Title: Fault

Characters: Vlad

Rating: K+

Word Count: 2,127

Genre: Angst

With some tired resignation, Vlad realized he was dying.

It wasn't like he had much to live for at that point, so what good did it do to dwell upon this fact? His only regret at that point was that he hadn't been able to see Maddie one more time.

But thinking of Maddie made him think of Jack and Vlad felt a little tongue of bitter fire ripple through his chest. No, he would not spend his last moments thinking about how Jack had caused this. How Jack had screwed up the experiment, the end result of years of their combined efforts. It would've been bad enough without this radiation currently killing him but that was just the icing on the cake, wasn't it? In one fell swoop Jack Fenton had ripped away everything from his life – his work, his Maddie… his life was already figuratively gone but now it was leaving for real, and Vlad had no qualms about it.

No, he was going to lie down and die and that would be it. No more of this self-pitying and hatred and struggle. He would die and that would be it. He was surprised there were no nurses or doctors running in as his heart was slowing more and more, but it was just as well. They would try to revive him if they came in and the last thing he wanted to do was live – not only was he tired of living, but staying in that hospital was putting a drain on his mother's expenses. They'd long since used up everything he had had saved up for college (ensuring that even if he survived this… this whatever kind of illness it was, that he would not get a diploma), and she was struggling to cover what their insurance could not. No, if any good would come from this at least he would no longer be a burden on her. If only she would see it as he did, but she was a wholly emotional creature and her only son's death would be more important to her than her own life.

Vlad hitched in another breath and found he could only manage one strangled gasp. It wasn't painful, at least, this death. Sure it wasn't particularly pleasant, but it could've been worse, he supposed.

Oh, but he could have avoided this altogether if he had just gone with his gut feeling upon meeting Jack Fenton.

He tried not to let his thoughts stray there but he couldn't help it – the rage it brought up sparked an angry fire in his chest where it was feeling more and more empty, a feeling he didn't like one bit. At first he'd thought himself insanely lucky to meet Jack Fenton and, by extension, Maddie Clark. Vlad allowed himself the brief, delicious moment to remember when he first laid eyes on her. Her hair was primped and fluffed high, a fiery halo of curls above a sweet, heart-shaped face. Her eyes were impossibly wide and inviting and her round cheeks dimpled when she smiled at him and said hello. Her dress was so tight around her hips, cutting off tantalizingly high on her thickly muscled thighs. To think such a woman was in his line of work, a line dominated predominately by crazy old men or frauds looking for easy grant money. But no, Vlad knew that paranormal studies were nothing to be taken lightly. There was sufficient evidence to prove it, and to find two others in his university that took it as seriously at him, why, surely that was more luck than Vlad could've ever foreseen in his life.

Of course, Vlad now thought grimly, that wasn't quite good luck, as he was low lying on his deathbed as a result. Yes, Jack was serious about his obsession, but he wasn't too far off from the other crackpots in the field who took their jobs as seriously as the rest of the world didn't. He was borderline fanatical, everything about ghosts and the paranormal and the other world.

To Jack's credit, the idea of punching into the other dimension was one Vlad would have never thought of. Granted, he'd heard whispers about it and seen some evidence of this veil between them and the other dimension, from which his area of study originated and leaked over from, but to think of actively breaking into this world instead of studying its superfluous members, that was truly an ambitious project, and Vlad was all about ambition.

Still, he'd had his reservations about Jack. The man was dedicated but at the same time, distracted. He was enthusiastic about everything and as a result, important things seemed to slip his mind, often causing meltdowns or overspills in their lab sessions. The university had run out of labs and patience with the three paranormal research by the first month and soon they were forced to conduct research in Vlad's garage.

Jack himself was more than Vlad cared to deal with, too. He enjoyed the quiet company of his chess club members and Maddie's (though enjoyed did not apply to her, he savored those quiet research moments they shared some nights after Jack had gone home), but Jack was far too boisterous, invading his personal space with bone-crushing hugs and pats on the back that knocked him over.

But he suffered through it for Maddie. Bless her heart she could not shake this man, and why she allowed him to stay around her he could not tell. However, it was a packaged deal, so Vlad tolerated Jack for her. It was all for her, the portal, his work – it was no longer about the credibility or the satisfaction, not for science or for the betterment of mankind. It was for the first woman who had smiled at him in such a way, who had laughed with him and gone over equations and theories with him late at night over cups of hot chocolate in his garage.

And then Jack had ruined it.

Jack had ruined everything.

Vlad (with no help from Jack) had convinced the head of the science department to allow them one last chance in the lab, and though he couldn't obtain a generator from them they'd scrounged up enough to purchase one of the necessary power. That proto-portal was perfect if Vlad had anything to say about it, but Jack's calculations – instead of going over them he had just forged right ahead, and then –

Another spasm of pain rolled through his chest and that fire died out, leaving behind that hollow feeling. Vlad struggled for another breath but when he tried to suck in air, none came.

It was all Jack's fault.

Her hair in the sunlight.

Gone. He'd never see her again.

It was all Jack's fault.

The way she'd looked up at him over the printouts, her luminous purple eyes sparkling and smiling.

He would never see them again and it was all Jack's fault.

It was all Jack's fault.

It was all Jack's fault.

It was Jack's fault that the machine hooked up to his heartbeat was now screaming out a single, mechanical note. Flatlined, that was the term, wasn't it? He was dead, and it was all J-

Wait.

Vlad sat up and looked around before he realized that he could actually sit up, as opposed to lying helplessly on his bed as he had been for the past few years. In fact, he felt stronger.

So why wasn't his heart beating?

The empty, hollow feeling was still present in his chest, as if his ribs encircled nothing but air. He took in a breath and it flowed easily, if not a little blandly, over his tongue. It was… cumbersome. Unnecessary. So he didn't take another breath and that felt just fine.

The world was no longer swimming so Vlad took a step off the bed. The rest of his body effortless tumbled over the edge and he hung there in the chilly air of the hospital.

Where were the nurses? he wondered again. The heart monitor monitoring a heart that had stopped beating was starting to get on his nerves. He turned to the screeching machine and reached out, as if it was an alarm clock he could simply put on snooze. His hand came in contact with the machine and he felt that flicker of anger rise in the hollow area of his chest, and the scream died instantly as the machine partially melted under his palm in a flash of pink.

Well. Vlad stumbled back but his feet still were not touching the ground and he instead fell over, this time finally making contact with the hospital floor. It all came to him in a sudden burst and he felt the fire fill his limbs with sensation, which were originally numb from disuse. His lungs were suddenly screaming so he opened his mouth and dragged in a large gulp of air. He felt so alive, the hollowness retreating in his chest.

He was dimly aware of someone helping him up – the world had begun to swim again so he shut his eyes and set his jaw against the onset of nausea.

The voice of the nurse sounded as if it came from underwater. Once he registered the bed beneath him he turned his head and saw her fiddling with the heart monitor.

"-not sure how it overheated but it gave us quite a scare," came the nurse's words as the ringing died down. "But that's okay. Let me just wheel it out of here for you. Hopefully we can get a replacement from a brand that's not quite so faulty, eh?" His throat felt too dry to speak so he remained silent, watching her with clear eyes as she banished the half-melted contraption to the corner. She was older but not too old that her hair was completely gray and her face wrinkled pleasantly as she smiled down at him. "Why, Mr. Masters, you're looking very well today! I may even call the doctor in for another evaluation."

When she left to do just that, Vlad brought a shaking hand to his face. The skin which had been raw and bumpy from the ectoradiation now felt smooth. It no longer pained him to move the muscles in his jaw and his eyes had full range of motion, though looking around too quick did cause his head to ache. He stumbled into the bathroom of his hospital room, fumbling for the light switch and gazing urgently into the mirror.

Yes, there were still a few patches of burns and bumps on his face, but his face look far better – far healthier – than it had in years. The fact that was even upright was a testament to his new health.

But what had caused this? The last thing he could remember was his body failing him, his heart stopping and his breath failing him. He had felt so far away from his body yet still so trapped. And so hollow…

A flashing light startled him so that he fell over, knocking his head against the back wall. He reached out and grabbed the shower curtain, the rings popping out as he leaned on it for balance. He caught himself before the curtain came completely undone, gripping the sink instead and hauling himself back up. He found this motion much easier now, his feet all but flying off the floor as he pulled himself upright. But yes, he was indeed suspended in the air again, as he vaguely remembered he had been before. His hair, bleached white by the radiation, was nearly black again, but his eyes were green and emitting their own light. His jaw dropped open and he placed a hand on the mirror in order to lean in for a better look… except his hand went through the mirror and he instead bumped his forehead against the glass. He reeled back, the fire again exploding in his chest as the light returned.

His hair was again white, his eyes blue. More importantly, he was no longer floating or phasing through objects.

"Mr. Masters?" came the matronly voice of the nurse from outside. She was knocking on the bathroom door. "The doctor would like to perform his evaluation, if you're up for it."

Vlad gripped the sink, staring into the eyes of his reflection. He was up and moving. He was stronger. Far stronger than he felt even before the accident, though such times were so far behind him, and so impotent. He looked down at the hand that had melted the heart monitor. Whatever was happening to him, Vlad decided, it scared him.

It was all Jack's fault.

Jack was going to pay.