Danny P.O.V.
I woke up with a massive headache.
"Ugh… Anybody get the plate number of the truck that hit me?" I asked no one in particular.
"Sadly Daniel, it was a bullet that hit you, not a truck." A familiar voice said.
"Clockwork?" I asked the voice.
"Indeed Daniel." He replied. I opened my eyes and saw Clockwork looking at me with a forlorn expression.
"I'm sorry Daniel." He said.
"Did you say a bullet hit me? I'm dead?" I asked with wide eyes. He nodded sadly. I chuckled sadly.
"I always knew I would die young, but this is ridiculous. Dying only a year after I got my powers, at 15." I mused out loud.
"You're taking this rather well." Clockwork said. I nodded.
"Like I said, I knew I'd die young when I got my powers. I just didn't expect it to happen so soon." I explained with tears forming in my eyes.
"Why am I here though?" I asked after I wiped my tears away.
"Take a look in the mirror." Clockwork replied, pointing to a full body mirror on the side of the room. I nodded and complied.
When I got to the mirror, I got the shock of my afterlife. My outfit and appearance had completely changed. My old jumpsuit was gone. I was now wearing a black long-sleeved shirt, with an hourglass over my heart, black combat pants, black combat boots, black fingerless gloves, and a black hooded cloak that had a white gear clasp, and it faded into what looked like black fire at the bottom. As for my appearance, my white hair was now long, and tied back into a small flaming ponytail, not unlike Ember's hair, and the tip of the fire was red. I had long fangs and my skin was as pale as sheet of paper. The most notable change, however, was my eye colour, or rather, colours. My eyes now faded from colour to colour, in a steady pattern. They started at neon green, then a bright turquoise, then indigo, amethyst, orange, red, and then back to neon green. They would fade into the next colour every 30 seconds or so.
"Wow…" I muttered to myself. Clockwork then came up behind me.
"The reason you are here is because you have become my apprentice." He said.
"Apprentice?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, I will be passing on my knowledge and power to you, and when the time is right, you will take over as the Master of Time." He explained.
"Do I have a choice?" I asked sarcastically. Clockwork chuckled at my sarcasm.
"Of course you do, but I can think of no reason why you would decline." He said, still amused.
"Touché." I replied.
"I accept the position." He smiled at me.
"I have one question though."
"Ask away." he said. I looked at him, confused.
"I cannot see your future anymore, now that you are my apprentice." He explained.
"So I cannot answer your questions before you ask them anymore." I nodded in understanding.
"My question is, will I ever see them again?" I asked sadly. Clockwork nodded.
"Worry not Daniel, you will see your friends, family, and beloved again, some day." He said. I blushed in embarrassment.
"I do not need to see your future to see your feelings for Samantha, Daniel." Clockwork said with an amused smile. I just pulled up my hood to hide my embarrassment. Only my mouth and eyes could be seen under the shadow of the hood.
"What does the Time Master's apprentice do?" I asked him, changing the subject.
"Nothing for now. First, I will need to train and educate you. When those have progressed enough, I will reduce their quantity and send you on missions throughout time." He explained.
"Missions?" I asked.
"Time doesn't just happen by itself. Many events in history happened due to outside interference." He explained.
"What will I have to do?"
"A variety of things, let's not get into that yet." I nodded.
"Rest for now, a lot has happened. We will begin training tomorrow. If you get bored, my library is open anytime you want. Your room is down that hall. Turn left, and the 2nd door on the left hand side is your room. The library is the very next door." He told me. I nodded and turned towards the hall.
"Oh, and Daniel?" he called for me. I turned to face him.
"2 things: first, if we are alone, you can refer to me by any alias you wish, but in the company of others, I would like you to call me Master, or Sir." He said.
"Understood." I replied.
"Good. Secondly, you must think of a new name for yourself. We cannot have other ghosts finding out who you were just yet." He said. I nodded and turned to the hall.
I followed Clockwork's directions and came up to a black door with my DP insignia on it, in neon green. I smiled at the symbol.
"Clockwork probably put it here to remind me of my human life." I thought to myself. I opened the door and entered the room. I gasped when I saw how big it was. It was at least the size of 5 of my old bedrooms. There was a large bed, a desk with a laptop on it, a closet with duplicates of my current outfit, a large bathroom, and a full body mirror. I walked over to the mirror and looked at myself again.
"I must say, I really like my eyes. A little vanity there, I know, but I think it looks awesome." I thought to myself.
I turned to the bed and my eyes widened when I saw what was hanging on the wall next to it. A naginata with a black staff and green blade, shaped like an eagle's wing, was hanging right next to my bed. I walked up to it and saw a note on the dresser by my bed.
'Daniel, you are going to need a weapon. I took the liberty of choosing the weapon you'll use. I am aware of your prowess with a bo staff, so I went with a weapon that can do damage and fit your style. I hope it is to your liking. ~CW'
I smiled at the weapon. It is definitely to my liking. I picked it up, and was surprised by how light it is.
"I'll give it a try some other time. Right now, I need to sleep." I said in my head.
I took off my cloak, boots and shirt and got into the bed. As I lay down, I noticed something cold on my chest. I looked down and saw a chain, with a small glass case hanging off of it, and a bullet in the case.
"Is this the bullet that killed me?" I asked myself. I shook the thoughts of my death out of my head and lay my head down, trying not to think about the bullet scar on my chest. I'll probably get a tattoo to cover it up. I pushed all thought from my mind and tried to sleep. I thought for little while about my new name, and I soon felt the quiet darkness of sleep take me over. I slept surprisingly well, considering all that happened.
I woke up 7 hours and 17 minutes later. How I knew that, I have no clue.
"I'll ask Clockwork about it later." I thought. I got dressed and grabbed my naginata. I hooked the weapon to my back and headed for the main room. I arrived to see Clockwork looking into his time windows.
"Good morning Clockwork." I greeted. He turned and smiled at me.
"Good morning Daniel." He responded.
"Have you thought of your new name?" he asked.
"I have." I replied.
"What do you think of Timeforge?" I asked him. He nodded in approval.
"Very good, it fits your position and displays that you will forge the timeline as it is meant to be. Very clever." He said. I smiled at his approval. Out of nowhere, a time medallion appeared in front of me. It was just like Clockwork's, but it was silver and it had the red letters, TF on it. I grabbed it and inspected it.
"This is your first time medallion. As your time powers grow stronger, you'll get more. When they reach their peak, you'll get a sceptre like mine." Clockwork explained. I nodded.
"I'm assuming that me knowing that I slept for 7 hours and 17 minutes, and have been awake for 21 minutes, is part of my time powers?" I asked. He nodded in response.
"Indeed. By my estimate, you will be able to stop time in a month, change the speed of time in 6 months, reverse time in 2 years, create portals through time in 4 years, and have complete control of time in 5 years. But that is just an estimate, it may be sooner or later than those times." He explained.
"For now, let us start with your training. We will focus on your telekinesis first." I looked at him.
"Telekinesis?" I asked. He nodded.
"All ghosts have telekinesis, but very few are able to learn how to use it properly. I'm confident that you can." He explained. I nodded.
"What do I do?" I asked. He pointed to a book shelf that only had a few books in it.
"There is a red book in that bookshelf. Can you see it?" he asked. I nodded.
"Focus your ecto-energy into the book. The bigger the object, the more energy it needs. When you have focused your energy into the book, imagine it moving to the desired location, in this case, your hand." he instructed. I nodded and held my hand out to the shelf. I focused my eyes on the red book. I ignited my heads with my green ecto energy and focused on the book. Said book started to develop a faint green glow. It wasn't moving, so I figured I wasn't putting enough energy into it. My hand's glow got brighter, as did the book. The book moved a little bit.
"A little more." I thought to myself and went with along with it. The book started floating towards me, slowly, but surely. It floated right into my hands, and I let the glow die down.
"Whoa…" I said as I was struck with a dizzy spell.
"Well done Daniel. Any other ghost would have fainted from that, but you got out with just a dizzy spell. Very impressive." Clockwork praised. I smiled at him in thanks as the dizziness faded. I looked at the book. It was about ghost physiology and biology.
"That was definitely harder than I thought, but given your previous sentence, I should have expected that." I thought aloud to Clockwork, who chuckled at my humour.
"It will get easier." He said.
"For now, I want you to practise your telekinesis and read that book, along with the other 2 you will find in your room." He instructed.
"Understood." I replied with a nod. I turned and headed to my room.
"Daniel, wait." I heard Clockwork call.
"Yes?" I said as I turned around.
"Before you head to your room, we have guests coming, and I'd like you to confront them." He said. I nodded and Clockwork teleported away. I waited in the room for 5 minutes before I saw something in the distance, approaching the tower. My eyes widened when I saw it was the Spectre Speeder.
"Oh shit…" I thought to myself.
A/N: So, what do think of the new Danny? The eye colour thing is what I'm most proud of! Just BTW, his outfit is NOT the cover image. The image is just something that fits the story's theme.