Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I think I’m about to die the rest of the way, but from boredom,” Danny groaned.

Tucker snickered while Sam scowled and punched him in the arm. “Don’t be such a doofus.”

Danny mocked a scandalized expression. “Name-calling, Samantha? What would your parents say?”

“Low blow, Danny. For that, I’m not going to give you that extra soda I brought for lunch.”

Danny gasped. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would.” She leaned past him, “Hey Tuck, would you want a-”

Danny smirked, putting his hands up in mock surrender. “All right, All right. I hereby swear to not reference the existence of your parents for the rest of the day.”

“Make it a week, and I’m sold.”

“Done.”

Sam and Danny shook hands, using their best caricature of professional etiquette.

They continued walking down the room, Tucker trailing a few steps behind. It was a smaller space, with low ceilings and worn carpeting. Shadowbox cases lined the perimeter of the gallery, showcasing brittle-looking scraps of yellowed paper. Danny could acknowledge that these fragments must be historically interesting, but there was simply not enough to look at in this room to justify Lancer’s choice to linger in the space for what must be going on 15 minutes now. They passed a piece which had been written in a striking shade of green ink that reminded him of ectoplasm for the 4th time. Danny was using that as his lap marker. He wondered if Lancer would keep them in the room long enough for them to walk an impromptu 5K.

Sam looked sideways at him. “I don’t see why you’re complaining. At least we’re mixing things up with a field trip. I don’t know how many more of Mr. Lancer’s lectures I can sit through before I-”

Tucker suddenly interjected, throwing his arms around his two friends, “Gosh guys! Isn’t this place just the best! Who would’ve thought our little old local museum would have so many medieval manuscripts!”

Danny raised an eyebrow, and turned to say something just as their teacher approached the group. “Mr. Foley! I’m glad to hear you’ve taken such a keen interest in literary history. Unfortunately, it is time for our group to move on. You can always come back on your own time if you’d like to see more.” Based on the look the man gave Sam, Danny was fairly sure Tucker had been too late with his cover-up attempt.

The three of them meandered back to the double doors connecting the side gallery to the main showroom of the museum.

The group fell back in step with the rest of their class as they moved into the next exhibit. They stepped into a large atrium, sparsely dotted with glass display cases along the outside edges.

Mr. Lancer cleared his throat. “Now this exhibit is the most exciting, in my humble opinion. Here, you’ll find examples of different protest literature from the first half of the 20th century. There is a wide assortment of examples from fliers, pamphlets, and even a few zines. You’ll recall our lesson last week about the background of zines, and how they were often used to approach complex social issues through the lens of science fiction. Over here are fliers that were disseminated in Axis territory during World War 2 with the goal of…”

Danny looked to his friends. Tucker had also started to zone out, but Sam actually seemed interested in this part of the tour. He figured she was probably looking for new ways to spread the word at her next demonstration. He had resigned himself to waiting quietly, not wanting to interrupt a topic that his friend genuinely cared about, when a wisp of white mist escaped his lips. Tucker noticed, a mischievous look on his face. “Looks like we-”

Danny was on the far side of the room before he could register what was happening. Something had grabbed him by the back of his neck and was now pressing him headfirst into the wall. He heard gasps and shrieks from his classmates. Sam and Tucker called his name. His stomach twisted. He hadn’t transformed, and the list of ghosts willing to come after Danny Fenton was short and unpleasant. He tried to kick out at whatever ghost was behind him, but met only air.

“Ah ah ah, little badger. Wouldn’t want to put up too much of a fight in front of your little classmates, now, would we?”

He grit his teeth. Vlad. The teen tried to squirm out of the ghost’s grip, only to be pressed harder into the wall. He gasped as the plaster cracked under his skull. This made no sense. Was the other halfa really about to blow their truce in front of his entire class?

“What do you want, Vlad?” Danny gritted out, quiet enough to prevent the other students from overhearing. He was still holding out hope that he’d find a way out of this with his secret intact. Being on a first-name basis with the Wisconsin ghost was not going to help with that.

“Oh, nothing you can give. Though, it is something you can help me get. But, first things first.”

Vlad suddenly spun him around, and he only had a second to register the silver handheld device before it connected with his stomach. Danny cried out as electricity coursed through him. He heard several students' panicked yells, but for some reason Mr. Lancer’s startled “The Tell-Tale Heart! Daniel!” stood out to him. Blearily, he wondered how he was going to explain all of this to his teacher. Vlad caught him under the arms as his knees buckled. He thought to himself that he should try to fight back, to move away from Vlad, but his brain and body seemed to be operating in slow motion.

He felt himself being thrown over Plasmius’s shoulder. That seemed like a bad place to be, but he wasn’t quite clear on why. Details were feeling… fuzzy. He heard Sam call his name, but it was so far away. He wondered when she had left the room. Why did she go without him?

Vlad spun to face the frightened class, and Danny was certain he’d never stop spinning.

“Pass along a message to Jack and Madeline Fenton. If they wish to see their dear boy alive again, they’ll answer when I call on them.”

With that, he shot upwards, phasing through the skylights and out of the building.

As soon as they were airborne, Danny senses clicked back into place. He scrambled away from Vlad with a shout and pushed out into the open air, calling on his ghost powers. They didn’t come. Gravity snatched him, and he started to plummet towards the ground below.

“Foolish boy,” Vlad said, swooping down and catching him by the back of the shirt. Danny let out a startled yelp as the fabric constricted around his neck. His hands came up, fingers scrabbling to make space between the hem and his windpipe. A laugh rained down on him from above. “Have you forgotten the sting of the Plasmius Maximus already? It’s a rather distinct feeling, as you so kindly demonstrated to me the last time I used it. Though, I’ve given it a few upgrades since then.”

Danny’s stomach twisted. The Plasmius Maximus. That was the (stupid) name of the taser Vlad had made with the sole purpose of shorting out his powers. He fired off a quick mental inventory. Did he have any weapons on him? A thermos? Anything to level the playing field? He cursed himself internally as he realized he’d left anything that could have helped in his backpack, which was sitting uselessly back on the school bus.

“What do you want, Vlad?” Danny finally managed to choke out. He scowled at the ghost, but took as deep a breath as he was able given the circumstance in an attempt to calm himself. The ground was a long way down, and he couldn't access his powers. The last thing he wanted was to stay in Vlad’s clutches, but getting dropped from 200 feet up was not exactly an appealing alternative.

“So much bravado! But have you considered that I want exactly what I’ve asked for?”

Danny craned his neck up and furrowed his brow, trying to recall what the man had said in the moments after the sudden attack. “My parents? What do you want with them?”

“That, dear Daniel, is none of your concern. I simply need you out of the way while the adults conduct business.” He grinned down at the dangling teen. “But you will make such a convenient bargaining chip, in the meantime.”

Danny opened his mouth to argue, only to have his vision swallowed by a burst of magenta ectoplasm, and then darkness.

*****

“Did Fen-turd just get kidnapped by a ghost?!” Dash said, breaking the stunned silence. “Was that for real?!” Sam could hear the hysteria starting to edge into his voice. It took all of her willpower not to grab him by the front of his ugly red letterman jacket and scream in his face.

Mr. Lancer, to his credit, quickly attempted to regain his composure and take charge of the situation. “Everybody, remain calm. Mr. Foley, do you have a cell phone with you?”

“Well, um, I mean-”

“The Catcher in the Rye, Mr. Foley! This is not the time to worry about your repeated violation of our school’s policy on cell phone usage during academic events. Do you have a phone that you can use to call for help?”

“I- Yes, Mr. Lancer. I have my phone.”

“Good. I want you to call 911 and let them know what happened immediately.”

Tucker pulled out his cell and flipped it open to make the call. Lancer assessed the remaining teens.

“I want everyone to return to the bus while we wait for the police. WALK, do not run. Stay together as a group. Tucker, you can talk and walk. Let’s go.”

Sam numbly did as she was told. She could barely process what had just happened. Why had Vlad attacked? And why did he do it while Danny was in his human form? She thought they had worked out some sort of truce. What changed?

She stepped out of the air conditioned building into the sticky heat of a too-warm May afternoon. The bus lacked air conditioning, but at least all of the windows were open. Danny had complained the whole way there that he couldn’t use his ice powers to cool the bus.

“You could always come clean about being Phantom. It’d probably make everything a lot more convenient for you. And then you could use your powers all you wanted.”

He hadn’t appreciated her suggestion, even if it wasn’t genuine.

While everyone else dutifully filed on, Sam snuck around to the far side of the bus. Tucker wasn’t the only one to ignore the “no phones” rule on school trips. She snapped hers open and speed dialed Jazz.

“Hello? Sam? What’s going on? I thought you guys were on a field trip today.”

“Vlad took Danny.” She didn’t know what else to say.

Jazz wasn’t going to waste time with any more words than necessary. “I’ll be right there.”

*****

Tucker watched as the Fenton’s RV came screeching into the parking lot of the town museum. Guilt swirled inside his stomach as he watched Danny’s parents jump out of the vehicle and run to where the police had cordoned off the front entrance. He let out a deep breath. Would it change anything about the current situation if they knew? He didn’t think they could take on Vlad. What he did know was that Danny would be furious if Tucker did anything to put them in that kind of danger.

He watched as the two ghost hunters spoke with a detective that was clearly in over her head. Maddie Fenton responded to something the woman had said, gesticulating wildly as she spoke. Jack put a hand on her shoulder. She turned and buried her face in her husband’s chest, shoulders heaving. Tucker felt his throat constrict as he looked away.

Jazz pulled into the parking lot a few minutes later. He knew Sam had called her before he’d finished with 911 and the police had notified Danny’s parents, but she was far less willing to flaunt traffic laws than her father. She parked and came running up to her parents, who wrapped their daughter in a bear hug. The family spoke for a few minutes before Jazz looked over to Sam and Tucker. She said something else to her mom, who nodded. Jazz turned and walked over.

“That’s a conversation I would like to never have again.” Her voice wavered. She quickly wiped her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “I got the ‘official’ story. Now tell me what actually happened.”

Sam and Tucker took turns explaining events, but it didn’t take long to catch her up to speed. Everything had happened so quickly that there wasn’t much to tell.

“Tucker and I were talking about taking the Specter Speeder and going after him like the last time Vlad nabbed him, but..” Sam trailed off.

“Mom and Dad have it locked down because of the last time you stole it.” Jazz replied.

Tucker nodded. “That, and this is way more public than the last time. It’s not like we could just leave. We’re witnesses at a crime scene.”

Jazz bit her lip, thinking. “The police want mom and dad to wait at home. Based on what Vlad said to everyone, they’re expecting some sort of ransom demand.”

Sam snorted. “It’s not like Vlad needs any more money.”

“Maybe he needs something else.”

The two girls turned to look at him. He waited as they considered his words.

“Do you think this is like the time he infected us with ecto-acne?” Sam said. “Maybe he needs some sort of help from the Fentons, so he kidnapped Danny to force them to help?”

“It makes more sense than anything else I can think of right now.” Jazz turned to look back at her parents. “Look, I have to go. With Danny getting taken, my parents don’t want me out of their sight. I’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything. In the meantime, I’ll try to see if there’s any way around the new security features on the Specter Speeder.”

They watched their friend’s sister as she walked back over to her family. The three Fentons finished their business with the police and climbed into the RV, leaving Jazz’s car behind. Then the vehicle pulled away, with much less enthusiasm than it had arrived.

Chapter Text

Danny stretched as he woke, not wanting to open his eyes, but knowing it was probably time to get up. He’d had a crazy dream about Vlad crashing his school field trip to the local history museum. Man, that would have sucked. He hadn’t even been in ghost form! Imagine trying to explain to everyone why Danny Fenton was kidnapped by a ghost! Dash would probably never let him live it down. He rubbed his eyes and yawned as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Huh. Why did his left eye feel swollen? He frowned as his feet touched the cold metal floor. Wasn’t his floor carpeted?

His eyes shot open as everything came back to him. That hadn’t been a dream.

Danny took in his surroundings. He was in a small, rectangular room. The walls, floor and ceiling were all made up of what looked like stainless steel. He couldn’t find any visible seams. He was sitting on the only piece of furniture in the room, a metal cot that had been welded to the floor. He stood. A half wall boxed off the corner to his left, and he wrinkled his nose when he found a sink and toilet behind it.

This was a prison cell. And knowing Vlad, one that was built to keep him in.

He looked at the wall across from the cot. While the other 3 were bare, this one had a door and a large mirror. He shuddered. Probably 1-way glass so Vlad could watch what he was up to, the creep.

He looked at the door, knowing it would be locked. There wasn’t even a handle on this side. He tried pushing it open anyway. When it didn’t budge, he shifted into his ghost form and tried blasting it. The bolt of green energy didn’t even leave a mark. Going intangible, he tried to phase through the floor. The ground underneath him remained solid. He got a similar result from the walls and the ceiling. He was about to try freezing the mirror/window when the crackle of a speaker made him jump.

“Good morning, Daniel! Now, I think we both know that you’re not going anywhere unless I allow it. But you’re more than welcome to waste your energy trying.”

Danny growled. He truly hated this man. “What do you want, Fruit Loop?” He yelled. The other halfa must be in his human form. His ghost sense hadn’t given him any warning of the man’s arrival. He glared at the mirror, picturing Vlad’s gloating face watching him from the other side. It was easy enough to imagine. He’d seen it far more times than he’d like.

“Oh, nothing you need to worry about. I just need a little assistance from your parents, and I had to be sure they were sufficiently motivated. You must know firsthand how they would feel about helping a filthy ghost.”

Okay, that told him nothing. If Vlad wasn’t going to give him any more information, his next best option was to try and get in the man’s head. For how smart the man was, it could be surprisingly easy to turn his own pride and arrogance against him. “What’s wrong Vlad? Not smart enough to figure it out yourself? You must be desperate if you’re willing to ask my dad to help.”

“Hm. I’m sorry, Daniel. While I’m sure we could have plenty of fun with this little back and forth, I must stick to a tight schedule today. I just thought you might like to know that I’ll be recording a little ‘proof of life’ video for your parents soon. You may prefer to be in your human form when I do so. Or if not, I could always send the video I just captured of your transformation.” Danny could hear the smug smile in his voice as he spoke. “It’s not like you’re in any position right now to give away my secret if I reveal yours.”

Danny scowled. He trusted that he could find a way out of this with time, but the man seemed… agitated. It sounded like he was genuinely doing what he could to get this done so he could go. He wasn’t taking the time to gloat or following his other predictable patterns. And with Vlad, ‘unpredictable’ was a synonym for ‘dangerous’. Which, he supposed, lined up pretty well with the situation he found himself in now. Either way, he couldn’t be certain that this was an empty threat. White-blue rings flashed as he shifted back to Danny Fenton.

“Excellent!” Vlad said with a chuckle. “And, action! Give us a wave for the camera, Daniel.” Danny crossed his arms and frowned. He heard a series of faint rustling noises over the speaker. After a few seconds of him standing there doing nothing, the man spoke again. “Ah, well, that will have to be enough for now. I’m sure your parents are going to appreciate some concrete evidence that I haven’t killed you.” More rustling. “Alright. Now that that’s out of the way, I recommend you make yourself comfortable, Daniel. This may take a while.”

*****

The letter came the next day. Jazz’s parents had insisted on keeping her home from school, worried that she might be taken too if she was away from the safety of their ghost defenses. So instead of taking her calc final (which she had been looking forward to taking so she could be done with it and wipe differentials from her mind forevermore), she was sitting in the living room trying her best to read a book. She had hoped it would keep her mind off of things, but she kept losing her focus and having to go back to the start of the page. She was on her 5th attempt at starting the next chapter when the doorbell rang.

Her parents were down in the lab, trying to find a way to track down the ghost that had taken Danny. They had scoured the crime scene for any trace of ectoplasmic evidence, but found nothing. Jazz wasn’t surprised. Plasmius wasn’t the type to make careless mistakes. She got up to answer it herself.

She swung open the front door to find herself face to face with one of Vlad’s vulture ghosts. She frowned at it and crossed her arms. It seemed to be waiting for her to react. Eventually it realized that she wasn’t about to start running around screaming, so it moved on and did what it had been sent there to do.

“Special delivery for the Drs. Fenton!” the bird squawked. It used a taloned foot to toss a manila envelope at Jazz before taking off. “Vulture Logistics And Deliveries- We’ll get your package there, on a wing and a prayer! Make sure to give our service five stars on Yelp!” it called out as if flew away.

She shook her head at the strange bird and closed the front door just as her parents came storming up from the lab. “Is that-” they said in unison. Jazz nodded.

Jack grabbed the envelope and ripped it open in spite of Maddie’s protests that they check it for traps. He scanned the letter, face going gray. He handed the letter to his wife as he pulled a small data drive from the envelope. As soon as she finished reading, Jazz tore the letter from her mother’s hands.

“Jazz!”

“Not now, Maddie,” said her father, quieter than she’d ever heard him speak before, “We need to go look at this.”

Her mother swallowed and nodded, and the two of them headed down to the lab to use the computer. Jazz looked at the letter.

Dear Drs. Fenton,

I apologize for the stressful situation I’ve put you in, but I require your assistance. I am well aware that you would not provide it to one of my kind willingly, barring extreme circumstances. Daniel is safe, and will remain so as long as you cooperate with my demands.

You are the only scientists I know of that have been able to create a stable artificial portal to the “Ghost Zone’, as I believe you call it. I have, unfortunately, sustained damage from the frequent use of what I am loath to admit is an inferior portal. My form has begun to discorporiate. If something is not done to remedy this ailment, I fear I will dissolve entirely. It is only through my own strength of will that I have lasted this long. You are the only scientists on the planet with the requisite knowledge and skills needed to identify and rectify this problem.

I have set up a laboratory space at the address on the data drive. There is also a file for a video taken this morning to prove that your son is still alive. You will meet me there by no later than 6:00 pm tonight. Do not attempt to alert any authorities to the location of this lab. They will be unable to apprehend me, and it will only waste time, of which I have little remaining.

Daniel’s survival is dependent on my own.

-Plasmius

*****

Tucker and Sam arrived at Fenton Works shortly after Jack and Maddie departed. Which was good, because Jazz looked like she was going to burn a hole through the floor with the way she was pacing back and forth. Sam grimaced. They needed to find a way to help soon, or Danny’s sister would drive herself crazy with worry. The two quickly read through the letter.

“So, wait, Vlad’s saying the portal he made is, what, malfunctioning? And that it’s killing him?” Tucker pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

“That’s how I understood it, yeah.” Jazz sat down on the couch, picking at her fingers. “I think that once he knew he needed our parent’s help, he also knew that Danny would try to stop him.” As soon as she finished speaking, she stood back up and started pacing again.

“So Vlad gets him out of the way and gets a hostage to boot,” Sam finished, fists clenching at her sides. There were not enough words in the English dictionary to describe how much she despised this man. For a guy who claimed to want Danny as a son, Vlad sure spent a lot of time coming up with exciting new plots just to hurt him.

Silence filled the room for a long moment.

“Okay,” said Sam. “We know why he did it. Now what are we going to do about it?”

“My parents took the data drive with them, so we don’t know where the lab is.”

Tucker rubbed his chin. “Do we think Vlad would even keep Danny in the same place as the lab?”

“Probably not, but I don’t think he’d be very far away, either. We all know how much trouble Danny can cause when he’s left unsupervised.” Sam shared a mirthless smile with the group.

Tucker nodded, “It’s a good point, Sam.” He looked to the older Fenton sibling, who was continuing to wander around the room in a tornado of nervous energy. “Jazz, were you able to get anywhere with the speeder?”

She stopped, hugging her arms around herself. “Mom and Dad have been keeping it pretty secure after what happened last time. I was able to get the physical lock off of the door, but I couldn’t get the one they put on the steering wheel. They’ve also installed a program that requires a code to start the engines. Tucker, do you think you can find a workaround for that?”

“No problem,” he said, grinning and cracking his knuckles.

“Perfect. Sam, do you want to take a crack at the other lock?”

That was enough to get a small grin out of her. “Oh yeah. You know I’m always down to steal things to save our friend’s butt.”

Jazz nodded stiffly while Tucker snorted. He grinned back at her. “Alright Sam, Jazz, let’s get this party started.”

Chapter Text

Danny regretted complaining about how bored he had been yesterday. Clearly, the universe was punishing him for his arrogance.

Obviously he was anxious about the whole situation. But he couldn’t find anything to do about it. And he had nothing to occupy his mind in the meantime.

The walls were seamless. The frame of the cot was welded together, so there were no loose bolts for him to pocket. He tried to think of some clever way to use a blanket or a pillow to force a door open, but obviously that idea went nowhere. The hinges weren’t even on this side. The sink and toilet even operated on a sensor - there were no handles to remove and no visible water pipes to break. He had killed some time trying to search for a possible weakness in the room, but he had come up with nothing. And since then, it had been hours .

He lay on the bed, fiddling with a loose string on the single threadbare blanket he’d been given. Vlad didn’t seem all that interested in his comfort this time around. That wouldn’t be much of an issue on its own, but the complete lack of stimulation was about to make him lose his mind. The initial burst of adrenaline had long left his system. Heck, he’d even take working on one of Lancer’s book reports over this. 

Maybe that was Vlad’s scheme. Psychological torture? Danny wouldn’t put it past him. But what was his end goal? What was the man hoping to gain by driving him nuts?

He heard a click, and bolted upright as a tray slid in through a slot in the bottom of the door. He jumped up from the cot, but the small opening snapped shut just as quickly as it had appeared. He crouched down, but couldn’t even see an outline in the spot where it had been. He assessed the tray in front of him. It was made of some kind of thick paper. Most likely useless for any attempts to escape. But hey, at least it had food on it. 

So he wasn’t going to be starved. A sandwich, an apple and a bottle of water were all that sat on the tray. Not much, though he guessed it could be worse. He looked up at the ceiling. He still wasn’t quite sure where the speaker was that Vlad’s voice had come through before, but he was sure that he was due for some more gloating.

He stood up and took the tray back to the cot, where he sat and waited for the taunting voice to come. The speakers stayed silent.

*****

Jack had never been an angry person, but it took every ounce of his self control not to throttle Plasmius once they arrived. “Where is my son, you sick son of a-”

“Temper, temper!” The ghost interrupted. “There’s no need for coarse language. Your son is safe and well, as promised. And he will remain so, provided you do your part.” The ghost floated nearly a foot off the ground so he would be high enough up to leer down at them. He turned to Maddie. “I assume you’ll be the voice of reason in this venture?”

She stared daggers at him. “I saw the bruises on Danny's face in that video. I want you to know upfront, that anything you do to my son will come back to you tenfold . You’ve made an enemy of the wrong ghost hunter.” She smiled at him, but there was nothing friendly in her expression. “And I am very much looking forward to keeping that promise when this is all over.”

Plasmius frowned. “I suppose this was never going to be a pleasant social call. Why don’t we go ahead and get started? The sooner this is over, the sooner we can be free of one another.”

He cleared his throat and clasped his hands together in front of his chest. “First things first - ground rules. I have no accomplices in this venture, and I am the only one who knows the location of your child. I understand that you will have ample opportunity to, as you like to say, ‘rip me apart molecule by molecule’ due to the nature of the task at hand. I can only urge you to exercise restraint in these matters. Otherwise, I doubt anyone will ever find your son.” He grinned at the couple. “Starvation does seem a terrible way to go.”

Maddie looked ready to faint. Jack wrapped an arm around his wife and squeezed her shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Madds,” he whispered. “Let’s get this over with already.”

His wife let out a breath and squared her shoulders. He knew this was killing her, but he’d married a fighter. “Alright, ghost creep, where do you want us to start? What are the symptoms of your condition? Was the onset gradual, or sudden? Have you been tracking their progression over time?”

Plasmius opened his mouth, seemingly ready to add one more snarky reply, but he closed it quickly. He floated over to a collection of monitors on the far wall. “All of the data is here. Symptoms began approximately three months ago, and have begun accelerating at an alarming rate over the last two weeks.” He pulled up another chart on a second monitor. “This is the calibration record for the portal of which I find myself in frequent use. As you can see, the energy output has become increasingly erratic, on a timescale that aligns with my ailment.” As if on cue, Plasmius’s left arm shimmered and deformed, stretching and twisting like a surrealist painting. He hissed and grasped it with his right hand. After a few seconds, the arm contracted and returned to its original shape and opacity. 

“Fascinating” Maddie whispered, taking a step closer to examine the ghost’s limb. The lights in the lab must have been casting a strange glow on the spirit, because for a second Jack could have sworn it looked like the creature was blushing.

“Well, I’m so glad my suffering can be of interest to you.” He pointed to a workbench and continued, “There, you’ll find samples I’ve collected from inside of and from the area surrounding the portal. I’ve also included some samples of material collected by the exto-filter. And yes, before you ask, I do change my filter on a regular basis.” He mumbled something under his breath after that. Jack could have sworn it sounded like “I won’t make that mistake twice.”

The ghost stopped in front of the door. “I believe I’ve been thorough in gathering the relevant information and materials, but it’s always polite to ask. Will you be needing anything else?” 

Jack couldn’t think of anything. He looked to his wife, who shook her head. 

“Excellent. Well, I’ll let the two of you get started. And feel free to head home after you find a good stopping point for the day. I trust you’ll be doing everything in your power to finish this quickly, and I hate to micromanage. For now, I must attend to other matters, but I will plan to check in again tomorrow morning at 8:00 sharp.” With that, he turned to go.

“One more thing, Plasmius.” Maddie interjected, stopping the ghost a few feet shy of the doorway. “We want another proof of life video tomorrow. And we need to know you didn’t record it in advance. She turned to look at Jack. Honey, do you have a good code phrase? Something he would have had no way to guess ahead of time.”

He grinned.

*****

The speeder cruised through the late spring air. The Boo-merang had wobbled strangely when Tucker first threw it, but eventually it seemed to lock onto its target and settle on a course. From there, it had taken them southwest out of the city. They had been flying over a heavily forested area for a few minutes when the unconventional tracking device dipped down into the canopy. 

Jazz set the speeder down in a grassy clearing close to the spot they’d seen it disappear. Sam hopped out while it was still a few inches off the ground.

“Sam! Be careful!”

Sam turned and stuck her tongue out at Jazz. Which was, admittedly, childish, but she had seen enough of the overprotective big sister act when it was aimed at Danny. She didn't need it now.

She pulled out a handheld scanner. The Boo-merang was fine for long distances, but she needed something more precise if she was going to find one of Vlad’s secret entrances. Its soft beeps guided her to a spot about 10 yards to the left of the speeder. 

Walking through the long grass, she pushed aside the brush in the spot the device had indicated. Vlad was prone to dramatics, and she was sure she’d find some contrived mechanism that would pop open a secret entrance. Maybe something shaped like a mushroom, or a tree stump, or even just a rock. Instead, a small silver box dotted with red lights blinked back at her. She scanned the ground for any wires that might be connecting this box to some kind of underground laboratory.  

Jazz and Tucker rushed over to join her. “What is that?” asked the latter.

“I don’t know, Tuck. Could this be some kind of switch? Maybe Vlad built another secret lab, and this is how he gets in.” 

Jazz shook her head. “If he wanted the lab to be secret, he wouldn’t have a way to open it that we could find. He’d just phase in and out.” She crouched next to the mystery box. “This has to be something else.”

“But what?” Tucker asked. “The scanner says he’s here. Could Danny be stuck inside the box? Like how ghosts shrink down when they’re in the thermos?”

Sam furrowed her brow. “But why would Vlad just leave it in the middle of the woods?” It made no sense, but according to the scanner, her friend was right here. She cautiously picked up the box, and the light blinked out. Her scanner fell silent. Danny’s signature was gone.

She had a bad feeling about this. 

“Jazz, my scanner lost him. Can you throw the Boo-merang again?”

The girl nodded, jogging back to the speeder and hopping inside. She emerged a moment later with the device. After taking a few steps to get clear of the vehicle, she pulled her arm back and launched the Boo-merang into the air. Just like before, it wobbled in place for several seconds before picking a direction. One that was, decidedly, not their current location. 

“What does that mean?” Tucker said, his hands on his head. “He was here, wasn’t he?”

“I don’t know, Tuck.” She said as she pulled her friend into a hug. She needed it more than he did, but she wasn’t about to say that out loud. “I don’t know.”

Chapter Text

“My parents really want me to say that?”

The hidden speaker crackled. “Daniel, I don’t know. I’m sure you can understand them wanting to ensure these videos aren’t pre-recorded. As for the phrase they chose, well, I can’t even begin to understand the workings of your father’s mind.” A sigh translated as a sharp hiss of static on the low-quality sound system. “Please, just say it so we can finish this mess and all move on with our lives.”

Danny considered. After sitting in silence for most of yesterday, he was more than happy to drag this out. Laying on the cot, he was fiddling with an origami star. He had salvaged his food trays for the material. The paper trays had given him about 8 strips each with the dimensions that he needed to twist into the little charms. After lunch and dinner yesterday and then breakfast earlier this morning, he was starting to build a nice little collection. He turned his head towards the wall with the door and mirror. “I have a condition.”

“Oh, for the love of- WHAT.”

“I need some books or something. I’m gonna go crazy in here, dude.” If nothing else, we wanted to see if Vlad would confirm his theory that this was some kind of attempt at mental warfare. He threw the star up in the air with one hand and caught it in the other. A ‘thunk’ echoed through the speakers. Danny wondered if that was the sound of Vlad getting up, or the sound of him banging his head against the wall. He grinned at the image of the latter. 

The slot in the door opened up and three worn-out paperbacks tumbled in before it snapped shut again. 

“There, Daniel. Now, the code phrase.”

Danny quirked an eyebrow before rolling out of the cot. He yawned and stretched, unhurried. Then, he tossed the star up and used a quick blast of ice to freeze it back up on the ceiling with the others. It took the place of Polaris in his recreation of Ursa Minor. Another sigh hissed through the speaker. Danny smirked. He would take any win he could get right now, and irritating Vlad was always a win. He strolled over to the door, toeing the pile of books. He laughed aloud when he saw the covers. “Are these Star Wars novels? Vlad, are you even more of a huge dork than I thought?”

“DANIEL, SAY THE CODE PHRASE OR I WILL LEAVE YOU IN THERE TO STARVE.”

Danny jumped at the sudden increase in volume. “Geeze, alright already!” He didn’t think that particular threat had legs, but he was sure Vlad would find some new way to make him miserable if he pushed the man too far. He moved to stand in front of the one-way mirror, picturing a little camera tripod on the other side. He gave it his best grumpy teenage frown. 

“Bob’s Butter Brickle Boutique Buys Bags of Butter for its Brickle in Bulk.” He squinted, trying to catch any sign of movement beyond the glass. “Happy?”

There was nothing but a low buzz for several long moments. Then another crackle. “Frankly, no, but I suppose we take what we can get.” The hum of the PA cut out as Vlad deactivated the sound system. 

Danny walked back to the cot and flopped down on his back, looking at his paper constellations. So far, he had Ursa Major and Minor, and about 3/5ths of Orion. He thought he’d do Cygnus next. He hoped he’d be out of here before he got that far. 

Danny tugged on the neckline of his T-shirt and gave it a sniff. He had been left some fresh clothing with his breakfast that morning, but the thought of wearing something that Vlad had picked out for him made his skin crawl. And his clothes didn’t smell too bad… yet.

He was already on day 2 of being stuck here (at least, though he couldn’t be sure how long he’d been unconscious for). That would make today Thursday. He groaned. He was missing his English final, and he had actually taken the time to study for this one! What was the point of learning all the different types of figurative language when he couldn’t even use it to get a good grade? Was he going to defeat Vlad with his impressive grasp of personification?

He hoped everything was okay in Amity Park. He had been trying his best not to dwell on the possibility of a ghost attacking while he was stuck here. How could he forgive himself if anyone got hurt because he wasn’t clever enough to find a way to escape?

The entire situation with Vlad was making him more and more uneasy with each passing interaction. The other halfa had always been… obsessive. Right now, he just seemed distracted. He wondered if the man had been telling him the truth. Did Vlad actually need his parent’s help? Was Danny really only here to keep them in line?

And if that was the case, what would Vlad do if his parents couldn’t help after all?

He sighed. There wasn’t anything he could do about it now. Danny picked up the books and settled in to read. 

*****

The tension in Maddie’s shoulders reduced fractionally upon watching the latest video. Danny was still alive, at least as of the time the Fentons and Plasmius had left the lab last night. She closed her eyes. No. He was still alive. She would know if he wasn’t. She knew that wasn’t very scientific of her to think, but she would know . Demanding that each video include some specific detail of their choosing would mean the ghost would have no choice but to keep their son alive. He couldn’t pre-record videos if he didn’t know what needed to be in them. Danny was going to be okay.

She huffed. “I suppose that will do. We’ll let you know what needs to be in tomorrow’s video before we leave today.” She cocked her head to the side as she looked at the frame the clip had been paused on. “Is he wearing the same clothes he’s had on since Tuesday? You’re just going to let a teenage boy sit in his own stink?”

“As a matter of fact, I did provide him with clothing. I am not completely unaware of the needs of humans. He was not interested in wearing anything I left for him.”

She thought for a moment. “If I bring some of his clothes from home, would you take them to him?”

“I’m not a courier service-” He turned to look at her, but as soon as she met his eye, his demeanor shifted. He quickly looked away. “Fine. I will bring him some clothing. But if this is an attempt to sneak your son some kind of message, or a weapon-”

“No. I just want him to have access to basic hygiene, Plasmius.” She sighed. “I’m taking a break to pick up something for Jack and I to eat. I’ll be back with clothes for Danny in an hour.” 

“Madeline, I truly mean it when I say I’m sorry that I’ve had to put you in this situation. It brings me no joy to cause you undue distress.” She met his gaze again. He sounded so sincere when he said it. So human .

“I don’t believe you.” She replied. With that, she turned and walked out the door.

*****

Vlad sighed. Alone in the lab with Jack. Oh, goodie.

He didn’t know why he had felt so embarrassed by Maddie’s comments. She’d gotten him to capitulate to being her delivery boy so easily. He had left clothes! It was Daniel’s hardheadedness that was the problem here! 

He rubbed his temples. The sooner this was all over, the better.

Vlad stalked over to see what his former friend was up to, and was horrified to see him sniffing one of the ectoplasm samples.

“What are you doing, you imbecile!” The ghost stared at him with those creepy, glowing red eyes. The left one twitched. “Do you even know the standard safety protocols for working with unknown substances in a laboratory setting?” 

“An unknown substance?” Jack scoffed. “We’ve been studying ectoplasm for years, spook.” He didn’t even look up from what he was doing. “Y’know, you remind me of an old college buddy of mine. Always harping about ‘lab safety’ this, and ‘proper procedure’ that. Of course I know what I’m doing! Everything I’m doing is perfectly safe.” He spread his arms in what was intended to be a reassuring gesture, but only managed to knock a beaker off the counter, which promptly shattered on the floor. “Aw, heck.”

Vlad immediately turned, went intangible and phased out through the wall. No. He was not going to deal with this. If Jack hadn’t learned from his mistakes in the last 20 years, then he wasn’t about to change his ways now. Not based on the scolding of a ghost. He cursed the fact that the Fentons hadn’t finished his antidote. This could have been a golden opportunity to take poetic vengeance on the fool who’s irresponsibility had led to so much suffering. 

He spent the next few minutes calming himself down before returning to the lab. Jack hadn’t even seemed to notice his absence. He cleared his throat. “Any updates on your progress?”

“Yes, actually! I’ve been tweaking the formula for our ‘Ecto-dejecto’ serum. It was originally intended to weaken ghosts, but well, it sort of did the opposite.” The man shot him an embarrassed grin before continuing. “I think I can alter it enough to stop the symptoms, at least temporarily.” 

“Temporarily?” Vlad sneered. “I did not ask for some kind of supportive therapy. I made It clear that you are here to find me a cure . I have no interest in coming back to you for follow up treatments. Unless you’d like to have your children used as hostages on a regular basis, I suggest you find a more permanent solution. I’m sure we would all like this to be the only time we need to collaborate in such a manner.”

Jack glared at him. “That’s a heck of a way to talk to someone who’s trying to help you, buddy. I never said we wouldn’t find you a cure. But it’ll be a lot easier to figure out where the problem is if we can get you stabilized first.”

Vlad glared right back at him. “In that case, what are we waiting for? Let’s have it, then.”

“We need to make sure it won’t destabilize you even more before we administer it. You didn’t beat around the bush about the consequences if that happens.” The man gestured at an empty syringe on the table. “I was going to wait until Maddie was back to ask, but we need a sample from you. You might disagree with my lab habits, but I know to start with in vitro tests before moving on to in vivo.” His serious expression melted as he said that. “Wait, is it still ‘in vivo’ when you’re testing something on a ghost? Or would it be ‘in mortuus? Maddie always was better at latin than me”  

Vlad ignored the tangent. He pulled off his glove and rolled up a sleeve, like he would to give a blood sample. He almost laughed at Jack’s expression. Did the fool think a ghost’s clothing was part of its body? He flashed his red eyes brighter, bringing the man’s attention back to his face. “Just take what you need so I can leave this conversation.”

Chapter Text

Four identical silver and red boxes later, it had begun to sink in just how much trouble their friend was in.

Tucker threw the device he’d been dismantling down onto the floor of the speeder. He leaned forward in his seat, head in his hands. “There’s nothing I can do! I don’t know how Vlad managed it, but I can’t figure out a way to tell the difference between the signal from these things and the signal Danny gives off. There’s no way to filter them out!”

Each device managed to mimic Danny’s ecto-signature perfectly. They had no idea how many of these Vlad had time to plant, but as long as they were around, they wouldn't be able to zero in on the real Danny. They’d be stuck chasing the Boo-merang across the Midwest until they could find them all. As far as they knew, Vlad had weeks to prepare for this. There could be hundreds.

Tucker sighed, sitting up and leaning his head back against the wall behind him. Jazz walked over to sit next to him and place a comforting hand on his shoulder. She cleared her throat. “I know mom and dad haven’t been the best about ghosts. Honestly, I shouldn’t even minimize it like that. The things they’ve said in front of Danny are terrible.” She swallowed. “But if anyone knows enough about ghost biology to find a way to get around these, it’s them. They just don’t know that finding Danny that way is even a possibility right now. If they knew he had an ecto-signature, I know they could figure out how to track him.” She shot a nervous look at Sam. “I know none of us want it to get to this point, but we need to decide if it’s time for plan Z.” 

He heard Sam suck in a sharp breath from where she sat in the driver’s seat, but she didn’t immediately shoot Jazz down. That meant she thought things really were dire. “Tucker. You’re absolutely certain that you can’t find a workaround?

He shook his head. “I’m sorry.” Self-hatred washed over him. Why wasn’t he better at this? He thought about all the time he’d wasted on video games, or the time spent on chasing after girls so far out of his league that he didn’t even know what game they were playing. He should have spent more time studying ghost tech, because that was his best chance to contribute something of value to the team. Danny went out risking his life every day. Why hadn’t Tucker taken things more seriously? Why did it take his friend being in potential mortal danger for him to realize that?

He heard Sam sniffle. “Okay.” His heart shattered at the resignation in her voice. He was letting both of his friends down. 

Jazz stood, running her fingers through her hair. He figured it was meant to be a self-soothing motion, but she looked more likely to start pulling chunks out. “Well, I don’t really know where our parents are right now, so that’s step one, I guess.” She closed her eyes. “I really didn’t think it’d ever come to this. But what else are we supposed to do? This is the longest he’s been gone before. If he hasn’t found a way to escape by now, how do we know if he ever will?” She wrung her hands in her lap. 

Tucker was at a loss for any alternative. Sam didn’t offer one, either.

Jazz set her lips in a hard line. “Okay then. If Danny’s not back by the time my parents get home, we tell them everything.”

*****

Maddie was worried about her son, but in the car ride home after their first day in the ghost’s lab, all she could think about was how much she missed her husband. 

Jack was still sitting next to her in the driver’s seat, of course. He hadn’t gone anywhere, physically. But right now, he was so different from the man she’d married. Danny’s kidnapping was hitting him hard. The boisterous and goofy personality she loved had been swapped with the mannerisms of a man on death row. He was even driving differently. She marveled each time he came to a complete stop at a stop sign, or slowed to take a corner. Where was her Jack?

“Sweetie, talk to me.” She finally ventured.

Jack grit his teeth, eyes locked on the road ahead. “I’m sorry, Madds. I don’t mean to shut you out. I’m just…” he trailed off, searching for the words. “I’m just so scared that we’ll mess this up. What if we can’t fix Plasmius? How would we live with ourselves if our own failure gets our son killed?”

A new anxiety made a home in her gut. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that they couldn’t solve this. They were the top ectologists around, after all. If anyone could figure this out, it was them. She balled her fists in her lap. But what if it wasn’t fixable? What if nobody could do what he was asking? No, that was too terrible to think about. “We have to have faith in ourselves, Jack. For Danny’s sake.” 

He didn’t respond, his face a stony mask as he pulled into the driveway. Neither moved to get out of the vehicle.

“What do we tell Jazz?” Maddie finally asked.

“Everything,” Jack said. “I don’t think I could lie to her. Not now. Not about this. Could you?”

“No, of course not. But where do we even start?”

Hearing that, he popped open his door and stepped out into the night. The air had cooled significantly from its peak, and Maddie shivered when a gust of wind snaked into the vehicle. He stood for a moment in front of the opening, facing the house. “We let her ask whatever she needs to ask, and then we just do our best to answer her questions.”

Maddie took off her seat belt and hopped out to join him as he walked to the front door. She’d had a moment of panic when she saw Jazz’s car missing from the driveway, before remembering they’d left it at the museum. They’d asked her to stay in the house, and Jazz was a good kid. She would have listened and waited for them here, so she’d still be home.

She got her answer as soon as Jack swung open the front door. Jazz sat on the couch in the living room. But Danny’s friends were here, too. The three looked up at their arrival. She felt terrible about the nervous looks on their faces. They must be so scared for him. She cleared her throat. “Sam, Tucker, I know you’re worried about Danny. But it’s late, and we need to talk to Jazz. It’s time to go home. You are more than welcome to come back tomorrow after school.”

Jazz stood. “No, mom.” She glanced back at the two teens, who had remained seated despite Maddie’s request, before turning to face her parents again. “The three of us have something we need to tell you. Something about Danny.”

*****

Danny had made it halfway through the second novel before the speaker hissed to life the next day. This time, he spoke before Vlad had a chance to start making demands. “I know I gave you grief for them yesterday, but these books aren’t half bad. What’s up with this Thrawn guy, though? Seems like he’s just wasting his time with this Jaruus weirdo-”

“Daniel. Please. Stop.” He heard footsteps echo through the microphone in the next room. The door slot opened and a plastic grocery sack full of clothes was stuffed through. “A gift from your mother. And for today’s video…” The slot opened a second time and a rolled up newspaper fell in. 

He blinked. “Seriously?”

“Can’t beat a classic.” Vlad mumbled. He paused for a moment, then said, “Can we please skip the antics today?”

Danny gave him a saccharine smile. “Aw, but Vlad, I thought we were having fun!” His expression darkened. “I’m clearly having a blast, and I’m so cool with everything that’s happening right now. No complaints here! This place is basically a 5 star hotel!” He swung his arms, gesturing around the barren room. “Don’t even get me started on the amenities. But I’d hate to hear that my ‘antics’ were inconveniencing you when you’ve worked so hard to make sure I’m having such a great time during my stay here.”

A sight crackled through. “Daniel, if not for me, would you just do this for your parents’ sake? I’m sure Jack and Maddie don’t appreciate being kept in suspense over whether or not their child is still alive.”

A pang of guilt went through him. He hated Vlad, but the guy had a point. He’d already done more than enough to worry his parents. He grabbed the sack of clothes and tossed it onto the cot. Then, he scooped up the paper, unrolled it, and held the front page up in front of the window. “Fine, okay? Here you go.”

The buzz of the intercom clicked off without another word from Vlad. Danny sighed. So that was all he was getting today.

As if on cue, the slot opened again and another tray of food slid in. He glanced at it, but he didn’t have any appetite. Instead, Danny looked down at the newspaper in his hands, only to see his own face staring back at him.

“Student Snatched by Specter” read the top headline in blocky print. He groaned. There was no way he was going to hear the end of this from Dash. He skimmed the article. Most of its bulk was dedicated to how traumatic this event had been for his class, which he guessed was to cover for the fact that there was little for them to report in terms of actually solving the crime. He supposed he shouldn’t expect any new information to come from a second-hand report when he was the one living it. At least he had more paper. 

He laid a sheet out on the floor and started to tear it into long strips. He quickly realized that it was much easier to tear in a straight line if he went from top to bottom than it was if he went from left to right. He wondered why newspaper ripped like that. It seemed like something Sam would know.

The passing thought of his friend brought the full weight of his anxiety crashing back down. God, Sam and Tucker must be freaking right now. Not to mention Jazz, or his mom, or his dad. He felt terrible for being the cause of everyone’s stress. He had replayed what happened in the museum over and over in his head. He should have fought back from the start. He shouldn’t have been so worried about keeping his secret identity hidden when there was a psychotic ghost attacking him.

He had started folding a new star while his thoughts raced. Jazz had taught him how to make these years ago, and the movements had become automatic after constructing enough of them that he didn’t need to consciously think through the steps anymore. He stared down at the half-finished bauble, then closed his fingers around it and crushed the paper in his hand. 

Why was he so stupid? What if a ghost attacked while he was stuck in here? Valerie was around, and he guessed his parents were as well (if they weren’t too busy trying to rescue him). But they weren’t equipped to handle something like Nocturne, or Vortex, or heck, even if Technus showed up on one of his bad days. Amity Park would be basically defenseless. All because he had been more focused on hiding who he was than on dealing with the threat right in front of him. 

He wondered if his friends would be talking about plan ‘Z’ yet. He would give anything to keep that from happening, but what choice did they have? As far as they knew, Vlad was trying to clone him, or torture him, or just straight-up kill him right now.

Danny pulled his legs up to his chest and rested his head on his knees. He hated this. Hated feeling helpless. Hated the fact that his town could be burning to the ground right now, and he wouldn’t even know. 

If the threat was bad enough, would Vlad let him out? He’d helped him fight Pariah Dark, even if it was his fault the ghost king had been released in the first place. He didn’t think the other halfa wanted to see Amity Park destroyed. But when push came to shove, what if the man just chose to run and hide? 

Danny let the crumpled scrap of paper fall from his hand and onto the floor. He needed to get out of here.

Chapter Text

Danny sat on the floor, cradling his mangled hand in his lap. Streaks of green and red painted the mirror above him.

He’d made it about four chapters into the third novel before he snapped. Danny didn’t know why, but he just couldn’t keep himself calm for any longer. He couldn’t focus, couldn’t push aside the image of Vlad gloating over his parents. Of them watching video after video of him trapped in this stupid room for ‘proof of life’. Of how they would be blaming themselves for all of it.

His ghost form packed a lot of power, and the one-way window seemed to be the most vulnerable part of the room. It hadn’t made a difference. When he ran out of energy for ecto-blasts, he had turned to his fists and kept on trying. Even after exhaustion had set in and he lost his grip on his transformation, he had kept trying . The wet thunk of his broken knuckles bouncing off of the glass still echoed in his ears. There wasn’t even a hint of a crack to show for it. 

He slumped forward, resting his head against the wall beneath the mirror. The cool metal felt nice against his flushed skin. 

He’d been sitting like that for around 10 minutes when he heard the crackle of static. “Daniel? What- I’ve barely been gone half a day! What have you done to yourself, dear boy?”

Danny smiled to himself. At least Vlad hadn’t been sitting there watching his meltdown. The smile faltered. He probably did have it all on video, though. 

“Daniel. I have sensors in the room. I know you’re alive and conscious in there. If this is some sort of ploy to get me to open the door and check on you, It won’t work.” When he received no reply, he continued softly, “Are you alright, little badger?”

“What's your endgame here, Vlad?”

The question must have caught him off guard. Nearly a full minute passed with no reply. Danny was starting to wonder if he had left when the speaker crackled back to life.

“To be entirely honest with you, Daniel, I didn't think it would go this far. I was almost certain you'd have escaped by now.” He paused for a moment before adding, “You always have before.”

Danny felt heat wash over his face and neck. He raised his head off of the wall, but made no move to stand. No reason to make himself more visible when Vlad was trying to get a look at him through the window. “I- what do you- seriously? Your plan was just… to see how far you could get?”

“A bit more complex than that, of course, but I had certainly accounted for an unpredictable timescale.” Another sigh fizzled through. Danny’s jaw tensed. He wished Vlad would knock it off with the dramatic sighs. The sound was grating. Vlad continued, “I am a man who learns from his mistakes. There is no underling here that you can convince to release you behind my back. You have no access to my weapons to turn them against me. Your friends have been prevented from tracking you. I have carefully considered all of the elements of your previous escapes and ensured they could not be repeated.” Another pause. “Was it foolish of me to think it wouldn’t matter? You’re a rather precocious young man. You always do seem to find a way.”

Danny turned himself around so he could sit with his back to the wall. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly through his nose before opening them again. “Okay, so if this thing clearly isn’t working out how you planned, can you just… let me go?” 

“Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say it’s not going to plan, Daniel. Things are actually moving along rather well on my end. Your parents and I have made a good amount of progress, slow-going as it may be. I had just expected to have a far smaller window to achieve my goals.” 

“What goals? You haven’t even told me what you need my parents for. Why am I here?” He hated the way his voice cracked on the last word. 

There was another long pause before Vlad finally said, “I’m dying, Daniel.” 

Danny’s gaze darted up to the window. His eyes narrowed. Was this another trick? Some kind of pull for sympathy?

“At least, I was dying, at the start of all of this. Your parents are helping to find me a cure for a…  portal-related illness. They’ve managed to stabilize me for the moment, but we’ve yet to find a full cure. As you are well aware, there are a limited number of experts in the field of interdimensional ghost portals.” He let out a dry chuckle. “In this particular matter, it really was just bad luck that you had to be involved.”

Danny leaned his head back against the wall. Bad luck. He wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“I will do everything I can to expedite the remaining portion of my treatments. Rest assured, your parents are doing the same.” He stopped, but the low hum in the room told Danny the speaker was still on. He was waiting for a response. He could keep waiting.

“I’ll try to find some bandages for you before I leave. Perhaps some new books?” 

Danny stayed where he was. There was blood and ectoplasm all over his clothes, and his hand ached, but he couldn’t bring himself to care enough to deal with it right now. It just didn’t matter. The buzz remained for several more minutes before Vlad accepted that he wasn’t going to be getting anything else out of this interaction. There was a click, and the room fell silent once more.

*****

Jack, Maddie, Jazz, Sam and Tucker sat awkwardly in the living room of the Fenton home. The couple looked exhausted. Dark circles hung under their eyes, and it looked like they’d been wearing their jumpsuits for what little sleep they managed to get last night. Jazz wasn’t sure what time they’d gotten back from the lab where Plasmius was making them work. 

“Okay,” she started, clearing her throat. “I want to start by asking you to stay calm and hear us out until the end before commenting. I can tell you upfront that this is going to be hard to hear, but I truly think you can find a way to help Danny if you have all of the information.” She took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out through her mouth. “Danny is Phantom.” She held up a hand as both of her parents opened their mouths to speak, “And I know that sounds crazy, which is why we have a video to prove it.” She nodded at Tucker.

The boy pulled a thin chain out from under his shirt. A simple USB stick hung from the end, with the letter “Z” scratched into the plastic casing. “Gotta keep this close. Wouldn’t want someone to stumble on it by accident.” He let out a nervous laugh as he plugged it into his PDA and entered the 25-digit password for the encrypted drive. They’d done everything they could to keep this video from coming to light until it was absolutely necessary. Plan Z was a last resort. It was only meant to be used when plans A-Y had failed. 

Jazz supposed she should be grateful. When Danny had originally come up with plan Z, it’d been because he was worried he’d get killed in some ghost fight and they’d need the evidence to exonerate their parents from Danny Fenton’s subsequent disappearance. She closed her eyes. Her brother was still alive. Even if it felt like a betrayal, she knew they were doing this to make sure he stayed that way.

Tucker pulled up the MP4 and handed his device over to the Fentons. It was a short clip. All it showed was a sheepish looking Danny, standing in the Fenton’s lab. The portal’s green flow filled the background. He gave an awkward wave to the camera. “Hi mom, Hi dad. I really hope you never see this video. I guess… Sorry. If you have to watch this, then I probably need to say I’m sorry.” With that, two rings of light formed, washing out his normal tones and replacing them with black, white, and glowing green. Phantom stood where Danny had been a moment before, an identical sheepish look splashed across his features. The video cut to black. 

Horror washed over her mother’s face as she stared at the small screen. “Jack, what have we done?” Her voice was barely audible, even in the near-silent living room.

“There has to be some kinda misunderstanding here,” Jack rationalized, “A person can’t be alive and be a ghost. It’s impossible!” He looked up at the disapproving faces of his son’s friends. “Isn’t it?” The certainty was quickly fading from his voice.

“Jack, he’s our son, and we’ve been… We’ve been hunting our little boy.” Tears streamed down Maddie’s expressionless face. Jazz’s fingers tensed as she fidgeted with the hem of the pillow in her lap. She knew her mom wouldn't take this well, but now she started to worry the woman might go into shock.

“Mom, it’s okay… He knew you would stop the second he told you. Danny knows you love him. He was just so worried about scaring you, about explaining all of this. He never blamed you.”

That caused Maddie’s stony facade to shatter, anguish pouring through the cracks. “He should have! He’s our son, and we’ve been shooting at him for over a year!” Fresh horror dawned on her face. “We… We threatened to dissect him. We talked about how we’d do it right in front of him… Oh, god, Jack.”  She crumpled into her husband's arms.

Sam was clearly not in the mood for the Fenton’s pity party. “She said that Danny didn’t blame you. If it helps, I definitely do. I hope it doesn’t help.” 

Jazz shot the girl a scathing look. Couldn’t she get off her high horse for five minutes? The whole point of telling her parents was so they could have the information they needed to help find Danny. Pouring salt in the wound was just going to distract them, and time was so far from being on their side that it had crossed into the next state. 

Sam crossed her arms and turned away, avoiding eye contact with Jazz. But the girl didn’t say anything else, so she’d take what she could get. 

“Jazz,” her father asked in the softest voice she’d ever heard from the man, “Have you known this whole time? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I found out a few months after it happened. I’m sorry I lied to you, but it wasn’t my secret to tell, dad.”

He nodded, shoulders slumped. After a moment, he looked back up at his daughter, eyes worried. “But if Danny’s… half ghost , as you put it… what is that doing to his human half? What if it’s making him sick?” 

At this, Maddie glanced up at her husband, a whole new look of fear on her face. “Jack, you’re right. The amount of ecto-radiation his body must be absorbing, we don’t know what that can do to a person. What if he’s-”

“Mom,” Jazz said, her voice firm, “we’ve been monitoring Danny’s vitals on a weekly basis ever since I found out. He's perfectly healthy. There’s no sign that his ghost half is hurting him.”

“But what if-”

“MOM!” Jazz interrupted, more forcefully this time. She sighed. “Look, I know you’re worried. And I know this comes from a place of love for Danny. But this is exactly why he was afraid to tell you. Being a half-ghost is a part of him now. He likes who he is, and he should . He’s saved the town a dozen times over. But he knew if he told you, you’d think that something was wrong with him. That he needed to be fixed.” A tear ran down her cheek at the memories of her little brother describing this exact fear to her time and time again. “He just wants you to love him for who he is.”

“I- I don’t know, Jasmine. Of course we love him. And I don’t want to tell him who he can and can’t be, but have you considered the long-term impacts this might have on him? That kind of radiation could destroy his immune system with enough time. Jazz, it could give him cancer .”

“It won’t.” Sam said simply.

“How can you know that?” Maddie snapped, exasperated with his son’s friend.

“Because the ghost that took him has been a halfa for twenty years, and he hasn’t bit it yet.” 

Jazz put her head in her hands. This was going to get messy.

“WHAT?!” The Drs. Fenton screamed in unison. 

Jack looked at his daughter, abject terror in his eyes. “Jazzy, the whole reason he needs our help is because he is dying!”

She frowned at him. “Yes, but only because of the busted portal he’s been using. He was perfectly healthy up until a few months ago.”

“You can’t possibly know that for sure!” Her mom scoffed. 

Jazz frowned. She should have known this line of questioning was coming. Her parents were persistent. “Ok, but how can you be so sure that being a half ghost was a factor in him getting sick? It’s not like people without ghost powers never develop cancer, or get an autoimmune disease. Isn’t it possible that Vlad just has bad luck?”

Maddie froze.

“Vlad?” Jack asked, bewildered. “I thought his name was Plasmius.”

Oh crud. Jazz slapped a hand over her mouth, as if she could retroactively stop the words from coming out. There were about 8,000 other things she had wanted to cover before touching this particular can of worms with a ten-foot pole.

Tucker took the initiative while she was busy kicking herself. “Plasmius’s human half is Vlad Masters.”

Jack let out a startled laugh. “No, you must be confused, Tuck!” he said, but his face did not match the peppy energy he was forcing into his voice. “Vladdie’s a family friend! He would never hurt Danny. There must have been some kind of mix up. How would you three even find that out about him? What evidence do you have?” He turned to his wife. “Maddie, tell them this is crazy. Vladdie’s a good guy!”

Maddie didn’t look so sure. Jazz wondered how much of Vlad’s creepy vibe she had managed to pick up on over the years. Especially since the incident with the DALV science symposium, her mother had seemed wary of their old college friend. She turned to face the three teens. “You’re certain?”

“Yeah, mom, we are. And dad, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but this isn’t the first run-in Danny’s had with Vlad. He’s not a good man.”

“No…” Jack looked lost. “Vladdie?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Fenton, but Jazz is telling the truth.” Tucker looked so uncomfortable in that moment that Jazz wouldn’t have been surprised if he fled the room entirely.

“What did you mean when you said this wasn’t Danny’s ‘first run-in’ with Vlad?” Maddie narrowed her eyes. “What did that… that slimeball do to my son?” Her voice dripped venom. 

Sam chose that moment to rejoin the conversation. “Some bad stuff, Mrs. Fenton. It’s fair to say we all hate the guy’s guts at this point.” She looked over to Tucker and Jazz. “But we aren’t telling you this just to make you feel worse about the situation. Rehashing all of that right now is just going to cost us time. All of us can fill you in once Danny’s back home safe. We’re telling you the truth now because you’re, frankly, the best ectologists out there, and Jazz thinks you might know enough to figure out how to find him.”

“But, we don’t even have the first idea of where to look!”

“No,” Sam conceded, “But you’re the people who invented the BOO-merang, and the Specter Detector, and the Fenton Finder, and who knows how many other ghost tracking tools.” She pulled one of the devices Plasmius had built to throw them off the trail out from her bag. “We’ve found Danny using your inventions before, but Vlad caught on to that. He made these to mimic Danny’s ecto-signature. Every time we try to look for him, we just find another box.”

“Our son has an ecto-signature…” Maddie mumbled to herself.

“Yes! He does! And you are welcome to have as many complicated feelings about that as you want, but only after you help us rescue Danny from that monster.” Sam was up on her feet now, looming over the Fentons, who seemed to shrink further into their seats under the scrutiny. 

“No, what I mean is, if Danny has an ecto-signature, then there’s something for us to look for. Humans don’t give off signals that you can just seek out. We hadn’t even considered trying to find him before now because there wouldn’t have been a way to track him down.” She took the device from Sam and looked it over. “Admitedly, these boxes will complicate things, but now we have a place to start. Right Jack?

Jack stared down at his hands before balling them into fists. “We can do this, Madds. That monster hurt our son. We’re going to get Danny back, and we are going to make him pay.”

Four sets of eyes turned to Jack. Jazz had never heard her father this serious, this menacing.

Maddie nodded at her husband. “Let’s get started.”

Chapter Text

“Did we do the right thing?” she asked. Her usual self-confidence had left her behind hours ago.

“I don’t know, Sam,” Tucker replied, “but it wasn’t like we had a whole lotta options.”

They sat at the Fenton’s kitchen table, an untouched box of cereal in front of them. Maddie had tried to insist on feeding them breakfast when they got there in the morning, but she (justifiably) had bigger things on her plate. She’d plopped down the cornflakes and a pair of bowls and gone straight back down to the lab, telling them that Jazz would be there to update them soon. There wasn’t even milk, though it wasn’t like either of them had much of an appetite.

She felt like the guilt was eating her alive. Logically, she agreed with her friend. They’d tried everything they could to do this on their own. And however kooky the Fentons were, they were brilliant inventors. They had a good shot at figuring this out and finding Danny. But all she could think of was the fact that they’d given away their friend's greatest secret. She had betrayed Danny.

Jack and Maddie were doing everything they could to put something together quickly, but they were working on borrowed time. Apparently, Vlad had given them specific check-ins for when they were expected to be at the other lab. Based on how unwilling they were to miss one, Sam assumed there must have been some threats that came with that schedule.

She groaned. “I hate just sitting here and feeling useless.”

“So let’s stop doing that and go see if we can help.” His eyes were locked on the door downstairs.

She looked at him. Since when was he the rulebreaker?  “Tucker, they asked us to stay out of the lab.”

He snorted. “Has that ever stopped us before? Besides, they only have an hour before they need to go. Even if it’s just us grabbing parts and tools for them, we can help speed up the process.”

He had a point. Sam nodded and stood, heading for the door. Tucker trailed behind as they descended the stairs into the lab. The Fentons barely noticed their arrival, but Jazz waved them over to where she’d set herself up in the far corner of the room. 

“Hey Jazz. We came down to see if there was anything we could do to help.” Sam took in the two scientists, who were hunched over stacks of papers that had been strewn across their workbench. A whiteboard had been rolled to the end of the table, and had dozens of different ideas scrawled across its surface. Unfortunately, it looked like most of the ideas had been scribbled out. 

“I had a similar idea, but they haven’t even made it out of the brainstorming stage, and I don’t know enough about what they're doing to have any suggestions.” The girl rested her chin on her hands as she continued watching her parents. 

Suddenly, Maddie spoke. “Jack, what if we tried to track his genetic code in a similar way to how we would an ecto-signature? With the level of contamination his human body must have, is it possible that an echo of his DNA would imprint on the radiation given off by his ghost form?”

“It’s worth a shot, Madds.” He turned to the three teens who were lingering on the other side of the lab. “Kids! You're here! Excellent! We need a sample of Danny’s DNA, stat! A comb, a toothbrush, heck, some unwashed laundry might even have enough skin cells on it to do the trick.”

Sam wrinkled her nose at the thought of going through her friend’s dirty clothes, but at least they had a task. She had been the one who wanted something to do. The three took off to find what the ecto-doctor ordered.

*****

Vlad sank through the floor of the warehouse just outside of Amity Park and emerged in a dimly lit room. A few monitors sat around a small desk, along with a keyboard and a small microphone. The room was mostly bare, but some unused equipment had but pushed up against the walls. It wasn’t as tidy as he liked to keep his workspaces, but he hadn’t had the luxury of time when setting it up. 

He carried the paper tray of food he’d brought over to the reinforced steel door on the wall across from the desk. A quick glance through the one-way window showed that Daniel was laying in bed. Still, best to be quick. He flipped the latch for the small slot, shoved the tray through, and had it closed again in barely a second. 

He turned on the camera in front of the window, making sure to angle it in a way that yesterday’s blood and ectoplasm stains would not be visible on the video. Then, he walked back to the desk and flicked the switch for the intercom. “Good morning Daniel. Today’s request is simple. They want you to say what present you received for your 5th birthday.”

The boy sat up on the cot, a small smile on his lips. “The UFO Lego set. That’s when I first started getting into space.” The smile quickly dissipated. “That's it?” 

“That’s all your parents requested, yes” He returned to the camera and stopped the recording. The Fentons were taking enough time as it was. He was more than happy to keep the videos short and distractions to a minimum. Vlad smirked, waiting for the boy’s snarky reply. He made a game of trying to guess what witty retorts Daniel would fling whenever they had a chance to parley. Perhaps something about his hair, today?

He was unprepared for what the boy actually said. 

“Why do you have to be like this, Vlad? Do you know what I would've given to have another halfa in my life to show me the ropes?”

He scoffed. “Daniel, the first time we met, I offered to train you-”

“Yeah, but with some pretty big catches! You wanted to kill my dad first! What made you think I’d be okay with that? Do you think that just because you hate the guy, everyone else has to, too? Why couldn’t you just get over your stupid grudge long enough to see what was right in front of you?” Daniel was up on his feet in front of the window in seconds, his face red with anger.

The boy continued, “You’re just so set on this twisted little fantasy where my mom falls in love with you and I’m your perfect little half-dead son. You never stop to think about what other people are feeling. You only care about what you want.” Danny shook his head, chuckling. It sounded more like hyperventilating. “Did you ever stop and think that you might not be so lonely if you just took the time to expand your definition of ‘family’? You could have been a friend, a mentor, heck, probably even an honorary uncle if you could just act like a normal person for five minutes. But no, you have to be an obsessive weirdo who thinks he can kidnap people and force them to love him. When will you get it through your thick skull that it doesn’t work that way?”

The man stood silently for a moment, briefly cowed by the outburst. He recovered his senses and replied, “Ever so sorry to disappoint, little badger.” The retort came without effort, but there was no feeling behind it. He flipped the switch, turning off the speaker system. He put his head in his hand. 

Vlad felt conflicted in a way that was entirely unfamiliar to him. He wanted to dismiss the boy’s words outright. He had always felt that he would have everything he wanted, if he could just perfect one more plan, one last scheme. If he could just find the right way to make everyone see things from his perspective. Heck, he had assumed Daniel would escape this time, but he had already begun outlining the steps for his next plot. He just needed to shake the looming specter of discorporiation, first. Then he could focus on his true goals. But he had the boy now, and there were no signs of him getting away this time. So why did getting what he wanted feel so far away from victory?

He looked through the window again. Daniel had left the window and was now sitting on the floor, leaning against the cot and fidgeting with one of those silly paper stars he’d crafted. His eyes were rimmed with red. Vlad felt a twist of guilt in his stomach. He didn’t have what he wanted. That was what the boy was trying to tell him. Yes, he wanted Maddie and Daniel to be his family, more than anything he’d ever wanted in his life. But what kind of father needed to keep his son trapped in a prison cell? And what son would love a father who kept him locked away?

Okay, so if this thing clearly isn’t working out how you planned, can you just… let me go? The words echoed through his head. He could… couldn’t he? But how could he even begin to fix this rift between the two of them when the boy inevitably ran off? How would he convince Daniel that he cared if he wasn’t around to see it? How would he show him that Jack was undeserving of this love, this loyalty, when he’d been the one to curse them both with this half-life in the first place?

A bolt of pain shot through his core, causing him to double over. He'd let this distract him for too long. His physical form was stable, but the damage to his ghost self was still there. He needed the Fentons to help him find a cure. Daniel needed to stay put until then. He let out a sigh as he shifted into his ghost form and flew out of the room, heading back in the direction of Amity Park. At least he had some time to think about what it was that he truly wanted. And about what he would be willing to do to get it.

*****

Jazz huffed as she lugged another box over to the speeder. Her parents had finished most of the work on the device before they’d left that morning. They’d shown Tucker where to attach the new device to the dashboard, told the kids to load the speeder with weapons and supplies, and asked them to make sure it was ready to go as soon as they got back. 

She had done her best to walk them through a few grounding techniques before they left. With how upset they’d been to learn about Plasmius being Vlad Masters, she was scared they would blow this opportunity by losing it on the man the second they saw him. She just had to hope that, between the calming techniques, and the fact that they had openly disliked Plasmius the ghost from the start, Vlad wouldn’t be able to tell something major had changed with the Fentons.

It had been Sam’s suggestion that they tell Vlad they needed more samples before leaving that night. Tucker had improved on the concept by suggesting they ask him to bring back one of the metal panels so they could check it for ‘impurities’ that might be affecting the portal’s function. They hoped that making him disassemble a major part of the complex machine would be enough to buy some time to search without being interrupted.

Anxiety twisted in her gut. A lot was riding on her parents’ ability to sell this ruse.

Jazz didn’t want to burn any of the limited time they would have to do this once her parents got back. She set the box gently in the back end of the vehicle. They’d brought way more stuff than would be needed, but they couldn’t risk leaving something important behind. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Sam and Tucker were getting themselves geared up to go. Jazz was almost certain that her parents were going to make them stay behind, but Danny’s friends were stubborn. They’d told her they would be going, and that the Fentons could just try to stop them.

As if on cue, her parents pulled into the driveway. They ignored the house completely, coming straight to the side yard where they had parked the speeded earlier. 

“Alright kids, it’s time for you to head home. We promise to call and let you know as soon as Danny’s back safe.”

“We’re coming with you.”

“You absolutely are not! Kids, this could be dangerous.” Maddie crossed her arms. 

“Respectfully, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, we’ve been helping Danny hunt ghosts ever since he became Phantom. We know what we’re doing, and you don’t have the luxury of turning down extra help right now.” Sam didn’t break eye contact with the adults as she and Tucker stood between them and the vehicle.

Maddie looked at the two teens, then at the speeded, then back. Her foot bounced. “Alright,” she said, “but there will be ground rules. Which we can discuss once we’re in the air.” She pushed past them and jumped into the speeder, gesturing for everyone to follow. “Come on. There’s no time to waste.”

Jazz blinked at the sudden shift. Her mother had caved much more easily than anticipated. She guessed her mom really didn’t want to waste time, and arguing with Sam and Tucker was going to do just that. She climbed into the speeder behind everyone else. It was in the air before she had time to buckle her seatbelt.

Chapter Text

The tracker brought them to an old VladCo warehouse just outside of Amity Park. Sam wanted to laugh. If the Fentons hadn’t already been convinced that Plasmius was Vlad Masters, then this had to be a pretty big clue. It concerned her, though, how obvious this seemed. Was Vlad really in that much of a rush when planning this that he couldn’t find a less incriminating location? Or was there something they were missing?

The front door looked like it hadn’t been opened in years. Which, Sam figured, it probably hadn’t. It was more rust than metal, and it gave way easily when the Fenton patriarch threw his shoulder (and the rest of his considerable bulk) into it. 

The space beyond did not look nearly as dilapidated. Monitors glowed and machinery hummed. The surfaces were clear of dust, and what debris still remained from the building’s previous life as an abandoned warehouse had been shoved off to the side.

Straight ahead was a sturdy metal door next to a large window. She heard Maddie let out a sigh of relief at the exact same moment Sam laid eyes on Danny. He seemed uninjured, laying on a simple cot and staring up at the ceiling of his cell. If anything, he looked bored. He was fidgeting with something small in his hands, but she couldn’t make out what it was from here. She ran up and put her hands on the glass. Danny didn’t react to her sudden appearance. A one-way mirror?

“Danny! Can you hear me?” She banged her fist on the glass a few times. No reaction. Soundproof, too? Vlad was nothing if not thorough. The Drs. Fenton made a beeline for the door and set about trying to get it open.

“Over here!” Tucker called. He stood behind a heavy oak desk and held up a thin microphone attached to a small square pedestal . The front edge of the base was slanted and had nothing on it save for a single switch with a little speaker next to it. “Doesn’t this look just like the one from the front office at school? You’d think Vlad could afford newer-”

Sam pulled the microphone out of his hands, not waiting for him to finish. She flipped the switch. “Danny!”

He started, but quickly jumped up from the bed and ran to the window. He cupped his hands around his eyes and leaned forward, trying to peer through the tint. A huge grin split his face. “Sam! You’re here!” His voice came through the speaker with a tinny pitch, but that was Danny alright. “You have no idea how glad I am to hear your voice.” He looked out the window with one of his usual goofy smiles. Leave it to Danny to get kidnapped for five days and still greet them with the same expression he would if they were meeting up to go catch a movie. It did confirm her suspicions about the one-way glass, though, because he was grinning at the empty space five feet to her left.

Sam glanced over to the Fentons as they continued trying to pry open the door. Jack had produced a miniature plasma torch and was now cutting his way through the hinges. Maddie met her gaze and nodded. She took a deep breath in and out before continuing. “Danny, your parents are here too. I’m sorry, we had to go with plan Z. But it’s because of them that we were able to find you at all.”

“My par-,” He took a step back, as if she’d just slapped him. It hurt to see the confirmation that she’d violated his trust written so clearly across his face. “So- so, they know, then. Everything.” His voice shook on the last word.

A pair of gloved hands gently came to rest on the microphone. Sam reluctantly surrendered the device to the woman who was now standing behind her. She would have her chance to set things right with Danny later. Maddie Fenton took the microphone and looked directly into her son’s eyes as she spoke, whether he could see her or not. 

“Danny, it’s me. Sweetheart, before anything else, I need you to know that your father and I love you no matter what. I know this is a lot- and believe me young man, we will be discussing all of this in more depth later- but the only thing we care about right now is getting you home safe. Your dad almost has the door open, honey. I love you so much, Danny. Please just hold on a little longer.”

Danny nodded, his face pale. “Okay, mom,” he replied, barely more than a whisper. “I love you, too.”

“Just a few more seconds, Mads,” Jack called. He had made it through 3 of the 6 hinges and was over halfway through the 4th when the lights in the room flickered out. He swore, and Sam saw him doing his best to continue his task using only the light of the laser and the ambient green glow of the monitors in the room. 

“And what have we here?” A familiar voice purred.

Everyone froze as Vlad phased into the room from below. Before anyone could react, he grabbed Jack by the shoulder and tossed the huge man across the room like he weighed no more than a pillow. He floated between them and the door, facing the group and staring down each person one by one. Sam felt ice crawl up her spine as their eyes met.

“Jack!” cried Maddie, dropping the microphone and rushing to her husband’s side.

“Mom? Sam? What’s going on?” Danny shifted into his ghost form, clearly picking up on the fact that something was wrong on the other side of the wall.

Sam reached for the mike, only to have it blasted from her grip by a bolt of pink ectoplasm. She yelped and pulled her hand back, hissing at the pain from her singed fingertips. 

“Oh, no need to worry the poor boy. I’m sure we can clear up this little… misunderstanding, can’t we?” His gaze shifted to the Fentons, eyes glowing red. “I thought I’d made my demands rather clear. Are you really so foolish as to endanger your son with this half-baked rescue plot? And now you’ve put your daughter and your son’s friends in the line of fire.” Without breaking eye contact, he raised his arm and sent three quick blasts towards the teens in the room. Sam and Jazz ducked behind a desk in time, but Tucker was a fraction too slow. He cried out as the pink bolt caught him along the edge of his shoulder. He went down, but Jazz grabbed his good arm to pull him into the relative safety provided by the heavy piece of furniture.

“Stop this!” Maddie shrieked. “We have your cure. We can give it to you. We did what you wanted. Just let us take our son home, and leave the kids out of it!”

Vlad crossed his arms, seeming to consider the woman’s words. He glanced over at the cell, but quickly did a double take once he saw a white-haired Danny floating near the window. He turned to look at the Fentons, mouth agape. Sam’s stomach sank as she watched realization color his face. “Your- I- He-” he stammered, dumbstruck. Emotions flickered rapid-fire across his eyes before finally landing on anger. “So you know about his secret, then.” He turned to face the direction of the three teens. “What exactly have you told them, children?”

“It’s over, Vlad. They know everything,” Sam called from behind the desk. “Dude, just take the cure they made. We can call this one a draw, and all of us can move on with our lives.” When there was no reply, she peered around the corner, trying to gauge what the man would do next. 

Vlad floated motionless in the middle of the room. Then he started to chuckle. “A draw? When I’m the one holding all of the cards?” He turned back to the Fentons, locking his attention onto Jack’s slumped form. “If my secret’s already out, then what’s left to stop me from killing this oaf and just taking what I want?” His face hardened into a vicious rictus. “Don’t worry, Madeline. You and your children will all be perfectly safe. In time I’m sure you’ll come to see that this was all for the best.”

Maddie stepped forward to stand in front of her husband. “You’re insane.”

“You’re just getting that now?” Tucker’s strained voice called from his hiding place.

With that, the room burst into chaos. 

*****

Danny was going to lose his mind. That had been Vlad’s voice. His family and friends were right outside, trying to help him, and now his worst enemy was out there with them. The green laser he’d seen slowly cutting through the door hinges had vanished along with the audio that could tell him what was going on outside. His family could be hurt, his friends could be dying ten feet away from him, and he would have no idea. Each minute that ticked past stretched into a century.

He tried blasting the door again. His father had made a fair amount of progress, but the thing still wouldn’t move. He reared back and flew at the door, slamming into it with his shoulder at full speed. Pain radiated down his arm, but he thought he had felt the slightest shift. 

Running his hands through his hair, he considered his options. If the door was finally starting to budge, his ghostly wail might be strong enough to get it the rest of the way open. But if he used that, he wouldn’t be able to maintain his ghost form afterward. If Vlad was out there, hurting people, he’d have no way to fight back. He couldn’t protect everyone. 

But he couldn’t protect them from in here, either.

He made up his mind.

He centered himself in front of the door, squared his stance, and took a deep breath.

Then he screamed. 

*****

Jazz ducked back behind the desk, covering her ears as Danny’s ghostly wail wrenched open the door. It still hung at an angle off of the remaining two hinges, but the room was open. She saw her brother’s look of relief before he turned back to human and collapsed onto his hands and knees. 

Vlad noticed this, but was too busy trying to dodge attacks from Maddie and Sam, who were decked out in Fenton tech like the rest of the group. Maddie was relying on her wrist laser, while Sam was going straight for his knees with the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick. 

Plasmius had tried to split himself at the beginning of the fight, but hadn’t been able to maintain the duplicates for long. Jazz wondered just how badly this illness was impacting him, and wished it would have been worse. Even limited to one Vlad, the two weren’t likely to last long without help. 

As if on cue, a bolt of green energy struck him in the back. She looked to her brother, who was still struggling to get his feet under him. Then she saw Tucker, who had propped the Fenton Bazooka on the nearest desk and had somehow managed to aim and fire it with his one good arm.

She sprinted across the room and to Danny’s side while Vlad was stunned from the blast. She doubted it would slow him down for long.

“Danny!” She cried, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he panted, “Just- Need a minute. Takes a lot out of me.” 

She put an arm around his shoulders and helped him the rest of the way up to his feet. He seemed to be rallying, and she knew they didn’t have time for a breather. “Do you need a weapon, or can you be ready to go now?”

He held up a finger, asking her to wait while leaning forward with a hand on his knees. Then, the familiar rings of light swept across his body. Exhaustion hung around him like an oversized sweatshirt, but he gave her a cocky smile before launching himself out of the room and into Vlad. 

His outstretched fists impacted with the man’s back, which was still smoking from Tucker’s earlier shot. Vlad howled and spun around, catching Danny with a vicious backhand. He crashed into the far wall, where the other ghost followed up with a quick blast of pink energy. Danny cried out, losing his hold on his ghost form again as he slumped down to the floor.

“Danny!” Maddie shrieked, but she didn’t waste the opportunity her son had provided as she launched her Jack o’ Nine Tails. Plasmius tried to move up and out of its trajectory, but he wasn’t fast enough. It caught around his left leg, sending a jolt up his body. He growled, before grabbing the metal cord and wrenching the device, and Maddie along with it, across the room. She landed hard on the floor a few feet in front of Jazz. 

“Mom!” She ran up to the woman, who was already picking herself back up.

“I’m fine! Help your brother!” And with that, she was back up and in the fray.

She caught a glimpse of Plasmius breaking the Anti-Creep Stick over his knee before she forced herself to look away and focus on the job at hand. She ran over to her brother. He was conscious, but he was still sitting on the floor, and she didn’t think he was in any shape to get up, let alone transform. Either way, this was not the time or place for her to dote.

“Here,” she said, tossing him a small blaster. “If you have an opening, take it. I’m going to go check on dad. Stay safe, little brother.” Danny gave her a single quick nod in reply. She turned to face the brawl behind her and mapped out a mental path across the destroyed room to her father. Three quick blasts from her wrist laser in Vlad’s direction provided enough cover to make it. 

“Jazzy?” The man mumbled, coming around. She could see the place where his head had hit the wall when he was thrown, already red and swelling. He was going to have one heck of a goose egg by tomorrow. She winced sympathetically. 

“You okay, dad? We could use all the help we can get right about now.”

The man looked over her shoulder, assessing the scene before setting his face in a look of determination. “I’m as good as I’m going to get, so I’m going to make it work.” He stood, leaning heavily on a long-abandoned crate that had been shoved against the wall. 

Which meant he was on his feet in time for him and Jazz to watch Sam go down in another flash of pink.

“No!” Danny cried, firing his weapon. Most of his shots went wide, and the ones that didn’t were easily blocked by a quickly generated shield. Vlad turned and began floating toward him.

“Did you fools really think you could beat me? There is nothing any of you can do to stop me from getting what I want.”

“You. Are. A. Crazy. Fruit. Loop!” Her brother continued to fire, punctuating his sentence with green blasts.

The man hardly seemed to notice, not even bothering to block the last shot as he closed the distance between them, tearing the blaster out of his hands. Vlad dropped it to the floor and crushed it with a single stomp. “Really, Daniel? A blaster? How childish.”

He didn’t even need to turn and look to block Maddie’s next attack, catching the end of the bo staff without breaking eye contact with Danny. He pulled it from her grip and snapped the long weapon in two before tossing the pieces over his shoulder. “Now Maddie, that’s no way to treat someone who cares for you.”

“If you actually think you care about me after all of this, then you’re further gone than I thought.” She spat.

Jazz turned to her father, who was slowly drawing a thermos from a pouch on his belt. She pursed her lips. “Give me a second to distract him, then make your move,” she whispered, before stepping out into the middle of the room. “Vlad! Stop! I want to make a deal!”

He looked over his shoulder, smirking at her. “A deal? And what could you possibly have to offer me, Jasmine?”

“If you let everyone else go, I’ll come with you, and I can talk my mom and Danny into going along willingly.” She crossed her arms. “But only if you stop now.”

“Jazz-” Danny began to protest, before being cut off by Vlad’s laughter. 

“You think your rudimentary understanding of psychology is enough to change their minds?”

“I think my understanding of my own family will go a long way. And it’s a better plan than you seem to have right now. Wouldn’t that be easier than trying to force them? Everyone else can leave, and we’ll stop fighting you.” She took a step towards her mother and brother, keeping Vlad’s attention on her. She held her hands up, as if in surrender. “You don’t have to hurt anyone. I can help convince them, but only If I know everyone else is going to be safe.”

He cocked an eyebrow, assessing the three Fentons. “It seems you’d rather have your work cut out for you, dear girl. I’m not sure you can convince me .” He had turned to face her fully, which is when he caught Jack out of the corner of his eye. Malice radiated through his body language. “You-”

“Now, Dad!” Jazz screamed.

A beam of light shot across the room, but he hadn’t been fast enough. Vlad sidestepped the stream of energy, and looked like he was about to fly at Jack when Danny crashed into him, tackling the man back into the path of the vortex. The sound from Vlad’s scream of rage stretched as he was sucked in. Danny, still in his human form, collapsed to the floor, unaffected.

“Danny!” Maddie cried out, rushing to her son's side.

“I’m alright, I’m alright.” He assured her as she wrapped him in a hug. “I’m- Yeesh, I’m alright. I’m just wiped.” He leaned into his mother’s embrace, hugging her back just as tight. 

“Danny!” Sam and Tucker were the next to cry out, stumbling through the wreckage of the room to check on their friend. Both were battered from the fight, but neither seemed to be severely injured. Tucker’s shoulder was definitely going to be sore, but he already seemed to be getting feeling back into it, if the way he threw his arms around Danny was any indication.

“Guys! I’m fine, I promise. Just glad to be out of there.” He pulled back from their group embrace and looked around the room. “How did you even find me? Vlad said he was blocking… um…” He shot a nervous glance at his parents. 

“It’s okay. They know we’ve used their tech to track you before,” Jazz said softly. “Vlad had made some kind of ecto-signature decoys that made using the Boo-merang impossible. That’s why it took us so long to find you. But mom and dad figured it out.”

“Once we knew our Dann-o had an ecto-signature to look for, it was just a matter of time before the world’s best ghost hunters cracked it!” Jack boasted. Danny’s cheeks turned pink.

Maddie smiled at her husband before turning back to her son. “Honey, I think we have a lot of work to do before we’re all back on the same page. But we don’t need to have that conversation here. Would I be correct in guessing you’d prefer to talk back at home?”

“Oh my god , yes I would. Can we get out of here?” The tension in his shoulders seemed to melt away at the thought of leaving. 

“Of course. Sam, Tucker, can you both call your parents and give them an update?” Maddie started walking with Danny towards the door, but saw the looks of discomfort on the two teens' faces when she turned to check if they were following. “Kids, I am already questioning my judgement in letting you come along today. You don’t need to tell them all the details about what happened. Please, just give your folks a call to let them know everything’s alright and that we’ve found Danny.” She gave Sam and Tucker a look that left no room for argument. 

“Okay, but about that…” Sam held up the remains of her phone and winced. The outside of the device was covered in cracks and scratches.  Its two halves had separated nearly entirely, with just a few thin wires remaining to hold it together. “Sorry, looks like my phone didn’t make it out of the fight unscathed. I think I landed on the pocket it was in when Vlad blasted me.”

“You can borrow mine.” Tucker laughed. “This is why I keep telling you to get a Nokia! Those things are indestructible. I bet Pariah Dark couldn’t even break one.”

“Not now, Tucker,” everyone in the room groaned in unison.

Chapter Text

Danny knew he had a lot to own up to with his parents, but he’d hoped to get a full night’s sleep in his own bed before they came to collect. He should’ve known that wasn’t about to happen. 

Sam and Tucker had been dropped off at their respective homes to their respective sets of angry parents. Despite their initial outrage at the Fentons for allowing their kids to go on a rescue mission into a dangerous ghost’s lair, even the Mansons had softened once they saw Danny safe and sound. Though, after all of this, he wouldn’t be too shocked if they decided to get another restraining order against him for endangering their daughter by proxy.

After that, they headed home. He was barely two steps through the front door when his mom grabbed him. He groaned as he was pulled into yet another hug. He loved his mom, but this was starting to get ridiculous. He mouthed ‘backstabber’ at his sister as she fled the room and left him to talk with their parents on his own. He was sure she had some good reason for doing it, something about letting him build autonomy or giving him a chance to share his feelings in his own words. But in reality, it felt like she was throwing him to the wolves.

“Honey, I’m so glad you’re home safe,” his mother said, squeezing him tight. Maddie released him from the embrace but continued to hold his hands, like she was afraid he’d bolt if she let go completely. “But I need you to explain to me why we shouldn’t ground you until graduation for lying to us all this time!” Danny winced. He really thought he’d get a couple days of his parents being relieved he was okay before they put it together that they should be mad. “We shot at you! You could have been hurt! Why didn’t you tell us it was you we were attacking?” 

Well, they weren’t the only ones who were allowed to be upset. “You’ve been shooting at me, and I’m the one in trouble?! You guys threatened to dissect me! Multiple times!” Danny pulled his hands from his mother’s grip and crossed his arms. He stared back at her, silently daring her to deny it.

Maddie flushed, seeming to fully register her words with the added context of his own. “I- No, that came out wrong. Yes, I’m upset. But that isn’t important right now.” She shook her head. “You’re right, Danny. The way we treated Phantom was unacceptable. What matters right now is that your father and I tell you how sorry we are. For everything . And we’re going to do whatever it takes to make it up to you. I just-” Her whole body was shaking. She reached a hand out to Jack, who took it gladly. She gave him a small smile before turning back to Danny. “Did you think we wouldn’t love you anymore if you told us?” Her voice cracked, and a tear ran down her cheek. “I’m so sorry we ever made you feel that way. Danny, we love you so much, no matter what.”

He softened, throat tightening as he watched his mother cry. “No. No, of course not, mom, I never thought you’d stop loving me. I know you and dad love me. I love you too.” He pulled both of his parents into a hug, pressing his forehead into his mom’s shoulder. “I just didn’t know how to tell you without hurting you. This whole Phantom thing started because I was being a stupid kid. I was scared you guys would blame yourselves for what happened. But it was my fault, not yours.” 

Both of his parents went rigid in his arms, then pulled back to look at him. His dad furrowed his brow. “Danny boy, what do you mean? Why would we blame ourselves?” He looked at his wife. “Maddie?”

“With everything that was going on, we didn’t have time to go over all of the details,” she explained. “I don’t think Jazz ever told us exactly how you became… half ghost…” She went pale as her words trailed off. “Oh my god. The portal. Your accident- that was right before Phantom showed up for the first time.” Tears were flowing faster now as the woman trembled. She covered her mouth with a hand and whispered, “It’s- It’s our fault you died.”

Jack’s eyes widened. “But- Danny, you said it only gave you a shock!”

Danny hunched his shoulders. He didn’t know how to explain this in a way that wouldn’t devastate his parents. This was one of his main reasons for keeping everything secret, and frankly, it was a conversation he’d hoped he would never need to have. Avoidance had been working so far, but there was no way around it now. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the floor to avoid eye contact. “It did give me a shock. I just… didn’t tell you that I was inside of the portal when it happened. When it opened.”

His father blanched. “Our invention killed you and you didn’t think you should tell us?”

“I mean, it only killed me halfway?” Danny laughed nervously. His parents' faces told him they did not see any humor in the situation. “And I love having these powers! Yeah, dying sucked, even if it was only partway. But if I had the chance to go back, I don’t think I would do anything different. It all worked out okay in the end.”

His father put a hand on his shoulder, crouching down on one knee so they’d be at eye level. “Danny, you don’t have to make excuses for us. We should have paid more attention to what was going on with you. It’s not fair that we made you think you had to hide things from us to spare our feelings. I know you’re probably spent, and we can talk more later, but for right now, please, just tell me one thing. Are you- is everything okay? Physically, emotionally- any of it, just- Right now in this moment, son. Are you alright?” The large man squeezed his eyes closed after asking, as if he was bracing himself for the answer he might get.

Danny gave his father a sheepish grin. “I’m definitely doing better right now, since you guys got me out of there. But yeah, I’m okay. The half ghost thing isn’t hurting me. I’m as healthy as any other teenage boy. Could probably stand to eat more vegetables, sure, but nothing’s wrong with me, physically. And I won’t say this all hasn’t added a lot of stress to my life, because trying to fight ghosts on top of school isn’t easy, but I’m handling it well enough. It’s okay, dad. I swear that I’m okay.”

He yelped in surprise as his father wrapped him in a bear hug. “Glad to hear it, Dann-o.”

Danny laughed, in earnest this time. “Love you too, dad.”

*****

Lunch was awkward.

Tucker had known it would be, but knowing it was coming hadn’t been enough to prepare him for the reality of it. It was the first chance the three friends had gotten to talk without Danny’s family present. Not that they had much to hide from the Fentons at this point, but it was still weird discussing this stuff in front of them. And the last time they’d all been together, they were more focused on the fact that Danny was okay, rather than the fact that his friends had outed him. 

Danny was sitting across from Sam and Tucker, poking at his lunch but not actually eating anything. Tucker still thought it was wild that his parents had insisted on him going right back to school on Monday, considering they hadn’t even made it back to the Fenton home until almost 2 o’clock Sunday morning. 

A lot of the other students had wanted to ask him questions, but they quickly got bored when he shared that he’d spent the whole ordeal locked in a room by himself. Dash had made some snide comment about the ghost who took him not wanting to ‘look at his ugly mug all day’, but had quickly backed down after Sam tried to take a swing at him. Dash wasn’t the brightest kid in school, but even he knew better than to make an enemy of Sam Manson. Lancer, who was the morning hallway monitor and had heard Dash’s comments, was nice enough to pretend he’d been looking the other way when it all went down. 

They’d made it through the first four periods of the day without any other major incidents. Now, by lunchtime, word seemed to have spread that Danny didn’t have any exciting stories to share about what happened. There were still several curious glances aimed at their table, but nobody actually bothered to come over and talk to them. 

Which was fortunate, because this was not going to be a conversation Tucker wanted an audience for.

“I know you guys did what you thought was right, that doesn’t make it suck any less.” Danny turned his head, looking across the room and away from his friends’ gazes. They had been at lunch for almost 20 minutes now, but it was the first thing any of them had said.

“Danny, I get it. Tuck and I gave away your biggest secret without asking you. We know that sucks. But I also know that’s how we were able to save you, so I’m not about to apologize for it.” Sam crossed her arms, continuing to glare whether or not their friend wanted to meet her eyes. 

“It’s just- Gah! Why do emotions have to be so complicated?” Danny put his head down on the table and wrapped his arms around it. “I know that you guys did the right thing. I know that. I don’t know why I’m still angry,” he mumbled through the tangle of limbs. 

“If it helps, we’re definitely sorry that your parents had to learn this way,” Tucker said. He wasn’t exactly the type for talking through his feelings, but he also didn’t trust the girl sitting next to him not to make things worse under the guise of being ‘correct’. If there was one thing he’d learned, it was how to toe the delicate balance between his two hard-headed friends. “I agree with Sam- we’re not sorry we did it. But it wasn’t fair to take that choice away from you.”

“You guys didn’t even really do that either, though,” Danny muttered, peeking out above his forearms. “Maybe it’s just one more thing I need to be mad at Vlad for. It’s his fault you guys had to tell my parents in the first place.” 

“Mm” Sam said simply. Tucker kicked her shin under the table. This was not the time for some kind of ‘I told you so”. She may be in the right, but she didn’t need to be a jerk about it. 

“I think I’m mostly just upset that I lost my chance to tell them myself,” Danny said.

“Would you have ever done it, though?” Sam asked before Tucker had a chance to kick her again. “Told them on your own?”

Danny sat up and opened his mouth to protest, but the words seemed to die in his throat. His shoulders slumped back down, but at least he kept his head off of the table. “I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t matter.” He let out a sigh, and the visible signs of anger melted out of his body along with it.

“Well, what other big secrets do you have? If you’re so big on sharing things with your parents, now?” He leaned forward and smiled conspiratorially across the table. Tucker hoped he’d read his friend’s mood right, and that he wasn’t just kicking the guy while he was down. 

Thankfully, he’d judged correctly. The other boy shot a small grin back at him. “Oh, If I need to share more secrets to make up for missing the big one, then you can bet I’m starting with all the ones that implicate you two in my bad decision making.”

And just like that, they settled back into the casual rhythm of their usual banter. 

*****

Jack watched his wife as she soldered several more wires into place, unable to focus on the finished circuit board that he was meant to be installing on the portal entrance. Maddie had always been the type to distract herself from whatever was happening with her work, while he struggled to get anything done when something big was on his mind. It had been like that ever since college. 

“Do you think there was always something wrong with Vlad? Deep down?” He set his screwdriver on the worktable and claimed the empty stool next to his wife. “I’ve- I just don’t know how to reconcile the person we knew with the kind of person who could do all of this.” He felt a hand on his shoulder. Resting his elbows on the table, he lowered his head and rubbed his temples. “He was my friend. I thought he was, anyway. But if he was my friend, how could he hurt our son? How could he use our child’s safety to blackmail us? How- how could he do this, Madds?”

She looked over at the shelf where the thermos sat. They’d agreed to wait for Danny and Jazz to get home tonight before making any decisions on what to do with it. Even if he was trapped, Jack could tell Maddie hated the feeling of being in the same room as Vlad.

The weight left his shoulder as she pulled her arms back and wrapped them around herself. “I don’t know, Jack. Jazz made it clear that we need to take a step back from trying to destroy ghosts if we want Danny to feel safe. But I just keep thinking that if any ghost deserves it…”

“He’s still half human”

Her expression darkened. “Is he? He’s done so many awful things. Danny and Jazz won’t even tell us the worst of what he’s done. What did he do to Danny that’s worse than kidnapping him, or threatening him, or beating him unconscious?” Jack could see his wife’s fingernails digging into her palm. He took her hand in his own, forcing her to unfurl her clenched fist. “How can I look at the person who did all of that and still see him as a human?”

“Maddie,” he said, squeezing her fingers, “I know. I hate him for what he’s done. But you can’t say that. You know what Jazzy told us. Danny is terrified we’re going to see him as less than human now that we know. If we start talking that way about the only other half ghost in existence… What if he thinks we see Vlad as inhuman because of that?” 

She froze. “You know I don’t feel that way about Danny.”

“ I know, Madds, but will he?”

Maddie squeezed her eyes shut. “Okay, you’re right, I know. I just…” Her eyes suddenly popped open and her brow furrowed. “Jack, did we ever actually ask if they’re the only two half-ghosts in existence?”

He laughed, surprised by the suggestion. “They have to be! How many people out there are having accidents with portals to the ghost zone? And it feels like something we would have heard about if it did.”

“Hmm,” she hummed, not sounding convinced.

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you’re fine just sitting here while I finish my essay?” Sam asked. They’d all fallen behind on their homework last week, but her creative writing elective meant her missing assignments were a bit more time consuming. With the semester ending, they needed to have everything wrapped up by tomorrow. The others had finished nearly an hour ago, and she felt bad making them wait. Wasn’t Danny tired of sitting around by now?

“Sam, Vlad literally kept me locked in an empty room for five days. I could sit and watch paint dry right now and be more entertained than I’ve been in a week.” Her friend was splayed on his stomach over one of the large black beanbags in her room. He had an old paperback cracked open on the floor in front of him. She’d been surprised to see “Star Wars’ in big letters across the top of the cover when he had first pulled it out of his backpack. She knew he loved space, but wasn’t aware he read a lot of sci-fi.

Tucker had claimed the beanbag next to him, sitting upright with an ankle up on the opposite knee. He didn’t look away from his PDA when he added, “We’re all good, Sam. Just let us know when you’re done.”

“Okay, if you’re sure…” She trailed off, turning back to her desktop. She cracked her knuckles and got back to work. Only 1 page to go, then she and Tucker could figure out something fun to do to cheer their friend up. She wasn’t buying it that he was totally fine after what he’d been through.

She’d managed to add another short paragraph before deciding it was a lost cause. She could get up early tomorrow and finish it before school started. She saved her document, then powered down the computer and stood, stretching. “Nasty Burger?” She ventured.

“Nasty Burger.” The two boys replied simultaneously, cracking smiles. They gathered their belongings and were out the front door before Sam’s mother had a chance to grill the three of them on where they were going.

“So, how have things been with your folks, Danny?” Tucker asked as they walked towards the restaurant. 

“Ugh, weird. They’re being so nice about things? But I can tell they’re upset. And I’ve had to dodge a million questions about what went down between Vlad and I since the reunion. My mom still looks like she’s going to throw up whenever I mention getting hurt in fights with other ghosts. How’s she going to react when I tell her the dude cloned me, and then kidnapped and tortured me to get a mid-morph sample when those clones didn’t work out?” He put a hand on his forehead. “Ugh, how am I supposed to tell them about Danielle?”

Sam bit her lower lip. “Do you think they’re going to try to make you stop being Phantom?”

It wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility. She just hoped the Fentons would have the sense to recognize that Danny could do things that nobody else could. If they made him stop, who was going to protect the town the next time something like Pariah Dark rolled in?

He shook his head. “Not completely, at least. But they did say they want me to cut back on things during the school day. Dad’s trying to figure out a way for me to let them know when my ghost sense triggers so they can be the ones to handle the small stuff.”

“Y’know, that’s probably not the worst idea,” Tucker said. “With how often you have to fake using the bathroom just to run after ectopuses and blob ghosts, I’m pretty sure Mr. Lancer thinks you have some kind of chronic UTI.”

“Ew, Tuck!”

“What? It’s true!” He laughed. “But seriously Danny, I think you should let them. They can handle that kind of stuff, and dude, your grades need all the help they can get.”

Sam nodded slowly. “Tucker’s got a point. You can still be the one to handle the big stuff, or take care of things after school. Seems like it could be a fair compromise.”

Danny groaned. “I know, but what if they try to bite off more than they can chew? What if they get hurt because they think they can handle someone that’s out of their league?”

“They’re your parents, dude, not the other way around.” She threw an arm around his shoulder, pulling him into a side hug while they walked. “They’re both adults. You have to let them try and keep you safe sometimes, and trust them to figure out where the line is.”

He hummed, sounding unconvinced.

“Besides,” Tucker added, “just because there might be some growing pains, doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find something that works out for everyone in the long run.”

“All right, all right!” Her friend grumbled. “I’ll let them try, at least. It’s just going to take a lot of getting used to.” He pulled open the front door as they made it to the Nasty Burger. 

A few of their classmates were scattered around the restaurant, not-so-subtly staring at Danny as the three entered. It was going to be a while before he could shake his notoriety as the kid who got kidnapped by a ghost. They quickly looked away after Sam gave them her best death glare. There were some perks to being the scary goth girl.

Val was working the counter, disinterest written across her face and in the monotone voice she used to take their order. Danny cracked a joke and got a small smile out of her for his trouble, but she quickly turned her attention to the next people in line. Sam caught him glancing back at her as they walked away with their food.

“So, Val?” Tucker asked as the three slid into the least sticky booth they could find. 

“Yeah?” Danny replied, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, I’m just saying, you’ve got your parents on your side now. If you could convince the most fanatical ghost hunters in town to chill out, why not Valerie? Wouldn’t it be nice to get Red Huntress to stop coming after you, too?” 

Danny burst out into laughter before registering his friend’s faces. He sobered. “You’re serious?”

Sam just shook her head. Her friend really could be clueless, sometimes.

*****

The four Fentons sat in their kitchen, trying to decide what to do with Vlad. Danny was slowly getting used to talking openly about ghost stuff, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever be comfortable talking to them about the other halfa. He could see the hurt in his father’s eyes anytime he caught a snippet of what the man had done. He’d managed so far to avoid talking to them about the worst of it, but he couldn’t avoid talking about what they were going to do now.

Maddie drummed her fingers on her leg before speaking. “The first time I talked to Plasmius, when this all started, I told him ‘anything you do to my son will come back to you tenfold’. It felt good to say something , but I wasn’t really sure I would have a way to follow through on that threat when I said it…” She looked at the thermos sitting on the table between them. “He held you prisoner for nearly 5 days.”

Danny opened his mouth before closing it again. Was she saying what he thought she was saying? 50 days stuck in a thermos was beyond inhumane. He felt he should argue against it on principle, if nothing else. And if they kept him trapped, how were they going to explain Mayor Master’s sudden disappearance? 

At the same time, he was really ticked off at Vlad. Keeping him in a thermos was a pretty good way to prevent him from starting any new schemes… Plus, that would give Danny more time to figure out a way to stop him once he inevitably got out. Their ‘truce’ would be out the window now that his parents knew everything, and he was terrified at what the man might do without the looming threat of exposure. 

“It’s not a bad idea,” Jazz said softly. “I know it probably seems harsh Danny, but-”

“Okay.” He said. His sister blinked. “What? Yeah, it’s cruel, but what else are we supposed to do? Turn him in to the police? It’s not like they have a ghost-proof cell. And even if they did, what happens when the GIW shows up? He’d give me up in a heartbeat if he thought it might save his skin.” He slumped back in his chair, hands in his pockets. “Leaving him in there for now is the only thing that makes sense.”

Jack nodded, a solemn look on his face. Danny got the impression that some part of his father was still holding out hope that this was all some crazy mistake. That his former friend had been possessed, or mind controlled, or that there was something other than him just being plain evil to explain his disgusting behavior. But whatever the man might be feeling about his old pal, he kept it to himself. “Danny’s right. Until we can find a way to keep him from hurting people, Vlad needs to stay put.” He looked up at his son. “But that’s not the only thing we wanted to discuss today, Dann-o. What we really want to figure out is how we can better help you . You’ve had too much on your plate for too long. You’re still just a kid, and you should be able to enjoy that without having to worry about ghost attacks all the time.”

He started to protest, but his mom cut him off. “We’re not saying you have to stop completely, sweetie. But your father and I can help. We’re willing to admit that we haven’t been as open to new evidence as we should have been, but we still know a lot about ghost hunting. You don’t have to keep doing this on your own. We just want to help you with being Phantom. We’re not going to try and replace you.”

Danny nodded, unsure of his words. He supposed he could live with that. 

*****

Summer break rolled by as Danny settled into his new routine. His parents were surprisingly open to feedback on their ghost hunting strategies, and quickly mastered catching smaller ghosts without any help from him. All that remained was figuring out how they were going to handle ghosts during the school day come August. 

They’d finally landed on a pager, which his father had enthusiastically dubbed ‘The Creeper Beeper’. It had a single button he could press to let them know when his ghost sense triggered at school. The pager would vibrate once to confirm they got the message, twice if it had been handled, and three times if it was something they needed his help for. He didn’t even need to take it out of his pocket to use it. 

The first few weeks started out okay. He had only missed 3 class periods the whole month, when he’d directly seen ghosts he knew were dangerous and gone after them on his own, compared to the 10+ classes he used to miss each week. His parents were reluctant to use the pager to call him out of class, which he’d sort of been expecting. He’d gotten into a pretty heated argument with his mom when he came home from school one day to find her arm in a sling. Skulker had gotten in a lucky shot while Danny had been sitting around in study hall, doing absolutely nothing. He had been furious. 

“What was the point of having a signal to ask me for help if you won’t use it? This thing isn’t going to work if I’m just sitting in class worried about you every time I call you out to come catch a ghost.” He stood in the living room, arms akimbo, like he was the parent and she was a child in need of scolding. 

“Danny, your father and I can handle ourselves. I just got a little careless, is all.” She had smiled and cocked her head in what he was sure was meant to be a reassuring look, but it had just felt dismissive. His rage spiked. 

“If you get hurt again without even trying to ask for help, then the deal’s off.”

“Danny-”

“No! I know I’m your kid, and you want to keep me safe, but I’ve been doing this for enough time to know how to take care of myself. I appreciate that you guys are handling the little stuff, but I won’t fail any of my classes if I need to skip a period or two on occasion.” He locked eyes with his mom, pleading. “I can’t let you risk getting killed doing this on your own when I have literal superpowers. Please, just let me help when you need it.”

His parents had grumbled, and he hadn’t been sure they would take him seriously. But, sure enough, two days later he felt 3 quick buzzes in his pocket. Lancer had seemed surprised by the sudden recurrence of him demanding to go to the bathroom mid-lecture, but didn’t fight him on it. It was a lot easier to get a ‘yes’ when you weren’t asking every single class. 

He’d found his parents battling Technus in the computer lab, and the three of them working together managed to stop the ghost in a matter of minutes. His mom had given him a quick peck on the cheek before shooing him back to class. It had even been fast enough that he could maintain plausible deniability about just having gone to the restroom.

After a few months, and much to Danny’s chagrin, ghost attacks during the school day dropped off significantly. Turns out, getting blasted at by a ranting pair of adult Fentons was nowhere near as fun as sparring with the ghost boy. Even if they could cause enough trouble to make his parents feel the need to call him out of class, most of the ghosts realized it was easier to just wait until after the final bell. So the ghosts could respect a schedule, just not for the sake of his convenience. Danny told himself he wasn’t bitter.

With the reduced distractions, his grades had started to creep back into the ‘acceptable’ range. He wasn’t going to get straight A’s this semester, because finding enough time to finish his homework or study was still hard, but he was a lot further away from failing than he’d been last year.

The only problem left was what to do about Vlad. 

The 50 day mark had come and gone a long time ago, but his parents refused to let the other ghost out until they were certain they could keep their son safe. But every plan they thought of to do so had some issue they couldn’t solve. Danny, for his part, wasn’t about to argue for letting his nemesis out if he didn’t need to. Some part of him knew that he was just asking for more trouble. The longer the other man was trapped, the angrier he’d be when he inevitably got back out. 

So the thermos sat on a shelf down in the lab, collecting dust.

And that was alright for now. For the first time since his accident, Danny finally felt like things were going to be okay.

I’ll figure out how to deal with Vlad tomorrow, he told himself for the 83rd day in a row. Right after I figure out how to tell mom and dad about Dani.