A pile of twisted metal appeared out of thin air to clatter onto the kitchen table, startling Maddie into dropping her monthly copy of Spectral Science. Phantom shimmered into view, scowling as the huntress gingerly removed a half-melted screw from the still-smoking wreckage of a Fenton Thermos.
"How in the world did you manage this?" she murmured, holding up the blob of metal that had once worked to hold together the ruined contraption. A contraption that, under several tests varying between extreme pressure and high-level ectoplasmic assault, had come out the other side with barely even a scuff mark.
The teen pulled off singed gloves, examining palms that glowed red with burns. "Sabotage," he grunted as his hands were enveloped in ice crystals that immediately began to melt from the residual heat. "Damned Plasmius and his stupid meddling."
"Phantom," Maddie started in a warning tone. Those burns looked rather nasty, and they travelled up his wrists and beneath the sleeves of a burned uniform. She didn't like seeing the boy injured in any way, but when something like this could have been prevented, it made her feel sick to the stomach.
Whoever this kid was, he paid a ridiculously high price for his heroics.
"I wasn't fighting him!" the boy insisted, throwing up his dripping hands. "The guy thinks I'm up to something since I don't attack him whenever he comes into town now, so he's been spying on me and since that hasn't given him any clues he's resorted to ruining all of my other fights in any way he can!"
Replacing the screw, Maddie got to her feet and fetched a cloth, dampening it under the faucet. Phantom squirmed as she turned towards him, but allowed the woman to gently clean away the soot and ectoplasm that streaked his burned face.
Domestic exchanges between Phantom and the Fenton family had become so normal now that Jazmine didn't even raise an eyebrow as she entered the kitchen. The ghost kid in question simply nodded to the older girl, wriggling away from the cloth and passing a hand that glowed blue across his face. The burns there were coated with tiny crystals of ice as well, and Maddie fought back the urge to laugh as they clung to his singed eyebrows.
Danny strolled into the room, whining. "Jaaazz, I really need a lift to the arcade, Tucker'll be waiting for me."
As Jazz scowled at her brother and told him he could get there on his own because she had important homework to do, Maddie glanced at her spectral companion. Phantom stared at Danny as though the kid was all that existed, almost as if the human would disappear if the halfa's attention was diverted.
It wasn't proof of duplication, but it was a detail that could lead to proof. Proof that Maddie was determined to get as soon as possible.
Danny stomped out of the room without so much as acknowledging its other occupants, the front door slamming behind him. Phantom visibly relaxed, the tension bleeding out of his shoulders.
Maddie opened her mouth but the doorbell stopped any words from taking form. Glaring at Phantom as though daring him to run off, she jerked her head in the direction of the front door. "Jazz, could you be a sweetie and get that for me, please?"
Slamming her glass of water onto the table, the young woman marched out of the kitchen, muttering darkly about impending exams and how she didn't have time to deal with the family's dramas.
"Seems like everyone's having a stressful afternoon," Phantom observed before blowing on his burned hands. His breath was sparkling, re-coating the damaged skin with a much thicker layer of ice.
"You stay put," Maddie ordered. "I don't want you running off when you still have injuries for me to tend to."
"Whatever," the teen mumbled, sinking into a chair. "But I have the right to turn invisible."
"I don't see why you should have to, when everybody in town knows about our truce," Maddie argued as the kitchen door swung open.
The first thing Maddie registered was a scream of "Ghost!" followed by the whine of an ectopistol.
Phantom cried out as the blast clipped his ear, shearing off a lock of white hair. As the strands floated to the floor, they turned from white to deepest black.
"Maddie, get back!" Vlad cried, adjusting his aim. "I'll get this spook for you!"
"No!" Maddie shouted, tugging on the billionaire's arm. The blast hit the window behind Phantom, sending glass across the floor and bench in a tinkling cascade. "He's not a threat! We have a truce! Phantom saved me at the bank, remember?"
The ghost boy cowered in his chair, hands clapped over the bleeding ear. The sight sent Maddie's mind into a confused sense of failure. Was it because she had failed to protect a ghostly ally from harm in what was supposed to be a safe zone, or because she suspected that she had just failed to keep her son safe in their own home?
"This boy is a menace!" Vlad shouted, continuing to brandish the weapon. "If you can't see that, then I have no choice but to eliminate him!"
Her vision blurring in fury, Maddie grasped the man by the shoulders, slamming him against the wall. "Vladimir Masters, either get a grip of yourself or leave my home. I owe Phantom my life, and you will not harm him in this house, is that clear?!"
Vlad swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing with the movement. "Very well," he drawled as Maddie released him from her grasp. "I suppose that I can make an exception, and not blast this filth into oblivion."
Phantom glared at his assailant.
Vlad glared back.
Maddie felt sick to her stomach. If her suspicions were right, then the animosity between the two was entirely expected. But why on Earth would Vlad know Danny's ghostly identity?
A plan presented itself to her, reckless and full of holes. But if it worked, then Maddie's questions might finally be answered.
The only problem was that it required the woman to leave her two guests alone.
Fisting her fingers at her sides to hide their sudden trembling, Maddie edged towards the door. "I have to go get the first aid kit. Vlad, Phantom, please be civil. I'll only be a moment, I think Jack left it down in the lab…"
The halfa boy sent her a pleading look that almost made the woman cave. "I'll come with you," he insisted.
"No, Jack's been working down there all day, and I don't think you want to get caught if you surprise him. Remember how he shot you the last time you startled him? He still needs to get used to you being around! I'll be quick!"
Phantom scowled, and Maddie knew that he didn't buy her lie for a second. Still, the kid gave an almost imperceptible nod. For whatever reason, he trusted her.
Vlad Masters simply leaned against the wall, fiddling with the ectogun in his hands.
Slipping out the door, Maddie allowed it to fall almost shut behind her. The gap was just a sliver, with the woman pressing herself against the wall beside it and peering through.
The billionaire dropped the gun onto the table and stepped towards the boy. Phantom stood his ground, meeting Vlad's gaze unflinchingly.
Maddie's hands flew to her mouth as the adult backhanded the teen across the face and shoved him against the edge of the table. "How dare you!" the man growled.
Phantom swallowed, tongue darting out to lick at a split, bleeding lip.
He remained silent.
"What have you told her?"
"Nothing," the boy responded evenly, as though he was not currently being restrained by a man that had just struck him in the face. "She does not know who you are, and she doesn't know who I am, unless she's figured it out on her own."
Vlad took a deep breath though his nose, releasing the teen. "Your mother insists that I am dangerous."
"I warned her about Plasmius," Phantom told him, jerking his head to the side so that his spine clicked back into place. "She already doesn't like Masters, so I didn't feel the need to warn her about that half of you."
Maddie clutched at the wall for support. Now that Phantom pointed it out, it was so obvious, and she felt as though she had subconsciously known the truth for a long time.
Was this what it meant to be a halfa?
This indescribable feeling of hopelessness as the centuries loomed ahead, with nothing to offer release. This constant bickering between rivals, fitting perfectly against a backdrop of the pain of knowing that she had doomed her own son to that kind of life.
Just as he had doomed her.
"Besides," the ghost child continued, "my secret in my own to tell. You don't control that."
"So you plan to reveal yourself?" Vlad murmured, circling the teen like a predator stalking its prey.
Phantom lifted his chin confidently. "My parents deserve to know the truth about me," he announced. "Your secret is yours to tell, just as mine belongs to me, so stay out of my way for once."
It was the admission that Maddie had both longed for and feared.
Her son had saved her life and condemned her to share his eternity by cutting out his own heart. He was standing only a few feet away from her, back straight and head held high in defiance of the villain before him.
Maddie couldn't be more proud and devastated.
"I will have her as my immortal mate," Vlad announced with a purr of delight, "and I have you to thank for doing half of my job for me. Once I've killed your idiotic father, I'll be able to win over your mother without having to deal with the delicate process of turning her half ghost."
This time it was Danny's turn to hit him across the face, hand glowing with a controlled blast of green.
Vlad staggered, hands flying to a nose that streamed with red blood and garish pink ectoplasm. "Why, you little-"
"Looks like Jack left the kit up here after all!" Maddie announced loudly, shoving the door open before they could get into a full-fledged fight. Meeting Vlad's eyes, she allowed her expression to morph into one that conveyed as much fury as possible.
Vlad dropped his charged fist, stepping away from the boy and allowing the energy to flicker into oblivion. "Maddie, I-"
"Out."
Vlad went still, eyes widening. "Maddie-"
"Get out of my house before I shoot you," the woman spat, struggling to hide her guilt behind a mask of anger.
It looked like Danny wasn't the only halfa that she had created. The very thought sent waves of self-loathing through Maddie's mind. It disrupted her thoughts and left behind nothing but the need for Vlad to be gone, gone so that she no longer had to deal with both of them at once, because if there was one thing that Maddie couldn't face at the moment, it was both of her failures in one room.
"It's not what you think, I swear. You see-"
"I told you to leave," the huntress snapped, brushing brusquely past the billionaire and fetching the first aid kit from its place in the pantry.
Danny – for now the boy was undoubtedly Maddie's son – re-claimed his chair. He glared at the intruder with eyes that burned emerald.
Vlad moved towards the door, but could not resist one final jab at the pair. "Well, I'm sure you two need your time to sort some things out, anyway. I'm not the only one with a secret, after all." Waving his hand in farewell, the halfa strolled out of the room.
Clenching her hands around the edges of the first aid box, Maddie seated herself in front of her son.
Danny glanced at her with green eyes that glowed beneath white bangs.
Danny, who had been Phantom all this time. Who protected them all, asking for nothing in return. The child that had been turned half ghost by his parents' own invention.
It made her heart ache with guilt.
With trembling fingers, Maddie unlatched the lid and lifted a packet of gauze from the box. Without speaking, the huntress soaked a piece of the fabric with antiseptic before reaching towards her son.
Danny flinched away from her touch, covering his injured ear. "I'm fine," he insisted.
"No, you're not," Maddie responded as levelly as she could, reaching towards the boy again.
Green eyes followed her trembling fingers. "No, I really should be going. I've bothered you enough today."
"Leave Vlad be," she advised, pressing the gauze against his bloody ear.
The ghost child shuddered, swatting his mother's hand away. "I'm alright."
"No, you're-"
A shudder and a puff of icy breath came from both halfas at the same moment, and the boy got to his feet. "I'll see you tomorrow," he promised.
"Please, just let Jack deal with-"
"Thanks for the help, and sorry for the violence." Flapping his burned hands through the air, the boy headed towards the door.
Twisting the soaked gauze in her fingers, Maddie's mouth moved before her mind could tell it to shut up. "Daniel James Fenton, if you go out that door you are grounded, ghost powers or no!"
The boy froze, one hand clasped around the door handle. For several seconds neither of them moved, and the woman feared that he was going to make a run for it. Then his shoulders sagged as the rings of blinding light snapped into place around a slim waist.
Maddie moved across the room, pulling the boy into her arms and stroking his soft black hair. "Oh, Danny," she murmured, "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."
He was shaking, hands moving to clasp at his mother's shirt. Maddie was painfully aware of his hitched breathing, his thin body, the burns that covered his face and arms.
Danny swallowed, pressing his face into her shoulder with a muffled sob. "Mum," he whispered, releasing her clothing and returning the embrace.
Maddie held onto her son as he trembled and carded her fingers through his hair, silently praying that from now on, things would start to be okay again.