A/N: Slight AU - TUE happened after PP but he didn't reveal his identity. Get it? Got it? Good.
"No! How could you do this to me? I trusted you! I trusted you Sam! I...I loved you!" I glare at her through the tears in my eyes and curl up into myself. In a soft voice I say "Clockwork was right." I shake my head "He's always right. Why should he be wrong now? Why...why did I trust you?"
"Danny," her voice is broken "please, it's for the best." I glare at her, suddenly filled with rage
"What was for the best? What part of this is good for anyone? For me? For you? For the town? For all the people that will get hurt without my protection? For all the people that will die?" my heart breaks again, something I didn't think was possible and more tears fall. I can't even look at her "I...I-I promised Sam...I promised and...I have to get out of here, I-" I look up at her defiantly, refusing to show any more weakness before her. "Goodbye Sam, you'll never see Dan again." I raise my hand and blast her as she screams, terror radiating from her and she tries to move out of the way. She falls to the floor. She's unconscious, so I pick her up and put her in her bed, tucking her in. I kiss her cheek and place my locket around her neck. "Goodbye Sam. I love you." And with that I fly out the window. I never looked back.
A voice breaks me from my sad reverie. It had been a year. The egg was rocking. Today's the day.
"Daniel, please come down, it's time for you to meet the new arrival." Oh, forgot that was today too. I stopped floating near the ceiling and touched down near the Professor
"You sure this is a good idea?"
"We have helped Jean and we have helped you Daniel, and I believe you in turn shall help the others." I shrugged
"Okay, say, where is Jean?" I ask as I walk beside him
"Welcoming the first new arrival."
"What about Storm and Logan?" I feel a twinge in my chest, and in my eyes. It hurts a bit, oh, crap, scratch 'a bit'. The professor turns to me.
"They are out at the moment. Daniel, are you alright?"
"Yeah," I squint and rub my eyes "just a headache, probably just need to dink some water."
"Is it your telepathy? It is fairly new to you, and your mind still may be adjusting." I stop
"No. It's like," its like an intense shooting pain in my freaking head! *Oh, fucking hell!*
"Daniel, I will not tolerate that kind of language, even in your mind, and please, try not to project so loudly."
"Uh, sorry professor, it just," cue pain! "really hurts. AHHH! My head feels like someone drove a railroad spike through it!" make that ten railroad spikes "AH! It's getting worse!"
"Professor? Danny? I have Scott, is everything alright up there?"
"Hi Jean, we're fine." *just some fucking excruciating pain is all.*
"Daniel." the professor warns me as footsteps approach "Language."
"Yeah, sorry." I cringe and hiss. What's wrong with me? "Ahhhh! Jesu-" *Daniel* the professor warns again "-unheimer, darken-lark-fark! Graggle-baggle! Augh! Made up words just aren't as satisfying!" I fist my eyes
"Hey, man, are you ok? Wait, is that Danny Phantom?" new voice, must be Scott...really? I'm in excruciating pain almost collapsed and that's all I can think of? 'Must be Scott', geeze I'm messed up. It hurts more so I press my hands harder.
"Yeah, I'm fine." the pain flares higher *ah f-f-freak? Yeah, that's better than 'fuck'.*
"Daniel." Well crap. "Daniel," I fist my eyes even harder, it really hurts
"Ah, professor, can you cut me a break? It feels like my eyes are about to explode here!"
"Yes, and for good reason too, the pain stopped almost thirty seconds ago, the pain you feel now is because you are pressing your palms into your eyes."
"Huh?" I drop my hands and stand up, opening my eyes "Oh," the pain's gone, mostly "well then." I look up and see a tall guy, brown hair, serious face, looks kinda stretched a bit, and he's wearing some super shades, all red. He has a bag over his shoulder and a leather jacket, blue jeans, blue shirt, oh, and he glowed like a freaking rainbow. The glow was just above his skin and only around the edges of his silhouette. He glowed yellow, blue, a bit of green, and a tinge of red, he had some brown in there and a streak of purple, but overall his main color was blue, wow. "Wow, you always glow like that?"
"Like what?" he asked. Jean put a hand on my shoulder
"Danny, what are you talking about?" I turned to her and we gasped at the same time and then spoke at the same time as well. "Your eyes!"
"You glow!" She was an amalgamation of colors, just like Scott was, except her colors were different and...wait a second, what? "Wait, what about my eyes? I think we should be more concerned about why you two are lit up like Christmas trees."
"Danny!" she rummages through her bag for something and Scott asks
"His eyes aren't usually like that? Is everything ok?"
"Everything is fine , I believe young Daniel here has merely discovered a new ability."
"What?" I turn to him and, surprise surprise, he's glowing too "OK, did I miss the part in the dress code about casual Fridays and glowing Tuesdays?"
"Danny," Jean turns me around and hold up a compact mirror "look." Veni Vidi Vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. Or in this case, I came, I saw, I freaked out. My eyes were black.
"My eyes are black," but my iris was still a glowing toxic green "that's...new." I look at my eyes for a bit, then at the resident Christmas trees, mainly the professor. "Sooooo, you guys aren't glowing?"
"I do not believe so Daniel, if you will let me look inside your mind I believe we may be able to solve this fairly quickly. May I?"
"Uh, yeah, sure." I close my eyes and get ready for that weird feeling, that feeling of someone nosing around in your brain
"Daniel, I need your eyes to be open for this to work."
"Huh?" so he can see what I'm talking about "Oh, yeah, sorry." I open my eyes and I can feel the professor in there directing my head and eyes where to go. It's kinda freaky, it feels like you're twitching but...more. It's kinda scary not being in control of the one thing you should be. He leaves my mind.
"Remarkable. It seems you now can see a person's aura, or, their 'spiritual presence' if you will."
"Is that like their souls or something?"
"No, not at all. A person's soul is their core being, it's who they are. An aura is more...a representation of personality or a persons feelings at that moment, it is their energy, their life force." I stare at him and click my tongue.
"Oooookay then." I wonder if I can see it in human form. "Wait a second." Blue-ish white rings from at my waist and went in opposite directions, up and down transforming me from Phantom to Fenton. White to black, green to blue and Hazmat to street clothes. I look around and no one's glowing. "You're not glowing anymore, are my eyes normal now?" I ask Scott, but then I realize he doesn't know what normal is for me.
"Uh, they're blue and white." I smile
"Thanks. Names Danny." I offer him my hand "Welcome to here."
"Scott. 'Welcome to here'?" he raises an eyebrow at me and I shrug
"What? You are here, so I welcome you to it." The professor rolls up, literally
"I must apologize for Daniel, he is most peculiar at times."
"Am not!"
"Your choice of rooms Daniel?" I just cross my arms and pout. The egg in my pocket is practically vibrating. Today's the day.
"No prob," says Scott "he kinda reminds me of my brother."
"Well, you won't be seeing too much more of me."
"Huh, why not?" Today's the day.
"Uh, a guy I know, his name's 'Clockwork', he kinda...sorta...told me to disappear for a while?"
"Uhhh, I'm not really sure what's going on right now."
"That makes three of us." Says Jean "Danny, who's Clockwork?"
"You will find out, in time." great, he's rubbing off on me.
"Daniel, could you please elaborate?" I scratch the back of my neck and think about it
"Uhhh, maybe?" I look around the room for a purple cloak "Uh, Clockwork, if they aren't them who they were supposed to be then please stop me." Everyone is majorly confused, not only at my talking to thin air but also at my...interesting, comment. I close my eyes and reach for that part of myself that's...pink? That's how it feels to me and the only way I can describe it. Invisibility is glass, intangibility is air, flight is wind, and ice...is ice, blasts are green and my wail a feeling, that one when you hear jet noise. Recently my teleportation is smoke, vortex's power is a thundercloud, opening portals is like flexing green, duplication is an intangible stretch almost, and telepathy...is pink. Morphing feels like dying, but just for a second. I reach for pink and the memory I want, and cast it away and into my hand. It feels weird. I open my eyes and see a pink sphere of ectoplasm in my hand. "Hey! I did it right! YES!" Everyone looks at me. "Uh...hrmhrm, yeah, if you want to know why then touch the pink." Everyone looks at me for a moment but then reaches a hand out and touches the pink, and it send them into my memory.
I'm flying through a giant mass of swirling green and horrible sounds, purple doors of every size shape and description fly by as I head toward my destination. Tortured screams and shouts, laughter, simple conversation, whispers and song, all in every language imaginable drift past my ears, but I'm used to it, a clock tower comes into sight and I touch down just outside of it. A scream sounds near me and a tortured monstrosity flies by, being perused by what looks like a clan of small faeries. I shrug and turn around, going through giant wooden doors into a clock tower, past rooms holding unimaginable wonders, I know, I've seen a few. I had a headache for three weeks after I saw one, that's when I decided to stop snooping around his tower. I walk straight to the room that holds Clockwork's screens, the ghost himself standing, er, floating there.
"Hello Daniel, I've been expecting you."
"Aren't you always?"
"Yes." He turns into an infant as he turns around "Before you ask, as I know you will, I am doing this because one day you will show this memory to three people. They will not be Tucker, Sam or young Jasmine. By then two of those three will have turned on you." I try to protest but he just talks over me "When the time comes you will know who they are. Hello, I, am Clockwork, the Master of Time" he turns into an old man "I know everything that ever was, all that is, and all that may, or may not, be. I know you Charles, Jean, and yes, even you Scott, and no, you may not visit me." I am very confused by now
"Show what? Who are those people you were talking about.?"
"You will know, in time."
"Uh, I was kinda hoping you could help me with my history homework."
"I will, and you will remember what I say in it's entirety, even marking it on your calender." he turns into a baby "Eighteen months from now, to the day, you will do something, to temper your anger, and nurture Sally. You will remove yourself from the visible spectrum, for a year, feeding Sally your energy, teaching her as well. You will not interact directly with anyone, and you will stay in a room on the highest floor with no door, that only you, and soon after, two others will be able to access. You will be tempted to stop your training, but you must not, for yourself and for Sally. In this way you will learn to control your anger, and prevent yourself from turning into Dan after the betrayal." He's a man
"What betrayal? Who's Sally? When will I...what will I do? What about school?" Clockwork gives me a grey egg the size of a baseball
"This, is Sally, or at least, it will be. You will be betrayed by the one you love most Daniel, and I suggest you read."
"But...she wouldn't...would she? I mean...I can't think about this now. Read?"
"They have an extensive library." he pulls out a volume from nowhere titles 'Blade Fiends and You' "I suggest this. They also have a studio to practice your art."
"Well, I guess."
"Play your guitar."
"I can rock pretty hard."
"You will think."
"Uh, I do that a lot already."
"Not like you will you haven't."
"Ugh, future talk messes my head up." Clockwork grins and turns into a baby
"It won't soon young Daniel, in time." we both say the last part "Yes, you're learning." I groan
"So in eighteen months I'll be an invisible hermit for a year? With an egg? What about food and stuff?"
"I suggest a batsudan, but you will also have many conversations with Miss Grey and young Sally, you could just ask her, telepathically of course. Use your spare time to train you aural sight."
"Valery? Wait a second, my what? I don't have telepathy! Or whatever that other thing is!"
"Not Valery, Jean, and you will, your sight for instance, you will call it your 'dead eyes', a rather...ammusing name. You will understand."
"I will?" he's an old man
"Yes, you will." I hold my head in my hands, so not understanding
"Okay, what about school then?"
"You will learn many things in the nocturnal hours with me as your teacher, from eight P.M. to three A.M. you shall learn. You and Miss Grey shall have no secrets from each other."
"Ooookay."
"Daniel, when I say no secrets, I mean no secrets. You will share everything that you do with each other."
"Uh, everything?"
"Everything. This goes for you too Miss Grey."
"Uh, whoever you are, I am soooo sorry about all of this, but you should probably listen or he'll keep rewinding time until you do what he says."
"She appreciates your concern Daniel, and he is quite right , I have done just such things before." He's a man again
"This is too weird. I never thought I'd say this but can we just do my homework?"
The memory faded and the real world bled back into existence. Everyone's looking at me, Jean's a bit freaked out, Scott's just taking it in as part of his new confusing life, and the professor...is thinking. Well crap.
"So, I was thinking, you guys don't have to have a shrine or anything, but could you set some food out after you eat? Maybe in a special spot or something?"