Chapter 3: Anew Beginning

Mt. Justice, Library

March 26, 11:00

"I guess that the only thing you can attribute to your father is your jet black hair." Roy laughed as he swiped my bangs to the side. "So, how have you been?"

"I've been good." I reply as I step to the side trying to get away from him. "I've been on tons of missions with my father. I've also helped him save Japan a couple of times."

"I've heard." He said. "It was everywhere." He smiled.

"How about you, Roy?" I asked him.

"I've also been good." He replied. "I finally got my way to prove to them that I'm no longer a sidekick."

"Richard told me about that." I say.

"Anyways…changing the subject." He said as he sat on the table. "Do you still remember that summer day, before you left for Japan?"

"After the events in Star City, right?"

"Yes…" he paused. "Do you still feel the same way?" he asked a bit nervously.

I sit next to him on the table and place my hands over my skirt. "It's…been a long time, Roy." I say as I lowered my head. "Love has crossed paths with me twice in Japan. But only once, it became my path."

He leaned back on his arms and let out a sigh of disappointment. "I guess we're not on the same boat like before…"

I look at him and give him a gentle smile, not knowing what to answer him. I don't want to hurt his feelings over something that was, but now isn't.

"Ugh, I feel stupid now!" He growled as he now lay completely over the table. "Anyways, we should get back to the others before they start spreading rumors of us." He said as he curled up and impulse himself from the table.

"Right." I say as I stood up from the table and walked out of the library with him.

As we opened the door, we saw the rest of the Team standing outside with eyes wide opened. Their faces immediately changed to fear when they saw Roy stand behind me with his arms crossed. I turn to look at him, and there was no once of doubt in any of us that he was pissed. Roy took a deep breath, and as he was about to talk, we heard Batman's voice call for us over to the mission room over the sound system.

We all rushed to the mission and find Batman, Robin, Red Tornado, and Black Canary standing in the center. Robin looked as if his mind was clouded in thoughts. Batman then called out for me and told me to say goodbye to the Team until our next reunion.

After saying our farewells, Batman, Robin, and I head to where we first arrived at the base. We step inside of the Zeta-Beam and head back to Gotham.

Gotham City

Wayne Manor

April 10, 04:00

"Sofía, wake up!" I heard Bruce yell from a far.

"Soph, please! Wake up!" I could hear Richard as he cried.

I wake up gasping for air at the sound of their voices as launched to sit up straight on my bed. Richard immediately jumped to hug me as he kept weeping.

"You're finally awake, Soph!" he hugged me tighter. "Bruce, this is not normal! You have to take her to the hospital. Today draws the line!" he argued.

"There's not much that they can do for her, Richard." Bruce said almost teared up.

"W-What's wrong?" I asked. "I know I had a nightmare, but it's nothing to worry about." I assured them.

"Your room's medical sensors went crazy, Sophie!" Richard kept crying. "At first I thought it was Alfred's, until I saw that it showed your room's location."

"You almost died in the R.E.M. stage of your dream. Your body wasn't responding to the drop in your pulse." Bruce added.

"Really?" I asked alarmed. "That's never happened to me before."

"Do you remember anything that happened within your dream?" Bruce asked.

I stare at Bruce for a while before I hug Richard and lean my head on his shoulder. "I saw your parents Bruce. Their bodies lay coldly on a dark alley's ground. But they muttered your name, even though they were dead. They kept saying Bruce, give her back. And that's when you showed up. You…" I breathe in and out. "You were possessed…you tried to kill me."

"My parents?" Bruce asked.

"Martha and Thomas Wayne…" I add as I looked up to him.

"What?! How do you…" he asked in shock. "I could never do such a thing, Sofía!" he sighs heavily. "It was…just a dream, okay? What's important is that you didn't stay asleep." He smiled as he pat my head. "Richard, stay with her here. Watch her just in case it happens again."

"I will." Richard replied as he backed away and began to prepare a nest of pillows next to my bed.

"Sir," We heard Alfred say as he entered the room with a phone in hand. "You have a very important call."

Bruce then proceeded to take the phone from Alfred and left my room with him.

Meanwhile…

"Hello?" Bruce said as he answered the phone call.

"Bruce, it's Nakamura…the seal…it's been breached." Akira said with a serious tone.

"I know…she almost died." Bruce assures him.

"I sensed it…" you could hear the grief in Akira's voice. "Bruce, it's time for Plan B. You need to get in contact with Nabu before it's too late."

"I'll contact him as soon as possible through Zatara. In the meantime, try holding the seal together." Bruce replies.

"That, I do." Akira affirms.

"Thanks for everything, Nakamura."

"Don't worry about it. You know that I'd do anything for her." Said Akira. "Take care, Bruce."

"You too." Bruce replies before hanging up.

Wayne Manor

April 10, 16:00

I sat quietly in Bruce's home office, as he kept doing his paperwork. I can't help but to feel awkward around him after what I told him early this morning about my dream. I've practically spent the entire day in here, helping around by filing papers and organizing his file while Dick was at school. Suddenly, we hear a knock on the door. "Master Wayne, you've got special visitors." Alfred said from the other side of the door as he opened it. A middle aged man with black hair and green eyes had entered Bruce's office. Bruce welcomed him with a smile from his desk.

"So, this must be the young Sofía Nakamura that I've heard about!" The man said with a bit of Italian accent.

"You are correct, Giovanni." Bruce said as he looked at me.

The man then approached me and grabbed my hand. "Nice to meet you Miss Sofía Nakamura." He shook my hand as he smiled at me. "Won, og otni a peed peels."

As he said those words everything began to blur into darkness as I heard someone else enter the room…

"Sofía, can you hear me?" I heard Bruce say from far away.

I open my eyes as everything begins to fade into color. My head hurts a bit as my vision adjusts to the dim lighting in the room. I notice that I'm not in Bruce's office anymore, but in my bedroom. I sit up on my bed, and notice that Richard is sound asleep by my feet. I look next to me, and notice Bruce standing next to me.

"Weren't we just at your office?" I asked confused.

"We were." He replied.

I look at the windows and notice that it was dark outside. "What time is it?" I ask Bruce.

"It's about eleven something." He replied.

"What?" I asked in shock. "Who was that man, and what did he do to me?"

"He's a friend of mine." He answered. "Anyways, I came to check up on you since Richard wasn't answering his communicator." He said as he covered Richard with a blanket. "See you tomorrow." He smiled as he left my room.

"But…what did he do?" I say to myself as Richard slightly opens his eyes.

"S-Sophie?" he wonders, still a bit sleepy. "You're finally awake." He yawns.

He then gets up, struggling with his sleep and crawls to me. Now meeting face-to-face with me, a gentle smile covers his face as he stretched his arms to hug me pushing backwards, laying on my bed.

"Everything's going to be okay from now on, Sophie. You're going to be okay…" He says as he dozes back to sleep.

I gently push him off of me, and lay him next to me. He must've been watching over me ever since he arrived back from the academy. I then grab the blanket that Bruce brought in, and cover Richard again with it. I get off from my bed and bring a chair next to the bed. I sit on it and just observe Richard as he sleeps. He looks so peaceful, yet tired. I couldn't help but smile. It's been 3 years since we've last seen each other, yet he treats me like he's known me practically my whole life…and I can't help but feel the same way towards him.

Wayne Manor

April 11, 7:30

"Sophie!" I heard Richard's voice call out my name. "Wake up! How're you feeling?"

As I open my eyes, I'm met face-to-face with Richard. I get startled by how close he is to me and almost fall back on the chair. He grabs me by my arm and pulls me towards him.

"You need to be more whelmed." He says

"Sorry, but you caught me off guard there!" I tell him.

"I guess that being that close to you wasn't a good idea." He jokes "Anyways, I just wanted to make sure that you slept well before I leave to school."

"Thanks, I did sleep well."

"Even on that chair?" he asked.

"Yeah…"

"Doesn't sound like you did." He laughs.

"Well…it would've been awkward if I slept next to you…" I blushed as I faced the other way.

"Oh, right!" He blushed. "Well…umm…I'll see you after I get back from the academy. Maybe, we can head to movies or something." He smiled.

"Sure." I smile back at him.

"Good!" He cheers. "I'll let Alfred know on my way to the academy." He added as he lets go of me and marches off out of my room.

I stare blankly at the door as I try to process his happiness. Casually, Bruce stops by and stares at me a bit confused.

"Richard left very happy to school." He said. "He said that you two will be heading this afternoon to the movies."

"Yes." I affirm him. "But it's not a date…is it?"

Bruce chuckles as he looks at me. "I don't know what he's thinking, but he has spent a lot of time studying. As, well as watching over you." He added. "Maybe this is a form of stress relief for him."

I sigh in relief at Bruce's words. "Good, he's too young to be asking girls out on dates; especially those who're older than him." I say as I cross my arms.

Bruce chuckles. "I guess you slept well last night."

"Yes." I smile at him. "You never told me who that guy was."

"He's a good friend of mine's." He replied. "There's no need to doubt him. He's also in the Justice League."

"What did he do to me?" I ask. "He said something to me, but I didn't understand him."

"Hmm?" He looked at me. "I think that you're imagining things." He assured me. "He went to introduce himself to you, but then you fainted. Your body was still unstable from the other night's episode."

I look at him as I try to make sense of what happened that day.

"There's no reason to worry now." He says to me. "The important thing is that you're feeling better." He smiled. "Oh, before I forget. Get ready before 11. You'll be going to visit Gotham Academy to take their entrance exam. I've already sent them your application form last week."

"Okay."

"You should also take your martial arts uniform with you, they'll also be testing you in that."

I let out a sigh and cross my arms. "Like I had anything else to do today."

"So, you want to keep filing my papers?" Bruce joked.

"If you need me, I'll be practicing my combos for the meantime." I rushed back into my room.

Gotham Academy, Gymnasium

April 11, 12:00

After finishing the entrance exam at one of their testing centers, one of the admission's personnel told me to suit up in my martial arts uniform and led us straight to the academy's gymnasium. As we entered, you could see students playing basketball or practicing other sports. It's not surprising to find the gymnasium full of students doing what they love. The building was divided into different sections. They had a basketball court, next to it a wrestling arena where they had mats laid down for me and to whoever was going to be my opponent. Farther away from the wrestling arena, they had a full gymnastics course.

As she kept leading us through the gymnasium towards the wrestling arena, I kept getting stares from some of the students. By the time that we got to the wrestling arena, there were about a total of 27 students dressed in martial arts uniform. Some of them had welcoming smiles on their faces, others…not so welcoming…

"Sofía, this is the Gotham Academy's Martial Arts Team. GAMAT, for short." The admissions' lady said. "This young boy over here, Matt Johnson, is a junior here at Gotham Academy and GAMAT's president." She acquainted me to him.

"Nice to meet you, Sofía!" Matt smiled at me as he bowed at me.

"Nice to meet you as well, Matt Johnson." I bowed to him.

"Sophie!" I heard a familiar voice call out to me from far away.

As I look in the direction from where the voice came from I see Richard running towards me followed by a couple of flips until he lands in the center of the mats.

"You never told me that you were coming over to Gotham Academy…neither did Bruce for a matter of fact." He said with a huge smile on his face as he walked towards me.

"Neither did he tell me." I reply.

"Hey, Grayson!" Matt said a bit mad. "How many times do I have to tell you to show your respects to the arena before entering it?!"

"I did…before landing on it." Richard smirked.

"I can't believe that you know this disrespectful twat…"

"Hey!" both Richard and I shouted.

"Anyways…" Matt says ignoring us as he takes out paper. "It says here that you're a black belt in seven forms of martial arts. Is that so?"

"Correct." I say. "Taekwondo, Karate, Judo, Hapkido, Kendo, Ninjutsu, and Kung Fu. Aside from that, I also specialize in the Israelite self-defense system of Krav Maga."

"Woah…" Matt is left speechless.

"I…was also the president of my former school's martial arts team…"

"What school did you to?" Matt asked.

"Dr. Saitou Fujioka Academy in Japan." I reply.

"Then I guess that you must be as good this application says you are." He gives me a devious smile. "Truly the ideal girl for combat tournaments…"

"I've fought with her before, she's way better than you." Richard chuckled.

"Will you please get back to practicing your girly flips at the gymnastics section?!" Matt growled at Richard.

"I would, but I really want to see her beat your ass." Richard smirked.

"Richard, watch the foul language." Bruce said.

"Sorry." He replied.

"Well, there's only one way to find out…" Matt said as he tightened his belt. "Tina, there's no need for you to fight with her. I'll take her on."

"Damn it, Richard…" I pierce my eyes into him.

"Sofía…" I heard Bruce scolding me.

"Sorry, Bruce." I say.

"Here at GAMAT, we only practice three martial arts: Karate, Taekwondo, and Judo. Right now, each martial art has about 9 students, all who have black belts in the corresponding martial art. I'm the only one in our organization with black belts in each of the martial arts mentioned." Matt said. "You get to choose if we spar with using all three martial arts in one match, or three rounds with each round consisting of one martial art."

"Let's do all three at once." I say.

"With or without protective gear?" Matt asked.

"Just our mouth guard piece…" I reply as I take out my mouth guard and pop it my mouth.

"I'm liking you already, Sofía!" He smirks.

"You should watch out, he's smooth with girls…" Richard whispered in my ear.

"In this match the winner will be the one who's still standing inside of the arena. The point of this match is to get the opponent out of the tatami. Simple, right? Matt added.

With those words I nod as we each stood in front of each other. Matt called out to four other students to stand guard at each side of the tatami. We bow down at the same time to show respect, and then we get into our fighting positions. One of the four students yells to start the match, as he does, Matt doesn't hesitate to start throwing kicks at me. I dodge them all on time as I try to land combos on him, but he manages to block them all.

He later finds an opening in between my combos and manages to grab a hold-on to my uniform. Taking notice into this, I grab his as well and try to pull him down and use my forearms to break his grip on my uniform, but I can't. He's very strong, there's no denying it. As I notice that now he tries to reach out to belt, I take a hold of the hand that's already grabbing my uniform and face my back towards his torso. Here, I try to get as close to him as possible and use my hips to leverage him on my back and throw him over myself. But to now effort, I couldn't manage to break his grip on me.

As he still holds on to my uniform, he takes me down with him. I fall over him, but he immediately grabs me and lays me on the floor with him on top of me as he now grabs the inner sides of my uniform's edges, as I try to stop him from doing a chokehold.

"You look kind of cute when you're struggling like that." He smirks at me.

Seeing as this is effortless when it comes to him, I use my forearms to push down on his arms until I managed to let break his left arm's hold on my uniform.

"Looks like you're not a lefty." I smirk at him as I immediately cross my arms and grab the inner sides of his uniform. With this I plant my feet on the ground and use my hips to through him off to my right.

"Match over!" I heard one of the four students yell.

As I take a deep sigh of relief, I decide to sit up straight on the tatami and look to my right. I see Matt sit up outside of the tatami.

"That was a great match, Sofía!" He smiled at me as he handed out his hand.

I smile and nod at him, as I take his hand and we both help each other stand up. Now standing, the both of us get to the center of the arena, shake hands and bow down at each other. With this, Matt grabs my hand and faces us towards the rest of the team. He lifts my arm up and declares me as GATMA's future member.

"Told you she was better than you!" I heard Richard yell out at Matt.

"Oh shut up, Grayson!" Matt yelled back at him.


Author's Note:

Hey guys! I'm soooooo glad that you all are liking my Young Justice fan fiction, and I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter! Sorry for it being too long, but I know it's worth the read. I really had fun writing this chapter :)