1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.
2)I don't own Danny Phantom.
3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs
4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott, writer-from-hell and aryaneragon4ever for your reviews.
Five months later, inside of the royal chambers of the ghost king's castle, Pariah Dark was looking out of the window furious with the audacity of the humans. He had discovered, that every nearby kingdom had started to have not only the walls, but every house covered with Bloody Blossoms. A plant notorious for its horrible side effects against ghosts.
Because of that, King Pariah had to call back his troops. Fortunately, they were all invisible to make a surprise attack and also were far enough to not lose control of their powers due the red flowers.
"Where did they even get those cursed weeds?" The male ghost growled growled.
He wasn't alone in the room. His wife, Spectra, was there as well. She found quite amusing that her husband was loosing his temper because the human managed to outsmart him. She was also quite surprised to know that the humans had acquired such a large amount of Bloody Blossoms.
"Don't worry about it, my dear. I'm sure you can think of something." She said with a wicked smile. She knew how to tick her husband off. Pariah hated being pitied.
"Yeah, right! If we had come closers, our clover would have been blown! To make things worse the wind carries their damned smell everywhere. We can't get near of any human kingdom with those things. I thought those things were extinct!" snarled Pariah still looking at the window.
Spectra was enjoying seeing her husband so angry. His misery was so strong that she could absorb some of it without him noticing, but she also knew when to stop, because if she kept doing it, he would soon notice. "Have you thought about burning down the flowers?" she suggested. After all, she wanted to have some humans to feed from misery without restraints.
The ghost king turned to his wife and growled: "Don't you think I haven't thought of that? But how an we get close to it? No ghost that can use fire can get near enough to set it on fire and we can't risk the humans know about our plans or they might attack and if they discover that we're af…wary of these flowers their egos are just going to get bigger."
Spectra did her best to not snicker when her husband almost admitted what he truly felt towards the Blood Blossoms. But after mulling his words for a while and then smiled again: "You know, my dear, this can be a quite good idea in the end."
Pariah raised an annoyed eyebrow and asked: "How so?"
"Well, sometimes a bigger ego means an equally big pride. Why don't you try lure them to a trap. They don't know we know about the Bloody Blossoms. We can lure them to a trap in our own home."
The ghost king scoffed and said: "Easier said than done. They could bring those cursed flowers along with them. Besides, don't forget about that weird green metal they now have." But then he frowned deeply and continued: "But why am I even discussing war plans with you?"
Spectra shrugged lightly and replied: "I'm just trying to help, dear. But you're right. This is a matter to be discussed with your general and war advisors."
Pariah Dark glared at his wife, but said nothing. It was still early in the morning and the ghost king already decided this was going to be a tiring one. He had several meetings with his war advisors and his general, Fright Knight, before he organized his first attack towards the humans. So, he wasn't in mood to have another one. He had no idea of what to do and he refused to let his wife to call the shots (is that the right expression?) in his place.
It was frustrating for him to not have any ideas. He turned his back to his wife and went back to stare through the window. Despite of his frustration, he had to admit his wife's idea of setting a trap was becoming quite appealing, even though he didn't want to admit it.
Even Spectra was getting tired of the silence. "My dear, may I leave for a while? I would like to have a stroll on our garden."
Pariah looked over his should and said: "Yes, you may leave."
Spectra got up from the bed and bowed respectfully before she left. When she was out of the royal chambers and gave a heavy sigh. It was tiring for her to put up with her husband when he was moody. If she wasn't careful, he would have her beheaded for merely giving a suggestion.
True, it was fun to tease him and grab some misery every now and then when the king was too distracted and being the queen gave her many privileges. But sometimes she just wanted to make him shut up.
She decided to do something else while her husband was gloomy. She was walking through the castle to call some of the royal maids to make her some company, after all she couldn't afford being all alone when her husband was with his paranoid mode switched on. Then she spotted a familiar face. It was a short man with grayish hair and moustache known as Bertrand. He worked there doing many jobs for the ghost king.
He was shape shifter and was practically a jack-of-all-trades. He could be seen doing gardening work and also getting rid of the king's enemies, depending of his orders.
Spectra smirked when she saw him. She knew that the shape-shifter had some attraction for her. She often saw him looking at her as if she were a forbidden fruit he longed for. This only make things easier for her to manipulate him and she sure could use a man of his talents.
When Bertrand saw the ghost queen he blushed a little. He bowed down and said: "Good day, my queen."
Spectra smiled and replied: "Good day, Bertrand. Are you here to meet my husband?" she asked trying to be as polite as possible even though she thought that he was there more like to see her.
The little man raised his glare to look in her eyes and he said: "I'm here because…I needed to go through to the other side of the castle." He didn't want to admit that his sole purpose of being there was just to catch a glimpse of her majesty.
Spectra smirked at his words because know she was sure of his intentions. "My, you picked up the longest way to do so."
Bertrand blushed furiously for Spectra's amusement. The ghost queen chuckled darkly and said: "Don't worry about it. See you some other time, Bertrand." Then she left.
Spectra didn't need to look behind to know that the shape-shifter was staring at her quite baffled by her words. He expected to be punished by her. But the ghost queen had other plans for him. 'If I can keep him near, but not enough to my husband be suspicious of me, I can use that love struck shape-shifter to aid king Pariah to give me some delicious humans.' She thought maliciously as she left.
King Raymond was again with another meeting with kings Thurston and William. They had plenty of these meeting in the past months especially concerning the spread of the Bloody Blossoms through their kingdoms.
King Raymond didn't like how his home looked like. He had never liked flowers and found them to be too 'girly' for his kingdom, but if those things could keep ghosts away from Amikeco Parko, then, so be it.
This time it was king William who summoned the other two. "I'm glad you two could come. I would like to ask you to know if we're going to take any offensive behavior in this 'war' against ghosts."
The other two men looked at him a little taken aback, but the King William Baxter, seeing their reactions, continued: "I mean, All we've done so far is to strengthen our defenses with ectorranium armor and weapons and also with Bloody Blossoms. But are we going to attack? We know that the weapons and armor do work, but what about the flowers? We also don't know if it's really true that all ghosts live in the Dead Forest, we can end up wasting resources and time doing that."
King Manson nodded as he replied: "You're right…I didn't think of that. What if we attack first and lose? The ghosts would retaliate on the spot!"
King Irongrip scoffed and said: "Wasn't you who said that the flowers did work? I say we attack them first while we still have the element of surprise at our side. If the two of you are too scared of doing it, I'll attack them myself!"
"But what if you lose? Even if the flowers do work, do you think they'll handle a massive attack from the ghost army?" Willian asked. Then, before the older man could answer, Willian turned to Thurston and asked: "How are the bloody blossom pills doing? Did Duke Jack finish them?"
King Raymond didn't like one bit his son-in-law's attitude. For him, William was only interested in the safety of Amikeco Parko because he wanted to inherit it someday and not because he was concerned about him.
Unaware of what was going through between the other two man, king Manson replied: "They're almost ready. Duke Jack told me that all he need is to come a across a few things in their making and they'll be ready."
"I see…" mused king William for a while. Then he continued: "How about if we first make our kingdom completely anti-ghosts before we even decide to strike? If turn our kingdom into huge fortresses we'll have nothing to fear."
The older man in the room didn't like to take defensive maneuvers. He would rather burn the entire forest with the ghosts inside of it, but he had to admit that there was the possibility of a powerful retaliation if he wasn't careful.
Then, reluctantly, king Raymond agreed in strengthen Amikeko Parko some more and wait until the other two kingdoms were ready as well to start the war.
For some reason Danny's transformations into human had become quite irregular after he touched that firefly. This only increased the everyone's worry. Danny had to stay within the Plasmius' abode for as much as possible until it stabilized again. Danny didn't like it, but he at least stopped hearing that annoying ringing and that weird voice from before was gone too while he at his human self.
Another thing that happened during this time was that Danny has become quite comfortable near Alphonse in the last few months. This didn't go unnoticed by Vlad who had to wonder why his son and Alphonse suddenly became good friends.
It wasn't like the parent thought it was a bad thing. He was just awed that his son got so comfortable near that other werewolf when himself couldn't relax completely while he shared the same room with him.
One day, after Danny's classes were over, Danny was quite content when Alphonse asked him to go to his room while he wanted to talk with Vlad alone. The parent raised an eyebrow at that and conceded it.
When the werewolf and Vlad were by themselves he told the count: "There's something I need to talk about when the boy goes to the Lycan School. You're aware that it's a boarding school, right?" Alphonse said.
Vlad was aware of that. In fact he hoped that Wulf could pull some strings and bend the rules for the boy so Danny wouldn't have to live at the Werewolf Village while he was studying there.
But his thoughts were interrupted when Alphonse continued: "I've finally managed to have my own house even though it's custom for a family to live under the same roof. Let's just say I needed some space away from my dad and also the boy could live there with me, because I would be his responsible guardian for the time he would be there. This way he wouldn't have to live in the dorms. After all, we can't afford his secret to leak especially now that king Pariah wants to hang all humans."
Vlad's eyes went wide in shock and he even gave a step back at the silver werewolf's words: "How did you…"
Alphonse wanted to grin widely, but he had to play the cool and caring person if he wanted to have Vlad's trust. "Listen, it wasn't hard to figure it out that your son was half human. I talked to him and I don't mind he's the way he is and I know that for a few months now. I know what you're thinking. Please don't get mad, but I kinda asked the boy about a picture of a human female I've seen a few months ago in this abode and one thing led to another and he told me about his mother. The reason why I took so long to tell you that I know about your son's secret is that I wanted you to feel more comfortable with me. I also want you to know that I have your child's best interest in my heart."
The lycanthrope knew that this conversation was inevitable. He decided that be straight forward with the man was the best solution. He couldn't make the boy lie to his own father, so he decided to act in a way Vlad would probably like.
The blue-skinned ghost didn't know if was more furious with his son for telling his secret like that or with himself for hanging Maddie's painting in a place so visible for strangers. He took a deep breath to try calm down, but it did little to help. "Are you…really okay with that?" he asked unsure. Vlad would rip apart any ghost who dared to hurt his son. He truly hoped that the werewolf in front of him was telling the truth.
Alphonse kept his cool as he replied: "Yes, I am. I see no problem about his half-human status. It's very interesting, in fact. I never thought a human and a ghost could generate children." Also noticing how uneasy the parent was, he continued: "You don't have to go into details about what happened to her. Your son told me she passed away because of a disease. You really miss her, don't you? I'm sorry for your loss."
Vlad couldn't help, but to smile weakly: "Thank you. I do miss her." But then he looked seriously at Alphonse and said: "You must understand that this must be kept as a secret. You have to promise me that you won't tell anyone about this. Am I clear?"
Alphonse did his best to not roll his eyes at the comment. "Of course I won't tell anyone. I know the consequences of it. I don't want anything bad to happen to the boy. That's why I'm suggesting for him to stay with me. A child is allowed to stay with a credited teacher while he attends to the Lycan School."
Vlad frowned as he tried to persuade the ghost: "I don't think this will be necessary. I intend to talk with Wulf so Daniel can stay home with me and go there everyday or even help me to buy a house at the Werewolf Village so he can stay with me."
The lycanthrope raised an amused eyebrow at that and replied: "Do you really want to do this? I mean, not even the king's children get so much attention. Granted, all king's children have their own separate special room at the dorm, but they still needed to live there. Do you think Wulf can make you an exception when the king himself doesn't have such privilege? Do you really want to draw so much attention for yourself and for the boy? I'm just trying to help here. I'm aware of the boy's sudden human transformations. He once turned into human while you were out of the room when you father called you to help him with a deal or something two months ago, but he quickly got back to his half ghost form. Maybe I can help him out somehow. I know a lot about ghost's energies and how they work. Maybe I can come up with something to stabilize your son." But he added in his mind 'After all, if he can't control his human half, he'll be useless for me.'
Vlad frowned when he had just heard that. But he couldn't deny the truth in his words, if he really made Wulf manage to make some kind of exception for his son, people would start asking questions. That was something he needed to avoid at all costs.
He then remembered what he once talked with the werewolf and he mused out loud: "Oh yes, right. Because you father is an authority at this, isn't he. Do you think we can tell him about my son? He must have a vast knowledge about this."
Alphonse visible cringed, but fortunately, the other ghost didn't notice it. "My father is a…ally of king Pariah Dark. I don't share of the same vision as he. I think that, for the safety of your son, this should be kept between us. We can decide what to do later. After all there is still five years until Daniel can apply to the Lycan School. By the way, don't get angry with the boy. He's just five years old, he doesn't know the danger he's really in."
Vlad silently nodded.
End of chapter 8
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. Please review. I love to hear your comments.