In the original timeline, before Clockwork's intervention, Danny steals the answers to the Career Aptitude Test, while being invisible through his ghost powers. Suspicious of Danny, Mr. Lancer called the Fentons to the Nasty Burger for a meeting. Danny's friends, Sam and Tucker, were also there. Unfortunately, due to the mismanagement of Irving Burns, the Nasty Burger's vat of highly explosive "Nasty Sauce" blew up just at that time, killing Danny's family, his friends, and Mr. Lancer, with Danny only surviving due to his ghost powers. As a result, the guilty, grief-stricken and orphaned boy was forced to move in with his archenemy, Vlad Masters, as he was the only person left who Danny felt could possibly understand his situation. Despite the history of animosity between the two, Vlad treated Danny with a great deal of sympathy. Blaming no one but himself, most notably his ghost self and completely taken over by grief, Danny asked Vlad to separate his human-half from his ghost-half to not only remove his ghost powers, but also so he wouldn't have to deal with his human emotions anymore, believing that they were responsible for the deaths of his family, friends, and teacher. He also thought that his ghost half would be free of all emotion, ridding him of the pain and guilt that he was feeling. Vlad obliged him, using the Ghost Gauntlets to separate Danny's ghost half from his human half.
The separated Danny Phantom now free of the conscience of Danny Fenton, was also filled with all of Danny's anger and negativity. Immediately it overcame Vlad and took the Ghost Gauntlets. It removed Vlad's ghost half and attempted to overshadow it, but it merged with the other half instead. This proved a grave mistake as Danny's ghost half became overwhelmed by the evil thoughts of Vlad Plasmius, had a power overload and transformed into Dark Danny, the most powerful and evil ghost to ever exist. His first act of malice was to murder his human half and destroy Vlad's entire mansion, though he left Vlad alive, presumably to tell the tale of his beginning.