The Titan's Second Life chapter 2
"Come on, Clockwork! It would be fun!"
Danny Phantom hovered in front of his mentor, grinning like he’d just won the lottery. Clockwork raised an eyebrow, the red glow of his eyes dimming slightly. "If you say so, Daniel."
"Yes! Try taking your human form, and I’ll show you the human world!" Danny’s excitement was palpable. "So much must have changed since the last time you saw it!"
Clockwork considered if Daniel ever does listen to him. He had observed humanity through his portals—wars, empires, the rise and fall of civilizations. He had seen it all. There was no need to walk among them again.
But Danny wanted to share it with him.
That was new… the boy again forgot.
Clockwork had spent millennia detached from the world, content to watch from the safety of his tower.
The last time he had taken a physical form outside of the Tower, humans had barely discovered fire that Prometheus gave them.
Now, they had skyscrapers, computers, and something called "the internet." Danny had tried to talk all about it at once.
"You’ve never left this tower, have you?" Danny pressed. "Not since you became a ghost. You’re missing out!"
Clockwork sighed. "I see all, Daniel. Time is my domain. I do not ‘miss out.’ I see all of it, at once."
"Yeah, but it’s not the same as experiencing it!" Danny floated closer, his neon green eyes bright. "Please? Just for a little while?"
Clockwork hesitated. The boy was persistent. And, if he were honest, there was a part of him—buried deep beneath the gears and the endless ticking of time—that wondered what it would be like to walk the earth again.
Not the time, he was Kronos.
Not as a king of the Titans, Lord of the Golden Age.
Just as… something else. As Clockwork.
Clockwork’s mind drifted back to a conversation he’d had long ago, when he was still Kronos. His brother Hyperion had come to him, concern etched into his features.
"What is going on?" Hyperion had demanded. No greeting or small talk, just a demand from his King.
Kronos had looked up from his time experiments, his fingers still glowing with temporal energy as he saw what he could change and adapt. "I am unsure what you mean, brother."
"You’ve changed," Hyperion said, stepping closer. "And not for the better. You’re distant. Cold. You don’t care about the Golden Age, about Rhea, about your children. You don’t even care about your own damn kingdom!"
Kronos-Clockwork had feigned confusion. "I do not have my temper anymore for you to fear?"
Hyperion’s gaze sharpened. He remembers the old Kronos temper that the Siblings feared so much they ran away from as he became the King.
He had seen the flickers—the way Kronos’ skin turned blue for a moment, the way his golden eyes flashed red. He had felt the way time itself seemed to warp around his brother. "Whatever you’re doing with time, it’s not doing your body good. It looks like you’re ripping yourself apart. Are you even still a Titan? Or has your power already mutated you into something else?"
Kronos had that damn mysterious smile. "I know what I am doing."
"Do you?" Hyperion’s voice was low, urgent. "Because it doesn’t seem like it. You’re not the Kronos I know. You’re not the king who overthrew Uranus. You’re not the ruler who—"
"Who, you all feared?" Kronos had interrupted, his voice calm. "I remember who I am, Hyperion. Even you, my favourite siblings, wouldn’t talk to me that way, in the past."
Hyperion had stared at him, stunned. "What?"
Kronos had turned away. "You should look after my son Zeus. He’ll need guidance when he comes of age. Maybe talk to Chiron too."
"Zeus?" Hyperion had frowned. "Your newborn son’s name is Poseidon. You don’t have a child called Zeus or Chiron."
For a moment, Kronos had faltered. The timelines were bleeding together, his memories of the future and the past tangling like threads. "So they still have to be born," he murmured. "We have time."
And with that, he had left his brother standing there, whispering after him: "This is exactly what I’m talking about. Do you even remember who you are?"
Clockwork returned to the present, watching as Danny rummaged through a pile of clothes he’d brought from the human world. "Okay, so we’ve got options. Do you want to go with the classic trench coat look, or something more casual? Maybe jeans and a hoodie?"
Clockwork blinked. "I do not require clothing."
"Yeah, but if you’re going to blend in, you kinda do, and you can’t walk in a Toga, even if you did look good in it!" Danny said, tossing a black jacket at him. "Here. Try this."
Clockwork caught the fabric, examining it. It was strange, holding something so mundane after so long. But Danny was right. If he was going to walk among humans, he needed to look the part.
With a thought, his form shifted. The gears receded, his blue skin faded to a more human tone, and his red eyes dimmed to a warm blue. He stood before Danny as a tall, broad-shouldered man with white hair and a face that wasn’t Flawless, but it did look Human, yet Ancient and Timeless. Yet at the same time, he did look similar to how Danny looks.
Danny whistled. "Whoa. You clean up nice."
Clockwork adjusted the jacket. "Is this sufficient?"
"Perfect," Danny grinned. "Now, let’s go!"
