#danny is clockwork's apprentice

When Danny turned 18 the Observants came calling. Appearing out of nowhere, they insisted that Danny was now "Of Age™️" and therefore must take on the role of Ghost King that he won when he defeated Pariah Dark. Danny vehemently objected to this. He just finished highschool and with most of his rogues now leaning towards the friend part of frienemies, he was really hopeful about going to college and maybe getting to become an astronaut if that was still achievable for him. Then Clockwork came to him with a solution.

Danny was skeptical at first, not entirely sure where he stood with the time ghost though knowing he'd been helpful in the past, but the proposition was a sound one. Danny would become Clockwork's apprentice and run timeline related errands for him and Clockwork would keep the Observants at bay until Danny was ready, if he changed his mind. So Danny agreed.

Being Clockwork's apprentice was actually kinda fun. He got to go see some of the most impressive locations in history in their prime, and it didn't even interfere with his daily life! Clockwork would pull him out of time, send him to go collect samples of an extinct plant or prevent an artifact from falling over the side of a ship, then put him back to the exact moment he left so he didn't miss a thing.

But of course, his luck couldn't let a good thing be. It starts small; an odd sense of deja vu or remembering something having happened days ago and then being told it just happened. Eventually, he starts having full fledged visions of events before they happen. 

He asked Clockwork about it, thinking maybe it was a new way of telling him about tasks he needed to do, but Clockwork had nothing to do with it. Danny had developed a new power, one that Clockwork suspected came from being between timelines so much. Danny would get premonitions of events yet to pass. Clockwork made sure to stress that these were not the future but a future. This was the direction the flow of time was heading in but it was not yet set in stone. If Danny wanted he could act in objection to his vision and alter the course of events, but refusing to intervene would let events happen just as predicted. Clockwork assured him it was entirely his choice on whether he altered the timeline or not. Danny could decide which events he changed and how and Clockwork would handle the rest to make sure none of the changes butterfly effected into disasterous consequences.

So Danny continued on as usual, now with occasional premonitions. Sometimes it was something small, like a classmate tripping on untied shoelaces and missing their bus or a stranger getting scratched by a cat they were attempting to lure for pets. Other times it was more serious, a branch breaking and taking out power lines causing a neighborhood blackout or a train derailing due to rocks on the tracks after a mudslide. He almost always chooses to do something about the serious ones and addresses the simpler ones if he has time or it's convenient for him.

He was with Clockwork one day, debriefing on his next assignment, when he gets a new vision. They usually flash instantaneously into his mind, taking the same time and effort as it takes to blink. This one was different. It was longer, for starters, lasting a good few minutes. Physically; his body was wracked with tremors, his knees buckled under his weight, and his eyes darted around at sights only he could see. Mentally; he wasn't just seeing this vision, he was living it.

He was in a warehouse. He could barely see with how much smoke was in the air, much less breathe. A child was tied up in a chair, bloody and bruised, a crowbar abandoned just a few feet away with damning red stains. Behind him was a timer counting down, less than a minute, attached to a mass of wires and explosives. The child called out to someone. In the distance, far enough that Danny could only hear with his advanced senses but steadily getting closer, someone was calling out in return. The timer was almost up. They weren't going to make it. 

Danny returned to himself with a gasp of air, sweat trailed down his skin. Clockwork hovered over him as he took deep shuddering breaths, radiating concern like a parent who just watched their child fall while climbing a tree. He held Danny's shaking hands in his until they stilled. When he finally could, Danny lifted his head to make eye contact with his mentor.

Danny was too tired for this nonsense. He didn't understand why Clockwork couldn't do this. But, Clockwork stated that he was too busy for it. Didn't have time. As if he didn't have endless time at his fingertips. Whatever.

Sighing, Danny sits backwards in a chair with a confused Flash in front of him. With a click of a button, the presentation turns on behind him.

I wonder: If Danny became clockwork's apprentice, how would that change him?

His heart changes. Beating a pace that neither goes faster nor slower regardless of what he does - almost to the ticking of a clock. His core tends to pulsate when angry, almost like a clock that chimes the hour - heavy, overwhelming, almost visible in his aura.

His pupils gain clock hands when he applies Clockwork's teachings about controlling time, but when he's viewing a timeline? Its as though his eyes were a set of mirrors that go for eternity, each dragging you deeper and deeper until you can no longer see where it began or where it ends. The changes between each are miniscule, yet stark when compared with the present.