He was not particularly surprised to see that the clock read 3:19 AM. He was surprised that it read anything at all considering the melted state it had been in when last he saw it. He sat up and looked around, then looked back at the clock. 3:19 AM. The moment Pandora had been born all those years ago. Had it all been a dream?

He lunged out of bed and tore down the hall to throw open the door to Jazz's room. "Jazz!" he exclaimed happily.

She sat up quickly and looked around. "What? What?"

"You're okay!"

She looked at him incredulously before throwing a pillow directly at his head. "Danny, get out of my room!"

He laughed and threw the pillow back at her. "Alright, alright," he acquiesced. "I'm going. I just glad you're okay."

"Of course, I'm okay. Why I wouldn't I be?"

Danny shook his head. "It was nothing. Sorry. I'm going."

Back in his room, he stood uncertainly just inside the door, then ducked down to fish around under the bed. The gold-plated iron box was nowhere to be found. He stood, looked around, and sighed. "Maybe it was just a dream…" he muttered.

"No, not exactly."

Danny whirled to face the intruder, already back in ghost mode and ready for a fight until he realized who he was looking at. "Clockwork?" he asked uncertainly.

The ghost master of time smiled as he shifted from his young form to his old one. "Your friend Hope can be very persuasive when she wants to be," he explained. "I've agreed to reset time back to before this all began."

"One last wish…" Danny muttered. "Thanks, Clockwork. And tell Pan…er, Hope thanks, too."

Clockwork shifted to his adult form and bowed slightly. Then he was gone, and Danny was alone.

"Look, Tucker," Sam sighed. "I agreed to go to that stupid movie with you. You are coming to the Edvard Munch exhibit with me."

Tucker muttered something about boring paintings and replied, "Will there at least be girls there?"

Danny looked around, slightly on edge. He was not sure exactly what was going to happen today, but he refused to be caught a second time. "Hey, Danny?" Sam asked, intruding on his thoughts. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I just had a really weird dream that's kind of bothering me."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sam asked as she paid their way in.

Danny shook his head and just listened as his two friends began to rehash much the same conversation they had the last time he was here. As they passed the Crusades exhibit, he tried to see to Pandora's Box, but it was hidden from view around a corner. He glanced around, not really interested in the artwork, until his ghost sense informed him that it was show time.

"I am the Box Ghost!"

Sam huffed and crossed her arms; Tucker appeared overjoyed. Danny checked that they were alone out of sheer habit before becoming his ghostly self. "This shouldn't take long," he said with slightly more confidence than he felt. In fact, he knew exactly how long it was likely to take. He headed out barely a second before Box Ghost shouted his tagline and didn't pay much attention as Sam called, "Hurry back."

"…And once I have freed you from this square container of glass," the less-than-genius spook was saying to Pandora's Box. "Your squaryness and boxyness will be mine and-"

"Hey, Box Ghost!" Danny yelled after a moment to reflect on the déjà vu of the situation. "Just step away from the glass case and-" Box Ghost did not even wait for him to finish speaking; he reached through to take the box, as Danny was afraid he would, and fled. "Aw, come on!" Danny wailed. "Not again!"

He went intangible to chase his quarry around the exact same path he had taken once before. As expected, moments after they got into the open air, Box Ghost looked around to yell, "I am the Box Ghost! I will not let you take my precious magic box!"

Danny didn't bother to respond. He had decided that it would simply be best to see this thing through to its preordained conclusion at a warehouse halfway across town. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with Pandora's Box when he finally got hold of it, but he hoped it wouldn't involve fighting her again. Once had been more than enough.

After what seemed to be an eternity, they reached their destination. "With this box," Box Ghost predictably announced in an overly loud voice. "I, the Box Ghost, will defeat you at last! Beware!" A ghostly glow surrounded the box, and he threw it at Danny…

…who caught it…

There was nothing. No whispers. No ethereal warmth. No smell of smoke or burning flesh. Danny breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that Pandora was gone for good, and tossed the empty box back to the spectral thief. Box Ghost looked incredulously between his prize and his foe. "Go on," Danny sighed. "I'm feeling generous this time."

Box Ghost took one last look at Danny as though he had lost his mind, then gleefully shouted, "Beware!" before fleeing back to wherever he made his real world home.

"I'll get him next time," Danny said to no one in particular.

Somewhere in the Ghost Zone, there is a place where time doesn't move, and where it moves in all directions at once. It is a place both outside of time and at time's very core. It was in this place that a young spirit of fire turned away from the images laid out before her. "Thank you, Master of Time," she said. "For everything. For fixing my mistakes."

Clockwork laid an elderly hand on her shoulder. "You are quite welcome, Miss Thatcher."

Hope sighed and laughed slightly. "You really do see everything, don't you?"

"Of course. I have known this day was coming since I watched you die. I'll admit I was getting a little worried that Danny wouldn't pull through. But I'm not surprised that he did. That boy has a good heart and a lot of potential."

"He certainly does," Hope murmured as she turned back to see him one last time.

"What will you do now?" Clockwork asked from his adult form.

Hope grinned. "As though you don't know."

He grinned, as well, and they shook hands like old friends. "I'm not going to be watching you anymore, Hope. You're on your own from here on out."

The ifreet sighed happily at the thought of her freedom. "I'm going to wander here for a while, I think. I need…time."

Clockwork nodded. "Well, I wish you well."

Danny yawned tiredly. It was three in the morning, but this time he was awake by choice. He never thought that he would be so happy to see the inside of Casper High, not in a million years. He hovered outside the auditorium for a while, listening to the eerie music that emanated from within. There was a long pause, then the discordant strains of Point of No Return rang out. He went intangible and headed in.

Just like the last time he was here, he was unable to see Electra until he got close to her. He wondered how she achieved that effect, and why she would be using it when there was no one around to impress. Although, she was the daughter of a mad man…mad ghost…? Danny grinned. "Hey, Weber!" he called out.

Without stopping or even bothering to look up, Electra said, "Well, well. A boy who knows his composers. I should stand impressed were I not sitting."

Danny laughed. "It's Kat, isn't it?" he said, although he already knew. "Katrina Technus?"

Kat froze, then looked up suspiciously. "Cadwell, if you'd like to be technical about it. Have we met?"

"No, not yet. I've seen you around, though." He held out his hand. "Danny. Danny Phantom."

Kat vanished in a blue smoke to reappear directly in front of him. She took the proffered hand and grinned. "Electra. Electra Technus."

"I know your dad," Danny mentioned.

"I know you do," she replied, finally confirming what he had already surmised. "I must say. He says you're a brainless hothead, but I see none of that here. What can I do for you, ghost boy?"

"Oh, nothing." He shrugged. "I just wanted to introduce myself."

Kat (or Electra or whatever she preferred to be called) smiled brightly. "Well, then. Until we meet again, Phantom. Cheerio!" With a tip of her hat, she was gone, and so was Danny to go back to bed. Insomnia was overrated.

A/N: And that's all she wrote, folks. I don't usually make them this short, but then, I usually write for sixtyhour long video games. Writing a long fic about a thrity minute TV show without letting it drag is tough. But don't worry. I'm already working on my next one. I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed; you people are awesome.

Elegy 10-10-2005