Chapter 2

"Finally some answers!" Danielle gave her cousin her full attention. "What happened? Why is Vlad back? Who's Clockwork? What do you mean by resetting the time-"

"Easy, easy," Danny cut her off. "I can't answer if you keep asking questions." Danielle blushed in embarrassment as she quieted down and waited for him to continue. "Let's start with Clockwork. He's a really powerful ghost who can manipulate time," he said. "We first met him when-" He was cut off by the sound of a crash echoing through the house. "What was that?" He asked, standing up.

"That sounded like it came from the lab," Jazz said, standing with him.

Sam and Tucker stood as well. "Let's go check it out," Sam said as she ran to the door.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me!" Danielle cried in annoyance as she followed the group out of the room and towards the basement. As they hurried down the basement stairs, she ran right into Sam's back as everyone came to a sudden halt at the bottom of the staircase. "What is it? Let me see!" She turned intangible and walked through everyone. When she got to the front she understood why everyone was so surprised.

Laying in a heap of lab equipment against the wall on the far side from the portal was Valerie. Her suit was damaged almost beyond recognition and her glider had definitely seen better days. Danny was the first one to move. "Valerie," he called out to her.

Valerie stirred awake, looking around at her surroundings in a daze. But when her eyes landed on Danny, she was instantly alert. "You," she almost snarled. She saw he wasn't alone and took in the rest of the group.

Danielle, not noticing how distressed Valerie seemed to be, ran up to greet her friend. "Valerie! It's so good to see you again," she called.

Valerie's eyes widened when they landed on Danielle, and her body went into autopilot. "Dani, get away from him!" She lunged at the girl, putting herself between Danielle and the rest of the group. She lifted her arm, an ecto ray extending from her forearm, and pointed it right at Danny. "Eat ray gun, ecto scum!" The circuitry tried to power up before shorting out, causing a small spark to fire from the end of the blaster. Valerie pulled her arm back to examine the blaster before her face fell deadpan. "Oh you gotta be kidding me," she said.

Danny stepped closer to her, hands held up in surrender. "Easy, Val. No one here is gonna hurt you," he said. He stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see Sam had stopped him.

"Hold on, Danny," Sam said. "You're not a ghost right now. Valerie shouldn't know your secret identity."

Realization dawned on Danny's face and he turned back to Valerie who was still standing between him and Danielle. "You're right. Valerie wasn't with us when Clockwork reset the time stream. She should be-" he cut himself off as his eyes fell on the pendant around her neck. It was in the shape of a gear with two letters engraved in the middle. A W inside a C. "That's one of Clockwork's Time Medallions. How do you have one?"

Valerie took a step away from him. "That's none of your business, ghost," she said, though her words started sounding weaker. Her knees felt weak and it was taking everything she had to keep upright. The adrenaline was working it's way out of her system, and the last few days were finally catching up to her. Suddenly she was falling forward, having passed out from exhaustion.

Danny stepped up to catch her before she could hit the ground. "She's been in the Ghost Zone since the fight with my future self," he said in realization. "And if she knows my secret identity and has one of Clockwork's Time Medallions, she probably remembers everything about the other timeline." He turned himself and Valerie intangible and flew her up to Jazz's room where he carefully laid her on the bed. He found the button on her wrist that would retract her suit and pressed it before flying back to the basement. "Alright. Jazz, you stay with Valerie. She's gonna need food and water when she wakes up," he instructed. Jazz nodded and headed back upstairs. "Everyone else into the Specter Speeder. We're paying Clockwork a visit."

Danielle stared out the window of the Specter Speeder in awe. This was the first time she had ever actually seen the Ghost Zone before. She wished she could be out in it with Danny, but he had been very clear that she was to remain in the vehicle in her human form for safety. Still, it was incredible to look at. Her eyes travelled to Danny who was outside flying beside them with a map in his hand.

"Left up ahead," Danny instructed, his voice coming through the Fenton Phones on all their ears. Sam turned the yoke to the left right on cue.

Danielle looked between Sam and Danny. "So where are we going again?" She asked.

"Clockwork's lair," Danny answered. "He's the master of time, and one of the most powerful ghosts in the Ghost Zone." He checked his map again. "Right turn coming up, Sam." He flew ahead to show where to turn.

That got Danielle's attention. "You said he reset the timeline right? What was it like before that?"

"The only thing that really changed is that everyone knew Danny's secret identity," Sam answered. "A few months ago, there was a giant asteroid made of ectoranium heading straight for Earth. The impact would have destroyed the planet." She turned right after Danny.

"So Danny gathered every ghost in the Ghost Zone to turn the Earth intangible so the asteroid would phase right through," Tucker jumped in. "Vlad tried turning the asteroid intangible, but since it was made out of ectoranium, he couldn't touch it."

Danielle nodded along, listening intently. "So what happened to Vlad? I knew he kind of fell off the radar, but I never knew what exactly happened to him."

"My dad blasted him into space," Danny answered. "After he found out about all the stuff Vlad had been up to, he wasn't really in the spirit of forgiving." He looked back down to the map again. "Really wish we had the Infi-map right now. Clockwork's lair is so far away," he muttered.

"So you saved the whole world? How come you get to remember that and I don't?" Danielle crossed her arms and pouted. Sam had to admit, it was pretty cute. A thought flashed through Danielle's mind. "Wait, wait, wait. Back at the lab, you said something about a fight with your evil future self. Anyone wanna fill me in on that?"

Danny hesitated. He really didn't like talking about it. Even though the future had clearly changed, it didn't stop his fear that that's what his future still held for him. Danielle looked between Tucker and Sam, neither volunteering to tell the story out of respect for their friend.

After a moment, Danny finally spoke up. "That's actually how we met Clockwork. He was trying to change the future. A future where Sam, Tucker, and my family all died. The grief of it all pushed me to Vlad, who separated me from my ghost half," Danny explained. He shuddered as he continued. "Then my ghost half ripped the ghost out of Vlad and merged with him. Long story short, we ended up fighting after he came back to our time to make sure everything happened the way he remembered it." He paused, looking over at Sam and Tucker.

Turning back to the map, he continued. "I trapped him in the thermos and Clockwork kept it for safe keeping, existing outside of time."

"Until Vlad came knocking at his door," Sam said sourly.

Danielle was confused. "How did he get back from space? And what did he want with Clockwork?"

Danny sighed. "Well he was blasted by my dad, so he probably didn't get very far," he started. "And apparently he wanted Clockwork to send him back in time so he could do his life over again."

Danielle blanched. "Like a reset button?"

"Like a reset button," the others parroted back.

"And of course, Vlad somehow freed that evil version of me and he merged with Clockwork," Danny continued. "So Vlad came to us for help."

"After we beat Phantom, Clockwork had to reset the time stream to fix all the damage that had been done," Sam continued for Danny.

"Guys," Tucker interrupted. "There's Clockwork's tower!" Danielle followed his eyes to a broken down clock tower on a floating piece of earth. Honestly it looked kind of creepy.

Sam maneuvered the speeder down toward the island and parked just outside the small door that rested at the base of the tower. She hit a button on the dash that opened the door in the back. Everyone filed out of the speeder and made their way to the door.

"Clockwork!" Danny called as they walked the halls. "Clockwork?"

They entered the main chamber and saw the time ghost, as an old man, sitting in front of his time viewer.

"Ah, Danny," Clockwork greeted as he turned around, shifting his appearance to that of a child. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Danny stepped closer to the ghost. "Clockwork, Valerie knows!" He threw his hands up to emphasize. "She knows I'm half ghost, she knows about the future me, she remembers everything like we do!" He gestured to himself, Sam, and Tucker. "She was wearing one of your Time Medallions. You gotta do something about this," he pleaded

"I will not," Clockwork answered, his appearance shifting to that of a young adult. "Everything is progressing exactly as it is meant to." He floated back to his time viewer. "You may not understand now, but these events will shape your future for the better." His eyes shifted to the new member of their group, the little girl who had not taken her wide eyes off of him. "And you, young one," he said to Danielle. "I believe you had something to share with your friends."

Danielle's mouth hung open in shock. "How did you-"

"I'm the master of time, Danielle. I know everything," Clockwork said, answering her unfinished question. "As long as you're here, why don't we show them what happened instead?"

Danielle perked up at that. "You can do that?"

Clockwork nodded and indicated for everyone to turn their attention to the time viewer. "I believe it was 3 days ago," he said as pressed the button on the top of his staff. The viewer warped and changed to show Vlad's mansion with a black speck flying in circles above it. The image zoomed to focus in on it and showed it was Danielle flying high above the structure.

3 days ago in Wisconsin

"Never in my short life did I think I'd ever end up back at fruitloop headquarters," Danielle said to herself as she circled the home of Vlad Masters. Ever since the last time she ran into Danny, she'd been traveling the country, just trying to help where she could. Her travels had finally taken her to Wisconsin, home of the nutjob who created her.

At first, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, but as she flew around the town near Vlad's mansion, she started hearing rumors that the place was haunted. This by itself wasn't all that surprising. Vlad had his own ghost portal after all and ghosts had been known to force themselves out of even sealed ones from time to time. But it was when she started hearing whispers about what sounded like a teenage boy screaming in pain that she got really curious.

Deciding to finally get it over with, Danielle stopped flying in circles and flew through the walls of the mansion. She expected the place to be crawling with government agents like the Guys in White when she first arrived, but was pleasantly surprised to find the place empty.

As she neared the lab in the basement however, her ghost sense went off. "Oh no. Please tell me it's not who I think it is," she whispered to herself. Deciding that if she could sense them that the reverse was also possible, Danielle changed back to her human form and used the staircase to continue her descent to the lab. As she got closer, she could hear the screaming. And it was exactly as the townsfolk described. Only she recognized this voice. It belonged to her cousin, Danny. But something seemed off about it. Like it was warped. And she knew for a fact that just 20 minutes ago, Danny was still in Amity Park. She'd seen the live news coverage of him fighting. So that left only one possibility.

Finally reaching the bottom step, Danielle poked her head around the corner. Even though she knew what would be down there, it didn't make it any less shocking. At the far end of the room, standing in a ghost proof glass chamber was a clone of her cousin. But something was wrong with it. It wasn't the same type of malfunction she and the other clones dealt with. This looked like 2 people fighting to control the same body. Every now and then he would switch from Danny Fenton to something else entirely. She saw a flash of Danny's logo on his chest at one point, but the costume looked nothing like his. The hair, while still white, would flare up like fire.

But it was the eyes that held her attention the most. Instead of switching between Danny's usual calm blue and electric green, the eyes became red. And they held what could only be described as a lifetime of loneliness, anger, and pain. This wasn't a normal clone, this was something else. Before she could move she spotted Vlad, in his ghost form, on his knees with his head in his hands between her and the tank. She had been so focused on the screaming creature before her that she didn't even notice him until now.

As she was about to advance on him to confront him, he said something that made her stop. "Please, Daniel. Forgive me." That was enough to break Danielle out of her stupor. Forgive him? After all he'd done? After all the pain he cause to her and her cousin? No, he would pay.

Her eyes flashed green and two white rings emerged from her midsection. One traveled up to her head while the other descended to her feet. As the rings moved, they revealed a change in her appearance. Her clothes were replaced with a black and white costume and her hair turned from black to white. In her rage, she charged at Vlad, catching him in the back and taking him the rest of the way to the ground.

"Forgive you? As if!" She punctuated the declaration with a punch to the back of Vlad's head. "After all you've done? After what you're still doing?!" Each sentence was punctuated with a punch to the head. "After you tried to ruin his life?!" Punch! "After you tried to split up his parents?!" Punch! "After you made me?!" She clasped her hands above her head and brought them down on his head so hard, the floor beneath him cracked. "You don't deserve forgiveness!"

Danielle finally stood up and floated away from him, catching her breath. She was no fool. She knew that wouldn't be enough to kill him. But she'd be lying if she said she wasn't surprised at how quickly he got back up and turned to her. But instead of the rage she expected to find on his face, she was shocked to see only a broken man.

"Danielle?" Vlad asked in shock. "I thought I'd never see you again"

"Feeling's mutual, pops," Danielle retorted. "Now get up so I can knock you back down." She narrowed her eyes at him. "I can't believe you're still trying to clone him!"

Vlad stood up and held his hands up in surrender. "No, Danielle! You don't understand! I'm not cloning Daniel. That IS Daniel," he said looking over to the boy who hadn't stopped screaming.

"Liar!" Danielle shouted. "I just saw him on live TV in Amity Park 20 minutes ago! So unless you've learned how to teleport, that's not Danny!"

Vlad slowly backed away from her. Danielle was every bit as powerful as Daniel, maybe even more so if she was this angry. He had to find some way to placate her. Then a thought struck him. "Please! Allow me to prove that I've changed," Vlad said. Danielle stood unmoving for a minute before straightening her posture and raising her eyebrow, indicating for him to continue. "My research notes, you can have them. All of them!" He moved to the computer in the corner of the room and loaded a USB stick into it. "I'll download everything onto this, and you can fry the computer if you want. Just leave him alive. Even you should be able to tell he's not going to make it." With the transfer finished, he handed Danielle the USB.

Without even taking her eyes off him, she raised her hand and blasted the computer behind him with an ecto ray. "Fine, you can keep this one. But I'm going right to Danny, and if he causes any trouble, we'll take him down like the others." With that, Danielle turned and headed for the exit.

"Danielle," Vlad called after her. Danielle looked over her shoulder at him. "I know it won't mean much coming from me, but I'm proud of you."

Danielle scoffed and turned away, a look of disgust on her face as she made her way out of the mansion with her prize in hand. "I have to get this to Danny! Maybe there's something useful in here," she said as she flew away.

Present, Clockwork's lair

Danny just stared at the viewer for a moment, trying to process his thoughts. On one hand, he was beyond furious with Danielle for putting herself in danger like that. On the other, he admired her fearlessness in facing what had to be a terrifying situation. Eventually he turned to Danielle. "Do you have that USB on you," he asked her.

Danielle dug around in her pocket and turned to Danny, holding the USB stick out for her cousin. "I don't know what he's planning, but if he manages to stabilize that clone, there might be something in here we can use to take it out," she said as he took it from her.

Danny looked down at the USB before tossing it to Tucker. "Tuck, take a look at that," he said before turning back to Danielle. "But that wasn't just a clone," he told her. "That looked like my future self trying to merge with one." He turned to Clockwork. "I don't suppose you can tell me if he's gonna be a problem later, can you?"

Clockwork shook his head. "I believe you already know the answer to that, don't you?"

Danny nodded in response. "Yeah, I figured you'd say that," he said turning to Tucker. "Find anything interesting over there, Tuck?"

"Give me a minute," Tucker replied. "There's like a year's worth of research notes in here. So far I haven't even gotten to his notes on Danie-" he stopped himself mid sentence. "Woah."

"Woah? Woah what?" Danny asked. He walked over to Tucker to peek over his shoulder.

Tucker kept reading for a minute before he lowered the PDA. "I just got to his notes on Danielle. There's a reason she's different from the other clones," he said.

Danny lifted an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to continue. "Well, spit it out, Tucker. What's different about her," he asked.

"You all might want to sit down," Tucker warned. "Vlad used Sam's DNA as a human base to fuse with Danny's. Like some kind of super advanced IVF. Danielle is technically your daughter."

A/N: Merry Christmas, everyone! I actually spent a good like 8 hours writing out an opening scene for this chapter where they're all just sitting in Danny's room expositing the plot of Phantom Planet, The Ultimate Enemy, and A Glitch in Time for Danielle before I remembered Valerie was due to crash into the Fenton's lab. So I had to rewrite the entire thing from the ground up. But honestly I'm happy about it. This version feels so much more natural than what I had originally written, and being able to add in the exposition because of the conflict with Valerie felt so much better to write for and flowed much more organically. Plus it follows the very cause and effect story I've been crafting a lot more. I really, let's say, "dislike" stories where things just happen so the plot can move forward. So just about any movie that's come out in the last 5 years. I've been very deliberate in the choices characters make so far based on what has happened and what they know. Danny is being nicer to ghosts, therefore Desiree tries to go on a peaceful trip to the human realm. Danny shows Desiree mercy and she goes back to the Ghost Zone on her own, tripping the ghost alarm in Fenton works, getting Maddie and Jack out of the house. One action informs the next in a logical way and allows for more interesting character dynamics. I didn't even originally plan for everyone to go to Clockwork's tower, but that's where the events I had laid out earlier most logically lead them to. Anyway, I'm gonna stop rambling before this author's note gets as long as the chapter and say, see you next chapter!