N/A: K, so I've heard that this was a good cure for writers block. And I definitely need a cure, cause COE is going nowhere fast. Don't worry! I'm still working on it! Just really slowly.
Oh btw, this fic is based off of Nimrod the Author's fanfic Role reversal found here:
.net/s/7622445/1/Role_Reversal
Be sure to read it. It's really good!
Anyway, onward!
101 Oneshot Challenge
Double Standards
Ever since I had gotten these powers, I have dreaded this scenario. It lurked in my mind like a wild animal, ready to emerge in my weakest moments to render me helpless with my fear. Jazz tells me that I shouldn't fear my own parents, but how can such a fear not exist? My parents are ghost hunters for heavens sake! They wouldn't bat an eye at cutting open Phantom. Danny Fenton however…well that's another question altogether isn't it?
My friends always told me not to worry; that they would never catch me. I mean, just look at my dads aim! He could never take me down! But even so, the uncertainty didn't leave me. And rightly so. It's been festering since I stepped out of that portal two years ago.
I pushed it away, convincing myself that if all else failed, I could reveal my secret before the worst occurred. The fear was never gone, but I convinced myself I could handle it.
I was wrong.
Eventually my worst fear did come to past. But I was not the victim.
Vlad was.
And unlike me, he didn't have his secret to fall back on. Revealing my secret in his situation might save me. Vlad revealing his own in such a state would only make his life worse. Whether they let him go or not.
He can't afford to let his secret get out under any circumstances. It would ruin him in more ways than one. Unless he somehow gets control of the entire world, he will take his secret to the grave.
I hadn't even meant to go down into the lab that night. In fact, I had just stopped by home after a ghost fight with Skulker so that I could grab an aspirin before going to the movies with Tucker.
I had tried to phase into my room first, only to find that my parents had put up the ghost shield to envelop the walls. So, grumbling angrily and holding the growing bruise on my head, I changed human in the ally and stumbled through the front door of Fentonworks, the hinges creaking ominously from having been busted in so many times.
I hadn't been too concerned by the shield; after all, my parents are ghost hunters. Its only natural that they put up the ghost shield. But I was a bit curious as to why they had bothered on such a normal Saturday night.
Maybe they were just concerned about leaving the house unprotected while they go to a ghost convention. I thought with a yawn, my steps automatically leading me to the kitchen. It was dark, and most of the lights were flicked off, so I turned them on as I walked through the living room. I was careful to watch what I was pressing so that I wouldn't accidentally do something that would cause goo to shoot out of one of the many inventions hidden in the walls. Trust me, It was a valid concern.
Eventually I made it to the kitchen without setting off anything. I hastily opened the high medicine cabinet, withdrawing a familiar bottle and trying to ignore my pounding headache. I had just been about to pour myself some water from the tap when I heard it. A sound unmistakable to me, as I hear it nearly every day.
A scream.
My first instinct when hearing such a sound was usually to spring into battle mode, but I knew better than to do so here. Even with my parents gone, it was still dangerous to try anything ghostly in our house.
Guessing it might be an escaped ghost from the portal, I set down the empty glass I had been holding and turned toward the basement door. I'm not sure what, but something seemed to demand that I be discreet. I crept forward, sliding open the door quietly and stepping down onto the first stair, closing the door behind me.
As I made my way down the stairs, I noticed sounds and light coming from the basement floor. A groan, liquid splattering, and voices. Slightly alarmed, I jogged down the remaining steps more quickly. Who would be in the lab? A ghost with a suicide wish? Surely whatever it was knew that this house was mine and wouldn't dare challenge me!
The sight that awaited me in the basement will haunt me forever.
My parents had returned from the convention early, which I now realized had been merely a distraction, plotted and planned by Plasmius so that he could get into our lab untouched. I never figured out how they had caught him, but I guessed that the running ghost shield had something to do with it.
Many shattered vials and scorch marks on the floor and walls gave further evidence to a struggle. Obviously Vlad hadn't come out on top due to the fact that he was now lying in ghost form, strapped to the examination table, his chest torn open and ectoplasm pooling in a dangerously large circle around his middle.
I froze in horror, my eyes moving from my archenemy to my parents that were standing over him, their backs to me. Their hands poked and prodded at the hybrids open chest cavity, talking openly and excitedly to one another.
"Lets get a sample of this Mads!" I heard my dad say. Mom nodded before firing up the bone saw on the stand at her right, which roared loudly as she lowered it to his unmoving form. I saw Vlad look up at her weakly, his gaze so weak and full of pain I don't think he even recognized her.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" I screamed, finally snapping out of my shocked state and running as fast as my legs could carry me. Mom and dad froze, looking at me over their shoulders in complete surprise. I shoved my dad out of the way, wrenching the bone saw from my mothers' hands and smashing it against the floor. I didn't look at them, too concerned about a certain half ghost to care about their reactions.
I beheld his condition with a knot of deep dread in the pit of my stomach. They had sliced through his pectorals and down his chest almost to his naval, the blue skin and muscles pulled back to reveal his chest cavity. As I was watching, a shaky breath wracked his open diaphragm. Some of the ribs had been split, and I could see his ghostly core, struggling to pump out glowing pink ectoplasm that just pooled at his sides. He took another shaking breath, his eyes closed as if asleep. I would think he were dead if it weren't for his tortured expression and shallow breaths. I heard dad say something in surprise, but I wasn't listening. I took Vlad's face in my hands, trying to force him awake by pulling my own close.
"Plasmius? Vlad? Vlad! Wake up Vlad!" I begged him fearfully, panic swirling in my mind. His eyes flickered for a moment before strong hands grabbed my shoulders and wrenched me away from his form. "No!" I screamed, trying to twist out of my fathers grip.
"Danny-boy! Stop!" Dad begged, trying to pull me away from the elder halfa. I panicked, fighting against his grip with everything I had and more.
"No! Let go of me! What-what are you-How-" My mother joined the fray, trying with my dad to pull me away from the man who needed my help. As they started to drag me to the basement door, I lost it. I phased myself from their hands, running back towards Plasmius. I stood my back to him protectively, my hands fisted at my sides.
"Fix him right now!" I demanded, taking a defiant stance, my legs apart as if I were going to use my ghostly wail. My parents exchanged a confused and worried glance, mom stepping toward me slowly.
"Danny, sweetie, calm down. He's just a ghost, there's nothing-" she tried to soothe me. I tensed, squaring my shoulders as my anger grew with her words. Betrayal colored my voice as I screamed back.
"Don't you tell me to calm down!" I roared, the room literally trembling from the power of my betrayed wail. "You're supposed to be scientists, not psycho murderers! Don't touch me! Fix him right now!" I growled, pulling myself from mom's outstretched hand. Her expression was pleading, but for once, it didn't faze me in the slightest.
"Danny-" she started, but I silenced her with a glare.
"NOW!" I roared. Not letting them refuse, I raced back to my enemies side, holding his large gloved hand in mine. I looked at my parents stubbornly, commanding that they hurry. They seemed almost afraid, but of my behavior or me I didn't know or care. Wordlessly, dad made his way obediently to the opposite side of the table. He looked at mom with an oddly begging look in his eyes, and she followed him.
Neither of them said a word as they started to put him back together, folding the sliced flesh back into place over his ruined chest. Vlad groaned, his eyes still closed in his semiconscious state. I squeezed his hand, trying to talk him through the pain.
"You're going to be fine Vlad! Just hold on!" I pleaded, trying to convince myself as much as him. "Just hang on Vlad, please don't die! You can't leave me alone!"
I could feel my parent's gazes drilling holes into my back, but they didn't say a word. I ignored them, focusing solely on the dying person before me. At that moment I didn't care about our past, I only wanted him to be ok. He had to be ok! He couldn't leave me lone as the only halfa in existence!
"Vlad, don't die, please don't die, they're putting you back together now, it'll be fine just hold on okay? They're almost done, I swear, Damn it I can't believe this-" I ranted, trying to keep him and myself distracted. As I watched he squinted his eyes halfway, looking straight at me.
"Daniel..." he rasped out, his voice hoarse from screaming. I fell silent immediately, listening and praying that these wouldn't be his last words.
"Please..." he muttered between pants. "Shut...up."
At first the words took me by surprise. But sure enough, a strained smile appeared on my face.
"You're such a fruitloop." I whispered. A tight smile started on his own face and he tried to chuckle, only to end in a fit of coughing. Once he lay still, his eyes closed. At once I panicked, squeezing his hand tighter.
"No Vlad! Open your eyes! Stay with me!" I cried. And after another moment, he obeyed, opening his tired, ruby eyes a crack. "Just keep looking at me." I told him, my voice shaky. He blinked once slowly to acknowledge he heard me.
We had a silent exchange after that. I said nothing, continuing to hold his hand tightly as my parents slowly put him back together. As they stitched his skin, I could see glowing ectoplasm start to do its work, beginning to heal some of the broken muscles and bones even as I watched. But as fast as it was working, it still worried me. It takes me a good ten minutes to recover from those muscular injuries. But at this rate, It would take Vlad days to fully recover. Weeks including his broken ribs. It was a true testament of how weak he was.
As the final work to heal him was done by my parents, I saw the familiar calculative gleam returning to my rivals' eyes. He was weighing options: I could practically see the gears turning. No doubt he was wondering the same thing I was. How are we going to get him out of here? We can't let him stay here for much longer, or my parents will find some way to get me out of the picture and continue their experiment on him.
"Is he gonna heal okay?" I asked my parents coldly once they had fully stitched him, barely looking at them and avoiding their gazes. They exchanged a confused glance.
"Danny…it's just a ghost sweetie. He can't di-" Mom started. Oh hell no, she was not going to try and tell me that he's just a ghost and that cant die!
"Is he going to heal correctly or not?" I demanded, openly glaring to the point that my eyes were barely a shade from full out green. Dad's eyebrows raised at my tone, and he exchanged yet another glance with mom. This one was different. It had the same guarded, parental look that they gave me when I came home after curfew. They were going to take charge.
"He'll heal fine Danny-boy." Said dad gently, taking a step toward me. I flinched back into Vlad, holding his hand tighter.
My mixed emotions swirled within me, foremost being betrayal and anger. The very idea that my parents- My Parents – would do such a horrible thing to another being as they had done was incomprehensible. If they would and can do this to Vlad, what would they do to me? And would they even care if I told them that I was their own son?
I didn't know what to think. All I knew was that I had to get Vlad out of here. I could deal with my parents later. Right now, the man I called my arch-enemy is in danger. And despite my abilities as half ghost, I knew that I had to get him out of here as human. Mom and Dad would never let him go. His only chance is…well, me.
I looked down at the man behind me, his gaze meeting mine. In that simple glance, we both understood what I was about to do. Wordlessly, I pulled my hand from his and turned to my parents.
"Mom…Dad…" I started; hoping to tell them exactly how betrayed I felt. But once I started, I couldn't seem to get the right words out. I shook my head sadly, and in one fluid movement, I pressed the hidden button just behind me that freed the restraints.
Vlad was gone so fast I didn't see him leave the table. Knowing exactly where he was headed, I ran to the portal, ignoring mom and dads shouts behind me. Vlad was hovering, clutching his side and grimacing in pain before the locked doors. I didn't hesitate, throwing myself forward and pressing my thumb to the scanner.
In that moment our gazes met. Ghostly red and human blue. I'm not entirely sure what it was we exchanged. So many emotions confusedly intertwined in a single glance. There was one thing that I knew though.
This changed everything.
N/A: I regret nothing.