Author's Notes: Okay guys this is the last future based chapter that we explored in book and boy is it long! Anyway I hope you guys enjoy!

Please let me know what you think :)

(Meanwhile Back With Jack and Maddie…)

[Location: Sumter, South Carolina]

Their outcome was bleak, and they knew it.

Jack Fenton looked over the barrier of turned over cars before him inspecting their surroundings. For a moment he points out the fact that turning over cars may block most attacks from the enemy like their ecto-blast. However, the ghost could still phase through the cars and continue their attack.

Still with the jump suits shield battery levels running low the couple had no other choice.

In 11 months', time Sumter had become a dangerous apocalypse, and, in a way, it was all their fault.

After Tucker had promised the town's people that they would save their distant relatives Jack and Maddie have been on the move, scouting out for survivors. At first, they had started pretty close to home, only looking in nearby towns, and campgrounds. However, the longer they were gone, the bolder they got.

They had gotten far too bold this time.

Maddie looked behind them to the building just off to the right of them. A group of survivors had called out to them from an old radio tower, begging for assistance. Jack of course, wanted to help them right away, but Maddie thought it best that they go back home first and regroup.

Jack argued that there may not be time for that, and in the end, he was right.

The survivors had little time left, they all did.

Walker and his soldiers had brought down the heat ever since their first encounter with the Ghost King. His demands were always the same. Give up the half breeds, and for everyday he waited for this demand to be filled, he would destroy a nearby city or town. However, Maddie and Jack had been very good at predicting where the ghost warden would strike and managed to get the locals out in time. This of course would enrage the enemy into threatening more innocent lives.

Still as far as threats go, the jailer in white wasn't all that dangerous and neither were his goons.

Jack often wondered what had happened to the Phantom Knight, they had not seen him since the first battle, and he feared this.

Why?

Because Jazz had said the white Knight might be able to help them, and as the King's closest subject the Phantom Knight would be in the perfect position to take him out. However, the white knight was nowhere to be seen.

Vlad too had become absent much to Valerie's dismay, she had wanted revenge for what he had done to her father.

Jack shook his head, it was best not to think about Vlad, his once dear friend was nothing more than a monster, and probably had been since the day they met. Jack was just too blind to see it at the time; he wasn't blind now.

"Jack we're not going to make it!" Maddie yelled back at him.

Jack turned to his wife and gave her a reassuring smile, she was wearing her blue jumpsuit, but had lost her mask several days before. Her face was filthy and covered in rubble, but Jack still thought she looked beautiful. "The coast looks clear." He told her. "All we have to do is get them to our camp. The shields there should last long enough for us to recharge, and then we're out of her baby."

Maddie smiled; it was moments like this that Jack shined the brightest. Still she wished they at least had the Fenton RV to back them up, but it was generating the ghost shield back at their camp and was running low on gas. Once the Car went empty the Shield would fail, still they had one chance, but it was risky. "I still think we can do it Jack." She told him. "If we split up I can get the gas we need."

There was a gas station marked on their map an equal distance from their camp and where they were now. If the place were intact and Maddie could get the pumps working, she could fill up a few empty gallons of milk jugs with the stuff and they would be able to make a quick getaway.

And more importantly they wouldn't have to leave the RV behind. It was their best hideout when they were on the move like this. And with its own WIFI, Shields, Cable, and phone service it was their only way to stay in touch with their family.

It was in this moment that Jack regrets not listening to Maddie. They should have returned home for more supplies, Valerie and Dani would have come back with them, and together the four of them just might be enough.

Still it was too late for regrets now, the couple had a decision to make.

"I don't like it." Jack admitted, and it was true. So many things could go wrong once she was alone. She could get to the gas station to find it blown to bits, with nothing to salvage. Or she might find it standing and bare of food, gas, and other needed supplies. Or she could find gas, food, water, and even small first aid kits. She could find everything they need only to get caught on her way back to camp.

And Yet Jack knew she had to go, they needed her to do this or none of them were getting out of here. He embraced her for what he could only hope was not the last time and said, "Be safe."

Maddie nodded. "Just follow this road about 5 miles and you should make it to camp by dark."

"And you?" Jack asked fearfully.

"If I'm not back within an after you then assume I'm not coming back at all." Maddie told him.

Jack nodded, he understood. Once Maddie set her mind on something there was no stopping her. She wasn't looking to Jack for permission, she was telling him she was going and that was that! Jack motioned towards the building behind them signaling to the survivors to meet them at the cars.

Seven survivors; three teens, 2 elderly men and a woman with her infant rushed over.

Jack turned back to Maddie hopefully. "At least take someone with you." He insisted. "Lona can do it."

"Do what?" Lona asked as she and the others crouched around them.

"Maddie is going to go get supplies." Jack told them.

"I can help." Lona insisted. "But the Gas stations are mostly picked clean, no gas either."

"Well so much for that plan." Maddie said looking defeated.

"There's another option." Lona told her. "The local mall has a lot of cars parked out in front. We can stifle some gas from them. There may be better supplies inside too."

"The mall is too far." The woman, Lona's mother Ria reasoned. "You could get hurt."

"Mom please let me do this." Lona insisted. "We are out of options and Mrs. Fenton will take much longer getting there without my know how."

"She's right." Maddie insisted. "I could use the extra hands; more hands means more supplies." She reasoned. "And If Lona thinks the mall is our best bet I trust her."

"But…." Ria looks worried and for good reason.

"Look Jack needs Max and David to help him protect you guys." She gestured to the other two teens and Ed and Ralph…well." She tried finding a nice way to say it.

"We'll just slow you down." Ralph said with a forced laugh, He was 75 and just started retirement when all this ghost nonsense broke lose.

Ed was 63 and a local schoolteacher, and it wasn't for gym either.

"I'm the only one who can do this." Lona reinstated.

However, her mother still looks unsure.

Maddie places a hand on her shoulder. "I know you're scared we all are, but Lona can do this. I know she's only 16, but sometimes if you give your kids a little support they'll surprise you." Maddie gave a small smile. "I should know, my Jazz was 16 when she started fighting ghost and my son was younger than that."

Ria still looks fearful, but she looks to Maddie hopefully. "You'll protect her?" she asked.

"With my life." Maddie vowed.

"Go." Ria said, embracing her daughter. "Just please come back."

Lona returned the hug for a moment before accepting a spare blaster from Maddie.

"We move quickly and undercover." Maddie instructed.

"I know a path through the woods." Lona assured her. "Leads right to the back entrance of the Mall."

Maddie smiled. "That'll due." She said giving Jack one last kiss. "We'll be back by morning." She estimated the distance of the new route in her head.

"We'll be waiting." Jack assured her, and with those final words Maddie and Lona took off.

He could only hope they'd make it back in one piece.

(Back with Dani)

They had been gone a lot longer than any time before…

Long absents from her parents always kept her up late at night full of worry.

Still at least her parents actually remembered to call them this time. Just the night before last Jack and Maddie had called saying that after weeks of searching for survivors they heard a radio transmission coming from a town not far from their position. Survivors asking for help.

Of course, Jazz had advised they'd come home first, but Jack insisted they had plenty of supplies. It was a lie they all knew that. It had been written clearly on Jack's and Maddie's faces, but Jazz didn't argue. She knew finding survivors was getting harder, and harder for them. And if these people were begging for help over a radio then there wasn't any time to waste.

Dani hopped they were okay; it had been nearly 48 hours since they had last heard from them. Dani shook her head and did her best to focus on her lessons. Now that Danny was gone (for the time being) she had to continue her training on her own. Something she wasn't completely in the dark on; back when she still lived with Vlad her "father" Never taught her anything. So, she use to watch him in secret, and copy his moves.

Or try to, at least.

Now, that she was older with more experience her self-training would be better, or at least she hoped so. However, she couldn't be sure; Danny had spoiled her by teaching her from the first day she was adopted. Never before had Dani had to depend solely on her own, sure Vlad wasn't great, but at least she had someone. And when she was on the road Danny always came to her rescue when she got into trouble. But now Danny was not her, she was truly alone.

"You're not alone in this you know." Jazz said grabbing her attention.

Her older sister Jazz was sitting at the computer, they were currently in the Lab of Fenton works. Well it had once been a lab, but after Danny blew up the ghost portal the place was pretty much totaled. However, thanks to the ghost shields Amity Park soon returned to their normal lives and Tucker was able to pay to get it re modeled.

Jack said he'd make a new portal and buy new lab equipment once he found the time which hadn't happened yet. So now the empty room had been transformed into a training area for Dani and the twins. Sam's family of course was warry of starting their training, but Sam had to agree. Their kids' lives were in danger, and they needed to know how to defend themselves just in case Dani had her hands full.

However, at the moment the kids were upstairs doing homework with Valerie leaving Dani with some time to herself. Jazz was helping her by going through Danny's computer, everything he knew about every ghost he ever fought was in there. Also, he recorded every training session he and Dani ever had. So, Dani could watch them later and see what she did wrong.

"Okay the next move is- Jazz began.

"I want to practice the vortex move." Dani interrupted her.

"But it's dangerous." Jazz said. "And Danny-"

"Danny isn't here Jazz." Dani argued. "I need to be strong; everyone needs me to be strong." She was close to tears now. The pressure was obviously getting to her, she never really realized how hard this was. Danny always made it look so easy; he always had a plan; a solution to every problem.

"I know." Jazz said getting up and giving her a hug. "I miss him too." She admitted. "But we will see him again."

"How do you know?" Dani scoffed, pushing away. "Because Clockwork said so?"

"He was right about Damion." Jazz said. "He told Valerie her dad would make it, and he did." She smiled, fixing Dani's hair, which was pulled back in her favorite headband. "You'll see this all work out, you just got to have faith."

Dani took a deep breath and nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. "You're right." She decided. "Danny has never let us down." She reasoned. "I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason for being gone, and Clockwork has a perfectly good reason for not telling us where he is."

Jazz nodded. "Now let's start that vortex!" She said, trying to get Dani back on track.

Dani shook her head. "Not today." She reasoned. " I think I need to take a walk and clear my head first." She decided.

"Good idea." Jazz praised.

Dani forced a smile and headed up the stairs, hiding, her real emotions behind a wall was getting harder and harder with every passing day. Still she had to stay strong, it was after all what Danny would do.

'I miss him.' She thought as she opens the front door too...

"Danielle?"

For a moment she couldn't believe her eyes, right there before her was the very person she missed more than anything in the whole wide world. He was just as he had always been, and yet he was entirely different. His once crew cut hair was now long and pulled back into a ponytail. His fangs looked sharper, and his red eyes looked more like blood than ruby. However, there was no mistaking it. With that red and white shirt, matching sneakers, and blue jeans. It could only be one person.

Dani gasped "Danny!" And wrapped her arms around him. "Where have you been?"

Danny looked at her as if he were seeing her in person for the first time.

Dani lets him go, and suddenly looks around suspiciously. "Hurry you have to get inside!" She ordered pulling him in. If anyone saw him now it might cause an uproar. She could already image the angry towns people demanding to know where he had been and why he had abandoned them.

Danny allowed her to pull him in and slam the door behind them.

"Where you followed?" Dani asked.

Danny doesn't answer, in fact he doesn't do much at all but stare around him. As if he cannot believe what he is seeing.

"Danny!" Dani suddenly shakes him, forcing him to come too. "Did you hear me?"

"I…Yes, I mean no!" Danny answered. "No, I don't think I was followed." He added quickly.

Dani looks at him closely, as if unsure, she's about to say something, but someone interrupts them.

It's Lilith! And Dani can't help the tears in her eyes as both daughter and father's eyes meet in a moment of realization and clarity.

"Daddy!" The Lilith races for him, jumping into his arms.

Dani watches as her brother joins her in the embrace. He picks her up, and hugs her close, but something seems off. Danny doesn't seem to fully understand who he is holding. However, before she can address it DJ comes running down the stairs to see what all the commotion is about.

Dani watches her brother as his eyes nearly pop out of his head in shock.

"I knew it!" DJ said. "I knew you'd be back!" Tears filled his eyes as he ran up to them, hugging his father's leg.

Again, Danny looks happy, but confused, as familiar strangers surround him.

"Kids, what's going on down there!?" Sam asked leaving her room. She had been packing for a possible trip. If her in-laws did not return by sundown tomorrow she, Jazz and Valerie were going after them. She headed down the stairs passing Valerie as she went.

"Mom what's going on?" Abby asked her mother.

Valerie shook her head as she sat down on the stairs to watch the scene play out. "Go to Lilith's room Abby and close the door." She ordered.

Abby knew what that order meant, possible danger! She ran to Lilith's and DJ's room and closed the door.

Valerie pulled out her blaster knowingly, this Danny looked different, more like Vlad then Danny. Her eyes widen, and she paged Jazz's Communicator.

"Hey Val, what's up?" Jazz asked. "Whatever you do don't come up stairs." Valerie warned her.

"What do you mean?" Jazz sounds worried now. "What's going on?"

"I think Dark Dan is here." Valerie answered simply.

"What!" Jazz jumps up from her chair and runs up the stairs. peaking over the corner of the doorway and towards the front room. "It is Dan." She realized.

"Just stay out of sight." Valerie advised. "Seeing us again might spook him."

Jazz nodded; she knew Valerie had a point. Dan had history with both of them, bad history. "Do you think this is the evil him, or the good one we saw before?" She whispered.

"I guess we're about to find out." Valerie said training her weapon on the possible threat.

Meanwhile, Sam was walking down the stairs towards Danny looking unsure.

Danny looked up towards her, and his breath visibly catches in his throat. "Sam?" He asked.

Realization flooded Sam's eyes, and he watched as those lavender orbs began to water. "Danny!" She raced for him, running down the rest of the stairs, and throwing her arms around him, hugging him like she hadn't done so in forever.

And in a way it sure felt like it.

"I can't believe it!" She cried. "You're alive!"

Danny flinches at those words. "Wait, I'm dead?" He asked.

Sam pulls away, as if sensing something. "You never came back…" She said, waiting for some sort of cue from him, some source of realization. "There was a big battle in the Ghost Zone…" She added, but there's nothing, no indication that he has any idea what's going on. She then notices something that she had not before.

Danny is wearing a time medallion!

"Danny what are our kids' names?" she asked.

Danny looks at their children as if they are alien life forms. "I…I don't…"

Sam seems to nod. "DJ, Mommy and Daddy need to catch up okay." She tells them.

"Okay." DJ says letting go of his father. "Come on Lilith."

Lilith pouts but jumps out of her father's arms none the less. "Okay." She answers and follows her brother out of the room.

"You're not my Danny, are you?" Sam asked simply once they were alone.

"No." Danny said honestly. "I'm from a different timeline." He admitted.

Both Valerie and Jazz seem to relax at his honesty, this was defiantly Dan, but if he had been truly evil he would have struck them all down the moment they figured him out. Just as He had done when Jazz figured him out 10 years before.

"Well that would explain this." Sam said tapping the time medallion that still hung around his neck.

"It also explains the ponytail." Dani chuckled. "By the way no offense bro, but you should lose it and the goatee too, you look like Uncle Vlad."

"Bro?" Dan asked. "What happened to cousin?"

"Oh, I guess your parents haven't adopted me yet in your timeline." Dani giggled.

Dan's eyes widen, as if he remembers something or rather someone! "Jazz…" He whispered.

"Yeah she gave me this as a gift." Dani explained. "Sort of a welcome to the family kind of thing."

Jazz sighs in relief as Dan smiles at those words. They were in no danger here; this was the same Dan they had saw with Clockwork just months before. She was sure of it now.

"So where is Jazz?" Dan asked, looking around unsure.

Valerie wasn't surprised, in fact this was why she ordered Jazz to stay out of sight. After all Jazz was one of the few who still remembered Dan, and she seemed to have a way of knowing when it was him pretending to be the good Danny.

For a moment Dani opens her mouth to tell him but she catches sight of Valerie who shakes her head. For some reason Valerie didn't want him to know! So, she thought fast. "She's out with Tucker, and Valerie." She lied. "Checking the Ghost Shield generators."

She wasn't sure why she had to lie but trusted that Valerie would explain later.

"And mom, and Dad?" Dan dared to ask.

"It's complicated." Sam said.

"Complicated?" he asked.

"Look Danny a lot of bad things have happened." Sam said, taking his hands and guiding him over to the couch.

"Then just start from the beginning." Dan urged. "Tell me how did this all get started, who did this?"

Sam nodded. "It started off as any normal day." She explained. "After the Disasteroid the ghost world, and the human world agreed to never mix again, and a treaty formed to insure it."

"After that, things got quiet." Sam went on. "No one needed Ghost hunters anymore."

"So, no one ever tried to leave the Ghost Zone?" Dan asked.

"Well a few tried at first." Dani informed him. "But they never got past the ghost shield."

"Ghost shield?" Dan asked.

"After the treaty all the portals into the ghost zone except for the Fenton portal was shut down." Dani explained.

"Your parents then put a ghost shield around the house so if any ghost managed to get out of the portal the ghost shield they entered would cause them unbearable pain, making it easy for you and your family to throw them back in." Sam went on. "And for a while it worked, for 10 years there was peace like the world had never seen."

"So where did it all go wrong?" Danny asked.

"Well as you can imagine not every ghost agreed to this treaty." Sam explained. "But most couldn't do anything about it."

"Except one." Dani interrupted. "There was one ghost who knew a power strong enough to whip the ghost zone back into shape."

"A power that was so great it was locked away in a sarcophagus." Sam whispered.

Dan's eyes widened. "The ghost king?"

"Vlad let him out, and then the ghost king destroyed the sarcophagus, and with it the only way to stop him." Sam explained.

"Clockwork tipped you off about the upcoming danger." Dani cut in. "And you left to fight the Ghost King alone."

"What happened?" Danny asked.

"That's just it." Sam said, tears in her eyes. "We don't know, you never came back and somehow the ghost King found out that Wolf could make his own portal into our world. He forced him to do it, and he destroyed everything."

"Why didn't you stop him? Why aren't you fighting him?" Danny asked Dani.

"We tried Danny." Sam whispered. "He came for us, and it was then that we learned the Ghost King's true agenda."

"He was sickened by the fact that half ghosts existed." Dani told him. "And when he found out that humans and half ghost lived together as a family he was outraged, but that wasn't what ticked him off the most."

"Then what was it?" Dan asked.

"It was us Danny." Sam was crying openly now. "He found out about our kids."

"Humans and ghost producing young." Dani whispered. "That was the last straw."

"He wanted to eliminate them, to make an example of us all." Sam cried. "He told the town that all he wanted was to set things right, that humans and ghost should never mix, that if they just gave us up the rest of the world would be spared."

"Thankfully the town wouldn't budge." Dani continued for her. "But without you it was up to me and our family to stop him."

"We tried to fight him off, but we failed." Sam whispered. "Dani was severely wounded in the fight, and Valerie's dad nearly lost his arm."

Dani bowed her head. "After that the town forced Tucker to make the call. As Mayor, Tucker had no choice but to think of the well-being of the town. No one was allowed to leave; the town was so angry with us. They nearly tried to take it out on me and the kids."

"If Valerie Hadn't been there they would have." Sam added. "Finally, Tucker promised that we would save those outside the shields. It was the only way the town would let them stay." Sam added, tears still streaming down her face.

Dan looked ready to punch something. And Jazz couldn't blame him. It still made her sick that her fellow towns folk almost lashed out as her family like that. How could they be so cruel? Forcing them to take responsibility for simply being alive! Who were they to judge their family, and after all they had done for them.

"Danny are you okay?" Dani asked.

Dan visibly forces himself to calm down. "Sorry, I just…"

Sam placed her hand on his. "I know…" She whispered. "I thought that too, but no this town is selfish and wrong!" She spat, anger showing in her eyes.

Dan took her face in his hands, looking at her as if for the first time.

"Not like it did us any good." Dani said, "The Ghost King was angered by our first response of defiance and raged war on the human race as a whole, and now the world is in ruin, after that Mom and Dad started looking for survivors."

"They always come back with new battle scars and a handful of survivors they managed to find." Sam added. "And that's the whole story."

Panic!

Jazz could see it forming; just slightly bubbling to the surface. It is then that she realizes Dan did have bad intentions when he came here. But now this story has changed them, no seeing them has changed him. "This is how he became good." She realized out loud. "Clockwork must have let him come here in order to change his mind about us."

Valerie seemed to nod, this was the turning point for Dan, this was what made him decided to fuse with his younger-self and save them all. To see his family in pieces like this, to have nothing without him. It must have forced him to remember how he felt when he lost them. And how he would do anything to make it to where that never had happened in the first place.

"I can't do this." Dan realized, reaching for his time medallion.

"Danny wait!" Sam exclaimed.

"But it was too late, Danny broke the medallion off, and in seconds he was gone.

"I don't understand." Sam rasped. "Why did he leave?"

"Because." Valerie said walking down the stairs. "That's not just any Alternate Danny."

"it was Dark Dan." Jazz said, coming out of hiding as well.

"So, he was going to…" Dani couldn't finish the thought.

"We think so." Valerie confirmed. "But seeing us again, it changed his mind.

"Val and I think this is the reason why Dan chosed to help us." Jazz explained.

"So, now what?" Dani asked. Before anyone can answer a strange feeling washes over her, almost as if some greater being is trying to warn her about something. "We need to go find Mom and Dad." She realized.

"Why? What's wrong?" Valerie asked.

"Jazz?" Dani looks to her sister.

Jazz nodded. "I feel it too." She confirmed. "They're in trouble." She said. "I just know it."

(Back with Clockwork, 1 month into the future)

"The final battle is among us." He whispered as the observers hovered around him.

"She knows of your survival." Melk warned. "This could ruin everything."

"She'll come for you." Klem pointed out the obvious.

"An obvious mistake." Clockwork mussed. "one that will be her last!"

-To be Continued