To be honest I have no idea, where this will go in the long run (I hope I can develope it into a cross-over with... You'll see). I just started and hope to continue soon. The first few chapters are already written and... yeah. Have fun, I guess.

And as always: I do not own Danny Phantom or the characters. I just own the little doodle which is the cover art (though not what is portraied because its Danny, duh) and this little amount creative energy in this story.

For all the readers of my other fanfic Ouija: I will continue, though the main part is done. It just needs a... happy ending. Which I'm struggling with.

I hope you enjoy reading this fanfiction. And it would be nice of you, if you could leave a comment/review. Even if you didn't like this Fanfiction. How can one improve without constructive critic?

Finally, Dan was beaten and encaged. But the danger wasn't over. Danny turned his attention to his friends and family (and Lancer), who were still chained to the sauce tank. Cracks appeared on it and steam came out through.

"Oh no!"

Time sure wasn't on his side. He started to run. His desperation fought against his tiredness. He pulled for his ghost half. Nothing.

"I can't go ghost!" The realization distracted him just a split second to long. His foot got caught in a piece of rubble. Still weakened, he lost balance, fell.

"No!"

The next second, the tank went off. There was nothing he could do, as his family was caught in the explosion of the nasty burger tank. Nothing, but to watch his world to fall apart in the blink of an eye. The explosion and his friend's and family's fate (and Mr. Lancer's) burned themselves into his mind. He had been too late.

The next moment, he himself got caught in the blast and was thrown back.

Time froze.

Clockwork came out of one of his portals. In his hand he held one of his amulets. When he was about to lay it around the young Phantom's neck, a hand gripped his arm. Clockwork turned around. Two observants flew beside him, one held Clockworks arm.

"No." said one of them and glared angrily at Clockwork. Or so Clockwork assumed. It is hard to tell, if the other ghost's face is just a single eye ball.

"Please, no", groaned an irritated Clockwork.

"Do not intervene."

Clockwork looked at the Observant in disgust. "It is you who intervene. Go and let me do my job."

"Your job is to do what we say."

"I'm pretty sure, it was watching the timelines and correcting them if needed."

"And it is us who decide whether a timeline needs fixing. You will let this timeline roll."

Clockwork looked at the boy, frozen in time. He knew what would come. He knew all timelines.

"Please," the child-like ghost pleaded, changing into a man. "let me do my work. Just this once."

"This once?", the other ghost asked with confusion written all over his eye.

"You know nothing."

"We know enough, Clockwork. We've read your report. This is the safest way. The life and wellbeing of many outweigh that of a few. Or in this case, of one. You may stay, but you will not intervene. Is. That. Clear?"

Clockwork looked at the Observant with anger, hatred almost, but eventually his old shoulders sagged, and he nodded. The Observer just looked at him for a few seconds longer. Then, he and his companion disappeared. Clockwork was alone, the world around him frozen in time. He held the necklace in his hand, that would unfreeze the boy next to him. The staff, that could save his family in the other hand. A tear ran down the ghost's cheek. The first, since time existed. This specific moment was always the one to see his first tear. "It never gets easier."

He turned to the young Danny. "I'm sorry, my friend. I have to betray you again." Clockwork breathed in to get his composure back. His figure faded out of the visible spectrum.

"Time in."

Danny fell onto the ground, and just lay there. He could hear the fire, so close but too far away at the same time. He could hear sirens in the distance. He could hear the murmur of the spectators, attracted by the explosion. The one thing he couldn't hear was the coughing of any survivors. So, nobody had survived. Danny was alone. He didn't want to open his eyes, for the world he would see wasn't the one he had used to live in. And the world he used to love had been blown up and burned.

He lay there in the self-induced blindness and wished for it all to end. To be a dream. He opened his eyes, and saw Sam looking back at him. She looked frightened. He had expected her to stare at him reproachful, instead. Her hair and skin were burned at certain spots and she ended beneath her chin. Danny jumped up and stumbled backwards.

"Are you ok, boy?", asked a female voice he didn't recognize.

"Did you see, what happened?" asked a male voice, also a stranger to Danny.

There were other questions, other voices. He didn't react to them; the shock was too deep. The sirens came nearer. One question, from someone far away, reached his brain too late. "What is this?"

When Danny realized, what "this" was, it already was too late. A flash of white light shot in the sky, and he appeared laughing. Green flames shot from the sky, people ran in terror, police cars and ambulance, which had just arrived, turned and started to fade into the distance again, and Danny stayed in the middle of the rubble, motionless. His future hovered above the chaos and marveled at the sight of fleeing people. The ghost then sank down from the sky, next to Danny.

"Seems like our future is saved, right Daniel?", he rejoiced and looked at his "work" with pride. "Just like the first time. Ah, I remember how sad I was back then. And I didn't even see the explosion. Don't wanna know how you feel right now." Dan nudged his young self with an elbow. "Eh?"

The younger counterpart still looked at the destruction and gore, where pieces of the restaurant lay next to pieces of his loved ones.

"I hate…"

"Good. It was sadness first, then a strange hollow feeling. In the end, all what was left was hatred for a happy world, that couldn't understand my sorrow."

"… you."

For a moment, there was silence. "What?", asked Dan aghast. Then, his face shifted to happy again. "You mean, you hate yourself for causing all of this."

"Me?"

"Sure. Hadn't you cheated on this test, your parents wouldn't have met Mr. Lancer at the Nasty Burger. And they wouldn't have died."

"No."

"No?"

"It wasn't me. It wasn't my fault. I didn't cheat. You did it instead of me! They didn't meet and died in an accident. You chained them here! My only fault was, not to have been strong enough to stop you. You wanted to make everything as it was in your timeline. But you didn't. You weren't there, when they died. But I am here. The death of your parents may have been a cruel joke of a cruel, uncaring world. But the death of them," he pointed at the mayhem before them. "That was murder. Murder with the goal to give birth to you. But guess, what."

"What?", asked Dan. All confidence was washed away from him. Fear was written all over his face.

"You will never exist. I promise to never become you. All this couldn't save you. As I couldn't save them. You are done!"

"No, you will become me! We are the same! You can't be stronger than me! You can't!", Dan screamed and pointed at Danny, furious.

A little disc appeared in front of Dan's index finger. It had a clock face and watch hands. It traveled over the finger, turning ghost finger human.

"WHAT HAPPENS?!", screamed a terrified Dan, as the disk kept travelling over his hand, turning ghost human like the normal halo by Danny's transformation. The moment the disk had reached the wrist, the hand clenched probingly. There Danny realized, what was happening to his older self. "You cease to exist. This hand is that of my new future self."

"no. NO! Future can't change!"

"It does right before our eyes. There will be nothing left of you. You don't just die. You will never have existed. There is no "Afterlife" for those, that have never been."

Dan watched in horror as his arm slowly turned new. Unbelieving got replaced by rage.

"It isn't over yet. I still have a chance!"

Dan turned to Danny. The weakened boy stumbled backwards and tried to take a fighting stance. He wasn't able to dodge Dan's attack. To his surprise it wasn't a punch. It wasn't a ghost ray, either. Dan phased his left, still ghostly hand through Danny's skull. "I will make you understand me."

Danny felt how ten years of dark thoughts streamed into his brain. Every dark thought, every dark secret, every murder or citywide destruction. In Dan's last moments, Danny saw his older self's life floating by before his mental eye.

Daniel watched his younger self falling to the ground. The kid's face was twisted in agony. There was nothing what he could do to help. Daniel kneeled beside Danny. "Fight it, Danny," he whispered, "You can win. You will win. But you have to fight."

"I'm sorry, Daniel."

Daniel stood up and turned around. Clockwork hovered a few feet away. Guilt shimmered in the old ghost's red eyes. "I tried my best."

"I understand. And he will, eventually," Daniel answered.

"We have to go. The humans will be here, soon."

Daniel nodded and turned around to his younger self. "You have beaten the un-future once. And you won't lose this fight, either. As long as you fight."

A time portal opened, and ghost and half-ghost stepped through. When the living dared to come back to the scene, all they could find was an unconscious boy in a field of death.