Hey, how you been? So I had the worst day ever; I was unable to watch the season finale of Young Justice: Invasion when it aired, and as I was catching up with everything I was only able to watch it last night. KID FLASH WHY?! I can't even right now… and how dare they cancel the third season, whatever little tolerance I had left for Cartoon Network has now been completely destroyed. So much for caring for their fan base. Ok rant over. Sorry this is a day late. R&R!

I own no one in Young Justice, if I did; I wouldn't be feeling so angry right now!

Roses Have Thorns – Chapter 2

Fragile

Machines beeped and whizzed, monitoring the steady progress of the unconscious third boy wonder. Black Canary stayed with him, preforming her own personal checks, her hand perfectly steady as she filled in her chart, all was still and peaceful, you could have heard a pin drop. The calm before the storm. She stretched out; happy that would be no immediate change if she was to leave for a ten minute break. She ran a hand through her blonde wavy curls as the automatic doors opened. Striding through the corridor her black heeled boots tapping out a rhythmic tune on the hard floor, she was made aware of raised voices, well, one raised voice, and she had an idea of what she would find when she entered the living area.

The storm had arrived. "What happened?" Batman had gathered all the young kids that had gone on the mission earlier on in there and he was grilling them. "You already know what happened." Said Cassie in a shaky voice. She stood in between Bart and Jamie, Garfield tagged on the end next to the speedster. "He did everything you asked him to," Bart defended Cassie, none of them could be blamed, not really, they thought they had done their job, the Bat was just mad. "He stayed out of the way all the way through the fight, he only came down when we thought we had defeated the robot thing, honest to god. None of use saw it coming." Batman was seething, Nightwing going to move between him and the speedster, thinking of Wally, Canary concluded that there must be a super enhanced annoying gene that came with the speed.

Black canary decided to make her presence known, adding her knowledge, not wanting the kids to be blamed for something they hadn't done. "They really didn't Batman." He looked up, masked eyes burrowing into hers, she stood her ground. "The wounds Robin obtained that weren't already there prior to the mission follow that of a pattern of someone who didn't defend themselves; he didn't know they were going to get blasted." She smiled at the kids, making them visibly relax, "Although," She continued, "The impact coupled with all that bruising hasn't done him any favours, he's sedated but stable, well done to who ever got to him first, you managed to stop the thing from doing any more damage and made sure Robin stayed still, preventing any neck injury."

"Uh, yeah about that…" The adults looked at Beastboy as the others looked around sheepishly, "Um, that wasn't us." Batman paused for a moment, taking that in. "What do you mean it wasn't you?" There was a moment of silence broken by Jamie saying, "Wellllll… Um, maybe it would be better if you came with us. In fact maybe we could take Nightwing and BC first; we'll come and meet you in a minute Batman." Cassie took the lead, leaving the living area and a very confused Bat behind, taking the group down the corridor that held all the bedrooms. She stood outside what once was Artemis bedroom, she looked at her teen companion's her nerves evident, her gaze flitted quickly towards the two adults before taking a deep breath and knocking five times in fast concession on the metal door.

After a couple of seconds the door opened and they walked inside, the lights were dim making it hard to see, but even with this impairing his vision, Nightwing was still able to make out a figure barley perched on the bed that had once and still on occasion belonged to his best friend's girlfriend. His hands automatically went to his belt locating a staff with his left and a birdarang with his right. Someone flicked on the light. His eyes adjusted and he saw a girl. Her eyes flicked worriedly between everyone in the room. "Oh god," She began to say, Nightwing couldn't detect any type of ascent. Her raven hair tumbled just passed her shoulders to accompany the dark eyes that were set in her delicate pale face; a chain doll was the first thing he thought of, perfect in its own right, yet so easily shattered. "You're not in trouble are you?" She stood up, walking towards them, "It's my… I… I wanted to make sure that…" Her voice died unable to finish.

BB took over standing next to her; his tail came to rest on her shoulder instead of his hand. "Guys, this is Rose, she saved Robin, it was all her." She blushed a fantastic shade crimson, clearly embarrassed. "Well… I… you guys did most of the damage, I just… I don't know, hit it?" The teens laughed at the girl. Nightwing, even tough still wary, decided to release the birdarang, and moved his hand away from the staff, yet still leaving it as an option. He looked sideways at BC wondering what they should do next, Bats would surely eat her alive, but they still needed to make him aware, they nodded. "Rose, my name is Black Canary and this is Nightwing, we're members of the Justice League, could you come with us please? You have to speak to Batman." The heroes all gasped shaking their heads, "NO!" They all said in unison, "He'll kill her, he'll kill us!" Bart actually whimpered huddling together with the others, Rose protectively held in the middle. It was quite comical all things considering. "Rose?" BC didn't pull her away from the group, but opened her arms gesturing to the door, the young girl stepped away from the group, walking towards the two adults.

They began to walk from the room, the young heroes made to follow, "Um guys, maybe it would be best if you stayed here." Nightwing advised, they stopped dead, contemplating an angry Bat, they nodded. "Good luck." They chorused as he followed Black Canary and the new girl Rose out of the room. The three walked in silence into the living room, where an unaware Bat was waiting, the young girl was visibly scarred, dreading what was about to come, the dark knights reparation clearly presiding him. Canary opened the door separating the corridor from the living room. All of them walked in, Rose hidden from sight behind the older women. "Well," growled an annoyed sounding Batman. "What was all of that?"

"You have to understand Batman, that the kids were just doing what they thought was right." Canary was damned if she was going to let Batman scare her, and it was her honest opinion that the teens had been doing the right thing. "Yeah Batman, just stay whelmed." Batman blinked at his first ward, that was the second time today he had made reference to his old self, with the laugh and now this, he wondered if he was feeling alright. He didn't get time to answer however as the pair stepped aside to reveal a girl.

Batman glared, he glared some more and just when he thought he couldn't glare anymore for fear of shattering her under his stare before questioning her he asked, "And who is this…?" There was only silence in the room, broken by her rapid, shallow breathing, "I'm Rose." He stood there and watched, she was clearly terrified of him, the way she was standing gave an air of fight or flight, in her case it would be wise to pick the latter of the two, she did not however, "I was walking around downtown Gotham when that thing starting to destroy everything. I saw your heroes get attacked when they thought the robot was down, one of them, Robin, he got flung of his feet and crashed into a nearby alley, he hadn't looked too good before so I followed, stopped the monster from killing him by bashing it, I stayed with him until his friends came to."

"You were the one that saved him?" A nod, "And why are you here?" She looked down at her feet, hands twisting, fingers knotting together and untying themselves. "I know bad injury's when I see them, I…I live on the streets, I have to be able to take care of myself, I just wanted to make sure Robin was okay, it looked like a serious concussion." She didn't look up at him, she must feel ashamed he thought, a homeless child stood in front of three members of the Justice League, well two, Nightwing was more of a work with them as he pleased type of person. He caught the attention of Nightwing, gesturing towards a door to the side that lead to the medical bay, "Canary go and get the other teens." With that his old ward followed him into the white room.

"What you thinking Batman?" Nightwing leant against the wall, the sole of his black boot on the cleansed white. "I think that she's a very brave young lady." His eldest son nodded, "She went up against that thing with no prior training and no consideration for her own personal safety and she managed to take down the robot with only from what I have gathered to be self-taught defence techniques tailored I'm guessing ,to bring down Gotham thugs." There was a moment of silence in which both men looked over to the younger member of the Bat-family, dosed up and unconscious, sleeping off the concussion and giving his exhausted and battered body a chance to heal. "With a little bit of training…" The dark knight cut him off straight away, "No."

"You saw first-hand from the robot that's with Tornado that the kid has style, what you gunna do, chuck her back on the streets? Not even you're that heatless." A growl stopped him dead in his tracks, "We know nothing about her, nothing apart from what we've been told, I am not willing to risk the team…" Nightwing cut him off, "A member of the team was just saved by her, I think we can safely say she's a good kid." And so, with the sleeping form of the third Robin always with in their sights, they continued their heated discussion.

"Did he kill you?" BB flew out of the room and latched himself onto the poor girl; Canary had to fight the urge to laugh, "Obviously not Banana Breath, she's still here." Cassie walked through the boys crowded around the door, pushing BB not unkindly out of the way to get to the smaller girl and hug her herself. "If she can take down a robot, she can face down the Bat." The blonde women clad in black shook her head slightly, "Batman wants speak with you, all of you." She emphasised as Jamie tried to sneak away. They all groaned at her not wanting to face the punishment for in their opinion what had been a good deed. Never the less they followed the young woman back into the living room where and indifferent Batman and a nonchalant Nightwing stood.

"Your actions today have been… questionable to say the least." The heroes hung their heads, receiving the first of the lashings. "You destroyed most of downtown Gotham, and seriously misjudged your opponent, leading you all the gain multiple varying injures as well as leaving the fate of your team mate in the hands of a complete stranger and the seeing fight to bring that stranger, whom you knew nothing about back into the high security of the mountain." Nightwing stood there, feeling terrible for the team, but knowing they would no doubt enjoy what was coming next. "However," Batman continued, "The ability of said stranger, by all accounts is commendable," Rose raised her head a fraction of an inch, "And as such an emergency meeting of the Justice League has been called in order to see what happens next, for now however… Rose may stay in the…" The rest of his sentence hung incomplete in the air as he was bombarded with excited words of thanks and praise. Batman grumbled and left for the Tower, closely followed by Nightwing, Canary being ordered to stay behind to keep an eye on Robin and the other teens, as the Zeta tubes announced their departure, said teens all jumped on Rose.

-Y.J-Y.J-Y.J-

"Sir, news from the front line." The silhouetted figure waved him away, completely engrossed in security footage from one of the downtown Gotham alley cameras hidden in the many walls lining the multiple streets. He watched as a small raven haired girl took down the robot the teens had failed to defeat, leant into his high backed chair as she ran over to the fallen bird, no doubt offering him words of comfort. "We'll have to keep an eye on this one." He said softly before switching off the screen as the girl lifted the birds fragile head onto her dirty knees. He reached for a communicator in his pocket, flicking the switch, ready to make contact with his new second in command.