Heat and dust swirled around them. Debris fell heavily to the ground, some of the pieces hit his head, back, and shoulders. They would leave bruises in the mornings, but he didn't care. It didn't matter to him. His arms fell limply to his sides, the three people he had seized stumbled and fell to the ground in the hole and pile of ashes that was left by the exploding fast food joint. The dust made his eyes water.

Or maybe those were just tears.

"No..." Danny whispered hoarsely. "Mom... Dad... Jazz..." a sob erupted from his throat, his shoulders shaking violently.

Sam inched over to him, "Danny... I'm so sorry," her voice was choked and hushed. She coughed in the dust, her arms coming around to pull Danny to her. "I'm so... so sorry..."

Danny wilted into her embrace, tears streaming down his face. He clung to her like a lifeline, and she ran her hand through his hair soothingly. She offered no words of comfort, knowing that they would mean nothing. She just held him, his head buried in her shoulder, his breathing ragged and punctuated by sobs.

"I'm sorry, Danny," Tucker muttered. "I can't believe, after all this, it still happened." He hardly paid attention to his own tears. How could they not cry? For Sam and Tucker, the Fentons had been a second family, a second home, one they spent almost as much time in as their own house. He moved forward next to them, pulling both of them into a hug. None of them noticed their English teacher, his eyes wide, watching them with a mixture of horror and deep regret.

He knew it was mere coincidence that he had survived. He had been behind Tucker when they were bound to the Nasty Burger sauce container. Danny had grabbed the first people he could reach, and Lancer had been among them.

If he hadn't called the Fentons out there that day, this might have never happened. Yes, Danny had been cheating, but as half an hour ago had proved – had it really been only half an hour? That had not been Danny... Or, perhaps it was, the evil version of Danny – that was hard to wrap his mind around, Danny was mischievous, certainly, but evil? Only something horrible could do that to that boy.

In that moment, Lancer swore to himself that he would do everything in his power to salvage what was left of Daniel Fenton's life.

Officer Jones had seen stranger things in his time as a police officer in Amity Park than an explosion caused by overheating Burger Sauce... But he hadn't ever seen a strange thing that was quite so tragic as the three young teenagers sitting numbly in the debris. The teacher had been more self-away, coming easily, but the children had not yet seemed to notice their apearance.

"Kids, you need medical attention," Jones said kindly. He tried to pry them up, but the middle boy- the one with fair skin and black hair, refused to let go of the other two. "Kid, it's okay, we're here to help."

The boy turned towards him. Jones shivered at the hard look in his green eyes, 'are his eyes... glowing?'

"Danny..." The girl said softly.

The boy, Danny, blinked slowly, and hesitantly let go of his friends. Jones watched with morbid fascination as the odd green eyes faded slowly into tearful blue.

Jones helped them into the ambulance when it came, and he soon forgot about the kids during the investigation.

But he somehow knew that he would never forget that boy's eyes.

"Mister Masters. We regret to inform you that Mrs Madeline Fenton and Mr Jack Fenton, along with their daughter Jasmine, passed away in an explosion last night. Daniel Fenton survived the explosion, and according to his parents will, you are his godfather and therefore legal guardianship has passed to you."

"I see," Vlad fought to keep his voice calm, though the hand holding the phone was trembling. "I shall be in Amity Park within two days."

"Very well, Mister Masters."

Vlad set down the phone with a polite goodbye, blinking back sudden tears. After all these years of planning, all years of his obsession, he had never been prepared to lose Maddie. Not so suddenly, without warning...

And he had never expected that he mourned Jack as well.

It was like a fog had lifted from his head. He loved Maddie, yes, but something in him had turned it into an obsession, viewing her like an object to be won not a person. It had transformed his respect and affection for his once best friend into something else, and now the good memories were coming back. Studying for tests together, joking, playing games... They had been young and such good friends once.

And now he was gone. They were both gone, and he had spent the last twenty years of his life blaming him for something that he now realized wasn't so important.

Vlad ran his hands through his hair as memories flickered through his head like lightning.

"What have I done?"

"Daddy?"

Vlad jumped, half-turning in his seat to see a little girl of about seven years old, with shoulder length black hair and sky blue eyes, approaching. "Daddy, what's wrong? What happened?"

"Oh, Danielle..." Vlad stared at the girl for a moment. Here was another result of his freakish obsession. This poor, unstable girl of only a couple months old but seven years of growth. Until five minutes ago, he had not cared whether she lived or died, but with the fog gone, he found himself horrified at the thought of losing her.

He gathered his 'daughter' into his arms. "Daniel's... you remember me telling you about Daniel, don't you?" he asked hesitantly. She nodded, and so Vlad continued. "Daniel's parents just died. He's an orphan now. And I just realized that I had been blaming Daniel's father for something that I shouldn't have been."

Danielle blinked, confused, but she nodded, "What will Danny do, daddy, if he's got no more parents?"

"Assuming he can stand me long enough... he will move in with us... Would you like that, Danielle?" Vlad asked. Danielle nodded happily.

"Yeah! It will be like getting a big brother! A big brother who won't melt and go away," she added sadly. Vlad cringed at the thought of his other, more unstable clones of Daniel. There was no way to save them, he knew, but he would try to make their lives as comfortable as possible in the meantime. And as for Danielle.

He would find a way to stabilize her.

"Danielle, dear," Vlad said. "I want you to promise me something."

"What, daddy?" Wide, innocent blue eyes looked up at him curiously.

"No matter what happens, until I find a way to stabilize you, I want you to stay human, unless you need to defend yourself," Vlad added.

"But I thought you wanted me to help you with something when I got old enough," Danielle blinked, confused.

"I don't need that anymore," Vlad nearly panicked at the thought of his former goals. "No, just stay human, darling."

"Alright, daddy!" Danielle hugged him again. "When is Danny moving in?"

"I was thinking that we could move there," Vlad said. "Daniel will be very sad, and I don't think he will want to come here."

"We're moving?" Danielle tilted her head. "Should I pack my stuff?"

"Yes, dear. We need to catch a plane soon. You'll help Daniel cheer up, won't you?"

"Yup! I can show him my rocket collection!" Danielle hopped off Vlad's lap. "I'm going to go pack, daddy!"

"Alright dear, I'll be in my room if you need me!" Vlad called after the girl. He headed towards the stairs.

He would make things better somehow.

A/N: In this AU, basically, Danny did manage to transform again, but he only reached them like half a second before the explosion, having time only to grab Tucker and Sam (and Lancer, who was behind them), and turn them intangible. The explosion went through them, but the others still died. Still an angsty AU, but he's still got Sam and Tucker. And Vlad... I have a couple theories that I'm going to implement here.

Danielle is seven because she hasn't finished growing to 'twelve' yet. The other clones have not died yet...

Hopefully, this story will span the rest of the one and a half seasons, covering the other incidents in the story as they would have occurred had Danny's parents died.

Feedback welcomed.