"This is a tough mission but the League and I have hope that you will succeed," Batman said with the most amount of encouragement either one had ever heard him say, even then, it wasn't that much. The dark figure never seemed to let any emotion slip, except maybe annoyance.
"What about the team?" Robin asked.
"I will inform them of the mission if you wish. If not, Kaldur would still be informed as he is the Team Leader."
"Let the team know, it would be fair for them to understand why their best teammates were away," The speedster boasted.
"But if you could, inform Zatanna before the rest of the team," Boy Wonder interjected.
"And Artemis." The speedster added sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
The Dark Knight nodded.
Following Batman's orders, Zatanna and Artemis both walked into the briefing room, both were quiet and felt as though their guts had dropped.
"What do you think this is about?" Zatanna asked the other being in the room who only shrugged in response.
"I got a bad feeling though." The magician was about to respond but was cut off by the big Batsy walking in. His entrance made the girls more anxious than they already were.
"What's this about? You rarely call either of us to meet you privately." The fiery blonde demanded. The male sighed heavily.
"Robin and Wally have been assigned an undercover mission to inform the League of any plans linking to the Shadows."
Zatanna shot out of her seat. "What?" She was sure as hell surprised that the League were okay with sending a 15-year old into the lair of evil in an undercover mission just for information.
Artemis only widened her eyes, however the shock clearly evident on her face. She would've protested, providing reasons why she should've gone in instead of Wally, but her and the bats both knew of her history, making that option impossible.
"This mission is extremely dangerous and is almost the equivalent to a suicidal scheme, not to mention this will mean that they will be off the team for a period amount of time." Batsy paused as if waiting for either female to interrupt and bombard with many questions but to his relief, they remained silent, waiting for the older man to continue. "No one else in the team knows of this yet."
"Yet?" There's a question he was waiting for.
"The boys have specially requested you two knowing first." Both girls questioned in their back minds why their missing teammates would want them to know first. Both feeling the smallest amount of glee filling up inside them during a tense moment. "I ask that if ever faced against them in the future to not hold back. Their covers are the only things keeping them alive and if blown," he paused momentarily. "I believe you will be able to figure that one out yourselves." With that said the man in black left the room to leave the girls alone in their thoughts.
Zatanna roamed around the almost lonely cave. M'gann and Conner had a date to a theme park and Kaldur went to visit Atlantis for the weekend leaving Zatanna and Artemis a free space to themselves.
It had been two weeks since the team were informed of the mission but neither the archer or magician could come to terms with the fact that there was a chance that in a split second, Robin and Wally's lives would be lost in an unknowing way, and it made the girls' stomachs churn at the thought. It made their insides want to spew out of their mouths knowing that they can't doing anything to help or save the marvelous Boy Wonder or the charismatic speedster that both girls (although too embarrassed to admit) had the hearts for. It tortured them.
It had gotten to the point where Artemis couldn't find a sparring partner. She constantly needed to vent out some sort of frustration and the speedster of the team was always the best option for her to release her anger but no one else could keep up with her constant hunger of sparring. Her next best option was a punching bag but she had the bag spewing sand a few too many times for Black Canary's liking (despite having replaced the bag each time) so she had to find another way to vent her rage, and surprisingly turned to music. Music had always seemed to calm her but she felt as though it weren't enough, so she did some snooping (something the Boy Wonder seemed to be extremely fond of) for an instrument. Surely there would be one in the mountain somewhere, the mountain had just about everything there.
Her thoughts wandered as she did. Whenever she was conscious of her thoughts about the speedster, she'd divert them somewhere else, only they'd be back on him again.
He wouldn't leave her mind, the way his mouth ran as fast as he did, if not faster (almost being the main cause of the majority of their bickering), the way his short bright red hair would flatten slightly yet still manage to blow in the wind when he ran, the way his freckles would move slightly due to the change of facial expressions expressing whatever mood he was in and the way his green eyes would gaze at her every movement when he could adore her silently from afar when he thought she wasn't looking. Then there was the slight upwards turn on the corner of his mouth whenever he would win a small, petty argument and how he constantly managed to smell of men's cologne no matter where he may be, constantly leaving the archer conflicted with her emotions.
The thought of cologne and his presence made the archer's heart ache for him so she did something she thought she would never do, ever: go into Wally's room.
The young blonde walked casually around the rooms, making sure that Zatanna was nowhere in sight. As soon as the coast was clear, she opened Wally's door (which to her surprise was unlocked), rushed in and locked it behind her.
She exhaled a breath of relief she didn't realize she was holding. Her hunt for an instrument could wait, she thought.
When she could breathe again, nostalgia hit her like a truck the size of Optimus Prime (if not bigger) t-boning a small little golf buggy. Everything in Wally's room was (to her surprise again) clean. It looked like an ordinary room but you could tell it was his by newspaper headlines and posters of the Flash and Kid Flash hanging up on one wall. "Trust." Artemis smiled to herself as she whispered. "Only he would hang posters of himself and his uncle on the wall." She scoffed. "Well, himself and his best friend Robin."
She continued to look around the room. On another wall was a flat screen tv. Underneath was a console of some sort and controllers with different games and movies packed away in a box next to it. She looked through the box, some games and movies looked boring but others caught her eye so she reminded herself to come back with Z at some point so they could play or watch, or both. A little further back were some cushions and a bean bag or two for comfort. A small shine caught her eye so she moved one bean bag slightly to see a batarang before picking it up. "Speaking of the little Boy Wonder, he must come here often to play." She sighed remembering how it was up to herself and Robin to save the team after they were being held captive by Red Tornado's siblings. She set the batarang down on Wally's bed and sat down herself.
She looked around once more and noticed that his wardrobe was left slightly ajar. She stood up and made a bee line straight for it to close it completely, only something else had caught her eye. She opened the sliding door wider and to her bewilderment, was a guitar. She had no clue that Wally had a guitar or why he had it, but either way she had felt success. "I knew there would be an instrument somewhere." She smiled to herself.
Zatanna had done some snooping around of her own. She had always enjoyed being around the Bat-obsessed little sprout that was the Boy Wonder, whether she liked to admit that or not. Her life was starting to get a little boring after he left for his mission. She began to miss their mischievous little schemes on their other teammates, the way his face lit up when he found a new way to further ruin the already ruined English language, or when he had successfully hacked into, well, anything really. She missed those small moments. So of course she had to sneak into his room without the other female in the mountain knowing.
For the time being she was in the kitchen, waiting for the archer to surprise her out of nowhere to get their minds off of things but with her luck, that didn't happen.
"Ekam em reappa otni snibor moor." She enchanted and soon enough, she was in the room that belonged to the Boy Wonder. She slightly cheered to herself as she didn't really think her magic would work.
She then stopped and looked around the room, nothing really interesting her until her eyes met his desk or work bench. There were many different types of things there, scrap pieces of metal, spare parts in a small basket for his utility belt (she could tell it was for that when it was labeled 'Utility Belt' in a somewhat neat font of handwriting), small machinery and unfinished projects. Zatanna was amazed at what the kid worked on during his free time because she knew for a fact that she would've given up entirely on everything before using a spell to fix it for her.
Above the desk were newspaper headlines, articles and posters of himself and the Dark Knight, so the magician took the time to read through each article learning more and more about the Boy Wonder.
When she had finished reading each article she decided that it'd be best for her to leave. She reached for the door and opened and closed it very quietly behind her, only for her to turn around and bump into the one person she forgot would also be in the mountain at the same time she would.
Both girls jumped slightly, neither expecting the other to be there.
The magician saw that the archer was holding a guitar and decided to break the silence. "So... do you play?" She asked, stunned that the archer held an instrument as an instrument and not a weapon.
"Haven't played in years." The archer openly admitted before widening her eyes and darting them away from the girl in front of her. "Which, uhh," She stammered. "Is something I like to keep secret because it is something I confide in on a personal level." Her cheeks were getting flustered as she spat out that last bit rather quickly. She slapped herself mentally for speaking the truth.
The magician simply nodded.
Desperately trying to move the small talk along, the archer realized that the magician before her was attempting to slip out of Robin's room unnoticed the same time she was trying to slip out of Wally's room unnoticed. She concluded that Zatanna had been feeling a little down since the departure of their teammates and ached for Robin just like how she had ached for Wally. She looked down as did the magician.
"I'll see you around." Artemis said quickly before speed walking back to her room.
"Yep." Zatanna replied, doing the same thing but heading off in another direction.
It had been a month or so since Artemis and Zatanna had their awkward encounter but the both of them began to warm up to each other and confide in their musical ways together. Artemis felt comfortable enough to play and sing in front of her as Zatanna had accidentally stumbled upon her playing and singing "The Scientist" by Coldplay. Artemis had also accidentally stumbled on the magician singing "Blackbird" by the Beatles.
The team had noticed the change within the girls, they seemed to be happier since the departure of Robin and Wally, but the team was unsure of why. Not like they were complaining. It was also a lot more calmer for the team as well as there wasn't constant bickering being listened to half the time and schemes being plotted against them the other half of the time. It was nice. However that didn't mean that the team had missed their missing teammates just as dearly. Every single one of them constantly hoped that both Kid Flash and Robin would be fine, Z and Artemis a little more than the rest. They knew that they would. It was more a matter of time before they got back.
Kaldur, Artemis and Zatanna sat on the bar stools in the kitchen as Conner and M'gann waited on the couch, hand in hand in a death-like grip waiting for the news. Now it had been a while since their undercover mission. Those few weeks of joy hadn't lasted long enough because now everyone was getting worried. Either Batman, Black Canary, Red Tornado and every so often, the Flash would fill in the team of their teammates' situation but no one had been updated recently. If it were a simple "The boys are fine, nothing has happened to them," the team wouldn't be sitting in complete and utter silence for the past hour. Their updates occurred on a weekly basis but the team had been waiting almost a month for the next one.
During the hour of collected silence, however, everyone kept to themselves. Everyone were lost in their own thoughts, imagining the worst scenario possible for their teammates. No one noticed the Dark Knight enter so they were startled by his presence but were relieved once being informed that Boy Wonder and Kid were going to be fine.
After the update, everyone had left, leaving the archer and magician alone together. Z approached her. "Hey, I was thinking," The magician began but she began to stutter so the archer reached out a hand and placed it on her shoulder.
"Just spit it out." Artemis replied calmly. Zatanna inhaled before speaking.
"I had a song stuck in my head and I was hoping that maybe you would like to play and sing it with me and then maybe perform at a small diner later." The blonde beauty tilted her head to the side as the younger female had winced, ready to be knocked out or be given a full-blown lecture about how in hell she wouldn't perform to any no matter what. "Later as in, I don't know, a couple months." She added but left her statement sounding more like a question.
The blonde just chuckled slightly. "Sure. As long as no one from the team figure out that I have some sort of musical background, I'm fine with it." The magician silently celebrated to herself. "Besides, it'd be fun."
"Great! Let's start now!" Z cheered, catching her friend Arty off guard. "Evierter reh ratiug!" She chanted and a guitar was soon in the archer's hands. Then they linked arms. "Otni ym moor!"
The girls praised that the rooms in the mountain were sound proof, even though it took a bit of time to get over nerves and actually sing. But they practiced, a lot.
"Well done you two," Batman said with a smile to the two younger boys on his screen. "You have done your job superbly and may now come back home to the team." The boys cheered happily finally being able to see their team after a couple months. Neither of them thought that they would be able to leave. Neither thought that they would be able to see the only two girls on their minds since the beginning of this whole thing.
"Thanks Batman," Robin started but was interrupted by the speedster next to him.
"We'll come around to the mountain soon, I think Robin and I would need a small break first before seeing everyone."
"Very well then. I'll see you two when you arrive." And with that, the Dark Knight was gone from the screen on Robin's phone.
"I think we should go to a small diner before heading back. It'd be nice." Wally informed.
"Well let's go to one with live music while we're at it."
The two guys walked into a small diner and sat down in the middle. They went straight from their undercover mission because they weren't in their usual super hero uniforms. In fact, whatever they were wearing was quite casual; dark jeans, white shirt for Robin and black shirt for Wally with a small dog tag necklace with their names on it and nikes. A waiter walked over to serve them before leaving, only coming back again sooner to serve their milkshakes and fries. Neither had a rather big appetite (which astounded Wally) so they shared a large portion of their fries. Everyone was lost in their chatter before silence arose.
"You know I didn't actually think that'd you would perform." The black haired girl said to the blonde. Both Artemis and Zatanna were wearing casual clothes because this was a casual gig; Zatanna wore white jeans, a purple off the shoulder shirt and black flats whereas Artemis wore ripped denim jeans, a simple white scoop-necked shirt and black knee-high boots. To dress it up slightly both girls decided to wear their hair down with light makeup. They also wore some woven wristbands and a small necklace as a little something extra. Artemis had also brought Wally's acoustic guitar because it was one hell of a prize he had. It was one of the best guitars Artemis had ever played in her life.
"To be honest, neither." She replied. "I'm nervous. I've never done anything remotely close to this."
"You'll be fine. The lights that would be shining on you would blind you and block out the audience. Just sing like how we've been practicing." The blonde nodded. Never in her life did she ever believe that the Artemis Crock would be nervous. Never in her life did she believe that the same Artemis Crock would perform. "Besides," The magician added. "No one you know would be out there. This stays between us."
The girls noticed the ruckus that was outside quietened down. The blonde archer felt mucus clog her throat momentarily before swallowing again. The owner of the small diner had gotten the audience's attention and announced the next act: Artemis and Zatanna.
Artemis' breathing quickened but she managed to slow it down. 'You know no one here so they won't remember who you are,' she reminded herself.
Both girls walked on stage and the crowd before them cheered, some wolf whistled. Both girls gave each other a knowing look before rolling their eyes. Both of them sat on the bar stools provided and began speaking into the mics.
"Artemis and Zatanna!" Robin and Wally started choking on their drinks out as everyone else around them applauded, neither one prepared to hear those names in the same sentence as 'singing'.
"It can't be them, can it?" Wally whisper/shouted to his best friend. Robin shrugged.
"Maybe it's just a coincidence." But that theory was proven wrong when they saw the two girls enter the stage. "Ok maybe not."
"Since when did either one sing?" Wally whisper/shouted again. The Boy Wonder just shrugged his shoulders. "And when did Artemis play?" He said eyeing the guitar in her grasp. He looked closer and recognized that it was his. "Hey, that's my guitar!" He whisper/shouted once more. Robin's head snapped back to his best friend.
"Since when did you play?" He whisper/shouted to his best friend who would've responded but was stopped by the two beauty's on stage.
"Hey guys I'm Artemis and this is Zatanna and we will be singing 'Officially Missing You' by Tamia." The blonde archer spoke. Wally was stunned because not only did he ache to see her again, he missed her voice and had never seen Artemis with her hair out looking so, beautiful.
"This song is dedicated to two idiots who we haven't seen in a long time who we miss. They aren't dead or anything, we just haven't seen them in a long time." The black haired magician spoke, she then mouthed some other words to the blonde beauty next to her, which was incoherent to the audience before them. Robin looked at his dark-haired beauty and questioned how he'd been away for so long without her. For a split moment, it was quiet but the only thing the boys could hear were their hearts beating, anxiously waiting for them to play and sing. They had just realized what they said and gave each other questioning looks wondering if they were talking about them.
Artemis began playing the guitar. It was plucked softly and everyone's hearts had melted. They melted even more when the girls began humming into their mics.
"All I hear is raindrops," Artemis began. Her voice soft like a petal falling from a cherry blossom tree on to soft green grass and low and deep like the gentle waves of an ocean in the middle of the night as the moon reflected off the water. Wally was mesmerized, stuck in a trance. "Falling on the rooftop, oh baby tell me why'd you have to go, cause this pain I feel, it won't go away, and today I'm officially missing you,"
"I thought that from this heartache, I could escape," It was Robin's turn to be stuck in a trance like Wally when Zatanna sang. Her voice was more fragile than Artemis', making Robin feel a pain in his chest, sorry that he'd been away for so long. "But I fronted long enough to know, there ain't no way, and today I'm officially missing you,"
"Oh," The girls began to sing in unison. Their voices were raw, singing with passion knowing that whatever they were singing came from the heart. The guitar played by the archer's expert fingers added more emotion to the room. "Can't nobody do it like you, said every little thing you do, hey baby say it stays on my mind,"
"And I, I'm officially," Artemis trilled before Zatanna came in.
"All I do is lay around," Her voice high and delicate.
"Two ears full tears," They harmonized.
"From looking at your face on the wall,"
"Face on the wall," Artemis echoed.
"Just a week ago you were my baby, Now I don't even know you at all,"
"I don't know you at all," They harmonized once more. "Well I wish that you would call me right now," They girls had sung with so much passion that even the audience began to tear up, including the two heroes staring up at them in awe, pained that they couldn't be there with the girls. By now everyone had forgotten about the food and drinks in front of them. "So that I could get through to you somehow, but I guess it's safe to say, baby, safe to say."
"That I'm," Artemis took this solo. "Officially missing you,"
"Oh," They harmonized once more. "Can't nobody do it like you, said every little thing you do, hey baby say it stays on my mind, and I, I'm officially," The stopped harmonizing but continued to sing in unison. "Well I thought I could just get over you baby, but I see that's something I just can't do,"
"From the way you would hold me," Zatanna sang. Robin smirked.
"To the sweet things you told me," Artemis sang. Wally smirked knowing that they only bickered.
"I just can't find a way to let go of you," They sung together again. "Oh," They continued to harmonise, tears brimming the edges of their eyes as they remembered the good and bad memories of the boys sitting in the audience, unknown to the girls. "Can't nobody do it like you," The girls had closed their eyes not wanting to let any tears slip. "Said every little thing you do, hey baby say it stays on my mind, and I, I'm officially,"
"It official," Zatanna sang. The song was drawing a close so she opened her eyes again. So did Artemis. "You know that I'm missing you, yeah yes,"
"All I hear is raindrops," Artemis sang. "And I'm, I'm officially missing,"
"You." They harmonised together, looking at each other before finishing the song. Both of them smiled to each other before looking back at the audience who remained star struck.
Robin and Wally were the first to give a standing ovation to the girls before the rest of the audience followed. And at their sudden outburst, Artemis and Zatanna went wide-eyed, immediately recognizing their voices. The girls stood from their stools, careful not to knock the mics in front of them off, before bowing and heading off stage. Robin and Wally followed immediately, as the owner of the diner congratulated them and announced the next act before heading in after the girls. The girls quickly packed their things, wanting to leave immediately. The owner gave them their pay checks and let them be.
Both girls could feel their hearts race as they finished packing and were about to head to the door, only for it to swing open revealing the marvelous Boy Wonder and charismatic speedster that is Robin and Wally. For a split second, everyone stopped, the boys looking at the girls who were looking right back at them. The same expressions and feelings written all over their faces, before tackling each other into each other's arms, embracing one another for as long as they could.
Nothing was said, but both pairs knew that the person in their arms was theirs for a very long time.