Hi everyone! Just realized that I hadn't crossposted this final alternate AU for SoaD, aka the Vlad ending. Quick reminder that the SoaD fanart contest ends one week from today! Check out the link in my profile.

Notes in brackets are to clarify and fill in missing parts. Enjoy!

-Hj

You said I killed you―haunt me, then! ...Be with me always―take any form―drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

― Emily Brontë

[This picks up just before SoaD Ch. 55. Maddie received the phone call in Ch. 53 about Danny's location and is leaving to (hopefully) find him.]

Jack watched through the bedroom as Maddie's little car edged around the GAV, pulled out of the drive and went down the street. The moment it disappeared, around the corner, he let the curtain fall and and sprang–or, okay, limped– for the stairs.

There was another reason he wanted to stay behind, something he had to do that Maddie absolutely wouldn't approve of. He flicked the light on in the kitchen and bustled around, humming to himself. Sandwich first; he took two thick slices of rye and piled on the ham and lettuce, adding a couple slices of cheese. He rummaged in the back of the fridge and produced two beers; wine would be better, but they hadn't restocked since the last time a ghost smashed a hole through the pantry.

Jack grabbed an apple and a couple of oranges, balanced them on the plate next to the sandwich, tucked the beers under his arm, and made his way carefully down the stairs. He opened the hatch to the ghost containment unit and slid the plate and one of the beers inside. Then he set the other one on the control console and limped to the orderly shelf of containment units.

He stared at the thermos on the top shelf. The occupied light winked steadily. What was it like in there? They'd made the thermos to compress a ghost's ectoplasmic form as tiny as it could get without damaging the integrity of the ghost's ectoelectric matrix. Diodes lining the interior prevented scrambling of the electrical currents, guaranteeing that you'd get the same ghost out that you'd put in, instead of an ectosoup.

Jack knew how it worked, but he'd never really thought about how it must feel. Pretty miserable, he guessed. He picked it up and ran his thumb over the red V on the side. "You're still my friend, Vladdie. You just won't admit it yet."

Jack nodded sharply to himself; he strode–okay, limped– across the room and clicked the thermos into its slot on the side of the containment unit. The glass fogged a little wit the sudden chill. He backed up to the control console and pushed a button, grabbing his beer and popping off the top with the edge of the table.

A hiss, and a cloud of blue-green smoke billowed into the tank. Red eyes formed first, glaring and ominous. Well, Jack wouldn't be happy either after a few weeks in that thing.

"Hey buddy," Jack said, tipping his beer toward the glaring red eyes. "How've you been holding up?"

The cloud surrounding the eyes contorted, then snapped into shape. His old friend collapsed in a heap, twitching. Arms, legs body, cape, though weirdly misshapen at the edges, as if he were looking at Vlad through a fish-eye lens.

Jack set down his beer and stood up. That wasn't supposed to happen– the thermos kept ghosts stable and that most definitely didn't look stable. "Hey, you okay pal?"

A shuddering sound that might have been a growl or a groan wafted up from the tank.

"Vladdie?"

Red eyes shut and blue hands curled into fists. White rings sprang up from Vlad's back and slipped over his body. Suddenly he wasn't ghostly at all, he was human. White hair, still half in a ponytail and draggling between his shoulder blades. Black suit, pale but distinctly human skin. The readings on the monitors plunged as the rings vanished.

"Sufferin' spooks," Jack murmured. That was wild.

Vlad's hand upset the plate and the sandwich fell to the floor, scattering the fruit. He rolled over and Jack could see foam frothing between Vlad's clenched teeth.

"Vladdie!" Jack knocked over his own beer as he limped around the console and hurried to the tank's hatch. He fumbled to get it open. The lock released with a hiss and he stepped inside, crouching next to Vlad.

A cool computerized voice spoke up: Warning: Containment Breach. Warning: Containment Breach.

Jack ignored it.

Should he call 911? Was he still breathing? Do hybrids need to breathe? Jack put his hand on Vlad's shoulder. He had an instantaneous impression–the cloth moved out from under his hand fast enough to leave his palm burning, a white flash, a blurring red after-image as something seized him by the neck and flung him against the wall. The back of Jack's head cracked against the reinforced glass and he slumped to the floor, out cold.

Warning: Containment Breach. Warning: Containment Breach. Warning: Con–

A red blast left the console sizzling.

Furious red eyes glared down at the big man lying unconscious, slumped against the open hatch. They darted, left, right. A clawed hand passed over his face and a soft whine, as if from a confused dog, passed his lips. With a sneer, the ghost stepped over Jack, tripped, caught himself midair, then took off through the ceiling.

Vlad crash landed in–into–on– the roof of his top-floor apartment. He melted through the roof, senses a nauseating whirl of dust, fiberglass, paint, concrete–carpet. Smashing into his nose. He let out a gutteral growl and pushed himself to his feet. One foot slid through the floor, dropping him to his knee. His hand dropped to the floor for balance and the soggy carpet felt slimy to his palm– the taste of slugs and champagne slithered down his throat.

The apartment remained largely as he'd left it, elevator smashed, molding food on the table, computers whirring and clicking on their search for Daniel's ectosignature. The price one paid for complete privacy– utter wreckage.

Maddie–he had to see Maddie. Vlad dragged himself to the console and smashed the button, activating the AI. Her lovely face flickered into view, violet eyes pleasant and blank, lips curled into a friendly, empty smile.

"Good afternoon, muffin!" the AI chirped, clasping her hands. "I missed you while you were gone 19 day, 20 hours, 13 minutes. Would you like a status report, handsome?"

Vlad's tongue felt like a struggling animal in his mouth. He wrestled it to his will. "Yes– yes, the boy. I want the boy. The boy."

Rage simmered deep in Vlad's chest. The carpet began to steam. Everyone kept eluding him, mocking him. Daniel was the worst. Daniel and his Jack eyes in a Maddie face, with that sullen teenage glare. Sometimes he just wanted to tear that face right off. Maybe he would. He'd decide on the way.

"Okay, sweet puff! Daniel Fenton search, status: Complete! Results: Kreugerville, Kentucky. Facial recognition: 90% positive. Ectosignature: Confirmed."

Vlad laughed. He rolled onto his back and laughed harder, wiping the sweaty strands of hair from his face, tasting the stinging sweat through his fingertips with its poison green aftertaste. "I hope you're ready, Daniel!" he shouted at the rooftop, then sat up. "It's time to come home."

"But muffin, your biodiagnostics say that your ectosignature has suffered structural damage. Recommended course of action: Rest and reparative measures."

"I can't sleep at a time like this, Maddie, this is important."

"Muffin, diagnostics show that flight in your current state is–"

Vlad let lose an ectoblast. It sailed through Maddie's neck, blasting the pixels into static, and struck the bank of computers. Maddie reformed long enough to stare at him, perfect mouth in a perfect 'o' of horror, then she disappeared. The computer bank sizzled and smoked, then went dark.

Let her disappear, Vlad thought, and the molten rage in his chest warmed him. She'd spurned him. She and Jack had humiliated him, put him away like canned herring. He'd seen enough. If he couldn't have her loyalty, he'd break her. And he knew just where to start.

Vlad staggered over to a cabinet and rummaged through it, smelling motor oil through his teeth as he rummaged through devices. He pulled out a handheld tracker and flicked it on; it already had Danny's pathetic excuse for a human-form ectosignature logged in its memory. Perfect.

As she locked her car and stepped out onto the sidewalk, her phone began to ring. Maddie started, then pulled it out of her purse and checked it: Jack. She picked it up.

"Mads?" Jack sounded out of breath and miserable.

Maddie stopped, clutching the phone, suddenly frightened. "Jack, what happened?"

"I messed up, Mads, I'm sorry." There was a rustle and a groan. "He blindsided me."

"Who did? Jack, where are you?"

"I'm at the house. I'm fine, he just stunned me, that's all. He's loose now, though, and I don't know where he went. He's not reading on any of the scanners, he's not in town anymore."

"Jack," Maddie said slowly. "Please tell me you're not talking about Vlad."

A long, telling silence.

Maddie glanced around instinctively, but the street was empty and still, only a few late-night pedestrians on the sidewalk. It was a silly notion; it wasn't like Vlad could know where she had gone. But still, she wished she hadn't been quite so judicious about removing all her weapons.

"I'm sorry. I thought… I was worried about him. I didn't mean to let him out, he just… he's a slippery one."

Her big, loving, complete idiot of a husband. Of course Vlad had tricked him. "I know, sweetie. It's alright. There's nothing we can do about it now."

"Be careful."

"You too. Call…" she hesitated, thinking. "Call the Foleys if you need them. Tucker knows his way around our equipment, they can help."

There was nothing she could do about it now– right now, she needed to find Danny. He was here. He had to be here. She took a deep breath and crossed the street, moving through the street lights and up to the unassuming brick building that housed the clinic.

[This segues into the existing material of Ch 55]

[Picking up on this scene early in Ch. 58]

"I used too much ghost energy, that's all," Danny said, making a weak attempt at shoving the doctor's hands off. Digging into the pocket of the baggy jacket he wore, he produced a peppermint. He fumbled with the wrapper. The hard candy dropped onto the floor and rolled away.

"Ghost energy," Dr. Wagner echoed. "Is that what you think this is? You're making a strong case for a diagnosis of delusion, kid."

Maddie suppressed a flash of irritation. Why was this man so stubbornly resistant to the idea?

With slow patience, Danny pulled out another mint, unwrapped it, and put it in his mouth with a scowl. "Still not listening."

Maddie took a step closer. "Danny's physiology functions in ways you don't understand," she began, but stopped short at a vicious look from the doctor.

"You think your 'research' makes you an expert?"

Maddie pressed her lips together and glanced away. "Yes." She didn't like it, but it was the truth. Despite her blindness, she had more technical knowledge of his ghostly nature than anyone else. If it could help Danny in any way…

"I'm not interested in your kind of science, Dr. Fenton."

She bristled at that. She was only trying to help. "You should be interested in helping my son."

"That's the last thing I'd learn from you."

Danny growled and pressed a fist against the wall, tilting his head to glare up at them both. "Stop? just stop for like two seconds, okay?"

A fine mist escaped Danny's lips and curled in the air before dissolving. His eyes flew wide open and he looked at her. Maddie recognized it an instant later–Phantom's ghost sense. The sudden fear in Danny's expression mirrored her thought. She whirled, scanning the corridor. A ghost was here. Was it Vlad?

"Shit," Danny muttered, scrambling to his feet.

"Language," Maddie said automatically. Her hand went to her belt-but no, she only had her purse. "You didn't happen to bring a thermos?"

"It's at Shannon's. Where are all your weapons?"

"At home."

"All of them?!"

"I was trying to be nonthreatening!"

"Well, you succeeded. Now what? I'll have to–"

"You're not doing anything," Dr. Wagner said firmly, putting his hand on Danny's shoulder. "If these ghost powers or whatever are causing your blood sugar to crash, you can't keep using them. You could put yourself into a coma."

The air grew cold; he was close. "The three of you should leave. Go out the back way. Get in a car and put some distance between you and him."

"Mom–"

"No arguments. Go."

[Shannon and Patrick hustle a barely-conscious Danny outside. Just as they turn a corner they spot Vlad blasting his way in, laughing in a way that sounds distinctly unhinged. They get a sugary drink (canned coffee) out of the vending machine out back and Danny drinks it, recovering a little while the adults try to figure out what to do.]

"We should go."

"We can't just leave, Patrick. What about Mrs. Fenton?"

"What was that thing?"

Danny took another sip and answered without looking up. "A ghost." He frowned. "But– I've never seen him like that before. Something's wrong. He's dangerous."

Shannon pulled out her phone. "I'm calling the police."

"For what? You think bullets will hurt Vlad? They didn't stop me, and I'm barely functional right now."

"Are we supposed to just leave him?"

"Mom's a ghost hunter. This is her job. My job." He stood up, put out his arms as if testing his balance, then straightened, looking at Patrick and Shannon. "Stay here."

"Danny, haven't you been listening? You exert yourself any more and you could die!"

He waved the can at Patrick. "I've got coffee," he grinned. "What could go wrong?"

[cut to - Maddie cornered by an enraged and irrational Vlad. She's just run out of hallways to dodge into and the ghost is closing in, when–]

A crumpled can bounced off Vlad's head. He whirled and lashed out, striking the can with a blast of crimson energy and punching a hole through the wall.

Maddie's heart sank as she saw Danny standing in the middle of the hallway, bright green eyes clear even in the half-darkness. "Come and get it, creepface!"

Vlad howled and plunged toward Danny, fingers arched like claws and dripping scarlet energy. At the last second Danny vanished. Maddie barely had a moment to gasp when a cold hand grabbed her elbow and yanked her through the wall. The next instant she was half-running, half being pulled by the hand as Danny led her down another dark hallway. He was gasping for breath, and the hand in hers felt clammy.

She tried to yank free. "Danny! I told you to leave."

"You need me, Mom, I'm not leaving." He pulled her through and open door and shut it behind them. They were in a cramped storage room, with paper towels stacked on the shelf above and a mini fridge wedged in next to the mops and cleaning supplies. "So what's the plan?"

"Plan?" Maddie felt like laughing hysterically, but she shook herself. She was a Fenton, damnit – she could improvise. Her eyes fell on the fridge. "I could maybe rig up a containment unit from the freezing elements in there."

"Won't that take like a week?"

"Not if I shortcut the process with a few modifications. It won't be as stable, but it's the best chance we have."

A bang startled them both. Distant laughter followed, and the door began to smoke.

"Crap," Danny muttered, and pressed his hands to the door. A faint hum filled the air and the door glowed ever so slightly green, brightest right at Danny's palms. "As long as I keep this up he can't phase through. That'll buy us a little time."

"How long?"

"Well, regular Vlad would take about three seconds since if he stops to think he could just blast it to bits. If he keeps trying to bash through it like this, maybe a minute."

That would have to be enough. Maddie yanked out the fridge's shelves, drinks and all, and tossed them aside. She turned the dial in the back up to maximum cold and the little fridge hummed to life. She pulled it away from the wall and pulled at the wires.

The door groaned and cracked. "Mom!"

"Hang in there, honey, I've almost got it–"

A horrible, splintering crunch and the door gave way. Danny was flung aside and crashed into the pile of brooms, bringing down a shower of toilet paper rolls. Maddie twisted the last wires together and reached to plug in the fridge – a black-gloved hand closed around her wrist and yanked her away, slamming her into the back wall.

Maddie found herself staring into the liquid cherry-red eyes of the Wisconsin – of Vlad. Vlad Masters. Barely there under the unfiltered rage and hatred in his gaze.

"Maddie," He purred, smiling with fangs too large for his still nearly-human mouth. "I caught you at last. But I've learned a thing or two since you put me in that miserable prison. You nearly had me convinced. Of your enduring, undying love. I coveted it. So did Daniel."

She stared back, refusing to be intimidated. "You're delusional."

His other hand snapped up to grip her chin, cutting off her words. "Shhhh," he said, leaning in close. "This is important. Daniel and I… we have so much in common. We looked to you, loved you, trusted you – and what did you offer up in return? Pain."

His hand tightened on her wrist and fire seared into her arm. Laser-sharp pain that dug deep under the skin and shot through her nerve endings, from the tips of her fingers to the depths of her chest. A scream tore from Maddie's throat. Steam hissed and blood bubbled. White spots popped in her eyes and she pressed her head back into the wall, willing herself to stay conscious. Don't let him look away, she thought desperately. Don't let him remember Danny.

"What do you want?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"An eye for an eye, my dear; you owe both of us. Daniel his hand, and me? My heart." Vlad put his hand flat on her chest, just below the collarbone. He pressed down, claw-like fingernails digging through her shirt and deep into her skin.

Maddie became suddenly aware of her own heartbeat, pounding so hard it felt like it might leap from her chest. Vlad smiled, baring fangs, and licked his lips. "Listen to it. You'd never think it was made of stone."

His scarlet eyes glowed and she read madness in their pupilless depths. This wasn't the man she knew, she realized with slow-growing horror. This was a shell that housed nothing but rage. He was going to kill her. He would take Danny. He would kill Jack. And she couldn't stop it.

"Hey, Vlad?"

Vlad stiffened and paused, fingers still embedded in her chest.

Maddie glanced to one side and saw Danny, on his hands and knees, his hand on the cord of the fridge–which now hummed ominously, rattling on its plastic feet.

"You need to chill." He yanked open the door and the howling vortex of superchilled electromagnetic forces dragged at Vlad's ectoplasmic form.

Vlad snarled and slashed at her face, but the blow swung wild and he was dragged into the fridge, twisted and compressed until he was nothing but a writhing ball of compressed ectoplasm, bound in the circulating electromagnetism of the makeshift device. Danny slammed the door shut, and everything plunged into blackness.

When the lights of the entire block blew out, Patrick and Shannon took one look at each other, then rushed inside. After a few moments the lights blinked reluctantly back on, and it was easy to follow the trail of smoldering destruction. It ended at a storage closet whose entrance was now a splintered hole.

Maddie Fenton sat inside, with Danny half in her lap, limp and eyes shut. Next to them sat a mini fridge that vibrated and glowed with a strange reddish light. There was blood oozing down the woman's right arm, which lay at her side as she grimly wrapped an extension cord around the fridge, knotting it clumsily one-handed.

Patrick stared; he had no idea how to interpret this scene. What the hell had just happened?

"Are you alright?" Shannon spoke first.

Dr. Fenton shook her head and cupped the side of Danny's face. "Help him."

Danny's face was stark white and he didn't so much as flinch as Patrick pulled him off of Maddie's lap and checked his vitals. "I stocked some glucagon in the pharmaceuticals just in case. Shannon?"

"On my way." Shannon stood, but she paused and touched Patrick's arm before she left, darting her eyes toward Dr. Fenton. Check her too was the unspoken message. Patrick nodded.

He threw open the supply closet next door and pulled out an oxygen tank stashed in the back, fumbling for a mask and hose. With those broken ribs he'd need all the o2 he could get. As he settled the mask over Danny's face, he became aware of a smoky, sickly-sweet smell that he couldn't identify.

Patrick sat with his finger on Danny's pulse, mentally counting the beats as he waited for Shannon to return. His pulse was weak but steady. If it stopped or skipped even once, Patrick was calling the hospital, the police, everyone. This was madness. That thing had been madness.

Dr. Fenton took the kid's hands in hers and held it. Patrick eyed her, pitying her despite himself. She looked more desperate now than before. Her own face was just as pale as Danny's. She was shaking, sweat beading on her brow, and there was a glazed look in her eye that hinted at shock. Then his eyes fell on her arm and his stomach turned.

This was the source of the smell. Something had burned right through her shirt sleeve and deep into her flesh, leaving a sticky black-encrusted wound that oozed blood, darkening her jeans where it rested on her lap.

"Your arm," Patrick said stupidly, as if all those years of medical school had prepared him only to state the obvious. How she wasn't screaming in pain he didn't know.

The woman just shook her head mutely, squeezing Danny's hand. "He shouldn't have come back for me." She sounded on the verge of tears. Pain and fear seemed to have finally broken through that prickly professional veneer.

Patrick felt guilty. "I didn't mean to let him go. He slipped past us."

"Why is it always Danny? Why does he have to be hurt?"

He scowled; that was ironic, coming from her. "I don't know, Dr. Fenton, you tell me."

end ~

A/N:

I wrote these scenes while exploring a more action/suspense way to end the story. I really would have liked to tie Vlad back in, since he's such a central antagonist in canon. Ultimately though, I felt it was more important for SoaD to end with its focus squarely on Maddie and Danny's relationship. They needed to face their issues with honesty and vulnerability, not convenient third-party danger forcing them together. Also the logistics of the mandatory hospital visit after all this would have made everything that much more complicated.

I've been putting off publishing it on FFn since it's not technically complete. At this point I doubt I'll ever write out all the missing bits, so I figured I'd post it as-is.

- Hj