Young Justice -:- Loyalty

Summary:
[5] Sequel to Fragility. The puppet-master behind the events of Identity/Fragility is ready to play their final hand; twisting the heart and mind of a young hero to their own whim. With the team's bonds well and truly tested, can they win this fight?

Setting/Spoilers:
Follows the events of Identity&Fragility, now in the second year of the time-skip

Pairings:
Canon pairings; Spitfire, Supermartian, Dick/Babs, Atlantean Love Triangle

Genre/Rating:
Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Suspense, Family&Friendship/Rated T for dark themes – read Warnings

WARNINGS:
This fic will deal with substance abuse, emotional manipulation and depression

Disclaimer:
If I owned Young Justice, there would still have been the five-ish year hiatus between season 2 and *crosses fingers and prays to the gods of netflix* season 3, because I am trash who fails at keeping schedules

Author's Note(s):
*Edges into fandom waiting room* Wow! Hi there, guys! Been a while, huh? *Angry, impatient glaring* Oh, did I say October? Like, last October? Pfft, nah. I totally meant this October, and as such I'm... actually... early...? *Angry, impatient glaring intensifies* Uh, okay, here'schapteronebye!

Part One

The Atlanteans should have been in their element.

Granted, they were still on dry land, just about – the polluted water of Gotham Harbour a mere stone's throw away and the ocean beyond that – but they weren't exactly out of water. The rain fell so heavy and fast and thick around them that it was indistinguishable as individual droplets, practically the sea itself falling from the sky and blanketing the city.

It made Kaldur feel stronger, his muscles enriched by his natural element. His vision was sharper than any humans; adapted to visibility as low as the submerged city in which he was raised. He practically felt at home in the dark and the cold. His water-bearers had no end of fuel with which to manipulate and bend to his will. He should have been a force to be reckoned with.

And yet.

Somehow, inexplicably, he had lost the upper hand of the waterside battle in moments; the past ten minutes of hard fighting granting him nothing more than his continued survival.

Kaldur wasn't even alone, or outnumbered, either. Tula and Garth had joined him in the fray, which if anything, should have secured their victory against their lone opponent in minutes. There was no excuse for why this fight was turning out to be so difficult.

Except for him.

He was a shadow, the thing that they fought, which was kind of understandable with the darkness of the night and the relentlessness of the rain; but against the Atlanteans that should have meant nothing. They were trained in the depths of the ocean. The rain and the cold and the darkness should have been their advantage. Not his.

It was as if he moved too fast to affect the heavy precipitation. Like it never touched him at all. There were no changes to read in the water – like they could sense the currents of motion in the sea. There were no changes in temperature either – the presence of a warm-blooded land dweller should have been easy to pick up in the near-freezing cold. But it wasn't.

Just who was this person? Or maybe... what?

Kaldur hadn't seen anything beyond the vague shape that had managed to get so close without him noticing; pain from sudden hits to his jaw and stomach keeping him blind as the shadow flitted away again. He already sported a sprained wrist, that had forced him to drop a water-bearer, and a twisted knee that struggled to hold his weight. And still he had yet to land a single blow on their opponent.

The injuries themselves were all superficial though, none of them really designed to incapacitate long term. They were dealt as quick as lightning and without a chance of rebuttal, as if their opponent knew that he was right to avoid a proper grapple with the above-human strength of an Atlantean.

The shadow was smart. And trained. And corralling them just the way that he wanted. He kept the three Atlanteans on edge, his flittering appearances always in the centre of the triangle that they had unintentionally formed; so that they faced inwards, at each other. It gave them a false sense of power, as if they were somehow surrounding him, but truly only kept them from performing their powerful spells and attacks for fear of hurting each other.

Kaldur recognised the tactic.

He had come up with it.

"BY THE POWER OF THE TEMPEST!" Garth yelled, apparently growing tired of being careful while they were positioned in each other's line of fire. Kaldur tried to shout a warning, or an order, but something barrelled into the side of him and stole his words. Garth's spell sizzled the air right where Kaldur had just been standing, the buzz of energy lightly scalding his thick skin.

"Kaldur!" Tula called at the same time as Garth swore in Atlantean and spouted an apology.

Stunned, and slightly bruised by the abrupt impact to his ribs, Kaldur pushed himself onto his elbows and scanned the darkness. It was odd, but he was pretty damn sure that the shadow had just saved him from being fried by his own teammate.

But that made no sense.

Before he could ponder that thought further however - trying to decipher the dark blur that he thought that he had seen – the shadow capitalised on the distraction.

"Ugh!" grunted Garth as something struck him from behind and dropped him to the ground, completely out cold.

"Garth!" Tula cried. Concern and frustration made her clench her fists and glare defiantly into the dark. Her eyes glowed with dangerous power as she called upon the energies that even the Atlanteans barely understood, the promise of retribution outlined in every tremor of her body.

"Tula – wait!" Kaldur called.

All at once, the rain stopped falling; fat droplets suspended in the air as if dangling from string. The blue energy crackling around Tula lit the harbour like the sun, the cold light of day revealing all.

"Face me coward!" Tula yelled in challenge.

There was no visible movement. No sound at all. Nothing but the fizzle of Tula's power and the heaviness of her breathing from strain and rage. And then there was a zapping sound and Tula froze, before she too crumpled and joined Garth in unconsciousness.

"Tula!" Kaldur shouted, reaching for her as if he could somehow catch her from where he was still collapsed on the ground. As she fell; before her spell broke and the rain remembered how to fall, the shadow was revealed standing behind her, weapon in hand. A slim figure, shrouded in black; hood pulled around a face hidden in shade.

Kaldur's eyes widened. "You? Why?"

The shadow hesitated, the motion only noticeable for a second before the darkness of the storm hid him from sight again.

And then a boot collided, hard, with the side of Kaldur's head, and the fight was lost.

TWO MONTHS EARLIER

"Aretheyhereyet?"

Artemis rolled her eyes and ignored the question asked at super-speed (for the fifty-seventh time) by her overexcited boyfriend. Wally didn't seem to mind, taking her response to mean 'no', before speeding off to ask M'gann (again) if he could have one, or twenty, of the cupcakes that she had baked especially. He received another (if more patient) 'no', and then the cycle started again.

"Don't even try it, Baywatch," Artemis cut him off sharply as he appeared beside where she was slouched on the green sofa. His jaw clacked audibly shut. "They will get here when they get here, and you asking every five seconds is not going to make that happen any faster."

The archer sighed heavily as Wally ran off again, sufficiently scolded. "And now I sound like my mother. Great."

The cave was decorated for a party; streamers and balloons dangling from every conceivable point and a huge banner emblazoned with the words 'WELCOME HOME' swaying precariously above the couch. M'gann was in charge of the food, with Connor's assistance, while Artemis had picked the playlist that would blast from the sound system just as soon as the guests of honour hurried up and made their appearance.

But they were late, and Wally wasn't the only one getting restless.

She couldn't believe that it had been a year since Rocket and Zatanna had first left for Thanagar. So much had happened since then, what with the kidnapping from Gotham Academy, the subsequent stay in a safe house; the attack on Happy Harbour High and the giants laying waste to Old Gotham... Yeah, they had a lot to get caught up on.

"What are they like?" Tula asked, breaking the quiet in their part of the cave. Behind them, in the kitchen, M'gann was still baking away and warding off Wally whenever he came close, so it wasn't exactly silent; but the suddenness of the question still caught the archer off-guard. "Rocket and Zatanna?"

"You never met them?" Artemis blinked, and then rolled her eyes at herself. Duh, of course they hadn't. Tula had joined the team after Zatanna had left the second time, it just felt like the two Atlanteans had been with them longer than that. "Oh, um, they're cool. Zee's a great friend and well, Rocket wasn't here for very long before they left, but she and Kaldur got along pretty well."

Tula shifted a little at the mention of Kaldur, Artemis noted. Anyone who didn't know how smitten the red-head was with Garth might have read the action as jealousy, but the archer refrained from comment. "It is better to form your own opinions, I always find," Tula said diplomatically, if a little shortly. "I just always wondered why it was them that were chosen for the mission and not one of the older team members."

Artemis snorted a laugh, making Tula blink in surprise as she analysed what she must have said wrong. "Sorry," the archer said, shaking her head. "It's just that, none of us were meant to go. We've all got lives and school and stuff – the League was highly against any of us getting involved in a galactic conflict."

Tula furrowed her brow. "Then why...?"

"Hawkwoman petitioned the League," Artemis explained. "It was supposed to just be over the summer, like a training program, but then Thanagar and Rann decided to go for all out war rather than the usual skirmishes and Rocket and Zee volunteered to stay."

"I'm sorry," Tula scrunched up her delicate elvin-like features in utter confusion. "I still do not understand why they went in the first place."

Artemis chewed her lip a moment. "Okay, this isn't official – just a theory that no one has denied – but the mission... it's supposed to be a fast track for joining the League. Shayera got irritated that the last round of new initiates were all guys again, outnumbering them even further – seriously, the amount of testosterone up there must be staggering – so she hand-picked a couple of girls from the team to train up especially for the League."

"I will never understand why the men of the surface struggle to see the strength of women," Tula said with a small smile. "In Atlantis, everyone knows that it is Queen Mera who is truly in charge."

Artemis chuckled quietly. "Yeah, well, a couple thousand years of misogyny doesn't just go away, I guess. But I think they're learning. Slowly."

Tula shrugged non-committally, her attention returning to the magazine that she was reading as part of her 'surface research'. A loud crash from the kitchen followed by M'gann's profuse apologies foretold of another possible baking disaster, while Connor 'assisted' as best he could. Wally hadn't returned since Artemis had snapped at him, but that probably just meant that he had found someone else to distract himself with. Maybe he had found Kaldur and Garth, who had yet to make an appearance at the slightly delayed welcome home party.

"So, how's it going with you and Kaldur?" Artemis asked without thinking.

Tula glanced up from her magazine, her expression defensive. "What do you mean by that?"

"I just meant..." Artemis searched for words as Tula continued to glare. "...what's it been like, working, together again?" No, that was absolutely not what she had meant, but what else could she say? She had slipped up – she had meant to say Garth, not Kaldur, as that was who Tula was actually dating, but she had made a mistake. And it was an easy one really. Sure, it was obvious that Garth was head over heels for the red-headed Atlantean – but a blind man could see the way that Kaldur looked at her too.

It was causing some... interesting social situations, to say the least. And a few close calls on missions as well, though nothing too serious to need mentioning.

"It's fine," Tula said. And that was the end of that.

Artemis shifted uncomfortably for a moment, before deciding to walk away from the awkwardness before it got any worse. Climbing to her feet with an easy smile so that it didn't look like she was totally running away, the archer shuffled off. She avoided the kitchen out of self-preservation, heading towards the main hanger to wait there instead.

"You're still following leads?" Black Canary's voice echoed from the corridor ahead. On instinct, Artemis stilled, her encroachment on the conversation remaining unannounced. She didn't intend to eavesdrop, she really didn't, but she also didn't want to interrupt either. And if she just so happened to overhear a little of the exchange before the right time to say say hello presented itself? Well, she didn't mean to.

"Superman seems to think that the case is closed," Black Canary continued.

Batman bristled, and if Artemis didn't savour being intact so much, she would have sworn that the Dark Knight just rolled his eyes. "You and I both know that there are things that's don't add up. Ignoring a potential problem just because it is an inconvenience is idiotic, so yes. I am still on the case."

"This is going to be one of those things that comes back to bite us, isn't it?" Black Canary sighed and folded her arms across her chest. "Have you found anything new?"

Batman nodded. "There was definitely another person involved."

"Really? Who?"

"Unidentified right now," Batman replied, sounding irritated. "There was no way that Bane would willingly work with the likes of Hatter and Strange – someone else had to be pulling their strings. And now I have proof."

Artemis shifted where she was hidden in the shadows further up the corridor, trying to get a look at whatever it was that Batman just pulled up on the holo-screen projected from his wrist to show Black Canary. But she was too far away and she huffed quietly in annoyance. She knew exactly what the two Leaguers were talking about – the attack on Happy Harbour High six months ago.

But it was also more personal than that.

The Mad Hatter, Jervis Tetch, had set his sights on Artemis as his new 'Alice'. The things that the madman wanted to use her for, what he dreamed of doing to her, it still made her shiver. It still kept her awake some nights.

If there was more to it than that, a bigger picture as to why she was targeted in that way, then she had the right to know.

"Security footage from the building opposite of where Bane was found," Batman explained as Black Canary scrutinised the video. "I've had a program running to enhance the image, but there's nothing more than a blur. It can't even definitively identify whether the subject is male or female."

"You thinking it's a meta?"

"Or tech," Batman offered as he shut the projector down. "A disruptor could viably have the same affect."

Black Canary paused thoughtfully. "It's gotta be a heavy hitter to be able to get Bane to follow orders. One with one helluva grudge too."

"Or someone new," Batman added quietly, something flickering across his mostly-concealed features that made Artemis squint at him as she tried to translate. But it was gone without a trace in microseconds. "Either way, they're dangerous."

"Have you told Superman about what you've found?" Black Canary asked.

"Not as of yet," Batman shifted his stance, bringing his arms up to cross over his chest. On anybody else, it would have looked almost like a defensive gesture, but Artemis ruled that out. This was Batman after all. "Not until I have something concrete. The immediate threat has been handled. There's no need to involve the League yet."

Black Canary studied Batman for a moment, trying to read him through the cowl. "This feels personal to you, doesn't it? That's why you can't let it go."

Batman made a non-committal noise and turned away, effectively shutting down that part of the conversation. Black Canary sighed, silence settling between the two Leaguers. Artemis realised that she wouldn't learn anymore, and it would be awkward to announce her presence now. Instead, she slid back the way that she had come, deciding to return to the lounge to wait out Zee and Rocket's arrival.

The whole walk her mind buzzed with what she had learned; more questions than answers crowding her brain. It unnerved her that the whole thing wasn't as over and done with as they had been led to believe, but it was also reassuring to know that someone (Batman, no less) was looking into it. It had never quite sat right with her, even with all the assurances Superman and the League had given them. There was always something niggling at her, an instinct warning her that all was not right.

Someone was still out there. Someone with the patience and intelligence to arrange a kidnapping from Gotham's most prestigious school and convince three villains to team-up. And that scared the crap out of her. But what Arty really didn't understand was why?

What was the point?

Things had been quiet for so long now, the League believing that they had won. But if they hadn't, and there was more to this plot, then what was this bad guy waiting for? And what was the endgame?

"Are they here now?" Wally's voice whined, and Artemis glanced up to find that she had arrived back in the lounge. At some point, he, Garth and Kaldur must have joined the vigil, the whole gang now gathered around the couch in varying degrees of impatient, bored and irritable.

"No, Baywatch," Artemis answered sharply. "They're not-"

"Hiya!" a voice chirped from behind the archer's shoulder, making her whirl around.

Wally's exasperated yet happy 'finally!' was lost in the background as Artemis turned and found Zatanna standing there, grinning broadly. "Zee!"

"Arty!" the mistress of magic replied, the two friends colliding in a hug. Six months was a long time to not see her best friend, so Artemis wasted no embarrassment from the display of affection as Zatanna began babbling about her adventures on Thanagar.

Rocket snorted from where she had appeared in the doorway behind them. "And what am I? Chopped liver?"

Kaldur stood from where he had been waiting on the couch, offering Rocket a hug in greeting before stepping back and introducing Garth and Tula. "Wow, nice to meet you," Rocket smiled. "I guess I'm not the newbie anymore, huh?"

Soon, everyone was talking as stories were swapped and tales shared; Artemis grinning and laughing along with everyone else. And then Zatanna sidled up to her in a quiet moment, looking worried.

"So, uh... where's Robin?"

The music blasted loud in Barbara's ears, but she wasn't really listening to it. The heavy beat was purely to keep her in time as she ran through the routine that Dick had worked out with her as part of her training. She needed to streamline her grappling ability, apparently. Learning the right way to swing, twist and change direction would make her faster and cut down her travel time, which was why he had decided to put her through her paces on the uneven bars.

Her background was in ballet, not gymnastics. She had never done anything beyond high school gym class up until a few months ago, which was probably why Dick was pushing her harder in that regard than in actual fight training. She had been taking self defence classes since she could walk and was close to getting her black belt in judo, but as Dick liked to tell her; sometimes it was more important to avoid a hit than it was about landing one.

Initially, that way of thinking had irked her. What was the point of being a vigilante after all if you weren't there to beat up the bad guys? But now she understood. One punch with super-strength behind it could end a fight with her on the losing side. Agility and intelligence were Robin's strongest weapons, and they would be hers too. Just as soon as she learnt to stick the landing.

"Nicely done," a voice called from her left, audible where she had accidentally yanked an earbud free. "Did you mean to land on your face though?"

Barbara pushed herself up from where she had landed awkwardly on the mat, and turned to glare at her audience. Jason Todd grinned back at her, curled up on Batman's high-backed chair with a bag of popcorn propped between his knees. She had no idea when the pre-teen had sauntered into the cave (which was probably why Dick told her not to train with her earphones in) but it was clear that he had witnessed the spectacular fail that had been her dismount.

"I'd like to see you do better," she grumbled irritably as she clambered to her feet. Jason's eyes immediately lit up as he dropped his snack and practically sprinted to the mat, eager to have a go. Barbara watched in mild amusement as the twelve-year-old took a running jump to grab the bar, performed a couple of accidental chin-ups before falling into a forward roll and landing flat-backed on the mat.

"It's not as easy at it looks," he grumbled as Barbara tried and failed to stifle her laugh.

"And it looks easy now, does it?" she retorted.

Jason shrugged, his cheeks colouring red. "It does when Dick-face does it."

Barbara had to concede to that. She remembered being crazy jealous of her best friend the first time that she had seen him casually mess around on the gym equipment. It always just looked so effortless and natural for him; more of a fun time than a workout. But she had also seen him train for real, and the amount of focus and work that he put into making sure that his crazy acrobatic moves looked easy. "Yeah, well, he was born and raised doing this. When you can perform a flawless backwards somersault, that will be the real miracle."

"You really think he'd train me too?"

Barbara froze, realising just what she had said and its implications. Jason was looking at her with such an open, hopeful expression that she didn't quite know how to backtrack without shattering it. "Um, I don't know, Jay... I mean, maybe he'd show you some moves... you know, acrobatics or whatever... not anything-"

"'Cool'?" Jason finished for her, looking disappointed. He clambered upright from where he had landed and shuffled backwards to lean against the bar. "No crime fighting moves or any of the Bat-stuff, right? I'm not good enough?"

"Jay..."

"Nah, I get it," the boy shrugged, trying to make it look like he didn't care. Barbara sighed, recognising the defensive tactic. "It's not like I wanted to be a hero, or whatever. That's not my scene. Like, at all." His blue eyes dropped to the carpet. "It's just... everyone else in this family..."

Barbara understood completely. Being adopted into a lifestyle as far removed from the one that he had always known was intimidating enough as it was. But then when you throw in the top secret vigilante side-gig? That's gotta be hard. How could you comfortably be a part of a unit that purposely shut you out of half of what made them a family? "Look, Jay," Barbara said, dropping to a crouch before the kid. "You need to talk to Bruce about this; or at the very least, Dick-"

"How can I when they're never here?!" Jason snapped. "I see you more often than I see Dick-face and you don't even live here!"

"That's not tr..." Barbara trailed off as she really thought about it. She saw Dick all the time at school, but as Jason was being home-schooled by Alfred at the moment to cover the gap in his education, obviously he wouldn't see his new big brother as often. And Bruce? Well, she saw Batman all the time on patrol (from a distance, of course, lest he remind her yet again that he didn't exactly approve of her nightly activities) but at the manor? Actually, she hadn't seen Bruce outside of mandatory social functions for a few months now.

But it was the weekend. And daytime. Bruce shouldn't have to be at Wayne Tech and definitely shouldn't be out on patrol as the Bat. And Dick... Well, Dick should be right there, helping Barbara train just like he had said he would.

"Dick had to meet up with the team today, but I'm sure he'll be home tomorrow," Barbara said instead, trying to sound reassuring. The pre-teen snorted derisively. "Look, I'll send him a text-"

"Don't bother," Jason cut her off and stood. "He's at the super-secret clubhouse for some stupid party for his stupid girlfriend. I don't need him anyway."

And with that, he stormed off back up and into the manor, leaving a very worried and increasingly confused Barbara behind.

"Girlfriend?"

"And I just killed you."

Robin glared at the hilt of the blade currently levelled at his throat, and then up at the person wielding it. Lady Shiva stared back, unyielding. "What did you do wrong?"

"I dropped my guard," Robin answered, knowing that the sword would not be lowered until he had acknowledged his mistakes. He would never be allowed to make the same one twice. Shiva raised an eyebrow, the edge of the blade pressing close enough to nick the exposed skin of his neck. "And I lost my footing."

The sword lowered, leaving only a trickle of blood in its wake. Robin brushed it away with the back of his hand, determining it to be no worse than a shaving cut – which would make a perfectly plausible excuse if anyone chose to ask how he got it. Not that anyone did, these days.

They were in a dojo of a sports centre in the Eastern Quarter of Gotham that had long since closed down, which was where Robin seemed to spend most of his evenings and weekends recently. Modifications had been made to the interior to suit Shiva's tastes and needs, but from the outside, the place still appeared abandoned. Inside, the lights were low to keep everything shrouded in the shadows that Shiva wielded like weapons in their own right.

They both wore loose work out clothes, a black tee and sweats for Robin and what looked like a yoga outfit for Shiva. There was no need for masks – that ship had long since sailed – and no armour either. Apparently, Robin wouldn't learn when he couldn't feel the full consequences of his mistakes.

Robin watched his teacher warily as she returned the sword to its place on the weapon's rack (that had definitely not been part of the gym's original design) and stepped back to choose what to 'train' him with next.

"You're distracted," Shiva announced, her gaze meeting Robin's as she studied him for a moment. "Ah, yes. Today is the day that the magician girl returns home, is it not?"

Robin hadn't told her about Zee and Rocket's homecoming, or the party that he had ditched in order to hold up his end of the deal, but he had long since learned not to be surprised that his new mentor knew everything. She was frighteningly similar to Batman in that way, and Robin cringed at the parallel, even as he was also mildly comforted by it. It was nice to know that someone still paid enough attention to realise that something was upsetting him. He doubted that Bruce had even noticed, as distracted as he had been lately with Jason.

"Have the pair of you spoken since the break up?" Shiva asked. A part of Robin knew that she was just fishing, always on the lookout for changes and weaknesses in her protégé (to exploit or fix, he never could tell) but she always sounded so genuine whenever she asked him about his life. And she always seemed interested in whatever he had to say.

It made lying to her really hard.

"A few times," he answered honestly. "She's not mad at me anymore, which is good, I guess. But I still feel so guilty. I mean, I was the one that drove her to Strange. If I had just talked to her instead of trying to ignore the problem until it went away, then maybe she wouldn't have been so susceptible. The whole thing was my fault, and yet she's the one that now can't trust herself with secrets and it's it just... It's messed up. And I don't know how to face her."

Shiva looked thoughtful for a moment, and then reached out to gently squeeze Robin's shoulder. Initially, he flinched, expecting an attack. But then he stilled and relaxed, needing the reassurance of the gesture. "Dwelling on past mistakes isn't helpful, unless it stops you from repeating them. She's moved on, you should move on too."

"Yeah," Robin muttered with a shrug. "I guess."

Shiva nodded, and then swept his legs out from under him. Completely unprepared, Robin landed hard on his back, his skull bouncing off the mat with enough force to make his ears ring.

"You never know when an enemy may attack. Never let your guard down," Shiva instructed from where she loomed above him. "That is a mistake that you will never make again."

Robin gritted his teeth and nodded. "Yes, teacher."

HOLY CRAP! I HAVE FINISHED CHAPTER ONE! IT HAS ONLY TAKEN ME LIKE, OVER A YEAR! WOOT!

Ahem, sorry. So, what do you think? I am terrified that I have left this for way too long and there's either gonna be like zip interest as everyone's moved on, or like, way too much hype and this fic is gonna end up a major let down...

In terms of updates; I am posting this chap now to kind of try and test the waters a little. I've given up on my whole "write a couple chapters ahead and post gradually thing" because it never works anyway. Let's see if peer pressure is as motivational as I hope and encourage semi-speedy updates lol

As always, suggestions, theories, character rants, criticism etc. are entirely welcome; as are 'hurry your trashy butt up and post the next chap' PMs!

See you soon for chapter two!