Admittedly, this chapter was hard to write, and you will soon see why. But fear not- I give you hope at the bottom A/N.

Not-so-fun fact: It took me literally six hours to type this up. EW.

I don't own Blaze. All credit goes back to MutantLover09. But the German version of his name is all my own. XD

Thanks for those really thoughtful reviews FernClaw, Hordak's Pupil, Cantdecideonaname, Dreaming-Of-A-Nightmare, princess moon shadow, Invader Johnny, lily moonlight, Grumbles, MutantLover09, Plushiemon, Jag Lady, Wishes for Wings, Shirokaze Rin

5. All Things Evil

Fern nearly growled into the phone. "You must be joking. Why are you sending for him?"

"It's not like I had much of a choice," Flamme's voice echoed over the line with the same bitterness. "Alpha insisted on it, and quite frankly, I have to agree with him. Indiana Jones could definitely be of value to all of us. I'm not just talking about the Guys In White here- I'm talking to the Nazis as well. Surely you have heard of him before, Ma'am?"

The woman smiled slightly and leaned back in her chair, looking out over the town and chuckling to herself. "Who hasn't heard of the infamous Dr. Jones? He's the one who found the Holy Grail of Christ and the legendary Arc of the Covenant. I must say, the man is an adventurer and knows what kind of treasure to search for. He's got... what would you call it? Good taste?"

Flamme snickered slightly. "I would not know, actually. But enough about that. How is the subject shaping up to be?"

Fern sighed, her voice turning from slightly playful into deadly serious. "Stranger than I would have ever imagined. I think it's something that is indeed not of this world. If this creature did come from the ghost zone, then... we could very well be talking about a massive breakthrough in the way of finding the door. What if we're actually holding the key here in Germany, and the GIW are searching for a lost cause? Think about that, my friend!"

"I AM thinking about it," the male replied dryly, sounding slightly exasperated over the end of the line. "Listen, Fern. I know you're psyched and everything, but you gotta keep a slightly low profile about the whole thing. Hitler will be on our butt about the whole thing if we let it out to the public, and I am really not in the mood for more scrutinizing here in the lab. Alpha's getting on my butt about the fact that I'm spending a lot of time on the phone right now. It was a subtle warning, but he made his point."

The woman sighed. "I understand. All right, I have an idea. Keep a tab on Jones for a bit. If that means you have to go on one of his little journeys to find something, then so be it. I just want to hear about any sort of information he might have on the city that we might not know about. I don't care if a ghost shows up and tells him everything ever known to ghost and human kind- do not, under any circumstances, give away the fact you are a Nazi."

Flamme smirked over the line. "C'mon, Fern. When have I ever let you down?"

And with that last comment, the line went dead. Fern looked at the phone and shook her head, disconnecting as well. Her companion and fellow confidant could really be someone dangerous or someone really safe to be around. Flamme- or more aptly known as 'Blaze' in the States- had a pretty long list of aliases around the world, and he knew almost every trick in the book that had to do with being a double agent, a triple agent... Fern wanted to make sure he kept working for the Nazis as best as she possibly could. For who knew when he would actually turn against one group and join the next...

She got up and walked to the lab, glancing down at her watch and uttering a soft moan. She was hoping they might have made a little bit of progress since that morning. Then again, she couldn't ever tell what progress was made with the people that had been assigned to the whole project. She made her way to a test container on the wall and examined the specimen inside. The being's eyes were closed, her blue hair floating in the strange green liquid she was contained in. Fern smiled, stroking the glass. "Tell me everything you know," she whispered to the being. "Tell me everything..."

And for a split second, she thought she saw the creature shook her head slightly, as if to disagree with her.

The leader rubbed his temples and gave a small groan, placing his hands on Operative M's chair and staring at the screen. "Do you have anything on the possible key to the city or getting through that door? Anything at all?"

"Sir, the computer is going as fast as it can," M told him nervously, typing in some things onto the computer and frowning slightly. "You do realize that the database is so large that it could quite possibly take until midnight to figure out these files, right?"

Operative O looked down at his watch. "So that's another... ten hours. I'm pretty sure we will have a result by then. And if we don't, I will have to... speed up the process, to say the least."

His companion blinked for a moment before shaking his head. O was very determined to find the ghost who could help in unlocking this door- or figuring out what the wall the probe had found did, for that matter. M knew of O's reputation for being ruthless if he had to, even firing men who were seemingly lounging on the job. It worried him immensely as he began to type even faster, closing down other windows that could have been slowing down the process on the computer. M swallowed and bit his lip. "Uh, sir? What if we shut down all the other computers as well? Perhaps it would give us a better chance for finding the ghost's signature."

O crossed his arms and sat down in the chair next to M. There seemed to be a tremor of fear in M's voice, and there was no doubt that it was probably out of fear for being fired on the job. The male clapped M on the shoulder and gave him a slight smile, nodding his head. "I think that's actually a pretty good idea right now."

M looked relieved. "You and Operative K will be the first to know..." He paused here, looking around the room and frowning suddenly. "Sir, where exactly is Operative K?"

"Beats me. I thought he would have been in here by now to see the progress we've been making." O sighed and sat back in the chair. "I'll make sure he turns off every computer in this place until we have the matching signature to that wall."

There was a loud beep that rang through the room, and M cocked his head, moving the mouse and typing in some more data. "You know what, sir? I don't think you'll actually have to do that. We may actually have our answer as to who might be able to help us in finding this door to the city." He inputed some more data into the computer, his brow furrowing. "That's odd."

O got up, his hands now clasped behind his back. "What's odd?"

"This." M brought up the picture of what appeared to be a teenager with snowy-white hair. His emerald green eyes seemed to stare down at the two men, a white DP emblem on his black jumpsuit. M leaned back in his chair. "He looks extremely familiar."

O clenched up, and M didn't fail to notice this change in attitude. "Sir?"

"Phantom," he muttered under his breath.

"Excuse me?"

O gave M a look of disgust. "We've had a problem with this ghost before. He calls himself Danny Phantom, and rumor has it that he resides at FentonWorks, home to the infamous ghost hunters, Madeline and Jack Fenton. We've tried to arrest them before for harboring fugitives like him, but we've had no luck in the past. Now we can perhaps talk to them about him and get the boy to come out of hiding to possibly find the door to the city."

The young operative wrinkled his brow. "How exactly do you plan on doing that?"

"We'll figure out something by tomorrow," O replied matter-of-factly, hitting the 'save' button on the computer and turning to M. "You've done very well at this, M. I must sign off on paperwork to promote you so you will no longer have to do those silly security jobs at night."

M's face lit up with surprised happiness as O left the room. A promotion? Man, this day had just gotten so much better...

Deep in the recesses of the ghost zone, a lone tower stood facing the west, its ghostly inhabitant staring at an orb with intense concentration. His form morphed into that of a middle-aged man, his brow creasing ever so slightly. He waved his staff, and an image of Fern appeared, her eyes staring into the containment chamber with lust and greed. He sighed and shook his head, waving his hand and watching the picture change to that of 2007. The Guys In White stood in front of a computer, murmuring and typing away fervently, as if the end of the world was coming if they stopped for a moment. He waved his hand one more time, and the screen split in two.

This time, it showed a professor flying on a plane and a teenager walking home from school.

The ghost knew that all of these pieces to the puzzle would connect in time. Some would be united with others for a cause, other people would rival themselves against those who didn't share their beliefs.

Time. It was a luxury only he had.

Clockwork sighed and turned around, seeing the Observants with apparent dislike. "Don't even say a thing. I don't want to hear about my responsibility for the boy and making sure I do not screw around with history."

"If you know the lecture by heart, Clockwork, why do you not follow the rules? We would not have to go through this each time you were about to make a decision that could alter the course of history itself," one of the Observants replied humorlessly. "You're not considering putting those two time lines on a crash course with each other, are you?"

The ghost's figure turned into an old man. "What I do and whom I worry about is none of your concern. Don't you two have something better to do right now?"

The second Observant made a loud sigh. "If we do?"

"Would you be so kind as to go and do that task?" the Master of Time snapped, pointing with his staff to the way out of his tower. "I'd like to be with my timelines in piece and observe them from afar, not interfering on things that are meant to happen."

The two beings looked at each other before turning around and floating out of the room, mumbling to each other about how it was possible Clockwork was probably not going to be able to keep his promise again, just like he had done with Danny Phantom's ultimate enemy. Clockwork sighed and rubbed his head, morphing into a small child and staring at the two heroes in the glass orb. "It will only be a little while longer," he murmured to himself, crossing his arms and waving the staff once again to show the 1940 GIW gathering information. "Everything will come together as it has in the past."

The only thing that he was worried about was if the GIW actually got to Phantom in the morning as they had sworn they would. Would he have enough time to tell the boy of the trials that were to lie ahead and the revelation of a possible lost city actually not being lost... but merely in hiding, waiting for a savior to come?

Time. It was something only he could control and manipulate as he saw fit. And even now, with all the pieces of the puzzle in front of him, would they come together... or would they not fit and fail to form the picture of history that was coming next?

So, about this chapter... right. -winces- Next chapter, we finally see some real DP moments- so to speak- and the first real crossing of DP and Indiana. It'll work out, Trust me. And after that... finally, some possible action! Just a chapter longer, guys! Thanks for being so patient as I line this all up and show what's going on with everyone...