Old and New Love
By: Wilona Riva
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman, Nickelodeon, etc.
Return
The cushions were gone and it was much brighter. Danny shifted uncomfortably in his sleep. Soft hands gently rubbed his back.
"Prince Phantom, you must awake now," his lover's gentle voice whispered in his ear. "I have need of you to make a wish."
"How could you hide from me and my husband the fact that the ghost we've been hunting all this time was our own son, Tucker Foley?" a mortal woman's voice pierced the fogginess in his brain.
"Des?" He asked sleepily. "Where are we?"
"My lamp fell into the hands of a ghost hunter, my prince," Desiree said, glaring at the humans screeching at each other. "She means to harm us, my lord. Make a wish, my prince, to be in another place, but don't forget the lamp."
Phantom opened his eyes and blinked at the sudden brightness of the flourescent lighting. The lamp was on the table right beside the humans. "I'll get it," he mumbled, rising to his feet.
The human woman chose this moment to turn and saw him. "Phantom."
"Huh?"
"Young man, just what in the hell did you think you were doing? You are too young to be thinking of engaging in this kind of activity, with a ghost of all creatures. How could you?"
Tucker watched his best friend shake his head trying to clear the cobwebs from his mind. He knew that though Danny had merged with his ghost half, he still had two lifetimes of memories to sift through. Looks like he had chosen to be Phantom for the time being.
"Prince Phantom."
Phantom turned from the human woman to the younger human male. "Tucker?"
"She's the mother of your human half," Tucker clarified, "and I am his best friend-your best friend. She doesn't know about the rite of passage."
Desiree watched in silence as her young lover warred with himself for a moment, then changed back to human. Danny picked up the lamp and gave it to her.
"Go," he told her. "You have your lamp back."
"You must wish it, my prince," she murmured, catching him off-guard and pressing her lips to his. He tasted the honey and spices once more.
"Daniel James Fenton!" his mother yelled.
"I wish you would return to my parents and tell them of all that has transpired; I wish your lamp to travel with you," he said.
She smiled. "So you have wished it, so shall it be."
Maddie watched in horror as her son vanished along with the wish-granting ghost and the lamp. "This has gone far enough," she said, stomping her foot.
"What are you going to do, Mrs. Fenton?" Tucker asked. She was a very, very scary woman sometimes.
"Take the Specter Speeder for its maiden voyage, of course," she said sweetly. "And since you hid this from me, you get to help test it out."
"Sweet!" Tucker said, jumping up from the chair. "Let's go."
Maddie's mouth twitched slightly. The boy was a little too exuberant at times, but he was going to make a great ghost hunter for the next generation.
Vladimir felt the strange presence of someone, no, two someones teleport into his throne room. Motioning to the Fright Knight, he ordered, "Go and find out who it is."
"Yes, Plasmius," the Spirit of Halloween said. He bowed low and vanished.
"Nicole," Vlad said, turning back to his wife. "Please, darling, quit berating yourself. Our son will come home. Clockwork has assured us of this."
"What happens if he comes home without completing the ritual?" she asked angrily.
"Then we'll give him and Desiree the privacy they need," her husband replied.
"He's half-ghost!" Nicole Dark yelled at him. "He merged with a human boy."
"And so he did," Vlad told her. "Clockwork explained all that just over an hour ago."
"My baby's half human," she wailed.
"Here we go again," Vlad muttered, rubbing his temples as the beginnings of a migraine flared up.
"Whoa, will you look at this place?" Tucker said, "Kind of like the Twilight Zone, just without the black and white color scheme."
Maddie turned another knob on the console and activated the autoJack. "Come, we need to get ourselves ready."
"Desiree?" the voice of the Fright Knight revealed his shock. "And Prince Phantom?"
"Fright Knight," the half-ghost growled, shifting to his spectral half. White hair was suddenly ruffled. "Hey, not the hair, Des."
"You always did hate that," she teased. "Cafan, go and tell their majesties, Prince Phantom has come home."
The Fright Knight's yellow eyes danced for joy. "At last." He paused. "Has the ritual been...?"
Desiree shook her head sadly. "No, the humans interrupted."
"Then the king's orders are to get up to the Prince's chambers and stabilize his core."
"Archaic barbarian warlord."
"Gorgeous Arabian wench."
"You know it," she said, laughing, pulling a stunned Danny Phantom to his feet. "Come, my prince."
Danny looked with fright at the Fright Knight, who wiggled his fingers goodbye at him, just before the doors to the room closed behind them.
"Who was it?" Plasmius demanded, anger rising at being disturbed. He had just gotten Nicole to fall asleep in the interval he'd been gone.
The Fright Knight whispered his encounter to his liege of the events in the throne room "She's taken him to his chambers."
Plasmius breathed a sigh of relief. "At last," he murmured, "at last."
"Desiree?" Danny was hesitant to even ask the question.
"Yes, Prince Phantom?" the wishing ghost purred.
"Will you kiss me again?"
"With pleasure, my prince."
"Can I ask you another question, Des?"
She sighed. "Go ahead."
"Why do you need a lamp in the human world? All the times we've fought before, you've never needed one."
"Daniel."
"Yes?"
"Shut up and come here."