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Disclaimer: NO, Joss Whedon and all those people do!
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"Now girls, you have to remember that demons are demons, even when they look human." Buffy swung a sword idly, demonstrating that weapons were second nature to her. "You have to learn to tell the difference between humans and...Artemis!" Buffy hollered, noticing that the blue-haired girl was listening to her headphones again. She'd only been at the house for half an hour, and already she was proving to be a handful.
"But I thought Artemis was human," Amanda said, confused.
"She is, barely." Buffy rolled her eyes and tossed the sword across the basement, severing Artemis' headphones from the CD player.
Artemis opened her eyes. "I was listening to that." Her voice was cold and flat.
"And you were supposed to be listening to me. In case you hadn't noticed, we're up against a big bad here. The First. The evil that evil things fear, and its Bringers like to kill little Potentials like you. Do you want to end up dead?" Buffy was now standing over Artemis, who was sitting on the floor.
"Does it matter?" Artemis looked up at Buffy lazily. "I don't give a damn."
"First of all, what if your stupidity costs someone their life?" Buffy picked up her sword and ran a hand down the flat of its blade.
"Their own fault. They shouldn't have been depending on me. You can't trust anyone. That's the first rule of survival."
Buffy ignored her. "Secondly, you're one of the last potential Slayers in existence. If you die, it could mean the end of our line and the end of the world as we know it."
"So what? I didn't ask to be a Potential. I didn't ask to get dragged out of my bed in the middle of the night and shoved into a basement in California to train for a war that I don't care about and the rest of the world doesn't even know about." Artemis motioned around her. "They didn't know about this until you told them. No one will ever know about this. No one will care." She shrugged. "Why should I bother trying to save the world? It never wanted me. It's spent the last 16 years trying to piss me off, and yet here I am, the weight of the world on my shoulders."
Buffy glared at Artemis. "As a Potential, you have only a small part of the world's weight on your shoulders. I've had its full weight since I was 16. We are Slayers. We are Champions. We only have one future: saving the world."
"Again with the 'why should I bother?'" Artemis stood, still leaning against the wall.
"Because it's your responsibility."
"So? Responsibility is for morons who can't figure out how to get through life on their own. I don't need anyone to lean on and I refuse to be the leaning post for anyone else." Artemis crossed her arms across her chest and tried to appear unconcerned, but everyone could see her entire body tensing up. She was ready and willing to fight.
"You are the only thing standing between the order in this world and the chaos of the demons. How would you like to see your family get slaughtered by a vampire? How would you like to be killed by your father after he's become a vampire?"
Artemis smirked and decided to ignore the questions. "Do you honestly believe that 'order and chaos bit,' or are you just feeding us a line of crap like your idiot Watcher told you to? You didn't believe this shit at my age, and you don't now. No one actually believes all that bull."
"I do believe it. Whether or not I want to or I did when I was younger is pointless. I know that it's my destiny. My fate. I don't have any other choices and neither do you. This is what we are. I am the Chosen One. We have all been Chosen." Buffy placed the point of her sword on the floor and leaned on it. Turning her head, she saw a mixture of confusion, fear and faith on the faces of the other Potentials.
"You sound like that asshole that calls himself my Watcher. Chosen, Chosen, Chosen." Artemis made her voice whiny and nasal. "That's all he ever talks about. I'm Chosen to be a Potential. I could be Chosen to be the Slayer. Well, I've Chosen to ignore this crap." Artemis slunk over to the stairs.
"Where do you think you're going?" Buffy asked.
"I told you: I've Chosen to ignore this crap. Bye." She waggled her fingertips sarcastically and left the basement.
***
"Why'd her Watcher come along?" Xander asked Giles. "It doesn't seem to be standard operating procedure."
"Artemis poses...almost legendary problems. She was assigned her first Watcher when she was 13. In the first three months that she had a Watcher, she drove him insane. After that, she went through a Watcher every month or so. They were completely useless for future work, having to be institutionalised as they were. Several of them committed suicide. After her tenth Watcher the Council realised that they had to do something different..."
"They hired a demon?" Xander cut in.
"What? No, they didn't."
"Then how come Spike didn't pass out when he attacked Thomas?"
"No chip anymore, remember?" Willow made a 'duh' face.
Giles wiped his glasses. "As I was saying, they decided to do something different. They pulled Thomas out of the Academy and gave Artemis a Watcher who hadn't graduated. Because he wasn't fully trained as a Watcher, his theories on training Artemis weren't etched in stone. He's been with her for nearly a year."
"So he's here why?" Xander repeated. "This house is already packed to the roof."
"He can control her better than anyone else, and with so many Slayers to look after, I don't want to nor do I have time to fight with Artemis."
"Then why didn't you just leave her in Canada?"
"We need to save all of the Potentials that we can. She is, unfortunately for us, a Potential and an important part of the Slayer line's future."
***
#Holy crap. I need a cigarette bad!# Artemis thought. She rummaged through her backpack, spewing its contents across the floor. #Goddamn it. Where are they!?! I know I packed them.#
Reaching the bottom of the bag, her hand closed on the metal box that kept her cigarettes safe and intact.
#Finally.# She opened the can and dumped its contents into her hand. #Last one. I'll have to bum some more.#
As she headed out the back door, she bumped into Kennedy.
"Watch where you're going," Artemis snarled.
"It was your fault. Besides, I wanted to ask you something. All of us are wondering--how is it that you're stronger than Buffy? Are you a real Slayer or something?"
"What? I'm not. I'm not the Slayer. I'm only a Potential, like you."
"Then how'd you hold her back earlier? She's way stronger than any of us."
"Oh, that. It's a pressure point. It relaxes the muscles in the upper body, but it still looks like the restrained person is struggling. The orderlies at...I mean, go to hell. You're just a ditzo-bitch like the others." Artemis went outside.
Artemis leaned up against the bench in the backyard and lit up. As she tasted the smoke, her entire body relaxed.
Spike watched from the shadows, unnoticed. The sun wasn't completely down yet, so he didn't dare come out from under his duster. #So the little hellian smokes. Buffy's gonna kill her when she finds out.#
Just then, Buffy's head poked out of the back door. "Artemis, would you come in here?" Her voice was dangerously calm.
"Yeah. I'm on my way." The younger girl put her cigarette out carefully and tucked what was left behind her ear.
Thinking that this was all starting to sound very intriguing, Spike crept along the shadowed areas of the yard and followed her inside.
Buffy was standing in the debris from Artemis' backpack, one hand hidden behind her back.
#Shit.# Artemis thought, noting the oversweet smile on Buffy's face.
"Artemis, what do you suppose is behind my back?"
"Oh goody! A guessing game. Ooh ooh! No, it isn't a demon. I can tell by the look on your face. It couldn't be a broadsword. I'd be able to see it. Oh! I know, your hand!!" Artemis had the maniac mask of the truly sarcastic on her face.
"You're in big trouble. You'd better take another guess."
"What is it?"
Buffy extended her hand. In it was a little plastic baggie containing dried plant matter.
"Pot. You brought pot into my home. If social services found drugs in this house, they'd take Dawn away." Buffy released a breath. "If it weren't for the fact that Giles says I have to protect you, I'd send you outside to die."
"I really couldn't care less. Just give it to me and I'll get out of here."
"No. I'm going to flush it, but first, I want to know, what could possibly make you think it was okay to bring it here?"
"Thomas said I could. He always lets me have some."
"Not in this house you can't." Buffy glared at her young charge. "I need to talk to Thomas. The others are upstairs reading YM, so you go down to the basement and wait for me."
"No. I'm not going anywhere until you give me back my pot."
"Don't fight the issue. Go."
"No."
Spike grabbed Artemis' arm. "I'll take her down."
***
"Do you know what I found in Artemis' stuff?" Buffy asked, her voice betraying her rage.
"Oh god. Whatever it was, it wasn't alive, was it? And if it was, please tell me it wasn't poisonous." Thomas searched Buffy's face, scared.
"It was pot. In my house."
"Oh, that's it? I thought we were talking about something serious." He started to turn away.
Buffy grabbed his arm. "This is serious. Pot will dull her response times and get her killed. What kind of a Watcher are you?"
"I've found that if I allow her certain...freedoms, she listens to me. I've actually managed to stay out of the nuthouse, which is more than I can say for her other Watchers. Half of them committed suicide."
"So you just let her carry drugs across the border and however many state lines it was?"
"Yes. Do you have a problem with that?"
"Oh no, not at all. I could just lose Dawn, get arrested and lose my job. No biggie."
"If it's that big of a deal, give her pot to me and I'll look after it."
"I flushed it."
"You did what?!? Do you have any idea how much trouble she's going to cause now?!? You shouldn't have pissed her off."
***
"C'mon. I know you smoke. Give me a cigarette. Please?" Artemis looked up at Spike and batted her eyes like a flirtatious little school girl.
"I've got well over a century's experience with children like you. I'm not giving in." Spike looked at his bed, with its chains, not wanting to give Artemis the satisfaction of having any attention paid to her.
"Are you sure?" She stepped a little closer.
"I'm sure. Buffy'd probably dust...You have no right to touch me there." He looked down in shock at Artemis' wandering hand.
"Come on Spike. You know you like it. I can feel it in your eyes. The fear... The need... it's all there. It's the same with every guy. They're all interested. They know I'm different, dangerous even, and they always give in." She deftly switched her grip.
"I'm not. Get you hands off. She'll dust me if she sees this." He stepped away, pushing her gently.
Artemis stepped forward and pressed herself against his side. "Just relax."
"I can't let you do this. It's wrong." Spike looked slightly panicked.
"Just close your eyes and pretend I'm Buffy. It isn't hard." She leaned against him, up on her toes. "But it's getting there," she whispered giddily.
"Don't. Just... just get away from me." He tried to escape again, but she stuck to him like glue. "Stop."
"I'll tell you what. If you can look me straight in the eye and mean it when you say you don't like this, I'll leave you alone. If not, you give me a cigarette." She looked at him carefully. "Deal?"
Figuring that it was worth a shot and knowing that he was a world class liar, Spike replied, "Deal." He took a deep breath. "I hate..." He closed his eyes and moaned. When he opened them a moment later, he hissed, "You cheated! That wasn't fair."
"I kept up my end of the bargain. I never said I wouldn't go down your pants." She shrugged and put out her hand. "Cigarette."
"Fine. Just don't tell Buffy. She'll kill me." He handed it to her.
Artemis dropped it into the pocket of her knee-length leather coat. She walked across the basement and sat on his bed. "I should have a harmonica. She's probably gonna leave me in this dungeon forever."
As if on cue, Buffy's head popped through the door. "I've talked it over with Giles and we've decided on your punishment. You're going to stay down here on your own, all night. I'll send down food in a while." #God,I'm turning into a parent. Dishing out punishments. Ick.#
In reply, Artemis curled up on Spike's bed and pretended to sleep.
***
After an hour or so, she really was asleep. The nightmare attacked her from nowhere.
A twelve year old Artemis entered the nursery, with its pale pinks and little ornaments. Sunlight trickled in around the curtains, bathing the floor in liquid gold. She brushed her long brown hair over her shoulder, so that she wouldn't wake the baby. She silently approached the crib, where her younger sister was sleeping. Smiling gently, Artemis put her hand on the side of the baby's face.
"Hush, little baby, don't cry." Her voice was soft and soothing. "I am Artemis. You are Diana. I came first. Even in mythology, I came first, cause the Greeks made up Artemis, and the Romans took her and made up Diana. I should be the one they love, not you. I don't want to die and leave them with you. I want them for myself. You're going to die now."
The warm light that seemed to flow out of her yellowy green eyes turned icy and Artemis covered Diana's mouth and nose with the palm of her hand. The baby woke up and started struggling.
#I'm a genius. They'll never figure out it was me. They'll think it was SIDS. As long as there's no mark, people always think it's SIDS. It's a good thing we have the discovery channel.# She chuckled softly.
"I'm gonna be the one who grows up, not you. This is my life. They're my parents. They don't belong to you. I don't care what that stupid fortune teller said. She was wrong. She has to have been. You're gonna die young. I'm not gonna be the Slayer. I'm gonna be the genius, not you. I have to prove to them that she was wrong. That I'm gonna be just as great as anyone else."
Diana kicked her feet feebly, trying to cry out as she was being smothered. Her kicks were rapidly becoming weaker.
"Damn it, this is supposed to go quickly. Die, you stupid little baby. If they don't have you, they'll have to love me again." Artemis put a little more pressure on the infant's face.
All of a sudden, the door burst open, and Artemis' parents came in.
"The baby!!" Artemis' mother shrieked. "What are you doing to her?"
"Killing her," Artemis replied.
Artemis' father picked her up easily and threw the diminutive twelve year old across the room. Discovering that the baby wasn't breathing, he started artificial respiration. This threw Artemis into a panic, so she didn't notice her mother rush out the door.
"No! don't save her. She has to die so I can live. She has to die." Artemis shrieked something indecipherable. "Please let her die. It'll change everything the fortune teller said. It'll make it all lies. It'll make me never become the Slayer." Artemis drew herself up against the wall and started crying. She looked at her father pitifully and whispered, "Please, I want to live." She started pounding her sides and screaming one long, high note.
Everything became a watery blur and she went unconscious as her mother ran back in and injected her with something that the doctor had given her at the appointment they'd had the week before. The heavy sedative kept Artemis out for hours.
When finally she opened her eyes again, the bright, cheery face of a nurse greeted her.
"Good morning, dear. Welcome to Snowy Pines Psychiatric Hospital."
Artemis woke up in a cold sweat, bruised and stretched out on the floor. Thinking back, she realised that she hadn't had that nightmare in months. She wrapped her coat around her more snugly and prepared to stay awake all night.
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Thank you for reading. Please review. The next chapter should be up in a week.