And so we begin. Please remember that this is all written in Danny's journal. There are going to be several chapters like this so just keep that in mind.

Four: Destiny Sucks—Part 1


It'd been planned out carefully for two weeks. I'd been sneaking out every night to visit Clockwork ever since he'd told me what it was I had to do. I came back last night; by everyone else's time; with a vial containing a liquid sickness. I drank it and, well, got sick; sick enough to let for Mom and Dad to let me stay home. The sickness faded a few hours after they left with Jazz so I occupied the rest of the day by skimming over papers on ghosts. I wasn't really paying attention to them. When two o' clock came around, I left for the Ghost Zone.

Clockwork was waiting for me in his screen room when I entered his lair.

"Quit looking at me like that!" I snapped at him, "You keep giving me this…this sympathetic look—!"

"Danny," Clockwork interrupted, "Come over here." It was the tone of his voice that sent all the anger and fear rushing out of me, "You're going to the Inbetween."

"I know; we've talked about it with—."

"The living are not allowed in the Inbetween," The Time Ghost reached into the folds of his cloak and pulled out something wrapped in shimmering green paper, "You're going to have to have this. I've spent many an hour working on it; there's never been anything like it and its extremely powerful so be careful with it."

I took the package from him and, after giving him a wary glance, tore the paper off. Resting in my hands was one of Clockwork's time medallions without the violet ribbon. But it was black, shimmering like volcanic glass, and the CW on it was engraved in gold.

"Wow, thanks, what's it for? Hanging on my wall?"

"Hardly," Clockwork said coolly, "Turn human and take your shirt off."

"You know how weird that sounds?" I muttered but did as I was told, shivering at the chill of the Ghost Zone, "What's it going to do?"

"As I said, the living; or half living; are not allowed in the Inbetween." He took the gear-shaped medallion from my hands, "Because you going to the Inbetween and because of the jumps through time you're going to be making, your internal time is going to become corrupted."

"WHAT!?"

"Calm down, Danny, that's what this is for," Clockwork gestured to the medallion, "It's extremely powerful, as I've said; powerful enough to stabilize your internal time. It will also allow you to travel freely through dimensions and time."

"So can you, like, put it on one of those nifty ribbons so I can wear it?" I asked.

"No, it would be too easy for you to lose it that way." Clockwork carefully propped his staff against the wall, "It needs to be embedded into your being."

I stared at him.

"Em-embedded as in…?" I swallows thickly, not sure I wanted him to finish the sentence.

"Like this." The Ghost of Time grabbed my shoulder and slammed the medallion into the center of my chest, just beneath my neck. Icy tendrils of energy wove themselves into my flesh, clamping around every fiber of my being like steel claws. I screamed, I know I did, and felt myself crash to the stone floor. Clockwork told me later that he'd had to pin me down because I was in danger of hurting myself, the way I was thrashing around. What I do remember is the agony and this thrum of power vibrating through my entire body that made my head rattle. I thought I was going to go mad with the pain when it suddenly stopped. I think I kept screaming for a whole minute before I realized nothing was harming me anymore. Clockwork had let go of me long before and was standing over by the screens with his staff in hand.

"Geez," I groaned, getting shakily to my feet, "Thanks for the warning, Clockwork!"

"If I had told you it would hurt would you have let me do it?" The Time Ghost asked with a knowing smile on his old man's face.

I scowled at him and looked at the medallion now forever protruding from the smooth skin of my chest. Curious, I wrapped my knuckles on it so that it rang with a bell like "ting" throughout the silent lair. I felt the vibration ripple through me and shuddered. It was a part of me.

"Interesting toy you've given him, Clockwork." Said a voice I hadn't heard in almost two years. But I would never forget that voice. I had almost died the night I'd met its owner.

I turned around and faced Lady Grim Reaper. "Hey," I murmured, "What's up?"

Lady Grim smiled at me, "Definitely not you're spirits, boy-o."

"What did you expect?" It was a rhetorical question and I didn't expect an answer, "I have to leave home for who knows how long and no one will even notice, when I eventually do come back I have to tell my parents I'm the Ghost Kid, and my destiny sucks!"

"You understand what you have to do then?" Clockwork asked and I rolled my mismatched eyes at him, shifting into my ghost form to deaden the chill of the air.

"Don't treat me like a preschooler." I growled, "I know exactly what I have to do but that doesn't mean I like it. If I had the power to, I'd stop them myself!"

The Grim Reaper and the Master of Time both chuckled and I felt my face heat up. Lady Grim tossed her hair over her shoulder, her dress sparkling in the lights from Clockwork's screens, "Are you ready, halfa?"

"I guess…" I turned my gaze to Clockwork who was watching impassively in his toddler form, "Does this have to be here?" I indicated the bulge in my suit where the skin tight fabric was stretched over the medallion.

"I'm taking at as a stupid question." The ghost answered coolly.

"Well I feel like Ironman or something." I muttered, pouting. Clockwork laughed and Lady Grim giggled, "What's so funny?"

"You. You have the amazing ability to crack jokes in the most dire and heart wrenching situations." Lady Grim answered as Clockwork wiped ectoplasmic tears from the cheeks of his young man body.

"Yeah, I have that effect on people." I grumbled, not meeting their eyes. I took a step towards Lady Grim.

"So you're really sure this is the way you want to do this?" Clockwork called after me and I glanced over my shoulder at him as the Grim Reaper beside me took my hand.

"It's like I got a choice in the matter," I answered back, "The Ghost Zone didn't let me make a choice. And, well, it's like you say: 'Everything is as it should be'."

Clockwork smiled, knowing I finally understood what he meant by those words, "Touché." He said softly, "And good luck, Danny Phantom."

I forced a smile onto my face that suddenly vanished as a suction feeling occurred. I felt as though I was being squeezed into the neck of glass bottle while I was coated in a sticky rubber film. Yeah, it hurt. There were a few seconds of darkness and then, with a strangely unnecessary "pop", sunlight blinded me.

I stumbled away from Lady Grim, arms wrapped around my torso, and collapsed onto the soft, green grass of the Inbetween; the land of the Reapers. My limbs were shaking, my head ached and spun, the edges of my vision were blurred, and I was having a hard time getting my breath back. The medallion in my chest was hot. My stomach felt as though it had been squished to the size of pea with a feast stuffed inside it. It only took a manner of minutes for my body to empty my lunch out onto the grass.

"Sorry, boy-o, I guess I should have warned you about traveling through dimensions." She helped me to my feet as I spat onto the mess I'd already left, "It's hard for someone who's still alive, even with Clockwork's gizmo."

"This thing is going to scare the crap out of me every time I look in the mirror," I grumbled, "And I think I'm going to lose breakfast now…"

"Hold still." Lady Grim placed her hands on my stomach and I automatically shrunk away from her touch, "Danny…" I stiffened, "Good boy." A soft, white light radiated from her hands and the twisted feeling in my gut loosened and vanished.

"Whoa!" I patted myself down and lifted up the front of my jumpsuit but there wasn't a single mark, "How'd you do that!?"

"Reapers are part of the World and part of the Heavens." The Reaper explained, "We touch all elements and can trigger them easily. Ghosts are usually allotted a single element to control; hence your ice powers."

"I'm only allowed ice?"

"Walk with me." I followed Lady Grim onto a dirt path that wound past the tiny coffee shop I remembered from my first trip here and towards the crystal clear waters of the nearby river, "You are a very special boy, Danny, more special than I think you realize. How much did Clockwork tell you about what you have to do?"

"Um…" I thought for a moment, white boots thudding across the worn wooden bridge that crossed the river, "Just that I wasn't supposed to do any of this until I was a lot older." I stopped half way across the bridge, resting my hands on the railing to stare at the flowing water, "He said that it wasn't a bad thing I met Amethyst or got captured by Yulcifer but…" I hung my head, "If none of that had happened ZeE and Alex and everyone…wouldn't be…" I shook my head, clearing myself of the dark thoughts clustering there. I'd gotten over this last year and I didn't need it brought up again. I started walking once more, "He told me that what the Observants did was bad and it "sped up the plan" or something like that."

"That was all he told you?"

"Well, I'm…" I chewed on my lip, "I'm not supposed to say this but I guess 'cause you're training me it doesn't matter." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "I have to wake up the Ancients." Lady Grim smiled at me and I realized she'd already known. I wonder how much else she knew, "That's all he said." I whispered finally, looking away.

"Did you know there was more?" I gave her a quick glance with my mismatched eyes before returning my gaze to the scenery, "Clockwork didn't tell you some things, boy-o, probably because he thought you would quit if you knew them."

"What didn't he tell me?" A hot anger popped inside me—so because he was the Master of Time he figured it would be okay to leave me in the dark!? Did he think I was really going to quit that easily!? Especially after what he told me!

"You know the Observants are overstepping their boundaries," Lady Grim said, her back to me as she led me further along the path, "They have ceased of their original duties to only observe and have begun to act, and not for the benefit of ghost or human. They are trying to take over the Ghost Zone and will move onto the human world if they aren't stopped."

"They think the Ghost Zone has lost the "order" it had when the Ancients oversaw it." I grumbled, "I know. Which is stupid because, I mean, really, when did the Ghost Zone have order?"

"Exactly." The Grim Reaper chuckled, "The Ghost Zone is the place of disorder and chaos which makes it the perfect habitat for specters. The Ghost Zone doesn't like what the Observants are trying to do."

"Yeah, the—wait, what? Ghost Zone? What do you mean it doesn't like what they're doing!? It's just a…a place!" I stuttered around my words, jogging to catch up so that I could walk directly beside Lady Grim, "You're pulling my leg!"

"I am doing no such thing, boy-o." Her expression was serious, "The Ghost Zone is a thinking, feeling, conscious being that watches and cares for every ghost in its precious fold. It creates lairs to accommodate them, it heals them with its spectral energy, and it generates guardians to protect itself, its inhabitants, and the humans in the world beyond."

"No way…" I murmured, "All this time…that's incredible."

"There is a certain door in the Ghost Zone," Lady Grim went on, leading me through a small forest of sweeping willows, "That cannot be opened, whether by hand, key, or force, or phased through by human or spirit. No one can find this door anyway. Several spectral beings know of its existence but they do not bother with it. Do you know what lies beyond this door?"

I shook my head.

"It is called the Origin Room. Inside is a pool of the purest ectoplasm, so clear and sparkling it could be mistaken as water. This is the lifeblood of the Ghost Zone; its mind, its core, its heart, the very thing that makes it a conscious state of existence." She glanced at me, "This is where you must go. The Ancients hid themselves there long ago, after they sealed away the tyrant Pariah Dark."

"But how can I find a door that no one can find anyway?" I grumbled, "That's impossible."

"You will know how to find it when the time comes." She said with a knowing smile. The smile faded away as she continued, "The Ghost Zone created many "children," all of them with incredible powers; even if those powers weren't used for the protection of humanity but rather for destruction and turmoil. But that is the way of a ghost." I scowled at her and she ruffled my white hair, "There are only two children that the Ghost Zone created that did not spawn from the Origin Room." She looked at me, waiting for me to figure it out.

"Me…" I pointed to my chest, misjudged the distance, and smacked the end of my finger on the medallion embedded there, "And…Vlad?"

"Yes," Lady Grim said solemnly, "Vlad Plasmius Masters was the first halfa the Ghost Zone chose."

"Wait, chose!?"

"Clockwork is the eleventh son of the Ghost Zone, his older siblings are the ten Ancients you must awaken. His younger brothers and sisters are the Observants, however much he hates them." The thought of Clockwork being the middle child in a huge family made me snigger but I choked it down, listening to the Grim Reaper's explanation, "His tie to the Ghost Zone is stronger than most of the others; so when he discovered what was going to happen with the Observants, the Ghost Zone knew as well."

"What's this have to do with me and Vlad?" I asked.

"Plasmius was the first born; the first halfa ever created by the Ghost Zone." Lady Grim's expression was sad, "He had such a good heart at the beginning, if a doubtful one. He may not have believed in ghosts as much as your parents did but he was a loyal friend. Perhaps the Ghost Zone went about his transformation the wrong way, though. He took it too hard and, well, I believe you know the rest, boy-o."

I felt pangs of sympathy in my heart. True, Vlad had been my arch nemesis for several years but in the end he'd helped me get my head in the right place. I had memories from Phantom when we'd been separated; I knew what Vlad had done but would never tell me.

"When the Ghost Zone realized how dark with hatred Plasmius' heart had become, she—."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! She? It has a gender!?"

"Not really. Clockwork, the Ancients, and the other "children" refer to the Ghost Zone as "Mother" so the term stuck and sometimes she is referred to as a female."

"Oh…"

Lady Grim shook her head and smiled at me, "The Ghost Zone realized that she had not chosen carefully enough. She consulted Clockwork and found you."

"You mean…the Ghost Zone chose me to find the Ancients? Why can't it—she—just wake them up herself?"

"They have withdrawn themselves into the farthest depths of the Origin Room, unwilling to associate with anyone. They have been out of touch with the Ghost Zone since she had the idea to make Plasmius."

I didn't say anything. I knew what all of this would entail; telling my parents my secret; but I couldn't get my head around it just yet. How could so much responsibility lay on me? How could a sentient place have picked me from the moment I was born—from before I was born—to save everything? Why did it have to be me?

"Danny?" I hadn't realized I had stopped walking right in the middle of the dirt path twining through a field of flowers. Tiger lilies.

"I don't know if I can do this." I muttered, staring at the dirt between my boots, "It just seems like…too much for a sixteen year old kid to handle."

"You handled your last adventure very well, boy-o, why not this one?"

I chuckled darkly, "Handled it well? Are you kidding? I nearly killed myself!"

Lady Grim swept over to me, kneeling down so that her gaze was level with mine, and placed her hands on my shoulders, "But good came out of it, didn't it? Plasmius is not controlled by the evil and hatred that once consumed him and Dan Phantom learned his lesson, did he not?"

"Yeah…" I replied, shrugging, "I guess I did okay."

"You are a brilliant, special, child!" Lady Grim insisted, standing up and dusting herself off, "You need to give yourself more credit, boy-o!"

"Brilliant?" I scoffed jokingly, "Have you seen my math grades? I'd say they were far from brilliant!" We both got a laugh out of that one.

As we rounded a bend of trees, a three story mansion came into view. A marble stone wall with iron spikes on the top ran all the way around it and an intricate iron gate bared our way as we approached.

"Okay, wait, this is like, check in or something, right?" I asked, amazed at the building. It was white marble with navy blue eves, numerous windows, a couple of balconies, and a white marble porch that led the way to the blue stained front door.

"Actually, this is your home; where you'll be staying as we train you." Lady Grim pressed her palm against the gate and it swung open without a sound, "Only you, I, or the servants can open this gate so you are safe within these walls. Not that anything would harm you in the Inbetween as it was!" She smiled at me.

"Uhhhh…thanks?" I smiled back and then yelped as she gently shoved me forward.

"Go on, boy-o, explore! I have duties to attend to but if you need anything send your Guardian Angel; he'll know what to do." I blinked and she was gone.

"Alllrrriiiiggghhht…" I turned back to the giant house as the gate swung shut behind me, "This is…different…"

Uhg, one of those "blah, blah, blah" chapters! Well, it explained everything, didn't it. Not hiding anything from you, am I? Or…am I? Hmmmm, is there something you don't know yet? Of course! What did the Reapers teach Danny?
Wait and see….
As always, thanks for reading, please review, and I'll see you in the next chapter! Byes!