"Where is Artemis?" asked a gruff voice. It was Batman's voice. He stood in front of the tired teenagers he had named as Young Justice.

Their leader, the Atlantean, stepped forward. "She was too weak to continue with the mission. She went home," said Aqualad.

Batman narrowed his eyes. "How do you know she went home?"

M'gann raised her hand a little bit. "She told me. I asked her if I needed to take her back and she said she could get there herself."

"I highly doubt that. If she couldn't keep moving with the group, how she could get herself all the way back to her home? Especially when it is on the opposite side of the United States."

The group of teens was silent as they thought over the words of the Dark Knight. It slowly dawned on them that Batman was right, that whatever happened to Artemis, she couldn't possibly have gone home. "Maybe," Robin said, "she found a place to stay." But that was just hoping, saying what he knew didn't happen out loud. Batman never said anything, only standing there with a grim face, almost a silhouette with the giant screen's light behind him.

M'gann tried not to cry. "But she said that she was okay..." Conner put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Aqualad glanced around at the group, a determined look on his face. "We will go back and look around for her."

"Will you?" There was a hint of pensiveness in the Dark Knight's voice.

"With your permission, of course, sir."

There was a moment of complete silence as everyone watched the still, dark form of the dark knight. "Fine," said he. "You will only go there to retrieve her and nothing else. If she is not there, and if a quick search does not reveal her whereabouts, you will pull out and come back to Mount Justice."

"Yes sir," said the team in unison.

It was the stench that first caught her off guard. A smell she could hardly try to forget. It was, she realized, hard to put into words, but something worse than anything before, like rotting things and foul smelling garbage, and all manners of nastiness mixed into one. The worse part was that it grew the farther she was dragged.

Artemis couldn't see in the darkness, not that it made much of a difference. Her legs were becoming numb and her vision had never really cleared up.

The two guards dropped her off at a large doorway at the end of a dim hall and left her there. She wasn't sure of their motives, but she sure as hell wasn't going to let the small window of opportunity to escape disappear. Artemis Crock sat quietly, gathering her strength, for a moment an then began to push herself up to her knees.

She searched in the darkness for a handhold or something to pull her the rest of the way up, but what her hands met with was not anything of much use for standing. In fact, what her hands had brushed was grotesque at best. The blonde silently begged that it wasn't what she thought it surly must be.

Holding her breath, the teen blinked hard, waiting for her vision to clear up, and turned pushed on the dark form. It fell from its position against the wall and landed with a thud next to a very startled Artemis. The girl blanched, nearly gagging. No, she thought. It can't be...

But it was.

Artemis covered her face with one arm and used the other to turn the small body over. It was a young boy, one she found to resemble Robin by quite a bit. She choked back a yelp and backed away, running into another something soft. She turned fast and stared at another one, another lifeless body. This time she screamed. She was surrounded.

She got to her feet, a bit wobbly, and backed up towards the wall. She hit something, someone maybe.

"I see you like my decorations," that someone said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Artemis couldn't decide whether or not to be happy that she found another living being. She was, for once, speechless. She turned around to face a seemingly normal looking man. He smirked.

"So you must be Artemis." He waited for her to say something, almost knowing her need to say anything, but when she was silent, the man continued. "I am the Puppeteer. And these," he spread his hands at the carnage around him, "are my puppets."

Artemis squinted, looking around the dark room that she had stumbled into. There were more than just two... there had to be hundreds..."That is sick."

"That," said the Puppeteer, "is life. Or death... Whatever way you want look at it."

Artemis tried to move away from him, but the seemingly innocent hand on her shoulder tightened. The blonde closed her eyes. "You can't do this. It isn't right."

"Sometimes, the path to what is right must be found through means that should be left untold." He let go of Artemis, giving her a slight push forward and causing her to fall. "My puppets shall help to carve that path."

"You killed them," Artemis said, eyes watering as she tried to push herself up. "That can't possibly be considered good."

"Ah, but everybody dies eventually." He put his foot on her back and pushed until she fell back down. "I am only speeding up the process. Think of it as," he scratched his chin, "putting them out of their misery."

"What," Artemis asked, "do you want with me?"

"I don't exactly want you," he said, his voice smooth. The Puppeteer shrugged. "Not just you, although you can prove useful." He gave a quick kick to her side and she rolled over. The Puppeteer looked right into her eyes. "I want everyone."

"Why?"

"Why not?" he asked, searching her face. "Why not use the perfect team? One that follows every order and never dies."

"Because you can't."

"I can't?" He laughed. "I can't? Who gave you the right to decide what I can or cannot do? I could do anything." The Puppeteer leaned closer to her. "I can do anything." He stood for a moment, staring at the teen and then he whirled around. The guards from earlier were standing at the door. "Keep a look out for her team. They should come looking for her very soon." He glanced at Artemis. "Lead them in the right direction and then send for backup. I will send someone to retrieve them."

"Yes sir."

"Sure thing, boss."

They left, the guards, and then Artemis was alone with the mad man and his puppets. "I'll cut you a deal, little girl. You take part of my plan," said the Puppeteer, "and I'll let you live. I know your father and he will be glad to see that his daughter is playing the right game." Artemis kept her eyes squeezed shut and refused to answer. Of course she wasn't betraying her friends. The man crouched down and leaned in close, his lips so near to her ear that she thought he would try to bite it off. She wouldn't put it past him. "You'd be a fool not to take this deal, my friend!"

"I'd rather be a fool," Artemis hissed finally.

"Oh, wouldn't you?" And after no reply, he shrugged. "I don't plan to use you as a puppet yet... But that red-headed boy would make a wonderful slave." The Puppeteer stood. "Just think about how wonderful it would be to see him end that uncle of his. The great Flash wouldn't even know what hit him."

"No."

"No?"

"You wouldn't," Artemis said, venom in her voice.

"But you don't know that. Nobody knows that... And that is why I am still alive." He turned to leave. "Because nobody knows what I'll do."


It had been oddly quiet in the bioship on the way to Los Angeles, the place where they had last seen their seemingly missing teammate. Of course, now that they had tried all means of contact with her and Robin had checked hotels, stores, hospitals, and other places in the area, coming up without anything, she could be considered missing. After checking, Robin sent out an alert to the police to search for the blonde teenager without raising suspicion or alerting the local news.

No one talked unless necessary. For people like Wally West, that was terrible.

Once they arrived, M'gann led everyone to where Artemis had been during the conversation. What they found did not lighten their hearts.

Sitting crooked on the side of the road, the front hanging off the shoulder, was a scratched up minivan. The front of it had a human sized dent and dark stains, and the front tire was completely deflated. M'gann couldn't take it and went back to the ship, along with Superboy who thought she shouldn't be alone. Kaldur decided it was best not to show her, or Conner, the arrows he found or the broken part of a bow that Wally had picked up farther down the road.

Robin had never gotten near the crash and was instead looking around from a perch in the middle of the road. "They can't have gotten far, whoever did this."

"What if they had a ride waiting and abandoned the van?" Wally asked, still examining the bow.

"They didn't." He jumped down from the railing in the median and started walking toward the van. "If they had a getaway driver, they wouldn't have dragged her off."

Kaldur followed Robin's gaze. There was a trail of blood and footprints leading off the road. "How do we know this was Artemis that they hit?"

"The bow and arrows should be proof enough."

"Yes," said Kaldur, agreeing with the Boy Wonder. "But if it is a trap?"

"We can't risk losing a teammate by being overly cautious. But if it makes you feel any better, we can be ready for one," Robin followed the trail off of the road and into a littered field. "This way."

The bioship landed in the middle of the field. Kaldur guessed that Robin had already sent word that they were moving up. "Robin, can you track them from the air or would it be better if we followed and you took the ground?"

"The ground. Don't worry, I won't get seen."

"That's not what I'm worried about," the Atlantean said softly.