Okay, it's been a while. I know it, you know it, but I'm back!

This chapter is about 4,000 words so I hope it's enough of an apology to make up for being gone so long. Life has been... crazy, but it's starting to look back up! I've got a few interesting changes to the canon I'm planning for this chapter, which is why it's taking so long to write. I want it to be perfect, but I know that's not possible. Therefore, I'm going to try and stop reaching perfection and just WRITE the dang thing.

So, here you go! Vlad's arc part 3! Let me know what you think! Do you know what changes I'm trying to make?

-Song

Their mother looked even more uncomfortable at the suggestion. "Oh, well…"

Danny, again, wondered what was going on in her head. She looked to their father for reassurance, but Jack Fenton just responded with two thumbs up. Danny narrowed his eyes at his dad, though he didn't notice. It seemed that his father was the only one who was really enjoying this trip down memory lane. But why?

Vlad seemed like a perfectly… okay person. Sure, he had more money than probably even Sam's family, and he was a little awkward - and definitely a nerd - but that didn't mean he was a bad person. If Danny had learned anything from years of bullying, it was that nerds were genuinely good people underneath the social anxiety. He and Tucker's friendship was proof of that.

Tucker… Danny was conscious of the phone in his pocket, which had not buzzed once since his arrival here at the manor.

"Sure," his mother finally said through a forced smile. "Why not?"

Danny frowned and looked at Jazz, but his sister was too busy being distracted by the thousands of books at her disposal. He meant to catch her and see what she thought about their mother's mood, but she immediately disappeared into the stacks. The rest left to go play chess, and then Danny was alone. He sighed and started walking through the library. He ran his fingers along the spines of books as he passed.

Sam would love this, he thought as he trailed his fingers over original copies of Shelley and Poe.

Eventually he stopped a whole section on science fiction, the study of space, and inter-dimensional travel. He picked out the first book in a 10-part series written by Dr. Frederick Scarson, who claimed that there were several universes - or realms - branching off of our own. He compared this idea to the great Yggdrasil of Norse mythology; the world tree, sprouting infinite branches and bridges to other planes. Dr. Scarson claimed that these realms could be accessed through certain ancient relics; a scroll, a lamp, a crystal. Those relics would take the user to whatever realm or alternate universe that lay beyond the fabric of the Earth with a single touch. He also claimed, however, that one had to be dead to reach these realms and relics.

Danny frowned and flipped to the copyright page.

First edition; publication date: 1845

"Yeah," Danny said, "sounds like drug-fueled Victorian stuff to me."

He put the book back and selected one on astronauts instead. He smiled as he flipped through the glossy pages of a photography book of images taken straight from space; galaxies previously unknown now captured on digital film by probes, transmitted millions of miles back to Earth for him to flip through his fingertips.

Since a very early age, Danny had always wanted to fly. He broke his first bone leaping out of a tree, thinking if he believed hard enough, he could take off across the lawn and land on the roof of Fenton Works. When he was in middle school he thought it would be cool to be just a pilot. Maybe for the military, maybe commercial. Taking passengers from one place to the next in a fraction of the time it would take to walk there. It would be like teleporting, and he'd thought that was pretty cool.

Until he saw Matt Damon in The Martian. Suddenly, a plane wasn't good enough.

It was only the stars for him.

And, if Danny was honest with himself, becoming a half ghost had suddenly fulfilled one of his dreams. Once he'd learned to turn invisible, he could fly whenever he wanted. He'd jump off the roof at night and soar over the neighbors' houses and streets. He had flown all the way to the park on a night when he couldn't sleep, and sat on the edge of the fountain to listen to the gentle bubbling of the water.

No one knew he left the house. No one knew when he returned. He really was a ghost those nights, silent and haunting the witching hours of the morning; phasing back through his window before anyone knew he'd gone.

Sometimes he lay in bed at night and imagined what it would be like to fly all the way up to the stratosphere. Would he need to breathe? Would the cold and the pressure and the height be too much? Or would he make it all the way to the top, and like a satellite fall back down to Earth, catching himself at the end with his ghost powers before he hit the ground?

"Hey."

Danny jumped. The glossy book of photographs slipped from his hands and tumbled down, denting the tip of the spine as it hit the castle floor.

Jazz raised her eyebrows. "You okay?"

Danny blinked. "Uh, yeah. Sorry. What's up?"

"Mom's kicking Vlad's butt in chess. I wanted you to come see."

"I thought you were lost in the stacks?"

"Nah. Just for a second. I've read a lot of what's in here already." Danny rolled his eyes and Jazz playfully punched his arm. "Come on!"

She grabbed him and they wound their way back to the center of the library. The center was outfitted as a lounge, with a chess table, leather sofas, a coffee table, and bar cart hidden within the shell of a wooden globe of Earth.

"I thought only Harvard professors had this much leather and mahogany in their houses," Danny quipped.

"I guest spoke at Harvard," Vlad called from his spot at the chess table, never taking his eyes from the board. "And you're right, they do."

Danny walked up with Jazz to the chess table and stood alongside their father. Danny didn't know too much about chess, but even he could see that his mother had Vlad cornered.

"Wow, Harvard?" Danny quipped, gesturing to Vlad's defeated pieces. "They let you in?"

Vlad turned to look at Danny now, his eyes narrowed playfully. "Twice."

"It shows."

Maddie Fenton slid her queen across the board and took Vlad's bishop. "Danny's right, Vlad. You're not even trying."

"Oh, don't say that to your opponent! It hurts their feelings when they are, in fact, trying very hard." Vlad took her rook with one knight, which only sent his other knight to its doom. "Besides, you were always better at this than I."

"Never this much," she said with a laugh. Danny smiled at his mother.

Maybe the awkwardness was fading. Maybe that's why Vlad had offered to play - to ease his mother's discomfort with their estrangement. Maybe this was something they used to do in the dining hall in college, waiting between classes or killing time in the evenings. Maybe it brought up good memories for Danny's mom.

Well, either way, she was totally kicking Vlad's ass.

"Check," she said.

"Oh, butter biscuits!"

Vlad sighed and put his hand to his silver goatee. He narrowed his eyes down at the board and thought for a solid minute or two. Maddie leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, completely at ease.

"I forfeit," Vlad finally announced, and with flourish, he laid his king down on one side. "But only to you, my dear. I bow to no one else."

Danny's mother laughed like his words were an inside joke. It finally put Danny at ease, too.

His father slapped Vlad on the shoulder hard. "I'll get her, Vladdie!"

"Oh, that would be a fast game, wouldn't it?" Vlad snarked.

"Jack, why don't we let Vlad show us up to our rooms instead?" Maddie suggested. "I was hoping to freshen up before people started arriving tonight."

"Of course. Come along, and don't worry about the board. You can leave the pieces for the staff."

"You have servants?" Danny asked, surprised.

"Servant is such an outdated word… but yes." Vlad's perfectly straight, white teeth glinted in a wolfish smile.

Danny was once again reminded of the Mansons. He couldn't imagine having a driver like Henson or a castle or a staff full of people cleaning up your messes. It felt simultaneously pretentious and uncomfortable. He didn't know how Sam did it.

I guess when you grow up with money… he thought.

"The east wing is just this way. You'll note the difference in the staircases. Green to the west, gold to the east."

Jazz rolled her eyes at the cheesehead decor.

"You have billions of dollars!" she huffed. "You could make this place look like anything you wanted!"

"What do you mean?" Vlad asked, confused. "I did."

Danny laughed. Vlad certainly was a Packers fan.

They climbed the golden carpeted stairs to their right and headed eastward into the castle. As they climbed, he swiveled his head to marvel at the intricate paintings, the tapestries, the solid-marble gargoyles. Vlad seemed like a nice guy, but wow, was he a little too rich? And maybe a bit ethically gray when it came to manufacturing military murder machines. But Vlad was polite and seemed to have totally forgiven their parents for whatever had happened in the past. No, Danny wasn't going to start calling the guy Uncle Vlad, but he seemed like a smart guy to know.

"Your rooms," Vlad said finally, stopping at a particularly long hallway. "Three master bedrooms, a game room, several bathrooms, and even a study for homework, if necessary."

Jazz looked like she could cry at the prospect of hiding away in a study and working on her college papers. Danny's ears had perked up at 'game room'. His parents disappeared into the room to their left, and Jazz bounded down the hall and opened a few doors until she found the study.

"You can hook your Switch up in the fourth room down, Daniel," Vlad said to him, remembering.

"You can call me Danny, Mr. Masters. I prefer Danny."

"Then you can call me Vlad."

Danny smiled. "Sure."

"Your mother is still quite the spitfire," Vlad said suddenly. "Don't believe a word she says, she was always beating me at things. Class, chess, sports. It made me work harder. To be a better man."

"Well, she is pretty brilliant," Danny agreed, happy to hear him speak so highly of his mom. "I sometimes think that's where Jazz gets it from, but never tell her I said that."

"Of course." Vlad laughed. "And what about you?"

"What about me?"

Vlad looked him over for a second. Danny felt a strange coldness dance over his skin and he shivered unpleasantly.

"You. What did you… inherit from your parents?"

Vlad's tone of voice dropped in a strange way. That uneasiness Danny had thought he'd solved came back.

"Uh, I guess… my hair color?" Danny joked, trying to salvage the mood. "My last name?"

"More than that, I'm sure, dear boy." Vlad started walking down the hall toward the fourth room. "You've got a sharp look about you. You and your sister both are growing into fine young people. I wish I'd been there more when you two were children. Your parents and I were very close… before. Alas, some things are difficult to process all at once and I needed time."

Danny could sympathize with that. He was still processing his own portal accident. Who knew how many years it would take for weird stuff to stop happening to him? How long would it be before he'd mastered his abilities, or recovered from his wounds, like Vlad?

Danny supposed Vlad got lucky with his accident. Some bad burns and acne that cleared up within a few months in the hospital was way different than half-dying and becoming a ghost kid. After all, Danny was still dealing with his clothes trying to phase off of him at random times! And he wasn't going to forget that time one of his hands went invisible at lunch and he'd had to hide it under his leg for fifteen minutes. Not to mention all the ghost hunting which, somehow, Danny felt was his sole responsibility.

He couldn't imagine what it had been like for Vlad to deal with a terrible skin deformity, but it was a good thing it had worn off. Danny's problems probably never would. If anything, his powers just kept getting stronger.

"You're graduating soon, I'll wager?" Vlad asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"Oh. Yeah, in the spring."

"Big plans after? Taking up the ghost hunting mantle?"

Danny shifted uncomfortably. "I… want to be an astronaut, actually."

Saying it aloud with his father only a few doors away was like spilling a dangerous secret. He'd tried to tell his parents plenty of times about his ambition to go to space. All claims had fallen on deaf ears for his father, and his mother had only nodded sympathetically. But Vlad didn't.

"Hm. An astronaut?" Vlad smiled encouragingly. "Quite an expensive undertaking with that kind of education."

"I know, but I've really been working hard to get my grades up. Can't say I was really good at school when I was a freshman, but I'm hoping to get a scholarship now."

"Well, perhaps good fortune will smile upon you," Vlad suggested. "I myself fund several academic scholarships. I can't pick a winner of course, but you're welcome to apply to any of them in future. I'll email you the information if you like?"

Danny beamed. "Thanks. Any help at all would be appreciated."

"Of course. Now, get settled. I've had an early dinner prepared before the reunion starts tonight. Tell your parents to meet back in the foyer within a half hour, if you would?"

"Sure thing," Danny said.

Vlad stared at him for just a second longer. Danny felt the highs and lows of ease and then discomfort seep into his bones. He shivered again.

"Good. Ta."

Vlad turned and headed back down the hallway, disappearing out of sight. Danny realized, with a sense of hindsight, how quiet Vlad's footsteps were on the hallway rug as he walked away.

...

Dinner with Vlad was a whole experience, and Danny was once again slapped with the reality of how much money the guy really had. Three tall candelabras lined a table set for twenty, but only Danny, Jazz, their parents, and Vlad were present. Green and gold trimmed plates with seven forks and spoons sat before them, steaming steaks and potatoes and salads and desserts set out before them. From somewhere in the room, soft classical music was playing.

Rather than yell across the room, Vlad sat them all at one end of the long table with himself at the head. Danny and Jazz sat across from their parents and stole glances at each other, trying hard to keep in the giggles.

"I assure you, Jack, I did not streak naked in Hadley Hall our freshman year. That was Thad Baxters."

"I swore everyone was saying Vlad Masters in calculus on Monday!"

"Well you were grossly misinformed."

Their mother covered her mouth with a napkin and turned away, her shoulders shaking with suppressed giggles of her own.

"Anyway," Danny said loudly and Jazz kicked him playfully. "Which one of you partied the hardest in college?"

"Danny!" their mother cried. Jazz kicked him again.

Jack yelled, "Me! Oh, for sure it was me."

"It for sure was you," Vlad agreed, dryly. "Your father could put an entire keg away in that barrel belly of his every Spirit Week and damned be the consequences that next Monday in class."

"Junior year I wandered into Professor Packley's biochemistry class wearing nothing but a tie and pajama pants. He told me to get out because I looked more green than the ectoplasm we were studying that week."

Their mother finally burst into laughter, unable to hold it any longer, and Jazz covered her face, cringing at the embarrassing tales.

"This is why I'm going to be a therapist," she mumbled into her hands.

"Why? For kids with parents like ours?" Danny asked.

"I often wonder if it was another one of those foggy Mondays that led to our unfortunate mishap in the science lab senior year," Vlad said quietly, his tone polite but his eyes serious.

An uncomfortable pause settled over the table. Jazz removed her hands from her face and glanced at their mother.

"No, Vladdie," Jack said as seriously as he could. "It wasn't. Just a mathematical error, that's all."

"Right, of course," Vlad said, and he sipped his glass of wine.

"And look at you," Maddie jumped in. "You're doing incredible despite the accident. I only wish we'd known. We could have kept in touch."

"Really?" Vlad asked, his expression softer.

"Sure," Maddie agreed. "We were all best friends. It's hard to lose the people you love like that."

Vlad swallowed thickly at her words.

"So," Jazz interrupted. "How many people are coming tonight?"

Danny chewed his perfectly cooked steak and zoned out as more party plans were discussed. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he checked it stealthily under the table. It was Sam. Operation ML Pizza was off to a rocky start.

.

7:45PM

S: Knocking on his door. No answer.

8:03PM

S: Leaving pizza at door.

S: Wait. Movement in upstairs window.

S: He's home, the jerk. Knocking again.

8:18PM

S: I'm in. Will text tomorrow.

.

Danny texted her a 'Good luck' back. He was starting to get nervous.

Was this really a phase he and Tucker were going through? Or was it the real thing? Was his friendship about to fall apart while he was here in Wisconsin hearing about his father's old party days?

Sam was wrong, he decided. He should have stayed home. Giving Tucker space might be the thing that broke them.

"Danny?" Jazz's voice cut through his thoughts.

"Huh?"

"I asked if you were ready to head upstairs? People are arriving at nine."

Danny glanced down at his half-eaten plate. He'd lost his appetite.

"Yeah."

"You two are more than welcome to attend tonight's festivities," Vlad assured them. "It should be a good time."

"I would really rather write my term paper," Jazz said bluntly. Vlad raised his eyebrows and smiled.

"Just like your mother, I see. We weren't the partying type, were we Madeline?"

"Never," she laughed. "Well, except that one time…"

Danny stood up with Jazz from the table, determined not to get into a Midwestern Goodbye with their parents and Vlad, who kept talking and talking.

"We'll see you in the morning," Jazz called over her shoulder as they hurried out of the dining hall and back up the golden east wing staircase.

…

"If you're not going to hangout with me, at least write somewhere else." Danny groaned.

Jazz shrugged, eyes on her laptop. She was curled on the plush game room sofa, one AirPod in her left ear. Danny knew he couldn't compete with a collegiate assignment for her attention, but he still had hoped she'd at least agree to play one game of Mario Golf or something with him.

"I am hanging out with you," she said after another paragraph had been written. "It's called comfortable silence. It's something you do with people you care about."

"I care about Mario Golf."

"Oh, shut up."

Danny leaned heavily against the large window overlooking the front lawn of the castle's estate. Outside in the roundabout gravel drive he watched cars file in, with valets taking tickets and parking the vehicles elsewhere. Danny saw men and women in their early forties filing into the castle in their best formal wear, laughing jovially or looking nervous. A gaggle of women screamed when they saw one another and began to perform some sort of school chant and dance routine. Someone was carrying a mascot head under one arm and another was holding a football.

It was all very 80s of them.

"We brought nice clothes just in case," Danny interrupted again. "If you wanted to go we could? Maybe just eat cake and leave?"

"And have Mom and Dad embarrass us with their ghost nonsense? In public?"

"Maybe they won't. Besides, Vlad's cool. I don't think he'd mind."

Jazz looked irritated.

"What? What's with you?"

"I don't know," she sighed and set her laptop aside.

Danny was surprised at that. Mario Golf wasn't good enough to catch her attention, but Vlad was?

"There's just something weird about this whole thing," she continued. "Dad tells us this whole story about how he fried Vlad's face off and they haven't spoken in twenty years. Yet, not only does Vlad look totally fine, but he acts like nothing happened? And remember his comment at dinner? About Dad being a drunk in the science lab? Not to mention he's responsible for a lot of warmongering overseas and doesn't even seem to care-"

"Okay well, I don't know about any of the warmongering," Danny interrupted. "But Vlad told me that he wished he'd been around when we were growing up. I guess like an uncle or something. And I don't see a wife and kids around, if you know what I mean?"

Jazz grumbled. "Oh, don't get me started on the way he looks at Mom-"

Danny frowned. "What? I was saying he's probably lonely. You know, a career guy."

"Oh great, a lonely billionaire in a spooky castle with servants we haven't even seen yet. I mean, who even cooked dinner? It was waiting for us when we arrived downstairs!"

Danny watched as she spiraled, astonished at her strong reaction against Vlad. "What are you talking about now?"

"Welcome, Mr. Harker, to Dracula castle!" Jazz snapped at him. When she heard her tone, she took a deep breath. "Okay, sorry. I didn't mean all that, it's not fair to the guy. I just get bad vibes."

"Well, I agree this place is spooky, and he did kind of suggest Dad was drunk when the accident happened which sucked… but I think we should be nice to him," Danny argued, even though he felt like a hypocrite doing it.

He had been shivering on and off all day - a sign of trouble around the corner - but Vlad wasn't some ghost out to get them. He was just a weird rich guy.

"And, I mean," Danny continued, "if we're really nice we could get some college tuition out of it. We could be the niece and nephew he's never had and reap all the rewards."

Jazz barked out a laugh. "Wow, you dream big."

"I just think he's a nice, awkward, lonely cat dude. That's not a crime."

"You saw a cat?" Jazz joked.

"You know what I mean."

Jazz sighed and leaned her head back against the sofa, thinking. Danny turned away and checked his phone but there were no texts from Sam or Tucker. Bored, he glanced out the window again. Fewer cars were arriving. Everyone would be here soon, and the party would probably get into full swing.

"You're right," Jazz finally relented, breaking the silence. "I guess I just don't trust him."

"I mean, you don't have to. We just met the guy."

"True."

"So… Mario Golf?" Danny asked, hope in his voice.

Jazz rolled her eyes. "I'm going to put on my dress."

"Wha-?" Danny watched her skulk out of the room. "Seriously? Is Mario Golf that boring?"

"Yes," she called back from the hallway.

Damn, Danny thought. That would mean he needed to put on a tie.