Chapter 26:
Danny POV-
I stepped on the ground transforming back to my human form, thrilled to have won the war. And the rest of us, still in our ghost forms, followed suit.
"Fenton?!" I heard a voice behind me.
'Shit,' I realized, 'I forgot I let Dash be here.'
"Yeah, Dash. It's me, been me the whole time," I told him, wondering how he would react.
"How come you never told me, how come you kept letting me beat you up?" Dash asked, perplexed.
"Because, cheap revenge was never worth letting anybody know my secret, and if that meant pretending to be weak, that was fine," I replied.
"Who are the other Phantoms then?" Dash asked, gesturing to the now human, halfa members of the group.
"Dash, there's something you ought to know," I said, "You know all of the exchange kids who came here?" Dash nodded, "Well, they're not actually exchange kids. They're the kids of Amity Park, our kids, in the future who were sent here because there was a ghost war going on. A war that we just ended."
"What do you mean?" Dash asked.
"What I mean is, this," I introduced my older self, "Is me, in the future, and this is Sam's future self," I motioned to her, "And these," I gestured to Wren and Jackson, "Are our, Sam and my, future kids. And, this is Jazz's future daughter," I gestured to Carrie, "And, this is Tucker's future daughter," I gestured to Sasha, "And James, is actually your future son."
Dash's eyes widened and he looked at James.
"Whoa! Really?" he asked.
"Yep!" James grinned, "Hi, dad."
Then Dash looked at Wren.
"I guess that kinda makes me some kind of pervert, what I did to you, huh? I'm really sorry. And I'm really sorry for trying to put the moves on your daughter, especially cause I guess I've got a daughter too," Dash said. I had forgotten that Wren had said that James had younger siblings but I guess that Dash would know that, given that they are living with him. Though, it still surprised me that he actually apologized to both me and Wren.
"One more question though," Dash said, "Who is that?" he pointed to Dani.
"Oh, Dani's my clone," I stated smugly.
"What?" Dash asked blankly.
"Yeah, it's complicated," Dani laughed in response.
"So what do you say, Dash, are we cool?" I asked him, hoping that now there would be no more bullying, no more fighting, and, maybe, even a friendship like we have in the future, although, I suppose that's kind of a lot to ask for right away.
"Yeah dude, we're cool," Dash said.
"Now don't go telling everybody about me. I don't really want a ton of people to know, okay?" I arched an eyebrow, anxious to know what he would say.
"Okay, sure," Dash shrugged.
"And, really, don't say anything about the future thing, or we could end up messing up the future," I warned.
"I won't say anything, I promise, I don't want to mess anything up," he said. Then he turned to James.
"Come on James, let's go home, I have a lot of questions to ask you and Robby and Gracie," Dash said, I guessed Robby and Gracie must have been the names of James's younger siblings, but at the moment, I really didn't care.
All that mattered is that we had won the war.
….
We sounded the all-clear and everybody flooded out of the shelters around town.
And, because of the ghost alarm, class was dismissed for the rest of the day.
Accordingly, the shelters from the elementary, middle, and high schools poured out onto the streets.
Eli spotted them immediately.
"Mommy! Daddy!" he exclaimed, barreling into the arms of his parents, his real parents, "Mommy! There was a ghost alarm and we were all in the basement of the school!"
"I know sweetie," the older Sam smiled at him, "We won the war! The war is over!"
"So can we go home now!" he asked.
"Yes sweetie," she smiled, kissing the top of his head, but, I noticed tears stood in her eyes. I knew why too, sure, they had been home, but it hadn't been like home, not really, now with a war raging around them and with them fearing for their lives, now, going home meant going home to a place where they could be safe and comfortable, "We can go home."
Wren POV-
We all went back to the future, courtesy of Clockwork, who opened up a portal for all the parents to come collect their children and take them back to "Turkey."
Stepping through the portal, I opened my eyes to something I thought I might never see again in the future: blue skies, white clouds, green grass, singing birds, peace and freedom.
Sure, it had become a little overgrown and rundown in the seven years that it had been under ghost rule, but all of it could be fixed.
This, everyone saw, as their independence day, something that surpassed all of the independence days held by the countries around the world, because this was not just national independence, this, was universal independence. A dream of people around the world, who would, at that moment, be stepping out of their homes and marveling at the clearness of the sky after so long under the oppressive darkness.
Amity Park, who had been under the greatest oppression for the longest amount of time, celebrated like many Americans celebrated the Fourth of July: a great barbeque of hamburgers and hotdogs and fruit and chocolate and cake and everything that had been denied to us for so long, in the tall grass of the park where all of us kids could now play and run and climb trees. It had been so long since we had this freedom, that some of us, those who were younger, didn't know what to do with the freedom that they had never known. Eli in particular, spent hours, just sitting in the front yard because you know what, now, he was allowed to.
That night, instead of fireworks, we all spread their blankets on the ground and watched the stars, so glad to have our lives, our homes, our city, and our world belonging once again to us.
…
Epilogue:
Nobody in the present-day Amity Park found out about the time stream overlap, so, at least for the time being, the future would remain unaltered and well in hand. And, when the parents came to collect the future kids, the students of the past who had grown close to these kids, for reasons unbeknownst to them, were sad to see them leave.
The Vlad's are still in the thermos, yet another one that Clockwork can add to his 'time-manipulating-power-hungry-psychopath-in-a-ca n' collection. And, with any luck, he won't be able to add any more to that collection.
Danny and Sam's relationship has never been stronger, while Tucker, Jazz, and Dash continue to hold out for the people they will connect with in college.
Dani settled in nicely to the Fenton household, taking the empty guestroom and claiming it as her own, and with her new title as 'the little sister Jazz always wanted' she has been subjected to many makeovers and study sessions much to Dani's disagreement and to Danny's amusement.
James and Wren have grown in their relationship and spend much of their time together (when her dad says it's okay).
Jackson and Wren are now nearly finished with their training, and Eli, who now knows who his dad is and of his own special abilities, has also begun his training.
And the future…
The future is bright.
The End.
Well, it's that bitter/sweet moment when I'm happy to be done writing it, but also sad that it's over. I hope you all enjoyed this story.
Happy Fourth of July!