"Shh."
My eyes slowly opened, but were blinded by a white light. I winced in pain, before allowing my head to clear. I was tied up- by ropes, no less- and more people in masquerade masks decorated with feathers surrounded me.
"Where am I?" I asked, suddenly having a strikingly similar feeling to when I first woke up.
"That doesn't matter." A girl with dark blue feathers retorted. She sounded my age, although much like the kid we met only earlier. "How did you get into Amity Park?"
"What are you talking about? Where's Phoenix?"
"She's okay, just somewhere else." As my head finally cleared, I noticed there was only one girl in the room- just the room was surrounded with different kinds of masks. "Now, what are you doing here?"
Something pinged in my head. "You're the resistance, aren't you?"
"Stop answering my questions with questions." The girl yelled. "Who are you working for? The Mayor? The secret police?" It dawned on me that her fingernails were, in fact, sharp claws that could stab me any minute.
"Nobody." I said, taking a deep breath. "Phoenix and I came here on our own."
"Why would two normal people like you want to come to Amity Park?" We're not that normal, but I kept my mouth clamped shut. "If you hadn't noticed, it's not exactly perfect for a vacation with your sister."
"We're not related."
"Oh." The girl cleared her throat, suddenly seeming calmer than moments before. The atmosphere became tense again as she began asking another question. "You refer to that girl as Phoenix, but what's your name?"
"Danny." I replied. A spark of recognition filled her eyes, but whatever it was, disappeared quickly.
The girl nodded, and went through simple questions. My age. My date of birth. My gender identity and pronouns- although that part confused me. Where I lived. I stumbled upon that for a bit, before saying "Willowbrooke". "I heard it's nice there, this time of year." The girl stated before continuing. "Tell me again, who are you working for. You have to be working for someone-"
A knock echoed on the door, and the dark claws the girl had immediately sunk back into her skin. Ew. Now normal hands opened the door, and another person came in. They were tall and slender, probably sixteen, with grey hair in a tousled mess over dark eyes, rings under them from lack of sleep. "They're both clean, Amelia."
The girl scowled. "I wasn't even done yet-" She tried to say, but was once again interrupted.
"It's done, Amelia." The person sighed. "Cut him out. The Lieutenant wants to meet him."
Lieutenant? I thought in anticipation, shivering as her dark claws came out again, cutting me free from the rope I could've got out of already. Amelia grabbed me, rather forcefully, by the arms, dragging me out into an unfamiliar hall. I spotted Phoenix immediately, but something kept me quiet. Fear, perhaps? I was half-dead, you would think I wouldn't have many fears. Dan crept back into my mind; but I pushed him out. I was dead for twenty years. I was in some sort of dystopian future of Amity Park.
The chances of him happening were slim now, I told myself, before snapping back to reality.
Phoenix was glancing at me from the corner of her eye, giving me a hopeful glance. We could do this, it said. I nodded back to her, watching the hallway pass by. The walls were a steel grey, and doors led to what seemed to be other cells, like the one I woke up in, or other miscellaneous rooms.
We passed through a giant room- a small light was at the top, insinuating we were underground. The room was a giant chasm, with people using powers and practicing fighting. It made me open my mouth in awe. All I had ever seen were ghost powers- nothing from humans. But there they were, practicing against dummies at amazing speeds and with incredible powers.
"Amazing," Phoenix breathed.
I nodded; taken aback. I had no words.
"Just to warn you too, Lieutenant acts a little crazy sometimes, but she's like a mom to all of us halfas. Her son was one, too." Amelia shrugged. "Doesn't tell much about him, though. I get curious sometimes."
There was a room, to the far left, behind a bunch of training, Inside, it looked like an office you would find in a regular building. In my time, at least. Family portraits, blurred by the gleam of the fluorescent lighting, hung on the walls. Trophies of some sort decorated the shelf.
The person inside that surprised me the most almost made me drop dead. And never come back, too. My heart, which was already beating faster than normal (probably about the normal) stopped.
I knew the person who sat there. Years have went by, but I recognized her almost instantly. Wrinkles were under her eyes, and grey hairs stuck out from her usually darker hair, but I would know her from anywhere.
I gulped. She hadn't looked yet, and hadn't noticed who I was. With a brave, shaking voice, I said, "M-Mom?"
Her head snapped up when she heard the voice instantly, and she looked at Phoenix and I at the same time, her eyes wider than mine. Phoenix gave me a glance, her eyes that were once so full of a childlike awe were now full of shock upon realization of who this was. Her eyes were suddenly full of tears, as she stood up, her old, swiveling desk chair nearly thrown into the wall. "Danny?"
It was a moment of silence, not awkward with the ghosts. I was seeing my Mom again. I thought about her in the twenty years I was out cold- dead, in a coma, whatever you want to call it- and here I was, again, seeing her. Face-to-face. There was grief, wonder and an abundance of joy reflecting in her eyes.
She hugged me, and I returned it. Her body, although not as fit as it used to be, was still stronger than ever, not at all the frail it could be. I felt her body shaking with sobs of joy and even more grief.
"I'm so sorry." She whispered, holding onto me tight. I couldn't ignore the tears of my own that were slowly falling. Twenty years, and here we were.
"I-I am, too." I paused, recoiling from the hug. "I should've told you sooner. If I did, none of this would've happened."
It went on like this for a couple of minutes; Mom and I just kept apologizing to each other. She apologized for everything she said- dissecting, trying to kill me completely, and couldn't let actually killing me go.
"I found it weird that you didn't even return as a ghost- figuring that you were only half-dead, and killing you would make you a fully-dead ghost." Mom rambled, before glancing to Phoenix in the room, who had remained surprisingly quiet and invisible. "Who's this?"
"Phoenix," she replied, holding her hand out. "I, uh, found Danny a couple of weeks ago, and I've been helping him. It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Fenton?"
A thought came to mind. "Mom, where's Dad? He's not…" I trailed off, hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.
Mom gave me a smile, and god, it felt good to see that again. "Your father and Jasmine are fine. Jack's probably in the Weaponry again, and Jazz is safely away from Amity Park." Her smile widened. "Speaking of which, I need to get your father here." She returned to her desk, and pressed a button on what seemed to be a phone. A holographic picture of a telephone appeared, hovering over her desk.
Whoa, I thought, looking at the holograph in awe. Mom smiled again- she couldn't stop smiling, after everything was forgiven. I could still tell there was that bit of regret left in her, and something like that wouldn't melt away so easily.
"Maddie!" My Dad's voice echoed through the room. My heart skipped a beat, again, and I noticed Phoenix smile; the feeling of happiness and utter glee replaced the melancholic grief just moments ago.
"Jack, you need to get to my office as fast as possible." Mom grinned, a devious smirk on her face. "There's a surprise waiting."
A giddy gasp of glee was heard before Dad hung up. He was still the usual, happy-go-lucky man, even after my death. They got over me eventually, which kinda warmed my heart. I knew it was hard. It was hard for me to believe I was dead for twenty years, and it was even more shocking for me to be back.
It brought up the question again- why am I back? What was with the spontaneous Resurrection? I had no way to get to the Ghost Zone and ask Clockwork about it, and he would probably give me a cryptic response again.
I prayed I wasn't a zombie. there was no hunger for human flesh yet, so I was good.
Before my mind could elaborate on the topic, I was swept up in a giant hug. It was my Dad, gleeful as always, hugging me half-to-death. Which was surprising, because I was already halfway dead. "See, Maddie? I told you he'd be back."
Mom curtly smiled, unable to repress any sort of happiness. "I guess I do owe you there, Jack." I was set down again, and somehow, felt smaller than my parents. I was supposed to grow taller by the time I hit a growth spurt (or just plain "puberty" as people said, to my annoyance), but you know, I died.
"Phoenix, this is my Dad." I introduced my new friend. "Dad, this is Phoenix."
She shook his hand, not at all frightened by the man's bulky appearance or his strong grip. "It's nice to meet you, sir."
Just as everything felt fine, and we could continue living on, it turned to a different mood. There was still the Mayor, who was using Halfas as cheap and disposable labor, like they were a reusable resource. My parents- still slightly objected to ghosts- explained what happened when I was gone. For a couple of years, Amity park moved on. The ghosts didn't attack as much- and when they did, Danielle came in. A few weeks after my death, she appeared, and explained the whole story. Dani was instantly adopted, but now she goes by the name "Elle". They didn't know where she was now- and, as Phoenix mentioned my first day of my new life, off the radar.
Tucker and Sam had no choice but to move on. Eventually, Sam dropped off the radar, also, presumed to be going by a different name in Texas. Tucker still stayed in Amity Park for a but, until the mayor rose to power.
He was one of the few people who started the revolution, but his risky position couldn't allow him to visit the Facility often. He created all the weapons to fight the soldiers, who seemed to have slight immunity to the Halfas power, along with a communication system and more. He even invented the tablets I saw Phoenix use at the day in the hospital.
"You woke up in Willowbrooke, you say?" Mom asked, her eyebrows raised in a sort-of confusion I couldn't understand. "That's an awfully long walk from your grave to there."
"I found him, almost ran over by a truck." Phoenix interjected. She had been helping my parents "catch me up", on the current times. "If I wasn't there, there was no way he would've survived his sudden resurrection. In fact, he still had a wound in his chest- not severe enough to kill him, and it was partially healed by the time we got him to the hospital."
Dad had to leave, responding to a call of a disabled hovercar, leaving just the three of us alone. Phoenix glanced at me, who was stunned into a mute shock, then at Mom. "We originally came here to ask you something."
My ears perked up, and I nodded. "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot." It was hard to remember, when you find out your Mom is one of the leaders for a discreet underground rebellion. "We wanted to join this resistance."
My mother's lips pursed for a minute, thinking over her options. She didn't want me to do this again- with the second threat of dying again. Maybe I'd return in twenty years, maybe I wouldn't. She wouldn't live long enough to see me again if I died. But Mom knew how good of a fighter I was, and what I could do. She'd witnessed me defending the city every day, after all.
A few moments of thought later, she sighed. "There's no way to convince you otherwise, so you can join."
Phoenix and I exchanged glances, smiling- we did it! We came to Amity Park and did what we were planning to do.
"I just want to let you know; the training schedule here is vigorous, and there's no way you can skip it. You'll be considered one of the trainees, and there are no special cards for being my son. Are we clear?" She suddenly held an authoritative voice, and we both nodded. "You start tomorrow morning."
We were set.