"Clockwork, no. We have told you more times than we can count and we will tell you again. No. You are, under no circumstances, in a million years and beyond, going on a vacation. So stop asking. It's starting to really get on our nerves."
"Don't make us punish you. You know that we will."
Clockwork glared at the faces before him. If he had more courage in him, he would probably punch them in the face. Well, technically their massive eyeballs but at this point in time technicality wasn't really the concern.
"But…," Clockwork's voice faltered, hitching slightly before he gained confidence and tried to speak again. "Why are you Observants always like this? I'm just a tool to you, and never once do I ever get to do anything for myself. Always working at your command and doing your dirty work and never with a break. Never a thank you in return. I never even get a present from you at the Christmas truce!"
The Observants rolled their eyes in unison and one scoffed like it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "Oh please. Clockwork you are way too high maintenance. You know why you can't take a break so stop complaining. It's never going to happen. As for the other things, you simply don't deserve them. You might as well put those on the long list of things you need to let go and forget."
The Observants then turned around and began to leave the tower. Clockwork slumped in defeat, clenching his teeth together. He knew if he argued any more, he'd only make the Observants angry and angry Observants were never a good thing. "Oh and Clockwork."
At the sound of one of their voices echoing through the tower, Clockwork looked back up and found that they were at the door, already halfway through, about to leave. "Yes..." He answered, voice small and hesitant.
"Don't even think about disobeying us. You will be very sorry if you do."
Clockwork flinched as the door to the tower slammed closed. Now what was he going to do? Be stuck in this tower forever? Do the Observants' dirty work for the rest of eternity? At this point it seemed likely.
His face fell into his hands and he groaned. "And of course. Now they'll be pissy for a while. I really need to learn to shut my mouth."
Out of nowhere, a bang came from one of the rooms in the tower. Already knowing what it was, Clockwork's eyes flashed in anger. When he arrived in the room he saw that the thermos that held the dangerous ghost known as "Dan" had fallen to the floor and it was rolling slightly. The sound of metal rubbed against the tiles echoing throughout the room. Seconds later, an annoying and very angry voice erupted from it, screeching incoherent words of distress.
"Nice job Dan. Real smooth. You definitely thought that plan of escape through really well." Clockwork drawled slowly clapping slowly just to piss the trapped ghost off.
"Shut your dumb trap Clocky and help me!" Dan's voice echoed angrily and the thermos rolled, slamming into a table leg. "Ow! Shit! Why?"
"And why, pray tell, would I? You're the reason you're down there, and you're the one who kept me from going on a vacation!" Clockwork's eyes flashed in anger before calming down, taking a deep breath. It wouldn't do him any good to completely lose his temper. "Besides, you're on the dirty floor, exactly where you belong. Maybe I should just leave you there. It suits you better anyways."
Dan let out an angry shriek. "Just watch! One day I'm going to get outta here and I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna destroy Danny and Vlad and make sure that I'm created in that time line! Nothing can save them! And while I'm at it, I'll destroy you too!"
Clockwork sighed and picked up a book that was laying open on the table and lazily dropped it on the thermos. As soon as it made contact, there was an angry shout from Dan. "Ow! Hey!"
"Shut up you whiny baby I have more important things to deal with than you and your daily rants. They're getting tiring and you really need to come up with some new material. If I'm going to be stuck with you for a long time, I would really appreciate you shutting up for, oh maybe eternity."
"Aww Clocky, you're really upset about not getting that vacation, aren't you? It's okay, I understand. I'm sure you could leave this place for a little bit. I mean what could happen? I get out?" Dan mock gasped. "Wouldn't that just be awful?"
"Oh my god Dan. You are such a child! Perhaps I should get you a soother and put you down for nap just like all the other kids at this hour! How would you like that, huh?"
"W-What?" Dan sputtered. "How dare you!"
"Well I'm not wrong! You're acting like it! So you must be a chi-" Clockwork suddenly stopped mid-word, an almost maniacal grin appearing on his face. "I have an idea."
"Oh no." Dan groaned.
"This is ridiculous!" Vlad Masters yelled, throwing the book that he had been holding. "It's been four years since I gave up that damn plan and I still have no idea where my life is heading at this point."
Vlad groaned and collapsed in a nearby chair, placing his head in his hands.
"I mean, I'm already richer than I need to be, Daniel is already grown up and on his own and Maddie, well after 23 years that just didn't work out. I'm just so lost. I mean after all this time and fame I have no idea where I'm going with my existence! I'm forty-eight and haven't even tried to build a meaningful relationship since the acci-"
The sudden sound the doorbell ringing interrupted Vlad from his monologue. He rolled his eyes and yelled.
"Marcia! Someone's at the door!"
Vlad waited silently for a few moments, waiting for any kind of response. When he didn't get any response, Vlad growled and stormed out of his room down to the foyer.
"Oh for the love of- Marcia? Marcia where are you? Answer me dammit!"
When none of his employees answered him and the doorbell rang once again, Vlad screamed.
"I swear if one of you don't answer this damn door I will fire you all- Oh. Shit." Vlad smacked a hand over his face and groaned. "God dammit. Why do I always fire all of my servants? Another awful habit I have yet to get rid of."
"No wonder I'm a lonely old man." Vlad grumbled as he walked towards his door. "Can't even keep a few servants."
When he got to the door, he quickly swung it open and sighed. "What do you want?"
On his doorstep waiting for him was a small child. He was blue-eyed and white-haired and stared up at Vlad with wide eyes. In the distance, Vlad heard the sound of screeching tires and looked up to see a vehicle speed quickly away.
"Papa!" the boy yelled in joy.
Vlad's eye twitched as he looked down at the boy.
"P-Pardon me? I am not your father you - you human child! You must have the wrong house!"
With that, Vlad slammed the door in the child's face and collapsed against the door.
As he stood there, arms crossed, Vlad heard a sound from behind him that sounded… almost like a ghost phasing through his door. Sure enough, when he looked down below him, he found it was the small child who was at the door. The difference though? He was he was ghostly pale with red glowing eyes. Combined with the angry expression, it was the vision of what nightmares are made of.
"Why did you slam the door papa?"
Suddenly, Vlad felt like he was in a horror movie and he shivered quickly backing up from the door. Little children shouldn't look so evil and inhumane. Even as a ghost, which Vlad had assumed the child was, no ghost should look this terrifying.
"So… not a human child then."
Vlad wasn't sure whether he should run from the child or if he should slowly approach him. Either way, the boy was floating towards him and whether he liked it or not, Vlad was terrified.
"I'm sorry. I must have mistaken you for someone else! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings… son. What's your name?"
It was strange calling someone 'son', for once. After all, he had been calling Daniel that for years. He had stopped considering Daniel as such as he was now a grown man at the age of twenty-two and Vlad wasn't interested in that fantasy anymore. Not to mention the fact that they hadn't spoken in a long time helped quite a bit.
Now though, after looking at this kid more closely, under all of his terrifying anger looked so lonely. Almost like he had been through too much and locked his emotions away. It reminded Vlad of himself. All the bitterness and loneliness of being left in the dust. Maybe this could be Vlad's one chance at a family.
The kid's eyes flashed an even darker red but he growled out his answer. "Dan."
Vlad's eyebrows shot up but he smiled. He needed to calm Dan down if he was going to have any hope in getting the kid to trust him. He finished walking over and patted the boy's head and spoke gently to him.
"Well Dan, would you perhaps like some ice cream? Or some other kind of snack?"
Dan pouted and shook his head, crossing his arms. Thankfully, he seemed to calm down a bit.
"No…" The child screeched in a whiny voice. After his display of anger, it was hard to remember that he was still a mere child, only seeming to be five or six. Ghost or not, he would still have that mindset.
"What would you like then? I have just about anything you could ever want. Perhaps going to the kitchen would be a good plan?"
The child nodded vigorously, smile lighting up his features. Vlad smiled and started to walk in the direction of the kitchen.
But of course, he should have known that there was nothing normal about this ghost child. He really shouldn't have been surprised, but when rings suddenly surrounded his body and turned the child back to the innocent looking boy he was before, that was exactly what Vlad was. His eyes widened and stopped abruptly as the now blue-eyed boy giggled and skipped forward.
"What's wrong papa? Aren't you coming?"
Vlad nodded, dumbfounded, and continued walking, shock running through his system. The boy was a halfa. Maybe Vlad could help him with it. Maybe make sure this boy didn't make the same mistakes as him. Make sure he never let that bitterness ruin his life and future happiness.
The walk to the kitchen was interesting as the child would giggle and point "wha's that?" at pretty much anything he saw. It was a bit annoying but Vlad just smiled and calmly sated the child's curiosity. Though, due to the castle's vast size it took a lot of patience for the journey.
Eventually when they arrived the kitchen, Vlad opened the fridge and let the child rummage through it. There was no point in pushing him away as he would most certainly get angry once more and that was far from what Vlad wanted. After some searching, Dan found a can of pop and pulled it out as he made an excited noise.
"I want some pop, papa!"
Vlad grimaced. He had no idea how the child would react to caffeine or sugar, and he wasn't quite sure that he exactly wanted to find out. It wouldn't be a good parental decision to make. In a sweet voice, he spoke as he gently pried the can from his hands.
"Uh, I don't know Dan. Sugar might not be the best idea. What about something else, like juice or something?"
Just like at the door, the child growled and his eyes flashed red. To Vlad's relief he didn't turn into his ghost form, but that demonic look the child gave him certainly wasn't pleasant.
"I want pop papa."
Vlad shuddered and swallowed. Vlad decided then that he needed to help this child control his temper. It reminded him of his own. Maybe they could work on it together.
"A-Alright Dan."
He stuttered, trying to hide his fear. Even though he knew it was a bad idea, it wouldn't help to make the child angry.
"You can have the pop."
Hands shaking, he opened the tab on the can, hearing the hiss of air and handed it to the child. As soon as he did, Dan turned back to his happy self and giggled as he started to guzzle the drink down.
Twenty minutes later, Vlad would berate himself about the fact that giving such a sugary drink to a six year old ghost child with unknown powers would be an incredibly stupid idea.
Vlad regretted not thinking this whole thing through. The child had trashed his entire kitchen and half of one of his hallways. He had the money to fix it of course, but that wasn't the point. The point was that somehow he had let a demonic half ghost child into his home, fed it way too much sugar, and now it was destroying his house. The worst part was that he was only one person who had never been near many children, and had no idea what he was doing.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned.
"I'm too much of a virgin for this."
Twenty-two year old Daniel Fenton flew through the air clutching his thermos at his side. While ghost fights had become scarce over the years, they still managed to pop up randomly. Especially when he had other engagements to attend to. Not like that had changed very much since he was a teen. It was almost like ghosts had a second sense for throwing off his plans.
Though, it had been a bit unnerving to have the news obviously documenting his fight. They were probably excited that he had returned to town once more. It definitely didn't help his late factor when he had reporters shouting things at him, trying to catch his attention.
Currently, he was supposed to be at home, visiting his parents for a while. It had been almost a month since he last seen them at his college graduation and he had already started to miss them. It really didn't take very long for that to happen though.
The warm summer breeze was nice as he glided across the sky back towards where he had haphazardly parked his car. He knew he probably should be a bit more careful, but it was hard when a ghost was taunting you, looking for a good fight.
When he returned, he switched back to his human form and entered his car, starting it. Luckily he wasn't that far from his house and when he got there he dragged out his bags and walked up the front door of his childhood home.
After knocking, he rocked on the balls of his feet as he waited feeling slightly nervous for some reason. He knew there was no reason for it but he felt kind of like an outsider here now. It didn't take long before the door clicked open and his mother appeared.
"Hell- Danny! You're here! Though, much later than you said you would be."
She exclaimed, her voice had an edge of disapproval to it but it faded as she wasted no time in scooping him up into a hug. Danny laughed, dropped his bags on the steps, and hugged her back tightly.
"Hey mom. Yeah, sorry, got caught up in a ghost fight. You know how they are, they just love making me late for things. I missed you a lot though. How's it going?"
Danny said once he regained his breath, pulling back and giving his mom a warm happy smile.
"Better now that you're here! But I do hope you're being careful."
Maddie hid her concerned expression with a fond smile. She was about to say something more before there was a faint booming of quick heavy steps and his father appeared in the doorway behind her.
"Danny, my boy, you're finally here! It's great to see you son!" Jack said as he grabbed his son's bags off of the ground. "Come on in and we'll get you settled."
Once Danny stepped inside, his dad closed the door behind them all and reached for his bags. "Thanks dad. If you guys don't mind, I'll just bring my bags to my room and then I'll come back down to catch up."
His parents smiled and nodded and Danny started making his way up the stairs towards his room. It was nice to be back home where he could relax a bit and relieve some of the stress that he was under. He just hoped there weren't any more ghost attacks while he was here.
It had taken several hours, and quite a lot of bribing to get the child to calm down. When he had first saw him, Vlad had been sure that the child would have been difficult, but manageable. Now though, that he had seen just how destructive and both simultaneously emotional and emotionless, he knew that he was in way over his head. But he also knew that he needed help.
This child reminded him so much of himself it scared him. As much as he would love to throw this kid out onto the street, he couldn't help but think of himself and how badly he would have wanted someone to care for him when he went through his rough time.
So even though the kid hadn't been here for not even a day, Vlad knew he couldn't abandon him.
Once he managed to get the kid to calm down from his sugar high he distracted him with the television while he tried to make sense of the destruction that was his house. He had made sure to express his displeasure in what Dan had done, but the lecture seemed to almost go right over his little head. It was almost like talking to a brick wall.
After a while, Vlad decided that he needed to check up on him. The kid had been suspiciously quiet for quite a while and he didn't trust that the kid wasn't causing havoc in his living room as well. When he arrived at the room Dan was relaxing in, to his surprise he found the small child sitting on the couch completely enthralled in what was playing on the television.
With closer inspections, Vlad found that it was the news and on it a familiar form was being reported for fighting a ghost. Which, considering the person was Daniel Fenton, was completely normal.
Dan, however, obviously thought otherwise.
"What are you watching?"
Vlad said, carefully prompting the child, unsure of how he would react.
Dan sat quietly, almost as if he hadn't heard Vlad's question. After a while the child slowly pointed at the television and murmured. "Daddy."
For a moment Vlad could have sworn that his heart had stopped in his chest. He expected a weird answer, after all, Dan was a strange child. But for him to answer with that, well, it was completely absurd.
"I'm sorry, pardon me for asking but, what are you talking about?"
Dan continued his pointing but this time, removed his gaze from the TV and instead looked at Vlad.
"That's daddy. Daddy is on the TV."
It took Vlad a moment to realize it but the child was completely serious. He wasn't a dumb kid. There were definitely some brains in that noggin of his and there was definitely a good reason as to why he would call someone that. After all, it had happened with him and 'papa' earlier. A feeling of cold dread washed over him all of a sudden. But deep inside, even though he wouldn't admit it, Vlad felt a warm feeling of something akin to hope.
Not knowing what to do, Vlad softly patted the child on the head and quietly slipped from the room. Perhaps this was the help that Vlad was looking for. After all if the kid felt kinship for his former enemy, it was likely that he would listen to Daniel.
Making a quick decision, Vlad walked towards a nearby phone and took a deep breath. If anyone knew what to do, it would be Daniel Fenton. And if he was in town there was a high chance that he would be staying over at his parents' house.
Quickly dialing the number, Vlad placed the phone to his ear and tried to calm his shaky breaths as he heard the soft rings of the dial tone in the background.
"Hello?" A young but confident voice answered finally, incredibly obvious that it belonged to Daniel.
Vlad cleared his throat and exhaled before answering.
"Err, Hello Daniel, this is Vla-" He began before there was a loud clunk and he was answered with the frustrating sound of the dial tone.
Taking a deep breath to calm his irritation, Vlad dialed the number again and impatiently tapped his fingers against his arm as he waited for an answer.
This time a different voice answered. One that was loud, excited and considerably older. But he couldn't help noticing the sputtering in the background. "Hello? Fenton residence!"
Vlad couldn't help but smile slightly. Throughout the past few years Vlad had finally rid himself of his bitterness and let himself forgive Jack and get to know him once more. And if that meant that Vlad had gained some affection for his old friend, Vlad really couldn't complain.
"Hello Jack, It's me, Vlad. Listen, I know this might sound strange but I was wondering if you could do me a large favour."
"V-Man! It's been awhile since I've heard from you...And that depends, what kind of favour are we talking about?"
Jack's voice sounded curious but slightly skeptical.
"Well, I was wondering if there was a possibility of you guys coming up here. Especially Daniel. I seemed to have found myself in a situation that calls for his help."
Jack made a quiet humming voice that he made when he was thinking before answering slowly.
"Does this involve ghosts?"
Vlad rolled his eyes at how typical of Jack it was to ask about ghosts. But Vlad shouldn't have expected anything different.
"Well, technically yes. Nothing to do with capturing or fighting, but yes there is a ghost involved."
"Well then count me in!" Jack answered immediately. "When would you like us to come?"
Vlad blinked at the quick answer. "Well, as soon as possible preferably."
"Great then we will see you as soon as we get there! Bye V-Man!"
With that, he hung up and Vlad was left once more with the sound of the dial tone.
"Well," Vlad said quietly to himself. "That was easier than I thought."
