A/N: So sorry to everyone…I was distracted with some other projects and it hindered this being updated. If any of you are interested, one of my projects was a Danny Phantom retelling of Beauty and the Beast called “Withering” and I actually think most of you readers here will like it. Of course to those who have read it and read this one as well, thanks for putting up with my rambunctious muses !

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Hope you guys enjoy this one too, and drop me a review and tell me what you think!

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Dust to Dust

Part One: Resurgence

Sam was late…again.

She growled to no one in particular as she pounded her fist on her steering wheel, trying in vain to will the cars and traffic to clear out of her way so she could get to her job on time. As predicted, it didn’t really work…damn it! She let out an impatience huff as the car crept forward a few inches on the freeway and cast a frustrated gaze to the heavens, asking why she had to be in love with an overly affectionate morning person who always made her run late to work. It really wasn’t fair that someone with that blue of eyes had a pout as devastating as Danny’s…damn him, screw the traffic.

After what seemed like another hour (okay, she was exaggerating just a bit) Sam was able to turn off the congested highway and hurtled down the streets towards her work, a modern art studio appropriately titled Muse; avoiding getting a ticket at this point wasn’t high on her priority list. She parked, crookedly mind you, into her custom spot and grabbed her bag and art canvas before sprinting (another reason why she was happy to wear her trusty boots to work everyday) into the black building, throwing open the squiggly shaped doors with her elbow so she didn’t drop anything. She avoided ramming into other artists as she made her way towards her own studio space, shouting out “I know!” when people glanced up at the clock with a grin. She dropped her things onto the ground and threw a black smock over her dark jeans and black tank before she tied her hair back with a headband.

“It’s nice to see you here, Miss Manson,” an amused voice said from behind her, and it caused Sam to whirl around with a paint brush positioned in her grip as she flashed a grin towards the speaker. “We were beginning to worry that your own muse, ah, detained you.”

“Well,” Sam said with a cheeky grin towards her boss, the owner of the studio and a once famous artist herself, Isa Shandon. Sam was lucky, she decided, that her boss found it amusing that she was late to work everyday and worried about it as much as she did…but after she was fired from one of previous jobs for the very same reason, Sam figured she had a right to be a little paranoid about it. She had been angry with Danny for a week after that. “There’s no fighting them, is there?”

“Certainly not,” Isa responded with a serious look on her lined, but still attractive face, her green eyes betraying that seriousness though. Into her forties, Isa still held the beauty she had when she had been younger, it was just a little muted now behind the lines and gray wisps of hair peppered throughout her red hair. But having four children usually had that affect. “Now, I wanted to ask you what you had planned for the art festival next autumn…I can’t trust Andre to do anything besides waterfalls and Joella is suffering from ‘artist’s block.’ I need something fresh…and I was hoping you would provide that for me.”

“You want me to submit a painting in the festival?” Sam asked with a slightly astounded look in her violet eyes. After all, she had only been with the studio for a little under a year, and the Chicago Art Fair was usually reserved for the more senior artists at Muse…she hadn’t even expected this. “I mean, I’d love to but…don’t you think someone with more experience should go?”

“I don’t want experience,” Isa replied with a knowing look in her verdant eyes as she looked around at some of Sam’s rough compositions hanging around the studio. “If I wanted that, I’d submit something myself…I want fresh and different. And you, Sam, you have that…I loved the piece you submitted for the Gala last month, and I want something like that for the festival.”

Sam followed Isa’s hand towards the painting on the wall…a painting she had created to bare a part of her and also to help Danny deal with some of his…issues. It was a portrayal of what happened two years before, when all had seemed lost when Plasmius launched an attack on Amity Park. She had figured out how to use the pendant’s power fully and willed a wave of Hope into Danny so he could finish the fight with Plasmius…the problem was that it exacted Danny do something horrible…he used Despair on Plasmius to defeat him, and it still bothered him to this day how closely he had mirrored the arch-villain in those moments. The painting depicted what she saw though…unbiased and pure.

The background of the picture was dark and gray, giving the scene a feeling like it had been happening in another plane of existence, swirling around four cloaked figures surrounding a fifth in the center. The four figures were each clothed in different robes, green, brown, yellow, and black and we meant to represent the Season Spirits, Flora, Messis, Aestas, and Bruma respectively…but most just saw four supernatural beings helping the fifth in the middle. The being was young, but of undetermined sex so as to not distract from the meaning of the painting, and was surrounded by swirling purple and gold light. The flash of white hair could bee seen, but nothing else…except that the being was smiling.

She had entitled the piece Espoir, using French to spice up the title for the viewers…Hope…it had done so much for them that day.

It was a piece she had done to mainly help Danny, but he had encouraged her to show it to those at work…even when she had protested because t could reveal too much about the “Ghost Boy,” he had insisted she take it in. It ended up winning an award for “Best new Piece in a Contemporary Setting,” and also gave Muse one heck of a lot of spotlight…she guessed it seemed logical for Isa to select her to submit a piece to the festival this fall.

“Well…if you’re sure,” Sam said with a grin spreading across her face. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for some her age…take that parents!

“Of course I’m sure, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked you,” Isa pointed out with a smile as she fixed her eyes back on Sam before heading out. “Just be sure to let me know how you’re progressing and such! Ta darling!”

Sam stared out the doorway for another moment or two, just laughing softly at Isa’s mannerisms before she let out an excited squeal and spun back towards her sketchbooks (which were scattered on the floor…remember, she dropped them in a hurry) and began working out basic frames for what she could do. It had to be something different…something no one had seen before. It had to shock people and mesmerize them…and it had to be something she could depict. A few moments popped in her head, but none really stood out as something really original and unique…and before she knew it, half the day had flown by and all she had was a scribbled on paper and a frown on her face.

She let out a sigh as she began to pack up her sketches and paints into her canvas bag…sometimes the ideas took longer to come. But she had wanted to get started on this right away, that way she could make sure it was absolutely perfect when it was time for the festival. She fished out her car keys and called out that she was taking her hour lunch before exiting…maybe inspiration would hit her after she had some food in her stomach. It didn’t take her long to drive to her favorite veggie restaurant, a place that even Danny and Tucker had enjoyed when she forced, ahem, asked them to come with her one day. After her Greek salad was swimming in her belly though, she still felt as clueless as before.

“This shouldn’t be this hard,” Sam mused to herself as she sipped at her water and tapped her charcoal pencil against her drawing pad at her picnic-like table outside. “I mean, it didn’t even take me an hour to come up the concept for Espoir…why can’t I do this?”

Her sketchpad didn’t have an answer for her, and Sam let her thoughts wander a bit as she swirled the clear contents of her glass. She figured it was harder to come up with a concept this time because nothing that exciting had happened in the two years since Vlad’s uprising and Riley’s kidnapping. Sam was thankful for that, of course, but it had been easier for her to depict those in an abstract way now that she thought about it…her material was already there, she only had to mold it. But now…she had to create the entire idea, or wait for something else to happen that inspired her like Espoir had.

Sam froze and looked up from her pad…she didn’t want anything like that summer to ever happen again! So many people had gotten hurt, Danny, Jazz, Maddie and Jack, Valerie, Tucker, the Ghosts and Spirits…even herself. And she had believed that the worst was behind them…until now when forgotten thoughts skittered across her memory and blaring itself through a loudspeaker in her mind.

“You cannot stop conflict from arising…but you can fight it…”

“Worry about the then when it is upon you…”

“…a terrible evil was created in arrogance and foolishness…an evil that nearly destroyed its maker…”

Was the time that Bruma had been hinting at upon them now? Sam felt a surge of determination and protection well up inside her at the thought…Danny didn’t need to deal with this right now! He was happy and actually living his life…she would be damned if she let anything try and disrupt that precarious balance he had set up in his life! Sam stood up abruptly, nearly knocking over her chair in the process, and gathered her things before storming off back to her car…maybe if she just relaxed at work her head would clear and everything would turn out just—

“Hello, Samantha,” a cold and indifferent voice said from behind her, making her jump a little and whirl around in surprise. Sam’s wide, violet eyes were met with two glittering black ones, framed by a thick mane of rainbow hair that was held back away from the woman’s bluish face with a leather band. She was garbed in a hunter’s wear, but it had the look of a winter time hunt, a large blue sword was strapped to her side in a glittering scabbard. Damn it…she hated it when Bruma, the Spirit of Winter, snuck up on her like that.

“Bruma…you know it’s unhealthy to just pop out of nowhere for humans, don’t you?” Sam asked as she arched her eyebrow at the protective, albeit harsh, spirit. The winter spirit had been a constant friend for Sam since their introduction two years past…the woman’s quick wit and unrelenting sarcasm just called to the slim girl then, and it still called to the young woman now. Bruma had said that she only stuck around with the living (she thought them very fickle and was quite relieved to no longer be a part of them) was due to her debt to Danny…she had attacked him and helped imprisoned him while under a spell caused by Vlad’s Inhibitor collars. However, Sam was pretty sure she had grown on the cold spirit as well.

“You’re not dead yet,” Bruma answered as she arched an elegant eyebrow at the young, dark-haired woman. “Nor do I believe you will be due to my acts anytime soon. But, I didn’t come here for playful banter or other such nonsense…we have a slight crisis in the Ghost Zone and Spirit Realm and I need your particular help.”

“Just mine?” Sam asked, arching her own eyebrow in return.

“Of course not,” Bruma answered with a bluntness that would have appalled most humans. “But I thought it was implied when I asked you…now, we must be getting to Daniel so I can inform him of the situation.”

“But, I have--”

“Then call out sick,” Bruma finished for her, her black eyes not relenting in their intensity…she could sure be stubborn when she wanted to be.

“If I get fired for this,” Sam started ominously while she climbed into her car, blinking as Bruma floated in beside her, not bothering to buckle her seatbelt as Sam started the car and pulled away from the restaurant.

“You won’t,” was all the reply given to her for a few moments, but then the spirit stared up again…that wasn’t a good sign. Whenever Bruma spoke a lot, willingly, it was never a good sign…it meant she was worried, despite what her tone and demeanor said. “Besides…this is vastly more important than a job right now. There have been…strange occurrences happening of late in the Dead worlds, occurrences that do not bode well for the living.”

“Like what?” Sam asked as she dug around in her bag for her phone, directing her gaze to the winter spirit for a moment before looking back at the road. “I mean, are they things you’ve seen before, or just weird things?”

“I have seen them once before,” Bruma answered after another stretch of silence…a sad quality and…and fearful quality coloring her voice. Now Sam was worried…Bruma was never worried or afraid of anything. “When I was very young and still yet alive…and I had wished to never see them again. I truly hope it is not what I fear it is or humanity and the living is on for one hell of a time.”

And…she was swearing too. This was not good at all, whatever it was. Sam tried to keep her hand from shaking as she called her work and told them she didn’t feel well and wasn’t coming back…she didn’t have to fake the queasiness. Please…please just let it not be any worse than Riley…just not any worse than him. Was that really too much to ask for?

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Vani smiled to herself as she watched the Ghost Zone scramble around in panic and fear…they could feel her coming and it was a heart warming sight. She let out a golden peal of laughter and turned her attention back to her Seeing Pool and the scene therein…that made her even more pleased than the ghosts and spirits flittering about as they tried to locate her…but they’d never find her. You never look for ‘evil’ in the beautiful things…and since they believed her evil, they wouldn’t look right in front of their noses, even when they should have learned better.

Vani mused for a moment, blue on blue eyes crinkling in thought as she pondered her own observation. She had never considered herself evil, but neither had she considered herself good…probably because she didn’t believe those existed. She was a true romanticist; a term coined by humans in the late eighteenth century, and really didn’t believe in anything but her own consciousness. She was aware of everything around her, a gift given to her by her creators, and without a soul to reel her in…how pleasantly ironic.

She shrugged her shoulders and turned her eyes back onto the scene in her pool with a smile, running a hand through her snow-white locks as she enjoyed her view. It was a glen, but not the one she had become so used to while talking with the young and believing Bloodline…it was one that she planned on decimating once she was free of her bubble…first on the list of many like it. The winged beings, so beautiful and fragile looking were buzzing around like flies do around a carcass as they tried to figure out where their wards and spells had gone wrong. Half the fun of waiting here, sending signs of her coming, was watching those who desperately tried to keep her away fail in the one thing they had vowed to do…for nigh a thousand years.

“Oh my dear Seraphs,” Vani giggled as she watched them flitter about, their glittering, gossamer wings beating quickly behind their slim frames. “You have every idea of what’s about to happen, don’t you? And you know where my hammer will strike the hardest…all I need is one more pawn to complete my set and then I’ll set ablaze your entire race…it’ll be beautiful. Maybe I’ll keep a few of you around to witness it…oh, aren’t you just excited?”

She focused her blue gaze on one Seraph in particular, a young one just entering maturity with deep, navy blue eyes and wings and shoulder length ebon hair that dangled slightly in his face…well, wasn’t he a pretty little thing? Yes, maybe she should keep a few of them around…it would be entertaining at the very least. She waved a hand over the Pool and refocused it onto a familiar glen as she waited for her dearest puppet to come to her…yes, everything was going according to plan, a plan she had started a thousand years ago and had every intention of finishing.

There was just one obstacle in her way…and she’d get rid of it as soon as she could set foot on the living plane. Her eyes narrowed as she remembered a slim and dark haired woman with blazing lavender eyes fight and defend a Seraph village from her wrath all those years ago. She had made the mistake of underestimating the power of the Bloodlines once…she wouldn’t do it again. They were weak now, to be sure, but the talismans still existed, and with those, they could become as strong as they needed to. No, she would wipe the problem away before it could rise up enough to become a threat…and there would be hardly any trouble in taking what she wanted. It was just a matter of picking up the broken pieces…

After all, the difference between the Abomination and the Hybrid was really only when they appeared in the timeline…one was too soon, and the other signified the coming of something that she would not tolerate.

Vani shook her head and cleared her mind of such thoughts…she couldn’t appear to be angry or cross when her dear Denea appeared before her. She pictured what things would be like once she could cross the already weakening barrier…a true smile graced her ethereal features once more and she waited patiently for a few minutes before the Seeing Pool’s murky surface cleared and revealed the rather dull, but somewhat pleasing face of a seventeen year old Bloodline maiden. Her smile made Vani giggle and she gave the Bloodline a graceful bow before grinning at her once more.

“Oh, Vani!” the brunette exclaimed in a high pitched voice, her brown eyes shining in happiness. “I’m so happy you see you today! I wanted tot tell you all about class…with everything you’ve been teaching me I’m easily the best in my class! You were right when you told me I had power…and you helped me realize it!”

“I’m so happy for you child,” Vani responded with a gentle smile at the girl’s excitement…how amusing this little puppet was. “I knew others would see the greatness in you as I see it…my only wish is that I could be there to celebrate with you, even if just for a moment.”

“Oh, I know Vani!” Denea cried, suddenly tearful. “I’m working on it though…it’s just taking me longer than I would have thought to get all the ingredients together without any of the Elder’s noticing. I think I’ll be able to get the rest soon though…all the Elders are distracted by something right now…so much that they’re even going to the Seraphs and Keltoi to find the Bloodlines with the hidden talismans! I have to admit, things are strange here…would you like to know what’s happening? It must be dreadful to be trapped in a place of no change whatsoever…”

“I would love to hear it, Bloodline,” Vani replied with a sad smile that masked her amusement…let’s see just what kind of mayhem her magic had been concocting of late.

“Okay…let’s see, um oh! Well, everything started about a week ago, on the night of the dark moon…it turned red and there’s been a red line around it ever since…it’s kind of creepy now to stay out late. So, there was that and then we started finding dead butterflies…I mean everywhere! And they were all different colors too…it was sad to see so many pretty things dead. And after that, well our spells acted funny for a while…like when we’d try to scrye what was going to happen locally, all we’d see is some old looking village surrounded by flowers that was on fire. There’s been other stuff too…and I met a Spirit for the first time yesterday!”

“Oh?” Vani said with not entirely faked interest…those damnable beings could not gain scent of what was happening just yet. “I’ve never met one before…what are they like?”

“Well, we met some big guy named Aestas,” Denea said as she leaned her elbows on the rim of her Seeing Pool as she looked down at Vani’s reflection. “He’s one of those Season spirits…I don’t know, he was kind of loud and obnoxious, but I guess he was okay. He had pretty hair…it looked like a rainbow and he had these yellow eyes that just always seemed to be either laughing or furious. I didn’t hear what they were talking about, but it didn’t look like anything good…Elder Cassel looked awful worried.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine, child,” Vani responded with a sympathetic look towards the worried look. “I just hope we can continue to talk like this!”

“Oh, we will! Don’t ever worry about that, Vani!” Denea exclaimed with a bright look in her eyes. “I’ll always find a way…and I’ll find a way to get you out of there too…I promise!”

Vani let her continue to rattle off the events that had transpired that day, smiling at her enthusiasm and the information she had received. It was nice to hear that her little shows of affection were being noticed so readily…now they knew she was here and coming. It would be too late for them to stop what was set in motion by the time it came to fruition, and they wouldn’t even be prepared for the Ghost rebellion when it came…it was all so perfect. Everything was going exactly as it should…her time was nearing and it would herald a new era…yes, everything was perfect.

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A/N: Review pretty please! More to come soon!