WoM- 'laughing' Getting closer to the dramatic conclusion! Apparently, I did manage to throw some people off with the Ember thing. Maybe I'm not as obvious as I thought…

"Wisdom begins in wonder."

-Socrates

Plotting

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Ember asked sarcastically, "Because whatever your little boyfriend thinks I did, it wasn't me." Sam glared. "That's not why I'm here," She said, "We need to talk,"

"About what?" Ember said, finally looking at Sam momentarily before getting back to her playing. That she was eyeing her like she thought the girl had taken one too many hits to the head was beside the point.

"Siren," The soft music stopped playing.

"…Siren who?" Ember asked in a strained calm.

"Siren your little sister," Sam said accusingly, "That's who she is, isn't she? When you were alive, you were Esmerelda, the Seductress." Siren stared at her, "Siren told me your story, about how you died, and I realized how similar it was to the lyrics of your song."

"Clever," Ember said coolly, "But Esma was an idiot. A dead idiot who let her feelings get the best of her,"

"Really?" Sam responded, "Because I thought she was very noble, giving up her life for the man she loved," Ember didn't respond. "Ember, Siren's causing problems in the living realm, and she's dragged Danny into it."

"Good for her," Ember said, playing again, "Send her my best," Sam sighed in frustration.

She knew this was going to be hard, she knew Ember wouldn't help Danny unless she had a good reason, but she'd hoped the ghost woman would show some sympathy, or even appear to care a little more.

"Don't you want to know what she's doing?"

"Something stupid, knowing Siren," Ember scoffed, "I always warned the others that there was something different about her, something too dangerous. I told them they should've drained her magic but did they listen?"

"She's trying to make herself immune to the Rules of the Seductress using Danny as a way to channel the energy." Ember appeared startled at this.

"God, no wonder you're coming to me for help," She said, clearly disgusted her sister would go to such lengths. "But that still doesn't explain exactly why you think I'll help you," Sam growled in frustration at Ember's smirk.

"Come on, Ember!" Sam said, "There's no way you could be so cruel as to just let Danny die like that!" Ember shrugged.

"You wanna hero, go crying to your boyfriend," Ember countered, "I don't do community service, kid. If I'm gonna put forth any more effort then necessary, I want something for me to come out of it." Sam sighed.

"What do you want?" She asked dully. Ember seemed to consider this for a moment.

"…I want dipstick's powers," She said at last. Sam blinked.

"What?"

"I want you to gimme a list of all the powers your boyfriend's capable of, including those he hasn't quite got yet. I want to know what they do, and I want to know how strong they are." Ember specified. "Give me that, and you've got my help,"

"There's no way Danny would agree to give you that!" Sam exclaimed.

"Maybe," Ember said slyly, "But you know all your boyfriend's powers, don't you? After all, it's your fault he's got 'em. Desiree told us everything about you're little wish, Kid, Don't deny it." Sam rolled her eyes.

"Great, gossiped about even in the Ghost Zone…" Sam murmured. Out loud she said, "Fine, but on one condition."

"Name it," Ember said, unflinchingly.

"There are two other girls I'm here with, Neris and a female ghost hunter," Sam explained. Noticing Ember's alarm at the last one, she added, "Neither will be able to get back out here, and I doubt Va- Hunter would come back into the Ghost Zone willingly for all the secrets of the undead." Sam assured her quickly, "Anyways, I don't want you to mention anything about the halfa thing of Danny Fenton in general in front of them."

"Done," Ember said.

"I'll give you the list now, and then I'll fill in the specifics after we've saved Danny," Sam reasoned. She smirked at Ember's scowl. One of the few things she was glad to have inherited from her family was good business sense, and business rule number one was never pay for services you haven't received.

"Fine," Ember said sullenly, sitting up, "What do you need?"

"Hang on," Sam said, flipping a switch on her Fenton Phones, "Hunter! Neris! I found her! You guys get over here now!"

"Right," Valerie said hastily, "We're on our way," then the Phones clicked off and Sam turned her attention back to the now amused Ember with a sigh.

This was gonna be a long night…

"Soon…" Siren purred, absently drawing closer to Danny. She was nervous, truth be told. After all her efforts, all her struggles, it all come down to what was going to come next. She was putting her work in the hands of a fourteen year old halfa, who'd managed what no man before him could claim.

He made Siren feel insecure.

To make it worse, though, he still hadn't answered Siren's question, which was starting to annoy her now. His line about someone who liked her just because… it shouldn't bother her so much. After all, no seductress knew that feeling, being the fact that the man they loved couldn't love them back, and every other man was affected by their magic and there for loved them because of it.

Unable to resist arguing her point further, Siren re-opened the link she had to Danny's mind.

'It doesn't matter,' She insisted suddenly, 'It doesn't matter that it's my magic that affects them and not something else. So long as they are under my control, nothing else matters.'

'Yes, it does,' Danny said, frowning at her. 'Real feelings will get people to do things for you no spells can make them do. Besides, spells have limits. if someone really cares about you, they'll do everything in their power to help you. That's why I sacrificed myself for Valerie and Sam. And that's why I'm sure Sam at the very least will do everything in her power to help me, and Valerie will definitely want to help Danny Fenton,' Siren frowned.

'You're a fool,' She insisted. 'You're a naïve fool,'

'Maybe,' Danny 'shrugged,' 'But I'm a fool with great friends,'

"Danny's gonna kill you when he sees this, you know."

Jazz's dry observation went unheeded by her giggling mother, who was flipping through the 'Fenton's Family Photo Album; Freak Week Edition,' for the third time that night. Jack would just shake his head and mumble something about still not being able to understand women whenever he came across this sight during his frequent trips up and down the stairs for tools and weaponry.

"Oh, come on Jazz!" Maddie exclaimed when she saw her daughter's disapproving frown. "Freak Week's a tradition! It would be criminal to allow it to die out!" Jazz sighed.

"Don't you think that maybe Freak Week's scarring Danny?" Jazz pressed, "Something this degrading could lead to deep seated emotional problems and an instinctive distrust in the opposite gender!" 'And considering what the ghost thing must be doing to his mentality, I think we need to save whatever sanity Danny has left,' Jazz added mentally.

"Don't be silly, dear," Maddie said airily, "Once he's an adult, Danny's gonna look back on Freak Week and laugh. Alicia and I used to do things like this to each other all the time, and we turned out just fine, didn't we?"

Jazz sighed as she mother left to help Jack in the garage, knowing it was pointless to mention to her mother that she was a ghost-obsessed martial artist/scientist and Aunt Alicia was a bitter divorcee with a severe distrust in men, with the sole exception of Danny whom she spoiled rotten as her only nephew.

Jazz got the same treatment, but Jack was treated almost coldly. When Jazz asked her mother about that, Maddie told her that Aunt Alicia had actually been a lot meaner to Jack before Jazz was born, then shared a giggle with her daughter.

Jazz smiled. As much as she hated admitting it, she had fun with her family, weirdness and all. After all, how many other girls her age could claim their mother was a ninth degree black belt, Her father one of the leading creators of some of the wackiest (And often times dangerous) technology known to mankind and her brother a ghost-hunting superhero?

Speaking of the latter, the eldest Fenton child couldn't help but wonder where he was. It'd been ages since the three girls had disappeared downstairs, presumably through the Fenton Portal as Jack had yet to discover them down there. And as oblivious as her father was, he tended to notice new faces in the lab. (Sometimes, anyways)

At any rate, Jazz kept expecting her little brother to show up sooner or later, in one form or another. But now she was starting to worry maybe something had happened to him. After all, none of the ghost hunting trio ever brought other people into their problems before, and why would they start with a girl Jazz had never seen before and a strange girl dressed in what looked suspiciously like ghost hunting gear?

Still, Jazz had no solid proof her brother was in any trouble, and desperately tried to play it off on her natural Fenton over-protectiveness. That didn't work out too well, though, and the girl found herself fighting the urge to tell all to her parents, make them haul every ghost hunting weapon they'd ever made (Taking the Fenton Peeler for herself) and tracking him down so they could pummel whatever ghost was the problem now and settle this whole half ghost matter once and for all.

The problem with that was she was so far in the dark in this whole matter, she couldn't see the nose at the end of her face (Figuratively speaking, of course.) And as tempting as it was to finally give Danny a hand and tell her parents about the ghost thing, she didn't think her little brother would appreciate being ratted out if there actually wasn't a problem.

Jazz sighed again, picking up a magazine and sitting on the couch to pretend to read. She would wait for Sam and her friends to come up and give them whatever tools they could to defend themselves from the ghosts, cover for them the best she could and sit tight to see how it all turned out, just as she always did.

Danny would be alright, after all. And he'd come around sooner or later and tell her about the ghost thing. Until then, Jazz would be patient.

"ARE YOU INSANE?" Valerie screeched. "No way! Nononononono! There is NO way you can get me to do THAT!"

"Then don't," Neris said in annoyance, "Samantha or myself will take care of it. You just concentrate on holding back the men Siren has under her control. Esma will take care of distracting Siren herself and I-!"

"-Will be helping Hunter," Sam growled, "I don't trust you not to sell us out to your twin." Ember smirked between the girls as they exchanged death glares, clearly amused at the animosity between them.

"Why would I?" Neris said coolly, "I'm the one who stands a better chance of getting close,"

"Yeah, right," Sam snorted, "You're her twin, Neris, even if she didn't look like it, she clearly finds you a bigger threat then you think she does. I, on the other hand, am the only human without any sort of weapons or anything to really fight back. I'm the least suspicious."

"She's got a point, you know," Ember agreed. Neris narrowed her eyes and looked away, but said nothing.

"Give it to both of them," Valerie said, clearly annoyed with the bickering, "That way, we have twice a shot." Both of the other living girls grumbled, but agreed in the end that Valerie's suggestion was most sensible, accepting two tiny black bottles from Ember.

"Now, about getting back…" Ember said.

"You're not staying there," Valerie interrupted sharply. "Not now that I know you're a ghost,"

"I don't want to," Ember frowned at Valerie for the interruption, "Not yet, at any rate. There's a problem I need to take care of first." Valerie snorted and eyed the singer suspiciously.

To say she was surprised the woman who's CD she still had on her shelf at home was a ghost would be the understatement of the year. Well, next to Sam saying that Danny had changed a little directly after the accident, at any rate. She went off on a long, angry tirade about how she couldn't believe some stupid ghost managed to hypnotize her before demanding if anyone else she knew was a ghost.

Sam quickly assured her that she doubted it, shooting a smirking Ember glares to remind her of her promise, which she seemed tempted to break for a moment. Luckily, all she did was mention quite casually that Spectra and her assistant had been ghosts as well, but that they were the only other ones who attempted a human guise.

That led off to what promised to be another long angry tirade before an impatient Sam interrupted by reminding her that they were on the clock and wasting time. Luckily, this was around the time Neris came out of her shock at seeing her long dead sister in the flesh.

…so to speak, anyways.

"Is everything set?" Ember asked, standing and adjusting her guitar strap.

"I think so…" Sam said, glancing at her watch. She flinched when she saw how long they'd been there, knowing that Mr. And Mrs. Fenton were home by now. "We'd better get going," She said, turning the key in the Specter Speeder back on. "Ember you're gonna have to go through first just in case anyone's on the other side. Then the rest of us will follow after ten minutes or so. And don't hurt anybody," This last part was a sharp warning towards the ghost singer, who just rolled her eyes in response.

"Yeah, yeah," She grumbled as Sam led the way for the others back to the Fenton Portal.

"Do you really think we can trust her?" Valerie asked Sam, eyeing Ember warily.

"No," Sam answered, "But I do think we need her help. And so long as Danny's in danger, I'm willing to take help from anybody," After saying that, an image of Vlad flashed through Sam's head and she flinched, "…Almost anybody, anyways. There are some people who'd only make the whole matter a million times worse." Valerie raised an eyebrow, which went unseen under her mask, but didn't press the subject any further.

The rest of the trip back to the Fenton Portal passed in silence, each girl lost in her own thoughts. When they finally did reach the swirling green vortex, Ember went through with the plan to go in first. Several moments passed without the sounds of gunfire or any other sort of struggle and the other three girls followed.

"So? Where to now?" Ember asked.

"I've got the ghost kid's energy signal memorized," Valerie told them, "It tends to disappear every so often, though, so I'm not completely sure if I can track him with my equipment, but it's worth a shot,"

"Maybe we should bring some of the Fenton's weapons and things," Neris said, looking around the lab, "Just in case,"

"No," Sam sighed, "I'm not sure what works and what doesn't, or what used to work that Mr. Fenton's trying to upgrade or something, and since Danny isn't here to tell me, it'd probably be safer to leave it behind," Still, Sam slipped the Fenton Thermos in her backpack when Valerie and Neris weren't looking, giving Ember a warning glare.

The singer returned it with a sour look of her own.

"Right then," Neris said, "Let's go before someone catches us," and with that, Sam Neris and Valerie started up the stairs as Ember simply phased through the wall to the outside world.

"Oh, there you guys are!" Jazz called as the tried to sneak past her, making each girl jump about a foot, "Sam, I have something here for you, you said you were doing all this about ghost hunting, right?"

"Huh? Oh! Yeah?" Sam said, uncertainly.

"Well, I figured that since Dad was done playing around which this stuff, you might want some of it," Jazz continued, motioning towards the arsenal she'd laid out on the coffee table. Sam was torn for a moment. As much as she needed the weapons, she didn't like that twinkle in Valerie's eyes.

"Thanks, Jazz!" She said, taking a few of the smaller, more defensive based weaponry, "This'll be a huge help!"

"No problem," Jazz said, getting back to her magazine, "Just tell Danny to bring it back with him tomorrow." The girl's exchanged confused and apprehensive looks before heading out the door.

"She does… know, does she?" Neris asked Sam in a whisper after they'd left.

"Of course not," Sam said, "Just me and Tucker know, and we were there," Neris didn't look convinced, but neither did she press the matter as Sam climbed behind Valerie on the jet sled.

"I've got a lock," Valerie confirmed, "North by North-East, about ten or eleven miles."

"Everybody ready?" Ember asked grimly. And with that, The girls took off.

"I linger in the doorway… of alarm clock screaming monsters calling my name…" Siren sang absently to herself as she watch moments tick closer and closer. Singing distracted her from thinking. "Let me stay where the wind will whisper to me. Where the raindrops as they're falling tell a story,"

This was one of her favorite songs, actually, it seemed to portray both hope and helplessness, in a strange harmony. One of the few things she respected about humanity was the things they were capable of creating. Art, Music, even Life.

However, which that creation came destruction. Wars, greed, lies, hatred. Other creatures were capable of it too, oh yes, but not to the extent of humans. What really annoyed her, though was falsehoods. Some humans would look you right in the eye and smile at you even as they were slowly killing you without your knowledge.

Oh, Seductresses were just as bad there, that much Siren would admit to. But Seductresses didn't go around pretending that they were all righteous. Everyone who knew what a seductress was knew you couldn't trust them.

Siren sighed. She was starting to get a headache, a common occurrence whenever she pondered the enigma that was humanity. Shaking her head, she turned back to the clock, her mouth spreading into a grin.

"It's time, pet," She purred to Danny, running a finger along his shoulders. "Come,"

"Yes, Mistress," Danny's body answered, following obediently. His mind was another matter entirely, thrashing out and screaming obscenities Siren was almost surprised he was old enough to know. Siren had to bite back a laugh.

Once again she almost regretted that Danny was the sacrifice. He was quite entertaining, after all. Was this why Neris had developed feelings for him?

Before Siren could contemplate this further, one of her mind-slaves came to her.

"Mistress," He said, "There are intruders invading the premises!" Siren scowled as Mind-Danny smirking in a told-ya sort of way.

"How many?" Siren asked, ignoring him.

"Four," This confused Siren. She wasn't expecting them to get help, after all.

"Stall them, kill them if you can," Siren ordered, "Whatever you do, just make sure they do not reach me and the half-ghost,"

"Yes, Mistress," The slave complied, turning to obey her orders. Siren and Danny continued down the hall.

"You- y-you…" Siren stopped dead, stunned. She turned to face Danny, who was struggling to say more a pained expression on his face. It was supposed to be impossible for someone to overcome the spell she'd put on that amulet, yet that was obviously what Danny was doing.

Frowning, Siren increased the energy going into the amulet, causing Danny to become docile again. It left her weaker, yes, but that didn't matter. Danny's compliance was essential for her plan to work, she couldn't ignore even that small defiance.

"Let's go," Siren demanded, starting away again. Danny followed her, showing no more signs of struggling, and the two entered the room Siren had prepared for the ceremony.

The clothing she'd stolen from stores had been torn apart to make proper drapery, and the jewels she'd taken were all aligned in the places they needed to be. When the moonlight filtered through the windows and hit the centering diamond, it created paths of light to all the other gems, leaving the spot Siren was currently standing an opening.

"Read the incantation," Siren ordered. Danny took up his own position and opened the book, obeying Siren without any sign of struggle.

He started reading the old script, which he probably couldn't understand at all. Siren couldn't, either for that matter. Only one person she knew would've been able to, and she was long dead.

Still, Siren knew it was working as she felt herself become enveloped in a glowing golden light. Closer… closer….

"We're not gonna make it!" Ember screamed to the others, hitting a note on her guitar that sent the mind slaves flying.

"Yes we are!" Sam shot back, shooting someone with Mrs. Fenton's ecto-lipstick. To herself, she added, "We have to…" Just then, Valerie cleared a path to the door.

"Neris, Sam, go!" She yelled, "Me and the ghost'll hold these losers off!" Neris and Sam nodded to each other and dashed for the door, not looking behind them as the mind slaves swallowed in on their temporary comrades.

"Which way?" Sam asked as they ran, dodging a slave here and there.

"The room on the far east!" Neris answered. "They've probably already begun…"

"Then we have to hurry!" Sam said, pushing herself harder to get to their destination. She would've careened into a mind controlled Dash is Neris hadn't blasted him out of the way.

"You know," Neris said dryly, "I doubt you'll be much help to Danny dead," Sam glared at her. "There!" Both girls screeched to a halt in front of two large wooden doors. Throwing them open, they found a still red eyes Danny reading some strange language from a book and a glowing Siren.

"Oh, no…" Sam said, horrified. "DANNY!" Acting on instinct, Sam leveled the ecto-lipstick at the book in Danny's hands, shooting it. The blast knocked her off her feet and into the doors, and hit the book squarely, setting it aflame. His eyes going wide for a moment, Danny immediately stopped reading and dropped the book.

"What?" Siren said, her eyes snapping open as the glow faded. "NO!"

Soon the glow was gone entirely, and the book was left a pile of ashes. Sam grinned in delight, and began to laugh.

"Looks like you've lost, Siren!" She called out to the seductress. Siren narrowed her eyes at her, then grinned evilly.

"Not necessarily," She hissed. "There are other full moons. Other copies of the Sacredas. I still have the only thing that would be irreplaceable, my dear," Her grin widened. "I still have Danny,"

Sam's eyes widened as said halfa floated in front of her, both of his fists crackling in barely suppressed energies. She barely even heard when Siren finished her smug speech.

"So it looks like you're the one who really lost, little Miss Samantha…"

WoM- Ah, cliffhangers. Aren't they fun, folks? Next chapters the dramatic conclusion, so sit tight!

Thanks to-

DJ Rodriguez

Tetsukon

XxMidnightWolfxX

animekraze

Rosadina formerly Tima

Questions-

DJ Rodriguez'cringes' Forgot about that... I might be able to work one on next chapter, but that's about it. Sorry!)

XxMidnightWolfxX (Thank you! I've been writing my own story, but I'm still kinda shy about it...)

Rosadina formerly Tima laughs' well, I hope this chapter cleared things up.)

FINAL CHAPTER- December 14th

See you then!