Author's Note: I have no idea if anyone will even read this. I own nothing.

The World Might Do Me In

1 The Accident

A dark tower hidden away in a corner of the void echoed with the ticks of a thousand clocks. A lone figure wandered here, sometimes old as time itself, sometimes in the prime of life, other times a child with a gap toothed grin. But the mind inside the figure never wavered as his form shifted endlessly. Not bothering with a door the figure simply walked through the wall into a room full of what looked like gears from a clock. As if responding to their masters presence the cogs began to glow and each began to display a different moving image. He watched one for a moment smiling at a dark haired boy racing along with his friends. But another caught his attention and he turned away. This cog was towards the back of the room, tucked away with a group of others all of which were a slightly different shape to the larger main cogs. He smiled as he watched this one.

This cog, like those around it that didn't seem to fit into the clock, was a view into a splintered timeline. Things here were not as they were in the world most knew. This timeline existed parallel to the one he sometimes enjoyed stepping into. It was easy to see what was different at a glance here. It seemed that in this timeline the Fenton's did not have a daughter and a son but instead two daughters. A bookish redhead, and a girl with the jet black hair of her father. She was currently pulling that hair into a quick braid.

"It's sorta ridiculous that we've never been down here before." Tanya Foley pushed her glasses back up her nose and grinned around the lab. It was sort of a dream to be in a real inventors lab, even if Danielle's parents were only interested in one thing, ghosts. Not that any of them had ever actually seen one before. Danielle's voice echoed from a small side room.

"Mom and Dad aren't usually too keen on letting people down here. But since their last experiment failed they've kinda relaxed the rules a bit." Danielle still hadn't come out of the closet. Samuel Manson turned to the closet a slight grin on his face.

"Come on Dani, you said you'd show us around, why are you in the closet?" A loud sigh sounded from the closet and the door peeked open.

"You're not allowed to laugh. Dad insists we're supposed to wear these stupid jumpsuits while we're here. But we don't have any in your sizes so he said if we wanted to be down here I had to wear mine, for safety." Tanya was already holding in her giggles but Sam composed himself.

"We won't laugh." He said and elbowed Tanya who pulled herself together as a set of bright blue eyes became visible in the doorway, along with a head of jet black hair that had already been pulled up into a lab safe braid.

"You swear?" They both nodded. She stepped out of the closet. She was wearing a jumpsuit much like the one her mother wore except this one was almost entirely white, except the gloves, neckline which covered her throat like a turtleneck, boots and belt all of which were black. Her arms were crossed over her chest though and Sam frowned spotting some kind of patch on the chest.

"What's that?" He asked and Dani huffed, uncrossing her arms and revealing an image of her father's face.

"You know how dad is about branding." That made Tanya snicker, Sam barely held his in. He pulled a small knife out of his boot and stepped froward.

"That's fixable." He said and carefully flicked the knife through the stitching that held the patch in place. He had a lot of practice altering the clothes his parents insisted on buying him. The patch fell away with ease and Dani sighed with relief.

"That does make it a bit better." She said with a grin picking up the patch and tossing it into the trashcan. She clapped her gloved hands together and began the tour of the lab. Most of the equipment was meant for the study and detection of ghosts. Some were weapons, but they barely effected humans at all. Then they came to the cavernous hole in the wall. It was almost a tunnel except it only went back about six feet into the concrete. It looked like a machine but it was dead and dull.

"This is supposed to be a ghost portal to wherever the ghosts are supposed to come from." Dani said in an exaggerated spooky voice before giggling. Sam though looked fascinated.

"Why is it off?" He asked peeking into the device. Dani shrugged, gently pulling him back.

"Mom and dad say it's a dud. It won't turn on." Tanya frowned but Sam was insistent.

"Have you ever been inside?" He asked, curiosity gleaming in his eyes. Dani shook her head.

"Nah." She stood in front of the doorway to the small tunnel and tilted her head to the side. "I have been kinda curious though. I mean can you imagine what kind of cool stuff could be on the other side of this thing?" Tanya shrugged, seeming to have lost interest but Sam was grinning. Dani hesitated for a moment before stepping over the threshold of the portal. Taking a few tentative steps inside she frowned. She knew her parents had said it didn't work but she was expecting something. She took another step and nearly tripped. There was a wire on the ground. She just managed to catch herself on the wall and steady herself there. It wasn't until she felt something depress under her hand like a button that she realized how badly she had just fucked up.

Light blossomed around her, through her and pain tore into her like a million blades. It was like being torn apart piece by piece and soldered back together with a thousand degree blade. Her scream seemed to echo and reverberate around her growing louder and louder as she tried to run from the pain and light.

The first thing that happened was the equipment that was supposed to detect ghosts went haywire behind Sam and Tanya. Beeps and clicks and the sound of printing paper filled the room as they glanced at each other. Then light bloomed from the portal, the scream that came with it was downright unearthly. Everything in the lab that wasn't nailed down began to float, Sam and Tanya had to grab hold of tables to not float up to the ceiling. Unbeknownst to the two currently panicking in the lab it wasn't just there. Every object and person in the house that wasn't attached to the ground was now floating, unable to land. Jack and Maddie were scrambling to find the source of this huge spike in ectoplasmic activity.

In the basement a figure stumbled out of the now active portal. Sam and Tanya stared as she fell to her knees. It couldn't be Dani, could it? The hair was a stark white and seemed to float of its own accord. The jumpsuit seemed to have been reversed in color, black replacing the white and white the black. Her normally tannish skin was so pale it was only a shade or two off the hair floating around her face. But the eyes were the most startling change. Where there had been bright blue there was now the same green glowing power that emanated from the portal behind her. She shook her head as though trying to clear it, her hands coming out to catch her before she could fall all the way to the ground. She looked up in confusion.

"Sam? Tanya?" Her voice was wispier than Dani's by a touch and her canine teeth looked just a touch sharper than the average human's. But then she wobbled. Lights blossomed in a perfect ring around her middle and split, spreading along her body and leaving her looking just as she had when she entered the portal, though she seemed a bit more charred than she had been before entering the portal. Her elbows gave one more fitful wobble as the lights disappeared and she collapsed to the floor. A loud crash told Sam and Tanya that everything else had come crashing back to the floor as they landed hard and raced to their downed friend.

With shaking hands Sam reached out and felt for a pulse and was beyond relieved to find one, beating steadily. Loud footsteps down the stairs alerted them seconds before Jack and Maddie Fenton came barreling into the room guns drawn. Maddie dropped hers at the sight of her youngest daughter on the floor her jumpsuit still smoking slightly. She was at her daughter's side in a heartbeat, Jack barely a step behind her. Maddie scooped her daughter off the floor and barked an order.

"Get that table cleared off!" Jack had caught sight of the active portal and seemed transfixed so Sam dove to obey Tanya only a few steps behind him. Maddie laid Dani down on the table and felt for a pulse breathing in relief when she found one. "Jack I need the first aid kit." No response. "Jack!"

"Maddie, the portal, it worked!" Maddie turned and blinked as if just now noticing that the portal. Maddie whirled on Sam and Tucker.

"What happened!" It wasn't a question, it was a demand. But neither of them could seem to articulate what had happened. It had all gone by so fast. She shook her head. "Whatever happened we need to make sure Dani is ok. Jack get the first aid kit!" Either his wife shouting at him or the sight of his daughter laid out on a metal table had Jack scrambling for a large box on the wall. Maddie's look had Sam and Tanya scrambling to help however they could as a set of smaller footsteps came down the stairs into the basement lab. Jazz screamed at the sight of her sister laid out on the table. Maddie gestured for Sam and Tanya to help Jazz instead. She frowned. She couldn't find anything wrong with Dani. She was a little cold but the only injury she could find was a small round burn in the center of her hand. She had Jack take Dani up to her room as she quickstepped to where the other kids had gathered in the kitchen.

"Is Dani ok?"

"What happened?"

"Is she awake?" The questions came so quickly that Maddie couldn't tell who was asking what. She raised her hands as all noise ceased.

"She's fine. She's got a small burn on her hand but other than that I can't find anything wrong with her. Sam, Tanya was she in the portal when it activated?" The two teens shared a glance and Sam shook his head.

"No just outside it. I think she had her hand on the doorway but…" He trailed off as Tanya nodded. Neither of them thought it was a good idea to tell the world famous ghost hunters what they'd seen. Neither was even sure it was real. Maddie nodded as Jazz began to sob. She pulled her daughter into a hug and nodded to Sam and Tanya.

"If you two don't mind staying the night, until we figure out what activated the portal, you can wait in Dani's room for her to wake up." They nodded and practically ran up the stairs.