AN:

I really wanted to write something where Dick was in Artemis' place in Depths but someone already wrote one just like it and it was perfect.

So, this is something kind of like it.

Hope you all like this! It's a one-shot for now, but might turn into something more.

Set during Depths.

~Zara

Artemis peeked over the edge of the wall, Nightwing doing the same beside her. She could see Black Manta's men swarming the shore, emerging from the water, carrying weapons. They fired their guns and the two heroes ducked slightly.

Then came the sound of a laser being powered up and Artemis glanced skyward to see (just barely, as it was in camouflage mode) the bioship flying overhead, firing at the men.

That's our cue! she thought. She bent her legs and made to jump over the wall. She was halfway over it when she felt a gloved hand yank her backwards.

She yelped as a laser collided with the wall, just missing her. Nightwing pulled her back down, shielding her.

I know you're rusty, but are you trying to get yourself killed? he scolded, looking at her.

Heh, sorry, she thought. She pressed her back against the wall, flinching as it shook under the blow of the lasers hitting it.

They stayed like that for a moment.

"You ready for it?" Nightwing whispered, not using the mental-link. She didn't need to ask what he meant.

"Yeah," she responded, moistening her lips. "Ready."

Nightwing nodded and then moved to look over the wall again. Another scarlet laser shot in his direction and he ducked.

We're on the wrong side of this wall, Artemis thought as Nightwing sat back down.

Superboy, Nightwing thought briskly.

On it. Conner's voice sounded in their heads.

The two humans watched as a missile headed straight for the rocket, only to be blasted into bits by a laser, via bioship. Suddenly, the rocket began to emit smoke and klaxons started blaring.

Artemis and Nightwing simultaneously looked at the warning sign on the wall.

We are really on the wrong side of this wall, Artemis thought, panic coloring her voice slightly.

The two looked up again to see another missile heading for the rocket. It too exploded, creating a small cloud of smoke. They peeked over the wall again and were fired at once more.

The troopers' helmets! Artemis thought suddenly as they crouched behind the wall again. Designed to enhance vision underwater, right?

She pulled an arrow out of her quiver, nocking it and aiming upwards. She let the arrow fly. About one hundred feet in the air, the arrow let off a blinding light. They could hear the troopers yelping as the white light shined over the entire area.

Move! Nightwing commanded, vaulting over the wall, Artemis beside him.

The two hit the sandy ground running, Nightwing a little ahead of the archer. She watched as he sped up at bit more, extracting his escrima sticks.

"Ready to get traught?" he yelled, swiping the sticks at one of the trooper's heads.

"Always, Boy Wonder!" she responded, slamming her bow into two men at once.

She heard him laugh from somewhere and she smiled sadly, remembering when that laugh used to be a high-pitched creepy cackle.

They fought on for at least ten more minutes, taking down men fairly with ease. They knew how each other operated. Being on the same team for years did that. They knew each other's strong points, knew each other's weaknesses. She grabbed another arrow from her quiver and readied it, stilling to take aim.

Suddenly, the temperature seemed to drop a bit. She felt a stab of fear, her eyes widening. Turning, she saw a trooper with a dagger, diving towards her.

Swiftly, she raised a leg and kicked the trooper square in the face and let the arrow fly. It hit right-on, sending the trooper into the sand, the dagger landing nearby.

She straightened up and saw Nightwing looking at her with a look of relief and humor on his masked face.

She smiled, shrugging. What? I'm not that rusty. Her smile faded as she noticed a disturbance in the water.

Frowning, Nightwing looked to the water too. Both humans' eyes widened.

Kaldur was rising out of the water, helmet missing, and Artemis had to hold back a laugh. It was like a scene from some horror movie, the villain emerging from the dark.

She berated herself. Stop that, she thought. Stay focused. It's almost time. In front of her, Nightwing had sunk into a defensive position.

"Kaldur!" she called, running forward. "You don't want to do this!"

"I believe I do!" the Atlantian responded, eyes angry. He stuck his weapons downwards, using them to control the water around him. The water rose in the form of some creature, towering over them. Kaldur yelled, and the creature roared.

The creature dove downwards into Nightwing, who cried out. She quickly held her breath as the water slammed into her as well. They flew back about twenty feet, landing on sand. They lay there for a moment, dazed.

Nightwing sat up first, coughing and shaking wet black hair out of his face. Artemis sat up too. She carefully spat water out of her mouth; she could feel the pill Nightwing had given her clicking against her teeth.

Then, there came the unmistakable sound of a rocket firing up and the ground seemed to shake a bit. Looking around, Nightwing and Artemis saw the rocket launching into the sky. They shared a brief grin, a quick moment of success.

"The mission may yet succeed!" they heard Kaldur say. They saw the small missile shoot into the sky from Kaldur's suit and Artemis pulled out an arrow and shot it swiftly, just like she had in all of their practices.

The bomb on the end of the arrow flew off and collided with the missile that Kaldur had shot. The rocket continued upward.

"No rust on me," Artemis said, a smirk tugging at her lips as she lowered her bow. And then she heard a roar of anger.

Turning, she saw one of the men rushing at her.

But it wasn't Kaldur.

She gasped internally. All of their planning, all of their rehearsals, this wasn't how it was suppose to happen-

"Artemis!"

Nightwing's yell rang out and she saw him barrel towards her from the corner of her eye just as the trooper running at her unsheathed a dagger. Strong hands shoved at her side and she sprawled onto the sand.

She heard a pain-filled gasp and a sickening noise as Kevlar made way for a steel blade. Blinking sand out of her eyes, she looked up.

The trooper had stabbed Nightwing right in the gut. The nineteen-year-old was clutching at the wound as he stumbled backwards.

"NIGHTWING!" she shrieked, running to him. She caught him as he fell, lowering his body to the ground.

She couldn't believe this, this was so wrong, so, so wrong, all wrong, it was supposed to be Kaldur killing her, not-

Nightwing's breath was coming in rapid gasps as blood flowed from his gut, staining the light gray part of his costume a darker color. His body was shaking with agony.

Kaldur looked at his former teammates. He turned with difficulty to his men. "Move out, the mission is a failure," he barked, barely keeping up his façade.

A series of exploding noises suddenly sounded and Kaldur'ahm looked up to see the rocket that he had been sent to 'destroy' being blasted out of the sky. He narrowed his eyes.

"We are done here," he said, and it took every ounce of his control to keep his voice from cracking. His men walked back into the water and he followed, his hands shaking ever so slightly. He glanced back at the acrobat and archer once. And then he was gone.

Artemis was pushing down on Nightwing's wound, still in shock. Nightwing moaned in furious pain and Artemis brought one of her hands to his face, stroking his cheek softly.

"S-shh, Nighwing," she said, starting to sob. "You'll be ok-kay-"

"Artie." Nightwing cut her off. "Wanna- wanna show you-somethin'."

"W-what?" she asked, staring into his face.

In response, he lifted a shaking arm and hit a few buttons on his wrist computer. A picture appeared on the holographic computer.

It was a black-haired boy with stunningly blue eyes and herself. The boy's face held a look of juvenile passion and amusement while hers was confused, dark eyes narrowed at the camera's bright flash.

She recognized the picture. She recognized the boy. She ought to have; she had gone through high school with him, becoming friends with him, Barbara, and Bette.

"We'll l-laugh 'bout this someday…'Member?" Nightwing slurred, eyes searching her face.

It took her a moment. "Dick?" she asked, voice breaking. The ebony gave a pained grin, using a shaky hand to pull off his mask.

Two sapphire eyes stared at the archer. She would know those eyes anywhere.

"A-all this time…I've known you?" she asked, mouth agape.

The teen laughed hoarsely but then stopped, eyes clenching shut in pain. "Yeah," he managed before he was racked with coughs. Crimson stained his lips.

Artemis cradled his head in her lap, holding him as if he were made of glass. "Oh god," she whispered, using her bow to support Dick's head as she moved back to applying pressure on his wound. The coughs sounded agonizing and they made his body shake. "Hang on, Dick. Please, hang on, the other's are c-coming-"

"A-all that planning…for nothin', huh?" Dick rasped, back arching off of the ground in pain. "Ah w-well…'M sure you g-guys'll figure somethin' out…"

"Don't talk like that!" Artemis seethed angrily, tears flowing faster from her eyes as she shook her head. "You're going to be o-okay, Dick. Get t-traught, r-remember?"

"Or get dead," Dick murmured, face contorting again. "And I'm 'fraid to say I'm g-getting dead…this time…" Another sob clawed out of Artemis' throat as she felt another rivulet of wetness under her hands.

"'Ell Kal n-not to blame…himself, 'kay?" Dick rasped. He could barely speak. He didn't have much time left, they both knew it. "An' tell 'em all g-goodbye for me…KF…Robin and B-Babs…Supey…Ba'man…all of 'em…will y-ya do that, Artie?"

She nodded frantically. "Y-yes," she sobbed out, never ceasing the pushing on his wound. She wouldn't give up, even if it was hopeless, she wouldn't.

"Good," Dick breathed. His beautiful eyes shut. "Thanks, Artemis."

And his heart came to a rest.

And though she knew it would happen, Artemis let out a scream. She felt the ground shudder and heard Conner running towards them as M'gann landed behind her.

She cupped her hands and pushed on Nightwing's sternum, counting in her head.

"I-I don't hear his heartbeat," Superboy said, cobalt eyes full of disbelief. He barely registered that their leader was mask less.

"Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty," she gasped out. Ceasing the pumping of his chest, Artemis leaned forward and pinched Nightwing's nose closed. She breathed into his mouth, almost gagging at the taste of blood. She pulled away to inhale and then breathed for him again. And then again.

Nothing happened.

Falling back onto her heels, Artemis stared with wide dark eyes at their fallen leader.

She thought unwillingly of all the times she had spent with him: her and Robin saving the team from the androids, her and Dick going out with Babara and Bette for lunch, her and Roy helping Robin from the burning warehouse in Bruges, her and Robin helping the team during no-powers training, her and Dick setting up Bette with the boy she had been crushing on, her hugging Nightwing as she and Wally left the team-

"He's dead," she choked.

M'gann clapped a hand to her mouth as Conner looked at the ground.

Artemis picked up the discarded domino mask and pressed it gently over Dick's closed eyes. She smoothed it out and brushed back his raven hair.

"You were wrong," she whispered, voice lowered to ensure Conner wouldn't be able to hear her as she heard M'gann begin to cry too. She leaned down and pressed her face into his chest, over the blue bird on his uniform. "You were wrong, Dick. We're not laughing about it…we're not laughing…"

AN:

Like it? I kinda do.

I can do a separate story with all of the team members' reactions if you all want. But only if you review. ;)

Seriously, my stories Concomitant and Forever only got about 10 or 11 reviews each, which is great and all, but I got exactly 30 fav alerts. Seriousllyyyy?

Anyways, just review. Please. You don't even have to hit a button!

Before I get flames about why I said Dick is 19: I saw an interview with Greg Weisman and he said that in season 2, DICK IS 19 AND MENTORS TIM DRAKE!

I couldn't believe it. Ah well.

Which led me to think: did they not show Dick's b-day in season one? Because in order for him to be 19 five years later, his birthday must have been at some point between July 4-Jan 1. Cuz the show picked back up on Jan 1…does that make sense? I don't think I explained it correctly.

~Zara