She tried to force her eyes open, but something in her kept clawing them shut. She vaguely felt the ropes and hands that were on her; however the force of her own body slamming into something hard was just as sharp as any other time she had been tossed around by a villain. The darkness that had been fighting her wakefulness finally won as she fell into unconsciousness.

"Pretty, pretty, oh so very pretty..." an odd cackle muttered over and over again finally registered. She groaned slightly, as she began to come to. She her eyes fluttered slightly as she looked at her surroundings. She saw a whimsically large table before her, tea cups, pots and sweets scattered about it. She couldn't help but notice that each of the items on the table seemed to have its own hat. She frowned and continued to look about when she glanced down she felt her skin crawl. Her jeans, jacket and boots were gone and replaced by white stockings, black school girl shoes and a pale blue dress. She recognized the dress from that lone poster that hung in her bedroom. She felt panic begin to set in, what the hell was happening? Why was her hair like this? Why was she dressed like this? Who dressed her?

...What had they done to her in between?

"Welcome, my pretty, to my tea." Her eyes snapped their focus onto the man sitting next to her. She quickly ran her eyes over his lanky form, shivering at the thought of him touching her in any way. Her eyes rested on his large head that had been painted with a wickedly sickening smirk while his beady eyes roamed her body freely underneath a large, green top hat.

"What would this beauties' name be?" He said as his had moved to run his bony gloved hand along her cheek, she tried to pull away but something was stopping her. She stared at him not replying. He seemed to become impatient as his hand went to her neck and found a loose grip there. She felt something foreign make her mouth open, and before she was aware of what was happening, her own voice had come to life.

"Artemis."

She didn't say that. She didn't want to say that. Why had she said that? Why was she just sitting in this over-sized chair, conversing with this creep? The man sighed slightly and began to rub her neck gently. She wanted to rip away from him, everything that was happening just being so dirty. He leaned toward her his smile becoming sinister and even sicklier.

"Not any more my precious," He stated, his tongue edging out of him mouth to wet his thin dry lips

"Your name is now Alice."

The team stood solemnly listening to the tall dark man in front of the screen.

"We all know what is wrong. What we don't know is who has her, when or how they got her and we don't know why." He said darkly, gently. He looked at his son, seeing even he was uncomfortable with the situation. "You guys have to start from the beginning and find out where and when she was taken. There have been no sightings and no leads. This means you will be uncovering a lot about her. You must be completely objective about this and try to respect her. Go." Batman said finally. The team stood for another moment, allowing their leader to give directions before heading to the bio-ship in utter silence. Once on the ship, being the blunt and angered one that he was Superboy broke the silence.

"Who would want to take her? No big time villain wants any of us, so who would want her?" He blurted, his protective nature becoming obvious with his anger. The team turned to him, Kaldur nodding in agreement.

"You are right Conner; there are no villains that the Green Arrow has faced with her yet, so I see her disappearance being completely illogical." He said coolly, his concern entirely displayed on his features. Robin chewed on his lip for a moment before sighing deeply. The team turned to him, knowing he knew more about her than anyone else other than Batman.

"I have a couple ideas... but we should investigate first. She has the right to a secret identity, just like all of us." He said looking to each of his teammates. They agreed with the Boy Wonder hesitantly, but continued to their destination "Oh, and M'gann, head to Gotham. That's where we need to start." He said. The team looked at him confused, but the girl martian no less began to head to Gotham.

"Why are we going to Gotham, Robin? She's Green arrow's niece; shouldn't she be in Star City?" M'gann questioned, directing her living friend to their destination. Robin inhaled slowly, remembering the lie that Artemis had told him when they had 'ran into' each other in the alley.

"She told me she was visiting her cousin." He said quickly. The team seemed to buy it, which made Robin relax slightly. However he knew his best friend knew him too well. He glanced back at the redheaded boy, realizing just how quiet he had been the entire time. Wally sat there in his seat, staring at his friend harshly. Robin nodded to him in a way that said 'we'll-talk-later' which was not settling the green-eyed boy at all. He simply grit his teeth and glared at the space beneath him.

This couldn't be happening again. He couldn't be losing her again. She seriously couldn't be out of his life again. After the exercise and therapy sessions with Black Canary, Wally had realized that he cared for Artemis. She was important to the team, and to their family unit they had formed. That's why he reacted so strongly. He didn't want anything else around him ruined, that's it, right? That had to be right. He felt himself become rigid as she thought about anyone harming her, going near her doing anything she didn't like. He fell into a personal mantra of begging for her to be alright.

So, yeah, this is obviously dark. I'm not sure if this will end up as M or stay T. Feedback would be welcome.