When the darkness surrounds you, know that I will always try to start a fire. It may burn down the forest, it may consume me. But if it can save you from that darkness, I would burn it all.

Danny was thrown across the pavement into a pile of rocks away from the Nasty Burger and his doomed family.

"You're pathetic," Dan's silky voice taunted into Danny's ears, "why do you fight? You know this future will happen eventually. It's only a matter of time…"

Just behind Dan's form, Danny could see the scared and gagged faces of everyone he'd ever loved and Mr. Lancer. They all looked to him with pleading in their eyes, scared for their lives and knowing Danny was the only one who could possibly save them.

"No, I promised my family," Danny struggled to stand, holding his bruised ribs and rising on shaky legs.

"Oh? You promised?" Dan started to walk toward his younger self, trying to run out the clock on his "families" lives.

"Yes, I PROMISED!" on his last word, Danny unleashed his newly discovered power, his Ghostly Wail, on his future self and everything in front of him. His power drained, the ghost boy reverted to his human form and fell to his knees.

But the added pressure from the sonic waves was too much for the Nasty Sauce containers. The meter cracked as the little needle was pushed to its limit.

"No!" Danny scrambled to his feet and ran to his family, but he didn't move. It was like some invisible force was making it so that he could only run in place.

Smoke billowed around the giant containers, but was swept to the side so Danny always had a clear view of his doomed "family"

"I'm inevitable…" the voice whispered into Danny's ears again, just as the explosion took away the lives of everyone that made him, him.

Clockwork hadn't come this time. They were all dead because he couldn't save them. And there was nothing Danny could do about it.

"No!"Danny screamed as he shot up in his bed, shaking and sweaty from the nightmare. Tears rolled down his cheeks as the thought of his family dying was brought back into painful focus.

"They're safe, they're safe," he whispered to himself. Ever since that day when he defeated Dan, he had been getting this recurring nightmare at least once a week. Sam and Tucker always wanted to talk about his nightmares, but knowing they would never truly understand since they hadn't been there, he decided to not tell them. Being that Clockwork had reset time, nothing had actually happened.

Except that for Danny, it had. He would forever be haunted by the sight of blood red eyes and his family exploding right before him.

"Danny? Are you alright?" Maddie knocked on the door, having heard her son's screams.

The halfa flinched at the sudden noise, not realizing that when he woke up, he had screamed for the first time since the nightmares started. "I'm…fine."

But Maddie could hear the quaver in her son's voice, and worried for his safety; she opened the door to check on her baby. Seeing Danny on the bed, arms wrapped securely around him and shaking, she knew she had to do something.

"Danny, what's wrong?" she moved towards the bed and sat on the edge, "you can talk to me, I-"

She was cut off abruptly by Danny's arms being flung around her in a tight hug. Shocked, it took her a moment, but she eventually returned the gesture, knowing her son needed comfort only a mother could give.

"Mom, you know I love you right? I mean, I know I haven't exactly shown it to you lately, but I do. You, dad, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker, you are all I have. I wouldn't be able to live without you."

Maddie didn't understand where this little speech was coming from, but she did understand what her son needed.

"Of course I know that. You're all I have too. Look at me Danny," she waited for her baby to raise his red eyes to hers before she continued, "I don't know why you are feeling this way, but when the darkness surrounds you, know that I will always try to start a fire. It may burn down the forest, it may consume me. But, if it can save you from that darkness, I would burn it all."

Danny smiled weakly and hugged his mother tighter; letting the words he'd needed to hear soak into his mind. Thinking for a moment, he knew what he had to do, it was the perfect moment. Letting resolve settle in his heart, Danny pulled away so he could look his mother in the eye.

"Mom…there's something I need to tell you…"

A/N: so yeah, I'm going to leave it there. This is my response to 's challenge: THE QUOTE THAT STARTED IT ALL. I know I should be working on my other stories, and I am, I just hit a bit of a snag in writers block. Clockwork is on muse vacation for some reason and I think he took my flash-drive with him so I wrote this to try and bring him back. And it worked! He even has my flash-drive! Where were you Clocky?

CW: forgive me, Frootloop, bur I had pressing business in another…

Me: does it look like I care? Look at all these poor readers out there waiting for an update and all they get is this one-shot!

CW: (bows head in shame)

Me: humph, that's what I thought. Anyway, I think the updates may be a little late, probably won't be till next week. I have to read a book, make a poster, and write a Major Works Data Sheet for English due next Friday and a Current Event due THIS Friday that is barely started. Yeah, English 3 AP stinks like Dash's dirty underwear.

And on top of that, everyone is depressed about 9/11. I feel like I should write something for it, but I don't know what. And since I don't know, I am here by dedicating this story to those who were lost on 9/11. RIP