Neutral (Danny Fenton/Phantom x Reader)

Chapter One - Childhood

I don't remember how I got here.

I don't know when I came, and I don't know why.

The first clear memory that I can recall is floating in an abyss of green.

I saw doors suspended in the air, and I saw what I assumed to be monsters floating around below me. The thought of coming close to those monsters made a lump form in my throat as I did my best to go in a different direction. I floated far away until the monsters were only dots in the distance.

I didn't feel afraid or worried, I was simply confused. When I saw a tower on a chunk of land, gears turning all around it, I decided to try and aim on going there. I landed on the ground after a bit of trying to gain my balance in the air. Stumbling a little when I reached the doors, I noticed they were much larger than I was. I was going to place my tiny fist on the doors to knock, but my hand went right through it. I shrieked, and pulled my hand out, feeling it tingle as I did so.

Even though the sight shocked me, I did the action again but this time, I placed my entire arm into it.

I laughed, and proceeded to put my whole head through the door. I was expecting to see a room, but instead, the doors opened. A man was there, at least he looked like a man in a way, but his lack of legs told me otherwise. His arms lifted me up until we were face to face, blood red eyes were staring into mine.

"Right on schedule." He said, smiling a little. I tilted my head in confusion and wiggled my loose tooth with my tongue. The first words I ever said to him were,

"Are you a Smurf?"

He chortled and put me down inside the tower-like building, closing the big doors behind him.

"She is a danger to both worlds if she remains here." I heard a different person say. Another voice chimed in, "It's too much of a risk."

I looked to where I heard the voices.

Two green beings without faces in high collared capes stared back at me with the single large eye they both had in the center of their heads. The green creatures reminded me of green Jell-O and the gummy eyeballs you would get on Halloween.

They were talking about me, but I couldn't care less.

I looked back to the man who picked me up, surprised to see that he had a long beard and was hunched over a little now. I quickly became distracted by his tail, waving around. I got on my stomach beneath him and giggled while I waved my hand around in the space between him and the floor.

"She isn't a danger."

"But-" They both said in unison,

"I know what I'm doing." The purple covered Smurf man responded, his tone was calm and confident. When I looked up at him again, he had shrunk since my last glance. Right before my eyes, he grew again back into the form I had seen him in the first time. "Now, if you will let yourselves out, I have to accommodate my new guest."

And just like that, the green creatures teleported and were gone.

"Always getting me to do their dirty work...not this time." He looked down at me as I was busy with tugging at his purple cloak, the fabric soft between my figures. He cleared his throat and I looked up at him, big eyes glistening with curiosity.

"Hello, little one." His voice remained as calm as it was before. One of my hands released the cloth from my tight hold and waved at him, a gleeful grin making its way onto my face. "Hello!" I chimed back with enthusiasm.

He chuckled once more and held out his hand to me, "I am Clockwork, master of time."

I shook his gloved hand, my own hand looking even smaller in comparison. My childish joy didn't falter until it was my turn to introduce myself. What was my name? I didn't know. I fell silent, both hands dropping to my sides and looking at my small feet.

Clockwork pat my head, "Having trouble? Okay. Your name is (Y/N), you are four years old."

I beamed, feeling much better with the new information, but later in my years, something as simple as my own name raised more questions about who I was. "Are you my Daddy?"

He shook his head and his voice was serious, but there was just a hint of a smile was on his face, "No, but I am now your caregiver."

I remember putting my thumb in my mouth and sucking on it for a second, but pulling it out just as quick from the pain it brought to my loose tooth. "Who were the jelly floaties?"

"Those were the Observants; they employ me to do the work they refuse to."

Clockwork must've noticed my puzzled look as he then simplified his explanation, "They're ghosts, everyone here in the Ghost Zone are."

"Are the ghosts mean?"

Such an innocent question. I was too young to be prepared for the long and complicated history of the Ghost Zone, so Clockwork, in effort to keep me from danger or landing in the wrong hands responded with,

"Yes. But, you are safe from them here."

I nodded my head, I don't remember if I truly understood what he was telling me. I poked at a stop watch hanging off his cloak, "Are you a ghost, too?"

"Yes."

"Why do you look like a grandpa now?"

"Because, time affects me differently than anyone else. For me, time moves backwards and forwards and-"

"Why?"

"Because-"

When Clockwork's form switched to a child's again, he was within my reach. I placed my fingers over the crack like feature going through his eye, I had squealed with excitement. What was the point in having a detailed explanation planned when a four-year-old is the only one listening? I then focused my attention on his time controlling staff, but he changed back to an adult before I managed to touch it. "Ah, ah, ah, no touching my staff."

"Hmm, okay!"

He picked me up and floated over in front of a strange object with moving people on it. At the time, I thought it was a television but I later learned it was his view-screen. "You are the only thing standing between this world and the human world's destruction."

"Oh." This time, however, I remember clearly I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and I didn't care.

"You'll understand one day."