"You're Artemis Nyx, right? Otherwise known as, Artemis Gorgon? Lamprey Witch?"

I was silent, stunned by this inquiry. Who was this person? How did they know my name? Better question, how did they know my real name? No, how did they know anything about me? I gaped at them unable to respond causing them to chuckle. They sounded like a young woman, possibly someone my age or close to it.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." The stranger continued. "Listen, I have a proposition for you. Are you listening?"

I gathered my wits and gave a quick reply, "Y-yeah."

"Good. You see, I've had my eye on you for some time now and I'm very pleased with how you've turned out. I think that maybe we could form a partnership, interested?"

Squinting my eyes as I stared up I realized that this was an outline of a woman staring down at me. Scowling my answer came easily, "No way, no how, lady. I'm not interested in whatever snake oil you'll try to sell me, but I would like for you to tell me just who the hell are you?"

"If your answer is 'no way', then I suppose I'll just have to dispose of you. Can't have too many Gorgons running around, you know? It's nothing personal, really. It's just business, or rather eliminating any possible future competition. Besides, you might try to steal some of my ideas and experiments if I don't get rid of you."

"To hell with that! To hell with f**king science! I don't give a damn about experiments or ideas, or whatever the hell it is you're up there blabbering on about! I-" That was when I felt something crunch beneath my boot. I looked down and in the dim light I saw a scorpion. It was crushed flat as a pancake underneath my weight. The stinger had been poised and ready to strike at me. A chill ran down my spine as I noticed several more appearing from the darkness.

"Like my scorpions? If not then I insist you reconsider my proposition."

"I-I am," I gulped, now afraid, "but you'd better ex-explain wh-why you want me as your p-partner?"

"You contain a lot of secrets even if you don't realize it. Besides I suppose your powers would be useful to me."

"Hey, could you, umm, get me out of here?" I shouted up to her then, already knowing that whoever it was talking to me then were a very powerful being and not to be argued with. Besides, there was something familiar about this person that made a sick feeling bubble up in my stomach. Or rather, it was their soul wavelength that bothered me and made that sick feeling rise up inside me. "Get out yourself!" the woman called back.

"How do I-"

"Try flying, genius!"

I bit back a crude come back to her sarcasm, as I prepared to do as told. Sighing in irritation I managed to fly up high enough to reach the very edge of the hole and grab hold with my finger tips. I struggled for a short few minutes before I got a firm hold and pulled myself up, giving a hiss of pain as I finally made it to solid ground. Stumbling to my knees in the sand after I reached safety I found myself staring up at another witch who appeared rather youthful with black locks of hair and dark blue eyes.

"Wh-who are you?"

"Shaula, Shaula Gorgon."

"A-are you...my-"

"Aunt? Of course, but I'm much younger, prettier, and way better than Arachne, and especially Medusa, could ever have hoped to be, seeing as I'm the one who's still alive while their currently maggot chow."

"Doesn't somebody have a big ego?" I mumbled, rolling my eyes, and then wincing a bit in pain. "What a bitch."

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing!" I lied nervously. "I was just saying how my damn head hurt."

Shaula seemed to buy that. Smiling she extended a friendly hand and gave me a charming smile that I could already tell had some dark intent hidden behind it. "Now," She said so nicely, "dear Artemis, why not be a good girl and follow me so you can get all patched up? It'd be a shame if you died from a concussion, don't you think?"

"Yeah. I guess so."

So, as it turned out Shaula took me to her secret, evil, yet somewhat fancy lair where she fixed me up. She also wanted to 'upgrade' me or whatever, but I turned down the offer by simply telling her to screw off. It was just too bad that it wasn't really an offer. I had no choice in the matter. That was how I found myself tied down and subjected to some weird (and very painful) experiments.

After it was over I felt the same and was able to escape just like I could beforehand. Nothing seemed different, but something felt wrong at the same time. Ignoring it I headed off to get as far away from that nutty witch as I could while I had the chance. As I ran I didn't feel too different. The cool sand sank beneath my feet, not yet warmed by the laughing sun's rays. Grunting I stumbled once, and then found myself tumbling head over heels down the side of a freaking mountain of sand.

I screamed as I fell.

Sand got in my mouth, up my nose; all over my head; in my hair and clothes; and it even got in my damn eyes so that there was a sharp, burning sensation that made them water. It felt like hours of falling, tumbling, rolling, and skidding through the golden sands but I knew that logically it couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes.

Huffing and puffing, I sat up rubbing at my eyes and sobbing as the burning continued and I tried to spit the gritty sand from my mouth with little success. Coughing and struggling for breath I felt myself freeze, breath held, and eyes partially closed when I felt something dry and scaly brush against my wrist.

Swallowing I took a sharp intake of air and looked down to see an effing copperhead staring up at me sticking out its ugly forked tongue. And then I realized just what was wrong with me. I found what Shaula had broken, or perhaps taken away from me. Fear. I knew I should have been afraid of the dangerous creature next to me, yet I wasn't. I had no feeling of dread or terror whatsoever. I didn't feel the need to run or get away from the creature.

I merely felt...nothing...

It was like I was hollow and already dead inside. I might have died there if my anger had not reared its own ugly head, more intense and lethal than usual. I moved as quick as a flash of lightening, grabbing the wicked creature and tearing it in half before it could strike or even move. Blood stained the sands and I gave a feral cry of rage ignoring the death coils it underwent before me while I turned my back and began to run.

The distance seemed to take forever and I felt odd, as though I were fading from my body and something more sinister was taking hold. This didn't become apparent, however, until I stumbled on a large rock and fell, striking my head on a smaller rock nearby. Blood poured down my face and my vision was reddened, more pain flooded my being only to dull within seconds as my rage intensified.

Do it, someone whispered to me, you must do it. It sounded like a familiar voice. A voice from my past that I had once known, but no longer recongized as being real. "She's dead." I mumbled to myself without purposely intending to. "She's dead. She's dead. She's so f***ing dead."

No, the voice argued. No, I'm not! You know I'm not!

"Yes," I whispered, "you are."

No, Artemis, the voice replied gently, I'm not dead. How could you think that? I've always been alive!

"No. Not since-"

How can the dead speak? The voice asked. Don't you know? Once defeated they can never come back. Remember?

"I remember."

Sweet laughter came to me then. It pissed me off. I hadn't heard it in such a long time. I groaned trying to ignore that damn laughing, that damn voice that had awakened within my head.

Artemis...

It was like a siren whispering in my ear.

Artemis...

So sweet and innocent.

Artemis...

And I could not resist to do its bidding.

"Crona."

Quiet, childish laughter came back in reply to that single, mumbled word.

"Crona." I mumbled the name once again, as her voice echoed in my mind like some sucky song. I felt dazed. It was as though I were floating in some black void. It was like a blank dreamworld where no harm could befall me no matter what happened to the world around me. All that I had to do was just lie in the middle of nowhere. The voice seemed to draw me further and further from my physical self, and yet I didn't care as the childhood voice spoke to me some more. It wasn't real. I knew in some corner of my mind that her voice wasn't really talking to me, but I shoved that out of my head and listened anyway.

Please, Artemis," her voice begged cutely, "please would you do it?

"Do what?" I whispered.

Play a game with me. Please?

"Yeah. Sure. What game?"

If there were a face to the disembodied voice I'm certain I could have seen a dark smile slip onto the face of the child-like version of my younger sister. There might have been a dark glint in her eyes as well because the voice lowered to a chilling whisper and the words shook me to hear, and yet I heard them clearly and was prepared with an answer that seemed automatic even if my mind knew it wasn't the answer that I wanted to speak.

The killing game.

"Yeah," I mumbled lightheartedly, "okay. Let's play."

I could almost see a dark smile on a little Crona's face.

Here we go! I finally got this updated and am so glad! I took some ideas into consideration and like how this turned out. I like the ideas that are helping in the development of this story. At any rate, there should be another update by tomorrow. See ya then!