The first thing that Maddie noticed as she slowly awakened from her slumber was that everything was strangely warm, contrasting greatly to the vacant chill of the Ghost Zone. It then occurred to her that she was on the ground, laying in grass. Grass. There shouldn't be any warmth or vegetation in the Ghost Zone, so... where was she?

Maddie's head pounded as she forced her eyelids to peel open, revealing overwhelming sunlight, causing her to quickly shut her eyes once again to relieve herself of the headache. It felt like someone was digging inside her head from the inside out with a bunch of tiny, dull butter knives. Unfortunately, the physical pain didn't prevent Maddie from thinking at 100 mph, so she naturally began to grow curious – concerned was the more appropriate word – about her whereabouts. She realized that she would have to face the harsh daylight at some point, so Maddie hesitantly opened her eyes for the second time.

She was lying straight on her back, facing the sky above her. She saw a few trees at the edge of her vision, and now that the headache was starting to dull, she could hear faint human voices in the distance. With a great effort, she managed to heft herself into a sitting position. Her limbs felt heavy and stiff, which made her wonder even more how long she had been left lying in the grass.

Looking around, she recognized that she was sitting in the center of Amity Park's public park. This puzzled her, because she was pretty sure she had remembered all of the events leading up to her falling unconscious. Phantom breaking into the Specter Speeder, her abandoning the controls to eject him from the vehicle, and the Speeder spiraling into the green portal. She felt like she had missed something important, because there was no explanation for why she was alone in the middle of the park, without the Specter Speeder.

"Are you okay, Lady?" a voice said directly into her ear.

Maddie jumped in surprise, and found a little boy no older than seven years old looking at her with wide eyes. Now that she thought about it, he hadn't been anywhere near her ear, the noise had just registered louder than it actually was. The boy nervously looked down at his shoes, "You look a little freaked out."

"I – I'm fine," Maddie said, hoarsely. "Just a little lost. Would you happen to know what happened?"

The boy shook his head. "It could have been a ghost attack," he suggested. "Those happen a lot. But we always have Team Phantom to protect us."

"'Team Phantom...'" Maddie drawled, "I thought it was just one ghost, Danny Phantom. Not a team."

The boy chuckled, "Well, most of the time, it is just Danny Phantom. But whenever there's something too powerful for just him, his team helps out. And sometimes they just do it for fun. They're the best ghost hunters in the world!"

Maddie narrowed her eyes, "I see."

The last time she had checked, she and her husband were the best and most recognized ghost hunters in the world, or in America anyway. Not to mention, she had never even heard of anyone helping Phantom. As far as anyone knew, he was a complete lone wolf. But the confidence this young boy had in his statements, suggested that he was speaking common knowledge. Strange...

"Yeah," the boy continued, "I wanna join them one day! I wanna be the bestest ghost hunter there is and help Phantom! I wanna save the world like he has and-"

Maddie scoffed, "Saved the world?"

"Yeah, Phantom's saved the world. Everyone knows about it, and they even taught me about it in school. The Disasteroid, about six years ago – I was a baby when it happened. Basically, this evil ghost sent this ghost-hurting asteroid towards Earth that was gonna destroy everything, when Phantom showed up and stopped it! It was the coolest thing ever! He's a hero, and that's why I wanna be like him!"

Maddie froze, her mind reeling with new information and theories. The boy had said it happened six years ago, so that suggests that I've somehow time traveled into the future. But how?! And how far into the future?

Maddie gulped, "W – what year is it?"

The boy raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you're not feeling funny, Lady?"

"Positive," Maddie whispered.

"2013," the boy said simply, "what year did you think it was?"

Maddie started to panic. It was supposed to be 2006. The portal in the Ghost Zone had sent her seven years into the future.

"Uh," she said numbly, "thank you..."

"Brandon," the boy supplied.

"Yes," she said, "thank you, Brandon. But I have to check something now, so I have to leave."

And with that, Maddie started walking away from the boy as quick as possible, straying closer to the edge of the park, where there were more people on the sidewalks. Feeling out of place, Maddie made sure her hood and goggles were still covering her face. Not that it mattered anyway, most people recognized her for her signature HAZMAT suit and constant reliance of weaponry in the first place. All that Maddie knew was that she had to get out of this time as soon as possible, and the only person that could possibly help, was herself.

But, Maddie's mind whispered to her, what if there isn't a version of yourself in this future. What if you never make it back to your own time, trapping yourself here, and thus making you the only Maddie Fenton in this time.

No. She would make it back to her own time, she had to. She had a family, a family that needed her. And no matter what, she would not let them down.

In her reverie, Maddie had failed to take notice of her surroundings, as well as the nearby pedestrians swarming the streets. It was this mistake, that lead to Maddie being cornered by a familiar face – the last face she ever wanted to see. An aged Pamela Manson. It seemed so out of place to Maddie, for Pamela to just walk up to Maddie on the street and start speaking (clearly mistaking her for her future counterpart, so luckily, that answered her question about whether she would return to the past).

Pamela approached Maddie, expression full of momentary surprise, "Madeline? What are you doing here, just wandering about? Has something gone wrong with making the reservations? Have you finally changed your mind about letting my Sammy have a traditional Jewish wedding? I know she said that she prefers a regular outdoor wedding, but-"

Maddie choked, "Wedding?"

"Yes..." Pamela said, "the wedding. Today you and your daughter were supposed to be at home planning. It would just mean so much to me if Sammykins re-approached her decision. She may not appreciate it now, but she'll be grateful for having a Jewish wedding, just as I did. Danny doesn't seem to mind either way, so..."

Maddie didn't have time to spare fretting about the fact that her son was getting married to his best-friend seven years into the future, so she responded with something that would sure be a conversation closer for Pamela, "Well," Maddie said, "that seems to me, that you need to discuss some things with your daughter."

And then, Maddie continued walking down the street, towards FentonWorks, and away from Pamela Manson's drama.

The entire situation was bizarre. Maddie, seven years in the future, strolled down the street to her house in an alien-like casual posture. Yes, she was internally freaking out, but if she could pretend that she wasn't, it would make the task at hand so much easier. So, attempting to keep a blank mind, Maddie found herself outside the chestnut colored building, which was almost identical to the present-day version she was familiar with. The Ops Center still loomed over the entire street, paired with the haze of the neon sign that clearly dictated 'FentonWorks'.

There were some minuscule differences, as expected over the passage of time. The windows were all shielded with blinds, not allowing an easy view into the house as Maddie was accustomed to. There was also a different front door, apparently with a new security system integrated above the entrance (Maddie was able to notice the small camera over the door immediately).

Taking a shaky breath, a throwing all prior mental preparation out of the metaphorical window, Maddie stepped forward and hesitantly rung her own doorbell. She stood there, for a good fifteen seconds before she heard someone audibly fumbling with the doorknob. And before she knew what hit her, Maddie caught voices from the inside of the house, "-must be my delivery. I ordered one of those Kindle Paperwhite things online..."

And with that, the door swung open, revealing an older version of Jazz. She was wearing a lime green sweatshirt with the words 'Disasterversary Remembrance 2011' and regular blue jeans. Her hair was shoulder length, almost rivaling Maddie's, and her trademark headband was absent. Her face was slightly slimmer, presenting seven years of aging. Nonetheless, it was still Jazz, and Maddie didn't doubt it for a moment.

Jazz's face turned to one of confusion, before accepting an expression of familiarity. Maddie knew that face, it was her 'I know exactly what's going on' face. She turned around in a swift motion, addressing the occupants of the house, "Mom! That shapeshifter ghost showed up again! Where's Danny?"

"Do you mean Amorpho?" Maddie heard her own voice question from somewhere in the house. "What's he doing back? I thought everything went smoothly when Danny helped him restore his core last week."

Maddie almost fell backwards when she saw her own future (faintly wrinkled) face behind Jazz, gazing at her unimpressed. "Hilarious," future Maddie rolled her eyes, "Impersonating me. What originality, Amorpho."

"I – I'm not," Maddie stuttered. How the heck was she supposed to say this?

"Is this a new attention seeking tactic you're trying? Come on, I thought we all had a truce," Jazz said, ready to close the door on her.

"I'm not a ghost!" Maddie burst out with such ferocity that even surprised herself. "I – I'm you. I crashed into a portal, and somehow ended up seven years in the future." To prove her point, Maddie lifted her hood, revealing her face. "And I need your help to get back to my own time."

Future Maddie was stiff for a moment, before redirecting her attention to her watch. After examining it for around ten seconds, she looked to her daughter with a strained voice. "No ghosts detected, which means that it's actually me, my actual past self."

To Maddie's puzzlement, Jazz let out an exasperated groan, "Great. More time travel. Clockwork's gonna be pissed."

I don't know if it's exactly what you guys were expecting, but I actually really like how this turned out (which is rare for me). I hope the difference between the two Maddies isn't confusing. In the next chapter, I'll try to make it more clear. On another note, thank you for all the reviews I've gotten on this story lately. I'll try to update within a reasonable amount of time, but right now I have two other stories that I'm working on at the moment.