Remember Me

She felt cold, and also she felt dead because she was dead. Ember stood in front of the grey stone, and her hair blew slightly by the warm September wind.

It's true some ghosts don't remember how they died, but she did.

She remembered the pain.

How her flesh blackened. How the heat seared her skin from her bones. How she burned away till she was nothing but ashes.

And she remembered him, the boy. Luc.

But her past eluded her, her memories locked away, out of her reach. She needed the one person who could help her.

"You called child." The green mage said.

The green genie moved along the row of graves, sitting atop his headstone her tail wrapping tightly around the bland stone.

Ember began. "I want."

"You want." Desiree interrupted, her red eyes boring into her emerald ones, "child, I can grant whatever you desire. But know this. For every wish I grant there is a price, and you need to be willing to pay whatever that price is."

"Why are you warning me? I mean you don't exactly come with a warning label. With you it's just wish and go, consequences be damned." Ember asked.

Desiree looked past her, she looked wistful…almost longing for something. Something from her past maybe? "Child." Desiree began in a whisper, "before I died…I was in love with someone so much. That to be without him would leave me unable to breathe."

Desiree looked back at her. "So believe me when I tell you child, you and I are alike. That perhaps we are Kindred spirits. I can look inside your core and see that you died a similar way: This is the only reason why I warned you."

Ember thought long and hard, she needed to know who she was. If he could potentially unravel her life, that was worth any potential risk.

"I have never been surer in my afterlife." Ember said looking directly into Desiree's apple red eyes.

Desiree floated off the grave. "Very well child, what is it that your heart desires?"

Ember pointed to the grave, "Luc, I want him here, out of the ground and alive."

Desiree sighed "child. I can do many things. But I can't do that. It's forbidden."

Ember thought for a moment, "Well if you can't bring back his life? Then you can bring back his ghost. Right?"

Desiree smiled, "your smarter then I give you credit for." She extended her hands over the grave and purple smoke drifted from her fingers and slowly swirled around the grey stone, disappearing underground penetrating the wooden casket.

"Thanks, Desiree I owe you one!" Ember exclaimed to the wishing ghost.

"Yes, child you do." Her eyes seemed to gleam, "be warned though. The price of this dark magic will be heavy and it will be paid." Desiree waved her hands and disappeared into a cloud of mist.

At first there was nothing, then the sky darkened. Violent storm clouds rolled in from all directions buzzing with unbridled energy, bolts of raw lightning crashed into the earth. Splitting earth open and shooting a tidal wave of dirt and stone in all directions.

"Whoa." Ember awed at the sheer destruction of it all, the ground near the tomb was utterly and completely destroyed, Ember walked towards the crater and stopped cold. The grave was empty, there was no sign of the casket and no sign of his body.

"Where am I? Who are you?" A voice asked from somewhere among the graves, it was both raspy and familiar.

"Luc." Ember whispered in wonderment.

He turned tangible his feet naked and grey, his jeans ripped caked with mud. The remains of a black t shirt dotted his smoky chest, and his face bore chiseled scars, his wild red eyes looked directly at her. "I was somewhere else, somewhere so cold. Before I was ripped away, now I'm here. Why?" Luc demanded.

"Look." Ember began. "You're dead or were dead, but I brought you back, I need you tell me who I was, what my name was…and why I died." Ember stressed to Luc.

Red electricity crackled and popped around him. Luc brought up his hand, and the pale ectoplasmic hand disappeared completely from view. "Wild isn't? Being dead, but not really."

"You get used to it." Ember whispered.

His hand came back into view, and looked back at her and sneered. "What do I get out of it? I mean if I help you, I just go back in the ground. Right?"

"What do you want?" Ember asked Luc.

"I want life, I want to live again be back in 1988. Can you give me that?"

"I could make you tell me." Ember threatened raising her guitar

A wicked grin came across his face. "Could you?" A dangerous red glow went over his body and red energy crackled and popped in the air surrounding him, "I may be new at this whole ghost thing." Luc said his voice surging with raw energy. "But if there's one thing I learned from being alive is. Nobody can make me do anything." And then he struck.

Red bolts shot out of his hands, and came towards her, too fast for her dodge. She braced herself and the force of the energy sent her flying into a set of statutes. The stone buckled from the force of the combined impact and the two ton stone came crashing down on her head.

"Ugh." Ember whimpered.

Take that ghost!" Luc snarled smiling at his handiwork.

Ember struggled to her feet, her left shoulder useless from the impact. "That- that all you…you got dipstick?" Ember said through clenched teeth, her ectoplasmic blood contrasting with her porcelain skin.

Luc laughed. "As you wish." Before launching another devastating barrage.

Ember brought up her shield, and it enveloped her in a protective bubble but she couldn't hold it and her bubble came crashing down a moment later."Damn." She looked on in horror as the deadly electricity came rushing towards her.

It never came. The glowing red energy bounced off a familiar green shield, at first she thought hopefully it was Skulker, and that maybe he followed her. The ground tore up around her, dirt exploded creating craters of red hot mud and incinerating nearby grass.

When the smoke cleared, her mouth opened in shock and she realized it wasn't her stupid boyfriend. It was the dipstick Danny Phantom.

"You all right?" Danny asked her, his face straining from the force of impact.

Internally she was grateful for the save, but she wouldn't tell him that. "I didn't need saving dipstick!"

Danny dropped his shield and went on the a salvo of potent green energy towards Luc.

Luc laughed, and disappeared from view and the green energy went harmlessly past. "Hey girlie!" Luc shouted. "Your new boyfriend is such an airhead!" Luc mocked. Before coming back into view.

He looked winded and drained. Danny noticed, maybe overtaxing his ghost powers?

"Hey girl!" luc shouted above them, "I'll catch ya later." Before he disappeared completely all together.

"Ember? Who was that ghost?" Danny asked her.

She sighed before answering. "Look, dipstick this is my problem, okay? Stay out of it."

Danny blocked her way. "No, this became my problem the moment he attacked me. I'm the savior of Earth, remember?" Danny looked at her expectantly. Waiting for an answer.

Ember rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. He was my ex from when I was alive. And I'm pretty sure he had a hand in killing me, okay? Are you satisfied?"

"He, what?" Danny asked, appalled from what he just heard.

"Look, we have bigger problems, okay? Luc's on the loose and I have no idea what he wants, and believe me when I say, he is the much bigger threat." Ember explained.

Danny grimaced. "Come on, let's get your wounds looked at."

The two flew in silence, looking for the natural portal to the Ghost Zone.

To be continued.