Uncovering The Past Conflicting Personalities Chapter Nine

"Okay slow down. What?" Wally asks
"That's my supposed to be dead sister's picture."
"And that's our missing older sister that we literally just found out about."
"We need to do find them." I tell Alex and Amon.
"No we need to find our sister and you need to find yours."
"We should work together."
"You know what Apollo, no. We'll do what we want and we don't need you around to babysit us. You can fix something that's broken, but you can't fix something that is dead. In fact you can barely take care of yourself. How can you take care of us too?"

I look at Amon with confusion. My mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water.

"That's what I thought. Come on Alex we're going to look for our sister. Without him."

He grabs Alex's arm and drags her away leaving me with the team staring at me. Artemis stands up and walks closer to me. I move away from her as Amon's words sink in. I run to the garage and hop on a bike before anyone can follow me.

"I'm coming Jena." I whisper like she'll be able to hear me.

I pull out of the garage and fly through the highway towards Gotham. If she's still alive there are a few places I should be able to find her. As my bike races at least 100 miles per hour my mind feels like molasses. As I reach city limits I slow down and head to our apartment. Once I get there I walk around to the window we always used and I climb up to our "door".

I crouch on the window sill and look in to see if there is anything different that could tell me whether she's living here or not. I don't see anything that she always did so she must not be here. I do a backflip off the sill and land on my feet on the ground. I walk back to my bike to see Artemis leaning on it.

"That's a pretty good landing if you ask me. Ever think of going up against Robin?"
"Not right now Artemis, go back to the cave. I need to find Jena."
"And I can help you."
"No, this is my responsibility, not yours."
"Apollo, you can't push me away like that."

I look at my watch as I see it's almost the same time as we always used to meet up. I hop on my bike and speed away towards our meeting place hoping I'm not too late. I hear Artemis get on her bike and follow me but I don't care I just need to find Jena. I ride through the worst parts toward a small park where there's some forest. There was a tree we always met in to go home.

At the park I throw my bike on the ground almost as I run to our tree. I'm like 30 meters away when I run into a girl. I fall on top of her and I quickly pick myself up and help her up. I look at her to see she has flaming red hair and steel grey eyes like mine.

"May I ask your name good fellow?"
"Apollo. And yours?"
"Jena, that's quite strange, I had a brother with the exact same hair and eye color as you but you can't be him. I was told he died."
"That is quite strange because I had a sister named Jena and she had flaming red hair and steel grey eyes that looked exactly like mine but she's dead too."
"Apollo!"
"Jena!"

I grab onto my thought to be lost sister and hold her tight. I feel tears fall from my eyes but I don't care. I just found my sister who I thought I would never see again.

"But how? I saw you on the floor of our apartment with holes through your heart and head."
"Apollo, that wasn't me. I had gotten worried something had happened that I went to the cemetery and saw you had buried Tyler but I didn't see you so I headed back to our apartment but I didn't see you. I thought the worst and left in case whoever attacked you might come after me. But when I saw in the news the story about a husband and wife murdered, I saw your back talking with police with a boy and a girl, but I wasn't sure it was you. I went to the orphanage and happened to see a girl escaping. We just hung out after that because we've both lived on the streets before."
"Wait did she have like black hair and light blue almost clear eyes?"
"Yeah why?"
"The boy and girl you saw on the news are like my adopted brother and sister, well I'm there's. But they're missing an older sister they just learned about and I think you might know her. Where is she?"
"She's back at the hideout. Not ours but one we found."
"Come on."
"Apollo who's this?" Artemis asks as she walks up next to me.
"Artemis this is my sister Jena."
"I'm so sorry, it's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too. How do you know my brother?"
"Well, we're teammates."
"Oh are you both on the archery team in school?"
"Jena I'll explain all of this to you later. All you need to know is we can trust Artemis. She's helped me a lot over the last two days."
"Wait a minute you've only known her for two days? What all have you told her?"
"Jena, I promise, I won't tell anyone anything." Artemis comforts Jena.
"Fine but I want to know after we find Dinah."

We walk over to the bikes and I hop on mine and Jena gets on the back as Artemis hops on her own.

"Okay so you tell me where to turn okay."
"Sure just go."

I start driving as Artemis follows behind. Jena leads me deeper into town as I lose track of where we're at.

"Turn left and we should come upon this one house."

I do as she says and turn left. I see a house that looks abandoned. It is a one story house with no steps. I come to a stop as Jena and Artemis hop off their respected vehicles.

"You stay here." Jena tells Artemis

I don't know why but Artemis isn't fighting at all. She stays back by her bike as Jena leads me into the house.

"Skyler!"
"Who's there? There are two of you I only know one; Jena."
"Skyler it's me Jena. Remember when I told you about my brother and how I thought he was dead? Well he's not, we found each other and he was also looking for you."
"Why? I don't have any family."
"Actually you do. You see, I thought Jena had been killed and so I ran away and was almost killed but a lady saved me. She took me to her house and I met two kids. A twin brother and twin sister. Well we just found out today about them having an older sister. I also just found out about Jena so I came out looking for her. It was said in the news that you are missing and you had been seen with her so I was looking for you."
"The reason I went missing was because of some health problems. I overheard Social Services talking about sending me away somewhere so I ran away and met Jena."
"Well your brother and sister or at least your brother hates me right now and I have no idea where they are. But I can contact them and bring both of you back to our headquarters."
"Who's the third person outside?"
"How did you know?"
"I'm blind you idiot. But I see differently. I sense them, who is she?"
"She's a teammate of mine. I sort of just up and left looking for Jena and she was worried and followed me."
"How can you trust her if she won't give you space?"
"No, I've gone through some rough times and she just wanted to make sure I didn't do anything rash."
"You've only known her for two days Apollo, how much does she know?"
"Come on let's just get you somewhere safe and I'll tell you then."
"Who's Dinah going to ride with?"
"Well she can ride with Artemis."
"No."
"So you're going to ride with Artemis?"
"No, I say you dump her and Skyler rides with you and I'll tale her bike."
"Then how is Artemis supposed to get back?"
"She won't."
"Jena, what's gotten into you? I don't remember we you ever being this cold hearted before."
"People change Pollo." Artemis says as she walks in.
"Artemis, don't listen to her."
"Its all right. There's a zeta beam about a mile from here. I'll be fine. Take your sister and Dinah back to the Cave and I should be there eventually."
"Artemis, no. I just found two people I lost and I'm not going to make it possible to lose you too."
"Dude, remember my dad trained me. I'll be fine, just get them home and get Alex and Amon off the streets. It's getting dark out."
"Are you sure?"
"Completely."
"There's no way to dissuade you is there?"
"I'm as suade as possible. Not amused now get going."

Artemis starts running to the zeta beam as Jena hops on Artemis's bike and I get on mine with Skyler behind me. I hope I didn't just send my friend into a death trap.

The whole ride home I have this bad feeling in my gut. Something isn't right but I just can't put my finger on it. I call ahead to let the team know I'm bringing two guests with me. I pull in the garage as Jena comes up beside me and Skyler gets off.

"This place is weird. Where are we?"
"It's a hollowed out mountain, that's why it's so different."

I turn to the team and see they have all assembled to meet my sister and Skyler.

"Has Artemis come back yet?"
"No, we thought she was with you."
"Well apparently Jena doesn't like her and so Artemis being the person she is, said she would run to the nearest zeta beam and be here by the time we got back."
"No sign of Artemis."
"Jena! This is what happens when you let a friend just go off on their own. I hope your happy, Artemis is missing."
"I'm pleased as a plum. She can't be trusted Apollo."
"Jena what's gotten into you?"
"I've changed since you left me alone while you buried Tyler."
"But you used to be like our mom, where did that Jena go?"
"Oh I don't know, maybe living on the streets was necessary for my eyes to open to the harsh realities of life. And yours haven't."
"I'm going back out to look for Artemis. If anyone wants to come you can but we need people to watch those two."
"Apollo, do you know her life story?"
"Well yeah, she told me when I told her."
"I doubt she told you the truth. She's not who you think she is. If you know what's good for yourself you'd be hoping she gets killed by her father or one of the Shadows."
"Apollo what's she talking about?" Wally asks
"Artemis hasn't told you guys about her life before the team?" I ask as I turn to them
"No, she doesn't trust like any of us and Batman's forbidden Boy Wonder to tell us."
"Apollo, I would tell them if I were you. They deserve to know the truth."
"Shut up Jena!"
"If you don't tell them, I'll tell them everything."
"No." My eyes close as two different side of myself fight.
"She trusted me and I trusted her and she hasn't told anything without my approval, I won't betray her."
"Five. . . Four. . . Three. . . Two. . . One. . . Artemis is actually Artemis Crock, her father is Sportsmaster and her mother was Huntress. Her sister is Cheshire and they are all assassins. Even Artemis has killed at least a few people. She can't be trusted. Her father most likely put her here as a spy or a mole. She could take out the entire junior justice league in less than a minute with the training she's had."
"Jena stop. She told me everything, even the part about how her dad almost killed her. She told me about the things she's done and you know what, I still trust her. Nothing you say will change my mind."

I run to my bike and hop back on as I ride full speed back to Gotham to save Artemis.