Warning for a little darkness (and a theme readers of my other fics will recognize, aheh) but don't worry, this isn't going to become grimdark.

Updated to add: I wrote this a while ago. In light of recent news events, I decided to edit something out of it. :(

Thanks so much to jeanette9a, MeAgain, RubySaphireMoon, ChopSuzi and MsFrizzle for the reviews last chapter! They always make my day.


He wasn't following her. He told himself that firmly, because he knew following her invisibly would be… inappropriate. He was only making sure she got away safely. After all, he had an advantage she didn't. If she were cornered by one of the government's agents, he'd be able to rescue her. She'd be so glad to see him. Maybe he could even, finally…

She caught up with Jack, to his surprise. Neither of them knew he was floating nearby, still invisible, but he didn't reveal himself yet. He wasn't sure why not. Too hard to explain what he'd been doing?

Jack leaned over and whispered something in Maddie's ear. Her expression lit up and she laughed. They were still oblivious to Vlad's presence. She kissed him, a peck on the cheek followed by a coy, inviting smile.

Reality seemed to pour over him like water, first running cold, then hot. He knew that his eyes were red in this form, but he'd never actually seen the red cloud his vision. Suddenly a number of small hints, vague words and private jokes made terrible sense.

How could she choose Jack? That was the real puzzle. Vlad was smarter than he was, stronger than he was, certainly thinner than he was. In Vlad's presence, though, she was tense, awkward if they were alone together, kind but not quite warm. Jack, on the other hand, treated both of them like his best friends. But Jack was not really his friend. Vlad could see that now, through the dark haze of rage. Jack was his worst enemy. Jack was a liar. Jack was a thief.

Did Maddie not realize that this stupid heroic charade, all the risks he took, all the battles he'd fought were for her?

The two snuck further down the alley together, hand in hand, secure in their privacy. He didn't bother maintaining the invisibility as they escaped. He could scarcely work back up the energy to keep floating, as his rage started to subside, replaced with something that was uncomfortably near despair. He'd thought he'd felt despair a few times before, dealing with his father, or struggling to learn his new powers. This was real despair, because his motivation for even trying was gone, had walked away as if he didn't exist. Why hadn't she told him?

Because Maddie knew it would destroy him, of course. She was always so considerate. So kind to others. So full of things Vlad realized he lacked. 'Compassionate' was the perfect word for her. He didn't blame her at all, even now. Maybe she didn't realize what she meant to him. Maybe there was still hope.

But not with Jack around. As long as Jack clung to her, she wouldn't turn away from him. The two of them acted like a set, with Vlad the odd piece out. Jack was in the way. He started to drift forward again, peering around the corner out of the alley. They weren't in sight anymore.

When he could get Jack alone, he would… or at least he could… well, he'd certainly do something. Jack thought he'd fooled Vlad, obviously. His idiotic bravado was proof enough, barely hiding the relationship. He even claimed to be Vlad's friend, while laughing behind his back with Maddie. People laughed at Vlad a lot since he'd gotten these powers, at his little accidents, even at his ghost fighting.

Maybe it was some kind of cosmic justice that he was captured then, while picturing the death of his "best friend." Vlad was so caught up in his vengeful imaginings, his turns of melancholy and anger, that he didn't even notice the agent sneaking up or the faint humming sound of his weapon. The beam of light hit him squarely in the back, and he screamed once and jerked before the transformation was triggered and he stumbled down to the earth, human. The agent standing over him was shouting something, but Vlad's ears were ringing and he couldn't make it out. The last thing he saw before blackness overtook him were the boots of other agents walking closer.


He woke up in a glass cage. Attempts to touch the glass were met with a painful sting, and after a few hesitant tests he concluded that he couldn't just pass through it. He couldn't even see the room he was in, with the only illumination coming from the faintly glowing glass. Shouting and demanding to be let out didn't bring any attention, and Vlad finally quieted down when his throat began to ache.

At least he could transform. Vlad guessed whatever he'd been shot with had been specially designed to drain a ghost's powers. For him, instead of weakening or killing him, it had just made the human form manifest. They'd seen him transform back, that was the really alarming part. They knew who and what he was, now. And, apparently, they'd decided that a half-ghost should still be treated as a ghost.

Fear wasn't a very familiar sensation for him. He wasn't invulnerable, of course, he realized that. And he'd certainly felt some ill-ease when he'd seen other ghosts captured by the government and imprisoned for experimentation, but somewhere he hadn't really believed that might happen to him. Now it felt more as if he'd been in denial about the inevitable. Thanks to Jack and Maddie's desire to fight ghosts, they'd all been tempting fate each time they broke into government facilities for new tools or information.

And now Jack was alone with Maddie, while Vlad was lost to both of them. Even if they'd wanted to save Vlad, and knew what had happened to him, there was certainly no way they could infiltrate the government's facilities this deeply without Vlad's powers to assist. The ghost subjects were kept under the tightest security.

Vlad was alone, in a cage, in god-knows what level of some secret government compound, waiting to be examined just like any other ghost, while his supposed friend had betrayed him. He tried testing the edges of the cage, tried lighting his hand with ectoplasm to force his way out, even tried duplication to see if he could make one of his duplicates appear outside. Nothing would pass through the odd, stinging solid barrier. He was trapped.

Hours passed in lonely darkness and silence. His thoughts ran urgently at first, but as time went by he found himself too tired to continue contemplating either what was going to happen to him or what he'd do to Jack if he were free. A certain apathy began to overtake him. If there was no escape, well, there was no sense in thinking of useless things like revenge. His fate was sealed. Thinking about it wouldn't make it less true.

When someone finally came into the room, a man in a longer white coat that seemed more like a lab coat than the suits the government's agents wore, Vlad didn't bother speaking to him at first. He was thirsty, hungry and tired, but too proud to ask for food and water. Ever since the accident, he had wondered if his ghost form meant he would survive beyond his death. This was the first time he'd sincerely hoped not.

As time dragged on, several scientists had come in and out, talking to each other about various readings that Vlad only partially understood and comparing their numbers and measurements. This was the first step, he knew from past explorations of the government's facilities. The next would be testing under stress, seeing how he endured under different circumstances and what seemed to harm him the most. That stage might be cut mercifully short, or it might last weeks. This would lead to his destruction, as a human or a ghost. It was only a matter of time before they really got started.

Eventually he broke down and spoke to the men outside, to demand something to use as a toilet. That sort of discomfort lacked the dramatic dignity of a hunger strike.

They just ignored him.


Everything hurt.

He woke up on the floor, and the room had been darkened again. Forcing himself to sit up was harder than he'd expected. He felt dizzy, and nauseous, and faintly disgusted with himself for his own weaknesses. Even though they'd flooded the cage at one point, closer to being run through a washer than given a bath, the tiny containment unit still smelled like old sweat. They hadn't stopped the tests when he'd been forced back to the human form again, deciding to examine the differences between the two. Vlad felt betrayed by his body for being so helpless.

If there had been any hope, it wouldn't have been quite so bad. Instead, he'd lost faith in his friends just before being dropped into his worst nightmares. Surely even Jack hadn't timed that deliberately, how would he know that Vlad had been floating nearby, that Vlad would be so distracted that he'd trip up and be caught at last? Or maybe that had been the plan all along. Maybe Jack had intended to eventually be caught by 'accident,' had been using Maddie to get Vlad out of the way through emotional manipulation…

The theory made no sense when Vlad really thought about it. After all, why would he want Vlad out of the way if he didn't have a genuine interest in Maddie? Different ideas floated up, that Jack was jealous of Vlad's ghost powers, or Jack's sick obsessions meant he believed Vlad should be captured as a ghost, or maybe Jack had some larger scheme that Vlad had never imagined. The problem was that Jack was not exactly a mastermind.

His thoughts slowed down after that, similar to the fugue from the previous night. At least, he assumed it was night. On some level Vlad realized blaming Jack for this situation, with any explanation, was insane. The truly guilty parties were out of reach on the other side of the barrier, ignoring Vlad entirely when he'd tried to speak to them. It was just easier to pretend that all of this had a reason behind it, something beyond cold scientific curiosity. As the lights in the room came on again, he was so caught up in his passionate, comforting thoughts of blame and conspiracy that it took a moment for him to realize the person who'd come into the room wasn't another scientist.

Danny seemed unsurprised to see Vlad in the cage, but Vlad was shocked to see him. The older man was in the ghost form that he'd revealed a month earlier in his massive library, but instead of his weird smile he looked strangely grim. Vlad forced himself to sit up straight, and coughed once to try to clear his throat before speaking.

"What are you doing here?" He really couldn't imagine why Danny would want to come see him now, much less risk his own capture in the process. Danny didn't answer at first, looking over the machinery before turning his face to Vlad and, to Vlad's unexpected relief, answering.

"Saving your stupid rear."