"You can't be my dad," said Dustin. "You're, like, way old."
"Time is less of a hindrance to the dead than the living?"
"What the heck does that mean?"
"I have died. But before my spirit can move on to the next world, I must do penance for my sins. I have come through time to guide you and others to their rightful course."
"Penance? For what?" Dustin could think of quite a lot of things he thought his dad had done wrong, but nothing seemed to fit with this whole spiritual guide thing. But he had to admit, looking more closely at the old man in front of him, he did look a lot like his dad.
In answer to his question, the forest seemed to fade around Dustin, leaving an image of another wood, one blooming in early spring. A young woman in the uniform of the Wind Ninja Academy was running between the trees. Dustin stared at her, the tears returning to his eyes as he recognised her face.
"Mum?" he breathed, "That's not possible. Mum wasn't a ninja."
"Yes, she was. It was no coincidence that you found the ninja school; a ninja spirit flows through your blood."
Dustin watched the woman run. She was searching for something, looking all about her. She peered through the vegetation even as her feet pounded across the earth. Then she saw what she was looking for. A man was kneeling on the ground, scratching something into the earth. Dustin saw the symbols glowing and new them to be marks of the dark magic, similar to the ones Hunter had been using. He also recognised the face of the man who knelt there, dealing in powers he shouldn't.
"So it's true," said Dustin's mum. His dad looked up sharply from his work, jumping in surprise at the sudden interruption.
"I've not done anything dangerous," his dad said, standing. Beside him, the symbols continued to glow in the earth. Dustin looked at his dad, young and dressed in a yellow-trimmed ninja uniform. Dustin wondered if this was all just a dream. There was no way he could have missed the fact his parents were ninjas, no matter how much of an airhead everyone thought him. Surely Sensei would have said something to him. Surely Dad would.
"You're using the dark powers, Nigel," Dustin's mum said, "That's forbidden."
"What's wrong with using a spell to increase my strength if I use that strength to help people."
"The dark powers change people. You're changing. You might not see it, but I do, and Dustin does. You get angry over the slightest little thing; you never used to." She rolled up her sleeve, revealing bruises on her forearm spaced about the distance of grasping fingers. "You would never have hurt me."
He stared at the bruises. "Oh Chrissie."
"This is what your new strength has done. This is what the dark powers have done."
"I can control it."
"You can't control yourself anymore. You scared your own son so badly that he shut himself in his room hiding under his bed!"
Dustin remembered. His dad had suddenly started getting angry over nothing. Then Dustin had said the wrong thing at dinner time and his dad had flung a plate at his face. He remembered his dad grabbing hold of the carving knife and Dustin had thought, from the anger in his father's face, that he was about to be murdered over an ill-thought phrase.
"You've got to stop this now," Dustin's mum went on, "if not for my sake then for Dustin's. He needs his father. He doesn't need this monster you're becoming."
"I can handle it, Chrissie. I know what I'm doing."
"You can't handle it. No one can. That's why these powers are so dangerous."
"Don't tell me what I can't do!" With a sudden burst of rage, he hit her, a back-hand slap across the face. But the strength behind it was inhuman. She was lifted from the ground, flying through the air until her head slammed into a tree trunk. But the momentum meant her body was still moving, her neck breaking with a sickening crack.
Dustin turned away. He couldn't bear to look. Tears were gushing from his eyes as he heard his father frantically checking for a pulse, begging for forgiveness, begging for her not to die.
There hadn't been a car crash. His dad had lied to him. He knew his dad always felt to blame for his mum's death, but now he knew why. It was because he'd murdered her.
The scene vanished, leaving Dustin sobbing in the grey forest, his cries joining those of the lost souls inhabiting this place.
"What I did," said the old man, his father, "can never be made right. But I have been given an opportunity to prevent others from making the same mistakes as me."
"You're the one who saved Hunter?"
"Yes. I now I want to save you."
Dustin shook his. "Lothor shot me. I'm dead."
"Not necessarily. Not if you have something worth going back to."
The forest faded again, this time replaced by the Ninjops. Dustin saw his own body lying on the table. He stared down at himself and shuddered. He didn't think there could be any sensation more creepy than the realisation he was seeing his own corpse. Someone had draped a sheet over him, but someone else had pulled it down so his white face was visible.
Kneeling beside the table was Hunter. He wasn't moving, just staring at Dustin's body. He looked almost as lifeless as Dustin did. A figure appeared in the doorway and Shane walked across to Hunter.
"Come on, you need to get some food."
Hunter shook his head mutely.
"Hunter, you need food, you need sleep and you definitely need to get out of this place." Hunter still said nothing. "Dustin wouldn't want you wasting away like this."
"How the hell can we know what Dustin would have wanted? He's gone. And it's all my fault."
"No it's not."
"He stepped in front of a blast that was meant for me. Lothor was trying to kill me."
"Then blame Lothor. Don't blame yourself." Hunter went back to staring at Dustin's body.
"Look," said Shane, "you are going to come with me and get some food. I can get Cam and Blake to help me drag you, but you are going to leave this room. I mean it. Dustin gave his life to save you, he wouldn't want you killing yourself over it like this."
When Hunter still didn't respond, Shane stepped up to him, grabbed hold of Hunter's arm and pulled. Hunter must have realised Shane was serious about taking him by force, because he managed to stagger to his feet. He wavered slightly when he managed to get upright. Presumably dizziness caused by exhaustion and hunger.
Dustin watched Hunter led out by Shane. He was almost glad to see him go, because it meant he wouldn't have to look at Hunter's face and see that empty hopelessness. It was as though Hunter had stopped caring about anything. He sat and stared at Dustin's body because there was nothing for him to live for. Dustin thought of Shane's words. He'd described Hunter as killing himself. Not with pills or a knife, but by simply not being, not caring enough to eat or sleep.
Dustin couldn't let that happen. Not if there was some way to prevent it. He had to find some way to reunite his spirit and body. He couldn't stand the thought of Hunter going through his life as that empty shell he'd just seen. He couldn't let Hunter beat himself up with grief and guilt like this. For Hunter's sake, he had to get back.
He loved him.
Dustin saw the body on the table open its eyes. Then all he saw was the ceiling of the Ninjops.
He drew in a shaking breath, his lungs struggling at the sudden demand for air. He tried to move his stiff limbs, muscles protesting violently after so long motionless.
His ears picked up the noise of a very expensive-sounding crash as Cam walked into the room and saw what was happening.
