Author's notes: Thanks to everyone for all the favorites/follows and reviews! I'm glad you seem to be enjoying it and that you find the idea plausible. I wanted to get the next chapter out quickly, as I didn't finish all the events of Bitter Reunions in the first chapter, but I got a bit busy with work and didn't have a lot of time to write. Also I got a bit stuck in the middle. Anyway, sorry about that and I will try to do better for you guys in the future!
Also, thank you for promoting my story, Hollyflash! I guess you got your happy revenge, hmm? I'd imagine we're both equally embarrassed now. ^/^
But yes, anyway, without further ado, I give you chapter two! (Okay I didn't mean for that to rhyme. Yes, really.)
Danny straightened his light blue tie in the mirror, but something about it looked… off. Did I tie it wrong…? He pulled the knot apart for the fifth time, cursing under his breath. There was a knock at the door.
"Come in!" Danny yelled, still fumbling with the tie. Vlad opened the door, stepping in to the strange scene of Danny, tongue stuck out in concentration, badly attempting to tie his tie in front of the mirror. Vlad shook his head, a small smile on his face, and walked over to where Danny was standing next to the bed.
"Well, I came up here to request your help with something, but it seems you have more pressing matters to attend to." Vlad snickered. Danny turned and stared at him dryly.
"Just help me!" He said, an annoyed pout forming on his face. Vlad laughed again, waving Danny's hands away from the offending piece of cloth and kneeling down to get a better view of it.
"It's not difficult, Daniel." He said, examining the half-formed knot. "You're just looping it around too many times, resulting in it becoming twisted. You need only loop it three times, until the pocket forms on the front." He deftly tied the knot properly, showing Danny the pocket he was talking about. "There, that's a proper knot." Vlad said, sliding the tie into place around Danny's neck. He didn't miss the almost imperceptible flinch as his hand came close to the boy's throat.
"Uh… thanks, Vlad." Danny said, fidgeting awkwardly.
"No problem, little badger." He stood up, frowning slightly. "But please, Daniel. You do know that I won't hurt you, right?" Danny looked surprised, almost a little guilty, before he nodded slowly.
"Yeah, it's just that… I'm not used to anybody but my friends knowing my secret. It's… a little weird."
"I can understand that. I'm not so used to it myself." There was a moment of completely awkward silence before the boy spoke up again.
"So, what did you need help with?"
"I could just use some extra hands to carry the food from the kitchen into the ballroom. I've hired some extra staff, but it seems they have not yet arrived. Would you mind helping out for a bit?"
"Sure, no problem, Vlad." Danny followed the man out of the room, hastily buttoning his double-breasted jacket.
Jack and Maddie, dressed up by their standards but looking pretty much the same as usual, walked into the ballroom to find Danny carrying a large platter of cookies. They raised their eyebrows at him when he finally noticed them arriving.
"Oh, hey Mom and Dad! I was just helping Vlad set out the food. He said he hired some help or something but they're not here yet." Danny set the platter down on the table next to a pre-sliced sheet cake, turning back again to see the puzzled look on his parents' faces. "What?"
Jack and Maddie, who had been briefly confused by Danny calling Vlad by his first name, just shook their heads.
"Nothing, sweetie. We came down to help out as well… where's Vlad?" Maddie asked.
"Oh, he went to take care of… something else real fast. He'll be back in a second." Danny knew exactly where Vlad had gone—to set up a ghost shield around the ballroom in case the vultures from last night returned—but figured it was probably not wise to tell his parents that. He had been concerned himself at first, but Vlad had assured him that the shield would allow them both through as long as they were in their human form.
"Then we'll help you with the food!" Jack said happily, not catching the hesitation in his son's response.
"I've gotten most of it, but there's a little bit still left in the kitchen." Danny waved for them to follow, and the three of them filed into the kitchen. The strange butler Christophe and the chef, whom Danny hadn't met, had the day off, so they were nowhere to be seen.
On the dark marble counter in the center of the state of the art kitchen rested a large bowl of fruit salad, a plate of finger sandwiches, a spinning display of red velvet cupcakes, and a tray of deviled eggs. Maddie quickly grabbed the cupcakes, knowing her husband, and sometimes her son as well, could be a bit clumsy. Danny subsequently picked up the fruit salad, his dad grabbing the sandwiches.
"Now, Jack, don't eat any of those yet." Maddie said, seeing her husband about to grab one. He face fell into an annoyed pout, but he let his hand drop and followed his wife and son back out to the large banquet table in the ballroom. Jazz walked into the room just as they were setting the food down, dressed in her usual attire.
"Aren't you going to dress up, honey?" Her mother asked sweetly.
"I don't really feel like it. I'm just going to hang out in the viewing room."
"Hey Jazz, could you grab the tray of eggs in there for me?" Danny asked over his shoulder, busy making sure the sandwiches his father had placed precariously on the edge of the table weren't going to fall off. Jazz nodded, though her brother couldn't see her, and turned to head into the kitchen. She emerged after a few seconds with the plate of deviled eggs, setting them down in the only available space left on the long table.
"Vlad may be a fanatic, but he sure has an impressive castle. That kitchen is amazing! I'm glad to see not all of is castle is decorated in green and gold." She said, her nose wrinkling slightly.
"Why yes, only the entrance hall is decorated by that theme. I thought blue would do nicely for the rest." Vlad said, having appeared behind her while she was talking. Jazz startled, quickly taking a few steps away from the man. Vlad smirked, turning his gaze to the other people in the room. "Thank you all for your help; it is greatly appreciated. The other guests should be arriving soon, so please make yourselves comfortable."
"Thanks, V-man!" Jack said happily, reaching for one of the sandwiches again. He was quickly stopped once more by his wife's hard look.
"Now Jack, you should wait until the other guests arrive." Maddie chastised gently. Jack groaned.
"Fine, I'll just sit over here." Jack said, going to sit unhappily in one of the chairs on the far wall as Vlad smirked once more.
"Is there anything else I can help with, Vlad?" Danny asked from his place near the table.
"Danny, you should relax a little bit! You've already done a lot." Maddie responded.
"Yes, your mother is right, Daniel. You should take a moment to rest. Why don't we go to the lounge for a little while?" Danny nodded. "And of course, you all are welcome to join us." Vlad said, addressing the three other people in the room, knowing already what their responses would be. Maddie shook her head.
"I think I'll stay in here and keep an eye on the preparations. And my husband."
"And I think I'll just head to the viewing room now." Jazz added.
"Very well, as I said before, please make yourselves at home." Vlad said, flashing a smile. He turned and led Danny out of the room and a short distance down the hall to one of the many lounges in the castle. Pushing through the swinging door, the two of them settled down in the overly plush chairs. "As you can see, Daniel, the shield won't hurt you." Danny nodded, as though he already knew Vlad was going to mention it.
"Yeah, I noticed. How'd you make a shield that doesn't hurt us, anyway? All my parents' inventions hurt me in either form." Danny said, a slight bitterness hinted at in his tone.
"It's not too difficult to do, if you know enough about half-ghosts. You can just program the shield to ignore beings below a certain level of activated spectral energy." Danny blinked at him, obviously not quite getting it.
"What do you mean?"
"You see, Daniel, in our human state, our spectral cores are subdued. Most of the spectral energy given off by them in this state is passive, meaning it cannot be called upon to use in attacks or other powers. It is essentially dormant. When we transform into our ghost state, all of the energy given off by our spectral cores becomes active, meaning it can be called upon to use our powers. Ghost shields attack, or rather stop, beings with active spectral energy. You just have to program the shield to have a higher tolerance for beings with lower levels of active spectral energy." Danny stared at him for a moment. "Does that make sense?" Snapping out of it, Danny quickly responded.
"Ah, yeah, it does. It's just… how did you learn all that?" Vlad smirked, obviously noticing the boy's awe.
"Years of study and research, my boy." Vlad said proudly.
"So just how much did you learn anyway?"
"Tsk tsk, Daniel. You'll only know if you accept my offer."
"What, so you won't tell me anything else until then?" Vlad smiled internally at Danny speaking about the offer as though he already intended to accept it.
"How can you expect me to explain everything right now? I have much to teach, and it will all be available to you as soon as you tell me 'yes.'" Danny understood what he meant, though on the surface he looked quite annoyed.
"Fine, fine." Danny said, dismissively waving his arm. "Don't tell me. I haven't even made a decision yet."
"Good. I wouldn't want you to rush your choice. You have until tomorrow morning, so make sure to take your time and think it through." Every word he spoke had an ulterior motive, disguised cleverly as concern; though perhaps not all of it was faked.
"Yeah, I'm thinking it through. I don't want to rush my decision either." I only just met you, after all. Danny thought to himself, sighing internally at the thought of coming to an actual decision.
It had been several hours, and for at least the last forty-five minutes or so, Danny had been sitting at an empty table, chin resting on his arms, watching the frankly disturbing dancing of the reunion guests. He feels a hand on his shoulder suddenly, and he looks up to see Vlad smiling down at him.
"Are you alright, son?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little bored."
"You do realize you may leave if you don't—" Vlad doesn't get to finish the sentence, the blue mist appearing from Danny's mouth causing him to stop abruptly.
"Crap." Danny looks annoyed, of course, and Vlad is frowning to himself as well.
"What was that?" Vlad asks him.
"Oh, it's just my ghost sense. It goes off when a ghost is near. Don't you have one?" Danny raises an eyebrow at the man.
"Of course I do, it's just that mine doesn't come out of my mouth." Danny's smirking all of a sudden.
"Then where does it come out of?" Vlad smacking his hand to his forehead only makes Danny laugh harder.
"This is not the time, Daniel. I must go see what that is." Danny waves his hands as Vlad walks away.
"Hang on! I'll come with you!" Danny runs to catch up with the man.
"Just be careful, dear boy. I don't want you getting hurt."
"I fight ghosts on a daily basis. I think I can handle it." Vlad raises an incredulous eyebrow at him, but doesn't say anything, turning and walking out of the large double doors of the ballroom, closely followed by Danny.
As soon as the two of them leave the safety of the ghost shield, Danny spots them—the three lazy and incompetent vultures that were trying to waste his dad.
"Not you three again." Danny groans. He quickly darts into the lounge and transforms into Phantom. As he phases back through the door, the vultures finally notice him.
"Hey, it's the fancy-pants ghost boy!" Danny smacks his fist against his hand in anticipation.
"You got that right, bird brains! You're gonna wish you hadn't met me!" The scared looks on their faces say they already do, but before they have much time to think about it, Danny raises his hand and fires an ectoblast at the one floating closest to him, hitting it square in the chest. Before any of them have time to recover from the surprise, Danny flies at the one on his right, opting to take a more physical approach; the punch sends the surprised bird straight into its brother, who had just managed to pull itself out of the crater it had made in the wall.
Danny, who had of course been busy fighting with the vultures, didn't notice that Vlad wasn't joining him, despite the fact that he had originally insisted that Danny not get involved. The man had in fact changed into his ghost form the same way Danny had, but was instead observing invisibly, watching how Danny fought against ghosts other than himself.
His form is a bit sloppy, though seemingly efficient… for now at least. Vlad smirks to himself as one of the old birds slams into the ground in front of him. He seems to be handling my vultures well at least.
Vlad turns his attention to the ballroom once more, poking his invisible head through the large doors. At once, he spots the man he's looking for—Jack Fenton, looking extremely bored while listening to Harriet speaking about her successes.
"Am I boring you?" It's about time she noticed.
"Frankly, yes." Jack says, his deadpan face saying he doesn't particularly care that she's offended. Harriet crosses her arms angrily. As if suddenly realizing something, Jack turns towards Maddie, who's standing a few feet behind him. "I have to visit the little ghost hunter's room. I'll be back!" He hands his glass of punch to his wife—his sixth glass of the evening—and rushes out of the room.
Vlad jumps out of the way even though he's intangible, not exactly wishing to experience the feeling of being run through by Jack Fenton's overweight frame. As he turns visible again, he leaps up into the air to help Danny fight.
"Where did you go, Vlad?" Danny asks between punches, finally noticing the man's absence.
"You seemed to be handling things well, so I went to check on the shield."
"Ghosts!" Vlad's explanation is interrupted by Jack's predictable cry. Even more predictable is the large ectogun he pulls seemingly from nowhere, aiming it at the unusually large company of ghosts. The shot he fires misses the mark completely, burning a huge hole in a probably very expensive painting hanging on the wall. It's enough to get the attention of the vultures, and two of them come flying at the man.
Their talons sink into the fabric of his hazmat suit, somehow having the strength to hoist him off the ground. Cackling, the two fly off, carrying Jack to some other part of the castle to do who knows what.
"Dad!" Danny whispers the word, still aware of keeping his secret, but the alarm in his voice rings loud and clear. He turns intangible and shoots through the wall after the birds faster than Vlad can blink. Vlad's forehead wrinkles in thought, and after a moment he follows after the boy, finding himself in his large library.
Danny is busy beating the crap out of the two birds while the third watches in relative safety in the corner. Jack was busy trying to blast Danny with the ectogun, apparently oblivious to the fact that the boy had just saved him, but lucky for the boy his father's aim was so horrible, and he was able to easily dodge all the blasts.
Vlad jumps into the fray, blasting the gun out of Jack's hands, in turn firing a blast at the vulture still lazing about in the corner. The bird squawks loudly and flies into action, beak narrowly missing Vlad's face as he steps aside to avoid the attack. He quickly turns and grabs the legs of the vulture with one hand and throws it against the far wall, the large crater making his eye twitch. There's going to be a lot of repairs needed after this… but it will be worth it when my plan comes to fruition.
"Get off me!" Vlad turns his attention back to the boy with the vulture death gripping his arm, and moves in to help, quickly pushing Jack out of the way. He blasts the vulture off Danny's arm, earning a thankful smile from the boy, and grabs the other while Danny fights off the third that just came back from its impact crater.
They both get swept up in the action against their foes that they forget about the other bird—the one who had been hanging off Danny's arm. The old vulture, seeing its chance, flies from its place in the corner after the now defenseless Jack.
Danny turns too late to see it happen, his wordless shout echoing in his ears as he watches the bird fly at his father. At the very last second, Vlad jumps in front of it, forming a large pink shield around Jack and himself, and the bird bounces off of it, the sound of the ghostly bones cracking surprisingly sharp and loud. As Danny sigh in relief, he beats off the bird attacking and quickly whips out the Fenton Thermos, pressing the large button and sucking it inside. He catches the other one mid-attack, and finally Vlad throws the last one towards him, the sound of the lid snapping back into place on top of the thermos signaling the end of the battle.
Seeing that his dad was trying to pick up the ectogun again, Danny signaled for Vlad to follow him out of the library, and phased out into the hallway. When Vlad followed him out, Danny rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
"Thanks for saving my dad."
"No problem, my boy. I wouldn't want anything to happen to my dear friend." Vlad's voice shook just slightly on the word "friend," but lucky for him, Danny didn't seem to notice. "Now let's head back to the party shall we?" Vlad smiled at the boy, and the two of them floated down the hallway and phased through the lounge door, quickly switching back into their human forms. As they walked out, Danny remembered something.
"I'm going to go help my dad. Go ahead without me."
"If you insist, Daniel. Please do see that he makes it back to the party safely, hmm?" Danny nodded, walking off to find the actual entrance to the library as Vlad headed back into through the double doors into the ballroom.
As Danny walked into the library once more, he saw his dad holding his ectogun and staring blankly at the destruction of the room.
"Whoa, what happened in here?"
"Danny! You missed it! There were ghosts!" Jack came running up to Danny, gripping his arms and shaking the thin boy. Danny pulled himself from his dad's grip.
"Ghosts? But why would there be ghosts at Vlad's house?"
"I don't know, Danny, but we've gotta figure it out!" Jack paused. "Hey, isn't that the Fenton Thermos?" He asked, pointing at the unique object still clasped in the boy's hand. Danny laughed nervously.
"Yeah… I grabbed it out of the RV. I thought maybe it might come in handy."
"Good thinking, Danny!" Jack seemed completely oblivious to the obviously suspicious explanation.
"Umm, don't you think we should head back to the party? I mean… what if the ghosts attack the guests?" Danny improvised.
"You're right! We have to protect them! Come on!" Jack grabbed the boy's thin wrist and pulled him, nearly running, down the hall and back to the ballroom.
Danny was briefly confused again when he woke up in the large bed, but he quickly remembered where he was and hopped up to get ready for the long car trip. He had gone to bed late the previous night, having stayed up watching movies in the screening room with Jazz after finally convincing his dad that everyone was safe and the ghosts weren't coming back.
He tried to rub the sleep from his eyes as he got into the luxurious shower, his mind once again wandering towards the decision he had to make before he left.
There's something strange about Vlad… but I just can't put my finger on it. I don't even know him that well; how can I just accept his offer? Danny was obviously lost, the options lying before him not seeming to weigh heavily to either side. He obviously doesn't use his powers like I do, but it's not like he's actually hurting people. He's just using his powers for his own gain… Who wouldn't do that at least a little bit? Even I've used my powers for a few selfish things… And he did help me beat those vultures yesterday, and he saved my dad, so maybe he would be willing to help people too? As long as I remember what I want, what's the harm in letting him help me? I really do need that help, and it would be nice to have someone to talk to once in a while…
Danny continued to deliberate, forgetting that he had gotten in the shower because he needed to get ready to leave. Finally, after standing there for far longer than a shower should ever take, he turned off the water and dried himself off. He grabbed the clean clothes he had set aside and quickly got dressed, walking back out into the main bedroom area with the towel draped over his still wet hair.
He gathered the few things he had set out, including his dirty clothes, and stuffed them haphazardly back into his duffel bag, then quickly dried his hair and dropped the towel into the small laundry hamper.
Unceremoniously dragging the strangely heavy duffel bag, Danny walked out of the room and down the hall, headed for the entrance. He found his parents and sister standing impatiently near the door, with all their stuff piled up next to them. Vlad was chatting with Maddie.
"Sheesh Danny, what took you so long?" Jazz asks, obviously annoyed.
"Sorry, I wanted to take a shower first." Danny said simply. His sister didn't look too happy with the lacking explanation, but she let it go. Vlad turned at the new voice.
"Ah, Daniel! I was starting to wonder where you had gone. As you can see, your family is ready to depart." There was a strange look in the man's eyes, which Danny did not fail to notice.
"Yeah, we should probably get our stuff in the RV." Each family member grabbed a bag and started carrying them out to the vehicle.
"Danny, just your bag is left." Maddie said. "Would you like me to go get it?"
"No, I'll get it!" Danny said hurriedly, having left the bag on purpose so he would have an excuse to go into the house by himself. "Just wait here, I'll be right back." Everyone piled into the car as Danny jogged back up the steps to the mansion. He paused for just a moment to take a breath before opening the door and slipping inside. Vlad was still standing in the entrance hall, having expected the boy to return.
"Well Daniel, have you come to a decision regarding my offer?" A heavy silence hung in the room, Danny taking his time to review his decision once more before speaking it.
"I have." Vlad raised an eyebrow, obviously waiting for the actual answer. Danny took another deep breath. "I… I want your help. I need your help." Vlad smiled widely.
"So you accept?" Danny nodded.
"Yeah, I accept." A small smile graced Danny's face in response to Vlad's.
"That's wonderful to hear, my boy!" Vlad picked up the duffel bag off the floor and handed it to him. "I'll take care of everything, so don't worry. I'll be in touch shortly." Danny nodded, turning to leave. "Oh, and Daniel?" Danny looked back. "Do be gentle with that bag. I've left a small gift inside for you." Danny looked down at it in surprise.
"Thanks, Vlad." Danny smiled and waved as he stepped out the door.
"See you soon, little badger." The hollow echo of the door sliding shut signaled the awaited fruition of a perfect plan, and rang in the start of a new beginning. But the meaning of that beginning was lost on both of the half-ghosts, neither truly understanding what kind of future they had just created.