The medieval floating cement grandfather clock with sectors of gears protruding from each side. The ghostly green glow and warm resonance. Clockwork's Tower looked the same as when it did the last time I was here. Then again, everything in the ghost zone had the last two.
Standing in the doorway was the Master of Time himself.
The cyan ghost's face was covered by his purple cloak, as usual, but I could still hear him let out a sigh. "Is it too much to ask for you to make an appointment?"
I let go of Virginia, much to his disappointment. He'd been yelling 'Est comme une magie!' every five minutes on our flight here, so I was glad to be rid of him for the time being.
"Oh, please. You have all the time in the world," I snapped back.
Clockwork smirked. "The fact that you're here means you want something from me, correct? Don't answer that. I already know why you're here."
I remembered I had unanswered questions. I let Zak and Clockwork talk for a bit and turned to my mom.
"Where's Dad?"
"Oh, he's out somewhere wreaking havoc trying to catch ghosts," my mom replied rather annoyed.
That's so like him. I was a little disappointed, but I'd seen enough orange jumpsuits over the past couple of days, I let it slide.
Clockwork's turn for interrogation.
"Did you know there's an anti-matter dimension opposite of the human world called the Shadow World?"
"My sister is the Master of Space, so yes. I knew about it," the Time Ghost finished. "Anything else you'd like to ask me?"
"Why'd you lock Danielle up in Walker's Prison?"
"All the players in my little stage act needed to be their proper places."
That confirmed my suspicions. Clockwork knew I would end up in the Ghost Zone, better yet, in Walker's Prison. He brought my parents and Danielle into the Ghost Zone, thus saving them. He knew my search for Danielle, as well as my interacting with her here in the Ghost Zone, would bring me to Long Now.
There was still one thing that didn't make sense to me.
"Why didn't you just save them and bring them home?"
"Because your loved ones weren't the only ones that needed saving, now were they?"
It took a moment, but I finally figured it out. The other person that needed saving was myself. And maybe even Zak. We both had a lot of power in our hands; we both had that fear that we would become evil in the future. We both needed the assurance that a future path of terror was not what Clockwork had in store for us.
And this ends this story. I hope you enjoyed it!
Yeah, the ending was kinda abrupt... I didn't really know how to end this.