Chapter Text
It was getting dark when Danny woke up, the sun slowly dipping behind Amity Park’s skyline. Groaning, he scrubbed at his eyes and propped himself up. Even as he stretched, Danny could feel his body begging him to just roll over and go back to sleep. He wasn’t even sure what had woken him up until a soft familiar buzzing hit his ears. Yawning once more, Danny patted his pockets and then the bed looking for his wayward phone. Finally he found it where it had somehow migrated down near the foot of the bed.
Flipping it open, Danny found a deluge of texts waiting for him from Sam and Tucker. All but the last two or three were from the day before. Danny scratched at the back of his neck, wincing, as he scrolled through the messages. With everything going on, he hadn’t even thought about checking his phone— even though he’d promised to try and keep them in the loop. Sam was going to kill him. Again.
He could maybe argue the first couple because he’d turned off his phone on the plane, but it was his own fault for not turning it back on until they got back to Fentonworks. The first set of texts were simple ’How are things going?’ and ‘Has anything happened yet?’. There were a couple right after the ship took off asking how long the plan was suppose to take and if he was sure Vlad’s plan was going to work that were mostly from Sam. Tucker, on the other hand, sent more than a few asking him to take pictures of any ‘government secrets’ or cool technology he saw while he was there. Those texts petered off after a while of him not responding and were replaced with ones asking if he was alright or if something had happened since he wasn’t answering his phone.
The last one, the one that had woken him up, was from Sam telling him that Jazz had texted them that he was sleeping and he better call them as soon as he woke up to tell them everything he hadn’t bothered to keep them updated on. Danny grimaced, knowing he was in for it. Still, he dutifully started punching in Sam’s number.
Then, as he went to start the call, there was a knock on the door followedquickly by Jazz saying, “Danny are you up? It’s time for dinner.”
“Yeah, I’m up,” Danny called, closing his phone and pushing himself to his feet. As he started towards the door, Jazz quickly opened it, darted in, and closed it again behind her.
“How are you feeling?” she asked as she looked him over, “Any lingering ghost symptoms?”
“Better, definitely,” Danny answered— the seemingly never ending nausea seemed to have finally disappeared and while he was still a bit tired, it wasn’t anything he hadn’t dealt with before. Jazz looked better too, less frazzled at least though she still looked kind of tired.
“Sam and Tucker texted me. I gave them the basics, but they want to meet up after dinner and hear the whole story.”
“Sounds good,” maybe. Sam was probably still going to read him the riot act, but— “We need to figure out how we’re going to stop Vlad’s plan too.” As fast as possible, too. Who knew what that fruitloop would do with the power of the government behind him And his ghost powers. Jazz pursed her lips and nodded.
“Yeah. We’re going to need more info though. Maybe Tucker can hack into his computer or something so we can get a better picture of what he’s planning.” Plan in mind, the duo filed out of Danny’s room and down the stairs. Danny could hear a quiet murmuring from down the kitchen, but as soon as the steps started creaking beneath their feet, their parents went silent save for the clinking of silverware on plates. Danny eyed them as he walked in, trying to get an idea of what they’d been talking about. His dad seemed subdued and his mom was stabbing at her food with a viciousness that meant she was probably mad about something— so not much different from the past few days. Probably Vlad, then. Danny scowled but didn’t say anything as he and Jazz slid into their seats at the table, plates already filled and set out. ‘As soon as possible,’ he reiterated to himself.
“Danno!” his dad perked up, smiling at him, “how are you feeling? Did the nap help?” Danny couldn’t help the reflexive smile back as he grabbed his fork to start poking at the… some kind of casserole(? maybe?) on his plate.
“Yeah, I’m feeling a lot better.”
“How’s your stomach?” his mom asked, eyeing him with a frown, “do you want something lighter?”
“No, I’m good,” Danny said shaking his head, “just hungry now.”
Danny started eating slowly, pausing to see if his stomach would threaten to riot after a few bites before continuing to clear his plate. He was tempted to start eating faster so they could leave faster, but even with his stomach seeming to be behaving, he wasn’t planning on tempting it— especially since it would get him sent back to bed instead of being allowed to leave. (Not that he couldn’t leave anyway, but he really didn't feel like getting grounded again.)
Once he had his plate half cleared, he finally spoke up. “Hey, can we go to Sam’s after dinner?” Danny asked. Their parents shared a look and their dad shrugged.
“Sure honey,” their mom agreed, “just make sure you send a text if you end up sleeping over.”
Jazz and Danny were out the door as soon as their plates were in the sink, a loud reminder not to forget their ectopistols and specter deflecters chasing them out. The walk over to Sam’s place was less carefree than their run to Tucker’s before the trip, but louder as they find themselves darting between people still celebrating and enjoying the warm fall day. It’s not nearly as bad as it was back in Texas, but there were plenty of people already getting drunk and setting up fireworks. He wasn’t even sure where everyone was getting the fireworks. Did everyone have secret fireworks stashes?! Danny grumbled under his breath, covering his ears after a too-close explosion set his ears ringing.
It was with more than a little relief that Danny ducked into Sam’s house after Jazz. “My parents are out rubbing elbows with people trying to see what new and exciting prospects they can find for making money,” Sam explained dryly as she led them over to the game room where Tucker was waiting, “and grandma is out gossiping with her crochet group, so we have the place to ourselves for at least a few hours.”
They sat silent for a minute, not sure where to start before Tucker finally said, “I can’t believe he actually did it— how’d he do it. I mean the news didn’t say anything about ghosts or anything, they’re saying it was some kind of special laser. What happened for real? Did you have to help at all?”
“No,” Danny answered, shaking his head and scowling, “he sent Skulker to keep me busy.”
“Really? Why?” Sam asked, leaning forward, “it’s not like you were going to, like, go after him or something.”
“They had a bunch of ghosts helping with the ship and everything,” Jazz cut in before Danny had the chance to, “maybe there was something else they were doing too that he didn’t want Danny to find.”
“That makes more sense than what Skulker was saying,” Danny grumbled. “He was accusing me of trying to sabotage the whole thing and strand Vlad and the astronauts in space.”
“Really?”
“Why?”
“Maybe you should start from the beginning,” Jazz suggested. “I wouldn’t mind hearing it all from your perspective too.”
“Well it really started the night before we flew out—“ Danny started before throwing himself into describing how Skulker had been messing with him the whole time, the missing clothes and, more importantly, the stolen thermos, Danny’s confrontation with Skulker, and, finally, his theory on why Vlad would bother going so far as to put himself in harm’s way—“He’s gotta be going after the government like some kind of half baked cartoon villain.” Danny glared at the floor, powers rolling beneath his skin again as his temper was freshly reignited.
For a minute, the other two were silent, seemingly absorbing the information. “We need to figure out Vlad’s plans,” Tucker said, pulling out his PDA, “I can get onto his company’s servers and see if he’s hiding anything there, but it’s going to take a while to go though all the files. His home server is going to be a lot harder since it’s not connected to the internet. Do you think we could break in?”
“We’d have to figure out when he’s going to be gone,” Sam pointed out. “If he finds us snooping, there’s no way he isn’t going to retaliate.” Danny grinned, some of his anger and the prickling under his skin settling at the unwavering support of his friends. It felt good to be home.
“How about—“
Maddie was scared of him.
Maddie was scared of him.
No matter how he said it, how many times it circled his brain, it didn’t quite feel real. Vlad knew being half ghost would be a problem, of course— he’d known from the moment he’d understood what had happened to him. But out of all the reactions he thought Maddie would have, fear, her being afraid of him, had never even made the list. Anger, aggression, even scientific curiosity, but not fear.
The very idea of it left a sour taste in his mouth, a sharp sting in his core, and a curdling in his gut that kept him on his feet and prowling around his home well into the night. He had made his excuses to leave Fentonworks not long after mentioning his intention to move their portal to his home. Jack had tried to protest.
Just Jack.
It made sense, of course, now that he knew Maddie was… uncomfortable, but the knowledge didn’t quite ease the sting of it. His mind kept going back to the same places again and again. The look in Maddie’s eyes as she’d asked him what he wanted from her.
The thought that Maddie, his wife, thought that he would try to…
He resisted the urge to rub at his chest as the pain from his injury and the ache that stabbed into his core every time the image of Maddie’s fearful eyes popped back up in his thoughts compounded one another. They were still married though, he reminded himself. There was plenty of time for things to change. He just had to keep working on things, make her more comfortable with ghosts as he had planned. Just, perhaps, a bit slower than he had initially thought.
Their talk had certainly been… enlightening. In more ways than one. Maddie may have agreed to this marriage between them (and Jack), but she had made it abundantly clear time and again over the course of the discussion that she didn’t trust him. He knew Maddie’s upbringing— both what she had admitted herself and what little information he had managed to squirrel away from her parents in passing comments and sharp digs. He should have expected it, in retrospect, but none of the interactions he’d had with Maddie as Plasmius had given him any indication she saw him as anything more than a standard ghostly threat. She had been angry, aggressive— normal responses of ghost hunter to ghost— not scared, not fearful.
With the new insight though…
The various demands she had made… sense.
Well, more sense at least (now that he had context)
…slightly more sense
Okay, he still maintained that his business experience would be invaluable if they took advantage of it. And he had enough money that neither of them would ever have to work another day in their lives while also enjoying every luxury known to man and many of the ones only known to ghosts.
…surely she could see that as well?
Vlad sighed deeply, throwing himself into the nearest chair. If he was truly, deeply honest with himself in the depths of his mind where no one could see at this particular moment? He didn’t get it. He had the skills, the money, the looks, and a lifetime of ghostly experience that he was offering to her (them) on a silver platter! Anything she wanted, he would get for her— any item, any knowledge, any ghost she wished to experiment on (within… some reason).
He couldn’t help but see again in his mind’s eye: Maddie, scared of him, asking what he wanted from her.
Wincing, Vlad gave into the urge and rubbed at his chest as he leaned back in his chair, face pointed towards the ceiling as he considered that perhaps Maddie didn’t know how far he was willing to go for even a sliver of her affection. His desire for her love was so integral to his being, it was hard to even consider that it wasn’t written on every inch of his being, but, now, he had been forced to recognize that Maddie was not able to read the invisible brand. He didn’t, couldn’t, understand, but he didn’t have to like Maddie’s demands to follow them. He knew he didn’t mean any harm, at least, but with her fear so fresh in his mind? The thought of doing something to drive her further from him made a sharp panic raise in his chest. In the face of that? He could not, would not, let himself begrudge all the escape measures she was holding onto—he just had to make sure she never had any reason to use them. (He couldn’t lose her now that he had her. He refused to let it happen.)
He couldn’t stop being a ghost hybrid, but there were other things within his power. Smaller comforts, little interesting things at first, perhaps, and then bigger gestures once she was more comfortable. He had ideas—too many really—, but he hadn’t quite decided on what to do, which impulse would lead to the most successful outcome (or, perhaps more likely, which would become the most tempting in the moment— he was, occasionally, aware of his own poor impulse control). He had time. Technically infinity spanned out before them, though it was only guaranteed if he succeeded in his plans.
Getting Maddie (and Jack) use to ghosts in general and his own ghost form in specific was paramount to him, but technically optional. Acceptance of their own future among the ghostly realm though, whether they liked it or not, was mandatory. With this new knowledge though… he would have to extend his timeline. He couldn’t push too hard too fast. This wasn’t a simple experiment— it was everything.
Of course, Maddie’s fear wasn’t the only complication he was going to have to deal with (just the most important). For one, he had never intended for Jack to move into his home, which meant that he’d never bothered checking what materials his various furniture, towels, and beddings were beyond expensive and comfortable— or Uncomfortable for when the need came. If he wanted to stay on Maddie’s good side, that, for better or worse, meant making sure Jack would be comfortable as well. His duplicates were already working on the issue, combing through the house and stacking the items he was either unsure about or would need to replace in the first floor living room.
Though, the stack was already getting rather large…
It wouldn’t be a problem to replace everything— monetarily at least. Whether he could source them with the current state of the world’s supply chains was another. The only reason Amity, his homes, and his various company sites were as well supplied as they were was because he’d been hiring ghosts to compensate where humans were failing. Though Daniel’s insistence on fighting them had made things much more difficult than they needed to be around Amity, especially once schools had decided to cancel themselves and he could no longer rely on Daniel being within a specific area for the majority of the day.
And speaking of Daniel, he was the other big complication Vlad was going to have to deal with. He had somewhat been banking on Daniel’s preoccupation with playing hero to work in his favor— Vlad had been doing something his little teenage brain should have taken as good by saving the planet. But no, based on Daniel’s reaction at the hotel, it looked like he was going to have to expect some kind of retaliation from Daniel instead.
Honestly, Vlad thought with an audible huff of annoyance, he hadn’t threatened Jack once and Maddie had agreed to his proposal of her own free will, so Daniel shouldn’t have had any complaints. Really, a little gratitude or even a grudging ‘thank you’ for saving the world would have been nice. Of course Daniel seemed determined to only think the worst of him. Why not blame Vlad for his run in with Skulker, even though Skulker was their own ghost and Vlad had been busy at the time of their confrontation.
He was going to need to get the details on from Skulker at some point, especially if he was going to continue to be blamed for their actions. It would be better to find out sooner than later, but that truly depended on how long it was going to take to prepare the house and move his family(!!!) in.
There were so many things that he needed to get done. A second portal frame needed to be constructed— one with more anti-ghost accessories to dissuade all the cretins used to coming and going as they wished. He needed to clear out potential rooms for his (!!!) spouses and children. The fridges needed to be sorted and partially or fully ectoplasmic foods marked to prevent cross contamination for the fully human parts of the household— and he’d have to figure out Daniel’s preferred ghost foods at some point. His cats would need to be retrieved from Mrs. Weston’s care now that he was finally going to be homebound for the foreseeable future. There were other ideas still forming in the back of his head as well, but the most important (and annoying) of his preparations was going to be ghost-proofing select areas of the house.
It would primarily be his lab, his personal bedroom, and his ghost artifact storage. After years of using his powers at home whenever and however he wanted, being more restricted was going to be jarring and frustrating in a hundred little ways he was sure, but it would be worth not having Daniel rummage through his things— breaking important artifacts or worse, setting them off without any understanding of their use.
His (their, now) lab would be the most important and well enforced, of course— for multiple reasons. To keep Daniel from sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, for one. With the brat living in the same house, there was only so much he could do to keep Daniel from destroying his work in ‘retaliation’ for whatever he decided Vlad had done both in the past and the future. Another was because the area would soon be home to two ghost portals and with Jack no doubt opening one or both portals whenever the whim took him (which Vlad knew happened for at least five hours every single day— it had been useful for bringing ghosts into Amity without sending them through his own home, but no more).Trapping interlopers was going to much easier if they couldn’t phase through the walls. Vlad was extremely tempted to just put an anti-Jack lock on the portals, but he was fairly certain that it would spark another argument if he didn’t have leverage beforehand. Like, say, 30 ghosts trapped in the lab and causing chaos. He wouldn’t even have to pay anyone, just turn off the defenses and they’d come through on their own— then panic at being trapped in a room with known ghost hunters. Though, the probability of damage to all of his delicate machinery… Perhaps a different plan. Something to muse on later.
Of course, he would need to make sure his core chunk was secured well before he allowed anything anywhere near that level of destructive chaos to occur as well. For now it was still sitting down in the lab. He was… not quite sure what to do with it yet— or even what he could do with it yet. Keeping it in the lab where it was already meant that he could analyze or experiment with it later without having to relocate it every time. Daniel and Jasmine would be less of a problem with the promise of supervision he’d barely managed to drag from his spouses, but not entirely without issue. Maddie and Jack, at least, could be partially stopped just by the lock on the work table. (And perhaps bolting that particular table to the floor.) However, he couldn’t ignore the threat of interlopers or even particularly explosive experiments.
The real problem was the dearth of hiding places. If he stored it in his personal room, there was less of a chance of any of them “just happening” upon it, but there wasn’t a good place to hide it in the room if someone (Daniel) decided to break in and snoop around. The artifact storage was… volatile. He wasn’t sure if anything would react with the chunk and he’d rather not find out. No, for now, the lab was still the best place for it.
In any case, the sooner he got started on his work, the faster he could have his family all together under one roof. Despite how late it already was, Vlad rose from his seat with new determination. If he started immediately, the new portal frame would be done by noon tomorrow. What was a little lost sleep in the name of love? Besides, he’d gotten plenty of sleep the night before.
It was well before dawn when Maddie jerked up in bed. Her heart was pounding and her mouth dry with the echos of an already forgotten nightmare. They had gone to bed not long after Vlad had seen himself out, but a night of tossing and turning had left her more tired than if she’d just stayed up the whole time.
Letting out a deep breath Maddie looked up at the ceiling and started counting her breaths.
In. Hold. Out.
In. Hold. Out.
In. Hold. Out.
The familiar rhythms helped, but even as her body relaxed, Maddie’s mind started down the same paths it had been all night: why the hell hadn’t she tried harder to argue against moving in with him? Why hadn’t she thrown out any other option? (Not that she’d come up with one that he would agree to in the hours before going to sleep.) Why had she just let Jack agree and move on without bringing it up again? It had taken less than three minutes after their conversation had ended for the regret to set in. In retrospect, Vlad had been way too agreeable. He had to be planning something, ghosts always were. There was no way he wouldn’t just ignore their demands as soon as it suited him. The only question was how long it would take. Once they moved into Vlad’s mansion, he held a lot more power. At least as long as they still had control over their brownstone, they had an escape, but how long would that last?
Sighing heavily, Maddie dropped her head into her hands. Even though Jazz’s text had come well after dark, Maddie couldn’t help but be thankful she didn’t have to explain this incredibly stupid decision to them yet. They weren’t going to take it well. Hell, she wasn’t taking it well. It just wasn’t safe.
Maybe she could bring up her sister again? But no. Maddie dismissed the thought as soon as it crossed her mind. The kids and Jack had been right, no matter how much she wished it wasn’t true. Out there, there was no telling what Vlad could do to them without Maddie knowing. No. It was better they stayed where she could protect them. Still, Maddie couldn’t help but wish there was another way. (Maybe, if either of her parents had still been alive, there would have at least been options but Maddie had never introduced her kids to them for a reason.) How long could she really expect a ghost to keep their word? How long would it take for the noose to tighten around her neck— before she was forced to fight back and find out the extents he was willing to reach in retaliation?
The kids were her top priority. As much as she was still mentally planning out the protections for her own room, she already knew what she was setting up in the kids’ rooms. It would be difficult. She was going to have to pull a lot of the security measures out of Fentonworks— they had already been running out of key parts for their inventions, so reusing and recycling older projects had become more and more necessary. There was the shed, of course, but digging through that mess was like trying to dig through a haystack looking for the handful of needles hiding within. Jack could help, but she only had so long before some old invention caught his attention and he was off in another world trying to figure out where the original had gone wrong or how he could add it to something else to make a better weapon or shield or toaster. (What she really needed was to get Jazz and Danny to help her sort through and label everything but the kids seemed to have some kind of sixth sense for when she was in the mood to work on it and disappeared every single time.)
Honestly, if she could scavenge through Vlad’s lab to find what was needed? Even better. There was something intensely satisfying about the thought of using Vlad’s own tools against him. The real question, then, was how much she’d be able to get away with without Vlad noticing.
As much as she was dreading the move and everything that was sure to come with it, Maddie would be a bold faced liar if she didn’t admit, at least to herself, that there was a level of scientific curiosity nagging at her as well. Ghosts were known to take territories when they spent enough time on earth— would Vlad’s home be something like that? Was that why he had so many different homes and traveled as often as he did? To prevent forming a connection to his home?
Did being half human affect his ability to form a territory?
It would be so much easier if she could just pretend that this was just another scientific excursion, but the reality of everything pressed down on her. Had she truly ruined everything— put everyone she loved in danger— with her stupid Hail Mary? At least if it had just been her, she could have given full custody to Jack. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have been better.
As Maddie shifted to drop her head in her hands, she found herself pausing, remembering another little thing she had seen earlier that had been lost in all the chaos of the day. She had noticed Vlad’s ring during the interview Jack had put on— frankly it was hard not to notice the way the previously clear gems had shown bright glowing pink. She had considered it might have been the studio lighting or some kind of glitch in the screen, but now, in the total darkness of the bedroom, she couldn’t continue to lie to herself. The ring was glowing.
…this hadn’t been the first time, either, when she thought back. When they had first woken up in the hotel, there had been a pinkish tinge to her ring that she had brushed off at the time, but now? There was no denying that something was going on. Jack’s was still hiding under his glove, but she was under no illusion that it would be any different. Sliding the ring off, Maddie twisted it to and fro, taking in the way the light shifted. The gems had the strongest light to them, but the band was giving off a dim light as well. It was abnormal, ghostly.
Her fingers itched with the urge to examine it more thoroughly. She had seen the rings change size, just like the clothes Vlad had delivered to their doorstep, but those had been normal—no glowing or or other oddities to be seen once they’d taken them off and put them away. She had thought the rings were the same way, but no. The ring was different. She wanted to tear it apart piece by piece until her curiosity was assuaged, until she knew every little secret hiding within. There was a reason Vlad had given them ghost rings.
That he had made, she remembered, brow furrowing.
Damn it. This was a test, wasn’t it.
Or a trap.
Something! It had to be! As much as Maddie hated to admit it, even to herself, Vlad still knew her. He knew how she was, the dick. He knew the urge she had to cut and tear and tinker and analyze until she could know. It was a test, a trap, it had to be. There was no way he could expect her to not try to figure out everything she could about ghost rings. The asshole. She knew him too. He wouldn’t be happy if she broke the ring trying to test it and there was no telling what he’d do in retaliation (besides pouting. He had sulked about her and Jack breaking or misplacing things, both recently and in college, often enough that there was no way that wasn’t going to be part of what he did).
Maybe, just maybe, she could admit that it was better that Jack hadn’t let her ‘forget’ the ring at hotel— or that wearing it outside of her glove hadn’t damaged it. There was probably some kind of alert to tell him if something happened to the ring. Or maybe the retaliation was built into the ring itself. Though…Vlad’s ring had been basically identical to hers and Jack’s, so maybe not? The only way to really find out would be to trigger it. Well, unless she could scan the energy it gave off and figure out its function that way? So far she had seen the rings change size and take on the hue of Vlad’s ghost powers, but there was no way that that was the only thing they did. Hers was clear right now, but what would that to change? It hadn’t earlier when his own had changed color, so they weren’t connected. Or maybe not with such a large distance? Would her and Jack’s change color if they were closer when Vlad did… whatever Vlad had done to change the color? How large could they stretch or shrink really? Did they only respond to (mostly) humans or would they shrink to fit onto something like a pencil? If they changed shape dramatically enough would the gems warp too or would they break?
Damn him. Why did Vlad have to give her something she had to be careful with. And to think, she had almost thrown away this little puzzle without a thought. Maybe…as long as she wasn’t taking the ring apart or breaking it, she could still test it. It would be fine. Vlad wouldn’t have anything to complain about, at least. Scanning it couldn’t hurt. Maybe a couple surface level tests…
Pushing herself out of bed, Maddie started making her way down to the lab. She knew exactly what tests she wanted to start with (and, ugh, what she could start to pack away while she was down there).
“What do you mean we’re moving in with him?!?”