Danielle started to panic as she felt the surrounding vegetation wrap around her once again, "Undergrowth, what's going on?"
"The first step of your training, ghost-child. Just keep still, relax, and let the power flow through you."
"Is this gonna hurt?" she asked fearfully
"Yes."
The plant-ghost was right, the whole process didn't take more than a moment, but it was the most agonizing moment of Danielle's entire two months of life. She hoped with every fiber of her being that the vegetation around her would soon recede from her body, and much to her relief it did. The girl fell to her knees and sighed in relief as the plant life retreated back to its original location. "What… the… heck?!" she asked breathlessly
"Do you feel any different?" the plant-ghost asked
"Yeah, I feel like I just had a giant spike shoved into my chest!" she answered angrily, "What did you do to me?! I'm so mad I could-" before she could finish her sentence, Danielle was taken by surprise when a large thorn shot out of her hand and into the side of a tree, "Woah! That's new." she said as she examined her hand
"You'll find you have quite a few new abilities now." Undergrowth said with a grin
Danielle continued to examine her hand as a flower suddenly grew out of it, "Woah, cool." she said in awe before kneeling down and experimentally placing her hands on the ground, watching as she grew a whole flower patch before her eyes
"There are two only ghosts who possess these powers, myself and now you." the plantlike ghost explained, "And with my help, you will learn to harness them to their full potential."
"So, when do we start?" she asked with a smile
"Whenever you are ready, child."
The young girl gave a look of disapproval at being called a child, "Please don't call me that, my name's Danielle or just Dani. And I'm ready to start right now." she said enthusiastically
Undergrowth nodded, "Very well, Dani. Let us begin."
Oh wowee, a scene transition
Vlad watched from the roof of his castle as his apprentice flew side by side with the young half-ghost, the man nodded in approval as they both landed in front of him, "Excellent work Edgar, your flight speed has improved a great deal."
"Thank you sir, it's a lot easier now that I've got the hang-"
The boy was interrupted by the sound of Sam clearing her throat, "Aren't you forgetting something?" she asked rhetorically
Edgar looked down to see his mistake, "Right, sorry." he said before switching back to his human form, "It won't happen again, ma'am."
Sam nodded, "Make sure it doesn't." she ordered
"Edgar, would you please give Samantha and I a moment alone?" Vlad requested to which the young clone nodded and went inside, "Don't you think you're a bit hard on him? It was a simple mistake."
Sam shook her head, "No, I don't want him in ghost mode any longer than he absolutely needs to be."
"You don't trust him?"
"I don't trust ghosts." she clarified
"Not even half-ghosts?"
The girl scoffed, "Oh, you mean like Danny? He's only a half-ghost and look at him!" she pointed out
"Daniel's case is an… unfortunate one. He lives among ghosts, his personality remolded by their influence. Edgar hasn't even seen another ghost aside from our little escape artist." the man reasoned, "I'm sure a little extra time in his secondary form won't result in any major problems."
Sam understood where her mentor was coming from but she still didn't like it, "I'm just worried, you know? I don't want him turning into another enemy we'll have to fight."
The older man nodded, "I understand your concern, I simply ask that you keep an open mind. He is our only chance of saving young Daniel, after all."
The goth sighed, "I hate it when you're right."
"Which I usually am." Vlad said with a smirk, "Now go on, take a fifteen-minute break and then come back to complete your training for the day."
Sam rolled her eyes "Oh wow, a whole five more minutes than yesterday." she said sarcastically as she went inside
"And stow the attitude, young lady!" the man ordered, Vlad sighed in frustration before looking out upon the miles of untouched nature surrounding his castle, 'She'll come around, sooner or later she'll accept the boy for what he is and in turn accept me for what I am, then we can really get to work.' he thought ominously
Oh wowee, a scene transition
Dani sat in the forest, waiting for something to happen, "You know, when you first told me I could control plants I kind of assumed you were gonna show me how." she said to the plantlike ghost sitting next to her
"I never said you could control nature, nobody can, nor should anyone try. You have the power to work with nature, to become one with it in a symbiotic relationship, it will help you so long as you help it. But first you must learn to understand it, and the best way to understand something is by listening to it." Undergrowth explained
"So I just need to sit here and listen to the trees?" she asked
"Yes." the elder ghost answered simply
The girl sighed in defeat before closing her eyes and listening, focusing on the plants around her for what felt like hours until… she gasped "I felt something!" she exclaimed
"Yes, go on." her mentor insisted
"It was weird, I felt this kind of… something I can't explain, it's like something just started to… connect." she described excitedly
"Good, you and the plants are gaining a mutual understanding of each other, you're conversing with them on their level." the plant-ghost explained, "Just keep going and soon we'll be able to move on to your next lesson."
Danielle nodded and continued to focus on the nature surrounding her, feeling more and more connected to it by the second.
Oh wowee, a scene transition
Sam entered Vlad's home theater to find Edgar watching some cartoon about a kid with a pink hat, she approached the young clone and sat down next to him, "What are you watching?" she asked
The boy shrugged in response, "Some weird Nickelodeon show."
The goth looked at the boy, it was so surreal to her, he looked almost exactly like Danny in every way except for the eyes, they were violet, just like hers'. "Vlad said we're gonna start training again in a few minutes."
"Alright"
There was a short pause before Sam gave a sigh, "Look, you get why I don't like you going ghost too much, right?"
Edgar nodded in response, "Yeah, you're afraid it's gonna turn me evil."
"Yeah, that's right." she affirmed
"Well you shouldn't worry about that, I'm not really a ghost, I'm just a human with ghost powers." he explained
The goth couldn't help but smile at this, maybe it was the way he looked and talked just like her former best friend but there was just something about his words that helped reassure her, 'Maybe I am worried about nothing.' she considered, Sam decided to think more about this later, but for now she had to get back to her training, "We should probably get going, you know how much Vlad hates to be kept waiting" she said with a smile
"Alright, sounds good." Edgar said as he got up, switching into his ghost form when he did
It was then that Sam remembered the other reason she didn't like to see the boy in his secondary form. As a human, Edgar had the perfect combination of both Sam and Danny's features, he probably could've passed for their child if he wasn't biologically two years younger than them, but as a ghost he lost all of his resemblance to her, his eyes turned from violet to green and his hair turned white with those flaming blue highlights that she hated so much.
Sam couldn't stand ghosts in general but to see this child, practically her own child, with the features of that stupid blue-haired rock bitch, it made her absolutely furious.
Oh wowee, a scene transition
Danielle sat against a tree, taking a short break from her training, she'd been at it for hours when one little problem just became harder and harder to ignore, "Oh god, I'm starving." she said to herself. She didn't consider hunger as a problem when she ran away and now she was regretting it. "I should've grabbed something from the kitchen, like a bag of chips or a-"
Before she could finish the thought, a piece of fruit fell from the tree she was sitting against, right into her lap, she picked it up, hesitant to eat it, "Go ahead, it's not poisonous." Undergrowth assured, "I told you, nature will take care of you so long as you take care of it."
The girl nodded before taking a bite of the fruit, finishing it in moments, "Thanks, I really needed that. I haven't eaten all day."
The plant-ghost gave her a curious look, "You're not an average ghost are you?" he asked
"What do you mean?"
"Ghosts don't need to eat, yet you grow hungry. Why is that?"
Dani hesitated as she tried to think of a way to explain herself, "Well, I'm kind of… part human. I was cloned from a ghost, a human, and some kind of hybrid."
Undergrowth gave an intrigued look, "Interesting."
"Yeah. Actually, the whole reason I even came here in the first place was to find the two ghosts I was cloned from." the girl pulled the two pictures from her pocket, "Here, maybe you know them."
"Not likely, I try to stay away from other ghosts as much as possible." the plant-ghost took the photos from her and examined them, "Hmm… no, I don't know anyone named Daniel Fenton, unless…" he paused in thought for a moment
"Unless what?!" Dani asked
"A few weeks ago I had somebody try to hide in my garden from two bounty hunters named Danny Phantom and Ember McLain. A lot of post-living ghosts change their names after they die, and usually and usually the ones they pick aren't too different from their original."
"You think these bounty hunters might be them?"
Undergrowth shook his head, "I can't say, but they might be worth seeking out once you're better equipped to defend yourself in the Ghost Zone."
The girl sighed in response, "Well, it's the only lead I've got so far. Thanks Undergrowth."
Oh wowee, a scene transition
Dani's eyes shot open before she looked around in a dazed state, she found herself surrounded by a white void of emptiness that seemed to go on forever, "Where am I?" she asked herself, the last thing she remembered was being exhausted after a long day of training with Undergrowth when she laid down and went to sleep- "Oh, I'm dreaming." she realized
"Danielle?" she heard a familiar voice say from behind her
The girl turned around to see a face that she knew very well, a face that looked a lot like her own, "Edgar? What are you doing in my dream?" she asked
Her twin gave a confused look, "I have no idea."
"Maybe this is some kind of ghost power." the girl reasoned
Seeing that as a sound explanation, Edgar nodded in agreement, "Where are you?" he asked
Dani scoffed at the question "Oh yeah, I'm gonna tell you exactly where I am so you three can come get me." she said sarcastically
"Why did you leave in the first place? I've missed you."
"I miss you too. But I couldn't stay there, not after I found this." she said as she pulled a folded up document from her pocket and handed it to her brother, "They're using us, we're just some crazy science experiment for them to research."
Edgar spoke out loud as he read the document, "Step one, create half-ghost subject. Step two, study subject to find weaknesses. Step three, find a way to separate ghost-half from human-half."
"See?"
"I think you may be reading this the wrong way. Maybe this is a good thing, Sam is always talking about how bad ghosts are."
"Oh really? Well the ghost I met today doesn't seem so bad. He's nice, he's caring, and he's even training me to use my powers. Explain that!" Danielle challenged
"He's probably hiding something, you know how sneaky those… things can be!"
"You've never even met another ghost, you have no idea what you're talking about! And speaking of people who are hiding something, Sam and Vlad hid this plan from us, what makes you think that's all they're hiding?"
The boy groaned in frustration, "Danielle, you're acting ridiculous, just come home, please?"
She shook her head in response, "No, I'm not going back there, I'm staying in the Ghost Zone and finding the ghosts we were cloned from."
"And then what?"
"Then… I don't know." the girl admitted
"Even if you do find them, what makes you think they won't hurt you, or worse? You don't know what they're like, and in case you've already forgotten, they are ghosts!"
"Yeah, well so am I, and I can take care of myself."
A/N: Hello crippling self-doubt in my work! Yeah, I'm not too sure about this chapter, I wanted to give some exposition on the twins, their training, their motivations, and their personalities, but I think I screwed it all up, or maybe I didn't, I don't know. Ugh, so frustrating, I feel like the quality of the series is declining and I can not stand for that.
On the bright side, I do have an idea for the next chapter banging around in my head, so that's good I guess.
Anyway, remember to leave a review telling me all your thoughts and theories, and be sure to follow if you haven't already so you don't miss the next exciting installment.