(this is what you get when you sit down to give yourself a little time between the end of the work and starting to focus on studies... well, ending a short fic about rethink TUE, combined with Ectober, that I didn't plan at all to finish in one sitting. I just sat down to make a short note and not forget the concept, but well, damn... it is here now, short, but finished, it didn't even need any beta-ing, wow)
Ectober Month 2021: day 1 Trick & day 14 Mimic (Treat) & day 3 Cryptid (Treat) prompt
Possibilities
Clockwork adjusted on his panels, the screen showing the future seemed settled – and not just seemed, it was. Things that had happened with the Daniel he knew had occurred as those always had to turn out. Now, it was time to face the truth.
Clockwork switched off the screen and floated towards the container the Fentons simply called 'thermos' (presumably by the similar shape of objects containing soup), then he reached out his staff, pressing softly the releasing button. By a blue-ish mist, the trapped ghost got freed, knees falling on the floor.
"God damn it," came an immediate cursing, "do you have any idea how suffocating it is? Awful, awful I say… like being stuck under a water, and it is fucking dark inside, not funny at all." the ghost massaged his neck like feeling the identical sensation of being out of air, then sat down, stretching his limbs. "Don't do this again, Clockwork. This just sucked."
The named ghost raised an eyebrow, hovering a bit away, to give the other space to get back his strength. "You hardly were inside for a few hours, Daniel," he said, "and as I remember your sister kept you captured more times than I did."
"Those were accidents. And her aim is much better now. Besides, she is only doing that when she is pissed off at me." the ghost debated, trying to get up, but fell back. "Dang it! My limbs totally went numb. I have to be on time for dinner-time, or else Sam will kill me. That's not what I signed up for, damn it, Clockwork…" he murmured under his nose, letting out a curse again, but then exclaimed under a meaningful knock that made him shut his mouth by a hit on the top of his head with the staff. "Hey!"
"It's still a sacred place, Daniel. I'd really appreciate it if you don't use that ugly language of yours here."
The ghost just rolled his right now red eyes, and shifted into a much comfortable sitting position, still on the floor, waiting for the time until he would be able to move properly again. "Anyway… did it work?"
Clockwork turned into his oldest form, and took a place too, to be on the same level as the adolescent spectre. "You know it did."
"Yeah, of course…" the other came to see, but it sounded like a curse. And indeed, his eyes wandered off, thinking about something, but then the figure's lips curled up into a half-smile, and shook his head. "You know, if I had known back then that it was nothing but an act…"
"But you didn't know, did you?" Clockwork gave him a look, "not until today."
"Yeah, not until today…" the ghost agreed, "but seriously, when you appeared you scared the shit out of me. You sounded very ominous, saying 'it's about your future'." the clawed fingers moved in the air, quoting the sentence. "Seriously, Clockwork, especially today… I thought he'd return or something, and I'd turn to him, dead-on time, ten years later…"
Clockwork tilted his head, meaningfully, roving his eyes on the ghost in front of him, on the exact sight, that meant 'being him'.
"Not like that!" the adolescent showed up his arms in the air, "I meant literally," he said, but then tsked, realising the two meanings of the word. "Okay, this is literally too… but still, you see my point."
"You wouldn't have believed me, Daniel," Clockwork explained, reaching out his stuff towards the other, who immediately grabbed it, pulling himself up with the little help.
The ghost scratched his neck, recognising it too. "Yeah, surely… but you owe me years of Jazz's therapy." Clockwork arched an eyebrow, but not giving out the truth, that both of them knew those helped much, to keep the balance between the normal life and a secret identity and the side effects to each other, and work out together a manageable schedule for each.
"I'm sure if you tell Jasmine, she'd be better proud."
"Oh, no." the ghost shook his head, grinning widely over a thought, "I'll tell it to Tucker first. He had his theories whether the Observants could be screwed or not. He owes me a hundred dollars now."
"Technically, you didn't 'screw them out'," Clockwork said, shifting to his youngest form, clarifying the situation. "they observe, not going after how events are created. Without you, they wouldn't have come here, asking my help, and without you, you wouldn't have turned out the one you are now."
The ghost massaged his temple, with a struggling face. "Please, don't start this again… it already gives me a headache. I planned to drink a lot to celebrate I am over his age now, but it turned out I am him, and was all along… now I'll drink to forget it. It was already unfollowable, Clockwork! Even though my perception is way above my fourteen-year-old level…" he drew out the difference with his hands, but then stopped, gazing at his fingers, clenching in and out them. "It's only your luck, I could still recall him. I mean me… Jesus, this is fucking confusing!" To that, Clockwork struck again with his staff, making the ghost flinch under it. "Okay, no more swearing! I get it." the time-ghost satisfied nodded and floated towards the shelf where the thermos was, and grabbed the gauntlet next to it.
"You know, what you have to do." he questioned the other.
The tall figure got the gem-containing artifact, taking a serious frown at it, but then repeated the hours earlier clarified task. "Make sure I use the right combination to change everything back as it was, and not to the illusion I created to demonstrate my younger version about a horrible future. Yeah, you already told me in the morning the steps like a hundred times…"
"Exactly." Clockwork nodded, but then, as the ghost reached out his palm, creating a portal back to the human realm, he stopped the youngster. "Daniel…"
"Yes?" the head tilted back annoyed, unmistakably by the long day and giving out a provenly believable act about an evil alteration of himself. And indeed, the boy needed a rest – or as humans called it, a 'loosening up' – after this. For a second, Clockwork imagined not voicing the slight little detail the halfa forgot about, but instead just played in his mind that possibility if he hadn't noted the boy it.
"Don't you forget something?" Clockwork asked, sneering.
The ghost looked around, searching for anything that he was supposed to grab on over the Reality Gauntlet, but then his brows suspiciously furrowed. "Uh- no? I mean… I asked Jazz if she needed any help for the evening, but she insisted on organising my birthday-party alone with Sam and Tucker and that I should just bring 'myself', so, no?"
"And don't you think, bringing 'yourself' is as she hopes you'd bring 'yourself'?" Clockwork inquired, helping out the absent-minded ghost and changing to his middle-aged form, giving a meaningful look at the figure floating in front of him.
"I don't have time now to take a shower, thanks to you and your 'mission', so no, I am certainly not as fresh as I should be. But thanks for the reminder, really. You won't not be the one whose parents will say why you are again reeking like hell. Seriously, Clockwork, fighting with my younger self was really that necessary? I am god-damn smelly right now and keeping up a shapeshifted form is already exhausting, especially concentrating to keep it up that long and- oh." the halfa halted, slapping himself with the palm of the gauntlet in his hand. "I am still in that frigging form, aren't I?"
"Yes…" Clockwork sneered at the baffled realisation.
"And couldn't you tell me a bit harsher, damn it?! What if I change everything back and go to the party, where everyone is there in this outlook?!" the halfa cried out, suddenly panicked and horrified. "I can't believe you sometimes…" was a head shook, making the fire-like translucent white hair flickering annoyed over it, but then, the light appeared, travelling through the ghost's tall and muscular body, changing it to a much normal, less tall and thinner form. The glowing red eyes turned into green, and the suit too into a slightly different styled one than that had been ten years ago.
"I believe now you can fulfil your sister's demand to bring 'yourself'." Clockwork told to the halfa.
The today turning twenty-five-year-old ghost just rolled his eyes, pointing towards him with the fingers part of the gauntlet. "I am starting to feel, since I learned how to shapeshift, you've planned this all… it's not fun, Clockwork."
The time ghost just silently smiled, but before the other could have disappeared into the portal, called him again.
"What is it, now?" came a tired snap by the renewed stopping.
"I just wanted to say happy birthday," the half-ghost flushed green at the sudden kind words, seemingly feeling himself uncomfortable about the unfriendly behaviour, but then his face turned into a grimace.
"I am still pissed off for today." the boy reminded him.
"I know," Clockwork nodded, "but even if it was hard, now, I am sure, you can have a great time today."
The youngster opened his mouth, but then without any proper answer just closed it, flying through the swirling green portal and leaving his lair. Clockwork a second later floated to his panels, switching on his screens and adjusting it to the Fentons' home, to the preparation for the party. He knew Daniel would have a good, relieved celebration, with a very rough hangover the next day, but in fine, the boy was free from the fear of an actually never coming day. Yes, it might have been unfair, but this little 'performance' helped the halfa turn out the young man he was right at the present. Daniel would be 'pissed off' at him for long, but Clockwork was well aware everything was capable of changing with time.