Yay! I'm updating when I said I would! I'm so proud of me. Yah, moving on, thank you bunches for the great reviews! Glad you like seeing the nice Vlad I created. Um, the only thing I felt the need to address was Kitty. Yah, she was definitely somewhat OC in the last chapter. I couldn't help it and I'm sorry! Anyways, today's chapter can get confusing I must warn you. I switch perspectives a lot and well you'll see. What I think is most confusing I've addressed at the bottom. So yah, enjoy!

Danny had parked the Specter Speeder right at the entrance to the castle. Once everyone had piled out, he motioned for them to follow him inside. Sam now walked beside him at the head of the group. They were followed by Vlad. Then came Maddie and Jack; Tucker and Jazz brought up the rear.

They soon found themselves in what was familiar to Danny, Sam, and Tucker as the main room of the castle. The circular, glowing thingy that could project images of the future and, as Danny had most recently found out, the past, stood in its usual place. But other than that the room had been redone to look like a movie theater. There were red seats in front of the circular thing (A/N: I don't know what to call it! From now on, I'm calling it the screen okay? Cuz it's gonna be kinda functioning as a movie screen so yah.) and the rest of the room was shrouded in darkness.

"What, no popcorn?" Tucker quipped.

"Danny," Maddie asked, "is your friend the ghost of movies or something? What's his name anyways?"

"His name's Clock Work," Danny answered and was pleased to see Vlad's jaw drop, "he's the ghost of-"

"Time," Vlad finished for him, apparently having recovered from his shock, "the master of it so I've heard." Vlad began looking around the room again as if seeing it in a whole different way.

"You know about Clock Work?!" Danny exclaimed, annoyed because he thought that for once he knew something about ghost legend that Vlad didn't.

"Well, I've never met him," Vlad admitted, "but yes I've read about him, heard stories; I thought it was just a myth."

"What, is there some kind of ghost grape vine I'm not a part of? A monthly newsletter perhaps?" Danny joked.

Vlad just chuckled.

"It's no fair, you know about everything before I do," Danny continued lightheartedly.

"I had a lot of free time on my hands," Vlad explained, "I did research. But, I mean, you're the one who got to meet him."

Danny considered this. "Yah, I guess."

"So where is your friend?"

"I don't think he's coming. I had a feeling he'd just set everything up and then leave."

Sam tugged on Danny's arm. When he turned she pointed to the screen which now looked like a computer screen with words on it. Danny walked over to it. The words on the screen appeared to be a note for him.

DANNY-

SORRY I COULDN'T BE HERE. I WAS CALLED AWAY TO AN EMERGENCY MEETING. JUST HIT THE PLAY BUTTON WHEN YOU'RE READY.

-CW

As soon as Danny finished reading, the note disappeared and a huge side-ways triangle appeared with the word "PLAY" above it.

"Hm, seems simple enough," Sam commented. She had apparently been reading over Danny's shoulder. He turned around to see everyone else had taken their seats in the movie theater chairs, the order being the same as on the Speeder. Sam was still standing with him, he guessed because she was the only one who really knew what was about to happen. He had told her on their way inside. Actually, she had guessed what it was that he was going to show them, but still, it was his plan.

"Yah, almost too simple," Danny replied.

"You're nervous," Sam observed.

"Yah," Danny gave a somewhat shaky nod.

"That's understandable."

"I said no more secrets."

"Yes, you did."

"But this one's so . . ."

"I know."

"What if . . . ?"

"Danny," Sam grabbed his shoulders and looked into his eyes. She lowered her voice to a whisper, "This isn't going to change the way they think about you, okay?"

"Do you trust Clock Work?" Danny asked, he didn't think she did.

"Not as much as I trust you," Sam replied, "including the you that they're about to see, the you that fought to choose his destiny instead of letting it choose him."

Danny smiled, "You always know what to say."

Sam returned his smile, "Hey, what else are girlfriends for?"

"Hm, I can think of a few other things . . ." Danny said with a flirtatious grin.

"I'll be waiting in the back row . . ." she said walking away towards her seat with an equally flirtatious look.

Danny looked back at the big circular screen and with a deep sigh pressed the play sign. He then quickly flew to his seat by Sam in the back as the lights dimmed. He leaned into Sam with puckered lips. Sam whacked him on the shoulder.

"Ow," he whispered, "I thought-"

"Are you kidding?" Sam hissed back, "I'm not seriously gonna make out with you now!"

"No one's gonna catch us," Danny said with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

Sam shot him a disapproving look. Danny sighed.

"You're right, now's not the time," he said, his voice changing to sound heavily sarcastic, "now's the time to sit back and enjoy watching my parents watch their son go through a huge life-changing ordeal which he didn't even bother telling them about!"

Sam just squeezed his hand in reassurance, communicating that she believed everything would be fine, as images started to fill the screen. Danny held on tight to Sam's hand and slunk down in his seat. It was going to be a long afternoon.

A date flashed first, announcing that what they were about to see took place months ago. Then it was Danny sitting at the kitchen table, his brow knit in frustration at the practice CAT test in front of him. Jazz entered and leaned over him to watch him bubble an answer. Maddie smiled to herself as she watched Jazz make noises to alert Danny as to when he was about to bubble a wrong answer. The moment was cute, but there was something nagging at her that let the smile fade. Somehow she knew this whole thing wasn't going to be easy to watch. That became even more obvious as all in one moment Danny shouted, "Oh, I give up!" Jazz sneezed, and a small ghost that appeared to be wearing over-alls and a hair net popped up behind them on screen. And so it began, a simple ordinary moment turned into an exposure of her son's secret life and within mere minutes she was embroiled in his personal crisis, this strange burden he'd chosen to bear without her or really anybody else's help. (A/N: Basically, they're watching TUE episode, you get that right? I'm not gonna describe the whole thing so I hope this works.) She could handle the ghost fights, even when she realized that the ghost he was fighting at one point was Clock Work and the battle was occurring in the very room where she now sat. She immediately thought to make the obvious "I thought he was your friend," comment and decided against it. Something told her that if she just kept watching it would all make sense in the end. It was right after this confrontation with his "friend" that things began to get difficult for Maddie.

Sam felt Danny wince the moment his future evil self appeared on screen. His grip on her hand was so tight she thought he would crush it.

"You okay?" she whispered.

"Hm?" Danny tore his face away from the screen to look into his worried girlfriend's eyes. "Oh, yah, I'll be fine."

Sam used her free hand to rub his arm. Danny slunk down further in his seat and Sam realized he was trying to see his parents.

"You know," Sam whispered, using her head to block his view of them, "I'm sure Clock Work has a way for you to pause it. Maybe we could take a break, you could warn them a little about the rest of it."

Danny considered this. "Nah, why drag it out? I'd rather get it over quick and face the questions and comments at the end."

Sam shrugged and leaned back into her chair.

Just then Maddie made a noise that sounded like a cross between a yelp and a gasp. On the screen Danny had just been knocked out by his future self.

"Why do you always get to be right?" Danny sighed as he jumped up from his chair and walked towards the screen. Sam just giggled in response.

A pause sign appeared over the now-frozen image on the screen without Danny having to do anything. He started a little at that, but shrugged it off and turned to face his family, friends, and Vlad.

"I'm sorry," Maddie began, not waiting for Danny to say anything, "I'm fine, sweetie, you can keep going."

"I hope so," Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "cuz these next few parts are not gonna be very pretty . . . for anyone." He caught Vlad's eye and Vlad nodded to acknowledge that he understood that his part in all of this, the reason they had come here, was about to be revealed.

"Just keep in mind that we're all here now and we're all safe," Danny said with a sigh as he turned back to the screen. It started playing on its own so he returned to his seat.

Somehow, and when looking back she would honestly not know how, Maddie made it through watching her son get verbally and physically abused by this huge icky-looking ghost that claimed to be Danny in the future. When he tossed Danny carelessly into the Ghost Zone, she was almost glad just because they were separated now. She saw the determination in her son's eyes and knew that he would fight that future ghost to the death. That may have been what scared her the most: Danny's absolute disregard for his own personal safety when it came to keeping others safe. Her gladness was short-lived when she realized Danny was now surrounded by several of his enemies. She thought for sure there was no way he was going to make it out of this. She winced as he did with every blow. And then a burst of power so strong it wiped out all the enemies! And it came from Danny!

The wail. He'd almost forgotten about the wail. Danny had been so busy dwelling on the whole evil future Phantom that he'd forgotten about how he managed to win this fight. He slunk down even further in his chair. Sam had his hand again and she gave it a good squeeze.

"You shouldn't be embarrassed," she whispered.

"And yet I am," Danny replied dryly.

Sam gave him a playful nudge and went back to watching the screen. Some of this was very interesting to her as Danny had had to tell her about the parts she wasn't there for. It was different when you actually got to see it all unfold.

Cheesehead. "That's my cue," thought Vlad to himself. Jazz was smart. She had found a way to tell Danny about the portal when she didn't even know exactly what the future ghost had meant. Vlad smiled to himself at Danny's comment about him being subtle. He wondered what Danny was going to find on the other side of that portal. It would have to be something that would shock him that was for sure. Danny had made it clear that this was going to help, but in the way a painful flu shot "helps" keep you healthy. Vlad clenched the arm rests on either side of him and braced himself for what was to come. "Just remember," he tried to calm himself, "it's just a future that's not going to happen. Danny didn't let it happen."

Maddie gawked at the decrepit Vlad on screen. Her shock only grew as he began to explain to the Danny on screen what had happened that led to the creation of the icky future ghost. A combination of Vlad's evil ghost half and Danny's grief stricken half? Whoa, that did not sound good. The shock had settled in to a nice horrible knot in Maddie's stomach. Was this why Danny had shown this to Vlad? To prove that he was a loser without his ghost half? That couldn't be it. Then, future Vlad turned thoughtful and he picked up a picture that she recognized from when they were all in college together. What he said next stunned her and suddenly it all made sense. The Danny on screen summed it up perfectly, "Maybe that's all anybody needs, a second chance."

Alright, that's all for now! I hope you all were able to use your memories of the Ultimate Enemy episode to follow me through it. I skipped over some stuff, like the Boooooomerang, but it was kind of implied that that was what was on screen when Maddie was thinking the whole "cute moment" thing. At least I hope it was implied.

I didn't want to write out the entire episode, that'd be boring, so I put in snippets and then focused on the characters' reactions. Hope you enjoyed it and it made sense! Um, don't know when I'll be able to update again . . . hopefully soon.