For those of you whom do not know (as I am unsure of which countries do not have Remembrance Day), today is Remembrance Day. Honestly, it falling on a Friday could not have been more perfect. Now, if only they aired 'Failsafe' today. It would've been SO much more powerful if the episode in which many superheroes, waging war on aliens, die, aired on REMEMBRANCE DAY. But nope. Today's is about the Sphere (after 8 episodes they finally focus on it, rather than have Superboy tell him, "no, you stay here, I like having Wolf on our missions." (That's honestly how I see it))
Note: Slightly inspired by the song, "This is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars, I've been listening to it for a week, mostly in honour of Remembrance Day. However, this fic is mainly inspired by the amazing poem "In Flanders Fields" by the physician John McCrae.
Warning: Character Death.
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or "In Flanders Field" (The italicised poem, which is distributed throughout the fic)
This is War
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below
Artemis crouched behind a tombstone, a twinge of guilt resonated through her body as she was using someone's loved ones grave as her shield and hiding place. She pulled through the pain and drew the drawstring of her bow and peered to the graveyard before her, Robin and Kid Flash were running further in, Miss Martian and Superboy were guarding the gates, while Aqualad waited alongside Artemis, his water-bearers already drawn.
"Robin, hurry, the enemy is advancing close to the ga-AH!" The Martian's scream sounded all throughout their heads, a large black cloud of smoke erupted from the gates, rising vertically, expanding horizontally, taking the form of a mushroom.
"M'gann!" Superboy's shout into the com-link was slightly drowned out by static. Artemis felt a pang of pain, if Conner was using the com-link rather than the telepathic link, what happened to Miss Martian?
"Artemis. Stay focussed. There is a time to mourn and a time to fight," Kaldur reminded her, as if he were the telepath.
"But, Megan..." Artemis started to say, her voice saddened.
Kaldur cut her off, "may or may not be fine. However, we will complete the established task: stall all enemies until Robin and Kid Flash return. When we have completed it, we will learn of Miss Martian's status and act accordingly."
Artemis heard a bird's cry from above, "Larks?" She and Kaldur stared at the birds in wonder, but were snapped back to reality when the sounds of bullets rang through the air, silencing the cries of the birds.
Artemis exchanged a glance with Kaldur, one that begged him, 'be okay,' he returned such glance.
"Ready?" he asked.
"No," Artemis replied, before Aqualad smirked and ran into the fray, Artemis firing arrows after him.
Superboy soon joined the war that had flourished in the graveyard, angrily roaring. Artemis, still hiding behind the tombstone offered help where possible, however, felt completely useless while Superboy and Aqualad were directly in the fray while...
She fired an arrow at the man about to assault Kaldur from behind.
... she hung back, hiding from the fight. While her friends were large targets, she hid in the shadows.
Artemis smashed her bow into the face of an enemy attempting to sneak up behind her, before swiftly kicking him in away from her. She hastily made a decision, she sprang from her current hiding place, joining Aqualad and Superboy in the fray.
"Artemis! What are you doing?" Aqualad hissed as he threw a punch to an enemy's gut causing him to double over, "You are supposed to be conserving your arrows! You are supposed to make sure no one goes into the crypt where Robin and Kid Flash are!"
"And by being here I can do that without feeling useless!" Artemis cried, no longer caring how many arrows she fired.
Kaldur sighed, "Fine."
Superboy, Aqualad, and Artemis's cries could be heard over the sounds of gunfire as the sun began setting.
"OK, we got it!" Robin shouted as he and Kid Flash appeared in the blink of an eye, "Where's M'gann?"
"Later," Superboy growled, as he continued to slug punches at the random men used as henchmen.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Artemis gasped as she opened her eyes, M'gann, Wally, Kaldur, Conner and Robin were hovering over her, gunfire no longer present as background noise.
"What happened?" Artemis's voice came out weak, and she grasped her side. Her side felt wet and sticky, and she felt light-headed- she was bleeding.
M'gann buried her face into Conner's shoulder, while everyone else looked concerned; as far as she could tell, unless you were Wally or Batman, you could never tell what Robin was feeling behind his domino mask. "A man came up to you and stabbed you from behind. You were lying against this tombstone, bleeding uncontrollably for a while before we found you," Robin informed her; was there a hint of sorrow behind his mechanical report?
Wally grasped her hand in his hands, she grasped back, "We're so sorry," he whispered into her ear, his voice was so dull and full of sorrow it shocked the blonde.
"It's not your fa-," Artemis attempted to reassure Wally, but cried out in pain half-way through; holding her side as a sharp pain ran up her body. The reaction was immediate, M'gann's sobs became audible, Conner grasped onto M'gann's body a bit tighter, and Kaldur, Wally and Robin's mouths hung open for a moment.
Artemis breathed heavily for a moment and grinned, "So, I'm dead, huh?"
M'gann wailed and turned to face Artemis for the first time since she woke, the Martian's face was stained with tears and her eyes were not the cool red they normally glow, they were a dull red, "How can you be so calm, Artemis? You're dead!" M'gann shouted at Artemis.
Artemis smiled and stared up to the sky, taking in her final sunset, "I suppose, I'm glad it ended like this, in the line of fire, I mean. Besides, I know that the five of you, maybe Zatanna and Red Arrow too, can continue with this Team," however, Artemis became sombre at once, "I'm sorry for the pain I'm going to cause," she whispered out.
"This Team isn't going to be the same! Not without you..." M'gann began, but was wrecked with sobs, Kaldur escorted her into Conner's embrace once more.
"Funny, you guys seemed perfectly functional without me for at least three or four missions."
"You never know what you're missing out until it comes to you," Robin stated the cliché.
"Never know what you had until it's gone. Ain't that right, Wally?" Artemis quipped. Feeling her heart's beats slow considerably, "Listen, there's no one to avenge. I just want you to continue fighting the good fight, it's all I ever wanted to do. I knew that this could happen and so do you, please, as my last, dying wish: continue living and continue fighting against evil. Please," she breathed out. Before anyone could respond, her eyes began staring without seeing and her grip on Kid Flash's hands slackened.
"ARTEMIS!" M'gann screamed.
"She's-She's...gone..." Wally said, dejected.
"Yes, she is..." despite the formality in Kaldur's tone, it was apparent he too was torn up inside.
Robin, Wally and Kaldur began reciting In Flanders Field.
Robin pulled on green gloves and tights to his revamped costume,
M'gann made her hair blonde and pinned it in a long ponytail,
Kaldur had the 'A' on his belt changed to look more like a stylised arrow,
Wally was meeting with Roy to begin his archery lessons,
Conner began doing things with both his left and right hands,
In honour of Artemis.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
I found this interesting poem about Remembrance Day:
For What?
They were regular people with a life and families
We needed them in our time of need, to be brave, to fight for the future
The soldiers with so much to lose and so little to gain; these are the people we are thankful for
The ones who fought for a better future, who protected us from danger because we couldn't protect ourselves
Who we honour today, because we couldn't say anything to them when they were fighting.
We are regular people with a life and families, is it possible to have a day to remember us?
We are the people they protected, and yet make simple mistakes that makes us forget them
We throw caution into the wind, something they held onto to live, something we take for granted
We remember them only to get out of school, something many have never completed
We are the ones they protected, strangers, and yet we do not protect ourselves.
Who is there for us to protect?
Are we considerate enough to fight for a better future
The next generation will be born into a world we are trying to fix
The one that we have destroyed
The one that they tried to protect.
I thought it was interesting...
Anyways~ I know that the things the Team did in honour of Artemis do not happen (aside from Robin's green on his costume); however, Artemis is ambidextrous, all you have to do is look at the hands she uses to draw the drawstring over several episodes, you'll see that she uses both hands, I thought that Conner might be one of the few to pick up on that tiny detail ^.^
Semper fi,
Lest we forget.