"Life! Life! LIFE!" Reaper shouted. "Oh, what a beautiful thing! It's so close, Penelope! So close! It's so close that it hurts!"

Penelope stared at him, trying to look indifferent, but she was still struggling with herself. She couldn't turn back now, though, and she knew it. If she told him the truth, he would give her a fate far worse than a second death.

Benjamin saw none of this on her face. He was looking at his surroundings, planning while idly observing everything around him. The Titans and the helpless boy were nowhere in sight, he having taken them to a door he had deemed a good place to keep them until his work was completed. Skulker was lying a few feet away from where he now stood, unmoving. Benjamin had tried everything to get into that suit- to get to the ghost somewhere inside that had caused him years of endless misery- but was finding this a more difficult task than he had expected. Sharp objects couldn't penetrate the metal skin- built particularly in mind for Benjamin's cane- and the bolts (which had been upgraded since past fights with a certain Ghost Boy) were welded over with the metal to strengthen it and more firmly connect each piece, making it impossible to take apart. It had certainly been improved since their last encounter. He was fairly certain that if he banged it a few times he might at last get inside, but he couldn't be distracted and that would take too long. He wanted to focus on his key to life. Oh, that wonderful boy! How he couldn't wait to see that heart in his hand! In his chest! His beating chest! It excited him so much that he was verging on delirium.

"You don't think he's going to try anything?" Penelope asked.

"No. I expect nothing from the boy," Benjamin said placidly, "but I expect his friends to try something, but it's nothing to concern ourselves over." Careful. Do not become Goliath when you are so close to success!

"You truly believe he's going to let you kill him?" Penelope asked, her tone almost a scoffing laugh.

She was answered, at first, with a long, thick silence, and then: "I would have given my life ten times over to save my wife," Benjamin said, his tone suddenly changing to a sorrowful, severe tone. "He will die for his friends."

Penelope didn't say anything.

Benjamin suddenly looked at her with curious interest. "Why do you ask?"

She paused. He didn't like that.

"Why are you so nervous, Penelope?"

She hesitated again and again he didn't like it, but at last she answered with a factual tone; "It just feels so easy. Nothing comes easy."

"Easy?!" he laughed. "I've failed once, spent thousands of miserable- oh so miserable!- years as a prisoner with no company but my own mind, lost all of my power and had to regain them. I would not call that easy."

Penelope looked at him for a moment, then; "Benjamin..."

He looked at her, noticing she was still nervous, but there was something else, though he couldn't place it. She looked scared, but why? "Yes?"

She hesitated a moment and then continued, "What will you do when... when you become alive again?"

He smiled softly. "I will breathe."

"That's not precisely what I mean..."

He looked at her and suddenly understood. Her eyes said it all. He should have seen it earlier. "I will finish what I started and then I will put the Ghost Zone behind me; all ghosts with it."

She looked down at the ground and nodded.

Benjamin looked out into the Ghost Zone for a moment thoughtfully and then turned to her again. "I am going to be very near the breathers when Danny comes. While I am occupied with him, I will need you watching his friends. If they move, alert me."

"I will," she said.

Benjamin's eyes flashed and- before she even saw him move- he had fired a red blast near the rocks behind her.

"Don't shoot, Reaper! It's me!" shouted a small voice from behind it.

"Come out, then, Bertrand," Benjamin said, relaxing from the battle-stance he had melted into.

"What are you doing sneaking around like that?" Penelope asked angrily, putting her hands on her hips.

"Sorry. I saw Skulker and got nervous," Bertrand said, slowly coming out from behind the rock.

Penelope felt her chest tighten suddenly as fear returned to her. What if he had found something that contradicted with what she had told Reaper? She couldn't let him talk- not until she had had a chance to warn him. She needed to do something; quickly!

She flew towards him abruptly, grabbed his shoulders and put on a mask of irritation. "Where have you been? What took you so long?" she was building up her voice, so as to make Benjamin think they were about to get in an argument and hopefully turn his attention to other things.

"Skulker caught me following the teens. Speaking of that-"

"Did I find anything out? Yes. I did. In a minute I'll tell you everything that happened while you were gone," Penelope interrupted quickly.

"I wasn't going to say that," Bertrand said indignantly. "I was going to say that I-"

"Must you blabber on?" Penelope asked impatiently.

"You're tense, Penelope," Reaper stated blandly from behind her.

She froze. Oh, I'm caught! He knows! He must know! She turned slowly and faced Benjamin, who was leaning against the Specter Speeder, looking at her intently.

"I-" she began, but he interrupted her, smiling softly.

"Calm yourself. This will all be over soon, I assure you," he smiled again. It was so soft, so sweet, and almost kind. She stared at him, almost not believing it. He didn't know. How could he not know? she thought to herself, I must have stumbled a dozen times! But no, she knew, he didn't know. What amazing luck! But was it?

"I didn't find anything out," Bertrand said, taking advantage of the momentary silence.

Penelope didn't notice. She was looking at that smile; that beautiful, charming smile. Curse that smile!

"That's alright," Benjamin said, looking at the black form known sometimes as Spectra. "Penelope did."

Bertrand looked up at her with interest. "Really?"

"Yes... and like I said, I'll tell you all about it later," she said, but her eyes never strayed, until she realized Benjamin was staring back her. She could his eyes upon her like beams of heat. She looked into those eyes, hoping, almost pleading to see something in them that would make her change her mind, but the reflection she saw was cold and she knew that he when the time came that he must kill her, he wouldn't give it a second thought. She branded her mind with that look and would remind herself of it every time she had doubts from here on in. She was decided.