#danny phantom kindred au

[redelliavalentinos]

I toyed with upgrading him one more time, but I opted not to because it's too much. And I don't think it's necessary. But I still like it. I'll tuck it away for later. Who knows.

[mfdragon]

Hey there

Thoughts on ‘A Glitch in Time’ and if it’s canonicity will affect the Good Vlad AU?

If you’ve addressed this before, I’m sorry, but I didn’t see anything, and I’m kinda intrigued on how that dynamic would work

I have answered this kinda but I can go into more detail now since some time has passed.

I loved Glitch in Time! It was FUN; it was CREATIVE; and I loved just seeing all the characters again having an adventure together. I enjoyed the lore exploration, the extra nuance they gave Dan and the veeeery interesting future plot potential with him and Vlad 👀

It made me real happy (and sad as well) to see how happy Jack was to see Vlad again, despite everything. And yea speaking of Vlad oh ma lawd I NEVER THOUGHT ID GET TO SEE HIM FINALLY OPEN UP ABOUT HIS TRUE FEELINGS!! Happy also to see Danny was weary and didn’t trust him completely but still the ending was interesting, held a lot of potential and everyone is in a good place.

Now as for my own story; it’s interesting that the comic revealed that Vlad’s obsession was fueled by fear. I thought that was very interesting and it does make sense, since being abandoned and left in pain is probably his biggest trauma. However, I always liked and suspected his obsession was more linked with anger, since it’s connected to revenge and being blinded by rage. And that’s mostly what I’m going to be focusing on in my au. I don’t know if I’d be adding Dan or Danni into my story, especially since my au takes place after TUE but before Secret Weapons. (Mostly because the cloning thing for me was like, ah hell I can’t redeem this guy once he gets to THIS point like damn son. And attempted Jazz-icide as well; can’t forgive him for that at all :/)

Sorry for the ramble and I hope some of that made sense ✨

[picturejasper20]

Random Danny Phantom AU idea:

Some time after Kindred Spirits/Eye for an Eye Vlad gets consumed by his own obsession and that makes him transform into a ghost like creature who barely remembers his human self except for specific things. Think of it like a corruption state that is a result of him not being able to reach his obsession and letting himself being defined by that so much.

So now Danny finds himself taking care of a bat-ghost creature, who is the size of the bear, because he often keeps following him around (being Danny one of the few things he is able recall) and helping Vlad to return to his normal ghost self by reminding him of his past and other things from his human life.

[kitty-av]

Hey, so I'm bored and decided to do a bit of a minor redesign session for my Bois. My clone bois. I haven't done all of them, I basically just started. Anyway, here's Dante ( Skeleton clone from kindred spirits for the uninitiated) in his human form/half.

The ink stained the paper ( I smudged it ) so I put some blocks of colour behind him. It actually looks good. Anyway, as I was making these, I drew a tiny bow thing by accident and I realised that out of all my designs, he would look the most like Vlad's biological son, even if his colouring is way different ( I imagine he leans towards Maddie in his genes, he looks closer to Jazz than Danny ) so I thought it was a neat idea and wanted to try leaning into it.

The first draft I realised I did his nose wrong ( I love his lil hooked nose, it fits better) and from there it was just experimenting with the outfit and hair messiness.

Personally, I like the two in the middle best - again he looks a bit like Vlad and I realised it's a happy accident I could lean into - but I think any of these work. I could probably just assume he has more than one pair of overalls/jumpsuits but... Eh, I like toying with clothing.

Here are some minor sketches in my own style I did for fun! •^•

A part of me wanted to make it so Dante was actually made using Vlad DNA... But I actually think it'd be more fun if his grandparents on Maddie's side just had those genes, and he looks like Vlad on accident.

He's also basically the one I'd least like to tweak. My boi is beautiful already. But I do want to change something about the other two's designs. I suppose I'll post those when I do that as well.

Oh, and maybe I should draw a Danno or two to lure unsuspecting phans into the ' clones had lives actually, and that's a great sort of angst because Vlad's A+ parenting and Danny's lack of awareness of the fact all of them were conscious at some point leaves so much to toy and play with in terms of both fluff and angst ' pit! OwO

Who knows? Hope you have a pleasant scroll through tumblr •^•

[lilianade-comics]

My Cheese Melt AU is an alternate series of events beginning in Kindred Spirits (in which Vlad never sends Dani to capture Danny, because he convinced himself that it would be a waste to get rid of a perfectly serviceable clone so quickly, leading directly into him getting so unreasonably attached to her that he forgets all about the original "perfect son" plan) which then turns into a Dani inclusive, family dynamic focused rewrite of season 3. (the fic series starts with spirits less than willing)

Dani is present for certain important canon episodes (currently Eye For An Eye, Urban Jungle, and Living Large are the ones I've fleshed out) but she also gets episodes about her. Such as her first day at school, her obligatory identity crisis episode in which she recruits Sam and Tucker to help find her some hobbies and interests that are sufficiently different from anything Danny or Vlad likes, and Aloha From the Other Side, the vacation episode where her dad breaks Hawaii by simply being Vlad. Overall, she's a sweet kid who hilariously has a better moral compass than Danny and Vlad combined, but she also has INCREDIBLE capacity to be worse than both of them, if the situation calls for it. Her arcs focus on self discovery/identity, the looming threat of destabilization, and her relationships with Vlad and Danny.

Danny's relationship with Dani is more complex in this AU, because he doesn't trust "Vlad's daughter" at all at first. It doesn't help that the first time he meets her is in Eye For An Eye, right after sending the GIW to destroy Vlad's (and Dani's!) house. And now, Vlad is obnoxiously hellbent on replacing him with "Ellie Phantom" as the protector of Amity Park! But after Dani proves she has a mind of her own and hasn't been completely brainwashed by Vlad, and doesn't necessarily approve of his villainy, Danny shifts from animosity more toward concern for her. He knows Vlad well enough to realize that he's inevitably going to break her heart, and Danny is going to be there to protect her when it happens. (But what Danny doesn't know is that Vlad already broke Dani's heart when she discovered the truth about his initial plans for her before they moved to Amity Park. He saved her life in a fit of petulant guilt immediately after to make up for it, which is why she's still with him.)

And then there's Vlad himself. It would be helpful to think of his arc here as less of a redemption arc, and more of a domestication arc. Vlad is still a supervillain and Danny's arch enemy, but because of his parental attachment to Danielle his antagonist status is just as likely to be seen in him hauling Danny back to FentonWorks by the ankles because it's past his bedtime as it is in his latest cringefail brilliant scheme. In general, he finds himself in increasingly mundane situations by virtue of being involved in Dani's life, which generally results in comedy because Vlad is anything but equipped to handle parenthood (or mundane situations) normally. He's also allowed to have a rare reflective moment now and again and generally be a little more layered than just a villain. There's also increased opportunity for temporary allyships, because Vlad and Danny agree on Only One Thing: Dani is to be protected at all costs.

[goblinhoursinsomniaramblings]

so i just remembered an AU idea i had as an excuse for same-aged vlad and danny while keeping older vlad around too

the basic premise is an AU of Kindred Spirits. vlad is fully aware he doesn't have the scans of Danny's power to make a full clone. an unstable clone could melt before it gets the data he needs. but he does have the full data of a different half-ghost to make a stable clone who will fully understand his plans and motivations and get the job done!

enter Vlad Masters II (i call him MJ in my head, both as a nod to danny phantom sharing several elements with the 90s spider-man cartoons and storylines, and as a shortening of his full name that isn't blatantly a diminuitive of Vlad's name). vlad's 'son' who has been 'away at boarding school' and neess to stay with his 'godparents' to go to Casper high and get some normalcy. he does fully understand Vlad's motivations. and that means he plans to backstab dear old dad at the first opportunity and help Danny, while fighting uphill against the fact he could very well be a fuckin' liar

featuring: fucked-up explorations of Vlad's self-loathing, danny getting a friend who actually gets his issues as a half-ghost, a setup for Vlad moving to Amity Park ahead of season 3, awkward nerd teen Vlad fighting with post-accident obsession-blinded Vlad, and plenty of jokes about pompep classic and same age pompep because seriously, why would you not make those jokes with this setup.

[cryptic-eccentric]

I had a bit of a weird dream last night that gave me a neat idea for a Danny Phantom TUE AU. I thought I'd post about it here in case anyone who happened to be into fic and fan art thought it was a neat concept they'd like to explore.

TL;DR is Danny's a 17 year old kinda Y2k greaser sorta guy for some reason and inserted himself as Danielle's sole guardian following the Nasty Burger Exploding. Also for some reason he wears a slipknot hoodie? The kind with the zipper. My dream was very insistent on the slipknot hoodie.

Anyway the basic idea is that Danny either got his powers when he was around 16-17 or the show took place on a longer and/or more well established timeline. The events of Kindred Spirits take place within a couple months prior to The Ultimate Enemy so Dani is still 11-12 in this AU. At the end of Kindred Spirits Dani still insists on leaving because she doesn't want to be a bother to travel and 16 year old Danny is a lot more hesitant to let her leave as he sees her as being more of a child given the larger age difference but ultimately does so, reiterating that she can come to Fentonworks any time should she need anything at all, because he'd feel guilty about forcing or pressuring her.

Then he cheats on the CAT, his family meets up with Mr. Lancer at the Nasty Burger and they're caught up in the explosion and killed. Instead of going to Vlad he instead decides to track down Dani and essentially adopts her himself. He drops out of school and gets a full time job as a mechanic to support both of them and changes his aesthetic a great deal. He and Dani wind up being very close as he gets to know her as an individual and they both wind up supporting each other through their own grief/trauma.

I haven't figured out if/how D-Stabilized would play out but if anyone likes this silly little AU that could be an interesting bit to expand upon.

[gohan420]

Dp au where in kindred spirits(first Dani episode) Danny didn’t stop his ghostly wail when Vlad got knocked out and instead just straight killed him.

This is less of a revenge thing but more fear for both Dani’s and his own life. We got a glimpse into lethal Vlad in that episode and if Vlad ever actually tried to carry out his murderous tendencies with any kind of plan Danny wouldn’t stand a chance.

In this au Danny recognizes this and understands this is the only chance he’s ever going to have to remove Vlad as a threat to himself and his loved ones and he takes that chance.

Vlad ends up being turned to powder after his remains are crushed under the building they were in when it collapsed on top of them.

The only reason the building didn’t collapse in cannon is because Danny stopped before he could exhaust himself, this is not the case here.

Vlad’s actual death occurs in the few extra seconds of ghostly wail time Danny could’ve had were he willing to fall unconscious from exhaustion.

Dani ends up phasing Danny out as the collapse happens. Sam and Tucker just reverse the speeder out of the building when they see it start to shake.

This also ends in Danny being out of commission for a week due to emptying his entire power reserve with the ghostly wail. And Dani’s out for the same amount of time due to trying to use her powers at all in her unstable condition.

This could lead to a half angsty half hilarious escapade from Jack and Maddie trying to track down the Wisconsin ghost for murdering their dear friend Vladdie.(and guilt for Danny that he willingly killed the man Jack believed to be his best friend)

And ghosts could start to genuinely fear Danny due to him demonstrating his willingness to win his fights by ANY means necessary.(that’s not necessarily why he did it but the ghosts refuse to believe him)

[inamindfarfaraway]

Danny Phantom fanfic that starts out as a seemingly innocuous, fluffy tale of Danny and Danielle having a day out, messing around and bantering like the siblings they are, fighting a villain together, etc., except things don’t quite add up: there’s no mention of Jazz, Sam or Tucker; Danny buys something that seems like it should definitely be outside his price range; the Fentons are spoken of only as nuisances of enemies and pathetic rival ghost fighters; Danny generally acts ever so slightly off and Danielle seems to be pretending she doesn’t notice and it doesn’t bother her, which bothers him in turn. And as they pass by Fenton Works on their way home, it’s revealed this is a universe where Vlad’s plot in "Kindred Spirits" worked.

This Danny is a clone with artificial memories of being Vlad’s son. He unnerves Danielle because she spent time with the original Danny and a) she can tell the difference and constantly has to remind himself he’s the ‘right’ one and b) her loyalty to Vlad, his abusive hold on her just barely too strong to break, allowed him to murder the original Danny in cold blood in front of her, leaving her understandably very traumatized.

Okay, now I seriously want this AU. Clone!Danny being Vlad’s golden child, put on a tight, restrictive pedestal with all his father’s expectations on his shoulders. Does he think he was always Vlad’s? That he, Jazz and Dani are Vlad and Maddie’s children, but Maddie left his poor father for that damn manipulative reprobate Jack Fenton, and unlike their lost cause ex-older sister, the younger two had the sense to choose the family they deserve? Are they sent away to an elite boarding school to keep them away from the ‘rabble’ (aka potential friends)? Danielle being the scapegoat, left alive after the perfect clone was created due to Danny’s attachment to her and her desperate need to prove her worth making her useful for unconditional service. I bet Vlad wouldn’t bother to cure her molecular instability under the guise of it simply not being possible, meaning she’s basically chronically ill/disabled. The truth is he’s aware of how the first Danny and his fate planted the seeds of morality and rebellion in her, and correctly fears his treatment of her may be watering them. His perfect son would never betray him, but if his wayward daughter chooses to she won’t be able to get far. Ironically, this decision is a big piece of her growing pile of evidence that her father is maybe, in fact, evil. Both siblings defined by comparison: Danny believed to be the better version of knowingly, his little sister, and unknowingly, the dead boy whose life he never asked to steal; Danielle the inferior knockoff of the old Danny, let alone the current one. The mutual intertwined feelings of resentment, sympathy and guilt toward each other, with Danny longing for Elle’s freedom while regretting that he automatically receives all Vlad’s praise and love and Elle envying Danny’s pampering while feeling sick to her stomach that he’s trapped at the heart of Vlad’s web.

Not to mention the Fentons, Sam and Tucker and even the staff and other students of Casper High’s side of things where they investigate whatever the hell is going on with the sudden disappearance of Danny Fenton and the sudden appearance shortly afterward of Danny and ‘Danielle’ Masters. I mean, imagine how weird and suspicious that would be. Vlad. Think about it. Really think about how it would look from the outside and to everyone who knew Danny Fenton. You didn’t think this through at all, you fruit loop!

(Credit to @anikuja for this part.) NOT TO MENTION Danny Fenton’s ghost (so, is he just always Phantom? Or a new form based on Phantom with different powers and added details based on how he died and how he feels about it?) escaping the Ghost Zone for the Masters - Vlad to defeat him, the kids to get them away from him and to Team Phantom and also therapy, a lot of therapy - and his loved ones. So much story potential!

What’s the AU called then? Danny Masters AU? No, the focus is on both of the siblings equally. Masters Siblings AU! @phantomrose96

[thesoulspulse]

Danny Phantom Randomness (Vlad Masters If He Was More Like David Xanatos ~ Part 1)

I think I mentioned this when I first got back into the phandom but personally I have a sneaking suspicion Vlad may have also been at least somewhat inspired by one of my favorite Disney villains/antagonists -apart from Maleficent- and that’s David Xanatos from the old animated TV series Gargoyles. Lets face it, anyone else who has seen this amazing show probably thought the same thing when Danny Phantom originally released and we met Vlad Masters for the first time.

Mind you, this is just my personal opinion though so take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt and I’m well aware that I’m probably not the first to think of this. The point of this post is to share how terrifying Vlad would have been if he was less of a comical villain and more ruthless and cunning like David Xanatos. Before we get to that though, lets start with the basics...

David Xanatos/Vlad Masters Comparison:

Gargoyles came out in 1994 and ended in 1997.

Danny Phantom came out in 2004 and ended in 2007, meaning both shows are exactly 10 years apart from each other.

Do they both have a personal nemesis? Yes!

Xanatos has many enemies but the main one is Goliath, one of the main characters in the show, because Xanatos is constantly manipulating the Gargoyle clan’s leader and his companions in some way.

As for Vlad, the obvious answer is Danny and his old college buddy Jack Fenton, but with the latter he doesn’t exactly fight Jack that often and just calls him names behind his back.

Both of these guys are the richest people in the world in their respective versions of it, AND live in their very own castle too! How could I not see the similarities?! Not to mention they’re both fascinated with mystical/supernatural artifacts.

Speaking of which, the biggest similarity between these two is probably their design, I mean just look at these handsome devils:

They’re both totally giving off the same charismatic vibes. Although the art styles are completely different, they both have: long hair in a ponytail, similar circle beard & goatee, nicely sculpted jawline (don’t give me that look you know it’s true!) and most obviously they both dress in finely tailored suits.

There’s even a TV trope NAMED after Xanatos known as the Xanatos Gambit and strangely enough...Vlad actually DOES use this sort of tactic with a few of his plans which connects to several important events together (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosGambit).

 Sorry in advance it’s kinda crappy looking but hopefully it gives you the idea of how literally EVERYTHING Vlad did involving Valerie benefited him somehow from the very start of her ghost hunting days.

Next up, these two billionaires are incredibly smart. However, sadly Vlad was created to be more of a comedic villain for the most part since that’s what Nickelodeon is best known for which is totally fine. He’s the kind of cookie-cutter bad guy who is still easily defeated by the hero in most cases so we’ll get to how incredibly dangerous Vlad would be if he was more like Xanatos...

Speaking of, David Xanatos does a lot of the same sort o things Vlad did in a way; he cloned Goliath the same way Vlad cloned Danny; they have both manipulated their respective nemesis into doing their dirty work; both of them have a robotic exo-skeleton though to be fair Vlad never wore the one he stole from Fenton Works himself; and they’ve used their nemesis’s loved ones as bargaining chips/hostages.

As for their wealth, both Xanatos and Vlad rigged theirs in one way or another as follows:

Xanatos had a valuable 10th century coin sent to him from the past into the future via his connections to the Illuminati while time traveling for his honeymoon using a mystical relic known as the Phoenix Gate. Trust me, it’s a lot cooler than it sounds. And after selling it for about 20k he invested that money into many successful ventures, thus becoming the richest man in the world.

Vlad on the other hand went the more classic villain route and admits in “Kindred Spirits” that he committed a string of invisible burglaries to make his billions and I assume he also invested a lot of that money just like Xanatos did. Although he had the additional option to overshadow people and trick them into signing over the rights to many influential companies to him.

A bit unrelated but there’s also a clan of Gargoyle hunters in Gargoyles too so imagine if Valerie’s family had a much longer history of hating ghosts than we realized? As in on her mom’s side they were descendants of ghost hunters all alone just like the Fenton’s.

I could probably go into more detail but I’m putting a lot of this together through memory since I haven’t re-watched Gargoyles again recently or anything like that. We’ll get to the fun part in another post with some examples of how Danny probably would have been no match for a Vlad who has his act together and planned EVERYTHING well in advance.

[walks-the-ages]

Danny Phantom writing prompt:

Danny and Dani manage to save the other clones from Vlad's abusive ass, and Danny officially adopts them as younger cousins.

So, when Dani, Dannae, Dannay, Dann, and Daniel all show up in their human forms for a surprise "Family Reunion", how does Danny keep his parents from asking all the wrong questions and how does he keep Jazz from trying to get their parents to adopt all the clones and HOW DOES VALERIE REACT TO THIS MANY PHANTOMS FLYING AROUND!?

[redelliavalentinos]

I have a few of these. I couldn't help myself.

[mfdragon]

I'm slowly and surely getting Danny Phantom hyperfixation, and I guess my blorbo is Vlad Masters. First off, I love your Redemption AU comics. And I really liked how you mentioned that KS, felt too far. Also, I am so glad that the comics took place after TUE; felt like there was Potential there

Fellow Vlad Blorpo appreciator 🫡

Yea I mean Kindred Spirits was a VERY menacing Vlad and while I think you could still write a story where THAT Vlad gets redeemed; for me, that’s one too many boundaries crossed.

TUE however set everything up perfectly for an opportunity to see a redemption, since future Vlad actually regretted his actions and Danny witnessed this. It would have also added more to Danny’s chatacter; choosing to follow a more heroic path at that point in the show, by actively trying to give a helping hand to his enemy.

[picturejasper20]

What are your favorite father & daughter fics/au’s of Vlad and Danielle?

There aren't so much in contrast to Danny and Vlad but i know a few:

Shattered Identity: Written by mutual hello-im-not-a-possum. Vlad gets shot by Maddie and as result he turns into a younger more weaker version of himself. Vlad gets help from the Team Phantom to deal with his new situation. Danielle later shows up, believing that Vlad is a clone at first but later finding out that it is indeed him. Dani starts spending more time with Vlad as he starts to change his ways.

(We are) The fault line: Post Phantom Planet- the team Phantom works together along with Plasmius to free Danny from the GIW. Dani tags along with them and she has an overall delevelopment with Vlad in the story. Vlad has like a sort of redemption arc through the plot and over time expresses feeling bad for the way he treated Dani.

These Cold Days: Danny and his friends ran away from the GIW after a huge explosion takes place in Amity Park. Vlad later gets involved in helping them and Danielle later shows up with Wulf. There were some emphasis in Vlad and Danielle's relationship in here so i guess it counts.

There was one shot that takes place in Danny going to college and Vlad being the one that keeps an eye on Amity Park for ghosts that show up. One day Dani happens to be around and Vlad offers her a place to stay and a check if she helps with fighting the ghosts. Sadly i'm not able to recall the name of it now.

On last point anything posted by lilianade-comics. You probably have seen the comics going around. It is an AU Danielle gets stabilized and adopted by Vlad instead of the fallout they have in Kindred Spirits. Vlad is still somewhat evil but he isn't like longer obsessed with making Danny his own son-pupil.

[kingarmorking]

me: hey mom, so [name] is my cousin right? but i still call him "oppa"

mom: yup

me: is there a word for cousin in korean?

mom: sachon!

me: yeah but you don't call them that right? you don't say "name"-sachon? you'd just call them nuna, oppa, etc?

mom: right! it doesnt have to be limited to family too you can call anyone older than you nuna, oppa, onee, hyung.

me: ok thats what i thought. pause. and yes theres a reason and its related to the korean danny phantom i keep talking about.

mom, laughing: yeah i thought so

[imekitty]

Follow-up to this ficlet. A twist on Kindred Spirits.

-----

"Let me make sure I'm understanding you correctly," said Vlad. "You want me to kidnap your son?"

Maddie and Jack nodded.

"So that I can clone him?"

They nodded again.

Vlad huffed in amusement and leaned back on the sofa in the Fenton living room. "May I ask what you want a clone of your son for?"

Maddie and Jack exchanged glances.

"There are some tests we want to run," said Maddie quietly. "Some experiments we want to try."

Vlad's eyes sparkled. "You want to cut him open, don't you?"

"There are just..." Maddie shuddered, her voice shook. "There are so many secrets locked in his ghostly hybrid form. But obviously, we can't do anything with the real Danny. Never. But if we had a clone, we could do anything we want. And the real Danny would never have to know."

"You're terrible."

Maddie and Jack said nothing.

"But I wouldn't expect anything less from the great and beautiful Maddie Fenton." Vlad smirked. "Or Jack Fenton, of course."

"It wasn't my idea," muttered Jack.

"No, of course it wasn't," said Vlad with a sneer. Jack's gaze hardened.

"We need you to do this, Vlad," said Maddie. "We can't do it. Danny can't know that we know he's half ghost. And your cloning technology is far more sophisticated than ours is."

"You're with him all the time. You can't just collect samples of his DNA?" asked Vlad.

"We can't get the mid-morph DNA," said Maddie. "We can't extract that unless he's in the process of transformation. Which we can't do without being right there. Which we can't do because he can't know that we know he's a ghost."

"But he does know that I know he's a ghost," mused Vlad, looking off to the side and crossing his arms.

"Right, and you're already an established enemy of his," said Maddie. "He'll never suspect Jack and I have anything to do with it. He'll just think it's all you without a second thought."

Vlad chortled. "You're right. You're absolutely right. He would never know."

There was a long silence in the room. Jack kept his head low while Maddie stared straight across at Vlad.

"All right," said Vlad. "I will do this for you. For the price you offered to me. But only because you're such good friends of mine." He looked at Maddie fondly. "You know I'd do anything for you, my dear."

Maddie's lips thinned. Jack could see the vibrations in her left knee.

"It's settled. I will get that mid-morph DNA and make a clone of your son for you two to fuck around with." Vlad leaned back and spread his arms on top of the sofa. He looked up at the ceiling. "I'll just need to plan this out. Probably create a few test clones."

"Vlad, please," said Maddie. "Whatever you do, please don't hurt him, okay?"

Vlad guffawed. Jack raised his head while Maddie glared.

"Oh, are you being serious?" Vlad cocked a brow. "You engineered a ghost portal to shock him with several hundred volts of ectoplasmic energy, and you're asking me not to hurt him?"

"I knew what I was doing," snapped Maddie. "I calibrated that portal to fit the exact specifications of his biology. He was never in any danger."

Vlad gave a slight roll of his eyes and scratched his temple. "I mean, I'll probably have to rough him up a little before I can successfully subdue him enough to take him back to my lab. God knows that scrappy little brat can put up quite a fight."

"Vlad," reprimanded Maddie darkly.

"Sorry, your oh-so-darling son can put up quite a fight. And the mid-morph DNA extraction won't exactly be an enjoyable experience for him."

"We're just asking you to try," said Maddie. "Try your best not to hurt him."

Vlad eyed her warily. "You are aware that this clone I create will be Daniel in every way, right? He will think he's the real thing. He will see you as his mother, both of you as his parents. And he will have his own sentience, his own consciousness. He won't understand why you're hurting him. You know this, right?"

Jack rested his elbows on his thighs and leaned over, his head drooping toward the floor.

"Danny. His name is Danny, not Daniel," said Maddie. "And of course we know. That's why we need one. We need an exact replica of Danny to work with, exact even in memories and thoughts. One that is disposable. He may think he's the real Danny but he won't be the real Danny. And Jack and I won't forget that."

Vlad blinked a couple times before exhaling and rising to his feet. "Well, then." He stretched his arm across his body, popped a couple joints. "I suppose I should get going. I have a teenage boy to terrorize."

He started to walk out of the living room toward the front door until Maddie gave him pause.

"Vlad," she said softly. "Please. Don't hurt him."

Jack turned his head to study his wife's face. Her eyes were wet.

Vlad did not move for some time. Then he nodded and silently left.

Maddie took Jack's hand in hers and breathed in tremors through hunched shoulders.

"This is the only way," she murmured to herself. "There's no other way. We have to. For our research. This is the only way."

Jack continued to watch her face, her eyes shut tight, her teeth clenched.

For once, it appeared even she was frightened by this scheme.

Part 3