A/N: Honestly, I've had this for a week. A whole week and I didn't get a single chance to post this glorious new chapter for all you fabulous readers. Blame school.

Anyways, this one is the next step up. I have an end game to this, just the process of getting there is the hardest. Patience.

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own. Do you think I own? BTW, September 16th!


"I want to take over the investigation."

Robin took a mental step back, organized the situation in his mind, and stepped back into it. He blinked a few times behind the mask before looking at the face that stood in front of him. Was he in some sort of dream? A trance? Yeah, hypnotism, definitely hypnotism. This wasn't real, no way, no how. He was half-tempted to pinch himself for clarification, but if he did that, he knew she'd see and then give him a good scolding for not taking her seriously.

He had been sitting quietly on the couch all day, away from the rest of the team as they trained, ate, and worked on homework. He had been engrossed in files and databases centered around his teammates. He'd been scouring the Internet from every gigabyte to every fansite for any evidence that any of his teammates were betraying the Justice League.

So far, he'd found the most information on himself and Kid Flash. Of course, KF had the most information because he had that personality that made him instinctively run to cameras for his moment of glory.

Robin, the Boy Wonder, had enough information to shell out the bare bones of a file. Black hair, range of weight, approximate height, skills and level of said skills. The minimum people could find on a hero that flew by night with merely a name and a cackle.

Kaldur had a little bit. He had waterbearers and practiced magic (in a way). He had gills and some type of fins on his legs. His hair was white or blonde or something. The fanbase on him was small but strong. The details were very minimal. The Justice League's servers had more information than the fans did, which wasn't much of a surprise.

Nothing on Superboy.

Nothing on Miss Martian.

Nothing on Artemis.

It made sense. They were just new to the job, one only having been alive for a few months, another being new to Earth, and the third, a nobody in the hero world, a rookie on the job. Robin figured that he should be worried if he found any information on them. He was almost glad he didn't.

But he did learn a bit about Artemis. Her Justice League file held a last name. Type that into Google, the miracle of the modern world. He'd watched articles of a champion archer pop up across the screen like a thousand little bugs suddenly coming to life. Artemis Crock. Archery competitions. Her mother's disability. Some school fights that were serious enough to snag a spot in Gotham newspapers.

The Gotham part of that hadn't failed to catch his eye. When he'd stumbled across that, he'd called his mentor. Batman had given him the rundown in simple terms, the deal that he and Green Arrow had put in place to keep her from turning to the Shadows, the deal that was promised to keep her safe from her father. It was good for both sides. It'd kept her from killing Kid Flash.

Yeah, Robin had definitely been stunned by that part when Bruce had so nonchalantly thrown it out there; he made it sound like it was something they'd talk about over a dinner with friends in the manor.

His mind dragged itself back to the present after backlogging through the database of his mind. Her eyes had begun to bore holes in his skull. The staring was definitely creeping him out. "Why?" He quickly closed out of a few certain files and minimized others. He didn't want people seeing his work. There were too many ways they could interpret it: one, he was the mole and doing his research, or two, he was suspicious of all of them. Which he most definitely was. The second one, not the first. No way was he the mole. But no one else had to know that he was suspicious of them, now did they?

"You could use the help." She folded her arms across her chest, her gaze changing from that intense stare to a nonchalant look of knowing. "You can't have the assassin all to yourself, you know."

If he were a bit more childish, he would've given an indignant reply and spat out a definite no. She was his assassin! His! But he was Robin, the perfect partner to Gotham's Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, the World's Greatest Detective. He was the one and only Boy Wonder. Robin had a reputation to uphold within the League and within himself. He could share. "I know."

"Then let me help." She sounded genuine enough.

He was reluctant. Not just because he wanted to keep Cheshire all for himself, but because he truly wondered if giving Artemis access to an ally of the Shadows was a good idea given her history with assassins.

"She's playing cat and mouse with you," said Artemis with an almost pleading voice, her deep blue eyes practically begging. She didn't find the irony of the statement until it'd already slipped her lips, but she didn't comment on it. "I can get answers out of her."

Maybe she could, maybe she couldn't. What harm could it do to try? "You're not taking it over, that's for sure." He went back to typing on his laptop while listening for sounds of his other teammates nearby. "I'm still in charge of interrogating Cheshire, but Batman told me the connections you have."

About fifty cuss words popped into Artemis's mind, each one of them directed towards the Dark Knight. She suppressed them. Spewing swears out at Batman's protégé probably wasn't the best way to start out the helping with the spy investigation.

"Maybe you could get details out of her since you won't give them to us straight." His lips were a flat line, unimpressed by the girl that stood before him with that death stare stabbing into his skin. "If you'd give us the information, Cheshire could be released or imprisoned and all these problems would go away."

"They wouldn't go away."

He looked up to her with piqued curiosity, fingers poised over the keyboard, paused mid-word.

"I'm not the mole."

He let this imprint on his mind before fully computing it. She wasn't the mole. Someone else was. Four choices left. Superboy, Miss M, Wally, or Kaldur.

He'd figured from Batman's word that she wasn't, but having her say it with a serious face behind the mask definitely reassured him to a certain extent.

Artemis continued quietly. "Wally told me it's not you, and I trust him on that. Now if you can trust me, that'd be great. I'm not the mole, I swear." She had put a hand on the arm of the couch and was staring at him with serious deep blue eyes. "I can help you, Robin, but only if you let me."

He made his decision. His fingers continued typing. "We'll see if we can get anywhere with her tomorrow night. I'd try tonight, but I have a Trig test in the morning that I haven't studied for."

Artemis smirked. Satisfied with the results, she went towards the kitchen to grab the water bottles she'd been sent for and then made her way back to the weight room.

It only struck her two hours later that she had a Trig test in the morning too. Even then, she didn't put the pieces together. She didn't need to. She trusted him and could only hope he trusted her as well.


A/N: Again, just taking the baby steps… Review?

~Sky