Chapter Fourteen

Artemis sighed as she gazed wistfully through the windows of the many event rooms in the League of Shadows. Everyone looked so happy; so unaware of the danger they all were in, or the danger that they themselves would take part in. She passed the gym and saw Raquel and Zatanna sparing. She wanted to cry out to them, run into the gym and throw her arms around them, but they didn't see her, and she was under the carefully scrutinizing eye of her father, walking just beside her.

To say that the past week had been miserable would be an understatement. There was no freedom of any kind: to speak, to act, to move. She was constantly being watched. If she wasn't with her father, she was with someone else, people who she assumed were corrupted and intended to join Sportsmaster when he broke the Shadows away from the Justice League. She could feel it coming. It was going to happen soon.

Until then, her dad had her doing odd jobs again, but they were much more surveillanced. Today, her job was typing minutes from the last board meeting between the founders of the JLA and the operators of the Shadows. She sat in her dad's office, typing them onto a small laptop, Sportsmaster only a few feet away at his own desk. She didn't know if she had gained back any of his trust. It was too early to tell. She had tried to obey everything he told her so that he would never suspect she was still disloyal to him. It was difficult, however. She truly did fear him, and she had to constantly remind herself who had true power over the world when she felt discouraged enough to submit to evil.

"Have you printed those yet?" Sportsmaster suddenly asked in an agitated tone.

"No," Artemis tried not to roll her eyes. "I'm just finishing."

"Hurry up. I need a copy by five o' clock."

Artemis' fingers tightened as she clicked away at the keyboard. Finally she hit print, but resisted the urge to groan a moment later.

"The printer's out of ink."

Sportsmaster's face was cross. "Why don't the damn janitors refill the damn printers?" he complained out loud. He swiftly rose from his seat and grabbed Artemis' arm, pulling her to the door and opening it. He motioned to the first person he saw walking by.

"You," he addressed him. "Take her to get more ink for the printer. And do not keep your eyes off of her."

He then turned back to Artemis. "I'm finishing up some papers then going out for a meeting. You are to come back to my office at once after you refill the printer and wait there till I return. Understand?"

Artemis nodded, but he was already slamming the door shut. She then swallowed hard. Her escort, Cameron, glowered at her. "I'm not taking my eyes off you." He grinned maliciously.

The fading bruise on the back of her head began to ache with the memory of just a few nights earlier. She wondered if the reason her dad had found out about her was because of Cameron. She was going to take a lucky shot.

The best tactic was to seem submissive but unintimidated. Keeping her gaze in front of her as they shared a cold walk to the printing room, she asked, "What made you decide to spill?"

Cameron shot her a hard glance. It was a moment before he answered. "Unfortunately, I didn't get the pleasure of doing so. Someone above us filled your daddy in. And apparently, I didn't know the whole story." She tried to keep her skin from crawling and continued.

"Someone 'above' you?"

"Above all of us. As in the man behind everything. He's more than a match for Bats, and you can't hide anything from him, babe."

We'll see about that.

"You mean Ra's? I've heard he's pretty good, but no equal to Batman."

Cameron snorted. "Ra's is more powerful than you know. And don't count yourself smart, girly. It's the head men, as in Vandal Savage, that really have kept the clock ticking."

"I'd like to see him take down the Justice League," she prodded, trying to get more information.

"He can't die, babe," Cameron grinned in amusement. "The man's already 50,000 years old, and he's not alone either."

"And what makes you so devoted to zombies and villains?"

"I like to be part of the winning team. There's more power."

"You call escorting Sportsmaster's daughter to the printing room 'power'"?

Cameron glared heatedly at her. "When we make our move, I'll be more powerful than you or my father could imagine. He'll wish he had recognized my talent when I have a seat above him in The Light."

"Your father, huh?" Artemis knew she was getting into dangerous territory, but she couldn't resist. "What would he think if he found out you just told me some of the deepest secrets of the Shadows?"

Cameron stopped right there in the hallway. "Aug!" he yelled in frustration. "You stupid-" he didn't complete the insult, instead backhanding her against the wall.

Artemis gritted her teeth ruefully as she felt her bruise returning. This time, however, she wasn't going to just sit back. It may cost her freedom, but she wasn't going to pretend to submit anymore.

She launched herself off the wall and dove to the ground, drop-kicking him. He tripped but sprung up immediately. Her fist came flying towards his face as he did.

Suddenly, her entire forearm was incased in ice. She cried out in shock and stared at it unbelievingly. A moment later she was shoved against the wall, Cameron's thumbs pressing against her throat. She gasped for air, but the life was being squeezed out of her. She tried to claw frantically at the fingers wrapped around her neck.

"I wouldn't do that again if I were you," Cameron hissed evilly. "In fact, I'd say this is the last time."

Thwack.

"Aug."

Artemis was released suddenly and hit the ground hard. When she opened her eyes after gasping for air, she saw Cameron lying on the ground, holding his ribs and groaning. She turned in confusion and saw Nightwing, fists cocked, ready to deliver another blow. Artemis' spirits soared with happiness. "Get up, Junior!" he challenged.

A sheet of ice shot towards Nightwing, but he easily dodged and rolled behind Cameron. It didn't take long for him to knock him unconscious. Artemis breathed a sigh of relief.

Standing up, she winced as she felt the back of her head hurting once again. She could still feel Cameron's icy fingers around her neck. She was sure there was a mark. Nightwing was by her side in a moment, running his finger over the place Cameron had dug his nails into while strangling her. He began to lead her down the hall silently, when Artemis glanced back at Cameron, lying in a heap behind them.

She looked at her companion worriedly. "He's supposed to be watching me."

Nightwing silently walked over to him and grabbed his wrist, carelessly dragging his body into a closet. Whisking out a coil of rope, he tied him to a furnace pipe and gagged him. Artemis watched in amusement.

"I'll come back for him later," Nightwing finally spoke. "First," he took out medication and gave it to her to swallow. "That's for the swelling. Let me see your head."

Artemis obediently turned around and tried to resist a shiver as he ran his fingers through her hair. She winced as they found the bruise.

"Your lucky you didn't go unconscious." He commented.

"It's really just a reemergence," she absent-mindedly rubbed her thawing hand. The ice had melted but her arm was pale from lack of circulation. "The real damage was done a few days ago."

"Artemis!" Nightwing suddenly shoved her against the wall. "A few days ago?! Why didn't you tell me? How long has this been going on?!"

"Look, I can take care of myself!" she retorted and pushed him away from her, somewhat shocked.

"Oh, ya, that's apparent," he replied sarcastically.

"So I'm a little rusty after spending the last week in a paranoid state of mind-"

"You're not the only one! How do you think I felt having no idea-"

"Oh, I'm sure you were just being crushed under all the stress!"

"How can I take care of you if you won't even tell me when you need help?!"

"I couldn't tell you because he was blackmailing me, okay? If I ever told anyone, or even fought back, he was going to spill." She sighed again. "He knows everything. About training, about you-"

"What about me?"

"How I've... been telling you things. My dad has kept me on lockdown for the past week. He's gone at a meeting right now and wants me to be back in his office when he returns."

"When he returns..." Nightwing was thoughtful for a moment. He then gave her a little smile. "That gives you some time."

"Yes," she replied quickly. "There was something Cameron was talking about, a 'Vandal Savage' and some others who are really the master minds of this. He said something about 'The Light' and how they're going to-"

"Artemis," he stopped her. He carefully took the hand that had been frozen in Cameron's ice and massaged it while looking into her eyes. "We can talk about that later. For now, let's just leave here."

"Leave here?" she repeated. "But my dad-"

"-Is gone. You may be afraid of going outside, but you can trust me, okay?"

Artemis hesitated. It was true, she was afraid. Everything her dad had ever told her about Gotham was terrifying. The thought of it made her shiver. Not to mention that if she was caught she would probably be moved from the base to somewhere she couldn't get herself into trouble.

"But the printer in my dad's office needs ink. I'm supposed to get it for him."

"Excuse me," Nightwing stopped a guard passing by. "Would you please refill the ink cartridge in Sportmaster's office printer? Thank you."

He turned back to her with a smile. "Any other excuses?"

She sighed in defeat. "Lead the way."

He did, keeping her hand in his and going back to his apartment. Once they were safely inside, he walked over to a book shelf and removed a book. Concealed behind it was a switch, which he flipped, causing the shelf to slide aside and reveal an elevator. The two entered silently, and he hit the button marked "14."

She felt the machine moving upwards, and couldn't keep a blush from creeping onto her cheeks as she felt Nightwing's thumb tracing circles on her hand. She couldn't bring herself to look at him. Instead she quipped, "This better be good."

"You've never been outside, have you?"

Artemis returned her gaze shamefully to the ground. Yes, she was scared. The stories her father had told her had been burned into her memory like a haunting nightmare.

"Gotham is a disaster," Nightwing spoke gently. "But I believe that anything, whether falling apart or just way too complicated, can be seen as something beautiful when shown in a certain light."

She thought over his words as the doors to the elevator opened onto a balcony. She took one look at Gotham, that terrible city filled with scum and corruption, and her breath was taken away. She was immediately drawn to the edge of the balcony. She was startled when Nightwing wrapped his arm tightly around her waist. He shot a grappling hook to a building across the way, and in all but a joyfully terrifying moment, they were soaring above the sleepless city.

oOo

(:

That's all I'm going to say.

Oh, and review.

Sorry, no fact this week. I'm in the middle of class trying to write a paper for ap lang. I'll put two facts next week :D