…Hi. Again. After a year. (sigh) I'm such a wimp. And an idiot. I could spill my guts with all the excuses I have for not updating (TvTropes ate my brain, mostly) but I know most of you don't want to hear it.
The first summer after I started this thing, I intended to finish it over the next couple of months. Unfortunately, distraction brought on by Kingdom Hearts I&II and TvTropes threw a rock in my plans, and a newly acquired sense of Genre Savviness made me realize what a seriously messed up story I had just made. ...And I realized that I was a member of the DP FanDumb…oh God… I'll never stop cringing for that... After that, I was too scared to even go near the thing for nearly a year, when a momentary sugar high made me write and post Chapter 15.
The first review I received for this story said, "Not bad so far, can't wait 'til the crap hits the fan though." I guess it has (understatement). But I've made you wait for this long enough, and you all deserve to hear the ending; I can give that much.
Anyway...Let's see... where to start? This is probably going to sound kind of stupid at this speed, but here goes... (takes a deep breath):
This is as far as I got with Chapter 16:
Toph let out a howling cackle. "World's fastest ghost, huh?" She stepped out of the underbrush, and made her way to the two.
By this time, Sheila had already pushed off a very stunned Haku and was scrambling wildly to find her companion.
There was supposed to be this whole long spiel for about a chapter where Toph tries to teach Sheila earthbending (in exchange for Sheila teaching Toph how to read Braille (cliché as hell!)), where the GIW come along after a bit and basically say, "Oh, no, you're not allowed to do that or else we're hauling your butt back to the experimental facility yadda yadda yadda..." I didn't really get too far on thinking about that, but it was supposed to, you know, make them seem more evil or something.
Meanwhile, Vlad has been hiding out in the Ghost Zone for the last few months (and being really pissed off about it too) along with all the other ghosts, because the GIW have pretty much rounded up any ghost stupid enough to venture out into the real world (the Box Ghost, for one...) I was going to put in a short scene where they were all gathered and talking about what to do (this is as far as I got):
"Order! Order!" Walker slammed his mallet onto the table in front of him. "I said quiet!"
Eventually the din of hundreds – if not thousands – of ghosts' voices hushed.
"Now!" The warden addressed the crowd, "I know that the last few months have been… aggravating," With the Guys in White making any pillaging out in the real world practically suicidal, fights had been breaking out all over the Ghost Zone. It seemed that a feeling of tension had settled over the realm, ready to snap at even the slightest argument.
"Aggravating!" Vlad shouted from the middle row, rising from his seat. "The Guys in White practically destroyed my house trying to get to me, and you call that aggravating!"
At some point once Danny heads home, Jack and Maddie inform him as to what exactly the "documents" were that they had traded to the GIW. They were, you guessed it, the schematics to the ghost portal. Well, Danny panics, and heads straight to Clockwork (with Haku in tow, of course) where Clockwork tells them the whole destiny spiel and how Danny's supposed to be the savior of the Ghost Zone yadda yadda yadda, and that he has to make all the ghosts in the Ghost Zone stop fighting with each other and unite against the GIW.
Of course, when Danny tracks down Vlad and tells him this, he's not convinced. So, they decide that Vlad would lead all the evil ghosts, and Danny would lead everyone else. However, Toph and Sheila (who is revealed to be quite the earthbender, man did I make her a Mary Sue or what?) want to help too. It's eventually decided that Toph would lead any earthbending ghosts lying around the ghost zone (dumping ground for souls from all the dimensions, so, yes there would be earthbenders. And waterbenders. And ninjas.), Danny and Haku would lead any waterbenders (eh, the with the whole 'ice powers and from the village of mist' it all kinda made sense at the time) or ninjas willing the follow them, and Vlad would lead, well, all the evil ghosts. They were even supposed to have color coded uniforms...
Unfortunately, the Guys in White catch wind of this plan. I was going to have this scene where all the operatives in Amity Park are conversing as to what to do about it, and they eventually decide to send in a spy. And who do they pick? You guessed it, Operative N. So then the head Operative called in his two nieces, who answer, "Of course we'll make him look like a ghost, Uncle Boris!" At which the entire room erupts in laughter, until the Head Operative threatens to fire everyone. Anyway, they make Op. N look like a ghost, with special makeup that won't wash away and red tinted contacts. Also, in addition to that, they arrest Sam and Tucker and hold them hostage, to try and persuade Danny to call off the rebellion, "Or else they die." Also quite cliche.
So then Op. N sneaks into the Ghost Zone (with the help of some GIW technology to make him go intangible, invisible, and some prototype jet-shoes to make him fly), finds Danny, and asks if he could join them. Danny asks him his name, and it was going to be at the last line of the chapter, where he answers, "Inari." And oooh, you find out his name and all that and it was supposed to be really dramatic and stuff.
I was going to choose this point to really explain some of Inari's backstory as to how he ended up in the DP dimension. When you last hear about him into the Naruto series, he's realized that he's stronger now, and not some wimpy, whiny little kid (of about 11 or 12 years old). Now, I played around with this a bit, and figured he'd learn how to fight (with two scimitar-like swords. The entire reason the other operatives picked him was because he could use a weapon other than ecto-guns). I figured that when he was around 17 or so, he was out in the woods, and a portal to the Ghost Zone opened up, and he stepped inside it (idiot). A few minutes later, a portal to the DP world opened, and suddenly he has to fend for himself, until the GIW take him in. This was why he hated ghosts so much ("If it wasn't for that damn Ghost Zone I would still be home...") And, he also hated Danny so much because he was the reincarnation of Zabuza, who worked for the guy who had his father publicly executed. Now, since this fic was set about 17 years after Zabuza's and Haku's deaths, he's now about 28 or 29.
And so, a plan is devised among the ghosts. They calculated where the GIW portal would appear in the Ghost Zone, and they had the earthbenders build a sort of canyon around it. When the first wave of people entered, everyone would throw boulders and hot oil etc. at them, killing the first wave. I hadn't really given much thought to how the rest of the battle would go, but more stuff would happen which I will now go into detail with...
As the "canyon" is being 'constructed', Inari infiltrates the army after the brief introduction with Danny. This was going to take up an entire chapter, filled with Danny looking at him suspiciously, wondering why he looks oh so familiar, and Inari leaking some information to the GIW. However, toward the middle of the chapter, Inari sits down with a few other ghosts on break, and they're all telling stories about what the GIW have done to them and/or others they knew. I was even going to put in a quote along the lines of, "Oh, and from what I've heard, that Operative N is the worst. He's bat-shit insane, I tell you. I heard, that out of the whole lot, he's the only one who takes pleasure in torturing us." "I hope he's one of the first they send in, so we can crush the bastard." Oh, and I just remembered that I was going to have Inari's father even be in the group (not sure what I was going to do with that, though... I think Inari would be torn up inside because he knew he couldn't reveal his true identity) Oh, now I remember, Inari's father was going to say to him at some point, "Hmm, I had a son once, when I was still alive. His name was Inari, too..."
After that, Inari walks away, and starts to think Oh, maybe I really shouldn't have done that to these people... and starts turning good; again cliche. Then he proceeds to go double-agent on the GIW and feed them false information up until the battle.
Ah, the battle scene. This was going to take up two or maybe even three chapters. Well, the first wave dies as planned (crushed to death) however the second wave comes in on jetpacks, so then everything turns into hand-to-hand fighting. During this, Sheila gets stabbed by a random operative and dies T_T. Gyl then goes into a homicidal rampage, killing that operative and many, many more...
At some point, two random operatives sneak up on Danny, clamp on an ectoranium shackle, and are about to kill him, when Inari shows up. He says to the two, "Hey, don't shoot, it's me." And stabs them both in the back with his swords. He releases Danny, and Danny's about to thank him, when he notices a small cut on his eyebrow, which was leaking red human blood. Suddenly Danny realized why he had looked so familiar, and orders him taken prisoner, with Inari doing the whole "No, I'm on your side! I've changed!" spiel as he's being dragged away. Oh, poor him.
So, as the battle drags on, the ghosts manage to get into the GIW facility itself, and Danny rescues Sam, Tucker, and Danielle (who at this point is on the verge of death). The ghosts win, and all the remaining operatives (including the Head Operative) are sent to Walker's prison to be tortured/maimed/starved etc. etc. Inari manages to convince Danny that he's good now after a "Please forgive me." "Not yet. Oh...sweet revenge." moment... In the midst of the celebration, Sheila appears (now a ghost): "Aw! I missed the best part! I woke up somewhere off that way and it took me hours to find my way back here," much to Gyl's happiness.
And... all that's left is the epilogue. Valerie (remember that whole thing where she saved Joey from the GIW?) well, she tells Danny about it, and there's a happy reunion between Joey, Sheila, and their parents. (Man, poor parents; now both their children are dead). Meanwhile, Toph, Gyl, Haku, Danny, Sam, and Tucker are standing off to the sidelines, watching. After the family does a group hug, Sheila walks over, says "I'm ready." and she and Toph mount Gyl. Before they take off, Danny asks, "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Toph answers, "Well, you still haven't finished your training..." Meanwhile, Haku is staring forlornly at Toph. Danny notices, walks over, and asks, "You love her, don't you?" "...yes." (Yes, you did just read that. I made Haku fall in love with Toph. So sue me. Again, it made sense at the time.) "Then go with them." "But... they wouldn't... Master, I - " "That's an order." So he gets on with them, and they fly off into the sunset... (presumably for the wilderness and/or mountains of Canada).
And that's pretty much how it ends. Yup. That's it. (sigh) It feels so nice to get this off my chest. For two years, this has been in the back of my mind, but now I can move on to other things, finally. I hope you enjoyed the ending!
While typing the below paragraph, I reread all of your reviews, and I realized just how much some of you liked this thing! Infinite thank yous!
Thank you to (in no particular order) Arcy911913, MusicIsMyMorphine, Luiz4200, starr1095, papercliped-angel, "Ookami Kitsune", Ndasuunye, darthgamer, SpiritMusician, Piece of Toast, Adriannrod Svit-Kona Samm, darkangelwp05, inukagome15, Damus Daemon Dragon, Darkfire-Lady of Darkness, cartoon-crazy987, iHugBears, Dragongal333, ShadowShapeshifterAndHerCat, Silver Shadowbreeze, Thunderstorm101, "bloodmoon13", MahiMahi718, ThunderRiver411, Coppa-Cola, Reyes Yong Nydia, Miss Captain-Mad Dog Vane, The Anonymous PenName, "the sue", Hikari1994, Alarose, Horselvr4evr123, Demon Evangelion, Sable Katze, ZWig, "Anonymous Shadow", Quick-Demon, Aerieth, Devil-Speaker, "~Kat", Funabisenu, "Shinchibi", crimsonshrouds, unlovedpacifist, boo56, LocoLycan, Blue Beluga, and FreezeFlame666 for all the reviews!
And especially thanks to Luiz4200, boo56, Thunderstorm101, Horselvr4evr123, ZWig, and The Anonymous PenName for all your wonderful criticism throughout this story! You guys get lots and lots of virtual cookies. And really really really thanks to Ndasuunye, for probably giving me the most valuable criticism I've ever gotten.
...And to the 284 of you who read all the way to chapter 15, but didn't review!
I'm never going to forget this series, and I hope none of you do either. I'll always remember the lovable halfa who had the unfortunate tendency to get tortured by various fanfic writers with too much spare time. And everything else that made this show great. Before I can move on to anything else, I needed to get this off my chest. I really have no way to thank every single one of you (even though you're all strangers technically) for sticking with me and this fic!
Good luck to all of you on any future stories! I can't think of anything else to say at this point, so I guess I'll go...
~ShadowLord9~