Rise of the King

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, or any characters thereof. All I own are Demi, her brothers, and the rest of the gang that you don't recognize.

A/N: Still in Demi's POV. It'll make sense if you read Awakening first.
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Chapter One

'Tick tock, tick tock,

The words that the Time Master cannot stop.

Tick tock, tick tock,

Then watch as the silence drops.

'The last of the old lights

Guide us through endless night.

The Ancient Ones are called again;

The cruel master, to seal away.

'This time it may forever be,

And the Ancient Ones see

That all the world over,

Here stand the last of the others.

'So rise, Ancient Ghosts, to the call of the clock:

Tick tock, tick tock.'

I read over the poem in my dream journal for the sixteenth time, at least, and the more I tried to figure it out, the less sense it made. As far as I knew, the so-called Ancient Ghosts had all moved on, except possibly Clockwork and the one-eyed ghosts he worked for. Dad called the Observants in his stories, which seemed like a better term to use than 'one-eyed ghosts'. Then there was the phrase "The words that the Time Master cannot stop, in reference to "Tick tock, tick tock." This didn't make sense, either, since the title Time Master implied just the opposite.

I heard a knock on my door frame, which jerked me out of my thoughts. "Demi, everything okay in here?" Dad asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "I was just thinking."

"'Bout what?"

"A dream I had a couple weeks ago."

Dad stood erect and raised an eyebrow. "Was it a nightmare?"

I shook my head. "More like a vision or message."

"Ah. Figure out what it means yet?"

"Nope. It was from Clockwork, though, so it doesn't really strike me as all that odd, considering."

Dad let out a soft chuckle, closed his eyes, and shook his head softly. "I'm not surprised either," he whispered.

"Does it make any sense to you, this poem?" I asked, handing him my journal, open to the most recent entry, only a couple weeks old. He read the poem slowly, using an expression identical to the one he used when he asked the police officer interviewing me for details on Mr. Collins' murder.

Dad chewed his lip and knit his brow. "Definitely sounds like Clockwork," he said after a long moment, handing my journal bakc to me. "Phantom's been in his custody for thirty years, our time. Maybe he's heard it."

"Much as I hate to say it, I'll ask him."

Dad nodded, and I looked down at my hands and arms. The tank top I was wearing revealed the portions of my arms that were bluish and scarred from Phantom's attacks. "Still thinking about that, arent you?"

"How can I not?"

Dad took a seat on my bed. "Everything's gonna work out, Demi."

"I hope you're right, but so little of this is making sense that I can't be sure of anything anymore."

"I trust Clockwork to know what he's doing."

"But will it be worth it? Phantom was Act One, so what's Act Two, and you mentioned someone called Pariah Dark, but I don't think you told me that story, either."

"I haven't. Pariah Dark and Phantom are two of the most dangerous ghosts in existence. When I ghost hunt, I'm trying to keep you safe, from them especially."

"Not working out so well, is it?"

"That's not going to stop me from trying."

"I know, Dad."

He wrapped his arms around me, and I closed my eyes and let out a soft sigh. "You talk to Phantom about the poem, and we'll go from there, okay?"

"Okay."

DPDP

I walked to Fentonworks, a fifteen-minute walk from home, and walked into the basement. The Fenton Thermos was perched on a table near the portal, and when I began to cross the basement, Phantom cried from inside the thermos, "Don't shake it."

"Relax," I said. "I'm not gonna shake it." I took a seat on a nearby office chair. "I'm going to recite a poem for you, and I want you to tell me what you know about it."

"What makes you think I'll know anything about poetry."

"The poem is Clockwork's, and you've been in his custody for thirty years, on a time scale, at least."

He let out an audible sigh. "Okay, hit me with it." I cleared my throat and recited a poem that I had committed to memory over the course of the previous couple of weeks. Phantom was silent for a long moment after I finished, but finally he said, "I've heard it before, but I'm as clueless now as I was then. It's basically meaningless, as far as I'm concerned."

"Do you remember any sort of context you heard it in?"

"Mm, parts of it. End of the world, return of the Ancient Ghosts, weird crackpot stuff like that." After a pause, he added, "You don't think it's that crazy, do you?"

I shrugged. "Anything's possible."