Vlad's leg was bouncing from the nerves. He couldn't decide if he should tell Jack and Maddie about Dan. They love him, but learning who he's become might change their view of him forever and put them through terrible emotional pain.
"I can't believe that they fired Henrietta," Jack remarked as they drove down the road.
"Of course they did. She filed some crackpot story about ghosts to CPS," Jazz pointed out.
"But ghosts are real," Tucker reminded. "Everyone in Amity knows that."
"But to the rest of the world, ghosts are only real to crazy people or conspiracy theorists," Sam added.
"We're going to have to stop and get gas soon," Maddie informed from the driver's seat.
After a while more of driving, Maddie stopped the RV in a gas station and stepped out. Now was his chance. Vlad leaned forward and tapped Jack on the shoulder. Jack glanced back at him, and Vlad gestured outside the RV. The two stepped outside, and Vlad approached Maddie, Jack right behind him. "What is it, Vlad?" she asked, inserting the gas pump into the side of the vehicle.
"It's about that ghost tonight."
"That ghost," Jack muttered heatedly. "What about him?"
"I know who he is," Vlad answered.
"Did you hear about him in the Ghost Zone?" Maddie wondered. "A ghost that powerful has to be well-known."
"I heard of a new ghost that gained power too quickly to be natural, but that's not what I mean."
"Then what is it?" Jack insisted.
Vlad hesitated, but he took a breath and continued. "It's Dan."
"What?" Jack and Maddie simultaneously exclaimed.
"Shh!" Vlad ordered, gesturing to Jazz, Sam, and Tucker that were still in the RV. "He transformed right in front of me. That ghost from tonight is your son."
Maddie ripped the gas pump out of the tank and slammed it back into its holder. "No. You have it wrong. I'll buy that Danny is a half ghost because of what happened with the portal, but he wouldn't do that to Jack."
"He's changed," Vlad argued. "When was the last time you saw him in person? Three years ago?"
"When he was inside of me," Jack interrupted, his voice low, "I could feel what he was feeling. He was angry and vengeful, but he also enjoyed it. He wasn't trying to hurt anyone, but he enjoyed destroying anything he got his hands on. And that's not it. There was something else I couldn't quite put my finger on. He wanted something, and it was more than just his immediate goal. It was like his very essence needed something, but I don't know what it could be."
The other two were silent for a moment. "Let's take this inside so the kids don't hear us," Maddie suggested, getting approval from Vald and Jack.
Maddie knocked on the window, and Sam rolled it down. "We're going to use the bathroom and get drinks and snacks from the gas station shop. You guys want anything?"
All three of them shook their heads.
Jack, Maddie, and Vlad locked the RV and headed inside the small shop, sticking close to each other. "Why would Danny do that to Jack?" Maddie repeated, her voice sharp. "And why would he try to kidnap me?"
"Jack said it himself: he's angry," Vlad reminded.
"But surely he knows that his change isn't my fault, right?" Jack asked.
"Did I?" Vlad scanned their faces. "After my lab accident, I blamed you, although I had a more obvious reason to do so. Becoming a half ghost is the most painful thing that's happened in my life, and surely the same goes for Dan. You weren't there that day, but it was your device, and it was your idea. Maybe Dan hates you for his transformation. I did."
"Stop calling him Dan," Maddie growled, her voice tense.
Vlad shook his head. "I can't call him Danny anymore. He's just so different. He works with Skulker-orders him, more like. He's practically an adult in his ghost form. That alone is a testament to how powerful he is."
"You've had your powers for over twenty years, and you look pretty much the same in your ghost form. Danny's only had his powers for three years. How is he more powerful than you?" Jack wondered.
Vlad shrugged. "I have no idea. Maybe it has to do with how he transformed. His entire body was irradiated with ghost energy. It was only my face when I had my accident. Either that or there's something about our powers that he knows that I don't."
"We've studied these powers for twenty years," Maddie pointed out. "What on Earth could he know that we don't after only three?"
"I don't know," Vlad repeated. "Look, we can debate this later, but we have three kids in the RV waiting to get home. And the question still stands: should we tell Jazz?"
"We never told her about you," Maddie said.
"Yes, but this is her brother, and she was there when Danny's accident happened," Jack pointed out.
After a little more debate, the three returned to the RV, a few hastily chosen snacks in their hands.
"I'm sorry we had to send your family away, Dan," Marie apologized.
Dan shrugged. "It's okay. I understand. I'm sorry so much stuff got broken." Dan genuinely was sorry. He meant to cause destruction, but he didn't want to hurt them.
Jerry waved a dismissive hand. "They're just things. Easily replaceable, but you are not." He put a hand on Dan's shoulder. "We're just glad you're okay. Now off to bed. It's almost three in the morning."
Dan nodded and headed towards his room, glad to be away from them. He failed, and the fact that he failed made him angry. His chest burned with it. He had to calm down before he lost it. When he got to his room, he closed the door and headed straight to the bathroom. He froze when he flicked on the light. His ghost thermos was sitting on the counter by the sink. With the lid off.
He rushed to it and picked it up, examining it. Who could have done this? Did Vlad do it before he left? He couldn't have. He knew that Dan was threatening Jack. Vlad would have raced straight towards Dan to fight him. But who let Vlad go in the first place? Skulker wouldn't have.
The heated anger in his chest briefly gave way to his ice cold ghost sense, making him turn around and face the ghost. It was a small, green-skinned man with a crown, royal robes, and a scepter in the shape of an ice cream cone. "It's not nice to keep ghosts locked up like that, don't cha know?" he said.
"You let them go? You let Vlad and these ghosts go?" Dan interrogated, both his heart and core hammering simultaneously in his chest.
"Some ghosts just wanna be left alone there, don't cha know?" the Dairy King pointed out. "These ghosts were crying for help. I had to let them go. It's what a good king would do, don't cha know?"
Dan didn't say a word, but he felt his eye twitching of its own accord. He's never been this angry before.
Before he knew what he was doing, he activated the ghost thermos, its beam wrapping around the Dairy King. The beam started to retract, but before it could suck the ghost inside, Dan grabbed him and extended his fangs. He bit into the King's neck, the ectoplasm flowing into his mouth. His body was pleasurably forced to transform as he took the power from the Dairy King into his core. He only noticed that the ghost had faded from existence when his fangs suddenly dug into the palm of his hand. The cut healed in an instant as he wiped the excess ectoplasm from his mouth.
He failed in locking up Jack, he had no ghosts, and he had no ghost portal to get more. His parents, on the other hand, did have a ghost portal. It's not like he could use it, and he couldn't steal the schematics for it and ask Jerry and Marie for the thousands of dollars it would take to make the thing. Sure, they were rich, but they wouldn't give that much money to him without asking any questions. He hardly knew if it was possible, but he had to steal his parents' portal. They could always build another, but he couldn't.
"You're a what?" Jazz wondered.
"A half ghost," Vlad repeated.
"Wh-what does that even mean?" Jazz asked. "You can't be both dead and alive at the same time."
"Well, apparently, you can," Vlad pointed out.
"Look, we don't know how or why it's possible, but Vlad is a half ghost," Maddie added. "We've been working with Vlad for years to keep ghosts out of Amity Park."
"If you were working on keeping the ghosts out of Amity, why did you build a ghost portal to the Ghost Zone in Amity?" Jazz interrogated.
"We wanted access to the Ghost Zone," Jack explained. "We need to learn as much as we can about them. We could learn more about Vlad that way, too."
"How did you even become this way?" Jazz wondered, finally taking a seat on the Fenton Works living room sofa.
Vlad took the lead in explaining the lab accident that happened in college. He didn't go into detail about the Ecto Acne and his years-long hospital stay, but Jazz was still satisfied. She sat there staring into space for a while before she spoke. "Danny," she whispered, slowly looking back up at her parents and Vlad. "When Danny turned on the portal, he nearly died. Is he like you too?"
Vlad slowly approached her and took a seat beside her on the sofa. "At the party last night, he imprisoned me. Another ghost let me go, but not before Dan told me that he wanted to..to get rid of Jack. I did everything I could last night to end the fight as quickly as possible, and luckily, no one was really hurt."
"Get rid of Dad?" Jazz repeated. "Why would he do that?"
Vlad shrugged. "I'm not sure. But he's angry. It took me years to forgive Jack for my accident, but I don't know how Dan is feeling."
"I need to talk to him."
"No," Maddie ordered. "According to Vlad, Danny has completely changed. Vlad didn't tell him that we already know about Vlad's powers. Letting Dan know that we know could get rid of our only advantage."
"'Advantage'?"Jazz scoffed, getting to her feet. "This is your son! We just need to talk to him!"