A/N: Hey guys. Med school, as you can imagine, is incredibly busy. But I've finally finished my first quarter, which gives me a little time to get some writing in. My winter quarter is even WORSE than my fall quarter, so the slow update schedule will have to continue.

Chapter 38 – The Truth Comes Out

The Open Ghost Zone

It wasn't often that Danny was in a bad mood these days, what with the heapings of good fortune that fate finally, FINALLY started to give him after he had gotten his Ghost Realm. But all of the power he had gained under Clockwork's guidance couldn't help him with the task he now had to carry out.

"Great…" he groaned in his head. "The moment my parents hear that Vlad's back, they're going to go on a full-blown manhunt and tear him molecule by molecule!" If he didn't want a disaster to happen, he'd need to plan out how he broke the news very carefully.

"Well," he thought as he began to see the Fenton Ghost Portal opening in the distance, "better make sure I don't miss any loose ends!"

Fenton Works

"Whoo!" Maddie sighed as she wiped the sweat off her brow. "That's all we have to do for today!"

Jazz smiled and kissed her mom and dad on the cheek. "Thanks for the help, mom!"

"No problem, Jazzy Pants!" Jack grinned. "It's no trouble at all!" His grin faded slightly. "We'll miss you when you go off, kiddo."

"I'll miss you guys too," Jazz replied sadly. "At least you'll still have Danny around."

"Depends on whether he's still doing that hero thing," Maddie answered. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "If the Ghost Zone has been pacified, he might be able to go to college as well. I'm proud of him for everything he's done, but it would be good for him to live a normal life."

Jazz nodded understandingly, then suddenly smirked. "Well, at least he's pretty much guaranteed to get to any college he wants," she commented wryly. "Being the world's first and only half-ghost hero? What college wouldn't want him? Plus, he's got a VERY good excuse for the grades."

Maddie sighed. "We're going to have to talk to Mr. Lancer about that at some point. Not now, though, I'm sure Danny's busy with whatever's going on in the Ghost Zone and even if he wasn't, he probably doesn't want to deal with school in the summer."

"What kid does?" Jack drawled.

"True," Jazz rolled her eyes. As "nerdy" as she was, even she had her limits. "Well, I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow morning?"

"Yep!" her parents cheerfully replied as she left the living room. When she was gone, Jack turned to Maddie.

"Maybe we should get Danny back here soon," he commented. "It's getting late. Whatever he needs to do in the Ghost Zone should definitely be over and done with by now."

"I'll call him now," Maddie agreed. She got up and walked over to the door leading down to the lab. She was in for a surprise, however, for as soon as she opened the door, Danny stumbled in.

"Ack!" he yelped as he tumbled forward, barely catching himself.

"Oh!" Maddie exclaimed. "You're back! We were just about to call you in!"

Danny smirked. "Guess I beat you to it," he commented, but the good humor didn't reach his eyes. Immediately, both Fenton parents knew that something was up.

"Danny? Is everything all right?" Jack asked.

Danny groaned. No point in trying to delay the inevitable. "I found out something," he admitted. "I can't exactly say I'm happy about, but it doesn't affect me as much as one might think. But you are really, REALLY not gonna like what I have to say." He looked up at his parents. "I want you to promise me something, guys. Listen to everything I have to say first, and then decide what you're gonna do."

Maddie's brow furrowed. "The way you say that makes me worried, sweetie, but we'll hear what you have to say."

"All right," Danny sighed and took a deep breath. "Vlad's in the Ghost Zone."

Both of his parents' eyes widened, then instantly narrowed. Jack began to grit his teeth in rage, and Maddie's expression turned stony and utterly cold. "I should have known that cockroach would come back eventually," Maddie snarled.

"Son…" Jack ground the words out through his teeth, "say the word, and we'll tear him apart molecule by molecule!"

Danny had to admit, they were taking this better than he had expected. In the old days they would have jumped out of their chairs and gone out on a full-blown manhunt. It was clear that the only reason they hadn't done so was because of their promise, and even now it was taking every bit of their restraint not to bolt anyway.

"Yeaahhhh, about that…" Danny carefully continued, "…I don't know what Clockwork's planning to do with Vlad, but he let Dan spend some quality time with him first," he put the phrase in air-quotes. "I don't know what the two of them did to Vlad, but I don't think he'll be doing any evil stuff anytime soon."

Neither of his parents looked remotely convinced. "Danny, I know you're a good guy and you like to see the best in everyone," Jack answered in an unusually serious tone, "but we're gonna need more than that. A LOT more."

"I'd kinda be surprised if you didn't," Danny muttered. He looked up at his parents. "Well, I won't say everything I heard, but the short version is that there was a LOT of things Vlad didn't know about you two. Especially you, dad." He stared right at his dad. "Why didn't you ever tell Vlad that you paid for his hospital bills?"

Both of his parents' eyes widened, and Jack's face took on a guilty look. "Well…" he mumbled, "For a couple of reasons. Back then, we thought that accident had nearly ruined his life, and I didn't think Vlad wanted to hear any mention of me. I thought it would be a nice surprise, and I think part of me thought he would figure it out eventually." He sighed. "In hindsight, I really didn't think that thoroughly, did I?"

Danny had to agree. "You know, dad, if you'd told Vlad about the hospital bill thing sooner, he probably wouldn't have resented you as much about the whole thing. He thought you just up-and-left and forgot about him after the accident."

"That wasn't entirely your dad's fault, Danny," Maddie interjected. "We thought Vlad would come back as soon as he recovered, but he just disappeared from the face of the earth after he left the hospital. We had no way to contact him."

Jack sighed. "Guess we were kinda both in the wrong then," he admitted.

"That wasn't the only thing he found about though," Danny decided to press forward. "He didn't know that the two of you had been dating a long time before college, either. He said he would've left the two of you alone if he knew that he was doomed from the start."

Maddie rolled her eyes. "Honey, knowing Vlad, I very much doubt that."

Jack on the other hand, was thinking back to when they had first met. "Did we ever…tell…Vlad about our high school years? I don't think we ever did."

Maddie had to admit, she couldn't remember when they had either. "He's a smart guy, he should've figured it out!" she countered.

Danny shrugged. It was a fair point. "Vlad saw…timelines…" he continued. "Alternate timelines. You know, like the one where everything went to Hell?" His parents immediately shuddered. Even though the family was slowly getting used to the fact that Dan existed, the timeline of the Ultimate Enemy was never brought up lightly in the Fenton household. "Timelines where he was a better person. Where he was happier. Clockwork showed those timelines to him for a reason, and I think I know what it is."

"To show what would happen if he didn't become a narcissistic creep?" Maddie asked, her voice harsher than she intended.

"That's part of it," Danny admitted, "but I think it's because he wanted to show Vlad how to become a better person…and because he needed to know what his Ghostly Obsession is. Like, you know how mine is always being a hero?"

His parents nodded. "Vlad's Ghostly Obsession was his idea of a perfect life. Think about it. Everything he's done so far, trying to get me as his kid and mom as his wife. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?"

"That doesn't excuse what he's done," Maddie protested.

"No, it doesn't," Danny agreed. "But it clears a lot of things up. And from what I've heard from Clockwork, the fruit loop could've been a lot happier if he was willing to give up on that. But he couldn't, and look what happened."

Jack frowned. "You overcame your Obsession pretty easily," he pointed out. "Why couldn't he do it too?"

It was a good question, and Danny had to think a bit before giving his answer. "It goes back to the whole hospital thing," he finally answered. "He had a LOT of resentment towards you for everything that happened, dad. And it's a lot easier for things to go wrong with his obsession than with mine. Besides," he smirked, remembering Ember's words, "he took a giant ecto blast to the face. That's gotta have screwed with his head."

His parents' lips twitched. "Anyway, back to the timelines." His smile disappeared a little. "Mom, dad, I need to be honest with you. I was afraid of whether or not you were going to accept me as a half-ghost for a very long time. All that talk about ripping me apart molecule by molecule, are you really all that surprised I kept it hidden for so long?"

Maddie reached out to put a hand on her son's shoulder. "Danny, you know that we don't care about that. You're our son, and that's the only thing that matters."

Danny smiled faintly. "To you, maybe. But not to other versions of you guys." He watched as his parents' faces shifted from confusion, to understanding, to absolute horror. "In pretty much every timeline where you rejected me, Vlad was the hero who saved my life and gave me a home. He was willing to drop a years-old rivalry at the blink of an eye to help me out. And from what I've heard, what he's done to me so far is nothing compared to what you would've put me through if he didn't rescue me. In this timeline, Vlad's the villain and you guys are the loving parents. But it could very, very easily have been the other way around."

Maddie still didn't look convinced, but Jack's eyes were beginning to ever-so-slightly soften. Was it still possible that his old college buddy still existed under all that bitterness and hate?

"I've known Clockwork a lot longer than you have," Danny pressed on. "He's probably one of the best planners I've ever met in my entire life. When he does something, he does it for a reason and he does it really carefully to make sure nothing goes wrong. When he freed Dan a month ago, I thought everything was going to go straight to Hell. Fast forward to now, and the crime rate in the Ghost Zone is at an all-time low because everyone's too scared of Clockwork sending Dan after them to do any big-time crimes. If he brought Vlad back, it's probably because he thinks this is the best chance we're going to have to turn him back to a good guy.

Maddie and Jack waited silently as Danny finished. After he was done, Maddie looked her son straight in the eye. "Do you really think that Vlad is being honest, Danny?"

Danny returned the gaze evenly. "I'm sure of it. If only because this is his last chance. If he starts going back to being a fruit loop, the Observant Council is gonna take care of him once and for all. And that's assuming Dan doesn't beat them to it first. From what I've heard, he hates Vlad a lot more than he hates me, and considering that I was the one who stopped him from winning, that's saying a lot."

His parents looked at each other, and an unspoken agreement seemed to pass between them. "Danny, my boy," Jack turned to his son. "I hope you don't mind if we carry on this conversation tomorrow. Your mother and I have a lot to talk about tonight, and we need to decide how we're going to approach this."

The Champion of the Primordials shrugged. "It's up to you guys, dad. You've known the cheese head a lot longer than I have." He watched as his parents got up and climbed the stairs up to their bedroom together, shutting the door behind them. A few seconds later, his cell phone rang. Danny reached into his pocket and opened it up.

"Hey, baby pop!" a familiar ghost rocker's voice rang into his ear. "How'd it go?"

Danny shrugged and smirked. "Well, my parents didn't run to the Specter Speeder and start a manhunt in the Ghost Zone," he answered dryly. "I'd say it went better than expected."

/

And Danny's officially broken the news to his parents! It's a good thing he made them promise to listen to him first, otherwise things could have gotten very, very messy.

In the interest of actually advancing the plot meaningfully given the limited time I have (thanks, med school), I'm going to have to accelerate the story a bit whenever I have the time to write chapters. This is why I'm going to resolve the issues between Vlad and Danny's parents relatively quickly in the next chapter, and then move on to the opening of Danny's Ghost Realm soon after. It's also the reason why Maddie and Jack's reactions to Vlad's return were less hostile than you might have imagined, as I simply don't have the time to put in a mini-arc where they erupt into full-blown rage and Danny has to stop them from making a huge mistake. I upload infrequently as it is, and that would've slowed me done even further.

There's also the fact that my enthusiasm for DP has, admittedly, somewhat waned lately and been replaced by other things. It has NOT decreased enough for me to abandon the fic, especially since this is my most popular story by far, but don't be surprised if I occasionally work on other things instead once in a while. But I don't intend to simply let this story die either, not with the amount of time I've committed to it. That being said, I don't think I'll be posting sidestories like the Reflections either, unless I'm in the specific mood for it.

Thanks for understanding, everyone, and let me know what you think of the chapter!