Our Broken Promise || fem!Reader x Dick Grayson (YOUNG JUSTICE) - completed

- ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛᴇᴇɴ -

Everything was going to crap.

First Mongol and the Warworld, then there was that struggle to get M'gann back from Manta's clutches and save Kaldur's mind, now over half the Team was missing. Disappeared, gone, poof – vanished without a trace.

But Dick was determined to find something. He was back at the Watchtower's shipping dock for the third time that day, a Batcave device in his hand. It was a meter, reading for extra-terrestrial anomalies. He had done all this already, searched the place head to toe, but he was convinced he missed something.

Surely he had. If Batman were here, he'd have figured this out long ago.

"Haven't you already scanned every inch of this place?" asked (Y/N), which echoed through the near-empty chamber, as the doors slid shut behind her. Dick performed, yet again, another scan on the crime scene, not stopping to acknowledge her. He didn't have time for that.

"Yeah, but I'm clearly capable of missing obvious clues," replied Dick. "I totally should have spotted evidence of Blue Beetle's defection after Green Beetle 'fixed' his scarab." This is my fault. What kind of leader am I?

"You can't blame yourself for this, Dick," (Y/N) said.

"I can if it's my fault."

"It's not, though. There's no way you could've known."

The dock's doors slid open again from far behind him. This time, Dick stopped what he was doing. M'gann had come in them, coming up behind (Y/N) to stand by her side. Had they talked before? Agreed to join forces in order to give him an intervention? Dick wouldn't put it past them.

"I'm with (Y/N). If anything, it's my fault. You asked me to scan Green's mind, and I vouched for him without delving deep. I was so afraid to use my powers after..." She glanced meekly at (Y/N). "...after what I did to Aqualad. I allowed Green Beetle and his scarab to feed me exactly what the Reach wanted us to believe. So Blue trusted Green and was turned by him, the somehow abducted the Team. All on me."

(Y/N) shook her head. "You did your best, M'gann. You were angry and you lashed out. It happens. I should have been on the ship in the first place. I should have been with you and gotten to Aqualad first. You wouldn't've gotten grabbed if I was. It was selfish of me to stay on the Bioship."

"Except I told you to stay. Miss M would never have been in that position if I had trusted the two of you with the secret of Aqualad's deep-cover mission," said Dick, stubbornly. He wouldn't let his two closest friends take the fall for his stupid decision. God knows they feel enough shame. "I put you both, Aqualad, Artemis, the whole team in unacceptable danger."

"What is this, a guilt-off? Anti-Blame Game?" said (Y/N) with a soft, sad smile.

M'gann smiled too. "I think so. I say I messed up, you guys say you messed up worse. The point is, Dick, we all made mistakes. We can't take them back, but we can have each other's backs now and get over ourselves. Save the Team, then save Blue. As a certain thirteen-year-old was once fond of saying: 'that's just what we do'."

Dick couldn't help but grin at them, feeling warm on the inside. He really missed the good old days when colossal gorillas, team building, and D-List villains were their biggest problems. Not... this.

What was worse: alien invasions or grown-up relationship issues?

There was a harsh clattering by the airlock, and all three of them jumped to fighting stances. Something was out there. Dick snatched his escrima sticks from his belt, M'gann clenched her fists and her eyes glowed green, and (Y/N) took a set of downgraded ball bomb explosives – which Canary insisted she tune down after their Reach therapy/ interview – into her palms.

Dick squeezed his escrimas, edging forward to stand in front of the girls. It opened.

"Is that...?" asked (Y/N) under her breath, just loud enough for Dick to hear. The clattering made the thick airlock doors shudder again.

"Sphere!" cried out M'gann, laughing. Sphere rolled up to them, ball form, and nudged them affectionately as she chirped and beeped. Dick chuckled airily, reaching out to pet Sphere. He glanced to his left at (Y/N), who was practically beaming herself and stroked Sphere's metal surface.

"Can you take us to Superboy?" asked (Y/N), fondly, like she was talking to a child or a pet. Of course, she was one of the first people to meet Sphere after Conner. Sphere beeped rapidly, before transforming into the S-cycle.

Dick grin wide. "I think that's a yes."

---

(Y/N) was injured again.

After she, Miss M, and Nightwing raced to the Warworld to rescue the Team, (Y/SH/N) took an alternate entrance in through the vents. Arsenal was there, not inside a cell like the others, but fighting off Black Beetle with a group of kids. Only when she was sprinting into battle did she realise it was none other than the kids the Team freed from the Reach ship.

Anyway, after distracting Black Beetle long enough that Arsenal could free Mongol from his chamber-cage, (Y/SH/N) was caught in the battle between them. Black seemed to try and kill two birds with one stone, as a Beetle-tech blade manifested and sliced at her.

It missed most of (Y/SH/N)'s body, but tore through her suit's shoulder pad armour and pinned her down.

Still, the blade pierced the skin of her shoulder, narrowly dodging bone. (Y/SH/N) was trapped and hurt. She couldn't move. If not for Mongol getting up from his brief recovery, Black might have killed her then and there. As soon as Mongol threw himself at Black, (Y/SH/N) rolled free and forced herself upright. She might not have made it back to the S-Cycle without Nightwing.

Nightwing risking himself, again. For her, again.

(Y/SH/N) hadn't even felt that dreaded rush of dark adrenaline. As far as she knew, it was just the normal rush you got after being stabbed. That drowned out the pain, so all she had felt was the weight of Nightwing's hands on her forearm and uninjured shoulder.

Now she was on one of the makeshift beds of the Blüdhaven warehouse, still in her (Y/SH/N) suit and curled up with her knees tucked, just thinking. (Y/SH/N) had popped her painkillers long ago, feeling numb. She'd been told to get some rest. But she just couldn't.

Everything was so much bigger than they had originally thought. All this new information with the Beetles – with Blue betraying them – and with the involvement of Lexcorp, which meant the Reach were in with the Light.

(Y/SH/N) rolled onto her back, passing a neutralized ball bomb between her fingers. There's no way she could abandon the situation now, like she'd intended to. No slipping away into the night, no breaking Dick's trust – and heart – again, and no going back to Midway City. This was a (Y/SH/N) problem now. If everything went pear-shaped with their plan and Earth's heroes couldn't stop the Reach–

Well, who knew what would happen? Bye-bye, humanity, for sure. As far as (Y/SH/N) was concerned, she needed to be here. She needed to fight. 'You were never one to back down when it came to being a hero'. That's what Dick had said, being the inspirational person he was.

She'd burn that train ticket in the morning.