No set time period. An alternate character interpretation.

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The first thing Jack felt was the headache.

He opened bleary eyes to a sight that was both familiar and foreign. It was a ghost lab, that much was apparent. A portal stood open on one wall. The benches of glassware and samples for purification were familiar. The vast bank of computers were not.

"Oh, I see you're awake," drawled a very familiar voice.

Jack looked over, blinking through the fuzz of a fairly decent concussion. "Vlad?" he asked.

Vlad Masters stood leaning against one wall. Only then did Jack realize he was bound to a table, steel cuffs at his wrists and ankles. He pulled at them, a token struggle to gauge their strength. He wasn't going anywhere...

"Why am I tied down?" Jack asked.

Vlad scoffed. "You never were good at basic deduction, were you?"

"What?"

Vlad growled. "I captured you, you idiot!" he snarled, getting right in Jack's face. "I found you out hunting alone and I took you down with a simple blow to your big empty head!"

That would explain the headache. "Why?" Jack asked.

Vlad growled, pulling away to pace and rant. "It all started after I got out of the hospital," he said. "Years locked away in a padded cell because they wanted to study me, Jack. Years! And when I finally escaped they still had no idea what they were dealing with. I had to figure it out on my own. I had to...

"When I finally got out you and Maddie, the both of you, you weren't at the university anymore. I didn't know where you were. I couldn't find you. I called your parents but they were told I was dead, they hung up on me! They threatened me for daring to pretend to be who I really was. Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"I'm so sorry," Jack whispered. "But it was an accident."

"NO! No you don't get to call what happened to me an accident! You don't have the right!" Vlad took a deep breath to try and calm down, to get back to making his point. "Anyway, I had to find you. I had to tell you what had happened to me, that I wasn't gone, that I was all right. I had to find you but I couldn't, there was no trail I could follow, nothing to lead me to you. I knew you'd married her so I knew if I could only find one of you the other wouldn't be far behind. But it was so hard because you'd both just disappeared.

"So I did the only thing I could do. I published, Jack. I published over and over. Sixteen papers over five years on ghosts, hoping that you'd see any one of them. Because I knew that if you saw at least one of them you'd know I was all right..."

Vlad seemed to deflate, overcome with emotion. Jack's insides felt crushed, barely comprehending the loneliness. "We found some of them," he admitted. "Found some of the papers you'd written. But we didn't find them until we started working on the portal. By then the papers we found were... eight, ten years old. When you never contacted us directly we figured you didn't want anything to do with us. We thought you hated us."

Vlad glared at Jack. "I wish I hated you," he growled. "I wish so much that I simply hated you. Then I could move on with my life and forget you. Forget you and Maddie. But I don't. I could never get either of you out of my head. I care deeply for you. Both of you. I may even love you, I don't know..."

"Um..." Something didn't sit right with Jack. "Then... why am I strapped down?"

"You're an idiot, Jack."

"I think you already said that, Vlad."

"I did." Vlad gave Jack a calculating look. "Because you are. I didn't just publish so you would know I was all right. I published so you would know what had happened to me. Think, Jack. Think about what I wrote. Always about ghosts. Always criticized for direct observation, direct experimentation. Always seeming to experiment on one single elemental revenant."

"A lightning elemental," Jack said. "I remember. God, Vlad, that was so incredibly dangerous! You could have been killed working with a creature such as that!"

Vlad smiled, slowly shaking his head. "No, Jack. I was never in the slightest danger. Think, you idiot. Think long and hard. I wanted you to know what had happened to me. So why would I focus almost all of my research on one single revenant?"

Jack wracked his brain but thinking made his head hurt.

Vlad sighed, resigned. Black rings appeared around his waist.

Jack watched as his oldest friend was ripped away, the human visage shredded. In its place stood a nightmare. Glowing red eyes, unnaturally blue skin, long fangs, glowing aura, and the unmistakable stench of ozone.

The Wisconsin Ghost. No, more than that. Vlad's lightning elemental. Finally he realized. "You were testing on yourself the whole time," he whispered.

The monster, no, Vlad nodded.

"You tried to kill me," Jack realized.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You bastard, you tried to kill me!"

Vlad glared and slapped Jack across the face. "Of course I tried to kill you!" Vlad snapped. "Think for one second about what happened to me. I died! I have been alone ever since then! You and Maddie, you abandoned me. You were all I had left! I tried to kill you again and again because I will not be alone, Jack, I will not stand for it!"

Jack was more confused than ever.

"I tried to kill you not to get rid of you, no, never to get rid of you," Vlad said. "You and Maddie are all I have. I'm alone, Jack, there's no one there for me. I tried to kill you to keep you here. With me."

"You tried to kill me..." Jack paused, hoping he was getting this right. "You tried to kill me to turn me into a ghost. Like you."

"Yes."

"Oh."

"Yes, 'oh'." Vlad growled. "Jack, of all people you should be able to recognize that death doesn't have to be an end. But as you grow old it gets closer and closer to being an end. I can't risk waiting patiently for either of you just to watch you die and stay dead because there was no reason for you to keep going! I will keep you, Jack Fenton, and I will keep Maddie as well. I'm not letting you go again." Vlad raised a clawed hand filled with a charge of ectoplasm.

"Wait!" Jack cried.

Vlad's hand wavered.

Jack took a deep breath. "Let me discuss this with Maddie?" he asked. "I just... I want her to know about this."

"You honestly expect me to let you go?" Vlad demanded.

Jack nodded. "I know you're not a bad guy, Vlad," he said. "You're insane but I know you. You kind of always were a bit nuts. We all were to be working on ghost stuff, yanno? Please, Vlad, let me talk to Maddie before... I mean, we have no idea if we'll still be ourselves after..."

"I have proof you will be," Vlad said. "I don't just mean me, either. Others, too. I can prove to both of you if you'll let me."

Jack nodded.

Vlad sighed. He knew this was a risk, a terrible risk. But killing Jack now also brought about the risk that Jack would hate him for not letting him decide. He flipped the switch that opened the steel cuffs. Jack dropped to the ground.

"Get out of here before I change my mind," Vlad said. "You have two days before I come for you again."

Jack ran.