A Ghostly Field Trip

Chapter 17: Mute

          White was holding his throat, trying to speak. But nothing was coming out, making them all worry even more.

          ''How could she steal his voice,'' Jason asked.

          ''It's a forbidden technique that all sirens have been banned from using for millennia,'' Lena explained. ''Siren smoke can steal the voice away from any singer that it's used against. Ancient sirens used to use it on popular singers so their own voices would become more powerful.''

         ''That's horrible,'' Sam said.

          ''White's voice is his pride,'' Danny growled. ''How dare that singing menace do this to my brother. Hopefully she'll come back as a ghost so I can vanquish her a second time.''

          ''There has to be a way to reverse it,'' Dick said.

         ''Everything in magic does have a reverse,'' Lena says. ''But no one knows how to give back a voice stolen by the smoke.''

          ''Just our luck,'' Damian shook his head.

          ''Why can't we catch a break,'' Tucker complained. ''I'm starting to agree with White on the whole 'bad idea' thing.''

           White waved his hands up. As if to say, ''I told you so.'' He then glared at them.

         ''Maybe Wyatt or Chris can help,'' Sarah suggested. ''They are from the Isle of Witches. A spell could give back his voice.''

           ''If there's one person that deserves a voice, it's White,'' Dick said.

          ''Why so glum,'' Jack asked, a stupid smile on his face.

          ''Did you not pay any attention to this situation,'' Tim nearly yelled. ''That siren took away White's voice.''

           ''Look on the bright side,'' Jack says. ''At least we won't have to deal with his noise anymore.''

          White covered his mouth, tears streaming down his face. He ran out of the room as fast as he could. Valerie went after him. Everyone else just glared at the adults.

           ''What is wrong with you two,'' Sarah glared. ''White's voice is the one part about him that he loves the most. Singing means everything to him and you have the nerve to call it noise.''

           ''You have no right to talk to us like that,'' Maddie yelled. ''You're a vampire. You have no soul.''

          ''I may not have a soul, but neither do you, apparently,'' Sarah said. ''No parent insults their kid.''

           ''Never stopped them before,'' Danny mumbled.

           ''Why do you think your sons spend so much time here, with us,'' Lena asked.

         ''They don't have the common sense to stay away from monsters,'' Jack says.

          ''Because you never pay any attention to them,'' Frostbite said. ''The Great Ones feel more at home with us because we treat them like family.''

          ''You never even know when they're here,'' Pandora ranted. ''I can't even count how many times they came here because of something you two did. Daniel cares for White more than anyone else in the world, and you hurting him makes it so much worse. You call them stupid or dumb when they're geniuses. And it never helped when you forgot about them every holiday or birthday. You never gave them anything for their birthday or Christmas. You never even noticed that they weren't even there.''

         ''Then where were they,'' Maddie asked, annoyed.

         ''When they weren't here, they were with us,'' Nightwing told them.

         ''Why you,'' Jack snarled.

         ''We've know them for the past three years, and we treat them like family,'' Jason said. ''If you can get all four of us to like you, plus Batman, then you're basically family. It actually hurts us when we see them in pain.'' 

           ''We invite them over every Christmas so they would have someone that cares for them,'' Tim says. ''And every year they show up late because they had hope you two would remember, but never did. One year, it was so bad that Batman nearly came here and killed you because of when they came to us in tears.''

         ''But it's not like you ever cared,'' Nightwing said. ''They're brothers to us, and there is no way you two are parents to them. You should be ashamed.''

           It also helped that the twins were his actual brothers. That little fact did two things with the Bat bros. One, it made them want to kill the Fentons. Two, it made them all care for the two more than they already did.

          ''We are their parents, nothing can change that,'' Maddie glared.

          ''You're about as much their parents as Cujo,'' Sam said.

          The Fentons angrily walked away, not that they even knew who Cujo was. They went off, trying to find something to control their kids.

          ''They are out of control,'' Maddie says. ''We may need more than a drug to control them.''

          ''What do you suggest,'' Jack asked.

            ''We may need to keep only one of them,'' Maddie said. ''Danny has a connection with the ghosts But without White, he'll have no one but us.''

           ''They may be rebellious, but they still believe we're their parents,'' Jack reminded.

            ''Fine, but we'll have to wipe their slates clean,'' Maddie says. ''If they don't remember anything, we can control them easily.''

            While they schemed, White was crying in the castle gardens. Lena helped them grow so the castle would seem less doom and gloom. Valerie sat next to him.

           ''Are you okay, White,'' she asked.

           He glared at her.

          ''Sorry, stupid question,'' Valerie admitted.

          White held the lyre that Skylar gave him. Without his voice, it was the only thing he had left that allowed him to have music in his life.

          ''We'll find a way to get back your voice,'' Valerie told him. ''I'm not sure if it will work, but try this.''

          She pulled out a small vile of water. She gave it to White, who looked at it with confusion.

         ''Don't judge a book by it's cover,'' Valerie says. ''When we helped the Isle of Naiads, one of them gave this to me. It's water from Lake Nostos. Legend has it that the waters have the power to return what has been lost.''

          White looked at the vial with hope.

          ''Just drink it,'' Valerie said.

          White opened the vial and drank the water. His throat slightly glowed. Before they could try to speak, there was a roar on the other edge of the garden.

           ''What was...'' Valerie stopped when she saw White smiling.