Empyreal

empyreal(em-pir-ee-uhl) adj. – pertaining to the highest heaven in the cosmology of the ancients.

-Nineteen-

Plasmius froze. The blast had hit him square in the back, burning a hole into his frayed cloak. The edges of the fabric glittered with embers, turning into hazy green smoke tendrils that drifted upwards.

For a moment, I thought it was done. Plasmius said nothing, did nothing, just stood there with a hole burning into his back. The silence was broken only by the rustling of dead leaves and a distant siren. My pulse was rushing through my ears, beating so loud I was sure everyone else could hear.

He turned. And shot a blast right back at me.

I could dodge, but it grazed my side and exploded into the concrete behind me, leaving a scorched mark in its wake. Those behind me on the sidewalk jumped backward from the explosion.

"Run! Get out of here!" I called, waving my arms as another blast came my way. The Fentons retreated behind their van, and the Mansons ushered Sam inside.

And then, he was behind me. He moved so fast that he was but a blur and his rotting smell enveloped me as soon as he was behind me. I stumbled forward, tripping over my cloak, where Master's insignia glowed with a searing heat.

"You—" was all Plasmius could muster before extending his arms and balling his hands into fists. His fists began to glow, and before I could understand what was happening, I was lying on the ground, my cloak wrapped tightly around my arms and torso. The insignia was discarded, still glowing. "You will come with me!" He snapped his fingers, and the cloak pulled me into the air, my hands clamped against my sides.

"You'll have to kill me!" I spat, kicking my legs uselessly. I tried to phase through the cloak, but it was no use. Plasmius's lip twitched as he held one hand upwards to keep me in mid-air. He may be deteriorating, but he was still powerful.

"I held up my end of the bargain!" Plasmius barked. "And then you—you just shoot me in the back! I should have known this would happen!" With a wave of his arm, I plunged into the concrete. My head snapped against the ground, and the pain briefly blinded me. My mouth filled with copper, and my breathing labored; everything went dark and fast. I spat the ectoplasm in my mouth onto the ground and coughed, shaking my head wildly. Plasmius was suddenly standing above me, straddling my legs.

"Of course, you would betray me," Plasmius said, throwing his arms into the air. "You're a back-stabbing bastard, just like your father!" Plasmius turned to look at the Fentons, who were still at the curb, although they had been busy while Plasmius and I had been talking. Jack was holding what appeared to be a type of firearm, although it was different than the guns the officers were brandishing. I had expected everyone else to flee for some reason, but everyone remained outside our perimeter. Even Sam had come back outside, draped in a blanket. I shook my head again as my vision blurred. It hadn't occurred to me until this moment that I –half ghost though I was – may be able to die. My chest burned, and my mouth filled again with ectoplasm and blood.

"Leave him alone," Jack said quietly from the curb. I had never seen him look so… angry before. Maddie was beside him, holding an electronic device to her chest. Jazz had returned to her parents, her hand on Tucker's shoulder, eyes narrowed at Plasmius.

"Maddie!" Plasmius cried, running towards her in a wild gallop. Jack stepped in front of Maddie, still holding the firearm to Plasmius. "Maddie, don't you see? I brought your son back to you! It's because of me he's here! Your son, Maddie!" Maddie said nothing, face stern, still clutching the device to her chest. The stench of ecto-decay worsened, and Maddie swallowed thickly, trying not to react. The police crouched behind their vehicles, continued to watch in bewilderment. "This ghost child—he is your baby, Maddie. When Clockwork heard I was coming, he sent the boy here—right back to his family. Isn't that a miracle?" And Plasmius thrust his head back with a laugh that wasn't altogether human, taking several steps away from the Fentons. I had finally managed to sit up, my form shimmering and vision hazy. The hole in Plasmius's cloak had grown as the embers ate it up.

"I'll come back for you, Maddie!" Plasmius said as he walked back towards me. He turned to face me, snapping at the glowing cloak. "Come, let's—"

I had managed to free one hand from my tightening cloak and hit his decaying foot with a blast. Plasmius snarled, tugging his shattered foot from the ground. The pustules bubbling at his ankle and heel burst with a squelch, and decayed ectoplasm wept onto the concrete.

More sirens. I could see flashing blue-and-white lights in my peripheral, off in the darkness where Plasmius had shattered the street lamps earlier. Master's insignia pulsed beside me, burning so hot that it was red. I reached my free arm for it—

"You!" Plasmius cried, grabbing my arm mid-air and bending it back. My breath caught in my throat as a sharp snap echoed through my skull. My left arm was suddenly useless, both numb and painful at once. The bone snapped when my arm was bent back in the wrong direction. My vision blurred.

Plasmius gripped the back of the cloak, pulling my body towards him. I could feel the skidding of pebbles against my head and the warm blood on the back of my neck. My left arm surged with pain. All the noise around me became muted, and my breath thumped in my ears.

In, out. In, out.

"Danny!"

The white-hot glow of the insignia touched my shoulders. Plasmius dropped the cloak, snatching his hand back to his waist as if burned. I closed my eyes in exhaustion.

In, out. In, out.

And then, everything was quiet. I sucked in a breath and slowly opened my eyes. I felt as if I had been woken from a deep, deep sleep, sluggish and confused. It took all my energy to turn my head, and I was face-to-face with Master.

He was sitting on the ground beside me, bathed in white. As my vision cleared, I realized everything was white – the land, the air, everything. It was as if we were sucked into a white void.

"M-Master?" I mumbled. I could barely move. Master said nothing and held out his hand. In his palm was his insignia, which I had left on the ground. He placed it on my chest, where it again turned red-hot against my skin.

"Open your mouth," Master instructed in an even tone, "and scream."

"I… I can't," I explained. Tears had formed in the corners of my eyes. Master's blank face brightened into the slightest smile.

"You can," he said. "For them. Scream." The insignia turned blinding white and seemed to lift my chest for me, expanding my lungs, taking in as much air as I could, so much it hurt, so much I'll burst—

A sound like death shattered the white illusion around me. Something hot erupted from my throat, hot and raw and sizzling. It was loud and took all the energy I had left in me. I could feel my ghost self, battered, retreat into my human form, leaving me vulnerable to Plasmius. Plasmius, where is—

There was a metallic ring, a flash, and then nothing. The wail had left me breathless, lying prone in the street. I had never felt so exhausted in all my life. All I could hear was the murmur of voices, sharp footsteps heading towards me. Someone placed their hand on my cheek, tapping it lightly. Warmth.

"Danny? Danny, wake up." It was Maddie. Her voice was strained but determined, and her fingers brought a welcome warmth to my body. "Danny, please, say something."

"His arm is broken," someone said to her left. "But he has a pulse, he's breathing—"

"Gurk," I gasped, blood on my lips. "Gg—Plasmius, where—"

"Shh, shh, baby, it's okay," Maddie said soothingly, running her fingers across my forehead. "You're safe now." I opened my eyes. Maddie was kneeling next to me, her face ashen but smiling. The lights had returned, and the street lit with police cars and onlookers.

"Wh—wh happen'?" I mumbled. I tried to move my left arm but winced as I did. The other person, a medic, wrapped something around my broken arm. Maddie slid her arm beneath my back and helped me sit up, Master's insignia clanking to the ground between my legs.

"Ma'am," the medic said in a terse tone, "please stop moving him!" Maddie ignored the medic, still wiping blood from my face.

"We got him," Maddie said, blinking rapidly from tears. "Well, Jazz did."

"Wh?" I spoke. Maddie looked over at Jazz, and I followed my gaze. Jazz was holding the metallic, cylindrical object, now smoking, in her hands. Jack was preparing some sort of holding device to place it in while Jazz held it, staring at it in shock.

"Fenton Thermos," Maddie explained. "Containment device for ghosts." It took a moment, but Maddie's words suddenly clicked.

"Plasmius—inside?" I asked, my mouth too dumb and slow to form every word. Maddie nodded.

"Whatever you just did, that ghostly wail, it was enough for Jazz to get him," Maddie said. Another medic had come to my side, and another, this time with a bed on wheels. "I think I have to let these EMTs put you on this gurney now, Danny. But I'll be right behind you. Just rest now."

I don't know if it was her reassuring tone, the exhaustion hitting all at once, or the medics, but that was the last thing I heard before all went dark.

It was nearly two months before I spoke with Master again. I was lying in bed at the Fenton's, attempting to read with one hand. Naturally, the book Sam had lent me happened to be huge, and reading it with one regular hand and one half-covered-in-a-cast hand wasn't the easiest task. I raised my knees to create a surface and attempted to lay the book flat, but the spine wasn't in agreement and cracked loudly in response. A warm, dusk breeze fluttered the curtains, followed by the slightest chill. The book slid uselessly between my legs on the blanket as the cold grew.

"What… Master?" I said in disbelief as he materialized before me. He laid his staff down on my bed – weightless – and looked me over slowly.

"You appear to be better," he noted. I shrugged.

"Humans heal slow it seems," I said in response. Master turned his head, studying me as if a peculiar object. He was in his regular form, with the slightest wrinkles on his stern face.

"Well, I won't take up too much of your time," he said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out my insignia, the one I had left behind after fighting Plasmius. He placed it on the bed at my feet, beside his staff. When he said nothing else, I raised my eyes to meet his and suddenly saw him as an old man. He seemed… older, somehow, than this form usually was.

"I know you want to stay with the Fentons, as a human," Master said. He chuckled. "They are your family, after all." My heart skipped a beat.

"Is that… is that possible?" I asked. Master glanced at the open window, the curtains still.

"It is… as long as you continue to protect the human world from this side," Master said, turning back to me. "Plasmius stabilized your ghost form using advanced technology of another time. It is technically not allowed, but…" he pursed his lips. "I suppose it is alright to make exceptions." He picked up his staff and held it over the insignia on the bed. The hands on the clock face suddenly began to spin, and as they did, the insignia started to glow. It first glowed red, then white, and then it disappeared in a burst of light. I blinked, staring down at the empty space on the bed.

"You've been released from my care," Master explained. "You can now live with the Fentons." I glanced around, looking for a sign of change, but I felt the same.

"Just like that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Master shifted into a younger form and smiled.

"There will be some convenient occurrences in the next few days; adoption papers, transfer requests, et cetera, et cetera," he said, waving his hand. "It does not matter. All that matters is you are here, and you are safe, and Plasmius – the one who is a threat—is gone." We sat in heavy silence, the air thick with questions. I had so many thoughts in my head; how is this possible? Can I ever return to the Ghost Zone? What if the Fentons don't want me? What if something goes wrong?

"Do not fret, Phantom," Master said as if he could sense my hesitance. "This is the correct path."

"Did you know?" I asked, climbing clumsily out of bed. I had left my sling on my desk chair and awkwardly held my broken arm up to keep it from hurting. "Did you know I would end up staying here?"

"All I do is observe," Master said, which is his way of not answering the question. "You know where to find me if you need me, Danny."

"Wait!" I cried before he could disappear. Master raised me. How could he just leave? "Will I ever see you again?"

"Of course, you will," Master replied with a shake of his head. "You silly child, we always meet, eventually." I opened and closed my mouth, unable to say more. I didn't expect this to be goodbye.

"It is not goodbye," Master said as if hearing my thoughts. "I am always with you. Humans need other humans, and at the end of the day, you are part human. You belong here." He paused as if waiting for something else. I said nothing, and my arm began to ache. Master turned to leave when one last thought struck me.

"Master?"

"Yes, Danny?"

"Will I… will I die one day?" It was a question I had wondered about since I first became human. I've already died once… how many times can one person pass on? Master tipped his head, shifting into his usual age. He narrowed his eyes at me as if truly studying me for the first time. The hands on his clock-staff began to whirl.

"Perhaps," he said, and with that, he was gone.

It only took 16 years but it's done! And generally close to the original ending I had started back in 2012. If you're interested, I'm editing the story and re-posting it to AO3 under jessaverant.

Thank you for sticking with me! This story has haunted me for years, and I'm so glad I was finally able to bring it to a close. Love, Shibby.