Author's Note: I own nothing.

26 A New Rule

The room was silent. The whole town was still reeling. Not six hours previously the entire town had been sucked into the Ghost Zone, at the behest of the previous Ghost King, Pariah Dark. The citizens had been lucky, they had a shield to keep out the army and a protector to defeat the threat. She slept now face down in her pillow. She shuddered slightly squirming in her sleep as her head flopped to the side and a stream of bright blue mist escaped her mouth. The ghost who had just materialized in her room smiled lightly.

He was a bit of an oddity even for a ghost. One moment he was old as time itself, the next in the prime of life and finally a child, bright eyed and curious. He stared down at the girl asleep in her bed, wise eyes the only stable part of his ever-shifting face. She was young, too young to take the throne just yet, earned or not. Though the Infinite Realms had no mouth to speak or body to act, they made their will known to those who could see such things. It was time for a new rule in the Ghost Zone. Pariah Dark's castle was rapidly falling to ruin, rather than sitting in stasis with its owner for another era. The Realms would not accept the rule of that tyrant again. He'd lost his source of powers and would fade because of it. In time he would be truly lost to oblivion. But this new ruler was… well she was a bit of an oddity herself.

The Observant High Council, who liked to pretend they had some sort of control over the Realms, claimed she was too young, to far in life to rule Ghosts. But the Realm did not care. It had already made the choice and Clockwork did not serve the Observants, though he did humor them on occasion. He frowned. The marks of Dani's fight with Pariah were clear. It was a wonder her parents hadn't figured her out yet. The scars from her purloined battle suit would mar her spine for the rest of her life, and on into her true death. He sighed lightly reaching into a pouch on his belt as she slept on, blissfully unaware of the destiny that stood before her. Out of the pouch on his belt he pulled a ring.

This ring had been part of the reason for Pariah stealing the town in the first place. It had been his, the Ring of Rage, the first of two items worn by the ruler of the Infinite Realms. No longer though did it pulse with an angry light, nor did the face of the ring show a skull with watchful ruby eyes. Instead it was a simple black band, unadorned when one first glanced at it. Upon closer inspection one would realize that the band was actually two set atop each other, one designed to spin atop the other. In that band was inlaid stars, that nearly gleamed in the light from the street lamp outside Dani's window. Clockwork smiled at the ring. He'd never liked that Rage was the emotion that ruled Pariah, the thing he wished for most and used to rule. The Ring of Peace had a much nicer sound to it. A change the Realms desperately needed. He laid it down on her bedside table.

There was no risk of anyone recognizing it for what it was. Without the crown it was just a ring. And the change it had gone through ensured that not even the other Halfa would recognize the power before him and think to steal it before Dani even realized what it was. Clockwork took another look at Dani and his smile grew a bit melancholy.

He was the Ghost of Time, the Master of it as much as anyone could master the most flighty of things. There were so many ways things could go from here. This was the extent of what he was allowed to do. Of course he could always defy the Observants, wake the girl now and tell her all that lay before her. He frowned contemplating it for a moment before shaking his head.

"No, no good comes from too much intervention. We will meet properly soon young Phantom. I hope you are ready when the time comes, your decisions will define the fate of two worlds." He muttered under his breath careful not to wake her. He waved his staff and with the sound of a ticking clock he vanished, back to his keep, tucked into the corner of the Zone. Dani mumbled something in her sleep and buried her head back in her pillow.

Vince frowned when Dani made it down to breakfast the next morning. He and his father were staying at Fenton Works for a few days to work on an upgrade for the Ghost Shield. The disaster that had been the battle against Pariah Dark had been good for one thing, his father was now fast friends with the Fentons. He also liked Dani which Vince counted as a win. Not so great was the fact that thanks to Phantom his father now knew of his outings as the Red Hunter.

Most of Amity Park had flipped their argument on Phantom when she stole the Fenton's battle suit and went off to face Pariah Dark alone. No one was sure what had happened, only that shortly after the town had returned to its proper place on Earth and Pariah's army had fallen. The cleanup was going to be a disaster and many were recovering from injuries that had resulted from the invasion. Neither Vince nor Dani had escaped the madness unscathed. Dani had gone out looking for anyone who had gotten trapped outside the shield. Vlad had gone after her once he realized what she'd done and had returned carrying her. She had been out cold, apparently attacked by Pariah's minions. It set Vince's teeth on edge. Twice Dani had been targeted by the ghost King and his skeleton army and twice he'd failed to get her out unhurt. True the first had only been minor bruises but this time she had several broken ribs. Angelica Foley had been looking after her here since the hospital was at capacity with the wounded from the invasion. The only consolation in all of this was that no one had been killed. No one was in danger of dying either, Angelica was happy to report when she showed up to check on Dani and Vince that day. He had a bruised bone in his arm, a sprained wrist and some severe bruising on his torso but he'd been lucky.

Dani grinned at him as she came out of the spare room, turned impromptu infirmary. She still looked pretty rough. She was paler than usual and there were deep dark bags under her eyes. She looked exhausted.

"You should get some more sleep." Vince said and Dani frowned.

"School's not opening back up?" She asked. She had woken only a few hours ago and not done much more than eat and get her injuries checked. He shook his head.

"Not for a while yet, at least a few days. Everyones taking stock of what happened and helping with the clean up. Well everyone but us." He said lifting his arm, currently in a sling. Dani pulled a face.

"I think we can be excused just this once." She said with a wry smile and Vince grinned back at her. He spotted something on her hand as she wrapped an arm around her ribs.

"Cool ring."

"Thanks I think Jazz left it for me. It's one of those spinner rings, it's supposed to help with anxiety. Just the kind of thing she'd do." Dani chuckled, a yawn cutting off her laughter. Vince's smile turned a bit concerned.

"You really should get some more sleep." He insisted and Dani stuck her tongue out at him before heading into her room with another jaw cracking yawn.