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Key

Character: Danny, Clockwork

Summary: Danny finds out that the Master of Time is actually an automaton created by the Observants. Clockwork still is his own person, but without using the key the Observants have to wind him up, he would stop working and 'die', if only temporarily. He doesn't want to work for them but has to. Danny doesn't like any of this. Phic Phight prompt by Habato.

Light seeped into his vision like the sun slowly rising through fog. Cogs whirred to life again as the clock in his chest began its inevitable countdown - tick… tock… tick… tock…

If he was honest with himself, Clockwork had thought he wouldn't wake up this time. The Observants made it very clear that if he defied them again, they simply wouldn't wind him up. Time would run out for him, and when the cogs in his chest ground to a stop his body would seize up and his mind would go dark.

It was almost ironic, really - that the Master of All Time was bound by its constructs.

He blinked, the tiny gears beneath his skin working to move his eyelids. He was always more aware of his body as he woke up, almost as if his core tried to check that everything was still in place. His joints were stiff with disuse, and he flexed his fingers. The tug of wires within his ectoplasm was comforting in its normalcy and he sighed. The sound billowed from his chest as the chimes of a clock, relieving tension that had accumulated in his gears.

He blinked again, and the hazy shapes surrounding him finally came into focus.

Clockwork stared.

Danny smiled at him like something was wrong. It was the smile that you gave someone when they were dreadfully ill, or when you were about to tell them that their puppy had died. His hand was outstretched, with a delicate silver key resting in the palm. "Sorry it took so long."

Clockwork didn't move. The clock in his chest continued to tick quietly, its pendulum swinging inside him in a pattern that mimicked breathing. The room around them was dark, lit only by Danny's glow and the faint glimmer that had begun to coalesce around his own artificial body.

"How the hell did you get that?" His voice was rusty as gears strained into movement.

Danny's smile faltered. Ectoplasm was smudged across his gloves. "The Observants wouldn't wind you back up," he said, "so I stole the key."

It was quiet again. Danny's breathing rasped and Clockwork's pendulum swung.

"Thank you," he murmured, and took the silver lifeline from the child's hand.

Danny grinned, mischief lighting his eyes. "I copied it," he confessed. "It took all of my allowance, but there are now twenty of those keys hidden in Amity Park and the Ghost Zone. I've got one, and I'll drop another one off to the Observants so they don't come looking for it."

Clockwork didn't know how much the boy had figured out, but the gesture was the kindest thing that anyone had ever done for him. "Thank you," he whispered again.

Danny shrugged. "Well, I have a test in half an hour, so I'd better go," he said. "Catch ya later, Clockwork." Frigid air swept through the room, and he was gone.

Clockwork curled his fingers around the small piece of metal so tightly that it bit into his palm. "Have a good day, Daniel," he whispered.

The clock in his chest ticked steadily on, and with the key in his hand he felt free for the first time in an eternity.