Zatanna Zatara was not stupid. Far from it, in fact. It takes a certain degree of intelligence to memorise hundreds of spells and be able to call on them at a moments notice. Also, she was a superhero AND a member of the justice league. One does also need adequate intelligence to achieve both of those things.

So, like I said she's not stupid.

So, when Nightwing came to her asking for a glamour charm, with the excuse that the team 'needed it for an undercover mission', she was suspicious.

Fact 1: Zatanna knew for a fact that all undercover missions that the team went on were short-term, and yet the type of glamour charm he asked for was more or less PERMANENT

Fact 2: Even if Nightwing's story was true, he wouldn't come to HER for the charm. Dr. Fate was the teams magic expert, not her. Nightwing is actually required to get all magical equipment directly from him. He once asked Zatanna for magical equipment but she messed it up and now the entire team agrees it safer to get thin from Dr Fate. He asked Zatanna because he knew she wouldn't ask too many questions.

Conclusion: Nightwing's hiding something.

Regardless of her doubts, Zatanna provided him with the charm. Why? She trusts Nightwing. Despite this, she did silently vow to look into his excuse later. However, these thoughts were driven out of her mind after she heard the news of Artemis's death.

It was so sudden. Zatanna had been away at the time, on vacation. She had returned the moment she heard that KALDUR of all people had killed Artemis.

Now, Zatanna had always been secretly hoping that Kaldur wasn't really a traitor or that he had some good left in him but that hope was extinguished the moment Artemis died. She just didn't understand what went wrong!? 3 years ago, they were all happy, they were all friends. Young Justice had more members then ever. Aqualad was nearly over Tula. It was great.

And then... Kaldur found the letter from his mother, the one that told him his true parentage. Kaldur was normally so calm but at this news he completely blew up at Aquaman and then Atlantis was attacked...
It shouldn't have happened. But it did.

There intel had indicated an attack on the Hall of Justice and they had prepared accordingly, sending all their forces to the Hall of Justice. Looking back, they should have known it was a distraction but they didn't. Kaldur practically forced Tula to stay put in Atlantis saying that she'd be safe there. But she wasn't safe. She died taking a shot that was meant for the Queen. Kaldur... Kaldur broke down. He blamed himself.

And then he left.

They didn't see him again until a year later when they were fighting Black Manta's men. He was fighting the League. Aquaman was never the same afterwards. The team was never the same afterwards. Zatanna was never the same afterwards.

Time went on, but no one forgot him. It was hard to forget when they fought him at least once a month.

And then Artemis died.

And then the day Zatanna discovered the truth.

March 22
It was a normal day. Zatanna had come down to the cave to visit M'gann. Despite her being in the league now, they still regularly went out shopping and hung out. They were still like sisters. She had been walking to the kitchen for some drinks when she heard Blue Beetle and Impulse talking to each other in the living room.

"So Blue, I heard about Artemis" Impulse starts.
"Yeah, tragedy isn't it? I mean, I didn't really know her but she sounds like a great person" Blue replied.
"Yeah... Wally was always talking about her in the future, but I never met her"
"I can't believe Aqualad killed her, from what I hear they used to be really good friends."
"Yeah..."
"I almost feel sorry for him, you know."
"Really, why?"
"When Miss Martian gets her hands on him... But he deserves everything he gets"
"Yeah..."

There was something strange about the way Impulse said that, almost like he didn't think he deserved what he would get...

A thought half-formed in her mind but Zatanna dismissed it, got the drinks and left. She was halfway down the stairs when it hit her. Impulse talked about her like he knew her. Not in his words, but in his tone. His tone was light, affectionate but... the only way he could know her in the future was if... she wasn't dead...

The thought hit her like a sledgehammer. She dropped the glasses and they shattered on the floor. She shook her head, trying to dismiss the crazy idea but it wouldn't leave her alone. It couldn't be...but...still...

So she went to one of the little used computers in the back of the cave and pulled up the com-sat mission file. In the file, was a video clip, likely from a security camera that showed Aqualad, Nightwing and Artemis. She watched as Nightwing charged Aqualad and got flung aside, as Artemis lost her bow, and tried to punch him. She paused before he stabbed her though, she didn't need to see someone who was practically her sister die. She was about to get off the computer, content in her knowledge that Artemis was in fact dead.

Zatanna still couldn't believe Aqualad did that, Artemis and him had been teammates for years and... WAIT. They had been teammates for years, they had sparred on numerous occasions and yet Artemis only lasting five seconds against him? That was weird.

But then the only solution would be...no...she wouldn't...
What if...she LET him win!?

Hope began to bloom in Zatanna as she turned back to the computer and looked at the file again, looking for more security footage. There wasn't any, which was unusual. A super big event like the com-sat should have had multiple cameras.

Little known fact: Zatanna was a VERY good hacker. She had been taught by Nightwing himself.

So she started looking through the files for something, anything. That's when she saw it. An inconspicuous, well encrypted file. It took her an hour to decrypt but when she did...

"Oh my god" she breathed.

A/N Thanks for reading. This will most likely be a twoshot, I'll update it within the next week. this is set after Satisfaction but before Darkest.