AN/: Hey guys, it's been a hell of a Wednesday

Enjoy and Review

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Danny Phantom

Choice

"Dan you don't have to do this!" Screamed Dani in panic.

The girl pleaded, her little green eyes frantic as tears streamed down her face.

"She's right Dan, please, you're better than this, please"

Jasmine was crying now too.

Jazz, always being a sister no matter what-no she wasn't his sister anymore, but she still treated him like a part of her family.

Dani had even gone as far as to call him her older brother once-

His younger sel- Danny was holding on to Sam and Tucker, they've always been his support.

All this time he had his eyes closed and his head down. He smiled, fangs grazing his lower lip.

He had one of two choices.

He opened his eyes.

Cracking like the ground would in an earth quake, splitting right down the middle forming a wedge from the "sky" to the "floor".

It divided into a perfectly jagged half, it was there his choices were presented to him.

On the left, like the static of an old film, the grainy image of him at his "death bed", Dani and Jazz pleading for him to stay as his body slowly faded out of existence.

On the right, the was an alternate scene, his "death bed" was there, but he was not on it, instead he was standing, towering above the girls as they pleaded for him to stay back.

Dan watched floating in the center of the split.

"Fucking hell man, can't get damn HD quality even in my dreams, bullshit at its finest", he muttered, crossing his arms unimpressed.

He continued watching.

The left Danny, Sam and Tucker were standing in the background, silent.

On the right they were silent, on the floor and dead, his claws were stained with their blood and ectoplasm, bodies strewn on the floor with their empty eyes open, all while he reminded menacingly above the girls with clawed hand raised, about to end their lives. He swiped, but instead of cutting through flesh, his claws hit sharp metal and they broke.

The Phantom howled in pain, cradling his arm to himself, he watched as his broken claws quickly regenerated before glaring at the Time Master who had ruined his plans, Clockwork's scythe was blocking his access to the girls.

He glared and growled all primal at the Time Keeper before charging at him, all he heard was the Oldman telling the girls to close their eyes.

Squelch

A final whimper was heard, as Dan Phantom dropped to the floor.

Dani screamed and cried and Jazz turned to the side losing her lunch. Clockwork sighed, his cloak was covered in the other's ectoplasm, it wasn't after he phased it off did he realize that Dan had managed to injure him, a large claw shaped gash, that was closing as he watched it.

Sighing once more the Time Keeper knelt, placing a hand on the still body, "How pitiful, the last mark you made wouldn't so much as scar, physically at least", Clockwork shook his head, " you asked me to Dan, a simple request, honestly having me break my promise isn't the only scar you would have left, now the rest of us suffer for you"

The Dan watching winced but quickly recovered.

"Oh yeah Oldman? You were late, if you weren't late the Kid, the Goth and the Geek would be alright, if you weren't la-", his voice cracked, "you're never late"

He pulled back in realization, floating and bobbing in the air all while he was morbidly looking at both scenes as they constantly repeated over and over again.

He hated this, on one side he detested the way the girls looked at him, sad and remorseful or absolutely terrified, these were the two who put up with him and accepted him, Sociopathic tendencies and all, on the other hand, the afore mentioned sociopathic tendencies, their screams, blood and tears both excited him and disgusted him at the same time.

He was a murderer and a brother but he couldn't be both, how ironic, for all the time he knew, he'd always been a half of something, between both worlds, but the one time he needed to be of two things, he could only be one.

So Dan Phantom had a choice to make, but either way...

He'd die.

...tick...tock...

...tick...tock...

...tick...tock...

Bleary red eyes opened, well one did, he was laying down so the other remained closed, not that it bothered him, it was a normal occurrence to anyone who woke up and didn't want to move speaking of, why was he awake?

The sound of light ticking breached his ears, having tuned it out completely, he almost jumped when he heard the small sound above him, how far gone was he that he forgot he was living in a clock tower?

Wait, above?

Slowly lifting his head the Phantom found the source of the ticking, his cheeks coloured as he realized what-no who it was.

The Master of Time was sitting up on his bed, and he, Dan Phantom, was undoubtedly laying on Clockwork's lap, pillow beneath his non-fiery head, right under a glass case containing the source of the ticking.

Dan gave a small mix of a huff and an embarrassed grunt, luckily for him the Time Keeper was asleep, saving him from further embarrassment, well not self-embarrassment.

It didn't help that Clockwork had one of his hands resting on the small of his shoulder, meaning that at one point he was clutching on the Temporal Ghost, probably the result of a nightmare.

The Phantom scowled, but he could feel his blush darkening, he was a grown man and yet he found himself clutching onto another like a scared child would their parent.

Looking up from his position, he could clearly see the other's face. Lips slightly parted, cheeks slack bearing neutral expression, Dan could easily hear the Temporal Ghost's light breathing, even over the sound of the ticking.

Dan had no idea why spirits breathed, especially since they clearly didn't need to, it also bought up a memory regarding how human like they behaved even though most of them tend to stay far away from humans, believe it or not he knew quite a few spirits that snored.

Thankfully Clockwork was not one of them, either way he still needed to wake the other up if he wished to move, the Time Keeper held him gently but firmly in place.

"Might as well get this over with", mumbled the Phantom with a roll of his eyes, "Hey Oldman!"

Alright he'd admit, he flinched.

Not his fault though.

The Oldman tends to do that freaky aura thing when he's startled. Fucking scares everybody else too, the inconsiderate asshole, humph.

When Clockwork's eyes rolled open, they were solid blue, of course this is exactly what caused the Phantom on his lap to flinch.

Blinking himself awake, (and his aura away), the Time Keeper looked down at his charge, brow raised and crimson eyes curious.

"How are you feeling Dan?"

"Shouldn't I ask you that? You look like hell"

The Paradox wasn't wrong, the bag's on the elder's face were more prominent than they'd ever been, the poor guy looked like he either needed some coffee or to sleep for a thousand years, probably both.

"You're one to talk", remarked the Temporal Ghost as he rubbed his eyes, just because he could wake up coherent didn't mean he wasn't still sleepy. "You're still on my lap-"

"No, you were holding me-"

"I let go the second I woke, you had time to move"

"Whatever", the Phantom rolled his eyes and sat up as best he could, he was still quite weak, his muscles or what was left of them, shook under the strain.

Eventually Clockwork grew tired of the pitiful display and simply helped the Phantom into a proper sitting position, Dan of course didn't like this at all.

"I'm not an invalid", he huffed.

"Not yet, at least"

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence ya bastard"

The Time Master shrugged, "you know it all boils down to your choices-"

"Yeah I know, I only got two"

Clockwork chuckled, Dan gave him an incredulous look.

"What the fuck's so funny Oldman? I'm literally fading away here-!"

"Who said you only have two choices? How long have you been here Dan? Shouldn't you know by now that I don't invest in hopeless cases-"

"And what the fuck is that supposed to mea-"

"It means there are other options Daniel-"

"Don't call me that, it's Dan, get it through your thick skull, and what do you mean other choices? I either do nothing and fade away or do something and get a fucking scythe through my core and then fade away"

Clockwork smirked and got up from the bed, "Ah but that's the thing, you're only looking at the two things on the surface, there's a deeper-"

"Cut the crap Clockwork, just tell me straight up, what options do I have?"

"I can't tell you Dan-"

"I need to know dammit!"

If it weren't for that slight bit of desperation in the Phantom's voice and eyes-

The Time Keeper sighed, 'I truly am getting soft'.

"Well you know the first two-"

"Obviously", the Phantom swallowed thickly, for some reason his eyes stung and there was a lump in his throat.

Clockwork sighed again, he couldn't tell the other directly, that would get him in even more trouble than he was currently in, the entire council was still wrapping their heads around the idea of why he wanted to keep his "pet"- pet.

"You know, to many you're still known as the 'The Hound' right?"

"No", corrected Dan, " I'm known as the 'Time Master's Hound', big difference and there's no way in hell I'm switching my obsession to servitude"

Clockwork raised a brow. "Since when have I ever-"

"Not you Oldman but the title implies, it makes others think I'm your slave or something"

"That or something is what keeps the Observants off your back and when have you ever cared what other people think?"

"I..."

"Exactly"

"I still don't want that option-"

"Good, because making that official wouldn't be fun for either of us", the Time Ghost ran a hand across his face.

"Do I even wanna know?"

"No, no you don't"

The non-answer made Dan feel even more uncomfortable than he already was, he swallowed again.

"So..." he started, his voice cracked, "What's my next-"

"You need to remember what your obsession was"

"What? I thought I figured that out, it's how I got into this mess in the first place-"

"Mm, yes but no, you scratched the surface of your obsession-"

"My friends and family-"

"Yes but what about them?"

"I..."

"It's quite simple really, you often tease your younger self about it quite a lot, actually we all do-"

"Wha-?" Dan huffed and crossed his arms, "you never give straight answers when we need you to, do you?"

Clockwork shrugged.

"This one is your best bet, but you need to do a bit of thinking-"

"Thinking? Clockwork, I've been thinking since yesterday-"

"Monday you mean-"

"What?"

"You've been asleep for thirty-eight hours, twenty-seven minutes and three point two six seconds-"

The Phantom gawked.

"I've been asleep for 2 days?!"

"Well not exactly, you've woken once or twice in delirium, and then there were the nightmares-"

Dan cut him off with an odd hand gesture.

"I'm guessing that's how I ended up on your lap?

The Time Keeper nodded.

"And that's also why you look like you haven't slept in a year?"

Clockwork rolled his eyes, "your fever adamantly refused to go down Tuesday, it didn't break till four hours ago"

"You're kidding-"

"I wish I was, I stayed up watching you since you fell ill", the Temporal Ghost then smirked, "you were kicking and screaming the whole way, if I had actual neighbours they'd wonder who's infant I was babysitting"

Dan's cheeks coloured, "oh fuck you".

AN/: Heyo, sorry this one was a bit short, the last one for this whole Dan debacle or the "Left out arc" should be coming soon, then again I said that about the pieces arc, so we'll see ^_^'

Also apologies to Johnathen, I've been trying to work on your 'Wedgie Ghost' buddy but for some reason ideas won't come, it's such a simple request and yet I can't wrap up enough inspiration to get it down. P.S if you have any other DP ideas I'm up for it buddy

That actually brings me to this entire note tonight, this week, (it literally just goddamn started), was just hell, apologies for complaining in every other AN but I really wanna keep you guys updated. Don't worry I won't stop updating and I won't stop updating every Wednesday either, just kinda apologizing if my work starts to seem all lacklustre and stuff.

I've been failing tests left and right so far, it's the first test for each subject as it is a new semester but it's killing my soul, I'm gonna make sure I bring up those grades because my report rn looks like I only know what the 6th letter of the alphabet is and If you had to count your fingers or sing the song, then shame on you aswell XD, nah I'm kidding love you ;)

Last apology, I was supposed to post this earlier, but I had a major anxiety attack, and I blacked out, so guess who legit just woke up at 11:07pm! I came home around 3 man, life.
Anyway that's about that, I'm still writing they just might be shorter, I'm thinking of delaying the pieces arc because that's supposed to be long af pieces, but we'll see, I'll gladly take requests though, writing helps me deal with stress, and I've been stressing out as you can see, so lemme type stuffs XD.