For a ghost out of time, the feeling of getting old was strange. He felt stretched, bent. The time spent as a child was growing shorter and short, while the time spent being old was more and more frequent. Though, of course, time is relative. He might exist for millenia more, or only another five minutes. It was hard to tell. But the time of the old ghosts had long since passed. It was time to prepare a new keeper of the clocks.

"The Fenton boy is a possibility." Danny Phantom. Often too arrogant and stubborn for his own good. Despite his flaws, though, the boy meant well, and was shaping up exactly as the ancient ghost had planned. But there was his family, his friends, to also take into account. He wouldn't leave them easily. And the web of his futures lay out with a million different possibilities, only one of which made him the future Ghost of Time.

"The other halfas…" A few popped up, thoughout human history. Freak lightning strikes, the occasional lost soul that found itself trapped in the Ghost Zone through a natural portal, and acquired strange powers before finding a way home. But they were all weak, in comparison to the Phantom boy and the man Plasmius.

"Hm…" Plasmius. He was a potential too. But only as a last resort. He was already jaded, with too many delusions of grandeur. No, he wouldn't do. He would be unable to leave the time stream to play out as it should, instead twisting it to his own purposes. He wouldn't last long.

"And then… there's the girl…" Danielle Phantom. Creation of Vlad Plasmius, clone of Danny Phantom. An enigma. Even Clockwork couldn't see how her future played out. Her continued existence was as improbable as her origin, and the time stream flowed past her, almost ignoring her. As if she were already out of time. From his observations, she had the same stubbornness as the Phantom boy, but a determination and bravery that outshone even his. For her young age, she was also, strangely, less impulsive, knowing when to wait and when to make her move.

Still a child, yes. And a major gamble at that. But the old ghost smiled at the window, watching her as she flew along, laughing in the open air. In spite of her mystery… or perhaps because of it… "It's time to pay the Phantom girl a visit, I think…"