CHAPTER 44: DEUX EX MACHINA
The world is coming to an end.
The end of the world has been predicted and preordained by the ghost known as Clockwork, a spectral being with a unique ability to see outside of time and manipulate it in any way he sees fit. He claims that he has no direct control over the events of the world, nor that the consequences are of his doing, and also attempts to make the claim that human beings still obtain free will, even under his viewing of the entirety of time.
He is also the one who deliberately freed Demon Phantom from his prison, allowing him to wreak havoc on Earth and lead to the extermination of all life on the planet, and foresaw the end of the world as it will occur at an exact three days from the moment he set Demon Phantom free.
He has even gone to personal lengths to ensure that the outcome that he desires comes about through interacting with a few select figures at a few key moments in time, including former president Tucker Foley, Vlad Plasmius, and even Danny Phantom himself, giving just the right amount of information needed to propel events in the necessary direction.
For the latter of those he interacted with, the memory is still well on his mind, brought to the forefront of his mind when meeting with Clockwork again on the mortal plane. Danny Phantom has lost his friends, his family, his country, even his species and planet, all dead and gone from him...
"Hello, Danny Phantom." Clockwork said.
...and to hear Clockwork greet him so casually is an offense that burns slowly in his heart, but comes up soon as full realization is made.
Now, there are but minutes before the end of the world, and the following events are how they will be spent.
"Clockwork..." Danny Phantom trailed.
"Yes. You have many questions and very strong emotions regarding the process you have been through, and it has quite changed you and your thought processes, but, unfortunately, you are still only a human being, dead and alive, and you will not come to understand them fully, nor have the time. For the world will soon end, and what you have experienced will be irrelevant... but only for you... and your first question shall be the least relevant of what you will ask me." Clockwork said.
A plethora of questions all rise from the information given by Clockwork, none of which Danny Phantom can easily pinpoint and deduce which is the right one to ask first. So many topics have been aroused, the flippant suggestion that the world will end being among them, but what he asks is indeed irrelevant, just as predicted.
"You knew this was all going to happen. Everyone dying, my family dying, the world being destroyed, and you let it happen. Why? Why would you let it happen?" Danny Phantom asked.
"I am a ghost, Danny Phantom. A being of the fifth dimension: Consciousness. Time is but the fourth dimension, as easily manipulative as the lower levels of the third, second, and first by any being of higher standing. Many ghosts such as those you have fought have never taken control of anything above, none except for me. I alone am the only one who has seen across time, and been able to help guide it along for the better." Clockwork said.
"You didn't answer my question, Clockwork. Why did you let the world end like this?"
"You are as impatient as you are ignorant, Danny Phantom, by your own doing. I have already told you the world will soon end, a fact alone which makes your question moot. The Earth is now devoid of life, yes, it has not yet ended. You of all people understand that life is not the end, not for one person nor the world, and the world is more than just one planet out of googolplexes upon googolplexes; beyond any number any living species can name. I am answering your question, but the answer is much more complex than the simplistic wording you phrased your request, and I am giving you the proper context to better understand your answer."
Clockwork pressed a button on his staff, causing many portals to open throughout the air, each giving a glimpse into a random moment in time. One had given a view to the middle ages in the Middle East, one to the early 1970s in Russia, one in the time of dinosaurs, and one into the 12th century of South America, just to name a few.
Each portal had given Danny pause to look around glimpse at each one, all taking his attention away for a moment from Clockwork.
"You perceive time as a linear movement of events, as if it were a film playing out before you. The reality is much more complex than that. It is, in fact, more akin to viewing the individual frames of a film reel, or the panels of a comic book. Mortals, and even most immortals, can but view them by one frame at a time, whereas I can see all the frames at once, and I can even change the frames one by one, and see how it effects the whole story." Clockwork said.
"So you personally altered time so everyone would die. You knew we would lose against Demon Phantom, you came to us and you knew we would lose... or you specifically did it so that we would lose." Danny Phantom said.
"Lose the battle, but not the war. Demon Phantom is now gone and his threat is removed. Before, he was simply subdued, a monster locked in a cage, and bound to escape. It was you and your family which could have provided the best chance of defeating him once and for all. Your entire family."
Danny looked to both Vlad and Danielle after the emphasized use of 'entire', remembering their roles in the defeat of the enemy.
"It was a fight and victory 10 years in the making, bringing new players alike and recasting old ones alike, but the play is over. The enemy is vanquished. The Earth is saved." Clockwork said.
"'Saved'?! 'SAVED'?! Everyone is dead! You let them die! You sacrificed everyone! You let the Earth be destroyed, and you're acting like it's all a stage production! Like a movie! This isn't a story, it's real life! People are dead, that's the reality!" Danny Phantom shouted.
"Yes, but once again, the world has not yet ended. You still miss important facts. Including the fact that this world is indeed a but a stage and a story, and you are but the performers. Performers for the audience which cannot touch you or speak to you or reach you beyond the fourth wall which separates them from you, preventing them from intervening in your lives in any way, shape or form: The Observants."
Clockwork pressed the button to his staff once again, changing the portals in the air to show the Tribunal Headquarters, the place where the aforementioned Observants watched the events currently playing out. Danny Phantom and Danielle look back on the eye-headed beings with wonder and surprise, but Vlad does not, as he has already the experience with these beings and Clockwork already.
"These are the Observants. They are all around us, outside of time and space. They watch us constantly, without pause and without end. They have been watching you since you were born, as you had grown to maturity, since you first became Danny Phantom and fought other ghosts, and they have been watching you ever since this fight had began." Clockwork said.
"Why are they watching us?" Danny Phantom asked.
"To learn."
"To learn what?"
"Anything. Everything. They are beings not capable of making any worlds of their own nor forming their original thoughts. They were once content and at peace with their isolated state of existence, unaware and ignorant, until came the origin of the universe. Like opening the first page of a book, they were enticed and could not look away, and they demanded to know more. They wished to know why this universe existed and what it could teach them, and they continued to watch, to observe, in hopes of coming to an understanding. Like I, they can see the entire universe from beginning to end, but they found none of the answers they were looking for in the world as it was. It was then they required an outside force, someone could change the story and provide them with the answers they needed. I had become the storyteller, and they had become my audience. They demanded that I make for them a world that provided them with the answers they require, so that they may be whole and content again, changing the events as I deemed necessary to give them what they needed. I was tasked with taking this sequence of events known as the universe, this 'equation', if you will, and I was made to 'solve' it for them. To create a sequence perfectly organized to the smallest mathematics in order to give them the story which they needed."
"But how does watching us give them whatever answers they think they're looking for?"
"Have you not taken a history class when you were a child, Danny? What is the primary reason given for the purpose of learning history? It is to learn from the mistakes of others, as not to repeat them. You glimpse into the past by your lessons to observe how others have made dreams and failed at accomplishing them, do you not think there might be another who would look at your actions and draw their own lessons from them? To know not to repeat what you have done?"
"The Earth's been destroyed and everyone died. What's there to learn from that?"
"When has there not been a lesson to be learned from death? Of battles and wars? Of heroes and villains? You were given a gift at the young age of 14, and the world had been given its final, definite answer to life beyond death. You had capitalized on your success, you and your family, and had left the rest of the world to starve while you indulged in your hubris. You left people discontent. When one is discontent, they are left to imagine. They have a need or needs that are left unfulfilled, and they are left to analyze and think as to why they have not had their need fulfilled. Left unchecked and undirected, that imagination begins to turn against reality itself, the mind subconsciously blaming the world for its woes, and turning to create a world of its own. This is how the notion of god was invented."
"As opposed to you? You don't think you're playing god?"
"And how would you define 'god' in your description of me, Danny Phantom? If you're talking about one's idea of a creator of the universe to answer questions they cannot comprehend the correct answers to, then 'god' is merely an fictional construct. If you're talking about individuals, real or not real, that create a dream of their own world, believing in it and attracting other believers in the hopes of realizing it, then 'god' is merely a social construct. If you're talking about a driving force of one's personality, an unconscious voice that leads one to follow along a certain path of life for reasons they do not fully understand, even when they themselves dreamt it up, then 'god' is merely a mental construct. If you are trying to assert that I am the creator of the universe, then you are simply wrong. I do not create or destroy anything. I only set the stage, all to ensure the equation is played in the correct sequence, and the correct answer is given, which brings me back to my original point. It was your own greed which led to the rise of religion once again, even when their greatest power of doubt was taken away from them, all because the people you left to starve required hope. Those opportunists who would exploit their discontent with reality sold them a false one, and they allowed to be taken into all manners of demeaning and immoral acts, all because you failed to give them what they required: Content. It was your alternate future self, the one you call Demon Phantom, who also carried this discontent. Through the loss of his own family, he began to believe that his humanity was the source of his troubles, and then began to destroy the very concept of humanity in what he believed to be salvation for all."
Unable to stand on the sidelines any further, Danielle stepped forward, pushing past Vlad's attempts to stop her, and spoke up in protest of Clockwork's speech.
"Hey, listen here! I was the one who was trying to make that point the whole time, and I wasn't doing it for some cosmic game! I was doing it because it was the right thing to do!" Danielle protested.
"Yes, Danielle Phantom, but it was still my doing that had brought you to this point. It was my changing of events which gave you the attitude and thoughts you have about the world now. But your conclusion is a paradox. It is indeed correct, but you had come to that fact in the same way which prevents you from reaching the next logical point: You yourself have been discontent in life, and your own thoughts were made to analyze the reason for your lack of fulfillment, just as the many people you decry as victims of your brother were." Clockwork said.
Danielle's rough demeanor calmed at the point made, as if defeated wholly and fully from what was brought to her knowledge.
"The concept of morality is not an art form, Danielle Phantom. It does not come in different forms or shapes depending on who thinks of it. It is mathematic. It simply is, and it is always the correct answer. In America, 2 + 2 = 4. In India, 2 + 2 = 4. In China, 2 + 2 = 4. In America, murder of another human being is considered wrong. In India, murder of another human being is considered wrong. In China, murder of another human being is considered wrong. It still does require much thinking to get the correct answer, but it is through rigid logic that it must be achieved. Not from picking and choosing from the flawed thinking of others." Clockwork said.
More thoroughly defeated in her point, Danielle stepped back, where Vlad placed his hands over her shoulders to keep her back.
"Then why did you still have to let things turn out this way? I learned my lesson, too, I could've changed the world and made it better at last!" Danny Phantom said.
"If you had any desire to make the world better, Danny Phantom, you would have done it from the moment you received your powers." Clockwork said.
The statement brought both shock and confusion to Danny, adding to his already boiling and uncentered emotions during their conversation.
"What?" Danny Phantom asked.
Clockwork again pressed his staff, changing the portals to show the many fights Danny Phantom had over the years with his enemies.
"When you first stepped out from the Ghost Portal, you had the power to walk through walls, disappear, and fly. You had strength beyond what any mortal man possessed, and what had you done with it? You fought other ghosts, tormented souls who found no peace, all in fulfillment of a childish notion of becoming a superhero. The ones you fought were the very souls of the damned, those whose discontent carried with them across the grave to continue to linger." Clockwork said.
"They were trying to cause chaos, I was trying to stop them! What was I supposed to do?" Danny Phantom asked.
"They were destroyers only because they were still discontent. Danielle Phantom had proved that they can be given peace with the correct compassion, but you did not offer them the peace the needed. Instead, they became part of a game for you to play, fighting and defeating them as mere 'monsters-of-the-week', giving no peace nor solutions. Only conflict did you offer the damned, creating a perpetual cycle of violence with no spiritual offerings except for mindless entertainment or the occasional cheap joke to your victims. With your powers, you could do much more than fight those who had not found peace. You could have delivered food and cures to those who were hungry or sick. You could have traversed the galaxy and contacted new species. With your powers, you had endless possibility to give aide to the world, whether large or small in impact. You could have chosen to be a man, a superman... but you chose instead to remain a boy, and play childish games that provided no enlightenment to yourself or others. And you can see where it has gotten you: In one timeline, you became a monster and destroyed your own planet, bringing your species to extinction... and in this time, you failed to save your planet, bringing your species to extinction."
Danny Phantom had not expected a critique of his own lifestyle to be made, but the master of all time provided a strong and potent explanation that deconstructed his own existence, leaving nothing left to his name that he could be proud of or call his own. Ashamed, he turned his head away, no longer providing any resistance to Clockwork's arguments, or showing any pride in himself, now showing tears.
"You... You're right... I'm no hero... I never was a hero..." Danny Phantom cried.
"You should not mourn for yourself in your failures, Danny Phantom. It was your free will and choices which brought you here, but it was destiny which brought you to this point as well. It was meant to be here that you arrived, to this point and with these thoughts you now have." Clockwork said.
Unable to understand the contradictory statement, Danny's self-pity came to a stop, turning back with a look of confusion instead.
"That... That doesn't make any sense. It was both my own choices and fate that brought me here? Those are two separate things." Danny Phantom said.
"Not true. The concepts are much more alike than you think." Clockwork said.
Waving his staff over the ground, under where Clockwork moved grew a small orange tree, bearing a single fruit of a lone orange hanging from it. The growth it took to create the orange would have lasted a few years' time, but, under Clockwork's power, the span took a few seconds, allowing the tree to grow its sole fruit.
"Consider the orange. It is a man-made hybrid of the mandarin and pomelo fruits. Its existence was brought forth by artificial means, through selective breeding to have an edible, nutritious fruit. It would not have existed on its own in the wild, never would it have been created without human beings to cultivate it. The orange does grow on its own, it has its own prerogative of life, but it would not have the drive for life it does without personal interference. Is the orange good or evil?" Clockwork asked.
"Neither." Danny Phantom answered.
"And why not?"
"Because it's a fruit. It doesn't have any agency or thought of its own."
"But it does have its own will to survive, and its own methodology to do so, just as you do. Artificial selection, evolution by choice, is what bred the orange. Is artificial selection good or evil?"
"Neither."
"And why not?"
"Because people were just trying to make food to survive."
"But the forces in which created the food were outside forces influencing what would have unfolded naturally to something that would not have happened otherwise. The orange can be killed by cold temperatures and weather. Is weather good or evil?"
"Neither."
"And why not?"
"Because weather is just a natural phenomenon. It happens whether we want it to or not."
"But life itself is also a natural phenomenon, and it happened whether it wanted to or not, and life is what influenced the orange to grow as it was. Life grew out of chemicals and inorganic matter that became organic, are matter or chemicals good or evil?"
"Neither."
"And why not?"
"Because they're just... molecules and atoms, I guess, so what? What's the point of all these questions?"
"All of these things we've talked about, the orange, artificial selection, weather, chemicals and matter; these concepts exist because universe itself came into being. Is the universe good or evil?"
"Neither."
"And why not?"
"Because the universe is... well, everything, I guess. It's everything that's going on everywhere. Things just happen naturally as they are."
"And you, Danny Phantom, are a part of the universe. How, then, can you be so quick to call yourself good or evil when such concepts are impossible to exist?"
Danny Phantom stood and pondering the question, leaving him to think over the introspective points proposed to him, asking questions to himself rather than Clockwork.
"In the grand scheme of the universe, you are the orange, and I am the Clockwork. I see the final result grow and blossom, to be consumed and nourish the Observants by their act of watching, and you provide the nourishment they need." Clockwork said.
"So, that's all we are to you? Just like numbers in a math problem or characters in a book? Don't you think we have our own feelings and hopes? What gives you the right to do this to us?" Danny Phantom asked.
"Do you ask the writer of a book what right he has to write? The painter of a portrait what right he has to paint? It is my task to create and orchestrate the points and knowledge which the Observants witness. It is my nature. Just as it is your nature to be Danny Phantom."
Left without any more questions to ask, Danny Phantom stopped to think over all the knowledge shared with him, trying to piece together the information he was fed in order to make sense of the world for himself. The questions and answers alike are all beyond what he could have contemplated on his own, and change his perspective of the universe itself and his place in it...
...but it all seems hollow and vapid now, on a planet that is long dead and empty. It is the lack of life all around him which gives him the final question he has for Clockwork.
"So... what happens now? The Earth is dead. Does that mean the story all ends?" Danny Phantom asked.
"This world, this story, yes, soon. But only because of the choice I will offer you next." Clockwork said.
"What choice?"
"This world came into existence because you had become Danny Phantom. Because you had stepped into the Ghost Portal created by your parents, altered your physiology to exist in both physical and spiritual form, and, at the same time, opened the world to a doorway to the unknown. It was your existence that brought about the one you call Demon Phantom, and the end of this planet as you see now. But what if that were to change? What if... you were never to be Danny Phantom in the first place?"
The proposal made Danny Phantom widen his eyes at the question, shocked over the casual way in which the question was asked.
"What?" Danny Phantom asked.
"What if you were never to step foot into the Ghost Portal, and never brought about the existence of Danny Phantom, and left the world ignorant to the afterlife? Then, now, your troubles would be over, as would the world's troubles. Never would there be the many fights you had undertaken, none of the lives lost be gone, and the world would continue to function as it once did."
"You can do that?"
"Don't be so surprised, Danny Phantom. I had already done this for you once before, after the affair of Demon Phantom when he first came about, did I not? I had sent you back to the event which caused your evil counterpart to exist, and given you the chance to undo what was once done to prevent his coming. But this time, I will not repeat the same action. I will send you back to your origin, and you will not become Danny Phantom. Not by your own will or knowledge, because I will not allow you to keep your knowledge of this time, but by feeling."
"How would I know not to become Danny Phantom?"
"Have you ever had a dream that you could not remember, but felt the effect of the dream on your mind? Felt some residual emotions which lingered from the experience? It will be no different. You will not consciously remember your days as Danny Phantom, but you will indeed feel them, as you would a dream. And that dream shall stay with you forever, and be a reminder to you never to step inside the portal, and stay the problems of Earth, and those who have died here shall not. Like the Observants, you, too, will retain the experience and the change it brought you, but you shall never again remember your time as fact. Only as a dream."
Danny Phantom once again stood in contemplation, going over the many serious thoughts in his mind that required careful consideration. The option of saving the Earth was a choice that Danny immediately took great temptation to accept, but his own pride of being Danny Phantom is a feeling that he is not yet ready to give up, nor the many memories he had accrued over his lifespan.
Looking back to Danielle and Vlad, he sought out a scapegoat for his temptation to decline the offer, hoping to include their feelings in consideration of the decision. Of course, he is not without actual care for their feelings, as he has grown to take great compassion and care for them since their paths became mutual...
...but also among his memories of being Danny Phantom are those of his family; his mother, father, sister, and wife, and what would have been his first child, and they are memories just as dear to him as days of superherodom, if not of greater importance. These memories alone are enough to make him say 'no', but his own desire to do good make the decision a dire one, making him seek out any excuse to decline.
"Let's say I took the offer. What happens to Vlad and Danielle?" Danny Phantom asked.
"Vlad Plasmius will still have his powers, as he had obtained his powers long before you. But he will also carry this time in his unconscious memories, like a dream, as you will, and he will not be the same person he once was. He may perhaps even grow a zeal for good, and come to take your place in defending the world of the undead. As for Danielle, she will no longer exist. It is your existence as Danny Phantom which is why she exists, and, without your genetic template and rivalry with Vlad Plasmius, she can never be created. She will not exist." Clockwork said.
At last, Danny is given the opportunity to decline the offer, hiding behind the excuse of another's feelings to preserve that which is important to him, conquering logic and ethics and all other factors that would have driven him to acquiesce to the correct answer and say 'yes'. Defiantly, he speaks up quickly and certainly, saying...
"Then no way. I can't do that to-" Danny Phantom began to say.
"I want you to do it, Danny." Danielle said.
Not expecting the sudden reply from his sister, Danny looked to her in surprise, her response making him lose heart after his quick answer. The chance for an easy way out of a difficult decision is once again gone, forcing the choice back into his hands. Still refusing to make the choice, he spoke back to Danielle, asking for the reason behind her comment.
"What?" Danny asked.
"Danny, I don't want to go, but you can't choose me over the world. Everyone on Earth is dead, and this is the only way to bring them back. Please. Take it." Danielle said.
"No. No, Danielle, please, don't make me make this choice."
"Danny, you can undo all of this, just say yes."
"Danielle, listen to me. I can't take it. I don't want to lose the memories I have."
"Memories of being a superhero are more important to you than the world?"
"No. Of my family. All the years I've spent with my family, with Sam, my wife, of trying to protect the world together, of all the love we shared. I can't give that up. I don't want to lose that. It hurts with them gone, but I'd rather feel the hurt than not have it."
"And what do you think your family would say if they were still here? Do you think they'd want you to surrender the entire planet for them? To condemn everyone else for yourself?"
Unable to answer the question in a way that allowed his resistance to continue, Danny Phantom lowered his head with a defeated sigh, unable to avoid the inevitable. The inevitable itself also gave a reminder to Danny Phantom about what he must do, telling him once again the only way correct answer to give.
"There is no other option for you, Danny Phantom. You know what you must do. It is no longer a choice you must make, but to understand why this choice is already made. You know you wish to be a hero to others, but you cannot do so while condemning them to death and oblivion for your own wants and needs. That is not what a hero does. You must do only what you know you must do." Clockwork said.
Danny Phantom no longer tried to shed himself of the responsibility placed upon him, but finally allowed himself to accept it. Turning back to Clockwork, he slowly approached, meagerly attempting to accept his offer, but stopped short before doing so. Taking one last look back to Danielle and Vlad, he delayed the inevitable one last time, but only to do the last thing he needs to do in this timeline.
"Wait. Just... just let me say goodbye first." Danny Phantom said.
Clockwork nodded in agreement, as if anticipating the request.
"Take your time, Danny Phantom. You have plenty for goodbyes." Clockwork said.
[Soundtrack Cue: Jane's Addiction - Three Days]
Turning back to Danielle and Vlad, he stepped back to the two to give his final goodbyes, starting with the former. Walking to Danielle, the two looked at each other in silence, their looks sharing much of what feelings they wished to express, before finally grabbing each other in a hug.
Both parties of the hug shed their own tears, giving quiet sobs as they embraced each other for a final time. They know that they have missed many opportunities for these holds, these small physical assurances of safety and security, and the few they shared are nowhere near enough, but that is not a deterrent or detriment of their moment.
They savor it as it was meant to, just as all moments like this are meant to be.
Vlad, too, experiences this moment vicariously through the two, the young people that he now came to know as his children. He knows that he is the father of them both, and his life was spent wasted on selfish plots and schemes for his own benefit, and how empty it all was in the long scheme of the universe.
All he wishes now is that he will have a chance like this again in his next life.
Breaking off their hug, the Phantom siblings looked to each other again, holding one another's hands, sharing their final words with one another before their departure.
"I'm sorry that I never had a chance for you to be part of my family." Danny Phantom said.
"I'm sorry I never tried to be a part of it until now." Danielle said.
"Thank you. For all your help. For everything. I'll do my best to remember you."
"Don't make a promise you can't keep, Danny."
"Sometimes, a promise you can never keep is the best one. It just gives you something to live up to."
Releasing their hands, Danny and Danielle ended their goodbyes, allowing the former to make his goodbyes to the next of the two to depart from. The man he stands before now is no longer the same one who he has fought over the years, but the history spent nonetheless makes facing him a difficult challenge.
The know all the battles and fights they have fought, how long they have spent hating each other, making a pointless game out of their two lives in which no winner was found at the end. Only after overcoming their rivalry and coming together to defeat a greater enemy was their any resolution found, and it came too little and too late.
For Vlad, this truth is all the more damning to know, as he knows that he is the father of the boy he has tormented. He is the first one to speak, admitting his faults first.
"All those years spent, wasted, fighting each other. Me, fighting you over nothing." Vlad said.
"I guess that's what all fights all boil down to. Better late to learn that then never." Danny Phantom said.
Silence once again befalls the two, with neither able to think of the appropriate words to say next. Soon, Danny is the first to make a new gesture which signals any communication between the two, extending his hand towards Vlad in the universally-understood request of a handshake.
Smiling at last, Vlad accepted the handshake, grasping Danny's hand and returning the gesture.
"You did good, Vlad. You really did." Danny Phantom said.
Vlad closed his eyes and nodded, taking the compliment with a reserved sense of pride from his son. Every fiber of his being has a desire to speak out and announce his paternal status to his former enemy, hoping to make peace in this final internal conflict of his own...
...but he knows that he can never speak out this truth, and knows that it will destroy peace rather than bring it. Instead, what he says is a compromise to himself, giving just enough closure to himself with a comment that conveys what he desires to say, without giving away his greatest secret.
"I'm sorry I wasn't a better person to you... son." Vlad said.
Accepting the use of 'son' as an old man's term for a younger man, Danny nodded and turned away, concluding his final goodbyes to the last people in his life, and on Earth. With his final ties to this world no longer present, he turned back to Clockwork and approached him, stepping just before him as he did before.
His face is no longer one of conflict and trouble, but a calm reserve of peace, patiently awaiting the end.
"I'm ready." Danny Phantom said.
Clockwork again nodded and raised his staff, preparing to press it once again.
"Very well. Time is as it should be." Clockwork said.
Then, Clockwork pressed his staff once more.
In the instant he pressed his staff, all time seemed to come to a stop, showing no sense of any matter in motion; no wind moving, no debris floating about, no sense of energy in transfer whatsoever. Soon, the matter all around Danny Phantom and Clockwork began to move, not as the matter would normally move, but in reverse.
The matter began to move not only in reverse, but what had moved in their particular vicinity began to resemble a sphere or an orb of some kind, then beginning to glow a bright, eye-blinding white. The images of Danny Phantom and Clockwork within were then no longer visible, leaving only the white emptiness in the sphere where they once stood.
The sphere then began to expand, as if beginning to encompass and engulf all that it reached out to touch. The expansion seemed not unlike that of the expansion of the universe itself, but this one had existed inside a universe that already existed, and spelled out a doom for the rest of the world around it.
Danielle and Vlad are the only ones left on Earth to bear witness to this change, lucky enough to be the only people to watch such a powerful display of reality, but unlucky enough to be caught within its wake. Both of them know that what will follow for them will not be pleasant, especially not for Danielle, who knows she will soon cease to exist as a result of the expansion.
Taking pity on the doomed girl, Vlad turned to her, sharing his final words of compassion with Danielle.
"Danielle, there's one thing I should tell you before this all goes. Danny, about him... I'm actually his-" Vlad tried to say.
"Shut up, Vlad. The world's about to end. Nothing else matters now. Just shut up and hold me." Danielle said.
Complying with his daughter's request, Vlad immediately took her into his arms, warmly shielding her away from the expansion before it could reach them. Protected from the expansion only by sight, Danielle closed her eyes and softly cried while in Vlad's hug, holding onto the comfort she has now in the face of her inevitable erasure from reality.
The moment is short and limited, but she would not have it any other way.
"So, this is the way the world ends. In someone else's arms, just before it all goes. Not a bad way to go. No... not bad at all." Danielle pondered aloud.
Then, the expansion took hold of both Danielle and Vlad, consuming them in its ever-growing size. They no longer exist in the world, and the very ground where they once stood is gone just as well. In a single moment, they are whisked away by a new reality, replacing them as if they never were present.
Continuing to expand, the city of Amity Park is soon to go next, taking whatever is left of it. The ruins and debris the city stood in were of course no sign of life nor any appearance of a place where people could live, but its own remains were an indication that life was indeed present, and once was there.
Now, even that is gone, surrendering itself to the expansion. Still does it grow, taking away with it the entirety of the city, erasing what tragedy and death had once unfolded here, not even allowing the memories of the lives lost here to remain. The pain and joy alike are gone, taken away from sight and mind.
The city is but one of many to go, until the entire state itself is gone, then the country, then the continent, then the hemisphere, and then finally the entire Earth as time began to turn back for the third planet from the sun. The solar system and galaxy are next to go, before eventually the entire universe is gone in the sweep.
Finally, there is no more universe to speak of; the concept gone and erased from existence, because there is no more existence to speak of. Entropy has not settled into the world, no lack of stars in the sky to light the planets and give them life, but instead it is one single light that overtakes it all, enveloping it an anti-entropy of illumination that takes it all over.
Now, the story is over.
The world has ended.
And it is time for a new one to begin.
Now, the expansion began to turn back on itself, retracting back and spitting back out the universe that it consumed, putting everything back as if it never had touched it. As the expansion turned back, as did what it touched, leaving planets to spin in reverse from their orbit, black holes to spit back out what light and matter they consumed, energy emitted from burning suns and stars to take back what they have given.
Time itself moves in reverse as the expansion moves back, putting the world back as it once was. The expansion moves back from its point of origin in a corner of the Milky Way galaxy to a small blue planet called Earth, converging on a small city in Illinois named Amity Park.
Moving back, the expansion is now focused on the lifespan of a boy named Danny Fenton, who, after a fateful entry into a Ghost Portal, a window into the afterlife, had turned into a half-ghost, half-human being, possessing all the powers of a ghost and defending the world against the undead.
The final conflict he had gone through was with an evil counterpart of himself named Demon Phantom, which resulted in the death of every human being on Earth. The fight and all its causalities began to move back, as if a movie rewound or played in reverse for a lone viewer.
The fight itself is gone as it un-happens, turning back and undoing all the progression that time has made. The fight itself is soon gone, and the enemies in the fight are gone, as well. The three days which passed on Earth that spelled out its mass death and eventual end is gone, and it is merely the beginning of the end.
The world-changing event of the Disasteroid is next to go, past all other events in time that now no longer exist, where the world is made once again ignorant of ghosts and the life beyond life. Most importantly, the status that Danny Phantom once held as a hero is no longer, erasing the knowledge the world once had of him.
The knowledge that Amity Park had of him is next to go, taking back all the fights that Danny Phantom has had with the many ghosts that have haunted the city and brought their troubles beyond the grave to this Earth to exact their desires. No longer have the fights with Ember McLain, Skulker, the Fright Knight, Technus, Desiree, Johnny 13, or even the Box Ghost or any other ghost has happened.
Finally, there is eventually no Danny Phantom. The event which had changed his life and every life on Earth forever is undone. Never has he stepped into the Ghost Portal, never activated it from within, nor gotten his powers. The life he once had lived has come to an end, and left only opportunity for a new world in its place.
Now, he is just Danny Fenton, a 14 year old boy, and he is with his friends Sam and Tucker, exploring a machine called a Ghost Portal in his parents' basement.
[Soundtrack Cue End]