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hello-im-not-a-possum · 5 months

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Shattered Identity

Chapter one. Chapter two. Chapter three. Chapter four. Chapter five Chapter six. Chapter seven. Chapter eight. Chapter nine.

Chapter Ten (Final Chapter): Dead men and living men tell tales.

It was a surrealized landscape of his once familiar home. The way the surroundings waved in the world's most intense heat haze, the pinkish orange hues of the sky contrasted to the bluish grays of the melting Amity Park, the sidewalk squished under Danny's feet like warm mud. …Well, it wasn't his feet, not technically anyway. He wasn't controlling the copy of Vlad, just seeing what it was seeing and feeling what it was feeling. He assumed that this would what it would be like to be lucid while being overshadowed, still aware but just along for the ride.

Danny was worried about this, it was only annoyingly hot to him, he knew why and how he and the copy was surviving this, but what about the people? How could THEY survive thousand-degree heat?! In stark contrast, Vlad's copy and Vlad himself remained perfectly, scarily calm.

He saw his parents' RV stuck in the road, it's tires screeching occasionally to free itself from the melted mess that they were trying to drive on. His father even got out of the vehicle, got behind it, and tried to push it free with little success. His mother also got out and looked at the road-gunk in the tires with some kind of thermometer.

He was as confused as he was relieved. How were they surviving this..?

But the copy wasn't there to linger on these mysteries, only to make sure they weren't getting hurt before going after his real target…

At the same time as the copy was on a manhunt, there was a journey to the supernatural tundra going on at the same time.

The halfa trio didn't go to the Far Frozen without a vehicle, sure, even despite the injuries the older two sustained, they could've flown there themselves and it would've been faster, but it would've been beyond stupid for them to do so when the recovering teen would've had to be carried for miles by either a tiny girl or a frail hospital patient, neither of which had that much endurance and it would've been very dangerous to expose the ghost who just shattered his own core to the elements.

But as they got closer and closer to their destination, Dani was starting to feel unsure about bringing Vlad here in the first place. Sure, right now he was the one driving and he would have an easier time explaining what happened to Frostbite, but it seemed that even though the temperatures inside weren't too high or low, Vlad was seemingly getting weaker the colder it got outside.

It made sense to her, he was the one who said that fire and ice don't mix well…

“We're here.” The older teen in the gold sweater alerted the younger two as he parked the submarine-like device, unbuckled his seat belt, and used the chair as balance. “Now we just need to find Frost-”

“…Maybe you should stay inside, I'll find Frostbite and tell him everything.” Dani gently pushed the scrawny older teen back in his seat and handed him one of the blankets in the supply box. “In fact, I'll bring him here, you look like could use a check-up too.”

He looked like he wanted to protest but knew it would be a loosing battle, especially given both his own current condition and Danny's. As Danielle left, Vlad got back up and limped over to Danny's position to check on him, carefully unwrapping the bandages on the boy's face and neck with the intent of checking his vitals, only for the boy to cough, gag, and sputter as soon as his head was free.

Danny felt disoriented as no longer covered up, he adjusted to seeing out of his own eyes instead of Vlad's or his copy's. What made it worse was that every time he closed his eyes, he saw out of either Vlad's or the copy's.

Every time he blinked he either saw himself or saw the melted Amity Park.

“How do you manage to keep a copy up for so long?” The former cocoon muttered, still blinking the double-triple vision out of his eyes.

“Oh good, you're not dead.” The silver haired teen gave him a thumb's up.

“Did you spend half the trip here putting extra wrappings on me?” Danny returned him an unamused look while trying to wriggle his limbs free from the tightly-wrapped bandages.

“No, I think the ectoplasm on them got denser as they dried out.” Vlad thought out loud as he helped Danny free his limbs from the bandages, ignoring the boy's exaggerated gagging for both of their sakes. “Anyway, how are you feeling? Scale of one to ten, how much pain are you in?”

"Uh.. two I think?" Danny shimmied the rest of the bandages off and shook his head. "Listen, that's not what I'm worried about right now, something weird happened, I started..? Feeling what you're feeling?"

"…Literally or metaphorically?"

"Literally."

"Apple pie a la mode…" He 'cursed' under his breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Great, he's feeling side effects already, at the very least they were already here and could get that fixed.

"…And I can see out of your eyes and the copy's eyes. What the heck are you doing in Amity?!"

In that moment, Danny discovered a new emotion by feeling it emanating from the other halfa. The only way the hero could manage to describe it was internal screaming but made out of static and maybe grief too?

"I can explain." The older teen's voice cracked a bit, betraying his attempt to sound calm and collected as if Danny's current ability to sense what he was feeling didn't already do that.

The teen hero crossed his arms with a raised eyebrow, not sure he *could* explain but what else could he do but listen.

"I was going to reveal Vlad's secret at the funeral-"

"WHAT?!" Danny gawked. "That's the worst idea I've ever heard! In case you forgot: YOU'RE Vlad! And if you're posing as your own son, they'll figure you out-"

"Give me a second to explain." He rolled his eyes. "Your parents are the ones who made the gun, if they knew that they killed a human being with it, one that they knew personally, do you think that they would keep it around?"

"No..."

"Exactly, because at the end of the day, regardless of how they would feel about me if they knew about Plasmius when I was 'alive', they would have to live with the fact that they designed something that killed a *person* instead of a *ghost*."

"Speaking of ghosts, what about the ghosts you invited? What do they have to do with this?"

"In their case, the funeral's just a way to bribe them into not stirring any trouble. Everybody gets their own slice of the pie and if they want more, they'll have to fight each other for it instead of me or Dani. I've divided up the will in a way where if any of them was unhappy with what they got, attacking us would make the least amount of sense."

Danny nodded in thought, in hindsight, he was probably right about his previous assumptions on Vlad's social ghost life; he probably only knew the Dairy king and vultures on a personal level and that was because they lived together.

"Now for the wrench the guys in white threw into the mix; they don't care about humans. They won't give two flying figs if they knew they killed a human being in their attempt to destroy a ghost so... different measures and precautions need to be taken."

"Uh huh, and how does turning Amity park into a gooey mess do that?"

"That can be reversed. (...I think)" Vlad waved it off which didn't convince Danny in the slightest. "And what it does is introduce a sense of hopelessness in them."

"Hopelessness?"

Danny blinked in confusion, also seeing through Vlad's double's eyes at the same time, watching the figure starting to let the previously encased GIW being freed by him which only added to the said confusion. If he just left them in the melted cement he might get it, but freeing them? How could that be hopelessness?

"Despite all their weapons, all their training, all their funding... They've been knocked down and put at the mercy of a single, sickly, ghost." Vlad smirked. "I've shown them what I can be capable of without even doing it. They saw the readings on their scanners before they melted into unusable pieces of smoldering plastic and metal, they've seen my effects on their territory first hand: They can see that it took more energy from me to keep everyone that town alive during that heatwave than it would take to let everyone in it burn to a melted mess that mixed with the roads and buildings, they can imagine what would ensue if I *chose* not to-"

The black haired boy took a cautious step back from the older teen, starting to feel nervous with his demeanor and mentally reminded that lost memories or not, potential inner change or not, this was still very much Vlad.

He seemed to notice this hesitation and cleared his throat to play it off.

"O-of course it was just a bluff that luckily they didn't see through."

"…Are your memories coming back or did you go through a very weird mid-life crisis mixed with teen angst while you were left alone?"

"Er- Well, I think a few might have returned…" Vlad wrung his hands nervously while avoiding Danny's suspicious stare.

Both were very grateful that Danielle returned with Frostbite in tow.

"Great one! Thank goodness you're stable!" The former worry on the yetis face melted off as soon as he saw him. "When the little one explained what happened, I was expecting the worst…"

"It's fine, really! Vlad stopped it from breaking me just as the shot hit." He gestured to the shivering ghost burrito who was quietly begging them to close the door behind them as the cold was getting let in.

"I see…" The yeti's gaze drifted to the frail former villain.

While he shouldn't have been surprised to see him like this, he… couldn't help it. It was true that the nature of his core was unpredictable at the time, part of him assumed that the core would retain well… 'core' values to the broken ghost, so he was anticipating (or maybe hoping) that he would try to retain his power by sacrificing his memories. Frostbite remembered the disgruntled would-be conqueror the first time they met, a man that sought after power, so why would his subconscious throw what power he did have away? Was it just really bad luck or was there something so much more important to him that he was willing to sacrifice to protect..?

Vlad covered himself up more with the blanket, starting to feel self conscious about the giant Yeti's staring. "We came to give him a more thorough check up." he gestured in hopes of keeping the snowy leader's attention back on the boy. "It was the first procedure of its kind and done impulsively."

"And we also need to look over his core." Danielle added, pointing at the halfa burrito. "Because he shattered it like an idiot to do the procedure in the first place."

"…So soon after he just narrowly survived that weapon's attack?" Frostbite cringed in sympathy and turned back to Vlad. "How did you even survive that? In fact, how did you survive getting your core shattered at all…?!"

"Okay, I get it! I was incredibly stupid and it's entirely possible that the only reason why I'm alive today is most likely the will of a potentially sadistic god that refuses to let me die and stay dead.” His cheeks flushed red with embarrassment and annoyance. "But in my defense, what other options did I have?! Let him die while wasting precious time looking for a healthy donor? Create an artificial core via cloning which is a delicate process that, and I cannot stress this enough, is *not* a quick process? Will an ice core part out of thin air? I'm not a miracle worker darn it! Now, can we please just get this over with?"

Frostbite nodded and looked over Danny's core, It looked a little different from the last time he saw it as it had fully elementally matured and there was a faint pinkish spot on the otherwise icy blue surface but it was smooth all over, not a single crack in sight and it was a healthy, strong color.

If he didn't know the context behind the spot, he'd assume it was just the core equivalent of a birthmark or something.

"All of these are great signs" Frostbite smiled. "You might not even have to deal with any problems at all given how quickly your case was treated and how the shard is adapting to the rest of your core."

"That's good." Danny let out a relieved sigh he didn't know he was holding in. "…But do you think there's going to be any long term side effects from this? I've been seeing out of his eyes when I close mine and feel what he feels… am I going to get powers normally exclusive to Vlad? Fire ones for example?"

"Although this…" He gestured to the boys in general "is very uncharted territory, I suspect that 'seeing what he sees' and 'feeling what he feels' is temporary and will stop as your core and body adapts the donated parts to themselves as sees them as yours rather than his. As for gaining other powers… That would depend on a variety of factors, like the overall health and medical history of the donor's core-"

"…Chocolate cheesecake, I think I just condemned that boy to a fate worse than death." Vlad muttered under his breath as Frostbite continued.

"-your own health and medical history, and how your own core adjusts to the donated piece. And if you do get any powers from the donor, I wouldn't expect them to be particularly strong ones. Especially ones that would conflict with your own core."

"So no fire powers?"

"No fire powers." The yeti cracked an amused smile.

"Got it."

"Now for you…" Frostbite looked over Vlad's own core. "OH DEAR ANCIENTS!"

"What?" He held up the broken melting core as if nothing was wrong. "It usually looks like this, just give it some more time to meld together again. and it'll be just fine."

It was the most horrifying yet beautiful thing the Chief of the far frozen had ever seen; a broken core fusing itself back together with a spectral substance that resembled lava. He could tell that it had been shattered before, in fact, the subtle cracks on the visible molten layers of it seemed to imply that it was broken apart several times before. While it was a mature core, there were parts of it that seemed stunted, especially the elemental aspects, if he didn't know any better, he'd ask if they were intentionally damaged. As he looked at it more, he wracked his brain for any explanation but couldn't find any…

"Forgive me if this sounds …antagonistic but how in the infinite realms are you still alive?! Your core is... It's almost as if it's held together with nothing but luck and faith!"

"I..." The first halfa stared at his own mending core for a bit, not finding an answer for the guardian of the infinite map as he started to loose himself in his thoughts. Over the course of twenty years, how many times did he survive something that could've killed a human being? Could've killed a ghost? How many times did his illness do him in? How many creatures was he mauled by? How many close calls did he have in battle? How did he survive the fire in the hospital..? How did he survive the drowning after? Could he die? Or was he cursed to always feel the pain of death but never the release afterwards- How was he still alive? "...I don't know..."

"...Vlad..?" Dani hesitantly tapped him on the shoulder.

The silver haired boy shook his head as if shaking out water and put his core back into his body.

"So... healthy color and the cracks are mending, I take it that means I need a lot of rest and to not push myself too hard, but there's nothing to worry about after it's fixed, right?" He nervously smiled at the yeti.

"I... Well... I want to say 'yes' as in this case you know your core better than anyone else ever will. But frankly, I think we should arrange further visits just in case."

"...While we're here and doing checkups, what about her? I mean, just to make sure."

The yeti gave him a look as he was suspecting that he was just trying to hide himself from him, but did so anyway, inspecting the light yellow core the smallest of them had...

___

The town was still healing from the 'unknown ghost attack' when the funeral was being held.

Danny hated it here, but he put up with the annoying suit, and his father bawling before the main part of the funeral itself even started, and 'Jack' Masters copying himself so that Patient Zero could also attend despite the headache Vlad copying himself now caused him (The pair running around with chickens like their heads cut off in their attempts to make sure that the funeral was going smoothly was also incredibly obnoxious and even a little headache inducing when he could see out of their eyes every time he blinked), and the weird tense atmosphere made by exclusively inviting ghosts and ghost hunters (and their immediate family), and the feeling in his gut that this was a ticking time bomb about to go off, and-

Frankly, the boy internally wished that he pretended to be sick to get out of it, but part of him was also curious as to how his parents would react to the news.

At the very least it wasn't all misery here, the decorations weren't as obnoxiously packers themed as he anticipated, the food was nice, and it was always... well *something* to see how ghosts behaved during temporary truces. He'd say it was 'nice' but that didn't feel like the right adjective for it.

Comfy? Maybe?

No, that didn't feel quite right either, especially given the funeral's hosts behavior.

Most of the ghosts came and went, paying their respects and leaving with an envelope given to them by Jack Masters, but some of them stayed after receiving their envelope.

When the funeral attendees were cut down to just the hosts, the Fentons, the Grays, the Vultures, the Dairy King, Skulker, Ember, Amorpho, and Walker, the lights started to dim and what seemed to be a ghost-power dampening fence lit up.

"Hey, Danny," Dani nudged him "just a head's up, the open mic speeches are going to start soon."

"It's an open mic funeral?" Danny raised an eyebrow. "Are you guys sure that's a good idea?"

"I figured it might lighten the mood after the reveal."

As he opened his mouth to ask what she meant by 'after', the screen lit up, showing the recording of the 'deceased' Vlad Masters adjusting the camera pointed at him and clearing his throat before speaking.

"If you are watching this, it means that you deserve answers to questions that I couldn't give you when I was alive for one reason or another." The AI spoke and moved in a stiff way, but in the sense of stiff in which many would just assume that the man was reading from a script. And, well, they wouldn't be *wrong*... "Starting from where it all began: Twenty years ago, I got into a terrible accident that I survived, but it cost me my life. I can't explain how I both died and lived in any way more meaningful than showing you."

The black rings appeared and as Masters turned to Plasmius, the remaining funeral attendees were in shock but some got in an uproar.

Jack Fenton stared at the screen in disbelief, this entire time... His best Friend was a ghost! So many things made so much more sense but only raised more and more questions the more he thought about it.

Maddie shared her husband's disbelief and enlightenment, At one time, Vlad was also her friend and now his bizarre change from the man he used to be to the... strange obsessive creature that disrespected her and her husband made so much more sense. He was a GHOST the whole time! Any humanity he had probably decayed to nothing when he isolated himself from them! Too focused on the reveal itself than the notion that she had killed her own old friend, she also looked to the silver haired teen who was currently running the funeral as well as his bandaged doppelganger, noticing how the two seemed to resemble the late billionaire and the Wisconsin Ghost...

Jack Masters paused the recording as he noticed the brewing discord, they didn't seem to notice him do that.

Skulker always knew about Masters, but not that he used to be half human. He felt like such an Idiot! All this time! The ultimate catch was his goddamn client!

The Dairy King already knew this, but was caught off guard to learn that both the humans and ghosts were reacting like this was so unusual and surprising. ...In hindsight, maybe he was a little *too* ignorant of the goings on in the ghost zone...

Valerie already knew this secret and was mildly disappointed to learn that he died before she could make good on her promise to hunt him down, but relieved to know that he'd never hurt or trick another soul. She what *did* surprise her was that he was planning to tell others, that he was going to tell her considering that she was invited...

"THAT SONNOVA- HE'S BEEN BAILING *HIMSELF* OUT OF MY JAIL ALL THIS TIME!" Walker exclaimed at the screen with righteous fury, breaking the silence.

"Care to elaborate?" Dani handed the irate ghost cop the microphone and gestured to the podium.

Still clearly mad, but somewhat willing to humor her, he marched up there and started to speak.

"I should know better than to speak ill of someone who's died their second death, especially so soon, but this sorry son of a gun has been a thorn in my side the day I first arrested him." He pointed at the closed coffin. "I can't believe he's managed to pull the wool over mine and my boys' eyes all this goddamned time! He's been arrested a handful of times for theft, artifact robbery, assault on officers of Ghost Law, bio-terrorism, and unleashing powerful forces of mass destruction."

Maddie, Jack, and Valerie were more confused by the notion of ghosts having a law system that somewhat mirrored the human world's law system then the fact that Vlad was arrested by ghost cops before.

"No matter how high I set the bail, Mr. Masters always paid it in full, in cash, with the smuggest damn smile on his face. Part of me always kinda suspected that it was a game to him, when he showed up to pay, he *always* showed up in a solid gold limo in the gaudiest gold and green outfits I've ever seen in my life and I couldn't do CRAP about it because whenever I tried to make something he did that annoyed me against the rules, HE'D do something twice as annoying to bug me even more by following my rules exactly to the letter but never the spirit."

Danny couldn't help it and burst out laughing at the mental image of the escalating ridiculousness in the Bail war between his 'dead' nemesis and the Prison Ghost.

"Yeah, yeah, yuk it up in the bastard's absence since he can't get the last laugh in person.."

Walker rolled his eyes, but was sobered out of the blind fury to be reminded by his surroundings that this was still a funeral, an event which one needed to be respectful at, even if it was the funeral of someone who made a complete mockery out of him in 'life'.

"I guess it's a little funny..." He tried to play it off. "I never once thought I'd be attending this thing in the first place until I read his letter. It's corny in hindsight, but it talked about how apparently, I was the first to discriminate against him for what he did instead of what he was, and that while he hated me as much as I hated him, he was at least grateful for that bit. I didn't know what he meant back then, even now, I still don't know what he meant, but something about it... stuck with me."

He looked back at the closed casket and sighed before grabbing a glass and raising it up.

"Shine on you crazy diamond, I hope the cops you're punching down in the inferno deserve it and you find other people who hate you for the reasons you want to be hated."

The second he finished his speech, he walked off stage, handing the mic to the next person who came up, Jack.

"I was there during the accident that had cost my old friend his humanity." He spoke into the mic with a somber tone. "We were best friends before it happened, roommates, and lab partners too. Some days, it felt like it was just me and him against the world back then..." The man softly smiled at the old memories. "On the day itself, it was an accident... His face was up against the portal's rim, I think he was inspecting the structural integrity, Mads was double-checking the calculations and I, I didn't notice that he was so close to the portal, I didn't hear that the calculations were wrong, I thought that this was the moment, and I turned it on without thinking of the consequences or how drastic they could really be. I can only wish that I knew this sooner, I have so many questions about this that only he can answer, but I know he never would've told me if he was alive for one reason or another. I know he blamed me for the accident back then, and he's not entirely wrong... Vladdie.. If you can hear me... I just want to say I'm sorry-"

Amorpho pushed him off the stage and took the mic in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.

"The first time and place we met was Sardinia, Italy, 1998, I think it was march 8th, but don't hold me to it. I was doing what I do best before I noticed that there was a witness trailing me. I wasn't worried, very few places outside of this town think ghosts are real so I figured nobody would believe him if he tried to tell, but he did something unexpected when he did finally catch me." The ghost vividly explained as if he was the narrator in a detective noir film. "He gave me his card and said 'keep this number, I could use your skills in the future'. I'm dumbfounded but keep it anyway because I don't see the harm in it. A few months later, I get a call, it's the same guy from back then, he says he has a 'job' for me. I'm typically not the guy to go to for commissions, but it's hard to turn down easy money, especially when it's a ton of it. I never knew about Plasmius to begin with, but in hindsight I guess we shouldn't be surprised that a human has closer ties to ghosts then we all think when that human has a portal to the ghost zone in their basement."

The attention-craving prankster was happily drinking in his audience's suspenseful stares as he continued to build up for the punchline.

"Masters and I had a strictly professional, non-homosexual, business-type relationship when he was around and it was something of an enigma. At times, I felt like a gun-for-hire with all the secrecy and the terms used. 'Your target is X', 'Use the Russian Script', 'Your payment will be delivered in an unmarked PO box in Blank Street at 2am', stuff like that. The jobs themselves are simple, the type that really, he himself could do and it's frankly a little weird that he went through all the effort to get little ol' me to do it for him. At first, I don't think much of it, why question a gift horse and all that, but I am everything, including curious, so one day, after a job, I show up to where he plans to pay me early and wait. Masters shows up in casual clothes and puts the payment in before looking around and leaving, but instead of taking the money and going my own separate way, I tail him to see what all the fuss is about, to answer the questions I have for why he paid me to do what I did to so many people..."

When he could tell all of them were hooked, he knew it was time to deliver. He changed to the Deceased man's form but still spoke with his own voice.

"All the strange jobs, all the secrecy, the payments, why he picked me out of every other ghost in the world... It all made sense the second I overheard what he said when something he was working on fell apart right in front of his eyes; 'Pumpkin pie'. He was hiring me to use actual cusswords at people when he decided his food swears weren't strong enough!" The shapeshifter wearing Vlad's face cracked up. "Honestly, I think this makes him the funniest rich person I've ever met," He cleared his throat and started using Vlad's voice. "'Yes I have no qualms about committing arson or committing various forms of fraud, but the FUCK word? Absolutely not, I have STANDARDS. I *need* to pay a ghost to wear my face and use my voice to commit this heinous deed in my place, I will gladly walk to hell for my war crimes, but I refuse to go to there for saying 'bitchass' of all things'."

He took a bow and drank in his audience's laughter as he wrapped up his own speech and switched back to his 'default' state, handing the mic to the next person who came up.

"I don't know who this guy even is and to be blunt, I don't really care about his half-human-ness at all really." She shrugged. "But, I do know his relative, Zero. And Zero's one of the most ride or die friends someone could ever ask for. He and I died in the same hospital wing twenty-ish years ago. He was in for a facial reconstruction surgery gone wrong, I was in because my house burned down and they were trying to resuscitate me. ...It didn't work out well for either of us and we died, but got to know each other pretty well. The kid's a mad genus, great at playing the drums, made some of the best macaroni pizzas out there, and really helped me out of some pretty rocky times. And sure, Plasmius isn't the *greatest* person out there and all that, but you know what, if he's even half as cool as Zero was, then he's a pretty good guy in my books."

She tossed the mic into the crowd like it was a bouquet at a wedding and Skulker caught it and went up.

"Unfortunately, I cannot say the same regarding my own relationship with him." The ghost hunting ghost started. "Plasmius and I had known each other for a very long time and I didn't consider him a just client who is knowledgeable about engineering himself, but a friend. Unfortunately, he was a friend who hid something that would've changed everything. I would have killed him and hung his pelt on the wall had I known the truth. All this time I assumed he was just one of those ghosts who disguised themselves as a human and lived among them for whatever reason instead, he was playing me like a fiddle for his own survival. It's one thing to made a fool of by a target once or twice, but for as long as I've known him?! Mark my words, Plasmius, if you AREN'T dead, then so help me I will finish the job."

Skulker narrowed his eyes to the coffin and left the podium and the mic, leaving it for the next person to take it.

"He changed my life the day it all went downhill. I got a suit from him in the mail and a bunch of ghost hunting supplies. I didn't know his motives, or anything about him at all at that point. ...I still don't know his motives now, but I figured him out before today, when he thought no one was looking, I found out that Phantom was right and he WAS playing me for a fool all this time. He was playing both sides, ghosts and humans all this time..." Valerie shook her head. "Part of me's still mad about it, but honestly, now that I know that there are other ghosts that were gunning him just for being human- or half-human, I can't say it surprises me that he became what he was."

She kept her speech short, not wanting to bring up any bad memories around Dani, or to give her a hard time about the nature of what she and Vlad happened to be. It wasn't her fault that she was half human and half ghost after all...

Jack Masters was the final person to take the microphone.

"It's kinda crazy how fate and the world and all that play out sometimes... I originally came down to Amity to live with my dad and learn more about him since my mom never really talked about him. ...Boy did I get a lot more than what I bargained for." He nervously chuckled as he picked at the sleeves of his sweater. "I never got to meet him and talk face to face, he died before I ever got the chance to meet him as a person. But I found his journals, his letters that went unsent, and... I found all of you. I've learned a lot about who Vladimir Masters is and was, the good, the bad, and the downright weird, from all of you over the short time I've known you. And for that, I just want to say my thanks, thank you for attending, thank you for your rage, your bittersweet words, and your stories about who the deceased was in your eyes. ...I'm sure all of us here can agree that not everyone saw the same man, but all of us can agree that he was kinda a hot mess and if he's out there somewhere... ...he still is."

The rest of the funeral went as planned, the rest of the video left unplayed, some attendees shared more humorous stories as tension died down, and the burial went smoothly, but after the last of the ghosts left, Danny and Dani found Jack Masters outside the funeral home staring off into space, feeling a sense of exhaustion that the teenage hero could definitely understand.

"Oh, hey, I was wondering where you went." He sat beside the silver haired teen.

"Hey Danny, Dani." he halfheartedly waved. "Got enough of the catering?"

"Yeah..."

"...So now what do we do?" The black haired girl spoke up.

"I've been thinking that myself. Now that the funeral's over, now that I can rest assured that Jack and Maddie likely won't keep that thing around, now that the ghost thing has been handled... what do we do from here? I mean- I know there's the obvious; I need to fix whatever's going on with my core and head, find a ghost-therapist, *maybe* see a physical doctor too... It's pretty clear I can't keep living how I used to live, but I don't know how to live now. I don't know how to take care of anyone like this, let alone myself."

"Well, we can still take care of each other." Dani offered as she floated by him. "I don't see why we should stop just because the funeral's handled."

"Wait, you really want to stay? Despite everything..?"

"Yes, but I'm serious about the therapist!"

Jack half chuckled in response to her pouting expression.

"I mean it!"

"Are you leaving two for Colorado or Wisconsin or just staying here?"

"I figured it only makes sense to stay." He shrugged. "The mansion is still intact and nobody's going to be surprised that the only living heirs of the Masters fortune got the place. Besides, there's no point to me giving up the cats."

"Well, if you're looking for something to keep your hands busy, dad told me to tell you that that apprenticeship offer is still on the table." Danny handed him the Fentonworks Business card.

Jack Masters smiled, despite the uncertainty, there was always something he could count on.

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