.
They were the last. The only ones left. Folly, Narnia, Sonic, Blade… and now Mimic. Gonegonegonegone. All gone. Artemis slid down the wall clutching her open cell phone in her hand, tears streaming down her face. Cheshire and she, all that's left. All that's left. Nothing left for her. Her sobs caught harsh in her throat as she stared at the ceiling, her body was limp, there was no force left in her. She was a walking corpse, the living dead waiting to be returned to her casket.

A harder sob shook her body, casket? HA! They didn't get caskets they got shallow graves, if their bodies were found at all. A slit throat in the night. The crackle of bone beneath those THINGS teeth. That was all that waited for her. No love. No redemption. She was a failed experiment, she should not have lived this long.

Life. It should not belong to her. She shouldn't be alive. She glanced down at her upturned wrist. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven X's; seven times she had died, she was down to two. Two lives left. She could take them herself. Two knives to the heart… but then Jade, Jade would be all alone. All alone, and lost in the shadows, that awful grinning mask hiding her tears. Yet death was inevitable. For everyone. The Justice League would die, Young Justice would take their place, and the new sidekicks after that. Her mother would die. Sportsmaster would die. No one could escape death. Everything belonged to death. Everything would return to death, as a child returns to its mother, nursing hurts and wounds; death would not heal her, life could not heal her; but love had dressed her wounds for a time, and could perhaps again. NO, she didn't want that pain! Not for herself. Not for whoever was foolish enough to fall in love with her.

"You live your life, eyes open and heart closed." Blade had told her that once.

"Eyes open I can't be fooled, heart closed I can't be hurt." Had been her response, he had chuckled at that and kissed her fiercely.

"Keep telling yourself that." Her fingers rose to her lips, feeling his lingering. Blue eyes reopened, hoping to catch a last glimpse.

"I'm sorry Blade. I couldn't go back. I couldn't fine you. I couldn't bury you. Maybe you were still alive. Just barely? Hanging to life by a thread? Waiting for one of us?" but that wasn't possible and she knew it. Mimic had said it, how long ago? A day a week? She didn't know.

"OHK, we've got one shot." OHK, one hit kill. One chance to get away and Blade was dead, Mimic was dead, Sonic and Narnia and Folly deaddeaddead, gonegonegone.

"We've only got one shot haven't we?" She asked to nonresponsive darkness, "One shot and that's it. We could just up and die one day, no fanfare, no hullabaloo. Just darkness. Just silence." She wiped away the tears that still clung to her face. "One shot."