Dick blinked at his youngest brother for a long second after that silent bombshell. '...You're sure, Dami?' he signed finally, the weight of the topic at hand overriding his concern for identity security.

'I'm sure, Dick. We've tried and tried, and...'

The boy's hands stopped, but he knew what was being thought on the other side of the barrier. '...And you feel it in your gut, don't you?' he asked.

'Yes. I do.'

That admission plus Damian's use of his first name a moment earlier solidified Dick's opinion on the matter. "Tim," he spoke aloud. "What are you thinking?"

"...He's not making any of this up, is he?" The question was tinted with dread rather than the usual suspicion, and it was easy for Dick to understand why. How were they supposed to trek back fifteen miles and take on some unknown villain in their sub-par conditions and with no night work gear of any sort?

He didn't know the answer. All he did know was that they had to do something. No force field of this nature had ever been seen on Earth before, and to the best of his knowledge it was a first in the wider universe, as well. "He's not. He wouldn't. Not...not something like this. This is big."

Tim sighed. "Damn. I didn't think he'd steal the Batplane for a prank, but...I was hoping, you know?"

"I know." He paused. "...Timmy, I don't think we have any other option but to do this. To try, at least."

"I agree. It's total suicide, but...I agree."

"...Okay." He turned back to Robin, who was clearly growing frustrated at having been cut out of the conversation. 'If you're certain – and it sounds like you are – then we'll take care of it,' he flashed to him with a confidence he was trying hard to feel.

'You're...you're sure?'

'Doesn't seem like there's much choice. If this person can cause earthquakes and force fields, someone has to stop them. We're in the perfect position, so...yay, us.'

'I know, but...well. You look like shit. Are you sure you can handle it?'

There was a bit of sass in the gestures that relayed the boy's inquiry, and Dick almost smiled. Aw, Dami. It's so cute when you're worried and trying not to show it. 'If you didn't think we could, little brother, you wouldn't have told us about the problem to begin with,' he winked. 'We'll manage. We've been in tighter spots and come out okay in the end.' A beat passed. '...But Dami?'

'Yeah?'

'Until we get home, do what Batman tells you to do. I know that's probably not what you want to do, especially considering how much trouble you're about to be in with him, but it's important. With Tim and I stuck under here, he'll want to know you're safe; give him that much, okay? Please? You can think of it as a personal favor to me, if that helps.'

'...A personal favor?'

'Yeah.'

'...Fine.'

'Wait a minute,' Tim jumped in. 'Aren't we going to wait for Batman to show up so we can talk to him about all of this? I mean, he's got to be close, right?'

As if on cue, Damian held up one finger. 'Hold on. He's on the radio.'

As they waited, Dick felt a lump growing in his throat. Bruce...be close. Please be close. Even if his surrogate father couldn't lend them any aid or advice, just seeing him would be a huge morale boost. They wouldn't be able to touch, at least not unless the JLA task force that had been mentioned had somehow figured out a way to break through, but they could at least talk. Just a few minutes, he swallowed hard. Let me tell you I love you, and that...that we'll be home soon...let me try and get Dami out of the heap of trouble he got himself into just to find us...please, Bruce, be close.

Tim's expression and shifting feet suggested that he, too, hoped that their mentor would show up soon. Their hopes were dashed, however, when Robin began signaling again.

'He's two and a half hours out.'

'Did you tell him we're here?' Dick asked.

'He didn't give me a chance to. He just growled his orders at me and hung up.'

'Call him back,' Tim insisted.

'I'm not an idiot, Drake. I already tried that. He said he was busy and that I was to do as he'd told me until he got here, and then he hung up again.'

"Two and a half hours..." He thought hard. They'd woken well before daybreak, both still exhausted but also possessing raging thirsts. What little water was left over from the night before had done almost nothing to refresh their sleep-parched throats, so they had packed up with painful slowness and gone in search of refills. Before they'd gotten more than a hundred yards it had become clear that Dick was unable to carry his bag, even with the aid of the stick-cane his brother cut from a downed tree for him. They'd pared their supplies as best they could, consolidating most of their food into one canister and abandoning a sleeping bag so that he could tote a smaller day-pack-sized load, but the task had eaten precious minutes from their search for hydration.

To make matters worse, they'd soon found that the small pond they'd gotten water from the day before had vanished. They had stumbled through the collapsed forest for half an hour before concluding that it was truly gone, and the added exertion hadn't helped their arid mouths any. It was at that point that they had made the extreme decision to strike out for the mosquito-ridden creek of the first day. Going ten miles across open, heat-baked grassland when they were already dry was risky, but they knew that there was no water in the hills behind them and going on a lengthy foot search was asking for trouble.

Now both of their hydration stations were closed off to them, and there was more work to do than ever. 'We need water,' he indicated. 'Did you see any inside of the force field as you were flying in?'

Damian's brow crinkled above his mask. '...No.'

"Shit," Tim muttered.

"We're just going to have to blaze our own path, then," Dick grimaced. As potentially dangerous as that prospect was, it couldn't hold a candle to the risks of dehydration. "Pull the map out, Timmy. Let's take a look at what we've got to work with." 'Dami,' he turned back to the child, 'we're going to need your help. Do you think you can show us where you saw that tower?'

'Yeah. I can do that.'

'Why can't you just scout for water for us?' the middle male queried. 'It won't take you nearly the time it will us.'

'Batman's probably already overridden the controls,' came back. 'You know he can tell if there's anyone in there long-distance. The second I set foot inside it's probably going to seal itself shut and fly me back to Gotham.'

'Where he'll be stuck for the rest of his natural life,' Dick agreed. 'Still...I'm sorry, little brother, but I have to ask you to try. We can't afford to wander around out here looking for water. We're already dry, and the hot part of the day hasn't even started.'

The boy's mouth tightened. '...Fine. I'll point out the tower first, just in case he locks me in there and won't listen again when I try to tell him what's going on.'

"Here," Tim said as he produced the guidebook and its fold-out map from the bottom of his pack. "...Should I hold it up against the force field, or what?"

"Might as well. Better too close to him than too far away. He can back up, but he can't come closer."

"Right." After pointing out where they were at the moment, Tim pressed the paper against the invisible wall. 'Okay, Robin,' he signed. 'Which way do we need to go?'

Damian peered at the cartograph for a minute. His mien grew more and more confused as the seconds ticked by, and Dick began to wonder if something was wrong. Just as he was about to inquire, the child's gaze rose to meet his.

'Where was you were supposed to hike to, again?'

'Asperity Falls.'

'...That's weird.'

'What's weird?' Tim frowned.

'That's...that's right in the area where I saw the tower. Fifteen miles is half of thirty, and fifteen miles straight in the direction I came from...it's Asperity Falls more or less, at least according to your map.'

"Oh, holy fuck." Tim's eyes were wide as he turned the book around to look at it. "...He's right."

"Well, I guess we'll make it to the end of the trail after all, Timmy," Dick deadpanned.

"So much for coming down out of the mountains."

"Yeah," he laughed at the irony. "No kidding."

'What are you saying?!' Damian flailed.

'Sorry, little brother. We're just being complainers, that's all,' he answered. 'You're certain it's the falls? That's a long walk otherwise.'

'Of course I'm certain. What, do you think I'm going to mislead you when the whole world could be at stake?!'

The...the whole world? What? 'The whole world?'

'Weren't you listening...looking...ugh, whatever...earlier? There have been quakes all over the place since the start of the year with the same disruptions afterward as this one had. No force fields, but...still the same otherwise. If the person who's doing this can make a level nine earthquake in the middle of the North American plate, what's to keep them from tearing the whole world apart?'

Wrapped up in the more immediate concerns of finding water, locating the source of the force field, and capturing whoever was responsible for it, Dick had almost managed to forget about the temblors. "God, Timmy, I hadn't even thought about it in the big-picture way," he confessed.

"Me, either. Now that he mentions it, though, it doesn't feel so impossible."

"I'm afraid I have to agree with you."

'Stop cutting me out, damn it!'

'Sorry!' he apologized. 'Sorry, little brother. We're not trying to cut you out, it's just...'

The ground rolled beneath them again, forcing him to stop signing in order to support himself on the barricade. It was only a small, short shake, but it rammed home the idea that they might very well be running out of time. When it had stopped, all three exchanged knowing glances. '...You're not going to be able to wait for Batman, are you?' Damian ventured.

In the interest of not making the child feel unwelcome again, Dick kept his mouth shut and let his hands do the talking. 'Timmy?'

'I...I don't think we dare wait,' he paled. 'I'd prefer to, but with no water and now a potentially global threat that we have to go back over the mountains to get to...two hours could save a lot of lives, you know? Besides, if they came up with a way to get in Robin knows where we're going. They can find us along the way.'

'Yeah...okay.' Resigning himself, Dick leaned his forehead against the barrier. '...Dami?' There was no reply, but he could read the quickly-quashed tremble in the child's chin. 'I know, little brother,' he soothed. 'I know. But listen; I need you to do two things for me now, okay? One, I need you to try and find us some water. Two...I need you to take care of Bruce until we get back. I know I sort of said that before, but now it's more than just doing what he tells you. Don't let him go too crazy over all of this stuff, okay? Please?'

'...A crazy Batman is in no one's favor,' was returned finally. 'I'll do my best. And I'll find you water, even if I have to sabotage the plane to do it.'

Dick's hand went out from sheer force of habit, moving as if to ruffle Damian's hair in appreciation. Instead his fingers bounced into the force field, and a spike of anger went through him. Screw this, he glared. We're taking this thing out, one way or the other. Nothing keeps me from my baby brother, especially not when he looks about ready to freaking cry. 'That's the spirit,' he said as with as much pep as he could manage. 'If you end up having to mess with the plane, though...tell him I said to do it. You're in enough trouble.' As unhappy as he was that Damian had probably worried Bruce half to death by taking off, he didn't want to see the poor kid banned from the streets for the rest of his adolescence. He'd just been trying to help, after all, even if it had been in a stubborn and insensitive way.

'He won't believe me.'

'Maybe not. But when I get home-' If I get home, he held back, '-and back up your story, then what?'

'Then...then I guess everything will be okay. But you'd better come home and do it, because he's never going to believe me otherwise.'

Dick stared at the characteristic scowl on Damian's face in an effort to make sure he had all of its particulars down pat. There was no guarantee that the boy would be able to get Batman, who was no doubt in a truly royal rage, to listen, or that he would be able to sabotage the Batplane from inside in order to bend it to his will. Furthermore, there was every chance in the world that he himself wouldn't make it home from this wholly unexpected mission. Knowing that this might be the last minute he had to spend with the youth, he ached to make it as meaningful as possible.

Somehow, he managed to crouch down so that he was looking up at him. 'I'll back you up,' he promised. 'And so will Timmy. But in the meantime...' He searched for something simple but poignant, the sort of thing that his wayward little brother might be able to use to guide himself along the right path in the event that he wasn't there to help him find his way. '...Do good things, Dami,' he signed slowly. 'Just...do good things, and remember that I love you. All right?'

The child turned his head away, but his hands stayed up. '...I will, Grayson. I...I will.'