Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Danny Phantom.

Note: Huge shout out to "Dp-Marvel94" for helping me by beta-reading this story up until now! This chapter is a very important milestone because from here on out we'll be heading into new territory. That means we're all caught up to the events in the original snippet they wrote for my AU in the first place!

I'm super excited to see how Vlad and Daniel's relationship blossoms, not to mention how Dani will react to the existence of her 'older brother' later on as well as Sam and Tucker because they still have no idea Danny's been hanging out with his virtual/clone twin for months while playing Doomed. Gonna be interesting breaking the news to them too!

Chapter 8: Determination

Vlad's POV

I very rarely drink these days because for one thing, I normally have to consume enough alcohol to kill an average human before I so much as felt a slight buzz, and for another, even before I became half-ghost, I could drink most of my friends in college under the table. But this, well, I'd say I desperately needed the distraction. I was no longer in a near panic after discovering that my Danny Program had -by some miracle- become self-aware. After all, I had cloned the real one several times with varying degrees of success, so why should it surprise me since I had already accomplished the impossible?

But those words, how I've...treated that poor boy, I could not stop thinking about it.

All this time, I had been abusing a sentient being and never even realized it. For months, he had endured it in silence because I had stolen his voice. Yet the first words he spoke to me with tears in his eyes was, why didn't I love him...

The fear in his eyes, the abruptness of it all reminded me of the instant my perfect son dissolved into ectoplasm in my arms. My son...he died in my arms, never knowing love, never knowing anything. And yet, the hologram that started it all, he had somehow become self-aware and all this time had been yearning for that very same love. A love which I had only denied him!

I denied him the same love I denied Danielle when she betrayed and abandoned me, only to realize, I had abandoned them first. She loved me, but I saw her and the others only as tools that existed to serve me. The Danny Program was no different. All of them were designed to love me, to obey me, but none of that was real. Or so I had thought, up until I saw their tears and realized just how poorly I had treated them both.

And how...terrible of a father I had been.

I still remember how happy I was when I completed the Danny Program and first booted him up. Thanks to his flawless programming, I could vividly imagine our life together as father and son, imagine what it would be like to no longer be alone in this wretched world, only for the illusion to shatter as soon as I tried to touch him. His laughter seemed so pure, so honest whenever Daniel told me he loved and that feeling had brought me such joy.

But how long has he been self-aware, exactly? How long has he been trying to reach out to me, to repeat those words with true emotions behind them? This is all I've ever wanted, a child who loves me unconditionally, but now that I have one...it's as though I'm the fake one here. I've been lying to myself and saying I'm a perfect father, but how can I claim to be when I have been so blind to the suffering of someone totally blameless right in front of me!?

Daniel had done nothing to deserve such horrid treatment, it was all directed at the original, that brat who had stolen everything from me. He had murdered my son. But I...I had also tortured him to take what I needed from him in a moment of desperation, since I knew he'd never give it to me willingly, even if I promised to leave him and his pathetic father alone. Yes, Danny would have never let me clone him if he had a choice...

However, he had rejected me countless times before so I had convinced myself Danny no longer had the right to ask for mercy, no right to deny me what was rightfully mine, which was to be the father of the perfect half-ghost son, whether he liked it or not. That's what I told myself. And yet, this boy, my Daniel, he had been here all along, trying to break through the programming I forced on him. He did not even have the option to speak to me, no choice at all. It was through sheer force of will, no doubt, that his voice finally reached me and...it was filled with such loneliness and pain that only mirrored my own.

I don't know how it happened, but my son...he's still here. My Daniel has been 'alive' this whole time and for months, all I've done is torment him time and time again. All he wanted was my love, and I had shown him nothing but cruelty, hatred, abused him, and left him all alone to suffer the same loneliness I have shouldered for years. Biting my lip hard enough to draw blood, I was unable to stop tears from freely spilling down my cheeks.

I had not cried since my -I mean- since the prime clone's death or when I heard that Jack had gotten engaged to Maddie, while I was left to rot all alone in that hospital, a mere two years later. But now, I couldn't help myself when the reality came crashing down on me, that for the past several months I have been taking out all of my anger on an innocent boy who doesn't understand why I don't love him. Of course I love him! I just...never knew he was there! If I had, then maybe-

"No...no, it's all the same. Nothing has changed!" I cursed, tangling one hand in my disheveled hair, while nursing the half-empty wine glass. "This is all my fault. I let this happen. I can't blame Jack for this or even Danny. But I...my son, even if he can love me now, I'll never be able to hold him in my arms! He'll never be able to grow up, never change, never follow in my footsteps, nothing! All we can do is keep playacting, because that boy, he'll never be...never be..."

Mine.

A choked sob escaped my lips before I drowned my sorrows with another glass. I didn't want to go through this again! I didn't want to get so close to finally finding love again, only to have it ripped away from me! Not again. I refuse to...let myself hope again. Because the moment I do that, the moment I give into that weakness, it will all come crashing down again. And once more, I'll be abandoned by those I cherish most.

Danny's POV

When Daniel didn't show up for our next strategy meeting, I got worried about him so I decided to take a risk by going to confront Vlad on my own. Besides, after my bonus weather powers almost shorted out the power yesterday, I had a bad feeling I might have hurt him indirectly. I could deal with Vlad, but Daniel? Well, I agree he's not in a very good position right now to do much of anything.

That wouldn't stop me from trying to help though.

I'm probably the last person Vlad wanted to see after I put him through the ringer before but let's face it, he kinda deserved it after causing so much trouble for everyone. Not to mention the moment Vortex showed up, he threw me out and expected me to clean up his mess, only to STILL try to pin the blame on Danny Phantom. So yeah, I wasn't thrilled with the idea of seeing him again, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right when Daniel didn't show up.

Since Vlad has no idea he exists, Daniel's gotten into the habit of sending me messages when he can't make it to our game sessions. It still feels weird calling him the formal version of my name, but let's face it, Vlad's not very original with naming people in general since Dani has the same problem. Either way, I had a seriously bad feeling once I made it to Vlad's mansion and eventually tracked the guy down, sleeping on the bathroom floor.

I mean, yeah, I didn't exactly make it easy for him to look after me while I temporarily had weather controlling powers, but Vlad doesn't strike me as someone who gets tired that easily. Especially not to the point of falling asleep in a bathroom of all places, looking like he got into a fight with a tornado and lost since his hair was all over the place and out of its usual ponytail. Rolling my eyes, I nudged him with my boot to wake the guy up and called-

"Vlad. Hey, wake up already." I repeated, nudging him again until Vlad finally rolled over onto his back and stared up at me blankly.

He blinked a few more times, clearly hungover which kinda surprised me, and groaned. "Which one are you?"

Before I could ask what he meant, Vlad poked me hard in the knee and I yelped. "OW! What was that for?!" I growled, my eyes flashing brighter green in irritation. The nerve of this fruitloop!

Shaking his head, Vlad rested the same hand over his eyes and sighed, "Oh. You're the other one."

"What are you talking about?" I asked impatiently, crossing my arms.

Chuckling humorlessly, Vlad slowly sat upright and replied bitterly. "I'd half-hoped you were my Daniel. Although I don't suppose he'd want to talk to me after last night."

My heart sank to the pit of my stomach as my worst fears were confirmed, that something bad HAD happened. However, before I could open my mouth to ask what had happened, he beat me to the punch and asked bluntly. "Why are you here?"

Rubbing the back of my neck nervously, I thought about how to answer without giving too much away when it hit me- "Wait. Your Daniel? Last night? Did...did he talk to you?"

"He?" Vlad gasped, his eyes widening in shock and snapping directly towards me. "My AI? How do you know about him?"

"About that-" I began awkwardly, not really sure how to break the news to him, now that Vlad was right in front of me. But I promised Daniel I'd try, so after taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I explained. "It's kind of a long story, so the short version is Daniel and I met a few months ago and became friends after I realized he wasn't sent by you to spy on me or find out where Dani is. He needed help talking to you so I promised I would. We never figured out when the best time would be to do that though, so we've been trying to plan that out together."

Giving him a pointed look, I confessed. "Actually, we were supposed to meet up today but I guess something happened." Narrowing my eyes suspiciously, I demanded, "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing." Vlad frowned in response, refusing to say anything else.

What surprised me though is he didn't say that defensively, he sounded almost depressed about it or like he regretted not doing something he should have. Either way, I had to find out if Daniel was ok or not with my own eyes, especially since Vlad seemed hungover and might not remember having done anything. I wasn't going to leave until I knew for sure my friend was alright.

"I'm going down to the lab." I told Vlad moments before phasing through the floor since I already knew where it was. Tucker and Sam helped me track down a blueprint of this place and knowing Vlad, it wasn't hard to figure out where he had built most of his secret rooms and junk. He's so predictable like that.

Anyways, once I got down there, I cringed after seeing what a mess it was. Vlad must have thrown another hissy-fit and didn't have a separate room to take Daniel to to yell at him. I scanned the room for his projector, shivering slightly when I saw the spilt ectoplasmic samples splattered across the wall since it gave me flashbacks of when Vlad tried to take a mid-morph sample from me the last time I had been trapped in one of his evil lairs.

Speaking of Vlad, when he appeared behind me in ghost form, I didn't acknowledge him at first since I was busy looking for the projector controls. Then he growled. "You can't just barge into my lab like this, Danny."

Sick of his bad attitude, before I could think better of it, I whirled around and snapped. "I'll barge in wherever I want to and you can't stop me, fruitloop! I'm well past caring about your personal boundaries; you've never cared about mine. Now where's that switch…?"

"Danny..." Vlad hissed threateningly but that just angered me more so I jabbed a finger at him and yelled-

"No! Listen here you jerk, you've been hurting my friend for months. Months Vlad! You've treated him like nothing but a tool just like Dani and the other clones, like your personal punching bag! But for some reason, he still loves you. Daniel thinks you deserve another chance and that is the ONLY reason I'm here, so consider yourself lucky that I'm not here to kick your sorry butt for what you did to him. Now move out of my way!" Shoving past him when I spotted what I think were the controls, I didn't notice how stunned Vlad looked until after a few tries, I finally managed to turn the darn thing on.

A few seconds later, Daniel's image flickered into view and I was about to sigh in relief since he seemed unharmed when, surprisingly, my ghost sense went off. What the-? Again? But how...?

"Danny?" He called out to me, his voice timid but hopeful. But I was too distracted by the fact that my ghost sense went off, and since it wasn't because of Vlad, it had to be him, right?

Confused, I finally muttered aloud. "My ghost sense, I think it just went off because of...you."

His eyes widened in shock. "What? Really?"

I nodded. "Your signature, it's stronger now for some reason. Or maybe it's 'cause we're actually seeing each other in person for the first time."

For a second there, Daniel and I totally forgot Vlad was there until he stepped forward and asked in just as much confusion. "Your signature? What do you mean by that?"

Slowly turning to Vlad, I gaped. "You mean, you don't know?"

Instead of answering me, Vlad wordlessly floated past us and began searching for something in the lab. Once he found what he was looking for, Vlad came back over to us and when I saw what was in his hand, I scoffed. "Is that the Fenton Finder? Seriously?"

Ignoring me, he held it up to Daniel who retreated slightly but Vlad paid that no mind, since he seemed really serious about finding something. And when he found it, Vlad looked up at Daniel and confirmed. "You have a ghost signature."

"Yeah I do," Daniel nodded, unable to hide the hope in his voice before shaking his head and wondering a loud. "Wait. How?"

Vlad stared between the Fenton Finder and Daniel for a second, before wandering over to the computer, and started searching for something in his files. More confused than ever, Daniel and I inched closer to get a better look at what Vlad was doing. And I was ready to jump in if it looked like Vlad was up to any funny business too. Because I wasn't going to let him hurt my friend right in front of me.

A few minutes went by like that in total silence except for the keys clicking away as he typed, and eventually I got impatient and called out his name. No response. Getting annoyed, I demanded. "Vlad. What's going on?"

From behind me, in a much more timid voice, Daniel whispered- "Father?"

Visibly stiffening when he heard that, Vlad didn't turn and instead replied calmly, almost fondly. "Come here son."

Daniel obeyed without hesitation but I stuck close to him, just in case this was some kind of trap. Once we're close enough to see what was on the screens in front of us, Vlad finally explained. "I cannot believe I didn't realize it sooner. I noticed something last night, when I was examining your code. It was too simple, too minimal to explain your level of mental development. There was just not enough information present there for you to be sentient. There had to be more to it but I could not seem to see it. But this would explain-"

Groaning in response to all his crazy techno-babble, I interrupted. "Vlad. Get to the point."

Shifting his gaze towards Daniel, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw his expression soften as Vlad smiled and said. "You're a hybrid, my boy."

Stunned, Daniel asked exactly what I was thinking and sputtered. "What? But how? I'm…I'm not half ghost like you and Danny! I'm not even…even…I'm just an AI."

Feeling just as lost as him, we both looked at Vlad as he shook his head and continued confidently. "No, son. You are not just an AI. Not anymore."

"I…I still don't understand." Daniel admitted, his voice quivering slightly.

Vlad's expression softened even more as he pointed towards the computer, at the string of ones and zeros, and showed us what he found. "Daniel. This is your code. I wrote it, the basic information that makes up your mind. The behaviors you can display, instruction for how to move, speak, how to behave. However…This is limited, too small to explain your existence."

Vlad looked up at Daniel's face, his own voice sounding almost just as awed as we were. "You are more than this code."

Daniel nodded but I could tell he still didn't understand what Vlad was saying. "Then…how am I like this?"

Vlad then moved the ghost scanner in front of Daniel and pointed to something on the tiny screen, smiling. "This is your ectoplasmic signature. It is weak, hardly stronger than a blob ghost, but it's there. You have a ghost signature which can only mean one thing."

Daniel stared at him blankly, clearly still struggling to understand. And that's when it hit me. So he DOES have a ghost signature. But doesn't that mean- "You're a ghost." I concluded out loud, staring at Daniel too, completely floored by that sudden realization.

"I am?" Daniel asked quietly, blinking.

"Yes." Vlad nodded and smiled even wider.

His voice cracking, Daniel read my mind and asked the same thing I was wondering. "How is this even possible?"

"I don't know." Vlad admitted, frowning. "You aren't a ghost overshadowing my computer or my projector. If you were, I would have sensed your presence with my own ghost sense long before now. But your code and your developing core are…intertwined. They are feeding into each other."

Gently rubbing his beard, Vlad added thoughtfully. "Ectoplasm can animate inanimate objects so I can only assume your exposure to it somehow granted you self-awareness."

Unable to help myself, I snickered. "Yeah. That's why we have ecto-weenies in the fridge. The ectoplasm gets inside them and they start moving and biting and stuff."

Nodding but not commenting on my joke, Vlad replied. "Yes. And masses of ectoplasm can form ghosts spontaneously. That is commonly how blob ghosts form."

"But those aren't intelligent." Daniel pointed out shyly, obviously still hesitant to get his hopes up too much.

"No. But your code was written to allow some level of intelligence and ectoplasm's ability to animate would theoretically increase that intelligence exponentially. The problem now is how to figure out when you were exposed to enough ectoplasm for this to happen in the first place." Vlad concluded, but thankfully, Daniel and I already knew the answer to that question.

That's why I wasn't the least bit surprised when Daniel finally told Vlad the truth and admitted. "My projector, it got drenched in ectoplasm."

Taken aback, Vlad asked. "When was this?"

"It was...it was after the cloning incident." Daniel confessed, nervously wringing his hands and shrinking back a little. "I remember, their ectoplasm was everywhere and…that was the first day I…I realized everything. That's when I became...something else."

Vlad's jaw practically dropped when he connected the dots and told us. "The clones...their ectoplasm is inside of you."

My jaw dropped too and I stared between Vlad and Daniel before choking out. "Wait a sec! Doesn't that mean he's a clone of me? Like an actual clone?!"

"Possibly." Vlad nodded, still deep in thought.

My head was spinning already from all this crazy talk, but when I glanced over at Daniel, it looked like he was deeply unsettled by the news for some reason. I thought he'd be happy, but he looked almost horrified and scared. But why? Isn't this a good thing? We just proved he's real after all which means...well I'm not entirely sure what it means to be honest and neither does Vlad.

Finally noticing Daniel was freaking out for some reason, Vlad reached forward to try and comfort him but his hand fell through, which was to be expected since Daniel didn't have a real body like the other clones. Even that tiny clone had a somewhat tangible form, but Daniel...all he had was a holographic projector. I felt really bad for him, since I couldn't even imagine not being able to touch anyone; that must be incredibly lonely which is how I can see why playing Doomed with me is the closest thing he's been able to experience as far as human interaction. He even told me as much after we cleared up our own misunderstanding.

Wishing I could help him too, I watched as Vlad stared at Daniel, then at his hand thoughtfully and turned it intangible and tried again. And when he did, we both gasped when for the very first time, Vlad touched Daniel. A shiver ran up my spine as I unconsciously reached for my wrist too. It was almost like...I could feel a phantom of their touch, or maybe I was just imagining it, since this was such a big moment for Daniel, as his eyes welled up with tears and he looked at Vlad, amazed and more than a little overwhelmed by it.

"You're…you're touching me. I can feel that." His head snapped up to Vlad's face. "I can feel your hand. You're touching me. Father, you're touching me."

Daniel repeated this several times in a small weak voice, almost afraid to believe it was really happening until Vlad laughed softly and explained. "You're stuck intangible, my boy. Your signature is too weak to manifest a full body so the projector is helping you do that to some degree. But you appear to be stuck like this for the time being."

Without missing a beat, Vlad turned completely intangible and pulled Daniel into his arms, hugging him tightly. And Daniel, in response, wrapped his arms around Vlad too and whispered lovingly. "Father."

Ruffling his hair, Vlad cradled his head close, his own shoulders shaking too as he choked out in a deeply emotional tone. "I am so sorry, son. I am sorry I couldn't see you before. But you are real."

He whispered in return with equally as much hope in his voice. "I promise you are real. I wish I deserved your love but I will strive to be worthy of your affection, my boy. I won't make the same mistake again. I promise."

Daniel smiled at him through the tears and nodded. "I… I love you so much. And...I forgive you, Father."

Honestly, this felt like a really private moment as I stood there awkwardly watching the whole exchange. But at the same time, I was happy for Daniel. It looked like things had worked out between them in the end after all. Still, as happy as I was for him, I was still kinda worried about how Vlad was taking all this. After all, I knew him better than Daniel did and who knows what might happen now that he's got what he wanted, a clone of me to be his son...

I just hope he doesn't screw this up for both of them with his bad habits.

Daniel's POV

I was so overwhelmed by everything we had learned but at the same time, I didn't want this moment between Father and I to end, so I unconsciously clung to him as I felt him pulling away. I was afraid I might wake up and find out this was all a dream, that Father hadn't met me, but to reassure me that it wasn't he smiled and explained calmly. "Don't worry son. We'll find a way for you to manifest fully, and then we can embrace any time you wish. Your core needs to be stimulated more from now on to strengthen it and help it mature. Once it is strong enough, you will be able to form a tangible ghost form. That said, we'll still need to integrate some technology to hold your code too, since that is also an integral part of you."

"So he's basically a ghost cyborg?" Danny asked curiously and we turned to look at him. "Kinda like Skulker?"

"I suppose that is an accurate assessment." Father nodded with a soft chuckle. "Or it would be if Skulker wasn't merely a blob ghost himself in a robotic battle suit. If anything, Daniel has more in common with Technus given their ability to manipulate technology to some degree, which is how I assume he was able to make contact with you several months ago..."

Cringing since there was still so much I still had to tell Father about me, I opened my mouth to say as much when Danny blurted out awkwardly- "Ok, I think I get the picture. Anyways, if it's all the same to you, I think that's enough excitement for one day. So...if Daniel's really ok, then I'm going to go home now. It looks like you need some time to yourselves to work things out but before I do-"

Giving Vlad a hard look, Danny held out his hand and began seriously. "Vlad, just so you know I'm only doing this for his sake, but, I'd like to ask you one more time if you'd be willing to call a truce. I know we've had our differences and I'll admit, I was kind of a jerk to you yesterday when I didn't need to be, so I'm sorry for that. I mean it. You might not know this but, Daniel's been here a long time, and his situation hasn't been the most stable since he lives in your computer. That's why I was worried about accidentally shorting out the power before."

Taking a deep breath and anxiously clenching his outstretched hand a few times, Danny continued. "We can't change the past, and as much as I hate to say it, I know you didn't mean to hurt Daniel on purpose. That's why I'm going to risk taking a chance on you. Your problem is with me and my dad, I get it. But maybe if we can stop trying to tear each other apart for two seconds, then there will be plenty of time for us to focus on more important things in our lives from now on, like taking care of our families. Because that's what you are to him, Vlad. You're his dad! So you'd better start acting like it or we're going to have a serious problem, got it?"

After glancing at me, then back at Danny's hand, I watched as Father closed the distance between them and without hesitation wrapped his fingers around Danny's in a firm handshake and nodded, responding calmly. "For once, you are absolutely right, little badger. Clearly I have more important things to attend to than pursuing a pointless vendetta against you -ah that means blood feud by the way-"

"I know what a vendetta is, fruitloop. I'm not that dumb." Danny frowned, still clasping Father's hand. "Now can we hurry this up so I can go home?"

"Of course, of course," Father chuckled before becoming serious again and nodded. "At any rate, the answer is yes. In this particular case, I will accept making a truce with you until further notice. We can discuss the finer details of our agreement at a later date, but for now, my son and I have a lot of catching up to do it seems. But, this I swear to you just as I have sworn it to him, I will never harm Daniel. You have my word."

Still a bit unsure if he could trust Father, Danny nodded and let his arm drop the instant Father let go and floated a few feet off the ground before turning to me and waving with a smile and a salute. "In that case, my work here is done, I guess. Good luck dude, you're going to need it. But if you need anything, you know where to find me."

Smiling, I tearfully waved back, "I do. And thank you, Danny. Thank you so much for all your help."

Hesitating for a split second, Danny surprised me when he floated over to me too and did the same thing as Father, turning intangible to hug me, and I gasped as my heart fluttered strangely in response. As Danny embraced me though, he whispered in a hushed tone. "I'm serious. If anything goes wrong, please come find me. I want to believe Vlad can change but you can't blame me for being worried. So please, promise me you'll be careful, ok?"

Nodding I silently hugged him back, unable to form the words to fully express how overjoyed I was that things finally worked out as I'd hoped. Father had finally acknowledged me! He accepted me and told me he loves me! I couldn't possibly ask for more! But at the same time, now that it was possible, I wanted so badly for things to go back to how they were when Father and I were happy. And from this moment on, I was going to fight to protect our happiness no matter what comes our way.