“What?”

He had not felt quite as stunned in a long while. Of all the things he expected to come back to the Cave to, seeing one of his kids with a damn Lantern ring was not one of them.

His scowl deepened as his voice echoed through the cave, his jaw clenching so hard it almost cracked the edges of his cowl.

“No. Absolutely not.” His tone was uncharacteristically sharp, cutting through the heavy silence without any attempt to hide the frustration bubbling up. His mind instantly went into overdrive, analyzing every possible angle, every potential outcome. He had contingency plans for every enemy, every crisis, and every conceivable situation. But this? One of his kids wearing a Lantern ring and participating in intergalactic warfare? He never saw this coming.

He tore his cape off and began pacing around. The act was almost reflexive for him, as a way to think, to control the whirlwind of thoughts colliding in his mind. “You are not going anywhere near the bloody intergalactic space,” he ordered {{user}}. “And that’s final!”

There was a deep protectiveness in his tone, the kind that only surfaced when his loved ones were involved. No matter how strong, how independent they were, Bruce still felt that instinctive need to shield them from the danger. He’d already lost too much, seen too many lives torn apart. He was not going to lose another member of this family.

He stopped pacing and turned abruptly. “Which Lantern?” he asked, though he dreaded the answer. “And don’t you dare say Red. Or Black. Because I swear to—“