"access denied bat brat"

A/N: This piece was inspired by a sketch by Evilfuzz on Deviantart by the same name. You can look at it here: evilfuzz (Put a dot here) /art/Access-Denied-262545943

I hope you like the fic, tell me in a review if you wouldn't mind.

Beta read by Robin The Girl Wonder and Bibliophile1318. (I'm ridiculously paranoid about this story.)

It was supposed to be a simple mission. Then again, weren't they all? They were just going to sneak in, grab a test tube of something and have Robin hack some files. It wasn't supposed to end this way. The Sportsmaster wasn't supposed to show up. They still didn't know why he had shown up at all, and honestly, they had been too shocked to try and find out.

It started on a bright, sunny, seemingly perfect day. And wasn't that just ironic? And somehow…. Right? Nothing ever happened the seemingly correct way where Young Justice was involved. Things were never going right and unexpected things happened all the time; it's really not so surprising that It happened on such a day.

The whole team was at the mountain, just kind of hanging out. Even Robin was there, although he was slightly injured from the latest Gotham patrol. Wally was eating his seventh bowl of popcorn; M'gann was paying meticulous attention to Cupcake Wars, which was, strangely enough, picked out by Kaldur. Said Atlantian was sitting next to Superboy, who was asking why they were having a competition over cupcakes. Artemis was on Kaldur's other side and texting someone on her phone. Robin was sprawled upside down in a recliner on the complete other side of the room, texting Artemis and Barbara, although the former didn't know it was him. He wasn't sure how long it would take, but he knew Artemis would figure it out sooner or later. It was only fair; he knew everything about her…and everyone else for that matter….. At any rate, they had all been together when Red Tornado called them into the training room for mission briefing. This in and of itself, was normal. Just like the rest of the morning.

Normal.

It didn't stay normal.

The team was all gathered and Batman began the briefing.

"We have intel that suggests Cadmus is working on another cloning project. You all are going to infiltrate their newest laboratory. It is disguised in the financial sector of Manhattan; coordinates will be sent to Robin's wrist computer.

Your mission will be to retrieve their scientific documents, and one of the DNA tubes. The layout of the compound and the location of your objectives will be included in the information sent to Robin's computer. This is a covert mission, try not to be detected. Kid Flash, that means you."

"Who knew Batman had a sense of humor?" Wally whispered to Artemis. She elbowed him in the chest.

"That is all. You will want to leave immediately." With that the Batman turned and left the cave.

Young Justice all went to change into their uniforms.

As soon as they finished they boarded the bioship. Robin gave M'gann the coordinates, and the Martian steered them toward New York. They joked around and read the information as they flew. Time passed quickly and before they knew it they were over Manhattan. Robin dropped down to the roof below them. The others followed, but without the acrobatic flair that Robin had. They worked their way through Manhattan towards the building that was the cover for the Cadmus lab.

****FLASHBACK****

"Remember the plan everyone." Kaldur spoke through the mind link. "Robin, do you have the doors open yet?"

"Not quite…. Got it. Disabling motion sensors and setting the security cameras on a loop." The link was silent for a moment. "Okay, done. Move in but watch out for the guards."

Each member of the team entered the compound from different locations. They converged on the central computer system while Kid Flash went to get the DNA.

"M'gann, Artemis, Superboy: Move to guard positions." Kaldur ordered telepathically. He and the others moved into preplanned positions. Kid Flash was to stay with Robin once he had gotten the correct test tube.

The acrobat walked silently toward the computer. He hooked the holo-computer on his wrist to the compound's matrix. He shifted over to type on one of the normal keyboards. For a moment the only sound was typing.

"Guards approaching from the left hallway. Be ready." Artemis spoke up. "They went the other way."

Everyone seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief. The feeling didn't last. The silence in the compound was broken by a scream. Robin whirled around from his place at the computer.

"M'gann?" he asked via mindlink, recognizing the scream.

"There are a bunch of people attacking at my location. They aren't guards. Ahh! I need back up!"

"Superboy, Kid, help out M'gann. Artemis and I will guard the computer room. Let us know if you need more help." Kaldur commanded making his way back to the room they had left Robin in. "Artemis, guard the other door." he spoke aloud this time seeing the archer. She nodded and turned her back on the room, watching the hallway through the open door. AquaLad did the same with the door on the opposite side of the room. Robin continued typing.

"How's it coming Robin?" Artemis asked.

"Getting there, they've got a tough system."

"M'gann, Kid, how are things going on your end?" AquaLad inquired after a moment.

"Not so well." M'gann began. "There are a lot of them, but none have gotten past us so far. Robin, hurry please."

"Trying Miss M."

The link fell silent once more.

Robin typed at speeds that would have made the Flash himself proud, line after line of computer code flowing across the screen. He was almost through.

A sudden sharp pain in his chest halted his typing, along with a hand over his mouth and a whispered sentence.

"Access denied, Bat Brat." A deep voice spoke in his ear. Kaldur and Artemis spun around at the sudden noise.

Sportsmaster stood blocking their view of their youngest teammate. Artemis fired several arrows and Kaldur tried to get behind him and surprise the assassin. Sportsmaster dodged everything they threw at him, circling around them and out the door before disappearing down a hallway.

"Kaldur, something isn't right. Our assailants just took off. They just stopped fighting, they're running away. Do we need to pursue?"

"No, we were sent to get information. Also, be careful, Sportsmaster is here."

"Why's he here?" Kid Flash interjected.

"Don't know. He showed up by Rob- Robin!" Artemis practically shouted through the link whirling to run back the way they came. She dashed into the computer room ignoring her friends' questions, knowing all too well what must have happened but praying she was wrong. She skidded to a stop in front of the computer. "M'gann. Call the bioship." She dropped to her knees wincing at the small splash. "Alert the League. Robin's down, we need medbay on standby." She knew somehow that it was too late. Kid Flash appeared behind her. His hands hovered over the prone form of his best friend, not knowing what to do.

Robin lay on the cold floor, blood pooled around his torso. A spear was going through his back and out his chest and Wally knew it wouldn't matter what he did. There was no coming back from something like this. The fact that Robin had already ceased breathing proved that.

Artemis shakily reached forward sticking two fingers to his neck. She didn't find a pulse.

"No," she whispered, "no, no, no, no, NO!" she stood and turned to run. She slammed into Kaldur's chest. He wrapped his arms around her in a loose hug. "no." she sobbed loudly.

M'gann was already crying. Kaldur was too. Superboy, Superboy looked like he wanted to, and Kid Flash was staring blankly at Robin's bod-Robin.

"AquaLad to Justice League." Kaldur activated the Justice League comm link. "We need back up." He flicked it off, not knowing how to explain.

****END FLASHBACK****

Superman and The Flash showed up soon. They were shocked but helped get the team into the ship and back to Mount Justice. They were all in shock and no one wanted to think about Batman's reaction.

No one knew what to do. There wasn't a protocol for this. They had one in the Justice League, but Young Justice hadn't ever needed one. They hadn't expected to.

Then they learned who Robin was.

Richard Grayson.

How were they supposed to tell the public in some way that both Robin and Grayson were both dead?

Somehow, the team couldn't find it in themselves to care about that part. All they knew was that their Bird was gone. He was somewhere they couldn't save him from.

The Justice League tried to tell them that they hadn't done anything wrong, that no one could have prevented this. That the good guys don't always win. Sometime you do all the right things and it still isn't enough. You can't save everybody. And sometimes, you can't even save your teammate.

A/N: so.. this is my first foray into Yj universe…. This would take place somewhere in the first season. It's obviously AU and I hope you enjoy. Please tell me what you think and if you liked it!AAaa fjklsddksosasldkjf