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

Note: Sorry if this part feels a bit rushed, I wanted to reveal something pretty important before things progress too far while Vlad and Danny are still a bit hesitant to fully trust each other. It's going to be important moving forward anyway and this won't be the case all the time, just until they get it under control. You'll see what I mean in this chapter. And I mean, things ARE slowly getting better between them, but, old habits are hard to break you know?

Chapter 13: Anamnesis

Vlad's POV

The following morning, I could not keep the smile off of my face as I thought of how incredibly intelligent Daniel was. I meant it when I said I had never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life when he showed me the world he had built around himself to banish the darkness of that gaping void. And it wasn't just the stars Daniel had created that shone so brilliantly before my eyes, but also his smile. The pure joy on his face as he proudly showed off the new home he had created for himself with the tools I had given him was a testament to how clever the boy was. I suppose that makes sense given how he was originally part of a computer program equipped with advanced algorithms and learning software to help improve his behavior and make it more realistic.

Only now, everything Daniel does IS real.

To be quite honest, it was a humbling experience seeing the world Daniel comes from for myself. I don't think he quite understands the magnitude of what he has done, nor how much the idea of training inside the confines of my computer rather than build a new training room from scratch would help us in the long run. I saw a small glimpse of the greatness Daniel is capable of that in some ways far exceeds the original. To have the ability to manipulate energy like that so precisely, so perfectly and effortlessly, it was nothing short of a work of art...

Daniel sells himself far too short, and we certainly couldn't have that. Once he gained more confidence in himself, I knew my son would begin to grow in ways I could scarcely imagine. And in many ways, he already had now that Daniel has regained the freedom to be himself. Now it's my job to nurture him and that special talent of his, which meant I had a lot of work to do.

Thankfully, my secretary in City Hall was competent enough to handle the day to day matters for the time being, so until a more pressing matter came up, I was free to spend the rest of the day making preparations. Of course, Danny had yet to give me an official answer about my additional offer, however I was fairly confident he would accept it in the end. After all, it would make it easier for him to monitor Daniel's training personally and to make sure I am on my best behavior. Likewise I suppose I'll have to break the habit of pinning the blame on Danny for certain ghost problems and actually do something about it.

I had absolutely no intention of playing hero mind you, but, it couldn't hurt to hire Valerie to do some extra ghost hunting for me. She's become a surprisingly capable ghost hunter since the last time we met according to my reports. Apparently, Technus had given her a new battle suit upgrade shortly after that unfortunate business with Jasmine when she got it into her head to deceive me to prove her helpfulness to her brother. I'll admit, I didn't think much of Jasmine before that point until she came to me of her own free will.

It took some time to recover from the Ecto-Skeleton blowing up in my face when they set it to self-destruct since I was so stunned by Jasmine's resourcefulness and cunning, not to mention that she had the nerve to betray me when she actually knew full well that I'm half-ghost and could easily crush her. That said, I won't lie, it was almost pleasant having her around for a while. I have always wanted a son, but never a daughter. And at times...I wonder if that was another reason I created Dani apart from the fact that a clone that looked too much like the real Danny would have raised suspicions immediately as opposed to a little girl.

Speaking of Jasmine, while I had rather graciously deactivated the bloodstream nanobots after my defeat that day since they were worthless without the Ecto-Skeleton anyway, but remembering that little tidbit did give me an idea of how I might be able to monitor and regulate Daniel's vitals more easily. As it happens, I still had some nanobots leftover from back then and it wouldn't be too difficult to make them compatible with Daniel's ectoplasmic blood. After all, he already has many of the same properties he used to as a holographic simulation, so his ghost form shouldn't reject the new nanobots. Of course, I would have to run a few tests though just to be on the safe side.

For the time being though, I didn't want to disturb Daniel since what we did yesterday had clearly taken a toll on him. He had never pushed his powers to such an extent which is why I urged the boy to pace himself. I understood Daniel's strong desire to impress me, but hopefully he understands that it's far more important to me that he stays healthy. Daniel is, after all, still a clone at the end of the day but we're fortunate his condition has remained perfectly stable, especially given how he doesn't yet know how to maintain his physical form outside of the virtual world without the holographic projector assisting him. But, it's entirely possible that might change in the future so I need to be prepared for ANY eventuality that may put his life at risk.

Because I would not risk losing my son again.

As soon as I was done adjusting the properties of my remaining nanobots, I received a message from Daniel he appeared to have finished some time after I left last night judging from the time stamp giving me the list of his powers I asked for. As expected, he did not list them all but I imagine he's never had the opportunity to test them given how his only combat experiences have been inside of a videogame with its own set of weapons and skill sets built into the software. And I had no intention of allowing Daniel to run around hunting ghosts when he could quite easily be mistaken for Danny despite his drastic change in attire.

After all, they have the exact same ghost signature, the same DNA, therefore any tracking device that locked onto him would assume it had found the real Danny Phantom. I have no doubt Daniel will one day become powerful enough to hold his own in a fight, but just because he can do it doesn't mean I would allow it. No son of mine was going to waste his time protecting a town that doesn't deserve it. Only Daniel deserves my protection, no one else.

At least, no one else I was willing to acknowledge at the moment.

I suppose to be fair Dani has similar DNA as well apart from being a young lady instead of a young man so its entirely possible she may one day run into the same problem. But that's her business. She's lucky I've agreed to leave her be and stop hunting her down to get revenge against the little brat. Dani still betrayed me after all and took Danny's side over mine, ruining my plans and killing-

I blinked when suddenly, on the monitor in front of me, I saw something. It was only there for a split second but I could have sworn that was...the prime clone. Static began to crackle through the speakers and impossibly I heard the voices of the other clones too calling for their father. Calling for me...

"What in blazes?!" I wondered aloud when a startling realization dawned on me, was Daniel...having some kind of nightmare?

As much as I hated leaving him alone, I decided to wait a moment longer to see what happened when something else flickered across the screen, something Daniel could not have possibly known because I didn't have any recorded footage of their deaths. My eyes widened in shock as I watched the skeleton clone disintegrate after being hit directly by a powerful energy blast Danny had unleashed at a miniature golf course from the looks of it. I wasn't as surprised by the second death since Dani had told me about it since it was all a part of my plan for her to gain his trust long enough for us to capture him, but I was surprised by the fact I was somehow seeing all of this as if...as if it were through Danny's eyes.

Unwilling to let this nightmare or whatever was going on continue, I transformed and flew into the computer just as Daniel had shown me and found him breathing heavily and clutching the sheets of his virtual bed. And all around him, floating screens kept repeating those images over and over again, a high pitched ringing mixed into the white noise and the departed clones calling out to me. His expression was deeply distressed so I carefully began shaking him as Daniel also called out to me in sync with the other clones, his brothers, doing the same.

I shook him a little harder when that seemed to be having no effect and had in fact gotten worse as the world around us began to flicker as if suffering from a glitch or corrupted data. I even considered giving him a mild shock just to snap Daniel out of it when my ghost sense went off the moment before who should appear but Danny himself right behind me. He looked...breathless and worried, as though he had rushed here to help, so did Danny somehow sense something was wrong?

"Vlad! Stop it!" Danny growled, prying my hands away from Daniel. "You're hurting him."

"No I am not, I'm trying to help him you insolent brat!" I snarled indignantly in return. "Do you know what's wrong with him?"

Reluctantly letting go of my wrists he looked at Daniel and shook his head. "I might have an idea but, I'm not a 100% sure about it. So I was on my way here to uh...talk about the training idea again without Sam and Tucker butting in, minding my own business, when I suddenly heard his voice."

"Heard him?" I gaped. "What do you mean, you heard him? How?"

"Look, let's talk about it in a second ok? Just wake him up first and be more gentle about it this time. Actually, nevermind I'll do it myself you big jerkwad." Reaching out to Daniel before I could stop him, the moment Danny's hand made direct contact with him he blinked rapidly as if momentarily blinded and staggered back. Soon after, Daniel bolted upright as well, the screens abruptly shutting off like old televisions once he was conscious again.

For a moment, we all remained completely motionless apart from Daniel whose shoulders were shaking. As for Danny, the boy was still rubbing his eyes, clearly having either seen or sensed something...out of the ordinary. "What in the world is going on here?" I wondered aloud, my gaze shifting between the two young men before me, certain that they were trying to keep a very important a secret from me for some reason and I was not going to tolerate it.

Daniel's POV

By the time I became aware of my surroundings again, I was confused when I saw Danny arguing with Father about something. My ears were still ringing so I only caught every other word, but by the time I could hear normally again I heard Father scoff. "Already keeping secrets from me again, Danny? So much for making a fresh start if the first thing you do is conceal such important information from me."

"Hey, back off fruitloop, it's not like I knew this was actually a thing until I heard him ok? I thought those were just dreams because I was feeling guilty for not giving the other clones the same chance as Dani and Daniel! How was I supposed to know we've got this...weird twin thing going on?" Danny replied defensively, looking a bit pale.

Forcing myself to sit up I called out to them and said. "Stop it, stop fighting!"

After that I moved to stand up but my legs buckled beneath me and I gasped. What surprised me though, was when Danny gasped too and we looked at each other in shock, Father too. "Wait, did you feel that just now?" I asked, floating back up to my feet and steadying myself.

"Feel what? I didn't feel anything," Danny insisted, but I could tell he was lying since he kept glancing nervously at Father.

Frowning I decided to test my theory and reached over to pinch myself, hard, and when I did his hand snapped to the same area on his own body as he yelped. "Hey! Knock it off."

"So you did feel that," I nodded, sighing deeply. "I'm sorry Danny, I just had to make sure. I mean, I've suspected this for a while but...I wonder if the reason this is happening now is because I'm-"

"Enough with the lies! Both of you!" Vlad bellowed and I recoiled from his anger.

My heart was racing and without thinking, I reflexively flung my arms out in front of me, bracing for an attack. But it never came and I slowly opened my eyes to see Father staring at me, horrified by my fearful reaction, and forced himself to calm down.

Taking a deep breath, he turned to me and asked evenly. "Daniel, are you alright?"

Nodding, I slowly lowered my arms and stammered. "Y-yes. I'm sorry."

"No, you did nothing wrong, my boy. I'm sorry for shouting." Father continued much more softly, hesitantly reaching over to help lower my arms the rest of the way before pulling me into a warm embrace. "Forgive me, Daniel. I was only worried about you when those strange images began flashing across the screen while I was working on something for you. Would you mind telling me what this is all about?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know too honestly." Danny admitted, shooting Father one last dirty look before glancing around the room and commenting to help lighten the mood. "Nice place by the way. I'm guessing this is new?"

"I finished making it yesterday after Father gave me admin rights to a construction simulation program for mapping out buildings and things like that. There's not much here yet but, it's a start." Awkwardly ducking out of Father's arms, my cheeks flushed in embarrassment, I cleared my throat and suggested. "Um, it's kinda embarrassing to have you both in here so let's go back to the real world to talk. We're probably going to need access to a few things anyway to see if uh, we really do have a twin thing going on between Danny and me because we're basically the same person in a lot of ways. I read about something about a thought experiment yesterday while you guys were discussing the truce and it's a lot like what's happening with us."

"Very well, but I expect and honest answer this time, understand?" Father scolded, looking between the two of us with his arms crossed. "Consider this your first lesson. Communication is key. And that includes disclosing information like this where it would seem that you two have developed some sort of telepathic bond with one another."