Title: someone else in your place
By: Xmarksthespot
Disclaimer: I don't own YJ
The first time Nightwing met Roy—the other Roy—as Arsenal, he analyzed the boy immediately. Roy was too hotheaded, even more so than the Roy Harper he grew up with, though he knew there were reasons for that. Still, Arsenal didn't get along with anyone—not Tim, not Jaime, not even Bart who somehow managed to get on everybody else's good side.
There was potential, of course. Nightwing saw it. The team saw it. And this wouldn't be the first time someone with that much fuel joined the team. He just needed time—all of them did. With everything that was going on, there wasn't much availability for the new members to get to really know each other, but Nightwing was willing to wait. He had confidence the team would pull through. He had confidence Arsenal would pull through.
The more he watched though, the more he studied and thought about the new member, the more Nightwing noticed it.
Arsenal had his rage.
Arsenal had his eagerness.
Arsenal wanted to prove his superiority just like he did.
And if Nightwing really thought about it (and he did, even if he didn't want to), they would have been only a year apart by now. They would have fought a lot, but when the time was right, they would have been the best of friends.
Roy Harper and Jason Todd would have been great.
Nightwing may only have his data records of Roy Harper and he may have his observational skills, and he may know nothing else about the teenager, but he knew his brother. He knew Jason more than he realized.
He knew that Jason wanted to prove himself worthy, that he wanted to show Batman and the other Leaguers that he wasn't just the second Robin, but he was his own hero. Nightwing was completely aware of how many times Robin disrupted a mission for the sake of fulfilling his own agenda, endangering the lives of others because he wanted praise for doing what he believed others couldn't. Jason was a risk on the team, but Nightwing had been there himself of wanting to prove his usefulness, and so he let Jason do what the kid wanted to do.
They never started off on the right track, and the tension between Nightwing and Batman had interfered with him being there for his second brother, but in the end, when he was there, it was too late. He was there to watch Jason throw himself in the battlefield, in the face of the target, in the face of death…
And he did nothing.
When he watched Arsenal selfishly act the way he did and endangered the lives of his teammates, Nightwing saw what happened two years ago recycle itself and he saw Jason. As much as Nightwing initially tried to deny it, Arsenal had his rage, his ego, and his internal conflict of trying to separate from the other Roy just as Jason tried to separate from the other Robin.
And so this time, Nightwing did something.
"You're off the team."
So despite Arsenal disappearing via the boom tube with the other runaways, Nightwing was content, because this time, the boy with his rage and his ego and his eagerness was still alive.
And if Nightwing really thought about it (and he did, every single time Jason came to mind) that's all he needed.
Notes: I've always had a slight problem with season 2, episode 17's The Hunt where Nightwing fires Arsenal from the team. I felt like with all the build up of him being a great leader, it was sort of...a dickish move? I mean, I agree that Arsenal was out of line with the things he did, but that situation could've been handled differently and more effectively. Any how, this was what I eventually came to a conclusion of. I wanted there to be something else pushing him towards making that decision.