Title: The Quiet is Unnerving
Summary: Roy didn't like noise. It was different when you were about to die—then every little sound becomes music to your ears.
Genre: Friendship/Comfort/Angst
Pairing: Roy/Artemis
A/N: I really like this pairing. Whether it's friends, a hate-love relationship, romance, partnership, etc. I think they really do work out. I had a dream that Roy died and Artemis was there until the very end. I decided to write it into fic. I cried when I woke up and I just have to say that it was extremely hard trying to describe everything in my dream exactly the way I saw it. I wanted to evoke the same kind of emotion I felt out of you guys. So I tried my best to make this a fic that people would cry to. I honestly hope someone cries reading this. Enjoy :)
Roy glared.
At what?
He was glaring at the inevitable death he knew was soon to come.
He didn't look too deeply into the situation he was in at the moment; never even bothered to calculate his chances of survival.
Because it was obvious that his chances were slim. Slimmer than an arrow from his quiver.
He was going to die.
Roy accepted this the moment he decided to run for Robin's sake and take the stab for him.
It was stupid, running straight into that dagger. But he was an impulsive thinker. He didn't think about it and instead, forced himself to act.
If he hadn't done what he did, then Robin would be lying in a hospital bed right now. Batman would have his and the team's heads for that. It was ok, though. The team needed Robin. And if someone had to die, it should be someone who wasn't even a part of them.
When the tip of the dagger pierced his chest, he already knew death was coming for him. He could've been optimistic; say the wound wouldn't be that bad. But Roy just wasn't that kind of guy. According to his calculations, the amount of blood he lost was simple.
A lot.
Robin, if he lived from the stab wound on his shoulder, would forget about Roy in two or three years. He would mourn for him occasionally, but there were other things he'd need to focus on.
Kaldur would stop mourning in two years, but he'd never stop blaming himself for the death of his best friend.
M'gann would forget after a few months. She didn't really know him anyway. He was fine with it. He didn't like the idea of people crying over him.
He couldn't say much about Zatanna. He barely knew the girl.
Conner? Could the guy even cry? Why would he? They didn't know much about each other anyway.
Would Wally cry? No. Roy knew Wally (along with Kaldur and Robin) would attempt to avenge him in some way.
Oliver would have blamed himself too. If his guilt was strong enough, he'd probably give up being Green Arrow. Roy hoped to God he'd be wrong about this one.
His remaining family? Given some time, they'd get over it too.
—
Artemis sat alone in the kitchen, laying her arrows out on the counter. She groaned impatiently as she picked up another arrow to sharpen. She came to the cave anticipating another mission. She had been suffering from a withdrawal for the past few weeks. She hadn't participated in the last two missions. M'gann, Conner, and Kaldur were the only ones capable for the last mission and before that mission, Robin, Zatanna, and Kaldur were the only ones assigned.
She'd definitely missed out on a lot.
A mission was assigned to the team from Red Arrow and approved by Batman. They'd started off on the wrong foot, but slowly gained respect for each other. The mutual acknowledgement led to infrequent training sessions and patrolling sessions when Green Arrow was too busy.
That definitely did not mean she started liking him. He was still an asshole in her eyes and she hadn't gotten over the trauma of constantly being the center of all his threats just yet.
She was glad he'd brought a mission to them, however.
Until he offered to join the team for that particular mission.
Now she was stuck in the cave all by herself because Roy insisted that one archer was enough for the task at hand.
She vigorously sharpened the tip of another arrow and grumbled. Why couldn't I go? One more archer couldn't hurt, she thought. Maybe someone will die on this mission that they didn't ask ME to go on. She bitterly pursed her lips.
Then, smiling, she set an arrow down to begin on another one. It'd serve em' right.
—
At first, he felt nothing. Then, half a minute later, he felt an intense pain. It was like being scorched with scalding hot water; you couldn't get away from it no matter how much you struggled.
The pain was far greater than he anticipated. The throbbing from his wound dulled his senses. His sight was the first to fail him; his vision going blurry and dark. Then his sense of hearing left him. He could tell because the sound of his current opponent's scream, when Roy ran his last arrow through his chest, rang dully in his ears. Roy, himself, screamed afterwards.
He figured the sound that came out of his mouth had probably rivaled that of (what he called) Artemis' Siren cry. It was really a shame he couldn't hear himself at the moment.
In anger, the man holding the dagger removed it from Roy's chest and impaled him once more, in his stomach, and twisted it, viciously gritting his teeth. Roy let out a blood curdling scream, his head raised into the air. Then he looked back at the man, straight into his eyes and wryly smiled.
Roy removed the arrow and aimed it at the bastard's neck. "I don't wanna kill any assholes tonight, but I might as well since I'm almost there." He didn't hesitate to sputter blood at his face. He raised his arm in the air and planted the tip of the arrow into the "asshole's" shoulder, igniting a chilling scream before he pushed Roy to the ground, leaving his dagger behind as he made a run for it.
Roy shouted for Kaldur, knowing full well that he was probably fighting his own battle somewhere far off. Then he remembered M'gann's telepathic link and screamed as loud as he could in his head as well as out loud.
His cries for help didn't last as long as he'd wanted them to, but he was damn sure that they were the loudest sounds anyone would ever hear.
—
Artemis suddenly arose from the sleep she had fallen into when she had finished sharpening her arrows. She had a strange dream. All she could see in that dream was darkness—everywhere. The weird part was that she could hear the chilling cry of a man in agony. Over and over, he'd keep telling her that he was dying.
She was lost in her own thoughts, as she was unable to hear the sound of Zatanna's footsteps when she walked into the kitchen, nor did she hear the sound of the computer when she transported into the cave.
"Did you hear, Zee? Red Arrow and the others are on a mission that I was not asked to go on." Artemis folded her arms over her chest bitterly.
Zatanna only looked at her with a frown and creasing brows. Artemis sighed. "Are you worried about them? They're fine. Robin's great. M'gann's great. Conner, Wally and Kaldur are all great." Then she paused. "Red's gonna be fine too, I guess."
"I don't know, Artie." Zatanna said gravely. "I'm not getting good vibes about this one. "
"They'll be back in no time, Zee." Artemis insisted and grabbed her hand. "In the mean time, let's do something outrageously fun so when they get back, we can brag and they can get jealous."
—
I'm dying, he repeated silently over and over until Kaldur responded with increasing panic.Roy, please hold on. We are coming.
Wally was the next to answer. We'll get help, Roy. Just please hang on.
Roy could feel the blood pooling in his throat. He spat the blood out from his mouth and grimaced. Some people liked the iron flavor of blood. It was an entirely different taste when the blood was either being coughed up from your lungs or being vomited out of your stomach.
Robin was the first to arrive. He wincingly examined his wounds and tried to determine whether or not he could remove the weapon protruding from his chest without killing him instantly.
"Roy, I'm sorry I ignored your screams back there, I-I was,"
"The machine's off?" Roy's breathing became fast and short. Robin nodded and Roy closed his eyes, sighing with the corners of his lips slightly upturned. "Good. Take this thing out, Rob… It hurts like hell."
Robin shook his head, eyes averting in a direction away from Roy's face. "There's no guarantee that you'll live long enough to reach the hospital if I remove the dagger now. You'll bleed to death."
Roy attempted to snort and half failed. "At least it'd hurt a lot less, bleeding to death." He said with long pauses between several words.
"NO!"
Roy didn't need to look up to know who that had been. He'd known Wally long enough to remember his voice.
"Roy, be quiet!" he cried out, his voice cracking on the first and last words. It had taken Wally longer than usual to get there because his left leg had been severely burned. Roy could smell the rotting of his skin from where he laid.
Albeit limping from several stab wounds to his right thigh, Kaldur finally arrived. "It is time we contact the League." He said in a straining voice.
"What for?" Conner demanded, arriving last.
"Roy is dying and the rest of us are heavily injured. We cannot do anything that can help better this situation." Kaldur explained panting and grimacing between words.
"Miss Martian. Contact the Cave and inform Tornado of our predicament." Shortly after, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and his knees swayed, bringing himself to fall backwards onto the ground.
—
Artemis found herself tracing the team's symbols in the dust on the living room table. She outlined Wally's lightning bolt, then Kaldur's 'Aquaman' crest, Robin's stylized 'R,' M'gann's 'X,' Conner's 'S' shield—
She paused, knowing full well who was missing. Roy. He didn't have a symbol to go by. Despite her earlier distaste for him, she was just as worried about him as she was with the others. Without knowing it, she started to draw the image of his face the way she saw it in her head.
Maybe Zatanna's worrying was contagious. Artemis pulled the sleeves of her jacket down to her wrists and hastily wiped the coffee table clean from anymore dust.
"Zatanna, is the popcorn ready yet?" she called out, her eyes still glued to the table.
From the kitchen, Zatanna opened her mouth to reply, but instead of her voice, the sound of M'gann's unnerved one filled the entire cave. It was coming from the cave's computer in the rec room.
After failing to completely hear what she was saying, Artemis bolted upright and headed down the hallway with Zatanna to see to the commotion. They were met with Red Tornado, who directed them to stay put while the League handled the problems the team had encountered.
"Problems?" Artemis cried out. "What kind of problems are they that the League had to be called in?"
"We were called in for reasons concerning transportation." He answered. "I will inform you of further details later on. Do not leave the cave."
"Oh… transportation problems." Artemis sighed in relief, but Zatanna had a discomforting look on her face. "I'm not buying into that. Transportation problems? What else could they be trying to transport?"
"They'll be fine, Zee." Artemis said, holding onto her shoulder. "Tornado's going to spill all the details to us as soon as he can."
—-
Roy marveled at the great white wolf that was looking down at him and quickly lost consciousness thereafter.
—-
When the computer declared Red Tornado's entrance into the cave, Artemis and Zatanna left their seats on the couch, anticipating their teammate's arrival. "Where are they, Tornado?" Artemis raised her brows and began looking around.
"They are not planned to return from the hospital until they recover from their injuries." He replied. Their eyes widened. "They're hurt?" Zatanna gasped, her brows wrinkling.
"You said you'd update us on the details!" Artemis complained. Red Tornado nodded. "Yes; and I have come here to inform the both of you that we will be visiting the hospital right now."
—-
Artemis caught a glimpse of Wally in his own hospital room. His costume had been replaced with patient's apparel and his leg had been elevated. From what she could see through the window, there were many painful looking burns. His parents, a young blonde-haired man and a red-haired woman she assumed to be the blonde's wife, were there.
She wiped away the tear that had formed in her right eye and moved on. She would visit Wally at a later time.
Artemis found Robin's room, but that section of the hospital was restricted. No one besides hospital officials were allowed to enter. At first, curiosity struck her. Then she caught herself and prayed for her teammate to be ok.
She proceeded onwards to the next section of the hospital and found Zatanna in Kaldur's room. "Kaldur!" Artemis spoke in a soft, relieved voice. Kaldur tried not to look at the tears clinging to the corners of her eyes as she reached over to embrace him.
"We're glad you're ok, Kaldur." Zatanna said, with a smile and then turned to Artemis. "I tried looking for Robin's room, but it's restricted. I ran into M'gann and Conner on the way to Wally's room and they don't have any serious injuries."
Artemis shifted her attention to Kaldur. "What happened to you?" she asked, her brows knitting. Kaldur shook his head. "I only sustained minor wounds to my right leg. I am fine. It is Roy that I am most worried about." He exclaimed, sitting upright in his bed. "But I cannot leave this room yet. Will either of you check on him?"
"I'll do it." Artemis volunteered. "Green Arrow might already be with him. I need to see if he's coping okay with Roy's injuries." She hugged the team leader once more and walked off.
Down the hall she caught a glimpse of two familiar figures. When she was close enough to make out who it was, she quickened her pace. "Conner, M'gann!" she gasped and quickly scanned the former up and down.
"Conner, what—why aren't they treating you? You're covered in blood!"
"It isn't my blood." He answered with a grim expression. "It's Red's blood. I carried him onto the bioship." he added and looked away, disappointed.
M'gann pitifully put a hand on the archer's shoulder and said nothing until Artemis realized who he had been talking about. At first, she was confused. Red?
Then she mentally hit herself for not realizing sooner. Red Arrow. She felt her heart tremble in dreadful anticipation. "W-Where is he now?" she asked, lips shuddering. M'gann pointed down the hall. "It's the fourth door down from here; on the right."
M'gann then proceeded to apologize for being incompetence in saving Roy's life, but Artemis had already started to make her way to his room.
Before she even reached the doorway, she heard tired voices. She distanced herself from the doorway and listened intently.
"We've managed to stop the bleeding but we can't suppress the internal bleeding in his stomach and his right lung. Too much time has already passed. His wounds are beyond repair." She heard a woman say.
Then, Artemis hears a familiar voice. "Will he recover, doctor?"
"I am being honest, sir. The chances are slim." She felt her heart tremble again at that statement. Then she could hear a long, exhausting sigh. After a moment's pause, she hears the familiar voice again. "Thank you, doctor."
Artemis backed away from the door and pretended like she hadn't been eavesdropping. The doctor walked out into the hallway, indifferent to Artemis' presence. Then a blond man with a beard and moustache walked out in a slow pace.
"Artemis!" he took a step back.
She was shocked that this man knew her name. Then she realized from the sound of his voice and the familiarity of his beard that he was her mentor.
Green Arrow had seen her in civvies a few times previously, but she'd never seen him without the green uniform and mask before.
"Arrow." She whispered in the softest voice she could. "H-how's Roy?" she hated the crack in her voice at the mention of his name. What she hated even more was the fact that she had asked how Roy was doing when she already knew full well what his condition was.
Oliver's eyes were a darker shade. The glint that was usually there was now a dark speck and in a low voice, he said, "I think you should go in and take a look for yourself. I need to have a talk with Batman right now, Artemis." He placed one hand on her head and patted her shoulder with his other before walking away.
She held her breath before entering the room and immediately exhaled upon the sight of Roy lying helpless on the bed.
Roy looked up at the sound of footsteps. He had hoped it was another nurse—a beautiful one, because at this point, he just needed something nice to look at. He wasn't too keen on having anyone poke and prod around his insides anymore.
He sighed at first. Then he smiled at her. She was no beautiful nurse, but at least she was half of that. "Hey, replacement." He croaked raising his right hand slightly off his bed to wave.
Artemis on shook her head, her breathing becoming hard. "I'm…not your replacement." He knew where she was staring. His shirt was off and his wounds exposed.
"Gross, huh?"
She paused, subtly sucking her cheeks in and then answered. "No." she lied. She was sick to her stomach at the sight, the smell of the lesion in his torso. "Shouldn't you be visiting your teammates?" he sighed groggily and relaxed his neck, leaning back onto his pillow.
"I did."
She explained how she wanted to allow some alone time for Wally's family and how Robin's section of the hospital was restricted from visitors. She then talked about how Kaldur was injured, but still conscious and that M'gann and Conner were both injury free. "I thought you'd want some company." She mumbled under her breath.
"Coming from the ice queen herself? Thanks. I actually ne—" he stopped midsentence to a fit of coughing. Blood stained the corners of his mouth. Artemis awkwardly pulled a tissue from the tissue dispenser near his bed and hesitatingly wiped the blood from his lips. He smiled, gratefully.
"Thanks, Artemis. Sorry. You can leave now. I'm going to be a sack of skin and bones in half an hour or so." He shrugged, fighting the sudden heaviness of his eyelids.
Artemis scowled, trying to control the urge to cry. "You're saying that like it's going to happen." She put a hand over his and held it, hoping that would transfer some of her time onto him—or at least some of her will to live.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Roy. There are no archers who're accurate enough to guess the future."
"I'm getting there." He joked meekly. Artemis frowned, creasing her eyebrows in discomfort. She called his name in a reprimanding tone, loud enough to be considered scolding, but gentle enough to be a little over the volume of a whisper.
Roy ignored her cries. "My accuracy level is enough to guess your future correctly." He cringed when he raised his left arm in the air and attempted to gesture his hand casually. "In twenty minutes, you're going to walk out of here and cry a little—or a lot. I don't really know if you're that type of girl yet."
He ignored the sudden tightness of her grip on his hand. "You're going to find Green Arrow and he's going to try his best to comfort you. The two of you will mourn over me—and here's a secret: his name's Oliver Queen. It isn't fair that only one protégé knows his real name. I'm surprised he hasn't told you yet. I mean, he knows your identity, so you should know his too."
"You're wrong…" She mumbled.
He ignored her and coughed again before continuing.
"The team will mourn over me—half of them, at least. Kaldur's going to blame himself for my death, no doubt—Comfort him for me, won't you—? You'll grow old together and probably continue fighting crime as new members of the League. One day, you'll fix those family problems you told me about. You're beautiful; dating would be easy for you, then you'll get your heart broken, date again; someone's gonna realize one day that they'll want to wake up next to you every morning. You'll get married maybe, retire from the crime fighting, have kids, help them grow old, enjoy your last days…Die." He shrugged a shoulder.
"I could be completely wrong—I won't really find out." Roy said, after she didn't say anything.
Her heart shuddered again. She hadn't felt like that since her sister abandoned her. She could feel her chest trembling and her shoulders shaking. "It's bad to suppress your sobs." Roy mumbled, not looking at her. "I can feel you shaking, Artemis."
With that being said, she let out a loud weeping sound that she had been holding in since listening in on the doctor and Oliver. She cried for the boy she didn't really start off liking. She cried for the person that she didn't really know. She cried for his willingness to submit to the death that would befall him.
Artemis held his hand tightly and pulled it up to her cheek. His hand was rough. It sent shivers down to the back of her neck. "Roy, I love you. Remember that, ok?" she hated how her voice broke in the middle of each word. She was trying to sound serious.
"This isn't a declaration of your love for me, is it?" Roy asked, smiling weakly. Artemis laughed through her tears at his attempt to look cheeky. "I think you know what I mean." She sniffled.
"I know, I love you too." His voice split into two. One was his regular voice, though it was faint. The other was more prominent, and it was a voice reminiscent of hopelessness. He was dying—he sounded like it—and it made Artemis bitter.
She held him in her arms. Roy wrapped his right arm around her waist; too weak to lift his other arm. They stayed like that for a good seven minutes. Roy stroked her back in consolation whenever he could feel her sobbing again.
When she wasn't busy catching her breath between fits of sobbing, she took the time to memorize his scent. Beyond the traces of blood and sweat, she could smell a slight woodsy aroma. She memorized the feel of his arm around her waist and the warmth of his body beneath her hands. When they were both completely still, she could actually feel his faint heartbeat.
Roy broke the embrace and leaned backwards onto his pillow again. Smiling he requested something from her.
—-
She was dressed in black and stood next to Oliver. She usually preferred pants over dresses, but she had joked to him before he passed on that she'd wear a dress to his funeral. Roy replied that he would have liked to see that.
She wondered if she looked as depressing as she felt.
She looked over and saw Kaldur staring hard at the ground. This was the first time she'd witness it; she'd never seen the leader shed a tear before.
She had only seen Wally cry once when he thought that she had drowned and died during one mission. She had fallen of a cliff and into a river and never surfaced. He found her a couple of hundred feet down the river and was so relieved, he had actually cried.
She'd seen M'gann cry more than thrice. A few times was because of frustration, many times during romance movies, and other times over her teammate's serious injuries. It was no surprise she had cried a little at this funeral.
Conner didn't cry, but he looked upset. Zatanna shed a few tears for the person she rarely knew.
Robin hadn't spoken a word since the service began. She had never seen him look so conflicted before.
She hated how hard she was crying and how Black Canary suddenly appeared next to her and started to rub her back. She didn't need any consoling. She needed for this to be a joke. She half expected him to appear somewhere high, like a tree or the roof a building, and show everyone up. Tell everyone, "This is what you get for treating me like a goddamn sidekick." She wanted him to be feigning his own death just to piss the adults off because he was the type of hot-head who'd do that if prompted.
She knew that wasn't gonna happen. She was there when he passed on.
It wasn't a dramatic death. It was actually a quiet, normal death—almost like he had died of old age. He didn't say anything with his last breath. He just died. After their hug, Roy jokingly requested for her to continue talking. "I'm dying for a little sound." He said. "The quiet is unnerving."
Taken aback, she opened her mouth to talk. It was weird because Roy would unintentionally make her shut up with just a look of his eyes. That was back when she didn't know him at all.
The first thing she talked about was how dysfunctional her family was. Then she went on and on about the development of her relationship with Wally and how it ended up with them casually dating. She talked about how childish Green Arrow could be at times and then she talked about her fight with Harm and how hot she used to think Conner was and that she admired Roy—back when he was Speedy whenever she saw him fighting crime with Green Arrow on tv.
She even talked about her reason for not cutting her hair and how she takes care of it; she talked and talked, all the while, holding his hand. She rambled on for fifteen minutes before she finally accepted that he was no longer breathing. She suspected he had died about two minutes after his request, but she refused to accept it until she could feel his hand turn to ice. After that, she stumbled out of the room, overwhelmed and breathing heavily.
The doctor from earlier was there. This time, she took notice of her. "Are you feeling well?" she asked in a concerned voice. Artemis only answered with three words. "He was right.." The doctor rushed into the room. The only difference she saw was that the falling and rising of his chest had ceased and the sheets were tear-stained.
Artemis ran. She ran past her mentor who called out to her. She had heard him sniffling as quietly as he could, but she ignored it and continued on. She ran past Kaldur's room, past the restricted area, past Wally's room. She ran past M'gann who had tried to stop her and console her. She ran until she reached a grassy little park and she slumped onto the seat of a swing. The park was empty because it was already dark outside.
She sat there and sobbed silently for the friend that was gone as soon as their friendship had bloomed. She cried knowing that she'd thought badly of him and now he was gone. She cried at having just experienced a special bond with the archer and knew that they wouldn't be having those moments again.
Artemis knew she'd never see his serious face—or his rare, gentle faces—anymore. She'd never hear him make another infrequent joke. He'd never call her beautiful ever again because the sad reality of it all was that Roy Harper was dead.
And he had died with a new friend beside him.