In the early hours of the morning Artemis stumbled home in her hero garb, still reeling from Red Arrow's threat- and yes it was a threat. No- they did not know each other, and yes, she considered the threat to be dangerous and real, as real as a flashing sign hanging in her brain with a warning sign and 'THREAT' in big bold letters.
So by the time she gets to her place she's exhausted, annoyed and conflicted.
"How was the mission, Artemis?" Paula Crock asked when she heard the front door open, signalling the return of her youngest child. Artemis stormed in with a look of shock and misery on her face. Paula didn't think it was that bad, surely it went fine, right?
"Fine." She gritted out through her teeth, unwilling to lie to her mother about some things.
"What happened?" Paula asked, knowing that everything wasn't 'fine' as she claimed it to be. "And don't you dare say nothing, because you look like hell." The older lady snapped, eyeing the look on her daughter's face.
"Thanks, mum. I'm sure every girl wants to be told that by her own mother." Artemis spat out, her heart not in the small insult. Paula just gave Artemis a look of warning and narrowed her eyes at her.
Artemis crumbled; she slumped onto the couch and hung her head. Out of exhaustion, pain, frustration and most of all, guilt. Her mind was having a one sided argument about whether she should spill the beans to her mum, if she did there would be a chance she would get the 'I am so disappointed in you' look, or she would be fine and nothing would change between them.
"You remember when you went to prison? And when you came back dad wouldn't tell you anything about what we had done." She started, looking down at her clasped hands. "Jade left, you know that, she ran away when I was nine. But then when I was ten dad brought me along to one of his jobs."
The audible gasp could be heard, and the blonde pushed it further back into her mind, willing herself not to look up at her mother's face, for she knew there would be anger, hurt, confusion, betrayal.
"The man had a kid." She chocked, unable to keep the tears out as she had done for the past five years, "Oh god mum, I killed someone and their kid had to watch."
Her sobs rattled her body, her lungs shaking against her rib cage and she didn't even notice the strong pair of arms wrapped around her like a blanket. It brought back memories, when they were a happy family, it wasn't perfect- it never was- but it was their family.
Her tears flowed harder, like a waterfall that had been silenced for millions of years and had just been pulled free. Paula rubbed circles delicately on her back and arms, her heart shattering from the pain and guilt Artemis had been holding for all these years, and it was times like these that she wished she hadn't taken the fall, that Lawrence had done it and she would be free to go.
Artemis knew her mum was waiting for the rest of the details so she continued as she hiccupped through her words, "He's in the team." She gasped out, "The kid that watched me kill his dad, he's in the team. Mum, what am I supposed to do? He could find out, they could all find out." Artemis sobbed; her mind conflicted about the next plan of action.
"Then don't tell them…yet." Paula said soothingly, "Wait until you know that telling them is for the better."
"Mum, I saw Jade." She said, pulling away from the embrace and holding her mum with arm's distance and immediately her look changed from mother of steel to a hopeful, sad and confused look. "She's with the Shadows." Artemis said before her mum could get any false hope, which would be the worst thing to do to her at this point in time.
"She's what?" Paula said angrily, nostrils flaring and her grip notably tightening on Artemis, who had been taught to tolerate pain, but still internally winced at the tight grip her mother had kept for all those years locked up in prison.
"Cheshire, that's what she's going by now. I- we intercepted her on the mission. She was sent to assassinate the person we were protecting. I-I wasn't sure it was her at first, her voice was muffled by the mask and then when I chased her out onto the street I knocked her mask off and it was her. Jade. She left to join the shadows." Artemis hissed out the last past, getting over her tears and putting on a hard look.
When truthfully, she didn't know how to fell about her sister. She didn't know whether to hate her, shout at her, cry about her, love her or just ignore her. It was a weird relationship they had, if you could call it one.
She was sure her sister wasn't out to get her as she seemed to be, but then again, Jade was always the mysterious one, the one that her dad compared her to, it was her fault she was dragged into the life at an early age, and it was because of her she got out of it soon after.
Paula just stared at her with mourning, as if she had lost a child, "Go to bed, Artemis." She said, smoothing out her ponytail, "You look tired."
"Okay." She whispers back, giving her mum one last hug before pushing herself up off the couch and towards her room. Falling to the bed with a sad sigh, she wiped the last of her tears with the blankets cocooned around her.
The only thought going through her head, What have I done?
...
"Argh!"
A scream rips from his throat violently as he pushes himself up into a sitting position. Deep breaths are taken as he tries to calm his heart beat, he already knew that Uncle Barry was away on a mission and Aunt Iris would be staying late at the office, so there was no one there to comfort him.
He buried his face back into the pillow and screamed. They had just been introduced to their newest member of the Team, Artemis. A blonde, annoying, harpy, archer, who happened to be niece of Green Arrow. Seriously how many people in his family had the ability to use arrows?
At least she wasn't called Blond Arrow or something, unlike Roy who chose the name Red Arrow. Seriously original. But honestly when he saw Roy come in it was like being slapped in the face by family. He had left them, abandoned them and gone off to do his own thing. Desperately trying to prove to the League and to Green Arrow that he was strong on his own, and now that he is better than any replacement that he could find.
Pressing the contact he had been searching to find on his phone he pressed the device to his ear. Five rings later the recipient on the other end picked up, "What do you want, Wally?"
"Hey, I thought you were busy, but okay- since your not I just need someone to talk to. Uncle B's on a mission with the League, and Aunt Iris is still at the office." He chuckled awkwardly.
"You had the nightmare again?"
"Yeah." Wally sighed dejectedly, getting up and moving to the corner of the room that held his supply of his energy bars. "I just fell like it's trying to tell me something, ya know? Something's going to happen… something big."
"And if it were trying to tell you something big for the past years of your life you've definitely missed the signs." Robin said through the phone. Wally could hear the rushing of wind, so he presumed Dick was playing in his playground again. But he couldn't move the though from his head, he knew something had happened, the dreams were becoming more vivid, more imaginative, every time it ends with that tiger girl killing his dad a different way.
"It's not just that, it's also the new girl and Roy. There's a connection. I just don't know how to find it."
"It's called paranoia." Robin sighed, "Look- Batman is telling me to get back to patrol. I've got to go, but if it really bothers you then I'll have a look into her past. No guarantee that there's anything to find."
"Thanks, Dick, and why did you answer this phone if you were on patrol with man-bat?" He asked with a mouth full of food, crumbs slaying all over his face.
"Names, this is my Robin phone. Geez, if you keep letting it slip out I'm going to have to wipe it from your mind. But I knew you would call, you always call. What kind of best friend would I be if I didn't pick up?" The bird cackled on the other end before hanging up. Leaving a slightly more relaxed and worried, he had his friend backing him and slightly more worried about his mind and when the bird could strike.
And he can't help but go over the details of the evening once again. New girl- Artemis- he hated her. Mission- went pretty well for what the Team were known for. And Roy was now a stuck up Arrowhead, who pranced around Star City (way to get away from Speedy) and went by Red Arrow now. Not original.
And then there was Robin's comment to their new member, "Another niece?"
It wasn't just a playful comment, he would know. Robin and he had spent years as best friends, and as much as Dick would hate to admit it Wally really knew him, not the hero, not the ward to Bruce Wayne that the public sees, he knows Richard Grayson.
So what did he mean by 'another niece'?
Thinking of their exploration in the Tower of Fake, he remembered the charming man he had met. Kent Nelson, probably knew Jay Garrick while he was the Flash. Kent Nelson, he decided was someone that he would have liked, if he hadn't left this Earth. But the words lingered with him, 'Find your own little spitfire, one that won't let you get away with nothing. Like…'
Who did Kent mean? The only other person he had met was Artemis, and that was so out of the question. It wasn't even something to joke about, and after he had been pulled to a stairwell dimension with her he decided that yes, she was out to ruin his life.
But he noticed insecurity in her eyes; something that had been locked up for years was resurfacing. And he'd rather be tied up to a pole and battle the winds before he admitted that he was worrying about Artemis. Apart from her family, who could? She was harsh, mean, cold, sarcastic, annoying and most of all intolerable.
Putting all the rampant thoughts in his mind to rest counted laps around the world, and dozed off into a dark sleep.
...
Robin was typing, it was currently seven in the morning and he was due to be up at breakfast in half an hour, he was searching through all of Batman's files; all of his database had been narrowed down to Gotham documents, which proved his theory. Artemis was not Green Arrow's niece.
Fingers flying across the keyboard he searched for Artemis, any encryptions of the name or aliases she could have had. He knew Batman knew about her secret identity, how could he not, but he also knew that if she didn't want to tell them she had something to hide.
Not that he did- he was under orders from Batman, but Green Arrow had never had a problem with Roy telling everyone who he was. Something was fishy- not taking an aim at Kaldur. But he knew from the moment she was introduced as the niece something wasn't right.
Batman called it 'gut feeling', whilst he called it brainy intuition.
Three.
He had bypassed the newest security updates.
Two.
The file was being unencrypted.
One.
Loading…
There.
He widened his eyes, and his mouth went slack.
There was no way that it was possible.
No way in hell.
Then a ghostly presence was felt behind him, and he cringed. Turning around to face Batman, with no cowl. Bruce didn't look very happy, in fact, he looked extremely pissed. Giving Dick the glare that could make criminals run to their parents he turned the computer off, knowing that Robin had read everything on the file.
"Robin." Dick flinched on the inside. "What are you doing?"
Looking around pointedly and smiling lightly, "Research on the newbie."
"And what did you find?"
"Eh, something here, something there, a little bit of everything. But tell me Bruce, why the hell did you invite a killer on the team?" He shouted, his face contorted into a 'are you kidding me' look. "And what's worse is that you know that she killed Wally's dad. Wally's dad. The same guy who had been having nightmares about the incident since it happened."
"Artemis had been trained by her father since birth- that makes her an asset. She has spent three weeks cleaning up around the northern border of Gotham. She is the vigilante we have had no luck tracking down, and her past actions will not define her now. Do you understand?" Batman said, his voice unwavering to the bypasser's ears, but to Robin he could literally hear the plea uttered in there. Please, don't tell him.
"I understand."
You so owe me.
"Good. Alfred has cookies upstairs for you, you know- if you want it." Bruce smiled, moulding himself into the father figure he had to portray for his young ward. Dick just laughed, not a Robin cackle, but a childish laugh that echoed around the massive cave, and ran up the stairs into the manor.
Bruce just smiled after him, shaking his head and turning to the cave to undo what had been done to his beloved computer.
...
A/N: Here is the first official chapter of the story! Review what you think and thank you to everyone that has reviewed, favourited, followed and read this. I really do appreciate it, and the next chapter will be hitting the site in two weeks :)
-The Missing X
