Pre-Author's Note: My first DP fanfic. So please RxR and be nice.
Pheonix
Prologue: Black, White, Grey and Shades...
Tired. God, why did he have to be so tired today? It seemed as if each leg, each muscle, each artery weighed ten times over its original weight. He dragged himself over to his enormous walk-in closet; in its glory the ruby-red trim enhanced the dark golden underlining to the doors and framework of the room. The swirls of the off-white on white designs circled into the room and finally disappeared when his clothes covered the large walls. He took no notice in these simple details as he had grown accustomed to them throughout his enormous mansion. He walked under the nine foot doorway and into the closet to choose an outfit that suited the meeting later that afternoon.
The man, somewhere in his early thirties, picked out a black suit with a red bow-tie to accent the white undershirt. A sigh showed his discontent as he closed the doors once again and began towards his master bathroom. Few moments passed as he reemerged with the classic costume that he called his daily attire.
"Well, good morning there, Mr. Masters," a woman entered the 20x20 foot room with rugged clothes and an apron to cover the front of her aged blouse.
"Good Morning, Ms. Mathews," the man greeted back as he gathered his things and threw them into the laundry bin next to his king size bed.
"Not in a good mood, I see. May I ask what's bothering you – if it's not too bold?"
"I would much rather you keep to your assigned tasks, Ms. Mathews," he did not look too pleased.
"Very well. Sorry then, Mr. Masters. Let me know if you need a talking," the young lady responded picking up the basket on her way out.
He felt gravity upon him and he sat back in a chair as he watched the young mistress leave to continue her daily chores. Youth. He had a chance back before he met Jack Fenton. But, no, he wouldn't go down that path of thought right before a meeting. First it would be his heart, every beat causing him a slight ache in the chest. Next would come the guilt, the hatred, and it would result in a sickening feeling in his stomach as if he had too much to eat and he couldn't keep it down. Lastly it would be a soft painless moistening of his eyes to the point where they couldn't hold the water any longer – a salty tear would streak his cheek and cause a reddening in his face. Repeat.
The pain was always too unbearable for too long, and his weak frame couldn't always handle the chronic pain it was under. The man looked up, a tear beginning to climb its way down his bony cheek. He thought he heard someone call his name. "Mr. Masters, are you still in here? Mr. Masters, your breakfast is ready – we can keep it warm for later if you are –."
"No, no, keep it. I'll be down in a few moments."
His chin was rested upon his hands that were woven together in some sort of fist. His gaze then drifted to the one and only picture of anyone – besides the packers – in his home. Maddy, Jack, and Vlad – all grouped together smiling for once instance, for one moment in time where things seemed so perfect. The man's eyes drooped slightly in pressure of keeping back the tear that desperately begged to be known. One hand left from under his chin to pick up the small frame and brought the gleaming photo closer.
Though, hunched over in the chair made it difficult to see a certain someone phase through the wall of his master chamber, he did not notice the transparent figure creeping up in front of him. – Or, so the boy in disguise thought.
"Daniel, my boy, how are you? Didn't your parents ever teach you to knock when entering an occupied room?"
The picture was set back down on the designer desk next to the bed. He didn't bother changing his position – he could tell the boy wasn't there to battle with him by the way he held his head. So, realizing there was to sneak attack available the boy appeared before Vlad Masters.
"Won't your parents be delighted when they find out that their boy is missing -" he began sarcastically, now leaning back in the chair while waiting for the boy's response.
"It's summer vacation," he said lightly, "and they think I'm at a friends." Though, Daniel's eyes told a story that Vlad felt differed from his spoken one.
Vlad's eyebrows rose into curiosity. His hands found each other again and began to play with each other in front as he continued to rest back in the leather chair. "Well, are you going to inform me of why you are here or shall we play a good old game of twenty questions?" He couldn't away his history with Danny just yet…
"Shut up, Vlad."
"Such respect for your elders, too." Why can I just give the boy a chance?
"SHUT UP!"
The room grew silent for a few seconds. A butler went to knock but decided against it as he heard the conversation continue in which resulted in him listening behind the door. "Mr. Barker I will be down momentarily," Vlad, as his keen sixth sense took notice of the butler, responded to the other man's eavesdropping.
"Is he gone?" The younger halfa asked as he turned to look at the doorframe that looked similar to the closet.
"He's a ways down the hall by now."
Danny turned back to Vlad, he was somewhere on the defensive side yet willing to trust to a certain extent. Yet he couldn't bear to begin his story to the older man…
"Question one: Does it have anything to do with Maddy?" Vlad joked lightly in monotone as he realized the silence was getting them nowhere to the teen's reasoning for intruding upon the Master's property. He figured it would be a conversation starter.
"Vlad, I'm serious," Danny said with a glazed look in his eye.
"Fine, then, continue…" Vlad leaned back in, now curious as to why the boy had come. They're both looking for someone to understand their unique abilities – both, in reality, alone from the rest of the world. Now together in one room, they could say anything to one another without intrusion or interruption. Vlad had to hold back a deep chuckle for Danny's sake. If the boy thought he was laughing at him, well, where would the little trust he had between them go?
Silence bounced off the walls for a few more minutes before Danny looked up at Vlad.
"Daniel?"
"I – I don't think they're going to make it. They -" Daniel paused for a minute - not knowing whether to continue or not.
"I...uh..." Finally breaking down, Daniel turned away from the older man. "I tried to be… strong, I guess, up until now…"
"Excuse me? Who's not going to make it?" Vlad was now standing and had made his way over to the younger halfa and lifted his chin up to look at him and demanded, "Who's hurt?"
Tears, now burning the teen's eyes, were streaming down the boy's cheeks. "They said it was going to be new – improved – and they were so excited. They were so excited to just go and test it out. They went down into the lab in the basement and worked on it for days – no, weeks. Finally, they said that it was finished. They were so proud. But they were wrong." He wiped some loose tears from his red, hot cheeks. "My dad had done the calculations wrong and continued to plug it in anyways. The shock it gave their systems hospitalized them, and they got better – for a while. But my mom… there was red all over the front of her body. My dad has it all over his left side. Jazz, well, she made it out of the room just in time to smash her face against the stairway – she's in a concussion. The only way I made it out alright was because I went ghost and phased out of the room."
There was a light pause. Vlad had taken the boy back to the leather chair and into his lap. His strong arms were around the smaller frame, rubbing the back of the weeping boy.
"They got skin cancer. There's too much of it to get rid of because it's everywhere they got hit when the portal exploded. They're not going to make it."
No Maddy? No Jack? Though the buffoon was never considered a friend – he was just as close to Vlad as Maddy and Daniel. Family? "Oh," was all the billionaire could say. "You know, I will always be here if you need me. If you-."
"Can I move in with you? I don't want to be around people who are going to want to talk about it," the teen rested his head on the man's chest and continued to let tears glide down his cheeks.
Speechless, Vlad could sense another butler approaching. Probably coming to tell him that his breakfast was going to rot on the table if he didn't finally come down to eat it, the butler opened the door and peered in finding…
"PACK IT UP I'LL EAT LATER!" Vlad yelled making the boy in his arms jump at the loud shout; the man's eyes glowing a red mist.
Danny heard the door shut quickly and footsteps rapidly thumping down the hallway. Vlad felt Daniel become uncomfortable in his grasp yet he tightened anyway to keep the boy from escaping.
"Are you sure you don't want to move in with a friend – someone closer – you'd feel more comfortable around?"
Silent for a moment, Daniel responded, "You're already trying to kick me out and I haven't even moved in yet." He didn't sound very happy either and continued to try and pry himself off of Vlad; now that he felt unwelcome – maybe he should have just knocked to come in, in the first place.
Vlad smiled and let Danny pull back far enough to look at the boy head on. "You really want to move in with me, little badger? Well, shall I send some of my people out to get your things?"
"No," Danny paused. "Can we just go get them…later? I don't want to go back right now. Things are too complicated there."
"That's understandable," the man responded, taking the boy's head and once again resting him on his well defined chest.
"Would you like some breakfast?" Vlad asked curiously as Danny pulled his back once again in full confusion.
Monday Afternoon
The young boy was waiting at the door for the older halfa to catch up and fly with him down back to the Fenton household to pick up Danny's things. As the man approached from the grand living room fixing his bow-tie Danny smiled and rose from the floor he was sitting on in front of the main entrance to the Master's Mansion.
"You shouldn't be sitting on the floor," Vlad informed Danny, "It's dirty."
"I would expect in this place I'd be able to eat off it. I already can see my reflection in it – kinda."
Danny looked down and saw a fuzzy version of himself in the polished wood. As he tilted his head up slightly he saw Vlad's reflection as well. "We should get going if we want to get there before two," Vlad was looking at his wrist watch. When he brought his arm down Daniel had already 'gone ghost'. He remembered that day like it was yesterday…
"I'm going ghost!" Danny paused, confused, in skulker's cube.
"I'm going ghost! …Why can't I go ghost?" He sounded so broken hearted it made Vlad laugh aloud.
"You have a battle cry, hilarious..."
Vlad liked it better the way things were before Daniel's life got complicated. Their lives used to be like some sort of television show - good vs evil, black vs white – now there was so much grey things seemed to be a smudged chalk drawing. Yet… it was all in his favor. Should he really complain?
Plasmius and Danny Phantom took off towards the Fenton household a few minutes later bickering about the dumbest things just to walk around the thing they both really wanted to discuss. How was Maddy? Jack? Was Jazz affected by the blast just as they were? Why is he helping me? Danny's thoughts were splashing around in his head like they were going through a washing machine. He could be using this as a chance to get me to 'join' him or something. Maybe he's going to wait until the right moment when I'm all secure and everything and then just –
"Daniel," Plasmius said gently as they flew – invisibly - over the town below, "Though I would love to have you as my son, I want you to know that I would want to see you happy more than me forcing you into something you would have to get used to… if that means making you situated with your parents and strengthening your relationship with them… well…"
Plasmius drifted off as he concentrated on flying instead of his seemingly meaningless attempts to comfort Daniel. As for the teen, that is – of course, he was left to wonder. I still don't trust you. He thought to himself as if he were talking to Plasmius.
"I know. But who can you trust now-a-days, Daniel?"
"I'm only here because you're the only family I got left when they die."
"No – you're here because there's no one else who can possibly understand you if they die," Plasmius tried to keep the teen's thoughts hopeful.
"Don't fill me with false hope. The last thing I want to do is be in denial until they finally do go…"
The rest of the flight to Danny's house was silent. No one spoke. No one wanted to. Even thoughts were guided towards other things besides themselves and the lives of Daniel's family…
Author's Note:
Remember now, people, this is a prologue! I was too excited to post the entire day in one sitting. It's two in the morning and I and beat. Plus – It's Sunday tomorrow and school finally starts again on Monday. NO! SPRING BREAK IS OVER! weeps Ah, well. Please R&R and I'll get back to this as soon as I can! next weekend possibly…hopefully…maybe tomorrow night if I can't sleep…