Chapter Four

Can we go back to the world we had?

With a love so sweet it's makes me sad

Can we go back to the world we had?

It's the world we've been dreaming of

Farmer's Grove, Wisconsin. September 7th 2015. 7:00 A.M.

Artemis rolled over in the bed, groaning and pulling the covers over her eyes. Couldn't she just stay in bed five more minutes? God, it was so comfortable and warm in here-

Wait.

I didn't fall asleep on a bed. I fell asleep on a rooftop.

She shot up and did a quick sweep on the room. It certainly wasn't hers. The walls were wooden and paneled. It was a small room and it looked like the only two objects that could even fit in it was the bed she was in and a clothing rack that had a black sheet draped over it. She was more than a little relieved to see that her bow and arrow were placed up against the adjacent door.

As she got up to go retrieve her bow, Artemis caught sight of the note left on her bedside and picked it up, reading it slowly.

So… This is Kid Flash's place? Oh, I'm so eating those Lucky Charms.

At ease, she left her bow by the door and headed into the hall. It seemed to lead to a living room area that had a small kitchen tucked into the corner. There was a figure, which she could only assume was Kid Flash himself, tucked away on the couch.

The archer smirked to herself as a somewhat evil plan formulated in her mind. She made a beeline for the Lucky Charms, which Kid Flash had unfortunately placed in plain sight. Taking a big spoonful, she marched over to his place of rest, planning to wake him up with a spoonful of Charms in her mouth.

That was when it happened.

She turned him over, expecting to see his masked face but sometime in the middle of the night, the mask had ridden up and exposed his true identity. In place of the mask was a pale face, with freckles sprinkled all over the cheekbones. Tufts of red hair peeked out below the mask, his mouth half opened in sleep. It was a face that Artemis had seen before and about the last person she had expected to be a superhero.

"Wally?"

She stepped back, heart rate suddenly elevated. Oh my God… Wally West was Kid Flash? The guy she had yelled at on his first day here? No… No… That couldn't be possible. Kid Flash was sweet, and fun, and a little annoying but also endearing at the same time but Wally was just… Wally. He couldn't be Kid Flash, he couldn't.

Running as fast as she could, Artemis grabbed her arrows and bolted, running out the door and further into herself.

Farmer's Grove, Wisconsin. September 7th 2015. 11 a.m.

"NO NO NO NOOOO!" Zatanna cried out in agony as her cart fell off of Rainbow Road, "DAMN IT!"

"Haha!" Dick cried, standing up and holding his cursor in victor, "I win! AGAIN!"

"You know what," The brunette responded, standing up and crossing her arms, "I want a rematch?"

"Oh really?" Dick said, crossing his arms with a smirk, "You know that I'm just going to win again, right?"

"Bullshit," She said, hitting the "start" button on the screen, "Princess Peach is going to take you down,"

"Good luck," He taunted, taking a seat beside her, "We all know I'm the best at video games,"

"I can list a hundred reasons why you're wrong,"

After Dick's visit last night, the two had just stayed up talking and Dick filled her in on all of the events that had transpired after she had left: Babs, Jason Todd, how Wally had gotten accepted into Stanford, and how he had branched off. She almost cried when she heard of the recent split between M'Gann and Connor but Dick had always known how to cheer her up. After that, the two were too gleeful at their reunion to go to sleep but they didn't want to discuss the past anymore so they engaged in an old pastime: Mario Kart.

Just then, the front door to the apartment opened and Artemis stumbled in. One look at her and Zatanna knew that last night had not gone well for her. There was a panicked, slightly enraged look on her face. Quickly, the magician sweeped her eyes around her. No gear. Thank God, she didn't need Dick asking questions.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know we had anyone over…" The blonde woman muttered, turning around, "I can come back later-"

"No!" Zatanna said, quickly standing up, "Come on," She threw her a very pointed look, silently telling her to stay, "Dick, this is my roommate Artemis. Artemis, this is my very old friend Dick,"

Dick extended a hand and smiled warmly, "Nice to meet you,"

Artemis did the same, although her mind looked like it was in a very different place, "Likewise. I'm sorry I'm not much conversation. I'm not feeling very well,"

"Happens to the best of us," Dick replied, giving her a warm smile, "Why don't you go lay down? I know from experience that Z here makes the best soup,"

"That I do," Zatanna replied with a smirk before turning to Artemis, "Lay down in your room. I'll be there in a minute,"

"Sure," The blonde said, shooting a weak smile, "It was nice to meet you," With that, she trudged off towards her room, closing the door behind her.

"Sorry about that," Zatanna responded, "She's not usually like that…" What was up with Artemis? She was so much more sarcastic and lively than that, even on her worst days.

"Don't worry about it. I have to go anyways," He responded, ever mysteriously not telling her why or where he was going, "But I'll see you later tonight?"

"Course!" She smiled at him, "Pop by whenever," For a beat, Zatanna hovered awkwardly, still deciding between giving him a hug goodbye or just a nod. Settling with a shoulder pat, she said, "Later?"

Looking somewhat disappointed, Dick nodded, "Later," He spun on his heels and out the door, automatically locking it behind him.

She waited just a second, smiling at the thought of the evening, before heading towards Artemis's room. Standing outside her door, Zatanna knocked very gently, "Artemis?"

"I'm fine!" The voice came quickly, "Just a little tired. Sorry about that,"

Zatanna frowned and called back, "Get some sleep!"

"Can't," Artemis responded, opening the door in her waitress uniform, "I've got work. And Augustus has been more on my ass than ever,"

The sorceress frowned. Artemis was probably her closest friend and she was so worried for her. Her behavior this morning and the anxious look that her face bore right now was nothing like her usual confident, snarky attitude. Something was definitely wrong. Zatanna wasn't giving this up.

"You can tell Augustus to talk to me if he has a problem," She responded, turning Artemis around and pushing her back into her bedroom, "You're getting some rest. You've been pulling all nighters on your recent patrols. It's time for you to get some sleep,"

"Zatanna, please," She scoffed, turning around and crossing her arms, "I can handle a shift!"

"Not like this you can't," The magician replied, pushing Artemis onto her bed, "Now. I know you're not tired- evig em a raich," She chanted, sitting down smugly on the chair she had just summoned, "I'm not stupid. So you can either tell me what's wrong or you can stay here all day and sleep," Crossing her arms, she leaned back, "I've got all day, kid. Hit me with your best shot,"

It was with a sigh that Artemis leaned back on her bed and began to relay the events of the morning to Zatanna.

Farmer's Grove, Wisconsin. September 14th 2015. 6 a.m.

Wally waited for days.

Every night, the speedster would wait at their meeting spot, and every night he was met with disappointment; and now as he stalked home, his mood still not lifted after a night of kicking bad guy butt, he felt a growing sense of depression.

What had he done? Had taking her to his house been too much for her? Did she think that he… did something to her? The last thought filled him with a pent up rage. All he had done was treat her fairly, despite their somewhat constant bickering. Did she really think of him as so low as to harm her? Was that why she was avoiding him? Was that why she all but disappeared?

"Hey dude," He grumbled as he walked into his shared cabin with Dick, "Surprised to see you here,"

"Date ended early," Dick replied simply, turning to face Wally, "So I decided to do some research. We're at no leads so far on our case and the JLA is not happy,"

"Of course not," The case had been at a dead end for so long. Wally was beginning to suspect that the JLA had a false lead and that Sportsmaster wasn't anywhere near Farmer's Grove. There was nothing here but cornfields. How could he be hiding out here?

"Hey, what's up?" Dick asked, sensing his best friends current moodiness, "You seem very not whelmed,"

"I am not," Wally confessed, flopping onto the couch and looking up at the ceiling.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing,"

"Wally. I'm your best pal. I know you well enough to know that it's not nothing,"

The speedster sighed and closed his eyes, crossing his arms. So many words weighed at the tip of his tongue… He wanted to spill the whole story to Dick and was just about to when a better idea came to mind, one that would solve everything.

"Hey Dick?" He asked, sitting up, "If I asked you, could you track someone down for me?"

Farmer's Grove, Wisconsin. September 14th 2015. 7:53 a.m.

Nightwing stared at the piece of paper in front of him, running his hands through his hair, "So… This "Tigress" of yours… She's Asian, blonde, an archer, brown eyes, and you think that she may either live in Madison, the suburbs, or around here?"

"That's right," Wally answered, pacing the room in superspeed, "She never gave me a real name but she told me to call her Diana,"

Dick wrote it down on his legal pad. Fake names usually had some sort of correlation to the real one, "Well… Let's see what the database said…" Filling out the description and area to search, Nightwing called over his soldier, "465 matches in this area. There are two with Diana as a name and well…" He turned around, showing a picture of two senior citizens on the screen, "I doubt they're Tigress,"

"We have to keep looking, Dick. I need to find her," Kid Flash responded, pausing in his superspeed pacing for just a moment, "I need to find out what I did wrong or if she's okay…"

The former boy wonder nodded, biting his lip. He had a feeling that this was more personal to Wally than the speedster would dare admit, that he wanted to find this girl for more intimate reasons, emotional reasons, "Tell you what. Why don't you go take a shower? I'll try to see what I can find,"

"Thanks man," The redhead threw him a weak smile, "You're the best pal ever,"

"I know," Dick smirked, "Now go. You smell like sardines,"

"Yeah and you smell like infatuation," Wally countered, referencing Dick's mysterious "dates" that he would reveal very little about. Wally had no idea that Dick had been seeing Zatanna and Dick was going to keep it that was. He would never live it down if Wally knew about him and Zatanna. Not to mention that Zatanna would slaughter him if he ever told anyone that she was alive and well.

"Shut up," He rolled his eyes, "I'll tell you what I find when you get back,"

"Alright," Wally responded, walking down the hallway and into the bathroom. Dick waited until the water began running to really start his search.

From what Dick knew, the two had been patrolling together for about a week before Tigress ceased coming, however, Wally's story had a hole in it. He claimed that the last time he saw Tigress, they had fallen asleep on a roof together and when he'd awoken, she had taken off but Dick had known Wally for several years and Wally could not willingly sleep outside in the cold. The night of September 7th, the last time Tigress and Kid Flash had seen each other, had an average of 55 degrees. Nightwing had slept over with Kid Flash so many times that he knew that there was no way that he fell asleep in that weather and there was no way that he would have just let Tigress sleep in the cold. Wally probably took her either to the cabin or to a hotel. Seeing as none of their financial records showed withdrawal or a hotel check in, Dick guessed that it was the cabin, which meant that her DNA was in the house. Wally had probably withheld the information in fear of sparking Nightwing's temper, which, Dick had to admit, was a smart decision. He would totally kick Wally's ass for it in sparring later.

Rising from his chair, Nightwing began to look through the cabin. Knowing Wally, he put her in his bed and then took the couch. The detective silently crept into Wally's room and began looking for any DNA, specifically a strand of hair. He looked under the bed but all he found was dust bunnies. There was no hair stuck to walls. Finally, he flipped over Wally's pillow and laid eyes on exactly what he wanted: two long strands of blonde hair. Tigress's hair.

Rearranging everything so that it was the same as when he had first walked in, Dick walked into the living room and put the strands of hair into a tube. He then connected it to the computer and ran a DNA program that Batman had built years ago. It wasn't as accurate as it once was but it should be enough to at least give Nightwing a relatively decent lead.

He hit connect and waited a moment before a text reading "MATCH FOUND" flashed across his computer screen. A moment passed before the photo of a blonde girl popped up.

She matched Wally's description in every way. Long blonde hair with hardened brown eyes. She was Asian, of Vietnamese descent it looked like, and the best part was that Dick had seen that face only a few days before, which made her entirely trackable.

"Artemis Crock…" He whispered, smiling to himself, "We meet again,"

Farmer's Grove, Wisconsin. September 14th 2015. 12:45 a.m.

Artemis let out a victorious yell as she finished the last of the dishes, stacking them in order. It was way past closing time and the archer had been stuck with her least favorite thing in the word: Dish duty. She'd manage to avoid it for a week but today Augustus had tracked her down and stuck her with the terrible duty. It had taken an hour and 45 minutes to clean all of the dishes from the day but she had managed to do it without breaking any from sheer frustration and that, to Artemis, was a victory.

"Finally done…" She muttered to herself, taking off her apron and hanging it on the hook. She couldn't wait to go home and crash. There were two things that kept her mind off of the whole ordeal with Kid Flash and those two things were working and sleep. Artemis had thrown herself into her waitressing duties and whenever she was off work, she was tucked away in bed, dreaming the night away. It was better than thinking about Kid Flash and Wally West and what she would do or even say whenever she saw him. Although she knew that she would inevitably run into one or the other eventually, she knew that she would ignore him as long as she possibly could and that included not thinking about him.

Right as the blonde was about to clock out, the lights above her flickered. She knew better than to just write it off as technical error right away; her father had taught her better. Immediately, she went into a defensive stance and prepared for a fight.

The light's continued to flicker for a moment before shutting off all together. Artemis ran for the utensils, grabbing a set of knives, before running for the exit. She reached it without a problem but the door wouldn't budge. Whoever had turned off the lights had also auto-locked the doors. This wasn't a rookie. This was obviously someone who knew what he was doing.

"Dad, if this is you, I won't hesitate to kill you. I promise," She spat out, holding the knife up and out.

There was silence for a moment before a figure emerged from the shadows. Except it wasn't her father or her sister. Instead, it was a masked figure. Only when Artemis saw the insignia on his chest did she know who it was: Nightwing.

Of course. Kid Flash/Wally had told her that he was here. But why was he confronting her? He couldn't know that she was Tigress… Could he?

"Artemis Crock," Nightwing began, his voice distorted, "I know that you possess the identity of Kid Flash and while I do not believe that you will do him any harm, I still want to discuss the matter with you,"

Oh God. Not Wally… She'd been successful in avoiding thinking about the matter for a few days now. Why did Nightwing, of all people, have to come and mess that up?

"What do you want to know?" She asked, her stance still defensive.

"I want you to talk to him," Nightwing said simply, shocking Artemis.

"Huh?" She asked, so confused that she dropped her knife, "You want me to talk to him?"

"Yes," He said, "Talk to him. Tell him that you know his identity and that it freaked you out but you still want to be friends with him or patrol with him or whatever it is. Tell him that you know and it freaked you out so bad that you never want to see him again but whatever you do, don't leave him like this. Don't leave him all confused like this. He thinks he did something wrong and he's torturing himself for it. Find him, in costume or out, and talk to him. Artemis, please,"

He… was torturing himself? Because of her? A pang of guilt hit Artemis. Yes, Kid Flash could be annoying sometimes but he was always happy, always upbeat. It was hard to imagine him sad or down at all… And the fact that she was the cause of this made her feel worse than she did before.

"Fine," She replied after a moment of silence, "I'll talk to him. Tomorrow night. I'll talk to him,"

"Thank you," Nightwing responded.

"But hey… Nightwing?" She asked, looking at the masked hero, "Just don't… Don't tell your JLA friends about me, about my whereabouts. Don't tell anyone. Please?"

He looked at her and although his eyes were hidden, Artemis knew that he somehow understood, "Your secret is safe with me," With that, he stepped into the darkness and a minute later, Artemis knew that she was all alone.

So I don't know if I'm happy with this chapter… A lot happened and I got a lot of this subplot written out but idk if it was my best writing.

We're about to get to the whole plot with Sportsmaster so hold on tight. Act I is almost over and when we get to Act II things will definitely take off.

Also I was thinking of making a playlist with all the songs I featured at the start of every chapter. Would any of your be interested in that or non?

Review please? I love hearing your feedback, even you quiet little guys who just sub (I see you), I wanna know what you think! :)