Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom

He really couldn't help the nervousness that flooded his mind when both his friends were ten minutes late. It wasn't like they had anything important to do, just going into the Ghost Zone and looking for a ghost that could manipulate time, possibly forcing him to fix whatever went wrong in the time stream, nothing to really worry about.

Who was he kidding? If Sam and Tucker didn't show up in the next five minutes, he was probably going to tear his hair out! It was so infuriating! Besides that little hiccup though, everything was fine. He was able to scrounge up some provisions and throw them in a bag just in case something happened, his parents gave a final inspection of the new Ecto-speeder, and besides a small fault in the engine that they quickly fixed, it was perfectly fine. Actually, his parents did have him a little worried when they said that without the repair the engine would've overheated and probably have exploded on their next trip, specifically the trip into the Ghost Zone is parents didn't know about it. He was really glad he got it checked.

So here he sat, impatiently tapping his foot as he waited for Sam and Tucker to show up to his house so they could quickly get on with their business. He even got his parents and Jazz out of the house too! Now that he thought about it, perhaps he was lucky he got to escape this timeline because Jazz was going to kill him for forcing her to go with his parents on a wild goose chase - err ghost hunt - across Amity Park.

Luckily they showed up only four and a half minutes later. Them walking in together was a bit peculiar to Danny, but he figured it didn't really matter in the grande scheme of things. They were probably just talking anyway, and he wasn't too nosy to need to know what about, especially because it was most likely about him.

"So," Tucker said as he placed his hand on the cold metal of the Ectospeeder. "who's gonna fly this thing?"

Crap. There seemed to be a flaw in his plan already. How could he forgot that no one knew how to drive?! "Uh, does this thing have any autopilot or something?"

Tucker opened up the cockpit to the speeder and stepped in, popping out a few seconds later. "Doesn't look like it, man. We really need someone to pilot it themselves. It also looks like the controls are based off of an aircraft unlike the previous Ectospeeder. "Hey, uh, Sam?" Tucker turned to Sam. "You wouldn't happen to know how to pilot something like this, would you?"

"What makes you think I can pilot it? I wouldn't be surprised if Danny's parents wouldn't even know."

"My father definitely doesn't" Danny mumbled.

"Huh," Tucker looked back at the cockpit for a couple seconds. "Well I guess I could plug in my PDA and see what happens. Maybe I can use it as the computer for the autopilot? It's worth a shot I guess."

Tucker disappeared into the cockpit once again, leaving Sam and Danny all alone.

"Tucker's all better, right Danny?" she whispered. "I mean, you were able to fix things with him?"

"To the best of my abilities, yeah. I don't think he'll ever be one hundred percent okay with this plan, but he's on board for now. I'm just glad he's helping at all. I was afraid I'd have to do everything by myself."

Sam gave him a questioning look and was about to ask him something before Tucker popped his head out once more.

"This Ectospeeder is really well made. Your parents did a good job on this. I was able to hook my PDA up as an autopilot of sorts. The only problem is it will only work to a point. There's still some piloting we'll have to do."

"I'm already on guard duty," Danny said.

Sam let out a sigh, "I guess I'll do that then".

Danny nodded. "Then it's agreed. Sam, you're piloting the speeder and, Tucker, you get the passenger seat. I'll fly next to the ship and do what I do best, kick ghost butt."

With an affirmation from both Sam and Tucker, Danny transformed into his ghostly half while his friends got the speeder running.

"Wait. Danny, put this on." Sam handed him one of the Fenton Phones from the back of the speeder. "So we can talk to each other."

Putting the earphone into the place, he looked at Sam. "You remember these?"

"Not really." She admitted. "I just thought they'd be useful."

"Well they bring good memories for me, really good memories," the two stared at each other until Tucker broke the silence.

"We need a mission name," Tucker said, "Something cool."

"Tucker, we're going up against a ghost version of Father Time. What's cooler than that."

"Well yeah, but a name would make it even cooler."

Groaning, Sam replied, "Just sit in your seat and shut up. Play some stupid game on your PDA or something."

The Ectospeeder's engine loudly roared with activity never heard before and took off into the green expanses of the Ghost Zone, Danny flying closely behind. Going into the zone before, Danny shouldn't have been too surprised by what he saw, but it looked different, more distorted. It still kept it's green tint and all the doors were still there in their unorthodox manner, but the doors themselves looked different, which shouldn't have been possible considering no to doors in the Ghost Zone were themselves the same. Perhaps the aura only came from the halfa's anxiety and nothing else. Then again, maybe something really was different.

A couple hours passed and still the clock tower was nowhere to be seen. They did run into many of Danny's enemies though, and, of course they all wanted a piece of him. Fortunately, those battles ended pretty quickly and easily. It was the more intelligent ghosts, or possibly dumber ones like Skulker who attacked the actual Ectospeeder that got the brunt of the pain. They had to deal with an enraged Phantom and were beaten pretty badly before Sam and Tucker were able to finally suck them up into one of their supplied thermoses. Both were afraid of what Danny would do to these ghosts if they weren't sucked up quickly. Hopefully he wouldn't have done anything drastic. During those times Danny's eyes would also quickly flash red, a worrying change from his normal glowing green.

Finally they were able to find a lead. A new ghost Danny defeated, a kid in a pirate outfit with a talking parrot on his shoulder calling himself Youngblood or something, mentioned a lone, large clock tower on the floor of the Ghost Zone to the west of them. The only thing near it being a patch of graves home to skeletal warriors. If that wasn't scary enough, the kid seemed terrified of whoever resided there.

"I don't know if this is such a good idea, Danny," Sam said after sucking up said ghost into her thermos. He didn't even put up much of a fight really. All he did was complain a bit before Danny gave him an ectoblast and he started being pulled into Sam's open thermos. "We don't fully know what we're getting into. Why don't we go back to your house and we can decide things there?"

"Yeah, dude, there's no point risking our lives for this."

The halfa held up his hands to stop his friends. "No, we need to do this now. I can handle whoever this Clockwork person is. Besides, I can't let him mess with the timelines on my watch. I'm the protector of Amity Park in every timeline, not just my own."

His steely eyes stopped any further argument from forming. Both teens knew that once Danny got like this, he was too stubborn to listen to reason.

It took another half an hour for the trio to finally arrive on the doorstep of the clock tower. They passed by the graves at the floor of the Ghost Zone, but no skeletons popped out, kind of like they were hibernating, really. It was possible that they were too weak or something and just regaining energy, though they should have plenty of energy with the condensed ectoplasm in the air. It was strange really. Tucker brought up the theory that they might have needed a master to help keep their form. Either way it wasn't much of a concern and they pushed on.

Danny's first thoughts when seeing the clock tower was that everything he heard was right, yet at the same time they didn't do it any justice. The entire building had to be one of the biggest he'd ever seen, even considering the ones in downtown Amity Park. Granted, most of that was just the actual tower power that held the clock into place, but it was still impressive. Already he could hear the ticking of many clocks emanating from the building. Yep, this Clockwork dude was definitely obsessed with clocks. The tower had a purplish blue hue to it, not much different from most every other object in the zone I actuality. He found that most objects appeared as either a tint of purple or brown against the ever expansive green background of the Ghost Zone. Even with it's plain, if enormous, design, the main problem came from the aura that surrounded it. The air felt dense, way worse than he ever experienced in the Ghost Zone or Amity Park. Oddly though the aura never felt scary, just intimidatingly powerful.

There was no we he could let Sam and Tucker in there, was there? They definitely didn't have the proper weaponry for a long, drawn out fight, especially if the aura from the building was to be believed. He also didn't want to spend a trip going back to grab more powerful weaponry. The halfa planned on handling this alone anyway.

Turning to the speeder, he spoke into his Fenton Phone. "Sam, Tucker, You two stay here. The rest is up to me now. I have to handle this by myself."

"No," Sam pleaded, "We can help you! Don't push us away when we're so close!"

"Yeah, dude. We came here to help you, not be sidelined for no reason!"

This seemed to bring a smile to the halfa's face, though his stance didn't change. "This is my responsibility and I have to own up to it. If you join me, you'll just make my point useless."

If looks could kill, Danny was sure he'd be dead right now and Sam the murderer. "That's complete crap, Danny! This better not be some stupid male pride thing because so help me-"

Tucker suddenly grabbed Sam and pulled Sam down beneath the viewing glass before she could finish her sentence. Apparently the technogeek also tried turning off her Fenton Phones but failed as Danny was able to hear their entire government.

"Tucker, What the heck?! We can't let this numbskull get himself killed!"

"Just let him do what he feels like he has to. He may be acting stubborn, but that's how he always is. Besides, if there's even a hint of danger we can always come in right after."

"I hate this," she replied. "Something could easily go wrong."

"Don't tell me that if you were in Danny's shoes, you wouldn't want to do the same thing."

"That's different though! I just don't want to see him killed."

By now the halfa was getting really irritated and had half a mind to speak up. He shouldn't even be hearing this anyway. He was broken from his thoughts by a sigh from Sam.

"On the first hint of danger, got it? I don't care if it's just the glow from another ghost, we're marching in fully loaded."

"Agreed."

Scowling, Danny finally spoke up, "So can I go now?"

Sam and Tucker poked there heads back up, each a few shades redder, giving a sheepish smile. "Of course! You heard what Sam said. We're totally with you one hundred percent. Just," Tucker hesitated for a second. "Just remember to come back, alright?"

The halfa gave a small grin of his own. "Agreed." Leaving his friends to their eventual boredom, he took his first steps to the large wooden door before stopping in front of it and taking a deep breath. Okay, this is what everyone prepared for. Everything came down to this last encounter. It was time to settle this. He then opened the door, charging up two ectoblasts in the process. To an onlooker, they would've noticed that Danny's eyes glowed just a little more and the charged energy in his hands was just a little brighter.

"Clockwork!" He shouted. "Where are you?! I need to talk to you right now."

A low chuckle filled the building before Danny finally found the source floating near the large corner of the room next to a table sipping tea. Surprisingly the man looked just as Danny would expect, a mix between Father Time and a clock. With blue skin and a long white beard, the scrawny old man looked weak. At least, one would think so until they looked into his eyes. They seemed to have a power no ghost before him seemed to give off, something worthy of nightmares. "Hello, Daniel," he spoke. "You came just as expected. Please, have a seat," he gestured to the chair opposite him at the table. "We have much to discuss."

In the blink of an eye the old man turned into a baby, then someone more middle aged. It took the halfa a few seconds to realize what was going on.

"I have nothing to discuss with you. Just return me to my timeline and bring this timeline's Danny back!" The halfa's hostile eyes bored into Clockwork's own. Only the loud ticking of hundreds of clocks filled the silence.

"I'm sorry but I can't do that."

"Why not?!"

"Because I don't have the power." The Ghost of Time answered calmly. "As you probably already realized, time does not flow directly from one event to another. Instead it takes multiple branching paths. Each path becoming a timeline in its own right. Taking someone from one timeline to another is impossible. Creating a new timeline through an accident, or even on purpose is easy."

"What are you trying to say, I'm not in another timeline?"

"In layman's terms, yes. This is the same timeline that you started in. In fact, the people you once thought were different are in reality no different than the ones before the wish, except for their forgotten memories of course."

The once angry Danny was now getting thoroughly confused. "Memories?"

"Desiree is not strong enough to through someone in a different dimension or timeline. No, only I have the authority to do such a thing. She merely made everyone forget. There is still hope though."

Danny's eyes sparked with new zeal.

"Just like there is a Ghost of Time, there is also a ghost that holds all the memories once forgotten. Of course one with such a task has to be very powerful. He also isn't a fan of humans, or halfas for that matter. The last halfa to exist before you and Plasmius fell to this creature in battle long ago," Clockwork chuckled once more at Danny's shocked expression. "You and Vlad are not the first halfas to ever exist. While rare, there have been a number before you. Nearly all have met their end in one way or another."

"Okay," came Danny's slow, cautious reply. Something just didn't feel right with him. He expected a fight from this Clockwork person, not a conversation. It was also odd learning that he and Vlad weren't the only two of their kind. "So this halfa that went up against the Ghost of Memories. Was he strong?"

"While technically you have more raw power than him, he was far more mature and in control. Still he was clearly outmatched against his adversary. If you put your full heart and soul into it, you have a pretty fair chance of winning."

"Then I need to seek him out," the halfa said. Thinking the conversation was over, he turned around to leave only to be interrupted by the Ghost of Time.

"Hold on, Daniel. One question before you leave. Say you hunt down this ghost and things somehow go your way, is it truly what you want? We both know that if you had your way, you would remain here forever, completely lost from your worries back home. Are you willing to risk your life for a desire that isn't your own then? Your friends and family will remember ever mistake and failure of yours since you met Samantha. Your half ghost secret will end up coming out with time. After all, the ghost won't just restore Tucker and Samantha's memories, but the memories of everyone your relationship with her affected."

"Are you saying I should act selfishly?" He asked. "Ignore the feelings of everyone around me for my own personal gain."

Clockwork used his staff to make a picture of Danny's two friends appear before the pair. "Tell me, would these two want you risking your life when they're already happy and content with their lives? They need you, Daniel, not their memories."

"You make it sound like I'm going to die," the halfa grumbled to himself.

"The decision is yours, halfa."

A few minutes went by with no one speaking. To Danny it was the some of the slowest of his life.

"If I do this," Danny finally spoke, "Is this the best possible outcome for my future? Is there no better option for me to take?"

The Master of Time gave him a strained smile, but the halfa only saw pity within it. "It is the best course of action for the time stream. Just remember that you are always welcomed here."

A short time later Danny came out of the clock tower feeling guilty and none too happy with his decision. His hero complex was going haywire, but what was he supposed to do when Clockwork told him it was for the best. The ghost didn't seem malevolent, so he was forced to put at least some trust in him, even if the ghost appeared to be hiding something.

"Danny!" Both teens cried when he neared the Specter Speeder.

"You're back! What's wrong?," Sam said, some relief mixing in with her confusion. "Did something happen? You don't look beaten or bruised."

The hatch to the cockpit opened, releasing both teens to examine their friend. He didn't put up much of a fight to stop them as they poked and prodded him. "Don't worry guys; I'm fine. Clockwork turned out to be fairly nice, weird, but nice. He already knew about the problem before I even spoke. This doesn't mean he was able to do anything about it. He said he can't fix it," the halfa refused to lie and say the Master of Time gave him a new option, a new quest, he would just stick to halftruths for now.

"So what are we going to do now?" Tucker asked. "Is there some other ghost with even more power than him who could help?"

"No, there's no ghost willing to help." At least none that were purely benevolent, he thought.

"So," Sam began. "What are we going to do now? Is there anyone else we can go to for help?"

He had to lie to Sam here, didn't he? It wasn't even a little white faced lie that no one would care for, this was something major. Still he knew that his friends wouldn't agree with his decision for his sake. They were too selfless. In reality he was doing this for them as much as for himself, or so he told himself. "There's no one in the Ghost Zone who can help."

An anxious glance told him both his friends bought it.

"Are you going to be okay, dude?" Tucker asked.

"I'll be fine guys. Why don't we all just head home and play some Doomed?" Danny raised his arms up into the air to emphasize his answer, trying to hide the grin on his face.

"Sure," they both agreed, only for Tucker to add, "Except Sam doesn't even play. Besides, we're supposed to be hunting down Chaos."

This caused Sam to laugh before putting a hand on his shoulder. "Oh, Tucker, you have so much to learn, don't you?"

Their conversation falling into its usual routine, the three soon shot off into the Ghost Zone to get some much needed relaxation.

The halfa had left, yet Clockwork knew what his decision was. The Master of Time didn't even have to ask. Danny couldn't hide his thoughts from the ghost, no matter how much he wanted to.

Two Observants appeared near the entrance to the clock tower as Danny had before. They were the same that always appeared when he did something the council didn't approve of. In fact it happened so many times that he was beginning to lose count. He may have control over time, but that didn't mean he cared enough to look through it for the answer.

"Clockwork!" The first Observant cried. "You manipulated the time stream once again!"

"I don't seem to remember letting you in."

Both Observants seemed to take offence to that statement. "Do you not know the seriousness of your own actions? These laws were set up for a reason."

Clockwork grabbed the top of his staff and began playing with a nob on it, disregarding the Observant's seriousness. "You told me to get rid of Dan Phantom in every timeline. I'm just fulfilling your order. Now the future of this universe is altered forever and Dan Phantom won't form. He has lost people he cared for, matured, and now is loved by many. He won't make the same mistake as his predecessor.

"You'll be throwing the kid through Hell and taking out his only escape. Dan might not form, but his life will still be destroyed. Nothing, not even you can prevent that anymore. The explosion that took his family will happen like it has before. This may even cause him to grow to resent you. Are you willing to accept that?" The Observant stopped himself from saying more, instead letting out a sigh. "Of course you are. You knew this all would happen from the beginning."

The second Observant stared, shocked at the first one. This behavior was unlike his companion. "You must stop this at once, Clockwork!"

"As your friend already knows," Clockwork began, his cold, calculating eyes focusing on the Observant, "there's nothing I can do. The ball has already been set in motion and I can't save the boy's family like before. That would mean a second reality forming just like the first. They would end up destroying each other."

"Do you know what will happen to him?" asked the first. "Once he's with the halfa Plasmius and dealing with his inner turmoil, what will he do?"

Clockwork waved his staff causing a time portal to appear before them showing, his audience the possible events as he spoke. "There are a few possibilities. He may go hunting for the Ghost of Memories to rid himself of the pain, dying in the ensuing fight. That's actually the most probable of the cases. If he pursues that, his emotions will end up causing him to lose focus, and without focus he won't be able to win. There's the possibility that he'd go looking to see if his family turned into ghosts, which they won't due to their own prejudice against them, and drive himself to near insanity on the journey. Then there's the slim chance that he'll accept their deaths and move on, living with Vlad Plasmius. There he'd be trained to become the strongest halfa to ever exist and will fight to prevent what happened to his loved ones from ever happening again. Of all the paths, this is the best possible outcome. Sadly I am not sure which he'll end up taking. The time stream is….hazy when it comes to the halfa."

"You should've just killed the kid," the second spoke having realized the pointlessness of arguing with the Master of Time, "given him a merciful death before he had to go through this Hell."

"I can no longer mess with this timeline without causing undue harm on everyone," came Clockwork's monotone answer.

"Why are you doing this? There are other ways to handle this."

Clockwork shook his head. "No, for every timeline a new solution is needed so it doesn't interfere with another. If two timelines are two exact, they'll both end up being destroyed. Even if I did not use this solution, now, it would have to be used eventually."

"You're proving a point," answered the first. "For each line you change for the better, there will be another you are forced to change for the worse."

A pitying smile was his only response. It wasn't hard to tell that Clockwork was feeling guilt over what he had done, most likely he would end up living with it until the end of time.

The first observant bowed, quickly followed by the second. "We will go report this to the council then."

"Make sure to ask them how the replacement is turning out," Clockwork replied. "It's about time I stepped down from my duties as Master of Time."

No answer came.

When the two Observants soon left, Clockwork attempted to use his staff to once again manipulate the portal into showing what the future would entail, only to get a green swirl of nothingness. So the Ghost of Time sat floated in despair, knowing that someday Danny's golden age was going to come crumbling down, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Now Make a Wish is officially done. There is no extra content. I will probably come back to this and fix the writing and grammar mistakes, but that won't happen in the near future...I think. Admittedly not much in ways of what comes after has been planned out yet. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed.

Reviews:

Anime Master: I always liked Danny and Sam's relationship all the way up to them getting together, though very rarely after. It's probably just me, but I just feel that their relationship is almost never done well afterwards. Perhaps it's just some childhood naivety in me or something. Anyway thanks for the review and I really should work on making sure my stories don't drag as this isn't the only story with the problem.