He waited until well after midnight. He knew Maddie and that dullard, Jack, would be deep in REM sleep by then. Shivering as he floated out of his body, he stretched and yawned like a vampire rising out of a crypt.

It felt good to expand his ectoplasm again, free from that meatsack. Sometimes he wondered why he still bothered to lug the thing around. But as he looked at himself tucked into bed, his long silver hair neatly arranged on the pillow he assured himself that it was a handsome package. Maddie would prefer it to the blue skin and fangs of his true form.

Yet Vlad was no longer used to containing himself within his human half for long. Least of all in his own home, where he'd normally float about freely.

It was best to get used to restraint now, he reasoned, when he married Maddie it would be best for her not to see.

It would have been better, he thought sourly, if she hadn't left him to waste away for so many years. Waiting for her to leave that damn fool, waiting for her to reach out. When she didn't he felt as if he might as well be dead. He had allowed his muscles to atrophy, he would forget to feed the damn body, he'd leave it in bed, he-

But no use dwelling on that now. He'd bounced back. Regained his strength. The body was perfect now. Well muscled but refined. His clothes were perfect, his hair shone. Vlad didn't need to examine the body again to know that.

The time he spent waiting, regretting, yearning for her… Well, it would not matter once Jack was dead.

Not tonight, of course, he knew that would arouse suspicion. Oh he had a grand plan, he would re-integrate himself into their lives. They'd be best friends again, the three of them. He'd move to Amity Park, soon enough, he'd join the business. Funding, they needed funding now that the ghosts were flooding the city. They needed new tech, maybe a team of interns, researchers, Vlad had connections to universities and government officials.

Maddie would be overjoyed and then, the tragedy. A grieving widow.

But not tonight he reminded himself as he flew around the mansion. Like a new father pacing in a hospital room, he flitted from one room to another, anxious and impatient. As soon as he'd seen the buffoon it had been all he could do to stop himself from leaking out of his skin, he'd wanted to leap out and into the other man's hulking body.

He'd wanted to clamp down on his neck, squeeze the life out, Take a bite out of his flesh. If he could Vlad wanted to-

What was that?

Vlad froze, his ghost halting halfway through the floor. The floor of the ballroom, that is, while his head poked out of the ceiling in the kitchen. It wasn't that he'd heard a noise, there was no disturbance in the mansion. All the humans in the building were accounted for. He could feel the heat of them in each guest bedroom, their bodies peacefully slumbering.

His own body, too, lay as if asleep. Though he knew the state he left it in each time was akin to a coma. Should a doctor examine him while he was away, he knew his human half would be hospitalized. He had, in fact, been hospitalized several times.

But what was that? He felt it in the air. A disturbance, a vibration, a ghost? It wasn't the dairy king. That old man was a guppy, his existence a pebble dropped into a pond. This fellow on the other hand… Felt like a boulder.

Then a blast of ectoplasm shot at his head and he crashed back the way he came, through the ceiling, and the presence was a volcanic eruption.

The first attack caught him by surprise, but Vlad was prepared for the next one. His shields were up and he sent a clone after the intruder. The ghost put up a fight, he was a powerful little thing, but even a volcano is powerless against the sun.

Vlad sent a second clone after the pair, though the ghost had already been subdued. He felt it was safer that way. When he approached, both clones had the boy pinned between them. All four of his limbs had been restrained. Ah, had he kicked them?

A young ghost, then. Not only young in death, but he had lived a short life. That much was obvious. The young buck bared his teeth at Vlad, green eyes flashing, and even now struggled against his clones.

"Why do you attack me, boy?" It really was a curious thing. Most ghosts could sense the powerful aura surrounding his mansion and were smart enough to fly around. Only the dairy king was allowed to make a home here, as he'd been haunting the place years before Vlad had been born.

"Cause you give me the heebie jeebies?" the boy said with a grimace. "What are you, a vampire? What do you want with the family here? Are you going to eat them?"

Vlad blinked. "You mean the Fentons?"

"No the illegal immigrants hiding in the basement," the white haired ghost deadpanned.

"What?" Vlad recognized teenage sarcasm when he heard it. But that didn't make it any less disorienting to hear it, especially in this context.

"Yes the Fentons!" the ghost glared up at him from under his bangs, then he blew at them, trying to get them out of his face. "Look if you aren't going to hurt them can you let me go? I realize now I may have jumped the gun just a tiny bit."

"Is that so?" Vlad bared his fangs.

The boy gulped. "Y-you seem like a reasonable man," he said. "We can totally talk this out like adults. We both have humans we care about right? You're haunting the creepy millionaire, I'm haunting the family, no one needs to interfere with anyone's, uh, haunt here."

"You think I'm haunting Vlad Masters?" Vlad said.

"Or I guess you might just be haunting the mansion?" the boy shrugged. Or tried to, but the clones had a firm grasp on his arms. "Did you die here or something?"

Vlad stared at him in silence for a moment, processing that scenario. Then he began laughing. Slowly at first, small chuckles, and then more loudly.

If he were in his body he'd feel the laughter in his temples, he'd feel the strain on his facial muscles. If he were in his body he might have bent over, he might have gulped for air.

But he was not in his body. He was free to laugh, louder and louder, the sound echoing around them as both of his clones picked up on the mirth as it leaked out of him. Together the three of them laughed, they laughed harder than he had ever had reason to laugh before.

The boy was disturbed. He blasted one of the clones in the chin, the firepower enough to dissolve it. Vlad took hold of his arm in an instant and the boy remained pin between them, cowed as Vlad leaned into his face with a manic grin, close enough to kiss the boy atop his head if he so desired.

Slowly, the laughter died and Vlad put his arm around the boy's shoulder. He dismissed the remaining clone and steered the boy amicably through the mansion, towards the bedroom where his body lay.

"My boy!" Vlad said, in good spirits for a reason he could not begin to explain to himself. "Vlad Masters is no mere human. I do not flit about him invisibly, nor do I torment him as a poltergeist might."

"I don't understand," the ghost said. "I don't… What do you mean?"

"I'll show you," Vlad said. "I'll show you why I am special. Why I am powerful."

The boy stiffened when he saw the body. It looked like any other human, peacefully sleeping. He might have worried that they would wake him. To demonstrate just how soundly this body slept Vlad made a show of lifting every object in the room.

The bed, the desk, the chair and closet doors. The shelves and every book in them, pens and papers, bookends and paper weights, everything save the floor and walls was allowed to float around the room. Vlad's body lay undisturbed as the blanket over him flew away, as the bedpost rattled and a book of stamps lightly landed on his head.

Vlad didn't want to give himself a concussion, but he was tempted to wack himself with a lamp, just to prove his point.

"I thought you said you weren't a poltergeist," the ghost said.

Vlad sighed. "A normal human would be awake by now, don't you think?"

The boy crossed his arms over his chest. As he did so Vlad realized for the first time that he was wearing a black and white full bodysuit. Was it hazmat? Like the ridiculous get up Maddie and Jack wore at all times.

Strange.

The boy put his hands on his hips. "Look could you please stop. Maybe?"

Vlad frowned at the gall of this lad to order him around like this. On his own property. In his own bedroom. But there was something charming about the ghost. Vlad did not scold him. In fact he was inclined to do as the child requested, he wanted to seem friendly now. Though he could not fathom why. Something in the boys features was endearing. His cheekbones? The shape of his jaw? Vlad could not pinpoint exactly what it was about this boy that was so... familiar.

Until it hit him. The boy looked like Maddie. Like her son, who he had met this afternoon. That boy had hair like his father's, eyes like his father's so it had been hard to look at him without seeing Jack but this boy. His hair was fair, his eyes green.

And so his mother shone through, blindingly bright. Dazzling him.

Abruptly everything in the room plummeted to the ground. The bed landed on the ground first, it was the heaviest object in the room, and crashed with a sharp bang. Everything else rained down with little thumps and the tinkling of shattering glass. Light bulbs breaking, perhaps. Or a paperweight. But Vlad didn't care. He was staring at the boy, dumbfounded.

The smaller ghost was startled by the sudden change, he bolted for the ceiling. Vlad grabbed him by the wisp of his tail and yanked him back towards him.

"Oh no you don't!" Vlad said. "It took me a moment, but I recognize you now."

"R-recognize me?" Her son was panicking. "I don't… What?"

Vlad chuckled. "I should have realized it sooner. Wasn't there an accident? Months ago?" It was inevitable that things would turn out this way. Jack and Maddie were mad scientists at their core. Even their own children were not safe. "I heard there was an explosion."

The boy played dumb. "What?" He wriggled around in Vlad's arms and tried an ecto-blast. Vlad allowed the charge to hit him in the shoulder, he winced and tightened his grip on the boy. But he would not hurt the lad. This was a firm hug, at worst.

"The portal Daniel, were you there?" Vlad felt himself giggle. This was perfect, he realized, he couldn't have asked for a more perfect outcome. "When they activated the portal, were you in the room?"

He had seemed so confused when Vlad had alluded to his nature, but there was really no need to explain it after all. They were the same! Perhaps young Daniel simply thought he was alone in this.

Vlad could not blame him for that assumption. He'd thought the same.

It took him a moment to process Vlad's words, but when he did he stopped struggling. Vlad let him go. They drifted apart, facing each other.

If it were possible for the blood to drain from a ghost's face, young Daniel would be paling right now. As it was he looked shocked. Horrified.

But why?

"Don't worry," Vlad said. "It happened to me too."

"It did?"

"I'll show you," Vlad said. "Look!"

The room was in shambles now, but it didn't matter. His body continued to sleep peacefully on the bed, though the frame had cracked and splintered under him. The blankets were gone, somewhere in a pile on the other side of the room, and he lay with his hair a tangled mess over his face. It didn't matter, it didn't matter.

Though now Vlad wished he'd presented a better image to his young charge. He felt a bit embarrassed. It didn't matter.

The boy watched as Vlad approached his human half. He sat down on top of him, his legs neatly fitting inside his flesh, he lay back and lowered himself into his own torso.

They were a perfect fit, of course.

It was a little disorienting this time, to blink his eyes open and find his hair in his face. His left arm was numb. It had been pinned under his body when he'd moved the bed. He massaged it a bit, trying to get rid of the tingling, and looked up at Daniel for his reaction.

"I don't understand," the boy said. "You possessed him?"

Vlad blinked, "What? No I-"

There was a sharp knock on his bedroom door. "Mister Masters! Are you okay?!"

Vlad and the ghost boy blinked at each other.

"Mister Masters! It's Danny, I thought I heard something break in here?!"

The ghost flew towards Vlad and urgently whispered, "Don't tell him I'm here!"

Then he vanished as the door was kicked open and young Daniel Fenton, human and black haired, ran into the room. "What happened?! Was there a ghost?"

Before Vlad could respond the boy shouted, "I'll get my parents!"

Then he ran back down the hallway.