Hey guys!

I'm back!

Bet you didn't see Dannie becoming Kaldur's right hand coming, did ya?

For those of you that are curious, I am going to write a Surviving the Time Skip fic so that this doesn't get any more confusing than it already is.

I have decided to write in the third person from now on, just because it'll make things a whole lot easier.

I own nothing but my OCs.

Amity Park

March 21, 9:15

The days leading up to her mother's funeral were painful. In the space of 2 days, Danielle had been told that her mother died, moved away from her home and come to live with Nightwing, and been brought to her mother's funeral to listen to people, humans and ghosts, talk about how wonderful and beautiful her mother had been.

It was torture.

Almost getting destabilized and turning into goop were nothing compared to this.

Danielle thought that maybe, possibly, her mother could have just done something that made her temporarily disappear, like when they'd finally stopped Vlad, but unfortunately, Connor had confirmed that her heart had stopped, and that she had phased into the ground; the same way that all ghosts do when they die again.

The tears wouldn't stop. Danielle had lost the last person she had in her life/afterlife... except for Nightwing that is. He'd been a perfect father figure to her for the past 3 years, helping with whatever he could.

But still, she felt empty inside.

Nightwing seemed like he was grieving to almost everyone there, but he was really worrying.

Spirit could still be lost easily, and it would be his fault. He had been the one that let her go undercover by faking her own death.

Of course he had tried to talk her out of it and let Artemis go instead, but she was stubborn and insisted that it should be her. That was one of the things he loved and missed about her since she wasn't here right now; her stubbornness and stupid sense of self-sacrifice

Why had he let her do this?

Kid Martian was with Tim at the very edge of the crowd. They both knew Spirit pretty well, but they didn't want to intrude.

The people of Amity Park and the Ghost Zone were her family, and neither of them wanted to intrude on her family's mourning.

Maddi couldn't help but feel responsible, at least a little bit. It had been a Mars Communication satellite that Spirit had died trying to protect.

Spirit had died trying to protect something that was important to Maddi's people. It didn't benefit the Ghost Zone or Amity Park in any way.

Spirit had died because of her selflessness, but Kid Martian still couldn't help but feel a little bit responsible.

Artemis and Dick weren't blamed, at least for the most part. There were, sadly, a few that did blame them silently, but the ones that blamed them knew the heroes were going through enough already, and were respectful enough to keep their blame to themselves. After all, both of the non-powered heroes had been there on the beach that night.

If only they all knew.

Wally held Artemis closer to his side as she tried to not be hard on herself. Dick had tried to tell her it wasn't her fault that Dannie went undercover, but she wasn't convinced. Dannie had chosen to go undercover so that Artemis wouldn't have to, although her reasons made a lot of sense.

Nobody would be getting as much Intel about what was going on as Dick, so he wasn't going to worry as much as everyone else... probably.

"Hey," the archer glanced to her right to see Dick approaching them.

"Hey," Artemis croaked out.

Wally said nothing and just squeezed his girlfriend closer to his side. A part of the retired speedster was still mad at his 'best friend' for dragging Artemis and Dannie back into the field, and even more-so for allowing Spirit to go undercover, but mostly for the inner guilt he'd started inside Artemis. She hadn't said anything, but Wally could see it in her eyes. They weren't the beautiful, stormy gray they usually were; instead, they were filled with guilt.

Before the plan had been set in motion, Dick had been sure this was the best route, albeit he hadn't been quite as sure when Dannie had decided to go undercover. Now that he was seeing the sadness plaguing Danielle and the guilt that was swarming Artemis, he wasn't anywhere near as sure. It's for the best. he assured himself. This mission needs to be completed at all costs; even if that means making sacrifices.

Dick paused. He was becoming like Batman; something he'd promised himself and Dannie would never happened.

Avoiding that thought, he asked Artemis, "Are you okay?"

Artemis sniffed and said, "Fine."

In all honesty, the blonde archer was anything but fine. The sadness of the team and the League had made her upset, obviously, but at the distraught look on Danielle's face when she'd been told her mother was gone, Artemis almost lost it. But she had to keep it together, for the sake of Dannie and everyone in Amity Park. After all, Dannie was still alive. This plan was for the best...

Right?

Happy Harbor

March 21, 17:33 EDT

Standing in a grotto below the main area of Mount Justice stood 6 teens; Impulse, Kid Martian, Robin, Wonder Girl, and Blue Beetle.

They were staring at Spirit: the hero that was most recently added to their grotto of fallen heroes. Due to the funeral that had taken place that morning, everyone had sorrow in their hearts.

Maddi's gaze flickered around the grotto, taking in all of the other heroes that were there. The first hero that she noticed was Ted Kord; the previous Blue Beetle. According to Uncle J'onn, he had been a great man.

The next hologram was Aquagirl. The only thing Maddi knew about Tula was that had died in battle, and that she had been good friends with Aqualad. Her death seemed to have triggered his betrayal.

She felt Tim's grip on her hand tighten as she glanced at the memorial for Jason Todd; the previous Robin. Though he'd never met Jason, knew how much his predecessor had meant to the Bat Family, and that his death had hit them all hard. It seemed that Jason hadn't been able to get out of Dick's shadow, so chose to start being reckless, which ultimately led to his untimely demise. Because of this, Tim was now stuck in Jason's shadow. The Bat Fam babied him, probably hoping to protect him like they hadn't been able to protect Jason.

The final hologram was the one that stung Maddi the most. It was Spirit, hood up, and hands glowing with green energy, her eyes glowing a fierce yet gentle neon green. Maddi had so many things she wanted to say, but most of them had already been said at the funeral, so the only thing that the Martian could choke out was, "Thank you."

Tim glanced at Maddi and saw that her usually perfect green cheeks were stained to a mint color from tears. She'd hardly stopped crying since Spirit had died.

Tim didn't know the whole story, but according to Miss Martian, Dannie had been the first one to believe that Maddi could make a difference.

Subconsciously, he pulled the girl closer to him, silently telling her that he was there for her.

The quiet mourning was interrupted by loud crunching.

Maddi looked up with a tear stained face to see Jaime glaring at Bart, who was eating.

Bart smiled at everyone sheepishly.

"Sorry," he shrugged. "Mourning makes me hungry."

Jaime grabbed the bag of snacks from Bart's hand and glared at him. "You stole this bag of Chicken Whizzies from my locker, didn't you?!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Where I'm from, it's not stealing! It's scavenger's rights!" Bart defended, snagging back the bag. "Case in point, we don't have Chicken Whizzies, freeze dried or other, in my era. So blame Kid Flash; he got me hooked."

Jaime looked away. "Forget I asked."

"So why is this here?" Bart asked. "I mean it's pretty and everything, but these people are heroes! In the line of duty and all that. They should have giant statues! Big crashing memorials in the uh... Hall of Justice or something!"

Maddi sniffled and, with her voice breaking, said, "I asked that too. Captain Atom says that the Justice League doesn't want or need a public shrine to its fallen. I'm not entirely sure that that's the real reason there isn't one though. I think they just don't want to advertise that we're not immortal."

Jaime nodded. "Yeah. The handful of regular people that have seen me in action, they think I'm this guy in another costume." he said, gesturing to Ted Kord's memorial. "The world will never about Ted Kord's sacrifice."

Bart smiled at him. "But, you know. And you're carrying on the grand Blue Beetle tradition! Right?"

"I wish!" Jaime snapped, glaring at the ground. "It's such a total rip! Superboy has Superman, Cassie you have Wonder Woman, Robin has Batman, Nightwing and Batgirl, Maddi Hatti and Gar have each other, Martian Manhunter, and Miss Martian." He turned to glare at Bart. "You've been in this era for what, five minutes? And already you have three Flash mentors, one of which feeds you junk food." Impulse glanced at the bag of snacks before hiding it sheepishly behind his back. "Me? I never even got the chance to meet the guy who should've been my mentor."

Maddi smiled for the first time all day before she said, "Having a mentor isn't always as great as it may seem, especially when you're related to your mentors like I am."

"Yeah," Robin grinned, mostly because Maddi was finally cheering up, "just look at all of the Justice Leaguers that didn't have a mentor. Batman never had a mentor. He trained himself for years and now, he's going toe-to-toe with some of the biggest bad guys there are."

Jaime sighed, staring at his shoes. "Yeah, but having a mentor would've been nice, y'know?"

"I hear that!" Bart laughed. "We have more in common than you think. Our love of Chicken Whizzies for example." He put his arm around Jaime's shoulders, dragging him out of the grotto, and said, "Let me buy you some to replace the bag I salvaged. We'll hang and it'll be totally crash."

"Uh... sure." Jaime turned around and called back to Wonder Girl, "Bye Cassie! I'll call you later!"

Once the two boys were gone, Cassie pouted and said, "Impulse stole my boyfriend."

Her sadness was quickly replaced with a sudden silliness. "I do think they'd make a cute couple though. Bluepulse!"

Maddi shook her head. "You're weird Cassie."

Cassie scoffed. "You're just upset because you and Robin don't have a couple name."

The Martian and her boyfriend smiled in sync.

"Actually, we do." Tim said, smirking.

Cassie started to seem a little flushed. "Whatever it is, I don't think I want to know."

Tim shook his head. "Whatever. Aren't you 2 supposed to meet Raquel for her wedding shower?"

While Maddi was confused, Cassie seemed to realize something and grabbed Kid Martian's hand, flying out of the cave and through the Zeta tubes as Nightwing and Batgirl entered the grotto.

Tim frowned.

"What's wrong little bro?" Barbara asked.

"Cassie stole my girlfriend." he complained, crossing his arms.

Nightwing smirked. "I think that they'd be a cute couple. Greengirl."

Robin fake gagged and said, "Blech! Leave the couple naming to Babs. And I think that Wondermartian would be better."

Nightwing shook his head. "You two are weird."

"You're just upset because Maddi and Tim don't have a couple name." Barbara teased.

Tim smirked. "If only you knew. We're Birdmartian."

And with a triumphant smirk, Tim left the grotto.

(I'm too lazy to write the whole wedding shower)

Gulf of Mexico

March 23, 16:10

Dannie was with Kaldur in a Manta Flyer, which also held the Terror Twins, and Icicle Jr., who were the other fighters for the mission that Black Manta had sent them on.

"Brother Tommy," she heard Tuppence say, "I think we're plum crazy to throw in with this feller. I mean it wasn't 2 years ago Mr. Aqualad here was trying to lock us back up in Belle Rev."

"Well sister Tuppence, folks say he had a change of heart since findin' out who his Papi is." the halfa heard Tommy reply.

"I hear he switched sides because of some girl," Junior put in as Dannie heard him walk up to Tuppence. "Which I totally get. Y'know, if it's the right girl."

"Step back Junior." Tuppence replied. "You're givin' me the chills."

"But in a good way, right babe?" Junior flirted.

"Me, I'm more concerned about this Huntress." Tommy stated. "How come the Terror Twins ain't never heard of her before?"

Dannie had to resist the urge to roll her eyes as she said, "You know we can hear you."

"That we do Missy." Tommy replied, and by the sound of his voice, he was smirking. "These are open questions you see."

"So which one of you wants to ask your 'open questions' of Black Manta?" She asked, turning to face the villains. Tommy's smirk instantly vanished. "Which one of you wants to suggest to the big bad, that his son and his son's hand-picked right hand, can't be trusted?"

They all shut up after that.

"Don't look so defeated." Junior flirted. "I'm here for you."

"Ugh." Tuppence shivered. "Will you cut that out?"

"Can't help myself babe." Junior admitted. "I've been kinda obsessed since the first time I laid eyes on you."

"This is the first you laid eyes on me." Tuppy deadpanned.

"Technically." Junior said, and I knew he was talking about when we stopped the Belle Rev jailbreak 5 years ago. "But see, five years ago in Belle Rev, this Martian girl was posing as you-"

The next thing Dannie heard was the sound of ice cracking as Tuppence said, "So go give the skeevies to her."

"I'm wearing her down." Junior told Kaldur.

"Perhaps we could focus on the mission now." the Atlantean replied harshly. "We are closing on our target."

Happy Harbor

March 23, 20:24 EDT

Maddi was finishing up her Physics homework when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." she said, closing her Physics book.

She hadn't seen Robin since her and Cassie left the grotto, because with Batman being off-world he had to step up to patrol Gotham, so she was eager for some company.

Suddenly, Maddi was tapped on the shoulder.

She turned around to see Jaime and Bart, wearing full hero attire.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked. "It's not that I'm not happy to see you both," she quickly added, "I'm just curious."

"We were wondering if you wanted to come hang with us!" Bart exclaimed.

She smiled apologetically. "Thanks for the offer, but I have to finish my homework."

She started to work on her physics again, but Bart took the pencil out of Maddi's hand as Jaime pulled her up.

"Come on hermana, you have all weekend to finish your physics. It's Friday! Por favor?" Jaime asked.

"Why me? Cassie and Gar are-"

"Both busy." Impulse interrupted. "Leaving you as our hang out buddy."

She glanced at my open Physics book, and then back at the boys, who were smiling eagerly.

She could finish a Physics assignment that wasn't due until Monday, or go and hang out with her friends.

... She's going to go hang out with her friends.

"Okay, but only for a little while." Maddi told them.

She shifted into her uniform and then followed them out of the land entrance.

"So, why are we flying to El Paso again?" Maddi asked as we flew across the country.

"Because El Paso has rocks!" Impulse replied.

She raised my eyebrows.

"Why do we need rocks?" she asked curiously.

"You'll see." he promised.

Impulse's vague answers will be the death of her.

The boys had really just brought Maddi along to watch them do what boys tend to do best; blow things up. She was bored so she sat cross-legged just above the ground, meditating.

Blue fired his sonic blaster at a rock and said, "Here, watch this one!" When the rock had been destroyed, he said, "Well?

Impulse faked boredom as he said, "Yaaawwn. Seriously? That's the best you can do?"

Blue scoffed. "No."

He whirled around and blew up another boulder.

He blew on his hand/cannon, which shifted back to normal as he said, "How's that hermano?"

Maddi sighed, finally stopping her meditation since it wasn't doing much. "I don't mean to be rude, but why am I here if you 2 are just blowing things up?"

Impulse raised his eyebrow. "You mean you're not having fun?"

"Explosions aren't my thing, considering that all Martians are weak to fire." she explained.

Bart smirked. "Well KM, the boulders are definitely feeling the mode, but, if there's one thing I learned in the future, it's that it's easier to destroy-" He sped off, not really seeming to do anything before coming back, arms outstretched like when he arrived. "Than to create! Tada!"

"Uh," Jaime said, just as confused as Maddi, "'Tada' what exactly?"

"Curb the attitude, gain some altitude hermanos." Bart replied, clearly annoyed.

The two heroes flew upward, and Maddi gasped at what she saw.

Right where they had been standing was an outline of the real Impulse, made out of bits of rock from the boulders Jaime had destroyed.

"Impulse by Impulse!" Bart shouted. "Is that crash or what?!"

"Crash." Jaime said, obviously impressed. "Totally crash."

"I have to say Bart, you win." she told him.

"Win what?" he asked.

"I made a bet with myself about which one of you would impress me more before I had to go home." Maddi explained. "You win."

"That's so crash!" Bart shouted.

Dannie looked to Kaldur for his signal, and when he gave it, she gave the signal for Tuppence to pounce Blue Beetle.

She cannon-balled him into the ground, destroying Impulse's rock portrait.

"Oh man," Impulse complained. "I spent 1.6 seconds on that self-portrait; it was my masterpiece."

"Impulse, I don't mean to be rude, but I think that Blue matters more than your rock art." Kid Martian told the speedster. Sweet little Maddi. Always trying so hard not to insult people.

Dannie ran at Impulse, followed closely by Tommy, and aimed a kick at Bart's face, which he dodged with his speed, right into Tommy. The speedster bounced right off of Tommy and straight into her trap as Dannie used her crossbow to launch a net at him.

Tuppence kept her hold on Blue Beetle as Tommy went to help her. They didn't let go until Icicle Jr. froze the Hispanic boy.

"Blue!" Kid Martian shouted. She had landed, just a little ways away from Impulse, and was trying to get to the boy until Dannie threw some bombs at the Martian girl's feet.

At first, they didn't do anything, but after a few seconds, the bombs ignited a fire circle around Maddi.

She quickly felt the effects of the fire getting to her, weakening her, as she slowly fell to the ground, feeling exhausted, powerless, and fatigued.

"KM! Blue!" Bart screamed. He may not have been an expert on the whole hero thing, but he knew that Martians were weak to fire.

Dannie felt bad for hurting Maddi, but she had to maintain her cover.

As Maddi fell to the ground, unconscious, Impulse vibrated out of his bonds and picked up Kid Martian, taking her behind a boulder before joining Blue Beetle to fight.

Maddi soon heard Impulse say, "Aha."

The auburn haired boy sped up to Aqualad and said, "So you're Aqualad; fighting with the enemy and using alien tech to track my buddy Blue. Not crash dude, not crash, at all."

Impulse grabbed the 'tracking device' from Kaldur and said, "Zoink! Moded!"

He then sped back to down to Blue, who was holding Maddi up bridal style as she recovered from the fire's effects on her.

"They can't follow us now!" Bart grinned. "Come on; let's book!"

And 'book' they did.

Mount Justice

March 23, 21:05 EDT

Recognized: Blue Beetle, B-2-3; Kid Martian, B-2-4; Impulse, B-2-5.

"Haha!" Impulse cheered as Maddi staggered to her feet. "Left them in the dust!"

"Left who in the dust?" Nightwing questioned as he walked over to the three heroes, Artemis right on his heels. "And what happened to Kid Martian? Not to mention, what is that?"

Maddi breathed heavily and said, "In order, Aqualad, Icicle Jr., the Terror Twins and a ninja girl I didn't recognize attacked us while we were in the desert, the ninja girl used some kind of bomb to create a ring of fire around me, and it's the device that they used to track us. Bart made sure they couldn't do it again."

Said speedster grinned from ear-to-ear until Nightwing growled and said, "So you three brought foreign, possibly alien, tech back into the cave?"

"Rookie mistake!" Artemis added

He sighed before adding, "Give it here."

"If you had another one of them things, then why didn't you just say so in the first place?" Tommy growled.

"It is not the same." Kaldur explained. "This one confirms the first device acted as a Trojan Horse. Impulse brought it into the cave, it remotely hacked and bypassed all security."

Dannie did everything in her power to not tense up in her seat as Kaldur said, "Mount Justice is ours."

While Kaldur and the others snuck through the underwater hangar, Dannie went through the air vents until she made it to the kitchen/living room area.

She snuck carefully out of the vent and cautiously put an inhibitor collar on Wolf.

The next step brought her to the door that led to the Mission Room.

She waited until she was needed.

When the data's results came up, Nightwing said, "Ugh. I'm an idiot!"

He whipped around escrisma sticks at the ready, Artemis doing the same with her bow.

Unfortunately, Superboy was thrown into the two heroes.

As Blue Beetle flew into the air, he dropped Maddi, who was still struggling to stay on her feet.

Maddi still tried to fight though, and threw a lousy punch at Tuppence Terror, who pinned the weakened Martian down and put an inhibitor collar on Maddi's neck.

When Nightwing and Artemis finally got out from under Superboy, Artemis was knocked down by a kick to face as an inhibitor collar was thrown onto her neck. Nightwing didn't know who his attacker was until she was right on top of him... literally.

Seeing Dannie, now dubbed Huntress was a relief, although it was strange when he felt the familiar tugging at the back of his mind that only he had ever known. It was his fiance's telepathy. He knew how Dannie's telepathy worked. Because her telepathy came from being half ghost, her telepathy could only be heard by other ghosts, or people who had witnessed death.

'I'm really sorry about this Wonder Bread.' she told him.

'Don't worry about it, but I thought that magic inhibited your ghost powers?' he replied.

'For some reason, magic doesn't affect my telepathy. It's the one power that I can still use.' Dannie explained.

With that their conversation ended as she slapped an inhibitor collar around his neck.

Dick smirked at her.

"Sorry. No superpowers for your collar to turn off." he informed her.

Dannie feigned a look of shock before Nightwing used the temporary 'distraction' to move his legs around her neck and force her to the ground.

As Nightwing stood up, he felt electricity surge throughout his body as Huntress used a remote control to activate the shocks in his collar, forcing him on his knees.

'I always knew that you could get me on my knees if you really wanted to.' Dick joked.

'I can't really say anything to that, other than that I wish it was under better circumstances.' the halfa replied. 'I hate seeing you in pain, and it hurts me even more to know that I'm causing it.'

'Don't worry about me; you know that I've had worse.' Nightwing reassured her.

"Stand down!" Aqualad shouted as he entered the room.

Huntress's head snapped up to look at her 'boss' as she let go of the button. Nightwing had felt enough jolts that he wouldn't be moving until Aqualad and the others were aboard the Manta flyer.

"This battle is over!" Aqualad informed Blue Beetle.

"I don't think so! Traitor!" Blue shouted as he turned his hands into sonic cannons.

"Then rethink." Kaldur replied coldly.

He set down the bag he was carrying and set it down, opening it to reveal what it was.

"This is the same type of bomb that obliterated Melina Island. I am holding down the dead-man switch. If my thumb comes off this button for any reason, Mount Justice falls."

After what seemed to be an argument with himself, Blue Beetle came down and said, "We're standing down."

Tommy clasped an inhibitor collar around the Hispanic teen's neck as a smirk spread across his face.

"Wise choice." Aqualad told Blue, standing back up.

As Junior slid down an ice slide, he said, in a very sarcastic tone, "I'm fine by the way."

"Good." Kaldur told him. "Escort Beetle and the others to the flyer."

"What about these three?" Dannie asked, concerned for the lives of her best friends and fiance.

"As hostages here, they have value." Kaldur stated. "But Nightwing and Artemis are ordinary humans. Superboy, a human/Kryptonian hybrid clone. Neither category is of any interest to our partner."

Dannie stepped away as Nightwing finally got to his feet. He was too weak to fight right now, but he could still make threats.

"Aqualad! You'll regret this!" he shouted.

Kaldur walked up to his 'former friend' and punched him in the gut, secretly passing on a flash-drive.

As Kaldur walked away, he said, "I believe I have outgrown the name Aqualad, or anything resembling regret. I will leave the bomb with you, as a souvenir. Oh. And the dead-man switch has a five mile range. Do not pursue."

Kid Martian slowly came out of unconsciousness to hear the cave's attackers arguing among themselves.

"Can't believe we didn't end Superboy when we had the chance." Tommy Terror said angrily.

"Boss-fish still has a soft spot for his old team." Icicle Jr. growled.

Kaldur turned to Huntress. "Do it."

Dannie removed her cowl-like mask before she said, "Are you sure?"

He looked away from her concerned face and said, "Do it."

Sighing, she pushed the button, sending one last telepathic message to Dick.

'Be safe my love.'

Kid Martian started sobbing the moment the mountain started to blow up, and Dannie felt so much regret welling up inside of her.

The Martian girl's home had been destroyed, and the halfa had caused it.

Washington DC

March 24, 03:12 EDT

Recognized: Kid Flash, B-0-3.

"What, happened?" Wally ground out.

Artemis was thrilled to see Wally, even though she could see the super-nova sized amount of anger on his face.

Dick set down his cup of hot chocolate and said, "It was necessary."

"It better have been. Spill." the retired speedster told his friend.

"Aqualad needed a way to help us rescue Lagoon Boy. He had already injected a microscopic tag into La'gaan's bloodstream, and he used the raid on the cave to pass on essential Intel: a flash-drive with, among other things, tracking software that can locate the tag."

"Like that's all he did." Wally growled.

"Wally, he had to make it look good! He put inhibitor collars on us but he knew we'd get them off!" Dick explained.

"He took three more hostages; members of your team!" Wally retorted. Though his feelings were still mixed about Bart, the kid was family. And as far as Maddi went, she was Miss Martian's sister and a good friend of his.

"And we'll rescue them when we rescue Lagoon Boy!" Dick retaliated.

The redhead grabbed his friend by the uniform and said, "Dick, he blew up the cave! You guys almost died!"

"No," Dick told his friend, removing the speester's hands as he slowly lost his patience, "it's all on the flash-drive. He knew I'd have to pursue to make it look legit, and that's exactly what happened. He gave us time to get out. We just... we got caught in the debris field from the explosion."

"Do you even hear yourself?" Wally asked. "What if even one of you got left behind? Huh? Why take that risk? Why go to such extremes?"

"The drive explains that too." Dick replied, having a hard time keeping his patience. "He- he needed to cement his position with the Light, and the Light's partner."

"Wasn't that why he 'murdered' Dannie?" Wally growled.

"I guess it didn't convince everyone." Nightwing sighed.

"You guess?!" KF demanded.

"The cave is- was just a place! Worth sacrificing if it helps us stop the invasion! Look, I'm sorry you lost all your souvenirs!" Dick told him.

"You think I care about that junk?!" Wally asked incredulously as he shoved Dick into a chair. "We're worried about Dannie! Terrified for her! And you put her right in his hands."

"Come on Wally," Dick tried to reason, "This is Kaldur we're talking about. Our friend."

"Yeah, Kaldur; our friend, who, in the space of a few months, lost the love of his life and found out that Black Manta is his father. Isn't it possible that Aqualad might actually be a traitor? A triple agent? He's supposed to be playing them, but are you absolutely certain that he isn't playing you?" Wally questioned.

At this point, Dick had lost his patience. He punched the speedster, knocking him to the ground before he said, "You have no idea what I'm going through! You think that I'm not worried about Dannie?! Think again! You want the full truth?! Here it is! Dannie volunteered to go undercover so that Artemis wouldn't have to! If Dannie hadn't gone, Artemis would've! You don't understand Wally! She's all I've got left! She thought I'd be able to handle it better than you because I'd be getting the most information, but she was wrong, because I'm taking it harder! If I lose her, I'll have lost everyone! And you have the nerve to think that I'm not worried?!" Dick ranted.

After he'd gotten that out of his system, he went through the zeta tube back to Bludhaven, leaving behind a dumbfounded Wally and Artemis.

Gotham City

March 24 9:30

Tim was not in a good mood after what Dick had told him, and the training dummies at the Batcave proved it. Not only had the cave been completely and utterly destroyed, but Maddi was taken as well. Aqualad had kidnapped his green angel.

As Tim destroyed the final training dummy, Alfred came in with a bottle of water, stopping the training exercise.

"Master Tim, you need to take a break. Exhausting yourself will not save the girl, and it will not be good for your health either." The old butler said wisely.

"I can't help but feel responsible Alfie. I should've been able to do something." Tim confessed, his guilt pouring out. He started chugging his water bottle down as Alfred sat down to offer some words of wisdom... or maybe words of comfort. Tim could never be sure when it came to Alfred.

"Master Tim, there is nothing you could have done for her. The best thing that you can do now is aid in her search instead of exhausting yourself in training." Alfred told the boy.

Tim paused for a moment before he smiled, though it was weakly.

"Thanks Alfred; that was exactly what I needed to hear. You're exactly right."

And that's a wrap! I know that Dick probably seems a little OOCish, but it is his fiance undercover instead of Artemis, so he's not having an easy time with this, and Wally's hissy-fit didn't help.

Please read and review!

Signing off,

-MckennaTennyson-Harper12