"That – that – that—" Sam struggled to find the words that would accurately describe the rage she was feeling.
"I know," Danny told her.
He was standing in the middle of the basement in his house with Tucker and Sam, having just finished recounting the story of what happened at Amity General the previous night.
"She's just ... waiting there?" Sam finally managed to burst out. "Just wandering up and down the hospital feeding upon those poor innocent people?"
"And those Guys in White, don't forget them," Tucker added.
Danny shook his head. "I actually feel sorry for them. You remember what it's like having that vampire draining you for everything you're worth. No one deserves that. Not even the Guys in White. Especially not since they've already been incapacitated by the Soul Shredder."
"So what are you going to do?" Tucker asked.
"I say we barge in there and take that whore down!" Sam punched a fist into the palm of her other hand.
Danny held his hands up requesting her to calm down. "Look," he said, "telling you guys what happened really helped me, you know – it let me take a step back and take a look at this whole thing clearly. Spectra's been feeding on the people in that hospital, and the people who come in to visit them, for months now. She's gotten so powerful she actually managed to evade my ghost sense; so powerful she could actually take me down using the walls of the hospital. I can't fight that."
He turned around to face the ghost portal embedded into the wall of the basement. "But I know someone who can."
Ignoring their inquiring looks, he led them over to the control panel, directing them to engage the manual lock system. "I don't know how long I'll take," he said. "First I need to get directions; then I need to get reinforcement. All in all, I'm thinking, maybe an hour? Little more? Just keep checking. You know the drill."
"Aren't you even going to tell us what you have planned?" Sam prompted.
"No," Danny said resolutely. "Not until I know it will work. Ready? One – two – three!" Two rings of pure, white light encapsulated him, travelling in opposite directions, morphing eighteen-year-old Danny Fenton into the ghostly alter-ego Danny Phantom. The doors to the Ghost Zone slide open, as though welcoming him once more into its fold.
Danny threw his arms out to his sides and plunged in. Once he got over the momentary disorientation of entering the Ghost Zone, he soared off to his destination.
"Ah, Great One!" Frostbite greeted as Danny landed upon the wasteland that made up the Ghost Zone's frozen tundra. "It has been far too long."
"It has," Danny greeted warmly. He hadn't seen Frostbite in nearly two months now. Many things had passed since then.
"Come, tell me," Frostbite ushered him inside to his cavern. "When last we spoke, you raised concerns to me about a certain power – I trust that the issue has been resolved?" Danny shivered slightly. Though his body had grown rapidly used to the environment, especially once he had gained use of his mastery over ice particles, it was still a bit of a shock to the system considering that the human world was on the verge of tipping into summer.
"Oh, yeah," Danny blushed slightly, remembering Frostbite's suggestion that his sudden inexplicable feelings for Dash had caused his powers to short out. "Turns out it wasn't a matter of the heart after all," he said. "It was a ghost. A ghost who was following me around and unknowingly blocking my ghost sense by proximity."
"I see," Frostbite nodded in a deep voice that suggested that yes, he actually did see. The yeti-like creature was certainly one of the biggest enigmas Danny had found in the Ghost Zone.
"Actually, I have a bunch of questions about that," Danny told him. "I have questions about a lot of things that's happened since I last came to you, but it would take too long to explain right now, and I'm on a time limit. I'll come see you again and fill you in – but right now, I need access to the Infimap."
"Certainly, Great One," Frostbite acquiesced. "Could I perhaps ask who it is you intend to seek out?"
"I've only met him once," Danny said. "I don't know much, but I think he's the only one who can help me right now."
Frostbite pulled out the scroll of the Infimap from seemingly nowhere and handed it over. "Take it in good health," he blessed. "I will see you again, Great One."
Danny nodded his thanks, clutching the scroll, and with a final goodbye, shot off into the air.
Now there was just one more stop to make.
No one could ever accuse Skulker and Danny Phantom of being bosom buddies. However, Danny had found that when times were dire, he found a reliable ally in the hunter, and he was hoping that this would prove to be one of those times where they could put aside their differences for the greater good.
Of course, there was also a very reasonable chance Skulker would decide he didn't care about getting rid of Penelope Spectra and try to blast him to bits, but Danny was prepared to take his chances.
Skulker's lair, as staked out by the ghostly hunter himself, was one of many castles gathered within the Ghost Zone. Its design and location led Danny to strongly believe that it had once been one of the many properties claimed by – and probably created for – Pariah Dark. These days, however, they were free game to whomever dared to take them, and only the fearless, or those with something to prove, dared take up the threat of living in one of the fortresses placed so close to the eternal resting place of the Ghost King.
Danny himself had had the misfortune of being inside a few times in his life, but he knew already to stick to the golden rule of remaining in his human form. Pariah's old fortresses were booby-trapped to the hilt.
It was eerily quiet inside, so much so that Danny thought he may actually been able to distinguish the drone of white noise around him. Several gigantic doorways greeted as he stepped through the main foyer, each and every one of them barred shut. The doors loomed so large over him that the planks that sealed them shut would only be accessible to him were he some ten feet taller.
Hesitantly, he placed his fingertips lightly against the surface of the door. His suspicions were confirmed when, from the recesses of the great hall, a gigantic arrow, large enough to skewer a man his size whole, shot through the air to pierce through his fragile wrist. Following the angle of trajectory, Danny tried to find where the weapon had come from, but the ceiling rose so high that he found the walls around him simply faded upwards into black oblivion.
His eyes scanned through the foyer, until he found, through another doorway a great archway of steps leading upwards into an unknown location. He started forward, but had taken no more than three steps before pressing down on a trick panel hidden on the floor. Green spikes five feet tall and billowing ectoplasmic energy jutted out, sinking deep into Danny's body. He stared, then shook his head and continued on.
The archway was massive. Danny stared at the number of steps constructed in front of him. He couldn't even see all the way to the top. Shaking his head, he glanced around the area once more, but still could not find any other door. With a hefty sigh, he resigned himself to the fact that he would merely have to climb.
The archway was made of red stone; the steps were narrow and crumbling, and there were no banisters for him to hold on to for support. Before he was even a quarter of the way there, Danny's legs were aching and he found himself short of breath. Danny paused with his hands braced against his kneecaps. This was impossible.
Chancing a look around, as if hoping to find Skulker hovering by somewhere watching him struggle, Danny decided to take his chances. He had gotten this far up the staircase without encountering any traps; if Skulker truly did live upstairs, surely the ghost hunter would have removed them all?
Closing his eyes, he transformed back into Danny Phantom, trading away his sore legs for a ghostly tail. Drifting along the steps, he almost certainly felt he made the right choice. And then he heard a whistling sound fill the room. Danny furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, searching out for the source of the noise. There was nothing to his left; nothing to his right. Yet it was growing closer. His eyes darted upwards, and his muscles tensed in shock, the ghostly tail giving way to legs once more. He only just managed to somersault out of the way when a large metallic blade slashed through the air to land directly where he had been standing. Had he not moved, he would have been cut in half.
No sooner did he get to his haunches did he hear another whistling sound.
"Oh, crap," he swore. He didn't bother looking this time; squeezing his eyes shut, he merely flew straight as fast as he could possibly go.
He let out an "oomph!" of surprise when he slammed into something solid, tumbling to the ground on to his back. Danny opened his eyes blearily to see what he had flown into. A wall. He had hit the wall. Rolling his eyes, he pulled himself up and spun around. He had cleared the archway all right – what was left of it anyway. The bottom portion had fallen away, no doubt by the pressure of the gigantic booby traps; and there were many of them there. Danny counted at least fifteen of the giant blades that shattered into the rickety stone staircase. Danny checked to make sure he hadn't been nicked.
Turning back, he found himself staring into a long corridor, just as barren as the foyer below had been. Squaring his shoulders, he marched on through. There wasn't much to look at; the residents of the Ghost Zone didn't seem too keen on much decorating. Danny half-wondered how Vlad would have fared if he had been bound to live out his years here. No doubt the run-down battlements would have been refurbished with rich grandeur then.
At the other end of the hallway, there was only one door directly in front of Danny, and distinctly human-sized. This must be it. Danny closed his eyes to prepare himself for the speech he would launch into upon seeing Skulker's face. Just in case, he transformed back into his human form, then determinedly raised his hand and knocked.
After a brief moment, the door opened and a wide round orb framed by kohl-black eyeliner peeked out through a crack. The eye narrowed and the door flung open. "You!" Ember McLean shouted. "What are you doing here?"
"Okay ... was not expecting that," Danny blinked. "Um, is Skulker here?"
Ember grabbed the front of his jumpsuit with one of her gloved hands. "No, he's not," she sneered. "But that's not going to be a problem."
Danny held his hands up in surrender. "Whoa, whoa!" he cried. "I didn't come here to fight!"
"Ember? Who is that at the door?" he heard a familiar voice ask.
"Nobody!" Ember called back. "Go back to crying."
She turned her attention back to Danny, pulling him in closer until his nose brushed against her own. For a second, Danny honestly thought that she might bite him, but then the door opened wider and a girl in a red outfit and layered green hair stepped out.
"Is it ... oh!" she appeared startled upon catching sight of Danny.
"Get back in the house, Kitty," Ember ordered. "I'll take care of this bozo."
Kitty ignored her, breaking Ember's iron grip and separating the two of them. "What are you doing here?' she asked Danny.
"Um, I'm here to see Skulker," Danny explained, brushing a hand through his thick white hair. "What are you doing here?"
"None of your business!" Ember barked. Kitty shushed her with a reprimanding tone, and gestured for Danny to come inside.
"He's not welcome in our house!" Ember protested even as she moved aside to allow Danny room to walk through.
"Oh, Ember," Kitty reprimanded softly, "he's not so bad. Be a little more hospitable."
"Hospitable – I allow you to stay here, don't I?" Ember muttered to herself, closing the door behind them.
This room, unlike the rest, was sparsely decorated. There was a table, a couch, a ratty old rug strewn haphazardly a few feet away, and not much else. There was also something strange about the ambiance of the room that Danny could not place his finger on. A window on the other side of the wall provided a view into the swirling green vortex that encapsulated the Ghost Zone. Sitting on the couch, Danny found to some surprise, was Desiree; and lying by her feet, Danny was even more surprised to note, was Wulf.
The mongrel raised itself onto its hind legs upon catching sight of Danny, and launched itself at him. Danny tried to brace himself for the impact, but was easily toppled over by the overgrown beast and let out a small laugh at the round of face-licking he was treated to. "Friend!"
He patted Wulf on the back and got back up again. Desiree's eyes were fixed upon him in a calculative manner. Danny turned his attention back to Kitty and Ember who were standing by his side. "What's going on here?" he blurted. He remembered Ember telling him that Desiree had been living with her for a while now, but why were Kitty and Wulf here? Why were they here, in Skulker's home?
Kitty made her way back over to the couch. "We thought you were Johnny," she said by means of explanation.
"Johnny?" Danny repeated.
"Jes ŝi estas kaŝanta!" Wulf stated, glancing over to Kitty then back to him. Danny turned confused eyes over to Ember, hoping she would translate. Ember glared, but then rolled her eyes and let out a sigh, joining Kitty and Desiree over at the couch.
"He said that Kitty is hiding away from Johnny," she clarified. "That's why she's staying here."
"Wait, I don't understand," Danny was completely lost. "Why are you hiding from Johnny?"
Ember slapped her hand down on the arm of the couch, turning fierce eyes onto Danny once again. "You know what, who are you to ask questions, ghost kid? You come in here to my home—"
"I thought this was Skulker's home?" Danny pointed out, more to shut her up than anything else.
"Skulker and Ember have been dating for years now," Desiree spoke up. "You should hear them going at it, I fear that the entire palace may come crumbling down upon our heads—"
"Shut up!" Ember said. "We are not dating."
"You make regular excursions into the human world together," Desiree reminded. "I frequently observe him holding you for reasons that do not lead to coitus—"
"We're not dating!" Ember said loudly, her eyes rolling to the ceiling. To Danny, she said in an almost apologetic tone, "He just fits between my legs really well."
"Oh, gross!" Danny gagged at the image of Skulker – the true Skulker, the little green blob that didn't even measure up past Danny's knees – in bed between Ember's spread legs.
Ember glowered for a moment, but then her face was overtaken by a vindictive smile. "Well, what would you know about it?" she said silkily, turning to Kitty and Desiree. "Skulker tells me that our little ghost kid here doesn't go for those of the female persuasion."
Kitty frowned, trying to understand what Ember meant, but Desiree simply snorted disdainfully. "I could have seen that coming."
"Excuse me?" Danny blushed, outraged. He stepped closer to Ember, hoping to intimidate her into silence, but Ember simply grinned ever more maliciously.
"Oh yeah," she toyed. "You wouldn't believe what Skulker caught him doing one day. In public too."
"Ember, I'm warning you," Danny said threateningly. He knew exactly what incident she was referring to. He couldn't explain what had been going through his mind that afternoon; as far as he could tell, it had been a clashing of all the pressure of school, ghost hunting, his sexuality, and finding himself being watched by not only the government but by Skulker as well, whom he knew had been tailing him for days before, resulting a rash, impulsive, stupid move fuelled by his anger and frustration.
"He was—"
"He didn't catch me doing anything, he'd been spying on me!" Danny said loudly, hoping to drown out Ember's voice. He fixed her with a glare. "Where is he, Ember?"
"Out," she said simply, shrugging her shoulders. "Probably with Technus, I don't know. Find him if you're so interested."
"What's he doing with Technus?" Danny asked, ignoring the fact that she had just admitted to not knowing anything. Ember gave him a withering look, as if he were an idiot on top of being a nuisance.
"Probably trying to find some way to—" Ember silenced Kitty with a slap to the arm, but it was too late. Danny pounced.
"Find some way to what?" he urged, leaning over the arm of the couch.
"Ili estas prov trovi vojon savi nin. Ili estas herooj!" Wulf said enthusiastically behind Danny, nodding his head and wagging his tail. Danny turned to the group of girls again.
"Anyone wanna translate that for me?"
"No," Ember said sourly, folding her arms over her chest and staring resolutely at the wall ahead of her.
"Ember, we might as well tell him," Kitty whispered. "He could help us!"
"We don't need him, I told you already—" Ember started to say, but Kitty leaned past her to land her large, hopeful eyes on Danny.
"He said, 'They're trying to find a way to save the Ghost Zone. They're heroes!'" she told him.
"Kitty!" Ember howled.
"Save the Ghost Zone from what?"
"From what?" Desiree exclaimed from the far end of the couch. "From that damned prophecy we showed you, of course! Have you forgotten the words inscribed upon the Rock we brought you to see?"
No, Danny hadn't forgotten, but he had to admit, he hadn't given it much thought. Since then, the Guys in White had rolled into town and taken up most of his attention.
"But I thought you guys were going after the Plasmius soul?" Danny reminded.
"Are you prepared to give it up?" Ember questioned him.
"No."
"Of course not," she rolled her eyes. "Well, what do you expect us to do then? Just wait for you to hand it to us? I think you've made it pretty obvious that's not going to happen."
"Not all the ghosts were resting their hopes on getting the Plasmius soul, Danny," Kitty said earnestly. "The ones who went after it make up only a small percentage. After we discovered the inscription on the Rock, the Ghost Zone split over into many factions; each group trying to find some way to avert the crisis."
"Of course, not knowing exactly what that crisis is doesn't help very much," Desiree added.
"Some went after it, trying to gain power," Kitty continued. "The theory was that Plasmius – and you – aren't completely ghosts; if your ghost halves were separated, then we could nominate someone to absorb it and gain some extra power. Power enough to stop whatever is coming and save the Ghost Zone. We knew we couldn't get yours – but when we heard that Vlad had actually separated his ghost half, voluntarily ... well, we decided it was fair game."
"Fair game," Danny echoed.
"Why not?" Ember stated. "It's not like we forced him to separate his half. No ghost would ever do that. Can you imagine? Forcing another ghost to get part with their power so that we could use it instead?" she shuddered. "It's like ... cannibalism. But since he was gracious enough to do the deed for us, why shouldn't we go for it?"
"It was for the good of everyone," Kitty nodded. "But when we couldn't get it off you, we were ready to give up – but then Walker came along ... we didn't even realize he knew what was going on; he spends all his time hidden away in that prison of his. He told us he had a plan to get it off you, and he wanted as many ghosts as he could get. He had Wulf here release ghosts into your town to try and mark out all your defences..."
"Il diris al mi estas homojn liberig," Wulf said mournfully, ears drooping down.
"'He told me I was liberating them'," Ember sighed, not even waiting for Danny to ask for a translation. Her arms were still folded around her and she was still staring at the wall, extremely unhappy with Kitty's revelations.
Danny nodded, recalling the gigantic ghosts he had encountered in the mall and the one that had drifted by during Paulina's party, understanding now where they had come from. Walker had been trying to map out his weaknesses in preparation for his attack.
"Like I said," Kitty told him, "not all the ghosts wanted to go after Plasmius's ghost half. Some tried to find other means of salvation, some decided to hold back and see what would happen, and some decided to hide away in the human world and wait it out."
"Like Spectra," Danny mused.
The three ghosts turned wide eyes on to him.
"You found her?" Ember asked, startled by this piece of information.
Danny paused. "You didn't know where she was?"
"Nobody has heard from Spectra in months," Desiree volunteered. "She disappeared almost immediately after news of the inscription broke out."
"Yeah, well, she's hiding in Amity Park," Danny said darkly. "Hiding, waiting – biding her time; she thinks that once whatever it is that you guys are waiting for has happened, she'll be free to come back and feed on the misery that'll be running rampant all around the Ghost Zone."
"She will not be suckling upon my misery!" Desiree declared loudly.
The other four turned their heads to stare at her blankly.
"That's what I came here to talk to Skulker about, actually," Danny pressed on. "Until she decides to come back to the Ghost Zone, she's setting up camp in my town; I need to get her out, and I need his help for that."
"Why don't you just zap her into your little thermos like you usually do?" Ember asked.
"I..." Danny rubbed at his shoulder in embarrassment, "...don't think that will work. She's been leeching off the misery of the people in my town for months. She's too powerful right now. Before I can trap her in, I need to weaken her."
"Yeah well, fat chance, ghost kid," Ember jeered. "It's every man for himself. If Spectra found someplace to hide, then I say good for her."
"Look," Danny flared up, "I've helped you guys plenty of times over the years. It's not like I seek you out on purpose – you guys keep coming to me. I'm just trying to keep the balance here. You have your world; I have mine."
Ember jumped to her feet and stamped her foot. "Don't you get it, ghost kid? Your stupid rules don't matter anymore. Even Walker's given them up. We're at war here!"
Danny had assumed a defensive position as soon as she got to her feet. Ember wasn't the most stable person when she got angry, but deciding that she wasn't going to start pummelling him right then and there, Danny relaxed his stance. "What do you mean? What's Walker doing?'
"Ever since he failed to get the Plasmius soul from you, he's been hiding himself inside his prison," Kitty explained. "He won't listen to anyone. He refuses to take any of the prisoners he let out back in for sanctuary. He kicked Bullet out and told him to report back for duty if he survived whatever was coming." Kitty tried to steal a look from Ember's impassive face, but Ember wouldn't look at her. "And he hasn't responded to any of Skulker's attempts to contact him so that they can discuss alternate plans on how to protect the Ghost Zone."
Danny's eyes narrowed contemplatively. This was news. It seemed a lot of things had changed in the Ghost Zone as well.
"If Skulker isn't working with Walker anymore," he said slowly, locking eyes with Ember, "then why has he been spying on me?"
Ember shrugged. "Like I told you, ghost kid, I don't know anything about what Skulker's up to. If he manages to find some way to save us, then good for him. Meanwhile, someone has to hold down the fort while he's gone."
"Ember here has taken up the task of offering shelter to anyone who needs it," Kitty said proudly. "So far it's only been me and Wulf, and..." she directed her eyes to a closed doorway on the other side of the room. Danny followed her line of sight.
"Not him," Ember refuted. "He's on his own. The only reason he's even here in the first place is because of Desiree."
Danny frowned. "Who are you talking about?"
"Desiree's new boyfriend," Ember said, giving the genie a mischievous smirk.
"He's not my boyfriend," Desiree echoed Ember's earlier sentiments, but unlike the former music idol, she sounded completely nonchalant about it. "Slave!" she bellowed. "Get out here!"
There was a momentary pause, and then the door on the other end of the room creaked open. Kitty and Ember leaned forward expectantly.
Danny's jaw dropped, and he goggled at the sight before him with disbelieving eyes, torn halfway between laughter and revulsion. Clad only at the waist by a fancy piece of cloth with Arabic designs, the Box Ghost crawled slowly towards them on his hands and knees; his hat was gone, revealing a large bald patch at the top of his head, and around his neck was a simple black collar. His pudgy blue flesh jiggled as he moved, and in between his flabby pectorals was a gold chain that ran attached from one nipple to the other.
"Don't be rude, slave," Desiree admonished offhandedly when she noticed he had stopped moving. "Come here and say hello to our guest."
Danny watched, absolutely speechless, as the Box Ghost's cheeks flamed red with humiliation upon meeting Danny's eyes, but he nonetheless began crawling over to where the five of them were seated anyway.
"Perhaps he would like a seat?" Desiree suggested when the Box Ghost approached her. "It can't be very comfortable having to stand here all this time. Go ahead, slave," she pushed him towards Danny, who couldn't keep himself from squirming in sympathy as the Box Ghost drew close.
"Go ahead, sit," Desiree urged. "He doesn't mind."
"Um, no thanks," Danny eyed the man on his hands and knees and offering his back to him. His eyes flicked over to Desiree.
"No, go ahead. He doesn't mind – do you, slave?"
"I am the Box Ghost," the short man moaned pitifully. Ember and Desiree began to laugh.
"Why are you doing this?" Danny flicked his eyes over to Desiree.
"He came to me seeking my protection," Desiree told him, snapping her fingers and pointing at the floor at the foot of where she was seated.
"You know she can't do anything to you, right?" Danny said kindly. "I destroyed her lamp; she doesn't have any powers anymore."
"Oh, it's not that kind of protection that he was asking for," Desiree said smugly as the Box Ghost started to crawl back to her. She pulled him up onto her lap and cradled him in her arms like an overgrown baby. "Was it, slave? No," she turned liquid dark eyes back on to Danny, "he asked me for protection from a life of mediocrity. This whole business with that Rock seems to have given ghosts a chance to consider just what it is they are really looking for. You see it all the time at war; at least, I have. Men rushing to claim wives, men rushing to sire children, men making love to other men; but then," she pinched the Box Ghost's chubby blue cheek hard, "that's not what my little dirtmonger wanted, was it? Tell us what you want."
The Box Ghost raised fearful eyes to Desiree, refusing to open his mouth. Rather than grow angry for disobeying her orders, Desiree gave him a slow, proud smile, as though happy that he had not fallen for the trick. She turned back to Danny and said, "He wants a life of the exotic, don't you baby? Yes you do – he wants a life in which he can be satisfied, not just merely content – he wants a life away from that wretched Lunch Lady."
"That bitch is crazy, yo!" the Box Ghost burst out finally, fixing Danny with wide, earnest eyes. His arms were wrapped around Desiree's shoulders as she held him in a show of dependency.
"It's best not to question it," Ember stated dryly to Danny as they watched Desiree make kissy noises to the man in her arms. Danny blinked and turned away, trying to get the image of a nearly naked Box Ghost being cradled like an infant out of his head. Wulf nudged Danny's cheek with his snout, and the half-ghost petted his cold nose half-heartedly.
"You said that you were staying here to hide away from Johnny," he reminded Kitty, his back turned towards her. "What happened?"
Kitty tore her eyes away from the disturbing sight of Desiree together with the Box Ghost. She let out a gloomy sigh. "Johnny and I have been fighting a lot," she admitted. "And I really can't stand him when we fight; he gets terribly angry with me."
Danny ceased his motion of petting Wulf to turn around and face the girl in surprise. "What were you fighting about?" he asked.
Kitty bit her lip, looking as though she were unsure she wanted to get into the details. "Johnny said some really nasty things to me the other day," she relented, bobbing back and forth in her seat. "So terrible they made me cry real bad, and that just seemed to make him worse. Said I had no right speakin' for 'im, preventin' him from fighting."
"Fighting?"
"For the Ghost Zone," she clarified. Danny remembered the scene at Walker's prison then, the day after Kwan had been admitted into the hospital, remembered the look on Johnny's face as Kitty declared their intention to sacrifice themselves to the coming onslaught. "We decided that since only one person can use the soul, we'd rather die together," she had said.
"So why are you hiding?" he questioned. "I know Johnny, he's crazy about you; if he comes after you, it's only because he wants you back."
There was a tense silence. Kitty turned to Ember for help, but the other girl just shrugged helplessly. Even Desiree had fallen silent, and both she and the Box Ghost were watching her, waiting for her answer.
"Johnny and I," Kitty's voice broke, "we want different things. He thinks I'm crazy for wanting to sit back and wait, says that just because I'm ready to throw my afterlife away doesn't mean he is too." She hung her head low. "I love Johnny, he means the world to me; I died for the guy, but ... I'm tired of hanging out here in Ghost Zone. Nobody told me I'd be stuck here in between life and death. Johnny – he thinks it's great, y'know what I mean? It's like a second chance for him; he gets to ride around on his bike, gettin' to do all the things he loves, and never having to give it up by dying again. But I wanna go over to the other side; I wanna see my family, and my friends, all the people I was supposed to meet in heaven. I just want to rest in peace." She turned watery eyes to Danny. "How can we be together if we can't agree on that?"
There was long drawn out period of stillness in the room. Kitty's speech had struck something in all of them; Desiree was no longer stroking the Box Ghost's scalp; the Box Ghost had slid halfway off the genie's tail to rest against her body and upon the couch cushions; Kitty was leaning against the arm of the couch, fingers linked together and trying to prevent tears from spilling; Ember still had her arms folded over her chest and was steadfastly looking down; even Wulf's tail had stopped wagging.
"And how..." Danny's voice croaked, "...how do you fit into all this?"
Ember raised her head, realizing he was speaking to her.
"If she's decided that's what she wants to do, then that's up to her," she said, sounding as though she couldn't quite breathe properly. "I'm just here to provide a place for anyone who needs it. And if they're still here when it's time to fight, then I hope they'll fight with me."
If there is no place to hide...
"Then we shall fight bravely," Danny quoted, "to the very end until the darkness swallows us whole."
Ember looked taken aback.
"That's what Poindexter said," she told him. The others lifted their eyes to Danny slowly. "You met Poindexter?" Danny's fingers shook.
"That's what he said to me," he swallowed a lump that formed in his throat. "Before he – before he..."
"What?" Ember asked softly.
"I don't know. Wait..." Danny dug into the pocket of his jeans, feeling around it, then pulled his hand back out and held it out to them. Clutched in his fingers, crumpled and untied, was the black cummerbund. "He said those words to me," he admitted. "And then he took this off and lay it down. And then he walked away, and..." his forehead creased faintly, remembering in vivid detail everything that happened, "...and he opened the door and stepped out. But the light, it shone down on his so brightly.
"And then he was gone."
Kitty and Ember were staring at him with wide eyes and shocked expressions. Ember's hands had dropped away to hang limply at her sides, and Kitty had unconsciously leaned closer and closer towards him as he released every detail. They both stood now, immobile, their faces slack. Then all at once, they rushed up against him, trying to get a closer look at the item he held in his hand. Ember snatched it out of his limp wrist, holding it close to her face. Kitty peered at it over her shoulder.
"Do you think...?"
"It looks like it."
"It looks real."
"It feels real."
"Do you think...?"
"I don't see any other way."
"It sounds like..."
And suddenly the girls embraced each other tightly. Danny and Wulf shared apprehensive looks with one another.
"Um, what's going on?" Danny voiced.
Desiree rolled her eyes. The Box Ghost had slumped down on the floor looking stupefied, and she was no longer paying him any attention. "Oh, nothing," she drawled, "they just think he's gone to Heaven, that's all."
Danny turned to her sharply. "Heaven?"
"Bright light," Desiree pointed out in a bored tone. "Sudden disappearance. Unexplained corporeality. Hello?"
"Kitty, do you know what this means?" Ember gasped in an excited voice when they parted, holding up Poindexter's cummerbund. "This means that it is possible ... you can find release. And maybe this is the way."
Kitty turned shining eyes on to Danny. "Oh, Danny, thank you," she gushed. "I was only holding on to a hope until now – I didn't think it was actually possible..."
"Oh, for – will you listen to yourselves?" Desiree pulled herself up to her full stature in disgust. "The boy could have pulled this out of his own wardrobe! One look and suddenly you're ready to hand yourselves over to 'the divine'?" she folded her fingers to imitate air-quotations.
"How can you not believe in the divine, Desiree?" Kitty asked. "You're a genie! Until now, you used to be able to create miracles with a wave of your hand."
"Do you see what you've done?" Desiree gestured to the two other girls. "Before, they were merely philosophizing; now they're positively unshakable that this 'prophecy' is God's will!"
"No one has ever been able to kill a ghost before, not even the Ghost King," Kitty shot back, "and now Danny tells us Poindexter disappeared in a 'bright light', and he gives us this," she pointed to the cummerbund still being held reverently in Ember's hands. "How do you think that happened?"
Ember was completely detached from the conversation at hand. Her eyes held a greedy hunger, a wild hope. Danny never realized how desperate ghosts were to find some way of escaping the eternal sentence that had been handed down to them.
And then there was a knock on the door.
Ember snapped out of her trance with a jolt, her face losing all color. Quickly, she stuffed the cummerbund back into Danny's hand, folding his fingers over it for extra measure, and marched over to the entrance. She opened the door a crack, and snapped, "What do you want?"
"My girlfriend, for one," Danny heard a voice he instantly recognized claim in response.
"Well, she's not here. Get lost!" Ember snapped.
"Yeah, right," Johnny 13 snorted. "I know she's here, Ember; I've searched everywhere in Ghost Zone. Now get out of the way."
"Screw you, dipwad," Ember retorted. "I told you I don't have her, and even if I knew where she was, I wouldn't tell you. Stop trying to drag her down just because you're scared to spend the rest of eternity stuck with yourself." She slammed the door shut in his face.
Johnny banged on it with the side of his fist. "I know she's in there, you bitch! Gimme my girlfriend! Kitty? Kitty, I just wanna talk! Come on, it's me, Johnny!"
"She doesn't want you man, why can't you get that through your head?" Ember yelled back to him. She shook her head at Kitty, coming over to wrap a consoling arm over her the other girl's shoulder.
"Forget about him, Kitty," she said. "You got something better now. Everything you've ever dreamed of has just been proven to you, and you can have it! Don't let him take your chance away."
Kitty looked forlornly over to the door, but then glanced back to Danny, still holding on to the cummerbund in his hand, then gave a small nod.
"Kitty? Kitty!" Bang! Bang! Bang! "Kitty, I just wanna talk! I'm sorry, okay?"
"Don't listen, Kitty," Ember murmured soothingly, glaring in the direction of the door. "Don't listen."
\
Johnny let out an audibly frustrated growl on the other end. "Shadow!"
Ember's eyes widened, and she quickly abandoned Kitty to dart behind the couch to pull out her guitar from where it had been hiding out of sight. Painfully, she gripped Danny's arm. "All those times I stood and fought beside you? I'm calling it in."
To Desiree, she pointed and said, "You wanna keep living here, you'll get off that couch and help. Now."
Danny pocketed the cummerbund safely back into his jeans and transformed, a determined look on his face. Wulf joined his side, holding up dangerous-looking claws.
The world suddenly grew darker, as the natural light provided by the green vortex that permeated through the window dimmed. Danny watched dark lines emanate from the figures of the couch and the table, twisting and angling themselves as though changing with the position of a nonexistent sun, until finally, they broke free and slid through the floor and past the group surrounding Kitty to congeal together at the opposite wall, right next to the window. With a sick twist in his gut, Danny suddenly realized just what it was he found so off-putting about the room when he had initially entered it, that unnameable thing he had immediately noticed to be missing: the furniture in the room did not previously cast a shadow. Of course they wouldn't, there was no sunlight in the Ghost Zone.
Now, however, shadows loomed from every corner, rapidly coming together in one favored area on the wall, amalgamating, taking shape, until finally, they formed a hideous apparition with slitted eyes and a malicious grin. The Shadow.
"Abbott!" Ember called out to the Box Ghost, who remained cowering safely between the couch and the table, "Get your ass over here!"
"But I am the Box Ghost!" he wailed in response.
Ember let out a grunt, aiming the pointed end of her guitar to the wall and strumming the chords to let out a blast which served to blacken the stone, but did nothing to their leering enemy. "Four walls constitute a box – Improvise!"
Danny stopped paying attention to them, turning all his energy to the dark silhouette marring the room. All his previous battles against the Shadow had been won through the use of sunlight; how was he to fight it in a place in which sunlight didn't exist?
With a roar, the Shadow flung its arm outward, slapping both Ember and Desiree out of the way and leaving Kitty exposed. Immediately, Wulf jumped over to the other side to cover her, slashing madly at thin air. The gigantic shadow on the wall grinned lecherously, and with another sweep of its arm, sent Wulf flying into the air to land against the adjacent wall with a sickening crack. Danny was reminded horribly of the incident with Dash at school that morning.
"What are you doing?" he yelled over at the Box Ghost. "Get over here!"
The Box Ghost flew to his side, looking around frantically for anything he could use as an offensive weapon; but Danny had another idea. Charging up a ball of concentrated ectoplasmic energy, he hurled it at the Shadow. However, it did nothing but make it laugh and raise its arm again.
This time, Danny was ready. Grabbing on to Kitty's shoulder, he pulled her to stand behind him and, with his other arm, pushed the Box Ghost so that he stumbled forward, right in the path of the Shadow's oncoming arm. The Box Ghost let out a "Hey!" of protest before being thrown right onto the coffee table, causing it to sail off into the distance with him and land on top of his frame when he crashed on to the floor.
Having bought himself another attempt with the Box Ghost's interference, Danny held up both palms and gritted his teeth, firing a large beam.
The Shadow let out a snarl of displeasure, but otherwise remained unaffected. There was nothing Danny could do it while it remained a mere outline on the wall. This time, when the Shadow's arm reached out for him, Danny knew there was no escape. He let out a cry as he was tossed like a ragdoll into the heap of his fallen comrades.
Its path to Kitty now cleared, the Shadow shot out, no longer a silhouette, but gaining form, turning into a black mass with empty eyes and an evil grin. Kitty let out a frightened sound as it circled her, zooming around her again and again and again, moving so fast that it lost all meaning of form, becoming nothing more than just a black whirlwind that surrounded, growing larger and larger, encasing her within its midst. Kitty's screams grew louder and louder the faster it went.
Danny propped himself up on one arm, letting out a groan of pain. His green eyes caught sight of the rotating spiral in front of him. This was his chance; the Shadow had given up its protection and gained mass. Danny pulled himself up and started to form another ectoplasmic ball, his hands trembling as he was worked through a cacophony of screaming coming from inside the shapeless black.
"No!"Ember cried out, her hand shooting out to stop him from firing. Danny turned to her in alarm. "You'll hurt her!"
Hurt ... Danny didn't think anything could hurt more than what Kitty was being subjected to right then. Just as how the Shadow had lost all shape and form as it worked harder and faster, growing more intense, so had Kitty's wails of terror from the prison she was encased in. Her voice had lost all sense of boundary, becoming torn and ragged, as what was once a shriek of pain became more of a plea for mercy, a broken, meaningless howl to stop, just make it stop.
Ember and Danny watched, helpless, as the Shadow spun faster and Kitty's pitch grew louder. Ember forgot to let go, her fingers wrapped loose and lame around Danny's wrist, both of them so deeply immersed in the torturous scene unfolding for their very eyes.
And then the Shadow let go, shooting away with a triumphant screech, flying backwards over their heads and down again to slip under the crack of the door from whence it came, taking all manner of darkness with it. Kitty slumped forward, no longer supported by the rage of its being, and did not move.
Her hands scrabbling uselessly against the cold floor, Ember finally managed to work her legs enough to dart out to her friend's side. "Kitty!" Slowly, delicately, she lay her hands upon her friend's torso and moved her so she lay on her back. Danny and Ember let out a horrified gasp at the sight that awaited them.
Danny had always known about the Shadow's powers, how it lay waste to everything it touched. He had seen his father's own Specter Speeder mauled into a state of decay only mere weeks ago, rotted to the point where it simply fell out of the sky, by just one mere passing of the Shadow through its body; but this – Danny had never seen anything quite so appalling as this.
All traces of Kitty's youthful good looks had been erased from her face and stolen away by the Shadow. In its place lay deep lines and wrinkled skin, ravages of time passed on only to those who had lived the fullest lives, the sunken, wilting features of a haggard old woman where once stood a vibrant young girl.
Once he had made sure everyone else was alright, Danny abandoned his attempts to gain an ally for his next venture in favor of taking leave. Kitty still hadn't woken up by the time he left; Ember had placed her upon the couch and hadn't left her side since, hadn't even looked at him when he said goodbye. Desiree had drifted off to her room to recuperate, taking the Box Ghost with her, so Wulf had show him out, giving him a solemn lick at the top of the ruined staircase.
Danny flew through the endless abyss of the Ghost Zone, unable to get the image of Kitty aged visage out of his head. Her entire body looked as though she had sped through ninety years in the space of a minute. The thought that Johnny had been capable to doing that to her – he must have known what he was condemning to when he sent his Shadow to attack.
Johnny had disappeared by the time Danny had opened the door, along with his monstrous abomination. Nobody searched for him; nobody cared. Danny left the group to mourn for their unfortunate friend.
Now he paused in mid-space and unrolled the Infimap. His eyes traversed along the expanse of the map, names and locations of hundreds of thousands of ghosts flashing by until he finally located the one he wanted. He raised his eyes upwards, where the swirling green rose into darker shades until it finally way to black. Of course. Only the most powerful ghosts confined themselves to the nether regions of the Ghost Zone. Clockwork and the Observants built their tower there, away from the prying eyes of other ghosts; but it was not Clockwork whom Danny sought to find.
Raising himself upwards, he drifted higher and higher, until all monuments of civilization that adorned the Ghost Zone faded from view. Higher still he went; it was getting harder to read the map; Danny's eyes glowed a supernatural glow as he grew adjusted to the darkness, his vision returning with sharp focus.
He finally found himself at the stronghold the Infimap directed him to. The stone tinted an ethereal purple against the background. Danny squared his shoulders and grabbed on to the wall, turning himself human once more and sliding through to the other side.
He could barely see anything. The entire fortress seemed to be blanketed in some kind of unnatural darkness that prevented him from seeing too far. Perhaps if he were still his ghost form he would have been better able to make his way around, but he didn't know what to expect from this place and did not want to leave himself at a disadvantage.
As he moved, his ears filled with a strange sound; it was almost as if the castle was alive and breathing. The very air around him seemed to whoosh with the force of an exhalation. Danny steeled himself with his fingers clenched.
"I know you're here."
There was deep, melodic chuckle, and suddenly the darkness seemed to lift itself up from every corner of the room and rush to a point in front of him, growing deeper, yet somewhat translucent, like a black haze. The smoke shifted itself, descending to touch the ground, then rising up forming a long, lean torso; arms that extended longer than should have been possible; claw-like fingers; straight, proud shoulders; a powerful neck; and finally, a white face that looked almost like it was a painted mask, topped with purple horns that curled downwards and in. The figure's entire body was coated in what appeared to be the very fabric of the cosmos, lovingly stitched together and almost looking as though it moved, as though this thing before him was but a window to all Creation. Tendrils of what looked like black smoke moved placidly at the base of the creature.
"Danny Phantom," Nocturne greeted, his red eyes glowing and his lips drawn up in mirthful superiority.
Danny took in the sight of this apparition. He had not seen Nocturne since their first encounter back when he was fourteen years old; now the ghost loomed large over him, waiting for him to speak.
"Now look," he started. "We haven't always got along; the one time you came to Amity Park – you kicked my ass, I kicked yours; I'm hoping you'd be willing to call it even."
"What business have you with me?" Nocturne questioned, his calm voice unwavering.
Danny pulled himself up straight, eyes fixed on Nocturne's. "I need your help."
"This much I gathered," Nocturne had a way of speaking that made his words sound only as though he was stating a matter of fact, no trace of sarcasm in his voice. "Pray tell, why is it that I should help you?"
"Like I said – we got off on the wrong foot," Danny stated, his fingers still clenched, "but I'm hoping you'll forget all that and help me out here. Some people I know – they're having bad dreams."
"Bad dreams, you say?" Nocturne turned around and began walking away. Danny followed after him, keeping a respectful distance between them. "And you wish me now to forget the way in which you confined me in your thermos and tossed me back like a mackerel?"
"In exchange for me forgetting the fact that you started it by coming into my town and started attacking everyone in it," Danny retorted. "Why did you do it anyway?"
Nocturne threw him a half-glance over his shoulder, enough for Danny to catch a hint of the smirk on it. "Why not? After all, it's what I do."
Danny blinked. "That's it? Your excuse for putting Amity Park to sleep is that you have no excuse at all?"
Nocturne chuckled again, continuing to glide forwards. "Such an inquisitive nature. Tell me, Danny Phantom, do you know what it's like to be bestowed with great power?"
"Um," Danny gestured to himself, as if the answer was obvious. Nocturne gave a quiet laugh.
"Not power such as your own paltry abilities, ghost child, imitating gifts not meant for your to own – no, I mean true power; power so grand that they make up a part of Nature herself, power so great that the world conforms to your own wishes; have you any idea of that?"
"No," Danny said petulantly. "But if you're so great, why did you need to put those weird metal helmets on everyone so that you could get more powerful then?"
"Ah, and therein lies the question; think of it, Danny Phantom – to be granted eternal life, born on the day the world was born, with no end in sight, except perhaps the day the world itself will die; bequeath with the ability to command sleep to all beings, the ability to gift them dreams; would you not eventually question why is it that you were put on this world? What purpose is it you serve?"
"I..." Danny had no answer.
"Yes, such power – truly it can only come from the breath of the gods themselves. Would you blame me for thinking myself a god, Danny Phantom?"
"I ... yes," Danny's skin crawled at the question. Nocturne threw his head back and laughed.
"You do not fool me, ghost child! Yes, I know what it is the ghosts fear. They believe God's hand will reach down and pick them up to be judged, and they fear it – but not I, Danny Phantom, not I! Aeons I have wandered this earth, trying to understand it all – power enough to overwhelm anyone less worthy, enduring life ... and for what? To walk amongst man and ghost for all eternity? Is there no greater fate worth waiting for?
And so I came, Danny Phantom; I came to your town and sought power. Power to elevate from the dregs of this mortal world – after all, perhaps that was all that was missing; to meet my Creator, to live by my Creator and worship my Creator, would I first have to prove to my Creator my worth? Can you blame my logic, Danny Phantom?"
"I ... no," Danny admitted.
"Understand this now, Danny Phantom, I seek no enjoyment from human pain. That is why I provide them with dreams of glory. Think ill of me in my quest for truth, if you so wish; but understand this."
"I do," Danny appealed. "That's why I came to you. Please, my friends ... they're suffering. The ghosts believe that whatever is coming – they think it's God's salvation; and if it is – help me, and you can tell God when you stand before Him that you saved two souls from their torment."
"Do you think they would be the first two I have saved, Danny Phantom?" Nocturne sounded amused. They had reached a door now, and he pushed it open, leading Danny inside. "No..."
Danny's eyes had to once again adjust to the darkness, but once they did, he found himself staring at a row of beds adorning each side of the wall, and on them were lines of identical creatures, short and lumpy, eyes closed and snoring calmly. Danny turned to Nocturne with curious eyes. "Sleepwalkers..."
"Lost souls," Nocturne confirmed. "Mortals who have traversed down the path of destruction and lived only as husks; I came to them and gave them merciful endings, to live with me in the way they deserve: everlasting peace."
He fixed his blank red eyes on Danny once more. "I will help you, Danny Phantom. What you say is true; I wish for all to know how I carried out that which is my Creator's will."
Danny nodded, and his eyes lingered again on the rows of stubby malformed ghosts snoring serenely.
"You understand what this means?" Nocturne asked. They were standing together in the quiet stillness of Amity General, over the prone figures of the two agents from the Guys in White confined in their catatonia. "Once I take them with me, there will be no return for them. Is this truly what you want?"
Danny thought about it. What he was about to do – it wouldn't stain his hands, but he would be responsible for the outcome all the same. He thought of these two men, trapped forever in a state of perpetual terror, doomed to benefit only the likes of Spectra as she fed upon them. Maybe he couldn't save everybody in this hospital from her, not yet – but he could grant these men some small mercy.
There is too much fear in the world.
Danny squeezed his eyes shut. "Do it."
Nocturne nodded at him, then reached his long arms down. Danny watched, reminding himself to breathe, as those claws reached into their bodies, past the barriers of flesh and bone, as if they didn't even exist, to sink in and grasp something he couldn't see. Nocturne lowered his body, digging into the men before him until he buried to the forearms, then slowly pulled up again, carrying in either arm a short malformed ghost. They wailed and squirmed, and Nocturne drew them up against his body, folding his arms against each other to cradle them, gazing down at them lovingly, like a mother holding her newborn babes. In his arms, the two Sleepwalkers stilled their thrashing to curl up calmly against his body, their bodies going up and down as they began to breathe steadily.
And then Nocturne was gone, kicking up into the air and going through the ceiling to return back to the Ghost Zone. The room was silent again, except for the sound of the two monitors. They had flatlined, letting out a constant beeping sound. Danny slowly turned his attention back to the two men that lay on either side of him. Sleep well, he bade silently. Then he reached out his arms, and with two fingers, simultaneously slid both men's eyes shut.
Danny lounged in his room lethargically that night. He was swivelling round and round on the chair positioned in front of his computer, but the monitor was off. His books lay open on his desk, but he ignored them. It was a quiet night, so peaceful not even the crickets were chirping. He kept his eyes upon the starry, starry sky every time he caught sight of it during his rotations. He didn't feel like doing anything that night.
There was a knock on the door and it swung open to reveal Jack Fenton standing awkwardly upon the threshold. Danny paused, bracing his hand on the desk to halt his movements.
"Hey, sport," Jack greeted.
"Hey, dad," Danny said monotonously. Jack awkwardly took a seat at the edge of Danny's bed and patted the area next to him, inviting Danny to join him. Danny went.
"So Vlad's funeral is tomorrow," Jack started. Danny bobbed his head, avoiding his father's eyes. "And if you want to skip it, you know ... you can," Jack offered.
Danny shook his head. The thought of missing the funeral hadn't even crossed his mind. Jack accepted the decision wordlessly. They sat there in silence for a moment. Jack twiddled his thumbs.
"Danny," he broached, "I just wanted to say ... if there was anything that was bothering you – anything that you want to talk about ... I'm always here to listen."
It was a general statement, and Jack tried to say it in as neutral a voice as possible, but Danny knew he what he was referring to.
"Dad, I promise you," he locked eyes with his father. "There was nothing going on between me and Vlad. He never touched me. If he had – I would have told you about it. I swear."
Jack stared down at him for a moment, taking in his son's earnest blue eyes, and then he grabbed Danny into a fierce hug. "I love you, Danny," he murmured into his son's hair. "I love you so much, it hurts."
Danny embraced his father back, relishing the gesture. He swallowed a lump that had suddenly risen up in his throat. "I love you too, dad," he said back.
Once they parted, Jack got to his feet and gave Danny a watery smile. He ruffled Danny's hair affectionately, then departed from his room, leaving Danny alone once more.
Danny stared at the wall unseeingly. 'I love you so much, it hurts'. That's what his dad had said. Danny didn't think he knew what it meant to love someone that way, so much so that it consumed him. He thought of his parents, and how scared he had been for them when he thought their marriage was in trouble. Was that love? He thought about Sam and Tucker, how he wanted to wrap himself around them and never let them go. Was that the same kind of love? Then he thought about Dash, how full his heart felt just by the sight of the other boy's grin, thought of the yearning his body felt with Dash's absence, how his heart broke at the thought that Dash would throw him away because he hadn't found Danny's good enough.
So this is what you need to know about Danny Fenton:
He loved his family; he loved his friends; and...
"I love you, Dash."
The silence of the empty room was the only answer he got.
Author's Note: You can see why I chose to end the previous chapter where I did. They differ completely in tone, the previous one light and hopeful, while this is dark and melancholic (at least, it's supposed to be; I hope I accurately portrayed that here). I hope you found this to be an eye-opening chapter, as it basically reveals the intention of the ghosts and the overall intention of this story. Don't worry, I'll try to keep the religious elements down to a minimum, but it seems to me that in a series that deals with the concepts of ghosts, life after death and the idea of God would be bound to come up sometime, and I do believe that if Butch Hartman weren't confined to the demographic appeal Nickelodeon subscribed to, he would have definitely included more of these themes into his work.
A very, very special thank you to isphira and Ixica for responding to my query in Chapter 33 on where I could find the episode Frightmare. If not for them, this chapter wouldn't be what it is today, and I hope you liked my rendition of Nocturne. Season 3 had some really epic villains, but with characters like Nocturne who commands something as powerful as sleep, I had to question why he would care about world domination, and I tried to give it a more noble reason in this fic. No matter who you are, no matter how powerful you get, we are all left questioning our place in this world at the end of the day. For their efforts, I would like to dedicate this chapter to them, and if they are reading, I hope they enjoyed it. :)
Please let me know what you guys thought. Can't wait to read the reviews.