These two chapters were originally meant to be one. I had to split it due to length… and due to my inherent tendencies towards evil.
Behold: the final chapter. Sorry it took longer than expected… I threw myself into NaNoWriMo at the last minute and spat out a 100+ page novel in the last bit of November (which is an original story and is uploaded on DeviantArt if you want to read it). XD Between that and the pneumonia I came down with, I did not work as much with this as I wanted.
On an interesting note, I had a poll on dA about what people thought would be the ending. Some of the results are thus:
-Danny will rescue his parents and escape, but won't manage anything else – 10 votes
-Danny will go evil and take over the Pits, forcing Valerie to come kick sense into him – 7 votes
-Danny will destroy everything – 6 votes
-Some other option not covered in my poll – 6 votes
-Danny will die, but he'll go out with a bang! – 5 votes
-Danny will save his parents, kill Walker, and have a happy ending – 4 votes
-Danny's parents will be gonners, but Danny will live – 3 votes
…you people are not nice to Danny much, are you? The 'happy ending' one barely got any votes! Apparently all I do are evil things… I've fallen into a rut.
Anyway – STORY! Enjoy. :)
Pits
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria
Page 18
Pain. Aching, throbbing pain that zipped and sputtered through my bones and down my veins.
It was also incredibly dark, but that probably had more to do with the fact that I didn't have any desire to open my eyes than any true lack of light – I wasn't sure I wanted to know for sure if I had made it through the ghost shield or not. I twitched my fingers, making sure that I still had fingers to move. Then I curled my toes, feeling the pins-and-needles tingle the shield had left in them.
Based on what I could figure out, my jump's timing had to be classified as incredibly good. I still had all my body parts and wasn't dead. But it wasn't perfect. The ghost shield had caught me mid-transformation and had given me a rather nasty shock as I passed through it.
Passed through.
One eye flickered open to check my thought that I had, indeed, made it through Walker's shield. The flickering green ghost shield lay below me like some kind of science fiction field of grass, surrounded on all sides by the red, blue, and green eyes of Walker's guards. My other eye opened, staring at them as they stared back at me in surprise. Nobody had moved yet.
Why aren't I falling? My shoulder gave a sharp twinge just as I realized that I wasn't even attempting to fly. My heart stopped dead when my brain finally noticed that one of my arms was being held awkwardly over my head, my wrist clamped in a tight grip. Walker!
My body jerked a little when I flinched and I quickly craned my neck around to find out who was holding me in the air. Tilting my head awkwardly, I was met with a very familiar sight: the bottom of a red jet sled, a certain red-garbed human perched on top. My heart restarted and I let out a chuckle. "Hi."
"You weren't going to leave me out of this, were you?" she asked pleasantly, but there was a tremor in her voice and sharp daggers of fear leaking out of her. She was slowly scanning the masses of ghosts surrounding where we were floating, not paying much attention to me.
"Not if you're going to volunteer like this," I muttered as I pushed myself up into the air and took my weight off Valerie's arm. It wasn't a huge surprise to see Valerie – the ghost lights had already shown me the fact that she had snuck back into the Pits. When I was floating even with her, she let go. "But this isn't going to fun, Val."
"Figured that," she whispered, her voice barely audible through the hunter's mask.
I glanced around the crowded arena. The guards still hadn't moved – they seemed to content to just stare in confusion for the moment – and Walker's special box seat was empty. "Where's Walker?"
"He might be dealing with a cherry bomb or two… or two hundred… and some leftover fireworks… and maybe a ghost-proof boom box…"
I grinned at that.
"You escaped a little early." Valerie reached into her pocket and tossed me a small object. I caught it without a second thought, blinking down at the small crystal. "Yours?" she asked.
Surprised, I nodded and looked up at her. I hadn't been expecting to get it back and I had no idea what to do with it. For a moment, I stared into the visor of her mask, momentarily transfixed by my own reflection glistening in the glass. My odd green-blue eyes were simmering even in the relatively bright light of the Pits. Shaking myself out of my daze, I stuffed the crystal – the key – Valerie had given me into my pocket and gestured towards the main doors. "Shall we?"
Our movement towards the door seemed to be what finally shook the guards out of their stunned silence. The mob of ghosts yelled and screamed, their voices raised in an impossibly loud roar that seemed to shake the entire arena. Many of the ghosts threw themselves into the air, batons raised, eyes glowing, hands reaching for the devices that would send electrical shocks through me via the collar on my neck.
But there would be no running from them, no escape from their wrath, no alternate plans. There was only one way out of this arena: straight through.
The smile on my face turned cold as we raced towards the oncoming ghosts, energy pulsing into life around me. I could see their fingers pressing against buttons that should have activated my collar. I could watch the astonishment blossom on their faces when nothing happened. One heartbeat, two, and we were in the middle of them.
Ghosts flickered by on all sides of me, many of them reacting too slowly to do anything but watch as we passed them by. Escape was the goal, not stopping and fighting. I dodged around a guard that planted himself in my way as my blades bloomed from my arms, one of the star-silver razor edges dancing up to slice through an errant guard's arm like a hot knife through ice cream cake. Twirling closer to Valerie, I picked off a guard that had been too close to her back and watched her clear a path with her weapons.
I slipped sideways through the air and removed the head of a guard that had been trying to sneak up on me before putting on a burst of speed to pull ahead of the red huntress. Before us, the mob of guards was so thick that I couldn't see through to the doorway. I didn't want her wasting her suit's limited energy supplies – I'd blaze the trail.
Power jumped to my fingers before arcing back to the shimmer along the length of my twin blades. The ectoluminum collected the energy and enhanced it, setting it humming with potential. I slashed down with my arm and released the energy. It flowed through the air in a visible wash of emerald power, followed a split-second later by the energy from the second blade.
Formed and given a purpose by my thoughts, the two gashes of light in the air sped away from me and, at a point a few body lengths in front of me, the two waves of power met, mingled… and exploded. I raised my hand and squinted against the bright light. Many of the guards that had been in the way weren't so lucky – pieces of the rapidly evaporating guards were raining down on the ghost shield.
For a moment, I had the morose question in my mind of how many new ghost lights I had just created, but I tossed it away. Now was not the time to think about it.
The guards had scattered; we could see how close we were to the door. I glanced over my shoulder at Valerie. She was still diving towards the door, an ectorifle in her hand, firing at any guard bold enough to get within her sights. Looking back, I caught sight of…
I almost stopped in midair, surprised. I'd expected to see rows and rows of empty seats, but the stands around the arena were still filled with hundreds of ghosts. More than half of the guards hadn't attacked us; they were just sitting there, staring up at us, confused looks on their faces. But why are they…
Two arms suddenly snaked around my chest and pinned my arms to my sides, tossing the half-question from my head. "Hey!" I yelped as the arms tightened painfully, struggling and kicking. Energy exploded inside of me and scorched through my body, causing the guard who had grabbed me to scream in pain and let go. I twirled around, one arm coming up, and removed the ghost's head from his shoulders.
I twisted around to head back towards the door when suddenly a massive blast of energy sizzled past me, inches from my ear. I glanced over my shoulder at a scream that came from right behind me; a guard who had been sneaking up on me was now falling through the air, curled up in a little ball. My head jerked around to find out who had saved me.
A green cloaked figure was standing at the door, an incredibly large ectorifle in its hands. Two more figures wrapped in similar green – human, I knew that instantly by the emotions they were giving off – were stepping out of the door, all three of them aiming weapons towards the guards and firing.
With a grin, I dove towards them, quickly catching up with Valerie. "Let's get out of here," I yelled to her over the screams of the guards getting shot.
She didn't bother to answer – she simply continued to drop through the air. Now that we didn't have to fight through all of the guards, it only took a matter of seconds before we reached the doorway. I dropped to the ground next to the three rebels, panting a little, incredibly happy to hear the sharp whine of the ectoguns.
"Whelp," the tallest of them greeted, mechanical green eyes drifting over towards me.
"You're still insulting me even when you're saving me?" I muttered, already heading towards the door.
The glowing eyes narrowed under the dark recesses of the hood as he turned to follow me. "It's because I had to save you that I'm insulting you, whelp."
I glanced over my shoulder. A mass of guards were diving towards us, still getting picked off by the ectoguns of the rebels – although it seemed like a lot of the guards were lagging behind and choosing to just float and watch us leave. "Run!" Valerie demanded, pushing against me.
I nodded, totally in agreement. I picked up my pace, but I hadn't gotten more than two or three steps when the lights went out. For a few moments the ghost shield glowed brightly, illuminating the entire place. When that finally flickered out of existence, the large room was thrown into darkness. Obviously startled and confused by the turn of events, the guards' yells fell silent.
Somewhere below us, no longer trapped in her Pit, Specter started to laugh, her dangerous chuckle echoing around the almost-silent arena.
A large, warm hand pushed against my shoulder, shoving me towards the hallways that were still lit by the dancing ghost lights. "Move, Danny," a familiar voice whispered in my ear and I finally realized that I had stopped moving. My feet started again, heading towards the corridors, as the voice continued. "The rebels took out Walker's generator."
"Why'd they aim for that?" I slipped through the arched door and headed down the hallway at nearly a run. The guards would figure out to come after us soon.
"To take down the shield and get you out."
"I thought they were leaving me to die," I muttered, twisting around to look at the person who was talking to me. The voice was achingly familiar. I caught a glimpse of who it was, hood pushed back as he ran, and tripped over my own feet.
Dad chuckled softly as he slowed to a stop, grabbing my arm before I could hit the ground and levering me back onto my feet. "Mads and I disagreed. And Skulker was nice enough to lend us a few of his ectoguns to disagree with."
A huge flash of light from the arena we'd just left burst like a firework, the light that streamed down the hallway eerily bright. A haunting girl's voice – Specter's – screamed, "Phantom!"
Skulker, who had passed me at some point and was now ahead of me, raised his arm and a brilliant green bolt of energy whistled past my head. A few moments later, there was the sound of one of Walker's guards screaming. The guards had found the entrance to the hallways. "Touchy human reunion later," Skulker grumbled as he recharged his weapon, "keep moving."
Valerie pushed past my dad and I on foot, the hallway too small for her to use her jetsled, raising her arm to fire into the crowd of approaching guards. "Again… run," she snapped. The two cubes being directed by her hand sent reddish blasts of energy zipping down the hallway.
I grabbed my dad's arm and yanked on it, starting to drag him along. I had no desire to be recaptured by the guards. He fell into step next to me after just a few paces. The third figure in green dropped back from her place in the lead and smiled at me, reaching out the grab my hand. Mom's eyes widened suddenly and I ducked a split-second before a glob of green ectoplasm from one of the guards' batons blasted overhead.
Even as I was straightening, I pulled my hand away from my mother's and pointed it at the guards following us, joining Val's and Skulker's attempts to keep the guards away from us. Energy swirled and cascaded around me for a moment, then I focused it. It collected around my outstretched hand for a fraction of a moment before rocketing off towards its target. That one blast was soon followed by a dozen more.
The guards on our tail proved to be nothing more than a way to keep us occupied while another group of guards got in front of us and blocked off our advance. I was too busy blasting into the guards behind us to notice the guards infront of us; the first time I realized they were there was when my mother gasped, a startled yelp of pain slipping from her lips.
I twirled around, glaring at the guard who had grabbed her hand and twisted her arm behind her back. I didn't even bother with the unspoken demand to let her go; my blades slashed into existence a heartbeat before I sliced the idiot in half.
Steadfastly ignoring the look on my mother's face, knowing that she'd just seen me kill someone for the first time, I flipped around to glare at the dozens of guards arranged in front of us, blocking our way out. I was finished with this – no more games, no more playing, no more mercy. I wanted out of the Pits and I was going to get out and I was going to take my parents with me. I took a few steps forwards to stand in between my parents and the guards blocking our way out.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Valerie and Skulker point their guns backwards, holding off the guards that had stumbled to a halt behind us. Dad pointed his ectogun forwards, the smaller weapon whining painfully as it charged. We were surrounded. "Move," I demanded.
"No," one of the guards said, raising his baton to point at me with one arm, the other reaching down to press the button on the box that would have activated the shock collar on my neck. I watched him push the button, tensing even though I knew nothing would happen.
As shock and disbelief colored the guard's face, I reached up and grabbed the broken collar. Specter's slice had almost cut all the way through it – one hard yank was all it took to pull it the rest of the way off. I tossed it onto the ground and smiled. The guards flinched. Part of me cheered at that – if they were afraid of me and it would be lots easier to get out – and part of me crumbled at the fact that my smile was, no doubt, reminiscent of a certain lost future. After all of my promises, I really was turning into that monster. I shook my head to clear the thought from my mind; now was not the time. "Move or be moved," I snapped.
There were a few moments of silence as I stared down the guards, the quiet broken only by a few screams in the background as Specter disemboweled anyone foolish enough to get in her path. Walker's key was burning in my pocket and I could see the uncertainty in the guards' eyes. Since I now had the key, I was the one who held sway in the Pits. I was its master, not Walker. Any sort of mental bond Walker held over his guards was broken. The only thing holding them in place was their fear of him.
I sighed in my head as the next thought germinated. It was hard to imagine me, peaceful clumsy Danny Fenton, thinking such a thing. But there it was anyways.
I need to show them who to really fear.
Annoyed and frustrated at the circumstances I'd been put in, angry at the thoughts running through my own head, and terrified that my parents would be killed after all that I'd been through, I couldn't hold back the overly-strong emotions my ghost side was throwing at me any longer. They ripped through anything I used to try to block them, dancing and curling upwards inside of me as rage colored my vision. "Fine," I whispered, my voice more of a snarl than actual words.
Energy curled around the blade that I had raised, dancing an emerald-crimson at the fury flowing through my body. As power built up into a visible aura of arching energy, feeding off the energy locked into the ancient blade, about half the guards broke and disappeared down the dark hallway. A small tendril of happiness slipped into me at that; the knowledge of how much they feared me sickeningly sweet. I waited a beat, then released all the pent-up power. The blast raced away from me, slammed into the lead guard, and exploded in a ball of brilliant light.
I raised a ghost shield without a second thought, feeling the impacts of the decimated pieces of hall, ceiling, floor, and guard as the bits slammed into the shield. When the dust settled, there was a huge hole in the floor, no sign of the guards that hadn't chosen to move fast enough. I stared at the destruction for a moment, feeling nothing. How many ghosts had I just killed?
I found, rather depressingly, that I just didn't care anymore.
"Come on," I muttered, grabbing my parent's hands, unable to look at them. I knew that they were seeing me for who I really was for the first time… a monster, a killer, a thing who could destroy and not care… I could already feel the surprise and the fear coming from them, I didn't need to see it too.
Shaking the thought out of my head, I pulled them towards the crater and quickly flew them over. Skulker was a split-second behind me, Valerie carried in his arms.
"The blast scared most of them away," Skulker said, a note of commendation in his voice. He dropped Valerie once he'd reached the other side and walked past me, Vlaerie right on his heels. "This way," he commanded.
Still unable to look at my parents, I let them pass me and ended up in the rear. My mother kept glancing back at me, but every time she'd look at me, I'd look away. I didn't want to know what was going through her mind; she was probably wondering what kind of creature she'd come all this way to save.
When her head turned again, I looked down one of the corridors branching off from this one. My feet slammed to a stop when I saw, illuminated by the flickering green and blue ghost lights, a familiar white, boney warden. "Walker," I whispered.
The ghost was singed and seemed to be smoldering faintly, his clothes splattered in a variety of colors of paint. He was glaring down at a guard – he had no idea I was there.
He was defenseless.
Pure, raw fury sparkled around me and coiled into my mind. I wanted to destroy Walker. After all he'd put me and my family and my friends through this past however-long-it-had-been, he deserved nothing less than to be totally and completely obliterated from the Ghost Zone. Ever since I'd first heard about the rat's stupid plan, I'd wanted to get rid of Walker. Here was my chance.
Energy started to build around me, unconsciously called into existence by the anger fluttering inside of me. I wanted to kill him. I needed to kill him.
I took a step forwards. Am I finally going to get to do this? My fingers curled into fists, my heart fluttering anxiously. Every fiber of my being wanted to get some sort of revenge for what I'd been through. The cosmic scales needed to be balanced.
I took another step. This isn't murder – Walker's not innocent. I could so easily justify his death in my mind. Thousands of his victims are screaming for this to happen.
"Danny?"
At the sound of my mother's voice, my feet hesitated. I didn't look away from Walker. All I wanted to do was destroy him. It won't take long, and after I kill him I'll catch up to my parents.
Surely one more death on my hands wouldn't make or break anything by this point.
"DANNY!"
At the sound of fear in her voice, I glanced over my shoulder, my breath catching in my throat. "Mom?" I mouthed, taking a small step backwards. I couldn't see her anymore; I'd made it too far down the side corridor.
Looking back towards Walker, the hallway was empty. My heart fell still and I just stared at the deserted hallway. I'd lost my chance. Walker would live to see a few more minutes, at least.
Still buoyed by the rage that seeing Walker had sent boiling through me, I took a few more steps backwards and set off after my parents at a run. Skidding around a corner, I stumbled to a stop. My mom was struggling, a familiar set of green eyes and messy white hair holding her up in the air by one arm. "Mom!"
"Phantom," Specter said. "We need to finish our fight – you can't just leave like that."
"The fight's over," I snapped, the view of Mom being held like that only fueling the fury that was racing through me like a forest fire. Tiny tendrils of barely controlled fear were leaching into the air and my ghost side grabbed them and twirled them into my own power. "Let her go."
She looked straight into my eyes, her aura glowing dangerously as she shook my mother. Her lips moved, probably saying something along the lines of 'make me', but I was beyond hearing her. The world grew red.
I took three steps and sliced forwards with my blade. It followed my thoughts, growing longer and arching just a little to be right on target, but Specter was too quick. She let go of my mother and ducked to the side just in time to avoid losing her arm. Mom dropped heavily to the ground, one of her legs buckling under her with a sickening cracking sound, but I didn't have time to pay any attention to her.
Specter dropped to the ground and formed two rapier-like swords in her hands. She took a step towards me, a grin on her face. One of her rapiers swept down through the air – I threw my own blade upwards to block it, but she had other plans. She reversed it at the last second, throwing me off balance, and drove her other rapier towards my unprotected side. It dug into my skin even as I was throwing myself backwards, tearing a shallow path down my side.
Swallowing down whatever cry of pain had tried to leave my lips, I settled my feet on the ground just long enough to catch my balance and dove towards her. She sidestepped my attack and drove a knee into my side, forcing my breath out of my lungs and making me fall to the ground.
"Danny!" I heard my mother gasp. "JACK!"
I made it to my hands and feet, struggling to get some air in my lungs, as the question of where Skulker, Valerie, and my dad were hiding finally crept into my head. Specter's feet walked into my line of sight and I looked up into her grinning face, one of her rapiers held high over her head.
I could hear the sound of ectoweapons being fired, but I couldn't see any being shot towards Specter. Move. I tensed my arms and legs, ready to throw myself to the side even if I couldn't get a breath of air into my lungs, but Specter wasn't waiting any longer. She wanted me dead; I could see it in her glowing eyes.
Her arm moved almost in slowly motion, dropping towards me.
Suddenly a blur of blue and dirty-white slammed into Specter, throwing her across the hallway and knocking the short swords from her hands. Specter pushed herself smoothly to her feet almost instantly, the ghost that had bowled into her stumbling upwards much more slowly. "He's mine," he snapped angrily, his blue eyes flaring brightly.
Specter flicked her hair out of her eyes and glared at him, obviously annoyed at the interruption. "I'm fighting Phantom, not you. Now get out of my way… whoever you are."
The teenage ghost puffed out his chest, his odd-looking off-white clothes shimmering in the blue-green light. "I am L'Tradeshijai, son of M'Trakamadeshi." I pushed myself upwards a little, trying to remember where I'd heard that name before. It sounded familiar.
"Great," Specter muttered, then seemed to lose interest in him when she focused her emerald eyes back on me, ignoring the newest ghost. She walked towards me as I finally got back onto my feet, my side still aching painfully from where she'd kneed me. New rapier-like swords ghosted into existence in her hands, glittering like death in the flickering ghost lights. "Now…"
"Wait!" The ghost boy grabbed her arm.
Specter whirled, one sword slashing at the ghost who had grabbed her. He didn't jump backwards fast enough; green ectoplasm seeped down his chest from the slice she'd inflicted on him. "Don't touch me," she snapped
"Wait," he said again, pushing a hand to his chest, his voice tinged loudly with pain, "all I want to do is ask a question. Then you can kill him."
I suddenly had it – it was the voice that tipped him off. My eyes narrowed a little as I gazed at the rat-turned-human. It made a certain sort of illogical sense. The rat had vanished on me, turned tail and ran, as soon as I lost Walker's key. Now that I had it back, he showed back up.
Specter pointed one of her short swords towards LJ. "I'm killing you next," she snapped, visibly irritated at the constant interruptions. She opened her mouth to say something more, but a brilliant stream of green energy slammed into her and sent her tumbling down the hallway.
"Don't touch my family," Dad demanded, pointing his ectogun down the hallway in the direction Specter had disappeared. He walked over to Mom, knelt down, and picked her up without another word.
Mom hissed in pain, her leg twisting awkwardly, obviously broken. I pushed past LJ impatiently, the blades disappearing from my arms as I slipped over to my parents. "Are you okay?"
Mom smiled at me, but her face was white from the pain she was in, her knuckles turning pale from the death grip she was developing in Dad's shirt.
"Keep moving," Valerie called from up ahead. "We can't hold off the ghosts forever, you know." Dad immediately turned and started to head up the hallway and around the corner.
With one last glance over my shoulder towards where Specter had vanished, I turned back to LJ. "You left me to die," I said sourly, turning on my heel and following my parents. I still hadn't managed to convince myself that I had done the right thing by giving Valerie the key and letting her live, I still wasn't sure if I was right or if the rat was right – but I still held a bit of righteous anger where he was concerned.
"You lost my key. You ruined a century's worth of planning for one measly human." The teenage ghost grabbed my shoulder and twisted me around. His sapphire eyes stared into mine. "I want my key, hybrid."
I glanced over my shoulder; I was this close to being free. All I had to do was get through one more door and I'd be out of the Pits for good – and the rat wanted to sit here and debate keys. Frankly, I didn't care anymore. The rat could have his stupid Pits. Turning back to him, I dug into my pocket and grabbed the small crystal. "Fine, whatever."
I held it out and he reached for it, his eyes glittering, just as Specter reappeared. With a furious shriek of rage, she sliced out with one of her swords and removed LJ's head from his shoulders.
As the boy who was usually a rat tumbled to the ground, his body already starting to dissolve, I slammed outwards with the blade that had appeared on my arm before I even knew I was attacking. The star-silver metal slammed into Specter's chest, power swirled and expanded, and Specter exploded in a wash of freezing semi-solid ectoplasm.
It took less than a blink of an eye and I was alone in the hallway.
I took a deep breath, wiping some of Specter's ectoplasm off my face before it dripped into my eyes, trying to figure out what had just happened. I didn't have time to do that now; I'd have to think it through later. Blinking a few times, looking around the deserted hallway, I stuffed the crystal back into my pocket, never noticing when it slipped through a hole and dropped onto the floor, and started to race after my parents.
Danny Fenton, the young hybrid who dashed down the deserted hallways, had no idea what he'd just done – even if he had known, he probably wouldn't have cared all too much at the time.
But we cared.
Swirling and dancing through the hallways, we watched as humans and ghosts were smuggled out the Pits by hundreds of green-cloaked rebels. We watched as guards were taken by surprise and carefully silenced before they could sound the alarm. We raced through the hallways, following the familiar twists and turns, observing everything that was happening.
We saw everything that occurred in the Pits as it was happening, but most of our attention was on the boy who had just changed our destiny forever… despite the fact that he didn't even realize it. The destruction of Walker's Pits, the freedom of the trapped and the innocent, the death of the last of the Guardians of Atlantis, the taking of the crystal from the Pits – all brought about because of Danny. Had Danny not gotten captured, had Danny not been who he was, had Danny not chosen the follow the path he had followed, none of it would have happened.
One of us – a brilliant green ghost light – laughed delightedly at L'Jai's downfall, knowing that the last of the Guardians was finally gone. The ghost light fixed his attention on the crystal glittering on the hallway floor just beyond L'Jai's dissolving fingers, even as a simple green ghost light formed over L'Jai's body. "My heart," the first ghost light whispered, twirling down the hallway towards the key, brushing up against still-forming ghost light.
The two green lights watched silently as the last piece of the puzzle raced down the corridor and tripped over the remains of L'Jai's and Specter's bodies. The young human pushed himself to his feet, cursing, but hesitated when he saw a sparkle on the ground. Nimble fingers that were used to writing in books picked up the small crystal and studied it closely. This time, when the crystal was slipped into a pocket, it didn't fall out.
The crystal was nothing but the old ruler's heart, torn out by Walker years and years earlier, as a way for Walker to control the Pits. King Aldren, the last great king of Altantis, no longer wished his heart to be returned to him, but he still danced after it. Where his heart led, he would follow. When his heart left the Pits, his ancient home, he would finally be free.
And we, the original ghost lights that were the people of Atlantis, followed our King.
I slipped to a stop by the doors that led out of the Pits, staring into the green abyss of the Ghost Zone. My parents were already standing on the small spit of rock on the other side of the Pits' door, looking back at me, waiting, Valerie hovering on her jet sled beside them. Dad was settling Mom carefully on the sled. "Danny, come on!"
I took a small step forwards, out of the Pits.
I was free.
My heart soared – there was no question that there was a smile on my face right at that moment. It didn't matter that Walker was still alive. It didn't matter what was still standing in my way. I was free.
Ghosts in green cloaks pushed past me and scattered into the Ghost Zone, one of them carrying a human slung over his shoulder. Former looked up at me, a grin on his face, and he waved just as the ghost carrying him raced off into the Ghost Zone. "Darn it," Skulker muttered, crossing his arms over his chest, "they're scattering like scared prey. It's going to take months to get them all back together."
I glanced over at Skulker's annoyed face and my grin grew. I wasn't entirely sure why. "Let's get out of here," I said.
Valerie nodded her agreement, checked to make sure my mom had a grip on her jet sled, then hit the accelerator and vanished into the Ghost Zone. As Skulker's jets blasted and sent him into the air, I reached over and snagged my dad's hand, tugging him over the edge of the floating rock. His fingers clenched a little in surprise when we stared to freefall. Letting us fall for a few hundred feet before we leveled out, I fixed on the Fenton Portal – my body instantly aligning with my home – and accelerated.
"Danny!" I heard my dad shout over the whistling air in my ears. I looked down at him, saw him pointing up behind us, and glanced over my shoulder. I tensed, expecting to see guards racing towards us, a furious Walker in the lead.
Instead, all I saw was a wash of green and blue. Tiny flickers of light were boiling out of the Pits like a sideways tornado of color. The ghost lights danced and swirled through the endless abyss, groups of them breaking away to swirl off into uncharted territories.
An unconscious grin slipped onto my face as I watched them, wondering why they were all leaving the Pits, but I doubted I ever would be able to figure it out. The one thing I did know was that the ghost lights were spirits – the tiny remains of the ghosts that had died in the Pits. Maybe now that they were out in the Ghost Zone they would be able to get enough energy to reform their original bodies. There were very few places where a ghost could go and really die; perhaps the Pits wasn't one of them.
One tiny blue light twirled up right in front of me, extended a small tendril of light, and touched my forehead. I could suddenly see a young girl in a dirty blue dress, her form faint and unsure. Thank you for freeing us.
I smiled confusedly at her, a few ghost lights swirling around me. I had freed them? How had I done that?
We wanted to show you this before we left. She blinked at me once, tipped her head to the side, and the world twisted black.
Bobbing and dancing, I was back in my cell, staring down at myself lying on my cot. I could see a boy standing over me, his spectral hand pressed against my forehead. When the ghost looked up, I could see clearly who it was: LJ, in his human form. "Darn it, he's too sick."
I remembered this – back before I'd fallen into this hybrid stage. I had gotten so sick I hadn't been able to keep my eyes open. Twirling a little bit closer, I watched as LJ picked a bowl off the ground. It was already full of soup.
He studied me for a long moment, then reached into a pocket and pulled out a small vial. "No offense, but I need a hybrid to do this." He held out the small vial, dangling it in front of my pale face. "If you've got any problems about being a hybrid, speak now or forever hold your peace."
Silence fell in the cell, then LJ shrugged. "Works for me," he muttered, yanked the stopper out, and poured the glowing substance into the soup. A few stirs later and he set the bowl back on my bed. I watched as he twisted back into his rat form and walked up to press his cold nose against my cheek. The me on the cot rolled over and buried my head in an arm.
"Hybrid?" he said to me. "You need to eat something."
I blinked a few times as the Ghost Zone shimmered back into reality, my father's weight still hanging from my arms. I remembered eating that soup. I just let that sit in my head for a moment, not sure what to think about it. The rat had caused me to turn into this hybrid form; it was his fault that I couldn't be human.
Perhaps, the ghost light who was one of the people I'd murdered, now that you know what caused it, you can undo it.
"Thanks," I murmured, but the small blue ghost light didn't hang around. She twirled and danced off into the Ghost Zone, headed for parts unknown. I watched her go, my gaze being dragged past the door that led into the Pits just in time to see Walker and a small army of guards step through the door and fix their eyes on me.
I started to move instantly, glancing up just long enough to see that Valerie and my mother were already out of sight. My fingers tightened around my dad's wrist as I pulled him faster and faster, racing Walker for the Fenton portal. I didn't have to look over my shoulder to realize that I wouldn't make it: I was carrying my dad and Walker wasn't carrying anybody – it didn't take much math to realize who was faster.
It wasn't until blasts of energy started to zip past us that I glanced backwards. I let go of my dad's arm with one hand and pulled spectral energy out of the air to form into a blast, shooting back towards the approaching guards. Walker, swelled up to about a hundred times his normal size, was glaring at me angrily with his pumpkin-sized raisin eyes.
Twisting and diving and rolling, I managed to avoid most of the blasts that were getting sent our way, but I wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. With every dodge I was forced to make, the guards inched their way closer. My own attacks were not strong enough or aimed well enough to do much damage – not with my dad hanging onto my wrist.
The Fenton Portal was still too far away. I needed to do something to get rid of the guards chasing us long enough to make it through. A floating chunk of rock just ahead caught my eye and I glanced down at my dad. He was staring back at the ghosts with a strange look on his face – one of mixed fear and anger and interest. "Trust me?" I yelled down at him over the whistle of air in my ears.
He looked up and nodded, so I let go of his hand.
I didn't look down as he plummeted away from me. I twisted around, diving right back towards the guards, the blades appearing on my arms in a dash of cold metal. I was in them in just a few seconds, swirling and stabbing at anything that moved, slicing and slashing arms and legs and heads. Guards screamed and scattered, many of them dropping into the depths of the Ghost Zone, yelling in pain.
One guard made it too close and I threw myself into a back handspring in mid-air, kicking out with a foot and knocking the ghost away from me. As soon as I was back to right-side-up, I was sending a blast towards him, enhanced by the energy trapped in the star-silver blades on my arms. When the stream of energy slammed into his chest, it exploded like a small bomb, taking three other guards out with the one I'd been aiming for.
I charged up my blades again, but the remaining ghosts scattered, falling back to regroup around the giant-sized Walker. I stood in the air, my feet planted solidly in nothing, and glared up at Walker. Here was my chance – again. I could kill him and get it over with.
He deserves nothing more than death after all he's done. He's ruining thousands of lives, murdered hundreds or thousands of innocent people. Kill him.
I slowly started to drop through the air, my feet coming to rest on the spit of rock I'd dropped my father onto just seconds earlier. My blades were still on my arms, glittering brightly in the eerie light of the Ghost Zone.
Just kill him. He's weak and almost powerless in the Ghost Zone; it would take next to nothing to take him down.
I couldn't explain why I wasn't just giving in – why I wasn't up there killing him and ending his murdering spree. Something inside of me was fighting back.
Something was saying: enough fighting.
A hand touched my shoulder and I shuddered a little, looking into my father's eyes. His eyes sparkled, filled with love and understanding – something I knew my own eyes weren't reflecting back. My whole body was trembling with the desire to go and kill Walker, to make him pay for everything he'd done to me. "Let's go home," Dad said.
I glanced back at Walker, my fingers clenching into fists. The huge, white warden wasn't moving. Perhaps he understood that he had created something he couldn't control – something he couldn't contain. Maybe he knew that if he went up against me he wouldn't survive through it. Any way it worked, he wasn't attacking me.
He was just glaring, threatening… taunting. He wanted me to attack him.
Suddenly, I understood Walker's little game. He wanted me to fight – and he wanted me to fight on my terms, to kill without being forced, to try to obliterate someone when I had the choice to not. If I did that, I would truly be a monster.
I stared back into Walker's eyes. Despite everything he'd forced me to do, he hadn't won yet. He was playing his last card with crossed fingers.
"Danny," Dad said, his voice soft, "let's go."
Slowly, I turned my back on Walker. I turned my back on everything Walker and his Pits stood for – murder and fighting and blood and lies and torture – and looked towards something new. I grabbed my dad's warm hand, held it tightly, and pushed off the ground.
Flying towards the Fenton Portal, I never looked back.
Walker and his guards didn't follow.
Mom, Valerie, and Skulker were waiting for us by the portal, standing on the small floating bit of rock just on this side of the Ghost Zone.
I dropped Dad onto the rock and drifted down myself, letting my feet touch the rock. Skulker walked up to me, grabbed my hand, and shook it. I stared at him in surprise for a moment before he spoke. "It was nice hunting with you, child," Skulker rumbled.
"Thanks," I said, sending him a confused look.
"However," he continued, "next time we meet your pelt will hang on my wall." He released my hand and activated the rockets on his back. It took only seconds for him to disappear.
I glanced up at my parents, my heart thumping wildly in my chest. I had no idea what was waiting for me on the other side of the Ghost Portal. I was a murderer… a killer… what kind of place would I have in a normal human family? Did I even belong with them anymore?
"Come on, Danny," Mom said, leaning heavily on Dad, her broken leg barely touching the ground, "let's go home."
"Home," I whispered. Is it possible for me to have a home again? After everything I've done?
As Valerie stepped through the portal, Dad picked Mom up bridal style and followed, their forms vanishing in the swirling mists. I took a step towards it, but then hesitated and turned back to the Ghost Zone. My eyes swept over the quiet abyss for a few moments, catching sight of a few sparkles of green and blue lights.
My fingers reached into my pocket for Walker's key and I blinked, startled, when I found nothing in my pocket. I'd lost it. Somewhere out there in the endless chasm of the afterlife, was one tiny crystal that had caused so much trouble.
For a few more seconds I gazed out in the ghost world, wondering.
Then, without a word, I turned around and walked through the portal and into my new life.
Underneath the cot in a tiny, room with the number 413 painted on the outside, a small light flickered above the last empty page in the journal. It drifted for a few moments, knowing that the story was over. There was no more of the hybrid's tale to tell – not that was suitable for this particular journal, at least.
It danced out from under the cot, into the empty cell, through the door, and down the hallway. It swirled past Walker – who still hadn't found his key – and out into the arena where one young human female was facing her opponent in a fight to the death, staring into his two green eyes with a look of terror on her face. She knew what was about to happen to her; she'd read all about it. The two blades that had been strapped clumsily onto her arms just before she'd been thrown into this pit trembled.
The blue ghost light hesitated, watching the fight, waiting for what it knew would come next. It flared impatiently, then twirled a little when it caught the sight of movement along the edge of the Pits.
The little light was never far away from his brother, after all. It swirled out of the sky to illuminate Former's shadowed path, its blue aura sparkling against the crystal-like key clenched in Former's fist. Gory Former glanced up at his little brother with a small smile on his face.
Then, together, they set out to rescue yet another soul from the Pits.
… the epilogue will be up shortly. Cookies to those who can guess the date I will post it.
A few remaining plot strings will be tied up in the epilogue, but if you know any that are just bugging you that NEED to be tied up, make sure you mention them. I'm not sure I have them all. XD Don't want to miss yours.
Thanks to my reviewers of the last chapter! Hyperfuzzy, Nostalgic Beauty, bluename, kdm13, Chuni Luni, ShadowLord9, katiesparks, moonlightwaterdragon, Chopee, Kit turned Mighty, Kinoshita Krtanite, zizzy333, Hiei's Cute Girl, CatalystOfTheSoul, HaiJu, Thunderstorm101, ShatterMyMuse, New Ghost Girl, BluFox15, Nylah, The Feral Candy Cane, MaxRideNut, Ghost Dragon, swordbunny4486, KareBare, Invader Johnny, Enray, Kiomori, skitzofrenic, Lockblade, Freaklevel27, Little Angel's Perk, bloodmoon13, ImmortalPhantom22, oceanabyss, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, dragon of spirits, and Me-agaisnt-the-world!
See you soon…
-Cori