Yeah, I wrote a Wicked!Traught AU. I think I'm the first person to do this, so Yay!
But yeah, I was attacked by feels last week, and had actually started planning for this to be a multi chap thing, but the idea lost its zest, and i cut what I had together in this wierd flashbacky one-shot.
I'll put an explanation on the bottom, if you're interested in more on the idea. But, yeah, Hope you enjoy!
I don't own Wicked or Young Justice.
Are people born Wicked? Or do they have Wickedness thrust upon them?
-Galinda, Wicked the Musical
Nightwing, is it true that Tigress is dead?
Are the rumors that she was working with the Joker true?
I was informed from a credible source that Kid Flash had a hand in the villainess' defeat. Can you confirm these rumors?
Dick Grayson walks through the crowds of reporters, frowning as they part under his heated stare. The nineteen year old isn't in the mood for their questions, not after last night, not after the last few years of hell.
He stalks down the street, and wishes he had taken the moment to change before leaving the Bludhaven City Hall. It was times like this that he really wishes he could fly, like Superboy, or zoom away like Kid Flash, gone in the blink of an eye.
Maybe that was Artemis' point; the business of super heroing just isn't made for people without powers. Everything little thing they did was against them, from fighting a villain with an advantage over you, to being bombarded by the press. It just isn't made for regular people.
Something clenches in Nightwing's chest, and he suddenly feels like he is ready to hurl. He shouldn't be standing here, justifying what Artemis had done. She knew what she was getting into when she joined the academy; she understood the risks, the hardships. She shouldn't have been so surprised by how judgmental everyone would be.
That's not true, he thought. That's not why she changed.
He shook his head, trying to clear it. Dick was caught between not wanting her to be considered a villain and not really being ready to call her a hero.
He let out a slow breath and ran a hand through his hair, pointedly ignoring the reporters on his heels. He turned the corner into an alley and set off at a sprint.
Dick really didn't know what to think anymore.
"Look what you've done Artemis!" Dick yelled at the blonde girl across him. "You might have ruined everything!"
"I did," she said, looking down at the orange mask in her hand, rubbing her thumb around the eye holes and tracing the black stripes. "I know I did ruin everything."
Dick sighed and shook his head, violently throwing his hands up in the air. "How can you be so casual about this? After everything you've worked for, after everything I've done to get you this opportunity!"
Artemis looked up at him, her eyes glaring and mixed with a burning hate that he hadn't seen since they had first been paired together in training. She curled her lip in disgust and took a threatening step towards him. "After everything you've done? What are you talking about? You did absolutely nothing for me! Have done nothing for me since the moment we met! How could you just stand there while Green Arrow accused me of such horrible things! You did NOTHING!"
The fact that Artemis really isn't around anymore hits him for the first a week after it actually happens.
Dick really didn't want to be stuck in front of this TV in Zatanna's old apartment watching Titanic, but she had begged, claiming they didn't do anything as boyfriend and girlfriend anymore, and Dick really hadn't ruled out a mind control spell yet.
But he was here, on the old flowered couch, watching a sappy chick flick and wondering what he was doing with his life.
"Dick," Zatanna whispers in his ear, leaning into his shoulder and burying her head in the nape of his neck. "You're not watching."
A pang of De ja vu slams into him, knocking his breath away. He takes a deep breath and lets his chin rest on the top of her head. "Yes I am."
Zatanna sighed, and snuggled closer. "This part is cute." She laughs lightly as Rose spat off the side of the boat in a rather pathetic way. Dick closes his eyes and resists the urge to turn his head away. All of this was so achingly familiar to him.
When the man jumps of the side of the boat and bounces of the propellers, the silence where Artemis' booming laugh should be is filled with Zatanna's quiet sobs.
I want people to remember me, rings in the back of his head. When I'm dead and gone, I want people to know my name.
Dick doesn't remember what his reply was, it was a long time ago, back when he was more concerned with earning a place to work beside Batman to realize what lengths Artemis would go to make this come true.
He reaches out and grabbed a strand of her hair between his two fingers.
Dick is surprised when the thin hairs are black instead of blonde.
"What was I supposed to do, Artemis? You helped Cheshire escape prison. There was nothing to defend against!" Dick screamed, spit flying from his lip as he yelled.
"She manipulated me!" Artemis countered, her face closing of and slipping into defense mode. "I thought you of all people would be able to understand what the promises she made meant to me. I thought you understood!" She stopped, pausing to catch her breath as her chest heaved. Her voice was soft when she said, "I thought you would believe me."
Dick opened his mouth to counter, but he froze, unsure of how to respond. Artemis looked so helpless; her new orange suit wrinkled and ripped, the scar that grazed the corner of her eye rippling as she blinked away tears. He never knew how to react when she broke down like this. It was just so not Artemis.
"What Green Arrow said was true, Art," he said slowly, tugging at the corner of his domino mask and frowning. "You shouldn't have even been near the prison cells in the first place."
Artemis visibly pulled herself together, struggling to keep her panic at bay. "What was I supposed to do? From what Wally was saying, it sounded like she was being kept there unfairly." She paused, taking a breath through her nose and holding it. "I didn't know she was planning on bringing me to him."
"I don't know what you expected to happen," Dick hissed, biting back a more vile insult. "But you helped two major villains rise to power again, and you were almost killed. There's no way this could have gone any worse."
"I can think of a few ways," she said darkly, glowering at her feet.
Dick wasn't sure what she meant.
"Snap out of it, Dude," Wally says, clapping his hands in front of Dick's face and kicking the edge of his chair. The younger boy starts and tips to the side, just catching himself by grabbing the edge of the table.
"What the hell?" he grumbles, rubbing the top of his head and shooting a glare at his best friend, who's looking concerned as he stares at him.
"Dick, I've been talking to you for the past ten minutes with no response," Wally answers, his tone torn between annoyed and worried. "I know I talk a lot, but a little participation would be nice here."
"Oh," Dick says, rubbing his eyes and looking up. "Um… yeah, sorry. I'm listening."
Wally looks skeptical, but continues talking anyway. "So, as I was saying, I really think that my English professor is a dick, huh, no offense, I mean an asshole. He gave us this English paper on the value of rhetoric and its different forms, and it's due tomorrow. Who does that? Doesn't he know I have to save the world during my spare time? Well, I guess he doesn't-"he looks up from his computer and frowns at Dick's vacant expression. "Oh yeah, and me and Zatanna had a one night stand the other night. Yeah, it was right after me and Barbra had a good little make out session behind the dumpster in front of Nasty Burger."
"Oh, cool," Dick says, playing with his fingers on top of the table.
"Dick!" Wally yells. "What is up with you lately? You can't seriously still be bummed about Tigress?"
"Why can't you just call her Artemis?" Dick asks, finally meeting his friend's eyes. "You did know her before the Shadow's got to her, didn't you?"
Wally groans, and pushes himself in a circle on his swirly desk chair. "Nightwing! Man, you are a super hero now! Tigress was a villain! I know you were close at the Academy, but it's time to let it go. She got mixed up in some ugly stuff, and now she's dead."
The black haired boy wants to scream at him. How can you talk about it like that! She was your friend too! But he can't bring himself to talk about it right now. Instead, he just shrugs and lays his head on his hands. "I know she's dead. I killed her."
Wally groans again, and tosses his pencil down on top of the desk. "You're ruining my mood now. I don't have to sit here and watch you mope over a villain. Come find me when you have your head on straight."
Dick leans back in his chair and digs the heels of his hand into his eyes.
To everyone else, Tigress is dead, but to him, Artemis is still alive. They just can't be together anymore.
He can't decide which one is worse.
"Maybe it's time for me to go," Artemis said, running a finger across the scar that's marked her face since she was a little girl, the scar that alienated her from the rest of the team when training first started. "I don't think I belong here anymore. Maybe I never did."
"Wait… wha-" Dick stuttered, his face turning red in surprise. "Where are you going to go? Don't run away just yet, we can still make things work with Green Arrow. You were going to live in Star City; that was the plan."
"My da- Sportsmaster offered me a place with the League of Shadows." Artemis said so quietly, her voice so soft her could barely hear it. "He said they needed an archer."
"When did he offer? Before or after he tried to kill you?"
"He didn't do that. Jade did."
"You can't do this," Dick breathed, feeling like the wind was knocked out of him. "You don't know what that means. If you do that, you would be…"
"A villain," she said. "I know."
"But… But you can't."
"But I can."
Dick wakes up in a cold sweat. The sheets are tangled between his legs, and his chest is rising and falling with his heavy breaths.
Visions pass before his eyes, fake blood gushing from Artemis' side, his hand shoving the pill down her throat, the sounds of fighting from the other room, Dick and Artemis kissing in the mountains showers, Long blonde hair that probably isn't long or blonde anymore.
Artemis.
Artemis.
Artemis.
He closes his eyes and tries to slow his breathing.
"Calm down, calm down, calm down," he whispers to himself, imagining a raspy girls voice saying it for him.
Dick can't remember if he was having a nightmare or a dream.
"Artemis, please, don't."
"My name isn't Artemis anymore, Nightwing," Artemis said, placing her large mask over her marred face. "It's Tigress, now."
Nightwing! Is it true that you and Tigress used to be friends? The reporter asks, shoving her way to the front of the crowd and shoving an outdated recorder in his face.
Were they friends? Dick can only remember glaring at the partner announcement, gluing her arrows to the bottom of her quiver, the intense sparring matches meant to break each other.
But his thoughts were sprinkled with stolen kisses, brief flashes of understanding, soft, private smiles, not so funny inside jokes, that one night on the stakeout…
Dick didn't know what they were, lovers, haters, weren't they the same thing in the end? Was there really a difference at all?
I want to make a difference someday, fix all the things that my father has done. Make people remember me.
"Yeah," Dick says, rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess we knew each other, back at the Academy…"
Okay, so in this AU, the whole team are recruited to attend this Academy, before anyone is a sidekick or protege, to train and are watched by the Justice League, and at the end of the sessions, they'll pick someone to be there partner.
Dick and Artemis are paired together as partners for the mock missions, and at first hate eachother, but eventually it grows into something more...
Anyway, instead of being Green, I gave Artemis a scar. At first, none of the Heroes are interested in taking her in, but after a while (And lots of persuasion from Dick) Green Arrow decides to give her a chance. But she finds out that Jade is being held in a prison nearby on questionable circustances, so she goes to visit her (In place of giving monkeys wings), and things go downhill from there.
I might still do more on this, if I ever find the inspiration again, But I hoped you enjoyed my choppy little oneshot. Thanks for reading!