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Jack opened the door with trepidation, but did his best to hide his trembling hands behind bright smiles and joyful greetings.
“Vladdy!” He watched Vlad school his face into a neutral expression. The man had never been a fan of Jack’s boisterous outbursts in college either. If anything, his tolerance for them seemed to have gotten worse. “Good to see you again! Maddie’s on patrol today, so it’s just us two.” Jack barely held onto his smile at Vlad's poorly concealed grimace.
“It is good to see you, Jack. May I ask what prompted the invite?” The question was smooth, formal. Nothing like the warm response he might have once gotten from the man. Jack’s heart sank as he considered his next words carefully. He could play along, spend time getting reacquainted, and reminiscing, but he could see exactly how that would play out if he did.
They’d been good once, the three of them, but it was obvious by now that Vlad was trying to push Jack out entirely and take his place, and that wasn’t what he or his wife wanted. They had children; they had built a life together, and while there was room for Vlad if he was willing to stay, there was no way Jack was going to be shoved to the side. They would either work it out as a team, or they would go their separate ways.
And then there was this thing with Danny. Jack wasn’t entirely sure what Vlad was doing there. It was no secret that he and Maddie had trained together in college. Jack remembered the countless times both of them tried to teach him to fight, the fumbling hits he’d managed while they each countered him flawlessly. It didn’t make sense why Vlad would be losing every fight, even if only barely. He didn’t know what Vlad had said to Danny, either, but it was clear that his son was desperate to keep Vlad out of their house, and even more desperate to keep them out of Vlad’s house. Maddie had her theories, but Jack was worried that the man they remembered was long gone.
“Jack?” Vlad looked uncomfortable, and Jack shook off the thoughts he had rattling around to gesture at one of the kitchen chairs while he took the other. Vlad hesitated before seating himself, and Jack folded his hands and looked at the floor. He would never be able to start the conversation if they were looking at each other.
“I visited you in the hospital, you know.” Vlad stiffened. “After your accident. I went every day for a month. Some days Maddie would come with me, if she had time, but most days I’d go alone. I toned it down to twice a week after my grades started dropping, but I was still there. You were always behind a screen, and they kept refusing to pass our letters to you. I don't even know if they told you we were there at all. They would only let us look from a distance, but I still…” Jack sniffled and rubbed his eyes. He wasn’t going to cry. He had to get this out.
“The staff stopped allowing visitors after six or seven months. They weren’t sure you were going to heal, but they still wanted to study the effects of the ecto-acne. We have some of the first studies they did, but they stopped contacting us shortly after they shut us out. Maddie and I were heartbroken, but there was nothing we could do. No one we could contact. We thought… We thought once you woke up that you’d call, or…” Jack closed his eyes, and swallowed the lump in his throat.
“I know it was my fault, what happened to you,” he whispered. “And I know you don’t like talking about it, but I’ve never been more sorry for something in my life. I was careless, and you got hurt.” At last he looked up. Vlad was staring blankly at Jack’s hands, so he lifted them to his face, only to back off when Vlad flinched. He closed his eyes again and sighed, putting his hands back down.
“I will never forgive myself for what happened to you. To us. We were something then, weren’t we?” Vlad said nothing. “But what you’re doing to my son? It ends here.”
Jack looked back up at Vlad to find him staring at him in shock. “I don’t know what you said to Danny, but I have never seen him more terrified in my life. He doesn’t deserve this, Vlad. I know you’re mad at me, and I’ve earned that. For what happened to you and to him. But you can’t keep putting him through this. You can’t–” Jack clenched his jaw and let out a sharp breath.
“I know you could be winning those fights if you were really trying.” Vlad stiffened further. “I can’t for the life of me figure out why you’d lose on purpose, but I know you, V-man. I know how capable you are. But I also know my son. Even if you’re just messing around, he thinks it’s real, and he’s scared. I just– why?”
“You knew..?” The words were whispered, stuttered out on barely more than a breath.
“Not at first. Took Maddie a couple weeks to figure out what happened with Danny after the portal turned on.” He huffed a laugh. “We had to overhaul all our old research. Obviously we were wrong on a lot of things, so we’ve been trying to do better. We even updated all our equipment to ignore Danny’s ecto-signature, but we were waiting for him to come to us once we earned his trust again. With you... We kept an eye out for any updates going on in your life, but we didn’t figure out you were like Danny until you moved to Amity Park. After that it didn’t take much to figure out what you’d really been up to since you got out of the hospital.”
“I don’t need your judgement, Jack Fenton.”
“No?” Jack responded to the venom with a sneer, shocking Vlad into silence again. Jack Fenton was normally a cheery person, but he was willing to make an exception in this case. “Threatening doctors to keep quiet? Possessing business owners to steal from them? Robbing banks? Attacking my son and playing games with his mind?” He stood up, towering over Vlad who, for the first time, actually looked ashamed.
“I can understand wanting the doctors to keep what they learned to themselves. I can even try to understand the theft; they were mostly bigger companies, or just plain awful people, so Maddie and I were willing to forget about it. But Danny? He’s a good kid, and I won’t let you keep hurting him, Vlad.”
“Training.”
“What?”
“I–” Vlad swiped a hand down his face, grimacing as he did. “I was training him. I had to learn the hard way when I was starting out. The Infinite Realms - the Ghost Zone - it's not a playground to fool around in. They nearly ended me more times than I can count. I thought… If he knew it was training… He wouldn’t try as hard. He wouldn’t progress as quickly. Someone needed to teach him. We’re the only two of our kind, Jack. I.. I didn’t want to be alone.”
Jack flopped back down on the chair, which creaked worryingly, and stared at Vlad in frustration. Was he always this dramatic?
“He fought the ghost king.” Jack pointed out. Vlad glared at the floor.
“He had assistance.” Vlad retorted. “And he almost died in the process.”
He had a point there. That had been a stressful day for their family. Jack shook his head. “What did you say to him to convince him you were serious?”
Vlad turned a deep shade of red, and mumbled under his breath.
Jack quirked an eyebrow. “What was that?”
“I– told him I wanted to kill you and marry Maddie.” His shoulders came up to his ears, and he started to fidget with the ends of his sleeves.
That… Would do it, yeah. “I’m calling Maddie. You can explain yourself to her.”
His eyes widened in horror as Jack grabbed his phone, and he reached out to stop him. “Jack, you can’t. Maddie will end me. She’ll tear out my spine, and dance on my grave. Please, if you ever cared about me–”
Jack shrugged him off. “Of course I cared. We both did. You were the one who stopped answering when we called.” He typed Maddie’s number in and put the phone up to his ear. She picked up on the third ring.
“Jack? How did the talk with Vlad go?”
“He’s still here. You were right. It was training.” His shoulders un-tensed as he listened to her delighted laugh, and a small smile formed on his face. She had hoped that was the case, but they had also prepared for the worst. Jack was wearing a Specter Deflector - carefully engineered to ignore Danny’s ecto-signature but not Vlad’s - and he had a portable ghost shield ready to be turned on at a moment’s notice. And if Vlad had tried anything, he’d have also had to contend with their home security system. Jack was pleased it hadn’t come to that.
“Did you ask him what he said to Danny?” Maddie asked. She sounded a lot more hopeful than she had this morning.
“Sure did! You’ll get a kick out of this one: he told Danny he was trying to kill me so he could marry you.” The line went quiet, and Vlad shrunk into his chair.
“Jack?” His smile widened at her tone.
“Yes, Maddie?”
“Show him to the Ops center, would you? I think it’s time I reminded Vlad just who he’s been messing with.” He laughed at the threat in her voice. Ah, poor V-man. But actions have consequences.
“Will do, snuggle-bug. See you soon.” She hung up without responding, and Jack knew that she had likely already been close to home, waiting on an update. He looked at Vlad with a grin, and Vlad narrowed his eyes.
“Well?” He snapped. “What’s the verdict? Shall I start updating my will? Buy myself a coffin, perhaps?”
Jack slouched backwards, grin still prominent. “She’s on her way back. She wants me to show you to the Ops center. We have a wrestling ring up there that she uses to train the kids.”
This seemed to baffle the man, and Jack bit his lip to keep from chuckling. “I don’t understand. I thought I was in trouble.”
“Oh, you are. She wants to fight you one on one. Quite the spitfire, isn’t she, our Maddie? Hope you’re as good as you used to be, or this will be over quickly. She definitely kept up with her training.”
Vlad opened his mouth to respond - probably with something rude - when the front door opened. Jack stood, ready to escort Vlad up to the Ops center for their battle, when his son walked in the room with his two friends. Everyone froze.
“Dad..?” Danny looked back and forth between him and Vlad, confusion evident on his face. “What’s going on?”
“Danno! Uh, your mom is on her way back to… Talk to V-man.” Vlad snorted and Jack shot him a look. “What are you doing home? I thought you were hanging out at Tucker’s today.”
The friend in question shuffled his feet, glancing at Danny. Ah. Another ghost fight. Despite their best efforts, Danny chose to keep only a couple first-aid kits. One was at school, and the other was in his room. Jack would bet his entire wallet that that’s what they’d come back for.
“We… wanted to stargaze?” It sounded like a question. And it was midday. Jack watched Sam facepalm at the weak excuse, but chose to ignore it. He was pretty sure both his kids had gotten their ability to lie from him - which was to say they were terrible at it. That was a known fact.
“Oh. Well.” He wracked his brain for something to say. “We’re out of fudge, but I can make a new batch if you kids are hungry.”
Before any of them could answer, Vlad interjected. “Oh, for God’s sake, Jack. Daniel, he knows.”
All three kids stiffened, and Jack whirled back around to face the dramatic fool. “I told you we were waiting for him to tell us!” Immediately, it was chaos.
“You what?”
“Holy shit–”
“Does Mrs. Fenton–”
“How long have–”
“Do you think–”
The door opened again, and his lovely wife walked into the endless stream of questions, pausing as the room quieted once more. She slowly closed the door, and looked at each person in turn, putting her hands on her hips and staring down the room.
“What is going on here?”
“Maddie, love, they know that we know.” She pursed her lips, unimpressed.
“I assume that was Vlad’s doing, then?” They all turned to the man in question as he cleared his throat and straightened his tie, playing at nonchalance.
“Clearly someone needed to inform the boy. If I’m going to be insulted for keeping secrets, then we might as well have them all out in the open.”
Maddie squinted at him as she thought that over. After a moment, she relaxed and chuckled airily. “Honestly, darling, one would think you learned nothing in college.” Vlad withered at the insult, and Danny’s face went through a myriad of emotions while his friends glanced at each other. “Come along, Vlad. Jack. The Ops center awaits, and it has been far too long since I’ve had a good fight. Even the ghost fights are becoming a bit simple.”
Both men followed after her, and Jack heard the kids follow after a few seconds as well, whispering amongst themselves frantically. There was going to be a family meeting after this, he just knew it. And poor Jazzy had missed everything, off tutoring someone in Danny’s year. She’d be up all night psychoanalyzing the events, he was sure. That girl was going places. Both his kids were.
It wasn’t long before they made it to the Ops center. Danny and his friends had quieted down along the way, but when Maddie finally turned around to give Vlad further instruction, Danny’s patience wore off.
“What is going on?!” He yelled.
“Danny!” Both his friends shouted back at him.
“No, really! Why is he here?! If you know, then you should also know that he’s been attacking me constantly!” He continued, pointing at Vlad, who rolled his eyes.
“Danny,” Maddie started. Danny glared back at her. “Vlad received the same training I did. He and I both have ninth degree black belts, and you still lose fights to me all the time. Vlad was losing on purpose, sweetheart.”
Danny’s face turned pale within seconds, and changed to red even quicker. “You– He– What?”
“Come now, Daniel. I’ve been a half-ghost for years. You didn’t honestly think you could compete, did you?” There was murder in Danny’s eyes.
“That’s enough out of you.”
“Maddie–”
“Don’t you Maddie me, Vlad Masters. I don’t care what your excuse is, that is my son. You are a grown man. You knew damn well what you were doing when you targeted him. And without so much as a ‘how do you do’ to Jack and me.”
Vlad put his hands up in deference. “I merely wanted him safe! It was only a matter of time before he found himself in the Ghost Zone and–”
“That’s the reason you’re going with?!”
“There are dangers there, child,” Vlad hissed, glaring at Danny.
“Oh, you mean dangers like the GHOST KING?”
“That was an accident,” Vlad snapped.
“The bounty you put on me?” Danny snapped back.
“I needed their portal!”
“Build your own!” Danny yelled. Maddie threw her hands up.
“I did! And you destroyed my lab!” Jack and Maddie exchanged a glance. They hadn’t heard about that one.
“You cloned me!” Danny screeched.
“He what?” Jack startled and looked at Vlad to find the man avoiding his gaze. He looked back at his wife. “Maddie?”
“Danielle is staying with my sister for the moment. I met her a few weeks ago. From her testing, she appears to be mentally and physically around age 12, so I sent her with some of Jasmine’s old school books. I was going to tell you once she’d decided if she wanted to stay with us permanently.” Jack blinked.
Danny grabbed at his hair with both fists and whined. “She never told me that!”
“Well of course not,” Maddie said, arms crossed. “I asked her not to get your hopes up. And your father and I still hadn’t decided if we should continue waiting for you to tell us about Phantom. Danielle thought it would be funny if we ‘pulled a long con’ in her words. I don’t doubt she’ll find this entire situation hilarious. Last we spoke, she still hadn’t decided what she wanted to do, so we chose to wait. And believe me, Vlad and I are going to have a nice long talk about boundaries, but this is in line with his ghostly Obsession, so we’ll all just have to adjust.”
“His ghost Obsession is you,” Danny pointed out.
“Both,” Vlad whispered.
“What?” Danny frowned.
“His Obsession is both of us,” Maddie reiterated. “Me and Jack. I’m not sure what exactly he might have told you, but he added his own DNA to your cloned cells to create a child made from all three of us.”
Danny looked like he was going to be sick. “You hadn’t even seen him in twenty years!”
“We’ve been keeping tabs on him the entire time. And he’s been keeping tabs on us too. Haven’t you, darling?” Vlad blushed, but said nothing in his defense. Danny looked even more stressed.
“But– but– he threatened to kill Dad!”
Vlad scoffed. “Daniel, if I wanted him dead, he’d be dead. The man is oblivious to the point of negligence.”
“Hey!”
Jack put his hand on Danny’s shoulder. “No, no. He’s got a point, Danno. Your mom is the observant one between us. I didn’t even know I had another daughter.”
“A daughter whose other father should have taken better care of her,” Maddie seethed. “Which we will also be discussing. But for now…” Maddie entered the boxing ring and put up a ghost shield, grabbing wrappings for her hands. “Vlad, dear. Enter the ring. It’s time you had a refresher.”
Jack smirked at the two of them as Vlad gulped, but followed orders. They both started wrapping their hands in preparation for hand to hand combat.
“Dude, did your mom just flirt with him?” Tucker whispered.
“I’m trying not to think about it.” Danny’s voice broke, and Jack tried to reign in his amusement. Sam had no qualms about laughing, not trying to quiet herself at all.
“Oh this is rich,” she said, still chuckling. “Your parents were in a throuple with your biggest enemy, and you didn’t even know!”
“Are, sweetie. We are in a throuple.” Danny gagged at his mother’s words as Sam and Tucker burst into laughter. “We decided to try again when he moved here. And if he’d called at any point after he got out of the hospital, we would have invited him back much sooner.”
Sam and Tucker doubled over, struggling to breathe through their howling, but Danny just stood there looking mortified at the news. “Mom, why?”
“Well, when three people love each other–”
“Gah!” Danny covered his ears and made a face. “No! Nevermind! Sorry I asked!”
Maddie laughed lightly, and finished wrapping her hands. “Don’t worry, Danny. We’ll hardly be letting him get away with the nonsense he was before. You don’t have to worry about a single thing. Vlad will be on his best behavior. Won’t you, Vlad?”
“I–” He looked at Jack for help, wincing when he got none. “Yes, Maddie.”
“Good! I’ll hold you to that,” she said, cracking her neck in both directions before dropping the grin and getting into proper form. “Now hands up, Masters. I won’t be going easy on you.”
As the fight began, Jack heard Sam whisper loudly to Danny: “Your mom is a badass. I think I’m in love.”
And if Jack’s boundless laughter made Vlad flinch into the first hit, that was neither here nor there. Just like college. For all that Vlad had made poor choices, he was still the same man after all. Jack was glad. It was going to be a rough transition, but he and Maddie were both ready to meld all the pieces of their lives back together. They’d missed that snarky little bastard.
‘We’ll figure this out as a family,’ he thought as Vlad tried to defend against a barrage of hits, the children’s taunting and laughter following the butt-kicking he was receiving. Given time, Vlad and Danny might even learn to get along. Jack smiled at the scene, hands in his pockets and love in his eyes. ‘We’re all going to be just fine.’