Chapter 4

"Tech?" Sophie found herself asking, "Is that really you?"

Daniella pulled her sister back. "Kelly said her undead senses were acting out. If that's really a Ghost, it's possible that this planet's Ghost rules allow them to change into the form of another dead being."

"Daniella, you're the one that was always telling everyone that changeling Ghosts don't exist."

"That was before we came here and Austin was able to walk in broad sunlight."

"Point taken."

Tech turned her to face him. "So, it's me."

"Prove it."

Tech half-smiled and took off the locket.

She took it. It was gold with a heart-shaped charm that had "love" written in silver letters. She opened the charm and revealed a picture of her and her family when she was little on one side and a picture of her and Tech when she was pregnant with Kelly, Ryan, Sarah, and Michael on the other side.

"You gave it to me when you were pregnant, we'd been married for 2 months."

She looked at him.

"Your mother had given it to you when you were little and told you that she'd always be with you no matter what."

"And then I lost her…"

"The day after we got engaged. She was murdered along with your dad…and you."

"And yet I'm still alive."

"Because you thought you were responsible for their deaths, died with a guilty conscience, and became the Listener."

"And I met you…"

"…with amnesia. You'd just come from Anasala to Acmetropolis to save it from an evil Warlock whose sister turned out to be your murderer…twice."

She looked at him. "One last question: what was our promise after we got married, right before we started hearing the Whisperers' voices?"

He half-smiled again. "That we'd never keep secrets from each other…ever again."

She smiled.

"And I took that to heart."

She smiled and touched him. "It's really you." She looked at him closer…and slapped him.

He looked at her. "Ow! What was that for?"

"What do you think that was for? You had me worried sick for 2 months thinking you were dead!"

"Hey! Kelly was about to die! I was just trying to—"

Sophie interrupted by kissing him.

"Oh, get a room!" Ryan snapped.

His parents smiled at him.

"And that?" Tech asked his wife.

Sophie smiled at him. "For coming back."

Tech smiled.

Kelly smiled. "OK, we should probably go home before there turns out to be another bad guy here…"

"Yeah, I like that idea." Wendy got up from the ground. "Besides, we left the kids alone and I'm not sure how much longer I can hold up that stinking nanny spell."

The gang—now reunited—raced back to the ship. Luckily, it was easier to find that than their way through the forest. Unluckily…they had a stowaway: the snake creature that Austin had smelled the blood on.

As the gang took off, they started catching up.

"I didn't miss anything, right?" asked Tech.

"Pretty boring without you, really," said Kelly, smiling at him, as happy as she could possibly be, "Except for the whole me and mom and possibly Sarah crying our eyes out part. How about you?"

"I exploded. How do you think I've been?"

"Wait, you were really dead?" Kelly looked at him. "In my dream-vision, you said hadn't died."

"No, I said I wasn't dead. I didn't say I hadn't died."

"Wait, that was really you?" asked Daniella, quite shocked, "I thought it was just her powers acting up."

"How is it possible he could've just contacted her in her sleep?" asked Wendy, "Are you sure you came back right?"

Tech glared at her. "Yes, but in the 2 months I was stuck there, I picked some things up. And there's some pool or something there that let's you contact psychics in their dreams."

Wendy processed this. "Oh."

While the gang exchanged their heartfelt reunions and blah, blah, blah, the snake was in the cargo hold on the ceiling of the ship. It looked over the edge and down at them. It hissed almost silently and hid again.

Wanna know the weird thing? Neither Lexi nor Austin heard the hiss even though it was still audible…

Back on Acmetropolis…

A couple guys walked by an old building.

"I'm telling you, man," said one guy, "There is no way it's gonna rain tonight."

Ironically, it was at that exact moment that thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, and raindrops poured on them.

"You were saying?" the second guy said.

"Let's just go home." With that, the first started to leave.

The second guy got stalled. He heard a voice coming from the old building…

" Ah-ah-ah…ah-ah-ah…ah-ah-ah…ah-ah-ah…"

Subconsciously, he stopped walking and his feet began to move him towards the building…

"…ah-ah-ah…ah-ah-ah…ah-ah-ah! "

Suddenly, something grabbed him. Thunder drowned out his scream as his neck was broken. A white light flashed as his soul was taken from his body and transported somewhere else…

Meanwhile, the first guy realized that his buddy wasn't following him. "Hey, where'd you go?" He turned around and saw no one. He figured his buddy must have gotten sidetracked and followed him into the old building.

Only to meet the same fate.

After both men were dead, out walked a beautiful blonde young woman. She sighed and opened her blue eyes to reveal them briefly flashing an awful shade of green. "2 down…" She looked at the sky and the rain falling around her began to fall in every direction but at her. "…98 to go." With that, she walked off, the pattern of rainfall following her. As she walked off, she rubbed her head. She was obviously weak. "Just a formality. After 50…I can only go up."

Back at the tower…

A few hours later…

The gang had finally landed and they were now unloading everything.

While they did so, Kelly was alone with Tech on the dock. "You know…I really missed you."

Tech smiled. "No kidding."

Kelly smiled in return. "It's been too long without you. And too with Archer and Duck and Jack without you."

Tech snickered. "No arguing with that."

Kelly giggled. "But now you're finally back…after everything we went through…oh!" She reached out to hug him…and fell forward through him. She caught herself and realized in the fleet of the moment what was going on.

"Kelly—" Tech started.

"AAHH! AAHH! YOU'RE A GHOST! YOU'RE A GHOST!"

"Wait—"

Kelly ran right through him and down the stairs as fast as possible.

Tech groaned. "Oh, I'm really in for it now." He ran through the wall and down after his daughter.

Kelly got downstairs in time to corner everyone else. "Dad's a Ghost! Dad's a Ghost!"

"Whoa, Kelly—" Sophie started.

That's when Tech made it down there. "I can explain!"

"Yeah, explain the fact that you're a half-alive space roach!"

Sarah scoffed. "That's ridiculous!" She headed off her sister and started backing up, apparently not noticing that she was backing up into Tech. "If he were a Ghost, would I be able to see—" Then she backed right through Tech and fell on the floor. "Oh, my."

"What…" Sophie walked up to her husband and put her hand through his stomach. She pulled it out and put it in again.

She repeated this about 10 times, each time getting faster, before Tech finally backed away. "Stop it! That tickles!"

Austin walked up to Tech and put his hand through him. "OK, that's creepy."

Tech got away from him, too.

"Hold on a minute," said Lexi, walking up to him, "We know you're the real Tech…we know you're not dead…and yet, we know you're a Ghost."

"I'm not a Ghost!" said Tech, "When I came back on Meridian and not Acmetropolis, my powers malfunctioned according to the atmospheric condition and I came back incorporeal."

Sophie considered this, slightly confused. "Oh. Well, that's not good."

While this conversation kept going, no one noticed the snake coming down the stairs and starting to silently slither out of the tower.

"'Atmospheric conditions' like the ones that let Austin walk around in sunlight?" asked Daniella.

"Exactly," said Tech.

"I still think we should've stuck around a little longer—" Austin started.

"Oh, you were milking it enough when we were hiding the ship," Nadine said.

The door opened for the snake and the snake slithered out, the door closing behind it.

Everyone heard the door opening and closing so they looked around. They hadn't let anyone into the building to get out (or at least they thought so) and there was no one in sight inside.

"Huh," said Nadine, returning to the conversation.

Kelly suddenly twitched, her eyes just briefly flashing silver.

Daniella noticed this first. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, it's just a vibe," Kelly said, rubbing her head a little.

"Something wrong?"

Kelly closed her eyes and went with it, letting her Witch's sense mix in. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open. She straightened up entirely and let her hand fall from her head. "Horribly wrong."

Down the street…

The snake slithered into a house. As it entered, its shadow could be seen on the wall morphing into that of an elderly woman. The elderly woman from the Meridian forest.

As this happened, 6 young men walked by.

The old lady peered around the doorway. "Hello, boys."

The boys looked at her.

"Won't you come in?"

One of the boys scoffed. "Yeah. Won't I." He started to walk off.

One of the other boys stopped him. "Come on, man. She's old, she's losing her mind."

The boy sighed. "Fine."

With that said, the 6 boys walked into the old house.

The old lady closed the door behind them. And locked it.

"Hey…why'd you lock the door? Whoa. Hey. What's happening? No! NO!"

As the events of this attack took place, blood spattered on the windowpane. When the screaming finally stopped, the old woman walked up to the window and absorbed some of the blood with her own blood-stained hand to reveal that she was now not in her late 50's but her late 30's. She looked at the bodies on the floor of the house and smiled. They weren't young men, they were old ones. "It's good to be back." She looked at her hand to find the blood seeping into her newly-whole skin. She smiled again.