Clockwork stares in horror. "That storm...!? I have to stand guard. I must call for order! Nothing like this has happened before. Chaos is storming... Ahri!? Something's happened to Ahri! I can feel... danger... danger... Ahri!" She falls to the ground. The key rod hits the floor next to her.
Danny is in the manor. Danny briefly sees a vision of the sleeping Kuri. "What...!?" he thinks. "I felt something in my chest."
Danny looks up from the book in his hands. "Ahri?"
"I'm going to see Clockwork," Danny says. "I have a bad feeling."
"Look," he realizes. "Look, I've found something. It's a file on the incident in question." She read from the screen: "'Xar. Among the highest class of demons of the past Triad. Has these special abilities: death hands and evil vision.' According to the records, he destroyed Amity Park all by himself. He made it like a city of crime. He brought it to ruin. It was a terrible time. The enemy was human, but with his special powers, Kuricouldn't kill him. So she banished him to the most distant planet of the solar system. He was sent to the cursed depth of the Ghost Zone, Dominion. From then on, nobody was allowed to approach that planet."
"The constant disasters..." Danny says. "The fights we lost... They were all caused by that cursed Ghost Zone, Dominion."
Xxx
Danny approaches the space-time door. Strong winds blow through the air. He sees the fallen guardian. "Clockwork!?" He runs over to her. "Are you all right?"
"Clockwork," says Danny. "This storm... What happened!?"
"Danny," Clockwork says. "Ahri... She dropped her key. I saw her vanish in the distance."
"Ahri!?" Danny thinks.
"This storm came from the direction she was in. Something happened to her. For a moment, I felt a strong reaction... She went through some kind of change. The change created this storm in space-time."
"Ahri vanished on the other side of this storm..." says Danny. He runs off into the storm.
"Danny!?" Clockwork calls. "Stop! With the key gone, you shouldn't go there! Come back! Danny!"
"DANNY!" he yells.
Xxx
"Was that really them?" Kuri thinks. "Sam... Tucker... I'm sure I felt something from them. But in a moment, it was gone. I feel something evil..." She wanders around the palace. "The castle is like a maze... I walk around and around, and everywhere looks the same. Where are they!? Where? They have to be in this castle. What am I going to do..." She leans against a wall, next to a door. "I've only been walking for a little while, but I'm getting so weak..." She hears voices coming from the other side of the door. "People talking...?"
"What's wrong with our prince?" asks Fright Knight. "And where he put the future Ultimate Power? We should put the place to good use. It's full of the power of the Darkness. Bodies don't last long in there. Are the three soldiers still alive?"
"We only captured them to lure in Kuri," says Skulker. "We no longer need them. We'll leave them in the Room of Darkness, where they'll just rot away.
"They're alive!?" Kuri thinks. "The Room of Darkness!? They took the others... to get me!?"
"Nobody wants to get near that underground prison," says Skulker.
"I know..." says Fright Knight. "It has no doorways. Its inhabitants ceased to be people of this world long ago... All that remains are gruesome corpses. Anything can happen in there. That place is most unpleasant. We should deal with it quickly. What are you afraid of? I don't know what happened in the past, but the tales say the prison was used."
"This planet is dangerous," Skulker says. "It feels like its intentions are changing. We can control here, but... We might only be pawns..."
Kuri lies on the floor. "They're in the underground prison... The Room of Darkness..." She drifts off to sleep.
Dan enters the room and picks her up in his arms.
Dan sets her down on a bed.
"Danny..." she mumbles.
"Danny!?" Dan slaps her across the face. He stares at his hand in shock.
Kuri sits up, holding her hand out glowing with power. "Don't touch me...!"
"Hold yourself together, Kuri," she thinks. "If you ever want to see him again, you can't die here!"
"Where are my friends!?" she says. "Where's the underground prison!?"
"They're pretty," says Dan. "But they're no longer alive."
"They are alive!" Kuri shouts. "I'll find them!" She runs away.
Skulker stands outside in a circle of stone pillars. In the center is a glowing black beam of light, rising into the sky. "Ember. Spectra." Two amorphous figures appear in the black pillar of light. They address him. "Skulker."
"You have been using large amounts of energy to make finished ghosts," he says. "The ghosts are good. Your plans have never failed us."
Kuri rushes out of the castle and stops as she sees Skulker standing before the stream of light. "What is that...!?"
Skulker turns around. "Hello, future Ultimate Power. The beautiful ruler... You've come to the core of Dominion, the reactor of the Darkness."
"The Darkness reactor!?"
"This reactor is the only release of the power coming from the inside of the Ghost Zone. You, too, have come from here to this planet. This is where we sent off the ghosts to the past, for our project."
Kuri gasps. "Their project to change history..." she thinks.
"Breathtaking, isn't it? The power of the Ghost Zone. But it's like we're sitting on dynamite. It's growing... Upsetting the balance of this planet. It's dangerous. My brothers don't understand. Time travel, and making ghosts, takes huge amounts of energy. We're putting a lot of strain on the fusion reactor, using all that energy. We don't know what kind of effect that has. This planet is like Dan. He's ruinous. His plans always went wrong. He put the Darkness into Earth, and made it a planet of death. That wasn't part of the plan. I'd like to let you go... Then he appeared before us. The Xar. He guided us. I wonder if that's what he came to do. On this cursed planet, it takes in light and energy, and turns it into negative energy. That stone distorts time and space..."
"The time when we will take everything is coming," Dan says.
"That's correct," says the Xar. "Not just that beautiful planet, but the entire universe will be ours. The only possible obstacle is the one with the Ultimate Power. That is the only thing that can equal the power of our Darkness. Crush it! Erase it from that world!"
"The Ultimate Power... I want to see it. Something that carries that much power. If I attack FentonWorks, Kuri will surely show up with it!"
"Dan?" calls Skulker.
"We haven't seen the full power of the Darkness yet. This would be a fine opportunity to test it."
Kuri gasps. She fingers her pendant in her hands.
"My comrade was taken over... By this planet, and the Darkness. Now no one can stop him. We will proceed with the Replay operation, to the Earth of the past. We'll start to change the path of history. Then when we warp back to the 30th century, disturbances will start to occur. We're in danger... Us. This world, Dominion. Earth. Everything." He looks up at Kuri. "You won't repeat this to anyone."
"Repeat this...? Me? What do you mean!?"
"Ember. Spectra." The two spirits swirl around Kuri. She looks at them in surprise. They throw her back, and she crashes to the ground.
Skulker bends down over her, and places his hands around her neck.
"The truth will be that the unbeatable soldier Kuri died. Heh heh... From here, we'll go to the Earth of the past, and recreate history. We'll return to a new future. We don't know what'll become of the earth or this planet! Or you! It's your fault my brother's acting strangely. It's your fault everything's gone wrong!" He takes a large, sharp black crystal. "You awful woman! The existence of you and your Ultimate Power have upset history." He holds the dark magic high above his head. "Die!"
"An awful woman!?" Kuri thinks. "Me!?" Her hand clutches the pendant at her side. "It's all the fault of my existence!?"
"What!?" Skulker says. "That light...!"
Dan and Fright Knight turn around.
"Kuri!?" calls Danny from within the Ghost Zone.
"This...!" says the Xar. "This light is running through the division of space-time! This light's so strong!"
"That's right, Xar. This is surely the Ultimate Power." A shadowy woman stands behind him. "If you leave Dominion, I'm going with you."
Kuri stands up, holding her glowing pendant. The two spirits scream and they dissipate into nothingness. "I don't believe it," she says. "The power it had lost! If I do it now, here!"
"This reactor is the only release of the power coming from the inside of this planet."
"I can use my power!" Kuri blasted back the other members of the Dominion.
"She used her power!?" says Dan. "Damnit!"
Kuri senses her friends nearby. "Where are they...?" She feels around on the floor. "Where is the Room of Darkness? Deep, deep... At the bottom... The very bottom. There they are!" The three are unconscious on the floor of the cavern. "Tucker! Sam! Wake up!" She presses her hand to the ground. "Wake up!" The ground rips apart before her.
The two open their eyes. "Kuri!?" They look around. "Kuri!? Where are you!?"
"Tucker!" she calls. "Sam!"
They get up. "Her power reached down here. Kuri's power! What happened!?"
The eyes on a corpse begin to glow, again filling the room with gas.
"Kuri!" calls Sam. "Where are you!? We can't use our power here!"
Tucker moans, and sways to the side. Sam catches him. "Stay with me, Tucker!"
"You are humans!" Kuri tells them. "You can get to me! I'll help you. Do it! Now!"
The two burst above ground, joining Kuri.
"I don't believe it," says Pariah Dark.
"They have the kind of power to do this..." Dan says. "Xar!"
The hooded figure appears. "I'm here, Dan. I am here. Heh heh..." Blackness begins to grow out behind him.
"What the-!?" Pariah Dark says. "That massive black shadow!? Xar!?"
"Heh heh... That Ultimate Power has awesome power. It crosses time and space. I can use it to increase the negative energy, and free the power of the Darkness."
"Amazing power," says Dan. "Everyone's after it. That's sure to cause fighting and misfortune."
"No!" says Kuri. "The Ultimate Power protects peace! It brings love and tranquility! I won't accept your distorted wisdom, and your evil plots! There will be no fighting. Everyone will live in peace! Open your eyes! You're misusing the power you have. The way you're using it is wrong!"
The image of the different soldiers, different people who have fought Dan in the past appear as she grips her pendant.
"Kuri!?" the others say. "No... That's... the Ultimate Power?"
"Love and tranquility is a fantasy," Dan says. "Since you have the Ultimate Power, you cause hate and delusions. That Power is the source of all misfortune. Isn't that right, Xar?"
"Certainly..." the Xar says. His eyes shine out from under his hood. "Heh heh... It brings misfortune. All the power hidden in that stone... I will take that power. I won't be swayed by your words. Dan! Kill them!"
"You won't beat us!" says Kuri.
The castle begins to shake. Stone crumbles from the walls and ceiling. Pillars collapse.
Pariah Dark looks around. "Oh- If I stay here, I'll die!" He gets up and starts to get out.
"Pariah?" calls Fright Knight.
"Running away!?" says the Xar.
Pariah turns around. "I don't want to die here, like a dog."
The shadowy woman appears through the darkness behind the Xar. "Coward."
Pariah gasps. "What!? Who's that!? That black shadow... You're not going to convince me! What have you been using us for all this time? Show me who you really are, Xar!"
"You damn fool." A long arm snakes out from the Xar, grabbing Pariah around the neck.
"Dan!" Pariah calls.
Pariah screams as his body catches fire. His skin burns off, followed by his bones.
The shadowed woman chuckles as she fades away.
"Everyone!" says Kuri. "Gather your strength! We've got to get out of here."
"Kuri!" Sam says. "That's impossible! How could we!?"
"Clockwork!" Kuri holds up a glowing key. "I call on all my power! Clockwork! Show us the way!"
Dan's eyes glow, along with the mark on his forehead. "You won't get away from me!"
The girls see a flash of light as they vanish from the Ghost Zone.
Dan gasps.
"Dan!" Fright Knight calls from the shaking castle.
It crumbles to the ground.
"Looks like Kuri has escaped from this planet," says the Xar. "That's frightful power..." The woman stands behind him. He watches Danny in his crystal ball. "But, together with the Ultimate Power, you'll be back here again. Heh heh heh..." The woman smiles.
Xxx
"Ahri!" Danny calls as he runs through the storm in the land between time and space. "Ahri! Where are you!? I'm here! Answer me! Ahri!"
He clutches his matching pendant. "Kuri... Lend me strength. Ahri, where are you!? Ahri...! Kuri...!"
"This way... This way..." The shadowed woman appears before him, a black moon on her forehead. "Hey, here I am." She holds out her hand. "Come on, this way..." The moon rod glows as he takes her hand.
Clockwork stare into the darkness.
Clockwork's rod glows.
"Clockwork!"
Kuri, Tucker and Sam appear.
"Kuri! Tucker! Sam!"
"Master!" Kuri says to Clockwork. "The ancestors gave me amazing power! It helped us get back!"
"The ancestor's power...!?" says Clockwork.
Kuri feels the power of the pendant. "Ahri and... Danny... Where are they!?"
"Kuri," says Clockwork. "Ahri disappeared... Beyond time and space..." Kuri's face pales. "Then Danny went after her, into the space-time storm..."