A/N: I'm back from the dead! No, I'm just kidding, but I am back. :D I'm really sorry this chapter took ten years to come out. I have excuses but I'm sure you guys don't want to hear them. In short I was really friggin' busy.

9/18/14 Mrs. Frizzle you are a goddess! She noticed a major hole I forgot to fill and brought it to my attention. Everybody should go check out her bio! I personally, haven't read any of her stories but I'm sure they're amazing, she's always leaving such awesome positive constructive criticism on every story I see her on. So, thank you! (Plus, is it not really cool to read a story writen by the driver of the magic school bus herself?)

Chapter 5 is coming I swear! It's currently under production but I'm going to give you any time frame so I don't get hopes up (mine included).

The chapter is the same one uploaded a few months ago I just really needed to add the last part in.

Chapter 4

Danny woke in a nest of blankets disoriented. He must have fallen out of bed. He sat up and stretched, wincing at small sparks of pain that shot through his limbs.

Why am I so sore? Danny let the thought pass. He must have slept wrong. He yawned and rolled deeper into an afghan. This is comfy, Danny thought, I'll have to get dad to make me one of these. Sleepy thoughts floated through his head. Does dad crochet? I didn't think so. Maybe the blanket's Jazz's.

Light flashed behind Danny's eyelids making him groan. Who's messing with the lights? Sound boomed and Danny shot up in surprise.

A bolt of lightning cracked across the sky lighting a scene in front of Danny. He was on the floor of a regal looking bedroom. A four-poster bed towered over Danny dominating the space. Across the room a computer stood on a large desk that was littered with trash, papers, and empty soda cans. To his right the sound of running water slapping tile ran from a door that was illuminated slightly.

Another flash of lightning lit the room and Danny stood, his muscles groaned in protest. Danny gripped a poster of the bed for a moment as he fought vertigo. As he rose the other side of the room was revealed. A table, a dirty as the desk, sat beneath a wide window. A wardrobe that looked like it had jumped out of a gothic castle stood next to the bed. A dresser that was just a gothic was across the room from the wardrobe. Above the dresser a scorch mark blackened the wall.

Danny stepped out of his nest, over a pile of books and made his way around the foot of the bed. Only to have his knee slam into a bench that was placed at the end of the bed.

"Ow! Son of a bench," A flurry of more colorful phrases floated through Danny's brain.

"If a simple bench can take down the hero of the ghost zone we should all be worried."

Danny jumped at the voice and glanced up to see a face smirking at him from the window, "Clockwork?"

The face wavered as adult Clockwork nodded, "Hello, Daniel."

Danny winced at his full name as he walked around the bench and closer to the window, "What are you doing here? How are you doing that?"

"It's a reflection, Daniel. One of the many bonuses of having mirrors in your domain." Clockwork shifted forms. Elderly him replacing the adult. Danny shuddered, that always creeped him out.

"As to what I am doing here, that is more important. I should apologize to you Daniel."

"For what?" Danny asked suddenly weary. Why would Clockwork have to apologize to him?

"For the, ah… Interruption you suffered a few hours ago."

"Interruption? What do you mean-? Wait," realization dawned on Danny. "Do you mean that creepy Aetas Mors jerk? He came because of you?" Rage suddenly started to boil in Danny's stomach. "Do you realize he could have killed me? He could have killed Daniel and I think he probably- hang on. Where's Daniel?"

Danny began to move away from the window before Clockwork's voice stopped him, "The alternate you, Daniel, is currently taking a shower. I do not think he would take it kindly if you were to walk in on him."

Danny stopped and turned back to the window reassured by the sound of running water coming from the closed door across the room.

"So, what? You just showed up in the window to apologize?" He asked.

Clockwork shifted to his child state as he shook his head, "I also came to warn you, Daniel."

"Warn me for what?" The wariness returned.

"You cannot stay in this dimension for long. Even now you are pushing the boundaries of time."

"Okay, so, What does that mean?" Danny asked, as clueless as ever.

"It means that you have to find what you are looking for and get out. I can only give you so much time before the dimension you've created collapses."

"Wait, wait, wait. Why would the dimension collapse? What's it matter?"

"Time is a delicate thing Daniel. If you pull at it too much the entire network that has built itself around itself will change. One fraction of change will act like a Rube-Goldberg machine and cause the entire structure to crumble in upon itself."

Danny blinked as the entire speech flew over his head, "All I got from that was that time is screwy."

Clockwork gave an exasperated sigh as he shifted to his adult state, "Yes Daniel time, as you so eloquently put it, is 'screwy'. It is in your best interest not to make it even more so. You need to find a way out of there."

Danny took a second to absorb this new information. "What will happen if I don't make it out?" he asked.

"The dimension will collapse. You don't need to know more than that."

Danny pursed his lips and nodded unsure if he wanted to know more than that. "How do I get out of here?"

"You have to find my domain, Daniel. You need a ghost portal"

Dread pooled in Danny's stomach and he paled. "But what if I can't find one? I'm not really sure my mom would have one now."

Clockwork shook his head. "You will have to find one, Daniel. You have to. I can give you four days. By 2AM Wednesday morning you need to be out."

"Clockwork, you're-"

Clockworks head glanced behind Danny before he interrupted him, "I must take my leave, Daniel."

"Wait, Clockwork," Danny protested.

"Four days, Daniel." Clockwork's face began to fade and Danny slammed his fist against the window.

"Hey! Clockwork I still have questions. You need to help me explain all of this to Daniel! Clockwork!"

Someone cleared their throat behind Danny and said, "If I knew you were crazy I would have left you on the floor of the hallway. Please, stop trying to brake my window."

Danny gulped as he turned around to find Daniel standing behind the bed. The light from the bathroom was surrounding him in a yellow halo. He wore a pair of pajama pants and a white T-shirt. His hair was a shade darker than normal and stuck up every-which-way. A white bandage wrapped around Daniel's forehead was the only sign of what had passed.

He was carrying a first aid kit and some more bandages.

Daniel dumped the supplies on his bed as he said, "I brought you some first aid stuff." Daniel gave Danny a once over before continuing, " Not that you'll need it, it seems. The bathroom's through that door. You should probably shower."

Danny looked down at himself and frowned. His clothes were ripped and dotted with spots of dried blood. There wasn't a cut to be seen on Danny's body. White dust clung to him in the strangest, most uncomfortable places. He nodded, "I guess I could use one. Man this is my favorite shirt! I don't even want to know what my hair looks like." Danny cracked a smile looking up at Daniel. Daniel avoided eye contact and picked at his comforter.

Danny tapped his hand against his leg trying to find a way to brake the awkward silence that had laid itself between the two. Lightning suddenly flashed and thunder boomed right after it. Daniel jumped and Danny failed to hide his snicker. Daniel glared at Danny before demanding, "Who are you?"

Danny shifted on his feet. "I told you. My name is Danny Fenton."

"No. You told me your name was Phantom."

Sweat broke out on Danny's forehead as the pieces fell into place. I must have passed out. Daniel must have seen me change. Crap. Quickly he tried to cover up his nervousness. "Pis-shaw, kid what are you even talking about?" Danny even threw in a hand flop and a hair flip. Totally smooth, he reassured himself.

Daniel seemed unconvinced. "Stop screwing with me, Daniel. Tell me who you are."

Danny chewed his lip trying to decide what to do. "I am a figment of your imagination. All of this is one big lucid nightmare."

Daniel glared at Danny and gestured to his forehead as he said, "I got a cut and didn't wake up. It's not a nightmare."

"I did say lucid." Daniel deepened his glare so badly that Danny felt he needed to turn into Jackie Chan to avoid the daggers. Danny resorted to sighing. "If I told you you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me. I've seen some pretty unbelievable shit today and have the injury to prove it. Now tell me who you are, what you are doing in my house, and why the Knight Guy attacked me."

Danny finally gave in. "Fine. You might want to sit down for this." He walked to the desk and sat on the chair backwards sticking his legs out.

Daniel's jaw worked as he tried to decide whether he wanted to yell at Danny of listen to him. Eventually he elected to sit on his bed.

Danny ran a hand through his hair scattering plaster dust. He waved the dust away and blew out a loud sigh. "I don't really understand it but I'll explain the best that I can."

"You better," Daniel said.

Danny gave him a look before taking a moment to collect his thoughts. May as well not sugar coat it.

"I'm you," Danny said staring Daniel straight in the eyes.

"What?" Danny could see the disbelief in Daniel's face.

"I'm you from another timeline."

Daniel shook his head saying, "Man, here I am thinking we were actually going to get somewhere and it turns out you're just crazy."

"No, I'm serious," Danny said hoping Daniel could see that sincerity in his face. "Maddie is my mother. I live in Amity Park. I've been around for fifteen and a half years."

Daniel shook his head. Fear entered his gaze as he said, "No, that's- that's not possible. I've seen enough Doctor Who and read enough books to know that it's not possible to meet the other you without repercussions."

Danny chewed his lip. "That's just it, though. There have been repercussions. When we first touched," The words flew out of Danny's mouth faster than he could think them, "There was that freaky headache. I know you felt it."

Danny watched Daniel's face pale as he thought about it. "But, what about Phantom?"

"What about him?" Danny asked confused by the sudden subject change.

"Who is he? Or… What are you? If you're me, why don't I know him?" Daniel asked

Danny's lip was beginning to feel sore from being chewed. "Well, I think you've figured out that Phantom is, uh, well actually me."

Daniel gave a small nod, "I had a theory but wasn't sure. How, um, how'd that happen?"

Danny shrugged he didn't really want to share the story but if Daniel was going to help him… Danny took a deep breath before beginning. "I was in an accident about a year and a half ago."

Daniel was watching him with unwavering attention.

"My parents are scientists with a bit of an, ah, obsession. They're ghost hunters."

Daniel's eyebrows disappeared into his bangs, "Ghost hunters?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "You can't tell me that after all you've seen today you still don't believe in ghosts."

"I'm still not completely sure about it but you've got me pretty damn close to convinced."

Danny raised his own eyebrows in surprise but continued, "Anyway, I came home one day with my friends Sam and Tucker."

Daniel made a strange noise that Danny chose to ignore. "My parents called us down to their lab to show us one of their latest experiments. On the way down to the lab we passed my sister Jazz. She told us if we knew what was good for us we'd get out of there asap. We ignored her, as usual.

"I'd never seen my parents so excited about an experiment. They never worked well, the experiments. Sometimes they didn't work at all. Most often they'd explode and we'd have to evacuate the house for a few days. Once we had to call in a haz-mat team." Danny smiled at the memory before pulling himself back on track.

"Anyways, this time my parents had carved a giant hole out of the wall. They spent months down there. They wouldn't tell Jazz or me what they were doing down there. We'd wake up in the morning to find half drunken coffee cups scattered around the house from them trying to stay awake during the night.

"When they finally let us into the basement again my dad called it a ghost portal. My mom was more technical. She said that because of this 'portal' we'd be able to see a whole new dimension, a world that mirrored ours. A world that was filled to the brim with ghosts.

"My friends and I questioned their validity but I wanted to give my parents a chance. If this worked it'd be their coolest experiment by far.

"My parents plugged it in and, well," Danny paused, lost in the memory.

" What happened?" Daniel asked. He was on the edge of his seat. For a moment Danny had forgotten he was there. It was the first time he'd ever told someone about the accident since, well, since the accident.

"Nothing," Danny continued. "Absolutely nothing happened. My parents were devastated, all that work for nothing. They went upstairs, unable to face one of their biggest flops.

"I was going to follow them but Sam stopped me. She wanted to investigate some more and I was always eager to please her. So, I pulled on a jumpsuit and walked into the portal and, I'm not really sure what happened-"

"You died," Daniel interrupted.

"What?" Danny asked, alarmed.

"I've had a dream about this almost every night for as long as I can remember. It's a reoccurring nightmare. I pull on the suit, Sam slaps a symbol on my chest, I step into the hole and I wake up because my heart stops beating."

The pair stared at each other breathing like they each had just run a mile.

The sound of footsteps a floor below shocked Danny out of his state.

"Daniel, where are your parents?"

Daniel

"What?" Daniel asked feeling like Danny's question had come out of left field. The relief Daniel had felt at finding out where his nightmare came from fled his stomach as Danny repeated his question, "Where are your parents?"

"Across the house. They usually go to bed around ten or eleven. As soon as I was old enough I moved as far away from them as I could get. Why?"

Danny put a hand up to quiet him. Daniel stared at the kid like he was crazy. He looked like he was crazy, too. While Daniel had been explaining his nightmare the pair had stood up out of excitement. Danny had Albert Einstein hair that stuck up everywhere and was painted white by the plaster dust. His clothes were ripped and bloody and an unidentified green substance stained his jeans in various places. He was staring at the floor and he seemed to be listening for something.

"Hey, kid," Daniel snapped annoyed, "You want to share with the public what's going on?"

"Pretend to be asleep," Danny suddenly said snapping his head up.

"What?" Daniel asked as Danny ran along the edge of his bed. The startling grace with which he moved reminded Daniel of Phantom he realized with a tiny gasp.

"Someone is coming down the hall," Danny cried as he face planted into the nest of blankets. Graceful my ass, Daniel scolded himself as he watched Danny throw a blanket over his legs to cover up the fact he was wearing jeans.

Daniel fell back into his own bed wrapping the comforter around himself knocking the first aide supplies to the floor. Daniel squeezed his eyes shut and tried to slow the speed of his heart.

The room fell into an uneasy silence. It was quiet long enough for Daniel to begin to question Danny's judgement. Daniel was about to say something when his bedroom door opened. Through half lidded eyes Daniel watched a figure enter his room. The figure wore a gaudy blue and black jumpsuit that covered their face and carried a huge metal gun. Daniel's heart rate quickened and he had to make an effort to slow his breathing. The figure looked around the room waving the gun around. Seemingly satisfied the figure put the gun down on the floor and sighed. Daniel's breath hitched in his throat as the figure walked toward his bed. Unsure of what was going to happen Daniel tensed his muscles in preparation to fight.

The figure stopped at the edge of Daniel's bed, reached up and pulled their hood down. Daniel couldn't hold in the gasp that ran threw his lips as he recognized his mother. Maddie looked down at her son with love in her eyes.

"Oh, my baby," Maddie muttered as she stroked Daniel's cheek. Daniel shifted under his mother's touch using the opportunity to his advantage.

Maddie smiled before looking down and laughing quietly to herself. Danny was wrapped up in an afghan she had made Daniel. Maddie knelt down and pulled the blanket up to cover the child fully.

Daniel heard his mother mutter something about bonding before she rose. He watched her smile one last time at the pair before a more serious expression took over. Maddie turned around and walked over to her gun hoisting it on her shoulder. She pulled her hood over her eyes and left the room taking care to close the door softly behind her.

Daniel counted to one-hundred under his breath before saying, "Holy freaking crap."

Danny laughed softly below him and said, "Let's agree to never do that again."

Daniel nodded vigorously. "What do we do now?" he asked. Danny sat up to look at Daniel; a serious expression had taken over his face.

"I need your help," He said.

Daniel felt his eyebrows knit together as he propped himself up on an elbow. "What do you need my help for?"

"I need you to help me find a ghost portal," Danny said plainly.

"Wait, what? You want my help to find the thing that has been the bane of my existence for my entire life?"

Daniel watched Danny's mouth twist as he bit his lip, "Yes. I guess I am."

The pain in Danny's eyes was too much for Daniel. He lied down on his back to think about it clearly. Danny's story was too elaborate to be a lie. Daniel wasn't sure about the whole 'I'm you from another dimension' bull but Danny seemed convinced that it was the truth. Daniel thought about what he had sworn to himself in the hallway earlier and cussed quietly. I'm going to regret this.

"Alright," Daniel said turning to face Danny again, "I think I'll regret this but, I'll help you."

Relief flooded Danny's face. For a moment Daniel thought he might actually cry but then the moment passed.

"Awesome," Danny said. "When should we start?"

"Not tonight. It's late and with my," Daniel paused and looked at Danny wearily before saying, "Our, mother out patrolling the halls I don't think it's a good idea."

Danny nodded. He almost seemed relieved. Daniel's thoughts were interrupted by a huge yawn. Danny tried to fight it but he yawned too.

"Right, well," Danny started, "I think for now I should shower and we should catch some Z's. We'll figure out the rest in the morning."

Daniel nodded, "Sounds like a plan. Let me get you some clothes to sleep in."

Daniel lay on his back staring into darkness. The thunder and lightning had calmed into an angry rainstorm. Water assaulted his window mirroring the sounds coming from his bathroom door.

He sighed. The past half-hour had been even more taxing than the past three combined. The one thing that stuck out in his mind was the image of his mother clothed in a jumpsuit standing in the doorway like some blue super woman. He had tried not to show it while talking to Danny but it had freaked him out immensely.

Especially the fact that she was carrying a gun. This wasn't some small nine-millimeter either. This was a full-blown M-16 assault machine gun. If Daniel hadn't known better he would have thought Maddie was carrying a chain saw.

Daniel had never seen his mother act so defensively. For all of Daniel's life Maddie had been a major pacifist. In fact, when Daniel's elementary school had been considering asking for a grant for a new football field Maddie's signature had been at the top of the PTG petition to have the field torn up. They said inserting a football field would cause too many fights to break out among the small children.

Another thought pushed it's way to the front of Daniel's troubled brain. "On the way down to the lab we passed my sister, Jazz." Danny had a sister? Why don't I have a sister? I wonder what she's like? She sounds a whole heck of a lot smarter if she knew to get out of there.

Something else bugged Daniel: "Sam, Tucker, and I were going to my house." Were these the same Sam and Tucker that Daniel knew? He seemed much closer to them than Daniel was. Is, than I am. Daniel forced himself to say. I am here. I exist. I am myself no matter what some screwed in the head kid says. Even if he is supposed to be alternate me.

What was another thing. Did his alternate family live in another house? Danny had mentioned a basement and Daniel knew for a fact that the mansion didn't have a basement. Only a wine cellar.

Also what were Daniel's alternate parents like? They sounded a bit eccentric by the way Danny talked about them. Daniel tried to imagine his father doing an experiment and he laughed out loud. Daniel could just see Vlad getting a drop of foreign chemical substance on his sweater. He'd have a heart attack. But, they also sounded happier. If they had a second kid, they would have to be, right? Maybe Vlad had never won the Packers in that universe. Ever since he'd accomplished his life's dream in this reality, Vlad had grown distant from Maddie and Daniel. Daniel could see it affecting his mother too, but that wasn't a track he wanted to go down right now.

"My parents are scientists with a bit of an obsession. They're ghost hunters." That was the strangest thing. Vlad hated ghosts. Even hated was an understatement. He despised them, vehemently. When he was younger, Daniel had once wanted to be a ghost for Halloween. He had made the costume himself -all he did was cut eyeholes out of a bed sheet-and he was really proud of himself. When he went to show his parents his masterpiece his father went ape shit. He forced Daniel to throw the sheet away right then and there. Daniel probably would have been grounded too if Maddie hadn't been there to intervene. Since that day there had been a strict "We Do Not Talk About Ghosts In This House" policy.

Amidst all the worry flying around his brain Daniel didn't notice himself falling asleep. Next thing he knew he was falling under the familiar blanket of black.

9/18/14 So basically, Daniel ponders the meaning of his life. Nothing too major but necessary. Also remind me never to update at one in the morning again. DX

A/N: So how'd it go? did you stay awake? Good! (At least I hope the answer's good :P) Anyway, I want you people to know that you totally influenced the direction this is going to take -_- but, that's not a bad thing :D. No longer is this story only going to be four chapters of so, haha.

I have a favor to ask of you guys. I need a better summary. Right now it sucks so major brownie points to whoever can help me figure out a new one.

Huge thank you's to all the peeps who commented last chapter. I really needed to hear those. Also props to Panfan87 for guessing the whole "Where are Maddie and Vlad thing?" But seriously, I love all of you.

Until next time, GeekyZelda.