A/N: So... I wrote something. Cross posted on tumblr (ellipsesarefun)
Title: Mistake
Characters: Artemis-centric
Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice. If I did, Wally would still be alive.
She failed. She failed to mislead them away from her problem, failed to take down her sister by her own arrows, failed to capture the other enemies, and failed to keep the trust of the team. And Wally's.
Artemis puffed a sigh. The archer was still there, on the very spot where the team left her standing, where he left her standing. She was given that one chance to confess, to refute all judgments he had of her but spilling the truth would have made her position more difficult. It would make her seem as if she were the one covering for her sister, letting the others escape in time before they had they had the chance to discover what they were up to. All because of her father and his affiliations with.. Their enemy.
Her phalluses clenched around the sai. Cheshire's sai. Her sister's sai. Even after everything, it felt like a souvenir from her sister, only a mere remnant of Jade before she left her. Bearing those thoughts in mind, she spread her legs slightly into a stance and stilled, closing her eyes as she did so. She slowly took in a deep breath, replaying the events that occurred today, and exhaled, drawing the sai as her body moved in cadence. She could feel the worries gradually ebbing away and shift into this bubble of introspection.
While her father taught her the skills to kill and survive, her mother taught otherwise. Over time and bleeding hands, she mastered the dance at the age of thirteen. Since then, she continued her practicing this dance was her only refuge from a home full of criminals.
In retrospect, she was grateful for her mother's support regardless of how she got here. Months of staying with the Justice League's covert team grew into a family of people who more or less accepted her, even when she rarely spilled her secrets. She sleeps over with M'gann on some days, raves with Zatanna at some clubs, watched TV and made comfortable small talk with Conner and Kaldur and playing video games with Robin from time to time. And hanging out with Wally. She paused before drawing the sai once again.
While still a newbie, she and Wally were always at each other's throats, volatile insults thrown like catapults. Since the Bialya fiasco, something changed. The bickering still persists, yet there were flirtatious comebacks and glances between them in the rare moments when they're alone. Little moments grew into frequent tutorial sessions (hers Physics and his French), chilling at a coffee shop on cookies and matcha green tea latte and late night marathons where people have weird big eyes (or what Wally likes to call 'anime').
Artemis cherished them. They were the closest thing to family, even more so than her blood relatives. But after tonight, all of... whatever they have feels like a thousand miles away. That one mistake, that one small tracking device, caused a huge rift between her and the team.
After her last deep breath, she stopped and bowed. She paused. There was a slight noise. As she opened her eyelids, she found herself gazing into the awe-struck face of the one person who left her standing not too long ago. Not a word was uttered, pusillanimous of breaking the silence. They remained stagnant before he shook his head, frowned and walked away, leaving her once again bewildered and guilty.
The only barrier that's keeping her from them is her own family and the mistakes that came with them.