Author's Note:
I'm really excited about this fic. Really, really excited about it. It's the amalgamation of a few different ideas coming together to form one big story. I was going to hold off releasing chapters of this until after Christmas, but… well, I couldn't stop myself.

Although we are starting with Clockwork, this is going to mainly be about Danny, Sam, Tucker, and anyone else in their immediate vicinity. Normally I like to write about the ghosts or side characters more, but not this time!

This fic might get quite dark. To keep things interesting, this is all the warning you're going to get. Read ahead with caution, or more hopefully with enthusiasm.

NOTE: I have a tumblr account under "pseudinymous". After chapter five is posted I'll be putting up chapter previews, unfinished parts, and notes for this fic. Follow me there if interested!

Like Clockwork
A fanfic by Pseudinymous

~ 1: Prelude ~

A clock chimed eight.

Clockwork's pupil-less eyes slid towards it, gazing at its face with the distaste of someone who knew something very bad was coming. It was his master clock, the one clock that showed the true time outside of time — which made a lot of sense when you realised he had to organise his days somehow. The ghost let out a long murmur the could have been a sigh, watching the seconds hand continue its crushing cycle towards the inevitable.

Perhaps if he hadn't been so dutiful to the flows of time, he wouldn't have been here today. Drifting aimlessly, contemplating non-existence. But the Japanese had a good word for this, even if it tended to be used in more mysterious circumstances: hitsuzen. An event which, in this causality, was absolutely unavoidable.

He had pondered it before, but never what it had meant for him. And now he was here staring Fate in her beautiful, silver-lined clock face. Somewhere beyond it a woman was smiling back, but her eyes showed a well-hidden funerary sadness.

A disturbance in the air interrupted him from his pensive stare. "Clockwork?" it said, innocently.

Clockwork's eyes slid back away from the clock, and rested heavily upon the boy he had taken such a shine to. But this time, unlike many others, he did not smile — his face remained blank, worryingly calm, calculating. Danny wasn't used to the Guardian of Time needing so much of it to think, and he made little nervous and disconcerted gestures under Clockwork's gaze. He even poked at the ground with one of his feet, in an apparent test to see if it was real.

After a further pause, the old ghost changed to the form he took as a younger adult, away from the ancient and decrepit form of a hunched grandfather. If this was the last of him, he wasn't going to spend it as a geriatric — he was going to look youthful, but still old enough to appear wise.

You weren't wise enough, his mind whispered.

"… Danny." said Clockwork, eventually. The boy's eyes brightened to attention. "This is a difficult situation. I didn't see it coming."

You could have said Danny's face fell, but as it had already started off in a position that didn't exactly indicate happiness, such a familiar description wasn't adequate. To put it in terms of geography, it was more like the inevitable plunge that a sheer cliff took after being weathered away by the ocean waves for too many centuries. Danny's face was good at carrying the weight of centuries. He had experienced enough Life to be worth several, by now.

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked. "… I thought you could see everything!"

Clockwork gave the half-ghost a careful scan with his wide, red sclera. Danny's hair was white, his eyes were green, and he glowed with the odd vitality that had come to be expected from someone who was technically half dead. The boy was full of youthful life, full of the innate desire to do good and protect. Dutiful, adept at handling pressures that would have had most crying and running as fast as they could, and eternally grateful for the graces he'd been given — well, most of the time, anyway. He was powerful, too, with quick wits and plenty of battle smarts. Perhaps peppered with a touch of arrogance, but overall the deal was good.

Time had converged upon Danny to make him the person he was today. Lesser people would have given up, but he treated this odd balancing act with curiosity and, increasingly, an iron fist.

And with his many virtues, he was the only one Clockwork could trust.

The old time ghost's mouth curled to produce a slight and sombre smile. "Danny…" he began. "Soon, I will be gone."

The words thronged about the place. It was the first time he'd said them aloud, and the clock tower seemed to protest against them, as if holding them in would protect its master. Danny's eyes widened, but he did not interrupt as Clockwork pulled something old and metallic from his pocket. He held it up in the air, where it glinted in the dim, green light.

"This watch is of the utmost importance. Do not lose it. Do not break it. Do not let the Observants know about it. Keep it on you always," he paused, admiring the golden etchings, produced so long ago in an ancient language. "You must realise… it truly is time itself."

The part of the cliff that wasn't supposed to fall, even after the weathering, plunged to its watery grave. Danny's tanned face was quickly turning white, and he looked at the watch as if it weighed down upon the world with the mass of a billion suns, all condensing into a single, unfathomably horrific black hole. The singularity was squarely on the centre pin, which held its ornate silver hands to the surface. Streams of energy produced by the forming quasar.

"When you say 'gone'—" Danny began, but he stopped as Clockwork pulled out the boy's hand by its reluctant wrist and dropped the pocket watch in. It made little metallic clinkings as its chain coiled up, clashing against its own golden surfaces.

"I mean gone forever," said Clockwork, simply. "I am dying."

Suddenly, the time ghost looked far older than his form implied, even older than that of the grandfather he was sometimes fond of displaying. His face may have been young but his expression said he was a constant coming to an end, finally realising how ancient he actually was.

Danny's hand was shaking. He didn't seem to have figured out what to do with the watch, and held it out as if he was still in the process of receiving it. "… How?" was all he could manage.

Clockwork turned around again, staring into the hands of his master clock, into the face of that morose young woman. "I will fade. First, it will begin with my hand," he said, and he removed his glove to reveal an appendage that only appeared to be there in spirit, no more substantial than the thoughts and wishful thinking of a very determined believer. "And then it will spread up through the rest of my arm, through my other limbs, until it swallows me."

The boy didn't seem able to bring himself to speak. Clockwork looked back at him, smiling sadly as he replaced the glove, hiding his illness.

"… I am truly sorry to be passing such a burden onto you, Danny."

The watch slid from Danny's trembling fingers, but Clockwork swooped in and caught it just in time, with his good hand.

"I'm sorry—!" Danny gasped, but Clockwork shook his head, banishing the thoughts of apology.

"This is my fault, Danny. I've failed you. Failed everyone actually, by succumbing to this," he made a pause, placing the watch back securely into Danny's hand. "The only way I can redeem myself here is by having you protect this. I cannot see into this timeline's future anymore, but I know you will treat it with the respect it deserves. That you will keep it well out of the hands of the Observants."

The boy stared down at the watch again, and touched it gently with one of the fingers on his other hand. Even through the hazmat gloves he could feel the embossed words and edgings, and the bump that rose above to form the clasp. Something about the space around it was odd, as if it was being warped inwards, but it was just a touch out of reach for ordinary senses to fathom.

"What do I do with it?" Danny asked, his voice down to what barely counted for a whisper. "What does it do?"

"In time, Danny…" said Clockwork. "For now, your devoted protection is all that matters."

Danny had left, but only by force. The clock tower was quiet, again, disturbed only by the hushed telltale ticks of a thousand hands.

Clockwork stared into the old master clock, and Fate stared back. His face was transparent now, and had faded into the background almost in its entirety. His eyes had lost their glow, his impressive scar its impact.

"… Is this what you really wanted?" he sighed.

Fate gave no answer. She'd never been good at replying.

A few minutes later, everything was silent. The light had faded. The gears had stopped.

Clockwork was gone.