*AN: Heyyyy welcome back to another round of this crap. Forewarning: this is where my notes on plot got a bit blurry so I'm making a lot of decisions about how the plot will be moving forward from here. Please have patience as I figure out how this is going to work moving forward. In other news, we get a chapter in Vlad's perspective! This probably won't happen much if at all after this, but I felt it was necessary, not to mention exciting to write. Have fun, dear readers!

Vlad had been watching the two Daniels argue for quite some time before deciding enough was enough. Clearly neither were going anywhere, and the fighting had stopped. His hand was in his pocket, attaching the small device within it to his thumb. It was meant to be easily concealed, courtesy of the ghost known as Skulker, and thus was simple to attach without much fiddling. The device was similar to a tranquilizer, able to knock a ghost out for hours. He kept it around for situations such as these, and it became his resort when he quickly needed to gain control over a situation. It gave him time.

"Oh, shut up," he told the original, who had been arguing that he couldn't just leave, and he had to help or... some other excuse that meant nothing to him. "You're perfectly capable, you're just a loud complaining child." And with that, he lifted his hand out of the pocket and shot the blast at the original Daniel. After a few seconds, he was on the floor, out cold.

"Father!" His Daniel shouted, sounding offended at the action. "That was a bit extreme," he finished, crouching over the original.

Vlad sighed. He didn't have time for dramatics. "I'm really quite sorry, Daniel, but this has gotten out of hand." If Daniel heard the entirety of his conversation with the original, he might have learned about the nature of his existence. That was out of the question. "I'm impressed by how well today went, however," he mused aloud, tilting his head as he considered his son. "I won't soon forget your loyalty to me, my boy. You might, though."

"I might... what?" Daniel switched back into a human, suddenly far more neat and put-together than his unruly ghost form. Honestly, the boy had been hopeless without him. Daniel backed away a few steps, a sign that he heard too much. It only reinforced the necessity of what Vlad was about to do.

"Don't worry about it, little badger," he said the placating words without much care, lifting his hand so the device would hit Daniel directly. "Pleasant dreams." He shot the blast. Not long after, two Daniels laid human and unconscious on the floor of the main entrance.

"What a mess," Vlad muttered. There was quite a bit of damage control to be done.

He didn't have to worry about getting the two mixed up as humans; his son had slicked back hair and a fitting suit, while the original Daniel was how he always was. That was one less problem for Vlad to deal with. Unfortunately, that was the easiest problem he had to deal with. The real threats were much more complex, which made fixing them quite difficult.

Obviously his first obstacle was the original Daniel. There was no simple way to keep a halfa out, but if he didn't, the pest of a ghost would no doubt ruin everything. He'd gotten far too close to revealing the truth to Vlad's Daniel already. Vlad couldn't risk that happening again. Keeping him out would prove challenging, but the alternatives were more so. Simply taking him out of commission was ideal and doable, but unfortunately the boy had family and friends that would be alerted at him going missing.

His second, more solvable issue was that of his Daniel. After everything that had just happened, the child would be stupid not to have questions--questions Vlad wouldn't be able to answer without reavealing too much or lying. He wasn't against lying to Daniel in order to keep him safe, but there would be no easy way to explain everything that happened without raising suspicions. Even the smallest suspicion had the capacity to grow.

His options were simple. He would either have to grow a new clone and get rid of this version of Daniel, or he would have to tinker with the boy's memory. Well, growing an entire new clone after he'd finally created one that could 'go ghost' without melting would be too much of a hassle to fix, so the second option seemed preferable. If only Daniel hadn't answered the door in the first place, none of this would have happened. Vlad had become too lenient over just a few days.

Either way, there was one place to begin fixing this, and that was the basement. He easily picked up both Daniels with either hand--even with the intensive training he preformed with his son, he was unnaturally light--and began walking through the halls for the basement. There was much for him to do before morning.

~••~

"Morning." Daniel's voice brought Vlad out of his book. When he looked up, the boy was already stirring out of bed.

"Ah, good morning, Daniel." Vlad shut his book to give Daniel his full attention. "How did you sleep? Have you gotten any unusual dreams last night?"

"I think so..." Daniel paused, giving Vlad unnecessary anticipation. He then described vaguely the events of the previous day, surprisingly not even mentioning any confusion or revelations over them. And just as planned, he framed them in the context of a dream.

"I see." Vlad smiled. "Your imagination can come up with the strangest things."

"I guess." Daniel yawned. "It was just a dream."

"Of course. I'll meet you downstairs for breakfast." Vlad left the room and shut the door behind him. At least that part of the plan had been successful. Daniel seemed to be oblivious once more, and they could have some semblance of peace for the time being.

The original had caused quite the disturbance, and he didn't want to think about what would have happened if his son hadn't come to him first. He was lucky he didn't have to worry about that. He wouldn't consider those matters until he had the chance to work in the basement alone. For now he would be able to simply enjoy the quiet with his son.

Vlad entered the kitchen, where three cooks were already making breakfast. Vlad hadn't realized how late in the morning it was, and he'd almost let Daniel sleep in untill 10 o'clock. He reminded himself to wake the boy earlier in the future. At Vlad's presence, a sort of panicked haste grew over the staff. Black steaming coffee was set on a counter for Vlad to take. He did so, immune to the sudden sense of hurried tension in the air. He knew his staff always came through, or they wouldn't be his staff. He was a man of standards.

Vlad left the kitchen for the dining room. By now, Daniel had come down the stairs to greet Vlad for breakfast. The boy still looked comfortable around him, which meant the work he'd done the night prior payed off. He was in a tuxedo with a sloppily-done green bowtie. It took Vlad no small amount of patience not to point it out and correct it that moment.

The two had a quiet breakfast, as Daniel seemed content to focus on eating and Vlad had his mind on more important matters than small talk. When both had mostly finished eating, Vlad spoke up at last, making Daniel actually flinch in surprise. Much to Vlad's silent amusement. "After this, Daniel, I have a few errands elsewhere I'll be running." Vlad was unnerved by the mischievous look in Daniel's eyes at this. He made a mental note to warn the staff before he left. "I trust you not to leave the human plane of existence or the mansion in my absence. You'd be wise not to betray this trust."

"Yeah, of course!" Daniel smiled naturally, but Vlad would be wary. If this was anything but paranoia on Vlad's part, he would make sure the boy stayed under his influence. "How long will you be gone?"

Vlad swallowed a bite of food before responding. "Most of the day. I'll be restocking on materials for a few personal projects." He wasn't even sure he could do anything to the original to calm the situation. It wasn't just another clone or an experiment for him to mold to his liking, he would have to be extremely careful.

He just hoped he could fix the situation before any of the Fentons or the boy's posse of hormonal followers figured something was wrong. Was he dumb enough to fly all the way to Wisconsin without telling anyone he would be gone? If so, that was certainly going to be problematic. Since his Daniel's successful creation, he'd hardly bothered to check on the original before all of this. He might have missed far too much information for his liking, and now he had to make sure he could continue without further inturruption.

After breakfast, Vlad found a butler and let him know he would be gone for the day and to watch out for Daniel. Who knew what trouble his son would get into in his absence. With that taken care of, he went to his workstation one last time before leaving. Made notes on what he needed to stock up on and any outside research he would need to complete. A stop to the library was unavoidable anyways, since Daniel was so insistent on a lower reading level. Aparently some of his books were too "convoluted" for the boy to enjoy.

When he was finished he went back upstairs to check on Daniel before he left. He'd barely left the mansion now that he had to closely watch his son, and even then hadn't left the property, so he was slightly concerned now that the boy would get into trouble in his absence. He found Daniel talking quietly with Felix, the chef he'd befriended earlier in the week, and decided not to interrupt. While Felix was one of the younger on the staff, he had reliable morals an a surprising work ethic, and Vlad was sure he wouldn't let Daniel do anything with too bad of consequence.

With all his affairs in order, Vlad left his mansion, sitting back in the seat of the limousine. The car made it to the end of the winding exquisite driveway and carried him off. Unaware of a young half-ghost clone's muffled scream in the mansion behind him. Unaware of a teenager stealing keys to an assault vehicle all the way in Amity Park. Unaware of his plans being shattered like glass beneath a wrecking ball, the first dominoes falling in a stack that would unveil sinister secrets.

*An: Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did! I never explicitly wrote about Daniel being a clone, but I figured it was hinted at enough to have a soft reveal in the form of Vlad's internal monologue. Thank you for reading, please feel free to comment whatever's on your mind, and I'll see you next chapter! It's gonna be a doozy.