So I'm going to try to post at least something every weekend, whether that's an update to an existing fic or a one-shot like this one. I've been darting between multiple works at a time so no guarantees what it'll be.
This was inspired both by sapphireswimming and anthrop's many beautiful ficlets starting Vlad and Crowley and then thinking of under-represented villains he can have evil dealings with in this crossover. But seriously, not only are there no superphantom fics with Eve as a character, this'll be the second SPN crossover period to have her listed as a tagged character. Which is a shame because she was a wonderful villain with tons of power and character potential despite being absolutely wasted by the show. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Supernatural Season 6 or forgot, Eve is the nigh immortal Mother of All monsters who can turn a human into a monster of choice with a single touch... who Dean killed in her third episode after less than ten total minutes of screen-time. I'm still bitter the writers made this incredible villain just to use her as a stepping stone to a stepping stone for the Leviathans, who seemed like knock-offs in comparison with their shapeshift-in-a-touch.
Ranting aside I'll end this with a fair warning that as of now I have no intention to continue this or write a sequel. Just putting that out there because by the end even I wanted a sequel, but I don't have enough plans right now to think I'll actually write it.
Enjoy!
Despite what tabloid rumors and his vast fortune may lead the average person to believe, Vlad Masters did not have an army of servants to care for his vast mansion.
Yes, living in a large, empty home all by himself could feel lonely, but that was why Vlad filled the endless foyers and sitting rooms with memorabilia of the things he could not have. Anything else would just make him feel emptier. The job of cleaning the vast corners and high chandeliers was much more easily handled by a few weak spirits he employed, though he knew the feudalistic nature of the Ghost Zone too well to keep no more than the few families he would need. Despite what Daniel and his improper friends insinuated, the half-ghost businessman had no desire to take over the world, merely obtain the power necessary to finally have what he wants. Except what he needed to keep up appearances, Vlad Masters did not indulge in things that would bring company.
A normal human may complain that the situation left the Wisconsin estate feeling rather dead. Should that happen, Vlad could all too easily see himself flashing some fangs and the 'scary eyes' and remarking that the sentiments didn't bother him in the slightest.
Right now, however, the only complaint Vlad had with his housekeeping was that they were absolutely useless in entertaining callers who came to the door, given the whole visibly dead thing. It was late on a Thursday night, almost early Friday morning, and Vlad had been contented to spend the rest of the evening upgrading the latest Fenton ray his spies stole for him as well as tinker with a number of his own original designs when the unmistakable sound of the doorbell broke his concentration. Gritting his teeth, Vlad tried to ignore it and return to his soldering when the sound echoed more persistently.
The billionaire was certainly not expecting visitors.
With a mutter of 'oh fiddlesticks' the businessman peeled off his ectoplasm-resistant gloves, shrugged into his suit jacket and tie (it better be someone important at this hour) and stomped his way downstairs.
The ringing had gone quiet after its third chime while Vlad was still in the lab, and the man angrily plotted the ways he would get back at whoever disturbed him if they ran away before he had a chance to face them. That was one benefit of living in the middle of nowhere: even if they were in a car it'd be easy to invisibly chase them and pinpoint exactly who it dared play Ding Dong Ditch.
There was in fact a person at the door when Vlad slammed it open with a scowl, although not at all what he was expecting. She was young, in her early twenties, with long brown hair and a plain face that had an innocent, natural beauty. The look was emphasized by her modest white dress, but quickly fell apart at the small amounts of dirt on the fabric and what appeared to be a sizeable bloodstain on the middle of her side. Looking down her feet were barefoot, caked in enough dirt to show that she had been walking for a while that way, but not enough to make it seem she went out of her way to dirty herself.
She had an almost serene smile on her face, but Vlad had met enough sharks to see the hunger behind it.
"Hi." Her smile grew slightly wider as her gaze finished taking in his appearance in turn and the billionaire knew she was trying to appear slightly bashful, despite her inner confidence drowning out any attempt at subterfuge. "Can I come in?"
"I'm sorry miss, I don't get involved in this kind of thing." Vlad all but spat, getting ready to slam the door in her face. Some of the details were unexpected, but Vlad had dealt with exactly this type of scam before, had even used it on a few competitors. Send a pretty, lonely girl to someone rich and famous's house at night and see if you get any good blackmail material out of it. Especially for a man living alone almost any outcome could be scandalous: at best you get an affair, at worst you get him coldly shunning her to the streets or taking her in for unsupervised 'alone time.'
Vlad already had a reputation for being cold and ruthless, whoever would set this up would be disappointed by the lack of a headline they found themselves with.
Her hand reached out and easily caught the door, despite the heavy wood being at the fastest point of its momentum. "I'm not wanting to do anything like that." She murmured, her face looking slightly disappointed by his rejection but still holding that mockingly serene smile, as if she was always on the inside of a joke with the world.
"I just wanted to get to meet you face to face. I've heard so much about you and couldn't help my curiosity." Her fingers trailed along the wood grain of the ornate door in a way that was not helping expel Vlad's preconception, and he mentally pinched his nose at the thought of either a crazed seductive fan or a very determined blackmailer.
"It's such a pleasure to finally put a face to the legends…" She pursed her lips and somehow managed to whisper the last word in his ear from more than two feet away. "Plasmius."
Vlad's blood ran cold. Perhaps she did have a secret in with the world.
"Wh-who are you? How do you know that name? Did Daniel put you up to this?" The last question came out just to hide the twinge of fear creeping in on the billionaire. While he and Daniel may have their fights and games, the boy should know that there were boundaries. If he told a stranger about this as a sick joke he'd…
"No, I don't mean to hurt you at all, Vladimir." She kept her voice to the same soft even tone Vlad once mislabeled as seductive, leaning in closer to him with all of the common signals but none of the intentions. Her finger trailed down along his tie and pulled it out of his suit jacket, yet she never tried to touch his skin. "I promise you I just came here to meet you, and maybe to have a little chat."
Vlad swallowed, promising himself it was just nerves, and let his voice harden. "You never told me your name."
The girl leaned her head back to meet his eye and let that knowing grin spread all the way across her face, as if she held the answers to the universe. "I'm Eve."
Knowing who she was, Vlad wouldn't be surprised if she did.
Even though she got her children to let her out of Purgatory in order to start a war, Eve would be lying if she said she wasn't trying to have a little fun during her time on Earth. There were, however, very few things Eve cared about other than her children, and like any good mother her sole focus was entirely on what would keep them safe. For that reason alone she had little desire to leave Purgatory before Crowley started torturing her firstborns, and few motivations to stick around when she was done.
It was rare that she ever focused on something other than her children, so when Eve had heard of a creature that fascinated her as much as her own monsters from within the realm of Purgatory she was for once disappointed at her imprisonment. Once she starting planning an escape she promised herself she'd find time to visit when she was Earth-side.
Ghosts always called out slightly to Eve, in-so-far as they were twisted versions of the human soul that could prey on and kill the species they once were. They were far nobler than demons, who rotted in Hell and their own militaristic hierarchy, and Eve respected their individuality and the soul that Hell beat out. Eve valued the immortal soul as more than just a power supply, and considered it the core of her offspring, to be protected just as their bodies were. There were no classes of monsters beyond the distinction of her firstborns, and Eve only made her monsters an army because she needed them. Her battle plans were merely to turn all of humanity and starve Hell rather than put her children in harm's way.
Unlike demons ghosts lived (died? As a resident of an afterlife herself Eve was in no position to judge) largely in solitude and were ruled by emotions and lost souls. The Mother of All in Eve had long yearned to adopt them into the fold of her family, but Death and God were persistent that those who refused a Reaper be left alone in punishment and insisted that she already had her own supply of souls.
As the one primordial beast who still believed in balance, and was safe and immortal because of it, she wouldn't fight against the status quo unless encroached upon first.
But the man in front of her… was amazing.
Human and ghost, Dead and lingering but with a soul that had yet to be committed to a final destination. He had never met a reaper or ignored their advice, had never died and been brought back as another creature. He wasn't cursed into a haunt by Death's taboo.
He got his powers through an accident. And he had turned.
Eve liked to think that that made him fair game.
And while she had spent the past couple weeks flitting from town to town, hitchhiking her way and greeting her children and turning every human she met in hopes of working out the kinks in the perfect monster for her plans, Eve couldn't help but dream up a more impossible design. It would be impractical for the entire human race, a change hard to force and noticeable to the victim, but not a single human had discovered the current halfas' secret and that was a level of discretion that she admired.
The ectoplasm she could sense pulsing through veins of the man before her was a paint Eve had never had access to before, and the artist in her longed to reach her fingers out and smear it across his canvas.
She could make him such a precious child, her heart swelled at just the thought of it, and she just knew he would learn to appreciate every gift she gave him.
He had been so alone. An Alpha without a Mother, coming into himself on his own and convinced that his beautiful gift was a disease. Abandoned by the pair who made him, rejected by the woman he loved after she changed his life, spurned by his only descendant: Eve had to push herself back from reaching out to him and keeping the man by her side forever. He would be the perfect general, his resources and technology helping her spread her newest creation even further, his experience with supernatural experimentation maybe even able to help smooth out chinks in her beta testing.
But she held herself back. Vlad Plasmius was an Alpha in his own right. And she had too much love for creation, be it hers or the God she was modeled after or anyone else's to mar such a stunning original.
Even if she was tempted to make improvements, she wasn't the little girl vessel she appeared to the world, and she could control herself. But she still yearned.
"I can help you." Eve voiced as she followed Plasmius into his sitting room, unafraid to do a small twirl to take in the grandeur of the place as if she really was her virgin vessel before sitting on a purple and gold armchair. There was a love seat nearby that remained empty, and Eve had to bite her lip at the thought that that's where they'd sit if she turned him.
She just had to keep remembering that he was already turned, despite not being one of hers.
Vlad walked briskly out of the room and returned with a teapot, his eyes still glancing her over with caution clear in his gaze. He was confused and unsure, and clearly not expecting her behavior after what he had heard of someone so feared. But he still stood strong, with the intimidating aura of a man (with just a little more leaking through) who fought and cheated his way to the top, and would do whatever it took to hold his position.
Eve couldn't help herself from being relaxed in his home. His wealth didn't make her nervous; it made her proud.
"I didn't think that ghosts fell under the category of monsters you look after." The man only responded after he poured her tea and sat down, using the distraction of his own full cup to avoid eye contact. His gaze met her only seconds later, however. He was far too used to intimidation games to spend long being afraid.
"I already said I don't want to harm you. I don't have anything against anyone except Crowley." Eve saw Vlad's face curl slightly in disgust at the name and let her smile become more genuine. She tilted her head at his piercing gaze and pressed the irony of the situation. "Is that alright? I thought you two did business."
Vlad stiffened, either from fear of her mentioning his friendship with her mortal enemy or the fact that the Mother of All was slightly teasing. "Crowley's deals are profitable from time to time and we each admire the other's resources, but neither of us are a fan of competition. Crowley throughout his reign has had a habit of sticking Hell's fingers where they simply don't belong, and he isn't opposed to backstab a friend if he thinks they might one day have the strength to become an enemy."
"I suppose you could put it that way." Eve kept sipping her tea. She came here to meet the soul behind Vlad Plasmius, she needed him to make the first move.
And within less than a minute of waiting he did, leaning forward in impatience as she calmly sipped her drink. "That doesn't explain why you personally came looking for me. My businesses are involved in very little outside of human and ghosts and I know for certain none of our arrangements involve what he is doing to your monsters. You have no reason to come after me."
Eve couldn't help the burst of anger at his phrasing, "What Crowley is doing is torturing my children and I am going to do everything I can to hunt him down and kill him!"
She forced herself to lean back and take another sip of her tea, recognizing the faint brew of a rare plant that had the property to temporarily calm souls. She had no soul, at least in mortal terms, so it wasn't like it would have an effect, but the thought was cute. However looking up at the man trying to hide his primordial fear of her Eve figured perhaps the brew was intended for himself.
"I won't apologize, but don't worry. My visit here is completely separate." Eve took another sip of her tea. "I wouldn't lie to you. Like I said I wanted to meet you."
Vlad's eyes narrowed "Why?"
Eve didn't look down or away as most would. Instead she turned her gaze right back into his red ones. "Because I look after firstborns."
He paled. "I'm not your monster. I'm-"
"-Not a human, not a ghost. You're the first of your kind." Eve cut Vlad off, her voice laced with an almost seductively reverent understanding, made all the deadlier in its sincerity. "The oldest, the strongest, you've had so much time alone to master your own powers and it's made you incredible." Eve leaned forward and in her eyes Vlad saw the hunger of an all-powerful creature faced with the one thing she was denied.
A passing thought wondered if this was what Daniel saw when he looked at him.
"Any decent mother will always recognize her children, but a good mother can pick out and feel for an orphan child as well." She pulled his empty teacup out of his lax fingers with a soft grip, still never touching his hands. "You've come so far on your own, and made yourself into such a beautiful creature that I don't need to make you mine to care for what I see."
Eve cleared away the dishes to the side table where a servant would've waited had Vlad employed any as she continued. "You know a war is coming, but I'm not asking you to fight. You've already done too much on your own for a mother to ask that. Just let me help you get what you want in the aftermath." Coming back Eve settled herself on the love seat she noted earlier at a closer angle to her present target.
Taking in his expression for the first time now that she returned, Eve could make out the surprise at her words, followed quickly by suspicion at the unexpected gift. Of course he would be. He was a businessman: he wasn't used to anything coming that easily. Especially not when he was expecting to be threatened or coerced by something stronger. Both the man and the monster knew from experience that that never ended well.
It only made Eve want to care for him even more.
"Why are you offering me anything? Why do you care about what I've been through?"
Eve smiled. "You remind me of my children, and I give gifts to anyone who does. Gifts I'm not sure you would accept," she let a small frown settle on her lips. "Not to mention it would be a shame to change another firstborn. Just because you're not mine doesn't mean you deserve to die. Or to be alone."
"What are you proposing?" Vlad's glare still cut like ice, as if he was the other one who held her interest. The billionaire didn't seem any more convinced by her sentiments.
"My monsters have already started building an army, and soon they'll start moving even faster. I'll turn the entire human population if I have to, until Crowley lets my children go or runs out of souls to keep his operations running." Her hand reached out to his sleeve, caressing in a way that wouldn't change him. "I didn't want to hurt you by involving those you love without asking, so I made a stop along the way. That, and I wanted to meet you to make sure you were someone I wanted to work with."
He pulled his hand back. "What are your terms?"
Eve sighed, running that hand back through her hair. "Don't tell Crowley of my plans and I'll let your family live. Your real family. We both know that ones who turned you and your own kind run deeper than blood." She could see that moment that she finally caught Plasmius's interest.
"Tell me where he is, or at least prove to me you looked," she met the halfa's eyes to show that she'd know if he lied, "and I'll bring them back to you. My gift."
Eve smiled her most maternal smile and Vlad stared, his posture helplessly losing its formality for a moment to wonder. "But you'll-"
Knowing they were going down a dangerous path Eve cut him off before they reached the technicalities. "They won't be minions. I said I'll let them live and I'll keep them safe. They're your family, and if you'll let me…" Eve leaned all the way out of the love seat, pushing herself onto the armrest so she could lean a breath away from his ear. For the dozenth time she swallowed the temptation to turn the man before her.
"If you let me, by extension they'll be my family too."
Vlad pushed himself until he was sinking in the high-backed chair, panic at her advance driving out all previous lines of questioning like Eve planned. "I'm not one of your monsters, and I don't want to be."
Eve let her face fall and backed away as she let him pretend he had his victory. "You may not be my monster, but you will always be a firstborn, and all firstborns are my most precious children. Just accepting that makes us family enough."
With that she danced out of the chair, loving the way her virgin vessel let her smile serenely at the world and care with all the human's heart as she gave it to those who no longer had them. "I am so glad to finally get to meet you, but I need to keep moving before my children get jealous. I hope you'll enjoy my gift when I next see you."
She wanted to smirk at the way Vlad was torn between a snarl and a polite smile. He was just as fun to play with as to care for. "I think you seem to already know perfectly well what I'd like."
She smiled back to him. "I just want to help you." And she did. She was just glad to clear up that she could do so in a way that helped herself.
Without needing Vlad to show her the way Eve started towards the front door, her bare feet echoing across the marble as she thought of how this would fit in with her plans.
She'd be sure to be in Amity Park when her army got to turning it. She'd either let one of her more violent children kill Jack Fenton or she'd bring him to Plasmius as a peace offering to sooth his anger. Maybe she'd even let Maddie or Jasmine Fenton remain human if that'd calm him even more. There was little harm in leaving one or two human souls remaining for Crowley to potentially prey on, that was far too little to keep his war machine running. In fact, she was planning on offering a similar deal to the Winchesters in exchange for their help.
She'd need to win Vlad's favor back after all, with what she planned to do the crown jewel of his desires. As much as the mother in her yearned for the ghostly orphan who gave her the hope of experimenting with ectoplasm, nothing would allow her to put another creature before her children.
She promised him none of them would be minions. She didn't say they wouldn't be monsters.
Because if Vlad Plasmius was the hope of new species, the masterpiece of fate and circumstance she had to refrain from experimenting on, Danny Phantom was the prodigy she couldn't wait to take under her wing and recreate in her style. He was already strong, and had a title among the ghosts she once wished she could turn, but still he was human. A human turned monster due to the interference of another of his species, with enough of a blast to cause instant transformation and avoid the pesky dance with death she could smell in Vlad's past. Even if Vlad hadn't intended Danny to become a halfa when he sabotaged the Ghost Portal blueprints in an attempt on Jack's life, neither he nor Eve were disappointed in the result.
The calling card of a monster versus a new brand of spirit was the ability for an existing to infect a human to become like them. Ghosts had never done that before, and more than anything that technicality gave Eve all the leeway she needed if ever confronted by the wrath of Death or God.
Vlad had given her with so many gifts and unique abilities that Eve couldn't help but thank him in person, even if she had to hold off on giving him her favorite gift in return. Still, once she turned his family he would be family in turn, and Eve giggled at the perfect end to this incredible anomaly.
It was disappointing she could never own Vlad because he was an Alpha, and Alphas were off-limits. But there's no hierarchy beyond firstborns either in monsters or ghosts, meaning everything else is fair game. So while she loathed the limits on what she could do she could still tie him closer with everything he desired, giving and taking and twisting his soul as much as if he were truly her Alpha.
And Eve couldn't wait for the chance to make the world's second halfa an Alpha in his own right.