This chapter is written by me. Enjoy!
Spirit and Phantom rapidly flew through the green expanse of the Ghost Zone on the way to Clockwork's clock tower. It was the only location they knew of that would give them immediate communication with the Ancients. Finally, she could see it in the distance.
Unexpectedly, Ceci felt a disturbance of some sort. She paused in midair. "Do you feel that?"
"Yeah, I-I think somethings wrong… And I think it's coming from my universe!" Danny gasped, his eyes growing wide.
"I'll come with you."
They sped away as quickly as they had almost arrived at the clock tower. Utilizing their bond again, they materialized in Amity Park, near the Fentons' house. When she glanced towards her brother again, he was already flying towards his house. She followed close behind, still feeling a pit in her stomach.
Suddenly they heard a scream. Ceci didn't recognize the voice immediately, but Danny did. They froze in midair as they heard it.
"Jazz?!" He shouted back, panic filling his voice. He was soon shooting off once more, even quicker than before. Ceci frowned in concern and followed behind. She heard the telltale signs of a fight nearby, with the familiar sounds of ectoblasts and crashing.
Ceci spotted the noise source as soon as they were in view of FentonWorks. A human figure in some full-body armor, Jazz, she guessed, was squaring up against a void of black, so dark that it almost looked unreal. The only disruption from the inky black were dozens of twinkling white dots, appearing almost like stars. The shape of the figure seemed to change and shift over time, never holding one form longer than a few seconds. At one moment, it looked like a large ram; the next, it turned into a large dog, growling and baring its teeth sharp as tacks, and then it was a giant lion with a mane of stars.
Ceci looked away from the mesmerizing creature and at Jazz, who appeared winded but no worse for wear. She was holding a weapon of some sort aimed at the beast.
"Jazz!" Phantom shouted again before diving between her and the creature. He snarled at it, almost instantly furious that it had attacked his sister. The void creature growled back and lunged at him. Danny narrowly dodged the lion's gaping mouth as he formed glowing balls of energy in his hands, shooting bright beams of green at the void creature. The creature squirmed around the blasts as quickly as light and roared at him.
Ceci summoned her own blasts and yelled, "Hey, you, scram!" Her pink ectoblasts also missed the void creature. It growled and shifted into a giant scorpion. It scuttled towards the two attacking ghosts, its barbed tail whipping towards them.
"Look out!" Danny hollered as he pushed Ceci out of its path. They reconvened between the void creature and Jazz in defensive positions. "Jazz, get out of here!"
"Danny, what's going on?" The red-headed girl shouted back.
"I don't know!" The scorpion had its starry gaze back on the three figures and snapped its pinchers angrily. "If we weren't in mortal danger, I would think that a constellation-themed creature in our backyard was so cool!"
"Danny, focus!" Jazz scolded, flinching when the scorpion turned towards them again.
"Ceci, I think we need to work together. This thing isn't going down without a fight!" The boy said to his other sister.
"Got it!" Ceci gathered ectoplasm in her hand and formed a magenta sword, sharp enough to cut even a scorpion's exoskeleton. "Here! I'll cover you!" She created a sword of her own, similar in shape.
"Thanks!" Danny grinned as he took the sword. "Alright, buddy! Comet me!" He chuckled at his own space pun as he leaped toward the void creature. Ceci was just a little behind, waiting for an opening after Danny made the first strike. They managed to evade getting stung by the scorpion's sharp tail. Phantom constructed a block of ice around some of its legs, but it soon crumbled off when the scorpion slapped it with its barbed tail.
The void creature then morphed into a giant bear, rearing up on its hind legs with outstretched claws. It managed to bat Ceci away and then trap Danny on the ground, his head only inches away from its sharp teeth.
"Danny!" Ceci shouted, and she heard Jazz yell the same thing. She formed a rope lasso in her hands and threw it around the bear's head, choking it as she flew backward. It was lifted off Danny, who luckily looked unhurt but shaken up. "Nobody hurts my little brother!" Spirit growled, brandishing her sword to slice at the bear's back.
Danny quickly got up and attacked again; this time, they managed to land a few blows. The bear whimpered in pain as glittering white ectoplasm dripped out of its wounds. With one last glare at the two ghosts who conquered it, it dissolved into the ground, disappearing into the shadows of the grass blades.
Danny and Ceci stared at the empty clearing, breathing hard from the fight. "Woo hoo! We did it!" Danny cheered, high-fiving Ceci in midair.
"I knew we could," she responded with a grin.
"Jazz, are you okay?" The boy asked, quickly returning to his sister's side.
"Yeah, yeah, I think so," she responded before looking between the two, "but I'm confused. Did that ghost call you 'little brother'?"
The two half-ghosts froze and looked at each other in panic. Ceci internally kicked herself. She had forgotten that Jazz was still nearby.
"Uhh… what are you talking about?" Danny stammered nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I know what I heard! What's going on here?" Jazz demanded, her suit folding off her body now that the danger was gone. "Who is she?!"
"Erm…" Danny looked between the two girls awkwardly. "Well…"
Ceci met his eyes with a silent question. Should they come clean or lie? He shrugged at her hopelessly. She looked back at the glaring redhead. Ceci could tell she was brilliant and observant and likely wouldn't buy whatever lie they could come up with.
"I guess the jig is up," she conceded.
"Should we go somewhere more private to talk?" Jazz glared at her suspiciously.
"Yeah, let's," Danny responded with a sigh, leading the way into the house. Luckily, it was quiet, and the Fenton RV was absent from the driveway, indicating they were the only ones there.
Jazz looked between them crossly once they were settled in the family room. "Okay, I demand an explanation now! What's going on?" her teal eyes narrowed at her brother and the other ghost.
"Well… to put it simply, she's my-our sister from another universe," he explained quickly while blushing up a storm.
Jazz's eyes widened. "Another universe?"
"Yeah, there's a whole multiverse of infinite dimensions. That's part of the reason she's here, truthfully. There's been a breach between some dimensions, and some ghosts have been traveling into the wrong place. We've been tasked with returning them to their own universes."
"Wow, that sounds pretty serious," the redhead responded, a hint of anxiety entering her voice. "Was that black ghost somehow related?"
Danny and Ceci looked at each other and shrugged before the boy answered for them. "I don't think we've ever seen it before, so who knows why it was here."
"All right, back up. You're our sister from another dimension? What does that mean?" Jazz continued her interrogation.
"Well, a few events happened differently where I'm from. Maddie is my mom, and Vlad is my dad. They got married shortly after graduating from university. Jack, your dad, ended up as a half-ghost."
"So you're our half-sister…." Jazz commented, sounding shocked by the new information.
"Technically, but I prefer the term sister. It's our bond as siblings that genuinely matters more than blood." Ceci smiled at Danny, who returned the gesture.
"And you're a half-ghost, too?" Jazz interjected.
"Yep. You've already met me before. My name's Ceci," she explained sheepishly. She then undid her transformation. "We came up with the cover story of my mom being cousins with your mom so that I could visit without suspicion. There's a similar cover story for Danny in my dimension."
"So, how long has this been going on without me knowing? Why would you keep this from me, Danny? You can tell me anything!"
Danny sighed, unquestionably getting irritated at the questioning. "Jazz, I'm not obligated to tell you every little thing happening in my life!" he snapped.
Again, this behavior led him not to confide with her in the first place after he became a half-ghost. Jazz was too nosy and, again, didn't respect boundaries. She was too busy playing psychologist and not understanding why people had boundaries in the first place!
"Well, no, but this seems pretty dang important!" she snapped back tearfully.
"It doesn't matter now, Jazz!" he snapped at her.
"It matters to me! I'm your sister too!" as tears fell from her eyes.
"Maybe we should take a little breather-" Ceci interjected, hoping to calm the situation.
"I wasn't talking to you!" Jazz snapped, her voice colored in jealousy.
"Don't talk to her like that!" Danny responded protectively. "I'm done with this conversation. Come on, Ceci, we have better things to do."
"Hold on," Jazz said with a sigh. "It sounds like what you're involved with is dangerous. I'm coming too. We can talk more about this later."
Danny studied her for a few seconds before nodding. "Okay. At least if you stay with us, we'll know if something attacks you again. We have a lot to catch you up on. Plus, we could enlist more help, now that I think about it. There are a few other half-ghosts I know of that might be willing to help." He smirked at Ceci.
"Sounds like a plan."