"Jazz knows the truth of the situation better than I do," Maddie whispered as she trudged down the track worn into the gravel road by the country traffic. Speaking the words aloud didn't give her any more comfort than saying them in her head had, but they felt more real once she could hear herself saying them. They were harder to ignore.
She'd been ignoring too much for too long.
Jazz, on the other hand, was knowledgeable and resourceful. She knew what she was dealing with when it came to Vlad. She could handle herself. She would hardly have walked into the lion's den unprepared. Maddie might not know what Jazz had up her sleeve, but Vlad wouldn't have as easy a time dealing with her as he had with Maddie.
Still, if Jazz and Danny hadn't been mistaken or misled, then Vlad—
Had Maddie ever really known him, even back when they were going to college, if he were capable of this?
Had he changed in the twenty years they hadn't seen each other or had he fooled her as easily then as he had now?
She'd have to explain this to Jack.
How was she going to start explaining this to Jack?
Assuring him that their family was okay—or at least mostly okay, physically okay—would be the start, and then she'd have to explain that they were wrong about ghosts. All ghosts, likely as not, though she'd rather operate on the assumption that they'd been wrong for now. It wasn't the right time to ask Danny if there were even a subset of ghosts that matched what they'd believed; he would not only not appreciate the question, but she'd also lose whatever meagre steps of progress she'd made towards reconciling with him in the first place, and Danielle—
Maddie didn't think she'd ever be forgiven for what she'd done. Not by Danny, and certainly not by Danielle. But if she tried, if they found a way to move forward, then maybe….
No use thinking about that now.
Jack might not have made her mistake, but he'd be painted with the same brush because she doubted he'd have done anything differently. So, she'd have to tell him about ghosts, about Danny and Danielle, and then she'd have to tell him about Vlad and see the moment he realized their entire friendship was a lie.
Vlad still had the sample of ectoplasm—blood—Maddie had taken from Danielle, but she didn't think Jack would need to see it to believe her words. Quick though he often was to think someone might be overshadowed, it would be easy enough to prove that Maddie wasn't, but she didn't think…. She didn't think he'd need even that much.
Something being seemingly impossible had never stopped Jack before. That was one of the many things she loved about him.
Still, the lab sample— She'd told Danny about it, but would he remember after everything that had happened? What if that was how Vlad had found Danielle rather than the tracker he'd somehow slipped onto Maddie herself? The idea made Maddie feel sick. Jazz had warned her, she hadn't listened, and she'd made things worse. Again. Maddie couldn't think about that right now, though. Ultimately, it didn't matter how Vlad had found them; he'd found them, he might be able to find them again, and they'd have to prepare for that. Somehow.
Still, if Vlad were tracking Danielle directly rather than scouting out the area now that he knew Danny was nearby….
She didn't have any weapons with her, and there was only so much she could do with what she had here. Against a ghost like Plasmius, that wouldn't amount to much. Given Vlad's humanity, it might not amount to anything.
She wanted to know where that line was, if there was a line at all, between those like Danny and those like Cujo. She would never find a definitive line without experimentation she was no longer comfortable carrying out, but she could get a much better idea if she could ask questions and get honest answers. But she didn't…. She had no idea how long it would be until she could ask those sorts of questions and not be faced with suspicion that she had an ulterior motive. Was there an appropriate time? Who could she even ask about that? Certainly not Jack; he'd have less of an idea than she did.
She was drifting again.
Vlad had always liked games of strategy, and he'd always had a tendency to turn things into games, into competitions, even when no one else realized he considered them to be players.
He would see this as a game, but given how he'd been playing her, he had her marked as a pawn, not an opponent. Would he consider Jazz an opponent or a distraction? Did he see Danny and Danielle as separate players or did he treat them as a united front? Surely she'd never told him enough about Alicia for him to know how to peg her. Vlad had always been happy for Maddie to talk, but he'd never gone out of his way to ask her about her childhood or where she'd grown up, and his knowing of Alicia was quite different than his knowing Alicia.
Still, she couldn't count on his ignorance if he had access to information, and the technology she'd found was proof enough that he had access to information.
Was he reluctant to act until he had more information or was he biding his time for a different reason?
Jazz would surely be doing something to slow him down. She hadn't been overly subtle about her suspicions, and she was the sort to assume the worst and plan accordingly—and act accordingly, thankfully.
Would knowing Vlad's tricks be enough when he knew to be aware of hers, though?
"Mom?"
Maddie jumped and reached for weapons that weren't there. She wasn't even half a mile down the gravel road, and she hadn't expected company, least of all Phantom—Danny—appearing beside her in the manner that ghosts typically do: without warning.
Maddie saw something in Danny's expression tighten even as she dropped her hands and turned to face him properly. "Sorry," she murmured.
He shrugged as he dropped the last few inches so his boots hit the gravel with a crunch. In a tone far too casual, he said, "It's fine. I didn't really expect anything else."
Old habits are hard to break, sweetie, but I'm trying, she wanted to say, but what good would that do? She'd already told him that she wanted things to be different going forward, but Alicia was right. She hadn't shown him that she meant it, not really.
She held out one of Vlad's beetle inventions she'd taken for further study, and Danny's lips twisted into something she might generously call a smile. "Oh. So you went in after all. And found your proof."
"I was coming to help. I— I thought trying to help would be worth it, even if I might not be able to do anything. I—" How was she supposed to put this? "I was going to keep my distance from Danielle. Is she…all right?"
"She took a few hits before I got there." Danny's expression was grim. "Normally she'd be fine—heck, normally she'd have been able to defend herself—but she wasn't great to start with. She sent Cujo to get me because she didn't trust herself to go through one of his portals without help."
Maddie winced, since that told her Danielle wasn't nearly as all right as she'd hoped. Having observed Phantom's healing factor practically since his appearance in Amity Park, she'd thought Danielle—presumably having something similar—would be in considerably better shape.
Maybe Jack had coated the scalpels with another anti-ectoplasm prototype and forgotten to tell her? Or tweaked the formula they used to keep ghosts from phasing? It wouldn't be the first time, but….
But this time mattered more than it ever had before.
(Should it, though? Should what she'd done to this ghost matter more than what she'd done to any other? Danielle was as much girl as ghost, and that made all the difference to Maddie, but would Danny agree? Wouldn't he just say it shouldn't matter if she's girl or ghost or both or something in between because she still deserves to be treated with decency regardless? That all ghosts should, just as all humans should?)
"We held up Cujo too long?" she guessed, reaching for a distraction from her thoughts, even as unpleasant a distraction as having confirmation of further mistakes, and knowing that seconds, not just minutes, counted in a fight. "And it made things worse?"
"Dunno about worse. I was on my way over there anyway; probably would've been there in time if I hadn't scouted along the way, for all the good that did. We were lucky Vlad didn't come himself—yet; I'm not delusional enough to think he's not coming—but he sent enough toys that I couldn't defend us and help Dani out of there at the same time. Not without splitting myself, anyway, and I'm still not great at that."
"Jazz is with Vlad."
"So? You've seen Plasmius split himself. He can do that no problem. Jazz is good, but she won't be able to hold him off forever, and that thing?" He pointed to the prototype she still held loosely in one hand. "If the tracker on you wasn't enough, that's proof that he knows exactly where we are despite my best efforts. Or one of my best efforts, anyway. I definitely could've tried something that really would've had us disappear off the face of the earth, but getting home might've been optional, so. Not that desperate."
Yet.
He didn't say it, but she could see it in his expression as he glanced back towards the old Jones place, even though the farmhouse itself would be hidden by the shelterbelt.
She didn't like the thought that Danny could disappear so thoroughly that they might never find him, but she wasn't sure saying that now would be a comfort to him.
"Aunt Alicia said you gave Cujo cookies." Danny's eyes flicked back to hers. "He's a sucker for treats, so that would've sidetracked him a bit, but he knew this was important. Meaning he wouldn't have brought you if he hadn't decided to trust you."
Had he brought her? Alicia had been the one to pull her through, and Maddie didn't know how much her sister regretted that decision. Still, Cujo hadn't opened a portal until Alicia had asked him to. Until she'd told him she was ready to go, even.
"I should probably warn you that it doesn't necessarily mean he'll trust you from here on out, but if he gave you a chance once, he's more likely to give it again, especially if you keep giving him treats and play fetch with him and stuff. Cujo's loyalty can definitely be bought, but it mostly requires being nice to him and the ones he cares about to do it, so I don't think it's a huge loss. I mean, he still growls at Vlad, who has most definitely tried buying him off, so. Yeah."
"Baby steps," Maddie offered, but Danny only hummed a note of acknowledgement, not agreement.
"We should get back. I don't want to leave Dani for too long."
The subject change wasn't subtle, but Maddie wasn't about to fight Danny on this. She tucked the ruined invention back into her pocket. "Of course. But— Did you have a chance to ask her if she'd see me?"
"I was a little busy being shot at," Danny said dryly, "so no, I didn't. We've gotten her settled in, though, and Aunt Alicia's checking her over, so I figured I'd come get you. I wouldn't put it past Vlad to overshadow you if he found you alone."
She stilled. "I beg your pardon?"
"He'd do it if he thought it would help him. Or at least if he thought you wouldn't find out."
To say the implication was unsettling was an understatement of grand proportions, but what unnerved her more was the ease and conviction with which Danny had said those words.
Like Vlad had already done this to her before and she'd never noticed.
Danny hadn't brought that up earlier, but would he have bothered if he hadn't thought her inclined to believe him?
"Here, I'll carry you," Danny said, holding out his arms, and she didn't know if he preferred to have her in front because it was easier or because some part of him didn't trust her at his back.
She went to him anyway, wrapping her arms around his neck and letting him pick her up with as much ease as his father did.
Danny must be stronger than Jack, at least like this. Then again, she already knew that. Phantom could hold a bus full of children with ease; her weight would hardly strain him. Was he as strong when he looked like the son she'd always known and not the ghost she'd once terrorized? Were his terrible grades in phys ed because he was holding back and trying not to hurt anyone, trying not to expose his secret, and not for any of the myriad of reasons she and Jack had once assumed? She'd have to ask, but it wasn't the time to ask.
Danny didn't give her much warning when he took off, only a quiet, "You ready?" without waiting for an answer. The stinging wind caught at her, whipping her hair into her face and back out of it with a minute turn of her head, and she felt resistance in the rush even as they rose above the trees and started towards Alicia's as the crow flies.
As the ghost flies.
It was cold. It was exhilarating. It wasn't unlike the dive out of Air Grits before the parachute was deployed, but it was far more controlled, and—
The wind resistance abruptly stopped, sound died away, and the land beneath them blurred as they picked up speed.
She could feel Danny but nothing else.
Part of Maddie wanted to ask questions, but she didn't want to risk breaking what they had in this moment.
The other part of her wondered if she'd even be able to talk while intangible. Ghosts could, she knew, because ectoplasm allowed them to flaunt practically every law or theorem of physics she'd ever studied, but she didn't know if the same were true of intangible humans. Would enough ectoplasmic power transfer to allow such a thing or would it only temporarily disrupt the human's physical properties to the point of intangibility and nothing else?
Danny and Jazz would know. Sam and Tucker would know. She and Jack had never experimented on such a thing because they'd never thought they'd be working with a ghost long enough for it to matter.
Cooperation with ecto-entities had always been something reserved for situations of extreme duress. Even the Red Huntress would call a truce before they would, and it had been a point of pride, of insisting that they would do as much as they could themselves before deigning to work with a ghost—
They'd been so foolish.
How could she have not seen Danny's earnestness in Phantom's fierce protection of their town?
Why had she not questioned why he always seemed to stumble over their names?
If she'd opened her eyes to the possibility before this, then maybe—
No.
It didn't matter.
She couldn't change the past.
Maddie clung tighter to Danny not because she was afraid but because she wasn't sure if she'd get another chance to hug him after this. He didn't give any indication that he'd noticed, flying onward without glancing at her. She wouldn't have been surprised if they'd flown straight over Alicia's house and continued on, but Danny banked and headed for the rooftop. She shut her eyes as they got closer, unable to stop the rising panic in her chest even though she knew that they were intangible and that Danny wouldn't take that away from her at the last possible moment.
She opened her eyes when her awareness of the world came back. Danny was standing in the spare room that Maddie always used when she came for a visit, though this time it didn't hold any of Maddie's things since Alicia's little bonfire. Now more than ever, Maddie wasn't convinced that had been necessary, but perhaps it had been Alicia's way of making a point.
Sometimes, to let go of the past, you need to torch it before moving on.
She'd implemented a similar principle after her divorce, and Maddie had deliberately never asked questions she hadn't wanted to know the answers to.
Danny cleared his throat, and Maddie shifted so that he could put her down without any trouble. She wasn't sure it made a difference to him—he'd be strong enough that it shouldn't—but she hoped the thought counted for something.
Speaking of— "If Vlad's tracking Danielle directly, what can we do to stop him?"
There was a beat before understanding dawned on Danny's face. "The DNA sample you gave him. The one that'll have her ecto-signature too, I'm assuming, because you took it from her when she was in ghost mode." Maddie didn't even have to nod before Danny continued, "We can't really do anything besides fight him. Tuck can wipe his records again when this is over and we can steal back the sample you took if there's anything left, but this is an old game with Vlad. He tries getting my DNA all the time. Though he's never had it handed to him on a silver platter before, so he should be enjoying this."
Maddie flinched. "I'm sorry. I—" I didn't know. Except she had known. Jazz had protested, and Maddie had handed over the sample anyway. If anything happened, that knowledge would haunt her even more than it already was. "I'm sorry."
"Whatever. We'll deal with it. He had a contingency plan before you guys destroyed it, he might have more we missed, and that was probably active long enough that you handing him the literal thing he needed to track us didn't save him a whole lot of time in the end. He would've found us either way."
"Sweetie, I'm sorry."
Danny sighed. "Saying you're sorry ten billion times isn't going to change any of this."
"I still want to say it. It's true. And it's…. It's just the start. I promise."
He was nodding along like he always did when they talked to him about their inventions, about their theories, which likely meant he put as much stock in her words now.
She didn't know how long it was going to take her to show him that she meant what she said, but she'd never stop trying to learn, trying to listen, trying to be better—
There was a knock on the door frame, and Maddie and Danny both looked over to see Alicia standing there. "She's settled," Alicia announced, "and Cujo's patrolling but I haven't heard any barking, so I'm assuming he hasn't sniffed out anything suspicious yet. Do you want to do another round yourself?"
"I doubt Vlad's close enough for me to notice yet, but yeah, I better go for a quick one." Danny glanced at Maddie. "Vlad's not going to win. I'm not going to let him. We're not going to let him. Got that?"
She nodded and watched as he flew through the wall.
It was harder to see now that she knew of his humanity than it ever had been when she'd only thought of him as a ghost. Ghosts controlled their own intangibility, but that intangibility could be disrupted, and if that happened at the wrong moment—
No, she didn't need to contemplate how they might build a failsafe now. Phantom's expertise with his powers might not be the talk of Amity Park, but Danny was more than competent, and he knew how to take care of himself. She could trust him to survive for now, and once Jack was caught up, they could ask Danny what he needed and how they could help.
Given everything, that was far more likely to elicit a positive response than brainstorming ideas on their own and offering up different plans or prototypes that could be flawed simply because they hadn't shared their knowledge and had instead acted on previous assumptions that weren't—
"He won't be long," Alicia said. "This isn't the first time he's done this, and it won't be the last."
Right. Right. That the was the whole point. Danny was more than capable, and he could do what she could not. He'd had to learn how to do all sorts of things for himself because she and Jack hadn't been there for him. Worse, they'd hunted him, pressured him, threatened to rip him apart molecule by molecule, and then she'd found Danielle and immediately turned around to make good on that threat and—
"Hey, hey, you still with me?" Alicia was closer now, her hands on Maddie's shoulders. "You're shaking. How about we sit down on the bed for a minute?"
"Don't worry about me," Maddie said even as she let Alicia guide her to the bed. "Danielle's the one we need to worry about. You should stay with her."
"She's settled. Nothing a bit more rest won't fix. But you…." Alicia hesitated. "I asked her about you. If she'd changed her mind about seeing you, I mean."
"She won't have," Maddie murmured. "Why would she? I'm nothing but her torturer."
Alicia snorted, so at least one of them found the situation amusing. "What happened to you being all hopeful?"
Maddie didn't answer. What was she supposed to say, that the reality of the situation was finally hitting her? That she'd come to accept what was surely the awful truth about Vlad only to see how her actions mirrored his, even if she hadn't known half as much as he apparently had? Was she supposed to admit that she was afraid not of seeing Danielle's anger but of seeing that fear on her face again? The same fear Maddie had blithely ignored when she'd assumed it was nothing but a ghost's mask?
"You can stand in the doorway."
Maddie blinked. "What?"
"She said you could stand in the doorway and talk if you really want to talk. She'll hear you out."
Maddie frowned. "Not that I don't want this, but why? Did she say?" Danny certainly hadn't sounded like he'd thought Danielle would change her mind, and Danny—
"You'll have to ask her yourself." Alicia got to her feet. "You're looking steadier, so I'm assuming you're feeling up to it?"
Maddie held out a hand in response, and Alicia took the invitation for what it was to haul her up to a standing position. "I am, I'm just— I don't think I really thought she'd see me. How can I possibly begin to apologize for what I did?"
"Just start there," Alicia said, not seeming to realize—or perhaps not caring—how unhelpful that sounded.
"You really think I should stand there and say 'I don't know how I can possibly begin to apologize for what I did'?"
"It's fine to start with an apology. We both know you'll mean it, and with a bit of time, you'll be able to show her that you mean it, too. Failing that, just open your mouth and see what comes out. You've lived with that husband of yours long enough that I'm sure it's rubbed off on you at least a little."
Maddie tsked, but an amused huff was all she got in response. Still, Alicia let Maddie keep hold of her and led her down the hallway to the master bedroom. It shouldn't have been a hard walk—it wasn't even that far, just past the family bathroom and the second spare room which Alicia had turned into a project room—but each step felt far heavier than it had when she'd been walking alone down the grid road.
Alicia knocked out shave and a haircut on the closed door. "You still ready for the two of us? We can wait for your cousin to come back if you want. Danny went to do a quick lap again, but I doubt he'll be long."
Maddie waited to hear Danielle's voice again, to hear acceptance or denial in the voice that pleaded and begged for her to stop.
Instead, the answer came in its own knocking form: two bits.
It meant acceptance, apparently, since Alicia's free hand went to the door knob this time. She pushed it open, shuffling inside and leaving Maddie to lean against the door frame.
Danielle was propped up with pillows on Alicia's bed, tucked in by more blankets than the weather alone warranted. She didn't look well (another day, Maddie might have found the strength to joke that she looked like death warmed over or said that she was pale as a ghost), but the green eyes that watched Maddie were clear and bright.
That could be a side effect of the girl's glow, but it was dimmer than it had been when Maddie had first captured her, so she didn't think the assessment was entirely unwarranted.
She needed to stop making assessments and start making apologies.
"I'm surprised you agreed to see me," Maddie said even as she mentally cursed herself for not apologizing first. "I wasn't sure you would, after everything."
Danielle said nothing, but Maddie saw her fingers clench around the top quilt.
"I'm sorry," continued Maddie, even though it already felt like it was too late. "I— I didn't listen. I wouldn't listen. I should have stopped, I shouldn't even have started, but I did and I kept going and I went too far and I— I can't undo that. And I'm sorry. And I know sorry's not enough, but it's just going to be the start, I swear, and even though I can't fix this, I want to help. It doesn't— I don't have to stay here if you're uncomfortable, but I— Things are going to change. I can promise you that."
In the stretching silence, Maddie heard Danielle release a long, slow breath.
"I get it," Danielle finally whispered, only that couldn't be right, because why would she say that?
"I beg your pardon?"
Danielle flinched and looked down at her hands, which were picking at threads in the quilt. "I know what it's like to mess up and regret stuff and want to change everything and all that." She looked up at Maddie again. "I get it."
It wasn't forgiveness, or at least Maddie wasn't about to assume it was, but it was understanding, and that was far more than she'd expected.
She opened her mouth to ask why Danielle felt she understood any of this before catching a look from Alicia and thinking better of it. Instead, she said, "Thank you."
Danielle had picked a thread loose and seemed far more focused on her continued failure to shove it back into place to acknowledge the words, but Maddie knew she'd heard them.
"Do you want me to leave?" She didn't want to leave, but she would. If she used Dottie's phone to call Jazz, maybe she could head off Vlad after all. Danny could be wrong about him already being on his way here, and if Maddie could convince him of some lie—
But how often had she ever been able to convince him of a lie?
He'd always been the one to fool her and Jack; it had rarely been the other way around.
"I dunno," Danielle mumbled in a tone that meant yes, even if she didn't say as much. "You can stay if you want. I'm just—" The yawn didn't look forced, and the exhaustion that had seeped onto her face in the aftermath seemed genuine now that some of the tension in her features was gone. "I'm tired."
The rest of the sentence was easy enough for Maddie to conclude: so I don't want to talk right now. It might be an excuse, but it was hardly an unreasonable excuse, and it was easy enough for Maddie to pretend she didn't see through the façade.
"I'll be downstairs," Maddie said before turning to go.
"Tell Danny I wanna see him when he comes back," Danielle added as Maddie left the room. Maddie froze, turning back and nearly bumping into Alicia. "I thought we'd have more time, and we might if I'm wrong, but…. It's important if I'm not. And you're…you, so I— It's important."
'You're you'? What did she mean by that? Had she thought Maddie had been overshadowed? That she could have been overshadowed, since Danny was so sure Vlad would take the opportunity if it came up? That couldn't be it alone, though. Danny would be in a much better position to tell if she were overshadowed than a ghost—girl—she'd met twice.
No.
It had to be something more than that.
Maddie could think of dozens of things that Danielle might deem important, if only because she could think of dozens of things her children might deem important, even though circumstances had shown that she didn't know them as well as she'd thought.
She could not, however, think of something Danielle wouldn't have immediately told Danny if she'd thought it important, even if she'd thought there would be more time to deal with it.
Then again, if she hadn't been recovered enough before and there hadn't been time since….
"I don't know how far things have gone," whispered Danielle, her eyes locked onto Maddie's, "but I know it's not too late yet."