The hum of the machine was dizzying, making dissonant beeps resounding off the gray walls of the ship as the archer, or rather the assassin, shifted her feet, struggling to process all that had happened. The floor was soaked with seawater, the air was musty and at its center was her old friend, Kaldur'ahm, the quiet young man eerily silent in his bed.
She didn't mean it.
Artemis whispered those words over and over to him throughout the night, all the while knowing it was a lie and not even a bold one. The M'gann they'd known was buried under the consequences of losing loved ones. The sweet girl from their youth was nothing more than tears. All that was left was the same face of their friend who had turned to revenge at the cost of someone who she'd called a big brother.
"You were our big brother." Artemis said, stepping onto the floor, walking towards him and taking his cold hand. The monitor continued to make noises but the life, the soul inside the body was gone. The figure before her was no more human than the ship that carried them; it was a vessel of cells.
Artemis pulled off her tiger mask, one she'd modeled after her mother's, and placed it on the bedside table. She took his hand into hers. Artemis recalled how the same hand had squeezed her shoulder at graduation day; the first of the Crock family to complete high school and that thought had terrified her. The expectation, the pressure, but her big brother Kal, was there to smile and usher her forward.
"Do you remember what you told me Kal, when I was two seconds away from jumping off that stage and running off to the cave?" Kaldur showed no sign of understanding, no facial twitch, no expression. The realization of his current state began to overwhelm her and she shook her head, squeezing his hand as tightly as he had squeezed her shoulder years ago. Outside there was shouting; Kaldur's father arguing his son could be salvaged. The oily sweetness of Klarion the witch boy whispered "but of course" and once again suggested a sinister plan to use Kal's body as some sort of empty shell for their personal use.
Back and forth the members of the Light spoke about what to do with him, treating Kaldur as if he were property, a machine. Their words so dehumanized it sounded as if they quibbled over the gears in a machine. All the logistics of their plans frightened her at first, but now it was only numbness as all the mistakes of her life come to haunt her.
"You told me not to be afraid." Her thoughts wandered to her friends, her family, those they'd lost in battle and how young they were through all the blood and tears. The life of a hero is never an easy one, she knew this well but to take the burden at such a young age, when she was still so young… a girl pulling down her skirt as she headed off to class, a strange innocence that comes with never having lost those close to you, that's all she was. That's all they were, children wearing capes.
That had changed, now she stood beside an old friend who'd sacrificed so much, he'd given all of himself to this job, having lost the love of his life in the midst of the war that never ends. She remembered his face in that moment, watching it crack and break and crumble as he learned Tula was gone and no amount of sorcery or anything within this world of miracles could bring her back. Yet he stood, crying and walking steady as he went on to complete the mission that had claimed Tula's life. He was this force, an epitome of strength unmatched, he was her hero.
"You told me greatness is something terrifying, it's terrifying because it only comes to those who are worthy of it." She placed her other hand on his cold forehead. Over the years it had folded hundreds of times, over missions, over quarrels within the team but in all the frustration he was always the diplomat, always the leader they needed. The noises outside the door subsided; somewhere in her nostalgia the group had come to a decision, sealed with the words of Kaldur's father, Black Manta.
"If there is nothing more I can do, he's yours." The words were followed by the clapping of Klarion and the relieved sighs of the others. The matter was settled with; a life had been decided. It was the cruel fate of their lives, hers and Kaldur's and all those that come from bad blood. Life was never theirs to choose for their fathers always had other plans, or allowed others to make plans for their own children.
Kaldur was the good soldier who had made a name for himself as a leader, respected in two worlds, the surface and Atlantis, regarded by many as a gentle soul with a fierce determination that inspired all those who followed him.
Here was that same man, lying so still in the gray sheets, the lines of his body softened as the blood pulsed slower throughout it. He looked like a ghost, a shadow locked in a dream. The eyes that refused to move had once been the wise eyes, the older brother who had watched out for all his younger siblings. She muffled a cry as she recalled her broken family. All the years she'd spent suffering her father's abuse as he pushed her to be stronger, taught her to kill and brutalized her with an arsenal of weaponry… that is what she thought of moments before her name was called to walk across the stage.
"You are more than your father's daughter Artemis, you are worthy."
It was her body that crumbled now, her knees hitting the floor as if she was telling a prayer. She pulled his hands to his chest, over his heart, wanting to will it back, not the beats for the machine kept it going with each spike in the monitor, no she wanted his soul back.
"Being the bitch won't work this time." She said, laughing as her hair fell over his face, shaking all over again, "Tell me what to do Kal."
In her sobs she opened her mouth to plead to the deities for forgiveness in all she'd done wrong. Her hope was to save him by a miracle that would not be afforded to her. She heard no old man's voice in her ear telling her a penance to be paid, all she heard were the screams of Kaldur as his mind was torn about by their best friend, their family, M'gann.
"I can't do this." She said, gripping the sheet with her free hand, the other still clinging to him, not wanting to let her family go, not wanting to see him like this. What would the team be without him, where would they be but broken and lost. Kaldur was the leader for a reason; he kept them together and now that he was slipping away…
"But you're already gone." She said, lifting her head to see her own reflection against the monitor. Her blonde hair in tangled mats, wet with tears as was her face, red and blotchy, and very much like that of a little girl throwing a tantrum. It wasn't the time to be a child crying over a grave; it was time to be an adult who would stand and take charge, to resume the task of being a hero for a hero was all she was, and in the label was all the good she could hope to give.
In a few minutes they'd come for him and turn the face of her brother into a monster, she had a choice to make. Not so much a choice, it was obvious what had to be done… but the idea of doing it cut the air from her lungs, for a brief moment she heaved each breath as if her own life was being drained. Inside there was a heaviness, like rocks resting in between her heart and ribs. As she rose, her body swayed to the left, her hand hitting the wall, at the bottom was a wire.
One single black wire.
It was barely visible amidst all the other machinery keeping his body breathing. Her own body pushed against the wall and slipped downward, her head scraping against the metal as she sat down. Her fingers traced it's outlining, the wire thicker, hissing silently like a snake in her ear. She squeezed his hand again.
"I don't cry." She mouthed as she remembered her father's beating for tears, she scoffed and laughed and cried again, losing her mind with each finger that wrapped around the wire.
"But, we're just kids." She screamed as her other hand wrapped tighter around his, "we're kids, we're just kids."
She pulled the cord.
The sound of a flat line was like an arrow, striking her heart, above the weight of rocks, deep it went, pulling at her flesh. She could hear footsteps again, knowing she'd have no time for a real goodbye. In a swift motion she jumped to her feet, kisses his cheek and whispers "I'm sorry" into his ear. Pulling back her hands pushed against her face, screaming again and again "I'm sorry!"
The steps grew louder and her cries quieted in each beat across the ground. She knew it was time to be a big girl. The finality of the moment came when her foot kicked against the heart monitor and silence ensued. There was only a corpse and the walking dead by its side. Kaldur's mouth opened, his eyes widening as if coming back to greet his little sister, to smile and say it was a ruse, a façade and in a gleam at the ends of his eyes as his torso swiftly laid back against the bed, there was a message.
"It'll be alright." She nodded, waving goodbye.
Seconds later the door threw opened, she was gone, but the air was still holding a whisper of her words.
We're just kids.
Jade sat in her rocking chair, using her toe to rock back and forth with her child's head resting on her shoulder, the red hair falling gently over her neck. Little Lian had Artemis's resting face, the resting face of anguish and wonder. It frightened Jade in a way. It was an odd feeling to be scared having spent years burying her emotions. Her baby was afraid of something; her baby wore the expression of the dead. She held Lian to her face, kissing her forehead as the light above flickered.
"Mama's gonna keep you safe little beauty, mama's gonna make all the bad people go away." Jade had gotten a phone call earlier that day, one that prompted her to hold Lian so tightly. Kaldur was dead and yet her need to kill was still clawing in her throat, and burning like hell's fire in place of where she believed her soul should be.
She wasn't satisfied, there were still two sais needing a fresh coat of red. She stared at her weapons hanging from the hook of her daughter's bedroom wall, a wall colored eggshell white, dirty with grim. This was her childhood and not the life she wanted for her daughter, and still the desire for slaughter worked its way up her spine and into her fingertips. It was only softened by the touch of her daughter's skin.
"Mama's gonna keep you safe." She whispered as her eyes stared down the pointed edges of her murderer's tool. Regardless of what was to happen, she was going to take her revenge…
"Mama's gonna make all the bad people go away."