Empyreal
empyreal (em-pir-ee-uhl) adj. - pertaining to the highest heaven in the cosmology of the ancients.

-Twelve-

"Judging from the shocked look, I'm guessing you told her the truth about you?" Tucker said as I locked my bedroom door. I turned around and frowned at him.

Sam, on the other hand, was sitting on my bed, looking at me with the most ludicrous expression I have ever seen.

Once I blurted out my theory, I had to explain to her who I actually was… a powerful ghost called Phantom, who's lived for fourteen years in the Ghost Zone as a student to many ancient ghosts. A ghost who had never been human; a ghost who received the gift of life.

And naturally, she was a bit more than shocked. Actually, she thought she was going insane for awhile. It took a few minutes to convince her otherwise… although I don't think I did a very good job.

"Yeah, I was pretty surprised, too," Tucker said, grinning. "Then again, he also saved my life when I found out, so I guess it wasn't all bad." Sam just stared at Tucker, then at myself. I sighed. "So, what's all this about?"

"Well… you two and Jazz are the only friends I've made here," I started. "And… I don't think Jazz could handle this information right now."

"What information?" Tucker asked, sliding into the chair at my desk. I folded my hands thoughtfully behind my back and looked at both of them.

"This… is going to sound crazy," I started. "Well, Sam already knows of the insanity. Tucker, I know you've read Jazz's personal narrative, so you know it's about her stillborn brother." Tucker just nodded in confusion. Sam had clamped her mouth shut, but was holding her knees against her chest, staring up at me.

"Yeah… what of it?" Tucker asked. I sighed again. Why was this becoming so difficult?

"Well… after thinking about it… a lot… I think… I'm Danny Fenton. Actually, more like Phantom is Danny Fenton's ghost."

There was silence for a moment. Tucker looked from me to Sam, and then back to me, his jaw hanging open. I bit my lip and looked back. I had little to no proof; only claims that I made in my head.

This was all going crazy in my mind.

Finally, someone spoke.

"…Are you sure?" Sam asked from her place on my bed. She let her legs down and leaned forwards, her eyes wide. "I mean… you're a ghost. A ghost who ages. A ghost who has lived in the Ghost Zone – looking different – and you think you're the ghost of a family's dead son?" I shrugged.

"Yeah, basically," I said, shoving my hands into my pockets. "But it makes sense, doesn't it? How many times have people mistaken me for a Fenton? How many times have I been told how much I look like Jack or Maddie or even Jazz a few times? I'm his age, I have his features – he had black hair and blue eyes, too!" At each proclamation, my voice grew louder and louder, until I was shouting and I didn't even realize it.

"This whole time, I've been trying to figure out why me, why now – my Master told me numerous times over that it was the 'right time' for me to try out being human, but I can't understand why. Is this what he meant? So the Fentons could have a taste of having their son back? Or having him at all?" That was when I noticed my heaving chest, my raised arms. I lowered them and just looked at my two friends.

"Wow," Tucker breathed. "Wow. I can honestly say I had no idea that my high school career would start out being friends with someone's dead brother." He straightened up and looked directly at me.

"So… you think I'm right?" I asked. Tucker gave me a half-grin and stood up.

"I have no doubt in my mind that you're a Fenton," he said. "You act like them, you look like them, hell,and you're what they do for a living."

"I don't know if I'm certain yet," I said, my thoughts once more becoming jumbled. "But…"

Wait.

Out of all my jumbled thoughts, there was one that suddenly struck out against the others.

"But…?" Tucker asked, but I pushed him aside and walked to the window, leaning out of it. The cool breeze lifted my hair off of my forehead.

"…But he was after me," I murmured.Plasmius has been after me for years. He wanted to take me in. He wanted to teach me, as opposed to Master or the others. He—

He wanted to turn me human and make me his son.

I clenched my fist.

How could he do that? How could he want to take the soul of the Fenton's son – me – away from them? Master had kept me within their reach all these years; their portal is very close to where I lived. So what if he didn't get what he wanted all those years ago?

"He wants me," I said, turning to Sam and Tucker. Tucker frowned.

"Who?"

"Vlad," I muttered angrily. "I think that's why. Master sent me here – as a human in the human world – to get me away from Vlad. He knew Vlad's plan; and Master didn't want me to be his son."

"Wait, what?" Sam said, leaning forwards. "Vlad Masters? That rich guy?"

"The gazillionaire?" Tucker supplied.

"Yeah," I said, sighing. "I know it's confusing, but… Vlad and Plasmius are cohorts or something, and they're sending in all these ghosts to this world to try and get me to go back to the Zone so they can, I dunno, capture me or something. It's common knowledge that Plasmius wants me as a son or an apprentice or something crazy like that."

"Wait, who's Plasmius?" Sam asked.

"One nasty guy," I said, sighing. "Picture Masters if he were a ghost. That guy."

"I knew I didn't like him when I met him," Tucker murmured, shaking his head. "Whatta jerk."

"So, Masters is Plasmius?" Sam said, at the same time that Tucker said "I hate that guy!"

But both Tucker and I stopped and stared at her. She was scratching her head, pushing her hair absently behind her ear. Her face was white and she was obviously confused and scared. I mean, she couldn't have said what I think she said. Right?

"What?" I asked, disbelief lining my words. "Um, Plasmius is a ghost. Masters's isn't."

"But he's dead, isn't he? Remember?" she replied, sitting up a little straighter. Her eyes darted around the room and I knew that she was probably giving up on her own sanity for the moment. "That article."

"It was one article, Sam," Tucker said, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought it was fishy," she replied in a small voice. "What if… What if Vlad was trying to hide the article? I mean, I did have to get past several locked folders to get at it."

We were silent. She had a point. That whole article thing didn't tie in at all. But at the same time, my brain kept pushing it out of the way. Its one article, a voice in my head said. It could be anyone. How do you know there isn't more than one Vlad Masters out there?

"How likely is that?" I murmured to myself. Both Sam and Tucker looked up at me in surprise. I didn't realize that I wasn't tuned into the conversation anymore.

It was then I realized that Sam was holding onto my bedspread so tightly that her knuckles were white. Her face was pallid and she looked like she was in pain. Oh, how I hate seeing her like this!

"I… I think I need to go home," she said softly, standing up. "I'm having trouble believing all this."

"It's okay, you'll get used to it," Tucker said, smirking. Sam bit her lower lip and shot her lavender eyes at me. She was trying to believe, but her eyes showed fear and confusion. I can't say I blame her. I'd be shocked too if I just learned this. But part of me was concerned, too. I thought of all people, Sam would take to this whole thing much easier. This was her love. The paranormal was something that she relished in and told me countless times that she wished something amazing like this would happen.

Well it's happening… why wasn't she happy?

"Do you need a ride?" I asked, trying to sound helpful. She shook her head and walked across the room, closing the door behind her. Both Tucker and I watched her leave. I sighed and sat down on my bed, holding my head in my hands. Everything was mashing together in my brain so quickly that it was hurting.

"Listen, dude, she'll be fine in a couple of days," Tucker said, turning to me. I shrugged. "I mean, it's not like she'll think you're a bad guy. You've been saving our asses for weeks now from all sorts of things."

"She doesn't know that that ghost and I are the same. At least, I don't think she does," I said, staring at the floor. "Tucker, what am I going to do? Masters or Plasmius or – someone is going to come, and soon. And I don't know what to do. And I don't know what he wants – besides me, of course." Tucker was silent. He just looked up at me from his position on the floor. After a time, he spoke.

"What does he want you for again?"

"I have no idea," I said, throwing up my hands. "For as long as I've existed he's wanted to make me his apprentice or something. Make me learn all his tricks and moves. I mean, for an awful guy, he's pretty skilled. He's both feared and admired all over the Zone."

"So for how long has he been doing this?" Tucker asked. I shrugged.

"Forever." Tucker crossed his legs and leaned onto his arms.

"We're getting nowhere."

Sam avoided us for the next few days. As a matter of fact, she vanished from school completely on the third day since I revealed myself to her. She always seemed preoccupied and distant, with her head in a book or writing in a notebook. She seemed constantly troubled and would show up to school with dark circles under her eyes. After being absent for a couple of days, she showed up in school again, looking as flustered as ever. The notebook she had been writing in was stuffed with papers and notations. She was clearly working strenuously on researching something.

I decided to lay low for a little while. The stream of ghosts had quelled for the time being, and maybe allowing Sam to overcome whatever hurdle she was running towards would make her more susceptible to the truth.

At least, that's what I thought.

At the beginning of the next week, Sam didn't show up to school. Naturally I figured she was exhausted from whatever she had been busying herself with to avoid me.

But halfway through the school day, the police showed up instead. The red and blue lights on their cars startled me so much that I almost jumped out of my seat when I saw them reflected on the cafeteria walls. Luckily everyone ran to the windows to see what was happening anyway, so I was able to cover my blunder. I had become very skilled at being a human, but there were some things I still couldn't get a handle on.

All of the students were ushered into our classrooms, and we waited anxiously to hear the news. The police rarely showed up this urgently; something was clearly wrong.

Finally, after over an hour of waiting, the teachers disbanded from their meeting with the police to come into the classrooms to deliver the news.

I'll never forget it, either.

Mr. Lancer closed the door behind him as he entered the classroom, sighing heavily. He stood at the head of the class and folded his hands behind him, gazing out the window.

"Class… something tragic happened last night at around midnight," he said. I saw worried glances out of the corners of my eyes and I saw Tucker tense beside me. I tried to hide my shaking; I don't know what the connotation of 'tragic' is here, but in the Zone… 'tragic' and 'death' go hand in hand.

"Miss Manson…"

My heart skipped a beat—

"…she was kidnapped last night. Or so the police think."

And then it stopped.

There was one collective gasp from the class, but I was so stunned my breath caught in my throat. I actually started coughing because of it. When I recovered Tucker was staying straight ahead, mouth open in shock.

"We wanted to inform you in case anyone had any information about the kidnapping," Mr. Lancer continued. "According to police, there are signs of a mild struggle, which indicates a kidnapping. Two windows in her bedroom were also broken."

That rules out a ghost, I thought to myself. Why would a ghost need to break windows?

"However, because Miss Manson has been exhibiting some… bizarre behavior recently, the police are investigating other possibilities as well. It's possible that something may have rattled the poor girl's mind a bit too much."

I shrank down in my seat. This was impossible. There is no way that finding out the truth about me could have set her back so much. That isn't like Sam at all. There was something else going on. There had to be.

But then again… how much do I really know about her?

"If any of you have any information… please, come forward with it immediately. We're keeping you here until the end of the day so the police can investigate the school grounds."

With that, the students let loose on one another, speaking excitedly about the recent events. Tucker and I just turned to each other in shock.

"I don't believe this," Tucker said. "She's been… kidnapped."

"That's just so… unlikely," I said, turning in my seat. "I can't believe—"

Windows.

Suddenly, my brain clicked. Something so painfully obvious clicked in my brain. I must have shown some sign of my realization in my face because Tucker was giving me the most bizarre look I had ever seen.

"Um—"

"Tucker," I said, grabbing his arms, "we need to go to Sam's room."

"What? Why?" Tucker asked, wincing slightly. I was shaking, I was so excited, and thus accidentally hurting him.

"I think it's a setup," I said, leaning in close to him so we could speak softly. "I think a ghost took her and made it look like a human kidnapper to throw us off."

"Um… Danny, that's a bit of a stretch," Tucker said skeptically. But it made sense. Somehow, it made sense. All of the people closest to me were being picked on by some outside, unseen force that was after me. So a ghost going to all that trouble to hide the girl I love? It made sense to me.

"Just trust me on this, alright?" I said. Tucker just stared at me. "There's some crazy ghost out there who's overjoyed at the fact that they just 'successfully' threw us off their track."

"Danny, be reasonable," Tucker tried to say, but I was so wrapped up in my ideas I didn't listen.

"First we'll go to the crime scene just to double check. Then we'll sneak into the Fenton portal and try to find her – I bet the Fentons have some kind of DNA tracker or something – and then we can rescue her, and maybe then she'll trust me as a ghost, and—"

"Danny!" Tucker said, raising his voice slightly. The class grew quiet at the outburst. Tucker glared at them and they all looked away, murmuring. Tucker rolled his eyes and pulled me so close to him that our foreheads touched.

"Phantom, listen to me," Tucker said in a tone I'd never heard from him. "This isn't some ghost hunt. Sam is a real live girl who is really missing. This is real life now. I think we should leave this to the real live human police. I don't think someone who isn't even human can really help her now."

I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. How could he not see what was so obvious? Sam wasn't kidnapped by a human; she was taken by a ghost. I just had to get him to the crime scene, and then he'd see for sure.

Right?

"Tuck, if you won't help me… then I'll do it on my own," I said, pulling away from him. I stood up, wondering if he would follow, but he didn't. He just sighed and shook his head.

I was so angry that I could feel the energy building in my body. I stayed for one more moment, then, against the wishes of Mr. Lancer, I opened the door and tore out of the room, becoming invisible as soon as I was out of sight. I heard Mr. Lancer run out into the hallway and cry out "Where did he go?!" before I left the parameter of the building and zoomed up into the sunny sky.

I was going to find her on my own.

Ahh... I feel so corny! But this was so essential to the story. Ech. I have no exscuse for no updates since October, so I won't give any. Well, I do have 1. College applications. And AP English. Okay, I have 2. But that's it. Umm, this is laaaaame. This is a pathetic chapter. But the later chapters will be better, I promise... well, I think they'll be better, I dunno what you guys'll think. I've had the first half of this typed literally for months, I was just unsure of where to go. Then I decided to ditch an original part of the story for another one. Yay!

I haven't watched DP in months. I should do that. I miss it!