Different Effects of the Past

Chapter 35: Be Careful What You Wish For

"Why is this so important to you?!" Vlad demanded, angrily for what felt like the hundredth time that evening.

"I can't tell you that, sir," the AI answered yet again.

"You don't have a choice, I'm ordering you to tell me!"

"I can't."

"Why not?!"

"I can't tell you that either," the AI answered again and Vlad growled at the blue light floating across the lab.

His eyes were glowing dangerously red and his hands were emitting an eerie, ectoplasmic glow, neither of which he noticed in his anger. "You should calm down," ANII said quietly but that only made Vlad angrier.

"Then you should tell me what on earth is going on!" he countered.

"I fear that would not help you to calm down at all."

It's a cry of frustration, Vlad shot out a bright blast of ectoplasm right at one of his most expensive computers and it was blown to smithereens. He'd probably be even more frustrated at that when he was calmer, but for the moment, he felt nothing but anger.

"Then open the portal," Vlad demanded.

"Why, sir?"

"None of your business! Just do it!"

"But..."

"Open the damned portal or you're next," he threatened with furious red eyes.

After a moment, the portal opened to reveal the swirling green atmosphere of the Ghost Zone and Vlad flew straight through it. His anger increasing at everything that had happened to him lately made him attack almost everything he saw on his way.

"I knew you'd come," Clockwork greeted Vlad soon after as they hybrid landed in front of him.

"I'm in no mood for games, Clockwork. I want answers."

"I know you do," the ghost said, calmly, "But I cannot give them to you."

"I've had enough of your secrets!" Vlad yelled and angrily attacked the Master of Time with a lightning blast. Of course, Clockwork simply disappeared and then re appeared in the same place, not even looking surprised as he did so. "Why did you decide to ruin my life?! Everything was going just fine until you..."

"Was it really?" Clockwork asked, interrupting him, calmly as ever.

"Of course it was!"

"You were living an isolated life and your family hardly knew you. You were physically harming your godson on a monthly basis. You lived for nothing but revenge. Your arrogance was only increasing and you think that cloning your godson will somehow solve your problems. I may not be human, but even I know that none of those things are normal or healthy. Since I assumed responsibility for you, or at least for your ghost half all those years ago..."

"You had no right..."

"I had every right and more importantly, it was my duty. It wasn't an easy choice for me to make, Plasmius," the ghost explained. "I'm aware that you hate me for it, but that is a small price to pay, believe me."

"Huh," Vlad scoffed. "Believe you?" he mocked, "You?! You've made my life nothing short of a living hell! You've ruined everything!"

"It's true that perhaps I have made things difficult for you, but surely there have been some positives. Your cousin trusts you and her child adores you..."

"You stay away from them!"

"Danny also trusts you despite your actions," Clockwork continued, ignoring Vlad's interruption. "And you've spoken to him and Jasmine as equals," he said.

"After everything you've done," Vlad hissed. "After all the trouble you've caused me...I can't sleep...I...You owe me the truth. So tell me now...or so help me I'll blow your little kingdom here to pieces and you with it."

"We both know that's impossible."

"Maybe. But you also know that I have a lot more power than Daniel. Even if the attempt kills me, I'll do my best to destroy you. You've gone through a lot of effort to 'fix' my life, so it would be a shame if it was all for naught," Vlad said, glaring at the ghost.

Clockwork stared at Vlad perfectly calmly while Vlad stared back, breathing quickly. Evidently the last few weeks had taken their toll on him and perhaps it was unfair of Clockwork to expect Vlad to change without explaining why. But the question was, would Vlad's already damaged psyche cope with knowing the truth? Clockwork wasn't sure and for someone who could count on always knowing the future, that was a risk he wasn't sure he could take. Expecting Vlad to simply change out of the goodness of his heart was also a lot to ask and Vlad needed more encouragement if he was to do anything to change.

"Be careful what you ask for, Plasmius," he warned. "You may hate me even more once you know the truth," he said.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," Vlad ground out.

"If you insist," Clockwork sighed and raised his staff a little and they were engulfed in green smoke.

Vlad could see just as well in the dark as he could in the light, so when he found himself floating in the deep darkness of outer space he could see everything very clearly.

"What have you done?!" he demanded.

"What you asked for. I'm showing you the future I've worked so hard to avoid and I'm breaking all the rules in the process. Pay close attention," Clockwork said, gesturing ahead.

It was impossible to tell exactly when all this was meant to be happening, but Vlad watched in silence. There was another version of himself floating directly ahead of him with a huge asteroid in view and the Earth lay right in its path. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening. Vlad was talking to an AI projection which was coming from a device on his wrist. What he didn't know at the time was this was what he would replace ANII with as he descended ever deeper in his madness and his obsessions. He would create a warped version of Maddie who adored him.

"Ectoranium?!" the future Vlad exclaimed in horror. "Then I can never touch it. No ghost can...that means...the Earth is doomed. And even if it wasn't, I could never go back. I've revealed...my true self. I'll be forever hunted," he despaired. He then turned to face the spaceship, branded proudly with the Fenton logo and with Jack Fenton himself standing in the window.

It wasn't often, in fact Vlad had never seen Jack looking so angry. Never.

"Jack!" future Vlad began hopefully, "You wouldn't turn your back on an old friend, would you?"

"An old friend, no. You, yes," the ghost hunter replied, furiously and the spaceship propelled itself back towards the Earth, leaving Vlad alone.

"Jack," Vlad breathed. He stared at the Earth for a moment, before sighing inside his space helmet, and then, desolately, he flew off in the opposite direction.

Vlad watched as the next few years passed quickly and the future version of himself was ever more isolated, starved and in the cruel vacuum of space, something in him clearly snapped. One day, he returned to earth and Vlad could tell this this version of himself was not quite sane. He was levelling entire cities, laughing as he did so. The world that had come together years ago to save itself from an asteroid, now came together to destroy him but their armies didn't even scratch him. So, they brought the one person would possibly could; Danny Phantom.

"Vlad," the older looking, but still teenage version of Danny said sadly, "I didn't want this. I really didn't. But please, you have to stop. People have died."

Vlad said nothing as he attacked his godson mercilessly. The battle that ensued shocked the spectator Vlad and he could only stare in horror at Danny's abilities, which had grown remarkably, but which still weren't a match for his own despite the years of starvation. In the swirling storm all around them, Danny was thrown to the ground, miles below them and he landed like an asteroid, dragging a deep ditch in the ground for about half a mile before he came to a stop.

Danny was electrocuted without mercy and when he finally stopped screaming, the future Vlad laughed as the younger hybrid morphed back into his human half.

"Daniel..." the spectator Vlad said quietly.

"You're not finished," Clockwork announced.

"No," Vlad shook his head, almost pleading as he interpreted the ghost's words. "No..." he muttered.

"I warned you."

Future Vlad smirked as he picked up his rival by the throat and squeezed. But before he could do anything further, the Spectre Speeder all but crash landed beside him and five furious, armed ghost hunters ran out of it. Jack and Maddie, Jazz, Tucker and Sam all with their weapons aimed directly at future Vlad.

"Let him go, Plasmius!" Jack yelled.

Vlad simply grinned again right before he electrocuted Danny again and then simply let the teenager flop to the ground at his feet, lifelessly.

"Danny!" Sam cried out and fired her ecto-gun at Vlad. The others did the same and while future Vlad flew over to attack them, Sam ran over to Danny only to find that the boy she loved, wasn't breathing. "Come on, Danny, don't mess around!" she begged. She thew aside her gun and did everything possible to keep Danny alive but when Jazz joined her, she knew her brother was gone.

Danny phantom was dead and his family and friends were certainly no match for an insane Vlad Plasmius.

"That's enough," Vlad said, looking away at the carnage his future self was causing.

"You're sure?" Clockwork asked him.

"Yes!"

"Very well," the ghost said and the horrible future faded away, leaving them standing back in Clockwork's lair. "I did warn you," he reiterated. "Sometimes, knowing is much more cruel," he said.

"I...killed him. I killed Daniel...and Jasmine, Jack...M...Maddie. I killed them," Vlad breathed in horror as his hands shook.

"Now do you understand?"

"...I...I killed them," Vlad repeated.

"Vladimir?" Clockwork floated towards the hybrid but Vlad showed no signs of having heard the ghost speak. "Vladimir?!" the ghost said, much more loudly and this time, Vlad spun quickly to stare Clockwork in the eyes, his own filled with panic.

"I..." Vlad breathed.

"That was one of many possible futures, it's not certain, not now," Clockwork assured him.

"But I did it. Me. I killed them. I'm no better than...no...I'm worse. Far worse."

"I've done everything I can to avoid that future," the ghost remarked. "But you have to work with me and not against me, otherwise..."

"No!" Vlad cried.

"You don't want to kill them," Clockwork noted.

"Of course I don't...all except for Jack," Vlad said, petulantly.

"It would be easy for you to kill anyone if you truly wanted to, now or in a few years time. Including Jack Fenton. You hate him, you're angry for his part in your accident and you're furious that he repeated the same mistake and cost Danny half of his life too. But you're not a murderer. Not yet."

"He's a fool! His stupidly almost killed me...and his own son! He ruins people's lives, just like you!"

"Perhaps," Clockwork shrugged. "However, as Danny has rightly told you before, Jack Fenton wasn't the only one present when your accident happened. As for Danny himself, his parents had warned him to stay out of the lab."

"Children never listen! They should've known that!"

"Are you more angry at him now because of your accident or because of Danny's?"

"Mine...both..." Vlad stammered, "The man's a fool!"

"Who was once your dearest friend," the ghost said and Vlad scoffed. "If you wanted him dead, he'd be dead. And more to the point, so would you. The Observants would have done away with you for taking a human life and then they would have destroyed me too for failing in my duty. Then, most likely, they'd dismiss Danny as a lost cause as well..."

"What?!"

"You know what they're like," Clockwork said.

"No...no," Vlad muttered to himself, turning away and clenching his hands to try and steady them a little as they were still shaking.

"Now you know why I've interfered as much as I have."

"...How many more futures are there?"

"Thousands."

"How many where I...where I..."

"Hundreds," Clockwork replied. "But there are just as many possible futures where you don't. The asteroid you saw that will collide with the Earth is not set in stone. It's by no means a guarantee. It will always be a threat to the Earth just like any asteroid, but unless it's course is changed then it will remain near Saturn's rings. Your future isn't certain either."

"So this was your...misguided attempt at reenacting 'A Christmas Carol'," Vlad shook his head, still in shock but at least he was regaining his wits.

"If you want to think of it that way, then yes. Be angry with me for as long as you want but now you know that I had good reasons for showing your past to Danny. He needed to see you as you are, not what you want him to see for things to change at all. You need each other and you need to help me to make sure that future you saw never happens. I know you can't...don't...want it to happen. As much as you hate me, you can't disagree with that."

Vlad sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "I killed my own godson and my goddaughter," he said quietly.

"In that future, yes and many other people as well."

Vlad nodded at him just once without saying anything else and then he vanished in a swirl of smoke.

Vlad returned to the castle and went straight for the whiskey in the cabinet of the main sitting room. He downed about half the bottle and used up a dozen cigarettes before his mother came into the room.

"Well, that's a good use of your time," she remarked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Don't," Vlad sighed.

Rosalyn walked over to him and snatched the bottle from him. She set it down on the table quite forcefully and then she went as far as to take the lit cigarette from his hand and stub it out on the ashtray.

"What happened?" she asked him.

"Nothing."

"What happened?" she repeated.

"Nothing," Vlad said, again.

"Vladimir..."

"I'm going to bed," be announced, suddenly as he stood up. "Goodnight," he added, practically fleeing the room.

Of course, he couldn't sleep, not with the future he'd seen at the forefront of his mind and all the terrible things he'd done, or would do, replying over and over again, just to taunt him. So the hours passed slowly for Vlad that night. He tried to read but couldn't concentrate on a single word. He tried to work but he had the same problem. He didn't have much luck when he tried to tinker in the garage with his cars either, in fact he thought he'd probably done more harm than good to the poor engine he'd been tying to fix. He even went flying which usually did the trick, but it didn't calm him down even a little bit. He was still as tense as he was before he'd left so he didn't know what else to do.

Vlad went back to the castle at around three o'clock in the morning and when he heard noises from the living room, he found Danny there, alone, sitting in front of the chess set with a rule book in his hands.

"Daniel," Vlad spoke. Despite the fact that he knew Danny was still alive, the last time he'd seen the boy was when his future self had murdered him so he couldn't quite keep the surprise out of his voice, or the relief. Fortunately, he didn't think Danny noticed it. What he didn't expect was the crushing wave of guilt that struck him like a tidal wave a second later. He couldn't even bear to look at Danny now that the initial relief had passed and he suddenly felt like he was being suffocated.

"I know, I know, it's early," Danny grumbled. "But Vikki bet that I couldn't learn the rules before we leave," he said, flicking a page in the small rule book.

"Hmmm," Vlad muttered.

"Can't sleep again, huh?"

"What..."

"Somethin' wrong...you seem kinda...out of it," the younger hybrid noticed and put down the book to look at him. Vlad just shook his head and Danny furrowed his brow. "Seriously, what..."

"Nothing!" Vlad insisted.

"Okay, okay, sorry," Danny held up his hands. "I'm just...worried. You just disappeared earlier and ANII didn't know where you were. She said she couldn't track you anywhere."

"Hmmm."

"We were gonna go look for you but she wouldn't open the portal."

"Hmmm."

"And we saw the computer you trashed."

"Hmmm."

"And then ANII said you came back and...Vlad...are you even listening to me?"

"Hmmm."

"And I've decided that I'm gonna give myself up and go serve my time in Walker's jail for all the laws I broke. I feel terrible. I mean, superheroes shouldn't break the rules, y'know," Danny mocked.

"Hmmm," Vlad reiterated and the boy groaned in frustration.

"Vlad?!"

"...Yes?" the man finally looked at him.

"You didn't hear anything I just said, did you?" Danny asked.

"I..." Vlad trailed off.

"Where'd you go earlier? Me and Jazz looked all over the place. We were...worried about you."

"I...I was...nowhere...nowhere important," Vlad lied, uncharacteristically badly.

"Riiiiiiiiight," Danny dragged the word out, clearly not convinced. Vlad didn't seem willing to explain himself so Danny sighed. "So...I know you probably don't wanna talk about it again but...we're...Jazz and me...we're meant to be going home like in two days...or tomorrow I guess now, 'cos it's morning. What're we gonna do?" he asked.

"Do?"

"Yeah, like...are we just gonna pretend like all this never happened? Just fly on home through the Zone and then go back to stopping your next evil plot?"

"Yes...no...I don't know, Daniel," Vlad muttered. The only thing he knew for certain was that he didn't want to kill Danny, Jazz or Maddie. And the only way to avoid that terrible future was to stop being enemies with Daniel. Permanently. "I don't know," he repeated, rubbing his tired eyes.

"Vlad?" Danny said, concerned.

"It's easier...not to bother..." Vlad shuddered.

"But what?"

"I went...to see Clockwork," he admitted, "I know why he...I know what..."

"Know what? What's wrong?"

"I can't tell you," Vlad insisted, shaking his head. "I won't tell you. I won't ever tell you, so don't ever ask me!"

"But..."

"No."

"But if he told you why he..."

"No!" Vlad explained, his voice echoing.

"...Okay," Danny said, meekly. "Okay, Vlad, just...just calm down, okay?" he said.

Vlad breathed out, shakily, and began pacing. Danny had never seen him quite so agitated even when the man had suffered a panic attack. This was different somehow. "So...it was...bad?" the boy asked and Vlad nodded. "Really bad?" Danny asked.

"You've no idea," Vlad scoffed, sardonically.

"Then tell me..."

"No."

"Okay then," Danny relented. "Was it...did I do something bad?"

"You?!"

"Yeah, me. In the future, did I...was there a version of me that did bad things?"

"No. You didn't do anything," Vlad answered, cryptically.

"So...erm...what..."

"Stop it," the older hybrid glared at him.

"Okay, sorry, got it," Danny said. "Well...why don't we just try and...get along...without fighting. I don't wanna fight you," he added.

"...Fine...fine..." Vlad grumbled a tense minute later.

Danny was more than a little surprised and it showed on his face. Vlad had never relented so easily before and he'd seemed so adamant that he'd return to his 'evil' ways after their truce was over.

"Really?" Danny asked.

"...Yes."

"No more evil plans?"

"...None...involving you...none."

"Really?!" the younger hybrid exclaimed and Vlad nodded as he swallowed nervously. He then sat down on the opposite side of the chess set with Danny still staring at him, stunned. "And dad? And mom?" the boy asked, "Are you gonna try and..."

"I told you, I don't know! I don't know anything and I certainly don't know how to be what you and Clockwork and everyone else expects me to be," Vlad pursed his lip and picked up one of the black pawns in front of him.

"Well...you were doing kind of...okay..." Danny told him. "Y'know...apart from try'na almost kill dad," he muttered.

"Humbug," he muttered, eyeing the chess piece in his hand and reluctantly thinking of 'A Christmas Carol' again.

"Huh?"

"You don't understand and neither does Clockwork. I need my revenge I can't just...forget it and live happily ever after. I've already told you," Vlad said. "But if I do...then I get that future..."

"But you said it was..."

"I know what it was! I was there! I saw it!" Vlad snapped. He managed to calm down again and he sighed.

"Vlad..."

"So...I can...try," Vlad ground out. "I have to try," he added, quietly. "But I won't be joining your little 'super hero' team," he said to Danny, "So don't even ask me to."

"Okay."

"Neither will I be Jack Fenton's friend."

"Fine, just don't try and hurt him anymore," Danny pleaded.

Vlad grimaced as through the very thought of letting Jack be simply repulsed him. "And mom..." Danny began, "Mom loves dad, y'know," he told Vlad.

"I am aware of that...I don't understand it, but she has mentioned it before," he hissed. "Several times," he growled and placed the pawn back on the chess board, forcefully. "You're a child. You've never been in love, you don't understand it. What you're asking me to do is impossible," Vlad said.

"Yeah...but..."

"It's one thing asking me to leave Jack alone, which isn't going to be easy, but this is just...I'm not a saint, Daniel. I'm still human...in part," Vlad shook his head.

"Okay, okay, one thing at a time then...And you're wrong y'know."

"What about?"

"I have been in love before...or I thought I was. When I fought Ember the first time she blasted me with her guitar and she made me think I was in love with Sam. It...kinda made me obsessed...it was...weird," Danny shuddered.

"That's hardly the same thing," Vlad said, haughtily.

"Yeah, but..."

"Wait at least ten years, Daniel, before you try and lecture me about love," the man scoffed at him.

"Fine," Danny crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, a little insulted.

Vlad sighed after a while and waved a hand at the chess set. The pieces that damn had been moving around the board returned to their original positions, encased in ghostly energy.

"Go on, then," Vlad prompted him.

"Huh?" Danny blinked, confused.

"White moves first," the man shrugged.

"Yeah..."

"So move."

"Erm...okay..." Danny frowned, eyeing the board before he moved a white pawn.