Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice, they are all characters of DC.
A/N: I'm sorry that I haven't updated "The Start of the X" yet, but I promise I'm working on the next chapter, I'm just having some difficulty in my thought arrangement. I made this story when I was suddenly hit by inspiration and just had to write it out. I think that my writing is progressing forward or at least I hope it is.
The title is eh I know and same with the summary, I'm sorry for that. I'm bad with titles and summaries. I hope you enjoy! I'm pretty sure this is going to be a one-shot.
SPECIAL THANKS: Thank you to Easter142 for reading the story and helping me tweak it!
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Dick limped slowly through the debris of what was once a mighty base, the base of his ex-team, Young Justice, the Happy Harbor cave. He looked around as he wandered, holding his left shoulder from the pain that was radiating through it. Currently he was in the mission room of the base, where his team used to be briefed for their missions and where Wally and he had once played pranks on the team. The room, like the rest of the rooms in the base, didn't hold up to its former glory. The room was completely devastated, sections of the walls were completely demolished and through the holes he could see the sky outside. As he wandered through the debris his memory was replacing the sections that were damaged and comparing his surroundings with his memory of how it was before it happened.
He went around the fallen sections of roofing and into the main hallway. He smiled grimly as he observed his surroundings, segments of the walls were missing and the areas on the walls that once held pictures were bare of any decoration. There were small puddles in the hall, because of the rain shower from the days prior to the event. Limping forward, Dick noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Dick switched the direction he was going, crouched down and attempted to lift the moderately sized chunk of wall that was in the walkway. He had difficulty lifting the chunk of wall because of his hurt shoulder, but eventually he lifted the wall chunk. Once he had the wall chunk lifted he threw it out the hole in the wall and analyzed what was under it, the remains of one of Artemis's arrows. It wasn't dropped there or misplaced, Artemis had shot that arrow to take down her attacker, but she failed. He put the remains into a yellow pouch on his belt. It would help him remember her, it would be his souvenir.
Artemis didn't understand why it happened. "How come you're doing this? I shouldn't have trusted you!" she had yelled to the attacker as she shot arrow after arrow out of her bow.
Dick returned to standing and continued to his next destination. He was going to visit M'gann's room first, as it was the closest to his location. He saw where M'gann's entryway once stood and walked through. Taking in his surroundings, Dick would never had thought that this desolate place was once a colorful room that was the living place of a cheerful, optimistic and enthusiastic teenage Martian girl, named Miss Martian. As he walked in he saw scorched marks all over the room and all of the items that were once in the room were now thrown all around the room. The bed was the most misplaced item as instead of against the wall it was now out a hole in the wall and on a tree. Miss Martian had used everything in her room as a weapon against her attacker, she couldn't bring herself to attack him dead-on with full force. She hoped to incapacitate the attacker, to capture the attacker, but she wasn't a match for him when she couldn't bring herself to hurt him. Dick walked over to the mess caused by Miss Martian's defense and found one of her spare cloaks. He folded it and placed it in the small, black and grey backpack he brought with him. He decided that he would visit Aqualad's room next.
Miss Martian was trying her best not to hurt her opponent too bad. She had to alert the rest of the team. "Stop! Why would you do this?" she wanted to know what compelled the attacker.
The Atlantian's room was close to M'gann's room so it didn't take him long to get there. Once he arrived there he walked to the edge of the room, where there used to be a pool of water. That pool now only had a little trickle of water in it and chunks of debris. Like the other rooms Aqualad's room was devoid of anything and looked like a war zone, which it sort of was. Aqualad's attacker had sprang from the air vent, catching him off-guard and sufficiently incapacitating him. Aqualad was able to fight off the attacker, but not for long. Dick moved with intent. He walked over to two items that he saw were at the center of the room, Aqualad's waterbearers. He grabbed his latest souvenir and attached them to both sides of his belt. The garage would be the next place Dick would visit, that was where Conner spent his time before it happened.
Kaldur was confused, but thought logically. "So what he said was true. There really was one."
Dick's mind was lost wandering as his injured legs led him where he wanted to go, out of instinct. Once he made it to the garage, he didn't bother to look around. He knew exactly what he would see: devastation, holes, and tattered clothes.
"He always did have a habit of losing his shirt." Dick said out loud, in remembrance, with a sad laugh.
The attacker remembered to bring kyrptonite for this opponent, giving him the advantage. Superboy's powers were sapped away, his heart and mind were confused by his attacker's actions. He was curious about the attacker's motives, but he would never get find them out. He grabbed the tattered cloth with the Superman shield on it. Dick placed the piece of fabric into his pocket and exited the garage. There was nothing else in the room. M'gann's ship wasn't in the hanger, Sphere was no where to be found and neither was Wolf. Dick knew there was nothing else to see in the room, everything usable had been taken. The next place Dick was going would be one of the most heart wrenching places to remember, Wally's room.
"Why!? This isn't right! You shouldn't be doing this!" Conner shouted to his attacker.
He took his time getting there, he felt a small sting in his domino mask covered eyes. He eventually made it to his destination, it was the least damaged. Wally's battle didn't happen in his room, which was the sole reason why it was intact but that didn't keep it from being ransacked, his souvenir wall was completely empty. Looking at Wally's room, Dick saw the speedster's yellow mask and red goggles. He would keep the goggles for memory's sake. He attached them in the spot next to the pouch with Artemis's arrow and in between the water-bearers that were on each of his hips. He didn't feel like he could bear it to remain in Wally's souvenir room any longer and so he left. He would make one final destination, he would go to the main room of the base. The room that the team spent the most time in, the living room.
"I can't believe this! You can't be doing this!" Wally yelled as he tried to avoid his attacker, confusion invading his mind and heart.
The wreckage only got worse as he got closer to his final destination. Small segments of missing walls turned into entire segments of missing walls and small holes in the ceiling turned into huge holes in the ceiling. The living area was probably the most damaged room in the base. Some members of the team had managed to regroup here and fight off against the attacker, but the fight didn't last long. No reinforcements would come to save them, the zeta-tubes were down and Red Tornado was on a mission. The team was trapped in their own base. Aqualad, Artemis and Kid Flash had successfully held their ground, but they weren't able to keep the attacker at bay forever. He had finally arrived at his destination.
"Stand your ground!" Their ever dedicated leader yelled. The power was shut down and there was no signals coming in or out. "There's only one enemy!"
"For now." They heard, but couldn't tell where from.
"Give yourself up and we'll go easy on you!" Artemis shouted, she was bluffing though. She only had two arrows remaining after her confrontation earlier and their enemy had a whole arsenal on them. Plus their enemy held all the advantages.
"I should be saying the same to you." The attacker said with a sickeningly calm voice a dark, sinister chuckle.
Dick's mind was filled with all the good times that the team had shared in the room. He grabbed one last souvenir, a picture of the team. The picture had everyone in it; on the far left of the picture was Kaldur, on his right was M'gann with Superboy behind her, then there was an irritated Artemis with Kid Flash and Robin's arms draped over her shoulders, and Wolf was laying down in front of the picture.
"Those were good times." Dick said with a twinge of regret in his voice. He smiled as he reminisced about all the pranks and fun he had with them. He held the picture gently in his hand as he felt a few tears finally manage to escape his mask. Although he was side-tracked, Dick noticed the figure that was creeping up behind him.
"You could've had more, Dick." came Batman's brute, gruff voice.
"Do you truly believe that, Bruce?" Dick asked, doubtfully, not turning to face his mentor.
"Yes, but that was before." Batman answered stepping closer.
Dick let out a small, dark, depressing laugh, "It was bound to happen."
"You are aware of what happens next, Dick, right?" Batman questioned his ward, regretfully, as he prepared his specially designed handcuffs. The cuffs would cover from Dick's wrists to halfway through his forearm.
"I've always been aware that this would be the end result." Dick said resignedly.
"Then why did you do it? What compelled you to do it?" Batman interrogated as he got closer. "You know I don't want to do this, but you've left me no choice."
Dick didn't answer, all he did was stare at the picture. Batman was almost directly behind him.
"Why did you come back?" Batman asked.
"I had few things to pick up." Dick replied simply, voice showing no emotion.
"Will you come without trying to escape?" Batman spoke softly, almost pleading. He was heartbroken.
"We both know the answer to that, don't we?" Dick replied swiftly.
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A/N: I hope you liked it, please review! I'm thinking about making a prequel or a short continuation- or maybe a sequel?- (or all of the aforementioned lol) for this story. Please tell me if you'd be interested in any of those, because if there are enough I think I might make it/them.