#I love when a mix of “bad parents” AU with “protective Jazz” AU turns into “Jazz kills her parents” AU

[chaos-bringer-13]

Jazz's little. Her parents are super cool. They're ghost hunters! It sounds like something from a movie about future and scientists and supernatural beings and cool-looking tech. They have cool-looking tech at home. It's even cooler than tech in the movies.

Jazz also has a little brother. He's stupid but he's hers, and she will protect him from anything. Her brother is very small, he needs someone to protect him and teach him about the world.

She knows about the world. She understands their parents much better than him, and she can tell her brother when they shouldn't be distracted. She knows when they're upset and irritable, and she knows when they're too excited and being near them is dangerous because of all the inventions.

Jazz does a very good job keeping her little brother safe.

---

Jazz goes to school. Her teachers say that she's very smart, the best student in class, and very mature. Her parents are proud of her - when she manages to distract them from ghosts. Her brother is still kinda stupid and doesn't know how to properly fight food, but she's always there to protect him, because that's what older sisters do.

Her classmates seem to think that she's weird though. Some of them say mean things and call her a teacher's pet and a show-off. Jazz isn't sure why they think so because she's always trying to be friendly but maybe she's doing something wrong. She goes to the school library and finds a book about people and their communication.

It's a very interesting book.

---

Jazz is almost a teen. She's gotten better at communicating with people. The school library ran out of psychology books, and Jazz now has to go to the city library but that's fine. Human brain fascinates her.

She's been feeling like something is wrong about her though. She even thought that she was going crazy for a little bit. That probably wasn't true because she didn't match any symptoms but she was still worried.

Someone told her that being so good at lying and faking face expressions is not okay. That's probably not true, Jazz is pretty sure almost everyone can do that. Or maybe she's just being a prodigy again. It's a very good thing to be able to do after all. She can hide her emotions from her family when she's feeling sad. She wouldn't want to worry them, would she?

She'll have to research it.

---

Jazz is a teen. She now knows that her parents aren't actually that good. It's something that was really hard to accept but it did explain everything. Her parents are kinda bad at being parents, and they also don't really listen when she tries to explain it to them.

It's okay. She's almost an adult and Danny has her. She can take care of herself and her brother.

She learns everything she can about being a parent and a therapist and tries to use her knowledge. It's hard, but she's a Fenton, which means that she's very smart and determined. She pushes through, and trains on her classmates and herself.

In the evening she writes about her feelings in a journal. It's very important to be aware of her feelings because that's the first step to dealing with them.

She's experiencing sadness. And anger, actually, even though she doesn't like to admit that.

She writes "this family is a fucking mess" in her journal and then covers the paper with ink until the sentence is absolutely unreadable.

---

Jazz is sixteen, and her stupid parents opened the stupid portal, which means that they're even worse than usual. It's pretty much okay when they're just stuck in their stupid lab, making some stupid weapons. It's not that okay when they're out of the stupid lab, because they get their stupid inventions all over the stupid house, and stupid food comes to life, and she has to protect Danny from both their stupid weapons and stupid hotdogs, and oh god everything is so stupid.

She's experiencing anger.

She's also acting perfectly calm and almost cheerfully.

Jazz hates how perfect her fake smile is in the mirror.

---

Jazz is seventeen. She wants to put her headphones on and listen to some loud music. Jazz can't do that, because she gets anxious if she can't hear what's happening around her. She needs to be fully aware of her surroundings because she needs to be able to protect herself and her brother if weapons against ghosts become weapons against children again.

She thinks that it's not okay.

The house smells of ectoplasm, so she'll be extra careful when opening the fridge.

She thinks that she shouldn't know how ectoplasm smells.

Jazz should probably also warn Danny: her little brother's gotten better at fighting food but doesn't notice the smell of ectoplasm. Funny, considering his ghost sense.

Funny, considering that her brother is a half-ghost.

That her brother died.

That she failed at protecting him after all.

Jazz stops breathing to prevent herself from crying, and doesn't need oxygen for a few minutes too long.

Maybe she failed at protecting herself too.

---

Jazz is turning eighteen next month. Her parents are all of a sudden more attentive and caring, as if that can change their almost-absence during her whole life. She doesn't like their attention because she doesn't know how to deal with it. She doesn't even really think of them as parents anymore.

She thinks of them as a threat.

Once she's eighteen, she's gonna try to move out, and she's going to take Danny with her because it's not safe to leave him here. Maybe after she gets a good job and saves some money, she'll even get into therapy.

Jazz thinks that she needs therapy.

She's been having Bad Thoughts lately, and she doesn't write them down in her journal. Jazz stopped writing anything in there ever since she found out that Danny is a ghost. She just couldn't risk anyone finding that journal.

Jazz isn't sure if she should call those Bad Thoughts intrusive. They scare her, and they're Bad, but it could be just her normal thought process.

It's still definitely not normal.

---

Jazz is eighteen. Her parents are very excited, whispering to each other about how they found a perfect present for her, some surprise that she's gonna love.

She doesn't care.

Her little brother is late from school, and it's weird, because he was also super excited about giving her his present.

She's worried.

Her parents brush off her concern, say that Danny probably just got distracted talking with his friends. They don't listen when she says that Danny wouldn't get distracted like that on her birthday because he's not them, he actually cares about her, he doesn't forget her birthdays, and something has to be wrong for him to be that late.

They don't listen to her at all.

She's angry.

Her parents are excited and talk loudly about how they wanted to find a perfect gift for their favourite daughter, and how they managed to do it because they love her so much. She hates when they're excited. It only leads to problems.

They bring her to the lab because of course they do, why would they make a gift that is normal and isn't kept in the lab, right? They usher her in, so obviously proud of themselves.

She hates them.

And she hates them much, much more the next second, because the gift is her little brother in his ghost form, strapped to a table, unconscious and injured, and the smell of ectoplasm is strong in the lab because of his green blood dripping on the floor.

There's a cold part of her that analyses her feelings and tells her what emotions she's experiencing, and that part is very aware of thick black smoke of wrath twirling and twisting under her skin. It's suffocating, and she stops breathing as it invisibly fills her lungs, scared of letting it out.

There's a perfectly fake part of her that keeps the smile on her face as her parents gush about how hard it was to catch the ecto-scum, and what they can do to it - together with Jazz because they wanted to share this with their amazing daughter.

Jazz is black smoke of rage under perfect glass of calmness when she grabs Fenton anti-creep stick. The smile she learned to fake under any circumstances doesn't falter when Jazz brings the baseball bat down on her father's head. It grows a little bit wider when she hits her mother, because Jazz learned to smile brighter when she's hurt or sad or scared or angry - experiencing any "bad" emotion actually.

Jazz is angry when she grabs her weapon.

Jazz is furious when she kills her parents.

Jazz is worried when she checks her brother's wounds.

Jazz feels nothing when she rigs the portal to blow, walks out of the house and presses the button.

She is her parents' genius daughter after all, and she did listen when they were telling her about their inventions. Maybe it would have taken longer to do, but she had Bad Thoughts, and they probably weren't just intrusive after all, because she did what they told her and made it very easy to make a bomb out of a portal. Just in case. Her parents were a threat, and Jazz was smart enough to prepare to dealing with threats, and she was smart enough to make it look like the threats dealt with themselves.

She really hoped she wouldn't have to use that button though.

---

Jazz is nineteen. Her sort-of-friends at uni offer to go to a restaurant, and she tells them that she doesn't celebrate her birthdays. There's a noise of all of them saying that maybe she should try, noise that she really should have expected, because humans are always so excited about any holidays, it's hard for them to understand that someone might not like them. It's not hard to stop that noise though. They shut up very quickly when Jazz says that she had "a very traumatic event" on her birthday.

Good. She doesn't like loud people.

Jazz goes home to her little brother. He's sad because his parents died in an awful explosion a year ago. He's still trying to smile because it's also her birthday, and Jazz is very happy that he's bad at faking a smile.

It means that he won't end up like her.

Jazz hugs her little brother, and he gives her a little present that she adores, and then they sit in silence and eat some takeout. It's very nice.

She never tells Danny that their parents died before the explosion, and that the explosion wasn't an accident, and that their ghosts did form after that because of all the ecto-contamination they had, but she made sure this wouldn't become a problem. She never tells him what she's done, because that would hurt her little brother, and she would never let anything hurt him.

Jazz will protect her little brother from anything.

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

I find the idea of Jazz being an overprotective sibling when they were young so adorable. Like imagine a young Jazz holding young Danny's hand everywhere and helping him up on his chair. Imagine this in the au where Bruce figures out Jack is a relative but Jazz and Danny are children when they meet. Imagine the Batfam just cooing over this sweet shy little boy and his overprotective sister who's like 'No. My little brother >:('.

my mind went dark because i've seen my share of fics and analysis of jazz, where that protectiveness stems from living in an unstable home. like her parents are loving but also awful a lot of the time. and jazz was facing that alone for the first three years of life and then she had a baby brother and she had that moment of i'm going to do anything for him. that pure love you sometimes just feel for infants. and then as time went on she became more and more aware of how dangerous everything in their house is. like overprotective people have a habit of catastrophizing. like you're not allowed near anything. i can't believe we're even in the same house as knives. but in this case, jazz is absolutely right. their house is a death trap. the fenton parents don't practice lab safety. that is canon. and i highly doubt their house was child proofed in anyway so you just have this also a child just fully embracing her role as a psuedo parent to protect her baby brother. (which is in fact a pattern in abusive and neglectful families.) also plays into her interest in psychology and childhood development. she noticed a problem and started researching it.

kinda takes the cuteness out of it. but the psychologist in me can't let jack and maddie off, especially when the show plays into these roles fairly realistically.

but yeah, i'm currently remembering the Christmas episode where jazz fought a turkey away from toddler danny with a broom. she's always been there for him even if they annoy each other. also makes it feel more significant to me that jazz was the first in the family to find out danny's secret. she reacted how you want a parent to react. she was supportive, and she gave danny the space to talk in his own time. she didn't confront him or force him to talk about his accident or being a ghost. she respected his boundaries and let him come to her. while also keeping an eye out on his general safety and health. jazz is a safe person to talk to.

the parents while are shown as being supportive when the reveal, leading up to those situations it's genuinely hard to tell. like you try to convince them that ghosts aren't evil with the presented evidence and they just plow over you with their ghosts are evil and we want to tear them apart rhetoric. it's hard to trust that they'll be safe. that they'll look past their beliefs for their kids or turn against them.

so naturally throwing batman into the mix. well he has an adoption problem. and lets be real, cps would be on this household if someone made the call. i could see it playing out as a temporary situation. where the fenton parents are confronted with their bad behavior and are told to clean up their act and meanwhile danny and jazz would stay with uncle bruce. (vlad offered as someone the family knows better but jazz and danny vehemently refused.) and that has the potential of antics because danny fits the type and could just accidentally phase into the bat cave at any time. cassandra, barbera, and jazz being friends is also everything to me. danny learning proper martial arts instead of his messy self taught fighting style.

and just there's a certain dichotomy because the siblings in the bat family are kinda weirdly antagonistic. like you sense the love but they aren't close in a family way exactly. they're close in a we fight together way. they're brothers in arms. but theirs bitterness and jealousy that we see a lot. they love each other but they fight a lot.

but jazz and danny are close. protective. yes we see jazz protect and look after danny a lot. we see her worry about his safety and mental health. but you know danny is just as protective of her. he'd fight anyone. he notices when she's in danger even when she doesn't. see the johny situation. sure they tease and argue but it's a lot more innocent. i don't see them getting in fist fights with each other. their fights are nothing serious.

so i could see having jazz and danny in the mansion calling attention to the fact that the bat bros aren't as close or normal as jazz and danny seem to be. and initially it might be written off, well of course they're more normal. they're not vigilantes. but then the reveal that, no danny is also a vigilante and jazz has been in fights in the past. that excuse kinda goes out the window. so it becomes a thing.

jazz enters family therapist mode. it's what they deserve. - Hestia

[darks-ink]

Absurdism Chapter 5

This chapter was absolutely cursed and I am glad to finally post it and never have to worry about it ever again. I have maybe an hour of sleep in me and I’m full of very exhausted hate.

Rating: Teen/K+ (a lil swearing, because teenagers, man) Warnings: - Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort Additional Tags: Sibling Bonding, Family Bonding, Alternate Universe - Halfa Jazz AU, Jazz makes friends

[AO3] [FFN] [more Absurdism on Tumblr] First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

---

Chapter 5: Bitter Reunions

“So, kids…”

Jazz looked up from the dinner she was definitely not shoveling into her mouth—she might be starving but she wasn’t an animal—and up at her mom. Beside her, Danny hummed an acknowledgment.

“This weekend an old friend of ours is hosting a college reunion,” Maddie continued, having successfully grabbed the attention. “It’s all the way in Wisconsin, so we’ll be on the road for a few days.”

“Okay, and?” Danny asked, raising a questioning eyebrow. “We’re old enough to take care of ourselves for a few days.”

Maddie frowned. Disappointed? Oh, of course. She was hoping to bring them along, make it a family thing.

“Sounds interesting,” Jazz said. “We wouldn’t miss any school if we come with, right?”

Danny shot her an offended look but, well. She’d tried to do more stuff together, just recently, and he’d left her alone at the Swap Meet. By now, she was spending more time with Danny from a different universe than her own brother, and honestly? That couldn’t continue.

“No, it’s a long weekend. We will have to spend one night in the GAV— the RV, Vlad gave us permission to arrive early, so we can sleep the other two nights there.”

“And we’ll drive home in one go!” her dad cheerily added, a bright grin on his face. “Ah, I can’t wait to see Vladdie again!”

“Well, I would love spend more time together as a family! And meeting your college buddies sounds like fun, too! Right, Danny?” She turned around, offering him her biggest, teariest eyes. Just because she was usually above begging didn’t mean she didn’t know how to do it. So sue her for pulling out the big guns, this was important!

Her brother grumbled and huffed a little longer, trying to dodge her eyes, but finally caved. “Yeah, sure. Sounds… great. Can’t wait.”

Their parents didn’t hear the reluctant tone—or completely ignored it—because both shot them grateful smiles.

Now she just had to talk to Phantom to make sure he would keep an eye on Amity for her.

---

Danny stretched out, lazily, staring up at the emerging night sky. He appreciated Jazz’ help, letting him sleep in her room while she was away, but as a result he’d become practically nocturnal. Not that he was that far off, back home, but still…

At least he got to enjoy the night sky while waiting for night to pass. And there were plenty of ghosts out at night—something he already knew from experience.

A light flashed, and Danny wrenched his head towards it, surprised. His core thrummed, picking up on an increase in ectoplasm. Had Jazz shifted to her ghost form? Why?

She became visible next to him on the roof, and Danny pushed himself up into a sitting position.

“What’s up, Jazz?” Surely nothing could be wrong? He didn’t think there were any major ghosts happening right now, but, well. It wasn’t like he’d kept a close record of when he’d fought which ghost.

“Nothing much,” she assured him, shooting him a soothing smile. Clearly she’d already caught onto his instant protective paranoia. “But Mom and Dad are planning on taking us on a road trip this weekend, and…”

“And you didn’t want to assume I could keep an eye on the city? Sure, Jazz, I can handle it for you.” He shrugged easily, grinning at her. “I handled it for two years back home, I can handle it for a weekend here. What’re you guys gonna do?”

“Some college reunion,” she said, and, oh. Was that now? Good lord, and he hadn’t even done any research on Vlad. How could he have screwed that up?

Jazz narrowed her eyes at him, the gold flaring brighter. “What’s wrong with that? Is something going to happen?”

“I… don’t know,” he admitted, slowly. “Who’s hosting it? Vlad Masters?”

She nodded. “I believe so. Why?”

He considered his options. He didn’t want her involved with Vlad, with his mess, but… well, he couldn’t protect her forever. Even if he wasn’t sure if it was Vlad in this universe, better safe than sorry, right?

“He’s… In my universe, Vlad Masters is also a half-ghost.”

Jazz stilled, eyes big and surprised. “What?” she managed, after a long silence. “How— What?”

Danny laughed, a little, humorlessly. “Yeah, I know. He was part of the ghost hunting club in college, together with our parents. When they built the Proto Portal, it blew up in his face. Gave him terrible ecto-acne, and later, made him half-ghost.”

He shook his head. “But I don’t know if that’s true for this universe as well. I know there’s another half-ghost around, equivalent to him. I’ve run into a few ghosts they hired, but none of them told me if they were hired by Plasmius or not.”

“Plasmius?” Jazz repeated, cautiously. “Let me guess, that’s his ghost name? What does that even reference, plasma?”

“Don’t know, don’t care.” He flapped a hand. “If Vlad is half-ghost in this universe, he’s bad news, Jazz. He’s obsessed. In my universe, he’s in love with Mom—has been since college. And he blames Dad for stealing her away, and for the accident. After he discovered I was a half-ghost, during the reunion… Well, let’s just say it wasn’t any good.”

“I… see.” Jazz seemed to contemplate all this new information for a moment, then straightened her shoulders. “Well, I’ll just be ready, then. Tell me everything you remember.”

“Are you sure?” He frowned, meeting her eyes. “Things might be different in this universe.”

“That’s fine.” She stared back, determination clear in her eyes. “I’ll keep my family safe.”

---

Jazz woke up in the middle of the night, cold pouring from her core and misting from her mouth. She groaned, but somewhere, she’d already expected it. Danny—Phantom—had told her that it had happened during his first night in Vlad’s mansion. And even if he had doubted that things would play out the same between their worlds, she had expected it.

But that also meant that Vlad Plasmius, half-ghost, had sent vicious vulture ghosts after her dad, and that really couldn’t be borne.

She let her core take over, energy pouring over her body as she shifted to her ghost form. The room around her came into sharp and clear relief—she could see in the dark as Specter. Turning herself invisible, she flew through the door, easily spotting her dad lumbering through the halls.

The vulture ghosts, hovering around him, were even more noticeable. Their glows weren’t particularly bright, but in the dark they were plenty clear.

Channeling energy into her fist, she shot off a blast of golden energy at the first. There was no point in capturing them, she just needed to scare them off.

The other two took offense, but instead of waiting for them to attack, she dove through the floor. She needed to take this fight away from her dad, especially if Plasmius was going to show up.

One of the vultures dove after her, talons reaching out towards her. She dodged it, barely, then sent a blast after it for good measure. The other came up from her side, likely hoping to catch her off-guard. Instead it caught an ecto-blast as well.

The three vultures regrouped in front of her, blocking the hallway in its entirety. They loomed over her. Then, suddenly, they glanced past her and darted away.

“Oh boy,” she whispered, turning to look behind her as well. Must be Plasmius, if the vultures fled.

In the hallways hovered another ghost, humanoid with blue skin. His eyes were blank and deep red, his black hair swept up into two—somewhat ridiculous—points. His outfit was a mix of white and crimson red, bar his black gloves and shoes. His cape flapped, stirred by a non-existent wind.

His glow was bright enough to light the direct area around him.

Phantom really hadn’t downplayed how strong Vlad Plasmius was.

The half-ghost cocked his head at her, narrowing his eyes. Then he grinned at her, revealing vampire-like fangs. “My vultures were supposed to bring the big idiot to me, but you’ll do! A little intruder, aren’t you?”

Cold crept down her spine. “I don’t want to fight.”

“No,” he said simply, still grinning. “No, you don’t.”

Magenta ectoplasm burst into existence around his hands. He fired a blast at Jazz, too quickly for her to dodge.

She slammed against the wall, grunting. “I’m serious! I don’t want to fight!”

“Should’ve thought of that before you broke in, hmm?” The grin had disappeared from Vlad’s face, but the ectoplasm hadn’t gone. He fired another blast, quickly followed by a third.

Jazz swore, dodging the first but getting hit by the latter. She rolled over the floor, hitting the wall harder than she’d hoped.

Vlad was coming closer again, the charged ecto-blasts casting sharp lights on his face. “I’m not big on trespassing little ghosts, you see,” he said, the threat clear in his voice.

“Yeah, well—” She pushed herself up onto her feet again, meeting his eyes. “I’m not just any ghost!”

And, against all common sense, she loosened her grip on her ghost core. Bright lights swam through the hallways, leaving her standing there in her pajamas. Human once more.

The other half-ghost halted in his steps, clearly startled. He opened his mouth, closed it again, then shook his head.

Without saying another word, Vlad suddenly dissolved into pink smoke.

“Oh,” she said, simply. Poked her ghost core a little, but she wasn’t picking up on any traces of ghosts anymore. He must’ve left.

She shifted back into her ghost form, coasting back to her bed. Somehow, she’d made it through the confrontation with Vlad without getting the stuffing beat out of her.

Tomorrow, she would have to confront him anyway, she knew. If she didn’t, he would come to her. Maybe she could talk to him, show him the right way?

---

“Vlad,” she said when she saw Vlad, the next day.

“Jasmine,” he greeted back, inclining his head slightly. That seemed to be the end of it, however. No attempt to reference last night, even though no one else was around.

Instead of pushing him, however, she took a bite of her food. Vlad acted uninterested, but she caught him glancing over at her, repeatedly. What, did he not realize she knew who he was? Was he trying to find the best way to approach this?

“What are you looking at?” she asked, finally, tone carefully polite. “Do I have something on my face?”

Vlad looked startled—at being addressed?—but his expression smoothed over quickly. “No, my dear, there’s nothing.”

She hummed, a note of disbelief clearly audible. Took another bite. Would he comment on his own, or was she going to have to take lead here?

Apparently so, because Vlad remained silent. Man, were all adults this dysfunctional or something?

“Would you mind not staring, then?” She took another bite, chewing quickly. “I’m not stupid, you know?”

“Ah…” He shifted, clearly uncertain but trying to cover it up and appear suave. She hadn’t been able to see how the Vlad Masters might’ve spent time with her parents, in college, but she was starting to see it now. They shared that same disastrous way of dealing with people. And an interest in ghosts, apparently. “It is nothing, Jasmine.”

“Stop calling me that,” she scoffed, turning to him instead of her food. “My name is Jazz, or Specter. And your name is Plasmius, isn’t it?”

He stiffened, clearly caught off-guard. “Excuse me?” he tried, feebly. It wasn’t very convincing.

“Oh, come on.” She shook her head, abandoning her meal. “We ran into each other last night. I shifted back to human form, you left, and now you’re pretending you weren’t that half-ghost I ran into. But I’m not an idiot, Vlad.”

Vlad grumbled, his eyes flashing red for just a brief moment, before he composed himself. Straightened his clothes, put on a whole show and everything. “Yes, clearly I underestimated your intelligence. I apologize, my dear girl. But, as you’ve likely discovered already, our kind are rare beyond words.”

Well, that much was true, at least. The only one she knew besides the two of them came from a different universe altogether.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” she allowed, mellowing herself out a little. He was aggravating, yes, but if she could get him to not be a huge ghostly villain…

He was looking at her, eyes narrowed. Like he was thinking about something, or eyeing her up. Or both, who knew?

“You are young still, Jasmine,” he finally said, and darnit. Again with the ‘Jasmine’ thing? Couldn’t he just use her name like everyone else? “Just fourteen, aren’t you? Too young to drive, and not even in college yet?”

And there were the alarm bells! Hello, what did it matter?

“So?” she bit back, not as venomously as she wanted to. “So what if I’m just fourteen?”

Vlad clicked his tongue, giving her a disappointed shake of his head. “What does it matter? You want me to let you run off all alone, stumbling through your adolescence, desperately trying to get control of your powers? Powers, by the way, that I’ve had for twenty years.”

He flashed his eyes red, meaningfully. Jazz didn’t budge. What was he trying to prove?

“I have experience, my child.” Vlad’s eyes faded back to their usual blue, and he folded his hands behind himself. Set himself back into that stoic posture he kept showing. Like he had to show off his big mature adult-ness to convince her. “I could train you, teach you everything I know. And all you’d have to do, is renounce your idiot father.”

The gaze he set upon her was expectant, heavy.

She snorted.

“Yeah, as if.” Jazz stood up from her seat, flashing her eyes at him. “I already have a teacher, and his price is far more reasonable than yours. Stay away from my family, Plasmius, and I’ll keep your secret.”

Apparently this had been the wrong thing to say, because he hissed, sharp and inhuman. His eyes went red, and this time, they didn’t fade easily.

Jazz could feel the increase of ectoplasm in her core before it became visible to her eyes. Energy sparked over Vlad’s skin, coalescing in crackling rings of energy. They managed, somehow, to simultaneously be pure black and lanced through with white lightning.

Plasmius had grabbed her before she could even seriously consider shifting as well, phasing her through several walls. She struggled in his grasp, but his black-gloved fingers were like vices. There was no getting out.

He dumped her on a hard metal floor. She took the moment of respite to investigate the area. Metal floors, walls, ceiling, tables… a lab? It made sense that Vlad had one, too, but still. Why would he take her here?

An odd sound, like metal scratching metal, drew her attention back to Vlad. She scolded herself inwardly for getting distracted so easily, looking at the other half-ghost.

“Why—” she started to say, and then the cube he’d slid over at her activated.

The metal expanded, suddenly, locking her in the now-hollow cube. Only her head remained free, and no wrenching seemed to loosen the plates again.

“You can wait here,” Vlad said, his voice flat and cold. “We’ll see how you feel about my proposal once your father is out of the way.”

Her eyes snapped back up to his face, and he looked… he looked deadly serious.

“You can’t!” she shouted at him, grasping for her core even when she knew it would be futile. “Vlad, you can’t! If you kill him— everyone will know! They’ll know, and they’ll never forgive you! Not me, not Danny, and definitely not my Mom!”

“Oh, what do you know,” he scoffed, grabbing the edge of his cape. He swept it over himself, his body dissolving into pink smoke in the same motion.

Gone. He’d left, just like that.

Now they were really in for it.

---

Energy poured from her core, down her arm, and into the palm of her hand. The ecto-blast that formed was bright, casting golden light over the steadily darkening clearing.

“I’m just— frustrated, you know?” she said as she fired the blast. The rock she was aiming for shattered on impact, debris scattering throughout the clearing.

“You did fine, Jazz.” Phantom floated up next to her, sending her a soft look. “Seriously, Vlad is a jerk. There’s nothing you can do about that, not really. I mean, I made a deal with the guy, and he didn’t bother to stick to that, either.”

She huffed out an annoyed breath. “I know… I’m just— Ugh.”

Phantom laughed, his glow flickering briefly. “Yeah, he has that effect on people.”

“I guess I just worry.” Jazz lowered her eyes, watching her boots scuff the ground. “I mean, I turned down his offer just like you did, but what if that still changes things? The reason for turning him down, and stuff?”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” Phantom nudged her, drawing her eyes back up to him. “We’ll handle whatever he does next, okay? Besides, the Dairy King freed you, and you fought Plasmius. Sounds like things played out pretty much the same as they did for me.”

Jazz hummed, watching Phantom’s hair drift in the wind. She’d known him for a few weeks already, yet his appearance remained unusual to her. But, then, her own ghost form was still odd to her, as well.

“Really, Jazz, don’t worry so much about it,” Phantom continued, landing on the ground next to her. “I had kind of expected it already. You can’t change every ghost’s mind, and Vlad is unusually stubborn. Besides…”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, suddenly, drawing her in closer. For a moment she considered resisting, but then she melted against his side. He was a little cooler than her actual brother, but that was just the effect of his ghost form, she knew.

“It’s not your fault that Vlad became a bad guy, okay?” Phantom told her, quietly. “You’re just fourteen, Jazz, no matter how mature you are. You can’t be responsible for the whole world—no one can. Hell, no one should be, either. Don’t put that sort of burden on your shoulders, okay?”

“Okay,” she echoed. It felt like the vice around her chest—the vice she hadn’t even realized was there—had loosened a little. “Sorry.”

Phantom scoffed. “Don’t be sorry about having emotions, Jazz. Seriously, if you ever have trouble—ghost-related or not—come talk to me. I care about you, you know?”

She felt the corners of her mouth twitch up.

“I know.”

The moment was then promptly interrupted as blue mist wafted from both of their mouths.

“Oh, come on!” Phantom grumbled, ruffling her hair as he pulled away. “Really? Now, of all moments?”

“These ghosts have no manners,” she quipped back, grinning a little. “Should we go teach them some?”

“Yeah, let’s.” He pushed himself off of the ground, and she rushed to keep up.