Hello everybody! Contrary to possible popular belief, I AM very much alive. I'm so very sorry that this chapter took so long. I've been working on this chapter for awhile but then I got totally stuck halfway through and remained there for weeks before I was able to figure out how to get it going again. Then I got so unbelievably busy with school and life and, to be perfectly honest, watching Criminal Minds. Ugh..

Anyway, I was finally able to finish writing this chapter in school yesterday when it was just a study hall in Geometry. I got an idea and just started going to town on it on a piece of paper and a handy-dandy pencil. By the time the bell rang at the end of that period, I just had two more sentences to write. Yay, unexpected study halls and random inspirations! :D

That aside, this chapter is much, much longer than the first and focuses on Dick's side of things, starting much earlier in the day than Artemis' chapter had and ending in the same place.

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or any of it's characters, places, etc. The show would still be up and running now until forever if I did own it. Sooo yeah.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Richard Grayson's day had started off as every other typical and depressingly boring day of his usually did. He had awoken early (mind you, the definition of the word 'early' in the Wayne household vastly differed from that of almost every other home in Gotham -possibly even the continent...) and had gone straight to his morning routine: change into gym clothes, short workout, shower, change into the fancy school uniform he hated, eat delicious breakfast made -of course- by Alfred, brush teeth, and check for all necessary school supplies (which, according to Bruce, also meant his very secretly stashed and always in hand utility belt). Then around 7:45, he was dropped off at his school, a rather prestigious private school that -fittingly- was called Gotham Academy.

As usual, Dick had immediately gone off to sit in the shade on the side of the school building that was almost always abandoned by the other students in the mornings. This was because -and he had realized this long ago- most of the kids at Gotham Academy liked to stay where everyone was sure to see them.

Just like he usually did whenever his best friend, Barbara Gordon, wasn't around, he quietly read a book for the next half hour. At 8:20, ten minutes before the bell was to ring, he stashed his rather thick book back into his bag before going inside to his locker to put his stuff away and get what he needed for first period before the inevitable stampede of students came rushing in when the first bell rang.

That was when things first started going bad...sort of...though it basically was still his typical Monday.

Dick had sensed the presence coming up behind him, and knew what was coming even before his textbook, notebook, and pencil was knocked out of his hands and the side of his face was slammed into the locker door he had just closed. Sure, he could have dodged the push, quite easily in fact, but he knew that he really couldn't, not without it looking highly suspicious. Even though the guy was just a dumb jock (A/N Absolutely NO offense meant to any jocks i.e. athletes of any kind!) who, way more than likely, would not be able to piece together that 'the little circus freak, Grayson' was also the infamous Robin, Batman's partner -NOT SIDEKICK!- just by something as small as him dodging a little push, Batrule 109 says, NEVER underestimate your opponent, which would include Vincent Lorentz. If all of his years of training and experience with the Batman had taught him anything, it's that you always, ALWAYS follow the Batrules. All 976 (and still counting) of them.

Anyways, it wasn't all that big of a deal, right? After everything he has been through, and after fighting Gotham's worst every single night (and sometimes during the day) -not to mention his pre-Robin experiences...- a few common high school bullies usually sounded almost...refreshing.

But as he had kneeled down with an angry grunt/growl to pick up his fallen Calculus book and everything else, he was reminded, and not for the first time, why high school bullies weren't as refreshing as they may sound sometimes. They were the ones he couldn't fight back.

When he had stood back up he'd sent his own version of the Batglare to the backs of Vincent and his fellow jock friends as they stood at their own lockers just down the hallway, still laughing their arses off at what 'Vince just did to the circus freak'. And when they had frozen before glancing around, suddenly looking 'unexplainably' nervous, confused, and very creeped out, he couldn't help but smirk as he made his way to class, because he knew from experience that they could feel the Batglare.

After the morning's incident with Vincent (half-rhyme not intended), the day had calmed back down.

Calculus had been pretty boring as Dick hadn't had anything to work on. That was because the teacher, a middle aged lady named Mrs. Lukert, liked Dick (A/N XD Not like that you dirty minded people...), and often allowed him to work ahead of the rest of the class since he always was finished with his assignments long before everyone else was. Which is why on Friday of the previous week she had given him the next three assignments, all of which he had finished later the same day when he and his team had had some free time after training at Mount Justice in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. What could he say? He liked math.

Throughout the class, as Mrs. Lukert talked about the lesson, he had tried to concentrate on the book he had been reading before school, but his desk partner was one of those annoying gum chewers, the kind that would chew the gum with their mouth open and made it sound like they were literally right next your ear, no matter how far away they actually were. And to add to that she wouldn't stop bouncing her leg which made the desk bounce as well. So, he had ended up staring at the same damn page for the entire period.*

His next class, English & Literature, went a little bit better since they didn't have to share a desk with anyone, and he actually had an assignment to work on. He had always enjoyed English, but Mr. Jorgen, the teacher and a huge literary arts phanatic, never seemed to like the ebony haired boy very much, as he would, more often than not, completely ignore him unless communication with him was necessary.** Richard always suspected that it had something to do with his tendency to completely butcher the English language with his wordplay (though he really only did that with Babs while in school), or at least he had thought that until he had heard Jorgen and the Biology teacher, Ms. Nielson, rather loudly talking about 'Bruce Wayne's gypsy boy', as he was passing the open-doored teachers' lounge while on his way to the restroom one day. Needless to say, he wasn't much of a fan of either teacher anymore.

And then, finally, third period had come around.

AP World Studies was one of the few classes he actually looked forward to. It's not that what they learned was all that interesting, he already knew a lot about history (he never quite understood why Batman had wanted him to know so much history...). No, the reason he liked this class so much was because it was the one class he and Artemis Crock shared.

As Ms. Randall was talking about the Nazi Revolution, it was obvious to Richard that she was trying to ignore the fact that most of her class had either fallen asleep on their desks or simply were not paying her any attention at all. However, he could tell by how her nostrils would flare slightly every once in a while that she was getting extremely annoyed at how little attention her lesson -which had likely taken quite awhile to prepare- was receiving, and he figured that within a few minutes she would be doing something to fix that.

Dick, being one of the few students both awake and paying attention, discreetly poked the kid who had fallen asleep on the desk in front of him, figuring he might as well save both the teen, Keaton, and Ms. Randall each a little bit of trouble. When he realized why the ebony had poked the back of his neck, Keaton glanced back slightly to give him a grateful nod before turning his attention to the teacher who was looking more frustrated by the second.

The secret hero suddenly felt as if somebody was looking at him. Continuing to pretend he was paying attention to only Ms. Randall, he slowly looked around out of the corner of his eyes.

It was Artemis.

Artemis wasn't much of a mystery to him, he knew a lot about her, her family, her past... pretty much everything there was to know. Being a Bat meant it was mandatory to 'know everything about everyone' -Batrule 438 (yes, it was an actual Batrule). He knew that she had come from a family of criminals. Her father, Lawrence Crock, had been in the League of Shadows and was known by the Justice League as Sportsmaster; her sister, Jade, had left home to escape her father when her mother was still in jail and Artemis was only eight years old, only for her to join the Shadows as Cheshire a few years later, and was now a dangerous assassin. Her mother, Paula Nguyen-Crock, a retired thief who had been known as Tigress, had left the criminal business after she spent some time in jail for her crimes, and was now stuck in a wheelchair, permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He even knew that Artemis herself had been trained by her father in the League of Shadows. From a very young age she had been forced to endure brutal training, which only got worse when her sister left. It wasn't until after her mother was released from jail and she met Oliver Queen, Green Arrow, that she was able to finally escape him.

She and her mother now lived in an apartment in East Gotham, Artemis doing what she could to help her mother out (along with the small amount of help she would accept from Oliver), while juggling being Artemis, the Green Arrow's partner and a member of Young Justice, and, to add to the problem of going to school, having to switch schools, going from Gotham East HS to Gotham Academy, not because she wanted to, but only to make her mother happy. He couldn't he but feel a little bit guilty about the added stress no doubt caused by that transition since it was Bruce who had given her a Wayne Foundation scholarship so he would be able to keep an eye on her.

Dick watched as she jumped, nearly falling out of her chair as she spun to face the front of the classroom at sound of their teacher's palm slamming down on the desk of a sleeping kid in the front row. Everyone else in the classroom who had been sleeping or day dreaming jerked up into awareness too. And the kid sitting at the desk she had slapped fell out of his chair. Under normal circumstances, the entire class would have burst out laughing at that, but nobody dared under Ms. Randall's half-way-to-murderous glare.

After a few moments, the brunette haired woman continued her lesson, still glaring around the classroom as if daring someone to test her patience a second time. Soon after, Dick saw Artemis turn back his way, though she did so with much more caution this time. He could resist smirking at her when she finally realized that he had noticed her staring at him and had to suppress the snicker that wanted to come out of his mouth when her expression morphed from surprised, to embarrassed (painfully evident because of her fierce blush), to anger at his own reaction, all within just a few seconds.

He probably hadn't helped himself at all with his taunting if you wish to call his actions that. Dick knew she probably already thought of him as a stereotypical rich kid: snotty, self-absorbed, and completely and undeniably spoiled, all of which couldn't be further from the truth, for both him and several other kids from financially successful families. Honestly, he hated stereotypes, hated the mere idea of grouping people who have one thing or maybe a few things in common and labeling them into that group as if that label is all that they are. Stereotypes took away a person's sense of uniqueness and individuality, making them and their peers see them as simply a small, unimportant piece inside a box, never able to escape it.

Artemis looked at him, Dick Grayson, with the same look she gave kids like Vincent Lorentz or Veronica Ross, the stuck up head cheerleader (A/N Again, no offense AT ALL meant to any cheerleaders.) It saddened him to think that such a good friend of his while he was Robin, The Boy Wonder, looked at his other persona with such... contempt was it? Disgust? Disdain? Maybe just a mountain load of annoyance?

But now, staring into those dark eyes of hers, he could see something completely different deep in them, corny as that phrase might sound. Her anger was gone, morphing once again to what he conceived to be curiosity. What it was she was so abruptly curious about, he hadn't a clue. Before he could so much as try to comprehend it, something, a noise, caught his attention.

He heard it in the hallway, even through the closed door, thanks to his highly trained and experienced ears. It wasn't a loud noise, no one but himself seemed to hear it. This was a noise he had heard countless times before, but it was extremely out of place for such a school as this one was. It was the distinctive 'clunk' of large feet, heavy laden with thick boots that had caught his attention, not a student or teacher or other staff member as it was mandatory for all of them to wear the black dress shoes that were a part of the school's dress code. Dress shoes do not 'clunk', even on hardwood floor, they 'clink'.

Richard sat up straighter in his chair, unconsciously positioning himself in a way that would allow him to jump up at any moment's notice. He knew it wasn't a student or staff member, and visitors were not permitted in the halls during school hours. His gut was telling him exactly what this was, and, having learned from past and present experiences, he knew without a doubt in his mind that it was correct, just as it had been so many other times before.

The sound of those heavy boots were just feet from the door now. "Thick sole, heavier at the toe, sizes eleven to thirteen. At least three or four pairs." He deduced reflexively, his training kicking in again.

Artemis could hear them now as well, he could tell just by the way her entire body tensed up, moments after his had. The fingers of her left hand twitched as if she were itching to be grasping her bow at that moment. He knew the feeling. He was half-way tempted to pull his deftly-folded utility belt from its secret, easy-to-reach pocket in his jacket.

He heard a 'chi-chink' noise, the tell-tale sound of a rifle being cocked and loaded, followed by several others as the footsteps seemed to stop directly outside the door. Unintelligible whispers could be heard by his sensitive ears, coming from just outside the thick classroom door. They sounded foreign, but he couldn't hear well enough to tell what language the men were speaking.

His icy blue eyes automatically locked onto those of smoky gray, wide in realization, fright, and the panic of not being able to do anything about what was going to happen within the next few seconds.

The door knob turned. A large, heavy foot kicked the door fully open with enough force to make it slam into the wall behind it, shuddering with the impact it made. Gunfire sounded, loud, deafening in his ears. Students screamed in horror, terror.

All hell had just broken loose.

*THE STRUGGLE IS FRICKING REAL!

**Two of my teachers do that. Not to me, but to other kids in my class. Anyone else?

Thanks for your patience with me!

PLEASE REVIEW! :D