Time's Reflection

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

Love is a game that two can play and both win. ~Eva Gabor

Angelic Kiss

His father left him on the doorsteps of the keep, citing he had to stable Nightmare. Danny nodded and headed indoors to the throne room, knowing not to keep his Master waiting.

All this business of my being late this morning, was nothing but a new power development. What next are they going to throw at me? Oh, now this I don't mind.

Danny was thrown roughly against a wall, his lips were captured by another equally icy pair. He parted his lips slightly to allow the probing tongue entry. He wrapped one arm around his betroth's waist and the other in her long flaming hair, which curled around her shoulders. The kiss was just starting to become something more, when someone cleared his throat.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd unhand my journeyman, daughter," King Pariah said, amusement lacing his voice.

Danny blushed and broke the kiss; Ember giggled. "Nice to see you too, Ember."

"More than nice," she purred, teleporting to who knows where.

Danny touched his lips and turned a flaming face toward his Master. "Um..."

"No explanations, needed, journeyman," the King of all Ghosts stated. "I take it the tardiness is taken care of?"

"Yeah," came the dry reply. "Something new for Plasmius to have fun with pounding me into the wall."

"You are progressing very well, according to the halfa's latest reports," King Pariah said, motioning for the boy to follow. "What are your intentions towards my daughter?"

Danny froze in mid-step. "What do you mean?"

"I have had reports from Nocturne that you have grown much closer than mere friendship to the dark girl you have befriended."

"Why the hell is everyone spying on me?" Phantom's outburst scared a few birds into flight. By this time, King Pariah had teleported them silently to one of the private gardens.

"Because I asked him to," came the declaration.

Phantom grew silent and trembling, bowed his knees and his head to his Master. "Sire, I am sorry for my outburst."

"No, you're not," his father answered, rounding the corner. "Daniel, do you really wish to continue your betrothal to Ember? You have not much time left to decide. Only this one last year before your time to choose comes upon you."

"Meaning?"

"You're half-ghost, Daniel," King Pariah explained looking back and forth from father to son. "We told this to you at the beginning. You have to choose between being a human or a ghost. You know the consequences if you choose to remain a halfa."

"The moment you turn seventeen years of age," his father added. "If you have not made the choice, it will be made for you by the Fates. What will be done, cannot be undone."

Danny shook the cobwebs from his brain. "Then I choose to be a ghost," he said. "I will dance with Ember. Sam is the best friend any guy good ask for; she will find someone to make her happy someday."

A song of the purest, highest, sweetest notes rose all around them. A chorus of three voices melded into one; Danny's eyes burned the most intense emerald hue found in the Ghost Zone. He threw his head back and began to sing with the unseen singers.

King Pariah and the Fright Knight watched as the young man before them chose his destiny.

"Plum?"

"He knew his choice in his heart," Clockwork explained to the little creature floating next to him.

"Plum."