I had to write an Edgar Allan-Poe style story for my Language Arts/ Reading class. I've been slightly obsessed with DP for a while now, so I wanted to use a villain from it. I decided on Dark Dan- he worked best, although I thought about using Vlad. The original is on ffn under the title of His Destruction. After I wrote it, I had to find a picture to illustrate it, so while I was browsing DeviantArt for Dan pics, I found a super cute pic of Clockwork and Dan. That's kind of what this is based off of. As in, kind of, sort of, not really.

This story takes place one (1) years after TUE. PP never happened. I don't own Danny Phantom, but someday I WILL buy the rights to the show! I WILL! (Danny: I so do not look forward to that day.)

After my younger self captured me and gave me to Clockwork, he kept me in a very cramped Fenton Thermos in his Clock Tower. This was not my idea of fun. Then one day, I heard someone coming near my containment cell. Who? I wondered. Clockwork? He had always ignored me before, and I didn't see any reason for that to change. But who else could it be? The Master of Time had never allowed anyone anywhere near my Thermos.

"Hello, Dan," the voice came. It was Clockwork. I thought so.

"What do you want?" I asked, suspicious and yet curious at the same time. I could feel some things, but nothing resembling love or like or hate or anything like that.

"We haven't talked much. How do you feel about what you did?" He sounded like Jazz, worthless sister that she was.

"I don't feel, remember?" I said mockingly. Yet I wondered, troubled. Was that a trace of regret in my reflection on the sides of this cage? I brushed the thought away under the category of "impossible".

But he knew. He could tell that I was unsure of myself, that I felt unsettled by this remaining emotion. "Don't try to lie to me, Dan," he said, "I can sense your anxiety." I grumbled some incoherent insult under my breath. Who was he, to think that he knew my every thought?

"I'll ignore that distasteful remark," he continued. How did he hear that? "Now, I'm going to make you an offer, so listen well. You've been quiet for the duration of your stay in my Tower, and you've behaved yourself. Inside the Tower, that's probably about two years, but in time outside the Tower, that's about a year. I'm impressed with your good behaviour, so under a few conditions, I'll give you your freedom."

He was going to give me my freedom? But, the Observants! They'd never let him do that. Wait, he didn't care about them. "What are your conditions?" I asked suspiciously.

"One, you won't be totally free. I will be hanging around, supervising you. Two, behave yourself. No wreaking havoc, destruction of any kind, or causing panic. One wrong move, you're back in the Thermos. Three, we'll stay mostly in Amity Park. Now how does that sound?"

It wasn't perfect, but it was better than this danged Thermos. (That's right, even though I had become a homicidal psychopath, I still didn't cuss. I saw this as another dividing line between me, the pitiful human race, and the weaker ghosts.) "Deal!" I yelled with an evil kind of happiness. Perhaps my feelings were returning, after all. The thought was frightening. Frightening? That could be a problem.

I could practically feel his smirk as he picked up the Thermos. It occurred to me that he might be doing this just to irritate the Observants. But Clockwork wouldn't do something this big just to make them mad.

Or would he?

I could feel the Thermos being uncapped. As he pressed the button, I reveled in anticipation of my freedom. It was like drinking gallons of water after three years of dying of thirst, like a glass of hot chocolate and a warm, fuzzy blanket after a blizzard.

I was out! Finally out! "Yaaaaahhhooooo!" I yelled, a grin on my face. "I'm FREEEEEE!" I flew up and down, all around, forwards and backwards, and in loop-the-loops. When I had finally calmed down and stopped being hyper (me? Hyper?), I looked at Clockwork and realized that he had been watching me with an amused smirk the whole time. Why was he always smirking? I guess that's Clockwork for you. "So, let's get outta this place," I said, impatient to wreak havoc on the life of my younger self. Wait, one of the conditions had been 'no wreaking havoc'. So, why was I so impatient to get to Amity? Maybe all I wanted really was freedom, after being incarcerated for so long.

Clockwork changed his smirk a little so that it was a kind of happy-looking smirk, and the next thing I knew, we were in good old Amity Park, the Ghost Capital of the World.

~The Nasty Burger - Danny's POV~

Sam,, Tucker, and I were innocently hanging out at the Nasty Burger after school, talking about perfectly normal teenage stuff. Well, the occasional 'halfa' and 'ghost' were thrown in, of course, but that was to be expected of the three of us. We were probably the only real, trustworthy teenage ghost-fighting team in the city, if not the world. And as far as I knew, I was the only good halfa in existence. Excluding my clone, of course, but we hadn't heard from her since she disappeared. But we were mostly talking about all the homework Lancer had assigned for tonight. It didn't help that I had so much late work, either.

That was when my ghost sense just had to go off.

"Now, of all times?" I muttered, exchanging knowing looks with Sam and Tucker before running off to the restroom to switch forms. When I returned, something was... off. I coudn't figure out what it was until I saw Clockwork placing medallions around Sam and Tucker's necks. I looked at my own chest and didn't see an identical medallion hanging there. There was definitely something weird going on here. I walked over to my friends.

"What's the problem, Clockwork?" I asked. I figured he wouldn't be here for no reason, and the lack of a medallion and yet somehow not being frozen in time worried me.

He was smirking, but I had gotten to thinking that he was always smirking. It was only how he smirked that could let you in on the nature of his thoughts - amused, ornery, evil. I think the only reason he wouldn't smirk is if he were irritated, which is about as close to mad as Clockwork gets.

"It's more of an update than a problem, Danny," he said in that smirking voice of his. You could always tell when he was feeling mischievous. "There's a concert tomorrow night, and the three of you kids need to be there."

I looked at him skeptically and asked, "What, am I supposed to phase us in or something?"

"Of course not," he chuckled. He whipped out four tickets and placed them in my hand. "These will get you in perfectly legally. One for each of you, and one for Jazz." Then, he disappeared, and everything unfroze, with just enough time in-between for me to return to my human form, mild-mannered Danny Fenton.

'Aw, c'mon,' I thought. 'I didn't even get to ask him about the medallion thing!'

~The Fenton Lab - Dan's POV~

I stalked around, bored, in my parents' - were they still considered my parents? - lab. I was in my 14-year-old human form waiting for Clockwork to return from whatever it was he was doing. As soon as we'd gotten here, he'd told me he had to make some arrangements for our stay, and to stay put while he was out. That was all very well for him to say, but what was I supposed to do? It had to have been an hour at least since he'd left. Well, to tell you the truth, it had only been about 10 minutes, but heck, for all he knew, I could've destroyed half the world by now! 'Wait, no. He's the Master of Time, he knows everything,' I thought to myself sarcastically.

"Danny? Are you down there?"

I heard a voice that I recognized quite easily. It had been one of the few I'd heard during my last visit to this Amity Park, when I was trying to secure my future. My old sister, Jazz. I heard the pitter-pattering of her footsteps on the stairs leading down to the lab. "Yeah, I'm here," I answered, wondering what harm I could possibly do by answering for my younger self.

"What are you doing home already? I thought you were going to the Nasty burger with Sam and Tucker," she said. She was standing at the bottom of the stairs now, hands folded across her waist, looking confused.

I smirked inwardly. Same old, same old. So, he was at the Nasty Burger. That place brought back memories. "It turned out that Sam and Tucker had a lot of homework," I said, "So I figured that I might as well come home." Best to try and avoid suspicion, I suppose.

Before I had time to react, Jazz had dragged me, by the back of my shirt collar, up two flights of stairs and into my old room, which had some new glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. He - or I - was still into astronomy. "Danny, do you have any homework?" she asked. What was her glitch*?

"No," I answered, hoping that Danny didn't have homework today.

"Good. Listen, Danny, Mom and Dad have been getting suspicious lately. I think you need to be a little more careful with your powers, okay? Just try to not use them so much, and be careful about who sees you. I'm not trying to nag, but you've been using your powers for everything, from getting downstairs in the morning, to roasting marshmallows! So, just watch yourself, okay?" So that was what this was about. She was concerned. How sweet. But now, what would Danny-boy say...

"I get it, Jazz. Thanks," I said. I hope I hadn't taken too long to answer.

Apparently I hadn't. She smiled. "Anytime, Danny. I just want to help. I'm gonna go to the Nasty Burger. Do you want to come with me?"

I wasn't sure if I should, considering that the Nasty Burger was where Danny was probably hanging out with his - my? - friends. But not saying yes would look suspicious, and there was a chance that they'd decided to go to Sam or Tucker's house instead.

"Yeah, why not?" I agreed, hoping with everything I had that the three, especially Danny, weren't there.

Wait a second. I was hoping. Was that a sign of feeling?

But that didn't matter right now. I was doing something Clockwork had specifically told me not to do, and if Danny, Sam, and Tucker were at the Nasty Burger, I could be in big trouble.

*My history teacher says "What's your glitch?" instead of "What's your problem?". It seemed like something fun to do with Dan.

So, what did ya think, huh? I know it was kind of short, but I'm hoping to make the next chapters longer. This is my first published story that was planned to be a multi-chapter story, so if I do something wrong, please tell me. And I'm always open to constructive criticism, so if you see something iffy, tell me.

I've been reading Hanajima Uchiha's "Second Chance" story, and it gave me this idea. So yes, this IS a lot like that, in that Dan has returned, Dan is a good guy, and it's a DanxDani story. But I'm fairly sure that's where the similarities end. Dani's not here yet, but she will be here within the next few chapters.

R&R please! I have Anonymous Reviews ON, so you have no reason not to. Well, if you for some reason have to get off your computer RIGHT NOW, or if you can't type right now, you do, but anyone who can review, it would be appreciated! thanks for reading!

Viki