Chapter Three

I strapped the Specter Deflector to my waist, just in case, and pocketed a Jack-o'-Nine-Tails and a small anti-ghost laser known as the Spectre Zapper before opening the portal in the Fentonworks basement and stepping through, into the Ghost Zone. Everything was green or purple, mostly green, and the sheer vastness of it almost amazed me. Hearing about it was one thing, but seeing it...that was another story.

I had no idea where in the world to start.

The Ghost Zone seemed mostly deserted, but I finally did spot a ghost, and I drifted onto the rock she resided on. "Uh, hi," I said. "I'm, uh, Demi Fenton, Danny Phantom's daughter. He lost a spook and-"

"Danny Phantom?" the ghost asked, turning around. Based on the description in my dad's stories, I figured this was Ember, the ghost with the siren song.

"Yeah, he told me all the stories, or almost all of them. Anyway, he's looking for a knight in black armor on a black horse. Seen him around?"

"You're looking for the Fright Knight, though I'm not really sure who he's working for now. Turn back now, though, no matter what. You have to go back. This ghost is bad news, and whoever he's working for must be even worse news." She gave me a once-over. "I see your dad knew this too. Go back the way you came and let this go. Then it might all work itself out on its own."

A small whisp of air escaped my mouth, and instinctively, I turned one hundred eighty degrees, staring the so-called Fright Knight right in the face. "Told you it was too dangerous," Ember said flatly.

"Skipped out in Connecticut, didn't you?" I said, giving the Fright Knight a once-over while trying to conceal the growing sense that soemthing wasn't right. "My dad's looking for you." The knight didn't respond, and something told me this was some form of illusion. I took a step back and whispered, "Okay, Ember, here what we're doing." Then I laid my plan out.

Ember went on the defensive, readying ghost rays, and we walked back to back to the edge of the rock. I jumped off, and I was seized by the strangest feeling, or rather, my previous gut feeling suddenly intensified to the point that it stopped me in my tracks. Something much worse than the Fright Knight being here was wrong. Something much, much worse.

I thought back to what my dad said earlier that day, and images flashed through my mind. A castle, destroyed, smoke drifting up from the rubble, glowing slightly green from the remains of ectoplasmic energy of a very, very powerful attack. Once the images faded, I looked back at Ember. "This creep can wait," I said.

"Don't worry. He's just a statue," she replied, the ectoplasmic energy in her hands dissipating, allowing her to fold her arms across her chest.

"That explains why he wouldn't answer, but we can deal with spook statues later. I need to get to a castle with the letters CW on it."

"This way." Ember flew off, and I followed. "Can't believe we got spooked by a statue of a spook."

"Well, it did appear out of nowhere, and I did detect it via ghost sense," I offered.

"True."

"Let's just find this place first, before anything happens."

"You have some kind of vision or something?"

"You could say that."

"Your ghost powers are beginning to manifest. Everyone can sense it."

"So I do have powers, despite being only a quarter-ghost."

Ember was silent, and I didn't dare say anything. We flew on, and I scanned the Ghost Zone for any more familiar ghosts. Finally, Ember said, "So you heard all the stories, huh?"

"Yeah, I did, when I was little. They were like bedtime stories. Remember those?"

"Sort of."

"Except, there was one that I know of that he didn't tell me, and it has to do with my nightmares. There's this ghost that keeps trying to kill me, and apparently, it's Dad."

"That's not possible. If there's anything I know about that halfa, he's a real family man."

"Except he thinks it is possible."

"Well if it is, I have no idea how, and I'm not the one to ask. Clockwork, he's the one. He knows everything."

"Clockwork? CW?"

"Yes, that's the guy you're looking for. I don't know what you saw, but if we get there in time, we can prevent it."

"Funny you should say that about the ghost that apparently controls time."

Ember smirked, and we continued our flight in silent. I had a few more pieces to this puzzle, but I had no idea how they fit together, if they fit together at all. I'd have to take what I could get.

I spotted the castle, and I said, "Oh, good, still intact."

"So you saw the future."

"Except, I don't know how much time we have."

"Let's get you back to the real world, while we still can."

I studied the castle. "Wherever the real Fright Knight is, he certainly got Dad's attention, and mine. And so did that vision, and those dreams. I don't know what it all means yet, but I'll have to find out sooner or later, and if I do have ghost powers, like you say, then that probably has something to do with all this." I looked back at Ember. "I can't leave just yet."

"Are you insane?"

"I've never felt saner."

I drifted over to the door and knocked. A one-eyed, mouthless ghost in a robe answered and looked me over, but a velvet-robed ghost covered in watches and other timepieces and carrying a staff with a clock on it drifted forward. "I've been expecting you. You're a little late," he said. "Come in." The one-eyed ghost drifted aside, and I walked inside.

"I saw this place get destroyed," I replied. "I just wanted to check."

"I know."

I glanced at the thermos on the counter and asked, "What's in it?"

"A ghost from your father's past."

"Is it the very dangerous one he won't tell me about?"

"Yes."

"It's an old model, I can tell that much. How long before it finally breaks and the ghost gets out?"

"Not long."

"You don't sound too worried about it."

"I knew it was coming, just as I knew you were coming. I know everything."

"And the modesty goes out the window."

"You have your father's sense of humor."

"I'm a Fenton."

"You seem to take a lot of pride in the fact."

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Good point, but if he told you that story, you'd know your legacy would be very different, if you ever had one."

I looked at the thermos again. It was dented in several places, and I could see a face at one point, though it was distorted by further dents. Even so, I easily identified it as the face from my nightmares. "I see you recognize the face," Clockwork said, interrupting my musings.

"Yeah, I do," I replied, though he probably knew all about the dreams and what I'd been learning recently. He did say he knew everything. "It is just a dream, right?"

"Dreams and visions can be indistinguishable, especially in halfas. Of course, there are only a few halfas in the world, and you're the first one born, so this is a unique case."

"What about my little brothers?"

"With time, we will see."

"And the Fright Knight? What about him?"

"The matter of the Fright Knight will be addressed in time, I assure you. It shouldn't concern you, but if it didn't, you wouldn't have come here."

"So was I supposed to come or not?"

"No one is ever supposed to do anything. One's choices influence one's time stream. I only intervene when things get ugly, as in the case of the ghost in that thermos."

"That's why no one remembers anything. You circumvented the time stream."

"Yes, that's exactly what happened."

"So, the ghost in the thermos exists outside of time now?"

"Yes."

"What happens if he tries to reenter the time stream?"

"Any number of things, but he's not going to take any chances."

The thermos rattled precariously, making me extremely nervous. I instinctively reached out to catch it as it tumbled to the floor, but it slipped out of my fingers. The damaged thermos split open at the weakest point, where the lid connected to the rest of it, and its contents swirled out in a green mass. I looked up at the vortex, out of which formed a very familiar shape, a shape that had been haunting my dreams for eight days.

I backed up against the wall, but once the form solidified, my terror froze me. With a flick of his wrist, the ghost removed my specter deflector, which dropped to the floor, the sound echoing through the castle, cutting the silence like a knife. He held his hands up triumphantly, echoed by the look on his face and the laugh he let out. "Free at last," he said when he recovered from his laughter. His voice, just like in my dreams, was slow and had a smug quality to it. It was the kind of voice that could terrify a person completely, as it did me. He looked at me and chuckled. "You look like you've seen a ghost. Oh, wait, you have." He held his palm up, and in it was an electrically charged energy ball.