Yin-Yang:1

19. Gray

There were always gray spots. There was never just black and white spots, but gray ones too. Because the world didn't just work in black and white, there were colors.

And then there was gray.

Yin and yang is comprised of black and white: black circle in white teardrop and white circle in black teardrop, each circling each other infinitely. Good and evil, male and female, life and death.

But then there's the lines between them that contain the black and the white. The lines made up of the two: twilight and dawn.

She treaded on those lines now, her confidence shattered. She'd been sure that it was possessing him, controlling him. She'd known for weeks but said nothing and let the suspicions build. And then he - it - had done something she couldn't forgive.

It had kissed her friend.

And that was the last straw.

"Hey! Hey, Sam! Wait up!"

The Goth turned to see the huntress run up to her, not even winded from the half-block she'd run. The look on her face was friendly, but the undertone lingering in her eyes said something different. She answered politely in any case, still on Cloud 9 from earlier that day.

"Hey, Valerie. What's up?"

Valerie looked at her, a brief look of pain crossing her features before hardening into determination. "I have to talk to you about Danny."

Sam titled her head, eyes narrowing, "About what?"

Valerie glanced around before taking Sam's arm and pulling her off to the side, allowing the couple behind them to continue before she spoke. "Danny's not who- well, what - you think he is. He-"

"Danny's not dangerous if that's what you think," Sam interrupted sharply, yanking her arm from the ghost hunter's hand. "He's perfectly safe and has a bad reputation, is all. And if that's all you have to say to me, forget it, because I don't need to hear it." She backed up as she spoke before whirling away sharply to continue home.

Valerie gaped after her, mouth hanging open before she closed it, hard. Cold fury boiled under her skin.

It was controlling her!

And possibly everyone else as well, but she'd seen it change, which probably broke whatever hold it seemed to have over everyone. But it didn't know about her. Not yet. It'd probably be on the look out tomorrow though. That wouldn't be a surprise.

So she'd been ready the next day. Right after the most tension-filled school day she'd ever experienced, she'd been ready. She'd been on guard all day, expecting it to show up from the shadows and off her at any time, witnesses or not.

After all, it'd probably just brainwash them again.

She'd waited in the trees, suited and ready, new gun in hand. The bell rang and students streamed out. It walked out the school doors, flanked by Sam and Tucker, the three of them alert but still talking as if nothing was happening. Too bad it didn't know her new toy didn't hurt humans.

Just the ghost in question, as it was ripped the human it was overshadowing, would feel any pain. A justified perception of the emotional turmoil the human was probably going through. Who wanted to be controlled, anyway?

She'd sprung from the trees, gun pointed and called it out in front of everyone. It stared at her in false surprise and confusion, using her friend's face as its puppet. Sam and Tucker followed its lead, subtly shifting to stand slightly in front of it.

But she was relentless in her pursuit.

"I know you're in there, Phantom! Let Danny go and come out now!"

Phantom stared at her incredulously with stolen blue eyes. "What? What are you talking about? I'm not a ghost, I'm a human!"

Valerie laughed coldly, gun still pointed, "Sure you are! That's what you want everyone to think. That's what you're making them all think!" The crowd around them began to shift and murmur, quieting quickly.

Tucker stepped forward slightly, hands up in front of him as if he was trying to reason with her and not cover for the vile creature behind him. "Listen. Red, right? Danny's not a ghost. He's just a regular kid like us!"

Sam was next in the defense. "Yeah! I mean, he's barely making C's as it is! I mean, I don't think a ghost would put that much effort into making itself seem normal."

"Hey!" Phantom looked at her, put-off by the statement. Sam rolled her eyes.

"Oh, please, Danny, you know it's true."

"And I know what I saw! God, he's your best friend! How could the two of you not notice!" She tightened her grip on the gun. Now Sam and Tucker looked uncertain. Maybe she was getting through to them. "This is a special gun. It'll get Danny back, before Phantom decided to possess him." She looked at Phantom, who was going wide-eyed, as she added, "Mister Masters, my supplier, made this specifically to expose you, Phantom." She shifted her thumb, removing the safety as a high pitched whine started up.

"And then it'll rip you from Danny, atom-by-painful-atom, at your expense and not Danny's," she finished.

Phantom went white, as did Sam, stepping backwards. Tucker paled and opened his mouth to say something. Sam made to stand in front of it, eyes hard and filled with something akin to hate. But all of this was too late.

The gun stopped whining and Valerie pulled the trigger.

"NO!"

"STOP!"

Tucker and Sam both jumped as they shouted, trying to stop the beam.

But it passed through them like air through leaves.

And struck ectoplasm like a bullet hitting flesh.

But it didn't do what Valerie was expecting it to - told it would do.

Because Phantom didn't fly out and hit the stairs behind Danny.

Danny flew and hit the stairs behind him, hands shooting to grab his chest.

And ectoplasm was not the only thing flowing from the gaping wound on Danny's chest.

Blood was coursing from it.

Sam screamed, Tucker yelled, and the crowd around them panicked, most running from the scene. Valerie did none of these things. Instead, she stood and stared at the spectacle in front of her. The gruesome, bloody, heart-wrenching scene in front her that she had caused.

Sam was crouched on the stairs next to Danny, tears coursing down her distraught face as she cradled his head in her lap, quickly getting soaked in the fluid around her. Tucker was tearing his own shirt into strips, trying to tie his beret to the wound to stop the bleeding, the tears wetting his own face making his movements frantic.

But it was Danny who held her attention.

His face was screwed up in pain, tears running down pale cheeks as he struggled to keep breathing. His eyes were clenched shut but snapped open when Sam's hand touched his blood-spattered cheek. Even with all the pain that clouded his cerulean eyes, Valerie saw the love he held for the Goth at his side. The hand he managed to stroke the girls face with, only to leave a green glowing trail, shook violently. It clenched as he hissed in pain from Tucker's actions, making Sam sob as she grasped it and held it to her face.

Only the growing sound of sirens snapped Valerie out of it. She started to step forward, gun abandoned at her side and guilt in her throat, but a frosty voice drew her up.

"Don't come any closer or you'll regret it."

She stopped. Teal, hate-filled eyes glowered up at her from the technophile's face. He stood fluently, anger flowing from him as he faced her. "Leave now, Valerie, before I do something to you I might regret." She backed up at the threat, fear crawling up her spine as Sam glared at her through tears.

She backed up slowly, the sirens becoming louder. She turned, starting to walk away when Sam hissed the last, venomous threat:

"You had better hope he lives."

And Valerie ran. She ran from the threat, ran from the scene, the blood.

But especially the guilt.

From that day forward, Valerie Gray's world matched her name. Because the world was no longer black and white in her eyes. No.

It was an infinite mass of gray.

And she hated it for it.

fin

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A/N: I'll let you decide how Danny did.