Thank you to the 7 people who reviewed the last chapter. I hope that you like this chapter and reviews, as always, are much appreciated.

4.

A Decision Made

Jazz looked up surprised when Danny made his way into the dining room with Mr. Masters just behind him. She would have thought her brother would still be asleep considering he needed all the rest he could get since the accident. He didn't look tired though, which was a relief, but Jazz could see that she wasn't the only one who was surprised.

"Danny, you're up early," Maddie said standing up before walking over to join Danny and resting a hand on his forehead. She frowned before saying, "Usually I have to wake you up and you're still cold."

"I couldn't sleep," Danny admitted, "and ended up waking up early. And it's just chilly in my room but it's fine. Vlad took me on a tour of the mansion by the way."

Jazz frowned at the use of the billionaire's first name as did Maddie but Jack made his way into the dining room effectively preventing either of them from replying and nearly running into Masters had he not stepped out of the way.

"Mads, where did you put the…? Oh, hey V-man, didn't see you there?" Jack said grinning.

Masters' lips thinned and muttered something that Jazz couldn't hear. In a louder voice, he said, "That is perfectly all right, old friend. Come, Daniel, let's get some breakfast and then we can start with setting up the tables."

"Sure thing, Vlad," Danny said walking over to the table and sitting down beside Jazz while Masters sat at the head of the table. Jack plopped into a seat beside his wife and immediately finished the question he had wanted to ask his wife when he entered the dining room.

"So where did you put the Fenton fishing rod? I think that'd be the best way to catch the Dairy King's ghost until we can suck him into the thermos. Nice that Danny got that working, huh?" Jack said.

Masters' eyebrows rose and he looked curiously at Danny who shrugged. "Mom and dad invented a thermos to capture ghosts in but they never really got a chance to try it out before the invasion started after…well, after what happened. Dad gave one to me, just in case he said, and a ghost attacked. I didn't exactly expect it to work so I was surprised when it did."

"I see. I would very much like to see this thermos," Masters said.

"There's one in the RV. I'll go get it," Jack said making the move to get up as the cooks entered the dining room.

"Not now, Jack. Wait until after breakfast," Maddie insisted.

Jack looked disappointed but he nodded.

Jazz turned her gaze to her breakfast with an exasperated roll of her eyes. Since the accident, her parents and Danny have both believed that ghosts were actually attacking Amity Park and yet Jazz hadn't seen any proof. Granted, the thermos did work but Jazz hadn't been present when it worked so she didn't know if it actually did catch a ghost. She refused to believe in anything unless she saw it with her own eyes or there was evidence to back it up and, for the existence of ghosts, she had neither.

Her parents, and recently Danny, believed otherwise.

Breakfast passed by swiftly, Jack talked throughout most of it with both his wife and Masters while Danny ate in silence occasionally asking a question to clarify something that Jack had said, which often launched Jack into yet another monologue based on what Danny asked. Jazz had to resist the urge to hit or strange her brother every time that happened.

"Hey, any information is useful when it comes to ghosts, Jazz," Danny said with a shrug noticing the irritated scowl Jazz was directing at her oblivious father.

"Ghosts don't exist," she said as she swallowed another bite of food.

Danny sighed and finished eating.

"You would be surprised what exists in this world, Jasmine," Masters said reminding them that he was there as he finished eating. "Are you finished, Daniel?"

Danny nodded pushing away from the table and standing up.

"Where are you going?" Jazz asked.

"Vlad asked me to help out with the preparations for the reunion later on today," said Danny.

Jazz, seeing that her parents had gotten into another discussion on the finer points of one of their newest inventions and not wanting to listen to yet another one of these discussions, stood up. "Can I help?" she asked.

"I do not mind," Masters said before he led the way out of the dining room with Danny just behind him. Jazz, after letting her parents know where she and Danny where, though she wasn't sure they heard her, followed them.

It didn't take them too long to finish preparing the ballroom for the reunion but, as Vlad had already had the maids and cooks do almost all the work and only leave a few things to be done, it was to be expected. He had been hoping to have some time to talk to Daniel some more and continue his campaign to sway Daniel's decision in his favor but Jasmine asking to help had sent that idea out the window.

But Jasmine's decision to help wasn't too surprising considering what her parents had started discussing and her unwillingness to accept the existence of ghosts. That could also work in Vlad's favor. He was also factoring in Daniel's friends who were present when the boy had his accident and thus knew the secret.

I will deal with that later. I can do nothing until I know what Daniel's decision is, Vlad thought watching approvingly as Daniel, putting the last of the tables in place, walked over to join him.

"Is that all, Vlad?" he asked.

"For now," Vlad replied. "We'll bring out the food when we get closer to when the reunion will begin. Nothing else needs to be done until later so you're free to do what you want until then. I have a lot of movies in the screening room if you want to go there or if you want to go to my library."

"I think I'll go to the screening room, Mr. Masters," Jasmine said.

"You aren't going to the library? Who are you and what have you done with my sister?" Daniel said with feigned shock but he chuckled when Jasmine glared at him before she walked off.

"I didn't get a good look at the library during the tour this morning," Daniel said musingly, "though I did spot an Astronomy section."

"You enjoy Astronomy?" asked Vlad.

Daniel nodded. "Always have," he said. "I want to be an astronaut and I've always loved looking at the stars and discovering so much about them. I think that's the only subject in school that I actually like."

"Well, if you want then you may go to the library and look at the Astronomy books."

Daniel grinned before nodding and making his way toward the library.

Vlad watched him go with a faint smile that quickly faded when a shouted "Hey V-man" sounded and he, pushing the scowl away and putting up a blank mask of indifference, turned around as Jack walked over to join him a fishing rod in one hand and a thermos in the other.

Jack held out the thermos. "You said you wanted to see it so here it is," he said beaming as Vlad took the thermos. He turned it around in his hands examining it.

"So, can you tell me where I can find the Dairy King's ghost now?" Jack asked excitedly.

Vlad turned his attention from the thermos to the buffoon in the orange jumpsuit. "Of course, old friend," he said barely able to keep his voice level and without the anger and resentment he was currently feeling. He led the way to where he decided would be the best place to let Jack try to find the nonexistent Dairy King's ghost. Once he had Jack taken care of, he made his way into the library.

He found Daniel sitting in between two bookshelves an Astronomy book opened on his lap. He was turning the page when he noticed Vlad's presence and looked up. "Oh hey Vlad," he greeted him.

"Enjoying yourself?" Vlad said.

"I never thought I'd say this but your library's amazing," said Daniel. "I lost count of how many Astronomy books I've found."

Vlad's lips quirked into a smile as he said, "Have you given any more thought on my offer?"

Daniel sighed. "I'm leaning towards accepting it," he said, "but I'm just not sure. I mean, how would you teach me?"

"I'm a billionaire, Daniel. Getting to Amity Park or bringing you here is, by far, the easiest problem to deal with."

"What about my parents?"

"If you have no desire to tell them the truth then I can come up with a good excuse."

"And Sam and Tucker? Would I be able to tell them?"

Vlad wasn't sure about that as he has never met Daniel's friends but they already knew about his secret but that wasn't enough to let Daniel tell them Vlad's secret. "I would rather they not know my secret, Daniel," he said.

"I won't tell them that," Daniel said. "I just meant telling them that you were going to teach me. They don't have to know you're like me."

"And what would you tell them I am, Daniel?" Vlad said raising his eyebrows. "If you tell them I am training you, don't you think they would be curious as to how I would train you and why?"

"Oh right, I hadn't thought of that." Daniel sighed before adding, "I just don't like keeping things from them."

Vlad didn't respond to that; he didn't have any friends, and he hated the one person who had been his friend because the blubbering oaf had been responsible for him being half-dead, so he didn't know how to help Daniel in this dilemma.

"I guess I'll just keep it from them for now," Daniel said. It was obvious he didn't like it but Vlad wasn't worrying about that; he was too busy thinking about what exactly Daniel had just said.

"Does this mean you accept my offer?" he asked.

Daniel looked up before a small smile crossed his face. "I guess so," he said.

Now Vlad did smile. "Very well, Daniel. I will see to figuring out how we are going to make this work. For now, I will leave you to your book."

Daniel chuckled before turning his attention to the book while Vlad, feeling more satisfied than he had been when he first devised his plan to get rid of Jack Fenton, left the library.

Ah, Daniel, soon you will be mine and your mother will soon follow, he thought.

Step one of his newly forming plans was complete.

Danny, dressed in a suit, was making his way toward the ballroom to join his parents when he passed by the screening room. He could hear the noise and he poked his head inside to find his sister sitting on the couch watching the large TV screen. "Aren't you going to the reunion?" he asked.

Jazz looked at him. "What, and watch a bunch of old fossils pogo to new-wave music? Pass." She turned her gaze to the screen before adding, "Did you know the Packers won the very first Super Bowl?"

"Whatever," Danny said rolling his eyes before he left the room. He met with his parents just as they were about to enter the ballroom. Both of them were still dressed in their blue and orange jumpsuits though Jack had a yellow-and-blue striped tie.

All around him, Danny could see people his parents' age talking with each other, laughing and dancing to the music that wafted around the room. The tables that Danny had helped sat up earlier were filled with the people who weren't standing or dancing. The food table was also surrounded by guests.

Danny just gazed around wondering if he should have just skipped the reunion and stayed with his sister in the screening room.

Suddenly, Jack called out, "Hey Harry!" and Danny turned his gaze to the slender woman with dark hair in a ponytail at the back of her head as she spit out the food she was chewing.

"Ugh. I'd know that voice anywhere," Danny's ghost hearing allowed him to pick up what the woman said just before she walked over to join the family though.

"Jack, Maddie, how nice," she said; she was clearly uncomfortable.

"Danny, meet Harriet Chin," said Jack glancing briefly at Danny. "She's a bigshot reporter for the Milwaukee Journal now, but back in my college days she was just Harry. Harry Chin! Haha! Get it?"

"I'm really sorry, Harriet," Maddie said.

"Sweetie, you married him; you should be," said Harriet just as a techno type of song began to play.

Jack grinned. "Hey, my song! Come on, let's pogo!" He grabbed Maddie and dragged her onto the dance floor before they began to pogo.

Danny wanted to sink through the floor in embarrassment. "Okay, I'm officially mortified," he said.

"What took so long?" Harriet muttered before she walked off.

Danny wandered around the ballroom bored out of his mind before he found an empty seat at one of the tables near the window. After making a plate of snacks, he walked over to the seat and sat down. When he finished off the snacks, he rested his head on his hand watching his parents who were still on the dance floor.

Of course, his powers acted up yet again and Danny yelped when his elbow sank into the table. He quickly pulled back before gazing around quickly but, thankfully, no one saw with the exception of Vlad who had been walking over to join him.

"Hello Daniel," Vlad greeted him.

"Hi Vlad," Danny greeted him before scowling when his arm went invisible again. "Why does that keep happening?!"

Vlad's lips quirked into a small smile as he said, "Controlling your powers is a mental process, Daniel. Taking control of your powers is much like controlling your emotions since your emotions influence them."

"And how do I do that?" Danny muttered.

"For now, just focus on willing your arm to reappear," said Vlad. "Your mind can handle the rest."

Danny did as he was told, remembering Tucker suggesting he do that when that first happened after the accident, and his arm reappeared. "I don't understand though, Vlad. Why do I have so much trouble controlling my invisibility and my intangibility but don't have a problem flying?"

"Flying in instinctive for ghosts," Vlad said dropping his voice into a whisper. "Flying is like breathing. You do it even before you realize you're doing it. The same can be said for intangibility and invisibility which is why you can't control it. It will take time, Daniel, time and practice. I am still working on a schedule for your training since I know you have school to worry about. I will let you know when I come up with the schedule. Now, you look bored."

Danny flushed. Was I that obvious? He thought.

"If you wish then you can join your sister in the screening room, Daniel," said Vlad. "You don't have to stay here and continue watching that." He nodded toward where Jack and Maddie were still doing the pogo in the center of the dance floor; his lip twisted a little but Danny didn't notice as he stood up.

"All right," he said.

"I will see you later, Daniel," Vlad said before watching as Danny left the ballroom.

Vlad watched Daniel disappear out of the ballroom before turning his gaze back to Jack and his lips curled into a sneer as he gazed at the blubbering buffoon. He sorely wished he had been able to do both of his plans but he didn't want to lose the trust Daniel had in him. He and Daniel could do so much together, could change the world and the ghost zone together; they were the only ones of their kind and their powers made them superior to humans. Plus, having Daniel's trust will definitely help in his plans to do away with Jack Fenton.

He just had to be patient.

That didn't mean he liked watching the buffoon with his beloved Maddie. You will be mine, Maddie, he thought watching as Maddie who was watching Jack with an exasperated look in her violet eyes.

He began walking around the ballroom again keeping one eye on Jack as he did so. He would have liked to go about his original plan now that Daniel was out of the ballroom but he refrained himself. Getting Daniel on his side and his unwavering trust was going to take time and Vlad would rather not risk losing the ground he had already gained with the boy by going about his original plan. He would wait; he has waited for twenty years, he could wait for a little while longer.

After all, Vlad Masters was a very patient man.

A/n what do you think?

Blaze: wow, Clockwork was right. I did post this at exactly 8pm (well 8pm mountain time anyway)

Clockwork: of course I was right

Darth: what's going to happen in the next chapter?

Blaze: unsure and sorry it was a short chapter

Clockwork: Darth, step to the right

Darth: (steps to the right)

Anakin: (comes rolling into the room; would have knocked Darth over had Darth not moved) damn it Vlad! (Gets to feet, grabs Vlad, who had just entered the room, and tosses him into the Far Frozen)

Frostbite: (freezes Vlad)

Blaze: (sighs) Darth? And please don't take a month and three days to unfreeze him like you did last time

Darth: (pulls out flamethrower) I make no promises (takes off to the Far Frozen)

Blaze: (laughs) please review and I will post chapter five as soon as I possibly can