Danny jumped back out of the way of the blade. He turned for a moment to see the humans staring at him.
"Run. Your weapons are in a storage room down the hall on the right," he yelled to them before firing a ghost ray at Mariah. This broke them out of their trance. They ran to the door and heaved it open and ran down the hall, peering into every door to their right. Danny wasn't treating them like he would normally but he was treating them as allies. It was an improvement.
They found the storage room and with a sigh of relief they grabbed their weapons and ran back to the throne room to help. They pushed open the door to see Danny being thrown across the room. He had a bad cut to his left arm and his right leg had a scratch on it. He slammed into the wall and crumpled to the ground. Mariah loomed over him and pulled her sword out ready to deal a killing blow.
"You forget that you needed an ecto-suit to defeat my brother. You cannot to defeat me," Mariah remarked.
Then Sam recalled something. Mariah had said that Danny was stronger now than he was when he fought Pariah Dark. It was true. When Danny faced Pariah Dark, he hadn't had his ghostly wail or his ice powers. He was still working on learning to duplicate. He couldn't use his ghost energy to levitate things like he could now. Danny was stronger than before. Also Mariah had said something about Danny being outmatched with her brother because of the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire. Danny could defeat her and Mariah knew it. She was banking on the fact that Danny couldn't remember his powers.
"Danny! You can use a ghostly wail! You have ice powers! You can beat her!" Sam screamed to him before Mariah threw her sword down. She impaled Danny through the stomach. He gasped before looking up at Mariah. He heard Sam and he took the deepest breath he could muster despite the pain and confusion. He then let the breath out with an explosion of power. Mariah was caught off guard and was thrown across the throne room into the opposite wall.
Maddie scowled at the queen and withdrew a working prototype of a miniature Fenton Thermos and sucked the queen inside. Then they ran to Danny's side. The sword was still sticking out of his stomach and the ground was quickly becoming covered in a puddle of ectoplasm. Danny was struggling to stay awake.
"Danny? Can you hear me?" Sam asked, crouching beside him and gently pulling Danny's face to look at her. He nodded slowly at her. Sam smiled weakly at him and blinked away the tears that threatened to fall. Emotions were running high. She turned to Tucker.
He nodded grimly and ran over to a wall and cautiously walked through it before disappearing off to look for the Speeder and Jazz and Nurse Green.
"Sweetheart, you need to stay with us alright," Maddie whispered to Danny.
"Hard to focus. Still confused," he managed weakly. He closed his eyes.
"No! Danny stay awake. Tucker's gone to find Nurse Green. She'll help you. But you need to stay ghost until then," Sam ordered him. Danny opened his eyes and nodded slowly.
"Sorry for listening to Mariah," Danny muttered weakly. Sam shook her head.
"Son, she fooled you. It wasn't your fault," Jack attempted.
Danny nodded slowly but Sam wasn't sure if he believed that.
"How much did you hear in the dungeon?" Maddie asked. Danny smiled weakly.
"Not much. Something about not liking Dash. Then about how you were going to ask me why I wanted to be king. Something about an argument and Frostbite," Danny recalled tiredly.
"Did it work then?" Maddie pressed. They had to keep him talking. He chuckled softly.
"Yeah, I guess it did. Got me thinking. That's why Mariah," Danny began and started to trail off. Sam slapped him gently on the face.
"Come on Danny stay awake," she urged. He opened his eyes again and nodded.
"That's why Mariah brought you here. She found out I'd been down to you guys," Danny resumed weakly.
Suddenly they heard footsteps running to them, the door creaked open and in ran Tucker, Nurse Green, Jazz and Bianca. Nurse Green stopped for a moment when she saw Danny and quickly assessed his wounds. She nodded grimly and turned to Tucker.
"Go help your friend. The messenger is fast. But if you tell her that the queen has been defeated, she may stop," Nurse Green informed Tucker. He nodded and ran out of the room. Nurse Green then walked purposefully over to Danny and gently pulled Sam away.
"Bring the Speeder closer," she ordered Sam. Sam tore her gaze away from Danny and nodded slowly before running out of the room.
"Jazz, take your parents away. This isn't going to be pretty," Nurse Green commanded and she nodded to Bianca.
"Take her as well," Nurse Green added. Jazz nodded slowly and did as the ghost told her.
Nurse Green to the rescue! Sorry, I just had to say it. But we're getting close to the end now.
Let me know what you think so far.
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Until the next chapter.
