Chapter Text
Jazz left at the end of the week. Vlad had approached her again a few days prior to offer a recent--and unexpected--internship opening in New York.
They accompanied her to the airport and sent her off; Maddie double and triple checking she had everything she needed and reminding her to call and check in, Vlad being endlessly supportive and positive about what her future held for her.
Danny stood quietly off to the side, busily tapping his foot and looking at everything else. He couldn’t occupy himself away from the final goodbye and when his turn came, there was a brief, awkward pause before they stiffly embraced, breaking away quickly--Jazz reminding them she was going to miss her flight.
The ride home was just as bad. Danny sat slumped in the backseat, arms folded and staring out the window. Vlad was, of course, the only one remotely at ease and tried to distract Maddie with small talk, detailing everything Jazz would learn and have the opportunity to do in New York. In vain, it seemed. Even Maddie seemed dimmed.
Once back at the mansion, Danny made a beeline for the staircase, trying to make his resistance to conversation or mingling painfully obvious. He barely made it into the lobby before Vlad spoke to him, making his skin crawl with unease.
“Daniel, a moment. I’d like to borrow you.” He posed it as a request, but they both knew better.
Danny happened to catch the warm wink he offered Maddie and suspected he had missed something they had said in the car.
He didn’t reply; just begrudgingly followed Vlad into his study, letting his own sulkiness ooze out of him in the hopes that it might make Vlad just uncomfortable enough to decide to cut whatever he wanted short.
Vlad closed the study doors behind them and turned to him, hands behind his back and smiling warmly.
“Quite an eventful day, eh, Little Badger?”
Danny roughly pulled a chair out from in front of Vlad’s desk, plopping himself into it. He tucked his free arm under his cast and sunk into the cushion, allowing an aura of misery to form a bubble around him.
“Have you already forgotten our previous conversation?”
“Look, you got me here,” he snapped. “Isn’t that good enough?”
“‘Getting’ you here is only part of what I wanted, Daniel,” Vlad replied with a false gentleness. “I want you both to be happy here.”
“Well, enjoy half a victory forever then,” Danny replied.
“You do realize that this juvenile pettiness only hurts you in the long run?”
“I don’t know, it seems like you’re getting frustrated. That’s pretty worth it,” Danny countered.
Vlad shook his head and folded both hands behind his back. “I’m surprised you’re willing to sacrifice your mother’s happiness on the off-chance you’ll irritate me. It doesn’t particularly align with your heroic moral code. But perhaps you’re growing.”
“I think you’re giving me way too much credit. She thinks dad is a child abuser; how happy were you picturing she’d be?”
“Oh, you’d be surprised how much influence you have right now, Daniel. You must be more distracted than I thought.”
“Being blackmailed is pretty distracting,” Danny grumbled, slipping even further down the chair until his back was nearly in the seat. Maybe he could slide onto the floor and out the door without Vlad noticing.
“Or perhaps it’s your injury,” Vlad mused, then glanced at Danny sideways. “It must be quite deflating to the ego to be impaired by such minor injuries. Perhaps your mood would improve if your powers were restored.”
Danny’s attention returned to Vlad, feeling as defensive as he was confused.
“Human healing is frustratingly slow, isn’t it? How long did the doctor say it would take for that to heal? Months? And even then, it regrows more fragile than before.”
Danny discreetly took a deep breath, sliding back up the chair. “What are you talking about?”
Vlad stared at him for a moment, then seemed to think of something amusing. He smiled patronizingly. “It never occurred to you, did it?”
Danny blinked at him uncomprehendingly. “What didn’t?”
“I’d laugh if it wasn’t so concerning,” Vlad said, the smile betraying his lie, “My boy, we need to work on your critical thinking skills. I’ll have to adjust your curriculum.”
“ What ?” Danny snapped impatiently, leaning forward in the seat.
Vlad chuckled. “I thought you were just being stubborn.”
Danny’s brows pressed together and he hated how long it took him to realize what Vlad was talking about. It should have been obvious, but he had stupidly assumed his healing issues had been coincidental, just another power he didn't quite have enough control over.
“You took my healing…?”
“Of course I did,” Vlad replied simply, smugly.
“H-how did you… how–When–? That’s… that's why the doctors didn’t find out at the hospital, isn't it?” Danny guessed.
“A fortunate side effect of dulling your healing factor. But now that we have the pesky business of framing your father and fooling your doctors out of the way,” Vlad boasted, pushing himself off of the fireplace with his shoulder and turning to face it. ”I would be inclined to return those powers to you.”
He reached up and pulled on an antique-looking candle like a lever. When it responded as such, the fireplace popped out slightly and slid off to the right, revealing a narrow, metal staircase. Vlad stepped aside and stood in front of the entrance.
“All I would ask is that your mood improves around your mother.”
Danny looked at the staircase, gripped the armrest a little tighter as he deliberated. Part of him wanted to be petty, the bitter part of him wanting to reject anything Vlad had to offer just on principle.
The smart move was to say yes, get his healing factor back, and then he’d have a real chance of opposing Vlad.
Some other part of him, indifferent to his reasoning and pettiness, kept clinging to the armrest as he stared at the dark, deep staircase.
He tore his eyes away and leaned back into his chair again. “Fine. Just do whatever you need to do up here,” he said, accentuating the bitterness in his voice.
“Nonsense,” Vlad replied. “Everything I need is in the lab.”
Danny doubled down, glaring hard at the floor and hoping his stubbornness might for once pay off for him.
“I can take away this reward as easily as I can offer it.”
Danny gritted his teeth, glanced at the staircase uneasily. Slowly, he stood from the chair and dragged his feet to the entrance of Vlad’s lab, legs feeling like lead and jelly all at the same time. At the top of the stairs, he stared down into the darkness and felt frozen to the spot. His left arm ached and he worried the tender, healing wound on his lower lip anxiously.
Vlad stared at him, arching a brow. “Well?”
“I’m going,” Danny complained, but he kept just standing in the doorway like a moron. It was just dark, he reasoned. If Vlad turned on a light, maybe he wouldn’t feel so anxious.
Vlad rolled his eyes dramatically next to him and suddenly the man's hand was on the back of Danny’s neck, forcefully guiding him down the staircase. Danny’s heart jumped at the first couple of steps, but Vlad didn’t release him, and as much as he hated Vlad touching him, he wasn’t sure if he would have gone on his own.
The soft echoes of their steps on the metal staircase reverberated on walls that felt too close and the further down they went, the closer they felt.
Vlad turned on the lights shortly after they had reached the bottom and, finally, let go of his neck.
The reclined examination chair in the middle of the room caught Danny's eye first, but the rest of the lab wasn’t much more inviting. There was a room off to the right side that was separated by a small alcove and a wall of glass; inside nothing but an empty, all-white space. To the left were a set of doors that looked like they belonged in a bank vault. Besides the chair in the center of the main room, it looked a lot like his dad’s lab, but cleaner and more organized. Shelves lined the walls with beakers and vials, those separated by whether they were in use or not, and neatly organized tools and gadgets that Danny didn’t recognize. He supposed it couldn’t be that much different than anything his parents had, although the dumb naming convention they used was probably pretty similar.
Danny stood by the entryway of the staircase, fists clenched rigidly at his sides, still worrying his lip and trying not to notice how short his breathing was getting.
Vlad stepped over to the chair, went to pat the seat invitingly, but stopped mid-pat as he cast a quizzical look Danny's way.
Vlad’s expression shifted into a knowing, teasing expression. “Don’t be so dramatic, Little Badger. I'm not your mother. I won't dissect you.”
Danny plastered an offended scowl on his face, but it felt forced and he couldn't muster the feeling past the tightness in his chest.
Vlad stared at him, rolled his eyes impatiently. “I'm only teasing, Daniel.”
Danny swallowed, cheeks flushing with embarrassment as he tried to move but couldn't. He looked down at his feet. They looked fine. He looked fine.
He looked back at the staircase and felt a little wave of dizziness.
He jumped in his skin when he felt a hand on the back of his neck again, embarrassment coiling deeper in his stomach as he felt his nerves tremble.
“Daniel?”
“I know,” Danny answered quickly, then winced at himself, not sure which of Vlad’s questions he'd just tried and failed to answer.
Vlad quirked a brow at him before guiding him over to the chair.
Danny mechanically stepped forward, felt some breath coming back to him as he got closer to the chair and focused on it.
“Have a seat,” Vlad instructed.
Danny stared at it and didn't see anything that could restrain him up close either, but still decided to sit awkwardly on the corner edge, just in case.
Danny felt Vlad watching him and tried to act stoically indignant, but kept undermining himself when he would forget to breathe and would have to take little, strained inhales.
“Try to relax,” Vlad told him. “This won’t take long and you’ll feel better by the end of it.”
Danny watched Vlad disappear into one of the closed off rooms and tried to take the opportunity to calm down, clenching the edges of the seat while he closed his eyes and breathed in and out slowly.
Vlad returned almost immediately with a tray holding two syringes and a pair of scissors.
Danny eyed the needles warily. “Are you serious,” he groused, fidgeting on the seat. “What is all of that even for? Can’t you just do whatever you did to stop my healing? You didn’t need… needles.”
“If you’d like to wait three months for it to take effect, certainly. Otherwise, yes, the needles are necessary,” Vlad replied dismissively. “You will need to be in your ghost form for the first half.”
Begrudgingly, Danny transformed into his ghost half. Vlad somewhat gently gripped Danny’s upper left arm and pulled it up. Danny winced, pain flaring in his shoulder at the uncomfortable angle. Vlad inserted the needle through the suit and into his skin, apparently just sure where the vein would be, and injected him slowly with something thick and painful. He winced and fidgeted at the sensation and the uncomfortable angle Vlad kept his arm at.
“Hold still,” Vlad instructed.
“Stop pulling my arm,” Danny grunted, trying to readjust in the chair to give himself some slack. He moved a little too sharply and he yelped as stabbing pain shot from his shoulder to his elbow.
An unwelcome chuckle from the other side of the room immediately followed.
Danny’s head snapped up as Skulker phased through the floor and dropped down in front of them, grinning at the scene wickedly.
“Well, well, taming the pup took less time than I thought. I’m impressed, Plasmius.” Skulker approached the chair, sneering at Danny pointedly.
“Skulker. To what do I owe this unannounced visit?” Vlad asked, setting the needle down on the tray. He grabbed the scissors before telling Danny, “I need to observe your shoulder. Hold still.”
Danny’s jaw clenched, acutely aware of the smug grin Skulker was giving him as he watched Vlad take the scissors and cut through the neckline of Danny’s jumpsuit. The rebellious side of him wanted to make a scene and prove to the both of them Vlad didn’t have control of him, but Vlad was quick and really kind of clinical about it, and before he could build up the courage or not, his suit had a tear large enough for Vlad to pull it aside to look at his shoulder.
Danny turned his head away. He hadn't looked at it since the lab and he didn't want to know how much worse the mottled purple and blue bruising had gotten, but his attention was brought to the area when Vlad pressed on the bone. Danny hissed a gasp and reached up to cover the area and pull away.
Vlad let him, albeit with an impatient expression.
“I thought you said that would heal me!” Danny complained, hovering his hand over his shoulder protectively.
“You’re too generous, Plasmius,” Skulker commented, eyeing the situation with sadistic satisfaction. “The welp deserves to suffer through some pain.”
“I'm not done,” Vlad told him, swatting Danny’s hand away. “Rotate your shoulder.”
Danny hesitated warily.
“It should only feel uncomfortable,” Vlad assured him.
Danny complied, only wincing at some stiffness and slight discomfort, but at least he could move it.
Vlad glanced sidelong at Skulker. “Stop gawking. What is it?”
“I’d… rather we talk privately,” Skulker replied and the embarrassment drew Danny’s attention back to the hunter ghost. A quick glance at the ghost's arm had him chuckling aloud.
“You still haven’t gotten rid of Tucker’s PDA?”
Vlad quirked a brow and glanced Skulker's way.
“The blasted technology doesn’t allow the time to remove it,” Skulker defended with a snarl. “I have 2 minutes before it sends me to do research at the library.”
“I’ll deal with you later, Skulker,” Vlad told him, returning his attention to Danny. “Daniel, if you would transform again.”
“I barely managed to get here at all!” Skulker groused.
With a sigh of annoyance, Vlad walked over to a cabinet and retrieved a small blue box, tossing it at Skulker. The hunter ghost snagged it out of the air, and at his touch, it grew in size and engulfed him.
“Gah! What is the meaning of this?” Skulker roared indignantly.
“You won’t be going anywhere in there and I can deal with you later,” Vlad told him, then turned back to Danny, snapping impatiently, “Transform.”
Danny disliked that Skulker was still able to watch them, even if he was trapped, but begrudgingly transformed into his human half.
“Your collar.”
Danny obliged, stretching his t-shirt down.
Vlad grabbed the last of the needles and injected it under the bone, setting aside once done and pausing to stare at Danny’s shoulder.
Danny swallowed uncomfortably and started raising the collar of his tee, but Vlad reprimanded him and continued staring. After what felt like a full minute, Vlad let him pull his collar back up.
Relieved that it was finally over, Danny released his collar and rotated his shoulder experimentally. He choked on a shout and grabbed at his arm, pinching his eyes shut.
“What the hell?!” he exclaimed through a tight breath.
“Oh, did I not mention? Unfortunately your mother will notice if you inexplicably recover from a broken bone overnight. So while I have increased your healing abilities in your ghost half, I can only allow your human half a fraction of that. Rest assured, it will heal well, but you’ll just have to be patient.”
Skulker laughed mockingly. “A wise decision, Plasmius. Pain is an excellent tool for maintaining obedience. Not that it looks like you need it.”
Danny slid off the chair and glared at the hunter ghost. “Laugh it up, tinhead. Maybe it’ll help you pass the time in there.”
“My prison is temporary,” Skulker replied. “In an hour, I will be back in Amity Park. And you will still be here.”
Danny froze as all of the tension and pain focused in on that one sentence and without thinking. he had turned on his heel, eyes flashing green as he raised a hand and fired off an ectoblast at the box.
Only for Vlad to snatch it moments after it was fired, dissolving it in his palm casually. In the same cavalier manner, he gripped the nape of Danny’s neck and steered the wide-eyed boy towards the staircase.
“These little temper tantrums do nothing for you but emphasize your incompetence,” he remarked, guiding Danny up a step or two before releasing him. “And since the subject is brought to mind, now would be an excellent time to begin your studies. Start at the top of your bookshelf and work your way down. I’ll inspect your progress tomorrow morning.”
Heat radiating from his ears and cheeks, Danny rushed up the stairs, the secret door shutting behind him.
He retreated to his room, slamming the door shut behind him and standing in the middle of the space. The bare furniture and unfamiliar bed stared back at him.
Skulker’s words started echoing in his mind unbidden, and the walls started pressing on him, reminding him that this wasn’t his room, this wasn’t his house, and he was a long, long way from home.
He looked over at the dresser, but it looked as beat up as he was feeling. With a snarl, he transformed again without thinking about it and floated up through the roof, unable to stand being in that cramped space anymore. He let his feet land softly on the rooftop and looked out past the pines that framed Vlad’s estate. He wondered which way Amity Park was and if he could get there and back before Vlad noticed; just to prove Skulker wrong.
He flew out over the trees, heading towards the back of the estate, mostly making a noncommittal guess. He didn’t think it was going to matter, anyway. He doubted Vlad would leave such a glaring security breach.
And yet, he just kept flying, getting more and more confused and emboldened the further he got. He wasn’t going very fast, having assumed he would run into a barrier sooner rather than later, but, as it was, he was close to reaching the end of Vlad’s estate and he was just… still going. Unimpeded. Past an elaborate garden and… did Vlad have a private football field?
He dared to hope, seeing the edge of the property line getting closer and closer. Now he wished he had paid more attention when they had arrived. He could probably fly to Amity in two hours. Vlad would never have to know he had left. And if he could fly there, maybe he could do something to help his dad. If he could remove the overshadow on him, Vlad wouldn’t have anything on him. He could–
He flew headfirst into a barrier, stumbling in the air and putting his hands over his smarted forehead. Rubbing away the ache, he looked down at the ground beneath. He was past the edge of the property.
Danny flew to the ground, transformed into his human half and stretched out his hand toward the barrier.
It still held firm.
His fists clenched as the hope was transplanted with frustration. Not only had Vlad made a shield that could block him in both forms, he had made the shield bigger than he needed it to be, just to let him get his hopes up and dash them. He had probably intended to be there when Danny discovered it. At least he had deprived him of that.
Another mini victory in a game he was thoroughly, painfully losing.
He snarled and punched the invisible barrier, but he hadn’t put a lot of effort into it. He suddenly didn’t have a lot available to him.
Embarrassed by his own stupidity, he sullenly flew back to the mansion, landing on the rooftop again. He stood there, staring at nothing, cheeks flushed and wallowing in a steadily creeping sense of hopelessness.