Disclaimer: I still don't own Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon and Viacom do, and they are very big companies armed with lots of money and lawyers. Since I'm not making any money from this and I never will be, there is nothing for the law-ninjas to sue out of me.
Author's Note: Ye gads, I'm sorry it took me this long! Anyway, news and info is at the end of the chapter. Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 24: Revenant Reflections
"So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed
Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind?
So many years have passed, who are the noble and the wise?
Will all our sins be justified?"
-"Hand of Sorrow" - Within Temptation
"Um, guys? Can't we at least celebrate beating the main bad guy before you get back to business as usual?" Tucker squeaked into the strained silence.
Neither Dan nor Valerie seemed to be listening, locked in a tense staredown. Each was clearly waiting for the other to make the first move rather than surrender any slight advantage.
"Valerie, this really isn't a good idea." Danny hesitantly remarked. "Remember what happened to the Ghost Zone when the gauntlets were used against each other?"
"I don't think she really cares." Dan remarked dryly, not taking his glare off the huntress. "And given my track record, do you really think it's something I'm concerned about?"
"It's the first time they've been completely evenly matched." Sam murmured worriedly.
The others tore their attention from Dan and Valerie's standoff momentarily to look at the goth in confusion.
"He's got three-fourths of that Ascendancy thing!" Tucker protested. "How the heck is that supposed to be even?!"
"According to the book, Pariah had three-fourths of it, and the best he could come up with was trapping Maghnus." Sam countered. "It's not stupid brute force that counts, the gauntlets are evenly matched and that's the only thing that really matters!"
"And I don't intend to repeat Maghnus' mistake in being trapped." Dan interjected with a sneer at Valerie. "So I wouldn't bother to waste my time trying, Valerie."
"Oh, I'm not planning to lock you up, ghost." The huntress hissed. "I'm planning on destroying everything you are, and everything you stand for!"
"You mean the very thing I've spent the past ten years trying to do to you?" The fire-headed ghost taunted, flexing his armored fingers as though warming up for a fight.
"Shut up!" Valerie clenched her fists, a golden glow shimmering just above the surface of the Reality Gauntlet. "I'm not the one that destroyed an entire city and everyone in it!"
"Do we really need to rehash the who-did-what nonsense again?" Dan rolled his eyes, tensing to spring.
The initial exchange of blows was nothing in comparison to their previous duels; certainly nothing remotely close to what the battle with Maghnus had been like. The shots were fired near-simultaneously, it was anyone's guess who actually shot first. Matching beams of silver and gold collided, the opposing energies canceling one another out in a puff of displaced reality.
"Guys! Cut it out!" Tucker shouted, hoping that the fight could be broken up before the power of the two gauntlets could be thrown at one another full-force.
"Valerie! Dan!" Danny jetted in between the two, planting the Ecto-Skeleton firmly in between the combatants. "You don't need to do th-"
"Out of the way." Dan carelessly blasted Danny off to the side.
"Danny!" Valerie yelped, momentarily staring at the broken power armor before fixing her glare on Dan again. "How dare you!"
"How dare I what?" Dan sneered. "He was in the way. You know how poorly I react to people getting in my way."
"Danny!" Sam and Tucker ran over to the broken Ecto-Skeleton, worried about their friend's safety.
"Shall we continue, Valerie?" Dan sneered, stalking forward.
"Dude, I thought you'd changed!" Tucker shouted. "Danny managed to trust you, and this is wha-"
"Shut it, Tucker." Dan called over his shoulder. "This has nothing to do with him, not now."
Valerie held her fire, watching the ghost and alert to see what his next move would be. This was what he was supposed to be like, why was she so hesitant to attack him and resume business as usual?
Maybe because if you go back to business as usual, it's going to be for the last time, ever. Some more rational part of her mind murmured. And you're afraid of what will happen with the gauntlets.
Reminders of what could happen dotted the area like a freakish preview of what was to come if the powers of the Ascendancy were to clash at full strength. After all, the Ghost Zone had resembled the Earth in the distant past; at least until those powers had collided, leaving only the post-apocalyptic remnants of that world floating in emptiness. What would happen if that catastrophe was to be replayed on Earth itself?
"What are you waiting for, ghost?" Valerie hissed into the tense silence that no one else dared to break, mind racing as to what she could do to Dan. You can't destroy him, but all it takes is one good hit, transform him, turn him into something you can destroy. It's that simple.
"Danny!"
The sudden cry briefly drew both combatants' attention to where Sam was tearfully pulling a slightly bruised Danny from the wreckage of the Ecto-Skeleton. Apparently despite appearances, Dan had either missed the cockpit or merely pulled his blow. The shorter ghost was battered and certainly a little worse for the wear, but with the help of his friends, Danny was on his feet and not seriously hurt.
"You got off lucky, ghost." The huntress glared daggers at Dan. "If you'd-"
"If I'd what?" The fire-headed ghost cut her off mockingly. "If I'd killed him? Oh wait, I seem to recall already doing that once. If you'd like I could replay it for you."
"Stay away from Danny!" Sam snarled, vine whip at the ready as soon as Dan implied violence against her friend.
Dan ignored Sam's warning, instead choosing to verbally press Valerie further. "I'm surprised you're still waiting. Don't our little dates usually open with you trying to kill me, my trying to kill you, a little witty banter, and someone on the sidelines getting torn to bits instead?"
"Don't joke about it!" Valerie snarled.
"Who's joking?" The ghost retorted with a sinister purr. "I never told you what I wanted since I came back from Wisconsin eleven years ago, have I?"
"What you... what?" Valerie cocked an eyebrow, unwilling to let momentary confusion distract her from being ready to open fire.
"The past, Valerie." Dan sneered. "Wouldn't you want to get rid of those painful reminders of it?"
"Quit trying to play games with me, ghost!" The huntress spat. "It didn't work then, it won't work now!"
"This is not a game, I can assure you." Dan shot back. "And I am not playing."
Valerie snorted in disgust. "...You never said anything besides how much you hate everything and everyone, ghost."
She would never forget that speech, the day of Dan's first rampage over a decade ago. That he hated so much, hated the city, hated his classmates, hated her.... for what she'd done to him. It had taken nearly two years after that day for the huntress to come to terms with events; two years before she had the information that let her hate him again, hate him and fight him with everything she could throw at the fire-headed ghost.
"Yes... and for ten years I wanted one thing. Power." Dan growled. "Power to destroy anything and everything that I hate. Including you. Especially you."
"Gee, I'm flattered." Valerie retorted dryly, still watching for an opening.
"And isn't it so terribly amusing-" Dan raised the gauntlet to look at it with a wicked smile.
The huntress took the opportunity, lunging at Dan with the Reality Gauntlet glowing and ready. The beam missed; the ghost sidestepped it with ease, a bolt from the other gauntlet neatly canceling the attack.
"-after all those years of effort the power to do exactly that would fall right into my grasp." The fire-headed ghost finished his statement as though there hadn't been the interruption. "With this, I could finally destroy you, destroy the past, destroy all those inconvenient memories. After ten years of wanting to do it, now I can, with hardly a thought."
Everyone tensed, perhaps planning to dogpile Dan to prevent him from wielding the gauntlet's power. He seemed almost oblivious, studying the silver gleam of the gauntlet, staring down the length of the weapon he had pointed at Valerie.
The tension broke with a near-audible snap at the sound of an explosion.
"When that's not what I want anymore." Dan stated flatly, arm still extended with wisps of smoke rising from his glove and the sleeve of his jumpsuit; the silver gauntlet lay reduced to a few shards of unvaporized metal driven into the dirt from the force of the ecto-blast that had destroyed it.
"Wait, what?" Sam's eyebrows shot up in disbelief at the idea that the ghost had willingly tossed aside the chance to accomplish his goal of the past decade.
Tucker's expression hovered somewhere between relief and shock; the royal geek had been seriously worried that everything he'd done since Dan's return had been in vain. Paulina had one eyebrow raised, but still had a weapon trained on the tall ghost.
Danny looked like he'd expected it all along.
Dan turned his back to Valerie, about to walk or fly away; stopping when a gold beam shot past and narrowly missed his shoulder.
"Where the heck do you think you're going, ghost?!" Valerie demanded, sounding even angrier than before as she kept the Reality Gauntlet aimed squarely at the fire-headed ghost's back. "You really think you can just waltz out of here like that?"
Dan didn't turn around to face the huntress, even as he visibly tensed. While he had thrown down his weapon... Valerie had yet to do the same. He was vulnerable in a way he'd never been prior, standing essentially unarmed in front of the woman who'd spent the past decade dedicated almost entirely to his destruction.
"Valerie-" Danny tried to interrupt her, a worried look on his face.
"You think I'm just going to let you get away, when I finally have a chance to-"
"To what?" Dan still refused to face the huntress, but the bitter warning note in his voice was clear.
"To finish you off, that's what!" "Valerie ranted. "Ten years of trying to get rid of you, you think I'm gonna forget about that?! After everything you did to me, to Danny, to my father, to everyone, do you think I'm going to forgive you and let you leave here in one piece, ghost?"
"Valerie, you don't-" Danny attempted to interrupt again.
"Stay out of this, Danny!" She snapped in response, the shorter ghost recoiling at her tone. "This is between me and him!"
"Suppose you go through with it, Valerie." Dan's voice broke the hurt silence that followed on the heels of Valerie's outburst. "What is such a worthless act going to achieve, really?"
"What do you think?" The huntress hissed. "It's not worthless to me, it's revenge!"
"Which accomplishes... what?" Dan retorted, still refusing to face Valerie. "It's not going to bring anyone back. So what's the real point?"
"Putting an old nightmare to rest for good!" She growled, golden glow surrounding the Reality Gauntlet.
No one dared speak into the silence that followed, the pregnant pause stretching uninterrupted. If she wanted to, there was little chance that Valerie would miss with the Reality Gauntlet a second time; and it was clear she was nearly on the brink of ending it.
"Good bye and good riddance-"
She was stopped up short by Dan's reaction. He was laughing. It was a bitter laughter, the ghost clutching at his ribs he was laughing so hard.
Has he lost it? Valerie held her fire for a confused moment. Is he about to attack?
"Oh, this is rich!" Dan managed to get out around his laughter. "A word of warning, it's awfully hard to stop at just one!"
Valerie withheld her attack in outright confusion. "One what?!"
The ghost's laughter died in an instant as he glanced over his shoulder at the huntress, deadly serious. "One murder."
Valerie was about to say something, but whatever she was about to say was cut off when Dan continued.
"Destroying someone you hate with every last fiber of your being when they have no power at all to fight back..." The tall ghost shrugged, sparing a wry glance in Danny's direction. "Funny how things come full circle, isn't it?"
He might as well have walked over and slapped the huntress across the face with that statement; Valerie certainly recoiled almost as though she'd been struck. Given the situation, provoking the huntress had to be nearly suicidal, but then she couldn't see Dan's face; the ghost's expression oddly resigned as if he had perhaps come to terms with his imminent demise.
"What are-" Valerie's voice cracked on a wildly indignant shriek. "I am nothing like you!"
"Are you sure about that?" Dan finally turned to face Valerie. "I've spent the better part of ten years trying to kill you, the rest of the city was more of a... pleasant diversion. And what have you spent the past decade doing?"
"Protecting that city, ghost!" Valerie protested.
"Which centered on one single little goal." Dan tsked, wagging a finger mockingly at Valerie. "Trying to kill me."
"I am nothing like you!" The huntress repeated furiously.
"It won't help you feel any better." Dan continued as though he hadn't been interrupted. "When I'm gone, you still won't feel any better about what you did to me... or to Danny a decade ago. But don't let that stop you, remember how badly you wanted it a year ago, playing tag in the ruins?"
"Shut up!" Valerie snarled. "Shut up shut up shut up!"
Dan partially obliged, turning away from the huntress again, his arms crossed. "Even I didn't drag it out this badly when I killed him-" The ghost nodded vaguely in Danny's direction. "-so if you're going to end it, will you get it over with already?"
Silence resumed its place, looming large over the uneasy scene. Valerie stood poised, Reality Gauntlet still aimed and glowing, visibly quaking with either fury or uncertainty. Dan might as well have been a statue, unmoving save for the breeze toying with his cape and his flickering hair. No one else dared try to interfere after both the ghost and the huntress had reacted so poorly to Danny's attempts to intervene; the moment was theirs, and theirs alone.
Valerie shouted a frustrated curse, firing a powerful beam from the Reality Gauntlet.
Dan tried to suppress an involuntary cringe, not entirely sure what to expect. He supposed that being altered by the Gauntlet and then blasted to bits would probably sting a little; and by a little, the ghost was pretty certain he would be paid back for what he did to every one of his victims, several times over. While he was mostly resigned to not being able to do anything about it, it still wasn't something he was looking forward to.
So when that didn't happen, he was somewhat surprised. A quick glance behind him revealed Valerie had the Gauntlet aimed skyward. The bolt hadn't been aimed at him; it had been aimed somewhere else entirely. White clouds drifted across a plain blue sky, the purple and green and floating doors of the Ghost Zone no longer apparent. Most of the ghosts that had been involved in the battle were gone as well. The huntress hadn't turned the Reality Gauntlet on him; she'd instead used the powerful artifact to undo the damage Maghnus had done in pursuit of trying to retrieve the Ascendancy; the dimensional barrier between the real world and the Ghost Zone had been restored.
"I don't want to ever be like you, ghost." Valerie growled, turning away from Dan, fists clenched. "Now get outta here, before I change my mind!"
The ghost snorted at that, keeping a sigh of relief to himself. "You and I have a lot in common, whether we like it or not."
He lifted into the air, a whirling green portal spiraling into existence at his fingertips.
"Goodbye, Valerie."
Author's Note: You wouldn't believe how much grief this chapter and the epilogue gave me; that's why it took so long. No schoolwork or brushfires to distract me, just good old fashioned writers' block and an uncooperative muse.
Anyway! No mystery to be had as to when the final chapter goes live. Epilogue: The Circle's End will be posted on March 14th, 2009, sometime in the late morning. (I'm aiming for around 10am Pacific time.) For those of you wanting to drop by for the chat party to hang out, smack the author for cliffhangers, or what-have-you, the AIM chat room will be "LJABIchatparty", and my SN is just "FirefuryAmahira". The chat will go live about the same time the final chapter is posted. My oft-mentioned "Devil Muse" sister One Amahira will also be on hand. It should be fun, so I hope I'll get to hang with some of you guys on the 14th!
And as always, many thanks to those of you who have taken the time to write reviews; whether you've just gotten into the fic or have been a reader since the saga first started three years ago, your comments have only helped make an enjoyable project even better. So virtual baskets of Easter candies go to: gadrak-the-forbidden-one, Selofain, Angelic Kittens, Phantom-Akiko, Akino Ame, i AM the Random Idiot, zara2148, Sukoru, Skandragon Blackheart, Moony's Metamorphmagus, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, BaronOBeefDip, Mappadouji, spiritmind675, Kiomori, Anthiena, Luiz4200, and fizzingwhizbee!
See you on the 14th for the finale!