Chapter 3! Hey guys, not much to say on this one except that I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please read and review. Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, Nickelodeon does.

HOWEVER, LILITH FENTON IS MINE HEHEHE.

Flying to Mikey's house, Danny landed gracefully onto the nerd's porch. Knocking on the door, he was greeted with a forty-year-old looking woman with fiery red hair and wrinkles stretched into her skin. Her eyes filled with worry at the sight of her son lying limp in Danny's arms. She ushered him in, almost shutting the door tightly behind them before Lilith pushed her way through.

"Did you follow me?" Danny asked her.

"Yes. This involves me as much as it does you, so I'm not leaving you."

Lifting on eyebrow, he decided to tease her a bit. "So are all time travelers this serious or did I never get you a puppy as a kid?"

Silence.

Well, that answers that, and after seeing the glare she shot him, he locked his mouth together. Figuring that there wasn't any point in arguing with her, he directed his attention to Mikey's mother to ask where to lay the worn out boy. She directed them upstairs to the boy's room.

After the best explanation either of the halfas could really give, they looked over him once more, seeing if the ghost that had done this had left any traces.

"Thank you, Danny, for making sure he's okay." They look up to see his mother wearing a grateful grin. She looked exhausted, defeated almost.

"It's no problem. It's my job to make sure everyone's safe. Besides I sometimes think your son is the only sane person in this town." He waved off the complement mindlessly, giving a boneless shrug of his shoulders. It was his responsibility to protect the town. Had been for years now.

Her face seemed to fall at his words. Her eyes screamed with sympathy.

"Still, I sometimes think we don't give you enough appreciation as to what you do. At the end of the day, you're still human. You're only eighteen, finishing your last year of high school. You have a girlfriend, friends, a daughter. I'm embarrassed to say I don't think I'd be strong enough to do all that you do. I know it's technically yours and your daughter's paid job now, but I know you two don't do it for the money. So no matter how much you don't think you deserve it, thank you, Danny."

He was about to reply, but before he was able to even open his mouth Lilith cut in. "Do you guys feel that?" Her eyes stayed locked on Mikey as she continued to speak. "I feel... I feel this sense of dread. Just utter misery. Rage, I don't know. It doesn't feel right." She trailed off, her eyes never leaving the sleeping nerd.

Danny had to agree. The feeling in the air, it wasn't right. It felt stale. Hollow even if that was the right term, but even that didn't describe it fully. It pulled at his stomach, making twists and turns. He could tell to a degree, Mikey's mom felt it too.

"The only time I felt this sense of dread was that one time your Mom heard me say Paulina's name in my sleep."

Lilith gave Danny a dirty look.

"She was working at Nasty Berger. It was ironic and I was laughing."

Lilith wouldn't drop the look.

"And now I feel uneasy for two reasons."

They looked to the sleeping nerd as he started to struggle in his asleep. He tossed and turned as if his nightmares were about to burst through. Without warning, he bolted up screaming and gasping for breath.

Mikey's mother broke through the group to comfort her child. "Sweetie, what happened? Are you okay?" Distress was evident on her face.

Mickey was still trying to catch his breath."It was so cold, everything was destroyed, our home, the school, almost the entire town and there he was, chasing me, not giving me an inch, and when I finally thought I outran him... well." His mother hugged him tighter, knowing what the end of his dream was.

"Whatever it is honey I'm sure it was just a dream. Let's just be glad it's over with."

Mickey's eyes surveyed the room until they locked dead on to Danny. "He was looking for you, he didn't want me, he was after you." Danny moved in closer to Mikey.

"Who's he?" Danny put a hand on Mikey's shoulder. Doing this seemed to cause him extreme pain, of which made his face contort in a strange and horrifying way. His back arched further than should be humanly possible, his eyes shut tightly together, so much that Danny could feel his pain. Looking at Danny with piercing glowing red eyes Mikey said only one thing.

"No more Nasty Burger, hey Danny?"

Danny wrenched his arm back as if he'd been tased. He didn't even think, he couldn't. Instinct took over as he went intangible and flew through the roof, leaving nothing but a trail of dust in his absence.

Floating high above Amity, Danny couldn't stop freaking out. "No, not him, it can't be him. No!"

He zoomed back to Fenton Works, possibly going faster than any of his previous records. He then phased through the building and into the room where he locked the door, shut the blinds, and then curled onto his bed, masking himself with his blanket.

Lilith looked at the ceiling as if he was going to return. "Yeah, thanks for waiting for me, Dad. Totally not awkward being left in a stranger's house."

Miky's mom looked at Lilith. "So… would you like a muffin?"

"What flavor?"

"Lemon poppy seed."

"Heh… Sure."

About a half hour passed when Sam knocked on Danny's door. "Danny I know what happened. Please let me in."

Hearing the word please fall from her mouth, he decided to comply. Danny slowly moved, to the door unlocking it and moved back to his bed.

Sam moved across the room, her boots clomping along the way, filling the empty silence. Sitting next to Danny, she softly settled her arm around his waist, placing a sweet kiss on his shoulder.

"You don't have to say a thing. I know what Mikey said and I also know what it means. But he is not you; you made that choice a long time ago. I also know the man I fell in love with," She paused as she brushed back his raven black bangs. He leaned into her touch as her fingers slid down to cup his cheeks. Her touch could always calm the storm in his mind.

"And I know that if he's not a stubborn blockhead trying to play solo hero we can get through anything together." With that, she laid her head against the side of his temple, conveying words to him that could not be spoken, showing him how she'll always be there for him. She was his and he was hers and they'd always have each other's backs.

And as they fell against his bed, wrapped up in each other's embrace, sleep starting to take them. No matter how the storm raged on outside, he had shelter in this woman's arms.

He had a home.

That home, however, did not last without Sam. In her absence, his anxiety boomed without warning. His heart beat rapidly and his breath was hard to catch. His body was heavy as he pulled himself from his bed to go downstairs for breakfast. Lilith and Danielle were staying at Sam's place for an 'all girls sleepover.'

Danny could only stomach a cold breakfast, some cereal, and milk. He couldn't stand any more than that. His gut was in clumps all morning.

The bad feeling followed him to school.

He couldn't bottle the growing anxiety. He knew no one else really felt it, except when Mikey was near, and then it'd fall on the group, wrapping them in almost a choke hold of dread and emptiness. Though, they attempted to ignore it the best that they could.

He could feel himself tremble in Lancer's history class. His whole body just seemed to vibrate. He couldn't focus on the words that were falling from his teacher's mouth; everything felt like miles away. The events of yesterday were still fresh in the young halfa's mind.

"Mikey." Lancer called out to the boy, his voice colored with concern, "Do you need to go to the nurse, young man? You seem ill."

Mikey looked up from his desk with barely enough energy to hold up his head. "It's okay Mr. Lancer, I'm here to learn and here to stay." His eyes held no genuine feeling to his statement. He looked so lifeless.

Danny wished he would take Lancer's advice. Him being in the room only drove Danny's nerves further through the roof. He had four more periods with this boy afterward and he wasn't sure how long it'd be before he went completely insane at the mere sight of him.

"No more Nasty Burger."

The clock ticked louder than Lancer's dull monotone voice.

"No more Nasty Burger."

Mikey's eyes locked onto Danny's and the poor halfa could not break away from him, no matter how much he tried; his willpower wasn't strong enough.

"No more Nasty Burger."

The room gradually developed a red hue. Breathing started to become harder and harder with each tick of the clock. Did the air somehow get sucked out of the room?

"No more Nasty Burger."

Everyone in the room faded away, except for Danny and Mikey. Anger suddenly took hold of the room, a hot breath trickling down his spine. Time slowly came to a complete stop.

"No more Nasty Burger!"

Mikey's eyes met Danny's and he smiled a toothy grin and mouthed the cursed words.

"NO MORE NASTY BURGER, HEY DANNY!"

"Dad!" He was pulled from his Mikey induced panic attack at the sound of his daughter screaming at him. He turned to meet Danielle, and saw nothing but a look of worry splashed on her face. He looks around the entire classroom, all eyes on him in utter terror.

Danny looked down at his hands to see them radiating bright green energy. Without knowing it he had transformed into his ghost form and was ready to pounce.

Danielle quickly grabbed her dad's arm, pulling him into the hallway to speak privately.

"Dad you look like you've seen a ghost. Like a scary ghost and not one we fight every day. Back to the point. Who is he?"

"What?"

"Lilith was saying something to mom last night about someone being back, and right now you were muttering something about Nasty Burger going up in flames. So unless you have a sudden phobia of greasy food and minimum wage workers I suggest you tell me who the hell is he?"

"Swear." But his voice did not hold the lecturing tone that it usually did.

She ignored the half-ass scolding. "Who is he?"

What she didn't expect was his downcast eyes refusing to meet hers. His voice turned cold and detached. Void of any emotions. "Someone you'll hopefully never meet. Now come on, Lilith texted me saying we're going." He turned to start heading to the exit of the school. She had to jog to catch up to him.

"Where are we going?"

Danny paused for a moment. "Clockwork's."

"Dramatic." Danielle said in a sing song tone.

"Let's just go." Danny says, sighing in a defeat at the sarcasm in his daughter's voice.

Lilith didn't know what to think of this Clockwork. This twenty year younger version of the time ghost that looked at her the moment they enter his tower like he knew who she was. He probably did, knowing him. He didn't change, didn't look any different. She knew time didn't affect him like humans. He still had red glowing eyes, the scar that trailed along his face and changed from baby, to adult, to elder every few minutes. Same old Clockwork. She knew all his tricks and trades. But this wasn't her uncle exactly, and that truly made her long for home, to be in the embrace of everyone she cared for and loved, including her uncle.

"I knew this was going to happen," Clockwork explained.

"How? He doesn't exist anymore! Even you can't see things that don't exist anymore." she knew that, he knew that.

"Because of you. You came shortly after your sister defeated the Shadow Master to warn me."

"I'm not even born yet? How's that possi-"

"You have to figure that one out Lilith."

She huffed, crossing her arms. " Yeah, time travel. You know I think I like my uncle Clockwork from the future much better."

"Have I have grown soft twenty years down the line? Also time is irrelevant." He gave her a kind smile.

She glared at his passive-aggressive teasing.

"As is your face."

"You know, for all the choices in all the timelines you just had to choose the lamest comeback."

Turning her back on him, she continued on with her questions. "Anyway… So I told you what happened because you can't see what happens?"

"That is correct."

"Wait," Danny breaks in."You've known about this since Danielle defeated the shadow master, because that's when Lilith came to you and told you, yet you decided to wait until now to inform us of him?Why?"

"Because of time."

He bites back a growl of anger at the cryptic answer, and goes back to Sam's embrace.

Lilith continues her conversation once again,"So, what happens?"

"That is for me to know and for you to find out. I assume I sent you back for a reason. If you really are my apprentice twenty years down the line then I am sure you can figure this out."

"So basically, I came back in time, told you what happens, and yet, you can't tell me."

"Precisely." She groaned at him. "All as it sho-"

"Yeah yeah," She practically yelled into the empty air in front of her, placing her hands on her face and groaning in hopelessness. "I know, everything is as it should be! Why are you such a greeting card?" She looked over to her dad, Tucker, Danielle, and her mom all consoling him, trying to calm his frigid nerves.

"So, what? What was that with Mikey? How is he back?"

He grimaced in sadness. "I can't say. You and your family have to find that out. I'm lucky that I can help in any way that I do."

"I know a way you could help us." Danielle broke in. "Someone tell me who the hell this guy is!? It's such a shushed up secret, who is he? He can't be worse than Vlad."

The master of time sighed wistfully. "He's worse than you could image, child. I can't be the one to tell you. That is your parent's job."

She stormed off, taking flight, making her way back home. The group all looked in defeat. Saying their thanks to Clockwork, they took off after her, leaving behind a smiling clockwork.

"I can't wait to properly, meet you, young one." He whispered at Lilith's fading silhouette.

Lilith soon found out that her older sister truly took after their mom more than she had known in her entire life. With the whole big age difference between the two, they always spent time together, but seeing as the woman was well into her early forties now and she had her own place with her husband and kids, she had matured and grown into the adult that she had known all her life.

However, being able to be in the same household with a sixteen-year-old Danielle proved that her sister was not always that mature. The moment that they returned home, she ran up the stairs, slamming the door behind her.

"She'll calm down in a couple hours." Tucker reasoned, "She'll be back to her normal self. I have to go back to the office and settle some documents for the town. Let her know where I am if she wandered down here, okay dude?"

They were all now in their own daze, the horrible feeling now starting to take hold of the rest of the group since returning from Clockwork's, the feeling that Danny had been getting ever since their classmate had been controlled. Danny gave a nod in response, and Tucker took off.

Hours passed before Danielle came stumbling down the stairs, clad in her usual blue hoodie, jeans, and boots.

"I'm gonna go see Tucker for an hour or so." Her voice didn't have much volume to it, but could still be heard by her dad, sister, and mom.

"Okay, sweetie. Be back by curfew!"

Her strides were long; each step had a purpose, meaning, the water that had pooled on the ground from the open downpour splashed up to meet her knees every time. She didn't care about the rain hitting her, soaking her clothes to her body, damping her hair to stick to her face. She knew what she was gonna do, and she hoped beyond hopes that this would work.

She had to keep talking to herself from backing out of her mission. She could do this. She really could. Even when her conscious told her to run back home.

Entering the key into the hole, she slowly pushed the door open. Looking ahead of her, she saw Tucker at his desk, head bent, pen in hand as he wrote away on some documents. He looked up when he noticed her presence enter the foyer.

"Hey, babe! What are you doing here so late? You have two hours until your curfew, and it's pouring rain."

"I just wanted to really see you."

She sauntered over, swaying her hips back and forth, seeing her intended goal ministering in his eyes. Once she was mere inches from him, she pulled his chair from around his desk and then braced both knees on either side of his waist, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck.

She saw the shock fill his face and how it froze. She laughed silently at how bold her actions were turning out. She smiled in triumph as he had to gulp down some nerves that bubbled up. 'I'm sixteen damnit. I can do this.'

"Hi." She smiled a toothy grin.

A weary expression flickered across his eyes. "Baby, what're you doing?" She tried to smile innocently enough.

"Oh, nothing."

She could see the small cracks in his resolve, but he still held firm. "This isn't nothing. We're allowed to date because your parents allow it, I'm eighteen Dani. We can't push our luck. Besides, this isn't you, you blush whenever I give you a goodnight kiss."

She sighed in defeat, knowing he was right. She leaned back a little, but still keeping the position. "I know. I just... I need to know what's happening to dad. No one is telling me. It's really getting on my nerves being kept in the dark. What if something happens to me because I didn't know?"

"We will never let anything happen to you ever again." Tucker vowed, nothing but sincerity and promise sprinkled in his eyes.

Removing his hat, she ran her fingers through his hair, trying to calm them both. "Honey, we both know there are some things that are out of our control. We can't pretend that something won't happen because we wish it. But we will all be together when these things happen."

Danielle repositioned herself so that she was lying across Tucker's lap, no longer having to act innocent. "You three have been doing this longer than I ever have, sure I had to survive on my own for a while but deep down I just don't wanna be caught in the dust when it comes to fighting these guys. Out of nowhere, there's this ghost so powerful it makes my hero complex dad shake in his boots. How can I not worry about that?"

"Listen pookums, I'm not hiding this from you. I want you to understand that, it's just not my secret to tell. What I can tell you is that we learn from our mistakes and when he is ready to tell you just remember that everyone is capable of both great and bad things. It's what we choose that defines us."

Letting her fingers dtangle from his hair, she lets her hand slid down to cup his cheek. "Okay, Mr. Mayor. When did you get all poetic and cheesy?"

Tucker kissed Danielle for a good couple of seconds. "Ever since I fell in love with you."

"Ew! Honey, you got that cheese all over me." They both gave a chuckle at that.

His fingers started misnersting small rubs in circle motion on the back of her hand. "Oh, you know you love it."

"I know I love you." Danielle, being a little cheesy herself, grabbed the loose part of his shirt, pulling him up from his chair with quite a bit of force and pulled him in close for an exceptionally passionate kiss.

She released Tucker as he gasped for breath and smiled a wicked grin as she leapt from her seat on his lap and walked away.

"Night, Mr. Mayor." The words sung from her lips.

As the door closed behind Danielle, Tucker picked up his phone.

"Hey, Jazz I think it's going to be one of those long nights for your niece. Yup, I'll make sure it's unlocked for you. You sure that's where she's going through? Okay, you are her Aunt. Talk to you later. Bye."

Tucker took in a deep breath of contemplation.

"Damn, that girl was about two seconds away from me having my first political scandal."

Danielle looked at her clock as her room sat in silence. 12:01. Good enough. Danielle pulled her clothes from her dresser, and scrambles into an all-black outfit and flies out her window towards downtown.

Upon making it to the library, Dani went intangible and phased through the walls with ease. She made her way to the computers, powering one up. It took a bit for the machine to warm up but once it did she wasted no time logging in to the Ghost Database, something that had been set up months prior so that in case her family was indisposed at the moment and the town needed to know what they were up against, so that they knew whether or not to fear the ghost. The blue screen lit up, reflecting against her entire face.

She almost felt eyes watching her from every angle, every corner as she started looking through the files. She didn't feel alone, and if she didn't need to know about this ghost, she'd left by now. She twirled around once to double check to see if someone was watching her, but found none.

"You're just overreacting Danielle." She tried to convince herself. Shaking off the feeling, for now, she continued on her search."Now how do I find you mystery ghost?" She looked through ghost after ghost but none of them matched anything like the others described. Finally, it hit her. She moved the cursor to the search bar and typed in 'Nasty Burger Explosion'. Enter.

"Password required!" The voice echoed throughout the deserted building, putting Danielle on edge even more than she had already been.

"Let's see, Grandpa made this security system so this shouldn't be too hard to crack. Now, what would he use as a password? No..."

Feeling the need to slap the aging man for his stupidity she entered the words "password one, two, three."

"Access granted with limited restriction."

Limited restriction? Wow, this guy must be bad.

The screen in front of her read 'Ghost X'. That doesn't make sense, the only time I've heard the name ghost X was when Aunt Jazz was mocking Skulker.

As Danielle read more and more of his profile she began to shake a little. This ghost was not Skulker. "This guy wasn't just bad he was the worst, worse than Vlad. How can someone so evil actually exist?"

Danielle jumped in terror as she felt a hand grab her shoulder.

"It's okay," Jazz whispered, "It's just me."

Placing a hand on her racing heartbeat as she tried to calm it, taking a deep breath, she exhaled in relief at the sight of her Aunt. "Auntie Jazz, What are you doing here?"

"I was on my way home for the three day weekend when Tucker called me." Jazz looked to the computer screen. "Ah, him. Come on, I think it's time we convince your dad to have a little family talk."

Jazz opened the door for Danielle where she saw her family sitting in the living room, concern on all their faces.

Danny stood up from his spot on the couch. "You are in so much trouble, but we'll talk about that later. I think it's time I tell you the truth." Danielle sat on the ground in front of him as her father explained his darkest secret. "We call him Dark Dan."

The more he described the situation the more emotional he seems to get. Eventually Sam and Lilith ended up holding him as the tears flowed from his eyes. Danielle herself couldn't help but cry a little.

"I thought I was protecting you by not telling you, but if he really is back then you have every right to know. I guess I was just trying not to relive the pain."

Danielle stood up and jumped on her father to give him a hug. "It's okay dad, I know you're good and everyone here does too. I'm sure if we find some way to get through to him too we can..."

"No!" Danny said in a harsh voice. Quietly, he continued, "No. I'm sorry, I know we try to save everyone we can, but there are just some people who can't be redeemed. He isn't just bad he's everything evil from both me and Vlad. There's no reasoning with him and if you try he will use that kindness against you."

Danielle looked to the ground in defeat. This person was once her father, yeah maybe a little bit Vlad but how could Danny Fenton, the loving dad and boyfriend, be something so terrible. "How could you have fallen so far?"

The voices still echoed in his dark twisted mind as he looked down at Fenton Works, the rain not even threatening to extinguish his flaming locks.

"How did you become this?"

Dun Dun Dunnnnnnn. Dark Dan is back and read to wrestle.

Question time! How is Lilith connected, and what had she told Clockwork over a year previously?'Cause it's obvious that she's connected…. But how? And how, with Clockwork knowing for an entire year, why didn't he warn Danny and the team?

All shall be revealed.

Anyway SHOUTOUT TO MY BETA READER, SILENTE FAERY