Hi! Let me introduce you to the 5th chapter of RCCD.

First, the disclaimer:
Young Justice © DC
Rain comes crashing down © Night Ranger.

I realized that I've written "Connor" instead of "Conner". Let's see if I figure out a way of solving it...

I want to thank all of you, viewers, and specially the reviers! Please, keep reviewing, it's very helpful.

Before you read it, you should listen to the song. Here's a link: www. youtube watch?v=McxuSquUCeU&feature= (minus the spaces).

The lyrics of the chorus, used for chapters 4 and 5, are:

And the shadows you leave behind you
Are like the rain
That's coming down.
When there's no one left around
I'll be the rain taht's crashing
Rain that's crashing down

Now, you're safe to read.


Chapter 5: I'll be the rain that's crashing down

The Young Justice team didn't took one day off. Wally was already ok. They decided to stay up late, it was their first night in the quarters with no missions.

At 9 pm, all of them were sitting in a table.

As they talked, as it usually happens when a group of people is extremely smart and enough traumatized to put a costume on and fight crime at age 16, the topics of the conversation got deeper and darker.

Kaldur talked about the problems in Atlantis. He had been having a hard time with Aquaman. He was angry at Kaldur for leaving the city to go work full-time at a league like Young Justice. He said that even him, who was in the Justice League went to Atlantis all the time. they had been arguing bad. The last time, Aquaman had literally closed the door in is face and said "You've betrayed us." It had happened more than a month ago and they hadn't talked to each other since. Kaldur was worried. He knew Aquaman, and wasn't sure at all that he was going to forgive him. "If he doesn't, I don't know what I will do. I've been wanting to go to Atlantis, even to apologize. But maybe even that won't work. Maybe he will say I'm weak."

Kaldur left a couple minutes aft raying this. He seemed very affected.

"I'm worried about him" said Connor "He hasn't been a good leader lately. He's worried all the time." He glanced at Megan. She wasn't smiling. It was strange not to see her smile. But she didn't say anything.

"Oh, come on, He'll be ok." said Wally chuckling "He just needs… some mermaid, if you know what I mean."

As usually, Connor didn't understand, Megan stared at him quietly, Artemis murmured "you're repulsive" and Dick smiled.

"You mean he needs to get some tail?" he asked. Wally laughed, and Megan and Artemis rolled their eyes.

They decided implicitly to enjoy those minutes of joy before the dark topics came out again.

Artemis told them about her life for the first time. About her mother, who was in wheelchair, and how she had ended there. Of course, she doesn't say anything about her relationship with Huntress, Sportsmaster, Chesire and other villains. But Artemis is good at lying, and she tells the guys the tragic story they want to hear, a story that's actually true… except that in the original one included betraying her mother, father and sister.

Everyone was amazed. Artemis almost never open her mouth. When she did, she was usually insulting one of them, whining about meaningless things or snoring. But, all of a sudden, she was talking about her tragic life.

She had had an abusive father, who had abandoned them when she was 6 years old. Her mother had been alcoholic, but was getting better now. But, since she was in a wheelchair, she couldn't have any decent job. So she and her little sister had always been the ones to bring the food to their home.

Robin stayed quiet as he heard his teammate talk. She had figured out a long time ago that she wasn't the niece of Green Arrow. Nobody knew it, but he still talked to Roy sometimes. The other ones were kind of angry at him, but Robin understood why he hadn't joined them. And Speedy had confirmed that Artemis had no relation with Green Arrow. But not even Robin could make Bruce tell him why he had accepted him in the team. They both knew Batman very well, and they knew that if they had deducted that the girl wasn't Green Arrow's niece, Batman already know it. The first thing everyone learns about Batman is that he is always at least one step ahead of you.

But Robin looked at Artemis while se spoke and realize she wasn't lying. After years of working with Bruce, he had learn a way to tell when someone is not being honest, and Artemis was. Maybe she was hiding something, but the important part was there.

When Kaldur had talked about his Aquaman problem, everyone had been asking questions. Mostly because everyone already knew some of it. But now, even Wally was quiet.

Artemis finished the story and there was an awkward silence for a couple of minutes.

Wally of course, was the first one to break it.

"Ok, it's 10:30 already, we should eat something."

"Wow" thought Robin "Wally didn't make a joke, he must have been really affected!"

Megan had cooked Pizza. Probably the only thing she could do well. While they ate it, they talked about The Doctor. Since they had delivered him to the Justice League, they hadn't heard anything about him.

Robin thought he was in Arkham. Connor asked what Arkham was, and Robin explained him. he also told him some anecdotes about the place. Like the time that The Joker escaped but was caught when he returned to look for his sunglasses. They all laughed.

Wally, instead, thought that Arkham was only for the most dangerous criminals. "That's why they keep escaping" he joked. Dick frowned at this comment. he didn't like it when people said that most criminals escaped from the prisons, it wasn't true. Well, lots of them did, but not most.

"No, " said the speedster, "I think that the Justice League has its own prison for those who are really crazy but not very dangerous. Actually, not dangerous at all. Have you seen the way we got this Doctor? It was stupid! I don't even know how he managed to get to the island without drowning. No, I don't even know who he manages to go to the bathroom without drowning."

"I have a theory" answered Dick. Everyone stopped laughing and looked at him. When Robin said he had a theory he usually meant that he had already checked it a million times. Robin's theories were always accepted as true. "I think that The Doctor experimented with the drugs on himself. And I think that…"

Those words were followed by a 10 minutes explanation that nobody truly understood. But they believed him.

"Well, I'm gonna go to sleep, ya kids" said Artemis. "I'm not feeling so well. Don't wake me up early."

Wally finished the last piece of the pizza. They were on silence. Then it was Connor's turn to speak.

He didn't speak about his relationship (actually, his lack of relationship) with Superman, as everyone expected. He talked about his memories of Krypton.

He remembered some thins, very vaguely. People, places… "And the worst part is that neither of those memories is truly mine. They're just Superman's."

"That is impossible." Wally stared at Superboy like he didn't make any sense. "I remember the first time I talked to Superman. he told me that he didn't remember anything about his home world but what he had been told. He said that sometimes dreamt about it, but when he woke up, he couldn't remember anything, just that he was in Krypton."

"Well," said the clone "There's a simple explanation. I believe I was created to beat superman. Then, my powers have to be better than his. I know form what I've heard in the… lab, that my creators have improved my memory. Bu, of course, they haven't finished their job. if they had, probably my memory wouldn't be the only thing better than Superman's."

"That makes sense. I'll ask Batman about it next time I see him."

Only then Connor talked about Superman.

It was 1 in the morning. They had move to the couch, and started to watch TV. But they didn't pay attention to it. First, they lowered the volume, then, they muted it, an finally, they turned it off.

"Have you realized that we can't catch a break?" asked M'gann "We had a whole week of storms, the day that the sun finally came out, we had to go to an island were it was raining too. Today it was cloudy, and, when the clouds finally decided to go bother someone else, it was after the sunset. Now all we see is that stupid moon."

"I like the rain" said Wally and Dick simultaneously. They smiled at each other. Megan was about to kill herself. Why didn't she have a moment alone with Robin?

"Well, I don't. It sucks."

"Hey, why are you so grumpy?"

"Nothing…"

But Connor soon left, and then Megan told her friends everything.

She had sworn to her boyfriend that she wouldn't tell anyone about it, specially Robin and Kid flash. But she couldn't hold it anymore.

She told them about what had happened in the jungle in the island, how maybe Connor and she could have saved them. She apologized a lot, and of course Wally and Dick forgave her.

"And now, my boyfriend won't even look at me, nor talk to me, and, to make things even worse, it spells with "e"!" she said.

"What?" asked Wally.

"It's 'Conner', with 'e', not with 'o'. Can you believe that I spelled my boyfriend's name incorrectly?!"

"Well, to be fair, none of us knew. The name is usually spelled with 'o'".

"Yeah. I guess you are right."

Megan wanted to tell them right there, right now. But it would make things uncomfortable. She needed to tell Dick alone.

It was too late for small talk. Out of nowhere, Wally started to speak.

To Robin surprise, he told them the story about his father death that he had told Robin.

"And the worst part is, I had never told that story to anyone until that weakness gas poisoned me. I really helped. Now, I can finally… accept it. I just need a new rain to come crashing down."

"Huh?" asked Megan, who didn't know about the metaphor. The guys explained it to her. "Well, Wally, it's great that you finally got out, I mean, got that story out. But I'm really tired, I'm going to sleep."

She left.

"You know," said Dick to his friend "you surprised me there. I thought that you wouldn't talk about it."

"I guess I'm moving on. Finally." said Wally.

"Changing the topic, I'm glad that there's no one left around. I need to take my sunglasses off, and I couldn't.

"What do the sunglasses have to do with…? Oh, you used them so no one recognizes you, Dick Grayson? You know that they can see the rest of your face, only not your eyes, don't you?"

"Haha, yeah, I know but… I don't know, I've always worn them when I'm not Robin nor Dick."

It was already 2 :30 and they continued talking.

The sound of Fleetwood Mac's "Don't stop" coming from Megan's cell phone woke her up. What time was it? 3:05. Who sent a text at 3:05 in the morning?!

She read it.

"You won a motorcycle! Just sent your Credit Card number to…"

Of course.

And then, Megan realized. A text. How could she be so stupid?!

Before going to sleep again she wrote the message and sent it to Dick, as she prayed for him to have his phone with him.

And he did. When "Dancing Queen" started to sound, Wally glanced at Dick. He blushed, and said:

"This used to be Bruce's cell phone, I didn't have time to change the ringtone…"

"Sure you didn't."

But when Dick read the text, he wasn't blushing anymore.

"What was it?" asked Wally.

"Just one of those contests, you know, 'You won a motorcycle!'" lied his friend.

"Yeah, I hate those."

"Me too. changing the topic, why are you not flirting now?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that when this team was created, you flirted on Megan. But now you're best friends and she's dating your friend. You're always hitting on at least one girl at once. Why no one?"

"There's this girl at school…"

"No there isn't. I go to school with you, remember? Besides, you always bite your nails when you lie."

Wally's mouth was dry. Was Dick going to out him and make fun of him? But that didn't sound like something his best friend would do.

Wally stood up and walked close to his friend.

"What… what…" but he was interrupted.

"You just said you needed something to be the new rain crashing down… What… what about me?" Dick was smiling. He wasn't as confident as he was when he started to speak.

Wally understood.

He leaned down and kissed Dick.


Thus ends the first part of RCCD. If you still haven't listened to the song, you should, it's very important.

The next chapter is going to be an interlude. The story will continue, but told in a different way.

In two days, I'll upload RCCD: interlude.