Changing the Future

"Well, happy 15th birthday Danny." Danny told himself glumly as the wind blew his candles out. He looked around at his old house. As long as nobody bought the house, Danny was allowed to stay here every once in a while. Of course, he made sure that nobody bought the house by haunting it every time someone came looking.

Danny looked over to a photo of his family and friends in a group photo. It had been over a year since… the incident happened. He looked down at the cake Vlad had sent him, and blasted it with an ectoblast, leaving a crater in the ground; similar to all the other ones in the house. From the time he blasted a letter he had gotten, telling him that they found some of his family's remains; to the time a bill for a funeral had arrived at the house during the small period of time Vlad let Danny stay in his house before moving into the mansion. When the funeral home checked again they would find his family already had that planned out.

The only one that had to be covered was Jazzes part of the funeral. Vlad had tried to help with that, which is where another crater had formed; where Vlad had dodged a blast. Danny thought Vlad had only acted like he was sad about this whole incident, and that he was glad his family, friends, and teacher had perished; and now Danny could become his evil apprentice. But in reality, Vlad had indeed grieved for the poor boy.

Danny took some of the blame himself. After the incident, he had gone off the deep end for at least six months, yelling to himself ways he could have helped them, and destroying most of his room in Vlad's mansion. He would torture himself by coming up with ways that he could have saved his family, ways that he could have stopped the vat from exploding, gotten to his family in time, or contained the blast.

He still had nightmares of his family and friends just walking into the Nasty Burger, and Danny would run in place, trying to warn them of the danger. Every dream happened the same way. The building explodes. He sometimes sees it in slow motion: His mom, his dad, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, Mr. Lancer. All just staring at him. Then it explodes, and he can see them catching on fire, burning into black skeletons.

Just then, his ghost sense went off. Normally, he would go ghost and send the threat back to the ghost zone; but this wasn't normal. He didn't even turn around. When Danny looked up to a clock, he noticed the clock had stopped.

Clockwork.

As stated before, Danny took some of the blame himself.

The rest of the blame went to Clockwork, in his opinion.

'It was all cause and effect.' He would think to himself. 'If Clockwork hadn't tried to interfere with time, this never would have happened. If he hadn't sent back a minion to destroy me, this wouldn't have happened. Box Lunch would have never caused me to blow up a Nasty sauce packet, which would have never blasted me into the answers, never had given me the chance to cheat, never would have caused the grill to go on the Nasty containment unit.

'Never.'

'Then there was Skulker and Technus. If he was never sent back in time, me, Sam, and Tucker…

'Sam and Tucker. Gone too.

'We would have never been transported to Clockwork's layer, never would have gone to the future, never would have given, him the motive to go back in time.

'Never.'

"What do you want Clockwork?" He spat the name like it belonged to death itself.

"I bring you news about your destiny." He said. Danny stayed motionless.

"You mean to become him? Well sorry to make your trip pointless, but I already know that." He blasted the unmoving clock, trying to vent his anger.

"No. To inform you of a destiny of other sorts." Danny actually turned to Clockwork at these words. Perhaps to see what he had to say, or perhaps to blast him into the wall and suck him into the thermos.

"I don't have a 'destiny of other sorts'. I only have the destiny of getting my ghost half ripped out and to become him." Danny turned back to the crater in the floor.

"This news could change that." Clockwork told him, and Danny raised his eyebrows.

"What do you mean? Change the future? Stop… it from happening?" Danny asked and Clockwork nodded. His eyes grew wide as he got ahead of himself. "So… would changing the future, would that change prevent… would that prevent the explosion?" Clockwork frowned.

"Unfortunately that is very unlikely." He considered telling Danny the truth, but knew that he couldn't take it. "You see, since you and your future self traveled through time, you both live outside of time. No matter what happens, he will still be in that thermos in my clock tower." Danny's hope was shattered and he closed his eyes, furrowed his eyebrows, and turned away once more.

"While the past is written in stone, your future is what you make of it."

"What difference does it make?" Danny growled.

"The difference, Danny, is that what you choose to do today could change the millions of lives that you end in the future." Clockwork shifted from old man to small child. "I've come here today to tell you that you are the current Avatar of this world." Danny looked back at him.

"The current what?"

"The current Avatar. A being who is able to bend earth, water, fire, and air. The Avatar is also the bridge between the human and spirit world."

"Huh." Danny scratched his head. "You said 'current' Avatar? Were there ones before me? How come I haven't seen anything like this in the history books or on the news?" As Danny asked, Clockwork shifted from looking like a small child into an adult.

"Long ago, in ancient times," He waved his scepter in the air and windows into the past opened up, showing gatherings of people in dull colored rags and furs. At the center of the gatherings were individuals that were moving the earth, summoning fire, blowing people away with air, and flowing water with complicated, swift movements.

"People were able to manipulate the elements with their movements. Though these movements live in in adaptations of what is now called martial arts, the art of bending the elements has been long since lost after the few who were able to bend the elements were treated as outcasts by jealous rulers and non-benders.

"With this art lost, the connection to the spirit world was thinned to the point where only the Avatar had a basic, yet almost non-existent connection. With time, and the tyrannical rule of Pariah Dark, the spirit world descendant into chaos and insanity. Once things had settled down, nothing was the same. Only a few ancient ghosts, including myself, remember the peaceful times in the spirit world before it shattered in the hands of Pariah Dark. What we once knew as the spirit world many now call the Ghost Zone."

"How does this change anything?"

"In another world," Clockwork waved his scepter again, and now windows showed groups of people bending. "People who could bend strived, and civilizations were created based on what you could bend. Four nations based off of water, earth, fire and air.

"Again, how does this change anything?"

"I wish to send you to this world."

"What?"

"There you can be trained in the ways of the elements…"

"What's the point?" Danny yelled, getting impatient. "And why are you coming to me about this now?"

"The point is that the other world is approaching a war. A war caused by the Fire Nation. If the Fire Nation wins, it means the destruction of the other nations and death of millions. I believe you could help the Avatar of that world end the war." As Clockwork explained this, Danny sat down in a chair and put his hands into his head.

"And to answer your next question about why now… Well normally, in ancient times, and in that alternate world, the Avatar would be told of his destiny on his sixteenth birthday." Clockwork shifted into an old man. "But tomorrow everything changes if you stay here." Danny frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"When you go back to Vlad tomorrow morning, he will decide to try ease your pain by separating your ghost half and human half. I'm sure you know what happens next."

Of course he did.

"If you come with me, you can avoid all that."

"So, if I come with you…" Danny looked out the window at Amity Park. "Will I be staying in that world?"

"That will be up to you." Clockwork told him and Danny paused.

"I'll… I'll do it. Anything to prevent me from becoming him."

"Very well. I'll be back once you're done packing." Clockwork made a portal and began to go through it and stopped midway through. "You won't need much. Just bring essentials."

"Wait, Clockwork." Danny stopped him before he left and Clockwork turned around to face him. "One more question. Why me?" Clockwork smiled.

"I'm sure it's no coincidence that the spirit Raava chose one who was destined to be half ghost to be the bridge between our worlds." And with that he was gone, leaving Danny alone with his thoughts.

A/N: So I've decided to re-write this story mostly because I liked the ideas I had but not the set up I created.

Could use a better title if anyone has a better idea.

Tell me what you think!