Chapter 4: Deal with the Devil
Danny could hardly believe his eyes. A map, an actual map! Yes, it was ancient and far from precise, but it was real, and even if it took him hours of flying through strange doors and forgotten lands, he found the place he needed – the legendary Clock Tower, home to the elusive Master of Time.
Heart beating in trepidation, he floated closer to the ominous building. The door opened before he knocked – and if that wasn't an invitation, Danny didn't know what was. He floated through the dimly lit corridors filled with massive interlocking gears and rhythmic ticking noise and into a large room, a round screen inside it flicking between different places and different times.
There was a ghost watching the screen, a staff in one hand and a purple hooded cloak concealing his form. "Danny Phantom," he said evenly and turned around.
Danny gasped slightly at the sight. The ghost had blue skin and blood-red eyes and a dark jagged scar carved into his cheek.
It really was him, the Master of Time.
"I'd ask what brings you here," Clockwork continued. "But I already know, for I know everything. You want me to save your friends and family."
"Please," Danny whispered. "I need your help. You are the only one who could do this."
"And why should I help you?" Clockwork asked coldly. "You are not the first person to lose their family, nor would you be the last. Why do you consider yourself so special? Why is your grief more important than anyone else's?"
Danny felt tears prickle his eyes at the ghost's callous tone, "Then what do you want? Please, I'll do anything!"
"…Anything, you say?" Clockwork drawled inches away from him and Danny flinched back. How did he manage to get this close so fast? And… was there something around his neck?
Danny looked down at the strange gear-shaped medallion that appeared seemingly out of nowhere and reached to remove it, but Clockwork grabbed his wrist, "Now, now, don't be so hasty. We don't want anyone to overhear us." The ghost rubbed the smooth surface of the medallion between his fingers, "This will give us some much needed privacy."
Danny squirmed, uncomfortable with how close the ghost was to him. He looked away, trying to get his nerves under control, when he noticed that the movement of the massive gears had stopped. The constant ticking noise had also disappeared and the air had a faint blue tinge to it.
"…What did you do?" he asked with trepidation.
Clockwork shrugged, "Like I said – privacy. Now, about that 'anything' proposition of yours…" The ghost disappeared between one moment and the next, reappearing behind Danny's back, arms wrapped around his waist, and whispered into his ear, "I do have a few things in mind."
Danny screamed and flailed wildly to the Time Master's amusement, forgetting that he could go intangible. Thankfully, Clockwork let him go and floated to the screen. He gestured with his scepter and the image changed to a dark foreboding castle.
"Pariah's Keep," the ghost said. "What used to be a fortress for the King of All Ghosts and now contains his prison – the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep."
The image changed again, showing a large coffin atop a staircase.
"Several years from now," Clockwork continued, "Pariah Dark will break free and lead his army to conquer both the Ghost Zone and the Human World."
Danny watched transfixed as on the screen the coffin shattered and the monster walked free. He watched as the skeletal hordes marched through the streets of human and ghost cities, slaughtering everyone in their way. He watched as buildings burned and lairs crumbled, as living and undead alike stood shoulder to shoulder against the King of All Ghosts, only to fall before his might. He watched as the survivors were captured and chained and tortured, years of slavery turning to decades, to centuries, to millennia, endless nightmare of blood and pain…
When would it stop?!
"It won't," Clockwork said. "If Pariah wins, he will rule until the stars turn to dust. Which is why I want you to prevent this from ever happening."
"How?! How am I supposed to do this if no one in the world could stop him?!"
"Oh, don't worry," Clockwork smirked, once again disappearing from sight to reappear behind Danny's back. "In the hands of a good player any pawn can become a queen."
Danny trembled as the Time Lord whispered into his ear, poisonously sweet, "It's not a hard bargain, is it? You will save the world from a fate worse than death and I will bring your friends and family back. Everybody will get what they want."
"…Then what's the catch?" Danny asked because there was always a catch and Clockwork laughed in response, dark and malicious.
"Power always comes with a price and for this you will have to pay with your soul."
Danny hated how much his voice shook when he said, "I thought your name was Clockwork, not Satan."
"Oh, I don't mean some esoteric contract," the Master of Time said dismissively. "I mean the crimes you will have to commit, things so vile, that even in the lawless lands they had been taboo for millennia. And you will do them, because that is the only way you will ever see your family again and I have already shown you the alternative."
His voice once more dropped into a whisper and Clockwork calmly described what had to be done, his quiet words painting the visions of hell.
Danny thrashed in his grasp, horrified beyond belief, and rapidly shook his head, "No, no, no! I'll never do this! Never!"
The Time Lord tightened his grip and purred, smug and condescending, "Of course you will. It's only a matter of time."
A/N: Depressed and emotionally vulnerable child, meet manipulative asshole extraordinaire! (I admit, I had way too much fun with this chapter).