Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice, I'm just an over obsessed fan. :D

An: I AM NOT ABANDONING MY OTHER STORY! I just have writers block with where to go from now on so Pm me some ideas!

Nightwing is 18 at the beginning of this fanfic.

Chapter one: cake and bullets

Blüdhaven

Thursday 12th January 2014

01:00 (1am)

Nightwing grunted in pain as he pushed off his apartment door he had just closed. It was 1:00am and he had just gotten home from a patrol in Blüdhaven, effectively locking up Joker (who had wandered into his city and started making a mess) and going through an encounter with Deathstroke.

The villain eventually fled, but not before he shot Nightwing's left side with an armour piercing round.

The hero painfully pulled the top half of his uniform off so he could assess the damage. His torso was badly bruised and cut from his earlier fight with Joker and his crowbar and the bullet wound Deathstroke had inflicted was surrounded by dried blood.

The bullet was probably still in the wound but Nightwing didn't care at the moment. He grabbed some bandages and disinfect before he proceeded to clean and dress his torso.

After he was done, Nightwing, now Dick without his mask, collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep.

Nightwing woke an hour later to his com link beeping in his ear. He groaned and placed a hand on his ear, answering with "Nightwing receiving."

"Ahah. Hi Nightwing! Um…. Blue, Impulse and I may have kinda…. Set the kitchen on fire… Hehe" came Beast Boy's nervous voice through the com.

"You what?" Dick said, sitting up with an inaudible grunt.

"It was their idea! They wanted to try and make a massive cake!" Beast Boy replied quickly.

The ebony hero groaned to himself. "At 3 in the morning?" he sighed with annoyance.

Beast Boy laughed nervously. "Sleepover's, huh…."

"I'll be right there." Dick said, putting his mask back on. Beast Boy sighed in relief through his com before hanging up. Nightwing grabbed some painkillers and swallowed them dry as he left his apartment. It was gonna be a long day...

..Ten minutes later...

"Recognised Nightwing B0-1."

"Please tell me you didn't just call him?!" shouted a distressed Impulse to Beast Boy. No one noticed Nightwing's presence as he leaned on the door frame with his arms crossed (lightly) across his chest. He chuckled quietly at the boys antics.

All three boys were in their hero attire cleaning while covered in what appeared to be chocolate cake. Scorch marks covered the floor, walls and ceiling as well as a thick layer of cake.

Jaime was hovering in the air, wiping the ceiling in an attempt to get the burn and cake marks off, Impulse had a cloth in his hand while he yelled at Beast Boy, who had turned into a dog, no doubt so he could lick the cake off the walls.

Beast Boy stiffened when he smelt Nightwing at the doorway.

Well, more accurately, he smelt Nightwing's blood. "'Wing?" he said as he turned back into his normal form. Impulse stopped shouting as he and the other young hero turned to face their leader.

Nightwing ignored the worry in the boy's tone and instead sighed.

"So, why would you think it would be a good idea to make a cake at three in the morning?" he asked the boys with a roll of his eyes, not that they could see with his mask in the way.

Impulse shrugged as he replied "We were bored? And hungry."

Blue snorted. "More like we were bored and you were hungry!" Nightwing smirked, not that the now arguing teens noticed.

"Okay guys, enough. Go get the others and clean it up, and yes. You have to wake the others if you want this cleaned in time for breakfast. I have something else I need to take care of." He told the arguing boys as he stepped between the three of them, breaking them apart. They slowly nodded and went to wake the others.

Nightwing sighed as he went to the medical bay and took out some more gauze, some surgical tweezers and some needle and thread. He then proceeded to once again, painfully peel the top half of his uniform off before removing the soiled bandages and looking at the bullet wound on his side. Fresh blood was now covering it and it had started to burn, thanks to the painkillers starting to wear off.

Nightwing grabbed the tweezers and gritted his teeth as he removed the bullet. He placed it on a surgical tray table before picking up some more disinfectant and cleaning the wound one more time. Nightwing then picked up the needle and thread and began stitching the skin together again.

Finally, when he was done, he pulled the top of his uniform back on. He was just putting the excess medical supplies away when he saw movement out the corner of his eye. He scowled and flipped backwards just as Deathstroke lunged through the window.

Connor woke to someone banging on his bedroom door. He looked over at his clock. "4:30am" he read out loud with a moan. The clone growled as he dragged himself out his comfy bed.

"What?" he snapped. Connor was not a morning person.

Impulse laughed nervously as he looked the older hero over. Connor was dressed in only some long pyjama pants with messy and wild hair, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"Ha ha…. Nightwing said we should wake you guys up so you can help us" the younger hero said, trying to supress a laugh.

Connor raised an eyebrow. "With what?" he replied, genuinely intrigued as to what the youngest speedster would need help with at this time in the morning?

"Haha… cleaning? Blue, BB and I kinda set the kitchen on fire and may have… kinda made a cake explode…" replied the young hero, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

Connor sighed while rolling his eyes (something Artemis had taught him unintentionally over the years). "Fine. Where's Nightwing? Shouldn't-" the clone was cut off by the sound of something smashing.

Connor had to bring his hands up to his ears because it was so loud with his kryptonion hearing. Both heroes looked at each other before Connor ran past Impulse shouting at him to get the others.

When Connor got to the med bay, he was not expecting what he saw…

Nightwing was flipping backwards over one of the med beds dodging a masked man as he swung his sword at the ebony. The masked man had a half orange, half black mask on with one eye hole in the orange section of his mask.

"I've got to say Nightwing, you look even more exhausted than when I saw you last. If I recall, I shot you with a bullet that doubled as a tracer once it was removed from the body that not even you could detect earlier this evening. Correct?" the mask man said calmly, dodging a med bed that Nightwing kicked.

"What do you want Deathstroke?" snapped Nightwing as he ducked under Deathstroke's oncoming blade, sounding slightly annoyed by the intruder's previous remark. The masked man sighed.

"You know what I want Renegade."

The white of Nightwing's mask turned into slits as he glared at the man. Connor felt that if Nightwing had heat-vision, this intruder would be long dead by now. The clone took the opportunity to set his confusion aside and charged at the intruder.

Connor aimed a punch at his head but Deathstroke easily caught his fist and threw the clone at Nightwing. The force caused both heroes to fly into the nearby wall, the latter hero getting the brute of both the throw and the Kryptonion's full body weight.

Connor slammed into the floor while Nightwing was left stuck in the wall. Deathstroke stalked forward, dodging another blow from Connor, who had recovered, and knocked the clone onto his back.

"Be a good boy and stay down." Saying this, Deathstroke reached into his belt, grabbed a small bit of Kryptonite and placed it on the floor next to the clone.

With that out the way, the mercenary walked up to Nightwing, smiling under his mask.

Deathstroke then punched Nightwing hard in the gut, waking him from unconscious. Nightwing lurched forward, his breath getting caught in his throat as Deathstroke leaned towards his ear.

"You will be my apprentice again. Even if I have to break you in order to make it happen."

Nightwing growled at Deathstroke before spitting at the mercenary's mask.

Deathstroke sighed. He punched Nightwing harder, causing the hero to cough up blood and get stuck further into the wall. Nightwing lost consciousness shorty after.

The mercenary took this as an opportunity to retrieve a syringe filled with a bright blue liquid out his belt and injected the contents into Nightwing's neck.

Deathstroke noticed blood start to seep through the lower left side of Nightwing's uniform (where he had earlier shot the hero) before he turned and picked up the Kryptonite off the floor, placing it back in his belt as he made his way back to the hero stuck in the wall. The mercenary smirked as he picked up the limp hero, throwing the ebony over his shoulder as he made his way back to the window.