Skulker was annoyed. He'd been served in the middle of a hunt. Still at least it wasn't too bad. Every ghost would finally understand why he had considered giving the Red Hunter a place of honour on his wall. He had told Technus, and this explained why Ember had found her daughter. Technus may well have been one of his best friends, but, honestly, he never knew when to keep his mouth shut. He must have told Ember about the Red Hunter. And so Ember had chased her daughter down.

"I'm being called as witness for the defense?" Skulker yelled in shock. "A ghost-trial? A real one? Unlike Walker's shams these haven't been held in centuries."

"Millennia, more like." Spectra sighed. "And the results here are going to be miserable either way, so plenty of feeding for me at the trial."

"Always were an opportunist weren't you?"

"Come on Ember and I can't help that, because of who and what we are. We are spirits connected to basic emotions. You are more connected to an idea, rather like Technus. And you weren't the first ghost to be the hunter, and you won't be the last. Ember and I, we're eternal. So what's going on? This is a proper ghost trial, with the Observants as judges. Who's the accused?"

"The Red Hunter."

"Her? But she's no ghost. She's a normal human."

"I don't hunt normal humans no matter how competent they are; else I'd have hunted Maddie Fenton a long time ago. And it wasn't due to Vlad's blackmail material, that's why I stopped hunting the girl. While they are indeed rare, competent human hunters are not unique. Valerie Gray is unique, she's spiritborn."

"Who the hell broke the rules that badly, and that recently? It would have to be after the first Portal. Klemper would be desperate enough, but he's too clingy to get anywhere."

"Come on, you know, better than anyone, who was acting as a Hunter at that time in Wisconsin, while Plasmius was still learning about his powers. And as had not happened for centuries, but was obvious to anyone who looked closely enough."

"Ember? Even better, I always liked seeing her miserable. Yes, I know it's short lived, but then I am genuinely happy probably that's only time I am. I really hate her." Spectra stated. "I know she can't help what she is, but she doesn't have to rub in it like that."

Valerie stretched her arms wide open. She'd had a nice sleep. Valerie activated her suit in a panic when she realised she was in a Ghost's realm. After mentally slapping herself on the head she shut her suit down. Of course she was in a ghost realm. And this ghost would protect her as much as she could. Val started smelling something good. Must be breakfast but ..

Ember must have noticed the worried look on her daughteers face because she spoke "Oh yeah. Don't worry, it's Human food. Bet you're glad that I'm one of the ghosts who likes it."

Valerie breathes a sigh of relief. "I feared it was going to be like Maddie Fenton's cooking. And not her yearly snickerdoodles.."

"Yeah. Pity we two never were in the same town at the same time, until now."

"I reckon there must have been that one time Ember. If all the ghosts had been ejected, and I was fighting the Ghost King."

"Oh yeah! You did good then. We were just a bit upset you weren't in the final battle. What happened? You don't seem like a person to give up..."

"You know the Fenton ecto-suit. I was planning to wear it. After all I felt that my old suit would act as a barrier to the negative side effects. It would link to my suit, not me. Since my suit was controlled by a neural interface itself..."

"You know that was a good plan, even though Phantom was the right person to wear the suit, and you're probably correct in the belief in that it wouldn't have hurt you."

"Then Phantom unmasked in front of my Dad who stopped me from heading out. He's still scared of losing me like he did you; which has now become a distinct possibility, Ember."

Ember rolled her eyes. How many times did her daughter and the dipstick refuse to see that they trusted each other even when in theory they wouldn't? "You know what- this isn't really in my best interests, but since you do seem to have inherited powers from me, how about I train you? After all, your new suit is more powerful than the last one, and despite your instincts being good, you don't truly know how to use your powers."

"Seriously?" Val shrieked in Joy. Ember cursed the fact that one of the things her daughter had not inherited was her voice. Still Ember was pround of her especially since while Valerie had started as evil and as obsessed as the worst ghosts, she had grown so much.

Walker cursed, how the hell had Clockwork managed to get Skulker to agree to cut short the wild goose chase he had placed "The Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter" on? After all while the directions were fake the creature did exist. A small note appeared in Walker's hand.

"I offered him three things. The chance to prove himself before the council, to be part of something unique, and to hunt for that most elusive of all things the truth. Did you really not think he would agree to that Walker?" Walker curses;. Clockwork had already started his manipulations. How fast and lose was he playing? Never mind he wouldn't send the entire documentary evidence to Clockwork. Then on the note, new writing suddenly apeared and yet had always been there. "P.S. Oh by the way don't miss pages 5, 7, and 13 out of the documention you are going to send to me."

Walker regained his cruel smile when he remebered the mutual temper of the defendants in this case. All he'd have to do was get them to blame each other, and then their defenses would crumble. Still while in Ember's realm that was hard to do, but as soon as they headed out to practice, which they would..

Clockwork heard the knock on the door. "YES?" He yelled. The door opened and in came an Observant. It spoke. "Where are your clients?"

"I left them together. They needed the time." Clockwork pointed out. "I would not separate a mother from her child, when they need each other so much."

"True enough, but you do realise you have put two incredibly paranoid and bad-tempered women in the same room?" The Observant pointed out, knowing that it was rare to get anything over Clockwork, and either way this would mean that it had won at least one round with Old Father Time.

"They'll kill each other!" Clockwork stated afraid. "I've got to go."