A/N: Thanks so much for all your kind and motivating reviews! I'm so excited this story has reached over 100 reviews! So thank you so much everyone! Of all my fics, this one has the second highest number of reviews.

Note: From the ep "Secrets," we know that Robin knows Artemis's background (not sure if Batman told him or he did detective work). Be that as it may, I assumed no one knew so in this story Robin does not know who Artemis's parents are, so keep that in mind. Thanks.

Disclaimer: "I don't own Young Justice, DC Comics, Warner Brothers, and Cartoon Network have the rights to it. I'm just having some fun :)"

Rated T for some language, suggestive themes, and descriptive violence.

Italics mean thoughts

"Italics within quotes" mean telepathy

The cruelest Lies are often told in silence . . .

Tangled Web

Chapter 8: Hindsight is 20/20

Mount Justice

October 2, 11:17 EDT

Artemis groaned, her hand moving to clutch her head as she came to. She opened her eyes only to instantly shut them, the blinding white of the florescent lights above coupled with the sterile white ceiling causing her head to pound.

"You're awake."

She didn't need to open her eyes to know the voice belonged to Wally.

"What happened?" she asked, voice raspy. "I feel like I was hit by a semi-truck."

"Cheshire's poison, that's what. I owe you one," Wally admitted, voice equally irritated and grateful.

Artemis forced her eyes to open again and turned to look at Wally. He was sitting next to the bed she was laying in. They were in the sickbay at Mount Justice.

"Let's just call it even," she suggested, thinking of the funhouse fire from the Happy Harbor Fall Festival.

"You've been out cold since last night. You had me-us, the team I mean, really worried," Wally said, hoping she didn't catch his mistake. To his relief she didn't.

"My head feels like it's being cracked open like an egg," Artemis complained as she sat up, her back leaning against the headboard, loose blonde hair draped over her shoulders in a tangible sea of gold.

"Just be happy you're alive to feel anything at all. If Kaldur hadn't been carrying that antivenin on him you'd be dead right now."

He was wrong of course, but she wasn't about to tell him that.

When she didn't respond, the speedster continued. "Although it wouldn't be the first close call you've had."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your scars."

Artemis clutched the blanket covering her lap ever so slightly at his words. It didn't go unnoticed by Wally.

"How do you know about my scars?" she asked defensively.

"Because I saw them – we all saw them – when I took your shirt off." At Artemis's murderous look, Wally tried to explain, his cheeks growing rosy. "The antivenin had to be injected directly into your heart, but the material your uniform is made of was too strong for the needle to penetrate. So we had to remove your top."

Her fists tightened around the blanket even more, but she said nothing.

"Some of the scars weren't even that old," Wally raised his eyes from Artemis's fisted hands to her face, "What happened to you?"

She remained silent, eyes refusing to meet his.

"Well?" he pressed.

"Don't worry about it," was her reply, her voice taking on that hollow quality he'd come to hate.

Wally scoffed. "You're kidding, right? How can you ask me not to worry about it?"

"Because you have to!" she cried, head whipping around to confront him.

Wally's eyes widened, momentarily stunned by her outburst. She settled back down on the bed, pointedly facing away from the redhead. She simply didn't have the gusto to get worked up right now. She could already feel her strength ebbing away from her.

Wally was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "Okay, fine. Then tell me why you took that shot for me."

She didn't turn to face him as she spoke. "Because you didn't see it, but I did."

"But it was more logical to let it hit me. Increased healing ability, remember?"

"But you can still die," Artemis whispered, her voice heavy.

"What, like you can't?" Wally asked rhetorically. He waited a moment for her response, but one didn't come. "Artemis?"

He rose from the chair and took a better look at her. The even rise and fall of her chest was a clear indication that she'd fallen asleep. Wally ran a hand through his unruly red hair and let out a tired sigh. He'd been sitting in that room for a couple of hours in the hopes of seeing her awaken so as to put his mind at ease. He grasped the blanket and pulled it up around Artemis's slender shoulders. Before he could stop himself, he reached a hand out to tuck a strand of her silky blonde hair behind her ear, letting the length of it slide effortlessly through his fingers. There was just something about her hair when it was down . . . He suddenly pulled his hand back as though he'd been scalded. He gave his head a violent shake, hoping to rattle his brain a little. What did he think he was doing? In a rush he backed away from Artemis's slumbering form and let himself out of the infirmary. When he opened the door, Robin was standing on the other side, hand poised to grab the doorknob.

"KF."

"Robin."

Despite Wally's resolve to talk to Robin and clear the air after their argument concerning his identity, that had yet to happen. The day Artemis had talked him into it he'd chased her to Gotham after she'd gotten a phone call and freaked out. Since then an opportune moment hadn't presented itself.

"I was just coming to check on Artemis. How's she doing?" Robin asked.

"Okay I guess. She woke up for a few minutes, but she's sleeping now."

"Oh, well, I guess I'll come back later then."

Robin moved to leave but Wally's voice stopped him.

"Robin, wait."

The younger boy turned to look at his teammate.

"Can we, uh, talk?"

"Yeah, sure man."

Wally led the way down the hall, Robin in tow. A minute later they were standing in the trophy room, a place only Wally ever seemed interested enough to visit.

"So, what's up?" Robin asked once it was clear they were alone.

Wally sighed. "I'm sorry, you know, about how I reacted when I found out Artemis knew your identity. It's your identity so you have the right to withhold it if you-"

"No, you were right to get angry."

Wally blinked, surprised by Robin's words. "What?"

"We've been friends for a long time. You trust me with your identity," Robin said with resolve as he reached up and placed a hand on his ever present sunglasses, "there's no reason I shouldn't trust you with mine." Without hesitation he pulled them from his face, revealing his bright blue eyes to Wally. "My real name is Richard Grayson, but everyone at school just calls me Dick."

Wally silently stared at Robin for a minute, taking in his best friend's face, unmarred by a mask or a pair of sunglasses for the first time.

"So, whadaya think?" Robin asked with a smirk as he placed his sunglasses over his eyes once more.

"I've seen better," Wally teased.

"Ha ha."

Together they shared a laugh. Finally, Wally said, "Thanks man, for trusting me."

"Actually, Artemis is the one you should be thanking." At Wally's confused look he added, "She's the one who convinced me to share my identity with you."

Wally couldn't keep his eyebrows from shooting up. "Really? She showed up at my school and told me to give you a chance to explain."

"Guess we both owe her some thanks then."

"Guess so . . ." Wally's face grew serious. "You know, she told me she didn't find out because you wanted her to."

"She was telling you the truth."

"So what happened then?"

Robin trained his blue eyes on Wally's green. "You were right. I should have listened to you."

"How so?"

"Artemis knows about my identity because she caught me spying on her at the Academy. You were right to be suspicious of how little we know about her. There's more to her than we've been led to believe. The skills she exhibited in catching me . . . they were things she never would have picked up working with Green Arrow, and in such a short amount of time for that matter. She's good, Wally, really good."

Wally crossed his arms over his chest; his eyes drifting to Artemis's arrow on the shelf, the one that became a souvenir after it saved his life from Amazo.

"She's had some serious training," Dick pressed on. "And I don't think it was to join our team one day. Plus, there's the scars."

"I tried asking her about how she got all those when she woke up but she refused to talk about it."

Robin placed a thoughtful hand to his chin. "Even more puzzling is the placement of some of the scars."

"What do you mean?"

"When her shirt was off I took a good look at her chest." The minute the words were out of his mouth, Dick knew how bad it sounded. Wally's incredulous look only reinforced that thought. "At the scars! I took a good look at the scars on her chest! Not her actual-" his cheeks hot, he hurried on. "Not only was the amount startling, but some of them were positioned so that the wounds that created them should have been fatal."

Wally wasn't sure what to think about that. "What does that mean?"

"I have no idea. It doesn't make any sense. If I had to guess though, I'd say Artemis is involved in something big, something dangerous, and she's in deep. And if the scars are any indication of the kind of life she's living outside of this team, then she might not make it out alive."

"I think you're right," Wally suddenly said. "When I followed her to her place in Gotham, it was trashed. She said it was nothing more than your garden variety break-in but she was lying."

"How do you know?"

"Because the glass of every picture of her and her mother was cracked. What random street thug looking for valuables takes the time to do something like that?"

Robin nodded. "It was a message."

"That's not all either. When I stepped out into the hallway to let Black Canary know why we were missing practice, I overheard Artemis and her mother talking. Her mother mentioned that Artemis is working for Batman."

"Well, technically we're all working for Batman since he's the one who assigns our missions."

Wally shook his head. "No, she specifically mentioned the amount of time Artemis is putting into our team and the work she's doing for Batman, as though they're two separate things."

Robin's eyebrows shot up over the rim of his sunglasses, giving way to how truly shocked he was by this piece of information. Wally was somewhat surprised. He half suspected that his friend already knew.

"You didn't know about this?"

"No, I didn't," the younger boy admitted, his voice holding a hint of bitterness. He knew Batman did things that had to be done, and that included keeping things from his partner. Robin understood, but it didn't hurt any less, however.

"Well, what are we gonna do? We can't let something bad happen to Artemis," Wally finally said. He never would have believed he'd have gone from hating her to considering her a friend, but he had. He'd come to care about the team's archer so much so that he couldn't stand the thought of her not being a part of the team. Losing Artemis was not an option, period.

Robin shook his head, a helpless look on his face. "I don't know if there's anything we can do . . ."

x x x

Mount Justice

October 2, 15:07 EDT

Megan was scared.

She opened the oven door and removed the most recent batch of cookies only to see that they were burnt to a crisp. With a heavy sigh she scrapped the ruined cookies straight into the trash can. It was the third batch she'd burned today. She couldn't concentrate. She'd hoped that baking would distract her from the disastrous mission from the night before, but nothing she did helped, not even baking. She placed her small, green hands on the counter and let out another sigh. She was tired. She'd hardly slept all night; she couldn't get what she'd seen in Artemis's mind out of her own. At first she'd contemplated running straight to Kaldur with what she'd seen, or at the very least her uncle. But then she thought better of it. It had been traumatic for her to just watch it; she couldn't imagine having been in Artemis's shoes, having lived it. A heavy, warm hand suddenly rested on Megan's shoulder. She craned her neck to see who was next to her. It was Conner. Despite his stoic face, his eyes held such concern for her that the smile her lips curved into, though small, was genuine.

"Are you okay?" he asked once he had her attention. "You haven't been . . . you know, you, since the mission."

She automatically nodded her head for a moment, before she shook it. "No, I'm not."

As a young man of few words himself, he didn't press her to talk. He simply squeezed her shoulder gently.

"Conner," she suddenly spoke hesitantly. "If you knew something about someone that no one else knew, something that could be bad, dangerous even, what would you do? Would you tell?"

He was quiet for a moment, contemplating. Then he said, "That depends. Are you close with this person?"

"Yes, I'd like to think so."

"Well, then if I were you, I'd give that person a chance to explain themselves first, hear their side, then go from there."

"Thanks," Megan said, her smile widening a smidgen.

Conner gave her shoulder another light squeeze before he let go of her and moved out of the kitchen. Megan stayed put, thinking over Conner's words. It only took a minute for her to make up her mind. She realized Artemis deserved the chance to explain herself. She was supposed to be her Earth sister after all. It was the least Megan could do. She hurried for the infirmary, her feet never touching the ground as she floated towards her destination. She walked into the infirmary and was relieved to see Artemis awake and alone.

The archer sat up, her back against the headboard. "Hey, Megan. What's up?"

Megan shut the door behind her and got straight to the point. "Why were you with Sportsmaster?"

Artemis couldn't keep her eyes from widening. She certainly hadn't been expecting that.

"When you were poisoned I saw it, in your mind. You were with him and he . . . he killed you." Megan sat down in the chair next to Artemis's bed, her soft brown eyes pleading for an explanation, one that didn't paint her Earth sister as the enemy. "Why were you with him, how did you survive?"

Artemis ran her hands over her face, the beginnings of a migraine surfacing. Things just got a lot more complicated. "Did you tell anyone else what you saw?"

"No. I thought about it, but you deserve the chance to give me your side first."

Artemis nodded, knowing there was no way around this. She had so many memories of her father killing her she didn't bother trying to figure out which time Megan had witnessed. "I was with Sportsmaster because he's my father."

The room was deadly silent for more than a minute. Finally Megan whispered, "Your father?"

Artemis nodded. "Yeah."

"But . . . he's a bad guy."

"Yes."

"But you're not."

"No."

Megan realized that it all made sense now. How secretive Artemis was with her personal life, the way she seemed to keep everyone at arms length, and why she never wanted Megan looking into her mind. Hindsight really was 20/20.

"He doesn't like that very much, does he?"

"Nope. Sportsmaster is easily angered and he lets his passion get the best of him."

"So, because you wouldn't kill a man for him, he killed you?" Megan asked, her eyes holding a mix of horror and sympathy.

Artemis now knew which memory Megan had seen. The very first time her father had killed her, the time he hadn't known she'd come back to life. Artemis simply nodded.

"That's terrible!"

Artemis gave a small shrug. "Life is sometimes."

"Yeah, but, if he killed you, then why aren't you, you know, dead?"

Artemis took a deep breath. "Because of something that happened to me when I was 8 years old. I was living in rural Vietnam at the time with my older sister and my uncle, who was a temple monk. My mother sent my sister and me there to keep my father from forcing us into their way of life. A few months after we started living there, a thief broke into the temple and tried to steal the offerings. I saw it and even though it was stupid, I tried to stop him. Despite my young age and size, I put up a pretty good fight." Artemis shook her head. "But in the end I lost. The thief stabbed me in the chest with a hunting knife before making off with the offering box. By the time my uncle and the others found me, it was clear I wasn't going to make it; I'd lost too much blood. The Sangha, or head monk, couldn't stand the fact that someone so selfless and innocent was going to die so young, so he did something, some kind of magic, I don't know, before I took my last breath. He assured me everything would be alright. Then I died." Artemis took in a shuttered breath. "But I didn't stay dead. I remember waking up in my uncle's arms, a dull ache in my chest, and the mark of a butterfly at the base of my neck. It was kind of strange and surreal. I'd been resurrected, but the Sangha paid for it with his life. Whatever ancient magic he used had been too much. Saving my life had cost his."

A thought dawned on Megan. "So that's why you were so angry with Wally for not believing in magic when we went to the Tower of Fate. You're, like, walking proof."

"Wally could try and science this up any way he wanted to, but magic is the only way to explain it. Anyway, I've never been able to find out more about the tattoo-like mark I now carry. Whatever the Sangha did to me, he seems to be the only one who knew how and the secret died with him. I didn't even know the spell would work more than once actually. We all thought it was a onetime thing and that the butterfly tattoo was a side effect or something. Turns out it's a counter."

"What do you mean?"

"I've died well over a dozen times now, and not only have I come back to life every time, but each time I'm resurrected my tattoo fades a little more, as if it's keeping track."

"What happens when it fades completely?" Megan asked, although she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

"Game over." Artemis let that sink in for a moment before adding, "Anyway, after my mom got caught and thrown in jail for her crimes, my father came to Vietnam to retrieve my sister and me, to put us back on the path he wanted us to follow. When I refused to kill he was so infuriated by my disobedience he killed me in a fit of rage. He didn't know I'd come back to life, I didn't even know I'd come back at that point. It was after that ordeal that I realized the tattoo gave me more than one resurrection, although they are numbered and I have no way of knowing how many deaths I truly get."

"So, when Wally brought you out of the fire at Happy Harbor and I couldn't pick up any brain activity, that's because you-"

"Were dead, yes. How I die determines how long it takes me to come back."

"This is-"

"Crazy?" Artemis supplied.

"Remarkable. You die and are raised from the dead. It's a miracle."

"It's a curse."

Megan shook her head. "How can you say that?"

"Do you know what it's like to die? Because I do. I've gotten to experience it over and over and over again. Every time it's painful, and every time I'm torn between fear and hopefulness. Fear that this is it, that I won't get another chance at life, and hopefulness that this truly is it and I won't have to experience death again. And then there's the coming back to life part. It's the most disorienting thing imaginable," Artemis spit bitterly.

Megan wasn't sure what to say to that, so she asked, "Why don't you let the others know?"

Artemis shook her head. "Because I can't. And you can't either. Nobody is supposed to know about this, it could ruin everything. Just know that if I ever die in front of the others, you have to play along."

"But why?"

"You're just gonna have to trust me on that." Artemis fixed Megan with a serious look. "Please, Megan."

After a moment, Megan let out a weary sigh. She'd be a hypocrite if she expected Artemis to tell the team her secrets when she wouldn't even tell them of her white Martian heritage. "Okay. But, when whatever you're doing is over, you'd better explain all the secrecy."

Artemis gave a tense nod of her head. In all honesty, she didn't know if she'd ever have the chance to really explain what she was a part of to Megan. She had no idea where she'd be once everything was said and done.

After all, she wasn't invincible, even with the resurrection mark.

To be continued . . .

A/N: Not an exciting chapter and a bit short, but I hope you all enjoyed the spitfire moment, the renewed bromance between Robin and KF, the sister solidarity between Artemis and Megan, and the info behind Artemis's strange ability that was revealed :) As always, comments are appreciated! Happy Thanksgiving!

SakuraJade