Summary: AU. Caught in the middle of Vladimir Master's evil plot to take over the Kingdom of Amity, Prince Daniel is turned into a half-ghost. Now he must flee for his life, hide in the company of two new allies, and fight his way back to the throne. DxS

Disclaimer: Butch and Nick own Danny and Co.

To my reviewers: Again, thank you all so much, you guys really keep me at it. I know Daniel's crude attitude and Dorothy's death has raised some questions, some of which I hope to answer in this chapter.

Chapter 6: Siren

Two days had passed since Daniel had encountered his first task, and he could only grow more anxious as they came closer to the Kingdom of Casper.

His worry did not cease at the prospect of his challenges, however. Too often would his thoughts wonder to his mother and father. That would only cause him to think of Vladimir's treacherous activities in the castle, unfortunately, which only stirred his anger. He tried to take little of it out on the girl, but she was always such an easy target; her heart was way too out on her sleeves as far as he was concerned. He had to keep the boy closer to him, on the other hand, knowing his loyalty would come in handy.

They had stopped at each sunset to rest and make camp, inclined to walk for the rest of the day. He had only somewhat slowed his pace so that it may be easier for them to follow.

The discomfort at his side had fully left him on the second day. At unease with this thought, however, he found himself feeling strange after the girl who's blood once resided on his blade. Samantha's mourning expression as he cleansed the blood off was vivid in his mind and kept calling back the thought of murder. He had never wanted to kill anyone, much less set himself on a path to destroy his father's once closest friend. It had all happened against his will and that is how he felt: trapped. He could not change out of his form and part of him did not want to. He had grown comfortable walking in this skin; it let him embrace his worst fears and ignore many insignificant details that would have otherwise greatly troubled him. But it also allowed for nothing more. He believed himself a refugee, with limits that he did not like to reveal. His weaknesses were all too personal to him. He could almost say he was protective of them, but that only sent him into denial. Once all of this was over, however, his worst concern was what everyone would accept him as. A human or ghost? Say he did save the kingdom, but what of his abnormality? Would he be cursed to walk the earth as neither one of the living nor the dead? He dared not reason, but rather consulted his wit and weapon to survive long enough to find out.

Samantha and Tucker, meanwhile in his wake, were deep in conversation over a topic that Samantha had deeply pressed ever since she revealed her findings to Tucker two mornings ago.

"Maybe he's a eunuch," Tucker said smugly.

"Tucker!" Samantha replied. Her friend had not taken her seriously when she presented the evidence before him, but was determined not to give up.

"What? It's possible. Do you know how many knights -- ?"

"He is not a eunuch!" she said in frustration. It was all too difficult to get the point across to him, even more so than to get him to converse about a serious topic.

"Oh? And you would know?" he kidded with her.

She frowned in return and said, "Of course not. I mean he's a ghost, he can't experience...that kind of emotion."

"Right, but he's also part human," Tucker reasoned.

"Then you agree with me?" said Samantha, grinning.

He hesitated momentarily in mock and then replied, "No."

Her face fell and she bit her lip.

"Although, I do think that, if you stand by it, figure out something."

"Figure something?" she questioned, furrowing her brow. "How?"

"A test," he said definitively.

"A test?"

"You know what I mean," said Tucker with a scent of tease in his voice.

Samantha's expression suddenly morphed into that of amusement and understanding. Of course, it was so simple. "Oooh! Right. A test..."

The sun was setting for a fourth time in their journey and they had finally been able to set camp by a body of water. It was a shallow lake in the middle of the woods, but nevertheless, it provided them with refreshing water and a chance to soak their worn out belongings.

When their stirring and hustling had finally come to a rest at the end of the day, Tucker winked at Samantha and confessed that he would turn to bed early from weariness.

She rolled her eyes at her friend, reminding herself not to say anything too rash for the sake of Daniel's suspicion.

They had not spoken much since his battle, but somehow Samantha noticed that Daniel replied to her less coldly after her confrontation of him. She had even caught him watching her off at times, probably attempting to read her thoughts on the previous predicament. She would meet his gaze, which oddly did not break away, and for some time they would even be engaged in what was almost a staring contest until she was finally flustered enough to look away while knowing that his gaze was still upon her.

She watched him sit motionless before the fire, his gaze stern and his mind in deep meditation. She really did want to know more about him, but his nutshell exterior said otherwise. She also steered clear of him often to avoid the freezing temperature he gave off; her breath appeared before her in sign of the temperature drop despite the warm fire. If he really was somehow human, she reasoned, she wondered how he could not be cold. She tried not to boggle her head with contemplation about how he came to be such a curious hybrid, but rather reasoned that either dark magic had something to do with this or he was not fully dead. If either was the case, she still pondered as to why he wished to conceal it from her. True, she had her own secrets, but unfortunately, her curiosity did not seem to sit at all well with reason.

"You look cold," she told him, hugging a blanket around herself as he sat, propping himself up with his arms as he was leaned forward.

He looked at her, eyebrows raised. "Clever girl," he said and turned away once more.

She let silence consume them once again while the fire crackled and then said, "Please, if you don't mind me asking, how is it that you died?"

She saw his shoulders stiffen at the rhetorical question.

She smiled to herself, but quickly hid it as he looked at her.

"You really don't have anything better to do, do you?" he said.

She shook her head, unwilling to let his mark discourage her from the conversation.

Scowling, Daniel knew he had no choice but to reply with only the half-truth. "I didn't. I was murdered."

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise and she gasped. "How dreadful. I'm sorry, I did not know." She the mentally hit herself on the head. If he is what I believe to be true, that is most certainly a lie. Then again, perhaps it somewhat isn't? Oh he is clever! But he will be found out.

"H-How?"

"A sorcerer. And my father's best friend. At least, he thought him to be. He got me out of the way so that he could then get rid of my father and then collect on our money and marry my mother."

She looked at him in surprise. That story sounded almost too well thought-up to be a lie.

"What about your sister? The one you need to see?"

"She's alive, but she moved away at a young age. She never did like my parents very much. The last thing she told me before I died, however, was that she left because she was jealous of me and despised me. I was always their favorite. I believe I still have my amends to make with her."

She coughed in objection. That, most certainly, was a lie.

"Need some water?" he asked with a snide.

"No, please, do continue."

"With what? That is all I have to tell you."

"But what of you becoming a knight? And the sorcerer. Do you not seek to kill him?"

"You wish to know my life story?"

"Please," said Samantha.

"It's simple, I was raised in the house of a nobleman and elected by my father to be sent to the kingdom to train as a knight. I was killed at a young age and now I mean to finish what is left to be done. But you need not concern yourself with the man that killed me; I have already taken care of him and avenged my family."

She looked at him quizzically. Taken care of? Did that mean he was dead? Since when did sorcerer's die? Merlin had lived for centuries. She then smirked. "How long exactly were you a knight? You're quite good."

"Four years," said Daniel. "And I'm not as near good as the others."

"Four?" she questioned.

"That is what I said," he told her.

"Because it would seem to me," said Samantha, "that knights train since the age of seven and continue their training, evolving from page to squire, until the king dubs them and elects them permanently into his service."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I won't ask how you know that, but I never denied it. I was drafted at an early age."

"I could have sworn that a squire need be within the age of the king when he became a knight."

"He was a young king, are you quite done?" he said angrily. Her interrogation was inevitable; he had cautiously waited for it and conducted numerous stories, none of which seemed to fully satisfy her intrigue.

She bowed her head and nodded, knowing the questions were getting her nowhere to finding out the truth. The more she asked, the more he would lie, or bend the truth, she knew. It was not that she doubted if he may keep his word to their accord, it was rather that she knew he would but wondered what exactly made him the person he was and how he had ended up in his most peculiar predicament.

"I...do have another question," Samantha said quietly, feeling the heat creep up to her cheeks.

He looked at her, placing all possible fact and fiction together in his mind so to answer correctly.

She looked at him bashfully. "When...you were alive, did you ever -- have you ever been in love?"

He was completely taken aback by this question and sat up straight. He squinted his eyes at her and said, "No."

She swallowed and ignored the turn of her stomach at the prospect of where she was going with this.

"Never? You've never kissed a girl?"

He smiled. "I have, but a kiss does not equal the passion of love, now does it, Samantha?"

She shook her head as the blush across her face deepened and she stared into the fire.

He smirked. "Yourself?"

Her heart leapt at this question and her lips parted in shock, caught off guard.

She turned her head tentatively to look at him, his face growing in familiarity as the fire cast its shadow and his eyes continued to glow.

"My parents wouldn't let me near sight of a boy. So I can't say I know the sensation."

Daniel looked away, an uneasy desire to reach out to the purest of virgins before him.

"What about Tucker?" he said suddenly.

"I met him after I ran away," she replied.

"From what, may I ask?"

She was not sure why he had taken the sudden interest to ask of her past, but it made her feel flattered.

She frowned. "My parents were planning my engagement. I guess that was sort of the last straw for me." The recollection of the very idea made her feel ill.

His face turned into one of amusement. "He must have been horrid."

She snickered, part of her relived and yet shocked at how she could actually be enjoying herself at the ghost knight's company, and said, "You have no idea. Let's just say he stood for everything I believed against."

"But Tucker doesn't -- ?"

She laughed aloud. "You don't know him very well, do you?"

He scrunched up his nose in disgust. "Why, he's not a eunuch, is he?"

She bit her lips to stop from laughing. "N-No, he's not."

"Then I doubt I want to know what else his problem is," said Daniel, looking away, grinning.

Samantha blushed and stopped laughing. "What do you mean by that?"

He looked at her again, noting that in all naivete she took his reply to mean more than he implied. Then again, perhaps he did.

"I meant that I do not wish to know of his maladies."

"Oh," said Samantha, her face falling in disappointment. She had hoped he meant otherwise.

"But if it is being that he is not ill, he is certainly foolish to pass you as a lady," he told her.

The blush rose on her face once more and she bit her lip in mischief. She spoke in a sultry voice, "Then you do think of me as a... lady?"

He swallowed as she dropped her blanket slowly and bravely to embrace the freezing temperature and scooted closer to him. His eyes searched her voluptuous figure as she moved nearer to him and his deep voice replied with an, "Evidently."

"Because I would think, Danny," she breathed, a fog appearing before her mouth, as she moved ever more closer to him and tried not to shake at the drop in temperature due to his near presence, "that you being a ghost and me being a human, it would be forbidden for us to look at each other...through eyes...of temptation."

She was before him now, her breath growing thicker in the air and her lips turning blue, but she did not move away. He did notstir but simply seemed to admire her action and consumed her warm breath against his ice cold nature.

"Perhaps it would be easier on the both of us, Daniel," she whispered lustfully against his lips, "that you deny your desire to rid me of my inexperience..."

She searched his eyes as they fell and he placed a hand on her chin as his thumb grazed her lip. She shivered under his freezing touch, which immediately began to grow warm as she suspected. She grinned as he leaned in to her, all the while feeling her arms grow numb of cold, but he immediately pulled back when he noticed the change in his hand.

When she did not feel his lips upon hers, she opened her eyes in confusion, her breath shaking from the chill. He had turned away from her and was cursing himself in his mind. How could he be so foolish as not tosee her intentions? She was a wise seductress, that much he knew.

She turned back to fire, shivering and rubbing her hands together for warmth, and said, "O-Oh, I g-get it. You don't think I'm p-pretty enough."

He still did not turn to face her but mumbled something not quite clearly.

"Beg pardon?" she asked, whisking her head in his direction.

"You're beautiful," he told her softly, still not turning to face her.

"Oh," she said in surprise, her face growing hot once more. "Then is it because you assume I'm a peasant?"

This time he faced her with a look of puzzlement in his eyes. "Assume?"

"I never said I was," she said shyly, as she embraced herself in her blanket to conserve her body heat.

"Really? Then what are you?" he said, his tone filled with amused curiosity.

"What are you?"

He smiled slightly at her quirk. "I am a ghost."

"And I'm a princess," she said with sarcasm.

He had to laugh at her expression. "Touche."

She watched him with ardor. "You laughed. I've never really heard you laugh before."

Daniel stopped smiling and said, "It's late, Sam. You should get some rest."

She smiled and got up, gathering her blanket with her. Perhaps she didn't have to know who he really was just yet. "All right. But just remember, you believe me as much as I believe you. Good night, Sir Daniel."

"Sweet dreams, your highness," Daniel replied with a curl of his lips as she stared back at him momentarily before entering her tent.

He stared at the fire only a while longer until he decided that perhaps it wouldn't hurt if he lay down and closed his eyes, even if in meditation. When, and if ever, he was able to turn backto human, his body would be exhausted from lack of sleep and rest. Walking into his tent, he lay down on a blanket and placed his rolled-up cape under his head for a pillow. Slowly and wistfully, his mind reached a calm and only the deepest thoughts penetrated his concentration.

----------------------------------

"Why have we put off so long to attack?" said Emberlie.

"Dorothy did not know he had the sword, apparently it has the power to kill us. We do not wish to repeat our mistakes; we must strike at his weakest moment."

Emberlie scowled at this and said, "Uh-huh. So why are we after the prince again?"

"To escape the Ghost Abode."

"Unless of course, he kills us," she said, rolling her eyes.

"More importantly, you," said Skulker. "It's your turn to defeat the whelp."

"I still don't get it. She makes up some crud about us failing if we work together, she works alone, fails, and now I'm supposed to face a sword? You've got to be joking."

"Dorothy died by the sword, we must respect her warning."

Emberlie scoffed but said, "Fine, but if he sends me to hell, I'm cursing you all the way there."

"You seem sure of that," said Technus.

"Obviously," Emberlie said hastily. "I'm a pirate, not much to be said there."

"You could always redeem yourself, you are serving for the sake of the king."

"Alas," she said sarcastically with a sigh, "you haven't noticed but the king isn't God."

"True, but he may spare your soul from a fiery inferno."

She gave a mock laughter. "Unlikely," she uttered finally and vanished from sight.

----------------------------------

Daniel had never fully lost consciousness to escape into a slumber, but he could not be so certain of that as he suddenly awoke to hear someone, or something, calling him.

"Daniel...Come with me, Daniel..." It was soft but cold and almost sounded like a song. He arose, placed his sword at his side, and hung his cloak about himself.

Exiting his tent, he found a mist so heavily absorbing the campsite that he couldn't even make out the other tents.

Squinting to notice any sign of movement, he heard nothing other than the faint laughter of a girl.

"Samantha?" he called, but the only reply that came was the alluring call. "Come, come with me..."

He paid more careful attention to the tone this time. It rang with melody, in all its harmony yet discord. He wanted to know where it came from. More than that, he needed to know.

Frowning, he wondered if this was a dream.

He turned to walk in the direction of the voice, hand at sword, when he felt something break beneath his step.

He looked down to see a rose in its full bloom on the ground. He bent his knees to pick it up and lifted it to his face, absorbing the intoxicating aroma of the flower. He had not encountered the sweet scent of exotic flowers since he had been back at the castle.

He was about to lift himself back up when he noticed the mist clear slightly and the body of a girl, dressed in a scarlet gown, reveal itself sprawled on the ground. The girl seemed to be resting on the cold earth as if she were comfortable and he came over to her side and bent down to brush a lock of hair out of her face only to stop and stroke her jaw line as well. She was bathed in moonlight which gave her pale skin a soft glow and the dress she wore fell below her shoulders. The girl's eyes fluttered open and she smiled, bringing her hand over Daniel's arm and down onto his hand which resided on her face. She took it and led it down her neck and onto her chest. Daniel observed her and then said, "You should return to bed, Samantha," as he pulledhis hand back to his side.

She smiled at him and slowly propped herself up on her elbows. "Will you come with me?" she cried in a mesmerizing timbre.

"As you wish," Daniel whispered, before thinking, and began to bring his face down onto hers until she suddenly vanished and began to titter from a distance.

He turned his head to see her further off towards the lake, the mist having cleared even more.

"Come, Daniel, come with me!" she said as she laughed once more. He began to descend down to where she was as she continued to laugh and hid behind a tree that barely obscured her. Her behavior was amusing, almost childish. As he came closer, she peaked from behind the tree, grinning, one arm wrapped around it, and brought her hand up to skim his face with her fingers.

He grabbed her wrist, however, and lowered it. Her laughter died away as he gave her a piercing glare, brought his hand to her face instead, and kissed her. Her lips felt cold and dead against his own, and once he drew back, she vanished again and appeared, laughing, at the beach of the lake.

Daniel followed her as she called, "Come, come! With me!"

She stood facing the lake and continued to beckon him as the water slowly rose.

His feet began to sink into the wet sand as he approached her by the water. He came from behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her toward him, and kissed her neck. "No," he said, "come with me." She moaned and raised her chin while he trailed the kisses down her shoulder, only to met the edge of a blade to her throat. She scowled.

"You're not Samantha," he whispered darkly in her ear as a blue mist escaped his lips. "So who are you?"

She did not answer, so he turned her around vehemently, sword still at throat. His expression was vicious and she smirked at him.

"My name is Emberlie," said the woman, as the familiar face of the raven-haired girl transformed into that of a woman with pond-green eyes and faint blue hair. She was equally fair, but bore a disgusted look on her face. "You have defeated me, do with me as you please."

He looked at her and contemplated for a moment before he replied. "Be gone. And do not return," he spat and she began to back up toward the water as he kept his sword pointed at her. She emitted a soft sigh from her lips and the echo of her melodious voice slowly fainted as her scarlet dress began to melt and she suddenly morphed into liquid herself and fell with a splash into the lake.

He waited until the water returned to its placid state and, satisfied, began to walk back to the campsite. Suddenly, he heard a rush of water rise behind him and wrap around his legs. He fell to the ground as Emberlie laughed and began to pull him into the lake. He immediately stabbed his sword into the thickest part of the sand and grabbed hold of it.

"Tucker! Samantha!" he yelled, knowing that if he was dragged into the water, he would lose to the siren.

Tucker emerged from his tent, lantern in hand and rubbing his eyes awake and Samantha, hearing him in his commotion, also awoke and exited the comfort of hers.

Seeing him struggling against what looked like the water dragging him into the lake, Tucker grabbed Daniel by his arms and began to pull as Samantha grabbed Tucker around his waist and the two forced the ghost from the demon's grasp.

Immediately, Emberlie's hold on Daniel fell, Tucker and Samantha finally let go and, heaving a deep sigh, he pulled himself up by his sword, drew it out of the sand, and stood to face them.

Tucker gave him a hand to help him steady himself, but Daniel refused. Instead he said, "Thank you, Tucker. That was some nasty whirlpool."

"Er, are you sure it was just a whirlpool?" Tucker questioned in disbelief and Daniel nodded, returning his sword to his side. Tucker raised his eyebrows to Samantha, but she bit her lip, looking unnerved.

Daniel began to walk back to his tent when Samantha said, "What about me?" somewhat offended that he did not thank her.

Her turned to face her, his eyes narrowed, and, extending a finger to her, said, "You...stay away from me."

Samantha was taken aback and Tucker looked at her in surprise. Daniel, meanwhile, returned to his tent and, falling to sit on the ground, clutched his heart. What was happening to him?

The next morning they had continued their journey and Daniel held a conversation with Tucker while they walked, who had questioned him on his sword and how it had been able to kill a ghost before, while Samantha walked miserably in their wake, avoiding Daniel's gaze as he would glare at her every time she attempted to make note of her presence.

"I suppose when I died, my sword was a big part of my life, so just as I received ghostly attributes, so did my weapon."

"Amazing," said Tucker. "I wish I had a magic sword."

"Magic?" Daniel repeated, pondering on the thought.

"Well sure," said Tucker, "Not everyday you come across a blade that tears through the supernatural. I'm into weapons myself. I've been working on something, wanna see?" He pulled out an object from his sack that looked like a two-headed bow.

Daniel laughed at this and Tucker snapped to look at him. "Hey, you laughed!"

Daniel frowned and glared at Samantha. "So I've been told."

She did not reply nor look at him, but simply continued to stare ahead and ignored his remark.

Tucker looked uneasily between Daniel's deadly glare and Samantha's unusual silence and said, "So, er, how do we know we're going in the right direction? To Casper, that is."

Daniel smirked at this and pointed ahead of him to a large stone that had the letters Kingdom of Casper 20 leagues with an arrow pointing forward engraved into it.

"Oh. That," said Tucker. "Of course. I never see that. Why don't I ever see that!"

Daniel laughed once more and said, "You just need to learn to look."

Samantha cast a quick glimpse of Daniel's somewhat uplifted nature and wondered what it was that had caused him to act so freely with Tucker and yet so distantly with her. She recalled the night before and pondered if it had been because she tried to uncover his secret, but he did not seem so upset by it before. Something must have happened during that night that troubled him, something that had to do with that whirlpool, she knew. She just wished he would talk to her. Not that she needed his forgiveness, of course. If anything, he should be explaining to her why he could not be completely honest with her.

She did not watch where she was going, and in moments, her foot slipped as she stepped uneasily into a ditch and fell to the ground, clutching her ankle.

"Sam, are you okay?" Tucker said worriedly as he rushed to her side. She squinted her eyes and took her breath sharply through her teeth as she clutched her foot in pain.

Daniel stopped walking and came to cast a shadow on her form as his cool presence made her shiver. She looked up at him through the splitting ache in her ankle only to meet his unperturbed expression. He did not seem to show the slightest hint of compassion.

Tucker attempted to help her up and asked, "Can you walk?"

She shook her head as he swung his arm around her to help her limp.

"Couldn't you carry her?" Tucker asked Daniel, scowling.

Daniel cocked his head up in displeasure of the tone in his comment and said, "She'd freeze," as he looked coldly at her.

Tucker sighed and nodded in exasperation as he helped the girl said, "Hold on," and let her sit on the grass cautiously. He bend down and took off her sandal as she gasped in pain and started to wrap a cloth from his pocket around her ankle.

Samantha waited patiently as he worked and took one glance at Daniel, giving him a disgusted look as if she expected him to help otherwise.

He said nothing but stood there, arms folded at his back as he watched Tucker apply the bandage, while a growth of spiteful jealousy crept over his heart.

I know I promised this task to be the most "entertaining" out of the four/five, and I don't know if I pulled that off or not (I hate to eat my words). All I know is in my mind (I'm a visual person) maybe it just appears that way, but as far as what you thought, that's all up to you. As far as out of all the chapters, I can't even begin to speculate which will be the most entertaining. I'll have to wait and see for myself.

One quick thing, what Samantha says about the knight having to be somewhere around the age of the king, I totally made that up. The rest of the stuff is pretty legitimate, but you know, different kingdoms different rules I guess.

Please do me the favor of reviewing! I know you guys are reading, it just really inspires me to write when I know you're actually enjoying the story. Just to know I'm not wasting my time. I thank thee!