Her eyes snap open, revealing not the beautiful ghostly eyes but a void of blood red. The tender robin's egg blue flame that was her hair changed into an inferno of burning red that pushed the members of team phantom away with hast. She takes to the air and gazes on the team with an evil smile.
"I see you came for the girl!" A distorted voice told them instead of the voice Danny began to enjoy. "Pathetic."
"EMBER!" Danny shouts at her.
"She's not here right now." The voice replied with a blast of flame from her hands.
Danny goes ghostly and puts up a shield to save his friends blocking the attacking. She stops her attack and chuckles as Danny falls to his knees, worn out from forming the shield.
"Not bad." The voice says as Ember clenches her fist as it smokes from the attack. "Try not to tire yourself out, Child."
"Who are you?!" Danny shouts.
An ominous chuckle comes from behind Ember, and in the night sky, the horned Nocture appeared with an evil smile. "Sleepwalkers! FORM!" The ghosts of Centralia changed into their proper form, Nocture's minions, the Sleep Walkers. The green ghosts with sewn shut eyes appeared in the sky and descended on the heroes like a swarm of locusts.
"Arrêt!" The voice orders stopping the Sleep Walkers in their tracks. She motions her hands in as if she is handcuffed then claps them together. From the ground came streaks of flame that bound Tucker, Sam, and Jazz's hands. "This is a private fight."
"Nocture!" Danny shouts as the Sleepwalkers form a large ring around Ember and himself. "What did you do to Ember?!"
"Dreams are the gateway to the subconscious, Ghost boy." Nocture tells him. "The subconscious has a way of manifesting itself in a spirit when given the proper motivation."
"Wow, The sleepwalkers are not enough for you anymore?" Danny replies snarky. "Are you scared to face me on your own that you have to take my friends away or turn them against me?"
Nocture laughs manically. "No Ghost child. It is not me who wants to defeat you. It's her."
Ember brings her hands together as if she were praying and throws them out to her sides, unleashing a massive fireball forming a shield around the ghost town. The Sleep Walkers were sent to the sky around it along with Nocture and his friends.
"What is this!?" Danny shouts up to Nocture.
"Dreams becoming a reality, Child!" Nocture replies as he gives a signal to Ember.
Ember unleashes another firestorm and hits Danny. He recovers quickly and flies toward town to get out of the open. Ember gives a disgusted glare and slowly levitates toward the city with fireballs sitting in her hands, ready to attack.
"Hiding won't help you, Phantom." The distorted voice of Ember taunts him in a calm conversational tone.
Danny phases through one of the buildings to get behind her. He charges up an ectoblast but was his from below by a robin's egg blue geyser of fire bursting from the pavement below.
"The coal in these hills has existed for centuries from the creatures of old. Once the fire began, it touched some of this old coal giving off a blue flame." The voice told him. "Beautiful, isn't it? When she died, her spirit merged with these flames, making the woman you care for."
"Nocture, get out of her!" Danny shouts as he recovers to fire a blast at Ember.
"Nocture isn't here, Danny." The voice says, blocking the attack. "I'm something more than just a ghost. Let me show you."
Ember's eyes change from red pools of oblivion back to the ghostly green eyes he learns to enjoy. "Wha-What?... Danny? Danny help! Nocture has-"
Within a second, they changed back to red. The voice laughs as she covers their mouth as if she was wiping away crumbs. "Now now, dear." She hushes the spirit of Ember. "Children should only speak when spoken to."
The arrogant laugh from the voice possessing Ember angered Danny deeply. He digs deeply into his chest and unleashes his ghostly wail. The energy from the outcry shatters the earth and devastates the bizarre recreation of Centralia. The fire which laid beneath the town appeared with blinding fury distorting his vision with smoke and fire. Once the smoke rises from the depths, he halts his wail as he chocks on the smoke. His power drained. He changes back to his human form and falls toward the pit of fire.
Danny screams as he descends toward the fire.
Then he stops in mid-air. He opens his eyes and turns to see the possessed Ember with her hand out as if she was holding him. She brought him up to her till they were looking face to face. "I'm not here to kill you, child." The voice told him.
"Ember!" He screams. "I know you're in there! You have to fight back! You have to fight back against Nocture! You're stronger than this!"
"Nocturne?" The voice laughs. "If that's what you want to call me, then so be it, child."
The hand closes slowly, and Danny begins to feel his windpipe slowly closing. "Ember is gone, Child. Only her hatred for you remains, and it gives me strength. This place and the rage she holds within fuel my power. You're not going to die by my hand, oh no. Her rage will consume us all, and there is nothing you can do about it. You let your rage get the best of you. Ha, both of you are more alike than you think..."
"Danny!" Ember screams as she breaks control briefly.
"Ember!" Danny shouts back, reaching out his hand to her.
"You have- You have to- You have to OVERSHADOW ME!" Ember screams as she gains enough control to release her grip on him slightly.
"Grab my hand!" Danny replies as he tries desperately to get enough air to try and go ghost.
"I can't!" Ember shouts, defeated. "She's too strong!"
"You're stronger!" Danny interjects. "The Ember I know is stronger than she thinks!"
"EMBER!" He shouts again. "EMBER! I BELIEVE IN YOU!"
Her name gave her power, and with every scream of her name, she gained just enough power to throw herself forward to grab Danny's hand. He goes ghost just in time and overshadows her. The body of Ember falls from the sky and lands by the porch of her old home. The shield of the fire remained up, keeping out all friends and foes from interfering.
The trio bound with fire screams for Danny while Nocturne looks down with condescending eyes.
"Hello, little fly. Says the spider to the fly." Nocturne says with an evil grin. "Welcome to my web."
Danny wakes up on a cold tile floor in an unfamiliar home. The smell of dinner and the dimming light gave away the time somewhere around 8 or 9 pm. The decor was foreign to him with its strange colors and aged appliances like the big retro TV and Microwave in the kitchen nearby. He brings himself to his feet and walks to the kitchen, where he sees a woman making dinner. On the refrigerator, he saw a calendar...
"September 21st, 1980?" Danny gasps as he hears the door slam open and the sounds of cry erupt through the house.
"What's wrong, Amber honey?" The woman asks the crying girl. The woman wore an apron and looked precisely like Ember, albeit older and with flat-ironed brown hair.
"Shaun stood me up!" The teenage girl cries from the living room. Danny peaks into the living room to see a much alive Ember Mclain with long brown hair, green eyes, fair skin, and wearing bell-bottom jeans and a KISS band shirt.
"Aww, honey." Her mother said, comforting her. "You're young. You'll have many boyfriends as you get older."
"I'm a loser!" She shouts at her mother. "I'll die alone! I know I will!"
"Oh, hush! You're dramatic." Her mother reassured her.
Amber pushes her aside and rushes up to her room. She was leaving her mother to sigh and go to the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine.
Time froze, and soon Danny saw Amber lying on the couch with tears covering her face. Next to the sofa propped up by the table was an acoustic guitar. Something spilled the bottle of wine on the coffee table in front of her. He could hear snoring coming from upstairs and looked over at the nearby clock to see it was two in the morning. Before he could form a thought, he could hear a loud cracking around him, and without warning, the house split in two as the earth caved in, creating a sinkhole. The fire burning under the city burned all the coal below them, making the ground unstable. The fire raced up the wood floors and the kitchen igniting the gas line, destroying the top floor killing everyone above them. Danny takes cover from the fallen floors and drywall near the front door. Flames raced across the remains of the house with impunity as the propane gas and coal fueled its advance, turning it a beautiful robins egg blue.
Amber awakens to find herself in the bottom of the sinkhole protected by the concrete and wood foundation that remained of her home. The sinkhole was massive, dropping to what seemed to be the center of the earth itself or hell's gates.
"Ember!" Danny shouts as he tries to phase through the flames and rubble but can't; something keeps him from saving her. But Danny refused to give up. Danny pushes and throws what wasn't engulfed in flames to get to her.
"Danny! Please!" She cries as fire and rubble rush toward her.
"I'm coming, Ember!" He shouts as he moves heaven and earth to save her.
The nearby wall explodes into oblivion as a massive brute appears covered in red fire. The brute leaps down to stop Danny, throwing concrete and beams at him to halt his advance downward toward Ember. "I'll grind your skull into dust!" The brute shouts as he throws a large chunk of concrete at him, nearly hitting him by a hair. Danny tries to fire an ectoblast at him, but to no avail, resulting in throwing rocks back at the brute to stop him.
"You'll have to do better than that!" The brute shouts as he swats them out of the air.
"Danny! Save me!" Ember shouts as the stones showered her.
"I'm trying, Ember!" Danny shouts as he closes in on her.
Danny arrives near her and sprints to rescue her, but the ground holding her gives way, and she falls deeper into the sinkhole. The brute leaps down and charges at him at great speed. Danny barely escapes, but the brute recovered and unleashed a firestorm of burning stones and ash to distract him as he got closer.
Danny tries to fight back, but the brute is too quick and pinned him against the walls of the earth surrounding them. Ember screams as the fire draw closer, "Babypop!"
He closes his eyes, trying to muster the strength to fight back, but it all comes to naught...
The brute pushed him into the burning earth, trying to bury him in
"I'm sorry, Ember..." Danny says in a defeated tone. "I'm sorry I tried to use you. I was wrong- I'm sorry! All I wanted was to make a friend but found something more! I'm sure of it."
"I forgive you!" Ember shouts as the fire draws closer.
The brute threw him against the adjacent wall and cracked his knuckles. Danny gathers himself and looks around for something that could give him an edge against the brute. His powers were limited, and he was injured heavily with burns and cuts over his body that ripped his suit to pieces.
"I'm enjoying this Phantom." The brute shouted as he took a fighting stance as the remains of the house began to buckle above them. Danny tries to catch himself as beams from the house support themselves on the sinkhole walls holding up a majority of the flaming rubble. "Now show me what you got!"
The brute charged toward him, and Danny, thinking quickly, dives to the ground and throws a stone as hard as he can toward one of the beams held weakly against the walls of the sinkhole. The debris fell on the brute with a massive crash, defeating him and the fire around them.
The dirt and debris extinguished the fire and covered Ember. Danny tried to clean the smoke and soon spotted her hand sticking out of the earth. "EMBER!" He shouts, nearly tripping on the debris. Danny digs frantically with his hands, calling her name to get her attention and see if she is still alive. He stumbles on her torso and quickly digs her out, just enough to pull her out. Taking her in his arms, he flies out of the destroyed house, leaving it in ruins.
Sam watches as the shield flickers, and the flaming shackles disappear. She quickly reaches into her shirt and pulls out one of the Fenton Lipstick lasers to blast the Sleep Walkers near them and Nocturne. Once they were free, they began to free-fall until the Specter Speeder, called by Tucker via his PDA, caught them just in time and began firing every ecto-weapon they had against Nocturne distract him as they closed in on Ember covered in bright red fire.
Ember motionlessly floated as if she was in a trance with her eyes glazed over. The Tucker and Jazz were busy firings in all directions at Nocturne's army to pay any attention to Ember, but Sam was staring, praying intensely Danny would come through. He always had, but whoever had Ember in their control was someone much more dangerous, and that worried her.
A bright light consumes Ember, and the red flame turns to Robin's egg blue.
Sam smirks slightly, "I knew you would come through."
Then from the fire came Danny falling out of Ember's body and onto the ground to the streets. He rolls over onto his back to see Ember turning back to normal with her elegant blue flames dancing in the dark sky. She arches backward and opens her eyes, sending a massive fireball into the atmosphere. From the fire, the town disappears, and in the sky, a gigantic phoenix appears, its enormous wings scorching the treetops. It looks down on him like an eagle on a small rabbit, hungry and contemptuous. But as the sun rose behind it. The phoenix let out a scream and flew off into the distance as daylight broke through the trees revealing the town that was.
Nocturne and his army of sleepwalkers flee at the sight of daylight. They were leaving the heroes and Ember to themselves. Ember slowly descends to earth, and as soon as she touches the street, Danny rushed to aid her. Sam and the team landed by them to see Danny smiling as he held Ember.
"She's alright." He tells them. "It just took a lot out of her."
"What about Nocturne or that bird?" Jazz asks him with anticipation.
"Let them go," Danny says, entirely out of character. "If anything, there had to be a portal nearby if they flew away. It has to be closed by now. Tucker, check the radar to be sure."
Danny took her in his arms and carried her into the Specter Speeder. Tucker and Jazz take the front seats while Sam stays with Danny and Ember. He lays her on the bench inside and rests Ember's head on his lap. She was breathing normally but fast asleep.
Sam breaks the ice rather quickly as they take to the sky with the sun to their back. "What happened in there?" She asks, pointing at Ember.
"It's hard to explain," Danny says, unsure of himself.
Sam sighs as she looks on with mixed emotions at the sight of Ember lying on him. "Whatever happened. I hope it means we don't have to worry about her anymore." She gets up and walks to the front leaving the two alone. Ember opens her eyes briefly and yawns with a sleepy smile.
"Babypop?" She says in a whisper. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," Danny says with a smirk. "Just a bit wore out after all that."
Ember smiles and reaches for his face. She pulls him close to her and whispers in his ear, "Thank you."
He turns his head and boldly steals a kiss from the sleepy pop star. It felt right to him as the burning feeling of want in his heart filled his chest. Ember's expression goes blank with surprise, and Danny prepares to get a rude awakening by her.
Danny was right...
Ember pulls him toward her and kisses him deeply as they head home.