The citadel was mostly quiet, the grinding of gears fading into the background as the occasional clock chimed announcing the time. The citadel's atmosphere felt like that of an ancient libraries, allowing one to feel immersed in limitless and timeless knowledge and wisdom.

Large mirrors floated in the air, different moments in history playing out on them. One showed the Battle of Hastings, while another played out the discovery of America, while others showed more recent events, such as the latest monarchy's ascension to the throne or the newest president to office.

A hooded figure stood before the largest of the mirrors, watching with rapt attention.

A teen with dark hair and electric blue eyes stood in front of a large red figure. The teen was worse for wear, with their battle suit in shreds, with grime and blood discoloring their face. A human in a green battle suit stood slightly behind the teen, one arm covering their left ribs. A large shadow appeared behind the man, a flaming ball of pinkish light shooting through his chest seconds after.

"Uncle Ferris!" The teen screamed noticing his fallen companion. The red figure harshly grabbed the teen, "it's over Max Steel. Game over."

A sinking feeling made its way into the figures core as they watched the scene continue onwards, leaving the world without it's hero.

Clockwork sighed as he froze the mirror, switching to the world's future.

The world lay in ruin as chaos ruled with an iron fist. Cities lay decimated amongst a scattered and barely surviving human population. Malevolent ghosts and aliens had teamed together to shatter the world before the ghosts turned on the aliens, destroying the majority.

"Stopwatch!" A males voice called out as 16 year old Daniel Phantom burst through the doorway.

The teen had gone through a minor makeover since he was 14 courtesy of Sam Manson and Jazz Fenton. His hair had been trimmed a few inches shorter while still remaining as unruly as ever and his jumpsuit had gone through a tech update as demanded by Tucker Foley.

The suit remained jet black while the white on his collar now extended over his shoulders and half way down his chest, the original white DP logo now black, contrasting against its pale surroundings. White paneled down his sides to mid thigh before forming a thin ring around each leg. He had added white knee pads shortly after his 15th birthday due to an accident during a fight with Skulker, leaving him with a shattered femur and kneecap.

The teen zipped over to Clockwork, adjusting his black tipped white gloves as he came to a stop, pressing a button the side as he removed the Fenton Phones 2.0 from his ears. "I need your help!"

Clockwork raised an eyebrow, "this help wouldn't happen to be related to your math final that's tomorrow would it?"

The tan teenager blushed a bright green as the dug their steel toed combat boot into the ground, "uh...kinda, sorta- yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck, "in my defense though, I've had like 5 separate ghost fights each night this week and I've been studying for Lancer's English final in my free time."

"And what do you think I can do about your semi poor time management skills? You've had free time other than when you've studied for Lancer's class." Clockwork stated as he morphed from an elder to a child, his red eyes glinting.

Danny smiled sheepishly as he glanced at the time panel on one of his gloves. "Uh I was kinda hoping you'd let me hang out here and study for an hour or two. When I try to study in Amity something or someone interrupts and I really need to pass this final."

Clockwork rolled his eyes, a small smile forming as he gestured towards the violet couches in the corner of the room, "you may stay."

Danny smiled as he mock saluted the Time Master, ready to camp out on one of the couches before freezing, his eyes widening as he took in the frozen image on the screen in front of Clockwork.

On the screen, Plasmius sat on a stone throne overlooking a ruined world, with a sky red as the blood that stained the Earth below it.

"Please tell me that's not the future," Danny whispered, dropping his backpack as he floated towards the screen.

Two trains of thought simultaneously ran through Clockwork's mind, tell the boy nothing and erase his memory of the destroyed planet or tell the boy and meddle in time.

"A future for you, no. A future for another world, yes." He made eye contact with the green eyed boy, "That world is very similar to yours but instead of Ecto Energy, they have something called T.U.R.B.O. energy Daniel. A teen not unlike yourself was born with ways to control the energy and died trying to protect his world from a man named Miles Dredd and his co-conspirator, Vlad Plasmius."

Danny's blood ran cold. "Vlad went there?!"

Clockwork nodded solemnly, "yes, about a month ago."

Danny looked back at the screen, "so that's why I haven't seen him."

Clockwork nodded as he rewound time to right before Ferris's death. "This exact moment here is when you burst into the tower."

Danny nodded in understanding as he looked at the teen on the screen. "He doesn't look much older than I am."

"Your one month older," Clockwork stated as he shifted forms once again.

"You're going to meddle aren't you!" Danny accused, turning to look at the time ghost. "You wouldn't've told me jack squat if you weren't!" He pointed a finger at the ghost. "You're not being cryptic either! What gives!?"

The master of Time shook his head as he shifted forms, "I fear that this new universe that Vlad has affected holds an evil worse than Dan, Daniel."

Danny froze, the blood draining from his face. "No-No way," he whispered.

"I need for you to go on a mission for me Daniel," Clockwork stated as he rewound time. "I need for you to stop this before it can happen."

Danny nodded, "how would I do that? That's literally a-actually never mind. I know how and my answer is what about Amity? My friends and family!? I can't just leave them to go and help a universe from an evil they can't…" the teen trailed off before rounding on the ghost of Time, "oh that was a sick sick move stopwatch. You told me all of that so my hero complex would kick in and make sure I took care of Vlad didn't you!"

Clockwork smirked, "it worked did it not?"

Danny narrowed his eyes as he crossed his arms, grumbling obscenities about the ghost.

"If you agree to the mission I'd send you back in time to when Max first gets his powers which would be about the start of the school year. Your past self would continue to exist in this time line until you leave, thus causing you to only be gone for a short while in this world, but in that one a much longer time," Clockwork explained.

Danny nodded, remaining silent as he reflected on the information given. He glanced at the Time Master, "you're being oddly helpful and clear. It's kinda scary."

Clockwork pressed his lips together in a tight line, "the future is always in motion young Phantom. Have you reached a decision?"

Danny nodded, smirking in process. "Yeah, I'll help. Plasmius is my problem and I'm not just going to let him take over a world with outta challenge."

Clockwork nodded, "I'll let you say your goodbyes then Phantom."

Danny nodded, scooping his stuff up from the floor before racing towards the door, "wait, wait, wait. When do I need to be back here?"

Clockwork smiled, "Do not worry Daniel."

Danny rolled his eyes as he set out the doorway.

Clockwork sighed as he turned to look at the mirror, "good luck Daniel."

Danny looked across the table at Sam and Tucker. Jazz shifted quietly in her seat next to him as he fidgeted with his hands. "Clockwork has a mission for me to do," he started as he noticed Sam stab a tomato. Currently they were eating at the Nasty Burger as the heads of the Fenton family were currently at a convention on the East Coast.

The group had changed since Freshman year. Jazz had graduated and was now attending the local university for her first two years of college. Sam and Tucker had gotten together during the winter of tenth and had stayed relatively the same personality wise.

Tucker raised an eyebrow, "dude, the last time that happened you went to a dimension where they use magic and sticks to do just about everything."

Jazz nodded, "and you came back with one less kidney."

Danny rolled his eyes, "the average alive human only needs one to survive."

Jazz huffed as she took a drink of water.

"What does he want you to do?" Sam asked.

Danny glanced around the table, eyes flickering over everyone in the restaurant. "Plasmius figured out how to turn his Portal to a completely new dimension portal. He took over a new world entirely with the help of an alien species," he stated.

Everyone at the table froze, paling in the process.

"No way," Jazz gasped.

"Yeah. He wants to send me back in time to the beginning of the school year to help out that world's hero. For me I'll be gone for about 6 months while I'll be gone here for like a week max," Danny explained as he stole some of Jazz's fries.

"Did you already agree?" Sam asked, her violet eyes focusing in on the hero.

"Maybe…" Danny mumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Danny!" the group hissed.

"Last time you said you'd tell us before agreeing to something like this!" Sam growled.

"It's Plasmius! He's gone wacko! I need to help them!" Danny interjected, "I can help these guys! I saw what happened and what's to stop him from trying to retake over our world?! I need to do this guys."

The table group remained silent as the restaurant started picking up for the dinner rush.

"Ok little Brother, if this is what you need to do I'll support you," Jazz stated with a sigh.

Danny smiled at his sister as his closest friends chimed in with agreeance. "Thanks guys. I'm glad for the support."

And chapter uno is done. Could be better could be worse. This is a "for shits and giggles" story so it probably won't be updated frequently/often but I'll try. I mainly came up with this as a way for me to take a break from my current manuscript and just write something without much commitment. Heads up. I haven't watched much DP as of lately, so any occurance of ooc is totally my fault. Love your faces!

-Snowfly65