We were nearly home when it happened. Two men snuck up from behind us, grabbing Phoenix by the waist and covering her mouth before she could scream. I turned around and dropped my bags in shock, only to find a gun pointed at my head.

"Give us all your money or we shoot," the man threatened, his finger hovering over the trigger.

I gulped, somehow managing to stay calm. It was probably due to guns being pointed at me by my own parents. I shivered at the memory, slowly slipping my hand into my pocket. I didn't have the money; Phoenix held all of it in her own pockets, but the thieves hadn't asked for it yet. "Not in this pocket, darn." I uttered, loud enough to hear and annoy the men.

"We don't have all day, kid."

I nodded, pretending to dig in my other pockets. "Sorry, guys, I'm broke." I taunted.

The man with the gun didn't find it funny, and he placed the gun against Phoenix's forehead. My face paled instantly. "Give us the money, or the girl gets hurt."

I was too quick for them. I jabbed the guy with the gun in the chest, ripping the weapon out of his hand and pointing it t the guy who held Phoenix. "How about we don't do that, and walk away like it never happened."

Both men, wide-eyed with the same shock Youngblood had just a whole before, before dropping everything they had and running as fast as they can. Phoenix watched them run off, grinning.

"How did you do that?" She asked.

I shrugged. "You learn a few things, I guess." I didn't elaborate more on that, and she nodded, intrigued by my answer..

"Is that how people fight in Amity Park?" Her eyes lit up. "Ooh, are you part of the Resistance? Is that why you ran away?"

"I didn't run away!" I snapped back. Phoenix's eyes widened even more, recoiling.

"Oh. I see." Her mouth clamped shut.

My voice was too harsh, and I quickly apologized. Phoenix accepted it, but her dull reply made me nauseous. I didn't mean to snap. her questions just were too much. And not at all what happened.

I was living with the same guilt and pressure I had when I was still alive- my secret. Being-half dead. Although now it was more because I had managed to rise from the dead after being in that state for twenty years. Twenty years of my life, wasted in a casket underground.

How did I get out, anyway? I followed Phoenix home, but my thoughts kept wandering. I was buried feet underground, probably under a memorial statue or something like that- I had seen a blurry photo of it online. How did I get out? Before waking up, I had nothing. Just the memories of the white abyss I found myself in. Just thinking about everything.

It felt like minutes had gone by in the abyss, but in reality, it had been years. I never really felt the pain of my death, either, and all that was left was a scar on my chest, a hole in my jumpsuit. How had it managed to get so big?

Was someone digging around in my guts in my ghost form?

Thinking about it gave me chills. Thinking that I was dead was worse. How had it managed to turn out this way? I had no idea. I just wanted everything to go back to the way it used to be.

But how?

Phoenix spoke up, breaking my train of thoughts. "Danny, we need to talk." She set the bags down on the crooked dining table, and turned around to face me, a fire burning in her eyes. "If you're staying here, we're going to have to be more honest with each other."

"What do you mean?" I understood partially what she meant, and felt my heartbeat faster than it normally did. Which was, frankly, quite slow.

Phoenix motioned for me to take a seat on the couch, and I did so, watching her sit next to me. Orange met blue for a few minutes as our eyes connected, and I felt like she was staring into my soul and reading the small memories of my life.

But she couldn't read minds.

Or could she?

The thought made me nearly laugh; if she could read minds, she would already know about my alter-ego. She would've mentioned it by now.

"I mean, we need to tell the truth about each other." She sighed. "Every detail. I don't want to be living with a guy who is dishonest. My mother told me honesty is the best virtue to have."

"You take a lot of advice from your mother."

"Yes, I do." She cleared her throat. "Danny, what were you really doing by the side of the road?"

I told her the truth; that I wasn't aware of being by the side of the road. Or about to be hit by a truck. All I remembered was waking up. Twenty years before that was a different story.

Phoenix nodded. "Your turn."

I didn't have any questions to really ask her, because she was a pretty open person. Not nearly as easy as an open book, but she was honest in her words. At least, I hoped she was. "Uhh...what's your favorite color?"

"Red." She smiled, probably at the immaturity of my question. "At the hospital, I noticed a couple of things off about you. You had ectoplasm in your veins, you healed unusually fast, your heartbeat and temperature was very low but stable...Why is that?"

Yep. I knew this was coming. "I...uh, I had an accident a while back. My parents are-" I felt the need to say were here, but I still don't know if they're alive or not. "-ghost hunters."

"Hmm." She already had her next question, but kept her mouth shut for my turn.

"Where are you from?" She never said a certain place, just that she was left here, in Willorbrooke or whatever the place is.

I noticed her tense, but her promise to tell every detail couldn't be broken. "I'm, uh, also from Amity Park, but I was left here when I was six, and I don't remember much."

Oh. She was from my hometown, twenty years in the future, but couldn't share a single detail because her memory prevented her from doing thus. I sighed, knowing that I couldn't get any more information out of her.

"Are you…." She paused in her sentence, before taking a deep breath. "Are you a halfa?"

I felt myself tense, and knew she had figured it out by my indiscreet motions. Phoenix was a very perceptive girl, one of the first to put the pieces together. Jazz couldn't count, because she said she saw me transform prior to me knowing she knew.

But I couldn't lie. Not only would it break the untold promise of keeping everything truthful, but it would break her, too. And I couldn't live with the same pressure again, even if I was exempt from new ghost fights and missing out on school.

"Yes," I finally said, averting eye contact. The girl next to be breathed a sigh of relief, before noticing my depressed expression.

"Danny, don't worry, you're safe here." She smiled. "And, I'm one, too."

My eyes widened, and I looked at her, a grin slowly forming on my face. "Y-you are?" I stuttered out, shocked. "I never would have guessed. I mean, you're so normal, Phoenix."

She grabbed my hand and held it tightly with hers, and I suddenly felt something...different. It was like one of Ember's punches with a bare fist, hot and fiery due to her heat core, but this was a burning sensation, a warmth that traveled through my veins. I freed my hand, still looking at her in shock.

"Not really." Phoenix said, trying to smile. "You're so cold, though. Are you sure you're okay?"

"It comes with the powers." I replied quickly. "But why are you so hot?"

"It comes with the powers." I glared at her, knowing she was trying to reuse what I said. She laughed in response, before pausing. "Who's question is it now?"

"You can go."

Phoenix nodded before stopping to think. "What kind of halfa are you, though? I was thinking that you just had ice powers, or maybe you were part-yeti or something. But that wouldn't explain the ectoplasm."

"H-half ghost, actually." I replied. "What are you?"

Phoenix let out a small laugh, before replying, "Think about my name for a minute. After that, think about the irony."

Phoenix. What was there to it? It was a city in Arizona. The capital, I believe. What else was there? It was a name, a girl name. It was...It was…

Phoenix was part-phoenix.

There's the irony.

After noticing the look on my face of utter surprise and utter annoyance to the irony that presented itself in the lives of many across the globe, she smiled. "So, part-ghost, eh? Never heard of that before."

"Lab accident. I won't spare you the painful and shocking details. How did you get your powers?"

"Born with them...I think...Accident when I lived in Amity Park or I was born with them. All I know is that I've been able to control fire my whole life. Not particularly useful for the career path I'm choosing, but whatever."

Phoenix and I shared stories about accidents with our powers, laughing at each one. How I turned my pants intangible while talking to a girl. How she accidentally set her stove on fire- and how it smells of burnt pie to this day. The stories were quite humorous actually, because they showed our younger selves (even though I've only had my powers for about a year...sort of…) suffering with bizarre abilities no humans could even begin to understand.

We didn't even understand it, either.