Most DC fans are familiar with the tragic story of how Mister Freeze's wife Nora was cryogenically preserved in ice as he searched for a way to save her from a deadly disease, but few are aware that Cassandra Cain tried to help him save his wife during her time as Batgirl.

Of course, wanting to help and succeeding are not the same. While Batgirl genuinely cared, she ended up making everything so much worse in 2005 in Anderson Gabrych and Pop Mhan's Batgirl #69-70.

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Cassandra Cain. Mister Freeze

While both Cassandra and Freeze are known for their ties to Gotham, this story takes place in a Serbian mountain fortress belonging to the League of Assassins. Convinced that Lady Shiva is her mother, Cassandra sets out to confirm this fact. Shiva is training assassins for Nyssa al Ghul, who has replaced her father Ra's as the League of Assassins' leader. Batgirl finds Shiva and Nyssa and engages Lady Shiva in combat, but their fight is stopped prematurely when Mister Freeze traps Cassandra in ice.

She learns that Freeze is being manipulated by Nyssa, who has promised to resurrect his wife Nora with the base's Lazarus Pit. While Nora was previously shattered, her head remains undamaged and the ice containing her body holds all the parts of her parts in their proper place. Nyssa has told Freeze that, given time, they can find a way to resurrect Nora. But until then, he must obey all that she demands of him--and she demands more than his conscience can bear.

As Batgirl slowly freezes to death while trapped in ice beside Nora, she asks Freeze an important question: if Nyssa can help, why has she failed to do so? There is no satisfactory answer. Cassandra agrees to help Freeze fight his way past the League of Assassins so he can put his wife in the Lazarus Pit. If Nora dies, then at least both she and Mister Freeze will be free. But if she is cured, then the two can finally be together. Freeze frees her from the ice. Working together, the two manage to get Nora to the Pit, one that Nyssa has altered which does not expire after a single use. But when Nora emerges frothing liquids, she hisses her husband's name, her eyes glowing, transformed by the Lazarus Pit and the graves around her. She is no longer Nora, but announces herself as "Lazara, she who is risen to bring life to death, and death to life."

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Lazara. Cassandra Cain. Nyssa al Ghul. Mister Freeze. Batgirl #70.

The earth under Lazara's feet blossoms with life. Grass, dead rats, and zombies begin to emerge from the ground, attacking the living. Batgirl and the League of Assassins try to fight against the undead, even as Freeze pleads with his wife to stop.

Unable to contain the spread of necromantic death, Freeze destroys a machine he was building for Nyssa, bringing the entire fortress down around them. Cassandra escapes, as do most of the League of Assassins. Tragically, Freeze and his wife also survive, escaping into the night. Rather than being freed from their torment, both are forced to endure all new levels of pain, their love and lives forever altered in ways neither of them wanted.

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