Vlad stared up at Danielle as she towered over him, fists bright with ectoplasm. Anger scoured her face and she glared at him. Her chest rose and fell as she heaved in deep breaths.
Somehow Vlad and Danielle had went from their sweet, familial bond to this. He messed up somewhere along the way. Plasmius made him go off his rockers and there was no way to fix it.
He messed up bad.
The light of his life, his sun, had a look of betrayal on her face. Tears were welling up in her eyes as she stared down at him.
"Well, dad," she spat out. "I'd say I'm glad to see you, but we both know that's not true."
Tears welled up in Vlad's own eyes. He'd made her so cold. She didn't seem like that bright eyed little girl anymore.
She was dangerous. Volatile. She was more like a solar flare. No longer the sun shining in a blue sky during the summer, but a fatal coronal mass ejection.
"I've been waiting a long time for this." Danielle said lowly.
She was now a young adult. She'd disappeared soon after helping Danny escape. He didn't know she was still alive.
How was she still alive?
When he saw her burst in through the ceiling, his heart clenched. She'd grown up and he missed it.
But he didn't deserve to be there for any of it. He knew that. He didn't deserve a wonderful daughter like her. He didn't deserve anything.
Danielle charge up an ectoblast. It kept growing larger and larger. It looked like a swirl of galaxies and stars floating in the palm of her hand. And she let it loose.
Vlad clenched his eyes shut, tears rolling down his cheeks. It hit him, throwing him across the floor. Cheek pressed against the tiles, Vlad opened one eye to see Danielle's boots walking away from him. They started to grow blurry and dark.
Finally, his eyes shut. Darkness embraced him.