It had been nearly a three years. Three years since that day. That day Dick Grayson had lost his friend, his best friend. He remembered that moment like it was only yesterday, when the speedsters had put an end to the bomb which had gone cresols and could've destroyed half the world. Three speedsters went in, only two came out. That moment when the Flash hung his head afterwards explaining what happened, how he watched Wally West become an exit portal for the energy and exit with it. Dick remembered how he watch Artemis, Wally's lover fall to the ground in tears as soon as she heard the news, how he watched all his friends mourn over the loss of their beloved speedster.
None of them knew how much he grieved though, none of them missed Wally as much as he did, not even Artemis. Wally and Dick had been friends since they had been part of the Teen Titans. Their friendship was a rare one, one that made them as close as brothers. Dick had known Wally longer than the rest of members on the Young Justice team and knew him the best of everyone.
Wally, he was the one Dick first showed his true face to, the face behind the mask; the one he had sworn himself not to show anyone to but to Bruce and Alfred.
Dick was the one Wally went straight to when he needed advice whether it was about girls, missions or just to talk.
Wally was the cookies to his milk.
Surprisingly, Dick had managed to cope quite well with the loss of Wally. His death was an everlasting pain that would remain with him until Dick's dying day, however he managed with the pain in his heart. However Dick knew that other people hadn't coped quite as well as him.
Dick hadn't seen Artemis for nearly three years. Something about her changed that day; she had took on the superhero identity as Tigress to distance herself from Artemis, who she believed to be Wally's partner. She began looking at things in negative ways, like all the colour had drained out from her life and she could only see things filtered in grey. She began distancing herself, not contributing much on missions and her persona became more and more aggressive. As days turned into weeks and weeks turned into month she started missing more and more missions and events within the team. Eventually Artemis had completely isolated herself from the team.
Dick hadn't seen her since then. He too decided to fly solo as Nightwing but he still was close with the team which was now much smaller than it was when he left. None of the team members had seen Artemis nevertheless even texted her, not even Green Arrow had contact with her.
Dick was in his full Nightwing costume patrolling the alleyways of Gotham in the middle of the night. Batman was out of town, even though Nightwing no longer worked for Batman, he knew that it was up to him to make sure Gotham was safe. It had been a fairly quiet night, no bad guys had committed a single crime. It was good though, Nightwing felt like his head needed some quiet time to clear his head from all the stress he had; just because he was no longer working with Batman didn't mean Nightwing didn't have a lot on his plate.
Nightwing decided to return his small apartment which he shared with Barbra, his current girlfriend. Just as he was about to, he sensed movement in the alleyway between a coffee shop and a milk bar. No it wasn't a rat scavenging through garbage bags, the movement was far too big for it to be a rat. Nightwing took out his escrima sticks and made sure he was ready for a fight. Cautiously, he walked into the alleyway. There was a minute of silence but Nightwing kept his guard up.
Before he could blink a woman dressed in an orange costume and jumped out from the pile of garbage bags aiming a kick at Nightwing's head. He managed dodge it and the woman landed on the other side on both feet. Her mask had fallen off as she had tried to kick him which landed at Nightwing's feet. He picked it up, he recognised that mask, the woman turned around.
"Artemis?!"
Artemis stood there in front of him, wearing the same Tigress costume as she had been wearing when she went undercover with Kaldur three years ago and then also after Wally died. Her appearance had changed but she was still recognisable; her expression had a more naturally hostile look and her blonde hair which was usually neatly tied back was messy and uncared for. Artemis looked like the state clone Roy Harper was in when he was obsessed with finding the real Roy Harper; she was a mess.
"Do not call me that, I don't go by Artemis anymore," she hissed, her voice with a sinister tone.
"What happened to you?" Nightwing asked, his voice softening but keeping his fight stance up.
"I became Tigress, that's what happened?" Without warning, she threw a punch at him which Nightwing just managed to duck under. He punched her back which threw her slightly off guard then kicked her onto the ground.
"Where were you for three years ago? You've changed so much," Nightwing said aiming his escrima sticks at her while Tigress was on the ground.
Tigress lifted her upper body and scowled, "what does that matter to you Dick?"
"It matters to me because you're my friend," Nightwing replied.
Tigress snorted and gave him a piercing glare, "I've gone to the path I was destined to go down before, I am now devoted to a life of crime, being a hero-it's not my thing anymore, my dad had been right from the beginning."
With that, she kicked the escrima sticks out of Nightwing's grip and got up. She kicked him at the waist throwing Nightwing to crash into the wall. Before she could escape from the alleyway, Nightwing had gotten up and grabbed Tigress from the back then pinned her to the wall with a wing-ding.
"What happened to the Artemis who I knew before, the one who could do better than her criminal family?" Nightwing asked in a tone mixed with sympathy and scolding.
"Don't call me Artemis!" She barked, "I'm not Artemis!"
Tigress struggled to free herself from the wall but her ways were failing.
"I chose this life! I want to be a criminal!" She snapped struggling more and shaking her head vigorously, "Artemis is no more! She is gone! Tigress is left and Tigress is not a hero!"
There was a spark of insanity within Tigress as she was saying it, it was more than her personality and appearance that had changed. Nightwing could see was desperately trying to push emotions or memories away, like she was refusing to believe she was ever Artemis. Then suddenly it him, Nightwing realised why she was like this; Wally.
"Artemis-"
"DO NOT CALL ME THAT!" She yelled, but Nightwing ignored her and continued on.
"Do you think Wally would be happy to see you like that?"
Tigress stopped struggling and gave him an icy look with her grey eyes that looked like they could impale someone, "don't you dare bring Wally into this."
Nightwing just returned her the glare, as he looked closer into her eyes, he could see more than a hero who turned bad; he saw agony, hysteria, trauma, sadness.
Wally, as soon as Nightwing had said his name it had pulled a lever inside Tigress, a lever that caused her to stop; to trigger broken, melancholy emotions that pushed away at the back of her mind.
In the past three years, once Tigress had isolated herself completely from all her friends, she had never heard anyone say the name Wally nor did she ever mention his name. She undoubtedly had thought of him, but thinking of him was different to actually hearing his name. And the fact that Nightwing said it, Nightwing; Dick Grayson; Wally's best friend, it just had an impact on her.
"Well tell me, would Wally be happy if he saw you like this?" Nightwing asked. Tigress felt hot tears flood her eyes, she forcefully blinked them away.
"Wally's dead!" She said coldly, "what he would think of me now wouldn't matter."
Nightwing's face fell, he obviously seemed hurt, however Tigress didn't care, or at least she tried not to care.
Nightwing then did something he had never done before in while he was on duty; he took off his mask.
"That's very un-Dick Grayson like," Tigress muttered shocked.
"Actually it's not, Dick Grayson only reveals his identity to people he was close to, people who meant a lot to him, people who were his best friends, people like you, Artemis."
Tigress did not protest this time when he called her Artemis, instead her glare loosened.
"On the night Wally died," Nightwing gulped, "I-I didn't just loose one best friend, I lost two, do you know how hard that is to deal with?"
For the first time in three years Tigress felt sympathy, seeing Dick in his full Nightwing costume and no mask on to show the sorrow in his eyes that looked like were about to shed tears.
Tigress sighed, "when Wally died, Artemis died too, because Wally and Artemis were bound to each other by an unbreakable string called love, this love was something rare, something Artemis had never experienced before or seen before," her voice sounded less hostile than it had been for three years, "Artemis had come from a family where love wasn't real, where every one was for themselves, she never saw her parents genuinely show affection to each other, no they showed the complete opposite, so once Artemis had the chance for love, she was stupid enough to let herself get wrapped up and consumed by it that it got her killed, now Tigress was left to live with her agony."
Nightwing looked up at Tigress when she finished, her face was stained with tears, no longer did it have the virulent expression she had a few minutes ago but instead a face that he remembered Artemis had.
"And now it's time for Tigress to continue both Wally and Artemis's legacy, because if she doesn't and instead wastes it in crime and inaneness neither can live on after death," Nightwing said tenderly.
Tigress inhaled with penitence and looked down at the ground. Tears just kept flooding out of her eyes. "Why did it have to be Wally? Why was it him who had to die?" She just kept sobbing. This was the first time in three years that she had cried, now she was letting all the feeling that she had been stored inside her all that time in tears.
Nightwing held her hand, "I don't know, death doesn't discriminate between the good and the bad" his voice slightly trembling. Tigress just kept weeping, she couldn't stop herself no matter how hard she tried.
She felt Nightwing lift up her chin, "you're a mess Tigress, come home with me, Barbra and I will help you get back on track, so you can start a new life."
Tigress wasn't sure if she wanted to go with Nightwing and start a new life, but he was right, she was a mess, at least for now she needed somewhere better to stay.
With that she sat behind Nightwing on his motorbike as he took her to he and Barbra's apartment. When they arrived, Barbra was still up to greet them, without even questioning Tigress she hugged her and helped her settle down. Tigress gazed around their apartment, it wasn't as cosy as the one she had with Wally, but she could see how they called it home. Barbara gave her a set of her pyjamas and quickly organised a bed for Tigress in a spare room.
Once she was sure both Dick and Barbra were completely asleep, Tigress snuck out of the room. She walked slowly through the small living area of their apartment, Wally and I could have been living like this, she thought to herself as she stared at a cupboard of photos. Two photos in particular caught Tigress' interest, one just of Wally with a small piece of granite next to it of it engraved with the words "Rest In Peace" as well as a packet of chicken weezies. The other picture was a picture of her, Wally, Dick, Megan, Connor and Kaldur, a week or two after their first New Years as a team. Tigress wiped the dust over Wally's face.
Do you think Wally would be happy to see you like this? Dick's words repeated in her head.
"No," Tigress whimpered out loud staring at Wally's smiling face, "he would be miserable to see me like this."
And now it's time for Tigress to continue both Wally and Artemis' legacy, because if she doesn't and instead wastes it on crime and inaneness neither can live on after death.
Tigress' felt hot tears trickle down her cheek. Maybe Dick was right, she needed to start a new life, a fresh, new life to carry on Wally's legacy.
"I'll start over for you Wally," she said her voice trembling, staring at Wally's motionless photograph, "for you."
A/N: how did I go? Sorry the ending was a bit rushed, this was the first fanfiction I ever wrote so yeah. Please leave me comments on whether you like it or whether you have any constructive criticism. Thanks for reading xx