A/N: …I was supposed to be writing notes in Ethics class. Then this happened. I don't know who started the Huntress!Artemis discussion on Tumblr but this is dedicated to them, whoever you are this idea has been haunting me for awhile now (I blame you). Also, I know it ends without much action. I was thinking that after I finish Cosplay 2 and Aidez-Moi I'd continue this with one-shots about Artemis' adventures as Huntress. Tell me what you think.
Oh and the Huntress mentioned in here is Helena Bertinelli. I don't know much about her, just that in the earlier comics she and Bats didn't quite get along. In this story this is true but just before she retired she helped Bats in a big way and that's why he has her spare costume on display, out of respect.
Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Disclaiming~
Huntress
By JustJanelle
Robin had almost gotten used to it.
He'd almost gotten used to the empty seat at the dinner table; the uneven number of partners during training; the god-awful cookies M'gann made (that he and Wally ate every one of to appease her) whenever she was feeling particularly mournful; the way Kaldur seemed distant at best during missions; Superboy's fits of anger (which were only ever quieted by M'gann's tears) and Wally (who at one time wouldn't shut up about food or girls or superheroing) who was a shadow of his former self, gliding down the halls of the cave as if he was the one who had died.
Robin had almost gotten used to that tiny voice in the back of his cerebellum that incessantly whispered: Artemis is dead, Artemis is dead, Artemis is dead, until he felt like slamming his forehead against the nearest hard surface.
He convinced himself that even though it had only been a month, he was fine. He had dealt with death before. He was strong and even with the vibrant memory of the explosion still looming on the insides of his eyelids, even with the noise of Artemis' screams still ringing in his ears, Robin was fine.
He was used to it.
"I'm used to it," he'd tell Bruce with a shrug whenever the man would ask.
Bruce would just stare at him for a moment before yanking on his cowl and suspending Robin from patrol for another week.
Robin had so convinced himself that he was used to it that when Bruce picked him up early from a particularly depressing day of school—he'd slid in to the seat of their limousine fully expecting Bruce to attempt a Canary-esque therapy session on him—he hadn't expected what his mentor had to say.
"Artemis is alive."
"Excuse me?" Robin said after a moment—expecting this announcement to be a part of some sick joke—but Bruce's eyes were entirely serious, just as they always were.
"Artemis," Bruce said slowly, signaling for Alfred, who was acting as their chauffeur, to pull the limo over, "She's alive. I've suspected it for awhile now- We never found her body. The Shadows captured and tried to brainwash her in to working for them. She resisted and they eventually gave up converting her. She's being held as a prisoner at their facility here in Gotham."
"You're serious?" Robin said—and something inside of him was melting, tears were welling in his eyes—and maybe he hadn't been so used to it after all, "The team- are we going to tell the team?"
Bruce shook his head.
"Why?" Robin demanded, "The deserve to-"
"They're not doing well and Artemis 'died' a month ago. Imagine if we fail to retrieve her or something goes wrong. It would be like she died twice. They wouldn't be able to come together again," Bruce said, pulling his gear on over his work suit, "You and I are going in alone, but I need you to understand that if we fail you cannot tell the team what I've told you today."
Robin nodded vaguely.
"Not even Kid Flash," Bruce added, "especially not Kid Flash."
Robin grabbed his uniform from its compartment in the limo and began to change.
If he had been paying attention he would have noticed that the tiny voice that had once echoed: Artemis is dead over and over and over with such tenacity, was now saying Artemis is alive, alive, alive. I knew she was alive.
It seemed like hours later—after hacking and picking locks and sneaking and distracting—when Robin finally laid eyes on her. She's curled in to a ball on a small, stiff cot in the lowest level of the base. Her long blonde hair was still long and still blonde but it was filthy and it curled around her frame like a blanket. Her body was thin. Once curvaceous limbs had eroded until there was nothing but skin and bones and taught muscles, so thin and hard that they looked like electrical cables.
She was very still. Robin stood in the doorway for all of sixty seconds listening to the fight raging upstairs between Batman and the Shadows and he couldn't decide what scared him more: fighting the men upstairs or touching Artemis' seemingly deflated corpse.
He was certain that he wouldn't have entered the room at all if Artemis hadn't chosen that moment to stir.
She squirmed a bit, rubbing her palms along the backs of her arms as if she were cold before raising her head weakly to look at him.
It was a tossup of who was more shocked: him that she was alive or her that was there at all.
"R-Robin?" she said, and her voice was low and sounded painful as it rattled in her throat.
Robin wasted no time making his way over to her and putting an arm around her middle in order to help her up from the cot.
"C'mon Artemis, time to get you out of here."
"Are you real?" she whispered as they stumbled toward an exit.
"Are you?" Robin said, "We thought you were dead."
"They t-told me," she said slowly, licking her lips, "they told me the team was dead. They had pictures of W-Wally and he was-"
"He's fine," Robin reassured her, as he fumbled with the lock, "Well, he misses you- but he's alive."
"Misses," she seemed to laugh but the noise sounded more like wheezing.
Robin smiled a bit, "Yeah, he misses you a lot. I think he liked- likes you more than he let on."
"Yeah? Me too," Artemis said and Robin couldn't tell if she meant that she liked herself or she liked Wally but he supposed it didn't matter.
She was practically passed out when he finally met up with Batman. The man had taken care of the Shadows in the building and they laid sprawled around the room in sloppy unconscious piles.
"She's fine- just malnourished I think," Robin said, shifting his hold of her waist.
She had always been taller than him—she still was—but now she was lighter and it disturbed him just how weightless she felt in his arms.
"I'll take her," Batman said gruffly, lifting her against his chest, "let's go."
Robin nodded, trotting after Batman—police sirens wailing in the distance—feeling more hopeful than he had in a long time.
Artemis hated this.
When she had been captured by the Shadows, besides the constant fear for her mother and her team and Wally—who the Shadows had a wide display of carefully photoshopped pictures of, many that had nearly convinced her he was dead—she had never felt weak.
She wrote this off with the fact that the Shadows had been trying to break her mind for the last three weeks and had never bothered to feed her much. She was strong mentally, stronger than most grown men and women, but physically she was skinnier than Robin and taller which made her tall and far too thin for her liking. She was used to being muscular and strong and able to run for miles without wheezing and draw the string on her bow without her arms feeling sore afterward.
It wasn't until two weeks of ruthless training had passed under Batman's tutelage that Artemis felt well enough to bring up going on patrol.
"No," Batman said.
She wasn't particularly surprised—she had been confined to the Batcave for the last fourteen days and told that her mother was in a safe house somewhere in Central US—the only people she had seen were Robin and Alfred, Batman's astoundingly genial butler.
"Can I at least see the team?" she asked, convincing herself that she was not begging, she was only asking with a hint of desperation in her voice.
"No," Batman said, looking down at her, and maybe it was the desperate look on her face that made him add, "not as Artemis."
She stiffened and locked eyes with the man behind the cowl.
"Okay," she agreed.
She and Robin spent hours inventing her new superhero identity. At first they were serious, Robin suggesting entirely plausible names to her before they broke in to complete ridiculousness.
"How about Batgirl?" he said in the beginning.
"Batgirl? Seriously? Ew, no," Artemis said, before seeing the slight frown on the boys face. She laughed, "Not that there's anything wrong with bats."
"Tigress?" he offered.
"I'm not much of a cat person—in case you haven't noticed."
"But tigers aren't-"
"Next," Artemis growled, sounding far too like a tiger for Robin ignore.
"Archery girl?"
"Ha- no."
"Harpy?"
"Where-"
"Wally."
"Ah, in that case: definite no."
"Arrowette?" Robin asked with a sigh, they'd been at this for a long time.
"No arrows, remember?" Artemis reminded him, "Batman said they'd give me away."
"Right, sorry," he said.
"It's alright," she said, twisting her fingers together as if she itched for a bow, "next."
They went on like that for hours, him listing names, she vetoing them. Until by supper that had almost given up and were instead sifting through the spoils of Batman's more illustrious victories. As she pushed aside one of the Joker's contraptions—it still had blood dried along the edges and she felt uncomfortable even looking at it—a purple mask caught her eye.
"What's this?" she asked, bringing it up to her face and placing it on the edge of her nose.
"Oh, that. It's old. Bru- Batman has had it forever. It belonged to-"
"I like it."
"-Huntress," Robin finished dubiously.
"Huntress-Huntress? As in-" Artemis said, startled.
"No, not your mom," Robin said, watching the sudden terror ebb from her features as she relaxed again, "This Huntress was a- well, she was a good guy. She and Bats were- friends, more or less, for a long time. I think he keeps the costume as a souvenir."
"A souvenir, huh?" Artemis said, glancing at her reflection in the glass display case, "Do you think he'd mind if I borrowed it?"
Wally is oddly aware that it has been 5 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours and ten minutes since Artemis died. He knows this because he knows the exact moment she died—her screams echoing over the shock waves of the explosion—and every few hours he checks his watch and does the math in his head.
1 week.
2 weeks.
3 and a half weeks.
5 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours and 15 minutes.
Wally sighs, shoving a tasteless cookie in to his mouth as he sits, head in his arms, at the kitchen counter.
He isn't used to this.
He isn't used to how alone he feels lately. Rob hasn't been to the cave all week and neither has Bats and everyone else—M'gann, Kaldur, Supey—all treat as if he is fragile, as if he might shatter if they say the wrong thing to him.
He's fine though.
It's only been 5 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours and 21 minutes since Artemis died. He's sure that that he'll get used to this eventually.
He'll get used to not bickering with anyone, to playing Smash Monkeys 3.5 by himself, to chuckling alone when Supey walks in and proclaims 'I hate monkeys' and to the empty chair that seems to sprout beside him no matter where he sits in the cave.
He'll get used to the sympathetic looks from just about everyone he knows and he'll get used to them ignoring him when he insists that he's fine—that he's 'peachy'.
He'll get used to it.
5 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours, and 37 minutes after Artemis died, M'gann comes floating in the kitchen—her eyes swimming in tears.
"Batman wants us all in the briefing room," she says and Wally nods and he can't fathom why she's crying.
They've been sent on missions since Artemis died. Never successful ones but they're used to them by now. They should be.
"We're getting a new member today," M'gann says as they walk together.
"Oh," Wally says.
He knows now—why she's crying.
They're replacing her. They're replacing Artemis.
And her replacement will probably be blonde and an archer and a girl and Wally will feel his entire being splitting in two because all he wants—he realizes with hopeless abandon—is Artemis back.
5 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours and 42 minutes after Artemis died, Wally sees Robin outside the doors to the briefing room and practically throttles the boy.
Kaldur and Supey, who are standing there as well, each place a hand on one of Wally's shoulders as if to hold him back. They don't really need to though because Wally is tired and panting and he never actually reaches for Robin's throat, he only starts ranting deliriously.
"They can't replace her," he shouts, "Why is Bats- why are they- they can't, Rob- they can't."
"I know, Wally, but-"
"But why? Why are they doing this?" Wally says, and he's shaking and he's sure that no matter who is beyond that door they're going to think he's crazy and he doesn't even give a damn anymore.
Robin merely fixes him with a stare before nodding towards the room.
"Listen, Wally," he says, "Bats wants you all to meet her together. Just don't freak out at her okay? She's been through a lot."
Wally doesn't have time to answer before the doors to the briefing room are shoved open and a bright curdling light stabs his eyes.
The first thing he recognizes is her hair. It is down and spills over her too-thin shoulders like spilt gold. She had her back to him but when the doors open she turns and M'gann gasps and Kaldur's hand, which is still gripping Wally's shoulder, stiffens.
She smiles.
5 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours and 51 minutes after Artemis died she stands in front of the team and smiles.
She's wearing a new costume but Wally hardly notices. It's something purple. A purple top, purple shorts, nothing covering her concaved stomach and tall purple boots. There's a purple utility belt strapped around her waist. What he does notice is the mask curled around her face. It has slits for her eyes and the edges swoop up and above her forehead like butterfly wings. When M'gann jettisons across the room and tackles her in to a hug she takes the mask off, sets it on the table, and the face underneath is thin but familiar.
Wally can't move.
M'gann is still holding Artemis five minutes later, her stiff green shoulders shaking with sobs as she clings to her friend. Superboy and Kaldur are standing behind her—placing relieved pats on her back as if to assure themselves that she is not a ghost.
But Wally cannot move.
Not even through Batman's entire explanation of her capture and rescue and new identity. Not even when Artemis turns to look at him, her grey eyes narrowed as he stares at her. He doesn't look away.
It is only when M'gann floats down the hall, reluctantly, to make dinner and Kaldur leaves to discuss things with Batman and Rob and Superboy trails after M'gann's retreating figure and they are alone in the briefing room—their breathing the only thing interrupting the silence—that he finds it in himself to make his way towards her.
"Wally-" she begins but he cuts her off by appearing just in front of her in a tumultuous gust of wind.
"Hey- you- I'm glad you're not dead," he says, staring down at her startled expression (she had forgotten how fast he was), "and I'm sorry."
"Sorry? Wally-"
"5 weeks, 1 day, 7-" he starts to repeat but he shakes his head at her confused expression, "it was my fault."
"Huh?"
"I should've been faster- I could've saved you from…you know."
She shakes her head with a laugh.
"What?" he demands—confused as to how she made him feel embarrassed and relieved and infuriated all at once— "What's so funny?"
"You're beginning to sound like a broken record," she admits, "You can't save everyone, Wally, and I'm fine, see? I'm alive."
"But you weren't- you-"
"Wally-" Artemis says, looking up at him sternly, wrapping her arms around his neck, "I've been trapped in a cellar for three weeks and the Batcave for two weeks, waiting for this moment. Don't ruin it."
So, of course, he promptly shuts up so can kiss him. If possible he's grown a bit in the past few weeks and he has to lean down to properly level his mouth with hers. He places his hands on her shoulders and they feel unusually thin and cold and he rubs warmth in to them, tracing paths across her skin with his fingers.
It isn't for at least ten minutes that either of them stop long enough to talk. He had lifted her on to the briefing table at some point and her mask had clattered to the floor. The straps of her costume hang off her shoulders, her hair is tangled and her lips are swollen as he presses his forehead to hers.
"I'm not coming back to the team you know," she whispers.
Wally is silent for a moment, weighing the option of arguing with her against kissing her in his frazzled mind.
"It'd be too dangerous. The Shadows would know it's me right away. Bats is going to give me solo jobs. I'll still come by the cave- I'll still-"
"Shhh," Wally says, kissing her again.
When he pulls away the second time he says in a small voice, "its okay, Artemis. It's okay."
"It's not Artemis anymore," she smiles against his lips, "call me Huntress."
Its like fluffy angst. Hmmm. Weird.
Please review :3