…
…
…
…
…
It happened so fast he barely had a chance to blink before it was all over
…
…
…
…
…
'Why?'
…
…
…
…
…
'Why did this happen?'
…
…
…
…
…
'Why was all of this happening?'
…
…
…
…
…
CRASH!
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
His voice was so loud it was almost like he had unintentionally let loose a Ghostly Wail. His voice certainly echoed for miles to the point that entire cities far away could hear him.
The sheer pain from his voice caused everyone to temporarily stop, hearing something echoing through the air and freezing those who heard it.
Dark Danny watched in dark satisfaction from above.
Xxx
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
Damon Gray closed his eyes briefly from seeing the tragedy that happened to poor young Miss Fenton while the sheer anguish from Danny's voice echoed through the speakers of his surveillance system.
Xxx
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
Clockwork turned away as Danny's scream echoed through his lair and even reached out into the Ghost Zone.
Xxx
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
Frostbite perked up from hearing something.
"You hear that, sir?" One of his guards asked. "It is perhaps the wail of an enemy that has fallen into one of many dangers in the Ghost Zone."
"That was not the scream of an enemy…It was the distressing call of a friend…" Frostbite said sadly. "One who is now in pain…terrible pain."
Xxx
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
Princess Dora stopped, looking up to hear something.
A pained sound the washed all over her realm.
"Oh dear."
Xxx
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
Walker was inspecting his prison when he heard a familiar sound screaming so loud it caused several search lights to shatter. "…What has that punk done now?"
Xxx
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
Deep in the depths of the Ghost King's castle, the Fright Knight who had taken over turned around as the familiar sound of an enemy was heard.
Xxx
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
Ember was turning her guitar when a screaming sound reached her lair, making her stop. "What the heck was that?"
Xxx
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
Technus was in the midst of an upgrade when a screaming sound overloaded his equipment and caused it to short circuit and him along with it. "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Xxx
Danny reached down and turned intangible, pulling Jazz out and gently laying her on the ground.
It wasn't pretty.
Jazz had been badly mangled, especially around the legs and there was a bend near the bottom of her spine.
If his sister was lucky enough to survive she was likely going to be paralyzed for the rest of her life.
Because of him.
Because…
Of…
HIM!
"Jazz….I'm sorry." He whispered, cradling his sister in his arms as Maddie and Jack slowly approached.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
Danny gritted his teeth, closing his eyes as he heard the dark laughter of his evil counterpart.
"Still holding onto that weak sentimental drivel known as family?" Dark Danny chuckled as he floated down.
Danny turned and glared hatefully at him, holding Jazz close. "You…"
"You thought you could keep them safe. That you could ensure I wouldn't be able to lay a hand on them." Dark Danny taunted. "Did you really believe that just because you avoided the original fate you were meant to embrace that everything would change for the better? Look at them. So weak and pathetic, not like the two of us."
"I…Am…Not…You." Danny slowly growled, his eyes glowing completely green barely repressed power and rage.
"Hmph, not yet but close enough. Soon enough you'll see that it is pointless to hold onto these feelings." Dark Danny said as he held up a glowing fist. "I feel nothing as I look upon them as a reminder of a past long dead. No remorse, no longing, no regret, no sadness."
Danny growled, pulling Jazz closer to him.
"A weak and feeble being like her does not deserve to suffer in this world, our world. It's a mercy to put her and the rest out of commission." Dark Danny continued to taunt.
"Shut. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!" Danny screamed, releasing a rage filled Ghostly Wail at Dark Danny who grinned as he dissolved into mere ecto-gas.
"You can't kill me." Dark Danny said just as his head dissolved. "I cannot be destroyed!"
With that, the dark version of Danny Phantom dissolved into a cloud of green gas that disappeared into the sky.
Danny could only pant as he fell to his knees and looked over his sister. "…Jazz…I'm so sorry."
Thunder was heard overhead as it began to rain.
Xxx
"This is our game breaker." Damon Gray said, having watched the entire battle.
"We can use this against the ghost boy." Agent O said with a pleased smile.
"No. In the wake of this, with his sister in critical condition he'll be too emotional to respond. We can use this to push our agenda forward and he might not even resist." Damon said, walking over to his desk. "He might even give up the life of a hero after this."
"But he's still a ghost to be hunted and exterminated." Agent K protested.
"Do that and he becomes a martyr, a symbol for people to rally around even more so then now. Eventually people will begin trying to replicate the incident that created Danny Phantom. If the world of humans and ghosts are to be severed forever then first off we have to eliminate the more immediate threat." Damon said as he sat down. "We convince the president to begin a hunt for the other Phantom that attacked Amity Park. Once he is subdued we'll use the damage that has been caused to justify putting our bill for all ghosts on Earth to be registered, tracked and if not immediately returned to the Ghost Zone then to be imprisoned immediately. Are your teams ready?"
"They are." Agent O answered.
"Then we can begin." Damon nodded as he picked up a red phone and pressed the dial button, waiting a moment for person to respond. "….Hello, Mr. President. I'm sure you know what it is that I am calling about."
Xxx
Jazz was immediately rushed to the hospital and the doctors had her taken to the emergency room.
Xxx
"It is clear now that the recent ghost problems are becoming too great, even for Danny Phantom." Damon began.
Xxx
In the White House, under armed guard, President Hartman was listening to Damon's call. "It may be too soon, Damon. This is not the first time there has been a ghost related global catastrophe."
Xxx
In the following days Danny would barely get any food or sleep. His sister had been immediately rushed to the hospital following the battle and she was still alive.
Only she was currently in a coma.
If that wasn't bad enough her legs were broken and her spine was bent, paralyzing her from the waist down.
She would likely never walk again.
Because of him.
And now he had to explain it all to his parents.
"This ghost…was you?" Maddie asked, barely able to understand what she had been told.
"Yeah. I…Or rather in another time I became him when you all died in an explosion at the Nasty Burger…And with nowhere to go I…Went to Vlad." Danny slowly explained.
The mention of their former friend turned enemy caused an even greater turmoil in Jack and Maddie.
"I couldn't handle it anymore…The feeling of loss and that you all died…Because of me. You were only there because Mr. Lancer caught me cheating on my CAT test." Danny continued, seemingly numb now. "Only when you got there, the vat of the Nasty Burger killed you, Jazz, Sam, Tucker and Mr. Lancer. And the only person who could understand was Vlad. Only it was bad enough that I asked him…I asked him to remove my ghost half and take all my emotions with it."
He still remembered the elderly Vlad telling him what had happened and to this day it still haunted him.
"Only it backfired…My ghost half separated Vlad from his ghost and merged with it…Creating that…monster." Danny's hand clenched into a fist as he stared at the door where the doctors were still working to save Jazz. "And the first thing he did…Well, I asked Vlad what happened to my human half…He only said some things were better left unsaid."
But he got the message.
"Clockwork showed me what would happen and gave me a chance to do it over again so I could stop it from happening but…That ghost…He's still around because…Because he's not affected by what happens in the past anymore." Danny said, finishing his tale.
There was nothing but silence for the next few minutes.
Then Maddie spoke. "You are saying…that ghost…was you?"
Danny slowly nodded.
Maddie was trembling as she turned away from Danny, looking at the wall. "How did…How could…Why did this…"
"Mom?" Danny slowly reached out to his mother…
Only for Maddie to slap his hand away.
"How could you?!" Maddie suddenly shouted, tears running down her eyes.
"Mom?" Danny stepped back.
"Cheating, lying, and killing?! How can you stand there and tell me that…monster is my son?!" Maddie was getting hysterical. "That the reason my daughter is fighting for her life in there, who may be crippled for life, is because of her own brother!"
"He's not me! You know that!" Danny said, suddenly frightened.
"Do I?! Do I?! Everything wrong has been from…from researching ghosts! Vlad, Flynn being kidnapped, and now it's hurt my daughter and it's because my other son became this monster!" Maddie said, breaking down as Jack hugged her. "I…I don't even know you! How could you never tell us about this?!"
"How could I…How could you never tell me and Jazz about Flynn?!" Danny retorted, his eyes flashing. "How could you spend every Christmas fighting over whether Santa Claus is real or not?! How could you spend my whole childhood acting like you were pair of great protectors when all you did was embarrass me and Jazz to the point we barely had any normal life at all?!"
Maddie stood up, glaring at her son now. "Don't talk to me like that!"
"Why? So you can act like I am actually that evil ghost? I told you, he's not me!" Danny argued.
"You said he was! You said it was you who cheated on the CAT test. My own son needing to cheat on a test! We never raised you to be like that." Maddie shook her head. "How could you go without telling us this?"
"Well maybe I wouldn't have cheated if you had actually paid attention to me rather than obsessing over ghosts!" Danny was now getting angry. "You barely paid any attention to me after childhood, when I started to realize that everyone didn't point and laugh at you because you were funny. It was because they considered you kooks!"
"It was because of us kooks that you have your powers!" Maddie shouted.
"Gee, thanks for that. Thanks for putting the on button inside the portal when I turned it on. Thanks for giving me the powers that almost killed me that I never even wanted in the first place! And thanks for making me clean up your mess because all the ghost attacks started happening after you built that stupid thing and was what got Flynn kidnapped!" Danny shouted back. "Heck, it was that stupid portal that made Vlad a ghost in the beginning so you made him a monster too!"
"Hey!" Jack said, standing in front of Maddie. "Don't talk to us like that! We were making ground breaking research and we never told you to go inside that portal in the first place!"
"No, you left it completely unsupervised and forgot you hadn't plugged it in." Danny said, not backing down. "Where do you get off attacking me like this? All my life, you made me a social pariah, both as a human and a ghost. With humans, it was because you kept on acting like you were both some great protectors when in reality you were screaming around town, damaging people's property without a single thought while failing to catch a single ghost and when you weren't doing that it was something else that completely embarrassed me and Jazz without any regard to how we felt about it! And as a ghost, it was because I was constantly protecting the town and making enemies in both worlds because you kept the portal open and let all those ghosts out!"
"Stop!"
Danny and his parents were silenced as the doctor along with several men in scrubs stood before them.
"This is a hospital, not a fight club. If you can't calm down, take it outside." The doctor ordered.
"We're not leaving our daughter…" Maddie threw a look at Danny. "But you can go."
"Oh, so you want me to leave and do what, Mom?" Danny snapped.
"How about going after the monster you say is not you?" Maddie retorted.
Danny growled, his eyes glowing deadly green now. "Yeah and who's the bigger monster, Mom? The monster or the lady who gave birth to said monster?"
Maddie seemed to have enough. "Get out. Stay away from us!"
Danny couldn't look his parents in the eye as he changed into his ghost form and flew, a single tear hitting the floor as he turned intangible and flew through the wall.
Xxx
Danny couldn't get away from the hospital fast enough.
Since his parents had all but literally thrown him out he figured he could fly just about anywhere.
The problem was he wasn't sure where to go.
His dark counterpart was still on the loose and he had no idea where he was or how to stop him.
But he might know who did.
"CLOCKWORK!"
Time froze around him as the time ghost appeared out of a portal created by the hands of a clock. "I figured you'd call."
"What happened? How did he get out?!" Danny exclaimed. "I thought you were guarding him."
"I was." Clockwork said, creating an image of himself arguing with the Observants. "My employers decided it was too risky leaving him with me."
Danny watched as the Observants took the Thermos from Clockwork to headed back to their lair, only to lose the Thermos because of Aragon going on a rampage. "Seriously? They just took it and then they lost it!?"
"I'm afraid so." Clockwork said as the images faded.
"So they lost trust in you just because you didn't kill me when you had the chance like they wanted?" Danny couldn't it. "Why'd you let them take it? Sure, they observe time like you but they're bureaucrats. They don't have any power over you."
"I am bound by the laws of the Ghost Zone." Clockwork answered, morphing into his elderly form. "The Observants are the ones who find threats to be eliminated and they call upon me to preserve the future of the Ghost Zone. Even I cannot break these laws."
"Then why didn't you warn me?" Danny questioned. "I could have stopped them."
"And ended any form of peace between Earth and the Ghost Zone. I checked the possibilities for that and it all led to one outcome: War." Clockwork said, becoming a child. "A war that would have destroyed both worlds. Danny Phantom is a hero because he stops threats to both worlds but even that would not be enough if the denizens of these two worlds were to declare war and force him to choose a side."
To illustrate his point Clockwork showed a number of images where Earth and the Ghost Zone went to war with each other.
Needless to say it wasn't pretty.
Cities were bombed.
Realms wiped from existence.
The sky of the Earth scorched.
A warhead entering the Ghost Zone.
Mutual destruction of both worlds.
"…" Danny turned away as Clockwork changed into his adult form. "Why didn't you at least warn me he was out? I could have stopped him."
"Maybe and maybe you couldn't." Clockwork spoke. "Remember, the Observants were against me helping you. After they took the Thermos I was more or less warned not to intervene with you again. I couldn't have warned you without breaking the law again and the final strike would lead to severe consequences."
"Severe consequences?" Danny faced the time ghost. "What about the consequences for me? For my sister? What was so bad that you had to keep your mouth shut?"
"The loss of my existence as the ghost of time." Clockwork answered, stunning Danny. "Those who are bound to the laws of the Ghost Zone can never break their oaths, lest they suffer the loss of their powers and forms for eternity. Much like how Vlad chose to melt young Danielle into a puddle of ectoplasm."
Danny was silent for a moment. "So what now? He's out, he'll go on a rampage to try and preserve as much of his time as possible and try to turn me into him."
"It's worse than that. He exists outside of time now. Meaning he doesn't need you or Vlad anymore." Clockwork replied.
"Right. The Time Medallion that fused with him." Danny recalled. "We're not bound to each other anymore but that means we both have nothing to lose."
"Essentially." Clockwork nodded, becoming an old man again.
"So I have to take him out." Danny clenched a fist. "But how? We're pretty much equal now."
"Equal in powers perhaps but not in heart and skill. You surprised him last because your growth outpaced his because he cast aside his emotions, including the bonds of love for his family. He believes that to be a weakness but that was what saved your friends and family." Clockwork advised.
"Except…I don't have those now." Danny sighed, closing his eyes. "Sam and Tucker are gone, my parents blame me and Jazz…She'll be lucky to live through this."
Clockwork was silent.
"If I am going to stop him for good I will need something else…Something to help me get strong enough." Danny turned away from Clockwork.
"Be careful, Daniel. Needing something to make you strong to save a world and needing something to destroy an enemy are two different things even if they are sometimes appear to be the same." Clockwork cautioned.
"Maybe but I am low on options. I need to stop him before he starts destroying cities." Danny replied and then looked back at Clockwork. "Get strong enough before the madness spreads all over the world. Something like the Fenton Ecto-Skeleton but we destroyed it years ago and never built another one. The only thing that could enhance my powers are my Dad's Ecto-Dejecto and that might not be enough. There's nothing else we have made that can help get me strong enough…" Danny stopped as he recalled a certain crown in the basement of the Fenton Works. "Unless…"
"Daniel, wait-" Clockwork started but stopped as Danny took off towards the Fenton Works. "…If you do that…You'll be bound to the laws of the Ghost Zone as well, even as king."