/Throw confetti/ As it turns out, I actually do get around to my writing prompts!

So, this is based from my own headcanon about Vlad's Villain Decay and Tumblr user Ghost-Chicky's prompt regarding it that literally made me run around my house squealing.

I overreact when people like my stuff, okay?

So, no Phantom Planet. Also, fair warning, this sucks. I failed at it pretty badly

He'll Be Fine

Sixteen-year-old Danny Fenton stared at the unwelcome house guest who the teen had found sitting in the kitchen drinking tea with his mother.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded, and Vlad Masters raised an eyebrow.

"My apologies dear boy," Vlad replied, "But I'd know if it was against the law to have a cup of tea with an old friend." He gave Maddie a side glance, and she rolled her eyes in reply.

Danny's witty reply was cut off as Jack Fenton ran up the stairs and pulled Vlad into a hug. "V-man! Thanks for comin' over! I've made a lot of cool ghost hunting gear to show you!"

Jack started to half drag Vlad towards the lab while both Maddie and Danny looked on with amused smirks. "Jack! Though I appreciate your enthusiasm," Vlad pushed himself away from Jack, his voice losing its sharp edge as he straightened his suit. "I possess the ability to walk on my own."

Possess? Danny frowned, great, this better not be another of his schemes to kill my dad and marry my mom.

He followed Jack into the lab, and Danny glanced over at his mother, who sighed. "Come on, Danny. Let's go make sure they don't hurt themselves."

With the four of them in the lab, Danny found himself half using his mother as a human shield. Being surrounded by a bunch of weapons that could either kill him or very seriously injure them would make anyone a little paranoid. Of course, the realization that his dad was currently more than likely to use them on his arch nemesis was a rather pleasant thought that made the risk worthwhile.

"And this is my pride and joy, the Fenton Mind-Prongs!" Jack was shouting, waving his arms around like a madman towards some sort of device. It was some type of large gun which appeared to have rounded prongs coming from the barrel and had a small screen sticking out from the right side. "It'll latch onto a ghost and we'll be able to see their greatest weakness on this screen here! That way we'll be able to take them down fast and find the easiest way to rip them apart molecule by molecule!"

Danny shivered, note to self; destroy that thing as soon as possible.

"Fascinating," Vlad spoke in reply, and sent a side glance towards Danny. "I wonder what Danny Phantom's greatest weakness would be?"

"Don't you dare!" Danny muttered under his breath, his ghost powers making his eyes glow green for a few moments. "Vlad, don't you dare!"

Though his mother shot him a curious glance, Danny's comment was all but ignored. "That's a great idea, Vladdie!" Jack was back to flailing around, "We'll hit the spook and then-" He swung his fist, which hit the invention. Danny stepped behind his mom as it hit the ground, and then somehow, it fired.

The prongs latched onto Vlad's face, and Danny watched in wide-eyed horror as they shocked his enemy, causing the older man to scream for someone to get it off of him.

Only one thought was going through his mind, that could've been me.

After a few fearful second Jack raced over to Vlad and Maddie to the weapon. Jack pulled the prongs of the weapon off of the other man while Maddie attempted to disable the weapon. Once they finally had, Vlad was still for a few moments before sitting up, rubbing his head.

"Are you okay, Vlad?" Jack asked, placing a hand on his 'friend's' shoulder.

Vlad slowly raised his head, and Danny could tell the he was downright pissed. "Do I look okay, you bumbling idiot?!" He pushed Jack's hand away and stood up. Danny was pretty sure that Vlad was considering taking his ghost form right then and there so that he could beat Jack to a pulp. "You could have killed me with that... That idiotic invention! I could've died, you oaf, just like in college! How are you allowed near humanity?! You should be locked away- you're a danger to everyone around you!"

"Leave him alone, Vlad!" Danny called, stepping in between his father and Vlad. "It was an accident!"

"An accident?!" Vlad scoffed, "Oh please Daniel, I saw you step behind your mother for cover. You'd be safer in the Ghost Zone then you'd be here! Maybe there you'd be less likely to be murdered by your father in an accident! And it wouldn't be the first time, either!"

Danny's eyes began to glow green, "That was not his fault, Pla- Vlad!"

"Oh, it was Daniel!" Vlad replied, ignoring Danny's near slip of the tongue. "Every moment you're near him, you're closer to-"

"Vlad... Oh god, Vlad..." Maddie's quiet words interrupted the fight, and Danny forced his eyes back to their human blue. "I... I think you should see this."

Frowning, Vlad pushed past the two Fenton men and made his way over to Maddie, who was holding the weapon in her arms. She shakily motioned to the screen that was on the side of the weapon, and Vlad was suddenly white as a ghost. "Is...?"

Maddie could only nod. Jack made the way over to the two of them, his eyes going wide. "Vlad, I... Oh, Vlad..."

Danny stayed where he was standing, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. What? Wait, hold on, his weakness... Okay, I want to see this. It can't be his ghost form, considering they haven't shot him yet, but still... He took a step towards the three adults, stopping suddenly as Vlad just fell to his knees.

"...Oh, well," The billionaire muttered, running a hand through his hair. "I... I guess that explains a lot, huh? Why I've... Oh god, I never expected this..."

"I'm so sorry, Vlad..." Jack whispered, kneeling down and wrapping his arms around his friend.

What confused Danny was the fact that Vlad didn't try to push Jack away.

"What's going on?" He asked, taking a few more steps forward. "Mom, Dad, what did that thing show?"

His parents exchanged a look for a few moments, neither speaking up. In the end, it was Vlad who broke the tense silence.

"Of all the ways I thought I'd die..." He gave a half-hearted laugh, "Kind of funny that it'd be a brain tumor. Never saw that one coming... Never in a million years."

"Wait. What?" Danny frowned, nearly running over and taking the weapon from his mother. On its screen was what appeared to be some sort of cross-section of a head, and at one point where the brain would be was a large white splotch that was taking up a good chunk of the head.

Danny stared at it for a few moments before looking up at his Mom, hoping for an explanation.

Maddie took a deep breath in before motioning to the screen. "Danny, that's pretty much the same image you'd get from an MRI... The white is a brain tumor."

Danny nearly dropped the weapon, "W-what?" Vlad? Brain tumor? No, no, no, no. It doesn't fit. It can't be real. The thing's in like a third of his brain!

"I'm going to die, aren't I?" Vlad mumbled, and Danny actually did drop the weapon.

"No," He muttered, taking a few steps away from the three adults. "No way. He can't be dying, no way." Maybe it would only be this bad to humans, not hybrids. Yeah, Vlad'll be fine, his ghost side will fight it off, and he'll go back to being my Fruit Loop of an enemy.

Yeah, he'll be fine.

He has to be.

A brain tumor taking up the third of his brain? I don't think Vlad's going to be okay, Danny.

Actually, I know he isn't. Such are the events of the magical part two that I should probably write but I swear my motivation is going skydiving.

On another note; proper characterization? Who needs proper characterization? Have Danny being in denial that Vlad will die instead. Or maybe I should just stop trying to write stuff late at night.

Anyway, my headcanon is basically that Vlad's villain decay was caused by a brain tumor that started to actually affect his behavior sometime around his relapse of Ecto Acne in Masters of all Time. It was never diagnosed, and began to mess with his ability to make decisions, as we see in Kindred Spirits where it's revealed that Vlad cloned Danny in his efforts to get a 'perfect half-ghost son'. I can't be the only one who thinks that doing something like that sounds hardly like the Vlad we had seen before. By Phantom Planet, the only reason he still appeared fine was because his human side started to feed off of the energy from his ghost side, which did little more than weaken his ghost side, which was a factor in the fact that Danny was usually either able to beat or tie their fights. When Vlad was left in space during Phantom Planet, his ghost side was drained of ectoplasm from keeping his human side alive and repairing any possible damage caused to it by the ectoranium. Vlad's ghost side began to die, and without it to support him, his human side did too. However, his human side died first, forming into the nearly empty shell of his ghost side, allowing Vlad to live on as a ghost and not a hybrid. That is why we see him without a space helmet at the end of Phantom Planet; if you don't need oxygen, why would you keep the helmet?

Apparently that's morbid but I don't see how.

So, I'll try to get part two up soon. But until then, thoughts?