4(A/N: I do not own Young Justice or any DC Character. That right belongs to Warner Bros.)
A few more days passed by. While Dick had originally intended on speaking with Artemis about what was going on with the Shadows, he was called away from Batman to deal with a Two-Face/Penguin turf war to his annoyance. It took them maybe two days to get it settled (For now anyway until the next war between them started).
The young man had finally arrived at the home of Will Harper and Artemis Crock. A few moments after ringing the doorbell, the door opened to reveal one Will Harper in night wear. The clone couldn't help but let out a tiny smirk.
"Ah, the leader of the Justice League graces us with his presence once more" Will Harper said sarcastically to which Dick rolled his eyes.
"Lower your voice, Will, we don't know for sure if anyone's listening in out here" Dick said to which Will rolled his own eyes.
"Oh please, you bats are so paranoid. Anyway, what's with the beard? Are you trying to copy me because let me tell you: You're not doing a good job. It looks terrible" Will said, cheekily (But honestly).
"Thought I'd try a new look. Anyway, while I enjoy your sarcastic comments, I actually didn't come for a social call. I need to speak to Artemis" Dick said, getting straight to the point.
Will sighed. "Come on in, she's just putting Lian down for bed. She started Kindergarten this year, you know"
"I heard. She's growing up fast" Dick said with a smile, almost sad that Lian wasn't here right now. He always enjoyed seeing her and he kind of liked being called 'Uncle Dick'. However, Brucely was a close second and he came running towards Dick from the living room couch. After an exchange of hellos, the dog went back to the couch to sleep.
"She really is" Will said with a flinch as her getting older meant he was getting older (Even though he was still more or less a teenager, chronologically speaking). He continued. "Anyway, back to the bigger picture…how are you holding up?"
The redheaded man looked to Dick in a sad manner as he sat down at the table. Dick just stared back as he sighed and began to speak once more.
"Just taking the days as they come. It's hard to admit he's really gone but you have to move on with your life, you know? Knowing Conner, he wouldn't want me to sit around and mope all the time…I know Wally sure wouldn't" Dick said, shaking his head as he tilted his head down at the table.
"You know, I know I've been pretty hard on you, Dick but if you ever do need someone to talk to…I'll make time for you…you know that, right?" Will asked with the lightest smile he could towards one of his oldest friends.
Dick smiled as he looked up to Will. "Yeah, I know that…thanks, Will"
Before anything else could be said, Artemis Crock appeared from the hallway leading into the bedrooms.
"Alright, she's in bed and sound asleep. Who rang the doorbe- Oh….hey, Dick" Artemis said, surprised to see Dick sitting at their table.
Dick looked to her with a more blank expression than what he just gave Will. "Hey, Artemis"
They both looked at each other for a few moments before Will finally said something.
"Well I see this is getting awkward so I'll just get ready for bed myself. Have an early morning tomorrow. I'll see you around, Dick. Night, Artemis" Will said, leaving the room and moving to his bedroom.
Goodbyes and goodnights were made to Will as he left the kitchen, leaving the both of the other adults in the room alone with each other.
"So I gather you came to see me?" Artemis said with a raised eyebrow as she sat down at the table.
"Yeah…how is everything? Lian and your mom alright?" Dick asked, deciding to start the conversation out with some small talk.
"Yeah, my mom moved in a little while ago. Easier for her to be closer to Lian and me. She went to bed a little bit before I put Lian to sleep" Artemis explained, silently grateful their house had a lot of bedrooms.
"Gotcha. That's nice" Dick said with a nod. "How's your new boyfriend?"
"Well not new, we've been dating for a few months now but he's good….also, that reminds me, I'm sorry about you and Barbara" Artemis said, looking sympathetically at her friend.
Dick waved off her apology. "It was fine. We talked after….the incident. We're still going to be friends but we decided we're probably just better off as that: friends"
"Well…It's better than not talking to each other at all" Artemis said to Dick as he twitched, getting memories of Zatanna. However, he shrugged it off.
"Yeah…yeah, you're right" Dick said with a nod. Artemis decided to take the conversation to a new subject.
"So is this your new look now because…I'm sorry, it just looks silly on you" Artemis said, referring to Dick's goatee in a voice that was half sympathetic and half amused. She was trying very hard to not laugh (As Dick noticed).
Dick just rolled his eyes. Everyone was a fashion expert these days, it seemed.
"I'll shave when I feel the need to shave and not a minute before….and listen, while it is good to see you, I didn't really come for a social visit. I need to talk to you" Dick said, getting a little stern in his voice.
Artemis looked a little taken aback by this. "Uh, sure…what's up?"
"I think you know what I want to talk about" Dick said in a matter of fact tone.
Artemis looked confused for a few more moments before her face slightly lit up.
"Kaldur told you?" She asked, mentally cursing her Atlantean friend. Bastard waited until he was off to Atlantis to tell Dick.
"He did. Artemis, you know when the League of Shadows are involved in anything, you need to tell me or Jeff" Dick explained to the leader of the Team as if she were a rookie to this.
"Look, I couldn't risk anything and I don't think they would've appreciated us telling the leaders of the League" Artemis explained.
"Just tell me what happened" Dick practically ordered his friend.
Artemis sighed and then proceeded to explain what had been happening over the past few days. She explained that two members of the Shadows (A sixteen year old girl named Onyx Adams and Cassandra Savage of all people) had come to explain that they had apparently left the League of Shadows and that the other was a mole.
"You actually thought Cassandra Savage could be telling the truth about leaving the League of Shadows as well as betraying her own father?" Dick asked, raising an eyebrow. He knew Artemis wasn't as naive as that.
"Listen, they both gave convincing stories and no one was sure who was telling the truth or lying. We even had Looker look into both of their minds with M'Gann still on Mars" Artemis explained which made Dick even more curious.
"So now members of the Outsiders are involved in this as well?" Dick asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Look, this called for unconventional methods and both the Team and Outsiders are known to have those" Artemis said with a roll of her eyes. "I only told Kaldur about because I didn't know if there was some ancient Atlantean spell he knew or something that could force them to tell us the truth"
"Why didn't you ask Zatanna?" Dick asked with a raised eyebrow, flinching again at the mention of her, remembering his conversation with Kaldur not long ago.
"She was off training Thirteen and her other students and there wasn't much time to just sit and wait" Artemis explained. However, another thought came into her head. "By the way, have you spoken with her recently? The last time, I spoke to her, she said you two haven't really spoken with one another yet about…you know"
Dick remained silent for a moment before saying. "We've both been pretty busy"
Artemis gave him a look that clearly showed she didn't believe that. Dick quickly caught on and rolled his eyes.
"Look, we've…always had a bit of a distant relationship ever since we broke up, only meeting on special occasions. You know that" Dick rebutted.
"I'm pretty sure the death of someone we both saw as a brother counts as a special occasion, Dick. I haven't seen you speak to her since the funeral and it was only for just a few minutes. Were you really that hurt when you guys broke up that you'll cut your life off from her" Artemis said, getting a bit testy, especially considering how hurt Zatanna looked when she told her and Dick haven't really spoken that much since Conner's death.
"Hey, she cut herself off from me, remember? Once she broke up with me, we might as well have never been friends at all, just colleagues" Dick retorted, getting a bit frustrated. Talking about Zatanna was not something he came here to do.
"Oh that's such bullshit, Dick and you know it too. She thinks the world of you" Artemis said, not believing what she was hearing.
"Oh really, then why'd she throw me aside then? Hm?" Dick asked with a raised eyebrow.
"She never told me…but you know it was for a reason and she never 'threw you aside', just broke up with you. She also never intended it for the both of you to block yourselves off from each other" Artemis said, trying to get him to see reason.
"She chose to block herself off from me. Once she broke up with me and left me out to dry, that was confirmation she wanted little to do with me. Anyway, Artemis. You know that's not why I'm here. I want you to tell me what happened. What happened after the both of them apparently 'defected' from the Shadows?" Dick asked, desperate to change the subject.
Artemis just visibly shook her head, looking pretty disappointed. However, she knew she was beating a dead horse at this point. There was no use going on with this right now as it clearly needed more insight from experts like Dinah or M'Gann.
"Alright, fine. Look, there's a reason I specifically kept it from you as well as Batman and the rest of your little family, alright? However, I want you to realize that everyone is ok, no one is hurt and there's nothing wrong anymore. Everyone is safe and there's nothing the Shadows know that they didn't already know" Artemis said, trying to clarify.
Dick considered this for a minute and wondered what she had meant by that. Why specifically did she want to keep it from him? Or the 'Bat Family' as it was called?
"I'm listening" Dick just said with a blank face.
Artemis breathed a heavy sigh and explained about how after the Shadows had ambushed them in Star City seemingly to retrieve Savage as well as this 'Onyx Adams', they had kidnapped Cassandra (Or as she was known by her codename 'Orphan').
At this, Dick's eyes popped open. Cassandra had been kidnapped?! Without him knowing?! He directly stood up from the chair he was sitting on as Artemis stood up too, placing her hand on his shoulder in a desperate attempt to calm him.
"Dick, she's fine, remember? Like I said: she and everyone else is safe. We saved her and she's home now where she belongs, alright?" Artemis said, trying to reassure him before he went completely manic.
Dick, remembering this, calmed down, his 'big brother' mentality shutting down for a moment. Soon, he sat back down in his chair, Artemis doing the same as she sat back down as well, her hand moving off his shoulder.
"Before…that" Dick said, not even bearing to finish that statement as memories of Jason popped in his head. "Did you manage to make out who the mole might've been?"
"Like I said before, we weren't sure and M'Gann wasn't around to give us a deeper insight. We had to get…outside help" Artemis, looking down at her lap, knowing he wouldn't like this either.
Dick grew curious as he raised another eyebrow. "This outside help being….?"
"Well….you have to understand we needed someone with expertise on how the Shadows operated…and she was our only option…" Artemis said, clarifying just a tad, thinking Dick would get the message.
The young woman ended up being right as Dick quickly put two and two together. He gave her an incredulous look.
"Cheshire? You brought Cheshire into this? You cannot be serious" Dick asked, hoping very desperately he was wrong.
"She was our only option and she actually did help us this time around" Artemis explained, trying to reason with him.
"You do remember that just a year ago, she was involved in the trafficking of Mist, Livewire and Shade, yes?" Dick asked, shaking his head, still in disbelief.
"I remember well, Dick as I was there" Artemis said, giving a slight glare. "But hell, if there was someone that had to be involved in that little episode, we should be glad it was her. She actually did release Shade from control"
"Yeah, I put that together when Simon Stagg was reported dead in his cell at Blackgate" Dick said, conceding that. "However, we never found out if there was anything she wanted in return from him. For all we know, she could have used him in another way"
"No, she didn't. Shade actually saved us when me, Orphan, Onyx and Jade were cornered by Shiva and the rest of the Shadows. If it wasn't for her freeing him, we possibly might not have made it back in one piece" Artemis explained to the Justice League leader.
Dick shuddered, not needing to have heard that right now. However, he also had to concede that it was good news that everyone made it out alright.
"Ok, fine. In this one instance, she did alright...on the same topic, what exactly was it the Shadows wanted anyway? While I don't doubt Lady Shiva trying to take back her daughter was a big part of it-" Dick said before being interrupted.
"Yeah, thanks for telling me that, by the way" Artemis said, slightly glaring at Dick who just gave her an annoyed look.
"It wasn't our secret to tell but I imagine you found out given the fact that Shiva specifically kidnapped her. Everyone has a right to their own privacy, something I'm sure you would respect given how you joined the Team, hm?" Dick asked with a raised eyebrow.
Artemis just continued glaring at him but conceded he had a point. She let Dick continue on with what he was previously saying.
"Anyway, I imagine they had another motive beyond Shiva kidnapping her daughter" Dick asked, wanting further clarification.
"They wanted to extract information using something called infiltrators to extract Justice League intel. You know, the same kinds we stopped when we protected Dr. Roquette all those years ago?" Artemis said, recalling her first mission.
"Yeah, of course. That was your first mission with us and our first ever encounter with Cheshire. I assume their plan didn't work?" Dick asked with a raised eyebrow as that had been an important detail
"No, it didn't. It would have worked but Oracle disabled them before they reached their vessel. They got nothing and they don't know anything they didn't know before" Artemis stated, confirming that it in fact was unsuccessful.
"Hm…so you told Barbara then" Dick concluded, looking a bit somber at the mention of her.
"Yeah…sorry but we needed a different set of eyes and hands on our mission" Artemis said to which Dick waved off her apology.
"I get it…and I get why she didn't tell me. I guess I needed my mind focused on the turf war" Dick said with a nod.
"So you guys are really broken up, huh? That's surprising. It seemed like you guys were endgame for a while" Artemis said, looking sadly at her friend.
"Yeah, I guess it seemed like it but in the end, it wasn't to be. Even when we talked after Conner's death, neither of us seemed in the mood for a kiss and make up" Dick explained to his friend of many years.
"That's a shame, I'm sorry to hear it" Artemis said in a sympathetic tone. She almost debated mentioning her boyfriend, Jason Bard (who Barbara had left for Dick) calling her after Conner's death but felt that may have been inappropriate.
"It's no one's fault. Anyway, back to the subject at hand, where's Orphan, Cheshire and this Onyx now?" Dick asked, curious about that.
Artemis sighed, knowing this part wouldn't exactly be easy to get out either. "Orphan's at Barbara's right now, resting up. As for Jade and Onyx, well…I'll tell you but you need to promise to keep an open mind"
Dick just sighed, honestly ready for anything after everything he just heard. "I'm listening"
"After we got back from Santa Prisca, we took refuge at Key West. I was trying to convince Jade to go back to Will and Lian but the video call with the both of them didn't turn out well. She went to Infinity Island to try to kill Sensei who I guess she felt was responsible for her inner trauma" Artemis continued to explain.
"She went to Infinity Island by herself? Does she have a death wish?" Dick asked with a raised eyebrow, remembering last year when they barely held their own with them with meta teens on their side.
"At the time, most likely but we followed her, me, Orphan and Onyx. Just before Sensei was about to kill her, I managed to stop the fight. We argued about what she was doing and she finally let out that she was worried that she was becoming to much like our dad, Sportsmaster" Artemis said, continuing with the story.
"Right…you told us about his days as 'Father of the Year'" Dick said, recalling Artemis' stories.
Artemis scoffed at Dick's wording. "Yeah, the very best"
"And what happened to Cheshire then?" Dick asked, getting interested now.
"Well I explained how we both didn't have to be the product of our parents like I wasn't…but she wasn't too convinced. Then 'The Great One' Ra's Al Ghul appeared and explained how they turned their League of Shadows base into a sort of spiritual retreat, a place where people can discover or rediscover themselves, I guess" Artemis said, not fully in lingo with that kind of stuff.
Dick raised an eyebrow. "Ra's Al Ghul. Using his resources to help people and through meditation? You realize how that sounds, right? And you left the both of them there?"
"They wanted to stay. Look, I know how it sounds but he gave me his words and it's like you said last year: 'Ra's Al Ghul is many things-'" Artemis said before Dick interrupted her again.
"But a liar isn't one of them…I remember" Dick said, remembering their encounter all too well.
"Yeah…they'll just be there for as long as they need to be…though I'm not sure how long that will be" Artemis said, looking down at the table, wondering if forever was a possibility. She hoped that wasn't the case (Especially for her sister).
Dick considered this. It could be one of Ra's' tricks…but even he knew that Ra's had indeed not been in the Light anymore and unless he was putting on a really good act with Lady Shiva and Deathstroke, he wasn't head of the League of Shadows anymore either. Still, the former Demon's Head who was one of the founders of the Light turning his base into some pseudo yoga center? It seemed unlikely, especially for Ra's…but honestly, if Artemis and Cheshire (Who were both direct victims of the Shadows in one form or another) believed it…who was he to say they were wrong?
After pondering this and giving a sigh, he opened his mouth.
"Alright…I hope you're right, then…and I hope this Onyx person…as well your sister get the help they need" Dick said, figuring that given all that she reported, all had been taken into account for.
Artemis let out a smile. "Thanks, Dick"
"Well….I guess that's all I needed to know. I know you have an early class tomorrow so I'll just get out of your hair. Give my best to your mom and Lian for me" Dick said, getting up from his seat.
"You don't want to stay for a coffee or anything? Believe it or not, caffeine actually helps me sleep better at night" Artemis asked, wondering if they should really cut the evening so soon.
Dick considered it. A late night coffee wouldn't really be the end of the world and he did need to get out of the Watchtower and Gotham so he decided to take her up on that offer.
"Sure. I can stay for a coffee" Dick said with a smile as he sat back down.
"Cool" Artemis said, getting up from her seat and moving to the coffee machine, starting to make coffee.
Suddenly, they both could hear tiny footsteps out from the hallway. They both turned to see Lian emerge, dressed in her pink pajamas.
"Aunty Mouse, can I have some water? Oh, Uncle Dick!" Lian practically squealed as she ran towards Dick.
"Hey, Lian" Dick said as he scooped up Lian and placed her on his lap. "Oh, you're getting so big. How's my favorite little girl tonight?"
"Good" Lian said as she continued to sit on Dick's lap.
"Lian, I'll get you your water but you gotta go back to bed, you have an early morning at Kindergarten tomorrow. You'll need to tell Uncle Dick good night for right now" Artemis said, objecting to her being up right now (God, she was sounding more like her mother every day).
"Aww, do I have to?" Lian said with a pout.
"I'll tell you what, Lian. Why don't I come over for ice cream later this weekend? I can bring over some and we can make a day of it, hm?" Dick asked with a grin on his face, trying to compromise.
"Hm…okay" Lian said, getting off of Dick's lap and moving over to grab the glass of water her aunt poured for her. "Good night Aunty Mouse, good night Uncle Dick!"
"Good night Lian/Baby girl" Dick and Artemis chorused. However, Dick wasn't finished just yet.
"Wait, Lian, in the morning when you see your daddy, tell him that you think Uncle Dick has a better beard than he's ever had" Dick made sure to tell her before she went back to her room.
"Ok, Uncle Dick!" Lian said happily before going back to her room.
"You know that you don't, right?" Artemis asked with a grin, going back to making coffee.
"It's just settling in" Dick responded to which both him and Artemis chuckled.
For the next hour or two, they just talked, reminisced and chatted. It had been nice, Dick thought and it was actually nice being out of his Nightwing uniform for a change.
Dick felt he was making good progress with coping with Conner's death. However, he knew there was more to it than this. He's been in this situation enough times to know that for sure. It would be a long and painful process…but he'd come to accept it sooner or later and when M'Gann returned from Mars, he would be sure to help her through this painful process as well.