Chapter 3: Reality

He landed on his butt in the middle of Samantha Manson's movie room amidst a sea of spilled popcorn, and found himself facing three sets of eyes – Sam, Tucker, and … his own.

"Uh, hi," he said sheepishly.


The movie was one that he had seen countless times before, so Danny was enjoying pelting Tucker with popcorn more than the movie itself.

"Cut it out!" Tucker protested in a stage whisper before flicking a kernel back at Danny; Danny went intangible, letting it fly right through him. "Hey, that's cheating!"

"You're just jealous," Danny snickered back, picking up a whole handful of popcorn, and Tucker groaned.

"No way! Been there, done that, and I don't do green, ugly, and gruesome!" he answered, flicking more kernels in Danny's direction. Of course, one landed in Sam's lap.

Sam sat up sharply, rolling her eyes. "You guys! Did you come here to watch the movie or not?"

"Dude, we've seen this a billion times! Besides, you can't have popcorn fights at movie theaters, you get kicked out," Danny snickered, throwing his handful of popcorn. Half of it landed in Sam's lap and hair – the rest showered down on Tucker, who was now armed with his own handful.

"No going intangible, Danny!" Tucker warned before he threw the popcorn. Danny laughed, blocking with a hand, and the other half of Sam was covered with popcorn now.

The goth steamed visibly for a moment, then threw up her hands. "Is that the way you wanna play it? Prepare to eat – uh, popcorn!"

She hurled two handfuls at both Sam and Tucker, grinning fiercely, and before long it was all-out war, the movie forgotten. Danny was about to go to the popcorn machine for more ammunition, however, when there was a flash of light and an oddly familiar-sounding squawk of disbelief followed by a thud.

He twisted around in his chair at the same time as Tucker and Sam, and found himself staring at … himself.

Well, his ghost self anyway. But the Danny Phantom sitting on the floor in a sea of discarded popcorn looked … different. Not in any particularly significant way, but kind of how Danny looked after a week of all-nighters ghost fighting: tired and pale.

"Uh, hi," the Phantom croaked, waving weakly.

There was an awkward pause.

"Danny?" Sam was the first to speak, sounding confused.

Phantom startled a little, his gaze flying to her. Danny didn't consider himself any master of psychology, but he could recognize facial expressions on his own face at least, and this Phantom looked confused and surprised, then wistful. "Sam," he said, and then he looked over to Tucker, who was wide-eyed as well. "Tucker …"

Was he choked up?

Woah woah woah! What is going on here? "Who are you?" Danny demanded.

Phantom's gaze shot back to him. "Ah, I-I – I'm Danny Fenton. Just like you," he stammered, floating to his feet. "It's, uh—"

"Hey!" Tucker interrupted, drawing all eyes to him. He pointed at Phantom's chest. "That's one of Clockwork's get-out-of-time-free medallions!" And indeed, one of Clockwork's distinctive time medallions hung from Phantom's neck. Phantom unconsciously reached for it, his fingers closing around the item tightly, and a stricken look crossed his features.

Now Danny was really confused. "So are you my new future or something?" If he was still going to look like that ten years from now … I'd better start working out!

"No, it's nothing like that!" Phantom waved his hand in front of himself. He made a face. "Besides, if I was, and I still looked like this ten years from now … I'd start working out right now."

"Then why are you here? Why did Clockwork send you? And where are you from?" Sam asked.

Phantom looked stricken again, flinching slightly, and Danny wondered why he kept doing that every time Sam or Tucker spoke. "I … ah …" he looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. "I … I knew this would be too weird," he mumbled. His fingers twitched.

"Spit it out," Danny said. Curiosity consumed him, although he had a nagging feeling that maybe he should go ghost too. After all, he was from Clockwork's lair and he was another Danny Phantom … who was to say that he wasn't the evil Danny from the future disguising himself as Danny …?

"I'm kind of from an alternate dimension," Phantom said finally, shooting Sam and Tucker a guilty look.

Danny gaped.

And Tucker pumped his fists into the air. "I knew they were real!"


Danny watched as the 'real' Danny – or so Clockwork considered him – and Sam both shot Tucker bewildered looks. His best friend lowered his triumphant arms. "What? You live a comic book life, Danny, so there has to be alternate dimensions. It's like a rule or something," he pointed out.

Same old Tuck, Danny found himself thinking fondly, and then he grimaced to himself. Who I'll never see again from the moment I take this medallion off.

When he first had landed here in this alternate or real or whatever-it-was timeline, he'd been tempted to just rip the stupid medallion off and go back to his own time. He didn't want to talk to Tucker and Sam – it only made the ache worse.

But now that he was here, listening to them, talking to them, even if it was awkward, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

He rubbed his thumb over the medallion absently, swallowing. The last thing he wanted to do was cry like a little kid. He really wanted to hug them or something, but all he'd do was weird them out and probably get into a fight with his other self, who was giving him a speculating look he knew all too well from his own face. He's wondering if I'm the evil Phantom I'll bet, he thought, escaped from Clockwork's lair. I'd be suspicious too.

Luckily Sam distracted him. "Really? An alternate dimension?" she asked, raising an eyebrow but looking intrigued in that weird way she had. "So what sends you here?"

"Clockwork," Danny answered, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "He, uh, chucked me in here." He paused. "To … say goodbye."

"Why do you have to say goodbye?" Tucker wanted to know.

But their Danny beat Danny to it.

"The Nasty Burger," he said, his eyes wide. "Clockwork!" He rolled off the couch and got to his feet, facing Danny in jeans and t-shirt with exactly the same stature, his physical polar opposite in every color. "What happened …?"

"Guess," Danny shot back irritably, crossing his arms.

It was the 'real' Danny's turn to look stricken and sick, paling visibly. "Clockwork didn't save them," he said slowly.

A slow burn had started in the pit of his stomach, and Danny hadn't really ever thought it was possible to be literally this angry with himself. Or jealous of himself, either. It looked like he and this 'real' Danny had really shared all the same experiences up until the Nasty Burger blew up. "Nope, he didn't," he said bitterly. "He saved your friends, your family, and your Lancer – not that I miss him much – and – I dunno! Clockwork started blathering about alternate dimensions and how yours is the only one of consequence and -!" He broke off. "I wasn't supposed to happen. What happened to the Sam and Tucker I know was just some stupid side effect of him messing with time."

The 'real' Danny was silent, looking down. Danny felt satisfied in a dark sort of way. He doesn't know what to say. Well, I wouldn't either.

"Uh … Danny? In the plural?" it was Sam's voice. Both of them looked up with identical expressions of surprise on their face. "As entertaining as this is, care to enlighten us on what you're talking about?"

Danny blinked. "How do they not know?"

Danny shrugged, looking sheepish. "I, er … never told them. Clockwork rolled back time two hours so I could un-cheat on the C.A.T." He took a deep breath. "Okay, guys, long story short? This really is me, from, uh … an alternate timeline. And I guess Clockwork wants us to help him out."


"So it's all pretty much happening like Vlad said," Phantom summarized after they had compared notes. The two Danny's had explained in detail what had happened at the Nasty Burger before – or after? – Clockwork had set back time, and the new Danny, whom they had pretty much settled on calling Phantom (it was just easier that way, even after he had reverted to Danny Fenton – in his pajamas, no less!), explained what had happened afterwards to very interested ears. "Not exactly the same, but … pretty close. Close enough to be scary. And my – our – evil self is still back in that Thermos at Clockwork's, so he still exists." He hesitated. "I think I'm the one that turns into him."

"Don't be stupid," Danny shot back. "You got sent here for a reason, right? We'll figure it out," he said confidently.

"Hey, I've got an idea!" Tucker exclaimed. "Why don't you just stay here in our time, with us? I mean, it's not like you can't hide the medallion, and since Danny's both Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom …"

"I-I don't think it works like that," Phantom drawled a little. "I mean, if I manage to not turn into Phantom Plasmius – which is completely gross – I've still got my own Amity Park to take care of. Besides, Clockwork only sent me here to get to see you guys one last time. I think."

It was a little confusing, but Sam couldn't deny that it was pretty entertaining having two Danny's – and not split personality Danny's – in one room. Way more entertaining than the movie. They bickered over some of the details, expressed the coolness of the Ghostly Wail in stereo, and generally were Danny-like.

A pile of snack food litter had been added to the popcorn thanks to the length of the story, although all the food had been pretty much put down by the time Phantom started telling his end of the story. Phantom hadn't touched the bag of Doritos he'd been given, playing with it between his fingers but not eating. Actually, he looked really thin, and tired to boot.

Of course he looks like that. How would you feel if your family and friends all died at once? Well, friends anyway. Sam kind of suspected she might dance on her parents' graves. "I wish I knew what to say," she said.

The look Phantom gave her was startling in its gratitude. "Just being here is great," he said sincerely. His fingers went back to the medallion around his neck. "I guess Clockwork knew what he was talking about. I really needed to … just be able to say goodbye." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked down for a moment, and there was an awkward pause.

Phantom broke it. "Speaking of Clockwork …" he looked back up at Danny. "He said something about how I believed Vlad's story about how Phantom and Plasmius combined, like it was a lie."

Danny looked thoughtful. "Well, there's no way I'd trust Vlad in the present. But in the future, he was pretty different, you know?"

"Yeah …" Phantom recalled, and both Danny's adopted identical thoughtful expressions. Sam tried not to snicker at them. "It was like Plasmius being ripped out of him made him a completely different person."

"Maybe it did," Tucker threw in his two cents. "It's not like your mom would have hung out with someone totally evil in college, right? So what if the accident that made him half-ghost made him evil, too?"

"Then shouldn't I have turned evil when I had my accident?" Danny asked.

"No, that's ten years from now," Phantom said darkly. "Hey!" He rubbed his forehead where the granola bar wrapper had hit him and glared at Sam.

"Now, now, nothing like that," Sam said in a mock-Jazz voice, smirking. "We're doing positive thinking now, okay?"

Phantom smiled ruefully and a little nostalgically. "Yeah."

"Besides," Danny spoke up, "I think Vlad was made evil by being jealous of Dad. He did say having ten years to think about it gave him some time to realize what had been important in his life."

Phantom frowned slightly. "Yeah, he did …"

"Phantom? What are you thinking?" Tucker drawled.

"Just that it's possible his priorities hadn't really changed at all," Phantom said slowly. "Or maybe, ten years of sitting all by himself gave him time to try to make him out to be the perfect, merciful angel that tried to save me from my suffering or something." He paused. "What if the story wasn't really a lie, just a … you know? Half-truth."

"He's more the type to tell his evil plans in the form of a joke or something," Danny snorted. "But it's not like he doesn't lie to get what he wants." He hesitated. "But what would he gain from telling me – uh, us – a lie about how our evil self was created? I mean, you'd think he'd want you to have the whole truth so we could stop ourselves from separating Vlad from Plasmius." He blinked. "This whole two of me thing is getting really confusing."

"Tell me about it," Phantom snorted, a weak smile crossing his face. "Well, it might be that he figured I – we – would take our knowledge back to the past and use it to try to change the future – which I am – and maybe he'd get a better outcome this time around."

"But there's no reason to lie about it, then," Tucker observed.

"Yeah, I was thinking that," Phantom nodded. "Or maybe he didn't even think he was telling us a lie any more. Maybe after ten years of stewing and wishing he had Mom or whatever, he really convinced himself that the story went the way he told it."

"That's pretty crazy," Sam said skeptically.

"Well, Vlad's pretty nuts," Danny cracked. "He could really use a cat."

"A Doctor Evil cat," Sam chimed in.

"… and he could create a mini-Plasmius? One is enough!" Danny laughed.

Phantom laughed too, but he was more subdued. The wistful look was back, Sam noticed. Outside looking in. I know how that feels too. "Getting back to the subject at hand, though," she began, trying to usher on the conversation and wipe the look off Phantom's face, "supposing Vlad really was full of crap ten years from now, what really happened? Or happens."

Both Danny's looked nonplussed for a moment then shrugged simultaneously. "I have no idea," Phantom admitted.

"We need a better source of information for that," Tucker remarked. "And since we can't look into an alternate dimension's future and find out what really happened –"

"If I ever let it get that far," Phantom said suddenly, his voice flat, "which I don't intend to let happen." His eyes were ice-cold with conviction.

"Well, yeah," Tucker allowed, unnerved. Sam felt a rock in the bottom of her stomach at Phantom's conviction; it was a little frightening, cold and hard, not fire-y and angry like Danny usually was. "But since we can't look into the future, we can't see what Vlad's planning on doing." He got a sly smile. "But we know who can," he singsonged.

To Sam's surprise, Phantom jerked back, holding the medallion tightly against his chest. "Oh, no, I'm not going back yet," he protested. "I – I want to see my family before I go. I guess your family," he admitted guiltily to Danny. "Clockwork sent me here to get my goodbyes, and … I really want to get them."

Danny looked doubtful. "I dunno. I mean, what am I supposed to say? 'Hey, Mom, Dad, this is me from another dimension?' Dad would be screaming 'ghost!' before you could say 'emergency ham'!"

"And the worst part is, he'd be right," Phantom groaned. "Aw man …"

Sam drew a deep breath and let it out, watching this sad, wilting other-Danny slump. It was awkward, she decided. It was incredibly flattering and reassuring, in an odd way, to know how much Danny cared about her and Tuck and everyone else, but to see what would happen to Danny without them there … "Hey, don't worry," she said, a quick plan forming in her mind. "You won't have to say a word. Danny … you up for a sleepover?"


Twenty minutes later, Danny was walking home with Tucker, just like he had hundreds of times before – and never would again. The nostalgia was going to choke him, he was sure of it. He had traded clothes with the Danny of this world ('Hey, I don't even have to fly home to get my stuff,' he'd joked) and as Sam had suggested, for tonight the alternate Danny – 'Phantom' – would be Danny Fenton from this timeline.

He looked up at the FentonWorks sign overtop his home and smiled. This is how it should have been. I guess in a weird way I'm glad this is the 'real' timeline. Even though my timeline still sucks, and I still have to go back to it.

"This is your stop," Tucker said unnecessarily, giving Danny a weak grin. "See you tomorrow, right?"

"I wouldn't miss it for anything," Danny answered. "See you tomorrow."

They had a weird moment while Danny scuffed his shoes on the pavement and Tucker watched Danny's feet. "Hey," Tucker started.

"Don't." Danny cut him off. "I'm gonna miss you guys for the rest of my life, but … at least you're not gone everywhere." He smiled thinly. "Maybe Clockwork will let me visit sometimes." But I doubt it.

"Okay." The smile Tucker gave him was more genuine. "Night, Phan- I mean, Danny."

"Night, Tuck," Danny waved, jogging up the familiar steps and opening the door to the familiar home with familiar people.

He swallowed hard as he shut the door behind himself, and felt to make sure Clockwork's medallion was safely hidden under his shirt. "Mom? Dad?"

"Danny!"

It was Mom, coming out of the kitchen in full hazmat gear. Apparently it's another late night for them, Danny thought peripherally. The rest of him was choking on words.

"You're home early. Did you have a good time at Sam's?" she asked cheerfully.

"Yeah," Danny croaked, trying to clear his throat of the lump in it. "Yeah, it was fine. We just got bored with the movie so Tuck and I decided to head home."

He wasn't going to be able to play this cool, even though he'd promised this timeline's Danny that he wouldn't 'get all weird on them'. He started when Maddie moved closer. "Honey, are you all right? You look a little sick!"

"Just too much popcorn," Danny managed, barely. "Mom … I …"

"LOOK!"

The bellow from the kitchen made Danny and his mom both jump, and then Jack Fenton came pounding into the foyer, proudly presenting another ghost-catching or possibly ghost-detecting item. "It's the Fenton neural controller! The first step of our Fenton Suit for ultimate ghost-catching!"

Danny took a deep breath and let it out, a little relieved. He loved his dad, but Jack could be really oblivious, and at the moment he was completely oblivious to how his son was staring at him as if he'd thought he'd never see Jack again.

"Honey, I told you to leave that alone until I got back in the kitchen," Maddie scolded.

"Awww, but it was so close to being done …" Jack moped. "Ah well, you can always check the wiring once I get it in the Fenton Pants!"

"I suppose," Maddie allowed. "Let me do that, honey …" they started for the kitchen again, Maddie gently removing the delicate hardware from Jack's hands.

Danny watched them go. Forget it. I don't care how it looks. I've explained weirder things. He took a step after them. "Wait," he stammered.

Jack and Maddie both turned to look at him. "Yes, sweetie?" Maddie asked.

Danny wrapped his arms around his mom, squeezing her tightly. "I love you," he said, trying not to let his voice shake.

"Danny? What brought this on?" Maddie asked, genuinely surprised and sounding very touched.

Danny ignored her, going to his Dad next and hugging as much of his father's massive girth as he could manage. "You too, Dad," he choked out. "Sometimes I forget to tell you that, but … I really love you guys."

"Aww, it's okay, son! It's not like we're going anywhere," Jack said cheerily, wrapping Danny in a hug that was almost as powerful as Klemper's.

I wish you were right. Danny's lungs were squished, but he didn't care.

"We love you too, son," Maddie added, pecking Danny on the cheek. "Now go get some rest, okay? And if you hear a scream, it's just your father."

"I don't scream!" Jack protested, releasing Danny from the bone-crushing hug. Danny choked again, but this time because the wind had been knocked out of him. "I wail! Wail on ghosts, that is!"

"I-I'm gonna go upstairs. Sleep sounds like a good idea," Danny managed to say in between gasping breaths. "Night," he wheezed. "And I meant it. Uh. I love you."

"Mm-hmm, we know," Maddie said. "We've always known that. Night, sweetie!"

Danny retreated up the stairs he hadn't used in almost three weeks to the room he hadn't slept in for the same amount of time, feeling a little shaky. I was so lucky and I had no idea. Way luckier than I ever thought I was. He sucked in a breath and let it out.

Then he went intangible and invisible at once, and sunk through the floor into the kitchen.

He watched his parents work on the Fenton Pants into the wee hours of the morning.


Being in his old house didn't help Danny with the nightmares at all. He tossed and turned and after the third time he woke up gasping for breath, halfway through a transformation to Danny Phantom, he gave up.

It was a peaceful night outside, quiet, and his ghost sense hadn't picked up anything emerging from the basement It felt like the events of the last three weeks had never happened.

Maybe just tonight I'll pretend they didn't.

Danny enjoyed his ghost powers: they provided a great way to play the occasional prank on Dash, easy escapes from things he wanted to avoid, and gave him a sense of purpose, as if he was meant to have powers even though he'd gotten them from an accident. He didn't like fighting ghosts unless he was in a really foul mood, though – they were dangerous and only managed to get him into more and more trouble – both as Fenton and as Phantom. How many ghost hunters had been on the tail of Phantom, last he'd checked? And at school, Fenton had a terrible record of detentions and disruptions … culminating in the cheating he'd done on the C.A.T.

But if there was one power Danny never wanted to give up, it was the ability to fly.

He floated absently around town that night, avoiding Valerie's apartment carefully. There was the Nasty Burger, being rebuilt in this timeline … in his own timeline it was further behind schedule, the place having been cordoned off as the location of a crime scene investigation for two weeks. Tucker's house … Tucker was out like a light, but his PDA was plugged into the wall. Danny could never see into Sam's room on his night excursions; she pulled down the blinds to block out the sunlight the next morning, but this time he saw a puff of mist escape his mouth. A ghost? He floated down towards the window.

"Got any thress?"

"Go fish!"

Oh, duh, it's me, Danny thought with a wince, hearing his own voice inside the room. He floated back a bit, starting back for FentonWorks. This wasn't his home timeline; it was time to stop pretending it was.


The next morning Danny staggered downstairs on autopilot. He felt the way he usually did these days: drained, and physically exhausted. I've gotta learn how to sleep again. Didn't Jazz always say that three days without sleep makes you legally insane? Maybe that's why I agreed to let Vlad pull Phantom out of me …

He picked a cereal at random and poured a bowl. He had almost no appetite still, anyway; he expected to maybe get a few bites in before he stopped wanting more. He was just using the puttering around as an excuse to wait for—

"Hey, Danny."

Danny was jerked out of his reverie by the appearance of Jazz – the very person he'd been waiting for. He'd begun to despair that he wouldn't have time to see her, which somehow made the whole situation seem worse, like he was betraying Jazz twice over.

At least with Jazz he didn't have to be subtle, since she Knew.

"Jazz!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet and hugging her tightly.

"Ack! H-hey, what's going on? Danny!" Jazz protested in confusion.

"It's a long story," Danny answered, squeezing her before letting go, his chest tight. "And I don't have time to tell you, but ask me when you get to school or something." He looked at his forgotten breakfast. "Just … thanks. Thanks for a lot of things." He swallowed hard. "I've gotta go meet Tuck and Sam a- over at Sam's house before class, so I'll see you after school! Bye!"

He didn't hear the muttered, "Oh, so where's the ghost this time?" behind him, or see the fond smile she wore.


Sam couldn't decide if Phantom looked better or worse when he came flying up to the door of her home, panting: in one sense, he seemed like he was more at peace with himself than before, a little less oppressed. But the bags under his eyes were worse, and of course, he still looked like he was anorexic next to the Danny she knew. "Hey," she greeted, trying to be casual as she ushered him in. "How did it go?"

"Great," Phantom said with conviction. He met her eyes, and a small but strong smile curled his lips. "I got to tell them what I needed to."

"Good," Sam grinned. What else could she say? Phantom's … incident … was so far beyond anything like her own experiences that she had almost no concept of what to say or what to compare it to. "We're just waiting on Tucker now …"

"Where's, uh … your Danny?" Phantom asked, looking around.

"Huh?" Danny came in from the kitchen, mumbling through a mouthful of cereal. "Oh, hi." He swallowed. "Did, uh … did everything go all right last night?"

Phantom actually colored a little, vivid on his pale face. "Well, you might have to explain why you suddenly felt like hugging everyone, but yeah, it went fine."

Danny looked away, a fleeting smile passing. "Yeah, well … I don't blame you."

"Did I miss my cue?"

Sam, Phantom, and Danny turned to find Tucker in the doorway. "Hi, Tuck," they said in unison.

"Hey, all," Tucker waved nonchalantly. "You doing okay, Phantom? You don't look so good."

"Really?" Phantom looked down at himself. "I feel better. Mostly. Oh, wait." He unslung his backpack and reached into it with an intangible hand, throwing whatever-it-was at Danny. "Your clothes for today."

"Aah-!" Danny almost caught the clothes with his face and his cereal, then went intangible and let them fall around his feet. "Geez, watch it!"

Phantom shrugged slightly, looking embarrassed again. "Sorry. Wasn't thinking," he called as Danny gathered the clothes up and went to the bathroom to change.

"No surprise with how tired you look," Sam pointed out. "Have you been sleeping at all?"

"Well …"

"Don't answer that." Sam held out a hand to stay him and rolled his eyes. "All right. We're still agreed on what we're going to do?"

"Go with Phantom to Clockwork's lair and find out what Vlad lied about so Phantom knows what to do to avoid becoming evil?" Tucker asked. "Of course!"

Sam looked at Phantom. "Are you okay with that?"

Phantom gave her an uncertain look. "I can't help but think Clockwork will probably say no," he said. "I mean, he didn't tell me the whole story before, so why should he now?"

"Well, he tried to kill me – us – before he saved everyone for me," Danny pointed out, coming back from the bathroom. "Here's your pajamas."

"Thanks." Phantom took the offered clothes. "I remember the scythe incident … but then he helped me get to you guys."

"Clockwork isn't evil," Danny said with conviction. "He just … operates by different rules than the rest of us."

"Yeah? It's kind of pissing me off," Phantom admitted.

"And now we're running late to school, so we'd better decide whether we're doing this or not," Tucker interrupted.

"I vote yes," Sam said. After all, she didn't want any Danny to become evil Danny.

"Me too," Danny added. "A day with Clockwork's better than a day with Lancer."

"Me three," Tucker voted.

All eyes turned expectantly to Phantom.

"I … think this is a bad idea." He smiled wanly. "But I'm kind of outvoted, so …" He pulled the medallion out from under his shirt. "Everyone grab on!"

Danny, Sam, and Tucker all grabbed a hold of Phantom's arms and shoulders.

He tossed the ribbon off his neck, and in a flash of green light, they were gone.

tbc