"Come on! This is stupid!"

Barbara was desperately trying to change a certain blonde's mind. It was harder than she had expected.

"What, are you scared?"

Barbara gave her a look.

"Terrified."

Artemis rolled her eyes, laughing.

"But seriously, if you're not scared, then what on earth is your problem? It's just a short... investigation."

Both girls found themselves back in the hallways. It was the end of their school days, and it felt like the whole school was bustling through those same hallways at the same time, trying to be the first to enter the sweet freedom of Gotham City's streets.

"Why would we want to investigate the place. Ugh, this is all those idiots' fault." Barbara grumbled unhappily.

Artemis was in the lead, gracefully slipping in between the walking, talking students on her way to a certain part of the building. Barbara was trailing behind, almost surprising the newer student by keeping up with her unusually fast pace.

"I can't say I know the students here, but I can much definitely tell that I can call myself lucky to have met Ellis and Horris before I could get in with the wrong people. Same goes for you and Bette, of course. But you know as well as I do that ninety eight percent of the students at Gotham Academy are arrogant snobs."

Artemis spoke loud enough for some of those very students to hear what she'd said.

"Alright, you have a point. Nevertheless, those two are never up to any good. They were known for their pranks before students knew Gracey Clarc even existed."

Artemis turned for a moment to shoot her a confused look.

"Richest and most popular girl of the entire school. Sees people like Bruce Wayne more often than her grandparents."

"Sounds like a nice girl." Artemis sarcastically remarked.

"You don't know the half of it," Barbara mumbled, but Artemis didn't hear. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, that, maybe this investigation of yours will get you into more trouble than provide you with answers."

Artemis picked up the pace, making the other girl groan.

"Will you please slow down!"

Surprisingly, she did. And when Barbara caught up her, she saw why. In the middle of the hallway stood a girl with caramel hair that fell onto her shoulders, flanked by five other girls. All of them wore obviously fake smiles, except for one, who looked as if she didn't want to be there at the moment.

"Weird. I don't think I've seen you before." the girl in the front said, her voice carrying warning and threat.

Artemis easily stood her ground against the harsh stares being sent her way.

"Probably a good thing." she said.

The girl looked like she had been insulted in the worst way possible.

"Darling, do you not know who I am?"

Catching sight of Barbara coming up next to Artemis, she smirked.

"Has your new friend not told you all about me?"

Artemis frowned, before turning her head to look at Barbara questioningly. The redhead suddenly developed a high interest in her feet.

"Oh, don't bother with her. She's just-"

Just now realizing what was going on, Artemis decided to teach this girl a lesson.

"Excuse me?"

The girl seemed incredibly startled at being interrupted during her what was obviously going to be an insult.

"What?" was all she managed to get out.

"Now I ask you, who do you think you are? I don't know what you were going to say about Barbara, but I believe I can guess. So, I ask you, who gave you the right to talk the way you do?"

Barbara's head shot upwards and she stared at Artemis, not quite believing what she heard. The girl opposite them must have felt the same way, because her mouth was hanging open with no words leaving it. Everyone waited in tense silence until the one girl who had already seemed uncomfortable beforehand akwardly made her way over to stand directly in front of Artemis. She held out her hand and tried a cautious smile.

"Hi. My name's Jessica. Welcome at Gotham Academy. I apologize for Gracey's rude behaviour. She's always like that."

"Jesse!", Gracey shreeked angrily.

"No." Jessica turned to face the student. "My. Name. Is. Jessica. How many times do I have to tell you until you finally get it through your thick skull? I'm done." She nodded at the other girls around Gracey. "If you want to keep tolerating her stuck-up attitude, be my guest."

Gracey gasped and opened her mouth to reply in some kind of rude way, but the words were still stuck in her throat. Barbara had not felt this proud in a long time. She felt like she owed her new friend big time. Darn it. She thought. How am I going to get out of her investigation now?

"Um, I hope I'll see you two around." Jessica said, then she send one last firm glance towards Gracey Clarc and her gang and left.

Said girl appeared to be in a state between awe, disgust, confusion and anger. Narrowing her eyes, she at last found her voice.

"You are so going to regret this. All of you."

And the mighty Gracey Clarc walked away in a huff. Leaving two girls bursting out laughing as they continued on their way, one out of curiosity, one out of gratefulness.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

The door creaked as it was pushed open. Artemis glanced around briefly to make sure they went unnoticed by any teachers or curious students lurking about, before fearlessly moving forward into the darkness. Barbara was following her nervously. Anyone would assume she was scared of the place they were in and the stories told about it, but Barbara's worry applied to something else. Or, someone else, rather.

"Jeez, Barbara, calm down."

"I am calm."

Artemis snorted.

"You're not."

"I just can't wait to see if this ghost exists."

She almost flinched at the way she sounded. No one would be fooled by her poor attempt at covering her real reason. Suddenly a bright light was shining right in her face. Artemis lowered the flash light and Barbara blinked away the spots in her view.

"Barbara. I had to force you to come here with me. You told me you weren't interested in this kind of stuff."

The redhead sighed and pushed past Artemis.

"Well, I'm interested now."

Artemis rolled her eyes and ran to catch up with her so the other girl wouldn't run into a wall headfirst due to her lack of light. The rythmic sound of their footsteps echoed through the empty hallway. Barbara watched mutely as Artemis moved the light across the walls, trying to not shine directly through any windows.

"Hey," Artemis abruptly halted and crouched down. "There's footprints here."

"Really?"

Barbara bit her lip as she took in a similar position next to Artemis.

"Yeah, look at this. Let's take a picture. Maybe we can compare it to some students."Artemis suggested and was about to pull out her phone when Barbara stopped her.

"You know, there must be all kinds of footprints around here. Who knows how many students have sneeked in to get a look of the place – or the ghost – over time."

Artemis sighed.

"You're probably right. This won't be of any use for us. Let's get going."

Barbara let out a soundless breath once the blonde had stood back up and began walking again. As she followed her she left a trail of faint footprints behind that lay next to the one Artemis had noticed. Both were identical. They kept walking until they reached one particular door. Barbara had seen it before. She knew why it was there, and she knew what awaited them behind it. Artemis did not.

"Keep out. Or suffer the consequences." she read aloud. "Sounds promising. What do you think? Are we going in?" She smirked when she saw Barbara glance nervously to the door and back to her. "Or are you scared?"

Barbara scowled.

"Still not. It's just... I think we've seen enough for one day. Let's come back another time."

"Another time?"

"Yes. I should go home anyway. Come on."

Artemis was stunned into compliance by the redhead's tone of finalty and let herself be pulled back the way they had come. Barbara didn't question it, although she doubted the other girl was usually this easy to convince. Concentrating on keeping a fast pace she retraced their steps and prayed Artemis did not pay too much attention to the new footprints left by them.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

She lifted her free hand to knock on the door. Knock. A short pause. Knock. Knock. Knock. It was like saying, "Hey, It's me, Barbara." She did not need to wait long for the door to be opened and she was able to enter. He had strictly forbidden her from coming in on her own and without knocking first. He had not given her an exact reason, but she respected his privacy. She did not hesitate to walk over to the bed and sit down on it. As she opened up her backpack and pulled out the things she had brought, she began talking, just like she always did. She would tell him of her day. He would not. But Barbara did not mind.

"I met a new student today. Wayne scholarship. You should've seen Gracey's face once she realized she couldn't mess with her like she does with everyone else. It was hilarious."

She laughed a little at the memory.

"But thanks to H and E she was totally into the whole ghost of GA thing. I couldn't even do anything about it and I had to- say, are you even listening to me?"

She looked up at him, noticing that he was sitting on his chair staring at something in his hands, lost in thought. She picked up the stuffed elephant she knew always lay on his pillow and threw at him, making him yelp uncharacteristically and finally meet her gaze.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!"

He leaned down to retrieve the animal from the ground, keeping his eyes on her, narrowed almost dangerously.

"Well, that's no reason to abuse Peanut."

She rolled her eyes briefly before her expression returned to a more serious, slightly worried one.

"Alright, alright, sorry. But seriously, Dick, what's up with you? You were so deep in your own world you didn't hear a word I said!"

He slipped whatever he had been holding into his pocket, too fast for Barbara to recognize it.

"Sorry. I was just...nevermind. Go on, I'm listening now."

"I said I met a new girl today. She's on a Wayne scholarship and-"

"Artemis Crock."

Barbara blinked.

"Um, yes, actually. That's her. How did you know?"

He shrugged an started spinning his chair around.

"Must've read the name while going through some files."

It was a lie. And that had Barbara even more worried. She knew he had a lot of secrets and he kept most of them even from her, but he barely ever lied to her. And when he did, he always had good reason to. And most importantly, he hid it well. But this time it was so obvious that it almost scared her.

"Dick?"

He didn't look at her.

"Hm?"

She frowned.

"You know her, don't you? I can tell you were lying and that's saying something."

He stopped with his chair so he was facing her.

"Am I acting that strange?"

Barbara nodded. He wasn't just acting strange, he was acting nervous. And that was, well, yeah, that was strange. Dick groaned.

"Great."

Barbara crossed her arms and shoot him a look.

"Spit it out. Where do you know Artemis from?"

He started spinning again, somehow managing to look stressed and relaxed at the same time.

"She's one of Wally's friends."

Barbara tensed.

"Does she know you?" the redhead demanded.

"Don't worry. I've only seen pictures and heard stories. She probably doesn't even know I exist."

Then he snorted like he had just said some sort of an inside joke Barbara couldn't understand.

"Well, if I can't change her mind about investigating the wing she'll know you exist soon enough. She's suspicious already thanks to the twins and I can tell she isn't like any of the others. You won't spook her away easily."

The spinning grew slower again nd he stopped abruptly, a thoughtful expression on his face that was slowly but surely turning into a grin. Barbara almost slapped herself. And him.

"Oh no. You don't seriously consider letting her know, do you? You said you didn't know her!" Barbara's panicked and warning tone destroyed his grin and he put up his hands in a gesture of defence.

"Hey, calm down. I said she doesn't know I exist. I know plenty enough about her to say that she does have a certain potential."

His last words had a weird effect on Barbara and for some reason she started to feel a hint of dislike for her new friend.

"So we might as well try to work with her. Actually, I've though about letting Wally in on the whole thing so he can help reassure Artemis. Wait, no. She shouldn't know I know him. But I might talk to him anyway."

By now Barbara was not aure he was still talking to her or if he was just talking to himself.

"Oh, I almost forgot I still need to ask him something else. Hope I'll remember to do so when I see him tomorrow..."

"Sure. But, Dick?"

"Or maybe I should wait some more before I discuss it with him. Haven't even decided what to do anyway."

"Dick?

"Ah, nevermind. I'll cross that bridge when I get there."

"Dick!

He startled and jerked his head around to look at her, questioning.

"What?"

Barbara laughed and shook her head. Once he started thinking he couldn't stop.

"You're rambling. Again."

He slouched a little in his chair.

"Sorry. Just forget what I said."

He then stood up from his chair and walked over to a shelf packed with books, folders and stacks of paper, pulling out a plain green book with the letters R.G. on it. He opened it to a certain page and fished out a thick, folded piece of paper, holding it up for Barbara to see.

"Let's do a few upgrades, shall we?"

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

I do not own Young Justice or any of the DC Universe characters.