Author's Note: I updated the fight in the last chapter.

Chapter 10

Vlad tapped his fingers upon the table as he stared at the files scattered over it. His lunch sat beside him, getting cold while he focused his attention upon the papers. He ran over the data again and again, so many times that he lost count, but he could find nothing abnormal with the information. Daniel was as healthy as ever and his spectral energy was stable. Nothing gave any clear indication that anything was wrong with the young half ghost. The question remained: what caused Daniel's blackout?

His worry for the young man kept him awake at night, thinking into the early hours of the morning to explain what happened. Unfortunately, no logical answer would present itself to him. Vlad didn't believe this to be a onetime thing or something to overlook as nothing important.

What might happen if it occurred again but this time when a ghost was attacking? Vlad knew there were rogue ghosts here and there causing mayhem in the human world despite his efforts to keep the peace. Daniel was kept well away from the battlefield for over a year now, but Vlad didn't doubt that the first hint of a vengeful spirit would draw Daniel right into battle. If that happened and Daniel suffered another blackout, it could mean disaster for the young half ghost. Recalling the information from the even told to him by Daniel and Ember, Vlad frowned as he thought about this other persona that took control of Daniel's body. It almost sounded like a possession, but Daniel and Ember would have sensed another ghost present at the club. Vlad couldn't see Daniel being overshadowed by surprise like that.

There was also the matter of Daniel changing forms when he blacked out. If he was, somehow as unbelievable as the possibility sounded, possessed by a rogue ghost, why would it have changed him into his ghost form? The ghost may have forced the change, of course, but Vlad hardly saw the logic to that. Why would the ghost force the transformation when it only sought to shout at some unknown entity? A ghost wouldn't need to possess Daniel, or any human, for such a thing. Vlad ran a hand over his face as he sighed in exhaustion. He was only finding more questions without answers the longer he thought on this matter.

The doorbell ringing obnoxiously through his empty mansion disrupted his thoughts. Vlad scowled at the papers littering the kitchen table, wishing he could intimidate the data into providing him the answers he wanted. He walked through his mansion leisurely, seeing no reason to rush to open the door for whomever decided to interrupt his quiet afternoon. His progress on Daniel's case remained slow, stagnant, unchanging. His hands curled at his sides, and his jaw clenched painfully. Daniel was actually trusting in him to figure this out, and he was failing the young half ghost!

When he opened the front door, Vlad glowered as darkly as he could manage at the man on the other side. "What?" he bit out angrily. Then he took in the person before him, and he blinked in surprise at the Asian man, who jumped at the snappish tone in that simple question. An eyebrow lifted as the anger washed away into curious confusion. "You're one of Daniel's friends." He vaguely recalled seeing the man, maybe once before, but he only really knew Samantha and Tucker of Daniel's friends by name. Those two were the ones always joined to Daniel's hip, in high school and in their ghost adventures.

"Kwan Long, Sir," the man introduced with a nervous shift of his weight.

Vlad snorted at the politeness as he stepped aside to allow the man to enter his home. He certainly would never expect such well mannered behavior from Daniel. Once Kwan passed through the entrance, Vlad closed the door. "I don't often get visits from Daniel's friends." His mouth pursed as he watched the man glance around the front hall of the mansion.

Kwan dressed in a simple tee shirt and jeans, looking out of place in the fancy surroundings of Vlad's elaborately decorated home. He didn't often spend much time in Amity Park, which made the look of the mansion seem rather excessive. A pathetic display of his wealth, some might accuse, but it was the lifestyle that he was accustomed to and he didn't plan to change that simply because some people wanted to turn their noses up at him.

"I suppose politeness dictates that I should offer you a beverage," Vlad said as he led the way toward the kitchen. "Tea? Perhaps coffee?"

"Uh, no thank you, Sir." Kwan followed a pace behind him.

"Beer then?" Vlad tossed a look over his shoulder and caught the man quickly shaking his head.

"I'm only nineteen."

"Right." Vlad faced forward again as they entered the kitchen. "Many wouldn't care about age." He gathered up the papers on the table, trying to bring some order to them. Whenever he got buried in his work, he tended to make quite a mess of it, though he tried not to let his employees know that fact. He always liked to keep up the appearance of neatness and order in his employees' eyes. "And it's not like I would tell anyone if you wished to have a beer." He tapped the stack of papers on the tabletop as he smirked at the young man.

"All the same, I'd rather not." Kwan's gaze focused on the papers in Vlad's hands. "I didn't come over here to share a beer with you."

"Then," Vlad set the stack upon the table and leaned one hand on it, "what did you come over here for? I hardly believe you wished to merely see the inside of my home or have a nice chat about the weather."

Kwan stepped closer to the table. His gaze flicked toward the papers before lifting to meet Vlad's blue eyes. "I wasn't there the night of the party, so I only find out recently when I joined them all at the beach."

"I do hope you don't intend to ramble the whole way through this explanation." Vlad sighed, wondering why people never seemed to want to get straight to the point on certain matters. "I am a very busy man, and I have work to do. I don't have the time to waste entertaining your babbling."

An eye twitched as they narrowed half a fraction. "I wasn't meaning to ramble, Sir."

Vlad almost smirked at the bite in the man's tone. Kwan, it seemed, had some fight in him after all.

"I was only trying to explain why I didn't come to you sooner. I didn't know about Danny's little blackout episode." Kwan frowned, looking away briefly. "And, well, work kept getting in the way."

"I'm sure Daniel would have told you everything then." Vlad folded his arms, shifting his body to lean against the table so that he now blocked all view of the papers from the man. "He certainly has nothing to hide from you now, after that whole scene during that dance. There's nothing new to tell you. If I did find something out, I would have told Daniel right away."

"I realized that." Kwan hesitated, licking his lips as he dropped his gaze. Vlad quirked an eyebrow while Kwan seemed to gather his thoughts, trying to determine how best to say what he wanted. "I had a thought, but I didn't want to tell Danny about it. All this ghost stuff is still pretty new to me." His shoulders hunched up in a brief shrug. "And I know you're probably the best expert on the topic."

"Your flattery isn't impressing me." But Vlad smirked inwardly. At least Kwan was smart enough to consider him the best instead of claiming Daniel's parents better.

Kwan snapped annoyed eyes at him for the interruption. "But maybe it helps to have a fresh set of eyes, another way of thinking, when you get stuck."

"So you've now taken an interest in studying ghosts?" Vlad wasn't all that surprised, but he wondered why the man came to him now. He learned about Daniel over a year ago. Kwan could have sought out Daniel or Vlad at any point during that time to learn more about ghosts. What brought him now?

"How could I not after finding out about Danny?" Kwan rolled his eyes then glared, like he couldn't believe Vlad would ask something so obvious when the man was supposed to be far more intelligent. "But it seemed to me that maybe you might be missing something with this whole blackout thing." He folded his arms over his board chest, glaring at Vlad like he was daring the older man to laugh at him or shoo him away like an unintelligent idiot.

"What makes you think that you can figure this out when those with more knowledge on the topic are struggling to find answers?"

"I had a theory."

"Well, this should be good." Vlad smirked, resulting in a frown from the man. "What is this theory of yours?"

Kwan's mouth pursed, his jaw visibly clenching. "That night of the dance, Danny used an attack that was stronger than anything I remember him being able to do."

"Yes, he was using pure raw energy," Vlad agreed, wondering where exactly the man was taking this line of thought. "It nearly cost him his life because it drew on his own energy. Using it for as long as he did in that battle, he nearly burned his own soul out of existence."

"Not for the first time." There was no question in Kwan's voice.

Vlad's eyes traveled over Kwan's body, assessing the man before him. "He also used that type of attack the year before in the war in the Ghost Zone against Walker. Two years before that, he used a similar attack against Pariah Dark, though he needed the use of his parents' battle suit to access such power. He was still too young, too new to his powers to be able to unlock such power without aid." He frowned, almost able to see the gears grinding in the man's mind as he absorbed the information. "But what does that have to do with the blackout?"

"Like I said," Kwan replied, snapping his gaze up to glare at him. "I have a theory. Of course," he folded his arms with a thoughtful expression, "I could be completely wrong. That's why I wanted to speak to you about it. Don't you think it's strange that he recovered so quickly after each other those fights?"

Vlad opened his mouth then paused. His brow knitted as the question danced in his mind. He never gave it much thought at any of those times. The first time, his only concern was with his latest scheme and using Daniel as a pawn. He didn't wish a permanent death upon the young half ghost, but he also didn't care much about checking on Daniel's condition after Pariah was sealed away again. After Walker and Daeva, Vlad ran checks of every kind to ensure that the young half ghost wasn't slowly wasting away after using all that power.

"Now that you mention it," Vlad mumbled, his eyes narrowing as he frowned. "Even with our help to stabilize him, it should have taken him much longer to fully recover."

"What if he didn't?"

"Come again?" Vlad blinked at the man, trying to process that question.

"What if Danny didn't fully recover. Hear me out," Kwan added when he saw Vlad start to speak again. "Let's say, for example, that the soul or ectoplasm or whatever you want to use is a growing substance. When you fight, you expend some of that energy with each attack, but you use such a small, controlled amount that it grows back quickly and you never even notice any decrease. Then you take Danny, who three times now in a relatively short amount of time has expended nearly all of his energy. I imagine that would take time to grow back, more time than what was allowed among all three attacks. So what if he hasn't recovered all of that energy he expended? What if there's only a small portion of his soul remaining inside him?"

"What," Vlad narrowed his eyes, stepping in toward Kwan, "exactly are you trying to suggest? If he didn't recover, how did he manage to use such powerful attacks?" The theory wasn't exactly illogical. He thought of something like it once before when Daniel fought against Walker, but he assumed that the energy replenished quickly since Daniel spent so little time recovering after using the attack. Nothing in the data indicated that his energy remained low. The suggestion, however, was worrisome. If Daniel really was still low on energy, then any fighting with ghosts could place him a very dangerous position.

"That's the other part of my theory," Kwan answered uncertainly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Actually, this part I'm still not completely sure about, but after hearing what happened during Danny's blackout, well," he shrugged, his brow creasing, "it was the only thing I could think of."

A sudden thud interrupted anything that Kwan was about to say. Tension filled the air as both men stiffened at the noise coming from down the hallway. Vlad glanced toward the front hall where his ghost sense tingled with familiarity. He knew exactly which ghost dared to enter his home without permission. Pushing past the man, Vlad hurried to the front of his mansion, not caring if Kwan followed after him or not. Panic thrummed through his veins. If Daniel was barging into his home uninvited, Vlad could only assume that something serious happened.

"Daniel!" Vlad rushed toward the young half ghost currently on hands and knees in the front hall.

"Shit," Kwan muttered at his back.

Daniel kept a hand over his left shoulder, red blood spill between his fingers and mingling with the green blood coating his hand. At some point before Vlad arrived on scene, Daniel reverted back to human. His flesh was paler than usual, sweat rolling down his face. Ragged breaths racked his body as he turned his unfocused blue eyes toward Vlad.

"Hurts," Daniel gasped, struggling to form words as pain pinched his expression. His head bowed, and he began coughing, his body shaking violently until a mouthful of dark blood spewed forth. It splashed onto the carpet in the hallway, an ugly pool seeping into every fiber the blood touched. The sight chilled Vlad, who didn't dare to approach him too closely.

"Kwan, I shall need your assistance. If you will, please carry him to my lab," Vlad instructed with calmness to his command. Now was not the time to let panic rule him. Daniel desperately needed help, and freaking out would only make the situation worse. Vlad turned on his heel to lead the way to his laboratory downstairs.

The scuffle of movement told him that the young man followed his order. Daniel groaned in pain when he was lifting into Kwan's arms. Vlad swallowed thickly, already trying to formulate an idea for what happened to Daniel. Wounds weren't uncommon when fighting against ghosts. Glancing over his shoulder, his blue eyes lingered in the wounded shoulder then drifted to the puncture marks on Daniel's neck, hardly hidden by the bruising of what was obviously some kind of string. A rope would have left larger bruising, but what he saw was thin, like a fishing line. Vlad almost stopped cold as that thought brought up the Fenton Fishing Line. He refused to believe that Daniel's parents were the ones behind this attack.

When they arrived at his laboratory, Vlad instructed Kwan to lay Daniel upon the examining table. He was rather impressed with Kwan's ability to remain calm and collected during a serious situation like this one. Many others would have started panicking and demanding answers to questions that Vlad couldn't even begin to think about at the moment.

"Strap him down," Vlad ordered. As soon as he was placed onto the cool metal of the table, Daniel arched his back off it. His jaw clenched tightly as a scream tried to force its way out of his mouth. His head banged harshly upon the table, his limbs flailing sporadically.

Kwan grabbed hold of one thin, lightly muscled arm, forcing it flat along the table. As Kwan did up the strap around the wrist, Daniel screamed out suddenly, throwing a punch with his free arm that nearly knocked the bigger man over. Ignoring the throbbing pain in his jaw, Kwan caught the other arm before it could take another swing at him. Blood smeared across his face and coated his hand as he wrestled to strap down the thrashing limbs. When it came to the half ghost's head, Kwan forced Daniel to turn his head to the side before he did up the strap to prevent him from beating his head any further against the table. Not a moment too soon either as Daniel suddenly heaved out another mouthful of blood.

"Care to explain to me why you're just standing there?" Kwan shouted, shooting furious green eyes at Vlad. His anger was quite evident but didn't mask the panic and worry.

"Being cautious," Vlad answer as he turned his blue eyes onto Daniel.

The young half ghost struggled against his bounds, pulling so hard against them that it wouldn't be surprising if he left with bruises and cuts around the areas that held him to the table. Growls and screams filled the room but were followed by whimpers and sobs. Something was putting Daniel through a lot of pain.

"He and I are both half ghost." Vlad met Kwan's gaze evenly. "Whatever is affecting him could affect me as well. In which case, you'd be left alone to figure out how to help us. My apologies if I don't quite trust that you have enough knowledge to cure his condition on your own. Check the wound. Take a blood sample. We need to know what's going on with him. Until then, I have to keep my distance."

Kwan's mouth thinned at that explanation, but he understood the need to be cautious. His fingers plunged into the wound, Daniel screaming anew as he tried to yank his shoulder away. After a moment of his fingers questing around the wound, Kwan removed them, wiping his hand as clean as possible on his shirt. Then he held up his hand, and between his forefinger and thumb was a small dart.

"Bring it here," Vlad ordered. "We need to analyze it. If it contains poison, we might be able to create an antidote."

Kwan complied, carrying the dart over to where Vlad stood by the computer console. "What about his wound?" He tossed a worried glance back toward Daniel, who wasn't calming down even a little. His voice grew hoarse from the constant noise he made.

"Place some of the fluid in here." Vlad picked up a dish and held it out toward the man. "Then you can deal with his injury." He couldn't do it for himself without being at risk of poisoning himself in the process. What if it worked simply through contact with his skin? He couldn't chance it while Daniel was in such a dangerous condition.

Kwan snatched the dish out of Vlad's hand. With quick, careful movements that Vlad actually found impressive, he broke open the dart, spilling the tiny remaining amount of silver liquid into the dish. After placing both the dish and the broken dart on the table, he marched over to attend to Daniel's injury. Vlad glanced over the careful deconstruction of the dart, thinking that perhaps he misjudged his opinion of the man. Kwan surprised him with his displays of knowledge. But Vlad would have to leave being impressed for another time. Daniel still needed his help, and his screams were impossible to ignore.

Tugging on a pair of thick gloves, Vlad got to work on his analysis of the silver liquid. He ran tests upon it, breaking it down to learn what exactly was in it. This type of work was common practice for him. He used to break down unknown compounds all the time in his college days, and the formula for how to do it came back to him easily after the many years that passed. He was right on one point: the liquid could prove fatal to half ghosts if he didn't quickly figure out the antidote. Luckily, he was quite adept at that type of work as well. He was never fool enough to create a lethal poison without knowing how to create a cure as well.

"Are you finished yet?" Kwan demanded while pacing back and forth between checking on Daniel and the progress Vlad was making.

"It takes time to create an antidote." Vlad shot a withering glare at the man when Kwan hovered over him. He couldn't afford to make any mistakes at this point in time. Carefully, he mixed chemicals together within a flask then stirred them together by swishing the liquid around inside it. The antidote was nearly complete.

"Gah! Son of a-" The gasping shout from Daniel drew their attentions. The flask nearly slipped from Vlad's hold when his eyes landed on the snow white hair Daniel sported. The young half ghost's fingers twitched, curling as he tried to use his powers, but the straps locking him into place effectively canceled all ghost powers. Growling, he twisted his right arm in a desperate attempt to yank it free.

Hesitation was clear in the jerky steps Kwan took toward the table. His Adam's apple bobbed as he gulped nervously, coming around the other side of the table to enter Daniel's range of vision. Vlad turned around in his seat, adding in the last of the chemicals to the antidote. They needed to get it into Daniel quickly.

"Danny?" Kwan asked with caution in his voice that made Vlad frown.

With him strapped down, Daniel posed no threat of harming the man, or himself. Once the antidote was complete, Vlad glanced at the other two men, finding curiosity in Kwan's eyes. Grabbing a syringe, he filled it with the liquid inside the flask then walked over to join the other two men.

Daniel snorted, glaring with bright green eyes at Kwan. "What did he get himself into now? It hurts like hell." He cringed when he rolled his left shoulder, now well bandaged though hints of red bled through the layers. Like how Ember described it the night of the party, Daniel was in his ghost form but his normal clothes remained instead of switching into the ridiculous jumpsuit.

"And who are you?" Kwan asked, flicking his gaze toward Vlad. Something in voice and expression made Vlad frown all the more. The question seemed rather odd, but Daniel wasn't exactly making much sense at the moment either.

"Someone who would much prefer to be left alone," Daniel growled, his eyes flashing dangerously as he gritted his teeth. "Now what exactly happened?"

"You were poisoned." Without much preamble, Vlad jabbed the needle of the syringe into the crook of Daniel's arm. The young half ghost jerked, scowling darkly and muttering curses under his breath which Vlad chose to ignore. Pushing the plunger down, the antidote drained into Daniel's veins.

"He seriously needs to learn to stay out of trouble," Daniel grumbled, trying to glare at Vlad, but the older half ghost remained out of his field of vision.

"Care to explain just what is going on here?" Vlad frowned, feeling rather unsettled by this turn of events. Witnessing a blackout wasn't providing many answers to what caused it.

"I'd really rather not." Daniel closed his eyes as his mouth snapped tightly shut.

"This is what I was trying to explain before," Kwan said, folding his arms with a grave expression. "It's like Jekyll and Hyde."

"What?" Daniel opened confused blue eyes to stare at Kwan.

"An interesting theory, indeed." Vlad crossed an arm around his body as he held his chin in his other hand. Jekyll and Hyde, dual personalities, but the thought seemed incomplete. His blue eyes darted toward Kwan whose expression suggested he wasn't finished with his explanation.

"Anyone want to explain it to me?" Daniel demanded, clearly frustrated being the one left in the dark. "And do I have to remain strapped to the table?" A growl rumbled in his chest, reminding Vlad of how much the young half ghost hated to be tied down to an examination table.

"Well, you aren't thrashing about anymore. I suppose that's a good sign." Vlad worked on undoing the straps on his side while Kwan undid the ones on the other side.

In less than three moments, Daniel was able to sit up and climb off the table. He staggered then leaned back against the table. A hand pressed against his head as he groaned.

"You should probably take it easy." Vlad frowned at the state of Daniel's appearance. Blood soaked through his shirt that was left on the table, and splotches of red stained both him and Kwan. "You're still fairly weak from being poisoned. I would like an explanation about how that happened." He folded his arms and pinned Daniel with an expression that clearly said he would not accept any lip from the man. Daniel always had a way with trying to dodge the truth or pass things off as being fine when they were clearly not.

Daniel sighed as he rubbed his aching head. "I took care of this shadow ghost. By the way, is Johnny out of the Ghost Zone?"

"No, he's still in the Ghost Zone, apparently having a splendid time on his honeymoon with Kitty." Vlad caught the confusion on Kwan's face, but that was to be expected. The young man didn't know of every ghost that Daniel encountered over the years.

"Okay. That just makes the whole shadow fight all the more confusing," Daniel grumbled, and Vlad agreed that was rather curious. He knew of no other ghosts that controlled a shadow and always assumed that the shadow was unique to Johnny. "Anyway, after it exploded into nothingness, again weird," Daniel pursed his lips, clearly trying to figure out how to explain that but failing, "Valerie showed up. You just had to give her all that gear and turn her into a ghost hunter that has a target on my back." His glare darkened considerably as he scowled at Vlad.

"I was evil back then." Vlad returned the look with a sour expression. "I expected to use her for a little while to further my plans then toss her aside. I'm not exactly proud of all my actions back then."

"Excuse me," Kwan jumped in, hands slamming down on the examination table. "Valerie as in Valerie Gray?" Shock spread through his green eyes. "You made Valerie Gray a ghost hunter?"

"Like I said, not exactly proud of it."

"Yes, and she nearly killed me this time." Daniel ground his teeth, his eyes shifting to green in his rage. "I'm guessing there really is no hope of convincing her that everything was an accident and trying to make peace with her. Thanks for that, Vlad. Thanks a lot."

Kwan rubbed his hands over his face. "Now we have to worry about Valerie coming after Danny? I think it would probably be wise if you made more of that antidote and we all carry some around with us from now on."

"That was my thinking too," Vlad agreed with an appraising look.

"And I thought things were finally settling down after that fight with Daeva." Daniel sighed wearily, drained from everything that happened and the fact that Valerie was back in town. "I guess maybe I should agree to those training lessons." A frown pulled at his mouth. "Since I'm so reckless." He sneered at Vlad.

"That might be one of your wisest decisions yet." Vlad smirked, blue eyes gleaming with a touch of smugness. "But first, the two of you should probably wash up. Blood is always annoying to clean. I'll have to throw out that rug now." He helped steady Daniel, still weak after the poisoning, as they left the laboratory.