Dani Phantom: Life Finds A Way

by Futuramakid and Anthiena

DISCLAIMER: We own nothing.

If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, expands to new territory, and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously... life, uh... finds a way.

Dr. Ian Malcolm

December 24th- The Ghost Zone. The present.

The atmosphere was filled with cheer at the annual Ghost Zone Christmas party, but Dani was just a bit pensive. Danny, and his plus-one, Sam, had already came and left, putting in a token appearance to keep friendly with the ecto crowd, he'd barely had time for a few words with her... And now, someone raised a glass.

"To Masters' exile," said Skulker, "may he never threaten us again."
This was met with a heavy round of agreement... but it just made Danielle think a bit more. She leaned on a wall while the rest of the party mingled.

"...Now, what's a pretty girl like you doing a wallflower?" came the voice of a playful old man, with twinkling red eyes.
"...All the couples, and families," she said, "they... well, they're making me think of someone."
"Ah," the man replied, "your creator."
"Yeah," she said, "I know Dad wasn't a good... well, much of anything, other than a manipulator... but he's all alone. Nobody deserves to be alone."

The old man chuckled- this was almost precisely in his own job description, not that he was going to mention it.

"...What would you say," the old man said, looking a bit younger, "if I were to say that he had the capacity for change... from the right person, at the right time?"
"...I'd ask if you knew what he's done, honestly," she said.

"Ah, but tense is such an important thing..." he noted, continuing, "A very wise mortal once noted that throughout life, a man's course will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead, but if the course is departed from, the ends will change."
"...what're you getting at?" she asked him.

"I can offer you," he said, "a chance... A chance to not only change his life, but to remake your own..."

"...and what's the catch?" Dani asked, "there's always a catch."
"You will have to stabilize the time loop created," he said, "or relive the experience, repeatedly. Such is the price of meddling in the timestream..."
"...Time travel? Who are you?" she asked, realizing what he was proposing.

"...I am Clockwork," he said, "Master of Time... I know everything, Danielle. Everything that is, was, will be, and might be."
"...Wow. So, how's this all going to work?"
"...Come with me."

Rather unnoticed, the two slipped away from the party, across the Ghost Zone. He led her into an odd abode, a castle of sorts, with a clock motif... He led her into his inner sanctum, where there was a portal, and a number of hooks... He lifted a gold medallion from the hooks. In its center, a black and blue emblematic "CW".

"This," he said, "is important. It will be all that holds you to the time- You are never to remove it, until and unless you want to return to your proper time-frame, here."

He placed it around her neck. It had a heft rather surprising to her.

"..I understand... When are you sending me?" she asked.

"I will send you to him," he said, "six months before your birth... Ample time for you to speak with him, I think."
The image of the portal turned to Vlad's mansion in the Rockies.

"I wish you luck, Danielle..."

She approached it, took a breath, and went through.

"You will need it..."