Chapter Text
The house was completely silent as Danny stepped inside; a thickness in the air that amplified each breath. His eyes glanced towards the doorway to the lab. It was still closed and he couldn't hear any noise behind it, but he couldn't imagine his dad had left.
Quietly, he walked upstairs, ran to his room and put his sweater back over his head, then crept back out of his room. As he snuck down the hallway, he paused at Jazz’s door; it was closed and quiet, but she often liked to read or work on her computer with headphones, so that didn't surprise him too terribly.
Passing by her room, he headed back down the stairs to the living room, turned the corner and, with one last glance upstairs to ensure Jazz hadn't suddenly decided to come out, opened up the lab door.
He kept quiet, not necessarily wanting his dad to know he was there yet, and paused as he looked down the long, dark staircase.
The last time he was here, it was quick, just trying to unload the thermos into the portal and leaving as quickly as he could. Anymore, there was just too high of a chance that his dad was down there.
He hesitated at the top of the stairs a moment longer, considered changing into Phantom, but decided against it. The ghost seemed to know he was there whether he was invisible or not; it wouldn't make a difference, and anyway, he needed to catch it off guard.
With another, deeper breath, he stepped carefully down the stairs, waiting until he was close to the bottom before calling out, “Dad? I'm gonna clean the filters.”
His anxiety flared when he was met with silence. He had been prepared for antagonism, maybe some yelling, but the lack of anything nearly made him change his mind, might have except for the louder, constant worry that had been plaguing him since the little ghost had shown up in the first place.
His dad needed help.
He swallowed down his nerves and cautiously entered the darkened lab.
Jack was hunched over a bench working on some gadget, but when Danny had reached the bottom of the stairs, he put down his tools and pressed his hands against the desk, his back turned to him.
“I thought you were sick,” Jack sneered.
Danny swallowed hard and the courage he’d built up started to evaporate. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, eyeing the back of Jack’s head indecisively. He didn’t see the ghost, and as usual his ghost sense wasn't reacting to it, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
For once, he really needed it to be there.
“I feel a little better,” Danny replied.
Jack turned to cast dark eyes on him, shoulders arched. “Wow. One nap and you're just better? How convenient.”
Danny tried not to react, watching closely for any sign that the ghost was present, but the look Jack was giving him made him feel small, cornered despite the whole lab being between them. He glanced over at the portal, then back at his dad who continued staring at him impatiently.
Then he saw it, a small flash of green phasing through Jack’s shoulder and dipping back in.
Danny kept calm, looking over at the filter again, replying carefully, “I’ll be quick.”
“That would be a miracle coming from you,” Jack snapped.
Danny stiffly crossed the lab over to the portal, glanced at the filter. It wasn’t that full (he hadn’t been able to catch as many ghosts as he usually did thanks to his healing issue and wasn’t straining the portal’s filtration system), so he guessed his dad had probably just assumed it needed cleaning since it usually did around this time.
Danny carefully positioned himself so that he was blocking his dad from seeing what he was doing. He hovered at the filter for a little while, made a big act of looking frustrated and confused.
“Figures. What’s the matter now?” Jack grumbled irritably behind him.
Danny rubbed the back of his neck, turned to give his dad a meek look. “I-I don’t know, I can’t get it open…”
This was stupid. Stupid and risky. But he didn't know what else to do.
Jack's eyes narrowed impatiently and he slammed the tool he had been using down onto the counter as he stalked closer.
Danny swallowed, backed a step away from the filter to give his dad space to reach it, all the while inching closer to the portal’s switch.
He knew he could eject other ghosts from people--he'd done it to Vlad before--but that had taken a lot of force and he wasn't really sure how this ghost worked. It seemed to materialize and dematerialize at random. If he left it out of the open too long, he wasn't sure if he could hold onto it.
He'd need to quickly shove it out and trap it in the Ghost Zone. If he couldn't, then…
He'd just have to hold it on the other side of the portal until his dad closed it.
Jack stopped in front of the filter and Danny braced again, waiting for him to lean over it and see what the problem was, but instead, his dad looked at him.
Danny’s eyes flicked back and forth uncertainly, then pointed again at the filter. “Do you think you could… open it…?”
“I can open it.”
Danny's nerves tensed anxiously. “Okay…”
“But I want to know one thing first…” Jack started, taking another step closer.
Danny swallowed, suddenly noticing how little space he’d given himself; his father’s towering body in front of him, the walls and messy counters of the lab behind and beside him. His brows furrowed in confusion at the question, but another glance at the filter and he guessed he must mean the chores. “I really wasn't feeling–”
“Why couldn't you wait?” his dad asked, his voice changing pitch as a smug, sympathetic grin crossed his face, eyes glowing a deep, familiar red.
Danny’s eyes bulged as realization hit and he reflexively reached into his core, clenching his fists as he pulled forth spectral energy to transform.
Or tried to, but faster than Danny had ever seen his father move, the large man had jammed something into his abdomen.
Danny wailed in shock as icy hot needles ripped through him, the electricity dancing through every inch of him, then settled in his core and started tearing; ripping him apart. His whole body seized and jolted, the pain searing his insides with an unfathomable and familiar pain. For that brief moment, he felt like he was back in the portal and someone had turned it on with him inside again.
It didn't last more than a second, but when it was over he was on his knees, chest spasming, eyes wide and wild as he looked up at his dad in horror.
"I had planned to wait a few more days, you know, but you just couldn’t wait. There wasn’t a moment you weren’t confident I was involved, but I suppose it didn’t end up mattering, now did it?”
Danny watched his dad speak, heard his voice, but as he stared up at the towering form above him, he was met once again with eyes that were not his father's.
Still reeling from the shock, taking deep, shuddering breaths of pain and exhaustion, he reached into his core and gasped in alarm when he felt nothing. It didn't just feel hard to access, it felt like it was gone.
“W-what did you do to me?” Danny stammered in horror, backing away and staring with wide eyes at the figure of his father, who suddenly seemed much bigger than he ever had before.
Vlad grinned, warping Jack’s face into something wrong, red eyes boring into him as he casually leaned forward. “I call it the Plasmius Maximus. Now, I know you’ve been feeling rather impatient, but not to worry. The worst of it is almost over and unfortunately, that little device will be a necessity moving forward.”
With Jack’s large hand, Vlad backhanded Danny across the face. Danny’s head whipped to the left so hard he fell over, barely catching himself from smacking his face against the floor. The blow had no supernatural power behind it, but that did nothing to cushion the bright, pulsing heat under his skin and in his cheekbone. Tears sprang unbidden from his eyes and his vision was swimming, but adrenaline urged him to move, rising shakily.
“Get out of him or I swear to god I’ll-”
Vlad tsked disapprovingly. “Temper yourself. These little outbursts of yours will no longer be permitted.”
Danny’s face twisted into a snarl. He used the counter behind him to pick himself up, his back to it as he stared down the towering form of his father. “Get. Out.”
“Or what?” Vlad challenged, brow quirking.
“I’ll tell them.”
“Oh?”
“I mean it. I’ll reveal myself to everyone,” Danny resolved, knuckles turning white and fists trembling, the only sign of the rushing adrenaline that threatened to make him rattle out of his own skin. “I’ll tell them our secret and I’ll make sure everyone knows what we are and what we can do.”
“You’d demonize yourself?” Vlad queried, his voice gallingly calm.
“Us,” Danny corrected evenly.
Vlad regarded him briefly, then smiled. “That might be concerning if you were able to reveal yourself, but as it stands, your abilities aren’t a concern and won’t be for several hours. Do you really think I would go through all this trouble without considering that possibility?”
“I think your ego could be seen from space and you’re more prone to mistakes than you want to believe,” Danny retorted, taking a threatening step forward. “And this was a big mistake. You’re messing with my family, and if you think I will ever let this go, you’re crazier than you look, Fruitloop.”
To Danny’s surprise, the petty use of the despised nickname didn’t have the effect he anticipated. In fact, Vlad seemed to be nothing but smiles, oozing confidence.
“It’s evident you haven’t explored your overshadow abilities, so let me provide you a lesson. Overshadowing can be extremely effective when used properly. I can, for instance, commandeer a person entirely, as I am currently with Jack. When I leave, he’ll believe he’d simply lost track of his thoughts. This method gets much less effective the longer you remain, as the host cannot justify extended periods of mental absence. It also doesn’t work if you attempt to force them to do something they ordinarily would not. That’s liable to get you kicked from a host body. But, if the desired outcome is to force the host to do something outside of what they might normally do, a partial overshadowing is far more effective.”
Vlad demonstrated his meaning by holding up his palm. Light grew first, a pinprick of intense white light that shifted from the usual pink Vlad’s ectoplasmic power typically produced into a vibrant green. He spent a moment or two letting the pink give way to the green before at last it seemed it was done and what remained was the small, green ghost.
Danny couldn’t contain the grimace that flashed over his features.
“Yes, I know you’ve gotten quite familiar with it,” Vlad said with a grin, “But do you know why this is the most valuable power we have?”
Vlad paused like a lecturer, but his would-be student was too absorbed with managing the desperate need to fight back against the impenetrable suit of armor the latter currently adorned.
“Creating this costs us virtually nothing and with prolonged exposure, we can not only convince others to do anything , we can make them believe it was what they truly wanted to do. Normally this can take up to six months, but Jack… well, I suppose part of him was already angry with you… it only took three.”
His gaze fell to the floor unbidden, shoulders slumping. The adrenaline that had been flooding his system felt like it was being squeezed out by exhaustion, spilling out of the bottom of his feet into the floor.
“It pains me to have had to go to such lengths,” Vlad said regretfully, “But you insisted on remaining stubbornly ignorant. Remember, son. This was your choice.”
“Don’t call me that!” Danny yelled, reaching for one of the gadgets behind him. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, he just knew there were enough weapons in this basement to take out a chunk of the ghost zone itself. His fingers closed on something and he swung it, only realizing too late it was just a beaker. It harmlessly bounced off Jack’s broad abdomen, clinking on the ground without so much as a crack. It made no difference to him, however. All he needed was a distraction.
Danny bolted for the staircase. It probably wouldn't take his mom long to figure out there weren't any ghosts around, so she would be home soon. He had to tell her. He couldn't prove it right now, but he'd make her see. He could convince her and damn whatever followed.
He hit the staircase face-first, ramming his nose and busting his lip on one of the steps. He wasn’t entirely sure if he tripped accidentally or if Vlad had done it to him, but the massive gloved hand encasing his ankle made him think it was probably the latter. He scrambled to pick himself up, but Vlad was yanking him back, dragging him kicking and flailing down the stairs and across the floor of the lab until he was within reach; on his back under his father's towering body.
Danny struck out to kick the man away, but his whole leg jarred against Jack’s abdomen and before Danny could try something else, Vlad was batting his leg away and driving his foot into Danny's stomach.
He wheezed, breath leaving him in a whoosh as his body jolted. He tried to curl in on himself protectively, but the foot shoved him forcefully onto his back again before stomping down on his stomach.
He breathed out a pained heave, grabbing at Jack’s boot and trying to at least ease some of the pressure as Vlad leaned his weight onto his sternum, crushing and trapping him.
"There's something I forgot to mention about overshadowing,” Vlad said calmly, watching with a glint in his eye as Danny struggled beneath him. “With enough practice and skill, you can not only affect your host's behaviors, you can influence their body as well.” He paused, allowing the insinuation to sink in. “With Jack’s lifestyle, no one would bat an eye if his heart failed him.”
Danny’s eyes jumped up to Vlad’s, freezing in his struggles.
"It takes little effort on my part," Vlad explained. "And I can do it from anywhere."
"Don’t," Danny growled desperately, trying again to wiggle out from under Jack’s foot, but Vlad only leaned on him harder.
"Whether I will or not depends entirely on you. Now, Daniel, do you doubt that I will kill your father?"
Danny pinched his eyes shut, trying to breathe, grunting in rising desperation as he struggled to unpin himself.
Vlad reared Jack's hand back and slapped him, and the surprise of it had Danny releasing a strained whine, dazed as the stinging in his face tripled. He could hear a ringing in his ear and his eye wasn’t opening. He coughed when Vlad eased the pressure on his stomach, but when he raised his hand to slap him again, Danny quickly coughed out, “I get it!"
Vlad’s hand remained poised, but didn’t land.
"Good. And do you understand that there is no one I cannot influence, buy, or remove to ensure your compliance?"
A thick lump had formed in his throat, furthering his difficulty breathing and making it painful to swallow. He looked over to the lab staircase through his one good eye; it looked miles away now that he was just a weak, scrawny kid.
Blurrily, he thought he could see some of his own blood dripping off the first couple of steps.
"Daniel…" Vlad warned.
"Just–"
Vlad's brow rose in surprise.
Danny went limp, trying to catch his breath enough to speak again. One side of his mouth felt swollen. "Just… just leave them out of it. I'll… I-I'll do whatever you want."
"Yes, you will.”
Danny felt more than saw Vlad become distracted by something. The older man’s eyes wandered toward the ceiling, seeming to listen for a moment before a wide grin crossed his features with a chilling kind of anticipation.
“Ah, she's home,” Vlad said, gaze rolling back down to Danny. “Let’s make a little noise, shall we?”
He tensed as Vlad leaned down and captured his arm in Jack’s steely grip, resisted fruitlessly as Vlad pinned it down to the floor beside his head. Danny tensed, but as Jack’s arm reared back, his eyes shot wide with realization, and he started frantically bucking and yanking at his arm.
Ignoring Danny's renewed struggling, Vlad slammed Jack’s fist into Danny’s left collarbone.
It cracked, caved, and Danny felt the breath vacate his lungs in a raw wheeze as the fist snapped into bone, pain crushing his arm, shoulder and chest like an anvil. He only found his breath again when Vlad reared back and drove his fist into him a second time, a hoarse scream tearing out of his throat as agony sent him into a desperate, clawing panic. His right arm swung wildly around for some kind of purchase, his legs kicked and scratched on the metal flooring, but his left arm lay still where Vlad held it, numb from the fingers and up the arm until closer to his shoulder where a cold, stabbing pain radiated all the way into his chest.
When Vlad finally released him, Danny tried to roll over and wrap around himself protectively, but the movement left the sensation of glass shifting under his skin and he cried out again. Instead, he covered it with his good, trembling hand, hyperventilating as sharp, icy pain kept spasming through his shoulder.
Vlad stared down at him smugly as the sound of rushing footsteps descended the staircase.
With a victorious grin, Jack's eyes returned to their usual color, and he turned to face the entryway as the remaining Fentons approached.
Maddie practically leapt down the stairs in her rush, Jazz not far behind her. At the sight of Jack looming over Danny’s crumpled form, still clinging desperately to his shoulder and struggling to pull in air, a chilling calm fell over her. She pulled out a baton used for ghosts, crossing the room as she warned, “Step away from him, Jack.”
Though Vlad didn’t seem to be overshadowing him anymore, the residual feelings from his presence remained, and Jack turned to her, glaring furiously.
“Jazz, call 911 right now,” Maddie told her daughter. “Danny, baby, are you okay?”
“There you go again, coddling him!” Jack roared. “This is how he gets away with as much as he does. You won't punish him!”
“Step away, Jack. Now .”
“It was… my fault,” Danny wheezed, carefully cradling his shoulder and gritting his teeth through the stabbing pain as he worked himself up into a sitting position. “I-I was being lazy. I-I--”
“See?! He admits it!” Jack raged.
“Don’t, sweetie” Maddie told Danny, though her eyes were fixed on her husband. “Jack, back away from him right now or I will make you.”
Jack seemed taken aback, but it only fueled his uncontrollable anger. “You’re getting mad at me? This is his fault! This is all his fault!” Jack fumed and made a critical mistake. He swung his hand at Danny's face, smacking him with a sharp crack that sent him flailing onto his back. Danny screamed again when his shoulder hit the floor and pain laced into his whole left side.
It took her only two long strides to dart across the room and get between him and Jack, wasting no time as she swung her baton into the back of Jack’s knee, forcing him to drop. With his balance gone, Maddie pulled back and swung it again, slamming it against her husband’s chest and forcing him onto his back with a loud, heavy thud. She poised her baton over her head, ready to make a secondary strike, but when she saw her husband wheezing, she cautiously walked past him to kneel beside her son.
“Jazz, call the police!” she shouted more urgently, not realizing her daughter was already panickedly trying to tell the operator what was happening. She returned her attention to Danny, her features as steely as when she was hunting ghosts.
She knelt next to him and he raised his one good eye to her, though even that was pinched slightly in a lasting wince. She scanned him briefly to ensure she had not overlooked any injuries before scooping him up in her arms, hesitating only a moment when Danny whined at the grinding sensation in his collarbone.
“I know, baby, I know,” she told him softly, rubbing a thumb over his arm gently. “Be brave.”
He nodded into her shoulder, stifling the whimpers that threatened to spill forth.
When they were upstairs, Maddie instructed Jazz to close and lock the door to the basement behind them.