Disclaimer: I own nothing except the computer I typed this on and even my control of that seems questionable at times.
WARNING! Contains Spoilers for Phantom Planet!
AN: Just a little one-shot thing I tossed together on the train today as I was thinking about Phantom Planet, so if it's not fleshed out properly or there are errors, I apologize. It's supposed to be from Maddie's POV concerning the events of Phantom Planet and its aftermath.
A Mother's Worries
Maddie sighed as she sat down at the kitchen table with a pink scrapbook, a mug full of coffee in front of her, the rest of the pot sitting not too far away. She hadn't been sleeping well recently, not since she the news of the asteroid broke. What kept her up then and what was keeping her up now, while having vastly different sources, was her growing anxiety for the future.
Her anxiety had been replaced by the euphoria of success as the asteroid passed harmlessly through the Earth. That euphoria was short lived as the anxiety started the moment she saw those two white rings of energy form at his waist, each spreading away from each other, leaving the image of her son behind. Her human son.
Knowing what her son was, as she did after Jazz had confessed to them, hadn't completely prepared her for the visual proof as she watched Phantom change. If anything, it had been seeing Vlad change that had even prepared her for what she saw.
Speaking of Vlad, he was somewhat of a sore topic around the house these days. When and if his name came up, Danny would get a disgusted look on his face while Jazz would just shake her head sadly. Jack, well, Jack would get this hard look on his face whenever his old friend was brought up.
She wasn't sure if Jack was aware of it or not, but both his and Vlad's communicators had been on and transmitting back to the Fenton Works lab as they flew up to deal with the asteroid.
It bothered her on some level, listening to Jack as Vlad pleaded for help. She had often heard her husband speak as he went through various emotional states; sadness, anger, happiness, excitement, and righteousness. Oh, did she mention excitement? But she had never heard the sort of seriousness from her husband as when he talked to Vlad after the fruitloop had told Jack exactly why he hated him.
Then there was the hate, which was only more surprising. She had heard Vlad say he would make her his queen and only silence on Jack's part. She herself had been fuming at the audacity of that man, er ghost… thing. To think she would abandon Jack after knowing who and what Vlad was and what he had done? Her anger, however, was nothing compared to what Jack had been feeling.
There was no remorse, no pity, as he refused to aid their former friend and fired up the rockets, leaving Vlad stranded out in the vastness of space, alone. Since then, Jack hadn't second-guessed himself once. Despite his denseness, she believed that even he intuitively knew the depth of Vlad's hatred and betrayal.
Perhaps if Vlad's betrayal had only been just between the two men, a sort of private feud, then perhaps Jack would have let it go, would have rescued the man. But Vlad hadn't just betrayed Jack, he had betrayed her, Maddie Fenton. As difficult as their relationship could be sometimes, she knew she and their children were the center of Jack's world.
Vlad wanted to steal his world from him. Vlad had attacked his children and attempted to kill him. He had betrayed the town, his country, and the world. It would only to be later, after the Diasteroid had passed, that the investigators would be able to unravel all of Vlad's crimes.
When the government report had come out, it had shocked Maddie. What they found had, if it was at all possible, steeled Jack's commitment to what he had done.
They were already aware of his attempts to kill Jack. Maddie had informed her husband of the supposed Science Symposium she and Danny had gone too. Another notch against Masters. The investigators had dug deeper, finding far too many instances of small business owners who had signed away to Vlad their companies for practically nothing or had simply disappeared, only for their will to be found leaving their possession to Vlad.
Then there was what Vlad had done to her baby boy. Of course, she probably couldn't keep referring to Danny like that. He had saved the world, after all, but in her heart that was what he would always be.
To think, her son and her former best friend had been fighting all this time. In hindsight, it all made sense; the animosity Danny displayed towards Vlad, Vlad's public campaigns against Phantom, how every time the Wisconsin ghost showed up, so had Phantom. She had always thought that she had imagined the hostility the two showed towards each other. Correction, the hostility Danny showed towards Vlad and the smugness that Master's reciprocated it with.
After pouring over the government report, it scared her, quite frankly, knowing that her little boy had been feuding, rather violently, with such a dangerous creature as Vlad.
It was strange, the more she thought about it, how she still couldn't associate dangerous with Danny, despite knowing what he is, what he had done, and what he was capable of. Her son had fought Pariah Dark and saved this city and, perhaps, beyond. He was the first responder to most ghost attacks and was known to be active at all times of the day, even in the middle of the night.
He was reckless, brash, cocky, but powerful. As far as she knew, the only ghost her boy hadn't been able to stop wasn't a ghost at all, although now he wasn't much of a threat as he drifted off somewhere in the depths of space.
She sighed, flipping through the scrapbook Jazz had made chronicling Danny's heroic exploits. He hadn't limited himself to just ghost hunting. He had assisted the police in apprehending criminals, rescued people from burning buildings, and was generally a good guy, despite what she and Jack had stated in the past.
Still, her skin crawled when she thought of what might have happened to her baby in past, though if she let herself, she would freeze up when she considered what the future held.
Despite saving it from complete destruction, the world was not a safe place, and since the incident, it was even more dangerous. The nations of the world had expended much of their military resources in attempting to shoot down the asteroid. The construction of the device enabling them to turn the world intangible had sapped the resources and economies of the world.
Nations were nervous, fearing foreign aggression due to their current weakness. It was by miracle alone that the world hadn't fallen into a depression with the huge resource strain that it had just suffered. And in the middle of it all was her son, a fifteen year-old half ghost.
He was only fifteen, but was now known world-wide and viewed by much of the population as a sort of symbol of hope. This had placed far too many burdens, as far as she was concerned, upon the shoulders of her son. People were looking to him for guidance when he himself was probably as lost as the rest of us, if not more so. He had spent the last two years basing his life around lies and secrets, defining himself by what he did and the responsibility he had chosen to burden himself with. His anonymity was gone and the ghosts seemed to have held back on their attacks for now (though it may have had to do with the still-damaged Fenton Portal and Vlad's Portal, which was currently sealed shut).
He needed a purpose, and though the world had one ready for him, she wasn't sure if he was up to it. And as much responsibility he had taken on himself already, hunting ghosts was relatively simple compared to the games of politics he would have to learn to play.
Ghosts weren't the only dangers he faced now. Quite a few humans distrusted him, the memory of the only other half-ghost holding the world hostage was not one to fade anytime soon. The GiW had already been assigned to protect him, and irony that brought a smile to her face, as fears of assassination spread throughout the government, who were not eager to have the savior of the world murdered on their watch.
Kidnapping was also a very real threat. She knew how valuable her son was to the unsavory elements of the world governments. She had realized, even if the rest of her family had not or chose not to, that many would see her boy as a potential weapon, a device to be recreated.
It was the stuff of nightmares, the idea of anybody fielding an army of ghost-human hybrids. The damage, the havoc that would result from such a thing.
Maddie sighed, looking at the kitchen clock and the now empty coffee pot sitting in front of her. She wondered when she would be able to sleep again, if she would ever be able to go to bed and not fear for the future of her family.
She also had to fear for his friends, the others who had saved the world and had taken on more responsibility that they were ready for. Tucker, who had, maybe foolishly (though only time will tell) had accepted the post of interim mayor until the elections. Then there was Sam, who was right there with her baby, putting herself in danger for him. If things continued this way, she might one day call the dark and gloomy girl her daughter-in-law.
Despite her depressing thoughts, she couldn't help but chuckle at the irony. A goth girl and a ghost. It fit in a weird way.
Taking another look at the clock, she concluded that she would definitely not be going to sleep anytime soon. Getting up from the table, she headed down to the lab. She had a portal to fix.
AN: Like I said, just a quick something I threw together. I have to say that the scene between Jack and Vlad in space is my favorite part of the episode. Review please. Or don't, I don't mind, especially for this piece of work.