Elizabeth Emerald

Bart just… Danny’s upset, and Bart hates that. He hates that Phantom makes Danny upset. He hates Phantom, even though he shouldn’t. Bart lets out a breath and tries to let go of his hate too. It will just make him feel bad if he keeps it all inside, like none of his insides can sit still even when he’s not moving. Bart wraps his arms around his stomach. .

Phantom tilts his head, his white hair floats with the motion. He’s watching Bart.

“Sorry, handsome, but this is too much science for me,” Constantine is saying to Bruce where they are looking over the consoles nearest the tank.

“Hn.” Bruce grunts back. “We’ll bring Robin in. He studied cloning after Superboy.”

“The Yeti’s,” Danny says. It’s the first thing it’s said since seeing Phantom. “Um, one of the yeti’s might be part of their science staff. Their leader was my doctor.”

Constantine smacks his palms against his thighs. “Well, I better go talk to them all then. Do you want to come with?” He asks, eying Danny.

Danny looks from Constantine to Phantom to Bart. “I…”

“I’ll come,” Bart promises, holding his hand out.

Danny takes it and doesn’t let go, not even as they enter underground parking garage. It’s dim down there. It feels dimmer still after the blinding white of the rest of the facility. Down there in the concrete things suddenly feel more grungy. More real.

The ghosts linger through the space. Some are up in the cross beams, tucked away into nothing but glowing eyes. Some drift, listlessly, through the space. Others group together down at the floor, seemingly alive but for their translucency. It’s these groups that react when Danny walks in.

‘Phantom’ the ghosts whisper, the word coming from everywhere and nowhere. One of the yeti rise. They seem smaller than most of the others, but hold themselves strongly. There’s only a faint tremor that gives away the strain of they have been through.

“Phantom,” they say with a slight tip of their head. “I am glad to see that you remain. There was a time when I thought that they had tested you too far.”

“That’s not… I’m not…” Danny takes in a deep breath and lets it out. “I’m not who you’ve been feeling. They broke it. They broke it and they took it.” Danny’s voice hisses like the ghosts’.

Bart doesn’t let go of his hand.

The yeti reaches out, like they want to touch, but they don’t move closer. “Is it…?”

Danny shrugs even as he shakes his head. Bart swears he can feel Danny’s confusion and grief swirling in the air. Danny’s free hand clutches at his chest. “They—it’s—they healed… or filled in… There’s another Phantom. No. The core is Phantom. I don’t… I don’t know who I am.”

The yeti’s eyes flicks to Bart and Constantine before they step forward. Their large hand was careful as they tilt Danny’s chin up. “You are still our Phantom, even if there is a new neverborn.”

Danny’s eyes were wet with tears that he swallow back. “I’m not whole.”

“We will see you to Frostbite; you will heal,” the yeti says confidently.

“I’ll be different,” Danny says like that was a warning enough to take back the gentle offer.

They yeti just smiles. “You are a half. You are different every time that we meet, that is not new. We will see you to Frostbit. You will heal.”