Beneath the Kevlar plating of his uniform, gooseflesh rose across Nightwing's aching body. While the night air was rather balmy, Dick was almost shaking from the cold – a frigidness born out of the misery of his memories and the uncertainty of his future. Tula, Ted, Jason...three funerals that he would never forget, three friends he would never get back, three separate agonizing wounds that would never completely heal. He knew what the loss of a comrade felt like, he knew what it was like to lose Artemis.

All of them did. In fact the world had slipped into something reminiscent of déjà vu. He was sending his friends to their doom…again. But this time it wasn't a test, every loss was real, excruciatingly so. He trembled just slightly under the weight of that burden.

"Why, why would you do this to us?"

Wally's voice should never have sounded like that –strangled not with grief or fear, but pure unbridled rage. Betrayal bled from the speedster's wickedly green eyes, the sight like a sucker punch to Dick's solar plexus.

"Wally—" His sigh was as tired and shaky as he felt. Not that he expected Wally to notice. No one ever noticed, because no one ever knew when to stop pressing. It hurt. Jesus it hurt. But people just kept pressing, it wasn't their burden, it wasn't their pain.

Sharp and venomous, Wally was quick to cut him off. "No, goddamn it!" He heaved a breath. "No excuses. You knew we were trying to leave this behind us, the danger and the pain. But you just had to suck her right back in. Why did it have to be her?! Why not pick Zatana huh, or Bee?"

Deep down Dick knows that Wally understands why he picked Artemis, why he needed Artemis.

"She's the only one who could have handled it." A little conviction seeped into his voice, because he needs to believe in something and Artemis is the best hope they have at the moment.

"Barbara could have handled it. Why not pick her?"

The question stings a little more than Dick would like to admit. He'd entrusted his darkest secrets to the speedster and having them flung back in his face stretched their fraying friendship that much further. "Do you honestly think I'm doing this on purpose, that I enjoy this? She's my friend too Wally." His whisper was quiet but the aftermath was damn near explosive.

"You don't fucking get it man! I love her. She isn't a friend," by the way he spits it out Dick assumes the word leaves a foul taste in Wally's mouth. He's beginning to wonder if the saying should be, "Hell hath no fury like a speedster scorned."

"She isn't replaceable, she isn't you!"

A breeze, tangy with sea salt whipped between them, ruffling locks of ginger and black –the silence broken only by the gentle lull of the ocean. Wally's previously fire fueled gaze faltered somewhat, but he gritted his teeth and made no move to take the words back.

Dick was at a complete loss. Before he could find the words Wally's shaking his head and turning toward the door, with a heartbreaking frown on his face. Through the emotional exhaustion and the pain –all that Dick can register is that, that frown shouldn't be there. It just doesn't look right.

He would take her place if it spared Wally the pain.

He would lay down his life if it meant they got to love each other until the end of time.

He would give anything, everything if it meant he could save them. Save them all.

But he can't, it's a world too cruel.

AN: Might be a one-shot, might be more. A big thanks to anyone and everyone that read/reviewed "Ten Knives."