Author's Note: Sorry if the story has been a little slow moving... This chapter and on is where the plot gets more intense and stuff actually happens. I basically have the next three chapters planned out in my head, but it's going to be hard writing it all because of the makeup work I have from school because of Hurricane Sandy. I'll try my best to update as soon as possible. I'm also still undecided whether I should keep the story T later on or make it M... Feedback on that would be nice.

Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of these characters (unfortunately).


"Maneuver Two." Babs heard Dick call out from across the training room. She cracked her neck and stared at her opponent, Tim.

They had been training in the Hall of Justice for three hours straight. Barbara's sweatpants sported lovely blood stains on both knees and a large rip by the ankle, her black tank top had a tear in the lower back area, and her ponytail hung loosely from her head. Babs had to re-tape her knuckles numerous times throughout the training session.

She waved Tim towards her, "Come at me." She smirked. Tim narrowed his eyes and ran at Barbara with his battle staff pointed forward. He twirled the staff twice over his head and aimed it at Bab's ribs, swinging it like a baseball bat. Barbara jumped out of the way of the oncoming blow. She grabbed the staff with her left hand and used the momentum from Tim's swing to push him down and punch his back with her right hand. Tim fell to the floor and rolled onto his back.

"Nice job, Barbara." Tim said as he stuck out his hand and Babs helped him up.

"Thanks." She replied, pushing stray strands of hair out of her face. She adjusted the tape on her hands as Dick walked over, his sunglasses covering his eyes. "Your turn, Boy Wonder. You haven't gotten into the ring yet and I feel like kicking your ass." Barbara was only half-joking. The discovery that Dick has been keeping secrets from her had really left a sour taste in her mouth. She felt like hitting something (especially Dick) and had been very excited for training today.

Dick smirked, "Kick my ass? Pshh, dream on, Babs." Barbara knew he was joking, but that didn't stop her from thinking about smacking that stupid smile off of his face. Dick could sense that she was acting tense around him since the mission two days ago, she knew he did, but he still didn't know what for. He probably thought it was over something stupid. Maybe this was something stupid. Maybe Babs' gut feeling was totally wrong and they were talking about some past event. Maybe she was over thinking. Maybe she was looking for excuses.

No. Her gut has never been wrong before.

"Gear up, Twinkle Toes. Tim, go take a break." Babs said. Tim nodded and left, probably going to Garfield's room. Him, Miss Martian, and Superboy were staying in the Hall of Justice until other arrangements could be figured out. Barbara cracked her knuckles as Dick taped his. He pulled the strap to his sunglasses tighter so they wouldn't fall off of his face. He yanked off his t-shirt so he was only wearing his white ginny-tee. Babs couldn't help but notice how good his arms looked. How every little muscle was perfectly toned, but not overwhelmingly huge. How amazing they would feel around her-

NOPE, NOPE, YOU ARE MAD AT HIM. HE IS KEEPING SECRETS. NO THINKING LIKE THAT. NOPE. NOT AT ALL.

As Dick was stepping into the ring, Barbara was already running at him, her fists prepped for a blow. Dick dodged the first punch to his face, but missed the second to his abdomen.

"Oof!" he gripped his stomach as Babs went for another punch. He grabbed her fist to prevent it from hitting his shoulder and twisted her arm behind her back. She cried out and stomped her heel down on his foot. She turned to face him just in time to block a kick to her chest. Dick did a back-handspring to put some space between them and pulled his escrima sticks out of his belt loops. He ran at her, one stick forward and swung the other stick from the side. It connected with Barbara's waist and she fell to the floor. Babs clutched her side as she kicked Dick's legs out from under him and he fell to the floor beside her. Barbara tackled him and straddled his stomach, pinning his arms above his head.

"Check mate." Babs was breathing hard, grinning down at Dick.

"Nope." Dick twisted his legs, folded them around Bab's neck, and slammed her down onto her back. He straddled her and smiled. "I win." He stuck his tongue out at her.

"Get off of me, Richard." Babs groaned.

Dick arched his eyebrow. "Richard? What the hell, Babs, why are you mad at me?" Barbara just rolled her eyes and tried to sit up. Dick grabbed her shoulders and pinned her down to the ground. "Answer me." He said, his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

"It's nothing." Should she ask him what he's lying to her about? Would he even tell her?

"I don't believe you."

Babs sighed and bit her bottom lip, "Would you lie to me?"

Dick hesitated, but eventually shook his head. "No, never." His voice cracked. God, it was so painfully obvious he was lying.

"Ever?"

Dick let go of her shoulders, but still straddled her. "What are you asking me, Babs?"

Barbara pushed him off of her and stood up. "Nothing, I already got my answer." Dick stood up too and faced her. Both stared into each other's blue eyes for an uncomfortably long time. She was catching on to him, Dick knew that, but he couldn't tell her. For the life of him, he couldn't tell her.

Their stare off was interrupted by a beeping noise, that Dick quickly recognized as his Comm link. He ran over to his bag, put the Comm in his ear faced away from Babs, and listened.

"Yeah... I know..." Barbara strained her ears to try and hear what was being said on the other line, but to no avail. She knew she wasn't going to get any information from Dick from this call; he was going to be as vague as possible. "I'll be there soon. Yeah, the usual spot. Bye." Dick turned back to Babs, who was shooting daggers at him with her eyes.

"I have to go." Was all he said.

"Oh really? I couldn't tell." Barbara pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes.

She could hear Dick sigh, "We'll talk about this later."

"Whatever."

And with that, Dick left. Babs wouldn't remember punching the wall until the next morning.


Barbara didn't go back to her apartment right after training as she had planned. When she left after Nightwing it had been about 9 o'clock at night and even though she had to go to Gotham and do her rounds as Batgirl soon, she couldn't ignore the urge to figure out what the hell Dick was doing behind her back.

And that's how Babs found herself in Blüdhaven trailing Dick, who was now in his Nightwing suit. She had gone to the Batcave as quick as she could after she left the Hall of Justice and donned her Batsuit (she hated keeping it in her apartment in fear that her roommate would find it). Finding Nightwing was not going to be easy, but she knew she could do it. Babs was a master hacker; she had no idea how she had developed the skill, but she could break about any computer code given to her. It took her barely ten minutes to hack the Zeta-tubes to find out where Nightwing had gone. It took her another two to hack the traffic lights and pinpoint his exact location. Babs had to give Dick some props though, he had hidden well. If Babs wasn't, well, her, then she doubted anyone would have found where he was going. Dick took so many secret alleys and routes to get to the place he was going just to stay out of public eye. He really only got caught on one traffic camera, and the only reason Babs knew it was him was because the gym bag she gave him for Christmas was slung over his shoulder.

Babs followed his every route from the Batcave. Why Blüdhaven? What could possibly be there? Batgirl landed on the roof of an old factory ten minutes after finding out where Nightwing was. Babs grabbed her grapple gun and shot it into the ground next to her. Holding the rope, she jumped off the side of the building and fell two stories before the rope stopped. Babs was hanging fifty feet off of the ground. She looked to her left to see a broken window and swung over to the sill, quickly crawling through it and into the factory. She jumped over to a giant stack of boxes without making a sound. Standing on top of the large metal boxes, Babs was still about 40 feet in the air, but she didn't dare move. She was in the perfect position. She was obscured by the cargo, but could still see everything going on below her.

Nightwing leaned back on a stack of crates with his arms crossed. He checked his watch and rubbed the back of his neck, his nervous tick. Nightwing looked up when a quick blur appeared out of seemingly nowhere. When Babs focused her eyes she had to keep her mental surprise from becoming verbal. Wally? What the hell was he doing here? He practically was anti anything regarding the team now. Especially since Artemis...

"She's not here yet?" Wally asked, a nervous look crossing his face. Dick shook his head.

"I have to tell you something." Dick sighed. "On one of our missions... M'gann... she fried Kaldur. She knows everything."

"When?" Wally asked, his eyes widening.

"About five days ago. M'gann told Conner everything...Both of them know now."

Know what?! Babs had to keep herself from shouting.

"Wait... if Kaldur is... Oh my God. She's alone in there?! Artemis is totally and completely alone in Black Manta's hands? What if they find out? Dick, is she okay? When was the last time you talked to her? WHY DID YOU WAIT SO LONG TO TELL ME THIS?" Wally's voice had risen a considerable amount.

They're talking about Artemis again? What is going on?!

"Quiet down, Wally. I talked to her two days ago on a mission. She's fine. They don't know her identity. She'll be here in a few minutes." Dick sat on a small crate as Wally paced back and forth at a speed most would consider a sprint.

Babs was finding it very difficult to put together the pieces. So Dick, Wally, Conner, M'gann were in on something with... Artemis and Kaldur? Artemis is alive, Dick had made that very clear, but how? And what about Kaldur? Wouldn't it be bad to have Artemis alone with Kaldur, a traitor? And how did Dick contact Artemis at all during their last mission? Babs was with him the whole time and there was no one who even remotely resembled Artemis.

Batgirl was trying so hard to figure out what was going on that it took her a few moments to realize that there was another person walking up to Wally and Dick. She had long black hair and tan skin and was wearing orange with black stripes. Tigress.

Babs had recognized her from one of the many missions against the Reach. She was a big kahuna with Black Manta, and she was strutting in right next to Nightwing and Wally. Babs was just about to shout for the two boys to watch out, but she stopped dead in her tracks.

Wally grabbed the girl and kissed her like it was his last day living.

Now Babs was really confused. Until the girl ripped a pendant necklace off of her neck. Barbara had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things, because seconds ago where Tigress was standing, Artemis now stood locked tightly in Wally's arms.

Dick stood next to the two silently, with a sad smile on his face.

Artemis broke away from Wally's embrace, but still held his hand tightly. "The Reach suspects nothing about me. I'm still in the clear. But we have a problem with Kaldur. Black Manta is trying to regenerate his brain. He plans on hiring Psimon to bring back his memory, which could put everyone in danger. If Psimon learns the secret it will all be over."

Dick's jaw clenched. "I'll talk to Miss Martian on that one. Maybe we can get her in and fix Kaldur before it's too late... I'll figure something out." He rubbed his neck with one hand and pinched the bridge of his nose with the other. Dick was the epitome of stress right now. "We are also in danger of another person on the team finding out about this. Right now it's only Superboy, M'gann, and I, but Batgirl has been getting very suspicious. I'm a good liar, but that girl can read me like a book. She's on to us."

"Look... Rob... I know that she's your closest friend and all, but the less people that know about this, the better. Batgirl is one of the most trust worthy people ever," Well, except for spying on you al. Babs thought, "but too many people will make everyone else suspicious. Not even the Justice League know about this." Artemis sighed. "Just try to keep lying for now... I fear this secret may not last that much longer, though."

Wally's grip on Artemis tightened, "Because that makes me feel so much better about this."

"Okay, we meet here again in two days. I'll talk to M'gann about helping Kaldur. God knows it will help her feel better about what she's done." Nightwing nodded to both of them and left. Wally and Artemis said their goodbyes between long kisses and soon both were gone.

Babs sat behind a crate, completely alone in the factory now.

And she didn't have a clue what to think.