2. The Fool's Tale
Jack Fenton was a fool.
He knew he was a fool—that he was the joke of the town, an embarrassment to his children, and not even close to worthy of the amazing woman who, defying all logic and reason, had married him. He didn't mind being a fool for the most part, because he knew it meant he believed in something others couldn't see. He believed in ghosts long before their presence in Amity Park became impossible to ignore. He believed in his inventions, even if they didn't work right the first time. Or the thirty-first time. He believed in never giving up.
He'd never given up on his friendship with Vlad. They'd lost twenty years to the accident that had given Vlad his ecto-acne and stolen a chunk of his life, but Jack had never wavered in his belief that time would soften Vlad's anger and that their friendship would prevail. He was thrilled to be proven right at the reunion, when Vlad did forgive him, when their friendship took up where it left off, and they could finally reclaim those lost years.
He'd been a fool.
Their entire friendship was a lie. The twenty years that Jack thought had served to soften the anger and melt it away had instead crystallized it, hardening it and honing it into a sharp weapon. A weapon he pointed back not just at Jack, but at Jack's family. At Jack's home. At the world.
How could you hold the world hostage like that, Vladdy? And after all the good fortune you've had in your life!
Good fortune? You infect me with ghost DNA and then steal the love of my life, and you call that good fortune?
Infected with ghost DNA…The accident had done more than just given Vlad ecto-acne. It had actually turned him into a ghost. Not killed him, which up until this point had been the only way Jack knew of for a human to become a ghost. No. It had infected him, changed his DNA somehow. The scientist in Jack was reeling with the implications. A ghost that was still human? How was this possible?
Jack the scientist was a fool, then, too. There was no humanity left in Vlad. But it wasn't the ghost powers that had taken it from him. Even a fool could see that. He'd given it up freely, choosing to replace it with rage and bitterness, and then seeking to lay it all at Jack's feet. It was Jack's fault he was a ghost. It was Jack's fault Maddie didn't love him. It was Jack's fault he was miserable and alone.
I never meant to hurt you. What happened was an accident. I'm your friend, Vladdy! I've always been your friend!
But Vlad had never been interested in friendship, had he? He'd only wanted whatever it was he wanted. Power. Wealth. Maddie.
Maddie… Jack ground his teeth, biting back his own growing rage. He'd believed in friendship, in never giving up, and for that, Vlad had made a fool of him. He'd been making a fool of him all along.
Until now. Now, Vlad needed him. Jack didn't know what "ectoranium" was, but from what he could piece together listening to Vlad over the communications system, it meant that his plan had failed. He couldn't make the asteroid intangible, and he couldn't make good on his promise to save to the Earth.
"The Earth is doomed! And if even it wasn't, I could never go back. I've revealed my true self. I'll be forever hunted."
As Jack watched through the viewport of the Fenton Rocket, his oldest and closest friend, with nowhere else to turn, turned once more to him. "Jack! You have to help me! You wouldn't turn your back on an old friend, would you?"
Jack considered their past history and everything he'd thought they'd meant to each other. "An old friend? No." He sighed. "You? Yes." And without giving himself time to change his mind, he fired up the jets that would send the rocket back toward Earth, leaving Vlad behind. "If the Earth is doomed, you're better off up here, right Vladdy?" he said to no one in particular—he'd turned off the communications system. "You're a ghost, right? You can survive the vacuum of space without a pressure suit, but even ghosts can't survive the complete obliteration of an entire planet. So what do you need me for, 'old friend'?"
But Jack didn't really believe that. The Earth wasn't doomed. They would find a way to stop the asteroid; he was sure of it. He couldn't imagine not getting to see his Jazzerincess off to college in just a few short weeks, or missing that all important father/son rite of loaning out the keys to the Fenton RV once Danny got his driver's license next month. He couldn't imagine never growing old with Maddie. No, someone would find a way to save the world. He was fool enough to believe that.
But to believe in Vlad enough to bring him back to the world he only wanted to manipulate for his own ends? Even he wasn't that big a fool.