A/N: Wow, guess who's back, back again. I'm very sorry and a big thank you to everyone who's been leaving reviews, they were honestly the only things pushing me to continue with this. It's been a struggle trying to write for this since YJ has fallen off the bandwagon a little bit. Should've written it longer, made it more awesome, etc etc. But I figured I could come back to revamp the whole thing once I'm finished.
BUT SEASON 3 GUYS, DID YOU HEAR ABOUT IT? WALLY'S BACK GUYS, DID YOU HEAR ABOUT IT? Please, anyone wanting/needing to gush about it, message me.
Chapter 20: Time
It wasn't as if Artemis wasn't accustomed to how life worked. Or specifically, how her life worked.
Her existence could be arranged into a linear equation— a mathematical one that she briefly mused Wally would appreciate—before she was reminded that he was most probably the reason why she found her bedroom occupied as soon as she'd gotten home.
For always, her life was a formula that dictated each day to have a quantity of shittiness to equal, or outweigh, any good that she had managed to find happiness in. And of course, it was on Christmas night after dinner at the Wests, that the other half of her estranged family decided to pay her a generous visit.
When Artemis felt the door click behind her with a gentle shove of her right foot, she had sensed, rather than seen, the couple of figures in her presently quite cramped room.
The window was left slightly ajar, and her nose wrinkled as the foul, frosty Gotham winds filtered in from the back alley. She removed her bulky coat with a roll of her shoulders and tossed it onto her vacant bed, brushing off the chill.
"Happy Christmas." She bit out. Even mall Santas in Gotham had nothing on the bitterness in her tone.
Her father's hulking silhouette leaned against the wall adjacent to the window, and the Cheshire mask glinted in the dull moonlight where the wearer stood, facing her old Alice in Wonderland poster.
Artemis closed her eyes for a brief moment as a sudden wave of exhaustion sunk its claws deep into her, and it battled with the adrenaline keeping her alert where she stayed by the door, a hand still positioned on the doorknob. "You two could've at least closed the window."
Her sister was the first to physically acknowledge her. Cheshire turned to face her, slow and languidly, as though she was reluctant to tear her eyes away from the poster on the wall. If the archer's consciousness had noticed that minute detail, her subconscious had buried it deep within her before her bland expression could crumble.
Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, "What road do I take?"
The cat asked, "Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it really doesn't matter, does it?"
Artemis was sick of that poster. She was sick of it reminding her that she was still Alice. Her and Jade, they'd been Alice together once, but Cheshire had chosen her own road long ago, without a glance back at the girl still lost in the dark forest. It might not have mattered to Jade, but it had mattered to Artemis.
"What can I say?" came the low, sarcastic voice behind the mask. "It's the season of giving."
"I'd rather have some mythical old, sweaty guy in my room with real gifts."
"Sounds like daddy dearest to me." Artemis could hear the smirk behind Cheshire's mask, and it took effort to keep her own lips flat and unamused as she swung her gaze to Sportsmaster. Oh, he was definitely having a jolly good time.
"We didn't come for chit chat," he straightened, and his shadow rose into the moonlight.
Artemis rolled her eyes. That's the Christmas spirit!
There was a harsh glint in his eyes Artemis did not like. It was hard to forget that their last encounter had led to her short hiatus from the Team. And a whole lot of drama. The archer narrowed her eyes, uncrossed her arms and held up a hand. "Not interested."
Her father barked a laugh. "It's in the family, you can't run from it."
Artemis squared her shoulders. "Who said I was running?"
"Don't be a fool, girl. You should thank me. The Light requires your assistance."
"And I'm grateful, but still not interested."
Sportsmaster took off his ski mask, his eyes indistinguishable in the dark, but the line of his lips said it all. He thought her a fool, like her tiny, prosaic mind was incapable of making her own decisions. Artemis gritted her teeth.
He smiled—a twisted, foreign thing the rest of his face forgot to follow. "Nobody said you had to be interested. However, I happen to believe you're very invested with your new friends. What would they think of your own flesh and blood? What would they think of your blood ties in light of recent events?"
Her nostrils flared as soon as his words dripped into her consciousness. And she felt the snarl on her face slacken.
You've got nothing to prove.
Wally was wrong. She had everything to prove. From the very start since her birth, since her mother's imprisonment, since Cheshire vanished into the night—Artemis scowled.
It was time.
"What do I have to do?"
She had been absent the whole week. Zatanna had texted her every day, asking about Christmas night –and a certain redhead, but she never even read past How was Wal—and Artemis had replied with her own short message: Not as good as your night at Wayne Manor, I bet.
There had been no messages after that, and that was what Artemis needed. A whole week to prepare for the coming out speech, to prepare for all their reactions, for all different routes of following events. And, in the worst case scenario, Artemis needed time to plan the list of things in her locker in the Cave she'd carelessly left the last few months. She hated leaving things behind. Her sister had done enough to last the two of them.
There was another secret list she'd been planning, a list of things to say to each individual member of the team. It felt too much like a funeral for someone she loved, except in this scenario, no one was leaving. She would be the one buried six feet under. She pictured her name on that imaginary gravestone – Artemis – but never got past her name to think of the short epitaphs that might be written underneath: Bitch. Prone to constant PMS. Party pooper.
Traitor.
She imagined the layer of dirt that would pile atop of her body after, and wondered what Artemis Crock would do after death. She would still be Alice, lost in the forest. Because even in death, she would never disappear like Cheshire did, she might just be Artemis without the green, without the arrows. Maybe Artemis would finally give up on the Artemis she'd always dreamed of. Maybe Paula would finally have the Artemis that she'd always dreamed of.
It was time, but she always wanted more. She needed more.
Something felt off to the archer. Their mission at Smokey Mountains had gone well—too well. The case Cheshire had been carrying was now safely in their hands, and it had been easy, minus the avalanche and her almost dying.
That's what made it so wrong. Cheshire.
Perhaps it was just the lingering shock that Jade had pulled her out of certain death— maybe that had been why they had been able to obtain the case. But Artemis knew Cheshire. No avalanche, not even her sister, would stop her from getting her way.
Still, it didn't stop the lockednailedshutchainedup box she'd been trying to bury deep down in her chest from surfacing. You're still my sister, had been Cheshire's reason.
Had it been a code? Did it have some deeper meaning? Was Cheshire trying to tell her that she was on her side — Artemis shook her head.
She'd been spending too much time around Hello, Megan!.
Including tonight, it would be the most Artemis had seen her sister in a week since she'd left years ago. Sister. That seemed like such a distant idea. Unlike what tonight was.
She rubbed her temples. It was time. Now or never, speak or forever be on the wrong side. Just a little bit longer… After Batman's briefing.
"Cookie for your thoughts?"
Bright hair blinded her vision. She had to blink a few times, before she realised her forehead hurt from excessive frowning.
Wally walked backwards, facing her as they made their way to the training room. She could tell it took effort not to rush off; his fingers were tapping incessantly on his thigh.
"Only if they're the white chocolate and raspberry ones your mom makes," interjected Robin from behind her. "Divine. Your mother is a talented, talented woman."
Wally's gaze slid behind her to frown at the younger boy. "How do you know—" he gasped. "No."
Robin grinned. "Your locker code was barely a secret. Even M'gann's failed meatloaf was harder to crack."
The speedster wore a scandalised expression, and Artemis' lips turned upward involuntarily.
Robin smirked. "And apparently Artemis' smile is harder to crack too."
The archer rolled her eyes, but she knew it was futile when her mouth stretched further. She'd opened her lips to retort, but the walls of the training room came into sight, and the stark lighting that washed over them brought Artemis' feet to a halt.
She'd felt her smile falter a second too late, and Wally's crinkled gaze became concerned. Robin passed them with a frown, but the Boy Wonder said nothing as Wally hesitated with a foot forward, and then he materialised in front of the archer.
Artemis took a step back, eyebrow raised and shoulders back in a stance Wally eyed, before sighing.
He reached out with a yellow clad arm, the archer's narrowed grey eyes traced the movement. It felt weird for Wally to move so slowly, so cautiously. He was used to the ease that he could move despite gravity, but he knew that Artemis possessed her own laws of gravity.
The fingers of his glove brushed against her elbow, and he towered over her, creating a flesh wall between them and their teammates.
"Listen, about Christmas… I — we haven't seen you in a week."
Artemis averted his gaze, and the speedster felt the ache of missing her eyes on him, regardless of how brief the moment was.
The archer swallowed, before nodding. "I had some things to think about. Sort out. Prepare."
Wally's forehead creased, and flashes of white snow, red lips, humiliating sweaters and hopeful promises flickered through his mind. "This is it, huh?"
Her lips pulled into a tentative smile. "This is it."
Artemis watched as his eyes crinkled and a blindingly wide grin overcame the pensive look on his face.
"Should I be sitting?"
A laugh erupted in the back of her throat, and she shook her head before she peered over his shoulder to watch the rest of the team congregating in the middle of the training room.
This was it.