I know it have been almost a year since I updated, and lately the problem is not only for inspiration but, as I said in the last chapter, is that I'm forgetting how to English! XD lol, no but seriously it is a very annoying issue that I've been struggling with whenever I try to write something :'(

Anyway I want to thank anybody who, after so long, still reads the updates. It means a LOT to me. Also thanks for the new people who have lately added the story to their alerts, or favourites, for liking the story. It always make me happy to know that after such a long time without updates people are still able to find this :) I do hope I can start updating faster; I will try my best to do so!

Your duty

Danny hit enter, and the first results were actually not what he expected. Instead of finding news of what's been going on with the city these past years, he only found general sites of the city's history and facts. But something caught his attention as he saw those pages, and it was that Amity Park had as an actual fact that it had become the World's Most Haunted City. This made Danny wonder since even thought it was true that the city used to be haunted, he still had never heard of it being called like that specifically worldwide; so he decided to search for news. The results were what he was imagining them to be.

The citys' newspapers were mostly highlighting the parts of the city being attacked in order to aware the citizens where not to get near. They also announced where were the last fights so that they would know which parts were closed or not. This was called the "Ghost section" since it had one of it's own. The boy looked surprised at this, yes it was true ghosts did damage, but not that much to aware citizens; did it affected them that much? Who were stopping them? He was sure Valerie was one of those, but he didn't see any news about his parents. Instead it was the Ghost in Whites the ones featured in all these posts.

This left him wondering about his parent's jobs and was tempted to do a search about them, but the fear on finding news about himself after the incident stopped him from doing so. Instead, being a little shaken about what he had discovered, he decided to go out and ask a ghost, who frequented Amity Park, about what was going on; and remembering the directions to the lair of Johnny 13 he changed to his ghost form, and waving his hand at Cujo he told him "I'll be back" and left the room.

The boy was reaching the stairs that lead him to the door connecting the Time Castle to the Ghost Zone when he heard a voice form behind. It was Clockwork.

"Danny" he just said calling. The boy turned around to find a child looking Master of Time, and consequently started walking towards him. "What are you planning to do?" he asked. Danny pondered a moment about the exact meaning of the question, and then answered:

"I was just going to pay a visit to Johnny-" he was cut off midway,

"I know" Danny sighed and rolled his eyes as he stated the obvious; Clockwork continued "What are you planning to do with that information?" he asked again, his voice neither soft nor harsh, which confused the boy about what the ghost was trying to say, yet he answered honestly, not as annoyed as he thought he would be.

"I...actually, I don't know yet" he answered. The ghost never leaving his serious face he turned around ready to leave. Danny was still confused at this and kept staring at his back waiting for him to say something. The wise ghost changed into an old man and vanished leaving behind only the sound of a few words:

"When you figure it out you may go" and with that he heard the sound of a lock from a door which, forcefully, was shut from behind.

Danny turned around freaking out as he saw every single clockwork that surrounded the door, and which he thought was only decoration, taking life as they started moving towards the door in circles making it so that every single engine connected with one another until there was no sight left of the entrance behind. The boy could only stare confused as all of this happened wondering just what was going on, and why it was so wrong for him to go out like that. He was just going to ask something simple, why was Clockwork doing this? The ghost had never done anything like this before, normally Danny was very respectful and in the same way Clockwork always talked politely to the boy when he asked him to do or to not do something, but this time he felt as if he was being grounded by a parent.

They boy didn't had much choice so he decided to go back to his room. He sat down on his bed and as Cujo barked in excitement for seeing his master again the dog also jumped on the bed and sat on the boy's lap.

Danny spent most of his 'night' thinking about his incident with Clockwork.

The next day came as normal as ever, he performed his daily routine as if nothing had happened the day before, and as lunchtime approached he still had no idea about the answer to The Master of Time's question. The only thing he knew was that, if Amity Park's situation had gone as bad as he thought it had, then he would feel guilty about it.

The boy sat on the dinning room sighing heavily as he toyed with his food wondering what Clockwork had meant and why, but after all the thinking he had gone through, he still didn't understand what it was all about.

Just as the boy kept pondering about it the ghost in question entered the room, in his adult form quietly, and sat in the chair in front of him. Danny blinked a couple of times wondering about the sudden visit, and as he was about to at least greet him the ghost took the initiative and spoke before Danny could.

"Boy, I know what you are thinking, and being guilty is not going to solve anything, only depress you" his voice sounded a little more soft than Danny thought it was going to be.

"I understand... but going back... I just don't want to... even if it's my responsibility and I end up going, I still don't want to" Danny answered honestly while expecting a scold; which never came.

"Danny, I'm not asking you to go back, but rather to make you consider, if you could stop it from here, the ghost zone, would you do it?"

"Oh... I can do that? well off course I would! if it meant saving lives, if it meant helping at least a little, the answer is yes!" the boy replied with a hint of light on his eyes.

"Then come with me, the time has come... " said Clockwork as he stood up and started walking towards the door.

The boy blinked once, then twice, and giving a last glance to his half eaten meal he shrugged that thought and stood up from his seat to follow the Master of all Times.

The ancient ghost led the halfa into his Time Chamber. Before entering the young boy gave a last glance to his surroundings just to make sure that that was the only door present in the tower, and noticing that it was the right and only one he felt a sense of relieve, so he proceeded. The moment he got inside the boy saw a very notorious silhouette in the distance, and as he approached him, thanks to the faint green lights that emitted from all kinds of sources Danny didn't know at all, he was able to see who it really was.

There, standing firmly and at the same time awestruck with his surroundings, stood a very amused big human like white wolf thing that Danny thought was... the abominable snowman? In any other situation the halfa would have thought that such a ghost would be most probably evil, but by the way he seemed to be scanning the room with a delightful smile in his face gave him the impression that he was actually a very gentle one.

Still he was unknown to him so the confused boy gave a questioning look at Clockwork which he replied with a smile and an introduction towards the peculiar being in front of them, "Danny I would like you to meet a very good friend of mine, and hopefully soon yours, the leader of the Far Frozen Yeti clan: Frostbite".

The big white ghost finally turned around after realizing that they where present and, smiling proudly, he bowed towards Danny saying, "It's a great pleasure to finally be able to meet you saviour of the Ghost Zone!" The ghost then came walking towards the boy and offered his big hairy white hand for a handshake, which Danny gave back with a blank face that reflected his confusion.

Expecting a rational explanation the boy shifted his body and stared at Clockwork looking for an answer. The Master of Times then approached Frostbite and asked him to show him why he was there for; to which the Yeti nodded and then took out something he was carrying in his belt, and opened it in front of Danny to show him something that seemed like a map.

The boy, wondering what that was all about, looked up and asked the big ghost; so he replied, "Danny Phantom, hero of ours, it would be mine and my clans' honour if you would use our old relic, The Infi-Map, in order to help those who are in your need and thus save much more lives, that is, if you so desire so. " He then bowed at the halfa again and offered the boy the map so he could take it, which he did asking:

"Thank you very much Frostbite, but... what is this exactly?" the boy, just by staring at it, knew that it was the map of the ghost zone, but still he didn't quite understood how it worked; so the beast like ghost proceeded to explain him that the map could take him anywhere he wanted to go, or where he needed to be the most.

When the explaining was over Clockwork then asked in a very polite way for Frostbite to leave, for he needed to speak to Daniel about some other matters, but before he did the leader said one last thing "Dear young hero, remember that this map is to use cautiously and that we would like it to be returned to us whenever it is not being used for it is our most precious clans' item and we are the ones who are bound to protect it form falling into the wrong hands, so I as the leader would appreciate it if you would" the boy then gave him an understanding nod and a warm smile as they both exchanged a final handshake and then, bowing one last time with a smile towards the other two ghosts, he left the chamber.

The moment the sound of the closing door had vanished the Master of Times' appearance shifted to one of a child and he then proceeded to explain Danny what he intended to show him: "Daniel, you may have figured this already, but the purpose of this map is to assist you in the protection of your home-town, and if possible, the human realm in its whole. As the Far Frozen leader already explained to you, you can ask this map to take you to the portals from where other evil ghosts are going to cross to your realm and it will take you there before they do. Then you will proceed to stop them." The ghost explained calmly as the halfa took everything in. It sure was a lot of help but also created a lot of questions.

"But... I mean I'm grateful for your help and this makes the job easier, but I thought that you wanted me to stay safe inside the castle, or at least that's what I thought when I saw you stop me from going out. That and, I have no ghost thermos anymore, how is this even going to work?" the boy said worriedly as he gazed up into Clockworks' wise eyes.

The older ghost smiled slightly and then replied "I never intended to stop you from your duty as the protector of humans, but I did it to stop you from doing something reckless that it's better you don't know." with this Danny frowned, the ghost continued " and about the thermos, you don't need to capture them, just lure the ghosts out until the portal closes, thought with this I would like to assist you by giving you a piece of advice: you will find your way Danny, because this is your duty, it has always been, and so it is in your nature to solve the problems that will fall upon you while you are performing your task, this is why I would ask you to have more faith in yourself and in your abilities, because, boy, you have it in you, so don't ever falter, and keep strong, for it is in your true character to keep to your morals and be of help to the ones in your need."

At hearing this Dannys' face lit up. His chest felt warm again leaving behind all his previous confusion. Clockwork was more than just his friend, he was the ghost he had the most respect for and at the same time lately it had been as if the wise ghost was starting to seem more and more like a father figure to him. The halfa just stared at him, a smile forming in his face, and with great honesty he replied thankfully "Thank you very much Clockwork for believing in me".

The wise ghost smiled at the boy and then continued with his explanation "Very well son, now I must tell you this, there is a time for everything and so you can only perform this duty whenever you're not busy with any of your normal tasks, and so you will continue studying and, at the same time, you will start another class from tomorrow" in this part Danny just sighed irritated, the ghost continued his speech: "you will be training both your body and your ghost abilities, maybe sometimes I might assist you with the latter one" he said winking at him, and with this the halfas' face changed to one of surprise as his eyes widened "during this moments you will not seek for the map, you will eventually understand that your instinct will inform you of when you're needed and that sometimes your class hours will be changed unexpectedly too for this purpose" the ghost finished explaining leaving a very amazed boy staring at him in a kind of disbelief and a certain feeling of expectation.

"You...are you really, I mean do you even have time to?" the boy said enthusiastically.

"I always have time for whatever I intend to do boy" the ghost replied smiling even more in to which the boy smiled back.

Danny was tired.

He had been fighting a very wild and ugly bee-like ghost for an hour or so and had finally been able to knock him out just a couple of minutes ago. The halfa left out a tired sigh as he decided to call it a day.

The boy turned invisible so he wouldn't attract any other enemy ghosts and so he started flying slowly towards the Time Castle. He had been stopping ghosts from escaping for almost 6 hours so the only thing he could think about was how much he wanted eat something sweet and delicious, maybe some ice-cream...

His train of thoughts stopped as he came across a very nostalgic item: the Fenton Ghost Portal. He was used to have the map bring him here as it was the place from where most ghosts exited the Ghost Zone, but every single time it did it still brought upon him a very weird sensation in his stomach as nostalgia took over. This time it was worst because he wasn't focusing on any harmful ghost, and so he decided to stare for a moment at the black and yellow stripes that covered the entrance. Then the portal suddenly opened. It tended to do that a lot because his parents used to let the portal open in case his son decided to come back some day. Off course the boy didn't know that so he always thought it was just their carelessness.

Danny just stood there in front of it, his mind blank as if it were trying to protect him from creating unnecessary thoughts.

After some time staring at the open door, and seeing as he was alone, the boy decided to peak through the portal. It had been more than a year and a half since he had started living in the Ghost Zone and so was that also the amount of time without seeing his family. The boy started sweating as he got nervous and after taking a deep and brave breath, the boy stuck his head through the door (thought he was still invisible).

The boy let out a couple of tears as he saw the old and now dirty lab just the way he had left it when he disappeared. They boy spotted some new gadgets and, at the same time, some old ones that brought back memories from his old way of living.

Then, standing in a far corner doing some experiments, were his parents. They were too far away but he could see that his dad Jack had gotten thinner, and his mothers' hair had gotten longer and messy. His parents looked, even from afar, tired.

A soft sob escaped from the halfas' mouth as he stared at the form of their fathers.

He then felt a hand resting on his shoulder. Danny knew who it was and so he took his head out of the portal and turned around to see what seemed like a sympathetic old Clockwork. At seeing the reassuring and comforting smile of the wise ghost he went forward to hug him as he felt that he was the only one who could take away all his sorrow. The Master of Time hugged him back.

Both of them stood there for a couple of minutes.

When they separated the ghost looked into Danny's' eyes and knowing he had his attention told him: "The time hasn't come yet Daniel, even thought it is still up to you, I can assure you that it's better to leave it for the most proper time".

The kid nodded understandingly.

Somewhere inside the lab an old and forgotten device emitted a couple of sounds that were overlooked by the Fentons: "*sob*, Fear me".

I had to re-watch Infinite Realms to finish this...I regret nothing! :D

I will add to my reply a sneak-peak from next chapter to whoever reviews :) I know I've been failing as an author since I take so long to update D: and so I hope you will forgive me for that!

With everything being said, until next time! Farewell ;)

-Blue

Updated: July 17, 2012

PS: Guys guys GUYS! More people voted in the poll and I've got to say that I can't believe that so many people are actually opting for the shorter chapters even thought I always believed that no one wanted those lol. The poll is always open and with it the length of my chapters might or might not change, so go ahead and vote :D (yes yes the long chapters are winning anyway by 3 votes, but the point is: thanks for actually caring! :) )