Shadow Rose

Chapter Six

sorry for the delay- there's a bit of me being philosophical in this chapter, please review

Rose Anderson's Narrative

After Danny and Sam had left I pulled a piece of paper out of the drawer and read what was written. 'The Shadow will Bring the World to it's Knees with the Fire of Destruction and all will Perish… ' I pushed it away from me and buried my head in my hands. The room was cold and I could sense a ghost nearby, but I knew who it was.

"Go away Vlad."

"There, there my dear, it's not all that bad." I raised my head and scowled at him.

"I said go away, just because your grandmother was my best friend doesn't mean you can scrape and acquaintance with me."

"I'm not interested in having an 'acquaintance' with you, if I had my way I wouldn't be talking to you at all, but, Verity requested it."

"I surprised that Verity even acknowledges my presence," I glared at him "You know full well it was my fault she died."

"It was murder," Vlad said coldly, "You are a murderer, you didn't tell your little friends that did you?"

"Danny knows," I stood, letting my chair fall back onto the floor with a resounding clunk that made me wince, I still didn't have my hearing under control. After two hundred years I had managed to dampen my senses up to 60 but my hearing shield was the weakest.

"And Sam knows too, now I would appreciate it if you left my home. Or would you prefer I blasted you away… again?" He floated out of the window chuckling.

"Home? What home…Rosie." I bristled with anger as he vanished from sight, no one calls me Rosie.

--- --- ---

The next day at school I was pretty cranky, very different from the emotional wreck Sam and Danny had witnessed. I had fixed my hearing and failed to control my temper, nearly exploding at Lancer had Danny not suddenly duplicated himself and overshadowed me, he stayed in there for the first two periods before I pushed him out. "Don't. Do. That. Again." I told him sternly and he grinned, I couldn't help but soften towards him, "please," I added. Valerie was still frosty towards me, at least, that was until the Incident.

We were in the cafeteria and had all opted for a salad (to the delight of Sam) except for Tucker who had once again gone for the 'all meat experience'. Sam was shooting him death glares, Danny and I just wanted to avoid the leftovers that were for some reason… moving. I was sure Valerie would blow up at me any moment; she'd been simmering all day.

It was Dash who set me off… he did the worst possible thing that anyone could do. He called me Rosie… NO ONE CALLS ME ROSIE! He sauntered up while I was demolishing my ceaser salad without any of it touching my lips, or entering my mouth at all for that matter. "Hey Anderson, you wanna catch a movie Friday Night?" I glared at him.

"No."

"Come on Rosie, it'll be fun." I stood and grabbed him by the throat, sending him flying halfway across the cafeteria.

"No one calls me Rosie!" I roared as I advanced on him. "I am sick and tired of you strutting around like you're God's gift to women." Dash quavered on the floor, whimpering.

"I am sick and tired of lying to everyone, I am sick and tired of putting on a mask day after day and pretending to be something I'm not." I could sense Danny, Sam, Valerie and Tucker slowly reaching out to pull me back. "I am sick of Danny Phantom overshadowing me when I go nuts!" Danny jumped at that one. "I am sick and tired of pretending that I am happy with who I am."

"Calm down Miss Anderson," Mr Lancer said, entering the scene.

"Shut up, or should I throw you across the room too?" He back away with his hands in a surrender gesture.

"From this day on, I will no longer lie," I said firmly, willing myself not to cry "From this day on I will not pretend that I haven't killed any one, I will not pretend to be an innocent."

"Rose Anderson Calm Down!" Lancer bellowed and I yelled as loud as I could back at him.

"My name isn't Rose Anderson! I am Rebecca Azeri!" The cafeteria went, if possible, even quieter.

"Rebecca Azeri was executed a hundred and fifty years ago for mass murder," Dash whimpered.

She's… being… OVERSHADOWED BY A GHOST!" Danny suddenly yelled and raced out of the room.

"I'll call the Fentons," said Valerie and raced after him.

"I'll help," said Sam, and raced after her.

"I'll… um… hold on to Rose… I mean Rebecca… I mean."

"Shut Up Tucker!" I roared as something cold hit me in the back.

--- --- ---

As soon as the disorientation passed I went to yell some more, I was enjoying the break from being timid. Only when I opened my mouth, it closed again. I was feeling a bit drunk, not that I drink, and staggered a bit only to straighten and walk in a perfectly straight line. Danny Phantom flew straight at me with his fists glowing green. "Get out of her Punk!" I was confused, even more so when I opened my mouth and spoke in a voice that wasn't my own.

"I like it here," I argued, "She's a lot better looking than I was."

"Get out Azeri," the Red Huntress snarled, I spun around to face her.

"What are you going to do? Shoot me with your little… gun thing." Red powered it up.

"Maybe."

"I've never seen the point of overshadowing," said the very familiar voice of my patrol partner, "Why not use your own body?" I snarled, and felt like hitting myself on the head, I didn't want to snarl! Then it hit me, I was being overshadowed by a ghost. That was the cold thing that had hit me in the back. I was probably Dani, and if I was unlucky…

"Will you be my friend?"

"Shut up Klemper," Dani and I roared in unison.

Danny grabbed me and we flew through the wall and became invisible. Dani slipped out of my body and I thrashed as I gained full control of all my limbs and digits. "What do you think you're doing?" I asked fiercely and he cowered a bit under my glare.

"You were going mad, you thought you were… you thought you were…"

"Rebecca Azeri," I said flatly "I am Rebecca Azeri Danny. Me, here, now. And I know that's going to be a problem for you all, but just until I get myself out of this mess can you at least pretend to be comfortable around me."

"Rose," he said, taking hold of my arm "We're going to go back in there and you are going to pretend that you've just had a harrowing experience and…"

"I have had a harrowing experience," I snapped, "You stuck your clone in me and I was conscious!"

"You mean you knew what was happening?" He gaped at me, "How did you…?"

"I have a very strong mind," I told him, "And the reason I am explaining this to you now is because you will not want to see me later on."

"Rose?" Sam knelt down next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders "Are you okay?"

"I guess I just lost it," I admitted helplessly, "There once was a time when everyone called me Rosie, He called me Rosie, and then I…" I nearly choked "I… I just…" I wiped the back of my hand across my face "After the… thing, it was always 'Rebecca', no one called me Rosie, it was just; 'Rebecca', or if I was lucky; 'Rebecca Rose'. I haven't been Rosie since, and what with Vlad calling me Rosie last night…"

"You saw Plasmius?" Valerie knelt down beside me, I hadn't known she was there "What did he do to you."

"I don't want to talk about it," I said and walked back into the school.

--- --- ---

That evening I sat at my small round table for hours staring at something I haven't used in centuries. I stared at my companion for many a dark depressing evening and the tools I used to gather it. Just watching it reminded me of how demented I was, it reminded me of who I had forced myself to become. So many times, I had tried to kill myself, so many times, I had failed. After that I had just spent my evenings cutting myself and harvesting the blood in the hope that it would make me weaker and possible to destroy.

We wonder who we are, and what we are here to do, we wonder why we are who we are, and what we actually do. We look at ourselves day after day and think how pathetic we are, for some of us our analysis is correct, but for many we are unknowingly blessed in the people we know and the good things we have done. Some do good to atone for their wrongs, but no single being can atone for my sins.

I have watched the world burn, and let it happen, I have watched the world burn, and made it happen. The things we do scar us for life. A woman leaves her country, her family, her friends, her life. She does not tell anyone where she is going, where she is, or that she goes. She leaves nothing but a long letter to say why she has gone. She changes her name, her appearance, her personality. All to get away from what she was.

I took one of the many wine bottles full of burgundy liquid that were lined up on my table and dropped it off the fire escape. Bottle after bottle I dropped and let it run into the gutter. The smash of breaking glass attracted many who soon dismissed it as an ex-alcoholic purging their flat from temptation. Those are not my words, they were the old couple who live across the road who are both slightly deaf and speak very loudly to each other.

I could see the glow of ecto-plasmic blasts over the large hill that sheltered Amity Park from the west and could hear my four friends arguing, about me. I could hear the names 'Rose' and 'Rebecca Azeri', so it was a pretty definite guess that they were talking about me. I let myself out through the window onto the fire-escape feet first and jumped down a flight at a time, I needed to get some fresh air.