A/N: Unpaid full time internship = writing time during work hours. This adulting thing is so much fun. Anyway, part 2 is here!
Ages: Artemis is 17, Cameron is 18.
Edit 10/4: Corrected the timeline from "Late Fall, Team Year 3" to "Late Spring, Team Year 3". Ages changed to reflect that.
...I Caught You
Late Spring, Team Year 3
"C-cam?" she cracked, her voice sore, and she felt a sudden wave of relief at the sight of him, as if it were Ollie or Dinah herself standing in front of the cell.
"What the hell Artemis? How'd you get here?" he asked, keeping his voice low.
"Your idiot Shadow friends got the jump on me. I-where am I?"
"In a dingy Shadows stash-house being outsourced to…" Cameron trailed off for a second, before continuing. "Never mind." History had already taught him the dangers of giving excess information to capes.
It didn't matter. Artemis was already making a mental note that she was right about the Shadows outsourcing parts of their infrastructure to other villains. It explained why the goons acting like Shadows operatives were so subpar.
Cameron noticed the way her eyebrows furrowed slightly, a tell that she was processing new information, and outlasted the urge to bang his head against the bars. Suppressing his anger at himself for already giving out unnecessary information, he glanced side to side to make sure none of his accomplices had returned, before continuing.
"I was sent here in advance on behalf of my dad and some of guys up the food chain to watch over the idiots here. They were bragging about having captured 'something big' but…" he exhaled loudly, ruffling his hands through his hair. "God, I'm happy I'm the one who came."
Artemis almost thought she caught a glint of worry in his eyes.
"Damn it Artemis, the only reason they haven't un-masked you yet is because someone higher up is supposed to 'have the honor' of doing it. Fuck.…if my dad and them find out you're the one here, Green Arrow's freakin' sidekick..." his voice once again trailed off into a whisper.
He didn't have to finish his sentence. A Justice League protégé, in the clutches of any villain? Especially when they unmasked her and found out that he had turned her back on The Life? Killing her right away wouldn't make a proper example out of her. No, they'd string her up and take their sweet time, making her regret every life decision she'd ever made leading up to that point.
A small part of her wondered if her dad's stature in the underworld would be enough to save her life, but she snuffed that hope out quickly.
She was never going to have to rely on him again. Her Team would get to her. They always saved their own.
And then for a sickening moment her mind went to Qurac: To a smoldering warehouse, the chilling laughter of a clown, and the lingering smell of burnt human flesh. The teama-family member that the Team didn't get to on time. She forced herself to shove that image out of her mind, but she couldn't stop the bile from moving up to the bottom of her throat. She gulped it back down, and forced her attention back to the situation at hand.
"The entire league is turning up Star City for me. You shouldn't be here when they find me," she warned.
Cameron looked at her incredulously. "Star City? Artemis, you haven't been in Star City for days. They moved you here a while ago. You're in Gotham now."
What. The. Fuck. How the hell had she been moved to the opposite coast of the country and not noticed? How the hell was she in Batman's city and he hadn't noticed?
Whatever words she was going to say in response were killed by the sounds of the other goons returning. The noise also prompted Cameron to start moving away from the bars. As it was, his street cred hadn't recovered from the Belle Revve incident, but it was somewhat out of the gutter. Getting caught having friendly conversations with the "enemy" was an easy way to drag it right back down.
"Just sit tight Artemis. I got your back," he whispered, and she told herself that those words really shouldn't give her as much comfort as they should have.
…
He came back a few hours later, berating Goons #1 & #2 for their "idiocy" and "complete incompetence", with a few laden expletives tossed in for added effect. The two must have been newer lackeys, because they seemed genuinely concerned by the amount of vitriol, they were receiving from a villain that – no disrespect – was not actually respected by almost anyone in the villain community.
"The fact that you've had a caped brat sitting in the same cell for days is disgusting! Do you have any idea how much time you've given her to scout out the cell for weaknesses? Figure out an escape plan?" he sneered at the two.
"But sir, this cell is entirely secured-" responded Goon #1
"I'm sure it was. Just like Belle Revve is secure, but you don't see me in there do you?"
"Uh-" sputtered Goon #2, as Goon #1 just looked at him confused. As far as they knew, Cameron had been released from Belle Revve legally, not broken out. However, he was loud, iced up, and the son of a prominent villain, and they were still the contracted help.
And he was sent to supervise them.
"I'm moving the prisoner to the auxiliary safehouse a few blocks from here. Now," barked Cameron.
"Woah woah, we don't have any orders to do that," protested Goon #2.
"I'm giving you the order!"
"We don't take orders from you junior," responded Goon #1, starting to recover from the initial shock of being steamrolled and emphasizing the disrespect in his voice.
"No," Cameron responded coolly. "You just take orders from the very senior bosses that sent me here to supervise you. Maybe I should call them and tell them you're being difficult."
His threat hung in the air, and the two goons gave each other tense looks, trying to assess if either wanted to challenge the young criminal. The disrespect was annoying, but both decided it wasn't worth the headache of dealing with their superiors. Neither spoke.
Cameron gave them a mean grin.
"That's what I thought. Now go get the keys and open this damn door."
…
He slipped her a knife the second they were out of sight from the two goons, who were glaring daggers into his back.
"Start working on the rope," He whispered, shoving her roughly for the benefit of any cameras that may be watching. "You need to be ready to make your move when we get to a blind spot, where there'll be no camera."
"And what exactly is my move?" she hissed, slowly but methodically working on the ropes that bound her hands behind her back. He guided her outside of the decrepit looking warehouse and out into a dark back alley that looked even worse. Once they were outside any doubts about whether he was telling the truth about her location vanished as the overwhelming essence of Gotham assaulted her senses.
"Under my 3rd rib, left side of my chest. The spot there never healed properly from the warehouse incident."
Artemis winced. Even all this time later, mentioning the incident brought up too many bad memories. It still made occasional appearances in her nightmares.
"You'll have to stab me right there. Don't hold back, you'll have to shove it in hard to get through the armor and do enough real damage to make it convincing."
"What?" she whispered harshly, unsure if she'd heard him right. Sane people didn't ask you to shove a knife in their ribs.
"Keep it down, don't want any outside cameras picking up anything," he hissed back, guiding her to a side alley to their right. "Shadows are always updating their tech, and they didn't tell me what kind of security this place has."
"You seem real concerned about cameras for a guy who was super chatty at my cell."
"Ironically enough that's the one blindspot in that entire section of the safehouse." He didn't mention his suspicions that was purposefully done to avoid there being any evidence of what this particular group of mercenaries did to their prisoners.
"I'm not gonna stab you Cam. Especially not there."
"Well Arty if you've got a better plan, then I'm all ears," he answered, guiding her through the dinghy alleyways.
"I do have a better idea."
"Well I'm all ears."
"How about you come with me. Ditch this life."
Cameron inhaled sharply. Because she was in front of him she couldn't see him, but if she could she knew she would have seen his muscles tense and his face contorted into that constipated look he had when he was trying too hard to keep calm.
"Artemis, we've talked about this-" he started, his voice low.
"You have no outstanding warrants and I know because I keep a tab on that," she blurted out. "You helped Superboy & Miss Martian. And now saving me from the Shadows? The Justice League will welcome you with a damn red carpet. You don't have to worry about getting thrown in prison."
"It's not whether or not they'll welcome me. I can't just leave," he muttered through gritted teeth.
"Leave what? This? Dirty safehouses and midnight prison transfers? Even for the criminal underworld this is low level," she fired back.
"I can't just leave my dad behind!" he whisper-shouted back at her.
Artemis let out a frustrated growl, battling the desire to turn around and punch him in the face. Because there it was. Again. At the end of the day, villain or hero, it always comes down to daddy issues doesn't it?
"You mean like how he left you behind? What the hell is it going to take Cam? Both of our fathers are assholes, but between the two yours takes the cake. You want to keep throwing your life away for that? For him?"
Cameron's hold on her tightened, but he didn't slow their pace down.
"He's still my dad Artemis," he responded tersely. "And he's getting old. He needs someone to watch his back, inside and outside of prison."
"And whose going to watch your back Cam? Huh?" she asked defiantly, before adding softly: "You need to leave him."
Cameron didn't respond right away, instead letting the sound of her boots crunching on littered trash and the distant hum of the city fill the silence.
Finally, he exhaled deeply. "I can't Artemis. You know I can't."
He turned her into yet another side-alley roughly, almost making her trip at the sudden change in direction.
"This is the best spot to make a move. I know they didn't set up any security here but you've got to act fast. You've got 10, maybe 15 minutes before they realize something is up and come looking for me."
"15 minutes for them to get suspicious about a 5 minute cell transfer? Don't you think you're being a little generous?"
"No. They'll make their own assumptions about why I'm taking so long with the pretty female prisoner," he answered, and she didn't need to be a genius to figure out what those assumptions were. "Once you stab me, knock me unconscious and make a beeline towards that purple looking building. Once you get there take the next two lefts and you'll be on the main road-" he slipped her a burner phone – "Out of range of the cell signal jammer. You'll be able to call for help while you keep moving."
His voice was monotone, as if he was reading from a script he'd already practiced a thousand times. Artemis knew from their childhood that it was a coping mechanism he used, when he was dealing with something very unpleasant. For a second, she wondered if it was letting her go, or staying behind that was paining him.
When he spun her around and grabbed her shoulders, she knew without a doubt it was the latter.
"You're going to have to make this look good. And Artemis," his voice changed to reflect some urgency now, "When your friends ask what happened, my name better not come up."
"What the hell am I supposed to say?"
"That it was dark. That you were drugged. Honestly I don't care what you say, but I don't need Superman hunting me down for kidnapping you, and I definitely don't need people finding out I let you go. Understood?"
"That's so much stupider than you just coming with me!"
He shot her a look that, even in the darkness of night, showed no room for negotiation. The same look Jade gave her the last time they spoke about Cheshire retiring. That look ended with her pleading, begging her sister to just go home to their mother. To walk away for just a little bit. For her troubles, she got nothing but cutting remarks out of her sister then. She wondered if it would be more effective here. If her old friend would be able to say no so callously, like her sister.
But Artemis hated begging.
"Artemis, if you don't start doing something soon, you're gonna have to do a lot more than stab me in order for me to sell this."
Besides, she decided she probably didn't want to know the answer.
"Damn it Cam," she exhaled, removing the now torn ropes from her wrist.
He waiting exactly three seconds for her to get the ropes off before swinging at her, blatantly overextending his morphed icicle hammer and comically missing her body. She ducked, and his ribs clearly exposed, jammed the knife exactly where he told her before kicking the back of his legs with force. In three moves, she brought him to his knees with a grunt and a pained expression on his face.
Artemis's emotions rapidly fluctuated between anger and worry. Either she had used much more force than he expected, or he had definitely lied about how weak that armor was supposed to be. Either way, she could already feel the blood pooling out of the wound and onto her hands. It was warm, a stark contrast to the icy exterior that made his armor.
She let go of her hold on the knife, and Cameron grimacing at the new tinge of pain for even the slight difference in pressure on the wound. He didn't notice her keep moving to pick up something from the ground, his mind already putting the finishing touches on just what exactly he was going to say when the Shadows – or worse, his father – came asking questions about how he let a prisoner escape.
When she hit him over the head with the rock, he blacked out before his face touched the dirty alleyway.
It took Artemis a few minutes to reach the main street Cameron had pointed her in the direction of, her muscles cramped from days of being shackled. Now back on a familiar main road of Gotham, she immediately recognized where she was. Rather than call someone on the burner phone, she booked it down the street, moving as fast as she could in the direction where she knew there was a Zeta-Tube hidden. The streets had the occasional pedestrian, but this was Gotham and they were used to beat up looking vigilantes running down the streets. No one gave her trouble all the way to the Zeta-Tube, and less than fifteen minutes after she made it out of the alleys she was teleporting herself straight to Mount Justice.
With the Zeta-Tube loudly announcing her arrival, it took little more than a few seconds for the residents of Mount Justice to crowd her. Kaldur, Megan, Zatanna, Conner, & Robin were all still present, and guessing from how alert they were, she knew that they had not been asleep despite it being the middle of the night.
She took one step forward and basically collapsed to her knees, the exhaustion of the last several days taking over now the was finally in friendly territory. The voices of her friends started to crowd her auditory senses, jumbling and mixing together all at once.
"Oh my god Artemis-"
"You do not look traught"
"Girl I'm so happy to see you-"
"Someone call Wally!"
"-He's still searching in Star City-"
The adrenaline crash draining her, she slumped against someone with absurd strength – probably Conner – who picked her up like a feather. The last thing she remembered before passing out was looking down and staring at the blood on her hands.
It wasn't her blood.
"We've got each other's backs."
A/N: I promise I have actual comfort planned in the future of this fic to counter all the hurt, but let's keep it real, Artemis & Cameron have a lot of hurt in their life. I'm not sure how long this fic will end up being, but I've got an outline of what I definitely want, a bunch of chapters in suuuper rough drafts, and then random ideas that pop into my head and get added to the list and make me rewrite other chapters. We'll see where it goes lol. Thanks for reading!