Author Note: At last, I've finally had the time to rewrite my favorite fic, Spiritualist. It was my first long fanfiction and one of my favorite crossovers, so it holds a special place in my heart. Some things will remain the same, but there are a lot that is going to be changed. I wrote the original fanfiction back in really early 2015, so I was like not even sixteen when I wrote it (as I turned sixteen late 2015). Now that I'm older and have more writing experience, my writing has improved drastically and looking back, I'm able to see a lot more potential within Spiritualist, a majority of it lost in the original. So I want to give it the rewriting it deserves.

AU in both 'verses – Danielle/Dani (Ellie) is younger, about four years old instead of twelve

Title: Spirits Within (former title - Spiritualist)

Summary: After an experience that nearly cost him this half-life, Clockwork sends Danny to a different dimension. While this one still had ghosts, at least they were better than the ones they were used to dealing with. Now a bit older and known as a popular Spiritualist/Ghost Hunter, Danny finds himself joined with a ghost hunting team called SPR. REWRITE OF SPIRITUALIST

Genre: Mystery/Suspense

Rating: High T for gore, blood, suspense, supernatural horror, and implied death

Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim Danny Phantom. I do not own nor claim Ghost Hunt.

PROLOGUE

There were small decisions in one's life that could change them forever – maybe you didn't buy that fancy cheese at the market which would have later gave you food poisoning, maybe you went left when you went to work without knowing that should you have gone right you would have gotten into a car crash, maybe you didn't realize that the pregnancy test was a false positive only to go to the doctor and find out you have ovarian cysts. No one knew what choices they'd make throughout the day that could change their lives forever. One may think they knew how their day was going to go the moment that they locked their front door and headed to work without realizing that there were many, many things that could or couldn't happen that could change the course of their entire week.

But aside from a higher power, there was only one being that actually did know what would happen once someone left their house or left the stove on or in the case of one Daniel James Fenton, when one told their ghost hunting parents that they were half-ghost. He hoped that time would take one of the other routes – all had some form of tragedy, but none of them were as worse as the one that did take course. Though he was the master of the time, Clockwork hated how when it came to the will of people and their predestined fate, they rarely took the timeline he hoped.

All he could do was watch – watch as a sixteen year old hero was strapped onto a table by the ones who were supposed to love him, watch as they tore him open again and again to perform tortures and experiments that even he couldn't help but look away during particular gruesome moments. He wished he was deaf so he didn't have to hear Daniel's screams – Daniel, young, naive, trusting, heroic, passionate, Daniel screaming as they took what trust and love he had in the world and ripped it out of him. The Observants made it clear to Clockwork that despite whatever may happen, that he couldn't step in. It was an order he conveniently forgot when he watched flames flicker through the Fenton lab, burning the hunters to a crisp in a corner while Daniel fell limp on a table, accepting his fate.

No. This simply wouldn't do. He just couldn't allow it.

Time Out.

The first thing Danny realized when he started to gain consciousness was the fact that he was starting to gain consciousness. There were no pearly white gates nor fire and brimstone. His body hurt too much for him to have become a full ghost. Unless the pain was some twisted version of rebirth. When he finally got the strength to blink open his eyes, blurry purples and greens melted together in his vision. This is it. I'm a ghost now. I'm in the Ghost Zone. I'm dead. He gave up trying to see his surroundings, closing his eyes and letting his body go completely limp once more against what felt oddly like cotton-made sheets. Maybe if he stayed still long enough, he could end his existence of being a ghost before it even began. Maybe one of his enemies would come along and see an opportunity they couldn't pass. Maybe come tomorrow, Skulker will be sitting in a recliner with a mug of hot chocolate by a fire with his body as a rug beneath his feet and his head on the wall like a proud trophy.

And now I'm awake.

His body was almost too stiff and sore to sit up as he opened his eyes with a groan. He noticed the bandages wrapped around his body, which likely explained the light but constricting feeling against his torso, wrapping the large gaping wound on his chest. Multiple other bandages lined his skin and he briefly wondered how scarred this whole ideal would make him. But one thought stood out a bit more than the others – he was definitely not a full ghost. He could still feel his heart, no matter how slow it was, beating in his chest. His body was cold, but held more warmth to it then ghosts. The bandages were stained with a comforting mixture of red and green. And definitely still human – at least I don't have to worry about becoming Dan at the moment. But who would – He stopped. He could hear the faint ticking of clocks outside what appeared to be a medical room. He leaned back against the bed with a heavy sigh. Clockwork. Thank goodness.

As if being summoned by the mere thought, the ghostly time master appeared in the room with a small smile, shifting from a toddler to a young adult.

"I'm glad to see that you awake."

Danny snorted. "As if you didn't know I would."

Clockwork hummed, adjusting the dial on his specter, "In one timeline, you wouldn't awaken and merely die in my healing space. Another you awakened deathly afraid, screaming at the top of your lungs before collapsing into a coma."

Danny sat a bit straighter, "Really?"

"No. But what I can't predict is how long your healing process will be – gaping vivisection wounds are tricky like that. But you will be staying here until you're healed, possibly after considering what route the timeline takes."

Danny opened his mouth to ask a question, but the time master had already disappeared. He deflated in defeat, sinking comfortably back into the medical bed to the best of his ability. He closed his eyes and maybe, just maybe, he could get some sleep.

He never felt heartbreak before, never knew what it was like for your heart to shatter in your chest, to have your world crumble around you and life as you know it ceased to exist. For some it was when their crush rejected them, others when long-time partners left them, when best friends stabbed you in the back, or when you tell your ghost-hunting parents that you, yourself, are half-ghost. Fear, rejection, pain, all bubbled within the chest that they tore open with a long cut down his torso.

He let out a gut-retching scream as he struggled against the binds that kept him to the table. Tears streamed down his face until his eyes could no longer cry. His body felt hot, burning, as if someone had lit his insides on fire. Yet his parents merely stood over him, talking among themselves as they jotted down notes. Bloody medical equipment laid on a table beside him, steel stained with red and green – his blood.

"I'm your son," his throat felt raw and tight, his voice raspy, "I'm your son! Please stop, please stop..."

They got used to his pleas and after a while, they no longer responded to him with venomous words, spitting on him that he was scum, no son of theirs. He couldn't breathe. Everything was getting blurry, his head aching as much as his body. He never stopped pleading, no matter how much it hurt nor how much his voice kept giving out on him. But it didn't matter. They didn't see him as their son anymore. He was nothing more than a ghost. A freak.

'I'm more than a ghost.' It was becoming harder and harder to stay awake. 'I'm your son. I'm human. I'm human."

He wasn't sure how long he was out, just that when he managed to finally open his eyes again, he could see nothing but thick dark smoke swirling dangerously through the room as hot red flames licked the ceiling. He weakly tugged at his wrists, but soon collapsed back onto the table. He could see them in the corner, the smell of their burning flesh becoming stronger than the smell of ectoplasmic-infused blood. It was only a matter of time before the fire reached him. Was this how he was going to die? Not in the blaze of heroic glory, but in a melancholic one that matched the way he gave up.

This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't what he imagined. He was supposed to tell his parents so that they could stop hunting him. He was supposed to be getting more sleep, maybe turning more homework on time as his parents hunted the real bad ghosts. He was supposed to train them so they could fight and protect themselves from Vlad. He was supposed to be going to the movies tomorrow – was it tomorrow? He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he knew that before this had happened he had plans to go the movies on the following weekend.

He closed his eyes, his body falling limp. His lungs burned with every intake of air. He finally just held his breath and waited.

But then there was nothing.

Danny woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for air as his hand clutched his chest. His eyes were wide and frantic with panic. His chest burned and he let out a shuddering mix of sobs as he curled into himself. His hands tucked between his torso and his knees, absently scratching at his bandages, right where the incision was. I'm your son, I'm your son. His body rocked and he clutched his eyes closed tight. I'm your son. Please stop. Please stop. I'm your son.

He recoiled back with a start when a hand grabbed his shoulder, but relaxed seeing Clockwork staring at him with understanding, sympathetic eyes.

"I wish I could have intervened sooner, Daniel."

For a moment, all was quiet before Danny jumped onto the time master, grabbing him and pulling him close into a broken embrace. Sobbing into the shoulder of his cloak. Clockwork let him, loosely wrapping his arms around him to rub comforting circles on his back – his own core ached at the pain of the younger halfa, making a silent vow that should the fire not have killed the hunters, he would have himself, Observants be damned. In his arms, he held the future King of the Ghost Zone, he held the savior of the worlds, the hero of ages and of legends, a future Spiritualist, and he refused to let him suffer here.

Weeks went by, possibly even months – he wasn't entirely sure, despite being in the Time Master's lair, there was hardly a good way to keep track of what he considered to be the present time. His wounds slowly began to heal, leaving him scars that were slashed deep into his flesh and enough nightmares to last a lifetime. Meditation was his only escape, a way to gain control of the icy burn of his core and cast out the demons that threatened his mind. With meditation came control and with control, power. His two forms merged to form his present being, blending his hair into an ashy gray and his eyes swirling with a mixture of icy blue and toxic green. He let the icy ectoplasm dance upon his fingertips before he closed his fist to let it die out, looking toward Clockwork with caution.

"What are you up to, Stopwatch?"

Clockwork offered a small smile, but promptly ignored the question. "Have you read those books I gave you?"

Danny winced, thinking about the pile of books stacked up in the medical room that he had claimed as his own temporary one. No verbal answer was needed as Clockwork merely hummed. He already knew the answer, amusement and annoyance both rising in his core. He rolled his eyes, muttering something about teenagers, before he continued at a more audible level.

"You'll have plenty time to read while you finish your recovery, but for now, you have visitors."

Danny furrowed his brows, about to question who on Earth (in the Zone?) would want to visit him, but it was a question answered quickly by a small body tackling him to the ground. He fell to his rear with a pained groan, but breathed a sigh of relief when a second person lifted the first off of him. He blinked his eyes open to see two familiar faces, a grin breaking out on his face. He couldn't think of a single other moment where he was this happy to see his sisters – Jasmine stood there with a smile that was just shy of reaching her eyes, a little girl propped onto her hip. The small four year old reached out her arms happily, giggling and babbling for Danny. The weight keeping him down lifted and despite the pain shooting through his rear and lower back, he got back up onto his feet to take the girl out of Jasmine's arms.

Danielle, known as Ellie, happily crawled and wiggled in his arms, reaching out for his hair, before stopping and looking him hard in the eyes. A grim, thoughtful expression passed on her face. Danny's shoulders grew tense, his grip tightened on her as he swallowed thickly.

"Your eyes are weird," she announced firmly, as if it was a fact of nature rather than the blunt opinion of a four year old.

Danny's expressions became a strange mixture of relief, annoyance, and amusement; it turned to the later when he saw Jasmine hiding her laugh from the corner of his eyes.

"She's right you know," Jasmine's voice was laced with laughter, causing him to roll his eyes.

"I see how it is," he adjusted his hold on Ellie, "A guy nearly dies and in his process of healing, you wound him. I'm hurt, Jazz. Hurt."

There was a flicker of something across Jasmine's face – pain? Remorse? Shame? Guilt? - before she offered a sympathetic smile, stepping forward with open arms. Danny failed to get away before he was captured into a big embrace, Ellie phasing out of their hug to get free. On any normal day of the week, he would've done the same thing, but he relaxed into the hug and let himself lean on his sister, the only family he had left aside from the little girl that was currently trying to reach Clockwork's staff. He closed his eyes tightly and buried his head into Jasmine's shoulder, his breathing turning a bit ragged. He desperately tried to keep his mind calm, but the relaxation and meditation techniques became useless once the dam broke. His sister merely rubbed comforting circles on his back, knowing the emotional turmoil he must be going through.

"They hurt me Jazz," he whispered.

A pang of pain and shame swept through her. He grip became tighter, squeezing him even closer to her as her nails dug into his back. She knew that they hurt him – Damn did she know. She knew full well what their parents – no, what Maddie and Jack – did to him while she was away at a college seminar. She knew what she came home to. She knew how many nights she spent restless and crying, angry at herself for leaving. She knew how that that anger turned toward her previous parents the second Clockwork had came to her with the truth. She knew damn well that if they weren't dead, she'd take care of them herself. A parent was supposed to protect and when they failed – the job fell to the older sister.

"I know," she whispered back, desperately trying not to let her own tears free. She had to be strong for her little brother. "I know, baby brother, I'm sorry, but where we're going, no one from Amity will bother us again. Not the Guys in the White, not Vlad, not anyone."

Danny took a deep breath and pulled away, his eyes glazed over with tears looked at her with confusion, "Wait, where are we going?"

Jasmine tore away from him at the question to look toward Clockwork with a harsh glare – she almost faltered seeing him in his toddler form, happily letting Danielle play with his cloak, a small smile on his lips. He stopped, shifting to a young adult before finally an elder one, the smile gone as he realized he had gotten caught. Jasmine could already feeling the headache forming, a heavy sigh leaving her nose as she pinched its bridge.

"You didn't tell him," her question cut through the air sharply.

A ghostly almost-all-might being should never look sheepish, yet Clockwork came very close under the glare of the oldest Fenton sibling. He offered a small shrug, moving through the air with his ghostly tail swaying behind him – Ellie tried, and failed, at grasping at it as it whipped around her.

"I hadn't had the time."

Jasmine came close to the second aneurysm she ever had in her life in that moment, her face going beat red as her cheeks puffed out. She took a step forward, ready to make it very clear that his answer wasn't even close to acceptable. She stopped when Danny grabbed her arm with a warning look. She took a deep breath and stood her ground firmly, crossing her arms against her chest with a pointed look toward the time master.

"Tell me what," Danny matched his sister's posture with a raising eyebrow, only glancing down briefly when Danielle plopped herself by their feet, fiddling with a time medallion.

"A new world needs you Daniel," Clockwork spoke in his ominous, all-knowing tone, one that either ended well or horribly for Danny. He hoped for the former. "Your place here has vanished with your parents' deaths and until you are needed again as a king, your abilities lay helpful elsewhere. Something you would have known should you have read those books. I assure you the world you are headed to is similar to your earth in many ways, different in others. The presence of ghosts from this Infinite Realm are limited and rare due to the world's lower ectoplasmic range, leaving spirits and demons to wander the earth like the times of old. One day that will change and that world will need someone there to protect it, to guide it, help it learn."

Danny made a face, "Why is there always some chosen-one prophecy involving me?"

Clockwork's eyes lit up in a way that told he knew more than he said. "The day you stepped into the portal, you forever changed your fate, tying it more to this realm than the realm of the living."

Danny groaned in exasperation, muttering something about Clockwork needing to drop the Yoda-speak and just say something to him straight for once. Jasmine patted his shoulder in comfort, but shared a knowing nod with Clockwork.

"The new world awaits you Daniel," Clockwork continued, stepping aside to let a portal into view – it spiraled with greens and blues and purples, a fuzzy image of what seemed to be a park shown in its depths, "Jasmine will catch you up to speed – your life, your backstories. Your names shall remain the same and as of today, your sister is the renter of a large office building as well as a nicely sized studio apartment. Your bags and things are already packed and delivered."

Danny hesitated, looking between his older sister, Clockwork, and his seemingly oblivious younger sister. Why would Jazz need an office building? Why a big studio apartment if it's only going to be us three there? He bit his bottom lip, but an encouraging motion from Jazz, he stepped through the portal knowing that both her and Ellie would follow suit. He hoped he was doing the right thing here as he realized that they were indeed transported into a park with what seemed to be Japanese billboards in the distance – Japan? Why would he bring us here? He furrowed his brows, thinking over all of the things Clockwork had said to him, hoping to find an answer hidden in the time master's words. Something stood out a bit more than the others that caused more questions than answers.

He turned around, looking over his sisters' shoulders, "Wait – what did you mean by a king - "

The portal was gone.

Figures.