TERTIUS

Sam nuzzled against Danny, Lilith asleep in the bassinet, which Sam had moved from the nursery after dinner. “How did Eric take the news?”

“Honestly, he asked more questions in five minutes than all the reporters had asked for the first month after I’d revealed my identity.”

Sam laughed quietly. “Did he ask when he’ll be getting his powers?”

“I don’t think he made the connection, as excited as he was.”

“He’s probably going to tell all his friends tomorrow.”

Danny shrugged in response, his hand running over Sam’s soft arm.

“So, what did Clockwork want to talk about?”

Groaning, he nuzzled into Sam’s neck, taking in the sweet scent of her lavender and vanilla shampoo, the delicate scent calming him and soothing his frayed nerves. “You wouldn’t believe me anyway.”

“This from the man who’s half-ghost.”

Danny smiled, holding back a laugh.

Sam kissed his cheek lightly. “You sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

He sighed. “What would you say if I told you that, nine years ago, you married the future King of the Ghost Zone?”

Sam had to bite her lip to keep from screaming her surprise. Finally, she managed to ask him, “What do you mean?”

“Clockwork told me that, because of my hybrid state, and because I’m developing multiple powers where most ghosts only have a few, I’m the heir to an empty throne.”

“When will you…”

“When I die, but he said there’s time left, so don’t worry too much about it.”

“Did he say anything about the kids? You know, if they’d be like you?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t ask.”

“Afraid to?”

“Sort of,” he answered, suddenly sitting up and clutching at his head. A flurry of images flew through his mind, and he whimpered in pain.

“What’s wrong?”

Danny groaned again, trying to keep from screaming in agony, eyes squeezed tightly shut. Then, as suddenly as the pain had come, it was gone, and as Danny finally opened his eyes again, the spinning clock hands alerting them to the entrance, for the second time that day, of Danny’s spectral guardian.

“Daniel, are you alright?” Clockwork asked, concern evident in his voice.

“Hurts…” he managed weakly, “pain and flashes and…I don’t know…”

“Clockwork, what’s wrong with him?”

Clockwork looked at Danny, and then turned to the young woman. “Danny doesn’t have any sort of mental barriers up against the visions, so he can’t keep his mind clear from the deluge. He just witnessed a lot of death…of which a good majority are to occur in the next seven days.”

Sam grimaced, her face twisted into a look of utter disgust and fear. “Why would he be…”

“Because I’m Danny Phantom,” Danny answered, cutting her off.

“What?”

“I’m Danny Phantom. My ghost half has grown obsessed with saving people, with making sure people stay safe, so…”

Clockwork finished, “He’s seen the worst fate for people, and maybe, he, by harnessing his powers, can save some of them.”

“What about the Observants?” Danny asked.

“I’m within their control, as I am a ghost, but you, as a mortal and a ghost born into life…” Clockwork smiled wryly, allowing Danny to mentally finish the sentence.

“But how am I to know who to save? There were so many images.”

“The judgment of whom you save, I am sorry to say, lies squarely on your shoulders. Half of this is because you bear the burden of knowing just how many others die that day. The other part of your burden is the ghost obsession you mentioned.”

“You mention this ghost obsession,” Sam stated. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

“The fundamental idea that most ghost researchers hold about ghosts is true for many: a ghost is the lingering essence of someone who has died with some sort of unfinished business or some reason to stay in this world. Danny’s ghost side developed the same obsession, except that instead of a malevolent intent, he developed the heroic focus that has made him who he is today.”

Sam made to speak, but Clockwork, now old, slammed his fist onto the top of his staff, freezing the couple. Pulling a pair of Time Medallions from inside his cloak, he dropped them around the necks of the pair.

“What was that for?” Danny said, removing the necklace.

Clockwork’s eyes widened somewhat as Danny tossed the medallion back to its owner.

“I wasn’t stopped, Clockwork. I was shocked you had the audacity to freeze Sam.”

Sam now looked at the elder ghost. “How can you put such a monumental burden on Danny’s shoulders? He’s still only human.”

“Yet he is much more, if only in need of some training. You see,” he continued, “as Master of Time, I can see history, see all the futures possible from the decisions one makes, and can move freely through the fourth dimension. Nocturne can mold dreams to his whim, enter the dream world without issue, and feed off of the subconscious release. Near machines, Technus can become anything he desires, bypass security systems and firewalls with ease. Amorpho can become whoever he wants, if only by force of will.”

“But I’m different. I’m not just the embodiment of one specific thing.”

“Exactly,” Clockwork smiled. “As a human, you had an adventurous spirit, fed by your love of outer space. When the accident happened, the part of you that became a ghost had no set purpose, so when you jumped into action to defend your friends against ghosts…”

“So his ghost half’s obsession is playing the selfless hero?” Sam asked quietly.

Clockwork nodded, and cut Sam off as she opened her mouth again. “I’ve stopped time so that we don’t wake Lilith. And yes, that ‘selfless hero’ thing is why Danny has this burden to carry.”

Sam’s face belied her understanding. “You mentioned training?”

Nodding, Clockwork looked to Lilith for a moment, and then faced Sam. “How long would Daniel be able to stay with me?”

She looked to her husband. “I guess I could live without him for a few days. Mom’s been wanting me to bring Lilith and Eric over for a while anyhow. He’s just got to be back by Friday, since he promised Eric a visit from Danny Phantom at his school.”

“You sure?” Danny asked, his arms winding around her waist, the last of her pregnancy fat giving her a slight paunch, which he caressed gently.

“Yeah. You’re only going to get worse with your headaches if I don’t let you go.”

“Come then, Daniel,” Clockwork said, and Danny climbed from the bed, tossing a few personal hygiene products and a few changes of clothes into a small knapsack. The now-child raised his brow, to which Danny replied, “You’ve got a real-world bathroom in the tower. Don’t think I never noticed.”

He smirked. “You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get it past Walker. He’s already got it out for me since I own so many clocks from Earth.” He blinked thoughtfully. “The only catch is that the water is set up to be drawn through a temporal rift in the human world, so there may not be hot water.”

“It’s okay, and speaking of Walker, how have you been able to avoid his goons and whatnot?”

Clockwork waved his staff in answer.

Danny pulled on a sleeveless white tee, then pulled his jogging suit from the dresser and put it on. A Father’s Day present from Eric and Sam earlier that year, it was a silver suit, the stitching done in all white, a pair of black stripes running down the outer sides of the pants legs. Pulling on his black sneakers, he leaned over the bed, capturing Sam’s soft lips with his own, passion flowing between them before he stood up and faced the Master of Time.

Clockwork flew back a pace, allowing Danny to approach him. “Lesson One: extra-dimensional portals. I want you to concentrate on the main room of the tower. Envision it within your mind. See it as if you were standing in it. As soon as you have the vision established, command your energy to cut between the worlds.”

Danny nodded, his eyes sliding shut, fingers glowing a faint green. The image came slowly, and Danny struggled to remember exactly where each clock was supposed to be. A voice broke into his thoughts, but he kept his focus.

“You only have to establish a basic idea of where,” Clockwork instructed. “The world is always in motion, always changing, so extremely detailed thoughts will be naught but a nuisance.”

Danny nodded slightly, seeing the room he was imagining as on the other side of a thin wall in front of him. Tendrils of light green energy flowed from his hands, caressing the air for a moment before beginning to spiral in mid-air, forming a vertical circle before him. Brow furrowed, Danny focused on the writhing energy before him, and with a sound like fabric being torn, the portal opened, the anteroom of Clockwork’s tower visible beyond a ring of radiant jade. Danny opened his eyes and smiled at his wife before stepping through the rift.

Clockwork followed his apprentice into the Ghost Zone, tapping the top of his staff as he passed back into his tower. “Time in.”

- - - - -

Danny rolled over, his arm seeking the petite form of his wife, but finding nothing but cold bed sheets. His eyes snapped open as he shot up, panic momentarily overtaking him before rational thought began to seep into his consciousness, and he recalled the events of the previous night. Sliding out of bed, he slipped on his shoes and jogged out of his temporary room, feet crunching on the grass that surrounded the tower as he stepped outside. Dropping smoothly to the ground, Danny moved through his stretching routine, the exercise warming up his muscles as well as eliminating the last vestiges of sleep that clung to his mind.

Three minutes later, he stood, removing the jacket and tying it around his waist, the cool air of the Ghost Zone filling his lungs and vitalizing his body. Leaning over, he double-knotted his shoe laces before taking off at a healthy pace.

Clockwork watched the youth as he sped around the perimeter of the Time Master’s domain, and as he rested against one of the highest walls of his tower, he marveled at the dedication and commitment that had molded and shaped the Danny Fenton that was now sprinting around the tower. It was evident that years spent ghost fighting, as well as his own personal training with his enhanced senses, had honed his reflexes until they’d become as sharp as any blade.

Early on in his life, Danny had accepted the fact that there was more required from him than just a good defense, and Clockwork had watched from his tower as Danny had begun a daily regimen of running and training under the watchful eye of his mother. The notion that Danny had been training in martial arts under his mother gave the ghost a moment’s prideful pause, knowing that his young charge, though having refused to take any sort of belt as a mark of his rank, was nearing fifth degree black belt in four different arts.

As the years had progressed and the situations he found himself in became more demanding, weight training and yoga had been added to this regimen, the additional exercises serving not only to strengthen his body but his mind as well. The particular instructor that Sam had hired for Danny’s private yoga lessons had paid equal attention to physical dexterity and mental focus, a combination that blended so fluidly with all of his other fitness programs that he had quickly become a force to be reckoned with, even if met in battle in human form. Taut muscles covered his lean frame, belying the true power within him, his eyes hiding an inner strength that had easily managed to contain and control the rapidly-growing powers within him.

Clockwork smiled again as he watched Danny, laughing mirthfully when the young man tripped over a tree root that he had somehow failed to see, the ghost’s jollity replaced with ardent admiration as Danny took the fall in stride, a forward dive roll getting him back on his feet seconds after he’d tripped, and he continued his run as if there had been no interruption.

- - - - -

Danny looked at his watch, astonished to find that the required hour of running was already over. Jogging inside, he looked towards the ceiling and found a stable-looking pipe running across the hallway. Nearly twenty feet above him, Danny jumped upward, harnessing his ghost powers in order to reach the bar. Grabbing onto the pipe, Danny hung from it momentarily, allowing his arms to adjust to his weight. Positioning his hands shoulder-width apart, he pulled himself upward, starting the next part of his regimen: pull-ups.

- - - - -

Clockwork floated into the room that he had set up for Danny, waiting patiently as the hybrid continued, currently absorbed in his exercise, sweat beading visibly on his forehead and arms as he finished his sit-ups.

“You’ve been going at it for a while, Daniel,” Clockwork stated as Danny toweled off, taking a long swig of water from his bottle.

“Yeah, so?” he asked flatly as he lowered himself to the floor and began stretching, yoga being his cool-down exercise.

“It is just a strange sight to see you as you are now and compare you to the Daniel Fenton that I met all those years ago.”

Danny smiled as he balanced himself upside-down against the wall, pushing off with his feet and balancing on his forearms as he held himself steady, slowly bending his lower body until his feet were nearly touching his forehead. Holding the position for a few seconds, he raised himself onto his hands, straightening up his body before lowering himself into the next position.

Clockwork waited patiently as Danny moved fluidly through the fifteen minute routine, visibly impressed with his progress.

Danny stood and faced Clockwork. “Orders?”

“Shower and change. I’ll meet you in the main hall.”

Danny nodded in understanding, grabbing a few things from his pack before disappearing into the bathroom.

- - - - -

Stepping into the antechamber of Clockwork’s tower, Danny casually threw on his denim vest, absently brushing the indigo material.

The ghost floated silently, patiently waiting Danny’s arrival, his eyes turned to the vast array of timelines flowing past his eyes. Smiling as the hybrid came up behind him, he remained facing the screens, waiting for his charge to speak.

“So, normally, you chase me out of here. If you know everything that is to pass, why didn’t you let me see this before?”

“You misunderstand my job, Daniel. The point is not to watch was is to happen, but what may happen. Each person creates multiple timelines with every choice that they make. For example, if a person must walk two blocks east and three blocks north to get from one place to another, they have a number of options: walk east, then north, or north, then east. They could zigzag north, east, north, east, and north. They could decide to go a block further north to go to the store and get a beverage. With each decision, as small as they may seem, there is a distinct possibility that more than one timeline has been created.”

“So, if that is the case, how, exactly, did cheating on the C.A.T. turn me evil? The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like an inevitable time loop.”

Clockwork smiled, his face still hidden from the young half-ghost. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, you send Box Lunch to fight me. By fighting her, I blow up the Nasty Burger. In getting the answers to the test, I have also set a heater against the vat of Nasty sauce…”

“I fail to understand how you humans consider something called ‘Nasty sauce’ a pleasant and tasty condiment,” Clockwork cut in.

Danny smiled. “You aught to try it sometime. The stuff’s pretty good. Getting back on point, you send Skulktech after me next. By attaining the time medallion they’re wearing, we get dropped here in your tower. From there, we run from you and into the future, where Dan gets his hands on my time medallion, which lets him get back in my time to set the course of the future in action. Your involvement is the only reason Dan gets into the past and kills my family.”

“You fail to remember that you, by entering the future timeline, were also stranded there, which left you with no way to get back, thereby leaving no Daniel Fenton to suffer at the hands of Dan Phantom.” Clockwork finally turned to face Danny, an adult again. “You see, Daniel, it was the fact that your powers attained the test answers that you began to fall. You viewed your powers as a way to get whatever it was that you wanted. The loss of your family was not because of Dan binding them to the vat of sauce, but by your fight with a ghost near the Nasty Burger. If you had not been brought to my tower, the future would have gone something akin to this: Skulker would have attacked, and the fight would have taken you back to the ruins of the restaurant. Because of their connection to you, Sam and Tucker would have been there as well. Your parents would have been there soon after, responding to the threat of a pair of ghosts in the city. Lancer was, unfortunately, just passing by after school. The ensuing explosion would have destroyed everything within a half block radius, your intangibility being the only thing that saved you, but not a single other person would make it out of that alive.”

Danny blinked. “So, because it was, somewhat indirectly, my powers that destroyed them…”

“You got rid of them, giving rise to Dan Phantom, yes,” Clockwork finished.

Danny slowly sat himself down, crossing his legs and taking deep breaths.

“Are you alright?”

“Fine,” Danny replied. “Just trying to find my center. It’s a lot to process, especially since that brings back a lot of painful memories, whether or not I actually had to suffer the consequences.”

Clockwork smiled, shifting to his elder form. “You carry a lot of fear of Dan within you.”

“That’s kind of why I dedicated myself to making sure that I drop whatever stress and negativity when it builds up. Meditation techniques help me contain the…more dangerous human emotions.” Danny opened his eyes, standing slowly, his ocean blues seemingly a little brighter. “I saw what Dan was capable of, and regardless of whether or not Vlad is part of the equation, I know the threat he presents.”

“Why do you mention Vladimir at a time like this?” Clockwork asked despite the fact that he already knew the answer. Humans were social and communicative creatures by nature, and he wasn’t about to deny that basic need to Danny.

“Something tells me that Dan is a core part of my own personality. Though, in that future, he was created by the fusion of Vlad’s ghost half and mine, there are probably more than a few ways for him to become real. The very fact that he’s still in the Thermos in the storeroom here should be proof enough. He’s within your control because he’s still caught within the possibilities of different timelines, thereby still within time himself.”

“Good answer, Daniel,” Clockwork commended. “You’re already seeing beyond the linear timeline of humans. And, yes, in fact, Dan is still a possibility for you. Right now, I can tell you that there are forty-three timelines in which it may still happen, of which Vladimir’s ghost half only figures into nineteen of them. As a matter of fact, the Dan within the Thermos looks much different from the one you fought all those years ago. Affected by the lack of your turning in your younger years, his powers and appearance have changed continuously.” The child turned back to the screens for a second before facing Danny again. “Now, to the reason I have brought you here. First, I want you to open a portal to the human world again, specifically the kitchen of your house. You were a little slow yesterday, so I want to make sure that you can do this properly.”

“Okay,” Danny said.

“From the kitchen, I want you to go to the realm of the Far Frozen, then to Fenton Works, then to Skulker’s lair, then to the top of the Sears Tower in Chicago before returning here. If you understand how the portals work, you should be able to do this in under a minute and all with the same portal. I’ll be monitoring you from here.”

Danny closed his eyes, focusing his energy. “Tell me when to start.”

Clockwork waited a moment, watching the energy build within his young pupil. “Now.”

Immediately, a portal wove into the air, the tearing sound that had accompanied the portal’s creation again present. Danny stepped through the portal, stepping into the familiar surroundings of his house before seeing the amphitheatre in Frostbite’s realm, focusing his thoughts there before stepping though the portal. As expected, the bite of cold air met his body, and he turned to the portal, eyes still shut. Focusing on the front stoop of his parent’s house, he stepped through the swirling mass to the place that he had called home for so many years. His thoughts shifted again, and he found himself in Skulker’s realm only long enough to refocus his mind, the brisk wind of the Chicago autumn air swirling around him. Finally refocusing on the Master of Time’s tower, he was back where he’d begun, next to Clockwork. Finished with his lesson, he let the portal dissipate, and his open eyes were greeted by the sight of a genuine smile gracing his guardian’s wrinkled face.

“Fifty-two seconds, Daniel,” Clockwork congratulated.

“Like you said, all I need is a basic idea, not a detailed one. The hardest one was the Sears Tower. I’ve only been in Chicago twice since I started freelance ghost hunting, and neither trip took me that close to downtown.” Danny rubbed his eyes. “Do I always have to do that with my eyes closed?”

“Only until you can start generating images in your mind without being affected by your surroundings. However, you can’t move between the same realm that way. The portals only work between the two worlds. Teleportation is another power entirely, which you only have a seventy percent chance of attaining. Unless, of course, you focus your visions on how to get that power, but that decision is up to you.”

Danny nodded. “So, what about these visions? How do I deal with them?”

“First off, you need to focus on what you want to see. Whether it be a person, a place, or a specific place in time, that is up to you. Then, you have to will your mind to touch the time stream as well as determining what timeline you’re going to follow. From there, the visions should flow. I used the screens as manifestations of what I am seeing in my mind. It gives me a way to see more than just one timeline.”

“So, you can focus on multiple times at once?”

Clockwork nodded. “It is a talent that takes many years to hone. My own progression to this level took almost fifty years of constant training. You, on the other hand, I am uncertain of the exact amount of time, but it is anywhere from ten years to a hundred and fourteen. It is yet another power that fluctuates with which time I am looking at.”

“Okay,” Danny said. “So I have to pick a subject, a time, and a dimensional area.”

“Correct.”

“Okay, so…Sam, five years from now, and she’s had our third child.”

“Good.”

Closing his eyes yet again, Danny emptied his mind of all extraneous thoughts, and once his mind was blank, he reached for an image of Sam. Once that was established, he raised an eyebrow, wondering what Clockwork had meant by touching time.

“You must feel the pulse of the time streams around you. They are like the wind, always moving, and they may be hard to grasp at first,” Clockwork instructed. “Feel for something that feels to you like five years. It is hard to describe because the feeling is somewhat…perceptively relative.”

“Meaning it feels different to each person?”

“Yes.”

Danny focused on Sam again, having lost some of the image in his mind during the conversation. Falling deeper into himself, he reached out for the pulse that should be around him. Sensing movement, he raised a hand slightly, feeling an energy course over his body. Something indescribable, he felt the time frame that he’d touched, finding it a little in the past. Raising his hand further, he kept his mind trained on a vague image of his wife, and soon found the strand of time that felt right. Now that he found the thread he was looking for, he grasped it, feeling the etheric material warm in his palm. Seeking the division in that thread where Sam had given birth to their third child, he felt the thin band of time widen in his grip, growing into its own river before him. Running his hand through the energy, he found the exact timeline he wanted to see, and gripping it tightly, Danny vanished.

In a very un-Clockwork-like moment, a single word slipped past the Time Ghost’s lips.

“Crap.”