She hadn't imagined it. She knew she hadn't imagined it. His eyes had gone red. Red. Like Plasmius's.
Just like Danny's had turned green.
A sign that the ghost was in control? Or that the human host had temporarily surrendered control?
Or that there had never been more than a façade of control in the first place?
She couldn't stop the shiver that ran through her. It was one thing to be accepting of Phantom, who tried to be good, but Plasmius—
No. The truth was, she hadn't really accepted it yet. She wanted to, for Danny's sake, but it was hard to…unlearn all her behaviours. It would take more time than a single harried day and two sleepless nights. "Plasmius," she said, forcing herself to meet his eye. "I'm sorry. I hadn't realized."
"I am unfortunately aware of that."
Perhaps Plasmius wasn't as bad as he was painted. If Phantom skewed Danny's view of him, and therefore Jazz's, and the majority of the fights were between Plasmius and Phantom—
She couldn't assume anything.
He was talking to her. That was a start. She just couldn't take it all as truth, particularly when it would be a convenient truth for him.
"I really had thought Jasmine would put it plainly if she insisted on telling you everything," he continued. "It's not a matter of me or Plasmius, nor of me and Plasmius. The separation is only an illusion, I'm afraid."
Only an illusion.
It's not overshadowing, Jazz had said. Perhaps, with the scale of the changes, the differences were so minute—
No.
Vlad had studied ghosts with them, and she knew now that he had never stopped, just as they hadn't. This was why.
"Maddie. You do understand what I'm saying, don't you?"
"I—"
Didn't she understand? Didn't she understand all too well?
She'd done something terrible. Something unforgivable, something she couldn't conveniently blame on her ignorance because she should've known better. She should've questioned, not assumed. She was seeing the consequences of that, but she was also….
She was also seeing a glimpse of everything she had ignored before.
Danny Fenton. Danny Phantom. Vlad Masters. Vlad Plasmius. And…and Danielle, who'd been very much an ordinary phantom until she was anything but.
Jazz was convinced that Vlad was involved somehow, that his intentions were far more hellish than good, and thinking of all the possibilities made Maddie deeply uncomfortable, but….
She couldn't do this. She couldn't let it get to her, let herself still be driven by thoughts and beliefs she knew were wrong. Jazz might be wrong about Plasmius. She might be wrong about Danielle. Vlad….
"Plasmius is only a name," Vlad said, because it was still Vlad, even if it was also Plasmius. The separation that she so desperately wanted to exist wasn't there. She wanted there to be a difference, and there wasn't. She wanted to make excuses, to twist what she'd done, to justify it somehow, even if it was simply to justify her ignorance, and she couldn't. There was no difference between Vlad and Plasmius or Danny and Phantom or Danielle and the phantom she'd—
"I chose it," continued Vlad, "to try to differentiate who I became from who I was before. I…. It comes from plasma." He was looking at her expectantly, and she was reminded of the days when they'd studied together and he'd quizzed her while Jack ran out for snacks, desperate for a break. This was the same Vlad who'd delighted in obscure details and fun little facts, the same Vlad who would offer her a smile whenever she figured out what he was hinting at.
Now, he was waiting for her to do it again.
Plasma. Her first thought was blood, ectoplasm, but that wouldn't be the answer he wanted. It was an answer, but it wasn't the only answer. Vlad must mean— "Something molded. Shaped. Created."
"Yes. It was a few months before I realized what had come out of the accident, but it was very clearly something unnatural in either realm."
Either realm.
Human or ghost.
"The proto-portal?" She'd guessed as much already, but what if she was wrong? It hadn't been the first accident. And…and Danny had never been hospitalized for anything more than a broken arm.
"That was the first time we successfully tore a hole between realities, yes," Vlad said. His tone was dry, perhaps a touch of condescension mixed in with amusement, and— "You know as well as I do that that much radiation can cause mutations."
Genetic mutations. From ecto-radiation. But the mutations shouldn't be uniform, shouldn't have spread throughout his entire body as they must have if Plasmius were merely a form of himself and had never been a separate entity, and—
"I could show you, if that would be make it easier."
Maddie sucked in a breath, taking a moment to study Vlad's face instead of staring blankly at him and not seeing anything. He seemed sincere, but did she really know him anymore, if she hadn't known this?
"Look at my coffee," Vlad said as he picked up his coffee cup again. He held it out between them and then the cup was gone, his fingers curled around nothing. Then, abruptly, the coffee itself came back, dark liquid trapped by something she couldn't see. She blinked, and everything was as it should be.
It was something she'd question if she didn't know enough to not need to question it.
Such powers were far from tricks of the light, after all. Even on a molecular level, it wasn't so much refraction or reflection of light as manipulation of—
"It was difficult for me to control at first, as I imagine it was for Daniel."
The coffee cup, held tightly in Vlad's right hand, moved seamlessly through his left and then hovered in the middle of his hand, sliced through by his palm.
"It is, of course, a skill like any other, and can be honed through practice and perseverance. I haven't the faintest what it's like for ghosts, if it merely comes naturally to them, but as I've witnessed their skills improve over time, I daresay it isn't all inherent, even if the abilities they have seem to be."
Vlad raised his coffee cup, took a sip, and then set it down on the counter again.
When she said nothing, he continued, "Like other ghosts, however, our actions have been misconstrued."
"Misconstrued." The word came out wrong, too high, too panicked, when she'd been trying to mask her emotions, to hide exactly what she thought of this. She swallowed and tried again. "How do you propose that I've misconstrued Plasmius's actions?"
"My actions, I'm afraid."
She wished he hadn't admitted that. That made it so much harder. Why not deny it? Even if Jazz was right, why would Vlad—? "I've seen some of the things Plasmius has done to Phantom. If you're Plasmius, and…and you knew that Danny…."
"I've only ever wanted to help him."
No, that couldn't be true. She'd been in earshot of more than one fight between Plasmius and Phantom. Phantom made his hatred of Plasmius abundantly clear, and she knew there was no love between either of her kids and her old college friend. "Help him? Haven't you tried to destroy him?"
"I'm afraid you and Jack are the ones who have tried to destroy him, not I."
Maddie flinched and pulled away, sidestepping to her left, back the way they'd come.
She couldn't force the denial past her lips.
Not after what she'd done to Danielle, what she could so easily have done to a very different phantom.
Not with the echoed memory of Jack's promise tear Phantom apart molecule by molecule filling her ears.
"You don't understand what's happened to your son." Vlad's voice was quiet, but it cut into her as readily as her sterilized scalpel had cut into Danielle's flesh. Maddie wanted to run, to get away from this, to deny it, to not have to hear it, but the truth in Vlad's words bound her in place. She couldn't escape. She couldn't— "I do. I know exactly what he has gone through and what he is still going through. For all that he's resisted my efforts to help him, thinking the worst of me, he understands what I truly want almost as little as you do."
Maddie just stared at him, abruptly aware that she was trembling and not sure when her body had decided to betray her. Vlad's look was not one of pity but of apology. He must know how hard this was for her to hear.
Misconstrued. That's what he'd said. His actions had been misconstrued. By everyone, then? Not just by her and Jack but also by Danny and Jazz?
"I only want what's best for the little badger," Vlad said quietly. "He is still unaware of so many dangers, and being unprepared…." Vlad hesitated. "Whatever he may think, we are far from invincible. Destroying one part of us will destroy the other. He needs to be able to defend himself."
Defend himself. From them. From other ghost hunters. From other ghosts. Plasmius….
She had often gotten the impression that Plasmius was toying with Phantom.
"Plasmius fights with Phantom," she said. "They're enemies." No, that wasn't right. "You're enemies," she corrected, "at least as far as Danny is concerned."
And Jazz.
And, undoubtedly, Sam and Tucker.
And whoever else knew of this when she had not.
"I rather thought that if he wouldn't accept me as a mentor, pretending to be his enemy would be the only way I could teach him what he needed to know."
"The bounty on Phantom's head—"
"A way of protecting us all."
Maddie frowned. "That doesn't make sense. That was no mock battle, no training session, whatever you might imply about the rest. So many ghost hunters came from out of town—"
"Was Jack not the only one to succeed in catching Phantom? Did that not prove his competency to the others? To, most importantly, the Guys in White? You can understand why I wouldn't want a secret government agency establishing a foothold in Amity Park."
"Jack released Phantom," Maddie said carefully, "because Plasmius threatened our family."
Vlad had the nerve to smile at her, and she was readying herself for an argument, but then his words stole away her anger. "I needed to say something that would ensure Phantom was released, did I not? I had to be convincing or Jack wouldn't give up his prize."
She wanted to say something, but she wasn't sure what, and no words came.
Vlad stepped forward and laid a hand on her arm. This time, the touch was the comfort it had once been, and Maddie didn't pull away. "I know how it looks. I daresay I have a very good idea what Daniel and Jasmine believe of me. I…. Your son is one of the reasons I decided to make the move to Amity Park. Discovering that he was the same as me, that I wasn't alone, gave me a hope I hadn't had in years. Having my subsequent offers of help spurned put me off, I'll admit, but when I heard about, ah, certain incidents, I knew Daniel would have a better chance of avoiding such things in the future if I could help guide him. I never wanted to be your son's enemy. I still do not believe that I am. But I could not in good conscience turn my back on him when I knew I could help, even if his parents hadn't been my best friends in college."
Maybe they really did have it wrong.
She wasn't surprised Vlad had never told them. Becoming akin to a ghost is hardly something you'd so easily tell your friends who were pouring all their resources into funding research to study ecto-entities. This would explain why Vlad had pushed them away, why they'd lost contact for twenty years. He mustn't have thought he could face them. And then to reconnect at the reunion….
To realize that he hadn't been the only victim of their zealous research….
"When this is over," Maddie said, trying not to think about how hollow her voice sounded because she couldn't presently imagine this ever being over, "will you help us understand what we need to do to help Danny? You…you talked about dangers, and I…."
"I would gladly help you, my dear."
Vlad had always made such comments to her. Why did they bother her more now, after Jazz's words, when she knew Jazz and Danny didn't know the whole story, just as she hadn't? It was a skewed version of Vlad, not the truth.
But maybe she still didn't know the truth in its entirety.
Maybe she never would.
"Thank you," Maddie said. It wasn't worth worrying about right now. Finding Danny and Danielle was more important than looking for an ulterior motive Vlad might not even have.
Jack, Sam, and Tucker were searching the Ghost Zone, along with who knew how many ghosts Sam and Tucker counted among their friends. Vlad could already have spread the word here more effectively than she ever could have, even if she had gone through the official channels. Not that she particularly wanted to involve the police after what she'd done. How could she even explain it? She'd never known it was even possible until it was too late, but what if they didn't believe that?
"You do have people looking for them, don't you?" she asked quietly. "Danny and Danielle?"
"Oh, yes. I made some phone calls while you were helping Jack prepare for his trip into the Ghost Zone. Sadly, I've nothing to report yet."
Maddie didn't ask who Vlad had called.
She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.
Now that she knew he was also Plasmius—really, truly Plasmius, and not simply working with him, or hosting him, or anything else she'd considered—she wasn't sure how many of his connections were human and how many would be moving about unseen. He would surely have connections in both worlds, even if he wasn't nearly as powerful in the Ghost Zone as he was in this one, at least in their little corner of America.
"And you're sure you can't think of anyone Danny might have gone to? Considering you share the same, ah, condition?"
Vlad grimaced. "I'm really not holding out on you, whatever Jasmine would like you to believe. I don't have ecto-signatures for either phantom here. I know Daniel has made friends in the Far Frozen, and there are rumours he's interacted more than once with the Ghost of Time, but some ghosts are notoriously unreliable when they gossip. Some of them are far too bored to bother with little things like truths or details."
The Far Frozen. Had Sam and Tucker mentioned something about that? Surely they'd think to look there if Danny had friends there. And a ghost of time…. Clockwork, then? Some of them did seem to be aptly named—or, more likely, had chosen apt names. Plasmius and Phantom could hardly be the only ones who had chosen their names.
"What if we don't find them?" she whispered. "What if Danny didn't go somewhere any of us would think to look for him?"
"He's hardly that much of a strategist," Vlad said dryly. "Besides, he hasn't any resources if he's on his own. He'll need to go to someone for help sooner or later, and we'll be able to find him then."
Maddie bit her lip but didn't contradict Vlad. It was true that planning wasn't one of Danny's strong suits—Jazz had always outshone him in that department—but he was fiercely loyal and very, very good at thinking on his feet when it mattered. He could find a way to do what needed to be done without being predictable.
She couldn't think what he'd do to avoid the Booo-merang when she knew it had found him so reliably before—except perhaps that dead zone that Sam had mentioned (presumably technological, situated as it was in a realm where everything that had ever been living was now dead), the one Tucker wanted to avoid at all costs—but perhaps he thought they wouldn't have an easy time of reassembling it. For all she knew, he'd tried to sabotage it even before any of this had happened, capitalizing on the fact that they'd had it in pieces and hoping they could never use it to track him down again.
If he thought they might go to Vlad for help, he'd hardly choose a place Vlad would think of looking, either. He surely had some idea of the information Vlad had gathered on him, particularly if it was true that he and Tucker would occasionally break into Vlad's lab to destroy all that information. And since he hadn't told Sam and Tucker everything, either, he might very well choose a place they wouldn't think of looking.
That could very well mean Danny wouldn't be in this dead zone, or the Far Frozen, or with this Ghost of Time.
He'd made the deliberate choice to trade away his secret for Danielle. For her life, or a chance at it. Even if he hadn't paused to think about what he was doing at the time, he'd have thought about the consequences of his actions afterwards. He'd have known she'd talk to Jazz, that Jazz would fill her in.
He would know they were looking for him, even if he wasn't entirely sure of the reasons why. If he doubted their intentions, if he had even a sliver of belief that their search was less than honourable, that she might be wanting to finish what she'd started…. The idea made her sick, to think that Danny might see her that way, but she hadn't done much to dissuade him of that notion if that is what he thought of her. She wasn't sure if she'd done anything.
She and Jack had always been quite clear about what they intended to do to the ghosts they captured, Phantom included.
Danny might not think he had reason to believe he'd be treated differently.
Vlad hadn't.
He probably still wouldn't have told them if Jazz hadn't forced his hand, even knowing how much she regretted what she had done.
Because regret didn't erase what she'd done, just as apologies wouldn't, and she had to live with that.
Had she ever shown that she loved her family more than she hated ghosts? Had she ever given Danny or Vlad any indication that she valued human life more than she desired to study ghosts? Jack had, she was sure he had, the time Plasmius had provoked him into releasing Phantom proved that if nothing else, but she—
She—
Ghosts don't feel pain.
How many times had she told that to Danny, never understanding the fear in his eyes?
Ghosts lie.
How many times had she and Jack warned their kids about something they had already known wasn't a blanket truth, just as it wasn't for humans? The Ghost Gabber was never meant to simply translate ghost speech; it had been meant to help them tell truths from lies. Trouble was, they'd never managed to perfect it, so it had been easier to simply warn their kids never to trust a ghost. They'd thought that safer, especially considering how dangerous it could be to trust the wrong one.
But the knowledge that not all ghosts lie, or at least that not all ghosts lie all the time, was at the very heart of why Jack had trusted Phantom to keep his word in the first place when he'd released him. It was, no doubt, why the Red Huntress had worked with him on occasion. And now Vlad was telling her that Plasmius had lied, that he had intentionally manipulated them all, but it had been for Danny's sake, for his education, for his protection, for—
"What about Jack? Will he be safe in the Ghost Zone?"
Maddie didn't think she'd imagined the grimace that flashed across Vlad's face. "I hardly have much influence in the Ghost Zone, but I did put out the word that he was coming once the decision was made."
"Good," Maddie said. "Thank you." Sam and Tucker would take care of Jack once they found him—she had no doubt about that—but until then? Well, there was very good reason they hadn't felt prepared to explore the Ghost Zone by themselves yet. It was a particularly foolish hunter who wandered into the den of their prey without being ready to be at a disadvantage and finding ways to mitigate that.
Perhaps, with Vlad's word that Jack was a friend, that he wasn't an invading force but rather a desperate searcher, he'd be safer than he would otherwise be.
"Anything for you, my dear." Vlad nodded towards her coffee cup that remained on the counter. "Now, do you suppose Jasmine would like some?"
"I think so," Maddie said, retrieving her coffee and taking another steadying sip. It was still warm, of course, but not so hot that it would burn her tongue anymore. It was how Jazz liked her coffee. She tended to take it black unless having it out of the house, in which case she'd have milk or cream, and Maddie said as much to Vlad. She didn't add that she wasn't sure Jazz would accept the coffee Vlad had made, knowing perfectly well that it was a peace offering, if she wasn't ready to make peace.
Maddie thought Jazz would understand Vlad's methods, but she certainly wouldn't like them, nor the reasons behind them, and she'd try to argue. Jazz liked so terribly to be right; she'd hate to think she'd misjudged Vlad so severely, even if she had been blinded by Danny's prejudices.
Just as Maddie had been blinded by her own prejudices when it came to ghosts.
Maddie had finished her first cup of coffee and accepted another after Vlad had poured a cup for himself and Jazz. She clutched hers with both hands and let its warmth seep into her fingers as she followed Vlad through his house. They found Jazz in what must be Vlad's home office. There were more books on the floor, scattered papers, and tipped statues and figurines than Maddie thought was necessary, and Jazz's glower immediately returned when she saw Vlad.
"Don't try to pretend you don't have a lab behind that wall," she snapped, jabbing one hand towards his (now half empty) bookshelf. "I know you do."
"Coffee?" Vlad offered.
Jazz scowled. "There's no point in pretending to hide." Flicking her eyes to meet Maddie's, she added, "Whatever he told you isn't true. He is Plasmius, just like Danny is Phantom."
"I know." Jazz blinked, and Maddie added, "Between what you both told me and what Vlad showed me…." She shrugged. "I can hardly deny the truth forever, however convenient that would be."
"Good." The anger in Jazz's voice hadn't dissipated, but there was no mistaking the fact that it was still directed at Vlad. "Then when I elaborate on some of the awful things both Vlad and Plasmius have done, you won't try to make excuses for him."
"I am standing right here."
"Just wait until you see his lab," Jazz said to Maddie without a glance at Vlad. "From what Danny told me, you'll be more horrified than impressed."
Vlad sighed and put Jazz's coffee down on his desk. "I do wish you'd leave your judgements until after seeing it for yourself."
"Then show us. We need to find Danny. You trying to convince Mom you're actually good when you're rotten through isn't worth our time."
Evidently deciding not to argue with her, Vlad walked over to the football he had on display on his desk and lifted it. Maddie's eyebrows rose. She could see that the football was signed, and she'd hardly thought Vlad would handle his souvenirs so lightly when he was such a huge fan of the Packers.
"A replica," he said, catching her look. "The real one is kept in a phase-proof room behind a military grade security system even the best hacker would have difficultly cracking."
That sounded like it had a story behind it, so Maddie glanced at Jazz, but Jazz's mouth was pressed into a little twist that meant she didn't know the full story, either. Maddie had paid attention to Phantom's fights with other ghosts, but she'd never followed Plasmius outside of his encounters with Phantom. He'd been too elusive, even once he began appearing more regularly in Amity Park.
She wondered how many ghostly enemies Vlad had made over the years. She wondered how many of his allies were truly his allies, considering he took a public stance against Phantom. Was he essentially acting as a double agent when it came to the ghosts, pretending to be opposed to Phantom while really doing everything he could for him? It changed so many things, the knowledge that Plasmius was Vlad, that he genuinely wanted to help Danny.
Perhaps, when they found Danny and Danielle, and Danielle was tended to and on the mend, she could convince Vlad to tell Danny the truth.
Of course, that assumed that she'd be able to convince Danny to listen to Vlad, and she wasn't sure he'd even listen to her.
Not when her own refusal to listen had resulted in this.
Vlad hit a button below the football and replaced it as the bookshelf smoothly swung inward. "After you," he said with a sweeping hand.
Jazz frowned but edged inside carefully. When nothing adverse happened, she seemed satisfied and quickly stepped out of view. Once again, nothing but pale pink light filled the passageway. Had he managed to harness some of his own ecto-energy to run the lab? It wasn't out of the question, considering the weapons they'd powered with ectoplasm….
Maddie looked at Vlad and raised her coffee with her right hand. "You're safe bringing it in," he said, understanding her question. "I haven't any experiments running at the moment, and the chemicals are locked away."
Maddie smiled her thanks before following Jazz's path. Vlad's lab wasn't unlike theirs, though it was more organized and contained bits of technology Maddie couldn't identify. Advanced containment cells? Or something to harness a ghost's energy without harming them? The standard lab equipment was the same, of course, though Vlad's computer was far more advanced than their little home one. Not that that stopped Jazz from bending over it, peering at various screens and jabbing more than one button Maddie was sure she shouldn't be pressing. And at the far wall—
"You have a portal?" Maddie asked, trying to sound as surprised as she had when Jazz had mentioned it in an attempt to prompt information from Vlad he might not otherwise give. Of course, Vlad might see through the ruse—he did know her alarmingly well—but he might take it as a compliment. He always relished taking credit for his work, and he might read lack of surprise as her expecting it of him.
Then again, he might not assume it was praise, coming from her and not from Jack; he might think it logic and that any semblance of surprise was merely derived from the juxtaposition of suspecting versus reality. After all, it made sense that Plasmius had access to the same technology as Phantom, especially considering Vlad had worked with them on the prototype. Of course, they hadn't perfected it until later, long after they'd lost touch with Vlad, and she'd initially thought him too busy to pursue such interests.
Granted, she'd thought a lot of things, most of them wrong, and she'd already been given proof that this was still very much one of Vlad's interests.
"Yes. I managed to work out where we'd gone wrong." Vlad paused. "I should have told you both. I knew you were still pursuing this."
He'd known, but he'd avoided them because they were ghost hunters and he'd become a ghost.
"That's perfectly understandable," Maddie said, and she would have said more, but Jazz let out a frustrated growl.
"Why is nothing working?" she groused, hitting a new combination of buttons and sending yet another glare at Vlad when that didn't have the desired effect.
"I believe your brother's friend is to thank for that."
"No. This isn't just Tucker. It's like you—" She broke off, her eyes widening before they narrowed. "You deleted it all, didn't you? About the ecto-signatures, and the Maddie program, and everything else."
"Maddie program?" Maddie repeated.
"Multiplexed Artificial Discernment and Demonstrative Intelligence Entity," Vlad said. "Not wanting to burden you and Jack with the truth, I was forced to create my own sounding board about future inventions."
"That's not what it is at all," Jazz insisted. "Danny said it was a creepy hologram of you!"
"Yes, Daniel does think the best of me," Vlad said. Maddie started giggling and found she couldn't stop. She was forced to abandon her coffee cup on the workbench and wheeze out an apology between her teeth, but at least Vlad was smiling.
Jazz was not.
"Mom, this isn't funny. Danny wouldn't lie about that. Why would he?"
Maddie knew why Danny might lie—because he believed Vlad to be a bad person and hadn't been sure he could convince Jazz of that without more damning evidence—but that was hardly the point. It was far more likely that his comments had been vague enough to allow Jazz to form her own conclusions, and Danny didn't know to correct her. Jazz didn't want to think the best of Vlad, after all. That was painfully clear in a way it had never been before.
By listening to Vlad, just as she'd listened to Jazz, she'd been afforded the opportunity to understand far more than the little she had before.
"Let's just focus on finding your brother," Maddie said gently, and Jazz frowned but didn't press the issue. "Vlad, even if you happen to have an old copy of Danny's ecto-signature, it might be more recent than ours."
"Or a tracking bug," Jazz added, her arms crossed again. "And I'm assuming you've talked to every ghost on your payroll. I would hope you'd instruct them to tell us and not just you if they find anything, but I'm not going to hold my breath."
"Jazz," Maddie said, and Jazz pressed her lips into a thin line, heeding the warning in Maddie's tone.
"I'm afraid I wasn't lying when I said Daniel and his friends recently destroyed any files that might be relevant to our current search." Jazz snorted, but Vlad continued smoothly, "I'm merely allowing you to look around so that you can see that for yourself. As I said earlier, the resources I do have will go much farther in this realm, even if the means of searching are much more mundane than you were expecting."
"I'm calling Tucker," Jazz said, reaching up to fiddle with her Fenton Phone. "He'll be able to tell me where to look." She flounced over to the other side of the lab, and Maddie offered Vlad a small smile as a means of apology.
"This is hard on all of us," he said diplomatically, "and I can hardly fault Jasmine for believing the façade I've put on since nearly the moment she met me. But while we're waiting for her to come around, why don't I show you some of the tracking prototypes I've been working on? We may not have an ecto-signature, but with your input, we may be able to create something that would be functionally useful. It would be so nice to work alongside you again."
Maddie hesitated. She wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and Vlad was helping them, but— "You've been developing tracking prototypes?"
Vlad smiled at her. "Inspired by your own—or Jack's, I suppose. A combination of your Fenton Finder and the Booo-merang but with the capability to capture a ghost when it reaches them. Poor Daniel can't be run ragged off his feet hunting ghosts all day, and you two and the Red Huntress have your hands full as it is. I thought that if I could find a way to contain a ghost until I could arrange to have it picked up and brought back here to be sent through my portal, it would be a lot less hassle for everyone. I've designs for a prototype that'll automatically return with the captured ghost, but I'm afraid those are still only on paper."
Maddie nodded slowly. It made sense. Vlad was the mayor and was already focused on dealing with the ghost problem in the more human way; Plasmius couldn't exactly run around like Phantom without raising too many questions about Vlad's absence. Danny's repeated absences were providing them with trouble enough.
"Let's see what you've got," Maddie said, walking with Vlad to the other side of the lab. It felt good to work with him again. If Jack were here, it would be just like old times.
Soon enough, it might be. If they could find Danny. Help Danielle. Explain everything to Jack. Tell the kids what Vlad had really been up to all along—and prove that his plans weren't the nefarious ones they'd feared.
It was a long road between there and here, but for the first time since this began, Maddie allowed herself to hope.
