Archive of Our Own

He was dying. He could feel it.

Danny lay on a detached rock in the Ghost Zone, struggling to take each oncoming breath. Danny grimly wondered, for a moment, what would happen if he simply stopped putting the effort in to breathe. Would his human side continue to fight the losing battle to live, or would his ghost half simply welcome it? 

Maybe that was a question he should have asked the scientists he’d barely managed to fly away from.

Ectoplasm pooled around his body, a river of neon green beginning to form and steadily dripping into the void of the ghost zone. A shiver wrought its way through Danny’s spine, and he couldn’t help the next bout of coughing that stung like hell.

Well, at least he was starting to lose feeling in a few places. In the back of Danny’s mind, he knew that was the opposite of good news, and that something must be awfully wrong for that to start happening. 

There was also the other problem with his… vision. His left eye was fine, but his depth perception was completely off and when he had both eyes open, the Ghost Zone was tinted in a much deeper green than what Danny remembered was normal. 

His right eye was especially sending throbbing aches directly to his brain, but right now he couldn’t find it in himself to care too much. Everything else that wasn’t his left leg or his abdomen was in manageable condition.

The floating piece of land Danny decided to take a rest on was doing little to help him in the resting department too - the hard ground was not doing him any favors in regards to his pain, and every couple minutes Danny had to force himself not to instinctively phase through the land. 

He couldn’t use any more energy for anything besides keeping himself from changing back.

Danny needed to stay in ghost form. If he happened to let go and allow his body to change back, his injuries would carry over. If he couldn’t change back to Phantom again - it was game over. He would die as a human in the ghost zone, all alone, and no one would ever know what happened to him. 

His family will be sitting at the kitchen table, ectoplasm staining their goggles because they couldn’t bother to take their suits off after work. They’d wait for an hour or so after he was supposed to be let out of school, and go back to the lab to sort out the mess they’d created. Ten o’ clock would hit and then they’d start pacing the living room. Call Jazz maybe, who’d start freaking out at two am when he still hadn’t phased through his window, tossing the thermos to the side before collapsing in bed. 

They’d start a search the following afternoon when they didn’t receive a call from the Foley or Manson house. Upend the town and shout for their painfully human scaredy cat of a son who couldn’t stand the stress of their haunted house anymore.

Maybe then they would actually put the pieces together. Start seeing the similarities of the grooves in his hands and his eyes and his pleading voice– 

Okay. No, don’t think about that. He’s dying. One thing at a time. He’s going to bleed out if he doesn’t do something. How does he buy time?

Danny reflexively uses his arm to apply more pressure on his side, where they’d taken out— Nope.

Don’t think about that, don’t think about that, think about literally anything else, like—

Danny hissed, then gasped and heaved from the spike of pain he’d inflicted when his hand dug too close into the wound. Breathing deeply, he waited for the ache to subside to a basic throbbing.

Shit. Ok. Not that. No pressure. Haha.

Danny thinks he’d discussed something like this with Sam and Tucker before. If something super catastrophic were to happen during a fight. Like if Valerie managed to get close enough to deal a fatal blow or if he was able to get a safe distance away after Skulker legitimately tried to skin him.

They’d read about methods to do emergency first aid in cases where he wouldn’t be close enough to Jazz or either of them to help. 

Create pressure on the wounds, elevate the limbs above the heart to allow circulation, stay still. 

Running through these options and looping them in his head, Danny dismissed all of them, knowing he’d already done all he could. 

At this point, he’s just running out the clock.

At the thought, Danny untensed and let himself fall limp on the floating rock, one leg dangling out over the edge, just like he would when he’d have a few extra moments to lie in bed before getting up for school. 

Just five more minutes , he thought. Then Danny would try to get up and do something about his problems again. He was so exhausted. He just needed a break.

Danny let the minutes pass, and he soon lost any sense to try to even keep track of the time when his eyelids started to flutter and close. The pool of neon green had since created a small little river that flowed off the edge of the rock, dripping off into space.

Eventually, something disturbed his peace. The far away sound of rockets and artificial voice of a cyborg breaking through the silence would do that to you.

“Plasmius,” The voice said from the edge of Danny’s hearing. 

Skulker, Danny warily thought. It’s Skulker. I should get up. I need to get up.

But he could only manage a few twitches of his fingers. Still, the rising panic was beginning to chase away the crashing adrenaline in his body. Meanwhile, Skulker kept speaking, but not to Danny. To Plasmius, the hunter had said.

“I’ve found the ghost child. And according to his energy level readings, his integrity is critical. The whelp is at two and steadily dropping.”

“… make certain… stabil… -stand?” 

“I’m aware.” Came Skulker’s reply. 

More radio feedback. And then Danny felt the ground softly vibrate. The hunter was stepping forwards, and it sent a small spark of primal fear stabbing through his core.

“G-get away from…me.” Danny managed to croak, strength starting to surge through his limbs again. 

He tried to lift himself, but all he could manage in the moment was a mere inch backwards, and Danny had to collapse on his side again. 

“Or what, prey?” Skulker’s voice spoke closer to him. He had knelt down. “For once, there is nothing stopping me from ending your misery and keeping your pelt for myself. However… I have a deal with my employer. Don’t bother fighting. You’ll last longer that way.” Skulker leveled one of his robotic arms, charging a blast of… something. Danny didn’t want to find out.

Just as a blue net shot from the ghost’s arm, Danny found the energy to roll out of the way, letting the projectile sail wide over his head. The action wasn’t without consequence, though.

Another stab of his pain ripped through his abdomen and the leg he had used to push himself away, and Danny couldn’t help but cry out. 

Idiot! Danny yelled at himself internally. Ow, ow, ow, fuck! Don’t you remember what they took from your leg!? 

No. Forget it. 

“Skulker, what are you waiting for?” Plasmius’ voice angrily cracked through the speaker on Skulker’s wrist. He almost sounded anxious.  “Stabilize the boy already.”

“I’m working on it, Plasmius! Don’t get your cape in a twist.”

Plasmius is involved, Danny reminded himself. Of course. Even when he was at his lowest, strewn out on some rock in the middle of the Ghost Zone, the evil man could not just let him die in peace.

“Why- d-don’t you just… kill me already?” Danny said weakly through pained gasps. “Whatever… that fruitloop wants from me? I don’t… want any part of it!”

Skulker growled, his frustration evident with how he was forcefully punching commands into his ecto-suit’s control panel. And now he was stepping closer, his boot picking up mottled green stains as he stepped on the ectoplasm Danny had left when he had moved away.

Danny fruitlessly tried to scramble away again at the cyborg’s approach, only creating more of that green trail for Skulker to displace. The hunter had a familiar small blue energy cube floating in his hand now.

“This isn’t your choice anymore, whelp. The minute you began to exist as a half-ghost was the minute you became an interest to all ghost and human kind. Just as I have made you my quarry, so has my employer kept an eye on you… albeit for different reasons I do not care for. So you will stay still. You will rest, and I will take you to Plasmius so he may keep you alive - or not. I have no say in those matters. But I am not leaving empty-handed.”

Skulker then paused in his advance, and let out a sigh of resignation. 

“As the ghost zone’s greatest hunter, however, I am not without honor. So Phantom, let me ask, and let yourself answer truthfully. Do you wish to die?”

Danny’s efforts stalled in the shock of what he had just heard. Was Skulker… seriously giving him a choice? 

But…

Did he wish to die?

But what kind of question was that? Was the hunter really giving him an option that would put his work for Plasmius in jeopardy? And not just that…

It was a strange offer from Skulker. His motives that caused chaos around Amity Park was for the glory of the hunt, chasing strange ghosts to capture for his collection and more often than not, that ghost being Danny. Over time, Danny became certain that the hunter wasn’t actually always out to kill him and ‘hang his pelt on a wall’ like he said. It was in the way he never removed the purpleback gorilla program, interrupting him in crucial moments where Danny would be at his limit in a fight with the hunter. Heck, even with Technus being one of his close friends now, Danny thought it would be long gone at this point. Funnily enough, he bet the program wasn’t currently operating on his suit. Just for this assignment.

And seeing how the hunter was staying eerily still, awaiting his response with his blade tightly held at his side, it was easy to see the signals of his reluctance. It was why Danny found himself believing in the hunter’s sincerity. 

So, he had his way out after all. No need to run anymore.

“Danny. Stay awake… stay here with me. Put pressure on it,”

The words, Danny remembered, were said to him in a situation similar to this one. When he was leaning on the side of a brick building, ectoplasm pooling onto concrete instead of rock.

His hand that was currently flat on the ground was covered in that ectoplasm. This time though, the palm of it, Danny knew, had been precisely cut open and was still bleeding. It barely hurt anymore. He flexed his fingers, then curled them and made a fist. 

“Put pressure on it. If you’re ever in this situation again, put that pressure on yourself just a little while longer,” Jazz had said to him one night. He’d passed out a couple of blocks away from their house after a particularly nasty run-in with Valerie, and was able to find him with the Boo-merang. He remembered her carrying him back to the house and stitching him up in the bathroom upstairs. “If you do that, you’ll buy yourself more time for one of us to find you. I know it’s horrible and I hate to tell you this. Heck, I hate to even think about it! Of you dying out there and us not being close enough to help… but just promise me you’ll at least do that if worst comes to worst.”

Danny let out a breathy chuckle, coughing more of that copper-tasting ectoplasm out of his mouth. 

Heh. Alright, I’ll hold out. I’ll put more pressure on it. On myself. Just a while longer.

“No pressure,” Danny muttered, before fixing Skulker with a glare that could probably rival Valerie’s own. He hoped it conveyed everything he felt in the moment. The green filter that had engulfed his vision ever since he escaped deepened in hue, and he felt something that wasn’t quite tears leak from his eyes from the pressure.

Something in his expression must have startled Skulker. The hunter stepped back a couple of paces, but other than that it was hard to discern the cyborg’s emotional reaction. Go figure.

“… So be it.” 

In the next moment, Danny became encased in the familiar blue cube from the last time he was kidnapped and taken to Vlad by Skulker. It was unbelievable that Danny had let this happen again, but the circumstances were just that fucked.

Everything felt slow. And cold. It was as if he was beginning to freeze, but it didn’t burn like bare skin touching a lamppost in the middle of winter. It felt more like a pile of melting snow, if Danny had to give a sense to it. 

He let himself fall into it, and closed his right eye, which had lessened to a dull throb. His surroundings took in that clear blue sky tint instead of the foggy green.

Danny held out as long as he could, just out of spite. But eventually, he couldn’t stop himself from passing out. He wanted sleep more than anything, and something about what had just happened made him welcome that darkness all the more. 

Before Danny lost himself to his surroundings, he’d looked to his abdomen, where the worst injury was, and his last thought was about how curious it was that his ectoplasm wasn’t flowing like a river anymore. 

He’d stopped bleeding.

Vlad paced incessantly around his lab, the Ghost Portal’s entrance taunting him with its glow. Daniel was out there, barely alive, and the anxiety on whether he would still be alive when Skulker returned was threatening to swallow Vlad up. 

Maybe he should just meet Skulker at a pass. 

Such a thing would be pointless, however. He could only fly faster than Skulker’s newly modified ectoskeleton on a good day, and he dismissed all intrusive thoughts of teleporting from wherever he was and back. It would simply take too much energy to travel that distance,  and all for little benefit.

Just as his climbing anxiety was about to bring him to page Skulker again, the swirling and shifting of his portal heralded the arrival of the hunter. Vlad looked towards the cyborg, zero-ing in on the sight of his charge, prone and senseless in the Stabilizer, and the man felt himself go pale. 

“What in the name of the ancients!?” Vlad exclaimed in horror.

It was a gruesome sight. 

Phantom was the most mutilated Vlad had ever seen him. There were so many medically clean cuts littered across his body, as if each one had been methodically planned out and intentional. Two major ones across his leg and abdomen were bleeding profusely. The slowly dulling pool of ectoplasm had nearly filled the corners of the containment chamber, and Vlad would have believed the boy was already fully dead if it weren’t for the stuttering, slowed rise and fall of his chest that the stabilizing chamber was greatly assisting with.

Vlad didn’t want to believe it. He almost couldn’t believe it, but the physical evidence was staring right at him, just as he stared through one of his bug’s cameras at the Fenton’s lab only a couple of hours ago. 

Ice had crawled up his spine then. Now, he was completely frozen.

Maddie and Jack were… they had… actually gone and set out what they wanted to do. Capture the ghost boy and rip him apart to see what exactly made him different from the other ectoplasmic entities they researched.

“It really is fascinating, Vlad.” Maddie said to him one day in the Fenton’s living room. “We found some samples of Phantom’s ectoplasm after a fight of his. Some leopard ghost in the mall managed to pierce his form from what one of the employees told us while they were wreaking havoc in an outlet.”

“And get this, Vladdy!” Jack interceded. Maddie grinned, the corners of her mouth reaching her eyes, her eyes lighting up like they always did when Jack made a discovery. “ The ectoplasm was dry.”

“It coagulated,” Maddie lightly elaborated. “Almost as if it was mimicking the way human blood would whenever our body’s natural healing processes start. I expected a sample from the ghost boy would help us prove some of our hypotheses on our research, but now there are so many more questions than answers about this one ghost. Because never, in all my life researching this, have I ever seen a ghost so fully committing to projecting that it is alive. Capturing a ghost that can so accurately recall what its human self was like? The leaps and bounds paranormal science would go through if we could only just get Phantom in our lab...”

Vlad left shortly after. And though he proudly kept his composure, he mentally berated himself when Maddie’s eyebrows lifted as she took his half-finished tea from him. 

“Gosh, Vlad, your cup is still warm! Are you sure you won’t stay any longer?” She had remarked.

“I mustn’t keep you up so late, my dear. But perhaps some other time in the future, I would be delighted to.” Maybe when he felt less unsettled by her ghost-hunting enthusiasm. The tea tasted bland, anyhow, as if the beverage hadn’t been allowed to steep for long, but he didn’t comment. 

Vlad straightened his tie, but as he paused on the threshold, he glanced at the stairwell, where Daniel had been sitting on the top steps. The boy was looking away, his arms resting on his knees. The shadows of the unlit rooms behind him were cresting over his figure, and Vlad didn’t catch his eye. 

Still, it was clear that Daniel had heard everything. 

And yet, Vlad had lacked the foresight to trust that the boy would heed the warning that his mother had all but delivered to him on a silver platter. But could he really blame himself? Daniel had always proven to be quite resourceful in evading his parents that he’d never thought of a situation where something like this would actually happen. It was a situation too horrible to consider really happening, but it was. 

It was as if a boulder had been dropped in the pit of Vlad’s stomach, and he was struggling to keep himself from drowning under the dread of it all. 

But as it stands, Vlad didn’t have time to think more on it. Not in the middle of the actual catastrophe. And only he was able to administer the damage control.

The man quickly took stock of the boy’s condition once more, a mental list forming on every emergency first-aid procedure he knew in the back of his mind.

The boy was so injured that Vlad knew that as soon as Skulker had the stabilizing cube dissipate, Phantom would be in danger of reverting back to his weaker human self. It wouldn’t take long for the boy to bleed out after– perhaps five minutes at the most. Which means Vlad would have to work quickly in order to keep Daniel in his ghost form.

Amidst his panicked thinking, the minute hand on his watch ticked over. 

“Plasmius, if you wish for the ghost child to live, I’d get to work.” Skulker admonished, a hint of barely concealed concern lining his voice. Perhaps Vlad would have begun to question that further, if the situation were not so dire.

“Ye-Yes, you’re right. Of course,” He still needs the boy alive, after all. No doubt about it. 

He felt his core flare with a surge of energy. He wouldn't fail.

The plan began to form rapidly in the man’s head, his body moving on autopilot in setting up his lab and medical station for the tasks ahead. Each tick of a second would be precious. Every turn of a minute would be priceless. 

The billionaire knew that he was going to have a long night ahead of him.

Vlad wiped the sweat from his forehead, leaving smudges of ectoplasm in its wake. He exited his lab, the groaning of the fireplace door grinding to a halt once he reached the seating area. 

The man groaned, allowing himself to collapse into his library’s single seater as he changed back into his human self. The exhaustion weighed on him like thousands of pounds of lead.

Overall, the procedure went smoothly, and Vlad knew that the boy was at least not in mortal danger anymore. The combination of medical equipment he’d invented for himself as well as the pharmaceuticals he’d been able to develop were responsible for a large part of his current success. 

If the situation was any less dire, he’d be immensely prideful of himself and of his accomplishment.

The worst part, though, was how Daniel had woken up halfway through his work. 

The boy’s eyelids had shot open, and even though the surgical light Vlad had put on was bright and focused on his form, the residual energy from Phantom’s right eye socket flared like a spotlight in the countryside. It had bathed the lab in that sickly, terrifying neon green. Ectoplasmic energy wasn’t to be seen or interacted in such a raw state. For it to be so rampantly flowing in Phantom was impressive. 

Vlad had theorized that Phantom (and himself to an extent) had more raw ectoplasmic energy potential than the average ghost of the same registered energy level, but this was the first time he was able to verify it.

It simply went to show how unique his and the boy’s species was. And how, if nurtured correctly, how dangerously powerful Phantom could be in the future.

If only Daniel’s will had shown the same in the few minutes he was conscious.

The spotlight had barely lasted a few seconds, but when it had dimmed, Daniel was in hysterics. Vlad could only guess that the boy suspected he was back in the hell his parents had created for him. He’d screamed and cried out, immediately undoing some of the progress Vlad had made.

Unfortunately, in order for the man to continue unimpeded, he not only needed to inject the boy with a larger than expected anesthetic to put him under, but he decided to fasten restraints on him should he wake up again. 

Turns out, Vlad didn’t need to worry. It didn’t need to happen again, and it took just one minute or so for the boy to fall unconscious again. 

When the boy fell senseless, Vlad was struck by a feeling akin to disappointment, but still an aching in his heart that he couldn’t quite place. Only now did Vlad realize why that was.

Daniel had given in so easily.

Vlad had the passing thought of Danny finally making the decision to renounce his parents and stay with him as a likely outcome of this. However, Vlad feared the possibility of all of that raw potential being squandered away due to the emotional strain. 

He hoped he was wrong.

Vlad found himself walking to a more moderately sized wine cabinet he kept in his office, choosing one of his favorite reds and pouring himself a glass. He knew he’d be needing at least a few more glasses of it to get himself drunk on account of his half-ghost status, so he deigned to grab the bottle and set it down on the table beside him.

It’d be the only way he’d be able to get himself to sleep tonight. Damn the consequences of a particularly bad hangover the next morning. 

The likelihood of Daniel waking back up tomorrow was negligible. He put the young half-ghost under strong, stabilizing pain meds he’d made for ghosts and himself, which meant he probably wouldn’t need to check up on him for twenty-four hours at the absolute latest.

Sitting back down, Vlad rubbed his temple to soothe the incoming headache, running through the list of the boy’s damages in his head again in order to soothe the raging anxiety in his stomach.

A spleen. 

Someone could live without that, but the risk of infection is higher. The liver could still help create white blood cells and regulate cellular waste, but…

Considering the boy got injured more often than not due to his extracurricular activities, any future exposed injury was susceptible to becoming fatal. 

A couple of ribs. 

It puts the bottom left of Daniel’s lungs in greater danger of being punctured, or worst case - long term issues breathing properly. One of the most vulnerable areas the child now has.

A fibula, taken from the left leg. 

The loss of an important bone like that… the consequences were clear. Daniel would never be able to walk properly again. 

An eye. 

Vlad focused on the reunion photo he kept on the fireplace mantle, watching the way he had shoved Jack away, his grin and affection being directed only to his dear Madeline. Her gaze had luckily, and sweetly met his own when the picture was taken. Jasmine’s smugness was not all too different from his as she crossed her arms and smiled into the camera, and then there was Daniel.

Who was glaring at him like always.

A fire that was familiar. Defiant. Insolent. Foolishly, and infuriatingly, brave. The most indicative sign that Daniel had a spirit that could not be done in by anyone easily.

And gone.

Vlad vaguely felt the wine glass crack and shatter beneath his grip. Red began to seep into the corners of his vision, and he let out a breath of heavy, hot air. 

The wine that was now coating his dress shirt, slacks, and arm felt like the blood— the ectoplasm he was unable to wash from his medical equipment. The stinging bits of shards that had pierced the palm of his hand only served to make him more enraged. 

Once again, in the short span of a day, Jack - and Maddie, this time - his mind whispered, ruined his plans for the future. The heir he had chosen, that he was destined to build as his greatest legacy, was broken in just a few short hours. Made imperfect. Useless. Weak.

Another betrayal of the utmost order.

The second wind of energy came to him instantaneously.

In a rage, Vlad had leapt up and swiped the reunion photo off the mantle. He threw the frame across the room, blasting it to bits with a precise ectoblast from his eyes. The scorched remnants of the photo fluttered down like withered flower petals, before those too were incinerated by the man’s red energy.

The room began to heat up with a chilling, scornful malice, that unmistakable rage of his vengeful ghost darkening the private study the way it had never been before, as he had only felt like this one other time before. In a hospital bathroom, twenty-one long years ago.

The desk light flickered before popping from the magenta energy that had encased it, and the flames from the fireplace began to glow a malicious and unnatural shade of red as it began to grow higher than the chimney could keep it. 

For the second time in those twenty-one years, all sense of Vlad’s composure that he’d built up over the years dissipated.

The ghost that had exploded from Masters became uncaring as it began to wreak havoc upon every significant piece of memorabilia within.

Yearbooks, spiritual artifacts of every kind, every photo he had ever kept and found of Maddie Fenton, levitated off of their shelves and disintegrated under the enormous pressure of Plasmius’ wrath. 

His personal computer also became a victim, sparking and then sprouting into magenta flames. Plasmius couldn't care less about it. He couldn't care less about anything, because all that had mattered was his beautifully envisioned future also erupting in flames before him.

Eventually, Plasmius’ rage dulled from a blaze into a small flame, before it then simmered and sputtered out. The fireplace was left only with faintly glowing magenta embers littering the base from where it had seared and blackened the mantle. Pages of priceless books were ashes. Shards of vases and glasses had melted into unrecognizable messes. Dust littered the once-stainless red carpet that had blanketed the study, and Vlad, finally spent, fell to his knees, his ghost form having dissolved away from him.

When he finally managed to retire to his chambers, Vlad was in such a hazy state that he would wake up the next morning at an ungodly late hour, his dress shirt rumpled and greasy hair falling disgracefully around his unshaven face.

Worst of all, the last, and most pressing question still remained unanswered, and echoed incessantly in his mind until he lost consciousness. It would haunt him when he would traipse through that following morning, and Vlad would put himself into a work-obsessed stupor, going through every frame of footage that could betray the answer he so desperately wished for.

Do Jack and Maddie know what they’ve done?

Do they know who their son is?

Do they know who he is?

Do they know?

Do they know?

Do they know?

Three days later

Everything felt like it was underwater.

As if he was submerged under miles of ocean water, there was a pressure around his whole body that kept him from making even the slightest commands to move any portion of his body.

At least it felt comfortable, though. It was warm and soft, as if he was wrapped in a cocoon, and that’s where all the pressure was arising from. Danny nearly wanted to sink into it again, convincing himself that he was just on the edges of a very pleasant dream.

It was interrupted when in an attempt to twist himself in a slightly more comfortable position, a spike of fire entered from his leg and pierced the rest of his body. A whimper escaped from his throat from the movement.

“Do you receive the urge to move and hurt yourself every time you gain consciousness, boy?” 

Vlad’s voice cut through the static in Danny’s brain like a knife, and he opened his left eye to the dimly lit room. 

It took a few blinks in order to rid his vision of the daze and stars he saw, and he also found that no matter how many times he did so, he couldn’t get his right eye to respond. It was as if it was stitched shut. Still, the more pressing matter was trying to figure out where he was, and why Vlad seemed to be in the same room with him. 

Once again, he observed, the room was dark. There was a single light that was on, and it was coming from Danny’s left side. It must be some sort of lamp on a nightstand. A familiar shadow was casting over him too, obscuring more of its brightness so the glare wasn’t directly in his sight. He was slightly grateful for that. It’d only intensify the headache he was experiencing.

He was covered under a mountain of blankets, his head also lying on the most comfortable pillow he’d ever had the chance to sleep on. Danny also vaguely felt how there was strange material covering most of his body, and the only other separation between him and the blankets being that and a light bit of clothing. Something like a linen sheet? A hospital gown?

Letting out a strained cough, Danny licked his dry lips and tested the muscles in his right hand, trying to work feeling back into his fingers. He shifted, and identified the material he felt on his body as swaths of bandages. 

His mouth was like sandpaper when he dryly swallowed, and he still felt as if he was floating. Yeah, everything sucked. It was like he had been out through a meat grinder, more than a couple of times. 

At least it felt like he was above the surface of a lake now, though.

More pressingly though, he could finally lightly sense, and was able to focus on the hovering figure of Vlad Masters. He’d recognize the silhouette anywhere, as well as the pompous and pristine black suit and tie the billionaire always wore. 

Danny reflexively grit his teeth.

“I will take that as a yes.”

Danny must have managed to make a scowl. He shifted, then immediately regretted it again when multiple sections of his body lit up in throbbing bits of pain, chasing away the fog but bringing back a multitude of stars back in his eye. 

When they eventually faded away into a dull throb, Danny noticed that there surprisingly hadn’t been any more acknowledgement, explanations or interjections from Vlad. Danny supposed he’d interject on what Vlad was busying himself with, then. 

“...Where am I?” He croaked. After blinking a few times more, Danny was slowly able to answer his own question. The expensive sheets, a dim chandelier bouncing the glare of the lamplight throughout the rest of the room, and the shape of those Victorian-style curtains poised on the window. It was…

“My manor,” Vlad confirmed. He was moving about the bedside, slightly distracted with something he was working on. “I surely thought I had saved enough of your blood for you to realize that. You could certainly use more rest then, I suppose. I will make this check-in procedure quick, then.”

Danny could admittedly, barely follow what the man was saying.

He was able to make out the words ‘save’, ‘blood’, and ‘procedure’, though.

“What… am I doing here? What procedure? I don’t…”

Danny’s eye widened, and his breathing became shorter.

He remembered sirens. Of being restrained to a cold metal table. A moment when he felt power and terror course through his core, being let out into his wail. Of flying away into the green-tinted ether until he couldn’t anymore. Skulker. Blue. Then nothing.

Vlad paused, sensing his reaction.

“Do you remember what happened?” The man asked softly, as if he were treading on broken glass. And perhaps he was. The question was starting to make him dig through his memories, and Danny absolutely did not want to do that right now. He vaguely knew where they led, and it was nothing he wanted to revisit again so soon.

“…No,” He denied, trying to calm down. Still, those blurry images that felt projected from an old television filtered into his mind anyway. Bright red and turquoise goggles stained green. Phantom pains running down his leg in a precise line. Begging them to stop, please stop, you don’t understand what you’re doing- 

Danny’s hand moved to grab his side, where he poked through the rough material of the gauze, inflicting a spike of agony through his body. Just as quickly as they entered, his thoughts devolved to static. “Not really,” he lied.

Vlad made a disbelieving scoff, focusing back on the work he was doing on the end table. Danny watched apprehensively as he saw the man finish preparing a needle with a faintly glowing blue liquid.

“Wh-what are you– agh!” Danny tried to move away by attempting to sit up, but only succeeded in letting another stab of pain trace up from his abdomen. 

Vlad’s hand landed on his shoulder, pushing him back down.

“Calm yourself, child. It is merely a painkiller. The previous ones I administered are already wearing themselves out, correct? You work through them quickly, Little Badger.”

Danny took a few longer breaths, trying to get his breathing under control. 

Even though he was far from what he knew put him in this state, and that Vlad had something to do with the fact that he was alive and patched up, Danny’s mind still screamed at him that he was in danger.

“I don’t care. I don’t want anything from you,” Danny rasped.

“After you’ve already deprived me of so much? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Daniel, and certainly don’t stop here. You’ve received nearly a week’s worth of expert medical services and the most comfortable inpatient care one can get. You do want it to continue, don’t you?”

Danny licked his lips again, his eye flitting back to the needle and Vlad again. The side of his chest was still pulsing with fire from when he pulled it earlier. He hoped he wasn’t letting as much nervousness line his words as it sounded.

“... It won’t do anything else?”

Vlad chuckled morosely. “No, aside from the added benefit of an easier rest.”

So, it would knock him out later, Danny figured.

Danny turned his head away from Vlad as he weighed his options. Going back to sleep wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world right now. Being awake certainly sucked, though. If he was getting a free ride to avoid his current problem, he’d take it. 

Danny untensed his muscles and relaxed back into the pillows. Understanding it as a sign to continue, Vlad deftly disinfected his left shoulder and injected the syringe. Soon enough, a cold, numbing river coursed from there to the rest of his body, and Danny sighed at the sensation of his pain receding to a more manageable level.

After a moment, Danny flexed the fingers on his left hand, which was the one that wasn’t currently wrapped up in layers of gauze. He tried to ignore whatever else Vlad was doing, testing out his current ability. Getting his muscles to respond took a great deal of his concentration, but he was able to curl them inwards after a minute. There wasn’t much feeling in doing so now that the cold sensation was making its way through his body, but a slight sting still traveled its way up his arm, making Danny wince.

Amidst his struggle, Vlad was still here. And he was still talking.

“I’m sure you’ve realized by now that your body can heal itself far better and faster than any normal human’s can. However, we still have limits. There are some things that not even ghostly regeneration can fix for us. So, where to start? Well, I suppose I’ll give you the good news first.”

Danny stared at Vlad with unease. The billionaire had taken a clipboard that had been resting on a pop-up medical table that had been on his bedside, and was paging through it as if he had to remind himself of collateral information he had on Danny’s physical state.

As if he couldn’t already mentally list them all like a mad scientist would recite their passion.

“From the physical evidence, it appears your parents were at the absolute least, careful–” Vlad spit the word out like it was poison. “Once they saw they were dealing with a ghost that could mimic the human body as perfectly as Phantom does. They only opted to take out parts that a human could, theoretically, live without. Hence your right eye. Your spleen. A couple of ribs. A fibula. Of course, you run a higher risk of becoming sickly and injuring yourself further with the loss of these, but their desire to prolong their research on Phantom was a blessing.” 

What?

He managed to lift his hand slowly up towards his face, where it brushed against a swath of bandages when he touched his right cheek. It confirmed what the odd pressure had been there ever since he woke up, and his heart started to beat faster when he got closer to where his eye was. Or where it wasn’t. He knew there was nothing there. He’d seen–

He’d seen it happen. He’d felt it happen.

“You’re calling what they did a blessing?” Danny murmured in despair. His other hand fisted the sheets, his arms beginning to shake with rising anger. “A blessing would have been if I had just managed to get away from them in time.”

“Perhaps, but you didn’t. At last, the consequence of misusing your powers has caught up to you. At the same time, for once I must admit that you have more than paid the price.”

Danny didn’t respond. He was still reeling from what Vlad had just told him. He wasn’t quite sure what exactly had happened while he was under his parents’ tools and scalpels and saws…

Vlad confirming the results only made everything so much more real.

It couldn’t be happening, this can’t have happened, there’s just no way—

“I’m actually quite surprised at their self-control for not ripping your core out once they discovered that this was the organ that all of your blood vessels were leading to. Unless… you didn’t let them get that far?” The man continued, unaware or ignoring Danny’s internal panic.

Danny saw Vlad reach towards his chest, and he instinctively caught the man’s wrist in his hand before he got any closer. 

“Don’t touch me,” Danny growled.

“Such unnecessary hostility,” Vlad tutted, who easily phased out of Danny’s meager grip. “There’s nothing I haven’t already seen and tended to.”

The statement made Danny shudder internally. He hated that, the fact that Vlad had probably seen and inspected every part of him. 

Strangely, it was one thing for his parents to do so on the pretense that they had Phantom on their examination table, but they were also his parents. In hindsight, it was crazy for Danny to think of what happened being less invasive than what the man could have done while he had him in his lab.

And unlike his parents, Vlad also knew exactly what he was. Adding the fact that he was obsessed with Danny from the start, it just felt so much worse. 

His breathing began to pick up, and the edges of panic began to creep in from beneath his skin. He wasn’t restrained this time, but he also couldn’t really move. Everything still felt foggy and unbalanced, with even the slightest movement of his head being a chore. 

He still felt trapped. Vulnerable. Helpless. Being all three of those things in Vlad’s mansion? With Vlad constantly watching over him? It was another one of Danny’s never-ending living nightmares. And when he was like this…

What else could Vlad have done to him while he was under?

“What have you done to me?” He couldn’t stop himself from asking. 

“Other than bringing you back from near-death? Nothing, dear boy.”

“I don’t believe you,” Danny roughly said.

“It matters not whether you do or you don’t. You are alive, albeit in a poor condition, and I will be keeping you alive whether you like it or not. No use in wasting away all of my hard work, after all.” Vlad poured a glass of water from a pitcher, took a drink from it himself, and set it down on the end table. Out of reach. Asshole.

It was then that Danny realized that the man looked more haggard than usual. His suit was actually rumpled, the tie untied and loosely hanging around his collar. His hair was also not in his usual ponytail, and it was ruffled as if he’d taken it out roughly in some daze earlier.

“Yeah? Did you do all that hard work while you were drunk off your ass?” Danny accused, sarcasm lining his tone.

The man glared at him. “It was a long and arduous process. It took a few years off of my life as well.” 

“Not like you had much to begin with.” 

“I’d watch your tongue, boy.” Vlad snapped, who slammed a hand down on the night table, causing the medical supplies to rattle. It nearly made Danny flinch. “You should be grateful that I had been watching when I did. If it weren’t for me, you would be lying dead on an examination table. And when I say dead ,” Vlad’s eyes flashed red for the second he made the accentuation. “I quite literally mean fully dead. All of your ghost energy would have been spent. Your core would have been harvested and taken apart, and your soul would vanish into the ether. There is no coming back in any sense after that. A truly abysmal ending for one such as yourself.”

“...What are you saying? That you saved me and because of that you’re looking for me to fall to my knees and thank you?” Danny retorted. “I never asked for your help, and you expect me to think I owe you? Yeah, right. Whatever catch you’re imagining I’d agree to, it’s not happening.”

“There is no catch, Little Badger. At least, none that you haven’t already agreed to. If you die, it puts your secret in jeopardy. If you recall, that also applies to me. Understand that I cannot be having that.”

“Now that makes sense,” Danny muttered, leaning back into the sheets. A pause, and then Danny took a deep breath. 

“How did you do it?” Danny softly asked.

Vlad didn’t respond immediately. Instead, Danny heard his footsteps retreat from his bedside, and he looked to see the man’s hands behind his back, pondering his words as he looked out of the open window. Danny didn’t see the point. It was dark outside.

Vlad’s tongue clicked. “I didn’t get to see everything,” Vlad softly said. “But I was able to parse out a moment, after much work in finding a way to hack into your parents’ systems under a brief time limit, where I could disable the lab’s capabilities, giving you your chance.”

“... And they’re fine?”

A flash of red reflected from the window for a couple of seconds before it vanished. 

“Yes, they’re fine,” Vlad grumbled darkly. “I haven’t taken the chance to retaliate, and I was never at the scene myself.”

Haven’t taken the chance to, Danny repeated the man's words inwardly. As if he wanted to hurt them. Both of them. His dad and his mom.

“Don’t go after them,” Danny pleaded, even though he knew it was pointless to ask. He was powerless right now, and he’d have a negative chance of even trying to stop the man from anything he’d want to do to his family. 

Vlad sighed in frustration. “How you bring yourself to keep caring about them is beyond me. After what they did, they’d deserve so much worse than what I could think to imagine for them. But don’t worry. I’d rather give you my full, undivided attention at the moment.” He said, walking back to the bedside.

“So, in respect for my time," Vlad continued, "If you could do me the favor of informing me on the consequences of your escapade, I would appreciate it.”

Danny’s eye widened in incredulity at the man.

“Are you serious?” Danny harshly whispered. “You know the ‘consequences’. You just listed them off like a line of products at some store. You just said you watched it.”

“I meant of the immaterial kind,” Vlad growled. 

When it was clear Danny didn’t have an idea of what Vlad meant, the billionaire elaborated.

“Did they learn of your secret?” Vlad slowly asked. The question was asked with a dangerous undertone, and Danny was reminded that he was at the man’s mercy at the moment. 

Danny swallowed dryly.

“I don’t know.”

Red seeped into Vlad’s irises, giving them that unnatural crimson glow to them. Though the rest of the man’s posture was calm, it betrayed how truly furious he was.

“This is not something to avoid forever, Daniel. Our safety and my ability to respond to it lies on your shoulders, so you will be telling me what else they might have done or figured out from you.”

“You don’t get to ask me that,” Danny said, just barely managing to keep his voice from breaking. “Get out.”

Keep it together, Danny told himself. He couldn’t break down in front of Vlad of all people. He wouldn’t be able to handle the man’s smug responses of condemnation and ‘I told you so’s’. How he could have been right the entire time when he bet that his parents would never accept him for who he is.

“Are you deaf!? I said get out!” Danny shouted, his eye burning with barely-escaping tears. He was only just realizing that he couldn’t feel anything from his right socket. It was making him panic again. Your right eye. Your spleen. A couple of ribs. A fibula, the man had said.

The man’s eyes flooded with red again. He looked ready to retaliate from the blatant disrespect Danny had been exhibiting since he woke up, with his hands fisted at his sides and shaking with rage.

As Danny watched Vlad’s reaction, he knew he was pushing it. He tensed in apprehension, reflexively trying to reach for the cold feeling in his chest. It fluttered weakly, and Danny realistically knew there wasn’t much he could do to defend himself. And surely, this would be the moment the man snapped and finally decided to hurt him, or maybe finally rid the thorn in his side. 

But Vlad instead closed his eyes, and then after a moment the crimson from them had faded. Something in the man’s demeanor changed. All of his visible rage seemed to dissipate, like a tropical storm that suddenly changes course in the summertime.

“Alright,” Vlad relented. “But you are sorely mistaken if you believe this conversation ends here. You will be answering me.” 

The man looked like he wanted to say something else as he paused before leaving the room, but instead Danny saw him clench a fist and close the door behind him. Danny could hear the lock click before the sound of Vlad’s shoes rhythmically fading out before disappearing completely.

Danny felt himself untense and fell into the pillows, his awareness already starting to dim again from the medication Vlad had administered to him.

What were his parents thinking of right now? Were they worried about how he never came back home? And his friends? How could he face them now, as he is?

He had to fix everything somehow. He needed to, or else everything would fall apart. 

But right now, he was also so tired.

Tears finally spilled out from the corner of Danny’s eye, before he wiped them away with a shaky huff.

“Damn it.”

As much as he did not want to admit it, Vlad was deathly afraid of Jack and Maddie now. Of the complete puzzle set of evidence they held before them, and of the terrifying eventuality of when they pieced it together. 

What the couple would do with that information, besides turn their ire to Vlad, was how they would use it.

To the older half-ghost, it bordered on an existential crisis. 

After much deliberation, after much pacing and a few more glasses of wine, Vlad was finally able to pull up the feed he’d caught minutes before he cut himself off from viewing it.

He was back down in his lab a few hours after he’d made the combative check-up with Danny, with the motivation and knowledge that he needed to figure out exactly what happened on the day Phantom was captured.

After all, it was possible that the boy himself would not accurately be able to tell him what he desperately wanted to know. He was much too... fragile.

From what the man had been able to piece together, the time period he’d been working with was from 6:00 to around 10:00 at night around three days ago. Phantom had been engaged in a scuffle with Valerie an hour earlier, and then his ghost signature wasn’t recorded into Vlad’s database until 7:00, when his bugs had sensed his presence within the Fentonworks lab. Jack and Maddie must have captured him sometime before then.

Vlad himself was tinkering with another technological project of his when his pre-programmed alarm went off, signaling that Phantom’s energy had spiked beyond its normal level of seven. 

After that, everything felt like a blur for the man. He dropped everything, staring in shock and hearing with sinking terror and dread what had been happening. 

The only action he brought himself to do in the haze of panic that had gripped onto Vlad was to quickly have his bugs disable the lab’s control panel as well as every working item within the Fenton’s lab, prompting the table to undoubtedly lift its restraints and override any genetic locks Vlad knew Jack had installed. 

A powerful scream from Daniel that broke the bug’s auditory processors followed, also nearly knocking out the visual that was still pulled up.

When he saw the portal doors successfully lock themselves, preventing any method for the Fentons to pursue Phantom with the specter speeder, he cut off the feed that had been playing. Vlad was simply unable to watch any longer. Staring at the computer now, he still couldn’t. He didn’t want to know what Jack and Maddie decided to do after the fact. All that mattered was Daniel.

From then on, the night descended into calling Skulker on the emergency trip to retrieve the boy as there was no doubt he would be closer to the Fentonworks portal, and bring him back, hopefully still alive.

However, even though the man was successful on that front, it didn’t keep Vlad from facing the fact that he had failed in his goals to get what he wanted.

The damages to Daniel were incomprehensibly major. 

So much so, that Vlad doubted his ability to physically function as before. There would simply be no chance. In terms of getting exactly what he wanted out of Daniel, such a thing would no longer be possible, and the older half-ghost would have to accept that he may have to switch to his plan B in order to mold the perfect heir he’d always dreamed of.

Vlad’s thought of doing it before. That occasional intrusive thought. If push really came to shove, and if he truly became desperate enough, if it was a lost cause that the original Danny would ever submit to him…

He’d start the cloning project. 

It started out as a vague possibility in his mind. Vlad had majored in biology, taught under one of the best professors in the field who had been doing research into cloning mice at the university. The ability to clone anything nearly as large and complicated as humans was an innovation so far out in the future that it couldn’t be considered yet, but the existence of ghosts and what Vlad had discovered about his own biology put it much closer to the realm of possibility now.

A complete reproduction of the half-ghost could be created, and Vlad would finally have what he wanted. With every part of him perfectly connected and functional. Spirit, mind, and body.

Of course, if the boy became aware of his scheme, and decided not to cooperate, it would certainly not be easy.

“Oh darling!” The Maddie program suddenly materialized in front of Vlad, nearly making him jump from the surprise. Recovering, the man groaned in annoyance, and began to rub his temples.

“Maddie, dear, this is not the time, and I thought I told you—”

“I understand that you have me on do not disturb,” The program continued. “But this is classified as a type three emergency according to your settings! The ghost shield around section fourteen of the manor has been disabled. Main suspected cause: A class five ghost or higher has inverted the shield’s polarity, rendering it useless.”

Inverted polarity. Section fourteen. Vlad did some quick calculations in his head, and to confirm his thought process, glanced at the computer’s clock that read 7:30 am.

“Butter biscuits,” Vlad muttered. “He should have been out for longer. Although, why should I even be surprised? Maddie, please bring up the foyer security camera.”

“Right away, sugarbuns!”

At the command, one of the grand computer’s center screens lit up and there, limping out from a hallway and nearing the descending staircase, was the young-half ghost suspect. 

“The nerve of that boy…” Vlad growled. 

The man let the black rings overtake him, and Plasmius had no sooner teleported out of the lab.

The older half-ghost appeared a few feet behind the mansion’s grand entrance, where Danny had tested the mahogany double doors just moments before, finding them unable to budge. Vlad then proceeded to watch the boy let out a strain of expletives as he tried to phase through the door, his attempt coming up short when he bumped against the mansion’s ghost and human shield. Deciding ahead of time to lock the doors and decrease the shield’s radius to the main building proper was the right move.

How predictable.

Still, Vlad couldn’t help but be impressed by how the boy was already up and moving around. 

Relatively speaking. He was also once again impressed by Daniel’s brazen stupidity.

Vlad was speculative now with how much Danny had heard and compartmentalized that he was missing an important bone in his left leg, seeing as he hadn’t even bothered to find something similar to a cane before he hobbled down here.  

Vlad invisibly approached Danny when he began to limp away from the doors, and Vlad noticed how the boy’s eye was narrowed in determination. The way his intent was clear in continuing to search for an exit somewhere else was inane, but Vlad also received a vague surge of hope. Daniel’s spirit wasn’t all gone.

However, it was too dangerous for him to have it at the moment.

“And, pray tell, my boy, what could you possibly be looking for?” Vlad said with his arms crossed, suddenly appearing in front of Danny.

The action startled the young half-ghost, who nearly fell over in shock. He was able to quickly compose himself, however, and fixed Vlad with an annoyed stare.

“What does it look like, fruitloop? A working door. I’m leaving.”

“In your current state?” Vlad spat. “Surely you must be joking. You have just barely recovered from being nearly eviscerated from this universe, and you are attempting to walk, no less flee from a safe haven?”

Danny scoffed, brushing Vlad’s sound logic off as if he’d brought up an unenforceable rule. “Buzz off, Vlad. Everyone’s probably freaking out about where I went off to. I need to get back home.” He said, beginning to make his way out of the foyer.

Vlad materialized in front of him again, cutting off his escape towards the next hallway. “Like hell you are. You’re not going anywhere. Perhaps you should remind us of what happened? Has your tiny undeveloped mind even considered once about the kind of situation your idiocy has put you– no, the both of us in?”

“Just that you’re scared about what situation I might have put you in while your bugs were spying on the worst moments of my life. What do you think happened, Plasmius? Besides the fact that I was being torn apart molecule by molecule. I’m sure I was giving you a pretty good horror show for you to enjoy.” 

Vlad raised an eyebrow, ignoring the dig. “I’m more concerned about the show that you were giving to your parents when you were being ‘torn apart molecule by molecule’, as you so eloquently put it. Of course, I am impressed you made the daring escape that you did, with my assistance still, might I add. Because I am certain that with death-defying injuries, I’m confident you were in no shape to cover your tracks.”

“What’s there to cover? I got captured as Phantom, I got tortured as Phantom, and I left as Phantom. Just a ghost. In and out. Couldn’t have been more than an hour, I don’t know. So what’s there to notice, Plasmius?”

“What is there to–” Vlad cut himself off, scoffing in disbelief. “The question is, boy, what is there to not notice? You are a part of a species that is the second of its kind. Surely you can elaborate on the many ways you find ourselves unique amongst the plentitude of spirits in the Ghost Zone. It isn’t difficult to narrow down, and it isn’t difficult for scientists to narrow down the secret you were hiding from them.”

“I… don’t know and I don’t care. There’s no way they got anything hugely new that they didn’t already know before.”

Vlad clicked his tongue in frustration, beginning to pace around the boy as he explained. Danny followed in his movements as he did so. 

“Well then, why don’t we elaborate? Somehow you are unaware, Daniel, that your biology is remarkably different from any speck of Skulker’s prey that may have happened to be under your parents’ lab once before. In comparison, Phantom has a human anatomical structure with strikingly accurate blood vessels and nerve endings. Not to mention a good long peek at your detailed facial structure the entire time? Most ghosts struggle to even replicate a clear representation of what their form looked like in life. Skulker, for example, gave up on trying ages ago.”

“That’s not true. Ember and Spectra–”

Vlad stopped in front of Danny, the speed at which he placed himself causing Danny to take a step back in surprise. “Are you genuinely using two ghosts whose obsessions both border on being admired by an adoring public as an example? Why wouldn’t they rather mold themselves to showcase their ideal standards of beauty?”

“Because… ugh, that doesn’t matter, Plasmius! They wouldn’t just come to a conclusion based on that…” 

Vlad scoffed. “In either case, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the difference. Or any kind of scientist, for the courtesy of your father. Hmm… What else? Oh! let’s not forget the fact that your parents now have the most accurate readings of your ghost signature ever recorded. I know for a fact that even if they haven’t pieced it together, the second you step into your abode, you’ll be ousted for what you truly are.” 

Danny tried to look away, but Vlad forced his attention back when he grabbed the front of his shirt. 

“And that is a risk that neither you nor I can afford to make. You will not be going back, at least not anytime soon.”

“You’re not the boss of me, Plasmius. And everything’s going to turn out fine. They’ll just think I was in the hospital the entire time after some ghost attack. Sometimes I’d even be gone for days with the excuse that I’d be over at Sam and Tucker’s. They’re not going to notice,” Danny said, bringing his own hand up to Vlad’s, trying to make him lose his grip on his shirt. 

Vlad decided to let go with a huff, and continued to press him.

“Believe me, Daniel, I know better than anyone how oblivious your parents may be, but I have a hard time rationalizing that two graduate scientists cannot connect the dots once all of the evidence they’ve collected has been neatly parsed out. Not to mention…”

Vlad gave a pointed look to the right side of Danny’s face, where the large piece of gauze had been wound over his eye, and he could tell from the boy’s confused expression flooding with realization that he hadn’t even thought to consider this most glaring fact yet.

“How much time do you think you have before they figure it out, hm? I have enough on my plate to deal with as it is in order to clean up the mess you left behind, and I do not need their missing son to waltz in there with the same missing parts Phantom left with!”

“So tell me,” Vlad pressed. “Is that the homely situation you wish to return to? Would you like to step back into a lab that has pieces of you suspended in preservative jars? I certainly wouldn’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Sure I do.”

He saw Daniel hesitate at that, as well as the gears that were turning in his head from what Vlad had implied. After all, there was no reason for the boy not to believe that the Fenton house was not currently bugged. 

In truth, what Vlad said was a farce.

Not because he didn’t have the resources, of course not. But this time, spying on the Fentons felt disgusting to him now. The potential of seeing what Jack and Maddie could have kept was sickening. Vlad could not bring himself to observe any second of what the scientists would do with the pieces after the fact, and it would probably take him a few more weeks for him to even pull up a feed.

Meanwhile, Daniel was grappling with another possibility he hadn’t considered, one Vlad was a hundred percent certain on what he’d find in the Fentonworks basement.

“They… they wouldn’t. My parents are good people, they’d… realize…” Danny’s voice trailed off, and Vlad did the courtesy of finishing his sentence for him.

“Realize that they were working with someone who was alive? That they were human? Were you hoping they would stop then? Is that what you were waiting for?” 

Danny’s body was now trembling, and beads of sweat were forming at the corners of his head. Whether it was from panic or exhaustion (or the slightly rising temperature in the foyer), Vlad wasn’t quite sure.

Still, the boy was beginning to crack, and Vlad couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. He could see he was finally starting to get through to him.

“Hm? Do you finally understand what’s happening right now, my boy? Perhaps they have already discovered your secret. Maybe you’re lucky and they just refuse to believe what they saw with their very own eyes. But what’s more…”

Vlad gestured with a tilt of his head towards the right side of Danny’s face, where that gaping hole was hidden underneath a tight compress he’d fashioned. He remembered wiping away the blood that had leaked from the socket. Evidence that was as clear as day. He knew Danny could feel its absence.

“If you don’t see all of this evidence for yourself, then I suppose it’s all too ironic how your parents stole your common sense along with your depth perception.”

Perhaps he should have seen it coming. After all, Vlad knew how much he was pushing the boy’s buttons. He clearly wasn’t intent on facing the truth of what was done to him.

What he wasn’t expecting was the speed at which Danny’s eye flared green before he transformed into Phantom - combined with the weight behind an ecto-infused punch to the gut. 

Vlad yelped in surprise as he was blasted into the wall of the foyer by Phantom, the sickening crack of the plaster behind him meeting the new throbbing pain in his back. Groaning, the man pushed himself back up, just in time to look forwards and see his raging adversary flying towards him, fists ignited with glowing green energy.

The boy looked like a rabid, cornered little badger that had bloodily chewed its way out of a bear trap, and Vlad didn’t miss how his legs had immediately disappeared into a wispy tail. Even though it most likely was to ignore the damaged leg, it no less sped up his flight towards where Vlad was waiting for him.

Reacting quickly, Vlad conjured his own energy just in time to grab Phantom’s punch, countering the boy’s attack.

“My, my,” Plasmius smirked, forcing Phantom’s energy to dissipate under the pressure of his own. “I’m truly impressed by the tenacity. Still, too reckless and immature. You have only scratched the surface of recovery, boy, and yet you decide to attack me in the middle of our conversation!”

Using his leverage, Plasmius threw the boy to the floor, purposefully not trying to be too forceful. Still, Vlad internally winced as the boy’s back collided with the ground. 

From the impact Phantom made, it should have hurt drastically. The blow should have at least incapacitated him, considering his fractured ribs.

However, it turns out his in-house cocktail of morphine and a variety of medicinal ghost plants really worked like a charm, as Danny turned his arm intangible and solidified his right leg to knock Plasmius in the chin, using his momentum to float back and out of Vlad’s range. 

Plasmius rubbed his jaw, and narrowed his eyes at the sight of Danny, who was clearly not noticing how a few of his wounds had already reopened.

He would regret the creation and application of those pharmaceuticals soon if he didn’t end this fight as quickly as possible. The boy clearly didn’t know how much he was hurting himself.

“I feel just fine,” Danny huffed, floating farther up. A few drops of ectoplasm dripped from his right glove. It was the hand which Vlad had blocked. “Which means I am going home.”

“Not without my say-so, you aren’t. And I don’t recall making that judgment, speaking as your practitioner. Additionally, I will not have you destroy our secret all for the sake of your idiotic, guilt-filled self-destructiveness!”

“You don’t understand. Anything!” Phantom, flying forwards to attack again.

Vlad merely stepped to the boy’s right just before he could hit him, and Danny, seeing that the man had moved into his blind spot, tried to course correct, only allowing Vlad to more easily snag his right leg out of the air and flip him onto the carpeted foyer.

Vlad followed up with stomping a boot on Phantom’s chest, pinning him to the ground.

Sensing that the boy was about to go intangible again, Vlad sent a surge of energy through his boot that engulfed Phantom. He screamed out, and even when the man let up after a few seconds, it still left Danny breathing harshly.

Still, Danny grasped onto his boot with shaking hands, ridiculously trying to remove it with his physical strength.

The pathetic action only made Vlad more furious, and he increased the weight of his boot by leaning over him. 

At this point, he was getting sick of Daniel’s stupidity.

But for the sake of it, the older half-ghost might as well ask if there was any sense in him leaving. But Vlad knew that was impossible. He just knew it.

“Perhaps, then, you will do me the courtesy of telling me that you’ve already given yourself up to your parents? That you were able to tell them the truth as you screamed it out? That they perhaps even… accepted you? But if that were the case, Daniel,” The man said, a smirk playing on his face.

“Why did you run away?” Plasmius taunted.

“Shut up!” Phantom shrieked.

The younger half-ghost let out a surge of green energy explode from him, propelling Vlad away and causing him to put up a reactionary shield in defense. 

When it faded away, Plasmius saw that Phantom had decided to make a run for it, the boy launching himself towards another hallway in order to find an exit. 

Plasmius had enough of this. 

Disappearing in a puff of smoke, he reappeared in front of the boy and grabbed him by his suit’s emblem, harshly slamming him up into the wall behind him. Phantom yelped out his time, and Plasmius noticed out of the corner of his eye that one of the stitches on his abdomen must have torn open, and was bleeding profusely. But at the moment, he was too frustrated and enraged to care.

How in the hell was he going to get through the boy’s dense, thick-witted, moronic mind?

“Alright, Daniel. Perhaps this is just a simple misunderstanding. So answer the question! Am I truly not giving you enough credit? Did you actually manage to tell Jack and Maddie that they had their own son on their table!?” Vlad shouted, shaking the boy violently in his rage as he pushed him harder into the wall.

“Do they know?” Vlad growled in a cautiously quiet voice. Still, the words began to echo throughout the foyer. The dangerous question lingered like a rattlesnake hidden in the grass.

Phantom swallowed harshly, refusing to say anything. The atmosphere began to feel thicker at his terseness, as if a heat wave had somehow entered the mansion and began to permeate the air. 

“Well!? Do. They. Know? Was the sacrifice of our secret identity significant enough for you? Was it worth it to give it up!? Was it!?”

Still no response, and Phantom continued to stare hatefully at Plasmius, his hands shaking violently as the boy weakly tried to pry Plasmius’ own from the tightening grip, which had moved to his throat. To Plasmius, it didn’t matter if Phantom needed to breathe right now. If he just put enough pressure on him, he’d surely break.

“Do they know? Answer me, Daniel, do they know?!” Plasmius roared, pulling back and slamming him into the wall again.

Phantom let out a choked cry, and Plasmius faintly heard more than just the wall’s plaster behind him crack. Ectoplasm leaked from the bandages on Danny’s face. Part of the man knew he needed to stop. But at this point, his rage was past the point of no return. 

He needed to know for sure if he’d truly lost everything again. If all of his plans from the past twenty years were meaningless, if there was truly no future for the family he’d dreamed of having for himself. Until then, the fires in his core wouldn’t go out.

The heat became unbearable. And on Danny’s end, he couldn’t take it anymore. He felt trapped again. He was unable to move from the danger that was on all sides of him. In the past few days alone, he’d been subjected to more invasive procedures than he ever wanted done to him, and he just wanted them all to get away from him.

“Get… away,” Phantom said, choking on a breath.

Plasmius didn’t budge. 

The walls were too close to him. His enemy’s grip on his throat burned. His wounds and shattered ribs ached. His face stung, and amongst the pain, the heat, and Plasmius’ beaming crimson eyes, he just needed space.

He needed those glinting red goggles to get away from his face.  

Danny made his right eye unstitch itself open from underneath the bandages. His sight became tinged with neon green. “I said…” 

“Get. AWAY FROM ME! ” Danny screamed, and with it, the pulse of his ghostly wail ripped outwards.

The older half-ghost didn’t even have time to process what was happening before he was forced to let go. He was flung away across the foyer, and got slammed into the wall behind him.

He’d heard it once before. For only a millisecond before the feed cut after he was sure he’d tampered with the lab tech in Jack and Maddie’s basement. 

He hadn’t expected the sheer strength of Daniel’s new ability, and his eardrums were bursting from the damaging frequency. From the shock of the blow when he was sent back, and how his ghost form was begging to be spared of the shrieking sound, Vlad involuntarily transformed back into his human form.

Thankfully, the wail didn’t last long. The waves of sound diminished almost as quickly as it started, but a significant amount of damage was still done in those few seconds. Vlad took stock of the room again after he heaved himself up with the help of the wall behind him, groaning at the abuse his back had just taken. 

It was only for a handful of seconds at most, but the foyer was ruined. A part of the staircase that led up to the second floor was ripped apart, and all of the lights in the foyer had shattered from the noise, plunging the room into darkness. 

Only the bright white glow of Phantom was left, and even that was starting to flicker as Danny continued his tirade, his energy evaporating with each strained word.

“No, Plasmius! They don’t. They don’t, okay!? Is that what you wanted to hear? Are you satisfied now, you screwed up fruitloop!? Are you happy? Isn’t it a dream come true for you, Plasmius? Isn’t it?” Phantom let out a wailing sob, his voice breaking as the pressure from Plamius’ outburst finally got him to recall that horrible day’s events. 

He didn’t want to face the truth that was plainly felt on the lengths of his body. That his worst fears really did become true, and what it meant.

But he remembered.  

There was a moment where Danny had nearly transformed back from the pain. He saw his eye between a pair of tweezers. 

But he didn’t let himself. Instead, he pushed his parents away. He escaped, and then everything was over.

“I get it, ok?! My life is over. It’s over! Excuse me for believing for a second that I could salvage any of it! Or that I could at least pretend and go back thinking everything would go back to normal!” Phantom cried hysterically. 

White rings materialized and split apart, transforming Phantom back into Danny as he collapsed onto his hands and knees from exhaustion. 

The open wounds Danny sported with leaking green ectoplasm turned red, and running wet tears from his one working eye joined the streaks of red from his face as they fell onto the carpet. 

“... They were killing me. They were killing me. And I couldn’t- I couldn’t tell them. I don’t know why. I just couldn’t let them see that, I just couldn’t,” Danny’s breath hitched, his voice breaking. “What’s wrong with me?”

The question carried much more weight than what it could have meant in the moment. Vlad knew so, for he’d ask the very same question for many years after he’d first morphed into Plasmius, and it was something that resonated with him deeply. 

Yes, indeed, what was wrong with them? What was wrong with himself?  

How could Vlad so easily fall into the belief that this boy, the one that was before him, was not everything Vlad truly wanted in a son? The young half-ghost understood him in a way no one else in the entire world, no– the entire universe could, and he was nearly willing to give that up.

Because, truly, Vlad knew in his heart that no clone would be able to measure up to the raw experience of having oneself’s mortality ripped away from them at a young age. Of not really being a part of any world fully, of being above it, and yet…

Yet being so below it that they eventually become torn apart in one way or another by the people they thought cared about them. 

The boy was full on sobbing now, hunched over himself and clutching at the carpet that was becoming muddled with his tears and blood. It was a stark reminder that Daniel really was only fifteen years of age, who’d already gone through so much hardship that he did not deserve.

It was a familiar scene. Vlad almost saw himself in the same position, at the peak of the ecto-acne’s havoc on his body.

Vlad was spurred forwards, and when he made it across the foyer to him, he kneeled down to his level, and took the trembling boy into his arms.

He felt Danny freeze at the touch, but relaxed after another moment when he realized that the touch wasn’t hurting him. Vlad was slightly surprised when he didn’t try to push him away.

Instead, the boy slumped more into Vlad’s embrace, continuing to sob in great, heaving gasps. The action scrunched up his disheveled dress shirt even more, Danny’s blood, sweat, and tears staining the material. Vlad lightly pat the boy’s back in response, trying to give some semblance of comfort he was unsure of how to properly give.

As Vlad held him for another minute or two, the man contemplated the boy’s question and came up with an answer that felt so correct, he was annoyed at himself for not knowing it sooner.

What was wrong with him? Nothing. At least…

“Nothing you can’t fix, Little Badger.” He softly said, rubbing Daniel’s back as he continued to sob harder.

Or rather, Vlad amended, nothing I can’t fix for him.

The next series of ideas came unbidden, but it struck him like a series of lightning bolts in the heart of a storm. 

Vlad already had a plan before to mold Daniel into the perfect son he’d dreamed of if he ever came to his side. It would have included an excellent education at a private institution, and a strict lesson plan at home that would teach all the fundamentals of how to control one’s powers. He’d prepare him for a successful future, and nothing trivial would get in the way thanks to Vlad’s resources and power in both the human and ghost world.

In comparison, a few missing bodily parts were just another problem that Vlad had the means to whisk away. And his cloning project was proof of that and the perfect solution.

But not to create a whole new version of the boy. No, he could simply… recreate and take what he needed. He already had plenty of the data necessary that Valerie had collected over the past year.

And with the boy under his roof now as well? It would be easy to convince him, he was sure, once Vlad could show him the first fruits of his labor.

And once Daniel’s physical ability was restored, so would his will.

As if his spirit was renewed by a spring after traveling in a hopelessly far-stretching desert, Vlad’s posture straightened, and his core was lit with the familiar fire that came with a… purpose.

He knew exactly what he had to do, and Vlad needed to start planning a schedule for his experiments. But first thing’s first…

Vlad lifted a hand away from Daniel, and looked at how it was now stained with bits of drying blood. He would need to take care of this, and quickly.

Vlad pulled away from Danny, propping him up so that he could command his attention. “Come, I’ll re-stitch your wounds.” 

“I can do it myself,” Danny muttered, wiping a few stray tears from his eye.

“Not an option. Given your state, I suspect you’ll pass out halfway down my lab’s stairs. If you can even walk there at all. No, I’d rather not have you leave a red trail throughout my house.” Vlad groused. The boy was at least still as stubborn as always.

Danny still didn’t move, too exhausted to argue further and do anything else but tremble and breathe heavily from the loss of adrenaline and strain from what he just put his injured body through. 

The man, noticing Danny’s silence and accepting it as the reluctant resignation that it was, tried to gently grab the younger hybrid’s arm in order to haul him to his feet. From there, he was able to hook an arm around the boy’s legs and back, being careful not to jostle him too much.

In that way, the older half-ghost carried his charge to his underground lab once more. 

It would certainly not be the last.

The adrenaline crash hit Danny once Vlad made it down into the lab and settled him down onto the edge of a hospital bed that was set up there. Hunching over himself, with stabbing pains harshly pulsing across his multitude of ripped stitches, was Danny only now beginning to realize that he may have pushed himself a little bit far.

Still, Danny made sure to take the time to focus on each bit of equipment and tools in the room. After all, he didn’t want Vlad to have taken him down here to do more than what Danny subtly agreed for the man to do.

As he surveyed the lab, Danny noticed how all of the tables were meticulously wiped and polished. Each cabinet also looked as if it had not been rifled through in weeks, and no ectoplasmic stains of smaller ghosts or of… possibly him littered the floors. Its cleanliness was almost too perfect, given how the man must have needed to be down here to bring Danny back from near death.

At that thought, Danny also made the observation that there was no lab table to be seen, even though he swore his enemy had housed one. It must have been hidden somewhere out of sight, and the realization of that made Danny want to jump off of the chair and fly as far away from this place as possible.

Instead, he gripped at the edges of the seat, forcing his good leg to stop bouncing rhythmically, and focused on what Vlad was up to.

The man had taken up another rolling chair that was sitting nearby, positioning it next to Danny and retrieving the necessary first aid supplies from his kit. 

“Take off your shirt,” Vlad said, flippantly gesturing his hand towards it. Ignoring all the feelings that came with going along with what Vlad wanted, Danny did so by turning the fabric intangible and dropping it beside him.

Vlad then proceeded to clean and disinfect each area, carefully repairing each stitch with practiced ease. All the while, Danny watched Vlad’s expression, which remained schooled and neutral throughout the process. The man didn’t say anything else besides directing him to move in order to continue his work on another wound, or when he would warn Danny of what he was doing next. 

It was confusing. And strange, really, that his arch-enemy was even taking the time to do this. It wasn’t rushed or carelessly done. Danny had to wonder how the man managed to learn how to do it at all, or if he had purposefully delved into the medical field knowing that the possibility of this happening in the future was high.

The thought made Danny sag in defeat.

Vlad was right all along. How stupid was he, thinking that his parents would ever stop what they were doing to him? That their love for their son would trump their passion for ghosts and make them put their scalpels away?

As Danny felt Vlad take his right hand and start to clean and disinfect it, Danny found himself asking again.

“Why are you even helping me right now?”

“Is it so strange that I do not wish to see the other of my kind ripped apart molecule by molecule?” Vlad said as he deftly threaded the needle through Danny’s palm, making him wince again.

“Considering how you’ve never hesitated to hurt me before, uh… yeah.” Danny said pointedly.

Vlad scoffed, failing to sense the irony. “Oh please. If you haven’t noticed, I never bother to try to fight you, Daniel. And when you force me to, it’s never with the intention of doing any… permanent damage. Case in point.”

Danny flinched when Vlad purposefully nicked a bruise on his collarbone he’d given him when he threw him across the foyer earlier. “Ow! Asshole,” He tried to slap Vlad’s hand away with his free one, only for him to expect it and easily turn the appendage intangible.

“Language,” Vlad remarked, tying the final suture.

Danny looked at Vlad incredulously. “Did you seriously just say that to me? I have every right to curse as much as I want here. So kindly, go fuck yourself.” 

“You’re upset. And this is expected, given the circumstances. However, I would still advise you to control your temper. You will accomplish nothing except succeed in hurting yourself.”

“You’re such a hypocrite.” Danny deadpanned.

After that, a heavy silence rang for a while, neither half-ghost saying anything more until Vlad began cleaning and packing the first aid kit up.

Danny’s thoughts had drifted past the strange reasoning for assisting him from Vlad. The way the man spoke, Danny could almost call it genuine. But he knew better. With Vlad, there was no such thing as a free act of kindness. Everything had a cost, and everything had a catch. No matter what reasoning he was giving. Even when his life was on the line. Maybe especially so. And Danny thought he knew what it was.

“How long… are you gonna have me stay here?”

Vlad glanced up from the medical chart he was filling out to look him in the eye. “Until you recover.”

Danny scrunched up his face in a scowl. “That’s a half answer, and you know it, Vlad. When would that be?”

The man made an irritated growl, placing the medical chart back down and turning to look him in the eye. “I think you already know the answer, Daniel, and you are just refusing to see, or accept it. Come now, you’re a smart boy when you choose to be.” 

Danny turned away, because if he looked at the patronizing look of Vlad’s any further, he’d surely lash out and get in trouble. Because yes, if Danny thought of it further, the realization would fully settle in at how screwed he was. 

The truth was, Vlad had probably been honest with him the whole time because… realistically, Danny couldn’t leave. If he went back, Vlad was right that his parents would ask more questions than he could be able to answer, and after that… 

A shiver ran down his spine. Once again, he didn’t want to think about what they would do with the information that Phantom was also half a human, barring the fact that he was their own son. And who was he kidding anyways? Danny had a half-baked plan that was full of desperation when he’d gotten up that morning, still in the haze of following what his ghost half yearned to return to. When it came down to it, Danny doubted his ability to walk through his door again.

Not when he knew there might be… fragments of that day just a few feet below him. Of himself.

Just that realization alone, if he had made it on his doorstep, would spur him to fly straight back to Vlad’s anyway. 

So there couldn’t be a catch Vlad valued more than having Danny stay under his own roof. The man already had exactly that. 

“You’re not going to let me leave. Not ever,” Danny said with confidence. “Unless I can magically grow an eye back,” He slumped forward in the seat, cradling his head in his hands.

Vlad gave an amused huff as a response, and began to retreat back up the lab’s stairs. Before he fully left though, the older half-ghost paused at the exit and turned to face Danny again.

“Lunch will be held at noon. Tea service at three, dinner at six. If you are unable to attend, any of these will be brought up to you. I recommend trying to make the most of your stay, no matter how unfortunate you deign it to be.” There was an odd glint in his eye, Danny noticed when he looked up. It was strange, and he felt himself grow confused at the sight of his enemy being… something close to sincere. Honest. 

“You are safe here.” Was the last thing the older half-ghost said, before moving out of sight.