How many years has it been? 5? 10? Vlad couldn't remember. A decade barely flashed before he found himself back on his velvet chair in front of a crackling fireplace. His life was quiet, empty, inconsequential. Without anyone to chase after, without anyone to look after, he had found himself strutting along on the path of silence. And the shadows accompanied him.
His employees, ghost and human, were worried. His secretary won't stop pestering him about finding a date. Skulker keeps offering to capture the young halfa or bring him to ghost parties. Vlad always declines their offer, never the one to be as sociable as others.
He lived the next decade as a hermit, and this new lifestyle brought quite a stir in the media. Vlad hardly cared.
Eight years into his isolation, he found himself listening to "D. Badger." He was never the one for pop songs or the music the new generation makes, but something inclined Vlad to listen more to this particular artist.
He once stumbled upon his music when he was walking around the office and found his receptionist listening to music. She was startled by the sudden attention Vlad gave her and ended up sharing too much about her passion for music. Vlad wouldn't say that D. Badger was his favorite artist but he might as well admit it for he is the only thing he listens to for more than 3 years now. His personal favorites were I Hear A Symphony and Photograph.
His years of silence seemed to wash themselves away when Vlad heard D. Badger's voice first thing in the morning. He had set his alarm clock to his songs, and his ringtone too. Not a day goes by in 3 years did Vlad not listen to D. Badger's songs.
Life seemed to take a turn for Vlad Masters, and he began to indulge himself more with the Ghost Zone. He had made more allies, and even a friend, during his odd trips in the Ghost Zone in search of mystical items.
"What changed?" Skulker had asked him once during their hunt to find a ghost leopard who had taken one of Vlad's possessions. Plasmius stared quizically at Skulker. As far as Vlad was concerned, nothing had changed. Skulker was not satisfied with the answer and continuously pestered the halfa for answers, in which Plasmius always states that nothing has changed.
"Nothing has changed." At least, that was what Vlad had thought. What could possibly change? Maybe the fact that he had no longer have anyone to be obsessed with. Maybe his lack of appearance as a ghost and retained more human. Maybe his taste of music, perhaps.
But whatever look Skulker had given him, Vlad had shaken it off. His answer stayed solid. Nothing has changed.
Saturday, June 15th.
Insistent knocks rang on Vlad's door. He was not expecting anyone, and if it was a ghost, they could have simply used the portal. Vlad opened the door with a scowl on his face, but his unpleased frown morphed into mild surprise when a child - no older than 6, he presumed - stood in his doorway. His features were strikingly familiar, even though Vlad was positive he had never met this child before. Maybe he was from one of the charity programs Vlad had sponsored.
Green eyes stared up at wonder at Vlad, and it was either the wind that was blowing through or the child's raven locks were floating.
The kid smiled at Vlad. "Hi!" He greeted, slightly adjusting the bag that was on his back. "Can I come in? It's a bit cold out here."
"Oh, um…" Vlad stared the kid down and took note of how the kid came up to his door in a hoodie three sizes larger than him and basketball shorts. Surely, the kid didn't predict it was going to be this cold in this weather. "Of course." Vlad stepped aside for the child to enter. He replied with an enthusiastic thanks and skipped inside.
Vlad closed the door behind them and let the child stare in awe of the place. "Wow! This was bigger than I imagined!" he said, twirling around in the empty room and jumping from tile to tile as if it was some playground.
Vlad didn't know what to do with the kid, but he presumed he should contact his parents immediately. "Would you like something to eat?" Vlad asked. Green eyes gleamed at him.
Grumbling from the mention of the food erupted from the child. Vlad moved quickly and led the child to the kitchen to make him some mac n' cheese. All the while he was cooking, the child kept staring at him, analyzing him and his movements like some sort of kid watching a new cartoon character.
Vlad put the bowl in front of the child and leaned against the counter island. He asked, "may I know your name?"
The child grabbed the bowl and lifted a spoon up to his mouth. He hummed in delight as he chewed on the food Vlad prepared for him. He swallowed his mac n' cheese before he answered, "name's Damien. Nice to meet you, Mr. Vlad!"
He scooped another spoon of mac n' cheese before he commented, "you don't look or act like what my parents told me."
Vlad raised a brow. His parents told Damien of him. "And what did your parents told you what I am like?" Vlad asked.
Damien paused for a minute, putting his finger on his chin as if he was thinking. "Well…" he started, "Momma said you were a bad man that used daddy for bad things. And daddy… He said you were a good man that did bad things which is very confusing." Another spoon entered Damien's mouth before he continued. "But I guess, good people do crazy things for love."
Vlad was surprised by the boy's response and the last quote made him question who his parents are. "Oh! That's right!" the boy exclaimed, shaking off his backpack and placing it on top of the island. "That's why I came here." Damien unzipped his bag and pulled out a shoebox that clearly had seen better days.
"It's going to be Father's day tomorrow and I want to give daddy the best present." Damien opened the box and spilled the contents of it. "And what better present is there to give then daddy's 2nd papa?"
Vlad stared incredulously astounded. The box was filled with numerous photographs that Vlad couldn't see clearly, but when Damien poured it all out, it seemed like Vlad was going back down memory lane.
"Hey, dad! There's this space museum in the next town. Can we go?"
Danny was smiling in the picture as he held onto the ribbon proudly. They went to the space museum during the weekend and they had an activity where the staff had hidden a space rock and the kids had to find it. And, of course, Danny had been the one to find it. Vlad stood beside Danny, holding him as a proud father would.
"Dad! Dad! I need to go to the Ghost Zone! Open up your portal!"
Danny just had to get the perfect gift for that pretty girl in his class. Vlad couldn't blame him. With a little persuasion, Danny got a hold of a ruby ring from Dorathea's treasure trove and the awes it received in school were plentiful. Danny dragged Vlad into the photograph so they could take a picture with the birthday girl.
"Hmm… Should I go with white or black?"
Danny was invited to a benefit held by young Samantha's parents. Danny had invited him to go so he could watch the "entertainment" that would happen. 30 minutes when they arrived, Danny and Sam managed to make the chocolate machine malfunction and flooded the dance floor with chocolate. Danny, Sam, and Vlad were all covered in the sticky substance as they laughed at the camera.
Picture after picture, they all held a memory. Vlad could recall each and every one of them, even with the photographs that he wasn't aware were taken. 6 months and 467 photographs. How did Damien get these? Then it clicked. Damien was Daniel's son.
"So… Can you help me?"
Danny licked his fingertips, savoring the delicious flavor of the brownies his beloved wife made for him. He reached out to grab some more, but he quickly treated his hand when the wooden spoon made quick contact with his grabby fingers. "Save some for us, Ghosty," Valerie snickered.
Danny chuckled and settled in leaning against the island where his enemy-turned-to-lover was cooking. Valerie's beauty never faded, even when she insisted it did. To Danny, Valerie was the same woman and better that he fell in love with.
"Hey, what do you think Lil' D is up to?" Danny asked, eyeing the brownies not-so-subtly.
Valerie shrugged as she stirred on the bowl. "The little squirt is as mischievous as his father, so you tell me." Danny chuckled and made his way over to his wife and hugged from behind, savoring the scent of her shampoo as he put his chin atop of hers.
"And he's as ambitious and determined as his mother. What sort of height is he willing to jump to?"
Valerie leaned in against her husband as she stirred the batter in the bowl. Valerie couldn't argue, though. When there is something little Damien put his mind to, he was determined to do it, with or without his parent's help.
Valerie and Danny were in panic when they realized that Damien was missing. They searched everywhere and couldn't find him. They had called Lancer, Tucker, Dash, and anyone else who was near them to see if Damien somehow went to their houses. No one knew where the little boy was and they joined in on finding the little boy. Danny jumped into the portal they had installed in the basement and Valerie suited up and went all over town. She was eternally relieved, after nearly 6 hours of a long search, that they had found Damien waiting for them in the kitchen, trying to bake cookies as a way of saying sorry. He's grounded for a week.
The doorbell rang and Danny smiled, expecting his friends to come over and visit them. As soon as he was out of the kitchen door, Damien came bolting out from the stairs, screaming, "don't open the door!"
Damien's screams caught Valerie's attention and both parents are now in front of the little green-eyed boy who was blocking their reach to the door.
Valerie chuckled, thinking what kind of scheme Damien got for them, especially on Father's day. "Alright, sport. What's up?"
Damien giggled and put his hand on the doorknob, but not really opening it yet. "Well, I thought of what the best Father's day gift one could possibly get for their dad and…" Damien opened the door, and Valerie and Danny were slack-jawed at the sight of the silver-haired man that shifted nervously under their gaze.
"Surprise!"
The silence was tense.
Danny's eyes shifted from green to blue and green again, conflicted about what he was supposed to do, what he was supposed to say. He missed Vlad but he couldn't find the courage nor strength to forgive him? He wanted to punch Vlad's face for ever showing up on his doorstep but also hug him and never let him go? He wanted to scream at Damien and Vlad for plotting such a hurtful scheme but then thank his son and invite Vlad in?
What was he supposed to do?
"Little Badger, no Oreos before bed!"
Vlad did so much. So, so much. He had hurt him, punched him, electrocuted him, and tried to clone him. He cared for him, fed him, let him have the best 6 months of his life that his own family couldn't afford.
"Danny, watch out! Are you okay? Are you alright?"
Vlad wanted to kill his father, replace him with himself. He wanted to marry his mother and adopt Jazz and Danny to act like they were the perfect happy little family. Vlad wanted a family. He wanted Danny.
"This is my son, Daniel."
Vlad had to step back to steady himself. Danny wrapped his arms around the man, hugging him and praying that it was real.
Danny had nightmares, and Vlad wasn't there to hold him and tell him everything was going to be alright. The nightmares were about Vlad. They were about Vlad dying and he wasn't there to save him. They were about Vlad never reaching out to him again. They were about him growing old and disappearing without ever seeing Vlad's kind smile again.
But he was here. It was alright. Everything was alright.
"Everything is alright, Little Badger."
Valerie was on guard during Vlad's stay with them, but she learned how to loosen up when Vlad and Danny began talking about how their lives were with the other's absence. Valerie had never seen Danny laugh so much ever since their wedding.
"Wait, you're D. Badger?"
"Wait, you're my secret investor? Oh, my stars!"
It was great. Even though she wasn't really that much included in the conversation.
"Remember Tucker's face when you had beaten him on the Dancing Tiles?"
"I did warn the poor boy that I was fast."
She remembered how bad and out of it when Danny returned to school after Summer. His sister explained the situation and she hadn't wanted to murder someone so badly after her obsession with destroying Phantom.
"Man, I wish you were there. Walker could have been easier to defeat."
"Well, I'm here now to make up for the lost time."
Valerie kissed her son's forehead and smiled lovingly at him. "How did you know?" She asked. She excused herself and him to a quieter place. She loved her family more than anything, and it warmed her heart that Damien went to such great lengths to make her husband happy.
Damien smiled at his mother, his eyes glinting in happiness. "I just did."
"So… You know how to make daddy stop hurting?" Damien, now Specter, asked. Bright orange eyes stared at the ghost hidden under the purple cloak, constantly shifting from one age to another.
Pictures flew across the glass-like screen, all of which showed his father smiling with another man. It wasn't Papa Jack, Unky Dash, or any ghost nor human Damien had met.
The man turned to finally give the child his attention. The man smiled and answered, "yes."
Damien took a step and another towards the round screen. Orange eyes fluttered in awe and confusion at the scene played in front of him. There, inside the screen, his daddy in Phantom form was fighting the bad men in white with another ghost, a ghost he wasn't familiar with.
Damien watched the fight, wanting to join in too. The scene flashed to his daddy, in human form, and with another man. A silver-haired adult that was strikingly similar to the ghost his daddy was fighting with.
"Dad…"
"Yes, Little Badger?"
"What if… I'm gone?"
The other man didn't speak for a while. He shifted on the bed and wrapped his arms tightly around Danny, fiddling with the raven locks. "I won't let that happen. Ever," he promised.
Damien stared at the cloaked man, confused as to why he was seeing this. Was this supposed to help him? How?
Danny snuggled against the older man's chest and smiled. "I love you, dad."
The screen faded into static and everything went black until another moment appeared.
Shattered glass decorated the floor and dents were displayed all over the wall. An enraged Danny was trying to blast the ghost Damien saw he fought with. "Daniel, please-"
"You sick twisted lunatic!"
Damien stepped back and closer to the cloaked man. He doesn't think he should be hearing these words. He shouldn't think he should be seeing his daddy like this.
"You brainwashed me! Freaking brainwashed me!"
The ghost conceived a shield and black rings surrounded him until he was transformed into the silver-haired man Danny had called, "dad."
"Danny, please! This isn't what was supposed to happen!"
"Then what was supposed to happen?!"
Danny wanted answers. He demanded the man would give him the answers he was looking for. When nothing came from his mouth, more violence occurred. Yelling, screaming, blasts, and bleeding. Damien did not want to watch this.
"You couldn't explain anything! Nothing could make up for what you did, Vlad! Nothing! If you could have approached me normally, as any normal person or family friend would, you could have been part of our family! You could have been a part of my life! But instead, you wasted 20 years wallowing in self-pity and hatred that you couldn't even predict what you could have missed! For someone who was trying to teach me about long-term plans, you exactly don't have one yourself!"
"Daniel… I'm so-"
"Save it, Vlad."
When silence finally took over, Damien peaked from his hiding spot underneath the unnamed ghost's hood. "Is… Is it over?"
"Yes."
"Then… What do you-"
"You're not going to have much time, Damien."
"W-what?"
The ghost crouched down to meet Damien's level as the boy slightly shook in fear. "Damien, I know it's hard for you to understand it now, but… This man, I need you to find him and reunite him with your daddy. It will make them so happy to find each other again. But if you can't find him, you… You're going to disappear."
"Damien! Damien! Hold on! We got you!"
"C'mon, Lil' D, just hang in there! You're fine! You're going to be fine!"
Damien forced a smile on his face, no matter how much it hurts. His parents deserved to see him smile one last time.
Where was he? He's supposed to be here. Maybe he just needs to be patient.
"Don't worry, Momma, Daddy… I'm going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine..."