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Chapter 2: Revelations

"Daniel, you are going to die."

Clockwork stopped for a moment, waiting for Danny to react. Danny merely looked at Clockwork as if he had grown a second head, which would probably be more surprising and odd if Danny himself hadn't done so multiple times. Clockwork was surprised, to say the least, and it showed.

"Uh, Clockwork, in case you haven't noticed, I'm already dead. Well, half-dead, at least."

"Indeed," Clockwork replied, the expression draining from his face again, "But this isn't the type of death I'm talking about."

"Huh?" Danny was confused now. If Clockwork wasn't talking about being a ghost, than what was he talking about?

Clockwork sighed, preparing to give Danny his explanation. "Danny, you are one of two people with a special condition. Being a half-ghost, your body takes on your souls powers. This is an amazing thing, but also incredibly dangerous. These powers have been decaying you, eating away at your body and soul. Luckily the process has been slow, most likely because you have been growing. However, the decay has started to act faster lately."

"What? Why is it speeding up?"

"That, I cannot say at the moment. What I can say, however, is that you have about a month left to live before your body and soul have destroyed each other." Clockwork said with a slight frown.

Danny stood in shock. His mind couldn't think to do much else at the moment. Then again, what would any person do after being told they were going to die in a month by someone who could see through all of time?

"However," The elder ghost continued while shifting from his oldest form to his child form, "there does seem to be a way to stop this."

"What is it?" The ghost boy asked, skepticism sounding through his voice. At the same time, however his eyes were filled with panic.

Clockworks frown kept on his face as he changed from being a child into a grown man. "There are actually two ways for it to stop, though I am not sure how much you would like either. It is your choice to make though."

Clockwork paused for a moment, deciding which of the choices he would tell the younger ghost first. He looked Danny straight in the eye before finally talking, "The first is to leave the human world, become a full ghost."

Danny raised an eyebrow at the choice. He had seen the consequences of becoming a full ghost himself. It was only thanks to Clockwork himself that he was able to prevent that horrible future from coming true. "And what is the other way?"

"To give up your powers once more and never become Danny Phantom ever again." Danny didn't like that choice. The last time he gave up his powers, he came close to losing his friends and almost lost the entire planet, thanks to his greatest enemy, Vlad Plasmius.

He thought carefully about the first choice again. Becoming a ghost? That would mean having to leave his family, leaving his friends. There was also the fact that almost all of his greatest enemies were in the ghost zone.

Sure, he could stay in the real world. His parents would protect him from anybody trying to capture him. After learning he was part ghost, they were less about testing on ghosts, and more on sending them back to the ghost zone. Sure, they took some ecto-samples, and had him test his powers for them a bit, but he wouldn't expect anything else from them. Their son was something they were looking for since college. It would be strange if they didn't try to learn about what he could do and what he was made of.

But what if he changed when he became a full ghost like his future self he'd seen? Well, he wouldn't be quite that bad. That was after combining with Vlad's ghost half. There's no chance he could be that bad. But there was still the possibility that he could change. If he did, would he attack his family?

But would he be able to give his powers up? Back when Vlad made those "Masters' Blasters" he felt powerless. Sure, at the beginning it was fine. He finally got to have time with his friends, without being interrupted by something, like the Box-Ghost going on a rampage downtown, getting in the way. Closer to the end, however, he started to feel powerless, too weak to even help his own family. That wasn't a feeling that he liked.

After watching Danny struggle against himself for a few minutes, Clockwork decided to speak up. "Don't worry, Danny. You still have quite a bit of time to think about this decision, and you will have a lot of free time to put your thoughts in order."

Snapping out of his thoughts, Danny looked at Clockwork suspiciously again. "Why would I have the time to think about it?"

"Because you will have to stay in the ghost zone for quite a while. Hopefully the decay will slow down if you stay in the void for a while. I've arranged for a guide to keep you company during your stay. They should help in clearing up your choice a bit."

Danny's eyes opened wide at that. "WHAT? But what about my family? My friends? They'll wonder where I am. And what about school? Mr. Lancer will kill me if I miss full days of school."

Clockwork smiled for the first time since he brought Danny to his castle. "Do not worry, Daniel. Your friends will know where you are. I left a little present to tell them what happened." Clockwork chuckled a bit to himself, saying nothing more about it.

Danny couldn't help but wonder what he meant by that, but didn't risk asking what he did. There are some things that you just don't need to know when it comes to the time ghost. His plans tended to be full of things that weren't meant to be known by most people. Guess that's what happens when you know what happens through all of time.

Giving up, Danny asked,"Who did you get to guide me around the ghost zone? Frostbite? Wulf? The Wisconsin cheese king?"

"Sadly no. Frostbite has his duty of watching over the infi-map, Wulf is still running from Walker, and the cheese kings ghost is stuck in Wisconsin. No, I asked an old friend of yours to help protect you in the ghost zone. I had to ask another to help in clearing things up though."

"Who did you ask?" Danny was starting to get a bit impatient with Clockwork.

"Settle down, Daniel. You shall be meeting them just about now."

As Clockwork finished his sentence, a high pitched bark rang through the ghost's castle. Before Danny could turn around to see what it was, he was pounced on from behind. When he rolled around, he came face to face with a ghost he was very familiar with. It was hard not to remember with all the licking the small ghost dog was doing.

"Cujo, down boy. Stop." The ghost boy tried to get the ghost dog off of him, laughing a bit. The enthusiastic ghost animal smiled and barked in his arms. The ghost boy was happy to find a friendly face was going to help him around.

"You better be telling the truth when you say it'll be worth it to help out the ghost boy, Clockwork."

Danny's eyes bulged a bit at hearing the feminine voice. Despite knowing a few ghost girls, he could tell by the tone of voice who it was. He looked and saw one of the people he didn't want to think was coming. Standing there in the room was the flame haired ghost rocker.

Ember McLain.

A/N: Second chapter for you guys. Before anybody says anything, I am a DannyxEmber fan, but this is not one of those stories. Well, maybe a little one-sided from Ember at the end, but I'm not sure of that yet. Right now, it's one of those little we'll see ideas in development. Anyways, Danny has his choice to make, and no idea which to really choose. What will happen next? Who knows? Oh, that would be me.