walking dead.
"Danny," she said when he got to his locker. "I was trying to call you all weekend. What's going on with you?"
"Nothing," Danny said slamming his locker shut just as the bell rung.
He turned away without looking at her, or saying that he would see her at lunch.
"Is he alright?"
Sam turned to see Silvi looking at her then back at Danny's retreating back.
"I don't know, but something is seriously wrong with him," Sam said frowning. "He's not acting like himself, he hasn't for a while but I think it just got ten times worse over the weekend."
Silvi nodded and stared hard at his back. Danny froze at the end of the hallway and turned to look at them, as if he could feel the eyes burrowing into his head. He hunched over when he saw Silvi and dashed out of sight.
"That was weird," Sam said, but Silvi said nothing.
"You had better get to class Sam, he sure isn't," Silvi said walking away.
Sam turned to watch Silvi walk away, her normal smile gone and replaced with a determined look. Sam quickly got to her class just as the hallways were being cleared of their straggling occupants, but she couldn't help but worry about Danny and what Silvi was going to do about it.
Danny didn't know what made him run when he saw Silvi in the hall. He was scared, but of what he wasn't sure. He just knew he didn't want to come face to face with it.
His legs took him past people in the halls and outside Casper High, where he continued to run until he made it to the football field. He tripped over something in the grass and he stumbled, jarring his bad wrist and making him yell in pain. He didn't have the energy to move, or the energy to want to move. He laid there in the grass as snow fell around him, tears dripping from his eyes as the burning in his arm intensified.
"Danny!"
Silvi dropped next to him on her knees and gathered him up in her arms. She was rubbing his arms, he must have felt cold. How long had he been out there? He wasn't sure. It could have been minutes, hours, or even days to him.
"It's going to be okay bud," Silvi said taking her coat off of herself and wrapping it around him. "We have to get you warm. Even half-ghosts can't survive these temperatures."
He wasn't aware that he was shaking very badly, his skin ice blue, which had nothing to do with his ice powers. He looked up and saw the sky turning from light grey to dark grey, snow falling heavily from the sky like a thick curtain. He heard Silvi talking distantly, but not to him. She was just holding him close and shaking him to keep him awake.
More time past by then the rumbling of a car could be heard coming up towards them.
"Ivanhoe!" Mr. Lancer's voice was clearly heard over the wind. "What happened?"
"He had a breakdown Lance," Silvi said starting to gather Danny up in her arms. "That car better have a heater. He's been out here for who knows how long in this blizzard."
"It's on high now," Mr. Lancer said and the sound of a car door opening following his voice.
Danny's back met a car seat and the whoosh of warm air from the heaters. He shivered even more and fell onto his side, not wanting to sit up. He wanted to sleep.
"Don't sleep Danny," Silvi said sliding in next to him.
She sat him upright and put his seatbelt around him. At the sound of the click, the car moved forward, but Danny could barely register the movement. Silvi wrapped her arms around him again, but this time, he could tell that she was warmer in an odd way. She must have been using her fire powers to keep him warm.
"We're almost there," Lancer said, his voice drifting from Danny's hearing for some reason.
"He's getting warmer, much warmer then he use to be," Silvi said, her voice fading as well. "I think we can let him sleep now."
