The Institute will often kidnap humans and swap them out for Synths. What happened to the real Paladin Danse?
What happened: the real Paladin Danse was a synth who escaped the Institute. He’s a perfect DNA match for a runaway synth named “M7-97,” and his life-long memories have been falsely implanted by Institute scientists.
It’s not likely that he’s a real person who swaps out for a Synth. The perfect DNA match correlates with a list of runaway Synths, so it’s certain he was created at the Institute.
What happened to the real Paladin Danse
After reaching the Institute and reporting scientific data back to the Brotherhood, Elder Maxson will angrily approach you.
He asks if there is anything you wish to tell him, and the player can respond with confusion.
Maxson bluntly states that Paladin Danse is a Synth. Proctor Quinlan completes the decryption of the data the player retrieves from the Institute, Maxson says.
Quinlan found that a portion of the findings include a list of Synths that went missing or escaped from the Institute’s underground facility. After careful analysis of the information, Maxson says, they discovered something unprecedented.
Paladin Danse is a perfect match for one of the synths on that list, Maxson reveals. He considers the evidence to be quite damning, as the data the player brought back contained a record of each subject’s DNA.
The Brotherhood of Steel keeps the same information on file for its soldiers. Quinlan wouldn’t have brought the findings to Maxson if he wasn’t one hundred percent certain of the results, he says.
Multiple sources validate the findings. In Maxson’s experience, he says, Proctor Quinlan doesn’t make mistakes.
Paladin Danse’s DNA is a perfect match for a synth they call “M7-97.” To make matters worse, Paladin Danse has gone AWOL during this time, so his missing-nature further incriminates him in being a guilty Synth.
So that’s the answer. The real Paladin Danse was a synth who escaped the Institute.