Chapter Eleven
Jade stared dumbfounded at the two, who were still in a gridlock that looked strangely like a rough embrace. Artemis immediately pushed away from Nightwing and panicked to think of an excuse for the unexpected scene.
"We- we were just- I needed- He was helping me-" she tripped over her words until Jade snuffed out any excuse that Artemis might have been able to conjure.
"No." The word fell like a blow to the head and Artemis' mouth snapped shut. "Let me guess; You've been sneaking off behind Dad's back to train with batboy," she nodded in Nightwing's direction, "so that you can be like all the other members in the League of Shadows. Am I right?"
Artemis couldn't get a single word to come out of her mouth. Whatever she would have come up with would have just made her sound stupider than she already looked. Thankfully, she didn't have to, because Jade spoke again, this time in a slightly lighter tone.
"So this is who Red was planning to meet," she smiled triumphantly at Nightwing. "Coward. He was afraid to tell me that tonight I'd be training with my own sister."
"W-what?" Artemis managed to spit out. "Nightwing is going to train you too?"
"No," Jade rolled her eyes. "I already have a trainer. Red Arrow has been teaching me for years. So don't even think for a second that you know more about this than I do."
"There is no way." The initial shock had passed over Artemis, giving her a hint of a smile, but she was still questioning the entire situation. "You kept it a secret for years? That's not possible."
"Of course it is," Jade answered matter-of-factly. "I'm just way better at hiding it than you are."
Artemis started to laugh. It was light and cheery. She suddenly sprung at her sister and gave her an unexpected hug. "I can't believe this!" she exclaimed. Then she laughed again.
At this time Red Arrow entered, and Artemis remembered she was in the middle of a training session. She was about to ask Nightwing whether he had known about this, but then remembered that he probably had, being the world's best- ahem- second best detective. So she turned to Red Arrow and asked, "You're going to help me with archery?"
"If you want," he shrugged carelessly. "Nightwing says you have a natural talent. I'm going to put that to the test."
Artemis put her game face on and retrieved the bow from the wall. Red Arrow took his own bow and arrows. "You first," he nodded.
She felt the eyes of Jade and Nightwing on her as she strung her bow and summoned all her concentration to hit the target perfectly. Taking a few deep breaths, she remembered Nightwing's advice from earlier that day and focused on looking past the target. She pulled back, then released. It hit dead center.
"Nice," Red Arrow complemented, looking at her while pulling his own arrow back and releasing it. Artemis tried to keep her jaw from dropping, when it hit split her own arrow. Brushing off the staggering defeat- not that she had really thought of it as a competition in the first place- she turned to him with still a bit of dignity.
"Well," she smiled. "I see you have your work cut out for you."
"Let's get started then," he grinned in return and he immediately began coaching her on the basics. He kept her on her toes the entire lesson, and an hour had passed before Artemis even realized that Nightwing had left the room, and Jade was no where to be seen.
oOo
"Listen; what are your motives here?"
Nightwing stared at Jade, nonplussed. "What are you getting at?"
"You know what I'm getting at," Jade returned with venom.
"No, I really don't," Nightwing hissed evenly.
"What are you trying to do? You know that the closer you attach yourself to her, the closer danger follows."
Nightwing was silent.
"I care about my sister. And I know that the more you lead her on, the more danger she'll be in. She's never been able to think for herself. She'd follow you off the edge of a cliff!"
"How much time have you really spent with her, Jade?" Nightwing, suddenly roused, defended her. "She's smart, and has a mind all to her own that wants something beyond this, something beyond me! If you think that I've been trying to lead her on, or that we have some kind of attachment romantically-"
"Ha!" Jade broke in. "I never said anything about a romantic attachment! You just gave yourself away, Boy Wonder."
Nightwing stared at her blankly for a moment, then spit out, "I don't-"
"I think you get the point. I want my sister to be happy, but if she gets hurt, you will pay."
oOo
Artemis lotioned her palms for the billionth time that evening. She groaned as the lotion bottle spit out the last bit of what was left.
"Artemis, I told you to stop putting lotion on your fingers." Jade was sitting next to her on the couch, watching an episode of Gossip Girl and eating pizza.
"They hurt though," she whined in reply. Jade rolled her eyes. "You'll never build up any calluses if you don't let them harden. Do you want your fingers to hurt every time you use your bow?"
Her sister sulked in silent defeat. She ate a slice of pizza, but the heat burned her calluses even more. She made a little whining sound, but stopped when Jade shot a glare at her. "Why don't you go to bed?" she mumbled.
Artemis didn't know why she hadn't gone to bed. It was well past midnight, but the excitement of the day hadn't really worn off. It had been so long since she and Jade had really had anything- other than being siblings- in common. She had secretly hoped they would be able to spill everything to each other, the way other sisters gossiped about boys late into the night. But so far Jade had been less than communicative. So she sat still, awkwardly trying to think of conversation.
"Shouldn't Dad be home soon?" she asked.
"Dad's gone till Wednesday. Business trip."
Artemis' mind flew to the previous 'business trips' he had gone to. Was he meeting with Ra's Al Ghul right this moment? She began to wonder if Jade knew about their dad, and if she and Red Arrow had been trying to stop him the way she and Nightwing had.
At this thought, she peered at her sister, who was staring at the tv screen motionlessly. She was fed up with her lack of communication and sisterly bonding-ness.
"I'm going to bed," Artemis huffed. She paused to see her sister's reaction.
"'Bout time."
oOo
"And here's a copy of the file he had me bring to Sensei at 2:15 on Saturday." Artemis thumbed through the the papers on Nightwing's desk and pulled one out. Over the past couple of days, she had made copies of everything she had delivered for her dad. It was risky, but so far she had managed to copy without being caught. They had decided today was a good day to go over them since Sportsmaster was still on his 'business trip'.
"And you're positive this was on Saturday?" Nightwing questioned.
"Um, I'm pretty sure. The papers got a little... unorganized."
"How?"
Artemis was a little ruffled by the inquiry, but bit her lip and answered, "I dropped them."
The truth was that on her way there, she had had another run in with Cameron, who bumped her shoulder, causing all her papers to scatter on the floor, taking care to step on one or two as well. She was afraid that if she told Nightwing about him, however, Cameron would spill anything he knew to her dad.
"Do you have any idea what this means?" she asked, pointing to a strangely worded paragraph in a personal letter to Sensei.
"I think so." Nightwing replied, leaning forward on his chair and propping his elbows on the desk. "From what we've figured out, Ra's Al Ghul is threatening to replace him if he doesn't speed up the process of removing the Shadows from the Justice League."
"Who does he want to replace him with?"
Nightwing had a strange look on his face. His lips formed a thin line and it took him a moment to reply. "I have reason to believe his replacement is a mercenary named Deathstroke. He's considered one of the best in the world at what he does."
Artemis didn't want to believe that she was reading fear on Nightwing's face. She had always had confidence that he could protect them from anyone. He always had, and she was sure now that he always would. She realized that the look on his face was not fear, but something else, something she couldn't put her finger on.
"Artemis," he suddenly spoke, but didn't turn to look at her. "Have you ever dealt with something completely new to you, that you didn't understand, and possibly wouldn't ever understand?"
She tried to figure out whether this was asked of her because he genuinely wanted to know, or if he was just thinking out loud. She hoped it was the latter, because he rarely ever shared the thoughts shielded in his mind with her, or with anyone.
"Something dangerous?" she asked, wondering if he was referring to Deathstroke. "Not necessarily," he replied, wetting his lips and speaking more cautiously. "Something not dangerous physically, but emotionally."
He paused for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. "What I mean is that you've come to a cross roads, where one path means emotional harm for you, and the other means physical harm for another. You know?"
Now Artemis had no idea what he meant, and could certainly not relate. So she just silently listened, wishing she could look into his eyes and read his thoughts.
"I've never had to worry about anything other than the physical." He was speaking more quietly, propping his head with both of his hands. "But now, now it's getting into dangerous territory."
"Nightwing," Artemis said softly, boldly taking one of his hands in hers. "I'm not sure what you're struggling with, but I want you to know that I'll listen anytime. You're my best friend."
She had said this to comfort him, but it seemed only to distress him more. Agitatedly, he rose and stacked the papers together, saying, "You should probably go now; we've looked over these enough."
She tried not to show it, but Artemis felt confused and hurt. She bade him goodnight and closed the door, hearing a sigh of frustration from inside before returning to her own apartment.
oOo
I seriously miss Young Justice so much! I'm barely coping here guys... :(
In your review, tell me what your favorite episode out of all was.
Random Justice League Fact: Batman had a total of 19 love interests in the comics (that son of a gun!)