A/N: Alright, before we get started with this next chapter, I thought I should say something before I forget. For the sake of the story Ra's Al Ghul does not know that Bruce Wayne is Batman, because things wouldn't make sense if he did. None of the villains know that Bruce is Batman...just thought I'd clear that up.
The two teenagers reached the house without incident, and ended up parting ways shortly after they arrived. Dick gave some excuse or other, something about him having stuff he had to check up on, before he vanished from sight like a little ninja. Artemis didn't concern herself too much about it. Dick was a weird kid, that much was clear, but Artemis doubted that whatever he was up to was that bad, or something that she should worry about.
Artemis didn't even bother following Dick. She knew that he had likely gone into the main room, which was the largest room the in house, and probably filled with villains at this point. Artemis knew that she would have to go in there eventually, but she was planning on stalling for as long as she could before she did.
Artemis instead went upstairs. There was no reason for anybody else to be up there, so, if she was lucky, Artemis wouldn't run into anybody else. Of course, Artemis never took into account that she may not be the one who had had the same idea. So she was plenty surprised to see a young man leaning against the wall, and he looked just as surprised to see her.
"What are you doing up here?" He asked coldly. Artemis glared at him.
"I could ask you the same thing." She shot back defensively. "Besides, it's none of your business what I'm-" Artemis trailed off when she realized just who she was talking to. "Wait. Cameron?"
"Artemis?" Cameron looked about as shocked to be seeing her as she felt. Artemis couldn't believe she didn't recognize Cameron immediately, but, to be fair, she hadn't actually seen him properly since they were children. It was actually astonishing how little two people could see of each other when they lived in the same house. Sure, they caught glimpses of each other every now and then over the years, but that hardly counted.
Artemis was amazed by how different Cameron looked, yet, at the same time, how much he still looked the same. Cameron was obviously older now, taller, but still as skinny as he'd been when they were just kids. Somehow though, Cameron was able to pull off the scrawny look.
Cameron was also surprised at how much Artemis had grown. Especially in...certain areas. "Wow, babe, you've, uh...really…" Artemis saw where Cameron was gazing, and she was not happy about it.
"Don't be gross, Cam." Artemis crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. Teenagers could be so immature sometimes. Artemis couldn't bring herself to stay mad at Cameron though, not over something so petty, not when it had been years since the two of them had even interacted with each other.
Unable to contain herself, Artemis ran to Cameron and just hugged him. Cameron stiffened at the contact and Artemis could hear his breath quickened. Artemis wondered if she had done something wrong and was about to pull away when Cameron relaxed and returned the embrace.
"It's good to see you, Cam." Artemis muttered.
"Yeah, you too." Cameron said, and Artemis could tell that he meant it. Not for the first time, Artemis wondered if Cameron had missed her as much as she had missed him, and if so, why had he been avoiding her all these years? What had happened?
Their embrace lasted for a while longer before Artemis, who was beginning to feel a little awkward, pulled away. Cameron looked embarrassed, though Artemis couldn't tell if it was because they were seeing each other again, and it was really weird, or if it was because of how long the hug lasted...or maybe he was embarrassed at the fact that they hugged at all.
"So, uh," Artemis laughed nervously as she tried to think of a way to loosen the tension between them. "It was good to see you, again." Artemis mentally slapped herself. She had already said that. "And, uh happy birthday." Another slap. Could things be anymore awkward?
"Happy. Yeah, right." Cameron scoffed bitterly. "Because nothing says 'happy' like being judged by the people who rule the world."
"Cam…" Artemis wasn't sure what to say. What could she say to that? Artemis was saved from trying to come up with a response when Captain Cold, who had, apparently, been looking for Cameron, found them.
"Junior, what are you hiding up here for? Don't you think you should be downstairs right about now?" Captain Cold asked.
"Yeah, whatever." Cameron scowled. He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Fine, let's just get this over with." Cameron went to follow Captain Cold.
"Cameron, wait." Artemis said. The teenager paused and looked back at her. "Just...good luck." Artemis said. Cameron looked surprised for a second before smirking.
"Won't need it." He said before heading downstairs. Artemis stayed where she was and wondered what the heck had just happened. One second, Cameron had seemed nervous and unsure, then, the next, he was acting all cocky, like this whole thing was nothing more than a mildly annoying inconvenience.
"And they say girls are a mystery." Artemis shook her head. She didn't think she would ever understand Cameron, at all.
Artemis sighed and began to head downstairs too. She still didn't necessarily want to be around a bunch of villains, but, more than that, Artemis didn't want to be kept in the dark. If she wanted to know what was going on, she would have to be there to see for herself.
Artemis went into the main room which was, of course, full of villains. And every single one of them looked like they were up to something unpleasant. Artemis made her way into a fairly abandoned corner of the room. Artemis was honestly content with standing there, keeping an eye on their 'guests'. Just because she was in a room full of villains didn't mean she had to go interact with them.
"Gosh, don't you look like you're having fun." Artemis nearly jumped out of her skin. She had been pretty attentive, and yet she hadn't even noticed that that Grayson kid from earlier had snuck up on her. Artemis glared at him.
"Well, excuse me for not being able to relax around this crowd." Artemis scowled. "And what's with all the sneaking around?"
"It's fun." Dick said simply, as if it were obvious. "And if you really don't like being here, then why not just leave?"
"I did leave for a while." Artemis said. "But I had to return eventually."
"Well, yeah, but eventually doesn't exactly have to be right now, does it?" Dick pointed out. "Me and you can probably get out of here for a bit, come back before anything important happens, and nobody will even notice that we were gone."
Artemis considered it. Getting out of the room, away from everybody, did sound like a pretty appealing idea. "Alright." Artemis agreed. "But we have to be back before The Light decides anything. Got it?"
"Easy." Dick smirked. "It's not like we'll be going very far." Dick quickly grabbed Artemis' hand and, before she could protest or say anything, he pulled her out of the crowded room. Artemis didn't know where Dick was leading her, she didn't even know if he knew where they were going, but she willingly followed him. For some reason that she couldn't explain, Artemis trusted this kid.
Dick had been right when he said that the two of them wouldn't go far. He brought her up to the roof, and Artemis didn't bother questioning how he knew how to get up there so easily, she was just glad to be up there. Technically, they hadn't left the house, yet Artemis felt like she was suddenly miles away from all the villains and her problems.
"Wow, it's nice up here." Artemis said as she stared out at the city. "Tell me though, do you often climb to the top of buildings?"
"More often than you would think." Dick laughed. He sat down on the roof and gestured for Artemis to join him. She barely hesitated a second before sitting beside him.
"So I was right, you are a little ninja." Artemis joked.
"Nah, I've just always liked being higher up, even when I was a little kid." Dick said, a look of longing came over his face. Like he was remembering something that he had lost long ago and wouldn't never get back. "It's kinda like being separated from the world, you know? Like you're leaving all your worries and concerns back on the ground."
"Yeah, I get that feeling too." Artemis said. The two of them sat in silence for a bit before Artemis gathered up the courage to ask something she had been wondering for a while. "Hey, uh, earlier when we were talking, you seemed upset when you mentioned The incident. Why? Did-did you lose somebody that night?" At Dick's pained expression Artemis could tell that she shouldn't have asked. "Sorry. You don't have to answer if you-"
"No, it's fine." Dick cut in. He took a deep breath. "I did lose some people that night."
"Your parents?" Artemis guessed. Dick shook his head.
"No. My parents, they died before The Incident happened." Dick said. "That night though, I lost a couple of really close friends."
"What happened?" Artemis asked quietly.
"I don't really know." Dick said. "We-we got separated."
"So you don't know if they died?" Artemis asked.
"No, but everybody is always telling me that they're gone." Dick frowned.
"But, is that what you believe?" Artemis asked.
"I don't know!" Dick cried out. "I mean, I know that it's been years, and the chances of any of them surviving is next to nothing...but I don't want them to be dead." Dick just looked so lost and in pain that Artemis was reminded of how young he was. He was barely a teenager. That was way too young an age for a person to lose not only their parent's but their best friends as well.
Artemis wrapped an arm around Dick's shoulder and pulled him closer till he was leaning against her. Artemis wasn't able to do anything to take away his pain, but the least she could do was help him bare it. She may not know exactly how Dick felt, but she had an idea. She too had lost a parent and a close friend. True, she never was close to her father, and Cameron most definitely wasn't dead, but Artemis often felt like he was lost to her.
The two of them sat silently for a while and just took in the sights of the city. The evening air was cool and relaxing, and Artemis felt that she could stay up here forever.
"So, uh," Dick pulled away from Artemis and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Physical contact like this wasn't exactly something that he was used to. It felt kinda weird...but also nice. "When do you think you wanna go back down and join the others?"
"Is never an option?" Artemis scowled and crossed her arms.
"You not a fan of crowds?" Dick asked.
"Not when the crowd consists of a bunch of evil freaks that I know I can't trust." Artemis said. "Seriously, what are any of them even doing here? And, for that matter, what are you doing here?" Artemis turned to Dick and glared fiercely at him. The teenager raised his hands defensively.
"Hey, there's no reason to turn on me. I'm one of the few people here that you can trust." Dick said. "But you're right to be cautious, considering why most everybody else is here."
"And why is that?" Artemis asked.
"Well, everybody, me included, came to see first hand what The Light's decision would be, though there is disagreement on what people want the decision to be." Dick said. "People like me and the Rogues, we want to see your friend Cameron in power."
"And why exactly would you want that?" Artemis asked. The Rogues, she understood. Captain Cold was their unofficial leader, and everybody knew that the ice themed villains stuck together and had each others backs. But what about Dick?
"Bruce wants Cameron to get the power because, if he doesn't, then The Light would have to choose somebody else to be in charge." Dick said. "A major turf war will ensue, with different baddies fighting each other to show that they would be the best alternative. The world's in enough chaos as it is, and the last thing we need is for the people running it to be at each other's throats...well, more so than usual."
"So that's why everybody's here." Artemis murmured. "Because they want the power that should be Cameron's." Artemis clenched her fists. She should've known.
"Don't worry, Cameron should be fine, as long as he keeps a cool-head tonight." Dick smirked. Artemis rolled her eyes. She had never found ice related jokes to be funny, just incredibly stupid.
"You're hilarious." Artemis said sarcastically. She sighed. "Well, we'd better get back down there before anything happens." She said begrudgingly. The last thing she wanted to do was return to where all the villains were, especially now that she knew that most of them really were up to no good. She had to though, to make sure nobody tried anything against Cameron.
"Yeah, we probably should." Dick stood up and stretched then offered a hand to Artemis to help her up. She took the hand and followed Dick's lead as he began climbing down from the roof.
"Cam had better be okay in there." Artemis muttered to herself. If anything had happened to that idiot, then somebody was going to pay...dearly.
Cameron was not a people person, especially not when the people he had to be around were backstabbing, lying jerks. Cameron wasn't just being paranoid when he thought that at least half the people in the room wouldn't mind seeing him dead, or at least out of the picture so that they could get their shot at power.
For the past three years, ever since Cameron had been put somewhat in charge of Star City, he had known that everybody in the villain community, and likely outside of it as well, saw him as the weak link, and honestly, he couldn't blame them. He had only been fifteen! No villain in their right mind would trust a teenager to be in charge of anything...Apparently The Light hadn't gotten the memo.
They had been the ones to decide that Cameron could play the part of being in charge for a few years. Nobody had been very happy about the decision, but they didn't say anything or make a fuss because that would be going against The Light, and nobody wanted to do that. Besides, Cameron's position would only be a temporary one until The Light found somebody better, so it wasn't a big deal.
At least, that was what everybody had thought, until The Light had declared that they were considering putting Cameron in charge of Star City permanently. Nobody, especially not Cameron, had seen this announcement coming. Sure, nothing was set in stone yet, but after tonight it very well could be, which was why Cameron felt so anxious.
He tried not to show it though. He couldn't let any of these jerks know that they were getting to him. No, he had to play it cool, act natural. Cameron had thought that he was doing a fairly good job at hiding his anxiety until Len elbowed him.
"Stop tapping your toe so much." Len said quietly so only Cameron would hear. "You're starting to freeze the floor." Cameron started and looked down to see that Len was right, his toe tapping was causing a thin layer of ice to spread on the floor. Cameron bit his lip and stopped the tapping immediately. He hadn't even realized that he was doing it in the first place. He just hoped that nobody else had noticed.
A few years before Cameron had learned that he could generate ice not just from his hands, but from his feet as well. He didn't do it very often because he hadn't yet learned how to control the ice through his feet, hence why he was accidentally freezing the floor.
"Sorr-I mean, right." Cameron scowled, he was really not handling things very well. First off, tapping his toe and the ice on the floor were both clear indications that he was feeling nervous. Anybody would be able to tell that much if they bothered looking. As if that weren't bad enough though, he had almost apologized for it, which would have just made things much, much worse. One of the basic rules of being a villain is you don't apologize for anything. Losing control of his power would be a sign of weakness, but apologizing for it would be seen as an even bigger weakness. Villains were ruthless, cruel, and weren't supposed to feel sorry about it. If they made a mistake, they acted like it was on purpose.
Under normal circumstances Cameron could handle this type of situation, where he was watched at all times by people who were just waiting for him to slip up, with confidence. He wouldn't give anybody any reason to doubt his abilities. Tonight though, Cameron was off his game. He couldn't focus long enough to even begin to pretend he wasn't nervous. His thoughts were too occupied.
It was all Artemis' fault. Running into her before coming in here had really thrown Cameron off. He honestly hadn't expected any interaction with Artemis tonight and had been caught off guard. All the barriers that Cameron had been building up for the past ten years had collapsed the second Cameron had recognized Artemis and realized just how beautiful she had become over the years.
Cameron did his best to not let thoughts of Artemis crowd his brain, though it wasn't easy. It only got worse when Cameron had seen Artemis sneak off with some random brat. Ever since they had left Cameron had been too distracted with questions to concentrate on anything else. Questions like why weren't those two back yet? Where did they run off to? And who the heck was that kid? It had seemed like Artemis had known him, which just made Cameron more suspicious. Artemis never left Star City, and Cameron could tell that the kid wasn't from around here. So how did the two of them know each other?
Cameron got jerked out of his thoughts rather painfully when Len elbowed him again, except this time it was much harder.
"Ow! What was that for?" Cameron rubbed his now slightly sore shoulder and glared at Len. The older ice villain shook his head and gestured to the left, and he didn't look happy. Cameron frowned and looked toward where Len had indicated. What he saw made his blood run even colder than it usually did. There, heading in their direction, was Lex freaking Luthor.
Perfect...just perfect. This was the last thing Cameron needed right now. To have a one-on-one chat with a member of The Light. Cameron could tell that that was Luthor's intent. He could see it in the man's eyes.
"Ah, Cameron, there you are." Luthor said as he came up to them. Cameron frowned at the use of his actual name. When he was around other villains, or anybody that he wasn't especially close to, he prefered to be called by Icicle Junior. Yeah, it was a bit demeaning for a villain name, but if everybody else got to be called by their alias', then he should too. Cameron kept his mouth shut though. He knew that now was not the time to argue about this.
"I was wondering if you would come talk with me, man-to-man." The way Luthor said that, it was clear that he wasn't asking. Cameron knew that he wasn't going to get out of talking with Luthor, so he followed the man.
"So, Cameron. You seem a bit tense tonight." Luthor commented as they walked. Cameron felt his breath quicken. He had been hoping that nobody had noticed how nervous he had been all night.
"It's nothing." Cameron said evenly. Luthor raised an eyebrow. He obviously didn't believe Cameron's words.
"You know, Cameron, it is understandable that you are nervous." Luthor said, which made Cameron stop in his tracks. He couldn't have possibly heard that right. "After all," Luthor continued. "It is a dangerous position that you're aiming for. A position that many other people would also like. Older, more experienced people. You would have a big problem on your hands if those people turned against you."
Cameron clenched his fists and tried to keep a calm expression, even though on the inside, he was freaking out. Lex Luthor was trying to scare him. Now Cameron knew for a fact that one seventh of The Light didn't want him in power over Star City. And Cameron was quite sure that he had just been threatened. He knew a veiled threat when he saw one.
"You won't have to worry about that." A new voice cut into the conversation. Cameron turned to see that they were being joined by Artemis and that kid she had run off with earlier. It was the kid who had spoken. "If Junior gets any trouble, we'll send help from Gotham."
"Oh, and why would you do that?" Luthor asked, and it was a viable question. The villains rarely made alliances with each other. Usually it was only done when all sides could benefit from it...but how would Gotham benefit from helping Star City?
The kid looked panicked at the question for a moment. He cast a quick glance at Artemis before he announced, "Because me and Artemis are engaged!"
Cameron's world froze, and everybody standing within fifteen feet of him noticed a sudden drop in temperature.
"You-you're what?" Cameron asked weakly. He didn't notice that Artemis looked as started at the announcement as he felt.
"Grayson, what the hell are you saying." Artemis hissed.
"I'm sorry, Artemis, I know you didn't want to tell anybody yet." The kid said.
"We're not-" Artemis growled.
"How the heck did this happen?" Cameron glared coldly at the two younger teenagers. "I mean, you guys don't even know each other."
"Why are you getting so angry about something that's not even going to happen?" Artemis asked. "And, for your information, me and Dick do know each other."
"How?" Cameron crossed his arms.
"We met earlier today, and-" Dick began, but Cameron stopped him.
"See? You can't know somebody after just a day." Cameron said.
"Yes, you can, if you actually bother to talk to each other." Artemis snapped. Cameron's breath quickened. He knew that Artemis wasn't just talking about herself and Dick anymore. She was talking about what was going on between the two of them. Cameron suddenly became very aware of the fact that they were having this discussion in the main room, surrounded by villains who were listening to what they were saying, watching what they were doing. Cameron could feel himself beginning to sweat.
"Artemis, can we discuss this later?" Cameron lowered his voice. They couldn't talk about this now, not in here.
"What, so you can just run off and hide in your room like you always do? I don't think so." Artemis raised her voice, which just caught the attention of even more people. Cameron cast his eyes around the room to see that people were staring at them. Watching, waiting.
Judging.
Artemis was still talking to him, but Cameron barely registered her words. A feeling of panic came over him, overwhelming him. Cameron's thoughts were all jumbled up and he could barely understand anything that he was thinking. The only thought he understood was that he needed everybody to stop looking at him!
"Cameron, are you listening to me?" Artemis asked sharply. She grabbed Cameron's arm to get his attention. Cameron flinched harshly at the touch. Instinct took over and Cameron shot a shard of ice at Artemis in defense. Thanks to Artemis' own quick instincts, she was able to mostly dodge the attack, though not completely. The ice blast scraped against her arm causing a cut.
Cameron's eyes widened at the sight of blood on Artemis' arm. He had hurt her. Again. Cameron shook his head and took a step back.
"Arty, I-I didn't mean-" Cameron felt sick to his stomach. Why couldn't he do anything right? "I'm so sorry, I-" Cameron froze when he realized what he had just said, what he had just done. He had shown everybody his weakness, his lack of control, and apologized for it. Basically, Cameron had just done everything that he was absolutely not supposed to do in front of these guys.
Cameron's head was pounding. He felt surrounded, trapped. Everybody was looking at him, judging him. Cameron couldn't take their looks anymore. He had to get out. He had to escape.
So he ran. He knew he shouldn't be doing this, that there was a better way of handling things. Cameron knew he was being a coward by running, but he didn't care. All he cared about was that he had to get away.
He couldn't handle it anymore.
