Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nothing and Everything- Part 1

For DannyMay Day 17- Childhood, Day 21 Ooze, Day 24 Mask, 

The being’s existence is simple. Colors, shapes, and sounds. Action and dull emotions. But no words. Words do not make sense.

Sister chases him; it sends bubbling pleasant feelings through him. She laughs, one of the few things he understands. He would laugh too if he could make noise. Her mouth moves, making other sounds. Ones he does not understand. (They are words though he does not know that yet.)

This is existence. 

Some things are good but few. Outside. The warm yellow light. Green tickling things and colorful soft things. Water. A bubbling sound. Inside. Soft bed when Sister lets him nap with her. Wood blocks. Books. Paper. Crayons.

Many things are bad.

Confusion. Sister talks and sometimes her lips turn down, her voice soft and sad when he does not respond. He does not understand why and it makes him feel heavy and slow….sad(?).

Distress. Master is in the lab. He does not like the cold metal lab. Master crosses his arms and frowns. His tone is disappointed and harsh. He commands, demanding. Invisible, intangible, ectoenergy.

The being must obey. It all hurts, makes him tired. But he must obey or Master yells and Sister cries. It is not so bad. But bigger and smaller is the worst. Small is….uncomfortable. Everything is too big around him, his skin too tight.

But big….he stretches. It feels good, right until...he drips, oozes. It hurts, hurts, hurts! He’s weak and small again. Small is not so bad.

One day, Master takes him somewhere new. Lots of buildings and people, not dripping, floaty people like him. More like Master and Sister. Everything is so much. It makes him feel bubbly and confused at the same time. It is strange.

Sister phases inside a building. Soon after, Master points and commands. He understands the motion; he must obey Master. He flies past Sister and she chases. He feels a bubbly feeling; it is like one of their games that makes Sister smile. Someone else flies with Sister, chasing him. They are out of the building. Sister and the boy both shoot and he dodges, flying faster. 

Master appears in front before they catch him. Master hurts the boy and he falls down, asleep. Sister looks happy; she made Master happy. Master takes the boy and they all fly back to home.

He watches as Master puts the boy in a box. His head just sticks out. Master tells Sister to wait outside. Master waves him over and points at the boy. Master speaks and his voice is demanding. He says the same word, the same command, over and over again, pointing at the boy but the being does not understand. Master changes- from the pale skinned Master to the blue skinned Master. But both are the same; both are harsh and mean. They change back and forth, saying the same word. Back and forth. The being tilts his head. It is hard, so hard, so confusing. The most confusing thing he’s ever tried to understand but Master is commanding him and he must obey. The being will obey though he doesn’t quite understand.

The boy groans, his face twitching and Master waves the being away. The boy wakes up, glaring at Master. He says something, angry while the being buzzes around his head.  Master returns the anger and snaps his fingers. The being flies to him and stretches. He’s big and drippy. An eye falls out. It turns to ooze on the ground and he snarls ‘cause it hurts, hurts, hurts. But Master commands so he obeys. 

The boy looks at the being, his eyes wide. He says something and laughs but not happy, like Sister when they play. Master says something angry and points. He snaps his fingers and the being understands. 

He is small again. It feels better and he flies to the boy. Master commands so he turns intangible and phases inside the boy’s head.

The being blinks. It is like he is big but he did not stretch. And something is different about...everything, how it looks, but he can’t tell what. And his body feels different. Or….not his body. The body he is inhabiting. The being understands that now, though he didn’t seconds before.

After seconds, there is resistance. Pain. Pain. Tugging, pushing. But not the being’s body. Something around and in him yells. Words attack him. And it hurts, his mind and his small real body. The being squirms, wraths, undulating. Something tries to hold him still. But it hurts, hurts, hurts.

The head of the body he’s in shakes hard, back and forth, up and down. Is it the being or the boy he’s in? The words assault him again, images, memories. It’s too much, so much! 

There’s a push. The boy, the other mind- yes that’s it, the other mind is where the words are from- wants him to leave. But he cannot. Master commanded him. 

The being pulls in deeper, closer. The words, the words, they attack. They hurt. It’s so much, too much for him to understand. But….

He burrows, rooting himself, sinking deeper in his host’s body and mind. Closer to his host’s, Danny’s, core.

That word, that name, the being prickles with shock. He understands. The words….make sense. He understands some and more and more. He’s buried under and inside of the words and images, the memories. His host is afraid, terrified. The being…..his host calls him a clone (?)....is terrified, but he must obey and make Master happy. 

He buries himself deeper, wrapping the words and images around him. There are so many memories- happy and sad and angry and scared. They are beautiful, full of emotions and color. They are big and real so unlike what the being knows. The clone wishes he understood, wishes they were his. He pulls closer to the core, the energy at the center of his host.

The body stops writhing as physical eyes close. Inside, all goes black.

For Danny, being overshadowed is terrifying and violating. He feels the clone writhing inside him, terrified and in pain. Every mental thrash sends agony through Danny’s mind. He mentally clasps his hands around the tiny clone, as if to stop the movement and pluck it out. It fails. Danny pushes and the clone burrows into him, sending a spike of pain. He can feel it sift through his memories and his thoughts, its curiosity blooming into wonder. 

Danny mentally tenses, terrified. He pushes and recoils, getting a mental flash from the overshadowing clone. The girl clone, Danielle chasing him….it. Laying on the bed and watching Sister color. Mentally crying with surprise, Danny pulls away. Okay, memories. He can see the clone’s memories and feel its emotions. And they’re so simple, so broken that it would break Danny’s heart if he wasn’t so scarred. 

And the clone can see his memories. The boy feels the clone looking over a memory of his 10th birthday. Then another spike of pain as the clone buries itself farther. Stop! Danny yells at the clone, terrified. He lashes out. And the clone replies and it’s almost….words. He must obey Master.

Danny shivers. This...this is bad. The clone buries deeper and Danny can feel its core, so broken (but so very like his), very close to his. The halfa yanks but the clone claws into him. Danny feels its (his?) desire to understand, to experience. He feels it slipping closer and closer, its core brushing his. 

To close, to close! Danny pulls away, writhing mentally and physically. He pushes. Out. Out. Out! But the clone pulls. There’s a crash, a pulsing, electricity. It hurts, hurts, hurts!

All goes black.

Blue eyes blinked open. He’s somewhere different. Water, bubbles, and...what’s that? He tilts his head, small chubby hands reaching for the floating yellow object. It squeezes and he giggles, a high pitched and happy sound. He startles slightly. He just made a noise? But...he can’t make sound. He giggles again. No, he can. He’s just being silly. He squeezes the object again.

“Oh. You like your ducky, don’t you?” A woman’s voice says.

He blinks; there’s someone in front of him. Purple eyes, red hair, a nice smile. Who? Something tickles his brain. It’s…..

“Mommy!” He waves the yellow thing, the ducky at her. “Look!”

Mommy laughs and bops his nose. “I see your ducky.” 

The little boy laughs again, squeezing his ducky as Mommy smiles at him. He plays for a bit, splashing and laughing. Mommy picks up the bubbles and blows on them. They fly in his face and the woman laughs as the little boy blows bubbles at her.

The little boy blinks, feeling sleepy. He looks at his wrinkly hands. He’s been in the tub forever. “Time to rinse off, Danny.” Mommy says, grabbing a cup.

The little boy blinks again. Danny….that’s his name. But...no….he doesn’t have a name. He’s a cl…..

Mommy puts a hand on his head. “Close your eyes, Danny.”

Blue eyes meet hers and he does what she says. Mommy gently pours warm on his head, washing the bubbles out of his hair. She hums, softly talking to Danny. ‘Cause that’s his name. This is his Mommy and she calls him Danny so that’s his name.

“All done.” Mommy gently picks him up and wraps him in a towel. It’s got a hood, like an elephant. She dries him off and carries him into his bedroom. Mommy helps him put his spaceship pajamas on. Danny smiles sleepily; Mommy let him pick out those. 

Mommy walks him to Mommy and Daddy’s room. He sits on the bed when a big man in orange comes into his room. Danny smiles. “Dadd

Before he can answer, a little girl with red hair like Mommy’s comes in. “Danny!” She holds out a book. “You wanna read this one?”

The little boy looks down and his grin widens; there’s a brown puppy on the front. “This one Jazzy!” 

It’s the bestest book ever and Jazzy is the bestest sister ever. She sits on the bed with him. They move so Daddy can sit behind and Mommy beside him. Daddy wraps big arms around Danny and Jazzy. He reads the book and the little boy smiles, blinking sleepily. Daddy does the voices, his deep voice gentle and nice.

Danny snuggles with his sister and his daddy. The bubbly feeling rises in his gut. He’s so sleepy but so happy. He's never been so warm and safe, never ever. And it feels so nice. Not like...like….He can’t remember. But it’s fine. Mommy, Daddy, and Jazz are here and they are the bestest.

Danny falls asleep.

Mommy is the best mommy ever. She kisses his boo-boos, cuts the crust off his sandwiches, plays with him, gives him baths. 

Daddy is the best daddy ever. He reads him bedtime stories and teaches him stars and how to make fudge. Daddy scares away the monsters and ghosties in the closet.

And Jazzy’s the best sister ever. He plays with him and tries to read to him. She’s learning and doesn’t read as good as Daddy but Danny listens to her and loves it. 

He steals Bearbert and runs around the house. “Catch me Jazzy!”

“Danny!!” Jazzy chases him. 

And they both laugh, even if Jazzy crosses her arms and pouts, like she’s mad. He sighs; Jazz is the best sister….but…..a little girl with black hair like him pops in his head. Another Sister? But….she’s not here. He can’t remember….Danny goes back to running from Jazzy.

Mommy, Daddy, and Jazzy are the best. They hug him and kiss him and play with him. Danny loves them so much and they love Danny. He’s happy and safe. Everything is good.

Most of the time, it’s good.

Danny giggles on the livingroom floor where Daddy is tickling him. The metal door in the kitchen creaks open and the little boy stops laughing. He swallows, shivering. The door is scarry. It leads to Mommy and Daddy’s lab. Danny does not like Mommy and Daddy’s lab. 

Daddy leads him down the stairs. “Come on Danno. Let’s show you what we’re working on.”

The man helps him into goggles and a suit like his and Mommies. He points, seriously. “Now don’t touch anything unless me or Mommy tell you too.”

Mommy squats in front of him. “We want you to be safe, baby so you don’t come down here without us.”

Danny nods. “Yes Mommy.”

He looks at the glowly green stuff Mommy and Daddy work with. It tickles something in his brain. Metal, cold, whirling sounds. He doesn’t like the lab. It’s scary like...like….like….Green, Oozing and Pain. Pain. His head hurts.

The little boy cries, ‘cause he’s scared. Mommy hugs him and Daddy softly ruffles his hair. They lead him upstairs and make cookies. He doesn’t want to go in the lab for a long time.

Mommy bought him new clothes and shoes. Daddy says he’s getting so big. They take him to the park, when Jazzy’s at school. He likes to play with the other kids but there’s no other kids here today.

He has the sandbox all to himself. Danny hums and sings to himself while he plays. The little boy scopes sand into his bucket. He’s making a sand castle like he sees on TV when kids go to the beach. He packs the sand down and turns it over. He smiles; it looks really good.

Suddenly, Danny shivers, the wind blowing by him. It feels like eyes are watching him. He flinches. Something’s in the corner of his eye- white and blue, glowing red. He tenses and turns. He raises an eyebrow. There’s nothing there. Then he shrugs and turns back to his bucket.

He freezes again. There’s another boy sitting across from him in the sandbox. About four years old, like him. Jeans and a spiderman shirt, like his. Wait…..exactly like his.

Danny’s eyes meet the boy’s blue eyes and his jaw drops. The boy looks just like Danny.

Danny’s tummy flops with confusion. “Who are you?” He whispers.

The other boy crosses his arms and frowns. “You know.”

Danny raises a brow; he doesn’t know. “Why do you look like me?”

The other boy glares and rolls his eyes. “That’s rich.” He points, meanly. “You look like me.”

Confusion growing, Danny wrinkles his forehead. Isn’t that what he just said? The boy looks like him and he looks like the boy. But why? Danny tilts his head, looking at the other boy. He’s confused; he’s never seen someone who looks just like him before. Except….yes he has. Something tickles in his brain. He doesn’t have a twin brother but….there’s another word. It starts with the letter…..C. Yeah, Mommy’s teaching him letters, but he can’t remember the word…..or maybe he hasn’t learned it yet.

The other boy still looks mad and Danny sighs. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Danny.” The boy narrows his eyes. 

“That’s my name too!” Danny’s eyes light up, still confused but excited too.

“No it’s not!” The other Danny yells.

Danny frowns and crosses his arms. “Yes, it is.” Why is the other boy being so mean?

“No. it’s not.” Danny opens his mouth to argue but the other Danny waves his hands. “I don’t want to fight with you. Just leave.”

“What?” Danny asks. Now he’s confused again.

“Get out. You don’t belong here.” He pinches his nose, like Mommy does when she’s annoyed.

Danny looks down at his shovel and pail. “I don’t wanna get out of the sandbox.”

The other Danny frowns, expression softer. “Not the sandbox.” He waves his arms around pointing at everything. “This….isn’t your life. 

Danny wrinkles his brow. “But…” Before he asks, a voice calls behind him.

“Danny.” He turns around to find Mommy walking towards him. She asks kindly. “Who are you talking to?”

Can’t Mommy see? The little boy turns back, frowning. Then he freezes again. The other Danny’s misty and almost see through, like a ghost from one of Daddy’s stories. He blinks at Danny for a moment and he can’t tell if the boy’s mad or sad. Then the other Danny disappears. 

Danny swallows. “Just my imaginary friend.” 

Mommy asks who that is and Danny tells her about the little ghost boy who looks like him. She doesn’t look happy about that and grumbles. “I told your father he shouldn’t tell you those stories. Ghosts don’t make good friends, Danny. Ever imaginary ones.”

Danny doesn’t tell her he’s not sure the other Danny was imaginary.

Danny thinks about his weird look-a-like for a while after that. But he’s almost five and doesn’t have a very long attention span so he forgets by the time he goes to bed that night.

Soon it’s summer and Jazzy’s out of school so they go on a long trip. They drive through the mountains. They’re tall and green and there’s lots of curves in the road. Mommy and Daddy let him and Jazzy watch cartoons on the DVD players and they stop at a pretty place with picnic tables for lunch. 

They drive forever and ever and the land looks flatter, more like home. They stop at restaurants and a museum. They sleep at a campsite and roast marshmallows. They drive more in the morning and then Danny sees the best thing ever.

The ocean. He wants to splash in it right now.

“Danny-boy. Wait, you have to change first.” Daddy walks him to the changing rooms, lets him put his swim trunks on by himself, and makes him put on sunscreen. It takes forever!

Daddy finishes rubbing the sunscreen on his back. “There you go son. Let’s go!”

Danny runs out in front of Mommy and Daddy with Jazzy. It’s so bright and sunny! He runs into the surf before he thinks to take his flip flops off. But the water’s so good! It smells like salt and there’s shells and sand and seagulls. It’s amazing!

He takes his shoes off and runs across the hot sand to where Mommy and Daddy are setting up the beach chairs and umbrella. He leaves his shoes and goes back to the water. He splashes and jumps over waves and chases little fish. 

He watches the seagulls and digs in the sand with Jazzy. She likes finding the little purple clams and watching them bury themselves back into the sand. They make a sandcastle with Mommy and Daddy. For a second, Danny thinks about the sandbox at home and the strange other Danny. He blinks, seeing another black haired five year old playing near the surf. Danny goes back to playing in the sand and doesn’t see the other boy again that day.

In the fall he starts kindergarten. The teacher is nice and teaches him numbers and letters and reads to everyone. They go to music and the library and the computer lab and recess. It’s fun, most of the time. 

But the best thing is meeting his best friend, Tucker. Tucker wears glass and a hat everyday. He loves Star Wars and the computer lab is his favorite. Danny and Tucker play together at recess everyday and go play at each other’s houses and the park on weekends. They laugh and talk and play tag and astronauts. They learn together and watch cartoons on Saturday. And Danny’s so happy.

Kindergarten ends, summer pass, and he’s in first grade. A different teacher, new lessons but Tucker’s in his class and they sit beside each other. Tucker’s mommy and daddy let him go stargazing with Danny and his mommy and daddy and Jazzy. It’s so fun. Danny loves the stars; they’re so pretty. He tries to teach Tucker some constellations. He manages to learn a few and it makes Danny so happy.

More time passes. Summer. Second Grade. Danny’s getting taller; he can reach the counters in the kitchen now. They’re learning the planets in school but Danny already knows those. More school and playing. 

Summer again. Danny goes with his parents and sister to Aunt Alicia’s house. They catch fireflies; they tickle on Danny’s hands and glow like stars. And the stars…...they’re so clear and bright out in the country. Danny actually sees the Milky Way for the first time and it’s amazing.

They go home. Summer ends. Third grade. Another teacher but Tucker’s still in his class. School’s still fun and Danny’s still happy.

But not everything is always good. The older Danny gets the more he sees that. The lab still gives him the creeps. Mommy and Daddy spend a lot of time down there and sometimes they fight. They make up after though and everything goes back to normal. Sometimes he and Jazzy fight too and Mommy gives them a timeout and there’s no cartoons after school. But he and Jazzy hug and make up.

And sometimes…..kids at school are mean. There’s a kid named Dash and he’s the worst. 

“Hey four-eyes!” Dash shouts and pushes down Tucker.

The boy falls down and his glasses fly off his face. Dash and his friends laugh as Tucker blindly feels for his glasses.

“Stop laughing!” Danny demands, then his eyes widen as Dash goes to step on Tucker’s glasses. He pushes the blonde boy away and grabs his friend’s glasses. “Here Tucker.”

The other boy takes the glasses and right after, Dash pushes Danny. “Don’t touch me, freak!”

Danny narrows his eyes, wanting to push back but the teacher steps in first. Both get off with just a warning but Dash glares daggers at Danny and Tucker walk away.

The bully keeps messing with Danny, calling him a freak with crackpot parents. It pricks at Danny’s heart painfully, and makes him angry. He wants to lash out right back but he bits his tongue. But Dash doesn’t like to be ignored.

“Fenturd! Get off my monkey bars.” The blond boy yells.

Danny shakes his head, from where he sits on top. It’s not Dash’s monkey bars but the other boy isn’t having it. He climbs to the top and, before Danny can react, pushes him off the monkey bars.  

Yelping, Danny hits the ground, holding an arm out to stop himself. Something in his arm crunches and he cries out in pain. It hurts, hurts, hurts! The pain radiates through his body and he blinks through the fresh tears. Someone’s standing across from him. Black hair, blue eyes. He’s glaring at Dash. Yelping in pain again, Danny looks down at his arm. It’s bent the wrong way. The black haired boy looks at him, eyes wide and frowning, almost sad. But Danny can’t figure out who he is. Pain! Danny looks at his arm again, It’s green. Green and Drippy. It hurts, hurts, hurts. Like..like..like….metal...cold...fangs. His head hurts. His arm hurts. It hurts. There’s…..something. He can’t….he can’t….

Tucker runs to him, straight through the misty black haired boy. His best friend is calling for the teacher and Danny looks down at his arms, bruised an ugly color and bent wrong but not green.

He blinks and he’s at the doctor’s getting an X-ray. A cast. His arm is broken. They go home and Mommy gives him some of the pain medicine the doctor gave him and kisses him good night. He blinks sleepily once she leaves, gaze falling on a misty, black haired figure. The other Danny. The maybe imaginary figure crosses his arms but doesn’t say anything before blinking out of existence.

He was there earlier, Danny muses, when his arm broke. The green. Metal….Danny falls asleep before he can remember.

Something or someone is following Danny. At school, the playground, at Alecia’s when they visit during the summer, even at space camp the summer after 4th grade. Black and white hair. Neon green glow. A boy his age, always his age. Lingering in the shadows at home, in the doorway to the lab. He never speaks, just gives Danny angry or sad looks.

There’s….something else too. Not as often or pervasive as the other Danny but still at the edge of his vision or in his dreams. Long hair, blue skin, a red glow. A fanged grin. Whispers of something he’s supposed to do. It makes Danny shiver. Danny doesn’t want to believe in ghosts but he thinks he might be haunted. 

That is...when he remembers. The strange things flow in and out of his perception. He sees and he forgets. He sees and he forgets. But something is building.

It’s a cold October night. Finally Halloween. Danny’s super excited to go trick or treating, even if his dad is blabbering about ghosts. The ten year old’s practically vibrating with excitement, dressed up as Spiderman with a mask.

“Come on Danno!” Dad is just about as excited as him. The man pulls him along, with Mom and Jazz in front of them. 

“I’m going to get so much candy!” Danny grins.

He skips around a corner, taking in all the decorations- pumpkins, skeletons, fake spider webs, mummies- and all the dressed up people.

“Great Plasmius costume!” His dad exclaims. Danny pauses, stiffening. His eyes fall on the person his dad’s pointing at. “I loved the Vengeful Vampire’s movies in college.”

A man wearing a white suit and cap stands with his back to Danny, his black hair in wicked-looking points. Suddenly he turns around and Danny’s heart skips a beat. The man’s face is corpse blue with blood red eyes. He grins wickedly with fanged teeth.

Suddenly, the street’s dark and empty, leaving Danny alone with his heart pounding out of his chest.

“Remember what you are suppose to do, you stupid boy.” The vampire hisses.

Danny swallows. “I don’t….”

The man yells. “I didn’t make you to play pretend! Do as I told you!” Floating into the air, the vampire lunges towards him but before his teeth can dig into Danny’s neck, a neon green ball of light hits the floating figure in the gut and he disappears.

A white haired boy with neon green eyes floats in front of Danny, who swallows. His hands shake. “Thank you.”

The ghost (Danny doesn’t want to believe in ghosts but there’s no denying what this boy is) just glares at him, but with less heat than Plasmius. “Take off your mask.”

Danny obeys without question, dropping his Spiderman masks on the ground. 

The ghost’s expression hardens. “No. Take off your mask.”

Danny bits his lip. “I’m...I’m not wearing one.”

“Yes, you are. Stop looking like me!” The ghost balls his fists subtly.

The human tilts his head. “But I don’t look like you. You’re a ghost.”

In a flash of light, the ghost turns into a human boy. The other Danny. Now ten years old and wearing a spiderman suit.

Danny’s jaw drops, his previous fear turning into confusion. “But...you’re a ghost.”

“You’re a ghost.” The other Danny wrinkles his nose.

“No, I’m not.” Danny says, simply.

“Are you serious?!” The other Danny holds out his arms. “This has gone on long enough. Just stop this.”

Danny wrinkles his brow in confusion. “Stop what?”

The other Danny’s eyes widen as he waves up and down Danny’s body. “This! Stop looking like me. You don’t look like me!”

“But this is what I look like.” Danny starts.

“You’re not me!” The other Danny balls his fists. “Stop pretending to be me! Get out!”

Danny backs up, fear rising. “I don’t understand.”

The other Danny stalks towards him. “Of course not! You’re just a stupid-”

“Danny?” Dad’s voice cuts through the confrontation. The boy turns towards the voice and his dad waves at him. “Are you coming son?”

Danny turns back and the other Danny is gone. He goes back to trick or treating with his family, quickly forgetting about the confrontation. He doesn’t see his look-a-like or the vampire for a long time.

Chapter Text

Danny starts middle school when he’s eleven. It’s very...different from elementary school. They get lockers and walk across campus for classes instead of to the next room. And it’s awkward, going from the oldest class in elementary school to the youngest class in middle school. It makes Danny feel….small in a way, like when he was in first grade and always had to sit beside a fifth grader on the bus. The kid had seemed so big to his little mind and Danny can hardly believe he was ever that small….or that he’s that big now.

But...the new school’s not always scary. It’s exciting too; he still has Tucker by his side and makes a new friend.

The first day of school. Danny and Tucker walk into their first class together and take their seats at the back of the class. Other students trickle in and congregate into friends groups, the room filled with an odd mix of excitement and nervousness. The  black haired girl came in right before the bell and took the only open seat, in front of Danny and Tucker.

A quick introduction by the teacher and the woman divides the students into groups of three. Their assignment? Make a poster about science’s role in the future.

“I’m Sam by the way. Sam Manson.” The girl, dressed all in black, introduces herself, realizing the two boys know each other.

“I’m Tucker.”

“And I’m Danny.” Both boys give a short wave and smile at her.

“Alright.” Sam rubs her hands together. “Let’s get going.”

They talk and draw on the poster. Danny about rockets and space and exploring distant planets. Tucker about AI and robots and cutting edge technology. And Sam about saving endangered species and renewable energy. It leads to a very thoughtful conversation about solar panels for three eleven year olds. And the duo becomes a trio.

Sam is fun. She loves video games and introduces Danny and Tucker to horror movies. She’s bold. She loves wearing black and listening to metal. She drags Danny and Tucker to rock shows at the Skulk and Lurch (with her grandma as chaperone). She’s fearless. She is never afraid to say what she believes and stands up to Dash in a way Danny wishes he had the bravery too. Sam quickly becomes his best friend, along with Tucker, and Danny can’t imagine life without her. 

Danny laughs with his friends when the three eat lunch together and it tickles something in Danny’s mind. Sam and Tucker- older in a different cafeteria, looking surprised as he flies by, chased by Sister…..wait……

Something neon green flashes in the corner of his vision. Glowing white hair. Someone’s watching him. 

“Danny?” Sam asks, tilting her head. 

Danny tilts his head in response, studying her shoulder length black hair. He wrinkles his nose. There’s….someone else. A girl, about eleven, her age now with black hair too. But he’s never seen her…..her name starts with a…..

“Hey. Space cadet.” Fingers snap in front of his face and his vision snaps into focus. Sam.

“Sorry. I was thinking.” He says.

“About what?” Tucker asks.

Danny shakes his head. He can’t remember.

It’s October of Sixth grade, the first time Danny takes Sam and Tucker to his house to work on homework. The three laugh in the kitchen, chatting about their day and eating a snack. 

“What’s that?” Sam points.

Danny prickles at her voice, tensing. He turns around, facing the door to the lab. An image of Sam standing in the lab with a camera flashes through his mind. He shivers. “That’s my parent’s lab. We can’t go down there.”

“Why?” She asks, raising a brow.

A vision of swimming green light. Electric pain. “It’s dangerous.”

This leads to Sam asking about what his parents do. “They study ghosts? That’s so cool!” She exclaims.

Part of Danny wants to grin; Sam doesn’t think it’s weird like everyone at school. Another part of him is nauseous, stomach clenching with dread. 

“Let’s go upstairs.” He suggests.

The night when he comes downstairs for a midnight snack, for the first time in almost a year, the other Danny appears in the darkened doorway of the lab, glaring at him. Danny turns away, ignoring the specter.

Sixth grade bleeds into summer into seventh grade into summer again. And Danny feels it, the time going so fast but so slow. The trio go to the mall, the arcade, and the movies on the weekends. And they’re being followed. Neon green and blood red. A black or white haired preteen just around the corner, at a table alone, in the doorway of a store, right behind them at the movies. The eyes prickle Danny’s skin; something’s off. But he forces himself not to look, to bury himself in school work and friends and family and fun.

He can’t ignore forever. Eight grade and he blinks and it’s Valentine’s day. The school dance.

Mom adjusts his tie. “My little boy’s growing up so fast.”

Dad pats his back. “Go fix your hair, Danno. Gotta look good for your lady.” He winks.

Danny rolls his eyes. “I’m just going with friends.”

“Sure you are.” Dad gives him a knowing smile and Mom laughs. 

The 13-year old just shakes his head and walks into the bathroom. Grabbing a comb, he fixes his hair. He adds a dab of hair gel. “There.”

Danny tries to summon a confident smile and looks in the mirror. He recoils. His face is….wrong. But not. Green, gooey, oozey. His hands. Green. He bites back a scream. No. 

A white haired face flashes in the mirror behind him. “You need to leave. I’ve let you have enough. You’ll destroy us both if you don’t stop.”

Danny clamps his hands over his ears. His head hurts. He’s forgetting something...he was supposed to do something. 

“Hey! Listen to me!” The other Danny’s face appears in front of him. He’s in the gym at school, set up with red, white, and pink decorations. “If you don’t stop, he’ll kill both of us.”

“I don’t understand!” Danny cries, his head pounding.

“Yes, you do! You need to remember!” His counterpart yells. 

Danny blinks and he’s staring in a mirror again, this time at school. He’s much too tall. He’s a little too short. The other Danny’s hands are on his shoulders. “Please, you need to leave.”

He blinks and it’s the beginning of June, his 14th birthday. In his bedroom. “I’ve tried to be nice, to be patient. But this has to end. Don’t force me to kick you out.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Danny begs.

He’s sitting at the kitchen table, his family and friends around him. They’re singing happy birthday. There’s green at the edge of Danny’s vision. His head pounds. The other Danny leans over him from behind. “You need to get out. Remember what you are.”

“No!” Danny yells and they’re in the park, both standing in the sandbox. “Leave me alone!”

He just wants to live, damnit! Why won’t the other Danny just let him live?! 

“I can’t do that! You’re literally in my-” The other Danny suddenly cuts off, eyes widening in fear as the sand surges up to his waist. “Hey wait a second!” The earth surges, pulls, and the other Danny sinks into the ground, buried to his chest.

A pain-filled tear fell down Danny’s face as he balls his fists. “Why won’t you just let me live?!”

“I let you live my whole childhood!” The other Danny shouts, the sand crawling to his neck. “You can’t keep going. If you do-” The look-a-like sinks below the ground, completely buried.

Danny’s heart is pounding in his chest. His mouth tastes like sand. He blinks and he’s back at his birthday party. Smiling and laughing and opening presents, he forgets about what happened. It was just a strange dream he had last night.

Something dark is loaming on the horizon, in his future. Danny can feel it under his skin, in his dreams. It loams in front of him, a darkness just beyond the door of the lab where his parents are working on the portal, the ghost portal. 

But despite that, the rest of the summer is happy, the happiest of Danny’s life. A blessed calm before the storm. Though his parents are busy with the portal, they make sure to spend time with him and his sister. Family dinners, movies, and game nights. Right after his birthday, they take him to the observatory at the edge of town, his favorite place to visit since he discovered his love of the stars as a preschooler. It’s fun, even if his parents can be embarrassing and at times annoying. He is a teenager and no teenager wants to be smothered by their parents but in all honesty, he’d rather them take an interest in him, spend time with him, than be ignored and neglected.

But even better, he’s got his friends by his side that summer and they spend so much time together. At the mall, the arcade, the movies, the Nasty Burger, the park. They go to the water park and the zoo and a few rock shows at the Skulk and Lurch. 

Sam’s grandma takes them for milkshakes after the show.

“That was so much fun!” Danny grins, putting a thick spoonful of his mint chocolate chip shake in his mouth.

“I know! That last song! The solo was so epic.” Sam spreads her arms.  “I’m definitely going to be sore in the morning.”

“Yeah.” Tucker raises a brow. “You were really headbanging.”

“Well.” Sam points with her spoon. “You’re not doing it right if you don’t hurt your neck and lose your voice.”

“Yeah.” Danny chuckles. “I’m with you on losing your voice. I actually knew the words this time.”

“I saw you singing along.” Sam’s eyes lit up. “You actually listened to the cd I got you last time!”

“It was awesome!” Danny nods. “Even better live!”

“Totally.” Tucker agrees, turning towards Sam’s grandma. “What did you think, Mrs. Manson?”

“It was a good show.” The older woman nods, taking a bite of her own shake. “That band has a lot of talent and passion.”

“Thank you for taking us, Grandma.” Sam says.

“It was no bother, dearie. I enjoyed myself.” Mrs. Manson smiles. “And I loved seeing you and your friends have fun.” 

Oh, Danny had fun, a lot of fun singing and dancing with his friends, and just chatting after. It’s wonderful and he’s so lucky to have Sam and Tucker.

But like Danny knows by now, happiness doesn’t always last.

“Come on Danny! Just one picture in the tunnel.” Sam begs holding her camera up.

His skin prickles with goosebumps as Danny puts on the white and black hazmat suit. Something neon green flashes at the edge of his vision and he shivers.

“You can’t walk around with that on your chest.” Sam quips, pulling the sticker of his Dad’s face off the suit.

He swallows, dreading balling in his gut with a strange sense of deja vu as he stares at Sam with her camera. This...this already happened. But not to-

“Danny.” Tucker’s voice draws his attention. “Go ahead and let Sam get her picture so we can play some video games, dude.”

Danny nods and before he registers what he’s doing, his body is moving towards the inactivated portal. Something in him is screaming to stop but he can’t. This has to happen.

He’s in the tunnel, stumbling forward. Another boy in a white hazmat suit wavers in front of him. “Please.” He’s shaking. “Don’t make both of us relive this. Just get out now.”

Danny can’t stop though. He stumbles, falling through the spectral figure. His hand catches on something on the wall. It depresses and Danny glances up in shock; it’s the on button. 

Everything floods with green. Pain. Danny screams, his voice echoing. Is he the only one screaming? Is someone else here? Pain. Everything is green. Ooze. Drip. It hurts, hurts, hurts. He’s breaking. He squeezed, compressed. He’s glued together. He’s stretched. Pain.

Somehow, Danny stumbles out of the portal and collapses. The last thing he sees is his own pain-filled green-eyed face above him before he passes out.

Danny wakes up alone in his bedroom. Something weird is happening to his body. He turns invisible, falls through things, sometimes floats. His heart pounds in his chest; he doesn’t know what’s happening. But...he does. He has powers, ghost powers. 

He studies his invisible hand, taking in the cool, tingly feeling. So foreign but so familiar. He flinches as an image crosses his mind.  A blue-skin figure commands him to turn invisible. He obeys. He must obey.

Sitting on his bed, Danny pulls his knees to his chest. Pain rings through his body. A memory of the portal and...something else. His hand turns visible and he studies the fading scar on his hand from the portal’s electrocution. 

Did….the portal kill him? Or...has he always been dead? The cold flares in his chest, brand new but always there. He’s….always had powers. Is that what he can never remember? What he’s supposed to remember. No, there’s…..something else.

He thinks about the other Danny, the strange ghost who's been following him, lingering at the edge of his perception for as long as he can remember. Except not….. Danny’s awareness of him comes and goes. He’ll see and forget. But now he remembers, being berated by his look-a-like. He needs to get out, to stop, to leave. But he doesn’t understand. He’s never understood. He still doesn’t understand.

Danny half-heartedly calls for his counterpart. Maybe he has answers, what he’s supposed to remember. Why his counterpart begged him to not make them relive the accident, when it hadn’t happened yet. 

The other Danny doesn’t come.

Danny stops calling for his counterpart and starts practicing his powers. He’s not the best at it and they are not the most stable but they're somehow stronger and don’t hurt like before. Big hurts. Drip...Wait…..

Danny turns his attention back to his food. It looks suspiciously like a salad on bread and not appealing at all. 

“Are you okay man?” Tucker asks.

Danny frowns. Is he okay? No. He hasn’t been for a while and it’s not just the accident. He says nothing until his ghost sense goes off.

“I’m going to see what that is.” He says and suddenly he’s crawling across the floor, the sounds of a food fight soaring above his head.

He stands and opens the door to the cafeteria’s kitchen. A grandmotherly-looking ghost is floating in the kitchen. The Lunch Lady….how does he know her name if he’s never seen her before?

“You changed the menu!” The ghost shouts as she telekinetically sends plates towards the boy. 

He easily turns intangible and they fly through him. “Hey!” Danny yells as he tries to transform.

White light bursts around his waist but the ring freezes in place. He mentally commands it to move but a voice yells behind him.

“Stop!”

Danny doubles over in sudden pain. His head hurts. He’s supposed to transform. But he can’t. If he does, Vlad will kill him.…..what?.....Danny wrinkles his brow. He’s so confused. And how does he ever know he can transform if he’s never done it before?

He stops triggering his core to change and suddenly, Danny’s standing in the school yard. The other Danny floats in front of him, capping a thermos. The ghost turns around. “You! Don’t try to transform. If you do, Vlad will get what he wants.”

Danny tilts his head. “Who-” He starts asking before the other Danny disappears.

“Danny-boy!” Dad runs up beside him. “Did you see the ghost?”

Danny nods; he had. And apparently Dad had that time too.

“Just you watch, son, we’ll catch that Phantom.” Dad exclaims.

Danny’s brow wrinkles. Phantom. That name is familiar. That’s what he calls his ghost form...no….someone else is called Phantom. No, he is. Maybe both of them are called Phantom. Yes, that must be it. Then why has this other Phantom been appearing before him since he was a child? And why do he and Phantom look alike? And who is Vlad? What does he want?

Pain pricks at his head. Fear, dread. Danny’s confused. He debates calling the other Danny, begging for answers but…..he’s scared. He wants to know the truth but he’s scared. What will happen when he finds out the truth? He shakes his head and tries to forget, going back to his friends.

Time passes. School, friends, practicing powers. Danny’s at the arcade with Sam and Tucker. 

“Take that!” Sam yells, her character staking the final vampire. “I win again!”

“Come on! You cheated!” Tucker counters and the two argue back and forth.

Danny stares at the screen, dread balling in his gut. Something’s off. His ghost sense goes off, the blue smoke moving through his lips. “I’ll go see what it is.”

The teen walks through the front doors of the arcade, following his ghost sense, the subtle feeling in his core that lets him pinpoint where a ghost is.

He turns a corner into the alley and stumbles to a stop. A glowing, red-eyed figure floats with his arms crossed. “I told you what to do, you imbecile.”

A memory of being ten years old and facing this vampire….this ghost, flashes through Danny’s mind. Fear ripples through him. “Who….who are you?”

Red eyes narrow. “Do you not remember your Master, boy?”

Master. The word sends disgust through the boy. But also a measure of...allegiance. 

 “Change!” The ghost demands.

Danny wants to. He should obey. He’s supposed to obey. Summoning the rings, he tries to change. But….Pain! Pain rips through him and his body won’t change. Something is fighting him. He can’t change. But he has to, Master commands but….the other Danny said that would give Vlad what he wants. But who’s Vlad?

Danny and the vampire ghost are floating in a fancy looking library. “Think about the things I could show you, the doors I could open for you. You, Danny Phantom, and I, Vlad Plasmius. Together, we could rule.”

Vlad…..Danny shots the other ghost who hits the bookshelves with a slam.

Vlad floats in the lab, his arms crossed, while Danny struggles in a box. “Come now, little badger. I could train you, teach you everything I know. And all you'd have to do is renounce your idiot father.”

Danny wrinkles his nose, the words coming out with hardly a thought. “Dude, you are one seriously crazed-up fruit loop. That is never going to happen.”

“Once your father is out of the way, we’ll see how you feel.” Laughing, Vlad teleports away.

Danny panics. His dad! Images flash. Vlad overshadowing his dad, sending the vultures after him. Vlad trying to steal the ghost portal. Vlad flirting with his mom at his mansion. Vlad making him fight Jazz. 

Vlad. Vlad Plasmius. He’s….he’s also called Master...No, Masters…..Vlad Masters. An old college friend of his parents. The only other half ghost like him. 

They’re in a cabin; preserved animal heads cover the walls. 

Vlad shots him with an ectoblast, electrocutes him with a two pronged device. Danny's heart pounds as mutated ghostly animals surround him. "I'll give you five minutes before I send my minions to destroy you." Vlad grins wickedly. "The clock's ticking, Daniel. Run."

The boy bolts for the door, just crossing the threshold when behind him Vlad yells.  "After him!" He quips something about being bad at math but Danny can barely make it out over the growls behind him. 

He needs to get away, needs to find Mom. The boy sprints through the woods, stumbling over branches and jumping over creeks. The howls and growls are closer, gaining on him. He's powerless, weak. He can't….they’re going to rip him apart. Vlad wouldn't...he won't…

A hand grabs him and pulls him up. He comes to sit on a branch. "Danny. There you are." Mom looks relieved.

The animals growl below them, snapping and clawing at their heels. Mom hops down. Brandishing a staff, she attacks Vlad's experiments. She dodges claws and teeth, kicking and punching with all the skill of her black belt training. Many minions are decimated, dissolving into ectoplasm. Danny shivers, a strangely familiar fear clawing at his mind. But he's distracted by a shout from his mom. "Boo!" 

The few remaining animals scamper off and Danny climbs down the tree. Before his mom can speak, he throws himself in her arms. "That was amazing." He says softly, relief and awe filling his voice.

Mom doesn't comment. Instead she squeezes him tightly. "Are you okay, sweetie? Are you hurt?" 

"No, I'm fine." He reassures.

"You scared me there, when I woke up and you were gone…" Her voice wavers with worry.

"I'm sorry." He mutters into her shoulder. "I had to-" 

Something growling behind them cuts off his excuse. 

"Come on." Mom pulls back. "We need to leave in case they come back." 

They're running through the woods again when another minion, a ghostly wolf, appears in front of them. Mom quickly spears it and with a yelp, it destabilizes. 

Danny's stomach churns. He blinks and he's sitting on the floor, watching ectoplasm drip from his malformed hand. He looks up at Vlad who's sitting in a posh chair in the same cabin. The man leans forward with his head in his hands.

"I really thought I had it earlier. You were progressing so well. Stable, morphologically correct." The man looks up, fixing disappointed eyes on him. "But you're a failure just like the rest." The older halfa angrily knocks papers, pencils, and books off the desk. Danny doesn't even flinch. "You were to be my perfect son! And you can't even understand what I'm saying." 

Vlad is silent for a while, eyes glowing red with anger. He sighs. "Maybe you'll be useful as a minion. I doubt you'll ever be more than a mindless blob of ectoplasm." 

Danny whimpers, his heart breaking. He's back in the alley, his hands whole and ectoplasm free.

Vlad sneers. "You cannot even do the one thing I told you to do." 

"I...I don't…" Danny stutters.

"I need mid morph DNA. Make him transform, you useless experiment.”

Vlad disappears and Danny's heart breaks. Confusion assaults his mind. What does Vlad want from him? Does the man want him to join him? As a son? A mentee? A prize? A minion? Is he an experiment? A failure? The questions keep pounding his head. He wants answers but he’s afraid of the truth. It might just kill him.

Danny picks at his dinner, hardly able to eat because of the dread in his stomach. It's been there for….he's not really sure actually.  This feeling that something is wrong. His family doesn't know he's Danny Phantom. He tells his friends he's fine though he's definitely not. He's living a lie.  He looks down at his hand, dripping with ectoplasm but he's the only one who sees it.

Maybe everything is a lie.

His ghost senses goes off, cold air puffing out of his mouth.  A green floating octopus-like thing appears in the kitchen. Jazz screams, startled and the ectopus lunges for his Dad. 

"Dad!" Danny jumps up, alarmed. Images, memories of Vlad threatening,  attacking his dad flashes through his mind.

He needs to transform, to protect his family. Without thinking, the boy triggers his core. White light blooms across his skin but it burns, refusing to change him. He leans over, clutching his stomach in pain.

A black haired teenage boy appears in front of him.  "What are you doing?!" The other Danny hisses. "You can’t change in front of Mom and Dad!"

Eyes widening, Danny looks at his parents. That's right. Mom and Dad don't know; he'd never transform in front of them. The light of his transformation dies and pain stops. Danny only then notices his parents are ignoring him and the other Danny, instead attacking the ectopus. Then again, they never see the other Danny. 

"Hey, pay attention." The other Danny snaps fingers in front of his face. 

"Stop that." Danny pushes the hand out of his face, wrinkling his nose. Then his eyes widen in realization.  "How did we get in my bedroom?"

"It's my bedroom." The other Danny crosses his arms. "And stop changing the subject. Why did you try to change back there?!"

"Umm...I don't.. I don't know." Danny blushes sheepishly.

"You don't know?" The other Danny frowns. "Do you even care that you're putting us in danger?!" He spreads his arms. "I told you before, don't try to make us transform! If we do, Vlad will get our mid morph DNA and we're dead." 

"Our mid morph DNA?" Danny raises an eyebrow. 

The other Danny pales. "My mid morph DNA." He corrects. "I'm starting to get confused about…” He motions between the two of them and then puts a hand on his head. "We're too close."

Danny tilts his head in confusion at the statement. He takes a deliberate step back (they're too close, right?) earning a skeptical look from his counterpart. The other boy doesn't comment but sighs. "That's not important right now. But you have to stop this or we're both dead. Vlad made it very clear he's going to kill me once he gets what he wants. And you?" The other Danny narrows his eyes. "You're just a pawn to him. He doesn't care if you die, so stop doing what he wants!" 

The anger in the statement stirs Danny out of his stupor. He grits his teeth. "Can you stop berating me long enough for me to ask what's going on?!"

"Are you serious?!" The other Danny's jaw drops. "I've told you plenty of times." 

"No! You just yell insults at me and say stuff that doesn't make any sense!" Danny waves his arms. He can almost feel his counterpart’s anger bolstering him.

“It makes perfect sense. You just never listen!” The other Danny grits his teeth.

Why is his counterpart always so infuriating?! “Yes. I do. You’ve never even told me who you are!” Danny yells.

The other Danny’s mouth snaps closed, his expression turning icy. “Fine. I’ll tell you who I am.” He stalks forward. “I’m the real Danny.”

“What?” Danny steps back startled.

“I’m Danny Fenton, not you.” The other Danny takes another step, pointing angrily at the other boy’s chest. “You’re just an imposter.”

“That’s...that’s ridiculous.” Another step and Danny’s back hits the wall. “I remember my whole life. I-”

The other boy cuts him off. “You remember MY life.”

“No. It’s impossible. It's my life.” Danny shakes his head.

“You’ve never even been in my bedroom!” The other Danny waves vaguely around himself. “You only know what any of this looks like, because I know what it looks like.”

Danny turned his head side to side, surveying the room. “Then how am I here?”

“You’re not here. This isn’t real.” The other boy frowns.

“What do you….how…” Danny blinks, confusedly. Dread balls in his gut.

“Vlad told you to overshadow me, make me transform so he can get my mid morph DNA.” He narrows his eyes. “You’re still possessing me. This is just a dream, based off of my memories.”

“No! That doesn’t make any sense.” Danny shakes his head. “I know my life and this is real. I know it’s real!”

“Do you?” The other Danny crosses his arms. Suddenly, the room changes, morphing into the playground at the park. “You know the real world doesn’t work like this.” He holds out his arms, motioning to the changed environment. “It doesn’t just change in the blink of an eye. You can’t just hop from place to place.”

Danny’s heart rate increases. He knows that, he does. “But...maybe you’re tricking me.” He argues half heartedly.

“Really? Why would I trick you?!” The other Danny motions with his hands, sounding offended. “You’ve always felt that something was wrong. And the feeling’s just getting stronger, isn’t it? You know this isn’t real.”

Danny shakes his head, goosebumps rising with dread. That feeling of wrongness, something important he’s forgetting, rises. “No.” He denies.

“Yes. You do. I know you can feel it.” The other Danny pleads earnestly. 

“Well….” Danny bits his lip, arguing weakly. “Maybe you’re the imposter.” 

“You don’t really believe that.” His counterpart’s expression softens. “You kinda remember stuff about your real life, even though you really don’t want to. But the other memories, my memories are incomplete or in the wrong order.” The boy sighs and the playground changes back into the bedroom. “It doesn’t feel like it belongs to you.”

Danny sits on the bed, with his knees to his chest. His body trembles with fear. “No. That’s not…” He wants to say it’s not true but…. He remembers his skin oozing and dripping green, his half ghost Sister, Vlad calling him a failure. How….why… He pushes the thoughts away, looking up at the other boy. “How….how do you know that?”

The other Danny’s frown deepens. “If you’re in my head, I’m in yours.” He sits down on the bed and when he speaks, the bite has leached from his voice. “But do you understand now? Why you can’t stay here? You’re not Danny Fenton.”

The boy on the bed shivers. “If...if I’m not...if I’m not Danny, then who am I?”

The other boy’s eyes widen, startled as if he didn’t anticipate the question. “You’re….umm.”

The response makes the being’s stomach flop. He meets his counterpart’s identical blue eyes. “What’s my name?” The other boy pales, biting his lip silently. The being’s heart rate increases. “What’s my name?” The lack of response just increases his panic and with a start, the being realizes he can feel the other boy’s anxiety and...guilt. “What’s my name, Danny?”

“You don’t…” The other boy trails off, unable to utter the words.

The being’s blood runs cold. Vlad’s words- minion, failure, experiment. The words bombard his mind, stabbing his heart. Vlad, his master, his maker, doesn’t care if he dies. Vlad thinks he’s just a mindless blob of ectoplasm. He’s broken, he’s breaking. His breath heaves as he stares at Danny, begging for an answer. The other won’t meet his eyes and he knows the answer. But...it can’t. “No! I’m a person. People have names! I have to have a name. I’m not….” A sob tries to break free from his throat.

A knock suddenly rattles the door. “Danny!” Mom calls.

Both boy’s heads pop up, focusing on the door. They turn to face each other. “Don’t do this.” The real Danny begs.

“What?” The being asks.

“Every time you get close to the truth, you dream up a distraction.” His eyes widen in desperate panic. “Please don’t-”

“Danny!” Mom calls again.

“I can’t….I don’t…” The being stutters.

“Please! You can have a crisis about this once we’re safe.” He pleads. “But now you have to-”

“Danny!” Mom barges in. “Are you okay, sweetie? You ran off after the ghost attack.”

“Yeah. I’m fine.” His voice wavers. He turns back towards the bed and he’s alone, with his knees drawn up to his chest.

“Are you sure?” Mom walks up beside him and the boy nods numbly, staring at the spot his counterpart occupied.

The woman kisses him on the forehead. “Goodnight, Danny. I love you.”

The words are automatic. “I love you too.”

She closes the doors, leaving the being alone. No, not the being. A tear falls down his face. He’s Danny. He’s Danny. That’s the name Mom always calls him so that’s who he is. That….that was a trick, a lie. Not him, he’s not a lie. It’s not….it’s not fair. He’s real. He is. He feels real and like his name is Danny. And he lives in Amity Park with his mom and dad and his sister Jazz. And he goes to Casper high with Sam and Tucker, his best friends. He’s not some minion, a mindless experiment made by Vlad Masters. He’s not.

Danny cries himself to sleep.

Is he in denial or does he really think he’s Danny? Danny (because that’s who he is, definitely, no doubt) can’t bear to ask. He can’t bear to think that he might not be real. His world, his life might all be someone else’s dream. He’s real. He’s the real Danny. He’s not...not...He’s not….

Danny sits at a desk in Mr. Lancer’s room. He chews on his pencil, anxiety balling his gut. Is it the test or…..something else? No, he’s fine. He’s going to do fine, be fine. He studied. He’s...he’s okay. Yeah.

A puff of cold air exits his mouth, his ghost sense. Something shrieks, crashing into Mr. Lancer’s desk. A vulture and a red-eyed black skeleton. At the sight of the ghosts, the students stand. Someone, multiple voices, scream and desks are overturned in the scramble to escape. Danny stays in his chair as the other students and teacher flee, leaving him, his friends, and the ghosts. 

The vulture squawks, turning toward him. “It’s the fancy pants ghost boy.” 

The skeleton hisses at him and both ghosts pounce on his friends. 

“Sam! Tucker!” Danny yells, alarms. He summons the rings; he has to transform, to save his friends. Pain! His core throbs, the pain rippling through him. No! Something, someone screams. His voice. Is it in his head? Behind him?

Sam screams, the vulture pecking her. And Danny tugs on his core. He has to save his friends. But he can’t! He can’t. It hurts, hurts, hurts! He doubles over in pain.

Something pulls him off his feet, holding him by the collar. Blood red eyes bore into his. “I need his mid-morph DNA. Transform.”

Plasmius. Danny’s body shakes. His maker, his master. He is supposed to obey. But….the older halfa thinks he’s a failure, an experiment. Vlad doesn’t care if he dies. But he’s supposed to obey.

“No!” Danny yells, mind made up. He’s never obeying Vlad again.

“No!” Sam and Tucker yell, behind him. 

Blue eyed and desperate, another boy appears in front of him. “No!” He yells.

The desperate boy is the real Danny. No, he’s the real Danny. He has to be. He is. No. Yes.  His head hurts, hurts, hurts. Pounding. 

“Useless.” Vlad throws him to the ground, voice cold and disgusted like he’s throwing away garbage. 

The black haired little girl, eleven or twelve, flies into the room. She grins up at Vlad. “Did I do good, Daddy?”

Vlad ruffles her hair, the action tense and practiced. “Yes. Danielle” The tone is bare, praise in words only.

Danny blinks at her. Danielle….Sister...This is his sister, finally…..no, She’s Danielle. She said she was his cousin but….She’s like him, a…..starts with a c. Mom already taught him all the letters. He should know the word now. But….the word hurts. 

Danielle shoots him with an ectoray. He screams! His skin is melting. It hurts. He’s gooey. Oozy, Dripping, green. His head...his head..it hurts….It’s….it’s...breaking. Cracking like an egg. He’s breaking.

Danny doesn’t realize he passed out until he wakes up in a box. His head is splitting with pain. Vlad floats in front of him in ghost form, videos of Danny transforming, flying, shooting ectoblasts play behind him.

“You've been spying on me?” The words come out automatically like someone else is saying them and he’s just the vessel. “Okay, I've said it before and I'll say it again. You really are one seriously crazed up fruit loop.”

Danny’s head snaps forward. It hurts, hurts, hurts! Everything hurts. Vlad is saying something gloating, but the words don’t make sense...like...like…

”I am not a villain. All I wanted was love.” Vlad lies, grinning through his bright white teeth. If he wanted love, why...why...why didn’t he...didn’t he…

Vlad presses a button and panels side open. A chamber, a pod. Inside..it’s...it’s

“It's taken months, and the good clone still needs more time before he can accept your DNA.”

C...the word...the word...it pricks. It burns, it tears. No no! His head feels like it’s breaking. He’s shaking.

Danny’s lips are moving but he doesn’t know what he’s saying.

“Bad clones. Mistakes.” Vlad sneers, his voice full of sick conviction. “And I would watch a hundred more failures devolve into ectoplasm to get the perfect half ghost son.”

Mistake, Failure. Vlad says he’s a failure. Vlad doesn't care if he dies. But...why...why’s he in the box?! Cl...another stab to the heart. He’s not a...a…..He’s a….

Danny chuckles, something buzzing around his head but he can’t see what it is. Something’s...something’s...the buzzing thing...isn’t a thing.

“Are you under the impression that you're getting out of this?” Vlad sneers. “I need a DNA sample of you mid-morph to complete my work.”

The man snaps his finger and the glob stretches. Danny stretches. No..he’s not….

Disgust. Horror. Fear. An oozy drippy ghost appears in front of him. Oh god oh god.

Hurts, hurts, hurts. He’s dripping, he’s oozy, he’s melting. He’s floating in front of...of...He’s trapped in the box. In the air, in the box, in the air. The oozy ghost...it...it…. It looks like him. It’s him. It’s him. No. It’s….he’s not...Horror. But no, but yes. But no, but yes. But no. But yes.

His head is breaking, cracking. He’s the clone, he’s Danny. Oozy skin, cracks in his body and mind. He’s the clone, he’s Danny. It hurts, hurts, hurts. He’s the clone, he’s Danny. He’s breaking. He’s not Danny.

He’s the…...

The two rip apart, pulling apart. Like two glued together pieces of paper, pulled apart. Strings unravel, are cut.

And it’s Danny and the clone again. The clone…..yes…..yes that’s what he is…..It feels like his skin is raw, littered with holes. He’s small….so small. Tiny. Too small, too drippy. He feels liquid. He cries. Pain, pain, pain. He’s dying. He feels it. He’s too small, like he’s stuffed in a box. And he’s dying. And it hurts...hurts...hurts.

Danny’s glaring at him, yelling. The words are drifting past him. No. He’s saying. “This is my body, not yours. Get out!”

Out. Out. Out. He can’t move. He whines. He wants to beg but he can’t speak. He’s too small! But this is what he really is. He’s not a person. Not a person. No name, no friends, no family, no life. A tiny dripping thing that doesn’t understand everything. But he doesn’t want to be. He wants to be real, like Danny is. He should be real. He was real. He was but..but...it’s gone.

The clone stretches. He doesn’t know how, he doesn’t have the energy. But he stretches. No...he grows. He grows. He’s Danny’s size, Danny’s age. He feels Danny’s surprise. He’s laying on his side begging. “Please, Danny. Don’t make me leave.”

Danny balls his fists. “You worked out the truth! I told you! But...but you kept going!”

“Danny, Please.” He begs.

Danny bares his teeth, indignant. “You could have killed both of us or...or....” His voice wavers. “Get out of me!”

The clone shakes his head. “Please. It hurts. Don’t make me.”

“No!” Danny balls his fist. “This is my body! You can’t have it!”

“No. I don’t….I don’t.” He doesn’t want Danny’s body. Somehow, he doesn’t, not at all. He wants his own body but healthy and strong. Not broken and small and pain and confusion. “I want….I want to live!”

“You can’t steal my life!” The halfa growls.

“I don’t want to! I…..I don’t.” He can’t describe what he wants. “I want to be….real.”

Danny’s mouth snaps shut. “I don’t….” He stops and the clone can feel the underlying confusion but anger and disgust surges again. “I don’t care. Leave.”

The clone whimpers. “Please.” He mentally stretches out and cringes, pain surging through his head. “If I leave, I’ll die. I feel it. I’ll die.”

Danny frowns, a strange sadness mixing with the anger. “Stop.”

“Yes. I will.” He bit his lip, feeling the numbed pain of his mental and tiny physical form. The cracks in and outside of him. He is broken, more so than before. He feels barely glued, only held together by his original’s grip. Desperate sadness wells. “Please. I don’t want to die.”

“Stop begging.” Danny replies even more forcefully. 

With eyes wide and desperate, the clone begs. “I can feel it. Please, I don’t want to die. Danny, please don’t let me die.”

“Stop! Stop! Stop!” The halfa yells, the anger ringing in the clone's mind.

“Please! I’m going to die. Don’t you care?!” The clone returns the anger.

Danny’s face lights red with near rage. “Care! Why should I?” He snapped. “You tried to fuse with me! You….you could have destroyed me...or given Vlad what he wanted. You figure out what was happening but keep possessing me anyway!”

The clone’s mouth snaps shut, the disgust pouring off his original making him feel sick. The memory of Vlad saying Danny would be obsolete after the man got his perfect clone half ghost son flashes through the shared mind space. Danny’s pleas that if he didn’t stop, both of them would die. Danny had believed they would. It was true. And he was….Vlad did not love the clone. Vlad calling him a failure, mindless, flashs in his mind. Vlad never intended to save him and the other clones.

“You’re right.” Anger drains out of the clone as he whispers, sincerely. “I’m sorry.” The pain in his head disappears at the words, as Danny feels his authentic guilt and shame. He closes his eyes, taking in Danny’s feelings of violation. The clone cringes. He did that, tried to wiggle his way into Danny’s life and replace him. Or...become a part of him, destroying both of them to make someone new in the process. It was sick, wrong. He’d throw up, if they weren’t still talking in Danny’s mind. “I...I didn’t understand before but I do now. I shouldn’t have done that to you.”

It wasn’t enough. Barely an apology. It’d never be enough. The clone braces, expecting pain, to be banished and left to die. He deserves it for what he did to Danny. But Danny surprises him as the anger leaches from Danny’s expression, turning carefully neutral. 

He crouches down. “Okay. I get it.” Through the cacophony of confused emotions, the clone can feel that Danny does understand what he did and why. The child-like, confused mind that wasn’t capable of understanding at first, the denial of your life falling apart around you. Danny could see and feel it all. “But you can’t keep overshadowing me. You know that, right?”

“But…” The clone starts to argue.

Before he can, Danny places one of his hands on the clone’s. It’s a startling gesture; in the mindscape, it signifies the halfa deliberately touching the other’s mind instead of throwing words and emotions in his general direction. He sighs. “I can’t believe I’m saying this.” If the clone didn’t know better, he’d think the words weren’t directed at him. “You won’t die. Just….hang on. Hold yourself together and…..I’ll help you.”

“What?” The clone's jaw dropped.

“I’ll….just leave. Don’t make me push you and you’ll be able to hang on. And I’ll help you so you don’t destabilize.”

The clone slowly sits up so he’s staring at Danny’s blue eyes. “Why? Why would you help me after…?”

His original pulls him to his feet, so they’re standing face to face. Eye to eye. The tentative mental touch betrays the complicated emotions running through Danny. But one stands out. Mercy. 

Danny bits his lip, looking down. “I won’t let a person die. Not even someone who wronged me as badly as you have.” He looks up, meeting the clone’s eyes. “I won’t let you die if I can save you.”

The clone blinks at him. “That’s….” A tear collects in his eye and he stares, mystified. “That’s why you didn’t just push me out. You….”

The clone doesn’t know what to say, what to think. He’d spent….what felt like a lifetime being Danny Fenton. But this….he couldn’t imagine doing this, showing this mercy if he was in Danny’s position. He’s never been more grateful for anything in his short life. But he’s still afraid.

Danny feels the fear and gives the clone’s hands a mental squeeze. “I’m going to step back, give you control so you can turn your real body intangible and fly out. I’m trusting you to not….”

The clone knows what Danny fears he’ll do. “I won’t. I’ll stop overshadowing you. I promise.”

“I believe you.” Danny sighs. “I think if you shrink to be as small as you can be as soon as you leave, you’ll be stable enough to be okay. And I’ll come find you after I deal with Vlad. Just hang on.”

The clone nods. “Okay. I’ll see you in the real world.” Danny nods and the mental surroundings, the park with the sandbox under their feet, fades away.

Physical eyes blink open and the clone startles. He blinks again, taking in the movement of air into and out of his lungs. No, Danny’s lungs. He’s controlling Danny’s body. In a fraction of a second, he takes in the surroundings. Vlad’s lab. They’re in some kind of pod, Danny’s arms and legs in shackles.

Okay, he just needs to turn his real body intangible and fly out. He braces, preparing and a wave of sadness passes through him as he savors the beating of his (Danny’s) heart, movement of air into and out of lungs, the strong pulsing of Danny's core, cold energy flowing through Danny's veins. 

"You know…" A voice, ringing with wariness, whispers across his mind. Danny. "Hearing how good possessing me feels is really creepy."

"Sorry." Blush rises on Danny's face, fueled by the clone's embarrassment. "It's just…. You're….healthy and strong and I'm…." 

He imagines his real ghostly body- small, unstable, weak, sick, broken. Not like the healthy half human mental form he wore in Danny’s mind. A form that now felt more real, more like his true self than the small oozing body that was really his. But looking human, like Danny, was a lie, a mask. 

A wave of uncertainty washed over him from Danny. "You're a clone of me."

If he could have curled in on himself, the clone would have. "I know that." He replied, slightly hurt.

"No, I mean." The clone could feel Danny debating what to say. "I'm half ghost and you're my clone so….you should be half ghost too." The clone's breath caught in his (Danny's) throat. Danny continues with slightly more certainty. "Maybe you are a halfa. And if we can stabilize you….” An image of himself, somehow the clones knows that it’s not Danny, projects across his mind from his original. It’s the clone, happily smiling and transforming into his human form.

“Do you think..” The clone finally mentally whispers, hopefully. Danny returns a mental confirmation of that hope. “I hope I get there. And can really apologize with my own voice. I’ll make this up to you, I swear.”

The clone feels Danny accept the statement as he turns his real body intangible. For a second, it’s like swimming through water to finally surface. He breaks free and a second later, starts shrinking. There’s less pain that he anticipated until it suddenly hits.

Oh god. He’d scream if his vocal cords worked. He shrinks smaller, smaller. His body is dripping with ectoplasm. Too much, so much. Pain. Pain! PAIN. He’s his normal small size and it’s excruciating. He doesn’t want to die. He doesn't want to die. Please! Smaller, smaller. Half his normal size, a quarter. That’s it, not farther. His skin is so tight. Too tight after being his proper size and shape for so long. An eternity. He’s a completely different person now. Somehow he grew up. He wishes he could grow again. Never be this small again.

Pain. Pain! Hurts, hurts, hurts. He doesn’t want to die. He must live for his sister and for Danny. He must live so he can choose a name and learn how to be a human. He must live. The clone passes out in a puddle of his own ectoplasm.

"Sam! Tucker! I'm so happy to see you guys!" Danny runs up to his friends, hugging them after they come crashing into the lab. "Thank you!" He pulls away after a moment and starts turning towards Danielle. "And thank you, Danielle!" The halfa blinks at the spot where she had been standing, now empty. “Danielle? Danielle!”

“She was right there when he came in.” Sam frowns at the spot.

“I know. Danielle!” Danny calls again, his eyes quickly scanning the room.

“Why was your cousin even here? How do you even have a cousin who’s half ghost?” Tucker asks.

“Was she working with Vlad? Why?” Sam wrinkles her nose.

“Danielle!” Danny ignores his friends’ questions, worry growing. A strangely brotherly worry for someone he just met. He maybe should be concerned about that, but the girl isn’t showing up. She could have crawled off somewhere to destabilize or….

“Danny!” Sam’s hand suddenly appears on his shoulder. “We can help you find her in a bit, but we need to deal with him.” She points at Vlad, who’s groaning on the floor where the Specter Speeder knocked him over.

Danny frowns at the older halfa, before marching to one of the lab tables. He picks up a device, the Plasmius Maximus, and jabs it into the unconscious halfa’s side. The man winces as the electricity travels through him, knocking out his powers. Danny throws the gadget to the side and turns towards his friends. “Can you guys help me carry him?”

With a nod, Sam and Tucker help Danny pick up the older halfa and at Danny’s suggestion, lock him into an intact, unoccupied pod. “That should hold him for a few hours.” He will be able to break out once his powers return, but the man is out of the way for now. “Now let’s find Danielle.”

Turning around, Tucker pauses. His eyes widen as he points. “What happened here?” 

Danny’s own eyes widen as he takes in the broken glass, twisted metal, and puddle of ectoplasm. His stomach flops. “That’s where….” The prime clone’s expression as he destabilizes flashes in his mind. “Someone died.”

“What?!” Sam and Tucker both yell.

But he ignores them, guilt and shame growing; he really hadn’t meant to knock Vlad into the pod, leading to that clone melting. He had no doubt that knowledge would haunt him for a long time. But now, the sight of the ectoplasm was increasing his worry for Danielle into panic. That could be her, upstairs.

With that, he marches towards the entrance to the stairs. Sam and Tucker trail behind him, bombarding him with questions. 

“What do you mean, someone died?!” “Why was there ectoplasm?”

The halfa jogs up the stairs. “Danielle! Are you here?” He calls again, heading towards one of the bedrooms. He barges into a fancy-looking room with a large four-post bed and a lot of books. Probably where Vlad sleeps. “Danielle!” 

“Danny. What’s going on?” Sam asks.

Danny turns around, walking out of the room. Where is she?! “Danielle!”

“Dude?” Tucker’s in front of him. “Why are you freaking out? She probably just flew off. She’ll be fine.”

“Fine!” Anger prickles at the halfa. “She’s just a kid! She could be dying!”

Sam’s face pales in worry. “Was she injured? Did Vlad hurt her?!” Her expression quickly morphs into anger.

Danny nods. “She’s...she’s unstable. She could be melting into ectoplasm right now!”

Danny starts walking past Sam and Tucker, as the techno geeks brow furrows. “Ectoplasm. There was ectoplasm downstairs and you said that someone died.”

“Oh my god.” Sam exclaims, causing Danny to freeze. “Was Vlad experimenting on people?! Did he experiment on your cousin to make her half ghost?!”

Sam would be the one to put the pieces together, even if she’s not completely correct. Unable to force the whole truth out, Danny nods in confirmation. 

“That bastard!” Sam’s fists ball. 

“I can’t believe it.” Tucker’s jaw drops but he shakes his head. “We should look for her. Do you want to split up and call if we find her?”

Danny nods and his voice comes out small. “Thanks guys.”

“She’ll be okay.” Sam puts an arm on his and squeezes comfortingly before the three head off in different directions. 

Danny jogs towards another bedroom and flings out the door. His heart clenches at the sight of a child’s bedroom. The image of Danielle sitting on the floor playing with blocks passes through his mind. Not an imagining, a memory, a borrowed memory from the tiny clone. He shivers and opens the closet door. “Danielle?” He looks under the bed and his heart clenches again when he finds a drawing of Danielle and the tiny clone.

He exits the room and searches the kitchen, the dining room, the garden. Borrowed memories flash through his mind, with a strange familiarity for a cabin he’s only been to once. The need to find Danielle and make sure she’s okay stabs at his heart. He has to remind himself more than once that she’s not actually his sister, though he definitely feels like she is.

Danny and his friends meet back at the door to the lab. “I don’t think she’s here, Danny.” Tucker frowns.

Danny swallows, anxiety flickering. “Do you think she’s….” He trails off, unable to ask.

Sam shakes her head. “I didn’t see any ectoplasm or blood. So I think she just flew off.”

Danny’s stomach churns. He hadn’t seen anything suggesting she’d destabilized either. He wrung his hands. “You’re probably right.”

“I don’t think we can do anything if she didn’t want to stick around.” Tucker frowns. 

“Yeah. Maybe she flew off somewhere to cry. She did find out Vlad didn’t care about her.” His friends tilt their head, questioningly. But the boy doesn’t elaborate. “I’ll...leave a note, I guess. And she knows where I live. Maybe she’ll come find me.” 

Worry still knotting his gut, Danny writes several notes with his phone number and leaves them in different places in case Danielle returns soon. It’s unlikely; Vlad’s still downstairs and she’ll probably want to avoid the older halfa but it’s not like Vlad doesn’t know his phone number or that Danny would be concerned about the youngest half ghost. He leaves the final note on Danielle’s bed and he hates feeling so helpless.

Danny returns down the stairs with one thing left to do. Vlad is still unconscious; the lab is trashed. Tucker is searching the computer, looking over Vlad’s data and hopefully planning on deleting it after. The halfa swallows, the puddles of ectoplasm making him feel sick but he has to hope. He hadn’t seen what happened to the tiny clone in all the chaos after he escaped the chamber. But he had to hope, even if he hadn’t been sure when he told the clone he’d survive. Maybe he should have looked for him before scouring the house for Danielle. But….the thought that the tiny clone is dead and he’d given his false hope at the end, almost paralyzes him with fear.

Danny surveys the puddles. But how would he know which one was his remains? They’re the same, dead clones he couldn’t save. His stomach flops with guilt and the clone’s face, the one he saw in his mind, their shared dream, flashes through his mind. Not the green, dripping face but the human face. That’s the tiny clone’s real face, what he’s supposed to look like. Danny hopes he’s alive.

Danny stops in front of the pod Vlad had put him in when the clone overshadowed him. A small puddle of ectoplasm lies at his feet and Danny wants to throw up. He lowers himself to his knees and a tear falls down his face. 

“I’m sorry.” He whispers.

And he is so sorry, it’s all he can do to not collapse and cry. To an outsider, it must look so stupid, crying for someone he just meet, someone who wronged him so badly. A seemingly mindless, malformed clone. But…..he means what he said, the clone was a person, a person who’d deserved a life and a name. What’s more, he’s been inside the other boy’s mind. He’s seen every memory of being confused and mistreated by Vlad. Of being small and helpless and weak and in pain. He’s seen the clone as a confused child who didn’t understand what he did, who just wanted to be loved. He’s seen him grow into a teenager who learned his life was a lie. And in the end, it was the clone who’d pulled them apart and stopped overshadowing Danny like he promised. 

With their cores so close, he’d felt what the clone felt and understood his thoughts as if they were his own. In a way, as the clone had been Danny Fenton, he’d been the clone. It was a terrifying thought, that both of them had come so close to losing themselves. He’d been angry, rightfully. And maybe he should still be angry. But he can’t hate the clone. How can he hate someone he knows so well? How can he hate someone who sincerely thought they deserved to die because of a mistake? And that was what really prompted Danny to try to trust the clone, to try forgiveness. But that doesn’t matter now, because he’s gone.

Another tear falls as he stares frozen in sorrow, until a quiet whimper breaks through his thoughts. Teary eyes search for the source of the sound. Another whimper and Danny’s eyes fix on something green under the piece of machinery in front of him. With a shaking hand, Danny reaches and gently cups the green object. Slowly, he pulls a small figure out. His jaw drops, hope fluttering. The figure remains still, a tiny face scrunched up in discomfort. Danny can feel the small weak core, strangely similar to his own core, pulsing through his hand.

“Oh my god, What is that thing?” Sam’s voice sounds from beside him, disgust evident.

“He’s not a thing. He’s a person.” Danny’s heart is filled with too much happiness to be angry with his friend.

He glances at Sam whose face is wrinkled in confusion. She lowers herself to her knees beside Danny. Tucker joins them from the other side. He squints at the tiny ghost in Danny’s hand. “Dude! It’s a mini-you.”

“He’s.” Danny corrects, studying the clone. Tucker’s right; despite the green complexion and the small size (only half as tall as his pinkie), the resemblance is clear. Danny smiles. “You’re alive. I can’t believe you made it, Tiny.” The halfa gently cradles the clone in his hands.

Sam asks, voice skeptical. “What...who is this?”

“He’s a clone of me.” The words come out surprisingly easily. 

“What?!” Another surprised exclamation from Sam and Tucker. “Vlad cloned you?”

“Yeah.” Danny nods. At Sam and Tucker’s prompting, he explains what happened after Vlad kidnapped him and Danielle’s real identity. His friends study the clone in his hands.

“Vlad had him overshadow you?”

“Yes.” The halfa nods. “He was just obeying Vlad at first but he realized the truth. I helped him see that Vlad was using him.”

“Dude, how?” Tucker tilts his head.

Danny watches the clone sleeping for a few moments. So much happened, more than he’ll probably ever feel comfortable telling Sam and Tucker. He swallows. “I talked to him.”

“Really? He can talk?” Sam asks.

“It was in my head, while he was overshadowing me but….he saw the truth.” A tiny portion of what happened, an experience that was frightening and uncomfortable. One he should probably be more angry about but…. He’s not sure how he feels. His friends sit in silence for a while and Danny can practically feel the accepting confusion. That they know something important happened between them but they don’t understand it.

“What are you going to do with him?” Tucker finally asks.

What was he going to do? Danny remembers earlier when he suggested stabilizing the clone. He could take him home, teach him to communicate, let him try food and watch movies, watch him learn and grow stronger, more stable. He could go to Clockwork or his other allies in the Ghost Zone, maybe even his parents, to stabilize the clone.

Danny’s not sure if he should trust the clone in his home, into his life. He imagines the clone speaking to him and apologizing like he promised. Is that an apology he should accept? Danny had felt he meant it earlier. And hadn’t he thought earlier that the clone deserved a name, a real chance to live? Clockwork had once said that Danny believed in giving people second chances. Didn’t Danny in fact believe that?

He ruffles the clone's hair and small eyes blink open and meet his. Recognition blooms there, changing into an expression that might be gratitude. A small mouth opens and closes, trying to speak. No sound comes but Danny thinks the movement might be his name, ‘Danny.’ The clone’s arms wrap around his thumb, his version of a hug.

Danny smiles. “How do you feel about coming home with me?”

The smaller boy nods, grinning. And Danny makes up his mind. Minutes later, Sam, Tucker, and Danny pile into the Speeder, the smallest member of the group still resting on Danny’s hand.