Summary: After Jaime spills the truth about his not-so-crash future, Bart isn't surprised when Nightwing takes him aside for a little 'chat'.
Rating: K
Warnings: Spoilers for Season 2, one-sided Bluepulse if you want it that way but it's mostly full of the magic of friendship
Watch me jump onto the long departed fandom train of Young Justice as I complete my first fanfic! Oh dear, what have I done.
P.S. All typos are extremely guilty of their crimes.
Taos, April 2nd 22:33 CDT
A typical kid, when telling their first lie as they are growing up, got scolded by their mother or father and a huge lecture about why lying was wrong and that it should never, ever be done because it only resulted in bringing about trouble and how telling the truth will, ultimately, result in a better way of life. That was how it was supposed to work right?
Bart Allen was not a typical kid.
Where – or rather when – he grew up, his parents not only told him to lie, they encouraged it. Because that was not only his 'better way of life', it was his only one available.
So he couldn't help but find it funny that Nightwing stood before him with the opaque lens of his mark narrowed and arms crossed, looking more like a mama blue jay with her feathers all ruffed then his real mother ever did.
"Yeah, I lied. So what?" He deadpanned, leaning his hip against the side of one of the armchairs in the office directly facing the desk that Nightwing was leaning against, staring him down. The others had already left, Black Canary and Captain Atom taking the Reach's former meat pigs to another facility in Star Labs for a 'metagene checkup' and Blue gone to talk with the other Atom about microscopic removal surgery. The latter something he was way more interested in hearing about than Nightwing's sudden misgivings about his lack of sincerity.
"So what?!" The leader replied, agitation making his shoulders tense. Bart could just picture the tail feathers that would be fanning out right about now and was trying really hard not to crack a smile. "Do you think this is funny?"
Whoops. Guess he didn't succeed. "A little, yea." He quickly raised his hands when the other looked ready to snap. "Come on, I wasn't going to mode everyone with all the stuff Big Bad Blue Beetle does in the future. Besides, it's not going to happen anymore – so it's not so much a lie as an omission of a realty that no longer exists, see?"
The expression on Nightwing's face changed subtly and Bart almost felt like he was back in a Reach pod being – ugh – studied by those buggy scientists. "Because you plan to stop it." It wasn't a question but Bart nodded anyways. "Alone." He refused to acknowledge that one. "Because you don't trust us."
"I don't know what turns Blue. It could very well be the Team itself that does."
He knew Nightwing was too clever not to realize he had avoided answering the question. The elder sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Bart if you don't trust us, how can I trust you to stand beside the Team on a mission?"
Something inside of him burned at that accusation and he straightened, meeting the other's gaze. "I'm not here to hurt anyone." That was no lie but after so many years of doing nothing but lying, he wasn't sure if his face even knew how to look honest anymore.
Apparently it didn't because Nightwing's expression didn't even shift. "Why should I believe that?"
He reigned in the yell just waiting to be made, the one that had been bursting in his lungs since he came back here and saw a world of green trees and white snow, of food heaped by the piles in practically every store and every refrigerator, of families that could still laugh and just exist together. The one that just begged for him to unload on anyone, to get someone to understand why watching M'gaan and Beast Boy sharing a hug after a tough mission, or Dick tipping his head in pride to Tim, or even Grandpa Barry just giving his shoulder the slightest pat after a routine run around Central, left him breathless and his eyes stinging. He wanted to say it, and maybe one day he could, but not until his mission was over.
So he swallowed it down, changed pace as quickly as his feet could, and shot back, "You know, it's pretty moded of you to be playing the trust card on me." He wound a loose thread on the chair around his finger, unwound it, and wound it again, over and over in constant motion. "How long is Artemis dead for anyways?"
Nightwing's eyes widened, before he turned his head and frowned towards the wall. When he looked back at him, his face had become a cool and composed mask once more. "How did you see through it?"
"Wally. I mean, don't worry he's putting up a good act, everyone else seems to buy it, but where I came from I know grief. It's like that one annoying friend you can never shake." The string snapped. "So unless my cousin is a complete heartless jerk – a fact that I'll find hard to believe since he's already circled by here twice to check up on me and he's known me, what, a month? – he is not grieving. Heck, if anything he just seems mildly inconvenienced."
That made the elder smile, if only briefly. "Last time I called, he kept complaining how much he wanted this all to be over because he can't find the left shoe to his favorite pair of sneakers." And then it was gone and it was all business again. "I am keeping the team in the dark because if the Light or the Reach believes, even for one second, that their act is just that, then Artemis and Kaldur both could wind up dead."
Bart's head whirled so fast his neck almost cracked. "Wait, Aqualad's not-"
"Sssh!"
"Oop!" He slapped a hand over his mouth, mumbling around the digits, "Sorry."
The leader sighed and shook his head, replying, "He's not a traitor. He's been undercover for months now and helped 'fake' Artemis' death so she could infiltrate the Light as well. The only other person who knows besides myself is Wally, and now you." He rested his palms along the desktop behind him, eyeing him critically. "But, at least we aren't alone. We have a plan. What's yours Bart? To follow after Blue Beetle and just hope you can stop whatever tries to take control of him? To scare him so much that he decides to stop being a hero altogether?"
"No. Yes. Ma-maybe! Blue's a good hero and all but if the Reach get him lots of bad stuff is going to happen so if him not being one is what it takes to keep himsafethen-then!" Bart replied, sentences tumbling together almost too fast to be comprehended. He swallowed down the knot in his throat and looked away, his teeth clenching hard enough to make his jaw ache. When he finally spoke again, his voice was barely above a whisper, afraid if he said it too loud his entire dream would shatter, "I just… don't want to see my future come true."
There was a creak as Nightwing pushed away from the desk and approached him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Neither do I." The hand there tightened some, feeling strong, reassuring. "So let me help. And together, we'll all make sure it doesn't happen."
Bart looked up at the other. He knew the decision he made now could change everything. But the other day had been too close a call already – if it weren't for Miss Martian freeing him from that pod, he never would have gotten to Jaime in time before they got him on mode… or worse.
He was totally way in over his head, wasn't he?
"You tell me about Aqualad and Artemis and I'll tell you everything I know." He placed a hand over his grumbling stomach. "Throwing in a bag of Chicken Whizzies would be crash too."
Dick chuckled in amusement. "I'll get twenty."
Blüdhaven, June 12th 6:58 EDT
Light danced along Bart's pale face as he watched the newscast, the screen shading him in sickly greens and unnatural blues as the camera panned between the Reach ambassador and Blue Beetle.
"The Reach is striving to make the world a better place for me and you! Together, we'll create a new age!" Blue Beetle was saying, spreading the Reach's false propaganda. In Jaime's voice. With Jaime's face. After everything the armored hero tried to do to stop this from happening, even willing to put his life on the line for it, this… this was the biggest insult.
He didn't realize he was vibrating from fury until he went straight through his chair and sprawled across the floor. The newscast continued, the crowd cheering at each new lie his moded friend came up with, and Bart was pretty sure he wanted to vomit.
"I think that's enough." There was a click and the room darkened, the only source of light now the age dimmed fluorescents up above. Bart turned his head, seeing Nightwing at the top of the stairs, remote in hand. He crossed his arms over the railing, peering down at him. "Too much TV's bad for the brain you know."
"I don't. Didn't have it." He replied and sat up, crossing his legs. "Kind of glad if that's what great 'primetime television' is." Footfalls echoed as Nightwing descended to the lower level but Bart didn't look up at him even when he came to stop beside him. "I'll get him back." He promised to his ankles because at least they never failed to help his feet from running wherever he needed to go. Not like the rest of him. Why did he get to have such great ankles anyways? They probably were his grandfather's.
A package of donuts was dropped over them. "Eat up. You and Batgirl are Beta." His leader turned, heading back towards the upper level. "It's time for Plan B."
As Nightwing disappeared, phone already in hand as he speed-dialed Zatanna, Bart looked up at the space of wall in which the holographic picture of his best friend had once shown, hands clenching tight around his knees. "We will get you back Blue."
I promise.
Notes:
Why is it that whenever I write a story the major theme is lying?
Anyways, not entirely sure what this little drabble is – or if it's good. Or if the characterization is good. It's just… here. Existing. Poorly characterized to boot I'll bet.
I do like the think that Nightwing confronted Bart about his dishonesty when Blue Beetle revealed it but likely this isn't how it happened since Zatanna had said she studied the spell to free Jaime 'for months'. Which means likely Bart told someone pretty much right when he got there which in turn indicates he likely doesn't have trust issues but it was still fun to write anyways.