I'm back! Albeit, a little later than a month, but it still went up, so good. This one feels so chatty, I apologize, but talking is pretty much the only thing that I wanted to happen this chapter. Still, I wish I had time to rewrite it with more description. And hey, didn't switch perspectives halfway through.

~Rainosa

11: Shouting

Artemis P.O.V.

Soft oranges and pinks slowly crept out of sight on the horizon, the heat of the day quietly seeping away in favor of a slight chill. I shivered, and tried to stimulate my nerves by running my hands up and down my arms; I should have brought a coat, now that I thought about it. My bare shoulders didn't have much defense against the cool evening air, and the tingling of goosebumps racing up the length of my limbs almost tempted me to go inside. But I knew what lay in wait for me if I dared surrender to that particular temptation. Accusations, shouting, and a bunch of hostile confusion that no one was really looking forward to. I didn't really feel like trying to face anyone right now about anything, because I had just gone through the emotional equivalent of being thrown a hundred feet in the air and falling back down again. I just wanted to be alone.

The sound of a metal door swinging open somewhere across the roof shocked me into standing. The Providence agents I'd encountered so far hadn't been too friendly, probably not normally so inviting to strangers, and I had decided to keep a strong façade up to deter them from assuming we were just tourists. I turned to face the oncoming visitor and was surprised when my supposed "attacker" turned out to be wearing a green army jacket and red T-shirt with jeans.

"Hey, Artemis," my twin brother Noah smiled sheepishly, raising a hand to wave nervously, "Um, I was wondering where you were, and since I come here to think sometimes, I just kind of...guessed..."

With a chuckle, I turned back around to face the slowly sinking sunset, "I thought you were a Providence agent."

"Nah. I'm too stealthy to be Providence. You would have heard an agent from a mile away," Noah joked, plodding over and dropping to swing his legs over the edge of the roof. Scoffing, I joined him.

"As if. You were always better at recon stuff anyway," I acknowledged, roughly bumping his shoulders. With that, the smile slid off his face, and he suddenly became surprisingly interested in the color of his shoes. For a moment, I wondered what was wrong, but then I realized the line I had crossed.

"Oh...sorry. I forgot about..."

"You forgot, tch," he breathed, "More like I forgot. My entire childhood, in fact. So don't go blaming yourself when it's my problem, not yours."

His tone surprised me. It held a level of self-doubt that I was highly familiar with, just not coming from other people. My hand found its way onto his knee, to my own shock, and as he swung his head up to look at me, I tried to smile reassuringly.

"Hey, there's no need to hate yourself for something that wasn't your fault. If anything, I'm to blame. You couldn't control going EVO and losing your memory," I soothed, moving my hand to his back and rubbing. It was an old habit with him, but one he didn't remember, apparently.

"Yeah, well, neither could Rex, and you still seem to hate him," Noah jabbed.

I stopped rubbing his back.

"That's different."

"Is it?"

"Yes! He's still an EVO, Noah! I can't trust him!"

"He's my friend, Artemis! You better start trusting him, or I won't trust you!"

"No, you don't get it! I've seen EVOs! They're mindless creatures, bent on destruction and chaos! There is no human left in them!"

"And you think I haven't seen EVOs too?" Noah shouted, and the ping-pong screaming slid to a halt, "I live a few miles from Providence, my best friend is an EVO, all his best friends are EVOs, and I have to defend myself against EVOs every day! For goodness sake, my junior prom date was attacked by EVOs! But I have met some great people, too. Great people who just so happen to be EVOs. So don't go around telling me you've seen EVOs, because if you had, you would know that not all of them are mindless. Sure, I'll give it to you, some are, but certainly not all of them, and definitely not Rex. You need to get rid of this petty grudge right now, because he is one of the best people I've ever met, and if you can't accept him, I can't accept you."

With that, Noah stood in a rage, storming to the exit, and I got up to try and follow him, "Noah, please, you have to understand-"

"No! I'm serious! You have to stop this!"

"You have to listen to me!"

"You need to listen to me!"

"I thought you were dead!" I burst, and quickly covered my mouth like it could hold back the words I had released.

He stopped in his tracks, still turned away like he was about to leave. Waves of guilt and confusion and indecision seemed to barrage him, as new ideas struck him. He hadn't considered how I was feeling, I could tell. With an almost shameful reluctance, he faced me again, gently walking up with an apologetic and curious look staring me straight in the eyes. A look that wanted to know more.

I delivered.

"I-It was when we were little, and Dad was trying to train us all to be his...lackeys. We were outside doing some exercises, when you suddenly started to...to start...transforming. It was the first EVO transformation I had ever seen, and it was...horrifying, to say the least. You started to attack us, the whole family, but a bunch of other EVOs stampeded by and you got caught up in them. We lost you for a few hours, but we tracked you down soon, and kept following you for days, trying to capture you and bring you home. Then one day..."

I felt a warm hand on my back, rubbing right between my shoulders and prompting me to continue. With a smile, I found the courage to keep speaking.

"One day, we thought we had you. We knew we could stop you long enough to fight and distract you, but we didn't expect you to be so angry once we stopped you. You lashed out like crazy, harder than any of us were prepared for, and you got Mom in the back really bad. It's not...she's in a wheelchair now, but that wasn't the reason. But it showed me how fargone you were. You would never hurt Mom. Not while you were still you. That's when I realized you weren't there anymore. There was no point in trying to follow you because there was no you left to follow. So we stopped. Went back home and tried to move on. Did our best to forget about you. But I never could. I always remembered that look in your eye. Like dead eyes. Like there was no more life in them. I never forgot how inhumane you had become. And I guess, I just never let go of that. I always see EVOs like that now. And so when I met your friend, I just...he was so much like you that I just couldn't make an exception. But once I saw you again, and saw that you were exactly the same brother I had lost all those years ago, my...theories, were proven wrong. And now I don't now what to think. I want to stick with the years of experience, but how can I, when it was all baseless to begin with? I just...I'm sorry."

I dropped my head into my hands, knowing that whatever I said, it definitely wouldn't validate all the crap I was giving Rex, and indirectly, him. I had been a jerk. There was no way around that. I had probably screwed up my only chance at establishing a strong relationship with my twin brother again, just because of some old, stupid assumptions. Augh! Why did I have to screw up everything with my family all the time?! Surely I could hold onto just one sibling. No, not after all that I had so royally messed up. How could he ever-

"Okay," came from my left, "I can understand that."

"What?"

"I can see where you're coming from. Sort of like a scarred-for-life situation. You saw something, and assumed it applied to everything else. Not exactly the best course of action in life, but people make mistakes. I get that. So I'm not going to blame you. Not even if you have trouble making decisions about this stuff. I mean, I hope you make the right choice, but I won't stop loving you if you don't," he explained, nodding into the distance affirmatively, like he was reassuring himself at the same time that everything was okay. For a moment, I said nothing, not quite believing that anyone could be that forgiving. Then in the next instant, my arms were around his waist and I was squeezing him for all he was worth.

"Thank you! Oh my gosh, thank you so much! You have no idea how much this means to me!" I gushed, face pressed hard into his shoulder. With a chuckle, he squeezed me back, and whispered in my ear.

"Well hey, you're the only family I've got, I can't exactly turn you away."

A snort of laughter escaped me, "I am definitely not the only family you've got. We have a big family, and let me tell you, it is screwed up."

"Really?" he pulled back, and raised an eyebrow, "Tell me about our screwed up family."

"Well, first of all, Dad is the only one of the family who looks anything like you, and he's evil, so good luck with that," I huffed, releasing him and putting my hands on my hips, "Um, our older sister is an assassin called Chesire who is also in league with the bad guys. And Mom's in a wheelchair, like I said before, but she used to be involved in all this crap, too. Then there's me! I'm a superhero in a family of psychos. And that's a buttload of fun. Other than that, I'm pretty normal, I guess. Oh, I go to Gotham Academy, which I technically can't afford, but some rich guy is paying for it, so why not. What about you? You must have been doing something all these years."

"You bet," he sighed, plopping down on the rooftop again, "I have a foster family, y'know. Not nearly as messed up as my real one, apparently, but still exciting. They're great. Susan, my mom, is really into sports and stuff. She taught me how to play basketball. My dad, Eric, is an English teacher, and he helps me out with a bunch of stuff in school. They're super cool about me hanging out at this government base all the time, too, and they let Rex come over whenever he's running away from Providence. Plus, y'know...they took me in without question. Usually kids that age can't get into homes very easily, and especially not ones who have no memory. But they showed up, loved me, and eventually straight up adopted me. So, I guess I kinda...I guess I love them back. It's going to be so weird having another family when I already have one."

Well, that didn't put me in an awkward position at all. Uncomfortably, I bent down to join him, and quietly considered what I could say that wouldn't be sickeningly offensive.

"I guess I'm going to have to meet them," I finally offered up, squinting into the last dregs of the sunlight. His reaction was instantaneous; he reeled back, waving his hands about to try to take back his mistake.

"Sorry! Ah, crap, I didn't even realize! I'm so sorry, why did I even bring that up?" he panicked, running a hand through his blonde hair nervously. I laughed, grabbing his hands to stop him from freaking out too much and chuckling hard enough to get him to stop hyperventilating.

"Relax!" I gasped, "I get it, it's fine! Seriously, you don't have to go nuts!"

"I feel like such an idiot!" he hissed, and pulled back his hands to cover his face, "Aw, man, what a stupid move. That must have sounded so offensive!"

"Honestly, it's fine. I mean, what did I expect? That you just ran around homeless for five years? I figured you would have a new family. It's just cool to know that they're not horrible people," I comforted. Gradually, he dropped his hands back down into his lap, before throwing them around me in a reassuring embrace.

"Thanks for being so understanding," he whispered into my ear.

"Pfft. Thank you for being so understanding. My situation is a lot more awkward than yours," I redirected, but hugged him back anyways. With a soft sigh and a squeeze, he let me go. Then scoffed and turned away.

"Man, what kind of messed up lives are we leading, huh?"

"You don't even know the half of it, Noah."

Please review! The more I get, the more I feel obligated to write!

~Rainosa