A/N: I do not own YJ or any of its character
Sairey13:You're guesses are pretty close. I won't reveal anything, but I hope that the story I've come up with so far will content you.
PhoenixK14: Yup! I wanted that effect; you know since they're brothers. This chapter is longer, as per your request, ENJOY!
TheUltimateCombo: Hahaha! My thoughts exactly. Here's the next chapter.
randomkitty101: I know! I am a horrible person. Anyway, it has been a while, so here is an update.
3DPhantom: Thanks! I hope it's sad, angst is my best work; if it's not sad, I would be a disappointment. Here's an update.
Now, Mount Justice was never quiet, everybody knows that. It was used as an HQ for teen heroes; it was bound to be noisy. But this, this was just ridiculous. If it weren't for the soundproof walls, civilians were going to hear the shouting match that was going on.
"HOW COULD YOU LOSE THAT HACK?! THAT WAS OUR ONLY LEAD!" Bruce screamed. That in itself was saying something. Bruce never screamed. Sure, he would get mad. But when he does, his voice just gets really low and deadly; but he's never screaming.
"DICK MADE THE HACK! IT'S A MIRACLE I EVEN FOUND IT!" Barry screamed. That was equally as surprising. Barry was the mellowed out speedster, he wasn't exactly known for his anger –hell, none of the speedsters were known for anger; that was the Bats' department.
Soon the argument got worse, and to top it all off, everyone else was arguing too. It was a miracle Lian was still asleep. Somehow, though, fate just loved to dump shit on them because at that moment, the Zeta tube announced someone, whom they forgot to inform the situation about. Someone who, when angry, could occasionally be scarier than Batman.
Recognized: Batgirl B-1-6
They didn't need a psychic link to know they all thought the same thing.
'Shit'
How they forgot to tell her of all people, they would never know. This girl was like the honorary fourth member of the terrible trio. They were so screwed, they all knew it. Some were shaking, some were frozen, some had wide eyes, and some were sweating buckets. The original team, plus Zatanna, and the Batclan, had seen her temper lose control before. It was not pretty.
How were they even going to explain this again? First, the wives, and Diana, had to explain it to their husbands, then the adults had to explain it to the team, then they had to explain it to Zatanna. M'gann seemed to realize that a mental link was needed, and set one up right away.
'Where was she all this time?!' Jason asked, panicked. He'd seen her mad in his early Robin days. It was one of the scariest things he'd ever seen.
'Dick sent her on an undercover mission last week.' Cassie said, 'I guess we forgot '
'Forget about that! Who's gonna tell her?' Ollie asked. Because, yeah, there was no way in hell he was gonna tell her.
And suddenly all eyes turned to Garfield. 'What!? Why me?' he asked. Why did it have to be him? Did they want him to die or something?
Before they could explain, Barbara finally spoke. "You guys do realize that it's extremely rude to do that in front other people –who are not thugs, or super villains– right?" She asked with an amused smirk on her face. Oh, if only she knew that, that smirk would be the last time she would show any happiness for some time.
They all turned to face her, looking like a bunch of children, caught with their hand inside the cookie jar.
'Gar, the thing is; you're the youngest. She'll probably hurt you the least.' Tim said. It was true. Barbara tended to inflict pain on the messenger, she'll probably go easy on Gar.
'Probably!?' Gar exclaimed, frankly, he was too young to die. 'As in you're not sure?'
'Sweetie' Iris said in her motherly voice 'it's for the best.' The others nodded frantically –with the exception of Bruce, of course.
"Uh, guys? I thought we just went over this. It's rude. Anyway, why are the adults here? And more importantly, Jaybird is that you?" Barbara said. Her tone was light-hearted and curious. Jason blushed at the nickname the Batclan made for him. The others –A.K.A Bart, Jaime, and Roy– snickered a bit.
"H-hey Babs.." Jason stuttered out.
Surprising a few of the newer members of the team, Barbara smiled brightly, and tackled Jason in a hug. "I knew you'd come back" she said, still hugging Jason.
Seeing her so happy warmed everyone's hearts. Ever since finding out about the boys, no one really smiled anymore.
"Hey!" she said "Where's Dick? Does he know you're back yet? Oh my god Jay! We have to tell him." She was practically glowing.
This just made everyone even more hesitant to tell her. Who were they to take away the happiness Barbara was feeling? Everyone paled at the question. "Where's Dick?" she had asked.
Everyone turned to Gar to tell her. Gar bravely took a deep breath and stepped forward, but before he could speak, Selina interrupted. '
Wait' she said. 'I'll tell her Gar. She'll probably take the news better if it was coming from me.'
Selina had grown closer to each of the members of the batfamily, since she married Bruce. Barbara had become just as much of a daughter to her, as the boys have become her sons. Everyone agreed.
'Do you want a moment alone with her?' Diana asked. She knew she was asking more for herself but, she just didn't have the heart to see Barbara break at the news.
'Yeah, I...I think that would be best. I'll give you a signal' Selina replied.
"Barbara, sweetie, Dick's not here right now..." Selina said cautiously.
She may have been blunt with the team, but that was because she was still in shock. She knew better now.
Barbara was narrowing her eyes, but only the batclan could notice, and they blanched when they did. 'What's going on?' she thought to herself 'Why is everyone acting weird? The adults are here, but that could just be because of Jason .If that was the case, though, why isn't the original 7 here instead?'
Like all the other bats, Barbara was a detective, and right now, the gears on her head were turning. "Could we have a minute alone please.." Selina gave the signal.
Everyone quickly filed out of the room. This alone made Barbara even more curious 'Why are they in such a hurry?'
"What's this about Selina?" Barbara asked, straight to the point.
"You asked where Dick was." Selina said.
"Yes, I did. What's wrong with that? I know he's been missing Jason, he'd be doing flips by now if he knew that his little brother was back."
"Babs, Dick has been...absent...for a few days now."
Barbara didn't like where this was going. "Is he sick or something? Have you called Wally or Roy? You know they'll throw a fit if no one told them that Dick was sick."
"No honey, Roy and Wally have been absent too." Selina said gently.
"All three of them are "absent"? Selina, what are you not telling me?" Babs said, getting agitated. She'd been having a bad feeling since Selina asked everyone to leave. What happened while she was on a mission?
"You..you know that the boys aren't as...happy as they were back then right?" Selina said slowly. She wanted to ease Barbara into the situation carefully.
"Yeah..."
"Well, um, they've gone...over the edge this time Babs." Selina finally let out.
"Wh-what do you mean?" Fear was evident on Barbara's face.
"They...um...They've been cutting.." Selina said solemnly.
Barbara gasped. She tried, she honest to God tried to keep the tears in, but two stray tears went down her face.
"Are they okay? How long have they been gone?" She asked frantically.
"They've been gone for three days." Selina said stoically."Barbara, there's more. Bart shared something...unpleasant... with us...He said that..." Selina trailed off not wanting to say it.
"Selina please, what did Bart tell you?" Barbara pleaded.
"He..he told us that this happened before. Everything that happened between the boys and us, it happened in his time" she started. She had tears in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. Not now. She had to be strong for Barbara.
"A week after we confronted them, they were found...dead in a river" she finished.
Barbara had the most horrified look on her face. It was heartbreaking. The boys had been brothers to her, they defended her, pranked her, fought by her side, and so much more. They were always so happy, had she done something to them? Was this her fault?She refused to accept that her brothers were going to die in four days.
"Selina," she said in a quiet whisper "It's not true though right? Y-you're just joking...be-because I missed a lot and this is your prank right? Please, please, tell me this is just a horrible prank.." Barbara was sobbing, she grabbed Selina's arms in a firm but gentle hold. Selina's heart broke all over again.
Barbara's voice sounded so young, so different from her usual voice, strong, and determined. She sounded like she was really just a normal eighteen year old girl. It was pleading, begging her to say that it's not true.
"Barbara, it's true," she said in an equally quiet whisper. "but do you know what the difference is? We'll save them, they will live." She said reassuring herself and the girl in her arms.
The team and the adults upon sensing hearing the sobbing entered the room once again. Once they saw the two women, they immediately felt like they were intruding.
M'gann, having felt Barbara's strong emotions, shed tears. It seems like that's all she's been doing lately –crying. She allowed herself a few more tears before composing herself. Enough was enough, she decided. She can't help anyone if all she's doing is crying. She approached Barbara and Selina.
It seems that Zatanna had the same thought, she too was making her way to the women on the floor. They shared a brief nod.
"Babs," Zatanna started with a gentle voice "We're so sorry. We forgot to tell you." She said with sincerity.
"We just...we got so wrapped up with finding the boys, we forgot that you didn't know. I..I know that it sounds really stupid, and unprofessional, but we really are sorry." M'gann finished.
Everyone silently nodded their heads. They felt guilty enough as it is, what with them knowing about the boys' bad habits, and knowing that they could've caused that, forgetting to tell Barbara was just terrible.
Barbara shook her head. "No, no it's ok." She said finally regaining her composure.
She stood up, and so did Selina, she wiped her tears and spoke in a determined voice. "What's done is done. Right now, we have to set aside my feelings and focus more on finding the boys."
The look on her face made Batman swell with pride.
"With your help Barbara, I think that we really will find them this time around." Bart said, with a gentle smile on his that, everyone got back to work, only this time they were more determined.
Artemis was holding Lian once again. She felt like she owed it to Roy to take care of her daughter while he was away, and that's exactly what she was going to do. Lian had been asking for her daddy for the past few days. Artemis managed to divert her attention to something else most of the time, but there were times when Lian was as stubborn as her father. This was one of those times.
"Dada, Dada! Want dada!" she kept on was practically screaming now.
"Shh, shh Lian." Artemis said calmly, while bouncing her slightly. She didn't know what to do anymore. She was about to succumb to the idea of giving her a mild sedative when a knock on the door stopped her.
"Artemis?" Came Ollie's voice "how's Lian doing?" He said with concern.
Artemis gave a heavy sigh. "Not good" she answered "she keeps looking for Roy" she said.
What were they going to do? Even with Barbara back, things seemed hopeless. What will happen to Lian if Roy..No she can't let herself think like gave a sympathetic smile and strode forward
"May I?" He asked, gesturing if he could hold her. Artemis obliged.
She carefully gave Lian to Oliver. She can truly say that she has never seen Oliver so gentle before.
"Hey there Lian," he started softly "I'm your Grandpa Ollie..." He said this with such a proud smile... "Your Daddy's not here right now, but don't worry, we'll get him back. Grandpa will bring Daddy back to you. I promise. In the mean time, I'll be here for you." He vowed to the little girl. He'll be damned if he doesn't keep his promise.
To Artemis' great shock, Lian actually calmed down. Ollie looked so happy, it brought a smile to Artemis' face. 'Oh Roy' she thought 'if only you could see this'. She quietly left the room, allowing the, some privacy.
Wally woke up early, the morning after Dick's breakdown. He didn't know why, but he just did. He sat up, and threw the covers off of him. He glanced at the digital clock on the wall in front of him '4:00 am' it read.
'Damn' he thought 'I got, what, like 3 hours of sleep?'
He knew that he would never be able to fall asleep, and that it was too early to make breakfast. He stood up from his bed, about to watch some TV in the living room, when he noticed that he wasn't the only one out of bed. Dick's bed was empty. That was not good.
Roy was still asleep; he didn't want to wake him just yet, incase Dick just went to use the bathroom or something. Panic clenched his heart as he exited their bedroom.
Why would Dick be awake this early? Did he have another nightmare? Why didn't they wake up? Wally had a lot of questions, he was seriously hoping that Dick just got up to watch TV, like what he was planning to do.
The living room was deserted. It was also dark, except for the faint glow coming from the bathroom. The panic in his heart increased tenfold.
'He didn't' he pled in his mind 'Dick please please just be in there to wash your face' he stalked to the door hastily.
He threw the door open. It probably wasn't the best approach, but he felt like if he didn't do it, something horrible was going to happen. The sight he was met with proved his theory.
Dick was there,lying on the bathroom floor, a pool of blood forming around him. His little brother was so pale. He looked so helpless, even more so than he did after his nightmare. He rushed up to him and tried to wake him up.
"Dick! Dick wake up!" He screamed. It wasn't working, it wasn't working!
"ROY! ROY HELP!" He called for his older brother.
He was panicking right now, he didn't know what to do. The cuts were so deep, and he was losing so much blood.
"You promised" he whispered. "Dick, you promised that you would never cut without us."
Roy burst into the room at that very moment. His eyes widened at the sight of his brother.
"DICK" he screamed.
He rushed forward and examined the cuts, they were going to need stitches.
"Wally, what happened?" He asked urgently. He wasn't sure they could treat him here. The only person who could possibly know how to treat this, was the person who needed to be treated.
"I-I woke up early, and I saw that D-Dick wasn't in his bed. S-so I went looking for him. Roy I-I f-found him here. And-and he's so p-pale, a-and Roy what do we do?" Wally was hysteric.
Roy wasn't far behind either. He knew that Dick would need a hospital, but the minute they check in, the league would find they really going to risk Dick's life, just for the sake of hiding?
Roy didn't even need to think about it anymore, screw hiding. Let the league find them, as long as all three of them are breathing. "Find the car keys." He ordered "we need a hospital."
