Chapter 13
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The next days yielded nothing out of the ordinary. Nightwing was much more offish than he had been previously, and the training sessions were weighted with an awkward shroud that kept any intimate conversation out of the question. Artemis kept coaching with Red Arrow, although Nightwing began to show less and less at the late night practices. Jade began to join them occasionally, giving Artemis some diversity in who she had to combat with.
She had grown to respect Red Arrow, though he could be a real bastard sometimes. Sometimes he was too tense to let her learn anything, moving from one maneuver to the next with out rest or repeat. Other times, mostly when Nightwing was with them, he was too loose, making fun of her and cracking jokes till Artemis had gone an hour shooting only a handful of arrows.
In a way, Red Arrow had grown to respect Artemis as well. Even though she messed up or sometimes argued with him over which maneuvers were hardest or most complicated or most effective, he could tell she wanted it. No matter what she was willing to put in the work, even when they argued.
After a practice like the one described above, Artemis was nearly too tired to put away her archery apparatus. Red Arrow packed up his own equipment and gave her a little nod as he left the gym. She saluted sarcastically in reply. Somedays she just wanted to go back home and sleep for a week.
As she made her way back to the apartment, she hummed a little song to herself, too tired not to hum, but too tired to sing, and imagined the comfy bed and sheets that awaited her to spur her on to the room.
Bang.
The door to the hallway opened suddenly and Artemis turned to see- horrified- Cameron staggering down the hall, looking almost dazed and mumbling to himself. When he spotted Artemis, his eyes narrowed and he slurred, "You wanna know wha your dad jus told me?"
Artemis was unsure of what to do. She turned and began walking in the opposite direction, thinking it was best now to engage. Cameron tried to keep pace with her, tripping a few times along the way. She could smell strong alcohol on him. It made her skin crawl.
"Told me I'ma inadequi'!" he continued hazily. "He and my dad are al'ays pickin' on me. Can' be good 'nuf for 'em." Here he seemed to notice that Artemis was trying not to pay attention, in fact, she seemed to be trying to get away from him.
"You liste' here, goldie," he suddenly shoved her against the wall and peered into her eyes. "Nobo'y blows me off- not you, not my dad- nobo'y. I'm Icicle Junior!" He shoved his thumb to his chest.
Artemis pushed him away. "Cameron," her voice was calm but firm. "I don't want to hurt you. Leave me alone." This was just what she needed on a night like tonight. When she saw him just looking at her as if trying to process her words, she was satisfied and continued walking.
"You're a fuckin' whore!"
Artemis felt cold hands on her shoulder and all at once she was being pulled backwards. The back of her head hit his knee, and then she was thrown head-first to the ground. Whole head spinning, she tried feebly to grasp at her surroundings, wheezing for air and coughing a few times. The pain in her head caused her to lose control of her entire body.
Cameron was still yelling, but the world around Artemis was a blur. She saw him stumble off after giving her ribs a solid kick, and though she fought with every ounce of strength, she finally slipped into unconsciousness.
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"Artemis."
"Mom?"
Paula Nguyen stood in front of Artemis, wearing an elegant bridal gown. Artemis' eyes widened. "Mom!" she exclaimed.
"Artemis, don't let them take me away. Stay with me, Artemis." Paula had a sad look in her eyes, and Artemis realized her mother was handcuffed, an unseen force dragging her into a black abyss.
"No, Mom, I'm coming! Wait!" Artemis struggled, but had no control over her body. Her voice seemed far off, and though she tried to yell, every word came out as a whisper. "No, Mom! Come back! Don't go!"
"Don't let him take me away from you, Artemis."
"No!"
She screamed but nothing came out. Her pulse was beating rapidly; she tried as hard as she could to run, run after her mother. But she was paralyzed, and her head was throbbing. As her breathing rate increased, a stiff pain shot through her ribs. Suddenly, the blackness that her mother had been enveloped in began to fade. Her eyes began to hurt as bright lights formed into her consciousness,
She blinked a few times, and it took several minutes for her eyes to adjust and clear debris that had nearly sealed her eyelids closed. A cold sensation found its way onto her skin, and she realized she was laying on cement. Then the memories began flooding back.
They rushed back almost as quickly as the pain, searing from her ribs to a large bruise forming on the back of her skull, and a tender cut on her left temple. She wryly noticed it had been bleeding down the side of her face. Picking herself up was an exhausting task, and it took her all of ten minutes to even reach her knees. Crawling was much too painful for her bruised ribs, so she did her best to stand to her feet.
The journey to her room was agonizing. When she finally reached it, she managed to hold herself up long enough to take several ice packs from the freezer and a couple ibuprofens to reduce the pain. She couldn't lay down in her bed quickly enough, although straightening herself onto the mattress was an excruciating burden. She had used a washcloth to clean the blood off her face, and only hoped that the bleeding would stop long enough for her to rest.
She looked at the clock, reading 12:15 am. Out for almost an hour, she thought dauntingly. No 5:30 practice for me today.
The calming idea of sleep made her feel more peaceful, until she suddenly recalled the terrifying dream she had while unconscious. She shivered involuntarily. Ha. Morning wasn't coming any time soon.
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When her eyes finally did flutter open again, she sat up straight in bed, remembering the eventful night and that she had completely blown Nightwing off for lessons that morning. She tumbled out of bed, ignoring her sore ribs but noting she was in much less pain than the night before.
Seeing that it was, in fact, 12 pm already, she raced to put on some fresh clothing and clean the cut on her forehead again. When brushing out her hair, she made sure to leave her bangs loose to conceal the wound. She made sure that neither her sister or father were home before opening the door to go apologize to Nightwing. The hardest part would be thinking of an excuse as to why she had missed.
Her fingers reached for the knob on the front door when she noticed with alarm that it was being turned from the other side. Her hand involuntarily recoiled and she stood stupidly staring into her father's face. His angry face.
He did her a once-over and glared.
"Where are you going?"
A pathetic sound came out of her mouth as she strove to find an excuse. He cut her off.
"Who are you meeting? Nightwing?"
...
"Answer me!"
Artemis was too shocked to reply. He suddenly gripped her arm and gave her a hard shake.
"Don't think I don't know everything you've been doing! Sneaking out behind my back, meeting with that punk, learning martial arts! I specifically forbade you not to talk to anyone, ever!"
"Dad, I don't-" she could feel tears collecting in the corners of her eyes. "Dad, they tried to kidnap me; if I hadn't known martial arts-"
"Do not try to justify yourself! You've been a threat to everything! Letting yourself be deceived by that puppet boy, telling him everything and ruining me!"
"Deceived?" Artemis repeated. "He hasn't been trying to get information from me Dad-"
"Oh, no, he never had to try because you always gave it to him in a heartbeat!"
"Nightwing isn't like that!"
"You haven't seen what he's like, little girl! Not his true self!"
"How can you say that?!" Artemis nearly screamed at him. "He's only been trying to save the Shadows from falling into the wrong hands cause you haven't even been putting up a fight-"
Slap.
Artemis felt her cheek sting in pain, causing the tears in her eyes to spill over.
"He is the enemy!"
She stared at him in disbelief, unconsciously holding her palm to the red mark on her cheek.
"Everything I've ever worked for, he's trying to undo it all! And he's made you his whore in order to get information! I should have never, ever, kept you here. I should have let you join your mother in hell. Goddammit, why can't anyone see it my way?!"
For just a moment a different look came into his eyes, but the burning anger returned a second later and he focused his attention back on Artemis.
"You," he spoke through gritted teeth, "are not aloud to leave this apartment unless I tell you too, ever! Any time I leave, you are going to go to my office and stay there until I come home. You are never aloud to see or speak to Nightwing, or to anyone you've met here."
There was a pause, causing the weight of his words to fall heavily in the stiff silence.
"Do you understand?!"
Artemis sobbed and nodded, then ran towards her room. Sportsmaster ran after her and grabbed her arm hard. She jerked it away and screamed with all her might.
"I understand!"
He shoved her in her room and furiously slammed the door. "Pathetic!" He roared before storming out of the apartment.
Artemis cried out with everything in her, releasing all her anguish and letting the tears burn her cheeks. Her lungs were consumed with pain, but it was a relieving pain. The physical helped to balance the emotional.
Unmoving, unabashed, senseless. She wept with everything she had.
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I hope that chapter had enough emotion to get the point across. I'm listening to all the dramatic soundtracks I have, and actually I'm feeling very emotional. My best friend went to prom last night with the guy I like, just as friends, but she just told me they made out the whole night. It's pretty much like an extreme nuclear bomb explosion just hit me. BUT it made it very easy to write this chapter.
Random Justice League Fact: Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) has never been married. At least I'm not the only one to die alone. I'll just ignore the fact that she doesn't actually exist.