Chapter Text
It was years of agonizing training, drilling, remolding his mind to have a semblance of the innocence it held in Danny’s youth.
It’ll never be enough.
His world was gone, timeline erased, back to belonging to Danny, so no one had really died right?
But we would always hear their screams.
He volunteered, he went to therapy, he let his humanity back to repent what he had done, to grieve what he had lost.
We were always grieving.
Eventually the part of him that was Vlad that craved power succumbed to finding the real obsession.
He had just wanted a family. As Danny wanted his.
And Dan, the meshing of their souls, was alone.
No matter how many souls he helped learn the ghost zone, so many baby soul cores he brought to the right areas to learn about who they were now, how many ghosts didn’t remember him because the pain he caused didn’t belong to them. He… he, clockwork, and Danny were the only ones who would ever truly know what he did.
And he had spent centuries being utterly alone. He couldn’t take it anymore.
So he drifted in the far reaches of the Ghost Zone, willing something to eat him or for his core to finally fade away, letting him disappear.
Clockwork apparently wasn't done with him yet though.
Why did he wait until now? When he was done with this life? When he was utterly broken?
He found himself blinked into Clockwork’s tower, tired eyes up to the man in question.
“You can’t tell me I haven’t done enough old man.” He looked cloudily back up to the disappearing roof of the tower that faded into a starry night. How long had it been since he looked at the true night sky?
“Rest a few years, Dan, let your core soothe. You’ve worked hard.” Clockwork phased to that of middle aged, patting his shoulder.
Dan sighed out slowly, eyes closing as he rested to the floor of the tower. “A few days, a few years? It’s all a waste, nothing is truly fixed. I have no timeline, no family… all of it is completely obliterated.”
“It was. But you’ve lingered long enough that something is back for you, Dan.”
Dan’s eye twitched in annoyance, what could he possibly mean? But when he opened his eyes, he was somewhere completely different, and his body felt wrong around him, solid and gross. He jolted, sitting upright in the bed with Nasa sheets, his head screaming at him as did his very solid limbs. The door burst open and his face was being held by warm hands. He stared back in horror, it had been decades since he’d seen her face, and it had been aged, with streaks of white through it. He tried to pull away, gasping as he found he needed to breathe. Had he been screaming? Since when did he have to breathe? Before he could figure out the questions, the arms wrapped around him tightly of his sister. No no, was it her? She had been blown to bits! Has clockwork really brought his Jazz back? Was he back? Why was he back?!
Then there was a soft humming through his chest, no it was through hers as she held him.
“You're okay, you’re alright. I’ll never ever leave your side. I will stay, I will fight with you.”
The voice he’d long since forgotten, forced down to keep from the pain, singing sweet and gently in his ear. The very human ear of a teenager. He curled up to her chest, not knowing when or why he was, but that could be left for another day.
The warmth of his sister wrapping him in her arms, the feel of her heartbeat against his head, her voice soothing his mind. He found tears streaming down his face as he held onto her pajamas tightly, being rocked by her he felt frail and small.
But safe. And loved.
She didn’t know what he did either, but she was his. His Jazz. His rock and his anchor.
For now that was enough, as she soothed him to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Is he alright, Jazzy-pants?” Jack poked his head into the doorway, putting away the Anti-Creep stick he’d grabbed hearing Danny’s blood curdling scream.
“I think he just had a really bad nightmare. It makes sense. He got hurt pretty bad when the portal opened a month ago. Then his school was attacked by some meat monster ghost… he’s been terrified all week.” She spoke low and gentle, humming with her legs crossed, had brought Danny into her arms and was cradling him against her chest as she softly sang, softly wiping the tears from his cheeks.
“Poor dear, maybe we should stop bringing the ghost equipment upstairs, reminders of those things running around his school won’t do him any good. When he wants to get into it we can teach him all about hunting down those nas-” Maddie shut up with the nasty glare from her daughter.
“Don’t talk about ghosts, don’t bring those contraptions up from the lab, and put some of the themed decor down there too away from him. He just got into highschool. He doesn’t have time for all this to come after him too. I don’t want you trying to suck him into a vacuum like you did my poor hair either. Put the iris on the door until you have a solid game plan too.” Her eye twitched when they looked at each other, clearly having no plans of listening to her.
She sighed, shooing them from his room, and decided though it had been a few years since last time, as they closed the doors, she curled up to lay next to him, her head on his shoulder and tucking him in, kissing softly in his hair.
“Sweet dreams Danny. It’ll be better in the morning.”
For the next couple days, things were weird. She completely understood though. Danny was jumping at everything. He seemed a little distant and unsure with his friends. Well, they had just had a massive fight that was the cause of his parents not following through on their promise of giving up ghost hunting.
They had been suffering through ghost talks for years. Right as she’d finally got a breakthrough on it, suddenly they appeared. She swore the universe was working against her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan was freaking out. Everything was so different. The sky was so bright, his old friends so bubbly. He turned to the papers, figuring out where in the timeline he had been thrown to. He was back to a new ghost after his centuries, so it took a moment to sluggishly make his way through the memories. He had kept his mastery over his powers at least, so when he went ghost hunting and caught the box ghost, it was a much more simple matter of keeping him. He kept the rule he’d had so far in the future though of him being grounded from using the thermos.
“Sorry Danny, you got only eight out of twenty one questions.”
Dan sighed, rubbing his temple as he stored away the thermos in his chest to keep it away safely until he could dump off the ghosts, earning a disturbed look from Tucker and Sam. “Oh if I can phase through a vending machine I can keep trivial stuff like this inside my chest too I’m sure. Night’s still early, let's get some Nasty Burger and break out the studybooks there. I’ll put these back in the Ghost Zone in due time.” He transformed, grabbing his backpack from Tucker.
Having his friends and family back? Great! Repeating high school? Not so much.
“You alright Danny? You’ve been kind of off this week.”
“Obviously my grades are down the toilet right now. How am I going to make it to NASA? This last month and a half has brought my 3.4 GPA down to a 2.7. I hope they find a way to seal the portal quickly, or I’ll have to take a stab at it myself.”
“Last time that happened, you got electrocuted and half died dude.”
Dan winced and looked at Tucker with a glare, eyes flashing a moment. “Tucker, it… does not feel good at all having my death talked about like that. Can you be a little more sensitive man?”
“Oh come on, not like you stayed that way-”
“Tucker, I did, I am. I am still partly dead, and when you talk about me dying more casually than the weather, it physically hurts like that electricity is shooting through my nerves again.” He held back a growl from his voice. They were teens, brand new to this, he had to have his patience. Especially for these two, they were his best friends. So deep breaths, ground yourself, they don’t need that sort of chaos laid on them for a wayward thought.
Sam and Tucker both looked at him, blinking in a bit of shock, and he could feel the guilt roll off Tucker immediately. “I’m so sorry man, I had no idea, I…should have thought about it more. I’ll be more careful.”
“Thank you.” He breathed back out in relief, glad it didn’t come with an argument. He caught Sam’s eye scheming something though. Who knew what her clever little dark mind was thinking up. Not him, so he left her to it for now and corralled them back to the burger joint for study. He felt familiar eyes settle on him from a dark corner of the library as his ghost sense slipped out, and it clicked at just how early he was to everything. He smirked a bit. He was just in time to make some new allies, and to set his other half straight before causing so much mayhem.
This time without having to hunt down all the ghosts again, he was able to get some more sleep. He figured he would straighten things out before they got out of hand though, and sat on his bed in a meditative position, getting a sense for where Skulker was, before laying claim to the area that Danny hadn’t known he could do for years. He cast a wide net, declaring all of Amity Park his haunt, with visitors not being welcome without clearance. He felt the startled energy of Skulker kick back, and he phased his neck to be more pliable, slowly turning it around backwards to stare at him outside the window with his eyes glowing lil, like a spooky lil owl. The flaming figure floating in the yard smirked, and flew closer to the window at being spotted, but didn’t attack this time, curious about the lad.
So Dan opened the window, fully turning around and letting the ‘scary eyes’ relax, leaning on his hand to watch him casually.
“Yes, I’m half ghost boy. No, I don’t have time for your hunting nonsense. You want to spar in my territory, it’ll wait until the weekend. There is too much in the mortal world that does not repair with a wave of the hand like in the ghost zone. Too many squishy flesh beings that can get broken. You can tell your boss that too. The Fenton household isn’t open territory, it is my haunt, and he can rethink things, carefully.”
“My boss? Ghost child I am the greatest hunter of the ghost world! You think I, the great Skulker, answer to anyone?”
“Yes, when you’re paid to. Unfortunately, it is going to cost you your armor if you try to hunt me without my rules. So wait. Let me do my schooling, and we can play over the weekend. You aren’t supposed to attack baby ghosts anyways.” He stuck out his tongue, having felt over his core and knew that it was down as well, he would still have a slow time getting access to all of his powers. At least this time he knew.
He caught the look of puzzlement from Skulker, before bringing up his electric binoculars with biometric readings, and scanning over him, before he blinked and put it away. “Fine. Someone has to show you the ropes… What of my assignment?”
“Jack Fenton is off limits. I will respond in a fury if anyone tries to hurt those in my haunt. I do not want any of the Fenton’s to even know that ghosts are back here unless I allow them. In exchange…I have a thermos full of ghosts with different bounties on them. I imagine higher if they are known to be attacking a young core that barely has had a month. You head into the ghost zone for now, I’ll release them, and you can take the cash for it. Stay out of my way, I’ll pay back your lost bounty on Jack Fenton, then we can work on our disagreements when I actually have the time for it.”
He stared at Dan a moment longer before Skulker busted out laughing. “Very well ghost child, for now it’s a deal. You can color me intrigued by your proposition. And whom, should I tell my boss, has passed along this message?”
He thought about it for a moment. He sure as hell wasn’t going to be Inviso-Bill for any length of time. Being Phantom felt wrong. He was sure that his timeline had been separated, that Danny existed separately, and Phantom was likely still king, even as his timeline was shifted around.
“You may call me Retrospect.” Seeing into his future, what lay ahead of him, the enemies in question, he was determined to have learned from his mistakes, To do and be better than he had been before.
Skulker quirked a brow but smiled. “Very well, ghost child. Retrospect it is. I'm sure this will amuse my boss immensely.”
“I'm sure it will. He's a calculative man, clearly, to have hired such a prominent hunter.” He hummed out as he slicked back his hair. What ghost didn't appreciate having their ego inflated after all? He got the perfect response by Skulker beaming, and headed down with him quietly to the portal to go on ahead of him as he released the ghosts back into the zone so he could collect them back in for being annoying and having petty rules broken according to Walker. Whatever, it kept them out of his hair. He was going to do everything he wanted to in his first life, and make something of himself.
There was the first step in laying down groundwork. Now, to go research a purple back gorilla.
Dan was highly pleased with the results, having the time to get his studies in order, and to establish his territory. He let the harmless ghost blobs in that just filtered the air, but made sure they stayed far enough from the lab that his parents wouldn’t spot them. Didn’t need them thinking that ghosts didn’t have sentience again.
Getting his grades in order was simple enough once he put his foot down. And with the rumor that a baby ghost was the keeper of Amity Park, the ghosts that Vlad sent after his dad broke it down to him that if they caused a problem with someone so under-developed, there was going to be a lash back even from his allies. All respect for him would go out the window if he intentionally hurt a young one so inexperienced. So the fights were more controlled, as was his own control to send them back.
Next issue was his stupid bullies.
He didn’t bother with Paulina. He saw how shallow she had been, and he wasn’t interested in any romances. It was just weird after everything he saw.
Straight up ignoring her got him more than a few confused looks from all areas of the school popularity groups. Tucker thought he had lost his mind. He just encouraged him to go flirt with Sam or Valerie. He didn’t care which.
“Fentooon!”
Dash was another matter. “Yes, Baxter? How can I help you today?” He downed the last of his sandwich before it could be messed with.
Dash blinked in confusion at his last name being used, but Dan just looked up at him innocently. So he quickly gathered himself. “All my stuff smells like rotten meat since that stupid ghost attack that I’m sure came from your weird parents basement! What are you going to do about it?” Dash leveled a glare at him, and Dan laid his head in his hand in thought.
“I mean we already had to clean up the school of all that stuff, I get how that smell gets stuck in your clothes… tell you what, just this once, I’ll get it covered with dry-cleaning? You’re the favored Jock after all that is probably going to make the school famous with a really cool pass or something…can’t have you missing a college sponsor because you’re smelling of rot, right?”
He looked just as confused as Tucker and Sam at this point, and it was cracking Dan up. He didn’t have time to worry about the crowds and sign off with his usual sass.
“You do anything weird to my clothes, Fenturd, I’ll make sure you get swirlies after every gym class!”
“I don’t plan on doing anything weird to your clothes. But I do hope after this you leave me be. You’re constantly worried about your future after high school… instead of your wasting time with me, perhaps you should be studying with Jazz, Sam, Tucker and I instead. Gotta get that career headed for college football too right?”
While he knew he was throwing them through one loop than another, he knew that he was soft on his sister too with his little crush. If he was busy flirting with Jazz, he’d be leaving Dan alone at the same time. If not though… well he could handle that too.
“You’re being weird Fenton, what’s up with you?” Dash now had a genuine frown on him, and lowered his voice where other students were going on about their ways as the expected fight didn’t lash out and thereof was no longer interesting.
“Man, we got attacked by a giant meat monster, as you’ve pointed out. If stuff like that comes out more, what’s going to happen to everything else in town?” He played up being nervous, using the old disarming motion of rubbing the back of his neck in a timid nature. “Perhaps in exchange… Can you help me bulk up? You clearly got the routine down, that’s going to take me ages to figure out. I’m not available on weekends, but if you have a couple days a week you’d like the tutoring we can figure something out…”
He could almost see the smoke come out of his ears as the cogs in his head turned. Get his grades up, flirt with Fenton’s pretty sister, get known for bulking up a hopeless dweeb, and possibly giving everyone else a chance of a heads up if Danny was rested enough to notice something else coming out of the portal was a threat to the rest of the town. He really had nothing to lose. But of course he had to play it up.
“Fine. Tuesdays and Thursdays I don’t have drills. Those days we work in the library with your sister, or at my house. I don’t trust something to not explode downstairs if I go to yours, now that you mention it. Mondays and Wednesdays when I’m doing my football drills with the team I’ll give you stuff to start on the bleachers or something to get your stamina up. I’ll know if you start slacking, so don’t make me look bad, dweeb!”
“You got it Dash.” He grinned, leaving a confused but satisfied Dash to head off.
“What the hell Danny? Did you just invite him to study with us? And with Jazz?”
“What? I wasn’t going to just ditch you guys to study with them. But I won’t have time for all the swirlies and getting stuffed into lockers if I’m going to keep my grades up on top of our extracurriculars. If you guys don’t want to be a part of seeing Dash fall over himself flirting with my sister and being confused in Algebra, that’s perfectly fine, we’ll still have time on the weekends, and you can either join me on running the bleachers, or we can quiz each other too.” He beamed as they watched him like he had a concussion or something before they had to give in to the logical side of that.
“Yeah fine Danny… some warning would have been nice though.”
“Not like I had any as he was stalking up to me.” He chuckled. “I won’t be available tonight, now I gotta go find some lawns to mow or something to gather up money for his dry-cleaning. Not like he can’t afford it, but I can’t afford to bicker with him.” It was a long time since he’d had to focus on numbers after all, so he needed every moment to study that he could get.
Just like that, at least his high school day to day life was fixed. He got more actual exercise, Tucker could relax a little bit as other jocks saw him with Dan and Dash to be more tentative on messing with the technogeek. Jazz was thrilled to work with Dash too on his tutoring on her thesis of no one being unteachable.
There were a few slips through the cracks of the ghosts, but Dan quickly got them under control to mind their business as well.
He took to their challenges at the edge of town, leaving the civilians out of the way and out of the know for what exactly their town was going through.
In this way, he got his grades up, his muscle tone in check, for both human and ghost form as he hunted down the intruders and threw them out often as well. He even joined the football team. Sam seemed disappointed that their lives weren’t more regularly interesting, but soon she got over it for the excitement of the weekends, when she could be extra unique all she wanted.
After a while Tucker and Sam started splintering off away from Dash and his study-group, gagging at his attempts of flirting with Jazz, but Dan didn’t mind. Once Jazz did a reward system of ignoring him and praising Dan for his hard studies, he was quick to snap back to attention to keep up, not wanting to be outshone by her derpy little brother. Then he had less distractions too of them trying to whisper about ghosts in his ear that he really didn’t need at that moment.
The balance of work, friends, and ghosts got a lot easier after that, even expanded. Valerie was easier to approach, Star and especially Kwan.
Dan had even gotten Sam and Tucker to phase away from calling him Danny for his more familiar name of Dan, along with everyone else except for his immediate family.
So Dan had a wide grin on his face when the invitation came for one college reunion of Vlad Masters.
Dash hadn’t let him be going around in his baggy clothes anymore, refusing to let him hide the muscle build, probably so he could lecture him if he caught him slacking, but it left him to leave a stronger impression on Vlad when they went to the manor, he was sure of it.
He had to play this closer to the vest now. Either confront Vlad as soon as he was in shot with the stupid vultures who he’d sent to town, or keep it from him.
Part of it had it where things would be so much more simple if Vlad stayed in the dark. But if not to make his life hell, he would make it tough for Jack anyways.
So, building a comradery with the man was going to be his attempt. He had a chance of this working. He was still half Vlad after all.
So he got the fitted shirts Dash and Kwan dragged him to shopping with, more current jeans and a couple pairs of slacks so he didn't disappear in them, and when it was enough that even Star beamed with a thumbs up of approval, he felt more sure. He let that become his new wardrobe, and took it along with him as he headed with the Fenton’s in the Ghost Assault Vehicle to the manor. A part of him had missed the tacky styled home.
Over the last few months, the bits of Vlad to him had caused him to shoot up in height a couple inches as well, any bonus he could get was a plus, especially if he could get back to a more familiar frame.
So he walked with a steady confidence after his parents to the door, letting them do their thing in greeting as trailed behind with Jazz, waiting for the introductions and their banter to be done. At least this way if the kids were to the back, Vlad couldn’t shut the door in his face, as hilarious as it had been at the time.
No, it totally wasn’t. Shut it.
“This is our daughter Jasmine, goes by Jazz, and our son Daniel, goes by Dan now, trying to be all grown up.” Madeline giggled as she introduced them.
“Well miss Jazz, Dan, it seems you both got more of your reserved temperament from your mother. It is lovely to meet you, and please, for the next couple days until the reunion, please do make yourselves at home. Hello Jack, and Maddie you’ve never looked lovelier!~” He smiled as he shook their hands in turn, blinking when Dan pushed his ghostly aura in Hello, gentle, intrusion? And he knew he had the man's attention and shock at the revelation.
Dan smiled as he finished the handshake, taking his hand back. “I see you're a Packers fan. What's your favorite year, Mr. Masters?” With that he was able to cut off Jazz’s embarrassing spiel too with a small dig at not buying the team.
He recovered after a moment, cautiously extending it back to him. Welcome, curious.
“That I am, dear boy… I'm quite fond of the team from 1967, myself. My prized possession is a football signed by Ray Nitschke.”
Thank the ancients we bypassed most of the flirting with mom for now. Shoot, Jack can’t control himself.
“Woah cool! I have a study group with my friends on the football team, mind if I take some pictures of your collection to show them back home?” Points with Kwan, Dash, Vlad, and hopefully keep his dad away from touching it while he was taking pictures. He beamed as he looked over the familiar collection, pieces he knew the stories of every one of them in some cobweb covered dusty corner of his mind. “I like that year, but 96 was really good too. Henderson was excellent at the time.”
“Of course you may, I appreciate the consideration and mindfulness. You seem quite a fan yourself…shall I show you to the screening room? I've some ‘67 material you can look at, perhaps I might convince you of the value of classics, dear boy.”
“I'd love to!” He grinned widely, which was true, it'd been such a long time since he got to know the hobby, though he had a feeling it was for other purposes.
After Jack tackled his way through the door and tossed around the collector football for a frazzled Vlad, much to Dan’s dismay, Vlad caught and held protectively away from the giant, but this time was able to hold back from the snippy comments since Dan had been buttering him up. Vlad showed them their rooms, the bathrooms, and the kitchen, before they took off in different directions to explore, and he led Dan down to the screening room.
Vlad hummed as he led him there, in thought before offering lightly. “Think my personal favorite would be Antonio Freeman, if we’re talking about the 1996 team.”
“He has a fantastic record too, parts of it better than William Henderson, but something about the guy I'm just favored towards… intercepting twenty seven passes is pretty amazing.”
Vlad chuckled as he led him to the theater, eyes sweeping over it, probably making sure it was empty, before grabbing a bowl of fresh popcorn and sweets, motioning for Dan to get something, where he got a pop with a lid to settle next to him in the seat. He forgot how comfortable everything was here. He beamed as he relaxed back into it, to be casual for the cautious interrogation to start.
“What would you say is your favorite thing here so far, Dan?”
“The drive was immaculate coming up, but I love the character of the stonework. It feels…classic, homey.”
Vlad hummed, pleased with the answer. “It’s old, home to the Dairy King, felt pretty spot on to show dedication to the Packer’s team by the cheese, no?”
“I don’t think anyone would doubt it.Thanks for not mentioning trying to Ghost Hunt the guy…I’m sure he was just as embarrassing in college, but it’s something else to be traumatized in front of his best friend.” He smirked a bit. “May I suggest though…breaking up a bit of the gold and green might do good with accents of dark wood could make highlights better and draw the focal point.” He smiled, sipping his soda with an innocent batting of his eyes.
“His best friend?” Vlad scoffed and shook his head. “That buffoon hasn’t reached out in nearly twenty years, my child.” He let the comment with the dark woods slide, perhaps he would incorporate that later, after all he had the cabins deep wood toned enough and he had a dozen of those over the United States alone. “Yes, he can be a bit careless when he gets wrapped up in something, don’t need him breaking one of my displays while thinking a cheese hat is floating.”
Dan snickered a bit, then sat up a little for his face to be a little more serious. “I heard about what happened. He talked about how close you had been back then, and wasn’t paying attention to the fact that you were in front of it as he switched it on. Since he got the invitation he’s quite hopeful you’ve forgiven him. For a lack of apology all this time him thinking you wanted your space it’s understandable to be upset. I get that, I really do.” He let the bitter edge roll from his tongue, looking to the side. “…but perhaps spell it out for him? He is thick, but he still cares for you, a lot.”
“You’ve got a good heart, dear boy.” Vlad smirked a bit, ruffling Danny’s hair. “This has been a chance to reconnect with him and Maddie after all… I hope during his stay he realizes how much things changed and affected me. It’s a little much for a host to lecture their twenty year gone friend after such a short time seeing each other again…perhaps you may make a word to him in passing?”
Dan thought about it and decided to test further what Vlad would tell. “You know… hindsight really makes things clearer. I’m sure in Retrospect, he’ll realize what went wrong.”
This seemed to be what Vlad was waiting for, his eyes lit up with a glint, sitting up a bit and flashed red eyes to him, which Dan shrugged and flashed green back to him. “Marvelous… how long has your…condition persisted?”
“Three months ago.” He sighed, stretching. “My batch wasn’t contaminated so my healing time was far ahead. I’ve been cleaning mom and dad’s lab for years so when I found the list slipped away with dad’s yearbook, a case of ecto-acne, I read into why I didn’t break out…I’m so sorry that you got blasted with white hot ectoplasm mixed with diet cola man.”
Vlad sat up straighter, blinking in shock. “D..Diet cola?! What was that doing in the blasted machine?”
“Heck if I know, man. But in case I ever get a breakout like that, since I’m fighting pimples enough as a teenager anyways, which, gross, I want to have some sort of cure on hand. I’ll make sure to pass you the recipe if I figure it out first so you don’t have another round like what happens with chicken pox turning into shingles or something.”
Vlad slowly nodded as he sank back into his chair, eyes glancing back around the room again making sure the others hadn’t joined them. “How did you figure out that I’d recognize your new name?”
Dan beamed to that. “Oh come on. Vultures come to town looking to hunt down my dad, get an invite for the college reunion and dad hopes that ‘finally after all these years, maybe he’s forgiven me’? It spelled it out real fast to be suspicious. Then I get here and this is clearly your claimed territory. I could feel it that if I wasn’t a guest at your door I would have been chased off so fast. That with you also getting blast with a portal… made it pretty clear.”
“So it was a portal accident you faced.” His face softened, and he could feel the empathy, and rage that it had happened again to someone even younger than he was. “Didn’t they learn the first time?”
“To be fair, it was my friends and I going down and taking a picture of it… it wasn’t working so I stepped inside…” He grinned widely, sarcastically with a swoosh of his hair. “Where do you think they put the on switch?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Vlad’s face had shifted to pure horror, and tinged with disgust.
“Yeah…no. By the time I came to, I was human. My parents weren’t sure what was damaged in the lab that hurt me, but all they knew was that their portal finally worked after twenty years.” He sighed, slumping to his hand. “Jazz barely got me in with a normal doctor… they didn’t even go to the hospital.”
He could feel the anger bubbling, resounded and stronger have a bit of Vlad’s ghost core still being a part of him. Good. He kept using ‘they’ so the feelings would slip from Maddie a little bit at a time. It wasn’t just Jack that was negligent after all.
And this was so much better than playing cat and mouse trying to prevent him from killing his dad overnight and getting beat to hell in the library. He may have been bulking up with Dash’s help, and working on his own drills to stay limber, but this boy was not going to keep up yet.
Vlad was quiet for a moment, tapping his finger to the arm of the chair, probably thinking of all the ways he could use the information. The tapping stopped with the question rolling around his mouth finally making it past his lips. “Why did you trust me with this, if you understand my goal?”
Dan sighed, drawing back on the loneliness Vlad had felt, all those years in the hospital, and Danny’s, with the crushing responsibility wearing down on his shoulders with no one to turn to. They’d both been so utterly alone and lost the chance of a good start.
“If…you’re anything like what I turned out to… you get it. I..don’t have anyone I can trust with this. My dad heard me disembodied fighting thank him for a thermos and is right back on the train with mom about hunting ghosts, studying them. And…it doesn’t sound like they’ve thought further about what happened, what it could mean. Are you…are you like me?” He let his voice be thick, knees curled up to his chest, glad he’d switched to house slippers to not have Vlad’s attention on his upholstery dirtied by his shoes.
He watched the careful calculation from Vlad in what he could disclose, how this could change his plans, then he smiled and got up. “Here isn’t the place…don’t need anyone else getting a show of what lies beyond their sights, hm?” Vlad winked as he offered his hand, and Dan smiled as he took it, coming up to his feet pulling himself by it and moved to let go of his hand, blinking when Vlad held tight, smiling comfortingly though as he phased them through the floor to his lab down a couple levels. Dan’s eyes went wide, moving to grip his arm looking around at the suddenness of it. It was a bit of surprise to have the acceptance so quickly, but after months of going after him, he had just accepted Danny hugging him calling him new dad while he was in the middle of trying to get him mauled by ghost bears. Okay so maybe loneliness was really strong for both parties.
Vlad chuckled to his shock, gently prying him off as they landed their feet on the ground those layers below. “This is my lab, Little Badger. No one will find us down here. Now… I’ve chanced a bit showing you this with how your parents are, indeed, so could you humor me and let me get a look at Retrospect first?”
Dan nodded, looking around in a daze, being trusted to be taken to this lab in particular was a huge improvement. The portal was only a room away. Snapping himself to attention, he moved away from Vlad, glad that this time around he didn’t have to use the embarrassing catchphrase either, and let the rings slide over him for his ghost form. He’d already been playing with the ectoplasm infused suit to change it from Phantom either. He didn’t like feeling like a pale imitation. After all, after everything he did, he wasn’t Danny. After so much therapy though, he wasn’t Vlad either. So he shifted in with something comfortably dark, black comfortable combat clothes with touches of ectoplasmic neon green to them, with a cloak that wrapped around over his mouth, his white hair spilling out from underneath a hood.
“I’ve convinced them to leave me alone until weekends, and preferable at night when the people of Amity Park won’t see us… I can’t imagine things going well by being spotted after the lunch lady attack… so…I want to be a trick of the light, something at the edge of their vision that they can just dismiss.” He smiled a bit, watching Vlad circle him, lifting edges of his cloak, feeling the texture, the thickness, smiling a bit as he nodded, spotting the protection plates underneath for padding and safety.
“Well you’re not an imbecile, you got some more protection in here than I expected.”
“I grew up with them both telling me how dangerous ghosts are. No way am I taking any more blasts than I have to without some layers of protection.” If it hadn’t been so difficult to figure out how to manipulate ectoplasmic materials, he would have definitely done it in his early years after getting thrown around by Skulker. Guy was an absolute unit.
“The hair suits you nicely as well.” He hummed, pushing back the hood just a bit. Dan sniggered. Of course he’d be happy for something that made him look more like Vlad.
“Alright enough doting over me, Mr. Masters, I want to see what you can do.” He beamed, extra brightening up his eyes, playing up his excitement as much as he could, knowing how much he would adore being a mentor with someone looking up to him once he was used to it. He’d already seen the proof with his many attempts with Danny, Red Huntress to track him down… yeah he needed whatever leg up he could get. He was keeping Vlad far away from desperate reaches of power if he could help it, and hold him far away from King Phantom. He did not want to figure out timelines like that if he could. Hopefully Danny had forgotten about him after so many years. Then again, the ghost zone moved differently than the human world where Danny had spent so much of his time. Had it been centuries, or decades, or merely a matter of days? He decided to just blame Clockwork and call it good.
Vlad chuckled. “You can just call me Vlad, dear boy. I have a feeling that our connection to one another will be much too close to use such formalities.” He took a dramatic bow for the black rings to wash over his form, the white and dramatic red billowing out around him.
Damn he had been in need of a costume change or three. He was so dramatic. But he felt the wave of nostalgia wave over him, getting a smile out of him, one that with the excitement of things changing, even if just a little bit was such a good sign. “Woah…”
“Woah indeed, Dan.” He smiled amused back to him, letting him feel over the cape as well and poke at the pointed hair.
“Is my hair going to do something like that?”
“There’s a chance, in time, that as your core develops, your physical features will change with it. That’s where you draw your powers from.”
Dan beamed, nodding in thought and wonder. To portray this as the wonder what all he could do and learn, when inside he was wondering if it had always been this dang easy.
“There is so much I could teach you Dan, a whole world you don’t know the rules of, and decades of experience… Now, how are we going to sort that when I in part want your father out of the picture? You clearly still care for him, no matter how infuriating he is.”
“Well…I mean have you thought through the whole killing my dad, seducing my mom thing thoroughly?” He offered a winced smile, earning a sputtered scoff.
“Wha- Dan I’ve had twenty years to think about this and everything he’s done to me.”
“Yeah…you’ve dreamed of the moment but…it’s not really set up the best. Let’s say you do kill my dad, perhaps in front of all the old college pals, mom being devastated and falling into your arms… that isn’t going to last. Especially in that her hatred will go sky high for ghosts, and a part of her would never accept you after that. And now…well…a bit selfish but me too. I kinda like my parents having more the excited curiosity than hate and rage.”
Vlad frowned a bit, but thinking about it a bit he nodded for him to continue.
“What if instead…you get to know the family…witnessing if Jack does feel bad about what happened, if he even understands what really happened. See what Jazz likes for school, what music we listen to, how mom likes her undead corndogs… that doesn’t sound so bad right? Maybe…showing me…how I can do this whole ghost thing? It’s…not exactly something I can count on my dad for after all.” He lowered his head, rubbing the back of his neck with his shoulders slumped.
If this was genuine he would be a heartbreaking sight. Damn the manipulation side of Vlad was playing strong in this. It was something he wanted, but to be playing it up to the max was a little difficult. He had to sell it though. He was a fourteen year old that needed this help. He literally was. He had to convince himself and Vlad of this.
Because such a heartbreaking scene Vlad would be all too happy to manipulate for everything he could get out of it. If that meant getting brownie points with Jack’s son on something he couldn’t be trusted with, so be it. Similarly, it got Vlad off his family’s back in the worst way, and made him an actual asset to the family, so be it. Vlad would be proud if he ever found out anyways. It really was mutually beneficial in the end.
So that was how he got his schooling, ghost training, fighting, and assassinations against his family all handled.
He steadily made his way to the top of his class, sometimes with a slight mental manipulation of an overshadowing to make a teacher forget where they put their pop quiz and instead give them a movie day, or the teachers invite each other out for a social dinner just to drink way too much and have a hangover, giving them a quiet study day.
While he didn’t give away his and Vlad’s secret, he did tentatively talk to his parents about his own accident and Vlad’s. How much it hurt how quickly their attention had gone to the portal and forgot about his injuries, when he really should have gone to the hospital. How alone and scared he was going through all that pain alone, and finding out they hadn’t visited Vlad in so many years, to think about how badly that would hurt, how alone he must have been, hospitalized for years.
He worked it in carefully over a few weeks, then asked Nocturne for help with the dreams to guide him the rest of the way.
The result was a success, Jack going to see Vlad who had moved into a manor there in town, same as Dan remembered from before, and carrying a stack of letters with him, many yellowed with age of having been put away for ages, and when he was let in, bawling in the entry hall as he handed over the stack and apologizing over and over, with that he didn’t have the courage to face him after ruining his life.
Tensions eased after that, and they were, over the next couple years, able to settle for a poly relationship.
That was a lot more productive then it had been in the past. He didn’t care what they did together. He cared that the fighting was down much lower, that he was safer, that his parents hadn’t been able to spot another ghost, and his friends were able to feature the lunch lady as a fake ghost, finding her a body double to be painting with bright green paint and putting a matching cap on, making it look like the whole thing had been part of some complicated media arts class.
Of course they never fully gave it up, but suspicions stopped flying at every teacher, every parent, every security guard at the edge of the mall.
Jazz still found out, but at least it was much later than before, so he had a handle on things and could deal with figuring out how to bring her into the fold. He had never gotten this far with it before. She had died before he knew she was aware of the situation.
But she was here now, she wasn’t going to leave him alone again, she had promised.
He helped her out with her psychology studies as well, having spent so much time on his own therapy, he was able to help her see more the other side and ground her so it wasn’t as overpowering and judgemental as he remembered.
So, with Retrospect, he was content, everyone was protected, safe, happy, and the love that radiated off of them his obsession with family was sated, they were protected, and he could take a step back, so he started on his courses for college studies, feeding the Vlad side of him for its need of respect, and Danny’s need for outer space. He’d gotten football scholarships, grants with Genius Magazine for tutoring on assisting young genius women find their support circles so they could absolutely blossom.
There wasn’t a single thing he was missing.
He should have left it that way.
But there had always been, just that one little thing.
“Mom, Dad…there’s something we need to talk about.”