Hey again, readers! A longer update today, since this fic is almost done. By 'almost' I literally mean that this fic is officially completed and that this is the last chapter! Woo! Can you believe we made it to eight chapters? The authors would like to thank anyone who stuck around to read the rest of this, and we promise a lot more content in the future in the form of other collabs from us! If you want to read those when they're published, be sure to follow this account for updates. Without further ado, enjoy the final chapter! Reviews, favourites and follows are always appreciated and are great motivators to write more. :)

Disclaimer: Neither I, nor Kasena actually own Danny Phantom and we have no idea where you may have gotten that misconception. Now, onto the story!

Chapter Eight

When the two finally arrived at the empty football pitch, Ember saw Danny and Tucker standing there waiting for them. "Hey guys!" She called, thankful to see some people that actually liked her, at least as far as she knew. Danny walked over to them and was just about to greet them, when his eyes, as well as Tuckers, went wide and she saw Danny's body tense.

"W-what's wro-AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" she cut herself off with a high pitched scream and she felt like her insides were getting ripped out. What was going on? Was this a trick? Collapsing to her knees, Emma twisted her neck around to see Sam behind her, wearing what looked like a Fenton Invention. "W-what..?"

Sam smirked, the gun-like part of the device still trained on her. "The Fenton Ghost Peeler- ripping apart your charade, one molecule at a time."

In her dazed state, the ghostly teenager had no idea what was going on, but she knew it must be bad for Danny and Tucker to look so horrified.

"I... can't believe it!" she vaguely heard Tucker exclaim. "Sam was... RIGHT?"

Feeling a weird tingling sensation all over her body, she looked at her hands. They were suddenly really grey and she was wearing one of her favourite black gloves. That didn't make sense though. She didn't remember putting them on, since they were part of her...ghost rocker look! That goth brat was ripping apart her human disguise! Just when Ember thought she couldn't take it anymore, the burning pain stopped and she stood up shakily, already feeling the heat of her flaming hair returning.

"Look at her, Danny," Sam's smug voice said from behind her. "There's Emma. She's been lying to you this whole time."

Danny didn't say anything, choosing to just stare at Ember with a frown on his face. The girl, in response, couldn't meet his gaze and chose to just stare at the grass below her feet ashamedly. The tension was so thick, you could have cut it with a knife.

"Sam, I can't believe you just did that to her," Danny spoke up suddenly, in an incredulous tone.

Sam's eyebrows shot up. "WHAT? I was trying to prove to you that she's a lying snake! You can't seriously be defending her! She's...EMBER!"

Ember turned to glare at her. "Yeah, dipstick. I think we all get that."

Danny turned to Sam again. "Sam, I know you think I'm clueless and naive, but…"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "But…?"

He sighed and turned to smile at Ember. "I actually already knew all along."

The three of them all let out a collective gasp, Ember's probably being the loudest. "WHAT?!"

"How... long have you known?" Ember asked, voice very high pitched in shock.

Danny shrugged and blushed. "Ever since the singing thing. I only know one person that can sing like that."

Sam glared at him. "And you didn't DO anything?"

The boy shrugged again. "Well, she hadn't done anything evil yet, so I wanted to wait and see what she'd do."

Tucker shut his already gaping mouth and gave Danny a quizzical look. "You mean, you never actually had a crush on her?"

Danny frowned again. "What? I- the crush... thing sort of... happened by accident."

Ember couldn't help beaming at that. "Ditto…" she muttered, though through the silence, Danny heard her and blushed bright crimson.

"Well that's all well and good," the techno-geek said, straightening his red beret, "but what are you even doing here?"

Ember sighed and sat herself down onto one of the wooden benches. "It's complicated, but Ghost Writer wanted me to get this lame book for him from Mr. Lancer in exchange for not destroying my guitar." She turned to glare at Sam again. "Nothing evil or manipulative about it, dorkwad!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Right. As if you would go through all this trouble for a book. I'm not buying it."

Ember growled at her. "You don't have to believe me. In fact, call me a liar all you want because I don't even care! Once Ghost Writer gets his book, I ain't coming back to Amity aga-"

She was interrupted by a loud BANG followed by maniacal laughter. It was Plasmius...and he was here for revenge. "Ah, Daniel. How... unpleasant to see you," he greeted sinisterly, floating over to the teenagers. "Tell me, have you met my friend? He's been just dying to beat you."

XXX

Before any of the teens could question who the 'friend' was, Vlad snapped his fingers, and a giant grey monster appeared in front of them, his body seeming almost disproportionate, and lopsided.

"Don't you mean meet?"

"No. I don't. Golem, atako." He pointed at Danny, and the golem obeyed, running towards him. Danny surveyed his surroundings, then transformed. He punched the golem in the chest.

The golem showed no reaction, while Danny pulled his hand back, wincing. "What is this thing, made of rock?!"

"Yes." Danny flew back, a result of being punched by the golem. He shot at it, and let out a triumphant yell when a small amount of rock fell away.

Vlad, mildly alarmed, flipped to a page in the book he was holding, and read from it, " Golem monstro, auxskultu mian ordonon. Ŝildo vin de fantomo kaj viro!" Ember squinted, and gasped. The book he held was titled 'The Time of Now!'

Ember tried to run to her bag, but collapsed under her own weight. She tried to get up, but couldn't. She heard Sam taunting her, "You can't get up cause the Fenton Ghost Peeler steals ghost energy!"

Meanwhile, Danny shot even more at the golem, but it no longer affected it. Worriedly, he flew around it, trying to avoid his attacks.

"Sam, you don't get it," Ember tried to reason desperately to the goth. "If I can't get to my bag, I can't help!"

"Help who? Plasmius? Like I'm going to trust you!"

"No, I'm going to help Danny! If I don't, he'll die!" She looked up at the girl, wishing for mercy.

Sam paused, sighed, then called to Tucker, "Go grab her bag."

He did so, and set it down in front of her. "This is a copy of what he's reading. If he is getting the spells from there, I might be able to counter it." She took a breath, and opened the book. It seemed like a normal book, except every few pages, there were phrases in Esperanto. Thanking Clockwork that she knew Esperanto, she looked for the right spell. Finding something that was worthy of their situation, she called out, "Ho golemo, auxskultu min nun, ŝalti vian sinjoron, jam klinas!"

Immediately, there was a shift in its behavior, and it aimed for both Danny and Vlad, instead of just the one. She grinned as he was taken by surprise and thrown here and there. "That's for leaving her to die!" She growled to the oldest halfa, much to the confusion of everyone else. Glaring, Vlad managed to dodge the golem and shoot a powerful blast of ectoplasm at her. The rockstar ghost attempted to block the blast he threw at her, but she found she couldn't, she ducked, waiting for the inevitable collision, only to look up and see Danny in front of her, creating a shield.

"I don't know what you're doing, but do it faster!"

She nodded, flipping through for something that could stop him, when Danny was slammed into the ground next to her. After a moment, he didn't get up, and her breath caught in her throat. With renewed vigor, she scanned until she finally found it. She shouted out, "Reiru al la radiko, kaj revenu al tero, atenti ne havas estrojn, Atentu neniu sono!"

The effect was obvious, as it batted at Plasmius half-heartedly. Panting, seeing that his plan had failed, he flew away, vowing to return.

Ember rose from the ground, unsteadily, and walked over to where Danny had landed.

"Hey, you okay, Danny?" she asked worriedly. The boy squinted an eye open and gave her that cute smile of his.

"Hey, you just... called me Danny," he rasped out. "What... happened to dipstick?"

The girl shrugged and, smiling in relief that the boy was okay, held her hand out for him, of which he gladly took. Once Danny was finally stood upright, Ember got to glance at how his friends were doing. Sam was stood next to Tucker, a perplexed look on her face.

"I... don't get it," she muttered, crossing her arms. "Why did you choose to help us over Plasmius? You've got nothing to gain from it."

Ember sighed in irritation. "Haven't you been listening... to anything I've been saying? You lot aren't so bad. Even Tucker is tolerable."

Tucker gave her a half-hearted glare. "Hey! I resent that!"

Sam, despite how much she couldn't stand the girl, found herself laughing at that.

"Besides, the dude had what was coming to him, the jerk. What kind of person tries cloning anyway? Dude's just messed up," she mumbled, too quiet for anyone to hear.

"So are you gonna go back to the Ghost Zone, for good, now that you've got the book?" Tucker asked, a sad expression on his face. The girl sighed and shrugged helplessly. She really didn't know anymore, to be honest. Even though she missed home, she'd also, in a weird way, kind of enjoyed herself in the Human World. It was better than plotting 'take over the world' schemes or just hanging out in the her lair.

"Hey, Ember?" Danny asked, turning to look at the musical ghost. "Thanks for...helping us with the Golem. I'd probably be road pizza if you hadn't stepped in." The girl smiled at him, blushing bright green.

"It's alright, dipstick. I hadn't put up with you for almost a week just for you to die on me, did I?" The two ghosts grinned at each other, both blushing a bright ecto-green.

"Can we go now?" Sam asked impatiently. She didn't know how much more of their blushing she could take. "We're gonna be late for Lancer's class."

The boys nodded and that was when Danny realised something. "Uh, Ember? You're still holding my hand."

She winked at him. "And why's that a problem?" Giving him a quick peck on the cheek, she sped off into the sky, not waiting to see Danny's reaction, and made her way to the apartment to say goodbye to Dani.

"That girl really is something…" Danny muttered, a large smile on his face as he made his way back into school.

XXX

"Dani? Hey, Dani!" Ember called, entering the lounge. The girl was sat on the couch, munching her way through a bag of maltesers and flipping through the television channels.

"There's... something I need to tell you," the ghost said quietly, sitting down next to the girl. Danielle gave her a confused look at her grave expression and sat up, setting the television on mute..

"W-what...is it? You're not secretly working for Plasmius, are you?" she asked, half joking and half terrified.

Ember shook her head and laughed. "What? No! You see how I'm in my ghost form now?" she asked.

The young halfa nodded. "I was gonna ask about that. You finally got caught?"

Ember sighed. "Yeah, but that's not what I want to tell you." Why was this so hard to say? She was just a little kid, right? She mentally frowned. No, this kid meant more to her than that. She was lying to herself if she thought otherwise.

"I... achieved my objective," she told the girl, almost guiltily. "I'm going back to the Ghost Zone."

It took a minute for the implications of that to sink into the girl's head, but when it did, she didn't like it.

"W-what…? You're leaving?" she exclaimed, staring at the ghost with shock. "You can't leave! Not after- am I not good enough for you, either?" Why did everyone she cared about have to leave her alone? It wasn't fair!

Ember frowned at the panicked girl. "Calm down, pipsqueak. This isn't about you." she said quietly, affectionately petting the girl's raven black hair to calm her down. "It's just that I miss my home. I can't stay here forever."

Dani shut her eyes and leaned on Ember's shoulder. "Why not?" she mumbled.

The rockstar ghost frowned. No, she couldn't stay, could she? She weighed the pros and cons of staying in her head for a moment. Cons: No ghost lair, forced to masquerade as a human. Pros: Staying with Dani and looking after her, no Skulker to bug her, Danny. She sighed again. She was torn. She wanted to go home, but at the same time, she really wanted to stay. Where would she rather be? Now, if you had asked her that same question a while ago, she would have automatically said; "Ghost Zone. No question about it, babypop." But now? She had no clue.

"Please don't leave! I'll be all alone again..." she heard Dani whisper desperately as she felt two small arms wrap around her torso. Ember hugged her back, her decision made.

"I... can't believe I'm saying this, but... alright, squirt. I'm not gonna leave."

"YES! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" the girl exclaimed, hugging the singer even tighter.

"Woah, ease up on the hug there, babypop. I need those lungs for my singing." Danielle giggled and let go of the teen as Ember stood up from the couch.

"Where are you going?" the halfa asked. "It's a bit early for dinner, now."

Ember grinned and made her way to the front door. "Where do you think I'm going? I'm gonna tell Danny that I decided to stay! Just hope Sam isn't too mad at me for it, though."

With that, she left the building and flew off invisibly to the school where she knew Danny was, having P.E, probably.

XXX

Speeding into the gym, she stopped when she saw Sam, Tucker and Danny standing around waiting to be called for dodgeball again. Danny, she noticed, looked a lot more upset than the others were, for some reason. Could it be that he... missed her?

"Yo, Fenton!" she whispered into his ear. The boy, not expecting it, jumped and spun around to find the source of the voice. He found none of course, as Ember was currently invisible, but his blue wisp of a ghost sense did go off.

"Chill, Danny. It's just Ember. Meet me outside the school. I've gotta tell you something."

Danny gave her an inconspicuous nod to show that he heard her and asked Mrs. Tetslaff if he could go get some air because he was 'feeling dizzy'. His friends, not knowing what he was up to, gave him odd looks, but he ignored them and sped off towards the school's exit. If Ember was willing to come into the school in ghost form, he knew it had to be important.

"Glad you could make it," Ember grinned, making herself visible when Danny was eventually stood behind the school, out of sight.

The boy grinned back. "You know how I like to chill."

Ember chuckled. "So not the time, dude. But anyway, I… um… wanted to let you know my decision." She was nervously playing with her bangs again.

"Your… decision?" he asked nervously. What the heck was she talking about?

"I've decided I'm... uh... how do I put this? I'm staying in AmityPark."

If it was possible, Danny's grin grew wider. "You are? That's great! Why the sudden change of heart?"

She shrugged. "Writer wouldn't let me go home, so I've been sharing an apartment with someone. She needs me and... I can't let her down." Danny raised an eyebrow, wondering who this roommate was. "Plus," she continued with a wink, "if it also means I get to see a certain half ghost hero a lot more too, then I guess that's a bonus."

Danny blushed at her. "Ember, I-" he was interrupted by his lips getting pressed together by someone else's purple ones: Ember. Ember was kissing him. In that moment, the space of a few minutes felt like hours and the two felt fireworks that you would never believe. Suddenly, his nervousness didn't matter anymore. The fact that he'd been outside longer than he should have didn't matter anymore. Nothing else mattered...but her.

Suddenly, the two heard a creak of the school's back door opening and a gasp. It was Sam and Tucker, probably looking for Danny. The two were staring at the two ghost teens making out in complete shock.

"Woah! Way to go, Danny!" Tucker exclaimed, as the two parted lips. Sam, meanwhile, was completely horrified.

"Danny? What are you DOING? She's a ghost!"

Danny and Ember weren't listening. There were far too occupied with staring into each other's eyes. Bright green met baby blue and in that moment, the two felt a spark.

"Hey, Ember...you busy Saturday?" Danny found himself asking, a dazed, lovestruck look on his face. Ember looked pretty much the same as Danny did at this point.

"If that was you asking me out, then yeah, dipstick. Totally."

Sam groaned. "Ugh! I'm going back inside. You two are starting to freak me out." Without another word, the goth stormed back to P.E, fuming, with Tucker grinning closely behind her.

The two lovestruck teenagers didn't even notice them leave. "You will? Great!" Danny grinned and then coughed to compose himself. "I mean, uh...that's cool I guess. No big."

Ember chuckled at the boy. "Meet me at 23 Spectre Street at 8:30. You'll get to meet my roommate."

XXX

With that, Ember flew off to the Ghost Zone in search for the Ghost Writer's library, still blushing a bright green. Luckily, since the Ghost Zone was mostly green as well, her face's sudden green hue was barely noticeable.

She flew until she landed at the front entrance, and cautiously opened the doors. "Hey, Writer! You here?"

He swept up behind her, and casually asked, "Since you're back, I'm assuming you have it?" She turned around and nodded, opening her backpack to show him. He grinned, and made a grab for it.

She pulled back and closed it. "Wait, there's a catch. You get the book, you don't destroy my guitar, and you give me a new disguise earring. Without the additional communicator."

Eagerly, he agreed, "Deal, deal!" He grinned beamed when she handed it to him, and hugged it to his chest.

"The earring?" He nodded, running back to his office and using his keyboard to create one. He soon came out, and Ember put the earring in place, after it magically appeared in her hand. She smiled when her ghostly form turned into 'Emma.' "Thanks. Why is that book so special, anyway?"

He sighed happily, "It was the first book I ever published. I used real Esperanto spells! If someone were to be smart enough to figure out how to say them, they could summon a real golem!" More seriously, he said, "Now it's my turn to ask you a question. Why do you still need the disguise?"

She shrugged, "May as well spread it around, I'm staying in the human world. It'll keep Skulker off my back."

He rose a skeptical eyebrow, yet said nothing more. She flew back through the Ghost Zone, and back to her apartment.

When Saturday finally came around, Ember was the most excited she had ever been. She hadn't gone out with an actual boy she liked since her death and no, she wasn't counting the insensitive oaf, Skulker. She honestly had no idea why she had even agreed to go out with that loser in the first place. She sat on the blue couch, staring at the wall clock anxiously. She was ready and the date was in about five minutes. Where was Danny? She hoped-no, prayed- that she hadn't been stood up again because if she had...she didn't think she'd be able to trust another boy again.

"Don't worry, Em," Dani reassured her friend. "He'll come, I promise." The teen gave a slight, yet still anxious nod. She hoped Dani was right.

She continued to watch the seconds tick by on the clock. Seconds turned into 3 minutes, minutes turned into twenty…

BRIIING!

The doorbell. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched Danielle open the door, an encouraging grin on her face.

"Hey, Danny!" Danielle greeted cheerfully. Danny looked like he usually did, but he also looked like he had several new bruises on his arms. Ember didn't care though- he had actually shown up.

"Dani? What are you doing here?" He asked in shock. Then suddenly, it dawned on him. "Wait... are you Ember's roommate?"

The girl nodded, but before she could say anything, Ember approached the door.

"Move along, pipsqueak," Ember smirked at Dani. "I've got a date to go to."

Danny gaped. Ember looked... really beautiful. She had curled some of her hair and it was draped over her shoulders instead of in her usual ponytail. She was also wearing some ripped denim trousers with a purple sequined tank top. Suddenly, Danny felt really underdressed.

"Look, sorry I'm late," he told her as they walked out of the apartment. "There was this ghost attack and-" The boy stopped when he felt Ember holding his hand.

"It doesn't matter, Danny," she said, smiling. "I'm just glad you came. So, where are we going, boyfriend?"

Danny grinned and squeezed her hand. He loved hearing her refer to him as her boyfriend. "I thought we'd catch a movie. Must have been ages since you've seen one."

She nodded. "I can't remember the last time I watched one, what with being...dead and all."

When the two finally reached the Cinema, Ember eagerly scanned the list of movies. There were so many, so she really didn't know which one to pick. There was a romance, horror, comedy, animation... how in the Ghost Zone did anybody ever know which one to watch?

"Hey, Fenturd!" An annoyingly familiar jock's voice called from behind them.

It was Dash, Paulina holding onto his arm, both with sneers on their faces. Danny groaned.

"Who's the hot chic? Your sister?" Dash teased, Paulina laughing hysterically.

"I'm his girlfriend, jerkwad," Emma countered, annoyed at their treatment of Danny. Honestly, if they knew half of what he had to put up with, they'd be singing a very different tune, she was sure. "Not that you would know much about girlfriends with that cougar attached to your arm."

Danny scoffed as the two popular kids walked away angrily. "Wow, thanks Emma."

The popstar shrugged. "It's alright, Danny. Nobody walks over my guy and gets away with it." The two stared at each other blushing for a while until the sound of crunching popcorn brought them back to reality.

"I guess we better pick a movie, huh? You choose- I don't know what half of these are," Ember commented, staring at the list again with confusion.

"We could try that Disney movie. Even if the movie does end up sucking, at least the soundtrack is supposed to be good."

Ember nodded. It was better than nothing, she supposed.

XXX

After the movie, the two made their way outside the building and starting walking around the area. The weather was really hot and sunny that day and they wanted to make the most of it.

"You know, Danny, you were right," Ember remarked as they walked, his arm around her shoulders.

"Hmm?"

"That movie really did have a great soundtrack, especially for a cartoon." To prove her point, the rocker took out her guitar and started playing a punk version of one of the songs from it.

"You know, I think that's amazing," Danny said dreamily. The girl cocked an eyebrow and turned to look at what dial her guitar was on. Nope, still normal mode.

"What is?"

"How you can just hear a song and play it on that guitar with hardly any effort."

She chuckled. "Music's my life, babypop. Or, afterlife anyway. Back in the GZ, I'd sit in my lair for hours and listen to all of the human songs that I could get my hands on and practice playing 'em."

Danny blinked. He hadn't expected that. He always just assumed she only wrote her own music.

"I don't know how you do it," he remarked. "I can barely play the triangle."

Ember laughed again and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Don't be so hard on yourself, dipstick. You were really good at singing in the music room the other day."

He raised both eyebrows. "Really?"

She nodded. "I know when we first met I told that I don't do duets, but I'm willing to make an exception for you." She winked at him and he blushed crimson. Honestly, that boy blushed so easily, or was that just around her?

"Well, if I'm as good as you say, why should I want to duet? Maybe, just maybe I can just do et alone," He said all this with a smug smirk.

"Was that a challenge, dipstick?" she gave him a familiar challenging look.

Without even answering the question, he began singing.

"I knew you were trouble when you walked iiin. Shame on my no-ow, flew me to places I'd never bee-en 'til you put me down oh!"

Ember almost lost herself in his dreamy singing voice and she felt her heart melt as he sang to her. Still, she hadn't lost a challenge to him yet and she didn't plan to start.

"With a thousand lies, and a good disguise," she belted out, playing the tune on her guitar with ease. "hit 'em right between the eyes, hit 'em right between the eyes. When you walk away, nothing more to say, see the lightning in your eyes, see 'em running for their lives!"

Danny grinned. It was his turn again and he knew just what to sing.

"Old, but I'm not that old, young, but I'm not that bold. I don't think the world is sold, I'm just doing what we're told. Oooooh, I feel something so wrong, by doing the right thing, I couldn't lie, couldn't lie, couldn't lie. Everything that drowns me makes me wanna fly!"

Ember felt herself swoon at his beautiful singing voice again and she almost didn't realise it was her turn until Danny nudged her gently to remind her what was going on.

"Huh?" she muttered, a bright red dazed look on her face until she remembered what she had been doing before she lost herself in Danny's voice.

"Oh, right. Uh…" she was running out of songs now. It was time to break out the classic.

"I live for the applause, applause, applause, I live for the applause-plause, live for the applause-plause, live for the way that you cheer and scream for applause, applause, applause!"

Danny grinned at her. "Nice try, but I still technically win."

"What? No you don't!" she protested, pouting. "I totally won that one, dipstick!"

He laughed. "You stopped for a whole five minutes. I'd say that means I win."

Ember gasped, her face blushing bright red. She'd been lost in his voice for that long? Wow, he was good.

"No i-" her protests were cut off by a kiss on the lips. Like the one earlier, it hadn't lost its fireworks. When the two separated, they were both grinning like lovestruck idiots.

"You're so cute when you're angry."

She rested her forehead on his. "Love you too, dipstick."

In that moment, neither of them were certain where this relationship would go, but both of them knew that Ember's decision to stay in AmityPark was going to be one of the best decisions of her afterlife.

The End

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