Chapter Seven: Wonderland


Artemis felt claustrophobic.

She sat with her feet hanging over her bed, both hands clutching the handle of a bow she'd found in her room. The bow was almost the same color of her dark green comforter, and the walls of her bedroom were painted a color slightly reminiscent of freshly fallen green leaves before fall made them into orange and red. The walls were decorated with photos of people she didn't know, but she felt like she knew them. She supposed they were her friends. There were also photos of Ollie , Dinah, and Roy spread out around her living space. Photos of friends and family all around her…but she didn't have a family. Apparently she and Roy were adopted, so she didn't have a family. That seemed to be a common theme in her life. No matter whom she lived with or what reality she lived in, it appeared that she wasn't meant to be in a family. Artemis huffed, rolling her eyes at the revelation – she didn't need one, anyway.

But then a stab went through her heart – a woman with short black hair that hung to her shoulders popped into Artemis's mind, her face smiling and accepting as she gazed up at Artemis with wizened eyes from her wheelchair – her mother.

Her mother who had always wanted the best for her, who had always wanted more for her youngest child than she had gotten the chance for, her mother who wasn't real. Who wasn't alive.

Artemis had looked up everything from a laptop she'd found on her desk in her room. She'd searched for the Team first; results had been negative for all of her teammates and their mentors. She hadn't really thought she'd find anything, but she'd…she'd been hoping. She couldn't help it.

Just like she couldn't stop herself from continuing her search with the names of 'Cheshire' or 'Sportsmaster' and 'Huntress'. It was the same urge that pushed her to scout out answers from her medicated hallucination that forced her to search for more innocent titles.

Jade Crock was serving minor jail time with some low-level offences. She'd be out in two years, but her in-out record led Artemis to believe the time out would be more of a vacation than a permanent change in lifestyle.

Lawrence Crock was in jail for multiple offences ranging in their severity – charges of mild child abuse to his child Jade Crock had been reported multiple times, though never officially proven – still, with a few breaking and entering convictions, rather large felonies and several accounts of theft, and two or three charges of manslaughter...Lawrence Crock would probably never see proper daylight again.

Artemis's throat had tightened when she finally mustered up the courage to dig around for Paula Crock. She'd felt her eyes water when she found the short obituary dedicated to her mother. Two paragraphs, if even that, had been dedicated to the woman who'd raised her. However, the driver that had paralyzed her from the waste-down before infection had finally taken her mother away, had several pages devoted to him and his stupid trial.

The man had lost his money.

Paula Crock had lost her life.

And Artemis had lost her mother.

Artemis clutched the bow handle harder, in an effort to stifle what may have been a sob. She wasn't going to cry, not tonight. Not in this house with these people. Not now.

Not ever.

Suddenly a flame came into her stomach, and Artemis's grip on the green bow tightened. A dead look of certain determination entered her eyes as she peered out the window behind her to cast a quick glance at the moon. In an instant she'd slung the bow over her shoulder, standing up from her bed and carefully walking over to the window.

The glass reflected her own face, and Artemis saw the deadened stare of determination she held in her gaze. Then she pried open the window so quietly she may have rivaled the Boy Wonder himself, and crept out of the house.

She had to see it for herself. None of this would be real – none of it – if she couldn't see it. There was a small part of her crying out, a small hope that maybe – just maybe – if she went to her old home in Gotham, she'd open the door and her mother would be waiting for her.

Just maybe life would make sense again. Her mother was the only person Artemis had never had to pretend for. She missed that.

-][-][-][-

Artemis's heart sank when she saw the yellow tape gracing the doorway to her old apartment building, big bold letters that harshly spelled out "CONDEMMED". It was so final, so concluding, so pitiless as it callously ripped away her last hope of finding her old reality.

The windows were broken, shattered and gaping like mouths stretched into an eternal scream of silence. The bricks were decayed, rotted and corroded with years of neglect – the kind that signified no one had touched this building, aside from maybe cockroaches and rats. The tall building she had shared with her mother was…was this.

She had snuck away from the confining barriers of Star City, taken a cab to Gotham, and walked three miles so she could see it for herself. With her own eyes, she could see that the doctors were right. With her own eyes she could watch the lies of her old life unfold into this reality; she could watch her world shrink away to what it really was.

She'd looked in other places.

She'd looked up Paula Crock, she'd tried to find evidence of Huntress, or Sportsmaster, or Cheshire – she'd tried every alter-ego for her Team, for the League, for anything; but she'd always gotten the same result. Every time she'd found the same answer.

She'd found nothing.

This – her home – had been the last hope.

And her hope was an old, condemned, dying building nestled into the crammed streets of Gotham.

Her mom wouldn't be waiting for her. Her sister wouldn't be there. Artemis Crock was, after all, only an orphan who'd been allowed to play pretend. Because she obviously didn't get to do that enough.

A cold wind ran through the streets, touching her skin like the freezing touch of ghostly fingers and sending shivers down her spin, somehow chilling her very bones as she re-read the "CONDEMNED" notice scrawled out against neon tape, those images of her mother and her loving smile scalding her mind with every single broken window she saw on the apartment building. Suddenly, Artemis couldn't take it.

She fell to her knees, letting her bow fall with a few clanks against the pavement. Then, against every instinct she'd been raised on, she cried.

She didn't even know why – because none of this had ever been real. None of it. Her father was in prison, her sister had slipped through the cracks, and her mother was dead. She had no one to miss.

"Then why does it hurt so bad?" her mind hissed, and her stomach clenched as she choked back a particularly thick sob, "It shouldn't hurt this bad…"

Artemis's eyes shut and she let herself cry; she didn't know how long she sat and waited. She felt like she'd been crying forever, but it probably hadn't even been a full minute when she felt a hand wrap around her shoulder.

Artemis tensed, her hand reaching for her bow instantly even though tears were still leaking down her cheeks.

"Leave me alone, or I-" she threatened, hating the thick tightness in her choked tone as she whipped her head around, but she stopped short when she found herself staring into two serious blue eyes that didn't quite match his disheveled red hair. He didn't say anything for a long time, and she hated how weak she must appear at that moment, with her tousled hair, reddened face, and her features flushed from her fruitless efforts of trying to keep the sobs from wracking her body. She resembled a drowned rat.

She stared at him a long time, giving him her hardest look, staring him down as well as she could with her worn appearance. But he stared right back.

"You look like crap." Roy told her shortly. Artemis sniffed shrewdly, flipping her hair back over her shoulder, not attempting to fix her loosened pony tail.

"What are you doing here?" she asked harshly, hating him for seeing her like this. Of all people, Roy wasn't the one who deserved to see her weak. Of all people, Roy shouldn't have been the one to see her so fragile, broken down in a pathetic heap in front of her old apartment.

"Your bedroom is across the hall from mine. I heard you leave." Roy explained simply.

"And that gives you permission to follow me?"

Roy nodded, sitting down next to her, not seeming to care that the ground was damp from an earlier rain.

"Actually, yes, it does." He said, then looked over at her again. The look on his face was foreign to her, and even he didn't seem to recognize the expression he was trying to convey. It was sympathetic, almost.

Artemis sighed, glancing back over at the tape. She didn't need his sympathy. But the tears trickling down her face told otherwise, much to her displeasure. She was so much better doing this 'emotional' stuff alone. She didn't want to do this in front of Roy.

"So…so I guess this is real," she murmured, not to Roy in particular as she gestured at the building.

Roy's eyes softened, surprising Artemis a bit. At least the look of sympathy had been replaced by understanding – she could deal with that a little better.

"It'll be okay," he said after a pause, "I'm not going to lie to you, tell you all that garbage about how it gets easier – because it doesn't. But," the older archer breathed in as if trying to decide what to say, "-but it gets better."

"You don't know what you're talking about." Artemis shot out at him, surprising herself with the venom that leaked through her words.

Roy stiffened, "My parents died in both the simulation and here. They're gone. Ollie…he's it for me. Ollie and Dinah have always been it."

His honesty astonished her, and she swallowed hard, trying to extinguish her own sorrows. She'd forgotten about it – Roy had never once mentioned his parents, his background, or anything. She hadn't realized it in the simulation, but the archer was just as bad as Dick. Worse now, even, because even though she now knew Robin's past, she still had next to nothing on Roy. Or, she hadn't until now.

"…Oh." Artemis muttered unimpressively, "Sorry about that..."

"Don't be. Like I said, it gets better. You learn to live with it. You move on. That's the system, and it works."

Artemis felt one last choking sigh leave her, one last stinging string of tear lines sear her eyes as they burned a final trail down her cheek.

The two archers sat on the corner of the street for a little while longer until Artemis cast a look up at him after she'd managed to choke out the last of her tears and even out her unsteady breathing.

"Thanks." She murmured to him and then threw a look at the building behind her, "I just…I needed to see it for myself."

"No problem. But this conversation never happened."

"Agreed."

"Let's go home," Roy said finally, standing up and cracking his back as he analyzed the moon, "It'll be morning soon and I don't want Ollie and Dinah thinking you've gone off the deep end." He finished, stretching out his hand to Artemis.

She eyed it a moment before accepting it and allowing him to pull her to her feet, "You're right. Um, thank you, Red."

"Call me Roy."

"…You know, you're not a complete pompous jerk after all," Artemis slid in as she started walking.

"Let's not push it," Roy growled slightly before he peered down at her, a slight hint of a smirk just starting to touch his face.


The moon above Gotham was full, and the sky was crammed with an audience of stars peering down expectantly at the Earth as though waiting for something, ready for anything, anticipating everything but guessing nothing.

Dim streetlights flickered pitifully as if they weren't quite sure whether or not they should be lit at all. The dry pavement waited below, every pothole and crack in the old street practically highlighted by the dismal light provided from the streetlights, the badly illuminated bulbs only having the meager ability of slipping into the closest ranges – and even the light was muted.

Batman's car slicked out onto the street, the Flash keeping a steady pace beside it as they peeled out from Wayne Manor.

"So, Bats…" Barry mildly commented as he reopened the communicator's link, his voice only carrying a slight edge with his words now that he'd calmed himself down with the reassurances from Manhunter that the children weren't dead, "What are we looking for."

Batman flicked a look at the portable computer that rested in the nook of the car, reading the screen carefully before replying, "The last known signal was given off near a local science lab by the docks. We're checking the main building and the surrounding area first for clues."

"What were they doing there? What was the mission?"

"They were on watch duty – the lab has been reporting recent break-ins and multiple accounts of vandalism. Usually I would have let the authorities handle this sort of situation, but the criminal has yet to appear on camera, which is harder for run-of-the-mill crooks. The mission objective was simply a review and report."

Flash shot a look at Batman that Bruce caught through the tinted windows, "What's the lab researching?"

"I already checked in with that. They have multiple fields of study. At first I thought Poison Ivy might be behind this, because of a recent plant-based toxin they've been experimenting with, but Ivy is currently located at Belle Reve until she can get her attorneys to relocate her back to Arkham."

"Okay, so who else?"

"Aside from that there is no other reported research that might catch the eye of anyone in particular."

"So the lab has some secrets too?" Flash asked, picking up on Bruce's line of thinking.

"I don't think they are behind this, but no. I don't believe they have been completely honest about what other fields of science they've been investigating."

Author's Note: Hey guys! It's been a while…again. But hey, an update! Also, you guys have been absolutely lovely with your AWESOME replies; it honestly makes my day better! Plus…there are reasons to my late updating, as recently I have been attacked by plot bunnies. I will have a poll up after this story is finished if you would like to vote. Actually, check out my profile page anyway to see if I have already posted if you would like to vote on what I put my attention on next (warning: may be a while before I can post the new story after this one is finished.) Okay, now – DID YOU GUYS SEE THE NEW EPISODE? Where is Wally? Where is Artemis? Is there no love for Roy or Kaldur? My babies are missing! Sorry, my rant is over, but really, I'm crushed. :( Okay, on with replies!

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(Author's Mailbag answered through PMS –for real this time!)