I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

Danny was flying away from his house as fast as he could. The place was already crawling with ghost hunter. 'How did they find out?' He thought desperately. He had been so careful to never let any blood or an image of his transformation get out. How did they guess that he was a half ghost when half ghosts couldn't possibly exist?

'I need a plan… Sam. Sam will know what to do.' He thought, clutching at straws as he made a turn towards his friend's house.

He flew through the wall to her room to find Sam sit there with his other best friend Tucker. They looked up to him but they didn't seem surprised, even if they were nervous. But Danny was too shaken himself to notice any of it. Why would he be analyzing his best friends at a time like this one? They had been his friends through thick and thin for years. They would never betray him.

"Sam, Tucker, I'm in trouble. The Guy in White somehow found out about my ghost half. I don't know what to do," Danny said in panic as he approached them.

"Danny," Sam mumbled, looking at him. There was sadness in her usually bright purple eyes. "I'm sorry." Danny let of a scream and fell to his knees as pain shoot through his chest and flowed through the rest of his body.

He staggered and fell, one hand going to his chest. He could feel a warm liquid running between his fingers. Pulling his hand away he found it covered in deep red blood that had sparks of green light that faded in the few seconds that it had been out if his body. "Sam?" The question died on his lips as he looked up at the ecto gun in the girl's hand.

Danny felt the sting of betrayal. It was one thing for his parents, who he'd always knew might reject him to fire at him and try to end what was left of his life, but he thought that Sam and Tucker were different, that they would always be in his corner.

Danny's heart skipped a beat as the door to Sam's room opened and in came several men dressed in bleached white suits. Each holding a large ecto-cannon. One of them approached Sam and Tucker. "Good work. Consider you crimes with this piece of ecto-scum pardoned," He said, his grin driving the truth of what was happening home for Danny. "Come on boys. Let get this thing back to the lab so we can start the really painful experiments."

Danny looked up to his former friends for the last time in his life. He tried to communicate all the betrayal he felt though the look in his eyes alone. But he had lost a lot of blood and the shock to his core was quickly putting him to sleep. "Why?" He whispered, just before his head hit the carpeted floor of Sam's bedroom, leaving him dead to the world. A ring past over his body changing his white hair to black and his jumpsuit into a normal t-shirt and shorts. The blood still ran from his chest turning his white shirt red.

Two of the agents moved in to restrain him. They pulled out glowing green cuff and the greed could be seen behind there sunglasses. But before they could reach him they were blown back by a wind of green energy that swept through the room, scattering books and loose pages everywhere. The hands of a clock appeared between them and the ghost boy and as they spun a portal opened and out came a ghost.

The ghost's ruby red eyes shone with fire from underneath his purple cloak, casting an eerie light on the scar that ran down the side of his face. He lifted up a large scythe in one hand and a staff with a clock on the end of it in the other. "You will not have Daniel!" He voice carried the power and knowledge of the centuries in it.

Tucker who had been quiet throughout the ordeal whispered the name of the powerful specter. "Clockwork."

"23 19! 23 19!" The lead agent was shouting. Clockwork moved through the group moving his scythe like a fish through a stream, quickly severing the agents' bottom halves from their top.

He finished the group of a dozen agents without even blinking. Then he turned his eyes to Sam and Tucker who were shaking in fear. "Be glad that Daniel would not want me to kill you. It is the only reason you will be allowed to keep living," He said, flouting back to the unconscious boy.

"Will… will he be ok?" Sam asked worry and gilt in her voice.

Clockwork glared at the girl who shrunk back. "He will… but you will never see him again," He spat. "I hope your bought freedom was worth the betrayal." Then carrying the unconscious boy through the portal, Clockwork allowed the gate to close leave the children alone with the bodies of the newly dead agents.

Clockwork set the young boy down on a bed within his lair. He watched as the ectoplasm in the air of the Ghost Zone began to close the wound on the young ghost boy's chest. Soon the boy began to shift and Clockwork let out a imagine breath that he had been holding.

Danny's shifting became more and more unsettled until he bolted up gasping his blue eyes wide with confusion as he failed to comprehend his surroundings. "Calm Daniel," Clockwork said in a gentle voice as he placed a hand lightly on Danny's shoulder and guided him back down into the bed. "You are safe." Danny looked up to see the old and wrinkled form of Clockwork hovering over him.

"Clockwork… I… I don't…" Danny stuttered and his hand went to his chest were the blood was still only just starting to crust. A look of understanding crossed his child's face giving him a look beyond years. "They… I can't believe it." Tears were coming to the eyes of the young ghost. "Why?"

"When the GIW found out about your half ghost status they went to Samantha and Tucker and offered to give them a blank slate in exchange for your capture," Clockwork answered the question. He shifted for the form of an elderly man into that of an infant child, a pained expression clear across his face. "I am so sorry, Daniel."

Danny shook his head and brought up a hand and tried to whip the tears out of his eyes. The only thing it accomplished was to spread a smear of the fresher blood across his face. "It isn't your fault, Clockwork. We all knew that it could happen someday… I just wasn't prepared." He looked up to his old friend and tried his best to smile. With the red blood and tears that sparkled green all over his face, he looked like hell but he tried his best to sound light. "Thanks for saving me." He choked on the last syllable.

"Just rest for now, Daniel. I will watch over you," Clockwork said gentle. Danny eyes were grateful as they slowly fell down. He was safe, his guardian was there for him.

Clockwork returned to the main part of his lair that was filled with clocks and screens that showed all kinds of pasts and futures, of any number of worlds. He was gazing with some intensity at one in particular when he received some unwelcome guests. "Clockwork, what is the meaning of this!?" One of the five Observants shouted as they appeared behind him, the one eyed green blobs that governed the Ghost Zone.

"Have you ever hurried of knocking?" Clockwork said with venom clear in his echoing voice.

"None of your games, Clockwork. You interfered directly in the destiny of that thin…" Clockwork had no patience for the creatures that day. Not after what they had done…

"Do not talk to me about interfering! Not after what you did!" He snapped, glaring at the Observant and pointing at the monitor he had been watching. It showed an Observant placing a folder reading 'Phantom/Fenton' on a GIW's desk. "The Observant are supposed to observe and judge. Not be an accessory to the murder of an innocent child!" Clockwork's glare sent even the Observant shifting back. "Did you think I wouldn't notice? Did you think you could pull the wool of my eyes!?"

"The boy is dangerous, Clockwork," An Observant said, trying to defend their actions.

"I don't see you arranging the murder of Vladimir, or the Fright Knight. And I know that Vortex and Undergrowth's escapes weren't by accident. You would never overlook something as obvious as a fake guard," Clockwork said his aura building to a terrifying level. "You have been trying to get rid of the boy since he defeated Pariah and became the rightful Prince of the Ghost Zone."

"Clockwork!" One of the Observant said wide eyed.

"You fools thought I didn't know. I know everything!" Clockwork's voice boomed. "You only wished to have the boy killed so that you would keep your power. That is why you engineered the events to create Dan and then demanded for Daniel's death and not Vladimir's to prevent Dan from existing. A new king would leave the Observant meaningless after all," Clockwork said, flouting up to them. "If you try to touch Daniel again… I might not be able to harm you directly… but I might be a butterfingers around a certain thermos."

All the Observant shuddered in fear. "You… you can't mean that."

"I. DO." Clockwork said angrily and then returned to his monitors. "Leave."

"We… we won't forget this Clockwork," One Observant said, but froze when Clockwork's ruby eyes settled on him.

"Good," Clockwork said. "Then I wouldn't have to tell you again. Now leave!" The Observant fled as if the fires of hell were at their heels. Clockwork sighed and looked towards the back room where the boy who was like a son to him was resting. "I am sorry Daniel. Please believe me that it is for the best. You heart is too good to be king of the Ghost Zone."

"Happy Deathday Phantom!" A room full of Danny's ghost friends cheered. It had been one year since he had first became a half ghost and it was also his fifteenth birthday. Danny smiled around at the gathered ghosts who were all joking around and partying.

It wasn't a large group, Danny didn't have that many friends among the ghosts. But Dora was there along with Pandora. The two of them had worked together to make Danny a present. It was new cloths that would remain whether he was in ghost form or human. They weren't anything fancy; it was a sleeveless training style black gi with a white sash.

Frostbite gave him a dimensional bag to carry things in. He got a book of old stories from the Ghost Writer. The book had it's own sort of magic and a story that best fit the mood of the reader would appear on the pages and it was never the same one twice.

The Box Ghost and his wife, the Lunch Lady's Ghost, both came as well. The Lunch Lady had provided an huge cake that would have been enough to feed over a hundred people. The Box Ghost had given Danny a normal box with wrapping paper on it, but Danny couldn't blame the guy, that was just the Box Ghost being the Box Ghost.

Ember was also there, Danny had made friends with the siren ghost after his family betrayed him. It turned out that her family had also turned their backs on her in her old life, so she was very sympathetic with Danny.

"A guitar, sweet," Danny said grinning wide. She gave Danny his own guitar and a list of song he could practice with. She had started to show him how to play after they had became friends.

"Now don't get any funny ideas about joining up with my band. We got enough guitarists of our own. You'll have to find your own band," Ember said, smirking as Danny tested the instrument.

Clockwork chuckled as he moved in closer. "Well I suppose it is time for my gift," He said a glint in his ruby eyes. He pulled out a medium sized box and handed it to the ghost boy.

Danny opened it up and found a fingerless gantlet. It was a shiny silver and had a covering of a six pointed star in the center of three holes arranged around it in a triangle on the back of the hand, with three more holes on the part that guarded the arm. "Clockwork... what is it?" Danny asked confused as he lifted it up. It was pretty heavy but nothing that he couldn't deal with.

"The Ancient Gantlet," Pandora said, gazing at the piece of armor with astonishment. "Where... where did you get that Clockwork? It has been missing for centuries."

"Has it now," Clockwork chuckled. "Well then, no one would mind if I gave it to Daniel." He said mischievously.

"What? What is he giving Baby Pop?" Ember asked looking at Pandora and Frostbite who were giving uneasy glances. The ghost writer seemed to be scribbling something in a notebook that he cared with him.

"Oh don't worry," Clockwork said, waving them all off. "The Ancient Gantlet was a tool that was used when the Ancients first sealed way Pariahs. But it has lost all of its powers and is now nothing more than a trinket that I kept to remind me of the old days," Clockwork said as Danny put the Gantlet on. "But it does seem right that Daniel be the one to inherit it, don't you agree?"

"As true as that is, I don't believe that the Observant will like it," Frostbite said.

"They don't like a lot of things," Clockwork grumbled, crossing his arms. "But the hands of fate are turning. Even I can not stop them now," He mumbled so that only Frostbite could hear him. Danny was to busy showing off the new accessory to notice. The gantlet fit him like a glove, not too louse or too tight. Frostbite looked disheartened. "Come now old friend, you knew he could not stay here. This world is not good enough for him. He needs to leave. He needs to live."

"I know Clockwork... but that doesn't make it any easier," Frostbite said sadly. But they both put on happy faces as the party continued.

Danny was flying around the Ghost Zone after the party working off his sugar high and pent up excitement. He was laughing and doing loops in the air as he flew around not really paying that much attention to were he was going. He had been through this part of the Ghost Zone hundreds of times before so he knew it like the back of his hand. At least, he thought he did.

Danny crashed his hand into something hard and metal. Rubbing his head he looked up at what he had hit. It was a large flouting door, not something that uncommon in the Ghost Zone, but this one Danny had never seen before, and it was the kind that would stick in someone's memory. It was huge over twenty feet tall with double doors held shut by twin chains. Above the gate was a statue like a round head with a cloak pulled over it. The head had crosses for eyes and a large tong sticking out at Danny. It seemed like it was supposed to be a clown.

"Um... who put that there?" Danny mumbled as he got a closer look at the gate. He nearly jumped out of his skin as the head began to laugh and the chains rattled before breaking. The gate shot open and Danny felt himself being pulled in. "Wait, no stop it!" Danny shouted trying to resist but he felt himself slipping.

"Another one for the land of MÄR," Someone or thing said as Danny lost to the force that was pulling him in. This kind of thing just had to happen on his birthday, did it?

Clockwork was watching him from his tower. "Good luck Daniel," He said solemnly as he got back to his normal work. He need something to distract him from the sudden rain.