[The next Morning]
His future,
Danny knew he should be taking it more seriously, and he was, if only he could just get Tucker and Sam to agree. Oh, who was he kidding? Danny Fenton bit his lip warily as he, and his two friends walked down the halls of Casper High. 'Maybe they're right.' He thought to himself. 'I can't cheat my way through the rest of my life.' Still the temptation to do so was overpowering, especially when he already had the answers in his hands.
'But the test is tomorrow.' He reasoned with his guilt. 'And with all my ghost fighting I've had no time to study for the C.A.T.!'
"So, are you going to return the test answers or not?" Sam finally asked. She didn't want to come off as naggy, but the silence had been killing her, that and she really thought Danny would make the right call.
"I will! I will." Danny assured her. "I'm just...waiting for the right moment." He reasoned.
"Like, maybe, after the test?" Tucker joked, knowingly.
Both Sam, and Danny frowns at him.
Tucker scoffed as they pass by the teacher's lounge "Yeah, you're right. You're not thinking about cheating on a test that you're convinced will determine your future."
The door to the teacher's lounge opens, and Mr. Lancer looks after them quizzically. Had he heard them right? Where they really talking about cheating? Shutting the door again, he goes to the sofa and sets the briefcase down on the coffee table. He pulls out a key and unlocks the briefcase, and gasps upon finding it empty.
Tucker Foley's words suddenly plagued his mind. "You're not thinking about cheating on a test that you're convinced will determine your future."
Mr. Lancer shook his head, unsure. 'No, Daniel maybe a slacker, but he would never…or would he?'
'It's best to be sure.' Mr. Lancer thought, as he uncuffed himself from the now empty briefcase. 'But how? I mean I could accuse him, but what if I'm wrong and someone else stole the answers? This is his future were talking about!'
'I know!' he suddenly had it! 'I'll get his sister to confirm it for me.' He steps out of the teacher's lounge, and sets out to find Jazz Fenton.
Luckily for him the brainiac wasn't far.
Mr. Lancer turns the corner down the hall to see several Casper High girls looking angry at Jazz as she talked away about her successful future. "So, it's a choice between Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, and I can't make up my mind!"
The girls all turn and walk away, obviously jealous of her success, and Jazz's smile drops. "So... see you after school?" She asked hopefully.
No answer.
Jazz frowned.
Mr. Lancer takes this moment to make his approach, walking up to Jazz he says. "Ms. Fenton, may I speak with you after school?"
Jazz looks alarmed, but nods her agreement just as the bell to head to first period rings around them loudly. "I better get to class." She stuttered, and hurried off.
'What was that all about?' She wondered. She wasn't sure, but something told her it was bad, really bad!
And it was, it was the worst thing she could possibly imagine.
"How can you stand there and do nothing!?" Klem asked Clockwork as they continued to watch the scenes play out before them.
"Just as easily as you do." Clockwork said, emotionlessly. He hated this part of his job, always watching, but doing nothing! He would like to think that he had grown numb to the guilt a long time ago, but that was a lie. Here he was, the master of time, with the power to change current events for the better, and he didn't.
Why?
Because such was the law! You could not alter time, it was forbidden, to do so could create a time paradox, which could have disastrous consequences. Like an even worst future then the one they were facing now, for example. Or perhaps the total destruction of the time-space continuum. This was why he did nothing, just like he did nothing when the pharaoh killed every first-born slave, or when Hitler nearly destroyed all the Jews. Sure, it was bad, NO! Devastating was more accurate; however, it did not matter. His job was not to manipulate time, no it was to ensure that no one else did.
His job was to make sure that everything happened as it was supposed to, no matter how awful it might be.
Clockwork raises his staff once more, and time skips forward again.
The scene in the present day rift, shifts to Fenton Works at night. In Danny's room, the trio are sitting in a circle on the floor, the answers to the C.A.T. rest between them.
"You're not really going to look are you?" Sam asked.
"Sam, come on." Danny argued. "I'd love to have spent the last month studying, but I was fighting ghosts!"
"So, what? Do you think you deserve a cheat card for all your hard work?" Sam asked annoyed.
"I didn't say cheat." Danny argued.
"You didn't say not cheat." Tucker cut in. "Besides man studying the answers is cheating!"
Danny face-palms. "No, it's not, it's just like a study guide okay." He reasoned. "I'll study it for the test and then I'll use my ghost powers to sneak it back into Mr. Lancer's office. He'll never know."
"But you'll know." Sam said. "Are you prepared to live with the fact that you cheated at life."
"Oh, come on, you guys both think this test is meaningless." He said, taking the test packet in hand. "Why do you even care if I cheat? Why shouldn't I open this up and study the answers, huh?"
Sam and Tucker look at each other, but neither of them have an answer.
"No answer?" Danny asked. "Well, that's all the answer I need." He looks down at the packet, hesitating.
"Aren't you going to say something?" Tucker urged Sam.
"I'm his friend, not his mom." Sam argued, giving Danny a dirty look. "He wants to cheat, he can cheat."
Danny's eyes narrowed, turning ghostly green with anger. "It's not cheating, it's studying!" And with those final words he rips off the seal!
Suddenly Danny freezes as his ghost sense goes off. "Seriously a ghost now!" he complains.
Sam and Tucker sigh in relief, only to stop as they notice Danny is watching.
"I mean...Oh no, a ghost." Sam exclaimed sarcastically.
"You see this is a perfect example." Danny said as he changed into his ghost form. "I'd like to have time to study, but they never give me a break!"
"On the contrary ghost boy." A voice said from behind them. "I've been trying to break you since we first met."
Danny Turns to see. "Skulker, seriously why can't the Ghost World's greatest hunter leave me alone, and hunt something that he knows he can catch."
"Yeah like The Box Ghost." Tucker joked.
"No one makes fun of the Ghost World's greatest hunter!" Skulker screams, as he strikes a blow towards Tucker.
Danny leaps at the ghost, who easily backhands him into the wall. He slides to the floor and glares up.
"Oh, come on I don't have time for this!" Danny yelled. "I have a test to study for!"
"Do you think I care about your future whelp?" Skulker yelled.
"See Sam, he doesn't care." Danny told his friend. "Now do you see why I need to look at the answers?"
"Danny stop trying to convince me that cheating is okay!" Sam yelled.
"It's not cheating its studying!" Danny argued back!
"Hu guys!" Tucker screamed as several claw-ended arms sprung towards them from out of Skulker.
Danny barely manages to react in time. Going intangible, he snags Tucker and Sam and flies them out of the room. "You'll be safe here." He says, before he returns through the door to face off Skulker. "Let's get this over with." He said, annoyed. "I've got some studying to do!"
"The only thing you'll be studying is how painful it will be to be skinned by my blades!" Skulker charges, and grabs Danny by the ankle before slinging him around the room like a rag doll.
Danny grunts in pain as he's banged against his walls and dresser, finally Skulker grabs him by the neck and holds him up above his head. "Say goodbye, Ghost Child!" He chuckled darkly, his claws at the ready to deliver the deathly blow.
Suddenly his gauntlet starts beeping the tune to Reveille.
Skulker froze in horror. "Someone's hacked into the system. Again?! I thought I fixed that!"
Skulker goes intangible, and after dropping Danny, he takes off through the ceiling. The bedroom door opens, and Tucker and Sam come in.
"Wow. I can still hack into his operating system with my handheld computer. I don't know whether that's exciting or depressing." Tucker admitted sorrowfully.
Danny leaps to his feet. "Come on, follow me!" He goes intangible, and he flies up through the ceiling.
"We'll walk." Tucker tells Sam.
Clockwork presses the button on the top of his staff once more, and again time skips forward several minutes later and the rift shows Jazz and Mr. Lancer sitting in the English teacher's office.
"So, why did you call me to your office today Mr. Lancer?" Jazz asked the man before her.
"I overheard your brother and his friends talking about cheating on the C.A.T., and now the test answers are gone." Mr. Lancer said, getting right to the chase.
Jazz gasped. "So, you're saying Danny stole the C.A.T. test answers? But how?"
Mr. Lancer sighed. "I don't know" he admitted holding up the still empty briefcase. "Unless your brother suddenly gained the ability to turn invisible and reach through solid objects?"
Jazz bit her lip. She knew Danny had ghost powers and was capable of doing such a thing. 'But Danny would never do that, he's the good guy.' "But Mr. Lancer, you still have no proof Danny took the test answers."
Mr. Lancer nodded at this. "Fair enough. He has up until test time tomorrow morning to return the answers. But if he cheats, I won't just fail him. I'll destroy his future."
"I understand." Jazz said. "But you're wrong!" She declared as she opened the office door.
"For his sake I sure hope so." Mr. Lancer says, ominously as he watched her go.
Jazz closed the door behind her. 'He's wrong.' She repeated to herself. 'And I'm going to prove it!' She declared, marching back to her house.
The Rift changes once more, this time showing Danny three hours later, chasing Skulker all over town who is still trying to regain control of his suit.
Danny zaps him with an ectoblast, and he falls from the sky to crash into the ruin of the Nasty Burger. The time rift zooms in to see that the heating element is still on, the meter is inching higher. Skulker's head rolls off his battle armor and stops at Danny's feet.
Danny picks it up, and pulls Skulker's tinny form out of it. "Now could you please go back to the Ghost Zone and tell all our friends to leave me alone!" he declared before sucking the hunter into the Fenton-thermos.
"Way to go, Danny!" Tucker exclaimed.
Danny's watch beeps, and he looks down on it in dismay. "Oh no I have 10 minutes until curfew! How am I supposed to study now?"
"You mean cheat!" Sam screamed.
"Sam I told you I'm not cheating!" Danny yelled.
"Yes you are Danny." Sam shouted. "I thought you were better than this!"
"What am I supposed to do?" Danny yelled. "Fail! It's not my fault the ghost never give me time to study. Heck I didn't even want to be a ghost fighter! But no, you had to convince me to go look inside the broken portal."
"Oh, so it's my fault you have to cheat now!" Sam snapped, obviously offended.
"Sam!" Danny started.
"No, I'm done with this, you want to cheat fine, but I want nothing to do with it!" Sam said stomping off.
"Sam wait!" Danny tried to run after her, but Tucker stopped him.
"Let her go man, I'll talk to her, you need to put Skulker back where he belongs anyways."
Danny sighed. "You're right, thanks man."
"No problem, see you tomorrow." He says, before turning to run after Sam.
Danny sighed, and took off into the night air, towards his home.
"It's not too late." Melk said to Clockwork as the time rift went static once more. "You can still stop this."
Clockwork pressed the button on his staff yet again, his expression emotionless. "I must remain unmoved." He told them. "There were countless other times we were begged to act during similar disasters, and you said no and watched as innocence paid for your decision." Clockwork explained. "We cannot pick and choose when we follow the rules."
The time rift flips back to life showing Jazz as she sneaks into Danny's room she gasped as she sees the forgotten C.A.T. answer packet lying out on Danny's bedroom floor. Her heart sinks as she realizes the seal has been broken. "No! Danny is a cheater!"
"Stop this now!" Klem begs.
"No." Clockwork answers bluntly. "How many times have I begged you to let me interfere in the past, and you would not allow it?"
"So that's what this is about?" Melk asked. "You are bitter because-"
"You get to choose when to bend the rules, and when not to!" Clockwork cut in. "But this time I will be making sure you follow them!"
"You would risk all of existence just to beat us at our own game?" Klem asked.
"Have you not done the same?" Clockwork snapped back.
"This is not about us!" Melk hissed. "It is about him."
"Yes." Clockwork seemed to agree. "It is about him, and it is his decision to make."
"Then you have doomed us all!" Melk screamed.
"Then so be it." Clockwork emotionless tone cut through the air like a knife. This wasn't what he wanted, but then again it never was, and now for once it was the same for the Observants too. Sure, some would call him childish to risk the future over a little revenge, but he was the master of time, and he saw all.
He could see every possible outcome, of this, and none of them showed a world where the Dan Phantom did not exist.
"To stop this now will only be prolonging the inevitable." Clockwork warned.
"Then destroy him! We don't care just do something!" Melk was begging now.
"Time is a funny thing." Clockwork mused, and surprised them by even cracking a smile. "If you eliminate Danny Phantom, it won't stop this end from coming. If time has decided the world shall be devastated by a villain then it will just choose another to replace him. The future will not change, life is simply a means to an end. You cannot create without first destroying all that lies in your way."
"This is the talk of madness." Melk snapped, pointing a finger accusingly.
"Yes it is." Clockwork agreed. "Time is not for the sane or for the faint of heart."
The time rift shifted to show Danny in his parents' lab, where he is currently dumping Skulker back into the Ghost Zone. "And stay gone!" Danny yelled as the portal closed behind him.
"Nothing is going to change your mind is it?" Melk asked.
"It is not my mind that needs changing." Clockwork argued.
"Danny we need to talk!" Jazz said barging into the lab.
Danny turned. "Jazz I can explain!" he began.
"Save it Danny." Jazz argued, holding up the answers to the C.A.T. "I can't believe you cheated!"
"You were snooping around in my room!" Danny yelled furiously. "Jazz you had no right to-"
"Yes, I did I'm trying to help you. Don't you understand? You're ruining your future?"
"No, I'm saving it!" Danny yelled. "You wouldn't understand! You don't even know the half of it!" he says, snatching the answer packet away from her.
Jazz sighed. "Danny, I know all of it. About everything. That you're part ghost. That you're always doing the right thing with your powers. Until now."
Danny looks at her surprised. "You knew?"
Jazz nodded. "Yes, and I've been covering for you with Mom and Dad because I'm proud of you, and the good that you do. But not anymore."
"Jazz these ghost have ruined my life! If you really know what's going on then you know that I'm going to fail that test tomorrow because I never have time to study!" Danny yelled.
"At least you would give your honest effort." Jazz argued back.
"Look I've got no time for this." Danny argued. "The test is tomorrow and it's already 11 o clock!"
"Fine go cheat!" Jazz yelled.
"You're not going to stop me?" Danny asked surprised.
"No, I want to give you a chance to make the right decision Danny." Jazz told him. "Like the hero I know you are." She said as she started up the basement stairs. "But if you haven't come clean by the end of the test, I'm telling mom, and Mr. Lancer. Hero's don't cheat Danny, villains do, and cheater's never win!"
Danny watched as she walked up the stairs, and he continued to watch even long after she disappeared from his sight. Finally, he looked down at the test packet in his hands. He hadn't looked at it yet, there was still time to do the right thing. 'And spend the rest of my life sweeping the floors at Nasty Burger? No way!'
Ever since he had become part ghost his life had been going downhill, now he had a chance to turn everything around. "I'm sorry Jazz." He whispered, "But I have to pass that test!"
"See not even his sister can change his mind." Clockwork told the Observants. "What could I possibly do that she has not already done?" He explained.
But for once the Observants had nothing to say, nothing at all!
-To Be Continued