Oh, What the heck? Why not?
It's Christmas and Fanfiction told me to express my gratitude, so here it is in an early update!
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or other relating characters.
Chapter Twenty Five: Buried
Dani lurched forward with a loud gasp.
Examining her surroundings, she immediately recognized the room as the one she and her friends had been sharing. Where were the others? Where they here?
Dani couldn't really see because of the darkness. There was a small bit of light coming in through the window, but the curtains blocked out most of it.
She went to open the curtains, but could not move her legs.
Dani waited a moment to let her eyes adjust in the darkness. When she could see better, she was able to tell what was holding her legs down.
It was Evella!
The young dragon ghost sat on Dani's legs and continued to watch the female hybrid in silent fascination.
"Evella? What are you doing here?" Dani moved the girl so she was sitting next to her, rather than on her.
Evella didn't answer. She instead held up her hands up, wishing to be carried.
Dani moved her legs over, but was stopped by barrier.
The thud it made caught her attention. She was in gurney.
Dani did a quick run through, making sure all fingers and limbs were secured onto her person. She then climbed over the walls of the gurney and walked to the window.
The city looked alright. She couldn't see a ghost towering over the city, and the Eifel tower was still intact.
Had they won the battle?
Dani walked back to the gurney. Picking up Evella, she shifted into her ghost form and phased out the room.
The entire place was dead quiet.
She silently drifted through the suite, checking the rooms for inhabitants. She found Sam, Tucker, and Valerie asleep in another room, but no one else.
Where was everyone?
She continued drifting through the hall until she came to a room with a light on. Quietly, she poked her head through the door.
Sure enough, the room was inhabited.
Alasdair and Jerome were sound asleep on the couch, the T.V gently humming and flashing images of their previous battle.
Feeling a little weak, she returned to her human form and set Evella down on the couch, alongside her brother.
Evella grabbed onto Dani's wrist, causing the girl to stop in her tracks. "Evella, what's wro-"
A loud beeping noise came from underneath Dani's sleeve.
Dani gave a small gasp as the noise caught her by surprise. After being sure she had not woken up the teenage ghosts, she pushed back her sleeve to see where the noise had come from.
It was some type of a white bracelet, closer to a cuff, secured tightly around her wrist. It had two sets of green numbers illuminated on its surface. One set was her heart rate, but she couldn't tell what the other one was. Her blood pressure, maybe?
Regardless, she was up now. She didn't need this anymore, right?
Dani used her ghost powers and phased the cuff off, only to regret her decision.
As soon as it lost her pulse, the cuff began screeching bloody murder.
The two boys woke up with shouts of surprise. They came to their senses quickly to see Dani trying to silence the monitor.
"It won't stop!" She exclaimed over the screeching of the machine.
The door was slammed open as Spectra came rushing in. She stopped when she saw the halfa, standing and well, hitting the monitor in order to stop the noise. She took it from Dani and phased it back onto the girl's wrist again, successfully stopping the ear-splitting racket. "Thank goodness, you're alright. I thought your heart had given out. Make sure to leave that monitor on. I don't know if you will have a relapse or not." Spectra put her hand on Dani's forehead, trying to get the feel of her body temperature. "How are you feeling? Dizzy? Nauseous?" She seated Dani on the couch.
"No, I feel fine. Just a little tired, but other than that, fine." Dani followed the light Spectra shined into her eyes. "How long have I been out?"
"Two days." Came a sleepy reply from the doorway.
Dani turned away from Spectra to see Sam and Valerie slowly come into the room and seat themselves on the floor in front of her.
Spectra finished up her quick examination of Dani. "I'll be in the room three doors down from here if you need me. Do not over exert yourself." She stood up and drifted out of the room.
"Where is everyone?" Dani asked the remaining inhabitants of the room.
Sam let out a yawn and stretched herself out. "They're in the Ghost Zone. A lot of the ghosts have gone home."
"So we defeated Pariah?"
Valerie answered her this time. "Yes. Dan took care of him, permanently."
Dani looked down for a moment; the image of Pandora's severed body flashing through her mind's eye. "I don't suppose Pandora made it."
"No. The others are burying her now." Valerie pulled her legs closer to herself as she crossed her legs.
"Don't worry." Sam put her hand on Dani's. "Her sacrifice wasn't in vain. Pariah won't ever come back."
"So that's it? Everyone has gone home?"
"No, not everyone." Alasdair quipped.
"Why not?"
There was a long silence as the others refused to meet Dani's gaze.
"Come one guys! Why not?"
"In case we had to lay you to rest as well." Jerome received a smack on the back of a head from his cousin. He gave him a small glare in return.
Dani gave an inaudible "Oh."
"You need not be wary, Danielle. By the looks of it, it looks like you will be just fine." Alasdair could not believe how insensitive his cousin could be. "You feel fine, do you not?"
Dani smiled to herself. "Yeah, I do."
"…and may she rest in peace."
Each ghost stepped forward and threw a piece of Ghost Zone greenery into the grave.
The ghosts brought their hands together as if they were doing a prayer.
Danny was a little lost, he had never been to a ghost funeral before, and simply put his hands together in front of him.
Where they really praying?
Vlad leaned over Danny and corrected his hands. "Like this, Little Badger." He said softly, arranging Danny's hands so his right finger tips were showing. "Now, build a little bit of your ghostly energy into your fingertips."
Danny did as he was told, watching as the revealed fingertips of the other ghosts began glowing gently.
They stood like that for the longest time until Skulker, who had been the closest one to the grave on the right side, released his energy into the grave. The ghosts followed suit, each releasing their energy one after the other.
Danny released his energy after Vlad, ending the last ritual of the funeral.
Desiree then used her energy to levitate the dirt mound, and fill the grave.
There was another moment of silence as the ghosts stared at Pandora's final resting place. She had been buried in her temple where the many creatures, once under her control, would guard her treasures, and now her grave.
"Let's head back." Vlad calmly instructed the ghosts who would be returning with him.
"Press that key to move forward. Come on! Jump! Jump!" Dani had been introducing Alasdair and Jerome to the wonderful world of videogames.
The boys had no idea what they were, much to Dani's horror, and agreed to let Dani show them.
The controls were fairly easy for them to learn, but it was the objective of the games that confused them.
Dani had to explain that they could not work side by side if one person was the villain and other the hero. She also had to explain that the games were not trying to turn them against each other, but trying to encourage some friendly competition.
In her excitement, Dani didn't notice something fall out of her shirt.
Evella picked up the fallen item. It was a photograph. She tugged on Dani's sleeve to get her attention.
"What do you have there?" Dani took the picture from Evella.
It was the picture she got from Valerie at the prom! Why would she have this? Unless…it wasn't a dream! She really did travel through time! She really met Clockwork.
"Is that a still portrait, Danielle?" Jerome tried to look around Dani's grip at the picture, but she turned it away.
"Yes, but it's nothing. No need to worry about it." Dani hastily tucked the picture away into her shirt. She pointed to the T.V screen. "Jerome, you're losing!"
He yelped as he saw his life bar fall into the red zone.
Vlad phased into the room with Danny, Dan, Aragon, Skulker, and Ember.
Everyone was utterly exhausted from their constant traveling. Not only had they buried Pandora, but they had to fly throughout the Ghost Zone fixing up Pariah's messes and making sure Walker did not try and stage a revolt.
Bertrand had to stay behind in the Ghost Zone to see to the other ghosts' medical needs.
"Welcome back." Spectra set her book down to greet them.
First thing Dan did was walk over to Spectra.
"How is she doing?" Dan asked her.
Spectra pointed to the illuminated room. "Why don't you go see for yourself?"
Much to everyone's surprise, it was Danny who shot out of the room like a flying bullet. Dan calmly followed behind him at a walking pace.
Danny burst the door open and practically tackled Dani from the couch to the ground in a hug. "You don't know how worried I was!"
Giggling, she hugged her brother back. "I'm fine, aren't I?"
"Thank God!" Danny pulled away and helped her back onto her feet.
"Danielle! You should still be in bed, what are you doing up?" Vlad entered with Dan close behind.
"You heard the man." Dan knocked Dani's feet out from underneath her and picked her up. "We don't want you collapsing again." He carried her back to the room she woke up in.
This time, Vlad set up the monitors and inserted the IV needle into her arm. "Now, if you need anything, you can push the red button. I'll leave you two be." He left with those last words.
As soon as his footsteps faded away, Dani pulled the photograph from earlier out. "Dan, do you remember this?"
Dan took the photo from her for a closer look. "Yes, I do." He chuckled to himself as remembered all the trouble he had caused for Valerie. "Where did you get this?"
"Uh…" She probably shouldn't tell him it was Clockwork, knowing his dislike for the ghost and all. "A friend gave it to me."
Dan gave her that look. The one that says 'I'm seriously supposed to believe you?'
"Fine! It was Clockwork. He isn't all that bad!"
"You spend a few months trapped inside a thermos because of him and then come back and tell me that."
"I thought you were here because of him." Dani came back.
Dan sighed in defeat. "True. Now come on, you're supposed to be sleeping."
"I still can't believe it." Sam plopped herself down on her mattress.
"Why not? It's just another normal day. We traveled to the other side of the globe, defeated an insane ghost king, and got to miss out on weeks of school. What's not to believe?" Danny joked as he sat next to her.
Danny's smile never left his face as he finally swallowed the lump in his throat. He took Sam's hands in each of his and slowly met her gaze.
A silence ensued, but they didn't need to speak to know what was on the other's mind.
Little by little, they each crept closer until their lips met in the middle.
Time seemed to standstill as they deepened the kiss and wrapped their arms around each other's necks.
They finally broke apart, their need for oxygen growing with each passing moment. Violet eyes met deep blue.
"S-Sam." Danny stuttered nervously. "Will you be my girlfriend?"
"Yes. Yes!" Sam smiled as she pulled her now-boyfriend into another kiss. She had dreamed of this moment forever, and it was finally happening.
It was in that very moment; Danny realized why he had been called clueless all those time before.
"Dan!" Vlad caught the man on his way out of Danielle's room.
"Yes?" He shut the door behind him quietly.
"About that condo you wanted." Vlad fished around in his front pocket until he found a slip of white paper. "This is the address. I think you will find the location rather convenient. It's the halfway point between my house and the Fenton's. It's sparsely furnished, so if you want more it will be on you."
"That will be fine." Unbeknownst to them, Dan hated cluttering more than anything.
Vlad handed him two sets of keys. After spending the past week with everyone, he had a pretty good idea as to who was going to get the other set of keys.
Vlad had been dying to ask about his relationship with Danielle, but Dan probably wouldn't answer something like that. He swallowed it down with Dan's thanks. "You're welcome."
Tucker flipped through the channels absent mindedly. No one had bothered to wake him up when Dani had woken. When he had woken, he ended up walking into Danny and Sam being rather…affectionate. "This sucks!" he loudly declared to the only other person in the room.
Valerie gave an aggravated sigh as she flipped the page of Ember's magazine. She couldn't read French, but the pictures were nice to look at. "What?"
"I'm in the city of love, and I still haven't gotten any."
"Pfft! You dream big, Tucker." Valerie shook her head at his foolish dreams.
"I'll get some eventually." Tucker frowned as he heard her suppress a laugh. He picked up his Hamlet manuscript with a smirk.
Getting some in the city of love. Not as easy as you would think.
One of the many reasons I am happy to be girl.
Anyways, Happy Holidays!
I don't celebrate Christmas, but thanks to everyone who wished me so. My heart is a big melted puddle now. I love you guys!
Review Please!