Chapter Three
"ETA 15 minutes," she hears her sister announce over the whine of the rotors. The Caribbean has never been bluer as Santa Prisca comes into view on the horizon.
She tries to remain stoic, while inside she's about to jump out of her skin. Jade's no fool and the best thing the archer can do is just stay silent and distant.
Her father is a bastard, and a dangerous one at that. She's lost track of all the men he's killed, many she's witnessed firsthand. It makes her sick to her stomach at the thought of what he might do to her friends: what he might do to him if things go south. Sportmaster does not take betrayal well, and if he ever discovers her feelings for the speedster, he will make it his life work to hunt him down and make his death as long and excruciating as possible. All just to punish her.
She sees Conner below, playing his part in this twisted play. Megan will soon follow, and that's when all hell will break loose.
The next hours are a blur. At times it's hard to differentiate the good from the bad. Heroes streak across the sky, they speed across the landscape. Magic, Martians, Meta-Humans; pawns on a chessboard moving in all directions at once.
She catches sight of teammates, some lying on the ground writhing in pain, but there is no surrender in their eyes.
She's never felt more alive.
One by one they begin to fall. Queen Bee is the first, followed soon after by Blockbuster and then finally Bane. After that, his army barely puts up a fight.
Luthor escapes as he always does, taking the unconscious dictator with him. The Atlantean calls off the pursuit; there's still work to be done on the ground.
Her eyes never leave her father as she fights through a crowd of Bane's mercenaries. This showdown was inevitable. It's finally time…and she's scared to death. She's betrayed the one man you do not cross. He won't hold back, and neither can she.
Her arrows are easily deflected by her father's mace. She can hear the whine of the chain as the spiked sphere barely misses her skull. To the side she sees her sister just standing, observing. Neither attacking nor retreating; just…watching.
In the distance she hears the Atlantean shout a warning, as strange Apocalyptian technology strikes the ground, causing the earth beneath to boil and melt. The archer has seen this technology at work before, she doubts her father has. As the ground beneath begins to dissolve and the villain sinks, he screams for his eldest daughter to rescue him, to pull him out and continue the fight, but Cheshire remains still, her head tilting curiously as his orders turn to pleas.
When her father is neck deep in his earthen quagmire, the archer approaches. Before he even has a chance to speak, a steel toed boot strikes him across the jaw. His mask flies off as he slips into unconsciousness.
It's over. It's really over.
There's no time to gloat as the last of Bane's mercenaries flee into the jungle; A pursuit soon follows; the Team can't take any chances.
The Atlantean orders her to stand guard, which she gratefully accepts; her hands still trembling, her knees still shaking. Is it adrenalin? Is it fear? Perhaps both.
She struggles to put her arrows back in the quiver, when suddenly she realizes her sister is still lurking nearby. Fear fills her heart as she desperately tries to pull them back out, trick arrows falling helplessly to the ground at her feet.
How could she have missed her? How did all of them miss her?
The archer finally has an arrow aimed center mass, but Cheshire refuses to leave; never tries to escape. She stands there, waiting, watching.
The assassin drops her sais and takes off her mask, walking slowly over to her fallen father. She just stands there silently, staring at him, the expression on her face unreadable. Is it anger, relief, pity?
"He's a monster Jade!" the archer yells across the morass.
Her sister nods in agreement, walking next to her sister and bending down, raising Sportsmaster's chin, admiring the bloody nose and the bruised bootprint on his cheek.
She releases it and steps back, walking away to gather her weapons and mask.
She places the Cheshire Cat back on her face and begins to walk towards the jungle, pausing for a moment before turning back.
"Yes he is," she replies solemnly, "but he wasn't always."
And with those words the Cheshire Cat disappears into the darkness, like so many times before.
Discarding Jade's words, she looks down at him. She hates him with every fiber of her being. This is the moment she's always dreamed of. She gets the last word, she wins, he loses. She's free.
Artemis shakes her head in disgust. Her sister never caught half of his wrath like she did. She was never on the losing end of the constant belittlement, trainings, and punishment like the archer was. Jade was always the golden child, and she was…his baby girl.
Baby girl
For a moment, the archer's mind drifts back to a time when those words weren't filed with anger and venom. The moments in between.
When a proud father would hold his youngest daughter high when she nailed a bullseye from two hundred yards out.
When he would treat his daughters' wounds after being bested by her sister in training; telling her what she did wrong, what she did right.
Encouraging her, not because his wife told him to, but because he knew she had potential, knowing she lived and breathed on his every word, every praise a victory.
Taking her for ice cream when she sent the school bully to the hospital.
Taking her on capers because he trusted her to be his lookout and have his back. Her…not Jade.
For better or worse, treating her like an equal when it came to missions. Teaching her how to survive when the day came that he wasn't there anymore to protect her. When "the life" would finally get the best of him.
He was a monster, but he wasn't always.
Lying there, defeated and vulnerable, she imagines her sister there in his place, and it's then that she knows she can't leave him like this. It's the biggest mistake she'll ever make.
She's seventeen and has just walked away from everything she's ever hoped for, ever dreamed of. For one fleeting moment she was a hero, the best of the best. She had new friends, a new family, a boy she wanted to love.
And for what? Some misplaced sense of guilt or debt. Because for a brief moment in time she actually had a father? He's not going to change, she knows that. If anything, he'll only be worse and will drag her down with him.
As their helicopter clears Santa Priscan air space, she knows she's thrown away the best part of herself