FudoTwin17: Hey, dudes. Not feeling the aster at the moment. I'm back in my karate class and I usually hurt afterwards, but it's nothing compared to everything else. My aunt recently passed away, so my concentration wasn't very good. Then, when I thought everything was calming down, and I was getting back to eating more, my sister told me about how a girl in school died in her sleep. And then she mentioned her name and I realized it was one of my drama friends that I love and talk about all the time at home. My sister didn't even realize she'd delivered crushing news to me until she saw my face. No one should die at seventeen. That happened about five minutes ago. I'm sorry, but I don't know how well I'm gonna be updating anymore. I don't own YJ. I know I said I was gonna do a request from Dreams2paper11, but now . . . I'm just gonna write. Sorry. And I do have to apologize for another thing. My yahoo died, and my new email got overloaded, so I lost a lot of stories I was reading as well as pms. So I'm sorry if I'm not up to date on any of yours or if I don't pm you back. It's a struggle right now. Sorry. And be warned, this is my first season 2 story. Enjoy.

The Plan

It was in that moment that Ra's al Ghul had jumped forward at Artemis (currently Huntress) and yanked off the magically charmed necklace that Aqualad's breath had caught. He couldn't help the immediate jump of his heart into his throat.

He had never intended for Artemis to ever get caught up in his and Dick's plan, and he certainly didn't want her to die for it.

In that single second that her blond hair and wide gray eyes were revealed to the Light and the Reach, he couldn't help but remember how it had all began. How Tula and Jason had died, how Black Manta had revealed that he was Kaldur's father to the team, how the Light had nearly taken Garth and Nightwing from their midst-

But most of all, he remembered how he and Dick had begun the plan.

. . .

Kaldur had been thinking it over ever since Tula was killed. He had held her body close, thinking only about how he could have saved her. Then Jason went, and he had placed a solitary hand on his friend's shoulder, knowing that he was breaking inside, whether he wanted to show it or not. When, after that, Garth had visited Nightwing in Bludhaven and they both were very nearly killed, Kaldur had decided that it was enough.

They needed someone on the inside.

He and the team knew about his father since the man had revealed himself to them both at the same time. They also knew that he would never take the man's offer to become a villain, their enemy. However, he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he did become a villain. How would the team react?

That was of the utmost importance. Whoever it was that went undercover had to be able to without completely destroying the team. Though it was true that he was the leader, he knew that he was of less importance to team dynamics than M'gann or Wally, even if Wally and Artemis were no longer on the team. He knew his betrayal would rock the core of the team, but, after they accepted his betrayal, he knew that they would become much stronger for it.

In essence, that was where the plan began. Kaldur found himself more and more convinced as time passed that they needed someone on the inside. And when the Light launched an attack on Central and nearly killed the newest recruit to the team (as well as the youngest at age twelve), Garfield, he knew he couldn't sit back any longer.

Thus, Kaldur found himself at a Wayne Industries warehouse on the docs. He wasn't surprised that Dick told him to meet him there. After all, when you contact someone saying you need to talk to them urgently without anyone hearing, they would make sure that there's no way to be overheard.

Slowly, he walked inside, a large coat and large fishermen boots hiding his appearance from those few he'd passed in the street. Once he entered, he removed the offending articles, sighing out through his nose.

"Kaldur?" Dick called from inside, stepping into the light in full Nightwing attire. As usual, he was on guard, though Kaldur figured that he could still hear anyone else from a mile away if he were off guard. Kal figured it was purely unconscious, something that made him feel more at ease. Either way, though, if anyone deserved peace of mind, Kaldur thought that Dick deserved it.

"Hello." Kaldur gave him a solemn greeting as he walked toward his longtime friend.

"What's going on?" Questioned Dick, looking curious but wary.

Kaldur took a deep breath. "I think we need a man inside the Light." He cut to the chase immediately, feeling his heart beat harshly in his chest.

Immediately, Dick's demeanor changed. His slightly wary smile became a frown and he straightened up. One hand slid up to remove his mask despite being in uniform, and once the blue orbs had been revealed, he leveled them on Kaldur. "Why?"

Kaldur automatically straightened. It was true that Kal was the leader of their group, but he had been trained as a soldier. It was natural to try to straighten up before one of authority, which both Kaldur and Dick knew that Dick had, whether he wanted them or not.

"It's getting too dangerous." Stated Kaldur, pale green eyes hardening. "We've already lost two because of lack of information on the Light." He noticed the slight tense of Dick's shoulders. "And they won't be the last if we don't stop the Light or at least have someone on the inside to give warnings." Kaldur sighed. "Dick, I know that you don't want to risk any more people, but what choice do we have? Our team is at risk. We need to protect it just like the civilians that we protect every day. We need to do this."

Dick sighed. "Whether or not your right, we can't do that. If they are found out, then things are going to be more than bad. Anyone who risks that is bound to be killed if they're found out, possibly even tortured." He huffed, dark eyes flashing. They were the eyes of one who had seen the things that he spoke of. "And even if we send in someone with enough training, what about the team? What if we have another mole that rats out our guy? How would the team be able to fight our guy without obviously pulling punches?"

"I think you know the answer to that." Kal stated softly.

Once again, those darn cerulean eyes were gazing at him like a kicked puppy. "Not telling them? If we don't tell the team, it'll be back to the beginning." He whispered darkly. "We'd be like the League, hiding information. And, even worse, if the team found out it could break our team up. It would be worse than the first fight over the mole in the beginning!"

Kaldur sighed. "And that fight made the team stronger. In the end, this isn't about just team dynamics. It's about saving lives, family." The last word, Kal knew he was being unfair. Dick was still reeling from the second Robin's loss (despite there being a third Robin in training). Dick couldn't argue with that, even if he knew he was being manipulated, which he undoubtedly did (darn bats).

"Fine." Dick sighed. "It would be a secret, but that still leaves one big question. Who?"

Kaldur just stared at him, willing him to understand his thoughts, his wants, and his needs.

"It would have to be someone with the skill, which isn't too many people." Dick added with a wince. "Us, the Leaguers-no, scratch that. I mean, maybe Zee and Rocket." Dick interrupted himself, still not looking Kal in the eye. "Us, M'gann, Zatanna, Rocket-Superboy is trained, but not for that situation, so not him. Wally and Artemis are out." He paused. "That's just us, Zatanna, Rocket, and M'gann. I mean, Babs would be good, but she's never been in that situation before, and never under that much pressure, so it would be too much for her. Bumblebee would be good, too."

"True." Agreed Kaldur, still waiting for the other male to get the point. After all, why would he have brought him here if he hadn't already worked it all out in his head? Surely Dick would know who he wanted to sent in. Then again, maybe Dick did get the point and just didn't want it to be true.

"Of course, we'd need someone who has connections in the criminal underworld-specific to the Light. That would leave us, M'gann, and Bumblebee. I don't think Bumblebee could face Brother Blood again, though, and the idea that she'd ever want to join him is kinda never going to happen. And M'gann . . . ." Dick trailed off, but Kaldur understood.

M'gann had just started dating Lagoon Boy, and she had seemed a bit unstable. As well as that, she had been a bit extreme in her advance on bad guys. But, despite that, if M'gann were taken away from the team in such a dramatic way, then it would rock the base of the team so badly that they might not be able to continue after a betrayal from her. It was bad enough seeing Conner in that predicament. Not to mention Gar would be completely devastated . . . .

"That leaves us." Kaldur intoned, waiting to see if it would dawn on Dick.

"Yes. I've got a number of contacts." He murmured, a finger to his lips as he thought. Kaldur smiled weakly. "I have the training, too. They wouldn't say no to me as a new recruit."

Dick didn't say who they were, but Kaldur knew. The boy had a number of underworld contacts including Ra's al Ghul and Deathstroke the Terminator, though the last had no real connection to the Light except a few jobs sometimes. Though Dick was no longer a thirteen year old kid, Kaldur could never shake the feeling of protectiveness he felt when they first started the team.

"But the team wouldn't take it very well." Kal pointed out, trying very hard to keep his voice even. "I doubt Tim and Batman would take it well. It would also tear apart the team." These points were all fair, but Kaldur would admit that he had been going for anything that might eliminate Dick as an option for this mission.

"But then that leaves . . . ." Dick trailed off, his eyes landing on Kaldur. Finally, he sighed. "You figured this all out before hand didn't you?"

"Yes." Agreed Kaldur.

"But you're the leader!" He exclaimed after a short pause. "You help hold together the team. You help balance us out."

Kaldur spoke softly. "I remember when there was a time where you wanted to become leader. I had said then what I will say now. I will remain leader until you are ready. I believe you are ready." At the dumbstruck look on Dick's face, he continued. "And there is no one on the team who looks up to me more than you. It would be best if I were to go."

The look on Dick's face was doubtful, painfully so. "Kaldur-"

"Dick, we're losing people. Our men-our family is dying." Dick winced, and Kaldur immediately felt bad, but he kept going. "We need the information."

Dick sighed. "I guess there's no deterring you." He said softly. Kaldur didn't reply. "Alright, but we have to do this carefully. You can't just go immediately."

Kaldur's eyebrows jumped up. "How do you suppose I do, then?"

"We should start by dropping hints." He stated, face schooled into the look he had when he would brief the team. There wasn't a hint of emotion. "Like once in a while, hint that you're not happy in the hero life or that you don't think we're doing enough. Like it's not worth it."

Kaldur nodded. "I understand."

"And the next time Black Manta offers in front of the team, take it." Stated Dick, nothing in his voice to hint how the simple sentence affected him. "After, we'll meet, every month or so here?" Questioned Dick, looking at him for confirmation.

Kaldur pursed his lips. He wasn't sure how to answer. After all, he didn't yet know what his fathers rules would be. "Sure. If we can't, though, we'll try to hint it if we can before we meet."

Dick nodded, seemingly accepting this plan. He sighed heavily. "Let's not keep this completely between ourselves." Said Dick, seemingly working something out in his head. "It would be dangerous."

"But if one of the others were to be captured?" Questioned Kaldur. After all, that was knowledge that was dangerous to have, especially in enemy hands.

"It shouldn't be someone necessarily out on the field." Said Dick, seemly already having thought this out. Kaldur wasn't sure how. After all, the other male had spent the entire time since the beginning of their conversation working out how to complete this mission the safest way possible.

"You're talking about Wally and Artemis." Kaldur stated simply. "It's a good idea. They are in less danger of being captured, and they would be very helpful with their experience and different view points."

What he didn't say (would never say) was that they would also keep them sane-Dick sane. Dick, despite being a bat, needed some ground-some level footing. Kaldur had seen what a simulation had done to him as a child and, despite maturing too much, he knew what this kind of a plan would do to him as an adult.

Kaldur had never understood Dick and Wally's bond, really, but he knew what it had done. It was Wally who helped the younger boy get through the failsafe mission, Wally who could bounce ideas with Dick flawlessly, Wally who'd never let Dick down, and Wally who could somehow understand Dick. For the first time in Kaldur's life, he really appreciated that bond for what it was and what it could do.

Dick gave him a brilliant smile (short and shy, but still blinding) before it disappeared from his face. "I'll talk to Wally, and we can all meet up here in a week. Until then, though, I guess you can start with the . . . hinting."

After a few short, dull words, the two of them had left.

As planned, Kaldur had left a few minor hints that he wasn't happy with what they had done ("Is it really ever worth it, Conner? Do we ever actually make a dent in a never ending war?" He'd asked Superboy, silently apologizing with his eyes the whole time), and Dick had talked to Wally.

By the next meeting, they simply went over the plan again. However, Kal had really spent the whole time watching the other three. Dick seemed extra tense and Wally looked like he was seething, but trying not to say anything for someone's sake. When he asked what happened afterwards, Dick and Wally had waved it off, and Artemis gave him a sad look that clearly said that she wouldn't talk about it but regretted it already.

Of course, in a matter of nearly a month (and gaining a new member-the new Blue Beetle), the entire team seemed worried and edgy around him, and his father had offered him a place among him and his men in front of the team.

He accepted.

His heart tore and burned and pulsed ("How could you? After everything? Please! Don't do this!" Miss Martian's eyes were wide and pleading, almost rimming with tears), but he did it, just like the plan required.

For too long, the plan went on, and they avoided being caught as well as saved lives. It worked, and that was all that mattered (at least, that was what Kal told himself every morning, evening, battle, and night).

So, even when he nearly killed his own friends, had to pretend to kill Artemis and take her on as Huntress, had his mind whipped-destroyed, and even planned the destruction of the Light, the plan prospered, and that was what mattered.

. . .

And that's what he reminded himself of again when he fell to the floor with fake blood on his armor, and his father at his side (how could he not see that his only son was breathing?). The plan was the only thing that mattered. A son's duty to his father was nothing to saving lives. He told himself that even after he stood above his father's body, unconscious and betrayed (so betrayed).

Even after, once the team had sat down and talked it over, he relayed that the plan had to succeed or else they would have lost more lives-too many lives.

He never thought that it wasn't a necessary, and he agreed to take whatever punishment the team thought he had to take. He thought of the plan, he manipulated Nightwing (knowingly or not) into doing it, and he acted on it, tricking everyone around him. He was surprised at first at how they still treated him with respect, even wanting him as a leader.

However, it was only later (after pausing in front of an open door and watching Mal shout at Nightwing endlessly and mercilessly) that he realized that the team really didn't understand. They didn't know that it was his idea. They thought it was Nightwing's. They didn't know how he pushed the younger into it. They thought the younger used him like a pawn. They didn't know he had pushed himself into danger at the protest of Dick. They thought Nightwing was protecting himself, throwing Kaldur into danger.

And afterwards, he realized that Dick did it on purpose. That was what he told Wally (Wally, who wasn't here anymore to help Dick) and Artemis all that time ago that made their relationship so icy. He told them that it was his fault.

And now, no one would believe Kaldur when he said it was his plan-his idea. The lies had been laid down so thick, and they were so angry at Dick that it blinded them to the truth. They thought he was trying to take the blame for Dick.

In their minds, that only made Dick more hated, and it broke his heart.

So he stopped trying to take the blame for his own doings. He stopped trying to convince the team that having Dick with them wasn't such a bad thing. He simply waited for those times when he saw Nightwing collapse, dead tired and close to breaking, and set a hand on his shoulder. He made sure that he knew that he was there.

All because he soon realized that he was wrong in his assumptions-his convictions.

He'd always told himself that the plan mattered more than anything else.

Now, he knew that the plan was nothing more than an intricate web of lies that was meaningless compared to the pain that it caused.

Nothing mattered more than the people he loved. And the plan (that mattered so much) was more than meaningless in the sight of everyone that it had hurt and damaged.

Kaldur would never forgive himself for that simple miscalculation.

. . .

FudoTwin17: Usually, once I've written, I feel about ten times better. I currently feel ten times worse. My friend's funeral came, and I figured I would drop by. I got dressed and ready (In all Batman clothes since my friend used to always laugh at all my superhero clothes and jokingly say she'd steal it), but when it came to go, I couldn't move. I sat and stared at the clock for all three hours of visitation before the funeral, but I just couldn't do it. I feel horrible and sick. And this is not to mention I have a week before school and haven't done any of my homework. Sometimes, life just hurts. I'll try to update another story. Thanks for reading, guys.