IX. Bonding

Artemis

She woke up with a throbbing pain in her head. It was as if she'd been hit really hard, and really fast, she hadn't seen it coming… oh wait. She had.

She remembered now as she sat up in the darkness. There was a man, or more of a teenager, who was running as fast as Wally who had chased them. But surely, Lightning King powers weren't so common, were they?

Wait a second. Wally. Where was he?

Artemis adjusted her eyes to the darkness and searched the room. The guy who attacked them must have put her in there. But what did he want with her? She'd never seen him in her life. They weren't the same people who had kidnapped her, although she wasn't sure what had happened to those people either. They obviously weren't keeping very good watch on her.

Realization hit her suddenly. Was she trapped in another tower? Because if she was, she was seriously going to beat up the next person who came into sight.

She frantically ran around the room and was reassured when she ran into a wooden door. Locked.

Too bad this room didn't even have a bed. All Artemis wanted to do was rest her head, which was still kind of woozy. She wandered around barefoot on the cold stone floor, her feet tingling with every touch on the cool surface.

She remembered the way the moonlight poured into the tower room, engulfing it in white light. Surprisingly, she kind of missed her tower right now.

But then she realized it might be easier getting out of this room because the locked door was wooden. All she needed to get out was a powerful kick in the right spot, and then she could deal with all her other problems later.

Wally

He'd accidentally fallen asleep for real after closing his eyes during the journey to Eobard's castle. Sad, but true. The good part of it was he got some sleep. The bad part of it was he lost Artemis.

Currently, his hands were tied behind his back and there were guards on either side of him as he stood facing the throne.

"I haven't seen you a in long time Wallace. What're you doing trespassing on my kingdom lands?" Eobard greeted.

"That's really none of your business Eobard. In fact, we were on our way back to my kingdom when you kidnapped us. Now if you'll release Artemis we'll be on our merry way," Wally replied coldly.

"Ah, Artemis is it? What makes you think she'll want to go with you? You're so scrawny and weak. You don't even have any looks going for you. Don't give me that look; I'm only saying this as a concerned friend. Besides, I intend to marry her," Eobard noted.

"NO!" Wally shouted, trying to break free of his bounds.

The guards instinctively raised their weapons to attack him, but Eobard lifted a hand.

"She's beyond that door," he said, gesturing to a wooden door on his left, "say goodbye to her if you'd like."

Wally cautiously started to walk towards the door. What if one of the guards shoved him into there when he was opening it and locked him in? Then how would he rescue Artemis from the terrible fate of marrying that scoundrel? He reached out to touch the doorknob, and suddenly… The door split into a few chunks of wood and fell apart into a heap at Wally's feet. Standing in the spot where the door should have been was none other than Artemis, who looked like she'd just violently attacked the wooden door. It was a good thing doors didn't have nervous systems, because that door would be in serious pain right now if it did.

Artemis's eyes lit up when she noticed Wally, but she immediately scowled when she saw his captors, round kicking one of them in the helmet and aiming a spin back kick at the other guard. It took a few more hits to render them harmless, but Eobard was already shouting orders at other guards to come attack the freed captives.

"I can't do much, my hands are bound," Wally explained.

"Okay, well I'm going to hop onto your back on the count of three and then you're going to run out of here as fast as you can and don't turn around or stop or anything. I'll try to get your hands untied," Artemis ordered, "One… two… three!"

She leapt onto Wally's back and unbound him as he ran past a couple of guards and burst out of the throne room doors. Now the only challenge that lay ahead of him was to figure out how to get out of the castle.

Richard

Barbara was on the other side of the tree, so Richard couldn't see her. He could however, hear her, and she wasn't exactly the best conversational partner. Not when she was annoyed.

"I can't believe you. You are so troublesome. I could be having a good time right now in the tribe with someone who actually wants to marry me, instead of wasting good time tied to a tree with you."

He couldn't blame her for the accusations. It was true. This whole thing was a waste of time. But there was no way he'd be able to explain to the Duke why in the world he left the castle without permission and came back married.

"Look… I'm really sorry. Like I said, it was an accident."

"…okay, I forgive you."

"Thanks."

They sat in silence, wondering how much time had passed since River tied them up to a tree. Twenty-four hours was a long time. Were they really expected to sleep while tied up to a tree in the middle of nowhere and not get attacked? Maybe a wild animal would come along while they were sleeping and then-

A cloaked figure in the distance was heading towards them. Maybe it was just a journeyer, as the figure was riding on a horse. But it'd be a strange sight to see two teenaged kids tied up to a tree.

As the figure drew nearer, Richard realized it was a woman. And not just any other woman, it was Huntress.

She stopped her horse and lifted her hood, looking amused that she'd encountered the Vigilante's sidekick again, and it'd only been a day. It was strange though, since she'd left the inn earlier than the trio had, but maybe she'd taken a detour? Who knows why she was headed in the direction of Eobard's kingdom anyway.

"Need help there, Stranger?" she asked, winking at Richard.

He frowned, "I'm good."

"Who's that?" Barbara asked.

Huntress dismounted the horse and dropped a sack at Richard's side.

"There are two loaves of bread in there. I can give you one of my canteens too if you want to last out the night tied to a tree," Huntress explained.

"Where'd you get this?" Richard asked accusingly.

"Not anywhere where anyone would miss it. Now I've got some hungry people to go feed and not a favor to ask you yet, I'll see you around," she finished, mounting her horse to ride off again.

Richard felt… well, uneasy about the fact that a lady vigilante thief knew about his secret identity. He could be hanged for donning a mask and doing what he did. Vigilantes were illegal. And Huntress was one too, but worse. She actually kind of stole from Eobard to give his wealth and supplies to the peasants. Well, maybe it wasn't stealing if Eobard had stolen it first. She was just returning it. Richard decided she was one of the good guys, hopefully she didn't ask too much of him when the time came though. This was their third encounter. The kingdom was large and the people were many, but if they were going to see each other around so much, no doubt she'd have something to ask Richard of soon.

"Richard?" Barbara piped up after a while.

"Yeah?"

"I'm… sorry. I didn't really mean to yell at you before."

"It's okay. I can understand why you were distraught. Besides, I'm pretty sure I have more cause to apologize than you do."

"Hah, well, I guess. Can I have some water? I'm kind of thirsty."

Richard grabbed the canteen and passed it to Barbara around the trunk of the tree.

"Thanks."

Wally

The castle was a crazy maze of passageways and dead ends, Wally was pretty sure Eobard would get fed up with no one being able to retrieve the prisoners and run after them himself, which would cause problems as Eobard had lived here his whole life and would know the castle better than anyone.

Wally kept running anyway, but even as fast as he was, Artemis slowed him down, even if she wasn't that heavy. It was just the fact that there was a load on his back. Not that he would leave her behind, that would be breaking the rules of chivalry.

He ran through another corridor, scaring another four maids before realizing that it led to a princess's chamber, which was a dead end.

He stopped to rest a little; he hadn't eaten in a while.

"You okay Wally?" Artemis asked, concerned.

"I'll be fine. We still need to get out of here."

Artemis opened up the window in the room.

"I don't think it's too high off the ground. I can make my hair hold on to a heavy piece of furniture in this room and lower us to the ground," she suggested.

Wally nodded as she got to work on setting everything up.

Hopefully it wouldn't take long, because right that moment, Eobard was running down the corridor.

So I'm finally back after a long hiatus! Midterms are over and I'm free! For now.

Characters: Artemis, Wally, Richard, Barbara, Huntress, Eobard

Tell me what you thought of this chapter in a review :)

Thanks as always for reading,

Safirel