A/N: Shorter. I actually wrote this on a store floor yesterday while my little sister was shopping. One of the weirdest places I've ever written.
Disclaimer: I don't own.
The Sacrifice
"Why would you do this?" she hissed through gritted teeth, eyes set on her father's form as he stood ready to strike. He'd called her and said he wanted to meet to talk, but the offer of going to the Shadows for pay had brought out their tools of the trade. Her bow, his dagger. "Can't you just let me go? I'm out now, you let me-"
"I didn't let you go, Artemis." His eyes, through the mask, are glaring the fiercest possible shade of blue. He kept his stance solid, unwavering. Lawrence Crock would never let her go. "You were always still under my wing whether you knew it or not. The bow is proof of that."
The weapon she held and the arrow nocked in it suddenly felt incredibly heavy. She had been carrying it for most of her life and painted it for her heroine role to escape her father's shadow, but it had always been the one her daddy has given her. Adjustments were made. Restrung every single time. Her bow was her life.
Artemis hardened herself against him, putting up her defenses. She made sure to keep the string pulled taut, ready to finish the job if he dared make a move. "You left m- us alone. You abandoned your family as soon as Mom came home."
"Your mother is tainted." Although she couldn't see it, his jaw tightened. "She doesn't believe in my ways anymore. Not like you do." Because she knew what he'd done in prison.
"I don't believe in your ways anymore." At fifteen, she was aware of who her father was, what he did, and how many people he'd killed. There was a string of tally marks etched into the wall by the fridge; Artemis was planning on covering it up just like she tried to do with everything else, wiping away any evidence of the past.
A low chuckle came from her father. His stance now dropped, the dagger sliding back into a sheathe. And he took a step closer to his baby girl. "You think changing the uniform and sides changes who you are? Artemis, you're in over your head."
"You've paid them back," she hissed, fingers quivering as they held the bowstring back and kept the arrow in its place. "Jade joined the Shadows. That's enough. You trained me, but the debt is done, it's over."
Sportscaster had expected this to be clean. The retaliation his daughter was displaying was... unsettling. Maybe she'd finally grown a spine. "Artemis, she joined willingly. The Shadows still expect an assassin trained by me and brought in according to the agreement."
"You're out of prison now. Ra's deserves nothing. The deal was-"
"The deal," he sneered, "was for me. As much as I love you, baby, your mother was never part of the agreement. I was the only one who was going to get out in that raid."
Now her lower lip was quivering.
"Your mother would have gotten in the way of my training Jade." Then his voice went soft. His words sounded smooth like honey. "And Artemis, I know you won't believe me, but I was trying to spare you. I know your childhood was hard without your mother-"
"Hard?" she spat like it was poison rolling off her tongue. "I don't know a simple nursery rhyme. I fell asleep to gunfire. Jade mac and cheese was my birthday dinner every year because we didn't know how to make much else. You have the gall to say my childhood was hard and that you were trying to spare me?" She was a fierce tiger now, ready to kill at the memories of her miserable life under his roof. "Look at me now, Daddy dearest. Was this the plan? Did I turn out the way you wanted me to?"
He never shied away from her accusations, knowing all of them were true. "Artemis, the deal was for the Shadows to break me out in exchange for one of you two to grow up and work for them. I chose Jade because I wanted to keep you from going through that. Breaking your mother out meant both of you."
She was shaking now. Hatred. Anger. Heartbreak. She felt it fresh in her chest.
"I saved you and sacrificed your sister." He had hated every moment of it, but he'd done it to keep his entire family from being killed. "And if Jade hadn't run away, you'd be going to school like a normal girl right now." Lawrence took a few steps forward, watching his daughter's tool drop to the floor. When he saw her give up altogether, her face fallen and her shoulders drooping in surrender, Crock stepped in to wrap his arms around his favorite daughter. "Even though you probably won't believe me, I do love you, Artemis. And I did try to save you from this life."
A/N: This feels really short. But this was what I wanted to get out.
Review?
~Sky
