Dick told Roy, Roy told Jade, and Jade ended up at her sister's doorstep fifteen minutes past midnight.

She and Artemis had a strained relationship at best, though Jade knew she could only blame herself for that. Leaving when they were younger wasn't something Jade regretted, not at all.

But not taking Artemis with her?

Yeah that ranked pretty high on the list.

Still Artemis was there for her during her pregnancy with Lian, though that was after an hour of yelling and pacing around their old bedroom in frustration, even in the following months Jade would still receive a stink eye from her sister every other time she visited, though it never once seemed to stem from disappointment. Anyway Jade figured that they may not be the best of friends, the closest of sisters, and she sure as hell has never genuinely tried comforting anyone, but what's the worst that could happen?

Artemis was lying on the couch of her apartment with the TV playing some old cartoons. Normally whenever she was upset she would cry for a total of thirty seconds, one-minute max, then wipe away the tears and move on. If she was really upset she would talk to Wally, obviously that was not an option tonight. If Wally wasn't around or it was late and she didn't feel the problem was important enough to wake him she would lie on the couch where she did now and watch Alice in Wonderland, but tonight not even that would work. Just a few hours ago Wally had died, according to Barry he just vanished into thin air. Artemis told his parents, and stayed at their house crying with them until less than an hour ago. When she came home she had been forced to tell Brucely that Wally wouldn't be coming home and even he seemed to understand, considering he was currently sleeping in the bedroom on Wally's side of the bed. As for Artemis she wanted nothing more than to just forget the whole day, she wanted to remember the momentary defeat of both the Light and the Reach up until Wally took her in his arms, after that she just wanted to forget. She knew that was impossible, of course, but she thought that maybe if she could sleep she could forget, so she put on mindless cartoons that wouldn't remind her of anything, and if she was lucky they would help her mind go blank. It wasn't working and she was still wide-awake at fifteen minutes past midnight when there was a knock on her door. At first a confused look crossed her face and she sat up halfway, wondering who could be knocking on the door this late. For a brief second her heart jumped with the desperate hope that it might be Wally, still alive and having locked himself out again, and then she internally scolded herself for having watched way too many movies. When the knocking came a second time she got off the couch, not really caring that all she was wearing was shorts and a tank top.

When she opened the door she was surprised to see Jade on the other side, clad in her own pajama pants and baggy sweatshirt.

"Hey sis" she greeted sadly, her tone implying that she knew what had happened.

"Roy told you?" Artemis asked, her voice scratchy from hours of crying.

Jade nodded solemnly, Artemis responded by throwing her arms around her sister's neck and crying. She had cried a lot in the past few hours, and when she was with Wally's parents she felt weak because of it. But now she didn't care, now she needed to cry and Jade let her. The black haired woman hugged her sister tightly and after a moment walked inside without letting go, shutting the door with her foot. Leaning against the door Jade continued to hold her sister and eventually the two girls slid to the ground.

"He shouldn't have been there" Artemis said through her sobs "It wasn't his mission, but he knew they needed, his help" she sniffled.

Jade didn't know if there was anything she could possibly tell her sister, she wouldn't lie and say that things were going to be ok or that she understands, but what else could she say?

"What happened to him?" She finally decided on, of course she wouldn't push Artemis if she didn't want to talk about it but she felt she had to say something, besides maybe Artemis did want to talk about it.

Artemis sniffled a few times before answering. "The last disruptor went chrysalis, Lex Luthor told Flash and Impulse that if they ran around it in the opposite of the direction it was spinning then maybe they could stop it. Wally ran to help and the energy… he just vanished into thin air" Artemis explained, her stronger tears resurfacing by the end of the story.

Artemis didn't see it but a quizzical expression fell over Jade's face, he just vanished into thin air? Jade was never the best science student but she did recall one particularly basic law of physics, stating something about mass can change forms, but can't be created or destroyed. That was when Jade decided that she had one last mission before she officially retired her mask, and Luthor was a good place to start.

"You didn't tell Artemis?" Roy questioned as he and Jade readied themselves for their mission.

"I can't fill Artemis with that kind of hope if I'm wrong" she defended "besides it'll be a nice surprise" she added, her voice sultry as ever.

Roy rolled his eyes as he watched Jade carefully place their sleeping daughter in her sash, checking to be sure the baby was secure before turning to him, her barely visible eyes asking if he was ready.

"Were dropping her off first" Roy deadpanned, they had agreed that they would leave Lian with Paula but Roy still felt the need to remind Jade.

"I know Red, I learned my lesson after last time" Jade chuckled, causing Roy to smirk.

"Just making sure," he said.

Two hours later and the two found themselves standing in the office of Lex Luthor, the man in question standing smugly in front of his desk.

"Well what have we here? You know out of all the people I expect may one day break into my office I certainly never expected a partnership between an assassin and a member of the Justice League, or are you a former member now?" Luthor questioned Roy who sneered as he knocked an arrow but Cheshire held a hand up to stop him.

"We share a common goal" she told Luthor, she had never officially joined the Shadow's, only worked as hired help whenever they needed her. One downside to that was she could never be sure of who knew about her and Roy and who didn't, though she suspected Luthor knew and was just waiting for her to say it, she wouldn't take the chance.

Luthor smirked in response, only convincing her further that he knows. "What common goal might that be?" He questioned casually.

"Kid Flash" Cheshire answered in a deadly voice, her relationship with Roy may or may not be a secret to Luthor but she knew that he knows about her relationship with Artemis, and Artemis's relationship with a supposedly deceased speedster.

"Ah yes, a tragic accident really. But your sister should rest peacefully knowing that his sacrifice was not in vein, he saved us all." Luthor mused.

"Except he's not dead is he?" Roy accused more than asked; Luthor simply chuckled in response.

"I know you have a hard time accepting death Red Arrow, but I assure you that Kid Flash is no longer with us." He said, not seeming affected in the least by the young hero's supposed death.

"Luthor among other things you're a brilliant scientist, so you should know that it's impossible for a person to vanish into thin air-" Cheshire began

"Keep in mind we are talking about a young man who gave himself the power of super speed with the use of a sixth grade chemistry set" Luthor interrupted but Cheshire continued as if she hadn't even heard him.

"So what really happened to him?" She demanded in a cold and deadly calm voice. Luthor smirked but didn't answer her, so now it was Roy's turn.

"If there's one thing I know about you Lex it's that you're always prepared. I'm willing to bet that you studied those disrupters just in case, for whatever reason, the energy attacked you. You needed to know what would happen to you if you somehow got caught in a discharge" he accused as he made his way closer to the billionaire, keeping an arrow pointed steadily at his chest. "So what happened to my friend?" He demanded.

"How sure of this are you?" Nightwing asked when Red Arrow approached him the day following Wally's death, saying that their friend is actually alive.

"Lex Luthor got the information from the Reach ambassador himself" Roy answered "plus Cheshire stole the files off his computer just to make sure" he added, he hadn't yet told anyone in the league about his relationship with the assassin but this was Nightwing he was talking to, the guy probably found out years ago.

"You brought Cheshire with you?" The younger man smirked, oh yeah he knows.

"Look if what Luthor and those files say is true then Wally won't be alive for much longer, if we're going to save him then we have to act fast" Roy said, getting them back on the subject.

Nightwing nodded before placing a hand to his ear "Miss Martian, prepare the bioship" he said into his radio.

"Do we have a mission?" The martian's voice asked over the radio

"Yeah, we're going to the Reach's home world" Nightwing confirmed.