(Nowhere, Nowhen)
Clockwork checked who else had ended up in this void with him. Ember- expected, Dani - Not too surprising considering who changed the world. Danny -unexpected but understandable since he was not likely to co-operate with Vlad. Sam - not impossible. Clockworks brain finally caught up with his observation. Sam Manson could only have turned up in this void if she was an essential part of this new universe.
"Now this is odd." Clockwork stated.
"That we survived the destruction of our universe?" Sam sarcastically queried.
"It is possible." Danny pointed out. "I hope he's still locked up."
Clockwork checks his thermos. He nods. "We still have a chance to repair the gash. Somehow we exist. Time is still in flux. Somehow our universe and this are linked, and it is through Sam Manson that this is so. I'm not certain how but somehow she is the major cause of the linkage."
"Really?" Dani yelled excitedly.
"I expected four people in this noplace, notime." Clockwork started to explain
"You got four." Sam interrupted.
"Yes but I never expected you, Miss Sam Manson. You are not a ghost. Yet somehow you were dragged here, yet you could not have been done so by Vlad. Something else got you here. You are the link between these timelines. You should not be here. Instead it should be Valerie Grey"
"Val?" Sam murmurs. She isn't very happy.
Danny and Dani at this realise Val isn't with them and start panicking. "Where is Val? Sis? We need her."
At this Clockwork opens a portal. He scans around until he finally finds their Valerie Grey who is sitting on bench talking to that universe's Sam Manson. They are obviously already firm friends who truly care for each other.
"Impossible. I don't like Val." Sam denies hotly.
Clockwork shook his head sadly and subtly. This was a backtrack for Sam from true self-analysis. There were three reasons this Sam didn't like Val and...
"No, they don't apply here do they?" Sam continued interrupting Clockworks train of thought. "And we are alike, and if I didn't have those reasons... We need to investigate."
"Sam, I dare send neither you nor Fenton. Timestream doubles are complicated at the best of times, and I do not know enough here, even without the expected opposition. However Val being unique has no problem here. Acting as a ghost of what could have been."
"So how do we investigate? You have to be careful. And we don't have anyone unique."
"Yes we do. Do you really expect Vlad to acknowledge his 'mistakes'?" came an uncharacteristically bitter voice from Dani. "It's why I'm here rather than there. Vlad dragged me here since I'm part of his past."
Clockwork opened a portal and sent Dani through. This was going to be tough. He would undoubtedly be opposed here by his opposite number, a version of himself who would be trying to preserve this timeline.
Dani flew out on her board. She quickly landed down and switched off some of her suit. She needed it to help stabilise her but at least with it powered down she wouldn't register as a ghost. Despite not having enough ectoplasm to stabilise her as ghost she was more ghostly than a true spiritborn would be, and this was tearing her apart. More slowly than the others of course. She could just generate enough to keep her human, but she had been leaking continuously.
Val shivered. She'd have to depart for a minute and deal with her little sis. She was too ghostly not to be picked up on even the erratic detector Sam had. Still she had to do this on foot so as not alert her new friend.
"Dani, what are you doing here?"
"Our Clockwork sent me. I like you am unique enough not to disturb this world too much."
"Be careful. This Sam is worse than I ever was about ghosts, and just as stubborn as the one we knew."
"But I'm spiritborn, not a ghost."
"I doubt she'd understand the difference, this one. Imagine a Sam who had my early experiences with spirits." Val reminded Dani.
Dani shivered. Sam was certainly more stubborn than Val, and was a good ghost hunter in her own native timeline. "You mean the Sam we know. Danny is also there, but since they have duplicates here..."
"Clockwork can't insert them without drawing his others attention. Still I reckon the one here wouldn't mind putting their heads together. We have a problem. Tell Clockwork about Dan. Note: - Dan."
Dani nods. She knows what Val means, since she is the one person Danny had trusted with the full story, and she knew who was truly dominant in that fusion. If this was considered a probable end here, no wonder this timeline's Clockwork was looking for a way out. Unfortunately the shift in time here which had not been guided by clockwork here, had given a chance for a being linked to the worlds but outside the rules of time to try and escape. A flask trapped between borders of the dimensions, borders which no longer existed.
Breaking through realities Dark Dan was free once again. Dani felt it, because she was linked to her progenitor by being fairly close to him. Val felt as if someone had walked over her grave, having finally started to get a handle on her fate sense. The both spoke simultaneously. "What the hell was that?"
"The end of all hope." replied the Clockwork of this dimension who had appeared from nowhere.