Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or its characters. If I did this story would've been part of the show long ago.

PhantomShadows part 1

Dan Returns!

Summary: This is part one of a four part story. It takes place after Phantom Planet. Danny's evil, future self never was destroyed. Here, we find that he has escaped Clockworks grasp and somehow defeated him. This is because something was weakening Clockwork. But what?

In his lair, Clockwork was watching Danny, for he was now responsible for him since he broke the rules and influenced the boy's decision back during the C.A.T. test. "That boy deserved his second chance. It's hard to believe that he turned into that monster of a ghost that ended up destroying almost everything on the planet," Says the timemaster. He couldn't figure out how Dan still existed! He looked through all of time after the C.A.T. and couldn't find any trace of the evil ghost or any hints to suggest his coming to existence. So how was the phantom still in the thermos? He looks over to said thermos and thinks that very question.

"He must still exist because he's outside of time...but that doesn't explain how he still existed before he was put into the thermos," he says. "I'm supposed to be master of time and yet I can't find the answer to this one question?" He continues contemplating possibilities on the subject and rules each one out. What is the answer? All of a sudden the timemaster grasps his head and cries out in pain. "What's going on?"

Then a voice sounds in his head. "Your worlds will come to an end. You are merely a pawn in my master plan. As is Dan Phantom. Your use has come to an end. But Dan's use has only just begun."

Then the pain diminishes and he loses his power. His eyes widen at what the voice had said. "Oh no! It can't be!" He turns and looks at the thermos. It's shaking like mad. "No!" The thermos explodes, leaving an evil Dan Phantom in its place.

"I'm back. Miss me?" He fires a green laser at Clockwork.

at the Nasty Burger...

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were sitting at a table surrounded by people from around town. "Now I wish nobody knew about my powers," Danny mutters so quietly that not even Sam or Tucker heard him.

"You can never get rid of me. I don't see why you even tried," a too familiar voice says in an amused tone. Danny looks around, hoping he was hearing things. He noticed everyone was frozen.

"What's going on?" He asks no one in particular.

"I'm back and better than ever! You can't defeat me this time Danny!" Danny notices there's a slight echo to the voice, before everyone starts moving again.

"Uh guys? We gotta go," Danny says as he grabs Sam and Tucker's arms and goes ghost. He then flies up and through the ceiling after becoming intangible. After a minute or two, he ends up at Fentonworks. He flies down to the basement with his two friends and let's them go once there.

"What's up Danny? What's wrong?" Asks Sam.

"Yeah, you're kinda quiet," Tucker adds.

"I heard him,"Danny explains with a quiet and almost disbelieving voice.

"Heard who? Danny what's going on?" Sam questions the halfa.

"I heard...me. The future me. The evil me," Danny explains with the same tone in his voice.

Sam and Tucker adopt shocked and slightly scared faces. "Well if he comes back you can beat him just like last time," Sam exclaims.

"But it was weird," Danny goes on, not even aware Sam had said something. "When I heard him...everyone but me was frozen. It was like Clockwork froze time and I was unaffected because of a time medallion. Only I wasn't wearing a time medallion."

Now his friends gain confused looks.

"I have to find Clockwork! Make sure My evil self is still in the thermos!" Danny exclaims.

"But how are you going to do that? Clockwork exists outside of time," Tucker explains.

"That's why I'm gonna borrow the Infimap from Frostbite," Danny clarifies. "Then I'll figure out the rest."

ten minutes later, in the ghostzone...

Danny floats around, looking at the Infimap. He looks up from the map and finds a door in front of him. "Here goes." He goes through the door and finds a platform with a lever on it that looked like Clockwork's timestaff. He floats over to the lever and pulls it. A bright light envelops him and he appears in Clockwork's lair.

He looks around, not finding any trace or Clockwork or the thermos. "I have a bad feeling about this," he says. After a minute, he finds a figure in a purple robe lying on the ground, unconscience. "Clockwork!" He rushes over and turns over Clockwork. He opens his eyes and finds Danny staring at him.

"Danny? How'd you get here?" Asks the timemaster.

"I used the Infimap," he explains. "What happened? Where's your timestaff?"

Clockwork's face immediately goes from a worn-out face to a horrified one.

"You have to stop your evil self! He took my timestaff! GET BACK TO AMITY PARK!" The worn-out, frightened timemaster screams at him.

"What? Oh no! I knew it! It really was him I heard!" He curses himself as he shoots back to the lever and pulls it.

Once he arives back at Amity Park, he finds something completely unexpected. Instead of finding his hometown, he found a wasteland. Everything was in turmoil! Fentonworks was in rubble along with every other building in town, and not a single citizen in sight. "What the heck happened? I couldn't have done this in ten minutes!"

"On the contrary," A voice says behind Danny.

He whips around to find his older self standing in his wake. Only he seemed different. You know, other than the timestaff in his hand. There was a dark aura around him and his eyes were black where it should've been white. His red eyecolor remained in the black, His hair was red, the white on his suit was now red, and he had dark energy around his hands instead of green ectoplasm. He also had a mark on his forehead that looked like the eye of Ra.

"What the-?" He never had time to finish his sentence, for something hit him in the side of the head and he blacked out. When he next opened his eyes, he foud himself in Vlad's old lair. "What's going on?" He asks in a weak voice.

"I'm taking your power. I may not need it because I'm twice as powerful as you but you can never have too much power now can you?" Danny turns his head to find his evil self standing there with something other than the timestaff in his hands. He then notices he's bound to a table. He tries to go ghost but can't.

"That's an ectoranium table with ectoranium cuffs. You can't 'go ghost' while you're in it and you can't use any of your ghost powers. I can however thank to my newfound abilities, you see, I don't just have ghost powers now. I have much more than that but I don't need to tell you because you're going to die here in a minute anyway," explains the evil phantom.

"But if I die you die too," Danny retorts.

"Actually I won't," the phantom says with an evil smirk. "I have come to believe I am not bound by the rules of time. I can do anything to you and still stay alive well and powerful. That's why I still exist you foolish child." Danny now looks worried.

"I'll find a way to stop you, you won't win," Danny says in a low voice.

"In case you haven't noticed, I already have. Amity Park is decimated. You have nothing left. Your family...your frinds...they're all dead. Every single one of them." Dan says with amusement in his voice.

Danny adopts a defeated look on his face. He...was right. He has nothing left.