Author Notes: This is the fourth chapter. As promised, it's about Artemis. It was really interesting to talk about her mask and her crimefighting days even though she's not on the Team anymore. Just to clarify, this chapter is set before Depths, that's why there isn't any real mention of her mission with Kaldur and all that. I hope you enjoy and please review.
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice. It belongs to DC Comics and Cartoon Network.
Chapter 4: Artemis
Artemis had two masks.
One was tangible. One was more abstract.
The first was her physical mask.
Bright green. Covering her whole face without really hiding a thing.
It clung to her neck, her cheekbones, her forehead.
It didn't whiteout her eyes the way Nightwing's did. She didn't wear goggles like Wally to fill the empty spaces.
No.
Her green mask didn't hide her eyes. It framed them. It complimented the gray tones in her irises and the bright gold of her hair.
And it was practical. It didn't obscure her vision. She could still fight while wearing it. She'd gotten used to it over the years. It worked well enough.
But in truth, it was more for show than anything else.
This mask didn't hide much. It fooled a lot of people, the idiot thieves and first time gang members. The mask was the last thing they saw before she delivered a round house kick to the side of one of their faces.
But there were always exceptions. People who saw past it. The villains who'd been breaking laws and fighting heroes their entire lives. They'd seen every disguise in the book. It was hard to slip past them, but she still tried. She had to try.
Then there were the people who'd known her for years. Her sister had seen straight through her disguise. Her pathetic father could rip her mask apart with just a few words. She was never safe from them. But they could never bring themselves to kill her. It just wasn't in them.
But she needed another disguise. One that would fool the the thieves and the murders and the psychopaths. Something they wouldn't be able to see through. A mask that no one could see through.
It was her real protection. It was invisible. It was hard to define. It kept her mom safe. It protected the friends she'd made at Gotham Academy and now at Stanford. And it protected Wally.
Wally was the one person who'd been able to see through her old mask. He'd taken down her walls. He'd realized that her under her tough girl facade she had issues. (Her parents were super villains. Her sister was an assassin. She'd grown up fighting for her life. She was pretty messed up inside.) And he'd stayed. He'd made her feel safe and normal. He loved her. And she loved him.
And because of that – because of everything he'd done and every reason she loved him – she had to protect him. She had to protect everyone.
So, she had another mask. One more complicated than a simple piece of fabric.
Her true mask was her name.
You wouldn't look Batman up in the phone book and expect to find anything.
That was how she saw it.
She fought crime with the same name that she lived her somewhat normal life.
No villain thought any hero would be stupid enough to fight under his or her real name.
And maybe they were right. Maybe she was stupid. Maybe she was reckless. Maybe every time the villains asked her name, she was signing it in her own blood.
But it wasn't like she was fighting crime with a name like "Melanie" or "Abigail." Then people would've gotten suspicious. They would've tracked her down. Her mom. Her friends. Everyone. They'd be in danger and she'd be dead.
No, that wouldn't have worked. Someone had to protect them and it had to be her. She didn't trust anyone else with the task of keeping them safe. They were the people she loved.
So, instead of being Bridget or Kara or Elizabeth, she'd gotten lucky. She was Artemis. The living embodiment of the goddess of the hunt. She ran from rooftop to rooftop firing arrows into the night. Burning with passion and the will to live. The will to fight. She was unstoppable. She was immortal.
But that was over now. She didn't fight anymore. At least not unless it was absolutely necessary. And if she ever did have to go back, if she ever had to fight again, she knew she would use the same masks. A piece of fabric and a word. A single word.
It was incredibly effective. Just a name. Something you couldn't touch. Something that you couldn't even see. It was a safety measure that no one else understood.
It allowed her to hide in plain sight.
But she had left the Team over a year ago, not because she didn't love it, not because she didn't want to help; but because that chapter of her life was over. Now she wanted to go to college and live with Wally and be normal. Or as normal as you can be when you spent most of your high school life as a super hero. She wanted the life she was never able to have back then.
She'd left because she needed to move on.
She was done hiding. She wanted to live without the mask.
Author Notes: Don't forget to tell me what you thought. I have no idea who the next chapter will be about, but I guess I'll figure something out. Reviews, as always, are very much appreciated. :)
