TUE?

Chapter One

Danielle stopped to take a breath. She leaned against a random rock formation and laughed breathlessly, for she had been on the run for the past few hours now. She looked behind her to make sure that she was alone, and took the time to calm down. Her breathing slowed, but she was still shaking with laughter.

"We showed him!" she said triumphantly to herself.

Danielle was running from an encounter with Walker. She and her friends had pulled a terrible prank on him, opening the gates so that all the prisoners in his prison were free to escape. He had chased her, yelling something about her 'annoying punk brother' and how both of them were going to pay and whatever. But she had been faster and he was soon lost in the crowd of his own guards and fugitive criminals. The friends she had just met- the ones that had helped her with the prank had all split up, all of them running in different directions. It was an everyone-for-themselves sort of prank and she knew she probably wouldn't see them ever again, but really, it made no difference to her. She had just met them. And now, here she was, in the middle of who knows where in the Ghost Zone. She sat down and ran a hand through her hair, contemplating what to do next.

Like her 'cousin,' Danny Phantom, and her father, Vlad Plasmius, she was half ghost. But unlike the both of them, she didn't have a home. She was free to wander both the real world and the Ghost Zone and she was proud of it. She was always very happy- she was a happy person in general. She could make friends in both worlds easily and everyone who met her could tell it just by seeing the smile that was always on her cute little face. But behind the smile, deep down, she could feel that something was missing.

And everywhere she went, she saw it. Everyone else seemed to always have someone. In the real world, she saw families and friends. Always together. In the Ghost Zone, she saw couples, alliances, or ghosts that were too wrapped up in their own obsessions and misery to care that they were alone. It made her jealous and the more she saw of it, the worse her jealousy got. She wished that she, too, could have a family or a friend who she could be there for or could be there for her. But she wouldn't get her wish unless she asked Desiree, and she knew from experience that Desiree would only make her life worse than it already was.

For now, she was content to wander aimlessly around the Ghost Zone (for some reason, she had always like it better here than in the real world.) Every day was the same routine. She would make ghostly friends here and there, they would have a little fun, and then she would move on, in search for something more. Really, she wanted more than anything to be in Danny's place, but she could never impose herself on Danny or the Fenton family. And she would most definitely not be going back to Vlad. Ever. Especially after what he tried to do to her last week. He could have stabilized her, but instead, he had let her fall apart until she was nothing but ectoplasm.

She had to admit, however, that there was a plus side from last week's encounter with him. Now that she was stabilized, she didn't need anyone's help to do anything. And she thought that she had even managed to make Valerie see that not all ghost were evil. Well, really, Danny had convinced her. But whatever.

She sighed. Where to, now? Like the real world, there were hot spots in the Ghost Zone. Places where she could meet new people and form new alliances. While Danny was forced to make enemies in the Ghost Zone because of his responsibility to Amity Park, Danielle didn't have to. And since the Ghost Zone was her home, it would definitely be smarter to make more friends than enemies. Unfortunately, most of the time she was judged by her looks. Since she looked like a relative of Danny, she usually stayed away from Danny's enemies and hid out in the deeper parts of the Ghost Zone. Not that he was any less famous there, it was just that there were some parts of the Ghost Zone where its denizens were more friendly and much more open to her. She didn't really like being known as Danny Phantom's 'clone twin sister', anyway.

Her decision made, she stood up and began flying in the direction of the nearest hang out.

---

Clockwork wasn't particularly busy, he never was- he had all the time in the world on his hands, after all. But it still didn't detract from the fact that he didn't like the Observers one single bit.

"I don't have time for you," he said, turning away from the ectoplasmic screens to face the two Observers behind him. One was dressed in white robes, the other in red.

"You're not serious," the first one stated lamely. "You have all the time in the world."

The second Observer in white robes wasn't as stupid.

"If you don't have time, then make it," he said harshly and decided to cut to the chase. "I expect you know why we've come."

"Of course I know why."

"Then you know that this is an exact repeat of… the last time." The Observer's eye moved towards a shelf in the corner where a somewhat beat up and dented thermos was standing alone. Clockwork didn't need to follow his gaze to know what he was talking about.

"Did you want me to do something about it?" he said sarcastically, though by the tone in which he said it, it wasn't apparent he was being sarcastic at all.

"Yes, do whatever it is you want this time. You've proven that your meddling may be effective in dealing with this kind of situation. Go ahead, cheat, anything you want, just do something. It's the same thing, just do your job."

"Ah, but you fail to see that she is in fact very different than Danny. Where that future happens because his family dies, her future happens because of something else entirely. She lacks friendship and familial ties and she has no responsibilities. Her problem isn't sudden, it's gradual. There's nothing I can do to remedy the situation unless she has some sense talked into her."

"So talk sense!"

"I would, but it is something that has to be done by…someone else." The wiser observer could see where this was going.

"Ah… the boy?"

"Exactly. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a time stream to repair."

As the observers left, he returned his attention to the screens behind him. On the main screen was Danielle, wandering around looking for new friends.

"I hope for your sake that I'm right," he said aloud to the screen before he suddenly disappeared into nothingness.

---

i know its gonna be a little au but im tryin to keep it cannon as possible.