Jimmy slumps into his lab chair, long abandoned during the bargaining with Mephistopheles. Head in his heads, he asks in a muffled voice, forgetting the ghosts, what he did to lose his soul to the devil. Suddenly his body begins to shake in anger.
"You! Fate, why have you dealt me such a cruel hand in my life? What have I done to deserve this eternal damnation?" he accuses, pointing a furious finger toward the woman amongst the specters. However, once he sees the hurt and sadness in her crystal blue eyes, he immediately regrets the harsh words.
Stiffly she steps out into the dim light of the lab.
"If you would like, I can take you to review your life and you may change anything you would like to change." She replies in a monotone, still stinging from the abrasive words that had left the genius' mouth that still hung in the air. Turning to leave with the sweep of her hooded cape a portal opens up. Fate beckons to the genius, only to find him looking at the clock confused.
"The hands, they're moving faster than normal. How is that mathematically possible?" He inquires panicked.
"Mephistopheles probably thinks he's leaving you with a final favor. In Hell, they don't move at all." Fate chuckles darkly, panicking the man further.
Stepping through the portal, he trips, lost in the weightlessness.
"With all that space travel, I would have thought you'd be more used to this." Fate and Twist laugh. In front of them is a tool on a pedestal portraying the face of a clock. Dials surround the timepiece, the largest representing years.
"What would you like to change first?" she asks, serious now.
"My childhood."
One spin of the year dial lands them on 2003. Fate pulls a long tarnished key out of the folds of her long black cloak. Plugging it into the apex of the hands and giving it a turn, the trio is sent into a spiraling vortex. Looking down, Fate finds Jimmy clinging to her sleeve with his eyes clenched shut like a child. Remorse and pity sweeps through the entity as they are slowed to a small rotation.
In front of them is his house in Haydaytown, Jimmy's old hometown. On the front lawn, young James Neutron sits in the grass tinkering with his first invention. He is only 6 years old and is already as smart as the average sophomore in high school. Jimmy's wild hair-do has not yet taken shape but a cowlick is already beginning to take shape in his auburn hair. As the older Jimmy watches, the young genius is becoming frustrated with a circuit in what older Jimmy recognizes as an early prototype of Goddard. Tears spring to the young boy's eyes as he throws the box of metal down in irritation. He then begins twiddling with the soldering iron. Not being able to help himself, older Jimmy walks over to the boy and kneels down on the soft grass. Picking up the early Goddard, he explains to his younger self that the wire he is trying to connect is frayed.
"Thanks mister." replies the young genius, wiping the tears from his eyes. They talk for a while about how he just finished constructing his lab in his shed in the backyard and other mechanical jargon.
"Say mister, do you think that someday you could help me finish my mechanical dog?" the boy asks, excited to have an adult friend.
"Someday that might just happen. But I'm sure you'll have two of the most best friends in the world soon and they'll be able to help you." Older Jimmy ponders a second. "Well, you'll at least be able to test your inventions on them."
"Okay, see you someday man."