Danny drifted past shelves lined with books and papers. He had thought everything would be old, but aside from the random bits of parchment here and there, everything looked new. From what he could read from the bits that were in English, they covered everything from theories on the big bang to the American Revolution, from the discovery of physics to new discoveries in biology and ghost mechanics. Clockwork had interesting stuff on his shelves.
As Danny aimlessly floated by, he suddenly noticed one book was apparently missing from the shelf. Danny glanced down and noticed a book on the floor a few feet below him. It was open. When he flew down, he saw it was open to a page showing what looked like a black ball weighing down a web. He closed it. The old blue cover read Black Holes: An Extensive Guide on How They Manipulate Space and Gravity.
Why did Clockwork have that kind of book? He was the master of time, not space.
Danny decided to pick up the old book and fly over to Clockwork. He was still sorting some old papers, had said it'd been an order from The Observants when Danny popped in earlier to ask for a place to calm down from another fight. At the very least, it looked like a good two thirds of them were stacked.
"Hey Clockwork," the boy began, getting just a hum in response. He held up the book. "Why's this old book here? All your other books look pretty new."
Clockwork looked over at the book. Then he turned back to the papers he had levitating in front of him. "Oh, I had a love of space before I died," he said with a dismissive hand gesture.
That caught Danny's attention. He knew most ghosts were actual ghosts, but he'd never stop to consider if Clockwork was one. He'd always thought Clockwork was some time ghost that had always existed. Now, a thousand questions buzzed in his mind. Who was Clockwork? How had he died? What had given him time powers?
Before he could stop to think if he should ask, Danny'd already blurted out, "You used to be alive? Who were you that you liked space so much?"
Clockwork paused. Then he chuckled, the remaining papers folding themselves into a separate pile. Glancing over his shoulder with a smile, he said, "I suppose it's time you knew."
Danny arched an eyebrow. "Knew what? Who did you used to be, Clockwork?"
Once again, Clockwork chuckled as he turned to properly face Danny and crossed his arms. "Sassy, quick with come backs, good at keeping secrets, loves space. Who do you think I used to be, kid?"
Danny just stared. What was Clockwork saying? That sounded kind of like Danny. Was Clockwork him? Oh god, was Danny actually dead? Had he stayed split in two some how? How could Clockwork be him, and Danny also be himself? Clockwork had to be playing a trick on him.
When no answer came, Clockwork smiled more. "I'm guessing you want an explanation." Danny nodded vigorously.
Clockwork's smile fell as he turned towards the papers again. "Do you remember the first time we met? What Vlad told you while you were stuck in the future?"
The boy nodded again. "Yeah, he said I'd gotten so depressed I asked him to separate my ghost self and human self. And my human self died." And Danny didn't want to go into any more detail. Thinking about how Dan had come to be made him shiver. Merging with another ghost, especially Vlad's ghost, sounded incredibly creepy.
Clockwork nodded solemnly to himself, as if he was confirming that's how it happened. "I'm the ghost of human you from that timeline."
He was him that had died in Dan's future. Clockwork was the outcome of Danny's bad future. Clockwork was him. Danny felt like someone had sat him down in a spinning chair and slapped him. The Master of Time was a Danny. Danny was literally talking to himself.
"B-but," he stuttered out, "how does that even work? That timeline doesn't exist anymore! You said it yourself before that I'm on a better path!"
"You may be on a better path, but that timeline still exists. It's just not the one the world's taken." Two pages from the stack yet to be sorted floated up as Clockwork turned back to Danny. "Say you write this page," he motioned to one, "and then decide not to use it and write this one instead." He motioned to the other. "Just because you go with this one doesn't mean the other no longer exists.
"Time is much the same way. There are countless branches. They may not be taken, but that doesn't mean they no longer exist in the tree of time." He set the papers back on his stack.
That made sense, or at least as much as it could to Danny. The analogy helped. And now that he thought about it, Clockwork formerly being Danny helped explain why he always knew what analogies to use.
"But if you died after the CAT, how were you there before it?" After all, he'd gone to Clockwork's lair before it was time to take it. Had he used magic to go back in time?
Danny caught Clockwork glance at him before turning away. It was a look of someone uncomfortable with the questions they were being asked. He drifted forward with the paper stacks towards his console. For a moment, Danny thought Clockwork might not answer.
But he did. "I'm not quite sure myself sometimes." Then he shuddered, causing his cape to ruffle. It reminded Danny of how Vlad had refused to answer what happened to his human side. "One moment I was waking up from anesthesia, the next I was waking up in space," he held his hands out dramatically, "at the start."
Then Clockwork dropped his arms, taking his staff in both hands. "I suppose time chose me to be its guardian." Then he laughed to himself. "I'll never understand why. Jazz had the better mind for understanding all of this."
Jazz. That brought up a question Danny had never thought to ask after the whole Dan incident. "Did any of them ever become ghosts?" A lot of people who died with unfulfilled lives became ghosts, didn't they? Dying in an explosion right before college would've at least left Jazz's life unfulfilled.
Clockwork, however, rested his arms on the console and shook his head. "No Danny," he whispered back, "none of them became ghosts."
So his Danny's human self had died, gone back in time, and none of his family had become ghosts with him. "So you've been alone all these years?" Clockwork nodded in response. Alone. Since the beginning of time. No friends, no family.
Danny didn't understand how Clockwork managed it.
He floated closer. He knew it was probably hard to talk about, but Danny was still brimming with curiosity; he couldn't help but keep digging for answers. "Do you ever think about them? You know, before everything happened?"
Danny heard Clockwork sigh. When he spoke, his voice was still barely more than a whisper. "Yes. Sometimes when I'm not busy, I find myself looking back. Wondering what it would've been like to continue on not knowing. What it would've been like to be you." He paused as if to swallow. Then, as Clockwork continued, Danny heard his voice start to waver. "Sometimes I wish I could go back to that and do it right."
Hearing his voice waver, someone who was so well spoken and had such a strong voice, it made Danny's stomach drop. The boy had so many more questions, but at this point he knew he probably should stop asking them.
He flew up to Clockwork and set a hand on his shoulder for comfort. There had to be a way to help him. "Well," he began, grasping for something, "they're all still alive now. You made sure of that. Why don't you visit them? Sure it…might be a little weird…but…it'll be nice?" Danny couldn't think of anything else to add.
And just as well; Clockwork shook his head. This time, his voice was room volume again. "Jazz might believe you, but you know mom and dad would sooner shoot me than ask questions. With Sam and Tucker, it just wouldn't be the same." Tears began to brim in his eyes.
Then they began to slip out. "Besides, they're not my family anymore!" Clockwork practically dropped his head into his arms and leaned his weight onto the console. His staff fell to the floor and clattered as papers scattered everywhere beside them. His ghostly body shuddered as he sobbed uncontrollably.
Danny didn't know what to do. Clockwork had been a strong, if strict sometimes, mentor to him, a rock for Danny to cling to when something bad happened. Now, not only had he revealed he was Danny from another timeline, but he was so distraught he'd broken into tears. And he was right; he wasn't a ghost from this timeline, so, in a way, The Fentons weren't really his family anymore. They were family, and yet they weren't. So how could Danny comfort him without anything to comfort him with?
He didn't know. So he let Clockwork float there, sobbing into his arms over the life he'd lost from one too many mistakes. And Danny floated there beside him, idly wringing his hands to get rid of the helplessness he felt in being unable to comfort someone he held dear. He decided he would help Clockwork pick up all the papers later.
Eventually, Clockwork's sobs quieted down. When he looked up at the console in front of him, his cheeks were stained with tears and the skin under his eyes had started to turn green. He straightened himself up, leaning one arm on the console and wiping tears away with the other. "Danny, promise me something."
"Sure, Clockwork. What is it?"
He placed his arm back on the console, a few loose tears still sliding down his cheeks. He took a moment to steady his voice. "Don't take them for granted."
Danny flew a little closer and put an arm around the ghost's shoulders. After seeing Clockwork react so strongly and remembering everything that had happened with Dan, Danny felt a lot more appreciative of his friends and family. "Of course, Clockwork. I promise."