A/N: Terribly sorry. I revised this interlude a couple of days (weeks?) ago (writing now 12/23), and accidentally posted an older version of interlude 2 in its place after the revision. Hope that didn't cause any confusion.
In any case, since I decided to be mysterious and post this without any explanation the first time around, I'll say that there are three interludes before Book II begins, since the chapter-by-chapter posting style on FFnet makes book structures less obvious. For this story I'm sort of following a "multiple books in one novel" style, so I can also have interludes between the books like this. I think Sanderson might do something like that (structurally) in his Stormlight Archive series, maybe not.
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Interludes: Start.
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Interlude 1: Clockwork
Clockwork raised an eyebrow as they stared at the page, before slowly, ever so slowly, gathering the stack together and setting it neatly off to the side. They set their staff in front of them, held steadily in both hands, feeling their body shift into their old, aged form. The weight of the years crept up on them, and they felt their shoulders sag as they adopted a long-suffering expression.
Just how many times did Danny call me out in this? they thought, lamenting the day they had decided to take in the young ghost. Oh, how many years ago it had been...
Really, being a Master of Time, one shouldn't have to suffer such indignities.
Behind them, the door to the study clicked open.
"What – Clockwork?"
Clockwork, of course, was hardly surprised.
"Yes, yes, come in, Danny," they said wearily. "I see that you've been telling stories to your granddaughter."
The boy – no, the properly aged ghost, Clockwork reminded themself – circled around Clockwork, coming to stand, scowling, behind his desk.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, eyes bright green and angry. "This is my study. No one's allowed in here."
Again, the Master of Time raised an eyebrow.
"Quaint," he remarked drly, then, shifting back into their child form, drifted about the room idly, making a show of inspecting all the books. Oh, that was a good one, they thought, recognizing The One Hundred Curses of Immortality. "Eliza, I'm sure, will be happy with your present," their child's voice squeaked, a smirk darting onto their face.
They could just picture Danny's shocked expression.
"You – you read it?"
Clockwork turned, for once, matching Danny's scowl. They could do that, when they were in their most immature form, after all.
"It's a bit bold of you, isn't it?" Clockwork asked, young voice filled with malice. "To claim another's story for your own? One that you stole from me, no less?"
Danny hesitated, his gaze wavering to the side. He stepped back.
"Why does it matter?" their charge bit back, after a too-long pause.
"I took the liberty of making some changes," Clockwork said grandly, smirking again, sweeping their staff to the side in the opening gesture to a magician's act. They bobbed in the air, far above Danny, who remained grounded. "Not very large changes, mind you, but enough that your very clever granddaughter will begin to put the pieces together, for the story you stole."
A long, frustrated sigh.
"Why are you here, Clockwork?" The boy's voice was flat, bitter. His eyes burned with anger, and a deeply hidden pain.
Clockwork's face sobered.
They shifted into a middle-aged ghost, swooping down to Danny's level once more as they transformed. Seeing that the boy's gaze had abruptly become blank and distant, they tapped their staff against the floor, grabbing his attention once more.
"Perhaps the better question," they said archly, praying that what they what they were about to do was not a mistake - no, it could not be a mistake - "is why you are not there, my King."
Clockwork extended his staff to his left, where they had just opened a portal to the Far Frozens. A battle was raging, angry shouts carried by the portal's wavering lens. Hints of wails met their ears, flashes of bright green ectoplasm spilled onto snow.
"That – I –"
"Here I find you fooling around," they said, deliberately not softening their voice, "writing stories to your little human granddaughter, making promises to spend time with her, tell more stories, as if your duties here had already come to an end. But they have not! Can't you see how they suffer? Can't you see that you are the only one who can stop this?"
Clockwork closed their eyes, suddenly realizing their anger was real. Not just an act to incentivize their charge into motion. All is as it should be, they reminded themself.
"You don't have the luxury of Time," Clockwork said, voice now eerily calm. They turned away sharply, abruptly unable to bear looking at their charge.
All was as it should be, they knew.
But for once, what should be was not what Clockwork wanted to be.
Why did it come to this? Clockwork wondered to themself.
They had known from the very beginning, of course. They were the Master of Time – they had no other option than to See all, though the path was not always clear. They Knew what would come, what would have to be done to save the Ghost Zone.
What they hadn't Known was the pain it would bring them.
Danny was silent.
Then, the King stepped forward.
"What do you want me to do, Clockwork?" he said, his voice rough, still bitter. "I can't save everyone. You know that."
"Next it will be Dora's kingdom," Clockwork said, heedless, pushing themself to move forward. They opened another portal, into a possible future this time, with a casual flick of their staff. "Then the Pantheon." Another one, only a step further in time. "Then…" He moved to flick his staff again.
"Enough," Danny yelled.
Clockwork turned to face him again, red eyes narrowing.
The boy shrunk into himself, abruptly looking ashamed, losing the confident demeanor as if it had only been a paper-thin facade. He was again just a mere human, his eyes a pale blue, his hair a disheveled black, his feet still split in two and grounded. Only his aged face, marked only by the very first wrinkles of age, differentiated him from the boy Clockwork had first met.
Still so young, Clockwork thought. Even after all these years.
It was not right.
Not… not yet.
But it could be.
They hoped.
"You must choose, Danny," they said, shifting once again back to their old form.
They waved their hand, and the portals disappeared. Three new ones took their place.
One of Amity Park, infested with strange government officials dressed in white suits, openly carrying large weapons in the streets.
One of Diagon Alley, of gaunt faces swathed in black robes and witchy hats, all looking at each other with suspicious glances.
Another of the Ghost Zone, of the Far Frozen yeti proudly lifting a younger Phantom into the air, of Dora laughing in the background, of all his remaining friends gathered into one chamber for the Crowning ceremony.
"Like you have chosen before," Clockwork continued, "And will have to choose again, and again, and again, if you keep living this way."
They dismissed the images once again, and watched their charge closely.
"And every time," Danny said wretchedly, his gaze again vacant, "I will have to lose something else."
"Yes," Clockwork said. "It is the price of keeping your humanity."
"What if… what if," Danny started, "what if I don't have to anymore? If I could just leave, live in peace on my own? With my family?" His voice broke at the word.
"With Eliza."
"Yes," he said. "With Eliza. She's the only one left. I have to be there for her, and… and… I haven't been."
Danny stepped forward, then pulled the chair for his study back, collapsing into it. He buried his face in his hands.
"Clockwork, I don't think I can take it if I keep doing this," the boy confessed.
"It's not 'this' that you fear," Clockwork said, drifting towards him, "but the changes that will come. Oh, Danny. You take so much on yourself. If only you were to fully become a ghost..." They were about to rest their hand on their charge's shoulder, but hesitated when he uncovered his face and stared at them with a fierce expression.
"You know I can't do that," Danny burst. "If I… I can't…"
"Why not?" Clockwork pressed.
"Eliza won't ever know me as a human, then."
Clockwork waited.
"And - who will step up and try to guarantee half-human rights with the Wizengamot? I'd lose everything I'd been working towards."
"Everything?" Clockwork asked mildly, backing away, and Danny scowled at him, seeming to recover himself.
"Yes," he spat. "As if you don't know. My position will become untenable when they know I am the Ghost King, and not just his liaison. And to have any sort of bargaining power after losing my only-half-dead status, I would have to reveal myself as King, and they wouldn't understand why on earth a ghost would be bargaining for werewolf rights."
"I always told you that duplicity would cost you," Clockwork said wisely.
Danny closed his eyes, looking exasperated now. "That isn't the point." He sighed, then opened his eyes again to stare at Clockwork. "The point is that I can't fully become a ghost, not yet. There are too many things I need to do before… before dying."
Clockwork grimaced. "You wouldn't be dying, Danny. Only taking on a different form of what you already are."
Their charge matched the grimace, then looked away.
"It's the same thing. When I am Phantom… I am different. I feel different. I… wouldn't be myself."
Clockwork was silent for a long time.
Their charge was right, of course. They could all too well remember how Danny's division between human and ghost had changed him in a different timeline, a timeline Clockwork had long since locked away. How Phantom, in deep grief, could turn into something monstrous, something power-hungry, something evil. They still had the proof of that locked into a Thermos, hidden away into the most secure parts of their tower.
Yes, in many ways, this would be a death to Danny. It wouldn't happen with the same terrible consequence - but it would be a death, nonetheless.
Humans and ghosts were too different for it to be anything less.
Yet, it must happen.
"Daniel," Clockwork started slowly. "You know it must happen. One day it will, regardless of your choice. You age more slowly, now, but all humans die."
Danny frowned.
"I know that. I'm not scared of… dying. I just need more - "
"You do not have the luxury of Time," Clockwork interrupted, repeating their statement from before. "The more you hesitate, the more the Ghost Zone suffers. Many of your people cannot abide a half-ghost on the throne. You lack the support and the power to drive out the menace that has been plaguing our home, and as more time passes, she only grows stronger." Clockwork's red eyes drilled into Danny's human blue.
Danny's eyes widened.
"Bellatrix Lestrange," he whispered, horrified. "Has it really become so bad?"
Hadn't Clockwork just shown him the portals to her wrongdoings?
"You already know the answer to that."
"But…" Danny grabbed his face in his hands, setting his elbows onto his knees. "Why is she still getting stronger?"
"The entire Ghost Zone knows that you chose to trap her here," Clockwork said bluntly. "You cannot be so blind. They wonder why their King can't release her to the human world, so that she would stop playing with them." They frowned, then persisted, seeing that the King was still staring very intently at his knees. "Many ghosts also desire to enter the human world, to wreck havoc and play their games. While your support wanes, hers grows."
Danny's eyes focused, and he looked up.
"She's in the Far Frozen now?"
"Yes."
Danny stood up.
"Alright," he said to himself.
Clockwork watched his charge take in a deep breath, close his eyes in a silent prayer, then in a flash of light, transform into Phantom.
He wore his old hazmat suit, embroidered with his crest. A cape hung on his shoulders, the royal mantle. He had aged with his human form, and looked much more the part of a king than the child he had been. It was only now, upon his transformation, that a kingly aura even remotely seemed to settle on the boy.
"Can you take me there?" Phantom said, meeting Clockwork's eyes as he slipped on the Ring of Rage from his pocket.
Clockwork wordlessly opened a portal to the Far Frozen, and followed their liege as he swooped through it without another protest. Though they knew what awaited them, they winced at seeing the reality of it.
Simply put, it was chaos.
Lestrange's ghost form was cackling madly as she shot off bolt after bolt of ectoplasm. Around her, a large assortment of ghosts were scrambling after her, shouting wild, racuous cahoots. They were like barn animals. Battles were taking place in the air, on the snow, under the snow. Some of her rabble were even fighting themselves. Some were throwing snowballs at each other, out of place in this scene were violent green flashes of ectoplasmic blood periodically filled the air and the stink of copper was fresh and overpowering.
Facing her and her group of terrors were the yeti of the Far Frozen, dressed in gleaming armor, and the King's battalion, numbering at over a hundred and led by the Fright Knight himself. Compared to the wildness of Lestrange's group, they almost seemed pristine and orderly in the midst of battle.
Almost, Clockwork reminded themself as they watched a yeti be pierced with a long saber, green ectoplasm spilling over and matting its white fur. They felt themself sicken. Pristine and orderly does not belong in a battlefield.
They followed Danny as he flew to the second group, to the yetis, almost casually blasting away his commander's opponent mid-flight.
"Fright Knight," he barked. "What's the situation?"
If the knight was surprised to see his king there, he didn't show it. "Not good," he grunted, pulling on his horse's bridle to step out of the battle. "Her numbers have grown. What are you going to do?" His gaze flicked from Danny to Clockwork, then back, questioning.
Danny hesitated. Then, resolution filled his face.
"Something I should have done a long time ago," he said, turning away.
Clockwork's charge launched himself up into the air, faster almost than Clockwork could react, until he hovered thirty meters above the battlefield.
The boy took a deep breath. So deep they could tell, even from here.
"BELLATRIX LESTRANGE."
Abruptly, the battle stopped. The ambient ectoplasm in the air was vibrating. Every ghost looked up.
For a moment, all was silent.
Then,
"Oh? So our precious human King decided to show up? Little Danny Fenton?" her voice called, taunting.
Phantom kept his face indifferent, like he hadn't heard her.
"Tomorrow," he announced, voice loud and augmented but no longer ecto-shaking. "I will become King of the Ghost Zone in truth." He paused, looked around, making sure the message sunk in. "Tommorow, I will become fully ghost. And, from tomorow and on, I will no longer abide trash like Lestrange and her like."
He paused, surveying the crowd.
"If, by tomorrow," he continued, "you are still allied with this woman, I and every loyal subject of the Ghost Zone, will hunt you down. There will be no safe haven for you. The portals to the human zone are already zealously guarded. Your punishment will be a thousand years of being declared outcast, without access to the human zone, and being subjected to Fright Knight's blade ten times."
He dropped his voice, low and deadly serious.
"This is punishment for attacking your fellow ghosts, and for threatening the tender peace we hold with the humans. You seek to destroy everything to satisfy your base desires, and that will not be tolerated for as long as I rule."
He let the threat settle.
Then, voice lightening, lips tightening, taking on a sardonic cast, Danny said:
"Stop now, however, and I offer you protection from Lestrange. Who will inevitably turn against everyone around her."
The silence lingered as the King's eyes swept over the rabble that Lestrange had gathered, then over the yetis, once more. Clockwork noted that many of them looked affected by his speech. Even some of his own subjects looked nervous. A thousand years of outcast was not a light punishment, and neither was being subjected to Fright Knight's blade. The latter meant reliving their worst fears, and often, for ghosts, that meant reliving their deaths.
Clockwork wondered if Danny could really live up to his threat.
The King took another deep breath.
"Now leave," his voice boomed, and with it, came the power of the Wail - still toned down, but significant enough to send some of the weaker ghosts flying back.
They scattered.
By the time the crowd had dispersed, Lestrange had also disappeared, and only the Far Frozen yeti and his battalion remained.
"Well done," Fright Knight congratulated loudly, approaching Danny. Clockwork followed closely after him. "You handled it well."
Danny nodded curtly, then looked around. "Not as well as you all have been. You fought commendably."
"You will really become a full ghost tomorrow?"
Danny briefly closed his eyes again, then opened them, blazing with green light. "Yes."
"When will the ceremony - "
Clockwork hovered forward, interrupting. "Perhaps this is a conversation better taken elsewhere," he suggested quietly, nodding his head towards the watching yeti.
"Ah," Fright Knight said, looking towards them as well. "I understand. Another time, then. I must handle the troops as well." He skitted backwards on his horse, then remarked, looking at Danny appreciatively, "It was a job well done, my King. You saved us a hard battle."
Then the Knight whirled away, leaving the two of them hanging in the air, roughly barking out orders to the yeti and the rest of the king's battalion, congratulating them on this victory and bolstering their spirits. Reaffirming their work. As perhaps Danny himself should have done, once it was apparent that they had won.
"Project strength," Clockwork reminded their charge.
"I know," Danny muttered, keeping his shoulders poised confidently. "What's the quickest way out of here?"
"Float with me," Clockwork offered, and the boy nodded.
The two of them floated away from the battlefield, carefully side by side. As they drifted away, Danny shot a parting nod and smile towards Frostbite, the leader of the Far Frozen. The giant yeti smiled back, but there was a promise in his eyes to speak again later.
Once they were on the verge of departing the Far Frozen, Clockwork summoned a portal back to Danny's lair.
"She always runs away," Danny muttered once they were through. "Never stays long enough to fight me."
"She knows she will lose."
"It's frustrating," Danny said, face twisting into a grimace. Then he sighed, collapsing onto a nearby chair. They were in the living room now. It was draped in hues of red and gold, resembling the Gryffindor common room that their charge had spent so much time in, in his youth.
Again, the boy clutched his face in his hands, his elbows pressed into his knees. In a flash, he was back to being human, and he sagged as if the weight of the world had suddenly landed on his shoulders.
A silence.
"You said you would become a full ghost tomorrow," Clockwork prompted gently, breaking it.
"I…" Danny let out a deep, pained breath. "Yes. You were right. I have to."
Clockwork waited.
"Could you… Could you give me extra time? Just a day or two extra? To settle some things?"
Clockwork frowned. It would be a violation of the principles the Observants forced upon him.
"Of course," they said. "You will meet with Eliza?"
Danny nodded, eyes lidded with tiredness. "Yeah. And… wrap things up with the Wizengamot. But mostly Eliza. Finally."
Clockwork hesitated. Sometimes, they forgot how little those who do not regularly peer into the stream of time knew. They decided to warn him.
"... she might not be pleased to see you."
Danny's head snapped up, startled.
Then he sighed.
"Because I've been gone?"
Clockwork nodded.
"I guess… I guess I can't blame her." Danny scowled. "Great. I get to come back, just to tell her that I'm dying tomorrow."
"Will you give her her present?" Clockwork asked neutrally.
Again, Danny's face twisted, and he closed his eyes. A different sort of pain than the one Clockwork had witnessed earlier in the day crossed his face. Softer, blunted, but no less present than the boy's deep grief.
"Yes. I will. It's nowhere near enough, but maybe… Maybe it'll do something to bridge the gap between us. I keep feeling as if… well, nevermind. Maybe if I am still myself 'tomorrow', then we can patch things up better."
"It's a few days early for the present," they noted mildly, deciding to let the conversation spin again towards this topic.
"Better than never," Danny said. "After tomorrow, I'm going to have to hunt down Lestrange, and I won't have time to visit."
They hummed, agreeing with the point.
"Very well," Clockwork said. "I will give you two days of suspended time, for two tasks. A repeat of today, twice over. You must not run into yourself... as you should well know."
Danny nodded.
"And… if you will accept a word of advice?"
Danny cocked his head to the side. They took it as agreement.
"Next time you decide to write such a 'present', do it in your own voice. And don't bother with half-truths," Clockwork said, staring his charge, his king, in the eyes. "It does yourself a disservice."
Danny frowned, then nodded.
"Here," they said, handing him the sheath of papers that comprised Danny's telling of his first year. They had used a portal to grab it from the study. Danny looked at it with surprise, but before he could comment, Clockwork summoned another portal, this time to earlier today.
"Remember," they said. "Two days. Do not run into yourself."
Danny stared at the portal, then nodded.
"Thank you, Clockwork," he said, and the old ghost smiled.
"Think nothing of it," they said, watching their charge step into the stream of Time.
When the portal closed after Danny, they sighed wearily, shifting again into their old form. They would, of course, keep an eye on their charge. But they had a feeling that all would not end well for him, even though - finally - all was as it should be.
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Bonus Scene: Clockwork looks back on time
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All was as it should be, they knew.
But for once, what should be was not what Clockwork wanted it to be.
"How has it come to this?" Clockwork wondered to himself.
They had known from the very beginning, of course. They were the Master of Time – they had no other option than to See all, though the path was not always clear. They Knew what would come, what would have to be done to save the Ghost Zone.
What they hadn't Known was the pain it would bring them.
"How do you do it?" Danny burst. "How can you stand living for so long?"
Clockwork thought, for a moment, of the irony of that statement, before discarding it as useless. Then they sighed, rocking back and looking to the ceiling. What a question. What a question, indeed.
"It helps," Clockwork said, slowly, thinking carefully, "to be a ghost. We are much more… stable than humans. Simpler in many ways, and able to forget much. Less prone to such abstract thought that does not serve our Purpose. Time, as well, passes more quickly over us." They shook their head. "But that is not the answer you seek. After all, there are still many similarities between us…"
Clockwork could see in the look of doubt on their charge's face. Their words weren't helping.
"I suppose," they continued, taking a lighter tone, "that I enjoy seeing how others' lives will play out. Decisions, are truly marvelous things, full of intricacy and nuance. Time does not reveal to me everything, and it is a bit of a game to truly understand the why of what happens. I am limited, and Time is infinite. Time will always hold something new in store for me."
They inspected their charge again, and saw that this had not been the right answer either, after all.
"Hmm… And I suppose," they added, eyes creasing in a way that both expressed their wild, unrestrained joy and belied their heartfelt pain, "I have also enjoyed watching you. Ever since I was formed, I had never been so close to one of my charges."
Abruptly, Clockwork shifted to their child's form, feeling their staff grow shorter in their hand. They blinked, then decided to continue on regardless, a smile coming more easily onto this carefree face. "I was lucky to have you come into my realm of existence."
Danny laughed. It started as a low chuckle, growing into hysteria. It ended in wracking sobs.
"So that's it, huh?" the boy muttered. "Games and one friend. That's it? That's enough for you?"
"Danny…" Clockwork started, then hesitated. Should they… See into their futures, to see what words could ease the boy's pain?
No. Seeing their own future was too risky.
"It's okay," the boy said hoarsely, his voice a thin thread of a whisper. "I understand. I will decide. Tomorrow. You can give me that, can't you?"
Clockwork opened their child's mouth, then, thinking better of it, closed it and instead bowed. They shifted back to the middle-aged ghost during the motion. "Yes, of course," they said.
"Don't do that," Danny said weakly. "You know that I don't like that."
"A necessary evil," Clockwork intoned, a wry smile on their face.
"A necessary evil," Danny echoed. "Do you really think so?" It was clear he wasn't talking about the bowing.
Clockwork faltered.
They… were not sure. They knew that their emotions would play out on their face, usually inscrutable. Now, however, despite how much they tried to rein in this terrible feeling, replace it with the good, it seemed to rear its ugly head.
Hesitantly, they opened their mouth to speak -
Clockwork waved their staff, and the viewing portal disappeared.
Seeing their own past was risky, too.