It had been nearly ten minutes since Cameron had run off, and Artemis was beginning to get worried. She hadn't gone after him when he had first ran off, nobody had. Artemis had just let him leave because it had looked to her like the last thing that Cameron wanted was company, and if he really couldn't handle being around people, then Artemis wouldn't force it. Instead, she planned on just waiting, giving Cameron the chance to calm down and come back on his own.
Except, now Artemis was beginning to have doubts. Cameron had seemed really upset when he ran off, as well as freaked out. It alarmed Artemis just how scared Cameron had seemed, and she had no idea what had caused this. She also didn't know what she could possibly do to help.
But she had to do something. She may not know exactly what was going on with him, but Artemis was determined to make sure that he didn't have to suffer through whatever it was by himself. Not anymore.
"Get over here, Grayson." Artemis grabbed the boy's arm and dragged him into the corner.
"You know, you can just call me Dick." He said.
"Oh, trust me, I was planning to." Artemis growled. She wasn't happy with Dick at the moment. His lie back there about them being engaged had been completely outrageous and, Artemis suspected, had had something to do with Cameron's little freak out. Despite that though, the kid was still the only one here that Artemis had the smallest bit of trust in.
"Dick, I need you to do something for me." Artemis lowered her voice. Dick frowned. He could tell from the tone of her voice that this was serious.
"What's up?" Dick asked.
Artemis cast her eyes around the room before turning back to him. "I need to go find Cameron, make sure that he's okay. Can you watch things here while I'm gone?"
"Yeah, I guess so." Dick said hesitantly. "But are you sure that you should be going after Cameron? I mean, he was pretty upset, and-" Dick trailed off and stared at the cut on Artemis' arm, which was still bleeding. Artemis scowled and crossed her arms to hide the wound.
"That was an accident." Artemis said forcefully. "Cameron would never try to hurt me."
"I know that." Dick said, and he honestly believed it. "But what if another accident happens?"
"I'll be fine." Artemis smiled slightly. "Believe it or not, I do know how to take care of myself."
"I believe it." Dick said. "But I still don't think that you should-"
"What if this was one of your friends?" Artemis snapped, which caused Dick to hesitate. "What if something like this was happening to one of them? What would you do?"
"...Probably the same thing you're doing." Dick said quietly. He shook his head and looked Artemis in the eye. "Fine, I'll watch things here while you're gone. Just, be careful, okay?"
"I'll try." Artemis smiled appreciatively. "One more thing before I go." And, out of nowhere, Artemis punched Dick's shoulder, hard. "No more telling people we're getting married." Artemis warned, and then she was gone.
"Yeah, I kinda deserved that." Dick rubbed his shoulder, sure that a bruise would form there later because, man, Artemis had a mean hit. Dick completely understood why she had hit him though. He had messed up, big time. Announcing to everybody that he and Artemis were engaged had been a mistake, and it was most definitely not the truth, but it was the first thing that Dick could think of that The Light might actually accept as a legitimate reason as to why Gotham wanted Cameron in power.
It wasn't as if Dick could have just announced the real reason they were interested in Cameron being in charge over Star City.
What The Light was completely unaware of, and what they needed to stay unaware of, was that Bruce Wayne was not entirely supportive of their cause, and never had been. Quite the opposite, in fact. After all, why would Batman, or any member of The Justice League, ever support The Light?
But Bruce had known that The Light was powerful and had a lot of influence, so, over the years, while Batman openly did what he could to defy The Light, Bruce Wayne showed signs of supporting them, to gain their trust. That trust came in handy three years ago, after The Incident, when The Light had decided that Bruce would lead Gotham.
Of course, The Light had no idea that Bruce Wayne was actually Batman. Nobody did, and why would they? To the world, The Justice League was dead.
Oh, how wrong they were.
The league wasn't dead, but when they heard that that was what everybody thought, they used it to their advantage. After all, nobody would ever expect a surprise attack from people who have been dead for years.
But this couldn't be rushed. The Light was powerful, and a lot of powerful people following them. The league would have to be smart about this if they wanted to defeat The Light for good. For the past three years The Justice League had been slowly chipping away at The Light's forces, biding their time until the day that The Light would be weak enough to take down.
They had to work slowly and subtly though, lest The Light figure out that something was up. So far though, they suspected nothing. The Light had no idea that Bruce Wayne was plotting against them. They were also unaware that, over the years, The Justice League had brought others to their side, including a number of people that The Light had trusted and given power to.
This was the reason that Bruce wanted Cameron to be the one leading over Star City. Because Bruce believed they could convince Cameron to join them, and even if they couldn't, it would be better for their cause if a larger city like Star City was being ruled over by some low-threat kid rather than a psychotic tyrant. Especially if said kid trusted him, and, in turn, Bruce.
That was what Dick was here to do, to earn Cameron's trust...he wasn't exactly doing such a good job at it so far, but hey, at least he had Artemis' trust. That was a start.
In all honesty, Dick was not happy with this assignment. He understood what needed to be done, and why it needed to be done, but he didn't like the fact that he was the one doing it. Bruce's reasoning behind sending Dick was that both Cameron and Artemis would likely open up more to someone they could relate to more, someone close to their age.
While that may be true, Dick was fully aware that that wasn't the true reason that Bruce had sent him. No, the true reason was that Bruce was worried about him and wanted him to make some new friends, to move on. While Dick appreciated Bruce's concern, he just didn't think that he was ready to move on.
He couldn't just forget about the friends he had lost.
The battle between The Justice League and a number of villains had been a brutal one. None of the members of the league who had sidekicks or partners wanted the younger heroes to be in so much danger, so instead of participating in the actual battle, the protogees had been tasked with keeping the civilians safe and out of danger.
None of them had been happy with this assignment, especially not Roy.
He had felt like they were being treated like children, like the league didn't trust them enough to handle themselves in a fight. They may have been young, but they weren't incapable, and Roy planned on reminding the league of that,
By taking down Cadmus.
The Light had many assets and projects, and one of their more important ones was Cadmus. Coincidentally enough, the Cadmus building was located in Gotham. With all the chaos and confusion in the city because of the battle, it was the perfect time to take down Cadmus, make The Light that much weaker.
Roy was determined to take this opportunity while they had it, because a better chance to go after Cadmus wasn't going to come up. If they were going to do this, they had to act now, and they all knew it.
The rest of the team followed Roy to Cadmus' building, though most of them were hesitant to actually make a move. No one else was sure if they should do this now. M'gann was the first to commit to going in with Roy, because she telepathically sensed that somebody was in there, trapped, and needed their help, and she wasn't about to just leave them.
With Roy and M'gann both going into Cadmus, Kaldur decided that it would probably be best if he go in with them, to make sure that things went well. Wally was the last to make a decision, though Dick had known that Wally would go into Cadmus with the others. Wally was the type of person who wanted to help people, no matter what. If there was somebody in Cadmus who needed their help, he was going to help them.
Dick had understood this, but he didn't agree with it. They had been given a job to do, to protect the civilians. Sure, it was a demeaning task, but a very important one nonetheless. Dick thought it would be better worth his time to make sure that all the people that he knew were out here were okay, rather than just help one person who may or may not actually be in trouble (On occasion, the things that M'gann sensed weren't entirely accurate). So, while his friends all rushed into Cadmus, Dick had stayed outside.
He had regretted that decision ever since.
After the battle had ended, Dick had first thought that they had gotten off lucky. Nobody in the league had died, and none of the villains were aware that they were still around. The heroes had the upper hand now.
Dick's thoughts about their luck changed when he learned that the Cadmus building had been completely destroyed, and there was no sign of his friends, anywhere. The most likely explanation was that they had still been in the building when it had been destroyed, in which case, they were gone.
Dick didn't want to believe that explanation though. For the past three years he had clung to the hope that they were alive, that they had somehow miraculously survived and there was a perfectly good reason as to where they had been all this time.
After three years though, Dick's hope was beginning to run out.
His friends were gone, and they weren't coming back. Dick knew this, but he still had a hard time accepting it.
He supposed that that was something that he and Artemis had in common. Both of them clung desperately to the past and they both wished that things could just go back to the way they were before. That was why Dick had let Artemis go after Cameron. He didn't understand what was going on between those two, and he suspected that Artemis didn't exactly understand it completely either, but if Artemis felt the need to try to fix things, Dick wasn't about to stop her. Because if the situations were switched, he would likely do the same thing.
But he wasn't about to just let Artemis wander off either, not without knowing what was going on with her. So, before she had left, Dick had put a bug, of the electronic spying variety, on her shirt. With this, Dick would hear through his earpiece exactly what was going on with Artemis. If she ran into trouble, he would know about it immediately.
So far, Artemis hadn't run into any trouble, though, from what Dick could gather from Artemis' mutterings to herself, she had managed to get herself completely and totally lost and she had no idea where to even begin looking for Cameron.
Dick couldn't help but laugh when he heard that Artemis was lost. He knew that he shouldn't, and the situation wasn't funny...except it kinda was. Getting lost in Star City just seemed like such a ridiculous problem for somebody who had lived there their entire lives. Besides, Dick didn't think that this would be too much of a problem. Artemis was a resourceful girl. Surely she would eventually be able to figure out what she was doing.
"Hey, blondie, do you need help?" Dick narrowed his eyes and began to pay even closer attention to what he was hearing than before. Somebody was talking to Artemis, and that wasn't exactly a good thing.
"Get lost, ginger." Artemis retorted. Dick smirked. It certainly sounded like Artemis would be able to handle herself if she needed to.
"Hey, there's no need to be like that, I'm just trying to be nice." Dick was surprised at how sincere this guy sounded. Like he really just wanted to help Artemis, and didn't have any ulterior motives at all. Genuinely nice guys were rare nowadays, especially after dark. Dick grew even more curious as to who this guy was, and why he sounded so familiar. "You looked a little lost," The guy continued, "So I just thought you might want some help."
"I'm not lost, and I don't need help." Artemis responded, even though neither statement was true. "I'm just trying to find a friend of mine."
"Do you want me to help look for them?" The guy asked. Artemis hesitated to answer. It was risky to accept help from a stranger, but she, like Dick, found herself thinking that this guy was okay. And if Artemis' impression on this guy turned out to be wrong, she could easily overtake him in a fight.
"Yeah, some help would probably be nice." Artemis finally answered.
"Great...uh, do you have any idea where your friend is? Or what they're name is, or anything to help us find them?" The guy asked. Dick could practically hear Artemis rolling her eyes.
"If I knew where he was, idiot, I wouldn't have to be looking for him." Artemis said impatiently. "And of course I know what his name is, it's Cameron." Artemis was quiet for a moment before she added in a more patient tone "And I'm Artemis."
The stranger introduced himself as well, and Dick's world froze at the words that he overheard. Dick recognized the name that the supposed stranger gave, but, it wasn't possible. it just wasn't possible. It couldn't actually be…
...could it?
But what if it was?
Dick quickly brought a hand to the communicator in his ear. If this guy was who he said he was, then Bruce and the rest of the league needed to hear about it immediately. Just before Dick contacted them though, he stopped, because a chilling thought came to his mind.
What if it wasn't him?
Dick could have easily misheard the name, or this guy just had the same name. It wasn't as if it was the most uncommon name in the world. But with the guy's personality, and the name that Artemis had first called him, this was all just seemed a little too coincidental.
Dick had to be sure. He had to see for himself if this guy was who he thought he was. Only once he was sure would he tell the league about it. Dick was anxious to find out the truth, so, after pausing just long enough to tell Leonard Snart that he was in charge, Dick left. As he ran only one thought, one name, was going through Dick's mind. The supposed name of this stranger, the name of somebody that Dick had been beginning to think was gone for good.
Wally West.
