CW: Danny typical lack of self-preservation, Danny typical negative thoughts

October 19

Pulling out a certain remote from his thigh, he pushed his chair until he came to a rolling stop in front of Bruce. Though he never thought he'd actually hand it over to somebody else again, he had hoped he could have made this look cooler than sitting cross legged on a damn desk chair in the Batcave with a neon green IV drip in his arm. But, atlas, beggars can't be choosers so he'll just cope with it for the time being.

Bruce looked utterly confused when Danny handed him the small device. Danny almost laughed when the man simply took it without a word, as if the smallest of breaths would make a bomb explode. He caught a glimpse of Dick twitching awkwardly to get a better look as well, craning his neck at an odd angle. "What?" He asked rhetorically, with a foot on the desk he pushed himself away again. "The League wants their contingency against me, and the team won't do, full offence." Danny side eyed Bruce, entertained by the faintest hint of a shrug he saw. "This is mine. And Frosty over here will make sure I can get it working right."

Frostbite caught Danny's chair before the boy could crash into him. "I am unclear on how I would be of any help. The device is a detriment to your core health. It would be best to simply remove it." The yeti looked at the smirking boy beneath him. Clearly he had anticipated his answer.

Danny pulled up an old chart that Frostbite hadn't even noticed the boy had taken. "See, that's where you're wrong, my friend. It would be bad to just remove it." He purposely waited until Frostbite was about to argue back, just so he could cut him off. "Last time I saw you, I was already wearing the collars for a few months. Clearly adjustments had to be made since they weren't working too well."

A chill ran down his spine, quite literally, as he remembered nearly freezing to death from his own powers. Not fun times at all. "To accommodate the new power levels, I made them pull energy directly from my core to power it. And it's been doing that for months." He looked up with a smirk, knowing that what he did was technically bad but they had no choice but to let him keep doing it. "What do you say would happen if we suddenly were to remove that, and let all the extra energy my core adjusted for go unchecked?"

Frostbite frowned, clearly not enjoying being outplayed by what essentially was but a mere newborn compared to him. "It would cause severe issues regulating power output. Considering the already existing damage to your core, the extra energy may cause the problems to be severely aggravated. It would be better to slowly lessen the intensity of its effects while being carefully monitored rather than removing it immediately." He grunted out, annoyed yet equally impressed to be outplayed by a child so determined to cause harm to his own body.

"Bingo." Danny snapped his fingers, sending the poor confused yeti a dual finger gun. Pointing towards the Batcomputer, he subtly asked Frostbite for a push towards the device. As if they were playing bumper cars, Dick dodged his projectile of a brother, letting him at the control panel. Already knowing the drill for Batcomputer usage, Dick pulled out the spare glove they kept near the controls so Danny wouldn't be in direct contact with the stupidly expensive tech.

Pulling up some old files he had Waller hide in his casefile, he got into the jailbroken schematics of the inhibitor collars. Dick eyed him cautiously, not quite liking the idea of tech like that still being on his brother's neck. He was a hero, not some criminal or feral animal. "Are you sure about this? You don't have to wear a collar you know, I'm sure Frostbite can think of other ways to make it medically safe to be removed."

Danny sighed, putting the glove down to face his brother. "Dickie." He started, voice a little softer than usual. "Look, I went to Belle Rêve because they had something that could stop my powers. I made sure they would work, exactly so that I would be weaker. I literally had a whole year of time to myself in isolation to work this out." Cujo jumped into his lap again, pressing his face right over Danny's core as the pup could feel Danny's upset from a mile away.

"You guys, you get to throw hands with the League Of Ego and know they'll do what it takes. But me?" He swallowed hard, keeping his eyes trained on the ground as to will the tears away. "I've already proven, in a different timeline, to be capable of taking down every single one of them on my own. If we do this, if I go back into the field," He wiggled his arm, rustling his drip around. "If I heal up and get stronger again quite literally every single day, I need to have my own contingency."

"Darling," Selina's voice cracked through the tension. She had remained silent for most of their exchange, not wanting to come in between after how gloriously Bruce messed up the info dump. But she couldn't stay silent for any longer, not when her baby was hurting so much. "You don't have to worry about that. You said it yourself, that was a different timeline."

"Yeah," Dick agreed encouragingly, chuckling awkwardly to hide the small tremble in his voice. "You said you did things on purpose to prevent that timeline from happening. Just being here is already totally different, right? You're already on a new path that won't lead to that one."

Danny looked up, teary blues looking into concerned ones. "But what if it still does? There's still like 8 and a half years until that 10 year crosspoint passes. A lot can happen in 8 years. And even then, who is to say there won't ever be a different reason we'd need it? I've already gotten mind controlled once, there could be so many more magic items out there that could cause a lot of trouble for all we know! I don't want to take any risks." He rambled on until his voice left off barely audible through the tremble of suppressed tears.

Dick leaned forward, pulling Danny into a hug that they both very much needed. Danny tried to stay as quiet as he could, nuzzling his face into Dick's shoulder to muffle the small sniffs. Though it felt amazing to finally have that off his chest, saying it out loud make it feel like an even more legitimate possibility. Like he just whispered some danger to them all into reality.

Nobody interrupted them, letting them have their moment, until a certain little pup had had enough of being squished between them. Practically headbutting Danny out of the way, Cujo jumped up and started licking away his tears. Nanaki and Shiro took that as their cue to also jump in and start their beautiful song up again.

Whether it was to distract them, cheer them up, get attention or just cause utter chaos, nobody knew.

But it still worked as it didn't take long for the first smile to crack and turn into giggles. Dick looked between the cats, the ghostly pup and Frostbite with a smile just wide enough it almost reached his eyes. "How come they always just know when we're sad?"

Frostbite's eyes glimmered, delighted to have this young mortal so interested in the ways of ghostly communications. He had his suspicions that Danny had been born with an affinity for the paranormal considering his unique status as a true halfa. Watching his other half be so in tune with not just Danny but also Cujo's actions made him suspect it was possibly both of them who shared the affinity.

Perhaps they would one day allow a case study for research purposes.

Pushing that thought away, Frostbite wandered closer to the little group. The human adults migrated closer as well, making sure to stay at a reasonable distance so all had plenty of room to gather around their youngins. "Well, Cujo here is a ghost-animal. Ghosts in general instinctually communicate through projecting their emotions in the ambient ectoplasm around them to other cores in the vicinity. Our little friend here relies on it even more due to his lack of talking as we are able to."

Cujo pressed himself into Danny again, fluffy little head pressed flat against his chest. His tail wagged happily at the more positive mood, proud his boy wasn't so upset anymore.

Frostbite patted Cujo's back with a single claw, his hand much too big for the small pup's frame. "Due to his core bond with Danny here, he is more sensitive to such projections. Which may come in rather handy as you still have yet to master the skill of projection." He teased as Danny pouted, batting away the claw to pull Cujo closer.

"What do you mean core bonded? I thought he just liked hanging out here?" Danny asked, leaning back slightly so he could look at the tuft of fur that was sticking out around his chest where Cujo's head should be. The pup had practically managed to insert himself into Danny's hoodie fabric.

A deep laugh rumbled from Frostbite's chest. "Ah, I forgot you still have much to learn, great one." He patted Danny's head before he crouched down, getting comfortable on the floor yet still easily towering over everybody. "Our little friend here has chosen to be your, how do you say it, guardian?" He paused a little, somewhat encouraged by Danny's shrug. "Cujo formed before you and while you would both be considered mere infants compared to mortal growth, he would be more mature in ghost terms. He very likely felt you were in need of guidance and protection against those much older as would be custom for animal-ghosts to battle over territory much like how you defended your city."

Danny looked perplexed at all the new information. He never even thought of Cujo as technically older in ghost years than him. Though that all just left him with even more questions. "Actually, about that. Could you?" Danny let his question trail off as Dick immediately started typing away at the Batcomputer. Like sharing the same braincell, Dick quickly pulled up the security footage again and paused on the frame of a flamed out Cujo standing over them.

Danny pulled Cujo away from his chest, smiling at the pups happy face and excited tail wags. "How does this little dude," With a bit more gusto than needed, Danny thrusted the innocent looking pup at Frostbite, holding him up for the yeti to see. "Turn into that?" Using Cujo as a guide, he pointed the pup now at the display. Cujo seemed to beam in absolute pride, his butt wiggling so hard Danny had to adjust his grip on him so he wouldn't fall on accident.

Frostbite studied the frame for a bit, clawed hand resting on his chin as he hummed in contemplation. "Quite interesting." He muttered to himself. "It would appear little Cujo is maturing into quite a remarkable hellhound. I have yet to meet a dual bonded hound before." Frostbite beamed down at Dick, utterly missing the bewildered looks he received.

Danny lowered Cujo back down, now even more confused than before. "Frostbite, we're going to need more than that." Dick remarked before Danny could, slightly laughing at the way Bruce was ferociously typing away at his own holocomputer to make sure he could add all the new info to the files.

Frostbite glanced over, ecstatic at the eagerness to learn of these humans the young halfa had surrounded himself with. The knight of the dark had been very willing to note everything down, creating an archive for others to learn. Though the matriarch and the elder preferred to remain quiet, their focus remained well on the children. The attention to detail in fields other than the knight of the dark made their clan work so well. Their dynamics worked well to raised such strong and independent young warriors. "Right. Before anything else, if I may, how is it that you came to meet you little friend?"

Danny blinked slowly, not expecting to be questioned when he had so many questions himself. "Ah, well, really long story short? Found him in Axion Labs, before anything else really happened." Danny squinted slightly at Frostbite, the unspoken parts of his sentence still being understood by the Yeti.

Danny straightened himself out again, clearing his throat awkwardly before continuing. "They had recently transitioned from traditional guards to a tech system and well..." He let it trail off, he didn't want to bring up painful information for the pup by directly mentioning the cause of his passing. If it was anything like how Danny felt when somebody brought up the accident unprompted, he didn't want to do that to his friend.

Holding the fluffball in his arms just a tad bit closer, he cleared his throat. "There was this toy he was after. I got it back for him and after that he would just come play here and there." He rubbed Cujo's ears, the soft fur on the delicate skin keeping him distracted from memories that were eager to haunt his dreams once more. "After, yeah, he was back at Axion but it was completely destroyed. I kinda just took him with me and he stayed for the most part. Not that I forced him or anything, he was free to go whenever but he liked hanging out before so figured why not." Danny shrugged, not really sure how to feel about the pensive frown on Frostbite's face. For a being mostly covered in fur, he was surprisingly expressive.

"I see." Frostbite hummed, creating a slab of ice to etch into himself. "It is quite likely your aid in his quest to retrieve his belonging fulfilled the obsession that formed him. Though usually animal-ghosts would pass over, I suspect he formed a new obsession over you, as a way to repay you for your aid."

Danny panicked slightly, feeling immensely guilty at the thought of him being the reason Cujo did not find peace after death. Cujo stirred in his grip, alerting everybody of his not so hidden distress. Frostbite reached out, placing a comforting claw on Danny's shoulder. "Fret not, young one. It was his own choice to stay behind. He may be a roaming spirit at heart, he will always want to return to those he has claimed as his own. You are of his clan as much as he is of yours." The yeti reassured. Danny took a deep breath, nodding along as he centered himself again.

"The loss of your original haunts likely just pushed that bond to deepen. Very normal when suffering such a loss." The yeti hummed to himself. "That actually leads me to my next point." Frostbite gleefully started, looking over to Dick. "Tell me, how is it that you have met the young hound?"

"Well, I first saw him in Belle Rêve, this place Danny had decided to hide in. I was there for a mission with the team and things got a little out of hand." Dick blinked, smirking at Frostbite as the yeti was now the one enthusiastically noting down whatever they said. "After that he just started showing up here and there. Gave me back a batarang too."

"So that's where it went." Danny muttered to himself.

"Yeah, well he even followed me all the way to India so, really, you shouldn't be too surprised." Dick cackled.

Danny openly pouted, bringing Cujo up to eye level to complain while still directing his question at his brother. "You went to India without me?"

"Well, somebody thought it was a great idea to send the team on a mission halfway across the world not even 24 hours after we were all almost killed by reprogrammed androids and learning there might have been a spy on our team that our great and oh so mature leader Kaldur didn't tell anybody about." Dick stared at Bruce, face completely neutral while he answered sarcastically. He refused to actually admit it, but he was still salty about the fact Kaldur hadn't even told him, his supposed co and the person he should have depended on for concerns like that. "Not really much of a choice on my part, nor was it fun nearly dying twice in a day. At least Cujo was there to keep my ass alive."

Frostbite nodded, noting down a few more things before looking up. "So if I understand correctly, he returned a lost thing and started following you after this? Aiding in missions?"

Dick thought for a second before nodding. "I mean, if you count keeping me alive as aiding in the mission? He didn't do anything towards the actual objective, just staying out of sight of everybody and helping out when we were alone."

Frostbite looked over his notes for a moment, pondering over the data before clicking his tongue. "I cannot be certain of any of this, so do take this as conjecture. Research on dual or even multibonded animal-ghosts is incredibly rare, much more so for still maturing hellhounds." He prefaced before continuing on, "From my understanding, due to the shared bond between the little one and your other half, he has come to form a bond with you as well."

Dick blinked owlishly, mouth opening and closing as words failed to form the questions he had running through his mind. Frostbite chuckled, softly pushing Dick's mouth to remain shut. "You shared a womb, yes? A soul, split in half to create two unique yet connected beings. You may not have a core to bond with, but Cujo can recognize you through your brother's core as it is connected to his human soul."

"Ghosts can form a bond with humans? Is there an innate requirement of somebody like Danny or can this happen spontaneously?" Bruce spoke up for the first time since the fiasco of a meeting debrief. He had settled between Danny and Frostbite, slightly to the back so he could more easily observe everything.

Frostbite shook his head, twisting slightly so he could address the man properly. "No, in this case it likely aided the formation of the bond but it isn't a requirement." He floated up, scooting backwards ever so slightly so the man would be more included in their impromptu story circle. "Why, I knew of this one interesting fellow many ages ago. He was a man of the sea, fighting to keep her and her inhabitants safe against the land dwellers. He had befriended a lost octopod after crossing paths. The octopod could recognize the intent of this fellow and had also decided to remain by his side."

Frostbite explained everything by matter of little ice figures in the center of their circle. Dick was pretty sure he was talking about an Atlantean not too long after the civilization sank. Arthur had told him many old folklore about Atlanteans of old roaming the seas to keep poachers away from important and sacred grounds.

With utter fascination, they watched on as Frostbite continued his story. "Though octopi do not mature into hellhounds, this one was not the first of its kind to mature into a truly magnificent leviathan when his bonded friend set out to battle. Together they won countless of fights against many vessels as the octopod's core grew to resonate with the waters around it."

Danny stared incredulously at the sculptures of giant tentacles breaking apart ships. Gaping in disbelief, he couldn't quite believe the story Frostbite was telling. "Wait, don't say you mean that an ectopus was the legendary Kraken? They don't even have the base three! Most of the time they just float about in whatever body of water is closest!" He threw up his hands in shock and frustration, gesturing wildly as he refused to believe something as weak as a defenseless ectopus could be the Kraken of myth.

Frostbite gleamed, ice figures drifting to the ground. "Ah, so you have heard of this tale before! Then you must know how important it is to never underestimate what a bond can do for core bearers." Danny slumped down in the chair, questioning his own place in the universe after being outclassed by a literal ectopus. One that somehow managed to form a hydro core no less.

Dick immediately leaned forward, deadpanned look on his face as he stated rather than asked, "If Superboy gets to keep Wolf and Sphere, we can keep Cujo." Bruce could only sigh, knowing he couldn't dissuade nor argue against allowing it. Not that he would, realistically speaking, but if he couldn't find a proper argument against allowing it, then surely neither would the Justice League. Bruce was sure they would come to regret allowing Danny, and inadvertently Cujo, in the same area as Dick without restrictions of a certain degree of professionalism he would have to uphold as a coleader.

Dick stared at the ice figures on the floor, a whole lot less fazed by the apparent revelation of a ghost octopus being the actual Kraken. "What about them?" He pointed at Shiro and Nanaki who had taken to playing with the abandoned figures.

Frostbite stared at them as well, more so intrigued by their form of play. "They appear normal to me." He mused, watching how Nanaki threw herself over the icy ship and subsequently crashing into Shiro, instead of throwing the sculpture away to chase after. It wasn't that the feline couldn't move it, her little swats proving she very much could. It was simply the choice she had made. One she seemed quite content with.

"They are anything but normal."

Frostbite laughed at the remark, discontent rolling off the boys from stories left untold. "It appears they are not." He snickered as the two cats seemed to completely ignore the beings staring at them. "They are quite...Odd, but none the less, they are as mortal as one can be."

Danny clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth with a small grin, the tear tracks and puffy eyes fully faded by now. "Ah shucks, and here I was thinking we could take them out in the field too." A few laughs were shared, a light and happy mood filling the Batcave for a rare moment. Even the bats up above seemed to enjoy the liveliness as they peacefully rested.

"Actually," Dick nervously chuckled, pulling everybody's attention onto him as they sobered up. He pulled up the hologlove again, typing away at it as he went into his personal files. "We may not be able to take them with us physically, but, well...If you're going to come back to actual crime fighting and stuff, you'd need a suit."

Danny immediately spun his chair to face his brother, the now long empty IV bag moving around wildly. "Dick, don't tell me..." As Frostbite silently removed the needle and bandaged up his arm, Danny stared at Dick with shock and a small hint of bemusement.

"Technically," Dick pulled up the sketches and blueprints, he tried to defend himself. "Okay hear me out and please let me finish first." Danny nodded as he stared at the display on Dick's lap rather than the Batcomputer. It made it all feel a bit less overwhelming at least.

"I was already working on my own suit, I mean I've had the current model for like a few years now so I figured it could use a little update." Dick made the mistake of looking over to Selina, a little blush creeping up as he watched her eyes fill with pride and awe. "I already had a few ideas since she's been just as much of a mentor as B so I kinda wanted to add something for it. And then we started hanging out more at Selina's. And Shiro and Nanaki really got attached." He stumbled slightly over her name, nearly slipping up in front of way too many people.

"And then you really seemed to like that one hoodie and well that got me thinking." Dick focused back onto his display, wafting through the blueprints to get to the mockups he had rendered. The new suit he had made for himself, his signature red color, now a muted green and a hood added to the cape for Danny. "Mami did always say we look cuter as a matching set." He mused mostly to himself.

It hadn't even been intentional. He had picked the green since Danny liked that hoodie so much and it did look good on him. It was only after he actually had the sketches side by side that something just clicked. Like a missing piece to the puzzle finally slid into place.

Danny squinted at the display, not sure if what he was seeing was real or not. Gently, he spun the chair around, slow enough to take in everybody's silent encouragement before facing the big screen himself. The suit and designs looked amazing. Most of the details that were added were only small things. Like how the chest clasps were decorated with little cat paws and toe beans in their respective screaming demon's colors. Or how the gloves and cape were slightly longer than the current design to make up for Danny's scars and flying.

What stood out the most, however, was the logo. Tears yet again threatened to build up as he focused in on it. "Dick, I don't know if I can..." He had taken Danny's old logo, shaping it more on a slant to resemble a P rather than a D. Sam's design, the one she had made only a few weeks before the disaster. It was still there, still in the center of his chest, right over his core. Slightly modified to fit a singular name but the essence of it was still there.

Dick looked over worriedly, fearing he accidentally crossed a ghost culture line he wasn't aware of. "You don't have to use the suit, it was just some random sketches at first. But then you went as Phantom in there and you didn't seem to mind so when I couldn't sleep I just figured it would fit, you know? To keep their memory alive."

His eyes wandered down, head tilting to the side as he meekly shrugged. "I did the same with Robin, to keep our family's memory alive in my own way. That's my legacy as much as it is yours, Phantom is yours as much it is theirs." Dick looked up, a bit scared of Danny's reaction but still shrugging through the end of his rambling. "You came over right after I finished it too so it genuinely felt like a sign when Cujo's head popped through my door."

Danny stared at Dick for a little before glancing back up at the rendered models. Was Phantom really his legacy? So far it did nothing but cause trouble for anybody involved.

But then again

Selina had fought with Bruce over him, repeatedly and quite loudly at that. She risked pissing off Bruce and getting arrested just to defend him. Even Alfred risked getting fired just to argue for the sake of his health.

Red Tornado and Martian Manhunter had spoken out in favor of him. Two heavy weights in the League chose to defend him. Not because of some obligation like one could argue Batman had, but because they genuinely believed in him.

Hell, his own brother was ready to start a war of pettiness with the entire hero community just because they disrespected them. Creating a new suit without even being asked to do so because he was sure Danny would come back and fight the good fight again.

Not even to mention Frostbite and his entire tribe had been silently prepping for the day Danny would be needing severe medical assistance.

They all believed he was capable of doing better, doing more than he currently had on his track record.

"Would it really be okay?" He glanced up through his bangs at Selina, too afraid of rejection to lift his head any more. The silence of the cave echoed his whispers enough for her to hear. They hadn't really discussed anything like this before.

Sure they had that whole walk of not-shame back at Mount Justice, but that was Batman stuff. They never asked if Selina was okay with Catwoman being openly associated with not only the Dynamic Duo, but the reputation disaster that was Phantom.

"Darling," The overwhelming warmth in her voice beckoned him to fully lift his head. The gentlest, most loving smiles he had ever seen from anybody except his mother was painted across her face. "Please believe me when I say, it would be an honor." Like he was actually looking at her for the first time, Danny could understand why his brother had gotten so close to her.

"It may take a while to get these made," Bruce chimed in, looking over Dick's designs more closely. "But I'm sure we can get them ready in no time. I'll send them over to Lucius-"

"He already has them." Dick cut off, somewhat shocked at the incredulous looks he got. "What? I did say I was making the suit for myself at first. Danny's just needs a few cosmetic changes. Do you know how hard it was to get those retractable claws to work?" Bruce sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Wait, you didn't know already?" Dick teased mockingly, a shit eating grin spreading across his face.

"No, Dick." Bruce sighed dejectedly, already feeling a minor headache building up. "I did not know Lucius was making new suits for you." Of course everybody around him had been keeping the secret. At least he knew where their loyalties lied.

Dick turned to Danny, buzzing with glee at Bruce's suffering. "Looks like we were better at sneaking around than we thought." Danny snorted, rolling his eyes before giving in and giving Dick the high five he had been waiting for.

(A/N art by me bc i had a feeling i wouldn't be able to explain the new suit decently enough, please be nice about it I am not an artist)