Alright. The latest episode of Young Justice: Invasion was crazy amazing. The part where Artemis died was a little to intense for me, because I love her. I was especially curious as to how Nightwing faked out SB. He has super hearing, how did Dick pull off slinecing her hear beat? Anyway, I decided to write this as if Artemis really had died, knock on wood. I swear, if they kill her later, it's on!

Nightwing was doing compressions as Miss M and Superboy landed next to him. *Come on, come on! You can do this, Artemis, you can do this. Don't die on me, please.* He couldn't let her die. Aside, from Artemis being his best friend's girl, she was his good friend too. Besides, it was his fault that she was here. *I asked her to come...This is my fault.*

"Uh...I don't here her heart beat," Superboy said quietly.

"27, 28, 29, 30." Nightwing said. Then, he bent over to breath into Artemis. *Come on, Artemis. Please!* Finally, Nightwing had to accept it. "She's dead." he said softly as he fell onto the sand. He wove his fingers through his hair and grabbed hold, trying to rip it out. He felt so numb. It was like everything inside of him just shut down. He just wanted to feel something. Miss Martian looked at Superboy with concern as she linked him up with Nightwing. The boy had the same thing playing over and over in his head. (She's dead. I killed her. It's my fault. She's dead. I killed her...etc.) Megan knelt down by her friend.

"Nightwing? Nightwing, are you okay?" Megan asked kindly. She just wanted to make sure he didn't drown in despair. He just shook his head. Then, he started to just shake period. His body was trembling with the sobs he was trying to keep in. "Nightwing...Robin. It's okay. Shh. It's okay." M'gann said soothingly as she wrapped her arms around the boy she thought of as a little brother, letting out a few tears of her own.

"No, it isn't." Nightwing said, his voice cracking slightly. "If I hadn't asked her to come-"

"She would have come anyway. Do you honestly think that Artemis would have stayed away? She quit for Wally, not because she wanted to." Superboy finished.

_AT THE CAVE_

Megan sat on the couch with Gar. Superboy wanted to go over and comfort her, but he knew that she was crying over the loss of her new boy friend L'gonn as well as the death of her friend and sister. Conner almost smiled at the memory of Artemis' first mission with them. "I always wanted a sister," M'gann said. "On Earth. On Mars, I have twelve.

Artemis smiled. "Uh, thanks." He almost smiled. But he was too caught up in the horror of what had happened. Kaldur, their friend, their leader killed Artemis. *What is the world coming to?* The clone wondered. Mal came up to him.

"Where's Nightwing? He should be here." The young mad said in irritation. Bee nodded.

"He went to tell Wally." Conner answered. The couple sighed. They did not envy Nightwing right now.

_AT THE WAREHOUSE_

Nightwing leaned his back against the pillar as he looked at he only picture of Dick Grayson and Artemis Crock. He barely smiled as he remembered her first day at Gotham Academy. "We'll laugh about this someday," he had told her. Nightwing touched the hologram of Artemis' face. "We'll laugh about this someday," he whispered quietly. He couldn't believe that he had gotten his friend killed. Nightwing heard a noise behind him. He turned off his holo computer and walked around the pillar. "Wally?"

The red head walked around the corner and smiled slightly. "Hey man. So, I saw on the news that you couldn't stop save the shuttle. Too bad. I bet Artemis wasn't too happy. She suited up for nothing. Speaking of which...Dude, where is she?" Wally asked, his smile fading. Nightwing wanted to looked at the ground, but he owed his best friend this. He removed his mask and sighed.

"Wally...I am so so sorry."

Wally ran forward. "Where. Is she?" Wally asked, his voice dangerous.

Richard tried not to break eye contact with his best friend. "I...She...I tried to save her Wally, I did. I watched her back, and she really didn't need it. She was great. That is, until Kaldur came and...and...He pulled out his water bearers and stabbed her with a sword. I tired CPR, but she...Wally, you have to believe me, I never meant for anything to happen to-" Dick was cut off by a right hook. He fell over and sat on the ground. Not even bothering to get up. What was the point? He deserved what was coming to him. He ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes, letting tears spill out. "I'm sorry Wally."

Wally crouched down in front of his younger friend, seeing that he was so defeated. *He didn't even try and fight back.* Wally wasn't mad at Dick. Not really. He knew Artemis well enough to know that she would have gone to help them out eventually, had Nightwing extended the offer or not. Wally put his hand on Richard's shoulder. The boy looked up at him.

"Wally?"

The reached his hand up to mess up Richard's already messy hair. "Sorry, Dick. I'm not mad at you. I just couldn't hit the guy I am mad at. I didn't think that you would just take it."

Dick looked down. "I deserved it. I left her alone. I turned my back and-"

"And you couldn't have stopped Kaldur. He isn't our friend anymore. He would have just taken you out too. Don't beat yourself up." Wally said, trying to comfort his friend.

"Why aren't you? I thought I was going to get the crap beat out of me."

Wally sighed and sat down next to his best friend. *How do you explain this to a kid?* Sure, Wally was only three years older, but between 18 and 21, things change a lot. "Look...I am a little mad that you offered the mission to Artemis. I mean, I figured that she was already thinking about volunteering, but you asking her for help cinched it. Artemis had been dying to get back out there...me? I just wanted a quiet life, where I didn't have to worry about whether I would come home to the girl I loved, or if she would come home to me. Mainly...I just sorry that I couldn't give her the life she wanted. The last time I saw her, we kind of had a fight about whether or not she should go. I could have been more supportive. Heck, I could have joined you guys. But...I'm out of practice. I'm slow, Dick. I can't go as fast anymore. When you get older...you see things differently...You want different things."

Dick looked over at Wally. "What did you want, Wally?"

Wally reached into his pocket with tears in his eyes and pulled out a simple gold band with an emerald. "This. I wanted this."

Dick ran a hand through his hair again. "Oh man, Wally. I...I didn't know..."

Wally laughed a little. "Neither did she. I was going to give it to her when I came here...We had talked about it...I had asked enough questions to know that she didn't want some run of the mill giant diamond that made it so she could barely lift her hand. She always loved green, so..."

"She would have loved, it KF. Definitely."

The boys sat in silence for a while just staring at what could have been. Wally put the ring back in his pocket and slung his arm around Dick's shoulders. "She was really proud of you, you know that?"

"Proud of me? For what?" Richard asked in confusion.

"For breaking out. For ditching Batman's shadow like Roy, without ditching Batman and the League and your friends. She was proud that you didn't just quit like we did. Although, she would have kept going forever. She was great at it."

Richard nudged his friend. "So were you, Wall-man. Fastest kid alive."

"But I wasn't a kid anymore. I didn't want to cut off Uncle Barry, but...I just didn't want this anymore. And this is why." Wally finished, gesturing between himself and his friend. "This. Losing a friend. A girl friend. Anyone that we care about."

"But Wally...that can happen doing anything. Just by walking outside the front door. Someone could have a drive by shooting. It doesn't mean that you should hide under your bed. She would want you to keep going. Come one, KF. Come back. For her. Don't give up because you're afraid of what might happen. Artemis was afraid to love you, but she did. Give her the same thing. Love her memory, even though you're afraid."

Wally was silent for a minute, which for a speedster is like an hour. "When did you become the big brother figure in this relationship?"

"When you became the one that needed someone to lean on. You've been there for me with everything. Even the thing's I wish you had been far far away for. It's my turn...So, what do you say? You ready to get back into the spandex?"

"Bring it on." Wally said.

So, this has little bit of it all. Love. Angst. Hurt/Comfort. Friendship. Family. It's all good. So, like it, love it, hate? Reviews please, no matter what they say!