"Absolutely not." Wally immediately argued before Dick could even give an answer. Yanking on his arm, the speedster pulled Dick away from the Yetis and forced him to face him. "I know what you're trying, birdie. It's not happening."

Dick tried to pull his arm away but Wally's grip was too strong. "I'm not trying shit, Wally. That's my brother right there! If it was Barry you would do the same!" He gestured to Danny, glaring at the speedster. "He's dying, I can help. That's all there is to it."

"Listen to me." Wally frowned, grabbing onto the younger's shoulders. "I know he's been gone for years, I get that you want to help, I do. But this isn't safe. B help me out here, you're thinking the same thing, right?" Wally looked over to Batman who didn't give any hint of a reaction, still pondering it over in his own mind. Glancing over to Frostbite and the medical yeti's, not feeling put at ease at all. They looked concerned but didn't dare step in. "He doesn't have parental consent, he can't just do this, right?"

Frostbite looked uneasy, looking between the three visitors. "I fear it is not as easy as that." He started cautiously, only relaxing slightly as Wally's grip on Dick's shoulders loosened a bit. "While the man of bats has guardian ship in the law of living beings, they are both unclaimed in the eyes of the Realms. While we do take the man of bat's opinion into consideration, the young one can indeed chose on his own as this has become a Realm matter."

Wally stared in shock, not sure what to do. Dick was only 13, nearly 14 but that mattered very little at the moment. They can't be serious, right? A 13 year old can't possibly be given medical autonomy to do something this risky. Helplessly he looked up to Bruce, hoping the man would speak out against the idea and help change Dick's mind.

Except he did anything but. Bruce understood well enough what it meant to lose family, lose people he was close with. But he could never understand the pain of losing a sibling, let alone being given a chance to help the sibling once thought to be lost forever.

He knew, gods how he knew Dick blamed himself for what happened to Danny. They had lost their parents not too long ago, come clean about their thought to be meta status even closer to date. Taking up both mantels of Robin and Phantom at the same time, they used to switch every once and a while. It was during one of those patrols, where Danny stayed human so Dick could don the Phantom persona to burn off his energy.

They barely knew it happened. Their only warning sign something was wrong was the sudden interference with the comms, the high pitched static coming through before it went dead.

With the aid of his powers, Dick was the first on scene. The first to see what he recounted as too much blood. Evidence of a fight having taken place, and lost.

Bruce could never blame Dick for his reaction, not even after the loss of control over his powers destroyed any evidence they could have tried to use to locate Danny. Not even when their adoption was put on hold due to Danny's disappearance and later presumption of death. Not once had it crossed his mind to blame the child before him. The same child who was presented with what could very well be the only chance he'll get to rectify what happened that night.

And so Bruce stayed quiet, refusing to disavow Dick's choice as it wasn't his to interfere with. If this is what his boy wanted, then he had his full support. "May I have a moment with my children?" He asked the chieftain. With a nod, Frostbite guided his fellow yetis and Wally out of the room, sealing them inside.

"Don't try and change my mind. It's not gonna happen." Dick crossed his arms, hovering near Danny as his eyes lingered on the machines he was hooked up to.

Bruce took a seat on the edge of Danny's bed, patting it softly so Dick would sit beside him. "I wasn't planning on it chum." Eying the man suspiciously, Dick finally sat down. "I know this is your choice, and you have my full support." He started, pulling off the cowl to reveal just how exhausted he had been feeling.

Dark puffy circles accentuated the deep blue in his eyes. Age lines crinkling the skin along with the usual imprint the cowl left behind. It wasn't often Bruce dared show this side of him, the side he kept hidden from Dick. He wanted to be the strong wall for Dick to lean on, but sometimes, even a wall has to show it's cracks in order to receive the support it needed.

Taking a deep breath, he took one of Dick's hands in his. "I want you safe and happy as much as any other would. And I want the safe for Danny." He started out, struggling to find the words to explain why he had to do what he had to do. "But I can't watch you do this. I can't watch both my boys...not after..." Brows scrunched in frustration as he failed to explain.

Dick squeezed Bruce's hand, soft smile encouraging him to keep trying even if he already had a feeling of what Bruce was trying to say. It wasn't often Bruce tried to open up, and he didn't want to discourage the man by cutting him off.

Bruce took a deep breath, hand finding its way to Dick's cheek as the boy leaned in. "As much as I want to stay, I can't." He finally forced out, "I am of no use here but to stand idly by and I-I can't do that a second time, Dickie."

Dick shuffled closer, resting his head on the man's sagging shoulder. "It's okay, B." He reassured, taking Bruce's hand in his and squishing the palm of his hand like a kneading cat. "I know you don't like being helpless. And you're not, you're the best emotional support I could have asked for." He reassured the man, looking up enough to make eye contact. "But this is something I have to do, for myself and for Danny. And that shouldn't stop you from doing what you need to do for yourself."

Bruce let his head fall to the side, flopping onto Dick's messy nest he called hair. "Are you sure you'll be okay?" Bruce knew it was pointless to ask. After everything Frostbite explained, one would have to be delusional to think everything would be just fine and dandy.

"I'm sure," Dick reassured with a smile, knowing how much it still meant to the man. "But I can't say the same for Wally." Adding the joke helped pull a rumbled chuckle out of Bruce. With how close those two had been over the past few years, Wally, and Barry for that matter, were as much part of the family as Dick was. Even if said part of the family came in a different flavor.

They sat in moderately comfortable silence for a moment. Simply absorbing the gravity of the situation at hand as well as the one they left behind back on Earth. If they actually managed to pull through, they'd have a whole 'nother can of worms to handle.

If they didn't, there was still Wally's involvement to worry about.

"Promise me you'll try to make it home, together." They both knew it was a promise he had no way of actually keeping. Pretty much everything was out of their control. If fate didn't smile down on them, then it might be the very last time Dick would be able to see Bruce.

"I promise."

With a heavy sigh, Bruce stood. Pulling the cowl over his head, he made sure he was presentable enough to be seen by outside eyes once again. Walking up to the head of Danny's bed, he raked his fingers through the comatose boy's hair. "Stay strong, little sprite." He whispered softly, placing a kiss on Danny's forehead before making his way towards the door.

"Wait!" Dick called out, rushing after the man before the yetis opened the door. Bruce turned just in time to get hit with his little bird clinging to his chest. "You-you didn't say it back." His voice trembled, hands balling in the fabric of his cape.

Bruce patted Dick's hair, trying to soothe the distressed bird. "I promise I'll be safe and make it home alright as well." Dick burrowed his face deeper in the man's chest, frame shaking with barely hidden sobs. Though they both knew they had to end their goodbye's, the thought of it being their last was not something either had much time to prepare for.

Giving Dick a moment longer to collect himself, Bruce waited for his boy to detach himself without any prompting. He'd never admit it, but he was grateful for what could very well be their final hug.

Once they finally separated, he knocked on the wall of ice. Informing the medical yetis of their decision wasn't too hard. Wally on the other hand wanted to argue against it but quickly lost vigor as he was vastly outnumbered. Demanding to be on the team to put it all together, he wanted to make sure he could do anything within his own power to help.

With Frostbite's help, Batman returned to the human realm, making sure Wally knew he wasn't abandoning his kids. He was making sure they had a safe home to come back to after all of this was over. The red head included, seeing as the League were likely still after him as well. The least he could do was let Barry and Iris know he was okay.

Well, as okay as he could be with Dick insisting on a suicide mission to redemption. Not that they were going to let anybody outside of the realms know that of course.

If they made it through, great.

If they didn't, then he felt no pity for those who would blame themselves.

Luckily for the pair, ghost tech wasn't too different from what they already knew about human tech. The biology behind the science was also not too horrible as it was nothing more than an infinitely more dangerous feedback loop.

Frostbite would supply the ice part of the energy to Dick, who would in turn feed the combined energy into Danny's core through subdermal connectors. Any excess energy from Danny's core would be looped back to Dick's and recycled until Frostbite's assistance was no longer needed.

After that it was all up to how their individual cores would react.

Dick's main goal was to get enough supplied so Danny's core could heal itself.

Wally's goal was to keep Dick from pushing himself too far. Dick promised, after all, that he'd tap out if it was too much. And if there was one thing Richard Grayson never did was break a promise. Though the whole plan still didn't sit right with him, Wally had no choice but to step aside as the medical yetis placed the connectors.

His stomach turned seeing wires stick straight into Dick's chest. It made him look so small and frail despite his well built frame. But looking over Danny's, he could feel why Dick was so adamant.

Wally had never met Danny himself, but he saw old clips and pictures of them together. It was hard to say the boy laying on the cold bed was supposed to look the same as the boy he's known for nearly 4 years.

"Are you ready for phase 1, young one?" Frostbite asked cautiously, double checking everything one last time. "Once we go past this stage there is no safe way to end it."

Dick craned his neck to look up at Wally, wanting to see his favorite shade of green one last time before he laid back down. "Do it."

With a stern nod, Frostbite gave the signal for his people to open the energy flow between the boys. Paw resting on Dick's head, he softly let the blue glow of his power envelop himself before spreading it out to Dick. At first it felt like a soft winter breeze. Not too bad, even if it had a bit of a bite.

Then, as Frostbite kept adding more of his energy into Dick's body, that soft winter's breeze felt more and more like a plunge into ice water. Muscles contracting from the perceived cold, he fought against letting his discomfort show.

Though there was only so much one could hide when the were this closely connected. Frostbite looked over their stats, happy they were remaining relatively stable beyond the expected fluctuations from the sudden extra energy flowing through Dick's body.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" He asked, mostly out of concern for a soul this young. Compared to the chieftain himself, these two were mere newborns even if their human counterpart was already well into development. When Dick nodded vigorously, Frostbite looked over to his assistant. "Open the valves." With only half a second of hesitation, they opened the last remaining blockage and let the energy flow freely.

Dick felt some of the weight on his chest lift as it did, feeling his lungs more capable to expand. It took a while, both of them remaining as they had before. The moment their feedback loop started the inevitable looping of energy, it hit Dick harder than he thought it would.

No longer just a cold bath, the energy flowing into him felt like searing pain. Like he was getting torn and pieced together all the same. He knew it would hurt, was prepared for pain, but this was a type of pain one could never prepare for. No matter the mental fortitude one had.

Dick bit his lip, trying hard to keep any reaction at bay. But the darn machines he was hooked up to betrayed him. But it's fine, they already started. He would rather see it through than pussy out now and have gone through it for nothing.

It seemed like their plan was working too. Though hard to spot at first, the longer the minutes trickled on, the more miniscule improvements they were noting from Danny's stats. If anything, that was more than enough proof for Dick that this was the right choice and worth every second of agony he was feeling.

He tried to take a deep breath, tried to expand his lungs and center himself around the thought of the improvements showing. Like they were connected in more than just their cores, Danny breathed with him.

"Keep doing that, young one." Frostbite encouraged, paw still firm on him as he had his assistant check up on the two. Much to their surprise, Danny's core started resonating stronger, like a heartbeat finding its rhythm again. Forcing another deep breath, Dick turned his head to the side to watch his brother's chest raise in tandem with his own.

It was the best sight he had seen in years. The best sign of life from Danny since he awoke in the Batcave after finding him. He was regaining his color too, no longer looking like a decomposing corpse. It was working, exactly as they hoped.

And then he felt it.

A sharp pain stabbing him through his chest.

A pain so deep he wasn't even sure if it was in his chest at all. The pain spread rapidly, corrupting his lungs with every tiny movement he made in an attempt to breathe. Sweat trickled from him as the blinding pain engulfed his entire being.

"Stop it! He's had enough!" He heard Wally cry out but he wasn't sure why anymore. All he knew was that Danny wasn't out of the woods yet and he wasn't giving up. Not when they were finally seeing signs he was getting better.

Through gritted teeth he growled out, "keep going." Cracking his eye open, he could faintly see the blurred outline of Frostbite over at Danny's bedside. Since when did Frostbite stop supplying ice? How long had he been here without the chieftain standing over him?

Dick didn't know. All he could see were frantic movements as something was wrong with Danny. More and more blurry figures surrounded him as that sharp pain somehow kept getting worse.

He could feel his muscles tense, refusing to relax no matter how hard he tried. He wasn't done yet, he couldn't just give up now.

There was a red blur standing over him. He wasn't sure what the red blur was doing, saying? He could feel some vibration on it but he didn't care. All he cared about was that beautiful shade of green hidden between the red.

He lost sight of the green, beige taking over as he could feel louder vibrations and more static fill the air. Dick felt bad for the blur, clearly they were upset.

What were they upset over? Dick didn't know. All he knew was that he got to see that pretty green once again before it all faded to black.