A/N: I am actually quite burned out regarding Vlad at the moment, so let's switch the focus back to Danny and his friends (read: Ember) for the time being.

Chapter 28 – Frostbite's Gift

Phantom Mansion

"Heck no, baby pop!" Ember grumbled and furiously shook her head. "That ain't happening."

"Aww, come on, Em!" Danny tried to coax her. "The Far Frozen isn't that bad! Heck, Tucker and Sam could survive just fine and they're humans! Heck, I'm only half human!"

The ghost rocker folded her arms. "Are you forgetting something, dipstick? Fire core? In a frigging ice zone? Pass!"

Danny smirked. "Don't try to lie to me, Em. You want to know what Frostbite offered me, don't you?"

"I don't see why you can't just tell me what he's gonna give you," Ember shot back.

"I…actually don't know," Danny admitted. "He offered me a couple of yetis to work here…but that's pretty much all I know. I honestly don't have any idea what he's gonna give me. All I know is that he wanted me to come back to the Far Frozen after I was done so that he could help me out afterward."

He sighed. "All right, fine, I'll go alone. Keep an eye of Dani and Wulf while I'm gone, all right?" he asked before flying up into the air and zooming out of sight.

Ember stared after him for several seconds before, grumbling under her breath, she lifted herself into the air as well. "Frigging hell," she growled as she chased after Danny. Hopefully she wouldn't have to stay in that frigging ice hellhole as long as possible. Her mood only soured further as she realized that Danny had stopped to wait for her, a smug smirk stretched across his face.

"Thought so," he said confidently as she floated up towards him.

"Shaddap…" the ghost rocker growled as she followed him towards Frostbite's Kingdom.

Far Frozen, Thirty Minutes Later

"Can we just get out of here?" Ember complained as she and Danny flew over the heavy snowbanks of the main Far Frozen realm. She had insisted on dropping by her realm so that she could put on a heavy fur coat and a lot more layers of heavy clothing. Judging by her behavior, it didn't look like it was helping her much.

Danny looked at her, bemused. "Wow you really ARE sensitive to cold, aren't you?" he commented.

Ember shot him a glare. "Fire core, ice realm. You do the math, dipstick." As she turned her head forward again, she ended up colliding straight into the fur of a yeti and bounced backward into the snow. The yeti howled in shock as the flames of Ember's hair brushed against her fur, and she quickly sank her arm into the snow to douse the flames.

"Sorry!" Danny quickly apologized for his friend. The yeti looked up at him in annoyance, but it immediately melted away into respect and wonder as she realized who she was staring at.

"Great One!" the yeti exclaimed. "We did not look to see you here so soon!"

"Yeah, sorry about that, Icicle" the halfa replied sheepishly. "I finished the basics of my realm a lot faster than I thought I would. Is Frostbite here?"

Icicle nodded enthusiastically. "He'll be delighted to see you, Great One! And…" she narrowed her eyes slightly at Ember, "...what exactly are you doing in the company of the Hero of the Ghost Zone?"

Ember instantly realized that the Far Frozen yetis knew all about her and her…reputation. "Whoa, whoa, whoa…" she raised her hands in a pacifying gesture. "I'm on the baby pop's side, we're all cool now. No more world domination plans, that's all a thing of the past."

"I have little doubt about that," Icicle answered. "None would dare violate the declarations established a few days ago. To incur the combined wrath of the Primordials, the Ghost Elders, AND the Dark Phantom would raise foolishness into an art form. No, I am merely curious as to why you are the single chosen companion of Danny Phantom, when so many others would gladly have come alongside you."

Ember and Danny looked at each other. "Uh…" Danny shrugged. "I dunno, actually. She was the only one around at the time, I guess?"

The yeti smiled knowingly but said nothing more on the topic. "Let us depart immediately, you two. King Frostbite will surely be pleased to see you again."

The three of them entered the depths of the Far Frozen Mountain and began walking to the center of Frostbite's kingdom, exchanging small talk along the way. They passed by several other yetis as they got closer, all of whom saluted Danny while giving Icicle and surprisingly even Ember nods in greeting.

"I hope you guys are fine after that giant ecto-storm," Danny remarked. "It was really bad where I was."

Icicle laughed dryly. "Surely you must have more faith in us, Great One!" she commented. "Rest assured, we were well prepared for the supernatural disaster that befell us. No casualties were suffered and minimal property damage occurred."

Danny sighed in relief. "That's good to hear."

Icicle suddenly looked up and grin. "Excellent, we have arrived!"

Frostbite's palace stood majestically in front of them, its towering walls shimmering with the majestic luminescence that only ghost ice could create. The two guards standing in front of them smiled at Danny and Icicle, and before Danny could even ask one of them departed into the castle to inform Frostbite about their arrival. Minutes later, the King of the Far Frozen himself swung the doors open, smiling warmly down at his young friend.

"Great One!" he declared. "A pleasure to see you again, and so soon too! What brings you to the Far Frozen? Whatever service you require, we will be more than happy to provide!"

"Great!" Danny grinned. "Because I've finished the basics of my ghost realm!"

Frostbite's eyes widened in shock. "This quickly?" he gasped. "But how? Ghost realms can take months to create, and this is without taking the massive size of your realm into account!"

The halfa grinned. "Combination of boredom, an Ecto-Skeleton that boosts my powers by a hundred, a lot of spare time, you get the idea."

Frostbite laughed heartily at that. "Indeed, young Phantom. Now that you have completed the fundamentals of your realm, we may now begin working on how to improve it and truly transform it into something spectacular! Come, follow me, the two of you. There is much that I have to show you!"

To Ember's disappointment, instead of welcoming them into his castle, Frostbite started walking out of it, gesturing her and Danny to follow them into the city. It wasn't very long before they found themselves in front of a large and surprisingly modern-looking facility, a factory that had been made from a combination of ghost ice and the solid stone of the mountain.

"What exactly are we seeing here?" Ember asked.

"Patience, ghost rocker," Frostbite replied. "You will see soon enough."

The yeti king clapped his hands together once, and immediately the large doors to the factory swung open. Danny and Ember both gasped as they beheld a gigantic manufacturing assembly not unlike those commonly found in the living world. Conveyer belts were busily carrying objects into various machines, which hummed and whirred as they produced different materials out of their depths. At the end of the assembly line, two yetis were picking up what looked like bottles of drinks and loading them onto a cart to be carried away, and at the beginning of it all two more yetis were piling on…

"Core crystals?" Ember gaped. "You're making drinks out of CORE CRYSTALS?"

"Indeed!" Frostbite confirmed. "The core crystals make for excellent drinks after they have been thoroughly crushed and processed in our factory here. Ever since the core crystals were weakened by the leading authorities of the Ghost Zone all those years ago, they would be of no use to those seeking power. But that does not mean that they cannot serve more mundane uses, for they make excellent energy boosting drinks to ghosts who need to, as the mortals say, freshen up."

Ember's head was still spinning from confusion. "But…but…the Old Timer would have your head for using them like this!"

The leader of the Far Frozen burst out into laughter. "The Primordial of Time? Nonsense! If anything, he was highly amused by our idea and gave it his full approval. As such, we and we alone have been allowed full access to the island of the ice crystals for years now, and have converted those crystals into beverages for our regular consumption."

It was then that Danny realized why Frostbite was showing them this. "This is where I'll get the drinks for my bar, isn't it, Frostbite?" he asked, a smile slowly spreading across his face.

"Correct!" Frostbite confirmed. "And the ice crystals are not the only ones capable of undergoing this transformation. Although we have not used the other crystals to nearly the same extent, in our earlier tests we have indeed confirmed that every single one of the core crystals can undergo this process."

Ember finally got over her bewilderment and managed a smirk. "Can't wait to try the fire drink."

Frostbite frowned. "Unfortunately for you, Miss McLain, we do not have any beverages currently available apart from the ice drinks. We certainly would not be handling fire crystals on a regular basis for reasons that I am sure should be fairly intuitive to everyone. I do plan on helping Daniel recreate a smaller version of this factory in his realm and I will send a few of my kin to staff his bar, but that will come at a later point in time."

Ember rolled her eyes. "Always gotta wait for the good stuff, huh, baby pop?"

Danny smirked. "Hey, at least there actually IS good stuff to wait for."

"Can't argue with that I suppose," the ghost rocker conceded. "So what's next? You gonna show us how this thing works?"

Frostbite shook his head. "This is a very complicated system of machinery, and it would take much too long for me to fully explain all of the details. When I and my kin have reconstructed it at the Great One's ghost realm, then I will describe how it functions. All you need to know is that this is the secret to how you will create the drinks for your ghost realm, young Phantom."

"That sounds great!" Danny exclaimed. "Can't wait to try these out! Can I have one now?"

Frostbite hesitated. "I'm afraid not," he finally refused, "and I say this only on the grounds that it would not be fair to your guest. Now then, I have one other thing to show you, something that I believe will interest you much more at this current moment."

"More than this?" the halfa asked skeptically. "That's going to be kind of hard."

The yeti king smiled knowingly. "You will soon see, young Phantom." He escorted him and Ember out of the factory and, to their surprise, out of the main parts of the city. The two ghosts both noticed that they were going into a more sparsely populated area of the mountain, and the only yetis that they saw now were heavily armored and armed with fearsome-looking weaponry.

"What's with all the guards, furball?" Ember asked.

"Many of our treasures are stored here, and only the greatest and most loyal of our soldiers are permitted to guard them," Frostbite explained. "They have been thoroughly and extensively trained to fight off any kind of intruder, even those with an opposing core like fire. We have increased our training regimen thoroughly ever since Plasmius attempted to abscond with the precious Infi-Map, even though the security measures that have been added to that item would technically render the map useless to intruders anyway. We have learned to leave nothing to chance."

Finally, they approached a massive cave entrance where several yeti soldiers stood guard. All of them immediately bowed before Frostbite and saluted Danny before stepping aside to let them pass. Frostbite, Danny, and Ember descended down a set of stone stairs deep into the cavern, the only light illuminating from several torches that, instead of bearing flames, bore sparkling crystals that shined with an inner light. As they descended the final set, the stairs opened into a large network of spanning corridors where even more yeti guards patrolled. Ember and Danny immediately noticed that the walls were lined with several vault doors, all of which were firmly sealed shut. Whatever was behind those doors, it had to be highly valuable.

"I'm surprised these guys haven't complained about being down here all the time," the ghost rocker commented dryly.

One of the yeti guards who heard her remark laughed. "To be chosen as guardian of the Far Frozen Vaults is one of the highest honors a yeti warrior could achieve, fiery one," he boasted. "We will gladly protect these vaults with our very lives."

"Greetings, Hielgarth!" Frostbite greeted him as only a noble king would. "Please escort us to the Vault of the Great One, if you would be so kind."

"He/I have a Vault here?" Ember and Danny both asked at the same time. They looked at each other with utter bafflement, but with Hielgarth already moving there was no time to question the matter further. He guided them down the corridors until they were standing in front of a vault door that, unlike the others, had the initials DP firmly carved into them. Hielgarth got to work on the door, entering in password combinations before finally spinning the wheel, swinging the door open.

Danny's eyes nearly bulged immediately when he saw the contents of the room. Inside was the largest amount of gold, precious jewels, and dollar bill stacks that he had ever seen. More wealth than he had ever seen in his entire life outside of Vlad's mansion, and…

"All of this is yours!" Frostbite declared. "Ever since you defeated Pariah Dark, we have collected this wealth all in your honor. And I can think of no better time to reveal this to you, than the moment you create one of the largest and most public ghost realms in the history of the Ghost Zone!"

Ember felt a wave of jealousy build up in her, but she forced those thoughts out of her head. "Dammit!" she thought furiously. "The guy who stuck me up at the movie theater was a rich jerk who thought he could screw around with me cause of his money. I'm better than that bastard!"

"Em?" Danny's voice broke into her thoughts. "You know you can take some if you want, right?"

"Wha…?" Ember snapped back into reality. "Uh, yeah, sure. Thanks, gimme a sec…"

She haphazardly stumbled into the room, taking one of many bags that was lying down on the floor. Danny had expected the undead diva to enthusiastically hoard as much as she possibly could, so he was surprised when she only took a few bill stacks and handfuls of gold coins before stopping. She honestly didn't seem all that happy about the fact that she had likely just become several thousands of dollars richer.

"You all right?" Danny asked worriedly.

Ember forced a smirk. "Yeah, I'm fine, baby pop. Don't worry about it."

"Ahem!" Frostbite interrupted them with a cough. He could immediately sense that something was troubling the young ghost rocker, and knew that now was not the best time for her or Danny to dwell on such matters. "I know what you are going to say, young Phantom. That surely you cannot accept this money that we have offered you. However, this is not merely a gift. This is a lesson."

His eyes narrowed. "I have spoken extensively with Lord Clockwork about you, young Phantom, and I know what your ghostly obsession is. Your heroism, your selflessness. These are all admirable traits, and I truly wish that there were more ghosts like you who had virtues as the core of their obsessions. However, this does not change the fact that you are indulging continually in your ghostly obsession, and that is unhealthy for the mentality of any ghost."

"Why?" Danny suddenly felt defensive. "What's wrong with what I've been doing?"

"For now? Nothing," Frostbite explained. "But indulging in any obsession at all, regardless of whether it is good, evil, or neutral, can have disastrous consequences for the ghost in question and possibly for the ones around him. Clockwork shown me many things, young Phantom. Because of your obsession, your personal life has suffered and the bond between you and your loved ones tested. For now, the worst consequences were poor grades and the injuries from your constant fighting. But things will grow worse over time, young Phantom. I have heard many ghosts claim that they could constantly indulge in their obsessions without consequence, and none have ever lived up to that boast."

He pointed at the halfa. "You are unique, in that you are a half ghost. Despite what I have just said, a full ghost cannot overcome his or her obsession completely, merely channel it to non-destructive means or focus on other matters simultaneously. But you are not fully affected by your ghostly obsession, Great One, and you have the opportunity to exert greater control over others. By no means do I suggest that you throw away the virtues that have made you a hero, but you must learn to take care of yourself as well as others."

Frostbite pointed at this gold. "Accepting this wealth will show me that you are capable of accomplishing just that. So long as much of it is used for the development of your ghost realm, I do not care what becomes of it afterwards. But this is a first step that you must take, I insist on it."

"Why couldn't Clockwork just tell me that himself?" Danny asked, annoyed.

Frostbite shrugged. "I could not possibly fathom the mind of the Primordial of Time, young halfa. For that, you would have to ask him yourself."

Danny looked back at the gold, conflict roiling in his eyes. It still didn't feel right, taking all of this gold and money away from the Far Frozen, and a part of him was urging, almost yelling at him to refuse the offer. But the fact remained that he needed this money if he was ever going to bring his ghost realm to completion, and honestly, Frostbite was right. What was wrong about taking it if it was being freely offered to him? He'd certainly deserved it after protecting the living and ghostly realms for so long."

"All right, Frostbite," Danny reluctantly agreed. "If you say so."

The king of the Far Frozen grinned. "Excellent!" he declared. "This will surely provide you with the resources that you need to develop your realm properly. I will be sending some yetis of the Far Frozen who wish to serve you in your realm at a future date, but for now I think it would be best for you to begin the next stages of developing your realm."

"That's fine by me, Frostbite!" the halfa's uneasiness was slowly being replaced by excitement. "Thanks so much for everything you've done to help me!"

Frostbite laughed. "My pleasure, Great One. Your realm holds much promise, and I would be honored to see that potential achieved in full!"

It was then that Danny realized that Ember was still there, still looking somewhat uneasily at the bag of riches that she was now holding. "Something's up with her," he thought. "Most people would jump at the chance to get their hands on even a fraction of what I have. Has it got something to do with her past?"

Ember glared at him. "What are you staring at, dipstick?" she barked.

"N-nothing!" Danny hastily replied. "I don't know if Ember trusts me enough to tell me about her past yet," he thought, "but I hope that time comes soon."

/

Finally! Exams are done and I graduated from university! I feel free as a bird! At least for the next week or so anyway lol.

I decided to switch the focus back to Danny and Ember since this fic is supposed to have them as the main pairing and the ghost realm has been out of focus lately. And yes, the mystery of the core crystals and their role has finally been revealed!

Next chapter will go straight back to Dan and Vlad, though. I'm sure many of you are dying to know how their confrontation will turn out.

Read and review please!