Sam slept until 10:45. Rain practically smashed against her window as if begging to be let in, away from the icy temperature it was forced to endure outside. Thunder rumbled in the distance; the lightning remained hidden behind thick, eerily dark clouds. According to the weather reports, Amity Park was experiencing a freak storm that would last up to about a week. Sam rolled out of her warm bed with a yawn and began her usual morning activities: taking a shower, changing her clothes, brushing her hair, making her bed; you know, the works.
As Sam stumbled sleepily across the hall, she heard a faint yet beautiful sound. Someone was singing downstairs. Sam stopped to listen. It was a woman's voice. Definetely not Jazz; she didn't exactly have a voice to die for. Could it be Maddie? Sam eased down the stairs with quiet steps and peered around the smooth wooden railing curiously. She clutched the railing in a sudden fury when she realized that the beautiful voice belonged to Ember. She was sitting on the couch, her black dress spread out around her like a mysterious yet beckoning shadow, singing an unfamiliar song and playing an unfamiliar tune on her guitar, and her comrades as well as the Fentons were gathered around her, listening in awe. Sam bit the inside of her lip and walked past the hypnotized (not literally) families, straight to the kitchen without saying a word. They didn't notice her.
As Sam was getting her breakfast together, Jazz flaunted into the room with a dreamy sigh. Sam raised an eyebrow at her.
"Thinking about Tucker again?" she inquired knowingly. Over the years, sparks had errupted between Tucker and Jazz. It took a while, but Tucker finally admitted his love to the young woman, who confessed her mutual love to him in return. Everyone was nearly as anxious and excited as Jazz was for him to propose, especially since Jazz would soon be attending a distant university that had, after many years of rejection despite her towering-above-average IQ, finally accepted her.
"No," Jazz excused herself with a blush. "This time, it's Ember."
The smile that had previously shone on Sam's face was wiped off in an instant at the mention of the name, and replaced with a scowl cold enough to freeze flames and dark enough to block out the sun.
"Every since she came, everyone's changed," Jazz continued freely, not noticing Sam's glare. "She has a positive impact on everyone. She's very sweet. If I hadn't seen her before this, I never would have believed it if someone told me she'd given up evil. But, she has, believe it or not."
"I don't believe it," Sam muttered through clenched teeth, brushing past Jazz with a bagel and a glass of orange juice. Recently, she had been cutting back on what she considered fattening food in an attempt to lose some extra pounds. She had to look good if she wanted Danny back.
Jazz frowned at her in confusion and sat on the edge of breakfast table where Sam was seated on a wobbly chair, chewing on her meal angrily, as if the bagel was to be blamed for all her hard feelings.
"What's the matter with you?" Jazz inquired in a tone that suggested both curiosity and accusation. "Ever since Danny came back, you've changed, and not for the better. You're cold and distant. You won't talk to anyone. I don't understand, I thought you were glad Danny's here."
Sam suddenly slammed her half-eaten bagel on the table, her temper immediately taking control. A furious, red-hot anger clouded her mind like a thick steam, and she spoke without thinking, her mixed feelings transforming into words that tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them.
"How can you not?!" she screamed, causing Jazz to jump back in alarm. "How can you not understand, how can you not see what is right in front of you?! I'm head over heels that Danny's here; what I can't stand is that Ember is here too! I mean, what makes her think she has any right to just come out of nowhere and steal away what belongs to me?! I'm supposed to be with Danny, not her!"
Jazz flinched at the harshness of her tone.
"This wasn't supposed to happen," Sam mumbled miserably, tears pricking her troubled eyes. "If I could have a chance, just one more chance, I wouldn't have betrayed Danny." Tears escalated down her cheeks. "I'd give up everything if only I could get a second chance. If only..." Her voice trailed off and became muffled as she buried her face in the black sleeves of her sweater, the only thing that comforted her now. She slid off her chair and curled into a depressing ball under the table, murmuring incoherent words as she sobbed bitterly at the loss of it all.
Jazz stared at her; she had never seen Sam this vulnerable before. "Sam--" she began, reaching a reassuring hand towards her, but in an instant Sam was back on her feet, angry as ever, all traces of her previous misery utterly gone with no evidence that it was ever there.
"Don't 'Sam' me!" she schreeched. Jazz recoiled from her, eyes wide and confused. "Everyone keeps telling me to just get over it but I can't, I won't! Danny's mine and you all know it! I'll get him back somehow, and this time, I won't lose him again!"
Sam charged for the door, but Jazz grabbed her arm and swung her towards her.
"Sam, listen to me!" she ordered, her temper and voice beginning to rise as well. "You're in denial. I don't think you understand that Danny doesn't want you anymore." Sam tried to squirm away, but Jazz had a firm grip on her. "I know you're going through a rough time, and it hurts you to see the one person you love with another woman, but that doesn't mean you can just go and wreck their relationship! Danny's not the only guy in the world, you know."
"But he's the perfect one!" Sam retorted furiously.
"And he's taken," was Jazz's reply. She sighed. "I know it's painful, Sam, but...you have to let Danny go."
"Never," Sam growled, but Jazz shook her head.
"No Sam, listen to me, and listen good. If you really love Danny, you'll let him go. He's happy with Ember. Why would you want to ruin that? I'm not asking you to like Ember, just leave her alone. Danny needs her, and you wouldn't want to deprive Danny of his needs, would you?"
Sam didn't answer.
"Hard as it is, you're just going to have to accept that Danny doesn't love you anymore," Jazz continued in a quiet, comforting voice. "Trying to break them up will result in far more harm than good, if any. Not only will you have destroyed a happy relationship, but Danny would blame you for it and would not want to be with you, ever. To add to all that trouble, their unborn baby would cause many unecessary problems, too, if Danny and Ember were seperated. Think about it. Is that what you want?"
Sam looked at the floor. Jazz had let go of her halfway through the conversation, but Sam was too absorbed in her words to try and run away. One sentence screamed through her head like a siren, silent to the rest of the world, but defeaning to her. "If you really love Danny, you'll let him go." Sam blinked away more tears.
"I guess not," she muttered quietly. Jazz smiled sadly and touched her shoulder in a gentle manner.
"It will be hard, but you'll make it," she encouraged her. "And don't worry, I'm sure you'll find a man of your own soon enough." And with that, she walked away, leaving Sam alone to her thoughts.
Letting go was hard, but somehow, Sam managed to get through the rest of the day without glaring at Ember or winking at Danny. She even sat with the rest to listen to Ember sing, although Danny watched her restlessly out of the corner of his eye. The bumps in Sam's rocky road to recovery slowly began to smooth, little by little, but before dusk, a new problem had struck up.
"What do you mean you can't fix them?!" Danny yelled angrily at his father, who looked sheepish.
"Sorry Danny--"
"Phantom," Danny growled.
"Phantom," Jack corrected himself, "But these aren't ordinary motorcycles. They're highly advanced and loaded with power that our auto-scanners can't recognize, and we just don't have the kind of equipment needed to fix them as quickly as you'd want. With the tools we do have, your bikes probably won't be ready for at least another two weeks."
"Two weeks?!" Dannny schreeched. "We don't have time for that! We've stayed here too long already; King Karsh could be catching up to us! We need to get going, now."
"Maybe staying here a little longer isn't too bad," piped up a meek voice. It was Ember.
"What?"
"Yeah, maybe this is a good thing," she encouraged, looking anxiously at her husband for approval. "Think about it; where's the last place King Karsh would expect you to hide?"
"Vlad Master's mansion," Danny muttered.
"Besides that."
"Amity Park?"
"Exactly. He knows how much you hate it here, so it probably isn't on his Top Ten list of places to look for Team Independence."
Danny was silent for a moment, contemplating his wife's words. Everyone leaned forward in anticipation.
"Alright," he finally agreed, earning smiles all around him, "But I'm serious; as soon as the bikes are finished (whenever that will be), we're out of here. Got it?"
"You can count on us!" Jack reassured him cheerfully, dragging Maddie and Johnny 13 back into the basement to continue working on the motorcycles. Kitty looked after them anxiously, unintendedly tightening her hold on Youngblood's hand.
"Are you sure about this, Ember?" she pressed doubtfully. "I mean, what if King Karsh uses the same logic you're using? He might look here first, thinking we would come here to throw him off track."
"Kitty is right," Jazz agreed. "You guys are going to have to be careful."
Ember fingered her dress nervously. "I guess so," she said quietly, fear enveloping her in its cold embrace. Danny, sensing her worry, put an arm around her shoulders gently and guided her upstairs to their room. Sam watched them leave.
"This King Karsh," she began, fear starting to swallow her as well, "You don't think he'll come after us too...do you?"
Kitty and Jazz were silent.
"I don't know," Kitty finally admitted, her voice lowering to a frightened whisper. "I hope not."
Sam gulped. "Just how bad is this Karsh guy?"
Kitty looked at her for a moment, her eyes watering in memory of all the death and destruction she was witnesses in the Ghost Zone because of the king. She could still hear the terrified screams, see the king's storm raging above them, stretching for miles and destroying everything its fatal lightning hit; the king's evil, psychotic laughter rang in her ears and made her spine crawl. And the blood--oh god, the blood. It was everywhere. Horrifying green ectoplasm dripping heavily off of bridges, splattered against walls, mingling with the death-filled rivers, running down the roads and into the gutters. What was worse was that she knew she left even more terrible things behind.
Kitty closed her eyes in an attempt to shut out the disturbing images. "Very bad," was all she said. Scooping Youngblood up in her arms with a whispered "Bedtime" as an excuse, she retreated to her room. Sam eyed Jazz worriedly.
"Aw, don't worry, Sam," she said with a comforting smile. "We've defeated hundreds of other ghosts before, haven't we? I'm sure this guy's no different."
She smiled again and bounded upstairs to her room as well. Sam bit her lip and hesitated for a moment before following her, although slowly and certainly not as freely. Sure they had beaten many toughs ghosts before, but had they faced one as dangerous and bloodthirsty as King Karsh?