Disclaimer: Do not own Young justice or the Justice League. They are property of DC Comics and their respective creators/writers.

Last on Effects-

Tearing his eyes slowly away from the Nian, Dick walked around the carving a few times, scanning just about every inch. There was something else that had called him to stop at the exhibit but for what he had yet to find out. On his fourth trip around an imperfection in the marble holding up the carving caught his eye. Bending down to get a better look Dick had gotten the second surprise of the week.

Indented into the slab of marble on the lightest portion of the otherwise black marble was the pendant he wore around his neck. The dragon inlaid with its claws wrapped around a sake jug, the upside down silver fan, and two guardian lions on either side of the dragon with the swords in their mouths crossing in the back of the dragon.

"Beautiful isn't she?"

Whipping around all three males turned to see an elderly Asian male wearing a blue jumper leaning against a mop. A crocked almost toothless grin spread across his face that did nothing to sooth Dick's slightly faster than normal heart rate. It had been a long time since someone had snuck up on him. A quick glance to Wally and Roy was all Dick needed to know that he was not the only one whom had been caught off guard.

About to open his mouth and ask what the older male wanted, Dick stopped, noticing a growingly familiar tattoo on the males hand. It was a circular bud with a little crown at the top, sap seeping out of the middle, a flower with a darker middle sitting behind it. Both overlay the symbol of the sun, the characters for gunpowder running along his pointer finger.

Jade Sun...

Continued

-xXx-

"So whatever it is," Raquel said looking around the trashed studio apartment she found herself in, not having to wonder for long just who possibly could have done the damage. "It's somewhere in all of here?"

While Dick, Wally, and Roy had split up to go check out the museum the rest of them were tasked to find whatever other clue/note/item Ying had left to help them out. If there was any threat that he would have ended up targeted then Ying should have kept his nose down until whatever business was finished, Raquel thought to herself still taking in the room. Mattress slashed, bed frame overturned, dresser and table knocked over, all the cupboards opened including the fridge, some ripped off the hinges.

Working with Lee Travis, in Raquel's opinion, did not qualify for a low key job she continued to think as the amount of damage registered. Neither did taking on the masked persona of the Crimson Avenger's bodyguard, Rokuro. Just thinking about all the other possible ways things could have gone wrong gave the female a headache. Had he ever done any form of undercover work previously?

The rest of the Young Justice team had sat around the living room for at least two hours trying hard to figure out just what Ying had been trying to tell them in that vague yet lengthy letter. Who was the woman that he had talked to previously? And why had he waited till after nearly getting killed to tell them the truth? Surely he wouldn't have done so if he wasn't on his death bed…confessionals.

"Television," Raquel mumbled whilst rolling her eyes walking to her own corner of the studio apartment, letting out an annoyed puff of air. "You see this in bad television." [1] Part of her wanted to believe that all of this was just some well-planned and thought out hoax. Especially, now that it was more than just stopping the resurrection of some Giant monster that could destroy all of humanity. No it couldn't be that 'simple.'

They had finally figured out how to decode the letter thanks to Zatanna and her handy work. She had spoken a quick spell that revealed circled letters throughout the letter. Whatever sparked in the raven haired females mind to do that did not matter, Raquel was just glad that they were getting somewhere with all of this. Hopefully Rob-Dick….Robin and the others were doing a lot better.

That's how they all ended up in the Bio ship headed back to the city, destination Ying's apartment. His very trashed apartment. Being the great team that they were Kaldur had still wanted to go over the apartment hoping that whatever the person whom ransacked the place for, was still there. The letter had yet to give them exactly what it was they should have been keeping their eyes open for, however. Typical.

Conner hated monkeys. Raquel could clearly now say she hated riddles with no answers. 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' Yea…This was one of those scenarios.

"That's what the message said."

Brought out of her thoughts Raquel whipped her eyes over to the blonde female whom spoke before returning her attention to the room. "Riiiight."

"Let's just start looking," Artemis said exasperated at the other female. Really? "The more time we take the less likely we'll be able to find whatever it is." Besides, with our luck someone might be on their way over right now, she thought before moving to another side of the room.

"Whatever." Shrugging, Raquel moved to the far wall near the window staring in between Artemis and M'gann. This was going to be a long week.

-xXx-

Having ignored Artemis and Raquel, for the most part, Zatanna had begun her scan of Ying's apartment starting at the desk. It wouldn't be hard for her to scan through everything using her powers to right the table once again before sending all of the papers into her awaiting hands. The hard part came in trying to decipher just what he had written down on the many half sheets of paper.

Either they held no importance to the person, or peoples who ransacked the place, or they hadn't known how to read the characters just like she hadn't. No matter, it wouldn't hurt to bring them along. Perusing through the other papers Zatanna stopped on a small worn book of poetry, noted by the haiku on the front.

furuike ya

kawazu tobikomu

mizu no o to [2]

Not one to judge, Zatanna just didn't peg Ying for one to enjoy poetry. Unless the whole cover was a front, and there was some secret message hidden in the words. Flipping through the book Zatanna couldn't find anything wrong with it either but once again…she didn't know the language. Does he ever write in English? The young magician thought to herself before shuffling through the rest of the papers.

-xXx-

Kaldur scanned over the overturned bed frame and mattress, noting that it had been cut clean down the middle. Whomever had done this was pretty methodical in their search, messy, but methodical. It was just the 'what' in their search that held Kaldur's interest. Could they be after the same thing as the Young Justice or was there something that they had been missing the whole time thanks to Ying's less than forward notes.

Whatever it was though was important. Their teammate and friend depended on this, the world depended on this. They would not fail.

Carefully Kaldur flipped over the mattress after having went through the cut coming up empty other than the entrails of the bed. Moving the mattress against the wall, he proceeded to search the bedframe next taking into account that there were slight worn grooves on the floor just underneath. Going to the other side of the bed Kaldur grabbed a hold of the frame dragging it across the floor, peeking the interest of some of his team members before they went back to their own tasks.

Walking back over to the floor, now empty of a bedframe and its resounding shadow, Kaldur got down on his hands and knees to gain a better sight of the marred wood. There was something not right about the way the floor seemingly dipped in on a few of the boards but what really got the Atlantian thinking were was the tiny impression running perpendicular to the floor scratches and horizontal to the wall.

Standing up Kaldur turned his attention to that same wall moving his hands about it trying to feel for anything unusual, a catch, something. Nothing was out of place although…Looking from the wall where the impressions on the floor would be Kaldur mentally calculated that they were about the same distance on the floor compared to the height of the wall molding. Fingers prying Kaldur held back a smile as the wall gave way to a not so gentle tug.

-xXx-

Having made her way over the dresser, probably one of the few things not completely totaled M'gann searched the floor going through the discarded clothes on the floor figuring there may be something underneath one of the articles. What she found under a black button up may not have been what she was looking for but it was interesting to say the least.

On the ground was a plush rabbit, a life like snow rabbit with a yellow bow. Smiling at the stuffed toy, M'gann picked it up about to place it on the dresser when something else caught her eye. Broken glass?

Shuffling another shirt away from the area around her feet M'gann found the source of the glass. A broken picture frame, the glass smashed completely off of the wood. Three pictures lay on the ground, only one managing to stay inside.

Carefully picking up the pictures from the broken glass M'gann studied the floor for a moment longer realizing that they all came from the same small picture frame. Moving a bit away from the glass the Martian female flipped the first picture to its front, a warm smile gracing her features.

Sitting down underneath a tree was Ying, Sammy, and two other people who could have been the little girl's older brother and sister. Ying, Sammy, and the older female sat side by side laughing at something one of them had said, obviously at the expense of the only other male in the picture who did not seem pleased to say the least.

Ying genuinely looked happy in this picture, it being the first and probably only time M'gann had seen the male smile and mean it.

Flipping to the next picture it had to be sometime after the first one was taken. The unnamed male was smirking, a devious glint in his eyes as he was captured whispering something to Sammy, the little girl sharing the same glint. While that was going on the older female was holding Ying's attention talking to him about something the picture would not be able to reveal.

Seemingly in the middle of a word, Ying had paused wholly distracted by Sammy whom had her hands wrapped around his neck, planting a kiss to the older males cheek.

Turning over the picture M'gann read the back, a message written out in bubbly handwriting.

'To Ying

We know you said no pictures but mom just couldn't help it.

You should really smile more.

In a different hand writing were the words 'July 4th-Sammy, Jill, and Amari."

Taking one last look at the pictures, M'gann placed them carefully into her back pocket making a mental note to drop them off at the hospital when she got the chance. Obviously they had meant something to Ying if he had kept them, even going so far as to date and frame them.

-xXx-

Having checked all of there was to with the stove, and fridge, Conner had moved to the cupboards starting with the ones on the floor. From the looks of it whomever had done the mess was in a hurry, and he couldn't blame them. There was no telling when someone was going to come in to the apartment and find it like this, let alone them. There would be little to no explaining what they were doing.

Moving to the ones seemingly left at least on their hinges Conner found absolutely nothing, having gone through them at least five times already. Closing the cupboard Conner was about to move back to the beginning when he picked up something different with the way it sounded when closed versus the others that still held to their hinges. With narrowed eyes he opened the same cupboard yet again before closing it, slower this time. A small click sounded, letting the clone know that the drawer was now in fact closed but it was the softer click after which alerted him.

It was something that Conner was sure the others would have missed. Opening the cabinet yet again Conner scanned the sides of it with his thumb and pointer finger catching a part of the corner as it raised ever so slightly. Bingo.

Apart from nearly ripping the cupboard off its hinges to get at whatever was hidden in between the wood, Conner managed to slide a piece of the board out after noticing slight warn groves in the side, noting the track marks.

Placing his hand over the wood, Conner slid the piece out, quickly catching a sliver of paper that had slowly floated towards the ground.

It was a small piece of warn paper with coordinates on it. Another clue?

Calling the others over to him, it was only seconds before Kaldur took the proffered paper giving it a curious glancing over before handing it to M'gann. Maybe she should be able to find something on it and if not, there was always Zatanna.

"Does he want us to help him?" Artemis growled out forcefully giving Kaldur back the paper before making her way to the door. This was by far the most annoying case she had worked on since…well…ever. If it hadn't have been about the possible safety of her younger friend than Artemis was pretty sure she'd have thrown in the towel with this whole ordeal a while ago.

Speaking of which the little tree monkey had a lot of explaining to do. Like what the hell he did with that picture on her first day of school. Artemis just couldn't believe that the whole time the blue eyed troll at the academy was in fact their dark, cackling, joke playing mini bat. It was hard to believe.

And that red headed green eyed jackleg had kept it all a secret? Granted, they were best friends so Wally was sure to know but come on. These things were kind of important…

Blue eyes traveled down to the other object in their team leaders hand. "What's that?"

"I found this in a hidden hole in the wall," Kaldur said revealing a folded up cloth, obviously surrounding something by the bulk in the middle. Tied off by a thick black cloth it was the only thing keeping the Young Justice from figuring out quickly what was inside it.

"Well what's inside it?" Artemis asked, her impatience being known to all.

"We'll find that out once we return to the mountain. Any longer and we could be risking it."

-xXx-

The hotel room was lavish, the space fit for a queen. Huge windows overlooking the city, king sized bed draped in only the finest bed spreads, fluffy wine colored carpets, gold accented walls and a bathroom the size of a master bedroom. One would never have thought the woman whom had paid for the penthouse suite was a well-known drug lord of her people.

Nor would they know of the meeting taking place at that very moment.

Opting to stand near the window Batman kept his gaze locked onto the two males standing on either side of the only woman in the room. Lady Lei. Current leader of the Jade Sun and at the moment, the only person the Caped Crusader could talk to who knew just what was going on along with any ways of stopping a major tragedy from happening. He would work with the woman for the time being. Anything after, however, was still in the air.

Lee Travis sat at the desk, his chair turned to face mostly Lady Lei as lounged most carefree on the edge of the bed. Cane resting against the desk, Fedora on his lap he waited for the young woman to speak. It was she, after all whom had called for them to meet her at the hotel. As a gentleman first, he would allow her the privilege of speaking…He did not know if Batman would give the same courtesy given the circumstances.

"Ying wasn't the smartest out of all of us," Lady Lei began, her piercing gaze set upon the oldest male in the room. "He wasn't the best strategist. It took him seven more years to learn what we did in just three. Even our little brother out shined him. No. What he could do was far different than what we needed in the Jade Sun."

"So you gave him up to the enemy."

"Enemy?" Lady Lei turned to Batman a deep frown upon her face. "You understand nothing of our ties."

"Well then I suggest you start speaking."

Raising a brow at the Dark Knights tone of voice to her Lady Lei did as suggested. As it were she was one, not in her territory and even with her two best body guards things would not work in her favor. Ying at the moment was her top priority. That, and bringing all of this business to a close once and for all.

"The Shadow Oni are hired assassins. Always have been. Technically if you want to go further they're blood runs through my veins just as much as the Jade Sun. Through history all three organizations once belonged to the same bloodline. It wasn't till after the first guardians of the souls were killed that the rift began.

"You see, the three siblings whom took up the organization after their father's health failed him, could no longer agree on how to go about keeping the pieces safe. And well…You can figure form there what happened next."

"Shadow, Sun, and East," Lee spoke piecing together Lady Lei's unspoken words. It was a heavy situation that must have taken years of strife and bad blood to split the family so much. Going so far as to even leave your country of origin…Or being forced to.

"There must have been a reason after all why you are still above ground." A backhanded compliment from the younger woman, Lady Lei continued with her tale. "Yes. A few years ago the only known item was stolen from us and Ying was sent to retrieve it by all means necessary. It took some time to track it down as you can see, my father himself had been working this whilst we were young. But he had other obligations as well and we all know how that can hinder an operation."

"You jeopardized your organization sending him over here."

"I knew very well that Ying was infiltrating my facility while over here…Feeding information to you. I simply gave him what information would meet your eyes. Everything you got Batman, is old news. Even that sample batch from Dante's factory. The files. All of it. If it meant him getting into your good graces then by all means I could take that small risk."

"Not much of a small risk if you went down," Lee Travis noted flecking a small piece of dirt off of his fedora. "Not all of that was planned."

"No, you are correct. I cannot see everything that is to occur, however, I was just hoping that Batman wouldn't hide completely behind my brother to do his dirty work." Sending the black clad male a challenging smirk Lady Lei sat a bit further back on the bed. "I'm pretty sure you could have done better on your own."

Not falling into her battle of wits Batman continued to hammer down the questions. "Why else was he sent over here?"

"There was a chance one of the guardian's offspring was in the states. One with an item. He was to retrieve it."

Batman's eyes narrowed. "Who was it?"

"Now if I say this Batman all of my cards would be on the table and I have seen none of yours. I want immunity. You get your information and the Eastern Snow Leopards. Anyone in my organization past or present do not get touched by the law, or your people for that matter."

"Their name," Batman growled out getting impatient with the woman.

"Im-mu-ni-ty," Lady Lei spoke up, annunciating each syllable.

"Would you risk the time we have now over something so petty?"

"Oh trust me, Mr. Travis," Lady Lei spoke flecking her eyes over to the aged male before returning them back to Batman. "This is no petty matter. Take it or leave it Batman but just know you need this information. Ying is my brother but I can be very cold hearted for the things that I want."

"Granted. Now their name."

"The child of Ou, MeiLi. She would have changed her name some time ago to Mary Grayson after getting married. Her son. Richard. You would know him well."

End Chapter

[1]- borrowed form one of the best movies I've been introduced to thanks to TimeXgone23. Boondock Saints. Freaking love em.

[2]- A haiku written by Basho. Lose translation. "old pond . . .a frog leaps in, water's sound."