"Clockwork," Danny groaned, "it had to be Clockwork."

"And what's that supposed to mean, Daniel?"

"It means every time you show up we either end up in the future where we screw up and get shot at by robots..."

"…Fighting some evil, over-powered version of our friends"

"…Or trapped in the past where our ancestors learn about the future because Randy gets way too excited and almost erases us from existence."

"That was one time, Jake! ONE!"

"Okay," Dani said, breaking up the argument before it began, "ignoring these three, generally you only show up when we've royally screwed up ...or, will screw up. Well…normally it's Danny's fault somehow but still, what's the deal, Clockwork?"

"Ah yes, 'the deal' so to speak is that this timeline has reached the point where it can no longer support the events occurring. In layman's terms, children, your timeline has become septic, and I am here to fix it."

"Uh, dude," Jake began as he reverted back into his human form, "maybe you need to re-check your definition of septic, because we just punched the biggest disease this planet's ever seen in the face on worldwide television."

"I'm well aware of your recent exploits Mr. Long, and I must say congratulations. If I hadn't pulled Vlad away from this time period then he would has been destroyed on this very spot."

"So you stopped us… because?"

"Because if you had eliminated his physical form, Plasmius' essence would have remained bonded with Bill Cipher's cosmic existence, resulting in a hyper-malicious conscious that would overtake the next person foolish enough to make a deal with it."

"In English please," Manny said, rubbing his temples in frustration, "or Spanish or any language I can understand, really."

"He was a piñata of evil insanity that you almost cracked open, clear enough for you?"

"Crystal, and how bout we wind back that attitude, amigo."

"Noted," Clockwork said as he materialized a scythe out of the spatial rend he'd created, "now, about the little matter of collapsing this cursed timeline before anymore insanity can seep through into the time stream."

Looking around, Randy noticed the stern looks on most of the other's faces, amazed that they were so calm about a ghost-wizard threatening to stomp out their timeline. "So, is no one else freaking out right now?"

"Nah," Jake said, squeezing his little sister's shoulder in anticipation, "we Longs are masters of remaining calm under pressure."

"Is that why you now have a twitching tail?"

"Why you lookin' though?"

"Guys, please shut up."

"My sentiments exactly, Juniper. Now, I have an offer to make you the three of you," Clockwork said, pointing at Danny, Jake and Randy, "and here it is. You have two options as of right now: a, you can stay with this timeline, even though at this point you're only going to survive another three weeks or so with the inbalance of energy currently worming its way through history."

"Who in their right mind would choose that?"

"Because option b is the collapse then vivisection of this timeline; where I'll actively pull the three of you apart and then set the flow of events right by destroying certain aspects of your lives and rearranging key points of history so that your versions history can take their rightful courses. The last six months of Danny's life will be erased, restoring Amity Park to a state somewhat resembling average. No Phantom Planet, no Mayor Plasmius and no hurried romantic exploits. Jacob's life is simpler to fix, nothing seems too broken except for grandfather's untimely demise." The ghost of time paused as he looked over Randy, his eyes shining with a mix of aged wisdom and childhood curiosity. "And you, Randy Cunningham, ninth grade ninja, you and I have some serious work to do."

All eyes fell on Randy, his brow beading with sweat at the ancient ghost's words. "What exactly do you mean by 'serious work'?"

Smiling, Clockwork snapped his fingers and summoned another hole in reality. Through the dimensional window, the group saw two older figures fighting beside Randy, the young ninja falling behind them as they became blurred in a massive explosion of light.

"You see Mr. Cunningham, if we set things right, you three won't be equals anymore. Daniel and his family would have aged another eight years by the time you meet, Jacob and his by six. Put simply Mr. Cunningham, you'll be a child keeping up with titans. And that's just your first challenge. So many roads are open to you, Randy, each one filled with more hardships than the last. You won't remember this conversation; you won't even remember this timeline, but you'll be marked."

"Wha-what does that mean?"

"It means that when the time comes, they will come for you….and you'll have to fight for your life."

"Who's they? What the juice are you talking about?"

"You'll see," Clockwork chuckled, "in due time, I believe you'll all see."

"Dude, it's been a long day," Jake said, exasperated, "so you get one more cryptic line before I decide to see your cloak on fire. Tick-tock, yo."

"Ah, you mortals, so impatient. Here's the deal, stay in this timeline and cities will burn, families will die and it'll all be on your heads. Time will rip itself apart, the Dark Phantom will run rampant again, Jacob will lose everything and make a deal that erodes his very soul until he's nothing but living fire trapped in the husk of a m-"

"Wow," Theresa interrupted, "time travel is totes cray."

"'Totes cray' indeed. So I extend this offer one last time; accept the consequences of staying in this time frame and try to put up a fight against the oncoming storm,"

"Or..."

"Or, take it all back," Dani whispered, "they do this, and it's a hard reset for all of us not just them. Six months…why six months?"

"If you recall, six months ago is when Daniel destroyed the Reality Gauntlet. That one action caused a split in the fabric of reality large enough for Cipher to worm his machinations through, letting him whisper in Vlad's ear and encourage his more recent and… ruthless… endeavors."

"I don't know who I want to punch in the face more," Jake said, shaking his head, "Danny for being dumb enough to blow up something that has 'reality' in the description, or you for letting him."

"I'll admit, certain events were… unexpected…but that is why I was letting it play out until now."

Jakes fists swelled with flames as claws replaced his fingers. "You,definitely you, you overgrown wind-up-"

Holding the young dragon back, Dani faced Clockwork. "So if this gets fixed, I go back to being a runaway, Randy's not the ninja, and the Longs still beat the dark dragon. Add into that the fact that the Amity Park residents are apparently two years older than the folks from New York, who are six years older than the Norrisville crew, which means Tigre and June are who knows how old, and we're basically stuck in a fluster-cluck of, of-"

"Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey… stuff?" Haley and June said together, piercing the serious atmosphere.

"…I hate both of you."

Clearing his throat, Clockwork once again tried to keep their focus long enough to explain his reasoning, but the only one whose focus had never wavered was Jake. "If we do this," he said, his hand moving gently across the black markings on his arm, "will…will my grandfather still be there."

Clockwork paused as he looked over the young dragon, his sternness melting into pity as his face danced through the aging. "For a time, yes. But nothing lasts forever, Jacob, and soon, your grandfather's time will come."

"But he'll be there with us, right," Haley questioned, "and we'll be able to be with him when he goes, like a family?"

"More than you know. In fact, I believe the dragon markings on your brother's arm would be a rather… interesting tattoo in the future."

"I'm in." Jake said without hesitation, his fists now back to normal as he looked at the ruined forest around him. "A few years away from all'a this is fine by me if it means we get a chance to make things right. Plus, you said we're all gonna run into each other again, so it's all good, g, right Randy?"

"Hmm, the nomicon normally tells me to avoid situations like this…but hey, what's one more time ignoring sound advice, so I guess I'm in too. Besides, a wonk time-stream can't be good for anyone, well, you know, unless you won the lottery in this version of history or whatever. Just promise me that once you're older than me you guy's won't make fun of me for being younger."

"Yeah, cause I'm sure that's the reason we'll make fun of you."

All eyes turned on Danny with a mixture of fear and anticipation until, with a sigh of exasperation, he finally spoke. "You're both so calm about this but… I've had a pretty good life for the last six months. But okay, I'll play your little game one more time, but under one condition; when you break this timeline, you break it good. Whatever you just did to your deranged Plasmius, keep that fruit-loop under lock and make sure we don't remember this or these versions of us come back through some cosmic loop-hole of idiocy. In fact, the only trace of this timeline that should be left is a faint memory for me to stabilize Dani while I still have the Reality Gauntlet and for me to know enough to not destroy it, deal?"

"A sensible request, one I believe I can grant."

"Can we keep the new outfits though?"

"Randy, no."

"What, so now Danny's the only one who gets to make wishes? Not cool, dude, I've got two swords now. That means I'm now twice as bruce as I was before, are you really gonna take that from me?"

"Oh dear god to think I was actually gonna miss you guys."

In the midst of their squabbling, Clockwork snapped his fingers and shattered the protective time bubble encompassing them, watching as they all dropped into the void of the collapsing timeline. "Children bargaining with a lord of time," he said, suddenly standing in his lookout in the Ghost Zone, "I'm sure that'll make this very interesting."

Well folks, that's it, end of the line for this story. Phantom planet's no longer an issue and neither is the rest of season 3 of Danny Phantom, but that doesn't mean the Secret Trio is done. Funny thing about time travel, it always leaves another story to be told. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.