Ha, yeah, wasn't so sure I could update this so soon after the last one but I felt that those to chapters go together and you can't have one without the other. Mostly because it was originally one chapter, but I felt it was too long.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
RECOGNIZED: ROBIN B-01
With a feeling of slight shock, Dick realized that he never changed his name to Nightwing. He never got the chance. He was tempted to, but he got a feeling of nostalgia. He let it be. With a heavy heart, Dick looked around at Mount Justice. Or at least the inside of it.
Known to a select few as the Cave. Tears pricked his eyes as a feeling of sadness swept over him. This place. This was where it had all started. It was the original headquarters of the Justice League. Then it became something else. Then it became nothing, an empty shell for people who will never walk its halls or secret passages again.
It was forgotten. Dick walked into the living room/kitchen area. After all these years, the faint scent of burned cookies lingered. Dick smiled sadly as tears began to blur his vision as he thought of them. He sunk down onto the floor, his back to the couch.
He had not been to this place in years. The silence seemed overwhelmingly. Heh, whelm.
"You're overwhelmed, Freeze was underwhelmed, why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?"
"What is it with you and this whelm thing?"
Dick chuckled, half-crying. If he listened hard enough, he could still hear the echoes of what once was here. He missed them. So much. Now he could only hear echoes of them, of all the things they went through, good and bad, on duty or not. Everything was just too much at once and it felt like the world was spinning and spiraling out of control.
"Hello Megan!"
"Red Arrow was so wrong-" "-this team thing-" "-might just work out."
"Feeling the aster."
"ROBIN!?" *cackles in the background*
"My cookies!"
"I didn't want my best pal questioning my objectivity." "Dude, that's what a best pal's for."
"Symbiosi. Together."
"ARTEMIS!"
"That's not me. I don't wanna be the Batman anymore."
"I feel so silly. Who knew a Martian could be vulnerable to a human virus?" "Uh, H.G. Wells?"
"Is it always like this?" A little while later, "It is always like this!"
"Get trought, or get dead!"
"Human customs elude me."
He could still see them. Picture them clearly. Hear their laughter echo in the halls. See them smiling. Hear their voices.
"Wall-man, huh. What, exactly, are your powers?"
"Let go of her, you darn dirty ape!"
"I feel naked, and not in a fun way."
"No-o-o-o, nothing odd going on here."
"A moment of silence for our, ah, absent comrade." "Poor Wally."
"Oh, I am not nearly drowning three missions in a row!"
"Be as chalant as you want."
"I HATE MONKEYS!"
"I've always wanted an earth sister."
"Aww, man, I knew we'd be the last ones here."
Dick squeezed his eyes shut as he remembered what used to be here. The smell of burning cookies, the melody of laughter, the shouts of anger and the chases that followed. The sounds of a wolf, the whirl of a mechanical sphere, movie nights, video game marathons. All of it was gone now.
"WALLACE RUDOPH WEST!" "DON'T KILL ME?!"
"What do you mean you accidently gave them pot brownies?" "Well it's not my fault they ate them."
"You get to explain all of this-"*gestures to flaming warehouse* "-to Batman." *laughs*
"Move over! You're hoggin' the TV!"
"Not if you kidnap me." "Oh, she's gonna fit in great."
"Sweet! Souvenir!"
"Quit touching yourself!"
"Amnesia, remember? I forgot how truly annoying you are." "Oh, like you're the goddess of congeniality?"
"Can I keep him?"
"DON'T CALL US SIDEKICKS!"
It seemed so unfair. No one remembered them. Young Justice, better known as the Team, was forgotten. A painful memory that no one wanted to bring up. They were forgotten. They. Were. Forgotten.
Dick's teammates, his friends, his family, they were forgotten. Barely anyone knew they existed, and some people didn't know the truth about them because they were civilians. Some people will never know. They aren't meant to. But they still deserve to know.
"But it never mattered. You aren't your family. You're one of us."
"We'll laugh about this someday."
"Secret."
Others deserve to know. It's just painful to talk about. For everyone involved. Including the League members who knew the Team, even if they didn't have a protégé on the Team. Dick heard footsteps in the silence. He didn't bother getting up. Something about them was familiar.
"Dick, what was that about?" "Nothing, Barbara, just being friendly to the new girl."
"My friends, you act as if I have been away for years when it has only been-" "Two months."
*eye roll* "You're still my sister. I don't want you dead."
"I have to find the real Roy."
"He claims you're his 'blood sister' now."
"So . . . You're here."
A familiar voice said. Dick knew that voice as well as he knew his own.
"I couldn't believe it when I had gotten the alert from the system I set up. I came back here a while ago, you know? I still come here sometimes. I set up the alert system just in case someone else came."
Wally West sat next to him. For who knows how long, they were silent, staring in front of each other. It felt right to have Wally here. To have someone who's been with him since the beginning.
"Together, on our own, we forged something powerful. Important."
"It's KID FLASH, why is that so hard?"
"Well, maybe you'll feel more turbed when we kick your can!"
"The four of us."
"Why let them tell us what to do? It's simple. Get on board or get out of the way."
"I like your t-shirt."
"Stop it." "What?" "I can feel you glaring at each other."
"Feeling the aster."
"Pot, kettle. Have you met?"
"Well . . . Still not giving her the satisfaction!" "I can hear you!"
Dick broke the silence. "Yeah. I'm here. I-I haven't been here since . . ." His voice trailed off. "Do you come here a lot?"
"I do." Wally said. "It's where I can think and no one will bother me. And it's one of the places I can be closest to her. Everywhere else . . . They're gone. It's like they never existed."
"Like they never mattered." Dick's voice broke.
Wally nudged him. "Dude, they matter to us."
"They do. Do you ever . . . miss them?" Dick asked, thinking it was a stupid question. Of course Wally would miss them.
"All the time. Sometimes I wonder what would've happened if they were still alive. Then I remember that wishful thinking gets me nowhere." Answered Wally.
They both fell silent again, remembering. The silence became awkward as neither could think of something to say. After years of fighting, of placing blame, they were tired of it.
Suddenly, Dick burst into laughter. Everything seemed immensely funny all of a sudden. Wally started laughing along with him. Both of them were half-laughing, half-crying.
"It's like-like we're both eleven and thirteen again!" Dick choked out.
Wally fell sideways on the floor. "All's we need is Roy-joy telling us to cut the sappy crap before we make him vomit!"
The two looked at each other, falling silent at the mention of Roy. Then they started laughing and crying harder. It was something Roy would do.
When they were both quiet again, with the occasional chuckle, Dick said, "Hey, Wally?" Wally turned to him. "I'm sorry for not being here. You're my brother, and I wasn't - I wasn't - "
Wally tried to reassure him. "Dude, it's okay. It's the big brother's job to take care of the little brother, and I wasn't there for you."
Dick gave a short laugh. "I remember telling Damian something similar after I-after I got-"
"Shot in the head?" Wally finished. "By the way, you're a jackass for that. Do you know how worried I was for that? We may not be the best friends like we were, but you're still my little brother. Which makes you my best bro. I have a right to worry."
Dick nodded guiltily. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"
Wally decided to finish his sentence again. "Scare the shit outta me? Yeah, I know. Just don't . . . Don't do it again. Dick, just don't die, okay?"
Dick nodded.
After that, both of them fell silent once more. They started to think about everything, about what happened.
Dick . . . For once, he enjoyed being the little brother again. To have someone at his back, to fix his mistakes. Of course, he wouldn't trade Jason, Tim, or Damian for anything, but Wally . . . He had known Wally practically from the start. Wally was the one who was there for Dick after everything, and probably was one of the few people on the planet who knew everything about him.
Wally was happy that he got his little brother back. He knew that Dick had his own little brothers to take care of, but before he was an older brother he was Wally's little brother. Roy's little brother. Kaldur's little brother. Arty's little brother.
The little brother of the Team. Wally didn't want to see his little brother break down and fall apart.
Once, he made a promise to protect Dick with Roy and Kaldur. Later, Connor and Arty joined, along with M'Gann. The others never got a chance, and Zatanna was kind of his girlfriend so . . . Yeah. Now, it was only Wally left to fulfill that promise.
"Be as chalant as you like."
The Team . . . Everything had been going great.
"I'm liking this Team thing more every day."
"Red Arrow was -" "- so wrong." "This team thing -" "- might just work out."
Wally supposed the only thing they did wrong was pose a major threat to the Light. So after New Year's, the Light began to take them out one by one. By the time Dick was fifteen, everyone but Wally and Dick were dead. And the Team started when Dick was thirteen.
Understandably, Batman went all over protective. So did the Flash and other Leaguers. Dick didn't like that. Neither were okay with it. Dick eventually ran away. He formed the Teen Titans with Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg.
A short while later, Wally ran, too. He eventually joined the Titans. They couldn't stand each other in the Titans. They pretended they didn't know each other, and they fought practically every time they saw each other.
They looked at each other. It showed in their eyes they were thinking the same thing, and they could read each other's minds as if the mental link was still there. Without a word, both of them got up. They smiled sadly at scuff marks on the wall, or even a hole, remembering how it got there.
They walked down the hallways with the closed doors. They passed Kaldur's first. Then Superboy's. Then Wally's. Then Dick's. And lastly, Roy's. On the other side of the mountain, in a different hallway were another set of doors, this time with the doors on the right instead of the left.
They were Megan's, Artemis', Zatanna's, and Rocket's rooms. The silence seemed to weigh them down, thick and heavy. The sadness felt like a fog covering them. The story of Young Justice is a sad one, both Dick and Wally knew that, they were a part of it.
After New Year's when they defeated the Light and the Light decided to kill all of them, they started to fall. Artemis was the first to be killed. Her father, Sportsmaster, killed her mother one day when he broke into their apartment. She came after him, and he murdered her. They never found the body, they only got pictures of it curtesy of Sportsmaster.
It was just after Valentine's Day. Wally was heartbroken, and became catatonic. Green Arrow just went through the motions of each day. He was alive, but he was dead on the inside. They all were. Red Arrow had been shaken, but he continued his search for the original Roy Harper. Or as he called him, the real Roy.
The original Cheshire, who was Artemis' older sister Jade Ngyuen, found out. She came after Sportsmaster, and killed him. Then she disappeared.
"Dad'll come after you." "Let 'im. I'll disappear, like the Cheshire Cat."
The current Cheshire is a clone of the original. The clone was made because in order to find out if it was safe to clone someone, they needed a test subject, and they used the original Cheshire's DNA. Jade never found out about her clone. The clone got out, or was released, and acted like the original Cheshire, but was missing some major components of Jade's memory. And the nicer part of her personality. She was also slightly younger than the original Cheshire.
The sad thing was, they were starting to change Cheshire. She was becoming the equivalent of what an anti-hero was now. The fact that she cared for her little sister (Artemis) helped, and they eventually adopted her as a sort of honorary member. Cheshire had remained guarded a little, because of everything that had happened to her, but she had been coming around.
"Haven't you learned anything? In this family, it's every girl for herself."
Roy, Red Arrow, was next. He had been desperately searching for the original Roy Harper after learning he was a clone.
"I was the mole?"
In that time, he and Cheshire had grown to care for one another and he began to treat Artemis like a younger sister. When they saw each other. To any normal person, their sibling rivalry was a little overboard, but to the Team it was completely normal.
With Cheshire gone and a clone in her place, Roy tried to track down the original Cheshire by finding out where the clone came from. The romance between the two was a strange one, but it worked for them. Roy couldn't just let her disappear, he had to go find her. So he took a break from searching for the real Roy to search for the real Cheshire.
He tracked a lead down to somewhere in Tibet. Instead of finding the original Cheshire, he found the original Roy Arrow got the original Roy Harper out. He didn't get himself out. Red Arrow was overwhelmed, and they killed him. The baddies disposed of the body, not even letting them have what was left of Red Arrow.
The original Roy Harper later became known as Arsenal, and the blue hat he wore was actually once his clone Red Arrow's. If you looked at it closely, you could see the outline of letters advertising Star City's baseball team. Green Arrow had once taken Red Arrow to a baseball game and gotten him that hat.
Arsenal eventually met the Teen Titian's and joined them. Green Arrow didn't respond all that well to him, and Arsenal resented the fact that Oliver had given up on him. So, yeah, not a good relationship. Eventually, he met Cheshire. Or at least, the clone Cheshire, who happened to now be his age.
And, well, the rest is history for Cheshire and Arsenal. Now Arsenal had formed a group called the Outlaws with Red Hood and Starfire. Arsenal didn't know about the Team. Or Red Arrow. He just knew he had been on ice for a few years. He and Nightwing became pretty good friends when they were with the Titans.
Because he had been cryo-frozen, Arsenal hadn't aged, and he was freed about two years before joining the Titans, making him seventeen, nearly the same age as Robin. And the same physical age as Cheshire's clone.
Superboy was next. Match had been released, and the fight that ensued was devastating. They ended up in a Lex Corp facility. Later, Dick, Wally, and the others found out that was where they were intended to end up. Later was too late, though. They couldn't save Superboy.
Luthor unveiled hidden pockets of kryptonite he had in the room, weakening and leaving Match and Superboy vulnerable. Because of the fight, the building had been evacuated. Luthor blew it up. Since he was left vulnerable by the kryptonite, Superboy died along with Match, and his body became ashes.
The Team treated Superman a little coldly afterwards. Superboy and Superman hadn't been on the best of terms still, despite starting to try at New Year's. Superboy's death happened in April, a few months after the death of Artemis. It was another devastating blow to the Team.
M'Gann became prone to crying at every little thing, and kept the mind link up at all times to know where everyone was. It was always a faint presence in the back of their minds. She became as depressed as she was during the failsafe incident, except she wasn't afraid to use her powers.
Rocket was next. One of Ivo's robots did it. At that point, they had given up trying to pretend they weren't coming after the protégés. The mentors were frantic. As a result, they were being overprotective, and they argued with their protégés.
On one such fight, Rocket had flown out to the Grand Canyon alone. They knew this because she had called Zatanna to let her know where she was going, saying she needed to cool down. Icon had wanted her to stop being Rocket. The two had a fight about it. Rocket refused to stop.
Ivo sent his robot, and Rocket called for back-up. Dick, Wally, and what remained of the Team rushed to help. They didn't get there in time. The robot took away her belt, and exploded, killing Rocket and taking a good chunk of the Grand Canyon with it. Rocket died months after Superboy in July.
Now it was Kaldur's turn to be heartbroken. The two had sort of a thing going on. Icon was devastated. He took Rocket in as his own daughter, had allowed her to be Rocket, and now she was dead. He put himself on the League's reserve roster, still publically a League member. Eventually, he was forgotten by the public as new heroes came and he appeared less and less.
And then there were only Kaldur, Dick, Wally, M'Gann, and Zatanna left. At that point, Doctor Fate was freaking out, and Zatara was who-the-hell-knows. Oh wait, Doctor Fate would know. Shortly after Rocket's death, Fate took Zatanna to the mystical realm, and his safe haven in it. He said it was for her training, and to keep her safe. It was the beginning of September when Zatanna left.
The others had kind of expected it. After all, Zatara had become Doctor Fate to keep his daughter safe. Zatanna dead kind of defeated that purpose. It still hurt all of them. Dick took it the hardest, Zatanna was his sort of girlfriend.
He hadn't asked her out officially. He knew she was hurting at the death of her best friend Artemis, and he didn't want to rub it in Wally's face that his girlfriend was alive. So he never asked, knowing it would only hurt Wally to see that he had a girlfriend.
They hadn't heard from Zatanna for years.
After she left, all of the League members were trying to keep it together for the remainder of the Team. At least three times a day, a League member would stop by, and of course Red Tornado was always at the Cave. Black Canary was always at the Cave a lot, but now she ended up being there more.
Meanwhile, for Robin and Batman, things had gotten tenser. Same with the other mentors and protégés. Miss Martian and Kaldur died together, a little over a year after the others. The Light had wanted to wait so the League would loosen their protection.
It had been a simple recon mission, their first mission in almost a year since Zatanna left. It was also a few days before Thanksgiving.
The building they were in went up in flames as they were leaving. Because Miss Martian was still hurting from all of the deaths, Psimon easily breached her mind, and made her set fire to the lab she was in. He made her tell the others to go.
When they were outside the building, they realized the trick. Aqualad raced inside, ordering Kid Flash and Robin to stay outside. They nearly didn't, but Aqualad begged them, saying he would have some peace of mind if he knew they made it.
If only they didn't listen.
They stayed. Kaldur went in. The main generator started to overheat. Some of the chemicals in the building were unstable, and before they knew it, the building exploded. The worst part? Both Dick and Wally were in contact with Aqualad and Miss Martian until the moment the building exploded and they died.
It was horrible. After having the mind link up for so long, they were used to it. It was comforting to know it was there. They could understand each other better with the mind link, since they could feel each other's emotions. Now there was an empty hole in their heads where that faint buzz used to be. There was only silence.
There was no way to put into words how Dick and Wally felt. They both stayed in their own houses, and needless to say, they didn't celebrate Thanksgiving that year. Instead, they cried for all of the friends they lost. They could only assume Doctor Fate told Zatanna that Aqualad, and Miss Martian were dead.
They could only wonder which of them would die next. When Robin was shot by the Joker after disobeying Batman and following him out on patrol, Batman and Robin's partnership reached its breaking point. Strained by all of the deaths and the threat of Dick dying, Batman fired Dick from Robin.
Even now, Wally regretted that he hadn't been there for Dick. It was only a few days after Dick's birthday. He was officially fifteen. He ran away, and Wally also regretted that he hadn't been there then. See, Wally had called after seeing the news, and agreed with Bruce's choice to fire Dick. That really hurt Dick.
Dick formed the Titans, who had no connection at all to the League. Wally eventually plucked up his own courage and ran away. He joined the Titans, and took his school classes online like Dick had been doing. Arsenal joined up, and Wally got along with Arsenal well enough.
He sort of resented the fact that Arsenal took his place as Robin's best friend. Dick hadn't really forgiven him for agreeing with Bruce. Wally and Dick fought a lot, and they sort of became known for not getting along well. Looking back on it, they were tempted to laugh at the irony.
They had gotten along once. They'd been the best of friends. The unstoppable demonic duo. But no one hates you more than someone you once cared about. Young Justice, the Team, was slowly forgotten. The public had never known about them. Helloooo, covert ops team. Well, they weren't that covert, but they were good enough that the smaller villains, crooks, and the public didn't know about them.
Superboy, Artemis, Miss Martian, and Zatanna weren't well known and were regarded as rumors. Maybe if they had lived (or in Zatanna's case, were here), they'd be well-known now. But they weren't alive, and Wally and Dick both tried not to dwell on the might have been's.
Because for all the words written with paper and pen, the saddest are what might have been.
They hated that the world would never know of the sacrifice the members of the Team made. The public knew that Robin and Kid Flash were still around, and they thought Arsenal was Red Arrow with a new name, never mind the fact that Arsenal was clearly younger.
Icon just stopped being a hero, gradually doing less and left until he just didn't do it all. The public forgot about him what with the rare appearances, and they forgot Rocket, too. It wasn't fair.
Wally and Dick came back to the living room. They sat down back by the couch, and they talked about who knew the truth about the Team. And where they were.
If they didn't know, Dick brought up a screen to find out. Despite being years old, the systems were still top notch and they still functioned. They both just talked. Dick had to admit, he missed having Wally at his side. Wally had to admit that he missed his little brother. Dick missed being a little brother, always having someone there who could fix and make up for his mistakes.
It was nice to be able to turn to Wally for advice like he used to.
They talked some more. Dick asked what had happened after he left. Wally told him that Batman disbanded Young Justice officially. Red Tornado shut himself down, and was up in his quarters at the Cave.
Wolf ran off into the woods.
Sphere had remained deactivated, the way she had been since Connor had died.
It made Dick sad that none of the others had known about Young Justice. He had a feeling they would've loved it. Wally and Dick got up and left, agreeing to meet up once a week at the Cave. They also agreed to try and find Wolf. Both of them hoped Wolf was still alive. Both of them hoped they could repair the damage they did to each other.
The members of Young Justice were all but dead. They were all but forgotten. The only ones who remained to remember what once was were Wally and Dick, two original members of the Team. The League had already forgotten. But Dick would make sure he didn't, and so would Wally.
They owed it to the Team, who are (even dead) their family.
"Today is the day."
I nearly made myself cry. I'm a terrible person. Happy MLK day if you celebrate it/care. Yes, the italicized parts are from the show, though a few are of my own creation.
Please review.