Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a D- on the essay in front of Danny. “Please see me after class,” was pasted at the top on a sticky note.  As expected— it was Lancer’s class: English. He had barely scraped by with a C- last semester and it was somehow going worse this time around.

The bell rang, but Danny didn’t bother getting up. It was lunch and Lancer had asked him to stay back. Sam shot him a glance as she got up. Danny shrugged. He hoped it conveyed that he’d catch up with her later. She paused and put a hand on his shoulder before leaving the classroom. Danny felt himself sag. 

Lancer was rustling around at the front of the room, but Danny didn’t care to look up. He flipped to the next page of his paper. The red marks on his paper stared up at him, but he didn’t see them. He couldn’t have tried to work out what it all meant in that moment anyway. He was too drained. 

The desk next to Danny creaked as Lancer sat down. So, it was going to be one of those conversations. Danny didn’t need to be told he could do better. He knew he could do better if it weren’t for his other responsibilities. He knew everyone thought he was wasting his potential. He just had more important things to do than school work. He didn’t look up. 

Lancer sighed. 

“I know you didn’t read the book, Danny,” he said. 

Danny’s shoulders slumped. So it was a first name conversation too. “What gave it away?”

“Well,” Lancer said, with a wry smile, “For one thing, your description of Captain Smolett sounded a lot like Kermit the Frog.”

Danny winced. Watching the muppet adaptation of Treasure Island might not have been the best way to try and cram in enough of the story to write a paper, but it was all he had time for and the only adaptation Blockbuster had in stock. 

Lancer waited for him to respond. Danny didn’t. What could he even say to that?

Lancer sighed. “I know you kids think that literature doesn’t matter and I’m sure you think that watching a movie is a substitute for reading, but it isn’t. Even literature from 300 years ago can tell you a lot about society. It’s my job to make sure you kids see that.” A small, patient smile graced his lips as he said that last sentence, like he really believed that classic literature was the gateway to understanding the human condition. 

Danny snorted. Yeah, right. What relevance could a 200 year-old book possibly have to his life? And a book about pirates ? That told him nothing about life in the 21st century. Whatever, better to just get this over with. 

“Are you going to make me redo the essay?” he asked, trying to keep the whine out of his voice. His shoulders slumped. At this point it was probably the best he could hope for. It would give him an opportunity to actually read the book. That didn’t mean he was happy about it.

“No,” Lancer said, sounding almost disappointed, “Last year, I had hoped that letting you redo your work would help with your lack of confidence. I was wrong.” 

It had helped. Despite the fact he was trying to deal with Technus the entire time, it had really, really helped. Danny wouldn’t have passed Freshman year without it. 

“What I’m going to do this time is give you this.”

Danny looked down at Lancer’s hands. He was holding a tape player, probably from the nineties, and two cassette tapes. 

“What’s this?”

“This, Danny, is a cassette player and an audio recording of Frankenstein,” Lancer explained. “Since you have such a hard time doing the required reading, I thought turning it into required listening might yield better results.”

Danny took the tape player gingerly. What? Did Lancer think it was the physical act of reading he was having trouble with? What the hell?

“You will, of course, still have to use the actual book for in class assignments, but, for some students, this option works better.” 

Lancer really did think he was stupid. His schoolwork was so bad, the man thought he couldn’t read. Great. 

Although, it actually might be easier. He could listen to the book while he was doing chores or maybe even when he was on patrol if he remembered to stash it before he started to fight. Whatever. Did it really matter if Lancer thought he was stupid if Danny could at least get his grades up?

“Yeah,” he said, keeping his tone carefully neutral, “I’ll give it a try, Mr. Lancer.” 

Lancer smiled at him. “I know you have it in you to do well in my class. We just have to find the right way for you to apply yourself.”

And there was the try harder line. Just perfect. “Thanks.” 

When Danny made it out of the classroom, Sam and Tucker were waiting there in the hall. 

“So, what did he want?” asked Sam, shifting anxiously from one foot to the other.

Danny sighed, fidgeting with his new cassette player. “He gave me a tape player and a couple of tapes for the next book. I think he’s convinced I don’t know how to read.” Danny could admit he was a bit bitter about it, if only to himself. 

Tucker wrinkled his nose. “Tapes? Couldn’t he at least have given you an mp3 player or something? Who listens to tapes anymore?”

Danny rolled his eyes at Tucker’s hatred of all things analog. “Lancer apparently.”

Sam snorted. “Weird.” She started walking off towards the cafeteria. Danny and Tucker followed without question. “So, are you still going to tell your parents this weekend?”

Danny shrugged as he continued walking, hoping to hide the way all the blood drained from his face and the way his pulse quickened. “Yeah,” he said, “I don’t think I can keep hiding for much longer. They’re starting to suspect something’s up. Not everybody really gets the whole secret identity thing.” He shuddered thinking of the last time Skulker had ambushed him in human form and decided to shout “Ghost-boy!” at Danny at the top of his non-existent lungs. If his parents hadn’t been so busy shooting, Danny was sure they would have made at least some kind of connection.

Sam side-eyed him. “You're sure that’s a good idea?”

“I mean,” Danny groaned,“The other choice is to just keep hiding it from them. I don’t think that’s going to work for much longer and they haven’t been as actively antagonistic with Phantom lately.” Kind of, Danny added to himself. Okay, so maybe he’d just gotten better at avoiding them. Same thing. 

“Yeah, dude, it’s your choice,” Tucker said, putting a hand on Danny’s shoulder, “Just remember that there’s a spare room at my place if you need it.”

Danny smiled at his friend. He appreciated the offer, but if this went wrong, he knew hiding at Tucker’s wasn’t going to work. 

Besides, he needed to focus on the positive. This was going to go well. 

Danny huddled on a couch next to Jazz in Vlad’s giant mansion. It did not go well. It did not go well at all.

Actually, he admitted to himself, that wasn’t entirely true. His parents had believed him. They had believed that he was still himself despite being Phantom. They had assured him they loved him. They said they would get through this together. 

Then they decided to try and shove him through the Fenton Ghost Dreamcatcher because they decided that being half-ghost was a major health hazard and he needed to be fixed. The fact that he had been existing as a half-ghost just fine for over a year did not seem to matter in the slightest. In retrospect, it may not have been the best idea to agree to bloodwork right off the bat. It did not assuage their nerves the way that he hoped it would. 

The worst part of all of it was that Jazz knew. She knew it wasn’t going to go well. She had planned for it. She and Vlad had a pre-arranged contract.   

And she hadn’t trusted Danny enough to tell him beforehand. That hurt. A lot . 

So, now, he was sitting on a couch looking over paperwork that outlined everything that was and wasn’t acceptable while he was living in Vlad’s mansion. There were so many restrictions. Most of them concerned fighting and property damage. At least Vlad was just as restricted as he was.

Danny supposed that in the end he was lucky. His parents didn’t hate him. They wanted to help. Jazz said in a few months they’d come around and then she and Danny would be able to go home. 

She had been right about how they would react the first time. Hopefully, she’d be right this time, too. Hopefully she was telling the truth and she really believed they would come around. 

Danny signed the contract. He could deal with this in the interim.

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 3/12/2007

Frankenstein Chapters 4-6

 Victor Frankenstein gets really into chemistry and works to create life by reversing death. He isolates himself in a tower and the text implies he gets a body from a graveyard or something. Then he spends a few years obsessing over how to build the perfect being. After he finally completes his work, he has a nightmare and then discovers he succeeded at bringing something to life. It didn’t meet his expectations and Frankenstein decided to run and hide and let the creature wander off. That definitely won’t have any negative consequences. Then, Frankenstein’s friend Clerval shows up since Frankenstein dropped off the face of the Earth for two years. Frankenstein gets really sick and Clerval nurses him back to health. Clerval also takes the time to go to college. During the next six months, Frankenstein continues to ignore the fact he just made a monster, then abandoned it. There is no way any of these actions will come back to haunt him. 

Daniel - Sarcasm isn’t conveyed well in writing. Please find a different device to express your impression of events in further assignments. 

William Lancer did not want to be a social worker. More specifically, he did not want to be Casper High’s social worker. He was already far too over tasked. Between the classes he taught as an English teacher, the admin work he had to do as vice principal and the sheer amount of time it took to supervise detention, he was already stretched thin. 

That being said, Shelly Knolls, their last social worker, had been injured in yet another ghost attack and the school needed a new one. The school couldn’t just go without for the two months it would take Ms. Knolls to recover and they would be hard pressed to get a replacement within that amount of time anyway. Substitute teachers were scarce in Amity Park as it was. A temporary social worker would take a miracle. 

So, although Ishiyama had asked around, she ended up unilaterally deciding that William would be filling in for a position he was in no way qualified for. Again. At least it wouldn’t be as bad as that hellish semester he’d had to fill in after the Freshman biology teacher suddenly moved. Nothing could be as nightmarish as those robotic frogs. Probably. At least he knew more about interpersonal issues than he did about frog organs. 

William brought himself out of his thoughts as he made his way into the fourth period sophomore English class he taught. He let the folders with job information packets in his hands fall to the next with a thump and turned to the whiteboard. The notes from the 2nd period class were still there, so it was simple work to revise it to reflect the efforts of this period's batch of students as they trickled in. 

The bell went off as he continued to update his board. He pretended he didn’t hear the sound of Danny Fenton’s sneakers skidding through the classroom door or the clatter as he barreled into his desk a good 30 seconds after the bell. He didn’t turn around until the quiet laughter died down. It was good to let the kids have their fun. 

When he finally did turn around, he blinked. Danny had somehow managed to get his shoe caught in his backpack and was now trying to inconspicuously remove it. It was not actually in any way inconspicuous, but he would try and make it ignorable. As a teacher, it was his duty to not bring any more attention to that kind of embarrassment than necessary. 

“Okay class,” he started his lesson plan, “We’re at the beginning of the end of our unit on Frankenstein. Today, we’re going to be doing a textbook scavenger hunt. As long as you’ve done the reading, you should be able to finish this by the end of class”

After getting the last of the worksheets passed out, William started wandering the room to see if any of his students needed help. They only had 20 minutes due to how short the periods were. It was essential he catch problems at the beginning of the lesson instead of at the end. 

“I totally got Mikey to fill out the reading notes for me, so we’re golden,” he heard Dash Baxter say from his table with Paulina Sanchez and Kwan Chin. William frowned. It wouldn’t serve any of them well to be used to copying off others when they graduated. He was glad the worksheet he’d passed out had several critical reading questions. It would be hard to answer those based on reading notes alone, especially since Mikey had a habit of giving a barebones summary without any real insight into why things happened. 

“I’m super excited for this weekend,” Valerie Gray said, “I don’t have any shifts!”

“Nice!” Star Mitchell responded, “So, do you want to go shopping with me?”

As much as William was happy to see his students getting along, they were not going to get their work done if they started talking about weekend plans. 

“Ladies,” he said, “I believe you have work to do.”

“Sorry Mr. Lancer,” they both mumbled. 

He nodded and kept walking. 

“I played the same three paragraphs over and over again for like two hours yesterday,” Danny Fenton said, no doubt relaying some bit of mischief he’d recently taken part in, “I swear, he was ready to snap the tape in half if by the time I was done.”

Sam Manson furrowed her brow. “You sure it’s smart to provoke him?” she asked. “I don’t want you getting hurt because you decided to annoy him.”

Danny shrugged. “It’s fine. He’s not going to actually do anything.” He grimaced. “Besides, he and Jazz have that weird contract thing. I think she’d consider destroying my stuff a violation.” He paused and grinned again. “Though, she was getting pretty close to snapping the thing herself.”

“What part were you playing?” asked Tucker Foley with clear amusement.

“The part where the creature plants the locket on Justine because he realizes she would hate him if she saw him.” 

Tucker grinned right back. “Nice. He must have hated that.”

“Everytime ‘Changed that air of divine benignity to one expressive of disgust and affright,’ played, his eye twitched.” 

Sam cleared her throat. “Speaking of, does that mean you actually know that answer for Question 3? Because I’m lost.”

That was… concerning. Threats of physical violence were often made in jest among his students, but Ms. Manson seemed to be taking it seriously. That was not a good sign, even if Mr. Fenton himself seemed to dismiss it. People outside a situation often had a far clearer view of it. Well, at least he was using the audiobook. 

William kept walking around the classroom, listening in to student conversations and answering questions when needed. It was an important part of his job, that he felt that many of his colleagues neglected more than they should. Yes, during class was a good time to get some grading done, but it was an even better time to get a pulse on where your class was and to head off any problems that might arise. 

Speaking of…

Out of the corner of his eye, William saw a puff of bluish-mist. He turned quickly to face the source. He would have smelled smoke if it were a regular cigarette, but he’d heard about something called electronic cigarettes on the news. There was a possibility that one of his students got their hands on one of those. 

He was relatively surprised to see the source was Danny’s table. While he and his friends got into plenty of mischief, none of it had ever had to do with illicit substances. Maybe it was a trick of the light.

Then Danny stood up. William was sure he was about to hear one of Mr. Fenton’s frequent bathroom requests. There had been far too many lately. And with any chance of substances being involved… William decided that Mr. Fenton would just have to wait until passing period. 

The question was never asked. Danny just stood up and started walking towards the door.

“Danny,” Sam hissed after him. Something was wrong. 

Wiliam cleared his throat. Danny ignored him.

“Mr. Fenton,” he said, firm, but not yet angry. If he startled and looked over, it would be a clear indication he was just going to sharpen his pencil or throw something away. William could have entirely misread the situation. Danny ignored him and kept walking. 

William started towards him.

William reached the door right before Danny did. He slid in front of it, blocking the handle. “What do you think you're doing?” he asked, glaring down at his student. 

Danny glared right back up at him. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”  His voice was casual, but his face was hard and William swore his eyes were glowing green . 

“No. Sit back down, Mr. Fenton.” William kept his voice low. The entire class was staring, but, if he was lucky, he could stop this from becoming a scene. If Danny went back to his desk now, there would be plenty of whispering and gossip, but it would die down in about five minutes and everyone could get back to work. Then, he could keep Danny after class and they could have a conversation about what the cause of all this was. 

Danny attempted to dart around him to reach for the door handle. William shifted his weight so he was blocking it entirely. 

Danny glanced towards the window and looked altogether too much like he was considering jumping out of it. William continued glaring down at him. Intimidation was a tried and true tactic. 

“Mr. Lancer,” Danny said, somewhere between pissed off and flustered, “I really need to go deal with something. I’ll be back in, like, fifteen minutes.” 

“Go take your seat Mr. Fenton.” Don’t back down. Be firm, but calm. It had always worked before. 

“No!” Danny shouted. He tried to reach around William to get to the doorknob, but William leaned back against it. Then Danny’s elbow met William’s side. All of his weight shifted to one foot. Danny got his hand around the doorknob. William reached to stop him. Danny’s other hand came up and shoved. There was a thud . 

William blinked a few times and rubbed his lower back. Apparently, he had been shoved to the floor. Danny stared down at him, face waxen and pale with wide-eyes that were seemingly glowing. For a tense few milliseconds, he seemed frozen to the spot. Before William could gather himself enough to say something, Danny bolted out the door. 

Art by @marqkace

He turned to the rest of the class. The entire room was staring, a smattering of shock, horror, and twisted amusement dancing on several faces. . There was no way he was getting the situation under control. Well, time to try anyway. As he hoisted himself to his feet, he saw Tucker Foley typing rapid-fire on his PDA with his stylus furiously whispering with Samantha Manson. 

His brow furrowed, but he had no time for the two of them. There was a way he was supposed to handle situations like this. He knew that. It went something like:

Step 1. Calm the class down. Well, the class was actually pretty calm at the moment, probably due to shock more than anything else. He brushed himself off. When he said something he’d probably break that trance. Better to come back to that, then. 

Step 2. Once the class is under control, call the school resource officer. Well, that was more of an issue. The school hadn’t had a resource officer since the incident with Jack Fenton and the ghost ferret last year. 

Okay, back to step one. “Okay, class, while I’m sure that was very exciting, I believe-”

The Box Ghost came hurtling through the classroom wall without warning, Danny Phantom following closely behind. Ah, yes, this was a type of disruption he was much more familiar with. His students were as well. 

Everyone ducked under their desks, grabbing for papers, backpacks, and anything else they didn’t want destroyed on their way down. While it was imperative to get down quickly during a ghost attack, it was also imperative to get anything you didn’t want blasted or covered in goo out of the way. Thankfully, the vast majority of students had long since exchanged their pencil cases for pencil bags, so they wouldn’t be sucked up into the mayhem caused by this particular ghost.

Despite this, William could see several of his students that had those fancy camera phones reaching up and attempting to take pictures. He was sure at least a few of them would get this on video. 

“Beware! I am the Box Ghost!” shouted the ghost.  “Fear me and my, uh,” the Box Ghost turned his head towards William, who was attempting to take cover under an unoccupied student desk,  “Why aren’t there any boxes in this room?”

William gave him a deadpan expression. “We banned them in classrooms after the forty-second time you showed up.”

Phantom used the momentary distraction to punch the Box Ghost hard in the jaw. “There might not be any boxes in here, but we can always try boxing! Does that count?” William barely held back a groan as a few of his students giggled under their desks. At this point, he wasn’t sure if it was the ghost fights he dreaded or the puns that came with them. 

“No!” the Box Ghost shouted and launched himself at Phantom. They tumbled through a wall, both thankfully intangible, and out onto the school grounds. The entirety of his class scrambled out from under their desks, their sense of self-preservation long eroded due the consistency of the threat. William joined them, realistically knowing there wasn’t much he could do if the fight flew back through the classroom, but feeling obligated to be there to try and pull students out of the way nonetheless. 

As the fight dragged on, William began to suspect that Phantom was using the Box Ghost as an outlet for his aggression. He’d seen the ghost put others of his kind away in that thermos of his with far less brutality. A particularly powerful ectoblast knocked the Box Ghost to the ground and some students cheered. Phantom stocked forward as the ghost on the ground crawled backwards. William had known Phantom to be careless, or even indifferent, but rarely cruel. As Phantom stared the Box Ghost down, William hoped that his room full of teenagers wouldn’t be witness to one of those rare instances. 

Phantom stopped walking, his posture tense as he stared down at the now shaking Box Ghost. He lifted a hand and called the green energy so common around Amity Park to his palm before lowering it and sighing. Without any of his usual fanfare, he sucked up the Box Ghost into that thermos of his and flew off. 

The students in his class looked disappointed. They had gotten used to their unofficial town mascot waving or making quips after fights. Sometimes he would even stay and chat if someone caught him in the right mood. Ah, well, he was not going to complain about having one less distraction. 

“Okay, class,” he said, attempting to regain some semblance of order, “We still have 10 minutes left of class and anything on your worksheet you don’t finish here, you’ll have to finish at home.”

Students groaned as they righted desks that were tipped over in their rush to the window and gathered up scattered papers. They’d gotten pretty good at getting back on track after a ghost fight over the last year. 

“Can’t we just do the rest of the worksheet tomorrow, Mr. Lancer?” Dash whined, “I have football practice tonight and ghost attacks are supposed to count for extensions, right?”

William raised a singular eyebrow. “The Box Ghost passing through the classroom hardly counts as a ghost attack.” There was more grumbling, but no more protests. The definition of ghost attack had recently been upped from “a ghost encounter resulting in property damage or bodily injury” to “a ghost encounter resulting in major property damage or bodily injury requiring treatment”. There had been far too many students brushing off school work because their papers went flying or their bag ripped when a ghost showed up. 

 Three minutes later, just as everyone was getting back to work, William spied Danny Fenton attempting to slip back into class. That was something he needed to deal with. 

“Ms. Gray,” he said as purposefully strode towards the door, “You’re in charge of making sure your classmates don’t leave until the bell rings.”

He didn’t wait for a response before walking out of the classroom. Danny was attempting to walk away casually, apparently regretting his decision to come back to class. William intercepted him with a hand on his shoulder. 

Danny looked up smiling weakly. “I did say I’d be back?” 

William gave him a deadpan look. “Nice try,” he said. “Let’s go see what Principal Ishiyama has to say about your behavior.”

Principal Ishiyama said that Danny’s behavior was unacceptable. That was expected. She went on to say that it was Lancer’s turn to deal with the Fentons. She would take over as detention monitor for the afternoon and Danny could stay in her office until school let out, but Lancer had to deal with the Fentons.  He should have expected that. 

The fact Danny seemed more guilty for making William interact with his parents than for physically assaulting him did not help the situation. 

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 3/15/2007

Summary of Chapters 7-9

Frankenstein reads a letter from his father and finds out that his little brother, William, had been killed. He and Clerval immediately start traveling back to Geneva. He gets really dramatic about the landscape on the way there. He sees the creature he brought to life in the woods and, without any actual proof, decides that it murdered William. When he gets home, he discovers that Justine, one of his family’s servants, has been accused of the murder. He’s convinced she’s innocent, but decides to let the trial play out. In the courtroom, Justine looks really guilty and can’t explain why she had the locket that William was killed with. Frankenstein still doesn’t say anything. The judges find her guilty and Justine confesses because she’s pressured into it by a priest. Frankenstein still doesn’t say anything and really just spends the whole time feeling sorry for himself. Justine is hanged for murder and Frankenstein is a douchebag and has the gall to act like he’s the victim. 

Daniel - While gall is an excellent vocabulary word, “douchebag” is most certainly not. Please refrain from using it in future assignments regardless of how strongly you feel about the subject matter.

The first thing Maddie saw as she walked into William Lancer’s classroom was Danny. He was hunched over a desk at the front of the room, gripping the sides with white knuckles. His hair was rumpled and his clothes were wrinkled. He looked nervous. Really, he looked much the same as when she had last seen him almost a month ago, going through her portal in the passenger seat of the specter speeder. It wasn’t a comforting thought. 

The second thing she noticed were the posters lining the walls of the room. They were written in students’ handwriting on large sheets of colored construction paper.  “ No sooner did that idea cross my imagination, than I became convinced of its truth,” one read.

The third thing she noticed was Mr. Lancer. He stood as they walked in. “Jack, Maddie,” he greeted, “I’m sorry to have had to call you in. Why don’t you take a seat next to your son and we can get started.”

Maddie took a seat next to Danny and gave him a reassuring smile. He flinched. She held back a sigh. Someday he would see that she was only trying to do what was best for him. She caught Lancer frowning out of the corner of her eye. She knew he’d be on her side if he knew the full situation, but it was far too dangerous to tell him.  

There was a loud screech and a groan as Jack took a seat next to her. High school desks just weren’t built for men of Jack’s size and he looked incredibly uncomfortable sitting there. She supposed they were just lucky that the chair didn’t break. 

There were a few seconds of awkward silence as Lancer looked between the three of them. Glancing to her side, she could see that Danny was bouncing his leg and looking out the window. Nervous ticks she knew well. Usually, she would take this to mean that whatever he’d done, it was bad. Now, she was worried it was just because they were there.

Maddie would never forget the way he had reacted when they had made their desperate first attempt at curing him, the way his face had twisted in gut-wrenching betrayal. She knew she was right, though. That she and Jack were right in trying to separate that core from their precious son. The core was influencing him and, with Danny avoiding them, they had no way of knowing how much of Danny’s behavior was being influenced. 

She cleared her throat. “What’s this all about then, William?” She was never sure how to address her children’s teachers. On one hand, she was an adult. Adults addressed other adults by each other’s first names. On the other hand, she wanted to set a good example for her children, including how to address people respectfully. She defaulted to William anyway.

Lancer steepled his fingers in front of him. “It’s behavioral problems this time, I’m afraid,” he started. “Danny…” He paused, breathing deeply as if trying to tamp down frustration, “Daniel attempted to leave class today without asking. I was near the back of the class and stepped in front of the doorway to ask where he was going. Instead of answering, he told me to move. When I didn’t, he decided the best course of action was to shove me out of the way.”

“Danny,” Maddie hissed at her son. He didn’t acknowledge her. She hated that he was like this now. He never used to be like this. It was the ghost in him. Ghosts had violent urges and acted on impulses. That’s what this was. She was helpless to do anything about it. 

 Lancer’s frown deepened. “Twenty minutes later, he came back and sat down like nothing had happened.” He paused like he was waiting for some kind of response. Maddie didn’t have one. “Of course, it was very obvious to the rest of the students that something did happen and — since I wasn’t able to trust Danny to stay in any of his other classes — he spent the rest of the day in Principal Ishiyama’s office.” 

Lancer leaned forward in his chair.  “Usually, with Daniel’s history of tardiness, skipping, and extended bathroom breaks, we would be looking at suspension.” He took another deep breath and his brow darkened. Maddie’s heart stuttered. Suspension. What could she even do with suspension? Danny wasn’t living with her. She couldn’t keep an eye on him, and while she was sure she could have another conversation with Vlad, she didn’t trust him with keeping Danny out of trouble, especially considering Danny’s abilities. Vlad was only human after all.

 “However, since I have never seen Danny initiate a physical confrontation before, and because there is very obviously something else going on, I’m willing to start with a parent-teacher conference.”

“Thank you,” Maddie said,  Her stomach roiled. She didn’t need a suspension to worry about on top of everything else, but that meant Lancer knew something was wrong. Danny had put himself in even more danger.  She turned to Danny with a scathing look. “When we get home young man-”

“I’m not going home with you,” Danny asserted, voice firm and posture stiff . It was the first thing Danny had said since she’d entered the room. Maddie was speechless. Even if he would really just go back to Vlad’s, why couldn’t he just play along. 

“What?” Maddie and Lancer in tandem.Her words were hissed. His were baffled. 

Danny ignored Lancer. “I said I’m not going home with you. Not today.”

It was the ghost, Maddie knew. It was the core growing inside his chest, taking hold of his behavior and emotions. 

“Sweetheart,” she began, kind, but firm, “This has been going on long enough.” Three weeks was far too long. She didn’t know how much longer they had before it was too late. “You need to trust us. We—”

“No,” Danny said, scowling fiercely at the desk. “I can’t trust you. You made that very clear.”

Maddie heard the desk beside her creak as Jack leaned around her to look at Danny, “Danno, we only want what’s best for you.”

Danny glared at him. “Well, it’s not that. If you would just listen, you’d know that—” He looked at Lancer, shutting his mouth so abruptly that Maddie heard the click of his teeth. 

A heavy silence hung in the air and Maddie’s gaze was drawn to another one of the posters on the wall. “ Ever since I was condemned, my confessor has besieged me; he threatened and menaced, until I almost began to think that I was the monster that he said I was. ,” it read. The way Danny spoke, Maddie wanted to believe him, but he was confused. He was convinced he was a ghost, a monster. Maddie knew better. He was just sick. 

“I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here,” Lancer said as Maddie bolstered herself for what she was sure was going to be a very difficult and very nerve wracking conversation, “but I intend to find out.” He turned to face her son. “Danny, why don’t you want to go home?”

Danny opened his mouth before wordlessly closing it and glancing towards her. Maddie swelled both relief and remorse. Of course he couldn’t say anything. It was far too dangerous for him to tell anybody else about Phantom. Yet another reason to fix it as quickly as possible. 

Lancer’s brow furrowed as he looked at them. Maddie knew she needed to say something. Jack wouldn’t; he was never good at coming up with explanations. 

Lancer turned and started speaking to Danny again before she could even  start to say something in their defense.. “Danny,” he asked, “Why can’t you trust your parents?” 

Danny said nothing. 

Maddie rallied herself. She could take care of this. “He’s really just overreacting,” she said, smiling with forced sincerity, “You see—”

Lancer cut her off. “Mrs. Fenton, I think it would be best if you and your husband wait out in the hallway for a couple of minutes while I talk to Danny.” His voice was firm, and his eyes hard. 

Maddie’s heart jumped into her throat and she felt Jack stiffen beside her. If she could tell Lancer why this was happening, if she could just explain, she knew he would agree that Danny needed to go home with them today. They’d lost enough time as it was. 

Another handwritten poster on the wall near one of the windows caught her eye as she turned to her son. It read, “ I well knew that if any other had communicated such a relation to me, I should have looked upon it as the ravings of insanity.”

Her breath caught. Of course. She squeezed Danny’s shoulder as she got up. She supposed she’d have to leave the explanations up to him. He had just as much of a stake in keeping things hidden as she did. 

“Maddie?” Jack asked from the chair behind her. He had been prepared to argue of course, being direct in a way she never would be. Right now, however, it was time to retreat. It would just look worse if they tried to insist on staying in the room. 

“Come on, Jack,” she said tightly, “maybe William will have a better chance at getting through to him.” 

The desk behind her screeched again as Jack made his way up. She started walking towards the door knowing he would follow. She also knew without looking that he’d been sending worried looks back at Danny the whole way out the door. Maddie only allowed herself one.

She glanced back upon reaching the door of the classroom and her heart ached. Her son, her sweet darling boy, looked white as a sheet. Of course he was scared. She couldn’t blame him. 

Before she could make her way out into the hallway Danny blurted, “You can’t call CPS!”

Time froze and all the blood drained from Maddie’s face. Jack clutched at her shoulder and she put her hand on his. She cursed him for passing his directness onto their children. There was no way she was leaving after that. 

She spun to face the front of the room again. To face Lancer. 

His mouth was hanging open and his eyes were blown wide. It probably hadn’t been a serious consideration until that point. Damnit. They could not afford CPS. She couldn’t protect Danny if he was taken away from her. 

He turned to face her son and Maddie’s heart was in her throat. “Danny,” he said softly like he was just realizing something was going on that he had wholly missed. Like a smaller version of the realization she had had three weeks ago when she learned that her baby had been dead— no, not dead, contaminated— for a whole year. 

She took a step back into the room, back towards her son, and Lancer’s eyes snapped up to her. His eyes were stone. “Mr. and Mrs. Fenton,” he said, voice like ice, “I’m going to have to ask you to wait out in the hall.” 

“But—” Maddie couldn’t let this happen. A million scenarios of her baby being taken away. A million scenarios of him being ripped about molecule by molecule by some soulless government organization. Afterall, that was what she and Jack had wanted to do before they knew. And would the government really care if he wasn’t actually a ghost, just so thoroughly ecto-contaminated he had developed a core? Would she have cared if he wasn’t her son? Would she have believed that he wasn’t just some undiscovered type of parasitic ghost?

“Now,” Lancer said, partially standing from his desk. Danny looked like he was on the edge of flight or freeze, his eyes darting nervously between them. She couldn’t back down. This was her son . 

The door opened behind her and Maddie whirled, reaching for an ectogun that she had left in the car. What now? How could she defend her family if she didn’t have her gun. 

“It’s okay, Mr. Lancer.” The warm voice of her daughter cut through Maddie’s panic. “It’s not what you think.”

“Jazz.” Maddie felt herself start breathing again. She hadn’t realized she had stopped. Lancer said nothing when she backed up to let Jazz into the room. 

Lancer raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure exactly what I think Ms. Fe—” His eyes darted between Maddie and her daughter, probably realizing how confusing this would get if he insisted on formality with the whole family. “Jazz.” 

Jazz nodded simply. “That’s okay. I can explain.” It was a smart move, phrasing it like that. It established Jasmine as an authority on the situation. Maybe having one of their children vouch for them wasn't the best idea, but this was Jasmine. She knew every trick in the book when it came to getting her point across. 

Then her daughter turned to her brother. “I called Vlad,” she said. Maddie’s jaw tightened. 

“What!?” Danny half growled, half squawked. “Why?”

Maddie knew why. She just really, really wished it hadn’t been for a good reason. 

“Because,” said Jazz, making her way further into the room and leaning up against a desk, “Based on the bit of conversation I just heard, we’re going to need proof that we’re staying with a responsible adult even though we’re not staying with Mom and Dad.”

Maddie wasn’t sure if she’d classify Vlad as a responsible adult, but he was the lesser of two evils. The greater of which was not knowing where her children were at all. That she would never see them again had been her greatest fear when they had first bolted into the Ghost Zone.

A poster written sloppily in brown marker caught Maddie’s eye near the front of the classroom. “ I had before experienced sensations of horror, and I have endeavoured to bestow upon them adequate expressions, but words cannot convey an idea of the heart-sickening despair that I then endured.”

Danny glared daggers at Jazz, but seemed overall resigned to his fate. “Fine. When is he getting here?”

“Right now, Little Badger.”

Maddie nearly jumped out of her skin. She absolutely hated how quietly Vlad could move. In college, it had been amusing; something that would make her laugh uproariously right after it scared her out of her lab coat. Now, with all he had done to her, it reminded her of a predator stalking his prey. If she’d had her gun, she would have shot him. 

Vlad shifted his way into the room like a snake slithering in. Maddie noted the wary glances Jazz was giving him and her heart clenched. She must have really been desperate if she had called Vlad. It drove home how much Jazz didn’t trust them. 

“Vladdy…” Jack shifted uneasily behind her. “It’s good to see you, but this is, you know, a family thing. Maddie and I can take care of it.” It was a relief knowing his oblivious affection wasn’t overshadowing his somewhat limited common sense.

Vlad clenched his teeth. “Jack, good to see you as well.” There was that obvious distaste that she knew her husband forcibly ignored. “While I certainly appreciate the delicacy of this situation, I would like to remind you that Jasmine and Daniel are staying with me. I have a stake in all this as well.” 

There was a smug undertone as he said it. Maddie knew he thought he was hiding it well. Perhaps for everyone else he was. She would have brushed off just last year, but now, even after he had found Danny during the Ghost King incident, even after she had said “Bygones”, she paid attention.  

“No, you don’t,” Danny spoke up from across the room, eyes glowing green in a way that just a few weeks ago Maddie would have dismissed as a trick of the light. “You aren’t family.” At least Danny could see that, even if he could see nothing else. 

Vlad’s mouth turned down in a grimace. “Be that as it may—” His voice was less smooth now. He had never been good at hiding his emotions. “—I think I can add some clarity to the situation.” He glanced at Maddie. Maddie didn’t know what he wanted her to say. She didn’t agree with him, even if she did, reluctantly, agree with Jazz that it was important to show Lancer her children were staying someplace safe. 

Lancer stood up from his desk before she could think of a response. “No,” he said firmly, “There are far too many people here for any clarification. Right now, everyone except for Danny is going to wait out in the hallway. Then we’re going to have a civil conversation.”

“But—” 

“No ‘buts’,” Lancer interrupted like she was one of his students. “If you’re still in my classroom in fifteen seconds, I’m calling CPS regardless of what anyone says.”

Her jaw fell open, but she quickly shut it with a click. The panic was rising in her chest again, but she forced herself towards calm. Danny needed this to work out as much as they did. Though, he hadn’t made the best choices in regards to his health in the past. 

It didn’t matter. Right now at least they had a chance.

As soon as Maddie was in the hallway, she turned towards the door only to find it closed. There was a bit of brown paper taped over the door. Jazz’s hand lingered on the doorknob. 

Fury was clawing its way out of Maddie’s lungs. Her cheeks flushed with anger and her fists creaked with how tight they were. How could her daughter do that? How could she call Vlad? She was at a loss for words. 

“Well,” Vlad said, “Let’s hope Daniel has enough sense to come up with something believable.” 

No, Jazz wasn’t at fault here. She was just scared. Vlad was the one who had wormed his way into her daughter’s trust. He was the one sticking his nose in places it didn’t belong.  How dare he!

Jazz’s gentle hand fell on her arm. “Mom, It’ll be okay,” Jazz said. The fire in her soul quieted momentarily, but that it was Jazz who was comforting her made her anger flare up again.  This was her daughter . Her beautiful, brilliant daughter. Her daughter who had hid her brother’s secret from them for months. Her daughter who had the kind of insight into other people that left Maddie awestruck. Her seventeen year-old daughter who had taken her fifteen year-old son through the Ghost Zone in order to run away. 

Her nostrils flared. “If it was okay, my son wouldn’t be alone in that room being interrogated by his overly invested English teacher. If it was okay, a call to CPS wouldn’t risk your brother’s life. ” 

“Well, if we’re all so worried about what Daniel’s saying, why don’t we just find out,” Vlad smirked, pulling out a slim gray rectangle about the size of his hand and a smaller gray pentagon. The rectangle had a screen and looked remarkably similar to Tucker’s PDA, except it had two joysticks like one of those video game controllers.  

“Vladdie… What?” Jack said, echoing Maddie’s thoughts — minus the endearment.

Vlad pressed on a button on the controller and the little gray pentagon whirred to life, paper thin wings rising out of the metal like something from a sci-fi movie.

“Vlad, no.” Jazz moved to stand directly in front of Vlad. 

Vlad sighed dramatically. “Let me guess, this is somehow also a violation of Daniel’s privacy?”

Maddie tilted her head and looked more closely at the devices in Vlad’s hands. Was there some kind of camera attached? A microphone? At that scale?

“Yes! And Mr. Lancer’s.” Jazz crossed her arms. “They both expect this to be a private conversation.”

Vlad gently pushed one of the control sticks and the little device started to hover. The way it flew was just like an actual insect. It was the kind of technology that Maddie used to dream about before she realized how much more interesting ghosts were. What material were the wings made out of? They had to be extraordinarily strong to be that thin while moving that fast without bending or breaking.

“Please,” Vlad said. His response to Jazz drew Maddie out of her musings. “This is a safety concern. Daniel can’t be naive enough to really expect any privacy with so much at stake.” Condescension dripped from his words, but Maddie couldn’t help but find herself agreeing. The concession made her uncomfortable. 

Jazz glared, putting her hands on her hips. “That doesn’t make it right. It’s important for Danny to know he’s in a supportive environment with adults he can trust to respect his boundaries.”

“Wait,” Jack said, drawing everyone’s attention to his vaguely baffled face, “Is that some kind of spy bug?

Vlad rolled his eyes. “Oh, you’ve figured it out.”

“Vlad,” Maddie hissed, while shooting Vlad a look. She squeezed Jack’s hand, hoping to ease the hurt she knew he felt. 

Vlad met her gaze briefly before sighing.  “Yes, Jack, it’s a camera and listening device,” he said with barely constrained derision, “This way we can know what Daniel is saying before we have to deal with the consequences.”

Jack frowned. “I don’t know, Vladdie. Isn’t that a bit intrusive?”

Vlad snorted. “Not half as intrusive as all the tests the government will be running if he isn’t careful.” 

And there it was: the heart of the matter. Privacy and boundaries were luxuries until Danny was out of danger.

“That’s not—” Jazz started, but Maddie cut her off. 

“As much as I hate to say it, Vlad’s right,” she said.  “Jazz, honey, I wish we could trust Danny to take care of it, but that’s not realistic. He’s being forced to come up with something on the spot. That’s hard for anyone.” Before last month, her other objection would be that he was a terrible liar. She couldn’t say that with confidence anymore. “And he hasn’t been making the best choices lately anyway.” She caught the look of deviance on her daughter’s face and frowned. “ Neither of you have.” 

“Well said,” Vlad put in from behind her, making Maddie grimace. “Are there any further objections?” He left a beat of silence too quick for anyone to actually object. “No? Good.” He didn’t wait before guiding the bug up through the crevice at the top of the door frame. The space was a few millimeters in width. Maddie couldn’t help but be in a bit of awe at how sleek the technology was. 

As the bug growled out of sight, the screen in Vlad’s hands flickered to life. Voices filtered out from a speaker near the top of the device. It looked like Danny and Lancer were already well into a conversation. 

“Danny,” Lancer said, his voice a combination of exasperated and disappointed, “I can’t help you if you won’t tell me what’s going on.” Maddie ground her teeth slightly. He really was trying to help. And didn’t that make everything so much harder?

“And I told you, it’s none of your business.” Danny sounded sullen and slightly defensive. He was digging into his reserves of Fenton stubbornness. Good. 

“I’m a mandated reporter, Danny. If there is any kind of abuse or neglect happening, legally, I have to report it.” Lancer put his hands palms up on the desk in front of him. He sounded almost desperate. Maddie could at least appreciate that the teacher was going out of his way to keep the authorities uninvolved.. He must have some understanding of the fact that it wouldn’t actually help. Still, by his tone of voice, Maddie knew he would make the call if Danny didn’t give him something to work with. Maddie wasn’t sure Danny would. 

“Look,” Danny started, defensiveness shifting into annoyance, “I’m not being abused and I’m not being neglected. Jazz and I are staying with Vlad because I had a disagreement with my parents. We’re working through it.” 

Lancer raised his eyebrow. “Are you really?”

Maddie cringed from where she was watching the device in Vlad’s hands. They had not been working through it. They’d talked to their children a handful of times over the past few weeks after they had watched their children catapult themselves into the Ghost Zone. The following twenty minutes of panic as she and Jack scoured their lab for anything that they could use to go after them had burned themselves into Maddie’s brain. The call she got from Vlad as she was thinking about whether or not she could modify one of the bazookas to make a makeshift jetpack had been first a breath of fresh air and then a dunk into a glacial ocean. 

She was convinced he had somehow kidnapped him and had driven over with wild abandon rivaling Jack’s. He’d been too rattled to take the wheel even semi-safely. Jack was sure they hadn’t been kidnapped or manipulated, but wasn’t  offering up any other explanations. It was the closest she’d ever seen him to allowing himself to see past his hopes of rekindling their dead friendship.

Then she’d talked to her daughter and realized that, no, it was her children. It was just her children. They’d really gone to Vlad to hide. 

She’d tried to talk them into coming back home. Danny was sick. It was obvious just from looking at the scans. He needed help. Sneaking up on him with the ghost catcher had been rash, but they didn’t fully know if whatever ghostly core Danny had become fused with was influencing his actions. It wasn’t an unreasonable option. The children disagreed.

“If you try and force us back,” Jazz had said, “we’ll run again. And this time, we’ll run so far that you won’t even know whether the place we end up exists.”

The implication that they’d take up residence in the Ghost Zone wasn’t lost on Maddie. She’d understood why Vlad hadn’t objected to the kids staying with him at that moment. No one, not even Vlad, would turn away kids who felt their only other option was living among ghosts. 

Danny’s voice brought her back to the present.

“It’s fine,” Danny said, trying to talk his teacher out of endangering his health and well-being even more than it was endangered by default. “ They just need some time to think things through. Jazz says it’ll be fine in a couple months.” 

That echoed what Jack had been saying. That they just needed to let Danny cool off. That he and Jazz would come back in a week or two. That they just had to keep repeating that they were trying to help Danny. But “a week or two” had already turned into a month .

“A couple months is a long time Danny.” 

Maddie felt deep in her chest how right he was. A month had been far too long. They’d called everyday at first. They tried to reason with their kids, but it just wasn’t getting through. Danny kept saying that he wasn’t sick, that this was just him now. Maddie wanted to scream. 

She’d tried explaining that ectoplasm didn’t work like that. Ectoplasm wasn’t meant to bond to, or even interact with, real-world matter. When it contaminated real-world objects, there were most often strange or destructive consequences. She hadn’t been able to understand why he wouldn’t listen. She and Jack had been studying this their whole life. They knew what they were talking about. 

Then she’d seen Phantom— Danny —out fighting a ghost. It was the hunter ghost, yelling about hanging Phantom’s pelt on its wall. Maddie had never realized how horrifying the phrase was before. That was her baby fighting for his life up there. He was dodging missiles for crying out loud. 

Of course, then he fired an ectoblast in return. And sucked the hunter ghost into the thermos. A few teenagers that had been watching the fight cheered and he waved at them, smiling broadly.

It all made sense after that. Maddie knew why he wouldn’t listen. Of course he wouldn’t. He thought he was a superhero. 

Art by @marqkace

On the screen in Vlad’s hands, Danny hunched in on himself. “Well, it’s not like there’s much else I can do. And—” He straightened. “I’m not in any danger. I’m staying with a responsible adult. You can’t call CPS.” It was a bad argument. Maddie was sure everybody listening knew it. 

“Danny,” Lancer sighed, “Danny, whatever you're going through, I can help. We, the school, can help; both you and your sister! All you need to do is tell me what’s going on.”

Danny crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Yeah? What kind of help?” He didn’t sound receptive, but Maddie’s heart still skipped a beat. No one else could know. Vlad was bad enough and he, at least, had agreed telling anyone was a bad idea. Lancer might tell someone thinking he was helping. 

“Well,” Lancer paused, looking thoughtful, “It depends on the circumstances. If you're not in any danger, like you say, you and your parents could receive resources and family counseling. You might be paired with a social worker to help evaluate the situation and provide suggestions.”

“And what if—” Danny paused. Maddie's already nervous heart shot up into her throat. 

“Danny, no,” Jazz whispered from beside her. 

He clicked his mouth shut and Maddie breathed a sigh of relief. The three other people standing around the little screen did too. 

Danny hunched in on himself even more. “Yeah, no.Pass,” he said, tone biting. 

“Danny…” Lancer’s face looked like a strange combination of resigned and pleading. Maddie would have felt sorry for him if he didn’t pose a threat to her family. 

“I’m not hurt. I’m not in danger. I’m fine.” Danny shrugged. “My living situation just changed. That’s all.”

Lancer leaned forward and raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? There isn’t anything else you want to tell me?” 

Danny mimicked his raised eyebrow. “Uh, yeah?” he said, sarcasm dripping from the words. 

“Fine.” Mr. Lancer heaved himself up and made his way across the classroom. She watched through the robotics eyes of the bug as his shoulders slumped slightly while he turned the handle. Wait. The bug!

She elbowed Vlad hard in the kidney. He looked at her like a kicked puppy, well a kicked puppy with mange and an over-inflated ego. She glanced purposed fully down at the screen and his eyes widened. 

He started to slowly guide the bug off the ceiling through the door crack, but there was no time. Maddie grabbed at the controller and Vlad let go in surprise. It slipped out of her grasp. Jack attempted to snatch it as it fell, but only succeeded in flinging it into the air as his head crashed into Vlad while he grabbed at the control stick. The control stick broke off. 

Maddie watched in horror as the device arced through the air and towards the floor. She knew the kind of sound it would make as it landed. It would certainly draw Lancer’s attention. Then he would ask what it was and they would have to try and explain why there was a camera view of the inside of his classroom on the screen. She could not see that conversation going well. 

As Lancer opened the door the rest of the way, Jazz’s hand darted out and caught the drone and stuffed it into her bag. Maddie blinked. 

Jack groaned and Maddie’s gaze turned to him. He was rubbing the side of his head where it had made contact with Vlad. Vlad was glaring daggers at him as he clutched at what might have been a bloody nose. Lancer stared down at the with the same raised eyebrow he had just leveled at her son. He looked the opposite of impressed. 

Maddie smiled nervously. “They reached for the doorknob at the same time,” she said by way of explanation. It did not come out as casual as she wanted it to. 

Lancer sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Fine.” He looked skyward. “Everyone back in the classroom. Let’s sort out what we can of this mess.”

Maddie didn’t bother taking a seat at any of the desks as she followed him in and Jack followed suit. Vlad leaned against the door frame. Jazz was the only one who took a seat. Right next to Danny. He didn’t acknowledge her. 

Lancer stood leaning over his desk staring out at them. “We’ve established that Danny’s not in danger and is, quote-unquote, fine .” He turned his gaze towards each of them individually. “Now, would anyone like to expand on what’s actually going on?”

The room was oppressively silent. No one was even willing to look at Lancer.

It was probably better that way. It was easier to keep track of lies if there weren’t any. 

Lancer broke the silence. “Fine. If that’s how it’s going to be.” His glare intensified. “Everyone close their eyes and raise your hand if you’re willing to tell me what’s going on. I’ll call you later individually.”

Was he serious?

“We’re not children,” Vlad scoffed from the back of the room. For the second time that afternoon, Maddie agreed with him. 

“I find that hardly matters in situations like this, Mr. Masters.” He sounded amused and Maddie found that she did not appreciate it. “Now, if you please.”

Maddie exchanged glances with her husband. He shrugged and closed his eyes. She followed suit. It’s not like any of them would talk. 

“This is ridiculous,” she heard Vlad say from the back of the room. Apparently, he was playing along. 

“Good,” Lancer said. “Now, if you’re willing to expand on this situation, please raise your hand.”

Thirty seconds passed. Then a minute. A heavy sigh. “Please open your eyes.”

Lancer was leaning on the edge of his desk now. “Well, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” he said, sounding thoroughly annoyed. Apparently his ploy hadn’t worked. “Since Danny is fine and doesn’t need help, the only logical conclusion I can reach is that he decided to use physical force to leave the room in a show of adolescent spite and defiance.”

Maddie had forgotten all about that. It was the whole reason she and Jack were here. 

A poster caught her eye near one of the windows “She indeed gained the resignation she desired. But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolation.” 

“That’s right,” Danny snapped. “I was angry and I took it out on you.” His demeanor softened slightly. “It was wrong and I’m sorry.” 

Maddie was sure he meant that last bit, regardless of anything else. Her little boy was kind. He never wanted to hurt anyone. The ghost hadn’t wholly consumed him. There was hope.

“Thank you, Danny, I appreciate it.” His tone was sincere and Maddie hoped that maybe this could all just fade away. She and Jack would try reaching out again. Maybe they could get their kids to listen this time. “However,” Lancer continued and Maddie’s heart sunk, “Physical aggression is never okay, especially against a teacher. You’ll be staying after school for detention for the next week—”

“What!?” Danny cut him off. “That’s not—”

“And,” Lancer raised a finger as he stared Danny into silence, “You’ll be writing an extra essay on Frankenstein explaining how self-isolation impacted the outcome of the story.”

Danny grumbled, “That’s so not fair.”

Lancer leaned towards him with a slight smile. “It so is.” He straightened. “As for the rest of you,” He paused, looking at them each one by one, “unfortunately, our school social worker was injured in a recent ghost attack—” Danny flinched at the mention of it. Of course he was blaming himself. —therefore, I am filling in.” He took a deep breath. “And that means I am giving you two weeks to sort this out among yourselves. If nothing’s changed by then, I really will escalate to CPS.”

Five people spoke at the same time. “What!” “You can’t!” “No!” “I’m fine.”

Danny glared and Maddie could see his eyes glowing green now. She’d stopped being able to ignore things like that. “I told you I’m not in any danger.”

Lancer stared back at him impassively. “And, yet, you don’t trust your parents and both you and your sister are living with someone who is not your legal guardian. That’s a problem , Danny.”

“I can assure you,” Vlad said, stepping in smoothly, “the children are in excellent hands. They are perfectly safe staying with me.” Oh, that rubbed Maddie in just the wrong way. She could see that even Jack was starting to draw himself up.

Lancer leaned back. “Yes, well, I’ll be doing a home visit to verify that. Thank you for reminding me.”

Vlad spluttered at him.

Lancer turned to her and Jack. “That goes for you as well Mr. and Mrs. Fenton.”

She wanted to say no. She wanted to tell him that she and Jack would never endanger her children and this was all just a big misunderstanding. She wanted to explain it all away. 

“Of course,” she ground out. 

There was silence for a beat. “Can we go now?” Danny asked, obviously peeved. 

Lancer sighed for what must have been the tenth time in the last half hour. “Yes, Danny, you can go.” 

“Great.” He got up, dragging Jazz with him through the door. 

As Maddie got up to follow, one last handwritten poster caught her attention. It read, “ Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, horror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts. ” 

She froze, staring at it. If she and Jack were investigated, if Lancer really did call CPS, was there any chance Danny would make it out unscathed? He and Jazz said they would run, but could they really? They’d flee to the ghost she knew, but would Danny be able to survive there? Would Jazz?

She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. This really was all her fault wasn’t it? Hers and Jack’s. If only they had been more attentive. If only they had more safety precautions. If only they had been better parents. She let out her breath. She felt Jack’s hand on her shoulder. He gazed at her in undisguised worry. She smiled gently. 

When they stepped out into the hallway, Danny and Jazz were already gone.   

Maddie felt like her world was slipping away from her. All she could do was go along with Lancer’s investigation and hope her children saw sense. What she wouldn’t give to have something she could shoot. 

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 3/19/2007

Summary of Chapters 10-11

Frankenstein spends a lot of time admiring the landscape and climbs a mountain. Then, at the top of the mountain for some reason,  the creature approaches him and Frankenstein tries to drive him off. The creature says Frankenstein has a duty to listen to him because Frankenstein created him, but Frankenstein just calls him a lot of names and tells him to go away. Then the creature threatens to “become the scourge of your fellow creatures” unless Frankenstein listens to him. That gets Frankenstein’s attention. 

The creature starts telling Frankenstein his life story, starting with his first few months of life. After Frankenstein chased him away, the creature found himself in a forest and just existed there for a while. The creature discovers fire and eventually wanders into a town looking for food. He scares a shepherd and a bunch of villagers. The villagers attacked the creature and he ended up in a hovel attached to a cottage occupied by a young man, a young woman, and an old man. 

Daniel - Nice work using a quote from the text. Keep up the good work. 

Jazz pulled the specter speeder back into Vlad’s lab with practiced ease. She was getting far too used to ending up in his lab rather than her parents. It was unsettling. 

She spotted Vlad hunched over a workbench as she hopped out of the speeder. He barely registered as a threat to her anymore, just something in the background she needed to be aware of. That thought was even more unsettling.

“Jasmine,” he greeted coldly from his workbench. 

“Vladislav,” she responded, voice equally clipped. 

He scowled at whatever he was working on and she grinned. It was a bit of a game at this point. Vlad insisted on calling her and Danny by their full names; she was just returning the favor. Vlad hated it. He did not like the name Vladislav, it was too foreign and he only had it because his grandfather had been from Czechoslovakia. He had no other ties to the place, but it still alienated him from his peers far more than a simple “Vlad” or even “Vladimir” did.

But, that was their game. Danny hated being called Daniel almost as much as Vlad hated being called Vladislav, and while Jazz didn’t mind her full name, it chafed at her that he wouldn’t respect her choice. Vlad knew that all he had to do to go back to being just “Vlad”, was to start calling Jazz and Danny by their preferred names, but he also knew that Jazz would win if he did that. Vlad hated to lose. He was losing anyway.  Jazz would take her victories where she could. 

“Jasmine,” Vlad repeated, just to drive his point home, “Did you have a nice time in the Ghost Zone?”

“Quite,” Jazz said, starting her post-flight checks, “It really is beautiful out there. The flowers are blooming just over the gorge.” There was only one gorge with flowering ghost plants, or ecto-plants as Danny liked to call them, within flying distance. It was a dead giveaway for where she had gone. 

“And how is your yeti friend doing?” Vlad took out another tool from beneath his workbench. He was trying far too hard to act like he wasn’t really interested in what she was doing. 

 “He’s doing well,” Jazz said. “Worried for Danny of course. All his friends are.” There was a bit of ectoplasmic pollen stuck to one of the vents of the specter speeder. Jazz got out one of the ecto-proof cleaning rags and began to clean it off. Ectoplasmic pollen could very quickly turn into an overgrowth of ghost plants inside of her ship. 

“Of course he is. The situation with Daniel’s parents is quite worrying.” Jazz scowled at her work. She hated when he did that. She hated that he could take an objective fact and bludgeon her over the head with it. She hated that all the ghosts that knew about their parents were scared for Danny. She hated that Vlad only ever called them, “Daniel’s parents,” like she wasn’t their child too.

She didn’t respond, just focused on her work. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Vlad smirking. She ignored that too.

Fifteen minutes later, she was finished with the last of her safety checks and needed to remove so much pollen that it could have made a raging ghost plant army. Maybe she would avoid the gorge next time she went to the Far Frozen. 

She knew she would be going back. After the first week living with Vlad, and after Jazz’s attempts to convince her parents that Danny was fine had gone nowhere, Jazz had suggested that they try and get their parents to visit the Far Frozen with them and see Frostbite. They might actually believe a fellow scientist, even if he was a ghost. Danny had shut that plan down immediately. He didn’t want to, “get Frostbite gooped,” as Danny put it. He was right, that was a possibility, but it wasn't like the yetis couldn’t defend themselves nor avoid hurting the Fentons while doing it. Danny was just being stubborn. 

And, not that she would say this to him, he was isolating himself. She knew he hated the situation. She hated it, too. Unfortunately, Danny had picked avoidance for his unhealthy coping mechanism. He was avoiding his parents, avoiding talking about topics relating to his parents, and avoiding anybody who would make him talk about said topics. She knew refusing to even consider talking to Frostbite was a way of continuing this pattern of avoidance. She knew she could get Danny to ask for help, so she was doing it for him… or at least making sure help was available when he needed it. 

She didn’t think Danny knew that he had friends that were worried about him, other than Tucker and Sam. Frostbite had looked heartbroken when she told him. And Dora had been shocked when Jazz mentioned it when she had stopped by on her way back from the Far Frozen. Of course, mentioning it had turned into a full on rant, so that could have been the shocking part. 

Jazz was glad that her initial study of ghost psychology had led to ghost friendship. Having someone who she was actually able to talk to about all this, who knew Danny’s secret, helped. It helped a lot. 

She paused behind Vlad as she made her way to the door that led to the rest of the mansion. Whatever he was working on was in a small pile glowing green. 

“Working on anything interesting?” she asked. There was about a 30% chance that he would be excited enough to just tell her. It turned out Vlad could get almost as enthusiastic about the ecto-sciences as her parents, given the right circumstances. 

“Perhaps,” he said, glancing over his shoulder, but still managing to make eye contact. “Were you doing anything interesting in the Far Frozen?”

Well, it had been worth a shot. She shrugged. “I was just working on some contingencies. You know, in case anything gets worse.”

Vlad hummed as he turned his eyes back to his work. “And I’m doing much the same.”

“Right, of course,” Jazz muttered, wincing at the bitterness that had seeped into her voice. That was a blunder. Rule number one of dealing with Vlad was to never show any negative emotions. It only served to puff up his ego like a bullfrog. 

Vlad sighed dramatically. “Jasmine,” he said, with an edge of mockery that Jazz knew was there, but could still barely pick up, “You don’t need to treat me like your enemy, you know. I’m only trying to help.”

Jazz narrowed her eyes. She knew he was working towards his own ends. He knew that she knew that she didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him. So, what was he playing at? Maybe she should take the direct approach this time, leave him no room to talk himself into a position of power. 

“We both know that you want to isolate Danny and force him to be your son,” she said. “You want to make him renounce our Dad. That isn’t helping him.” Her tone was completely emotionless. 

Vlad turned around to face her. It was the first time since she’d come through the portal that he actually looked at her.

“You really think he’s better off with your parents, Jasmine?” he asked, sarcasm and derision dripping from his words. “ Is that why you came to me when you found out he was going to tell them? Was that why you took him here when you ran?”

Jazz felt the blood drain from her face. Her nostrils flared. How dare he? How dare he? “You know exactly why I did that,” she huffed. “He came out and you are literally the only person in this world that wouldn’t either call CPS or send him right back. I have enough blackmail material to make sure of it. You are a means to an end, Vladislav.”

Vlad scoffed. “Please, any blackmail you have on me would be equally damaging to him.” He smiled like he’d won. “Besides, like you said, I’m the only one that you can trust.”

Jazz breathed in, then out. Any anger worked in Vlad’s favor. It was like he fed off of it. “No,” Jazz said, as calm as a pond on a windless night, “I can’t trust you. You’ve made that abundantly clear. Everytime you say you want to help Danny, every single time, you end up screwing him over in some weird, messed-up way. And then you try to completely undermine his autonomy. I remember the clones, Vlad.” She stared straight into his eyes as she spoke, knowing there was no fear to be seen. She was too good at hiding it. 

Vlad smiled meanly, “And do you really think you're so much better, Jasmine? We both know Daniel would never have come to me on his own. You came to me weeks before he was planning on telling your parents and then dragged him here through the portal while he was still in shock. That doesn’t scream ‘respecting his autonomy’ to me.” 

Jazz didn’t flinch. “That’s different and you know it,” she said. It sounded weak even to her. 

“How? I’m trying to help him. He’s going to be better off with me.” He softened his voice, but the devious glint never left his eyes. “You would be better off, too.”

Jazz stood tall. She would not show fear. She would not show anger. It would do nothing but bolster Vlad’s inflated sense of self-importance. “Neither I nor my brother would be better off with a self-aggrandizing, manipulative asshole who has violently attacked one of us multiple times.” She breathed deeply, “At least when my parents attacked him, they didn’t know it was him.”

Jazz turned to walk out of the lab, ignoring Vlad’s muttered retort of, “And yet you’re still here.”

William had been worried that Danny wouldn’t actually show up for his detention. It had been a problem in the past and William honestly had no idea how much or how little discipline was being in Danny’s life. It was one of the many concerning things that had come to light yesterday afternoon. The fact that Danny hadn’t shown up yet was not easing William’s concern, either.

Thankfully, Danny was only five minutes late. William made a mental note, but otherwise didn’t mention it. It would be interesting to see if Danny noticed that he would be getting out of detention 5 minutes late as well. 

“Good of you to join me, Mr. Fenton,” William said wryly. “It seems we’re the only ones stuck here this Friday afternoon.”

Danny glanced at him, not quite taking a seat. “You know, we don’t have to be stuck here,” he said almost hopefully, “You could just say I served my detention and then—”

William cut him off firmly, “Sit down, Mr. Fenton.” 

“Yes, sir.” Danny sat down immediately, although sullenly. Well, at least his respect for authority wasn’t totally gone. 

“Normally,” William began, “I would ask you to work on any homework you already had while you’re here, but I believe we’ve already established you’ll be doing an additional assignment instead.”

Danny groaned. “You were serious about that?” 

“Deadly.” William was not letting him get away with anything. Danny needed consistency and discipline in his life and if William had to be the one to provide it, so be it. “You’ll be writing a three page essay on the role isolation played in Frankenstein.” He ignored Danny’s melodramatic groan. 

“Furthermore I expect at least three examples with outcomes from the text.” William smiled. “And just to make sure you understand that this is not optional,” he paused for effect, “if you don’t finish it by next Friday when your detention ends, you will continue to serve detention until you finish it.”

William expected another groan. Instead Danny raised his eyebrows. “Does that mean if I finish the essay early, I get out of detention early,” Danny asked, sounding cautiously hopeful.

“No.” 

Danny was visibly deflated. William smiled wryly. “And before you ask, this doesn’t count for your final Frankenstein essay for my class.” He was willing to give Danny extra credit if he did well enough, but he didn’t get to learn that until after the fact. 

“That’s totally not fair,” Danny whined. 

William raised an eyebrow. “You were the one to use physical force, Mr. Fenton. These are the consequences.” These were also the consequences for not letting anyone help him with whatever was going on with his parents. He was still hoping to avoid CPS as a further consequence. 

Danny huffed, but seemed to accept his fate. “Can I at least use that audiobook for the assignment?”

William couldn’t help the genuine smile that formed in response. “Of course, Danny. I’m glad you’re finding it useful.”

Fifteen minutes later, after the seventh time Danny replayed the line “ M. Krempe was a little squat man with a gruff voice and a repulsive countenance; the teacher, therefore, did not prepossess me in favour of his pursuits,” William was feeling considerably less glad. When the narrator reached the end of the passage “ I could not consent to go and hear that little conceited fellow deliver sentences out of a pulpit, ” Danny pressed the rewind button. Again . 

“Danny,” he asked, doing his best to keep the strain out of his voice, “can I ask what is it about this passage that is so mesmerizing?” Maybe if he made the little menace explain himself, he’d move on. 

“I just find it really interesting,” Danny smiled, the picture of innocence. He pressed play again. Somehow, the book started off exactly at “M. Krempe was…” It would have been impressive if it wasn't so annoying.

Okay, new tactic. “I find it interesting you chose to start there.” He kept the annoyance from his tone. No need to play into whatever bit of defiance this was.  “How do you think Frankenstein’s interactions with his teachers reflect the themes of isolation in the story?”

Danny pressed pause and shrugged. “I don’t actually know,” he admitted. He looked down at his desk and messed with the cassette player a little. “It probably wasn’t the best place to start.”

William was surprised at how quickly he went from mischievous to dejected. That wasn’t what he had come to expect from his student. If only he could get Danny to open up. 

“I actually think Frankenstein’s relationship with his teachers could be a good place to start,” William said. He would use the power of literary analysis to get answers. “The last half of Chapter 3 focuses almost entirely on Frankenstein's professors, he doesn’t mention either M. Krempe or M. Waldman at all while he talks about his studies and what he does to build the creature. They only come up again after Clerval comes back into the picture.” 

Danny looked at him blankly. 

“What do you think that says about Frankenstein’s relationship with his professors?” William prompted. 

Danny sat there for a minute without saying anything. William was about to prompt him again when Danny spoke. “I think,” he started before breaking off and starting again, “I think that it shows that Frankenstein didn’t tell his teachers at all about what he was doing.” 

Danny looked up and William smiled encouragingly. “Go on.”

“In Chapter 4, Frankenstein talks a lot about how he robbed graves to get parts and stuff. But, in Chapter 6, when introduces Clerval to his professors, both of them praise Frankenstein.” He tapped his fingers on his desk. “If they knew about that they definitely wouldn’t be saying good things about him.”

Well William was hoping for something more along the lines of, “Frankenstein was isolating himself as soon as he got to Ingolstadt,” but he could work with this. 

“What do you think would have happened if he had gone to his professors with his ideas before starting?”

Danny looked directly into William’s eyes as he spoke. “I think they would have called him crazy and Frankenstein would have tried to do it anyway because he was obsessed. I don’t think he would have wound up any less alone.” 

Williams eyes widened slightly. That was more forceful than he’d been expecting and not what he was hoping Danny would take away from that even if he was probably right. William nodded slowly, “What brings you to that conclusion?”

Danny looked away and shrugged. “My parents told me some stories about their college years,” he mumbled. “Everyone called them crazy for believing in ghosts, but they still worked on their portal.”

William blinked and nodded. Right. That was not something he was going to try and refute.

“Can I start working on my paper now?” Danny asked, far more annoyed than he had been ten minutes ago. 

William sighed. “Go ahead, Danny.” He’d try again later. There was still a week of after school detentions yet to come.  

William Lancer stood outside the Fenton’s door on a bright and early Saturday morning with a checklist and a book titled “Social Work for Dummies” wrapped in a textbook cover. He felt in no way qualified for this. He was in no way qualified for this. Sure, he’d taken some courses on social work back in college, but that was over 20 years ago and he knew everything he learned was out of date. Still, a home visit needed to happen and it wasn't like there was anything else.

He knocked on the door.

It swung open within seconds. ”William Lancer!“ Jack Fenton boomed. ”It's good to see you!“

William honestly couldn't say if Jack was hiding something or honestly glad to see him. He leaned towards the latter. The large man tended to wear his emotions on his sleeve and William wasn't sure he'd be able to hide any negative feelings.

“Jack,” he greeted, “I'm glad you could make time this morning. I figured it would be good to get this out of the way sooner rather than later.” According to the book, it wasn't necessarily a good thing to let parents know in advance that he was visiting, but he wasn't CPS and this wasn't a true investigation. He just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything he needed to escalate.

“Come in and make yourself at home,” Jack said gesturing to the living room behind him, “Maddie made oatmeal cookies!”

”Thank you,“ William said, carefully choosing a chair facing the rest of the house. He glanced down at the checklist's section on general living conditions. So far everything looked good. He put a C for “Rule is Met” next to “No apparent moldy or rotten smells.” Perhaps it was a bit premature, but with how well kept the living room was, he couldn't imagine the rest of the house would be in horrendous shape.

As he looked around and tried to match things to his checklist, William saw Maddie stick her head out from the kitchen door. “Oh, good to see you William,” she said. “I baked some oatmeal cookies this morning.”

Ah. Yes. Maddie Fenton's cookies. Now, apart from everything else, these would be a good enough reason to be there on the Fentons' doorstep on a Saturday morning.

“Why, thank you, Maddie.“ He smiled at her as he took a cookie off the plate. Really. This wasn't going to be so bad. He'd just take a look around, ask some questions, maybe see if he could get to the bottom of whatever was causing the rift. Who knew, Danny had always been prone to moodiness and Jazz could be more than a little overzealous and bullheaded. This really could just all be a misunderstanding to be solved with some run-of-the-mill mediation.

There was awkward silence as Lancer took a bite of his cookie. He smiled. It was very good. But...

“Why don't we get the hard part of this over with?” he asked. He could finish his cookie later.

Jack nodded quickly and Maddie beamed at him. They radiated nerves.

“Just to go over the process with you here,” he said, explaining it like it was just part of a course syllabus, “I'm just here to make sure everything is safe and make some suggestions if something isn't. My only goal is to make sure your children are safe and well cared for.”

Jack's shoulders relaxed slightly, but Maddie remained on edge. It made sense. She seemed to be the less trusting of the two.

“What I'm going to do today,” William said, “is to take a look around the house and make sure everything meets the safety guidelines defined by the state of Illinois. Though, I'm pretty sure not all of these apply to households with children of Danny and Jazz's ages.” He looked down at his clipboard and the reference to plug protectors on all outlets. “If there is anything that's unsafe, I can make recommendations and we can go from there.” He paused, making sure that he had their fixed attention. “Do either of you have any questions about any of that?”

According to the “Social Work for Dummies” book, he was supposed to be very clear when it came to directions and make sure to repeatedly ask if there were any questions. It was just like teaching in that way, only, at least with the Fentons, his audience was actually paying attention.

“I think we're good, William,“ Maddie said. The smile she gave him was still nervous, but far less stiff than it was.

“Absolutely,” Jack said, echoing his wife with far more enthusiasm. “We can give you the full Fenton House Tour.” He got right up to William’s side as he spoke, slowly fanning his arm in front of them like a tour guide. ”I'll show you every piece of ghost hunting equipment and ghost protection in the place. By the end, you'll be just as sure Danny and Jazz are safe here as I am!“

Right. The ghost hunting. The real reason William was so hesitant about calling actual CPS for this. Amity Park might be used to the ghost hunting antics of Jack and Maddie Fenton, but outsiders were not and — from an outside perspective — they looked like complete nutjobs. CPS social workers were provided by the state, not the city. There was no guarantee that an Amity Parker would be assigned to the case. 

William forced a smile onto his face. As eccentric as they could be, William had never known the Fentons to be anything but engaged parents. They cared about their kids and wanted what was best for them. It was easy to see by how often the Fentons showed up at the school for one reason or another. The image of Jack Fenton with a large gun full of green ooze filled his mind's eye. Okay, maybe they weren't there just for their kids, but still. The Fentons loved their kids.

“Right,” he said, trying not to let Jack's enthusiasm amplify his unease. “Lead the way.”

The large man reached the stairs before William even had the time to stand up. “We'll show you the kids rooms first,” he said. “Work our way from top to bottom, right?”

He looked to Maddie, who was smiling fondly at her husband. She caught his somewhat baffled look and shrugged in the universal gesture of “What can you do?” Well, might as well get moving.

The tour with Jack Fenton as a very enthusiastic tour guide started in the master bedroom with a closet entirely filled with jumpsuits.

“Practically indestructible,” Jack said. “You can be covered in ectoplasm and blasted with a rocket and these things won't take lick of damage. We try to get the kids to wear them, but—” Jack shrugged. “—You know how it is with teenagers.”

William eyed the neon orange monstrosity of a suit being held in front of him. “I understand completely.” 

Danny and Jazz's rooms were clean and well kept with no glaring safety violations.How clean the rooms were actually would have been more disturbing if William didn't know the kids hadn't stayed there in weeks. He wondered what they would be like if there were people living with him.

So far, there were no obvious safety hazards.

It wasn't until they went back downstairs that William even started to feel concerned.

“Wait right there,“ Jack said as he bounded down the stairs. ” I forgot to show you on our way up, but we have quite the security system in place.“ William raised an eyebrow and looked to where Maddie was standing next to him. She looked smug.

Jack pushed a button and a life size cutout of himself sprung out of the wall. Steel glinted on its edge. Just as it withdrew a similar cutout of Maddie Fenton popped out of the opposite wall. William could feel the air displacement from the force of the currents exiting the wall.

“That's just one part of our defense system,“ Maddie said from beside him as William turned towards her in horror. “There's plenty of other anti-ghost weaponry built-in to the walls that activates when an ecto-signature is detected.” She smiled at him. “And there are plenty of defenses that activate at the push of a button that work for human intruders as well.”

William swallowed as he gingerly followed Maddie down the stairs past the wall slits that he hadn't noticed earlier.

He cleared his throat. “And how do you make sure it won’t hurt Danny or Jazz?”

“Oh, don't worry,“ Maddie said. “The kids know better than to mess with any of that and it only hurts ghosts unless we specifically activate it.“

“And,“ Jack put in, “I've personally trained our kids on every home defense system we have. They're safer here than anywhere else in the world.”

“Right,” William made a note on his sheet about all the defenses, but well, Jazz and Danny weren't children and they were trained. This most likely wasn't a danger to either of them.

William cleared his throat. “Where to next?”

“Well, you've already seen the living room,” Maddie said, “so why don't we show you the kitchen?”

William followed her in, evaluating everything. The book said that kitchens were the most likely place to find violations. Lack of necessary sanitation was a big one. Kitchens needed to be clean enough that no one would get sick eating there; Cleaning supplies needed to be in separate cupboards tha foods, and it was important to keep items refrigerated or frozen as needed.

“I try to make homemade meals at least a few times a week,“ Maddie said. “But I do admit that we eat a few more microwavable meals than I would like.“

William nodded. “That's fine,” he said, checking off another box. There were no signs of bugs or rodents on the counters and floors at least. “Do you mind if I check your fridge and cupboards?”

Maddie and Jack glanced at each other. William supposed he wouldn't particularly want anyone looking through his kitchen either. It still needed to be done.

“I'm not going to be judging any junk food or organization,” he said, trying to reassure them, “I just need to check to make sure everything is sanitary.”

They still looked a little uneasy. “Sure,“ Maddie said.

“Just don't be surprised about the fudge,“ Jack added on, laughing a little.

“Of course not,” William said, with his best attempt at a reassuring smile. He really wasn't going to judge unless he found mouse droppings or rotted food. And even then, he'd be making suggestions and following up, nothing more.

There really wasn't anything remarkable about the cupboards. Things weren't entirely organized and it looked like a bottle of soy sauce had been knocked over at some point resulting in a large stain, but it was clean. The cupboard under the sink contained cleaning supplies and little else. No chance of cross contamination with food.

William’s luck ended when he was accosted by hotdogs as he opened the fridge.

One minute, he was looking at the shelves to make sure there wasn't anything exceptionally concerning, the next there were growling, glowing, green hotdogs on his face. He yelled in surprise as he stumbled back. Hitting his elbow on the counter as he used his other hand to try and dislodge the growling, slimy monsters from his eyes.

“Damnit, Jack!“ Maddie exclaimed, “I thought you got rid of those!“ William felt a burst of heat and one of the things fell from the side of his face.

“I did,” Jack said, more than a hint of annoyance in his voice. “But those damn things hide in places I don't even know exist.” There was more heat and another few fell from his face.

Maddie sighed. “We talked about this, Jack,” she said, “When you clean the refrigerator, you have to move everything out and check it. You can't just move things around and throw out anything that smells bad.”

“Fine,” Jack grumbled as the last of the weiners fell onto the floor.

William looked down to see several sausages. Some were writing in what looked like agony. Others had gone still. Jack hurriedly grabbed a broom and dust bin and gathered them up before heading towards the trash. Maddie stopped him with a look.

Jack glanced between Maddie and William sheepishly. “I'll just, uh, go incinerate these in the lab. Maddie, do you want to show Mr. Lancer the ops center?”

Oh, goodie, he was Mr. Lancer now. Now, that was a sign of nerves if he ever saw one.

“Thank you, Jack,” Maddie said. She turned to Lancer. “Shall we?” She moved a piece of ham and pushed a button.

He raised an eyebrow, but followed her up the newly revealed hatch. “I don't suppose I need to tell you that whatever's happening in that refrigerator needs to change.“

She signed. “No, you don't, but let's just finish the rest of the tour first.“

William remained silent. He'd go along with this. May as well see if there were any other concerning secrets and address them all at once.

As they came out of the passage into what looked like the cockpit of a spaceship, William wondered if maybe addressing things as they came up would have been better because this was a lot to address at the end.

“We're in a spaceship,” he said, awe creeping into his voice despite himself.

“No,” Maddie said, switching on a light switch, “We're in the Fenton Ops center.”

“I'm hoping the kids aren't allowed up here,” William said, giving Maddie what he hoped would be an imposing look.

“Of course they are!” Jack said, coming up from behind him. “Danny loves it up here!” He turned to his wife. “Don't worry, Maddie. I dumped them all in the incinerator this time.” Maddie glared murder at her husband.

William turned to Jack. “You say Danny loves it?” Maybe he could get some actual information from this.

“Oh yeah,” Jack said. “Danny-boy got his learner's permit a few months ago, so I’ve been teaching him how to drive! And the ops center is as much of a vehicle as the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle, so I figured I’d throw it and the Specter Speeder in as well. Might as well cover all our bases right?”

William stared at him, completely losing his train of thought.. “How is the ops center a vehicle?”

“Well,” Jack explained enthusiastically, “It might be the ops center right now, but I could turn it into a blimp or a jet with the push of the button. I’ve even gotten it to drop those four-wheeled motorcycle things.”

“And you’ve been teaching your children how to ride all these things?”

“Of course,” Jack said, jutting out his chest. 

“We find it important that our kids are trained on all of the equipment we have in the house,” Maddie said, echoing her husband. “It’s an important part of our safety protocols.”

“I’m sure,” William said, making another note. 

It may have been unorthodox to train their kids so extensively, but he supposed that as long as proper safety protocols were in place and the children were supervised, there wasn’t really anything wrong with it. After all, Danny was working on getting his license and Jazz was almost an adult. It would be unfair of him to baby them. 

He glanced at the checklist in his hands. He started to mark a “Pass” next to “Vehicles on the property are safe and well maintained,” before thinking better of it. Based on the sausages in the otherwise perfectly safe looking fridge, it might be a good idea to ask Danny if he actually felt safe in it before making a final mark. 

He looked up to see the Fentons exchanging nervous glances. “Well,” Jack said, pulling at his collar, “I suppose that just leaves the lab.” 

William hummed. “I suppose it does.” Were they hiding something?

The Fentons exchanged another incomprehensible look before gesturing back down into their kitchen. They stopped at the door. One more look. There was definitely something going on.

“William,” Maddie said, hand resting on the handle of a door towards the back of the kitchen, “We have quite a few delicate experiments going on downstairs, so…” She trailed off not in a “I want you to take the hint and leave,” way, but in an “I don’t know how to put this,” way. William wished he could take the hint regardless of if she meant it. The food gave them plenty to talk about. He was very afraid the lab might trigger other conversations. 

“Are Jazz and Danny allowed down there?” he asked. Maybe the answer would be no and he could just inspect the safety of the door and leave. 

“Well…” Maddie trailed off again. His life could never be that simple. 

“I’m afraid I do need to see everywhere the kids have access to,” William said, really wishing he didn’t have to. 

“It’ll be fine Mads,” Jack said, putting a hand on his wife's shoulder. “But, Will,” he continued, turning to William, “We really don't want anyone finding out about what we're working on.” His eyes darkened. “I can't even guess what a spook would do if it got a hand on these devices.“

Oh. This was an intellectual property thing. William let himself breath an internal sigh of release. That was far less concerning the horrible scenarios the dark corners of his mind had been coming up with.

“I promise I won't tell anyone about the inventions you're working on.” William smiled in a way he hoped was reassuring. “I probably won't understand any of it anyway.”

Husband and wife exchanged another glance. “Well, okay,” Maddie said, “As long as it's just looking around.” Her gaze darkened as well, mirroring her husbands. “Ghosts aren’t the only ones we need to worry about when it comes to these.“

With that she opened the door and started to make her way down the stairs into what must have once been an ordinary basement.

The first thing that struck William was the light. It was green. And wrong. The overhead lights were run-of-the-mill building lights. They hadn't even been switched for LEDs or anything fancy, just regular, old incandescent bulbs emitting a soft yellow light. They were completely overshadowed by the lights being emitted from the glowing portal on the far wall. It bathed everything in a harsh, green light that overcame everything. There were no shadows in the lab. He stopped in his tracks and stared.

He heard an awkward chuckle from behind him and nearly jumped out of his skin. “Sorry about the portal,“ Jack Fenton said. “We were collecting some samples this morning and the process isn't quite done.”

William gave a shaky smile that he hoped was carried by his voice. “It's quite alright. I was the one who insisted.” He put one foot in front of the other and kept walking.

The stench hit William just as he got to the ground floor. It smelled like ozone and acid and felt like walking into a wall. He looked for the source and found an old metal trash can. As he got closer to look inside he heard whimpering. A strong hand grabbed his shoulder and he looked back into the apologetic face of Jack Fenton.

“I wouldn't stick your head in there,” Jack said. “That's where I put the sausages.”

“I thought you put them in the incinerator?” William asked, feeling a little queasy.

Jack looked at him like he had just quoted something from the original Beowulf. “That is the incinerator,“ he said.

William didn't know a lot about labs and how they worked. His experience was relegated to a hellish semester spent teaching freshman biology. However, even he knew that disposing of contaminated biomaterial in an open trashcan by burning it violated about twenty rules of lab safety. He made a slightly strangled noise.

“Right.”

“William,” Maddie called from the other side of the lab, “While we can't show you most of what we're currently working on, I have a prototype of our latest ghost hunting weapon that we'd love to show you!”

“Are you talking about the Ghost Grabber, Mads?” Jack called back.

“Right you are, hon!“

William allowed himself to be herded away from the smoking trashcan towards Maddie and the device she was holding. ”We're calling this one the Ghost Grabber,“ Jack said as Maddie proudly held up the little box-like device. “We have plenty of devices for storing ghosts like the Fenton Thermos and the Ghost Weasel, but we don't have anything that can hold a ghost where you can actually get to it with another instructment.”

“At least not until now,” Maddie continued and William got the distinct impression that he was watching a partially rehearsed sales pitch. “With a push of a button it grabs any ghost in the area by latching onto the ecto-signature and releasing tubes that hold a spectors limbs or exterior in place, allowing complete access to the core.”

“The spook can't get away without leaving behind a significant amount of its ectoplasm,” Jack said, puffing out his chest.

“That's right,“ Maddie chirped, “Now, its development is on hold until...“ She trailed off.

Jack stepped in take over, far more flustered than previously. “While, uh, it is on hold,“ he said, waving an arm towards it, “It is a working prototype. It—“ The swing of Jack's hand hit the button on the side of the box and a flexible metal arm swung out towards him. He stepped back, but as the thing rushed out, he could tell it would be too late.

A staff batted the thing away. Maddie Fenton swung her staff towards the arm again, keeping it away from William. Jack was repeatedly pushing the button on the side, obviously trying get the thing back into its box. After a few more attempts at button mashing, he just hit the box hard on the side. The arm jerked and Jack grabbed it. He wound it around his hand, once, twice, before finally getting enough of a grip on it to shove the whole thing back in the box. Jack slammed the lid down on it. The box continued to shake. Maddie hit it with her staff again and it went still. Jack quickly shoved it in a drawer next to him.

He laughed. “I guess the ghost-weiners left some of their signature on you.”

William blinked at him. He was breathing heavily and he knew he looked close to true panic. “Is that normal?” he dared to ask.

Maddie chuckled like this wasn't horrifying. “One of the hazards of working with experimental technology.”

There was a beat of silence. Then two. Right. William should have responded by now. He cleared his throat and gestured towards a corner of the lab that didn't look covered in glowing green equipment. “What's that?” he asked.

“Oh, that's the computer Danny likes to play video games on,” Jack said, clearly thinking he was taking some sort of out.

William felt all the blood drain from his face. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, no wonder Danny and Jazz had left. “I think I've seen enough.”

In the end, William left them with a long list of safety measures they needed to implement and clear instructions to get their lab up to OSHA standards or as close as possible considering most of their equipment was not in the OSHA standard.

He explained that if he had to escalate this any further, it would result in a state inspection and possibly foster care for the kids unless they transferred guardianship or got a special court approval to let them continue to stay with Vlad. In particular, he emphasized that they could not continue to allow their kids in the lab, especially not without proper safety equipment and training. 

The Fentons looked properly horrified at all of it. They took his observations seriously and promised to implement all of his suggestions, starting with getting a new, non-ecto-contaminated fridge. It seemed like they were slightly baffled by some of the things he mentioned were a problem, like the open trash can incinerator, but they also seemed genuinely interested in improving their home. They wanted their kids to be  safe.  He honestly didn’t think it had ever occurred to them that their lab or their research  would be a problem, which was concerning in and of itself. 

They looked beyond relieved when William said he would give them two weeks to start on the changes and that he wouldn’t escalate if they were making progress. 

He knew this should have been the escalation point. That house was beyond unsafe. He also knew that calling CPS on the Fentons was a terrible idea and that Jazz and Danny would likely run if put in foster care.

At least he had an out. Jasmine and Daniel Fenton weren't living in that house. They were living with Vlad Masters. As long as they weren't in immediate danger, he could keep to just providing resources. Hell, if the Fentons made their house a safe place to live, their children might just return without any further intervention. He could certainly see the current separation being the result of an accident and the issuing of an ultimatum.

Yes, he had an out. Now, as he stood outside the door of one Vladislav Masters, he just needed to make sure the kids were actually safe.

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 3/21/2007

Summary of Chapter 12

The creature hides in his hovel and spends a lot of time spying on the family living in the cottage attached to it. The family apparently never check the hovel attached to their house.  The old man was blind and the boy and girl both did a lot of work. The creature realizes the family is very poor and sad. The creature starts to collect wood for the family. He learns language by continuing to spy on the people living in the cottage and also learns about writing. He manages to spend the whole winter just watching a whole other family like a lonely fruitloop. The creature does make plans to eventually introduce himself after learning to speak since he’s convinced he’ll be rejected because he’s ugly. 

Daniel - Spying implies gathering information for a purpose, usually a sinister one. Perhaps consider whether or the creature is able to be held responsible for moral standards he is unaware of. This may be a good topic for one of your critical thinking assignments.

When he got to Vlad Masters's mansion, William ended up sitting in his car for far too long. Then he stood outside the door for far too long. He was stalling and able to admit it to himself at this point. He did not want to find out that Masters was just as bad as the Fentons when it came to basic safety.

Then he really would have to escalate this to CPS.

It was Jasmine who opened the door when William finally found the courage to knock. There was shock written across her face for a moment before it was replaced by a pleasant smile. “Oh, right,” she said, “I guess this is the home visit.” She looked at him critically. “You've already visited my parents?”

It was barely a question. Something in his demeanor must have given it away.

“Yes, Jazz,” he said, a little more gently than was really necessary, “I just came from their house actually.”

“Oh.” She smiled, but her voice wobbled slightly. “And how'd it go?”

He tried not to think of her nervousness as evidence against the Fentons. Any teenager would be nervous in this situation, especially since — despite the fact they had semi-sentient feral hotdogs in their fridge — the Fentons obviously loved their kids. It made sense that the kids loved the parents right back. They wouldn’t want to be forbidden from returning home. 

“It's very clear your parents love you and your brother. They just need to clean a few things up,” he said instead of giving her anything else to worry about.

“That means you thought the house was a death trap, doesn't it?” Jazz deadpanned.

Right. Jasmine was far too smart to fall for something like that. Most teens were actually. He should have avoided non-answers. They never helped.

Still, William didn’t want to alarm her. Jazz tended to be a little high strung as it was. ”Your parents need to work on their lab safety,“ he said bluntly, ”I gave them a list of changes they need to make in order for me to consider their house safe and they seemed to take it seriously. With any luck, that will be all they need to start heading in the right direction.“

Jazz opened her mouth as if to speak, then closed it and looked away. It was an expression that he recognized from hundreds of students asking about homework and extensions, a clear sign of holding back questions she didn’t really want the answers to. He wished this was something as minor as an overdue paper he might not let her turn in. 

William sighed. ”It'll work out, one way or another.“

Jazz nodded, biting her lip. She must have been nervous. He didn't blame her, but he also didn't know how to help.

“Well,” he said, resigning himself to the fact there was no way to make the situation better, “where is Mr. Masters? He and I have a few things we need to discuss."

”Oh,“ Jazz said, seeming a bit startled, ”He's in the study with Danny.“

William raised his eyebrows as he followed her farther into the house. “Danny's here on a Saturday afternoon and not with his friends?“

Jazz gave him a wry smile. ”Vlad found out he didn't finish the math homework he was supposed to turn in on Friday, so now he's stuck doing it today.“

”Ah.“ That certainly sounded like Danny, though he was surprised that Masters was able to make Danny do his homework, or moreover, that he knew about what Danny did and didn't turn in. Perhaps that indicated there was more trust between the two than William had originally thought. Danny’s reaction to Vlad at the parent-teacher conference had been less than ideal when it came to an adult he was living with. 

In the center of a long corridor, Jazz came to a halt and turned to open a door. As soon as it opened, he heard “ fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own species ”. It was a line from Frankenstein that he knew quite well. Then there was a click and the sound of a tape rewinding. 

“Daniel,” Vlad Masters said from a desk on the other side of the room, “You’re supposed to be working on math, not English. You do not need to be playing that blasted audio book on repeat.”

“It helps me focus,” Danny said with obviously false chipperness. “Don’t you know that listening to a book can help people stay on task, Unkie Vlad?” 

“Then just let the book play! There’s no need to-” 

There was the sound of a tape rewinding before “ -employed in the most detestable occupation, immersed in a solitude where nothing could for an instant call my attention from the actual scene in which I was engaged, my spirits became unequa /.”

Masters's face twisted in rage disproportionate to the experience of having a teenager replay portions of an audiobook. Actually, having experienced it just the other day, maybe it was proportionate. Danny looked unreasonably smug.

“Daniel,” Masters snarled. William remained silent. That was not the kind of tone that preceded a gentle reprimand. It would be good for him to see what that looked like. 

Jazz cleared her throat. “Mr. Lancer’s here,” she said, giving both Danny and Masters a look.

Danny jumped in surprise and Masters quickly stood from his chair.

“Ah, Daniel’s English teacher,” Vlad said in a friendly tone. It was so completely at odds with the one he was using just seconds ago that it nearly gave William whiplash. “I know we met in the classroom the other day, but I don't believe I got the chance to properly introduce myself.” He gave a gracious smile and stuck out his hand. ”Vlad Masters, but, please, call me Vlad.“

”William Lancer,“ William  said not quite tersely, taking the proffered hand. He'd actually wanted to talk to Vlad right after that parent-teacher conference, but both he and the kids had disappeared almost immediately. He wasn't happy about that. “Thank you for making time today.”

“Of course,” said Vlad jovially, ”Now, as I understand it, this isn't exactly an official visit. Is that right?“

William raised an eyebrow and held up his clipboard. "Well, it is going on file.”

“Yes,” Vlad said, his voice still light, but his stare intense, “but you aren't representing CPS.”

William paused. Why phrase it like that? ”No,“ William  finally said, ”I'm here as the school social worker in order to provide resources and suggestions.” He didn't say that if those suggestions weren't taken seriously, the next visit would actually be from a CPS employee.”

Danny snorted and William winced as he heard him press a button on the tape player again. ” Begone! I am firm, and your words will only exasperate my rage, ” the narrator said. Well, at least Danny would pass the end of the unit test with flying colors. He must have listened to the book at least fifty times over to get that good at finding lines.

William didn't blame Vlad for the near growl that slipped out. It was becoming apparent that this had been going on for a good while. Vlad pinched his nose and breathed deeply before turning to William. “I believe you're here to see the house. Is now a good time or do you want to speak with me first?”

“ Begone! ” the narrator said again. Danny was glaring at them.

”Danny,“ Jazz hissed. William didn't jump, but it was a near thing. He'd honestly forgotten she was there. It was a good reminder that he needed to be aware of how this was affecting both kids, not just the one having behavioral issues. 

William turned to Vlad. “We can talk while I do my inspection. Unless you have any food that decides to attack me, this shouldn't be overly tedious.” 

“You ran into Jack's ecto-weenies, then?” Vlad asked with amusement as he gestured for William to follow him out of the study.

“Yes, I –”

“Do you mind if I tag-along?” Jazz asked hurriedly.

William looked at her curiously. She was obviously nervous about something. Probably the fact that they were talking about her parents. Actually, no, he really shouldn't be doing that. It was unprofessional at best. Still, Jazz didn't need to be here for this conversation. There were questions he needed to ask and plans he needed to put in place that she did not need to be privy to.

“Jazz,” he said, not unkindly, “I need to talk to Vlad about a few safety measures he has in place. That being said,” he turned to Vlad, “I really can't tell you about my visit to the Fentons. That would be a violation of their privacy.”

Vlad frowned. “I see.” He sounded disgusted. Then, like someone had flipped a switch, his demeanor changed back to jovial. “No matter. Let's start in the foyer. I have quite a few truly wonderful exhibits there.”

“Well, Danny,“ William heard Jazz say as he walked out, ”I guess I'll just stay here with you and do my homework.“

” Begone! " the audiobook narrator shouted.

—

One very long tour later, William still hadn't actually gotten around to having that conversation with Vlad. He had learned a few things though. He'd learned that Jazz and Danny were staying in two bedrooms down the hall from Vlad, but right next to each other. He'd learned that Vlad had a cleaning service that came in and cleaned twice a week. And he'd learned a lot about the Packers. A lot about the Packers.

However, the most important thing he learned was that there was nothing here that was likely to harm the children. The only possible health hazard he had found had been the growing pile of cups in Danny's bedroom; something that Vlad grumbled about extensively. Frankly it was impressive that he hadn’t found anything considering how large the house was. Between the house and the grounds, the tour had taken hours. 

Regardless, they still needed to have this conversation.

”So, is there anything else you need to see?“ Vlad asked them as they made their way back to the foyer. “I’m sure there's something in the exhibition hall that–“

”No, thank you!“ William very nearly shouted, not wanting to be dragged back into that nightmare of green and yellow. He cleared his throat. ”There's actually a bit of a conversation we need to have.“

”Oh, what would that be?“ Vlad asked with an arched eyebrow rivaling William's own.   

"You currently have two children residing with you that are not related to you.”

“I'm Daniel's godfather,” Vlad protested, “Surely, –”

“Yes, that counts for something. It also counts that their parents have given their permission. There aren't any legal issues with them being here.“ William paused. “However, that could change if one of them needs medical care or anything else occurs where they need a legal guardian present.”

He breathed. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to talk about the parents of some of his students no longer being able to care for their own children. “There’s a form that would allow you short-term guardianship of the children until the Fentons are able to care for them again. It’s very basic. It just needs to have the date the guardianship starts, the date when it will end, and the signatures of the guardian, the parents, and two witnesses. And more importantly, if there were continuing issues with the Fenton’s, the children would be legally in your care and we would not have to involve the state. I would suggest getting it notarized if you do end up needing it. 

“Of course,” William continued, “None of this will matter unless I have to escalate this to Child Protective Services and, as of now, that's not likely to happen.”

Vlad didn't look relieved like William had hoped. “Oh?” he asked instead, sounding almost surprised.

“Well,” William started, trying to figure out how much he could say before it became unprofessional,  “Jazz and Danny don't seem to be in any immediate danger. If they were still living in unsafe conditions–” William shuddered thinking of the invention in the basement “–but they're not. They're here. Once the Fentons address the list of safety hazards they were given, I'm sure Danny and Jazz will move back in.”

Vlad blinked. ”Why would they move back in?“

William paused. “Did they not leave because of unsafe living conditions?” he asked tentatively.

“It's not my place to say,” Vlad evaded, “However I will say that the Fentons are not the most accepting of people.”

William felt a wave of confusion before everything snapped into place. Oh. That would explain why Danny was so unwilling to tell him. That explained a lot actually. Almost everything. He swallowed. He'd seen similar things a few times in his years teaching, but his usual response had been to offer whatever support he could and then refer the student to the school social worker for more resources. He was the school social worker now. He was in no way equipped to deal with this.

“Ah,“ he said, not knowing what else to say. There were so many questions he had. Was Danny here because he decided to leave? Or was he kicked out? Was this the only thing going on? William knew Danny sometimes came to class with scrapes and bruises. Was that from more than just rough housing?  Was he safe?

“How... strongly... do Jack and Maddie feel about this?” he asked. He didn't want to come out and say anything. Not unless Vlad did first. Maybe the assumptions he was making were wrong.

Vlad looked solemn. “Very strongly.” His face twisted in a slight sneer. “You know how they are. They don't let go of ideas. We studied ecto-science together in college. They kept studying ecto-science for twenty years; even after a horrible lab accident that left me hospitalized and no actual proof that ghosts existed.”

William swallowed. “Right,” he said, “It sounds like we might need to talk more about the guardianship process after all.”

On Monday afternoon, William was expecting another day of audiobook hell. Based on Saturday, it seemed as though Danny’s mischief of choice was disguising hours of repeating the same passages as schoolwork. William couldn’t call him out on it or he might use it as an excuse to get out of his assignments. It was a good plan on Danny’s part. 

According to William’s roster, there were two students joining him for detention that afternoon: Danny Fenton and Dash Baxter. Dash was apparently in for being late to first period. William frowned. That wasn’t usually something the football players got detentions for. 

Maybe someone was trying to be stricter. Ah, Mr. Trent. That made sense, he’d been saying something about student athletes taking advantage of their privileges. It was probably for the best. He should probably be doing the same.The real-world wouldn’t be so forgiving just because someone was popular. 

Dash got there first. It was unsurprising. Danny was perpetually late. 

“Hi Mr. Lancer,” Dash greeted, “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to let me off today? I have practice and Coach isn’t going to be happy that I’m missing it.”

William considered it, but ultimately decided it was not something he was willing to go along with. Overruling Mr. Trent just because Dash asked nicely would start the kind of drama William tried to avoid. 

“No,” William said, sternly, but not unkindly. Dash gave him a surprised look, but didn’t argue. Instead, he tried to sulkily sit down in the back of the classroom.

William raised an eyebrow. Dash had been in detention plenty of times for things other than tardiness. He should know better. 

“Front of the classroom, please, Mr. Baxter.” If William was going to make Dash follow the rules, he might as well make him follow all the rules. 

Dash shot him his second surprised look of the afternoon, but moved up to the front of the classroom and the seat directly in front of William’s desk and started getting out his homework. At least he was well behaved when given direction.

Danny ran in five minutes later - and 30 seconds late - looking slightly disheveled with his backpack half open. Amazingly the papers, books, and other miscellaneous school supplies were staying in. 

That changed when Dash stuck his foot out as Danny rushed up to one of the desks at the front of the classroom. Danny, and the contents of his backpack, went flying. William heard a thunk as his chin hit the classroom floor. Papers fluttered down around him and a thermos skidded across the linoleum tiles. 

“Mr. Baxter!” William shouted as he abruptly stood.

“Sorry, Mr. Lancer,” Dash said sheepishly, “My foot slipped.” 

Was William buying that? Maybe. Dash was a good kid. It had probably been an accident. William sighed. “Just help Mr. Fenton pick up his things.” He looked at Danny, who was still splayed out on the floor. “Are you alright, Mr. Fenton?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Danny grumbled as he picked himself up off the floor, “and I’ve got it, I don’t need Dash’s help.” William decided he was going to ignore the note of bitterness. Danny definitely did not believe it was an accident, but it wasn’t his job to sort out his student’s interpersonal issues. 

That thought made him pause as he bent down to pick up the thermos that rolled under his desk. Was it his job? He was the school social worker now. Did that mean that he needed to be the one to intervene when two students got into petty arguments. 

He thought about it for a second as he groped around under his desk. No. Definitely not. That was far too much interference. He really only needed to intervene when something crossed a line. A student feeling like an accident might have been on purpose didn’t cross anything. 

As he snagged the thermos from under the table, he heard parts of a hissed conversation. Even with years of teaching he couldn’t quite make out any of the words. It didn’t really matter. When he stood up with the thermos, Dash and Danny were glaring bloody murder at each other as Danny shoved the last of his papers back in his backpack. 

William cleared his throat. Both boys’ heads whipped around to look at him. “You’re thermos, Mr. Fenton,” he said, deadpan. That should be enough to make it clear that whatever argument they had needed to be kept outside his classroom. “Now, I believe you both have work to do.” 

Dash slid into one of the front row seats quietly. Danny followed suit a few seats down after grabbing his thermos from William and checking it thoroughly for leaks. He must have recently had an experience with one of those spilling inside his backpack. That had happened to William on several occasions. It was never fun. 

When both boys were seated, William braced himself for another round of audiobook hell. He doubted Danny was going to try any of the passages about Frankenstein's professors after the last time, but he was sure that there was another passage or two Danny could find that would be equally pointed. And, with Dash here, Danny had another target that he was unhappy with. 

To William’s surprise, Danny never pulled out the tape player. He got out his book and sat quietly. He didn’t seem to be getting a lot of work done, but he was acting like he was trying to  be studious. It was… odd. 

A few seats down, Dash worked on his math homework, also quietly, but with much more fidgeting. That wasn’t odd. Dash had always been the sort of kid to try and impress adults, even if his academic work was far less than stellar. 

Ah, well. His students were behaving themselves, so William was going to take the chance to get some grading done. He got out his stack of papers and sighed. Paulina’s was on top. He was sure her interpretation of the text was going to be either an exact replica of Mikey’s or entirely written in slang and pop culture references that William was not going to understand.

Twenty minutes and five more student assignments passed and some whispering started up in front of him. There was a scraping sound as a desk moved. William looked up to see Dash leaning over the desk between him and Danny, the desk rotated slightly. Danny was leaning away. Both of them looked blindsided at William’s attention. He gave them both a quick look telling them to stop talking and get back to work. It was one of the many looks he had perfected over the years. 

The boys turned back to their work and William got back to his. Five minutes later, William needed a break. He was halfway through Sam Manson’s worksheet on framing and how each of the four narratives interacted. Instead of answering the critical thinking question about how the creature’s telling of Safie’s story differed from Frankenstein’s telling of the creature’s, Sam had gotten sidetracked and written an essay about how Islamophobic the story was and how the creature had been indoctrinated into hate even by the family that he had found solace in. She wasn’t wrong per se, but the answer was supposed to be a two to three sentence contrast of the framing, not a full essay that she continued onto the back of the worksheet; he couldn’t give her full points. 

After staring at the paper in front of him for another minute, William gave up and got up. Danny had a history of running off, but Dash didn’t. He was sure that he could leave them alone for the length of time needed to walk to the bathroom and back.  “I’ll be back in three minutes,” he said sternly, “Don’t leave this classroom. Am I understood?” 

“Yes, Mr. Lancer,” both boys droned. William could be satisfied with that. It was only a couple minutes after all. 

Two minutes and twenty-five seconds later, William returned from the restroom. As he approached, he could hear fragments of a muffled conversation. He stopped to listen. 

What he should do was open the door, give the boys a thoroughly unimpressed look and take his seat. He shouldn’t interfere with student interactions. But, well, he was curious and he would admit that he enjoyed gossip when it came his way. Besides, this could be good insight into what Danny’s mindset was like right now and that could be a good insight into whether or not he felt safe at home. 

He leaned closer to the door. 

“Just leave me alone, Dash,” Danny said, sounding thoroughly annoyed, “I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Yeah,” Dash bit back, “Too bad, because I want to talk to you.”

“Why?” Danny sounded both frustrated and thoroughly baffled. 

“Because,” Dash said, frustration leaking into his own voice, “I need a punching bag and you’re the only one here, you little twink.” 

Dash continued talking , but Wiliam didn’t hear him. He was too caught up in that last insult Dash had thrown out. He couldn’t have heard that right. He couldn’t have. There could not have been something like that going on under his nose for over a year. 

Except, Vlad had said something about that too, hadn’t he? He said that was why Danny wasn’t living with his parents. They had talked about guardianship options because of it. William had a pamphlet in his newly labeled “Social Work” binder completely focused on acceptance. 

William finally understood exactly what was going on. Danny was gay and he was both bullied and kicked out of his house because of it. How could William have been so blind?

He could worry about that later, right now he had to figure out what to do. He could figure things out one step at the time, starting with gathering more information.

There was a loud bang and the muffled words inside the room suddenly became much louder. Okay, so it actually looked like he would be starting with stopping whatever that was. 

William swung open the door with a scowl fixed on his face. The sight before him was surprising. He had expected to see a confrontation where Danny was the victim and Dash was the aggressor. Instead, Danny was standing, desk knocked over on the ground while Dash remained seated. Despite his 5’4” stature, he managed to loom. His eyes seemed to glow and there was something off about his shadow, like it was far larger than it should be, or maybe he didn’t have a shadow at all. William felt cold like there was some kind of impending doom. Dash stared defiantly back up into Danny’s unforgiving eyes. 

The door banged against the wall as it swung open and, suddenly , the sense of doom vanished. Both boys looked over at William, both looking a bit surprised and guilty. William cleared his throat. 

“Am I interrupting something, gentleman?” he asked, doing his best to keep his voice firm and even. 

“No, Mr. Lancer,” Dash said, somewhat shakily, “We were just discussing the book and Danny accidentally knocked over his desk when he got up to show me something.” 

William raised his eyebrows. “Mr. Fenton, is that true?” he asked. He doubted Danny would say anything about the name calling, but he wanted to give him the change. 

“Yeah, Mr. Lancer,” Danny responded, still glaring at Dash, “That’s exactly what happened.” Dash was looking at William in shock, like he couldn’t believe that he was asking Danny for clarification.

William sighed. If Dash was looking at him like that, then maybe his favoritism had gotten out of hand. He knew he tended to give student athletes a few additional privileges— he knew how hard it was balancing school and practice back when he was on the cheer squad after all– but if Dash was expecting to be believed over others, that was a sign it had gone too far. That and the fact that William had apparently overlooked bullying based in bigotry. 

He needed to address that actually. He looked at Danny, who was awkwardly picking up his desk, and then at Dash, who had seemingly gotten over his shock and was now mouthing something that looked suspiciously like “You’re dead” at his classmate. As soon as he noticed WIlliam looking his way, Dash gave a stiff smile and then started flipping through his book. 

He had absolutely no idea how to address this. Reprimanding Dash for calling Danny a “twink” would both give away that he’d been eavesdropping and possibly put a bigger target on Danny’s back. Calling out the twink comment would cement it in Dash’s, and possibly other Casper High students’, heads that they were right, especially after he had ignored that tripping incident earlier. Saying anything now could backfire stupendously. That being said, he couldn’t not address it. 

He sighed as he looked back down at Sam’s analysis of Islamophobia in the text. How could he have missed all of this?

Well, he couldn’t do anything about it now other than do better. For now, he supposed the best thing to do for Dash was to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn’t dismiss something like tripping another student as an accident. He needed to determine if Danny was Dash’s only target. If he wasn’t, he would try and catch him targeting someone else, someone who wasn’t quite as vulnerable. If Danny was the only target, that made things more complicated. He would have to catch something that wouldn’t accidentally out Danny. He knew he’d seen Dash chasing Danny through the halls before. He’d just dismissed it as boys being boys. He doubted that was the case now. He’d also have to clue the other teachers in, at least to the bullying, and see if anybody else could catch it. He breathed deeply. He could deal with this. 

Now he just needed to figure out what to do about the Fenton parents. He looked at Danny, the boy living with a family friend because his parents wouldn’t accept him for who he was, hunched over in his chair avoiding looking in Dash’s direction. William decided he needed more pamphlets. 

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 3/23/2007

Summary of Chapters 13-14

The creature continues relaying his tale. Safie, Felix’s lover, arrives at the cottage speaking a different language than the rest of the family. The creature learns she is Arabian and listens in on her language lessons and all the books they read. It kind of gets weirdly racist and Islamaphobic with the lessons.  

The creature then learns of the history of the family, who he now knows are the De Laceys. The De Laceys had helped a Turkish man after he was imprisoned because of his religion and wealth. His daughter had arrived in Paris the same day he was imprisoned. Felix decides to help the Turkish man and his daughter Safie. Felix and Safie fall in love and the Turkish man promises to let them marry, but betrayed them after Felix’s family and then Felix were arrested. The De Lacey’s were reduced to poverty by the courts and fled to Germany. Safie did not want to go back to Turkey with her father, so she runs away back to the De Laceys with some jewels and money. There's a lot of Islamophobia during the whole story. 

Daniel - Older books such as Frankenstein often have themes that we would consider objectionable. It’s a good idea to think about what those themes say about the culture of the time. However, phrases such as “It kind of gets weirdly” should be avoided in academic writing.

On Tuesday at 10am, Jazz finally made her way into Vlad's kitchen. It had been one of those mornings where her head pounded and she felt like last night's dinner would come right back up if she tried to get out of bed.

At about 6:30, she tried anyway and discovered she was right. Danny had found her and sent her back to bed after that. She was feeling better now. She always did after a few hours. It was more likely to be a stress response than something wrong with her that she could actually fix. At least it ended quickly.

She shuffled her way over the coffee pot and poured herself a cup. It was strong, dark and mildly acidic. Jazz chugged the whole thing like water. Maybe the strong taste would help chase away the memories of last night's nightmares.

Someone cleared their throat behind her and Jazz froze. Danny was at school and there was only one other person that lived here. She refilled her coffee cup in lieu of turning around.

“Jasmine,” Vlad said from somewhere behind her, “You know, one of the things I had to agree to before your parents consented to let you two stay here was that I had to make sure that you continued to go to school.” There was no small amount of amusement in his voice as he continued “I didn't think you were the one that was going to be a problem for.”

Jazz turned around to find him sitting at the kitchen coffee table with his work laptop open and a half eaten croissant. It wasn't what she was expecting, but she wasn't expecting him to be here at all. Usually  he did all his work in his office.

Jazz gave Vlad her best stink eye as she sat down across from him. With her mussed hair, eye bags, and oversized pajamas, she doubted it looked very intimidating. “I threw up this morning,“ was all she said.

Vlad furrowed her brow as he stared at her mug. ”And you thought coffee would help?“

Jazz shrugged. ”I'm not feeling sick anymore.“ Hopefully, it would stay that way. Coffee wasn't actually the best idea even if it did wake her up.

”I assume you’re going to school soon then,“ Vlad said as he took a bite of his croissant. There wasn't any emotion in his words, but it was clearly the kind of implied direction her mom tried to give sometimes. Yeah, Vlad didn't get to do that.

“I'll go back after lunch,“ she dismissed with a yawn, ”Next period is calc and Mr. Trent's just holding a review day.“

Vlad hummed and scowled at his laptop. Jazz let herself sit back and enjoy her coffee. She'd get some toast and maybe some yogurt in a bit, but she almost never got to just sit around and let herself relax, especially on school days. It was a bonus if it annoyed Vlad.

Vlad looked at her with a blank expression. He closed his work laptop and sighed. ”Jasmine,“ he started in a tone that immediately put Jazz on edge, ”Have I ever told you why I have powers?”

That came out of nowhere. Like literally nowhere. What the hell was Jazz supposed to do with that? She knew they were playing mind games, but that was just completely out of left field. “My Dad told me you had an accident with a proto-portal in college. I figured that's what did it.” She was going for honesty this time, but she still wasn’t going to mention the file Danny had on him that she had found.

Vlad looked pained, like he always did when she mentioned Jack Fenton. “Yes,” he said through a grimace, “That’s what triggered the transformation.“ He paused. ”But, I don't believe I've told you the story of what exactly happened.“

Jazz noted that Vlad never used the word ghost when referring to himself. ”No, I don't think you have.“ He definitely hadn't. Ever. And honestly, this was a conversation she expected he might try and have with Danny, but not her. She wasn't half ghost. She wasn't the child he wanted for his own. There was no point in telling her about any of this. Except for the fact that, apparently since he was telling her this, there was.

He cleared his throat. “Well–” He paused. “I suppose you already know that your bumbling father was the one to cause the accident in the first place.” It wasn't a question and, even if it had been, Jazz wasn't going to respond. Even if she didn't understand why he was telling her his story, she wanted to hear it. There were so many pieces of information she could glean about how Vlad perceived himself and how being a half ghost affected his psyche. Although...

Jazz took a sip of her coffee as she fumbled to get her cellphone out of her baggy pajama pants with the other hand. It was an old Nokia flip phone and, while it was terrible for texting and taking pictures, it did record audio. And this was a conversation she knew she needed a record of. Hell, she might even be able to get another thesis out of this.

Vlad narrowed his eyes at her as she pressed the record button and for a moment she was afraid that he'd call her on it and this would turn into a very different kind of conversation. “I know you may think my animosity towards your father is petty, but I do have my reasons.”

Oh. This was about her not responding to what he was saying about her dad. Apparently, it was actually a question. She nodded. Crisis averted.

He kept looking at her for a few more seconds before nodding his head as if satisfied.

“You see, my dear,” he began “Your parents and I were all in grad school together at University of Wisconsin. We were preparing for our masters thesis presentation when it happened. Maddie and I had thought the calculations would be enough, but Jack had wanted to show a prototype to go along with it.“ Vlad sighed. ”I didn’t think we were there yet. There were a lot of assumptions we made that we hadn’t tested. There hadn’t been anywhere near enough planning to truly build a prototype. To say we weren't on the same page was an understatement. Not to mention my major was applied physics, while Jack's was mechanical engineering. Maddie was the chemical engineer.”

He looked lost in thought for a few long seconds. Jazz thought about clearing her throat. Before she could make a decision to do so, he shook himself and continued.

”Where was I? Ah yes. The point was that Jack, with some help from Maddie, had taken the hypothetical portal we had proven was mathematically plausible and gone and tried to actually make it work. It was truly impressive how far they got with it, but it wasn’t planned out in terms of either function or safety. That would have taken far more time than we had. 

“Then, of course, Jack wanted to test it out. I believe you know how the rest goes. The calculations weren't quite right, there was something wrong with the ectofiltrator, and Jack pressed the button without fair warning.” Vlad paused. “I will admit that I shouldn't have had my face directly in front of the portal. None of us really practiced good lab safety. College is just like that, as I'm sure you'll learn one day, Jasmine.” His next pause was long enough that Jazz wasn't sure if he was going to continue.

“The initial contamination was painful. It burned like nothing else. My face was on fire. The skin on my hands where I had grabbed at my face were too. When the EMTs came, they had to wear hazmat suits to transport me. I don't really remember much aside from a lot of pain and shouting.

”The next time I came to, I was in a hospital room cloaked in white. I could see my mother standing outside of a window watching me within. I'd been in a coma for a week and then in and out of consciousness for days after. For the next three months, no one was allowed to be in the same room as me without full PPE.

“I was monitored constantly. Thankfully my ghostly attributes didn't truly start appearing until months after my accidents. For about four months, all that happened was my face and hands would occasionally glow and my heartbeat would stutter. It worried the doctors to no end and I believe there was at least one case study done on me, but there was no indication that I was anything but entirely human.

”Four months after the accident, parts of me started turning invisible. Usually, this happened when I wanted to avoid another exam. I had gotten very, very tired of being examined at this point and all I wanted was for the doctors to leave me alone. It was actually because I was tired of being examined that I hid the invisibility. If it had been two months prior I may have panicked and asked the doctors, but at that point, I knew that it would just result in more examinations and more observations.

“Honestly, I thought I was dying. I was sleeping for large parts of the day, though I imagine some of that was due to boredom. You don't know boredom until you've spent months in a hospital, Jasmine.

”I mostly ignored the intangibility when it came after another month. The ectoblasts were harder to ignore. I still did not tell the doctors. I had no desire to be poked or prodded anymore than I was already.

“My sister was visiting one of the first times it happened, actually-”

“You have a sister!?” Jazz blurted.

Vlad gave her a look and Jazz pressed her lips together in a promise of silence. “Yes, her name is Anna.” He raised an eyebrow. “May I continue?”

Jazz nodded vigorously. She needed to know where this was going. 

“Now, where was I? Ah, yes, my sister. She visited about five months into my stay. She’d wanted to come sooner, but she wasn’t able to get the time off work and money was tight. They were actually allowing people into the room at that point, at least for a few minutes at a time. I’m honestly not sure why. The contamination levels never went down. 

“The point is, my sister came and gave me three new mystery novels and a bouquet of lilies. I was so happy opening that book that I sneezed and blasted right through the cover. I suppose I was just lucky she had already left. I made up quite the story about very hot soup to explain it when she came to visit again the next day. I don’t think she believed me, but she never actually said anything.

“By the time she left two days later, I was able to get the hang of blasting things on purpose. I ended up mostly destroying food since it was the only thing that wouldn’t be suspicious and I was rarely hungry. 

“The next two months were filled with excruciating boredom and a lot of sleeping. I still was not allowed out of my room under any circumstances and I was not getting better, at least in regards to my health. However, my powers were growing and I was starting to gain control. 

“I spent any time I was awake planning my “great escape” as I called it. In reality, it was just a plan to get out of the hospital room and take a walk down the hall, maybe go out to the garden I could see through the window. It was slow going. I was sleeping for upwards of eighteen hours a day and much of the rest was spent with doctor’s running tests. However, I was eventually able to use my newly mastered powers of intangibility and invisibility to  go for a walk .

“You cannot imagine the joy I felt to be able to leave that ten by ten cube I’d been stuck in for months. I was elated; so much so that I went out far further than the hall or the garden. I went all the way across the street. Jumping out of the way of an oncoming truck was how I discovered I could fly. I think I was very lucky that CCTV wasn’t common in those days. 

“Then I went back to the hospital and slipped into a coma for another two weeks and my mother died. Don’t look at me that way, dear. It was twenty years ago and I’ve gotten over it. And, before you start, I don’t blame myself and never did. She died in a car crash driving from home to the grocery store. It wouldn’t have mattered even if I had been completely healthy and working on my doctorate.. 

“My sister held the funeral before I woke up. I don’t blame her. I found out later the doctors were talking about when to take me off life support. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she did. I was dying. 

“The next time I woke up I was Plasmius. 

“My senses were completely different from anything I had ever experienced. My vision was sharp, but dull. I couldn’t see all the colors I was used to. Sound didn’t travel right. The heart monitors sounded like I was… it’s rather hard to explain, perhaps the opposite of underwater? Then I looked down at my hands and my hospital gown, and even though my vision was dulled, realized the colors were inverted. 

“Of course, the first thing I did when I woke up was panic. That, as I’m sure you have learned from being around your brother, meant that I completely lost control of my powers. I fell through three floors before regaining tangibility. When I saw my reflection in the nearest window, I screamed. I looked like the monsters that your parents and I had always feared. We had built a portal to study them, but the truth was, and is, that ghosts are dangerous. There have always been some that formed in the real world. We all know them for the horror stories told around campfires. 

“I’m going off on a tangent I’m afraid. Where was I? Right. Plasmius. It is not a pleasant experience to gain a ghostly form. It felt like the accident was happening again, this time everywhere instead of just my face and hands. The pain was unimaginable and that was after months of decontamination, badly done decontamination meant for radiation, but still. 

“I’m honestly not sure when or how I turned back into myself, but I ended up human and in my hospital gown on a bench a block away from the hospital. The police that escorted me back were promptly quarantined for radiation poisoning and I was put back into my little room. 

“My sister cried when she saw me. She’d been halfway through planning my funeral when I woke up. Apparently, and this, I think, says a lot about my sister, she thought it would be easier to plan two funerals in one go instead of hanging onto a thin thread of hope and then scrambling after the inevitable. Anna is ever pragmatic. 

“The hospital insisted on keeping me for another two months while they ran test after test and consulted a variety of experts. It was exhausting and the boredom was far worse since I no longer felt the need to sleep twenty hours a day. The only two things that kept me going was that Anna had moved in order to be closer and I was able to go out as Plasmius almost every night. 

“I’m sure your brother has told you that I used Plasmius to gain my wealth through stealing, lies, and treachery. That is all true, but that was later. This, my first few months allowing myself to not be in the hospital room for a few hours were just for the sake of freedom. I’m not going to say they were innocent. I certainly snuck into a few movies that I hadn’t bought tickets for. And possibly a few football games. And I may have stolen some books to read for my inevitable return to the monotony of the hospital. 

“When I learned I could duplicate myself, I started to go out for longer. Don’t look so surprised. Necessity is the mother of invention and I needed it to look like I was still in the hospital room while I was actually going out to watch the game. 

“Two months after my first transformation, the hospital decided they couldn’t find anything else wrong with me and, reluctantly, let me go. I believe there were a few doctors that were trying to make their careers off my case. And, of course, no one could figure out where all the radiation poisoning had disappeared to, which did not make anybody more willing to release me.

“It was when I got out, I realized just how greatly the accident had devastated my family. We’d never been well off. My father was long dead from a factory accident, but this was still back in the day when unions and pensions were common and my mother was able to support herself between what he left behind and a small tailoring business she ran out of our dining room.

“When my accident happened, she lost everything. The first hospital I was admitted to transferred me to a long term care facility as soon as they realized I was ecto-contaminated. They started going after my mother for bills as soon as they offloaded me from the transport ambulance. The long-term care facility was worse and tried to charge her monthly. Not knowing any better, she decided to try and pay. Insurance didn’t cover ‘freak lab accidents caused by a friend’s idiocy’ or long-term care with extreme quarantining procedures and so she took any measure she could to make sure I got the best treatment. She used the last of my father’s pension, all of her savings, and sold the house. 

“When I was released, there was nothing left and collection agencies were hounding both myself and my sister for payment. No one had ever explained what to do in these kinds of situations, so, in desperation, I took out loans to pay off the hospital. That made everything worse. Then, we had to deal with both ever-growing interest and debt collectors. . 

“With nowhere else to go, I ended up living with Anna. While the doctors hadn’t been able to find a reason to extend my stay, they were able to find plenty for follow-up appointments. I was weak and malnourished after having been confined to one room for so long. I required extensive physical therapy. Of those two months the hospital kept me past my revival, 6 weeks had been spent reteaching me how to walk. That work had to continue.

“Anna was working as a waitress until she could get another job as an accountant. I was left to try and find a job that would allow me to keep going to my appointments that was both not very physical and matched my skill sets. Unsurprisingly, a Masters in Physics meant I was overqualified for any desk job that had the flexibility I required for doctors appointments. The engineering and physics jobs I was not overqualified for were unaccommodating and going back into academia was out of the question for a number of reasons. 

It was after coming home to another overdue bill after another doctor’s appointment, that I decided to use Plasmius for more than just sneaking into football games. I was sick and tired of having no money.

“My first bank robbery did not go particularly well. My plan had been to slip-in while both intangible and invisible, grab some money, and then slip back out. I, well this is slightly embarrassing to admit, but I dropped invisibility just after exiting the vault. Thankfully only one guard was there, but I didn’t exactly know what to do. That’s when my subconscious took hold and I very suddenly learned I could overshadow someone. 

“I walked the guard to the nearest bathroom, left him there, and then quickly and quietly went back for the cash. It was so easy, controlling another person like that. So, so easy. It kept nagging me, how I could use something like that to get anything I wanted.

“I robbed another couple of banks. I was more careful with my invisibility. I laundered the money by going to casinos and using a duplicate to influence things to my advantage either via overshadowing or invisibility. After the first time I got banned for winning too much, I made sure to always walk out with slightly less than I came  in with. It wasn’t my money I was losing after all. Then I used my winnings to pay off my medical debt. 

“I think my sister realized there was something amiss at that point. She was asking questions about where I was getting the money and didn’t think gambling was a very likely way to be getting that much. Luck was never something she believed in. Still, she let it lie. 

“Then I decided I wanted more. Even after I stopped going to doctor’s appointments, I was unable to find a job. It was grating to have to keep living with my sister. 

“I’d realized the stock market was just as good for laundering money as regular gambling was and had started investing heavily. While it was starting to turn a profit, it gave me an idea that wouldn’t require moving to New York. I realized that I could find a small business and invest as it were. All I’d need to do was find a promising start-up and give it the capital it needed to get off the ground. 

“I found one specializing in technology I was familiar with and arranged a meeting with the owner. He gave me a tour of their little garage setup and then went through their business plan. The tech was decent. It needed a few improvements, but they could go somewhere with it. The business plan on the other hand… Just thinking about it makes me angry. It was nonsensical. Regardless of the quality of the product the whole business would be dead within three months if they had gone through with it. 

“That’s when I realized what I could really do with overshadowing. I walked in looking to invest and walked out the owner of a business with a completely renovated business plan. The old owner was back doing the engineering work he was best at and I had a job. I was ecstatic. 

“My sister was less so when I told her the news. She asked me where I had even gotten the money for that. I gave her a line about stocks and investing, but she didn’t believe me. She wanted to know where I got the money for that in the first place. She wanted to know when I, of all people, had started gambling. 

“It ended in a massive fight. My sister said she didn’t know me anymore and I told her that maybe she didn’t need to, that it was better that way. She asked what had happened to me, if it was really just the hospital stay that had changed me? Or if it was Mother’s death?

“That was my chance to tell her everything. To explain to her that I was different now. To tell her about Plasmius and everything that meant. I could have told her about everything I was doing and why. That was my chance.

“Instead, I moved out the following week.”

Vlad looked at the clock and moved his computer to the side. “Well, Jasmine,” he said, “I think you need to be going if you want to make it to your next period.”

Jazz blinked at him. “What!? That’s it!?”

Vlad raised an eyebrow. “You were expecting more?”

Jazz spluttered. “There’s got to be more. I mean, what about all the ghost stuff? You literally never said anything about all the other stuff. Like how you got your ghost portal? It took Mom and Dad twenty years to make theirs. And what about your sister? How did she react?”

Vlad sighed. “My sister was very, very angry for a while, but she got over it eventually. We still see each other on Christmas.”

“And you never told her? Have you ever told anyone?” Jazz asked. She couldn’t imagine having a fight like that with Danny and not at least figuring out what was going on. 

“And risk being rejected like the monster in that book your brother keeps playing.” Vlad laughed. “I don’t think so.”

Jazz deflated. She could understand that. “It’s still sad.”

Vlad gave her a sharp look. “Do you know what else is sad?” 

Jazz shook her head, her throat constricted and she got the feeling that whatever she heard next, she was not going to like it.

“It’s sad that not once after the initial accident did your parents come up in that little story.” Vlad nostrils flared. “They hurt me and then they abandoned me. Your idiot of a father most of all. He caused that accident and he didn’t even show up to apologize!”

“I-” Jazz’s eyes were wide. What could she say to that?

Vlad dusted imaginary crumbs off his shirt. “It’s no matter,” he said, like his outburst hadn’t happened, “What’s done is done. As for your questions about the ghost portal…” He tilted his head and put a forefinger on his chin. “Maybe when your brother is here, we can finish that bit. It’s something I’m sure would be interesting for him as well.” He straightened. “Now, off you go. I really don’t want you missing your afternoon classes.”

Jazz nodded dumbly before pressing the button on her phone to end the recording and getting up to finish getting ready. As she walked out of the room, she looked down at her phone. 

Vlad was so afraid of getting rejected. If only she could show him that that wasn’t the only option. Of course, Danny had been rejected too. Or had he? They wanted to cure him because they thought he was sick, that this was killing him. Vlad had been a ghost for over 20 years. Jazz had an idea.

Jack stared in shock at his daughter. She hadn't come to see them in weeks, not since she said that they were close minded and stubborn and she'd be ready to talk after they said they were sorry.

Jack still wasn't sorry. Neither was Maddie. It may not have been the best way to go about it, but the more he thought about it, the more he knew they were right. Danny needed a cure. He might not admit it, but Jack had seen his grades slip, his moodiness, the way he didn't seem to trust anyone. The ghost inside of him was hurting him and Jack would do everything he could to help.

His daughter didn't agree. She was still standing in the front doorway.

She cleared her throat. “Can I come in?” she asked.

Jack shook himself from his stupor. ”Of course, Jazzypants,“ he said, curbing his usual booming enthusiasm into something much softer.. He was excited to see her, but he knew that this likely wasn't a cause for elation. Besides, she was always studying him and he knew that everything he did was going to be scrutinized and picked apart for information. He should probably be at least aware of his reactions.

She stepped into the house and shut the door behind her. She glanced at the side and bit her lip before looking back to Jack. “Is Mom around?”

Jack shook his head. “No, she just went out for some groceries,“ he said. And to try and find some more ectoplasm residue around town from Danny's fights, he didn't say.

Jazz shifted her weight and chewed her lip a little more.

”Jazzy, what's wrong?“ Jack tried to put a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

”It's just...” She sighed. “I'm not sure if I should tell you guys this, but here.” She held out her phone. Jack took it gingerly. “What’s this about?” he asked. Jazz never willingly parted with her phone. She said it was essential to have a way to contact them and Danny at all times. Something was wrong.

She gave a look that reminded him startlingly of Maddie's ”I mean business“ face and he straightened subconsciously. ”There's a recording on there, first on the list under the audio menu. I didn't have time to upload it to my computer before I came, so don't delete it.“

”Wha-?“

“Wait until Mom's here to listen to it.” Jazz bit her lip again. “I really don't know if I should be giving you this, but I think it'll help you understand.” She locked eyes with him. “He's been like that for twenty years and he's still fine. He's still living his life and doing whatever it is he does.”

“Jazz, what are you-” Jack tried to ask, but she cut him off again.

“Just keep an open mind. I'll come back to get the phone tomorrow.”

Jack balked. “Now, wait one minute! Jazz-“

Jazz looked sideways at the floor and put her hand on the door knob. “I need to get back to school now. I already missed my morning classes.”

“Jazz, wait!”

”Bye, Dad.“ With that Jazz slipped out the door so silently that Jack wondered if she had ever really been there at all. Except there was a weight in his hands.

He stared at the little flip phone cradled in his palms. He blinked at it trying to process what just happened. Then, he called Maddie.

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 3/26/2007

Summary of Chapters 15-16

The creature continues telling his story. He learns to read and reads a bunch of classic books, comparing himself to characters in each of them. Then he reveals he had some papers from when Frankenstein made him and curses Frankenstein for rejecting him. The creature waits until winter and decides to introduce himself to De Lacey. De Lacey is kind at first as the creature explains he has friends that he thinks will reject him, but when the creature reveals that De Lacey is the friend he speaks of, gets really freaked out. Then, Felix comes in and beats the creature with a stick. The creature flees from the cottage and spends some time cursing his own existence. Then, he learns that De Lacey and his family are moving in order to avoid him.

The creature leaves for Geneva to find Frankenstein. On his way, he gets shot by a man, after saving a woman from drowning. He gets to Geneva and comes across a child who he thinks he can raise for some reason. When he realizes the kid is Frankenstein's younger brother, he kills him. Then, he goes full Froot Loop when he takes the locket from Frankenstein’s brother and then plants it on Justine while she was asleep since he thinks she’ll reject him, too. 

Danny, Once again, please try and maintain academic language when writing your summaries. While “goes full Froot Loop” is very descriptive, a different phrase might be better suited for this assignment. Perhaps describe the behavior as irrational instead. 

Danny dodged another blast from Johnny’s shadow as the ghost revved his bike. This was not how he wanted to spend his last period of the day.  

“Look, kid,” Johnny said, scowl painted on his face and hands gripping the handles of his bike so hard they creaked, “I’m not doing anything wrong. Why don’t you just go back to class and let me do my thing.”

Danny just floated there with his arms crossed. He gave a pointed glance towards the fallen tree branch that had nearly knocked down power lines onto the sidewalk just in front of the school.

Johnny scowled harder. “It’s just some a prank. Don’t be such a hardass.”

Danny was tempted to start explaining how if that power line had landed in one of the puddles on the sidewalk the whole thing would have been electrified. He was tempted to point out that even without water, a broken power line was extraordinarily dangerous. He was tempted to explain how painful it was to die from electrocution in graphic detail. Instead he fired an ectoblast at the front back tire of Johnny’s bike, popping it. 

“Hey what gives!” Johnny yelled as Danny turned to chase after Shadow. Johnny was, unfortunately, one of the ghosts that was just in flat out denial that his actions could, and sometimes did, harm humans. Danny had tried explaining it before and gotten nowhere. 

Danny got in front of Shadow just before he made his way into the air conditioning system.Shadow darted towards the school generators. Great. More possible electrocution. Well, now was as good a time as any to see if Shadow did as well in ice as they did in water. 

Danny let the ice form on his hands like an ectoblast, but colder, more powerful. Shadow seemed to realize what they were up against and tried to dart down the side of the school. They were too slow and Danny froze them just before they managed to throw themselves over the edge. The momentum carried them down and Danny couldn’t help but feel cold satisfaction as he heard the ice shatter on the ground. 

“Shadow!” 

Danny felt the air shift as Johnny rushed past him to kneel next to his shadow, his bike floating 50 feet above them where Johnny had been attempting to repair it. 

Danny floated down next to them as Johnny picked up the scattered ice chunks full of Shadow. Danny got his thermos out and crossed his arms. He was willing to give Johnny one more chance to go back to the ghost zone on his own. 

“What is your problem today, man!?” Johnny yelled, gesturing in front of him, “Was this really necessary?”

Danny didn’t even grace him with a pun. “They’ll reform.”

Johnny was glaring at him furiously. “Yeah, but they have to fucking melt first! Do you know how long that takes!?” Johnny started gathering bits of Shadow into his trench coat pockets. “Will this stuff even melt on its own?”

“No. I’ll let them go after you’re back in the ghost zone.”

Johnny’s nostrils flared and Danny raised an eyebrow. He didn’t really want anymore trouble, but if Johnny really wanted to be punched and souped, Danny wasn’t going to deny him the opportunity. 

Johnny broke first as he bent back down to try and sweep the larger chunks of ice into a pile. “What even is going on with you? You’re never this cold.” Johnny froze and abruptly turned to face Danny. “Wait, shit, is this about that mess with your parents?”

Danny felt a stone settle in the pit of his stomach. “What.” His voice was flat.

“You know, the whole them finding out thing? I heard you and your sister were staying with Plasmius.” 

Danny could feel his anger bubbling up inside of him. What the hell? No one was supposed to know about that. No one.

Johnny put his hands in the air. “Hey man,” he said, stumbling back a few steps. Danny knew his eyes were glowing now. “I get it. Not a great situation.” The ice around them was growing and getting more jagged. “It’s totally understandable you’d be upset, but, c’mon, you don’t have to take it out on Shadow.”

Apparently, Johnny had no more concern for his safety than he had for the humans around him. 

“Who.” Danny took a step towards Johnny. 

“Told.” Danny took another step forward. Johnny took a step back. 

“You.” Another step. Johnny backed himself into a tree. 

“That.” 

If it was Vlad, Danny was going to kill him and no contract was going to stop him. 

“Woah,” Johnny said, eyes darting around desperately around for an escape, “You don’t need to get so worked up over it. No one’s judging or anything.”

Great. More than just Johnny knew. “Who was it?” The ice around them spiked again. 

Johnny was looking frantic, but wasn’t darting yet. That was smart of him. “I heard it from Kitty!”

“Where did Kitty hear it?” As far as Danny knew, Kitty didn’t even know Vlad.  

Johnny tried to dart and Danny raised a wall of ice in his way.  He flew up to be met with more ice. To his left, more ice. Danny was not letting the greasy shitstain go. 

“Okay, look,” Johnny said and Danny couldn’t figure out why he was dodging so much. It wasn’t Johnny that Danny was going to go after. Well, he was, but that was for the whole endangering people’s lives thing, not gossip. “I really don’t think she thought it was going to go anywhere, but Dora’s been friendly with Sidney since the ghost king thing and Sidney’s always trying to impress Skulker. And Skulker tells Ember just about everything. And Ember made a deal with Technus to get some of her equipment fixed. And you know Technus is the biggest gossip in the zone.”

Great, so everybody knew. Just great. But…

“Where did Dora hear it?” Definitely not Vlad. She knew he was a creep. 

Johnny looked like he was weighing his chances if he phased through the ice or the tree. They weren’t good. He gave one more furtive glance to the tree behind him before blurting out, “She heard it from your sister okay!”

No. No . Jazz wouldn’t. But Danny knew Johnny wasn’t lying. Not about Jazz. He wasn’t quite stupid. The ice cracked around him. 

Johnny was pressed all the way up against the tree, but he still wasn’t phasing through. “Hey, like, I said, I really don’t think she meant for it to go anywhere and the girl needs to vent, ya know? You can’t really blame her for what anyone else did.”

“Shut up!” Danny yelled. Johnny made a break for it through the tree. 

Oh, fuck no. After all of that, Danny wasn’t letting him get away. 

Danny wailed. It wasn’t something he meant to do, but there was just so much pent up and this was just one more thing and he couldn’t deal with it. And Jazz betrayed him. 

His ice broke and started to dissipate, but Danny didn’t care. Johnny had been caught in the brunt of the blast and he wasn’t getting away. Hell, he probably wasn’t going to be getting up at all for a while. Danny kept wailing. 

A few moments later, Danny felt something hard and fast fling itself into his side. He lost his hold on the wail and could feel the toll it had taken on him. He was human again before he hit the ground. He skidded across the pavement into a lamppost. Looking up brought him the sight of Shadow rushing towards Johnny, who was still on the ground. 

Shit. They must have reformed when Danny let go of the ice. 

Danny didn’t think he had the energy to become Phantom again, but that didn’t matter. He could not let Shadow go to cause more mayhem. He leapt to his feet and ran towards Johnny on a path of intercept. Ten feet away he uncapped the thermos. He was five feet away when Shadow got to Johnny. He leapt towards them, knowing that if Shadow got any farther he could merge with Johnny and spirit the both of them away. He brought the thermos down on the duo just as Johnny started to groggily reach towards Shadow. They disappeared into the thermos in a flash of light, the expression on Johnny’s face one of true horror. 

Danny knelt on the dirt behind the school parking lot panting heavily. He staggered to his feet to behold the aftermath. 

Several of the trees behind the parking lot were broken in the direction of his wail. The lamppost he was thrown into was dented. Johnny’s bike was still hovering fifty feet above the school, mostly broken. 

Danny rubbed his arm with his hand and winced. It was tender, more tender than he’d felt in a while. His injuries in ghost form rarely transferred. But there, right there in plain sight, a massive bruise was forming from his shoulder blade to his elbow. 

He touched it again and hissed. Not good. The final bell rang and Danny jerked. He had to get to detention. He looked at the massive bruising running down his arm. There was no way he was going to be able to hide this. 

Danny shuffled into detention a good five minutes late. He knew Lancer wouldn’t really do anything about it except make him stay an extra five minutes. He might not even say anything. He hadn’t last time.

Danny slid into one of the desks at the front of the classroom. It skidded slightly on the vinyl flooring and Danny winced at the noise. The last thing he wanted to do was draw attention to himself. 

Lancer looked up sharply. “Good of you to join me Mr. Fe—” his sarcastic tone cut off abruptly as he took in the bruise on Danny’s arm. “What happened?” he whispered. 

Danny shrugged, the movement would have made him flinch if he wasn’t so used to hiding things like this. “It’s fine,” was all he said. There really wasn’t an explanation he could think of that would make Lancer happy. 

“What happened?” Lancer said more firmly, face hard. 

Danny shrugged again. “It’s nothing,” he tried again, “I, uh, fell out of a tree.” 

Lancer gave him a look. He obviously didn’t believe it. That was fair, Danny wouldn’t either if he was in Lancer’s shoes. “The truth, please, Mr. Fenton,” he said caustically. 

Actually, no, he didn’t have to explain anything. “It’s none of your business,” he snapped. “You never cared before.” 

Instead of rising to the bait, Lancer just looked sad. “Danny,” Lancer said, his voice soft, “Danny, if you don’t tell me what’s going on, I’m going to have to call CPS.”

Danny froze. No. That couldn’t happen. This. All of it, living with Vlad, trying to “work through things” with his parents, getting check-ins and help, all of that was to avoid CPS. 

“You can’t,” he said, his voice flat, “You promised you wouldn’t as long as I worked on things.”

Lancer looked at him kindly and Danny hated it. He wasn’t being kind. This wasn’t a kind sort of situation. 

“I told you that when I was confident you had a safe place to live and you weren’t being abused. This,” he said, gesturing to the bruise going all down Danny’s arm, “doesn’t make it look like you're safe anymore.”

Danny swallowed. He wasn’t safe. He hadn’t been safe since he had his accident. Hell, there was an argument to be made that he wasn’t safe even before that with his parents storing ectoplasm in the fridge and the constant work on weapons in every part of the house. One of Danny’s chores was to change a filter that could literally blow up his house if left undone. 

No, he wasn’t safe, but going to CPS would be far, far more dangerous. He glanced at Lancer who was just staring at him waiting. How could he possibly make him see?

“I just want to help,” Lancer said. Danny almost laughed. Lancer had never wanted to help before. The amount of times the man had stood back and watched as Dash or Kwan or even Paulina had made his life a living hell was not something Danny cared to count. And that was when he wasn’t actively making things worse

Lancer got up from his desk. “Sit tight, Danny,” he sighed. “I’m going to call your sister down and then we’re all going to have a chat with social services.”

“If I tell you what’s going on, will you promise not to tell anyone else?” Danny didn’t mean to say the words, but they spilled from his mouth anyway. He cursed himself, but couldn’t possibly take them back. 

Lancer frowned. “I can’t promise that. I’m a mandated reporter. You know this.” He still sat back down, but Danny did not breathe a sigh of relief. Instead, he tensed more. He knew what could do. He knew if Lancer reacted badly there was a possibility he’d end up dead. Dead dead this time. But, if Danny told him and he actually understood, well, maybe it would really make things better. Maybe there would be another person to try and convince his parents he couldn’t, shouldn’t be cured. That he wasn’t a monster.

Danny’s breath caught in his throat. But he was a monster, wasn’t he? His thoughts slipped back to reading they’d just done in class.

—

“My heart beat quick; this was the hour and moment of trial, which would decide my hopes or realise my fears,” Star had read to the class, recounting the creature’s thoughts as it — he —  prepared to reveal himself to DeLacy.

—

“Danny,” Lancer prompted, breaking him out of his thoughts. Right, this was his chance. No matter how poorly it went, at least it would be over. No more limbo. 

“I’m not really sure how to start,” said Danny, wracking his brain for how to possibly start the conversation. 

—

“I sat down, and a silence ensued. I knew that every minute was precious to me, yet I remained irresolute in what manner to commence the interview, when the old man addressed me. 

—

“Can we start with where that bruise came from?” Lancer asked, his eyebrows raised towards his nonexistent hairline. 

—

“‘By your language, stranger, I suppose you are my countryman; are you French?’

—

“The bruise doesn’t really matter.” Danny saw the look Lancer gave him. “I mean it matters, but it’s not really what this is about.”

—

“‘No; but I was educated by a French family and understand that language only. I am now going to claim the protection of some friends, whom I sincerely love, and of whose favour I have some hopes.’ 

—

“Was it Dash?”

—

“‘Are they Germans?’ 

—

“This isn’t about that.” Danny glared, feeling mildly confused. Lancer hadn’t seemed to even notice what Dash was doing until yesterday and even then, all he got was a mild reprimand. It didn’t matter. 

Lancer wasn’t listening. Of course he wouldn’t. Danny slouched. “Dash isn’t important. He’s just a bully that’s going to end up wasting his life. I have bigger problems.” He huffed. “You wouldn’t understand.”

—

“‘No, they are French. But let us change the subject. I am an unfortunate and deserted creature, I look around and I have no relation or friend upon earth. These amiable people to whom I go have never seen me and know little of me. I am full of fears, for if I fail there, I am an outcast in the world for ever.’ 

—

Lancer tried to make eye contact with him, but Danny wouldn’t let him. He was so sick of this. 

“You know,” Lancer said, “I’ve met a lot of teenagers who didn’t think I would understand.” He smiled softly. “Most of them were shocked to learn they were wrong.”

—

“‘Do not despair. To be friendless is indeed to be unfortunate, but the hearts of men, when unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and charity. Rely, therefore, on your hopes; and if these friends are good and amiable, do not despair.’ 

—

Danny snorted. Yeah that definitely wouldn’t be the case. “This isn’t the kind of thing you can understand. This is a problem that is totally and entirely unique to me.” Danny stared studiously at the desk in front of him. “My parents said something pretty similar and they definitely didn’t understand.” Danny looked over to see Lancer’s brow furrow. He probably shouldn’t have said that. 

—

“‘They are kind—they are the most excellent creatures in the world; but, unfortunately, they are prejudiced against me. I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster.’ 

—

“I might not be able to completely understand, but I can at least try,” Lancer said.  Danny would have laughed if he hadn’t felt so much like crying.

—

“‘That is indeed unfortunate; but if you are really blameless, cannot you undeceive them?’ 

—

Danny clutched a little at his desk. The last time he’d had this conversation, it had gone so, so wrong. “I’ve just been trying to help, you know? I’m trying to do something good, but they don’t get it. I’m not doing anything bad!”

—

“‘I am about to undertake that task; and it is on that account that I feel so many overwhelming terrors. I tenderly love these friends; I have, unknown to them, been for many months in the habits of daily kindness towards them; but they believe that I wish to injure them, and it is that prejudice which I wish to overcome.’ 

—

“Danny,” Lancer paused, “Is this something to do with ghosts?” It seemed like he was reevaluating something.

—

“‘Where do these friends reside?’ 

—

“Yeah.”

—

“‘Near this spot.’

—

Lancer grimaced and Danny couldn’t help but think about all the times his parents gooped him. “Maybe, I won’t understand, but if you at least explain the situation, I might be able to help. I can talk to your parents again, see if there’s some sort of compromise.” 

—

“The old man paused and then continued, ‘If you will unreservedly confide to me the particulars of your tale, I perhaps may be of use in undeceiving them. I am blind and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuades me that you are sincere. I am poor and an exile, but it will afford me true pleasure to be in any way serviceable to a human creature.’ 

—

“You’d really listen to me?” Danny asked. He knew it was a lie even if Lancer thought it was true. Adults never listened. “You’d really try to get my parents to compromise about ghost stuff?”

—

“‘Excellent man! I thank you and accept your generous offer. You raise me from the dust by this kindness; and I trust that, by your aid, I shall not be driven from the society and sympathy of your fellow creatures.’ 

—

“I know as well as anyone how…” Lancer paused and failed to suppress a shudder. “How passionate your parents can be about ghosts. But, they have to listen to me. I can help.”

— 

“‘Heaven forbid! Even if you were really criminal, for that can only drive you to desperation, and not instigate you to virtue. I also am unfortunate; I and my family have been condemned, although innocent; judge, therefore, if I do not feel for your misfortunes.’ 

—

Danny looked at his hands. It was say something or run. Danny didn’t want to run and he couldn’t think of any lies that would prevent a call to CPS. He looked at Lancer one more time, “You promise you’ll actually listen to me?”

—

“‘How can I thank you, my best and only benefactor? From your lips first have I heard the voice of kindness directed towards me; I shall be for ever grateful; and your present humanity assures me of success with those friends whom I am on the point of meeting.’ 

—

“You have my word.” Lancer put his hand over on Danny’s shoulder, “Now, can you tell me what’s been going on?”

—

“‘May I know the names and residence of those friends?’ 

—

Danny closed his eyes and clenched his fists. This was it. It was now or never. It was time to face the music. 

Danny let the tension in his hands release as the lights washed over him. The last thing he wanted was for Lancer to perceive him as aggressive. He felt the jumpsuit materialize on his body with the icy air that always accompanied him in this form. There was silence in the classroom. Danny cracked one eye open only to see Lancer’s mouth hanging open in shock. 

“This is what I’ve been hiding.”

—

“I paused. This, I thought, was the moment of decision, which was to rob me of or bestow happiness on me for ever. I struggled vainly for firmness sufficient to answer him, but the effort destroyed all my remaining strength; I sank on the chair and sobbed aloud. At that moment I heard the steps of my younger protectors. I had not a moment to lose, but seizing the hand of the old man, I cried, ‘Now is the time! Save and protect me! You and your family are the friends whom I seek. Do not you desert me in the hour of trial!’ 

—

Danny waited for Lancer to recover and the screaming and yelling would surely follow. Because even in the best situation, there was going to be shock. There was going to be horror. It wasn’t a nice thing to find out your student was a ghost. 

Lancer moved so they were fully facing each other. “Danny,” he said, putting both of his hands on Danny’s shoulders, “I am so, so sorry.”

— 

“Great God!” exclaimed the old man. “Who are you?’”

—

“What?” asked Danny, reeling more than a little, “Why are you sorry?” That was not the reaction his parents had had.

“I should have noticed. I should have known.” 

Danny didn’t know what to do with that. 

“You should have known I was half-ghost?” He raised an eyebrow and let sarcasm slip into his tone. That was not an assumption anybody should make. 

“No, I should have noticed that you were—” Lancer paused, “Wait, half ghost?”

“Yeah, half-ghost.” 

Lancer just stared at him. His hands were still on Danny’s shoulders and Danny was starting to feel a little claustrophobic. He peeled off the one on his right shoulder and put it back on the desk. 

“You know, not quite dead, but not quite alive. Schrodinger's boy. A possessed zombie.” Danny gave a lopsided grin thinking of the current class book. “Frankenstein’s monster.”

Lancer was still gaping at him, but he withdrew his hand. “Well, at least there’s that.” He paused, face moving through expressions faster than Danny could decipher them. Eventually, he landed on flustered. “I’m going to admit here that I honestly don’t know what to say.”

Danny laughed. Yeah, he could accept that. He wouldn’t know what to say either if someone had turned into a ghost in front of him either. 

“Is this why you and your sister are living with Mr. Master’s?” 

Danny didn’t look at him. He couldn’t. That was exactly the reason Danny wasn’t living with his parents right now. 

“Were your parents hurting you?”

Danny shook his head. “They didn’t know I was Phantom.” Yeah, their inventions hurt sometimes, but that was one of those things that just happened. They had never meant to hurt Danny. Never. 

Lancer looked at him strangely, “I didn’t ask if they knew. I asked if they were hurting you.”

“They would never try to hurt me,” Danny said firmly, because they would never, ever try to do that to him. Even when they found out, even when they tried to separate him, it had just been some weird sort of way of trying to cure him. They thought he was sick. 

Lancer put his head in his hands and slumped back in his chair. “So they were hurting you.”

Danny glared at his teacher. He did not want to talk about this. In fact, they were not going to talk about this. Danny would just keep quiet. 

Lancer dragged his hands down his face. “And I can’t call CPS because if I do, they’ll be required to turn you over to the Guys in White.” 

Danny looked at him in shock. He’d had this whole speech planned about what would happen if the Guys in White got him. He’d even had examples of the painful experiments that he, Sam, and Tucker thought were most likely ready to describe in gory detail. 

“Don’t give me that look,” Lancer huffed. “All the teachers were given some of that government propaganda letting us know exactly what we needed to do if we found a ghost.” He hefted himself out of the chair and walked towards his desk. Danny looked at him curiously as his teacher pulled a booklet from his shirt pocket. 

Lancer smiled wryly. “You know, I was preparing to give this to your parents. I’m not entirely sure if it’s still relevant.” He slid a booklet across his desk towards Danny. Danny leaned over to see a pamphlet titled “Your child is gay. Now what?” Danny… Danny wasn’t actually sure what to think of that. 

“You thought this was because I was gay?” He asked, tentatively. Danny didn’t think his parents would reject him for that. At least he was pretty sure. He would probably never get the chance to find out. Maybe. He was pretty sure he liked girls. An image of Tucker laughing flashed through his mind’s eye. Pretty sure. 

“Well,” Lancer started awkwardly, “Your godfather did imply that you were living with him because your parents were less than accepting.” He paused. “I suppose he meant less than accepting of the fact you are half-ghost.” 

Danny groaned. Of course Vlad would imply that; anything to make his dad look bad. “No, they're fine when it comes to that kind of thing.” He paused. “I think. It hasn’t really come up.”

Lancer nodded. “I suppose they have far more of a bias against ghosts than anything else.”

Danny was a little shocked to hear his parents' beliefs called bias. Most people just accepted that they were weird about ghosts. “They think I’m sick,” Danny admitted quietly. “They think I need a cure.”

Lancer sucked in a breath. “Are you safe?” he asked. 

There were two meanings to that question and Danny wasn’t sure which one he was asking about. “Being Phantom isn’t hurting me,” he said, picking the safer of the two options, “I’ve been like this for over a year. I actually feel better than I did before.” 

“And,” Lancer hesitated, “How did you become Phantom?”

Danny stiffened. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Danny,” Lancer said softly, “I need to know.” 

“You’re asking about my death. Please drop it,” he said harshly. Danny was usually fine talking about his death, at least with people he already knew. But saying anything now would incriminate his parents and he honestly had no idea how Lancer would react to that. 

Lancer hesitated. “Right. It’s just— I need to know if—”

“I’m safe,” Danny said, slightly less sourly, “It was an accident and entirely my fault... I just don’t like to talk about it.” 

Lancer nodded. “Right,” he said. They said in awkward silence for several seconds. 

“What now?” Danny asked. He couldn’t think of where they could possibly go from here. He’d just revealed his biggest secret to another adult. Only, this time, there was no running, no fighting, no panic; just an apology and a calm conversation.  

“Now,” Lancer said, seeming to think, “You go home and work on whatever homework you have left.” 

Great. Exactly the response Danny wanted.  

“And I,” Lancer continued, “Will be adding additional safety questions to the checklist before my next visit to your parents house, which will be very, very soon.” 

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 3/28/2007

Summary of Chapters 17-18

After finishing his tale, the creature demands Frankenstein create another, female creature so that the creature will no longer be alone. Frankenstein tries to say “no”, but the creature is insistent and persuades Frankenstein by promising to flee from civilization with his companion and also by threatening Frankenstein’s family. Frankenstein then decides he can’t complete his work where his family is and plans a trip to England. He traveled to England with Clerval. Clerval enjoyed the trip, but Frankenstein didn’t since he was constantly thinking about the creature's demands and what he had to do. 

Danny - You missed a plot point about Frankenstein’s feelings about marrying Elizabeth. I would suggest going back and reading the chapter again as it will be important later in the narrative.

Danny felt better than he had in a long, long time as he worked on his homework in Vlad’s study. Sure, he was spending time with Vlad, which sucked, but for once he wasn’t holding on to the feeling that this would be the rest of his life. He felt like there was really a chance that he'd be able to go back to his parents. After all, Lancer had accepted him, told him he wouldn’t be calling CPS and took it upon himself to talk to Danny’s parents. That was good, right? 

This, he was sure, was what Jazz would call progress. He couldn’t wait to tell her.

He changed his mind five minutes later as Jazz stood in the doorway. 

Jazz stood in the doorway looking pissed. Okay, maybe he could wait to tell her about his day. 

“Danny!” she said with false chipperness. “I’m so glad you’re here! I was worried about you.”

Danny just stared at her. Of course he was here. Where else would he be? Doing homework in Vlad’s office was part of the agreement.

“I was supposed to drive you home today,” she prodded. 

Whoops. He shrugged. “It was a nice day for a fly.”

She looked pointedly over at the window and the torrential rain it was keeping out of the room. He grinned sheepishly. Vlad coughed to cover up a laugh. Danny glared at him. These were not interactions he deserved to be a part of. 

“Look,” Jazz said, drawing Danny’s attention back to her, “That’s not important right now.” Oh, so that wasn’t what she was mad about. Not good. 

“While I was looking for you, I ran into Mr. Lancer.” Danny felt a bit like a cornered animal. “Do you know what he told me?”

“That I was a fantastic student and I’m making great progress?” Danny said with false hope. 

“No,” Jazz responded, completely deadpan, “He said you told him about Phantom and asked how I was handling everything.”

“Okay? And isn’t that a good thing?” It really should have been a good thing. The fact Lancer was in on it meant that they had another person on their side. Sure, Lancer hadn’t always been the best when it came to, well anything really, but this meant he was no longer a threat.

She physically reeled back, “A good thing? You think having your teacher know your secret is a good thing? Do you know how dangerous that is?!”

“Dangerous,” Danny scoffed, “We’re talking about Mr. Lancer. He might be an asshole sometimes, but he keeps his word and he said he wouldn’t tell anyone.”

“Yeah,” Jazz asked, hand on her hips, “Well, he already told me!”

“You already knew!”

“Well, what if I hadn’t, Danny!? He could have given everything a way with one errant assumption.”

Danny opened his mouth to protest that, considering his parents knew, it was a very reasonable assumption. Vlad cut him off. 

“She’s right, Daniel,” he said, hands steepled atop his desk like a cartoon villain, “You can’t trust your teacher just because he says he’s trying to help.”

“Do we have to do this here?” Danny asked Jazz. He glanced pointedly at Vlad without acknowledging him. 

Vlad returned the favor by ignoring Danny’s question. “There are a lot of things he could mean by ‘trying to help’,” he spat, “‘Trying to help’ might mean calling CPS and just hoping you don’t get taken away to be experimented on.” 

“Yeah,” Jazz said, answering Danny and ignoring Vlad, “As much as I would like to have this conversation somewhere private, we need to start planning contingencies, and Vlad is part of most of those.”

“You have contingencies that don’t involve me?” Vlad sounded amused. Danny kept ignoring him. 

“Jazz, it isn’t that big of a deal,” Danny said dismissively. “Yeah, Lancer knows, but, hey, that could be a good thing, right? You’re always telling me that everyone needs a little support.” 

“You still should have talked to me before doing anything.” 

And, oh, wasn’t that just like his know-it-all big sister. She had to have a say in everything he did while she could act with the utmost impunity. 

“And you should have talked to me before telling Dora,” Danny spat out, all the anger from his earlier fight with Johnny coming out. 

Jazz blinked. “What? What does Dora have to do with any of this?”

Danny felt his hackles rise. She’d spouted off secrets he hadn’t wanted any of the ghosts knowing and she didn’t even have the decency to realize it. “You told Dora that I was staying with Vlad.”

“And?” Jazz asked, voice raised and brows furrowed. “I’m not seeing how any of that has to do with you telling Lancer you’re half-dead!” She shouted that last part and Danny knew that he was not succeeding in keeping his eyes not-glowing.

“I quite agree, Little Badger,” Vlad tried to butt in. Danny really wished that he could vaporize him. He settled for non-acknowledgement. 

“It has to do with the fact that I can do what I want with my secrets!” Danny shouted, jabbing his thumb at his chest. “If I want to tell Lancer, I can tell Lancer because I’m the one who half-died.” He jabbed a fore-finger towards Jazz. “You, however, need to ask me before you go blabbing to Dora about what my living situation is like!” He turned on his heel, took a step and then immediately faced her again. “Why the hell did you even tell her anyways!? Since when are you even talking to Dora!?”

Danny stopped when he caught the look on Jazz’s face. Her face was red and there were tears welling up, but her eyes looked angry. “You want to know why I told Dora we were living with Vlad, Danny?” she asked, tears not quite flowing, “I told Dora because I don’t have anyone else to tell.” She wiped an arm across her face. “I told Dora because I don’t have a single other person in my life that I can talk about ghost stuff with. And not just ghost stuff.” Danny watched as Jazz dropped her bag and started pacing. “She gets what it’s like to have so much pressure to be perfect. She gets what it’s like to always be the voice of reason.” She stopped and glared at Danny, “She gets what it’s like living in your brother’s shadow.”

Danny decided he wasn’t going to touch that last bit with a ten foot pole, but he was still angry. “But, you still shouldn’t have told her. It wasn’t your secret to tell.” He was standing his ground on this. 

Jazz glared at him and threw up her arms. “And how was I supposed to know it was even a secret? You never said anything!”

That was a good point that Danny did not feel in the mood to accept. “You should have asked.” He dug deep into his reserves of anger. “Just like you should have asked before you dragged me to live here.” 

“And we’re back to this.” Jazz rolled her eyes. “I picked the least shitty option out of a dozen shitty options and you know it.” 

She glared at Danny and Danny glared right back. “I wouldn’t know, actually, since you never told me what the other options were before you chose this one.”

Jazz fumed. “I offered you another option,” she ground out. “I offered to help convince mom and dad to go see Frostbite so he could show them you don’t need a cure. You said no.”

“I don’t want anyone else involved,” Danny spat out, “I don’t want to risk having them attack him just because he’s a ghost. And he’s a ghost! They’re not going to listen to him anyways!”

“You don’t know that!” Jazz shouted. 

Yeah, no. He was not getting into that argument again. “You just don’t want to admit you screwed up because you're a bossy, know-it-all with no respect for anyone’s opinion but your own,” he shouted, “Let me make my own choices for once!”

“I will when your choices don’t put you in danger!” she yelled back. 

She looked him in the eye, daring him to say something. He glared back. She was not winning this. 

“If you can’t listen to me, just leave,” he spat, “You're no better than our parents.” He stared her down, returning her dare from earlier. 

Their staring match continued for another few seconds before Jazz broke. “Fine, we’ll talk about this later, after we’ve both had a chance to cool down.” With that, she picked up her bag and walked out. 

Great. There she went making decisions for the both of them again. 

“Well, now that that’s over,” Vlad said with a wry grin, “Let’s go back to the part where you revealed your greatest secret to a man who has repeatedly threatened to turn you over to the government.”

“Fuck you, Vlad,” Danny said as he walked out the door in the opposite direction as Jazz. He did not have the energy to deal with another fight. 

Vlad sighed into the empty room. “It looks like I’ll be dealing with this myself,” was the last thing Danny heard as he stormed down the hallway. 

Jack stared dispondantly at his needlepoint. He had been transcribing the recording that Jazz left them, but Maddie took over and it was mostly done anyway. She was better at hearing all the nuances that went into speech anyway. That didn't stop him from feeling lost.

Thus the needlepoint. Usually it helped to have something to do with his hands, the millions of thoughts in his head filtering down into something manageable. Now, however, it was just sharpening his racing thoughts into a razor sharp focus.

Vlad was half-ghost, as Jazz had called it. He'd been this way since the accident. He'd been that way — severely ecto-contaminated and still living his life — for twenty years. What did that say about Vlad? What did that mean for Danny ?

Their kids insisted that Danny was fine, that the only real difference was that he was able to “go ghost.” That and sometimes he went intangible on accident. But Danny insisted that he was perfectly healthy.

His blood work said otherwise. He had amounts of ectoplasm in his body that should have killed him, and he was experiencing ghost-like symptoms that were significantly impacting his daily life. His heart rate was too slow and he was far too cold. And he kept developing more powers as time went on, suggesting that changes to his biology were still happening. As the list went on, Jack and Maddie had good reason to believe that Danny's condition was slowly killing him.

But Vlad had been like Danny for twenty years. Danny had been like that for over a year. They were both fine.

Were the kids right? Did Danny really not need a cure?

He glanced over to where Maddie was sitting on the couch. Her brows were furrowed with concentration as she played bits of the recording again and corrected the transcript. They wanted every bit of the transcript to be perfect before they gave the phone back to Jazz.

Jack hadn't broached the topic of what Vlad's longevity meant for Danny's condition yet. He knew she had similar questions. He knew she was playing the recording over and over again both from the phone and in her head. He wanted to help set her at ease, but he couldn’t. He felt none of his usual confidence. He went back to his needle point.

”How much do you think is true?“ Maddie asked after another five minutes of looking at her clipboard.

“What?”

“Of Vlad's story,” she clarified, setting the clipboard and the cellphone aside. ”How much do you think is true?“

Jack was blindsided. He'd never even considered that what Vlad said just might be completely false. Why would he? It was still Vlad. Just like Danny was still Danny.

”Do you think Vlad lied?” Jack asked tentatively.

Maddie frowned. ”Maybe,“ she said thoughtfully, ”Or maybe his recollection of events isn't completely accurate. He said we abandoned him. That's not what happened. We went to see him and he said he didn't want us there. We didn't abandon him.“ She hesitated, her brows furrowing once again. “Did we?”

Jack honestly didn't know what to think. He remembered going to the hospital with a card and flowers. He also remembered being chased off by Vlad's mother. Between the investigation and being kicked out of university, they had only tried to visit once before Vlad was moved to another facility and they couldn’t find him. Did he even know about that?

He looked at Maddie, struggling to put his thoughts into words. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't her fault. It wasn’t really anybody's fault. It was just a shitty situation. But how could he offer that excuse with the sound of Vlad's condemnation ringing in his ears?

He was pulled out of his attempts to express himself by a knock on the door. He glanced at Maddie. It was late, but maybe there had been a ghost attack. He got up and stalked over to the door. It would be good to talk to someone else before going back to that conversation; before he had to try and sort out what Vlad's story meant again.

He opened the door. Vlad was on the other side.

Oh. Apparently he wasn't getting a chance to think through things more.

“Vladdie,” Jack said, trying to keep the strain out of his voice. “Good to see you.” He could feel the intensity of Maddie's stare on the back of his skull. Right. This was going to be awkward.

Vlad gave him a strained smile. “Yes, of course. I always love to visit you two, but I'm afraid there's something I need to talk to you about. It isn’t pleasant.”

Jack felt confused. This was the way Vlad acted every time he saw them, but it seemed wrong now. He'd just spent the last few hours listening to the aftermath of Vlad's accident on loop. Vlad blamed him for that. He said they'd abandoned him. How was this reaction the same as always?

”You like coming over to see us?“ Jack asked before he could stop himself. Whoops. He probably shouldn't have led with that.

Vlad gave him an odd look. ”Of course,“ he said jovially, ”You're my best friend after all. Now,“ he slipped past Jack with a supernatural grace, ”I really do have something I need to talk to you both about.“

Jack turned, closing the door behind him. At some point while he'd been lost in his thoughts and his conversation with Vlad, Maddie had gotten up. She was standing with her arms crossed in the middle of the room. That wasn't a good sign.

”Yes,“ she said, icily. “We have something we need to talk to you about, too.”

Vlad blinked. ”You do?“ His brow lowered and his voice grew angry. ”Did one of the children tell you?“

Jack went over to stand by his wife and put a hand on her shoulder. If they were going to do this now, they might as well be nice about it. “Jazz left a recording,” he said by way of explanation.

“A recording?” he asked, sounding genuinely baffled. “How could Jasmine possibly have a recording?”

Jack felt uncomfortable. It was obvious that Jazz did not have permission to record Vlad's story. Still, this had to be addressed.

“Jazz recorded it on her phone. She gave it to us around noon today.” Jack laughed awkwardly. ”I never did find out what she was doing over here and not at school.“

All the blood drained from Vlad's face. “She was sick this morning,” he said as if in a trance. “She didn’t leave until almost eleven.” His whole demeanor seemed to snap back into focus. “What exactly was on that recording?”

Jack felt Maddie shift beside him. “The story you told her about your accident,” she said, voice void of any emotion. “All of it.”

Rage unfurled on Vlad's face. “That was not her secret to tell,” he snarled. His eyes turned red and steam billowed off of him as he spoke. Jack nearly took a stop back. He knew Vlad wasn’t quite human, but it was something else to see it. 

”She was only trying to help,“ Maddie snapped. ”If you had told us earlier, we could have helped.“

”Helped? Helped!?“ Vlad shouted, nearly laughing. “How could you have possibly helped? Do you even understand what I am?“

Maddie faltered. She was rarely on the receiving end of Vlad's ire. Jack was . He knew how to handle it: pretend to be oblivious and answer Vlad's questions. That would calm him down.

”We could have helped, the same way we're trying to help Danny, Vlad,” Jack said. “We could have worked with you to find a way to solve this.”

“Like you helped when you abandoned me in the hospital? Like you helped when you turned on a prototype ghost portal when my face was directly in front of it!?” Vlad roared. Okay, maybe that wouldn't calm him down.

“I-” Jack didn't know how to answer that. It really was-

“It was an accident,” Maddie snapped. “Jack didn't mean to hurt you! We didn't mean to hurt you!”

“And you still defend him,“ Vlad growled. “He killed me and you still defend him!”

Maddie reached for something. Jack needed to de-escalate this fast. This was still Vlad . This was still his friend .

“It's not her fault, Vlad,” he said, trying for a calm, measured tone instead of the slightly frantic one that was more likely to be coming out. “I was the one who pushed the button.”

Vlad went silent for a moment. Then in a voice lower and more caustic than anything Jack had ever heard, he growled, ”You were, weren't you?“

Black rings formed around his waist. He hunched over as they split in the middle. Jack watched in horror as his friend transformed. The rings split to reveal a white suit with a cape, blue skin, and black hair slicked back into twin spikes. Vlad wasn't just any ghost, he was the Wisconsin Ghost . This was the same ghost that had tried to possess him at the college reunion. How long had this been going on?

”You did this to me!“ Vlad roared as he lept at Jack.

Jack froze. That was still Vlad. No matter what, the ghost in front of him was still Vlad . He’d been like this for over twenty years. Vlad rushed towards him, on hand raised as if in a claw. Jack grabbed for an ectogun, but knew he wouldn’t be able to use it. Vlad had the right to be furious with him. Jack had turned him into a monster.

Vlad fell from the air, convulsing on the ground. Jack looked in shock from where the Jack-o-nine-tails was wrapped around Vlad's form back down the line to Maddie, who was wielding it. He swallowed. She let the device hold him for a few more seconds before drawing it back.

Jack put a hand on her shoulder. This was — He couldn't describe just what this was.

”Jack, are you okay?“ Maddie cried as she looked over him. Vlad hadn't even been able to reach him, but, no, he was not. That wasn't what Maddie was asking.

”Not a scratch on me sweetcheeks,” he said, putting on a false face of bravado. He wilted quickly. “I think Vlad might need some help though.”

Maddie sneered. “I don't think help is what he needs.”

“No, no,” Vlad said from where he was curled on the ground a few feet away, “I think I’ve got a hold of it now.”

“A hold of what?” Maddie asked warily. Jack looked back and forth between his wife and his best friend. Unlike Jack, Maddie seemed to have no problems attacking their old friend. Looking at the horrifying creature on their living room floor, Jack couldn’t blame her… but it was still Vlad . 

Black rings washed over Vlads from again, leaving a human man in a crumbled suit curled in on himself. “You just saw one of the worst realities of my condition. There is a creature living inside of me. I cannot always control it and it wants nothing more than your destruction.”

Jack’s heart ached for his friend. That sounded terrible. 

Maddie hummed. “That doesn’t sound anything like what you told Jazz,” she said, then hesitated. “That doesn’t sound anything like what Danny’s told us either.”

Vlad scoffed. “I was not telling the sixteen-year-old living in my house that I was a monster barely holding this together.” He paused for a beat. “And Daniel hasn’t realized what’s inside of him yet. He will.”

Jack’s head was spinning. What did that mean? He glanced over to Maddie. A combination of disbelief and disgust graced her face. “Really?” she deadpanned. 

Vlad’s face twisted into a sneer. “Oh fine, you’ve caught me, Maddie,” he snapped with melodramatically sarcasm, “I’m portraying myself as a monster to try and manipulate you in Jack to keep insisting on a cure for Daniel and further driving a wedge between yourselves and your children, thus driving them closer to me! Oh! And I’ll eventually allow the meddling teacher to call CPS who will then get you arrested for child endangerment because of the condition of this house!”

Jack stood there in shocked silence. “What?”

Vlad started laughing. “It was a joke, Jack,” he explained between guffaws, “I was trying to lighten the mood.” Jack felt his eyebrows crease and looked over to see Maddie’s thinned lips. Vlad stopped laughing. “I guess it didn’t work.” He grimaced. “Can I get up now?”

Maddie tightened her grip on the Jack-o-nine-tails. Jack put a hand on her shoulder. He understood why she didn’t want to hear him out. He really did, but this was their friend and they were responsible for this. Maddie looked at him and sighed. She loosened her grip on her weapon. 

“Fine,” she said, “Get up and explain yourself, but if you attack Jack again, I’m attacking you.”

Vlad gulped. “Noted.” He got to his feet slowly before swaying. “You know,” he said, unsteadily, “I think I’m going to sit back down.” 

Before he could fall back onto the floor, Jack took a few steps over to support him. Vlad tensed as Jack grabbed his arm, but allowed himself to be guided to a chair. Once there, he batted Jack's hands away and sat down with a thump. 

Jack sat down opposite him on the couch. Maddie remained standing, posture tense and ready to react. Jack patted the seat beside him. She looked at him askance, as if asking if he really expected her to relax with a ghost sitting across from them. He smiled sheepishly. She relaxed and gave him a lopsided smile before sitting next to him. 

Vlad looked pained across from them. The Jack-o-nine-tails must have really taken it out of him. It was a Fenton weapon. Of course it did. 

There was a beat of silence before Vlad spoke. “I’m sorry you had to see me like that.”

“It’s okay-” “I’m sure you are-” Jack and Maddie said at the same time. They looked at each other, blinking. 

Vlad used their silence to respond. “No, Jack” he said, slumping forwards, “I thought I had a handle on it.” He looked Jack straight in the eye. “This is why I didn’t tell you.”

“Vladdie…” Did he think they wouldn’t accept him this way? Did they think they wouldn’t try to help? 

“Our children are staying with you,” Maddie snapped, “We had a right to know.”

Vlad’s nostrils flared. “I am not a danger to Jasmine and Daniel,” he said firmly, “I would never do anything to harm them.”

Maddie scoffed, “You just tried attacking Jack and you expect us to believe that?”

 Jack looked at his wife. “Mads…” he said softly. She was right. They did deserve to know, but Vlad deserved to explain himself. Jack couldn’t believe he was being the less reactionary one here. It was usually Maddie’s job to reign him back in. 

Vlad rubbed the bridge of his nose. “That hasn’t happened in years in relation to anyone other than Jack.” His gaze darkened. “The ghost inside me blames Jack for my death.”

Jack felt his heart stop. It was hard to draw breath. Vladdie… Vladdie thought Jack killed him? Did he? Was Vlad right?

“You’re not dead!” Maddie snapped. “You’re sitting right across from us. You’re not dead and neither is Danny.”

“You’re right, I’m not dead,” Vlad paused putting a hand on his sternum, “I’m not dead, but I have a core and it doesn’t particularly care for details.” 

Maddie narrowed her eyes at him. “What kind of details?”

Vlad stared at her with clear longing. “Maddie,” he said, voice soft. It hardened for his next words, “Ghosts aren’t logical. Ghosts don’t have feelings. They run on instinct and obsession. The human part of me knows that my accident was just that, an accident. I know that I’m alive. My core just doesn’t care.” 

Jack felt his heart beating hard against his ribs. This was… a lot. “Is this why you attacked me at the reunion?” Jack heard himself asking.

“‘ The nearer I approached to your habitation, the more deeply did I feel the spirit of revenge enkindled in my heart.’ is the line Daniel’s blasted book used.” Vlad gave a thin smile. “Of course in this case, you were the ones approaching my home. I really thought I could handle it. I hadn’t transformed in months leading up to it.” Vlad’s smile grew wider and thinner, never reaching his eyes, “I was hoping I could use the reunion as a way to reconnect.”

Maddie’s eyes narrowed. “And you’re sure the kids are safe with you?” It was a good question. If Vlad could lose himself after months of control once, it could happen again. 

Vlad sighed, looking off the middle distance, “Just as Daniel’s ghost is obsessed with fighting ghosts, mine is obsessed with revenge.” Vlad’s attention snapped back to Jack and Maddie. “The kids have nothing to do with it.”

Jack blinked. “Danny’s obsession is fighting ghosts?” Jack didn’t know whether to be proud or horrified. On one hand, Danny was following in their footsteps. On the other, that was a violent past time to be sure and Danny was bound to get hurt. No, he wasn’t bound to get hurt, he had gotten hurt, repeatedly. 

Vlad nodded solemnly. “I’m sure you’ve noticed how doggedly he goes after any ghost that enters Amity Park. As far as he core is concerned, he died trying to impress you and fighting ghosts would do just that.” Vlad sighed, a thin smile back on his face. “What I wouldn’t give to spare Daniel the pain of obsession. What I wouldn’t give to be free of it.”

Jack shared a look with Maddie. For the first time since the conversation started, he knew they were on the same page.

“Vladdie,” Jack started, a little bit of enthusiasm back in his voice.  “We’re already trying to find a cure for Danny. I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to make one for you while we’re at it.” 

Vlad smiled, one hand drumming his fingers on the couch. “You really mean that?” he asked, voice overcome with emotions.

Maddie nodded. “We’ve hit a bit of a roadblock for the moment,” she said, “We have enough of Danny’s DNA to understand his human half, but we haven’t been able to get any ectoplasm to complete our study. It evaporates too quickly if we try to collect it after ghost fights.” She paused. “Danny won’t listen to us anymore, but he might listen to you. If you could convince him to come home and let us take a sample, we could make a cure for both of you.”

Vlad frowned, “I’m not sure if I can get Daniel to agree to that, but” a sly smile crossed his face, “I should be able to get you some of his ectoplasm. Mine too.” 

Jack blinked. “How?” Maddie asked. 

“I found a way to keep it stable enough to study years ago. Daniel gets into fights almost daily and he patches himself up with a first aid kit I gave him. I’ll just snag a sample next time he uses it. I may even be able to get one tonight.” 

Jack’s stomach flipped at the thought of his son out there, constantly fighting, constantly getting hurt. But, if Vlad was able to get them some ectoplasm, they could stop that. They could bring him home. Jack looked over and saw Maddie’s face going through the same range of emotions he was sure he was. 

“Thank you, Vlad,” she said, someone shakily. 

“Yeah, thanks, V-man,” Jack said more enthusiastically, “If you can get us some ectoplasm, I’m sure we can get both of you fixed up.”

Vlad gave him a wane smile. “Of course, Jack, Maddie.” He got up from the chair and brushed himself off. “Now if you excuse me, I believe I’m going to have a busy night.”

He stopped mid-way to the door and turned around to face them, a storm on his face once again. “Before we got sidetracked, there was actually another reason I came here,” he said. 

Jack startled. He did remember that Vlad had been rather worked up already when he came in. He guessed it did get lost in all the excitement. 

“Daniel made a very bad decision today and decided to tell his teacher his secret.”

Jack felt all the blood drain from his face. 

“You mean-?” Maddie asked, not willing to finish the question.

Vlad nodded. “Yes, I’m afraid that meddling fool knows that Daniel and Phantom are the same,” he paused, then hurriedly added, “or at least inextricably linked.”

“Shit,” Jack swore. The first time he’d done so in years. 

“Indeed,” Vlad nodded, “But, don’t worry,” he smiled meanly, “I’m going to take care of it.”

Jack eyed him carefully. Even discounting the ghost core, Vlad could be brutal. Despite everything, Lancer really was just trying to help. 

“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Vlad scoffed, “All I'm going to do is make sure that he doesn’t decide to give CPS a call tonight and try to divert it if he already has.” He straightened his rumpled suit. “I’m a billionaire and mayor of Amity Park. I can do that much without ghost powers.” 

“Right,” Maddie said warily, “But, what do we do?”

Vlad gave them a considering look. “Know that he’s probably going to bring it up next time he sees you and be prepared to make your case. Just don’t do anything rash.” 

Jack beamed. “You got it, V-man.” It wouldn’t be a problem explaining their side of the story to Danny’s teacher. They were only doing what was right, after all. 

“Now,” Vlad said, turning away from them once again, “I have things to take care of.”

“Wait, Vlad-” Maddie called after him, but it was too late. Vlad had already walked through the door. 

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 3/30/2007

Summary of Chapters 19-20

Frankenstein and Clerval stop in London where Frankenstein makes contact with other scientists and collects “materials”. From London, they traveled to Oxford, then Matlock, then Derby, then Cumberland and Westmorland. Then they stop in Edinburgh, Coupar, St. Andrew’s, and Perth. Clerval seems to enjoy their trip. Frankenstein does not. Frankenstein tells Clerval he wants to go to Scotland alone, which Clerval reluctantly agrees to. Once in Scotland, Frankenstein sets up in a hut on an island and starts working on building another creature. 

Halfway through the process of making another monster, Frankenstein starts having a lot of doubts. He realizes that the new creature might not want to do the same things as the other creature and will be a totally different person. This scares him. Upon seeing the creature in the window, Frankenstein destroys what he’s been building. The creature is extremely angry about that and confronts Frankenstein. Frankenstein stands firm and says he won’t create a bride for the creature. The creature warns Frankenstein that he will be there on Frankenstein’s wedding night. After cleaning up and dumping the body, Frankenstein heads back off the island. Then he’s arrested for murder. 

Danny - Excellent work. However, putting materials in quotes was not necessary. While it is heavily implied in the text that the materials mentioned are at least partially from corpses, that analysis does not belong in a summary. You also did not need to reference every place Frankenstein stopped at while traveling. Summarizing that as “travels through England” or similar would suffice. 

Jazz woke up to the sound of banging on her bedroom door. Her head felt muzzy and she looked at the door trying to make sense of the sound. For a few seconds there was quiet and Jazz started to drift again. 

The banging came back louder, this time accompanied by yelling. 

“Jasmine,” Vlad shouted from the other side of the door, “I know you’re in there!”

Jazz blinked. Of course she was in here. It was— she muzzily looked at her alarm clock— 12:07 AM and she was asleep. She should still be asleep. She was going to do that now. 

“Jasmine, if you don’t respond, I’m going to take that as permission to enter your room.”

That woke Jazz up. She did not want Vlad in her room. Not at all. 

She jumped out of bed and pulled on a sweatshirt. The door handle jiggled. “Don’t you dare open that door, Vladislav!” she yelled, “You know that’s a violation of our contract!” The doorknob stopped jiggling and Jazz flung open the door. 

“What the hell do you want?” This was not how she wanted to spend her night. She barely got enough sleep as it was.

On the other side of the door, Vlad stood in the stupid suit he always wore. He looked slightly ruffled and very, very pissed. Great. Shutting the door in his face was probably not a good idea. 

“As you know,” he started calmly, “Your brother made an imprudent choice today and told his teacher about his secret.”

Jazz decided that when everything was over, and she and Danny were back in a stable living situation, she was going to strangle Vlad. Slowly. He did not get to wake her up in the middle of the night for a dramatic monologue without consequences. 

“After your argument, during which very little was actually clarified, I decided it was a good idea to go over and make sure your parents were in the loop so they weren’t blindsided when he asked them about it.”

Jazz felt a flush creep up her neck. She should have done that immediately. She was the responsible one. Why didn’t she think of that? 

“Imagine my surprise when I get there and find that you made an imprudent disclosure as well.”

Jazz felt all the blood drain from her face. She did do that, didn’t she? With all the chaos, Jazz had forgotten about the recording she’d given her parents that— had it really been just that morning?

Vlad was looking at her expectantly. Oh, right, she had to say something. 

“I was just trying to help.” It sounded weak, even to her own ears. 

“You thought that giving a recording to your parents detailing my transformation and first few years with my powers would help? The same parents that rejected your brother for the same thing less than a month ago?” he yelled. Indignation colored voice and when he said it like that, Jazz couldn’t blame him. He wasn’t seeing the whole picture, though. 

“Mom and Dad just think being a half-ghost is dangerous,” she hesitated, “and curable. You’ve been like this for twenty years. I thought if they knew that, they might understand that he’s not sick, that he’s fine the way he is.”

Vlad looked less than impressed by her logic. Well, at least Danny was still asleep. 

“You did what!” Danny yelled from right behind her. 

Jazz yelped and winced. She forgot how utterly silent he could be. 

“Hi, Danny!” Jazz squeaked out. If it hadn’t been obvious she was trying to hide something before, it was now. 

“Did you seriously tell Mom and Dad Vlad’s secret!? Seriously!? Right after you got on me for telling Lancer?” Danny looked even more pissed than Vlad and Jazz could admit that she was being a little hypocritical. 

“I actually gave them the recording before you told Lancer.” Her voice was meek and shaky. Not a great way to stay in control of the situation.

Danny threw up his hands. “I actually don’t know if that makes it better or worse!” 

Jazz felt like she was going to cry, but she could also feel Vlad’s smugness at Danny taking his side rolling off him in waves. There had to be a way for her to get a hold of the situation. She’d just been trying to do the right thing.

One of lines from Danny’s stupid book came to mind: “ Yet even thus I loved them to adoration; and to save them, I resolved to dedicate myself to my most abhorred task. ” She hadn’t wanted to tell them, she’d hesitated, a lot, but it had to be done. She needed to convince them that Danny was okay. 

“Danny, Mom and Dad are only being the way they are because they think you’re ‘severely ecto-contaminated’ and in constant danger. If I can show them that you’re not in any danger, maybe they won’t be so adamant about fixing you!” She swallowed. Danny had his arms crossed and brow furrowed. Yeah, okay, it was a touchy subject. But, still. “Vlad’s been around for 20 years, he’s a perfect example of a physically healthy half-ghost.”

Vlad cleared his throat and Jazz whirled to face him. “Might I remind you of the re-emergence of my ecto-acne that occurred just last year.” He raised an eyebrow. “I am not the best example if you want to convince your parents that your brother is healthy.” 

That… was not something Jazz had considered. Okay, but still, Vlad was still around . That had to mean something. If only she had stayed to see their reaction.

“ But a blight had come over my existence, and I only visited these people for the sake of the information they might give me on the subject in which my interest was so terribly profound. ” She had been focused on one goal when visiting her parents. It was understandable. She still wished she had taken the time to talk with them instead of just dropping off information. 

She turned back towards Danny. He was glaring at her. “That’s not the point, Jazz,” he said, “It wasn’t your secret to tell and you did it anyway. And you can’t use the excuse that it was your secret too or that you didn’t know, because it wasn’t and you did.”

“Quite so, little badger,” Vlad said smugly. 

Danny whirled on him and poked a finger at him. “Just because I’m agreeing with you on this one thing does not mean I think you’re any less of a Froot Loop or right about literally anything else.” 

Vlad’s face soured. 

“Then let's keep talking about secrets,” Vlad said, “Let’s talk about that secret of yours that you decided to share, Daniel.”

Vlad loomed over them and Jazz was suddenly reminded that Vlad was very powerful and, often, very fickle. Danny took a step back into a fighting stance. Jazz put a hand on his shoulder. This was not something they wanted to turn into a brawl. This was not something they could win. Not with their current resources.

“While Jasmine’s indiscretion was unacceptable, it did not put anybody in danger. Yours did .” He sounded beyond pissed. 

“Yeah, right,” Danny said, obviously not taking it as seriously as he needed to. “If he tries to actually call CPS, I can overshadow him.” 

Jazz stared at her brother. Did he really just say that? She honestly couldn’t decide whether the blasé attitude about taking away someone’s autonomy or the lack of planning was worse. 

A vein bulged in Vlad’s brow. She gave him a side-long look. She knew very well he didn’t care about what overshadowing did to someone’s autonomy. It must have been the lack of planning that bugged him. 

“Do you know anything about how overshadowing works, Daniel?” Vlad hissed. Jazz swore there was steam coming off him. Actually, there most definitely was. He was pissed. 

Danny looked up at him, defiant. “I know that I can use it to change people’s minds.” 

Vlad narrowed his eyes. “For how long, Daniel? To what extent?” 

Danny shrunk back a little before jutting out his chin. “To the extent that you can change who they vote for. That's why you're mayor, isn’t it?”

Okay, Jazz would admit reminding Vlad that they knew all about his overshadowing ways wasn’t necessarily a bad move. It was good for him to remember that they were on the same playing field. However, based on the fact more steam seemed to be coming off Vlad instead of less, Jazz really didn’t think it was making the point he was hoping for. 

“ The monster saw my determination in my face and gnashed his teeth in the impotence of anger. ” She and Danny were playing with fire and there was no one who could help if they got burned.  

“Yes,” Vlad hissed, raw fury lacing his voice, “I could overshadow a few dozen people for half a minute each and make sure they filled in the bubble I wanted on the ballot.” Jazz looked at him blankly and she could see her brother doing the same next to her. “I’ve overshadowed a handful of business owners for an hour or two so that they would sign their companies over to me after a few weeks of business negotiations so that it at least looked plausible. Once, I even overshadowed a very drunk man who had very nearly seen too much in order to force him to imbibe three more beers and mentally suggested that the ‘man who walked through a door’ that he had seen was a hallucination induced by extreme intoxication. Do you know what each of those things had in common?”

Jazz still wasn’t getting it. It just sounded like a collection of really shitty things Vlad had done over the years to her, but there was a growing look of apprehension on Danny’s face that Jazz didn’t like. 

Vlad caught Danny’s expression, too. “You know what I’m talking about, Daniel.” He grinned meanly. “Are you willing to tell me where you went wrong, or are you going to make me spell it out?” Danny remained silent. “Nothing to say? Fine, I’ll explain,” he paused and straightened his suit jacket, “Overshadowing only works when you have a specific task for a specific amount of time. You might be able to influence their thoughts momentarily, but their thoughts revert soon after you give back control and they will dismiss any thoughts they don’t agree with.”

Jazz looked at Vlad closely “You mean, people will think they’re having intrusive thoughts or something?” she asked.

Vlad gave her a considering look. “I suppose that’s a good enough explanation.” He looked sharply back at Danny. “The point is,” Vlad ground out, “We are not able to overshadow people into forgetting about what they’ve seen or making any long term behavioral changes short of giving them actual brain damage and that still isn’t a guarantee. 

Jazz got the distinct feeling the bit about brain damage was something Vlad learned from experience. A shiver ran up her spine. Another line from that horrible novel sprang to mind: “ As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery .” She really, truly hoped that she was wrong. 

“When you overshadow someone to gain an advantage, you need to target decision points,” Vlad continued. It was times like this that Jazz remembered Vlad really had offered to mentor Dany in the beginning, even if he had offered up ridiculous terms that no one in their right mind would accept. “In particular, choose to go after a decision that is ratified by an action that cannot be undone. Have a competitor sign a contract in front of several dozen witnesses, for example.” He glared down at Danny.  “DO NOT try and impart a vague idea like ‘Don’t call CPS’ onto a subject.” 

Danny glared back up at Vlad, unflinching. Jazz flinched for him. She knew he was being fueled by pride and fear. “I managed to ‘impart the vague idea’ of ‘Let Sam go on vacation’ on the Mansons,” Danny pointed out. He made air quotes as he said “impart the vague idea.”  

“Danny,” Jazz hissed, because that was okay. But, it was both a good point and something Jazz didn’t know about. Just how often was Danny using overshadowing to get what he wanted?

Vlad sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “And how did you go about that?” he asked. 

Danny shifted uncomfortably, “I staged a conversation and had them both say they thought it was a good idea.” 

“So, you used two people against each other to act as witnesses to a decision,” Vlad summarized. “More importantly, you targeted a singular decision.” Vlad’s eyes started to glow a dull read. “If you wanted to try something like that on your teacher, you would need to overshadow him every time he thought about calling CPS, because that is not a one off decision. And even then, there is no witness you could get that would hold him accountable in the same way your friend would hold her parents to account if they changed their mind. It is an entirely different situation and you are a fool if you can’t recognize it.”

“ Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you, ” the narrator quoted inside her head. 

Danny looked like he was on the edge of saying something scathing in response before he bit his lip and took a breath. “Fine,” Danny spit out, “Overshadowing isn’t going to work, but it’s still fine. He’s not going to tell anyone.”

“No,” Vlad said darkly, “No, he’s not.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jazz asked wearily. That didn’t sound good. That didn’t sound good at all. 

“I mean,” Vlad said, glaring down at both her and Danny, “I’m not going to let your busybody of a teacher put all of our lives in danger. I’ve already taken some precautions and I’m making plans for if those don’t work. You’ve put us all in a very difficult situation.”

“What kind of precautions are you talking about?” Danny asked. His stance was shifting again, like he was ready to transform at a moment's notice. Jazz knew that at this point it was a reflex born out of being in far too many ghost fights. She could only hope Vlad realized that too and was not going to use it as an excuse to escalate. 

“The kind of precautions I take anytime I find a threat,” Vlad said, eyes glowing even brighter, “I analyze the risk for likelihood and consequences, I implement a mitigation plan, and then I reevaluate the situation.” Jazz recognized this from some of the paperwork she had seen on his desk. Was he really bringing business risk management into this? 

“Right now,” he continued, “your teacher is unlikely to do anything because he has at least a modicum of sense, but in the unlikely event that he acts, the consequences would be devastating. That means he’s a moderate threat, so I’ve put several bugs on his person and cut his phone lines. When he goes into work tomorrow, I’m going to be ready to interfere if need be. I’m willing to work with a moderate threat. 

“However,” Vlad’s eyes darkened even as they glowed even brighter, “If, when I reevaluate, I find that poor Mr. Lancer has become a high or critical threat…” Vlad gave a mean smile. “Well, then, I suppose Casper High is going to need to find a new English teacher.”

Jazz’s heart caught in her throat. That could not have been the threat she thought it was. Vlad wouldn’t— She looked up at the man who repeatedly fought with her little brother over petty grudges. He definitely would. 

“Don’t hurt him, Vlad,” Danny growled. “I’m warning you.”

“Oh no!” Vlad said in mock fear, stepping back and raising his hands, “A warning! Whatever will I do?” He leaned down and grinned in a way Jazz had long since learned signaled the precursor to a fight.

There was no way Jazz was willing to deal with a fight on top of everything else. “Great!” Jazz said with forced cheer, “I’m glad there’s at least one plan, but let’s focus on not getting to that point.” She didn’t want to think about what would happen if it did. She was sure she and Danny would run, but would that protect them? If the GIW found out, would they give up just because Danny went into the ghost zone? “We just need to make sure that Lancer understands, and keeps understanding, why getting the government involved would be a bad idea.”

Vlad huffed, but dropped out of his ready stance. “Of course,” he said, voice derisive, but seemingly honest, “It’s not like I enjoy making people disappear. I’m just willing to do what I need to in order to protect what’s mine.”

Jazz blanched. “I enjoy” implied that it was something he’d done before. She glanced at Danny. She wasn’t sure he noticed, so she was going to just ignore everything about it. She wouldn’t subject her little brother to that thought if he hadn’t already had it.

Danny narrowed his eyes. “You’re not going to be hurting anyone,” he growled. 

Vlad scoffed. “Once again, I’m not going to if I don’t have to, but—” Vlad smiled cruelly, “—if I do have to hurt a certain English teacher, I think you’re going to be more to blame than me.”

Another quote floated through her brain: “ I was guiltless, but I had indeed drawn down a horrible curse upon my head, as mortal as that of crime. ” No. That was wrong. Vlad’s actions were his own. Neither she nor Danny were responsible.  

Jazz tackled Danny as he launched himself at Vlad. She couldn’t blame her brother for reacting like that, but it wasn’t something she was going to let him do either. Vlad smiled down at them as she sat on Danny. She glared back up at him. “That was uncalled for,” she said shortly. 

She flicked the back of Danny’s head as she felt him begin to transform. “Ow!” he yelped, glaring up at her. Jazz was glad that he hadn’t decided to just phase through her while human. It would have been harder to get his attention if he had done that. 

“Vlad’s goading you,” she reminded Danny, “He’s upset and he thinks beating you up will help him regain a sense of control. Don’t give him that satisfaction.” That was part of their agreement. Vlad couldn’t attack Danny unless Danny attacked first. Danny wasn’t supposed to attack either, but she knew Vlad wasn’t going to kick them out if he did. They, meanwhile, would leave if Vlad did anything. 

“This sucks,” Danny huffed into the floor. Yeah. Yeah. it did. 

Jazz looked up to meet Vlad’s sour look. “Are you done?” she asked, voice hard and eyes cold. 

For a second it looked like, no, he was not done and he was going to escalate the situation even further. His eyes burned and he back straightened for one tense second before all of the tension left his body and he ran his hand down his face. His eyes were back to blue. 

“Yes,” Vlad muttered, “I think we’re done here. Just—” He sighed. “—Don’t tell anyone any more secrets. I don’t care what the secret is or whose it is. Keep it to yourself.” 

Jazz glanced at the wall. “Yeah.” She didn’t want to apologize. She was trying to to help and Vlad was a sleazy jerkwad. Danny was right though, it was still his secret. “I’m sorry I told someone without your permission. I won’t do it again.”

“Hmph,” Vlad said, straightening his jacket, “See that you don’t.” He glared down at  Danny. “That goes for you, too, Daniel.” He strode off before Danny could respond. It was probably for the best. 

Jazz felt something shift under her. “Could you get off me?” Danny squawked.

Oh. Right. She was still sitting on her brother. She scrambled to get up, then offered him a hand. 

He ignored it and Jazz awkwardly let it flop. 

“Danny…” she started. She hoped she didn’t sound whiny. She wasn’t even really feeling whiny, but it was after midnight, after all of that, she was just so tired. 

Danny didn’t let her finish. “Look, Jazz.” He stopped. Ran a hand through his hair. Breathed. “Look. I’m just—  I really don’t feel like talking right now. Could we just do this tomorrow?”

Jazz felt her heart break. She wasn’t trying to do anything. She just wanted to offer a bit of comfort because Vlad was a jerk and it wasn’t Danny’s fault. Instead of saying any of that, she found herself asking, “Are you still mad at me?”

His sigh turned into a stifled yawn. “I’m not—” he started to protest before looking away and sighed tiredly. “Yeah, I’m still mad.” He looked up at her. “Can we do this tomorrow?”

Jazz’s shoulders slumped and she curled in on herself. This was not how she wanted things to go. She just wanted to help. “Yeah,” she said simply. “Night, Danny.” She turned and started back into her room. 

“Night, Jazz” Danny called out to her as she closed the door. She could hear his footsteps getting farther away. One last quote from Danny’s stupid, grating audiobook came to mind: “ I walked about the isle like a restless spectre, separated from all it loved and miserable in the separation. ” As soon as she was sure he was out of earshot, she sunk to the floor and cried. 

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 4/1/2007

Summary of Chapter 21

Frankenstein washes up in Ireland and then immediately gets arrested for murder. He is shown the corpse by the magistrate to try and elicit a reaction. The body belongs to Clerval, so Frankenstein slips into a fever for two months due to shock. The magistrate finds letters on Frankenstein and uses the information to write to Frankenstein’s father. Frankenstein’s father comes to Ireland to try and free Frankenstein. After that, Frankenstein is quickly freed because he was on the island with his lab at the time of the murder and so couldn’t have killed Clerval. Then Frankenstein and his father head back to Geneva.

Danny - Good Summary, but also think about how to summarize what Frankenstein is thinking. A lot of this chapter was focused on Frankenstein’s despair at losing Clerval and relief that his family was safe. Think about how that affects the narrative.

After Lancer’s conversation with Danny, he’d been sorely tempted to go and talk with the Fenton’s immediately. He’d held off knowing that he wasn’t in the right mindset. Despite how horrible the entire situation was, it wasn’t urgent. Danny had been living with Vlad for over a month. The Fentons had known their son was a ghost for over a month. It wasn’t a complete mess. It could wait until he’d gotten some sleep.

The end of the day couldn’t have come soon enough. He could do his job, that was his priority. But his plan to visit the Fentons after school was gnawing on his mind all day. By the time the final bell rang, Lancer had kindly requested that Principal Ishiyama fill in as detention monitor by reminding her that he had another job as a social worker that he didn't ask for and still needed to deal with; one that she had given him. She wished him luck.

As he stood outside the Fentons’ door, he knew he would need it. It took him even longer to knock than it had the last time he had made a home visit. He just stood there staring at the house in front of him wondering if that was where his student had died. 

And then came back.

Even after he finally worked up the courage to knock, he was left just standing there for several minutes. The Fentons weren't answering. He knocked again and waited several more minutes. Just as he was about to give up and accept that nobody was home, a very disheveled Maddie Fenton opened the door.

Her hood was off, but her goggles rested on her forehead. Her jumpsuit had several stains on it, most likely from coffee, judging by the color. (Hopefully not ectoplasm.)Her eyes were red and puffy. It looked like she had been crying.

”Is this a bad time?“ William asked quietly. 

That wasn't what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to barge in and confront the Fentons. He was supposed to have a serious conversation with them about why it wasn't okay to reject their son. He was supposed to figure out why one of their children was dead, if it would ever be safe for their child to live there again. Looking at the distressed woman in front of him, William wasn't sure he could do that.

Maddie gave him an attempt at a smile. “It's fine,” she said, “Jack and I need to take a break anyway.” She sniffed, ”Besides, I think we need to have a conversation. We know you know.” She hesitated. “You do know, right?” There was a tinge of manic worry to her voice, like she wasn’t sure if she had given too much away. 

“ The magistrate observed me with a keen eye and of course drew an unfavourable augury from my manner.”  

He shouldn’t jump to conclusions. There was still a possibility there was something he wasn’t seeing.

“I know,” William said softly. Maddie still looked on the edge of either slamming the door in his face or grabbing the infamous “Fenton Anti-Creep Stick”. He sighed, “I know Danny is half-ghost.”

“He’s not a ghost, he’s just severely ecto-contaminated,” Maddie snapped. William blinked. She looked desperate as she said it, like it was a life-line she was holding onto. She looked terrible. 

“ The human frame could no longer support the agonies that I endured, and I was carried out of the room in strong convulsions .”

The fight left her suddenly and she slumped. “You're going to have to come down to the lab with me,“ Maddie said, sounding almost defeated, ”Jack and I have been making progress and there are some experiments we can't leave unattended.

“What kind of experiments?” William asked with more than a little trepidation.

Maddie stopped walking, causing William to very nearly run into her. “We've been determining the stability of some ectoplasm,” she said. She stared at him for a few long, tense seconds before she suddenly turned and started walking again.

“Whose ectoplasm?” William asked, finding his voice as they reached the door to the lab and Maddie quickly typed in a pin. She remained silent for long enough that William thought she might not have heard him. 

Just as he was about to repeat the question, she answered, shoulders slumping as she did so.“You know Danny is Phantom,“ she said. He opened his mouth to respond but she continued. William ”You know we've been working on a cure.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. ”We finally got a hold of some of his ectoplasm this morning. We're getting closer.”

William swallowed. That was not what he wanted to hear. That was not what he wanted to hear at all. ”

“The examination, the presence of the magistrate and witnesses, passed like a dream from my memory when I saw the lifeless form of Henry Clerval stretched before me .” 

No. That wasn’t what was happening. Danny was dead — half -dead — but he was fine. 

“I'm not sure—” William started, but Maddie cut him off.

“I think Jack needs to be here for the rest of this conversation,” she said, swinging open the door to the basement lab and starting to head down the stairs. William followed quickly and unhappily. She was right, but he didn't like being interrupted.

The portal was closed this time as he entered the lab. Its shadows were in their correct place, however it was no cleaner than it was before. It may have actually been messier.

“Jack!” Maddie called out, “Mr. Lancer’s here.” Jack Fenton shifted out of a corner of the lab and William jumped. The man was in Day-Glo orange, but, with how still he had been, he'd looked like part of the lab itself.

As they got closer, William could see Jack looked even worse than his wife. There were dark bags under his eyes.His hair was in disarray, like he had repeatedly run a hand through it. And he looked like he hadn't slept well in days.

Jack huffed. “We're having this conversation now, then? I was hoping we'd be at least a little farther along by the time you came around.”

William blinked. ”Farther along in what?“

“Our analysis of Danny's ectoplasm,” Jack ran his hand through his hair again. “Vladdie told us you knew.”

William cleared his throat. He didn't really know what to think of that. It was true, but how much communication did they have with Vlad? How much did Vlad know? Why did Vlad know? Why did Vlad insinuate all this was because Danny was gay?

Instead of asking any of those questions, William settled for a simple, ”I do.“

“We finally got a hold of some of Danny's ectoplasm early this morning,” Jack went on. “We've been running tests on it all day.”

William felt his throat close up. He knew that the Fentons were scientists. He knew they had strong opinions on ghosts. He had no clue what that meant for Danny. Surely they wouldn’t— 

Before he could ask what kind of tests they were talking about, William was taken by the shoulder and pointed towards a computer screen by Jack Fenton. “These are Danny’s cells while he’s in quote ‘human form’. You can see here where the ectoplasm has incorporated itself into the cell membranes,” Jack said, pointing to a blown-up image of what William vaguely recognized as a human skin cell from a lab he’d had to teach last year. “It’s hard to say what kind of effects it’s having on Danny’s overall biology just from this, but they’re almost certainly unhealthy.”

William hummed. “Why do you say that?” he asked. It was easy to forget how smart Jack Fenton was with how he portrayed himself in public. However, it was also hard to forget about Danny’s insistence that he hadn’t experienced any health problems after his accident… well aside from the ghost powers and being half-dead. 

“Ecto-contamination is never good for humans,” Maddie said, backing up her husband. “It can cause a vast array of side-effects including uncontrollable ecto-energy discharge.”

“Danny seems to have quite a bit of control over those ghost powers of his.” William’s eyes darkened. The Fentons may have gotten him side-tracked by talking about their research, but he was here for a reason. “I think the fact that he’s half-dead might be a bigger problem.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Maddie snapped, “There’s no such thing as half-dead. Danny’s just severely ecto-contaminated. He didn’t die.”

“ Why did I not die? More miserable than man ever was before, why did I not sink into forgetfulness and rest? ”

He could hear it in her voice, the insistence that her child could not be dead because what would that mean for her. 

“ Death snatches away many blooming children, the only hopes of their doting parents; how many brides and youthful lovers have been one day in the bloom of health and hope, and the next a prey for worms and the decay of the tomb! Of what materials was I made that I could thus resist so many shocks, which, like the turning of the wheel, continually renewed the torture? ” 

She was in denial, as any parent would be. Why would she accept that her son had died in her care if there was any other possible explanation. But, Danny was very adamant about his condition, that he wasn’t human anymore. She couldn’t bury her head forever. 

“Of course not, Mads,” Jack said, putting an arm on his wife’s shoulder. “Danny’s going to be perfectly fine once we get this ghostliness out of him.” 

Oh. They were both in denial. 

“Your son believes that his ‘ghostliness’ as you call it, is part of him,” William said, keeping his voice carefully neutral. His hand twitched towards the pamphlet that he still had in his social work binder. 

“He’s wrong,” Maddie said, her voice sharp. “He’s infected. He’s not—” She breathed in sharply, mimicking an action he had seen Jasmine Fenton take hundreds of times. “It’s dangerous,” she said much more calmly. “And it’s not just this.”

William had been expecting that at least in part. He didn’t have a great answer. “I know the ghost fights are dangerous,” William said placatingly, “but—”

“Ghost fights?” Jack cut him off, “We couldn’t be prouder of Danny-boy for using his powers to fight ghosts!” Jack puffed out his chest slightly. “It’s that kind of thing that makes him a Fenton!” Jack’s face turned dark. “What’s dangerous is this.”

He pulled up a video of more ecto-contaminated cells and pressed play. For a moment nothing much happened. The cells moved slightly, just like normal human cells, before they suddenly stiffened. William watched in abject horror as the cell membranes corroded and the interiors of the cells seemed to melt out into the rest of the slide. 

“That,” Maddie said, making William jump, “is what happens when Danny’s cells are exposed to a mild ecto-electric field.” Her face was drawn and solemn. “An ecto-electric field is something a ghost’s core provides anytime they use their powers. It’s a miracle he’s not dead and I suspect it’s only going to get worse with time.”

William felt all the blood drain from his face and his heart drop into his stomach. He didn’t know much about biology or ectology, but just from looking at those cells, he could believe the Fentons. They might have been right. How could they have been right? Danny had sounded so sure of himself, of who and what he was. 

“ This idea was probably suggested by the extreme agitation I had exhibited when the mode of the murder had been described. ”

“Does Danny…” he began to ask, but couldn’t finish. Of course Danny didn’t know how much danger he was in. He wouldn’t be so confident if he were. And, he’d been taken in by Danny’s demeanor. Just because Danny believed something didn’t mean it was true. 

“No,” Maddie said, seeming to intuit the rest of his question, or at least enough of its meaning to formulate an answer. “Danny thinks he’s a superhero. He isn’t going to listen to anyone who says otherwise.”

The words crashed onto William like a ton of bricks. He knew teenagers. No teenager, and no teenage boy especially, would pass up the chance to be a real-life superhero. And there was that recklessness too. Why would Danny listen to his parents? Nothing bad had happened yet. But, why would Jasmine take his side? Why would she listen to him over her parents who were experts in the field?

“ My father was enraptured on finding me freed from the vexations of a criminal charge, that I was again allowed to breathe the fresh atmosphere and permitted to return to my native country. I did not participate in these feelings, for to me the walls of a dungeon or a palace were alike hateful. ”

“There’s got to be a way to convince him,” Jack said, slumped in his chair by the computer. “We already failed him once. We can’t fail him again.”

That didn’t sound good. “What do you mean by that?” William asked. Were they talking about how they hadn’t been able to convince Danny when he had originally told them? Or was it something else?

“We’re— It’s—” Jack released a tired breath. “It was an accident.”

William narrowed his eyes. “Does this have to do with why Danny’s—” His breath hitched. He wouldn’t say dead.  “Why Danny’s the way he is?”

“William,” Maddie said next to him. Her voice was steel. “The government can’t get involved. You don’t understand what they would do to him.” There was a glimmer by her waist and William very suddenly felt on the verge of being hunted. 

“I—” He swallowed. Right. He couldn’t involve CPS, but he could still help. He was the school social worker, no matter how unwillingly. And the kids already had alternate living arrangements. “I know: no outsiders. The GIW have visited Casper High before. I don’t want any of my students getting involved with them.” He glanced at Jack and Maddie. They were on edge. “I still need to know what’s going on.” He could only hope they wouldn’t call him on the fact he no longer had any leverage. 

Jack and Maddie glanced at each other, seemingly locked in silent communication. Jack squeezed his wife’s hand as they seemed to come to an agreement. 

“The fall Danny started high school,” Maddie started, “we finished our ghost portal. It was the pinnacle of achievement, something we had been researching and striving towards for over twenty years. It didn’t work.” She breathed deeply, steadying herself. “I didn’t work and then we left it plugged in.”

“We didn’t think much of it,” Jack said, much softer than William had ever heard him. “The kids were old enough to know better to go messing around with stuff and we got complacent with leaving stuff out.” He snorted. “We didn’t really think about how much Danny might want to show off in front of his friends.” 

William blanched. It wasn’t just Danny. At least two other kids had witnessed whatever horrible accident had happened. 

“We’re not really sure on the details,” Maddie said somewhat nervously, “We heard most of it from Jazz over the phone, but, well, Danny went inside and turned the portal on.”

“We’re honestly not sure how he survived at all,” Jack said, sounding completely wrung-out. “That amount of ecto-radiation should have killed anyone.”

William sucked in a breath, somewhere between fury and horror, “Your son, your fourteen year-old son, went into one of your inventions and very nearly died. He thinks he is dead.” William’s eyes burned. “How did you not know?”

Neither Fenton would meet his eye. “We—” Maddie started before trailing off. 

Jack took over. “We didn’t pay enough attention to him. When it first happened, we were just so excited the portal was working, we didn’t notice anything wrong," he said sadly. “When his grades started slipping and he started missing curfew, we knew something was up, but we couldn’t figure it out. Him being the town’s ghostly superhero wasn’t exactly the first thing that came to mind, especially after that incident with Jazz” He looked at the ground. “It was our fault that he wasn’t comfortable enough to tell us.”

“ I remembered, shuddering, the mad enthusiasm that hurried me on to the creation of my hideous enemy, and I called to mind the night in which he first lived ”

Maddie nodded, squeezing her husband's hand. “We should have made it clearer that we would love him no matter what. Maybe then he wouldn’t have been so scared.”

William nodded slowly. No sane person would have come to the conclusion their son was a ghost. It still didn’t excuse the fact that they let their son get hurt like that. It didn’t excuse the egregious degree of lab safety he was still seeing. 

“I want to help you,” William said resolutely. “I want to help you and your family stay together and I’m willing to help your son understand why his condition is so dangerous, but, right now, it’s dangerous for Danny to live here.”

Maddie looked at him sharply. “It’s even more dangerous for him to not get treatment,” she snapped. 

“As I just said, I’m willing to talk to him about that, but this,” he gestured to the lab, “can’t continue.” Jack stood to his full height, 

nearly dwarfing William. “This,” he said, “is how Danny is able to get treatment and nobody is going to stop me from helping my son.”

William put his hands out in a placating gesture. “I’m not asking you to stop working towards a cure. I’m asking you to clean up your work area.” He gestured to the lab again. “You left a highly experimental portal out in the open and one of your kids got very hurt in it and I’m not seeing a lot of improvements.” He pulled himself up to full height. “Look around you, you have beakers full of unidentified liquid out, used slides that I’m assuming have the highly mutated human cells you showed me earlier just stacked next to the microscope, and your ‘incinerator’ is an open trash can you occasionally light a fire in. None of this is safe!”

“Well,” Maddie began, “Sure it’s not the tidiest setup, but kids are almost never down here. It really isn’t—” 

“The last time I was here, you told me Danny plays video games on a computer in the corner of this lab,” William did his best not to shout. “The last time I was here, you told me that you would work to fix all the problems I pointed out. I don’t see any changes. What happened?”

“We cleaned out the fridge,” Jack groused. 

“You were supposed to get a new one.”

“I think what Jack is trying to say,” Maddie started, sounding only slightly frazzled, “is that we’ve been a bit busy trying to track down a cure. We’ve been doing our best, but it can be a bit hard to implement all these safety measures when we have a different, more urgent, safety measure to worry about.” 

William sighed. He could see that. They were focusing on their son’s life more than anything else. It still needed to change. “How long will it take for you to get a cure ready?” he asked dully.

Jack and Maddie looked at each other. “Less than a week,” Maddie said, sounding at least somewhat confident. 

“A few days if we’re lucky,” Jack said, adding much needed optimism onto his wife’s statement. 

WIlliam ran a hand over his head. Why did he always end up in situations he wasn’t qualified for with no backup?

“Fine,” he said, trying his best to keep the frustration out of his voice. “I’ll help talk Danny into taking the cure, but he’s not coming back to live with you until you have your lab cleaned up and I can be confident you can keep it that way.” 

Fury burned in Maddie’s eyes. “You are talking about our son. He belongs home with us.”

William nodded. “You’re right he does. And as soon as you provide a safe living environment, I’m sure he’ll come back, but, for right now, he’s staying with Mr. Masters. I’m sure that it will be just as easy to administer a treatment plan there as it is here.”

Jack and Maddie exchanged glances and WIlliam hoped they weren’t going to call his bluff. There wasn’t actually much he could do about it if they disagreed with him. He could still call CPS, but he didn’t know how they would hide Danny’s half ghost status. It would really only come to that if the Fentons were more likely to hurt Danny than the government was to find out that secret. At that moment, the government was still the far greater danger. 

The Fentons finished their silent conversation and looked back to WIlliam. 

“We’ll keep working on that cure,” Jack said. “but I’m sure we can find some time to start cleaning up while the tests are going. There’s going to be a lot of waiting while the centrifuge runs.”

Maddie nodded, squeezing her husband's hand. “And if Jazz and Danny need to wait a few extra days before coming home, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Even if they are staying with Vlad. ”

The way she said the man’s name wasn’t something WIlliam had time to think about at the moment, even if it was concerning. “Good,” he said instead of addressing it. “I’ll talk to Danny tomorrow about the cure. Maybe hearing it from another adult will help.”

As he left the Fenton house, all he could think about was how terrible the whole situation was. Poor Danny truly thought he was dead, while his parents were doing their absolute best to find a cure. And he couldn’t just try and make the boy go back home because it wasn’t safe. 

William froze halfway through getting into his car.  

He couldn't make Danny do anything.He couldn’t make Danny go back home even if it was safe.  There was no way for him to back up his authority and Danny had made it clear that he wouldn’t do anything he didn’t want to. 

William groaned. Now he had to convince a very stubborn teenage boy to not only trust his parents enough to get treatment, but also to go back home. That would be hard for even the world's best diplomat, and William certainly wasn’t that. Still, he would do what he could. 

One last quote came to mind as he pulled away from the Fentons’: “ ...a feeling that a truce was established between the present hour and the irresistible, disastrous future imparted to me a kind of calm forgetfulness .” How did he get drawn into this?

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 4/3/2007

Summary of Chapter 22

Frankenstein and his father make their way back to Geneva. Frankenstein’s father thinks Frankenstein might be crazy because he keeps insisting that he was at fault for the deaths of Clerval, Justine, and William. Elizabeth writes to him worried that he might not want to marry her. This reminds Frankenstein that the creature warned him that “he had vowed to be with me on my wedding-night.” Frankenstein decides that makes his wedding-night a good time and place to kill the creature, since he will be there. Frankenstein and Elizabet get married and they start to travel for their honeymoon. 

Danny - Keep up the good work.

Danny was feeling… Well, he didn’t really know what he was feeling. Ishiyama had replaced Lancer for detention, and the English teacher had been looking really worried the previous day at lunch. 

He asked Vlad about it, well, as much as he could without admitting he was doubting his decision. He knew Vlad was following Lancer around with those little Vlad-bots of his. Vlad had straight up told him that much. He just needed to know if they had picked up on anything. 

Vlad had just rolled his eyes and said, “No, despite your best attempts, you haven’t succeeded in dooming us both to a life on the run quite yet,” with more drama than Lancer on his yearly Shakespeare kick. 

In short, Danny was safe and he was right. 

That didn’t keep things from being awkward during English class. 

Despite Danny’s desire to not draw any attention to himself, Lancer was sending him worried glances the entire class. Danny had thought that he’d seemed pretty cool with everything, but maybe it had just taken a while to sink in. That happened sometimes,right? And Danny still didn’t know why Lancer hadn’t been supervising detention yesterday. Things were weird.

“What’s Lancer’s problem with you today?” Tucker hissed from the seat next to him. They were supposed to be doing individual work on their final essays, but that never stopped them from whispering to each other. 

“I dunno,” Danny said, feigning confusion. He wasn’t going to tell Sam and Tucker he’d told Lancer about Phantom yet. He’d barely told them about the whole CPS investigation. He just needed some time to get things in order. They could be overprotective in the same way Jazz was. He didn’t need that right now. “Maybe it's the whole CPS thing.”

Tucker sucked in a breath. “Dude,” he started, nervously, “do you need help? Or–”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Danny bit out. He didn’t need this right now. He’d tell Tucker as soon as he was sure he had a handle on everything. He was avoiding anything, really, he just didn’t want to worry them. That was it. Totally. 

Tucker dropped it, but Danny received twice as many worried looks until class ended. 

As Danny gathered up his stuff, Lancer came over to stand next to his desk. “Mr. Fenton,” he said, somewhat sternly, “May I have a word?”

Tucker shot him an almost panicked look and rapidly displayed the hand sign they’d come up with to mean, “Do you need a distraction?” Danny gave a quick sideways motion of his wrist to indicate that no, he did not. 

“Yeah, sure, Mr. Lancer, what do you need?” Danny knew Lancer probably had more questions about the half-ghost thing. He had actually left without a lot of questions the last time. He was probably too distracted by the sheer weirdness of the situation. 

Lancer raised his eyebrow. That was odd. Danny had no idea what that was for. He looked behind him. Oh. Tucker wasn’t leaving. Right. 

Danny sighed and looked back at his friend. “I’m fine Tuck,” he said nonchalantly, “I’ll catch up with you later.”

Tucker gave Danny a worried look, but ultimately got up and left. Mr. Lancer was still standing there. 

“Your friends are worried about you,” Lancer observed neutrally. 

Danny shrugged. “They’re freaked by what’s going on with my parents.”

“Your friends know,” Lancer whispered, something near horror entering his voice. 

Danny had no clue why that was so much of a surprise. He shrugged again, “Sam and Tucker?  I mean, they were there.” Danny grinned. “It would be weird if they didn’t know.”

All the blood drained from Lancer’s face.  Okay, that was weird. Wait… Danny remembered Jazz’s comment from their original confrontation. Yep. He’d just told his teacher that his friends had watched him die. That was technically true, but way less traumatizing than he was sure Lancer believed. 

“It’s fine!” Danny said hurriedly, “They really just want to be supportive.” 

Lancer sighed. “Speaking of,” he said, sitting down in one of the student desks next to Danny, “I talked to your parents yesterday.” 

Danny’s heart sank. That tone did not convey good news. In fact, it conveyed really, really bad news. Danny hadn’t been holding out on an “Oh, hey, your parents are completely cool with your ghostliness now and you can go home tomorrow,” but he was hoping for something better than whatever this tone conveyed. Actually, no, Lancer hadn’t said anything. Danny needed to stop making assumptions. 

“So,” he said, still trying to make himself sound vaguely hopeful, “What did they say?” 

Lancer sighed again and ran a hand over his bald head. Okay, now Danny could safely say this wasn’t going to be good.

“Danny–” he stopped. Breathed. Started again. “Are you sure Phantom, being part-ghost I mean, isn’t hurting you?” 

Danny’s heart plummeting through the floor. “What?” he breathed. This could not be happening. 

“Your parents showed me some slides yesterday,” Lancer continued. He was struggling to speak. Danny was struggling to breath. “They didn’t look good. The ectoplasm in your cells was corroding the cell membranes. It looked like you were melting.”

Melting. Like Dani. Words were getting caught in Danny’s throat. “I’m not…” he stuttered, “That isn’t…” Danny knew he wasn’t melting. He knew he was stable. Frostbite would have mentioned it the last time he’d gotten a checkup if he was. 

Lancer sighed. “I know Phantom is important to you and,” he paused as if debating whether or not he should continue. He continued on, “And I’m not going to lie and say it would be easy to deal with the ghosts without you around, but,” Lancer looked squarely into Danny’s eyes, “if this is hurting you, you need to consider that your parents might be right. You need to consider the possibility that a cure could actually help.” 

Danny looked back at Lancer in horror. How could this be happening? “You’re wrong,” Danny shouted. “This is just the way I am. This is me. I don’t need a cure.”

“Danny…” Lancer trailed off. His expression was one of pity.

“You said you were going to help,” he whispered, fury and desperation lacing his voice. 

“I am trying to help, Danny,” Lancer said calmly. “I know you don’t want to hear this, and I know they’ve hurt you in the past, but your parents might be right. Now–”

Danny stopped listening as Lancer started to prattle on about logistics and housing and things that Danny did not care about in that moment. Danny had trusted him, but Lancer couldn’t return the favor. Danny wanted nothing more than to slip through the floor. 

Actually, Lancer knew. There was nothing stopping him. Danny wanted to slip through the floor, so he did, ignoring the shouting that started above him. 

Thirty minutes later, Danny could hear Jazz calling out to him from his hiding spot in one of the trees behind the school. It was a few hundred yards away from the yellow caution tape cordoning off the damage that his fight with Johnny had caused. Jazz was steadily making her way towards him. 

He didn’t want her to find him. He wanted to turn invisible and hide forever. He wanted to ignore his problems and pretend he didn’t have to deal with any of them. He didn’t want to admit his sister was right. 

It wouldn’t actually do him any good to hide. If Jazz didn’t know what had happened by now, and it was hard to say if she did, he would have to tell her. It would be better to just get it over with.

He slowly floated down out of the tree and approached her from behind. “Hi Jazz,” he said, desolation obvious in his voice. 

Jazz jumped about a foot in the air and squeaked loudly. “Danny!” she exclaimed, voice still creaky. As she recovered from the shock, her eyes turned sad. “Are you okay?” she asked gently. 

Danny felt himself shatter. Just those three words. Why couldn’t he just be stronger. He sat down on the grass, right then and there. “No,” he croaked. He put his head in his hands. He didn’t want to talk about it. 

Jazz knelt down next to him. “Oh, Danny,” she said, looking like she wanted to reach out and hug him. She didn’t. Instead she seemed frozen with her hand halfway to his shoulder.  “Mr. Lancer told me you ran off…”

Danny choked back a sob. Of course, she had talked to him first and he had talked to– “He talked to Mom and Dad,” Danny mumbled. 

“What?” Jazz said, honest confusion lacing her voice. 

“Mr. Lancer,” Danny clarified, still refusing to cry, “he talked to Mom and Dad. He believed them. He thinks I’m sick, too.”

Jazz didn’t hesitate to reach out this time, engulfing him a hug. She hadn’t done that in years. I  felt warm. Tears trailed down Danny’s cheeks. He choked back another sob. 

They stayed like that for almost a minute. Danny not daring to speak for fear of getting even more emotional and Jazz staying quiet for her own reasons. Eventually, though, the bubble had to pop. 

“What do you want to do?” Jazz asked quietly, not letting go of him.

Danny almost laughed. He might have if he didn’t know it would trigger more tears.  If it had been a long time since Jazz had hugged him, it had been even longer since she had asked what he wanted.

“Don’t you have contingencies for this?” he asked, not quite able to keep the bitterness out of his voice. 

Jazz stiffened against him and pulled away. As she made eye contact, Danny realized she was crying, too. “I know I shouldn’t have made decisions for you. I should’ve told you everything right from the beginning.” She was shaking slightly. Danny wasn’t sure what to do. “I should’ve told you I didn’t think Mom and Dad were going to take things well. I shouldn’t have gone to Vlad without telling you. I shouldn’t have said anything to Dora. I shouldn’t have even given Mom and Dad that recording.” 

Her breath hitched and Danny realized she was holding back sobs, the same as him. “I’m so, so sorry,” she whispered like a frantic prayer, “I didn’t mean to take away your autonomy, but that’s exactly what I did. I thought I knew better than anyone else and I made you suffer for it.”

Danny was taken aback. He didn’t think that Jazz was ever going to be self-aware enough to admit that. He thought the best he was ever going to get was an apology for telling Dora what was happening and maybe for dragging him to Vlad’s without consulting him. This, though, this was something else. 

“Hey,” said Danny, softly putting a hand on his sister's shoulder, “I get it. You know how often I fuck up. And,” he breathed, “you were right. I shouldn’t have told Lancer.” He chuckled wetly. “I didn’t consult you and look where we ended up.”

Jazz looked horrified. “Danny, no!” she cried, grabbing on his arm, “You shouldn’t have to feel like you need to consult me, it’s your secret.” She sighed. “And Lancer isn’t your fault. You should have adults in your life you can trust. It isn’t your fault he let you down.”

Danny stared at the ground. He wished she hadn’t put it like that. He still trusted Lancer. He trusted that he honestly thought he was doing what was best for Danny. He supposed his parents were doing the same. If only he could make them see they were wrong. But he wasn’t an expert. There was no way they were going to believe him over their years of expertise. If it hadn’t been for Frostbite, Danny probably would have believed them too.

A thought struck him and he groaned. Why was Jazz always right?

“Danny?” Jazz asked, tears starting to dry on her face. 

“You were right, Jazz,” he said, grinding his palm into the grass under him. 

“No, you deserve your own—”

“Not about that!” Danny said quickly, “I meant—” He took a breath. “You were right about convincing Mom and Dad. We need Frostbite.”

Jazz looked at him warily. “Are you sure?” she asked. “You said you were afraid they would hurt him.” 

“Yeah, I still kinda am…” Danny didn’t meet her eye. “And I’m even more afraid that they’ll just dismiss him because he’s a ghost. But—” Danny met his sister's eyes. “I’m tired of just sitting here and letting everyone else run my life. I want them to listen to me. I want to be able to show them that I know what I’m talking about when it comes to my own body.”

Jazz nodded. “Okay,” she said, putting her hand on Danny’s. “What can I do to help?”

Danny smiled. He could do this.

It didn’t actually take a lot to convince Mr. Lancer to go with them back to Fentonworks. The man was near frantic and having any chance to make sure Danny didn’t run was one he was willing to jump at. He was more than willing to ask Ishiyama to find someone to cover the rest of his classes if Danny agreed not to run off into the Ghost Zone. 

 Danny ended up taking the same car as Lancer, while Jazz said she would meet them there. That was a good thing. She’d be able to pick up the Specter Speeder without any problems, especially since Danny was relatively sure Vlad was in a business meeting. 

“Danny,” Lancer started hesitantly, after a few minutes of awkward silence “When we get to your parents’ house, what are you actually planning on doing?”

Danny stiffened. He hadn’t really explained anything, just told the man to come with him so that he could show him what was going on. Well, it wasn’t the worst plan he’d ever had. 

“I’d prefer to explain when Mom and Dad are there, too. Don’t want to have to repeat myself, you know?” He gave his teacher an awkward smile. 

lancer’s brows furrowed. “Is this something you haven’t told your parents, yet?” he asked. 

Danny shrugged. “I wasn’t willing to risk it before.” He scowled. “Now, I don’t really have a choice.”

Lancer sighed and his shoulders drooped. “Danny,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road, “I know this is hard for you. I know you think the world is against you right now, but me, your parents, everyone who knows, we just want what’s best for you.”

Except Vlad , Danny didn’t say. “I know,” he said, “But you don’t have the whole picture. None of you have been listening.”

Lancer sighed again. He was doing that a lot. “Your parents are experts, Danny,” he said tiredly. “I know you don’t—”

Danny cut Lancer off abruptly, “You don’t know and if you keep saying you do, I’m going to phase through the roof of this car and fly the rest of the way there.” 

Lancer’s face contorted first into shock, then anger, then acceptance. “Okay,” he said calmly, then hesitated. “What do you want me to do?”

Danny huffed. What he wanted was for Lancer to just trust him. What he wanted was for Lancer to understand that his parents’ biases made it really hard to trust anything they said about ghosts. What he wanted was to be able to go back in time and learn all the science he needed to show his parents what was going on without going to anyone else. 

“Can we just not talk right now?” he snapped instead of explaining any of that. . 

Lancer nodded and they spent the next five minutes in excruciatingly awkward silence before pulling up to the Fentons front step. Danny got out without another word, knowing Lancer would follow. 

“What about your sister?” Lancer asked as Danny opened the front door without bothering to knock. It was his house after all. 

“She’ll meet us inside.” 

Danny headed right down to the lab. If his parents were home, and he was certain they would be, that’s where they would be. Mr. Lancer made a small noise of disapproval as Danny jiggled the handle on the lab door to bypass the keypad, but otherwise followed silently. 

As expected, Danny saw both his parents leaned over workbenches. The lab was actually in better shape than he had seen in a long time. There weren’t any spilled beakers he could see, most of the papers were in piles instead of on the floor, and the incinerator had been covered. 

His parents, meanwhile, were a mess. It looked like neither of them had slept in days. His mom’s jumpsuit was halfway tied around her waist as she hunched over the computer, clicking frequently. His dad looked like he was preparing slides. Both of them had grim expressions on their faces. 

Danny froze halfway down the stairs. This was the first time he’d seen his parents since the parent-teacher conference. This was the first time he was going to have an actual conversation with them since he and Jazz had decided it would be better to try and wait until they had calmed down more a week into their stay at Vlad’s. It was—

Danny stumbled as Lancer collided with his back. Danny managed to keep both of them steady, but Lancer yelped, drawing the attention of both elder Fentons. 

They turned with the intent to find and possibly destroy any ghostly intruders, a stance that Danny was very familiar with, but they froze when they saw him. Jack dropped the gun he had just barely picked up. 

“Danny,” Maddie whispered, like she couldn’t believe her eyes, like this was something she had been dreaming of. 

“Hi, Mom,” Danny said, waving sheepishly. He swallowed. “It’s, uh, been a while.”

Maddie nodded dumbly. Jack came up next to his wife and put a hand on her shoulder. Nobody moved for a few long seconds. 

Lancer cleared his throat behind them. “Danny,” he prodded gently, “I believe there was something you wanted to talk to us about.” 

Danny nodded and started making his way down the stairs. 

He stopped again when his mother said, “Oh, good, you talked to him. Thank you, William.” Danny ground his teeth. He was right here, actually willing to have a conversation after over a month and she was still talking to his teacher.

Behind him Lancer cleared his throat, “Well, yes, but Danny has some—”

Danny stopped listening to Lancer stumble his way through explaining a situation he was still confused about. He just slowly made his way over to where his parents were standing. He could do this. 

Lancer was still talking. Danny didn’t care. “Look,” he said, cutting off Lancer mid-ramble, “I’m not sick. This, Phantom, isn’t an illness.”

“Danno,” his dad started, looking sad, like he was the one who had to keep explaining that his existence wasn’t a disease, “We know—”

“No,” Danny snapped before his dad could any further, “You don’t know. I am literally a ghost. I have a core. Even if that was a bad thing, which it’s not, that’s not exactly something you can just get rid of.”

His parents had been exchanging glances the entire time he had been talking. “Danny,” his mom tried again, “We have proof this time. We got some samples and—”

“They’re melting. I know.” Danny did his best not to roll his eyes. His parents were really and truly worried. They thought he was going to melt, like one of the clones. “I’m sure Vlad gave you plenty of damaged cells, but those aren’t mine. My cells don’t melt like that.”

His parents glanced at each other again. “Vladdie was just trying to help, Danno,” he father tried. “I know it’s hard to give this kind of thing up, but we’re getting close to a cure. You’ll feel better after we get that ghost out of you, you’ll see.”

Danny let his dad talk. He wasn’t going to get through to them. He could give them some of his cells to study. That could work. He was pretty sure that whatever samples his parents had were from clones, at least from the melting comment, but he couldn’t be sure. His parents could be just doing something to his cells that made them very unstable, but would never happen outside lab conditions. Well…. unless they made whatever it was into a weapon and shot it at him, but that was a different issue. 

No, he’d known he was going to have to take them to Frostbite. He’d said as much to Jazz. It still hurt that they weren’t willing to listen to him. 

He perked up as his core thrummed gently in response to a disturbance coming through the portal. Jazz was almost here. 

“I know you’re not going to listen to me,” Danny said sourly, cutting off whatever argument his dad was trying to make. He breathed, trying to let go of the bitterness he was feeling, at least enough to keep it out of his voice. “I know that there’s not much I can say to change your mind, but I might know someone who will.”

“There’s someone else who knows about all this?” Mr. Lancer asked and Danny almost jumped. He’d honestly forgotten that his teacher was even there. He’d forgotten, but he shouldn’t have. It was almost as important for Mr. Lancer to meet Frostbite as his parents. 

Danny gave a half-shrug. “Technically, there are a lot of people that know. They just—” He rubbed his arms. “—don’t live here. Or really live at all?” He paused, thinking it over. “Or maybe some of them do, I’m not really clear on if born-ghosts are considered alive or not.”

“Ghosts!” Maddie yelled, voice shrill and shaky. “Ghosts know your secret!? Why are there ghosts that know your secret?”

Danny rubbed his upper arm. Now would be a really good time for Jazz to get here. “They’ve, uh, always known. Ghosts don’t really see the same way humans do and my core is really obvious to them. It’s pretty impossible to hide from most of them.” Vlad definitely seemed to be an exception to that and he hadn’t clocked on Vlad at first either. Maybe it was a half-ghost thing.

Maddie rubbed at her temples with one hand. “Okay,” she said with forced calm, “Every ghost in town knows who you are and it sounds like there’s a ghost you want us to meet who will convince us that you’re ‘fine.’” She took a deep breath. “So, where is this ghost?”

“Uh,” Danny really didn’t think it would be that easy. He didn’t think his mom especially would be willing to talk to any ghost without a lot of convincing. “Frostbite’s in the Far Frozen. It’s a ways out, but it’s an easy drive.”

Jack looked like he was going to say something, but Maddie put her hand on his arm and gave him a look. She turned back to Danny. “Okay, sweetie, let's say we’re willing to meet him. How do we get there? Or are you asking us to allow… him to use our portal?”

Jazz chose that moment to drive through the portal in the Specter Speeder. “Sorry I’m late!” she said as she hopped out of the cockpit. “I almost ran into Skulker on the way here and it caused a bit of a delay.”

“Are you okay?” Danny asked, concerned. Skulker didn’t usually bother anyone but him, but the ghost could be petty at times. 

“I’m fine,” Jazz said as she dusted herself off. “As soon as I started calling him Ghost X again, he left pretty quickly. What did I miss?”

Danny grinned. “Mom was just asking how we were going to meet Frostbite.”

Jazz turned to stare at their parents, “Oh, they’ve agreed to meet him?” 

Danny looked expectantly at his mom and dad. They shot furtive glances at each other. “We’d be thrilled to meet this…” Maddie stopped, looking like she was searching for a word. “Frostbite. We’re just not sure how much time we can take away from our work. Maybe one of us should stay here and—”

“You both really need to be there for Danny,” Jazz cut in smoothly. “But, If you're that worried about it, I can stay here and keep whatever experiments you need running.” She looked around the lab to the workbenches in the corner. “Slide prep?” she asked. Jack nodded cautiously. “I can do that, but you really should take some of the already prepared slides with you. Frostbite’s a doctor and I’m sure he’d be fascinated by what you’ve been working on.”

“A ghost is a doctor?” Jack asked dubiously. 

“Sure is,” Jazz said, neatly sliding her way over to the workbench with the presumably Vlad-provided samples. “Of course, if you go meet him, you can see for yourself.” 

Jack and Maddie looked at each other one last time and nodded. “Okay, Jack, get the Ghost Gabber and the bazooka, we’re going—”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,” Danny yelled before his parents could get too carried away. “We’re going to see my friend. No weapons!”

Maddie looked at him like he was a child that just didn’t understand. “Sweetie, we need those weapons in case a ghost attacks.”

Danny sighed. He didn’t like it, but well, Ghost Zone. Jazz had run into Skulker just on her way back from Vlad’s. “Fine,” he said, “but we’re leaving them in the Specter Speeder when we get to the Far Frozen.”

In the end, that was all it took to get the Fentons packing up the Specter Speeder with as many samples and gadgets as they could fit. Danny watched them scurry around with mild amusement. Lancer standing awkwardly off to the side while occasionally trying to offer help only added to the experience. 

Jazz walked up beside him and Danny shot her a smile that was only slightly strained. This was progress. “Sorry, I volunteered to stay behind like that,” she said, twisting and tugging on her hair with nerves. “I should have consulted you before offering to leave you alone with Mom and Dad for 4 to 6 hours.”

Danny shrugged. “Eh, both of them need to be there for this conversation. If only one of them went and I managed to convince them, the one that stayed behind would be convinced they were overshadowed as soon as they got back.”

Jazz chucked. “True, but still.” She glanced at Danny. “You sure you’ll be able to handle them?”

Danny only let himself feel bitter for a second. He knew Jazz wasn’t trying to imply that he wasn’t capable. He knew she was just looking out for him. And she was way better at handling their parents than he was. Of course, they shouldn’t really be having to handle their parents.

“It’ll be fine,” Danny said, not letting any of his reservations show. “Besides, Mr. Lancer will be there, so they’re going to have to be on their best behavior.”

Jazz laughed and Danny realized that actually, yeah, having his teacher there did make him feel better about the whole thing. He felt like it wasn’t just going to be on him to corral his parents. 

Ten minutes later, and a fight about who was going to drive later, Danny was behind the wheel of the Specter Speeder, waving to Jazz as they went through the portal. He could do this. His parents were scientists. It would be hard for them to deny hard facts. This would be good. Right?

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 4/5/2007

Summary of Chapter 23

Frankenstein and Elizabet stop for the night. Frankenstein waits up for the creature to show up while Elizabeth goes to bed. Shortly afterwards, Elizabeth screams and Frankenstein runs back into the room, discovering that the creature had killed her. The creature shows himself from the window and Frankenstein tries to shoot him, but fails. Frankenstein goes back to Geneva where his father and little brother learn what happened and Frankenstein’s father dies from grief. Frankenstein goes to the magistrate a month later and tries to get him to go after the creature, who Frankenstein believes is hiding nearby. The magistrate believes the task is insurmountable and refuses. Frankenstein yells at him and leaves. 

Danny - Good use of vocab words. While you’re reading, think about how Frankestein’s emotions impact his decisions. It could be helpful for upcoming assignments and tests. 

Jazz decided she was glad she’d stayed at Fenton Works by the time the rest of them left. She’d really wanted to go, but Danny really needed to do this himself. It was his life and his secrets and she shouldn’t be the one pushing the issue. 

Besides, she had questions about her parents' latest ideas and where they got them. The samples were from Vlad, that much was obvious. And the fact that they were melting pointed to clones. The question was, “Why?” Why on Earth was Vlad doing this?

Well, she could try figuring that out while she prepared slides. She’d promised she’d do that after all and she was sure that her parents would have all sorts of tests to run on them when they got back. Even if they believed Frostbite, which she wasn’t sure they would, they would want to verify everything on their own equipment. 

---

Five hours later, and halfway through her attempt to decipher her father’s notes on ecto-contaminated cells, she heard a creak at the top of the stairs. She tensed. Her parents and Danny were in the Ghost Zone and they didn’t exactly know people that would drop by unannounced, at least not with Sam and Tucker under the impression Danny was staying at Vlad’s. There were footsteps at the top of the staircase leading to the kitchen. Jazz reached behind her and grabbed an ecto-gun. It wouldn’t react to a human like it would a ghost, but a high speed projectile was a high speed projectile. 

The footsteps got closer. Jazz readied herself for a fight. Just her luck that she’d have to face down a home intruder while back home for the first time in weeks. 

“Maddie? Jack? Are you down… Oh.” Vlad said from his position on the stairs. 

Jazz relaxed slightly. She didn’t drop the gun. “What are you doing here?” she asked him warily, leaning against the table and subtly covering the sheets of paper she had been looking at.

Vlad raised an eyebrow. “I could ask you the same, my dear.”

Yeah, no— Jazz was not going to play that game. “I’m going through my dad’s notes. He asked me to help with something.” She stared him down. “What are you doing here?” she repeated.

Vlad sighed dramatically. “Part of the reason your parents allow you and Daniel to stay with me is because I agreed to keep them updated concerning your health and wellbeing.“ His smile dripped with condescension. ”You did know that, dear, didn't you?”

Jazz had been vaguely aware of the fact, but… “You're walking into my parents lab with no notice to update them on our 'health and wellbeing?’”

Vlad nodded. ”That's it exactly. Now, what is it you’re actually doing here? I know you’re not actually helping your father with anything, especially after being so insistent on giving your parents space.” Apparently Vlad was going for the “deny and deflect” approach to avoidance. They were past subtlety it seemed. The question now was whether to play along or call him out. He looked at her with the kind of confidence that could only be faked. No, neither, she was cutting the bullshit.

“Danny decided we'd given them enough time,” she said, carefully watching his reaction.

Vlad looked honestly shocked. ”Your brother is here?“

“No.” She kept her face carefully neutral, though her tone held a certain mischief. She'd wanted to stop playing games for so long and she was so close to not needing to put up with this. ”He's in the Ghost Zone.“ She paused, mostly for dramatics, before adding, “With my parents.“

“What?” Vlad asked her. His voice was flat and he looked like he'd taken a bite of a lemon.

“They're convinced that being Phantom is some kind of disease. That he needs to be cured.” Vlad already knew this of course. She knew he knew this. She'd been the one to explain the whole fucked up situation to him in the first place. “Danny decided it was time to prove to them that it isn't.”

“Oh,” Vlad sneered, “And how is he planning on doing that?”

Jazz smiled. He was getting angry. She could understand why Danny liked provoking him. It was fun. “He took them to see Frostbite. Lancer, too.”

“What?” asked Vlad. She couldn't tell if he was frustrated because he didn't know what she was talking about or because he did .

“Frostbite,” she repeated. “He's the ghost that helped Danny figure out his ice core.” He still looked confused. “You tried to steal the Infi-Map from him,” she didn’t quite snap.

Recognition flashed in Vlad's eyes. “Ah, yes, the yeti.” He paused, honest confusion clouding his expression. “Why is Daniel taking his parents to see a yeti?”

Jazz looked at him closely. Wasn't it obvious? “Frostbite's a doctor,” she said slowly. “Danny's going to show Mom and Dad his medical records.”

Vlad briefly looked like he'd been slapped before swallowing the expression into a sneer. “You think your parents are going to believe a ghost?”

Jazz took it as a point in her favor that he actually acknowledged that Danny's parents were her parents too. She shrugged. “Frostbite is pretty convincing.” She gave him a pointed look. “Besides, I think it will be pretty obvious that the DNA samples they have here in the lab don't actually match Danny's.”

“Oh?” Vlad asked, a greasy smile on his face. “What makes you say that?”

Jazz rolled her eyes. “Dad's notes are pretty detailed. All of their samples seem to be unstable.” The gun in her back pocket clinked against the table as she picked up the notes to flip through them. “Danny isn't unstable. When detached from his body, his ectoplasm might eventually disperse, but his cells don't melt.” She paused and flipped to another page. It had a detailed diagram of the chemical makeup of one of the ecto-infused DNA strands. Vlad looked sour. “Why did you give my parents cells from old clones, Vlad?”

Vlad smiled at her. She could almost believe there was a bit of warmth hidden in the bitterness. “Very good, Jasmine,” he said, “I'm not surprised you figured it out.”

“You're—” she hesitated, “You're not?” Vlad was always so sure of his plans. He put one hand in a pocket as he leaned against one of the lab tables.

“Oh no, my dear,” he said in a way she could almost believe was genuine. “You've always been bright.” He smiled, eyes glowing slightly, “Now, tell me, what do you plan on doing with this information?” 

Ah, lovely. More games. Vlad was undoubtedly going to tell her exactly why it would be a terrible idea to tell anyone about that. The only thing was, he had no more leverage. He would try and convince her otherwise, but all the cards were in her hand now.

“Tell my parents of course,” she said. “Don't try and tell me about all the reasons that's a bad idea,” she continued before he could respond. “Mom and Dad are in the process of learning all about what Danny's actual medical situation is. Mr. Lancer is there too.” She leaned back against the table, watching Vlad's eyes carefully. “Everyone that you could tell Danny's secret without putting yourself at risk already knows and any credibility you had when it came to samples and information is going to be gone as soon as Mom and Dad figure out what you did.” She smiled softly. “I won't even have to tell them.” An idea struck her as Vlad glowered at her with impotent fury.

“And,” she outright grinned, “There's nothing keeping me from telling my parents about the rest of the shit you've been putting me and Danny through.”

Vlad gritted his teeth, one of his hands closing into a fist. ”I see.”

Jazz smiled sadly, like she was actually sorry about all this. Maybe she was. “It was always going to end this way, Vlad,” she said as she watched his face harden. “I just wish we could have ended up closer to friends than enemies.” Jazz picked up a glint of silver out of the corner of her eye. “It wasn't actually that bad—”

Jazz barely dodged the dart that shot from Vlad's hand. It clinked as it hit the metal table behind her, seemingly glowing as it reflected the light from the portal. Actually, knowing Vlad, there might be no seemingly about it.

She looked between the dart on the table and the man across from her in horror. Her stomach sank. Danny wasn't here. Her parents weren't here. This could be bad. Very bad.

The air was still as Jazz and Vlad watched each other. It was a standoff. Jazz fingered the gun in her pocket as she watched Vlad do likewise. She glanced behind her towards the portal. Vlad threw a dart in that direction as she dove under a lab table to the right.

She heard Vlad sigh as she drew her gun. “Jasmine,” he said with the kind of patronizing tone one would use to coax a toddler into putting their shoes on, “you could still make this easy on yourself.”

Her heart thundered in her chest as she upended the lab table into a makeshift barricade. The beakers shattered as they hit the floor. Ectoplasm leaked towards her under the table.  She needed to get a grip on the situation. First, break it down; Summarize what happened. Okay. Vlad was throwing darts at her filled with... something.

“You know I'm going to win, Jasmine,” Vlad called as he shifted into Plasmius. “You may as well give up now. ”

Jazz looked at the gun in her shaky hands. She breathed in, then out. Okay, now she was going to do this solely so she didn't let that creep win. She looked over the table with the gun in hand only to be met with the sight of the empty lab.  

”Boo.“ Plasmius stuck his head through the knocked over table. Jazz shrieked and scrambled back. It didn’t do her much good.

She felt her back hit the wall. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. The gun felt slippery in her hands.

Vlad smiled as he walked forward. “Jasmine,” he purred, “This is for the best.” He brought a dart out of his pocket. He didn't bother to shoot it at her yet. There was nowhere for her to run. “You'll see.” The crazed up fruit loop was having fun.

“What is that?” Jazz asked, her voice shaking even more than her hands.

Vlad stopped. “Why, this?” he asked, gesturing to the fluid filled dart as if she could be referring to anything else. ”Don't worry, my dear, it's just some nanobots.“ Jazz's breath hitched. “And don't worry,” Vlad laughed, “You won't be able to bribe Technus into getting these ones out of you. They're ghost proof.”

Jazz shook harder. She did not want this. Not again. It had been bad enough the first time, knowing that with the press of her button she'd be dead. And, despite all the craziness in her life, the ectoplasm exposure, the ghosts, there was no guarantee that she would be coming back.

“Now—” Plasmius took a step closer. “Just hold still. This will be over in a jiffy and then we can both wait for your brother to get back.”

And with her brother, her parents and Mr. Lancer, there was no way all of the adults were going to survive whatever encounter Vlad had planned. Shit.

Artwork by deadvampire32

Jazz discreetly checked that the ectogun was powered with her right hand. Vlad grabbed her left hand and drew her arm towards him. Jazz tried to keep the angle of the gun in the correct position as she stumbled. Vlad brought the tip of the dart to her elbow. Jazz shot him in the stomach.

”Arrghhh!“ Vlad doubled over in pain, the hand holding the dart withdrawing to protect himself. His other hand was still a vice around her wrist. Jazz jerked her arm back as she kicked Vlad hard the shin. He cursed as he doubled over further to clutch at his leg. She ran.

Jazz didn't actually know where she was going. Vlad wasn't someone she could really run away from. Even if she managed to get out of the house and into a crowd, she wouldn't be safe. He was a ghost. Anyone that might be willing to lend her aid he could overshadow. No. Running wouldn't get her anywhere. At least here she had the home field advantage.  

She smashed the button next to the lab door as she ran out into the kitchen throwing the house into lockdown. She heard Vlad yelp behind her as metal shutters banged closed over all the windows and the alarms started blaring. No doubt there was a gun pointing at him too. Her parents went a bit overboard with those. She was glad for it now. 

She made a run for the ops center. It was the most secure thing there was and there was a ghost shield. Vlad might be able to get in while in human form, but she was good enough with the anti-creep stick that she was pretty confident she could hold him off. 

Jazz felt air displacement as she ran. Turning her head, she saw a dart whizz by her. It was pure luck it missed. “Butter biscuits!” she heard Vlad curse. 

Her eyes widened. She couldn’t see him. That wasn’t right. He shouldn’t be able to use his powers without triggering the anti-ghost weapons system. It was a problem Danny sometimes had even in human form.

She didn’t have time to think about that. What really mattered was she couldn’t see him and she absolutely needed to in order to avoid him. There were inventions that her parents had made specifically for that purpose, but they weren’t within reach and she wouldn’t be able to make it down to where they were in the lab before Vlad was trying to jab her again. And besides that, she’d need to hunt for it. It was hard to say where certain inventions were going to be and going through cupboards was not something Jazz had time for. 

But what could she do? She was wasting precious seconds trying to think. A bag of flour on the counter caught her eye. Her mom must have left it out at some point.She grabbed the open bag of flour, gripped the bottom tightly, and flung, desperately hoping it would work. 

As flour rained down, an outline appeared where Vlad should have been. “Gah!” he shouted, reappearing suddenly. He already had another dart in hand and was standing directly in her path to the ops center. Not good. 

Jazz threw the rest of the bag of flour at Vlad’s face. It floated towards him uselessly, lacking the weight of its contents. It was enough of a distraction for Jazz to hit him squarely in the face with a bag of sugar. He bent over again as he tried to get the sugar out of his eyes. 

She ran. She could go back into the lab, but that was dangerous and she didn’t know where all the weapons were anymore. Nothing had been in the same place as the last time she had been there. But, she was fairly sure that she still had a Fenton Peeler in her room. She hoped she had the Fenton Peeler in her room. 

“Stop running, Jasmine!” Vlad shouted as she rounded the corner and started sprinting up the stairs. “You’re not going to win this!”

She could shout back at him that it didn’t matter, she wasn’t going down without a fight, but that would waste time and oxygen. Besides, she knew she had a chance. Even if the Fenton anti-ghost weapon system wasn’t responding, she still had backup plans. She still had weapons hidden around the house. Still had her wits. She still had a chance. 

Vlad appeared at the top of the stairs with a syringe. Maybe he ran out of darts? It didn’t matter. She could turn around and make a break for the ops center or the lab, but she knew he could get there before her just as easily. She knew, even now, he could fly down and grab her. But he didn’t.

He was thinking of this as a fight, she realized. He was thinking of it as the same kind of fight he and Danny always had. And, despite coming back with bruises on both his ego and his body, Danny never really got hurt in those fights. Vlad always held back. He was holding back now. 

That was a mistake. 

Jazz threw herself at Vlad as she got to the top of the stairs, using the momentum to carry them both into a wall. If he’d been a regular human, they’d be on the floor, but ghosts, even while standing, stabilized themselves by floating.

Vlad tried to jab her as she stumbled back. She twisted, the motion of his arm swinging by her to grab the back of his wrist and jerking herself behind him, using his weightlessness to her advantage. He moved to twist towards her, but she was faster, using a sharp kick to his side to propel him back towards the stairs as she let go of his wrist. 

Jazz took off in a sprint again, knowing that wouldn’t slow him down for long. She could hear him cursing behind her, steadily gaining on her. It didn’t matter. She just needed to reach her… There! 

She slid into the door of her room, cursing the fact she couldn’t just go through it as she wasted milliseconds she didn’t have opening it. She felt the air move as Vlad grabbed where her arm had been just moments before. 

Jazz shrieked as she dove under her bed. She was thankful it was mostly clear except for a couple of boxes. She crawled under further and started reaching behind the one she hid her ghost weapons in. It didn’t matter if her parents had found them, but she sincerely hoped they hadn’t moved them. 

“Really, Jasmine?” Vlad asked derisively, “You’re hiding under your bed? Aren’t you a little old for that?” She could see his boots moving to stand directly in front of the gap. The other edge of the bed was against the wall. There was no way out, but Vlad was still going easy on her. She could do this: use his weakness to her advantage. 

“I’m not if it keeps me from getting infected with nanobots!” she shouted, channeling Danny the best she could. She pulled a lipstick laser out of the box. At least there were some weapons in there. She pulled the box closer to her. 

“I can just phase through and inject you anyway,” he said, sounding exasperated. “Come out and make this easier on both of us.”

Jazz pulled a specter deflector out of the box. “Why don’t you?” she asked as she took a moment to put it on. If the Fenton Peeler wasn’t in there, at least she’d have something. 

“Why don’t I what ?” Vlad asked, sounding both pissed off and honestly confused.

Did he not realize what he was saying? “Phase through and grab me,” Jazz clarified. “We both know you can, so why don’t you?”

Vlad remained silent as Jazz continued her rummaging. She grabbed hold of something sleek with a handle. Was that it? She pulled out a Fenton Crammer. No. Okay. One more shot. 

“Do you want to know what I think?” Jazz asked, trying to stall for a little more time. 

“No, I don’t think I do,” Vlad sneered, and, shit, she was out of time. 

“I think,” Jazz said, grabbing onto one last item as Vlad phased through the bed and grabbed her wrist, “that you don’t actually want to do this.” She gasped as she felt the intangibility taking hold, but kept talking. She could only hope whatever was in her hand would phase through with her. “I think you know that injecting me with nanobots again isn’t actually going to make me and Danny like you and that you’re letting your need for control drive you to do things you know are wrong.”

She was pulled up through the bed and face to face with Vlad. He held her by the wrist, letting her feet dangle in the air. It was uncomfortable and she kicked out a little to see if she could get at Vlad’s shins. She couldn’t and he looked distinctly unamused. 

“Of course I don’t want to do this,” Vlad said, lining the sharp needle of the syringe up with her left shoulder. Jazz pushed the button on the invention she grabbed, hoping it was the right one, “What I want is for you and Daniel to realize that you’re better off with me. I want you to realize that your brother won’t be safe as long as he’s living in the same house as Jack Fenton.” He brought her closer to him and stared directly into her eyes. “Unfortunately, you are too blind to see that. Now, hold still.” 

The Fenton Weasel wired to life. Vlad yelped as the hose sprang towards him. He jerked the needle down as he tried to stop it from sucking him in. The Fenton Weasel went for his cape. 

Jazz dropped the device as Vlad transformed back into his human self. The Fenton Weasel wouldn’t do much good now and he was still holding her wrist. Right. Okay. It might not be the Fenton Peeler that she wanted, it may not actually protect her from the needle, but as she pressed the “On” button on the Specter Deflector, Jazz was glad she had taken the time to put it on.

Vlad screamed as he let go of Jazz’s arm and clutched at his wrist. His pain would buy her a few seconds. 

Even as panic coursed through her veins, she decided the needle would be her first objective. Vlad might have more or he might not. It was hard to say what he’d actually been planning for and what was a desperate attempt to control her. It would still remove at least one weapon from his arsenal if she destroyed it. 

There! It was right past him underneath the windowsill. Okay, was it worth it to get past him? Vlad flashed his eyes at her and snarled. Maybe not. She could throw something at it, thought. That might break it. 

The Fenton Weasel was on the ground beside her, but she wanted to keep that with her. What else was there? Books. She grabbed on from the bookshelf next to her and chucked it as hard as she could towards the syringe. Vlad’s head snapped to look in the direction she had chucked and she used the distraction to take off in a sprint. 

Okay. No time for panic. Options. What were her options? Running outside would open her up to attack. If he managed to get around the Specter Deflector, he could literally just grab her and fly away. If she made it to the ops center, she might be able to wait him out, but then what? Her parents and Lancer would come back with Danny and they’d be sitting ducks. Danny might be able to defend himself, but he might not. That was not a risk she was willing to take. Shit. She hadn’t even thought about that when she ran to the ops center the first time. 

Jazz made a mad dash down the stairs and towards the kitchen. 

She had to go back down to the lab if she wanted to protect them. There was no way around it. 

She heard Vlad cursing from the top of the landing and gripped the Fenton Weasel tightly. If he came after her as a ghost she’d be able to suck him up. A flash of bright light whizzed past her as she threw herself through the kitchen door. 

There was a smoldering hole in one of the kitchen cabinets ahead of her. Jazz swallowed dryly as she flung open the door to the lab staircase. She didn’t think Vlad was going easy on her anymore. 

She heard a bang as she sprinted down the stairway back into the lab. She briefly glanced behind her to see Vlad hunched over, the door frame cracked where Vlad’s fist had hit it. 

Jazz gulped. As she hit the last few stairs she felt something crunch under her foot. Her footing gave and before she knew it she was sprawled on the lab floor. Broken beakers were strewn around her from when she had upended the table earlier. She started to haul herself to her feet, broken glass digging into her palms. 

Behind her, Vlad laughed. “For a minute there, I almost thought you were going to get away!” he said. He walked calmly down into the lab, still in human form.

Jazz gritted her teeth as she forced herself the rest of the way up. The mocking of his tone grated on her nerves like nothing else. He leered down at her with triumph, less than a foot away. 

“You still can’t touch me,” she said. It was something. A last bit of hope.

“I don’t need to touch you,” he said smugly, “All I have to do is get close enough to give you this.” He held up the syringe Jazz apparently hadn’t managed to break.  “Now hold still.”

Jazz stepped back towards the overturned table. She knew she was backing herself into a corner, but what else could she do? Vlad took another step forward. Jazz took another step back, 

“Jasmine,” Vlad said frowning, “Be reasonable. You’re not going to win and we can do this the hard way. I just don’t want to hurt you.” 

It almost sounded like genuine concern. She was against the wall now, desperately wondering if she could get out of this by darting to the left or the right. But, to the left was the stairs, which Vlad could easily block, and to the right was just more of her parents' inventions clustered in a corner. There were some ecto-guns, the ghost-gabber, and the Fenton Ghost Catcher. Nothing she could really….

Wait. The Fenton Ghost Catcher might work. It might be at least enough to throw him off. She could suck up his ghost side with the weasel and she at least had a chance against his human side. 

She dove for it, dropping the Fenton Weasel on the way. Vlad cursed again. She wasn’t as strong as her Dad, but she might be able to lever it around onto him. She hoisted it up and let it fall onto him. This could work.

Vlad caught it in one hand. He did not look amused. “That was not smart, Jasmine.” 

He threw the Ghost Catcher across the lab as he made his way over to her. He grabbed one of Jack's work gloves on the way. Those were supposed to mitigate ecto-energy. It would almost certainly work against the Specter Deflector. He leaned down so his face was in hers. “Now hold still,” he repeated. 

A tear ran down her face as Vlad pressed the needle against her neck. She was so screwed. 

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 4/9/2007

Chapter 24 and Walton’s Letters

Frankenstein resolves to chase after and kill the creature. He follows him across Europe and eventually to the Arctic Circle where he comes across Walton. The narrative shifts to Walton’s letters like it was in the very beginning. Frankenstein’s health rapidly declines and Walton’s ship remains stuck in the ice. The crew of the ship convinces Walton to return to England, which Frankenstein objects to as Walton had already gone so far in the name of science. After some time, Walton walks into the cabin to find the creature standing over Frankenstein’s dead body. He tries to get sympathy from Walton, but Walton rejects him. The creature then heads out onto the tundra to die and Walton returns to England. 

Danny – Good summary, but keep thinking about the internal monologues and not just the actions characters take.  

Maddie sat awkwardly next to Lancer in the back of the Specter Speeder as Jack drove. Danny was still flying just ahead of the specter speeder, moving rocks out of the way and finding every excuse not to join them back inside. Her mind was reeling from their time in the Far Frozen. 

She still wasn't entirely sure if the yetis were actually ghosts. They claimed they were ghosts, but they were far too sophisticated to actually be ghosts as she knew them. They had to be something else, something entirely unknown to science. But even her own doubts about the classification of yetis or whether Frostbite was a doctor paled in comparison to what she learned about Danny. Using genuine medical equipment, she saw her son's core, and it had been stable. Her son was stable. He wasn’t dying.

And if that wasn't enough of a shock, the samples from Vlad weren't from Danny afterall, they were from his clones. Vlad had cloned her son. He had cloned her son without her consent and then given them the byproducts, and Maddie was sure there was worse that Danny wasn’t telling her. The way his eyes slid away from her as he danced around certain questions was heartbreaking. Maddie was furious.

This brought a whole new depth to the realization that Vlad was evil. She had hoped that he could be cured, but now she wasn’t sure. Danny’s changes were clearly far more in line with whatever kind of beings the yetis were rather than true ghosts. He didn’t even have an obsession. Vlad clearly did. He clearly had an obsession with her family and he wasn’t above using lies, manipulation, and violence to chase it. He was a monster.

Her children had been living with a monster. 

Surely, after learning all of that, Lancer could see that her children couldn’t keep staying with Vlad. Surely, he understood that they would be safer with her and Jack. 

She glanced at Lancer’s ashen face. He was sitting next to her staring straight ahead. She knew that all of his plans to help them keep their kids involved Jazz and Danny staying with Vlad until Lancer deemed their house safe enough to return to. She knew that he didn’t think their house was safe enough to return to right that very moment. She knew he was out of options. She knew he was still considering calling CPS and taking the risk that Danny might get caught. 

She hated him in that moment. 

Maddie could respect him, too. It took a lot to do what he did. There weren’t a lot of people who would go this far, who would try and exhaust every option to keep his students safe. She knew that most teachers would have called CPS the minute that Danny had asked them not to. 

She wondered if Vlad would have possessed the social worker. He could have taken control just for their house visit and checked all the boxes to make sure the kids were safe. If he had done that, Jack and Maddie would have trusted him, even if he was a ghost. They might have even believed him if he said that Danny wasn’t in danger.

She had been so focused on that blasted cure that she hadn’t even thought about it before. She wasn’t entirely sure how ghostly possession worked, the science behind it had always been evasive, but— 

“You know,” Lancer said from beside her, voice entirely too distant, “He implied you were homophobic.” 

“What?” Maddie asked, startled by both the words and their meaning. 

“Vlad Masters. He implied that you were homophobic and your son was gay.”

The blood drained from Maddie’s face. She could see Jack’s grip on the steering wheel tighten.

“We’re not,” Jack muttered from the front seat. “We’ll always love our kids. We’ll always accept them.” He sounded drained. 

“Even now that you know that Danny is Phantom and isn’t sick?” Lancer sighed. He sounded tired. He looked tired. “Are you still going to push a cure now that you know he’s not in danger?” It almost hurt how little he trusted them. 

But, she couldn’t blame him. She had to think about it before answering. She hesitated. “I’m still… nervous about how Phantom is affecting Danny’s psychology. He never used to be this volatile.” Most of what Vlad said was obviously lies, but was everything? Was there a chance that he even had a distinct consciousness urging him towards cruelty? 

“Mads,” Jack said gently from the front seat. He was focused on Danny, who was flying calmly in front of them. “He’s a teenager. Do you remember when Jazz was fifteen?”

Maddie cringed. She very much remembered when Jazz was fourteen. It had been a roller coaster for all of them. It was only three years ago, but three years made a lot of difference. She supposed that was the point. 

She sighed. “Well, Danny doesn’t want a cure and I suppose it’s his choice. I just wish we knew more about all this.” She gave a weak laugh. “I guess now that we know, we’ll have plenty of time to learn.” They would start with replicating everything Danny’s yeti friend told them. 

“And,” Jack put in with far more enthusiasm, “if Danny ever changes his mind we can help!” He paused, probably realizing how that sounded. “We won’t push it, though! We’ll accept him no matter what,” he rushed to correct. 

Lancer sighed and ran a hand down his face. “I suppose that’s one item we can remove from the checklist. Now, we just have to get your house to a point where the state of Illinois wouldn’t consider it a safety hazard.”

Maddie bristled. He’d said something similar before and she’d hated hearing it then as well. She knew that their house wasn’t the tidyist. She knew that they’d gotten a little lax in their lab safety, but— 

She let go of the indignation. There was no “but.” Her son was outside floating through the Ghost Zone because one of her inventions turned him into a ghost. He still wasn’t dead . She knew he wasn’t dead. Slow as it was, he still had a heartbeat. 

She turned to Lancer. “We know. Maybe we can just close off the lab for a few days until we get it cleaned up?” Lancer looked dubious.

“We already started tearing apart the Anti-Ghost Weapons System!” Jack said, beaming. “We were trying to make it safe for Danny until we found a cure, but I guess we’ll just have to keep it down.” He turned to face his wife, barely missing a floating rock. “Hey, I bet we could figure something out that targets specific ecto-signatures, right Mads! We could program it to exclude Danny.”

Maddie was already starting to mull over that idea despite herself. It could work. They would need to—

Danny phased through the hull of the Specter Speeder and pulled her out of any musings. “You mind if I take the wheel, Dad?” he asked casually, “We’re almost back and I want to make sure we don’t get too close to Walker’s Prison. It’s usually closest to the portal around the 9th or 10th, but I still want to be careful.” 

That was a confusing sentence. Leaving aside the fascinating tidbit that there was a Ghost Prison that drifted towards their portal once a month, he could have just guided them out of the way. Lancer breathed a sigh of relief beside her. Was Jack’s driving a problem?  As Jack scooted out of the way and Danny morphed back into himself, she wondered how often her kids managed them like that. Surely that wasn’t healthy. 

“We’re about ten minutes away,” Danny said, like he was just updating them on the weather. “We should be there as soon as we pass the giant staircase that keeps unmaking and remaking itself and the Isle of Doors.”

“You sure know a lot about this place, Danno,” Jack said. His voice was strained. Maddie could tell he didn’t know whether to be impressed or dismayed. This was a large part of Danny's life that they had just missed.

Danny shrugged. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool in here. Kinda peaceful as long as I don’t run into anybody unfriendly.” 

Maddie did not wince. The eerie green landscape made her skin crawl. What did it say about her son that he thought it peaceful? She couldn’t begin to imagine. Taking a moment to calm herself, she took this as an opportunity to learn instead. “So, what’s the Isle of Doors? Is it one of the floating islands we saw on the way here?”

Danny beamed at her. She hadn’t seen him look that happy in months. “Oh! It’s not actually an island,” he started to explain. “It’s more like an aisle in a grocery store. There are just rows and rows of doors all along it and you can just drive right through…” 

Maddie listened to her son talk the rest of the flight toward their portal. She and Jack would occasionally ask questions. Lancer mostly just looked like he was chewing on a moral quandary, but it was fine. Danny was the way he was and he didn’t want to change. He wasn’t dying. He wasn’t hurt. She could accept this. She could accept him. 

Besides, based on what she had seen in the Far Frozen, it wasn’t like Danny was a real ghost. 

The only thing left was really to figure out what to do about Vlad… And make sure that Lancer didn’t do anything rash like call CPS since the kids would have to stay with them again. 

As they slid through the portal, Maddie knew something was wrong.

The alarm was blaring for one thing. She could hear it even through the hull of the Specter Speeder. Ominous shadows bounced off the walls as the not-quite-right green of the portal met the flashing red of the alarm. Maddie’s heart hammered in her chest. 

Jazz .

There was a bright flash from the front of the Specter Speeder. Danny had become Phantom. As Maddie turned to her son, she couldn’t help but notice how determined he looked. This wasn't a scared teenager; this was a hero who knew what he was doing. 

“Wait here,” he commanded quietly, and then silently phased through the hull. 

There was no way in hell Maddie was going to do that. This was her house. This was her family. She was not sitting back and watching as her — admittedly very powerful —son took care of it. She leaned forward to hit the release button, but her husband beat her to it. He met her eyes and they nodded in unison. 

As soon as the hood lifted, Maddie realized there was a conversation going on drowned out by the alarms and the thick sheets of metal and glass that made up the Specter Speeder.

“Really Daniel, I’m doing you and your sister a favor,” said a haughty voice that Maddie would recognize anywhere. Her heart pounded in her ears. This could not be happening.“If you would just listen, you’d understand—”

“I understand that you have a needle at my sister’s neck, Plasmius. Put it down. Now.” Danny’s  voice was harder than Maddie had ever heard it. She swallowed back her panic at the words. There was no time for panic. Her family was in danger. This was the time for action. 

She pulled the Bazooka out from where it had been stowed next to Lancer as she jumped down to the lab floor. The sight that met her was horrifying. Danny hovered above the lab floor a few feet from the portal, his hands glowing and clearly ready to fight. On the other side of the lab, Vlad smiled back at him, looking fully human except for his glowing pink eyes and the slimy smile on his face that was just a bit too wide. He held Jazz against him in a chokehold with a needle pressed up against her neck. A burnt Specter Deflector lay on the floor at their feet. 

Maddie needed to do something now . “Step away from my daughter, Vlad,” she cried, firing a warning shot that landed above her head. 

Vlad and Danny both looked at her in shock. Then a wicked smile made its way across Vlad’s face. “Oh dear,” he said, oily charm lacing his voice, “It looks like we’re out of time.” Without another word, he plunged the needle into Jazz’s neck. 

Maddie heard cursing from behind her and an ectoblast hit two feet to the left of Vlad’s face. Jack must have fired an ecto-gun. His aim had always been wide. Maddie’s wasn’t. 

She steadied the bazooka and fired another shot directly at Vlad's head. He transformed into Plasmius, shoved Jazz to the floor, and held up a pink ecto-shield in one smooth movement, neatly blocking the blast. He was still smiling. 

Maddie didn’t budge as she noticed Jazz start to crawl away. She kept her eyes fixed on Vlad.  She would not glance at her daughter and give her away. 

Danny growled. He looked so furious he almost seemed deranged. He threw three ecto-blasts in short succession, all of which Vlad blocked. Danny started making a ball of ice and infusing it with ecto-energy. 

Vlad got out a button. 

Danny froze.

Vlad smiled meanly. “Well, then,” he drawled, “It seems like you remember this from last time.” He looked down at Jazz. “And don’t try to leave, Jasmine, dear. This is for your benefit as well as his.” 

“What are you talking about, ectoplasmic scum?” Jack asked from just behind her. Her heart clenched. Jack had never taken that tone with Vlad before. Apparently this was what it took for her husband to realize his best friend was a monster. 

Vlad shot him a withering look. “If you must know, I’ve injected nanobots into poor Jasmine’s bloodstream. They allow me to kill her with the push of a button.” 

Maddie couldn’t breathe. That was her daughter. That was her daughter and she was about to die. Vlad was going to kill her in some sort of sick scheme. 

“Of course, I don’t want to kill her,” Vlad said, feigning pity. “I want her to be family.” His eyes darkened. “But, kill her I will if that’s what it takes. One child is better than none after all and Daniel was always the goal. Besides, with all the ectoplasm she’s been exposed to, she might just come back as a ghost.” 

“What do you want?” Lancer asked from the safety of the Specter Speeder. Maddie turned towards him just enough so that she could see him out of the corner of her eye. He was sitting on the edge of the craft. If she had to guess, Maddie would say he had thought about getting down and then decided falling wasn’t worth the risk when he couldn’t figure out how the door worked. Maddie had completely forgotten he was here. 

Vlad looked at him with surprise written across his face. Apparently, he had forgotten Lancer was there too. His expression quickly turned to glee. 

“Mr. Lancer!” he said jovially. “I should actually thank you for the idea. You see, I came here today to get Jack and Maddie to sign some guardianship papers for the children. With the risk of CPS hanging over our heads, I knew it would be much safer for me to have custody at the time of the call. After all, you said yourself that I can provide a stable living situation.” 

Maddie narrowed her eyes. For his part, Lancer looked dumbstruck. 

“You injected Jasmine with deadly nanobots and now you want guardianship over her?” Lancer spluttered. His voice contained the same level of indignation that she felt. Here Vlad was talking about custody while threatening to kill her daughter. What the fuck. 

“Well, the nanobots weren’t originally for her,” Vlad said, rolling his eyes like it was somehow obvious. “They were supposed to be for Jack and Maddie.”

Lancer’s brow furrowed. “You were going to inject them both with nanobots to blackmail them into signing over their children?”

Vlad scowled. “What!? No! Of course not, you fool.” Maddie noticed Jazz started to crawl away from Vlad again. She did not glance down at her. “It was so that I could make it look like Jack had a heart attack in a few months' time. With all the fudge he eats, it wouldn’t be a stretch.”

“And Maddie?” Jack asked quietly. She didn’t need to see his face to know that he looked heartbroken. “Were you going to do the same thing to Maddie?”

Jazz was slowly making her way towards one of the overturned lab tables. 

Vlad didn’t notice. He looked uncomfortable.“I didn’t want to do anything to Maddie. I had hoped that after your death she would come to me willingly, especially after we found a ‘cure’ for myself and Daniel that would relieve us of our ghostly impulses while allowing us to keep our powers.”

“You’re sick,” Maddie found herself saying. “Why would I ever want to be with you, you creep?”

Vlad frowned. “And that right there was the reason you would have nanobots as well. Death is such a powerful motivator.” 

Jazz had almost fully disappeared from Maddie’s view. Vlad was still focused on them. 

Danny looked murderous. “And you thought Jazz and I would just, what, not catch on? Are you seriously that delusional?” 

Vlad shrugged. “Oh, I knew you’d be suspicious, but I had plans for that as well.” He hovered his thumb over the button. “Now, I believe we have some papers to sign and I’m sure Mr. Lancer won’t mind signing as a witness.”

There was a sudden burst of light. Vlad was being stretched towards the table Jazz was under. His cape  

Maddie screamed. He still had the button. 

There was a sharp blast. The button flew out of Vlad’s hand. 

Jazz rolled out from behind the table. The Fenton Ghost Weasel!  Jazz was getting the nozzle closer to Vlad. 

Vlad tried to transform back into a human, but Jazz surged forward. She brought the vacuum over him. The rings forming around him didn’t have time to separate before he was completely sucked up into the mechanism. 

Maddie looked to her son, assuming he had been the one to shoot, but he shook his head. Slowly, she turned, realizing that her husband, the infamously bad shot, had just shot a button out of Vlad’s hand. He looked just as surprised as she did. 

Jazz threw down the Ghost Weasel. “Mom! Dad!” she cried, rushing over to them to engulf them both in a hug. “Thank god you’re back. I was so, so scared.” 

Maddie hugged her daughter back fiercely. Her husband did the same. Her heart was still beating a mile a minute, but her daughter was safe. She saw Danny transfer back out of the corner of her eye. She scooped him into the hug the moment he was close enough. Her family was safe. 

She heard a tinny voice curse from the direction of the Ghost Weasel. “Butter biscuits.”  She paid it no mind. Her family was safe. 

Chapter Text

Danny Fenton 4/5/2007

Themes of Isolation in Frankenstein

There are two themes of isolation in Frankenstein. The first is Frankenstein himself. He isolates himself from the very beginning of the narrative right up until he loses everything and asks the Magistrate to send people after the creature. Frankenstein chooses his own isolation. He had friends, family, and colleagues he could ask for help, but he stays silent. The second is the creature. The creature wishes for companionship from the moment he was created, but is rejected at every turn. He goes to great lengths to try and end his isolation from learning French in the hovel to attempting to force Frankenstein to make another like him. They are mirror images of each other. Frankenstein chooses his downfall, while the creature is doomed to his by humanity. 

On the Monday after what was being referred to as “the attack,” William Lancer was hunched over his desk grading a paper. This was a normal state of existence for him. But, this wasn’t just any paper. This was Daniel Fenton’s paper on the themes of isolation in Frankenstein. 

No, William had not let him off the hook just because his family was being manipulated by an evil billionaire ghost who was obsessed with them. 

Using physical force against, well anybody really, but especially a teacher was still not okay. Running off to fight the box ghost was not a good enough excuse. (If it had been a different ghost, William might have let it slide.) 

Danny sat at the desk fidgeting with his thermos, partially unscrewing the cap and then screwing it back on tight. William hoped there wasn’t a ghost in there. 

William made a small correction on the paper. 

The paper had taken longer than the original weeklong detention sentence. This had more to do with circumstance and less to do with Danny. There was a lot that had to be done in the week after Vlad had been sucked into the Fenton Ghost Weasel. 

William had realized as soon as they left the Far Frozen that the kids couldn’t keep staying with Vlad. And after everything he had learned, the fact that the man had attacked Jazz shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise as it was. It was horrifying. 

But, it became very, very clear that the Fentons were willing to do anything to protect their children— including accept their son. 

William still had doubts about letting the kids stay in that house. 

But—

There was nowhere else for them to go. 

William looked up from his paper as he heard a low wailing coming from Danny’s thermos. He had opened it. It certainly sounded like there was a ghost in there. 

William raised an eyebrow. 

Danny chuckled nervously and screwed the cap back on the thermos. “It’s, uh, like a yellow jacket trap, sir,” he said sheepishly. “You can hear them, but they can’t get out.”

“I would prefer not to hear them, either way,” William said wryly. 

Danny stopped messing with the thermos, and William got back to grading.

There were a lot of things he was still getting used to and a lot of compromises he was having to make. 

He didn’t want Jazz and Danny to stay with the Fentons until the lab was cleaned up and the rest of the weapons system — a weapons system he suspected was highly illegal, but couldn’t do anything about — was either deactivated or programmed not to target Danny. And since they didn’t have anywhere else to go, they ended up staying with him. 

The Fentons took three days to clean everything and make all the changes. William was impressed how efficient they were when properly motivated. This meant Jazz and Danny were able to move back in with their parents on Saturday. 

It had been the most awkward three days of William’s teaching career. 

If he had it his way, he would never have students stay with him again. If he had it his way, there would never be another situation where students needed to stay with him. 

William circled a sentence on Danny’s paper and wrote “Good Analysis!” next to it. There were surprisingly few corrections he needed to make and quite a few very poignant sentences. William was impressed

On Sunday, William visited the Fentons again to make sure everything was still going well and there weren’t any ongoing cure attempts.  

Well, there was one , but it was only the nanobots that Vlad had injected Jazz with. It had actually been a rather quick fix since Danny was able to rebribe the ghost that had gotten them out last time. The procedure had needed a few minor tweaks to account for the ghost-proofing, but the Fenton parents were able to t. There had been a last time. That was concerning.

What was even more concerning was that Vlad was still there, trapped in the Fenton Ghost Weasel. He had started yelling at the Fentons to let him out less than an hour after he was caught. They resolved that issue by putting him — still inside the Ghost Weasel — in a sound-proof box.

The Fentons were worried about Vlad escaping. William was worried about allegations of torture and being an accessory thereof. 

They couldn’t let him out. He was too dangerous. They had no way to control him, and attempting to get him arrested would only be a death sentence for both Vlad and Danny. 

Danny suggested putting the nanobots into Vlad’s bloodstream. He called it karma. William called it highly illegal. Maddie called it effective. 

On Sunday evening, Vlad was let out, injected with nanobots and told not to come back to Amity Park. 

No one thought it would solve the problem permanently. William knew it was only their kids that were keeping the Fentons from killing their former friend. They considered him innately evil. After everything he’d seen, William wasn’t sure they were wrong. 

William finished grading Danny’s paper. He smiled. 

“Well, Mr. Fenton,” he said, trying to keep his voice hard, “Here are your results.”

Danny cautiously approached the desk. They hadn’t talked about what would happen if Danny didn’t do well on his essay. Danny probably suspected the plan was more detention. William was glad such a plan wasn’t necessary. 

“A 95!” Danny exclaimed. There was shock and glee written across his face. “I got an ‘A’!”

William nodded. “A solid ‘A’,” he said, noting this mirrored a conversation they had had last year about a poetry exam. “Congratulations Mr. Fenton, it’s worth 10 points of extra credit for any assignment on the unit.”

Danny’s eyes widened. Then he smiled. “Awesome!” he cheered. 

William nodded. “Now, I hope you don’t take this as an invitation to go shoving people for chances at extra credit. This was a one time thing.” He was mostly joking, but knowing high schoolers it still needed to be said. 

Danny laughed. “Don’t worry, Mr. Lancer,” he said, still grinning broadly, “That won’t happen again.” 

“I’m sure it won’t,” he said, giving him a look , before letting his face relax. “Next time, I expect you to raise your medical pass. Now that you have that, I trust you won’t abuse that privilege.” 

That was what they had come up with to let Danny leave class inconspicuously. A medical pass would allow Danny to take care of ghosts while not letting the rest of the staff in on his secret. The doctor’s note had been unnervingly easy to slip on file after it was forged, though Danny wasn’t a fan of IBS being his excuse. He would have to learn to live, or half-live, with it. 

Danny laughed again. “I won’t abuse it, Mr. Lancer,” he promised. William believed him.

“Now, I have other papers to grade and I’m sure you have places you want to be other than school,” he said, dismissing Danny. 

Danny was still grinning widely. “Thanks Mr. Lancer!” he said, then more quietly, “Really. Thank you.” 

William just smiled back and Danny left the classroom. 

The situation was far from perfect. William still didn’t trust the Fentons to properly care for their children. He was nervous about the fact that they had simply driven Vlad away. He hadn’t even been able to catch Dash in the act of bullying. 

But, life was still going on. Danny was, for the most part, safe. His parents were no longer trying to cure him. Jazz no longer had to play mind games to try and keep herself and her brother safe. Vlad was gone. 

It was something. It was enough.