The blue energy engulfed Tucker, causing his red beret to fly off his head, but he remained unharmed. The flame-like light flew at him, and then parted just before it came too close. Gradually, Tucker forced his eyes open, and just stared at the phenomenon occurring right in front of him, unable to tear his gaze away from the river of rapidly moving light. Within it, he could see shapes, faces. When he concentrated, Tucker could see himself and Sam frozen in the animated ice, appearing to laugh at some forgotten joke.
Not that forgotten, Tucker reminded himself. Danny obviously remembers.
A twinge joy followed by guilt coursed throughout him as he realised his mistake, but the energy was soothing, telling him not to worry, that everything would work out all right. Eventually.
The light was now transparent, and Tucker could see through it as if he were looking at the scene from behind a waterfall. A figure was sprawled against the wall, its hands and feet no longer tied up with the Fenton Fisher.
"Danny," Tucker whispered disbelievingly. "How..."
The energy faded completely, the last wisps of it flying up into the sky, where dark storm clouds were gathering.
The ghost boy coughed and shakily began to stand. After a few moments, his movements became more fluent; he was almost back to normal. Danny's colouring was better, also. His face was no longer deathly pale, and his eyes weren't dull. Instead, they shone the same way as the energy had, blue and constantly in motion. Looking into his best friend's eyes made Tucker feel dizzy, but he would never admit that to Danny.
For a few tense seconds, the two boys watched each other, unwilling to be the first to do anything. Finally, Tucker's curiosity triumphed against the doubt and unease that also filled his heart. This was Danny, he was certain, but no one could go through death and not change. Especially not twice.
"Danny," Tucker whispered again. Then, without even thinking of it, he launched himself at the ghost boy. Both of them stumbled, Danny still slightly weak.
"Tuck!" He exclaimed. A PDA fell from Tucker's pocket, but he was too happy to care. Danny was alive!
Well, sort of.
"Dude," Tucker muttered into Danny's shoulder, neither of them ready to let go. "We thought you were dead! Completely."
Danny let out a strangled laugh. "Me too, Tuck. I-"
The rest of his words were cut off by a bright green flash.
"Stand back, ghost boy," Jack Fenton demanded, smoke still trailing from the end of his ecto-gun.
DPDPDPDP
"M-Mr and Mrs Fenton!" Tucker exclaimed in a falsely cheery voice. "What are you going here?"
Behind him, Phantom groaned and tried to stand up. His aura was blue, the light seeming to dance across his form like flames, flickering and flaring with every movement the ghost boy made. His eyes were two symmetrical pits of this same ghostly fire, the flames reaching out of the sockets and curling around in a similar way to mist.
Maddie noticed that, while Phantom appeared covered in some type of mis-colored fire, the temperature in the alley was several degrees cooler than outside of it. Glancing over to her husband, Maddie raised her weapon higher and aimed it towards the ghost boy's face.
At this action, Phantom's face morphed into something ugly- rage. The flames increased in size until the ghost was only a humanoid shape within them, and the temperature dropped drastically. Gasping, Maddie dropped her ecto-gun, watching as frost curled it's way though the delicate technology. The ice had burned her, and looking over, it had also harmed Jack.
Maddie saw Tucker's expression light up in alarm.
"Danny!" He yelled. "Stop! What are you doing?"
Phantom paused, the flames flickering in a less-urgent manner as the techno-geek's words reached him. Then, he stopped moving at all.
Maddie still couldn't see the ghost boy's face through the fire, but she could imagine the thoughtful expression he would he wearing as he processed Tucker's cries. Everything was motionless. The world halted for a few seconds, the birds stopped singing, and even the sounds of distant people disappeared. It was unnerving, to say the least. To think that this ghost was actually considering what Tucker had said contradicted most of what Maddie knew to be fact.
Ghosts don't care for humans. They certainly don't take advice from them.
Phantom moved so fast, Maddie didn't even have time to blink before his arms were out above his head, hands pointed to the sky. She shouted a warming to Tucker and pulled Jack to the ground. Just in time.
The town shook. Buildings rocked on their foundations, dust clouding around some of the older establishments. People screamed and ran for cover from the twin columns of blue light that vertically pierced the sky, originating from Phantom's hands. The ghost was steady, floating a few inches above the ground and remaining completely still.
The clouds above swirled dangerously, lit up from within by the unnatural, ghostly light. It caused the town to go dark, though the clouds themselves glowed brightly.
Maddie looked back to Phantom. His form was cleansed of flames, and he stared up at the sky with a sorrowfully happy expression, a sad smile just lifting the corners of his mouth.
DPDPDPDP
Sam heard the screaming. Who didn't? It travelled through Amity Park like a gruesome alarm, forcing the Goth out of bed.
She looked out the window, and at first was unable to find the source of the cries. Then, her gaze fell onto the two poles of pale blue light. They were the exact colour and texture of the flames that had taken Danny away.
Her face hardening, Sam turned away from the window and collapsed facedown on her large bed.
With her face buried in a pillow, it was then that the tears decided to come. Finally.
AN:
Hey! pale-blue11 here!
I hope this chapter's ok. I had a really tiring day yesterday, and my eyes actually closed a few times while I wrote this. I don't even remember that last bit…
Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited, and/or followed this story!
And please review, favourite and/or follow this chapter! I'd really like to hear what you think :)
Have a nice week, and happy Easter!
pale-blue11