Danny clenched his chest, unable to tear his vision away from the sight of his eyes. Blood red, just like his future self's. Looking up at Dark, the halfa begged for an answer, eyes unfittingly scared with their color. He didn't care that his mentor was an evil hodgepodge of ghosts at the moment, he just didn't want to become evil along with him.

"Relax, Daniel." Dark said, voice calm and level despite his amused face, kind of like Clockwork. "Your eyes are just red to fit your new obsession, growing within you. Your body often morphs to fit it; it's why malevolent ghosts tend to look more "scary" than benevolent ones."

"Malevolent? B-but I can't be- How is that- I'm not evil!" Danny floated away from the floor, and away from the gaze of his eyes. Away from darkness. "I promised I wouldn't become evil! I won't, I-"

"Daniel," Dark interrupted. ", though having you as my apprentice would be far nicer than killing you, and I'd love to teach you, I still want to kill you, so shut up and listen to me. You can try to be "good," but without a reason, you won't last very long. So, you can either fight a losing battle, and try to defeat me along with your true nature, or submit now and become my proper apprentice."

Danny fired a blast at the dark time master, flinching at the toothy grin he received. "I knew you'd pick the more entertaining option."

With that, Dark vanished from sight in a blue mist, leaving Danny to try and find him. He then gasped as a small, blue, ectoblast narrowly missed cutting his face off. Turning around quickly, the halfa held his hands out in front of him and fired, though he was only successful in breaking a, very expensive looking, piece of armor.

Taking a different approach, Danny separated himself into 3, all of whom flinched at the amused chuckle that sounded through the room, with no clear source. "Honestly, Daniel, you can't win, no matter what power you use."

Danny growled, all three of him blasting at whatever they could. "It's not about winning, it's about avenging my friends, family, and everyone else you've taken away from me! I'm not letting you hurt anyone else I care about!"

"Oh?" Dark suddenly appeared before the original Danny, quickly grabbing him by the arm. He then proceeded to drain his energy, chuckling at the agonizing scream the young halfa released. The white rings encircled his waist now, and his clones vanished from sight. He fought with gritted teeth to maintain his ghost form, but it seemed to only weaken him faster. "Daniel, let me explain something to you."

Floating to the ground, Dark shook Danny until he reverted back to his human form. "Defeating me won't bring your friends back, it won't bring your family back, and it won't bring your town back, not that you should want them back anyway. Your friends, for example. They never cared about you nearly as much as you seem to have fooled yourself into believing."

Dark grabbed Danny by his head and waved his staff, creating a scene around them. It showed Danny with his friends, and all of them were a bit younger than they were now, not that you could really tell with Danny. Jazz was there too, and they were all gathered around the Fenton Portal. The only real difference was that Danny's hair had a white streak running through it.

"What is this?" Danny asked, only to have Dark hush him.

"I don't have my powers anymore!" The alternate version of the halfa said, clearly happy about this development, though his friends didn't seem nearly as excited. If anything, they looked bored and a little agitated.

The original Danny glanced at Dark. "What is this?" He asked once more, face now stern.

Dark smirked. "A timeline that Clockwork almost let happen. The timeline where you, tired of how the town treats you, of how your parents hunt you, and how it put your friends in danger, got rid of your ghost half permanently. In doing so, your friends hated you, grew to despise you even."

Danny narrowed his eyes. He didn't see that in their faces at all. "My friends would never act that way. With or without my powers, they would never stop being my friends."

Dark waved his staff, just as some people Danny had never seen before were entering Fenton Works. The image it cut to made Danny's eyes widen at the sight, while his heart stopped in his chest briefly. "Then let's try your family."

"Mom… Dad… what are you doing?" Both the alternate-timeline Danny and the Danny in Dark's grasp asked.

The alternate Danny was sitting in his room, clearly sleep-deprived, as he was hunched over his homework. His parents were holding several ghost gadgets in their hands as they looked at their son. The alternate halfa looked nervous, as he slowly stood up.

The alternate Maddie spoke up first, smiling despite the worry and fear present in her eyes, along with curiosity and intrigue. "Well, sweetie, we thought all about what you said when you told us you were… half ghost. It took awhile to process, but now we know that you're just sick. Some ghost got into your body, and made you think it was your friend, so-"

"We're gonna rip it out of you!" Jack interrupted, making both halfa's pale.

"No! I'm not sick, I'm serious! W-what are you-" The alternate Danny screamed, as the Specter Deflector was placed around his waist, and he was dragged down into the lab.

Danny's eyes were wide, and tears threatened to spill out of him. His parents would never do that, not in this timeline, or any timeline. These were just tricks, Danny knew it! So… why was he so scared if it couldn't happen to him?

Dark noticed that the boy had become frozen still, and added to the cold with his tone. "Don't you see, young Daniel? In this timeline, the town hated you, all of you. They pushed around your human half, and abused your ghost half. In three of many timelines like them, your friends stabbed you in the back or abandoned you, while your family cut you open and studied you like any other ghost. No one could love the ghost kid…"

Danny shook his head. The sorrow and fear weighed heavily on his shoulders now, but there was one more thing he needed to see. "…Show me the timeline where you weren't there. The timeline where everyone died, but not because of a ghost. Because I… I…"

A wry smile crossed Dark's face. "Outlived them?"

Danny nodded, numbly. He wanted, no needed, to see if it really was inevitable. If, in the end, he really was destined to become evil, with or without his friends. And Dark showed him.

Danny Fenton sat on a rock, in the middle of a wasteland. His eyes were glowing a faint blue, and his hair flickered like a flame of darkness, though it left you knowing that it was cold. A frown was etched onto his 14 year old face, as his eyes scanned for anything to do. He seemed to show no emotion, save for boredom.

He then spoke, voice deep and tired. "Happy birthday, Danny. You've officially become the youngest looking 200 year old half-alive. Too bad you've got no one to celebrate it with… Why? Well you saved them all, killed them all, and every goddamn thing in between. Geez, only 200 and I'm already bored and talking to myself…"

Shaking his head, the halfa stood up and looked down at the dusted fields below. No travelers in his territory yet… Shame, really. "Still… at least the people are safe in the afterlife."

The halfa transformed, his black hair turning to white flames, as pure green eyes replaced his blue ones. His outfit was the same, save for the black cloak and goggles. His symbol was also missing, nothing more than a black space. A smile then settled on his face as a ghost, finally, entered what remained of Amity Park. "And the town will be safe once this ghost is nothing more than ectoplasmic goo on my boot."

And Danny numbly stared as the ghost was wiped out, unable to believe what he'd just seen. Dark merely rubbed the boy's back, looking down at him with amusement. "See what happens when you become too obsessed with saving people, Daniel?"

"Shut up…" Danny said, glancing at Dark with an empty gaze. "I'm going to my room to think."

Dark let the boy go, a smirk on his face as he entered his room and shut the door behind him. The dark time master then turned to face the three scenes he'd shown the boy. "Oh Daniel, you've just sealed your own fate…"

Dark then proceeded to wave his staff, now showing the original timelines. The one where Danny saved the town from an asteroid thanks to his friends. The one where his parents only wanted to fix him, driven by fear to protect him. And, Dark's most favorite, the one where the boy locked himself into an eternal sleep to satisfy his obsession and keep himself from turning evil, while he dreamt of protection most cruel, and his town thanked him for everything he'd ever done for them.

Clearing the images from the room with a pleased grin, time turned it's back and waited for the desired outcome to truly begin to unfold. "It's only a matter of time, now…"