Author's Note: Well, we're nearing the end of everything, and things are coming together nicely. I'd like to thank everyone again for the follows and the reviews as I've been going through this insane rollercoaster of a fanfic. I'm going to be sad when the next chapter wraps everything up, but at the same time I feel accomplished this idea ever got past chapter one.
I have to say I'm sorry I wrote Lexandro as a post-houmous character. I actually really like the cheeky big brother; but without his death and the death of Paulina's mother, think of how royally screwed Amity Park would be by the end of this chapter alone. I'd also like to think this is her continuing to work rather than process grief, because that's just how some people are wired. I hope that makes sense to all of you and it doesn't sound like I'm just a bad writer.
As always, comments, ideas, suggestions, criticisms, critiques and thoughts in general are valued and appreciated.
"They love diamonds and rubies, jewels of any kind, and as you gaze into their eyes they rip off ears and fingers to get to them-"
"Ew! Lex, that's so gross." Paulina gagged. "What would a ghost want with a jewel anyway?"
"It says here it makes them more powerful, but only for a while. When the jewels are used up they're thrown away, like batteries. And then they have to go get more." He looked up at her, thoughtfully. "So it's kind of like eating, for them."
"Can't they eat without hurting people or doing gross things?"
"Hmm. I suppose, if there was a jewelry store nearby…" Lexandro grinned. "It's like a buffet."
Paulina giggled as he shushed her, shoving the book under her pillow as the door opened. Their mother frowned at them, a hand on her hip. "Lexandro Epifanio Sanchez, are you reading ghost stories to your sister again?"
"Yes," he admitted, giving her a winning smile. "But if you give me a minute I can come up with a really good lie."
She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "You think that smile can get you out of everything."
He shrugged, shameless. "Well, you're not doing much to prove me wrong, here."
As she facepalmed, her daughter laughed aloud.
Paulina felt her stomach churn as she patiently waited for Phantom to appear.
A month ago a meeting with the ghost boy would've had her screaming and cheering. She'd have put on her best make up and made sure to triple check her hair; she would have met him looking like the princess she always thought she was. Right now her hair was a bit tangled, her make up barely present and her pink lips pursed in a frown. She still hadn't figured out why or how ghosts from Africa would be here in Amity Park, of all places. Maybe the ghost boy knew? She was sure he didn't, though, or he'd have been hot on the trail of this thing.
She was tired already, and this stress was doing her no favors. She wished Tucker were here to cheer her up. Then again, Tucker was the reason she was standing here. She had to keep him safe and that meant making sure that the ghost boy stopped the Tgaori. Tucker would have done the same for her… he had done the same for her. He'd thrown water at that thing at point blank range. It was a fluke that water was its' weakness. He could have been killed and he didn't even hesitate. All this time she'd thought he was just some nerd, but he was so brave. He'd been overshadowed by Phantom's heroism all this time, and she'd never seen what was right in front of her eyes. How could she be so blind? How could she have gone to school with him for this many years without seeing who he was?
The answer was obvious. She'd been so busy trying to make friends and be popular and surround herself with people to drown out the loss and fear of being alone in a foreign country she hadn't noticed anything. Ever since she began living with her father she'd been trying to build up a reputation and a circle of friends. All she'd succeeded in doing was digging herself into this hole where she had to act a certain way and do certain things. Escaping was proving to be harder than she had thought, but then again, she hadn't been aware of how truly trapped she was until she finally cried in front of Tucker. Until she genuinely broke down, she hadn't even known she was fake.
When Phantom arrived, flying out to meet her behind the school, her initial greeting was, "Finally! We have, like, a total situation on our hands here."
He looked at her, wondering where the crazed fangirl he remembered had gone. "…sorry. So, um, what is it you know about-"
"This ghost is this African ghost thing called a Tgaori. They eat jewels and hypnotize people and tear chunks out of them. The fire thing they do is just to get people to look at them 'cause their eyes are like, I don't know, it's how they get people to just stand there while they rip them apart," she gushed, explaining quickly. "My brother knew lots about Africa, and he used to tell me about ghosts from there. I was a big Solto fan as a kid."
"Solto?"
"He's like, a ghost that fights ghosts down in Mexico. He was totally my first crush. Anyway, that's not important right now. What is important is that you stop the Tgaori so nobody gets hurt," she said, biting her lip nervously. "I think I've figured out why it came to school, even if I don't know how it got here from Africa."
He looked suitably impressed. "And why did it come here, then?"
"The preppy girls all have jewelry, and it likes diamonds the most. So it came to the cafeteria to get something someone was wearing. Duh."
"But this is a high school, not a jewelry store."
"There's two hundred something girls here. Somebody had to have something expensive on them," she pointed out. "That's just how life works."
"So anywhere crowded could be a target," he said, finally landing instead of hovering there in front of her. His expression grew thoughtful. "So long as there's a lot of women or even the right kind of guys in a building together, they're all targets."
Paulina sighed, feeling deflated. "Sorry. I thought I could help more."
"This is helping. It's just that this is a city, and I can't be everywhere at once." He ran a hand through his hair. "If they're weak to water-"
They were cut off by a scream from over by the bleachers. Phantom took off in a blur, and Paulina tried to follow, but her ribs burned and she stumbled, pain searing through her until all she could do was lean against the wall and watch him from a distance.
Kayla screamed as Macy yanked her backwards. Black flames licked the ground where the cheerleader had stood a second before.
The Tgaori's eyes were locked on the diamond bracelet around Kayla's wrist. The brunette cheerleader turned, but her friend Tiffany had bolted. She'd been down for bullying Macy together, she just didn't want to deal with this together. The timid redhead tried to remember how Sam had put herself in front of her as a shield, but Macy's eyes darted around, unable to look the evil ghost right in the face. Her knees were shaking as she put an arm out to block Kayla from stepping forward. She turned, seeing the bewitched look on Kayla's face, and frowned.
"I'm sorry about this," she muttered, and then she shoved Kayla back so she fell onto the ground. Yanking off her scarf, she knelt to tie it around the bully's eyes only to jump as black flames licked at her feet. Macy didn't turn, couldn't look, was too scared, and thank God she was or she'd have been shoved under the same spell. She did scream, though, hands shaking as she wrapped the scarf around the dazed cheerleader.
"Leave them alone!" Danny yelled, and the Tgaori turned just in time to get a blast of green energy to the face.
The shadowy ghost hissed and turned into smoke, manifesting behind Kayla, who Macy now had a death grip on. With deceptive ease, he grabbed the cheerleader from Macy's arms, yanking her up by the arm. His mouth was small but his teeth were sharp, biting down and ripping away skin as he pulled back, snapping the clasp on the bracelet. Danny hit him with a blast of energy, but the second the diamonds were in his mouth the Tgaori seemed unphased by it, eyes locking with Danny's. They were hypnotic, flashing and morphing through colors, flecked with other colors, ringed with others… Danny's arms went slack at his sides as he stared into the ghost's eyes. The Tgaori grinned, a vicious expression, chuckling darkly.
"Looks like you're not all ghost, are you?" he purred, stepping forward. Danny tried to step back and stumbled. That voice was like a choir all on its own, so many notes, so perfect. He tried to look away and found the edges of his vision going dark. The world narrowed down to only this beautiful eyed creature and he had to remind himself he was trying to fight this guy. "What are you, half and half? Some human's child, playing hero-"
Then a snowball hit the Tgaori in the face. He hissed, shaking his head to get the wetness off of him, but Paulina threw another one, and Macy hit him with one from behind, and his spell had worn off of Danny, who fell back as the Tgaori turned to smoke, vanishing in a brief breeze. Just like that, it was over.
Kayla was sobbing in pain as Macy wrapped her scarf around the cheerleader's wrist, making soft shushing sounds, trying to stop the bleeding. Paulina was beside him, asking if he was okay, but before he could speak he'd sunk to his knees, feeling dizzy and dazed still. He choked on a cry as familiar white rings appeared around him, the change too fast to stop, and then Danny Fenton was staring up at Paulina, who was on her phone with 911. To her credit, she kept the focus of the call on Kayla, but her teal eyes never left his blue ones. There was shock and yet, as she stared at him, all the pieces were coming together in her mind. Under any other circumstances she might start asking questions. Fortunately for him, there was a more pressing matter at hand as Kayla shook and whimpered, cradled in Macy's bony arms. Macy looked at Danny with concern, like she'd like to ask if he was alright, but she had her hands full.
The ambulance found them silent and shaking, Danny barely able to stand, swaying with every step, Macy pulling Kayla to her feet and trying to hold up someone who weighed more than she did, Paulina looking like she'd witnessed a train wreck. As they were loaded into the ambulance against Macy and Paulina's objections they were fine, the others needed it more, a sort of unspoken pact was made: Danny was not Phantom. They each jumped in to tell the story of how the ghost boy had gone off to chase the Tgaori and left them alone. The dazed boy looked between the three girls, whose details all supported this theory, painting a picture that left out any incriminating evidence against Danny.
He was still in shock when, at some point before they arrived at the hospital, he slipped into sleep.
"Macy?"
"Um, yeah?"
Kayla squeezed the redhead's hand with her good one as the nurse peeled off the scarf. She bit back most sound, but tears still fell down her cheeks. "Why didn't you leave me back there?"
"Well, uh, they made us all get in the ambulance…"
The brunette cheerleader turned her moss green eyes towards the other girl, glaring. "You know what I mean."
"…I didn't want you to get hurt."
"Why?" She hassled the other girl on a daily basis.
She shrugged. "You're a person. That's enough for me… Sam said I should try to be more assertive. So, so that's it, then. I did what I did because I wanted to and you needed it. So there." She wrapped her other hand around Kayla's as they began bandaging it up. "Shh. It's okay. I'm here."
"…Macy?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you."
Tucker and Sam arrived at Danny's house together.
It was a little surreal, with Paulina, Danny and Jazz drinking hot cocoa and sitting around the Fenton's kitchen table. Jack and Maddie were out looking for the new ghost, so the house was theirs for the moment. Macy had sent some texts to Paulina updating her about Kayla's status, but she was going to stay with the brunette cheerleader until she felt safe on her own. Apparently Kayla was now thoroughly scared of jewels and thought the hospital was safest, and her ensuing hysterical breakdown had earned her a trip to the psychiatric wing for the night, where Macy was going to stay until they made her leave. Paulina vouched for the redhead's ability to keep Danny's secret; she had nothing to gain from revealing it, anyway.
So now they were sitting around the Fenton's kitchen table, Paulina with a battered purple bound book in front of her. It was open to a page that held a remarkable rendition of a Tgaori on it, although Paulina's attention was diverted when Tucker arrived.
"I'm so glad you're okay," he said to her, rushing over to hug her. She cringed at the minor pressure to her ribs, and he released the Latina gently, looking sheepish. "Sorry. So, um, uh…"
"I know about Danny," she confirmed. "And so does Macy. Kayla's actually blocked some of it out, so she's not sure what happened other than the biting part. She's not dealing with this very well."
Sam held back a comment on how the snob had it coming, picturing what that kind of wound would be like and shuddering. She sat down beside Danny as Tucker took a seat by Paulina. The Goth asked quietly, "Is she going to be alright?"
Paulina shrugged, feeling helpless.
Jazz cleared her throat. "From a psychological perspective, it's the same as if she'd been mugged. She'll have nightmares, develop an aversion to what she perceives set off her attacker, and might need therapy to feel safe on her own again. But so long as she has a support network, she'll be fine."
"Given what the A-list is like…" Sam started, then paused, remembering Paulina was sitting right there.
"…she's screwed," Paulina finished. "But for now she's fine. We need to get this thing gone for good so it won't keep hurting people. I mean, three of us plus Danny barely got it off of Kayla, imagine if it attacked someone alone at night."
"Squirt guns," Tucker declared, getting blank looks from everyone. "I'm not kidding. We get ahold of squirt guns and load them up, and get something together to draw it in."
Jazz hummed thoughtfully. "Well, the book says it likes jewels and precious stones, but every house in this part of town has that."
With a sigh, Sam pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm loaded, remember? I'll just get everything I can carry from my house and-"
"And what?" Danny interrupted. "Act like a distraction? Live bait? You could get killed."
"Well, I don't see you coming up with anything better. And you'll be busy fighting it, so unless someone else wants to volunteer-"
"I'll do it."
All eyes turned to Paulina, who looked firm in her resolve. "Think about it. It's seen me before, it'll want revenge. It says here that vengeance is as attractive as eating is to them. I have things I can bring from home, too. This thing is strongest in the dark and outdoors, so we'll use an alleyway somewhere so the rest of you can hide. It'll be on me in minutes and you'll have your ghost, and everything will be okay."
Tucker was the first to object. "But what if it gets you?"
"I know what I'm doing. I'm coming back, Tuck."
"But-"
She swallowed hard, remembering her brother's embrace as he told her he promised he'd be home before she knew it. Better to die standing for something than live for nothing.
"I promise, I'm coming back."
