Chapter 31

Vlad watched, his heart sinking as another clone dissolved into ectoplasm. Nothing was working. His hands clenched at his sides as he ran through the analysis of all his files on Daniel. He still had some clones left. Many of them were deformed, mutated versions of Daniel, locked permanently in ghost form. Failures to create a perfect duplicate of the young boy. He ran over the data again and again every time another clone faded out of existence.

His gaze flicked to the young girl sitting on the other side of the room with bright blue eyes staring expectantly at him as she waited for any instruction he might give her. Unlike the other clones, her growth stunted two years shy of Daniel's current age. The other clones all grew to the proper age, though Vlad couldn't figure out how to make them grow past the age of their source material. This girl was the most stable of the clones, and Vlad contributed that to removing the Y chromosome upon her creation. He did so on a whim and was pleasantly surprised to discover she achieved not only a semi stable existence but was a hybrid like Daniel. From there, he was able to use her as an example to create his greatest clone yet.

But he was still missing one crucial piece to ensure the clone's survival. If Vlad allowed the clone to leave its containment unit, the clone would dissolve into nothing like many others before it. He sent the failed clones to retrieve Daniel without whom he couldn't complete his clone.

"What about me?" the girl asked. Vlad named her Danielle, but she preferred Dani. Since she woke, he treated her like a daughter, giving her only enough affection to keep her at his side. She was different from the other clones that left to follow Vlad's command in another way as well. When he created her, Vlad gave her more of the real Daniel's personality than he had with any of the other clones. Compared to the others, she seemed the most alive to him.

"I've told you it's risky for you to go out and use your powers," Vlad said smoothly as he crossed the room. He placed his hand on her head, ruffling her dark hair. "Without the mid morph sample from young Daniel, I can't stabilize you." It was a little lie he told her, though he grew fond of her over the time they spent together. She almost was like a daughter to him, and during their training, she seemed eager to please her "father." After stabilizing his perfect clone, he could always do the same for her. His priority, however, was the clone still sleeping within its containment unit.

"But who is more likely to capture him?" Danielle questioned innocently. "A bunch of creepy looking ghost attacking him, or his sweet innocent looking cousin?" She blinked up at him, putting on a small smile.

Vlad chuckled lightly as he patted her on the head. She took well to his lessons to come up with a plan to deceive Daniel. And perhaps it would work. Who better to trick Daniel than the girl? Daniel's personality suggested that he would immediately leap at the idea of protecting the girl, who shared his secret of being half ghost. "All right," he said at last. "We can try your plan as well."

A smirk, not unlike his own, spread onto Danielle's face. After the girl left to complete her mission, Vlad let the smile fall. He walked over the containment unit, placing a hand upon the glass that separate him from the clone.

"You're my last hope," he mumbled softly, sadness in his eyes as he gazed upon the sleeping clone that mirrored Daniel's ghost form exactly. He gave Daniel many reasons to hate him forever after all the schemes and attempts on his father's life. Daniel would never love him. But the clone would have no memories of those events, he made sure of that. This false Danny could love him. Vlad sighed as he rested his forehead against the glass. "How could I have been so blind not to see it was you all along?"

But now wasn't the time to dwell on past mistakes. He couldn't change all the bad blood between him and Daniel. All he could do now was focus on acquiring the mid morph sample to complete the clone.

When he arrived in Amity Park, two of the clones were already defeated by Daniel. Vlad cursed that fact, the continued string of failures, but not all was lost. He still had two clones left, and Daniel fell right for Danielle's trap. The boy foolishly thought his "cousin" would help him against Vlad, but Danielle stabbed - or should he say blasted? - Daniel in the back exactly like the daughter Vlad raised her to be. With Daniel in his hands, all that was left was forcing the boy to change form and take a sample during mid morph. His plans were almost complete!

It was no lie when he told Daniel that he would watch a hundred more bad clones dissolve into ectoplasm in order to succeed. The lie was that he wasn't trying to create the perfect son, but he couldn't tell Daniel the truth behind his desire to make a perfect copy of him. Daniel didn't understand, couldn't realize that everything he did was because of love. Vlad would never deny that he did terrible things to accomplish his goals. He knew Daniel would only ever see him as a villain. But once the good clone was successfully completed, Vlad would be out of Daniel's life for good. He would no longer have any need for the boy.

Unfortunately, Daniel proved to be stronger than he anticipated, resisting the forced change into ghost form. Vlad refused to fail again! He would get his hands on that boy and make him transform so that he could get the sample he needed. He spun around to give chase to the weakened boy when Danielle appeared before him.

"Am I an imperfection? A mistake?" Danielle questioned with tears gathering in her eyes.

It almost broke his heart to see that expression on her face. Perhaps treating her like a daughter was the real mistake. But Vlad needed her willing cooperation. Unlike the other clones, she possessed her own mind. Without the proper guidance, she would have defied him like Daniel. When the other bad clone dissolved, Vlad used that to remind her that without Daniel's mid morph sample, she would never be stabilized. Eventually, she would follow all the other bad clones, becoming nothing but wasted ectoplasm if she didn't help.

Providing her with more of Daniel's personality was perhaps the other mistake he made with Danielle. The moment she started showing a little resistance to his command, Vlad snapped, making yet another mistake. Daniel obviously got to the girl, convincing her to help him.

I'll show them, Vlad thought furiously after their blasts slammed him into the containment unit across the room. He climbed to his hands and knees, and the containment unit that fell on him rolled off. When his eyes fell upon it, his heart stopped. The fall broke the lid of the containment. Vlad watched helplessly as the good clone dissolved, his final chance for happiness disappearing right before his eyes. He could do nothing to stop it, couldn't save the clone from its fate. He couldn't erase the terrified look in the clone's eyes as it vanished. It looked so much like the look Danny gave him right before he ran away and disappeared from the college.

"No. No! NO!" Vlad shouted, not wanting to believe that he lost everything for a second time. He turned his gaze to Danielle for betraying him. All the misery and bitterness and loneliness, all the anger and the hatred building up over all the years went into that one burning glare. If she hadn't betrayed him! If she had simply done as he commanded! Whatever feelings he had for Danielle seemed to dissolve into nothing like the good clone. The pain of loss overwhelmed him again, like it did twenty years ago.

Vlad never imagined Daniel to have such power! Where did that Ghostly Wail come from? It didn't show up in any of the data collected from the surveillance on Valerie's suit. When the force of the Wail slammed him into the wall, Vlad couldn't maintain his ghost form any longer. When did he learn that? Vlad never developed a power like that. But the ability drained the boy, weakened him too much to stay ghost. Vlad climbed to his feet and marched over to them, changing back into Plasmius as he walked. Daniel thought he would be finished with that? Vlad would show him the proper use of power!

Perhaps he would have succeeded too, if not for Daniel's meddlesome friends arriving at that most inopportune moment. Vlad never thought to factor them into the equation. He never considered the idea that they would follow Daniel, or even have a way to track him, all the way to his chalet.

Vlad dropped his head into his hands as he sat in the dark of his study. The anger washed away into misery. His love was lost forever, and he would spend the rest of his life alone. No more schemes would be made. Chasing Maddie was a pointless endeavor that he would give up. For the rest of his days, Vlad would be nothing but a shadow of his former self.